Debunking the Business of Beforehisfall

Beforehisfall/Jeff Wagner gives up old moniker, starts new site

2010-02-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently business got bad for "Beforehisfall" so he's seemingly ditched that name, and is now just running his art business under his actual name, as "J.Wagner.Art".

His new myspace can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/jwagnerart

I'm not sure if he's smarted up on his business tactics or not, he seems to be getting some new clientel, which includes a few friends of mine, so he's either fooling people, or he's realized that people don't approve of the way he handles business and has stopped fucking people over. I don't know; I have no plans on hiring him to find out. Besides, he's blacklisted me, my label, my band, and any bands on my label, so he wouldn't accept work for me anyways.

If you've been fucked over by this guy under this new moniker, make a comment about it below.

About this blog, and links to other artists.

2008-05-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

My name is Dustin Albright. I run a small independent record label called Disgorge Media in Kansas City, MO. I am also the bass guitarist for death metal band Diskreet. Within both of these entities I've faced issues when it comes to the artist under the moniker "Beforehisfall Media".

This blog is meant to relay the truths of this artist and bring awareness to other bands who may be considering his services for the first time. A shady businessman who operated under the name Cholera Art eventually went under when he screwed bands over, and after facing my own ordeals with this artist and hearing more stories of bands who've been screwed over by him I was curious as to how Beforehisfall stays in business?

What this blog is meant to be is not a slander fest. Slander is against the law. Telling the truth and raising awareness is not. Keep this in mind if and when you post your stories.

And stories posted in comments will be placed up into their own blog entries so they are ready for immediate reading. Thanks, and SPREAD THE WORD!

Need links to other artists?:

Mr. Wagner may insist to make you believe that he'll smear your name to other artists, but you'll most likely find that most artists have heard horror stories about him, making it very likely he won't say anything to anyone. Check these artists out, as they're highly respected and do as good of work, if not better, than Beforehisfall. Feel free to post more links to more artists.

Aaron Crawford

Daniel McBride

Chad Lenjer

Mark Riddick

*contributions made by Joe/Ghosts Over Japan, and Awake the Storm.

Stories: Ghosts Over Japan, Awake the Storm, The Bridal Procession

2008-05-07T02:25:00.002-07:00

GHOSTS OVER JAPAN:

I got Jeff Wagner to do a design for a band I was putting together before I joined GHOSTS OVER JAPAN, and he actually did get round to doing it.... eventually! He still owes me a logo from that transaction!

Anyway, based on the strength of some of the work he did for The Black Dahlia Murder and The Red Chord, I recommended him to the guys in GHOSTS OVER JAPAN not long after I joined.

We got link to a small design after a shed load of waiting, but not the the file itself. Since then he's deleted us and isn't responding! I guess I'm the biggest idiot here because I got screwed over by him twice and am a fair few greenbacks down as a result!

It seems like even if we manage to highlight his inconsistencies to other bands, he'll just reform under a different name eventually like he did after Cholera Art was over.

Anyway, I'd love to link you to all the correspondence between us and Jeff Wagner, but I'm crap at this kind of thing! If you want pics and links then message me back and I'll get our singer to do it!

Joe www.myspace.com/fuckghostsoverjapan

AWAKE THE STORM:

I too fell for the art work of Jeffrey Wagner unfortunately. I had him in mind for when my band, Awake the Storm, first mentioned the idea of merch. I believed to obtain art from various artists would be cool rather than to just have one guy do it. Art from different artists really stands out at the merch table. So I contacted him and asked if he does deals for more than one design. He said he would do 2 shirt designs for $270. It was definitely less expensive than the other company we had in mind to do 2 shirt designs.

So he asked me what we had in mind and we decided on some kind of "battle scene" style of art and that the other one he could choose to do however he wanted to. He also said that if we sent him payment that night, he would "put off another project" and have a sketch of one of ours done and show us something by the end of the week.

A month or month and a half or so we were still waiting. That was when I had heard about what he has done to other bands. The end result was that I had followed up with a paypal dispute.

