Bio

The Oct8pus was formed one fateful day at the Nashville Traveling Carnival in the small town of Puckett, Tennessee. William Valentine Jr. - known to his friends as Billy V - was working the door at the Amazing Freaks of the World attraction. Chazz Gallagher, on tour with his London-based Snot-Metal group, The Sweet Orgy Bears, happened upon the carnival by chance when his tour bus made a pit stop so their drummer, Vikk Styxx, could purchase a fabled deep fried Twinkie. Wandering the carnival, Chazz came upon the freakshow and decided to take a look at “Glenda the Lady with Balls” and “Joe the Camel Man”. Billy V, collecting Chazz’s ticket, immediately recognized him from a Sweet Orgy Bears show he had attended at the Crockett Park Festival the previous night. He immediately dissuaded Chazz from attending the freakshow, explaining that Glenda The Lady with Balls, was really just Glen, the man with boobs, and Joe the Camel Man was just a hairy guy who smoked too much. The two got to talking, and Billy explained that he was a songwriter looking for a band. Chazz told Billy that he feared Snot-Metal didn’t have much of a future, so right then and there, the two young men decided to form a group together. Shortly thereafter, Chazz went on to finish his tour with the Sweet Orgy Bears and Billy hitchhiked his way across the state in an effort to meet Chazz in New York City, the final stop for the Orgy Bears' tour. Somewhere in Auburn, Alabama, about four hundred miles out of the way, Billy was picked up by a trucker who introduced himself as Charlie Spasms. On their long journey to New York, Charlie explained that he was the son of Greek immigrants, Georgi and Ioanna Spasmodidis and he was an accomplished bass player and a huge fan of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Lipps Inc. Billy immediately recruited Charlie, despite his somewhat ornery nature (he got into two bar fights on their way to New York) and they made their way to the big city. Finally meeting Chazz in New York City, Billy and Charlie began the first Oct8pus sessions. They decided to name the band after the month of October since Halloween usually occurred on this month. The number 8 represents the fact that October used to be the eighth month of the year until Julius Caesar decided to invent a couple of months to suit his liking. The “pus” in Oct8pus represents Chazz Gallagher’s fondness for young, fluffy cats. Over takeout boxes of beef lo mein and General Tso’s chicken, the three newly found friends composed the majority of their first album. One night, when picking up the food from the Korean owned Chinese restaurant, Charlie heard the rich sound of syncopated drumming. He followed the rolls and fills to the alley behind the Chinese place, and he found a young man playing drums with chopsticks on pots, pans and buckets. He immediately recruited the drummer to the band. The mysterious drummer turned out to be Jong Kim Sung. Adopted by the Korean restaurant owners, Jong was a mentally challenged orphan in need of a home. The Sung family took him in and did their best to teach him Korean, English and the art of cooking. Jong, however, was incapable of learning, and he spent his entire life banging on buckets with chopsticks. He fit right in with The Oct8pus. With a functioning rhythm section now, the band was beginning to gel into something exciting. Their first gig was in a dive bar with an audience of three on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, opening for a German electronic band named Das Wiedervereinigung. The Wiedervereinigung glockenspielist, Helmut Von Blingen, left his band and joined The Oct8pus that night, saying he believed The Oct8pus was missing some keyboards, and beside, Das Wiedervereinigung saw complete Sheiße. The band welcomed him with open arms. Born in the Austrian town of Zwettl, and educated at the University of Vienna, Helmut provided the Oct8pus with a much needed soft edge, to compliment Chazz's rougher sounds and Charlie's fat basslines. He also provided the band with an intellectual edge that infused the musicians with a philosophical ethos that unified their eclectic sensibilities. Within weeks, the five members began arranging the songs for their first album, “Where’s Neptune?” Subsequently, they released a seven song EP named “A Tuesday in November” and in summer of 2010, they released “North Road”, their second full-length album. If you’re lucky, you may run into them in NYC, where they will be happy to serenade you or cook you a grilled cheese sandwich. More on the Oct8pus here: www.oct8pus.com/bio The Oct8pus is: Billy V Chazz Gallagher Charlie Spasms Helmut Von Blingen Jong Kim Sung