Dirty Little Rabbits

The Making of the Rabbit
by M. Shawn Crahan

Well, it all started about twelve years ago when a close friend of mine invited me out to Chicago to watch her friend's band play at the Metro. It ended up being a couple of crazy days in Chicago, and little did I know I had just met the singer of my dreams. Because of her willingness to share her inner pain with the world I knew she would be the voice and the face of the music that would eventually become the Dirty Little Rabbits. She is my favorite female singer. Her name is Stella Katsoudas.

Sometime in 2007, during a jam session with a handful of friends the third piece of the puzzle came to fruition. Who knew that I would sit down at the drum set (after wanting to only play the organ) and that he would only play the organ (even though he had gone to college for drums?) It was all a dream. I'd never been so locked in with someone in my musical life. It felt free, utterly terrifying and most importantly, absolutely one hundred percent correct. We would be a force to be reckoned with. We knew how to sing together. We knew that we would write endless music together. His name is Michael Pfaff.

After a month of jamming and writing over a dozen pieces of music, it was time to take this new union to its next natural step and that was to get a bass player. But who? Everyone we knew was already in their rightful place, Pfaff had always had good luck in the past so he would find someone who would help us hold down the root of our art. He made one call and our next practice day, our new bass player came knocking at my door (literally) with the most honest hand. I thought to myself, if he's half as good as his knock, he's in. Well, he's been in this band ever since. He is the backbone of the band. His name is Jeff Karnowski.

It usually takes artists a lifetime to find all the pieces to their artistic puzzle, so it was not until 2010 that the Rabbits found their guitar player. He is someone who has always been around our art. Funny how it works out- almost from the very beginning, you already know the end. He was helping out at a friend's studio during the recording of our second E.P. Simon as well as our self titled debut, Dirty Little Rabbits. Good people and good music should be fun, at least in our opinion and we have so much fun with him. He has been there from the start and he'll be there until the end. His name is Ryan Martin.

As you can tell, it's taken us a good portion of our lives to learn how to trust ourselves to make the music we want to make. It's never come easy and we wouldn't want it any other way. We've been fortunate enough to enjoy what we do as artists. Music is and always will be God to me, and I enjoy it most when I'm able to share it with others. I've always thought music was the only way to create perfect communication. I was very young when I took to the drums and realized the possibilities that it opened for me. My life had truly begun. The madness started, and it hasn't stopped since. The most honest art form I can share is while playing the drums. My name is M. Shawn Crahan.

That's it, really. Five people who make up a band called Dirty Little Rabbits. Nothing more, nothing less. Just the willingness to create art from within a space that does not belong to you, only us. We are here to push ourselves into unpredictable saturation. See you down the rabbit hole, perhaps?