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y M. BEVISphotos GARY LoVERDECreepy Fest is a snapshotof where the scene is atthat year, at leastBill Heintz is a busy guy. He’s one of the masterminds behind Creepy Fest, a four-day-long localhardcore and punk music showcase that stretches over seven music clubs throughout the city of NewOrleans. Virtually every aspect of Creepy Fest has Bill’s involvement, from the design and execution ofthe posters and t-shirts to booking the huge roster of bands and playing in a handful of the scheduledacts. A prolific graphic designer, his art has graced hundreds of fliers, album covers and of course allofficial Creepy Fest promotional items (as well as last month’s ANTIGRAVITY cover). He’s also anin-demand musician in hardcore punk circles, playing drums for The Pallbearers, (who are celebratingtheir 17th anniversary this year) The Split () Lips and Dummy Dumpster. He also plays guitar in TheBills, which are closer to old surf or garage music than the aggression of hardcore punk. I was able toget a moment out of his schedule—literally right before a band practice—to ask him just how and whyhe does it all.The BillsI know that Creepy Fest hassomething to do with localunderground film studioTerrorOptics; can you give me someinfo about the connection?Bill Heintz: Basically, that’s how it allstarted. The first year of Creepy Fest, meand my buddies in TerrorOptics had justfinished a film called Creepy Dean, and forthe soundtrack we had used music from abunch of local punk and metal bands. Wehad about 13 or 14 bands the first yearand we put them on the soundtrack, so itwas really a CD release festival to promotethe bands, the movie and the soundtrack.We would show the Creepy Dean film ateach of the gigs for that first fest and itjust kind of kicked off from there. Nowit’s a big punk fest but we still incorporateshort films as well.Considering that TerrorOptics hasfilms currently in production, willthe acts at this year’s Creepy Festbe featured on soundtracks forupcoming features?We are working on Attack of the CockfaceKiller Part III, but when it comes to thesoundtrack, we would really only includelocal bands. Basically over the years wehave incorporated out-of-town bands,bands that just seem to be touring throughat the time. So I’m usually booking thefest around February, right around MardiGras. Once I get the clubs to sign on, thebands come next and a couple of monthslater it’s time to start promoting the show.There’s definitely an emphasis onlocal New Orleans acts. Is this adeliberate booking policy, or doesit just happen that way because ofhow many bands are actually herein town?Sort of. I mean, the original purposewas just to have an annual punk musicfestival in New Orleans. You have a lotof bands that will break up, then re-form;or members of a few different bandswill start a new act, so Creepy Fest is asnapshot of where the scene is at thatyear, at least. We do purposely use a lotof New Orleans bands; we want it to be abig local show. But like I said, we do havesome touring acts as well.Seeing as how Creepy Fest hashosted almost every workinghardcore punk band in NewOrleans over the last five years,what’s your take on the local scenehere?I feel like right now it’s great. In the lastcouple of years it’s snowballed; there’s alot of new bands, a lot of genre-crossing,which is good. After Hurricane Katrina, ittook a few years for everything to fall backThe Bastard Sons of Marvin Hirschinto place, but now I think it’s going reallystrong. I mean there’s definitely shit tocomplain about, [laughs] but I try to lookon the bright side. Overall though, I’d saythings are going really well right now.Because you book Creepy Fest overa weekend and through multipleclubs, are there specific venuesthat you work with every year? Andconsidering the fact that hardcoremusic isn’t exactly popular withsome people, do they alwayswelcome you back?I’ve stuck with the clubs that have beengood to the bands over the years: SaturnBar, Checkpoint Charlie’s, Dragon’s Den,Siberia, The Big Top and Circle Bar.Those are the same clubs we were at last14