It is my absolute pleasure to bring Walking Bombs back to the forefront of this little blog project. You may recall our premiere of “Mountain Giantess” a few weeks ago, and today Blessings Bestrewn Pt. 1 is officially out there for us all to enjoy. This release serves as the first in a two-part album sequence, and it is a gloriously complex noise ride. You see, while Morgan Y. Evans is the mastermind behind this thing, the reality is that this is a collaboration in the truest of forms. I won’t include the full credit list here, but take a look when you have a second and you’ll what I mean. It’s impressive. An absolute party. Now, to help celebrate this album’s release, I’m happy to share Morgan’s responses to our Profile questions. There is plenty to unpack in the music and in the words below, so take the leap, hit play, and let’s familiarize ourselves with this truly unique project together.

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How and when did you first get into playing music, or metal more specifically, and how did your band get its start? Any pushback from family/those close to you?

I first got into playing in a grunge band Melancholy from Woodstock, NY in 1993! Have never stopped since. My old drummer Pat Howland (RIP) invited me into the band, which was called Primal Chaos (hahaha) at the time. We covered both Black Sabbath and The Spin Doctors and had no bassist until Jesse Cunningham (now of Shadow Witch) joined and made us way cooler with crazy Primus bass skills. We played lots of early community center shows that I booked and promoted with bands like eventual Metal Blade artists Three and Shabutie (pre-Coheed), alt rock band Oblivion Grin and a cow punk band called Pitchfork Militia. My sister Cambria did door at some of the early shows and then got erased by everyone so our “signed” friends could use her name and I was supposed to just go along with that and it turned into a big resentment bubble that burst much later because of other compounding factors.

Anyway, before all that Melancholy met a band Mearth from New Paltz, NY who were incredible. They did a tour I think with Agnostic Front and played shows with like Meatjack sometimes and this band Painmask who my bouncer friend Ray sang for in the early days. I think hearing Mearth and like learning about bands like Jesus Lizard or Steel Pole Bathtub made a bunch of us want to get heavier or weirder/cooler. Before that I got into metal because I liked “Aint No Nice Guy” by Lemmy and Ozzy, lmao. Then I became a huge Nirvana obsessive.

My parents were supportive. My dad didn’t like the noisier stuff. He was a graphic designer and jazz drummer and so always impressed upon me stuff like Elvin Jones and Coltrane or Dexter Gordon. The Modern Jazz Quartet. He thought Black Album Metallica sucked when I was really into it, lmao. I think my dad is why I eventually deeply loved Candiria so much and became so genre-fluid myself, because they had a little of everything. Also, my parents had really encouraged me to play trombone. The only pushback was when I became a huge heroin junkie between the ages of fifteen and twenty one.

Walking Bombs was started many years later as a solo project after my fourth or fifth band Divest broke up. We were working with Doc from Bad Brains on a record and the same producers as Coheed but instead they had kind of eventually scooped our old guitarist Dave Parker for touring keyboards and the record “Ghost Town Reckoning” (with Bodie from Kayo Dot on drums) didn’t come out til many years later and only on Bandcamp. I was mad at them about my sister’s name and also about drug stuff they were doing and a beef about a girl their old bassist and I both mutually liked. Also Coheed’s old drummer Nate was my best friend and I felt like they tried to fuck him out of royalties on the first album, so I was mad about that too. Dave Parker meanwhile was quite fairly mad at me for being a raging hypocrite drunk while telling everyone else to be sober.

I almost killed us once trying to crash the van into a toll booth grabbing the wheel from the driver and then didn’t remember like five minutes later cuz of Long Island Ice Teas. I have a lot of shame about that. Anyway, I love Parker and he has been through a lot of fundamental sorrow. I wish him the best and miss our old school bond of seven years of being in DIVEST together. But at the time he told everyone on message boards I was a Walking Bomb and so I was eventually like ,”I will make that my band name and put out so much fucking music AND get sober.” The last part I didn’t pull of until 2020, but I am sober now finally.

How would you describe your band and what you play to someone who is completely in the dark?

A queer friendly mix of hard rock, punk metal, industrial or synth or acoustic songwriting or a bunch of random collabs with friends. I treat it like cooking like Pigface or The Hirs Collective and just throw people together and try to make cool shit. I am type 1 diabetic and non binary and very poor and so don’t play live much as I don’t have a live band or much time. I wish I did. I miss it a lot. But black metal bands like Darkthrone or Lo Fi eras of bands like Sebadoh or Guided By Voices just inspired me to try to release and document lots of material myself (or with labels when they are interested). Since I stopped being in traditional bands I have released way more music than I ever did before, funny that. I have been fortunate to collab with members of bands like Vowws, Gonemage, Spirit Adrift, Shining (the non fash one), Tad, All Out War, Kylesa, USX and many more. But it is literally all still mostly slept on. As are all my older bands. It’s kind of funny at this point. But music is like a diary for me, so fuck people if they don’t “get it.” Kiss it or miss it, baby.

Is there anything about your latest album or about your band that no one will find in any interview or review that you care to divulge?

One song on my double album “Blessings Bestrewn” has a brief uncredited sample of me jamming with someone super cool who was in some of the most iconic cult films and major industry films of all time. The lyrics of the same song kind of tie into one of their characters and the idea of survival of self in a difficult industry.

