The Archfiend UP Interview w/Brian Lafave.

Archfiend UP joins Vigilantes Radio Live to discuss the powerful concept album Lost Forever, a hard rock/metal project designed to raise awareness about human trafficking. 🎸⚡ Created entirely by musician Brian Lafave, the album tells a haunting story chapter by chapter through emotionally driven music and storytelling. Featuring the single “Caged in Fear,” the project explores the tragic journey of a young girl caught in the horrors of exploitation. In this conversation, we explore the creative process behind the album, the responsibility artists carry when addressing serious issues, and how music can inspire awareness and action. This episode is heavy in sound—and even heavier in purpose. 🔥

https://www.youtube.com/@ArchfiendUP/featured

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Produced, edited, mixed, and written by Demetrius "Whodini Blak" Reynolds, Sr.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:04):
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Call in to join the mix at seven oh one, eight.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh one, nine eight one three.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
For the complete archive of episodes, visit only onemediagroup dot
com and be suls like us on Facebook at Vigilantes Radio.
We welcome all. Enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen. Please
welcome your host Demitrius who Demi Black Reynolds. Enjoy the show.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Hey, Hey, Hey, what's going on? Guys. Welcome to another
incredible episode of Vigilantes Radio live right here on iHeartRadio.
My name is Deanie. We have a very special guests
for you, guys, so you could definitely want to stick
around for that. And as a matter of fact, text
your buddies, your family members are even shared on social media,

(01:09):
rights now and let them know that we are about
to dive deep into another interview. Before I bring my
guests on, I do want to say, don't lose sight.
This is the frequency of the fearless. You know, some
music entertained, some music energized, But every now and then
music confronts it forces us to look at something uncomfortable,

(01:33):
something painful, something many people would rather ignore. Because the
truth is, some of the darkest realities in our world
stay hidden, precisely because nobody wants to talk about them.
Tonight's guests chose to do the opposite. Instead of looking away,
he turned tragedy into storytelling, pain into awareness, and music

(01:56):
into a warning. Through a powerful concept album Tied Lost Forever,
he tells the story of a young girl whose life
spirals into the nightmare of human trafficking. The story told
chapter by chapter through heavy guitars, emotional instrumentation, and raw Honest,
this isn't just a metal album. It's a message, a

(02:19):
reminder that behind every statistic there's a life, a story,
and a voice that deserves to be heard. You're not
just here for a talk show. And this isn't just radio.
This is revival for your mind, body, and spirit. This
is Vigilantes Radio Live. My name is kach Dini and
change is possible. Are you ready?

Speaker 5 (02:44):
You're listening to the Bigelanes podcast on iHeartRadio on MO
founder and owner of Noah Guy Heating and air Conditioning.
We're giving away twelve free HVAC systems this year, and
if you are so many no needs one apply now
at noa guisvac dot com. To grow this mission, we're
also seeking sponsors and donations. So let's change lives, one

(03:04):
system at a time. This is Digitlanni's podcast on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Well,
let's go, let's.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Go, let's go, let's go. What 's up? Guys? You're
listening to vr L. That is Vigilance Use Radio live
right here on iHeart Radio, and I am your host, Deani.
Our interviews are designed to go beyond the music, news, books, art, acting, films, technology, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, spirituality,

(03:53):
and sometimes even past that thing that we call the ego.
Our interviews are designed to go behind the scenes into
the minds of these brilliant people, you know, the ones
who are out there giving it. They're all for me, for.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
You, and for the world.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, ladies and gentlemen. Our next guest arch Been Up,
is the musical project of Brian Lefevre, a multi instrumentalist
a songwriter dedicated to telling powerful stories through hard rock
and metal writing, performing and producing the music himself. Brian

(04:28):
created the concept album Lost Forever to raise awareness about
the devastation reality of human trafficking. Each song represents a
chapter in a tragic story designed to educate listeners while
delivering emotionally charged music. Through intense instrumentation and storytelling, arch

(04:49):
freen Up transforms heavy metal into a platform for awareness
and social impact. So, without anyar further ado, please on
me insane, welcome friend to Brian with faith. Hey, Hey, hey,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
How you doing doing good? How are you today?

