The HORRiFiCS

The HORRiFiCS sprang from the depths of the Dallas/Ft.Worth music scene. Shadows given substance, the FEARsome four are HELL-bent on dragging the unsuspecting kicking and screaming into their world of mist shrouded nightmares. Those brave enough to willingly enter this splatter house of chills find themselves haunted by sonic tales of HORROR, the MACABRE, and Halloween. A unique blend of fast paced punk rock catchiness and heavy metal skull crunching power, all seasoned with catchy sing-a-long choruses. Resulting in a witch's brew of frightening fun.

At the center of this phantom four piece stands lead vocalist and HORRiFiCS founder, GRUESOME. Known for his work with prior horror bands EERiE Ln. and ECTO-1, this figure in black howls hymns of b-movie mischief and tongue-in-cheek TERROR. Directly on his right the towering Kayden GRiMNiR wields his bass with the intensity of a wolf devouring a fallen lamb. On Gruesome's left the horror known only as Wretched, who's guitar riffs grind like a chainsaw through the porcelain perfection of human bone. From behind his drum kit SHRiEKS' drum lines anchor this swirling chaos with a psychotic precision all his own. Testimony to this band's murderous convictions.

The HORRiFiCS hail from an unknown providence with a skyline perpetually peppered by the black shapes of crows and bats in flight. A DARK corner of the human psyche lit only by the flickering glow of jack-o-lantern grins. A place were Autumn reigns and twilight is eternal. You have been warned.

-taken from The Horrifics Myspace

1.Can you give us a brief history of The HORRiFiCS and how you guys started?

BOO:We've been together for 3 years now. We got started when I was leaving my previous band. Wretched was already jamming with RiCTUS, x-HORRiFiCS drums, and PHiBES, x-HORRiFiCS guitarist, in his band, the Blue. When I got serious about starting the HORRiFiCS he was my natural choice to jam with as he was my room mate and had jammed with me and recorded in my other band previously. I got lucky and RiCTUS and PHiBES just came along in the switch up. We recorded our first full length "Now FEAR This" on newly established 1031Records. After it's release we ended up seeing that the band has some personal problems that needed to be tended to before we could move along in a professional manner. We took a long, 6 month or so hiatus from music and just set on our asses. During the interim RiCTUS joined local Ft.Worth punks the Wayward Boys. Eventually Wretched, PHiBES and I got tired of doing nothing and enlisted Nicodemus SHRiEKS from Denton Texas based rockabillies,and close friends of ours, the Family Plot to fill the drum slot left open by RiCTUS. We immediately started gigging again and started writing for what would end up being our latest 7 song EP "HELLbent 4 BLOOD." Currently PHiBES is not in the band. We have kept in touch with him and maintained our friendships. Right now the live band is Wretched on guitars, Kayden GRiMNiR on bass duties, SHRiEKS on drums, and myself, of course, on vocals.

2.What are some of your influences?

BOO:Some of our musical influences include the MiSFiTS, SAMHAiN, DANZiG, Type-O-Negative, Black Sabbath, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, BALZAC, ZODiAC, and White Zombie. We are also influenced by the writings of Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Richard Mattheson, Ray Bradbury, and the legendary H.P.Lovecraft. Comic books, horror movies, manga, and anime all have an impact on our music, image, and lyrics.

3. Do you consider yourselves part of the horror rock scene, what is it about the scene that you guys like?

BOO:Yeah, we do believe we're a part of the "horror rock" scene at large. And when I say that I mean I consider Type-O, Cradle of FiLTH, the 69 Eyes, and any and every spooky type act out there a part of the over all "horror rock" scene, not just the tiny small sub-genre of "horror punk." We have just as many old school rock and roll and black metal tendencies in our sound and image as we do punk. Let me also add that we were doing this 13-14 years ago in EERiE Ln. before we knew there was or ever was going to be a "scene." So, I guess what I mean to say is, it's coincedental that we fit into a scene. We would be doing this anyways even if nobody gave a damn.

4.What's your creative process like and how do you write your songs?

BOO:Wretched is our main riff writer. He usually gets the musical ball rolling with a riff or two and then the rest of us flesh out the tune adding our parts. I write the majority of all the lyrics and I usually compose Wretched's riffs into the final song structures. Every now and then I'll have a bass riff to work off of or a hook in my head that I hum to Wretched for hime to translate through his guitar. Sometimes we will start with a cool drum beat. It all depends on the moment.

5. Do you guys write all your own music and lyrics?

BOO:Yes we do. We do like to play covers to though in live situations to give a nod to the folks who came before us and inspire us to do what we do.

6.Who are some of your favorite bands you've toured with?

BOO:Day of the SiCK from Lawton Oklahoma ruled. Unfortunately they've broken up. Sins of the Earth, American Swine, and the SPOOK City Allstars to name a few.

7.Who would you like to tour with in the future?

