Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / New Skeletal Faces Push Boundaries with Until the Night: Punk, Metal, and Gothic Fusion Redefined
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I'm Eryl Fritz, the singer and guitarist of New Skeletal Faces.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Relliant, and I'm Don Void, the drummer slash second or
- 0:14Speaker 2: third guitarist on occasion and all that wonderful.
- 0:19Speaker 3: Great to have you guys. You guys just released Until
- 0:22Speaker 3: the Night. Can you tell us how it differs or
- 0:25Speaker 3: how it is in any way similar to Celestial Disease.
- 0:33Speaker 1: To me, it's it's different. I mean the songs are
- 0:40Speaker 1: a lot more catchy on this on this album, So
- 0:46Speaker 1: that's how it's different. It's just fucking catchier to me.
- 0:50Speaker 1: So yeah, that makes any sense.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Like I know, the way I've kind of seen it,
- 0:58Speaker 2: Celestial Disease kind of did a good job laying down
- 1:02Speaker 2: the groundwork of what New Skeletal Bases is. What I
- 1:06Speaker 2: like about Until the Night is that it branches and
- 1:10Speaker 2: pushes in every direction. You know, there's stuff on Until
- 1:14Speaker 2: the Night that's more punk, and stuff that's more that's
- 1:18Speaker 2: heavier than any songs like Pagan War is probably our
- 1:21Speaker 2: heaviest song. And then also though you've got like things
- 1:25Speaker 2: that I think are more even like death rock gothic
- 1:29Speaker 2: than anything on Social Disease, like an enchantment of my
- 1:33Speaker 2: inner Coldness being one.
- 1:35Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, I definitely do that too on your latest release.
- 1:40Speaker 3: And this album is the first one you've done on
- 1:42Speaker 3: the peace Fill label. What does that mean to you
- 1:45Speaker 3: guys as a band.
- 1:49Speaker 1: I mean, this is the first time I've ever been
- 1:52Speaker 1: on like a label of this size, So it's a
- 1:57Speaker 1: it's a great It's a big deal for me.
- 2:00Speaker 2: So yeah, it's been huge.
- 2:03Speaker 3: Uh.
- 2:04Speaker 2: When we first started shopping the record, because we actually
- 2:08Speaker 2: wrote and recorded until the Night over a year ago,
- 2:13Speaker 2: and we shopped the record to every label imaginable. In Peaceville,
- 2:19Speaker 2: we're always at the top of our lists, so when
- 2:22Speaker 2: we found out that they were interested it, it was just,
- 2:26Speaker 2: you know, the easiest yes to ever say, because they
- 2:31Speaker 2: have such an incredible legacy. And one thing about Peaceville
- 2:34Speaker 2: is we're in such great company. There are no bad
- 2:38Speaker 2: bands on Peaceville. They really have an incredible roster.
- 2:43Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, I think that must have felt maybe a
- 2:47Speaker 3: little bit like a Pinchbee moment being signed to them.
- 2:50Speaker 3: It's pretty amazing.
- 2:52Speaker 2: Yeah, it really was. I mean, when you're doing the
- 2:55Speaker 2: whole shopping a record thing, it can be very soul
- 3:00Speaker 2: killing because you get you know, some labels try to
- 3:05Speaker 2: change you. Some of them want you to wear costumes
- 3:08Speaker 2: like Midnight or Slipknot or whatever. Like you know that
- 3:13Speaker 2: you get all of these notes from these labels, and
- 3:16Speaker 2: Peaceville were one of the ones that immediately they just
- 3:20Speaker 2: immediately understood what we were and they've been great about
- 3:26Speaker 2: working with us. I mean, if you see the record
- 3:29Speaker 2: is really like everything that we had always written and
- 3:33Speaker 2: designed it to be.
- 3:35Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So it feels very honest and like they
- 3:38Speaker 3: didn't want you to change so much, you know, like
- 3:40Speaker 3: they would maybe not them, but how other record labels
- 3:43Speaker 3: would like yeah bands.
- 3:45Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm honestly shocked that they said yes to everything.
