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Here's our motto again punks:

"...We do not claim to be like anyone nor do we claim not to be like anyone. We love all kinds of music and are inspired by all that moves us. We say this out of respect to you, ourselves and the bands by which we are inspired."
       - Freaks Arise

Overview
Freaks Arise has been led by Rich Wood (vocals/gtr) with the core being made up of Ken Masteller (drums/bk vocals) and Tom Widener (gtr/bk vocals) since 1996. We've shared the stage with many past friends and wonderful bass players and are very thankful.

WE HAVE A BOUNCIN JAMMIN GUITAR PLAYER...and he promises MINI SKIRTS!
After a very long time of auditions, preauditions, conversations, etc we finally found our fourth soldier. Like us, he comes from a heavy background but during the last few years sessioned with bands of many styles; has a strong knowledge of the blues and jazz; is a museum worth of effects - and knows how to use them; and his fans follow him in mini skirts. Don Bizzuffi lives and breaths guitar man. He plays in Freaks Arise, he teaches fulltime with over 30 students a week, he refurbishes and sells them and he used his teaching skills to score his hot babe girlfriend by offering free lessons. Don and Rich speak the same language when it comes to songwriting, and the vision Rich has had is finally coming to life with the new (yet to be released) songs as well as the current. Shows have already grown exponentially and they will continue - now all we need are longer sets for all the cool segue ways, intros and new songs.

GUESS WHAT ELSE?? WE HAVE A NEW BASS PLAYER!!
Our new member has quickly become part of the family and is the tightest fit to date. Evan Hersch jams the shit out of his guitar and feels every note. Watching him groove around at rehearsal makes me very anxious to stomp the stage with him live...which is coming real soon again! He gets the best tone with a diversity that definetly is a perfect match for our varied sound. I'm sure you will all be as stoked as we are when you see him live and hear him on our newest LP.
See you all soon!!

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Rich/Ken connection.
Ken and Rich have been jamming together since Ken stole his first drum kit in the late 80s (we were little punks). Rich attempted to hustle one of Ken's friends out of a guitar but after an awkward moment ended up jamming together to old thrash and hardcore songs by bands like DRI, CROMAGS, ANTHRAX, TESTAMENT, SLAYER, KREATOR, CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER, DARK ANGEL, ETC. (Remember this was the 80s so we're talking about these bands' good stuff - when it was real - before the football playin Metallica posers put away their Bon Jovi shirts and started stealing our only fix)

Eventually Rich and Ken became Disembodied where they attempted to push the limits of brutality and aggression to which later became known as Doom, Death Metal and Grind Core.

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Ken goes on tour.
Ken was asked to go on a US/Mexico tour with Goreaphobia (Death Metal) under Relapse Records and he did. While gone Rich continued to write and teach guitar to local musicians. Eventually the scene succumbed and there was nothing left. In order to keep playing, Rich joined a cover band which took them to the local A List in the Philly area for over three years. Here he received a huge response from many people. His aggressive stompin playing style matched with his finger bleedin' string breakin excited the crowd while making them groove. Night after night they would ask "Dude, when are you going to start playing your own songs? You got to man! You guys are better then most of these shit bands out there and would no doubt get signed..."

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Rich/Tom connection.
Tom Widener was a brother of one of Rich's close friends (Mike Widener) in high school. Rich idolized Tom as he would sneak a peek at his guitar when hanging out at Mike's. "How the hell does he play that Maiden tune?" He would wonder. "How did he get that killer heavy sound. This dude was real."

Well years later Tom started checking Rich out at the clubs. Rich was so thankful that Tom was digging what he was doing and still had that admiration from years earlier. One day he asked him to play some originals and it cascaded quickly into Freaks Arise. Of course they asked Ken to be the drummer. There were none better.

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Process.
Today Rich, Ken and Tom have a process that is efficient, tight and subconscience. This is due to all three of them being inside each other's heads and trusting in each one's creativity. Song writing is quick and easy.

"...When the songs are done we feel cheated, like we didn't have a hand in it, like they were always there and we just channeled them."
       - Rich Wood

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Playing Live
If you're hanging with the dudes looking for a happenin' spot for the night, you pop in and out of clubs to see who's jammin on the stage and how the crowd is acting (or more importantly the chicks). You could have your answer in two seconds when looking across the room to the stage and through the crowd. It's knowing this that compels Freaks Arise to always put on an aggressive show.

"...If some punk ass looks in the room and we aren't slamming or pounding our feet into the ground , I'm pissed. That means he walks away thinking we don't feel our shit. If we don't feel it, why do it? Only posers are up there not feeling it. Either it's a poser or some little yuppie college boy that plays top 40 hit rip offs and is too scared or distant from REAL to feel it...This isn't us man. We feel every note."

Diversity = Longevity
The music is a lot louder and harder live. Soundgarden once said that they had trouble playing shows since they were too heavy for the softer straight rock shows and too soft for the metal shows. This is how Freaks Arise feels yet the bands they share the stage with and the crowds that come see them or catch them for the first time seem to get it. The diversity of the music from soft and soulful to hard and aggressive seems to fit them right into the place of bands like Faith No More.

"...it's one thing to have the straight rock people get us, but we (out of respect to the genre and culture) would never expect our metal relatives to feel us without knowing our history. Fortunately our roots transcend and they get it. 90% of the stations that play us on the radio and on the web are metal stations. The weirdest was when listening to the radio and hearing nothing but signed major label metal acts all day then recognizing a new tune in the lineup...wait a minute that's mine! They played ten songs from our 2 albums. "

Learning from one of the best Rock and Roll bands to date: Led Zeppelin, Freaks Arise didn't want to cheat any of their listeners by changing styles on later albums. They wanted to open doors as they develop creatively and explore other parts of themselves musically through time. Each album includes anywhere from soft to hard to weird and soulful - the common element being that they feel it, it's real and it's created around intense emotion.

"... Instead of being a success chaser and type casting ourselves into one sound, our diversity yields longevity. Led Zep plays When the Levee Breaks one second then Hot Dog, then Dyer Maker, then Battle of Evermore and it works. They never feel sold out and their music transcends generations and time. You can not go a day on the radio without hearing from them. This is what we hope to achieve with our music. It would be very hard to just play fake punk music , it will be gone in a year. Music needs a safety net man, it needs to be rescued. The industry is killing the history of the artform. We understand it is a business, that is fine - use them to make the profit margins but try to use them to fund the next SoundGarden, Led Zep, Journey. Put us on the map. We can make history!"

A new sound?
Freaks Arise frowns upon people that claim they are unlike any other band ever. The history of art has evolved from taking what has been done and twisting it a bit here and there. When asked they always tell people "We are just modern rock". They let the listener fill in the details. Well this was true when music had substance even a few years ago from bands like: Quicksand, SoundGarden, Filter, Bush, STP, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. The guys would never claim to be as good as them or even like them...possibly inspired by the same things that has inspired these bands but not like them and certainly not different then them. They were just straight rock.

However today doesn't offer rock like the previous years and the industry is very light with content and substance. They know it, the bands know it. It's cool, this music isn't about that. "We should know we used to play stuff like it." It all serves a purpose, yet there is too much of it. We need some real rock bands. For the first time Freaks Arise can honestly say they are different. Different for this current time period. Not different four years ago. Of course though, every band although classified into a general category possesses there own individuality. Freaks Arise has a sound.

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