Kasey Karlsen introduces 2470 to the Villain Era and more!

We had the absolute thrill of sitting down with the electrifying Kasey Karlsen, the vocal chameleon behind Deadlands, the Long Island metalcore juggernaut shaking up the metal community. With a reputation for raw intensity and an unparalleled vocal range, Kasey is helping to redefine the genre, one blistering track at a time. In this conversation, Kasey opens up about the band's inception, the unforgettable experience of sharing the stage with Chris Motionless, touring, and so much more!

Watch the interview here:

Jeff: All right. So here we are. Live one take?

Kasey: Live one take!

Jeff: There we go! So, we're here with Kasey Karlsen of Deadlands today. Kasey, welcome.

Kasey: Thank you. Hello. How are you?

Jeff: I am doing very well. This is very formal. We can, we can, Yeah, we'll we'll make it a little more informal, but no, it's great to have you today. Thanks for your time. I really appreciate you sitting down and having a few moments to chat with us a little bit about what's going on with you and your band.

Kasey: Absolutely! Any time! You guys know, you could always, always hit me up for any of the inside scoop. And, we know we've got some stuff to discuss today.

Jeff: Yeah, yeah and I think you may have some stuff in the hopper for us, but first of all, you know, so I came across you in, I think 2021. I can't remember and I know you started way back when. But as far as Deadlands, when did you start Deadlands?

Kasey: So we started Deadlands in 2021, 2021. Oh my God, I know this. This is like really bad. I should probably..

Jeff: I have that Covid thing and that was a mind eraser for everybody, so.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. That was really just a magic eraser on my brain. So, like, makes sense. So we, we started, like, right after Covid had kind of like run its course. So probably 2021-22, but yeah, I mean, the story about that is literally just me and C.J., were in a band together and we just weren't jiving with the music that we were creating in that band. It was more like pop punk stuff. So, then we decided to switch gears and say, "all right, we're going to just do our own new project. We'll see what happens." Coincidentally, we saw Kyle at a Nothing Nowhere concert and CJ was like, "oh my God, that's my old drummer from the band I was in before this one." So Kyle, hi, how are you? And then we just kind of. I saw how Kyle ripped with his stick tricks, and I was like, "oh, my God, we need this guy, right? Done and done and done." and then the rest is history. Then came Crushed, Shallow Breath. All, all the jams. All the bangers.

Jeff: Oh, Crushed. Oh, yeah. That's a really good one. That's one of my faves. That's what I'm.. It's hard to pick one. I mean, from from your Deadlands catalog when I reviewed it the first time, like, literally every song is fantastic, and I can play that on repeat.

You started Deadlands in 2021, but that's not when you first started getting into the music scene, right?

Kasey: Correct. I mean, my first cover I posted, I believe, was in 2016. And with that being said, it was a very shitty cover. Can I curse?

Jeff: You can. Yeah, absolutely.

Kasey: It wasn't a shitty cover, but it was. It was where we started. I was 13 years old and my brother was like, yeah, I'll record you because I took like one class with BOCES and and, you know, it was just this like little trades school kind of thing, like locally. And so, he had like his audio license or whatever. He just started recording me. Sounded probably really, I guess beginner, which is fine, because he was, but I was like, "all right, I'm just going to make like one cover a year or whatever just because I didn't have the time to keep up with it." I was in school, you know, I was 13, 14 years old. I'm not going to prioritize something that I'm like, well, it doesn't really sound great anyway.

But then when I met CJ, he started producing me. And when he started producing me, I was like, "oh my God, this is such a level up from what I've been doing. I'm just going to see what sticks." I made, my first cover, I think that I posted on TikTok, I believe it was Farewell II Flesh and it did okay. Then I did Zombified and then it got like 60K views and I was like, okay. But then I did To The Hell Fire and it popped off immediately 800K and I was like, "oh my God, that's insane. I should probably keep this up." Not to mention I enjoy it. Like I've loved metal for so long now at this point, and I just have to I got to keep it going.

The people want what they want. I got to give it to them.

Jeff: How old were you when you had the 800K views? Were you in high school still?

Kasey: No, I think I had just turned around 19 or 18, one of which I think I had just graduated high school.

Jeff: I'm just trying to picture being in high school, and having something hit for 800,000 views, like, I just I can't imagine. But you weren't too far away from that. So yeah. When did you first start singing?

Kasey: Oh my God. I mean, I never really had like actual training. I pretty much, I was in like third grade chorus. Like, if you count that is like professionally trained. But mostly I would just like, play video games and sing along to my favorite songs, sing along to like, Ariana Grande and Avenged Sevenfold within the same five minutes.

Like I would just jam out for fun. And I remember when I, when I was really, really starting to get into like metal vocals and screaming and all that stuff. I used to take my UE boom Bluetooth speaker, and its not that it looks like a microphone at all, but it was cylindrical, so like, you could hold it up to your mouth and be okay, you know? And I guess it was the most similar thing I could find to a microphone at the time. And so I would just pretend that the speaker was a microphone and I'd just be.. I would just be screaming and my parents would be like, "what the hell is she doing? Whatever. We'll let her do her thing."

Jeff: Shameless plug. I have that UE boom speaker. I cannot kill it. I cannot kill it. It's waterproof. I can't kill it.

Kasey: The only way that you kill it is if you drop it and it bends the charger.

Jeff: Yeah. It's a great speaker.

So you did some covers on socials, and then you got a little bit more of a of a following. Deadlands is created. Take it from there. What was your first step with Deadlands? Did you start touring locally? I know you're, you're producing some music, recording.

Kasey: Yeah. So I mean, we really weren't touring so much. I mean, mostly I was just kind of like "build, build, build, build, build. Let's see what we could get." And then and then we were like, "okay, shit, now we built this thing, but now we have to write, write, write, write, write." So that's exactly what we're doing right now.

