Whitechapel: Phil Bozeman (vocals), Zach Householder (guitar), Brandon Zackey (Drums), Gabe Crisp (Bass), Alex Wade (guitar), Ben Savage (lead guitar).

May of last year we had the pleasure of chatting with our 2025 Mid Cap Top Seller Of The Year Whitechapel, the Knoxville, Tennessee based American Deathcore band. Known for their incredible vocals and incredibly loyal fanbase Whitechapel who has been performing since 2006 and is just getting started.

Let's Begin! 

1. Give us a little background of Whitechapel and how you started?

Whitechapel: Whitechapel started in 2006. We started just like any other band as a local band and we played a lot of local gigs around Knoxville, Tennessee. The metal scene there was pretty decent. It wasn't massive or anything, but it was definitely better than some podunk town. Knoxville’s a solid city, so we were lucky in that sense. We’d have probably 100 to 200 people coming out to local shows at a time, which made it a great place for us to gain our footing and put in the groundwork as a new, up-and-coming band. These days, we’re kind of considered old heads in the game, not as old as some bands, but definitely older than a lot of newer ones. We really came up during the MySpace era, and honestly, that platform kind of catapulted our career. It was the first time people could really discover music online in a major way. We started in 2006 and put out a couple of singles and EPs on MySpace, and by 2007 just a year after forming we were already touring. We started hitting the road by going out with friends’ bands, bands we had met when they came through Knoxville. They brought us out on our first tours, which was wild. We’d show up to cities across the country, and people already knew who we were just from MySpace and the internet. Before social media, it was tough for bands to get the word out about their music. So that early online presence was a huge tool for us and definitely helped launch our career in a unique way. Then at the end of 2007, after catching the attention of a few different labels and reviewing some offers, we ended up signing with Metal Blade Records, who we're still with today. It's really cool to be able to say we’ve stayed with the same label all these years. A lot of bands jump around, but we’ve been able to build a long-standing relationship with them, which has meant a lot to us.

What kind of music did you listen to while creating your most recent album, any particular Inspirations?

Whitechapel:  Yeah, you know, there are definitely a lot of bands we look up to, starting with the godfathers of metal, like Metallica. It's plain and simple: without Metallica, a lot of metal bands, including us, probably wouldn’t exist. Our guitar player, Zach, is a huge Metallica fan. As for more modern style bands, we draw a lot of influence from Gojira, Mastodon, and Slipknot. And then there are the more underground, death-metal-leaning bands like Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, and Impaled. I could go on forever, there are just so many bands that have helped shape our sound. Meshuggah is a big one for us, too. We’re definitely a band that grew up influenced by a lot of the older metal legends, but we also came up in a time when modern heavy bands were really evolving the genre. So I’d say our style is a mix, it has a very modern sound, but it’s rooted in the influence of those classic, foundational bands as well.

What was one of your favorite tour stops while on tour?

Whitechapel:  California always treats us great. We love playing Southern California, but honestly, Northern California is awesome too. Sacramento is a really strong market for us. Santa Ana’s great. LA is pretty good and always kind of a weird in the best way crowd, and they love metal, so we definitely enjoy playing there. Texas is great too. They love their metal down there, so we always do really well in that state. 

Which city would you say has been one of your best and most memorable crowds?

Whitechapel:  Denver. It’s always cool when a city surprises you like that when you don’t necessarily expect a huge response, and then they just blow you away. It’s an incredible feeling!

Day of a show what does your routine look like?

Whitechapel:   Yeah, it kind of depends on the day and whether we’re headlining or supporting another band. If we’re headlining, we’ve got to get in a little earlier to get everything set up and do soundcheck. So on headline days, we usually load in around 9 or 10 a.m., and we're sound-checking by around 1 p.m. After that, depending on the tour, we might have a VIP meet and greet, usually only when we’re headlining. Those typically happen around 5 p.m., after all the other bands have had time to set up and soundcheck. From about 5 until showtime, we’re just kind of hanging out, either chilling on the bus, playing some video games, or maybe checking out some local food spots near the venue. Then we play the show, pack everything up, load it on the bus, and hit the road to do it all over again the next day. All the fun happens all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Whitechapel still from their latest music video for "Nothing Is Coming for Any of Us"

Tell us about your dream Venue/Festival?

Whitechapel:  I can’t say we’ve played every festival we’ve ever wanted to, but we’ve definitely hit a lot of them, especially over in Europe. There are so many killer metal festivals over there. One festival I think would be really cool to play is Bonnaroo. They’ve started booking more heavy bands lately, which is awesome. And it's not even that far from us, it’s about three hours away. We’re based in Knoxville, in East Tennessee, and Bonnaroo is closer to Nashville, in Middle Tennessee. Bands like Knocked Loose and other heavy acts have played there now, so I think it’d be really cool to be able to say we played Bonnaroo. I mean, it’s a major Tennessee festival, and we’re a Tennessee band so that would be a full-circle kind of moment. 

