An Exclusive Interview with JOE OCCHIUTI (Ice Nine Kills, Flat Out, Kill Iconic Recrods)

Check out the video of this interview here:

Today we have a special treat for you all! Not only did we score an exclusive interview with Joe Occhiuti, famously from Ice Nine Kills and Flatout, but a quick little history lesson regarding Joe’s previous work with other projects/bands as well. Let's dive in!

INTERVIEW;

Sean O: Hey No Skip viewers, this is Sean O’Donnell with the No Skip Show, you don’t wanna miss this! I am here with…

Joe: Hey, I’m Joe. I play bass in Ice Nine Kills, guitar and vocals in Flat Out. I help run a record label called Kill Iconic Records. And there’s probably some other things I'm forgetting.

Sean O: Alright, so you just mentioned Flat Out, you guys just opened for TX2 and tiLLie in Pittsburgh at Preserving Underground. What is that like?

Joe: Uh, this is our second tour ever, the first tour was pretty short and it was kind of a quick run with our friends in Hail The Sun. But yeah this tour has been amazing, it's our first full US run. The response has been awesome, it's fun to get up there and do something else other than the show where everyones getting murdered and screaming a bunch, and just fun and poppy with my two best friends. So yeah, I'm having a hell of a time, it's a great time!

Sean O: Awesome! So, how do you balance all of your projects along with Kill Iconic?

Joe: Yeah, it's a lot of work. I have an unhealthy relationship with work, probably where if I’m not working I feel like I’m bored or not doing enough. So I'm constantly starting new things on top of like the bands. I am also a full time producer and I work with a lot of other bands writing music and bringing their visions to life, which is something I’m very passionate about. And I do a lot of animal advocacy work as well, so I have very little spare time. And to balance it, to be honest with you, there are moments when it's hard to balance because there are multiple things happening at the same time, but generally like I said if I'm not working something feels off. So it's never been too much of an issue.

Sean O: You always have to be busy.

Joe: Yeah, I just like being busy. And the only times when it's hard is like you know, I’m on tour and have an album coming out with Kill Iconic, and at the same time Ice Nine is putting out a song or something, right. So there's always like the perfect storm where I have to have like some sleepless nights working through things, but I love it you know, like those are the moments that I'm like yeah it's a pain when it's happening, but afterward I'm so satisfied. And like so there’s that feeling that you get when you do something there's always like you just climbed over the mountain and you're like hell yeah I get to coast down now.

Sean O: There’s always a goal accomplished.

Joe: Right, right, exactly!

Sean O: Awesome! As the director of operations at Kill Iconic, what bands should the No Skip viewers check out?

Joe: I would strongly suggest going and listening to everything Moondough has put out, I am a massive Moondough fan. I think he is like the next greatest artist out there, I am a big supporter, check out Moondough. At the same time, also check out Ahh-Ceh, who just dropped a new song. Yeah, he’s got another one coming out soon with us. He also is working on Moondough’s music as well with him. He’s producing that as well as I did some work on it as well. So it's keeping it all in the family, but I'm very passionate about their stuff. I cannot wait for people to hear all the new stuff coming out with it too. So Moondough, Ahh-Ceh, definitely take a listen. 

Sean O: Ahh-Cehh and Moondough! Since you’re a part of Kill Iconic, what are the goals for Kill Iconic to reach? West Coast, east coast, you know?

Joe: Right, So Kill Iconic has and always will be artist focused. We are very passionate about finding a home for artists where they’re happy and we're happy, very mutual like that. And we want to put out interesting, really really good music. Like we are artists ourselves, all of us, we all love the business side of things too. We've all had different jobs in the music industry, so this was a place for us to kind of put our passions together, find some artists that were super stoked on and try to get them into as many years as possible, right? More than wanting the label to succeed, and this is truly truly honest, I want our artists to say yes, right, if we are a launch pad for people that's awesome.

Sean O: Well, mainly in control of basically, he’s finding these artists, is it you and Donovan?

Joe: We have a great team. So it's me and Donnie, and Sinjen who is our president...

Sean O: Right Right.

Joe: We have an awesome team with Matt and Sebastian as well, who are a lot of our following I created, yeah Sebastian from Body Thief. Matt is in a band called Damn Nation as well. So they are like kind of the creative side, and again all artists. But we all find different things, like you know I have work with a lot of different sounding artists than Donnie does, right. Don was very much in the Hail The Sun world, he’s finding great talent there, yeah. I’m working with pop bands, hip-hop artists, my studio and stuff. So, a lot of different flavors coming together, which is why we have this really eclectic like awesome roster. Like I said, even with just Moondough and Ahh-Ceh, right. Moondough, Ahh-Ceh, and Gold Necklace, those are just three bands. They all kind of work together, but they’re all different, right…

Sean O: Yes yes.

Joe: And they’re unique and interesting to everyone that's going to hear them. Everyone will find something they like about all of those artists, yeah.

HISTORY LESSON;

Sean O: All right, so this is just a little history lesson with Joe. Most of you who see him on stage with Ice Nine Kills, Metallica, Falling In Reverse, and other major, large tours. But, he has been around for a loooong time.

Joe: I’m an old man.

Sean O: 2012ish…

Joe: 2009, there’s a story.

