Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Christian Nielsen and Armando Penagos: Meadows

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Christian Nielsen and Armando Penagos: Meadows · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:30
Today, we've got Christian and Armando from Meadows and Meadows we interviewed you guys
0:36
back. I think maybe when the last album came out. I don't remember
0:39
exactly. It's been a few years though, but you guys got a new
0:44
album coming out. Super stoked about that. We'll chat more about that,
0:47
but how you guys doing today? Dude, amazing, Honestly glad to be
0:53
back back in the saddle back releasing new music. You know, it was
0:58
really an odd cycle release of several releases for the last one, so it's
1:04
it's good to kind of have everything in one go this time makes sense.
1:11
Yeah, it was kind of like in the middle of COVID pandemic stuff,
1:15
right, was the last one, so it was sort of ended up being
1:18
like, oh, you released new music and the you can't really exactly tour
1:21
on it, and it was just, yeah, it's an awkward album release
1:25
when that happens. We did what we could sense. I feel like a
1:30
lot of people don't know this, but two years ago at Furnace Fast because
1:34
Meadows is a Birmingham band. Two years ago, Christian Culin and I stayed
1:40
at your house and got a hell of a time just hanging out, chilling
1:42
with you and your lovely wife hanging out with Milo, right, Milo dogs?
1:49
Yes, that was one of my favorite dogs I've ever met. Milo
1:53
is the favorite dog that I've met. Fun fact, we are working on
1:57
closing on a house, so we haven't had him for the last several months.
2:01
Uh with you guys are like in downtown right now. Right we are
2:07
living out of college with the students. That's like the dorm parents. So
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we've been trying to figure out how to sneak him in or you know,
2:16
do something more official. But there's been a really really gracious foster fan taking
2:22
care of him and we get him back and just no time. I'm so
2:27
excited. Well, you get Milo back, and isn't there isn't there a
2:30
little one on the way there is hot niggative dog. Yeah, that's way
2:37
better than an album. Yeah, you know, we'll just do it all
2:42
in one go. You know the album House Baby who says change is bad?
2:49
Right, we'll go for all all at once, Just do it all
2:52
at the same time so you don't have to do it a bunch and then
2:54
you're good to go. That makes sense, you get do you get the
2:58
five year itch either? Of you guys. Do you guys know what the
3:00
five year itches? What is that? Like? Changing things up? Yeah?
3:05
Like every five years or so, you just feel like you have to
3:07
change something or do something like big in order to like just kind of spice
3:10
things up in your life. I like changing things up probably once a week.
3:15
Yeah, I'll get the five day itch. Yeah. Yeah, that
3:21
could be something else too that I want to get that checked out. That
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man. Also, isn't Milo named after a restaurant? Right? Is that
3:38
something he is? I mean all the the Fernies and Slausages should know and
3:46
know it well by now. But Milo's Hamburgers. It's kind of like the
3:51
Delicious. It's like the Birmingham in and out, but it's a little,
3:55
you know, a little less put together in some ways. But for sure,
4:00
dude, it like it was like a special thing for us. So
4:04
you know, I still remember one day, I think it was after a
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night of Furnace Fest and we got back at your house before you got back.
4:13
It might have been the night that you had your show, but I
4:15
remember we let Milo Colin and I let Milo out to go, you know,
4:19
outside for a second, and it was impossible to get him back in
4:23
and let's run around the yard forever, trying to chase him to get him
4:28
back inside. It was he he just wanted to play, dude. It
4:31
was like two am. One time he was a little bit younger and I
4:36
let him out, and this is when I first figured out, like,
4:39
hey, he's a bit of trouble when you like inside, he's literally an
4:43
angel. Yeah, we did training with him. He gets all the commands
4:46
like he is the bomb inside. You get him outside and he's like,
4:49
this is my space, my domain. No one tells me what to do.
4:54
And I was trying to get him back in and it was like pouring
4:56
rain. I was like, he's gonna be a mess, Like I gotta
5:00
get him in, and he was like he's this is a game. Like
5:02
we're hanging out here and I'm like in my boxers and like slides and I'm
5:09
just absolutely fumbling around the backyard. Muddy is all get and like, dude,
5:14
there's a picture of him when I got him back in. I was
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like, this is both the most angry I've ever been at you and like
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you look adorable because he's just like all soaking wet little pup and I'm like
5:26
that was great, wasn't it a love? It? All? Right?
5:32
Well, let's talk about new music. Obviously, you guys just announced not
5:38
that long ago a new album called Familiar with Pain, and there's a couple
5:43
singles that have already been out and I'm already like, oh yeah, this
5:46
is some of the best Meadows I've ever heard, so I'm super stoked about
5:49
it. But hey, do you guys want to talk a little bit about
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kind of background of wanting to release a new album and yeah, whatever sort
5:56
of stories that there are there for the background of the album. Yeah,
6:00
mana, you gonna take that one. I was gonna ask you to take
6:04
it. But yes, I'm trying to think back and I'm always so bad
6:09
with the timeline of this, but really over the past like two years or
6:13
so, our guitarist Stone, his family has a lake house, you know,
6:17
about an hour from where we are, and I remember us taking a
6:20
trip out there for our band trip, and we were having the conversation of
6:26
what is this next record going to be? And we just can't stay away
6:30
from a concept and a story, so we decided to torture ourselves and you
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know, try to put another storyboard together and figure all this out, but
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we love it, so we were we were having those conversations then, right,
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Christian like, yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what was going
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to be about. Yeah. Also, for those who are maybe watching on
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YouTube, which by the way, if you're not watching it on YouTube,
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we'll see like Apple podcasts or whatever. Total check out our YouTube channel.
