[Show Intro] Jala Hey, thanks for coming! I'm glad you're here. Come on in! Everyone's out on the patio right now. Looks like a couple of people are in the garden. I can't wait to introduce you! Can I get you anything? [turned away] Hey folks, our new guest is here! [Intro music] 00:00:01.59 Fireheart Media Hello world and welcome to Jala-Chan's Place. I'm your host, Jala Prendes (she/her) and today I am joined by Dave (he/him) to talk about a band. This is the first time we're ever doing this. um We talked a little bit about some music on some of the bonus episodes for Cutting Room Floor that you can find on our coffee But this is the first mainline episode of my show that's actually covering music, but we're not even going to be talking about songs in specific so much as but the whole kind of experience of this band. 00:00:36.85 Fireheart Media So hi, Dave. How are you doing today? I'm doing all right. Uh, yeah, this, this is something where the band we'll be discussing is a full multimedia experience. It's not just the songs and we'll, you know, we'll, we'll dig into that for sure. 00:00:57.00 Fireheart Media But, uh, yeah, this is, it's, it's an interesting thing to like discuss when it's not specifically about songs or the lyrics, um, in, in particular anyway. 00:01:10.13 Fireheart Media Right, right. So before we get into all of that, folks will know that this is an episode that came out after a delay. And um I posted about this on the coffee and I also posted about this on my Blue Sky account. 00:01:25.91 Fireheart Media But at my house, we've been dealing with a lot of adjustments. I just wanted to get this out there. There's no like trigger warning for anybody or anything. Just just the ah short and sweet of it is um my father is at the end of his life. and he is in home hospice, which means that we are all his caretakers, and his needs are vast and very time-consuming, and then, of course, there's the emotional parts of all of that that goes into it, so um in order to preserve 00:01:59.94 Fireheart Media the quality of the shows and also to make sure that we make time and space for ourselves so that we can work through our grief and and everything else that we've got going on what we decided to do is for the moment we're not going on a hiatus what we're doing is just releasing episodes as we're able to and um That way the quality of the show is not compromised. As you might imagine, doing the volume of research that I do for this show and also ah dragging other people in and trying to schedule stuff is really difficult when you have a lot of unknown variables and factors to try to consider. So ah thank everybody for your patience while we're dealing with all of this. 00:02:49.77 Fireheart Media In the meantime, though, about Ice Nine Kills, I figure the best way to do this is just kind of talk a little bit about what is this band in the first place. Let's just get some some basics out of the way, and then we can kind of go from there. So as an overview, it's a metalcore... 00:03:08.43 Fireheart Media slash post-hardcore band from Boston, best known for their horror-themed lyrics, and particularly their albums The Silver Scream and Welcomed Horrorwood, both of which feature songs about specific horror movies and one video game, Resident Evil, as like a general series. 00:03:27.16 Fireheart Media So originally they had more of a ska punk sound, but this evolved over time. And the band itself refers to their style as theatricor. So as Dave said, this is a a group that is really a multimedia presentation. It's kind of like Gakton that way, which is some one of my favorite musicians. 00:03:48.70 Fireheart Media So before we get a little bit further, Dave, do you have any comments on like the style of the music and I forget, did I find this band and then share it to you? Pretty much, yeah. I'd heard of them, but I hadn't heard them, if that tracks. 00:04:05.18 Fireheart Media um I was aware that they were in the horror scene, so there was always an interest, and other bands just kept catching my attention. I didn't realize the extent to which the front man of the band was involved in... 00:04:27.55 Fireheart Media horror as a enterprise ah and involved with the fans. ah Also, the extent to which because in music videos is, it's a thing still, there's bands that put out music videos, but generally, it's not like it was through like the 80s and 90s in like the heyday of music videos, and maybe early 2000s, where a lot of effort and budgets were put into these productions because through cable like that was the big way to push it other than like your one or two singles on the radio and this band is seeking i think to monopolize on the fact that other bands aren't putting out a lot of music video productions and they've decided we're going to blend our music video productions with 00:05:22.87 Fireheart Media an ongoing story. We'll do concept albums where you can listen to the songs, but you're going to get a whole story if you also watch the videos. Right, and there are some bands like in Japan, for example, Acid Black Cherry, one of my other favorite bands. 00:05:39.65 Fireheart Media ah They have ongoing narrative and ongoing characters between their different music videos. However, it's not to the extent that Spencer does with Ice Nine Kills. 00:05:51.89 Fireheart Media So ah just to talk a little bit more of some some basic things. They're signed to Fearless Records, who also has Archetypes Collide, Bloody Wood, and I Prevail on their label. 00:06:03.91 Fireheart Media Those are all bands that Dave and I like. They have other bands, of course, but those are the ones that stuck out to us in particular. ah But Ice Nine Kills has five EPs, six studio albums, and two live albums. They also wrote A Work of Art as a theme song for the horror movie Terrifier 3, which released this year. 00:06:24.11 Fireheart Media So they have a ton of different EPs, a bunch of different albums, a lot of live content and things like that, ah including stuff like live from Overlook Hotel, which is real cool. 00:06:37.01 Fireheart Media Although like the the band or not the band, was like doing their top-notch performance and then like the crowd was really quiet or at least the the mics didn't pick it up very much which was not our experience when we went to see them live um because dave and i did go to an ice nine kills two-day silver scream-a-thon concert and basically on day one they covered the first album the first album the the silver scream and on the second day they do welcome to horror wood the entire album which despite all their promotions and their web presence and their multimedia, social media presence, they did not explain very well how the concert was going to go. And it was just, here's a two day performance of this band at a local um venue. 00:07:30.08 Fireheart Media And so we bought a ticket for the one day because we didn't need to see him twice in a row and only like in the nick of time, Jala realized, oh, wait, hang on Day one is one album. Day two is a different album. 00:07:45.01 Fireheart Media ah And we also had the the added... not really a benefit. It's the, the added confusion of, Oh, they're touring with six bands. 00:07:56.42 Fireheart Media So day one is three bands that are um popping on first. And then day two is three different bands opening for ice nine kills. And we, we unfortunately missed out on some, um, 00:08:09.87 Fireheart Media merchandise that we wanted from the first day thinking oh they'll show it back up on the second day to do the second performance so it's it's a mixed bag um as far as how they promote their their shows and maybe that's last minute changes i don't know but it would have been nice to know in advance on like the the tour page uh what was going on with the tour 00:08:34.65 Fireheart Media Right. So at least when I first bought the tickets, they didn't split out all of the opener bands. Usually when you go to Live Nation, it will tell you on this day, the they're like on this concert. These are the all of the bands that are playing that day. 00:08:49.04 Fireheart Media And they didn't have that up when I bought the ticket originally. So when I circled back and I looked at it again, i'm like, wait a minute, there's there's some different stuff going on here. What the world? 00:08:59.53 Fireheart Media Oh, it's a two day show. It's because I was like, why why are they here for two days? That doesn't make sense unless there's something different between them. What's the difference? Why are they selling a two day ticket? And that's when I looked it up. 00:09:11.56 Fireheart Media Anyway, ah moving along though, They they've had a lot of turnover in the band, ah the band members in particular, the only constant being the front man Spencer Charnas. 00:09:24.15 Fireheart Media ah He has crafted it so a lot of the band's ongoing narrative centers him. And we'll talk about that later a lot. He also has played guitar, bass, and drums for the band at different points, as well as being the front man. 00:09:40.24 Fireheart Media Currently, he is just like the front man, and that's his job. but So ah the touring band members are different from the studio recording band members, and there's actually a diagram on Wikipedia detailing who was in the band at what time, because it fluctuates so much. 00:09:56.81 Fireheart Media So that's pretty wild. ah So everybody else is a temp except for Spencer. So whenever you talk about Ice Nine Kills, you're basically talking about Spencer Charnas. um Actual details about Spencer and the rest of the band members are near impossible to find online, by the way. 00:10:13.00 Fireheart Media ah In my research, I found conflicting information everywhere from who his partner is and whether she's a girlfriend or a wife, to his birthday, to a number of other random things. 00:10:23.49 Fireheart Media And this is healthy of him to have that stuff wiped off the internet, but it's also kind of wild because people with any sort of celebrity don't often opt to be scrubbed from the search engines. 00:10:34.34 Fireheart Media And um this is in part because of the thing we're about to talk about 00:10:41.16 Fireheart Media So in the music videos, so Dave's already mentioned it. They're not just videos of the song itself. They're usually some some something between 8 to 12 minutes long and involve a meta-narrative that focuses on Spencer. 00:10:58.58 Fireheart Media He is still in the band, still touring and otherwise going about his normal life. He's seeing a psychiatrist who begins to suspect over time that Spencer not only has repeated dreams where people are dying, but that Spencer himself has perpetrated the murder of his girlfriend and others. 