Interviews - Entertainment

 

The gory industrial metal band, Mushroomhead, has always had a knack for finding unique members that provide their own style of showmanship and talent. This was certainly true again when Rick Thomas, a.k.a. “St1tch”, was approached by guitarist Skinny to join the band in late 2000. St1tch was no stranger to the band, meeting them back in 1997 after a Halloween show where he then began making t-shirts and selling merchandise for them.

 

In the meantime, St1tch had become a DJ for the band Downfall of Society, who got gigs occasionally opening for Mushroomhead. But not long after, in mid-1999, St1tch moved on bringing his DJ and sampling skills to the band Canister. It was after a fallout with Canister in 2000 that St1tch finally found a home in Mushroomhead.

 

Since, St1tch has become a prominent member of the band - sampling, scratching turntables and doing percussion. His onstage energy is tough to match while his alien-like guise fits into the band’s makeup perfectly.  

             

Buzz - First of all, you have a new album coming out this spring?

 

Rick Thomas (St1tch) – It’s probably going to be more like Summer, but yeah this year definitely.

 

Buzz – Ok, and what’s that like compared to past albums?

 

St1tch – Umm, I mean… it’s typical Mushroomhead – it’s a lot of everything. On this one we’re definitely going back to the roots a little bit more. A lot of things have happened over the years with members changing and things like that, on this one we’re kinda going back and getting deep into our old dials and trying to go back to where we started things – like a real experimental, off-the-wall, every song is a totally different kind of thing. We’ve got 11 songs written right now and we’re going to try and write about 11 more so we have a good arsenal of ones to choose from for B-sides, special editions, etc. This one is definitely creating a lot of excitement with the band members.

 

Buzz – Does changing members in the band really change the dynamic of the albums?

 

St1tch - It really depends… recently was the first time that we had lost a vocalist, which was definitely different. We have switched through different guitar players and other instruments but usually things like that keep the integrity of the band. With the singer being the voice of the band, it was a little rough of a transition but it has definitely shaped up pretty nicely. Now that it has been 4 years since that record, Waylon Reavis (the vocalist that replaced J. Mann) has been more comfortable and knows his place more. And the melodies that he’s coming up with now have been really natural and interesting rather than the last record where it was kind of a rush – he had just joined the band and had to record a nationally distributed record. There was a lot of stress on that one.

 

Buzz – As far as personal musical influences, what’s your background?

 

St1tch - Umm. Early to mid 90’s, late 80’s, electronic industrial music – NIN, early Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, Faith No More, Ministry. I pull very heavily from the darker electronic stuff in the band – and with my role in the band, that’s pretty appropriate being the programmer, samplist, etc.

 

Buzz – How did you hook up with Mushroomhead?

 

St1tch - Umm... I started coming around and working for the band in 1997 but I officially joined the band in the later half of 2000.

 

Buzz – Oh, ok, so you were working with the band and then became friends with the band – how did that open up for you?

 

St1tch - Well, I started running merchandise, and helping out with shows, making props and things like that, just doing a lot of work and then there was a member fallout with a guitar player in 2000 – the original sample guy in the band moved over to a guitar spot in the band and the samplist spot was open – so they approached me and was just like, “Hey y’ know – do you want to...?” “Let’s do this!”

 

Buzz – So Mushroomhead was already playing big places by then, what was the transition like for you?

 

St1tch - I was in a bunch of local bands at the time, playing local bars and clubs, but when I joined Mushroomhead my first show with them was in Cleveland. My first show was on that stage – where they play Ozzfest and all of that shit. I pretty much got thrown right in, right when things got good. I got really lucky!

 

Buzz – I’m not sure if this is a touchy subject or not, but this whole Mushroomhead/Slipknot rivalry – I just thought this was one of the funniest things and I don’t know if this was true, but you guys actually dressed up as Slipknot?

