Interviews

Interview with Michale Graves

Published

7 years ago

September 25, 2017

Ron

The Depot
York PA
September 16th 2017

A NIGHT A ICON CAME BACK TO SLAY ONCE AGAIN.

Tonight in York, we were all excited to see Michale Graves return to the stage. The former Misfits front man still is a master of his trade and proved it by putting on one hell of a show. Before we got to witness his performance, Empire Extreme talked to Michale to discuss all sorts of life and entertainment questions.

Michale and crew drove from Portland, Maine to be at the show tonight. It was a long 8 plus hour drive.

EE: Welcome.

MG: Thanks.

EE: You last released the “Backwoods” album, how was that process compared to others?

MG: The process was basically the same, what’s different is good music, good art, anything from a true nature comes from a true place, your heart, and your soul. To tap into that truth and after two decades what I believe comes from those places is true. When writing the album it was difficult at times, because it’s an exercise in introspection, externality, and really big themes. How do I put what I feel out in a way to communicate to you? What’s that zeitgeist? Sometimes it’s painful because it’s an exercise in psychology. It’s a labor of love. I just recently moved to mid Hudson Valley in New York State. I have a lot of history there. A lot of what I am was forged from that area. I lost a really good friend when I was 18 on the creek, and my house is there to. It’s an old sheep farm and dairy farm in the 1800s, but that creek runs right outside my house. There’s all that in that record.

EE: How was it making the “Nightmares” (which was the album where he spoke and did stories in it)

MG: People just sent in their stuff, that was part of a Kickstarter campaign with Hydraulic Entertainment. They would send the stories and I would put effects and audio to it. I also picked out a few old stories and fables. It was just a different way to communicate with the fans. I’m an old theater kid, so I get off on all those kinds of things.

EE: What was it like playing with the Misfits?

MG: That’s such a big blanketed questions. I can talk forever about it. I was just a normal kid from NJ who got an opportunity to work with this amazing band, legendary, cornerstone of punk rock. For me to come on as the point guy, and have all of the weight of what everybody was looking in a a huge comeback, a lot of that fell on my shoulders. I was the lead singer of the band, the strongest writer, and I was stepping into a roll that Glen Danzig did those years before. So when “American Psycho” and “ Famous Monsters” came out it was a small town boys dreams come true.

EE: Which Reunion you think was bigger and better? Misfits in Chicago or The Guns and Roses?

MG: Well, GNR is the bigger reunification because they are a bigger outfit, a bigger band economically and record sales. The Misfits though is just as noble and worthy as the GNR reunion. There’s no reason why anybody shouldn’t work together. I’m glad they put to rest or dealt with working together. The ultimate thing for the The Misfits is the Fans.

EE: If you had the opportunity to change places with or be in any band, what band would you choose?

MG: I would change places with Eddie Vedder. I’d say Eddie go home do some surfing or something. I got this. Maybe Pearl Jam.
EE: I would love to hear your spin on some Pearl Jam songs.
MG: Ya, I’ll kill it.

EE: If you can bring anyone back from the dead, who would it be?

MG: Martin Luther King JR.
EE: What Musician would you bring back?
MG: Maybe Kurt Cobain. When you get away from all the bullshit, he was a great musician and trying to focus on going back to old blues and working with Michael Stipe. I think we lost Kurt in a crucial time in his career.

EE: Anything you want to say to the fans?

MG: I’m always asked this question, so today’s Graves tip of the day is. To all the young people I say to pick up a book and pay attention to business and finance and how money works. Learn about the music industry and the arts so you can be not just one thing. You can be a drummer but also teach drums or write about drums and make blogs about it. You have these huge companies like YouTube and Spotify and Facebook all these social platforms that build billion dollar corporations on our creations and our art and our music and ideas, and we get nothing for it. We should make a fair amount of money for what we do.

Graves dawning some of his old school make up, came to play and that’s exactly what he did. The set was loaded with song after song that had the crowd going insane. There was much moshing, crowd surfing, and simply going completely crazy. It was intense to be up close to take in the sho, and show was exactly what you would have expected. Graves to put on a great show, great energy and did what he has been doing for years.

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.

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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

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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

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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.