Ghostblood (Seattle)

Ghostblood (Seattle)

Ghostblood is a horror-comedy-themed thrash band and the debut “Blood from beyond the Grave” was released in September 2015. They have recently been defacing property and doing shows in the state of Washington. They are sworn enemies of hipsters, zombies and Dream Theater, but mostly Dream Theater. Adam (bass and screams) took a break from his zombie-hunting activities to answer these urgent medical and financial questions about the band.

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If Ghostblood wants to be rock stars, you will now proceed to explain the origins of Ghostblood. Do it. Do it now.

HOLY SHIT, WE'RE BEING INTERVIEWED! This is more exciting than that time we learned that ghost blood is a perfectly viable substitute for mayonnaise - try it in tuna salad; you won't be able to tell the difference!

Sorry. I got excited. This is Adam, bassist, vocalist, lyricist and songwriter of GHOSTBLOOD, and I am happy to answer your questions.

GHOSTBLOOD has existed since the autumn of 2013, but Arlo (guitars) and I have been besties for many years, playing in bands and hanging around being dudes with each other. After a long dry spell, band-wise, during which we received not one free drink ticket between us, we decided to be proactive in our pursuit of free booze and start another band. So we posted the following ad on the Craigslist:

"Drummer sought for metal band. Must be good at drums and not a douche. Cannibal-friendly a plus. Also we are mutant ghosts."

Within moments, Dave (drums) replied, claim that he met all of the criteria listed in the ad. He proved this a few days later by wowing us with his drumming prowess and eating a plate of human carpaccio between songs. It was love at first bite.

You made the terrible decision to record yourselves doing a metal music video for the song “Haunting the Swamp” and now the video is on YouTube and for some reason I can’t stop watching. It’s probably because of the fancy dancing and the awesome wrestling. The video shows that you and your friends should be in the Jackass movies.

That is very kind of you to say! When we decided to make the video, there was a specific aesthetic that we set out to achieve; namely, that of an amateurish celebration of bad dancing and daytime drinking, shot on Arlo’s GoPro and my iPhone. I feel that we succeeded in this.

We gathered our volunteers, which included Doug and Andy of Kömmand, Chris “Wilson Buttlips” from Defenestrator, my good friends from Bellingham, Bubba and Scott; Sam, who publishes The Sentinel, my lovely lady-friend China Rose, and my good buddy Mikiech, who plays in The Screaming Multitudes and is a very talented filmmaker (and therefore is responsible for every interesting shot in the video). Two acquaintances/fans, Ben and Tony, attempted to make the shoot, but were delayed by the vagaries of the King County transit system and showed up late. We gave them beer and managed to snag a shot of them air-humping in the parking lot, which made the final cut.

We forgot a boombox or any other means of audio playback during the shoot, so it took several beers each before we were truly comfortable dancing to the deafening silence of no music. Once we got a few in us (beers, that is), though, things went more smoothly. By the end of the shoot we were all cold, sandy and wet (like your mom! –ZING-). I spent the evening editing, until realizing that I was using an older version of the song that we had recorded at a slightly faster tempo. After almost shooting my computer/myself, I took a break from editing. I resumed a couple days later, once I had regained my composure.

How is your celebrity status in the rat-infested, trash-filled and polluted streets of stinky Seattle now? Do your high school enemies now realize that you are destined for fame and fortune?!

All of our high school enemies are dead (they were all on the same plane). That being said, our celebrity status in Seattle is on par with that of any marginally known, unsigned, local extreme metal band; which is to say that people whom we have not met personally occasionally come to our shows, and I’ve been recognized as “the guy in GHOSTBLOOD” once. Come to think of it, that’s pretty damned good! Holy shit, we’re basically famous!

What is $ucce$$ for Ghostblood? Your band has played shows this year and surely the big cash is rolling in. Has Oprah or Stephen Colbert called you yet?

Having started this band with the goal of receiving free drinks when we play shows, I would say that in many ways we have already reached our peak of success. That said, we also make modest amounts of cash from merch sales and door money. As far as album sales are concerned, we have sold close to 40 CDs (while our YouTube upload of the album has over 1000 views…apparently, people prefer things that are free). I don’t think Oprah has called us, but I did get a phone call from someone who said, “Eat shit, fuck-butt!” and then immediately hung up, so, I dunno…that could have been her, I guess.

Humans that like thrash and that like burgers and beer would enjoy your music. Besides spending money on beer, how can these humans support your band?

That is the most astute, comprehensive summary of our potential fanbase that I have ever heard; burger and beer-loving thrashers are more or less our target audience! We shirts for sale (in your choice of two lovely patterns), as well as buttons, which we typically give away for free, and we will be ordering patches soon. And YES, we have a Bandcamp page; go to ghostbloodmetal.bandcamp.com and buy the album, especially if you like burgers and beer! We also have a Facebook page, facebook.com/ghostbloodmetal, which is our main venue for updates and connecting with people and the best place to stay current with whatever bullshit we’re up to; smash that “like” button!

Have your parents listened to the album and watched the video? Is this why they have disowned you? How many times a day do they tell you that you are one big disappointment and that they wish that you were never born?

Our being disowned by our respective families has nothing to do with our music, and everything to with them being closed-minded about cannibalism. For them to tell us that we are disappointments, they would have to still be speaking to us from emotion.

How do you plan to survive 2016?!

We plan to survive 2016 in much the same way we survived 2015: with hard work, determination, black sorcery, Machiavellian chicanery and high-powered firearms. We don’t have any specific goals, per se, but if everything goes according to plan, we’ll be recording another album sometime in 2016, making at least one more video, and hopefully playing shows in exotic, far-off locales, like Portland and Spokane. We’re booked for a festival in Bremerton at the end of April, so that’s a decent start as far as exotic destinations. Our other goals include learning to play our instruments, doing ten pushups (between all of us, not individually – we’re not circus strongmen) and eating lots of burritos. A wrestling match would be awesome! We’ll have one next practice; maybe you can interview me after I win the title.

What do you think about the idea of rock and roll during the night and fiesta during the day. It’s something that I have been thinking about for Ghostblood as a way of life. How can you make this happen?

We here in GHOSTBLOOD respect all lifestyles, including rock-and-rolling all night and partying all day; personally we prefer adhering to this schedule:

NOON - Wake up.

12:40p – Rock out

1:00p – Party

1:15p – Take break from partying to eat the dead

1:45p – Rock out

4:00p – Tickle fight

4:35p – Party

9:00p – Burritos/cake

9:15p – Rock out

11:50p – Party

5:00a – Pass out/die

We’re pretty married to this schedule, to be perfectly honest, but you never know.

What else would you like to mention about Ghostblood and your plan to conquer the world?

If you like metal, and you like fun, then you will love GHOSTBLOOD. And if you don’t, then there’s something wrong with you. Once we conquer the world, we will assure our new subjects that there are no hard feelings by buying everyone a beer. SMASH, BURN AND EAT THE DEAD.

www.ghostbloodmetal.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/ghostbloodmetal

www.twitter.com/GHOSTBLOODMETAL

phone: 206 948 8393

email: ghostbloodmetal@gmail.com

GHOSTBLOOD - HAUNTING THE SWAMP - Official Video

THE END.