SHDCVLT

I was browsing posts on the official facebook group for Pure Deathcore when i saw a gorgeous skateboard deck with Enterprise Earth's Album Cover on it! I added the guy who posted it and discovered he sells a plethora of decks with different band designs on them! I dug deeper and realized he runs is own skateboard company called Real Talk Skateboards. I contact him and requested an interview so i can spread awareness about his brand! Anytime a brand gets involved in the music scene I'm going to be interested. I wish more brands like this had an interest in our scene. The founder agreed to be interviewed. Here is how it went down.




Thanks for taking some time to be interviewed about your shop! Could you please introduce your self to our readers?

Hello. My name is Preston Pasco, I'm the owner and founder of Real Talk Skateboards out of Stow, Ohio.

When did you start building skateboards and why?

I started toying around with the idea of a skateboard brand in the spring of 2011. I skated a lot in my preteen - teen years and I always found the business end interesting.

How did you manage to get started? What kind of printing techniques do you use when adding designs to your boards?

I started with buying bundles of blanks off eBay and putting artwork on them with stencil cutouts. Very basic, very DIY. After a while I linked up with a local dude and we ordered our first board that was printed by a professional manufacture. That was around August/November of 2011. I use the industry standard printing process, which is heat transfer application. I've been doing that in house since the end of 2014.

When and where did you get the idea to start making decks for bands?!

It was around the time when i started having the boards made professionally. I thought it would be a fun idea to mix music and skateboards. The first one was executed in August of 2012.

Do the band's make any money off the sale of these boards? Or how does that work?

They do. Generally, I pay for the entire cost of production. handle my part of the marketing, ship the orders and the band would be paid when the board has been retired from sale. Just really a cool way for the fans to have a special collectable item or something to totally thrash.

That's really cool! So they a large commission all at once instead of small commissions as the sales come in. An extremely smart business tactic. Kudos. 

Who was the first band you made a deck for and who was your favorite band to make a deck for?

Thank you! Vanna was the first band we worked with back in 2012. As for my favorite, i'd have to go on the personal level with the Senses Fail release and on the artwork level, either the second Dying Fetus release or the first Protest The Hero.

Dude Protest The Hero is my shit. Best band to come out of Canada in my opinion. Do you sponsor or endorse any bands or skaters?

Great band! I currently don't do any endorsing or sponsoring. The sponsorship thing will be changing on the skate side, as I'm now a partner in a skate shop here in Ohio.

Thanks exciting! What can you tell me about the new partnership and this skate shop?

I've always done my production in a home office environment, and when I moved back to Ohio I knew I didn't want to continue doing that. A mutual friend of Dave (the shop owner) and I told us to link up and talk wholesale business, and that talk ended with me moving my production into the shop property and helping him run the shop, that just opened on the 1st of March!

Wow congraduations! That's big!

Thank you very much! It really is. I needed help with the skate side of things, as running my operations is more than a one man job on its own, so you can only imagine what it looks like trying to move into the core skateboard scene with a one man business team. I'm really excited about the future as of today.

What's the next step for your brand?

I think mainly growing the collectable concept of the band side of things and moving further into the traditional side of core skateboarding.

Looking forward to following your progress and I'll be ordering get a band deck soon! Where can I make my order?

Appreciate you digging it all! It really means a lot. You, and anyone else can order at anytime, from anywhere at www.RealTalkSkateboards.com!

As we wrap this up is there anything else you would like my readers to know about?

Just keep enjoying the music! If you haven't rode a skateboard before, hop on one and give it a try. It's underrated how comfortable and relaxing it can be to just glide around town or your local park.

You can check out the brand on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Realtalkskateco/

Or visit their site and make an order to support a brand that supports bands! www.RealTalkSkateboards.com

Thanks for taking some time to be interviewed! Could you please introduce your self?

I'm Blaine Wood Guitars @ ADVOCATE

Nice to meet you man! Who are your band mates and what roles do they play?

Nice to officially meet you man! Andrew Wilkins - Guitars, Taylor Chalk - Vocals, Josh McElroy - Drums/Samples, Nils Suebold - Bass

When did you guys form? And where any of you in other bands worth mentioning, before Advocate got started?

Well Andrew and Taylor began doin demos in 2013 and i hooked up with em at a show (we knew each other from previous bands) and then we sorta put the blocks together and grabbed Josh; and we now have Nils completing the lineup. Well i was in Poolside At The Flamingo for a stent, then Andrew and Me were in Shag Harbor. Andrew was also in Forty Winters for a bit. But we've all been in multiple bands over the years

Very cool! I received a press release recently stating that you guys will be releasing your debut full length album this Summer through Innerstrength Records. Are you guys currently working on the release? And how is it coming along so far? What can we expect?

