Discussing, "The Great Plague of Halloween Town" Album
With my newest album out, I decided that I wanted to give a bit of an explainer, as well as capture an interview for the eventual behind the scenes/making of I'm working on. Full (and silly) disclosure, I was alone in the room when I filmed the interview. Honestly, I wrote out the questions and answers in a document before I filmed the sham interview. Its also funny that I choose to open this blog post by revealing every silly behind the scene thing, but it just feels right... And here we are.
Your newest album is set to release sometime this year. Please, tell us a little about yourself and the album.
So, my name is Pathogen. I am born, raised, and based in Henderson, Nevada. I’ve been releasing music since 2021. I’ve released 12 projects, with the upcoming project being the 13th. I mostly just write the lyrics, not much of a producer yet. I am most at home on darker trap or boom bap beats. My love of horror, sci-fi, and general use of movies and pop culture to communicate my lyrics is probably my calling card and what makes me unique. The upcoming project is called The Great Plague of Halloween Town. It’s my fifth LP and definitely my best work so far. It’s going to have 17 tracks along with a couple of skits. As I continue to release music I think you can really hear exponential leaps in skill and ability. Always things to work on, of course, I’m nowhere near the artist I can or want to be, but yeah; Very happy with how this one is turning out.
You have a previous project, “Return To Halloween Town.” Is this related, like, a sequel?
Yes, basically this new project is a sequel to Return To Halloween Town. What I tend to focus on is horror. Whether it’s simply pop-culture, mainly movies and show, references or it’s a bit more personal; I try to function in, like, Spooky Season. It’s, like, my aesthetic is Halloween, horror, the autumn season, and stuff like that.
What can listeners expect from this one?
Listeners can expect to hear that I set out to do more narrative work. As my friend Temp Knight Harrison said to me, I more or less am in the nerd rap genre. I am consistently talking about, reviewing, or referencing movies and shows I like in my music. Now, I take myself seriously, to a point. It isn’t super silly or ironic by nature, it’s meant to be serious unless otherwise stated or presented. So, since I started writing and releasing music, I’ve been writing narratives set in fictional franchises. My first single, Contact, is about Alien. First verse is imagining a group of people encountering a Xenomorph and the second is about the heart of darkness that the franchise portrays the universe and meaning of life to have. I’ve done similar stuff on songs since then. I actually don’t know exactly when, it’s tough to nail down since this album has taken so long to put together; But I had the concept of an even more narrative based album from the beginning of this one. I’ve got an Annabelle track, Predator, and an original horror story that is told fully through several songs.
So, is this a concept album?
I think this is basically a concept album… Perhaps. Really, it’s like the first half-ish is where the interconnected narrative lives. After the first 5 or 6 tracks it’s pretty much done. Although, the penultimate track, Bloodborne, kind of, sort of ties it together. Though it isn’t narrative.
Are there any themes or messages that you had in mind while writing?
I definitely had themes in mind while writing. Or at least one. Sort of multiple. My artist name is Pathogen, which actually derived from watching the Alien prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant by the way. And I didn’t intend it, but I did start making music in the Covid era, so I think that does line up and had some sort of effect on the name. Even if subconsciously. Sorry, random, but I bring that up because I had realized that I really haven’t done a lot of word play or lyrical work with that name. So, this project has a Pathogen that I imagine as a viscous, black liquid, that moves through and infects people, places, and things. I’m using in three simultaneous ways. One is the storytelling element, “The Entity,” is the villain of that element. It’s goal is to have the universe submit to it, so it is a Pathogen of sorts, infecting the world. I also reference myself and my music as a Pathogen that’s infecting listeners and causing them to like it and become fans. Lastly, I deal with a lot of self-inflicted stress, anxiety, depression, and all that type stuff. On the tracks I’m focusing inward, I am characterizing depression or negative feelings as Pathogen, that viscous black liquid, I imagine it as something that takes over my mind when things aren’t good. Long answer, but yeah. Sort of three big things, but all kind of circling the same idea. It’s as if “Pathogen” is the word and concept or the theme, just in different ways.
Do you expect to gain more listeners with this album?
I hope so! I definitely hope to gain more listeners with this album. You can’t expect more listeners.. And catching the ear of a larger number of people, let alone the public as a whole, is damn tough. Damn tough. I do think this is my best work so far. I get more and more consistent in terms of skill and ability and this project reflects that. Plus, all the coinciding themes and the narrative stuff combined with, I think, an absolute treasure trove of beats, will definitely give any new listeners a unique experience.
