Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
NOX SINISTER with Nathan Shapiro
3 Playsin 6 hours
Nox Sinister is hard to pin down into just one subgenre of heavy metal. They use a blend of techniques borrowed from NWOBHM, thrash, progressive, death and even power metal. The members of Sinister pride themselves on marrying aggression with theatricality, often using brutal thrashing riffs to tell complex stories with broad themes. Heavily inspired by the works of Shakespeare, dark fantasy, medieval history, comic book supervillains, and the world of horror movies, Nox Sinister seeks to create a new kind of sound and a new kind of live performance. Often using the phrase they have coined; "violent musical theatre,' Sinister is a force to be reckoned with both in the studio and on the stage.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Valente. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Meet Nathan Shapiro
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey, everybody. This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. I have Nathan Shapiro here from the band Knox Sinister. Just came through the Pacific Northwest, ah based out in l L.A. I just want to jump right in, Nathan, and say welcome to the podcast. Happy to have you on. Oh, happy to happy to be here. Thanks so much for having me Yeah, I saw you've done a lot of ah tour dates ah recently, um kind of early summer, 2026, and in the Pacific Northwest some spots in in Oregon.
Tour Challenges and Management
00:00:54
Speaker
um Coming right off the tour, I know you're just right off the tour right now, and in in that experience, ah I always like to get the energy and the vibe of what it was like and what you thought about some of the places you played. um well
00:01:08
Speaker
it was It was go, go, go pretty much the whole time. There was a lot that we there you know there was a lot that was in the plan, and then there was obviously ah a lot that just like doesn't go according to the plan. like We thought that we would have way more time to just like shoot social content and promos, but like all that stuff goes by the wayside when you're just trying to find a shower. you know and ah So it's like it...
00:01:35
Speaker
You know, we've toured before. We've done different kinds of tours before. ah So we were you know we were pretty used to you know roughing it and you know sleeping in confined spaces, hardly sleeping, barely eating, all that. like That was you know pretty much par for the course ah because we did you know a European buy-on course.
00:01:57
Speaker
couple years ago. So we were used to that. What we weren't used to was, you know, just sort of having to figure out everything ourselves. Uh, cause when we, when we did our first tour, we had like, you know, there was a tour manager of sorts and, you know, things were pretty much determined for us and we didn't have to do any of the driving.
00:02:15
Speaker
But, uh, with this, you know, with this tour, we, you know, we arranged everything ourselves with our, with our touring partners in Gershock. Um, oddly enough,
00:02:26
Speaker
Way smoother than ah than I thought it might be. ah Obviously, there's a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong and for things to fall by the wayside. Not as much not as much actually did that we thought ah could have. Obviously, there were you know, there were rough spots and there were issues with.
00:02:47
Speaker
you know, booking and routing and like, Oh, like, i mean, finding places to sleep, but, uh, you know, it it was, it was pretty smooth. it was, you know, just being on the road with our, you know, with our good friends and,
00:03:04
Speaker
you know, playing, uh, playing shows every night,
Tour Highlights and Audience Reactions
00:03:06
Speaker
which was great. And I mean, I had, ah i went to school in, in Eugene, so i was well familiar with Oregon and and the Pacific Northwest. It was honestly just great to be back. Eugene was probably, probably my favorite stop on the tour just cause I love John Henry's. I love the city of Eugene and we just had such a great crowd and such a great energy there.
00:03:27
Speaker
Um, they really gave it back to us. So, you know, a lot of the places I had been to before, mostly the places in Oregon. So Medford, Eugene, Portland, we had, we had been to ah Medford was great as as someone who, you know, I've been to Medford before and I didn't expect Medford to pack as much of a punch as it did. So that was, that was honestly amazing.
00:03:49
Speaker
Shout out to Medford. I spent some time ah around the state and in my my work and in leisure, and I saw the listen from Medford. I like i was like, fuck, man, I'd love to see like a metal show down in Medford, so I'm glad to hear ah you got some of that back. Well, the the that's I think that's what made it so great, is that you know the people who came out to that show were mostly you know mostly younger people,
00:04:16
Speaker
and you know i mean i used like i used I used to date a girl from Medford, so I spent some time up there previously. and I always knew that it was kind of just like, it's a little bit of a sleepy little town. and it's very How do I put this? ah half of it is I always used to joke that half of the city was stuck in the 1950s, so to speak.
