WZLY Interviews: Medusa’s Hairdresser

Artwork by @miraluna_art on Instagram

by Laila Brustin ‘25

content warning for strong language and mentions of death

Medusa’s Hairdresser is a hardcore metal and punk band based in Nashville, TN. Their music explores “the darkness of death and humanity” while presenting a showmanship that brings added flair and discomfort to their work. Beginning as a high school band, their development in style, skill, and not to mention integration into the local music scene, shows the passion and capabilities of this band. Read more to learn about Medusa’s Hairdresser’s experiences, inspirations, and upcoming projects!

WZLY: Hi, thank you all so much for interviewing with me! It was so cool to watch your group develop throughout high school, especially seeing your album release and shows first hand. I’m excited to get to talk to you all about your experiences in Medusa’s Hairdresser. To start, could you introduce yourselves, your roles in the band, and why you wanted to create this music?

Raven: I'm Raven Zen, the lead vocalist of Medusa's Hairdresser. When we started, I wanted to create music that reflected the dark side of life, from my own experiences to just telling stories my horribly messed up mind came up with, whether it was a dream I had the night before, or just something starting from a question. I wanted to make this music, not only to have fun and put something I love out there, but to tell stories and to reflect upon the darker, more uncomfortable topics that come up in life.

Jules: My name is Jules and I’m the drummer for Medusa’s Hairdresser! I love making music and have always loved playing music. it’s more than just a creative outlet for me, it’s also a way to let out energy and frustration. It motivates me to do more all the time.

Nicole: Nicole, I'm the bassist. For me personally, I had been in other bands to where I wasn't really into much of the music we were doing. When I got to high school, I met Raven and she and I started writing songs together and it just worked. Especially when we started writing what became the original Medusa's Hairdresser songs, we just wanted to bring back the old days of darker music of the late 80s and early 90s and try to add something new to the local scene.

What bands and musicians do you look up to? How would you like to see yourselves develop as artists?

Raven: I grew up listening to bands like Kittie, Within Temptation, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Kittie and Within Temptation go into the inspiration behind Medusa's Hairdresser, but there's way more than just that. When I entered [my] sophomore year of high school, I was introduced to a whole new world of music, after years in middle school listening to lots of metal core. I fell in love with the evil nature of black metal, specifically true Norwegian black metal. It gave me and Nicole most of the inspiration for the band, its sound, and its subject matter. We love the darker side of humanity and love highlighting it as much as possible. As artists, I think we'd like to see ourselves embrace the darkness of death and humanity even more than we already have and to make more music that channels the beauty of it all.

Nicole: For me, it changes. There's elements of everything in our music, even string sections in our newest stuff. I grew up loving industrial bands like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. When we were first starting, we wanted to bring elements of bands like Darkthrone, Cradle Of Filth, Jack Off Jill, and Acid Bath into it. Now that we've found a sound that works for us, we just want to try to expand upon that sound and bring more to it.

Jules: I personally look up to My Chemical Romance a lot, and I want to be able to emulate their sort of concept albums and costuming for each era. To me, one of my favorite parts of performing is becoming a new person on stage with a big look.

Photo courtesy of @naturalbornvillianess on Instagram

What has starting from the ground up as a high school group been like? How have you navigated Nashville’s metal and punk scenes?

Raven: Medusa's Hairdresser started as a completely different obscure band. In the beginning it was just me and Nicole, trying to create something we would have listened to at the time. It was obvious that it didn't really work, so in sophomore year we changed the whole concept and got two new members, who have now moved on. We then renamed the band to Medusa's Hairdresser and we went to work on songs like the song that shall not be named,“Pornstars,” and others from our demo. It wasn't too great at first and I had to learn the techniques of screaming vocals and develop them in order to get the sound we have today. Even though it didn't sound as good at first, we still kept going because our music is something we're very passionate about. 

Nicole: When we were in high school, things were a lot different. Different lineup, different songs, but we wrote [our first album] Doomsday Eve and recorded it in that same year of high school. As for the scenes, we just saw and supported as many bands as we could! You gotta support local musicians as well as touring ones. Every band I saw, I would get inspired to write or play more shows so we can be up there onstage doing that but adding our own twist to it. We do things other bands don't do. Jules tells a lot of twisted stories onstage in between Chris and I changing guitars and tuning.

