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Francesco Montesanto: Sainthood Reps · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:30
Speaker 1: Today, We've got Francesco from Saintthood Reps super excited to
0:34
Speaker 1: chat with you. This is a band that, honestly, even
0:37
Speaker 1: though Colin and I grew up as tooth and nail kids,
0:40
Speaker 1: you know, because I think that first album came out,
0:42
Speaker 1: what twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, that was kind of in
0:44
Speaker 1: that era where, like, you know, we were kind of
0:47
Speaker 1: like going to college, We're starting to experiment more with
0:50
Speaker 1: other music. We're kind of leaving that tooth and nail vein,
0:52
Speaker 1: so we sort of I'll be honest, I sort of
0:54
Speaker 1: missed you guys, but I'm like, I recognize the name,
0:56
Speaker 1: like I remember y'all getting signed during that time. Anyway,
0:59
Speaker 1: I guess all what I'm trying to say here is
1:01
Speaker 1: Colin and I are huge tooth and Nail fans, but
1:04
Speaker 1: and I feel like we know probably most tooth and
1:06
Speaker 1: nail bands pretty like inside and out. But I'll be honest,
1:09
Speaker 1: I think Sainthood Reps is one of those tooth and
1:11
Speaker 1: nail bands. Are a band that was on tooth and
1:12
Speaker 1: nail at some point that I don't actually know that
1:14
Speaker 1: much about, so that this is it feels like an
1:16
Speaker 1: honor that I get to like learn more about Tooth
1:19
Speaker 1: and Nail history.
1:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome, and you're not alone. There's a lot
1:22
Speaker 2: of people who missed out on Sandhood Reps. I can
1:24
Speaker 2: tell you that firsthand. Over the last fifteen years or so,
1:28
Speaker 2: we've always kind of gotten that moniker of like, you know,
1:32
Speaker 2: the band that like your favorite band's favorite band kind
1:35
Speaker 2: of thing.
1:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, the band's band, Like, yeah, I've heard the Apple
1:38
Speaker 1: Seed Cast being described that way before.
1:40
Speaker 2: Oh they're up there, Color Revolts as another band that's
1:43
Speaker 2: up there where it's oh, yeah, you know a lot
1:46
Speaker 2: of these bands that like, you know, you trace their
1:49
Speaker 2: lineage back to, you know, their influences, and it's like, oh, well,
1:52
Speaker 2: you know this, this band is kind of doing all
1:55
Speaker 2: of that. So we we definitely had that going for us.
1:58
Speaker 2: But yeah, if you're by far not the only ones
2:01
Speaker 2: who missed the Saint Hoood Rep's boat when we were
2:04
Speaker 2: on Tooth and Nail.
2:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm sure we'll dive more into that at
2:08
Speaker 1: some point, but let's get into the history of Saintthood Rep.
2:12
Speaker 1: I guess maybe before we really dive into like the
2:14
Speaker 1: actual band history, I'd love to just hear like how
2:16
Speaker 1: you got into music That's always interesting to me, is
2:18
Speaker 1: you know, just how people get into music that eventually
2:22
Speaker 1: become you know, professional musicians themselves, Like what's that origin story?
