INTERVIEW WITH BURT WOLF OF BEOWOLF PRODUCTIONS, WINTER 2006

INTERVIEW WITH BURT WOLF OF BEOWOLF PRODUCTIONS, WINTER 2006.


1. HAILS BURT! HAVING A GOOD WINTER SO FAR MAN?

What up Keegan? Yeah, winters been ok here so far. No snow yet, but they are calling for a big snow storm this weekend. They always over estimate here, cause we usually get nothing!

2. WE HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW AND HAVE DONE MANY TRADES OVER THE YEARS. IT'S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO TRADE WITH YOU, HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN TRADING CDS/TAPES ECT FOR?
Yeah, I always have enjoyed trading with you. I've gotten some good stuff from you. Your one of the few I have continuosly trade with over the years. I have been trading ever since I stepped into the underground scene back in 1990. It just got bumped up more once I started the distro in1994 & then the zine in 1997.

3. DO YOU PICTURE YOURSELF TRADING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? HOW MANY
TRADES IN TOTAL DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE DONE?
Yeah, I plan on doing trades as long as I can. That's pretty much how I have run my distro as well & I have been doing that for over 10 years. Trading is one of the things I love about the underground scene. It's not all about the money & more about the exposure & discovering new bands, labels, zines, etc. I probably have done over 500 hundred trades in the past, at least, probably more though.

4. YOU SEND SOME OF THE ODDEST FREEBIES ALONG WITH YOUR TRADES, WHY IS THIS? HAHA
I almost always throw in freebies with my trades, orders from the labels & regular mail too. I get a lot of stuff from all over the place, so the stuff I get that I don't want or that I have multiple copies of I toss in my mail. I always grab stuff from places I go on vacation, then I toss the stuff in my packages when they go out. The underground is a fun place & sometimes a little too serious or evil, so I try to do my part in making it a little more fun & also so people would remember me & I would stand out a little. This was mostly done in the beginning when I was starting out & trying to get my name in peoples heads!!!

5. WHEN WAS BEOWOLF PRODUCTIONS BORN AND PLEASE TELL US WHAT BEOWOLF
PRODUCTIONS IS ALL ABOUT.
This will propably be a long one. I used to go to local shows all the time in the late 80's & early 90's. I became friends with a lot of bands & started hanging out with them & such. I would start helping sell their stuff at shows. Then some of the bands they played with i would write & get their demos. I told a few bands from other states I could try & sell their stuff at the local shows in my area. Once I started doing this I contacted more & more bands. In the early 90's I was helping manage some of the local bands in my area with my friend Scott Black, so we started Black Beowolf Management. Then we started helping bands from out of state get shows in our area too & started selling more stuff at the shows. We decided to start a small distro too. Once Scott didn't really want to do any of this anymore I dropped the Black off the name & went with Beowolf Distro & management. I stopped managing bands (cause they broke up, etc) & started other stuff. Once I had the Distro going strong I started making compilations of the bands on my label. This is when I changed the name to Beowolf Productions. In 1994 I also started my band FAMILY OF FREAKS & released all our stuff through my label. When the band broke up in 1997 is when I started doing my magazine "Satan's Candy Basket" named after a song i wrote in my band. The name later changed to Treats From The Underground & was print until 2001 when I went to a full on webzine. That is when I took the distro online as well. Things have been going good ever since!!! (Told you it was a long one)

6. WHY DID YOU STOP RELEASING COMPILATION TAPES ON YOUR LABEL?
I stopped doing the tapes, because it became a lot of work & money. At the time i stopped, my wife & I were looking to buy a house, so I needed to save money where ever I could. I may start doing it again, but this time on CD.

