Interview with FRIGHTMARE
Welcome to the FILTHY DOGS OF METAL Webzine.
Hello Brian! The last time we talked was almost 4 years ago when you made the reunion of FRIGHTMARE. In 2023 you released the single ''Snake Island''. What was the feedback from your audience as well as from the press?
Over the last several years we've done a lot of live shows the audience at a lot of the shows were very receptive you could see a lot of excitement in people's faces at the different venues we played and they definitely came up to us after some of the shows and we're saying that they really liked Snake Island, a lot of the audiences really got into it it was fun and we appreciate the people that come to our shows we consider them family to the band the track Snake Island is definitely a band favorite it's very fun to play it's definitely a Frightmare classic.
The cover artwork has a sick atmosphere! Tell us a few things about it.
The track Snake Island actually influenced the artwork Will Eukel the drummer in the band he has a good friend of his and she does a lot of artwork and she's really good at what she does so we gave her an idea of the song creating a concept verbally to give her a sort of a creative idea and she ran with it now the front cover that's only part of the story there's other parts of the artwork that we will be adding because snake island has not been actually released in a physical form yet but its going to be released as a Frightmare double EP on head bangers records sometime in 2025 we all kind of came up with the idea of snakes strangling people on the beach as the front cover artwork and I think the artist did a really great job the release will feature the full artwork it's really cool but that's the basic idea of how we came up with it the song definitely influenced the artwork.
And what about the lyrics?
We basically came up with the idea from the actual snake island that exists I believe it's in Russia in the ocean very dangerous place a lot of different kinds of poisonous snakes species throughout the island it's not very inhabitable but that's what influenced us with the whole concept and how we kind of just threw it together everyone kind of added a idea which really made it work out well it's definitely what spawned the lyrics for the song.
Is there any funny or weird story from the recordings or from your live shows that you would like to share with us?
Not so much to really talk about that would have happened during the recordings but the one thing that stands out to me at a show we did in Petaluma California at The Phoenix theater which is a really cool place to do a show it's gigantic before we can go into one of our songs I look over and this guy and his dog on a leash was just standing there with a glazed look in his eye and I'm like are you okay man and he just kind of stared at me and then he looks down at his dog and starts walking off the stage everybody's looking at me all crazy and I'm looking at him like what the hell dude we're in the middle of a set here LMAO it all worked out the gentleman didn't pose a threat of any kind so it was cool that's probably one of the strangest things that happened but that pretty much sums it up.
How do you feel about the rise of AI in music production? Do you see it as a tool that can enhance creativity, or do you think it poses challenges to the authenticity of music creation?
The way we personally feel it's definitely not for us we want to keep things traditionally by creating our music and art as we see it now that's not to say that AI can't be used in a way to benefit bands and artists but honestly when it comes to using it we pretty much don't I have seen several music videos from other bands that we know that have used it and they used it in a way that was kind of cool but at the same time I think it takes the authenticity away from any form of using it to create the actual music that the band is playing definitely something we're not going to venture into too much but Tom gears the gentleman who produced our latest EP he was talking about potentially putting a video together using one of our songs just for fun to see how it comes out but not to release in any way or use as promotion for Frightmare but I guess ultimately some people can use AI in a way that can benefit them but like I'm saying for us we'd rather just keep it real and traditional way of writing and using our music without the help of the technology.
From your experience in the music industry, what would you tell to a new metal band to avoid or what to do?
What I would recommend for a band just starting out trying to find their way would be obviously put out a really good demo try to find people that have credibility whether it's recording engineer record labels etc and just try to build a path towards getting things done effectively getting shows booked finding someone who can get shows for the band be extremely patient work hard never forget where you come from destroy the ego and attitude and leave it at the door LOL the main thing I would say is be prepared to be super patient work together as a band get along and just get as much stuff as you can get done as possible to help the band in a positive way and build on some of the things that I mentioned would be my best advice.
What shall we expect from FRIGHTMARE in the near future?
What you can expect from Frightmare in the future is playing a lot more shows recording new material and getting the name out there to people around the globe like we've been for the last 5 years with this particular lineup I've been promoting Frightmare over the last 30 years as well as talking to people online for a very long time so you can expect us to continue writing playing live and enjoying the audience that come to support and see our shows we have four shows booked for 2025 so far and more future shows coming down the pipeline.
Thank you very much for your time & keep up the good work! The closure is yours.
I would like to end this interview by giving a very special thanks to Filthy Dogs Of Metal for helping get the Frightmare name out there for the general public to discover and read about the band and what's going on in the present and the future thank you guys so much we look forward to doing another interview to keep everyone informed in the future to all the fans and people that have supported us down through the years we are grateful to you and remember if you wake up from a really bad nightmare it's probably a Frightmare.
By Steve the Filthy Dog.
FRIGHTMARE CONTACT:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063547632402&ref=page_internal
https://www.instagram.com/frightmareband/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7zszKT5ve4T5hqccGTEGZe