Rev. Chad Wells of HorrorShock Records Interview
I can’t lie, I swiped “Halfway to Halloween” idea from the Horror Music label, HorrorShock Records. The label was promoting their upcoming show of the same name, and I thought what a genius idea. It also didn’t hurt that the label had sent us a few of their releases to review for the site. So, I put it all together and turned it into a special little celebration for us, the label and all the fans of Horror! In doing so, I wanted to reach out and do an all-inclusive interview with the label owner, Rev. Chad Wells. The Rev. has been in the Horror scene for several years now and he’s responsible for one of my favorite Horror bands – The Jackalopes! Not only that, but Chad’s also the vocalist of a newer Horror band, The Creepy Crawlers. Wells is a staunch supporter of his scene and a real family man at heart. I have a great deal more respect after conducting this interview and from trading barbs back and forth. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a kinder gentleman in the Horror scene.
Since you’re in charge of a Horror Label/Media group, can you share with us what first attracted you to the genre of Horror no matter whether it be music, movies or media? What planted the seed of Horror first that lead you to start this business up?
That one’s kinda tricky. I was born to teen parents in the early 70’s and horror was sort of ever present in our world back then. Every TV show had a spooky Halloween episode. Scooby Doo was on every day and that’s definitely horror adjacent. The Universal Monsters were sort of everything at that point in time. My uncles had these floppy rubber action toys that were non-posable, sticky, ridiculous things, but they were Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, Dracula and The Creature. But it was really the limited, non-cable TV we had back then. Lugosi’s Dracula was on TV one Sunday afternoon when I was probably 5 years old and seeing that imagery made me want more. Also, our local TV network had its own very cool and fun late night horror host, Dr. Creep. Dr. Creep was the host of “Shock Theater” and had white face paint with his orbitals blacked out with greasepaint. He had a jawline beard and semi long hair. He was a big heavy man in black - like an alternate universe Santa Claus. He was the biggest gateway drug. I think that KISS, Alice Cooper, The Misfits, King Diamond and Dark Throne all owe my fandom for them to this awesome old horror movie host. He used to MC the openings of businesses and stuff. You could go out to the new Burger King on Main Street and Dr. Creep would sign autographs there. I attended many events in my childhood just to shake his hand and have him sign a photocopied promo shot.
Will you please share with us what all Horrorshock Media does, are you all just a music label or can we expect something else?
We call it HorrorShock Media because we don’t want to limit ourselves. We’re all interested in music, video, movies, art, books, and events. Expect the unexpected. We get really bored with things fast. When the whole scene seems to be doing one thing, I’d rather go back the other way and maybe even take the long way around to discover something new that strikes my curiosity and then we’ll do what we want to do for the sake of pleasing ourselves and the people like us. We’ll work with certain acts forever and other acts get one shot, and it feels wrong, and they’re gone. We’re not here to make a bunch of fake friends or collect followers. We’re here to build platforms for our own art and the art of people we want to boost.
So far, what obstacles have you faced as a label owner, aside from sales – those are always tricky, specifically today given that most folks have went digital.
Sales are weird. If you want the business to pay its bills and grow, you need to see some way to accrue some financial gains. That’s not an easy game nowadays for all the reasons you mentioned and more. I think the hardest obstacle for me is the “peopling”. Every scene has busybodies who are friends with everybody just so they can float around and talk shit about everyone. I don’t do a lot of the interpersonal “friendly” stuff for that very reason. The bad news is that we’ve worked really hard to make a cool thing and certain people make it their business to try to tear it down. The good news is that those people have only been successful in looking foolish and being turd stirrers. Comparison is the thief of joy, so we don’t look at what anybody else is doing. We have our blinders on and are burning our own trail and that’s where we want to be. If you compare what we’re doing with what other labels or bands or scenes are doing, we look terrific from one angle and we look like we have no idea what we’re doing from another angle.
I like not knowing what I’m doing. It’s always a surprise that way!
Are you a physical media guy or have you moved over to digital, personally?
