Melodic Death Metal Band Accursed Song about Sky King, Richard Bebo Russell & Horizon Air Incident

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure. Wow for you your. This is the pipe Man here on the Avengers Pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with my next guest who has some killer music. So let's welcome to a show a cursed And I hope I pronounced that properly because if I fucked it up and I'm that I'm an idiot. It's like my biggest fear always, especially since a lot of bands they'll say their band name differently than what it should be or whatever, like you have to be creative nowadays have a band name because it's just so hard.

0:52 There's so many out there. So that's my worst fear is like screwing up the band name because I know if I was an artist and be like, oh, here we go, this dude don't know ship about our band. Jim Jim, that's great. I love that. Yeah, that's great to hear. We still love him. I actually just did media coverage for his festival, Milwaukee Metal Fest. Yeah, and it's a killer festival. I have to hands off, you know. I think artists should always be the one's ring festivals because it was so run like an artist was running it and that that's the best compliment I could give.

1:41 Yeah, you know that. Yeah, And and like he understands what you go through and that's the point, you know. That's awesome. So and you guys have played when he's done the Jamie uh the Jostin friends thing, right. So we did thresh Thursday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Who else was the hours? But yeah, that's pretty I think. No, that was the other one. I was somebody from Overkill. We went to a few of them. Was it was it Bobby Blitz from it was Bobby Blitz?

2:22 Yes, that is correct. You know. It's funny when I interviewed him one time several years ago, like I have ostio or threesa next from head head banging and surfing. Well, most of the time you can't tell, okay, because I'll still be head banging, I'll still mash and all that. But during the. Interview, first time it's ever happens like, dude, what's wrong with your neck? And I'm like, I'm like, oh, I was just head banging at your set. That's what's wrong with my neck? You know. Uh. But it's so funny that he was like so tuned into it. You know, it's funny when like I come from that time of the eighties medal and like now all of us are at this later stage, and it's like, it's so funny the difference between how the bands are that I was friends with back in the eighties, how they were then and how they are now. Yeah, you know, even with backstage Okay, you guys know this. Okay, So people like my friends will be like, hey, can you get me backstage? I'm like, you really don't want to go there. It's kind of boring.

3:36 There's nothing. Yeah, it's not the eighties, nothing's going on anymore. Yeah okay, yeah. And then and then even the thing with side stage, I'm like, well, if you like how the band sounds, you don't want to sit side stage. You're gonna hate it. Like it's cool the first time you do it, and after that, it's like at festivals, all hang out with artists ound in the crowd because they want to be out in the crowd too. That's the best place to be man, right. Exactly, you know, you know, is it fun sometimes when you're side stage seeing what's going on kind of, but I'd still rather be in what's going on. Elia, And that's the key that see. That's I think the difference between metal heads and other genres is we're not there for anything else but the pure love of metal.

4:35 First, musician second or I don't know, the lines are kind of blurred. I'd say it's like fifty to fifty. On me with me for that, right. Like always in the crowd, always trying to mingle. He used to call me the governor or mayor of wherever we go, and it used to drive him crazy. Because he's used to is he still drives me nutty. Nice, nice. Gotta have somebody like that. Davis like eternally out going. So well, there you go, and I'm glad you brought that up too, because everybody thinks that all musicians are extroverted, and most of them are actually not. Yeah, it's weird. I saw a new phrase for that the other day, and I wish I could remember what it was. It it was kind of like amb averted there's something like, yeah.

5:20 It was something about like it was it was like an oxymoron where it was like an extroverted introvert where like, you know, I definitely hit a wall sometimes, especially in crowds and with people, and like I have a definite social battery and like, you know, if my mood is off or not right, like I don't want to be around people. But like generally when I'm in a in good spirits and at a show or hang out. And that's why I love the metal scene so much, is because, like I feel like there's more my social battery seems a little more extended in those situations than just day to day dealing with people, crowds, being out. So but yeah, I mean. It's I hate when people want to put labels on you, like, oh that it, yeah, introverted, extrovert, Okay, Like shut up, okay, Like why can't I just be who I am. I don't need a label, like I often say. I often say, and people try to label it. I'll say to people like I'm a total extrovert and a loner at the same time, and most people don't get what that means, so they're trying to say, oh, you're an introvert extrovert. No, I'm not introvert at all. I could be at a music festival one hundred thousand people and I feel like I'm there with my one hundred thousand closest friends, but that I'm alone at the same time and the best of both worlds.