That night "beforehisfall" IMs me and assaults me through aim. Unfortunately, I do not have that conversation saved but I do have the other conversation we had that night afterwards.

risetofall321 (9:27:00 PM): Hey man i got your email
beforehisfall (9:27:12 PM): i just sent your band another myspce msg
beforehisfall (9:27:18 PM): ive escalated the dispute
beforehisfall (9:27:22 PM): to a paypal claim
beforehisfall (9:27:31 PM): im gonna take you for fraud
risetofall321 (9:27:35 PM): mallright
beforehisfall (9:27:49 PM): what you pulled today was bullshit
beforehisfall (9:28:05 PM): so you might wanna take care of that
beforehisfall (9:28:12 PM): before paypal tears you a new asshole
beforehisfall (9:28:20 PM): cuz its being investigated
risetofall321 (9:28:22 PM): Alright man
beforehisfall (9:28:24 PM): since this is game you wanna play
beforehisfall (9:30:11 PM): second shirt is done too btw
beforehisfall (9:30:18 PM): it was sent to your bands fagspace
beforehisfall (9:30:22 PM): and the email will be there in a few mins
risetofall321 (9:30:28 PM): are you serious dood?
risetofall321 (9:30:33 PM): one minute youre all chill
risetofall321 (9:30:37 PM): and now youre all like
risetofall321 (9:30:38 PM): die
beforehisfall (9:30:43 PM): yeah till dan admitted he told you to file a claim against me
beforehisfall (9:30:51 PM): now i wish i could kick both of your faggot ass faces in
risetofall321 (9:31:06 PM): i was considering it before he told me
beforehisfall (9:31:18 PM): no you wernt, you didnt even know how to doit
beforehisfall (9:31:20 PM): he had to tell you
beforehisfall (9:31:23 PM): dont fuck with me
risetofall321 (9:31:29 PM): ive been using paypal forever man
beforehisfall (9:31:45 PM): then you should know how the fuck to drop a claim
beforehisfall (9:31:54 PM): and you should get the fuck on that
risetofall321 (9:32:03 PM): Well I havent probs with anyone before
beforehisfall (9:32:17 PM): you didnt now either, you just wanted to be a dick
risetofall321 (9:32:34 PM): No dood
risetofall321 (9:32:38 PM): im not like that
beforehisfall (9:32:40 PM): dude stfu and drop that
risetofall321 (9:32:47 PM): Mkay
beforehisfall (9:32:52 PM): then dont ever talkto me again
risetofall321 (9:33:01 PM): mkay...
beforehisfall (9:33:22 PM): and i'll be sure to tell chad and riddick not to take you on, either
beforehisfall (9:33:31 PM): cuz they dont like shady ass clients anymore than i do
beforehisfall (9:33:37 PM): word of mouth works both fucking ways dude
risetofall321 (9:34:10 PM): I never told anyone not to go to you if thats what you mean
risetofall321 (9:34:13 PM): Dood
risetofall321 (9:34:25 PM): youre making this seem like a bigger deal then it really is
risetofall321 (9:34:34 PM): i was gonna drop the whole thing once i got the email
beforehisfall (9:34:38 PM): annddd who do you think started that
risetofall321 (9:34:42 PM): Me
beforehisfall (9:34:44 PM): maybe it was some fag who filed a claim
beforehisfall (9:34:44 PM): so
risetofall321 (9:34:46 PM): i had my reasons
beforehisfall (9:34:47 PM): tit for fucking tat
risetofall321 (9:35:56 PM): alright
risetofall321 (9:36:00 PM): well im sorry you feel that way
beforehisfall (9:36:23 PM): and im sorry you turned my fuckin friend against me
beforehisfall (9:36:29 PM): now drop that shit
risetofall321 (9:37:12 PM): I didnt even know yu guys were freinds man
beforehisfall (9:37:21 PM): not anymore
beforehisfall (9:37:22 PM): now drop that shit
beforehisfall (9:42:25 PM): today?
risetofall321 (9:42:37 PM): hold up dood
beforehisfall (9:42:59 PM): right, because when you have to do something it can take as long as you want
risetofall321 (9:43:36 PM): you really gtta chill man, atleast im communicating
beforehisfall (9:43:53 PM): im gonna end commucation with you and call paypal here within the next ten minutes
risetofall321 (9:44:25 PM): its not my fault my internet is acting up
beforehisfall (9:44:35 PM): its not my problem
beforehisfall (9:44:43 PM): your aim is working fine, so dont bulshit me
risetofall321 (9:45:04 PM): doesnt mean the site doesnt want to coop
beforehisfall (9:50:53 PM): im calling paypal
beforehisfall (9:50:56 PM): right now
risetofall321 (9:51:02 PM): i cancelled
beforehisfall (9:51:11 PM): good
beforehisfall (9:51:13 PM): now im blocking you
beforehisfall (9:51:14 PM): fag
beforehisfall signed off at 9:51:19 PM.

