Bedemon
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
If there’s one cult name that is associated with the early US doom metal scene, that must be Pentagram. Legendary for the insane amount of misfortune that befell them Pentagram also spawned an interesting side-project. Bedemon, comprised of Pentagram’s ‘70s line-up, was the brainchild of Randy Palmer. Recently Svart Records released Bedemon’s long awaited debut "Symphony Of Shadows" – compiling all material Palmer had written over the years before his untimely passing in 2002. Masterful Magazine caught up with Geof O’Keefe (drums, guitars) to talk about the band’s connections with Pentagram, its main composer Randy Palmer and how they look at their recently released "Symphony Of Shadows" album.Hi there! Thanks for doing this interview with us! An in-depth interview with Bedemon was long overdue here, as we here at Masterful Magazine have the utmost respect for old ambassadors of the international metal scene. I hope you’re in the mood to tell us about your musical undertakings - past, present and future…
Geof: We’re honored and appreciative that you are interested! Ask away; any and all topics allowed.
Let us go back in time now. The earliest musical undertaking was Macabre, which released the ‘Be Forewarned/Lazy Lady’ single in 1972. The single was produced by Phillip Knudsen. In what ways was Macabre different than the later Pentagram? The Illinois Macabre (who play death metal) would not form until 1984. What exactly prompted the name change – was the band evolving that quickly, musically?
Geof: No, it had nothing to do with any change or band evolution. There was some concern — I believe from the manager Knudsen — that the name Pentagram had satanic implications and might put some people off. We actually went through a number of name changes in the first year or so: Macabre, Virgin Death and Wicked Angel were three others we used briefly, but we always returned to Pentagram.
Tell us something about how you got your start in music. Under what circumstances did you meet Bobby Liebling? What events and happenings led the earliest line-up of Pentagram coming together and cranking out this primordial music?
Geof: When I was living in Bangkok around 1960 to 1962, I began to take interest in both Elvis Presley and Cliff Richards. Upon moving back to Indiana in 1963, I used to lie in bed at night with the radio on and listen to WLS out of Chicago, eventually being exposed to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and so on. While in Bangkok, my parents had me take ukulele lessons — not sure why! — and later briefly took acoustic guitar lessons in Indiana. After moving to Virginia in 1966, I began to get interested in drums while still playing guitar, and I also bought a foot-pump organ. I would jam at friends’ houses. My dad worked as an executive at a mailing warehouse so I could play there at night and on weekends with no sound issues, and eventually began inviting musician friends to jam there.
Coming out of these jam sessions, two of these musicians, guitarist/vocalist John Jennings and bassist Greg Mayne and myself decided to form the trio Space Meat, doing mostly original songs of Jennings’ and a few covers when we decided to play gigs. Jennings would later go on to be quite successful playing with DC folk/country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter in addition to releasing a few solo albums of his own.
At this same time, I had become best of friends with Bobby Liebling, who was about a year-and-a-half older than me and lived in the apartment building next door. We rode the same school bus together. He was playing in The Shades of Darkness, doing garage band-style cover songs.
For a brief period of time, he joined Space Meat and we changed the name to Stonebunny, but there was a musical difference between Bobby’s hard rock leanings and John’s melodic songs, so we parted ways and went back to being Space Meat as a trio.
After Space Meat kind of fizzled out, Bobby and I were sitting at a friend’s house one night, stoned and talking, and began discussing that we should put together an all-new band doing all originals in the style we loved. He knew drummer Steve Martin from school (I knew him too but not as well) and I had jammed with Vincent, who was a bass player at the time and friends of the guys in Space Meat. I played guitar in the original Pentagram line-up which was around late summer 1971.
We later added John Jennings as a 2nd guitarist to beef-up the sound and allow us to do guitar harmonies, which was absurd because he is SO much better than I will ever be in a zillion years! We quickly realized the drummer was too lightweight and jazzy for the heavy rock we were doing and so I returned to the drum kit. So this was line-up #3 — Bobby, John on guitar, Vincent on bass and me on drums and lasted literally one fantastic practice (which sadly wasn’t recorded). At the end, we were all blown away by how good it sounded, but a few hours later that same night, John called me and said he really just wasn’t into the heavy metal stuff, so he quit.