Speaker 7 (05:16):
Good?

Speaker 8 (05:16):
Good?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
All right again, welcome to the show, Brian. We're so
excited to have you tonight. Before we really just kick
off things. You know what's been on your heart and
mind lately. As Lost Forever continues reaching listeners and bringing
attention to such an important issue.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
I'm excited. I'm excited that it's it's doing as good
as it's as it's doing. I was, you know, I'm
creating this concept album. I was nervous to see how
you know, it was it would fare out, And it
seems to be doing pretty good. So I'm pretty excited

(05:58):
at that.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
All right, cool? So what made you want to take
on this mission that a lot of people I don't
know don't really get involved in because of the dangers
of the powers they be.

Speaker 6 (06:14):
Well, honestly, it started out I was I was gonna
I was talking to my producer, Paul Schroeder from Megatone's studio,
and we were just originally going on freshen up a
couple of songs that did like fifteen years ago. But
I always wanted to board a song about human trafficking,

(06:35):
and I just got, you know, thinking, and I'm like, well,
you know what, you know, what if that? Because I
was thinking of Queen's right ex operation in mind crime.
Uh watched the Crimson Idols, and I'm like, why what
if I wrote a concept album? And then I kind
of I wasn't sure about a character, you know, because
of the age of the character. I wasn't sure, if

(06:56):
you know, because I you know, the age of the
character is a fourteen year old girl. You know, do
we use a child do we use an adult? What
would impact the audience more so?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
I did you know?

Speaker 6 (07:09):
I chose the child, you know, the child libit residing
with her parents. The father's a horrible, you know, horrible person, alcoholic,
you know, he section lesses her. Her mom was always
the one that helped to protect her. Then her mom
becomes ill passes away, believing her you know, to live

(07:31):
with her father until she can no longer deal, and
then she ends up running away. And this is where
her life takes a horrible turn. And you know, in
writing it, I could have did two different highways where Okay,
she's saved, she lives happily ever after, but it's like,

(07:52):
does that really happen in life? I mean, this is
something that really happens. So I just wanted to impact
the audience with a story, you know, realizing no this,
you know, she's her life is worse and until she
finally could no longer deal, and then she ends.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Up committing suicide, which she.

Speaker 6 (08:13):
Ends up being back with her mom. You know, she
is you know, to the afterlight, reunited back with her mom.

Speaker 8 (08:20):
But that's that's.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Kind of how all that went. And I, you know,
we just started write and writing and the songs they're
actually chapters and they go and you know, they have
to go in order to tell the story, I guess.
So that's kind of how that came.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
About all right, Now, there are a lot of trafficking
victims out there, some that made it, some that were rescue.
You know, uh, does your album or con conceive album
provide a silver lining because some people do do survive
and some people do, you know, pick up pieces of

(08:59):
their lives. You know, they're not in the they don't
all in in death per se.

Speaker 6 (09:06):
Right, No, and you are totally right, you know, And
I just use the the percentage, the bigger percentage of
that most victims are never found. If they are, they're
found in death. And so basically, but you know, yes,
like I said in the end the last songs, that's

(09:29):
the story of generally, you know, we did it where
police came in, shot and killed Charlie, rescued the girls.
You know, Jenna, you know, didn't make it because she
just couldn't hold out no more. You know, you're know,
the audience is looking at forty five minutes of movie,
but honestly, her life go out and she's been there

(09:52):
for years basically. But yeah, like I said, there was
a couple of highways that could have went and even
mid through my uh my animation director Michael l In
he goes you know, he says, you know you are
potentially it's actually assaulting and killing the fourteen year old girl.

(10:13):
You know that, right? I'm like, yeah, I know, Like
I got ninety percent of writing the album and I
kind of stopped myself. I'm like, god, you know, how
do I did I keep going?

Speaker 4 (10:24):
Or what?

Speaker 8 (10:25):
You know? What should I do?

