When creating this website, I felt that collecting first-hand experience from those within the Arizona music industry would be especially enlightening. I reached out to a few people in different areas of the industry to get some insight into their experiences regarding their time in the Arizona music industry and their thoughts on the Arizona music scene as a whole.
GatecreeperGatecreeper is a death metal band from Phoenix, Arizona. They were formed in 2013 and have since gone on to record 3 studio albums and tour all across the nation and internationally. I reached out to Gatecreeper and got to discuss their experiences and thoughts on the Arizona music scene with their vocalist, Chase Mason (Hellahammer) and their guitarist Eric Wagner (The Dark Cowboy)
GC: When the band started, we had members living in both Phoenix and Tucson. Technically the first time we started playing was in Tucson. For the first few months of the band, we practiced in Tucson. By the time we played our first show we had moved to a practice space in Phoenix and have been based in Phoenix ever since.
FJ: How did Arizona and your city aid, hinder, or otherwise shape your development and formation as a band?
GC: I think being from Arizona and coming up in the scene here helped us develop into a band that could play with all different types of bands. Growing up here and going to shows, you went to metal, punk, hardcore, etc shows and there were always different types of bands on one show. That's the world we came up in. Sometimes we would open for a death metal band, sometimes it was a hardcore band.
FJ: What is the story behind the title of your first LP, Sonoran Depravation? Did Arizona's landscape and weather have an effect on the sound of the band?
GC: We always try to sneak an Arizona reference into our titles or art. Sonoran Depravation was an obvious reference to the Sonoran Desert. I think the landscape and brutal weather has crept its way into our music and also our way of life. Growing up where its disgustingly hot for half the year, we found ourselves sometimes stuck inside which can lead to more creative activities.
FJ: What venues were essential to your rise as a band?
GC: Club Congress in Tucson, 51 West in Tempe, and The Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix were all important to us when we were first starting out. We kicked off our first tour as a band at Club Congress back in the day. When we first started we played 51 West a bunch of times. We have also played the Crescent Ballroom regularly. All three of these venue were important to us. We played a lot of our early shows at 51 west. This was a great spot to develop as a live band. Club Congress and Crescent were great places for us to play to larger crowds and to also have important shows like album releases. We even filmed a live stream set at Crescent during Covid. Venues in both Tucson and the Phoenix area helped us grow as a band.
FJ: What Arizona bands inspired Gatecreeper?
GC:Bands like Landmine Marathon, Hour of the Wolf, Vehemence, and many more. We are inspired by a lot of different kinds of bands. Not just metal.
FJ: What current AZ bands or venues would you like to give a shoutout to?
GC: Sex prisoner, Get a Grip, Nuclear Remains, Sacred Reich, Yellow Cake, Saint breaker, Theocide, Exsul, and Territory.
FJ: Where do you see Arizona's music scene going in the future? What are you excited about, and what pitfalls do you fear?
GC: Music scenes always have ups and downs. I feel like there are a lot of new bands popping up right now. It’s nice to see so many of them touring, playing shows, and releasing music. It’s hard to do all of those things and it’s cool to see bands making it happen. It’s not easy being in a band. It’s not easy being in a band from Arizona. It takes sacrifice, hard work, and persistence. Venues come and go and opportunities are sometimes hard to find. But on the other hand it’s also a perfect place for heavy music and I have no doubt that Arizonans will continue to make heavy music regardless of the ups and downs.
The Rebel Lounge is one of Phoenix's most popular live music venues. Originally founded in 1979 under the name The Mason Jar, this venue became a premier location for touring and local bands to play their music for Arizona crowds. Rebranded to the Rebel Lounge in 2015, the venue has since received several awards, including Best Punk Club and Best Rock Club by the Phoenix New Times's annual Best of Phoenix Awards ("About : The Rebel Lounge"). I spoke with their talent buyer, Jeff Taylor, to discuss the venue's history, impact, and Jeff's own experiences with the Arizona music industry.
JT: I’ve lived in Arizona for most of my life. Since the 2000s, I moved out here when I was 10.
FJ: How long have you been with the Rebel Lounge and what is your position and what does it entail?
JT: I actually worked part-time for the owner Stephen Chilton, who runs Psyko Steven Presents. I worked for him part-time before he opened the Rebel Lounge and was part of the team from like Day 1 in 2015 when it opened. My role has shifted over the years, but currently I am the Talent Buyer at Rebel Lounge. So I book almost all of the concerts that happen in the building each year.