00:11:17.14 Fireheart Media um By the time of the videos for Welcome to Horrorwood, the cops are involved in trying to gather evidence to build a case against Spencer. 00:11:35.24 Fireheart Media So Spencer works with both the established and up and coming horror actors and directors on the music videos and accompanying ongoing narrative. Many of the videos also feature his real life girlfriend or according to some sources wife. 00:11:48.65 Fireheart Media The music video portion of the videos are sort of retelling of the movie or game the song is about, with new twists rather than being verbatim summaries. The band recruited Roy Merkin to write The Silver Scream as a fake expose to go along with the ongoing story told around each music video A sequel, The Silver Scream 2, is allegedly planned for release later this year. 00:12:11.80 Fireheart Media Roy Merkin is a nom de plume for Spencer Charnas himself or someone else he recruited to write this. Amazon has an author bio for him, but he has no picture and none ah of the other cited works exist. 00:12:23.59 Fireheart Media He has an Instagram account which has 26 posts on it and shows him as a ridiculous-looking man trying to tell everyone that Spencer is a murderer. So basically paid actor who pops up to a prizes role whenever Spencer wants. 00:12:37.14 Fireheart Media Roy Merkin is the Bayonet award-winning journalist America trusts. ah So the the text that is on the book itself is a little blurb that says, Roy Merkin is the Bayonet award-winning journalist America trusts. 00:12:53.88 Fireheart Media Fearless, hard-charging, and unrelenting, Merkin stops at nothing to dig through the dirt, grime, and mud until he's touched the deepest insides of a story. 00:13:05.07 Fireheart Media An expert in criminology, serial killers, true crime, and podcasting, with a Bachelor of Arts in Disruption and Music Therapy from the prestigious University of Farmington in Michigan, Merkin's tenacious reporting on the Spencer Charnas case riveted viewers. 00:13:25.12 Fireheart Media He is the author of three other books, including Makeup and Murder, The Colorful Kisses of the Lipstick Killer, Ghost of the Appalachian Hill People, and The Devastation of Divorce. 00:13:39.55 Fireheart Media So it's pretty obviously played for a joke, but just to make sure i did Google around and and see if I could find anything else about this. And it's pretty obviously a paid actor guy. 00:13:52.96 Fireheart Media So what's also very weird and wild to me is that Spencer also recruited the Candyman himself, Tony Todd, to do a reading of the book for vinyl, which is now sold out, but I happen to have a copy. 00:14:06.17 Fireheart Media um And if you get the audio book anywhere else, it's read by the quote unquote author, some guy who's allegedly Roy Merkin. And the vinyl with Tony Todd is just of some selections from the book because it's it's only one vinyl. 00:14:21.39 Fireheart Media So... So the book summary is sure something. 00:14:28.57 Fireheart Media Fresh from the cutting room floor, the silver scream exposes the bloodiest behind the scenes details of the most gruesome, shocking, true crime tragedy of our time. Part autopsy, part grisly director's cut. 00:14:41.69 Fireheart Media This is the only book with a comprehensive exploration inside the mind of America's notorious celluloid obsessed rock star turned cinema copycat murderer, Spencer Charnas. 00:14:54.47 Fireheart Media Bayonet award-winning television reporter Moray Merkin is the only storyteller in possession of the journal scrawled by disgraced psychotherapist Dr. Ian Black. The silver screen reconstructs with unflinching detail how fiction became fact, art imitated death, and the most horrific movie murderers by the likes of Jason, Leatherface, Freddie, Michael, and the rest became real. 00:15:17.61 Fireheart Media Merkin courageously slashes open the gro the ghoulish mind and tortured nightmares If you aren't laughing, don't know why not. 00:15:29.42 Fireheart Media probing deeply with a razor's sharp precision learn how the box office created so many oblong boxes understand why this rock and roll heart throb chose to stop so many human hearts 00:15:43.40 Fireheart Media if you aren't laughing i don't know why not And he, yeah, the ah rock star heartthrob. But then also in chapter one, the first time Spencer makes his appearance, it is absolutely ridiculous. I laughed out loud. i And then I rolled my eyes a lot. And then every time any description of Spencer was given, I rolled my eyes a lot more because um chapter one starts with his rock star essence was just, you know, permeating the air as he walked in. But then specifically it was rock star essence. And i'm like, okay. 00:16:16.98 Fireheart Media Okay. Ego stoking, very weird kind of thing going on there. We've seen him live. i don't know that the room was flooded with rockstar essence, but he is a showman for sure. 00:16:32.26 Fireheart Media Right. I would argue that Anthony from dark divine is way more of a rockstar essence man because dark divine, um one of the opening bands for the second night, They rocked it so hard the moment they came out on stage that they rivaled the best of the Ice Nine Kills songs. 00:16:52.06 Fireheart Media You could tell which Ice Nine Kills songs were everybody's favorites, too. And then, like, everybody was quieter when it wasn't their favorite song. um But, yeah. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. We'll talk about the live shows next on that night. 00:17:05.77 Fireheart Media So ah each of these nights for these concerts have different opening acts. And the performance also includes active video elements. 00:17:16.87 Fireheart Media There are these 80s style commercial breaks between songs. Sometimes clips of the meta narrative about Spencer being a killer are played. And during the songs themselves, there are lyrics and images related to the movie the song is about showing on the screen. 00:17:32.33 Fireheart Media There's also actors on stage playing the roles of the killers or victims or whoever just on the stage. So you've got that going on. Like, say, for example, the one that probably killed me, haha, the most was seeing the person in the inflatable shark costume for Jaws. 00:17:53.65 Fireheart Media That was kind of like the moment breaking one where I'm like, This one's not scary. Like the one for, for psycho was pretty cool. Uh, Dave, I'll let you talk about that. The, the psycho one was good. They, and they reenacted, um, the shower scene. Uh, also ah probably one of the standout little performances was the overlook hotel was seen with, um, 00:18:19.81 Fireheart Media uh when when jack pops through the the door with an axe and it's like they had a whole they bring out like stage pieces to do basically a you know play performance um as the song is being played Right. And the band members are also wearing costumes. Spencer is often decked out as the killer himself. 00:18:43.67 Fireheart Media ah So then you get to watch him in in the music bridges during the songs kill people, but basically, quote unquote, kill people on the screen. Sometimes he's not the killer, but a lot of times he is the killer ah for the different ones. And they even have like fake blood effects and stuff going everywhere. Like it's a it is so so gacked is a very high budget kind of production when he does his stuff like if you listen to the cutting room floor episode about the diabolos tour from gacked um you know you heard a lot about the massive productions and he was playing in tokyo dome and sold that shit out and all of that um this is like a lower budget version of that like you know like this is a popular band 00:19:28.01 Fireheart Media but it's playing at the house of blues it's not playing the tokyo dome and selling it out they're selling out the house of blues but they're not selling out tokyo dome so um you know spencer is a showman it's not 100 about the music on its own it's also about the horror culture the stage performance and the whole vibe and everything But yeah, I have to say somehow I was not expecting the shark. 00:19:53.98 Fireheart Media I wasn't expecting the inflatable shark for some reason. Like I knew that they had to have a shark of some sort, but I don't know what I i thought it was going to be. Dave, what were what were surprising things for you or what were standout moments other than the shower scene, which is the name of the song and the one about Overlook Hotel? 00:20:14.44 Fireheart Media they did a really good job. They have a, um, uh, a pet cemetery centered song and the stage work for that was really good. I don't remember specific details other than like, that was probably the most macabre, um, song. 00:20:29.99 Fireheart Media That was one of the more popular ones and probably the resident evil song. Like that's the number one everyone loved. that And that was the one where there's bits where there's more parts for people to sing like the refrain in that. So the the whole each song, everyone was kind of into it. But on that one and the Pet Sematary, because that there's like sometimes dead is better. 00:20:53.76 Fireheart Media There's catchphrases that are in the lyrics that are from the movies. And i honestly think a lot of the fans of Iceland kills are less fans of the music than they are fans of horror media. 00:21:08.41 Fireheart Media Like that seems to be the trend. And like the other bands or ah few times we've seen people that were there for one of the opening bands and just they just happened to oh the headliners iceland kills okay this is cool but um it's a mixed bag uh it's a younger crowd um but i think the way that the videos and all of the online presence plays toward that, like I don't feel, I feel that it's aimed toward like 20 somethings, um but that maybe that's just me. 00:21:46.81 Fireheart Media So yeah, for me, I think um one of the other ones I want to say that was a fun one was savages and the freak flag, let your freak flag fry. Oh, I can't even say the freaking words. 00:21:59.45 Fireheart Media I wonder if he does that when he drinks. Anyway, ah let your freak flag fly. Yes, there I can say it this time. um and And things like that. There's there's a few songs that like they were they were really a lot of fun to see live and to have the energy of the crowd for those ah in particular. 00:22:19.32 Fireheart Media and um you know, like when they had all the Texas Chainsaw Massacre folks up there, that was real cool, too. um But yeah, like it it was a lot of fun overall to go to the performances and stuff. I think there were more fans of The Silver Scream than there were of Welcome to Horrorwood the second night. 