As an original member of the Cro-Mags, guitarist Parris Mayhew created guitar riffs that merged the aggression of punk with the brute force of heavy metal – resulting in the creation of the crossover classic, The Age of Quarrel, in 1986. Although he’s been away from music for quite some time (Mayhew now works as a camera operator for television, and also directed such acclaimed/popular videos as “Black No. 1” by Type O Negative and “Slam” by Onyx), he has recently returned with Aggros. 

Currently an all-instrumental band, Aggros recently issued their debut album, Rise Of The Aggros, and completed its first set of live performances – featuring a line-up of Mayhew and ex-Crumbsuckers’ Chuck Lenihan providing guitars, Dierk Peters on keyboards, and a chap known simply as Cobz on drums. Mayhew recently spoke with BraveWords correspondent Greg Prato about Aggros’ debut recording, first shows, and future plans. 

BraveWords: How were the Aggros’ first-ever shows?

Parris Mayhew: “It was great for me to hear my songs realized live with a full band for the first time, in front of a live audience, and a berserk Brooklyn hometown audience to send us off. For me, the first major obstacle was traversed when the first song ended and the audience erupted, I knew we were on solid ground. It’s hard to know how people will react so I was ready for anything, but I was surprised by the response all the same. The record was well-received, but I wasn’t sure about the live show yet. I hadn’t considered it while writing and recording, I was too busy building something. You see, I recorded the album over a long period, with 4 different drummers and I played the guitars and all the bass on the record. I mixed and recorded on Saturdays for around two years while I was doing television work during the week. So I only had a sense of completion in increments and never associated it with a group or a band or even an album. 

“I didn’t even have a band name until I was about to release the first song, ‘Chaos Magic.’ For the tour I knew I wanted Cobz to play drums, who played on three of the seven songs on the album, to do the tour. He lives in North Carolina and rehearsing was problematic, so I worked with my engineer to make click maps for us to follow, so he and I could rehearse alone to make the foundation solid and feel live. We also sent these click maps to Chuck Lenihan and Dierk Peters (keys) to practice to at home. We all practiced on our own mostly. Two weeks before the tour I drove down to North Carolina to Cobz’s house and rehearsed with him for four days. Then the full band met for the first time in NYC and rehearsed for three days just prior to the first gig at Saint Vitus. The debut show was a great send off, a full house and all converts. It was an odd feeling to have never had the band in the same room together the week before the first show and to be standing in front of a screaming audience at Saint Vitus a week later.”

BraveWords: Who is currently in the band? 

Parris Mayhew: “Most of the players on the album came out for the tour, Cobz who played the lion’s share of the songs on the album is on drums, Dierk Peters on keys, and Chuck Lenihan on second guitar.”

BraveWords: Would you ever consider working with a vocalist on an Aggros recording?

Parris Mayhew: “I consider all possibilities for my music. I’d considered a singer in the beginning and looked for one for a few years while assembling the album but abandoned the search, when a singer’s absence left me room to do so much more musically than normally. And as the songs took shape and felt complete I abandoned that search altogether. I saw no reason for a singer anymore, especially an imaginary haven’t-met-yet-singer, a hope. I don’t know any good singers personally who are not already established, like Phil Anselmo and I can count on one hand (I have 6 fingers) the great singers that I’ve ever met in person like Layne, Cornell, Lemmy, Jimmy Gestapo, HR, and Danzig, so I certainly won’t marginalize my music ever again with a lousy singer just because people expect it. And I don’t have to anymore. 

“The album is being embraced for what it is, something new and not for what isn’t and all the record reviews so far concur. I expected the reviews to be less kind, I anticipated the opposite of the reverence I received, I expected reviews dictated by mundane expectation. It has be a little bit of a slow burn, by releasing the first two songs one at a time, but ultimately instead of the knee jerk reaction, conceptually, that something was missing, they listen to how much more is there because the vocals aren’t in the way. I’ve heard the same sentiment night after night on tour and in the endless comments on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram with phrases like, ‘Ground breaking, genre bending and completely familiar but original.’ And many are happier not to have ‘someone barking their opinions at me’.”

BraveWords: There is a misconception that the Aggros’ first release is an EP. Please explain. 

Parris Mayhew: “Is there? I’ve never heard that. Rise Of The Aggros is longer than the second Cro-Mags album Best Wishes and I never heard anyone mistake Best Wishes for an EP either. Rise Of The Aggros is a journey, and an enjoyable journey always seems to end too soon.”