7:00
You can actually watch our faces talk to all these bands. But Christian,
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Andre and Armando are both in the same room right now, but on separate
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laptops. I asked them to do it in separate laptops, but they're literally
7:13
I thought maybe like one would be in one room and then the other person
7:15
would be in the other room, but nope, they're right next to each
7:17
other. So it's kind of fun like watching you guys like basically talk to
7:21
each other. Got to risk to each other, but you're on like separate
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screens for us, and you look the opposite direction when you talk to each
7:28
other. It's all yez. Yeah, I love that. It's all jazz.
7:33
So what made you guys decide that polka was the genre that you guys
7:38
wanted to do on this album. No, I'll take that one for sure.
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Yeah, Jack Black, you know put out a movie and it just
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no. And it was kind of like, let's just start with story and
7:56
then figure out theme. So wise, and then I really challenged the guys
8:03
and said, hey, like what does this sound like? What does that
8:07
theme sound like to you? And so like for instance, when we get
8:11
to like Bravis, which we just put out, I mean, it's kind
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of like a crowd like wrapped in envy, like just chaos, like yeah,
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all gas, no breaks like so it was kind of one of those
8:26
things where like hopefully it comes across that, you know, really the sound
8:33
of the song fits the theme of the song. We really tried to send
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those parameters for ourselves, like Christian was saying, what does the song sound
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like? And we've tried to challenge ourselves every time we write a song to
8:46
push ourselves so to not right in a way that is like comfortable for us,
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whether that's going to a different space or figuring that out musically, or
8:56
like hey, let's write a song from starting with the drums and build off
9:01
that, or starting with the bassline and build off that. And we really
9:03
took all the themes of each song that we wanted to to pursue and say,
9:09
what does this sound, like what does it feel like? And build
9:11
the music based around that. I think it it gave us a pretty full
9:16
perspective when you listen to it front to back, So we're really excited for
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the entire thing to be out and you know, kind of just giving people
9:24
a taste right now. And which of those experiments of uncomfortable writing was the
9:33
had the biggest payoff for you? M, that's good. Yeah, probably
9:39
like shoehorning ourselves into like a narrative that that flows throughout that is something to
9:48
connect all of them, because again it's like, well let's do this.
9:54
I mean, if we go back to like just the way that I write,
9:56
like I'll speak you know personally on that question. You know, I'm
10:01
like, I want to write something in this specific song that like is the
10:05
same forwards and backwards and so like just to like fit the way that that
10:13
it kind of goes into it and like it's the same kind of stuff I
10:16
did on the last one with like the word what's the word for that?
10:20
The pal Yeah, and so just like different ways that I'm like, how
10:26
can I get the most out of like my creative process to like I love
10:31
like approaching things in like kind of a poetic stance. So I don't know,
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hopefully that's kind of the answer that I'm able to give that makes sense
10:41
to you. Yeah, I like that, how for you? For me?
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I mean, of course I'm thinking of the music before the lyrics and
10:50
kind of like allowing Christian his face to do that. My I always try
10:56
to think from like a root a root note perspective, and a chord like
11:00
a chord structure perspective. And I'm I'm just a big nerd when it comes
11:05
to like if I play this chord but maybe move one note down a little
11:09
bit, the whole feeling changes. And I love just trying to capture a
11:13
feeling from like if you don't hear anything about the music, do you still
11:18
feel the same thing that the lyrics are trying to portray? And like how
11:22
does that work together? And we've talked about a lot, like if you
11:26
were to see this one thing by itself or hear this one thing by itself,
11:30
does it communicate the same thing. So trying to like build the parameters
11:33
for ourselves and just by Christian Sam pigeonhole ourselves to force us to think in
11:41
a different way, you know, produce as a different result for each song.
11:45
I mean we feel like I like that. That's cool. Christian.
11:48
You're sort of known for telling a story having a concept in each of your
11:54
Meadows albums. Can you talk a little bit about like what's the story or
11:58
what's the concept that you're wanting to get across in this album that I don't
12:01
know, I would imagine it's gonna be different than the previous albums. Yeah,
12:07
and a bit of this. It's a funny question because we were like
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talking before coming out here, like how do we answer this question? I
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know this questions coming Yeah. I love to like play in the in between.
12:20
I think when it comes to like let me tell you what I was
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writing about versus what you glean from it, and like what is the ambiguity
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of it? Say to you? From like an art standpoint, you know,
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like we all can look at the same piece of creepy art from the
12:37
thrift store and see something different within it. And so it's one of those
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where like I've got an idea that I'm trying to deliver, but I'm like
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I don't. I almost want to like just let people figure it out on
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their own. But then like it's funny because we're like reading like the face
12:56
down records, like posts of like here's what the record is, and I'm
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like, hey, just so everyone's aware, this is what they're saying and
13:03
what I actually said, because I have apparently at one night just like was
13:07
responding to something about a blurb and was like, oh yeah, we kind
13:11
of like consolidated the whole theme of the record into like what is the like
13:16
most summarized way to say this, and like that is now out into the
13:22
world, which is awesome. So we're you know, we're we're out there
13:26
with yeah, the idea. Yeah, but to summarize it and go off
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the cuff to answer here would be it's a chronological story and you're looking at
13:37
really elements and pieces of you know, what we know is the Holy Week,
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so like Jesus writing in on Palm Sunday up through the flogging of Christ
13:50
being the song thirty nine times. So between there, I'll leave the ambiguity
13:56
to dive into the story on your own. But that's at least where you
14:00
start and where you at. I'll say that much, and it's cool,
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hand Luke do something very similar. I don't know if you guys know cool
14:07
Hand Luke or not, But I think they did something similar where they did
14:09
an entire album around Holy Week. Yes, I've not heard. I think
14:13
it was there. I think it was their last one if I remember right.