Speaker 6 (10:26):
But the character is now that I use generally Laurie,
the girl in the red dress, and then Charlie himself.
Those are actually real people. My daughter is playing generally,
her friend Lorissa is actually playing Laurie. Then my uncle
Charlie is actually playing Charlie. So I ended up using

(10:47):
real characters before the characters in the story.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Yeah. Wow, that is amazing. That is amazing. Uh So
let's talk about the band one man band scene Up
or archeen Up. It's essentially a band part about one person.
What inspired you to take on the challenge of not
only writing all the parts, but performing nearly every element yourself?

Speaker 6 (11:16):
Well, actually the band, I do have a band. We
just at this point off a bass player. But you know,
we're nine to five, work and stiff, you know, like
everybody else out there. I just you know, I wrote
that yes, I wrote everything myself, or wrote the story
and the music. It was just easier for me to

(11:40):
just go in the studio because I worked with Paul
you know many times before a Megaton studio, and it
was just here for me just to sit hold and
write everything go on there, you know, lay down on
the guitars. We had a studio drummer that did drum
for us. He uh, Paul provided me a drummer, and

(12:03):
you know, I just did the rhythm, lead, guitar, bass,
some keyboards, vocal and and it was I guess it
was just easier what I would I have wanted to
go under a full band. Yes, I would have wanted,
you know, because the drums weren't quite what I wanted,

(12:24):
you know. I mean there's some things that I you know,
but I just the time and the money where you know,
I live in escanab about the studio is like four
hours away, you know, eight nine hours you know drive
and I was doing it in the winter time and
it wasn't it took me a year to record it.
It took two years to do this, to finish this.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Wow, that's a two year process.

Speaker 8 (12:46):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
Okay, you have writing, recording and getting the CGI done,
the AI animation done.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
Yeah yeah, oh wow. So but you essentially wrote every
part yourself, even though other studio musicians may have played
played the parts.

Speaker 9 (13:04):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
The drummer Zach, he played the drums for me.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Mm hmmm nice.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Wow man, You're you're pretty talented there. So how where
did all this talent come from? I know you mentioned
Metallica back in junior high but dude, you have you
wear a lot of hats in this music world. You
can do a lot of things. Uh, But beyond that
Metallica experience, was that like a listening experience that you had?

Speaker 6 (13:36):
Well, my dad played guitar root little. I grew up,
you know, listened to Elvis, The Boys, Fourth Seasons, you know,
stuff like that. And then as I got a little
older in the junior higher than I got you know,
heavy metal, you know Metalla, Gun, Maga, Athans, Slayer and
all the eighties you know, the eighties bands. But by

(13:58):
the time I got to a decent eight I mean,
the music was changing and lunch was coming out, which
I like lunch. Grunch is cool too, you know, I
love Nirvana, But I mean, I you know, I wrote
a well fifteen years ago, we wrote a couple of songs.
We did an EP with Paul. You know, it turned

(14:19):
off and we went in with a full band and
it turned out pretty good. You guys said, I just
got talking to Paul. I said, hey, I don't have
a drummer. I said, I want to record some music.
You know, Yeah, it goes. I get a drummer and
you know, come on down. So you know, it's kind
of everything just I get. I'll get a lot of
a lot of my mugets. My main influence is James

(14:41):
Hadfield the Metallica. That is yeah, that is that.

Speaker 8 (14:45):
That is my guy.

Speaker 7 (14:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
So growing up, did you join any bands or start
any bands?

Speaker 6 (14:55):
You know? You know, I get over a round of guitar.
Then I started stood them around with the bass a
little bit. You know, I'm not really a bass bass player.

Speaker 8 (15:06):
I just.

Speaker 6 (15:08):
Played the instrumental wrong with guitars just to feel in.
But no, I never did band in school or nothing
like that. I mean I always kind of started around
with writing music though. Ever since I was little, I
was writing risks and trying to put risks together. That's
basically how I write my music. I'll start with some
risks and either that riff is going to be the

(15:30):
beginning song, or it's going to be a chorus. It's
gonna be a vocal line. You know, it's you know,
basically how I do it?

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah? All right? So, originally Caged in Fear was meant
to be a standalone song, a single. What made you
decide to expand the idea into a full concept album?