FJ: Do you remember what your first exposure was to local music in Arizona?
JT: Sure, yeah! Like loosely, I grew up and picked up a guitar when I was in middle school and started playing with friends in high school. Around that time, some of my friends had been playing in a band already and I kind of spent time around their shows and around these DIY things happening around downtown Phoenix. So I went to a lot of smaller concerts at venues like Modified Arts, random churches and other arts spaces. Trunk Space was a popular one for me.
FJ: What would you say are some of the more important or influential bands that you’ve seen come up in Arizona?
JT: That’s a good question! When I started going to concerts I was seeing bands like AJJ (or at the time, Andrew Jackson Jihad) and Roar and others. Watching bands like that who were a few years older than me and playing, you know, 100 capacity shows and make nowhere near 100 people at all of them *laughs*. But over the years I have really enjoyed watching artists that I have came up with a little bit more, you know? Diners is a great example, who is now based in California but was in Phoenix for a long time. Playboy Manbaby being a more recent one over the last 10 years. As well as artists I’ve had the pleasure to work with even if I wasn’t at their earliest shows, [such as] Gatecreeper. That’s hard to answer because there are artists that I identified with early on, there’s artists I’ve worked with, and then there are artists that I’m personally excited about that are about to gain the significance that you’re talking about, like Glixen. There are other artists that are on the cusp and are breaking out of Phoenix right now which I think is really cool too.
FJ: Any other artists off the top of your head that you think are up and comers?
JT: Yeah! There’s a group we really like called Diva Bleach. I think fearofmakingout is gaining some steam right now. Veronica Everheart is awesome. Those are just a few more that I’m trying to keep a close eye on.
FJ: How would you describe the sound of Phoenix? What makes our music scene distinct from other states or cities?
JT: I think the more you pay attention, the harder that is to answer. I think there is so much happening in Arizona and things come in waves sort of. So when I was in high school, there was a huge screamo and deathcore, kind of heavier element to what was buzzing in Arizona. There was also an emo period there for a while, you know a lot of artists that were making it out of Arizona were of a specific demographic, kind of? And I think now that is a little bit less true, especially as the internet grows things in different ways. You don’t have the same buzzing bands on the same bills and the same people going to see similar groups of artists the way you used to and I think we get more diversity because of that, which I think is really cool. One of the artists I mentioned earlier, Roar, I’d been listening to for years and years and booking shows with and sort of over the last couple of years the internet has just made his music explode, which is super cool! So now he’s touring and selling out venues like the Rebel Lounge across the country. I don’t know if I would say that’s necessarily tied with an Arizona-specific identity, but even in just the artists I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of diversity between Playboy Manbaby, AJJ, Gatecreeper, and other artists that are touring either nationally or internationally and I think that’s really cool.
FJ: How would you say the Arizona music industry has changed over your career?
JT: I think as a person that has specifically worked at a venue for a long time, one of the easiest things for me to notice changing all the time is the role that different venues play in our scene. When I started working at a venue, I used to work at the Rhythm Room, which is actually still there kicking a few miles up the road from the Rebel Lounge. Over the years working for Psyko Steve, getting to do concerts and different venues and watching the way that new venues and new spaces foster their own communities has been really cool and interesting to watch. So therefore, it’s really sad when one of them has to close their doors. Most recently like Club Red, the Pressroom, several other venues that had to close around COVID era, even before that like Modified Arts, which is still functional but not as a venue. I used to go see shows at one called The One Place, lots of venues like that, and I think overtime there’s always going to be that sort of element of turnover, but that’s an interesting way that I think the scene has morphed over the years, you know, as it finds new spaces and channels to be able to showcase that art over time.
FJ: Could you talk a little bit about the importance of the Rebel Lounge in Arizona and what distinctly it offers?
JT: Sure! Rebel, I obviously think is a pretty special spot and, we were just talking about, it kind of plays a different role as times goes on and things change around us. Particularly, right now, in the last couple of years where we’re kind of lacking in smaller all-ages venues around Phoenix, the Rebel can kind of cover a lot of ground because there’s not a lot of spaces that can accommodate under 500 capacity and be all ages and so Rebel is kind of unique in that regard because we get to host a variety of artists because we can do things that are 21+ and do shows that are all-ages. We also, at Rebel, take pride in being able to host a variety of genres. So even though a lot of what I book specifically happens to be alternative, rock, indie, punk, you know, the Rebel is kind of home for a lot of outside promoters too that come in with their own different flavors of music, which we do a little bit of, but other promoters might focus more on than we do and are bringing in hip-hop/rap, country, metal, and we like to think that people can walk into our space to see any of those genres and not feel like they are in a room that is more used to catering to some other genre. That sort of broad appeal is something we take pride in. I think that is kind of a unique thing about our space as well.
