’ve had a lot of people requesting this band over the past year or two and it’s
finally time to tackle this subject. Before we start make sure you guys go fill out our
request form in the description box below of what stories and topics you’d like to see us cover in
the future on our channel. Stabbing Westward would emerge on people’s radars during the mid
90’s and be frequently compared to industrial pioneers nine Inch nails. I mean, they shared
a similar sound & even shared drummers, which may have been instrumental in getting the band
signed to a major label and today we’re going to explore whatever happened to the band.
While Stabbing Westward wouldn’t rise to prominence until the middle part of the 90’s
they formed nearly a decade prior in the 80’s. The band would be started by
two musicians including vocalist Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus who'd serve as the keyboardist,
programmer, & backup singer in the city of Macomb, Illinois. Most sources said the band’s
early days dated back to 1985, but one geocities fan site that’s since archived claims the band’s
origins dated back to 1981. According to the fan site the pair met at a summer music camp.
Four years later they would both attend Western Illinois University pursuing degrees in music,
while working at the local college radio station.. At this time forming a rock band wasn’t on their
minds, at least not for Hall who would tell Cryptic Rock From the time I was five, I
played the trumpet and I went to college studying Classical music. I was convinced I was going to
be a trumpet player in the Chicago Symphony and be a university teacher; that was my goal.The
Rock band thing was sort of a side passion that kind of took over." And Hall would tell songfacts
where the band’s musical inspiration came from saying As kids, Walter and I were crazy about
Ministry and Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk and bands like that. Anything Al Jourgensen did
we just thought was the greatest thing on earth. That was always just what we wanted to do.
The pair would play in a variety of bands before they decided they wanted to
form their own project.The pair soon started recording music similar sounding to the Cure
and they bought a four track recorder, and a drum machine
and learned how to sequence a midi keyboard. Christopher Hall would tell Songfacts We were
both in other bands – together and apart – that were mostly cover bands. One band was like a new
wave cover band. I was in another band that did a lot of Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen type stuff.
But Walter and I always secretly wrote industrial music in our bedroom. We would put together every
keyboard and drum machine we had and bounce tracks on a four-track. That was our passion he'd say.
According to future drummer Andy Kubiszewski who told be in the loop chicago the band’s name came
from and i quote “essentially when Chris and Walter were putting the band together,
they had a gig and there was a deadline for a name for the band, so they pulled out a bunch
of album covers and they pulled out a record cover and it had an excerpt from, I believe it
was an Eisenhower speech, where he was talking about communism coming to the west and he used
the phrase “stabbing westward,” and they went oh well, “Stabbing Westward”, that will work.”
In reality the phrase stabbing westward was not from eisenhower speach, but an unknown announcer
from a 1947 newsreel. The newsreel would be included in the 1982 documentary the atomic cafe.
The pairs post secondary institution of Western Illinois University served as an inspiration
for the pair with Hall telling R&R Reported “Since we went to Western Illinois University,
Stabbing Westward had a certain ‘kill everybody in the school’ vibe to it! The school’s way out
in farm country and the country is really close minded. I was walking around like
Robert Smith with real big hair, big baggy black clothes, black fingernail polish and eye makeup.
They just didn’t get it. We hated the town.” The pair soon moved to chicago a few years
later and demoed more songs. The duo soon found it hard to land live gigs not having
a full band including a drummer with Hall telling deseret news "It was hard for us to get gigs like
that,""Clubs told us they didn't like the fact we were lip-syncing, but in reality,
we were playing all the instruments, including the drum machine." "We eventually decided to hire
a drummer even though some of the major touring bands in the '80s didn't & The band would soon
add bassist Jim Sellers and guitarist Andrew hunter and in 1991 record the their first demo.
It wasn’t too long after this that the band hooked up with former nine inch nails drummer
Chris Vrenna who recorded another set of demos with the band and it was said that his presence
helped the Stabbing Westward nab a record deal with Columbia records. While Vrenna may have
been instrumental in getting the band signed he would leave the group shortly afterwards.
It was now the the early 90’s Nine Inch Nails were huge and Hall would credit Trent Reznor and
his band with getting Stabbing Westward signed with him telling songfacts. When that happened,
every record label in America - and this is what they always do, they're reactive
as opposed to being proactive – they looked around and said, "Where can we get one of them?"