BraveWords: The Aggros’ first music videos were quite striking. I understand you have a lot of experience in film and TV… 

Parris Mayhew: “I began in the film business making music videos in the early ‘90s professionally, sparked by the video I made for my high school band Cro-Mags, the ‘We Gotta Know’ video, which was the first video with slam dancing in it on MTV. That video made a mark on MTV worldwide and subsequently, I was in demand as a director. In those early years, I made definitive videos for artists like Type O Negative’s ‘Black #1,’ and five videos for Biohazard. Later, I began working in television and films as a camera operator and Steadicam operator, which is what I do now. I just completed the last season of Evil and the latest Walking Dead spin-off Dead City as a camera operator with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is an ‘unabashed Aggros fan.’

“I am a local 600 Cinematographers Guild member, and also a member of the Society of Camera Operators. So when it came time to make music videos for Aggros, I came to the table with a life-long set of skills and vision. I knew what I wanted the visuals accompanying this album would be. I wanted it to look and feel like what shaped me and my music, my life as a New Yorker at night. The New York of my memories, the colors, the steel and concrete and the nights. I made the two first videos ‘City Kids’ and ‘Chaos Magic’ feel like the same long night of my memories with the same full moon, just set in different parts of the city. ‘Sk8bored Fight,’ the next video I’m am currently shooting, continues that long night.”

BraveWords: Any standout memories of filming the videos for “Chaos Magic” and “City Kids”? 

Parris Mayhew: “It was a great experience making those videos. After making over a 100 videos for other artists, I felt like I had done my best work ever, in ‘Chaos Magic’ and ‘City Kids.’ But as far as the memory of the process, mostly I recall the exhaustion. On ‘Chaos Magic,’ I would load up my car with guitars, stands, lights, sandbags, camera, lenses, grip equipment, wardrobe and then drive to the location - the Williamsburg Bridge. Then I would load up a cart around 5 feet high with gear and then begin the half a mile push uphill to the middle of the bridge where we would shoot. I made ‘Chaos Magic’ with the help of one person, a young fellow I mentored into the film business as an electrician, his name is Scott. We would arrive at the bridge at midnight and shoot until around 5 AM at which point I was usually just short of passing out from jumping up and down for five hours. 

“We shot for 22 nights during the pandemic. It was extremely hard work, between having to perform and also having to pay attention to lighting, camera and all the visual effects I employed. Being I was basically the whole band I shot the video to appear as if I were multiple performers. I wore different clothes and played different guitars and basses to make it appear as if it was a full band. But the experience of working in the middle of the night under the sodium vapor lights of the bridge was a true continuous feeling of déjà vu and it was continuously inspiring. I knew it looked like my memories and hoped that would pair with the songs to create a shared experience of my youth.”

BraveWords: Who are some modern day rock or metal bands you fancy?

Parris Mayhew: “I particularly love Polyphia, well I love two of their records. I do not listen to their early material, although it exhibited great skill it lacked the focus and songwriting finesse that Most Hated and New Levels New Devils suddenly expressed so excellently. Subsequently, they released another album which didn’t interest me at all. But I couldn’t be more surprised and grateful for the two releases I mentioned that are now staples for me of what extremes of excellence music can reach. And of course I love Slipknot front to back, I certainly miss Joey and Paul, but the band continues to astonish. And most recently Turnstile who encompass what I loved in early hardcore, individuality and creativity, a nice blend of OG hardcore riffs, Jane’s Addiction and ‘Sabotage’-style Ad-Rock Beastie Boys vocals and very unusual drumming, great band top to bottom.”

BraveWords: Future plans? Any other projects? 

Parris Mayhew: “I plan to support the album Rise Of The Aggros by touring, my agent is currently looking for support tours to get more eyes and ears on the band. I will also complete three more music videos, first being Sk8bored Fight, which is about half done. I take my time making videos, just like I do with my music. Because I feel I am leaving behind a visual imprint of the music forever and I want that imagery to be as powerful as the music, twins. Aggros is my brand now and any music I make will be under this moniker. If by projects you mean musical projects, I don’t do those. I don’t jam or join bands, I make my own music, I am a band builder, not a joiner. For me a band was just a vehicle for my songs, just as Cro-Mags was, but when I realized I don’t need to be tied to less productive people, to have a vehicle for my songs, I went with a different model than the traditional band model. All the music I do from now on will be as Aggros, what shape it will take depends on what inspires me and who inspires me at the time. I modeled the band after Daft Punk or Ghost, where there is a central musical force, my songs, that is supported by appropriate talent for each stage. Those who know my music from my high school band Cro-Mags will recognize the Aggros music, and it will feel familiar but there is much, much more.”

Purchase Rise Of The Aggros here.

(Photos – David Geisbrecht)