Brett Deadly 
Thanks for taking some time to be interviewed for Trap Metal Arsenal can you please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us briefly what you do?
Thank you for interviewing me! I really enjoy what you’re doing. I go by Riff Grimez, the producer formerly known as Brian Spencer and I’m a music producer, guitarist, and engineer. I make music in many genres and styles including Indie/Goth, Trap, Metal, Punk, Boom-Bap, Pop, and Grunge… But I’m probably most known for my Trapmetal instrumentals.
Were you in bands before your journey as a producer started? Who gets bragging rights for helping you get started in the beginning?
I was in a technical death metal/core band from 2002-2009 called Aborted Existence. We were out of Camden, Delaware, my hometown. The other guitarist in the band, Adam Haddick, may he rest in peace- taught me how to really play guitar. He was 6 years older than me and could shred like crazy. I had never seen anyone play guitar like that in real life. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably still be trying to impress people by playing Master of Puppets.
We’ll shout out and rest in peace to Adam! What go you into Trap Metal?
I was making beats like that before there even was a name for that type of music. Metal wasn’t like it is now with where you have people like Misha from Periphery, Tosin from AAL and Fronz from Atilla doing extremely well for themselves. I remember getting older and talking with my musical heroes at the time backstage at shows and some of them still had day jobs. I thought fuck that! So I moved to LA to be an engineer. The lack of creativity eventually got to me and I started making beats. I was making Waka Flocka, Drake, Juicy J, and Wiz Khalifa type beats and nobody was buying them so I started making beats I thought would sound cool. I thought it would be dope to mix Pantera or Slipknot style riffs with 808 mafia style trap drums so that’s exactly what I did. I started posting videos of me playing guitar along to my beats and people started showing interest in them. When I did the song with Lil Gnar and Zillakami I didn’t Even know who Zilla was at the time.
I make a lot of really high caliber shred/trap/deathcore stuff with Plague and Brutei. Stuff that most artists wouldn’t even know what to do with because it’s not just a simple beat. It’s like a metal with trap drums and breakdowns. I can show you an example. Usually the simple beats get picked but I’d love for some like scarlxrd to lace one of these -what we call hybrid metal beats.
Hard! Same here. I started making Trap Metal back when Big Chocolate from Disfiguring The Goddess and Mitch Lucker from Suicide Silence started that project Commissioner. But like you said we didn’t have a name for it back then. Haha your like the perfect person to interview for this magazine. Real Trap Metal. What can we expect from you the rest of this year? Any projects in the works?
I remember the big chocolate stuff lmao. What we can expect.. Working with Breezy Supreme. Im going back to working with Scarlxrd, I can’t say much but just know it’s going to be intense. I’m working with Sid Wilson from Slipknot a lot. He just opened a studio in Hollywood and I’m going to be producing artists and bands out of there and kind of running the day to day stuff. That’s still really surreal. We’ve been friends for like 4 years now but i look down at my slipknot tattoo on my arm and think how proud my 15 year old self would be. I’m doing more stuff with Fate Destroyed, Sinizter, Zombiez – a dope group from Germany u should check out. I’m currently working with Psyclon Nine, In Somni, Bipolar Sunshine… Prayers just hit me up to write some tracks. As far as producers, always working with Plague and Brutei. Been making a lot of traxks with Morgothbeatz who is an absolute monster. Kenny Graves, me and Netuh just locked in. There’s also some bros that I’m working with that I’m making tons of beats with who are super talented like @mrks.flp @shadyhelios @prod_kyoki @killwoozi @satanicbeats and so many more.
Fuuuuck yeaaaaa! It’s about to be a lit ass year! What’s your local music scene like in LA. Pros, cons, where do you see room for improvement?
LA has such a dope scene. Coming from Delaware, we had to drive to Philly, Baltimore, or Jersey to go to shows and even those places have mediocre scenes comparatively. I remember being so happy because I went to see Fleshgod Apocalypse and my buddy James’ group, Black Crown Initiate at one of the bigger venues here in LA and it was packed to the brim like goddamn Adele was performing or something. There’s so much support for underground music here, I love it. The only negative thing about the scene here is that there’s so many shows you can’t make them all!
If you could go on tour with anyone in the world and you get to choose any 10 bands or artists to be on the bill with you, who would you choose?
Oh man. Ok these are some of my favorite bands but I would create a tour that mixes things up. 10 bands is a lot so straight up heavy the whole time would be exhausting. Korn, Scarlxrd, Tyler the Creator, Meshuggah, Tool, City Morgue, Kendrick, Slipknot, Deftones, Ghostemane. Lorna Shore on select dates lol.
Shiiiiiiiiit. We got the same taste bro. That’s trippy. I’m surprised you didn’t say Decapitated and Earl Swearshirt too! What are your plans for the future? Where do you see your self in 10 years. And do you have any sort of end game in mind?
