Mind World MediaB i o sText Box: David Gloyd’s Bio: David Rae Gloyd was born the fourth of five children to Lonzo and Donna Gloyd in McConnellsburg, PA on September 27, 1975. He lived in Birkley Springs, WV until the age of two, when he and his family relocated to his mother’s hometown of Milwaukee, WI. David graduated from Bay View High School in 1993, after completing the school’s Law and Protective Services specialty program. It was during those high school years that a close friend, Chris Cushinery, began to teach David how to play guitar, and the two of them formed a “spoof” band dubbed “Seattle”. The two man band made fun of the grunge bands of the time. Chris also helped to further develop David’s lifelong love of superheroes and opened his eyes to the comic book industry. Together, they began to develop Babylon Comics, but as their friendship faded so did the dream of their comic book company. That was also about the time that David began exploring his interest in filmmaking and started working on the now infamous “Doll Trilogy”. However, it was music that was moving forward at the time. Before their partnership completely dissolved, David and Chris began to form a more serious band. The auditions introduced them to Kurt Lewin, a bassist with what would soon reveal itself to be a domineering personality. At Kurt’s suggestion, they met with drummer, Dean Wood, but Chris didn’t show up, dropping out of the band before it even got started. Another perspective member also did not show up to the meeting, sighting personality conflicts with Kurt. David and Dean agreed to name the band “Dominion” upon Kurt’s insistence. Dominion recorded three songs, one original unnamed piece, and covers of Tool’s “Crawl Away” and Megadeth’s “Addicted to Chaos”. After going through several guitarists, including Chad Schreiner, who had all sighted Kurt as their primary reason for quitting, David and Dean fired Kurt, and convinced Chad to return as lead guitarist. At Chad’s suggestion, David and Dean also brought in Larry Weeks (currently of Rictus Grin) as their rhythm guitarist and, free of Kurt’s influence, the band renamed themselves Raven Black. To run the business end of the band, David formed Dark Raven Studios, and co-managed the band with Dean, as well as continuing as lead vocalist. The line-up stayed the same for some time with only bass players changing frequently. Together they wrote and recorded songs like “Despair”, “Fall From Heaven”, and “Breach of Sanity”. Along the way, Larry and Chad asked David to join them in a side project that was dubbed “The Rictus Grin Project”. This line-up saw Chad taking over on drums and Larry’s brother-in-law, Mike White, taking over lead guitar, while Larry and David held the same positions as in Raven Black. The project only lasted for one song, “The Master”, but would later morph into what would become Larry’s current band, Rictus Grin. David also recorded his first solo single “I Don’t Even Care”, which was written jokingly about the sexual tension between two friends of Raven Black’s. The band members were all becoming increasingly frustrated with their lack of progress. David was forced to miss some practices and was not performing at 100% due to an illness caused by an infection which he had been suffering from. This led Dean, Larry, and Chad to make the decision to fire David from the very band which he had formed. After losing his job, a recent break-up, being kicked out of his home, and dealing with health issues, the betrayal of his band-mates was too much, and David entered into a deep depression. Months later, things seemed to be picking up. David found a new job (although too late to prevent his car from being repossessed) and continued following his film interests. Soon, he was offered a chance to move to Texas to work for a production company owned by the father of a friend. It also came with it a chance to co-run a local music-video program. However, it was not to be, and David found himself betrayed once more by a “friend”, leaving him without a job and homeless once again. David spent the next few months unsuccessfully searching for work. He spent his time living between his van and a spare room in a friend’s condo. Having no money for food, he knew it was time to do something. So, he signed up for three years in the United States Army and shipped out to Ft. Benning, GA for basic training in June of 1997. After completion of basic training (which took twice as long due to sustaining an injury) and Bradley School, David was sent to Ft. Hood, where he was introduced to John Bonk, and their mutual interest in playing music led the two of them to quickly become the best of friends. One night, while at a local bar that they frequented because of the live music, David and John met Scott Recnor, his wife Niki, and Dan Szathmary. As