Bobby began playing very simple and basic guitar just so he, Vincent (still on bass) and I on drums could still practice the material while looking for a proper guitarist. One day, Vincent said he wanted to try playing guitar. Bobby and I just kind of looked at each other and said, "Sure, whatever…", and then…we were stunned: he was fucking amazing! Our quiet bass player strapped on a guitar and sounded like a cross between Hendrix and Blue Cheer’s Leigh Stephens. I called up my old Space Meat friend and bassist Greg Mayne, and the "classic 70s line-up" (which was technically the 4th line-up of Pentagram) had our first rehearsal on Christmas Day of 1971.
The band’s roots can be traced back to early US doom metal formation Pentagram, who formed around 1971. The first era of Pentagram was active from 1971-1977. In that time span a bunch of singles and demos were recorded. In what way did the experience with Pentagram help shape the later sound of Bedemon?
Geof: Well, one thing people are surprised to hear is that Bedemon wasn’t really a band. Randy Palmer was a friend of mine and Bobby’s and he wanted to record some songs he wrote and asked us and his school friend Mike Matthews to play on them. So, we’d meet every few months at the warehouse where Pentagram rehearsed and record 2-3 new songs. This went on between 1973 and 1979 and we recorded fifteen songs total, which are all on the Child of Darkness release.
Bedemon’s sound was much more slow, doomy and Black Sabbath-like than Pentagram, which was more diversified and hard rock. I don’t feel one influenced the other, really. Pentagram was the "serious" band trying to make it and get a record deal; Bedemon was a fun side-project mainly for Randy’s benefit.
Pentagram was one of the earliest practitioners of Black Sabbath-inspired doom metal, to my recollection. You predate Saint Vitus, Trouble and Witchfinder General by at least a handful of years. Could you give us a brief overview of the highpoints, low points and challenges you faced during these early days? What do you recall from the early days of the Washington DC/doom scene – were there any events or happenings that stand out in your memory?
Geof: Well, I would disagree with that in regards to the Pentagram I was a part of in the 70s. Our inspirations were bands like Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy, Stray, Mountain, Dust, Sir Lord Baltimore, Free, The Groundhogs, Uriah Heep etc. Black Sabbath was really about the only doom-metal band around in 1971, and while they were an influence in some songs like "Review Your Choices," I wouldn’t say most of our stuff was in that category, and there most definitely was no doom-metal scene in the Washington DC area in the early 70s!
By contrast, the 80s line-up of Pentagram (Victor Griffin, Joe Hasselvander etc.) was very definitely more singularly focused on and influenced by the Sabbathy doom style, and the revolving door of different band members Bobby has worked with under that name over the years has continued in that same thick Black Sabbath-sound to this day. Because of that, Pentagram in general is referred to as a doom-metal band which is accurate for the 80s band to the present, but not really to the original line-ups back in the 70s.
The problems we faced were trying to get a record deal when we didn’t really have what labels felt were "commercial" songs and trying to get gigs when we didn’t play cover songs by other artists. We didn’t want to spend the energy learning covers when we had all these originals to play, but of course, people in clubs want to dance and hear songs they recognize. And because were didn’t have a record out, we couldn’t get booked on concert-type of shows.
The additional problem we had were the internal band issues of ego and drugs. Much of this is documented in the excellent 2012 film about Bobby’s ups and downs entitled Last Days Here, which also features Greg Mayne and myself from the 70s band and Victor and Joe from the later line-ups talking about our experiences of dealing with Bobby.
Bedemon was never truly a traditional band, as Randy Palmer wrote most material by himself. He would occasionally jam with members from Pentagram at their rehearsal space in the American Mailing warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. The name was chosen as a portmanteau of two earlier suggested names, Demon and Behemoth. How was it working and jamming with Randy during/after Pentagram rehearsals?