We had already been playing clubs in Chicago and selling out pretty good-sized local venues on our
own. Labels came in and took a look at us, and said, "They've already got a thing happening."
We rode the wave that I thought was a slow-rolling wave for 20 years,
but Trent had peaked it at that moment, and that lifted us up much higher than we ever would have
been able to otherwise. Our dream was to release a record on Wax Trax! and sell 10,000 records.
The idea of being picked up by Columbia was both a dream come true and a nightmare. [Laughs] Oh
my God... nobody asked for this! he'd say. By 1993 Stabbing Westward would head to the UK
and record their debut album Ungod for Columbia with producer John Fryer.
They would enlist guitarist Stuart Zechman and drummer David Suycot, but creative differences
between the band and Zechman resulted in the album sounding more industrial than they
wanted & Zechman would be fired from the band shortly afterwards and Suycot would leave the
band feeling they didn’t have a future. The band would enlist drummer andy kubichewski who'd be
instrumenal in their fuure success. Released in February of 1994, the band’s debut record
ungod surprisingly didn’t create a controversy over its title. The band would land some pretty
good touring spots opening for Rage Against the Machine, Depeche Mode and Killing Joke.
The band did little to hide their similarities to other groups most notably nine inch nails.
In a 1994 issue of spin magazine the band would take out an ad in the classifieds section
that asked the following “like Jane’s, Tool, NIN,
Ministry” The band would offer to send fans a 2 song cassette.
While their debut album wasn’t a huge seller it sold around 150,000 copies.
The band would record their second album wither blister burn and peel in a barn at woodstock,
new york a studio space they claimed they had experienced paranormal activity in.
In 1996 the band caught their big break when the single what do i have to do was featured
on the mtv’s buzz bin and billboard mainstream rock tracks chart. For the band whose debut
album didn’t gain much traction it seemed like the right lineup and a tendency to embrace a
more pop oriented sound was what was missing with Hall recalling to billboard magazine“we
got a new drummer who was really disciplined instead of one that overplayed and did Neil
Peart solos all the time and our guitar player is more about playing the parts and not posing
or stumbling about ” In fact, the band’s new drummer Kubicehewski who had previously played
with trent reznor in the pop act exotic birds was also instrumental in the song writing process.
In addition to that it was touring with Depeche Mode several years prior that left a mark on the
band with Hall recalling to billboard “We’d see these young guys at our shows flashing
the devil signs. And then we toured with Depeche Mode & you see the intelligence
level rise & more girls at the shows I say that because girls tend to be more lyrically
oriented & not just into how loud the guitars are. That’s the audience we like he'd say.
Hall would be a bit more negative towards the band’s first release telling billboard
“this record is more about healing referring to their second album
going on to say. The first record is full of shit.I t was easy and like oh
look at me. Im the victim. You did this to me. You should feel guilty
The band’s label was aware of the comparisons to Nine Inch Nails the second time around
and tried to downplay them consistently talking bout how their songwriting has gone more pop.
Even the music videos for the group's second album shunned the dark colours typically associated with
industrial music for the band’s second album incorporated more bright colours including
blues and greens. The album would end up going gold selling nearly 800,000 copies. & the band
would open for both the sex pistols and kiss as part of their reunion tours. Side note guys ive
covered both of these bands reunion tours in 1996 and 1997. The links is down below.
During a 1997 interview with spin magazine trent reznor was asked about stabbing
westward’s success with the interviewer asking “how about those sort of one-hit
wonder industrial bands like stabbing westard and Gravity Kills. Do you feel responsible for them.
Reznor would respond saying Look at it in terms of the music-industry follow leader approach”okay
nirvana’s big so let’s sign every band that sounds like them. I;m sure after Nine Inch
Nails had success, other labels asked what sounds like them. Do i think stabbing westward
and gravity were part of that? Yeah I do, were they ripping me off. Yeah. He would go on to
criticize the band bush while going on to say say he likes some of their songsbut stating he
doesn’t respect them saying “i cannot respect or tolerate a lack of innovation”
By 1997 the band members would relocat from Chicago to LA to begin working on their third
record, but tensions were escalating within the band. The band’s fansite on
geocities would have an interview with Hall recalling “there was no tiptoeing. Everyone
was aiming to write the best songs they’ve ever written & shut out everybody else’s.
