November Artist of the Month: Skeletonwitch
by Matthew Toledo - 11/11/2004
Skeletonwitch is releasing their new CD entitled "At One With The Shadows" this Saturday, November 11, 2004 at The Union in Athens, Ohio. The show starts at 10:00 PM and will feature openers Dead Sea, The Dead Hate The Living, and Seven Orchids.
The group has been playing together for two years, and despite the fact that their members are spread across three cities in Ohio, they still manage to write new music, practice, and kick ass wherever they go.
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I recently had the opportunity to interview Skeletonwitch guitarist, Scott Hedrick, about their new recording. Other members of the band include primary song writer and guitarist, Nate Garnette, drummer Derrick "Mullet" Nau, lead vocalist, Chance Garnette, and their new bass player, Eric.
Skeletonwitch is a self described metal band, although they aren't sure which subgenera of metal they would fit into. Nate and Chance have loved metal all their life. Derrick discovered it while attending high school. Scott has also always liked metal and states that the first live concert he ever saw was Slayer.
The band practices most weekends in Columbus, Ohio at Nate and Chance's house. Derrick Nau's dedication to the group is impressive. He is the only member who has to purchase a $40 bus ticket from Cleveland to Columbus in order to make practice sessions and Skeletonwitch practices every weekend. When asked if they all plan on moving to Columbus once they finish school, Scott, a junior in journalism at Ohio University, stated that they don't really know what will happen just yet, since Derrick Nau is only a freshman at the Cleveland Institute of Art. At the very least, the band will have to wait three more years for Derrick to finish school before they consider relocating to one city. Derrick, who is studying painting, does most of the poster and cover art for the band.
The CD:
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They have been working on their new CD sporadically during the winter and spring of 2003. It was ready before the band left in August to play 23 shows across the nation in only 30 days. It was recorded at Peachfork Studios south of Athens. Derrick Nau, the drummer, is the son of Peachfork studio owner Bernie Nau. Nepotism could not sway Scott Hedrick's personal opinion of the studio, and the CD they created there. After giving me a disclaimer that he could not speak for the rest of the band, Scott went on to say, "I would definitely make a point of telling anyone do not record there. It was incredibly expensive for the services we got. For the time and money we put into it we were happy with what we had, but it still wasn't what we wanted."
Guitarist Nathan Garnette had a different opinion of the CD and of Peachfork. "I think the cd came out just as I had expected it to considering the amount of time we had to produce it.", stated Nathan via email, "Towards the end of the recording sessions we had a deadline to get the CD to the company to have them pressed before our summer tour. We discussed this with Bernie and we decided to go ahead with a sort of rushed production on the disc. I don't see any reason why you would not be able to record a fine CD at Peachfork studios, given the right amount of time and effort."
The total cost for producing Skeletonwich's CD ended up being somewhere above two grand with several hours donated to the band for free by Peachfork, including upwards of 20 free hours of work by Peachfork for their live CD.
They consider themselves extremely lucky to have only paid a total of five hundred out of their own pockets. "The band members only had to pay about a hundred dollars per member and there is five of us, myself included," stated Scott. The rest of the cost was picked up from merchandize sales and cover charge profits that the band had saved for the express purpose of recording their first CD.
When asked where he would like to record his next CD, Scott mentioned a gentleman down in Georgia whose name he forgot. Scott was impressed by the recording that their friends from the Cincinnati based metal band named The Dead Hate The Living recorded in that unknown Georgia studio.
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Their current CD is available online from Hellride Music, The End Records, and Shift Records. If you need to buy stuff from a brick and mortar store, local record stores can directly order the CD from The End Records. Scott should know, he works at the newly relocated Haffa's records located on Union Street across from Skippers and The Union Bar and Grill.
The CD may not have lived up to all of their dreams, however Scott stated it isn't that big of a deal because the live show is much more important to them. "Review the live show before you hear the CD," said Scott, "because live music is our main focus. We take it very seriously."
The Tour
Unlike cover bands, it's hard for original bands to make money while on tour in America today. Skeletonwitch is extremely grateful to metal fans across the nation who helped their tour actually make a few thousand dollars net profit.
At first, the band was afraid their tour would not be a success. Their first stop at the Milwaukee metal fest was plagued by cancellations. Many of the larger named acts on the bill which were intended to draw in large crowds ended up canceling at the last minute. "If you talk to anyone who was there or look up reviews of the show on the internet you'll see that everyone was pissed," stated Scott, "Bands had to pay to play--it was horrible."
As a result, the band's moral was low during the drive to their next gig in Iowa, which they didn't expect to be any good. To their surprise, they had one of the best shows they had on the whole tour in Iowa. After the gig in Iowa, spirits were high for the rest of the tour.
The Skeletonwitch tour was booked without the help of a booking agency or agent; however the band had extensive help from friends of the band who they consider, "members of the band that just don't happen to play an instrument." Scott credits Eric Hedrick for booking a majority of the stops on the tour. Scott and Nate booked only about 20% of the gigs without Eric's help.
When asked how they researched their tour, Scott stated that the band looked at the websites of other metal bands that they admire, and studied the venues where they played. After picking a starter city, they chose venues that were less than a day's drive apart from each other. Calls to venues and other metal bands were also part of their research strategy. After they had made a list of all the places they wanted to play, the band proceeded to send out "tons of press packs" months ahead of time that contained a list of bands they've played with, a photo, bio, and a live recording they made at the Union in Athens, Ohio. After waiting several weeks, venues started calling back. Then it was just a matter of connecting the dots on the map.