2:26
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, I mean there there's not a time in
2:29
Speaker 2: my life where I can remember not being completely infatuated
2:33
Speaker 2: and in love with music. You know I am. I
2:35
Speaker 2: don't mind dating myself. I'm thirty nine years old. I
2:38
Speaker 2: grew up watching MTV. I grew up watching Beavis and
2:40
Speaker 2: butt Heead, I grew up watching I was like a
2:43
Speaker 2: total metal head. I remember watching Neil Young play with
2:45
Speaker 2: Pearl jam On I think it was the video of
2:48
Speaker 2: Music Awards, or it might have been the movie Awards,
2:50
Speaker 2: I forget which one it was. And seeing Neil Young's
2:52
Speaker 2: black Old Blackie I think he calls it his guitar,
2:55
Speaker 2: his like signature black less Paul that he uses, and
2:58
Speaker 2: just being I was always fascinating with instruments, like I
3:01
Speaker 2: would look at, you know, the blind Melon video for
3:04
Speaker 2: No Rain. Ever, even to this day, I still want
3:06
Speaker 2: like a banana yellow strat that the guitarist was using
3:09
Speaker 2: in that, or like looking at Lars Alrich's drum set
3:13
Speaker 2: in the one video or something. So I always just
3:15
Speaker 2: loved the idea of like getting behind an instrument and
3:18
Speaker 2: playing it. And then one day, like you know, my
3:21
Speaker 2: there was a family that was living in an apartment
3:23
Speaker 2: in the same house as us, and they introduced me
3:26
Speaker 2: to the Black Album from Metallica, and basically ever since then,
3:29
Speaker 2: it was like it was over. It was just I'm
3:32
Speaker 2: not going to do anything else besides music. I am
3:36
Speaker 2: in love with music. I want to play drums. I've
3:39
Speaker 2: joined like the school band when I was a little kid.
3:41
Speaker 2: I you know, because it was the cheapest instrument. My
3:44
Speaker 2: parents were like, now we're not paying We're not paying
3:47
Speaker 2: three hundred dollars for a sax, like you want to
3:50
Speaker 2: play violin, Like no, but a pair of drumsticks and
3:55
Speaker 2: a little practice pad that was like fifteen dollars from
3:58
Speaker 2: music Land in Lindenhurst, which is where linden Hurst Long Island,
4:02
Speaker 2: which where I grew up. So that's it was a
4:04
Speaker 2: very easy like conduit for me to get into music,
4:07
Speaker 2: and since I'm just always in love with it, like
4:10
Speaker 2: playing all different but you know, I eventually branched out
4:12
Speaker 2: from Metallica. I deprogrammed the lars alric from myself and
4:17
Speaker 2: you know, branch down into other influences as well, and
4:20
Speaker 2: then from there, just in high school, you know, Long
4:23
Speaker 2: Island was just such a like seismically active area for
4:27
Speaker 2: just all of this music. Growing up. You know, the
4:30
Speaker 2: bands just kind of like speak for themselves. You know,
4:33
Speaker 2: where I grew up, we had just all these influential
4:35
Speaker 2: hardcore bands like Silent Majority and Inside and Mind over
4:39
Speaker 2: Matter and Trip Fase and and then you know, the
4:41
Speaker 2: emo explosion happens when I'm like early in like early
4:45
Speaker 2: in high school with you know, the brand News and
4:47
Speaker 2: Taking Back Sundays and Glass Jaws and all that stuff.
4:50
Speaker 2: So it was just like almost inescapable, you know, this
4:52
Speaker 2: idea of playing music and then getting into a band
4:55
Speaker 2: if you were from linden Hurst, even if you were
4:57
Speaker 2: like a you know, a jock like football player, or
5:00
Speaker 2: you're like an artsy kid or somewhere in between. Everybody
5:04
Speaker 2: was kind of like going to shows and everybody was
5:06
Speaker 2: just really into Like if you walk down the high
5:08
Speaker 2: school lynn Hurst High School in the early two thousands
5:11
Speaker 2: and just pulled any kid aside and said, like, what's
5:14
Speaker 2: your favorite Saved the Day song? Everybody was listening to
5:17
Speaker 2: Save the Day. Everyone was listening to Thursday and all
5:19
Speaker 2: these like huge emo bands. So it was just natural,
5:23
Speaker 2: like growing up playing you know, percussion in my school
5:27
Speaker 2: band to playing in rock bands with my friends and
5:29
Speaker 2: going to shows. They're just ingrained in the culture of
5:32
Speaker 2: linden Hurst and that's kind of what led me, eventually
5:36
Speaker 2: led me to Sainhood Reps, you know, playing with with Derek,
5:39
Speaker 2: who's our you know, other guitarists and lead singer, well
5:43
Speaker 2: other lead singer songwriter. He has a much more active
5:46
Speaker 2: role in singing on this record. So that's kind of
5:49
Speaker 2: how we became friends. And yeah, that's sort of the origins.
