While sweltering in the heat of the Arizonan Fourth of July festivities, bombarded by neighborhood mutants screaming while their sparklers and fire crackers refused me a peaceful afternoon, I had a chance to chat with Chase, the vocalist of Tempe’s Gatecreeper, a band who also specializes in disturbing peace – albeit in a more welcome way than patriotic mongoloids. Throughout our shuffling emails, Chase shed light on their upcoming summer tour, past and upcoming material and general nerd-dom. Check out the interview below.
Your upcoming tour spans most of the country and covers 16 dates. Are there any particular cities or venues you’re most excited to play?
We are excited for all of them because we haven’t played any of these places yet.
On this tour, are there are any bands that you guys are stoked to be sharing the stage with?
Yes! We are playing a handful of shows with Primitive Man and a few with Outer Heaven. In Connecticut, we are meeting up with our friends in Fuming Mouth who we toured with earlier this year. Scorched, V-Sect, Dropout and Razorheads are some bands I’m personally excited about seeing and playing with along the way.
You guys are playing Southwest Terrorfest and King of the Monsters Fest this year, are there any bands on those bills you’re most interested in playing with?
Dropdead and Xibalba for SWTF. Chokehold, Groundwork, Trap Them and Creation Is Crucifixion for KOTM. There are a bunch of insane bands playing both fests but those are the ones playing the same day/stage as us I am stoked on.
Are there any profane tour rituals that Gatecreeper adheres to?
We eat a lot of disgusting food, drink lots of yellow Red Bull, and listen to Pantera.
Here’s this age old question on name origins, did you dudes get your name from the Magic the Gathering card ” Gatecreeper Vine,” or is did the term stem from elsewhere?
The name is something I had kicking around for a project a year or two earlier that never ended up happening. No specific origin. Before we decided to use it, we Googled the name and found out it was a Magic the Gathering card, and were OK with it.
Any fans of Magic the Gathering in the band?
I don’t think so. Some of us are definitely into gaming, but not MtG.
What games do you dudes play, if not MtG?
Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, War Machine, Hordes, Kings of War, Cave Evil and few others here and there.
What inspired the disturbing and awesome storyline in the “Poisoned Mind” video?
The lyrics to the song inspired the video’s “bad trip” storyline. The lyrics are a lot more gruesome than the video and based on actual events.
“Poisoned Mind” is from your recent split with Take Over and Destroy and is more on the melodic side than the material on your EP. What went into crafting this unique track?
I don’t know if it was a conscious decision to do something more melodic, but we were definitely listening to a lot of IVth Crusade, For Victory and early Amorphis at the time.
Comparisons have been drawn to Entombed and Obituary – what other influences find their way into your material in one form or another ?
Dismember, Sentenced, Bolt Thrower, Crowbar, Grave, Morta Skuld, Merauder, Hatebreed, Incantation, DJ Screw, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse… some are more obvious than others.
You have a split coming out with Scorched and Outer Heaven, along with Homewrecker. How did this collaboration come to life?
Melanie from Melotov Records had been posting about us on various social media platforms talking about how much she liked our EP and wanted to work with us in one way or another. She had already put out an Outer Heaven record and suggested that we do a split with them. From there, it kind of turned into a free-for-all and several bands had offered to join in. We are all friends with Izzi from Homewrecker and Scorched so we ended up getting both bands involved and decided on a 4-way split release. It’s pretty wild that it all started out as somewhat of an online joke and now it’s actually happening. We recorded our song for it a few weeks ago.
They’re all rad bands and Melanie’s the best. Do you guys have any future collaborations in the works?
Nothing as of right now. We have been working on writing the material for our first LP. That is our focus at the moment.
Is there a recording date for the LP?
Hopefully we will start tracking by the end of the year, but nothing is set in stone yet.
Gatecreeper has ridden on the solid success of your debut self-titled. Going forward, what elements from that release would you change or carry forward?
I don’t think there is anything we would change about it. We are still very proud of the EP. As far as moving forward, we are going to keep the foundation that we laid down with those songs and adding or expanding upon certain elements. More doom parts. More fight riffs. More leads. Still the same chainsaw guitar tone.
The band has a consistent tone and appetite concerning horror tropes. What’re your favorite horror flicks?
The Evil Dead trilogy, The Friday The 13th series, The Thing, Alien, Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Audition, Event Horizon, Tremors, Hellraiser, Altered States and Scary Movie 69.
Any final words for CVLT’s readers?
Encino Man is the best movie of all time.
Below are the full dates for Gatecreeper’s tour, from 7/16 through 8/1. Catch these dates or kill yourself.
7/17 Baltimore, MD @ Side Bar w/ Ilsa, Fight Amp, Die Choking, Outer Heaven and Mind As Prison
7/18 Long Island, NY @ The Wood Shop w/ Outer Heaven, Carcosa, Annulment and New Plague
7/19 Boston, MA @ The Middle East w/ Primitive Man, Opium Lord, Churchburn and Stranger
7/20 Providence, RI @ The Funky Jungle w/ Primitive Man, Opium Lord, and Tinnitus
7/21 West Haven, CT @ Crunch House w/ Fuming Mouth, Gowl, Strangehold, and Vile Extinction
7/22 New Brunswick, NJ @ Court Tavern w/ Outer Heaven, Razorheads, Low Life, and Stinger
7/23 Philadelphia, PA @ Blackhouse w/ Outer Heaven, Scorched, and Constraint
7/25 Washington, DC @ The Pinch w/ V-Sect, Vorator, and Narrow Grave
7/26 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theater w/ Funeral Chic, WVRM, and Caged In
7/27 Atlanta, GA @ Basement w/ Dropout, Waste Layer, and Final Crisis
7/28 New Orleans, LA @ Sisters In Christ w/ Primitive Man and Christworm
7/29 Fort Worth, TX @ 1919 w/ Enchant and Creeping Death
7/30 Albuquerque, NM @ Blu Phoenix w/ Hollow Tongue, Supreme Verdict, and A Prophecy Misread
8/1 Mesa, AZ @ King Of The Monsters Fest w/ Chokehold, Groundwork, Trap Them and more
