IT’S “20 QUESTIONS WITH CROSS” DAY!

I know, I have previously mentioned on my blogs that these interviews I am going to post on my web page are like a small window for fans and other people to explore bands and artists I’ve collaborated with, and to get to know these talented artists a bit better. Keep in mind though that the most important part of these interviews is the art and those talented people who make it.

That said, today I’m going to break my rules of interviewing artists I’ve collaborated with, and for this third blog of the series, I am very excited to interview Mike of The Tell Offs band, from New York!

 

Cross – Hi Mike, how ya doing brother?

Mike – Hi Cross!

Cross – I did some research prior to the interview preparation and there’s no information about your band at all out there. Not even on the band’s Instagram. All it says is where you guys are from, and how many members the band has. Let’s start from there.

The Tell Offs band is a five member band from Rockland County, New York. Can you name the guys and what instruments they play, including yourself too?

Mike – I’d love to! The usual suspects in The Tell Offs we have Mike K on lead guitar and backup vocals, Joe H on the four string thing and backup vocals, John O on rhythm guitar/keyboard/saxophone/backup vocals and Brandon P on drums and I’m lead vocals and occasionally I play some rhythm guitar. Poorly. Haha!

Cross – Does The Tell Offs (the band name) has a much deeper meaning than what it already says?

Mike – Absolutely……… not. Hahaha we were originally Dirty Mike and the Boys for several years but it was sort of a nonsense name that was meant to be temporary. On top of that, there’s other groups out there named Dirty Mike and the Boys. So after many years and many band name lists, we finally landed on the Tell Offs. We thought it worked! Granted, our general longtime fanbase tend to still refer to us as Dirty Mike but that’s ok. The Tell Offs will stick in due time haha.

Cross – How did you guys start the band, how did y’all get together?

Mike – Oof. Long story but I’ll make it short. Brandon, the drummer, and I went to the same high school and we were in a band together in high school. Joe, the bass player, went to our high school as well and we all had a lot of mutual friends even though I was a grade below them. Anyways, that band Brandon and I were in, reunited for a one off show back in 2012. After a drunken text convo on Thanksgiving 2012 between Brandon and I, we decided to get something going and in early 2013, this band was born!

Cross – Did the band have five members since from the start?

Mike – Actually no, the first three years we were a four piece. John joined in 2016, but he was a friend of the band and had made music with some of the other guys in bands before. We thought it would be a great added dynamic to include him. We couldn’t have been more right, it’s been great!

Cross – In my research, I found out The Tell Offs band have a couple songs/originals out there. Did you ever think to get them all together in an EP? Any similar plans in the near future?

Mike – The first few years we were strictly a bar band doing cover songs. In late 2017, we started doing originals. We have a lot of plans to get our original music out there! We’re still kind of in early stages of things and unfortunately this whole pandemic screwed up some of that progression but the wheels are spinning, we’ve got more ideas in place. It’s comin!

Cross – You guys do live-shows, right? How do you like playing live?

Mike – I love playing live! It’s such an incredible release. We pride ourselves on our live show. I think it’s our best quality. We engage with our crowd. We try to make them feel part of the show. My microphone is your microphone! I’m much more comfortable playing live than I am recording, I’m very stiff when I record. Perhaps that’s in my head I dunno but yea. Especially now that we’re getting older, all of us now in our 30s, every time we play live it’s a blessing.

Cross – Favorite place to play live?

Mike – Hmm, well I’ve been playing live shows since I was 14 years old, I’m gonna be 32 today haha. The two places I’ve played that sorta are my personal claims to fame is I’ve played CBGB’s twice and I played the Chance theater in Poughkeepsie New York. Both great places. These days? Our hometown bar that doesn’t exist anymore, it shut down a couple of years ago now, Blue Ribbon Tavern in Chestnut Ridge, NY was historic for us. So many great memories and not even just for us. That place was around for a really long time whether under different names or whatever the case. One of my best friends in the world, his parents had their first date there back in the early 1980s! We were sad to hear that place shut down. Casa Del Sol in Nyack, New York has become a staple, they’ve been really good to us. Shout out to Tommy and the crew there!

Cross – What gears do you guys use for your music, mic and all?

Mike – Shure mics and all kinds of other madness hahaha, I’m not the tech guy in the band clearly.

Cross – I know some of your music tastes cause we talked a bit a couple times, but what does inspire you as a band?

Mike – Oh yes we have! Make no mistake I’m the big metalhead in the band! Haha but what inspires us as a band is our love for rock n roll and the camaraderie that goes along with being in a band. A brotherhood for sure. A gang if you will. An extremely non violent gang. Haha.

Cross – If you could have a chance to open for a band you admire (which blew you away when you attended their live show), which one would that be?