14:16
Yeah, it's a great album on the walls right there, not the
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song, but like, are you saying it's the last one? I hope
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not. I mean you guys have to resurrect at least, right, that's
14:31
right, Yeah, we need it. We need an Easter Sunday for Meadows
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at some point. Oh yeah, perhaps we'll see. Yeah, of man,
14:43
Armando, you mentioned that, like one of the things that you guys
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tried to do, especially on this album is challenge yourselves. Was there any
14:50
sort of like maybe like new sounds or like new things just from like a
14:56
songwriting perspective that you feel is like new for Meadows? Like obviously I would
15:00
you listen to the the two songs that at least have been out now,
15:05
it's you know, there's the classic hardcore stuff that you're gonna expect for Meadows.
15:09
There's some of the the spoken word stuff. So there's some stuff where
15:11
it's like, all right, this is what I expect from Meadows. But
15:13
in throughout the album and maybe you haven't heard it yet in the two singles
15:16
that have come out, but is there any like new sort of sounds or
15:20
new different ways that you've made music that just haven't ever been on a Meadows
15:24
album before. We will say yes, out of the two songs that that
15:31
we have put out so far from this record, there's some very very drastic
15:37
alternate sounds going on, and we're extremely excited to see, you know,
15:43
share that with people because it's there's a lot of just sonically different things on
15:48
both ends of the spectrum. But we we feel like it really does does
15:52
the job of being cohesive still and like we're saying, you know, telling
15:56
the story musically as well as lyrically. So we're very excited. We've explored
16:03
very wide soundscape. Yeah, Polka, I mean jeez, I can't wait.
16:07
Yeah, there's there's a polka track, So we'll go ahead and leak
16:12
that. It's hidden guys. Yeah, right, that's what you were telling
16:18
me before before we got on that one hour after the last. Yeah,
16:23
grandparents might rise back from the grave if they hear that one Lawrence welcome will
16:29
be happy. Yes, that's a reference that maybe three people are going to
16:33
understand it. Well, I'm one of them since he's a relative. So
16:36
you're fifth grade, your fifth grade grandma, that's my that's my grandma's cousin
16:45
was Laurence. Well, I love it. Oh man, I I can't
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tell you how excited I am for this record to come out finally you can.
17:00
I mean, it's it's gonna be great. I mean there's no doubt
17:02
about it. Like your as the last record set the bar so high for
17:06
me that I just I have high expectations and I feel like they're going to
17:10
be met. After listening to the singles so far, I'm curious what your
17:15
album art is representing. Is it connected to the concept, to the theme.
17:22
Yeah, I'll speak to that. I I did the record cover as
17:27
well as all the merch design, and the way your merch design is very
17:33
very cool. Magic city Hardcore's Oh yeah, I think I think that's Christian's
17:40
idea from a few tours back. It just kind of started happening. Birmingham
17:45
is the Magic City. If you didn't know historically, why is it called
17:48
the Magic City? Little history lesson? Yeah, I love history. So
17:52
yeah, So Birmingham started when the city really started coming together it was we're
18:00
making a lot of different iron and stuff like that. So Sloughs Furnace here
18:03
in Birmingham was like the big you know, manufacturing plant of all of that
18:10
steel and everything. So when that started it it's called the Magic City because
18:15
it sprang up overnight essentially with all these factories, all these furnaces and manufacturing
18:22
plants of steel and different things like that, and just sprung up out of
18:26
nowhere, so and known as the Magic City ever since this magic and it's
18:30
magic, yeah, beautiful. It feels like a little bit of a like
18:34
a little bit of a stretch for a nickname of a city. It's sort
18:37
of like Chicago's known for as the Windy Cindy or with windy City, and
18:41
it actually has like nothing to do with wind We actually we have the most
18:45
magicians per capita. I was going to say, I was gonna say like
18:48
that, that feels like like that would be a better story to how that
18:53
was Peller from Alabama, one of one out of whom, not gonna say
19:03
which one. I also thought it was Orlando that was the Magic City,
19:07
but apparently not is the album artwork is that the Crown of Thorns? Am
19:12
I right in interpreting it that way. It is so we man. We
19:18
went through so many iterations of completely different directions for the artwork and the covers,
19:26
and countless hours of drawing things and read going completely different routes, but
19:33
we wanted to take this approach of like doing this kind of really zoomed in
19:38
perspective of the Crown of Thorns, and it's really more of like the abstract
19:45
idea of it. There's a lot of messiness to a lot of squiggles going
19:48
on, which I was a big fan of. And for me, I've
19:52
been I've been drawing my whole life, and I've you known, painting and
19:57
graphic design and this and that. But doing what we ended up with here
20:03
really felt for me like my most true form of art, like just you
20:07
know, drawing pencil and paper sort of thing, and getting like the feeling
20:14
of the messiness, which is like for me, it felt like the visual
20:18
that encapsulated the story overall. The other thing for me was like the color
20:25
palette going on with it. So it's like this kind of deep deep blue
20:30
color in the background with these bright pops of red and this duld, you
20:34
know, duld shades of brown. Going throughout, So it kind of felt
20:38
like the feeling that we wanted to convey with it, or if no one
20:44
else me, the feeling that I felt like it sounded like, you know,
20:47
going through it and spending time with it and just kind of like the
20:51
heaviness or the weightiness of the colors and the messiness of the line work.
20:56
So that's kind of my perspective of how I wanted to approach it. One
21:03
of the things I like about Meadows and your previous album covers is, especially
21:07
with this one and even with Likewise there it almost feels like an indie album,
21:12
Like it's it feels like something you'd see from like Modest Mouse and and
21:18
you know, obviously like knowing that, like obviously there are some elements to
21:22
that in Meadows. There's some of those indie sounding guitar riffs and everything.