Sean O: Ish, yes! I will just, you know, start off. This is The Venetia Fair, if you have not heard of The Venetia Fair, what instrument did you play?

Joe: I played keys in this band, with a lot of still very close friends of mine. We were like rag-time, post hardcore, post punk, pop, alternative, emo, clusterfuck.

Sean O: First time seeing you guys, I called you guys circus metal, it was awesome.

Joe: Yeah, a lot of people gravitated towards the circus thing. We did have very heavy circus imagery, this was a concept album about a circus. Ben would be able to speak about this much better than me, the singer, but it's all about God being the ring leader and kind of playing, puppeteering everything around.

Sean O: Track number five, The Ringleader (Nonus the Hobo), is a gem now of this album, yes. As well as you can check out the other records, the Pits and…

Joe: Every Sick, Disgusting Thought We Have in Our Brain…

Sean O: Right there, from The Venetia Fair as well. Here we also have a record you guys may know, Divine Inner Tension by Hail The Sun. Joe, what did you do on this record?

Joe: So on this album I was very graciously asked, I was very thankful for this opportunity by the close friends of mine in Hail, to contribute some writing with them. So, some of these were written in a van on a solo tour with Donovan when I was playing keys for him, I was sitting on my computer writing things. Some were written in the studio with me, Eric, and Donnie. And then some that were already written musically, and me and Donnie just kind of sat down and worked out some vocal stuff together.

Sean O: Laid them out.

Joe: So, I got a little input on a lot of the albums, some of them. Some songs more heavily than others, but it honestly has been one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on. And I was super thankful to be a part of it. Not only are they some of my closest friends, they’ve been one of my favorite bands for a long time. So being able to contribute to it and them trusting me with it was, you know, super cool.

Sean O: Amazing! Another project you have worked on, with Donovan, would be Nova Charisma. Joe was the unspoken fourth member.

Joe: I would say I’m probably closer to the fifth.

Sean O: Fifth!

Joe: Uh well, maybe fourth.

Sean O: We could go with fourth.

Joe: Yeah, I don’t know. So I will give credit where credit is due here, I did not write too much on these. This was very much a Sergio and Donnie and Carlo project.

Sean O: Okay.

Joe: I heard the songs.

Sean O: Yes!

Joe: Loved them.

Sean O: yeah!

Joe: And asked, well I asked at the same time they asked me, if I was able to be a part of it with them. So I was super stoked to be able to go on tour many times, got overseas with them. Contributed a little bit later in the writing on some stuff. But yeah, very passionate about that project too.I haven’t been able to do the last bunch of tours with them, it's been Leo, whos so talented.

Sean O: Amazing, he was just here recently.

Joe: So talented. He plays with Moondough, too. Yeah, he held it down probably better than I could. So, I hope one day we can all do something together.

Sean O: Right.This might be another project you worked with Donovan on, Chelsea Park After Dark.

Joe: Yeah.

Sean O: Donovan's solo album, you mixed and produced?

Joe: No, so um it was mixed by Mike Watts.

Sean O: Okay.

Joe: We actually, it was a really really cool experience, I’ve never actually done something like this where me, Donovan, Alan, and Ken Moondough went out during COVID for a week to the studio in Long Island. Mike Watts’ studio, which is a beautiful spot. Hunkered down there for, I think it was seven days, and wrote the whole album, right.

Sean O: Wow.

Joe: So we sat there, we messed around on the computer, messed around in the live room. Some of it was recorded live, like I know the piano on Better For The Next was a one take kind of. I was just in the room and I was like what about something like this, and they happened to be recording and then that was the song, right. So it was a really really cool experience. We got real experimental, it was a weird time during COVID you know whenever, so it was like a stir crazy album. So very proud of it, very proud of everyone that had input on it. I think there were songs that Mike Watts was playing bass on, you know we were all over the place with it. So, really really fun.

Sean O: Okay, okay. Last part of our little interview here. This is a tour poster you guys more than likely put together, you and Donovan Melero. Hail The Sun, A Lot Like Birds, Zeta, Fall Of Troy, Andres, Moondough, Common Sage, Lobby Boxer, Flat Out, and Diver.

Joe: Crazy.

Sean O: Majority of this is signed, that’s just me, Pittsburgh knows. How does Pittsburgh, East Coast, get a tour, get a show, get a festival like this?

Joe: Yeah, like we have a series called, Kill Iconic has a series, called Home Away From Home, right.

Sean O: Yes!

Joe: And those are like fests, or mini fests kind of, that we throw all over the country.

Sean O: Okay guys, yes!

Joe: If there is people that want it here, we will make it happen here.

Sean O: We want it here!

Joe: What have we done? Worcester, we’ve done New York, we’ve done Florida. We’ve done Texas and LA. And I think that’s it. 

Sean O: Preserving Underground might be the venue in which it's a good two-stage venue. We could switch off, bring in all the big bands.

Joe: I’ve always liked doing shows in Pittsburgh, so I would love to do one here. We got the fest coming up, the real Kill Iconic fest coming up in April I think, I couldn’t have that date wrong, I’d have to look. We will try to get one here, I think it would be great. I want to do more all over.

Sean O: This has been an interview with Joe Occhiuti, thank you man!

Joe: Thank you, appreciate it bro!