Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / EP98: ZombieKing - Tour Stories, Corpus Christi Reality, and Taking Over Brewster Street

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EP98: ZombieKing - Tour Stories, Corpus Christi Reality, and Taking Over Brewster Street · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: What's going on, y'all?
0:00
SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to the Corpus Christi Originals podcast.
0:02
SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Atusiladio, and today we're featuring a band that's been pushing the South Texas metal scene forward for years.
0:09
SPEAKER_03: Uh they build a reputation for intensity, creativity, and sound that's unmistakably theirs.
0:14
SPEAKER_03: Uh today we're diving into the identity, the stories, the tour life, and what's coming next for Zombie King.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: Let's get into it.
0:20
SPEAKER_03: What's going on, fellas?
0:20
SPEAKER_01: What's up, bro?
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having us, man.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: Rop's down in the house, baby.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: West side.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Come on, the cotton pickers, bud.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, somebody's talking about the cotton pickers.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: It's like a racial slur or something like that.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a town where it was it was made by the hardworking folks that that's the only work you can get back then, man, was working the fields, you know, and that's how it came to be.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: So it's a lot of people take pride in that.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: It's not just one race or you know, that have worked the fields.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: It's honest, honest work, man, honest job, hard work.
0:53
SPEAKER_03: Definitely, bro.
0:54
SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
0:54
SPEAKER_03: Uh, so you're Eddie, and then Juan been on here before.
0:57
SPEAKER_03: How you doing, Juan?
0:58
SPEAKER_03: Then all right.
0:59
SPEAKER_03: You look nervous, bro.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: Or is that just your normal face?
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Not good.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's my camera, but this one right here?
1:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
1:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all right.
1:10
SPEAKER_03: So uh so we'll start with Zombie King.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, obviously, the name brings an image to everybody's mind.
1:15
SPEAKER_03: Uh, what's the com what's a common misconception about Zombie King that you're tired of people assuming?
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Um that we're a disturbed cover band.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: We're just talking about that off camera.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's really any misconceptions.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the Zombie King name itself might throw people off and they may be expecting like a more, I guess, brutal extreme, more extreme sound or whatever.
1:42
SPEAKER_02: My personal experience is most people that know me that find out that I do music, I tell them the name and they think it's more like extreme or heavy, like which I mean we're heavy, yeah, to an extent, but yeah, they they just the name alone, they think brutal, they think yeah, yeah, right on.
1:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he brought up the he brought a disturbed, and I wanted to mention that uh during this interview.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, I can see how people see that from the first album, the dead to life album, because you have a lot of uh similar tones, like like pitches, pitch-wise, and stuff like that.
2:11
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, I can't hear discurb.
2:14
SPEAKER_03: Uh second album, you can't really hear it.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, because I think because you you changed uh melodic, the way the way you do it move melodically as far as up and down, and then you had some a few screams in there, like just actual screams, like you know what I'm saying?
2:29
SPEAKER_03: Not tone scream, not like not trying to find a pitch scream, which is kind of the stuff that I listen to.
2:35
SPEAKER_03: Uh I'm thinking of like uh like like Veil of Maya or something like that, where it's just high screams and low screams.
2:41
SPEAKER_03: There's really no melody to it.
2:43
SPEAKER_03: And I was asking the the tuning version hit with him last time because uh is there a certain key that you're that you like or whatever.
2:51
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, so describe zombie king in one sentence, uh, but you're not allowed to use the words metal, heavy, or horror.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: What words can I use?
3:01
SPEAKER_03: Metal, you can't lose use metal, you can't use heavy or horror.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: Catchy okay, a sentence, one sentence, right?
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay, zombie king is aggressively catchy AF.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Can we cuss on him?
3:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's cool.
3:17
SPEAKER_03: Yes, fuck.
3:18
SPEAKER_03: That's my sentence.
3:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm trying to ask questions that are that y'all haven't been asked before because that's a good question, man.
3:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I seen you on uh the San Antonio dudes podcast.
3:27
SPEAKER_03: Oh, Ralph Metalworks, yeah.
3:29
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Ralph's Metalworks.
3:31
SPEAKER_03: Is that the dude?
3:31
SPEAKER_03: Well, they're both bald.
3:32
SPEAKER_03: I was gonna ask the one that uh doesn't have a goatee, because I seen two of them.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: And then the other dude is Tony Gomez.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Tony Gomez is from here.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: He's uh just a staple man pillar here and uh to them, bro.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, music scene, and then Ralph Metalworks, man.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: He's the longest standing fucking metal journalist in all of Texas.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, fuck out Texas, all of Texas.
3:53
SPEAKER_03: How'd y'all feel when y'all weren't on there?
3:55
SPEAKER_01: Man, that was sick.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was I I didn't get to make the trip.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, Eddie and Adon.
4:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh, me and my drummer.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Did you feel like that was a milestone for you?
4:03
SPEAKER_03: I think so, yeah.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: It's cool.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: He had a lot of praise for us, man.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: We we had a good time with him.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: He uh he lifted our spirits.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: Not that our spirits were down, but it was just like it was like vindication.
4:15
SPEAKER_03: Well, dude, sometimes you like work and work and work and you don't really hear that, man.
4:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: I was telling my son that this morning.
4:20
SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, good job encouraging yourself because sometimes you won't get that encouragement, you know.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: Uh when someone sees you live for the first time, uh, what emotion do you want them to feel in the first 30 seconds?
4:30
SPEAKER_01: Love and hate.
4:35
SPEAKER_02: What do you what about you?
4:36
SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know if I can if I can I guess the the word I would say is uh connection or um yeah, sympathy or or not sympathy, maybe empathy or um yeah, just like togetherness, I think that would be the word.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, definitely.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: There's uh there's something that like everybody no matter what we've heard, like no matter what people have compared us to, or what bands or artists, or vocalists, or you know, guitarists, you name it, um we always uh find a way to connect with people after the show, like when we start talking to the crowd.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: Um man, it's always and it's always different, but there's always that strong connection made, and that's what's brought us um brought those people back to us every you know, every time we play.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: It's it's there's just something about um finding ways to uh have those people make that connection with you and um almost uh in a way like uh commanding it, you know.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was gonna ask like how how would how do you do that like on stage?
5:41
SPEAKER_03: The thought process changed from when it like first started to be on stage, you know what I'm saying?
5:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
5:46
SPEAKER_03: Because I mean even the guitarist, you gotta show up like they're right in front, like I'm here, you know what I mean?
5:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's so different now, man.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: Um early on it was like a it was like a fight, it was almost like a struggle to like, hey, we're here and this is us, and it's almost that feeling of like man, we're fighting to get the spots that we're gonna do.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: How do I get your attention?
6:07
SPEAKER_02: How do I get you guys to come to the show?
6:09
SPEAKER_02: And and then it started happening little by little for us.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And now it's just like, and I was thinking about this earlier today, man.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: The the biggest difference I would say um is almost like and I've heard it in like different um different like areas of entertainment, um, whether it's like sports or um uh maybe with like actors, actresses, where they like people some people sometimes people do this for for years and they don't have their big shot, right?
6:37
SPEAKER_02: Um but then like years into the game, they hit a point where like it just all clicks.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: And I think we're like right there where it's all like um, at least for me personally, yeah, it's all starting to click.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: Like, why am I not letting this come to me?
6:51
SPEAKER_02: Why am I not um I'm I'm confident in what I do, so why not go out there and just do it and just be, you know?
7:00
SPEAKER_02: Whereas like having that whole like fight mentality, it yeah, it's great.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: Like it gets you to certain levels, but um the experience and the uh wisdom, I don't think anything can uh replace that, right?
7:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so yeah, and then the music too.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Like I'm thinking like the music's gotta be good as well.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean?
7:18
SPEAKER_03: Because if it's you can have a following, you can have the community, but it only takes you so far if your music's not really good, which is seems like you guys are growing from from one album to the next.
7:31
SPEAKER_03: Um, so you you just guys just had a tour, man.
7:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh so and we talked about that earlier, so y'all so you were mentioning McCallan was it was your favorite?
7:39
SPEAKER_01: It's my favorite, yeah.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Corpus, what the fuck?
7:42
SPEAKER_01: How how are we from here?
7:44
SPEAKER_01: McCallan's our favorite show of the tour, you know what I'm saying?
7:47
SPEAKER_01: That's not knocking all though.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: We love yeah, no, it's all good.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: We love home.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh is it is it not knocking us?
7:52
SPEAKER_02: Because um, there was a um there was uh Wait, dude, you know, Corpus, we're like some of our worst critics, bro.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: Bro, yeah, bro.
7:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, like one of the one of the um interviews you just did, right?
8:02
SPEAKER_02: About Corpus uh having that hater mistake.
8:04
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
8:04
SPEAKER_02: You commented if you thought I commented, and there was another one I commented, I maybe like on Facebook or something, and I was like, Yeah, there are a few reasons, and I'm like, I'm always one to like just whatever, I'll bite my tongue, I know how the city is, yeah.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: But hey man, if like people aren't saying it enough, like nothing's ever gonna change, right?
8:22
SPEAKER_02: Like there's just something about like not wanting your brother to do better than you.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Where we're like this, like we're family, yeah, in a sense, but but you can't have it if I can't have it, you know.
8:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'm thinking too, like, so maybe maybe sometimes maybe sometimes the the pudding's not really good, you know what I mean?
8:40
SPEAKER_03: And we're just like, do I really want to tell people about this?
8:43
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
8:44
SPEAKER_03: Some people are too honest, you know what I mean?
8:46
SPEAKER_03: Which I think is good for us, you know what I mean?
8:48
SPEAKER_03: Like I'll like I was mentioning you about like this sounding like disturbed, which like it did, it did sound like I did hear it.
8:54
SPEAKER_03: I was like, dang, yeah, it does sound.
8:56
SPEAKER_03: I wish it didn't, you know what I mean?
8:57
SPEAKER_03: Because I want for people for us to be good at what we do, right?
9:01
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
9:02
SPEAKER_03: So I'm just like, yeah, better shot on the next album, you know what I'm saying?
9:07
SPEAKER_03: Which is cool.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh man, so is there a moment on the road uh where you looked around and thought, yeah, this is really happening?
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Because we meant the moment the van pulled up, bro.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: The moment the van pulled up on day one, we're like, oh shit, I guess we're gone.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, there was a lot going into that week.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think, yeah, the beginning of it, we're like, all right, we got it done, and now we gotta get the whole tour done.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, it was like uh just checking like boxes, and then we're like, all right, we're we're ready, you know, and like we're doing this thing.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: How so how did they did they respond the way y'all thought that they would respond in in different cities?
9:44
SPEAKER_03: Or I mean were y'all looking at that?
9:46
SPEAKER_02: For the most part, for the most part, yeah.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: A lot of friends, man.
9:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: Any new riffs or lyrics or song ideas get born on the road?
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not this time around, but I mean, we've been toying with some stuff though, yeah.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Like some demos and shit for the new new new stuff coming up.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: But we got the new record still very much fresh, very much new to yeah, especially everyone who hasn't heard it, you know what I mean?
10:08
SPEAKER_01: So we're pushing that, but yeah, we work on stuff from time to time, man.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: That's cool, man.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: Man, your shape is clean, bro.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: Like you just get you just got off the bus, like stay on.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: I'm feeling it right now, bro.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you had to describe the personality of this tour or one bizarre, funny story, what would it be?