21:26
But you know, for the most part, I still think of you guys
21:27
as like a hardcore band, right, and so it's really funny to think
21:32
of like you guys could be playing on a stage with I don't know,
21:36
some other hardcore band, like let's name it, like I don't know,
21:38
like Knock and and like Knock Loose for example, I just could never see
21:45
Knock Loose having this kind of indie looking, you know, vibe, and
21:49
so it's just interesting to me, like that's like the sound that I think
21:52
of you guys, or at least like genre wise where I would put you,
21:56
and yet you have this like very indie esthetic. I think that's really
22:00
interesting. That's probably just you know, due to me doing all of the
22:07
artists we've started and like my personal you know, progression of making things like
22:14
that. But like I always feel like, out of the group of us,
22:18
like I feel like I'm kind of always pushing the more indie side of
22:22
things, whereas like Christian and Stone and Evan like and the rest of the
22:26
guys like pushing the heavier side of things. And I love the heavy side
22:30
too when we're riding. But then visually, I guess it's kind of like,
22:36
how do I take my visual perspective and make it fit in this mold?
22:41
Because we've it's funny since we've been playing, we've played all sorts of
22:45
weird, weird shows, and we've been we've had shows where we've been the
22:49
only screaming band on a show, so by far the heaviest, and we've
22:53
had shows where we're like, you guys are weak, like so we it's
23:02
Natalie Grant one time and reliant k like really that's awesome, which was a
23:07
fist. I mean, so I don't it's whatever, but yeah, you
23:11
know, so it's been awesome. You know, it is kind of funny
23:15
because you do kind of have a little bit of an indie like vibe esthetically
23:18
yourself. I mean, you're wearing a denim chortcoat. It doesn't get it
23:22
doesn't get much more indie than that, really, you know, Okay,
23:29
okay, it's gonna be black then I think, right, yeah, dark
23:33
blue, dark blue, super dark. So that's a little bit about the
23:38
album itself. I I know, you guys have talked a little bit about
23:42
some of the tour stuff that's coming out, so yeah, like obviously the
23:45
album is going to be coming out soon, but is there ways people can
23:49
actually see you guys play these new songs. Yeah. So you know,
23:55
it's funny because like the last few months we've kind of been playing Bravis like
24:00
just because we couldn't wait to play it, And we even had the discussion
24:04
several times of like should we hold all these or like no, It's like
24:08
let's just they're too fun man. So yeah, we've got an album release
24:14
tour starting in just six Yeah, just a few weeks away, March sixth,
24:21
Wait when when's? When's the baby do? June third is what the
24:27
actual date is. But apparently he's like measuring like ninety nine plus percentile,
24:33
so probably coming a little bit earlier, you might be cutting it close to
24:37
what you're saying. I think I think from March we're good. I think
24:41
we're good for March, which like it's what like ten dates or something like
24:44
that. I think it's nine, right, Yeah, Okay, so you're
24:48
doing you're doing nine dates and then can we expect something after a baby comes
24:55
or it's I mean we're still planning stuff and you know, seeing what opportunities
25:00
we have, you know, the whole email back and forth or Instagram message
25:07
whatever for different bests that we have coming up for the summer, So trying
25:11
to get all those sort of details locked in and figured out on our end,
25:15
for sure. I mean, I will say I I definitely saw the
25:19
intentional avoidance of both Sioux Falls and Minneapolis. Yea, the heck man,
25:26
very intentional. We would love we would love to see it live again.
25:33
I was like, wow, I see that Christian loves us just as much
25:36
as we love him. I do, Actually I don't because I love you
25:40
more. So. We played in Minneapolis last time. Is that upstairs?
25:45
Like? We played like three flights of stairs Minneapolis. We played in north
25:52
Star Room. North Star Room was really but I'm thinking about that other one
25:56
that was like literally up hundred that was that was Wisconsin? Was it okay?
26:03
Yeah? That was awful. I mean it was great. The venue
26:06
was cool, but like the stairs were not cool. All your venues need
26:10
ramps. I'm me tell you, tell you right now. Mason and I
26:14
helped the chariot load in uh to a super tall building in Fargo up up
26:22
flights of stairs and it was awful. One one other thing I'm kind of
26:26
curious on do you do you play the Bujera amp? Oh? So sitting
26:33
this is my my it's the it's the head and amp combo. This was
26:38
the first head that I ever bought for the bamp for myself for the band.
26:44
I got it for like a hundred bucks. I've played it for years
26:48
live and I love the sound of it. I do have another AMP now
26:52
that I use for shows. But this is my at home practice amp.
26:57
It's it's falling heart. I literally have duct tape all in the back of
27:03
it because it's bad. You I don't even want to, but yeah,
27:07
I have a I have a amp as well, and I love it.
27:11
I think they're incredibly underrated in terms of very much and they're not expensive either,
27:18
which is nice. Yeah, but I mean no, it's not like
27:22
it never like turned any heads or anything. You know, No, we
27:25
never got done with this and be like, oh, that's that's really sick.
27:27
What what is that? You know, everyone's just like cool whatever.
