Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Justin Foley: Killswitch Engage

Transcript

Justin Foley: Killswitch Engage · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Riding Ride Bang.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Today we've got Justin from kill Switch Engage. Uh super
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: stoked about this?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Justin?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Uh killed Like as soon as I saw that you
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: all were releasing an album and then we got a
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: press release about hey, like, do you want to interview
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: kill Switch? I'm like, we have to jump on this
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: opportunity because this feels like a once in a lifetime
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: type of thing.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Kill Switch is obviously a band that we have either
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: known about or have been listening to for quite some time.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And I mean at least probably maybe close to twenty
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: years Colin, maybe at least fifteen years for both of us,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: maybe close to twenty years at this point. So you
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: don't know this justin, but like, have we know about you?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: We've known about you for a very long time. I
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: know you're just meeting us for the first time. But
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: maybe that's a weird thing for you in your life,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: where like you might meet people that like know of
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you or know about you for a very long time
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and you're just medium for the first time. But we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: are one of those people. We've known about you, we've
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: been listening to you for a long time, and you're
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: just meaning us. So anyway, all that said, how are
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: you doing today?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I'm sorry that you got stuck
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with me, because I'm sure dud pecking order would be
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: one of either we prefer you Jesse Adam, probably Mike,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Joel Howard Joshi or longtime tech Joel's mom Philibondi and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: then me and then maybe Mesa.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, you know, honestly, if you knew anything about colonists, actually,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I can assure you you actually might be Like, if
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: you're not number one on the packing order, you certainly
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: are number two.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: This is true. All right, Well that's a very rare list,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: but I'll go with it. I'm very happy.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Do you want to know? Do you want to know
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: why that's the case? Okay, Well, obviously your drumming skills
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: they speak for themselves. But I remember from the Holy
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Diver video you guys did your role in that was
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: the best. I mean, it's legendary. It's burned into my mind.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: When I think of kill Switch Engage, I don't think
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: of anything else first. But you sitting on that throne.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So well, that's good, that's good. I'm glad that a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: cover song is the first.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Thing to well, not necessarily the song in particular the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: image of you on the throne that that does it
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: first for me.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: What did Melbrooks say, it's good to be the king?
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: It's good to be the king?
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah? God, that's a great movie.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Sound like Simba or something like that.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about just how you got into music first,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you know, before we even get into kill Switch engage,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: because I do know there's like a little bit of
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a history before you even get into kill Switch. So yeah,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I'd love to just hear maybe even like at the beginning.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I always think of every drummer anytime we
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: interview a drummer, I always think like, at some point
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: they were banging on some pots and pains that just
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: annoyed the hell out of their parents. Maybe that was
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: your story, Maybe it wasn't, But I'm just curious, like,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: what even got you remotely interested in pounding some things
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: to make some noise and before you know it, now
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: it's made a whole career for you.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: A little hard to remember since it's one hundred years
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: ago at this.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Point, let's just say maybe you had some hair on
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: your head when you started.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: It, some bleeding hair. Yeah, it was it was a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: long time ago. I always sort of liked music. I
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: played Yola was my first instrument when I was in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: fourth grade maybe, and then quickly switched to trumpet, and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I played trumpet till eighth grade, I believe something around then.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I think I was about thirteen when I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: really started to have an interest in drumming and really
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: like the drums. I don't know why. I kind of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: think maybe some of it was because it was like
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a physical thing. I was weighing the sports, so I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: was playing in soccer all the time, and I think
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: that drumming almost felt like running in a way. But
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: she would double base.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: It is probably the one instrument where, if you're playing it,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: it probably gives it probably burns the most calories, I
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: would imagine.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Which is funny because you're sitting down the whole time.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: It's about the best workout, and you could have sitting
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: down metal drumming probably just sitting and flailing. But I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: actually sold my trumpet for my first double bass pedal.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Oh nice. That's kind of how the I guess musical
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: lineage goes.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: That's interesting because because like you, you kind of delved
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: into a whole bunch of different genres right away. So
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: was heavier music pretty early on for you or were
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: you more interested in other stuff?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I think it was pretty early on. I remember getting
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: into I guess classic rock would have been the gateway
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to it into metal. Getting into Zeppelin was first, as
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: so many, so many drummers, and then Rush was next
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: as also and such a it's such a ridiculously cliched
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: list of drummers.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And I love about you describing that as classic rock,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: which obviously it is, but it's so funny how like
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the the the time range of what classic rock now
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: it's like moved so much where now they're like I
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: think I've even heard people say that Mister Brightside is
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: being played on classic rock stations probably like that's but
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: we also like think about like when mister Brightside first
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: came out, what was that two thousand and four, Like
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: if you think that was twenty years like twenty years
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: ago from mister Brightside, twenty years from mister Brightside would
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: have been nineteen eighty four, which would have been you know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: that's probably when people would have considered some of that
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: classic rock. So it's it's funny how much like that,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: like like that range is constantly moving of what we
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: would think of as classic rock.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: It's all I just heard an end of Heartache on
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: classic rock radio.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not surprised. Oh, I was gonna say, so
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I mentioned Zeppelin. I probably it was probably eighty Like
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: what did I say was thirty So yeah, so eighty
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: eighty nine ninety is when I got into is when
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I basically started playing drums. Right, I'm saying Zeppelin, right, Yeah,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: their last show was in nineteen eighty or something, So
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: it's nine years. It's been nine years since our last record,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and now that was nine years since classic rock. Then.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: All the time periods are very it's so much different.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, bands would put out two records a year
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: back then, so it's just all everything is true. It's
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know the timeframes of just all
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: become so different. It's hard. It's hard to know what's
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: going on.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Man, Speaking of that, what would what would happen if
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Metal Blade came to you and said, hey, we need
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: two records a year for the next four.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Years, or you're gonna You're gonna get some really bad records.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: One of them is gonna happen. One one of those
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: things is gonna happen.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: We might, we might be able to give you a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: good song or two, but there's gonna be a lot
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: of garbage in there, so have fun with that.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I do love that your music origin story does to
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: some degree start with the trumpet, and then, especially knowing
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: your jazz influence, it's kind of funny that you know
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the an alternative. Justin music realm, you could have easily
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: become just like another Midwest emo drummer.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: True, that's funny. I sort of remember being in like
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a jazz band with trumpet, and then the jazz like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: rehearsal would end and I just go over to a
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: drum set and noodle a little bit. And that's kind
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of where I really started playing. And then there was
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a friend that I had that had a drum set
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and I was friends with them, and I went over
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to his house I started playing a drum set, and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: then I went over to his house more with the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: only reason because I wanted to play a drum set.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I don't really like him anymore, but I wanted to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: go over and play a drum set. But I do
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: remember him playing again. I must have been killing them
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: all the first time I heard Metallica was at his house,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: so that was pretty cool.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah, uh so from your perspective, especially since you
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: didn't start on the drums. I've always heard drummers say
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: that they view their drumming as like a linear thing,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: like when they like when they see it in their head.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: They view it as a linear kind of process, whereas
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: people who are guitarists or you know, maybe trumpeters or
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: maybe was it violists? Is that how you? Yeah?