10:25
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I think just every night.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: So we we brought uh an entertainer with us by the name of Jesse Wilder, who he had like an act in between shit, and he was doing uh a bed of nails thing, dude.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I seen him.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, every night it was just like him psyching himself up, and there was always this little something leading up to it that just kept the whole tour interesting.
10:51
SPEAKER_01: So it was like, well, here comes the fucking the circus.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: One night there was like a python, like was it in Houston?
10:58
SPEAKER_02: Houston had like Python in the vanilla warmers, and it was um it was a fucking vibe, man.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: It was beautiful.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: Like we were like, we were just like looking around, like, what is going on?
11:08
SPEAKER_02: And then you know what?
11:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh something in my mind was just like lean into the shit.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: So we go up there, and I'm up there with the fucking stuff like the green one, and it's like being constricted.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: Heavy motherfucker, too.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, damn, like, yeah, it was it's cool, crazy.
11:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man, that's awesome.
11:26
SPEAKER_03: So you went on tours, you brought it back home.
11:29
SPEAKER_03: Uh, so what's the what's the most corpus thing that's ever happened during a show or while you were on the road?
11:36
SPEAKER_03: It was corpus or Rob Sounding.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh any show or this particular tour?
11:41
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you could tell.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: Okay, there was uh one particular show.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: I think we're opening up for uh beer factory or something.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: We're opening up this a national show, and some dude was like on the verge of kicking out, being kicked out, and he like ran up to us on stage.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: He was like, Hey, they're kicking me out, and we're like, fuck, are we supposed to do?
11:58
SPEAKER_01: It was weird how he saw us as his savior, you know?
12:02
SPEAKER_01: It was like what, man?
12:04
SPEAKER_01: I gotta get my app off stage, dog.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Got time for that shit.
12:08
SPEAKER_03: Who's it like?
12:09
SPEAKER_03: I think it was Keith Richards or something.
12:10
SPEAKER_03: That guy he pulled out his guitar and he hit the button that gave me.
12:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was funny, man.
12:15
SPEAKER_03: Uh oh, um, when you're far from home, what part of Corpus do you carry with you into every venue?
12:25
SPEAKER_02: Um man.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's tough.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm not answer that.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: I'll say from my perspective, from you know, because I'm you know from Robbstown, all right.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: But I've been coming into Corpus all my life and shit, so Corpus is like a second home.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: It's practically just a big little bit, honestly.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: But um, what I carry with me as far as uh I mean everything's just like the attitude, you know.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: I grew up on the west side, bro.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: It ain't suburbia, you know?
12:54
SPEAKER_01: So you kind of gotta move a certain way out there to make sure, you know, you're good and people respect you and shit.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: And uh I feel like I I bring that on stage with me everywhere I go, you know.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think um mine's a bit similar.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh anybody who knows me here, like in downtown, I've worked a few different places around here, and um I guess you would say like I have a little following or at least people who like know of me or or you know.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: Um I think that's that's what I carry into every city.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: Um that that that that uh just the um being open and um wanting to connect with others and wanting to network with with others, wanting to uh just vibe and like see how people are doing, see how they're feeling.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: And um, that's always been a thing on stage for us too, man.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: Like we don't really script a lot of like what we say on stage.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: We kind of just go with the flow and it's ad-libbed, and I kind of just feel the crowd out.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, I will say, like, when we played in other cities, there was a lot of that.
13:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and but it worked great.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, at least I've learned that much from here in my hometown.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that like anywhere I go, like I'm gonna be able to at least represent in that way, or like take what I've learned here and like do that there, and yeah, it works, it works, yeah.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: Bro, when you had that white jacket last time, bro, you were making me sweat, dog.
14:19
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I'm glad you didn't wear today because I'm feeling kind of chill right now.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: It gets hot on stage, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:24
SPEAKER_03: Uh damn, uh uh, what's one challenge of being a metal band from Corpus that people outside the city don't realize?
