Thursday, January 23, 2014

Interview with Tony Longworth.



Full Name:
Anthony Gerard Longworth

Do you have a nickname or what do your friends call you?
Some people call me Big T or T-bone or they tend to abbreviate my name to Tone, Toe or T.
Tone Loc… Tone Def… I’m sure the list goes on.
I will answer to all those names, they’re cool… and I’ve been called a lot worse

Birthplace:
Clatterbridge, Wirral, located somewhere in the northwest of England
I love how most places in England sound like they’re hobbit settlements.
I was born in the Shire of Clatterbridge – yes you’re totally right – mind you, didn’t you know we’re all hobbits in England – check out my big hairy feet.
I’ve often been accused of having Hobbit feet… and monkey toes.

Current hometown:
Bromborough, Wirral, also located somewhere in the northwest of England
See preceding.
Just chilling in my hobbit hole, smoking some serious pipe-weed

Favorite city and why?
New York - I've only visited once but I just loved that city, the buildings, the people, everything about it - I'm a movie geek so you see it in so many movies, I guess I loved that city even before I visited it.
You know the ironic thing? I used to live on Long Island, the island that Brooklyn and Queens are on, although I lived somewhere in the middle of the island. It was almost impossible to get anyone I knew on the island to go into Manhattan with me. We all lived a $7.50 train ride for one of the coolest places in the world and Long Island was such a bedroom community that I never made it into the city. The only times I ever made it into the city was the two or three times I worked New York Comic Con. Also I have way too much fear and social anxiety to just go on my own. It’s a missed opportunity I’ll always regret.
Wow, that is crazy – I understand why you wouldn’t go on your own but if I lived close by I definitely would have gone with you.
That’s what I’m saying! Where’s your sense of adventure people? Even if we got mugged at least there’d be an interesting story to tell afterwards!
In fact I’d be wishing I did get mugged just for the good story.
You and me both, sir!
As long as the mugging doesn’t get all stabby or end with a bang the story would definitely be worth the contents of my wallet.  I’m broke, so I’d definitely get the better end of the mugging.
Yes, the stabby / bangy endings are not fun.  I heard Emo Philips interviewed on a podcast the other day, he was talking about being mugged when he lived in London. Some guy came up to him with a knife demanding money and Emo managed to talk him out of it.  We’re just so damned polite in this country, even when we’re mugging someone.
Canadians are much the same way, at least they used to be when I used to go up there every summer to vend at FanExpo.  Their homeless people were all, “Pardon me, sir, how are you today?  Could I trouble you for some spare change if you have any to spare?  Sorry.  And I’m sorry for being sorry.   Sorry.”

Birthday / Age:
4th February 1970 - put it in your diary, send me presents.
Facebook will remind me.
Don’t spend too much, or too little, on my present – thanks.
I’ll probably send you what I send everyone that I’m imaginary friends with.
http://youtu.be/xHj3uTOZyoo
Ha ha.  That’s funny… I class that as a good birthday present, anything that makes me laugh is a good present

How would you describe yourself physically?
Tall, dark & handsome - oh me? Then short, pale & ugly - or maybe something in between might be more accurate.

How would someone else describe you physically?
Good sense of humour…or fat.
I think if you’re going to be fat, you have to have a good sense of humor. But it could be worse. You could be a beautiful fit person with a terrible personality.

The first thing people notice about you is…
I'm rather outspoken.
As am I! We’re going to get along just fine.
Hmm, I feel an argument approaching, ha ha.
Fuck you! There’s no way we’re going to get into an argument! Ah, damn it…
Fight, fight, fight !!!

Hair Color / Eye Color / Race?
Brown hair, blue/green eyes, Caucasian.

Sexual orientation?
I like chicks, ok?
Okay by me.
Good, not that I have a problem with anyone with a different sexual orientation – the world is big enough for us all.

Religion, if any?
None...whatsoever.

