Searching high and low, RockRevolt prides itself on finding the cream of the crop in terms of independent artists. Nobody is more independent than veterans of the Long Island music scene, Wysteria. Within weeks of coming in from Rock USA Festival where they shared the stage with some of the most iconic acts in metal history (Avenged Sevenfold, Breaking Benjamin, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Queensryche, Alice Cooper to name a few), Wysteria released their five song EP, Electroshock Zombie Parade, with which they are introducing the world to their flavor of rock. It is obvious that Wysteria is about to blow up, and we mean in a huge way!
JC Stang, Logan Michaels, Matt Scriva, Eric Hamilton and Vern Boward round out the fivesome that which is Wysteria. They are loud, proud, and about to take the rock community by force (or by Electroshock!). Their EP was produced by world-renowned Eric Rachel who has a worked with some of the biggest metal and rock acts known to mankind, and features Black Label Society’s JD Deservio as a guest musician, making Electroshock Zombie Parade potentially the best EP you will hear all year!
Because of their gusto, perseverance, dedication, and because their music is just that good it needs to be heard, we are ecstatic to name Wysteria Rock Revolt’s Indie Band of the Week!
Hi guys. I’ve been listening to your music for the last couple of days. My favorite so far has been “Gentle Side”.
JC: Oh yeah! That’s usually a favorite. It’s a power ballad.
Vern: We actually have that one on rotation on a big online radio station called Deranged Radio. It’s actually a very requested song. People ask for it all the time on the radio station, so it’s pretty cool.
Absolutely. I can certainly tell that it has a massive commercial appeal that some of the fans of the heavier stuff may not like as much, but the rest of the population would, “Yeah! It’s pretty tight!”
JC: That is true. That song came right from the heart, you know. People can feel that. People feel real.
And people love the ballads!
Vern: That song went over really well in front of the thousands of people at the festival. They did love that one!
I remember you saying that you played in front of 30,000 people at the Rock USA?
Vern: Yeah. It was a little weird too, because in the front of the stage (where in front of any regular stage there would be general admission) they had white lawn chairs. It was VIP, and the stupidest set up. There were like 300 to 400 people in the front, and then behind the VIP were acres of people. All you could see was a people rushing the stage. Setting it up that way robs everybody else from seeing the show up close. Next year they’re going to be changing that format.
JC: The only thing I wish, like Vern said, was that the whole VIP session were general admission. There were a lot of people behind the gate that we wished could be right there, up close and personal with Wysteria, seeing the show just like all those other people in the front. It was wild.
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I’ve been to a couple of festivals and it’s hard for me to imagine that kind of the setup. What was the most exciting thing about that festival?
Vern: The coolest thing was seeing the bands that we love. They were just hanging out with us. Jacoby from Papa Roach gave us a thumbs up after our set. That was awesome. Ben from Breaking Benjamin absolutely loved us. All of these people, loved and respected artists, telling us that we should be signed and are surprised that we are doing this on our own – that was probably the best feeling in the world!
I can imagine. These are the people that you went into music following, and to have them give you that kind of the feedback is very reassuring.
JC: It really was! We got to hang out with the guys from Pop Evil, who are cool as hell. More importantly, we got to hang out with the fans, sign autographs, take pictures. Everywhere we went it was like, “Hey Wysteria! Can we get a picture with you guys?” There’s nothing like it! We are all about the fans. You know the festival, and there’s mass hysteria? Well, we caused “Mass Wysteria!”
JC Stang – WysteriaVery nice! I read that you were Death Glare, but changed to Wysteria. How long have you been playing together?
JC: We’ve been together for over a year. We’ve been out there rocking strong, kicking ass, and doing a lot of big things. We are very excited. They say that when you find the right people, the sky’s the limit! Right now we’re such a strong unit that it’s just amazing. The universe opened up and is giving us what we want, and we feel very fortunate for that.
In reading your bio, Wysteria was named after an abandoned building in the Kings Park Psych Center on Long Island. First off, very interesting history of a name, however, tell me about your relationship with this place. Not that I’m into breaking and entering, but I’ve explored some abandoned buildings in my time…have you all been in there?
Vern: For me, I’m very huge into that: the urban exploring. If anybody goes into a building like that, your mind is going to tell you automatically that it is haunted right off the bat, so you are going to be expecting something. I was at least 14-16 years old when I used to explore that building. I used to take pictures. There are tons of separate buildings there that are connected by underground tunnels. It’s a fun thing to do as a late adolescent. In Long Island there’s not a whole lot to do. There are a lot of silly Jersey Shore Dance clubs, which we are not obviously into. The only thing to do is fish and explore. So, we felt the name was very appropriate for us.
I think you said before that it was a place where they would house the most violent and psychotic patients…
Vern: The criminally insane. The violent of the violent. It was extreme lockdown. I believe it closed down in 1932 and was moved somewhere else. I’ve been inside that building. There are old newspaper articles, laboratory equipment, beakers, chairs… It’s eerie how they just picked up and left it as it was. We used to find artifacts that are 70 years old. It’s really cool.
Have you taken any souvenirs from Wysteria?
Vern: One time I took a toy from the children’s ward. I had my little brother convinced that because I took this thing a vengeful spirit was haunting our house. The typical older brother that I was, I would play tricks on him by writing little things on the wall, hiding stuff. He would get all freaked out, “Vern! You gotta take that back to Wysteria!”
I feel ya! I was the older sister too, and I tormented her to no end. It was great!
JC: Of course, I was the youngest out of my siblings, so I was the one who got tortured.
