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00:00I remember talking to James like one of the first days like you guys you guys figure out how to
00:04use
00:05the stage yet I was like not really he's like yeah I'm still trying to figure it out myself you
00:09know
00:10rock metal prog and everything in between welcome to this episode of talking rock with meltdown
00:17don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now
00:23it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown it's meltdown here in the studio I got my special
00:29horror movie t-shirt on because I have a special guest Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills was
00:34nice enough to uh come in studio and join us how you doing brother I'm doing great man thanks for
00:38having me so um what was the last I wanted to ask you about all this stuff when we were
00:43walking up
00:43here but now I'm going to ask you now since the camera's around what's the last horror movie you
00:46saw in a theater last horror movie I saw in the theater was ready or not 2 that just came
00:51out
00:51amazing movie I loved the first one and uh Grave Diggler my father's band from the 80s actually did
00:59the song for uh ready or not 2 we and Ice Nine Kills did a cover version of it so
01:04it was fantastic
01:05it was that and Scream 7 right both songs uh both movies rather we had a song in so yeah
01:11that was the
01:11last one I saw too I actually just saw it like um I don't know Monday or something but uh
01:16um I just
01:17watched um they're they're gonna kill you is that uh they will kill you have you seen that one yet
01:23no no I haven't seen that one that one's pretty wild uh Dolly I heard good things about Dolly
01:29someone just told me about it yeah that was a wild one too I thought that was pretty decent um
01:33my favorite movie this year though was uh Send Help have you seen that I haven't I know I know
01:38it's
01:38uh Raimi it's the Evil Dead guy yeah uh I heard it was fantastic and also um I thought that
01:44the uh
01:44the new um uh 28 years later was good there's a scene in there where they use the entire song
01:51from Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast which is one of the most amazing rock scenes I've ever seen
01:56the last one I saw was the one that came out about a year ago a lot of male nudity
02:00right there's the
02:01same in this one same in this one yeah so I'll be going back I'm gonna go there right after
02:04this
02:05interview then well that that this movie uh takes this movie starts right where that one left off
02:10oh perfect yeah it ends right on the male nudity and then it starts right there you know kind of
02:15sort of yeah with all the uh the zombies with the zombies yeah I will I love the original 28
02:1928 days
02:20later was incredible yeah so let's talk about this uh this Grave Diggler thing uh Hell or High
02:26Slaughter from the uh Ready or Not 2 um I saw the video I mean I I couldn't quite place
02:32it it's
02:32reminiscent of something you know I it's it's funny my dad and I have been estranged for quite some time
02:39but uh I think music has always been in my blood because of Grave Diggler and what he did for
02:45that
02:45scene they don't always get the credit a lot of people talk about they don't get any credit
02:49well they they're starting to now you know but people talk about Motley Crue and Poison but it
02:53was really Grave Diggler that put that scene on the map for me and uh the documentary that we're
02:59working on right now uh we're putting it together with uh some of the guys that did Super Troopers
03:04uh the Broken Lizard crew and their big Diggler heads you know and uh I think you know a lot
03:10of
03:10stuff is going to come to light and it's very exciting we're getting great interviews I just met with
03:15uh Bobby Brown from the Cherry Pie video a couple weeks a couple weeks ago and uh there's a lot
03:22of
03:22exciting stuff coming in the Grave Diggler world so be on the lookout for it I always thought that
03:26Danger Kitty was really the band that put that music on the map do you remember them no I don't
03:31listen
03:31to German music usually no the Scorpions didn't do anything for you then oh well you know what
03:37they're the exception them and Rammstein they're the exception okay and whoever sang 99 Red Balloons
03:43I did like that song yeah yeah um what was what was her name well Goldfinger did a great cover
03:48of it
03:48but the original was by Nina okay I knew there was a double letter in there somewhere like Lulu or
03:54Nina right yeah um no that's cool so that's awesome yeah and then the video it's funny because I did
04:01read
04:01uh uh Chelsea Rebecca I guess from this uh Dead Meat she said there was uh as far as the