14:32
SPEAKER_01: That's just being in Corpus.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: Like we're going back on that, and again, it's not on corpus, it's just like you touched on it, man.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Um, even now, man, there's people that act like they're friends with you, and uh um even like sometimes I don't even realize it.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I get word from others that are either in our circle or like outside that are just kind of um just mutual friends that hear all of the you know the BS and all that.
14:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, or chatter toss up, all that stuff.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: And it's just like sometimes it'll hit me.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, these fucking dudes are on my friends list right now, too.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: And uh and they're supporting and they're commenting, fuck yeah, you're doing amazing.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: And uh they're talking shit behind your back.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, like and that's it's like that times a hundred for all of the metal bands in Corvus.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
15:19
SPEAKER_03: Like it's almost like then no wonder there's a lot of uh anger that goes out in our music, you know.
15:24
SPEAKER_03: Right, right, right.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: But I think it helps.
15:26
SPEAKER_02: I mean, for us, it's helped us.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's helped me.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: Um just I'm I'm used to it.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, at uh after a certain point it doesn't phase you anymore, and it's like yeah, pour the fucking gasoline grow that fire.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: I don't give a damn.
15:42
SPEAKER_01: We usually try to be like the bigger person, the bigger, you know.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, and we still try to show love.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: We'll share bands on our stories, and if we're working with them, we'll promote them and stuff, put our people on, we'll say, hey, come check out this killer bill or whatever.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: But I've been known to like slapped with disrespecters, so I don't think just because we're posting you that, you know, you can still that shit's sweet over here.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
16:06
SPEAKER_03: So man, now for the for the music heads listening, let's get into the sound itself.
16:11
SPEAKER_03: Cool, cool.
16:12
SPEAKER_03: Uh which song or rift ended up changing the direction of Zombie King the most?
16:17
SPEAKER_03: Even if fans didn't notice it at first.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: That's a good one.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: Um the question was which song or rift?
16:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, song or riff ended up changing the direction of Zombie King the most, even if fans didn't notice at first.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: I think uh recording the first EP um forced us to adapt um with little little to no time.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: Um and it also brought something out of us that was just uh um it brought out like it forced us to grow, it forced us to be a better version of us.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: Um and there's kind of like different little phases, different eras at this point.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: We've been doing this like 10, 11 years, uh at least us two have together.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: And um I would say bigger than that, I think, and even to this day, because we hear it at shows all the time, I think Exposed would be the song that shifted everything and and um pretty much uh showed us like what we can do.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: Wow, yeah, yeah.
17:26
SPEAKER_03: I heard that for what's up, real quick.
17:27
SPEAKER_03: Nick Lopez, what's up, doll?
17:29
SPEAKER_03: Much love to Zombie King and the CCOGs.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: Thanks, man.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: What's up, babe?
17:33
SPEAKER_03: He's gonna be with us tomorrow.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh he's gonna be called guest co-hosting tomorrow with Marco Marcos Leao.
17:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man.
17:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh, yeah, definitely.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: When I heard that y'all have to scrap like almost all of that first album and come up within how many weeks?
17:45
SPEAKER_03: Two weeks?
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Less now, six days, bro.
17:48
SPEAKER_03: Dang, well, what less than a week, man?
17:51
SPEAKER_03: That is tough, dude.
17:52
SPEAKER_03: Wow, I would say that in itself would be a change, you know what I'm saying?
17:56
SPEAKER_02: It was tough, man.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and you're and you're talking like six, seven days or whatever, but majority of that has to be the the the music being laid down, exactly.
18:05
SPEAKER_02: So I'm like in between that, like trying to find ways to you you have to have stuff in storage already, and it's not complete yet.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:11
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I can't put ideas down to something that's gonna be torn apart and like you know, right, right, right, right.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: It was a learning experience, man.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: Man, we're on a label at a time too, so uh yeah, we're kind of pavement entertainment, and there's a lot of pressure, and it's like, yeah, what up baby time script?
18:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Linda Railhawk, hello, zombie king on Facebook.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: Thanks a lot for joining on the chat, you guys.
18:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh, what happy accident on studio equipment ended up becoming part of your signature sound?
18:38
SPEAKER_02: Happy accident.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: There was a point where uh one of the cabs stopped.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Um like crapped down the street with the city.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we it was an amp.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: One of shout out fucking Robert Bolton on one of his amps.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: I was using like a I think it was a 6505, it just died like first day.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: Hey, time track guitars, turn on the amp, blew up.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: So uh we had an improvise, and I can't remember what we used.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: It might have been uh fuck, I don't know, another cool amp but it it it changed the tone a little bit, but it worked for what we were doing, so uh changed the tone, so it was the tone you didn't want.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: Not that I didn't want to like no, it's just you gotta mix you mix shit, you know.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: It altered the mix, yeah.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: So it's like okay, well, now we gotta use this amp, and it sounds different than what we were going for, but now we gotta figure out how to blend it and make it work.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: We made it work, so wow, man.
19:34
SPEAKER_03: That's that's amazing, dude.
19:35
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
19:36
SPEAKER_03: Uh uh, what's a non-metal influence that sneaks in, sneaks its way into your music uh uh when people least expect it?
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you started.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Man, I think there's so many, bro.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's so fun fact about me is I don't listen to that much, like I don't listen to too many contemporary metal bands.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Same very little that I follow.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't I think it's it might be a subconscious thing.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want to be too influenced by other, you know, things like other shit going on.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I heard we heard this from Rob's Metalworks uh a couple weeks ago when we did the interview, and he said that uh Zombie King has its own sound, and that's why he really fucks with us.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that's attributed to the fact that I'm not listening to Metal 24-7.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: If a band that I follow drops a record, then I'll I'm gonna check it out.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, bro, I'm listening to like pop music or fucking drill music.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm listening to just you know, good, like just good time shit.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm not trying to yeah, you've you shared a story and it had uh Whiz Khalifa or something just recently.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:35
SPEAKER_03: Like that's not even metal itself, you know?
20:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's cool, man.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: So speaking of sound and performance, uh, we got a big show coming up real quick into the camera.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: If you can uh if you want to uh talk about the show or say something to about the show real quick.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, oh definitely.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: This one right here.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: So no uh this Black Friday, November 28th, we are doing Brewster Street Ice House.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: It is a code headliner with Shattered Sun and Zombie King.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, the tickets are on sale online.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can use the discount code ZK all day to get uh Black Friday discount.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're um bringing uh heavy hitters to the stage, man.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Um we've been working on this one for I like I guess close to like two or two or three months.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it all fell into place.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: And um yeah, we're coming off of our tour.
21:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh Shattered celebrating their 10-year um anniversary of Hope Within Hatred.
21:25
SPEAKER_02: Dope album.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal, bro.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: The 10-year anniversary of their record, Hope Within Hatred.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: It uh, you know, it set them on a trajectory to accomplish so many things and uh find success in their band through all these years.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a big deal for them.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: And it's a big deal for us because we're co headlining this bitch.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
21:43
SPEAKER_01: Like we're not no special guests, no opening act, and that's not on it.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I always got a preface like, hey, I'm not talking shit about nobody because but it's just it is what it is.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is what it is.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: Like we're we're co headlining this, and it's a it's a big deal for us as well.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: And uh we're proud uh because we've been paying our dues.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Here for a while, bro.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: And uh it it's it feels good to finally be in the position to be like a strong supporting, you know, as co-headliner on a big fucking this is a huge this is a massive event for the region.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: Rock and um rock and metal acts don't really get to play much at Brewster Street Ice House.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm not especially if you're an original band.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm just being straight up.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Um just being being honest.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's a big deal for us um in that regard.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: Like we um we had to fight to get to that point to even get on that stage a couple of years back.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: I think this is our third time returning, right?