Yes! Yeah we're excited!! We're actually having our first single mixed/mastered and we'll be releasing it soon. And we're currently in and out of the studio recording the album. Its gonna be a bit darker sound for us but still retain that Advocate groove! So it's coming along great ~

Awesome man. When it drops, where can our readers check it out or get a download?

We'll be releasing it on most outlets; Youtube, Spotify, iTunes, bandcamp, etc.. Innerstrength will be handling it, but for now you can check out our current bandcamp - Advocateok.bandcamp.com

What is your dream tour. If you could pick from any bands that ever existed for Advocate to tour with. Who would they be?

          

I'm a huge supporter of Pure Deathcore. So when music scene entrepreneur Troy Greene started a band i was immediately converted into a fan. No questions asked. This is one of those rare situations where we can be sure the band is sick just because Troy runs such a sick company and has such clean work ethic. When i finally got a chance to listen to a teaser from his band i was blown away by fast angst driven technical riffage and dark blackened death-grooves. This band is sick. And their front man is a huge contributor to the scene. I just had to get the interview....

Deadly: Thanks for taking some time from your busy schedule to be interviewed by for shdcvlt. Could you please introduce your self to our readers?

Troy: Absolutely man. I'm Troy Greene, owner/creator of Pure Deathcore and vocalist for Death Metal/Deathcore band VÆN.

Deadly: Nice to formally meet you man! Ive been a follower of Pure Deathcore for a minute! And i'm also a fan of your new band. Who are your band mates and what roles do they play in the band?

Troy: That's awesome to hear man! Yeah I've been keeping an eye on your company for a bit. It's nice to see your page growing! Well as you know, I'm the vocalist. Haha. And our current lineup is: Kevin Migues - Guitar Jazz Murray - Guitar James Shaffer - Guitar Casey McLain - Drums We are currently trying out a bassist, who will go unnamed for now, as we parted ways with ours a month or so ago due to us having such a demanding practice schedule.

Deadly: Good to know you guys are working so hard that mother fuckers cant keep up haha! So how did you guys come together? Where did you meet? How did the idea come about?

Troy: Haha. Exactly! Kevin, Jazz, and myself were actually in a band together when I was 14/15 years old. It was our very first band and we were just awful! Lol. It was a Deathcore band named In Flew Enza and we were all sick but we could not find a drummer who could keep up at all... That's why we are so thankful to have Casey as our drummer. He is phenomenal! Anyway, the idea for VÆN actually came to me one day while I was in rehab a few years back (I had a rough time getting my shit together when I was younger). But anyway, it was a free 3 month cult-like Southern Baptist Christian rehab where they brainwash you into believing faith in Christ will keep you from a bad path instead of focusing on the problem at hand and working towards recovery. Every morning this guy would yell at us all aggressively condemning us for our "sins". And during one of his yelling sessions I started writing down the word VAIN over and over. From that moment on I decided that I was going to form a band named VAIN (we changed to VÆN due to the name being taken) and push it to be as successful as I possibly could "in vain" of there psychotic view on life. And after many failed attempts at forming this band with numerous musicians around me I finally settled with the guys I'm with now. We are constantly pushing each other to be better musicians. This is the first band I've ever been in where creating music isn't work... It's just a natural vibe and the music just flows out of us.

Deadly: That's the best type of band. Where everybody just clicks. Its fucking magic man. And how gnarly! So many band names these days where thought up by narcissists just trying to be cool or edgy. The backstory behind the name is quite refreshing! And i know a lot of my readers can relate your story. So you have a debut single titled "The Day The Sun Died" I heard your teaser and i'm loving what I'm hearing! When can we expect the single to drop and where can we get a copy?

Troy: We are currently finishing up the last few touches on the single and then we will be sending it off to Buster Douglas Odeholm from Vildhjarta/Humanity's Last Breath/Impact Studio in Sweden to get it mixed/mastered. So, I'm thinking we should have it ready in about a month from now. We will be premiering it exclusively through the PureDeathcoreTV channel as well as many other websites for purchase/download.

Deadly: Awesome. Ill throw up your links on shdcvlt.com and beatdown.co as well to help out when it drops! So would i be wrong if i thought this single was foreshadowing a possible ep or full length dropping some time this year?

Troy: Your absolutely right! We will be releasing a 6 track EP titled "Perpetual Darkness" Sometime later this year! We just released the official album cover with the teaser as well!

Deadly: Ill be dead by the time it drops. The anticipation is going to gut me in my sleep....Merch! I want a VÆN shirt so bad. Can we expect merch to drop soon too!?

