Darrick Patrick is a professional human being. Known for breathing air and having the ability to process oxygen, he can be found converting levels of energy to sustain his existence. He also is the creator of the Digested Puddle project, a film excursion into sensory assault and humor. Darrick interviews pro mixed martial artists as well, along with occasional individuals from other entertainment fields. Other activities include making music, writing disturbing stories, photography, and spending time with his twin daughters.
Daniel (TFE): When did you start getting involved with all the angles in the "entertainment" aspect of things, and what did you enjoy most about these things while growing up? Any fond memories as a kid?
Darrick: The main exposure that I had as a child to various means of entertainment came from spending time with my mother, Rita Patrick. She used to book various shows in the "underground" scene around Dayton, Ohio back in the 1980s. The main venue I remember her working out of, and living above, was a spot called The Building Lounge. It was primarily an alternative spot (back when alternative literally meant the word) saturated with hardcore, punk, Hip Hop, and metal bands.
I remember always having a blast as a lil' one around all of the different people that would be at the shows. A lot of the time the people in the bands would end up staying the night upstairs at my mother's apartment. One story I recall is when the Dead Kennedys spent the night after a show. One of mom's friends had their mother staying over as well, so she woke up early and made breakfast for the band. "Dead Kennedys, wake up, it's time for breakfast. Dead Kennedys, time to get up and eat!"
Other than the spots where mom did bookings, we would also attend shows at other local venues such as Brookwood Hall (Rebos), The New Space, Canal Street Tavern, etc. as well as heading to Columbus and Cincinnati to catch bands and weird art shows. She always seemed to know everybody, whether they were in local projects or more famous acts.
During those younger days, I was also exposed to a lot of artists and writers. Mom always had cool underground comics and magazines laying around as well. Books such as Eerie, Creepy, Heavy Metal, and later on The Crow, Badger, and The Sandman. Combining that with all of the Batman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men books my grandmother Nancy Walters used to get me at flea markets, my love for comic books and graphic novels was born.
I lived with my grandmother for the most part while growing up, so I would primarily get to spend time with my mother Rita on the weekends. It was either the late '80s or early '90s when mom relocated down to New Orleans. She would still come back to Dayton to stay at times, but she was mainly living in Louisiana from there on out. I lived on and off with her in New Orleans for years. The exposure to musicians, street performers, writers, dancers, and the other aspects of art and entertainment exploded in front of me.
A lot of the people we were surrounded by and going to see at shows in New Orleans were/are in bands such as Exhorder, Soilent Green, Eyehategod, Superjoint Ritual, Graveyard Rodeo, Down, Goatwhore, Crowbar, etc. In more recent years, she was exposing me to NOLA musicians and her friends such as The Pallbearers, Coco Robicheaux, The Unnaturals, and Guitar Lightnin' Lee. MC Trachiotomy is also one of her closest brothers, having known Rita for quite a long time. It was quite an experience to be exposed to the levels of reality that mom consistently had around me ever since the early '80s. I have a ton of great, hardcore stories to carry with me due to the time spent with her.
Unfortunately, my days/nights of going to shows with and meeting people through my mother are in the past now. She was diagnosed with cancer back in 2009 and left this plane of existence on April 23rd, 2010 at the age of forty-five. It never really occured to me the possibility of her being gone so soon. Rita Lynne Patrick opened my eyes and mind to a side of life most children don't get the opportunity to see in a "normal" parental situation. I love and miss that woman. What she showed me will never be taken for granted.
Daniel (TFE): I see you interview MMA superstars of all brands and organizations, how is that? Who can you name as being one of your favorite interviewees?
Darrick: I was contacted by a guy who had a social networking site back in 2006 and he asked me to be a partner, mainly acting as the face for the website who provided entertainment and fresh ideas. I agreed and began plugging away on the site. I had also been a fan of mixed martial arts for quite some time and began inviting various professional fighters to have profiles at our site.
In March of 2007, it dawned on me to start interviewing some of the fighters to feature on the front page of the website. I began with a fighter named Lee Shone and followed up with Elvis Sinosic, Roxanne Modafferi, James Lee, Andrew Chappelle, Jeremy Jackson, Richard Montoya, Brad Dillon, Ray Elbe, and Benji Radach for 2007 (as well as comic book writer/artists David Mack and Mickmo).
The social networking site fizzled out early in 2008 when the fellow I was working with allowed the server to go down several times. We pulled the plug on that project and went our separate ways. The interviews already had a bit of an audience though, so I decided to continue contacting individuals (primarily fighters) to interview. That's when I really started cranking them out.
