Welcome To The Front Row Excerpt: SIDE PROJECTS
(from the upcoming book Welcome To The Front Row)
Artists, like most people of the world, aren’t defined by one sole thing. Take Massachusetts hardcore legends Converge for example, a band that has evolved its sound through a multitude of albums but also shares its members in a wide array of other projects. Vocalist Jacob Bannon, aside from running Deathwish Records, has also released solo records under his own name. Bassist Nate Newton plays guitar and lends vocals to both Old Man Gloom and Doomriders and drummer Ben Koller also drums for Mutoid Man, Acid Tiger, United Nations and All Pigs Must Die. Or better yet, my favorite band Deftones, which has seen vocalist Chino Moreno explore electronic textures and melodies in Team Sleep and his recent project Crosses, as well as dreamy post-rock alongside former members of Isis in Palms. Guitarist Stephen Carpenter also plays guitar with members of Cypress Hill in a project called Kush and we were awarded an intimate glance into the soul of former bass player Chi Cheng (RIP) on his spoken word poetry album The Bamboo Parachute.
As an artist there is always the constant gnawing feeling to do more, to be more. Art is about exploration and understanding of the self. Art is about growing and expanding, it is about motion; it is about refusing to become stagnant. And while there are many artists and musicians who do stick to one band or project, that still does not define them as a whole. A side project could be anything outside of your ‘norm’. Maybe you’ve always dreamed of surfing but something has kept you from pursuing that interest, or maybe you’ve always wanted to run a business or be a photographer. Side projects are all about doing something new, they are about stepping outside of the box and adding a new definition to one’s self.
What many would label “ADD”, I would call “creative overload”. My mind is like a constant traffic jam and all the cars are various ideas and dreams, goals and aspirations, caught at a busy intersection, beeping and revving their engines, all trying to make the green light to the other side of the road. Musically, it is hard for me to say no to anything. If someone asks if I’m interested in a project, more likely than not I will find a way to make time for it. It is the artist within me, always looking for new channels and experiences, telling me to go for it. Throughout the years I’ve been involved in countless side projects, some laughable, some halfhearted and others intensely cathartic, but no matter the quality or caliber of the project, all of them contain a degree of self and are an extension my artistic journey.
I: SIR SNIFFS CA$H A LOT
(2001-2002)
Sir Sniffs Ca$h A Lot (Alex Aro)
Hedizit (Jimmy Lantagne)
Lil’ Green Ca$h Machine (Eric Beaubien)
While I would never claim to be a rap fan, I have enjoyed some rap artists throughout the years such as Notorious B.I.G., Death Grips and Tyler, The Creator. Freshman year of high school, when my musical palette consisted solely of nu-metal, I looked down upon rap as senseless rambling about bitches and hoes and loads of money. That type of thinking was the entire basis for Sir Sniffs Ca$h A Lot, a “project” inspired one morning while Jimmy and I were riding the bus to school discussing how much rap was nothing but talentless dribble and much of it sounded the same.
That afternoon, using the microphone on my desktop computer and my brother’s keyboard, we composed our own rap song called “Ruff Ca$h”. I had come up with the moniker of Sir Sniffs Ca$h A Lot, while Jimmy donned the name Hedizit. After writing the lyrics and recording the song, I decided to give a shot at freestyling. The result was song called “Give It Up”, a performance that was both awkward and made me think that perhaps there was some type of talent in the art of rhyming coherent thoughts and ideas on the spot. “Give It Up” made absolutely no sense, jumping from one random line to the next, talking about girls with big titty cups, not fucking your Aunt Mable, getting fat from eating too much food and a lady with cats on her head.
Originally intended to be a joke, soon the project became serious, or as serious as it could be anyway, and over the course of a month we wrote and recorded a total of five songs. Our style was more akin to groups like Run DMC and the Beastie Boys, with Jimmy and me chiming in together on the rhyming words. “Nite Rida” was easily the most racist of the bunch, about thugs riding around on bicycles at night, robbing houses and fucking other men’s wives. “Ghetto Glenn” was an ode to the local comic shop owner in town and “Jack’s Jell-O Jam” concerned Jack Cuneo and our opinion of his guitar skills after kicking him out of Shot Down Sun. On “Jack’s Jell-O Jam” we had Eric Beaubien do a guest appearance and gave him the name of Lil’ Green Ca$h Machine, though all he did on the track was say “party mix” in a comical voice. It didn’t take long for Sir Sniffs Ca$h A Lot to grow old and we stopped writing and recording rap songs. Out of the five songs we recorded, only two have survived to this day, those being “Ruff Ca$h” and “Give It Up”. Thankfully I had burned those to a disc, though I don’t know why the others weren’t as well, before my desktop crashed and I lost everything on it.
