{"id":90869,"date":"2025-10-20T21:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90869\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:54:09","slug":"while-we-were-playing-a-vehicle-drove-into-the-middle-of-the-venue-i-think-the-guy-was-trying-to-kill-his-girlfriend-we-asked-ice-nine-kills-spencer-charnas-to-give-us-some-life-lessons-and-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90869\/","title":{"rendered":"“While we were playing, a vehicle drove into the middle of the venue. I think the guy was trying to kill his girlfriend.” We asked Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas to give us some life lessons and man does he have stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ice Nine Kills<\/a> have made a name for themselves thanks to an encyclopaedic knowledge of horror and a flair for the theatrics (move over, Phantom Of The Opera). Now, they have one of the most dedicated \u2013 and bloodthirsty fan bases around.<\/p>\n

It might\u2019ve started in Salem, home of the infamous witch trials, but frontman Spencer Charnas is currently in the decidedly-less-spooky setting of an airport departure lounge to talk to Hammer about the key things he\u2019s learned about life (and death) so far, as he heads to yet another horror convention in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

THERE\u2019S NO SUCH THING AS A GUILTY PLEASURE<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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\u201cFuck anyone who looks down on a genre of music, especially punk, ska, stuff like that. Anyone who judges or says it\u2019s a guilty pleasure is an asshole. I\u2019d like to see them write a song that good! Ska and punk bands are still some of my favourite music. That\u2019s the music that I listen to, even more so than heavy music. Bands like Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake<\/a>, NOFX all informed everything from my sense of melody to my songwriting; they really crafted that.\u201d<\/p>\n

MEET YOUR HEROES<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to collaborate with those bands has given me some of my greatest moments of my career. To have these bands that really influenced me, to get their stamp of approval, and for them to think Ice Nine Kills is cool \u2013 I can\u2019t begin to fathom it, really!\u201d<\/p>\n

MUSIC IS IN MY BLOOD<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy Grandma\u2019s turning 101 years old! The last time we played in New York City, about a year ago, she came to the show and was rocking out. So I\u2019ve got a really cool Grandma. My parents are music lovers, although they weren\u2019t musical themselves. My dad loved Queen<\/a>, my mom introduced me to musical theatre, so Phantom Of The Opera, Les Mis\u00e9rables and more had a big influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S ALL ABOUT BALANCE<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to balance being in a band with being there for everyone. I try and call them on the way to the airport each time, family is so important. They\u2019re not always going to be there. Making sure that the people you love know that you love them is vital. Things happen, tell people that you care about them. Nothing else matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T MONETISE OR PROFIT FROM REAL MISERY<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many fictional horror stories that you can work from; you don\u2019t need to touch real tragedies. There has to be nuance. It\u2019s like these true crime podcasts, I think, when it starts to sound exploitative, or disrespectful to the families that lost people, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the people who have this horrifying tragedy in their family.<\/p>\n

“How would you feel if people were exploiting that? At the same time, though, history is history. Bad things happen, and sometimes those stories can be told in a way that are cautionary tales or they\u2019re tributes to the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

AVOID PIGEONHOLES<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to carve your own path. Don\u2019t worry about trends or what everybody else is doing. There are a lot of bands that just follow the pack; they look at what\u2019s popular, and they want to sound exactly like what\u2019s popular now. That\u2019s a recipe for either no success or very short success. Go with what your passion is. Keep people on their toes!<\/p>\n

“Everyone thinks we only do horror, but we just did a video based on The Matrix for The Great Unknown, and people loved it. People are asking us to do more action-themed ones, like Terminator<\/a>. The possibilities are endless, but of course, horror is our first love. Our fans trust us. We\u2019re not going to sell out, but you always have to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the wildest things ever happened at one of our shows, way back in the day we were playing shitty clubs, and we were in Panama City, Florida, which is kind of a ghost town. It wasn\u2019t even a dive bar, it was just like a little community centre, and while we were playing, a vehicle drove into the middle of the venue. I think the guy was trying to kill his girlfriend or something, and the whole show just erupted into chaos. I mean, a pickup truck just drove through the fucking venue?! That was scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU\u2019RE NEVER TOO SUCCESSFUL TO BE KIND<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to support and meet Metallica<\/a>\u2026 whenever I think about it, it feels like I\u2019m going to wake up from a dream! I know it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 and sounds lame, but it\u2019s the truth. They liked that we were a little different, a little bold, going out with chainsaws in the middle of the day.<\/p>\n

