You’ve probably been asked about it plenty,
but where’s your mic stand come from?
Somerville: There’s a company called Rebel Iron
in Arab, Alabama, actually. He does our mic
stand, our stage props. Pretty much anything I
can dream up, he can build.
How strong is it? It looks like it could take a
hit!
S: It’s all iron. You could probably take somebody out with it. [laughs]
It’s always good to have the option. You guys
are going home tomorrow, back to Memphis.
S: Well, we’re based in Memphis but we live all
over the place, I live in St. Louis, he [lead guiBenjamin Nunnally
tarist Cody Criswell] lives in Nashville, so we’re
Memphis hard rock band Artifas doesn’t go half- kind of spread out all over the place.
way on anything.
How did the band come together, then? You
Though the Thursday show at the Iron Horse
Cafe in Birmingham didn’t pull much of a crowd live hours apart.
— Northeast Alabama has to be dragged to
shows, it seems — Artifas opened with a set that S: Me and Cody are the only original members.
rumbled the building, drawing songs like “Crawl” The other guitar player [Mikey Miller] has been
and “Broken Wings” from the band’s EP, “Enemy with us about 6 months and Anthony [Mattox],
the bass player and Jared [Wainscott] the drumInside, Vol. 1.”
mer, they’ve only been with us for this tour. We
Singer Scottie Somerville made the most of
vertical space, climbing onto cabinets and pealing picked them up four days before the tour! We
got them on Monday and left on Friday. But
screams to shame mainstream contemporaries,
they fit in like they’ve always been there.
and lead guitarist Cody Criswell ran solos and
poured soul from his guitar. Bassist Anthony
How did you grab a band so quickly, did you
Mattox, rhythm guitarist Michael Miller and
drummer Jared Wainscott held court over a mon- already know them?
strous low end, heavy as hell but never turning
S: Me and Cody started this band about three
to a churning mud. Iron Horse doesn’t keep the
house hot, but every member of the band left the years ago in a little town called Martin, Tennessee, it’s kind of in between Memphis and
stage covered in sweat.
Maybe it wasn’t a big crowd, but that only bol- Nashville, and we just kept it going. After the
last tour, a couple of guys quit, be it for a baby
sters the point: Artifas doesn’t go halfway.
We got a chance to talk to the band about their or girlfriend — you know how it goes. Our
drummer and bass player quit two weeks before
origins, surprise ties to hip-hop and finding a
this tour started, so we went into full freak out
drummer just a week before heading out on the
mode for about a day. Anthony we’ve known for
road.