it turned out, Scott, who played drums, and Dan, who played guitar, had been jamming together for a while. The five of them (and later with Marty Sweeten on harmonica) formed One Man Down which they named for David’s required absence early on due to his serving out a military punishment. One Man Down had an impressive set list that ranged from covers such as “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Highway to Hell”, “Born to be Wild”, and “Celebrity Skin”, to originals like “Purple Frog”, “Complaint Department”, and “Lima Love”. They were capable of making something of themselves in the music world, but unfortunately did not put everything they had, concentrating more on individual futures beyond the army. Scott got out first, and when he and Niki moved to Canada, One Man Down was finished. David, John, and Dan spent a great deal of time together afterwards, but their music became limited to acoustic performances at the Szathmary house, David and John playing on 6th Street in Austin, and a few recordings done primarily by David and Johnny. David also wrote and recorded a few solo songs such as “Broken Eyes”, “March of the Damned”, “The Haunted” and “Joe’s Place”. Often, John would tell David tales of Pere Cheney, MI, and the two of them would spend long night thinking of ways to develop those ideas as a video game or movie. When David got out of the army, John, Dan, and a few friends had agreed to help him finish The Doll Trilogy’s first two films. However, in an attempt to keep David in Texas as long as possible, his friends made every effort to slow any progress with the films’ completion. The imminent separation also caused a rift between David and John. Frustrated, David packed all of his belongings into his car and headed back to Wisconsin to finally be with his girlfriend, Tammy Wagner. David and Tammy were married on October 7, 2000. Although he did dabble a bit in both film (working on the third Doll movie) and music (completing unfinished recordings from Raven Black among others, as well as remixing most of his old work), he concentrated primarily on building his family. Then, in the summer of 2005, after John contacted David and the two of them rekindled their friendship, John made a proposal. John had become interested in producing films and remembered David’s long-time interest and abilities as a filmmaker. John would fund their first film, and David would direct. They created One Man Down Productions and spent a few hours a day, a few days a week, for a few months trying to come up with just the right movie ideas and trying to develop some of them. Many times these brainstorming sessions would bring them back to the subject of Pere Cheney. In November of 2006, David and Johnny launched their podcast, In The Can, primarily dealing with how to make films on an ultra-low budget. They interviewed other filmmakers, such as Chance Shirley, Brian Williamson, Darrell Hazelrig, and the Daws Brothers, to get tips on what to do and which mistakes to watch out for. They have been able to gain a lot of knowledge for themselves to use, and the have had the honor of lending inspiration to other filmmakers like Kip Poe and the Dead Workers Party. In their second interview, they spoke with Ben Heckendorn, with whom they have remained in contact with. While Johnny told Ben stories of Pere Cheney and the ideas for turning it into a film, Ben suggested that they simply film a documentary about it. It finally clicked. In August of 2006, One Man Down Productions and their crew went to Michigan and filmed Echoes of the Past, their documentary film about Pere Cheney. The very slow stage of post production began about a month later. It continued at a slow, on-again/off-again pace for nearly a year. Then, mainly due to the serious personal problems that had begun to plague John Bonk’s life, as well as David having started working toward a degree in graphic design, production came to a lengthy yet temporary halt. This was soon followed by In The Can going on hiatus for an extended period of time. Meanwhile, David started Mind World Media to develop some solo projects, and to help promote the work of other people and groups. His first project was a new podcast which features much more general topics than that of In The Can. He also started pre-production on a project called “Action Figure League”, which is expected to be released over the internet as webisodes featuring the exploits of various action figures and the club which they have formed. There is also a music project in the works. Recently, One Man Down Productions has picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and started making new episodes of In The Can. They are also gearing up to finally finish Echoes of the Past, and are making a video Supartz injection-off of In The Can called “Uncanned”.