CVLT Nation’s
Artist to Artist Interviews
Black Breath Vs. Samothrace

It’s no secret that CVLT Nation digs Samothrace – our first ever band collaboration tee was with these Rain City Doom Wizards! Samothrace is about to embark on a US Winter Tour starting February 15th, and to celebrate we are bringing you an awesome Artist to Artist interview the band did with Jamie from Black Breath. Check their tour dates and flyer after the jump, and this epic interview below!

I guess we will start will the usual horseshit. Who are you and what does everyone play in the band?

Spinks: Samothrace: Bryan Spinks- hookey, Dylan Desmond – angry birds, Renata Castagna – solitaire and Joe Axler – doctor.

You guys all live in Seattle currently, but are originally from different parts of the country. I’m curious if you could shed some light and any good stories of the places and scenes you grew up in. I know Joe, and he has some good stories about growing up in the NYC punk and hardcore scene in the 90’s, and with the rest of you hailing from Lawrence, KS probably have your own stories as well. Tell me about the places that groomed you to be playing the music you do today…

Spinks: I actually grew up in Oklahoma City, OK and while I have a lot of love for the state I came from, it was definitely not as thriving a scene as a lot of cities have. But we had diy spaces, a killer record store called Music D’s that also did shows and punk houses from time to time over the years that kept it all together and made it our own. That place is boring and rough for a kid, though. Don’t get me wrong, there has always been a shit ton of folks that are more than willing to put on shows and attend them, but I feel like it was such a small scene in my heyday there. It actually was amazing and tight-knit. It turned us all onto partying real young, but it also led me and many of my dear friends into playing music. Oklahoma definitely morphed and warped me into the musician I am today. We’ve also got a rich history of C&W there that I could not escape as a child. I think it actually plays a (not so) dormant role in where I am as a player today.

Full interview after the jump!

Renata: I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of northern New Mexico. My parents were amazingly cool, culturally aware and artistic people…I was lucky growing up. They had me playing music and appreciating art from a very young age. Being from such a rural area, I wasn’t exposed to a lot of the same stuff other kids in cities were. When I moved to Albuquerque for college, I became a part of the underground punk and metal diy scene. My friends and I ran a collective all-ages showspace there and hosted and booked tons of underground bands over the years. That’s where and when I got involved and became aware of the scene.

Joe: I grew up in Queens, NYC. I was into death metal and hip hop when I was really young. I was on my way home from school one day and a few really big dudes covered in tattoos gave me a flyer for a show cause I was wearing some metal shirt. It was for a Sheer Terror and Warzone show, so I snuck out of my parents house and went to the show cause it was right by their place, first show I ever saw. It was both the most amazing and scary thing I had ever been a part of, mainly cause there was a huge brawl during the Sheer Terror set. I have a million good NYC stories, guess you’ll just have to ask me in person sometime…

Your newest release Reverence in Stone sounds fantastic. Parts of it reminds a lot of one of my favorite eras of heavy metal, the late 80’s/early 90’s doom death scene. Bands like Anathema, Winter, Paradise Lost, Paramecium, My Dying Bride etc…Is there any particular band or album from that era that you would say had a direct influence on the songwriting of Reverence?

Spinks: Actually, not really at all. To be totally honest, we never set out to come with influence from this era or any era… Obviously, we are fans of metal, and especially the heavier side of it all, but we have always written to create heavy music we would want to listen to. There has never been a void, but I have my interpretation of what doom metal can sound like and I think that’s what comes out in the writing process. Thanks for the kind words, buddy. Every band you mentioned is crucial in my opinion.

Renata: I think our weird and varying backgrounds in music is what makes playing in Samothrace so much fun, and is why it comes out sounding different. If I have to list any band from that era that helped influence me, I guess I’d have to say Eyehategod, though that’s a little later.

While on the topic of Doom, how about the early 80’s classics? Bands like Trouble, Candlemass, The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Dio era Sabbath etc…Any particular band or album from that period that makes you want to slit your wrists and play guitar?