00:04:39
Speaker
ah But I think that's why we had such a great response there and a great reception there because you know the errant youth needed... you know, needed a show like ours, they need, they need metal. So when, when metal comes through to a place where, you know, they're not used to having it and a place where they can sometimes feel repressed. And a lot of, you know, a lot of them were telling me one of my favorite parts of this whole, uh, you know, this whole show was like everybody coming up to us and telling us how much they loved that we were there, how much they needed us to be there and how much,
00:05:15
Speaker
you know, how they were excited to have metal where they are, because that's, you know, it's the, it's the soundtrack for the discontent. Anyone who grows up, you know, and I can, you know, I can, I can see being an alt, you know, being an alt kid in in a place like Medford and being, know, Frustrated with your circumstance, feeling, you know, the release that comes with, with a band like ours, uh, coming through to town and just getting the chance to forget all of that and, uh, go nuts with a crazy, heavy theatrical and and blasphemous, frankly, uh, kind of show in that area.
00:05:51
Speaker
So yeah i'm I'm glad that we got to, I'm glad that we got to reach people that way. Um, that was one of our favorite shows for, for sure. thanks for the Thanks for the rock rolling. Thanks for dropping in and talking about that. I could feel the energy exactly like you're talking about. ah People are excited to be like, yeah I got some fucking metal to go to. it Not only some really good metal. And um like I saw the description or the phrase of violent musical theater. yeah like It was like like like there was there was so much for them to kind of, they're going to lead into what you're bringing, that they're going to get out. Oh, yeah, definitely.
Theatrical Performances
00:06:27
Speaker
One of the things that we, you know, one of the things that we always like to do with our show is, you know, for people who haven't seen us or for people who haven't heard of us before, we like to give them something where they go home and go, what the fuck did I just do? yeah Yes. Yes.
00:06:45
Speaker
the goal was always like look even if we're playing like a dive bar or something if someone walks into that dive bar and they see a bunch of guys in black medieval robes drinking blood and waving a sword around on stage we want them to you know if we want them to go home with a story like i saw the weirdest fucking band i don't know what's happened to medford yeah Oh, no, i yeah no i really ah I really appreciate that. I've seen them. ah
00:07:20
Speaker
ah wasn't able to catch you live, but it's certainly yeah ah ah seen the videos. And i love I love it. Like the expressive, like I love the expressiveness on even on the podcast. And I'm a big metal fan. yeah like Just there's something like that's almost like you can't quite grasp in words that metal brings to like that.
00:07:37
Speaker
Plugging in those speakers in the right spot where people like fuck. fuck all that other noise that's going on, man. Like, boom. And, uh, uh, I'd like the energy and I like talking about the energies, which was starting with the tours and like what's going on. Um,
00:07:53
Speaker
ah what's What's going on with that? So I was just wondering if you could mention within ah the band and and recognize the contributions of those who tour and play with you as far as the knox Knox Sinister now. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, I mean, like talk about the members. ah So, well, ah so I met Eric Garcia, who has been our guitarist since...
Band Formation
00:08:21
Speaker
like late 2021 found him randomly on facebook he was looking for a project to join i was still living in eugene at the time uh getting ready to move back to l la because i i graduated college into into the pandemic so i had nothing to do for for about a year and my thinking was like well, I can stay here and rent a cheap house with some of my friends from the theater department, or I can go home and be holed up in my parents' house until until I'm able to get a job. So I chose to just stay in Eugene for a little bit. But you know when stuff started to open up, when it was possible for me to...
00:09:01
Speaker
you know, get the kinds of jobs that I was like trained for and that I was able to get again, I was like, okay, it's time to, it's time to go back to LA and it's time to knock sinister was already, was already very much a thing in, in that it was just sort of like a, a bedroom demo project that I had been working on with various, like, you know, various multi-instrumentalists who, you know, we had, there were a couple of like singles and EPs and there was like a, like a demo LP that was also in the work at works at the time.
00:09:31
Speaker
um but But I met Eric on Facebook and he joined. And the one thing he said was like, well, the production on this is terrible, but the songwriting is pretty good. So so this this could be fun. um So Eric's you know been my primary writing partner for pretty much the entirety of of Knock Sinister out of its infancy.
00:09:52
Speaker
And ah we found Johnny Hines, the bassist on Craigslist. ah Johnny had been communicating with Eric and looking at jam at some point. And then Eric messaged Johnny and he said, oh, by the way, like I'm playing with this band at the whiskey. We're opening up for last in line. And then Johnny was like, oh, I'm i'm going to that show. So though Johnny wasn't in the first lineup, Johnny was at the first knock sinister show.