Speaker 6 (15:51):
No, Actually, Cajun Theer was originally going to be uh
the song called deliver Us from the Evil. I'll write
a song about dynamic possession. But then we wrote I
wrote that song heavy. I had a couple of rifts
when I. I wrote that song many years ago, but

(16:15):
I had that song is we have it on UH
track chapter seven just before chapter six, because six is
uh the It tells you what type of person Charlie is.
Like we go the bloodline. Bloodline is the introduction to
song six if you watch the movie, and then song

(16:38):
six seven is where the character generally is being kidnapped,
forced against her will. This is why the song is
so heavy when it starts off, because her heart's pounding,
you know the voice. She fell in love, look just
got paid. He's driving away, She's like, what is going on?
He's taking her, he's raping her, and this is why

(16:58):
this song is so heavy. That's what we did. The
vocals a little bit rough for the vocal lines, but
I wanted the chorus is smooth, you know, kind of.
But that's why this song is souf caged in fear.
This chapter called Cajun Fear Bigger. It'll go into chapter
eight where she come at suicide.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
Mm So whatever happened to this demon position?

Speaker 9 (17:22):
So the beginning of the.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
The beginning of that song was able. Originally, I wrote
that about ten years ago, and I got a couple
of riffs and I just couldn't get a vocal riff
for it. So then when I started writing the Loss
Forever album, those rifts came back, and then I was
able to incorporate a vocal riff for you know that

(17:47):
little that E quote I'm hit and that's got a
little little beat to it, and I was able to
put the vocal the vocal lines, and that so thybe,
we just saw the cage and fear and I scrapped
the idea. I mean I never even wrote any lyrics.
They started writing a little lyrics too about it. I
just strapped it.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
Yeah yeah, oh man, okay, okay, Well guys, we're going
to jump into some music we have cased in fear
queued up, and then we'll be right back with more
and Brian stay tuned.

Speaker 8 (18:17):
Nice kind of night.

Speaker 7 (18:57):
Away place the old phrase, with all the lost, with
all your bights, all you.

Speaker 8 (19:11):
Can rhno closer, guys, to get your name if you
going main.

Speaker 9 (19:20):
Closereside of elways.

Speaker 8 (19:27):
Later the way, lad, but you guys, get the hell away.
Did you try to fight with all your mics? You
guys gay.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
It in this world. Let's says out your hair.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
Row is lost, you all your different names, it's.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
All this par love your frames.

Speaker 9 (20:02):
Saying that a ray say grass house, your get your name.

Speaker 8 (20:08):
If you're going same.

Speaker 9 (20:13):
Close yourside of allways.

Speaker 8 (20:20):
There's only rape.

Speaker 9 (20:21):
You gotta get the helder array.

Speaker 8 (20:27):
You tried to fight God by your mind. You gotta gay.

Speaker 10 (20:53):
Sex trafficking in the US January this morning thirty billion annyway.
Last year, sex traffic has made one hundred billion in profit.
That's more than Intel, Microsoft, Nike, Google, and the Starbucks combined.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
The average age of entry is fourteen. Please leen me.

Speaker 9 (21:15):
U s pleaseen me.

Speaker 8 (21:37):
In oday.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
No it's not nice.

Speaker 8 (21:43):
The bear said in.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
The fear is fight.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
The time to fad by all your soul curious fear, fear,
O get yourney.

Speaker 9 (22:01):
If you win, clue your inside always.

Speaker 8 (22:12):
Layers.

Speaker 9 (22:14):
You gotta get the held array. Did you try to
fight with all your mike?

Speaker 8 (22:22):
Did you got a gay?

Speaker 11 (22:56):
Tonight we're taking an in depth look at human trafficking
Texas and all across the country. It's a major problem
all around the world that adds up to a staggering
five point seven million dollar industry every year. The US
is one of the worst countries globally for human trafficking
and it's happening right under our noses. In twenty twenty,
the Polaris Project, a group that helps track human travel.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
All right, all right, welcome back again. I hope you
guys were immersed in that experience, because I was that
was cased in fear. I kind of wanted to keep
going into the other chapter, but yeah, we got to
do our jobs. And then you know what, guys, we
need to have a listening part and just go chapter
one to the last chapter. That'd be great, right, all right,

(23:41):
let's go ahead and bring Brian back. Yo, yo, yo,
welcome back. Brian in you structure ass Hey, you structured
this album like a book, with each track serving as
a chapter. Why was storytelling so important to you? And
and and how you wanted listeners to experience this album.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
To grab and grasp what this character is going through
in life.