I still have a ton of physical media, and I love creating and holding new media. I’ve got thousands of records, tapes and CD’s, VHS, DVD, Blu Ray’s, stuff on hard drives… I’ve even got old floppy discs. But for discovering new music I just really love the digital realm. Youtube especially, but I do use that evil corporate tyrant Spotify as well. I can find something, go down a rabbit hole, find more, playlist it, burn it out by overplaying it and see if I still like it in a month or three and then, maybe I’ll buy that insanely expensive $30 to $40 vinyl release or a couple T-Shirts at the show. I love the ease of digital. I wish that vinyl and CDs were as inexpensive as they once were. Some labels and distros that have huge rosters do it right and have $10 vinyl if you buy 5 or more. I think that’s a great way to go.
What do you look for when you’re looking to sign a band to your label? Are you looking for followers, feels or just that something special?
A little of everything. I want to like them from the first impression. I want to feel like I could be their biggest fan or cheerleader. There’re things I don’t personally like that much and I don’t understand it deeply enough to work on it (sorry ska and surf bands). So, I definitely like it to be pertinent to my personal interests. I need to feel that the people are good people. I’m about 50/50 on being able to get that right. Haha.
Who and what has been your favorite release so far for the label? You can dish some truth; nobody will take it personal. Specifically, if it’s one of your own bands.
I love the comps. Shockwaves 1 was fun, but I think I dialed it in a little more for 2. Again, when every other label starts doing double and triple length comps because they’ll just accept any old thing - I slowed things way down and curated it from the ground up. Very specific types of horror bands. Definitely a decidedly metal direction but in an 80’s horror movie way. Still all the punk spirit and plenty of punk bands on the comp, but I wanted it to flow like many of the comps don’t.
Similarly, I was really proud of the “We Bite” Tribute to The Misfits Earth AD comp. I really hand selected those bands and had to kind of fight with a couple of them to get them to see my point of view on which songs they should be covering. That one turned out great.
I’m really proud of all The Creepy Crawlers releases. The 84 Tapes release was super fulfilling. I love what they are doing with their music and their character so much and I love how much my old man style of mixing and mastering fits what they’re doing.
What’s the main goal and focus for the label? I’m sure it’s world domination, but seriously, what are your hopes and aspirations for the venture?
I want to continue to grow, find new bands that align with our vision. From the beginning I have been trying to work on signing bands that can support each other with touring, one off shows, etcetera. I love the idea of having a band in every major city or having bands in clusters - our East Coast bands, West Coast bands, Midwest, whatever. We have bands scattered all over the globe right now, so we just need to work those trade routes and sign some more bands. Haha. I want to have a proper hit with something we’re doing and suddenly be able to have the thing pay for itself. Right now, it’s a labor of love. I think the future of what we do - mixing visuals and music or genre experiences - is going to be some kind of festival-based experience - whether we’re touring it or making it a destination experience or whatever. I would love to do a Horror music cruise or a Horror Music Summer Camp experience (I am now trademarking this idea - so nobody out there gets any wise ideas, haha).
I first became aware of you due to your band, The Jackalopes, back in the early part of the 2000s. I’m assuming this wasn’t your first band. I’m curious about what led you to put the Lopes together. Was it a love for Horror Punk or Glam because I hear all of those when listening to the band.
It was not my first band. My first real band was COH or Carcass on The Highway. We existed from 1988 to 1998. We were an ever-changing type of entity, but the core years of the band we identified as Murder Rock or Ugly Sludge Metal. We had a Melvins, early Nirvana tone but with a lot more Satanic metal, Misfits, Samhain and serial killer influences. The Jackalopes was sort of a sequel to that band. COH was often banned from playing places and we had a very harsh and negative presence which made some people love us but mostly left us nowhere to play. So, The Jackalopes was started as a way to inject a pop punk sort of sensibility into something that would remain lyrically dark. I would say the core, shared musical influences for The Jackalopes were The Misfits, Motorhead, Ramones, Social Distortion, Nashville Pussy, Supersuckers. I listen to all kinds of music, but I bring a psychedelic 60’s obsession, a 70’s acid rock obsession, and an 80’s Satanic panic and hair metal obsession. Our first bassist GeeGee came from a pop punk band called The Migraines (Wretched Graverobber’s old band) and he was basically all Ramones all the time and if he wasn’t listening to them it was bands that sounded like them - but as a young guy he had been into metal so he secretly could play all the Megadeth, Sepultura and Faith No More type of stuff. We were all punks but raised on metal. Our guitarist played a Jackyl riff at his first rehearsal with us. He was dressed like MXPX, but he played like a much older hesher dude. The drummer was into hair metal, goth and ICP!
