Meet the Vancouver-based metal singer who coached Jason Momoa
Archspire vocalist Oli Peters helped Momoa learn the ways of the death metal growl
Actor Jason Momoa had an unlikely coach while filming his latest television series in British Columbia: a death metal singer.
Momoa, who has acted in Game of Thrones and is the title character in Aquaman, spent last year filming See, a new Apple TV show. In it, he plays a warrior living 600 years in the future who needs to rally his troops to survive. The troops cannot see, and so Momoa's rallying battle cry took on special importance.
Enter Oli Peters, lead singer of Archspire, a Vancouver-based death metal band.
Archspire was on a Canadian tour with a stop in Vancouver when Peters got a call from a friend who worked in the film industry. He said Momoa was a fan of Archspire and wanted to speak.
"Yeah, he's a metal fan and he's just a down-to-earth dude. I'm not sure if all Hollywood actors are like that," Peters told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On The Coast.
Peters met with Momoa at his suite in Vancouver. The actor told him he wanted to incorporate a style of "speed-yelling" he had heard on one of Archspire's song for his battle cry.
The death metal singing techniques, Peters says, were not part of the original script.
"[Momoa] wanted to put it in on his own just to make the show more metal I guess," he said.
Peters returned the invitation, inviting Momoa to an Archspire show at the Rickshaw Theatre.
"He came down and hung out with us and met the band and then from there we continued on tour and we would just text back and forth with the ideas that we had, you know, of the different phrases we want to use," he said.
Peters even spent time on set in Campbell River, B.C., and the two went to country singer Colter Wall's concert.
Only part of the metal battle cry made it into the final edit, but Peters has some great memories.
"Well, he's done filming here so he probably just wants nothing to do with me anymore," he said, joking.
"No. We had a great time when he was here."
Listen to Oli Peters give host Gloria Macarenko a crash course in death metal:
With files from On The Coast