As you mentioned. And really we kind of just start playing one offs. We started playing weekends. We were like, "all right, we'll like, let's see how far we can take this." Then we started packing out local shows. Packing out Pennsylvania shows. I know that you and Dustin have come to a couple of those and they were amazing. So I, like our first tour was probably not even a week long. It was like a bunch of weekend warriors, I think. I think it was from like a Tuesday to a Sunday or something. And now we're going and we're touring from September to November, which is absolutely nuts. Like, I can't even wrap my brain around that because that's going to be the longest I'm away from home ever. As of right now. So I'm a little nervous.

Jeff: Get used to it!

Kasey: We're excited. Oh, I know, I'm like, oh geez, we gotta we gotta start getting a little mobile home now. Like a little RV or something.

Jeff: Preserving Underground. I was thinking of the name of it. That was a fun place. We didn't make it into the vinyl store, but that was a fun place. We had a good time in Pittsburgh.

Kasey: Oh yeah, it was awesome. Super awesome, the last time we went there, oh my god. So they didn't have heat and it was freezing outside. It was like zero degrees. So like I'm trying to warm up for the show and I'm like this, but like outside where the crowd was, it was fine. It was like, okay, this is great. I was sweating my butt off during the show and then you come back to the green room. Everybody's literally steaming. It was insane. It was so cold.

Jeff: Oh my gosh.

Kasey: So cold. But I mean, all those shows are always so good. And were you at the last one, the last one at that venue?

Jeff: No. I went to Columbus, Ohio. I couldn't tell you the name of the venue. Okay. We didn't make it to Pittsburgh. No, I know Dustin made it.

Dustin: You went to Columbus didn’t you?

Jeff: Yeah, yeah. Something East. I don't even know what it was called now.

Kasey: Where was this?

Dustin: Columbus, Ohio.

Kasey: Oh, that that was.. Oh, shoot. That was The Basement.

Jeff: The Basement East or something. No. No, maybe that's Yeah, I don't know. I’ve been to so many venues, and so have you.

Kasey: Yeah. Because we have we've played at our other Ohio stop that we played at was The Foundry.

Jeff: Is that in Lakewood?

Kasey: Yes, that's in Lakewood. And then the other one is Columbus. That is that's got to be The Basement. It's the one with the little dip by the stage, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's called The Basement, I think.

Jeff: I think yeah, I got there a little late so I couldn't, I had to shoot from the back, which was tough because the ceiling is lower. Oh my gosh. You were there with Convictions. That's right. Yeah. That was the show.

Kasey: That was a show and Convictions rips all the time. They're great. and I, I actually love that venue. I loved the setup of the stage for some reason. It felt it just felt so like it was so odd, but it was so cool just the way that the venue was set up.

Jeff: Well, yeah, because it had like the pit dipped, but then you had the railing around the side where people could almost be side stage a little bit. It was a cool venue. Yeah. That was yeah, there was a couple of different venues there now. Lakewood I've not been to. I'm looking at the calendar. I may try to make it up to The Foundry.

Do you have a favorite venue?

Kasey: Oh. That is.. that's a crazy question. I love the Whiskey. The Whiskey I mean, that's an iconic venue in itself, but I do love the way that it's set up.

There there is a venue called Amityville Music Hall, like half an hour away from my house, and they just redid it. So I, I'm hoping that, that becomes my favorite venue because it's so close to my house. I really hope it's my favorite. They, they like renovated it. Now it's got a green room, which it didn't before. It's like double the size and we're going to be playing there on our next tour. So I'm like, oh, I can't wait. It's going to be so good.

Jeff: Did you say Amityville?

Kasey: Yes.

Jeff: You're no stranger.

Kasey: To the horror houses?

Jeff: Yeah. You're no stranger to the spooky/scary. You may have photos of you as a vampire. Yeah?

Kasey: Oh, yes. Canvases!

Jeff: You want to make a plug for that?

Kasey: Oh, absolutely. Horror, horrorcore.com. I believe he just changed it too. It was the horrorscope, but now it's the horrorcore.

Jeff: I think he's got some new pictures out now, right. Yeah?

Kasey: Yeah! All the canvases. Actually now we have code Deadlands instead of the Kasey code and everything will go to Deadlands now, which is awesome. And then not only do we have pictures of me, but we have pictures of the band. We have pictures of CJ and Kyle individually. Myself, individually. So super cool. Nice, nice new spread of Deadlands on the website, which is awesome.

Jeff: Great quality, great photos supporting a great band. Go out there, visit the website, code Deadlands. Pick up a picture. Let's go!

Kasey: Absolutely! Thank you!

Jeff: Do you have a favorite one of those pictures?

Kasey: That's a tough one. I mean,

Jeff: It is. Oh, it's so hard.

Kasey: The ones of me with, like, the peacock feathers overtaking the background is insane. Like, because the wings. I actually. I'll show you them right now. I have them. Hold on. Because we have to ship them out, and everybody's coming over today and signing them.

Jeff: Oh, cool.

Kasey: So because we just had the Villain giveaway, right? They are this big, they're not like to the extent of what Justin did like at all. They would come to like here. But Justin made them like go through the entire background and I'm like, "oh my God, he's insane."

Jeff: He is. His work is incredible. And so I can't wait to talk about Villain because that's super exciting.

Social media has been a big part of your, your growth as an artist, as a band. And you maintain, you post a lot, you make creative, interesting videos. I actually think you released some while you were on tour that were time released. You keep that going. Yeah. And so what has social media meant to you?

Kasey: Oh my God, I mean it's it's the biggest tool that we have as like whether you're.. put it this way, a band, while it's a job, it's like, while it's super cool, it's still a job. It's a business, you know? So when you're trying to promote your business, whether it's a pizza shop, a band, or a retail store, it doesn't matter.

Like you want to use all the tools that you have, and the tools that are available to you. And social media is such a powerful tool. You can really accomplish anything that you want on these apps. If you really.. if you study them, you're consistent and you're doing all the right things, like you really can't fail once you learn it. Like it's so crucial, especially for like up and coming bands.

