The internet went into meltdown a few days ago over a video of a young kid in Houston, Texas losing his mind to Slipknot’s Spit It Out while dressed in authentic old-school red boiler suit and Corey Taylor mask.
It turns out the kid is five-year-old Hunter Frost, and the video was filmed by his dad, Kris, who drums in Houston hardcore band Departure. We tracked down Kris to find out just what it feels like to have raised the world’s youngest Maggot…
What's the story behind the video? Does he regularly mosh around the house to Slipknot?
We've done maybe 10 or 12 videos like that. We went to Knotfest last summer, and he had himself a tracksuit with a different mask, and he told me, 'Hey, I want to get an actual boiler suit.' So I said, 'OK, from what era?' and he said, '[Firmly)) from the self-titled era.'
I was, like, absolutely. So I went onto eBay and got him a red boiler suit and found all the patches, My mother - his grandmother - sewed all the patches on.
We were taking photos the night before the video, and he told me, 'Hey, I want to do a full song, just put it over me headbanging and dancing.' So we did it about nine o'clock in the morning and posted it, and it just blew up.
Is that how he normally behaves when you put Slipknot on, even when he's not on camera in a mask?
Oh, absolutely. He has artwork that he draws for himself, he has flags and posters he's hung up in his room. And the Corey mask isn't his only mask. He has a Paul mask, he has a Joey mask - he has his own little display case. That's his thing.
Did you make the mask yourself?
No, there's a couple of Slipknot mask collectors groups that I'm in, so I ordered some from there, some from Amazon. But in the past couple of days, I've been having people mail me masks from all over the world. They've seen the video and they've sent me masks through. I got a message from Waylon [Reavis)), who used to be in Mushroomhead and is in A Killer's Confession now, and he sent us a whole merch bundle and video. He was, like, ‘Man, that video just made my heart pump out of my chest for the future of metal.’ And there's a mask-maker up in Anchorage, Alaska, and he’s mailing me a Vol.3 Corey mask. We've just had this complete outpouring, not only from the Slipknot community but people in general reaching out telling me, ‘Hey, we would like to mail you a care package for Hunter.’ It's been something.
Did you sit him down when he was really young, play him Slipknot and go, ‘Right son, this is what you're going to listen to’?
He's the youngest of three. His older brother was into metal, his sister completely hates it - any time metal gets turned on, she's, like, ‘Oh my god, I'm going to my room.’
At first he liked things like System Of A Down and Aerosmith and Avenged Sevenfold, but once he found out about all of my Slipknot CDs and cassettes, he just carried them around. He wanted the CD booklets to show everybody. Then he got into the music and started learning the songs, then he started watching live performances on YouTube and started mimicking the moves that he saw. He is a part of Slipknot in his five-year-old mind. I'm not gonna tell him no.
You've got your own band, Departure.
We're from the South Side of Houston, we call ourselves Brazoria County Hardcore, which is the local county here - BCHC is our little slogan. We've got a couple bands as part of that. We released an EP last year, and we have our album, Behind The Walls Of Babylon, dropping on May 1.
Who are your influences?
We all have a lot of the same influences, whether it be late 90s alternative rock or early 2000s Trustkill-era metalcore or homegrown DIY from the New York or Boston scenes. If I have to name some bands that we take bigtime influences from, it's definitely Poison The Well, Zao, Remembering Never, From First To Last.
Is there a big hardcore scene in Houston?
There's a great metal scene in Houston, but there's not really a hardcore scene. What were trying to do is a resurgence of true homegrown hardcore in Houston, and we've actually had some other bands come to us and say, 'Hey, we love your style, we've got a band that sounds like what you're going for', and we have started to grow back the HC scene in Houston, which is really awesome to see.
What's the plan with the album?
We're actually releasing it on our own label. Having those hardcore roots, we live that DIY lifestyle - we want to remain true to where we come from and what we know and what we've learned.
The album started off as kind of dealing with grief, dealing with pain. Once we started to get more into the lyrics and more into the message, it's more ingrained in the very uplifting side of things: you may knock us down but that doesn't mean we're always gonna stay down, we'll always get back up and be right back in your face.
Are you going to get Hunter up onstage with you at the next Departure gig?
We talked about that. We'd be dumb-asses if we didn't. He does go to shows with me, but he's never been to a show that I’ve played, so it would be the first time for him to see his father play live. Whenever the next show we play, if he gets up in his mask and his boiler suit and he comes out there and he headbangs for a song, I think the audience would absolutely love that.
What are you gonna do if he grows up and says, 'Sorry dad, I've decided I like Cardi B'?
Oh man, that's worst case scenario! But I support whatever my children's decisions are. If wanted to be a baseball player, I'd support that. But right now, he wants to be a Slipknot kid, so let him.
Depature’s debut album, Behind The Walls Of Babylon, is out on Friday May 1.
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