Local musician and spicy food enthusiast, Terrance Williams, grabbed a beer with me not long ago, to chat a little bit about his band Occvlt Hand, and a charity fundraiser he’s been brewing up for a while now. He knows me well, and it takes him seconds to see that I’m no professional.
Terrance Williams: So do you have questions lined up for this thing?
Andre: Not really. Did you want to start with more of the Occvlt Hand stuff, and then segue into the show?
T: Sure.
A: Alright, give me the low down. Occvlt Hand has been together for what, three years?
T: Two and a half years. Sean (Kaye-Guitar) played in another band called Disillusioned. He got me to do guest vocals on one of their first recordings. Him, Adrian (Meijn-Drums), and Tyler (Devlin-Bass) had been jamming since high school. They’re all from Lorette. I guess they started writing some heavier, doomier, type of stuff and they needed to find a singer, and Sean asked me. I met Sean when I played in Half Dead Husky. He came to a bunch of our shows and we sort of
befriended each other back then. He sent me this really poor recording of a cell phone through a text message. One of the riffs was really good, so I figured ‘yeah, I’ll do this’. Then when we started jamming.
A:It didn’t suck?
T: Yeah! I had never met Adrian or Tyler before, and we got along really well. It turned out to be really fun. We wrote about six songs and then played our first show at the Ellice Theatre and it was just terrible. Not really on our end, just, everything.
A: Just a crummy show.
T: Yeah. That was the first time Adrian and Tyler had ever played a show too, so I had to kind of convince them that, well ‘No, they’re not all like this’. (Both laughing) ‘This can be fun, I promise you’.
A: Since then you guys have put out a couple of E.P’s right?
T: We put out the Devils Work E.P. within the first six months of being together. A few weeks ago we put out Long Live The New Flesh, just as a single to tide ourselves over. In a couple of weeks we’re going back to record a full length with Jordan Voth. It’s exciting. It’s been a long time since I’ve played in a band that’s actually done a full length, and wanted to put it out on vinyl and all of that.
A: You’ve mentioned to me in the past that it’s kind of the first time doing a lot of this for some members of the band.
T: Pretty much, except for Josh. After about a year we got Josh Bedry, from Electro Quarterstaff and El Diablo in the band. Our sound was just a little bit empty only having the one guitar player. Josh was one of my roommates at the time. I just kind of said ‘Hey do you know anybody that wants to play guitar in this band’? He said he would do it, and I thought ‘Well, that was easy. That’s where I was going to go with this anyways’.
A: It definitely sounds a lot more full with the two guitars playing off of each other now. As for the group as a whole, do you guys have anything else in the works? Maybe touring? Or just focusing on studio time for now?
T: Well, hopefully next summer we can get out on the road. Sean’s in school, and Tyler just graduated, he’s an Engineer. It’s definitely been tough working around everyone’s schedules. So, hopefully next year we’ll be able to get on the road for a while. At least for a week or two. It’s been awhile for me, and it’ll be nice for the other guys who haven’t done it before.
A: Beauty. Well, let’s get into this fundraiser show you’re working on setting up.
T: I’m calling it PARTY For a Purpose. The money is going to be given to the R.A.Y. Drop-In Center, and an association called Imagine Mental Health Matters. A friend of mine lost his best friend to suicide, and his mom started up this charity. I recently found out about it, and it’s really cool. I’ve been speaking with them through e-mails and they’re on board with the event, and that’s awesome.
A: It’s obviously one of the worst things that can happen, but if family and friends can kind of create something positive or constructive after the fact, it’s a big deal.
T: Yeah for sure. And just in the last couple of years myself and a lot of the people I know have lost too many people to suicide.
A: It’s something that, unfortunately, is kind of prevalent in the circles we’re all involved with. Whether it be artists of any kind, or just individuals that haven’t ever had the easiest of times. It’s still such an unspoken thing too. You’d think in the year 2016 there would be so much more open dialogue about this stuff. Even for a person just to be willing to acknowledge to themselves that maybe shit is really heavy, and that it’s okay to talk to somebody about it. Whether it’s a friend, or a doctor.
T: Definitely. In the band, we have this song called Michael. The song is about a friend of mine who took his own life several years ago. It took me a long time to feel comfortable performing it. I wrote it for a previous band, and I re-wrote it for this one. I’m able to talk about it on stage, and people listen. The first time we ever played that song was at a hardcore show at the Handsome Daughter. I went on a two or three minute rant and then we played the song. It was really hard to get through. When we were done I was standing at the bar, and this guy I had never seen before in my life came up to me and said ‘You know Man, I gotta give you credit for going up there and pouring out your heart like that’. It’s just good to do that. I mean, nobody does that in the scene. I’m just sick of metal bands trying to be super macho. I’m a pretty honest, and a pretty emotional guy, so why would I try to portray anything else when I’m performing? Anyways,this guy told me about a friend of his and we ended up having a cry and hugging it out at the bar. It was a really unique moment.
A: That’s not something you’re going to see at a lot of at metal or hardcore shows. Where the general attitude is to be super tough and impenetrable. As for this fundraiser, what can we expect? who’s on the bill?
T: Occvlt Hand, Dead Ranch, Filthy Animals, Charlie Fettah, Aceta, and Alex Guidry from Elder Abuse, who’s going to be doing a solo acoustic set. It’s going to be hosted by comedian Tyler Penner. There’s going to be art for sale to from artists like Steve McConnell and Wes Harcus. The proceeds from that will be going to charity as well. It’s all going down Friday September 30th, at the Handsome Daughter. I haven’t done anything like this before, so I’m really excited.
If it works out I’m going to do a whole bunch of these. I’d like to do it quarterly, like every three or four months or something. And to keep the content really diverse too. If anybody wants to get in touch with me, to donate or maybe if they have a cause they’d like to put something together for, or if they have a project they’d like to be a part of one of these shows, they can e-mail me at [email protected]