‘Til Death: The Witch and The Wizard
It’s a tale as old as time. The classic ‘Boy meets Girl’, Boy says, “Can I take you out on a date?”, Girl says, “Sure. Let me know next time you’re in NYC.”, Boy hops on a plane from Sweden to New York real quick and takes Girl out on date, they fall in love, and the rest is history.
Except this isn’t the plot to some far-fetched rom-com. This is the story of how Jessica Pimentel, known for Orange is the New Black and for her role in Brujeria as ‘La Bruja Encabronada’ (The Furious Witch) and Tomas Haake, drummer for Meshuggah, known to be an absolute wizard in his craft, began their journey together.
In this rare glimpse into their lives, Jessica will “interview” her life partner Tomas, in a light-hearted setting. Jessica will personally choose pre-selected questions from participants wishing to attend this panel via her Instagram account. So make them good, and remember this isn’t a drum clinic. Let’s keep it fun. We’ll find out how life has changed during injury, a pandemic, long distance, crazy work schedules, touring, shooting films, and being in working projects with conflicting schedules. But most importantly, we will finally get the answers to the most important questions like: What’s in your fridge? Did you get the idea to call your band Meshuggah because yiddish grandmothers always called you Meshugganah? Which is better? Star Wars or Star Trek? I think we both know the answer to that one. Remember, this won’t be streamed or recorded. The only way to attend is with a conference wristband.
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Tomas Nils Haake (SE)
Meshuggah
Tomas Nils Haake is known for being the drummer and primary lyricist of the extreme metal band Meshuggah. Known for his polymeters and technical ability, Haake was named the fifth best "Modern Metal" drummer by MetalSucks.net in 2012. In the July 2008 edition of Modern Drummer magazine, Haake was named the number one drummer in the "Metal" category, as decided upon in the magazine's Readers' Poll.
Haake writes the majority of Meshuggah lyrics and also contributes spoken vocals on several songs. He also provides spoken vocals on Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal's solo album Sol Niger Within.
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Jessica Pimentel (US/SE)
Actress and musician
The Brooklyn born and raised native New Yorker is best known as an actress in her role as Maria Ruiz on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black where she received 3 Screen Actors Guild Award wins and 1 nomination.
Jessica is currently developing several projects for film and television where she will be incorporating her friendships and experiences in the Metal community as well as her own sprirtual tradtions and cultural upbringing which she infuses into everything she does. Featured on both stage and screen,
Jessica is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts where she holds a degree in Theater arts and The High School of Performing Arts (aka “Fame”) where she studied music performance, composition and theory. She began her musical career at a young age earning a full scholarship to study the Roosa School of music and is a trained classical violinist as well as a frontwoman, recording guitarist and bassist for the metal band Alekhine’s Gun, Co-Vocalist for Brujeria and Black Heart Sutra and former bassist of Desolate and several notable New York Hardcore bands.