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: They say it's almost like a like a pile of noodles.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: You don't really know where you're gonna end up in that, uh,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: in that stack of noodles?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Right? Is that?
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Does that resonate with you at all? Or do you
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: just not even think about that at all?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about at all. Yeah,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't uh, yeah, I don't know
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: how I how I see it. I feel like I'm
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: playing a lot more guitar now than I ever played before,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and it's just sort of feels like it all kind
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of feels like music. I don't know how to how
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to describe the difference. I think I think guitar is
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: just as rhythmical as drumming, and I think the drumming
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: can be in a weird way as lyrical as pitched
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: instruments too. And I think I think some of that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: probably from when I went to when I ended up
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: going to school for music, and I was playing all
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the mallet instruments like the marimba and xylophone and microphone
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and it was kind of a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: really nice piano is like that too. It's like a
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: really nice combination of the breaking something like percussively and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: also getting all the melodic musical satisfaction from it too. Cool.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: I really appreciate that perspective because I know you've done
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: some work outside of like the heavy music world, maybe
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: more in like the more classical world.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Even yeah, I mean lifetimes ago, Yes.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Many lifetimes ago. You say, all right, Well, it is
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: kind of funny to me because I feel like a
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: lot of that kind of comes through in your drumming
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: as well. It feels very musical, you know, it doesn't
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: feel like it's it's simply there to hold to hold
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: a rhythm or to hold a beat or whatever. It
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: feels like there's a lot of intentionality about, you know,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: where you want to add accents and all that stuff,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: and I think that really sticks out to most listeners,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: even though they might not right away understand that.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks. I definitely shoot for that, especially when it comes
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: to something like symbol textures I have. I have three
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: craft symbols on my setup, and I have and then
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it's a highatt and it's the ride obviously, and I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: always I'm always thinking about when the song has its moments,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: which symbol texture I'm going to have it at certain
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: moments and saving the biggest one and the most emphatic
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: one for like the biggest part of the song. An'm
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I was trying to think that way. So that's probably
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: where some of that comes into play.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: That's cool. I really dig that. I really really dig that.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've I've always thought that some of the best drummers,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: even especially in like heavy music, have maybe some level
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: of whether it's either maybe like jazz training or like
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: classical training, but they're some other very non heavy music
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: training that I think really just gives a lot of
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: texture or dynamic to their drumming. When it is translated
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: into like heavy music, it just gives so much more
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: dynamic and texture that you wouldn't maybe otherwise here if
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: somebody just like has only ever known heavy drumming, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: so I've always really appreciated drummers that have a little
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: bit of like this kind of nuance or like a
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: different influence from their introduction into drumming that you know,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: obviously end up falling into heavy drumming. But yeah, I
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: don't maybe have something to say around that, but I've
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: always thought that that seems to be something that I've
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: really appreciated about certain kind of drummers that have the
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: same kind of maybe experience of both like jazz and
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: or classical training.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. I
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: think it can work in the other genres too, very
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: similar to that, or somebody that's maybe say, maybe somebody
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: that's a jazz player that also has dabbled in heavier
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: music and can do some cool double bass thing and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: some kind of jazz part would be a really cool
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: thing to hear too. So I think it can, you know,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: crossover in a whole bunch of different ways and be
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: pretty interesting.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: As somebody who again like has the experience in lots
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of different kinds of genres. You know, for the average
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: listener who you know right now, maybe listening to some
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: classical music or some jazz music, you know, especially right
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: now or you know, Christmas time, so there's kind of
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: like fun Christmas y jazzy kind of stuff going on,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and they're listening to that, and then they would maybe
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: be introduced to kill switch Engage, for example. They're probably
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: like this is like how is this even? This is
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: both music?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Like there is just such a difference there. But I'm
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: wondering for like your perspective of somebody who's played both,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Like do you just think like all of this is
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: just music and it's just it. The only thing that's
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: making the difference is like how hard I'm hitting my
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: symbols and my snare and stuff, or like, I'm just curious,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: like for you, like how how different, how different does
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: it feel to play something as heavy as metalcore versus
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: something like classical music or just like a nice little
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: jazz a little jazz tune or whatever. I'm curious, like
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: what that difference for you feels like as a actual
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: player of the music rather than like a listener of
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: the music that might not be super well versed in
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: both kind of genres.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Right, I think, like I think if Stravinsky had access
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to like Marshall eight hundred, he would have written stick
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: riffs like I really think he would have been in
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a metal band. Shostakovich would have had like beat down.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: You would have been in a beat down hardcore. I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: think it's what the tools you have at the same time,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Like I see a lot of a lot of similarities
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: and how how stuff like that can make you feel
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and stuff like now, and it's just kind of like
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: almost like just different tools at your disposal.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's totally true.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I really think that. I think Choskovich would have been
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: like the most badass bands. Yeah, people killing each other
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: in the pits.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Like like, let's say we throw you into uh rural
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: India right now, and all you have is a tabla
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: and you have to figure out how you're gonna like,
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you know, meld your way into that uh you know,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: that kind of genre, that Eastern rhythmic sense and all
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: that stuff.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: How long do you oh man so hard? I mean tabla.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: It is like I don't know very much about it
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: at all. I'm not pretending that I do. Just one
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: thing I do know is that the difference in the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: tone you get from your finger being in one spot
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and being like a quarter of an ancient another spot
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: is difference, such a huge difference, and it's just such
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a crazy instrumental master.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. And on top of that, I mean just
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: completely strange rhythmic patterns compared to our Western ears.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: You know, tonic too, like notes between half steps and
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. I mean that's Tablet's like hitting something
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: that precise and I have a tom in front of
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: me that I miss sometimes that's crazy.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: It's a good point. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean I
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: suppose there are some similarities in that though, too, because
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: if you hit you know, closer to the rim, you're
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: gonna get a very different sound than if you hit
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: right dead center right.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter the slightest swing. Yeah, when you're
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: at a venue at an age playing something like this
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and I'm swinging from here and no one cares. No
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: one's like, oh, I'm going home. You missed the tom
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: on that.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: It's a good point.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: You hit it hard enough, it's all gonna sound the same.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it really is.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Uh So let's take it back a step again. What
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: what was your introduction into kill switch. I don't know
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: if this is a story I've ever read or or
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: heard about. How did you get into kill Switch? How
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: did how did? How did you meet the guys? You?