Almost got the singer of The Soup Dragons to collab on a cover of one of their hits to benefit a SoCal LGBTQ association but couldn’t get the music done in time. I just have vocal acapella tracks for it , so if anyone wants to record the music for it HMU and maybe I can bug Sean Dickson about it again- haha.

Any funny stories from playing shows / tours / festivals, etc.?

Hmm. I opened for Castle once and Worshipper another time. Those shows were small but both ruled. A number of years ago I did guest “walking bombs” style noise trombone with NYC’s Gridfailure at the excellent Tubby’s in Kingston, NY. We were semi hammered and Vampire Weekend were playing across the street at UPAC. Some of their fans popped into the “cool hipster bar” nearby and we terrified the living shit out of them with walls of chaos.

What do you see as some of the great things happening in and around the metal scene (yours or just in general) and what are some of the worst things happening right now?

I live in SoCal now. Tonight [Ed. note: a month ago] I am going to see Chris Spencer of Unsane’s newer band Human Impact play. I can now say I saw Chris play in three different decades and am still inspired and nourished by his playing and aesthetics. Stuff like that keeps me so inspired when we are faced with so much banal bullshit and punk energy repurposed into capitalist bullshit “content”. I also love all the queer bands and antifa black metal or metalcore or cybergrind bands! Shout out to Black Metal Rainbows and Thotcrime and Seed and Djamila from the recently broken up Ithaca!

Most folks have passions for a cause or causes that are close to them. What, if any, are some of the most important issues (social/political/humorous/etc.) for you / your band and how do you insert those issues into your music?

I have been going to a lot of anti Trump and also Pro Palestine protests with Globelamp/Elizabeth Le Fay Gomez Dapena this year. Today I met ex Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe at a kind of boomery Blue Dem protest. It was mostly old people and they were all asking Chris “how do we inspire young people.” I said that as a leftist I know a lot of young folx are discouraged by people lionizing Aipac bought performative frauds like Cory Booker who then vote to confirm Kushner for Trump with zero real fight. Chris actually agreed with me that Schumer and Booker should face primary challenges and that politics isn’t supposed to be like sports. No one is above critique. End Citizens United!

This year I made so many songs on Garage Band on my phone as a challenge, Lil Wayne mixtape style. Many were anti capitalist or queer rights or explicitly political. I made Iron Maiden’s “Fear Of The Dark” into “Queer of the Dark” about being closeted, for example.

My fave song I made this year is called “Fuck The Powers That Be”. Lis from Filth Is Eternal screamed into the phone like HR prison phone style on “Sacred Love” and I made the yell into a powerful chorus.

Do you have day jobs or hobbies you want to share?

When I am not doing music journalism or cat care with Globelamp (we have a lot of rescue kitties that were in a kill shelter in Downey, CA), I am an avid reader. Currently loving “Art Sex Music” by Cosey Fanni Tutti and “Beyond Capitalist Realism” by Samuel Alexander. My day job I work in customer service and it frankly mostly sucks. My diabetes numbers are always horrible from stress and I get sick often. We are owned by a horrible major corporation and so I try to redirect some of the dehumanizing elements into protecting the dignity of some of the older co worker women or young impressionable labor being reduced to metrics.

What advice do you have for music critics and outlets out there? How can we all better serve the genre in the eyes of a hard-working musician?

Bands have to build back regionalism and treat music like a war on corporate exploitation. Bands help one another like mutual aid and make benefit shows or book tours together. Take it back, Fugazi style. Music outlets are mostly reposting press releases and shoving too much content out the door to see what sticks. Or they just push whatever shitty band of pedos major labels masquerading as indies are pushing with ad dollars. Everyone has attention deficit type syndrome now that has created brainrot. I used to love long form Metal Maniacs interviews with bands at the grocery store in print mags when I was a kid. Now you barely know anything about any band unless you really get invested in it.

Any specific long term goal(s) in mind?

Stay alive. Maybe work on growing tits again more, but estrogen kind of makes me way too tired with my diabetes struggles. Hopefully get some recognition some day but either way I will keep making art and loving life and some of you. Also trying to help Globelamp finish her next album, which has a song with Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind fame on it. She has major surgery though first and so we have to take it all a step at a time financially.

When you’re not obsessing over your own material, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently?

Lately I have been excited for the new Sally Dige. Also got on a big Til Tuesday kick cuz of their recent super rad reunion show at Cruel World after 30+ years. Aimee Mann is a genius. This morning I was blasting “Surgical Steel” by Carcass to try and drown out loud evangelical music Lizzie’s mom likes to blast, haha. Also love Lana Lubany’s recent EP called “Yafa”. Absolutely crucial stuff, especially the song “Nazareth”.

What is the near future outlook for you or your band? Any specific events on the horizon that the masses should be aware of?

My double album “Blessings Bestrewn” drops in June and features collabs with members of Book Of Wyrms, Chrome Waves, Geezer, Globelamp, Cycle Sluts From Hell, Stormland and many more.

Summarize your band in one word.

Fluid.

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Many thanks to Morgan for the time!

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Blessings Bestrewn Part 1 is out now. For more information on Walking Bombs, head over to Instagram or Facebook.