As explained above, it was a situation where Randy would just mention he had some new songs, and occasionally we’d record one of mine ("Frozen Fear") or Mike’s ("Last Call") and we’d pick a day when Pentagram wasn’t rehearsing. Randy never played with Pentagram, except during the two brief periods during 1974 when he actually joined the band as a rhythm guitarist. Other than that, Randy wasn’t a "jam" guitarist. His interest was writing songs. He knew he wasn’t a particular good lead player, which is why he insisted Mike and I play the solos on the new album. We pleaded with him to play them himself because the fans would love it, but he felt there should be better actual solos and the two of us were better players.
Randy even was briefly a member of Pentagram, at one point, in the so-called High Voltage era of Pentagram. They rehearsed in the basement of a dentist’s office, according to my research. Why didn’t it work out for him with Pentagram? What prompted you to continue working together with him on new music?
Geof: As mentioned, he was indeed in the band twice in 1974, but he wasn’t in the band in 1979 when they recorded the High Voltage label 45, "Livin’ In a Ram’s Head"/ "When the Screams Come." He did re-join the band at some point around 1989, as I believe did Greg Mayne also did, but neither of them is on that single. I don’t know what happened to the band in that era; I had moved to California in 1988.
Randy and I were best of friends, so working on Bedemon songs even in 1979 was never an issue. But when it came time to record Bobby’s vocals on those songs Randy did them at his house on his tape recorder because I didn’t want to be around Bobby. It did put Randy in an awkward position, being friends with both of us.
In 1986 you independently released the "Invocation to Doom" demo tape. It was crudely recorded at the Pentagram rehearsal space. Three tracks were recorded in 1972, in 1979 another three were put to tape and the remaining ones in 1986. As I understand, the demo was bootlegged by a Pentagram fan, who sold (and, apparently, continues to sell) unofficial Bedemon shirts and merchandise. Tell us some stories and anecdotes from these recording sessions and how the songs came to be.
Geof: I don’t own this release and don’t even know what songs are on it because there never WAS any release. I’m not sure where this frequent misinformation came from. Invocation to Doom was the name Randy made up just for fun of all the 70s recordings we did, and he drew artwork for the reel tape box, which is shown inside the official Child of Darkness release. The "release" you refer to is a hodge-podge collection of different songs, most which do appear on the CoD release. The material recorded in 1986 was with Greg Mayne on bass and Norman Lawson on guitar. There were no vocals. It has never been officially released, and to repeat and hopefully end this often-stated piece of misinformation: Invocation of Doom was NOT an official release; it was a bootleg. Bedemon did not release anything official until 2005’s Child of Darkness: From the Original Master Tapes.
I really don’t want to discuss the bootleg situation.
The band originally broke up in 1986. What were the reasons for laying the band to rest at that point in time? Was life catching up to the band with family – and employment obligations lining up, eventually crippling much band activity and general creativity?
Geof: I know I am getting repetitive, but we weren’t really a band in those days — ever — so there wasn’t any "break up." We recorded occasionally between 1973 and 1979, and then again in 1986, after which we just never did any more Bedemon recordings. One reason of course being that I moved to California in 1988.
In 2001 a reunion transpired, instigated by journalist Perry Grayson. He was doing a series of features in Metal Maniacs around Pentagram and its affiliated musicians/side-projects. He got in touch with all of you to document his articles. What sparkled the fire and desire to end Bedemon’s hiatus and properly release/distribute its music?
Geof: Well, it was exactly what you said: Perry Grayson’s article made us aware that there was actual interest in Bedemon due to the bootlegs floating around among Pentagram fans. We thought it would be a cool idea to actually record a "proper" Bedemon release, and we also felt we should put out the 70s recordings to have them properly released from something other than third-generation cassettes, with songs playing at the wrong speeds etc.
The first result of the reunion was the "Time Bomb" EP. What was the initial idea behind that project? With Randy residing in North Carolina, Mike in Arizona and Geof in California, this must have been a Herculean task to coordinate and plan.
Geof: There was talk at one point of releasing this, to the point that it was even mentioned on the Bedemon website in a July 2001 News item, but this never materialized. Eventually, all three tracks on this planned EP were later included on the Child of Darkness release. The actual new result of the reunion was starting to write songs during 2001 and then getting together during six days in April of 2002 to record Symphony of Shadows.
