Bloodied faces, gouged eyes, and spooky masks are part of the job for makeup artist Shevy Marie. She’s toured with some of the most concept-based musicians in the genre, including Sleep Token and Ice Nine Kills, and now talks to Artists Aside about life on the road.

Sometimes all it takes is a single question to change your life. For Shevy Marie, it was asking one of her favourite bands at Warped Tour 2019 if they needed extra crew. 

Now, seven years later, she has been part of the touring community exclusively for metalcore acts including Ice Nine Kills, Motionless In White and Sleep Token.

“I asked a question with no fear of what the outcome could be,” the New York-based makeup artist says. “I jumped into this world as an accident just by taking a risk. I learned so much and I’m still learning to this day for as long as I’ve been touring.”

It was early 2019 when horror-inspired metal band Ice Nine Kills began experimenting with theatrical props and costume changes on stage. For special effects makeup artist Shevy, it was, as she describes, “right place right time.”

The self-taught MUA had loved playing around with makeup from a young age. As a self-described “horror buff”, Shevy began to experiment with special effects makeup, and it was after discovering the SFX competition show ‘Face Off’ that she began to combine these two passions.

“The show pushed me to explore creating my own monsters and creatures. That kind of opened the possibility of jumping into the world of SFX,” she shares.

And monsters are certainly part of the programme when you’re working with Ice Nine Kills. Their concept album ‘The Silver Scream’ featured songs paying homage to the most iconic films in horror, and Shevy helped transform the characters from the tracks into on-stage spectacles.

Each member of the band had their own characters to portray on stage, with bassist Joe Occhiuti in The Crow makeup and guitarist Ricky Armellino as Georgie from IT. Shevy’s favourite look to do was former drummer Patrick Galante’s backwoods cultlike character, who wore a pig mask.

“The mask was really unique and crazy to see in person. He would take it off at some point in the night and have his own makeup underneath, and his was always my favourite to do because there was no set character. We could just play around with different ideas,” she says.

Working with anonymous metal band Sleep Token also gave her the chance to play around with colours and designs, adding red and gold details to the masked band members.

“Collaborative work is always fantastic, especially for me as an artist. Being able to collab and build something with another artist that helps elevate what they were looking for, or creating something that they were looking for but didn’t know how to execute, is really great.

“It really is such an indescribable experience of creativity and respect flowing both ways.”

Shevy has since taken more responsibility in operations, where she helps set up bands for a day on tour. Her busy list of things to do include being one of the first and last people in a venue, making sure everyone has their phone chargers and nothing is left behind, and that everyone has made it safely onto the tour bus. She sums it up in one word: chaotic.

“It really is a very go-go-go lifestyle so it’s thriving in chaos. It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. It takes somebody to be able to stay on top of their toes and be flexible,” she shares.

“The most important thing when it comes to touring, or even just being a makeup artist in this kind of environment, is time management skills. It’s knowing what it is you would need to sacrifice in certain areas but being skilled enough to know how to compensate so the schedule keeps its flow.”

Working with Ice Nine Kills for four years involved touring as opening acts for Metallica and Motionless In White. Currently, Shevy is working with Black Veil Brides and hopes to one day work with some of the female voices in the industry, including Spiritbox frontwoman Courtney LaPlante and vocalist Poppy.

She shares some advice for budding MUAs: “Start small, but certainly dream big. If it’s not working out for you, it just means right now is not the time. If it’s something you really want and you believe that’s what your passion is and where you’re meant to be, then don’t give up. You’ll get there within the right time.” OA