You said you don’t typically produce. How do you go about selecting beats?
How I go about selecting beats... Well, nowadays it’s pretty consistently coming from a few producers. We are creatures of habit and after more variance in producers and sounds in the first couple years for me, I’ve settled mostly on a few. Lil Sweden, GOKOTEARZ, and PANDEMXNIUM, are the most common three. Rajaste definitely and Mort Shybur are a couple pretty consistent producers for me. So, yeah I found some people that have sounds and styles that I really like, so I stick with them. It’s all remote, I found them surfing YouTube for type beats and I found what I was looking for. In terms of me producing, I’ve legitimately only produced a handful of beats myself. The only one, as of speaking here now, I ever released was for my previous album, Vegas, Baby!. Song called Back To The Multi-Verse. I had my engineer at the time, Artesano, take the unmixed stems and mixed it along with changing arrangements a bit as he saw fit, so it was like 85-90% me. I have one on this album that was almost the same process, except I had Lil Sweden go over it and he changed it, for the better, a bit more. So maybe like 70% me, I don’t know. That’s the track, War of The Worlds.
What is your favorite track on the album and why?
My favorite track on the album… Bloodborne. That’s a tough question because I really love what I did on every track on this one. Plagued By Possession is absolutely badass, Cinema is such a cool composition to me… I could go on about every track, but yeah, Bloodborne. It’s the first track I wrote for the project. This whole process took a lot longer than I’m used to. I had time constraints, depressive waves that messed a lot of things up, and a lot of writers block or just issues writing. Typically I can rip though half a song, like a verse, chorus, and bridge or something, in under an hour. It usually flows out of me like, nothing, it’s really cool. This project, I really could only get that done in spurts. So, Bloodborne persisting in my head and heart through that whole time is cool. I intended it to be track 1, but I put the narrative first and closed strong with this and then another short track or two after. It’s what I was talking about with me being a Pathogen of sorts and infecting the world with music and that gains listeners and fans. That plus one of the few songs where I do that “rapping about rapping thing,” where I’m talking a little shit and trying to lay down bars. I mean what I do in general is lay down bars, but I’m usually not putting them down with a message that I’m a badass and my music is good. That type of self-hype thing that a lot of rappers focus a lot of artistry on. So, little different for me. It was produced by Loxxani and I just came across the beat by suggestion on YouTube. I bought it immediately. I did a cringe thing in the email where I was like, “This is going to be an anthem for me.” It’s true though and it turned out so well, I love the energy! I can’t wait to perform it and just see if people gravitate to the sound and energy at all. It is funny that when I told the producer its going to be an anthem, he probably didn’t give a shit, like, he was just waiting for the payment to go through. Not meant in a derogative manner, just you know.
You mentioned that this wasn’t as quick or as clean of a process when putting this album together. What’s your process like?
My process starts with sort of random songs concepts or ideas. It’s usually a title that naturally comes up. Like reading, watching, or listening to stuff online and an idea is sparked. I keep a notes on my phone, PC, and google drive and write down stuff when it comes to me. It’s usually easy because I’m starting with a movie or show, so it’s quite easy to think of one I like and then an idea for a song can naturally flow. So song or title idea comes first technically, even if it’s not in a set, certain time period. I’m always listening to the new beats the producers that I like put out. I always have at least a couple saved for later, sometimes even already purchased. I also sometimes look up certain type beats and try to filter out different upload times (either recent or, like, ancient) and find some slightly different sounds or producers in the rotation of saved for later. As I go, pick beats for titles or concepts I have written down. So, it’s pretty organic. It gets a bit less organic once I have a couple of song ideas that I pretty concretely picked a beat for. Then, I can’t help but start putting together an album idea. Those usually aren’t pre-planned until that moment. I figure out that, which going forward it’s gonna probably keep, mostly, being Halloween Town; And then I spend some time trying to come up with or pick more song ideas and beats. Sometimes that's only a couple, but other times I really sort of surprise myself and I’m sitting there with maybe 9 song ideas and say 4 beats. So, once I get the itch that it’s time to put an album together, I have to do some purposeful searching for beats, song, and matching them.