00:10:25
Speaker
So from the beginning, it's been me, Eric and Johnny and Johnny is about as dynamic a bass player as you could possibly want. the guy defies every stare. I like to say that he defies every stereotypical joke that you have about a bass player is like, Oh, you know, they're not really pleasant present. You can't really hear him now. Johnny wields that base.
00:10:47
Speaker
Like it's a fucking like, like it's a third guitar almost. And he's, he adds such a such a punch to the music that, you know, only the really great, like,
00:11:00
Speaker
really great players can, can do in a way. He's I'm, I'm honestly just lucky to work with guys like Eric who writes such dynamic music and you know, guys like Johnny who bring it to, you know, bring it to life and really give it that punch, really give it that rhythm. Uh, and then Ben Schwartz is an old friend of mine from high school. Actually, I didn't go to high school with him, but we were introduced around this time, tried to start like a garage band a thousand years ago.
00:11:30
Speaker
And when we were looking for fill in for a couple of shows, he, he hit me up. He's like, Hey, yeah you know, I, I, I play guitar, uh, still, uh, and I'm down to, you know, I'm down to fill in for Knox.
00:11:43
Speaker
And i mean, after the first couple of rehearsals, he was just really getting it. Like he clicked with it instantly. And we were like, why don't we just keep this guy? Uh, Clayton, our drummer, uh, also started as a fill in and,
00:11:59
Speaker
originally we offered him the permanent spot, but he, but he turned it down at first. Cause he was like, ah, you know, I've got another band. I don't really have that much time. and then, ah when we had, uh, when we had our, our, our drummer then exit. Cause like, you know, he was like, I, I've been too many, like I'm in too many bands where it's like, they actually pay me money. I can't like, I can't, you know, I don't have the time to do this anymore. where We're like, dude,
00:12:24
Speaker
Get the bag. We get it It's all good. Clayton had come up to one of us at the time been like, you know, I kind of regret like you know turning down the the permanent Knox gig. And we were like, well, it's funny you should say that because yeah it's yours if you want it So, you know, I'm just lucky to have... I'm lucky to have guys that make me look good up there, honestly. Like, I would...
00:12:47
Speaker
I would be lost without, without these dudes because they, when you find ah a chemistry with a band that just clicks like that, where you make such magic together, it's, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to imagine that you'd be with anyone else. Yeah. I mean, obviously like Eric and Johnny have been with me pretty much since the beginning of this. So, you know, they are long, long partners on, on this journey. And,
00:13:17
Speaker
you know, they make the music go so that I can write my, so that I can write my silly little poems and and lyrics and tell my funny stories and, wave my shit around on stage. Um, but I've been lucky to find guys like Ben and Clayton who, while newer are so dedicated to the cause, like they're so bought in on wanting this to go all the way. So that's really, that's the ultimate test. You know, you can, you know, we've auditioned a lot of guys and we've played with a lot of guys in this band, but I think, um,
00:13:51
Speaker
when it it will you know when it came time that we settled, you know that we have finally settled on Clayton and Ben, the biggest thing that you know, sort of solidifies in my mind that, that this is, this is the final lineup. This is, this is hope. I mean, you know, you always hope, but the thing that makes me think that is not just that they're great players, but they came in with a great attitude, which is important because when you're, you know, when you're in a band and maybe you gel, you
00:14:28
Speaker
you know, musically, maybe you play a good together, but there's just always that tension. And there's always that just like, someone's got that attitude that throws the whole thing off and makes it not fun for everybody. That's like, you know, and then also just the issue of like, being a shareholder, not an employee, you know, who see the vision and who We'll put whatever they you know whatever they have into the vision. So really it was – that's the audition for us.
00:14:58
Speaker
Are you dedicated to this and can you you know can you hang basically? We know you can play. We've seen you play. But do you want this? are you yeah Are you with us with us?
00:15:10
Speaker
So you know I'm just lucky to have guys that are committed to the vision with me. Yeah, it's powerful. It's it's powerful. um And it's it's it's tough like with multiple people. But um you can hear it through the music. And I don't i don't want to commit one the fundamental sins of...
00:15:29
Speaker
like an interviewer and and not get to the music early enough. Because I know when I'm listening to music interviews, I'm like, give me some of that music. So everybody, um ah we get the track here from Knox Sinister.
00:15:43
Speaker
ah Tell Me Father. ah Nathan, anything you want to say as we ah go
Song Spotlight: 'Tell Me Father'
00:15:47
Speaker
into this track? this Tell Me Father has quickly become one of my favorite songs that we've ever written.