6:40 That's a nice thought. Yeah, for sure. You know, my daughter, even when I said to her one time, she goes, you know, you're right. I've noticed like when we're all around, you are totally involved and with everybody, but you're also in your own world at the same time, you know, Like I said, And when you're up on stage, I think what people don't get is you go into this zone dude, like and you don't even It's almost like an add body experience. You don't really realize you're there at that moment in time, right, Yeah. At all. And then on the back end of it, every after every show, I like think back and I'm like, oh, wow, yeah, I guess we really did do that. Like right, It's like there's a somewhere is a clip circulating of me, like from a video where like a dude dives off like stage, dives right in front of me, like he walks like ran across the stage, goes right in front of me and dives off the stage and gets carried away by the crowd. I had no idea that that had happened until I watched.

7:45 The video of it later. I was like, dude, I would be too easy to kill up there, honestly, Like, I got no clue what's going. On right right? Yeah, I also know from all the arts I know, and me as a beaker and radio person, like I am nervous right up until you turn that mic on then totally and and there's a switch in my head that just changes, you know. And so that's an eiry thing. Like I know so many musicians that have stage fright and people think, well, that's weird.

8:25 No, it's just a normal human thing. But yeah, then you go into this other mode once the mic turns on or what or the guitar turns on or whatever it is that you're doing, you know. And I love talking about that because I think people truly don't understand musicians. Yeah, I would agree, and I think that that's not talked about quite a bit. I actually found a lot of comfort in listening to the Jazz to Show because he would talk to musicians about that, Like hearing Steve Bye talk about like that and hearing you know, just these guitarists that you know, have these storied careers I've looked up to, like talk about those kinds of things, and like you know what they go through on stage. Sometimes it's like I get that, Like it helped me a lot, like over the years especially, you know, just kind of getting out of my own head sometimes and like, you know.

9:14 Years and years ago, I'd be like, oh, I hit a wrong note. Everybody knows it. Now I'm like, nobody's fucking heard that. Yeah, you have to take a page. I had a David Lee Roth book. Yeah, okay. I was at the nineteen eighty three US Festival and they started playing on Ain't Talking about Love. There's three hundred thousand people there, and Eddie starts looking over at Dave because he's not singing, and Dave just looks at the crowd and shouts in the mic, I fucking forgot the words. Yeah, and the whole place cheered like it was the best thing that ever happened.

9:56 Yeah. You know, It's just such an honest moment and like such a human thing. And I feel like a lot of like pressure. Has also come down on musicians lately to like not have those moments and not have it be as human and just for like the experience to be so perfect for crowds, like there's that I see, you know a lot of stage production and backing tracks on a lot of bands, and I don't I'm not gonna knock that, like we've considered doing that at some point, or kind of beefing up some of our production live. But like those moments too, you know when you see like one of your favorite it's just it's a unique experience and it's it's holy human and you know, I can't fault anybody. It just makes it that much more incredible to experience it. That's the beauty of live music, man, Like, you know how what you said earlier hit home. You know how many times bands screw up and nobody notices, like no, nobody, And I don't think like I would notice, only to pay attention to notice, you know, it's like I'm not worried about are you hitting the right note? You know, like I'm just there in the moment, enjoying it, and it doesn't matter.

11:03 Really, that's the beauty of live music. If you want to be exactly like the record, just listen to the record. Yeah, It's like you could go home and listen to it like you're here for the vibe, Like. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's where the Grateful Dead were really smart. Because there's no show that you could go. Grateful Dead was the same thing, go. Home and listen to the record. Yeah, my parents were huge fans. That is like what I grew up hearing in the house all day, every day from the record player. Like they were gigantic dead. My mom still is. My father passed, but my mom still a huge dead head. So like that's and that was kind of how I was introduced to music, was through that.

11:46 You know, I eventually found my way to meddle. But well, it was kind of similar for me because you know, I remember, like I was into music since I'm little, but I remember at one point in like fifth grade, my friend showed me two albums, and there's two of my favorite albums this day, and one was We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll Sabbath and the other was Skeleton's from the Closet Grateful Dead. And it's like the whole concept that that's the two that he showed me. That couldn't be. More different, right, But oh yeah, but it like I think it forms like that's the thing too. People think that like whatever you're into, if it's metal, punk or whatever, that's all you listen to. And even back in the eighties when we had the gatekeeping days. Okay, you weren't supposed to like certain things.

12:45 But you secretly did. Okay, you know, the eighties version of coming out of the closet is admitting that you liked some new wave y you know. It's like I interviewed Josie Cotton, who I'm friendly with now, and I'm like, you know, I'm just gonna say it now. In the eighties, I wasn't allowed to like you, but I'm gonna tell you. I don't want anybody to know. And this is in the interview. I say it like that, but I secretly did like it back then. But don't tell anybody, just. Get out right exactly. But we all like different types of music, different vibes. I was a teenager, I was a total thrash metal head, but I did go to Slayer shows on Friday night and Dead shows on Saturday.

