Latest / Classic Metal Show / Beautifully Deranged's Mike Bufis: Is This the Next Metal Band You’ll Be Kicking Yourself for Missing?

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Beautifully Deranged's Mike Bufis: Is This the Next Metal Band You’ll Be Kicking Yourself for Missing? · Classic Metal Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, this is Frederik from Fimble Winter, and you're watching CMS-TV.
• 0:04
  [music]
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is Chris Aiken Presents, and I, of course, am Chris Aiken.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And today on the show,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to be introducing a lot of you to something brand new,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: something seriously vicious.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is a heavy, heavy record.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is called Beautifully Deranged.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is by the band Beautifully Deranged.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy here, I think, is Beautifully Deranged as well.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is Mike Bufus.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Mike, how are you, man?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing well, Chris.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good, man.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm...
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm better now that I've learned about your band and I'm happy to share it with
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: the people that follow me, man.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love what you guys are doing.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll start right there.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just as somebody that quite honestly did not know anything about your band,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: say six weeks ago,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've listened to Beautifully Deranged as well as the stuff dating back a couple
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: of years, 10, 15 times to get a good feel of it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like it, man.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like what you guys are doing.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have a feeling, which I will address, that you guys are still figuring it all out.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I like what you're doing so far, man.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't we start there?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe give us kind of the 10-second overview of how we got to where we are today.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: So me and our guitarist, Javi,
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: have been friends for well over a decade at this point,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: had multiple music projects in the past.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then one thing led to another.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: And in 2023, he wanted to do stuff again.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, dude, I'm down 100%.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was already in another project at that time with our other guitarist, Ron.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: We brought Tavi in for a gig, actually.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: And when that band broke up, we brought Ron into our heavier project.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: And throughout that whole time,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I was in touch with Haley, our vocalist, through a mutual acquaintance at the time.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And she blew me out of the water.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: I said, no matter what, I want to do a heavy project with Haley for sure.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how this came to be.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right on.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool what it is.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to explain it to my fans and have you kind of tell me if I'm right or wrong on this.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: From looking around and from listening to it a lot...
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to get the comparisons, and you know the comparisons.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's Ginger, it's Infected Rain, it's those types of bands.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that that's a fair comparison.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like what you guys are doing is not that.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean specifically is you're not hanging everything on the singer.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are musical first with Screamo and singing in it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is that fair?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And do those comparisons work or not work for you
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: when people ask you what your band sounds like?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: I would say fair.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And if somebody is going to compare me to a band like Infected Rain or Ginger
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: or Spirit Box or something like that,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to shake your hand and give you a hug
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: because that's great company right there.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm totally fine with stuff like that.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: To me,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: that shows – That you're really taking in what we're doing and you appreciate it
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: as well.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Especially if you like a band like that, then it's like, oh, you appreciate what we're doing.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: If you're able to make a comparison like that and connect it in some way, shape or form.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we're not like so strictly identical to them, obviously, if that's the best word.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Just from other influences that a lot of us have from growing up and learning music
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: and getting into metal for the first time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like what got us to this point?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And just to be clear on my statement,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the bands that I just named listened to a hell of a lot of Killswitch
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: and Gage for like 10 years as they were growing up and then they became that.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, there's so many more musical influences to what you do.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's moments where you feel that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's moments where you feel more almost melodic, machine-head-y type music.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just talking musical vibe here.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's even times where you could kind of feel maybe reaching back to the 90s a little bit.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: How important is that for you guys as the musicians to create something
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: that is uniquely your own,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: but yet still kind of is okay to be piggybacked with other bands?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I always feel if a band doesn't play their influences, it's not genuine.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: it's like trying to force something,
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: whether you're like trying to force into a trend of what's going on right now
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: and whatnot, you know, that's the key.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the various influences play a huge role into that.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: And How our sound comes to be.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you got people like me and Tavi.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: We grew up on the early 2000s metalcore scene.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Avenged Sevenfold is one of our favorite mutual bands.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Avenged,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Trivium,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Bullet Fry, Valentine, Killswitch, as you mentioned, All That Remains, Shadows Fall.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the list goes on and on.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: So that's probably like a core essence.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: We joke around that Ron is the enigma.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Ron is the type of person,