04:05not not not
04:06safe for work video she said there was too many boobs I just can't wrap my head around that yeah
04:12well you you shouldn't wrap your head around boobs too much unless you're in a Grave Diggler right
04:17uh but yeah she was she was very offended by it she's a lovely lady we're friends with uh her
04:22and uh
04:23her husband Dead Meat James they do these great kill count videos on YouTube but yeah she wasn't really
04:28a fan of the Diggler you know what the Diggler's not for everybody not for everybody not for everybody
04:32no it's not for the faint of heart right exactly I love in the one trailer I didn't realize this
04:37but
04:37they were you you talk about how they were really at the center of it all and they did the
04:42Pentagon
04:42uh the pentagram drawing the Pentagon the Pentagon one too but the pentagram one was really the one
04:47that I really noticed but uh yeah that was uh that was quite something actually yeah they were
04:51they drew the map and and a lot of people consider them the cartographers of uh the cartographers
04:57that's right yeah Matt Pinfield uh went on a whole rant about he's a huge Diggler fan if you know
05:02Matt
05:03I do yeah he you know he won't he won't shut up about them frankly he just texted me again
05:09yeah you can never get that guy to stop texting he's the best um so Scream 7 yeah Twisted the
05:13Knife
05:13was uh used in that one I have to admit I wasn't a fan of that movie but I did
05:17like the uh the song
05:18being used in the at the end of it and stuff but thank you so much yeah you know I
05:21I've been a big
05:22Scream fan since I was a little kid it was the first uh horror movie slasher movie I saw in
05:28the
05:28theater and it just it blew my mind I've been a huge fan ever since and I really liked the
05:32new one
05:33I thought that it it really paid tribute to all the ones that came before it but it was darker
05:38and um you know the the movies as they progressively as they went on progressively it was more meta and
05:46it got a little bit like a little bit of a one trick pony yeah and this one I feel
05:52like was just
05:52a hardened cold slasher movie and that's why I really liked it I wasn't looking for Citizen Kane I was
05:59looking for Ghostface to come and cut up a bunch of people you know one of the best slasher movies
06:05I
06:05saw last year maybe one of the goofier ones was uh the monkey I thought that one was great did
06:09you see
06:10movie I did see that movie actually interviewed um Oz Perkins who directed it um I hosted a screening
06:18of it and I got to interview him he's a fascinating guy his father was Anthony Perkins from Psycho and
06:24uh
06:25I thought it was a great movie to me my favorite things ever are horror and comedy and when you
06:32can
06:32blend them perfectly that to me that that's that's the best kind of film yeah when somebody said or I
06:39read
06:39somewhere that the uh the kills were reminiscent of Ren and Stimpy I thought that's it right there
06:45right it's sort of uh almost a cartoonish kind of killing spree but it was cool yeah the last scene
06:52and the school bus and whatnot we'll leave it for everybody else to us see but uh I thought that
06:56movie
06:56was great and of course you know with Einstein kills that and your videos I mean I think I've talked
07:02to you about this before but your videos I mean it's kind of silly to say when you when you
07:05say it out
07:06out loud but they are short movies and I mean that's kind of what you're into you're like a
07:12cinematic theatrical kind of guy I've always my two greatest loves have always been music and film
07:19and the fact that we get to sort of blend those worlds and I get to pretend I'm a you
07:23know a
07:24director or a writer or an actor it's a ton of fun and I hope that we uh we keep
07:30getting to do these
07:31things for for a long time and we're working on our own film the slasher yeah so tell me about
07:36that
07:36I have I have that written down as well so what's going on with that so I I brought up
07:40my super troopers
07:41friends a little while ago Paul Soder he's the meow guy you know yeah listen meow uh him and I
07:46became
07:46friends at at a convention um and we hit it off and I had had this idea for a slasher
07:54movie and you
07:56know you think about the 80s slashers and a lot of people say that Michael Myers and Jason and Freddie
08:01really these guys are the hands of God coming down to punish these kids for their sins and I always
08:07thought well that's cool but there's never been a slasher movie where someone dressed as Jesus or
08:11Jesus was the murderer so um you know I told my family this idea and they said you're absolutely an