27:33
Everyone's always talking about the meadows guitar tone and stuff, you know, like,
27:37
dude, you guys man your guitars, and like the amount of times
27:41
I'm like trying to walk walk off stage and everyone's just like, you know,
27:47
Google eye and over their pedal boards and stuff. But it's always pedal
27:51
boards. It's never amps. Like no one wills to talk about amps like
27:55
yeahs or they're always like amazed at how much sound we get out little combo
28:00
amps. Yeah so so me and son both play combo amps now like like
28:04
twelves and and that that's always the comment that that we get how do you
28:10
make that much sounds come out of it? But it's just easier to not
28:15
as much to lug around. Yeah, so how do you? How do
28:18
you guys do it? It's just magic, It's Magic City hardcore. I
28:23
love it, just pops up out of nowhere. The tone, it's just
28:27
perfect. Yeah, we we crank, we crank it up probably about ninety
28:30
percent, so it's yeah, it's pushing. So I love it. That's
28:37
how it should be, you know, mm hmm. These amps go to
28:40
eleven. I wonder I wonder if if anyone actually knows the reference for that
28:48
anymore, like a moderate listening audience doubt Mason, do you know what it's
28:53
from? No, don't look it up? What do you don't look it
28:56
up? Well? I know, I mean I know it now, But
29:03
he's like, they don't, so I can't believe they don't as he's looking
29:07
it up. Well, I mean, do you want to tell the people
29:12
there you know? I don't. I don't want to say, honestly,
29:18
Christian, Yeah, you know, it's funny. I know it's I know
29:23
what it's from. I know it's from spinal tap. I'm not actually seeing
29:27
it all the way. Well, you know. Honestly, it's not like
29:30
the greatest mockumentary ever, but that part is pretty fun. It's a fictional
29:37
band that falls apart because they're a rock band, you know, all the
29:42
drama that comes with it. Speaking of which, is there any drama between
29:47
between the members of Meadow just Meadow? Yeah, mister mister Meadow himself over
29:53
here. No drama. No, I mean, it's it's funny. Our
30:00
wives think there is. We're like, we're so I mean, we've been
30:06
playing for like eleven years now, and we've like, gosh, our text
30:11
messages are just so direct because we're always like we gotta figure whatever it is
30:15
we're talking about. We're like, we just need to figure this out right
30:18
now. They're always like do this now, And we know it's cool,
30:25
it's whatever, but our wives are like, are you okay? It's so
30:29
funny, or like if we bring someone on the road with us, like
30:32
they like will pull one of us aside, like on night Flour and it's
30:34
like every time, hey, like I need to be worried. We're fine
30:44
talking about we don't have any crazy drama because we've gotten to the point where
30:48
we know each other is like this is gonna push you, you know,
30:53
but I think I think directness probably helps that too, because because if you're
30:59
passive aggressive, or if you're just like, you know, seething on the
31:02
inside, like that's out, that's how everything goes goes wrong. Well,
31:04
we'll try to be passive aggressive and then one of us is is just like,
31:10
hey, let's shut up. You know. It's funny ar motto because
31:18
last time we talked to Christian at for invest he's like, he's like,
31:21
you know, I am the face of Meadows, and I am the most
31:23
important individual in this band, and I I really need to like go out
31:30
on my own and do my own things sometime. So I just thought,
31:33
you know, maybe there was some maybe there was some uh you know,
31:37
strife going out with the band. Well he has a Spotify account, but
31:41
zero monthly listeners. Naturally, that's what you get for playing polka music.
31:48
Yeah, it's pocus on project is what it's called. It's called project.
31:55
It's called weird Christian Yankovic. I think it has a ring to it.
32:01
It doesn't, it really doesn't. That's why there's zero Spotify exactly. Marketing.
32:09
Anti marketing is the Yeah, that's true. That's true. Well,
32:15
I'm glad. I'm glad you squashed all the all the potential drama, especially
32:19
with Christian thinking that his face in particular was the face of Meadows, which
32:24
explained why there's two thousand monthly listeners. So, uh, you know,
32:35
Armando, speaking of that, have you ever dressed up as the bounty man
32:39
from uh, you know, like the paper Towels Halloween? Now, okay,
32:45
so I have a thing that I tried to accomplish every Halloween where I
32:47
shaved my beard into some type of costume. So what so hold up?
32:53
Hold up? So like your face, you're so like your your beard is
32:58
a design? Or do you like take your beard and make it into a
33:00
costume. So I've been I've been Freddy Mercury twice. It has been great.
33:08
I did I did the Wolverine beard once. So when you did Freddy
33:13
Mercury, did you so mustache? And then you just like like just did
33:16
this the end of the time exactly, just to get a little what is
33:21
happening? All right? Mason? Also look up al Borlin al Borland,
33:30
Yeah, yeah, from from from Home Improvement. Just look up al Home
33:35
Improvement. Yes, yeah, I mean you're obviously like much much more like
33:40
lean than al Is. But I can. I think I have time until
33:45
Halloween too. I'm bulk. Yeah, Christian, do you have a Do
33:53
you have a dappel ganger out there? A famous one? You know you
34:00
do already you know the answer, Yeah, what paper towel brand? Do
34:02
you look like? He's the Sharman bear. That's that's probably the best way.
34:12
What's his name? Impractical? Oh? Sal your sal Rica sal Volcano?
34:21
Oh man, dude, that's totally it. We you're better looking than
34:25
Sala though we went many viral virus went virus, and all the comments were
34:34
just people saying how it looked like, okay, Salve, for your next
34:37
punishment, you have to front this hardcore pord. I don't. So we're
34:46
trying to get him to come to a show if we can. Yeah,
34:51
dude, that'd be amazing. You could get him up on stage to to
34:57
to sing just like pretend, ask Christian and almost just like pretend like nothing's
35:02
different. So, when when we did our West Coast tour with the Undertaking
35:07
a while back, we were trying our darnedist to get Nathan Fielder out to
35:12
a show, I was like, I don't even care. What prank you
35:15
pool if you do something that's awful to us. I just I just want
35:19
to meet this guy in person. He is one of the most interesting individuals
35:25
we should see. Tim Robinson will go to the Detroit show. I think
35:30
that's our goal. That's there. If I was going to go, if
35:36
I was going to go to Detroit, I would want Iggy Pop at the
35:38
show. And I wanted to take his shirt off and go wild, and
35:45
then you can take your shirt off to Christian and each other's belly buttons.
35:49
That would be great, that'd be great. You know, Mason has a
35:52
doppelganger too, Do you guys know what it is. I'm trying to I'm
35:58
trying to think. Now, it's not a very famous one. I was
36:01
thinking Orlando Bloom, But wow, I'll take that. I'll take that.
