I really love the Destroy Earth album I did with The Killcreeps, but in the process of doing that band, the Ghoultown concept was born. It was sort of like an evolution of self-expression for me. Once I started running with the idea of Ghoultown, I realized that it was the perfect way to express all my musical influences at once. It was also something that allowed me to work in my Texas roots, but still do something kind of dark. So it was a natural progression through some different styles until I reached something that was truly unique and something that I felt represented me best.
KW: And of course the songs “Wicked Man” and “Rotoriculous” were later resurrected as Ghoultown songs. Any plans to reissue Destroy Earth?
CL: I tried for years to get some other horror-punk label, like Fiendforce or whatever, to re-release the CD, but no one was ever interested—even though so many fans kept asking. And, oddly enough, The Killcreeps’ track we put on Fiendforce’s This Is Horrorpunk compilation got the best reviews, or at least in the reviews I saw. And it had been nearly a decade since the song was recorded, so that was kind of cool. But Fiendforce only wanted new material, which was hard to do since the project was no longer active.
I was trying to get away from releasing everything on my own label, so it just sort of sat on the shelf after the original pressing sold out. But good news, I just released a new digital-only remastered version through CD Baby. Fans can download the whole album for a good price and also get the brand-new cover art by Jeff Gaither. The original cover wasn’t great, so I thought that the new version should have a killer new cover.
KW: Being from Texas, being exposed to the Old West in ways only living there can do, what inspires you to mix so many styles? Some influences are obvious: The Misfits, Johnny Cash. But what are some other influences? Any of the old country and western greats, like Bob Wills and Marty Robbins?
CL: Growing up, my parents listened to a lot of vintage 60s and 70s country, so that was sort of ingrained in my brain at a very early age. My dad and I used to go hunting all the time around some of the small towns in south Texas, so if you wanted to listen to the radio, it was literally the only thing on. With the exception of a few artists like Johnny Cash, I pretty much hated that stuff when I was a kid, probably because it was what my parents liked. But as I got older, that music sort of crept back into my taste and eventually fused with my punk and metal styles...which ultimately resulted in Ghoultown. So yeah, I like pioneer country artists like Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, Marty Robbins, George Jones, and all those great songwriters. But of course Nashville has killed country and western. It’s sickening to hear what passes for country now.
As for the Old West, it definitely plays a big part in our music. The Old West was a rough and violent place and to me it fits nicely into the dark subjects I’m usually drawn to. I really love the Italian spaghetti westerns. They were not just cowboy movies...they were full of blood, swagger, and evil outlaws. I always wanted to grow up to be “The Bad” from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I guess if you look at my Ghoultown image, I pretty much have...although I carry a Gibson guitar instead of Colt 45.
KW: Despite mixing so many styles, it seems, from a fan’s perspective, that Ghoultown is finding more and more success as time goes by. Obviously hard work and talent have a lot to do with this, but do you believe Ghoultown’s rather unique brand of psychobilly cowgoth plays an equal—and possibly bigger—role in the band’s popularity?
CL: We do have a pretty good core audience, but I think the fact that Ghoultown doesn’t fit neatly into one single music genre has limited our success quite a bit. We get crossover fans from psychobilly, but also from metal, punk, goth and whatever. But because we do not adhere to a strict style, for example straight psychobilly, we are not universally excepted by the majority of fans for any one kind of music...only the outlaw fringe. Same for horror punk, metal and whatever. So our fans are sort of renegades who don’t feel like they have to stick to one certain scene or general music type. This is a challenge because we must win fans over one by one rather than just inherit a whole bunch of fans by default just because we play a popular style.
Over time I’ve come to realize that not fitting into a music genre of any type is a problem. We end up having to do everything on our own, creating our own brand of music and our own Ghoultown scene. It’s also hurt our chances of ever getting picked up on a real tour. All of our tours have been us headlining. In 11 years we’ve never been able to score a tour as an opening act. Nobody seems to know what to do with us. It’s great to headline, but except for a few one-off shows, we don’t get the benefit of being in front of a big crowd night after night. A crowd of people that might not get exposed to us any other way. That’s the fastest way for a new band to pick up fans. Everything we do is sort of on the fringes it seems.
KW: Yeah, I understand that. I know Dean Koontz had a hard time early on because his novels mixed too many genres; they weren’t just one thing, you know. Too many people need things black and white—black or white, rather; it can’t be both. I remember when James Rivera couldn’t get any promoter to book his band under the Distant Thunder name; they wanted Helstar. So he booked shows under that name—but it wasn’t Helstar! Absurd.
But let’s say things weren’t so ridiculous. What are some bands you’d like to open for, that you think would boost the band’s popularity?
CL: Yeah, we experienced the same thing James did while we were doing the Maltoro project. We were always billed as Maltoro aka Ghoultown. In the end, we should have just stuck with Ghoultown all along. We had already established a brand name with it, I guess.
