Interview / Electrocutioner
- Amanda
- Aug 25, 2023
- 6 min read
Electrocutioner is a three-piece thrash metal act from Long Island, New York. They established themselves in early 2020 and have released two EPs, with their track “Terminal Simulation” featured on a thrash metal compilation. Currently, they find themselves hard at work playing shows in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. From the moment Electrocutioner steps on stage, I guarantee you will never stop laughing. They engage the crowd in chants and make fun of each other on stage for everyone's entertainment. Even though they are very comedic, it does not take away from the high-level musicianship they bring to each and every performance. Their prior releases feature dystopian John Carpenter-esque synth interludes, followed by brutal yet catchy thrash metal aural assaults.
They are set to release their debut full-length album on October 13th, 2023. Their first single, “Seven Lamps of Fire,” will be released a month prior to the album release and will be accompanied by a music video. Things are busy for the Electrocutioner camp, whose members are Mark Pursino on guitar and vocals, Rich Nieves on bass guitar, and Tyler Bogliole on drums.
I was able to ask Mark Pursino some questions for Decibel Warfare magazine.
Mark, thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your band. Tell me how and when Electrocutioner formed and give us the history of how you met.
I called our original drummer on a whim during the pandemic. The elements were perfect for old school thrash: widespread plague, societal collapse, and everyone was boozing non-stop. Rich and I have known each other since high school, where we were the only two kids with long hair. They even dissed us in our yearbook by telling us to get haircuts. Tyler joined us on the drums earlier this year, and we have been regretting it ever since because he won't stop talking about Judas Priest.
What are your influences, and what inspired each band member to pick up an instrument?
I'd say as a band, our main influences are Whiplash, Exorcist's "Nightmare Theatre," Megadeth's first few records, and Slayer's first album. We also find deep spiritual influence in the movies of Nicolas Cage.
Rich began to play bass because he lost a coin toss. If he won, he'd be a guitar player, and then we wouldn't exist haha. Tyler's grandmother bought him a drum set at a garage sale, and he just started hitting it. For me, I bought a Megadeth CD at a garage sale, and it instantly blew my mind and made me practice every day for hours.
You are essentially a DIY band, recording, promoting, booking, and doing as much as you can for the band yourselves. Tell us what it was like to record this album? What did you learn from past recordings? And what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing everything yourself? How will this album differ from your previous releases?
We are a DIY band out of necessity. Hopefully, our album is well-received so we can actually do a little less on our own (laughs). We book shows, design flyers, duplicate and assemble our cassettes by hand. The only thing we don't handle is art.
The recording process was a double-edged sword. The advantage is that we could do things exactly the way we wanted. For the Exorcist-inspired synth interludes on the album, we spent hours going through hundreds of synth sounds until we could recreate our vision. We like to improvise certain things like the synths and some guitar solos so we can capture something created in the moment. We were even able to create a synth interlude for the band Sadistic Force based out of Texas that they’re going to use on their next album. Rich, who recorded everything, was able to push us into recording the best takes possible. Even though his only encouragement was telling us that our takes are “possibly usable.”
Unfortunately, we had a lot of days that were "one step forward, two steps back." Computer glitches wrecked tracks, gear issues arose, we lost a drummer, found a replacement right in the middle of recording, and faced some stressful moments. Even simple things like humidity in the basement were factors. We were extremely determined to get the album out this year no matter what, so we also put some pressure on ourselves to deliver.
At the end of the day, this should be the best thing we've ever put out by far. The songwriting is better, the vocals are more consistent, the production is a huge step up, and I think we have grown a lot as a band.
What was the writing process like for this album?
It's a bit all over the place. “Asleep At the Wheel” is one of our oldest songs, but it just didn't fit in on our EPs. Most of the time I bring a basic outline for a song or 2-3 riffs I've Frankensteined together and jam on it with the band. Then Rich filters it and basically tells me what to keep or add. Like I wrote “False Idols” quickly, but then Rich wrote the neck-wrecking intro. And even though all the songs were written, and guitars were recorded before Tyler joined the band, he was able to throw in little intros or suggest a different arrangement which changed the tone of the song completely. Originally “Throne Possessor” had an extended section and outro after where it stops on the album, but Tyler insisted it be like a "90-second ass-beater" as he referred to it. So, we cut it off and that was it!
Lyrically, I either write them on the spot or have zero idea what to write. "The Guillotine" was a song whose name changed like 5 times. I asked Rich for an idea, he gave it to me, and I wrote them a few hours before I recorded it. Other songs were inspired by films like "Children of the New Dawn," which was from the film Mandy, "Revenger" from Charles Forsman's comic, etc. For me, riffs are easy, lyrics are hard.
What inspired the name of the upcoming album “False Idols”?
Once we wrote the song "False Idols," we kind of liked the idea of making it the thematic keystone of the album. It basically just rejects anything fake or inauthentic, whether it's bands that put trendy parts in their music or something larger on a social level.
You have a music video set to be released on September 13th for your upcoming single “Seven Lamps of Fire”. How was it filming your first music video? Tell us about the filming process.
It was no different from anything else we do: we drank a bunch of booze, ate White Castle, and then filmed it on my front lawn while trying to beat the rain (half the time it was raining on us) and then finished it up in the Electrocutioner basement all the while roasting each other on how stupid we looked. Luckily, our good buddy Jim has sick equipment and experience with filming and offered to do it for us. I think we have enough sick live footage he filmed at a show we played in Brooklyn for a second video too.
Thrash metal had the Big 4 in the 80s, a German Big 4, and in the early 2000s, there was a thrash metal resurgence with bands at the forefront. In 2023, what bands would you like to put a spotlight on as being in the forefront of the underground and having the potential to be the new Big 4?
Hmm... I think some bands that could be part of a "new Big 4" are somewhat unoriginal. I'll just name 4 newer thrash bands that I dig a lot and hope they get more popular: Amorphia from India, Void from Lafayette put out a cool album this year called “Horrors of Reality,” I really liked the album from Italy's Burning Leather, and I’d shout out the debut from Nemesis “False Reality.” They're a bunch of young killers from Texas.
What defines success for Electrocutioner?
Tyler doesn't consider himself successful until he gets to autograph his first pair of boobs. Other than that, the goal is to take over New York and the East Coast, play gnarlier shows, and get on some fests!!!! Success is people going crazy to the riffs and devouring mozzarella sticks from White Castle.
What’s next for Electrocutioner?
"False Idols" is out on October 13th. Hopefully, in 2024, we can keep grinding shows, rip a mini-tour here and there, and continue writing songs for album #2!
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