So, that’s for putting together an album. On a song level, well, I already said before how the ideas usually come about. When I have a beat selected, I sit down to write. I use Adobe Audition, so I create the folders for the album in my file explorer and then I load up a session for the song I’m going to start on. I prefer the visual of looking at the waveform while I’m recording, plus that’s how I decide the structure. I don’t bother with the BPM or anything, I just listen for the switches and put markers at those times in audition to visually break it up for myself. From there, it varies. I almost always just start writing a verse. I just raw dog it, really, and make noises or use common words or stims to try and find my flow. Then, once it clicks, that usually just kind of triggers the lyrics, like I almost always get a couple lines or bars out like nothing. They slot in really well in the pocket, flow is good, vocabulary is on display, already working on a couple internal rhyme schemes along with the outer… Then I keep doing what I can until I hit a block and have to step away. I’d say 90-something-percent of the time when I hear the beat, some part of it speaks to me, so I have an idea of where I’m going with something to start. Maybe the melody was particularly catchy and I started humming what I might do for the chorus. In that case, I’d start writing with that. Or I thought the rhythm on the verse was infections and dope, so I start doing like the jazz scat thing and just bippity-boppity-boo type stuff when I first heard the beat. So, when I sit down to write, I already have the idea.
When I’m writing lyrics… Well, first, I want to get better at more dense lyricism. Definitely using more English language and poetic tools. But, I was going to say that I really focus a lot on rhyme schemes. I by default tend to have like two, three or four schemes going in and out through one bar. So, for example, 4 bars end on an “ap” sound. I’ll also have a different sound, so on the second beat of the bar. So I’m rhyming on the second beat and the fourth bar with different, perhaps similar, sounds. Then as the verse progresses, I’ll evolve it where I use non-exact rhymes to shift to another sound and then I’m alternating where the different sounds are hitting. Not sure if I’m explaining this too well, but to sum it up again: I focus a lot on rhyme schemes. In terms of putting together the words, the only way I know how to rap is counting syllables. When I was… Maybe 13 or 14 years old… I read “How To Rap 2,” because Tech N9ne was in it. I actually still have the book, but the only thing I remember is counting syllables. It’s the only way I know how to do it. Kind of funny. But yeah I raw dog the first line or bar based on vibes, then I count those syllables. I make sure it works and I don’t have to restructure and if so, I use the syllables to write the rest of it. I usually have an easy breezy time for the first couple of bars, but it gets harder as I go. The first couple lines will just flow so easily and since I count syllables, it can box me in because not all syllables are made equal. So, it takes a bit more work to fit in what I want to say and how I want to say it in as smooth of a way as the first couple lines I write.
What makes this album different than your previous discography?
What makes this album different than my previous work is the engineering. I worked with Cody at Asteroid M Records. I sort of knew him in a periphery sort of sense for a while. Met him through Twist Off!, through The Dollheads basically. We got a lot closer when all the parties mentioned above went on tour in the UK in 2025. He had already heard some of my music and seen me perform, so I think he likes what I have going on and it opened the door for us to work together. He grew up with hip hop, that’s where his music journey started. Now he is more in the punk/hardcore side of things typically, but he’s a chameleon with a hell of a lot of experience in, like, literally any avenue of music and life. Great guy! Our schedules really don’t line up unfortunately, so it was a very anemic (not sure I’m using that word right, but here we are) sort of thing and not as smooth as I think I wished it was. Still, mixing sessions were basically us getting to vibe. Keep hanging, talking, just getting closer. It’s cool on the human level, but it also added to his understanding of who Pathogen is and what this batch of songs I’m presenting are. He, I’d say, is elevating my sound and vibe into a slightly more grimy, tactile, analog sort of way. It’s another edge to my sound and vibe and I think it fits as I’m definitely trying to do more dark, horror stuff than ever before.
What drives you to make music?
What drives me to make music is the creative process. I typically struggle a lot with drive. Purpose. Feeling excitement, engagement, and forward energy doing things… No matter what you’re doing, 50% of the fun is the journey. I don’t always feel that unfortunately with most things. Music has it’s moments where it doesn’t unfortunately. However, there is an excitement and energy unlike anything else when a concept comes together. When I find just the right flow on a verse, when I’m laying down adlibs and they send my energy through the roof, or when I can’t get my own chorus out of my head… I literally just read it in a message from Larry Coleman 2020, shout out, the best part of the process is creating something that otherwise couldn’t or wouldn’t have been created. Music has been the most consistent time and effort I’ve put towards a task, hobby, job, whatever. No matter what I do, no matter how long I get stuck in writer's block, or how busy I get (because I’m always stretching myself too thin), or no matter how much I say I’m going to take a break… I cannot stop coming up with ideas for songs and albums. I don’t even enjoy the visual side of creating for music as much, and video and filmmaking takes up a lot of my time, mind, and heart. I find it interesting and refreshing that music continues to surprise me in all kinds of ways, but especially how much I enjoy making it.