36:07
Uh, Mason, would you just kind of pull your hair out of your
36:12
butt or just like turn to the side, turn to the side just for
36:15
a second. Yeah, he's Minnesota lesbian. Minnesota lesbian. That's that's that's
36:22
mason'stop. I'm not wearing my flannel though right now. That's true. I
36:27
drive a sup Yeah, that's the only thing though. He doesn't drive a
36:29
super Yeah. I need to drive a super Yeah, and then get a
36:35
U haul truck after our first date. That's great. Are we ready for
36:46
top five? Let's go? All right? All right, Armando? Should
36:52
we or should we have Armando go first? Since it's top five influential for
36:54
him? I was about to say, I forgot what the top five even
36:59
was for me. Okay, so top five influential. We'll make Christian go
37:01
first so you can think about your top five. All right, So Christian,
37:07
we are talking for you or for you. It's going to be your
37:09
top five guilty pleasure artists, guilty pleasure artists. Okay, I'm going to
37:21
start with where it all began. Black Eyed Peas No not even Clothes very
37:28
close, my first CD that I ever got, and like, I mean,
37:31
I wore it out. It was Ricky Martin. Really, I was
37:39
like dude, it was Living Levita Loca. It was also the Baha men
37:50
No and smash Mouth absolutely Smash Well. Any of those two of those CDs,
38:00
any of those needs you need to you guys have to do a cover
38:04
of any of those artists that Oh my god, could you imagine a hardcore
38:09
version of All Star? That's so brilliant. But it's like the version where
38:15
it's like delayed on the intro. It's like some and everyone like falls flat
38:25
on their face in the crowd. I think we need I'm down for that.
38:30
Yeah, you guys are like spike your hair and we're like bowling shirts
38:38
opening for turnstile. If you guys do that for just that look is coming
38:45
back. It is unfortunately or fortunately depending on you. Okay, so that's
38:52
we'll call that three. That's cheating, but okay, it works. It
38:59
works. I'm trying to think, like through my Spotify even I just like
39:05
I'm I'm so like, honestly, you know what number four? We'll put
39:09
Meadows. I listen NonStop. You listen to your own band. I'm like
39:15
I listen and like I noticed, like my face does this thing where like
39:19
it's trying to like do the do the part like but I'm just trying to
39:23
like listen. But I'm also like listening like very critically yeah all the time,
39:30
and I'm like, how's that sounding? How's that coming across? And
39:34
like show us your face when you're listening to Meadows in the car, We'll
39:38
say like are you like h it's it's it's kind of like that, but
39:43
like your lips like you this like yeah, like person thing, Like it's
39:49
like something's trying to get out, and it's like I can't catch myself doing
39:54
it, and I'm like, I probably look ridiculous, right, So you
40:00
don't listen to your own band for like enjoyment. You're listening more as like
40:05
a critical ear in a yes, But then I'm also like, you know
40:08
what, I'm our biggest fan, Like if someone's got to be why not
40:13
me? You know. So here's a super personal question. Then can you
40:19
ever listen to Meadows while having sex? Okay? I cause I just I
40:28
can't imagine you like, all right, babe, let's get frisky and then
40:30
like turning on your no one you can imagine that. I don't. I
40:37
don't know who's out there doing that, but I mean I can personally attest.
40:43
Colin listens to the Black Sheep podcast while he's having sex too, So
40:46
it's my voice you like that, No, it's I like it's funny because
40:52
like if you look at my Spotify rap, it's probably a lot of Meadows.
40:57
Because I'm like either like working out, trying to get ready for a
41:00
tour and I'm like got the set list going somewhere. Yeah, make sure
41:04
I'm not kidding winded, So you're not, but you're probably not going to
41:07
ever share your Spotify rapt because of that, right. It's that, And
41:12
then it's a lot of like me like practicing for worship. So it's like,
41:15
okay, like if I'm having to lead worship, it's probably those same
41:19
songs and it's like the ones that I don't even like, I just have
41:22
to learn them. Okay. So that brings me to the next point.
41:28
Your fifth artist. How about a CCM artist that like you really should not
41:32
like it. Everyone to make fun of you if you if you told them
41:35
that you really liked this CCM. Okay, you know, I don't know
41:38
how I don't know how much this would land as far as like you really
41:42
shouldn't like them, but like I have a very soft spot for a need
41:47
to breathe in my heart? Okay, Yeah, that's definitely guilty pleasure.
41:52
Are you serious? Yeah, that's like that's like, that's like that's like
41:58
the Christian wife who's like teetering on divorce music. That's definitely live laugh love
42:02
Music's great, but like the old need to the yeah, dude, Okay,
42:14
that song right there, but when they were actually still like alternative on
42:20
that first album. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. The first album is
42:23
pretty like shine On so good. Yeah. See I like the second one
42:29
Man the the Outside. Yes, but that's that's their actually that's actually their
42:35
third album. That is true that whatever very I know. Need to Breathe.
42:44
Yes, my mom is like total need to breathe kind of family,
42:47
and she probably totally is like whatever their market demographic is, she's one hundred
42:52
percent the market demograph. She's not teetering on divorce though, so she's not
42:55
like it's true, but she's definitely live, laugh, love and like and
43:00
has like you know, would ideally like to live in a house with a
43:04
lot of ship lap dude. Okay, all right, I've been got so
43:12
I love it. I got got Thank you for saying that. That that
43:16
really that makes me happy. You guys should you guys should have your bumper
43:20
music be need to Breathe. I'm about it. It's funny because I feel
43:27
like we noticed a lot of times it's like bumper music, like oh Medows
43:30
is setting up and like they're getting ready to like we're getting ready to play,
43:35
and so like I feel like they never know what to play. It's
43:38
either like way one way or the other, kind of back to that whole
43:43
conversation we had earlier. So we've actually made our own bumper music for those
43:47
who can't decide what to play. So as soon as we finish our set,
43:51
we like to have something come on. It's just like we've had all
43:54
sorts of different things. We're on like a big kind of E d M
43:59
sort of I'm for a second, just move. It's something totally out of
44:04
pocket to like all right, we're done, We're for sure done. You
44:10
know that does need to be a thing. Like there's too many venues that
44:14
play the same exact kind of music for what you just listen to. And
44:20
it's really frustrating because it's like, all right, I need something to just
44:22
kind of cleanse the palate for a moment, just take a breath that or
44:24
they'll play us after you got done playing or before, and I'm like,
44:31
what about to hear that again? Who does that? It's it's not it's
44:38
more than once. I I can't even imagine somebody doing that. That sounds
44:45
so dumb. I don't know, it's like I guess letting you practice what
44:52
they're about to hear, yeah, or or just like getting that's good all
45:00
right, Armando. Top five most influential albums Okay, albums, Oh gosh.
