Fred The Metalhead

This project started during the early days of 2020. While I have been working in the entertainment industry for many years, I seriously reevaluated many aspects of my life and the goals I had set for myself. Work had come to a standstill. Many thoughts of projects and things to do with my time kept coming into my head, but one never seemed to leave. A children's book for Moms & Dads who were into metal music. The very few people I mentioned said, that's a great idea.

After taking some online courses and consultations, I still had my doubts, but there was no turning back. I reached out to my good friend Sean Cantor to see if he would be interested in being a part of this project. As someone who is deeply into metal music and has a wealth of knowledge regarding all genres, I felt he would be a good fit to help me talk through the storyline.

Next was to find an illustrator. I had plenty of resources to pull from, but none of those would quite get the feel I was going after, plus I didn't need to scare the kids either! So by chance, Sean had worked with Matty T (aka Karmavoid) on a project. I reached out to him, and it was a perfect fit. As a fellow metalhead, he understood where I came from with the story and was excellent to work with. Once I saw the first couple of draft,s I was so excited and nervous that I wanted to start telling everyone. But I live by the creed, that if you start speaking to too many people about a project, oftentimes nothing comes of it.

What took so long!?
It was 2022, the Entertainment Industry was bac,k and I was busier than ever. I had zero time to work on it. It was a bummer, but the project took a back seat for man,y many months. There were times I felt like scrapping it, taking the losses, and just saying, it just wasn't meant to be. Then it just comes up in my head, the wishes & dreams I want this to help a young kid and family discover metal music and not be afraid of it.

So I get back to the drawing board and work with Karmavoid, and we go back and forth for months getting the illustration just how I envisioned it. All the artwork is done in mid-2023, and I am still incredibly busy. It took another back seat for months, but I finally had some time to reflect while on a long flight back from Europe, and I said to myself, it's now or never. Do it by the end of 2024 or scrap it.

Well, here it is, I hope your child enjoys it and sheds a different light on what some of those odd kids in school or a community may just be trying to become someone that is in a band and on an album cover they were enamored by.

I hope it brings a new perspective for children and helps them embrace their musical interests.

Rob Castaneda – Author

An Entertainment Industry veteran specializing in merchandising and marketing services for bands & artists. Wanting to bring the love & passion of heavy metal music to young children to help keep this style of music alive and well. Along with helping them through the difficulties of growing up and not being part of the "In Crowd".
Based out of Melbourne, Australia. Matty T otherwise known as Karmavoid on Instagram has been a metalhead his whole life. Taking that same passion for music and putting it into his artwork, and a professional illustrator.