00:15:54
Speaker
ah Because it's so personal for me. And also it has had you know, a very powerful effect on, on people that we've played it to. It's one of the ones that, know, for example, when we played in Medford, people talked about the most because, know,
00:16:12
Speaker
it was the statement that they needed the, the rallying cry that they wanted living in, you know, religiously repressive communities, you know, in, in, in, in modern Western culture, it's like a, you know, very puritanical like Judeo Christian society that a lot of us are crushed under the heels of, and in less progressive cities, it it it treads on, it treads on the youth and, yeah You know, that's one of the things that people that I've met who, you know, main mainly talking to people in Los Angeles, but people who aren't from Los Angeles, people who were in the music video on set having these discussions. And I didn't know about this until one of the, one of the background talent told me they're like, no, people were talking about how powerful this is and how much it resonates with them. So I, I'm excited.
00:17:08
Speaker
uh, very fortunate to have struck a chord with people through this song. Uh, I think it's one of our most powerful songs and I, it's certainly one of our catchiest and, uh, it's very personal to me. So i'm I'm glad that it was able to resonate with people.
00:17:22
Speaker
Thank you, brother. And thank you for making, uh, making the space for folks. Everybody tell me father.
00:17:46
Speaker
To salvation Lord of all creation Light my eyes Feed me your lies Shepherd me unto the skies Lead me down the path of the Lamb Slaughtered by your God's left hand Teach me how to live my life
00:18:17
Speaker
Never-ending strife Tell me, Father What did he create? Tell me, Father Or will he teach me how to hate?
00:18:29
Speaker
Tell me, Father Did he surely leave the lost?
00:20:57
Speaker
Tell me, Father, what did he create?
00:21:59
Speaker
Love that track. Thank you. Thank you. Love that track. Appreciate it Such a good one. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, everybody audience hope you enjoy, uh, tell me father by Knox sinister talking to Nathan, uh, Shapiro, uh, lead singer, uh, Nathan, uh, you obviously have an artistic bent. You're talking about, ah theater, um the the art expression that's involved with with the band, of course, like the energy of metal.
00:22:25
Speaker
Love that fucking metal sound. ah ah It just feels nice. um Was there a time or a moment where you like saw yourself as an artist where that
Nathan's Artistic Journey
00:22:36
Speaker
happened? ah Or is that something you kind of, you know, bounce around with? You know, the the funny thing is, is that I...
00:22:45
Speaker
The art world has just sort of always been in my family and there was, i don't think there was ever really an an escape from it. I think I was kind of doomed from the start because the way that my grandmother tells it, she was playing Sinatra records in her car when she was babysitting me.
00:23:07
Speaker
And then must've been three to five years old, She describes, well, I would, you know, I'd play the Sinatra records in my car all the time. And then one day you just started singing along already knowing all the words.
00:23:22
Speaker
Um, I don't deny this since I still have the majority of Sinatra's back catalog committed to memory. Uh, but you know, art was always just, uh, it was always just a thing in, in, in my, in my family and in, and in the household, My family always loved art. My, you know, my father was in show business. My mother was in show business when she met him.
00:23:46
Speaker
ah you know, my, my uncle's in it, my brother's in it. We all, yeah I guess that comes from Growing up in in Los Angeles, growing up around the entertainment industry.
00:23:58
Speaker
But you know specifically specifically like when it came to metal, ah I was nine years old when I heard my first you know my first heavy track.
00:24:12
Speaker
And it was Shout of the Devil by Motley Crue. My neighbors were playing it. on Guitar Hero, which was... i always joke that my dad is to blame for me becoming a metalhead because he helped get Guitar Hero produced.
00:24:27
Speaker
um My dad used to work at CAA, and okay he basically built up the video games division when it was still an emerging market.
00:24:37
Speaker
And when the guys who made Guitar Hero were shopping their there are beta around... my father was one of the first people to play it and then fund it. And then now it's, now it's out there. And that was my first exposure to, to heavy music.
00:24:58
Speaker
I think the moment that when, that, you know, when ah in my head I decided I'm going to be ah a metal musician there, I like to think of it as a two parter.
00:25:09
Speaker
So System of a Down is my favorite band of all time. Hell yeah. And the first time I saw them was at the Hollywood Bowl in, i want to say 2012. twenty twelve i had just hang I had just turned like 13, 14.
00:25:22
Speaker
And I saw them upstage and up on stage and I'm like, I can do that. I want to do that. That looks like fun. And then the part two of that, i was already well on my metal journey and it was my first time at Knaw Fest.
00:25:40
Speaker
This was 2015. I was, I don't know, must've been 16, 17 years already playing with a local sixteen seventeen years old and
00:25:52
Speaker
i had already been playing you know with ah with like a local band you know Just like rehearsing and in the in the basement, doing backyard gigs that backyard gigs that we never got to play a single note at because the cops would always show up.
