01/19/07
Hell Cesar
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It’s before a performance on a cold Saturday evening on December 3, 2006. I had the privilege of speaking with The Black Rose Phantoms. I had to lure the guys to a very cozy Dodge van. It was quite the task to round all these members up for the interview not knowing; only one of them knew this was going down. But all in all it happened and this is how it went.
Well let’s start by introducing yourselves.
Grim, Ozzy, Scraps, Crow
How long have you been together?
Ozzy: We started the band I believe…
Scraps: 2002
Grim: ‘02 yeah late ‘02
What do you think of music categories and where you fit in?
Scraps: We don’t! We are everything we like rolled into one.
Ozzy: The thing is with us; we are influence by so much music we listen to. Pretty much whatever people take on us, what they think we sound like whether they like us or not we just won’t limit ourselves.
Scraps: We can pretty much do any show. I mean that’s what we like about it. We don’t have to be stuck just playing one type of show or with certain types of bands.
What kinds of fans come out to support you?
Grim: Anywhere from Psychos to punk rocker kids…
Scraps: It started out with Psychos when we first started because we where straightforward Psychobilly doing straight Psychobilly shows we got straight Psychobilly kids. But we started branching out doing our own thing you know everyone shows up now. Every type of scene is cool you know. Last time we where at the Allen we were all laughing because this hip-hop guy was trying to get our shirt in a triple X you know hanging all the way down to his knees.
Ozzy: Yeah we get everything from metal heads, to hardcore kids, punks, skin heads, greasers, psychos a variety.
The Long awaited full length is almost upon us. What is it called?
Ozzy: The title we got in store for that is “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.”
Where does it come from?
Scraps: It’s a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. We are all big fans of his.
Ozzy: Yeah for sure.
Scraps: I think he is a real brilliant writer who is completely unappreciated. You know you see his stuff in movies and in magazines and no one ever puts two and two together that it’s all written by the same guy. They just see the reanimated movies and stuff like that but no one knows it was all written by the same guy.
How was the writing process?
Ozzy: As far as the music we all have ideas and we all put our two cents. The lyrics are written by Adam (Scraps) and me.
Scraps: Which is weird because drummers don’t usually write so it’s the least I can do. I think.
Ozzy: Definitely works out really well.
How was the recording and studio experience?
Scraps: Recording is hell despite what anyone tells you.
Grim: Yeah trust me.
Ozzy: Yeah!
Scraps: If you get backed by any record company or somebody with a lot of funds it makes the processes easier. You know the surroundings are more comfortable. You know you can take breaks if you need too; you’re not on a tight schedule. From the beginning we’ve been doing things ourselves coming out of our pockets. We had to go in there with X amount of money and that’s the time we had. We had to make sure it got done and it got done right.
How was this time around different from “Far From Heaven?”
Ozzy: Pretty much when we did “Far From Heaven” we worked with this guy named Dave Irish from a band called the Irish Brothers. Well we released are first demo “Phantasies from the Catacombs” since then we had added Crow to the band. So we wanted to release something new. We saw that our sound was changing when he came into the band. So we pretty much wanted to present to everyone this is how we sound like and this is where we are now.
So where is the sound going?
Scraps: Sound wise we are not thinking of where it’s going. We are just enjoying the trip there. Every song we write there is something different about it that keeps us interested in playing, because we are not playing the same crap.
Band influences?
Ozzy: Oh man we are influenced by so many things. All of us have different stuff.
Grim: We all love basic psychobilly bands. But I’m really into a lot of old punk rock, a lot of power metal some black metal, you know stuff we are into. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of just epic power metal. (Laughter from everyone) EPIC POWER METAL! That’s about it recently.
Ozzy: Yeah, we are really into bands like 3 inches of Blood, Alkaline Trio…
Grim: Iron Maiden
Ozzy: Iron Maiden is definitely a must.
Crow: Just a bunch of bands.
Scraps: Dude I grew up listening to a lot of rock-n-roll, any type of rock-n-roll and I’m a huge hip-hop fan that’s probably the only thing that’s not incorporated in our music as much as I like it to be. (Laughing)
Do you ever disagree for having different influences?
Grim: We’ve been playing for so long. The good thing about it is when we write songs we are all in the same page. Music wise we can come up with a riff here and there and we have not played it yet but we will know where it will end up. Because I’m in tune on what Ozzy is going to do what Adam (Scraps) is going to do and Crow.
Scraps: And you can’t argue, if we try something and doesn’t sound good with everyone else it’s not going to work. We all try to make it the best that we can. We rarely have disagreements about writing music.
Ozzy: I will definitely say this, at least on my part it has gotten a little more difficult for me because the sound is changing and I’m still up there playing with an up right bass. So it is harder for me to come up with a bass lick. It’s challenging, but I love it and as a musician it’s a must because I’m all about improving so it’s interesting and fun.
So art work on the album cover, where does it come from and who does it?
Ozzy: Our tattoo artist, a very good friend of ours, his name is Gabe Espinoza at the Mausoleum. He pretty much has designed all our t-shirts so far and our merch. He is throwing it together actually me and Grim with him yesterday throwing some ideas around. We have a solid foundation of what we want for the cover. But not sure what it will be until we see it.
How is it on tour far away from love ones?
Scraps: We’ve never gotten to do long tours. I think the longest was two weeks. We’ve only been on two tours the whole time we have been together. We have real life to deal with. We all have jobs, bills to pay. You know and when we can take time to go do it, it works out cause we are not burnt out on it. I hope that never happens either. It’s cool like a vacation doing something fun. Eventually like everything you get sick of it. Being stuck in a car with the same people.
What is that like? How do you keep entertained?
Grim: iPod
Ozzy: Yeah we listen to a lot of music. Myself, I usually take a book or magazine to read…
Grim: (His phone goes off.)
Scraps: Very unprofessional right there.
(Everyone Laughing)
Ozzy: But yeah it does get difficult you know the hours are long when you have loved ones on your mind. You know what I’m saying. Seeing the same guys everyday every hour of the day you know what I’m saying it does get to you a little. But we find ways to make it fun. We really enjoy ourselves on the road.
What are your favorite bands to tour with so far?
Scraps: You know like I said we’ve only toured with a few. But every band we toured with we had a blast.
Ozzy: Yeah! The Nekromantix.
Scraps: Nekromantix! Really fun, they’re party animals.
Grim: Fun!
Scraps: It was hard for us to keep up with them.
Grim: Party till five or six in the morning sometimes.
Scraps: Then when we went out this last time with Tiger Army and The Briggs. It was just as fun but this time different because T.A is more business orientated when it comes to touring. They’ve got strict schedules, don’t really party. They do business then go relax. The Briggs is the same way, but they’re younger guys, but it’s business first then party. Same way with us. This is still a business for us, but we’re enjoying the partying on the road like there’s no tomorrow for now, before we can’t do that anymore.
Ozzy: Yeah all the bands we toured with take good care of us. Like the Nekromantix they gave us the big push because we were only a band for eight months when we went on the road with them. That was a very big step for us. When we went on tour with Tiger Army, Nick is a good guy he really took care of us. The Briggs, Love Equals Death, all good guys.
Scraps: We learned something from all of them. It helps us with our ultimate goal with everything.