Are you superstitious at all? Any phobias?
I try not to walk under ladders simply from a health & safety point of view.  I like the number 13.  I don't mind black cats walking in front of me, but again, there's a slight health & safety risk there too.
No real phobias apart from the fact that I hate the feel of foam / foam rubber on my skin... that just freaks me out!!!

Do you smoke/drink?   If so, what?   Any bad habits?
Don't smoke, rarely drink... when I drink it's usually a nice whiskey or a bottle of Desperado, or maybe a Margherita... but that hardly happens... a coffee or cranberry juice suits me better.

Current occupation / Dream job:
Currently a music composer. Dream job has to be stunt man / porn star...that's not 2 different jobs, that's 1 combined job… just imagine it.
So, allow me to clarify… Would you do dangerous porn?
And what do you imagine “dangerous porn” as?
The mind boggles...maybe it could be porn done in a speeding car, heading towards a cliff?
I would totally watch that. It would beat watching two people fucking on a couch.
I see a money making opportunity here, there’s nothing else like this on the market right?  We should go into partnership & open the first ever “dangerous porn” studio.
As long as you don’t mind being the money man because I’m a starving artist.  I’ll put together a proposal…
Go for it!  *rubbing hands together*

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
Spend time with my family, travel, watch movies, play video games.
What video games do you like to play?
Call of Duty, Dead Island, Skyrim and Mafia II are some of the games I’m currently playing – haven’t got GTA V yet but xmas is coming & I’ve been a good boy.

What is your zombie outbreak survival plan?
Hide.

Weapon of choice:
Chainsaw of course.
Of course.

Do you have any special skills?
Armed chainsaw combat level 3.
How many levels are there?
10 levels in all, 10 being the best, I’m only fairly new at this.
Well, stick with it and I’m sure you’ll be rewarded for your efforts.

Did you go to college and, if so, what for?
Yes, for computer & electronic technology.

If you went to college, did you manage to pay off your student loans?
Amazingly yes... I was at a local college so was still living with parents.

Any pets?   If so, what are they and what are their names?
No.

What is your favorite animal?
Probably dog, they're cool... or shark.
So if they made a shark/dog it would be your ideal pet?
Can you imagine that? It would be wonderful. Reminds of that YouTube video with the cat & dog & the Roomba. Is it the dog dressed as a shark or the cat? I can’t remember but either a shark/dog or shark/cat would be an ideal pet for me.
I can totally imagine that. But then it makes my brain hurt, so I stop imagining it.
Now I’m imagining it, ouch ouch ouch!!!

Speaking of pets, any pet peeves?
Many such as people driving while on the phone, bullies, too much rain in the UK, bad grammar, people who swear too much, manufactured pop music, smoking... I could go on.
I like to smoke while swearing too much.   Maybe we shouldn’t hang out after all?
That’s just 2 things out of a long, long list… I think we’ll be fine.

Favorite / Least favorite Food:
Favourite has got to be chocolate. Least favourite is definitely sprouts - they're just evil.

What is your favorite quotation / motto / saying?
Frank Zappa's quote "Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."

What is the best thing that ever happened to you?
The birth of my beautiful daughter.

What is the worst thing that ever happened to you?
There's been bad things that have happened to me but I tend to just get on with things & focus on the positive.

Ever had your heart broken? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?
Oh yes, no real interesting story behind it, just your normal "getting dumped" tale.

Ever broken someone’s heart? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?
Maybe, I never stayed round long enough to find out if they were truly heartbroken.

What is the best thing you’ve ever done?
Making the discovery that I can write music.
How did you discover you could write music?
I dabbled with writing music before I formed my first band Morbid Symphony – me and a friend used to mess around with sounds and music on the old Atari computers, we had no real music software so we’d create these funky little tunes in BASIC.

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
Not writing music at an earlier age or taking interest in music at school.