*Chad and Riddick are other very talented artists. He said that we would badmouth my band to them so that they wouldn't deal with our "shit."

THE BRIDAL PROCESSION:

We've discovered BEFORE HIS FALL by the works he has done for a bunch of huge bands. We had an oppening slot with AS I LAY DYING and wanted new merch for it. We took a chance and hired Jeff Wagner or whatever he's called. We exchanged some messages which were always about the money first. I then totally broke myself up by paying him 150$.

He then said "you're gonna have it by monday if possible". Monday was 3 months ago. We sent him shitloads of messages that he only read when I sent the messages from another account. And of course never answered.

Even another artist called AARON CRAWFORD told us when we asked him for some shirt designs that he received about 10 new clients telling him about their stories with BEFORE HIS FALL. Being in an unsigned band is hard enough without money stealers.

Stories: Disgorge Media, Diskreet

2008-05-06T02:48:00.001-07:00

DISGORGE MEDIA:

I had contacted Beforehisfall to receive a price quote for a single color design towards the middle of 2007. I explained I wanted my artwork to be a full frontal "rotting zombie dragon rising from the abyss" that is meant to be a single color black ink on white t-shirt. Towards the bottom of the shirt I wanted a hand drawn logo that said DISGORGE MEDIA, with the word DISGORGE written above the word MEDIA. He quoted me at $50 for such a design (he was fairly new during this period). I did not bother the artist for close to a month or so until I realized how much time elapsed and I finally contacted asking to know how the work was going. He said it was just about finished, just give him a couple more days. Over the span of a couple weeks I would hit him up every few days or so to see what was up, since it was well beyond a couple more days. A month and a half passed by before I finally received a low-res test image of the design. What it was was a two-headed pterodactyl looking creature flying, that was not full frontal and did not look like it was rising out of some sort of abyss. It included a hand drawn logo as specified towards the bottom of the art that said DISGORGE, but was lacking the word MEDIA. Despite the artwork not being what I specifically asked for, I was not opposed to what I had received, praised the art and iterated to the artist that all that was left was a hand drawn MEDIA that looked similar to DISGORGE written directly below it, as previously requested; then he could send the full resolution .psd file. He stated he could get it done in about 10 minutes or so, he just needed to clean some work off his desk first. About a full 24 hours had passed and no word, so I e-mailed him once, he read it later that day with no response. I tried again a couple days later, no response. I continued this cycle every few days, for a couple weeks being generally nice and patient at first, but then felt I was being ignored on purpose and relayed in the nicest way possible how I felt, and that because I paid up front, I deserved to get my artwork sooner than where we were at right then. He finally replied and apologized saying he was in the process of moving, and that he had minimal internet access at the moment but should be moved into his new place with his internet hooked up in a couple weeks and he could finish and send me the design. A couple weeks passed, I e-mailed the artist, asking for an update, no response for about a week, then he finally said he was moved in and would be getting my art to me soon. One week later (at this point it had been nearly 3 months since I paid for my art) I received a yousendit e-mail for a link to the .psd full res file from the artist. Upon opening it in photoshop, it was the same image I received before, as figured, except instead of a hand drawn MEDIA below the hand drawn DISGORGE, I received a typed "M E D I A" off to the right underneath DISGORGE in a font close to Times New Roman. Though displeased with the work I had received and paid for, I pressed the shirt and have since sold it in the Disgorge Media online store on the front of our myspace, and continue to plan selling it. I had also continued to promote the artists business even onto the band whose next story I will relay.