Mike – Well given the kind of music I play, I’ll say that if I could ever open for the legendary Texas Fort Worth Rock n Roll band The Toadies, I’ll be waiting with bells on. Haha

Cross – Something about you Mike, when did you start to play guitar and what do you like more, acoustic or electric ?

Mike – I’m the world’s worst guitar player, make no mistake about it, but I write songs. So I have fiddled with a guitar in some way for probably about 12-13 years. I prefer electric because I can jack up my electro harmonix big muff and riff away, and it masks my lack of ability. Haha

Cross – You do write the lyrics for the band, right? How does that process works? Many song writers read a lot, do you?

Mike – I do write lyrics for the band! Not all of them mind you but a fair amount. We’re all responsible for our original music but as far as lyrics it’s generally music first, lyrics second. I tend to take the Metallica approach where we jam out on something we’ve got kicking around and I’ll just mumble some sh** over it until something sounds good. And a lot of it becomes muscle memory. I become obsessed with our riffs and eventually I come up with some kind of vocal melody. I’m a Zamboni driver by day. A lot of harmonies and melodies have come while operating the Zamboni. There’s some deep cut information for you. Hahaha

Cross – How and when did you discover that you could write your songs and sing?

Mike – Well I started singing in bands when I was 13 years old. And in some way shape or form, I’ve contributed to the songwriting process for any band since. Whether I do any of this stuff well is up for debate haha.

Cross – Any favorite singer?

Mike – Besides our beloved Philip H. Anselmo? Haha well I am the metalhead in my band. Don’t get me wrong the other fellas can get their Metallica on and stuff like that, but I’m definitely the metal fanatic… but having said that just like say, a Phil Anselmo, music is music. I always say I was corrupted by Metal but I was raised on Elvis, the Beatles and all kinds of oldies. Mike K, the lead guitarist, likes to joke with me that on those random nights, the drunker I get, the older my music gets haha. But a short list of singers I adore? Phil Anselmo, James Hetfield, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Vaden Todd Lewis, Chris Cornell, Frank Black, Mia Zapata, Joey Ramone. That was short right? Haha

Cross – I love food. What about you, what’s your favorite dish (can be sweets too)?

Mike – Haha oh boy food. You delicious bastard. Well, being raised in an Italian American household, I like my carbs. Bread and pasta are vicious to my gut. Lol make no mistake the guys in The Tell Offs love their food. We are men of great taste. Haha actually sure I enjoy sweets but sweets aren’t really where my girth comes from. It’s bread for me. Ya know people throw super bowl parties and they break out the massive Italian combo. Then suddenly they put it away and break out cake and cookies. By the end of the night I could care less about the cake and cookies let’s do another run of Italian combo! Haha

Cross – Are you Mike, or any of The Tell Offs’ band members, a horror fan? If yes, your favourite horror movie?

Mike – We are all big movie fans, but I’ll go out on a limb and say I’m probably the biggest horror movie aficionado in the band in the sense that I’ll go pretty deep, but my all time favorite has to be the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Feel free to interview me again separately so we can go deeper on this one haha!

Cross – In what I’ve observed you’re a sport’s fan. Your favourite sport: Baseball, Basketball, Football?

Mike – Ah yes. I do enjoy my sports. New York Yankees, New York Jets, New York Rangers, Brooklyn Nets fan here. The New York Yankees probably get talked about the most amongst the band. The thing that really moves me about sports is the camaraderie. It brings people together and for me it’s a little slice of home. When I go on vacations or something I usually always bring a yankee shirt with me. Mike K the lead guitarist and I are regulars at Yankee stadium and Joe the bass player is a lifelong Yankees fan and a filthy good baseball player. Joe if you read this I’m gonna make it a point to get to more of your games I promise! Haha

Cross – Do you like traveling, Mike? Any place you’d recommend traveling to?

Mike – I don’t travel enough. But as messed up as this may sound, I grew up going to Atlantic City, New Jersey a lot. My parents liked their poker but it’s cool, fortunately they were fairly responsible about it, but I grew up getting used to complimentary hotel rooms haha. I’m not a gambler at all but there’s a nostalgia I get when I go because I guess it was the family vacation growing up. A simpler time. I kinda dig that. Queue the corny music! Haha

Cross – Are you guys working on any new material?

Mike – Always. Lots in the vault. It’s all about time for us. Some members are married. Some members have children. We all have jobs and things that occupy our lives. Time is limited but we’re back and playing now so we’re gonna make some moves you’ll see.

Cross – Is there anything else you might like to add or any message you might want to give to your fans?

Mike – Thank you CROSS for taking the time. Yes, everyone reading, please follow my band The Tell Offs on Instagram @thetelloffsband you can listen to some of our original demos on our soundcloud, the link is in the bio and we just launched our new website thetelloffs.band ….new pictures, new music, new merchandise, new content in general is coming! Oh yea and CROSS, GETCHA PULL!

