ROX-TV gets an exclusive interview with “The Hatchet Man Project” booming out of the Murder Mitten. They are on a mission, and this is their story…

Welcome to the ROX-TV website. Before we get started, can you let the readers know where your repping tonight?

We are The Hatchet Man Project, we hail from southeast Michigan.

Before we get into the weeds, can you talk a little bit about how the group came together? What was the driving force that led you guys to become “The Hatchet Man Project”?

We are a six piece band, each member is driven by a jokers card. Together we make up the first deck. I am lead vocals, you can call me Ringmaster. Like each member in the band, my jokers card has a special meaning to me. For now, our individual names are represented by our card.

From the promo picture on your Facebook account, it looks like you have six members, if that is correct, can you introduce the members and let the readers know what each member’s function in the group is?

We feel it is important to keep our identity hidden, we wanted to do this from the ground up without using any connections that we previously had within the music industry. All members of the group have been in the Detroit music scene for many years. We want our music to get us selected, not who we are, who we know and shows we have been apart of in the past. 

So the Hatchet Man Project is on a mission and that is to play the GOTJ 22 in Ohio. I suppose its safe to say that you are all Juggalos? Hardcore Juggalos at that, by the sound of the music…Would that be an accurate statement? Why the GOTJ 22? Why now?

We are old school ICP fans! I guess you could call us Metalhead Juggalos. All the members started listening to ICP in the early 90’s and haven’t stopped. We love to play loud and all up in your face and so does ICP so to me, it’s the perfect mix. 

The Hatchet Man Project start on Sunday March 6th 2022. On that day the rhythm Guitar player (Riddle Box) picked up his guitar and out of the blue just started playing Dead Body Man. When he called me on the phone he told me about his random playing of the song, I then told him earlier that day I saw a post about open submissions taking place for this years Gathering and we felt like it was some sort of sign that we form an ICP tribute band and do whatever it takes to play the Gathering. As the day progressed we felt more like this was our destiny to move forward with it. I say Tribute band because we only play ICP songs.

The following weekend (Saturday March 12th) the first four of six members got together and picked our first two songs. First song was a given, Dead Body Man. The second was Fuck The World, for years that song has reminded me of our drummer (Mr. Jeckel). It’s very difficult to choose a song when there are so many great ones to choose from. Both songs sort of fell in our lap. We plan to involve our Juggalo family and eventually let them choose what songs we play. Why not be a fan driven band right? After all, the music is for them! 

Can you explain the timeline so the readers understand how things rapidly progressed? Also which songs you decided to lead off with?

 We needed to complete the line-up. We made a few calls and on March 15th the band was complete with the addition of back-up vocals (Carnival of Carnage), lead guitar (Great Milenko) and bass guitar (The Wraith). Three days after the complete line-up was in place (Friday March 18th) we had our first full band practice. We went over the songs for about 3 hours. The following day (Saturday March 19th) we filmed Dead Body Man and Fuck The World.  What you see in the videos was our second take for each song. It really is incredible how fast everything has come together.

Keep in mind that the submission deadline for the Gathering was March 31st. We thought it was important to film live videos so everyone could hear what we sound like live. No prerecorded music or editing in a studio. Just us in a basement jamming out and having a blast!  

What happens going forward?

Now that we have emailed our submission, we are currently working on our next two songs. If you listen to the music playing in the opening credits to our Origins video on YouTube, you can hear a sneak peak of Piggy Pie. We started out with one goal, to play the Gathering. It was all or nothing, but in less than three weeks we have received so much love from Juggalos that we feel that no matter what, we need to keep this going.

Do you have a message for Psychopathic Records? If Violent J and Shaggy were in the room, what would you say?

If we are chosen to perform at this years Gathering, we will work our ass off to make sure we give our fellow Juggalos one hell of a set! We want the chance to get on stage and show our love and respect for Psychopathic and everything they have done for us fans through the years. As far as we know, there has never been an ICP tribute band and even if there had been in the past, we want to be the official tribute band. Let us play the Gathering and we will show you why we deserve that title. 

Well Juggalos and Juggalettes, you heard what The Hatchet Man Project had to say. Now all we can do is wait and see if they succeed in their mission to play at the Gathering of the Juggalos 22 in Ohio. Check out the music and watch the videos…and decide for yourselves. I think these guys are onto something and their fresh take on some ICP classics are dope. That’s the beauty of it all I suppose, taking an idea and giving it a fresh twist. I dig it. That’s about all the time we have tonight, so I leave you with their music. Take care and I will catch you on the flipside.

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

shepard2909@hotmail.com