by Kimmie Chameleon:
With his highly contagious mad energy and infectious laugh, the incomparable Mick Scott is a force to be reckoned with. Originally from Ontario, Canada, the long time resident of Los Angeles is no stranger to chaos. In fact, he welcomes it. As a seasoned singer/songwriter, his long career since the 1980’s glam rock days has propelled him into the ever-changing landscape of the music industry, and his time as the front man for the metal band AnA Black saw him touring much of the U.S. in sold out venues — before he was even old enough to legally drink. As time marched on, a new collaboration in 1996 unfolded and formed the band See Spot Kill, which continues to this day. His latest efforts have landed him squarely on stage once again with the freshly formed band, JetSet Rejects, ready to take L.A. by storm with their multi-genre music styles.
Kimmie Chameleon: When did the formation of See Spot Kill take place and how would you describe the music?
Mick Scott: In 1996, AnA Black fragmented into three of the guys forming See Spot Kill and two other guys making up another band. See Spot Kill was the bastard child of AnA Black. It was me, the guitar player and one of our roadies who knew our stuff as well as anyone else did. We got rid of the bass player and brought in Billy Budd who is this English bloke…who is still the only other surviving member of See Spot Kill, other than myself. See Spot Kill, for lack of a better definition, is a bunch of guys getting together. We just gel together, create the music that we need for whatever the particular product is. It’s not a live band. It’s a recording band. See Spot Kill, mostly, is more industrial than from AnA Black. Billy Budd is from England. He grew up when Punk was really heavy. He was very influenced by that…where I come from a more heavy metal type of situation, so we basically have nothing in common, which makes it so good. I much prefer to work with people who are not carbon copies or from my background because I love riding against the grain. Everything I do, I prefer against the grain. It makes for such an interesting product. At the end of the day you want something that people haven’t heard every day. That’s what See Spot Kill brings to the table.
KC: See Spot Kill had a recent appearance on HBO’s True Blood with the song “Trash the Place” during a flashback scene that took place in a London Punk club. How were you guys approached to do the show?
MS: Billy wrote that song musically in about an hour and a half, and I lyrically wrote it in maybe a half hour because we were under the gun. They needed it done very quickly. We formulated the basics and idea of the song and gave it to them for approval and they said, “Don’t change a thing.” We didn’t even use a professional mic. They loved that the song sounded raw and live. Billy and I had submitted 30 songs over 3 years, to bug the heck out of an associate of HBO. He asked if we had anything 80’s-Punk-London-style. Billy told him we would come up with something. We beat out an established signed band. Then we were asked to perform the song in the episode.
KC: Your music, your appearance, your lifestyle…all seems to be driven by pure passion and enthusiasm. There is timelessness to how you carry yourself and your performances. What fuels this energy within you?
MS: First of all, that’s like one of the coolest things anybody has ever said. I totally appreciate you saying that. For me, it may seem like I care what I look like, but I don’t care about people’s opinions about me, whatsoever. Two years ago I started painting my nails black only because it pissed off a guy one day. I gotta look down at something and remember, “Oh yeah, you’re not like everyone else.” Because it’s so easy to fall into a rut of I-don’t-want-to-go-through-the-whole-rigamarole-of-getting-up-and-dressing. For me, if it’s funny enough to get up and put something on that pisses somebody off, it’s a celebration of who you are. I don’t piss people off to make them angry, I just want somebody who otherwise will not come up to me because they are judging me to affirm that they are judging me because they will never get to know me and that’s fine by me. The people that I associate with are without a doubt the most cherished things that I have. At the end of the day the people that you have in your life are what your life is. They develop who you are. I never take that lightly. I know that everything I have…everything…I am so blessed…from my Universal horror monster collection, to my cats, to my wife…not in that order….everything I have, I love.
KC: Of course there is this deeply intoxicating aura about you that mimics the allure of mysterious darkness. What interests and influences you?
MS: What’s really weird, things that are dark, interest me the most. I love things that are dark. I’m brooding in the sense that I don’t get lonely or depressed.
KC: You also have a quirky sense of humor. What are some of your guilty pleasures?
MS: Most of the time I’m writing or doing my goofy graphics on Photoshop. I will put on TV Land, and the beginning of The Brady Bunch will come on and after it does the theme song it will come on with the first seven seconds of another song and I will say, “That’s when Bobby meets Joe Namath.” If I could harness that useless information, I could rule the world. Where a lot of writers need quietness, I need distraction. My whole life I’ve evolved around distractions, so when I write, it needs to be that. To me, a distraction is usually the spark that causes me to write in the first place.
KC: So now on to your latest collaboration with the band JetSet Rejects. As found on the Reverbnation profile page, JetSet Rejects is defined as, “Those who refuse to recognize, or give affection to, the rich and fashionable social set and all those members therein which live by means of hedonistic and self indulgent pleasure.” What brought about this philosophy and formation of the band?
MS: There is nothing that has any deep meaning. We didn’t have a name. I said, “JetSet Rejects.” They said, “Okay.” So we had a name. Jason Stalk is the primary writer of JetSet Rejects. He has wrote a protest song called “99” about occupy L.A. when it was all happening and he had said, “I need a singer to this. I have this female singer and she is just not hitting the song the way I want it.” Billy said, “Why don’t you use my singer?” I thought it’d be this one-off thing. I started listening to the stuff he writes and I’m telling you Kimmie, this is without question one of the funniest things. See Spot Kill is still very much alive, but we don’t perform live. JetSet Rejects is almost a ridiculous scenario because Jason writes stories and it’s almost folk in a sense because he really tells a story and he’s an acoustic guitar player. His son is the other guitarist and then we have a drummer who is actually a death metal drummer. And then, me. I am telling you, there is no way that anybody could be further than the four of us, but when we put this together there’s so many pulls trying to decide how we’re gonna do this. And the stuff that we’re coming up with now, it’s almost ridiculous. I literally cannot describe how this portrays live. It’s absolutely crazy because the songs are really good and they have a positive message. The music itself is so heavy because of the aggression that the performers have. At this point in my career I’m not so concerned about making people happy when I’m on stage. Now, all bets are off and I don’t hold myself in high regard, I just know that when I’m on stage. I feel good about what I’m doing and I know people know it!
JetSet Rejects is getting ready to perform Thursday, March 7th at 10:30PM at the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa, California. Go to their direct website at www.jetsetrejects.com for more upcoming tour dates and information. You can also find them on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/jetsetrejects and also at their Reverbnation page at: www.reverbnation.com/jetsetrejects
See Spot Kill can be found at www.seespotkill.com and also on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/seespotkill Also, check them out, performing their song “Trash the Place” from HBO’s True Blood:
DarkMedia contributing writer Kimmie Chameleon was born and raised with a healthy appreciation for horror and science fiction. She currently covers Supernatural, Ghost Adventures, BBC’s Being Human, Syfy’s Being Human, and Sherlock. When she’s not out ghost hunting with her kids, you can find her stealing a moment to add to her own pieces of fiction. Follow her on Twitter @dvsduo and “friend” her on Facebook.
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