You can't just be a band anymore. You have to be like a social media mogul in order to get people to see you. What I think of it this way is like, you know, we used to go and go on the radio and that would be the way that we would promote our music. But now it's the opposite. Now it's like, okay, you have to build yourself to get on the radio now, right? It's so crazy. But social media helps people do that. And and like, I'm proof of that. Deadlands is proof of that. And we're just trying to take advantage of the tools that are given to us.

Jeff: And so social media helped accelerate your career, if I'm not mistaken. There's a song called Slaughterhouse and, I can hear it now. The “One mutilation under God” part.

Tell me how you came up to sing with Chris Motionless, Motionless In White, with Slaughterhouse. How how did you get to join him on stage?

Kasey: Oh, my God, he just DM'd me out of the blue. I think it was like 11:00 at night. So everybody was, like, just about to go to sleep, and I got a DM from Chris Motionless being like, "hey, wanna come on stage for Slaughterhouse? Are you are you coming to any dates?" And I was like, "there's no way that this guy just asked me, asked me." He wasn't like, "you're coming on stage" No. He was like, "do you want to?" I'm like, "what? What the hell do you mean, do I want to? Of course! I'm there! Like you tell me where you want me and I will. I will be there." So he asked me to come up and and I was like, "Holy shit, there's no way this is real."

And I did it. I did so and I'll say this again, but I got a tattoo to commemorate the moment. It's the Scoring The End Of The World Tattoo.

Love it, love it, love it. Done by Phantom Tattoos, by the way.

Jeff: And where can you find Phantom Tattoos?

Kasey: Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.

Jeff: Okay. Is that. Is that Eastern part of Pennsylvania or?

Kasey: Yeah, I think so. It's like three hours away from me in central Long Island.

Jeff: So, we discovered you could drive for like six hours and still be in Pennsylvania.

Kasey: Oh, yes. Yeah, just about probably about 7 or 8 hours if you're going like that.

Jeff: I think we had all of it. And then you get Ohio after that. Yeah, yeah. So but social media also helps you go on, join a band that you're going to be touring with here in Mexico soon as well. Right. Who is that band?

Kasey: Yeah. Nita Strauss absolutely. The one and only. She is absolutely amazing. And we're going to.. I can't believe we're going to Mexico. I really cannot believe it. It's insane.

Jeff: Can you tell us how did your start with Nita came about?

Kasey: Absolutely. I mean, the same way that Chris DM'd me to go on stage, she DM'd me to go on tour. And I was like, "what the hell? How is this real?" What's funny is that actually, Ana Massard, she's absolutely amazing. I know you guys know her, but, she was her content person at the time, and so she and Nita were looking and scouting the internet. They were like, "well, do we want do we want male, female? What do we want?" And then Nita was like, "I really want a female singer really bad." And because Ana also works with Wage War, Ana had seen me covering Wage War songs, and Ana was like, "what about this chick?" And Nita's like, "she's awesome. I'm DMing her right now", so she DM'd, she DM'd me while I was sitting in a random hair salon and getting a blowout and I put the phone down for about an hour because I didn't want to seem like a little fangirl. So I waited. and the second I got into my car, I was like, "oh my God, Nita Strauss just asked me to go on tour with her."

And then I, I did some audition stuff. She asked me to do a couple songs for her and just see how my voice would fit into the mix, and she liked me enough to bring me on tour. And then they asked me back, I guess. So now we're here.

Jeff: Now we're here. Let's do a little timeline. So, do you remember when Chris asked you to come up and sing? What year?

Kasey: That was November of 2022.

Jeff: Oh, that was that was after Nita. No, I don't remember. Maybe it was about the same time.

Kasey: I'm checking right now. It's literally it's pinned on my TikTok, so it will take me two seconds.

Jeff: As it should be. I think when we talked earlier, Chris had said that Nita probably reached out as a result of him bringing you up as well. So, Chris must have been first. You have Deadlands forming in '21. '22 You have Chris Motionless reaching out. You join him on stage, you have Nita Strauss asking you to go on tour. You've been on four tours now and now Mexico. So not just even in just the United States, maybe even Europe one day, if she can swing it. I know she'd love to take the band there.

Kasey: Oh, my God, that would be incredible. And I would die. I, I would DIE. Well, I'm just wondering who's going to get there first. I'm assuming it's Nita because we're going to Mexico already. But, you know, you never know.

Jeff: When you make that assumption. Yeah, I'm not taking those odds.

Kasey: Are you serious??

Jeff: I'm not taking those odds. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. And that's what I want to get through. I mean, I want to spend very little time talking about the people that helped you guys get to where you are. I say helped you like you're everything the social media, your presence, the the videos, the everything, you know. It's not just necessarily one thing. I mean, I guess I could be a betting man, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't take those odds.

You're playing it Louder Than Life on I think it's September 26th.

Kasey: Yeah. Yes.

Jeff: That is a huge festival.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Our second time!

Jeff: You’re not new to it. Yeah. Okay. You're not, it's not new to you and so you're in those mixes. Look at the bands that you're playing with it. Didn't you just have a show last Halloween?

Kasey: Yep. Absolutely. Motionless In White. Alpha Wolf. Who else was there? Who? There was one other band. Why am I blanking? It wasn't Knocked Loose.

Jeff: No. It wasn't. Wait, what? Wasn't it?

Jeff: Wait. It was Motionless. Alpha Wolf.

Deadlands.

Kasey: Deadlands.

Dustin: Was it Dark Divine? No.

Jeff: Was it not Knocked Loose?.

Kasey: No, it wasn't Knocked Loose. It wasn't. And it wasn't After the Burial either. Maybe it was just the three of us.

Let me see, I got this.

Jeff: The hoodie has three. Three.

Kasey: Yeah. Oh. So then it wasn't. Yeah. Then it was just Motionless, Alpha Wolf, and us.

Jeff: Who created that design?

Kasey: I did, and that's.

Jeff: Amazing.

