Prayers Co-Founder Leafar Seyer On Being “Cholo Goth,” Working With Travis Barker, And Why They Filmed In Gary, Indiana
In less than five years as a band, Prayers has released five studio efforts. Within a year of forming, Ian Astbury of The Cult became a fan of Prayers had the group open up some West Coast shows for him. The following year, blink-182’s Travis Barker produced an album for Prayers, and five nominations were received from the San Diego Music Awards. In 2016, Kat Von D appeared in a music video for Prayers, “Black Leather,” while the song itself charted high in several European territories. Now in 2017, Prayers is on the BMG roster and both the full-length Baptism Of Thieves and the collaborative EP Cursed Be Thy Blessings have come out in 2017. Another full-length is already in the works.
I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with Prayers co-founder Leafar Seyer — a.k.a. Rafael Reyes — about the group’s past, present and future. He and Dave Parley both have admirable work ethic, to say the least, along with a lot of originality. More on Prayers can be found online at www.chologoth.com; Reyes kindly explained the source of that URL within our interview.
A lot of people refer to your band as “Cholo goth.” How do you feel about that term?
Leafar Seyer: I’m proud of it because I coined the term. Our genre, that I also came up with, is “killwave.” By the way, I also coined “occultwave,” that’s before Prayers’ time. Occultwave is the genre I created for my solo project Nite Ritual. Both occultwave and killwave were inspired by genres that I grew up listening to, like new wave, dark wave, chillwave and synthwave. “Wave” simply implies that we are an electronic/synthesizer-based group and “kill” that our lyrical content is aggressive, confrontational and from the streets of San Diego, California.
When I was asked about our sound/genre, I would answer by saying “killwave” and people would respond by saying, “What? Wjat is that?” One day out of the blue, I said, “It’s like Cholo goth” and people instantly got it. So I stopped describing our sound as “killwave” and we started calling it “Cholo goth.”
Did your group have a name before Prayers? Or was that the name from day one?
Leafar Seyer: Kinda. I have a solo project called Nite Ritual. When David and I got together for the first time we created our album SD Killwave start to finish in two days. So fast that we had the music before we had a name. We played our first show the third day of meeting each other and of making the music. We hit the ground running as they say. So because of it, we used the name Nite Ritual for our first show. That’s also why in our song “Ready To Bleed,” I say “we are Nite Ritual!”
But Dave Parley came up with our name. It came to him in a dream. I remember when it happened we were driving from L.A. to San Diego one late night. I was driving and he was sleeping on the passenger side and he out of nowhere jumps up and yells “Prayers! Prayers, that’s our name. If we take letters from both our last names we can spell ‘Prayers.'” “Brilliant,” I said to David, “I love it.”
One problem, my friends Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell who are also from San Diego, had a band called The Prayers. But they changed their name to The Crocodiles, I said to David. “But don’t worry, both of them are two of my dearest and closest friends, more like family. I’ll ask them and see if they would let us use the name.” I called my brothers, told ’em the story and they graciously blessed us with the name. So because of them and David’s dream, we are Prayers.
Was the name Prayers easy to get when it came to claim domains and social media accounts?
Leafar Seyer: Only on social media. People who don’t know us, think our Facebook and Instagram are part of an Abrahamic religion profile. People message us about starting a prayer circle for a loved one or they’ll tag us on photos of people who need to be prayed for.
So has the name Prayers ever led to any weird situations with people assuming wrong things about your group?
Leafar Seyer: It doesn’t bother us at all. We actually take the time to light a candle in their name. To our sacred brother the bearer of light Lucifer. Wishing them love, peace and a successful recovery from whatever is ailing them.
Prayers melds together elements of hip-hop, post-punk, EDM and 80s goth-rock, but which genre was the first that really drew you into music?
Leafar Seyer: Deathrock!
Ian Astbury was an early fan of your band. Any idea how he found out about Prayers?
Leafar Seyer: I do. Our mutual friend Joe Cardamone of The Icarus Line and HolyWar turned him on to us.
What about Travis Barker? Had you asked him to produce your album before signing to his label?
Leafar Seyer: No, not at all. He courted us and we fell head over heels.
Baptism Of Thieves is your latest album. Do you have a favorite song on there?
Leafar Seyer: “Lucifer Rising!”
How did you wind up in Gary, Indiana of all places to shoot your latest video?
Leafar Seyer: Gary, Indiana is the birthplace of Michael Jackson. Do I need to say more?
Have you already started writing your next album? Is writing something you do regularly?
Leafar Seyer: Yes, I do it religiously. We’ve already started working on our fifth album, Oraciones. We are seven songs in.
When not busy with Prayers, how do you like to spend your free time?
Leafar Seyer: I like to spend my time in isolation.
Finally, Leafar, any last words for the kids?
Leafar Seyer: Question everything!
TweetAbout the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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