Talmage E. Crumholt IV is a metal/punk vocalist from Fort Worth, TX. Fronting the high energy thrash metal band, BORN IN BLOOD. He is also an amateur actor and writer for short films- currently starring in an independent YouTube series called, ASTERIA: AN UNOFFICIAL WARHAMMER 40K STORY.
You can keep up with his work on various social media sites!
Fb.com/borninbloodtx
Instagram @borninbloodtx
Instagram @boneytoed
https://youtube.com/c/HavranDigital
Did you have family members that motivated your passion towards music?
It had to start at an early age around seven years old. This is before Spotify and my uncle had this whole booklet full of CDs with different pleas, where you could flip through and listen to large catalogs. He a bunch of metal and punk CDs, and he would always ask us, just pick so we could put it in the radio and just listen to it running errands and stuff. I came across a lot of good bands like Korn, Slipknot, and stuff like that. I always gravitated more towards Sepultura and that snowballed into my obsession with heavier music. I fell off around junior high, where I got more into the current hip hop like DMX and David Banner. Around freshman year in high school, I had this guy sitting in front of me and he always wore different fancy t-shirts like Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, and Exodus. I was a quiet kid, so I didn’t really know how to walk up to someone and say, “Hey man, how are you doing, what’s that on your shirt?” He educated me because he had a bunch of Vinyl’s and that was when I first heard Max Cavalera’s voice, he was a vocalist and lead guitar of Sepultura and it just changed everything again for me. I went back into that whole snowball of finding out these different bands and learning about them because at the time YouTube was just coming up. This developed throughout high school, where I became like a secret metalhead. That’s how I discovered a lot of different bands and more of their albums. I broke out of that shell, and got into Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, and all of these different and much more heavier stuff, and I just decided I could really do something with this. I always saw negative comments on YouTube videos and people always say, “Oh you like Korn, that sucks, listen to this.” I really wasn’t into whatever they were showing me. The negative stuff really made me dig deeper into what I liked more.
Was your network supportive when it came to your music aspirations?
I wasn’t really focused on trying to start a band. I thought that was something completely out of my realm or even getting into music. I made good grades in school, but I always thought I was the dumbest one in the class. Family members, like my stepmom, really didn’t understand why I was getting into this heavy music. There was a time I got into rap because that’s mostly what they listened to. So, I was always around that and just did that to get through my day in the household so there would be no friction or arguments.I wouldn’t not only be an outcast in school, but also felt like a misfit in the household. My uncle ended up moving away and that was pretty much the only person I could really hang with and talk to and learn something without trying to create an argument because I like something different. It felt like a hostile household, especially whenever I was more open to heavier music. Because I would go out and buy the records and play them in my room and stuff and everyone was just not understanding.
Are there any key differences between being a front man vs. filling in for other bands?
I started my own band with the intention of obviously going big and filling in for bands wasn’t my dream goal. But once you become part of a scene and you befriended a bunch of like-minded creative, talented people in other bands, they start reaching out about filling in for new bandmates. I’ve got to perform in some good studios around Dallas and high-class stuff. I really kept myself grounded and open to new opportunities, where bands would reach out about time sensitive projects. For example, I would get a message stating that I would 4 days to learn 45 lines of lyrics I obviously didn’t write. I’ve never really understood them, so I had to try to go in for their practice sessions day after day. You go in, you practice, and you just keep doing that same set over and over. There was one band that I had filled in for called Born and Raised, they’re like a Southern rock band. I’m not a singer, but I tried to do my best. I only had three days to learn their entire one-hour set on top of something I’ve never really done before. They were playing this big show, so I always just try to do my best because if I can’t sing, then I’m going to scream it. I know it translates well because I can give it my own spin. You’re in a different territory, you’re in someone else’s shoes, you can put your own twists to it, but you also don’t want to throw off everyone else in the band. It’s challenging in a way and I try not to do it too much. I have people ask me all the time if I want to fill in for them because their vocalist is sick or he’s moving away, but I only take the ones I know I can realistically do.
Are there any warmup techniques to have prolonged screaming?
My wife was practically trained to sing opera and stuff like that, and she really is lightly into the same music I am into. She looked up pretty much the common teacher that most of these vocalists used and her name was Melissa Cross. She bought me the DVD and the CD that I could play in the car and practice. That really taught me how to breathe because breathing is the most important thing you can do. There’s also a bunch of different stuff that I found on YouTube like this extreme metal vocalist channel. I’ll take maybe an hour or two before a show and just relax myself, relax my neck, relax my mouth. I’ll do these techniques that actors constantly use. I’ve learned to not stress my vocal cord so much, but you can get like a t-shirt or a towel and just scream into it. Just scream, get the nice grit, and open your chest cavity a little bit. You can find a bubble that helps you push a little bit more because you want to use your diaphragm, but you don’t want to strain it. Like even on the drive to the venue, as long as you warm up your voice, you have air in your lungs and you flex those muscles a little bit in your neck and get it ready, you really can’t fail. Everyone’s going to have a distinct voice, so I try not to sound like the most brutal death metal, low growl type vocalist because it’s just not my style. If my voice isn’t hitting a low note that I want it to be at, I’ll make up for it by running around on stage.
What are the main subgenres of screamo music, and can you expand on Deathcore?
don’t know why there’s so many sub-genres of music, especially in metal. I think that’s more about the fan bases separating their favorite bands from other people’s bands. I don’t think it’s something people should really hold onto. I’m into deathcore and it’s like heavier metal or thrash metal. Deathcore is double bass and faster, but heavier down tuning and grindcore is going to be more of just everywhere. It’s going to be noise and it’s going to be chaos, which is what I love the most. Metalcore is newer and more appealing to the mainstream viewers. It just gets really complicated and it’s like a spider web of different ideas and there are all kinds of different genres popping up every single day that you just can’t keep up with.
Where did the original name come from for Born in Blood?
I met up with a group for the first time and I already had a plan in my head of what I wanted a metal band to be. Our first band name was called Bad Blood, it’s from a ministry song I fell in love with, and a bunch of comic books. I had bad blood, so that word really stuck out to me. The early years we’re performing Bad Blood and everything’s fine, until one day we go to record with Dave Chavarri, who’s the founder and drummer for Ill Nino. We found out that there’s another band called Bad Blood, but they’re like a dad rock band, but they’re getting signed to Sony Entertainment. They put some cryptic status up on their Facebook saying something about us. We were generating some buzz and got tired of getting mixed up with all the different songs that were coming out at the time that was called Bad Blood, like all the pop stars. We decided to just change our name and so we’re all lazy in my band when it comes to band names, we just care about the music. We still wanted to keep the blood part aspects, that’s our whole thing at shows and it just sounded cool. It falls in line with a metal band name and that’s all we really wanted, that’s how that came about.
Are there any upcoming acting gigs associated with the music?
I don’t consider myself an actor, I kind of fell into this because I have a bunch of good friends that do cinematography, videos, and stuff like that for a living. I just fell in line because I’m easy to work with and not afraid to be thrown around or put myself in bizarre situations. I’m starring in a new YouTube series called Asteria and it’s been amazing so far. It’s a brand-new storyline and you can check out the trailers. And as far as Born in Blood, we should have a new EP out by the middle or end of March recorded at Nomad Recording Studios with Russell Hollar. We’re thinking of calling it Misery. The first single is going to be called Misery and we’ve got a music video being propped up and done for that, but it’ll be a new song EP just to prove that we’re still here and we’re still working on stuff.
