Blitzkid
I got the privilege to sit down and ask Blitzkid some questions. Blitzkid is a horrorpunk band from Bluefield VA. You can check them out at www.Blitzkid.com and www.Myspace.com/Blitzkid.
“Blitzkid is at the forefront of horror rock's bloodsoaked future. Other bands may claim to be the best or the greatest or whatever else, we'll settle with just kicking your ass with something real. Step right up.” -Blitzkid-
1. Can you give us a brief history of Blitzkid and how you guys started?
GOOLSBY: Initially: Boredom. A lack of any music networking in our hometown and surrounding areas. Wanting to curse really loud into microphones. Something me and my friends could skate to. Upon Latter: Realization of the importance of music as a vehicle of communication and universal understanding of the world and yourself and your place in it.
TB: Blitzkid began in the early part of 1997.
2. What are some of you influences?
GOOLSBY: Buddy Holly. He proved that you didn't have to have someone else write, arrange, and dictate the direction of your music and that you could do it with minimal players. A true pioneer that does get his due, but more so in a " he died tragically" kind of way, with not enough attention paid to his contributions to the recording world and musicians all over from henceforth on. Lon Chaney. He acted and emoted from his body. words were not the vehicle that projected him into iconography. It was his body's interpretation of emotion and its display and characterization that made him so special. That has greatly influenced me in the way I perform.
The Clash. The only band that matters. I laugh when bands say they are the greatest this or that. this band is the only band that can get away with saying it and not seem like assholes. They could put their money and fists where your mouth is and I'm picking up what they're putting down.
THE BODY by Stephen King... waking up to one world, one view, one small perspective with seemingly infinite longevity and the sun setting on you as a completely changed person. One that can never see anything but what was left behind and that which was never realized until it was lost. isn't that the tragedy behind us all?
TB: Gools and I have very diverse musical tastes, so our influences vary greatly from one another's and at the same time they meet in the middle too. For me personally, I derive great inspiration from The Ramones, Face To Face, ignite, Strung Out, Bad Religion, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Only Living Witness, King'z Z, Exodus and many many more.
3. Do you consider yourselves part of the horror punk scene, what is it about the scene that you guys like?
GOOLSBY: I consider us a part of the anti rock conspiracy that plagues this country. we don't primp ourselves to be the most scary individuals we can be for mere show. We know what were doing and we know what were talking about, and horror just happens to be one of those things that we're well on the mark with, and the fact that this mark exceeds just mere film and more so the universal psyche behind it, what we do, when we do it is not contrived and I think people see that, and appreciate it, and know whats up. I don't think of any of it as a scene. we never tried to jump into a scene or gain attention. i see it as my life that has somehow for once found a connection with some sort of community. Thats one thing I like about it.
TB: I do consider us an integral part at this point. For me, the attraction is you can be creepy, and have dark imagery but still maintain some sort of metaphorical content within your lyrics and your songs that will speak way louder than just cut and paste lyrics about your favorite horror movies. We always like to say we write our own campfire tales, or that we try to blend horrific images within real life experiences within our songs. To me, sometimes there is nothing scarier than what real life throws at you.
4. What's your creative process like and how do you write your songs?
GOOLSBY: If they don't write themselves within minutes then they go on a shelf until the gestalt in which is trying to free them can reveal itself better in time and a more defined, refined song can come from it. I never rush. I know song writing is natural for me and it will show itself to me in due course. Most of which that you have heard in your ears via the conduit of Blitzkid has come in with the tide and at moments when a creative process or the efforts to write aren't even going on. Washing the van, flipping eggs, inspiration strikes in the strangest of times.
TB: Most of the time, Gools will have a skeletal idea for a song and vice versa, and we'll show them to one another and work them out that way. Other times, we have completed ideas and go from there. The main thing that we always consider in our songwriting is to never force anything and just let it happen naturally. If it sounds like a risk, we'll still do it. That's the only way we have evolved over the years because we aren't afraid to do that.
5. Do you guys write all your own music and lyrics?
GOOLSBY: YES.
TB: Absolutely
6. You did "Cannibal Flesh Riot" with Gris Grimly, can you tell us a little bit about that and how cool is it to have the title track for the film?