Speaking of visuals, what are plans for ancillary material when it comes to this album?
I have big plans in terms of supporting visuals for The Great Plague of Halloween Town. There is going to be up to 4 micro-short films, at least 3 or 4 music videos, and multiple live sessions of songs. The music videos are not huge in scope in terms of execution, storytelling, or ground breaking stuff. With my music I really tend to not push limits on the visuals. If you want to see elevated visuals, see the work Kaesen does for Twist Off!, that’s incredible stuff. Any who, as I speak I am editing videos for End of The World and A Haunting. Next to be filmed will be Bloodborne. I intended that as being the lead single, but we’ll see on timeline for that in terms of timing. I really am running up against a self-imposed wall for a spooky season release for every aspect of the album, but yeah. We’ll see what is in the pipeline after that for sure, but The Entity is probably next. I chose End of The World, A Haunting, and probably The Entity due to the fact that they are all part of the narrative in the first half of the album. Ironically, they’re all technically in, like, different universes, but related.
For the short films, they are also related to the narrative. I already completed “Plagued By Possession” which shares the same name and narrative as the first track on the album. That’s real short, like, literally under two minutes without the credits. Currently in very slow, drawn out production is Predator: Plague Hunter. A fan film in theory.. I guess by definition. Still, it’s part of my narrative here and tailored to what’s going on here. Same deal as Plagued, same title as a song on the album and same narrative. It’s a sequel to Plagued. Both just coming out on YouTube, Plagued will be out within a couple weeks of the album. Predator is probably closer to Christmas or early next year. I just really haven’t made time for it. I also don’t have the money for the ideal set for one scene, so that pushes the timeline. Whether it’s have more money or it’s figure out a less expensive way to do it. Also, we’re going to film in Mt. Charleston, so I pushed that scene back to be completed once it it cools down a bit. I am also doing the costuming and the Halloween costume bodysuit is a bit of a ways away from being screen ready. I’ve completed draft 1 of a script for Annabelle: Faith Prevails. If this one does get into production, it wouldn’t be until sometime next year or the year after. I set it in the 60s with older characters, it has a stunt fall over a stair rail… I didn’t really write something that I could easily work into my cacophony of to do items. Also, didn’t write something budget friendly to the zero dollars I’m staring at. Maybe one day. I have soft plans for another micro-short, but we’re going to have to see. I have to fend off the want to write a follow up album (Editors note: Writing the next album is already in process) so I can focus on all this stuff. There’s also some additional items. Things. Stuff. I have been working in the audio drama space as editor, designer, and voice actor for quite a long time now. It’s something I really like, so at some point next year I’ll release an audio drama based on or related to one of the tracks on the album. It’ll probably be based on an existing property, but I’m working on perhaps an original one. Not something I’ve done enough of: Completely original stories that aren’t based off of existing IP. I also have soft plans to adapt one or more of the short films to another medium, which I’ll keep secret for now, but fun stuff for me! If I ever give myself time to just do one thing, we’ll have a lot of items to enjoy with this one.
Do you have any closing thoughts?
Thank you to everyone that has ever given me or my music the time of day. This album has been put together during one of the best times of my life, but I’ve had my fair share of internal struggles throughout that same period. This is the longest it’s ever taken me to get to an album put together and perhaps a close second in terms of messiest, most close to the deadline finishes. There is no true deadline because this is independent, but I desperately want it to be released in full in mid-late September to really take up all of the main Halloween space of things. As I speak, we’re about three weeks from September 1st and only half the album is mixed. None mastered. There’s marketing stuff about having a single out first that I wanted to do, but ran out of time… I am finding it impossible to NOT STRESS about this shit. I shouldn’t let it take over me, but I do. So, perhaps rolling with the punches is what you have to continue to learn as you grow. Self-therapizing aside, I really hope this expression of myself resonates with people out there. I know some of my friends, family, and fellow artists honestly like it and do give me the time of day and I’m forever grateful for that. I do hope that this evolution of my artistry can expand the listener base and really start taking hold outside of the inner circles. I mean.. It’s Pathogen and I’m Bloodborne.
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