Haastattelussa New Hampshiresta kotoisin oleva horrorcore-räppäri Spooky Skareflow. Hän on tehnyt urallaan yhteistyötä muun muassa Marsin, Doc Gruesomen, xSHY361x:n, Gruesomen ja Razakelin kanssa.
- Happy Halloween, Spooky Skareflow! How are you today?
I’m doing pretty good tonight. I hope you are doing well as well.
- So, let’s start at the beginning. Where are you from? What was life like growing up?
I’m originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, but now I’m living in Nashua, New Hampshire. Life wasn’t too crazy for me. I was very much someone who would be labeled as an introvert, and that has stayed with me since then. I was always a kind of loner type of person.
- What were your earliest memories of music, and who did you grow up listening to?
Due to being epileptic, I don’t really have the best memories to recall, but I do remember my dad was huge into ’80s rock like Van Halen and Aerosmith. My mom listened to a little bit of everything, while my brother was more into hip hop and rap at the time. I was more into heavier music.
- When did you start making music, and what’s the story behind your artist name?
The first time I was making music, I want to say, was when I was in my late teens to early twenties. It was in my friend’s living room with a super ghetto studio setup, rapping over some Necro beats that I got off the internet.
This can be answered in two parts. The first part of my artist name, Spooky, was my original artist name, and it’s self-explanatory. I was always the spooky goth kid in my high school. I eventually added on the Skareflow part because the music world had so many artists using the name Spooky, and I wanted to stand out from the rest of the crowd.
The Skareflow part comes from me sitting at home one night listening to Grewsum & J Dogg’s “Scarecrows.” I’ve always been a massive nerd when it comes to Grewsum music. I love his alter ego, Donnie Darkflow, and to pay homage to him, I put the two together to get Skareflow, and it just clicked. I did end up asking him for permission to use that, because it was very close to the Darkflow name, and he was 100% fine with it, which is always awesome in my eyes because I’ve been a fanboy of his music for many years.
- What does your creative process look like?
Honestly, it’s a weird one. I normally just flip around beats on my hard drive until something clicks with me. The part that most people find weird is that when I do my horrorcore songs, I have to be in a good mood and upbeat feeling. It’s kind of messed up because most have to be upset or angry, etc. I, on the other hand, have to be in a positive mood in order to write these twisted and dark songs.
- How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?
I don’t really have a sound per se, to be honest. I just jump on whatever I feel fits the mood of the track; it could be ghetto metal inspired, classic boom bap, G-funk, and phonk style beats. I never wanted to cement myself into one certain sound, besides my lyrics being dark and horror-themed.
- You just released your new single ‘Bxthes Gotta Die’. How has it been received so far?
It’s doing pretty well, and a good amount of people enjoy it.
- How did you end up working with Mars?
I’ve been a fan and online promoter for Mars since back in the Myspace days, and it finally worked out where we were able to link up this year. He was super chill with me, and we connected well. I really enjoy a lot of his music and wanted to have him do a track where we hit his Mars Attacks/School Glock days with an update. Thanks to BankHardBeats.com, we were able to nail that 100%.
- Who is your favorite artist you have worked with so far?
I love a lot of the artists I have worked with over the years, but in my personal opinion, my favorite track I did at least this year to this point was with Doc Gruesome. We both killed the song “Psychopathic Murderahz,” and the homie Lapze FX killed the lyric video for it as well.
- What’s your take on the horrorcore rap scene at the moment?
I would say it’s very much alive and kicking.
- What are you currently listening to?
Doc Gruesome, Salem Alumni, OddProphet, Illtrix, Komatose, Grewsum, Sinizter, D.E.A.N (Destiny Everything And Nothing), Mars, and Madd Maxxx. There’s more, but those are just some names off the top of my head that I played in the last 24 hours.
- What is your favorite Halloween movie to watch and why?
“Ernest Scared Stupid.” If you know about Ernest, you will understand why. For those of you who don’t, look up Ernest P. Worrell.
- If you could make your own horror movie, what would it be about?
I’m a huge fan of Komatose, so I thought it would be cool to make a slasher movie about him, seeing he has given out so much information about his music persona throughout the years in his music. I think that would be pretty cool to make a horrorcore legend turn into an actual slasher villain.
- If you could taste human flesh, would you? How would you cook it?
Probably not, haha. I’m not sure how I would cook it either, to be honest. Humans are quite filthy, and yeah, I’m not a germaphobe, but the idea of eating human flesh doesn’t support that statement.
- Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
I do enjoy doing photography things. I don’t put a ton of time into it, as well as some basic photo editing and artwork type covers. It’s not something I normally do, but I enjoy it from time to time just on a smaller level.
- Do you have any projects coming up that you can talk about?
I will give you the full exclusive on this. I haven’t even mentioned it anywhere else. I have two EPs I’m currently working on at the same time. One is produced by Bank Hard Beats, and one is produced by Netuh Beats. Both of them will not have any features, and both of them will be in the phonk genre. There’s also a bunch of solo singles and collab singles I’m working my way through.
- Any final words to our readers?
Thank you for reading this interview! Go and check out all the amazing artists I mentioned above. The fastest way to find my music and all the links together is to go to www.spookyskareflow.com.
Haastattelu: J-P / Fileerausveitsi
