Nick:
The band is from Athens. Are you guys all from there?
Scott: Yeah, Southeast Athens. I’m originally from Northwest Ohio - Delphos, a small town near Lima. Our drummer [Derrick Nau] is from down here, the bass player [Evan] is from Cleveland, the singer [Chance Garnett] and other guitar player [Nate Garnett] were born in Arkansas but grew up in Columbus.
Nick: The band formed when you met Nate in college, correct?
Scott: Yeah, Nate and I met in Athens at Ohio University. We ran into each other and it was fucking amazing or ruined our lives depending how you look at it [laughs].
Nick: Skeletonwitch tours nonstop. What’s the figure? 250 shows in ’07 and ’08? I take it this is your full time job?
Scott: We’ve all been able to make it work one way or another. I work at a local indie record shop and The Union, this bar where we played our first show, barbacking and half-assed bartending. Chance works at a tattoo shop. He worked there, not as an artist, but got his start tattooing members of the band. They’re flexible with him. Our drummer Derik went to the Cleveland Institute of art, art school, and we pulled him out to play, ruining his life [laughs]. He does T-shirts for a bunch of people: Metallic Carnage, Psycroptic, and others, so that’s cool for him because it’s flexible. Our bass player works for an environmental non-profit, Ohio Citizen Action. Nate doesn’t do anything except play lots of guitar and write songs.
Nick: Was it difficult to make the transition from daily living to playing live so much?
Scott: It’s not that difficult if you fucking go for it and pick up the pieces later. You have to fly by the seat of your pants. I think a lot of bands try and calculate too much, “I’ll do this, quit this, then tour.” No, fuck it. Tour your ass off and worry about it later. We’ve had to work at it though. We just went for it and hoped it worked out. We’re fortunate to have found places to live. We’re not living gloriously, but we’re living happily.
Nick: So how does the economy look from the trenches?
Scott: From our perspective it’s good. We haven’t seen any negative effects; for us it’s business as usual. There are just as many kids as there ever were, merch sells, well not CDs, but CDs have never sold. We haven’t seen any negative effects, but maybe that’s just so far. As for the future…
Nick: You guys just played the Scion Rock Fest.
Scott: It was fucking amazing, so much fun, so many good bands, so drunk. The atmosphere was really good, it was free, and it was just a huge fucking party. It was hard to keep straight where to go - there were too many bands to see everyone you wanted to. We partied our asses off. All the bands stayed in the same hotel, so it’s like you go in the hall and “Oh there’s Boris! Oh there’s Matt Pike from High on Fire!” Most of the musicians were scratching their heads thinking why Scion? Why did Toyota put all this money into it? We didn’t want to ask too many questions though. They did a really good job of running the show. I read online, someone commenting how nice it was to see bands in the periphery in front of big crowds, taken care of, out of the trenches, with a nice stage, sound, and crowd. We got a chance to be fucking rock stars for a day instead of stinking up the van.
Nick: Do you know if that’s going to be an annual thing?
Scott: They’re planning more. I don’t believe it’s annual. Everyone that was there did an interview with Scion and they took footage, so that will be released at one time. Someone told me they’re trying to do another one this calendar year in 2009. They’re hoping to have it in different locations. I really hope it happens.
Nick: I wonder what their angle is.
Scott: I don’t know, but I think I’ll go fucking buy a Scion [laughs]. I can’t afford one, but I can dream, I can dream.
Nick: You’ve played with a lot of different bands, a lot of which were at the Scion show.
Scott: Yeah, there were lots of people that we knew there. Let’s see, we’ve played with High on Fire, a lot with Baroness, and Kylesa. We’re fortunate that in touring we’re kind of a chameleon. We can tour with Dying Fetus, Nachtmystium, Municipal Waste, and Early Man. We have enough different elements that, okay, we’ll be death metal, black metal, or trash metal, and still be wearing the same clothes and playing the same songs. We like to keep the touring diverse. It’s nice to go to a show and not get blown away by one night all grindcore or black metal.
Nick: I’ve seen Skeletonwitch lumped with the thrash revival scene a fair amount, but that’s not what you’re doing, is it?
Scott: We get lumped into that a lot and it can get a little bit annoying seeing these “thrash revival” lists and seeing Skeletonwitch on them. I think, “Did you listen to the record?” I don’t hear anything near a blast beat or death metal riff in those other bands. I mean, Neon, Nuclear Assault, we love them, but it’s been done so well, so we take some from that as an influence, bring in other things, it’s what’s natural for us. We have a basis in thrash and love black metal and death metal. It’s not really a conscious decision.
