Bam Margera was born on September 28, 1979, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The skateboarder and filmmaker became widely known through Jackass and Viva La Bam, but music ran through his work before his television career. His collaborations extended from the CKY skate videos to directing for HIM and recording as the vocalist of Fuckface Unstoppable.
The early CKY films developed alongside the band that featured his older brother, drummer Jess Margera. Bam needed music for footage of skating, stunts and pranks; Jess and his bandmates had accumulated recordings they wanted people to hear. In a 2019 interview with Jenkem, Jess recalled offering their backlog when Bam considered using other artists. Bam’s editing assembled the footage, while the songs reached listeners through the films. “We got recognition through skateboarding,” Jess said. The relationship also involved direct musical contributions: Jess recalled Bam singing on “Shippensburg,” which appeared on CKY’s Volume 2.
That exchange continued as the films reached a larger audience. CKY supplied the soundtrack to the first Landspeed video, and its music and members appeared again in CKY2K. By November 2000, TransWorld SKATEboarding was reporting that viewers could also hear the band’s songs on MTV’s Jackass. Bam subsequently directed many of CKY’s music videos, extending a collaboration that had begun with friends making recordings and filming one another.
His work behind the camera also connected him with Finland’s HIM. For “Buried Alive by Love,” Margera directed a shoot at the Los Angeles Theatre in December 2002 with actor Juliette Lewis. The finished video accompanied the band’s 2003 song and placed Margera in a different role from the performer audiences knew through his own films: directing another band’s presentation of its music.
Fuckface Unstoppable later gave him a band of his own. In an August 2014 interview with Metal Insider, Margera traced its beginnings to a jam at The Note with Guttermouth’s Alex Flamsteed after a show. A joking suggestion to form a group became a booking, then more dates and a tour. By the interview, the band had toured Europe and released an album recorded in Iceland.
That album, FFU, arrived through Artery Recordings in May 2014. Jess joined the project, as did musicians from the wider circle around Margera’s films and musical interests. Covers were part of the appeal for its singer. Speaking with interviewer Gavin J. Griffiths in July 2014, Margera explained that he wanted to perform songs he loved that some members of his audience might never have heard.
One of those choices was Anathema’s “Sleepless.” Margera told Griffiths that he had invited Cradle of Filth vocalist Dani Filth to Iceland for his wedding while recording was underway. Knowing Filth had previously covered the song, he suggested they record it together. What began as an informal session became another collaboration when Margera contributed vocals to Filth’s band Devilment.
Their duet on Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning” appeared as a bonus track on the limited first edition of Devilment’s 2014 debut, The Great and Secret Show. After years of using films to share the music he liked, Margera had become a guest voice on another musician’s record.
