Brian Sherwin interview with photographer, graphic artist, and musician Sean Yseult (formerly of White Zombie)

Brian Sherwin interview with photographer, graphic artist, and musician Sean Yseult (formerly of White Zombie)

Image used with permission from Sean Yseult

Sean Yseult is a photographer, graphic artist, and musician. She has played in several bands-- but is best known as having been the bassist for the heavy metal band White Zombie. Yseult was a member of White Zombie for over a decade-- and is preparing to launch a book, titled “I’m in the Band”, that details her experiences touring with White Zombie as well as offering insight from others who are involved with White Zombie. The book will contain a history of the band that fans have been denied for years.

Yseult has been involved with bands such as Rock City Morgue and Famous Monsters-- and of course, White Zombie. She has performed with many musicians-- including, Rob Zombie, Jay Yuenger, John Tempesta, Tim Jeffs, Tom Guay, Ivan de Prume, Katie Lynn Campbell, and various others. However, before becoming one of the greatest bassist’s in rock history Sean Yseult had an interest in photography and graphic design. In recent years Yseult has been focusing on aspects of visual art rather than music.

Brian Sherwin: Sean, you were one of the founding members of the band White Zombie-- and played bass in the band for over decade. Needless to say, White Zombie was very successful. I understand that you plan to release a book, titled “I’m in the Band”, that contains tour diaries, a collection of photos, and other information that details your years as a member of White Zombie. Can you tell us about the book and your motivation for writing it? For example, is part of the motivation to give credit where credit is due as far as the band lineup is concerned?

Sean-Yseult: That is a huge part of the book - I actually reconnected with almost all of the past members of White Zombie and asked them to write a piece to go in the book. Whether that was their first impression of White Zombie, their experience within the band, or a few funny tour stories, it was entirely up to them.

I not only want to give credit where it is due to all of the band members who contributed in one way or another, but also to all of the people who helped us along the way - I have pages written by our first record producer, Daniel Rey, our first guy that booked us in the East Village, Steven Blush, our a&r guy who signed us to Geffen, the list goes on.

Part of my motivation in creating this book was hearing from our fans once our box-set came out - they were very upset upon opening it up to find not one liner note or note of reference about the band at all. When we broke up we disappeared, there was no farewell or fanfare, no chance to connect with our fans one last time. The box-set should have been our final word to the fans, but it said nothing.

When I started looking through all of the boxes of White Zombie things I had saved - photo albums, tour diaries, back stage passes, etc., so many memories came back and I felt like I had quite a story to tell, with quite a lot of visuals on hand to illustrate it. Having started off as a photo major in art school, I almost always had a camera around, so I have photos of us from day one until the very end!

Brian Sherwin interview with singer, songwriter and musician Geoff Tate (Queensryche)

Brian Sherwin interview with singer, songwriter and musician Geoff Tate (Queensryche) (This is an interview I had with Geoff Tate of the band Queensryche. It was originally posted on the Myartspace Blog on April 19, 2009.)

Photo Credit: Greg Watermann/January 2009 More info: L-R: Ed Jackson, Scott Rockenfield, Michael Wilton, Geoff Tate

Queensryche, formed in 1981, is considered to be one of the most influential bands to rise in the 1980s-- largely due to the fact that Queensryche broke from the marketable direction that was expected from bands in that era. Throughout the 1980s Queensryche delivered something more than just songs about sex, fun, and hangover memories-- they delivered socially charged songs that challenge the listeners perception of the world and relationships around us. Today they continue to carve their own path musically and conceptually.

For nearly three decades the band has meshed aspects of visual art, video art, and performance art into their performances on stage. Due to their thought provoking lyrics, sound, and performances the band has been dubbed the ‘thinking man’s heavy metal band’. Concept albums by Queensryche, such as Operation: Mindcrime, are often mentioned alongside other notable concept albums, such as The Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. To date over 20 million Queensryche albums have been sold worldwide.

In an interview conducted by phone I discussed the visual aspects of Queensryche with frontman Geoff Tate. Geoff offered his thoughts on critics, copyright, and the challenges that musicians and visual artists face today. He also offered some insight about American Soldier -- a recently released concept album by Queensryche that tells the story of war from a firsthand perspective.

Brian Sherwin: Geoff, Queensryche performances often involve aspects of film, video art, and performance art. In a sense, various aspects of art are meshed together in order to heighten the experience of the audience. You could say that the audience is hit with a visual and audio bombardment. That said, how involved are you with the visual aspects of the tours? Do you oversee the process? Are you involved with the planning directly?

Geoff Tate: Yeah, I’m directly involved in the process. We have been collecting and cataloguing images for 28 years. In the early days it was difficult to keep track of images because keeping everything on file was a laboring process. With the technology of today the process is easier because the images, clips, and audio can be saved on computer files. So there is a lot of resources for us to pull content from within the collection when we are planning stage shows or videos.

For the stage performances I’m directly involved in selecting actors that have the talent to convey the themes and emotions that we want to capture for the audience. I help select and arrange the video clips that play behind us on the stage. So I would say I’m deeply involved and interested in the meshing of visual and audio for our shows and how that communicates to people at the show.