If you could kill one person, consequence free, who would it be and why?
So many candidates... how about the guy who thought it was a good idea to create the bible... I know it was created / written / rewritten by more than one guy, but let me just go back & kill the guy with the initial idea to write that stuff down... I think that would make the world a better place, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but better than it is now.
I definitely see where you’re going with that, and I agree, sort of. But if it wasn’t The Bible, it would be some other book by some other God. Some people just have this need in their life to absolve responsibility for their own life and prefer a passive role in their existence. I labored under that for years as a young adult, and finally came around to being an anti-theist. The problem I had as a child, was that all of the adults that were raising me had religious delusions, so it was hard shrugging off all of the religious programming and fear and guilt I had laid on me as a child. That’s why I’m really intolerant of religiosity. People like to say it’s harmless to let people believe what they want to believe, but the problem is that it isn’t harmless and it does affect my life. Not only on a personal level, but on a cultural level. It’s tough having to live in a society where people are actually arguing against objective scientific research on the grounds that an imaginary man lives in the sky and there are things this invisible sky father doesn’t like. Prayer in schools. Abortion. Gay marriage. There’s so much bullshit and static that would be eliminated if there was a true separation of church & state. But instead, there are people in authority that are of the same opinion, or actually pay attention to, and therefore validate the opinions of those deluded by religion. The conversation about the religious opinion should go somewhat like this in a society with a true separation of church & state.
Lawmaker: “Homosexuals want to get married. Should we let them?”
Christian: “No! Because God isn’t against gay marriage.”
Lawmaker: “Okay, but since we live in a secular society where the church and state are separate, as it was intended to be by the original creators of our society, that doesn’t matter. Any other objections?”
Christian: “But…!”
Lawmaker: “Alright! Gays can get married. Next question?”
I totally agree with you, we’re singing from the same hymn sheet on this one if you’d excuse the pun. True, if we got rid of the Christian bible, there would just be another holy book, and another, etc. etc. But I’m wondering what impact going back in time and removing just the bible would make. Thinking about it, things could be better or things could be much worse. Problem is, if we were to get rid of all religious books, people would still make up some imaginary friend and insist on fighting over it. I think there’s no way of getting over that but it would fascinate me to see what the eradication of the bible would make on the world.

What do you do?
I write music for movies & I play in 2 different bands, Flesh-Resonance & machine.
Where can people go to check out music by your bands?
My music can be heard here www.soundcloud.com/tonylongworth and Flesh-Resonance’s here www.soundcloud.com/fleshresonance - machine is quite a new band so we haven’t got music online yet but you can stay up to date with what we’re doing at www.facebook.com/thisharshworld

How did you get started doing what you do?
I started my music journey when I formed the death metal band Morbid Symphony in the early 90s. The real reason I formed a band was because at the age of 14 I witnessed my older cousin in a band getting a lot of interest from the opposite sex. Raging hormones pushed me into the music industry, nothing else, but it turned out that I really enjoyed writing and playing music so it was a win-win situation.
I’ve never had any luck taking advantage of the whole “being in a band” thing to have better luck with women. I’ve been in a few moderately successful bands and played a lot of shows, but only maybe once or twice had a girl come up to me at the end of a show to get to know me better. For the most parts I just met a bunch of dudes. That would have probably been pretty cool if I was gay and they were gay. But I’m not.
I did get picked up at a book signing I did, so maybe I should do more of those.