45:07
I was thinking of artists at firstus whole okay, but I got you,
45:12
I got you albums for me personally in terms of how I think about
45:19
writing music or you know, putting things together or just stuff that I love
45:24
to find. The Great Line is one of my first and I think that's
45:29
just sort of a you know, gimme, but it still is. It
45:31
was super impactful for me during my time when I first started playing guitar,
45:37
and uh, you know, my one of my first records that I started
45:40
listening to was Cris of the Past and you know, kind of getting into
45:45
that, so you know, it is what it is. There's there's that
45:49
I love under Oath. Second for me is probably to Pimp a Butterfly from
45:57
Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, for sure, it's nice, one of my favorite
46:00
records that I have it on vinyl behind me here, and for me,
46:06
it's also tying into the fact of, like I just love good storytelling and
46:12
that's one of those front and back if you like, it's great music,
46:15
but when you start digging into it, there's more to unfold, and I
46:19
love that sort of world building, sort of just giving you something more to
46:24
listen to. Same same exact reason for my other ones, because the Internet
46:30
Childishcambino, yeah, oh yeah, building concept sort of deal, and the
46:37
Party by Andy Shaff He's one of my favorite artists. He's a very indie
46:42
artist, kind of acoustic guitar. Every record is a concept, story building
46:47
sort of thing. So Andy Shatt, hold up, Andy Shaw, where's
46:51
he from? You know, Canada, from Canada, from from Toronto.
46:54
That's why I have a I have a friend named Andy Shaw who has a
46:58
whole bunch of records and really he also plays kind of acoustic kind of stuff,
47:02
the same Andy Shaw, Andy show. Yeah, yeah, Canada,
47:09
Canada, indie artists, and every record has been like a story sort of
47:14
deal. So I could name all of those records, but I'll just do
47:17
that one for for now. What is that? Four? Is that three?
47:22
Three? Four? Okay, I'll do one more? Four? I
47:27
think, yeah, one more? Yeah, Absent sounds from Indian Lakes wearing
47:34
the shirt right now, but yeah from Indian Leader shirt, yeah, which
47:39
is another great record, but Absent Sounds is my favorite record from that band,
47:45
front to back. I love every single song on that record, and
47:49
that that has influenced a lot of the way that that I like to write
47:52
personally, just in terms of like ambience and like music structure sort of deals,
47:59
and like the way that the drums compliment a guitar sound is so good
48:05
that you know, the singer writes and records everything himself, so just like
48:08
the cohesiveness of like all of that coming together. So yeah, that first
48:14
that first record for them, was that a self titled I think so or
48:19
no, it was like the meme with wooden legs or something like that.
48:22
That's it. Yeah, I that was actually my best cold call by I
48:25
ever had. I was at a record store. I was like, this
48:29
is a really interesting band name, this is a really interesting album cover.
48:31
I'm gonna buy it. I bought it, I put it in I was
48:34
like, Oh, this is so good. This is exactly what I want
48:37
to hear. What I was like about them is that they kind of have
48:40
like this like cool ADHD kind of vibe at times, you know, like
48:45
just like really beautiful like layering and then all of a sudden, like just
48:51
angular, disgusted rifts that come out of nowhere. It's like, whoa,
48:54
this is neat. So yeah, no, I like that. I can
48:58
definitely hear that in as well. That's cool. That's a good that's a
49:02
good call. I love from Indian Lakes, and I feel like, especially
49:06
in the indie scene, a lot of people don't give them the credit that
49:09
I think they deserve. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, they're one of
49:14
my favorite bands all together. But like all of the records that I name
49:19
personally, I'd love to take influence from different areas and thinking just the way
49:23
that stuff is put together musically and try to I love trying to take as
49:29
a sound that doesn't belong in hardcore or an idea like that, and like
49:34
how do we make it fit into this puzzle piece? And like when Christian
49:37
and I are trying to put these stories together and figure things out, how
49:39
do we make it work? It's like a big puzzle. Yeah. I
49:43
mean, you guys did with Polka, so I can't Yeah, I can't
49:45
even explain. You guys want to hear our Polka song? Remember the hour
49:51
mark after you finished the album? Yeah, on your second play through,
49:55
I just want someone to wait for an hour after the records over in silence,
50:00
just it's just rolling around on the vibel, just tear up that needle.
50:05
Yeah, it's coming love it. Uh, what do you guys want
50:09
to plug? Obviously album's coming out soon and then the tour is going to
50:15
happen. But yeah, what do you guys want to plug? Uh?
50:20
You know, I mean that's kind of like there's a lot coming out.
50:23
To be honest, it's really like all systems go for this album. I
50:29
think it's kind of our eggs in the basket type deal. So you know,
50:32
we're super pumped to be doing it through Facetown Records again. In a
50:37
lot of ways, it's it is our sophomore record with them. But kind
50:43
of like we mentioned coming, like you know, coming live with you guys
50:46
was like, yeah, it was a really like odd release cycle, and
50:52
this is really our first formal release, like all new songs coming out.