Nick: I hate to beat the touring stuff to death but is hard to be on the road that much?
Scott: It’s not too bad really; it’s what we live for. It’s business as usual. At home when we have time off, it’s like fuck, my liver isn’t swollen anymore, back to normal, time to go back on the road.
Nick: Are you guys asked to join these tours or are you actively looking for them?
Scott: We’re actively looking for stuff. We prefer to be out there - you can’t just record a record and sit on your ass, or at least, we won’t record a record and sit on our asses. We want to get out there and in people’s faces, play music, party, and interact. The recording is obviously important.
Nick: You played the Blackest of the Black tour with Danzig [along with Dimmu Borgir, Moonspell, and Winds of Plague]. How does that feel to play dives after that?
Scott: It’s fun. Doing both keeps you honest. Blackest of the Black was so much fun, totally a different world that was fun to be a part of. It’s great to have really nice sound, to just hit a chord on your guitar and have this sound that’s just gigantic, but at the same time, it’s awesome to play a little stage with people standing up front and standing on your amplifier. We’ll definitely be doing both in the future… It was cool because back in the day Nate and I would be sitting around, on the reef’, playing guitar and then listening to Danzig records. I never thought I’d live to see the day we’d share the stage.
Nick: You debuted your first music video recently for “Sacrifice for the Slaughtergod.” When was that shot?
Scott: Sometime in 2008. We only had two days of shooting: one day outdoor stuff in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and one day inside performing in Nelsonville, Ohio at Stuart’s Opera House. It wasn’t because of the shooting that took so long. It was supposed to debut on MTV2, on Headbangers Ball, but that was canceled… eventually we just put in on MySpace Metal. Who knows, it still may see the light of day on TV.
Nick: That was directed by Brian Weavey, correct?
Scott: Yes. He was a film student in Athens at Ohio University - that’s how I know him - and he was willing to work with our micro budget. He did all of the shooting and editing, pretty much everything. It was the band, Brian, one of his good friends, and that’s it.
Nick: This may seem like a strange question: why make a music video?
Scott: Well… why not? Of course the label wanted us to do one, asked us to make a video. We said okay, let’s get some fucking weapons and go in the woods. It’s just another aspect of what we do. People can come to shows, listen to the record, watch the video…
Nick: Is there a story to the video?
Scott: It’s very fast and energetic, like live and on the album. It’s full of the imagery that reappears throughout the album. We grew up on heavy metal, skulls, death, evil, dark imagery that kind of escapes from every day bullshit. We’re not a political band; there’s no message and the lyrics aren’t exact; you can’t say this is what this one is about. It’s that escapism through which we’re reminding ourselves why we love heavy metal so much.
Nick: So what your relation to Prosthetic Records? What does a label at that level do for the band?
Scott: The biggest thing they do is distribution, getting the album out to stores. If they don’t like the songs we’re writing, they’re fucked. They can give us input, sure, but final word on artwork and music is ours. That’s one of the reasons we went with them. We want to be in control of our own destiny… Of course there are certain tours that happen because of the bands, promoters, and managers involved. We may say, “Hey do you know Satyricon?” and challenge them to set stuff up like that. It’s a team effort really. We love those guys. Any day of the week we can call the owner on his cell or at the office - there’s no man behind the curtain. It’s a fun relationship and we goof around. If you look at their roster, it’s different. Some labels with more money throw as many bands as they can against the wall and see what sticks. Prosthetic assesses what you’re doing, where you’re going with it, and what you can do. They sign you on for a couple of records and work with you.
Nick: The new record has already been announced for late summer. Does that mean you’ve already recorded it?
Scott: Um, no. Eight or nine songs are written so far. We’re not recording until after the Amon Amarth tour. After that we have a month to write a handful of songs, rehearse them, then record them in June in Seattle with Jack Endino. He did a High on Fire record, older stuff with Mudhoney and Nirvana’s Bleach, which is weird. The record is coming out in late summer, so it’s going to happen really quick.
Nick: Is John Baizley doing the artwork for this one?
Scott: We haven’t decided on that. We really love his artwork and he’s a good friend. We may do something different.