Speaker 7 (24:12):
You know.

Speaker 6 (24:12):
The first chapter shows her happy with her family. Then
it shows her mom becoming ill and passing, and then
it shows you the devastation that's you know, that's starting
to unfold in her life. And then you know, then

(24:34):
it's showing you how you know, she's fed up and
she's gonna run away. This is it, you know, And
it's showing her showing you that she's fallen in love
or she's thinking she's fallen in love and really that
she's not. And that's basically how the chapters go.

Speaker 8 (24:50):
It was.

Speaker 6 (24:53):
Kind of hard because I had to outline the story
before I could really initially start writing the mute. So
it was, you know, it was a little lot. It
was different. I ain't gonna say it was. It wasn't
really hard, but it was it was different.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Yes, yeah, all right. Finally you said that listeners shouldn't
shuffle the album, you know, so don't go on Spotify
and hit shuffle at all, play all the way through.
It needs to be experienced in order what changes emotionally
when someone follows the story from beginning to end.

Speaker 6 (25:36):
What the listeners need to do is go to my
YouTube channel arteen up and then play the playlist. Go
to the channel and play the playlist. Bat's where the
movie the story is Spotify? Actually, I think has it next.
It's just it's just basically, you know, you want to

(25:57):
you know yo, you want to listen to this, you
want to listen to and watch uh with this album,
there's like two highways. Okay, so I had I wrote
the music, but then we had to have the CJ
and animation to go with it, because basically it would
be like buying a Metallica album with no vocals. You had.

(26:19):
There was two things we as I took so long
to do because people like rock Pot Cartel get some
promo for me. And he came back. He played a
few songs, he came back. He goes, well, it sounds
you know, it's good. He goes, you like, it's good,
but he goes, it sounds like it's a girl that
lost your boyfriend. No, it's a human traffic victims story.

(26:41):
So you did you gotta in order to get the
full flavor, you have to watch the movie or you're
not any idea that might spotify it. I think it's
all mixed up, and they'd be like going to the
store buying a chapter book, ripping the chapters out, mix
them up, then go ahead and read it. You're not
gonna get the story.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Yeah, all right? All right, Well Brian, where can our
listeners connect with you on an Instannet and check out
more arch fiend Up music?

Speaker 7 (27:12):
All right?

Speaker 6 (27:12):
Well cool, and I appreciate I appreciate you having me
on your show. That was awesome.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
Oh, no problem, we enjoyed you.

Speaker 6 (27:22):
And yeah, they can. I have an Instagram either use
the YouTube channel archb and Up.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
Do you have a Spotify also? I do a music
on Spotify?

Speaker 4 (27:36):
Right, all right, listeners, Just in case you need those links,
I will have him in the description of this episode
and in the show notes. So all you guys have
to do is just click the links. Tonight's conversation with
arch fiend Up or mister Brian the Faith reminds us
that music can be more than entertainment. It can be awareness,

(27:58):
it can be education. It can be a voice for
stories that might otherwise remain unheard. If you're ready for
music that challenges as much as it inspires, check out
the concept album Lost Forever and listen to it chapter
by chapter. Brian mentioned the best place would be YouTube,
so I will in include that link. And remember you're

(28:21):
not just here for a talk show, and this isn't
just radio, this is revival for your mind, body and spirit.
This is Vigilantes Radio Live. Thank you so much, Brian.
We appreciate the Yeah you too. You take care YouTube.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Ye, he's to all.

Speaker 12 (28:42):
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(29:07):
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but there is perhaps a door window or back the
gage that we can we have a clue for you
to get into.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Life is short, but there are plenty of moments to
try and get it right. Pursuing your dreams and learning.

Speaker 12 (29:30):
From mistakes may be tough, or to regrant it's tough
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Speaker 8 (30:08):
This world.

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Race.

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You are now listening to vigil Lancy's Radio, the people's
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