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two thousand and three. So in two thousand and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: one I started playing with Buttersman Shed, so I was
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in that band with Howard, And in two thousand and two,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Howard joined kill Switch, so you know, I was in
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Bloodisman Shed with Howard. Howard was also doing double duty
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: with kill Switch, and you know, sometime in two thousand
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and three they were going to need somebody to play drums.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: And I knew Howard for the last couple of years
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: playing butters and Shed with him, and he was basically
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: just like I told the other guys, hey, I got
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: somebody that can do it, and they were like sure, whatever.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I don't think they put any thought into it, and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: they were just like, yeah, he can, he can play drums.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I just listened, you know, I just learned everything. And
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: then when I played with them, and then I went
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and I played with them again, and then we just
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: went on tour and it was it was that was it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It was. It wasn't like they had some kind of
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: search for a drummer, because none of that. It was
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: just like they were just like, sure, whatever, he's fine.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: And then by then I was it was in too
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: deep and they couldn't get rid of me. Oh there
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: was no beard back then. It was actually here and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: there's yeah, there's everything.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, everything got switched probably everything.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: They knew your potential.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: We'll say that even Joel didn't have it. None of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: us had beards. I remember when we all grew beards
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: for the first time, and it was in two thousand
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and four on the Yeager tour that we did with Slayer,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and we all grew beards and we did it because
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: we watched the Family Guy episode where Peter grows a
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: beard and all thought that was funny, and then we
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: decided to go beards.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: So it was because a family guy.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's wild. And Joel and I have never
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: have never quit that.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: That seems so kill switch engaged to me that you know,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: a family a family Guy.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Joe Goophy and st video except yeah.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it though, because because you know, all
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: of your personalities are kind of goofy, which I appreciate, and.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: The music is all very different.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, and I would all say pretty goofy as well.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, through throughout all of the interviews and
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: everything I've watched and all that. It just you guys
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: don't take yourself too seriously, which I appreciate.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we like to have fun. We want everybody to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have fun. That's our main goal for shows is everybody
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to have a fun time. That's pretty much. I mean,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: we're obviously serious about when it comes writing time, yeah,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: but you know, when it comes to going out there
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: and on having a show, we just want it to
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: be a fun time.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do, you know, I I have this kind
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: of personal theory. I don't know where I don't know
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: if there's any truth this. Maybe listeners will will find
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: some truth. Maybe you'll find some truth, hopefully you do.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I've always felt like kill Switch Engage kind of rides
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: this really interesting line because you're unabashedly you you you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: some of you are a little older than maybe other
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: people in the scene, and I think that that lends
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: some credence to maybe some certain songwriting styles and to
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: an attitude which I think is really cool. But it's
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: almost like you guys follow this line where you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: early two thousands, mid two thousands, whatever it is, you
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: guys were in the scene, Like, I mean, you guys
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: were blowing up one of the biggest bands on the planet,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: at least in the metal world. And as time goes on,
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: you know, there's there's a lot of bands that try
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: to copy you, and they try to take the uh,
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: you know, melodic metalcre or melodic heavy metal kind of sound, right,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: and they they try to replicate what you've done, and
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: none of them do it quite the same way. And
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: then you get some bastardized version of it with some
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: what I would call butt rock who I think really
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: did try to steal from Killswitch, but no one can
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: quite do it. So Killswitch kind of rides this line
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: where it's for everybody, but it's not just for everybody
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: in that it's like it's like mass market. What I'm
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: saying is that it's for everybody and everyone can appreciate it,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: but it's not corny, it's not butt rocky, and it's
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: not like too far into the scene that it's like,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: you know, stick your nose up at everyone. It rides
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: this perfect line that I can't think of more than
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: maybe three bands are capable of doing in the heavy
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: music scene. Any thoughts on that?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Ah, thanks, I don't know, it's got to be where
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't really know. It's we came from.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I mean you kind of mentioned us being a little older,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: which obviously we are. I mean this is this was
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: this year was like the twenty fifth anniversary of the band.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: So you know, you don't get to a number like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: that without just being old. Just the way it works.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You know, even if you started the band when you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: were twelve, you're still middle aged. That's why. Which is
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: you know, which is old when you think of aggressive
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and heavy music. But yeah, I mean we just all
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: came from the same New England's hardcore scene in the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: nineties where it was just kind of super experimental and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the bands could be themselves and bands can be different.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: It was really great, great, great thing, and we all
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: just sort of kept whatever mentality that we had from
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: then with the band. You know, we didn't I mean
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I can't say because I wasn't there, but I know
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that they didn't start the band to try to do
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: something else other than just do another band in that scene.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like they had grander I'd like, oh, this
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: will be the one that will get us to play
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: bigger shows. It wasn't that at all. It was just like, oh, hey,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: let's play together. And then that's kind of how it
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: happened the same way. So we just kind of all
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: try to keep those roots. I suppose in the band,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: part of that is still you know, playing without any
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: tracks or without a click or whatever live, and it's
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: just like when you see us live, it's the five
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of us just out there playing.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: You guys, don't use a click live.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: No, no, So for better or for worse, some shows,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you know, are all over the place. You know, sometimes
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I could be rushing the shit out of songs and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: other times everything's fine.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: So but that's a big time man, that's big time cred.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's like a I think it adds a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: lot to the show because it makes it makes a
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: little different, makes it exciting or whatever. And I think
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I think you can you can kind of notice that.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't. I don't know what to say.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: For whatever reason, it's worked out and we just try
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to keep that mentality and just try to keep going
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: as we've always done it, only only real way we
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: know how to do it. I suppose.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, and that that brings either today, I mean
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: this consequence is, I I haven't heard the whole record yet,
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: and not a lot of people have. But you know,
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: the song we've got so far is is killer, and
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: it's it's right in line with exactly what I want
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: to hear from Killswitch. It's a it's not too formulaic.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: It's it's super dynamic. It's got great singing, great screaming,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: great drumming, great guitars. I mean, it's just it's a
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: great production. Mason. Mason has something to say about the production,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: but it's it's, uh, it's so great to just it's
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: like comfort food. I come back to it over and
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: over and over again, and it's been too long since
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: the last record, and I'm just happy to to go
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: back for my favorite comfort food again.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, at this point, we know, I mean,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: we know what we do, but we also don't want
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to just keep doing the same thing oh and over again.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: You know, nobody wants to do that. So I think
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I think we took we took some risks on on
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the album. I'm sure when when you hear the whole thing,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you'll hear a couple of songs that might stand out
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: a little differently, which is great. Though I'm glad that
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: we're that we're doing that. I would hate to do
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: an album of you know, twelve standard cookie cutter kill
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Switch sounding songs. You know, none of us want to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: do that at all. You want to write music that
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: makes us happy. That we have to go out and
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: play for people and play believingly or make people believe
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that we are enjoying what we're doing playing right, So
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: that's what we do. So something we don't like her,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: we're not going to get behind. Then we you know,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: we don't do it.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Well for you personally.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: You know, obviously you can't speak to all the members
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: in the band, but for you personally, like what maybe
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the sound or arrangement or I'm really curious, like what