Troy: I know right! We are all so excited to show everyone what we've been working so hard on. We are working with a few designers and are planning to print some merch shortly before or after our single release!

Deadly: Music dropping! Merch Dropping! I am beyond excited! So what would be your personal dream tour lineup for VÆN? You can bring musicians and broken bands back from the dead if you want.

Troy: Well, my DREAM show would be to play with Tool. Lol. But, as far as a perfect tour with bands that I personally think would work well with our certain style of Blackened Deathcore/Death Metal would be with Cattle Decapitation, Rose Funeral, Molotov Solution, Lorna Shore, Aversions Crown, and A Night In Texas. It'd also be really cool to play a show with System Of A Down and Deftones. We actually play a cover of Molotov Solution's song Corpus Imperium live!

Deadly: Dope! I love Molotov Solution. I would be sick to see you play that live! Any plans of touring!

Troy: We've got a lot of things in the works. Of course it's all a process of getting everything we need to hit the road... But, we absolutely have been talking to some sick bands about setting up some really amazing tours. I'm not at liberty to discuss all the details yet, just know it's going to blow some people's minds straight out the gate! We've got some big shows coming up with Bermuda, Demolisher, Unearth, Reflections, Ringworm, etc. We've already played with Abiotic for our second show. So, every show we've got so far is huge! It's very humbling seeing the amount of support we've received being such a new band.

Deadly: Hell yea, i think there is a lot of sweat, blood, and hard work behind your bands current successes. Just keep pushing forward man! As we wrap this up, is there anything else you would like our readers to know? And thank you so much for your time Troy!

Troy: Just everyone keep your eyes out for VÆN here in 2016! Every bit of support means the absolute world to us. Thanks for having me Brett! Long live shdcvlt!

Deadly: To the readers; I hope you enjoyed this interview. Please show Troy and his band as much support as you can by sharing this interview. If your not following his company on facebook you should be. Here is a list of links to connect you to his network and band. Stay humble guys!

https://www.facebook.com/VaenOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/PureDeathcoreTV
https://www.youtube.com/user/PureDeathcoreTV

Deadly: Thank you for taking some time from your busy schedule to be interviewed for SHDCVLT. Can you introduce your self to our readers?

For sure man. I'm Fraser, the vocalist.

Deadly: Awesome. Nice to meet you Fraser. And who are your band mates? What roles do they play?

Fraser:
Patrick - guitarist and main writing contributor
Lucas - Bass
James - Drums

Deadly: Your debut self titled ep has just dropped! How has the response been from your fans. Getting lots of orders!?

Fraser: It has been pretty solid man. Happy so far!

Deadly: Where can my readers support your band and get a download?

Fraser: https://zeolite.bandcamp.com Also available on iTunes and Spotify

Deadly: I just spotted some of your merch in my Band Promotion Facebook Group. These designs are sick man! Who designs your merch?

Fraser: Scotty Bates designed our last run of merch.https://www.facebook.com/AppleBabyArt/

Deadly: Whats your dream tour? What bands active or extinct do you wish you could tour with?

Fraser: So many different bands! Couldn't possibly pick one. Maybe a big festival with all of them!

Deadly: Haha fair enough. Then who would be the headliners to this epic death fest of madness?

Fraser: Honestly there are so many. And in the band we all have different tastes. But I'd say we'd be pretty happy to play with Meshuggah, After the Burial, Whitechapel, Monuments. Obviously massive bands like Slipknot would be desirable hahahaha

Deadly: And decapitated with Vitek brought back from the dead and Covan pulled out of the coma! We got similar tastes in metal! Do you guys get a lot of support from your hometown or the scene in Australia? Any big tours or shows coming up?

Fraser: In Tassie we are very well supported and we are growing interstate with each visit. We have our EP launch his weekend in Launceston. In March we hit Sydney with our friends Whoretopsy and Hollow World. We also have plans coming together for QLD and more Vic dates. Maybe Canberra too.

Deadly: Im sure some of our readers will end up at your Aussie dates. We have a big following in Australia.  Do you think you guys will make it over here to the US for a tour?!

Fraser: Hopefully one day. Once we really build ourselves a strong national presence (hopefully)!

Deadly: Yup! Well to help out with that ive added your free singles to beatdown.co and promoted your new release! I hope it helps! As we wrap this interview up is there anything else you would like our readers to know? And thank you so much for your time!

 Fraser: No, thank you! Nothing else much to add. Just hope people check our stuff out and share it about!

Deadly: Check out Zeolite on social media and show our boys from Tasmania some support!

https://www.facebook.com/zeoliteofficial/