Ill Gotten
We were five greasy, long haired hoodlums - local speed metal cult leaders. All we were useful for was ruling the stage and conducting violent, ill advised mosh pits. We had ugly rotten attitudes which were conveyed through our chainsaw sounding Les Pauls', drums that replicated disturbing sounds of a loud, obnoxious hellicopter and death by sandblasting vocals, spitting out hellish lyrics. We were young, angry, poor, and didn't give a F! We were, are, and always will be... Ill Will!
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
Simple. One day, me (guitar)and my buddy J, (the other guitar player), decided to start up a speed metal band. One that would really kick butt. That very same day I picked up a newspaper and found an ad that read as follows: Drummer and bassist looking for two guitarists to start up a speed metal band. Hmmm. One phone call and we were together a day later. All we needed was a singer. We knew of one but he was homeless at the time. Well, a week later we ran into him in the street, invited him to rehearsal and Ill Will was created! That easy! We were together for six years.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Ill Will has played all over California, Las Vegas, and Arizona. There were all kinds of special moments. Every show, while performing "Curse of the Doll" we threw a stitched up mouth, bloodied Ragedy Ann doll into the mosh pit, just to watch the pitters cling on to it until it was torn in to shreds.
We played on hay stacks once on the Mexican border, no one in the crowd spoke a word of English - except when we were finished... They yelled out... PLAY AGAIN! We actually played the entire show again! They couldn't speak English, but they could sure mosh with the best of 'em! And we loved them!
Your musical influences
We are speed metal or thrash metal. Extremely guitar oriented with a big mouthful of double bass drums. Our drummer's nick name is chopper because he made his kick drums sound like the propeller of a helicopter. Vocals are gritty and understandable. Musically speaking, guitars are heavy, but melodic, with lots of punchy notes and catchy phrases. Altogether our music was fast and furious and full aggression. Pure sludge! Collectively, there are many influences among the musicians in the band ranging from Zeppelin to P-Funk but when we wrote our music, it always came out thrash metal. Straight from our guts.
What equipment do you use?
Sure mics all around. Ludwig and Paiste kits. Randall bass gear. And the guitars? Matching equipment on both both sides of the stage and in studio. Black Custom Gibson Les Pauls, and Mesa Boogie stacks!
Anything else?
Ill Will has disbanded since the days we were called "ILL WILL". But - we are all still alive and dear friends and we could always get back together if the metal world ever needed us! Thank you to all of our fans!
Rossi, Jerry, Steve, Rob, Corey (Chopper)