In 1998 the band released what would be their third record for Columbia titled Darkest Days.
According to Hall who talked to billboard ahead of the record would be about and i quote “this
record isn’t just about girls. This is more like life. A ride through the life of a depressed
person. I feel like this record is a positive in a weird way has a sort of positive spin to it.
It’s like for the first time I’ve actually realized that no other human being while
they can make us happy for a brief period of time is actually going to heal me.
The pressure to be more commercially successful also weighed heavily on the members of the band.
Hall would tell billboard “the last record, no one expected anything of us
because our first record sold so few. And the thought of being on radio was so foreign
to us so we had no pressure or preconceived ideas. This record we felt pressure" he'd say.
The folks at columbia were playing up the release of Darkest Days. Tom Corson who was the senior VP
of marketing at columbia would tell billboard ‘we feel this is the classic artist development story.
The first one did ok, second one sold more and had more press. It went gold and they built a huge
touring base. And we’re going to grow even more. In order to help promote the group's third album
there label was going to be distributing three or four track sampler cassettes at independent
retailers as well as at concerts of bands who shared a similar sound to stabbing westward.
In addition to that, a small club tour of some of the biggest markets who consumed the band’s
past releases was also in the works including philly, boston, new york and los angeles.
The group's third album darkest days album once again went gold and was doing well.
But things changed at their label.
Everyone who was a backer of the band at Columbia started leaving .Despite darkest days going gold
and having two hits in save yourself and haunting me and sometimes it hurts it wasn’t enough.
As the band began working on their 4th album with longtime metallica producer Bob Rock
they would be notified that they were dropped by Columbia and Rock was no longer on the project.
Hall would tell cryptic rock what happened with the band’s label at the time saying
At that time, the music industry was panicking because they were selling CDs for fifteen bucks
at music stores. Fans were getting kind of mad that records were costing so much. Then
all of a sudden the internet made it possible to download music and no one was buying it anymore.
The record labels were freaking out. They were like, “If you are not Mariah Carey or something
selling something like five-million records for us, we can’t have you on the roster.” I think
at that point Stabbing Westward had two gold records, which for a small Alternative band,
it was considered a success. At that point, with downloading, they were so panicked, they
felt they had to cut everything from their roster that isn’t selling five-million records he'd say.
After being dropped by columbia the band would find a new home at Koch Records
who would release their 2001 self titled album. The band would hit some more turbulent times
as according to hall the band’s manager pushed the band to soften their sound and get rid of their
guitarist who wanted to salvage the band’s older sound. Hall would tell cryptic rock
She hired a producer that none of us really knew, and she hired a guitar player who played in a band
she managed earlier. His musical influences were very Pop, he came from an Oasis style.
We were like, “Whoa! That is not who we are: we are an Industrial-ish Metal/Rock
band.” It almost kind of became the situation where we were almost locked out of the studio
and the tracks were laid around the original demos we had done. They just got really softened
up and everything, sort of turned into a teenage movie soundtrack sort of thing.
The songs are still good and I think, as a record, it is a pleasant enough record he'd say.
It was these circumstances that led to Stabbing Westward breaking up
with Hill telling crypticrock That is how we kind of ended up drifting on the fourth record
and picked up by an independent label. In that process of getting dropped there is a lot of soul
searching, people in the band questioning what direction we go in, etc. We had a manager pushing
us to become more Pop. Ultimately that decision of – which direction do we go? Do we stay true to our
music? Do we stay true to our fans? Do we even think about the bigger music industry? Is it a
business or is it art? That whole thing is what I think ultimately broke up the band he'd say
In 2002 the band would call it quits posting the following message on their website
In the subsequent years the band’s members would
play in other musical projects and in 2015 the band finally reunited.
Rewind It Magazine would interview Walter Flakus who told the publication how the reunion happened
saying It really goes back to when Christopher
and I rekindled our friendship in 2014 when his father passed away.
THe band are planning on releasing their first album in nearly two decades Chasing Ghosts in
March of 2022. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like butto nand subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.