Tell us about your favorite Venue/Festival you have played?

One venue we have played but would love to play again, maybe in a bigger way is Red Rocks, just outside of Denver. I don’t know if we’d ever headline there, that’s a big task but it would still be amazing to go back and play a bigger slot. We played there during the Rockstar Mayhem Festival one year. We opened up the stage, which was a really cool experience just to be on that legendary stage at all. It was also special because my parents were visiting Colorado at the time, just doing some hiking and sightseeing and they stopped by Red Rocks for a tour. Even though they didn’t catch our set, they saw our name on one of the plaques at the venue from when we played, and that just blew my dad’s mind. Seeing “Whitechapel” on a plaque at Red Rocks, it really hit him. I mean, sure, we played at noon and opened the show, but we played  there. That’s a dream venue for a lot of bands, and it’s one we’re proud to have checked off the list.

Can you talk to us a little about your merch? 

Whitechapel: Yeah, so we're very hands-on with the merch, it's 100% handled by us. Props to our team, but to be honest, we have a specific vision for how everything should look, and our manager isn’t going to fully grasp or execute that the way we can. Even down to selecting the garment blanks, we’re involved. We kind of treat it like a clothing line with how we approach it. For example, we might get a design made and think, “This would look really cool on a tattered, vintage-style, stonewashed shirt,” or something along those lines. We don’t just throw designs on basic, cheap blanks, we really want the quality to be there. Merch isn’t cheap these days, especially on bigger tours where you have to price-match with headliners. So sometimes we’re charging fans more than we would if we were headlining ourselves, and if that’s the case, we want to make sure what they’re getting is worth it.

Speaking of merch, does the band enjoy/have a hand in the design and production? 

The designs should be sick, the garments should feel high-quality. I never want someone to pick up a shirt and say, “This feels cheap.” If we're going to sell a product, it should be something we’re proud of. It’s mostly handled by me and our other guitar player, Ben Savage. Everyone else in the band kind of steps back from that side of things. You really don’t need six different opinions on a design, it’s easier to keep that streamlined. I personally love it. It’s fun for me to work with different designers. I’ve got a list of about 20 that I keep on call. When I have a specific idea, I’ll think about which designer is best suited for that concept. I’ll shoot them an email, lay out the idea and the color scheme, and they’ll send back a few mockups. Then I’ll give feedback, what to tweak, what to change, until it’s exactly what we want. Once it’s locked in, we send it to our merch company and they handle the rest.

A look At Whitechapel 2026 Merch Tees

That being said, merch wise, are there any pieces you must have on tour and anything cool you guys like to keep on hand? 

Whitechapel: We’ll always do a tour shirt, people want that. They want the dates on the back so they can remember the show they went to. Then we’ll typically do about three alternate shirts without dates, just different designs to give fans some variety. We’re a metal band, so of course we sell a ton of black shirts. But we always try to throw in at least one white or gray option just to mix things up. And we almost always include a long sleeve, because that’s super popular in the metal scene, tons of bands do them, and they sell well. So, merch wise, it's usually four shirts, a long sleeve, and always a hoodie, that’s kind of the big-ticket item. Hoodies are the most expensive item on the table, and people always go for them, especially in colder markets.

Are there any other items you guys enjoy to have on the road for your fans? 

We also put a lot of focus on media. We always bring vinyl, because that’s a huge seller now, people are really into collecting records. And we take it one step further: we actually rip the plastic off every vinyl and sign them with Sharpies on the front, so fans can buy a signed vinyl straight from the table. That way they don’t have to track us down after the show. Our merch guy always huffs and puffs about it, though he’s got to lay out all the vinyls before we soundcheck. We’ll come in and see like 30 vinyls lined up on the bar, and we’ll just go down the row with a Sharpie and knock them all out real quick. We also carry CDs, stickers, patches, and some smaller items. I was really into that kind of stuff myself, so we try to have a good mix of trinkets. Pins are super popular now, and patches are big in the metal scene, especially for fans who have vests covered in different band logos. We try not to overload the table with too much stuff, but we definitely like to offer a wide variety so there’s something for everyone.

What is next for Whitechapel?

Whitechapel:  We just released our new album Hymns and Dissonance back in March, and we just wrapped up the headlining tour for it, which was amazing. It was about 90% sold out. Almost every single show! It’s kind of wild to think that 19 years into the band, we’re still able to pull that off, but here we are.