50:57
We've really played just one or two here and there, you know, pre
51:00
release. So yeah, so it's it's really just you know, we want
51:05
to plug this record as much as possible. We'd love to plug Armando's art
51:12
as much as possible. He's got a Instagram and all that stuff. You
51:15
can plug that. Yeah, I you know, I've done some art online
51:22
and I do have an Instagram. It's really more so for like just putting
51:27
stuff out there is like, hey, you want to know what I do.
51:29
Here's some of that. I don't post a lot of my work for
51:32
some reason. I don't know why. But hopefully getting into more of that
51:37
because I mean, the past year we've been so focused on all of this
51:40
stuff. But I would love to plug God's eyes. We're going on tour
51:45
with them. This is our second rund with them, and they're incredible.
51:49
They just released a record a few months ago, which was the tour that
51:53
we did with them, and it's it's awesome. So anyone go everyone go
51:58
check them out. But we have a lot more singles coming out, some
52:01
videos, and to keep an eye out for so nice you know, all
52:06
the follows, all the socials, everything like that. If I may ask
52:10
one more thing and you can just just blink twice. If if this is
52:15
true, guys are playing furnace Fest. I'm not you know something, I
52:29
will say we will gladly be involved in any capacity that we are able to.
52:34
Furnace Fest has meant a lot to us and meant a lot to Birmingham.
52:37
Yes, and you know everyone that's a part of it is really near
52:42
and dear to us. So you know, we'll be there. We'll be
52:45
here. It's on my birthday this year, so hell yeah, even better
52:51
reason to uh to get chat on the line here. Huh, That's what
52:53
I'm saying. Yeah, anyone else right, yeah, absolutely, well,
52:59
we would love to see you guys here again, because I think Nate or
53:02
sorry Mason can definitely attest that it was a wonderful experience seing you guys,
53:07
not this last year, but the year before this year. If you guys
53:12
play, I'll be there no matter what. Let's do it. Uh,
53:16
anything else you'd like to plug? I uh, I'll really pass this one
53:24
off to Harmando. But I mean i've, you know, kind of personally
53:29
on the side, been building some uh you know, proprietary like computer work
53:36
for for NASA. Got yeah, you were telling us about that last time,
53:40
I think, right, Yeah, we got a base up here in
53:42
Hunts School. So driving up there NonStop, you know, it's it's been
53:46
a blast. That's good. That's pretty good. So are there aliens that
53:54
we know of? Yeah, it's already. Yeah, okay, prove you
54:02
can be a denire if you like. But you know, I was.
54:07
I was really glad to be on the ground floor with that. So I
54:10
was holding a lot of that in. Yeah, I can imagine. Oh,
54:15
is there any new development with this, with this new with this computer
54:19
work with this, uh software engineering or whatever you're doing. So i'd like
54:23
to, you know, keep my head on my shoulders and say that.
54:30
I can't really say much. But are you trying to say that someone's going
54:32
to kill you if you talk. I'm not gonna say anything. I want
54:39
your head to stay on your shoulders as well. Actually I wish it stays
54:43
on your neck. It's not really on your shoulders. That'd be kind of
54:45
weird, wouldn't it. Head and shoulders, no neck. Speaking of head
54:52
and shoulders, that's actually our our first sponsor. So thank you for for
54:57
for bringing us. Yeah, head and shoulders. It at your local CBS,
55:00
Target or Walgreens, h Armando, anything else that you'd like to plug.
55:09
I mean, I've not been up to anything crazy. Christian has been
55:13
working on his stuff. He has been helping me develop a kind of another
55:17
side hustle that's like remote custodial work, so we can you know, in
55:22
a time where so many people are working from home, you know, we've
55:24
decided to like work on some technology to be able to clean stuff from our
55:30
computers, you know. So we're going into facilities and getting them taken care
55:35
of. So wait, is this like drones or it's it's in the works.
55:38
We've been testing all sorts of stuff, so like drone cleaning for buildings,
55:45
some AI mops like with the new Apple Vision Pro stuff that you have
55:52
just put the goggles on and and just virtually mop and you're good to go.
55:55
This is giving me like vacuum from the Brave Little Toaster vibes right now.
56:00
We we have we're partnering with the new season The Black Mirror too for
56:08
wow, like sentient sentient mobs that like, you know, you fall in
56:13
love with kind of like Her, like the movie Her, more along the
56:16
lines of that that horror movie that's like the tire that's killing people. Oh
56:22
I love that one. Yeah, Yeah, it's great. That's a horror
56:28
Yeah. And it's about a tire that that's it's a murderous tire. Have
56:31
you not seen that? I've never even heard of that. It's right up
56:35
your alley, bro Okay, as soon as this is over you damn,
56:45
that's you know, a tire. When I hear horror movies called rubber,
56:49
I don't think about tires. So you market, what do you think of,
56:55
Mason? Most of the horror stories I know of when it comes to
57:00
rubber are a different kind of rubber. Is that your personal horror stories?
57:05
No, just other people's horror stories. Oh? Are you sure? Yeah?
57:10
I'm not speaking from experience. I can feel I can feel Armando kidding
57:19
more uneasy. It's okay, Christian love it well, guys. Thank you
57:31
so much for chatting about the new album. We're really really stoked. I'm
57:36
sure it will be mentioned at our top five Albums of the Year. I'm
57:42
guaranteeing it already. I know we haven't songs, yeah yeah, but I'm
57:47
already expecting it. I'm already expecting it, especially once we hear that Pokas
57:52
song. So thank you so much for chatting about it. And hopefully we
57:54
get to see you guys soon. Yeah. Same, Hopefully we'll catch you
57:59
all the first Yeah, y'all, Wary died not one out God Live Drake
58:13
let thou shout by my side, Let thou show by live side.