- 3:49Speaker 2: You know, the front covers in gold foil, the record
- 3:53Speaker 2: as a poster. We got that Starlight vinyl variant. Like
- 3:58Speaker 2: just everything we asked for we got. So it's you know,
- 4:02Speaker 2: what more can you want? Yeah?
- 4:05Speaker 3: That's awesome and you're very untalented talented. Eryl Fritz did
- 4:09Speaker 3: the album artwork for Until the Midnight. Do you guys
- 4:13Speaker 3: all come together to decide on what the album artwork
- 4:16Speaker 3: will be or is it just all from Errol's mind?
- 4:22Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 4:22Speaker 1: I mean I just paint the fucking picture and then.
- 4:27Speaker 2: There it is.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Then they either like it or they don't.
- 4:29Speaker 2: We all agree if we want that or not.
- 4:31Speaker 1: I only I think I it was I didn't have
- 4:35Speaker 1: like multiple paintings that we chose from. I think I
- 4:40Speaker 1: just did this one and they we're like, yeah, that's it.
- 4:43Speaker 1: I had another idea, but it ended up being in
- 4:47Speaker 1: the insert of the lyric sleeve and shit.
- 4:52Speaker 2: So I don't know.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't have like multiple options. I just kind
- 4:57Speaker 1: of did that and I kind of created a formmat
- 5:00Speaker 1: and then we kind of fucking rolled with that.
- 5:02Speaker 2: So yeah, this one and Extinction really fell into place.
- 5:08Speaker 2: There wasn't. I mean the minute you showed us those
- 5:13Speaker 2: sick paintings of yours, we just we knew that they
- 5:16Speaker 2: were the ones. Yeah, I was. I was a little.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Like uneasy about creating the album cover because the last cover,
- 5:29Speaker 1: well for slectial Disease is kind of hard to top
- 5:32Speaker 1: that and stuff. So I was like, fuck, well what
- 5:36Speaker 1: am I gonna do for this one? And it was
- 5:38Speaker 1: actually pretty simple. I mean, like, if you look at
- 5:40Speaker 1: the painting, it's just like there's not a whole lot
- 5:45Speaker 1: going on, but it says a lot.
- 5:48Speaker 3: It does the eye, it's really and it's got a
- 5:51Speaker 3: lot of emotion to.
- 5:52Speaker 2: It as well.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes simplicity is better, you know than having like
- 6:00Speaker 1: all on orchestrated like masterpiece or whatever, of like a
- 6:07Speaker 1: huge scenery. Sometimes all you need is just something very
- 6:10Speaker 1: like simple and striking, you know.
- 6:12Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. It's always been deliberate with us too,
- 6:16Speaker 2: that we want to make records that if we were
- 6:20Speaker 2: in a record store flipping through records, that ours would
- 6:24Speaker 2: always stand out. So if you notice, none of our
- 6:26Speaker 2: records have ever been black or white, like the covers,
- 6:32Speaker 2: always a little bit off, a little different, And that's
- 6:36Speaker 2: been a conscious effort. We want to make records that
- 6:38Speaker 2: stand out, you know, because we do buy records ourselves.
- 6:43Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think you guys definitely do that. And
- 6:45Speaker 3: that's what you know. I doubled in a little bit
- 6:48Speaker 3: of art myself, but that's what really caught my eye
- 6:51Speaker 3: was this artwork. I was like, first of all, who
- 6:54Speaker 3: did that? And then to find out it was Errol,
- 6:56Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, that's amazing.
- 7:00Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 7:01Speaker 1: I did the the cover on the Sextinction eph Yeah,
- 7:08Speaker 1: it is right here, very dark in my room, so
- 7:11Speaker 1: you can't really see it, but it's right there. It's
- 7:15Speaker 1: a lot bigger than seven inches.
- 7:18Speaker 3: Yeah, that's mad. Can you guys tell us a little
- 7:22Speaker 3: bit more about Ossuary Lost? I probably said that wrong.
- 7:27Speaker 3: And where it was filmed.
- 7:29Speaker 1: I was filmed in a in a church which is
- 7:33Speaker 1: located in a cemetery like five minutes from my place.