 

St1tch - Yeah, we did that in Cleveland as a joke – we were really getting sick of the shit that was going on with all of that... and that’s a whole long story within itself that we’ve been telling it for almost the past 10 years now. But yeah, we did that in Cleveland... because in Cleveland we can pretty much get away with anything. And it wasn’t just with them, that whole summer we were doing parody shows. A month or two later, we played the same venue – we all dressed up like Kiss! We just do silly shit sometimes.

 

[Laughs]

 

Buzz – So are you guys on ok terms with Slipknot?

 

St1tch - Well, we haven’t really ever met up and sat down and buried the hatchet per se. We did meet up with some of those guys in Cleveland a few years back and they really didn’t have much to say. I think one of the first words out of Joey’s mouth at Skinny was, “We never hurt you guys!” and it was like, we didn’t even say anything yet. There was a lot of drama with the situation and there will be forever, but they’re where they’re at and we’re where we’re at and we’re just still trying to make it, you know? Trying to get by and coexist. People seem to think there’s only room in the world for 1 band that wears costumes! There are 90,000 bands out there that sound like Nickelback and they’re all selling tons of records and drawing people, but no one bitches that those bands sound exactly like each other. We’re a different thing, and we just had our 15^th anniversary last October of this band. We never stop, we just keep going. Most bands in our position I think would have admitted defeat by now and just given up, but that’s just now what we’re about.

 

Buzz – That’s good! This weekend here in Rosemont, you are headlining Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors “Shock-N-Roll”. This is like the perfect thing for you guys to be playing - with Fangoria..

 

St1tch - Yeah, I mean we’ve been getting strangely lucky with these horror things lately. Like, we’ve been in a few smaller-time B movie horror movies and shit, making appearances. We were in the Return to the House on Haunted Hill, The Rage, and numerous soundtracks: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Remake soundtrack, Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack, and then we’ve been playing this Rock n Shock in Worcester, MA the past few years – last year we did it with Gwar. The year before we did it with Type O Negative. We are definitely starting to become the poster child for these horror conventions – which is awesome, since that’s one of our main influences – horror movies, and that’s just what we’re into. It’s definitely cool, and Fangoria has been really good to us – and they were really into bringing us out here in trade for pimping us out through their magazines and helping us out with advertisements and exposure. It’s definitely good that someone is noticing us and wanting to help and they understand what we’re trying to do.

 

Buzz – Absolutely. Now how did you come up with the name St1tch?

 

St1tch – Well, everyone’s stage names were already there when the band was formed. They were already around for a long time. With the costumes it looks a lot better than just like... “I’m Mike”, y’ know?

 

[Laughs]

 

Buzz – That’s awesome. [laughs]

 

St1tch - I used that name before Mushroomhead, St1tch, because I did a lot of work for haunted houses. And when you work in haunted houses you have to have an alias name – if you’re walking around and someone needs you, or something they’re not going to call you by your real name so you don’t break character. So, I just used the name St1tch and I’ve just been developing that character over the years. Every time we get a new image or work on new masks everyone does their own thing, and I’ve just been making changes and alterations to build the character up.

 

Buzz – Wow. Well, I’ve never seen you guys live myself and I’m really looking forward to seeing you guys tonight.

 

St1tch - It’s going to be a little weird, we’re playing in like a hotel ballroom. There are a lot of convention people here too - it’s not like it’s a rock concert. Normally we’d play the Pearl Room in Mokena and it’s usually sold out there.

 

Buzz – Probably a lot of serial killers walking around?

 

[Laughs]

 

St1tch - Yeah, out here it’s cool though – it’s a different breed of people and the whole goal is playing for these people and hopefully winning them over!

 

Buzz – Someone like me who has never seen you, just based on photos that I’ve seen of past performances, I’m expecting kind of a theatrical performance?

 

St1tch - Yeah, we try to be as theatrical as we can... today we’re obviously a little limited… when we’re about to play we have to set our stuff up. So we are a little out of our element… but you’ll definitely see a show worth coming out to.

 

Buzz – Great, well thanks for the interview – really appreciate it. Have a great show and I can’t wait to see your performance!