METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Chelsea. So glad to be catching up with you. Massive shout out to Steve over at Brutal Female Fronted Metal. Might not have heard about your band Accursed Creator if it wasn’t for his site. So, thank you for taking the time to speak with us at Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it. How are you doing? How is it going in Pensacola, Florida?
CHELSEA STRICKLAND: I'm hanging in there. As for Pensacola... it is humid and sticky, and Florida.
MPAP: You won’t need a baseball catcher’s mask to read this interview, but to listen to Accursed Creator’s music, you might need to don one on. If you can imagine 100 Louisville Slugger baseball bats pummeling you in the face all at once, that’s what Accursed Creator’s music is like; brutal, ferocious, and point-blank merciless. Accursed Creator is something well deserved for your eardrums! That’s my introduction to your band. What else would you like to add to that?
CHELSEA: I think you did us a solid proper, buddy. Thank you!
MPAP: As soon as I saw Accursed Creator mentioned on BFFM, instantly I had to go YouTube and see if there were any Accursed Creator music videos I could watch right away. I picked the "Scourge Of Tested Flesh" song and clicked on the play button icon, which should have been a baseball bat swinging icon instead, to be honest. "Scourge Of Tested Flesh" is a blistering track that’s just under 3 minutes long, and like just mentioned, listening to it is like 100 Louisville sluggers hitting you all at the same time. How could anyone possibly handle any more after this?
CHELSEA: They probably won't lol, they'll be like, "wtf is this," and turn it off.
MPAP: Let’s talk more about "Scourge Of Tested Flesh." You made a statement about the song, 'The song itself is about the obsessive internal conflict of not existing. The unknown... what’s to come after... faces of death. It’s a daily thought for me. I don’t often express it. But it’s something I think about to an unhealthy extent. It literally feels like it beats me into oblivion. So, I have to fight to come back to earth so to speak. Music is something that has balanced my hyper focus. It’s given me somewhere to put that energy.' It sounds like you were in a very dark place in your mind. Has music or being in Accursed Creator saved your life?
CHELSEA: I feel like it has. If I didn't have music and my band mates, I think I'd feel pretty lost. Or maybe I'd be the opposite and focus so very hard on other outlets. I feel like everyone who suffers from anxiety, depression, ptsd, etc. I feel like we all need an outlet in some form, or we get lost.
MPAP: Also, about the video for "Scourge Of Tested Flesh," you said, 'The idea of playing a show and no one really caring started out as a funny idea, but kind of turned into a statement on people's obsession with technology and its effects on how they react with reality.' Do you think that our obsession with technology; i.e., cellphones, will soon be our demise?
CHELSEA: I see it as something that could have both negative and positive outcomes. It could be something that saves humanity. But it could just as easily engulf us and be used for destruction. We're seeing a lot of conflict in our generation. And even before our time.
MPAP: Going back to what you said earlier about music is something that balanced your hyper focus. It gave you somewhere to put that energy. How would you say you’ve grown as a vocalist since the 2016 "All Will Suffer" single to 2018s "Scourge Of Tested Flesh" single?
CHELSEA: Definitely braver, hahah. I'm not afraid to try new things vocally. It takes time to get to that point for a lot of people. That's how you find your sound. Break that barrier and nothing will stop you. Fear will only slow you down.
MPAP: You just recently opened for The Convalescence. Tell us about your live shows. What can we expect?
CHELSEA: Were kind of a no-frills sort of band. We keep it raw most of the time. Hopefully blistering intensity and probably something along the lines of… our drummer Nate flopping his nipples out.
MPAP: It says on the bands Facebook page, that The Convalescence show will be your last show of this year. Hopefully, this means you are working on a full-length release. Is there anything you can announce here?
CHELSEA: It's a 6 song EP. Finally have a title for it. We've chosen Hubris. Date of release should be sometime mid next year. Hopefully sooner! Scheduling and waiting for equipment to come in etc. has been not necessarily a hindrance, but just a part of the process. We're working as hard as we're able to make it happen.
MPAP: Let's do a couple more questions before we bring this interview to a close. Let’s change gears and throw out a couple of non-music related questions, why don’t we? What if you could personally witness something from the past? What would you want to be able to have seen happen?
CHELSEA: The erection of the pyramids? When cars were first invented? The dark ages? There are so many epic things that I wish I could go back and experience or see at least. It's hard to choose any single thing, but what I really wish I could see is the time before construction and buildings and cars. What were our homes like beforehand? Before roads? Before convenience stores and shopping complexes. What wars were fought on our soil prior. Were the dead laid to rest beneath our feet and we not know it? What were our lands used for, etc.
MPAP: Then finally, you can select one person from history, and you can ask them any question, and they will not tell a lie. Who would you ask, and, of course, what would your question be?
CHELSEA: I'm terrible at first encounters with most, hahah. I wouldn’t know what to say even if I could pick a person. Hey... what's your favorite color. Season? How was … uh… time… things, lolol.
MPAP: You were just a part of Inked Mag's Cover Girl competition. We here at Metal Pulp And Paper were rooting for you, and think you should have won it all.
CHELSEA: It was great promotion, but toward the end, the system shut down and people hacked into the competition. Honestly, I don’t want to go further into it lol, but I'm happy I took the chance. Sometimes you have to dive in headfirst into unknown territories to find out the outcome. Even it becomes a less favorable one, I would have regretted it if I didn't try.
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Chelsea, for doing this interview. We look forward to what Accursed Creator does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans out there before we end this interview?
CHELSEA: Keep your buttholes peeled for new Accursed Creator. Our EP will have a surprise guest vocalist on the track "Forest."
Chelsea Strickland/ August 12th, 2019/ Interview #154
