Beautiful Skeletons on the Sunset Strip

Beautiful Skeletons on the Sunset Strip

Formed in 2018 in the Pacific Northwest, Beautiful Skeletons has been placing the pedal to the metal ever since – recently unveiling a brand-new EP entitled Temperance on Wormholedeath Records.  The band played the world-famous Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip, and are now touring across the states with Reign Of Z.  Right after Beautiful Skeleton’s epic show at The Whisky, Highwire Daze caught up with vocalist Tina Firefly to find out a whole lot more about this raging band on the rise.  Read on…

We’re here at Beautiful Skeletons. Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in the band, and how long the band’s been together.
My name is Tina Firefly. I’m the lead singer, the only singer, the front-woman for Beautiful Skeletons. We’ve been a band since 2019.

You’re here at the Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip, just got off the stage. What was that experience like?
I feel like I’m moving in a fever dream. It’s kind of like, I can’t believe it’s over, and yet at the same time, it’s this feeling of accomplishment. It’s definitely a bucket list thing for all of us, I think.

What are your overall impressions of Hollywood?
I don’t know what I expected, but this was not it, and I’ve actually been enjoying myself. I don’t know, I thought maybe I’d get robbed on the Sunset Strip, or the guys were like, “Don’t go very far; we don’t know what’s happening.” But actually, it’s been really nice. I haven’t had any problems, and everybody at the Whisky’s been just fabulous to us.

You’re on a label called Wormholedeath Records. How did you wind up on that label with such an amazing name?
Oh, I know, right? We got a message and were headhunted by one of their A&R people, and I thought it was a scam. So I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re with the label? Yeah, tell me more about that.” And actually, as it turned out, it really was an A&R guy, and that’s who found us for Wormhole and got the paperwork in order. We’ve been sitting on this deal with them for a while, needing to wait until the EP came out. So we’re just happy that everything’s all out in the open, and we’ve got music videos going. We’re very excited.

The name of your EP is Temperance. Is there any overall story or concept behind the EP title?
Yes. Dark introspection—I mean, that was really big in the ’90s, right? And it’s still that way. So, every single song on that EP is sort of like a life lesson that we’ve translated into something that hopefully everybody else can relate to.

What inspired the lyrics for the song Only Zuul?
Only Zuul is the next music video we’re coming out with, and a funny story I always tell about this one is that I was raised Roman Catholic and was actually kidnapped. They tried to do a forced exorcism on me because apparently, I was rowdy and must have had Satan in me. So, they threw me in the back of a van and tried to exorcise me at a church. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to write the song about it to, like, get that out.  So that’s what Only Zuul is about. It’s actually quite dark. But I feel like I’ve been trying to get that out for a long time. And finally, this tune came around, and I was like, “This is perfect.” So I was able to shed that skin.

Let’s talk about “Letter to a Narcissist.
We all have toxic people in our lives. As we get older, we recognize the signs a little bit better. You can choose to untangle yourself from toxicity, even if it’s really ingrained in your family or friend circle. You’re so much better off being straightforward and blunt with people and not allowing yourself to be used for some other payoff. If you’re seeking something else from someone, you’re never going to get that emotional fulfillment. So that’s what Narcissist is about.

For people who weren’t here tonight, what could one expect from a live Beautiful Skeletons show?
Well, if you’re not bopping your head, thumping your feet, and moving with our songs, we are doing something wrong. And if you’re not super surprised that we can do the singing and the screaming, the heavy and the light, all at the same time, then we haven’t done our job. Because we are very dynamic in our sound. Each track on that EP is super different from the others, ranging from old-school 4/4 metal chuggy bits all the way down to ballads. So that’s what people can expect—expect the unexpected, I guess.

What bands or projects were you involved with prior to Beautiful Skeletons?
Oh, so many. I’m one of those people who feels like if you haven’t played your instrument in every genre, you are really cheating yourself of maybe something you could learn from another genre. So, I mean, I’ve done blues, I’ve done indie, I’ve done experimental rock, I’ve done garage bands, I’ve done jazz, classical—like, you name it, right?  But all of that created the sound that I have today. And I’ve been in like a gazillion bands. So has everybody else in the band. We’re all seasoned musicians, so we all bring a different flavor. And all of us are so opposite from each other musically, and even just generationally. Somehow, we make it work. And it’s what it is. You get the sound of Beautiful Skeletons.

What is your Portland music scene like, and how do you fit in?
Portland is very picky about their metal scene. It’s really hard to box yourself into a genre to begin with. But then there’s a lot of this kind of attitude: you can’t call yourself a metal band if you have a song that has the word “butterfly” in it. So, there’s a lot of that. Fortunately for us, we don’t really care what other people think we are. You have to label yourself just for marketing purposes. But I feel like Portland is pretty welcoming of that for us. However, it can be kind of a difficult scene to get into. I actually prefer the Seattle scene for rock. So many greats have come out of Seattle. It’s a little hard to penetrate that market, but once you do, everybody’s just so genuine, nice, and talented. It’s amazing.

If Beautiful Skeletons could open for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Sevendust, for sure, because we all love Sevendust. It’s the one band we all are like, “Yes. Cool.” So I would love to, hopefully, maybe one day play for them, with them, or around them. It would be great.

What’s up next for Beautiful Skeletons after you leave Hollywood?
Only Zuul comes out on 6/5, the music video for that. It’s probably the coolest music video I’ve ever done in my fucking life. It’s crazy. And I’m very excited for that. And then after that, we have a tour announcement coming up that same day. So we do have a nice, long tour, and I can’t say anything. I’m terrible at keeping secrets. But on the 5th, we’ll be able to talk about it—where we’re going and who we’re going with…

Beautiful Skeletons are:
Tina Firefly: Vocals
Einar Einarsson: Guitar
Jason Johnson: Bass
Huwy Williams: Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton – Photos by Vivian Ortega of So Finch Photography)

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