Kasey: Thank you. I had asked, I asked Motionless and I asked Alpha Wolf. I was like, "yo, guys, can I make you guys wolves?" I mean, that makes sense. You have, you have Werewolf by Motionless and then of course, Alpha Wolf. I thought that that would be cool to put them in like a dead, dead wolf kind of thing. And, then of course, the reaper in the middle. I was like that. That's got to happen.

Jeff: I did not know that. That's awesome.

Kasey: That's going to be like, one of the rarest pieces that we have, because I don't those. I just want them to be a memory of that night. I never want to make anything else with them.

Jeff: So, that that's incredible. Yeah. I had no idea. That is. That's fantastic work. Killer show would have loved to have been at it. I didn't care if I would have, you know, missed work or slept on the way home or whatever, you know, just got to get there.

Jeff: So. Okay. You're going to Mexico soon? But that's with Nita. But Deadlands is going out.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We have a lot of touring to do this year. We are going to be starting out September 26th, Louder Than Life. Then we're going to be going until about October 20th. But that's going to be.. that's going to be all over. That's going to be our first like nationwide tour where we're hitting East and West Coast on the same run. So I'm super, super excited for that.

And then five days later, we hop on another tour with Renesans, who is David Benitez's band at the Extreme Vocal Institute. And then we're going to be touring from October 25th until about November 10th. And then November 11th is where I pick up and go to Mexico with Nita.

Jeff: And I'm sure between now and then there will be things after November 11th and that tour that will be up and coming. You said you're working on, you're writing right now. I think maybe we should talk a little bit about the Villain era.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it's that time. It's that time. I mean, what I.. you know what!? I have a question for you, Jeff. Do you know what Villain’s about?

Jeff: I don't really know what it's about. That's what I want to hear from you. Yeah.

Kasey: Okay. Okay. So, I'm not going to give you too much detail because we want to leave this up for everybody else to decide, but seven deadly sins.

Jeff: Okay!

Kasey: Okay. I mean, House of cards is part of that.

We're leaving it to where it's up to you guys to figure out which is which, what sin is what song. And then, so for us this EP/Album, like you guys.. you figure it out. I ain't going to tell you anything about that. But what I will say is, you know, you can become your own worst enemy within a minute of realizing that you've done something that you shouldn't have done. So it's all about what this EP/album is about, is like maintaining your integrity of being a good person.

And not that sinning is necessarily a bad thing, but mostly that you keep your composure and you're like, yourself throughout the whole thing, otherwise you'll pay the consequences.

Jeff: Oh, okay. So so we're we're going with the theme that's going to tie in a lot of different things. I always find this intriguing. I have a buddy who's a huge 21 Pilots fan. And he was explaining to me the different like Bishop whatever.

Kasey: The lore?

Jeff: Oh yeah, oh the lore. Is that what I'm sensing here? Some Lore?.

Kasey: Oh yeah. Absolutely.

Jeff: Oh, let's go! Let's go!

Kasey: We’re loring it up, and I.. you know what's so funny is like, we, we've been so cryptic about it that I feel like people haven't picked it up yet. You know, we'll have the seven, that's like in.. it'll be the biggest thing. When we were releasing villain the seven, of August 7th was like the biggest thing that you could see. Nice and bright and neon and, and we're like, "I wonder if they're going to catch on in the next song." Like, we we've been super quiet about it, so.

Jeff: Wow. Okay, okay. All right. Yeah. That's fair, that's fair.

And I think I know the answer to this, but with like, the directing of the horror pictures, the vampire pictures, some of your, your music videos, the look the vibes. How much of that are you a responsible for or a part of? I have a feeling it's a lot. Yeah?

Kasey: Yes. And I mean, everybody contributes a bunch of course.

Jeff: I'm sure!

Kasey: But like, I am known to be, like the visionary for Deadlands in the sense of like, you know, I create the lyrics, I create the melodies. Like, I know what message we want to convey or like, we'll mostly get together as a band and like, discuss, like, "okay, so what do we think if we do a concept album, what do we think about this theme? Like what do we think about this?" Like I, we already have the next album mapped out as well. So I am super, super excited to be like talking about that with them and, and game planning about that with them. But with that being said, like, I pretty much.. I just love symbolism and I love play on words and everything like that.

House Of Cards is a great example of how much I love play on words like that. That was supposed to be more of like a poker themed song, and there's like 30 something poker terms and lyrics. So I was like, I need, I need to have something where it's intriguing like that, and, and, and I think the band to blame for that is Ice Nine Kills, like, of course.

Jeff: I mean.

Kasey: Spencer’s responsible for making a lot of my brain work, I guess.

Jeff: Spencer, if you're watching this. Thank you.

Kasey: Yeah. Thank you.

Jeff: Every, everything. And, you know, we see a lot of bands out there, and a lot of great bands, but with Deadlands, what I see is wonderful marketing. There's a direction, there's a theme and a vibe and everything teams very much intentional. And now that I'm hearing that there was the secret game going on that we didn't even know about, I'm going back through the catalog tonight. I'm sorry. You're going to see some more spins on Spotify, but that's probably.. and Dustin's probably going to do it too and we're going to be talking about this forever. But like I love that. And I think that's one of the keys to longevity is when you're more than just a band, you know? Whether it's the deep lyrics that are actual personal events or like, you know, a good inspiration, but you just have a creative background. I mean, this is just all in your head.

Kasey: Yeah, oh yeah! I mean, we got a lot of stuff going on here.

What was it that you just said? Because I had something that was so important to say, and then I just blanked.

Jeff: The theme, the vibe, and like, you're more than just a band. Like everything is well intentioned.

Kasey: Yeah. no, and you're so right. Thank you so much for saying that. And I really want to bring that home that like, we are more than just a band. What we are trying to build is an entirely separate world and separate universe for people to escape to. When this world goes to shit, like, you know, we are a band that likes to stay out of politics and stay out of all the drama today because it's so difficult to deal with.

And if we can create our own reality for people to escape to and give them something to look forward to, that's what we want to do. Like, we're not just a band and we don't want to be just a band. We want to be escape artists well. And we want to bring people with us on that journey.