00:22:38.44 Fireheart Media um Probably because there are a lot of super classic horror movies represented among the songs for The Silver Scream and a little bit more modern stuff for the second day. 00:22:52.21 Fireheart Media not all the way but there there are more modern ones for the second day's worth But ah this is not even the extent of all the stuff that Ice Nine Kills does. So that's why we're we're doing like a ah ah you know a whole episode on this. 00:23:06.90 Fireheart Media So Ice Nine Kills started up a horror convention in their home state of Massachusetts in 2022. It's a normal horror convention with special guests, panels, vendors, and so on, but also features an RIP, aka VIP, 00:23:25.40 Fireheart Media early access and party and then an ice nine kills concert along with guest performances um you know different openers from you know as if it were a regular concert so it's like a concert mashed into a convention but it's like a full-scale concert it's not just like a you know like here's a ah short concert from somebody on a night of a convention that's like one of the focal points is you go to the concert you go to the convention you're there for everything basically and um so they did that i haven't been to that before i think it's you know so so 2022 was the first year so it hasn't been around for a very long 00:24:05.57 Fireheart Media But they do um have a lot of guests coming for that that rival any other horror convention that I've seen in terms of like, you know, the popularity. Probably because when Spencer is working on the music videos, he's pulling people, like we said before, from the community. But what that means is it's both the actors that you know and love from horror movies, as well as newcomers who are aspiring directors and actors and things like that who kind of get their break working on these things with ice nine kills and then kind of get like more connections in the industry so uh spencer is pretty well connected in the horror scene in general it seems because you know he can get he can pull a lot of different people in i think his strength is 00:25:00.12 Fireheart Media I think his strength is more in that vein, like his, the the music videos, the multimedia things, this convention, the horror community is his stronger point. And that's kind of like where I was leaning to with the crowds and at the concert, because ah otherwise I feel like he would be playing bigger venues with ice and kills, but they're just at house of blue. I mean, that's, that's still a big venue. 00:25:24.97 Fireheart Media but it's not like the Toyota center or I don't know, whatever a large stadium would be. It's not a stadium pulling band. Uh, it's better in this more intimate, um, setting, but they're pulling like Joe Bob Briggs and other, like a lot of characters, genre actors from the horror scene. 00:25:46.37 Fireheart Media and it's not just to get like, get them work. Like they, everyone looks like they're having fun doing these videos and the production value is pretty high on the video. So it kind of begs the question, like, so his producers or wherever he's getting the money from to do the music videos, I guess it's the studio. 00:26:09.07 Fireheart Media Um, I don't think that that's as evident in his live stage shows. i they They seem, they're not low budget looking, like everything's well done, but it doesn't, it's missing a polish. 00:26:24.80 Fireheart Media I think that the rest of the material seems to have. And that just seems to me that like the the funds and the drive is, because it's spread over so many things, I don't think you can focus on one, 00:26:40.50 Fireheart Media point of it. He's doing conventions, he's doing all this other stuff. So the music is just a part of it rather than the main focus. Well, there's that for sure. I have to add, I also really enjoyed it when the guys from real big fish showed up and they were doing their thing. 00:26:58.38 Fireheart Media yeah so he did have uh in this iteration um or for this this uh tour um two of the members of real big fish were performing um saxophone and trumpet and uh harder to hear um in a in a venue like this just because of the the sound system but they did get a solo moment on a few of the songs and it it's real big fish they were just blasted it. And that's, that's a, um, throwback to their ska kind of beginnings, um, which you don't really get, ah in the last two albums. Like I wouldn't have said, Oh, this originated as a ska band. 00:27:40.27 Fireheart Media Uh, And at the same time, not being a huge Ska fan, I'm not as much as keen on their earlier work. I like these these last two albums the most out don't of any of the stuff that they produced. 00:27:55.85 Fireheart Media Right, so at the concerts, I have to also say Ice Nine Kills blows everybody out of the water in terms of volume of possible merchandise that you can ever possibly acquire. 00:28:09.32 Fireheart Media um It's not just the vinyl it's and a shirt and a hoodie. It's about like eight different shirts and different hoodies and stuff. And lawyer it's it's at least two or three hoodies um and several different shirts. And there's posters and there's ah flags and all different kinds of stuff like that. 00:28:28.55 Fireheart Media And there's all of this stuff. And then it switches out depending upon which day you're at. So the Silver Scream has different ones from the Welcome to Horrorwood one. 00:28:39.21 Fireheart Media And so you can get a shirt specifically from the concert for your favorite song. I have a Rainy Day shirt and a Savages shirt because those are two of my favorite songs. Yeah, it's on on top of the the unfortunate increase in concert ticket prices. 00:28:56.07 Fireheart Media Even at these smaller venues, it's it's not inexpensive. um The merch... because that's where the bands make a lot of their money, um plus the the ticket sales, is not cheap. 00:29:10.29 Fireheart Media um But with this large variety, and then we didn't know that, oh, the second performance, hey, they swapped out all of their stuff for things related to this other album, which is really cool, but you got to have some deep pockets or like, i've I've set aside money just for this event, a little more so than you normally would for a general concert. 00:29:34.51 Fireheart Media Right. But it's that or it's you have to go to the Silver Screamathon two day show the next time it's in town and then get it the next time it's in town. Because this this is a touring act of these two albums for at least the past couple of years or so. 00:29:51.42 Fireheart Media um They have been touring with the same two albums. There hasn't been. um a full new release there are some new songs like we'll we'll get there we'll put a pin in the newest song about the matrix um you know but oh there's another one okay well we'll talk about it um so so there's some new songs out and stuff so that's cool um but there isn't a new album just yet but it feels about time for them to get another album does that mean that they're gonna have the silver screamathon three day don't know guess we'll find out so maybe they're they're gonna retire the old act and then do something different who knows 00:30:33.40 Fireheart Media So, ah but but talking about merch though, Spencer has really got his hands everywhere because not only does he have the band and the music video emphasis, which tells you this whole narrative that's ongoing throughout all of the different songs of every album as they release, but then you also have, and that has a book and an audio book and ah a vinyl version of it. 00:30:58.30 Fireheart Media um But on top of all of that, and the the live shows and stuff now he's launched pretty evil an ice nine kills branded makeup line currently featuring an eyeshadow palette eyeliner lipstick and pomade and they plan to expand into more hair care skin care and accessories and fashion i'm betting that this is actually headed by spencer's girlfriend wife or whatever she is is my guess but But in either case, ah so expanding into like a beauty line, then now granted, a lot of musicians musicians have done this um jump over into having other businesses. 00:31:40.42 Fireheart Media ah You've got, you know, like ah Savage Fenty and things like that. ah Everybody's got their clothing line or their makeup line or their hair care products or something that they're pushing. 00:31:52.06 Fireheart Media um But it's weird that a band of this size is doing that because usually when somebody starts a big thing like that, it's after they're already selling out these massive stadiums and things like that, like Beyonce or something like that, you know, Rihanna, Beyonce or whatever. 00:32:11.75 Fireheart Media ah Those are the people who are doing these different, you know, expansions of business. But Spencer, even though Ice Nine kills, they're not a small band, but they're also not the biggest band out there. 00:32:24.33 Fireheart Media um You know, in this middle range is kind of like expanding in every direction possible and doing as many possible things that he can. And not only that, but all of these side things or the stuff it's, it's basically franchised. He's franchised himself and all of the things he loves, it's all connected. 00:32:48.00 Fireheart Media So every little thing and every side project, it feeds back into the spencer charnis juggernaut that he's trying to build up and just steamroll the world with i mean at this point um i i do want to go to that horror convention and then there's a few other conventions i'd like to attend as well um that are out of state unfortunately But ah just the horror is niche as much as it feels like it's it's it's getting a ah boom at the moment. There's a lot of everyone's eating good. There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of things that have been hitting the theaters and and going kind of mainstream. 00:33:28.05 Fireheart Media But um at the end of the day, it's not probably as profitable as you think it would be. um it's It's just part of the giant bucket. um But that being the case, um Spencer is like, 00:33:42.29 Fireheart Media walled off an entire like section for himself and is just trying to make that section bigger and bigger and bigger and I can appreciate that um it's it's admirable he's going for it and it's catching on I mean people are really now I think paying more and more attention and I'm um um i'm betting with this next big album I think that he has coming out um he's catching not only the horror crowd but another genre as well Right. 00:34:13.73 Fireheart Media Absolutely. So um there's all of that. And then again, we talked about the merch. It's not just the merch at the shows either. Ice Nine Kills has their merch on their store. They do limited runs on a lot of it. There's some core items that stay the same, but there's limited runs often. 