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: is it that you would like.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: For maybe like a kill Switch.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Song to sound like like if you had your way,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: let's say you, like the rest of the band was like, okay,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: you get to decide how this song sounds. What is
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: that song going to sound like? And how does that
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: sound differently than whatever the classic kill Switch engage sound
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: sounds like. But I'm just really curious, like for you,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: if you had your way in deciding how things sound like,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: how things are written and all of that, I'm curious, like,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: what is it for you that you would love to hear?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: That's funny because how you were talking about bands that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: sort of sounds like like the way we sound. I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: feel like when I when I sit down and I
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: try to if I try to think to myself, Okay,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I have to write a kill Switch demo or something,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like my end product sounds like that. It
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: sounds like like a cheap knockoff or something, and I
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: don't want I don't want to send that. I'm like, oh,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: that's that's not good. But if I come up with
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: with something that just sounds kind of that's like a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: little different or a little weirder, and then I send
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: it out and I'm like, hey, guys' you know my
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: idea of what might be a cool song, you know,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: make it better or like here's kind of a riff
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that I can play really poorly, guys, play it better
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: like that kind of thing. Then I think some of
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the stuff that has been on at least the last
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: few records kind of sound a little weird or like
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: some of the little out maybe maybe track set or
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: just a little different sounding, which I think might be
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the case of this one too. But apart from that,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: from what you're asking, more more direct answer, something that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: is something that's just super aggressive and super aggressive and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: super melodic is really all I want. All I want
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: to hear in our music, Like I wanted to have
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: high energy, and I want it to be catchy and
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: in a hook and some kind of like whether the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: hook is a vocal part or whether the hook is
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: a lead or something. You know, you just want to have.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: You want to have something like that, and you want
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: it to be driving, and you want to be aggressive
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: and not necessarily predictable either, even if it's just like
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: subtle unpredictability, but you can predict Okay, now they're going
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: to go to the bridge, and now they're going to
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: go to the last course or whatever. That's fine, But
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: unpredictable texture is within that, like some some other overdob
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: that is like a very strange overdob for that part,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: or even strange chords or strange dissonances that are over it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Like things like that I think make for something a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: lot more interesting. So I would say the ideal song
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: would try to have a lot of those elements kind
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of combined together.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's what gets you coming back, right,
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: as a listener, that's what makes you want to come back.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: It's not I guess it's not the same thing over
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: and over again, right.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I guess that's what makes me come back to things
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: that I listen to. So, yeah, that's what you want
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in your own thing, I suppose.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: So you you're talking about how you bring some riffs
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: to the band, how often do you do you do
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: things outside of drumming in the band a lot more lately.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know, I started another
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: instrumental band where I play guitar, so I'm doing I'm
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: working on that a lot more too, which is super
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: fun and super embarrassing to realize that I've been in
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: bands with guitar players for forever and I didn't even
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: bother to know the first thing about what like how
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: different pickups and a guitar are different. Like I'm learning
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: all these stupid things I should have learned thirty years ago.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: So it's it's a lot of fun.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: What's other than the pickups? What's been the one thing
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: where you're like, how the hell did I.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Not know this? A question other than that one that
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: one's pretty sounds pretty stupid.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: That is pretty stupid.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess, I guess all of it
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: is just just realizing how annoying having to deal with
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: electronics is. Oh yeah, I can as a drummer. I
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: just hit a thing and it makes a sound, and
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it's like, cool, that's something I'm done. You know, that's
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: what I gotta do. There's not you know, there's no mystery.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't make a sound, then it's you know,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: there's almost no way for it to not make a sound, right,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: But you have you have your pedal board, and you
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: have your camp, and you have your head, and you
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: have a guitar and something's not working and you have
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a billion things to try to figure out to get
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to the source of it, and like, why did I
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: sign up to do this? It is so much easier
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the other.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Way has playing guitar, both for the instrumental band and
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: also I mean, it sounds like you're maybe writing to
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: some degree, some maybe riffs or at least some ideas
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: for kill Switch. How much of just playing guitar has
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: maybe influenced, not necessarily made you like play your make
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: you play drumming differently, But to some degree, I would
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: imagine like it at least influences you to like maybe
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: think about songwriting differently as a drummer or what. But
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I'm just curious, like, what is it about for you
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: as a drummer that playing guitar has maybe influenced or
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: changed or you know, shaped a little bit?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, I mean absolutely a million percent. Just just actually
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: actually standing in a room with a different instrument and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: having it turned up and playing with somebody else playing drums,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and just even the dynamic of listening to to that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and fitting in and like playing together. And it's all
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: like any no matter what it is, if it's a
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: metal band or orchestra, string quartet or a jazz on level,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: if you're you're always listening, and that's the same through
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: any style. You're always listening as you as you're playing.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I've always been listening from sitting in the drummer's chair
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and so listening the other way as standing in guitar.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It's like it's completely Yeah, there's a lot of things.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I notice, real subtle tempo changes a lot more when
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: you're holding this than when you're when you're playing drums,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and when it's an adrenaline fueled tempo change like because
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: again we're not on a click. It's I now understand
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: so much better how that's more noticeable to all the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: other guys than it ever was for me. And it's
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: something I never got before, but now that I'm on
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the receiving end of it, it's like a totally different thing.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: So it's just been me. That's one of the biggest
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: ones I've become more sensitive to having that other perspective
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: makes sense.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: How do you pronounce the new band name Libika? Okay,
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: that's what I thought, but I didn't want to sound
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: like an idiot, be like Libica or.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: That's cool. Yeah, Well, Mason, Mason and are big fans
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: of of instrumental bands as well, especially post rock.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Music too, love it like.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: Russian Circles and Mono and all that stuff. So we're
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: we're pretty excited about like Bika as well. So I'm
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: glad that that was.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The other reason A huge fan, which one so good,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: ye outrageously good.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, lots and lots of fun, So we're we really
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: appreciate that kind of music as well, and that's why
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: you were also, you know, on the top of the
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: list for the kill Switch Engage members we'd love to
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: have on lots and lots.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Of I think also the fact that, like I mean,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: maybe it's it's redundant to say, but also it does
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: seem like there is a huge overlap between especially like
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: bands like kill Switch, but just like generally metal music,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: and especially like like a lot of the post hard
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: or like at least post rock stuff that we're into.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Like I remember Colin and I a few years ago
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: we went to a Sergross show and the people in
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: front of us were like because we mentioned like, oh yeah,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: we're big Cergros fans, and somehow in conversation they were like, actually,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: we really don't listen to this kind of music. We
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: were actually way more into metal, but for whatever reason,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Sigarross just like really gets us going, and and Colin
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: and I were like.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's kind of us too, a little bit too.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: So I do think there is like some overlap there
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: around post rock and metal. And maybe it's just the
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: song arrangements or maybe you have your own theory on that, justin,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: but yeah, anyway.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: There does that. There definitely seems to be some sort
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: of overlap.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: So when we were driving, we were driving to this
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Aidam and I were driving into the studio to record
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: and one of the days to do drum tracks for
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Endo Heartache, and Adam said, do you want to hear
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: what the end of the World sounds like? And he