13:37 Just a different vibe, man. But you know, dead heads are the whole different. Like I have a lot of dead Head friends. Yeah, I consider myself somebody that likes the Dead, but the fanaticism just blows my mind, like that people have for the Dead, like cause I like a lot or dust. But if I'm not on drugs, sometimes a little bored by it. Yeah, that's the key, Yeah, exactly, Like I don't do any of that stuff anymore. But I do remember going to a Dead show and I took some shrooms and my whole trip was I didn't realize.

14:20 So next day I was actually tripping. I kept saying, they're they were bad, they're not working. I don't feel anything. And then the next day I was like, oh, maybe I did. Yah's dangerous, right right, you know, but uh yeah, And then you know, it's funny you talk about finding metals, so like, you know, my generation, there was no real metal, Like the closest thing to metal was Zeppelin, Cream Mountain, you know, Sabbath obviously, but you know, it's like I remember stealing my brothers albums from like bands like The Association, the Rascals, the Grassroots, and there was just there was this like like.

15:13 Chain of events. So then it so then it went to you know, British Medal Priest Maiden. Then it went to like I went to Motley Crue at the Roxy before they had an album. They weren't Hammel, they were like horror punk. Yeah, And I remember going at show. I'm like, I'm never going to a real concert ever again. That was awesome. Next thing, you know, I'm going like Slayers first show ever, Metallica's first show ever. Not allowed to like Motley Crewe anymore. You're now in the Slayer Okay, and I did.

15:55 I went through like my favorite bands while I was young were Kissing the Beatles, and then it was Zeppelin, then it was Ozzy, then it was Slayer, you know, and it's like and then and then I found Possessed, yeah, and that was like, oh my god, that's awesome, and now I found a cursed Yeah. We did all that without the Internet back then too, which blows my mind even more because like it was a vastly different landscape. Like I similarly, like when I I was obsessed with like Duop for a while when I was like thirteen, the Elvis Presley for some reason, when I was in like third grade, but like, you know, found Metallica when I started playing guitar and wanted to like kind of start leaning into that, started learning like most of kill them all. And then like I had a friend, I was meeting people locally, and that's how it happens. You know, somebody introduces you to another band and like it. Very long time ago, probably like two thousand, I was introduced.

16:54 To like Children of Boat them. They handed me a Children of Botom CD and another band called Balsagath, who, like you do some taking on it. It's kind of I don't even know how to describe it now. I've probably been listening to them in twenty five plus years, but pretty epic. There's swords and there's a lot of like you know, very epic metal. But as soon as I heard that, I was like, there's so much more going on, And then like I'd go back to listen to Metallica. And I was like, I can't. Like, I still appreciate it, but like my journey kind of started there, and those were like my formative years of just getting into like you know, melow Death from like Finland, Sweden, some black metal from Norway. I didn't get too into that.

17:36 Well. I was there and got confirmed a few weeks ago in an interview when Kronos from Venom punched out Tom Mariah All because he said, you guys aren't black metal. We're black metal, you know, yeah, and you know, so for me, it was there were two things. One was the tape trading days. Of course, of course that's how you found your music. But I used to go into this record store in the valley. I told his story a lot because it's so cool. And there was this record store called OZ Records, and there was this record clerk there that every time you went in, he would hand you an album and go, you gotta check this out, or he would show you a flyer for a gig, go to this gig. Yeah, And that was Brian Slagel and it was when he started Metal Blade Records.

18:41 Okay, damn. And that's cool, right, And like you don't even think He didn't even think, because I approached him a few years ago. I'm like, hey man, that was a brilliant marketing move. He's like, that was just a record store clerk, man, Like I didn't think of it that way. But I do think of it that way because it's like, what better way to promote your bands but to be a record store clerk. That's kind of a sick move, right, I. Mean, that's freaking brilliant, Like, oh my god, And you know he introduced me stuff. Maybe I would have never known, Like I remember he the first album he showed me.

19:21 Was Venom Welcome to Hell. And before that I was listening to stuff like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, you know, and and then I remember listening to this album what reading the lyrics while I'm listening, and. Literally I got scared, like what the hell? And you know, obviously I'm not scared anymore, but you know, yeah, well, and then you find out too that you know, it's not what everybody thinks, Like I had the initial reaction that probably everybody had about me and what like I used to get told to devil worshiper because I wore an Aussie shirt, you know. And I remember hanging out with Slayer back in the day and they would laugh backstage that people thought they were actual devil worshipers, you know. Yeah, people don't read the lyrics either. That's the problem nowadays.