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: if he genuinely said, I like a little bit of everything, I believe him.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because he just pulls bands out of thin air.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, how do you even know this?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: I had no idea you even listened to this genre.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Just a huge range of material from absolutely loving Megadeth and Machine Head
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: and whatnot to when Shakira came around in Jersey, he was at the Shakira concert.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: And Me as well,
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: being a kid of the 90s growing up listening to like,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: you know, I'm a product of what was in front of me.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that was TRL at the time.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: the boy bands of the time and whatnot,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: that pop scene, that kind of gave me and influenced me, influenced our singer Haley.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's where kind of our,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: you know, focus on like melodic, catchy hooks and choruses kind of comes from.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like that's the kind of stuff that helps stand out.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: But you got to play your influences no matter what genre they are.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: And whatever meshes together and feels right, feels right.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right on.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mentioned in the open that I think you guys are still figuring it out,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: and I could be wrong on that.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: But what I mean by that is you haven't had the breakthrough song or whatever.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Once that happens, you're kind of locked in.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it's going to have to be.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or else you're going to have to really convert and become Tool or something like
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: that that can just morph and change.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: with that said,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: though, and obviously you guys are working and growing as a band and whatnot.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: How much further do you think you are?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: How far do you think you are from actually figuring it completely out
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: to exactly what you want it to be?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: I would say probably throughout the rest of this year if anything.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because just from even the writing process as a whole and who we worked with on
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: the songs and whatnot,
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: we have noticed the difference in how we're approaching certain songs
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: and approaching the writing process and whatnot since 2024,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: basically, when we really started hammering down some songs.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it was easy in 24.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: We did Guide You Home as the first song.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Haley actually had that song since about 2018, 2019, I believe.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: And when she brought that to our attention,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: we're like,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: well, here's a killer song that's already, you know, there's already a skeleton.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's put our own individual flair on it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it's a killer track.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we came up with it, but it's very different than a lot of the other stuff that we write.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a very cool way to gel and work together on our first song.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, from there, it's always just been like, what are we feeling at the time?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, let's try out something new.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Let's try out something different here.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Who brings a riff to the table?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: See where it goes.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that We really started getting a stride in the musicianship and a lot of
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: the writing and stuff with the last three songs,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Departure,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Playing God, and Villain when we were working on those over the last year.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we just have to keep that momentum throughout the rest of this year.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And there are,
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to spoil anything,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: there's a song that Haley's working on right now that...
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: It gives me chills when I hear it so far.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's definitely more somber.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's a much more somber song, but she has some ideas for it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that's priority number one then for the rest of the summer is to work on that
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: with her and into the fall.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me ask,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: based on those three songs that you mentioned,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: plus the one that you're working on,
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: is one of those the song where you guys as a band looked at it and said,
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: this is what we need to be doing?
• 9:38
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• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's collectively as a band that we saw that and thought that.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: For me personally, it was Villain.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Villain.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Villain checks every box for everything I love about music and metal,
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: just the intensity and the energy of it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: Personally,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: the drum parts that I did for it are what I'm most comfortable with and what I have
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: the most fun playing.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that chorus just soars.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: when Tavi threw in the key change for the last chorus at the end, I mean,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: He took a photo of it because I literally melted in the seat
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: as I was recording him because it just hit every element.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Ron's leads are incredible on it.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hayley has great vocal melodies.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: The harmonies are fantastic.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: It just checked everything.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, that's like...