(laughs) Now we know why you are the way you are! You know what? I liken it to preparing you for the world!
JC: It’s funny, speaking of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, back in the day, my mom was a beautician. Instead of sending the beauticians to cut hair on mannequins, the school sent them to the Kings Park Psych Ward, and they would cut the hair on the psych patients.
Oh wow!
JC: Yeah, so my mom had stories as far as the eye could see. She said she could hear screams, like people were being tortured. She just wanted to do her job, cut their hair, and get the hell out! She preferred working on the mannequins. It’s freaky! It’s a big part of Long Island history and culture. So we felt that for our band, we wanted to have a nod to Long Island, and we felt that the name fit the band perfectly.
You mentioned that you are negotiating a release with Sony’s Red. How is that going? Is that rolling along?
Vern: Well, we’re going to release one single under them right now. We haven’t really decided which one it’s going to be. We are kind of leaning towards “Digital Heroes”, but we’re going to discuss it. Our drummer Logan is the one who actually got that for us. He knows a bunch of people over there. Basically they said that they would release one song for us, so we need to figure out which one the best would be. We’re going to see how the EP does, and see which song has the best reaction and decide from there.
What will signing with a label do for your band?
Vern: Nowadays you see a lot of “do-it-yourself”, because it seems that a lot of the record companies are almost obsolete. You have everything on social media, and you can digitally download everything. They weren’t kidding when they said that downloading killed off the labels. I still think there is a need for them, because they can help you out with the touring aspect, the merchandising, and the general overall marketing of the band as a whole. I think if we wanted to stay local to the area, we could put out our own stuff and cut out the middleman. We want to tour. We want to get out there. We want to take this as far as we can possibly go. Unless you are with a decent sized label that can put you on with a decent sized band on tours, that’s really all you’re going to get. I feel that we have a lot more to offer than just playing in this small surrounding area.
Tell me about your EP Electroshock Zombie Parade. I read its some new stuff and some old stuff…
JC: Absolutely! The four tracks on the EP (“Time to Go”, “Gentle Side”, “Wrong Turn”, and “Broken Skies”) were previous Death Glare tracks perfected by Wysteria. The newer tracks (“Digital Hero” and self-titled track “Electroshock Zombie Parade”) are the newer direction that Wysteria is going in. It’s amazing when you finally find the unit and sound you are looking for. It is the direction we’re going to take the sound of Wysteria. We’re really looking forward to the future! The future is looking very bright for us!
What spurred the change in style?
Vern: Well, JC and I have known each other for a long time. He was in a hard rock band called 50 Miles to Frequency. They were pretty big. They toured with Brett Michaels. They played with Skid Row. They had more of an 80s style, but more of a hard rock kind of a thing. I had about three albums worth of material, because I have my own studio. It just so happened that the other guys left in the band like that style and wanted to take it to the next level. So, we basically took the old Death Glare songs, revamped them, and gave them a fresh sound, and started from there to get heavier. That is how we got “Digital Hero”. That is the first song we worked on as Wysteria.
You recorded at Trax East Studios with accomplished producer Eric Rachel, first of all, how did you get in contact with him and how do you feel his work has influenced the overall product of Electroshock Zombie Parade?
JC: Well, I just so happens that I grew up in a small town called Mattituck Long Island. Right down the road from me lives Jeff Fabb from Black Label Society. We are both from the same town. He recorded with Eric Rachel back when he was with In This Moment, as well as other friends of mine that are actively involved with the music industry. They gave me Eric’s contact. At the time, back when I was in Death Glare, we had submitted some rough tracks to Eric Rachel. He totally dug the sound, he liked what we were doing, and that’s how we connected. He wanted to work with us, and we wanted to work with him. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Vern: It also helped that he was the producer for Skid Row’s Youth Gone Wild. We were in the same studio where they recorded that album. Having him be the producer, it felt good knowing that it was in the hands of somebody who had made a multi-platinum record.
You mentioned that Electroshock will have a video. What can you tell us about it? Will it literally have zombies getting shocked on parade?
Vern: That song was pretty much written by our bassist, Eric. He’s got a whole storyboard all ready for it. It’s basically going to follow the lyrics of the song. It’s about somebody who has been wrongfully imprisoned in a mental institution, trying to get out, and all the doctors are trying to keep him in there because he has seen too much. So, he tries to hide before these people can do experiments on him and turn him into another mindless zombie. That’s what the song is about. It’s not so much about the zombies like the Walking Dead, it’s more of somebody messing with your brain and you are not yourself anymore. It’s going to be a very awesome, theatrical video.
Are you going to do it at Wysteria?
Vern: We’re going to try to. My old band got the right permits to film around the building. We’re going to discuss it and see what direction we go. It’s always the possibility that that’s going to happen.
You had an issue with your social media page. Tell me about your social media issue with your spiteful guitarist?
Vern: We had a decent amount of fans/likes on the page. We didn’t part ways with him on the best terms. He was slightly spiteful and deleted a bunch of stuff off the page. He deleted some songs, pictures, fans. We had to rebuild the page from scratch, which sucks.
JC: You know what? If he wants to be spiteful, let him. What goes around comes around.
Karma! Where can we expect to see you again?
Vern: We have a couple of local shows. We have a couple of big Festival offers that we can’t speak of just yet. We’re in talks with the guys over at Rock USA again. It’s still a little too early to tell, but there is a good chance that we will play Wisconsin. We are looking at Rockfest in Michigan early next year. We are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best!
