March 29, 2024
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BAD MiND Interview (7/14/14)

BAD MiND is back to wreak havoc in the underground! His first release was 2001’s Worship, which resulted in a cult following and even Michigan’s Menacide became a fan.
He helped run Splattermusic during it’s last year. The site is long gone, but it was the main hub for coverage of the dark side of Hip-Hop and helped pushed the careers of Halfbreed, Bedlam (Founded by Strange Music’s Prozak), Q-strange, KGP, L.U. Cipha, Mad insanity and more! New York’s Cage even posted on it’s forums.

BADMiND2

BAD MiND

Chad T. Carsten: What is the story behind Splatter Music and it’s demise?

BAD MiND: It all started with a friend dubbing a copy of I.C.P.’s “Riddlebox” album for me back in high school (the recordable CD-R media had not come out yet). I was listening to a lot of rock music at the time (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, White Zombie, etc.) but I also listened to a lot of rap, one of my favorite albums early on being Bone Thugs ~n~ Harmony – E. 1999 Eternal. I was always drawn to darker kinds of music, regardless of genre. When I heard “Riddlebox” it totally captivated me at the time, and I would soon go out to seek more. This was around the time when “The Great Milenko” was about to be released. Going through I.C.P.’s old back catalog I would discover Esham, who is someone I was even more intrigued by. A couple years later I would finally have a computer of my own, and I started searching for more of this kind of music on the internet. I eventually ran into Splattermusic, which was at the time just an Angelfire.com hosted site with a real rough design. It was ran by my homie Shea and his girlfriend (at the time) Jill. This is where I first discovered the likes of K.G.P. and Q-Strange amongst a few others. I was getting heavy into graphic design on my own at the time, and after chopping it up with the owners I offered to redesign the site from the ground up. I had it looking pretty slick, and expanded upon the idea of the site and basically turned it into an official site for each artist featured on it. Outside of the guestbook and chatroom, there would be a main news page when you first entered, and a drop down box to the side where you can pick from a list of artists. Click the one you want to know about, and the site would change color schemes to match up with the artist. They would have their own news, bio, audio streams, links to purchase albums etc. Over time everyone involved kind of moved on to other things, and I was the last person left to maintain and update it. I had some nice new hosting going for free for a little over a year, but the company changed policy and got rid of the free stuff so my site pretty much got shut down as I didn’t have any money to put into it to keep it going. It was also very time consuming. When the site closed down, Horrorcore.com was a month old. So I said fuck it and it was over with.

Chad T. Carsten: For the new peeps finding out who BAD MiND is, what year/age did you decide to rock the mic and why the horror approach?

BAD MiND: I started writing when I was 14-15 here and there, nothing too serious. And I started dabbling around on little drum machines and such when I was 16. I got more serious with it as time went on, by the time I was 17 I managed to save up enough to get my first major piece of gear, the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler workstation (some guys still use this thing TODAY). The following year I took all of my money I had saved from being a dish bitch and got from my family for high school graduation, and bought the pieces I needed to start recording on my computer (Rode NT-1 mic, a digital Fostex mixer, and an Echo Mia soundcard). As I’ve said before, I’ve always been attracted to darker kinds of music so it was natural to make it myself. I was also doing a lot of LSD at the time, so I’m sure that played an influence… acid rap FOR REAL. In 2001 I started recording my first project, “Worship”, that’s where it all officially began.

Chad T. Carsten: The origin of the name BAD MiND and how did growing up living in Chicago and Indiana influence you as an recording artist?

BAD MiND: I pretty much grew up in the hood in the southside of the city, it was rough but it wasn’t too bad. It’s definitely gotten worse over the years, a lot of gang violence. But this is when Bone Thugs first dropped, and you would see their videos get played on The Box cable music channel non-stop. I probably seen every one of their early videos like 20 times a day. Looking back I’d have to say they are officially my first favorite rap group, the dark atmospheres of “Creepin’ On Ah Come Up” and “E. 1999” would play a huge influence on me (DJ Uneek, you are a beast). Moving to Indiana when I was half way through 7th grade would flip my world upside down. It was the total opposite of where I came from and was used to. I would eventually get labeled a satanist and would-be murderer, because of the music I listened to and the way that I look. So I created what they wanted me to be… The name BAD MiND just came to me one day long ago and it stuck, even before getting into making music on my own. It stems from the idea that even the most goody-two shoe people on this planet have an evil or demented thought once in awhile. I didn’t even know about the Jamaican term until way later on, but it seems to follow a bit of that same idea.

Cover art for BAD MiND's "Worship"

Cover art for BAD MiND’s “Worship”

Chad T. Carsten: 2001’s Worship is regarded as an underground classic! Can you give fans a history lesson behind the making of the album, story behind album cover and any life experiences that influenced the lyrics heard on Worship?

BAD MiND: The title track “Worship” was the first full song I ever recorded on my new digital gear (before that there was only experiments on a friends 4-track cassette recorder). I was just making beats and writing songs, nothing super thought-out. The album cover (the original, not the brown turd ass reprint with art I didn’t handle) was just me finding cool images (usually religious) and photo-shopping stuff up in neat ways to make you look at it carefully to find the little things I put in there. The main life experience behind it was me saying, “OK, so this is how this society see’s me? Then I will give them what they are looking for.” And LSD. The track “Murder Mass” was written on a napkin at work while I was totally fried one night. It’s probably why a lot of the delivery on it sounds so sporadic at times, I was just jotting stuff down and making it work to my best abilities in the moment. People regard it as a classic, I fucking hate it I think that album sucks. But I suppose there is a couple songs here and there that still get my attention a little and take me back to that place in time. Most notable being on the reprint with “Tainted”. I think that was the first really emotional kind of song I ever put together, and it had a great deal of influence on people. For some, it’s the reason they even started making music.