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: played h the untitled eight from the Parentheses record. Yea,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and tell me that's not the heaviest thing in the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: entire world like it is, and it just is. And
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I was the first time I heard it, I was floored.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: So yeah, of course, I mean, it doesn't have to
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: have it doesn't have to be a palmuted chug to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: be heavy like zero is insanely heavy, like outrageously heavy.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember, honestly seriously like one of the loudest
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: shows I've ever been to. Yeah, I mean, I maybe
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there are other shows are like that,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: but my goodness, show was so loud, I mean, louder
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: than some metal shows I've been to.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only other was the loudest show ever.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: That's what I was just going to.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, the loudest show I've ever hat.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: That was the that was the thing I was going
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: to say, like the end of the world feeling where
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: it's like, Wow, that really is impending doom. There is
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: fear satan, Like when they close out with that and
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: you're just anticipating that big blow up, they turn all
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: the lights back on. It's like, whoa man, this is
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: it's hard to compare it, right.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, yeah, Yeah, there's something fun. One of the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: fun things about writing for writing for because you don't
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: have to worry about leaving room for vocals and you
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: can just get ridiculous with all the parts and all
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the all the build up it's and everything, and you
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: don't have to worry about covering up something that's going
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to eventually be there. You know, there's nothing else is
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: going to be there, so you just go. You can
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: just run wild with it. It's really fun.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. The possibilities are endless, and I gotta imagine that's
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: just really freeing from your perspective.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool. It's it's it's very it's very cool.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Any any thoughts about potentially wanting to be a
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: drummer in an instrumental band like that?
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I mean absolutely if any of those bands
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: need drummers.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: All right, I'll throw your resume out there.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Thanks, please, Do.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: I know we want eventually to get to the your
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: top five albums. But one other question I have that
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: isn't really exactly this new album kind of type of question,
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: but it is a question that has come up in
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: my mind as we're chatting, mostly because I'm realizing that
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: we've and Colin and I have interviewed hundreds of bands
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: on this podcast.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we've.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Ever interviewed a band where they started out with a singer,
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: moved on to a different singer for an entire album
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: cycle of like different albums, number of albums, and then
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: it moves back to the same original singer like that is.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we've ever interviewed a band that
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: has gone through that kind of transition. And so I'm
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: just curious for you, Like, I mean, I know you
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: got involved with kill Switch because of Howard, but yeah,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I'm just curious, like what was it like. And I
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: would imagine, like you weren't a part of the band
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: right when Jesse was still around at the beginning, but
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: I'm just curious, like what has that dynamic been like
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: to go from the original singer to a new singer
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: and that new singer was there for like what ten
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: years or whatever, and then to like go back to
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: the original singer, Like, that's going to be an interesting
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: history for you personally to be involved with. So I'm
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: just curious, what was that something that was interesting?
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: What was there like like odd parts of that. I'm
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: just I'm just curious, like what was that experience.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Like just for you? Yeah, it was. I mean, there's
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: a million different emotions in it, for sure, for so
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: many reasons. But one of the interesting things when we
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: like the first few times we ever well that I
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: ever played with Jesse was you had mentioned Phil was
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: on when we did the tour, when Phil was filling in,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and we did a few shows at the end of
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: it where Jesse did some songs and it was really
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: fun and I kind of like a fan because even
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: though these were songs that I played with, you know,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: all the other guys in Howard, now I was playing
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: with you know, all the other guys in Jess, and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I was like, it was super duper fun.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Hold on, I guessed, oh, what a cutie.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: This is Velma almost Velma for a little bit. So yeah,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: and it's been interesting too, because you know Howard was
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: doing when I joined, especially that first tour Howard was
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: doing all songs, all Jesse songs because Hardick hadn't come
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: out yet, except Darkness Falls. That was the one song
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that that they that they wrote before that came out.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: But he was doing you know, he's doing all jazz songs,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: and then when Jesse returned, we were obviously doing a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of songs from the Howard records. So, and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: it's just it's they both have a very similar energy
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and like it's especially live. They both have such a
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: such a great live presence and and everything. Yeah, it's
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: just I don't feel like there's been any kind of drop.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: It's always felt right right when we were when we
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: were working with with both of them. Really, I don't
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: know if that's a good answer or not.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, from from the fan perspective, I didn't feel like
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: there was any drop, But I mean it felt like
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: you guys were just picking up right where where Howard
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: passed the torch. It's I was expecting something different, I'll
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: say that I was. I was expecting it to go
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: a completely different direction, and it didn't. It would. It
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: was super high quality. It felt like there was tons
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: of energy. So I'm writing was still great.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: That was a super like we wanted to to rip
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: on that record when when we were writing like we were,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: we were sort of It's just it was just a weird.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: It was just a weird transition time, and we just
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to put out something that was like ripping. We
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: shut up just yelling. We just we just wanted to
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: put out something that was just like you know, Bath,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: we wanted to go I remember Adam was saying he
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: just wanted you just wanted to Ricky Bobby that whole record,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: and just I want to go fast the whole time.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of Adam, I do have to ask that.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Sure my first introduction Adam so Culin and I grew
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: up in like the solid state world all of that.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm I'm a huge Under Oath fan. So my
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: first introduction to Adam wasn't actually through kill Switch, it
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: was through under Oath with him producing uh to find
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: the Great Line.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: That record is incredible, by the way.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable record, rightfully, So so that was my first and
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: I remember, like as a kid watching the DVD of
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Matt Goldman and Adam working on that that album, and
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: so that was my first introduction to Adam. Just like
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: meeting you virtually for the first time here, Like I
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: can't imagine two different personalities. And maybe maybe Adam is
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: like different now in his forties, but like, you guys
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: just seem like you're you're so calculated and calm and collected,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: and Adam just seems to me like youth pastor energy
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: of just like like look at me everyone like he
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: just had.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: He totally has that energy.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: So it's just it's so funny to think, like, you
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: guys just seem personality wise so different. And again, maybe
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Adam is different now, but I'm just curious, like what
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: has it been like to be in a band with Adam,
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: because I do it does seem, at least just from
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: the outside, that you guys might have very different personalities.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: He yeah, well, in some ways, yes, he's He's definitely
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: pretty outgoing. I'm extremely uncomfortable talking to people that I
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: don't know. He has no problem, but he's he's uh,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: he is obviously kind of putting, putting out a little
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: bit like he's not when when you're just sitting around,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: he's not at level ten Adam crazy or anything like
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: he's and and and then musically we we in general
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the band musically thinks very similarly. We all have outlying
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: stuff that we're into that people might not be into,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: but we think we think along the same lines when
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: it comes to the grand scheme of things musically. And
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: I think that me and him and he and Joel
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: and me and him and kind of the three of
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: us have very similar tastes and a lot of the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: melodic side of music for sure, So we have in
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: that way, I think we're all we're very similar. But yeah,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: that record, Yeah he his I know his fingerprints are
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: all over that record, and it sounds great, like that
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: last song, that ending fade out of the last song,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: It's like it's just so good and I feel like
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: I listened to it. I'm like, yeah, I know, I
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: know the guy that produced that. Yeah, that's cool. I
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: get to I get to be in a band with
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the guy that knows that that is awesome and that
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: just gets it, Like it's it's a cool feeling, you know.