FJ: Could you tell us a little about the original location at the venue, The Mason Jar?
JT: I actually didn’t attend any events at The Mason Jar, it mainly hosted events that were 21+ and it closed right around the time I turned 21. Overtime, the Mason Jar hosted a ton of up and coming bands just like we do now, but looking back in hindsight, the list of names and considering where those artists went 20 years later is really significant, so it has a lot of history because lots of artists like Nirvana and Linkin Park all performed their first Arizona concerts on essentially the same stage we have today which is really cool. I think that in order to present a similar sort of offering to our community is a really cool and fulfilling part of what we do here at the Rebel. (Psyko) Steve did put on some shows at The Mason Jar before it did close in the early 2000s, but yeah, to be able to bring it back to life, so to speak, is a really cool part of what we do and something we’re really proud of.
FJ: What would you say are some of the standout or most important moments you’ve seen in the Arizona music scene or something that will be remembered for a while?
JT: I love getting to go to unique large-scale events, trying to bring new festivals and other things into the market is something I personally find really exciting. A couple years ago, Superfly brought in an event called Lost Lake Festival at Steele Indian School Park which was really cool. There’s another festival out here called Zona music festival and I feel really proud of that because it was a really unique event and we tried to make it as special as possible. That’s something that I’m really interested in and that’s something that really makes that lasting impression, at least for the people that got to attend it and be part of something unique like that.
May Winterhalt is a goth DJ and bassist based in Phoenix, Arizona. May has been involved in the Phoenix music scene since 2021 after joining the goth-industrial band Tassel. Tassel released their first single in August 2021, which was shortly followed by putting together the live band in October 2021. May then went on to become a staple in the Phoenix goth scene, as she became a resident DJ with 6 Feet Under which hosts monthly goth and industrial events. I spoke with May about her experiences in the Phoenix goth scene.
MW: Since 2017.
FJ: What was your first exposure to local music?
MW: My first exposure to music in Arizona was a DIY punk show at a DIY venue called Home Invasion [in summer 2021]. One of the bands was TV Messages and I think another was Bloodloss.
FJ: What impression did that first experience leave on you?
MW: I had never seen youth in that way before, like I had never seen young people participating in a community or vast escapism like that before.
FJ: How did your band Tassel form?
MW: Tassel formed when me and Trey met on Instagram in October 2021. Our live band had some trials with the line-up, and we inevitably went with our other friend from instagram, Ash. Our first show, we only had a weeks notice and we put together the band. That was at a DIY venue called Disco Inferno. That was for a bunch of kids a couple days before Halloween. After that, we decided we wanted to take the band in a different direction that wasn’t involved with the DIY punk scene.
FJ: What’s the goth scene like in Arizona?
MW: In Arizona, the goth scene mostly exists in clubs that are 21+ or venues that are 21+. The goth scene is unique in that not only are there clubs with DJs playing old and new darkwave, post-punk, industrial, and so on. But also we bring a lot of new bands into the scene. I’d say the Phoenix goth scene, while it is mostly for older people, probably 25 to 50 range. There’s a huge appreciation for very new darkwave and gothic bands, most of those are coming out of LA and Chicago and New York but it’s very cool that there’s a huge support for those things because in a lot of cities the goth scene tends to just be a throwback 80s night, rather than a night that definitely indulges in the up-and-coming.
FJ: What is the electronic/DJ scene like in Arizona?
MW: I mean it’s the same thing, a lot of DJs play up-and-coming and new releases rather than just throwback goth music that came out 40 years ago.
FJ: Can you talk about your personal experience with what you’ve learned being in the music industry in Arizona? Has it changed since you’ve become apart of it?