20:19 Like maybe if you read the lyrics, you would know what they're actually meaning. By it, yea. And yeah, I think that's what happened with people like parents back in the day like that were oh my god, Like the parents should just read the lyrics and they would have realized that it wasn't what they thought it was. Yeah. Yeah, So how did this come about? How did you guys come about? So interesting? Yeah, I started this project in about twenty seventeen, I want to say. I sent out with another guitar player, buddy of mine, and like we started kind of auditioning drummers, trying to find and people and kind of just organizing some riffs and like writing and whatnot.

21:05 You know, we didn't have like a lot done. I see a lot of bands now that like get everything prepped and then launch, and it's like maybe that might have been smart, but you know so, but like I always like I knew what I wanted the band to be. I knew what I wanted to represent, I know what I wanted the sound to be, and I had like a lot of material that just kind of was disorganized. You know. I had not played for probably about eight years due to shoulder injury, coming back from moving back from Arizona to Connecticut, and I just kind of wanted to capture some of like what I loved about the sound I heard out there from like a lot of the local bands I played with and like played in. It was just culturally very kind of different metal wise, and I didn't see exactly what I wanted, not exactly what I wanted.

21:52 I didn't really see like that sound up here, So I was like, all right, start something. You know. The early years were very formative. We made a lot of missteps. We you know, had member turnover, you know, quite a lot of stuff as we kind of refined and wrote songs. We've worked with a lot of great musicians, you know in the band, We've played with a lot of great people. But yeah, over the last two years, i'd say we kind of really started kind of buttoning things up. You know. Chris joined us after our last bass player left, found him on Facebook and just shot him a random message and nice. The rest was history. Yeah, he went to his requests too, so he didn't even see it for a couple of weeks, but that it wound up ultimately working out.

22:33 And then you know, Will joined us. A couple of months after that, huh, A couple months after I did. Months after you did. Yeah, And he had never screamed before, and you know, he'd probably stopped me right now if he was able to connect to the interview. But yeah, so we threw him into it because he came and like tried it out, and I was like, all right, well, you've got this like almost hardcore like mid range vocal fry that like I think sounds really good it and like I want you to really like work on this and keep getting better. And we knew, you know, we could have gone, you know with somebody who had like thirty years experience, but like, personality wise, he clicked right away and like he you know, demonstrated immediately like I want to put in the effort and time and like this is my thing.

23:16 So well, if you're watching this at some point. We we like immediately, you know. One of the first shows we did with him was CT death Fest, like right after he joined, and then like right after that, we threw him in the studio because we had four tracks, like everything was done except for vocals, and it was like you're up, bud, and he was like, so it was a learning experience for him. He really like we threw him. Into the deep end of the pool, but definitely well, he did amazing and every every day he just gets better and better. We recently picked up a new drummer for you know, that's been working out really well. We finally added second guitar back, which I've been wanting to do for a while, for like a year and a half amost two years, I was kind of just holding it down solo. And then if you ever really want to be seen on stage and like not want to hit a wrong note, tried being the only.

24:07 Guitar player, right right, Yeah, yeah, it's unnerving at times, but yeah, so but yeah. And you know, we we in losing our last drummer and before finding Ethan, you know, we wanted to get something out because it had been a few months since we had done anything, and we've got material written for probably seven song LP. We're still kind of like moving some of that stuff around, but like you know, we're gonna plan on starting to record that soon. But sever was a song that like was done and we wanted to get it out just to give people something kind of bridge the gap. I know, it's not the like industry way to do things. I know people are like, no, you have to like have stuff ready to go. I'm like, I don't care. I likes the song is pretty fucking awesome and like I wanted to get it out, so like we did the Fly by the seat of our pants, Mad Scrambled.

24:57 You know, Oh, we're coming down to the wire. We already set the launch dag. We need artwork, we need this over, you know, and we're still learning all that stuff too, which you know, I've Chris has been instrumental in that. Will's been really helping out with that. I handle a lot of it. Will all work full time too, so it's like it's really like another full time job. But we're starting to kind of figure out how to do this a little less. On the end. But yeah, I mean, every every day is a learning process. Everything we do is an opportunity to learn, like what works, what doesn't, you know, and to keep refining what we're doing. Like the new material that we're writing now is like and I think you can probably hear it through the catalog.