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: What I love about?
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Well, not just that album, but you know, just I
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: think is indicative of Adam Is. And you would see this,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: like if you watch the the DVD or the kind
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: of documentary of them making that album with him is
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: he is so anal about like, we have to get
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: this right in order for it to be the success
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: that it should be. And and especially now with the
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: technology that bands have these days, like they can they
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: can skip a few steps to just like get to
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: that level of like kind of production. But Adam is
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: so like, no, we're gonna make this like you're this
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: is actually gonna come out of your guitar. It's not
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: We're not gonna just input this into a computer. This
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: is actually gonna come out of your guitar. But we're
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: gonna make this come out of your guitar, and you're
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: gonna play this so well that it's gonna sound like
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: it came out of a computer.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: Like That's what I love about.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: Like he just has this like intensity about we're gonna
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: make this perfect. And you can even see like the
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: guys from under Oath are like, oh God, like we're
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: just having to do over over and over and over.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: We're gonna have to do the same thing.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: But it's because Adam is so anal about we have
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: to make this perfect. And fortunately it ended up coming
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: out sounding perfect, and you know, fortunately people recognized it.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: You know where it got the success that it did.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: But what I just love that about that album and
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: and I you know, I hear that in kill Switch stuff,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: right like you just you hear this kind of level
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: of attention around.
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: We're not going to just like fake this with a
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: fake fake guitar, fake drum.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: We're going to make this sound perfect, but not perfect
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: in a way where it's just another computer program thing
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: or whatever. We're going to make it sound perfect from
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: an actual instrument. And that's why I love about Adam's production.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: And again you hear that obviously on that album, but
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: you hear that. I think in every kill Switch album.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: He goes too far.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: You are waiting to say that for the entire time
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: that Mason was talking.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: That's great, human perfect, it's perfect. It's it's difficult, it's
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: it's hard to tracking is not easy, Like absolutely.
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, use do you use a click while you track?
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Yes? Oh my god, yes, I was.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: Going to say that'd be nuts.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Adam would yeah, absolutely, and he hears, uh, he hears
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: details that I don't think most people hear. It's kind
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: of like it's funny. I would run through a take
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and he used to always the first thing you would
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: always ask me be like, how'd that feel? And at
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: first I would answer, I'd be like, I felt really good.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: You go no, And then eventually got to the point
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: where he would say how that feel and I would say,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You gotta tell me because I'm not
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: sure it felt okay, but I don't know anymore. And
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: then he just doesn't even ask me anymore. He's just like,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: it's either the next thing or do it again. And
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: its hard. It's so what he's hearing is just it's
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: on another it's on another level. So I don't think
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: most people here.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: How do you get to a point where you don't
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: take that personally? I could, I could feel for myself
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: where I'm like, god, I felt like that was great,
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: and you're thinking this is shit or it's not worthwhile,
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: and like that's gotta like just personally feel like a
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: little bit of a sting. Like at some point you've
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: got to been you just got to be to a
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: point where it's like, all right, well that's just Adam
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: being Adam, and I'm just gonna have to do this again.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: A good question. I don't think. I guess I don't
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: think it personally.
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: I don't think it's still sting.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's personally attacking me. I just think
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: I'm terrible at playing drugs. I think I have no
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: I have no business being a drummer, and at my
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: hands and feet will never ever ever line up no
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: matter what I do.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: So that's in those moments, Like but at some point
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: you got to realize, like, Okay, you're a damn good drummer.
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: So like I gotta feel.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Right, not during recording sessions.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: So Adam makes you like Adam Adam to me, again,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know him at all, but like just what
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: I'm hearing, he feels like the coach that just is
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: like on the line again, like you're.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: Just he's he's James Brown talking to his band If
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: you guys know the story about James Brown, but he
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: was notorious for just like actually like physically abusing his bandmates.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: That that didn't hit everything.
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: I don't know if Adam gets to that point, no, no.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: No, no, And he he's he knows how.
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: It is because he knows not to mess with justin.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: He knows how to how to handle different personalities now
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: and he's he's definitely a lot more diplomatic about about
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: producing and nudging people into getting better performances for sure,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: good call, yes.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: Pants.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Probably, yeah, probably. I mean I think the older we get,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: we're just gonna keep doing it more, right, Yeah, that's true.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: He was doing it.
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know how old he was when he was
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: recording to Find the Great Line, but that seems pretty
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: young to be already shoot in your pants.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: It's not gonna get any better, oh man?
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: All right, well you love you love to Find the
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: Great Line. We love kill switching gage. All right, justin
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: what are your top five most influential albums?
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: So influential, right, not not necessarily.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: Favorite, not necessarily favorite, in influential.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: So I have to Yeah, i'd have to say, I'm
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: going to try to dip into most of the stuff
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: that was influential, like early years influential. I would say
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: to try, because obviously there's stuff today that's influential. But
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go I'm gonna I think I'm gonna go influential,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: like becoming a musician. Influential. I would say Rush Hemispheres, Yes,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Gigantic one, all of Rush albums, of course, but the
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Hemispheres one. For whatever reason, I was just getting like
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: off the charts, Proggy h And it's funny because they
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: even all the stuff I've seen, all the documentaries I've seen,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: they talk about hemispheres as when they finally went too far.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: That's probably why I like that record so much, because
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: it was yeah, yeah, and they started to get they're
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: blending them so well. Back then they just like it
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: was just such a cool, such a cool record.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: Something interesting is that I've always known to say your
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: kit is pretty sparse, uh, in the metal world today,
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: and then I think of Neil Pert and I'm like, well,
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: that's like the opposite. But the fact that he's still
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: your you know, one of your idols there too is
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: that's pretty cool.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: I used to have a big one though. I mean,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: when I was playing I needed to play the twenty
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: one twelve field correctly, so I had to have all
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: the time so I could not do it correctly.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: It's yeah, it would sound like shit otherwise.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean, rototom's are an easy fix for
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: at least some of that, but that was yeah. So
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: that's one. Cynic Focus is another one is one of oh,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: like crazy records that just kind of took me from
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: being like straight metal and thrash because into like, whatever
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: the hell that record is opened up all kinds of
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: other other things to listen to. That's a big one.