7. I RECENTALLY SCORED ISSUES #1-2 OF YOUR OLD PRINTED ZINE "SATANS CANDY
BASKET" FROM KEITH (ETERNAL DARKNESS) AND I MUST SAY WHAT A FINE ZINE IT
WAS. WHY IS SATAN'S CANDY BASKET R.I.P.? HOW MANY ISSUES DID YOU END UP
MAKING?
That's cool you were able to find some copies of my zine floating around still in the underground! I have been sold out of them for a very long time now. Thanx for the compliments on the zine. It was my first crack at doinga zine & I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Well, I released 6 print issues all together, 4 were under the name Satan's Candy Basket" & 2 were under the name Treats From The Underground! I changed the name of the zine because I was tired of explaining the name to people & even though the magazine is a mostly metal zine, I did want to cover all styles of extreme music. Because of the word "Satan" in the title, a lot of labels, distros, bands & such wouldn't even talk to me. It was getting frustrating & taking me for ever to try & get enough info to fill an issue. It was taking too long for me to get an issue out. Treats From The Underground was my second choice for a name, so i changed it to that. I went full on to a webzine in 2001. After the 9/11 attacks here in the United States I was laid off from my job & couldn't afford to do the zine. I didn't want to stop doing it so I started a website for my label & decided to divide it with my magazine. It has been doing very well online.

8. DO YOU FIND THE U/G LACKS PRINTED FANZINES IN 2006?
Yes, Yes, Yes! I would love to see many more print zines out there, like back when I got into the underground! It's just easier & cheaper for people to do the webzine thing. I have fallen into this same path, but I love my webzine. I love the fact that i can update it everyday & just keep adding to it all the time & more people can find me, instead of me always having to find them. The internet has flooded the underground & drowned a lot of the print zines, but some of them are still staying a float.

9. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A METALHEAD FOR?
It's been a long time. Since the late 70's early 80's maybe. I remember listening to my older sisters Van Halen, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, AC/DC stuff, then in the 80's I got into Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot & stuff like that. My cousin Scott turned me onto the Metallica "Kill 'Em All" album & then I would search out bands like Anthrax, Testament, Forbidden, Megadeth & Exodus. In the late 80's (when i was skateboarding) I was being exposed to a lot of Punk & Hardcore (which I'm also into) from other skaters. I was the only Metalhead Skater in my area. Then I met another new kid in the area who exposed me to Death Metal music like Carcas, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation, Suffocation & Obituary. From there I just went nuts & searched out more & more band which eventually led me into the underground in 1990. The rest I guess would be underground history!!! I am in my early 30's, so the majority of my life I have been a Metalhead

10. HOW DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER THE UNDERGROUND? HOW HAS IT CHANGED SINCE THEN?
Well as metion in some of the above answers. Going to local shows & talking to other bands from out of state that were on the bill. I would right them, buy their stuff & would get all these flyers in the letters. I would just keep writing to every new band I got a flyer for. From there it exploded & I think i have become a part of the Metal underground history now! The scene has changed a lot since when I first started back in 1990. People were more supportive of each other back then. You would see more bands helping each other out & responding to your letters & doing more trading all the time. Now a lot of the underground bands of then have broken up & there is a flood of newer bands. This style of music (Death/Black/Grind/Hardcore) is getting much more exposure & respect then before. There are more festivals, videos, labels, pro magazines & of course the internet exposing these styles. There was more of a bond to underground bands back then. Now a lot of bands are looking to get signed & make a lot of money, which is understandable, but it seems too easy for this process to happen now! No body really has to work as hard or really build up their talent. The corporate would is slowly devouring the underground scene & they are looking for the next big thing!!!

11. IS THERE MANY SHOWS IN YOUR AREA AND IF SO, DO YOU ATTEND THEM? ANY GOOD UNDERGROUND BANDS IN YOUR AREA BOTH PAST AND PRESENT?
There aren't that many great shows in my area. In this area you get a lot of cover bands. They play most of the stuff on the radio or MTV. Those are the bands that make money in this area. I have been working my full time job on second shift for a good 7 or so years, so i don't get to go to any shows anymore. I used to go to tons when i was in my band & working 1st shift. There were a lot of good bands from my area like Abolish, Insatanity, Morbid Entree, Dross, Flesh Circus, Deathcore, Orcus, Polterchrist, Final Prayer, Pummel, Strength, & of course Family Of Freaks, but most of them are dead & buried. I don't really know a lot of bands from my area now. I know of Circle Of Fear, Big Green Limosine & Divination.

12. WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER DOING ANOTHER PRINTED ZINE OR DO YOU FIND THAT YOUR WEBZINE IS GOOD ENOUGH?
I would love to do another printed zine again. It just cost so much money to get printed & then it cost a lot to mail it out too. I have done 99% of everything I have done in the underground myself, so it's a lot for one guy to do, along with working a full time job, owning a house, having a wife, pets & everything else.

