Some conversations hit you before the official interview even begins.
Before I rolled into the formal intro for my latest Crannk chat with Beautiful Skeletons, drummer Huwy Williams and I were already comparing the strange reality of life after cancer. I have now been in remission from stage four cancer for more than two and a half years, while Huwy has come through his own battle with colon cancer.
We spoke about that shadow cancer leaves behind, the physical reminders and the determination to make the most of the time in front of us. It was a personal connection neither of us had planned, but it opened the door to everything that followed.
Because Pulse/Line/Scar is not simply the debut full length album from Beautiful Skeletons. It is a record about what remains after life has tested you, what you choose to carry forward and what can happen when four very different people decide they are not finished yet.
Released through WURMgroup and produced by the legendary Ulrich Wild, the album captures Beautiful Skeletons finally discovering what vocalist Tina Firefly calls their “forever sound.”
Tina joined Huwy and me to unpack the journey from Temperance to Pulse/Line/Scar, the opportunity that almost collided with the end of the band, the deeply personal stories behind “Running Cold” and “Phantom,” and the moment Beautiful Skeletons decided to live by the message of “Come What May.”
Content note: This feature and interview discuss cancer, grief and self-harm.
The Strange Silence After Release Day
When we caught up, Pulse/Line/Scar had been out for almost a week. After all the work required to finish an album, release day might sound like the point where the pressure finally disappears.
For Tina, it created a completely different kind of anxiety.
She compared it to bringing your first child home and suddenly realising the nurses are no longer there to tell you what happens next. The album had been delivered, the promotional machine was moving and listeners could finally hear the complete record. All that remained was the almost impossible task of resisting the urge to check the numbers and reactions every few seconds.
That pressure is intensified when you are an independent band carrying much of the financial and practical weight yourselves. Beautiful Skeletons did not simply record an album and hand it over. They invested in it, believed in it and remained deeply involved in taking it out into the world.
Ulrich Wild became more than the person behind the desk. His experience gave the band somebody they could turn to while learning how to operate at an entirely different level.
The reviews brought their own nerves. Tina admitted she was fascinated by one particularly brutal review because, among a sea of generic praise, it felt as though somebody had genuinely listened and formed an honest opinion.
It may not have been the response she wanted, but at least it was real.
Finding Their Forever Sound
A hell of a lot has changed since Tina and I last caught up around the release of Temperance.
Tina relocated roughly 3,000 miles away from the other members. The band faced illness, financial pressure and the challenge of deciding whether Beautiful Skeletons could realistically survive the distance.
Instead of pulling them apart, those circumstances forced the four members to become more deliberate about what they wanted the band to be.
Huwy described Temperance as the first release he had helped write with Beautiful Skeletons. At that point, the band was still learning how his playing could merge with the identity Tina, guitarist Einar Einarsson and bassist Jason Johnson had already established.
By the time Pulse/Line/Scar arrived, those individual musical identities had become something far more focused.
The four members come from different countries, generations, cultures and musical backgrounds. Tina grew up listening to powerful voices such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Huwy discovered drumming through AC/DC and KISS. Jason brought country influences into the band, while Einar’s musical identity adds another world entirely.
On paper, it probably should not fit together as naturally as it does.
“It shouldn’t work, but it does, and therefore it becomes us,” Tina explained.
That collision is now the identity of Beautiful Skeletons. It is not a temporary experiment or four musicians still working out where they meet. Tina believes they have found the people and the sound they want to move forward with.
The Pulse, the Line and the Scars We Carry
The meaning behind Pulse/Line/Scar sits at the centre of the album.
The pulse represents life. The line connects us through the experiences and emotions we often believe we are facing alone. The scar is what remains after those experiences have passed through us.
Each song holds a different story, but the record is bound together by the understanding that pain does not need to be hidden or dismissed. Tina wants listeners to give themselves permission to feel what they are feeling, even when those emotions are difficult, uncomfortable or ugly.
A scar may initially represent hurt, but its meaning can change with time.
