Plug'd In Magazine Issue #42

42

The Hard-Rock'n Bi-Weekly Magazine The kickass Local Edition

We chat w/ guitarist Cody Shaffer Inside This Issue

This Is: Ethan Yoder of The Plot In You, Underground: Cody Shaffer of Screams Of The Insane, Impact: Maika Maile of There For Tomorrow, 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen (Part 1), Dear Dead Abby

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This Is: Ethan Yoder of The Plot In You Interview by Danielle Welgemoed Taylor I was able to hang out with and talk to Ethan Yoder, bassist of hardcore band The Plot In You from Ohio. With heart wrenching lyrics, enchanting clean vocals, and pure intensity, new listeners are in for a treat‌D.W.G. PI: What inspired the lyrics for Miscarriage?

EY: Our vocalist Landon wrote all of the lyrics, so it may be somewhat personal to him. For the most part, the entire album tells a story about an abuse victim from birth to adulthood and is fictional.

PI: What is the age range of all the members of TPIY? EY: Between 20-24 years old.

PI: What are some of your favorite bands?

EY: I love to listen to bands like August Burns Red, you know, the heavier stuff. The rest of the guys like softer stuff.

PI: What is the story behind the name The Plot In You? EY: It is actually derived from our song, Wife Beater.

PI: Since the release of First Born, you have gained millions of fans and popularity amongst teens and adults alike. Any big plans for the next year?

EY: After this tour, we are going back home and we're going to start writing a new album we hope the fans will love.

PI: What are some of your favorite pastimes?

EY: Video games; I am a huge gamer ha-ha.

PI: Do you play any other instruments besides bass?

EY: I was a band nerd in high school, so trumpet, clarinet, etc.

PI: What is your favorite song to play live?

EY: Probably Rat Poison or The Father Seed.

PI: What advice would you give to young bands trying to make it big?

EY: don't play music so you can get signed; play music because you love it.

PI: thanks for getting Plug'd In! EY: Thank you!

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Dear Dead Abby From The Grave Abby was born and raised in the coal regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest of eight, she constantly had her younger brothers and sisters asking her questions about everything from how things work to why that boy threw dirt on her. She’d try to steer them straight with her advice, though sometimes she could be a bit sarcastic.

Abby also had an uncanny ability to see the truth in people, despite what they tried to portray with their lies. Unfortunately, this led the locals to believe that she was with surrounded with dark forces. The summer before her final year of school, Abby was sentenced to death by hanging, without a proper trial, simply stating that she was a witch. Abby can’t recognize the faces of her family through death, but she answers questions, thinking it might be one of her siblings needing her guidance.

Q. The whole Occupy Wall Street thing is crazy. Protesting, camping out, and everything...what’s your take on it? N.J. A. I think people are wasting a whole lot of time when they could be out searching for jobs. People want to complain about not having a job, yet they have time to protest. In my opinion, protesting doesn’t do any good. It’s like the 400 pound woman at the fast food restaurant ordering a supersize combo and topping it off with a diet soda.

Q. How bad will the weather be here in the Northeast this winter? W.G. A. Cold. Snow. Ice. People will die.

Q. What are the chances of a zombie apocalypse? What about some seriously deadly outbreak that kills everybody? M.C. A. We’re in a zombie apocalypse. You’re writing in to a dead girl after all. An outbreak that kills everyone is not only possible, but inevitable. It’s just a matter of time. People want to experiment with things that they shouldn’t be, and play with Mother Nature. Humans are trying to be God. It’s a surefire way to bring disaster. I’m sure they have a cure for cancer, but won’t release it to the public. Then they lose a lot of money from the “treatments” of cancer, such as radiation, chemotherapy, and transfusions. Think about those treatments. A woman undergoes radiation for cancer, then later in life gets pregnant and has a baby. Just saying…think about it. Thankfully, I’m already dead.

Q. My ex-boyfriend just moved back into our town. He called me up to have lunch. Should I go? My husband would never approve. To be honest I would like to sit down and catch up with him. C.W. A. How about you play a nice little game of role reversal. Your husband’s ex-girlfriend is back and looking better than ever, and she wants to meet up for lunch. Does it sting a little bit?

My girlfriends into some weird sex stuff. It’s too much. How the hell do I tell her to tone it down? S.F. A. Tell her that you aren’t into the circus freaks. You want a lady that you can treat like a lady, and she is no lady.

Maybe she’s only into it because she thinks you like it/want it. You can thank reality TV and porn for that. It has women thinking they have to be freaky to keep their man from looking elsewhere. It’s sickening, when most men, and I mean men, not boys, not jerks, not “players,” want an old-fashioned type of woman. Not a prude, but someone classy and tasteful, who doesn’t swear like a sailor and that they can take home to their parents on the holidays, not feel like they should be slipping money on the dresser and sneaking out the door. Just tell her how you feel. Honesty is the best policy.

