Bass player with Des Moines band Green Death
Parker Willis, a junior at Greene County High School, had a very good day Feb. 10. He learned that the radio news group he’s part of was selected for the All-State Speech Festival. He’s a member of the Jazzatonics jazz choir, and that group got straight Division I ratings at the state jazz choir contest that evening in Jefferson. And to top off the day, he learned that the band he plays bass in, Green Death of Des Moines, had been selected to perform in Lazer103.3 radio’s LazerFest this summer. “It was a really crazy day,” he said.
It’s the LazerFest invitation that has more people talking. LazerFest, which showcases “metal” bands, will draw between 10,000 and 20,000 people, Willis explained. In 2010, the festival drew a crowd of 30,000. Green Death will be the first band to perform, probably at 11 am or so. As the day progresses, better known bands will take the stage. Still, Willis expects between 1,000 and 2,000 people will be there for the early music. “It will be a great promotion for us, to see how many people we reach,” Willis said.
The band was selected for LazerFest based on its performance at a Battle of the Bands Feb. 7 at Wooly’s in downtown Des Moines. Wooly’s is Green Death’s “home stage.” Click play below or visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcdF4QEVabg to see the performance.
Willis was first drawn to rock music in fifth grade. He started playing bass in seventh grade after trying guitar. “It seemed a little less complicated than guitar. And then I learned that it’s the bass that gets people moving. That’s what moves the music. You don’t have to do a lot to be cool when you’re playing bass,” he said.
He and buddies Kyle Kennedy and Daniel Rohner formed a garage band they called Social Disease. They played blues and punk rock. “We just mostly passed the time. It was something fun to do,” he said.
During the fall of his freshman year, Willis auditioned for the Des Moines-based hard rock band Only. He didn’t get the gig, but Only members said they’d keep him in mind if they again found themselves needing a bass player.
Only disbanded about a year ago and came back with a different style of music and a new name: Green Death. Willis was invited to join when Green Death formed. Other members of the group – Erich Tran on lead guitar, Mark Reinking on rhythm guitar, and Sol Bales on vocals – are older, having sung together since the 1990s. All three hold fulltime “day jobs” as professionals. Willis is the youngster in the group.
“There’s less goofing around,” Willis said comparing Green Death to his previous playing experience. “They run the band like a business, and they write songs of their own. They’ve been around the block.”
Willis said that Green Death’s music is more abrasive than Only’s music, “but at the core is the integrity of Only. The music has melody and catchy tunes,” he said. Green Death’s music shows influences from many places, but the goal is to play hard-hitting metal sounds that will last, like those of Metallica, Megadeth and Ozzy Osborne, he said.
Green Death has produced a CD/DVD album, “The Deathening,” which is available on iTunes, at Amazon, and at CDBaby.com. The album was No. 68 on the iTunes metal charts in December.
The date and location for LazerFest hasn’t been announced yet. Green Death does have a firm date to play April 19 in Jefferson at RVP~1875. “It’ll be exciting to get to play Green Death in my home town. I can’t wait for that,” Willis said.
Willis plays electric bass in the Greene County High School jazz band and upright bass in the concert band. He occasionally plays in the percussion section, too. He sings in the concert choir and in Jazzatonics, and was selected for the All-State Music Festival chorus in 2013.
He is familiar to local audiences, having performed in the Community Players productions of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and the radical Perchik in “Fiddler on the Roof”; as Ren MacCormack in the high school’s 2012 production of “Footloose”: in Prairie Blue Creative Arts’ “Little Shop of Horrors”; and in History Boy Theatre Company productions of “Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson” and “Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
He said he’ll keep playing in Green Death as long as he can, and depending on where the future takes that group. He wants to pursue a career in music, though he named music education as the more likely choice than performance.
He is the son of Mitch and Lisa Willis of Jefferson.