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: They definitely do not get enough credit.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's weird. I get it because
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: it's so weird, like it's such a weird album, but
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: man it is. It is just crazy crazy crazy. Uh
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: So I have to include a Zeppelin record, and I'm
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna say Houses of the Holy would be
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the one that I would include.
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: Oh interesting because that I mean I had a rain
• 52:25
  Speaker 5: song on it, which is the greatest song, but just
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: in general, the drumming on that it's just so it's
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: so good that I can still remember mowing the yard
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: with my walkman and listening to the song remains the
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: same over and over again, and trying to figure out
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: how to play that drum beat.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: So when I went when I finished mowing, I would
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: go inside and like maybe be able to get it
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: right kind of thing. That was like a big that
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: was that was a super super big one.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: And then your dad would come in and be like,
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: why are my edges totally fucked up?
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that wasn't I wasn't concentrating on where I was
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: going and did one patch like over and over again
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: and the rest of it. Yeah yeah, but check this out.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: I finally figured it out, all right, So that's three, right.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Candaria Beyond Reasonable Doubt record would be the fourth one
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: because I went to a million Candia shows and like
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: every show that they would they would play in the
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Northeast I went to and watching Ken play drums was
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: just I don't I don't know the word for it.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: I've never seen another drummer like that guy. So that
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: was a huge one. Good call, all right, So I did,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: I did four old ones, I'll do I'll do one
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: recent one, and that would be I just gotta go
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: with my favorite record of all time now, which is
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Radioheads in Rainbow's album.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: Ah God You are one of the drawing I think
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: is the album That.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: Album is you guys, listen to the Dissect podcasts about
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: that record, do it? If you guys like that record,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: listen to it. It's just a podcast where they go
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: through where he goes through back by track, goes to
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the record, and it's it's super cool. A lot of
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: it's kind of musical analysis, which is fun. Some of
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: it's lyrical analysis, which I'm not quite as into. But
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: when he when he does the reconder episode, like my
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: brain just completely exploded, Like I couldn't even read it.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: So that's yeah, that's I highly, highly highly recommend that
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: that record.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: When I discuss the most musical drumming that I've ever
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: heard on any album, that is the first album I
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: always point people to. Yeah, I'm gonna have to check
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: the podcast because that sounds read up Mason and I
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: is Alley, that's for sure.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool. Give it a listen, guys, you really
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: really like it. And the other drum is great. Everything
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: everything on that is just amazing, and I want to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: say influential, just tones and just recording an atmosphere. The
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: atmosphere on that record is unbelievable. Freaking on the off
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: beats is crazy. I don't know if you guys heard.
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: That videotape, nuts so good.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Uh, It's not my favorite Radiohead album. I think kid
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: A might be my favorite Radiohead album, but I will
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: what what I will grant in Rainbows is it is
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: the best Radiohead album. So it might not necessarily and
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: it might not necessarily be my favorite, but it is
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: the best one. I think that radio has ever done.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: In a strangejoy, I mean that makes that makes sense.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: It's like a thing music doesn't have to be logical,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: but yeah, how you feel about music doesn't have to
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: be logical. But that makes like I love.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: I love bands, where like there to me, there's like
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: three very distinct categories for certain bands, where there's the
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: album that was the most influential, the album that is
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: your favorite, and then the album that is the best.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: And to me, those sometimes now sometimes like all three
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: of those could be like intertwined. But then there's some
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: bands and I think radio has one of them, where
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: for me personally, there is a different album for each
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: three of those categories.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: There's also a fourth category that Mason I talk about
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: where it's like there are some bands that have a
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: perfect record where like every single song just somehow meets
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: the bar or the criteria and.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: The and the songs are like like in order perfectly.
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everything just just lines up. It might not even
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: be your favorite, but somehow it just meets such a
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: great level of quality all the way through.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: So what so what would what are some of what
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: are some of those.
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: Would say, it's a good question. Mason and I have
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: different ones for me, give me one each. So for me,
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: I would say one wing by the Chariot. And I'm
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: not sure if you've heard of the Chariot, is that.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: I have heard of them? And I am right now
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: as you talk to me, I'm going to add it
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: to titles so I will listen to them sick.
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah they are. They're chaotic and super out of pocket
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: all the time. And that record, in general, I think
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: just fits the billing of a perfect record. It's not
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: my favorite record of theirs, but I think it's the
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: perfect record for their catalog and for Mason and I.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, we sing the praises of the Chariot all
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: the time. Our listeners know this for sure. They're really
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: annoyed by Mason because he finds a way to bring
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: him up in every episode. Well this episode I brought
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: him up. So there we go, Mason, what was yours?
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: I do think in terms of a perfect album, come
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Now Sleep by Acid He's burn.
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, It's just it's.
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: Perfectly arranged, just in terms of of just the songs.
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: The sequencing of the songs is really well done, and
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: it's it's this great mixture of kind of like indie emo,
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: post hardcore stuff, Like it's just this perfect mixture of
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: all of that cool and so you just get this
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: unbelievable songwriting. It's very it's very like emotionally driven lyrically
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: where they're like the whole album is about a friend's suicide,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: and so it's just really really well done. But you
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: get a little bit of like you just get really
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: heavy stuff, you get this like very indie stuff, and
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: it's just it's all like well crafted in terms of
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: just the sequencing of it.
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: You justin you talked about how In Rainbows has like
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: this weird atmosphere about it that's very kind of its
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: own thing. I think as Cities, Burns, Come Now Sleep
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: and In Rainbows kind of live in this similar liminal space,
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: like they have their own atmosphere that you can see it.
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: You don't know what it is, but it's there. It Yeah, how.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: You even describe it? But yeah, you know what when
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: you hear it kind of thing.
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, do you think you have a perfect record that
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: you can think of?
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Ah? Well, I mean I would I would put in
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: In Rainbows out there, but another one, another one that
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: would be my sixth record. I would mention would probably
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: be h the Cancer Conspiracy. Have you guys heard there?
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: The audio Medium, it's a bummer because they're not That
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: record isn't on Spotify, but there's a it's another instrumental
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: band and it's h I don't know how to describe it,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: but keep your eye out for it if you see
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: it anywhere. It's it's The records were.