22:35
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be our third time playing Brewsters.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: And um, each time we're there, I'm just like, we're gonna we're gonna one up the last time.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do it even bigger this time.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: Um, somebody's gotta notice eventually, man.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: Corpus Christie, wake the fuck up.
22:48
SPEAKER_02: We are on Brewster Street stage.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: We're doing this damn thing.
22:53
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I don't know.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna buy it, man.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: That's already up, right up.
22:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, dude, that's like a milestone, bro.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: Because you play around here, you play in these little places, and something big like that.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: Dude, that's uh that's big, man.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Like, especially for local bands.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: I've been in bands before too, like in like in the 90s, early 2000s, played at the zone, freaking all these other places, and just to have a big stage and a big crowd, dude, that's that's amazing, man.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: It's like a feat for you guys.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh, uh, what's something uh long time fans will notice you're doing differently this time?
23:27
SPEAKER_01: I think just the new record itself, bro.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: We we heard from uh dozens of people that uh one thing that I heard that I found interesting was I heard this from so many people.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: They said I I'm listening to Zombie King, but it doesn't feel like I'm listening to Zombie King.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: But they say that, but they mean that in a good way.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: They're all the way from like the day one, like they see all of the growth and they see like almost like different people on stage.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: We're still there, but um, it even hits me sometimes.
23:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, we're so like used to doing this now that it's like it's not as much effort anymore.
24:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying we're not giving 110% up there because we are, yeah.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: And Lord knows, like the shit I'm dealing with, um, at least like health-wise and physically, like I am up there like fucking breaking my body to do this.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: That's how much I love it, you know what I mean?
24:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're like we're a polished version of what those young guys were, you know.
24:22
SPEAKER_03: That's cool, man.
24:24
SPEAKER_03: All right, the final stretch.
24:25
SPEAKER_03: Let's look forward.
24:26
SPEAKER_03: Uh, what's one thing coming up that fans don't expect?
24:29
SPEAKER_03: Something that feels like a new chapter for Zombie King.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: Just uh the forward progression in its entirety, man.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the book still being written, right?
24:40
SPEAKER_01: But we planned a tour heavily next month for sure.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: Especially or uh next year, which kind of almost next month, but next year.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, dude, like I said, going on tour really opened our eyes because we've played out of town here and there, but we've never done a full-on Texas run in these major cities and these badass venues.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh meeting the people we met, doing the networking that we did.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, McAllen.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: That shit opened our eyes, bro.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: It's like, man, there's a whole fucking just audience out there, audience out here that like, and they don't know us, bro.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Like when we go to these other places, they just know us as as we present ourselves.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: There's these bulls in this metal band, they're sick of fuck, zombie king, you know.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Here it's like, you know, people know us from this, from that, more folks that went to school with us, whatever the case may be, right?
25:24
SPEAKER_01: So I feel like going, stepping out where people don't know us, they it's a different kind of appreciation.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
25:31
SPEAKER_01: Because we're out there doing the damn thing and we're good at what we do.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: And uh, like like Juan said, we're polished versions of the kids that started this shit, you know?
25:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like we're hitting our prime right now in in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally, musically, artificially.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Songwriting, songwriting.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, I will say if uh you want us, you we wanted to answer like what can the all the fans expect.
25:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, there was a jump between Dead to Life and The Reveling, um, and exposed and all of that in between.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: Um, there was a there was a big jump, and all of the fans felt it.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: They they noticed it.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be another one.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: Um, all of the stuff that we're writing right now, it's there's so much um we're more intentional, we're more confident.
26:10
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're actually just like, hey, we've arrived and now we're gonna top everything that we've done in the past.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: So wow.
26:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: Are there any collaborations or features or creative partnerships uh you're excited about or even exploring?
