OLATHIA

I first discovered OLATHIA via Blades Of Steel Fest III. After their appearance I made it a priority to interview the band which I finally did many, many months later. Unfortunately, due to a snafu with another publication, this interview never ran. I believe too much in OLATHIA to let this interview fade away, so here it is. 

As described on their Bandcamp page, OLATHIA is..."Melodic/power/ thrash metal. A "Power Thrash" heavy metal band that combines traditional heavy metal, thrash metal, and power metal into a shredding and grooving wall of sound with soaring and gut ripping female vocals." That's putting it mildly. OLATHIA have evolved into one of the most sought after, in demand metal bands throughout not just Ohio but much of the greater Midwest as well. They recently wrapped a short tour supporting ANVIL. Their most recent record, ‘The Forest Witch,’ is streaming on Bandcamp. Check it out, it’s amazing. Keep an eye on this band, they’re only going to get bigger.

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Please introduce yourselves. I know I’m speaking with Chris E.: who else is here?

DYLAN ANDRAS: I'm Dylan. I play guitar.

TERRY BULL: This is Terry Bull, I play bass.

WC: What’s in the water in Cleveland? That town has a metal scene that's been on fire recently.

DA: Haha, the water is flammable in Cleveland!

TB: Original music support is as good if not better than any other major market in the country. Cleveland's got upwards of 20 clubs that roll original music, including heavy metal, seven days a week.

DA: I think because it's not like a major, major market, you know. It's big enough for us doing our thing, but it's not big enough for like IRON MAIDEN to come through here every time and that’s what really makes it thrive because you know, everybody wants something to do. Everybody likes music, but  we're not like a big concert town, like a lot of people think we should be. So, I think that leaves room for everybody doing their own thing to kind of thrive.

CHRIS E.: And I think as far as like an underground metal scene, it has to do with our college radio stations and Bill Peters and WJCU who really laid down this killer foundation in the 80’s that has been built upon and built upon since then. And you know, we have so many venues that we can play at as an underground metal band and that kicks ass, and even when one closes something else opens up. So, there's a lot of support from that. And our location rules because you can jump over to Pittsburgh, you can go to Buffalo, you can go to Toronto, you go to Chicago. There's, like, so many places that you can hit from Cleveland, which is super, super cool. That's what I think about it.

WC: What prompted all of you to come together and take shape as OlLATHIA? What are your backgrounds and how did it happen?

TB: So, I think this starts with you, Chris. 

CE: Yeah, it’s been 10 years, oh my gosh! Before OLATHIA I was in a band called SPELL BOUND and it was like a LACUNA COUL type band where we had a male singer, twin guitars and all that, and it was a fucking blast. We did it for 13 years. Everybody knew when we had done it as much as we could. We had a great sendoff show and then from there I was like, “damn, I want to do my own project,” so I got together with some musicians, and it has morphed into where it's supposed to be now. 

And you know the thing about music is if you really love it, you're going to keep doing it no matter what comes your way or not. Everybody's always supposed to stay. You know, there's different things that happen as people come and go and you get directed where you need to go. So now here in OLATHIA this lineup has been... I don't know how long has this lineup been now.

DA: I think I joined like three or four years ago; I don't really remember exactly when it happened.

CE: It was kind of like right around the pandemic, yeah.

DA: I was. I remember wearing a mask to press to practice. 

CE: Yeah, yes. Terry was on board before that, and Joe had recorded drums on the last album. Then we met Dylan, and we changed up our sound from the two guitars to one, but it really opened up a lot of cool things. So, this is the magic lineup, it just feels good, it's fun.

TB: The first show that I saw was that WJCS food drive, I believe in 2014, and I was hooked right from the first note. Once you see Chrissy walk across the stage and grab the mic...

CE.: Uh-huh.

TB: And make those noises, there's kind of no turning back. Then the timing was finally right for me to audition and get going with the second album material.

CE: You didn't even have to audition. 

TB: And you can't stop a vision and Chris's got a great one and we're glad to be part of it. 

CE: I think it's everybody's vision now, I really do.

TB: I think everybody's voice is heard in this band. Whatever we can come up with and express, we can take that, and mold it, and build it into something special.

WC: Your most recent record is “The Forest Witch” and it occurs to me that maybe you’re continuing an idea or concept you established with your previous album, “Snake Charmer”. Am I reading too much into this?

TB: The song lyrics you're going to hear are coming from a real place. You're getting things from personal experience. You're getting things that come and go from light and darkness and some of it does return or point to nature. I guess you can call it Pagan if you want, just because it's not really attached to anything else, but they carry through because they're universal, they're definitely part of the human experience.

CE.: Yeah, I agree with that and maybe it's a subliminal connection too. It's not anything I consciously thought about. The concepts of “light” and “dark,” that's probably something I picked up from DIO, he's the fucking master of all that stuff. I would say though, that there is a Pagan element, but I think again it's unintentional. 

WC: How much does pop culture play a role when it comes to songwriting or putting an album together? 

