Well folks, it is hastily closing in on that most awesome holiday of the year, Halloween. The air gets a bit colder and crisper, and everyone decorates their stores, houses and whatnot in horror themes and pretends they are into that sort of thing all year, which we all know is bullshit. And for some reason we hand out a ton of candy to our already overweight and spoiled child population. Some at this time of year will even weave tales of things returning from the dead or awakening from a long ancient slumber to wreak havoc upon the living. Let me tell you a tale of an 80's Thrash band that has now after well over fifteen years of lying dormant below the cold ground, come back to rip you to shreds with their music once again! Yes folks, I'm talking about the mighty and legendary Hallows Eve! If you were alive and kicking in the Metal scene at all in the 1980's, you've no doubt at least heard of them, and more than likely owned an album or two of theirs. Join me as I try and pen the past, present and future deeds of the band as I sit and chat with Hallows Eve Bassist/vocalist and founding member, Tommy Stewart.

Tommy: First I've got to say that I laugh at my own interviews later! There is some contradicting myself and it happens because I only felt that way that day, perhaps never again. I'm nuts! But that's how we all are really, isn't it? Like I said in one interview that no one still plays music that was in Hallows Eve. That's almost true but not after I thought about it later. Tom Knight is doing very well! He was our drummer on the Monument tour. He then went on to play for years with TLC, the R&B bunch. You know, 'Waterfalls'. That's him. Oh yeah, the question! I'm on bass and vocals, Skully is on guitar and vocals and that's the original members. My favorite drummer, Dane Jensen is on, well, drums, and the determined albeit young Brandon Ottinger is on guitar! Hooray!

Tommy: It is the longest actual lineup! Okay, it's all about the math. You can see who plays with us on our web site www.hallowseve.org where it lists our members. Now Tym Helton, drummer, spent a year and a half with the band, but in broken time. And it, well, you know, I'll slow down. People, it's on the web site. The point really is that some fans enjoyed a certain lineup or another. Some call a lineup the classic one and such. The lineup now, made an album, and I hope to make a fifth album with that bunch. If so, it will be the first time the same group made two albums in this band. I'm not picking on anybody, but is Iron Maiden not valid because they only have two original members? Does Cannibal Corpse have any original members? I love both bands, by the way.

Definition. A band is an idea, an attitude, a collective work that takes on it's own life. It's a living creative creature. The members are just the workers, the germs that carry the disease, and so on. Hallows Eve lives because fans associate with something about it that touched them or reminds them of a time in life. The members will come and go, but the songs live in the hearts and minds of people. Sappy, yet true.

Tommy: I'll try to tell it short. The constant member changes took it's toll, but I tried to march on. Losing David and Stacy was something I never thought would happen. They were both great guys, underrated in their day! Anyway, the tension got a little tight for Metal Blade as well. I mean, we had this wonderful time for years, then we started a new long term contract and poof! "Tommy create a band wouldja!" That was my new job and no matter what it seemed impossible to satisfy me or the label. So despite some good players plus plenty of shows, I asked to be dismissed by the label in '93 and dropped the whole idea in '94. It just wasn't there! On the other hand it kind of worked out good as it was prime time to raise my daughter, Ariel. Ten years on, ten years off, see ya, gotta raise a kid anyway. It was right and good.

Tommy: Well, I still tried to start Hallows Eve over and over. It was like my hot rod wouldn't start and I'm just cranking it and tinkering till it starts again. First two years in Skully's band, Lestregus Nosferatus, then a year of writing, took some lessons, then played in a hard rock band for three years, Fragile X, then restarted Hallows Eve. Daughter is twenty! Skully finally found a drummer. Our old sound man Frank grew one! That's Dane Jensen. And people are beginning to call me with, "Can you play now? Can you play now?" One guy, Steve Cannon, called me every other day for four months, swearing he can sing, and I said, "No, No, No, No!" Finally I said okay as there was a show in Europe, Skully was on board, and so on. Steve lasted one show, opened for Exodus, and I took over. He was okay, but if I wanted 'okay' I coulda got me! So I did. It's the conviction of the words, not the technical prowess. I like Jello Biafra much better than "insert guy who cat scream's name here". No matter how much you fluff it, we're not in the opera. It's metal, okay! Don't be so pompous.

Tommy: I tried to get Stacy to come back and bark at you, he wasn't interested so here I am. It would be excellent to have Stacy sing again! He's obviously great, but when I spoke with him it seemed he was happy with his life without being in a band. Anytime he's willing to ride in a van and can stand some rehearsals, he's welcome. Same for David Stuart, he said it was fun but he's over it. Retired and both wished us luck. The door is open and the Website has a contact page. Now I knew that with Skully back, there was going to be some death metal brought in the fold. That was his original reason for leaving. But I talked to him about two things. Can we bring his song, "Vampires Drink Deep" back into the band as it was originally written for Hallows Eve in 1986? It would have been on Death and Insanity, but the others didn't like it. Secondly, after Steve was quitted by us, would he like to experiment and mix in some death vocals with my clearer, but not clear, vocals. Music is for experimenting in my opinion. It's still metal. Who says I must do only this one way? I can do it all. No rules for me! Show some independence, I tell myself. This band was founded on the idea of not fitting in!