- 7:40Speaker 1: And yeah, we just fucking we broke into this little
- 7:43Speaker 1: chapel and we just started filming and nobody stopped us.
- 7:49Speaker 1: No priests walked in and tried to throw.
- 7:54Speaker 2: Holy water on us or whatever the fuck. I think
- 7:56Speaker 2: there were too scared.
- 7:58Speaker 1: They have cameras in there, so I'm sure they they
- 8:00Speaker 1: knew what was happening, but they're probably there's some exorcism
- 8:05Speaker 1: going on. You can't disturb that, you know, or they're
- 8:08Speaker 1: just it was in a cemetery, so they're like, oh there,
- 8:11Speaker 1: maybe they're mourning. This is how they mourn. They just
- 8:14Speaker 1: fucking they crawl over the ground and ship so they
- 8:19Speaker 1: can't judge us. I mean, no, n.
- 8:23Speaker 3: Oh, that's awesome. So you did actually break in because
- 8:26Speaker 3: I read that you guys broke into that church, but
- 8:28Speaker 3: so you actually that's that's pretty cool.
- 8:31Speaker 2: We were definitely not welcomed there. And then, uh, in
- 8:34Speaker 2: the until the Night video, there were many crimes committed
- 8:40Speaker 2: on camera, even you know, you can't legally throw them
- 8:45Speaker 2: on of cocktails around town.
- 8:47Speaker 3: You know, yes, well maybe we shouldn't talk about that
- 8:52Speaker 3: on all the crimes you've committed. The new album is
- 8:59Speaker 3: also by Bill Mottoya. What was that like working with him?
- 9:04Speaker 2: Well, that was that was incredible. And again, so we
- 9:08Speaker 2: had written the album, I want to say, the majority
- 9:12Speaker 2: of it in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. We
- 9:14Speaker 2: recorded it with Bill ourselves. We self funded the recording
- 9:19Speaker 2: and we did it, I want to say, in the
- 9:22Speaker 2: end of twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, So the
- 9:26Speaker 2: record was recorded over a little over a year ago.
- 9:30Speaker 2: But Bill was the most obvious. Again, just like how Peaceful,
- 9:35Speaker 2: was such a quick yes for us to work with
- 9:38Speaker 2: Bill Motoya. The guy's legend. His resume speaks for itself,
- 9:44Speaker 2: you know, the early Slayer and Wasp, and I mean
- 9:48Speaker 2: he practically pioneered the Los Angeles heavy sound. And then
- 9:54Speaker 2: on top of that too, Bill is just so much fun.
- 9:57Speaker 2: We we hit it off with Bill all every time
- 10:01Speaker 2: we're around Hollywood, we'll just go to his house and
- 10:04Speaker 2: you know, get wild and drink cheap vodka with them.
- 10:08Speaker 3: That's awesome. Yeah, there's no better person than to have
- 10:11Speaker 3: produced And it's lucky that you've been able to get
- 10:13Speaker 3: in contact with him and put it to him.
- 10:17Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we got lucky that all came through our
- 10:20Speaker 2: through our manager, who's the singer of cal Decapitation. They
- 10:24Speaker 2: did a record with Bill.
- 10:26Speaker 3: Yeah. What sets New Skeletal Faces apart from the trending
- 10:31Speaker 3: artists of today?
- 10:35Speaker 1: I mean almost everything? Everything, I mean because we're going
- 10:44Speaker 1: against the grain of like goth and metal and punk,
- 10:48Speaker 1: so and those are all the genres that we kind
- 10:51Speaker 1: of encompass or whatever, So we don't really fit into
- 10:57Speaker 1: either current trends of those genres. So, like our music
- 11:07Speaker 1: is better heard than described. So it's like it's really
- 11:11Speaker 1: hard to really talk about, like what is it that
- 11:16Speaker 1: sets us apart and stuff like you know, So, I
- 11:21Speaker 1: don't know, We're just we're too heavy for goth and
- 11:25Speaker 1: then we're too goth for metal, and I don't know,
- 11:29Speaker 1: we're not political enough for punk. So but I don't know,
- 11:34Speaker 1: Like people seem to like it.