5:53
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine what that experience it would have
5:56
Speaker 1: been like where everybody listens to the same music as you, Yeah,
6:00
Speaker 1: because that was not the case for Colin and I
6:01
Speaker 1: at all.
6:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely not.
6:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. I always hear that from people, and it really
6:06
Speaker 2: is a special like a special time and it's a
6:09
Speaker 2: big reason why there are just so many Long Island
6:12
Speaker 2: bands that came out around that time. And it's just
6:14
Speaker 2: so synonymous with that early two thousands emo scenes because
6:17
Speaker 2: it was so pervasive, I mean, everyone you know. And
6:21
Speaker 2: that's not to say that there weren't like clicks in
6:24
Speaker 2: high school that's not to say I wasn't made fun
6:26
Speaker 2: of because I was in marching band, like, because that
6:28
Speaker 2: definitely happened. But for the most part, it was a
6:32
Speaker 2: lot more like you know, and even to this day,
6:35
Speaker 2: like a lot of people who still hung around like
6:37
Speaker 2: it's just it was just part of the culture over there.
6:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's such a that's such a cool thing. And
6:43
Speaker 3: I feel like that time period was very accepting of
6:47
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. Maybe not entirely obviously, but you know,
6:52
Speaker 3: there was a moment in time where it was kind
6:54
Speaker 3: of accepted that you listened to music that was considered
6:57
Speaker 3: alternative by your parents and everything like that, but to
7:01
Speaker 3: you and your buddies it was and even to kind
7:05
Speaker 3: of like the zeitgeist of people your age, it was
7:08
Speaker 3: commonly accepted, right.
7:10
Speaker 2: I think its just the overlap of because a lot
7:12
Speaker 2: of those bands, you know, like the earlier hardcore bands
7:15
Speaker 2: were very much singing about like their message was a
7:19
Speaker 2: lot more like it was either you know, being part
7:22
Speaker 2: of like a crew, or being anti crew, or being
7:26
Speaker 2: like outcasts or being kind of left out, whereas like
7:29
Speaker 2: then when you know, the late nineties and early two
7:32
Speaker 2: thousands emo scene came on, it was it was sort
7:34
Speaker 2: of about being outcast, but it was also about like,
7:38
Speaker 2: you know, everyday suburbia. And I think that's why a
7:40
Speaker 2: lot of kids latched onto it is because it's like
7:43
Speaker 2: the average suburban kid can then identify with it. They're like, oh,
7:47
Speaker 2: this isn't just about like getting beat up at a
7:50
Speaker 2: show or not wanting to get beat up at a show,
7:52
Speaker 2: or like, it's not about you know, these these hardcore principles.
7:56
Speaker 2: It's about like, you know, just everyday things that happened.
7:59
Speaker 2: It's about relateationships for better or for worse. Like there
8:01
Speaker 2: was a lot of shittiness that happened with that too,
8:04
Speaker 2: but it was much more relatable for like the average
8:07
Speaker 2: kind of think that's why that's why it really blew up.
8:09
Speaker 2: And you know, being from the Northeast like for that
8:12
Speaker 2: was definitely one of the hotbeds for it. So I
8:14
Speaker 2: think that's why it was a little bit more pervasive
8:16
Speaker 2: than like other styles of music.
8:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got like a little theory or maybe a
8:22
Speaker 3: coin to term where I call it like a soft rebellion,
8:25
Speaker 3: especially with that emo music, right that emo music of
8:29
Speaker 3: the nineties and early two thousands is is very much
8:32
Speaker 3: a soft rebellion. It wasn't something that was going to
8:34
Speaker 3: completely like alienate you from your parents and from the
8:37
Speaker 3: rest of society. But it was definitely something that was
8:39
Speaker 3: speaking to you as an individual in a completely different
8:42
Speaker 3: way than any of the other music that was out there.