Randy Palmer passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident in 2002. With its creative backbone out of the picture – what does the future hold for Bedemon? I guess "Symphony Of Shadows" could be considered the end of an era for the band. Are there any plans to write new music in tradition of Palmer’s style and technique?
Geof: There’s no question it’s the end of an era, but there is some possibility of additional music, including from Randy. After the April 2002 sessions, he began writing many new songs and putting the ideas down on tape — as mentioned, just him playing a guitar into a cassette recorder — and there are many cool ideas that could be expanded upon and turned into songs as good as the ones on the new album. It would be a lot of work, and it really depends on the interest and success of the new release.
2005 saw the release of the "Child Of Darkness" compilation through Black Widow Records. These recordings were painstakingly put together and diligently restored/remastered from the original master tapes. What challenges and trials did you face in remastering and restoring those old tapes up to contemporary standards?
Geof: Those old recordings were just simple reel-to-reel recordings made at the warehouse where Pentagram rehearsed, on the same recorder I used to record the Pentagram practices. They weren’t studio multi-track tapes. So what we were able to do was pretty limited, aside from boosting levels, bass, high-end etc. The original tapes are pretty raw and distorted-sounding, but we did what we could.
Other than that, it contains a lengthy band history and extensive liner notes. Liner notes have become something of a lost art. Both "Child Of Darkness" and "Symphony Of Shadows" contain extensive and highly detailed historical accounts on happenings within the band and the creation of the songs. How important was it for you and the band to properly contextualize the materializing of this new album and its songs?
Geof: I think the back-story on both Child of Darkness and even more so on Symphony of Shadows is very important. In particular, the new album, with Randy’s death and then having to painstakingly finish his project without him or knowing what exactly he might have wanted was a huge challenge. Additionally, his reuniting with his former love of the 70s Taryn and then her losing him right before he was moving in with her is so tragic. It’s a very sad story, but in the end, I think the album turned out far beyond what our original expectations could imagine. I am very proud of it.
Both "Child Of Darkness" and "Symphony Of Shadows" had artwork based upon Palmer’s rough pre-production sketches. Was Randy artistically inclined as far as drawing and sketching went?
Geof: Yes. He was amazingly multi-talented as a visual artist, a songwriter, a filmmaker and a journalist who wrote for both horror and video-game magazines and also released two hardcover books on horror movies.
"Symphony Of Shadows" is your long awaited new (and truly, first) album. Palmer wrote 5 songs, O’Keefe contributed 2 and Matthews wrote one song for the record. The remaining ones were collaborative efforts. Were these all songs completed for the sessions - or can we expect any more recordings to be released within the future?
Geof: There is only one song on the new album, "Son of Darkness," that is a collaboration between Randy, Mike and myself, written spontaneously one day as we were sitting in my living room learning the songs we were going to record that day.
While Randy’s songs were recorded with him, after his death we had no idea what he wanted as far as the vocals. As mentioned, his guitar-only demos had no vocals tracks. So, we had our instrumental backing tracks, his type-written lyrics and...that was it. No idea about the melodies or where the lyrics went in the songs or if there were background vocals, nothing. I basically had to finish writing his songs and then work with vocalist Craig and engineer Shawn to see what worked and what didn’t. Having known Randy for over thirty years, I knew his tastes in music and had a pretty good idea what would fit but there was a certain degree of guesswork. I hope he would be pleased.
As far as anything else in the future, Randy had begun compiling a few cassettes of new song ideas, riffs, complete songs etc. and there are many things on these tapes that could be turned into complete songs as good as anything on the new album. It would be a lot of work, but it is a possibility. It really depends on the reaction to Symphony of Shadows and how well it does to see if it justifies the possibility of recording anything more under the Bedemon name.
During the recording sessions for this new record almost all members played multiple instruments. Is that something that happened during the recordings out of necessity or mere convenience? Does this musical chair changing stir the creative juices when jamming?