- 11:37Speaker 2: One of my favorite quotes is I saw someone said
- 11:41Speaker 2: that New Skeletal Faces concerts are where goths go to
- 11:45Speaker 2: get beat up in the marsh Pin and I appreciate that.
- 11:51Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it's hard as
- 11:53Speaker 3: a listener to put you guys into a box and
- 11:55Speaker 3: say that you're definitely this genre or that genre. I
- 11:59Speaker 3: think you got as are kind of creating your own
- 12:02Speaker 3: sort of movement, which is really cool as well, because
- 12:05Speaker 3: you it seems like you guys take inspiration from a
- 12:08Speaker 3: whole bunch of different artists on that. Can you tell
- 12:13Speaker 3: me some of your inspirations.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Musically, Celtic Frost, Killing Joe, David Bowie, til the Cure,
- 12:31Speaker 1: I know that's just the name a few.
- 12:34Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, it's an interesting thing now because it
- 12:45Speaker 2: seems that almost none of the goths seemingly are aware
- 12:49Speaker 2: that Roz's second band, Shadow Project, was bridging goth and
- 12:54Speaker 2: metal in the eighties. So obviously we're aware of that,
- 12:59Speaker 2: and you know, with new skeletal bases, we're bringing in
- 13:02Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of influence. I think we're
- 13:07Speaker 2: all big fans of that catalyst period in like the
- 13:12Speaker 2: early eighties to about like we'll say, like eighty one
- 13:15Speaker 2: to like eighty seven, when genres were all forming and
- 13:20Speaker 2: like genre lines didn't really mean as much because in
- 13:23Speaker 2: that time period is when you got everything that we love.
- 13:26Speaker 2: You got The Cure, you got Motley Crue, you got
- 13:30Speaker 2: Bathory and Venom like Celtic Frost at all. Yeah, Christian
- 13:34Speaker 2: Death forty five grade. They all spawned at that same time,
- 13:40Speaker 2: and they were all listening to each other too. I meant,
- 13:43Speaker 2: most of the old black metal guys were big fans
- 13:46Speaker 2: of Sisters of Mercy and Suzing, the Banshees and all that.
- 13:50Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, Yeah, No, I think that's really a good point,
- 13:54Speaker 3: is that everyone takes inspiration from everyone, and like you
- 13:59Speaker 3: said it, it's hard hard to define. Like the genres
- 14:03Speaker 3: at the moment mean a lot to people, but it's
- 14:05Speaker 3: hard when you don't fit into one certain box. Or Yeah,
- 14:09Speaker 3: what's the key to keeping a band together?
- 14:13Speaker 1: Oh well, we can barely keep our band together.
- 14:19Speaker 2: Lucky, there's only three of us. I mean, truth truthfully,
- 14:23Speaker 2: I do. I've always kind of ended up in three pieces,
- 14:27Speaker 2: and I find that that's like almost a magical number. Uh,
- 14:32Speaker 2: too many members and things get really complicated and then
- 14:37Speaker 2: there's just too much inspiration, like too much influence coming
- 14:42Speaker 2: from other areas. But I don't know, I mean, because
- 14:46Speaker 2: we've we've been doing this now like seven years for
- 14:49Speaker 2: the Scolptic bass, which is uh, I don't know. I
- 14:54Speaker 2: get asked that sometimes by like other bands, and the
- 14:58Speaker 2: honest answer is, I don't know.
- 15:01Speaker 3: Do you think good communication obviously? Like you guys, I
- 15:04Speaker 3: mean you will get along as I presume.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I mean communication is a big part
- 15:13Speaker 1: of it. You know when if someone doesn't communicate in
- 15:17Speaker 1: the band, it's it's a big problem. Yeah, I can imagine.
- 15:25Speaker 3: What did the name New Skeletal Faces come from?
- 15:27Speaker 1: You probably orches straight?
- 15:29Speaker 2: The name, like.
- 15:32Speaker 1: You know, it just literally just came to me, like
- 15:37Speaker 1: and it just sounded cool, like honestly, like.