BOO:We'd absolutely LOVE to tour with Cradle of FiLTH. We'd like to tour with BALZAC from Japan, NiM Vind from Canada, the Crimson GHOSTS from Germany, and of course Michale GRAVES.

8.You guys were recently at FEAR Fest and got the chance to play with Michale Graves, how cool was that?

BOO:It really was awesome. I have seen him perform on stage over a dozen times when he was in the MiSFITS. My old band EERiE Ln. opened for him twice when he was still fronting GRAVES. So it goes without saying that it was a big deal to all of us when he got on stage with us and sang our 3 song encore of old school MiSFiTS tunes "Skulls," "Halloween," and "Astro Zombies." He's a truly nice guy and we're happy to be pals with him. I hope he does well and finds what he's searching for.

9.What's a day off like for you guys, what do you like to do to relax?

BOO:My wife and I like to travel alot and go ghost hunting in alleged haunted places. Our last excursion was this past Halloween. We spent a week in San Jose and San Francisco California chasing spooks in places like the Winchester Mystery House and on Alcatraz Island. It was a total blast. I read alot in my free time. Lots of comics, manga, horror fiction, martial arts texts, and Asian philosophy. I'm also a big video game junkie and spend alot of time on my Playstation 3. My biggest pass time outside of music is my overwhelming obsession with Wing Chun Kung-Fu. I train under Sifu John Rister at his Wu Hsin Kuen Academy of Martial Arts in Irving Texas. Eventually I'd like to follow in his footsteps and open my own school and teach Wing Chun.

10.Seeing as we deal with horror and comics, what are some of your guys' favorite horror movies and comic book characters?

BOO:Wretched and I are both long time comic nerds. We've written a few tunes directly based on a some of our favorite comic characters. For example, "Forever the NiGHT," based on everyone's favorite motor-PSYCHO nightmare the GHOST-Rider, and "That Which Lurks," about the moss encrusted muck-MONSTER the Man-THiNG, both from the mid-70's Marvel Comics horror boom. More recently we have a tune on our new EP called "Calling Doc HORROR," an ode to the lead character of Dan Brereton's amazing "Nocturnals" title. I'm an enormous fan of Mike Mignola's "HELLboy" character. I collect all the HELLboy stuff I can get my hands on. I have a room in my house full from floor to ceiling, wall to wall with my huge, nerdy toy collection. I think comics will always be a big source of lyrical inspiration for me and the HORRiFiCS.

11. If you could sum the band up into one of your songs, what song would it be?

BOO:Right now it would have to be "COFFiN Bound" off of our new 7 song EP "HELLbent 4 BLOOD." Mainly for it's atmosphere of barely contained chaos. Prior to that song I would have said "UZUMAKi" or "Forever the NiGHT" off of our debut disc "Now FEAR This." "This Hungry Suffering" is really the tune that opened us up to the world at large but I don't think it's an accurate encapsulation of our over all sound and direction.

12.I noticed you have some artwork done by Gris Grimly, what was it like working with him and how did that come about?

BOO:Gris Grimly rules. We all love his art style. We originally started speaking with him when he contacted us about doing a song for his movie "Cannibal Flesh Riot" a long while back. We really wanted to do it but things came up and we had to go on an extended hiastus for a bit. So we unfortunately didn't get be a part of the soundtrack. If you haven't seen the movie, you should do so. It's excellent! We actually just met Gris in person this past weekend at the FEAR Fest 2 horror convention in Dallas Texas. Our merch table was very close to his so we had 3 days to hang out and get to know each other.

13.Any upcoming projects or events that you'd like to tell us about?

BOO:We're working right now on writing a tune for a company called Drinking with the Living DEAD Barware as a cross promotion with them. They do hand etched shot glasses, decanters, beer glasses, etc. We met them at Texas FRiGHTmare Weekend 3 and then we spent a weekend with them at FEAR Fest 2. They're great fellas and they do quality work. Other than that we're writing a couple of new tunes for a split 7 inch album we want to do with 1031Records new act, Presley DELUXE and the ATOMiC ZOMBiES. We hope to release it on glow in the dark vinyl sometime around this Fall. We'll see. And we're still in the midst of writing for our 2nd full length. Busy, busy, busy.

14.Where can people get a hold of your music and merch?

BOO:Folks can buy our stuff online via our record label 1031Records at either...
http://www.1031records. com
or...
http://www.myspace. com/1031records

Or they can get our album through 1031Records distribution company...
http://www.cdbaby. com

And finally they can order merch directly from the band via our MySpace page at...
http://www.myspace. com/thehorrifics

15.Anything else you want to say to the fans out there reading this?

BOO: Express yourselves. Man, the creative entity is far greater than any pre-arranged, formulated style or system. Be yourself at all costs. Don't let anybody or anything impose on your ability to express your individuality. We appreciate all the years of support! Our fans/friends are amazing! CHEERZ everyone!!!

Interview by Shaun and Chris