META METAL SCRIBES: INTERVIEWS WITH BRANDON GEIST AND “GRIM” KIM KELLY
Whenever the metal industry turns the camera lens back upon itself the results are always interesting. See Metal Injection’s On The Record series of videos, released earlier this year, which featured interviews with dozens of metal industry notables sharing their thoughts on subjects such as women in metal, how the Internet’s changed the scene, what’s next for the genre and more. Super excellent content that we highly recommend you check out if you haven’t yet (oh, hey, me and Axl make appearances too).
Over the past week, Invisible Oranges and No Clean Singing have both published interviews with well-known metal writers — Brandon Geist and “Grim” Kim Kelly, respectively — turning the proverbial lens back onto the metal press by offering a glimpse of what exactly it’s like for those of us who sit at desks and peck at our keyboards every day about the music we love. Both Brandon and Kim had some pretty interesting things to say.
From the Invisible Oranges interview with Revolver Editor-In-Chief Brandon Geist:
And I mean, look, you know this, as a death metal fan, Revolver is my job, not my zine. I don’t like 85% of the stuff we cover. But the beauty of working at Revolver as opposed to working at a magazine covering really underground shit, is that I never feel like I’m preaching to the choir. I can turn kids onto this shit. I can turn a Slipknot fan on to Landmine Marathon, or Pig Destroyer, or Wolves In The Throne Room. Certain blogs and other magazines just preach to the choir. They tell fans of Wolves In The Throne Room about how great Wolves In The Throne Room are, rather than expanding their fan base.
And from No Clean Singing’s interview with Kim Kelly:
The music business is a business, and the metal business is a part of that, but it’s not quite so soulless as you make it out to be. Sure, there are people at big labels and business entities that make a comfortable living and don’t give a rat’s ass about songwriting or integrity, as long as it sells, but those type of people are far outnumbered by the rest of us.
No one gets into metal to make money, and if you do, you’re an idiot who will soon be thrust rudely back into reality. The vast majority of people I know and come across who work in the metal business are in it because they love metal, and want to support it in any way they can. They could make more money working at a different label or bigger magazine, or outside of the industry altogether, but they take the hit to stay true to what they love. No one’s a saint – this shit is cutthroat – but I believe that a good number of people do have the best of intentions, even if the bastards get better and better at grinding us down. Beyond that, look at the DIY scene – there are thousands of bands, labels, distros, zines, writers, screen printers, promoters, and venues operating way below the radar, that are doing it purely for the love of the music. They don’t need to be “anti-establishment” – the establishment doesn’t even know they exist, and they’re better off for it.
Wise words spoken by two experienced metal scribes. I look forward to more of this type of content in the future, as both blogs are publishing these interviews as part of ongoing series focusing on metal press.
-VN