- 15:42Speaker 2: Extraterrestrial like yeah, if.
- 15:44Speaker 4: You want to, Yeah, the the meaning of the name
- 15:50Speaker 4: kind of came after it or I don't know, but
- 15:55Speaker 4: like New Skeletal Faces is kind.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Of like a a new like species, uh huh that
- 16:07Speaker 1: are not human that sort of take over the earth.
- 16:11Speaker 1: I don't know. I just feel like humans are very
- 16:13Speaker 1: insignificant and these Skeletal Faces are like a superior entity
- 16:24Speaker 1: from another dimension.
- 16:26Speaker 3: You know, yes, no, no, that's really cool.
- 16:30Speaker 2: I like that.
- 16:32Speaker 3: And what do you what impression do you guys? Hope
- 16:35Speaker 3: you'll leave on listeners?
- 16:41Speaker 2: Let you go.
- 16:43Speaker 1: I mean when when you listen to the music, I
- 16:45Speaker 1: want you to, like, you know, feel something like when
- 16:50Speaker 1: I listen to music, uh, you know, it makes me
- 16:54Speaker 1: want to fucking do something, you know, hum like physical
- 17:01Speaker 1: or something like. You know, So it's better when the
- 17:04Speaker 1: music is it's not you're not just listening to it, like,
- 17:10Speaker 1: but when you listen to it, maybe you want to.
- 17:13Speaker 1: I don't know, it'll make you either want to dance
- 17:15Speaker 1: or dress a certain way or act a certain way,
- 17:20Speaker 1: live a certain lifestyle. So to me, like our music
- 17:25Speaker 1: sort of it kind of pops out of the canvas,
- 17:28Speaker 1: and I want like that to I want people when
- 17:31Speaker 1: they listen to it to like sort of become the
- 17:34Speaker 1: music that they're hearing.
- 17:36Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome and like really feel it, I guess
- 17:39Speaker 3: as well as what I'm getting from that.
- 17:43Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's where I just hope that people feel
- 17:49Speaker 2: something sometimes that you know, can be good or bad.
- 17:53Speaker 2: But I think things are just so mundane lately. And
- 18:00Speaker 2: you know, I'm no expert on the current happenings in music,
- 18:05Speaker 2: but a lot of what I hear doesn't really inspire
- 18:09Speaker 2: me or like a lot of things don't have a
- 18:13Speaker 2: lot of impact, So I hope that we do, and
- 18:17Speaker 2: you know that could be positive or negative.
- 18:21Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's a really good answer to I think. Yeah,
- 18:25Speaker 3: I feel the same way definitely that a lot of things,
- 18:28Speaker 3: particularly a lot of music that at the moment does
- 18:31Speaker 3: not really garner a reaction from me. So it has
- 18:34Speaker 3: to hit hard on an emotional level or you know,
- 18:37Speaker 3: otherwise I have to connect with it, Yeah, to really
- 18:40Speaker 3: get something from it. New Skeletal Faces mean to both of.
- 18:45Speaker 2: You practically consumed our lives for the last seven years.
- 18:52Speaker 2: So it's pretty pretty significant thing. And I think things
- 18:56Speaker 2: are just only continuing to spread, like some sort of virus.
- 19:02Speaker 2: So it's just gonna get bigger and dirtier. I don't know,
- 19:09Speaker 2: but it's it's definitely an all encompassing thing. That's one
- 19:13Speaker 2: thing about being a three piece is like literally everything
- 19:17Speaker 2: you see that the band does, it all comes from us.
- 19:22Speaker 2: You know, our earlier music videos like the Banshee Sex
- 19:28Speaker 2: two one. We filmed it, we edited it, you know,
- 19:33Speaker 2: all of our like design elements on our records. It's
- 19:37Speaker 2: all just done by us, primarily Errol and I pretty
- 19:42Speaker 2: much handle everything when it comes to this band. Wow.