To my knowledge, the Lopes have 4 releases, including a Live release that I just bounced across a few weeks while I was being nosy and checking the band out a bit more. Is there anything else left on the cutting room floor that could see the light of day?
There’s another CD called All The Sleaze that’ll be out soon. It’s just remastered stuff that’s already been released elsewhere but it will get a new package and better sound. We don’t have anything left unreleased. There are a few different recording sessions that have redundant versions of stuff you’ve heard that may come out in some form someday. There are probably 30 or 40 songs that I wrote for the band that never got recorded though. We played several of them live. A few of those were captured on video so we have documentation of what it sounded like, and there are some demos where it’s just me playing all the instruments, but many of them never made it off the page. We just used some lyrics on the new Creepy Crawlers album that we’re finishing up that I wrote back in 1998.
You’re also a part of the band The Creepy Crawlers and this is more of a Horror Metal approach to me, of course that’s my opinion. Am I safe to assume this was the approach?
Yeah! I still consider what we do Horror Punk. I feel like if I call it metal, we’re putting ourselves into a league with crazy 8 string down tuned guitars and blistering solos and double bass drums. Our metal is way more influenced by punk and early thrash as well as the darker thrashier 80’s metal. I would say we sound a little like Shout at The Devil, Kill Em All and Earth AD - which is pretty metal - but we sound like The Chipmunks compared to modern Heavy Metal bands.
When The Jackalopes were together, I decided to not play the guitar, because my style would be too metal and too sloppy for the punk audiences we were aiming at. I even had long hair at the very beginning of The Jackalopes and cut it off after the first show because it was obvious that these little Screeching Weasel fans were not sure how to trust this older dude that looked like a scary biker metal guy. So, when The Jackalopes broke up, I started a new version of the band that was for a short while called Wolf Cult, Wulfkult and then back to being The Jackalopes. That band was supposed to be more Satanic, scarier and more threatening than The Jackalopes. It always drove me crazy when we toured and played with all these horror bands that their shows weren’t dangerous, they were mostly nice Christian kids, and I was from a way different era where that made you a fake. So, The Jackalopes were brash and gnarly compared to most stuff, but it was pop music compared to what I wanted to do. So that’s what The Creepy Crawlers is supposed to be - that old Jackalopes spirit now completely unchained and let loose to be the full beast it always wanted to be.
TCC has several releases under their belt in a short time and so far, I’m a big fan! What can we expect from the band in the future?
The brand new album is mostly finished. There are some surprises in there. The lightness and the heaviness both have increased on this new album. We’re also shooting a sitcom! We just released a short pilot episode on Youtube. This is where we get to show our fun side. Think “what if The Monkees concept was remade with a horror band and Troma and John Waters and Peewee Herman, all directed it and it was then edited by The Manson Family?”
Also, it’s not lost on me that your daughter PJ is the bassist in the band, she gets it from her old man, I guess. How has that experience been, sharing the stage, the roar of the crowd and the victories of a job well done with her? Any favorite proud Papa moments that you can share with us?
It’s so rad. She was a little baby at the end of The Jackalopes so now people come to the shows and tell her how they were covered in blood from one of our mosh pits and they got to hold her as an infant at some crazy show with Blitzkid or The Independents or The Undead and she just smiles. The Jackalopes OG bassist was GeeGee Bradley. He was then replaced by my youngest brother JayJay Thunder, so PJ grew up loving bass and seeing these rock and roll uncles doing their jobs. She puts her own obsession with Motley Crue and Hanoi Rocks into the mix and makes it her own.
I have to assume that you’re the biggest influence on her as musician, outside of you, what else brought her to this dance?
