What’s not to like about the Butcher Babies? There are boobs, there’s blood, and the band’s brand of horror metal is about as heavy as metal gets. Sure, a majority of the attention is intentionally directed at the blood-spattered and nipple-taped front women (former Playboy TV personality Carla Harvey and statuesque model/actress Heidi Shepherd), but the Butcher Babies are not just about the boobs. Instead, that’s almost like an insidious setup to lure listeners in before the macabre musical onslaught of Harvey, Shepherd, Henry Flury (guitar), Jason Klein (bass) and Chrissy Warner (drums) shrieks and shreds your ears into submission. Though they admittedly revel in the shock value of it all, there’s a little bit more to the band’s songs of serial killing and torture tactics. The video for “Mr. Slowdeath” from the band’s self-titled (huh huh, I said “tit”) EP plays out like a mini horror film, and the Harvey-penned Butcher Babies comic book further’s the band’s creepy concept. Just off Otep‘s Destroy to Create Tour with One-Eyed Doll and Arcanium, the Butcher Babies return to their Sunset Strip slaying grounds tonight for a show with Fozzy and Picture Me Broken at The Roxy Theatre tonight. Then the band heads out on a West Coast tour in November with Gemini Syndrome and Dr. Acula. In the meantime, here’s a recent interview Wrestling with Pop Culture did with the Butcher Babies.
Carla and Heidi met while working for Playboy TV, and the rest of you guys have played in bands like Amen and Scars of Tomorrow. But how did the five of you come together to create the Butcher Babies?
Shepherd: Carla and I played in a punk/metal cover band years ago, and Chris actually used to come to those shows, and Henry had gone to a couple, too. But we all didn’t know each other. Carla and I quit that band and wanted to do something heavy and original together. So we took what we liked, which was each other and nipple tape, and formed the band.
Looks like Heidi Shepherd (left) and Carla Harvey (right) need a ride. Would you pick up these hitchhikers?
So it was a pretty organic process of forming the band?
Harvey: It turned out that way, but it wasn’t at first. We went through a lot of band members at first and we just couldn’t find the right core group of guys. But when we just looked in our own backyard and realized they were right there, it got a lot easier.
Warner: I was spying on her!
Shepherd: Yeah, peeping Chris over here. It was interesting because we did go through a couple of members and we just couldn’t find people that had the right vision or that had the same vision as us. Finally, the second we stepped in a room together, it was really apparent that we all had the same exact vision. And it all took off from there.
The band obviously has a strong visual presence. How did the whole blood-and-boobs thing manifest itself?
Harvey: Every band has an identity and we all are fans of horror films. So putting on some blood just added to our show and it felt kind of natural, especially with our music because it’s dark, heavy, groovy thrash metal.
Shepherd: We write about a lot of things that give you nightmares, things that scare you like serial killers, monsters and things like that. So it definitely fits in with that realm. With the nipple tape, Carla and I and the whole band are big fans of Wendy O. Williams. She was the first female to really go balls out – or tits out, if you will – in heavy metal. So we really appreciate that she paved the way for females like Otep and ourselves to really explore everything we wanted to do. So it’s more of an ode to the late Wendy O. Williams.
Klein: Chris has some nipple tape on right now. I haven’t been able to get it to stick. I tried once, but I have too much chest hair.
Harvey: Heidi had that same problem, but we got that taken care of.
Klein: Yeah, she ate up the razor so it wasn’t sharp enough for me to use.
How involved are each of you in writing the songs? Is it more of a band effort or are certain members more involved in coming up with the songs?
Even when not covered in blood, the Butcher Babies are intriguingly menacing
Harvey: We all sit in a room and write together. It’s very important to us that our songs represent each member, so we are very hands on.
Shepherd: Musically and lyrically everyone puts a hand in the cookie jar. So it’s a very collective process where we all feel free and comfortable to get very creative with each other. Every person here is very talented at writing lyrics and music, so why not use them all to their full potential?
Harvey: It also makes everybody, when they’re performing, feel like the song is coming from them. If we had one member writing everything, we’d be up there performing, but not really feeling it.
You have an EP out, but when will there be a full-length album?
Shepherd: We are always writing, but we’re looking to have our full-length out early next year. We definitely have enough songs for it, it’s just about finding which songs we want to really represent ourselves with. The EP took a long time because we’re always evolving and we wanted to really put out something that we felt was 100 percent worthwhile.
Carla, you also have a comic book out. Tell me a little about that.
Harvey: You can get it at Deepcutproductions.net and it adds a bit of mythology to our band. People seem to love it and I get emails every day about how much people like it. I wrote it, so it’s just really fun to see it come to life. We worked with an artist named Anthony Winn, who works for Stan Lee, which is amazing because Heidi and I have gotten to pal around with Stan Lee a little bit.
And you’re working on a novel?
Harvey: Yeah, I’ve written a novel that I hope will be out at the beginning of next year. And I have another comic book coming out. We’re all very creative people. Our main focus is the band, but I’ve loved writing since I was a kid and I’m able to use my band as a platform to get my other material out to people. I’m so thankful for that.
I doubt many people would hesitate at helping Heidi Shepherd (left) and Carla Harvey (right) get cleaned up (photo by the Psyco Boys)
Shepherd: We all have careers besides the Butcher Babies. Butcher Babies is our main squeeze and it’s all of our dream that’s coming true. But we all have other gifts and talents.
Klein: I’m a stripper and that’s kind of paying for our fuel.
Flury: I’m a rodeo clown and that also helps pay for gas.
Shepherd: I’m a Justin Bieber impersonator and I’m really good at looking like a 40-year-old lesbian.
Warner: So those are your other jobs? My other job is riding your mom!
You get paid for that? But back to the book. What’s the novel about?
Harvey: It’s about loneliness and the breakdown of the American family. That’s all I want to say about it right now, but I’ve had a lot of interest in it and I’m really proud of it. I know it sounds funny talking about such serious things when we wear nipple tape on stage.
So what else do you all actually do outside of the band?
Shepherd: I do commercials for television and that’s a lot of fun. I’ve been in television my entire life and I was a radio DJ on morning shows for a long time. Eventually I would like to get back into radio, but Butcher Babies is the center of my attention now.
Flury: I’m a graphic artist.
Warner: Me? What job? This is the only one I’ve got. Drums, baby. That’s my life.