Mushroomhead’s St1tch Enjoys Getting Showered With Debris

Mushroomhead turntablist St1tch insists that it's a good day at the Gathering of the Juggalos -- ICP's annual festival -- when mounds of debris are thrown at him.

"It went really well," St1tch told Noisecreep about this year's event, which took place Aug. 5-9 at Cave in Rock, Ill. "It was the second time we were invited to do that. This time seemed to go over better than last time. Last time we were later in the set. We were right before the band Twiztid. We definitely got a lot of things thrown our way. But that's how that crowd acts. They throw stuff at the headliner anyway. It's just one of those rowdy crowds. A lot of those people are recurring fans of ICP. They were familiar with us now. There was definitely more of our crowd there, because we had more time to promote it this year."

He said close to 10,000 people attended the festival, where concert-goers camp for days to listen to Psychopathic Records bands as well as acts like Ice Cube, Coolio, Gwar, Vanilla Ice and comedian JJ Walker.

"Those people are big, especially with that crowd," St1tch said. "ICP has built this ridiculous following for years and that'll keep recycling on its own. They get no radio support, no video support. Nothing. They're completely doing it on their own. They're definitely do it right. They're right up there with marketing themselves like Kiss did."

St1tch should know. He's been a big fan of ICP since he was a teenager.

"When I was 16, 17 I used to go to their shows all the time," said St1tch, whose band just finished the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Fest. "I was a pretty big fan of theirs in high school, around the 'Ringmaster' and 'Riddlebox' era. My drummer, Skinny, talked to [ICP's] Violent J real briefly after, and he was saying he wants us to keep in contact so we can do some future collaborations. You have to cross into other genres. You can't just be like, 'We're metal and we're going to stay metal' because you're going to die -- especially if you're an underground band. You need as much help as you can get, make as many contacts. Everything completely changes all the time. It's really hard to stay current and active."