08:19idiot for thinking of this but uh we wrote this script and and Greg Nicotero who you know he was
08:25very
08:25uh pivotal on the success of The Walking Dead and executive produced that and directed many
08:30episodes and formed KNB special effects which has done everything from you know all the Tarantino
08:36movies to scream he got a hold of the script he's I love this I want to produce it so
08:40we're making
08:41this movie and we're very excited about it so when does that start to film or whatever we're in
08:46pre-production right now we're location scouting and um you know I hope to have it out maybe a
08:52uh a couple easters from now the slashing of Christ the slashing of the Christ that's right
08:58and it's it's funny because uh I can't think of any Easter movies you know Thanksgiving movies as well
09:03like plane trains and automobiles were my favorite but then Thanksgiving came out right and that's kind
09:07of like a little bit screamish I I suppose but and then then and then of course you know Art
09:12the
09:12Clown comes out now we got a Christmas classic right right I mean Christmas horror has been
09:18a favorite sub-genre of mine for a long time you go back to Black Christmas Black Christmas which
09:24was uh a movie that came out even before Halloween it was actually really influential to Halloween if
09:29you go back and watch that movie you know you're in the killer's point of view POV so that one
09:35was um
09:35very influential and then Silent Night Deadly Night yes incredible and at Astronomicon where I'm going
09:41to be this weekend which is our convention pop culture convention the killers from Silent Night Deadly
09:47night will be there oh that's Eric Freeman and Robert Brian Wilson and speaking of uh from a
09:52killer's point of view did you see uh in a violent nature last year I did I saw part of
09:57it um I thought
09:58it was really cool that the one kill where he puts the woman's head through her own the kills were
10:05unbelievable yeah yeah it was it was a novel idea for film it was slow but it was it was
10:12uh wild
10:12yeah I think that that I guess that was the point right that you've never seen a slasher movie from
10:18their perspective you know what do they do when what does Michael Myers do when he's not you know
10:23putting a sheet over his head and killing a woman or hiding in a in a backseat of car you
10:27kind of see
10:28what Jason or Michael would be doing in the interim now to me some of the scariest movies that I've
10:33seen
10:33are stuff that can really happen like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I know this is kind of uh probably
10:39in
10:39the horror world maybe a little bit uh a little bit of a hack but it's like that to me
10:43really just
10:45epitomizes the scariness like some of the Rob Zombie movies especially the first two uh what are
10:50what are some of your favorites like it's like like like well like Freddy's like nightmare stuff and
10:55it's like I don't know if that could really happen of course those movies very entertaining
10:58ones that feel real you mean yeah uh you know when I saw the Blair Witch Project I saw it
11:03in the theater
11:03I was I guess I was probably like 12 or something and and the the word on the street is
11:10that they
11:10didn't you didn't know if it was real or not because the marketing of that film was so brilliant you
11:15know they did like um a documentary on like a legitimate channel like history channel or something
11:21um the weekend before the movie came out which talked about this um legend of the Blair Witch as if
11:27it
11:28was real and as if these these three hikers or documentarians rather went missing so when we
11:35saw it I saw it at summer camp with my friends I was like is this is this friggin real
11:39and it was
11:40it was terrifying yeah that's it the found footage type films then I saw that movie theater in the
11:46theater of myself with a pack theater and then it ends and everyone's like what's going on yeah like
11:51nobody knew what's happening it was great it was kind of like one of those things where your
11:54imagination can come up with something scarier than whatever the craziest special effects guys
11:59can produce and it was that mix with the marketing of it that was was really um unsettling yeah that
12:06was um that was a great movie um so let's talk about music here a little bit you know you
12:11did all
12:12those tours with uh with Metallica um looking back on that tell me tell me some of your thoughts about
12:17touring with a band like that I mean that must have been incredible that was amazing man uh if you
12:22go back
12:23to my love of music since I was a little kid you know you got Nirvana and you got Metallica