Yeah, I had a similar problem – my first band was a death metal band so it was a mostly male audience that came to watch us but there were females there too who dug what we did – I would have had much more success if I was gay though, totally agree with you. Book signing groupies, I like it.
It was kind of weird. I got invited to do an in-store book signing at a Barnes & Noble and, like, 500 people showed up. I went up to the presentation area fifteen minutes early and I was just standing there, waiting to go on, so I started chatting with the people in the front row. Then I look up and there are 500 people out there. It was literally standing room only. The store had this little karaoke machine p.a. thing so I just turned the mic on and did my best “Evening with Kevin Smith” routine. At the end of my presentation people started lining up to get me to sign my book and some of them wanted to take pictures with me. It was a real mind fuck. A lot of them wanted to tell me about their paranormal experiences, but I had them stand off to the side and talk at me so I could keep the line moving, and I could tell that their feelings were hurt a little, but there was a line of people waiting to get their book signed and take pictures with me and I didn’t want to waste their time either. If they wanted to hang out till I was done signing, I would have been pleased to give them my undivided attention, but I guess they kind of thought I was a dick because they lost interest and wandered off after a while. After I was done with everything, a girl in the front row I was talking to gave me her card. It was a card for her pet-walking service and at first I thought, “Why did she give me her card? I don’t have any pets?” and then I was like, “Oh! I get it!”. I can be a bit dense sometimes. But I called her up and we dated for a couple months but it didn’t work out and now I have her blocked on Facebook because every six months or so she’d try to hit me up and spark things up again and I’m definitely not interested.
Wow, that is an amazing story – I guess she wanted to “walk your pet”. Sorry I had to say that. 500 people??  That is daunting & real exciting all at the same time.  I want to know all about your book now.
I used to play in bands so being in front of a crowd doesn’t really scare me.  I’m pretty good at public speaking and have even tried doing stand-up comedy a couple times.  In general, I like being in front of a crowd with a mic in my hands.
You really don’t want to know about my first book.  It was work-for-hire and relatively uninspired, despite the fact that I tried to imbue it with a certain amount of my personal style.  But when all is said and done, it was just like doing the longest college term paper ever, except about paranormal events in Long Island, New York.  I did all of my research on the internet because this was a couple years before I lived there.
I’m going to put together a PDF version because the publishing company is backwards about putting out PDF versions of their titles.  I had a friend looking for paranormal themed books, and I suggested that he check mine out.   He clarified that despite the fact that he had received recommendations for my book, not noticing that I was the author, that he wanted something in PDF/e-book format.  I called the publisher asking them if they were planning on putting out their regional paranormal series as an e-book/Kindle version and if they were blocked due to man hours, I wouldn’t mind taking on the task on a work-for-hire basis.  They told me to draft up a proposal and I did.  But that was sent on December 4th and it’s now the 24th and I’m an impatient person so I’m probably going to put together a Kindle version myself and put it out myself.  I’m pretty sure the original contract I signed in 2008 doesn’t cover e-books as the publisher wasn’t that forward-thinking and if they have a problem with it, then they can pay me for the e-book adaptation and hopefully I can use that as proof-of-concept to get them to hire me to adapt the rest of their titles into e-book versions.  As my old boss Joe Sena used to say, “A cease and desist letter is an invitation to have a conversation.”  And it’s always easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.
When I get the PDF version done I’ll try to remember to send you a copy.
Yes, please send me a copy!  I’m interested to read your book.  And your old boss is totally right about the cease and desist letter.  I released an album last year which contained music inspired by old video games.  I was worried about calling each song after the video game it was inspired by but I had a conversation with filmmaker Jason Scott who’s an expert on these kind of things and he said exactly the same.  So I went for it.  Have got a cease and desist yet, and I’m totally not worried about getting one now.

What is your advice to other people that want to get started doing what you do?
Just do it, start today, don't wait, don't think about it, just start creating music - by physically doing it is the only way to learn your art - plus you'll have the great chat up line, "Hi, I'm in a band."
That whole “I’m in a band thing never really worked that well for me.  I’ve had a lot more luck with writing so I think I’ll stick with that.   Just do more of it and hopefully better.  Hopefully I’ll be neck deep in pussy pretty soon.  Actually, that kind of sounds gross.  Forget I said that.
“Help! Help! I’m neck deep in pussy!”  Yeah that sounds pretty gross.

What are some of the projects you’ve worked on/finished in the past? Give us a little history if you will.
The first movie I worked on was a horror anthology called The Van, that started it all for me. I worked on a lot of horror movies including Evil Ever After, The Bloodstained Bride and The Vampires of Zanzibar. There were comedy movies along the way (Dead In Love), dramas (Morning Funeral) and more recently a lot of cool documentaries (Get Lamp, Going Cardboard, Suicide Poet). I've worked on most genres of movies, and yes, before you ask, that includes porn. My band wrote the music for New York Wildcats, I'm proud of a little sleaze.
A little sleaze never hurt no one.
So true!

