PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND YOUR MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
Thanks for having us. We are The Deathtones, a five piece horror rock band from Milford, PA, USA. We love anything to do with the horror genre and our music covers everything from 80’s slashers to horror authors and novels to true crime. If it’s spooky, creepy, hair raising or haunting, we write about it.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Our latest single is called “Thankskilling (Gobble Gobble Hey!)”. It’s about the horror franchise of the same name (Thankskilling), in particular, the first movie. It’s an absolute b-horror crapfest and we love it. The subtitle is a play on The Ramones famous “Gabba Gabba Hey”.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Since it’s around Thanksgiving we wanted to do something in the horror spectrum that also includes the holiday.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
It’s a hard rocking, guitar driven song with nods to punk and classic metal.
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
I’m sure we would all have different answers to this, but for me (Billy Bones) personally it’s a three way tie between Misfits’ “Famous Monsters”, The Offspring’s “Conspiracy of One” and Green Day’s “Dookie”.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
I absolutely love our video for the song “Nomad”. It was before The Deathtones were formed, but all of our members were in our previous band “RadioRiot!”, a much more mainstream punk band. We did it very DIY style and storyboarded, filmed and edited it ourselves. It’s very gritty and dark and it really helped guide us toward our current musical style.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
You would find Mr. Grim doing some crazy project in his workshop, getting ready for next year’s Halloween. (He runs a terrifying haunted house on his property every year)
Pat could be found at his job as stage manager for a local theater or home with his family.
Dorian is a professor at a private university, so he would probably be grading papers or hanging out with his wife and baby.
Mikey is in several other bands, including “7800 Fahrenheit: A Tribute to Classic Bon Jovi”, so you would probably find him onstage somewhere playing cool 80’s covers.
You would find Billy in his home studio playing a video game or working on various other aspects of the band. (Promotion, marketing, press, etc)
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
Not really. There’s always a little lump in your stomach when you first get out there, but we’re a team and we know that if something goes awry that we’ll back each other up, so it’s not like being out there by yourself. Also, it's not like a stand-up open mic night. You don't usually get any kind of hostile feeling from the crowd as everyone is there to see the band and have fun. Really the thing I personally worry about the most is technical issues. I’m not concerned about us and our ability to perform, moreso that our equipment will go haywire at an inopportune moment.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
We formed in early 2021 when we noticed that our music was taking a darker and more theatrical tone and that we just simply couldn’t produce it under the “RadioRiot!” name and keep our mainstream, radio friendly status. We all just sat in Mr. Grim’s basement and spitballed band names. Eventually “The Deathtones” came up, we voted on it, and that’s that.
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER?
It’s a team effort but Billy does most of our framework writing (lyrics, verse, chorus, melody), then Mr. Grim comes in and writes his drums and then the rest of the group does their parts. We record remotely so it’s a lot easier to structure and record a song. You can take hours to get the perfect track as opposed to being in a studio live having to play it perfectly or pay for another hour.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Everything. Movies, TV, video games, other bands and their music, novels, some random dream I had, walking down the road on a fall evening. Everything can be inspiring if you know where to look.
WHAT IS NEXT?
So much. We have a holiday album coming out next month called “Horrordays”, and then we have material slated for release throughout the coming year.
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
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