Cross – This interview has for sure made me chuckle. Thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions and Happy Birthday Mike!

IT’S “20 QUESTIONS WITH CROSS” DAY!

I’ve had the opportunity (in many occasions) to collaborate with different artists and bands on logos, album art, shirts, etc. and they are these awesome, hard working and talented people. I thought it would be a great idea to get them to share their awesomeness with their fans through a 20 question interview series on my blog.

For this blog of the series, I am very excited to interview the one man band from Australia, Orbyssmal!

 

Hi, how you doing? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Appreciate it!

Cross – I have never been to Australia (hopefully will visit it sometime in the future) – what can you tell us about the heavy music involvement there? What do people like these days (before the Covid-19 lockdown)?

Orbyssmal – The Australian metal audience is great. It’s like one big family. There’s generally alot of supporting one another. Some of the most die-hard fans reside here.

Cross – Orbyssmal – How did you come up with the band name and what does it mean?

Orbyssmal – Basically a play on words. Orb = earth, abysmal, abyss – Orbyssmal. In the grand scheme of things we are nothing on this earth.

Cross – In what I remember from some of the conversations we have had in the past, you’ve been in a band previous to Orbyssmal and you have experienced how it feels to play live. How do you like being on stage?

Orbyssmal – Playing live on a stage in front of people is like nothing else I’ve experienced. Especially when they are getting into what you are creating. I’ve been lucky to stand on stages that some of my favourite bands in the world have themselves played on.

Cross – You’ve played Bass, right? In that band. How do you like playing a bass guitar?

Orbyssmal – I am primarily a bassist. It is indeed my preferred weapon of choice.

Cross – Which bass guitar is your favourite?

Orbyssmal – I just can’t go past the Ibanez range. For sound, playability and price nothing else even competes. SR305EB-WK is the current model I am playing.

Cross – In Orbyssmal albums, are all the sounds and music from actual instruments or is it just the guitars and the rest is digital?

Orbyssmal – Everything is created by me. All the foundations of the music are created by instruments, the drums are an electronic kit. Any other sounds used are also created by me. Sometimes digitally and manipulated ’til I get the desired result. The base foundations however are always guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Everything else is garnish.

Cross – Being a one man band, which parts do you record first and what is your favourite part of the recording process?

Orbyssmal – I tend to record guitars first. Which is pretty unusual, I suppose. Generally most will track drums first. I also do not play to a metronome ever. My favorite part of the process is the end result and hearing a track exactly the way you had envisioned it.

Cross – If you could be in a famous band (Australian one if need be) which one would it be?

Orbyssmal – My favourite Australian bands wouldn’t be my favourite if I was in them. Haha.

Cross – The best influential guitarists/bassists in your opinion?

Orbyssmal – Guitarists that have left a huge imprint in my mind are (in no particular order): Jimi Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell, Horror Illogium, Wes Montgomery, Jeff Hanneman, Dino Cazares, Dave Mustaine. I’ve probably missed a tonne. As for bassists: Les Claypool, Jaco Pastorius, Cliff Burton, Geddy Lee. These guys broke the mold of what the bass could indeed be. Again I’ve probably missed heaps.

Cross – How old were you when you started to play the guitar?

Orbyssmal – I got my first guitar at 12.

Cross – Do you have any other hobbies rather than music?

Orbyssmal – Music is life.

Cross – Can you tell us a bit about a live concert you went (of whatever band) that made your jaw drop and why?

Orbyssmal – Black Sabbath will always be the one that stands out. I mean c’mon. Seeing war pigs being played live was just mind blowing. Oh, and Phil Anselmo and the Illegals.

Cross – Are you a horror fan? If so, which one is your favourite movie?

Orbyssmal – I am a huge horror fan. Halloween is my all time favourite.

Cross –  First album you ever bought. How old were you and with whom?

Orbyssmal – First album Pantera – Cowboys From Hell. At 10 years old.

Cross – Are you a football fan or a soccer fan?

Orbyssmal – Watching people kick leather around does nothing for me honestly.

Cross – Your first tattoo? Honest!

Orbyssmal – First tattoo was the Alice In Chains sun, the day I turned 18.

Cross – How has your music evolved since when you started playing music until now?

Orbyssmal – My music is always evolving in one way or another. I don’t force anything and this is by far the easiest output of music I’ve ever been involved in. Very natural.

Cross – What has been your biggest challenge as a one man band?

Orbyssmal – Honestly, nothing. I create alone by choice not necessity. Everything is on my own terms. The end result is that more satisfying when you create solely alone.

Cross – What are you working on these days? Is there going to be a new Orbyssmal album anytime soon?

Orbyssmal – I currently have all songs recorded for the next full length release. Excited about this one.

Cross – Is there something you would like to say to your fans?