26:25
SPEAKER_03: Because it seems like you feel like the next play is touring, right?
26:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, obviously, you get get your your sound out there, and you're talking net about networking.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: Do you feel like uh collaborating with with another bandmate or something would help help that?
26:39
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
26:40
SPEAKER_02: Definitely, definitely open up collaborations moving forward.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a few people that come to mind now that you say that, and there are people that we've made connections with in the like the last two or three years.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh right, right, right.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean you think about social media marketing, like even Instagram, you can add somebody as a collaborator.
26:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got a whole group of people that following them.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
26:58
SPEAKER_03: It seems like that could be uh, you know, something to think about.
27:00
SPEAKER_03: That's cool, man.
27:01
SPEAKER_03: So uh what's one what uh lastly, uh what's one goal for 2025 that scares you in a good way?
27:08
SPEAKER_01: Or 2025?
27:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, or 2022.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: 2026.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, dude.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 2026.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Scared us in a good way.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: I guess just the growth, man, because it's kind of it's kind of I don't know if it's scary.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: It can be scary doing new shit, you know what I mean, and especially taking risks.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Like going on tour, bro, it's not as like it's not as simple as like, hey man, we got these shows booked.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Let's fucking hit the road.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Like, dude, it's fucking it's it's very tedious planning, a lot of hard work, sacrifice.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Wances.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: Like, there was this whole fucking three or four month build-up just to make sure the tour was ready to go, yeah, and then getting through the tour, you know what I mean?
27:46
SPEAKER_02: So it's like yeah, it was a good test run right here.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, if you asked me this a couple months ago, I would say, man, putting it all together and actually getting on the road and touring would be scary as fuck.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh now I'm like, we know what we gotta do, and we know we can really so last man uh last thing.
28:05
SPEAKER_03: What's your message to the Corpus Christi fans who have supported you from day one?
28:10
SPEAKER_02: Man, um, I even have a few coming coming in mind too.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: Um thank you guys uh for just for toughing it out with us.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, there might have been a few stretches there where like um it took forever to get to that first point where like um we're recording the first EP.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like we were doing a lot of the grinding and the fucking like um playing the shows and trying to get on the big touring bills and uh paying our dues, man.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: But um all the people that have stuck uh with us through all of that, man, thank you guys for believing.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, because there have been a lot of points in all of that where we've even like butted heads about like we're doing this damn thing, but what's coming of it, or like we know, like we're not seeing the fruits of our labor.
28:58
SPEAKER_02: Um and I think uh all of those people coming to the shows and giving us that support, it it pushed us into um pretty much just like shaking all that off and like, hey man, don't let the bad voices get to you, man.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Like you guys are doing some great shit and you guys are doing it right, and you y'all have gifts that y'all need to share with the world.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, man, there's a lot of bandwagon people who they they won't fuck with anything until they see the masses are fucking with it.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
29:24
SPEAKER_01: So all of our all our supporters, bro, that have been around since the very beginning, like we just said, like that's that's that's that's a luxury, that's a privilege to have that because that's that's not just given lightly.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: And uh we appreciate y'all, we fucking love y'all.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: And we love Corpus, despite you know, the little I'm just being real, man.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: But real shit though.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: We love where we come from, we love our people, yeah, yeah.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: And uh we love to do this.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's that's that's part of the reason why I do this podcast, man.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: I want to see, I want people to see real uh that's why I do it live too, because I want people to see real reactions and who's real out there, you know.
30:00
SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, that's zombie king, you guys.
30:02
SPEAKER_03: Uh go catch them live at Brewster Street Ice House on November 28th.
30:07
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, we don't want to miss this show.
30:09
SPEAKER_03: These dudes are putting putting their all in there, changing their, you know, their sounds and just morphing into better and better and better bandmates.
30:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh, thank you guys for coming through and thank you for everyone listening.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is the Corporation Christie Originals podcast, and we'll see you on the next one.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having us, man.