As for bands to play with, we’ve always thought it would be great to tour with Hank III. We did one show with him and that went very well, so it’s a pretty good combination. Maybe Gogol Bordello would be another good one. Beyond that, I don’t know. Of course there are many smaller bands we could tour with, and have, but in this case I’m talking about doing a tour with an established band that draws a large crowd. Something that would expose us to more people at once.
KW: You mentioned having to win fans over one by one. Though it may not be the ideal way to garner fans, and without thinking of the business side of things, do you think it’s a bit more satisfying this way, when you know your hard work and art has touched each individual personally, rather than, say, a ton of people just jumped on a bandwagon because it’s the cool thing to do?
CL: Oh certainly, I would rather have the type of fans we have because they are all real, genuine fans of the music, not just followers. I probably wouldn’t like it if all of a sudden there were people showing up just because they thought it was the cool thing to do. If I’m a fan of an underground band, I know I don’t like it when all of a sudden the room is full of outsiders.
But in our case, where we have a solid but small following, I think it has limited our ability to realize the potential of Ghoultown. I have so many ideas about stage shows, videos, merchandise, and things like that, but at our level those things are usually not possible. I know I’m not the only artist suffering from this, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking that if we just had some kind of boost then we could maybe play larger venues and make the whole Ghoultown experience better.
I’m probably biased, but I think Ghoultown is especially suitable for big shows. For example, I do an intro thing where I hang from a noose and get shot down. It’s so cool, but hard to pull off in these small dives where we play. I wanted to build a free-standing rig that allowed me to do the hanging in any venue. But to drag that thing around would require a larger trailer or whatever, and that’s just cost prohibitive at our level; and either way, we’re usually lucky if we are on a stage that fits anything more than the six of us.
We’ve put everything we’ve ever made from this band back into it, so I guess I just regret that over the last eleven years we’ve not been able to implement all the cool things I originally envisioned for it. That leads to crazy ideas, like wanting more fans so we could r
eally kick this thing into high gear.
KW: I know some of the songs from Bury Them Deep were reworked versions of songs from the Maltoro project. Did any other songs end up on Life After Sundown?
CL: It’s really mixed up. Some of the songs on Bury Them Deep were actually unrecorded Ghoultown songs that were used for Maltoro, then reverted back to Ghoultown songs. “Tekilla” and “Walking Through the Desert with a Crow” were both Ghoultown songs from the beginning. Everything on Life After Sundown was written solely for Ghoultown except “Werewolves on Wheels.” That one was written during the Maltoro phase and then sort of re-worked to be more Ghoultown-ish. But the funny thing about most of the songs on Life After Sundown, is that they were written around 2003 to 2005 just after we did Live from Texas. So by the time those songs got recorded in 2008, they were already aged like a fine tequila. I like so many of the songs on that album, that I was relieved when we finally had a chance to record them.
KW: The band’s latest release, the limited edition CD/DVD Mistress of the Dark, features a new Elvira theme song of the same name. For those who haven’t seen the DVD, would you mind talking a bit about how that song came to be?
CL: We were playing an acoustic set at a horror convention VIP party where Elvira’s manager happened to see us. He loved the band—even in our acoustic element—so he told Elvira (Cassandra) about us. The next day I was hanging out with some friends of mine at the convention and someone ran up and said, “Elvira wants to meet you, get to your booth.” I thought it was a joke, but just in case I headed back to our booth where the Ghoultown girls had been selling t-shirts and CDs for us. Sure enough, Cassandra came by with her entourage and talked for a few minutes.
During that time she suggested I write a new song for her. I had a short meeting with her manager later on and came up with a plan to write a song and maybe shoot a video if it worked out. Two weeks later, I sent them a demo of the song, which they liked. From there we recorded it and decided to do a video. I called up our friend Gris Grimly out in Los Angeles and asked if he wanted to direct. He was excited about the opportunity, so once he was on board we headed out to Hollywood and shot the video. Cassandra was able to hook us up to use the Magic Castle out there, so that’s where much of the video was shot.
The Mistress of the Dark DVD includes the video, a making of documentary, and some other crazy stuff that Grimly had us shoot. It’s sort of like a bizarre take on an old 70s variety show. Like a horror version of the show Hee Haw. It’s pretty crazy and campy, just like you would expect from Elivra. It was a cool experience.
[Note: See the Strange Goods and Other Oddities section for a review of Mistress of the Dark.]
KW: Though a quintessential horror—and sex—symbol, do you think the younger generation of horror fans appreciate Elvira’s iconic impact on the genre?
CL: I think they do. Most people that are into horror seem to know who she is, even now. Her autograph line at the horror conventions is huge...people just keep coming by to see her. And now she has her new network television show that she launched this fall, Elvira’s Movie Macabre. That should put her in front of even more new fans. So I think she will always be embraced by the horror crowd just as many of the past stars have.
KW: You also worked with Gris Grimly a few years earlier by contributing the song “Ballad of Clarence Heckles” to the soundtrack of his short film Cannibal Flesh Riot! Think you’ll work with him again in the future?