She definitely was imprinted upon by the music that was around - but I also went through a total folk and old psychedelic rock phase for many years fronting the band Cricketbows - so she actually saw me doing music far more gently for most of her life. The good news was, that the pop music that she grabbed ahold of as a kid, was all super influenced by 2000s emo, which she got into and they were all influenced by classic metal or The Misfits or other punk stuff, so she found her way around to what my influences were pretty removed from at the time.
You’re a well-known tattoo artist in your area. Is this your main gig or do you have something else on the side to supplement?
Tattoos has been the number one-day gig since 1993. I also do artwork for bands. I’ve done stuff for a lot of bands you’ve heard of. Shirts, Posters, whatever. We also do video work on the side. I shot music videos for The Buffalo Killers - who are currently the backing band for The Black Keys. But yeah, tattoos are #1.
While we’re talking about tattoos, what is your specialty of tattooing? Are you a portrait guy or do you just get off on freehand? Any favorite tattoo moments that you care to share with us?
I do a little of everything. I’m known for different things I did in different periods. I was big black and grey horror portrait specialist for a while. I used to do what they call New School now, which was called Lowbrow art back then. I do a lot of freehand stuff. Since the late 90’s I’ve developed a specific style of freehand that I call “Stream of Consciousness Tattooing” as it’s straight out of the imagination as you go. No plan, just improvisation. I’ve tattooed a few heroes. Back in The Jackalopes days I tattooed all the bands. I became good friends with most of the ones I tattooed. I was really proud to work on Electric Frankenstein. I’ve done album covers, posters and shirts for them but I’ve tattooed their skin too. I’ve also made some music with bassist Dan Canzonieri. I did a song on his When I Was Dead project and he worked with us on New Way Vendetta, which was a new wave/death rock band that we put together during the pandemic. It was the project that made The Creepy Crawlers start to happen.
Let’s ask some juicy hard to answer questions that only a Horror fiend can answer, we’ll do them rapid fire.
Favorite Horror Movie & Book?
My Sweet Satan Directed by Jim Van Bebber
And…
Stage Fright by Garrett Boatman
Favorite Horror Actor & Actress?
Michael Berryman for both his acting and for being maybe the most kind and thoughtful person I’ve had the pleasure to meet.
Linnea Quigley.
Favorite or preferred Horror theme in a movie?
Zombies, Vampires, Demons or Serial Killers?
Serial Killers
Worst Horror Movie you’ve ever seen that everyone else around you loves?
Child’s Play. I fucking hate Child’s Play.
Which era of Horror cinema do you prefer?
80’s Satanic Serial Killer era.
Share with us a funny WTF moment that you’ve had while watching a Horror movie? Any late-night drive-in frights that caught you off guard?
I remember seeing The Exorcist as a very little kid, sitting on the hump between my dad and mom in their VW bug. That was a little surreal. Also, a few years later, our local Drive In theater would show two current run movies and then they’d play two exploitation types of movies late into the night. If you stayed out for the whole show, you’d get home at 4 in the morning. I was there with my Stepdad and Mom, and we saw some silly comedies and then they showed Avenging Angel, which though not a horror movie, was very imprinting, and then they showed a bunch of gritty old trailers between Angel and the next movie. At 10 years old, I saw a full, unedited “Make Them Die Slowly” trailer that graphically showed the nipple and penis mutilations and impalements. Shock is the only word to describe seeing that imagery at that point in my life. An amazing, wonderful, electrifying shock.
Share with us a few of your favorite Horror related albums and artists, if you don’t mind.
I’m not going to name any of our artists, but I think they all deserve a listen, so go check out HorrorShock and find your next fave horror release there.
Here are three that are currently floating around my head:
1. Trick Or Treat Soundtrack by Fastway - Album cover, movie, killer dark rock. It gave me chills when there was a new release on my turntable.
2. Skinny Puppy. Most of it, but especially the early stuff. “Blood On the Wall” is horror. Rabies is my fave album by them - their recent reunion/farewell tour was monumentally horrifying and fantastic.
3. Killer Hearts - Skin Tight Electric - Evil sleaze punk gutter glam.
What are your thoughts on Horror remakes?