Coming up, we’ve got a couple of big festival dates. We’re playing Sonic Temple in Ohio, and then Welcome to Rockville next week in Florida, both are going to be really cool. After that, we’re heading over to Europe in June for a full summer festival run, which we’re stoked about. Then we’re taking a bit of time off before coming back for another U.S. headlining tour later this fall. That one hasn’t been announced yet, but keep your eyes peeled, it’s coming soon!

An Iconic Whitechapel Show Moment

Anything you would like to share with your fans/peers?

Whitechapel:  We’ve been using atVenu forever, and honestly, in our entire career, no one’s ever  told us that we were number one in sales, so when we heard that, we were kind of blown away. It was really cool. I hit up our manager and he was like, “Wow, that’s awesome.” So thank you, this means a lot to us. 

Whitechapel Nominates:
THORNHILL as the next Artist In Action

Check Out Our Last Artist In Action

with Arrows In Action :

(Drummer Jesse Frimmer, singer Victor Viramontes-Pattison, and guitarist Matthew Fowler)

Join us as we talk to the members of Pop Rock Band Arrows In Action: Jesse, Victor, and Matthew, along with their Merch Manager Michael. Arrows In Action formed almost 10 years ago and has lit up some of the brightest stages in the US.  Learn a bit more about our August Small Cap Top Selling Winners Arrows In Action! Let’s get started!

What was one of your favorite stops on the tour? 

Jesse: Definitely a top one would be our biggest show on the headlining tour, and our New York Show …

Each venue is very grand in its own way. So, you're like, "wow, it's so big."

Matthew And Victor:  We did, we played Hell in Atlanta, The Masquerade and Marquee Theater in Denver.

We love going to Colorado already and everyone at Marquee has always been super, super nice to us and the green rooms are just beautiful and spacious, and they give us pizza! 

 

I think it's like a really comfortable experience as a fan too, in there.

So that room is really cool and there's options, you know, for where to sit, where to stand in.

What kind of music did you listen to when you were creating this album?

Victor:  We already had a ton of ideas sonically of what we could do and we've always talked about a lot of bands, like Five Seconds Of Summer and The Foo Fighters are a huge influence on us. And we think at least in our minds, that was kind of the hope... marrying those two types of bands of like the really pop centric, like younger band and this classic, you know, rock, not classic rock, but like the writer style, just the timeless sound and a lot of the  writing for it. I think we tried to have it kind of like, chronicle us moving to Nashville and, like, feeling unsure about our place, like, as a band here or just in general and like, it sort of has a nice resolution of like, you know, oh, I should call my friends and like, everything's gonna be ok and all we are who we have sonically.

 

I mean, we went all over the place sonically and like those two examples, the Fighters and Five SOS and, you know, I think we listen to like even some Limp Bizkit and the new Demi Lovato record and heavier things and we just said, why limit ourselves? Let's, let's go all over the map on it.

What does a typical day look like for you while on tour for a show day?

Matthew: It usually starts early, we could be loading in the gear by 1:00 pm and that could lead directly into sound check starting. From sound check we may have an hour before meet and greets or before we get ready to go on.

Jesse: That hour we honestly have to decide between do we eat, shower, do laundry, or call loved ones.

You can maybe do like two of those things. We'll be deciding “I can eat, I can call my partner, or I can do laundry that I haven't done in a week or two”. Usually you're doing laundry at like 2:30 am in the morning at the local Travel Center.

 

It gets hectic but we wouldn't trade it for anything.

Michael:  On the merch side of things, It usually takes me 2 hours from the end the show until I can sit down and relax. This includes the final rush of sales plus the show settlement, count out, and merch settlement where applicable.

 

In small cap and mid cap rooms the most time consuming part can be finding and planning for drop shipments. Many venues are not open regular business hours and not able to receive deliveries and this means sourcing a location nearby planning time into your schedule to pick up deliveries yourself. Often you are travelling with only one trailer when in these rooms and that means more frequent deliveries due to limited carrying capacity.

For bands, artists, and fans going on their first tour, what is one of the biggest pieces of advice you would give based on this past year?

Victor: It's all about time management. When you get lunch somewhere, order an extra so when you are done with your set and finally back at the hotel, the bus, trailer, wherever you're staying...you have food to eat since it is most likely after 1:00 am and everything but McDonalds is closed. 

Michael: Try to be courteous to other fans in line by deciding what you want before you get to the front and have your payment ready.

Chicago and Lakewood Tour Stop

Have you had memorable encounters with other musicians or people you were starstruck by?

Matthew: We just went to When We Were Young Fest and got to meet Vic from Pierce The Veil and Jaime, which was super cool. Absolutely love that band. 

 

Victor: I have a Pierce the Veil Tattoo. I've seen that band like eight times. They were super cool to meet.