Tommy: There was a mix up on the Monument cover and, yes that's Tym Helton's picture, not Rob Clayton. That photo was by Frank White and it was just when we walked off stage at the very first Milwaukee Metal Festival. Rob had red hair. And we don't wear make up. Rob was seventeen years old, went to a performing arts school in Atlanta, our home, at Northside High School. He was a well respected local drummer who played in The Jody Grind and Skin Deep. LeJon, now from Sevendust, introduced us. He died in a car and tractor truck collision on 75 North near Macon. A lot of people miss him. He did play some live shows with us in Canada in 1988. The band owed him $400 for playing on Monument. He never got it. I always remembered that bit, sadly.

Tommy: I think Brian helped us out and got us the movie stuff. Thanks, Brian. Now the rumor we heard is a different story. Keep in mind that River's Edge was based on a true story and the only character who is fictional is Feck, Dennis Hopper's character. I think his character is there to represent a different era and position of thinking. To me the meaning of the film is when Feck is having a conversation with the young killer while harboring him. He explains through manly tears that he is sorry he killed his girl twenty years earlier, admits guilt. The other just blankly stares, shrugs, and says, "your born, you do stuff, then ya die." That showed the contrast of generations and pointed out the apathetic attitude of a new world. Rumor had it we were in it because the killer had our tape in his tape player that day. We don't know. It was an excellent metal soundtrack, though! And an excellent rumor!

Tommy: That movie was Pacific Heights and again we are the killer's favorite band! Michael Keaton is working on his car and we are the band he is listening to on his boom box. Ain't that cool! It's a good mystery film a la Hitchcock. Get it, get it! Another one we were in is called Black Roses and that is entirely a Metal Blade soundtrack. It was real indicative of its time. It's a campy horror movie about a band called Black Roses that comes to town and turns all the kids into monsters at a rock concert! Then the kids all run out into the town and begin killing the parents! So it turns out it's all true, that listening to loud aggressive music does make kids do bad things, ha, ha! I thought it was a hilarious statement of it's day, cynical, satirical, and representative of the parental paranoid fantasies of the eighties. I wonder if it was meant to be all that? Oh, well. That's what came out of it, intended or not. Excellent

Tommy: I didn't want to leave. We had just signed an eight album deal with Monument as the first album! But there was a constant shuffling of members of the band so we were in a constant state of relearning the same songs, some of them new. The shuffling was so often that I had to keep making new recordings and submitting them for approval. On Metal Blade's end they were saying that's not it, that's not it, on and on. The whole time I'm going through a process in my own head, privately, about what is Hallows Eve! Does it, in fact, depend on what the label thinks or what fans think or who is in it? Eventually I decided three things. I don't work for the label, the band is an attitude not dependent on it's members,and that, no offense fans, I'm in the band to express myself as an artist, not you or you. I asked Metal Blade to drop the name so I could own it, not them.

Tommy: I started playing in live rock bands in '77 when the Sex Pistols, Ramones and Runaways were all the rage. That's what I grew on. I accidentally got into metal but it feels natural. I like old prog also, ELP, King Krimson, Yes. All these genres have a thing in common. They are all about independent music making. I mean that it's musicians stating that they are not like you. No, I don't fit. So later, '99 I was in Fragile X, Dogfight, Cranky Bent Bastards, and the all instrumental Gailfoil Stewart. But Hallows Eve is home.

Tommy: The very first one in '85 with Nasty Savage and Slayer on the Hell Awaits tour. That was an exciting time for metal and lots of fun to be on our first trips. Us and Nasty had a ball! Me and Ben Meyer are still in touch. Our second show ever was with Agent Steel, Exodus, Metal Church, and Slayer at the Montreal Metal Fest. The Palladium was huge and there were about 2000 people at this thing. I wish I had a film or video of that show. Hey, anybody out there, send me shows! Our last tour ever with Stacy in '88 had Blind Illusion opening for two months. They became Primus. I didn't know anything about them except their manager, Debbie Abono, and the Possession connection with Larry Lalonde and his girlfriend. Anyway, we were playing in Morgantown, West Virginia and I walked in the front door to play. There was the bass player playing through my stuff. If I had been asked I wouldn't have minded. So, being the mischievous young sprite I was, I just leaned over and, bam, pulled the plug on the whole PA. The soundman freaked! Apparently and I may be wrong, I pulled the plug, Les Claypool. Sorry, but not much.