I actually just saw earl at a restaurant and took a pic with him lol Decapitated I haven’t listened to them in Awhile but they always crushed. I learned that manifesting is a real thing and you have to word it exactly how u want it and not leave shit out. First and foremost I pray for good health for everyone close to me. Without that there is no future for you. But with that being said I’d like to start putting out projects with artists. EPs executive produced by me for artists that I think are dope. I’m looking for that artist that’s a combination of Will Ramos but can Sing like The Weeknd so I can go full Thanos mode on these instrumentals and put music out the world has never heard before. I’m going to continue to work with the homies I listed before and just stay creative. I see myself racking up placements with major label and independent artists becoming financially free through music and being able to give my kids the best life possible and so their mother doesn’t have to work if she chooses not to. Oh and I have to do a song with Jonathan Head or Munky from Korn before I leave this earth.
Do you think Trap Metal is still a sub-genre? Idk how I feel about it. It has its own sub-genres with all the people who bite off it now. So it got me thinking if that would make it a major genre now. Or at least seems like that’s where we are headed. Just curious what your thoughts are on that?
Honestly , like I said before I was 150% that metal dude at one point in my life and I found each person has a different idea of what a genre is. Like what is hip hop? Shit like soul sonic force and grandmaster flash?? Or is it the pharcyde and J Dilla? Or is it or Drake? Is Sex Pistols punk? Cuz they sound nothing like the bouncing souls or anti flag. As far as sub genres it gets too messy so I just fuckin call it music Is brutal technical death metal or technical brutal death metal broooo
I guess the only thing that remains true is art is simply subjective and no-matter what you do, someone is going to have a different opinion on shit. What advice do you have for the youth who are entering the scene? What advice to you have for young aspiring artists breaking into the industry?
This is gonna suck to hear but do something new and fresh. We all wanna make beats or songs like the music we love but it’s already been done. You can always draw inspiration from there, I will gladly point out songs I’ve made where you can compare riffs side to from bands I love or beats I’ve heard that I wish I made. As long as you make it your own. I didn’t think I had anything new to bring to the table and when I let my guard down and started making beats for myself, that’s when shit started to pop off. Also, figure out if you want this to be a hobby or a career. It’s fine to just wanna make beats occasionally then go do other things, just like with basketball you can play at the park with the homies or you can dedicate your being to it and go in the NBA. But if you want it to be a career just know that it will be like trying to get into the NBA in terms of dedication and time invested. I’m not speaking for the lucky ones, I’m speaking for the rest of us who don’t have an uncle who knows somebody that knows somebody. Lastly, there are tons of resources online to help you move smart. You don’t know what you don’t know so sometimes you don’t know what to ask but start YouTubing things like how do I set up my publishing, how do I get placements, how do I collect money that’s owed to me etc etc.
What’s the story behind your new name? Why the name change? I like it!
At first I couldn’t think of a name so I thought, fuck it, Kanye West just goes by his name so I can too. But Kanye is a unique name. My name sounds so vanilla. My beat tag really made my name, if anything. But it was so weird seeing my name in lists or online next to others it’d be like “PLAGUE, BRUTEI, SHOKI, MORGOTHBEATZ…. Brian Spencer. Like even Ryder Johnson sounds cool like he should be a character in Top Gun or a motorcycle gunslinger. The only TV show I’ve ever been 100% dedicated to (besides some Marvel and Star Wars ones) is The Walking Dead and I wanted to use something from that as a moniker. I couldn’t flip Daryl’s name and I didn’t want DICKS phonetically in my name i.e. ‘Dixon’ I tried to flip Ricks name, and when I started think of guitar-related names I came up with Riff Grimez. Rick is a character who is good at heart and does the right thing but surviving and making sure his family is safe cause him to do violent and unimaginable things when faced with no other option. Plus he’s just a badass. I thought about it for 6 months like do I really want to be tied to another franchise as my identity but there are many people who dont know who he is and the name can stand by itself. I look at it like- there are more people who have never heard of me, then there are people who have heard of me, so they will just know me as Riff Grimez.
One last question. As we wrap this up, is there anything else you want our readers to know?! And thank you for your time!
I’d like the readers to know that if it’s one thing you learn from me or anyone in your life… pick the thing that makes you happiest, and the thing you would do for free without being paid because you love it so much, as long as it’s legal…Then do everything in your power to learn how to make money from that. There’s no excuses today. You can become a millionaire off of video games. If you’re into some niche weird hobby, there are thousands more just like you waiting to spend money on eBay. People are making a living off selling coffee mugs, Pez dispensers… anything. Find what you love and dedicate your life to it, or else you’ll be stuck wishing you did.
