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Metal Pit :
Hey Grace,glad to have you here on
the Metal Pit,thanks for
chatting with us today.
Grace
Maiden: Thank you for having me.
Metal Pit : When did you first get into Heavy Metal music and what band
or musicians influenced you to play guitar?
I grew up
with Heavy Metal Music and Classical music at a very young
age. I
remember my uncles blasting eighties metal when I was in
elementary
school bands like Ratt, Van Halen and Motley Crue so I
stuck to
liking heavy metal from a young age. some of the artists who
have
influenced me were Judas Priest, Motorhead, Mozart, Queensryche,
Eddie Van Halen, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin.
I am also a
huge classical music fan as well believe it or not.
Metal Pit : You just mentioned one of my favorite all time Metal bands
in Judas Priest, what are some of your favorite tunes from them?
My favorite
Priest songs are Riding on the wind, Wild Nights Hot and
Crazy Day,
Savage, Starbreaker, Hot for Love and Out in the Cold,too
many to name really.
Metal Pit : You are not just a Metal fan but you also play guitar,can
you tell us what kind of gear you like to use?
I use a
Marshall stack and head along with Jackson guitars and Ernie
ball
strings. I use Jackson Guitars because they are played by the
greats such
as Randy Rhodes who modeled the guitars after the star
trek logo
also used by Dave Mustaine from Megadeth and Robin Crosby
from Ratt.
They are light guitars which makes it easy for a skinny
girl like me
to hold.They are great to play and give off the bad ass
classic
metal sound which I love. Motorhead inspired me to use
Marshall
amps however I also like the sound of Crate amps as well.
Metal Pit :
Grace,you really have quite an
impressive Metal resume for
someone so
young, everything from television and
movies to video game voice overs to playing as a guest guitarist with
several legendary Metal bands, can you give us a little insight into
how you got involved in so many projects?
I got
involved with T.V while I was in High School, I was an extra in
a music
video filmed at CBGB's in 2003 titled Thalia Baby I'm in love
which aired
on MTV and VH1 which was produced by Tony Motola who was Mariah Carey's
ex husband. A year later my best friend Greg and I
created a
public access T.V show called Braineaters. We interviewed
bands and
aired bands, I had a Maiden of Metal skit titled METAL OR
NOT METAL where I
told viewers what was metal and what was not which was pretty hilarious
as well as creating comedy skits for the show. We had bands such as
Sworn Enemy, The Casualties, Gwar, Vinnie Stigma from Agnostic Front,
and a few others. The show ran for a year and a half with 60,000
viewers it was a good experience but had to drop the project because I
wanted to play music instead of watching others do it.
Two years after Braineaters I was casted in my first
acting debut
in 2008 by
legendary guitarist Vinnie Stigma from Agnostic Front. The
movie was
titled New York Blood which won the best independent horror
movie film
award in 2008. The horror movie was an independent film
about
mobsters in New York, I played Vinnie Stigmas girlfriend in the
movie. You
can find it on amazon.com or search it on Net flicks. The
movie had
great reviews and was featured in many magazines, I was
featured in
Fangoria a horror magazine for the movie.
The same
year I was in the Motorhead music video titled ROCK OUT where u can
find me headbanging! In early 2009 I responded to a voice over talent
ad on Craigs list because I needed extra cash low and behold it was for
a very popular video game titled Liberty City Grand Theft Auto. My
voice is featured in the video game. Through out the years people have
stopped me on the street asking to take my picture, some have wound up
in magazines such as VICE, Mass Appeal, Fangoria, and a few others
which I cant remember. In 2008 I appeared on the VH1 T.V show called
Talking Metal co-starring Metal Mike the guitarist for Rob Halford and
Kerry King I was featured on the pilot episode and it was very
successful.
I was in the audience and got to "Stump the Trunk" on the tv show "That
Metal show" I guess doing one project had led me to another such as it
is in this industry and I am very thankful and grateful for the luck I
have had and it isn't over yet!
Metal Pit : Are television and movies something you would like to do
more of in the future?
Absolutely.
Metal Pit : So you did a video game voice
over, what kind of video games
are your favs?
Honestly, I
don't play video games but if I did it would probably involve shooting
people or exploding stuff!
Metal Pit : Your also sporting some pretty awesome ink,can you tell us a
little about some of your tats and if any of them have some special
meaning?
Well as you
can see I love skulls all of my tattoos are skulls
except for
the iron cross behind my neck..I got my first tattoo when I
was 15 in
forest park queens hanging with some drunken punk rockers a
chick named
johnny mohowk gave me a jailhouse tattoo of my first love
Corey on my
chest which in a few years became a skull because the
corey tattoo
had faded. I named it skull titty haha. as for the others
I have a
skull on my arm with a sickle which says metal till death
which was
done by a friend of mine when I was 19. and the other two on
my arm were
pieces I had paid good money for in the village which
explains why
those two are the best compared to the others which were
not done as
well. Live and learn I guess.
Metal Pit : Any future tats that your thinking about doing?
Possibly in
the future but I'm pretty content with what I have right now
Metal Pit : What does the future hold for you personally Grace,any
projects on the horizon?
If I knew
what the future held I would be a rich woman!
Unfortunately
non of us human beings have the answer. All I can say
is that I
will continue to play music till I die, because it is the
only thing
that helps me get through the day. I hope in the future to
learn
classical guitar and to learn how to play other instruments. I
have been
getting into alot of classical music lately and want to
rekindle my
relationship with the violin. I have also been writing
guitar parts
and original material and hope to do a solo project in
the near
future.
Metal Pit : What kinds of things do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I enjoy
going to the spa, sauna, swimming, getting back massages,
cooking,
reading books and listening to classical music because if it
wasn't for
Mozart there would be no heavy metal! I love to shop in
thrift
stores and music stores and incorporate the great things I find
into my own
personal style.
Metal Pit : Grace,what is your opinion of women in the Metal scene
today?
Female
musicians are very rare and not many women are into heavy
metal
because it's mostly male dominated.
Metal Pit : Is there anything else you would like to add to this
interview, maybe something I did not cover?
Never give
up on your dreams, stick to your guns and stick to your gut.
Metal Pit : What does it mean to you to be chosen as Metal Maiden
of the month?
It means
that I have done something meaningful enough for you to
be
interviewing me and I am very grateful!
Metal Pit : Grace,on behalf of myself and the Metal Pit we want to
thank you for spending time with us today.
Horns up brothers and sisters..........
Nick Rohm
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