CONSTRUCTING THE CATACLYSM – JAY BARNES
Art: Armaada Art
My name is Jay Barnes from Concord, North Carolina. I’ve lived here most of my life; I am 52 years old, born March 13th, 1970. I am the vocalist for Lust of Decay, Shuriken Cadaveric Entwinement and Cesspool of Vermin.
The only ritual I have before writing lyrics is I partake in the enjoyment of marijuana; it relaxes and opens my imagination and makes me more creative, plus coffee, lots of coffee.
Music is an art style, not a lifestyle. I am very different from what people think I am. I have read comments on videos of us on YouTube that makes me die laughing, or even when I talk to people, they say I am not anything like what they expected. Let’s say some people have wild imaginations; I have been accused of banging my sister, which would be very hard because I am an only child. I’ve received death threats from people because they think I am cruel to animals, for which I have eight cats and three dogs that are all recused. All this is because of our debut Cesspool of Vermin album cover. Sorry folks, I’m just a normal guy with a wild imagination.
How it all began, remember now I am considered a fossil! I started with bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, early Metallica, and Slayer. One day a friend and inspiration to me, Scott Strange, turned me on to Sepultura’s ‘Beneath the Remains’ and Obituary ‘Slowly We Rot’, and I was in love. I started listening to Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Sinister, Morbid Angel, Carcass, etc. My favourite album; there are too many that I love for different reasons, to name just one. As far as life-changing, it would have to be when my friend Scott Strange told me I would be a vocalist. I was a bassist then, so I laughed at the idea, but here I am now doing vocals. Regarding inspiration, it would have to be Scott Strange, guitarist for local bands Wicked Witch and Necrocest back in the day and a friend to me. My vocal inspirations, hands down, are Glen Benton of Deicide and Matti Way of Disgorge.
I like to smoke marijuana and drink coffee, plus maybe a horror or sci-fi movie or a good survival horror video game. All that stuff helps with my creativity.
Idols outside of music would be my dad and my grandfather Barnes. I learned a lot from both about being decent humans; they would most definitely be my idols outside of music. Now the one, in my opinion, that transcends the norm in our death metal scene was our late friend, brother, and bandmate Joe Payne. That guy could do it all, but his guitar playing was phenomenal! It was ridiculous what he could do, plus sing and play bass. He was amazing and gone way too soon. Check out his old band Domination Through Impurity.
Music is important to me because it is like therapy; I get to yell, scream and growl like a possessed pig. I get to release all the stress bottled up inside me, and I like how it makes me feel. I guess it’s a little spiritual and entertaining for me.
I enjoy a wide variety of music, but nothing I think would shock anyone. I want a lot of symphonic black metal, old-school metal, and movie soundtracks, but possibly the one band that might shock some is Nightwish. I love listening to ladies that can sing. The bands I would recommend to the people would be anything released on Comatose Music and Severed Records. Thank you for doing this interview with me; it was a pleasure talking to you; keep it sick and brutal.
https://www.facebook.com/ShurikenCadavericEntwinement
