Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 723 - Bobby Ferry Discusses -(16)-'s "Guides for the Misguided" and the Band's Evolution

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 723 - Bobby Ferry Discusses -(16)-'s "Guides for the Misguided" and the Band's Evolution · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  You know, I had to deal with substance abuse and, you know,
• 0:05
  the, the tragedies, they're involved, you know, having that
• 0:09
  unfold and then coming out the other end and being stable and
• 0:14
  happy and employed and family and friends.
• 0:19
  I think that the better life has gotten, the better my creative
• 0:23
  output and the better the band has gotten.
• 0:26
  So, you know, and, and again, I, I don't regret any of it either
• 0:30
  because, you know, these are all lessons.
• 0:38
  What's up? Everybody, it's Kefi at
• 0:40
  ghostcoltman.com and I am pleased to be joined by Bobby
• 0:44
  Ferry of 16. How's it going?
• 0:46
  Good, good. Nice to be here, thank you.
• 0:49
  Welcome and great to meet you. Long time fan, first time
• 0:52
  interview. I don't get to check a lot of
• 0:54
  these off the bucket list, but 2025 has already proven to be a
• 0:58
  fun and interesting one for me. You know, since the band is kind
• 1:01
  of a revived, you know, a little over 1516, seventeen years ago,
• 1:06
  you guys have been actually pretty prolific.
• 1:09
  I don't know if that was a result of the earlier stop start
• 1:12
  in the career, but like I'm here for it.
• 1:15
  I love these, you know, please give us more records
• 1:17
  back-to-back and belly to belly. You particularly inspired?
• 1:20
  Is it because the play again that and you had all this
• 1:23
  creativity to get out? I think it's more of a practice
• 1:26
  that you get good at that, you know, like workload, like just
• 1:29
  the more you put in work, the the more kind of rewards it'll
• 1:33
  give you regardless of inspiration.
• 1:36
  Even though I'm still really inspired to write, record and
• 1:40
  play live till this day. It's just, you know, one song a
• 1:46
  month. I sometimes write 2 songs in one
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  day, sometimes sit around my house and go to my day job for
• 1:54
  two months and don't write anything.
• 1:55
  You know, it's just kind of like this, this ethic that I think
• 1:59
  we've gotten better at as time goes by.
• 2:03
  And also, you know, the, the earlier days, the, the, the 90s,
• 2:08
  you know, I think we were very young.
• 2:10
  I started this band when I was literally a teenager.
• 2:13
  So, you know, I had to pay my dues in life as well.
• 2:17
  You know, I had to deal with, you know, substance abuse and,
• 2:23
  you know, the, the tragedies they're involved of, you know,
• 2:29
  having that unfold and then coming out the other end and
• 2:34
  being stable and happy and employed and family and friends.
• 2:41
  And, you know, you kind of, And so I'd like, I think that the
• 2:44
  better life has gotten, the better my creative output and
• 2:48
  the better the band has gotten. So, you know, and again, I, I
• 2:54
  don't regret any of it either 'cause you know, these are all
• 2:56
  lessons, you know. Right on.
• 2:59
  Guides for the misguided. What a better title for some
• 3:02
  life lessons than I can't imagine a better title.
• 3:06
  Such a good and varied record also, And I appreciate that that
• 3:10
  answer just now. But yeah, what a what a banger
• 3:13
  of a record. There's there's some tremendous
• 3:16
  variation on this record. I think you guys have always
• 3:19
  kind of flied in the face of convention.
• 3:21
  You're not going to be your typical band.
• 3:24
  You've always been a leader and not a follower in this genre.
• 3:27
  In the sludge and do metal genres.
• 3:28
  I've been, you know, like I said, a long time, followed
• 3:31
  every release, been a fan forever, and not only some
• 3:33
  inspired originals, but some cool covers as well.
• 3:37
  I think we've done it so long that we're on our own little
• 3:41
  island with each other that there is no outside pressure for
• 3:47
  us to do what we do. So, you know, the first, the
• 3:51
  first and foremost thing is to make something that we all want
• 3:58
  to hear coming out of speakers. Not like I have like creative
• 4:01
  goals, like I, I need to make a song in this style or anything
• 4:04
  like that. It's just like, you know, like
• 4:07
  let's write songs for one. I'm a big fan of being a
• 4:11
  songwriter, so to speak. I think in metal you can get
• 4:14
  lost in the riff, but if, if things aren't arranged and have
• 4:20
  thematic things, then it's just less interesting.