Jeff: Well, and I think that's true. And I have this conversation with a lot of people. Like "yo you like metal music? I'm like, I love it.

Kasey: Yeah!

Jeff: "But it's scary." No it's not. It's like they're the nicest people ever. The songs have meaning and if you just just pay attention you know, and I think, if you, if you want to talk about it part of your show, you know, Black Hole, you come out usually and sit in the crowd and sit down and sing it. Tell me what's going on there.

Kasey: I mean, it's it's the same as being an escape artist. I want the audience to feel what I felt in that song when I wrote it. When I was experiencing everything going on in that song. And I want the audience to know, like they're seen. They're heard. They're real. You know, it's it's become so difficult as, as humans going on with all of these things like to, to share a moment with someone who, who could be going through the hardest times in their life and to just to sit down next to them and sing with them. It could make them stay another day. And I think that's one of the most important things that we also need to be speaking about. Like, we've done some things with HeartSupport, which is a nonprofit organization for mental health. And it's so on brand. That's something that we need to be talking about. And Black Hole is one of the songs that makes us talk about it.

And sometimes it can be uncomfortable. But like I said, when you're giving that experience to people one on one, it could it.. could save their life, you know?

Jeff: Right. Where do you find more information on HeartSupport?

Kasey: I believe they have a website. They have their Instagram, which is just heartsupport. TikTok. They have a bunch of stuff. They have a bunch of public forums on there where you can literally just start chatting and it's all volunteer. If you if you ever want to be a heart support person, where you're almost like somebody's therapist, you can also sign up for that on their website too.

Jeff: Oh that's cool, I think I misspoke. It's heart support not hard support.

Kasey: Yeah, yeah. Heart.

Jeff: Okay. There you go. One of those things.

And that's that was one of the coolest moments that I experienced at the show. was 1. you taking the time to kind of talk to the crowd about what it's all about. You did that with Nita too. You just came right up on the box and just told everyone who you were.

What was it like coming into an established fan base? And if I had to guess, it probably wasn't more than a show or two before after the show, when you guys are at the merch table, your line was just as long, if not longer than Nita’s line. Did you notice that?

Kasey: Yeah! It's been crazy. Like people are actually wanting to speak to me and I'm not even like the girl, you know, I'm not even the guy. It's crazy. And I'm so absolutely grateful. I mean, the first experience that I had with Nita, first of all, even at the rehearsals, I was so nervous, like, I was like, "oh, my God. Like, they have to like me. I need to, I need to behave. I need to calm down." So I was nervous at the rehearsals at the jump. And then, Dustin, I think you were there for the first show that I ever played with. Nita. Were you? Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah, I was with Nashville when you guys had the audio issues.

Kasey: Oh, yeah! Yeah, That's right! And I remember. Yeah, you bring up the freaking audio issues. And, Jeff, you were like, you told you stood up on the box, told everybody who you were that was. That was my first experience. Like getting thrown into the fire. We had the the playback rig, it stopped. And so with that being said, like, we didn't have we didn't have any click any tracks or any anything. We just had our instruments and our, my microphone. I just freaking improv-ed. I was like, hi, guys. This is my first tour. This is my first day on my first tour. I introduced myself a little bit, and then they were like, oh my God, that was amazing. She's a professional. She's she's there. She's done. And, I was shaking like a leaf or I walked up on that stage 1,000,000% and the same thing with Motionless, but I think more so with Nita because I was like, "oh my God, if I, if I royally screwed this up, then I'm stuck with them for 30 days or they fire me." like a lot on the line.

Jeff: You did have to leave tour once to fly home for class, right?

Kasey: Actually, no!

Jeff: Oh, you didn't have to do that. You. Yeah. You get the. Yeah. You got the pass.

Kasey: Yeah. I managed to stay on the last week and what was so crazy. First of all, I'm so grateful for my college letting me go in the first place to, like, go 30 days without going to class. But I think the last week of tour was actually spring break, so it managed to work out.

I don't think anybody realized that it was spring break, but then I called them. I was like, guys, can I please stay? And they were like, yeah, it's spring break. You don't have to stay, you don't have to come home. And I was like, "let's go!" So it worked out.

Jeff: I knew that, just making sure you guys knew it was spring break.

Kasey: Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely.

Jeff: No, that's awesome. So you're going to college. You've got your own band that's blowing up. You're on tour with Nita. How do you manage?

Kasey: I don't. I just take it one day at a time, you know, like I, I just try and do all the things that I possibly can do to, do my best, you know, And one thing that CJ's taught me, I'm notorious for, like, getting so anxious and getting frazzled and very stressed out. I mean, dealing with a lot. Go figure. But, CJ has kind of been reminding me, like, "you can only do so much, you know, like, I understand you're you're trying and you and you want to do as much as you possibly can, but you can't burn yourself out this way. And there's only 24 hours in the day while you try to do 36 hours of work," you know, and I'm like, "you're so right."

Like, I have to cut myself a little bit of slack and it's okay if I'm not. If I don't have a month's worth of videos in my laptop, it's fine. Like as long as I have good enough stuff for the day, then I should be okay.

Jeff: Well, and I mean, I think that, I think if you had a show, and I hope you never have this, to like, 4 or 5 people show up, you would give the same level of energy than if you sold out a 10,000 seat arena. And so your character is to give it your all no matter what you're doing.

Kasey: 100%

Jeff: And so having that having that voice in the band with, with, with C.J is probably a good a good balance. Yeah?

Kasey: Definitely.

Jeff: How does Kyle fit in that mix?

Kasey: Kyle. Kyle's just a goof. He is so go with the flow. He doesn't mind anything. He's just like, "y'all tell me what to do and I'll do it." And that's it. Like he he's so easygoing. He is.. I don't want to say he's comedic relief, but he kind of is. He is very light hearted and he always keeps the band in, in very joyful, happy spirits when I'm like, "oh my God, this is going on." I'm trying to put out fires everywhere. And he's just like, "well, you know, we're just going to we're just going to chill, right? Everything is going to be fine. Everything will be fine. But like, look at me do this funny thing over here." So it's it's nice to have that.