Geof: Well, we never really jammed. Randy only played rhythm guitar on all tracks and the lead solo in "D.E.D.". Mike is normally a guitarist in the bands he plays with and hadn’t played bass in a long time, but he did the bass on all tracks and a few guitar parts and solos as well. I played drums on the whole album, rhythm guitars on "Saviour," "Hopeless" and "Son of Darkness" and most of the lead solos on the whole album. I also added some keyboards to "Hopeless" and did have to re-do some bass parts in "Saviour" and "Hopeless" because of some unfixable errors. Yes, it’s fun to play multiple instruments and "keep it within the group," so to speak, as opposed to having outside players on the songs.
The magnificent artwork by Eric Engelmann is quite the canvas. I couldn’t help but notice similarities with the classic 1922 German Expressionist horror film, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, directed by F. W. Murnau. It is well documented that Randy Palmer was a fanatic of classic horror movies. Was it difficult conveying his vision to the artist? You originally were in talks with Wes Benscoter. That fell through – why?
Geof: With both the Bedemon releases, the covers were based on rough sketches Randy had done as possible cover ideas. In the case with Wes, his cover for Child of Darkness was a totally new work done from the idea of Randy’s sketch. The CD and LP liner notes show Randy’s original sketch and give a detailed back-story about that.
We’d originally wanted Wes to do the cover art for Symphony of Shadows as well. We sent him the sketch and he said he was on board. We were in touch over a period of a year and then...he suddenly stopped returning e-mails. Literally three months went by with many repeated attempts to contact him and he just never replied. To this day, we have no idea why he initially expressed interest and then just vanished and left us in the lurch with no explanation. You’d have to ask him...but good luck actually getting a reply.
Friend of the band and Pentagram manager Sean "Pellet" Pelletier saw the work of Eric "Rot" Engelmann on his My Space page and suggested we look as his gallery. To our amazement, he had the art you see on the cover, which was incredibly similar to Randy’s sketch. Again, the sketch is shown in the CD and LP liner notes to the new album as the other one was in the previous release. So, in this case, it wasn’t created off of Randy’s sketch; it was a pre-existing design, but it was perfect for what we wanted.
With the "Symphony Of Shadows" record out on Svart Records for a bit now – I guess you must be pleased with the excellent criticism and feedback it is generating. I understand you had some difficulty finding a suitable label partner for this release, considering the general malaise and disarray in the music business. Tell us about how you went about shopping this album around…
Geof: This was something that was totally handled by Pellet. He formerly worked for both Relapse and Season of Mist, and has a lot of contacts and experience dealing with metal labels around the world. He kept knocking on doors for more than a year after the album was actually finished and then mastered at the very end of 2009/early 2010 until he found Svart in 2011. Their treatment of the release has been amazing. We can’t say enough about what an impressive package they have put out, and they were very accommodating as to my massively-long liner notes, credits and photos requiring 28 pages.
Exactly how difficult is it to write and arrange new Bedemon material at this point? You all are living in different parts of the country, Randy Palmer is obviously not with the band anymore. I’m guessing all of you have pending family – and employment obligations to attend to, as well. Is a third record even a possibility at this point?
Geof: This question was somewhat already addressed a few questions back in regards to a possible album in the future and the demos Randy recorded for possible new songs. Yes, the logistics make things a challenge with Mike in Montana and Craig and I here in California. We’ve had some suggestions of playing some gigs, and obviously we’d need one or preferably two guitarists so I could stay on the drums. Mike would have to travel out here to rehearse and so on. Recording a new album could be pre-worked on with the distance and then recorded here just as the previous one was, with Craig and I then later laying down the vocal parts. Mike and I could play all the guitars. This is all very tentative and just some ideas we’ve been discussing.
Well, I’m running out of questions, so feel free to end this interview in any way you like. If there’s anything of importance we might have forgotten to mention or anything you’d like to add, just go ahead. Thanks a lot for your time and all the best to all of you!
Geof: Mike, Craig and I — along with Randy in spirit, of course — appreciate your interest in Bedemon and hope you enjoy the new album. There are lots of little production things engineer Shawn and I put in which you will notice on repeated listenings, especially through headphones. Lots of 60s/70s-style stereo panning! Play it LOUD!
Info: www.svartrecords.com