 

Jesse: We've been lucky to actually meet quite a few artists/bands while on tour, one of the most exciting has to be Michelle Branch.

 

Victor: Everybody, we mean everybody loves Michelle Branch. I want to be a part of the Michelle Branch revival.

(Guitarist Matthew Fowler, Singer Victor Viramontes-Pattison, and Drummer Jesse Frimmer)

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

Victor, Matthew & Jesse:  There's so many artists … in the top though would have to be Waterparks! Honey Revenge we'd love to collaborate with them as well, we love working with them. Daisy Grenade, Cassadee Pope, Five Seconds Of Summer, Fall Out Boy....but we could go on and on, there are so many more we could list out.

The Happy Accident ... Iconic AIA Merch

How do you guys stay up during those long tour nights?

Victor:  Caffeine. So much caffeine. Matt got an Aero Press, shout out Aero Press! He brought an Aero Press on this one which if you've never made boiling hot coffee in a vehicle while moving...you are missing out on the most ridiculous power stance you will ever have to make for caffeine. You spread your legs as far as possible and you gotta hope the driver doesn't hit the brakes because you will go straight into the wall. Jesse got slammed into the wall.

Can you talk to us a little bit about your merch, the designs are so fun and unique!

Jesse: We need to give a huge shout out to Maria Fulan who did most of our merch and Andrew Steven Cook did all the latest assets from this tour. One of the items that ended up being created on accident was the Cheetos jersey, that turned into having a life of its own.

That Hot Cheetos mesh jersey turned into one of your top selling merch items. How did that make its way into your merch line?

Victor: That Cheetos jersey... I have never spent a better $12 on a thrifted item. While we were in Dallas for a show we came across a thrift store a few blocks from where we were staying and found it. For however many shows after I found it I would wear it. In Denver, at Mary theater we asked our fans if we should make merch of this? And everyone said yes. And then we made it and it does great! Now we're so happy and then we made like white Cheetos Jerseys for ourselves to wear on stage. So it's become a staple for sure. It's a very distinctive too, like that's not like, oh, it's a band T shirt. We've since been back and unfortunately that thrift store isn't there anymore. 

Fans Cheering on AIA As They Enter The Stage For Their First Headlining Tour

What is one of your most memorable encounters, favorite parts of touring ?

Victor:  There are a few that come to mind. When we met Vic from Pierce The Veil, besides being fans of him and getting to meet in him person, the entire interaction was hilariously memorable. To start off, my name is also Vic...as he went around introducing himself he would shake our hands and go "Vic". Jesse goes first says “Jesse”, then Matt goes “Matt”, I just look him in the face and say "Vic" and he just looked at me. Jesse finally had to say "that's also his name, he is also Vic, not just shouting your name at your face like an idiot."

 

Matthew: Teddy Swims gave me one of his hats after one of his shows. We are big fans and when we saw him we told him what a great show it was and I mentioned that I liked the Jigglypuff hat he was wearing and he took it off and gave it to me. He said "it's kind of sweaty but you should have it" and walked away and I now have a Jigglypuff hat thanks to Teddy. It's awesome. 

Michael: What I like about touring is the structure of it. Every day is planned out down to the minute and I am able to thrive in that environment. The worst part is being away from my dogs and girlfriend at home. I always miss them but thankfully this lifestyle allows me to be home with them 24/7 when I am not on the road which I am thankful for.

Jesse and Matthew Live On Tour

Can you guys tell us a little bit about how this album came to be, any of your inspirations for this particular album?

Victor: With this record we started writing almost immediately after our Be More EP came out. I remember Matt and I were living together at the time and we were at home listening to the track and we were like, "We're on to the next record already. Let’s do this." 

Were you guys excited to find out you won our Top Sellers Award (Small Cap) for the month of August?

Victor: It kind of blew our minds. Being independent and being this far into things, like we kind of forget to look up from the Grindstone every once in a while. It was really pleasant surprise, to win Top Seller.

So, you know, thanks for, thanks for doing that. Thanks for recognizing!

Would you say that your journey from a new band to now was quick or did it feel like a long path?

Jesse: It took a long time to get to this point but it was so worth it. I wouldn't say we went the typical band path, we still do so much independently so i would say we are more like an industry parasite than your usual industry plants. 

What is next for Arrows In Action?

Matthew:  We are taking the tour across the pond. It's the first time for all three of us to be in the UK both as tourists and to tour! We end this year with a show in Philly and that closes out this tour. But what’s next? We're working on more music of course. We've got some things cooking as they say… big things coming next year. That sounds so anticlimactic because we can't share yet what those are but there are a lot of things we are working on and people we are having conversations with. We think next year will be the biggest year yet and hope to share some of what we are planning in the next few months!

 

Check Back For The Next AIA!