00:26:07
Speaker
ah But the Knotfest was the moment where I decided, oh, it's not just I'm going to do this for fun. It's I got to do this for the rest of my life.
00:26:18
Speaker
This is the goal. This is this is the endgame here. Um, you know, but even before that, throughout my life, I was, you know, I was doing acting, I was doing theater, I was drawing comics and, and all that. So, you know, making art was, was new, you know, it was always in, in the question, just, you know, The only question that I had about it as I was you know growing up was like, all right, well, how am what are what kind of art am I going to be doing? Am I going to be doing video games, film? you know And metal became so important to me that it's like, yeah, I can do all that. But the the goal, the one that I can't live without, the one that I have to do, I have to be a metal singer.
00:27:03
Speaker
that's that that That's non-negotiable.
00:27:08
Speaker
I love it. I love it. well and Thanks. Well, I wanted to ask you too, though, like, what do you think the the role of the role of art is?
Art's Role in Life
00:27:15
Speaker
Like, what was, you know, i mean, you've been around it, you you breathe that ear.
00:27:20
Speaker
um what do you What do you think the role of art is, you know, for for us humans? why we Why are we doing it? helps us see ourselves. it's ah it's ah It's a mirror of sorts.
00:27:31
Speaker
um You know, i would not be the person that I am had I not found art, had I not found metal in particular, because metal was the thing that spoke to me when I was nine years old, angry and sad all the time, never knowing why.
00:27:48
Speaker
Eventually when I i eventually grew up, i I discovered, oh, I have like you know i have depression. I have like you know genetically inherited you know, faulty wiring. Um, well, maybe faulty wiring is too harsh, but you know, it's something that, something that can't be helped. That's just inherent that i couldn't, that I couldn't understand.
00:28:08
Speaker
Right. Metal helped me get through that. It helped me be comfortable in my own skin. It helped me hold my head high and feel confident in this world.
00:28:23
Speaker
And it made me feel like, well, If I can't talk to the world, then I can sing to it. And it helped me find an identity and find confidence in myself because specifically metal is a, ah it's a brotherhood of individuality.
00:28:43
Speaker
And you know, what that means is that it's like, yeah, we all go to the shows and we're all wearing our band shirts and we're all, we're all usually dressed in black and denim and leather, but everyone's battle vest is different.
00:28:54
Speaker
Everyone's wearing a different band shirt. You know, these bands and this this tapestry helps us express our individuality through something that's shared, if if that makes sense.
00:29:06
Speaker
um And i think that's what I think that's what the role of art is, you know. For for non-artists, it's it can be, you know, a number of things. Art is escapism, art is commentary. And for the artists, you know,
00:29:24
Speaker
For artists, we need to make art or we will explode. These feelings sit in us. And there's these things that we want to talk about and these things that we need to get out of ourselves. And if we don't make art, we're going to explode with them. um you know whether you're writing a Whether you're writing a script or an album or drawing, it's our art for the artist is to help get the inside outside.
00:29:50
Speaker
And for the observer, it's to feel something. You know, whatever that may be, I think art is,
00:30:00
Speaker
ah
00:30:04
Speaker
art is the hamster on the wheel that is the heat the human emotion, you know, art makes us feel and know how to feel because, you know, I mean, I've talked, I've talked about, tell me father,
00:30:19
Speaker
Ad nauseum. i've talked about i've yeah I've talked about that song so many times. But a song that I haven't talked about particularly is Fawn, one of our newer sequels. And the way that Fawn was written, Fawn is very personal to me as well. It's it's very much an an expression ah an expression of things that were going on in me at the time that I wrote it.
00:30:42
Speaker
But the way that I wrote it was it was spurred on by a movie I saw. A movie that sort of helped me collect the things that I was feeling at the time.
00:30:54
Speaker
You know, I saw this film. And for whatever reason it, it hit close to home and it helped me sort of gather these feelings. You know, some of the, obviously a lot of the lyrics are inspired by the film. If you haven't seen salt burn, I highly recommend checking out salt burn. It's a, you know, that's the movie that primarily was the inspiration for fun.
00:31:12
Speaker
But when I saw salt burn, it sort of helped me verbalize things that I was feeling at the time. Uh, you know, I was going through really odd interpersonal relationships at the time, really confusing feelings.