Jeff: So he's the meme was on fire. Everything's fine. It's fine, everything's fine.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And C.J., C.J. is also the one that's like, they're both very good under pressure. And C.J. is is mostly just like, "you know, this is this is okay. Like, you'll put out the fire tomorrow, it's not going to spread." And then Kyle is like, "everything's on fire. Where?"

Jeff: And we've watched you guys. You all three gel very well. I mean, you can tell it's a very cohesive band, and I, I really don't know how you guys do it from from the mixing, the recording, the social media part alone has got to be so time consuming.

Kasey: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And, it's, you know, it's not only the fact that we're trying to post every day, but we're trying to post like quality stuff every day because, you know, you're trying to think if if you're a business owner, "okay, this is my portfolio right here. Social media is my portfolio, my Instagrams, my portfolio. What do we want to show off? What do we want to say? What are the videos that we want people to see, and what are the videos that people want to watch," which is like the most important thing. So, you know, you have all these factors in there. But once you once you find the secret recipe, then you're all good and it's a little tough. It can be overwhelming at times, but sometimes you just got to take a day off and reset, you know?

Jeff: And I know we talked about this before, but you figured out the algorithm, whether it's like your competition with your brother on the BLEGH challenge, whether it's the top Motionless ones or, I love the try not to headbang challenge, like I've lost every single one of them. But you seem to have figured it out. And I was curious with your your success, what you would tell an up and coming band.

I mean, let's face it, we're not talking about the bands that brought you up anymore. We're talking about the bands you're about ready to help.

Kasey: Thank you. I mean, really, the best advice that I could give is just don't give a shit what anybody says about you. Like, I, I said this before, but rockstar mentality is a real thing. Like the reason why people are rockstars is because they don't care what anybody thinks about them. Like they're not taking. They don't care about the court of public opinion. They don't care what Joe Schmo says about them. Like, you just really cannot care about what people say unless it's the people that matter, which is the fans. Like, of course your art is your art, and to an extent, you can't care what people think, but as long as the people that really matter are the ones that are enjoying it, then it doesn't matter.

You know, I, I was just clapping back this morning at people who are being assholes. I just don't care. Like, if you're going to say something stupid, I'm going to say something stupid back just to shut you up, because I just do not care what you think of me. I really I don't have time for that.

Jeff: And you're a gamer, right?

Kasey: Yes. Oh, yeah.

Jeff: So, you've come across this mentality, I'm sure. What do you, what games do you like to play?

Kasey: Black Ops. I love Call of Duty, but Black Ops 2 specifically is like one of my favorite games of all time. I love Borderlands, I love Fortnite, I think Dead by Daylight, I love ARK, but the most toxic out of all of those is 100% Call of Duty. So like the amount of times I've been called like a dishwasher or something, and then me just, I, what I say to them in response of like calling me a dishwasher, I'll just be like, "all right, bitch, make me a sandwich." Like, shut the fuck up, I don't have time for it. I'll.. I will just embarrass you the way that you tried to embarrass me. I don't care, like.

Jeff: Literally, just literally we just talked about the meaning of digital bullets. I mean, that's that's what we just talked about right there.

Kasey: Exactly! Exactly. You just cannot care.

Jeff: Dead By Daylight is one of the few games that literally will make my heart race. I know the monster's coming, and I'm slower than him, and it's.. it's panic mode. It's crazy.

So I'm going to mention a few bands. Sleep Token, Atreyu, VRSTY, Dayseeker, Black Veil Brides, Deadlands.

Kasey: Am I missing a tour or something?

Jeff: What do you all have in common?

Kasey: Sick ass music, maybe.

Jeff: Well, yeah, there's that.

And Jake Pitts is the lead guitar player for Black Veil Brides. We're not related, but I tell people we may be somewhere.

Spinefarm records?

Kasey: That's right! Yeah, well, BVB is brand new. I think Sleep Token just went to RCA.

Jeff: Oh, did they?

Kasey: I believe they did. But I mean, Spinefarm is, they've been so great so far. I mean, they've been helping so much. We have such a good team behind us. You know? They're really just as excited as we are about the music. And that's one of the most important things at a label that you need. And they're, they're receptive to what we say and what we ask and what needs to be done and what fits us there. They have been so amazing when it comes to making this new record, because they're like super hands off in the sense of like, they're like, "you guys, we took you on because of your art. We didn't take you on because we want to morph you into what we want. So you guys pick the producers you want, do whatever you think is right, and then well we'll say yes or no when we get there like that."

So, that's the other thing. Everything that they've been hearing so far, they've been loving, so super excited about that. And they're not trying to change us in any way, shape or form except for maybe, maybe putting on our, our big people pants. I like my big girl pants. The guys, the big boy pants. That's the only thing that they're changing is just the pants.

Jeff: We need a metal song. Just talking about adulting is not fun. Maybe every song’s about like that. I don't know, but, it's true. So. So, this is a new happening Spinefarm, and how did this come about? Where do we go from here?

Kasey: Yeah, I mean, it's so funny. It's been.. We've been chatting with them since, like, before House Of Cards.

Jeff: Okay.

Kasey: And we had been just like,"do we want a label? Do we not want a label or?" We've been chatting with them and whatever, and then we finally had started sitting down with them and actually meeting them and meeting the team and everything and we were like, "you know, we think this could really be a cool fit. So we're going to try it out and we're going to see what they can do for us," because it took them a minute to win us over. But, this was an amazing experience. And we're just getting started. So yeah, we're going to, we're going to take these next three records with them. We're going to keep going. And then hopefully we take over the world.

Jeff: So it's a three record deal that you've signed with them?

Kasey: Yes. As of now as of now. it could get extended, could get cut short. We never know. God forbid knock on wood. But, as of now it is a 3 record deal. Yeah.

