Samantha Morency is clever student and beams with a great smile; in class, she laughs at even the strangest of my jokes. When Jeremy walked into Equinox, with face paint left on his forehead on from some kind of pep rally, and played the guitar that was out with a practice amp, it didn’t take long until Sam and he started talking. They continued talking into the studio, where he demonstrated his hardcore scream technique, as the title suggests.
“RAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRGGGGHHHHYYCCCKKKKK!”
An Interview with Jeremy, 18
As told to Samantha Morency
I was born in Buford, South Carolina. I wasn’t there very long. My mother and my father moved up to Schenectady when I was probably about one. That’s where I have lived my whole life. Not long after my parents split up, my mother moved to Michigan and my dad stayed in New York. I lived with him and had visitation with my mother during the summertime. When I was in fourth grade my mother ended up getting arrested and I hadn’t heard from her in years, then during spring break of my 7th grade year she called and I started talking to her again.
That following summer I visited her and continued to up until last summer, which was the last time that I saw her. We were having a lot of disputes and it was really stressing me out, it was getting to the point where the summer visitations were costing me more than I was getting out of them.
Michigan is OK. It’s stick country. Country people love it. Michigan is actually were I got into the type of music I am into now.
A friend of mine name Acea played bass at the time. I would teach him stuff I learned in school and he would teach me songs that he knew. I originally played stand-up bass guitar in orchestra. After I had done a few shows with bass I decided it was fun, but it wasn’t challenging enough. So I figured I would play around with the guitar.
I had some friends with guitars who lived near me I would go over there and play. One day they were like, “Dude you should play the guitar, not bass!” and I was like, “OK!”
In October of 2008 I bought my first guitar. Shortly after that I learned to speed pick, master pick, and I was doing pitch harmonics like nothing. I then learned how to tap from watching videos online of Eddie Van Halen, who made it really popular. I also taught myself to do a hardcore inward scream, from watching YouTube videos.
You wanna hear it? It’s a little creepy, but all it is, is you relax your vocal cords and push on your diaphragm like your taking a crap. Alright, don’t get scared.
RAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRGGGGHHHHYYCCCKKKKK!
If you do it into an equalizer microphone with reverb on it sounds really cool.
I like being around people. I mean, if I am at a party, everyone has at least shook my hand, talked to me for a couple seconds, played beer pong with me, done a keg stand with me. One time I was in the middle of Curry Road after about seven shots of whisky, three beers, and my electric bass guitar, just spinning around in circles.
Then a State Trooper pulls up and is like “What the fuck are you doing?” He didn’t even ask why I was there. There was a bunch of people out, we weren’t causing any trouble. I mean, I was just there with my bass guitar in the middle of the road at 2 am. He just told us we needed to go home. But he was pretty cool about it.
In December 2008 I got arrested for doing a lot of stupid shit. I was going through unlocked cars throughout the neighborhood. I don’t know why I was doing it—I was just being stupid. I ended up getting caught with credit cards that weren’t mine. I wasn’t planning on using them, but I got two felony counts against me for trespassing. Thankfully they got knocked down to a Class A Misdemeanor, which are no longer on my record. This was the only thing I had ever gotten in trouble for. They fingerprinted me and everything, ‘cause I wasn’t saying anything and they couldn’t figure out who I was. I was a wreck!
I had been suspended from school for 10 weeks, and I was in the midst of moving out of my father’s house. It was just a bad situation all around. It wasn’t something I should have been doing; it shouldn’t have been me there.
I don’t get along with my father. I actually have a apartment through Equinox. It’s a transitional living program for ages 16-21 that don’t really have anywhere else to go. It’s basically an apartment for free. Free electric, appliances and phone. The only thing that you have to pay for is your own food. You have to be going to school or work at least 30 hours a week. If you get paid you have to give them half of your paycheck. They put the half in a saving account and you when you leave you get it all back.
After I graduate I want to go to Hudson Valley or Schenectady Community College to get my core classes out of the way. After that I want to go to SUNY Albany to get my degree. If everything works out right I would like to go to England and go to Brighton Institute of Modern Music. That is a production and engineering school that will actually license me to become a musical engineer, which is what producers are.
Once I am done with school, that will be my biggest achievement. I want to be able to live my life so I don’t have to worry about things.