It can be done well. I liked half of what Rob Zombie did with the Halloween remakes he made. I think they could’ve been a lot better. I think that the big corporate movie studios have to go, or they have to go back to allowing artists to have a vision and try new things or to not try new things when they shouldn’t. I think it’s always better to make something new, but I love having an existing thing to play with as well. So - I’m not against it, but I also can’t think of a remake that I like better than the original.
Favorite instrument and do you still have it? Speak on that for a few moments, I’m sure you can share a good bit on a favorite guitar.
Currently I’m having a lot of fun being a metal marauder with a couple BC Rich guitars that I play exclusively in The Creepy Crawlers. My main Crawler axe is a black Mockingbird that my guitar tech, C. Wright put a “kill button” in. So I only have one live pickup in that, and I can push that button to mute the guitar - in the way that Ace Frehley used his toggle switch, but more fun because I can do morse code with the feedback now. I’m not a technical person. I don’t have the world’s nicest guitars. I like a combination of old and new stuff. I use a 65 Fender Bassman head, daisy chained high to low into a 69 Marshall slanted cab that looks like it saw Vietnam action, loaded with greenbacks. Pedalboard is simple for The Crawlers. A distortion with a ton of drive and ability to boost, a tuner, Cry Baby Wah. I don’t buy picks, I find them. If you play enough shows, you just pick up the last band’s picks and play with them. I have floor picks in my pocket from people as wide ranging as Electric Frankenstein and Christian Nesmith (son of Mike Nesmith from The Monkees). They slide on the strings just as good as anything new. I also record a lot of my guitar parts with a quarter as a pick to keep myself more primitive and make the sound more attach heavy and scratchy.
Here in a few days the label is putting on a Halfway to Halloween show, which is a brilliant idea! Admittedly, we were inspired to lift the idea and do our own Halloween update here on the site to join in and bring awareness to the label as well. Can you share with us what brought the show/idea together? What are you most excited about? Are you going to have a bunch of other local vendors for the show or is it just the bands getting together and melting faces in the name of Halloween?
We used to play at this venue a lot when we were in Cricketbows but we haven’t done anything there in forever. I have always loved the idea of really stacked bills with lots of great bands. I had tried to do a fest at another venue last year that would’ve been some huge names but that fell apart and so I had my eyes on for the next thing. The venue, Yellow Cab Tavern reached out and said they’d love to have us do something there and I thought that I’d love to do a big Halloween show, but I didn’t want to wait for Halloween! So, we looked at the calendar and saw that Beltane was on the horizon and that it happened to be Halfway to Halloween, so we dubbed the show as such and set off to make it cool. We’ve got a killer lineup, vendors, contests… First Jason, Lurking Corpses, Pumpkin Guts, my daughter band The Lollipop Kids, Transylvania Hellhounds. It’s gonna be a rad show.
You all have a Podcast too called the Shock/Pod. Can you share with our readers what they can expect out of that content? Anything special coming up with it?
It has been put in time out. When we started the fest, it became way too much to keep it going. We plan to reapproach it soon and get some new episodes out.
As we wind down the interview, I wanted to give you a chance to plug anything you have up and coming, no matter what it is – releases, shows, projects. Plug anything you’d like!
Just check out the label! HorrorShock Records. All good things will flow through those social media pages and that merch website!
https://horrorshockrecords-shop.fourthwall.com/
Last question, when your time comes, what would you like to be remembered for?
When I was a kid, I used to go into the library and there were books there about the history of rock and roll. And you’d have an article about Elvis and it would mention the similar smaller bands or the related acts that were important in shaping him. Or you’d see an article about KISS and see flyers with The New York Dolls and you’d go look for them and you’d find The Dead Boys and on and on and on. I always wanted to grow up to, at the very least, be one of those footnotes in the big book of rock and roll. I think I’ve done that. I’d like to be remembered as a musician and artist that made some kind of impression or imprint in my fields.
And there you have it folks, from the mouth of the man himself. We here at Black Angel Promotions can't thank Chad enough for his time, consideration and his thoughts on ALL THINGS HORROR! Please take a moment and go have a look at their site, their social accounts, their podcast, bandcamps and so on. There's a ton of killer music, art and other radness to be soaked up. This is one label that you won't mind supporting.
https://mosquitohawkexquisiterecordings.bandcamp.com/