“It could also be a wonderful reminder of the things that you’ve overcome,” Tina told me.
That idea reaches beyond the lyrics. It can be heard in the circumstances surrounding the album itself. Beautiful Skeletons did not make this record after life became easy. They made it while relocation, illness, distance and uncertainty were still happening around them.
The scars were not something they waited to heal before entering the studio. They became part of the record.
Bringing Ulrich Wild to the Whisky
Working with Ulrich Wild had been sitting on Huwy’s bucket list for more than two decades.
Huwy first became aware of Ulrich through his work on Deftones’ White Pony. Ulrich’s connection to the recording of Alice in Chains’ Dirt, Huwy’s favourite album of all time, only added to that ambition.
The opportunity began taking shape through a mutual connection while Beautiful Skeletons were on the road. A show was arranged at the Whisky a Go Go with one very specific hope: get Ulrich Wild into the room and show him what the band could do.
He already had the demos, but seeing Beautiful Skeletons live completed the picture. After that first show, Ulrich agreed to work with them.
Tina managed to remain composed while he was standing nearby. Once he had walked far enough away, that composure disappeared and she found herself jumping up and down, unable to believe somebody with his history wanted to make a record with their band.
What followed was a concentrated month in Los Angeles, working from Ulrich’s home studio and becoming part of that environment. They met his family, celebrated a birthday and recorded in a room carrying its own incredible history.
Tina even tracked vocals through a microphone previously used by Deftones. Beautiful Skeletons also added their name to a studio bathroom door covered in signatures from the artists who had passed through before them.
At first, Tina resisted signing it because she could not imagine anyone knowing who Beautiful Skeletons were.
Huwy signed it anyway.
That small moment feels like a neat summary of his entire approach to this album: take the opportunity while it is there and worry about the rest later.
Cutting Away the Fat
Ulrich’s involvement began well before the band arrived in Los Angeles.
Beautiful Skeletons recorded their rehearsals and sent the material to him. He would respond with changes, cuts and suggestions before the band returned to the rehearsal room and repeated the process.
Nothing was treated as untouchable.
Structures were pulled apart, unnecessary sections disappeared and even drum parts continued changing once the sessions began. The process was confronting at times, but it helped Beautiful Skeletons understand what each song genuinely needed.
According to Huwy, one of Ulrich’s greatest contributions was creating space.
“He brought more air and more breath into the songs,” Huwy said.
Instead of filling every available moment, the band learned to let dynamics do some of the work. The result is an album that can move between weight, atmosphere, melody and vulnerability without every element fighting for the same space.
Ulrich did not replace the identity of Beautiful Skeletons. He helped the four members recognise it.
When “Come What May” Became Real Life
“Come What May” opens the album with a message about chasing something despite fear, sacrifice and the possibility that it may never reward you.
For Beautiful Skeletons, that message stopped being theoretical.
Just as the opportunity to work with Ulrich appeared, Tina learned her family would be relocating from Vancouver, Washington, to North Carolina. She did not know exactly when the move would happen, only that the sale of their home could begin the process at any moment.
As a mother, wife and carer, Tina believed she had no realistic option except to step away from the band.
She told the others she had to quit.
The news caused an immediate explosion, but once the emotions settled, the four members arrived at another possibility. They could pour all the fear, anger and uncertainty into the music and find a way to make the album regardless.
Huwy and his wife, Kate, were among the loudest voices pushing the band forward. Even if the record went no further than a vinyl copy hanging on the wall, they would still know they had made it.
Huwy’s position was beautifully direct: he was making an album with Ulrich Wild, and the others were welcome to come with him.
His experience with cancer made that decision even more powerful.
“Nothing’s stopping me from doing anything I want now,” he told me.
As a fellow cancer survivor, I understand that shift in perspective. The future is never guaranteed, so when an opportunity that matters arrives, sometimes all you can do is jump.
Beautiful Skeletons did exactly that.