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: Only around for like it looks like a couple of years.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: They weren't. Yeah, they were on for a bit that
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the record the audio medium is like outrageous. I vividly
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: remember the first time I heard that record, and I
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: got so angry that someone else made it before I did,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: because I just heard it and I was like, this
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: is what I want to do with music, and then
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: someone else beat me to it. I was so mad.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: But now luckily the guitar player from that band asked
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: me to play drums on a new project he was doing.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: So it's another thing that I'm doing called Fixation Arc
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: and it's Daryl from that band and he's asked me
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to play drums. Philip from Caspian is actually playing bass yes,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: and Jonathan Nuby from Oh my God. I can't believe
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: I'm facing on the name of his band, and so
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: the funny thing about this is I haven't met him.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: It have three songs that are out and that's kind
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: of the uh, that's kind of the insanity of making
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: music in this time, is that you can do something
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: like that where you can be in a band with
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: somebody that you've literally not ever met. And I just
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: met Phil for the first time from Brazil. Yeah, from Brazil, Brazil, Yep, yes, yeah,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I just met Phil from Caspian at a Caspian show
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: in April, I think, And that was the first time
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: I ever I ever talked to him or like actually
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: met him, met him, and it's just what, it's just weirdness.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: What's the group going to be called again, It's.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Called Fixation Arc. We do have three songs released. They're
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: kind of like they're metal songs, but they're like I
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: don't want to say that they're thrash metal, but I'm
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: definitely channeling thrash metal vibes and the drumming. But there
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: it's like a it's like a unique kind of sort
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: of proggy metal band. It's it's really it's really cool.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: It's different. The vocals make it super different, and it's
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: really unique and it's a cool thing to do. And
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: we're just kind of going song by song, like we'll
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: just like make a song and put it out, and
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: make another song and put it out, make those song
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: put out. So we're just kind of going going that way.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: But it's super fun and it's like an incredible it's
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: just an incredible thing to think about doing a while
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: playing music with two people that I've just i mean
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: basically been in love with what they've done and it's
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: some of my favorite music of all time. And I
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: get to actually try to collaborate with that one stuff.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: She's pretty It's pretty fun.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: What a super group that's like every single one of
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: those bands Mason and I are in love with or
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: interested in. Yeah, I mean Cancer Conspiracy. I have never
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: heard of them, but I am very very intrigued after
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: glancing at their Wikipedia here.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: So yeah, Audio Medium is the one for me there.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, all this stuff is great, but that record
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: especially is just is just not It's just it's just
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: the everything on that the tones, like all of it.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: I asked I I met I online met Darryl, and
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: I asked him what guitar he used on that record?
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: And this is another stupid thing because when I started
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: playing like Bika, I was like, well, I want to
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: sound like that, so I'll just get the guitar that
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: he used, and I definitely did. It doesn't sound anything
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: like it, but whatever.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: It's like.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: It's like when you're growing up and uh, you know
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: you're a guitar you want to be a guitarist, and
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: you see your favorite band, you know, playing like a
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: like a Jaguar or something like that, and and those
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: are like the most like temperamental guitars that have ever existed.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: They look awesome though.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: It's so cool.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: But I feel like when it always sunny, when they
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: start the band and Max just sitting there and he's
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: got the guitar and the guy's trying to talk to him,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: he's like, out of the ways. He wants to see
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: himself in the mirror. I feel like that's how I
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: pretty much got into it.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: That's great, justin what do you want to plug? Obviously,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: the new album for kill Switch is coming out. It's
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: I just literally I saw that Spotify. It was like
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: it was like sixty days from now or whatever.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: So I don't know what.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Oh is it? Yeah?
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's something like that. I don't know. Yeah, February
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: maybe is March or something.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: Every twenty first that is the day. That is the
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: day that that's out there. Yeah, there's that. And like
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: we were talking about the fixation arc stuff said, our
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: last song maybe a month just over a month ago.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: I think our last one came out. There's a beak
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, you can listen all that stuff. It's
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: all on all the streaming stuff everywhere. You listen to
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: whatever you listen to.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, you're a busy dude.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Not really. I feel like I just sit around with
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: pet cats all day.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: Really well, I mean even when you are working, you're
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: still sitting around.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: So no, you're right, You're absolutely right.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: True. Anything else you'd like to plug?
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Uh plug, Well, I don't. I don't know if it's
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: a plug so much. But we told yeah, we talked
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit about or I talked a little bit
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: about drumming, kind of being athletic, you know, and he
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: has a real big soccer player. When I was a
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: kid and I was just trying to further soccer and
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: further soccer and for the soccer, and the kind of
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: got to this point at one point where it was
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: like music or soccer. I was getting these offers from.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: I don't even got the us L.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: The soccer league, high school musical kind of thing.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: No, it was like a real league with the Boston
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: Bolt sort team. I used to go and see a
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of bunch of games with my dad and
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: in Boston. Like I grew up in Connecticut and it
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: was just under two hours from there, so that was
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: like our local USL soccer team. I remember having these
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: these tryouts. I was a striker because I played throughout
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: high school. We were a pretty good team, pretty good team,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: and I was getting these uh, these these tryouts for
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: the for the Bolts. It was back before you know,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: soccer was kind of okay in the in the US,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: but you know normal pool could I could get a
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: lot farther than than any normal person could get. Now,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I had to make a choice, and I kind of
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: chose music over potential professional athletic career. So I still
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: kind of do you kick myself? Not sure. I'm not sure.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: I'm still not sure if it was the right move.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: I think you're I think you've had a pretty long
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: career in music, and I think it's it's it's gonna
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: keep going.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: I hope. So I guess in that sense I made
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the right moment. Aren't too many soccer players in their
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: late forties that's why you're running? I mean in general, Yeah, I.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: Like to think to myself that, you know, I chose
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: a career over the NFL that you know for music journalism,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: linebacker your he was a slot receiver.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: I did play in college, so that's gonna be. That's
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 4: gonna be. That's got to count towards something, right.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, no, totally.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: And when I say college like, I'm not meaning like
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: I didn't play. I was in a backup receiver for Alabama.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: That's a good I hear. They have a good football program.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: It's not too bad. It's not too bad.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And when they're fair share games, they've done all right.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: So well, justin thank you so much for chatting more
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: about just your your general music career, your your time
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: in kill Switch. Obviously the new album. We're just super
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: excited for just a couple more months and we're going
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: to be hearing all about it, And honestly, I wouldn't
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: be surprised if at the end of the twenty twenty
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: five year it's on one of our top five albums
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: of the year.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: It's just it's so good. Just from what we've heard
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: so far, it's so good.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: So yeah, just really excited, and you know, hopefully at
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: some point, you know, I'm sure you do this kind
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: of thing a lot, but hopefully at some point we
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: get to chat again. I'm just really excited for all
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: the stuff that's coming out from your kind of musical world.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks so much for having me, guys. It's been
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: fun talking to you guys. I can tell we have
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of musical it's like mindedness for sure. Decided
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: to check out those records you guys recommended
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, likewise, likewise