The underground star talks ghosts, Gucci Mane and the Lynch samples on his Halloween-ready mixtape Haunt-O-Holixx.<\/em>
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Cult rapper Sematary: “I have a fascination with American… – The Face
The underground star talks ghosts, Gucci Mane and the Lynch samples on his Halloween-ready mixtape Haunt-O-Holixx.
If you’ve ever wondered how it would sound if the Blair Witch was swagged out and had access to Ableton, Sematary’s fifteen projects are the answer. Since he founded the NorCal collective Haunted Mound in 2019, the 24-year-old rapper and producer has been consistently refining his potent strain of metal-garbling trap. The Mound’s releases are like riotous pagan solstices for underground rap fans – cultural equinoxes where Reddit detectives and goth kids can come together in equal measure to celebrate bassed out braggadocio.
Sematary has sold out shows across Europe and America, linked with fellow underground stars like Nettspend, xaviersobased and Che, and he’s even found some time to buy a decommissioned slaughterhouse in rural California (more on that below). His new tape, Haunt-O-Holixxx, is perfectly timed for Halloween. An ode to trap music and horrorcore, the beats make you feel like you’re getting hit in the head with an anvil, DJ tags bully you and 808s trip like they’ve got a mind of their own. There are druggy party anthems, phonk-sampling metal bangers and deep-fried witch house ballads.
To commemorate the tape, I called up Sematary to have a chat about Gucci Mane, David Lynch and why he thinks Manchester is “turnt” as fuck.
A lot of your work pulls from rural decay and dark Americana. It kind of reminds me of David Lynch a little bit. Do you fuck with him?
That’s high praise. I actually didn’t grow up being into him, but I love him. The video for my song Headlights has loads of clips from his film Lost Highway in it. I think I have a general fascination with American desolation and decay – driving down a highway, and there’s like 10 McDonald’s there and all that shit. I feel like David Lynch had a similar fascination with the underbelly of perfect America, but I think we’re past that era now, and the dark underbelly is just America. That’s the norm now, it’s not hidden anymore.
How do you think that shift is influencing your music?
I’ve always been really into escapism, and I think it reflects in everything I do. I don’t really enjoy art that isn’t an escape of some kind. I don’t really enjoy movies with too much social commentary – all movies have that, and that’s important, but I mean really preachy movies where I’m just reminded of how the world is. Music that can act as escapism is what it’s really all about for me. As things just get more grim, it just kind of makes you want to make music to help people keep going.
What are some of your favourite samples on Haunt-O-Hollixxx? Fans with good ears might catch your flip of the Twin Peaks theme on Laura.
It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of samples, but there really is. Definitely the David Lynch flip. When I was making that, I was chilling with Ghost Mountain, and we called Wicca Phase [Springs Eternal], because he’s been making Twin Peaks music for forever. He sent it back in like two days. I’m very proud of that sample too because there’s a Triple Six Mafia one over it. On Iced Out Tree, there’s also this string layer from the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet. It’s kind of a texture thing in the back of all the bells, and whistles and shit, but it’s pretty hard to hear. It’s the scene where Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan meet for the first time. There’s this string thing which is happy and then goes super spooky. I ripped it out the movie and made it even spookier than it was, and then built off that. There’s also a lot more Memphis rap samples, and even a Type O Negative one, because I just don’t give a fuck.
“Music that can act as escapism is what it’s really all about for me. As things just get more grim, it just kind of makes you want to make music to help people keep going”
Do you feel you’ve moved back into trap territory with Haunt-O-Holixxx?
I wouldn’t say I’ve moved back into trap territory, but I’ve just kind of followed that influence further. It was always there, even going back to my very first tapes. Rainbow Bridge 1 and Gravehouse had plugg trap drums. That’s trap music, but it’s just one splinter of it. Haunt-O-Holixxx is about going really heavy with the more old school Gucci Mane mixtape vibe. But there’s still some modern combinations in there like witch house, fun combinations that haven’t been done yet.
How did you find producing most of the tape yourself and mixing it yourself?
I mean, that’s kind of always how I work – I produce a majority of my music, and then I’ve gotten the Haunted Mound producers to work with me more over time. But on this one, I produced pretty much all of it, except for a few tracks. The songGrave Robber was produced by this really cool producer I found on Twitter, called TiCox. He specialises in that old Gucci Mane, Zaytoven 2006 sound. It was also cool to sample a bunch of spooky shit and combine that with all the influences of old Gucci and Chief Keef stuff. It was fun to hone in on like the tackiest, most cranked up version of my style and then fuse that with some of the other influences.
Where do you see your sound moving after this tape?
You know my song Wendigo? Well after this mixtape, I’m going to kind of go more in that direction, that Crystal Castles, witch house‑y sound: a little dancier, a little punkier, a little less trappy. Obviously, trap music will still be an influence. So this was kind of like my last hurrah, a hardcore trap mixtape with all the runbacks, tags and FX, which I’ve always loved, but I’ve never really gone all the way with.
“I’ve lived in quite a few houses that are very old and definitely haunted”
Now for some Halloween-theme questions. Do you have any serial killer obsessions?
Not really. I like fictional ones more than real ones, like the Rob Zombie characters. Also Dracula. I like the mythology of made up ones more. It goes back to what I was saying about escapism – I don’t really want to think about real serial killers that have caused real suffering, when I can think about more fun characters and tie that to real feelings of darkness.
Do you believe in ghosts?
I think there’s something out there, but I haven’t seen any. And I’ve definitely lived in quite a few houses that are very old and definitely haunted.
Was there nothing paranormal about the decommissioned slaughterhouse you used to live in?
Oh, the butcherhouse! I feel like there was, but I never saw anything when I was there. It’s crazy. It was really old, and the lady who lived there before me died there. It definitely got spooky being there alone for great lengths of time. That was kind of why I had to move out.
Do you believe in heaven and hell?
Not so literally as that, but I do think there’s something out there. I feel like you’d have to be silly to ignore it. When I’m making a really cool song, the feeling that it gives me is proof that there’s something. You know, I think it’d be cooler if really bad people respawn as a fucking worm or something. And if you’re really cool, you get to respawn as a grizzly bear or some shit.
What do you fear the most?
Damn. Getting deep with it now. Failing to make really good art. Or not being able to afford rent.
Any tips for Haunted Mound Halloween costumes?
That’s a thing? Get your masks from Fun World, not Amazon.
How are you spending your Halloween?
I’m trying to put together a little listening party. It’s not fully locked in yet, but I’ve never really gotten to do a full-on release party for one of my mixtapes, so I’m trying to do a cool, low-key event, because this is like my 13th or 14th tape now. How about you?
I’m out in Manchester.
I played there last summer. They went dumb. It was like the sweatiest show of the entire tour, because I guess they just don’t have air conditioning in Europe. There was condensation dripping down from the ceiling, and my mic had a screen on it that was just filled with water. The crowd was going so hard in Manchester. That was a great show, plus it’s where Joy Division was from. I fuck with Manchester. Turnt-ass fucking city.
Okay, one final one. What’s the ideal Haunt-O-Holixxx listening experience?
Put on a fucking 6XL black robe like an evil Grim Reaper. Go out in the woods and have a party with a big-ass speaker and blast that shit. Lots of candles and cigarettes. Get high as fuck and slap that shit.
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