00:34:31.19 Fireheart Media And then those limited runs are usually like set up around... Here it's it's Jason's birthday or it's, it's um you know, the however many anniversary of Jaws. So there's special Jaws merchandise for this one thing or whatever. And there's all of that. There's also like the the Spencer killer mask and the ice pick and stuff like that that you can get that's supposedly Spencer as a killer's stuff and all different kinds of things as well. I will say i did buy into getting the super deluxe Welcome to Horrorwood vinyl set, which is expensive, but 00:35:08.77 Fireheart Media um It's this cool shadow box that has like a replica of that face mask, ah like his murder mask in there. um And it's got ah some lights that'll flash like ah police lights and everything like that. And it's got a bunch of other things in the box as well. That's also really cool. 00:35:27.35 Fireheart Media And I mean, like, That stuff is neat. And that's the kind of cool collectible stuff and the kind of thoughtful type of merchandise. Like I know it's like he's shilling tons and tons of things, but also having that stuff available for something that you like is very cool. 00:35:43.80 Fireheart Media You can build an Ice Nine Kill Shrine room like very easily. All of the merchandise is it's fairly high quality, and you're your paying for that quality. 00:35:55.78 Fireheart Media But that shadow box is diorama, and then it it contains an album with all the lyrics, just tons of stuff inside of it. It's fully packed. 00:36:06.72 Fireheart Media but it's also just ah like ah a display piece you put up on your wall or set it on a desk or something. And it's a talking point. um And it's a fantastic album. So you have a whole thing there. That mask is I think wearable if you wanted to take it out of there. 00:36:22.76 Fireheart Media um Just seeing that level of, merch is cool ah because you can just buy in. You can be the ultimate like Ice Nine Kills fan and have all of this really cool stuff, or that can just be part of the thing that you have and you have a cool like memorabilia piece and a t-shirt or two. 00:36:47.27 Fireheart Media um It's not like the be all end all, it's not required, but it's available um if you're fast enough on the internet. Right. And it saying that, like that Silver Scream vinyl with Tony Todd reading some excerpts, I picked that up and then like the next day it was gone, like it was off the shop. So like I sniped that pretty quick. 00:37:11.55 Fireheart Media I was like, as soon as I saw that there was a book version of basically all of the narrative from the music videos, I was like, It's going to be terrible. 00:37:23.90 Fireheart Media ah Like I know it it works in the music videos very well. Let me say that it works in the music videos very well. um And it tells this ongoing engaging story, but the writing is so goofy ah to me and in particular. Like it's it's not bad writing. 00:37:40.44 Fireheart Media There are um like as somebody who has done a lot of editing in the past, there's some things that I would have cleaned up like repetitions and things like that and then it's just over the top and the the spencer praising thing which is very silly ah but i think it's tongue-in-cheek as well it's it's tongue-in-cheek it's in keeping with the genres i mean he's pulling off of resident evil and and just tons of other things that are B tier horror movies as well as like the, the big, um, uh, ticket draws box office smashes, but particularly with, um, this, this album, that's it's, i mean, it's just snippets of the novel, but that's like Tony Todd's, I think one of his last projects, he passed away. so 00:38:30.65 Fireheart Media you can't get this or anything else that he's going to be live reading or, you know, reading and again, like it's a one-off. So the chance to get that, but the chance that Spencer had to do work with Tony Todd and these other industry professionals that ah particularly a lot of the films he's pulling from are from the eighties and some of those a lot of the folks aren't around anymore or if they are they're they're very old um but he's kind of paying it forward like taking these things and introducing them to to new fans and i think that that's part and parcel of you know doing these horror conventions bringing this specific genre um into the music scene 00:39:21.80 Fireheart Media and it has some of it's a built-in audience so you have some draw there but then especially with the younger crowd which i ah again i really feel like the music kind of aimed toward it's introducing them to like classic films and stuff that would otherwise pass them by i i have quite a few friends that are 20 years younger um dating that myself but because of that, they don't tend to pay attention or have the time to watch older films, things that were around before they were born, because there's just a fire hose of constant media and so many movies and TV shows out every week and stuff 00:40:02.94 Fireheart Media It's canceled. It's just, it's a lot. But this little space and the the songs themselves being basically s sono synopsized versions of these classic movies gives people a place to start and go, okay, that song was cool. I like some of the riffs in it. 00:40:21.67 Fireheart Media Let's see what the movie was about. And then, oh, that director did a bunch of other movies or I like that actor. i can follow some more stuff. And then you're building... you're building your audience up for future stuff. And then you're also like engaging with horror fans and and and creating new horror fans that can come to your horror convention. 00:40:39.80 Fireheart Media So um yeah, he may be a little a tad self absorbed, but he knows what he's doing. And you can't fault him for that. 00:40:51.50 Fireheart Media um He's a businessman. but he's a showman and he's doing everything right as far as, you know, we can tell because again, you can't find anything about him personally on the internet. He's scrubbed it, um adding to the mystique and adding to the ah ah killer ethos that he's put into his music videos. 00:41:15.04 Fireheart Media Right. And I have to say too, that a lot of why the first thing that I pull from is Gakt is because Gakt is also a self-absorbed, very driven man who, uh, you know, does a bunch of different franchises in terms of himself and his music. 00:41:33.29 Fireheart Media It's the same. It's the same. It's like, um, the people who, um, I feel who really end up eventually getting to that point of just being ubiquitous over time are the type of people who are like that because Gakt is ubiquitous in Japan. a lot of people know him over in the world over as well. 00:41:54.58 Fireheart Media Kiss, Kiss is another band that they just market themselves out and pimp out everything. They've got a Kiss coffin. They've got to kiss everything, you know? um And so, like, Kiss is another band that they are merch whores. And they had, like, ah what the cartoon and some other crap like that. 00:42:12.87 Fireheart Media Yeah, I mean, regardless of how you feel about Gene Simmons, ah personally, because there's some questionable stuff going on, ah they are icons um in in music and showmen, like, to top it all off. um But, you know, we recently went to a record convention and there was a booth dedicated specifically to Kiss and had... 00:42:41.71 Fireheart Media So many things you wouldn't have imagined that, oh, that's branded merchandise. Okay. And then, oh, there's... 50 different albums that I didn't know they did because they just did one-offs on singles and who knows what. 00:42:55.77 Fireheart Media And there was Paul Stan. I mean, you could find like little sections just devoted to each member of the band. And that's something that Ice Nine kills because of Spencer's modus operandi where he's, he's the lead. He's the front man. He's the backing man. He's just the driving force and the turnover is so quick apparently he has gone on an interview and said, you know, about, about his bandmates, like they could do what I'm doing. They could have their little cult followings. They just choose not to, because this is, 00:43:33.10 Fireheart Media ah you It has to be the only thing you do. Like this has to be your one thing. And the drive to do that and the time and the effort that it takes, it it's a lot. um And you also have to be, you know, probably a little bit narcissistic to really just build up something that's kind of dedicated to yourself. Right. 00:43:54.63 Fireheart Media And, and to the point of like, I'm going to put into question in the minds of everyone, am I potentially a serial killer? That's, that takes balls, you know, but that's a lot. 00:44:07.20 Fireheart Media um And it's admirable in its own way, even if it's something I wouldn't say is like, recommended to emulate that. 00:44:18.06 Fireheart Media So here, I have to tell you a little bit more about some of the other things that Ice Nine Kills has done. I know we're talking a little bit around more of the discussion points, but um so but I have to say Spencer is very good at and very into marketing. 00:44:33.94 Fireheart Media And we'll, we'll talk more about that kind of looping back to the new songs again in a second here. But also, ah he's acted in a couple of movies, The Retaliators in 2021, and also The Dark Offerings same year. 00:44:47.74 Fireheart Media um Those, I think, are movies that feature a bunch of musicians in them. ah Something like that. But he is also working on a movie. 00:44:59.14 Fireheart Media Did you know the slashing of the Christ? this This Jewish man, Spencer Chartis, is going to make the slashing of the Christ. And that's a thing he's working on right now. 00:45:11.70 Fireheart Media That's on point, I guess. um You know, you go. ah do do your thing, Spencer. This is so ridiculous. We'll probably you have to watch that. 00:45:23.48 Fireheart Media We will, especially since I have this Fist of Jesus on my wall from the Escoria films over in Spain. if If people listening to this have not watched the 15 minute long short film, The Fist of Jesus, go to YouTube and look it up. 00:45:40.81 Fireheart Media there's It's in Spanish. It has subtitles on it in English. It is very silly. There was even a game on mobile and on Steam. I still have a copy of it, and sometime I'm going to stream that when I remember that I have it at the same time that I think about streaming. 00:45:55.69 Fireheart Media um it's very silly and uh I have a copy of it a physical copy and I also have a poster and like this whole little goodie bag with stickers and stuff like that that I got from them uh because it is very good I missed out on the action figure 00:46:11.61 Fireheart Media but anyway um so so anyway the whole the whole thing saying like the fist of Jesus is a comedy it's a comedy horror comedy um But the slashing of the Christ is ah in the same vein, so it would naturally be a good pairing, I think, just in terms of of that topic. 