• 4:24
  So, you know, I, I, I think we've done that for each other
• 4:27
  and for ourselves. Like this is what I want to come
• 4:30
  out of the speakers. But like, kind of in a, in a
• 4:34
  nutshell, sometimes don't even know other bands exist.
• 4:37
  Sometimes people compare us to other bands that I've never even
• 4:41
  heard. And then I go listen to them and
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  I'm a fan. So like, you know, just recently
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  someone compared us to catatonia or something.
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  I've never heard catatonia at all, never in my life until this
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  morning. And I heard them and I was like,
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  oh, they rule. So I'll take that as a
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  compliment. And I'm also going to go dive
• 5:00
  into Catatonia's, you know, creative output for the past 30
• 5:05
  years. So, you know, and that kind of
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  happens a lot. Like, I think I'm inventing
• 5:09
  something, but clearly I'm not. I mean, all good.
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  And I'll tell you, you know, I always say about metal, any form
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  of metal, we're like a A, We'll take in any condition, any
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  shape, any time, like it's all good, you know, So don't worry
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  about that. Catatonia.
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  You guys could be considered like an American catatonia, you
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  know, about the same amount of time you guys have been around
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  and you know, it's it's so much music out there.
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  We don't you know, right now we have all the availability.
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  I don't know how good it is, but we have all the availability
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  ever of music. It's it's, you know, infinite,
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  But at the same time, it's like it was better when you had a
• 5:44
  search for it a little and and forage a little more and and go
• 5:48
  through the desert of nothing till you found that band.
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  I'm still an album guy. I imagine you are too.
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  I'm still a person. I love entire albums.
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  It the singles era wasn't good for me in my listening habits
• 6:00
  because I want to absorb a whole album and you know, even when I
• 6:03
  do these interviews, I go back and I listen to the discography
• 6:06
  in my favorites and things like that.
• 6:07
  So I don't know, I imagine you're also an albums person and
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  and I don't imagine you, you know, doing a lot of Spotify.
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  No, I'm a huge Spotify guy, but I'm also, I'm like just a huge
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  music person. I, you know, I have hundreds of
• 6:26
  records. I have, you know, I just gave
• 6:28
  away my CDs, but the CDs I gave to Alex, our guitarist, and so
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  he has, you know, thousands of CDs now.
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  I just didn't have, I didn't even have a working CD player.
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  You know, like I said, I mean, this morning I just discovered
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  catatonia. So like, you know, and then
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  like, so move into classic rock, move into, you know, bands with
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  deep, deep discographies, you know, like deep Purple or
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  something. I, I just, you know, it's almost
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  like an intellectual study. And then if there's a social
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  component to it too, because then your friends are telling
• 7:01
  you like, have you heard this? And you're like, no, And then
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  you're this. And then you go, you know, like,
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  it's like, I, I dig, you know, I, I did go in the record stores
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  and digging through stuff. I, I dig my friends pipping me
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  to things. I, I dig reading, you know,
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  comments good and bad that turn you on to new stuff.
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  And I, I think it just for those of us who are hungry for it,
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  it's, it's awesome, you know, and I, and again, like the
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  streaming services, yes, they're absolutely horrible for the
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  artist. But as a consumer, like, that's
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  crazy. If you would have told me when I
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  was 12 years old I'd have all the world's music in my pocket,
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  I would have never believed you, you know?
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  But now I like, plan my day via playlist or albums when I'm
• 7:48
  working, you know? If I'm not on the phone talking
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  to somebody, delving into albums that I've either like revisiting
• 7:56
  since childhood or literally discovering something that just
• 8:00
  somehow slipped under my radar, I'm A and.
• 8:03
  And we're all kind of like that too.
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  Like collectively, I think we influence each other with.
• 8:08
  Have you checked this out? Right.
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  Do you have a favorite local record store you want to give a
• 8:12
  shout out? We should check out when we're
• 8:14
  in your town. We're in San Diego, so the the
• 8:18
  big record store, I mean, there's actually quite a few.
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  There's M Theory Records in San Diego is one of my favorite.
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  There's Lou's Records in Encinitas, which is huge.
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  And then of course if you go up to LA and you go up to San
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  Francisco, there is Amoeba, which you know, Amoeba could be
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  like a four hour 200 or $300.00 trip depending on how I'm doing
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  that month economically. But you know, it's just, you
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  know, it's the record stores are just like a awesome thing for
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  community now. And you know, vinyl still has
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  that magic. Right on.