- 19:48Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's definitely like a big DIY for you
- 19:51Speaker 3: guys in terms of doing absolutely everything, and that really
- 19:55Speaker 3: resonates with audiences as well and fans. They can see
- 19:58Speaker 3: when you've done everything yourself and you not always pushed
- 20:01Speaker 3: by a label and things like that. That's really awesome.
- 20:04Speaker 2: Yeah. With the new record, we delivered like we delivered
- 20:10Speaker 2: it to Peaceville as like I mean, Errol painted it.
- 20:16Speaker 2: All of the graphic design was done in house, like
- 20:20Speaker 2: I did it all on this same computer. We delivered
- 20:23Speaker 2: a full wreck to them, like none of it came
- 20:27Speaker 2: from anywhere else. And that's always been the way. I mean,
- 20:31Speaker 2: I can't really see us ever shying away from that
- 20:34Speaker 2: sort of DIY mentality, you know, I mean especially too
- 20:40Speaker 2: with everyone mess around with things like AI and all that,
- 20:43Speaker 2: Like we're just not interested in that. We'd rather do
- 20:46Speaker 2: things the old way. Yeah. Should have some pretty uh
- 20:50Speaker 2: big announcements coming so soon. And when we recorded Until
- 20:56Speaker 2: the Night, we actually there was four tracks that are
- 21:00Speaker 2: not on the full length. You know, you always write
- 21:03Speaker 2: and record more than what's on the record, Yeah, So
- 21:07Speaker 2: one of those tracks will be coming out very early
- 21:12Speaker 2: next year, which is an unreleased song and unreleased original too.
- 21:17Speaker 2: And then Yeah, there's gonna be a lot more touring
- 21:22Speaker 2: and a lot going on with this band. Yeah, fantastic.
- 21:26Speaker 3: We really hope we can catch you sometime in Australia,
- 21:29Speaker 3: like we were talking about earlier. Yeah, I know the
- 21:32Speaker 3: logistics of that is huge, but sometime we're all, yeah,
- 21:35Speaker 3: you'd have a big crowd here. We all love you guys.
- 21:38Speaker 2: We'd love to get down there. Like I told you,
- 21:41Speaker 2: I've been on the West coast of Australian. I loved it.
- 21:44Speaker 2: It was such a great time. But and you know,
- 21:48Speaker 2: us being a smaller band, just being three people, it's
- 21:52Speaker 2: not I wouldn't say it's out of the cards to
- 21:55Speaker 2: think we couldn't get down there, you know at some point.
- 21:58Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome. And where can we watch and stream your
- 22:04Speaker 3: music and keep up with new skuletal faces?
- 22:08Speaker 2: YouTube, Instagram?
- 22:11Speaker 1: Uh, we're on everything, Spotify, like yeah, so I don't
- 22:18Speaker 1: even know.
- 22:19Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not even aware of all the places you
- 22:22Speaker 2: can stream us, but it's everywhere. I mean, it's services
- 22:25Speaker 2: I've never even heard of. But bars keeping up with
- 22:29Speaker 2: the band. The most updated places are always gonna be
- 22:34Speaker 2: the band's Instagram and then like our website is actually
- 22:39Speaker 2: I keep that pretty up to date, like you could
- 22:41Speaker 2: go on there and see uh flyers from every single
- 22:45Speaker 2: show we've ever played. Sorry, but yeah, we're doing the
- 22:49Speaker 2: Pacific Northwest. These are wrapping up our record release shows.
- 22:53Speaker 2: We've announced that we have Las Vegas. Uh well that's
- 22:57Speaker 2: in two weeks. I don't know if you're even aware
- 22:59Speaker 2: of it at earl two weeks. So we have that
- 23:03Speaker 2: and then come around February, you should see a lot
- 23:07Speaker 2: more coming up with us. Pretty much from February till summer.
- 23:12Speaker 2: We're just gonna people are gonna be tired of hearing
- 23:15Speaker 2: our name.
- 23:18Speaker 3: That's good. Well, thank you guys so much for sitting
- 23:20Speaker 3: down with us at Heavy today. We hope you have
- 23:22Speaker 3: a wonderful future ahead of you touring and we look
- 23:25Speaker 3: forward to seeing more from you.
- 23:27Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you,