Chad T. Carsten: First initial reaction when Menacide gave you props and invited to you be on the very firstDevilz Nite release in 2003?

BAD MiND: I wasn’t invited. I had no internet at the time (for a few years beyond as well). I was going to the library to hop on the boards and see what’s going on real quick once in a great while. I think he just threw me on there. He found me through my old bad-mind.com website, after we started talking I turned him onto horrorcore.com and the rest is history from there. Speaking of, I haven’t heard from him in quite sometime now, I hope he’s doing alright with whatever he may be up to these days.

Chad T. Carsten: Details behind friendship with Michigan’s Simken Heights and will their be new tracks betweenthe both of you?

BAD MiND: Back in the Splattermusic days, when everyone was using ICQ chat program, somebody on there got me Cap One’s info one day. I was real big on the old Simken releases when I discovered them. I got a hold of him and he said he was pretty much retired… I talked him into coming back and did the album art for “Parafanalia”. I got back in touch with him recently, but need to get a chance to chop it up some more. Far as tracks, who knows. We’ll see.

Chad T. Carsten: Around 2009, you decided to switch from Horror to Industrial, Why the industrial route and fans reaction’s to the new sound at the first Strictly For The Wicked?

BAD MiND: I was doing whatever felt right. At this point (like now) I was old news and forgotten about. People in general slept on it and didn’t really give it a chance, as social media starting turning things into a popularity contest. When I debuted it at the first Strictly For The Wicked show in 09, I played to a crowd of stares and dropped jaws. It made me nervous, I would think to myself for a second “Am I performing alright? Am I fucking up?”. But when I finished with “Rain Drops” and started to make my way back behind the curtain, I heard a huge roar and was assured that I did just fine when I heard that. I sold around 50 copies of the album that night, the other 30 I had pressed took months to get rid of online. It was still a BAD MiND album to the core, and was spawned from a very dark moment in time of my life. I was dealing with a lot of rappers at the time being a producer and needed some change. It was an album I always wanted to make since the beginning.

BAD MiND

BAD MiND

Chad T. Carsten: Recently you have decided to go back to your horror roots and dropped two brand new singles.
What sparked to rising back up into the horror scene?? Will the industrial sound still be explored?
And can you give us a little background behind the brand new tracks “Murda Man” & “Darkness”.

BAD MiND: I truly had no intentions of coming back. Ever. My body has been going through some bullshit over the past couple of years but I’ve finally been doing a lot better. I once again hit that need to do something different, and started production a style of electronic music called Hardcore. It has it’s roots in the states but is way bigger overseas. Very in your face, high bpm, full of distrotion type of stuff that I love. People kept asking about it on and off every so often, and I would shoot down the idea everytime. But, I don’t know, I caught a little spark just a few weeks ago and said fuck it, let me take one of my productions and write a song, see how it turns out. And the reception seems to be good so far, but I’m struggling like a brand new artist with it, it’s a lot harder to be heard these days… the fans love me, the artists hate me, and I hardly get help from either. But I’m dedicated to keep going with it, it’s feeling like the right thing for me to do. This will be going back to the roots, no industrial or techno going on, just evil flows over hard beats. The wickedshit will never die!

[youtube width=”560″ height=”344″]http://youtu.be/9YXQO_lUaN8[/youtube]

Chad T. Carsten: Fans have noticed a mention of an EP? What kind of content can the fans of the classic BAD MiND expect from this EP? Any plans for music video’s or shows?

BAD MiND: I’m working on it right now. There is no set release yet and I’m still in the early stages with everything, but I am aiming for an October release. For fans of the classic BAD MiND, this is the true evolution of that. This is the release you’ve been waiting for all these years. It MIGHT get released through another label, I’m in some talks right now but nothing is final so that’s all I will say. As far as music videos or shows, all of that will come another time in the future as I’m just focusing on creation right now. Just keep an eye on the Facebook page (facebook.com/badmindrap), it’s where all the news hits first.

Chad T. Carsten: What is the difference between releasing music in 2001 and releasing music in 2014? How much has changed?

BAD MiND: Everything. And it will continue to change. It used to be a lot easier to make money back then. People just expect everything for free now, it makes it tough to get that start with things. But it’s just how the times are, those that want to support always will in one way or another, and I am very thankful for the ones that have already bought my first two singles off CD Baby, iTunes, etc., even if it’s just a few of you right now. Every little bit helps so I can put more right back into it. If you want to see things happen beyond this release, now is the time to jump on and help support it. Buy a song, it’s only a dollar!

Chad T. Carsten: Digital Vs Physical, what do you prefer?

BAD MiND: While I still like checking out the booklets and artwork on physical CD’s, 9 out of every 10 albums I’ve bought over the past few years have been digitally. I don’t have a preference to either, but I don’t mind doing the digital as long as I can get it at higher bit-rates. Support the stuff you like! Otherwise those people will stop making it!

Chad T. Carsten: Top 5 Horrorcore releases and why

BAD MiND: Fuck… in no particular order

Esham – Closed Casket
K.G.P. – Necrology
Simken Heights – Religion Of The Beast
Gravediggaz – 6 Feet Deep
Insane Clown Posse – Riddlebox

Looking back, those were probably some of the most influential on me all those many moons ago.

 

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