00:46:30.77 Fireheart Media Also, I did want to mention, um i could not find a whole heck of a lot, as I mentioned before, about different things in terms of of history of the band and things like that. um Just what they do outside of the music. But I did know that Einstein Kills raised over $100,000 for victims of the California wildfires by releasing, what else, 00:46:54.79 Fireheart Media ah fundraising shirt because of course it's got to be merch right so they released a fundraising shirt and then they also raised money for folks so they are doing some good as well ah philanthropy wise so that is very cool 00:48:46.30 Fireheart Media So let's move on to talk about just a few discussion questions and such. So Ice Nine Kills lyrics are really direct and the name of the movie, important themes or even lines of dialogue make it into the songs themselves. 00:49:02.83 Fireheart Media Some people really, really hate this with a deep passion. Mostly the people who are big horror fans who want to like have it more obscured so they have to guess about what it's about. 00:49:16.22 Fireheart Media um So what do you think, Dave? I'll say that I'm probably in the middle. Initially, I was a bit, it's not upset. I just, I would listen to the song and then i would kind of be sad that because of like the song title, I already knew what it was going to be about. Um, or a few of the opening things like directly dropped the movie title and that took some of the fun out of it, but I can also see, and I mentioned this earlier, 00:49:50.80 Fireheart Media the audience for the band probably has never seen these movies or isn't as familiar with them. So there's probably a necessity to be a little more overt so they can pick that up without having to like try to dig around. 00:50:07.16 Fireheart Media um And even more so currently, trying to do any kind of internet search is just a coin toss uh of like a three-sided coin you're probably not going to get what you were originally searching for even if you were plugging stuff in directly so i i'm still of two minds about it i would prefer that if there is a future horror album that they're using more obscure films, uh, or something more would be current. 00:50:42.90 Fireheart Media Um, I enjoyed the classic things. I wish they went further back. There's a lot of horror films out there. And I'm saying this because I run ostensibly a horror podcast, uh, and some deep cuts would be appreciated. 00:50:58.50 Fireheart Media Um, even if they're just like one or two on an album or something, that would be cool. ah Because that would give ah longtime fans of the genre something to like kind of dig into and then maybe debate about. Like what could this one be if it's not if it's not so overt on what she's referring? So I'd like some more obtuse lyrics. 00:51:16.62 Fireheart Media um I'm ah kind of a fan of that. But at the same time, yeah the accessibility angle, ah given Spencer's penchant for like merchandising and tying things into each other, you want stuff that's recognizable because that's what sells. 00:51:32.21 Fireheart Media um i I get that. ah But personally, as a fan, ah more of the horror genre than specifically of the music, I would like things that weren't so on the nose. 00:51:42.78 Fireheart Media um And that's that's my two cents, at least on that. I just have to add, I was looking, i was trying to find the, the producer for the silver scream and and welcome to horror wood because a lot of the change in the direction for the music came from the production team when they were starting to to get and generate ideas for the silver scream album but while i was doing that i found the band announced ink in blood a tied in graphic novel to the silver scream planned for release april 2021 00:52:20.70 Fireheart Media ah written and illustrated by blah blah blah so apparently it's there's exists a silver screen graphic novel also that i didn't find possibly so wild it's probably out of print or very expensive to track that down Oh yes, absolutely. 00:52:40.01 Fireheart Media So yeah Um, anyway, but yeah, about the songs themselves, like i was on the same wavelength where I was like, i mean, yeah, I can see that it would be a lot more fun if you had to guess at, you know, what the the song is about. And then like you refer to the music video and then you can find out from the music video if you didn't know. yeah. 00:53:04.32 Fireheart Media but ah And that would also drive people to go to the music video. Or would it? Like, if somebody listens to it and they don't know what you're talking about, are they going to be interested? Or are they going to be like, oh, hey, yeah I've kind of heard about this from association. It's referenced in media. 00:53:21.21 Fireheart Media I think this is about X. And then you you're like, oh, I was right. Hooray. Rather than, i have no idea what he's talking about. i mean, like, there's a difference there, especially if he's focusing on younger people. 00:53:32.60 Fireheart Media Yeah. And that's, I think to the point where instead of making it like the entire over the whole album doing that, just, just plug in one or two mystery songs that are about a film or a property. 00:53:45.57 Fireheart Media ah and it's more obtuse because then fans have something to dig into, uh, versus having that be the whole thing. And then you've just puzzled people. And now they don't want to like engage with the rest of your multimedia and empire. 00:53:59.69 Fireheart Media Right. So um it is plus to some degree, like we've already said, that the lyrics are the way they are because that allows ah like a lower threshold, you know, like there there isn't a barrier to entry. 00:54:18.30 Fireheart Media ah for people. Like, I have not seen a very many horror movies, in fact. um Like, I'm seeing more these days, but when I was little, I didn't watch horror movies. 00:54:30.80 Fireheart Media Any horror movies. And I didn't really watch horror movies even through my teenage years except for a few that I was dragged to by friends. 00:54:42.94 Fireheart Media ah And then, like, I just really didn't watch horror movies at all until Dave, really. I mean, I had gotten into horror video games by that point and had already been in horror games but not movie experiences. 00:54:58.10 Fireheart Media So... ah For me, when I listen to Ice Nine Kills, if they were obtuse lyrics, I would never understand because I haven't seen all of these movies. I mean, yes, I'm i am aware of a lot of the movies that came out, you know, at least during the time that I was alive and probably sell, you know, like a chunk of movies from the 70s and things like that. 00:55:19.22 Fireheart Media But... having not watched them all, if it was too obtuse, I wouldn't know what it they were saying. So would I have enjoyed it as much? I don't know. I don't know if I would. 00:55:29.97 Fireheart Media um So, you know, like that's, that's just because I'm not the hardcore horror fan that Dave is, for example. So yes, horror is one of the things that I enjoy, but ah very specific types of horror, particularly when it comes to movies. Like I don't like super gory stuff um as much as I like ah psychological thriller um kind of vibe, you know, like a dark mental horror or something like that. 00:56:02.61 Fireheart Media ah Give me the Alfred Hitchcock, Don't Show the Monster. you know that's that's the kind of vibe i like more so than something like the hills have eyes you know like i saw the remake to that for some reason when that came out and that was horrible i i did not want to ever go to another horror movie in my life and not because i was grossed out i was just like i don't want to watch this i just it's not my thing so you know um so yeah like i i have that kind of a difference in perspective uh 00:56:35.54 Fireheart Media from you in that way um so yeah i don't know like i i i can see either side being you know okay if the lyrics were obscure i don't know if i would have latched on to them so much i definitely really love it when say for example we get to a rainy day which is the the resident evil song and you know i get to sing along with that it's very fun And, you know, just for me, having everything be as on the nose as it is allows it to kind of play in my head while I'm listening to the song in a way that if it's obscured, you know, like the with the if the meaning is obscured, then you don't have that kind of visual recollection in your mind the same way because you don't even know what he's talking about. Like, 00:57:23.64 Fireheart Media and because he hasn't made a song like that, we don't have an example of one to listen to and say, oh no, now that I know what it is, I'm definitely thinking about that and getting visuals. It's not the same kind of thing. So we can't really have like an apples to apples comparison for that, that kind of question. 00:57:42.67 Fireheart Media Um, but anyway, so how do you feel about the expansive ink experience between the meta narrative around the music videos, the fake expose, the live shows and all of that stuff. 00:57:56.83 Fireheart Media What do you think about that, Dave? So I'm not all in on it. Like I, My level of caring is medium. 00:58:09.20 Fireheart Media It's minimal. I like the idea of it. I'm not, I didn't buy into it. I'm not all in on it, but I do enjoy watching the thing, like the music videos and seeing the story that's going on. 00:58:20.86 Fireheart Media I can appreciate what Spencer's doing. I think it's cool. And it's, it's, I can't say it's specifically for me, mainly because of the points I brought up in regard to like his production of the songs and how on the nose everything is. 00:58:41.19 Fireheart Media And then there's no deep cuts on I like specific genre films. I've seen the movies that he's referencing and they're they are big hits. they're you know It's the big stuff. 00:58:56.27 Fireheart Media But it's missing all of the little things and all of the weird... like I like just like weird little puppet guys and he's not about that. He did do Child's Play and that's probably the most annoying song that he has. I can't say it's catchy. 00:59:14.58 Fireheart Media It's fun. It's a fun song, but you better be ready for for that one because it's it's its own torture, I guess. 00:59:24.76 Fireheart Media It's better live. It is better live. It was much less grating than when you're listening to it on the album. So I will say that um of some of the recent bands and some of the kind of music I listen to, Ice Nine Kills is very good about being distinct between their songs. You can't mistake one for the other. 