CE: For me, it’s more reality or people that I meet or real-life situations that I pull from. Although I'm a big fan of “Lord of the Rings” and any of that magical shit going back to DIO again, all that stuff.

TB: “Lord of the Rings” captures imagery and storytelling from an author that created their world and it's hard to not get kind of swept up and pulled into a story. DIO’s songs are like that. There’s Tolkien references all throughout LED ZEPPELIN’s material. So, when you got Robert Plant singing about something and then DIO screaming about something, it kind of imprints on you as an artist, I think. It kind of allows you to just be in the moment and in that world when you're writing a song. 

DA: Storytelling. It's the feelings that leave you inspired. 

CE.: Each song is like its own little story and as a vocalist I feel that story, that character.

TB: Music becomes a snapshot in time. 

WC: I’d like to know more about your vocal background, Chris – and when did you know you wanted to sing metal? Are you classically trained?

CE.:  I always knew I wanted to sing metal. I had older sisters that jammed, you know, BLACK SABBATH and ANGEL, a lot of LED ZEPPELIN. So, I was always exposed to that. As far as my training, it was singing along with WARLOCK and DIO. I’d blast their tapes as loud as I could and just figure it out. 

 I'm not classically trained. I have taken some lessons here and there in the past. I just figure out what I need to do. When I'm working on a song and I can hear what I'm doing, I know when something's wrong, I know it right away. And while I'm not classically trained, it would be awesome to play something with an orchestra and with the band just like ‘S&M’ or something. So maybe we could do that one day. 

WC: Do all of you keep OLATHIA the band separate from your personal life or is it just inherently a part of who you are? How do you stay grounded when you're not on stage in front of fans cheering for you?

DA: I think this band does keep me grounded to be honest, because if there's one thing in my life that's fucking consistent, it's practicing with everyone on Thursday night, which is really, really awesome, because otherwise I would lose track of everything. It’s my life playing music and being in a band, that’s just the name of the game. There's nothing really else about me that I feel like this.  I don't want to, like, diminish myself or anything, but that's it for me, you know, it's just doing this stuff. I don't need to be on or off stage necessarily to be grounded. I just need to be making music and having this band as an outlet, it really helps me.

TB: I guess for me I'm torn between two worlds. I love the music and artistic part of and there’s no better feeling than being on stage with 10,000 watts behind you making pant legs shake. But you know I'm a healthcare worker, and that’s my 9-5 job. I have patients all day. With me, it’s like there’s two different people living in the same body, same world, all the time. And I think it helps to be on the creative side to tune out occasionally when I punch the clock and work with folks on their journey. But when the time comes to get out of the work attire and into the denim and leather, that's my therapy. That's how I kind of get it out. 

CE.: As for me, like, I don't necessarily need people cheering me on, although that is an amazing, amazing feeling when you connect with the audience. It's just more of having a release you can do artistically for it. But what I do love is like that magic of a live show. Or talking to people about it. The energy of music is what keeps me going. And I think that just grounds me because I feel thankful and lucky I get to do this. Not everybody does. But just being able to do music keeps me grounded and I'm really thankful for it, otherwise I would go insane. 

WC: Are any of you in other bands or just OLATHIA?

CE: There's a ton of talent in this band. 

DA: I’m in MUTILATION BBQ and ASSAULT.

 CE: Terry's got a super cool band called BUSTER MERCEDES. How would you describe it?

TB: Ohh. Bluesy funk rock.

CE.: Right now, our drummer Joe Lowrie is touring with NUNSLAUGHTER{editor’s note: at the time this interview was conducted}. He's been a part of that band for a long time. One thing I know that is in our future, we’re gonna do more videos, that has been a fun process, to show the song visually, and of course, keep writing.

WC: Final question. Tell me about your curated event, “The Shotgun Ball.”

TB: I think first and foremost, this thing works out in this part of the world, in this part of the country because of the time of year it’s staged. We're in northeast Ohio, this is football country and even though our team is below average up until recently…

DA: Right…

TB: We haven't had a lot to cheer about when it comes to the Super Bowl. Thankfully, the powers that be have put a nice little week in between championship games and the big one to leave a weekend that's after the holidays, in the middle of the winter when there's nothing cool going on. So, what do we do? We give you a matinee on a Sunday when there's nothing else going on, and that date has generated a lot of magic for us

CE.: We wanted to go bigger, so we contacted our friends at the Beachland, and they have a great setup because they have the ballroom stage and the Tavern stage. So, we were able to put together this matinee show the week before the Super Bowl with eight bands, and you can go back and forth between the two rooms, it's all indoors with a hallway in between. And when we did that, we're like, man, if we're going to 8 bands, we need to bring in some of our friends from out of town so they can get introduced to our friends here in our hometown. And it was great, people loved it. And then we expanded upon that and it was great again. And you never know like, how is it going to happen two years in a row with the same event and it was super cool, it’s fun..it's fun to have something that people anticipate, and it's fun to hear how much they dig it. 

OLATHIA