Interview with Dan of Rip Head

 RIP HEAD

INTERVIEW WITH DAN GATES, GUITARIST, VOCALISTS OF RIPHEAD , DONE BY PATRICK SCHROEDER

What’s up brother in brutality? Please tell the underground a little about yourself.

*My name is Dan Gates and I am a member of the band Riphead. I play guitar and up til a few weeks ago I was the vocalist also. We recently added Andrew Parrish to the band to handle the vocals.

Before Riphead you were in the Mighty Ton. Why did the band break up? If any one reading this is interested, do you have any merchandise for Ton available?

*To make a long complicated story short, I think what it came down to was that our bass player decided that he didn’t want to play with me anymore. He wanted to continue on with Kevin our drummer and change the name of the band. In the end they weren’t able to find someone to replace me, so Kevin and I started jamming without Jeff. I do still have copies of the Blind Follower/Point Of View and the Plague cd’s. I also have Ton t-shirts and long sleeves.

After the demise of Ton, was it long before Riphead formed?

*It was probably about a year until we found bass player and actually called ourselves Riphead. Kevin and I started playing together about 7 or 8 months after Ton split up.

Does the band get to practice very often? Are the neighbors cool or do you have to worry about them calling the cops?

*Lately we have been practicing twice a week. We practice in an old school house so we don’t have to worry any neighbors. The guy that owns the building lives there so we cant play late at night. When we practice we don’t have to worry about volume at all, we crank it up as aloud as we want. It’s awesome our room is one of the old classrooms so we have plenty of space.

How long does it usually take the band to write a song? For those in the u.g who have not heard Riphead, how would you describe your sound?

*If we work something consistently it usually takes a couple of weeks. Lyrically I write about everyday life. Sometimes it’s my own experiences or thoughts about the subject. Pretty much all of the lyrics that I have written have been about something real. I have never written about anything fictional. We are a heavy band, I consider us a death metal band but we try to add some elements of the music that are not typical of most death metal bands. And I don’t mean a bunch of melodic wimpy shit either.

What merchandise does the band have available? I believed you mentioned a possible split cd with Drogheda.

*We are doing a split cd with Drogheda. It was sent out to be pressed the first of September so it should be done before anyone even reads this. We will have 6 songs on the cd and I am not sure how many song Drogheda will have. We plan to put something together ourselves to distribute in the underground. We want to put like 9 songs on it. Everything is ready recorded, we just have to mix 3 more songs.

How long have you played guitar? Who are some of your biggest influence? Do you play any other instruments?

*I started playing guitar about 14 years ago. I first started playing 1989 and back then I thought Metallica was the best band in the world. That was my biggest influence back then. I would sit around the house playing Metallica riffs all day. Nowadays I’m influenced by anything that is heavy. I just love heavy music. the only instrument I play is guitar.

I remember to back in mid-to late 90’s Ohio has a godly metal [specially in brutal death, grindcore areas] how is the scene today? Any band you think the u.g should watch for?

*Yeah there were a lot of bands coming out of Ohio back then. The scene is ok, people come out to support bigger bands. If someone puts together a show with some good local bands and it gets some good promotion enough people will show up to make it worthwhile. Some good bands from our area Soulless, Enthrall, Pummelhog, Fully Consumed [Jeff bass player from Ton his new band]

In your opinion what is the best and worst thing about the underground?
*The best thing is the number of really great bands. The level of musicianship is just better than it’s ever been. I really don’t know what the worst thing is. There are negative aspects to everything but I guess you just have to deal with them.

When not working on the band related stuff, what do you enjoy during spare time?

*I spend time with my wife and my step son, ride my Harley ever chance I get. I also play in a baseball league.

Well man I am out of questions. Thank you for doing the interview, do you have any final comments?

*Thank you very much for taking interest in the band. Look for the split with Drogheda. Check out some of our songs at www.soundclick.com/riphead get in touch with the band at: ripheadmetal@yahoo.com