A website called http://www.nokaut.com contacted me about posting my work in their interview section, which provided a quality area to showcase the pieces to a MMA audience. Since then, I've also had my interviews picked up by a few other sites. To this date, it's all been contribution material. I haven't ever been paid for any of my mixed martial arts work, so I just count it as a glorified hobby. I hope to possibly turn it into a paying gig at some point, but for now I just enjoy bringing whatever extra attention I can to the various individuals within the sport.
As for one of my favorite interviewees within MMA, I'd have to say Boban Simic. All of the different people I do interviews with of course have different styles from one another, but Boban is definitely someone who stuck out to me. I've been more than happy with the majority of the interviews so far though.
Daniel (TFE): I noticed you also like underground metal in general as well. Can you name a few bands you know of, and what is it do you exactly do for the underground scene, in or outside your area?
Darrick: Well, as I stated about my mother's influence earlier, I'm a big fan of the Louisiana metal. That sludgy, swamp metal with a hardcore presence and speedy-yet-slow delivery. Really though, the whole Eyehategod/Superjoint Ritual/Goatwhore type of crowd. That music just feels like home to me.
I love bands like Assjack, Candiria, Acid Bath, Meshuggah, and Arson Anthem. Also, the classics of course like old school Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse. Some of the groups I call "metal" may not fall into the same category to other people, but if it's intense with a powerful energy to it I consider that to be pretty damn metal.
My involvement in the scene has been fairly nonexistent since the 1990s. I've just tended to keep myself busy with a ton of other projects that has ate my time away since. Of course I go out to shows and support different musicians when possible, but I don't get to spend even a fragment of the time I used to amongst the underground venues anymore. I plan to become more involved again at some point, but it's just a matter of finding the time to do so.
Daniel (TFE): How long have you been a fan of MMA and what do you appreciate about it most as a REAL sport?
Darrick: I've been a fan of sorts ever since UFC 1: The Beginning back in 1993. It may have actually been in 1994 when I saw the event, I can't really recall for sure. I remember my grandmother's boyfriend Jerry bringing it home on a VHS tape that he borrowed from someone. I watched a few of the early UFC shows, but pretty much forgot to look for new ones and didn't really follow the sport too closely until probably 2002.
In general, I'm not really too much into sports. I sort of dig some of them, but I'm not the "regular guy" when it comes to being a sports fan. I'd always leaned towards the opposite of mainstream activities for the most part, so sports never really appealed to me a whole lot as I got older. After I rediscovered mixed martial arts though, I found a sport that I can get genuinely excited about.
The pure, primal competition of MMA is what really attracts me the most to the sport. It's one person battling another person and that's it. Skill against skill. Toughness, heart, and the study of the martial arts combined. It's straight to the point with no beating around the bush. It's a basic level of competing that has existed as far back as human history can be examined, but with honed techniques, professional athletes, and rules.
Daniel (TFE): What other hobbies do you have outside or at home? What is your life like currently with the arrival of your new twin babies?
Darrick: Since the twins have arrived, I really haven't had time for much else other than catering to their whims. My girls Logann Nicole Patrick and Nola Lynne Patrick were born on January 27th, 2011 and it's been a hectic vortex into baby land thus far. They are definitely keeping my girlfriend Niki Wooten and I on our toes. It's a trip. Stressful, yet fulfilling.
Outside of that new main hobby of parenthood, there are a ton of things that I get into. The majority of what I'm into tends to be some form of art. I like messing around with photography when I can. I like capturing quality images of people that they can be proud to have of themselves. I don't work with any type of high caliber cameras or anything yet, but I'd like to delve into that aspect of it all someday.
I enjoy creating film too, although it's been years since I've shot any footage. Some friends and I embarked upon filming of stunt and prank comedy material back in 2000 and 2001. Sort of in that Jackass-vein of footage. We actually have some really good stuff in that pile of madness. I've never gotten around to editing it and getting the flick together though. Another project that I hope to complete by 2025. (Laughs) It's called Digested Puddle and I have a few clips floating around online. One of the scenes where my buddy Dave Stephens is caught on fire was used on The Maury Show a couple of years ago with Maury Povich making comedic comments over the footage.
I'm also a big fan of the comic book format of entertainment. I've always loved art and words, so it seemed to go hand in hand that I would end up being an avid reader of illustrated stories. I'm open to all types of graphic novel and comic book styles. From the more well-known characters from Marvel and DC to the abstract independent titles. I love just about all of Vertigo books such as Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Preacher, Animal Man, DMZ, Fables, and Y: The Last Man.
A few other notable books that have helped to suck me deeper into the fanboy world include Kabuki, The Boys, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, Sin City, X-Statix, Channel Zero, Lenore, Jinx, and The Walking Dead. You can actually see my first two published comic book letters in issue numbers 7 and 20 of The Walking Dead. I had chatted with some of the more popular writers and artists before, but The Walking Dead was the first book I ever wrote to. (Aside from me sending a letter to the Badger from First Comics when I was seven years old. How was I to know that he didn't really exist?)
