Los-Angeles based extreme metal band Second Shooter is a group borne out of perseverance in the face of adversity. After their previous band’s lead vocalist was convicted of murder in 2015, founding members Travis Hildreth (guitar) and James Wilinski (drums) decided to start anew. After years of trying to form a new core lineup, Second Shooter formed in 2018 after the discovery of vocalist Melanie Johnson. Melanie blends her love of extreme metal, as well as more melodic rock genres such as emo and post-hardcore, with an aggressive feminist perspective that gives her work a fresh bite.
You graduated from Brown University… tell me a bit about your studies there, and how you ended up moving to California.
I studied philosophy and computer science. I took a year off and worked as a programmer, then went back to school and dropped the comp sci major. After I graduated, I wanted to live where it’s sunny every day, so I looked for software jobs out here [in California], and ended up in Long Beach.
When did you graduate from Brown?
2014.
Do you still work as a software engineer? Where do you work right now?
Yeah, I work as a software engineer at Laserfiche in Long Beach.
What kind of products does that company focus on?
We work on products to help companies go paperless… automate and sort things. It’s not exciting. [laughs]
How did you first meet the other members of Second Shooter, and how did the band come together?
I actually looked on Craigslist for bands in the area that needed a vocalist. They had just parted ways with their old vocalist. I thought that I was auditioning just for the experience, because I had never done it before, and I thought, “There’s no chance I’ll actually get this”… but they ended up liking me and taking a chance on me. The rest of them had been playing together for a while… some of them for 10 years, some of them for six months. The rest of the band are various ages.
When you auditioned, were you immediately selected, or was there a longer process?
I actually went in three times… they were seeing a few other people in between the times I went in. The second time, they put down the track that I had written to audition with. They had given me some instrumental tracks and said, “Do something vocally with one of these”, and I had never written a song before… so the first song I wrote, I came in and screamed it and that was it.
How would you describe the sound of Second Shooter to someone who hasn’t listened before?
I would say we’re somewhere at the intersection of death metal, groove metal, and hardcore. That’s always what I’ve said, and I’ve wondered, “Could it be simplified more?”… but a blog wrote about us recently, they came across us on Bandcamp, and they wrote “death metal/groove/hardcore”… so it’s not just me who feels like I can’t summarize it in one sub-genre. [laughs]
What are some of the band’s biggest musical influences?
As far as the other band members, definitely a lot of Korn and Slipknot… so kind of the good nu-metal. A lot of Pantera. And really various sub-genres of metal, from extreme metal bands, to black metal bands… our bassist really likes doom metal. For me personally, I have listened to metal since I was a pre-teen… but my main thing is emo, post-hardcore, and hardcore… stuff in that genre. So I try to bring a little bit of that to my vocals and lyrics.
Are there any specific vocalists that really inspired you?
Julie Christmas from Battle of Mice and Made Out of Babies… she screams, sings, whines, shrieks… her vocals are just pure emotion.
What are some of the themes that you touch on in your lyrics?
One of the first songs I wrote, “1 in 6”, is a very hardcore-inspired song. It’s from the perspective of women taking on women’s issues, directed toward men… one line that I like that’s kind of funny is, “You stop me in my tracks and ask me to smile/We fucking gave you life and you took a mile”. So it’s covering a lot of issues that face women every day, and being really aggressive about it.
Is the band’s songwriting usually a pretty collaborative process?
Yeah. Generally our rhythm guitarist will come up with a riff, then our lead guitarist will write something on top of that… same with the bassist and the drummer. And then I will generally write on a song that’s been fully formed instrumentally. I’ll listen to it a couple times before I start coming up with ideas… one track I actually wrote the lyrics before I had the track.
I think we’re really good at playing off each other’s strengths in the band. That goes for everyone, but one example I always think of is… when I write a vocal part, a really intense screaming part, sometimes our lead guitarist will put a really intricate riff underneath it… he matches it to the pitch of my screams and it comes together in a really interesting way.
Everyone does their own stuff… and it’s iterative, we listen to what each other did and figure out the best way to put it all together. In some of the songs, the lyrics were partly written by other people and I kind of put my own touch on them.
When can we expect more music from Second Shooter?
We’ve been playing live a lot for the past couple months, so we haven’t been able to really get in the studio and focus on writing. We have two songs that we play live that we only have rough recordings of… and then beyond that, everyone has their own riffs and ideas floating around… some of them have laid them down at home. We’re really going to come in with a bunch of disjointed material and make it cohesive.
Do you see yourself incorporating any more of your own influences outside of metal in your future vocals?
I would love to. The songs that have been getting the best response are the most straight death metal and black metal, so I know the band wants to go a lot in that direction… and I love doing that kind of thing. But I will never stop bringing in some cleans, bringing in some higher screams… some really emotional parts. It’s definitely not the primary direction my vocals are gonna go in, but I will always want to bring that stuff in.
Is there anything else you want to mention?
In December, we came out with our first EP. It’s five songs… it’s on Spotify and all major streaming sites. We’re really excited about how it came out, especially since it was our first time working together, and I think we touched on a lot of different genres and ideas. All our influences blended together in a way that I think is pretty unique.
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