Tommy: Yeah, they know all about it, but I guess they didn't want to take a chance. Maybe next time! We released it in May and played 6 months of shows, so now we are writing separately for three months before we start rehearsing together again in January. That will be in prep for a fifth studio release. Without going crazy talking about it, I will say that I don't understand how a band whose got a respectable track record like us, whose got free access to a studio for four months, either turned down, got turned down or got ignored by every label. "Hmm, this band sold 100,000 albums, promotes itself and tours. Oh, look, they can record for free! They promote themselves, sell, and cost nothing! Well, well, don't sign that! How will we ever fuck ourselves, our real goal, if we sign that!" This is how I imagine the conversation's going at Hardly a Metal Hit Records or whatever.

Tommy: I like keeping all the money instead of giving it away. Everything else is the same. Independent is easy nowadays, but I still think a real label is set up to help your career better than you. Just demand artistic control. I'm happy.

Tommy: Thank you very much. That was absolutely this band's album. We wrote it without any regard to anything other than does it express us now. I like the production just fine and I say this because there is not a sound or level on there that I didn't approve. We all said yes to everything you hear. The unsung heroes of Evil Never Dies are the guys who provided the studio, Robby Heisner, and especially Chris Gailfoil, the CO-producer and engineer. Chris was the fifth member on this album and should be well respected. I hope to get him for the fifth album also.

Tommy: The thing I think that bothered everyone is the change in vocals. Sorry, Stacy quit 17 years ago. Also we brought back Skullator! The original reason he quit, and we didn't stop him is because of this death metal thing he does. He brought in a new song, '86 mind you, called Vampires Drink Deep and the band didn't like it. Wouldn't let it happen on our new album, Death and Insanity. So he closed his songbook and took it elsewhere. I admire his self belief. Now the way it would have been is back and you can hear what was intended by the original guitarist! Yes, we change. I'm also not skinny anymore and my cat died since then. Can I play music yet? Are there more rules and regulations I'm not following in the club? Not you, Britton. I thought we were just banging heads and everyone was invited! And this album isn't about different aspects of death, it's about different aspects of evil. 'Course it's different. I bet this reads like I'm an asshole but I just know who I am and what I do. Here I am, though. I expect any musician with drive to feel the same.

Tommy: That's so funny! I must hear Macabre! I get told that all the time. Sorry, I know of those bands, but I never listened to them except perhaps they were on in the background at a club or something.

Tommy: That was the album cover I always wanted, man, I love this album! Evil Never Dies has a cover paying tribute to Warren comic styles from the '50's and '60s. That is perfect for this band and was my original idea for Tales of Terror. It's a comic book cover. With Mortuary Harry on the front and little caricatures of us as storytellers, just like old comics. Since we tell a lot of stories in our lyrics, it is appropriate. The artist is Jason Flowers who has his own graphic novel and such. He and Ariel are constantly at comic conventions and that's pretty much their world. Art, art, art. I would not mind if he did some more of his turn of the 20th century noveau stylings that recall old horror comics.

Tommy: God, you're going to kill me. I forgot! And that's metal. Independence and no fear of expression are key. Here it goes. There is a sign on our rehearsal space wall that says that our songs must have "a positive message of personal strength". That is metal.

Tommy: That was so much fun. It was 2 days of 12 hour days of bands. A lot of them were bands I had heard of for years, but never met! So here we are all hanging out for the first time. It was surrealistic to have breakfast with Bob Mitchell, Attacker, and Wild Dogs and former members of Iced Earth, called Unearthed, oh look, Bloodlust guys are out of pancakes! It was weird. Hope we get to do it again.

Tommy: Still in the writing process. I don't know how this one will go. Originally it was to have a twenty minute song on it, but I broke that one up. There may be more piano, but incorporated in the song. There may be a little classical introduced and some acoustic guitar moments.

Tommy: Right now we are not doing shows, we just played our last one a month ago. We all took it home for writing and resting. It's been a long year and a half of this lineup working so we need to sleep and watch cartoons. Looney Toons are best. Ever seen Red Hot Riding Hood?

Tommy: Music pretty much makes me schedule everything including sleep. But I do schedule in some time for home. Family time, I like the zoo, peaceful things. I fish and garden. Grew the crap out of some broccoli last year. Watch old horror movies, playing right now is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the silent with Lon Chaney and produced by Univeral, 1923. I'm such a geek about film. I sit staring into space or looking at, maybe past, my new autograph of Lisa Loring, the real Wednesday Addams. I'm quiet. Cat petting. When you see me next year, the Godzilla in me will have awoke again!

Tommy: Thanks to anyone who got a copy of Evil Never Dies from us. Send us a mail, tell us what you think of it. And thanks for all the support through the years, my life would have been different if not for you.
And thank you, Britton, for such a great conversation. Metal Coven rules!