I have been jotting out ideas for some psychologically weird stories recently and plan on putting out a few underground comics of my own over the course of the next couple of years. A few of them will use photography to tell the stories along with the words, while the others I will have to find quality artists for. In the meantime, to quell my thirst for being more than just a reader/collector of the genre, I have been starting to sell books as well. I'd like to eventually turn that side hobby into something more lucrative as time goes by.
Daniel (TFE): Can you name a few fighters that you respect highly in the UFC right now, or new up-and-comers?
Darrick: UFC fighters such as Kenny Florian, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Stephan Bonnar, Randy Couture, and Matt Hamill get a lot of respect from me. They seem to embody that level of attitude and respect for their peers that really stands out to me as to what my understanding of a martial artist has always been. There are quite a few other fighters who have that as well, but that's who came to mind instantly from the UFC roster.
I have respect for all of the fighters out there though. From the time I've spent getting to know a lot of the professional mixed martial artists, the main common thread that connects them all is their willingness to sacrifice and work harder than most other people. To get anywhere in the higher levels of MMA, you have to train consistently and continue to push yourself more past your breaking point every day.
As for up-and-comers, keep an eye out for the new weight classes and the influx of WEC fighters into the UFC now. It has always been so surprising to me how many UFC fans didn't know about the World Extreme Cagefighting organization, even though they are both owned by Zuffa. If you missed out on the WEC era, be sure to be on the lookout in the UFC for fighters such as Dominick Cruz, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, Urijah Faber, and Ben Henderson.
Daniel (TFE): Have you been in any bands during the past or present? Do you play any instruments at all?
Darrick: I messed around doing vocals for a couple of local Dayton bands in the '90s. I never really made it out of the basement to go play shows though. The first band I jammed in was called Sphen and that was more of a jazzy funk, hardcore Hip Hop project with a touch of metal. I did that with brothers J-Bird Smith on the drums and bassist John Paul Smith. Anything within a band format for me usually consisted of one those two being part of the equation. Sphen was more of a session band than anything and our songs sounded different every time we played them.
I also briefly worked on two projects called Lachesis Muta and Samsara during the 1990s Dayton hardcore scene. With both of those bands, I ended up not remaining with them and never played shows out. Looking back, I should've stuck it out with those projects but I think I just had a hard time coming to terms with all of the different personalities involved within a group of people.
After my short time of doing hardcore and metal work, I began focusing more on my love for Hip Hop. Not that typical rap music you mainly hear on the radio, but real music from the Hip Hop culture. Some of my major influences within that community growing up included artists like KRS-One, Wu-Tang Clan, Kool Keith, House of Pain, and Funkdoobiest. The main person though being Chuck D from Public Enemy. You can read more about that full story in an interview/article I did with Chuck D over in the Hype section (http://publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page2&item=207) on the official Public Enemy website.
I ended up releasing five freestyle albums in late 2004 and early 2005. September Freestyles, Mental Dislocation, Brand New Galaxy, Abstract Humanity, and Reconstructive Projections. All of the material on the discs are one-track recordings done on hijacked beats with Windows XP Sound Recorder and a broken microphone. The songs aren't the best sound quality, but they serve their purpose for documentating a ton of thoughts I had exploding from me at the time. Not very many people have retained copies of those original albums.
The subject matter I approached on those recordings was very different. I have positive, thought-provoking tracks such as Human Life is on the Way, Would You Tell Me, and Hiding My Insides. There are weird, abstract songs like Milk Gallon Marsupials, Flapping Skin, and Best Smelling Corpse. I also went into some very dark places with tracks titled Fascination With Flesh, Mainly Your Fault, and Washed My Hands. Just an eclectic mixture of human emotion.
I'll make my way to eventually writing and recording a "real" album down the line a bit. I have a lot to say that I'd like to put to music and I have the itch in me to perform still. It's not on my immediate list of goals in life, but it's on that list nonetheless.
You can find Darrick Patrick in the following online areas:
Darrick Patrick MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/darrickpatrick
Facebook Site for Darrick Patrick:
http://www.facebook.com/darrickpatrick
Darrick Patrick Interview Archives:
http://www.myspace.com/darrickpatrick/blog/343519835
Twitter Area for Darrick Patrick:
http://www.twitter.com/darrickpatrick
YouTube Account for Darrick Patrick:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DarrickPatrick
Secondary YouTube Account for Darrick Patrick:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DarrickPatrickExtra
Darrick Patrick Reference Profile for other Online Material:
http://www.myspace.com/darrickreference
(This interview originally done for Transylvanian Forest E-zine in February of 2011)