Musician Yaago Anax, also known as Prince Midnight, dug up his dead uncle’s bones and made an electric guitar out of it.
Yaago, who has a deep love affair with heavy metal music, said creating a musical instrument out of his late uncle’s bones is a perfect tribute.
Filip, Yaago’s uncle, was only 28 years old when he was tragically killed in a car crash in Athens, Greece during the 1990s, and Yaago’s family had to pay for the cemetery where his uncle’s remains lie.
“He originally donated his skeleton to the local college and was medically prepared for the school,” Yaago from Tampa, Florida told Daily Star. “After 20 years, he ended up in a cemetery my family had to pay rent on.”
“Like, literally in a wooden box, it’s a big problem in Greece because orthodoxy religion doesn’t want people cremated,” Yaago continued. “So, I went through the channels to repatriate his remains over here in Florida.”
“I got the box of bones from Greece and didn’t know what to do at first,” he said. “Bury them? Cremate them? Put them in the attic? All seemed like poor ways to memorialize someone who got me into heavy metal.”
“So, I decided to turn uncle Filip into a guitar, which proved to be challenging.”
During that time, Yaago hoped guitar makers would take on the job to configure Filip’s skeleton, however, it seems like the idea of working on real human bones was too much for the workers. So, he had no other choice but to do it alone.
“I did a lot of research and no one has ever made a guitar out of a skeleton, so I did it,” he explained. “I started out consulting with two guys in Dean Guitar’s woodshop in Tampa but they got cold feet.”
“The idea of the human skeleton seemed to really give him the creeps,” Yaago said. “I actually got a call from my friend who builds guitars at Dean yesterday. He said the guitar looked and sounded great, and he is relieved I accomplished it without him having to help.”
Assembling the guitar, or ‘skeletar’ is very challenging, but now that Yaago made it work and sound like a normal guitar, the musician said he is very proud of the result.
“In the 90s before Filip died, Tampa had a thriving metal scene,” Yaago recalled. “He took me to see Morbid Angel, Obituary, Reversal of Man, Deicide, and all those Tampa death metal bands.”
“Now uncle Filip can shred for all eternity. That’s how he would want it. I’m super proud of the project and how it serves to honor him, his life, and his influence on me,” he said. “I am going to practice upon Uncle Filip and record a new EP soon that will be guitar-driven punk-infused grindcore.”
“My mother would prefer him to be buried, she is Greek Orthodox but admits he would probably be happier as a guitar,” Yaago said. “The parts come from a Fender Telecaster which I thought was perfect for calling it the Filip Skelecaster.”