Interviews

Interview with September Mourning

Published

7 years ago

April 6, 2017

Ron

DON’T FEAR THE REAPERS!

An Interview with September Mourning

Interview by: Ron Senyo
Photos by: Ron Senyo

Theatrical powerhouse September Mourning led by singer Emily Lazar, rolled through Baltimore, MD on the Blood, Lust and Death Tour with Dope and Combichrist. The band, a self-classified, transmedia, dark culture project that combines Gothic and metal overtones with comic book superheros, reapers, and pure chaos. They have developed a style that perfectly blends melody, angst, and theatrics into a musical vortex that has been building momentum since the release of their debut EP Volume I and comic book A Murder of Reapers.

Tonight the packed house bore witness to Emily, AKA September, belting out perfect metal growls with songs like “Skin and Bones”, “Angels to Dust”, and “Children of Fate”. The band or should I say Reapers, made up of Riven (Rich Juzwick), Stitch (Josh Fresia), and Wraith (Kyle Ort) were clad in their black, Roman Imperial-like outfits as the drummer sported a ghoulish mask.

Following their set I had the unique opportunity to talk with September.

Empire: How is the tour going so far?

SM: This tour is going awesome; it’s great being out here with Combichrist and Dope. They are awesome. I really like doing shows with them. It has been really cool.

Empire: How did the concept for the band develop?
SM: The Transmedia. It came from the story line. I’ve always been obsessed with death. So, I wanted to write something that really incorporated all of this stuff that was in my head and bring the musical elements into it. As well and ding it in a cross platform manner, so that all it could come together.

Empire: Do you have a theatrical background? You can tell by your stage presence that you are comfortable with it.
SM: Thank you. Ya, I went to a performing arts school, so there was a lot of that growing up.

Empire: What do you think about performing on small stages like you did tonight vs playing the bigger stages?
SM: I mean any stage, it doesn’t really matter it’s all about the energy.

Empire: Yeah, with a smaller stage, like tonight you run into problems like the backdrop banner falling.
SM: Yeah, its always better to have more stage space, you know, especially on this tour the headliners have a lot of stuff. So we don’t have a lot of room, but we make it work. You try to make it work the best that you can and go from there.

Empire: Are there any musical inspirations that brought you to do what you’re doing?
SM: Yeah, there is a lot of stuff that my mom and dad were listening to when I was growing up. Bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, David Bowie, and things like that. My uncle was really into black metal so there is that side of it to, you know. I have had this very vast experience with music across the board.

Empire: So How does it feel being the only female musician on the tour?
SM: It’s fun…

Empire: Are the guys messing with you?
SM: No, No..the guys have been great. I have been good friends with a lot of people on this tour already. We’re just going out every night and having fun. It’s really like a family tour. It’s really cool to be out with all these people.

Empire: Do you have any more comics coming out?
SM: We have one that is coming out with our next EP or album when that comes out. We tend to drop the comics in connection with the music. They tend to go hand and hand.

Empire: Do you have a new album in the works or have you been working on any new material?

SM: We are working on it now. We’re hoping to have some songs out pretty soon. So keep an eye and ear out.

Empire: How do you enjoy the interactions with the fans, I see that you’re always out meeting them?

SM: Ya I love it, it’s great. I love meeting people. I talk to them a lot on social media, so it’s good to finally meet them in person.

Empire: Anything you want to say to your fans before you go?
SM: Yeah, I want to say thank you very much for being there and supporting us and being a part of all of our craziness. We really appreciate it.

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

2 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.