Interview: video.loss
“I was like 11 years old when I started making music – just like some shitty kid making club wannabe beats or whatever. Not too long after I started, I was like “I hate everything…” So I’m gonna just do this music shit. And here I am, to this day.”
Best known for his abrasive vocals, occult lyricism and heavy hitting production, Sematary blends elements of trap, witch house and black metal into a twisted mass of mutilated sound. Sematary himself is a quiet enigma; humble and well spoken as we chat on voice call, but his online presence inspires intrigue – who is this outlandish character lurking in the woods? Sematary’s art style is grainy, overblown and distorted, with music videos that resemble found footage from on a discarded hard drive. The mystique of Sematary’s character has led to a large underground following; devoted worshippers of the Grave Man and the Haunted Mound. His unique visual and sonic style cannot be recreated, and he stands out amongst his contemporaries within the underground rap scene. Ahead of the release of his 6th full length, self produced mixtape “Rainbow Bridge 3” Sematary has recorded a mix exclusively for C:O, a 45 minute hellride tour into the universe of the Rainbow Bridge, alongside an extensive interview discussing his past, present and future.
SEMATARY has joined #CO
<CO>
When you first started producing, did you find music allowed you to express certain feelings in a new way?
<SEMATARY>
Oh, yeah, definitely. People are always all like, bro, if you make angry music, you’re just gonna stay angry all the time. Nahh dog… I would have lost my mind long ago if I wasn’t doing this.
<CO>
What inspired you to start rapping? Was it a natural progression from producing?
<SEMATARY>
I produce almost all of my music. There aren’t many Sematary songs that are produced by other people as of now. I started making beats and stuff, and I knew that producers are treated like shit in the music industry – I had a few experiences with that – and I wasn’t really having it. So I just started rapping, and it’s a lot more fun to be a rapper too.
<CO>
Producers are definitely the underdogs.
<SEMATARY>
As important if not more than the vocals? I would say if it doesn’t sound cool, you don’t have a song. Fuck the music industry.
<CO>
Are there any artists or albums that can credit to inspiring the sound and the aesthetic of Sematary?
<SEMATARY>
I mean, there’s been a LOT. I listen to a lot of different shit… specifically now, with Rainbow Bridge 3 influences – a lot of really old Salem beats. Bang 2 by Chief Keef – the first five songs, like “Bank Closed” – that’s very influential to me. There’s a guy called Sovereign from Brazil who’s been very impactful also. I just like making mashups of like those three things on DJ software when I was younger and was like “I wish this was a real song”… So basically now I have been making that and like, just making it crazier and crazier.
<CO>
Rainbow Bridge 3 sounds to me like you're going in full force. Darker, harsher sounds, more aggressive processing and vocals. What are some of the factors that have led to the harsher sound of this project?
<SEMATARY>
With COVID, and you know, life…I don’t know… getting over… seeing all the bullshit. The usual shit that makes people angry. I was already angry before and then COVID hit and it’s been pretty gnarly. So I was just wanting to crank it up as far as it could possibly go with the black metal witch house combo. I’ve just been real mad. I found some super hard to find black metal stuff, which I flipped into songs, which is cool because I feel like it’s keeping those artists alive. A lot of them aren’t around anymore.
<CO>
A lot of your production is sampled from classic songs (The Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, etc) as well as some harder to find ones. What is your process for finding songs to sample?
<SEMATARY>
I mostly sample songs I actually listen to all the time. I’ve started actually playing guitar, going forward, I’m gonna try and do my own shitty riffs… But everything on Rainbow Bridge 3 has been sampled. I feel like people are gonna have a hard time recognising these songs because the samples have been flipped and chopped and screwed like 18 times before I actually made a beat out of them.
I was listening to a lot of Memphis rap and black metal, one after the other. So I guess I was trying to make stuff that felt like that.
<CO>
Frankenstein's monster - Sematarys monster!
<SEMATARY>
I just took all the stuff from the first two and wanted to crank it up as far as I could possibly take it.
I put toothtaker from Rainbow Bridge 2 on it – that’s a classic and I felt like it needed to be heard more – I mixed it again to be louder. RB2 kind of nuked by COVID.
<CO>
So you started making music, then progressed to vocals. When did you start to notice a cult following growing?
<SEMATARY>
I mean, it (fanbase) was growing way back then. It wasn’t too much. Now, it’s been growing a lot and people really fuck with my shit. I made grave house and Rainbow Bridge one pretty much by myself – Ghost helped me, and just kind of threw them out there and didn’t really give a fuck. I’m still pretty active, that’s probably why it’s growing – it’s cool. It makes me happy. I want to do this for my life, so it’s cool that people are actually giving a shit and supporting me – but if I wasn’t at all popular and no one gave a fuck, I’d probably still be doing it.
<CO>
Have you had to deal with people judging you in your personal life for the music you make?
<SEMATARY>
Not really. I’ve never had a lot of friends really, other than Ghost Mountain a couple other fools. Grave House was just me and a Ghost so we were just having a good time. So I guess we’re both weird.
I feel like I feel like I’d be doing something wrong if people liked it and didn’t think it was weird.
<CO>
How did you and Ghost Mountain start making music together?
<SEMATARY>
We met in school, I basically always wanted to do this shit, so I was always telling him about it. He put up with years of me blabbering about it, and then I started actually doing it. He’s kind of backed off of music right now, but that’s still the homie. Shout out Ghost.
<CO>
Printing your own shirts, making CDs, working completely independently - as you said, fuck the music industry - What prompted you to take things into your own hands?
<SEMATARY>
I found people to help me here and there. I like to maintain control when I can, keeping it underground.
I don’t really trust music labels. It seems like there might be some cool ones out there, but I don’t know, the music industry does seem sketchy as fuck, and I don’t really trust any of it. I’d rather maintain control, even if it means less money. All the time, when I talk to people that are on labels and stuff, they don’t seem happy. They just seem like they don’t like being bossed around. But they’re more famous than me, So who knows?
<CO>
Now that you have quite a following, do you ever find that fans push boundaries when it comes to your personal life?
<SEMATARY>
There’s been lots of that. I don’t know, It isn’t too big of a deal. I saw some edit someone made of me with like, swastikas on Twitter or something. And that really ruined my day. Honestly, like the worst. If I saw it again, I would almost quit over that, I hated it so much. But yeah, well, it’s, it’s whatever. You got to not think about it and just, keep on.
<CO>
That's it. Something I've always loved about your music is that the lyricism and feeling have a negative undertone, each song is really fun to listen to. It’s always an enjoyable experience to listen to your music.
<SEMATARY>
It’s all about having fun. I mean it definitely hasn’t always been fun – there’s definitely like some force of will shit behind it, but it should be fun.
<CO>
What would Sematary Grave Man's top three movies be?
<SEMATARY>
The Devil’s Rejects, Mad Max: Fury Road and 28 days later if I had to do top three… that’s tough.
<CO>
No Pet Sematary?
<SEMATARY>
Nah that movie is kind of trash, but it’s got good lore. The book’s pretty good. Steven King got heaters.