00:59:50.08 Fireheart Media They're all separate pieces. They all have a different sound. Um, that's a plus because there's a few bands that I love them dearly, but a couple of times I'd be like, wait, what track is this on? You know unless I'm listening to the album, if you hit it on random, I would be hard pressed to guess what song it was. 01:00:06.99 Fireheart Media Uh, if it's an album order, I can probably sing along to it. Um, this isn't a band like that. You could hit shuffle and then you would know exactly, okay, this is the song that's next. This is the, this is the hook on that one. 01:00:19.08 Fireheart Media Um, this is the refrain. Here's the chorus. You get it. Um, the, the, backing band, I can't say is the greatest out there. 01:00:34.19 Fireheart Media And knowing now that the band rotates between albums or maybe in the middle of an album or that they have a different live band they have in the studio, um that's not a plus. 01:00:46.89 Fireheart Media that that makes your sound not as cohesive uh so i think that as a point um i would like you know take a point off points off of the band for for being um so haphazard in like their identity in that way it's it's a spencer thing and i wish it wasn't as much so a comparable band would be ghost where um the the lead singer of ghost is the only constant and then the the entirety of the band is faceless rotates out is from potentially other other um uh popular bands and they just kind of sub in whenever 01:01:36.59 Fireheart Media um and that has its place but in something where this is so performance oriented and the band members aren't masked there's no anonymity um in them on stage and i think it's rather jarring if you go from show to show and like see just different this is a different drummer now here's a different basis like that's odd to me um i think that's less cohesive and it's a disservice to the music as a whole if you don't have the same folks learning and growing together and really forming a core 01:02:16.76 Fireheart Media uh, to this experience. But as we mentioned before, the band isn't the whole thing. The performance isn't the whole thing. Spencer's in this for all of it. It's, it's the whole ball of wax. He wants the music. He wants the concerts. 01:02:32.12 Fireheart Media He wants the, um, 01:02:36.86 Fireheart Media convention he wants the makeup line he wants everything you could do to like monetize and i say monetize i don't know these in it for the money um to just diversify all the things you're doing and like just have everything be ice nine kills like everything ink um and that's that's certainly a drive um Does it make for a good product? 01:03:04.01 Fireheart Media What he's put out so far has been pretty cool. um But we'll see because the more you spread yourself out, like that's going to be real thin eventually. That's a lot of irons in the fire. 01:03:15.43 Fireheart Media And we'll see, I think with the next album coming up because it's different than what he's done before. 01:03:23.65 Fireheart Media Right. So ah for me, I would say While you were talking, I was, again, thinking about Gakt, because even though Gakt is the primary player when it comes to his music and everything, and and recently he finally had a lot of massive turnover in terms of the people in his group of people, you know, in his band, 01:03:46.72 Fireheart Media in part because he's gotten ill several times. And so he's had to just have different people around him because the people that were working with him moved on to other projects because they weren't employed when he wasn't able to to sing. 01:04:01.89 Fireheart Media So oh in his case though, He had for most of his career the same lead guitarist and you know backing guitarist and you know the bassist and I think the drummer switched out once but that was due to like a ah personal situation. 01:04:23.10 Fireheart Media um like just That guy had some personal problems and ended up having to leave the band. um But otherwise he had constant members and not only that, but his fan base, while yes, most people were there for GACT, they were also there for ChaCha and you and whoever, and Juken when Juken was there and Junji when Junji was there and whoever, and like every one of the band members. 01:04:49.89 Fireheart Media ah like And this is something we've talked about before um off mic, where were discussing how in Japan, maybe maybe it was on the GACT episode too, ah In Japan, the band members, every band member is given their own identity and has their own fan base. 01:05:10.76 Fireheart Media um And that's a cultural difference from most of what you see in the U.S. because in U.S. slash Western bands, most of the time you have the front man and maybe somebody knows one of the other band members. 01:05:26.40 Fireheart Media Maybe. But most of the time, the other band members aren't given ah spotlight the same way. Yeah, and that's, I think, a generational thing as well in Western ah band performances. 01:05:41.70 Fireheart Media So if you go back to like the 50s, 60s, 70s, the bands then, because of the radio and newer television play, you knew everyone in the band. 01:05:59.79 Fireheart Media Like they were all their own big performers. And um over time, that just became less and less of a thing where the front man just became the front of the band, like the face of the band. 01:06:15.21 Fireheart Media And that's not every single band, but that's a large majority of them. And I think that that's to the detriment of of the band themselves and for the fan base, because that puts a lot of onus on just like one person where the the band is, you know, they're all contributing to it. 01:06:34.76 Fireheart Media And we've tried, we've we've been going to more concerts um consciously and spending time like really looking at the bands, not just their music, but as individual performers and like what each band is it bringing to the table? 01:06:53.80 Fireheart Media How are they presenting themselves? Do they have like signature identities that give them their individuality? who Who is eating up the spotlight? 01:07:05.09 Fireheart Media Who in the band is kind of backing off and staying in the shadows? Maybe they're not as comfortable on stage. um that that's a thing. And then who is just chewing up like the audience? Who's the audience like really focusing on who's playing to the audience? 01:07:22.65 Fireheart Media And that's not necessarily the front man. And a few times we've we've seen a few bands where the lead singer is like, overpowered by their bandmates. ah They don't have the stage presence that their bandmates do. 01:07:36.63 Fireheart Media And that makes for it's, it's, it's fun. It's fun to witness that. And then to kind of like you pray and hope for them that they, they can like buck up and, and, you know, develop more as a lead singer. 01:07:49.62 Fireheart Media um But at the same time, that gives you that opportunity to like, look at the, look at the other performers in the band and, find out like oh are they like that person looks cool like you know who are they what do they do aside from like this band like what do they are they on the internet like what's going on gives you a chance to like appreciate the band individually and more holistically than just like one voice and then some instrument you know people playing instruments in the background because that's not what it is. i mean, it's their little, their groups, their touring basically families and what what are their relationships like on tour? Like all those things combined together is like kind of what makes or breaks them on tour as showmen. 01:08:35.88 Fireheart Media um And then in their albums, how do they sound live or studio recordings? Because some man's just, they're terrible live and their studio stuff is very polished. 01:08:47.33 Fireheart Media Or it's the sound ah the the sound devices at like the venue. like it was just It was all the sound guys. just like It's all fucked up. And you can tell that the band is playing their heart out and they're singing. 01:09:02.41 Fireheart Media And it's just not coming through to the crowd because the um the levels are messed up. 01:09:10.13 Fireheart Media Let us never forget that Loathe fucked up Bayou Music Center before Spirit Box got on They fucked it up real bad to where Spirit Box didn't sound even an iota nearly as good as Loathe. And it's wild because Loathe Live, really fantastic. 01:09:26.26 Fireheart Media I listened to their stuff, the studio albums, not interested. I don't know, wild. Well, anyway, um but part of what I was mentioning that for... was because so in Japan and for Gakt, for example, as a, as a comparison point, because he is a narcissist who is ah doing a Spencer more or less, or Spencer rather is doing a Gakt because Gakt was around before. 01:09:50.52 Fireheart Media um Gakt allows room for his bandmates to also not just be consistent, but also to be their stars in their own rights. 01:10:02.89 Fireheart Media The difference though is that these people stayed with GACT for 20 years whereas ah for Spencer a lot of the people that he has that you know were original members of the band left to make other bands or they were borrowed from other bands for a short amount of time because they were interested in coming and and having a tour with Ice Nine Kills for a little while you know and so it's more of like a phenomenon than it is ah band, you know, where the musicians are interested in doing it for a bit. But that again, like you mentioned, it has to be like your whole MO. And, you know, that's, that's not something that a lot of people want to commit to 01:10:46.17 Fireheart Media I'm hoping that maybe now that he's gotten, you know, the silver scream, welcome to horror wood, and he's trying to do you know, of these movie themed things, maybe he can actually ti tack down a few people who have similar interests to be regular band members because like granted the sound of ice nine kills from their very first EP to now is very different. I mean, there are some overlapping themes and things, but you know, um, there's been a lot of growth in the way that the music sounds. So if he had had the same people from the first EP to now, 01:11:23.27 Fireheart Media I don't know how that would have turned out actually. I'm not sure if that would have evolved the way it did without the input of all the different voices he's had coming. They would have had to have been on board with this growth and this change, this change in direction. I mean, that's hard for any band like, but I've, um I've been getting more into different varieties and different genres of music lately. 01:11:48.89 Fireheart Media And that's something that's been really fun to see is bands that have been going for like 15, 20 years. um Or even some, ah if few have been, you know, going for less like 10 years and their first EP or their first album. 