12:29and those
12:29were two of like the bands that really got me into wanting to play guitar and wanting to learn how
12:34to
12:34play you know either smells like teen spirit or or master puppets or something like that so I'd always
12:40been a huge fan of theirs I went to see them in 97 um with my dad we went to
12:47the Boston Garden on like I
12:48think it was probably the must have been like one of the load album cycles yeah load yeah yeah concert
12:53blew my mind I can close my eyes and and visualize being there like I remember it so vividly that
12:59was
13:00the one where the stage fell apart that was the one where it was still the circular stage but there
13:04was like something happened where like a crew member it was on fire or something and like you and you
13:11didn't know if it was real or not and it's kind of funny because um you know I went to
13:15that show you
13:16know not not too far after um I went to uh see Scream so it was like my love of
13:22horror being birthed as
13:24well as my love of metal so getting the call to do to do that you know the first show
13:30in Vegas which was
13:31just one show at Allegiant you know if it all ended there would have been incredible um and then just
13:36getting the call more and more and more and then to do the full the full world tour was incredible
13:42the band and the crew and the whole team treated us great and uh was you know some of the
13:48most
13:48incredible experience of my life how many how many shows did you open for them do you remember
13:52you recall it's got to be in the neighborhood of like 50 or something okay well all over the world
13:56you know I just talked to Maynard Keenan James Keenan the other day and um you know he's a
14:00he's a self-admitted self-doubter right and I said do you ever get stage fright he goes I'm terrified
14:05do you ever get stage fright I mean sometimes you know it's funny it's sometimes it's not like the
14:10biggest shows that give you stage fright but uh you know sometimes the smaller intimate ones when
14:15you're used to playing in stadiums or arenas and then you go to a smaller one you're like I'm kind
14:20of a little nervous but once the once the first song kicks in and kids are singing the words it's
14:26yeah you forget all about yeah it's like getting that first hit when you're playing sports or
14:30something but you're right because when you when you go on it like I've been on stage like not
14:34obviously that you know what like what you do but when you go on stage you talk to a massive
14:38crowd
14:39it's faceless right right and when you talk to a crowd where you can see everybody it's more it's
14:43more scary absolutely it's it's interesting how that works but uh you know it took us a little while
14:48to get our sea legs especially with a stage like that that's so unusual it's like a big donut right
14:52right and um were you allowed to use all of it yeah they let us do whatever we wanted basically
14:59and um you know I think the first few times I was like man I'm getting winded I'm trying to
15:04run
15:04around this thing because you you're at a stadium you're like wow I got to really put on this show
15:09there's so many people here I got to work you know 150 percent of my energy but what you realize
15:15is
15:15you know the the the the video monitors when you're in that vast that large scale of a venue
15:22they do that they do a lot of the work I was gonna say yeah you don't have to run
15:26around like a
15:26crazy person smaller steps and you know can sometimes play bigger on camera it's just feeling
15:33it out did the guys from Metallica give you any advice or did you just kind of go to your
15:36shows
15:37and I mean I I remember talking to James like one of the first days like you guys you guys
15:42figure out
15:42how to use the stage yet I was like not really he's like yeah I'm still trying to figure it
15:46out
15:46myself you know but yeah but but yeah they're they're pros and they still sound and and and put on
15:53such a a fantastic show I have to imagine if James said you know it'd be a good idea go
15:57up there
15:58stick pencils in your ears and just run around like a chicken you'd probably go that's a great
16:01idea I probably would right because he knows he knows I'll follow that guy at the end of the earth
16:05right exactly now that must have been a great tour I think I saw it I want to say I
16:09saw you guys
16:10of course here then I saw you in Pittsburgh as well right with the uh we're with uh right at
16:15the
16:16baseball field yeah yeah with the parks play I was at that show and I'm trying to remember if I
16:20saw
16:20did you guys play a buffalo show too yep yeah that was right before the Pittsburgh one if I'm not