Orbyssmal – Thanks to anyone that has purchased my music and even taken the time to have a listen. It is greatly appreciated.

Cross – That was fun, thank you again!

Orbyssmal – No problem.

IT’S “20 QUESTIONS WITH CROSS” DAY!

I’ve had the opportunity (in many occasions) to collaborate with different artists and bands on logos, album art, shirts, etc. and they are these awesome, hard working and talented people. I thought it would be a great idea to get them to share their awesomeness with their fans through a 20 question interview series on my blog.

For this first blog of the series, I am very excited to interview, the one man band, Beastial Piglord (aka Hudson)!

 

Cross – When was the first time you showed interest about heavy music?

Hudson – When I was a kid in Walmart, in the CD section and saw Rob Zombie’s “Hellbilly Deluxe”, scanned the barcode and put on the headphones. That was the beginning.

Cross –  I’m sure most people might find your band name a bit uncomfortable, Beastial Piglord. How did you come up with it (you told me something about it when we first met)?

Hudson – I got it from Dave Brockie of GWAR.

Cross – How would you describe the music that you typically create?

Hudson – It’s always changing and different. Every album is a whole new style.

Cross – What inspires you to come up with so much dark music in such a short time?

Hudson – All I do is think about music all day long. And any dark emotions I have, I reconstruct it into music.

Cross – What does your creative process look like?

Hudson – Progress. I wanna keep making albums of genres I’ve never done before, also the production has gotten better lately and that’s something I’m going for in future albums – more polished production.

Cross –  I know you have a big collection with a lot of instruments. Off the top of your head, how many instruments do you have already? Can you name a couple weird ones in this collection of yours ( I remember when you got the WaterPhone… haha)?

Hudson – Probably the erhu and the waterphone are my two oddest ones, love those things. And I have too many instruments to count.

Cross – Do you mind telling us what gear do you use when creating your music or would you like to keep that a secret?

Hudson – Well, with every album I used different gear. The first two or three were done with a direct guitar signal through a digitech rp355, and the drums were electronic. The 4th and 5th album were done the same, but I used a digitech rp1000 for the guitar/bass. And the 6th and 7th album were done the same, but I used a boss gt100 for the guitar/bass. The acoustic album; I think the 8th album was the one I used an acoustic drum kit miked. The last few albums have been more traditional, as in the gear I’ve used. Mic, a drum kit, and I use a peavey 6505+ amp with an orange cab for guitar. That’s alot of s**t. Haha

Cross – As a one man band who plays many different instruments from guitars to drums, and whatever else you feel like including in a song/album (not to mention singing) – which one is the part you consider the most fun part when it comes to the recording process of your music?

Hudson – Definitely the guitar parts. I’m a guitarist first, everything else is just something I can do also.

Cross – Can you tell us a bit about your biggest influences in music that inspired and motivated you to do what you do?

Hudson – So damn many, I love so many bands, to name a few: Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Down, Korn, GWAR, White Zombie, Portal and many many more… oh and George Michael.

Cross – ( laughs ) I am aware that your songs might be very challenging to play live since you are a one man band, but how do you feel about doing live shows?

Hudson – If I ever had the opportunity to have a full band, I would 101% love to play live.

Cross –  Is there any musician or band that you would love to collaborate with?

Hudson –  Pretty much any band I listen to, I’d love to collab with.

Cross – If you could go open a show for any artist, who would it be?

Hudson – PORTAL

Cross – What is your favourite song to perform (your own music or other artists)?

Hudson – I don’t do covers.

Cross –  I’ve known you for a while and I know you love horror movies. Name one horror movie that scared you to death when you were little?

Hudson – ” Darkness Falls ” scared the s**t out of me when I saw it, when it came out.

Cross – Do you sing in the shower and what songs?

Hudson –  Usually wham!, Culture Club and Danzig, or I just scream in other languages.

Cross – Every time you play something on the guitar and post it around, I notice a tattoo of yours I haven’t seen before. Do you have a favourite?

Hudson – Yeah, probably my Superjoint Ritual tattoo or the one on my stomach that says BEER.

Cross – If it wasn’t for your music career, what would you be doing right now?

Hudson – Same s**t, just not making music. Haha.

Cross – What is the best advice you’ve been given?

Hudson –  Nothing, I haven’t really had any advice given to me.

Cross –  You’re currently working on Muzz, your upcoming new album. One song is out there already, “Queen Muzz”. How is the album going, when will it be out and how different is this album from your other ones that are already out there?

Hudson – As we speak, today I just finished the music for the 4th song, and will record the vocals tomorrow. It’s a sludgy nasty album.

Cross – What is one message you would give to your fans?

Hudson – Share my music everywhere. I don’t care if you steal it, just listen to it.

Cross – ( laughs )  That was awesome! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

Hudson – Thank you!