25:39 Our old guitar player TJ contributed a lot of the writing to the first album. A lot two of the songs he wrote, and then you know, him and I worked on the other two and kind. Of button that stuff up and traded riffs. We did a cover of Cold and we dropped Beneath the Burning Sky. I think he wrote the outro piece in that song, so you know, still, I think that was kind of the last of the contributions there going forward. It's been me writing with Chris and Will yeah, and now we've got Rob and Ethan and like we're just kind of trying to get everything together to make sure we're as tight as we can do when we get in the studio. But yeah, every step of the way is just we're.

26:20 Constantly trying to elevate, you know, what we're doing, and we try to stay true to ourselves too, Like I don't care about paying fan service, Like I love our fans. Obviously we would be where we are without them, and we're trying to grow that fan base. But like I don't, I do this because I love making the music. Like again, like I said before, like I you know, I do get stage fright too, and I do black out and I have fun and like whenever, you know, I get But like I've talked to Chris about it, it's probably my least favorite part about being a musician. I'm sure people would be like that's insane, like why do you do this? Then it's like, well, because when I connect with my guitar and I'm like playing late at night and I'm like writing a riff or a song or like inspiration hits men, like something comes out it's like that, it feels more like a conduit than a creator, and it's like this, I want to put the music out. I feel like there's more music in me that need, you know, to be shared. And like these guys they keep me real, they keep you know, we try to keep each other in check. Chris Lens like such, yeah, I don't even know what on bass, Like he's a madman on bass.

27:27 And then like you know, compositionally, like he keeps me in check. And then we'll argue, you know, with the final process of writing, us argue about what should we want. But it's all it's all for trying to get the best. There's a lot of yelling between Dave and I, but it always results in the best finished products. Like if Dave and I are like literally, I mean David and I are pretty much best friends, and when we're literally screaming at each other in the practice room, like that's when the best piece is gonna come out. It's like because we always come to the same place where we're like bicker, bicker, bicker, and then it's like fuck it, We'll just play it both ways and whatever sounds best, and then we'll a be it Like play it both ways, and inevitably one of us goes over it shakes the other guy's hand. It's like, okay, you were right, fine, Okay, it's better that way.

28:09 So it's kind of like you're like Field and Lars. Yeah, kind of we're going. But I love hearing all that because I think a lot of people also don't realize that the band doesn't really become the band until you get to that lineup, that evolution of the lineup, you know, and that's where you're kind of at now, which. Is cool because that people don't realize too. As musicians, you want to evolve and you want to get better at your craft. You know, a lot of us fans we like to for you to stay a garage band, but who wants to do that if this is what you're doing for a living, you know, And yeah, right, you know.

28:58 Definitely. Tell everybody how they can reach out to you and connect with your music by your merch check out everything that's going on with you guys. Yeah, of course. Obviously socials would be the best place to kind of keep an update on what we're doing day to day and what's coming up. We've been a little quiet recently, on there, but we're kind of working on some content and getting better at posting and stuff. As much as I'm in it, I'm the oldest that I'm just like, I can't after a certain time of the day with screens. But you can find us on Instagram and Facebook a Cursed ct YouTube as well. We just dropped a new music video for this track yep nice a Curse Dot Band.

29:44 There's a banner at the top of the page to sign up for our mailing list. Please do that. We're trying to get more people to sign up for email. That way we can provide more. Behind the scenes exclusive kind of offers and stuff on certain merch runs and stuff, just for you know, those early adopters and key fans. Is that you know, join that and that's a Curse Dot band. From there, it's linked if you click on merch to go straight to our square space site and you can buy merch there. If you're outside of the US and there's some sort of issue with shipping dm us on Facebook or something, it's very it's a free site, so it's very kind of finicky and how you can set up shipping costs and stuff. And now with tariffs and Vattax and stuff like, I don't want to see anybody get screwed and have to pay, like, you know, sixty dollars just to ship a shirt.

30:29 We'll get it to you. I've got a couple of shirts to Germany. We'll figure it out about it. So yeah, and then we're on all major streaming platforms. So yeah, make sure go listen, Go forth and listen and let us know if you want us to come play your town if it's when. We're trying to expand kind of regionally at this point, so like you know, we're focused on a lot of shows kind of around New England and Connecticut and trying to book there. So well, come on down to South Florida. Nobody likes to come here because it sucks here. I'm all in. I'm near westbom Beach. There's actually a really cool a couple of real cool venues near me. One's respectable Street in West bond and then in Fort Lorido there's this one, the Culture Room.

31:18 I did, but. We definitely need to see you on like Danny Wimmer festivals. All right, so I know she'd let us crash there and then you know, let's get there. So there you go. I did watch your video. You guys are badass. Everybody's got to out your music and I hope to see a lot more great music from you guys. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Than you. I really really appreciate you. You got it. Thanks so much, Take care. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man. I'm w for c u I Radio.