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Underground: Cody Shaffer of Screams Of The Insane Interview by Michael Demos Screams Of The Insane is a Deathcore/Metalcore band hailing from Reading, Pa. They are starting to make some real noise in the local scene and have some pretty decent shows coming up real soon. I had a chance to chat with guitarist Cody Schaffer and he gave me the scoop on everything that’s been going on for him and Screams Of The Insane. Here’s what he had to say…M.D. PI: You’re currently guitarist for Screams The Insane. How did that come about?

CS: Well it all started when I found out my closest friend, Chris Zuppa, played guitar and we were on the same skill level. We had the vision if creating something that was different and creative, so we pursued it. We went through many line-up changes until we found the right people, and thus became screams of the insane.

PI: Do you play any other instruments besides guitar? How did you get started in music?

CS: I'm currently learning fundamentals of drums and maybe even do more with it once I get more advanced, I’ve always had a thing for music when I was a kid and as I got older I met the right people who guided me into going further with it.

PI: Do you write any of the music in Screams Of The Insane? Have you guys recorded any tracks yet?

CS: We mostly write the music as a whole. It seems to flow a lot easier and makes for some great music. We recorded our first EP at Akdar Studios back in October; we're going back early December to start our full length.

PI: Do you still have copies of your EP and what was the name of it?

CS: Yeah we have copies all ready to go. We just named it Screams of The Insane being as though it was only a 3 song EP. PI: When and where did you guys play your first show? When did you get together as a band?

CS: We played our first show at the Silo back in September. We started together as a band early May.

PI: What are your goals as a band for the upcoming year?

CS: Our goals are simple, we want to play as many shows as we can, and gain more exposure... and maybe get signed.

PI: Reasonable…Here’s the hard question though. What are you doing to make those goals a reality?

CS: Pretty much what we're doing now, doing interviews, talking to more notorious people, getting in contact with other bands from out of our area. All we can do.

PI: Who are your personal musical influences?

What are you currently listening to?

CS: Well Mike Fidler of Throdl was always one of my influences when I just started getting into this scene and playing guitar. He helped me a lot and taught me a lot of things to become better at guitar. Rose Funeral's guitarist influenced me so much too, also anyone who ever helped me in my Guitar playing through the years. I’m currently listening to Rose Funeral, my all-time favorite band.

PI: Why are they your favorite band?

CS: Their originality, creativity, the harmonies they use and the way they use them. The guitars… I always went to that band when I wanted to learn more with guitar, and just kept learning their songs till I had them perfect. I never heard a band that had that sound. I can’t even describe it. When I heard them for the first time I completely fell in love with the music and I’ve been a die-hard fan ever since.

That’s where most of my style of playing came from. May I also mention that their drummer is a beast!

PI: Do you have any shows coming up?

CS: Yes we do. December 2nd we are playing at the Crocodile Rock Cafe' we're opening for Belie My Burial and the Fall of Albatross. On January 13th we’re at the Silo and were playing with 20til8 and From This We Rise.

PI: What’s your favorite thing about playing in a band. What do like the least?

CS: My favorite thing about playing in a band has got to be making music that you create and are proud of and watching people just go crazy to it.

It’s the best feeling. The part I like least is how all my money goes into my equipment and guitar work and such.

PI: Any goals of releasing a video?

CS: We had ideas to make a music video for our song Bloodbath back in October, but that big snowstorm we got kind of put a stop to that and we haven’t gotten around to it since then. I’m hoping to get back on it and have it done by mid-December, maybe early January.

PI: Well Cody, good luck to you and Screams Of The Insane, and thanks for giving us a chance to get Plug’d In CS: Thanks, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity.

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Impact: Maika Maile of There For Tomorrow Interview by Vikki Sin Vocalist Maika Maile of the pop punk band There For Tomorrow sat down with us at this years Warped Tour in Scranton, PA. The group, who formed when they were just teenagers, had just released their second studio album “The Verge” with Hopeless Records; the process being a fairly simple one, according to Maika.

Here he tells us about the wide range of influences behind their music and why they stand strongly behind the message of suicide awareness…V.S. PI: So this is not your first Warped Tour.

MM: We did the full thing in ‘09.

PI: Happy to be back?

MM: Definitely. I mean, we’re always happy to be out doing anything. Sitting at home, you get quite depressed if you’re a constant touring musician.

PI: You’re one of those people that love to tour?

MM: Not necessarily love to tour, all the things outside of just being on stage and releasing yourself I don’t like, but it all pays off when you’re able to do that every day, have some time onstage, showing yourself off, you know?

