Interviews

Interview with Chris DiPinto of Creem Circus

Published

7 years ago

June 9, 2017

Ron

June 2nd 2017
Trocadero Theatre
Philadelphia PA

Glitter,Platforms, and Rock N Roll attitudes. It’s Your Favorite Bands Favorite Band.

1970s inspired band Creem Circus led by frontman/guitarist Chris DiPinto are exactly what the rock industry needs. Catchy Songs, Killer Wardrobes, with a entertaining show that deserves to be heard.
Empire Extreme hung out with Singer Chris DiPinto before they hit the stage, to ask a few questions and take a journey back in time, when music was special.
Empire: Are you all excited about opening up for Gene Simmons?
Chris: Ya, it should be amazing.
Empire: How did that all come around?
Chris: Well, we do have a connection our guitar player makes basses for Gene. He’s been doing it for a few years now but he never told Gene that he was in a band, which is a nice thing to do because most people when they start working for a big rock star is like “hey check out my band man”. He knew Gene was coming into town and told him to check out our video, he said this is what I like and you guys are on. It’s flattering that he likes the band.
Empire: How would you describe your music?
Chris: It’s easy to describe, its 1973 glam rock straight out of England.
Empire: I was going to ask what bands had influences with the style of music you guys do?
Chris: That era had so many great bands. Mostly from 1972-1976 then after that the style of glam rock kinda died. Here in America we didn’t get as much, we heard the big ones like Bowie, but not bands like Mud.
Empire: How’s it like wearing the outfits and where do you find them?
Chris: I’ve always been in a theatrical band. It sounds better when the band is dressed for the part. People like it more and it makes me more excited about doing the music that we do.
Empire: Your a left handed guitarist, how’s that since this world isn’t to keen on lefties?
Chris: My uncle bought me my first guitar and he flipped the strings for me, so I have always played left handed. Some left handed guitarist can play right handed but I’ve always stuck to playing left handed. And it’s hard to find them, so I started building my own guitars and people would come up to me after a show and started asking me to make them guitars and that’s how I started my own Guitar Company.
Empire: I tried to find one like it online but couldn’t find one, is there any guitars out there like the one you have with the built in mic stand?
Chris: I didn’t invent it, I believe Les Paul was the first to make one, he was a tinker, he had a recording device built into one guitar. The Bass player from Sly and the Family Stone had one, that’s where I knew it from. I think it’s almost a little geeky, but that’s cool. I want this band to fly it’s freak flag and embrace the wildness.
Empire: Would you guys want to or would like to tour with Steel Panther? You guys have the 70s look and they are 80s rock.
Chris: They came into town here not that long ago and we tried to get on it, but they weren’t having any local openers. They are definitely more of a satire band, where we are trying to walk that line, we want to have fun, but we want to be serious too. I think it would be great though for the fans to watch with both bands.
Empire: Speaking of fun, your music videos look like you guys were having a blast. How was that?
Chris: We just showed up with our outfits that we bought from thrift stores and eBay, we had no make up artist, we just had people filming it. It was edited by the people who do NFL films, so it came out amazing.
Empire: Ya I read about that with the NFL films, how did that come around?
Chris: Our drummer works for NFL, and they helped him. They did an amazing job.

Creem Circus hit the stage and from beginning to end just put on a stellar show. With the crazy 70s outfits to the crazy antics on stage. At one point Chris walking in his platform shoes made his way down the stairs into the front of the crowd to ask the audience “ what do they say about us”. Creem Circus is one of the bands that at first glance give you a shock with the attire, but they never stop entertaining you and just suck you into an era where rock legends were born. They might be your favorite bands favorite band, but when it’s all said and done, they will just be your favorite band.

http://www.dipintoguitars.com

https://m.facebook.com/creemcircusband/

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

See author's posts

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

3 days ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

About Author

Ron

See author's posts

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

See author's posts

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.