Skull Cultist Interview
2026-3-14
El Corazon
Seattle WA
The interview starts while discussing the old print version of Voltage Magazine.
JQ - Or there's a George Vernon picture.
Marc17 - Oh, George Vernon. Yes, I remember that.
Steve Saunders - Yeah.
Marc17 - Yes, we're recording right now, by the way. So yeah, you're in the George Vernon photos back in there?
JQ - Yeah
Marc17 - . I'll have to look that up. I'm pretty sure I've got copies.
(George Vernon is a photographer in Seattle that has been taking pictures of goths for longer than anybody can remember. He had a photo spread in Voltage Magazine no. 10 that contained a picture with JQ. )
Steve - Oh Baby!
JQ - <<Laughs>>
Marc17 - OK, quick. Can I get just names.
Steve - Check one too. Oh yeah, this is Steve Saunders from Skull Cultist. I'm here with JQ and Nina (Heckman).
Marc17 - Very good, thank you. I always ask that to get the beginning point.
JQ - Echo with my laughter.
Steve - Oh, it's an audio interview.
Marc17 - Everybody hates that because we're always like, ‘oh shit, now he's going to ask me the same question that every other interviewer has asked me’. But I'm going to,,, well, it could be the same one. But you obviously have 40K influences.
Steve - Yes.
Marc17 - So do you still play? What's your army?
Steve - Yeah, so I've been in a Warhammer 40,000 since 1987. And I currently have Night Lords as my army and Red Corsairs. I like the Traitor Marines the best. And I used to rock, like, Imperial Guard back in the old days. Ya, and then my kids are in it too. My son has– one of my sons has a Drukhari or Dark Eldar army. Those are the BDSM space elves and he also has Thousand Sons. So it's a whole family thing.
Marc17 - Right. I'm an orc player myself. Do you paint your own miniatures?
Steve - Not as much anymore. I have pretty shaky hands these days. That's why I have children. That's why I had children. I have little painting slaves. They paint the minis for me.
Marc17 - That sounds really nice.
Nina - Did you say painting slaves?
Steve - Yeah. So, the little, little guns and stuff. It's just, I got arthritis. But I still enjoy it, I mainly enjoy kit bashing and assembling of minis. That's my favorite aspect of the hobby.
Marc17 - Very good. Next question was, I guess, Skull Cultist, is it just you?
Steve - Technically. On an album, it's just me in the studio.
Marc17 - Okay. I was going to ask who the people are with you on stage every time you play.
Steve - Yeah, so the guitarist who's also on the albums is Eric Gustafson from Adoration Destroyed, the Eva X. My partner Nicole also does some sick vocals in the recording sessions. One of my live keyboardists is Adam Jones from Mortal Realm. There's my friend Darrian Sonsalla on Keytar. Sometimes I have Adam from Wolftron on keyboards. He's amazing. They're all amazing. We have JQ now in the band. And also helping with some work now for the next two releases is Donovan Cates. He used to be in a few bands in Seattle. But it's a solo project, but I bring in my friends. Like, I also have, like, Caleb Strine from Lost Masters doing vocals on a new track. Great project out of Spokane. Yeah, a bunch of people. But usually it's still just me (producing). So. Yeah.
Marc17 - JQ, you're a DJ from Seattle. I've seen you around. How are you doing?
JQ - I'm doing good.
Marc17 - How do you enjoy being part of Skull Cultist?
JQ - It was really fun. 30 minutes of pure terror, but...
Marc17 - This was your first time?
JQ - But I had a great time, yes.
Marc17 - Okay. back to you, Steve.
Steve - Yes, sir.
Marc17 - You used to live here in Seattle, I believe.
Steve - Yeah, I used to live in Seattle, and I moved here from Spokane (Washington) around the turn of the century, and then I moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 2007.
Nina - As a smart person would do.
Steve - Yeah, as a smart person.
Nina - I’m in the United States, take me, adopt me.
Steve - I got to get my citizenship first so I can sponsor you.
Marc17 - Politics aside, do you see any difference between scenes here in British Columbia?
Steve - Well, I mean, it really always depends from city to city. So like, for instance, I can say that the Victoria scene is awesome. Everyone's like really into it. A lot of bands like playing Victoria because It's smallish crowds, but they're very, very into it. Vancouver, it's a bigger city. Nice people, like I like playing Vancouver, but they can kind of be a little like, just kind of, they chill out more. But I mean, we played with CombiChrist in January and it was a very active crowd. So there's like a bit of a, not really a rivalry between Victoria and Vancouver, but you know, we like, that's the big stinky city and then they look at us like a bunch of island hicks. But truly, it's great because I know Vancouver has a great scene, they have great DJs and promoters, bands, and then you got like Spokane, which is like an insane crowd. Those people are great. And then Seattle is great too, of course.
Marc17 - Spokane?
Steve - Yeah, I got to talk to you about that. Spokane, it's changed a lot since I lived there. And people there are lovely. Just lovely, act like super into it, super active, charged up. I could start a peasant revolution in Spokane. It's amazing.
Marc17 - Okay. Last time we talked, you mentioned something about the industrial scene in Vancouver. Is that something you can talk about?
Steve - Oh, the Vancouver industrial scene. There's some great acts on the Vancouver. Like we played with Doom Ritual Bastard in January. They're amazing. Dan’s stuff is great. There's like God Tongue, too. I think that's the same people from like Total Chroma and Wire Spine and Weird Candle from the old days. Okay, not really old– 10 years ago. And then you got like, there's a bunch of older legends, like you got bands like Frontline Assembly, of course. And you got Landscape Body Machine out of Victoria, but formerly from Vancouver. And his bandmate OHMelectronic, Chris Peterson, is in Vancouver. And Craig from Landscape Body Machine is a dear friend of mine in Victoria. But there's like, there's all these folks. Numb came from Vancouver. Unit 187's back. That's Chris Peterson doing Unit 187. You know, he's a great guy.
Nina - They're on Metropolis.
Steve - They're on Metropolis. Shout out.
Nina - Yeah, That's a good shout out.
Steve - Yeah, it's and there's so many like great bands out there. Some amazing DJs, too. Yeah, it's just, it's great, great, amazing folks.
Marc17 - Right on.
Steve - Yeah. You’re quite handsome, by the way.
Marc17 - Sounds like next band's starting up. Thank you very much. Yeah. That's the end of the interview, I guess.