PI: Tell us a little bit about how the band got together.

MM: We’re just young kids that came together in a garage, that’s it. No big story, just some little fat punk kids that liked NOFX and Rancid and Operation Ivy then got into a lot more melodic music and started paving the way.

PI: You just released a CD called The Verge. Tell us a bit about the thought process behind that and what you guys were thinking going into it.

MM: Honestly, we weren’t thinking much going into it because it just called for us to step up and do something very honest and genuine. We went into the studio and wrote, no time restrictions or anything, but we wrote the whole album in a week as a live band together, and then recorded it in the rest of that month. So, from not having any songs and just scattered ideas and fragments and then a month later have a full album mixed and mastered is pretty awesome. It sounds like something that was worked on for hours upon hours, but the people we worked with were just totally professional and we’re kind of getting close to being professionals as well. We’ve done a lot of studio time and spent time just nurturing our skills trying to get better and better.

PI: So you were into music at a very young age?

MM: Very young age, yeah. (PI) And you were more into the punk scene then? What are some of the other artists that inspired you? (MM) Vocally, always my number one is Bob Marley and then

my number two right up there is Michael Jackson. Bob Marley for the meaning and the culture behind his music, and then Michael Jackson for just the insane performer he was and singer, obviously talented musician. I got into Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera when I was like 7. I started playing guitar when I was 6 when I bought the Black Album by Metallica. I’ve been heavily into music for a long time, yeah.

PI: Obviously you’re very passionate about music. Anything else you’re passionate about?

MM: We’ve done a lot of great things with certain non-profits about suicide and depression awareness, things like that. It’s very sad to see so much potential being lost by people that are not so confident within themselves. A lot of my lyrical content goes into that, because I’m one of those people as well. I think we all are at times. So, I have to write something empowering to give me an identity and then all of our fans feed off of that and kind of feel the same way so that’s kind of the story behind our band right now.

PI: Is your band name behind the whole anti-suicide message then?

MM: Not exactly but it kind of ironically plays into that. We were like 15 when we came up with it but somehow we could foresee that it would last. The name in itself is all about lasting value and wanting to make an impact as opposed to just a here and now kind of thing. We’re trying to make a stamp with how we express ourselves and what we do on a daily basis. Our fans are definitely getting into that. We started a culture around what we’re doing that can last; for a career, for a lifetime and also to form a legacy. So that’s always been my dream and all of our dreams is to do something bigger than. Warped Tour’s awesome and it’s the most amazing shit, but it’s a small step in the right direction. We love Warped Tour and what it offers for sure.

PI: Here at Warped tour, do you ever get a chance to walk around and watch anything?

MM: Yeah, that’s all I did for the past hour. I love it. In Orlando, we don’t really get to see too many great shows. We’re able to see whatever tours are coming through but there’s nothing really like Warped Tour, and this year there’s a lot of great bands so we’re able to kind of venture out, take some time, and just learn things, because there’s a lot to learn out here from different bands. Even people that we don’t even really necessarily like, there’s still things to respect about what they’re doing.

PI: If you could collaborate with anyone, maybe on Warped Tour, is there anyone you’d like to work with?

MM: Yeah, definitely bands we would love to tour with. As far as collaborations, it’s kind of a finicky thing to really pull off well. Our friend Big Chocolate the DJ, we’ve thrown around the idea of doing some remixes, some electronic versions.

It’s been done before. He was into it, so him; Moving Mountains is an amazing band who we’re sharing actually the bus with. We know those guys better than anyone on this tour. Lionize and The Expendables…those are my two favorite bands on the tour.

PI: Do you have any crazy stories from the road to share?

MM: Yeah, it happened fairly recently, but you know the quintessential “sign my boobs” girls? Well this one decided to go ahead and just let it all loose, like literally plopped ‘em out, because they’re so big, and we were like “Whaaat?”. (laughs) She was definitely confident.

PI: Is there anywhere you’ve gotten to travel that absolutely has blown your mind?

MM: Yeah, Japan. Going to some more of the sacred stuff and being able to kind of tour around the places like Kyoto, the temple over there, it’s an ancient, ancient Buddhist temple. It’s pretty insane.

So, things like that helps to gain a new perspective on how other people live, it’s just very cool.

We’ve learned so much from traveling to different countries because our fan base is worldwide now thanks to the internet, and how we’ve been able to travel globally.

PI: What are your thoughts on YouTube and having other people upload your songs? Is that something you guys are willing to play into and work with?

MM: Yeah, we’re very viral. Anybody can see if they follow us on our Twitter and our YouTube account. We do things that definitely do play into that. It’s almost do-it-yourself promoting nowadays, marketing I mean. We do Ustreams and things like that to stay connected to the fans, let the walls down and let them see how we are and why we do what we do. That helps them kind of gain a new respect for our music, our tours and everything.