 Raven: Nichole and I started going to hardcore Punk shows around the middle of sophomore year, as well as being in the punk friend group at [our high school] Nashville School of the Arts. It was a very fun and new experience. Everyone was so nice and happily willing to accept new and young people into the scene. Later on during that time, we decided to release the demo and start playing shows. During our first show, as expected, our stage presences weren't all that developed, and it was still fun to play, but I'm not sure if the crowd was all that excited. Again, we have definitely grown since then, having two new members that are just as passionate as Nicole and I have been from the start. We have met some amazing people in the metal and punk scenes, not only in Nashville but in Murfreesboro as well. On the outside, the scene is a little intimidating, but once you go into it, you realize that everyone will welcome you with open arms. Playing shows, selling merchandise, and just talking to these lovely people has helped us a great deal in navigating these scenes.

 Jules: I was not the original drummer for Medusa’s Hairdresser, but I did join pretty early in our career. By the time I joined, we already had a few songs written, so I just shook them up and made them my own. Nicole does almost all of our booking and networking, and I really admire her for that.

Your album Doomsday Eve goes so hard, I’ve become obsessed with “Run Out” and “Salem Bitch Trials”! What was your favorite part of making that project?

Jules: my favorite part was definitely the recording session! seeing all of our writing and practicing and hard work pay out and manifest itself in those few hours was so fulfilling. We actually finished writing “Salem Bitch Trials” during the session!

Nicole: It's funny to me because that album was finished the day of. “Salem Bitch Trials” was written I think the night before. But my favorite part of that project was just the experience of us recording together and finally putting out something we had been working on for the few months we had been a band. I remember either when our old guitar player Dylan was tracking a second guitar, or when Raven was recording the vocals was when we heard about Covid-19 hitting our county and we were kinda freaked out.

Raven: Personally, my favorite part of making Doomsday Eve was the recording process. There are some fun memories associated with that day, like when Jules and I went to get food at McDonald's and Speedway while Nicole and Dylan [guitarist at the time] were tracking extra things to be added to some of the songs, like the sounds of the strings of a bass and a guitar rubbing together. Jules and I finally started having a conversation about things we liked, because at that point, I still didn't know her all that well, and that one experience helped our friendship grow. Another thing is, I say that's my favorite part, but honestly I loved every part of the making of the project. There's so much passion that we all put into it and we all contributed to the writing process. That part is so special to me, because we all came together to make something we and our audience love.

Photos Courtesy of @medusashairdresser615 on Instagram

I heard briefly about some upcoming music, what has the band been working on lately?

Nicole: For the past year or two, we've been writing a fuckton and have a bunch of new songs written for future projects. Next month we plan to record our second full length album, Future Deadly Whore and the first single off that album is going to be a song called "Decay" from our Demo II release from last summer. That will also be the first release with our new guitarist, Chris. Someone who has had a huge impact on the songs and someone we all love playing music with and hanging out with. As of lately, we've just been getting ready to record and play more shows in support of that album. I'm ready for people to hear these new songs that we've been working our asses off on.

Raven: Hopefully we can release it soon, but we are also going to release two other bonus projects with this second album. I will not disclose what those are, but they are in the works.

 Jules: We’re just cleaning it up and picking up the odds and ends, so you’ll hear plenty more about it soon.

As a closing question, what would you say your band brings to Nashville’s metal scene?

Jules: I think we bring a unique look and sound to the scene. Our music is near impossible to stick into an existing genre. None of us know any music theory, so rather than playing anything that makes any amount of sense, we just play what feels right at that moment. we’re also pretty well known for our dramatic stage antics, stand up comedy intermission, and grand costuming. So I think we bring a fun performance like no other.

Nicole: I would say we bring something different. We dress up onstage and do wild makeup, not quite corpse paint, or anything like that. We also have shit like mannequins and heads onstage along with whatever innuendos we can have depending on the venue. We also aren't to take ourselves incredibly seriously, we take it with seriousness but also fun. I don't really know what else to say relating to it, aha.

Raven: I'd say we bring a take on humanity that no one else in the scene would even try to mention. I feel that most people are terrified to look at those true aspects of humanity and thus don't think about it much or dare to tread upon the idea of the horrors of the world.

Interested in keeping up? Want to start listening!? Check out Medusa’s Hairdresser here