00:31:27
Speaker
The, the questioning of like, Oh my God, like, am I being lied to? And if so, who's lying to me, this, you know, this weird kind of interpersonal conflict that I had with, you know, a potential romantic partner and a good friend and, and, and all of this kind of, kind of was swimming around in my head and I was just so in my feelings. But then I saw this movie and I'm just like,
00:31:48
Speaker
I felt like I had a full body orgasm because movie had sort of helped me just like digest all of it. And then when I saw it and then when I saw the film, it helped me write all of this, the, the, you mixture of the feelings that I had about what was going on in my own life and the mixture of the things that this, that this film brought to me. So, you know, i do think that art is meant to make us feel and give us color.
00:32:13
Speaker
Um, it helps us discover things about ourselves and, It helps us discover what we like and what we don't like, you know, well, if I was, when I was a kid, when I was five years old, you know, Batman helped me discover a sense of right and wrong.
00:32:31
Speaker
Uh, so art is, uh, you know, we're all, we're all black and white comic book pages, but you know, taking part in art, whether it's creating it or consuming it helps give, gives us color.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah. i Oh, man. I i like the like even the the ode to art. But also, like you talking about like just kind of like the different things um ah that it does for us. I think like in in the course of the podcast, I love talking to artists, but also you know ah many of us who enjoy art at at the same time and being like, you know like describe the magic you know like and just you know try to try to get at that. Yeah, yeah of course.
00:33:16
Speaker
um Big question
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
00:33:17
Speaker
of the show. yeah The big philosophical question is ah why is there something ah rather than nothing, Nathan Shapiro? Boredom. you know In terms of why in terms of why is there something rather than nothing, it's just like we're talking about – the way that I first interpreted that question is like why do this? Why make art? Why talk about it?
00:33:44
Speaker
What else is there to fucking do? What am I oh yeah you know what what am i going to do? Just sit around and like watch the world go by and not you know not do this yeah why not create what's yeah what's the point if not I, you know, I, if, if, you know, this, uh, here's a little story. i'm I'm not sure if I've ever told this in an interview, but it's, it's funny cause it relates to, it relates to Medford cause it happened in Medford.
00:34:14
Speaker
Heck yeah. i was, i was moving back to, to California. My brother and I were driving from Eugene where I was living back to LA. Uh, and we had to stop our gas in the middle of the night.
00:34:28
Speaker
And, we're going we go into you know We go into a gas station in Medford, and I'm wearing an Ozzy shirt. And this guy, the gas station attendant, he he looks at my shirt. He's like, oh, like Ozzy Osbourne, huh? I'm like, yeah, you know.
00:34:45
Speaker
ah He's like, oh, cool. i was like, you listen to Oz? You listen to Sabbath? He's like, oh, no, not really. i was like, oh, well, what do you listen to? And he says the most baffling thing I've ever fucking heard in my life, which is, oh, I don't listen to music. I like the sound of my own thoughts better.
00:35:02
Speaker
And I thought, what the fuck could be so interesting in that thick skull of yours that you prefer it to music? First of all, I feel like if you don't listen to music, because art spurs what's in us, music is music gives us an internal soundtrack. We hear...
00:35:25
Speaker
our lives in music. When we're sad, we hear sad music. When we're happy, we hear our favorite song. When we're angry, we hear Death Angel. um I just thought, like what is going on up there? like Not to job shame, because I don't job shame, but you work at a gas station in Medford, Oregon. What could possibly be so interesting up there? And it is preferable to music.
00:35:54
Speaker
So why something rather than nothing? So that I'm not like that dude at the gas station. I, uh, there was nothing in my mind. Like when I think of a person, that's nothing again. I'm not job shaming him, but no no what kind of statement is that?
00:36:18
Speaker
It was just absolutely confounding. I love being able to drop into Oregon and Medford, and the editor and producer of the show, Peter Bauer, little sound place in Eugene, Oregon. So love all the connections here. Eugene's home. Eugene's home.
00:36:40
Speaker
you the eugene lo i love that place. you know it's It is... Eugene is, is my serenity in a way I go there when I'm like down and out and it's, you know, it's, it's a small, you know, it's a small like city. It's not, you know, it's not,
00:37:00
Speaker
You know, it's not ah quite a small town, but it's not ah a metropolitan area much either. But there's just some magic. Yeah, for sure. There's just some magic about the place where when I always go back, I just feel this calm and I feel the wind in my hair and I feel a gentle breeze on my face. Eugene is home. It's that center for me.
00:37:21
Speaker
And, you know, I went to college there for four wonderful, three and a half wonderful years. because the latter half of that last year was COVID. um Oh. But...