GOOLSBY: Well, as for having a title track it was never expressed to us that we would have a title track. That was more so my doing unwittingly. I had been approached by Gris (who's artwork is also featured on one of our t shirts) about contributing a song for his project. Naturally, we agreed to it. I had begun writing the riff right before we left for a tour of Europe. I was initially calling the song something else. The lyrics all led up to a chorus centering on the plot number of the grave that the one fellow was buried in. Late in the game and on the plane ride across the deep blue, the hook that is now the song you hear came to me and I liked it better. Only now it flowed better to the words "cannibal flesh riot". We got to Germany, rehearsed a bit of it at our friends THE OTHER's rehearsal room outside of Koln, played it all tour long until we refined it. We got home, went in and recorded it in a manner of 4 hours.
TB: Gools covered the song's inception pretty well. It was a very free thing and it just kind of wrote itself. That was one of the most stress free experiences I've ever had in the studio. It's awesome that we are a part of the film too. Gris is a great guy. It's funny, but while I'm doing this, I'm actually wearing the shirt from the DVD cover. haha
7. You guys have toured with some amazing bands, who are some of your favorite bands you've toured with?
GOOLSBY: All of our label mates on FIEND FORCE RECORDS. THE OTHER, THE CRIMSON GHOSTS, THE BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE, THE SPOOK, REZUREX, the list goes on.
Here in the states, THE EPIDEMIC, THE CRYPTKEEPER FIVE, THE AUTOMATONS, again, the list goes on.
TB: The Cryptkeeper Five, The Rosedales, The Damned, Leftover Crack, The Epidemic, The Other, The Rezurex and the Crimson Ghosts.
8. Who would you like to tour with in the future?
GOOLSBY: Bad Religion. Id like to tour longer with Leftover Crack. we hit it off with those guys stellar. The Damned again, Pyogenesis, Danzig.
TB: Bad Religion, Ignite and Alkaline Trio.
9. What's a day off from touring like for you guys, what do you like to do to relax?
GOOLSBY: Heres one of em now. I'm catching up on mail and interviews, etc. I like to run, work out, develop pending songs. The trick is NOT to take it TOO easy on days off. If you let yourself completely relax, you lose the roll you have to stay on. That's why I have to keep my body active by working out, etc. Thanks, Doyle for teaching this young padawan. Haha.
TB: I work out, I watch pro wrestling, I read lots of magazines. That's pretty much it.
10. Argyle, you have a tattoo sketchbook available, could you tell us a little bit about it?
GOOLSBY: I went to college. I have a BA in Art and also a BA in History. After my formal education I used it to become a substitute teacher (something of which I still from time to time engage) since full time education wasn't a field I could go into if I were to be a touring musician I wanted to become and have in all rights actualized. I'm the Greg Graffin of Horrorrock hahaha. Anyway, after college I went into tattooing because I thought I could have a more flexible schedule around the band that was at this point only getting off the ground and needed LOTS of ample time dedicated to it.
I apprenticed at the best tattoo shop in VA for over a year before I realized I would have to make a decision as to what I wanted to do with my time. Tattoo or pursue music. I was given a friendly ultimatum by my benefactors and trainers. I chose music and here I am 7 years later. However tattooing has always been at my heart and I will somehow find my way back to it. This past summer I spent a lot of time with friends who worked for the same company at a different location in WV. In that time, at the suggestion of one of the artists there, I created the sketchbook I now have for sale. He had recently made one, was willing to work with me to put it together and distribute it, etc. and I'm seeing a lot of my pieces finding their way upon flesh lately.
GOOLSBY: Nosferatu. Vampyr.
TB: Dead Alive, Halloween 1 and 2, Evil Dead trilogy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Last House On the Left
12. If you could sum the band up into one of your songs, what song would it be?
GOOLSBY: They're all a piece of the monster.
TB: It wouldn't be doable in any one song. All roads, notes, broken strings, bloody faces, guitar riffs, exiting drummers, and people singing along have lead us here.
13. Any upcoming projects or events that you'd like to tell us about?
GOOLSBY: We're touring Europe this August and playing for 60,000 (give or take) at the M'era Luna fest. Were doing a tour of Texas with Cancerslug in June. We've a album full of re recorded old Blitzkid tunes coming out. A split with Cryptkeeper Five as well. A new DVD. A Robot Monster records reissue of our first recording entitled REVISITED. Many things...many things.
TB: Here again, I'd just be repeating what Gools just told ya, but we're very excited about them all.
14. Anything else you want to say to the fans out there reading this?
GOOLSBY: Be yourself. Unfortunately at face value you might look like someone else, but the Emperor hasn't any clothes.
TB: Thanks for being down with us and showing us as much love, support and encouragement as you have these past 11 years. LONG LIVE THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!
--Interview by Shaun May