What projects are you working on now?
There's a lot, working on material for both my bands as well as scoring a couple of cool short movies & working on my next solo release.
Let me know when your next solo release is out and we’ll update the blog with a link to where people can go to buy it.
Thanks, will do!

What are you watching?
I've got a whole stack of movies to get through including The Conjuring, VHS2, Trick ‘r Treat, The Shining & Grave Encounters 2. I've also just started the latest series of American Horror Story. It's October as I type this so I'm getting in the mood for Halloween.

What are you listening to?
Just been listening to Rodriguez after watching the Searching for Sugar Man documentary.  Also the Bad Religion xmas album, which was released the other day - I know, very random, but it's great.

What are you reading?
The Disneylands That Never Were by Shaun Finnie - a fascinating book about all the Disney rides & attractions that never saw light of day.

Favorite author / book?
Clive Barker, Weaveworld - some of it is based in my part of the world.

Favorite band / song?
Frank Zappa, Uncle Remus - that song (& album it’s taken from) got me into the wonderful world of FZ.

Least favorite band / song?
Way too many to name, but let me think which one bugs me the most...oh yes, maybe the Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I think I've heard it way too many times now so I just can't listen to it any more. If it comes on the radio, I've got to switch it off.
I used to LOVE Rocky Horror. I even used to go to midnight screenings with squirt guns and newspapers. The whole nine yards, although I never got dressed up as a character. These days the whole thing really annoys me. I know that as a celebration of the weird and abnormal it provides a lot of comfort for people living on the outskirts of society, but I only have so much of an appetite for sexual ambivalence and weirdness. I totally support people doing whatever they want with their lives, but Rocky Horror and Hocus Pocus just aren’t my idea of horror / Halloween movies.
I’m totally fascinated with the whole Rocky Horror following and people going to the shows dressed up – not that I’d ever do that myself, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable with that, both mentally and physically.  And now I come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve watched the whole movie right through – maybe I need to see it in its entirety, it might change my mind about that song.
Probably not.  It’s like one of those novelty songs that they used to play on the Doctor Demento show.  Good for a chuckle, but if you were trapped in an elevator with any of them on a loop you’d want to cut your own dick off and whittle it down to a skewer to gouge your ears out.
I have a lovely image of that in my head now… thanks.
I aim to please.

Desert Island Music / Movies / Books: You know the deal. Five of each.
Music:

Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (')
Dead Can Dance – Within The Realm of a Dying Sun
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Beastie Boys – To The 5 Boroughs
Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction
Can I add Pink Floyds ‘Wish You Were Here’ to the list?
Movies:
The Shining
Dumb & Dumber
The Killer (John Woo)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Amelie
Books:
Weaveworld - Clive Barker
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
God, No! - Penn Jillette
The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Black Melt - Indy McDaniel

If you could do anything other than what you do now, what would you do?
Filmmaker.

Who would you want to meet that you haven’t met? You get three choices:
Alive. Dead. Fictional.

Alive: Penn & Teller
Dead: Frank Zappa
Fictional: Clark Griswold
“The Moose says you’re closed… I say you’re open!”
Ha ha, just love that movie – I’ve been to the Six Flags theme park were those scenes were shot. The theme park scene from True Romance was also shot there too – I’m a geek!!
Love myself some True Romance. I even made a custom montage of stills for my Facebook cover picture a while back.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1374162_10151823526962906_813892812_n.jpg
Awesome, great scene…”I’d fuck Elvis too”. I have a real soft spot for that movie, it’s just so damned cool!
“You’re so cool!”

What’s the best and worst job you’ve ever had?
Best job is what I'm doing right now.
Worst job? I've had some sucky office jobs in the past.