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of style of music that I grew up listening to.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of style of music that made me want to play more and made me want
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: to get serious about it.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: So for me personally,
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: that's like the style that I really gravitate towards and think we need to go closer
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: to that.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a good way to go.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: I always ask everybody about my favorite song on the record,
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: and that is my favorite song on the record.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll skip over that and I'll go to number two, though,
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: because the other song that really stood out to me is not the same as Villain,
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: which is Playing God.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I like the kind of swerve that you did a little bit as you go through the record with it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me about Playing God.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: So playing God,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: actually,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: that main riff was something that we literally were at Tavi's house
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: in his garage jamming June 25.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: And Ron started playing that riff and he had had that riff for a while.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I look at him, I'm like, we're going to work on that right now.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, stop everything working on this.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I've told Ron before I go, that's my favorite riff on the entire record so far.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I was like, that's got to be the focal point.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we really kept going with that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Tavi threw out some ideas.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: I was throwing out some ideas left and right.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And we really got stuck on the chorus until I can't remember.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember if it was Tavi or Ron.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: One of them did like this gallop on guitar.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was Tavi actually.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I just made it very simple with like just quick double bass and just pounding
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: on cymbal snare the whole time.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: And Haley comes in with this like, Absolute like demonic screaming part.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh my God, this is cool.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is really cool.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that was actually a song that lyrically even Haley had some trouble with
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: at times until something personal hit and she was able to connect with that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then she presented the lyrics and the first demo were like sold, done.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of was like, it was very much a song of like, And this is how we approach most of it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: We weren't forcing it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was just something happened,
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: which triggered one thing,
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: which triggered another thing, which triggered another thing.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: So almost butterfly effect, if you will.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then again, taking influence from various elements.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that ending, we just had it ringing out and, you know, just a symbol roll.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean,
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Tavi and I love Bullet Friday Valentine with one
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: of my favorite songs being Tears Don't Fall.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, all right, we don't really have an outro here.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: I go, but that riff is still sick.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just finish off with that riff.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Let me just count it off and do like how Bullet does at the end
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: of Tears Don't Fall us to count off and then the thrashy part again.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's like a very thrashy kind of song,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: which first got me into metal, you know, stuff like early Metallica and whatnot.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think Tavi and Ron are the same.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: So we definitely kept that vibe.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you as a drummer, and I'll preface this by telling you I am a very failed drummer.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I tried it.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I sucked at it.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do it.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Same.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Stop.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us don't have that skill.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just tell you, I couldn't balance my feet to my hands.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: It either had to be the same or it couldn't be done.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was one of those, which I'm just not meant to play it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: That being said,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: when you're good at it,
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: and especially when you get around good musicians like you have here
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: in Beautifully Deranged,
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: there's a tendency to overplay as a drummer,
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: almost to kind of get your sound in there.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because so many times the guitar players and the vocalist steal all of the spotlight.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you pull yourself back?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: How do you discipline yourself not to overplay on, especially when you're writing songs?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I discipline myself, excuse me, from my three biggest influences on drums.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Lars, The Rev,
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: and Joey Jordison,
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: which is going to sound weird for Joey Jordison because he is incredible and very,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: very technical and all over the place.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: But Joey had such a producer mentality and always focused on the song as a whole.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: It just so happened that I would fit the song in the style
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: of Slipknot was this Elaborate, extreme playing.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: But whenever you talk to him in interviews, you know, it's always fitting a song.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I always gravitate more towards,
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: his mentality when it came to like Murder Dolls kind of music as well,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: because it was much more simplified, but it benefited the song.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Even for The Rev, I mean, he was borderline a composer.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: If he lived a little longer,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: he probably could have been composing,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: classical music for orchestras and whatnot,
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: because he already started doing stuff like that.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: But again, everything that fit the song, and the key person for that is Lars.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know,
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: a lot of people give Lars a lot of grief,
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: but when you hear, especially those early Metallica records...