“Running Cold” and the Courage to Speak
The most emotionally difficult moment of our conversation came when Tina explained the story behind “Running Cold.”
She wrote the song for her eldest daughter, drawing from their family’s experience with self-harm. Before the track was released, Tina sat down with her daughter and explained that one of the album’s songs had been written for her.
Tina expected anger.
Instead, her daughter responded with a level of understanding that stopped her in her tracks.
“That’s a really good idea, Mom, because I’m not the only one.”
That response gave Tina the hope at the centre of the song.
“Running Cold” does not pretend that pain can be erased with a reassuring line or an easy answer. It comes from the fear and helplessness of watching somebody you love struggle, while trying to say something they may be able to hold onto.
Tina also wanted the song to reach the people standing beside somebody in that position. It asks listeners to recognise when the situation is serious and when somebody needs genuine help.
Its message is not that everything will suddenly become okay. It is that pain should not be allowed to make the final decision.
The Friend Who Became “Phantom”
Another deeply personal revelation arrived when I asked Tina and Huwy to choose their favourite tracks from the album.
From a playing perspective, Huwy chose “Phantom” and “Bitter End” because both songs give him room to spread his wings and explore the more technical side of his drumming.
Tina divided her answer between performance and lyrical meaning. “Crown of Sorrow” stands out because of the way its phrasing, lyrics and music come together, but “Phantom” carries a grief she had been trying to express for years.
The song was written for one of Tina’s closest friends.
Life became busy, contact slowly faded and several months passed without Tina reaching out. She then discovered through social media that her friend had died.
Tina tried to attend the funeral but could not remain once she saw her friend’s face filling the room. The grief was tied to the knowledge that there could have been more conversations and more time together.
“The very minimum that she deserves from me is a song,” Tina said.
That song became “Phantom.”
The lyrics had been circling Tina for years before the rest of Beautiful Skeletons finally helped her bring them to life. It is one of the clearest examples of what Pulse/Line/Scar represents: an experience leaving a permanent mark, transformed into something that may now connect with somebody else.
Four Different Worlds, One Beautiful Skeleton
For all the trauma and uncertainty surrounding the album, the conversation was not without plenty of laughs.
Our closing quickfire revealed that Huwy bought AC/DC’s If You Want Blood You’ve Got It after being drawn to its gloriously violent cover. KISS’ Alive! then convinced him he wanted to become a drummer.
His first concert was Iron Maiden on The Number of the Beast tour in Bristol in 1982, while his undisputed favourite record remains Alice in Chains’ Dirt.
Tina’s first purchase with her own money was Godsmack’s self-titled debut, followed by Limp Bizkit’s Three Dollar Bill, Y’all$. Despite becoming a performing musician, she has only attended one major concert as a fan: Nine Inch Nails at Portland’s Moda Center.
Her favourite album of all time is Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.
Those answers reinforce just how different the members of Beautiful Skeletons are. Their shared territory may begin somewhere within the alternative music of the 1990s, but each person arrives carrying a completely different musical history.
They do not sand those differences away.
They let them collide.
That collision has created Pulse/Line/Scar, an album built from uncertainty but delivered with a renewed understanding of exactly who Beautiful Skeletons are.
Pulse/Line/Scar Tracklist
- “Come What May”
- “Running Cold”
- “Myrkur”
- “Phantom”
- “Crown of Sorrow”
- “Effigy”
- “The Test”
- “Bitter End”
- “Dropping Anchor”
- “Unicorns & Rainbows”
Pulse/Line/Scar is out now through WURMgroup.
Stream it, grab yourself a copy and CRank it loud enough for the neighbours to enjoy it as well.
Then check out the complete interview with Tina Firefly and Huwy Williams to hear the stories, laughter and beautifully honest moments that could never fit inside one written feature.
**Stream/Buy **Pulse/Line/Scar
https://linktr.ee/beautifulskeletonsband
Beautiful Skeletons:
Tina Firefly – Vocals
Jason Johnson – Bass
Huwy Williams- Drums
Einar Einarsson- Guitars
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