Jeff: I'm trying to picture what I think this album art is going to look like, and I like what I have got in my head and I'm not going to say anything. I just, I'm curious to see, but that wouldn't be really fair.

Kasey: We haven’t even designed it yet! So maybe if you, if you have a, an idea of what you want, I mean, I'm taking ideas.

Jeff: Dustin's your guy.

Kasey: Dustin!

Jeff: This guy. Have you seen his drawings? Shameless plug. Dustin. I'm sorry.

Dustin: Stop it

Jeff: Have you seen his freehand, though?

Kasey: What? You draw too?

Jeff: Oh, he doesn't just draw.

Dustin: I just scribble

Kasey: So this guy takes, like, the sickest photos ever, draws the sickest shit ever. What else can you do, brother?

Jeff: Like, he can play guitar.

Kasey: What else are you hiding from us. He plays guitar?

Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he.. pretty much anything in that artistic realm. I've not seen him paint, but I.. There's no question he can do it. I mean, he's hating me right now for this, and I'm willing to take it.

Kasey: I think, dude, I could learn a thing or three from this guy. Okay? I don't know how to do any of that. Mid at everything except for, like, musicy stuff, but I would, I would kill if I knew how to play guitar and draw like that would be insane.

Jeff: I had no idea. And Dustin, we'll get off your topic here in a minute, but I don't have the time limit right now and Kasey if you ever have to go, let me know, shut up, because I can talk forever.

Kasey: You're good!

Jeff: I showed up, where was that? Dustin? Spartanburg, South Carolina, for a Nita run. And that's where I met Lindsay and Dustin, and I had no idea the talent that this guy has, and it's incredible. So, yeah, just just watch his stuff. It's incredible.

Kasey: Oh, 100%. So, Dustin, you're going to send it to me, right?

Dustin: I'll see what I could do. I'll see what I can do.

Kasey: You better.

Kasey: Imma be pissed.

Jeff: I do blame him. We always go to the shows and take pictures on our iPhones and thought we were doing well. And I bought his first professional camera when he upgraded. And then when he went Sony, I went Sony. And then I just bought, I bought, like, a whole Nanlite set up with like the. And I know you just work with Saffer like that's our inspiration for that kind of stuff. And so basically Dustin just gets me, hungry for that stuff, and then I can't stop. So.

Kasey: That's so nice. That's so awesome. Like, the dynamic that you two have is.. it's so cool to see that you guys just, like, bounce off each other's hobbies and make each other more talented and better. And it's so awesome to see your guys's growth. Like, y'all talk about my growth. Like I still I still watch y'all and I make sure that y'all are doing well 100% like. And Dustin, are you going on tour? Why did I hear that from somewhere or am I trippin?

Dustin: There's somebody that asked me if I wanted to go or if I would be interested. Nothing's confirmed yet.

Kasey: Okay, well, still, the offer is crazy. Like you're doing so well. That's so fucking awesome and I'm so proud of you. That's incredible.

Dustin: Thank you.

Jeff: It started with an Ana Massard. Well, you know, we talked about her and looking at her work. And then you think about like what you said Ana with Wage and then you know, sort of that connection and really this industry is such a small industry. It's crazy.

Kasey: Oh yeah. And it gets smaller. It just keeps getting smaller. It’s so crazy. Everyone knows every person. It's weird. And Ana's the shit! I love her.

Jeff: Her work is amazing and so is Dustin's. I need to get him to quit his job, do this full time, and then I need to find the time to put stuff on socials, and then try to do that move at some point too. But I'm so scared.

But now back to back to your stuff though like so, three albums. When, when might we see the first one drop? Any idea?

Kasey: I mean, we're looking at we're looking roughly at early early spring maybe.

Jeff: Okay.

Kasey: Winter, early spring hopefully. Don't quote me on it yet, but so that's our goal.

Jeff: Yeah. Yeah I, I can't I can't wait. I know you guys are writing now. You keep mentioning House Of Cards and that goblin scream, oh, my God, like it's.. You should see us in the car. We have the songs on and we're mimicking the bleghs, and the goblin screams and like, I mean, we probably look silly to all the passerbys, but we don't care.

Kasey: Oh, don't. Why would you? That's the rock star mentality! You're already on your way there. You got it.

Jeff: Do you have a favorite Deadlands song to perform?

Kasey: Oh, shit. Man,

Jeff: I know, it's like asking you your favorite kid is. It's not an easy one.

Kasey: Exactly! I mean, it used to be House Of Cards, but Villain is a close second. And the only reason why I say the two newest songs is because, of course, you play your old stuff for a while and then you're like, you know, I just I just want something fresh and Villain is that new fresh, you know?

Jeff: Okay.

Kasey: So super, super excited about that. But I mean, House Of Cards is a close second. Like I just love the the how the crowd reacts to House Of Cards. It's insane. Insane.

Jeff: So what what has your journey been.. How do I phrase this like, because in very short order and I don't know if it was social media, Motionless. Nita, just your guys' work that, like, really sort of did vault you like. We're not talking about them anymore, we're talking about Deadlands. We're talking about where Deadlands is going, What's that been like for you? And what's that mean? Just the the the exponential growth, like, Boom!

Kasey: I mean, it's been surreal. It's been crazy. Definitely overwhelming at times. But you know, I'm.. I'm working to try and get all the ducks in a row, put out all the little fires that happen. But it's just been, it's been amazing. Like overall it's been so incredible and we're so grateful. Like every everything is finally starting to fall into place. And it's nice to know that we're starting to get comfortable in that spot, which is great.

Jeff: Yeah.

Kasey: Not that we're going to stay stagnant or anything. But it's nice to know that we'll be able to grow and, and we'll be able to keep grinding and we feel, feel like we're in a better position about it rather than the ground. You know?

Jeff: You said, stagnant. Does that mean that you guys could be experimental with some music?

Kasey: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean this whole record, we've worked with mostly different producers, and we're just trying to find.. we're finding our sound, we're finding who does what best. We're really trying to figure out, like, what is the best course of action for each song, for each person, what's the meaning to be conveyed, and who's going to be the best to execute that? And the record is really going to like really start giving us our, our chops and really start proving to everybody that we're not just a TikTok band, we're a real fucking band, and we're here and we're planting that flag.