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Every hit fits the song well.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't try to show off.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't write to benefit himself.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: He writes to benefit the songs.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's my ultimate goal is,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: somebody's going to hear it and they're not going to think something like,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: oh, well, you know, the song is bad.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: But hey, that drummer is doing incredible stuff.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to keep listening.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, they want to just listen to the song as a whole.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that's my primary focus when writing.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right on.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Mike, let's talk about the scene itself.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys are what?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: New Jersey guys, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: New Jersey band.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: New Jersey and Haley's in Brooklyn.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we can go Jersey, New York.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which to me, in one breath, that sounds great.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: In the other breath, that sounds like the hardest place in the entire world to be from.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody ventures to your coast or the West Coast as far as music goes.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, I honestly believe, like, I don't know, like SiriusXM as an example.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's there,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: almost deflects from the local stuff so that it's not given the hometown stuff.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: The hometown favoritism.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: They almost rarely hear a New Jersey band on liquid metal or on octane or whatever.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: How does that play for you guys?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you have to work harder
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: or do you feel like you get enough attention or are you guys still too young
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: to get there?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think still a little too young.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: We're still getting our sea legs, if you will.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: An ultimate goal of ours is to get out there and play live and whatnot.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's tough finding some venues that are going to take our style of music,
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: and a lot of them are, okay,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: we'll take it,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: but you have to get all the other bands and make it a five-band bill,
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: including yourself and this, that, the other thing, which is like, All right.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that's not doable.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: You try to get, you know, opening spot and some tours and whatnot.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, ah, we're booked up.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: This, that, the other thing.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that we're going to aim to do is just take it into our own hands
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: and start doing just some live stuff from home.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right on.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Put it out there.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Why not?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, hey, we're,
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: we got families who's married,
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: this, that, the other thing, who's got mortgage, et cetera, et cetera.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it's really fun to tour ourselves.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, hey, let's do it digitally.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: And reach somebody in California,
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nevada, Arizona, or whatever, even when we're on the East Coast at that point.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely tougher around by us.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: But I think a big thing is,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: at
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: least from what I've seen, there's not a big scene for what we're doing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: You get a few deathcore bands coming through and whatnot that make a bit of a splash.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: But you don't really hear too much of...
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our style in our area.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of indie rock.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of Southern rock actually is pretty big around that area.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we're able to stand out a little bit as well.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And once we start getting out there live and start performing more,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's going to be very beneficial and we'll make some heads turn.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And doing it DIY is probably going to be way better because you know as well
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: as I do,
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: for a young band like this, A lot of the clubs will just put you on to sell tickets.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: They don't care what you sound like.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And next thing you know, you're opening for Wasp or somebody.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not slamming Wasp.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that doesn't work for your band.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to gain three fans out of that audience.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so why do it?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how club owners think.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: They think, well, they'll sell 50 tickets, so here you go.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: They'll bring their friends and family, and that's all they want is bodies through the door.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bodies through the door and drinks off the counter.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, exactly.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: But it's got to be the right kind of bill.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: You
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: want to get those other followers from the other bands,
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: the friends and family that came out to see the other bands.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: You want them to start supporting you as well.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right on, man.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, man,
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: here on this show,
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: we always tell everybody, if you're going to stream it, that's cool.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Stream it once, twice, maybe even three times, but then go and find somewhere to buy something.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's a hat,
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: a shirt,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: an MP3, whatever it would be, buy something to help the bands survive and grow.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the best place we can tell people to follow Beautifully Deranged and buy something?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: So any of our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, follow us.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: We actually are in the talks of...
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Some merch.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Which is cool.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: Figuring out something with like t-shirts and whatnot.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: We luck out because my wife is a tattoo artist.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: So she does all our art for nothing because she loves us.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: So we're definitely aiming to put out,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: some content with artwork for all the songs and whatnot
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: and basically figure things out like that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, follow us.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: When we have stuff available, you'll be the first to know and you could purchase something.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if somebody wants to get a physical version of The EP,
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: I got no problem making them a copy of that and sending it out myself.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: That would be a dream come true.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: As somebody who bought so many CDs over my life,
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: for somebody to want a CD of my band would warm my heart so much.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, my God.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think more people are going to gravitate to your band than you think, man.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: I really, just as a hunch, just seeing the popularity kind of of this style.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because while it's underground right now,
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: it's probably the most popular of the underground sound right now.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: With the 80s stuff dying and the 90s big stuff turning into casino bands,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: there's a lot of interest in this new... You see Spirit Box, you see...
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ginger, you see Infected Rain, you even see lighter stuff, The Warning or Plush.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of those types of bands that are starting to make noise.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like this is maybe the time that this music is supposed to exist, yes?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: I would say so, probably.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I also see this resurgence from that early 2000s metalcore influence from a lot
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: of those bands celebrating the multi-decade,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: 20-year anniversary of some landmark records,
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: which is gaining new listeners to those bands,
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: gaining some more popularity, bringing that core scene from 2000 to 2010 or so.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Back to center stage, you know?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like, yeah, there is this bit of resurgence for this kind of style and whatnot.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right on, man.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one more time, the album is called Beautifully Deranged.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So is the band.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike, this has been fun.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me here on Chris Aka Presents.
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