What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?

-We were sitting around brainstorming potential horror band names that weren’t already taken and we ended up with B-Horror, The Psychotixx and The Deathtones. The latter really clicked with us, we voted and The Deathtones came out on top. As far as our influences, each of our members has very diverse tastes, so we combine elements of horror punk, pop punk, rock n roll, classic metal, modern metal, blues, prog rock and even some boogie woogie kind of stuff.

How do you approach songwriting?

 -Billy, Lead Songwriter: When it comes to writing these songs I start out by saying, “Is it going as part of an album or a single?” If it’s part of an album it’s easier as our albums are usually themed. So let’s say it’s going on an album about classic Hollywood monsters, you know, The Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc.
So then I look into the characters of the songs I’m writing. If it’s Frankenstein, it’s going to be more of a chugging march, it it’s The Mummy I may employ Arabic or Egyptian scales or chord progressions. So as far as musical themes it really is a song by song basis. I have some signature stuff that are used in most of our songs, but by in large, most of our songs are very thematically different.
Mr. Grim, drums – it’s all about feeling. I have always felt as a musician, you play with the song needs. As much fun as it is going balls to the wall, that’s not always what’s best for the song. Play what people want to hear, what they want to bang their head to.

How do you approach songwriting?

 -Billy, Lead Songwriter: When it comes to writing these songs I start out by saying, “Is it going as part of an album or a single?” If it’s part of an album it’s easier as our albums are usually themed. So let’s say it’s going on an album about classic Hollywood monsters, you know, The Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc.
So then I look into the characters of the songs I’m writing. If it’s Frankenstein, it’s going to be more of a chugging march, it it’s The Mummy I may employ Arabic or Egyptian scales or chord progressions. So as far as musical themes it really is a song by song basis. I have some signature stuff that are used in most of our songs, but by in large, most of our songs are very thematically different.
Mr. Grim, drums – it’s all about feeling. I have always felt as a musician, you play with the song needs. As much fun as it is going balls to the wall, that’s not always what’s best for the song. Play what people want to hear, what they want to bang their head to.

Why do you write the sort of music that you do?

 – It’s a niche market and we love horror. We tried doing a more mainstream act years ago but you more often than not just get lost in the shuffle of new bands all the time. Also, we don’t live in NY or LA or even in a big city, so good luck getting noticed. Horror on the other hand is a very particular genre and although there are new bands, it seems like everybody has a lane to drive in. You have a massive amount of subgenres as well. Horror Punk, Psychobilly, Deathcore, Horror Metal, etc. Also, since it’s such a niche overarching genre, there aren’t nearly as many bands competing. So even just getting started off, if you sound good and people like you, you’re already a bigger fish in this pond than if you were a minnow in a mainstream ocean.

How do you decide what songs to perform live?

-We spitball 30 and 45 minute setlists up to an hour. Scramble them up, decide what goes best flow wise, then we vote on which one we want to use and that’s that. As far as transposition, we don’t really write anything that plays differently live than on recordings so there really isn’t that much transposition going on.

How do you decide what songs to perform live?

-We spitball 30 and 45 minute setlists up to an hour. Scramble them up, decide what goes best flow wise, then we vote on which one we want to use and that’s that. As far as transposition, we don’t really write anything that plays differently live than on recordings so there really isn’t that much transposition going on.

What plans do you have for the future?

-If you had asked us 3 months ago, we would’ve said something akin to “we just want to try our best and get more popular in the genre”. Now we want to BE the genre. We want to be spoken of in the same breath as the legendary Misfits, Calabrese, Blitzkid, etc. We see the potential of our group and the skills that our members have and the amount of work that we put in every day, if we keep on this track it’s inevitable that we blow up in popularity. Speaking of which, here are some links for your readers. Some for us and some for We Are Horror Records, who we signed with last month. They’re great people and really care about the horror genre and the bands in it. Check us and them out!

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreHorrorRecords?mibextid=LQQJ4d