DISKREET:

In early 2008, we started expressing interest in the artists work and wanting to hire him for designs. He seemed excited to work with us, and we started tossing ideas around and asking for quotes. We wanted full frontal, and weren't concerned with the color amounts. After iterating ideas, we got down to pricing. He said for what we're looking for he'd normally charge about $160 a shirt, but for us, he'd do $120, since we're buying more than one and he liked our ideas. We paid for the first design, which was to be a demon ripping apart and eating babies. We received our artwork in 3 days, full res .psd and all. We were thrilled with the work and were ready to continue on with him. We posted the low-res image on our myspace and started getting various e-mails between, "his artwork is always good" and "that dude screwed our band over..." attached with contained personal horror stories. We started getting into the specifics of what we wanted, and we wanted machines destroying things, something inspired by HR Giger. We e-mailed him about once a week to get an update and he said he was going to start working on it just about every time. He finally gave us an ETA of April 30th, and we instead gave him a couple extra days since we hadn't heard from him by that time. May 4th came along and we received a low-res image of the design, which we couldn't really understand what it was. Others have attested it looks like the monster from Cloverfield. I initially saw it and thought it looked kinda of neat, and thought it may work as a full frontal, but wasn't completely sold on it. I had expressed praise for the designs through the Disgorge Media myspace, to which he replied, "that's great that they could show you the design but they can't respond to my e-mails or pay me the money for it". I told him that I was sure I was the only one who saw it (I think he didn't put two and two together that I was in the band, but I could be wrong) and I would get a hold of the rest of the guys. He thanked me, and I had laid down to go to bed. I woke up later on to check my inbox which had a message in the Disgorge myspace saying, "Don't ever ask me to work for any of your bands again, broke mother fuckers". I subsequently checked the Diskreet myspace inbox, which had a comment stating, "Since you want to ignore me, I'll be selling your design". I wrote an extensive reply reminded him of the business he gave me, in an attempt to remind him that he, too, is fallible, told him to cool down and I'd get back with him. An immediate response was made telling me, "fuck you" and other harsh things. Our drummer, Andy Taylor, responded letting him know he's been busy, that he just sent the image yesterday and his thoughts on the design, stating that we wanted to buy a different design instead because we didn't like how this one looked. He stated "first you don't pay me, then you insult my work" and that the good designs cost $200, whereas we paid a mere $120, so if we wanted that sort of stuff, we needed to pay more money - basically. He mentioned he was the one who gave us the quote, stated we weren't insulting his work, praised his artistry, and just chalked up that our business with him was over, apologized again, and thanked him. He responded telling us to fuck off, and that all of us, including bands on my label, were blacklisted from hiring work from him. Then he sent an additional message breaking the barriers of derogatory name calling by calling us "broke faggets". We explained we were just trying to be the bigger person, but explained that everyone warned us about him from the get go and we took a chance and started promoting him out, called out his business practices, and called it a day. Our last line of communication with him was him stating he was going to re-color and re-sell the art we paid for of the baby-eating demon. He then promptly removed us off of his friends list, and because he has his myspace set to only friends being able to message him, we weren't able to respond. We posted a screen shot of the art we paid for that he is planning on re-selling.

Click image to view full resolution in a new window.

Debunking the Business of Beforehisfall

Beforehisfall/Jeff Wagner gives up old moniker, starts new site

About this blog, and links to other artists.

Stories: Ghosts Over Japan, Awake the Storm, The Bridal Procession

More stories: Ides of March, All The Way To The Bank, Bloodvoid, Sever the Silence

Stories: Disgorge Media, Diskreet