PI: Maybe bring people out to shows that might not have heard you before, they hear you on YouTube and…

MM: YouTube is a huge thing. It’s like the number one streaming place, but it is very overly cluttered so it’s hard to kind of funnel through all the random shit and just find the real stuff, but when you do, it’s always awesome.

PI: What can we expect from your band in the future?

MM: We’re just going to be touring on this album. We’re consistently writing and stuff so expect another album within the next years to come.

But we’re definitely doing a US tour and going to continue to travel globally. We’re excited to get out there and get it going!

PI: Cool! Thank you so much for giving us a chance to get Plug’d In! MM: Thank you!

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5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen (Part 1) By: TE Sloth, David Wong We found out recently that if you try to leave a little kid in a graveyard late at night, he'll freak out.

Even if you offer to leave him a gun to protect himself.

Why? It's because on some instinctual level, all humans know it's just a matter of time until the zombies show up.

Our culture is full of tales of the undead walking the Earth, from our religions to our comic books.

But, some sort of zombie apocalypse isn't actually possible, right? Right? Guys? Actually, yes. It's quite possible. Here's five ways it could happen, according to science. #5. Brain Parasites…As seen in ...Resident Evil IV What are they? Parasites that turn victims into mindless, zombie-like slaves are fairly common in nature. There's one called toxoplasmosa gondii that seems to devote its entire existence to being terrifying.

This bug infects rats, but can only breed inside the intestines of a cat. The parasite knows it needs to get the rat inside the cat (yes, we realize this sounds like the beginning of the most fucked-up Dr. Seuss poem ever) so the parasite takes over the rat's freaking brain, and intentionally makes it scurry toward where the cats hang out. The rat is being programmed to get itself eaten, and it doesn't even know.

Of course, those are just rats, right?

How it can result in zombies: Hey, did we mention that half the human population on Earth is infected with toxoplasmosa, and don't know it? Hey, maybe you're one of them. Flip a coin.

Oh, also, they've done studies and shown that the infected see a change in their personality and have a higher chance of going batshit insane.

Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Humans and rats aren't all that different; thats why they use them to test our drugs. All it takes is a more evolved version of toxoplasmosa, one that could to do us what it does to the rats. So, imagine if

half the world suddenly had no instinct for selfpreservation or rational thought. Even less than they do now, we mean.

If you're comforting yourself with the thought that it may take forever for such a parasite to evolve, you're forgetting about all the biological weapons programs around the world, intentionally weaponizing such bugs. You've got to wonder if the lab workers don't carry out their work under the unwitting command of the toxoplasmosa gondii already in their brains. If you don't want to sleep at night, that is.

You may be protesting that technically these people have never been dead and thus don't fit the dictionary definition of "zombies," but we can assure you that the distinction won't matter a whole lot once these groaning hordes are clawing their way through your windows. #4. Neurotoxins As seen in ...The movie The Serpent and the Rainbow, the upcoming Resident Evil 5 video game.

What are they? There are certain kinds of poisons that slow your bodily functions to the point that you'll be considered dead, even to a doctor (okay, maybe not to a good doctor). The poison from fugu (Japanese blowfish) can do this.

The victims can then be brought back under the effects of a drug like datura stramonium (or other chemicals called alkaloids) that leave them in a trance-like state with no memory, but still able to perform simple tasks like eating, sleeping, moaning and shambling around with their arms outstretched.

How it can result in zombies: "Can?" How about "does."

This stuff has happened in Haiti; that's where the word "zombie" comes from. There are books about it, the most famous ones by Dr. Wade Davis (Passage of Darkness and The Serpent and the Rainbow). Yes, the movie The Serpent and the Rainbow was based on this guy's actual science stuff. How much of it was fact? Well, there was that one scene where they strapped the guy naked to a chair and drove a huge spike through his balls. We're hoping that part wasn't true.

What is definitely true is the story of Clairvius Narcisse. He was a Haitian guy who was declared dead by two doctors and buried in 1962. They found him wandering around the village 18 years later. It turned out the local voodoo priests had been using naturally occurring chemicals to basically zombify people and putting them to work on the sugar plantations (no, really).

So, the next time you're pouring a little packet of sugar into your coffee, remember that it may have been handled by a zombie at some point.

Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: On the one hand, it's already fucking happened! So that earns it some street cred right off the bat.

But, even if some evil genius intentionally distributed alkaloid toxins to a population to turn them into a shambling, mindless horde, there is no way to make these zombies aggressive or cannibalistic.

Yet. Part 2 Next Issue

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