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  And your records are now coming out on vinyl.
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  Relapse does a shout out to Relapse.
• 9:01
  They do a wonderful job on all the physical stuff.
• 9:04
  Yeah, I live in San Francisco. Amoeba, San Fran or Berkeley is
• 9:07
  very dangerous for me personally to go in.
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  It's not a casual thing. It's like a it's definitely and
• 9:13
  not of friends with benefits. It's a it's a it's a
• 9:15
  relationship. Good times, though.
• 9:17
  I really love where the last two records.
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  I feel like you're stretching out a lot vocally just to talk
• 9:23
  about the music for a little bit more.
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  And you know, I I wanted to say that like, yeah, I really
• 9:29
  appreciate how in a in a great way, how all over the map you
• 9:32
  are. There's actual singing.
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  There's great like growl type stuff here.
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  There's some very dark chanty. I don't know if it's quite
• 9:41
  chanting, but it's chant like melodies.
• 9:45
  I really, I like it. I like this record.
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  I think actually is as I got deeper into the record, the
• 9:49
  middle few songs are my favorite and I think that they're like
• 9:52
  all a little distinctly different.
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  Probably. Damn the single in the video
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  which it was amazing firing brimstone and desperation and
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  Angel I had like ticked off on my notes.
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  You know, it's not a conscious thing.
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  I think that we start collectively.
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  We got influenced by tighter song structures.
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  And, you know, personally, I'm a big fan of like Devo, Freedom of
• 10:16
  Choice, you know, Blondie, Parallel Lines, the Knack, you
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  know, most of us, Costello. I'm a big fan of that era of
• 10:27
  songwriting because of the structures and the tightness of
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  the structures. And I think that's kind of
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  missing in metal structurally. So I think that had an influence
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  on us collectively, especially on some of those songs, The
• 10:46
  Desperation Angel and then, you know, the The Fire and Brimstone
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  Inc. I mean, literally that song was
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  called Thin Lizzie before it even had a title.
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  So, you know, we're, we're, you know, I don't care.
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  I've, you know, I've been in bands, I've been in this band
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  for God 30 years. And it's like every time you
• 11:05
  write a song, you're like, which one is this?
• 11:07
  Oh, it's the, it's the Sabbath 1 or it's the Slayer one or it's
• 11:12
  even like, you know, we get a little weirder, like with hot
• 11:15
  snakes or something. It's this song, you know, it's
• 11:19
  so I I think that maybe that we wore, we wore our influences on
• 11:23
  on our sleeves and let things naturally influence us.
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  Right on. I love that Thin Lizzy mentioned
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  a huge Thin Lizzy fan. And of course, unfortunately,
• 11:31
  we're talking the same week that John.
• 11:33
  Sykes. From later day Lizzy and just
• 11:36
  such a huge fan of his work and Lizzy and tigers, Pantang and
• 11:41
  blue murder. White Snake.
• 11:42
  The White Snake record. I mean, I know people love
• 11:45
  Vandenberg, as you should, because if you love guitar shit,
• 11:48
  right? But like, Sykes wrote those
• 11:49
  songs, man. Like Adrian came in and put on
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  his stamp, right? Like, here I go again, that
• 11:54
  guitar's a little bit like Sykes actually wrote like bad boys and
• 11:57
  a lot of those, you know, still the night and stuff is his riffs
• 12:01
  so huge and important and what a shame.
• 12:06
  That Thin Lizzy, you know, Thunder and lightning, holy
• 12:09
  shit, that records. I mean I'm a huge fan of, well I
• 12:13
  mean I was a huge fan of John Sykes, but just that era of
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  guitarists who can do everything with 0 pedals and they're pinky
• 12:22
  on the volume like true professionals that just play to
• 12:27
  the song and stand there smiling while playing the most difficult
• 12:30
  shit. It's just it's a sight to
• 12:32
  behold, even today. I get it, man.
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  I love it. I love it.
• 12:35
  We can nerd out all day about this stuff.
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  You like obviously years go by and there was a hiatus and now,
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  like I said, the band's been very pro prolific and proactive
• 12:46
  the last, you know, however many years.
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  Obviously, you know, writing songs is a is a thing.
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  It's not a chore. It's a labor of love.
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  But like, do you, do you find yourself like it's important to
• 12:57
  keep challenging yourself, the rest of the guys too, to just
• 12:59
  keep making it interesting for you or you would just not bother
• 13:02
  or you know, is it like, oh, you know, it's it's also work.
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  It's not work. It's not work at all.
