I'm Matt Pathetic CEO and HNIC of Ghouls Night Out Festival, North America's largest horror punk festival.
Alright so, lets begin with why you began Ghouls Night Out?
In 2001, I was in New York City at the Misfits 25th anniversary show. I was wide eyed and naive and had been booking shows on and off since the later part of the 1990s, basically throughout my high school years. What drew me to the Misfits was 3 things: punk rock, horror, and they were from the town I grew up in. But as I watched that show, I was a little disappointed. It was shortly after the Newfits era had disbanded and it seemed more like a 3 ring circus than it did a show or a band really. I thought to myself, I know a handful of bands that do this same style but do it better than this incarnation. What if I put a punk festival together with an emphasis on horror punk. And so I got back home and started working from there.
The 2012 edition was supposed to be a one off as a farewell to Blitzkid. What was the driving force to continue the festival?
2012 was supposed to serve as the send off to GNO I never got to give as well as a send off to Blitzkid. The show itself was so successful that year that I was reignited to do the show again, I saw the success to the show that I hadn't seen before. With the advent of social media we reached a whole new audience that we hadn't before. So it was off to the races for us again.
Speaking of 2012, you introduced the Space Ghoul. Were you expecting people to accept him as the mascot of the festival and has all this attention gone to the space bastard’s head?
Space Ghoul, now there's an interesting character. He started as just a drawing in 2012, and then he turned into a phenomenon all his own. He has been associated with GNO like the Crimson Ghost is with the Misfits or Eddie with Iron Maiden. He's a pushy, drug abusing, hooker fucking, Taylor ham addicted dick bag that often times gets you in more trouble than you want. For a time he lived with me, then JV Bastard, last year we tricked him into staying with Liz Gruesome when GNO returned to North Carolina the point of origin of GNO. We left him with Liz, I haven't heard much from him since then. I think she keeps him in her garage. Rumor has it she sent him to Daniel Madden of Maddens Monsters, who has done some awesome sculpt work for the Misfits and Doyle recently, and he held him hostage and made Madden sculpt him in some strange playgirlesque poses.
How do you choose bands to be on the bill?
The fans do really. I mean there's obvious geographical considerations I have to take into consideration, I hear people say all the time like "book the Other", we're a small d.i.y. festival and it's not Coca Cola presents GNO. If we had that money and sponsorship I'd love to bring the Other over and have them play. But the problem is: it takes money to get them here, they have to use time off work, then you have to pay them to play. So I try to keep it as realistic as possible, but give the fans what they want to see too.
How about the “Songs to Murder…” cds? How do you choose the best tracks to be on there?
I just try to feature bands that are up and coming in the genre, bands that are on the show, or in some cases a song that I'm like wow this song is great.
I read that this was the final GNO. Now, I know it can’t be easy to run as it can be both financially and time consuming but, is the casket closed or, like most horror villains, is there a chance it will come back again one day?
To be honest GNO is part of who I am, it's what I do. It's hard to shake. But with the current state of my life, I have to focus on my other top priority: family. I have an amazingly supportive girlfriend (PoiSin Herself) who dedicates her time to the show as well. I have to be honest, it strains our relationship at times. But we work through it. There's things the two of us want to achieve personally, and this show takes up our free time. We also have to find time to be parents as well, so it becomes an insane juggling act. I suspect it won't be the final GNO ever, as we have seen huge success in the mini 6 band GNOs we've been running this year so that may be something we look into.
There's a bunch of bands I want to work with. I could rattle them off, but I think we'd be here for days.
Any backstage stories that you would or can share from past GNOs? Anything funny?
In 2013, right before Argyle Goolsby's solo set there was some tension in the air backstage over things not going as they were planned. Gools himself was having a moment, and was upset because he's a showman and wants to give the fans the best show he can and things were unfolding differently than planned. That being said he was agitated, and walked by me saying something but I couldn't help but laugh at him. It was a hot sticky August evening, he's dressed in full on corpse paint, contacts etc. And his one contact had managed to move so he looked extremely mad and cross eyed at the same time and I just had a white girl moment and basically stood there and was like "I can't even." It was just one of those scenarios where you kinda stand back and just let that take you back to reality and say hey fuck it we're a buncha dudes who like Halloween too fucking much...let's go have some fun.
As the mad scientist who created this monster, what inspires you (Music, movies, books etc)? What got you into this music?
As far back as I can remember I was drawn to Halloween. Even as a kid. I remember being around 5 or 6 years old and throwing a hiss fit because I wanted to walk the dog dressed as the devil in the middle of July. So even at a young age I was drawn to monsters. I don't know why, just one of those things. As I got into my teenage years, I was drawn to punk rock. It's eclectic, outspoken, but there's a unity there. Then I found the Misfits, who merged my two favorite things and I just had this boner of epic proportions. Then I started doing research on my new found favorite band and found out they were from the same town I grew up in, in New Jersey and needless to say I was instantly growing a devilock out.
What is your current assessment of the scene from when you first got into it?
It definitely reaches a wider audience than it did in the early part of the 2000s. That much has vastly changed. As the internet has evolved you're put in touch with these people who are into the same things you're into and it makes everything that much cooler cause you can connect with these people. That being said, this scene in comparison to other scenes within the subgenres of punk, takes itself to serious at times. Keep the politics to Crass and Discharge, don't call someone a poser cause they like music other than horror punk. There's way too few of us for that. Embrace someone cause they take the time to be part of it. No one person is greater than the next in the scene. Every single person involved from being a fan, a band member, a promoter, a blogger, a photographer, are all intricate nuances that help make this what it is. At the end of the day it's about passion and devotion, you get out of it what you put into it. So if you want to play judge and jury and take sides and say who is or who ain't horror punk, you're missing the fucking point entirely. Appreciate the fact that there's someone out there who relates to the same things you do. Don't condemn them for it cause they don't like everything you like. I remember back in the day before social media, I was stoked to talk to people on message boards about the Misfits and Samhain, cause there were these people who were into the same shit as me from all over. Be stoked over things you have in common!
As a fan of this genre, what new bands have you excited? What do you think people should check out?
I gotta be honest, spending so much time immersed in horror culture, burns me out from it. For example when driving to GNO, I often end up listening to anything but horror punk just because I'm going to be surrounded by it for 16-17 hours. Now that being said there are still horror punk bands that get me excited, The Stellar Corpses do what they do extremely well and are very high energy. Same thing for Black Cat Attack, they moved away from focusing on the stereotypes and just tried being a punk band with horror tones. Which is good, don't box yourself into a certain style! Being punk gives you a wide variety, you don't have to try to sound like Blitzkid or the Misfits. Try to sound like Nofx, lagwagon, pears, gallows and write horrorish lyrics around that. That's what would get me super excited again.
Is there any new releases (music, movies, etc.) that you are looking forward to?
The Ghouls Night Out dvd! Hahaha. That thing has been on consistent pain in my ass since day 1. There are so many things that have gone wrong along the way with it and we are still working out kinks. Our latest stumbling block hit us a month ago and we're trying to figure that out now. I just wanna get it out there so people don't think I took their money and ran. It's real. It exists. I assure you. It's just been very problematic and I assure you we're doing our best to have it ready at least in downloadable form, in time for GNO. Fingers crossed.
Thank you once again for this honor. Are there any parting words for the readers?
Long live the horror and eat all your vegetables.
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