16:24mistaken yep that's right um so I I read a I saw an interview recently um so you consider yourself
16:30a
16:33perfectionist I would say so probably to an annoying degree as most perfectionists are uh you know that
16:40usually comes down to like notes for producers for songs or when I'm editing our videos I I um I
16:47consider myself a perfectionist you think it's because you know you're you're so cinematic and
16:52you know you got this theatrical kind of uh tangent you know what you want in your head yeah I
16:56mean I
16:56think I'm the only the only things I'm a perfectionist with are work you know what I mean if I'm
17:01making
17:01an egg you know it doesn't have to be perfect it can be very messy the oak everywhere but if
17:07you're
17:07editing a video or working on this grave diggler documentary or twisting the knife I'm very
17:13meticulous about every cue has to be right this sound isn't right we need a different take here
17:19yeah so and so as far you know so that's with the grave diggler I mean but ice nine kills
17:24what I mean
17:24where's that stand right now what you got going on we're working on a lot of new music we just
17:29uh we
17:30just released two songs in the last like I don't know six weeks with twisting knife and and uh hell
17:36or
17:36high slaughter with grave diggler working on a bunch of new songs um getting ready to go out
17:42on the road doing um a bunch of the festivals this uh you can be doing the Danny Wimmer stuff
17:47Danny Wimmer stuff we always love doing that guy's festivals he's great and then we're out uh in June
17:53all over Europe doing those festivals like you know download fest and a bunch of headlining stuff
17:58and then August um we're going out on on some other shows haven't been announced yet
18:04then September we're in Australia with um Electric Cowboy which should be pretty cool
18:10playing arenas over there all right well I'll tell you what uh Spencer last thing here for you
18:14and we'll cut you loose we appreciate all your time and of course all your great work like I said
18:18I'm a
18:18fan and uh George knows about this because he was with us but have you ever had a paranormal experience
18:25because I did with the guys from a funeral portrait I'll play the video you know later when we're done
18:30but it was insane go ahead so the one thing that I I can I can remember um as I
18:39said I'm a huge Nirvana fan
18:41and my girlfriend and I were at um we're in Seattle I think actually we we might have been
18:48when we were in playing with Metallica in Seattle and we we checked out uh Kurt Cobain's house
18:54he lives in you know right on the right on the lake beautiful beautiful area and there's um a park
19:00bench
19:01next to his house that's kind of become like a unofficial memorial for me you know people drop off
19:07notes and stuff and I dropped off a guitar pick and I was recording with my phone um I was
19:14recording
19:14just the the lawn and and something really strange happened with um the recording of the video
19:21it went like it kind of like glitched out and I went back and I paused it and to me
19:28and maybe I'm
19:28crazy and I'm reading into it but when I paused it I saw like a figure when I when I
19:34paused the video
19:35and I'll show you after okay it looked like the grim reaper to me and it could have just obviously
19:39just
19:40been me being an idiot but did you ever post it online for people to no no I never even
19:45really talked
19:46about it um but I don't know I like to think it was Kurt saying hey how are you um
19:52because I'm just
19:53such a admire admirer of his and I probably wouldn't be sitting here talking about music if it wasn't for
20:00Kurt Nirvana was that your gateway absolutely I saw Smells Like Teen Spirit video I was like
20:06I want to do that that guy that's so funny because we were we were walking in here I told
20:11you the first
20:11video I ever saw was Rat Round and Round and it got seen in Curse you know talking about Grave
20:16Diggler
20:16and how he was inspired by them he's a great he wasn't really inspired by them Stephen you know
20:22Rat's a fantastic band I think Rat and you know Stephen and my dad Sonny you know they butted heads
20:28just leave it at that well we'll leave it at that Spencer uh good luck with everything here with the
20:33Einstein Kills and uh from Boston when we get off I'll have to tell you about my trip to Salem
20:37last year
20:38oh nice man well thanks for having me and thanks for playing the songs we appreciate it
20:42check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown on all podcast platforms and WRIF.com
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