8:45
Speaker 2: Of course, yeah, like in the midnight early mid nineties,
8:48
Speaker 2: if you went to a show, like even emo bands,
8:51
Speaker 2: like if you're going to like the Rites of Spring
8:53
Speaker 2: Show or something like, there's still like slam dance, there's
8:56
Speaker 2: still you know, kids going crazy, whereas like that that
9:00
Speaker 2: was still the case, but then it's like kind of
9:02
Speaker 2: what you're saying, calling like there's also dashboard confect. You
9:05
Speaker 2: can go to a VFW and see dashboard. You can
9:07
Speaker 2: see a guy with an acoustic guitar, and it's like, wow,
9:09
Speaker 2: that's that's way different, and it's you know, it speaks
9:14
Speaker 2: to like, you know, how much more diverse it was becoming.
9:16
Speaker 2: But at the same time, once it became commoditized, where
9:19
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, it is very much like emo suburbia,
9:23
Speaker 2: like then it starts to be more exclusive where it's like,
9:26
Speaker 2: you know, growing up before that, shows used to be
9:29
Speaker 2: really diverse. You used to see SKA bands playing with
9:31
Speaker 2: hardcore bands, playing with like, you know, everything in between
9:35
Speaker 2: weird electronics stuff. There's a band called World Inferno Friendship
9:37
Speaker 2: Society that I saw that they would light their symbols
9:40
Speaker 2: on fire and like at like just a bar somewhere,
9:44
Speaker 2: and yeah, like every nothing was out of place. But
9:48
Speaker 2: then by that point it was just like you're in
9:50
Speaker 2: an emo band, and if you're not an emo band,
9:53
Speaker 2: like get the fuck out. Like kids didn't want to
9:55
Speaker 2: hear it, so it did. Let it did lead to
9:58
Speaker 2: like a sort of like elitism in the scene. Like
10:00
Speaker 2: when anytime a scene is like like grows and blows
10:03
Speaker 2: up that fast where it is more it becomes more accessible.
10:07
Speaker 2: You know, you do have a lot of people who
10:09
Speaker 2: are like, you know, you have the snobs. We also
10:10
Speaker 2: have people that are like, you know, not as accepting
10:13
Speaker 2: to alternative types of music. So that was like one
10:15
Speaker 2: of the downsides of it, I think.
10:17
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, for sure. Well, coming back to you
10:20
Speaker 3: and some of the influences that you listed there, there's
10:23
Speaker 3: one that I think maybe I have a sneaking suspicion
10:28
Speaker 3: might have been in there that you didn't list, and
10:30
Speaker 3: I think it might be something like Jerry Cantrell, especially
10:34
Speaker 3: in those that that those those early albums, Man, they
10:39
Speaker 3: have a very Jerry Cantrell esque vibe at least to
10:43
Speaker 3: my ears. Is that is that something you would say
10:46
Speaker 3: as well?
10:47
Speaker 2: One n So it kind of ties into what I
10:50
Speaker 2: was just like talking about in the origins of Sainthood. So,
10:52
Speaker 2: like we all grew up in you know, the emo scene,
10:55
Speaker 2: and we all wanted to like, at some point we
10:57
Speaker 2: just wanted to do something different. We wanted to like
11:00
Speaker 2: and by like the late two thousands, it you know,
11:02
Speaker 2: there there's a lot of other things going on, but
11:05
Speaker 2: like we really wanted to lean into like our nineties influence.
11:09
Speaker 2: It's like I mentionedly, you know, I grew up on
11:11
Speaker 2: Alison Chains too. I remember seeing the Men in the
11:13
Speaker 2: Box video and how creepy it was and the nightmares
11:16
Speaker 2: that it gave me as a kid with the eyes
11:18
Speaker 2: so and shut. But it was still like the you know,
11:21
Speaker 2: once we leaned into it, like with when we started,
11:23
Speaker 2: you know, when Sane had formed, and with the first record,
11:25
Speaker 2: we're like, this is exactly like we ripped off Alice
11:28
Speaker 2: and Chane. So much like on the new record, there's
11:31
Speaker 2: a song where I straight up just ripped off Alice
11:34
Speaker 2: in Chains, Like I think I just kind of took
11:38
Speaker 2: them bones and made it a little bit less them
11:43
Speaker 2: Bones is in like seven, it's a.