Are there any questions that I didn’t ask that you wished I had asked that you would like to answer now?
Not that I can think of, there were a lot of good questions there.
Well, thank you, and thank you for doing a thorough job with the first pass.
Thanks, it’s fun

Anyone you recommend I interview that you can put me in touch with?
Brad Bruce, filmmaker.
Jason Armstrong, filmmaker
Jonathan Morken, runs AF Cinema
Writers Neil Davies & Indy McDaniel
Musician Keith Hill
Excellent! Make the introductions and I’ll handle the follow-through. Thanks!
Will do!

Got any questions for me?
Oh god, let me have a think…
…I guess this means I haven’t got any more questions for you – oh wait, the book you published, I want to hear all about that.
Duly noted!  I’ll put you on the review / free PDF list for all of my future publishing endeavors as long as you promise to click over to Amazon and give them five-star reviews.
It’s a deal!

Thanks for letting me subject you to being interviewed!

Pitch parade:
Give me all of your links for things you want to promote.   All of them.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/darkcomposer
Twitter: www.twitter.com/tonylongworth
Website: www.tonylongworth.com
Etc.: www.soundcloud.com/tonylongworth
www.youtube.com/zappa666
plus.google.com/+tonylongworth

About the Interviewee:
I'm an independent film composer based in the UK. I've been doing the whole composing thing for well over 10 years now. My music career started in the early 90s when I formed the band Morbid Symphony. After that band split I formed Flesh-Resonance which led on to composing music for film. I do the composing thing a little differently and that's why I like to call my music dark/alternative. I recently formed another band called machine (yes, lowers case 'm'). We're busy working on the debut album.


About the Interviewer:
Scott Lefebvre can write about whatever you want him to write about.
Mostly because when he was grounded for his outlandish behavior as a hyperactive school child, the only place he was allowed to go was the public library.
His literary tastes were forged by the works of Helen Hoke, Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft.
He is the author of Spooky Creepy Long Island, and a contributing author to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Anthology of the Living Dead, Fracas: A Collection of Short Friction, The Call of Lovecraft, and Cashiers du Cinemart.
He is currently working on ten novel-length book projects which will be released in 2014.
He also publishes themed collections of interviews from his interview blog You Are Entitled To My Opinion.
His reviews have been published by a variety of in print and online media including Scars Magazine, Icons of Fright, Fatally Yours and Screams of Terror, and he has appeared in Fangoria, Rue Morgue and HorrorHound Magazine.
He is the Assistant Program Director for The Arkham Film Society and produces electronic music under the names Master Control and LOVECRAFTWORK.
He is currently working on a novel-length expansion of a short-story titled, "The End Of The World Is Nigh", a crowd-funded, crowd-sourced, post-apocalyptic, zombie epidemic project.
Check out the blog for the book here: theendoftheworldisnighbook.blogspot.com
Check out the Facebook Fan Page for the project here: www.facebook.com/TheEndOfTheWorldIsNighBook
Check his author profile at: www.amazon.com/Scott-Lefebvre/e/B001TQ2W9G
Follow him at GoodReads here:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/1617246.Scott_Lefebvre
Check out his publishing imprint Burnt Offerings Books here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burnt-Offerings-Books/1408858196016246
And here: http://burntofferingsbooks.blogspot.com/
Check out his electronic music here: soundcloud.com/master_control
And here: master-control.bandcamp.com
Check out his videos at: www.youtube.com/user/doctornapoleon
Check out his IMDB profile here: www.imdb.com/name/nm3678959
Follow his Twitter here: twitter.com/TheLefebvre or @TheLefebvre
Follow his Tumblr here: thelefebvre.tumblr.com
Check out his Etsy here: www.etsy.com/shop/ScottLefebvreArt
Join the group for The Arkham Film Society here:
www.facebook.com/groups/arkhamscreenings
Stalk his Facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheLefebvre
E-mail him at: Scott_Lefebvre@hotmail.com


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