| Parris Mitchell Mayhew | |
| Birth Name: | Kevin Mayhew |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Birth Date: | September 28, 1964 |
| Instrument: | Guitar, bass |
| Genre: | Hardcore punk, punk rock |
| Occupation: | Musician, songwriter, director, camera operator |
| Years Active: | 1979 - present |
| Associated Acts: | Cro-Mags the MAD White Devil Sămsära Aggros Psychic Orgy |
Parris Mitchell Mayhew (born 1964), formerly known as Kevin Mayhew,[1] [2] is an American musician, songwriter, director and camera operator.[3] He is best known as a founding member of the New York Hardcore band Cro-Mags, in which he played guitar. He has also played in a number of other bands, including White Devil,[4] the MAD, Sămsära, Psychic Orgy, and currently plays in Aggros.[5] [6]
Mayhew has directed several music videos and now works as a motion picture and television camera operator.[7]
Mayhew was born and raised in New York City. His father Aubrey Mayhew worked in the music industry and sparked Parris' interest to music in 1970s.[8] [9] Mayhew cited Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson and Joe Perry as his early music influences when he learned to play guitar.[10] Mayhew graduated from the High School of Art and Design and from The School of Visual Arts, New York City in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts Film.[9] His music career began in 1979 at age 15, when he joined New York City horror-punk band the MAD as a bass player for a few weeks.
He now lives with his wife Barblin Mayhew in Brooklyn, New York City.[4] [9]
Mayhew is a founding member, songwriter and guitarist of Cro-Mags, where he created music and played from 1983-1990 and 1996-2001.[11] He is also a founding member of White Devil.[4] He played in other music bands including Sămsära and Psychic Orgy. In 2020, Mayhew founded Aggros, a new instrumental hardcore/metal band based in NYC.[12] The band's first single "Chaos Magic" was released without label via Mayhew's YouTube channel in October 2020.[6] [13] [14]
Mayhew also produced Merauder's first album Master Killer in 1995.
While making music in Cro-Mags, Parris began directing music videos, first for Cro-Mags and then for other bands, including Biohazard ("Shades of Gray", "Punishment", "Tales From The Hard Side", "After Forever"), Onyx ("Slam"), Run DMC ("Ooh Whatcha Gonna Do?"), Type O Negative ("Black No. 1"), Public Enemy, Sepultura, King's X ("Dogman"), Insane Clown Posse ("Chickin Huntin"), Nuclear Assault ("Trail Of Tears"), Anthrax ("Belly Of The Beast", Live Noize and the documentary Attack Of The Killer B's), Flotsam and Jetsam, Gang Green, among dozens others.[4] [10] [15]
From 2003, Mayhew worked as a camera operator in many projects for the International Cinematographers Guild (also known as Local 600).[16] [17] He is a member of the Society of Camera Operators and co-founder of Wildfire NYC, where he also works as director and cameraman.[18]
Cro-Mags domain name ownership was a matter of dispute when Savoia NYC, an entity related to Harley Flanagan, filed the complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). As Domain Name Wire states: " Mayhew was co-owner of an entity with Flanagan that held a trademark for Cro-Mags when he registered the domain name in 1999." However WIPO rejected to grant domain name to Flanagan citing abuse of policy.[19] [20] As a result, Mayhew remained the owner of the original Cro-Mags website.[21]