11:45
Speaker 3: Weird time signature.
11:47
Speaker 2: I made it much more straightforward. It's not Alison, but
11:51
Speaker 2: it's like the harmonies that are there, Like that's where
11:54
Speaker 2: I really like, as I've grown up, I've always loved
11:57
Speaker 2: Alice and Chains and the harmonies, but as I've gotten older,
12:01
Speaker 2: just appreciating them so much more and just how much
12:04
Speaker 2: like Lane Staley is the one that gets like all
12:06
Speaker 2: the credit, but Jerry Cantrell is like the engine of
12:09
Speaker 2: the band. But even like Mike Starr and the drummer
12:11
Speaker 2: whose name I forget on my social media.
12:13
Speaker 3: It's just Sam Kin not Sam Kenny. Wait, is it no.
12:19
Speaker 2: Sean Kenney Sean Kenny, that's right, Yeah, the intro to
12:23
Speaker 2: no excuses, like I just see all over social media
12:26
Speaker 2: like drummers covering that and stuff. So the early nineties
12:29
Speaker 2: grunge is such an obvious like influence for us, but
12:34
Speaker 2: at that time it's just not a we were like
12:37
Speaker 2: starting to put saning it together and start running monoculture
12:41
Speaker 2: in like two thousand and eight nine, you know, it
12:44
Speaker 2: really wasn't something that a lot of bands were doing.
12:46
Speaker 2: They were still kind of in the emo phase and
12:48
Speaker 2: there were still like you know whatever. We were like,
12:51
Speaker 2: let's just really lean into it, but let's get even weirder.
12:53
Speaker 2: Let's throw in Young Widows, Let's throw in Jesus Lizard,
12:57
Speaker 2: Let's throw in like all the all those like you know,
13:00
Speaker 2: like early in like Shellac or you know, just let's
13:05
Speaker 2: throw those in. But also like if you want to
13:07
Speaker 2: throw in a tom petty sounding song, like let's do it.
13:10
Speaker 2: Just know we didn't want any restrictions. We kind of
13:12
Speaker 2: just went with like we have all these different influences,
13:15
Speaker 2: let's try to make it work. And and sometimes it
13:18
Speaker 2: worked really well and sometimes it didn't. But that's kind
13:20
Speaker 2: of where like Tooth and Nail really latched onto us.
13:24
Speaker 2: Like they we played in twenty eleven. We played south
13:28
Speaker 2: By Southwest Showcase with them, and there was a bunch
13:31
Speaker 2: of bands. I think the almost played, I forget, I
13:35
Speaker 2: don't remember all the all the bands that played, but
13:38
Speaker 2: the owner of Tooth and Nail, Brandon Ebel, went up
13:40
Speaker 2: to us and he's like, you guys sound exactly like
13:42
Speaker 2: Bark Market and like that's I was like that's that's what. Yeah,
13:46
Speaker 2: that's it from the from Tooth and Al. I'm like, wow,
13:48
Speaker 2: that that really is like a poll. And that's something
13:51
Speaker 2: that they loved about us is that it was kind
13:53
Speaker 2: of a throwback to when tooth Andel first started. Like
13:56
Speaker 2: you know there is like all those bands like me
13:59
Speaker 2: without You as the obvious comparison, but like Starflyer fifty
14:03
Speaker 2: nine or you know, bands like that where there was like, oh,
14:06
Speaker 2: we want to kind of like bring a band on
14:08
Speaker 2: that's going to call back to like the tooth and
14:10
Speaker 2: Nail roots and stuff. So that's really like when you
14:13
Speaker 2: mentioned Jerry Cantrell that's in like the Wheelhouse, but you
14:15
Speaker 2: know all the sound Gardens and the Pearl Jams and
14:20
Speaker 2: Nirvana's like that's you know, that was such a huge
14:23
Speaker 2: influence for us. And it was again not saying that,
14:26
Speaker 2: like listen, like we're really breaking ground here, guys, like
14:30
Speaker 2: we're gonna we're talking this. There's this band called Nirvana.