01:12:06.43 Fireheart Media And then, catching like album two or three or four their sound evolves over time especially when it's consistent bandmates and sometimes a lot of these bands they'll just change like genres like completely and you can still hear their beginning sound like you get like where they started Um, but because it's the same members you see like that growth and you can appreciate it more and where they've ended up can be like very, uh, 01:12:48.66 Fireheart Media kind of like a heartwarming. I'm trying to think of ah the word I want there. um It's something where like you really click with like whatever their latest album is and you go back and listen to them and like you may not care as much for the early ones, um but you can see how they got to where they are, which is is great. 01:13:08.42 Fireheart Media um And then the opposite can occur where like you like someone's freshman output and then they went in a direction that you just... Didn't dig and that that does happen. But that's less common than finding bands that like evolved over time and then just just hit a stride and they're doing a thing that's fantastic. 01:13:29.22 Fireheart Media Right. I can say, for example, Einstein Kills is one of those that I don't like the earlier stuff. I like Silver Scream, Welcomed Horrorwood. Those are the ones I like. um I listen to their other stuff. I even bought a few of them digitally to listen to them more often. And I just don't care for them as much as I do the stuff that's about the horror movies. 01:13:49.65 Fireheart Media And um Fame on Fire. That's another one that I really, really like, but I like specifically their newest album, The Death Card. There are other two albums before that. I liked the middle album, okay, the sophomore album. 01:14:02.65 Fireheart Media The freshman one was meh. It didn't really stand out to me. um There's lots of other bands I can think of, but also that like going in that kind of reverse direction. I know that for you, Fitz and the Tantrums, you like their early stuff and not where they went to, but I like Fitz and the Tantrums. like of it. 01:14:19.95 Fireheart Media i like all of it ah but I do like um some, like all the feels and some of the stuff after that, you know, like even the new one, man in the moon. I like that one a lot as well. 01:14:32.05 Fireheart Media And this new band that we just found that's going to be playing where, where on fire, is going to be opening for them. And that's why we're going to the concert, set it off. um I haven't listened to all of their older stuff. 01:14:44.59 Fireheart Media Dave did, did not care for it, but the newest album sounds really good to us. And also sounds like it would be really great in concert with Fame on Fire. 01:14:56.80 Fireheart Media Which is cool because it's the same growth. So um set it off and then Fame on Fire, like we love their current direction. Like it it's, it just really hits for us. And then I listen to the older stuff. I'm like, ah, it's okay. 01:15:13.04 Fireheart Media Um, you can see why they we were like probably picked up by a label. I'm like, yeah, they've got something there. And then they took it and they built it up and they went somewhere with it and they they're becoming the thing that probably there's whoever scouted them or their, their label saw that they could be. 01:15:32.93 Fireheart Media And that's like, that feels like a big success story. And that's what you want. You want to root for these bands. You want them to succeed. You want them to have more than one album. Cause man, some people just get one album and that's all they had in them. 01:15:46.20 Fireheart Media Um, or that's all people were willing to give them. And that's a shame because it takes time. yeah No one comes out, you know, um, batting a thousand or whatever the expression is. 01:16:00.20 Fireheart Media So ah two of the openers for Ice Nine Kills to tie this back to Ice Nine Kills slightly while we're still talking about other bands. um but for out The opener from the first night of the Ice Nine Kills show that we really liked the most was Melrose Avenue, a band that's from Australia. 01:16:18.29 Fireheart Media And all they have out right now is an EP album. So at the end of the concert, we were like, man, that was a good band. Oh, they have a CD. Well, we'll just get, you know, we were, we were trying to get out of there and get back home. So we were like, well, we have to come back tomorrow for the other show. So, um, you know, should we go ahead and get that CD now? And Dave's like, no, we'll just get it tomorrow. 01:16:41.87 Fireheart Media ah they'll be here tomorrow. We'll, we'll get it tomorrow. But then they weren't there. You can't get the CD anywhere. That was the one place to get the CD. And now I don't, I don't have a CD of that, sadly. um i'm gonna have to look on discogs to see if i can find it because i can't find it anywhere else i have searched um but that's a band that they came out the gate with their one ep and i love it i love their their sound it's great and another one was dark divine they have one ep and one full length album and 01:17:15.37 Fireheart Media I love them. They're fantastic. And, you know, like I look forward to whatever they do next, but they also have been seeing kind of like a meteoric rise because their stage presence is also fantastic. As mentioned, this is the band that was on par from the first of their opening songs. Like the first 30 seconds of them being on stage had people rabid the way they were for some of the best Ice Nine Kills songs. 01:17:42.56 Fireheart Media I will say that for the I don't know almost 10 concerts we've gone to this year. ah That Dark Divine is by far the strongest stage presence, even of like mainline headliner bands that we've gone to go see. 01:18:01.92 Fireheart Media ah Every track, everything in between their albums, all their just, just their crowd work basically was pulling the whole venue, every song all the time, matter what. 01:18:18.44 Fireheart Media And so their music itself, but I love it. It's it's good music. um But just the energy that, their front man has is it's like infectious. 01:18:32.49 Fireheart Media He doesn't look, it's that effortlessness where you're like kind of pulling the crowd and asking, Hey, and want you guys to do this. and everyone just does it. It's like, he just has that command aura. 01:18:45.93 Fireheart Media And it's fantastic to see. it's it's It's bewildering to experience. I can't even describe. Like, you just, okay, cool, and then you just do it because that's that's the magnetism um that he has. And we were fortunate enough to um see him after the after the performance because he was he went and popped by their um their merch booth. 01:19:10.04 Fireheart Media And he's the nicest little man. um there the the the band itself, as far as we can see them, everyone's very cool. 01:19:20.24 Fireheart Media And that's been the case, I think, with most of the the bands we've run into. And some of the some of there's been some local bands that are really cool. um But anyone that pops by their little merch booth um regardless of the show so far has been super fantastic everyone's been very pleasant um and that's like that's to everyone's credit there's so many just like kind of drunk people wandering around ah that the the fortitude it takes to put on these like hour-long show 01:19:54.62 Fireheart Media pop over and then like greet all your fans and just be utterly professional and so polite um i i can't say enough about some of these bands that are they're opening for like you know these yeah ah far you know more popular bands but i think that a lot of times these um the opening bands like they're just they're they're they're punching above their weight but landing all those blows. And it's not the case every time. 01:20:23.33 Fireheart Media In fact, I think it's been a, you know, a one to three ratio. Like there's one really, really good band and then two that are, ah, they're okay. And then like the headliner and sometimes, um, dark divine for sure. But a few of other, other ones we've had where like the opening band was at par or better, um, than the headliner. And that's, that's really cool to see. 01:20:46.74 Fireheart Media Yeah, say for example, we went to go see Rivers of Nile. I'm going to call that one out ah because one of the openers for them, we didn't there but there were two openers we could not stand like either band. We were suffering, but then Holy Fawn came on and I love Holy Fawn. 01:21:02.82 Fireheart Media And it's weird because it's not the kind of music that I would normally ever listen to. It's more like Dave sounding music. But I love Holy Fun. For some reason, it struck a chord with me and I like them a lot. 01:21:14.65 Fireheart Media And so ah that became a good new favorite band. and it's not that I don't like Rivers of Nile, but Rivers of Nile in concert was not interesting. ah Holy Fawn was interesting in concert. 01:21:26.67 Fireheart Media Also really good on the album. I think I really enjoy it live ah the most. Like they they bring more to the live than the studio recording can do for you just in terms of overall just sound, I think. 01:21:39.45 Fireheart Media And then a lot of that has to do with ah the so sub-genre that they're playing in. So Holy Fawn is dark metal shoegaze. Like it's, it's a combination of things. It's very subdued. 01:21:56.32 Fireheart Media Um, they don't, weirdly, they're not bringing a lot of energy, but it's consistent. And it's like, uh, 01:22:06.75 Fireheart Media It's like being on the beach at low tide and then just having like the waves wash over your feet. It's just comforting. um And you're staring up at the like the starry sky and the world is ending because all of their lyrics are like apocalyptic. 01:22:25.16 Fireheart Media But it's not um it's not like a dirge. It's it's hopeful in a way. Um, and they're also from, uh, Phoenix, Arizona. So I, I picked up their merch before I even heard them because I try to support everything that's from basically my second hometown. 01:22:41.60 Fireheart Media And that was as a smart move because their, their art on their shirts was bad-ass. And then the music backed it up. Like it's just ah solid, every, there's no bad song on there. 01:22:53.23 Fireheart Media um It was really good. I, the rivers of Nile, I love them ah in studio. i quite liked them live. And I think what, some of what we missed was we were seated aside from the, um, 01:23:08.30 Fireheart Media ah the the pit so we were outside of the main range of like where the sound was directed and there was definitely a clear difference between sitting in front of and getting the full speakers versus sitting on the side so we probably lost a little bit of the effect of that but they do have a badass saxophonist and i'm all aboard of this rising trend of putting a saxophone in like a metal band it's it's pretty great Right. 