Nick: How would you characterize the new songs?
Scott: In the past we married black metal and thrash metal. This time they fucked and had a kid. It’s a little more seamless, the style, and it sounds a little more evil, more ominous. Still, it’s not going to be a huge departure, just darker, more streamlined. We’re getting used to our writing process and getting more focused.
Nick: Are you still using Nate’s old 4-track? I’ve read that’s how all new material circulates in the band.
Scott: Yes, absolutely. He uses a drum machine and lays down the guitar track. Next it usually comes to me. I’ll take parts, change them, add leads or new parts, although a lot of the time I don’t do anything, just write a lead and be done. We trade back and forth, I’ll give him a CD, he’ll give me one. I add things to the pot, but Nate’s the main motherfucker.
Nick: After, what, six years, how does it feel to play your hometown Athens?
Scott: It’s awesome. We almost always play The Union. I guess it was voted one of the best dive bars in Maxim or whatever fucking B-magazine. It’s been around since the 1960s or 1970s and is a punk type, cool place. We’ve built a good fan base and friends here. Everyone comes out and it’s usually pretty packed. We used to play there every time, but now it’s only a couple of times a year. It’s no longer, oh, it’s the third time they’re playing there this week. If we didn’t have the support at home, maybe we wouldn’t have branched out and really gone for it. Everyone really cheers us on. It’s home and it feels good to have the support.
Nick: So does Skeletonwitch still adhere to your infamous $5 a day a member allowance?
Scott: [laughs] We’ve moved up - it’s not a set rate any more. It actually started around $10 a day, which buys cigarettes and a beer, but now it’s less rigid and everyone gets a few bucks here and there. It’s less stressful, but we aren’t making a lot of money, not by any means. We’re more comfortable, but remember, we’re in the same van, same trailer. We used to be completely against hotels and god did it smell bad. Now we’ll have an occasional hotel and do laundry. There’s still lots of peanut butter sandwiches and tuna.
Nick: What’s it been like to go from playing local shows to getting bigger so quickly?
Scott: I don’t know if we really went that big that quickly. I think the Danzig tour helped a lot. We took time to write after that, didn’t tour a lot, so we haven’t seen the effects of that bigger tour yet. The transition has been easy. If you’d seen the apartment Dave and I lived in when we first starting touring, doing this professionally so to speak… it was pretty shitty. We just moved to a mobile apartment, which wasn’t much of an adjustment.
Nick: So most of the people on StonerRock.com will know you from Emissions [from the Monolith] down in Austin, at Emos. Tell us about that.
Scott: It was fucking awesome. We’re good friends with Weedeater and were on tour with them leading up to that. We always like to mix it up. Some doom and sludge, I mean, I get bored because I have a short attention span at times. I got to see Blue Cheer, even though they were 9,000 years old, which was fucking sweet. It was kind of like Scion, only smaller, just a good atmosphere and everyone from the bands stayed the whole weekend to party and hang out.
Nick: You guys are big partiers, but only drink and some of you smoke up. Nothing heavier?
Scott: There are a lot of cokeheads out there, as far as that kind of stuff goes. It’s one of the things we don’t really fuck with. We just love drinking beer and hanging out. Most of us smoke - I used to but try to avoid it now. As for the other, a coke binge doesn’t make a good tour. We’ve watched a lot of bands have problems, things get nasty.
Nick: For how fast and technical your music is, it seems like alcohol would make it hard to be tight.
Scott: It’s a trick. You’d think we’d have the balance down, how much we can drink before we start fucking up. Every once in a while Nate or I fuck up. I feel like a huge asshole, kind of like in the dog house. We have fun and play music, but the music is primary. Every now and then, oh you fucked up, better watch it, from partying too hard. It’s almost down to a science.
Nick: You wrote for Revolver’s blog a bit ago.
Scott: I did and I’ll be doing more of that in the future, maybe a video during the Amon Amarth tour. [Revolver] approached prosthetic prior to the Job for a Cowboy/Red Chord tour. My B.A. is in magazine journalism, and I don’t directly use it, so it’s fun for me to write shit and goofy stories. I’ll be doing a lot more of that when we really get touring.
Nick: That’s about all I had - any last thoughts?
Scott: Thanks to everyone who supports us, comes to shows, lets us crash at their house, buys our records, buys us beer. Come check us out; we’re playing new material and there’ll be a new record too.