14:33
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but like,
14:35
Speaker 2: you know, we're really influenced, but like not saying that,
14:38
Speaker 2: but to incorporate that into the like the styles that
14:41
Speaker 2: we did was you know, that was like the whole
14:44
Speaker 2: point of the band.
14:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean it was essentially like that's genre
14:52
Speaker 3: of music, that grunge esque style of music was almost
14:56
Speaker 3: completely dead at that point. And the fact that you
15:00
Speaker 3: were able to meld some of those sounds and those harmonies,
15:03
Speaker 3: especially into music that has post hardcore elements and punk elements,
15:10
Speaker 3: and I mean it's literally a smattering of a little
15:13
Speaker 3: bit of everything. Just like you said, it really is
15:17
Speaker 3: something special. And Mason and I we haven't had a
15:21
Speaker 3: chance to talk about this yet, but like we were
15:24
Speaker 3: actually kicking ourselves a little bit about like how did
15:27
Speaker 3: we kind of miss the boat on you guys?
15:31
Speaker 2: Well there, I think a lot of it was also
15:33
Speaker 2: like because we were, you know, a little bit on
15:36
Speaker 2: the eclectic side. I think, you know, it was really
15:40
Speaker 2: tough to find like what our niche was. It's like
15:42
Speaker 2: all right, well, you know at the time, like we're
15:45
Speaker 2: not going to fit in with hardcore bands. You know,
15:48
Speaker 2: we're a little bit too melodic or a little bit
15:51
Speaker 2: too out there for those bands. We're not an emo band,
15:54
Speaker 2: Like we're not definitely not you know, we're not too
15:58
Speaker 2: heavy for indie, not heavy enough for hardcore, not heavy
16:01
Speaker 2: enough for scream out where, so it was really tough
16:03
Speaker 2: to find like that natural fit for us, and eventually
16:06
Speaker 2: we started just sort of gravitating towards bands like Oh
16:09
Speaker 2: Brother was a band that we were very close with
16:11
Speaker 2: and Me Without You and a lot of view balancing
16:14
Speaker 2: a poache. We kind of like once those bands started
16:16
Speaker 2: to emerge where they were also kind of starting to
16:19
Speaker 2: incorporate elements of grunge into what they were doing, it
16:22
Speaker 2: sort of started to make a little bit more sense
16:24
Speaker 2: about where we should fit in. But in those like
16:28
Speaker 2: early years, it was and that was something that I
16:30
Speaker 2: always loved about our band. But that's why, like I
16:33
Speaker 2: kind of jokingly said, like a lot of people missed
16:34
Speaker 2: the boats because we didn't really have a scene, and
16:38
Speaker 2: the ones that we did belong to, we were kind
16:40
Speaker 2: of outliers in that scene, which was always really cool.
16:43
Speaker 2: I always appreciate bands that are sort of those outliers,
16:46
Speaker 2: that are like, you know, bringing something a little bit
16:48
Speaker 2: different to the table. But I think that's kind of
16:51
Speaker 2: why we. Yeah, I guess we kind of like flew
16:54
Speaker 2: under the radar for at least like in those early years.
16:58
Speaker 2: And then you know, once we started touring more and
17:01
Speaker 2: you know, started to work towards our second record, we
17:03
Speaker 2: were more cognizant of, like, all right, let's maybe like
17:06
Speaker 2: be a little bit more focused and like try to
17:09
Speaker 2: be like a little bit more cohesive, maybe not be
17:11
Speaker 2: as like esoteric with what we're trying to bring into
17:15
Speaker 2: the fold when it comes to our styles and our
17:18
Speaker 2: influences for sure. Yeah.
17:20
Speaker 1: And I also think there's like a piece of this
17:23
Speaker 1: too where Tooth and Nail was entering into a new
17:26
Speaker 1: part of its history where you know, for you know,
17:29
Speaker 1: Tooth and Nail obviously started out very indie, and then
17:33
Speaker 1: once obviously they got more popular, I think they got
17:35
Speaker 1: bought out by EMI, and then if I remember right,
17:38
Speaker 1: it's around the time that you guys get signed that
17:40
Speaker 1: Tooth and Nail buys back their catalog and becomes independent again.