13. DO YOU AGREE THAT THERE IS TOO MANY WEBZINES OUT THERE THAT AREN'T UP TP DATE AND LACK WHAT PRINTED ZINES HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO OFFER, UP TO DATE INFORMATION?
Yes, I hate when webzines don't update that often. I try to update my site every day, even if it's a little something here & there. I try to stay updated as much as I can. Something some where on my site has been update everyday

14. NAME YOUR TOP 10 UNDERGROUND DISTROS/LABELS.
A lot of labels I liked are becoming bigger now, so I don't know if they would still beconsidered underground like Nuclear Blast, Relapse, Earache & Victory Records. I do like Unmatched Brutality, Fullmoon, Brute Productions, Trustkill, Morbid & United Gutteral too.

15. IS GWAR STILL YOUR FAVOURITE BAND AND HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEEN THEM LIVE? WHAT OTHER BANDS DO YOU REALLY ENJOY AFTER ALL THIS TIME?
I hear so much music now that i can't believe I haven't heard it all yet, but I would have to say GWAR is still my favorite band. I used to have GWAR on my license plate for my car. I used to see them all the time live, but I haven't seen them live for their last two albums, because of working second shift. I have probably seen them 20-25 times live before & I interviewed them twice too. I like a lot of bands out there. My second favorite band is Insane Clown Posse, which may surprise a lot of people in the Metal scene. I listen to all kinds of music so i have a variety I like. Some bands I have been listening to a lot lately are Dimmu Borgir, Fear Factory, Motorhead, White Zombie, Anthrax, Children Of Bodom, Cradle Of Filth, Nile, System Of A Down, Twiztid & Horrorpops.

16. DO YOU AGREE THAT TAPES ARE TOO HEAVY FOR WIMPS?
Yeah, A lot of people have shuned away from tapes, which sucks, cause I had a lot of good stuff on cassette, that I can't find on CD. With all this MP3 & IPod stuff, it looks like CDs may go the same path as cassettes some day!

17. DO YOU THINK THAT PEOPLE THAT SHIT ON ME FOR USING A GEOCITIES FREE
WEBSITE ARE LAME? IS THERE REALLY A NEED FOR A .COM URL IN THE UNDERGROUND?
Yeah, that's pretty lame for people shitting on you for using a free site. I started out that way too. I only upgraded because I had so much stuff to add to my website that i ran out of space. If I didn't have all the stuff I do on my site I would still be usiong a free site. It shouldn't matter how you support the underground, just the fact that you are supporting it is the important thing!!!

18. WHAT'S YOUR VIEW ON SATANISM?
I'm not into Satanism, but I'm not against it either. I'm not into any religion at all. I do what I feel is best for me & what works for me to get me through everyday live. If that's what your into & it works for you, fine, just don't force me to have your views & we will get along very well.

19. NAME YOUR TOP 10 HORROR MOVIES OF ALL TIME AND WHAT DOES THE FUTURE FOR HORROR LOOK LIKE?
My favorite movie of all time is the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, but that's not considered a horror film, even though one of the best Horror directors (Peter Jackson) did it. My horror films would be Evil Dead Trilogy, Dead Alive (Peter Jackson), Hellraiser series, Saw 1&2, Friday The 13th series, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1&2 & remake, Dawn Of The Dead (original & Remake), Shaun Of The Dead (which is more of a comedy, but a great film), Resident Evil & Ravenous. There are some really good Horror movies recently, but as always there are some really bad ones as well. Horror movies are like Comedies, they are really or either really bad. HOSTEL was a decent horror film as well as SAW.

20. PLEASE TELL US ALL THE INFORMATION WE NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH BEOWOLF PRODUCTIONS AND ANY FINAL WORDS?
I first want to thank you Keegan for this interview. I wish you the best for the future of you zine. Thanx to anyone & everyone who has help support Bewolf Productions & Treats From The Underground in anyway. SUPPORT THE UNDERGROUND!!!

BEOWOLF PRODUCTIONS & TREATS FROM THE UNDERGROUND!
P.O. BOX 731
PHOENIXVILLE, PA. 19460 USA
BEOWOLFCO@AOL.COM
WWW.BEOWOLFPRODUCTIONS.COM