01:23:36.09 Fireheart Media I do want to bring it back to Einstein Kills again because I've got one more discussion question about Einstein Kills. I know we wandered off into talking about bands in general because we've been very enthused about music for a while now. 01:23:49.20 Fireheart Media um I mean, music was the reason why we met. We talked about that before. So there is that. But um anyway, my final question, discussion question about Einstein Kills is if you could just... 01:24:04.02 Fireheart Media you know, dictate to Spencer what he gets to write songs about? What movies or games or whatever would you have him write songs about? Oh, and we have to talk about ah the marketing thing that he did recently. like We'll do that too, but let's talk about the thing already asked. 01:24:23.07 Fireheart Media I would appreciate a just an EP. An EP on like... fucked up uh Italian horror films because those are my favorite so give me like some weird ass uh Dio Rogero Diodato and and Fulci do the beyond and um zombie flesh eaters like some like niche weird ass cult films because man if you're doing a stage show with that stuff 01:24:56.53 Fireheart Media What I want is the stage shows to be Gallagher-esque where the front row needs to have plastic sheets. Cause I want you to blast blood and gore and just, man, make it a show. 01:25:11.16 Fireheart Media Do that. And ah you got my money like twice over. I don't know that I would be there for that one, but ah if I am, I would be in the back. 01:25:23.40 Fireheart Media watching you and just kind of going, all right, all right, I'm going to drink my drink now. But anyway, for me, let's see. i have random and weird picks. 01:25:34.75 Fireheart Media I would want to do the birds. I would want the birds. I want a song about the birds because I love birds and also it's a horror movie. And also that movie terrified me. And I was like, but no, I love birds. was very conflicted as a child about that movie. 01:25:48.44 Fireheart Media um That, I want some, um some songs about different Twilight Zone episodes. because there are some really cool and weird Twilight Zone episodes that, like, just to, if you had a whole album just of Twilight Zone stuff, that would be pretty fun, I think. 01:26:07.01 Fireheart Media um I would like that. I would like a song about killer clowns from outer space, because I know, like, the killer clowns' main theme is absolutely fucking fantastic, but I want to know what Spencer would do with that. 01:26:21.37 Fireheart Media so I want to know what he would do with that movie. I'm curious. you know So things like that are things that I think I would like mostly. 01:26:32.42 Fireheart Media So you know just a few little random random requests there from me. So the marketing thing that I mentioned earlier that we hadn't talked about. So um for their Memorial Day sale this year, there was an AI image used on their website of you know the horror guys, like just, just doing whatever. And, um, you like having a cookout, I think it was, or something like that. 01:26:59.25 Fireheart Media Anyway, it was a really obviously AI image that was on their website, uh, to advertise the sale. And then there was a big hullabaloo on the internet because of course there was, because it's AI. So a lot of people were like, I can't believe you used AI. And other people are like, why are you guys making such a big deal out of it? And so on and so forth. And there was this whole long thing. And a lot of people felt really betrayed by the band and things like that. 01:27:22.88 Fireheart Media Well, They doubled down on it. And in response, they said, oh, we're very sorry about that. We'll have to look into who did that, this, that, and the other. Also, here is a ah you know, please in the meantime, enjoy this picture from the current tour. And it was a very obviously AI made image of them all together, you know, looking like men in black ah altogether. 01:27:48.32 Fireheart Media And so then that was released. But then a little while after that, there was a teaser ah teaser video saying, People are, you know, like of of a like a fake news report saying, oh, people aren't sure whether Spencer Charnas is and an AI robot or this, that, or the other. 01:28:07.48 Fireheart Media And then after that, they released a song that was based on The Matrix. And, you know, so they they tied it in there. And then, like, I guess that's the new angle in the new stuff. Dave, you watched it? 01:28:20.80 Fireheart Media I didn't watch it, but the second single that I think just came out is also, it's it's all Matrix. it's It's AI or computer controlling the future. 01:28:33.93 Fireheart Media There's probably going to be a Terminator. It's sci-fi. It's a sci-fi album, I'm betting. um But yeah, like the the AI stuff, I... I thought it was crass originally. And then I know specifically some folks who were very, very big Inc fans like dropped the band. 01:28:54.22 Fireheart Media they They were, because they they do their own, their ah their authors, their artists and the AI stuff steals their shit. So they were like, ah you know, fuck this band um because we can't bet, you know, we're not gonna give money to something that's that's clearly taking from things. 01:29:13.24 Fireheart Media so whether it was like i mean it's ai created maybe because you could also on purpose make something that looks like it's just stick more fingers on there or make something look a little weird um they could have done that i i don't know and they don't they don't specify so i'm on the fence too but ah I see what they're doing and it's, or what Spencer's doing and it's, it's the marketing bliss. I mean, they're just taking advantage of the current trend and making a ah specific album 01:29:58.99 Fireheart Media on 01:30:01.70 Fireheart Media past, uh, series and, and movies like they've done before that focus specifically on that thing there. Maybe there's a, uh, like the virus movie, maybe they're pulling from, the I don't know. I don't know what they're going do, but there's a lot of stuff in the specifically in the nineties. 01:30:17.91 Fireheart Media Um, and that, that tracks, you know, based on kind of how they were pulling from the eighties, mainly for their horror stuff. If they're doing the nineties sci-fi, uh, angle, like there's a lot to pull from. So, um, 01:30:30.36 Fireheart Media so I don't know. um i'm I'm less a fan of that if it's they just did AI stuff and was like, hey, we'll just you know jump on this bandwagon because a lot of companies have been doing that and it's just not cool. 01:30:46.30 Fireheart Media um But if they did that as a stunt and it's like a person created that in mimicry of an AI thing, then I think that that's that that can be kind of genius marketing-wise. 01:31:03.51 Fireheart Media Yeah, and the thing is, we're never going to know for a fact whether or not that is AI or whether or not that was something that somebody made to look like ai So who's to say? 01:31:15.93 Fireheart Media But, you know, so that was a damper on things. So we're kind of like looking at it like, I don't know. um I actually haven't watched either of the new singles, even though like I have notifications on for Einstein Kills. 01:31:29.30 Fireheart Media So, that's kind of like where I've been. i was kind of waiting to see if I could watch it with Dave, but then we just haven't had time with everything going on So, but maybe we'll go and watch those and then just kind of see how things pan out from here. 01:31:46.51 Fireheart Media uh it definitely if you've seen ice nine kills in the past that's interesting it sounds like if they're doing sci-fi they might they're going to be swerving away from only doing horror stuff which it would be kind of weird if you're doing a horror convention but then now you're not doing horror properties uh you know how does that even work exactly the the sci-fi and horror have been intertwined Um, and a few other other genres. So it's not like I mentioned virus and a few other things. 01:32:18.47 Fireheart Media Those go hand in hand in certain instances and even Terminator, um, look at their first movie can be interpreted as a horror film as well. Less so the later ones, of course, but, um, it's not out of the realm of possibility. If he's pulling from the nineties stuff specifically, 01:32:37.12 Fireheart Media ah that there is a horror connection. um and there's crossover fans between the two genres in new anyway. Yeah, there is, there is for sure. But, um, still, yes, I know who's, who's a crossover fan and got two thumbs. This guy. Yes. Yes, indeed. 01:32:58.35 Fireheart Media But, um, Yeah, for sure. I mean, that we'll we'll see as the stuff comes out what's going on with that. But yeah, so this was like our little primer about Ice Nine Kills and then kind of wandering into music and and bands and performances in general. 01:33:14.01 Fireheart Media ah This is an ongoing concern of ours, not specifically Ice Nine Kills, but just music in general. So definitely thing that we like to talk about. ah Since we're not going song by song through however that makes this episode pretty spelt so thank y'all for joining us joining us for this shorter episode of JCP it hasn't been this short basically since I first started the podcast like episode two with the Ace Attorney it's been a very long time since I've edited a 90 minute episode it's been about three hours that and two to three hours like easy they know Dave they know 01:33:56.92 Fireheart Media All right. So all of that said, that is all we've got for today. This was the topic. Thank you all for joining us. You know how to find us on social media. I am @jalachan and all of the places I can be found. 01:34:12.56 Fireheart Media You can find Dave at senplus.bsky.social or at monsterdear.monster for his show. And of course, you can always catch us on our Discord server or on the Ko-Fi page at ko-fi.com/fireheartmedia. 01:34:30.90 Fireheart Media So until next time, take care of yourself. Remember to smile and don't use AI. [Show Outro] Jala Jala-chan's Place is brought to you by Fireheart Media. If you enjoyed the show, please share this and all of our episodes with friends and remember to rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. Word of mouth is the only way we grow. If you like, you can also kick us a few bucks to help us keep the lights on at ko-fi.com/fireheartmedia. Check out our other show Monster Dear Monster: A Monster Exploration Podcast at monsterdear.monster. Music composed and produced by Jake Lionhart with additional guitars and mixed by Spencer Smith. Follow along with my adventures via jalachan.place or find me at jalachan in places on the net! [Outro Music]