II: LANCEROUS TO THY LIGHT
(2001-2002)
Xavier Black (Alex Aro)
The one exception to my small minded nu-metal taste buds freshman year was Cradle Of Filth. Though the band eventually became quite mainstream following their signing to Roadrunner Records and the release of Damnation And A Day, I first discovered them when Midian, which I still consider their finest album, was first released. Matt and I became infatuated with them and fell in love with both Midian and their earlier albums Cruelty And The Beast and Dusk…And Her Embrace. I’d never heard anything like them before. The keyboards and orchestral sounds were epic, the guitar work was darkly melodic and Dani Filth’s vocals were like the true sounds of Hell, especially his insanely high screeches. As such Cradle Of Filth was responsible for inspiring Lancerous To Thy Light.
The idea first came to me during math class. I’d been daydreaming when the name just popped into my head and I began drawing out a fictional magazine ad for the project. Lancerous wasn’t a real word and I knew that, but the name as a whole rolled off the tongue easy and to me it sounded black metal. And much like Dani Filth, I chose a “stage name”, opting for the moniker Xavier Black. In the ad I named the album Grim Death X and that afternoon when I got home I set to work recording the first songs for it.
Originally the idea was to do “keyboard death metal” and basically create eerie soundscapes on the keyboard and scream over it. Mind you I had no inkling of how to actually play the piano nor did I understand music theory or understand the various notes and scales and how they linked together. Instead, I merely found a setting I liked on the keyboard, usually something like a creepy organ sound or a string quartet and just made shit up. The recording process was as simple as opening up Microsoft Sound Recorder and hitting record, the same way Jimmy and I had recorded Sir Sniffs Ca$h A Lot. I’d written out lyrics ahead of time and had them laid out in front of me, but musically, once I hit record, everything was made up on the spot.
The first half of the album was strictly keyboards and vocals. It wasn’t until the sixth song that I decided to throw guitars into the mix. Grim Death X took me approximately three weeks to write and record and featured nine songs. Somehow, with a beginner’s approach to guitar and no true knowledge of keyboards, I had crafted an album over 45 minutes in length, written entirely on the spot. For weeks afterwards I listened to the album privately on my computer. Lancerous To Thy Light was my secret project. I don’t even think I showed it to Matt or Jimmy. I was equally proud of my accomplishment and embarrassed of it at the same time. I didn’t want to show anyone and instead enjoyed it on my own.
(Album cover for Grim Death X)
It wasn’t long before I was ready to do a second album. This one I titled Black Aurora Of Decay and I intended it to be better and longer than Grim Death X. Though it wasn’t much, I felt as if I’d learned a few things during the process of writing and recording the first album that would serve me well for the next one. Black Aurora Of Decay featured keyboards and distorted guitars but also introduced acoustic guitars into the mix on the song “Supernatural Echoes”. “Step Into The Light Of Death” was my epic masterpiece, clocking in at ten minutes and the album as a whole contained ten tracks totaling sixty minutes. Compared to Grim Death X, I felt Black Aurora Of Decay was infinitely better. The album took roughly a month to write and record, again implementing the on the spot process and afterwards I spent days listening to it over and over. I was actually quite proud of that album to the point that I almost wanted to show it off, but instead it remained my sole secret.
(Album cover for Black Aurora of Decay)
For my third album, Year Of The Plague, I wanted to do a full on concept record. The story I had in mind was basically about an early civilization of man naïve to the true evils of the world, living in peace and harmony. Eventually they are invaded by demons when an earthquake opens a portal to Hell and for an entire year the humans battle with the demons, ultimately leading to man’s demise from Earth. The album was actually only going to contain four songs or “chapters” to the story, those being: I. The Tides of Peace II. Demon Entrance III. Year Of The Plague and IV. Epilogue To Death.
(Album cover for Year Of The Plague)
I intended for each song to be long, with “Year Of The Plague” spanning twenty or more minutes, but only managed to record the first track before ceasing with Lancerous To Thy Light altogether. “The Tides of Peace” was a nine minute long acoustic song with some ambient keyboards thrown in, designed to symbolize the harmony of man prior to Hell on Earth. As far as never finishing Year Of The Plague, there was no true reason for stopping. I think I just moved on to other things and eventually the project slipped away. While planning for Year Of The Plague, I also laid the groundwork for a double album, titled Double Delight In Darkness, containing special “remixes”, demos and new songs on one disc and a compilation of my “greatest hits” on the other.
(Album cover for Double Delight In Darkness)
There was only one copy of both Grim Death X and Black Aurora Of Decay burned to CD, mainly because at the time all I had was a shitty external CD burner that only worked when it wanted to. When our computer crashed and I lost everything, all I had were those two discs. Eventually, through carelessness, those discs were lost and aside from the lyric sheets and various drawings I still had, Lancerous To Thy Light essentially no longer existed. It would be interesting now, nearly thirteen years later, to sit down and listen to these albums again. I’m sure most of it would make me cringe, but every now and then I feel the gnawing of loss knowing that it’s gone and forever remains my secret.