Jeff: And then we have to like, push TikTok to get their algorithm right on Villain. What was that all about?

Kasey: Oh, yeah.

Jeff: Can we talk about that? I don't know, can we talk about that?

Kasey: TikTok has just not been happy lately with music in general. Like pushing music, I guess. I don't know. I mean, I always urge anybody, if you like the video to like, comment, share, repost, all, all of that stuff just because it bumps your favorite artists. Whatever needs to be bumped. Especially when the algorithm is doing what it's not supposed to be doing.

Jeff: Right? Yeah.

Kasey: You can't do anything about it except for try and get with the program and pivot as they say.

Jeff: Oh pivot! Is that Friends reference?

Kasey: Sort of! Kind of! I know what you're referencing, but I mean. We call it pivoting in the social media world too.

Jeff: You do, But when you just said that there were secrets that we have yet to discover, I wasn't sure if you were dropping a Friends reference there. Are you a Friends fan?

Kasey: I'm not really. I have watched a couple of episodes, though. My best friend absolutely is a is a Friend's fanatic and so she'll put it on when she's doing my hair. She's she's my hairdresser too. So she'll put it on. And I have watched the couch episode with the pivoting.

Jeff: Yeah, look I really enjoyed this time and I can't wait to see what you guys do next. But it is.. It has been awesome watching from the crowd, hearing the comments, bringing new people in. You know, I think I told you, I have a buddy at work. It's like, you know, I'll I'll tell you a story. This is a good one. You'll love this one. And this involves Dustin, too.

I brought him.. I brought, Caleb to the show in Fort Wayne, and we talked to you for a little bit afterwards. And he.. I meet him at work. I've worked here longer than he does, and he sends me this this TikTok of Deadlands, and you. And I, I watch, I'm like, I've seen this before. And I look and it says, like Dustin or whatever, he found Dustin's TikTok. They don't know each other, live like three states away and then sent it to me.

Kasey: Oh my God!

Jeff: it was like a small world. And then I'm like, "Hey, Nita is coming through town." And he's like, "is Kasey there?" Yeah, come on, let's go. So you don't even realize, like, those sorts of connections are happening. It's so weird and so random.

Kasey: So weird and so awesome. Like to think that, like, whether it be Nita, myself or Deadlands can be the catalyst of friendships and just connection is just awesome. So sick to hear.

Jeff: Yeah. And I mean, to think back, you said your first TikTok was 2016.

Kasey: my first YouTube video.

Jeff: I'm sorry. Yeah.

Kasey: No, no. You're good. I think my first TikTok was 2021 or 2. It had to be one.

Jeff: Yeah, I don't even know if TikTok was here in 2016 now I think about it. I don't know.

Kasey: I think it was Musical.ly back then.

Jeff: Yeah. I'm not trying to show the gray hairs anymore than what I am with that kind of comment. So, just to think about the growth in like, seriously. I mean, I think you guys are at a point now where, like, you have brought fans in to the Motionless crowd, you have brought fans into the Nita camp. And it's not that they have hired you to come in to help them. You're an asset to them and to take, you know, if you weren't there, it would make a huge difference. And I think the narrative now is, is where are you going? It's not how you got there in a short order amount of time. It may not have felt like that. I don't know along the way, but that is substantial. And you, you you should be proud of your guys's actions and efforts and successes for sure.

Kasey: Thank you. I mean, we absolutely are. I mean, the fact that we had released House Of Cards, we're stuck for about a year trying to release stuff in that we had all the in-between stuff going on, and then we had Villain. The first week it's been added to Octane. It's such a huge achievement. And I mean.

Jeff: Say that one more time. Where is it playing?

Kasey: Sirius XM Octane, which is.

Jeff: Awesome.

Kasey: Nuts. I, I cannot believe that. And it's all because the fans I, I say this all the time, but you know, without the fans, we really are nothing, Without all of the supporters commenting, sharing, liking all the stuff, posting it on their stories, calling into the radio stations, and requesting it. Like it's so insane, and we're so absolutely thankful for the journey thus far.

And we're just getting started. We're just starting to light the fire.

Jeff: Will we see? Okay, Spotify, you're in. When they do that like whoever artist you like gives you like a thank you?

Kasey: Oh the Wrapped??

Jeff: Yeah, yeah. Will we see the Deadlands version?

Kasey: Oh, I have to, I have to! I think you have to be invited to do it. But if we are invited to do it, then 1,000,000%.

Jeff: How can we make that happen?

Kasey: Just tagged Spotify. I have no idea. I wish I could tell you, I don't know.

Jeff: In my spare time, I'm going to do a little research. I don't know if I can find the answer. Oh yeah, but how awesome would that be?

Kasey: That would be insane. Insane! Because I would love to make that happen. That’d be awesome.

Jeff: Okay, I've got some homework. I've got some homework. Oh, I like it. I like it,

Kasey: I love it, I love it.

Jeff: Thank you so much for your time. I know you've got a million things to do, and I just really appreciate you taking the time to tell us a little bit more about Deadlands. Love the Villain Era. I want to know what's next, and I can't wait. Anything you can share?

Kasey: Let's just say just keep an eye out for October. We'll say that.

Jeff: Might be my favorite month. Spooky season. The best season.

Kasey: Exactly. So you never know. You never know what happens.

Jeff: Well, thank you so much. I can't wait to see you guys out on tour. You know, keep in touch. If there's anything we can do, let us know. And just know that, you know, we're in your corner and cheering you on. And so proud of you guys successes.

Kasey: Thank you. Thank you guys so very much. And if you guys need anything of course let me know. And the favor is always returned. What am I trying to say? You get what I'm saying

Jeff: Yeah!

Kasey: Thank you so much.

Jeff: Thank you!

Kasey: You guys are the fucking best. I love y'all! Anything for y'all!