Spinks: Man, I love the “first wave” of doom, as I call it. The classics. For me, though, it was the mid-late 90’s/early 2000’s sludge, doom and down-tuned hardcore that grabbed my stoned little mind and blew it all to hell. Corrupted, His Hero Is Gone, Goatsblood, Leechmilk, Deadbird, Eyehategod, Buried At Sea, YOB… I could list many more. Many. I got to see all these bands in the beginning and it was fucking amazing. His Hero Is Gone changed the way I looked at the riff and the others made me understand it was OK to worship it at the same time. When I first heard YOB in 2002 I was fucking floored. “The Head and the Heart” from Deadbird is one of my all time favorite albums. This whole era makes me want to just riff the fuck out.

Renata: I’m so happy you mentioned Dio era Sabbath. Yes.

Speaking of wrist-slitting, I know most, if not all of you work in the service industry. Myself and the rest of Black Breath also share this miserable existence. In this line of work, there are loads of good stories to be told. I worked in the kitchen at a Dueling Piano show bar in PDX about ten years ago. The cook that was supposed to close the kitchen that night was throwing a fit trying to get out of it. Me and my other coworker told him to “buck up kid,” clocked off, and went a got our shift drinks. Ten minutes later a server grabbed us both and told us there was an emergency in the kitchen. What we found was said wingnut smoking a in chair and he had slit his wrists and wrote “HELP ME” in blood on the wall. He was sent home that evening never to return…This is an example of what I’m talking about. I know you guys have some amusing tales. Lay’ em on your loyal readers of CVLT Nation…

Spinks: Nothing cool has ever happened to me when I was working. Nothing.

Renata: I don’t want to think about it…. Uh.

Joe: I was working on St Patrick’s Day at one of the bars I worked at, fully blacked out while working and came to under the freeway overpass on 7th and cherry at about 4:30 in the morning with a big gash under my eye and blood all over my face. Or there’s the time we beat up Drew Barrymore’s boyfriend (didn’t think it was actually him) or the time I got so nervous serving my Hollywood crush, Lauren Ambrose, that I forgot how to speak English all together. Same as the NYC stories thing, I have a million stories from the bars I have worked at, you’ll just have to ask for more in person.

This question is for Joe. Being the fastest Grindcore drummers in Washington, what made you want to join one of the slowest bands in Washington?

Spinks: Drugs.

Renata: All the babes that show up to our shows in throngs and throw themselves at us after we play. Yeah.

Joe: Haha, ummm…. yeah, drugs, that was the first thing, but mainly just the challenge of having to basically learn a whole different style of drumming that I’m not used to. I love a challenge, and playing slow is way harder than you would expect!

Whats the most fucked up place you guys have broken down on tour? I know BB have ended up in the strangest places due to vehicle failure…

Spinks: NOLA. It was fucked up because it was so fun. Yup.

Renata: Seattle!

Joe: On a Book of Black Earth tour a while ago we blew a rod that shot straight through the engine of the bus we had, completely destroying it. It took about four hours to get a flat bed truck to tow the bus, so during that time we played a game where we would try to get passing trucks to honk at us, everytime they did we would have to shotgun a beer, this was all on the (pretty much non-existent) shoulder of the road on the Shasta Mountain Pass. Classy!

Good luck on your tour in February and be safe guys!

Spinks: Thanks, Brother!!!

Joe: Thanks Jamie, bong hits before we go?! Ill stop over after work tonight!

SAMOTHRACE US Winter Tour:
2/15/2013 The Highline – Seattle, WA
2/17/2013 Rotture – Portland, OR
2/19/2013 Triple Nickel Takers – Colorado Springs
2/20/2013 Aqualung – Denver, CO
2/21/2013 The Conservatory – Oklahoma City, OK
2/22/2013 Rubber Gloves – Denton/Dallas, TX
2/23/2013 29th Street Ballroom – Austin, TX
2/24/2013 Siberia – New Orleans, LA w/ Pilgrim
2/25/2013 The Bottletree – Birmingham, AL w/ Pilgrim
2/26/2013 529 – Atlanta, GA w/ Pilgrim
2/27/2013 Slim’s Downtown – Raleigh, NC w/ Pilgrim
2/28/2013 Strange Matter – Richmond, VA w/ Pilgrim
3/01/2013 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Pilgrim & Howl
3/02/2013 Beaumont Warehouse – Philadelphia, PA w/ Pilgrim
3/03/2013 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Pilgrim
3/04/2013 Howlers – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Pilgrim
3/05/2013 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH w/ Pilgrim
3/06/2013 The Ultra Lounge – Chicago, IL