17:45
Speaker 1: And I remember around that time you started to hear
17:49
Speaker 1: the or the at least the bands that Tooth and
17:51
Speaker 1: Nail was starting to sign again around that twenty thirteen,
17:54
Speaker 1: in post twenty thirteen timeframe, are bands that definitely kind
17:58
Speaker 1: of had this more indie sound that they would have
18:00
Speaker 1: had at the beginning years, you know, because especially maybe
18:04
Speaker 1: like mid two thousands to that early twenty tens, because
18:08
Speaker 1: of the fact that they're owned by this big corporation.
18:10
Speaker 1: They definitely were moving towards a very much more poppier sound,
18:14
Speaker 1: and you see that with a lot of the bands
18:15
Speaker 1: and artists that they were signing at that time. But yeah,
18:18
Speaker 1: it was around the time that you guys get signed,
18:20
Speaker 1: is around the time that Tooth and Nail becomes independent again.
18:23
Speaker 1: And so just from like the history of the label itself,
18:26
Speaker 1: it's probably this kind of time period where there's transition,
18:29
Speaker 1: and whenever there's gonna be transitioned, they might not necessarily
18:32
Speaker 1: have like the bandwidth or the know how of like
18:34
Speaker 1: how do we market indie bands again, or bands that
18:37
Speaker 1: would kind of be in the indie vane like your
18:39
Speaker 1: Guys's band was.
18:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there was a you know, with Tooth
18:42
Speaker 2: and Nail, there was an element Listen, it's a business
18:45
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. So I don't think
18:47
Speaker 2: it was totally this, but I do think there was
18:48
Speaker 2: an element of, like it's sort of a passion project
18:51
Speaker 2: for them too. It was just like we were bringing
18:53
Speaker 2: something that like really harkened back to, like you know,
18:57
Speaker 2: the old days, Like well, we played like a lot
18:58
Speaker 2: of and you know, thinking back to some of the contemporaries.
19:02
Speaker 2: You know, I remember when we were signed to Tooth
19:05
Speaker 2: and Nail. We were just kind of like looking through
19:07
Speaker 2: the internet and seeing like on this is like twenty eleven,
19:10
Speaker 2: so various like message boards and through social media and stuff,
19:14
Speaker 2: and I remember coming across and I don't remember the
19:16
Speaker 2: name of the band, but it was maybe maybe laugh
19:18
Speaker 2: really hard on like some discussion board somewhere. Someone from
19:21
Speaker 2: some band was like, you know, I can't believe Standard
19:24
Speaker 2: Rep sign with Tooth and Nail. They're the best band
19:26
Speaker 2: on Tooth and Nail. And this I'm speaking as somebody
19:30
Speaker 2: who is on Tooth and Nail right now, and it's
19:33
Speaker 2: like people on the label. So we had that like cred.
19:35
Speaker 2: But and we also like when we played live, like
19:38
Speaker 2: you know, our contemporaries were very polished and we were
19:42
Speaker 2: very not like that was kind of our thing, was
19:44
Speaker 2: like we're gonna make a lot of noise, we're gonna
19:47
Speaker 2: jump around, we're gonna like throw our guitars around, like yeah,
19:50
Speaker 2: we're not gonna be like complete idiots on stage. But
19:53
Speaker 2: at the same time, like you know, the performance aspect
19:56
Speaker 2: of it is very much like angular and dissonant and
20:00
Speaker 2: that's what was kind of the charm, but it was
20:02
Speaker 2: just yeah, maybe not like the right exact right time
20:05
Speaker 2: for that, but also yeah, there it was definitely at
20:09
Speaker 2: a time where like, yes, like we do have some
20:11
Speaker 2: you know, more polished songs, some more like you know,
20:14
Speaker 2: indie sounding songs, but I think, yeah, just a case
20:17
Speaker 2: of like, all right, is this band, like just are
20:21
Speaker 2: they you know, a Shellac ripoff band? Are they like
20:25
Speaker 2: and Alison chains rip off? Or the Young Widows rip off?
