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Ari Lehman, widely known for portraying the first on-screen version of Jason Voorhees as a child, has many other sides. For instance, he composes music and fronts a metal band called First Jason, which just happens to be opening for Ice Nine Kills at the upcoming Silver Scream Con. Beyond that, he’s a genuinely nice guy who loves meeting fans and mingling with the horror community at conventions.
We had the chance to chat with Ari before his appearance at Silver Scream this year, and he couldn’t be more excited. He also has a few projects in the works that we’ll be keeping an eye on!
iHorror: Hey Ari! You’re appearing at The Silver Scream Con again this year from September 13th to the 15th! What can you tell us?
Ari Lehman: First, I want to say that my band, First Jason, will be opening for Ice Nine Kills at the concert during Silver Scream Con on Saturday the 14th!
Dude, that’s awesome! That’s really big news!
It is! As far as the convention goes, from my perspective, I might have one of the greatest vantage points on what Ice Nine Kills, Spencer (Charnas), and Silver Scream have really contributed to this amazing worldwide family of horror. We’ve got horror filmmakers, horror actors, horror tattoo artists, people who run haunted houses, people who do festivals. It’s such a big family. Things were moving along in a certain way. We came through the slasher era, we came through “The Walking Dead” era, and people probably thought, what more is there to say?
This is where I feel I can speak to this very eloquently. You look at Spencer’s approach, and it’s informed by that emo perspective. It was a totally new way of looking at these characters—from a very introspective side. “He drowned in all our fear, he drowned in our mistakes.” (Lyrics from Ice Nine Kills’ “Thank God it’s Friday.”)
Rewind. When Spencer asked me to sing on the acoustic version of “Thank God it’s Friday,” it was an incredible experience for me. Here I am, doing my own thing. My lyrics come from that anger, that fierce and brutal Jason. Then I heard Spencer’s lyrics, and wow… It’s just amazing what he did. That’s just for one franchise, for Jason. He also did that for Michael, Freddy, “THE EXORCIST,” and “JAWS.” When I first saw them (Ice Nine Kills) here in Chicago, it was packed, and I saw the response—how almost every fan was singing all the lyrics. It’s a phenomenon. They’ve breathed new life into all these older franchises.
iHorror: I’ve been to a lot of conventions, and I know you have been to more than I have. Many times, they feel like merch and autograph factories. Silver Scream Con feels more about the culture. More about the horror community. Probably because it’s by horror fans, for horror fans, not just by some big company for profit. Thoughts?
Ari Lehman: Well, you’re hitting a real topic there that I definitely know a great deal about. Initially, a lot of the conventions way back were truly fan-supported entities. Then what ended up happening, in certain cases, is you have vendors who came in and were doing backroom deals with celebs. So, what ends up happening is, they say look, you pay these people’s guarantees, we’ll come in and do autograph work with them, and cover their guarantees. I’m giving you guys the inside scoop here. That’s all wonderful, except what it does is it changes the scope of how the event is drawing. In other words, they don’t need to create an entertainment-based event, and it becomes more of a sales-based event.
If someone pays to get there, you’re paying for gas, you’re paying to park, paying to get in, and now you walk up to the first table and somebody is asking for, I don’t know, maybe $50.00 for an autograph and a selfie. Then you get to the next table, and it’s the same thing. I often wondered, especially for a family that walks in there with a bunch of kids, how can that be fun? It’s got to be fun for everyone. If someone comes up to my table in that situation, I’ll be giving out lots of freebies. That’s just who I am.
iHorror: I saw you do it last year!
(Laughing.)
Ari Lehman: Maybe we shouldn’t print that. (Laughing.)
iHorror: No, no, no. It’s all good. It all works out. It’s a matter of, let’s all have fun, and make it entertaining.
Ari… you’re the man. How did you end up getting involved with Silver Scream Con originally?
Ari Lehman: See, this is a crazy thing. I do a lot of autograph signings. This was years and years back, I was doing autographs and a vendor brought his kid with him, who was about 15. I was playing music by my band, First Jason, and the kid was into metal. He asked me really nicely if he could put on a CD of a band he thought I would like: Ice Nine Kills. This was so many years ago. I instantly thought of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., because Ice Nine comes from his book “Cat’s Cradle.” I thought that was cool. Sure enough, he put the CD on, and we were blasting it in this auditorium, and I was just floored.
Then, a few months later, I got an email from Spencer (Charnas). I was like, oh wow, it’s that band! I instantly jumped in, and he wanted to do an acoustic version of “Thank God it’s Friday,” and wanted to know if I could do it. The track worked out, and after that, he asked me to be a part of the convention. For me, it was just an amazing thought that a band would have their own convention. It was very natural and organic. But if not for that kid telling me about Ice Nine Kills, I might have never opened that email. Who knows?
iHorror: I don’t want to take up all your time, Ari, but I do want to give you a chance to mention anything you might be working on or excited for.
Ari Lehman: Thank you! There’s an independent horror film that I’m in that people should check out. It’s a lot of fun. I played the Devil! It’s a movie called “LUST, MAGIC, and the WITCHES’ SABBATH.” It’s amazing. It was shot in Des Moines, and we played a rock show that night and then started filming at midnight. They painted me red from head to toe, with hooves and horns. It’s about the initiation of a young witch, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s definitely one of those B-horror thrill rides, but I do have to say that it does respect the lore of Wicca. They did a great job with that.
iHorror: This is out now?
Ari Lehman: Oh, yeah. It’s out there! Of course, I was also in “THE BARN,” and “THE BARN 2.” Then with First Jason, we’re doing so much great stuff. We’re doing a lot of live shows, we’ll be at Silver Scream Con, opening the concert, and we’re going to rock the roof off the place. Also, we’ve got some new remixes up. We’ve been working with our buddy DJ Flatline, out of Buffalo. We did a song called “Killin It,” which is a collaboration with Alex Vincent from “CHILD’S PLAY,” Courtney Gains, who played Malachai in “CHILDREN OF THE CORN,” the sexy sax man, Tim Cappello, from “THE LOST BOYS,” and Twisted!
I don’t know what happened, but DJ Flatline’s remix of it has gotten like 6,000 plays in just a couple of weeks. So, that’s up, and we’re so happy about that. It’s on Spotify, First Jason, “Killin It” remix.
Everybody out there, keep creating, don’t stop. Keep looking at the imagination of the dark side, because that is where you can get everybody’s attention. Also, if you can make it to The Silver Scream Con, and you come up to my table and mention this interview, you’re going to get something free from me!
iHorror: Sweet deal! We really appreciate your time, Ari! Thank you! We’ll see you at Silver Scream Con!
Be sure to check out Ari’s band, First Jason and if you’re attending Silver Scream Con, don’t forget to mention this interview at Ari’s table for some free goodies! See you there!
