Exclusive: Evanescence’s Rocky Gray Talks Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories
David Gelmini
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To celebrate the home video release of Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories on August 1, we decided to talk to former Evanescence musician Rocky Gray, who scored several of the anthology segments in the film.
If you enjoy his work, you can follow Rocky on Facebook.
Dread Central: How did you come to be involved?
Rocky Gray: After scoring the music for The Barn it had finally put me on the map as a new indie horror film composer and I wanted to get to work on another film as soon as possible. So I had gotten in contact with P.J. Starks and he and I were talking and trying to figure out how much I could get involved with VOB:HS because there were some other names already attached as composers. In the end I did 3 full segments and some themes scattered around the film. I was really happy with what I was able to bring to the film.
DC: Which of the segments did you work on?
RG: Deathday Party, Murder Death Killer and Fear, For Sinners Here were the complete segments I scored.
DC: How did you approach creating the score?
RG: Lots of discussing with Justin Seaman for his segment Deathday Party and Nathan Thomas Milliner for his segments Murder Death Killer and Fear, For Sinners Here.
Justin’s was probably the most difficult composing I’ve had to do because the characters are a bit quirky and we wanted to kind of turn it on its head at the same time. So it was a tricky balancing act between the quirky and full blown insanity. Nathan’s was more straight forward with a few details he wanted to convey a certain way but overall it was pretty smooth sailing on those two segments. P.J. had the few themes he needed and had ideas of where he wanted to go with those and we knocked it all out fairly quickly. It was a lot of fun really.
DC: How do you find the process of composing films compared to your usual work with bands?
RG: I like the composing process because its a subversive process for me. I’m totally in the movie and I’m trying to make sure I’m hitting everything the director wants plus I want to be as creative as I can as well and give the director some options if possible. Sometimes the director is thinking about music one way and I’ll do that for them but also show an alternate version to show maybe a different emotion or foreshadow things that are yet to come.
The scoring process is so unlike anything else, it’s hard to compare it to the band situation. Yes there are instruments and melody and a story but maybe it’s the approach that is so different. As a band we write music we like and were happy if the fans like the music but its a pretty selfish way of writing but in film we write for the story, it’s all about serving the film. The film is everything, it’s not about me, even though I want to be creative and bring something to the table in the end it’s all for the moving picture.
DC: You’re also working on 10/31 and Cryptids, which are also both being produced by P.J. Starks. What can we expect from them?
RG: You can definitely expect a good time. Our Halloween themed anthology 10/31 is just about finished and from everything I’ve seen from the directors (I’m directing a segment as well) it is really something special. I’m composing all but one of the segments. The other directors include Justin Seaman and Zane Hershberger from The Barn, Johnny Holt from The Dooms Chapel Horror and Brett DeJager of Bonejangles. It’s a solid lineup and I think we will all be doing a lot more stuff together. Speaking of, we pretty much are all working on the Cryptids movie too haha. I’m composing on that one as well. An anthology about cryptozoology monsters? You know you want to see that!
About Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories
Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories is a sequel to the indie horror anthology Volumes of Blood, hailed by critics as “The best damn anthology of 2015!” The first project under the newly created Blood Moon Pictures, LLC. the film is produced by P.J. Starks and Eric Huskisson (The Confession of Fred Krueger) and Christopher Bower (The Dooms Chapel Horror). It features actor Moses Moseley, best known for his role as one of Michonne’s “Pet Walkers” on AMC’s “The Walking Dead”; the acting debut of WWE legend Sir Mo from Men on a Mission; and original music by Rocky Gray (drummer for We Are the Fallen, Living Sacrifice, formerly of Evanescence) and Shane Prather (Sharknado franchise, Sinister Squad, Lavalantula).
Pre-orders are now available: DVD / Blu-ray
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