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The band dubbed their August tour, the "Flying-J" tour due to the fact that they slept together as a band in the cab or the bed of their pickup truck at various Flying-J parking lots. Truckers and travelers are allowed to park and sleep at any of the two hundred plus Flying J Travel Plazas located across the United States. A visit to their website shows all the amenities available at each location. Showers, restaurants, grocery stores, restrooms, and even wireless internet access points are available at many of their spots. The band only slept in a real hotel on the entire month long trip. It was in South Carolina when a few people from Athens including Curtis from the local band Tarantula Downpour and local drummer John Daft chipped in and bought them a room.
When asked what the band did for showers on their tour, Scott stated that Flying-J's have trucker showers you can use for six dollars, however they didn't use them that often. "Going on tour for thirty days, sleeping together in the back of a truck, you were almost willing to pay someone else's six dollars so that they would take a shower," stated Scott, "but sometimes we met some nice people who would let us stay at their house where we could take a shower." They also went camping at state parks and showered there on their days off from the tour.
How the band functions
Nate used to play guitar in the local band Serkersoren which broke up when their singer, Tom, died in an accident at a very young age. After the unfortunate break up of that band, Nate wasn't sure what he was going to do. During the down time he recorded a four song demo with a drum machine which demonstrated his talent as a guitarist and songwriter. Scott met Nate "at a party or a bar somewhere" where Nate's demo was playing. Impressed, Scott immediately asked Nate if they could get together the next day and play. They soon recruited their first bassist, Jimmy, who was also in Serkersoren.
Right of the bat, the newly formed group had four songs which were written by Nate which were only changed slightly. Nate, to this day, is the principal songwriter, who comes up with the framework for many of the songs by recording them on his four-track. The tapes pass from band member to band member, each refining the song as it progresses.
Surprisingly, their lead singer, Chance Garnette, is the last member of the band to contribute to the songwriting process. "It's coming up on two years on being a band--we've practiced with the lead singer once," said Scott, "Basically, we write and learn the music and know what we have to play, and Chance takes the tape and practices by himself with the recording. Sometimes I haven't seen him from a while because I'm from Athens and he's in Columbus so we high-five and I say 'We're going to play the music that we know how to play.' And he says 'I know how to sing it.'" Scott went on to say that Chance is an amazing singer that sounds like he's murdering someone while he's yelling. It's just what the band was looking for in a lead singer.
One might think that having the last say in the recording process puts a lot of pressure on a lead singer. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Scott says the band is under pressure to play exactly what they recorded so that the lead singer can perform what he practiced to the tapes. This system works for the band, which claims to have never stopped during a live performance, and has only made the usual minor mistakes that any band makes on stage.
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If you've ever listened to Chance sing, there may be another reason why he practices at home and rarely with the band. Chance's vocals are insanely abrasive and harsh. When asked how Chance could possibly sing in that style night after night, Scott stated that Chance uses a certain "smoke treatment" to prepare his throat.
Many of the songs are thought of as instrumentals during the creation process. Nate and Scott's main goals are to make epic and melodic music that people can pump their fists too. The band even played four of five shows as an instrumental group before Chance was added to the band.
About the Scene in Athens
Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of local metal bands that have influenced the members of Skeletonwitch with the exception of the now defunct Athens metal band, Skerkersoren. Their favorite style of metal is the 80's thrash metal of bands like Overkill as well as the styles of older bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. European melodic death metal bands and the American band Death have also influenced the Skeletonwitch sound.
Scott Garnette thinks that that Athens has a metal scene that has a lot of dedicated fans but not a lot metal bands to meet their demand. He went on to state that Skeletonwitch has been consistently surprised by the amount of people who show up to see metal shows at the Union. They vary in age from high school students, to folks who were around to see the original Iron Maiden tour. Unfortunately, there aren't that many metal bands left in Athens that plays the sort of music that these crowds want to see. Scott goes on to say that Columbus suffers from the same affliction going on to comment that most metal bands these days fall into the rap-metal or "nu-metal" categories which have taken metal and pacified it for conservative suburban teenagers angry at their parents for trite reasons.
Scott sites Mutailitia and Crucifixion Addiction for helping the local metal scene by bringing new crowds to Athens bars. He goes on to say that he is proud to call them part of the local metal scene. However, these bands primarily play Metallica, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden covers and are only just now starting to branch out into originals. Scott goes on to credit out of town bands like Dead Sea, Dead Hate The Living, the now defunct Wings of Saturn, and Teeth of the Hydra for helping the original metal scene in Athens to grow and thrive.
The Gear
Scott states that Skeletonwitch aims for an "old-school" unprocessed sound. None of the guitarists use any effects pedals, and they both tune in the key of E instead of tuning down to D or C. They site a lot of older bands who stayed in the key of E and still sounded heavy. Scott plays a Gibson SG while Nate plays a Gibson Les Paul. Both use JCM 2000 hundred watt Marshal Amps and full Marshal stacks. Derrick Nau, the drummer, has a Gretch drum kit while their bass player, Eric, plays a Rickenbacker bass.
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Future plans
Skeletonwitch has no long term plans as of the moment. Derrick and Scott both consider it important to finish school before pursing any music careers. Most of the parents of the band members have been very supportive of the band and have come to shows to see their kids perform. Nate's parents went so far as to donate the truck and trailer used to complete their thirty day tour.
The band shares a strong bond, strong enough to survive days of living together on a long tour, and strong enough to survive the whims of girlfriends and the pressures of school. After the original bass player, Jimmy, was let go in an amicable break up, the band only had two criteria for a replacement. The first: "Here is a CD, can you play our songs." The second: "Can we hang out with you without wanting to kill you."
Rock on, Skeletonwitch, rock on.