CL: I hope so, but he’s gotten pretty busy lately with some big-time projects. He’s working as the art director for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Pinocchio film. As a result of our Elvira project, he was asked to direct the intro for her new Movie Macabre show. Gris is such a cool guy and a talented artist and director, I’m glad he’s getting to do such high-profile projects. He definitely deserves it.
KW: A lot of Ghoultown’s songs, particularly the lyrics, go a bit deeper than just dark; they tell stories. Do you ever foresee these songs being turned into films or fiction—short stories, novellas, etc?
CL: I don’t usually envision them as anything beyond just the song. Or at least I haven’t yet. The only exception, sort of, is our song “Drink with the Living Dead.” I’m working with an artist and a director right now to do an animated video for it. It’s not total animation, but it uses artwork and some animation to tell the story of Stanton Cree from the lyrics. I don’t have any idea yet of a release date for the video, but I can say that it’s going to be really cool. I think it will be the next level for Ghoultown, having moved toward some type of animated characters. As I’m sure you can imagine, our style and image lends itself to that type of thing pretty easily. If this works out, maybe I can look into doing animated videos for some of the other story songs we have.
KW: Speaking of stories, you write. You have a really cool blog over at the Rue Morgue website called Monstro Bizarro, where you discuss the legends and lore and other things surrounding some of the lesser-known but equally fascinating monsters that have appeared throughout history. You’ve also penned the stories for the Ghoultown comics, and I remember mention of you having written a novel as well, so what are your ambitions in terms of writing?
CL: I’ve always been interested in writing and have done a few things in the past when time permitted. I recently started doing some writing for the great horror mag Rue Morgue under the name Lyle Blackburn. I’ve always been a huge fan of the magazine, and they’ve featured Ghoultown several times, so it’s really cool to be working with them. It’s kind of an interesting story as to how this came about.
As most of my friends know, I’ve always been into monsters—werewolves, vampires, zombies, and the usual sort—but also real-life monsters, so to speak, like bigfoot, yeti, sea serpents, chupacabra, all those type of cryptozoology creatures. I had some extra time, so I started reading some of the newer books on these creatures and decided to watch some of the bigfoot-related horror films out there that I hadn’t seen. Of course, most of them totally suck, but there’s some pretty entertaining ones if you search hard enough. This inspired me to write an article on the movies, which I ended up showing to Rod and Gary from Rue Morgue. They were down here for the Texas Frightmare Weekend horror convention, so we got a chance to hang out and talk. After discovering a mutual fascination with crypto creatures, we came up with the idea for my Monstro Bizarro column. So now I’m part of the blog staff on their website where I post about weird creatures or about upcoming movies involving cryptozoo monsters. I also write for the print magazine, covering the same type of subjects. I do movie reviews and I recently visited the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine so I could do a write-up on that. It’s in the new December issue of Rue Morgue (#107).
As fans know from the Ghoultown comic, I’ve been into writing off and on throughout my music career. I’ve always had a natural talent for it, and I have a Bachelor’s degree in English, so it’s something I’ve always been into. In some ways I feel like my lyrics are the best thing about my songs. So yeah, writing is something I like and I hope to do more of it in the future. I’m working on a nonfiction book right now.
KW: About the Ghoultown comic, unfortunately only two out of four issues were published. Are there any plans to release those someday, maybe the whole thing as a graphic novel?
CL: Those came out about ten years ago. What happened was, the publisher decided to stop doing comics right in the middle of the run. So only two of four issues of the mini-series came out. At the time, I submitted to all the other comic publishers to see if someone else wanted to pick it up and continue the series or re-release it. But I couldn’t find anyone that was interested, or that could take on another title, so I just let it die.
It sucks that it left the readers hanging, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I was too busy running the label, writing songs, and doing band stuff that I just couldn’t take on the task of comic-book production, too. It’s very expensive to produce comics and almost impossible to get dist
ribution in comic stores by yourself, so it was more of a labor-of-love situation and not a good business move to spend time on that when I had my hands full already with the music side of things.
At this point, I don’t think those issues will ever be released in any format. Hell, I’ve still got boxes and boxes of the first two issues in my garage. I really don’t have room for more.
KW: And what of the novel? What’s that about?
CL: The Ghoultown novel was something I wrote back around the time of the comic book. It featured the same characters, so it was pretty much a book companion to the comic. I had an agent that shopped it around for years, trying to pick up a publisher, but again, nothing came of it. I think the novel is really good—even better than the comic—so I thought about self-publishing it, but I’m still reluctant to get into the publishing business.
My new book is nonfiction and has a much larger potential audience, so I don’t think I’ll have as much trouble finding a publisher for that. Ghoultown was considered horror-western fiction and that’s just not something most publishers want to take a chance on. So as it stands, it’s the best horror-western book that no one’s ever read.
KW: Back to Monstro Bizarro. Do you dig any of those shows like MonsterQuest and Destination Truth? Or do they irritate you as much as they irritate me? I mean, if you were hunting the elusive, never-been-discovered Bigfoot, would you be that goddamn loud? They might as well be a bunch of clowns riding through the woods on tricycles, honking horns and popping animal-balloons!
Shock Totem 3: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted Page 11