Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas has spoken to NME about their new single ‘Play Dead’ – which was created in collaboration with online survival horror multiplayer game Dead By Daylight – wanting to reconnect rock music with horror, and what the future of the band holds.
Dead By Daylight is the “most-played horror game in history” and sees groups of four players taking on the role of a survivor as they try to escape a killer. Over the course of the online game’s 10-year history, Dead By Daylight has featured collaborations with iconic horror franchises Stranger Things, Saw, Alien, Resident Evil and Silent Hill as well as bands such as Iron Maiden and Slipknot.
On Friday (June 26), Ice Nine Kills shared their new Dead By Daylight anthem ‘Play Dead’ alongside a gory video that features skating legend Tony Hawk, Final Destination actor Devon Sawa and Terrifier 3 star Krsy Fox
The Boston band have already released two horror-themed albums and contributed to the soundtracks of Scream 7 (‘Twisting The Knife’), Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (‘Hell Of High Slaughter 2’) and Terrifier 3 (‘A Work Of Art’). This time around, they worked closely with longtime Dead By Daylight composer Michel F. April to “ensure the atmosphere, tension, and intensity felt authentic to the game.” They also spent time with the game’s creative team as well as diehard fans.
“Getting to collaborate with Dead By Daylight felt like entering a universe that already shared a lot of our creative DNA,” Charnas told NME. “It has built such a strong legacy, and we have a lot of respect for the game’s strange, sinister, and completely immersive atmosphere.”
“For us, the goal was to make the track feel less like something merely influenced by that world and more like something that could naturally exist inside it. That meant paying close attention to the details,” he continued.
Check out the full interview below, where Charnas talks about his love for the influential Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games, what the band’s recent run of singles means for the future and why horror is so important when the world feels so uncertain.
NME: Hi Spencer, what makes horror, gaming and guitar music such a perfect combo?
Spencer Charnas: “My favourite albums and games are often the ones that show movies aren’t the only medium that can feel ‘cinematic’. At their best, each of those things is not only intense but completely immersive. It can be equally thrilling to get swept away into the stylistic storytelling of a great game, a killer movie, or a captivating song.
“There’s something to be said for how each of them can be relaxing, as well. So naturally, whether it’s the killer songs in the first Scream or the enchanting scores that drive hours of gaming, putting all those things together creates a trifecta of creative and aesthetic experiences that can cross over into different fandoms.”
What are your favourite scary video games?
“‘Rainy Day’ from ‘The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood’ was our homage to Resident Evil, both the film franchise and the game series that inspired it. Silent Hill is rightly always part of any conversation about horror gaming. I naturally gravitate towards games based on classic horror franchises, like the forthcoming Halloween: The Game, where I got to voice a character for the digital deluxe edition. Dead By Daylight, of course, is the reigning champion of the survival horror genre. And I must give a big shout-out to Five Nights At Freddy’s now that our beloved Scream icon and OG Ghostface, Matthew Lillard, is a major part of the movie adaptations.”
Do you play any non-spooky games?
“The old Tony Hawk games were essential to me, not only for the gameplay and graphics but also for the finely curated soundtracks. Those games were immersive pathways to musical discoveries, offering a chance to learn about bands that weren’t typically played on MTV or the radio. The first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game alone featured Goldfinger, Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies and The Vandals Then came Bad Religion, Lagwagon, Millencolin, Swingin’ Utters Less Than Jake, My Chemical Romance and so many more cool and important bands.
“As someone who loved those games, I felt that having Tony Hawk appear with us in the ‘Play Dead’ video was a full-circle moment and yet another dream come true. On set, we bonded over many of the same offbeat pop-culture cornerstones, from punk to the irreverent ’80s comedies like The Naked Gun, which shaped my brain as much as horror did. And he was kind enough to put up with Dingbar.”
Is ‘Play Dead’ a good hint at where the band are heading next?
“I’ll leave it to our fans to trace the trajectory since our last full-length album and keep guessing. Together [recent singles] ‘The Art Of Dying’, ‘The Great Unknown’, ‘The Laugh Track’, ‘Twisting The Knife’ and ‘Play Dead’ paint a picture of the diverse places our creative spirits wander within the musical identity we’ve built and continue to expand as Ice Nine Kills. ‘Twisting The Knife’ gave us our first Number One Active Rock Radio hit in America. Following it up with something as heavy and intense as ‘Play Dead’ is exactly the kind of colouring outside the lines we love to do.”
‘Twisting The Knife’ was part of the Scream 7 soundtrack. What’s it been like to go from making musical love letters to iconic horror franchises on ‘The Silver Screen’ albums to actually being part of those worlds?
“For us, having Ice Nine Kills connected in an official way to Terrifier, Scream, Ready Or Not, and now Dead by Daylight is still hard to fully wrap our heads around. As someone who grew up obsessed with horror, I find it both surreal and incredibly meaningful.
“Scream has always loomed large for us creatively, and its music has been just as essential to that impact as the films themselves, beginning with Marco Beltrami’s incredible score. The original Scream soundtrack, in particular, left a huge mark on me, from Soho’s ‘Whisper To A Scream’ to Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ unmistakable ‘Red Right Hand.’ Those songs immediately put me back in that era whenever I hear them.
“To now have our own music become part of that franchise’s musical history is one of the biggest honours we could imagine. It also means a great deal to help reconnect rock music and horror cinema. There was a time when those two worlds felt deeply intertwined, and although that bond has not been as visible in recent years, we’re proud to contribute in some small way to bringing that energy back.”
There have been plenty of ‘elevated’ horrors in recent years such as Obsession and Weapons. That’s got to be exciting for a band who readily pulls from that world?
“Several excellent horror films, big and small, have emerged in recent years. Historically, there are always peaks and valleys, but the genre never truly dies, and there are always invigorating, challenging or just outright fun entries to uncover if you know where to look. At home, I still tend to rewatch the same classics I’ve always loved, and there are plenty of places left to explore. We could make a hundred albums and never run out of killer cinematic inspiration.”
Why do you think horror has such a wide appeal at times when the world feels uncertain?
“Even when it injects cutting social commentary (from multiple points of view) or draws on true crimes for inspiration, horror as an art form offers a unique kind of escapism that lets us set aside real-world terrors in favour of fantasy thrills and chills. Death has terrified, intrigued, and bewildered humankind for as long as we’ve been able to grasp its reality. Horror is a way to engage with those fears and questions in safe, smart, and often wonderfully silly ways.”
Ice Nine Kills’ collab with ‘Dead By Daylight’ is out now. The band have also confirmed details of a UK arena tour for early 2027 which will include their biggest ever headline gig at London’s O2 Arena on March 28. You can get tickets here.