MW: I wouldn’t say the industry has changed. Obviously coming from the DIY scene and not even being old enough to play in the venues we were playing in… It was interesting to see that not only was there this huge—and I say huge because I’ve been to goth clubs in other cities—I think Phoenix has a very huge goth scene and it was very interesting to uncover that because having been in the DIY scene, which is very much under 21, you would have no idea that there was this entire other community. Since joining the goth scene, we started playing with real venues and working with promoters. In-house promoters as well as just DJs who do club nights, who do pop-events and stuff like that. You actually start getting paid for your shows, that was an interesting process. There were no talks of money at our first shows because it was DIY, that’s not even something that was even thought about at all. Then as soon as we pulled our act together and wanted to start playing real shows.. ticket sales were part of the conversation, guarantees were part of the conversation. That was an interesting experience. So that’s kind of insane coming from literally nothing, playing for free in a storage locker *laughs* yeah.
FJ: What’s one of the most important local music moments that you’ve witnessed? Something that you think has influenced other bands/the scene/the industry?
MW: Having only been in the goth scene for a couple years, from what I’ve seen a lot of (goth) nights have kind of come and gone but the biggest one from what I can tell has always been 6 Feet Under and I think about two years ago they moved to Club Palazzo, which is in the same building as Club Downtown, and ever since they moved there I think that has been a very unifying spot for the goth community. I think ever since that night started growing there, it’s second Fridays so it’s a reoccurring event that all the goths know about, I think ever since they started holding it down over there a lot of new goth nights have popped up and a lot of DJs that are outside of 6 Feet Under are trying to do kind of similar things. 6 Feet Under also brings a lot of bands, I think it was pretty pivotal when they brought She Past Away in 2022 because that was one of their biggest events and that was a pretty big name for an independent promoter to bring to Phoenix. Usually there’s kind of the Live Nation promoters who bring bands, but for an independent promoter who is very community-involved, community-driven to bring a band like that and put on event like that on Halloween was very cool.
FJ: What are some of the positives or negatives for Arizona as far as music?
MW: Negatives! Number one: crowds in Phoenix do not like to dance *laughs*. Another negative is that the scene here is big enough for their to be constant events and constant bands in the community coming through town but it is still small enough that everybody knows everybody and that leads to a very competitive kind of scene and it feels like a lot of DJs would rather be at each others throats competing than doing something for the greater community. Let me think of some positives…The positive is that there is a goth scene here! A very outgoing and event-centric goth scene. There are people who have a desire to participate within the community they choose to be in, a lot of people who want to come out to support the scene, come out to all the events, pay the door fee. Another positive is that in a lot of other cities, the music tends to be kind of a lot of Top 40 Depeche Mode songs rather than like new bands participating in the scene and like anything that pushes boundaries or… I don’t know it’s refreshing to hear something that isn’t just a lot of 80s hits. That’s a huge positive, I’d say. Phoenix is very unique in that regard.
FJ: Where do you see the Arizona music scene moving in the future?
MW: I think the goth scene will keep on growing. I think there is a lot of youth who wish they were involved who are eventually gonna turn 21 and keep coming every year. There’s also a lot of new bands coming out of Phoenix and some of them are not bad so they are gonna keep it going. Outside of the goth scene, I think it’s gonna always stay the same. Derivative, 2000s/90s indie music or emo revival will always be here and never go anywhere. I think there a lot of bands that will come and go, probably a lot of sensational projects as well within youth communities, probably just a lot of short-lived energetic projects.
FJ: What was the process like for recording and releasing the music you guys have put out?
MW: For the first Tassel EP, a lot of that was actually recorded on an iPhone using Garageband. We put that out independently under our own moniker called Death Toll, we put that out through Distrokid. For physical pressings, through this company called Duplication Canada. We put those out ourselves on Bandcamp using money we got from playing shows pretty regularly, so we had some money to throw at physical releases. Our second EP, that one was also made on Garageband and then we finally got Logic so we could master it properly. Both of the recording process for both of those EPs was very intensive, the three of us were definitely experiencing one of the harder times of our lives and we were all just pretty exhausted and had a lot of interpersonal issues. We were kind of in a really miserable part of Phoenix. We were all living in a one-bedroom apartment that had roaches and mold and it was just pure despair, but we would record and write constantly *laughs*. Again, we saved up money from shows to do physical pressings and put them on Bandcamp and the rest was distributed through Distrokid under Death Toll. Then we put up a follow-up EP last month that was kind of like some b-sides and remixes from our second EP.
FJ: What are some other bands you’re excited about in the Arizona music scene?
MW: Lana del Rabies, Corbeau Hangs, and Secret Attraction.
Works Cited
“About : The Rebel Lounge.” The Rebel Lounge. https://therebellounge.com/about. Accessed 4 Dec 2023.