The Creepshow to entertain Fanshawe
Blackwood and her group of four horror-crazed, tattooed and pompadour-haired musicians will be coming through Fanshawe College to play on January 28 for Thursday's nooner in Forwell Hall and for New Music Night at the Out Back Shack on Friday January 29. We shared a phone conversation last week, much of which dealt with sexuality in music.
“We've had people be like, ‘Oh, this company wants to give you free stuff, all you have to do is pose in your underwear,' [I say] no way, because I don't have to do that,” Blackwood said from her home in Toronto. “We like to dress up, and being a girl, one of those things is putting on hair and makeup that fits better than some other dudes clothes... but I consider it to be more like ‘It's fun to dress up' instead of ‘Put fishnets on because the record label people will think it's sexy and sign us.'”
Nevertheless, record labels were quick to take notice anyway, and The Creepshow have formed relationships with some of North America's premiere punk and psychobilly (a subgenre of rockabilly heavily influenced by punk and gothic themes) labels, from Stomp in Montreal to Hellcat Records in Los Angeles, founded by Tim Armstrong of famed punk band Rancid.
The band has now found success internationally, built on a foundation of experience that spans decades between them. Bassist Sean McNab, for instance, played for years in GTA bands Outspan and Jersey, while Blackwood performed as an acoustic country/folk artist before inheriting The Creepshow from her sister, Jen “Hellcat” Blackwood, who left the band to pursue family life in early 2007.
“I think that there are two ways you can go about things,” Blackwood said, “One, people call selling out, if you're given the opportunity to go with a major label or to go with a big company that's going to push you so you get famous really fast. Or you can work your ass off and tour for 10 months out of the year on your own dollar until you gain enough fans to the point where it doesn't matter, because you can do it on your own.”
The Creepshow chose the latter, and the quartet have remained committed to constant touring, which was particularly grueling for Blackwood. She quickly built a stage persona for The Creepshow as Sarah “Sin” Blackwood, but her two personalities have since resolved themselves.
“[Old country music] is what I started playing when I started doing open mics...but [with The Creepshow] I think at first it was like ‘create a character for this loud punk rock band that you can be, onstage'... and then ‘Sarah Blackwood' is more like who I actually am. But I think the two characters have come together over the last couple of years and really developed as just one person doing two different things, opposed to two different things from two different [personas].”
Now, after taking some time to record a second solo album, Blackwood is ready to hit the road again with The Creepshow in support of their second album Run For Your Life, which was released in Canada in 2008, but only a few months ago in U.S. markets. It's been a landmark album for the group, especially for Blackwood, who was able to input her own musical creativity for the first time.
“It wasn't until Run For Your Life came out that I felt that I was a part of [the band]. The time before that, I knew I was playing somebody else's songs and that I didn't write them... Then Run For Your Life came out and I thought ‘OK, that's cool, I helped write these songs with the guys and now I don't have to dress a certain way or act a certain way or put my hair a certain way.' Now I can just do whatever I want.”