“James Hetfield said when they started, people thought they were too metal for the punk kids and too punk for the metalheads. I think they respected our chutzpah, that we went out there and didn\u2019t give a fuck if all these bearded dudes in Slayer t-shirts didn\u2019t have a clue who we were. All of Metallica and their crew couldn\u2019t have been more accommodating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ice Nine Kills – The Laugh Track (Official Music Video) [Part 1] – YouTube
\n\"Ice<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

WATCH WHERE YOU STAND\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at an invite-only Grammy party two years ago for Bon Jovi \u2013 I didn\u2019t get to meet them, that\u2019s not the story! \u2013 But I went over to say hello to Bob Kraft, he\u2019s the owner of the Patriots team in New England. He\u2019s THE guy, right? I was talking to him for a while, and then as I\u2019m walking away towards the front of the auditorium, I feel this hand on my back, kind of pushing me. I hear this British accent, telling me \u2018Move along now, boys, move along!\u2019, I turn around, assuming it\u2019s somebody\u2019s security guard, but no\u2026 it was Sir Paul McCartney pushing me out of the way! I hope he passed on his Midas touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

CELEBRATE THE NEXT GENERATION<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched some of that Back To The Beginning concert, and man, Yungblud is a fucking star. I didn\u2019t really know anything about him before besides his Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly collab. He\u2019s got the look, he\u2019s got the voice, he\u2019s got the charisma. We\u2019re really excited about the support bands coming with us on the tour as well. I\u2019ve always wanted to bring Creeper on the road with us.<\/p>\n

“I just think they write great songs. I love their aesthetic, I love their melodies. It reminds me of a throwback to the good old days of that horror kind of punk vibe. I love the other band Will had, too, called Salem, and not just because of the name!\u201d<\/p>\n

THERE WAS NEVER A BACKUP PLAN<\/p>\n

“I always wanted to be a rockstar, I just loved it. The only other thing I wanted to do was either be an actor, a director, or a writer, so it\u2019s nice that with our cinematic music videos, I get to live out that other passion of mine. We\u2019re making these high-concept videos that are like movies, and we\u2019re tying in the storyline. It\u2019s all connective tissue. You just have to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

BE YOUR OWN BIGGEST FAN<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an artist, it\u2019s so easy to be a perfectionist, but I\u2019m genuinely very proud of what we\u2019ve done, particularly of the last two albums. I think they\u2019re far and away the best material we\u2019ve ever made! It is always surprising to me when someone says, \u2018Oh, this other album was the best.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Have you \/\/heard\/\/ that album?\u2019 I don\u2019t want to denigrate our older stuff, and obviously I don\u2019t want to offend people that love it\u2026 but just listening back to what we were doing 10 years ago, compared to now, to me, it\u2019s night and day. The musicianship has improved. The lyrics are better. I just think we found our own niche.\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU CAN\u2019T DO IT ALONE<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very grateful and thankful that I get to do what I love for a living, and I can\u2019t thank our team enough who are really helping to realize our vision. You know, I\u2019m only one guy, things start with me, and nothing gets past the release without my stamp of approval, but there are just so many talented people that work for us, and I\u2019m very lucky that the fans seem to always have our back. You have to please yourself and love what you\u2019re doing first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n

KNOW HOW TO HIDE THE BODIES\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best advice I could give anybody, or my younger self, is this: don\u2019t dig a shallow grave in order to dispose of a body. It\u2019s not the best idea if you\u2019re trying to evade the authorities. You always want to dissolve the body in some sort of chemical first, or you could eat it. Obviously Jeffrey Dahmer had a taste for the meat, but it\u2019s not for me. That\u2019s the best advice I can give anyone, that and don\u2019t get caught.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Great Unknown is out now. Ice Nine Kills tour the UK with Creeper from December 8. Silver Scream Con UK takes place December 13-14, 2025 at The Cumberland Hotel in London<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ice Nine Kills have made a name for themselves thanks to an encyclopaedic knowledge of horror and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-90869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}