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  It's all it's, it's literally going to happen no matter what.
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  That's just, you know, I'm in A at home.
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  I'm in a room surrounded by records and guitars in front of
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  my computer, in front of amps. This is, this is the path I've
• 13:23
  chosen in life. These are the path.
• 13:26
  These are, you know, these are the the my friends are in the
• 13:30
  same path that are in the band. We're going to do this
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  regardless of any external thing just because man, it's, you
• 13:39
  know, just like we're just total old music heads.
• 13:44
  I'm not, you know, like I always thought I would change when I
• 13:47
  was like 15 years old. I thought I'd become something
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  different. But I'm I'm the exact same
• 13:53
  person obsessing over Master of Puppets that I was and by
• 14:01
  brains, eye against eye and all that stuff in that era.
• 14:04
  I'm literally the same person still obsessing about records
• 14:07
  that some are brand new. I mean, it's just I've accepted
• 14:12
  that this is me. Never I am.
• 14:15
  I was imprinted at that age with hardcore and punk and heavy
• 14:19
  metal, and here I am, the man I am man I am today.
• 14:22
  Yeah, absolutely. I think it shows.
• 14:24
  I chosen this album. It shows in your work.
• 14:26
  Again, I love these covers. Very inspired.
• 14:28
  Like I think Bad Brains is a group everybody kind of agrees
• 14:31
  about, like Ramones or Misfits. But Super Chunk I still feel is
• 14:35
  super underrated. And I like, obviously if you
• 14:37
  love guitar, great guitar shit, you want to be a Super Chunk
• 14:40
  fan. I tell that to people all the
• 14:41
  time. You know, Super Chunk was a
• 14:44
  thing that was like, I don't think a lot of people in the
• 14:46
  metal space would even check out.
• 14:49
  But I saw him live a few times when I was in high school.
• 14:53
  And then they had that split with I believe Strive, like
• 14:56
  Jehu, the Bullet Train to Vegas and that that album, No Paki for
• 15:01
  Kitty. It's just a total, you know,
• 15:02
  I've had that CD and that album for 35 years now.
• 15:07
  And songs are songs regardless of stylistic and those lyrics
• 15:12
  rule, you know, and the riffs rule.
• 15:16
  It's just they, you know, it's just the way they're presented,
• 15:19
  presented. So I, I like to think that I'm
• 15:21
  kind of hopefully turning some people on to them.
• 15:24
  If not, they'll they'll like the interpretation that we've done.
• 15:28
  Right on. Chances are there's a call
• 15:30
  center call coming in right now for for you.
• 15:32
  If you own that Supertrunk record, you probably owe money
• 15:35
  to Columbia House still for this day.
• 15:37
  Pretty much. But I'm like you, I like to get
• 15:40
  my stuff in the stacks and flip the records and the stores and
• 15:43
  stuff like that. So yeah, good stuff.
• 15:45
  You guys are going on the road, heading over to Europe before
• 15:48
  some more stuff. Anything else going on this year
• 15:50
  you can share or anything else you're excited about?
• 15:53
  Nothing is planned other than Europe will be there for three
• 15:58
  weeks. We leave next week.
• 16:00
  After that we're wide open. I'm sure something always
• 16:05
  happens, something, you know, just like the plans revealed
• 16:10
  themselves right now we have a plan for the next month to get
• 16:14
  over to Europe to release this record, to play live as much as
• 16:17
  possible. After that, we kind of just take
• 16:20
  it as it comes and usually it does come, you know, so we don't
• 16:25
  have to be super proactive about the planning.
• 16:29
  It'll just kind of happen on its own.
• 16:31
  And if, you know, our job was to just make something good, and if
• 16:34
  we make something good, then the rest kind of happens.
• 16:38
  I'm a firm believer in that, like, the music comes first and
• 16:40
  then, you know, if it's relevant and sticks to the wall, then
• 16:44
  you're going to get gigs. Right on.
• 16:46
  Good philosophy, good way to end this Bobby Ferry.
• 16:49
  A super pleasure to meet you and finally get one of these done
• 16:52
  with you. Hales on the New 16 album coming
• 16:54
  soon from Relapse Records. Guides for the Misguided is
• 16:57
  definitely a record we need right now in this time.
• 17:01
  And again, thanks so much for hanging out with Ghost Cult.
• 17:03
  I really appreciate you. Appreciate you.
• 17:06
  Thank you so much. All right, see you soon.
• 17:08
  All right, bye, bye.