Suicide Puppets, an Interview with Liam Sweeny

From the depths of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg to be exact), comes a brutal sound that you’ll love to hate and hate to love, probably a little more the second than the first. We bring you an exclusive interview with the band, Suicide Puppets.

RX: You’re from Harrisburg, PA and you tour nationally. And you have a pretty sick sound. That’s what I know. Tell me what I don’t know. Just one thing. Not band members and influences; we may get there. But just one thing that any fan would know that an idiot with Google (me) wouldn’t.

SP: Yes, we hail out of Harrisburg, PA and thank you, we think our sound is pretty sick as well. One thing you can’t Google about us? Ok, when the band was first formed we were’nt known as Suicide Puppets we called ourselves Fine Art Of Hate and we were a two piece. consisting of our singer Twisty playing guitar and doing vocals and myself on bass and backup vocals. At this time our drums were pre programmed. We used that name for about a year or so then as we had more members (Veritas, Steven Suicide) come in we decided to change it up.

RRX: Hoping that you didn’t already answer this question, I’ll ask (again?). Metal is such an exacting music. You can screw up blues, and jazz, if you make a mistake, do it again and see where it goes. But metal is punishing. Gotta have the right sync. Does Suicide Puppets have a good practice schedule, or is practice split out over a hundred shows?

SP: Yeah, metal can be brutal but we practice/rehearse on a weekly basis. Usually on Sunday mornings. We also work separately throughout the week writing both music and lyrics. When on tour we’ll throw ideas around and make note to revisit them down the road when we return home.

RRX: Anyone who knows anything about metal knows that it’s an animal kingdom. Death metal, stoner metal, metalcore – it rivals rock for the number of variations it can have. Does Suicide Puppets have a descriptor on the metal chart? If so, how loosely or how tightly do you stick to that description?

SP: I believe our descriptor falls into the Industrial Metal genre and we stick pretty close to that but do venture into other aspects of the metal and rock realm. We find that you limit yourself by not exploring outside the conventional perimeters of your genre. If you can incorporate a punk bass riff or a disco beat into a driving guitar part, do it! We like to keep it interesting which appeals to both male and female listeners and the young and older fans as well.

RRX: Okay, so I don’t like asking about influences. People need to figure that s**t out for themselves, half the fun. But obviously, we’re all influenced by bands. And I imagine it’s funny when people come up to you with “you sound like…” So I’ll split this, and ask you to tell me the best band a fan compared you to, and the worst band?

SP: Wow, ok. As far as the worst band we’ve been compared to, I can’t think of any off hand.  We have had fans compare us to Ministry, Wednesday 13, Fear Factory, Dope, Static X and Rammstein. Also on occasion Marilyn Manson. Which is fine because we know a lot of these guys. John Bechdel from Ministry has laid down keyboards on a couple of our songs as well as Acey Slade (Dope/Murderdolls) performing voice over work on our cover of “Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring.

RRX: What I can tell from trusty Google is that you all put on a hell of a stage show. And people love that, but they don’t maybe realize that coordinating a good stage show requires as much collective talent as coordinating a good song. Do you have a company that takes care of your stage show? If so or if not, how involved are you all creatively?

SP: No, we do everything ourselves as far as our stage show goes. Most of it is spontaneous. We believe if you’re spending your hard earned money to come and see us we’re gonna give you a show. There’s nothing worse than going to see a band, no matter how good they are musically, just stand there and stare at their shoes. We want you to leave one of our shows going, “Wow, what was that?”

RRX: I noticed that you’re now working with Freeman Promotions, who also works for GWAR, Obituary, Dying Fetus, Jinjer and many others. As a band who spends a lot of time touring, having good promotion is a blessing. What are your hopes with this connection? Are you looking to go international?

SP: Yes, having good promotion is key in the industry. Our hopes are to reach out into the global community and expand our listener base. I can say we do have some international stuff coming in 2024 but I have to leave it at that. It sucks but secrets and timing are a big part of the music industry. When you’re working on a tour you kinda have to sit on it until the appropriate time to announce it. At least with a new album you can drop singles and build the hype, with a tour it’s hush hush until a few months out. Stay tuned there’s a lot of cool stuff coming from the Puppet camp.