00:37:34
Speaker
you know, that place will always be sanctuary to me. I will always love Eugene and I love Portland too. I've spent a lot of time in Portland, obviously, but I, I lived in Eugene and I became who I am. i feel in Eugene. I, always I always, tell people that I grew up in Eugene, not to say that I actually grew up there, but I grew my conscience. i grew who I felt I was meant to be. i
00:38:07
Speaker
grew into the person that I had been wanting to be my entire life. And I did that in Eugene. And for that reason, Eugene will always, always be, ah you know, it will always be home. And every time we play there, we've had You know, such great shows, such great crowds. I genuinely love the people of that city and, you know, everything that that city represents.
00:38:34
Speaker
ah So it's, you know, the Oregon connection for me is is is never going anywhere. In fact, I'm trying to get up there pretty soon because it's been a long year with, you know, with my job and the tour and I'm just thinking, all right, when can I go just like spend a week and a half up in Eugene and just, you know, do nothing.
00:38:53
Speaker
let the take, take some acid by the river or something. Love
Personal Connections and Music Access
00:38:59
Speaker
Eugene. Um, and it's easy. It's even cool for me. My brother's, um, my brother who lives out. He's is a track track and field coach. So he has kids that go, that go to national and I get to see my brother all the way from Massachusetts. And it's like right in Eugene. So, uh, track city.
00:39:17
Speaker
Um, And thank you ah thank you for for everything, Nathan. Nathan, I wanted you to tell the listeners Knox Sinister to places ah to go to, where you'd like them to go to, what type of things they can see and hear of of the of the art that you do. Sure. ah Well, we're Knox Sinister on all streaming platforms. That is N-O-X-S.
00:39:38
Speaker
Sinister, ah you know, we're streaming everywhere. Our three new singles are out on Spotify, Apple Music, so you know, Bandcamp. ah We have a new music video out on YouTube for Tell Me Father, which we imbued with a lot of the, you know, classic heavy metal horror shock rock imagery. You know, we really wanted it to be, ah you know, super evocative and and just generally sacrilegious. It's a, you know, critique of the you know, theocratic nationalists, puritanical structures that are, you know, that have entrenched themselves in, in Western culture.
00:40:16
Speaker
Um, and, you know, find us on social media, on Instagram at, you know, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok at Knox sinister, ah Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's pretty much where you'll where you'll be able to find us. Just listen to the music, you know, watch our watch our videos and, you know, engage with us. The reason I like Instagram is that it's a it's a visual medium. And that's part of what I the visual half of Knock Sinister is something that's it's very important. It's a it's a two parter, you know. Yeah. When it comes to Knock Sinister, that's why we call it violent musical theater, because, you know, the music is powerful enough on its own.
00:40:56
Speaker
But what I like doing with the stage shows is it's theater. you know it's It's a visual component. It enhances you know it enhances the the music. It helps tell the story more because that's really what all of our music is, is that it's it's storytelling. So ah yeah, that's what I can say. Stream us everywhere at Knock Sinister. Go check out our new music video for Tell Me Father and ah yeah know follow us on social media so you know where we are and what we're doing.
00:41:22
Speaker
Absolutely. And I myself enjoyed the video. Tell me father um was, was really impressed in like, and when you're saying the two part or two is just like seeing the deliberate attention paid to, to what you're crafting in music. and Plus the visual display. I love the excess. I love the allotness of, of the whole thing. And definitely that's in the video. Metal is a powerful genre and it's a kind of genre where you don't,
00:41:48
Speaker
you know, you don't get to do as much as you do in metal with, with other genres. That's the thing about metal is that it's big by nature, by, you know, by its own nature, it's big, it's powerful, it's larger than life. So when it comes to storytelling through, cause you know, all I've ever, you know, all I've ever really considered myself is is a storyteller.
00:42:09
Speaker
Um, to no, no matter what art I'm doing, whether I'm acting, whether I'm drawing, whether I'm writing music, um, or whether I'm you know writing short films, it's metal allows you to tell that kind of larger than life story to make that big statement because the music is so big. So the imagery should be big to, to match it. And that's just, that's the fundamental element to knock sinister. You know, we're all dressed up. We've got, you know, basically made a mini horror movie with our, with our music videos. Uh,
00:42:43
Speaker
So yeah, like that's, that's the thing I love about metal is that by nature it's, it's big. So when you have a big sound, it, you know, for at least for me, it behooves you to make a big, you know, make big sights as well.
00:42:55
Speaker
I really dig it. I want to tell you one tiny piece that i i didn't mention. When you were talking about kind of like the outlet for for for kids down there in Medford and seeing the show, right around that time, my brain was like thinking of myself. of like I was just trying to see like that that feeling. The feeling that pulled in for me right then is I must have been 17 for about a live show. I grew up out east in Rhode Island. yeah I was in Providence, so I was close to Providence.
00:43:26
Speaker
But it was Death Angel. So when you said Death Angel at the end, I was like, holy shit. It was like almost I was talking to you because that's what I was thinking. It was me going to death me going to see Death Angel in Providence, and I was like, this is my this is this is my thing. So I I, I, I love death angel. I've been lucky. I love that. I've been, I've been lucky enough to, you know, to meet those guys numerous times, you know, hung out with them backstage. I shot, uh, shot photos of one of their shows, one of the death angel Christmas shows a couple of years ago, i was doing photography for, uh, for them.
00:43:59
Speaker
ah you know, very lucky to have, yeah you know, to have been able to be around those guys in, in, in particular circumstances. Uh, And ah so some of some of them remember me for the for the most part, I think. like ah But yeah you know I've been lucky enough to be able to like hang out with the guys from Death Angel on occasion. there This is something so incredible. There's something so incredible here. And just like you know just trying to you know celebrate metal. But I saw them on their Act 3 tour. Oh, man. you know Yeah, man. I, that's that I saw them in their act, the act three thorn and folks I'm placing this, it should be right around 1990, 1991. That was, that was, that was the the show for me. And I just think of like sharing that type of thing and fucking death angel is the connective tissue. it all makes sense They're, they're such consummate musicians. They're one of those bands that just ages like fine. And,
00:44:55
Speaker
and ah i mean they I mean, they were just doing the Act 3 anniversary tour. i saw I saw some. I saw some and i not i didn't see live, but I saw it being promoted. i was due i was at i I go up to San Francisco every year for Death Angels Christmas show, and I saw them do do Act 3 live. Oh, my goodness. They're just incredible musicians. I've been lucky enough to...
00:45:20
Speaker
you know, get to talk to to Mark as as a singer. And, you know, I've, I've, I've hung out backstage with those guys before. So I've like been able to like witness Mark's process as a singer. And, you know, I mean, I've, I've gushed to him about how he's one of my favorite singers and he, you know, he's so unbelievably humble and, All those guys, all those guys are not you know not an ego to be had on the death angel guys. So I have nothing, nothing but good words to say about them, whether they, whether they remember me fully or not, you know, cause I know those shows are, they're crazy and,
00:45:55
Speaker
and Thanks for sharing that. And even too, like, even the, the energy's like final point, just riffing on the, on the death angel. I remember getting, um, actually like ended up bumping into act three and then went backwards to ultra violence. The album in their catalog had a cassette of that. And I can feel that thing, you know, like tactile. And like, when I put that thing, I'm like, what the hell is, I haven't heard anything like for me, you know, where I was, that before. So, um, yeah, Man, shout big, big, big time shout out to Death Angel. I'm glad it was the strangest thing because in my head I was like ready to yell at you and be like, fucking Death Angel. I've got a Death Angel sign. This poster right here, you can you can kind of see it. like i camera yeah I've got this tour poster signed by them. They're yeah they're they're great dudes. Uh, it was, uh, relentless, relentless retribution was the first record I discovered by them. I was, i was in one of my local record stores and I randomly picked a CD just based on, just based on the album cover. I was like, I was, I had just turned 18 at the time and I was randomly rifling through metal CDs at this record store and I picked up relentless retribution. I put it in my car and that opening track just blew me away. And so, uh,
00:47:12
Speaker
Yeah, given how given how significant yeah Death Angel was to me when i when I first discovered them, it was honestly kind of ah surreal in the moments where I got to just you know hang out with those guys like outside of venues, backstage at the at the Christmas shows. um It's kind of funny how like you're when you grow into the art that you make, your your idols start to become your peers.
00:47:35
Speaker
ah And that's that's that's the cool thing that I love about metal is that the way that this ah the way that this art is, how it is an art of outcasts, so to speak, that makes it kind of a brotherhood.
00:47:49
Speaker
And so you're more likely to you know run into your idols and then have them be super chill. So that's the great thing. that's that That's what I'll say about the Death Angel guys. They're just they're just great dudes.
00:48:03
Speaker
Awesome. Praise and metal to the end. Nathan, thank you so much. Thanks, Nox Sinister. um Just thanks for the music and thanks for the great discussion and celebration of metal, which I always try to do whenever I can on something rather than nothing podcast. Nathan, been great talking. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
00:48:21
Speaker
Take care, of brother. Take care.
00:48:33
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.