20:27
Speaker 2: Are they you know, balancing and posure rip But like
20:29
Speaker 2: what what are they? And the answer is kind of
20:32
Speaker 2: like all all of it? I guess, you know, I
20:33
Speaker 2: always think that you know, we kind of are where
20:35
Speaker 2: our influences on our sleeve. But yeah, I think it
20:38
Speaker 2: was at a time where it was definitely a transitional
20:41
Speaker 2: period for Tooth and Nail, And you know, there's not
20:43
Speaker 2: really like a ton of alignment of like all right
20:46
Speaker 2: had the best you know, handle list, But you know
20:48
Speaker 2: that's just kind of like how how it goes. It's
20:50
Speaker 2: you know, especially around that time, music is a very
20:53
Speaker 2: momentum driven business, and you know, if you're if you
20:57
Speaker 2: don't have momentum on your side, it is really hard
20:59
Speaker 2: to build that back up until there's you know, something
21:02
Speaker 2: else to really kind of bring it back. So I
21:06
Speaker 2: think that's kind of like what happened in the Tooth
21:08
Speaker 2: and Nail days. But it was awesome. We had you know,
21:11
Speaker 2: there's some of the most fun times of our band
21:13
Speaker 2: that's during that during those days was great. Yeah.
21:17
Speaker 1: So talk a little bit again more about this relationship
21:20
Speaker 1: with Tooth and Nail where, you know, obviously you guys
21:23
Speaker 1: have the first album with them, and then I think
21:26
Speaker 1: the second album wasn't with them, correct, So yeah, what
21:29
Speaker 1: what was the like, you know, it sounds like you
21:31
Speaker 1: certainly were appreciative of your time with Tooth and Nail,
21:34
Speaker 1: So like, what was sort of that that sort of
21:36
Speaker 1: transition out of Tooth and Nail like into that second album.
21:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think everyone was kind of, you know, very
21:42
Speaker 2: much on the same page. We you know, given the
21:46
Speaker 2: like we you know, we love the record, We loved
21:48
Speaker 2: our time with them, but just where the band was
21:50
Speaker 2: going didn't seem like the best fit for us. We
21:52
Speaker 2: were starting to gain some momentum with like, you know,
21:56
Speaker 2: bands like Balance and Composure, like Law Dispute, Tiger's Jaw,
22:00
Speaker 2: like that scene. So we eventually signed with No Sleep Records.
22:05
Speaker 2: No Sleep had always they've been fans of us, like,
22:08
Speaker 2: you know, for a while at that point, and it
22:11
Speaker 2: just seemed like a really great fit. You know, we
22:13
Speaker 2: always wanted to record with will Yip, and Willyap had
22:16
Speaker 2: a great relationship with No Sleep. He was doing a
22:18
Speaker 2: lot of bands for them, but that's at the time,
22:21
Speaker 2: so basically like how our band was was being driven
22:25
Speaker 2: and the direction that we were taking with the second record,
22:28
Speaker 2: we were just like, this is, you know, definitely the
22:30
Speaker 2: direction that we want to go in. It's a better
22:32
Speaker 2: fit in terms of like tours that we find ourselves
22:36
Speaker 2: on the audience that's sort of gravitating towards us. So
22:40
Speaker 2: when we went with No Sleep, it was very much
22:42
Speaker 2: driven by you know, where the audience was going, where
22:46
Speaker 2: our band seemed to be going at the time, like
22:48
Speaker 2: really leaning into more of like the grungier emao aspects
22:52
Speaker 2: of what we did and less into like the noisier
22:55
Speaker 2: parts of what we did. And it was also driven
22:59
Speaker 2: by you know, like we've just always dreamt of recording
23:02
Speaker 2: with will Yip, but we also record with Mike's oppone,
23:05
Speaker 2: So we decided to split the record where we do
23:07
Speaker 2: the drums and bass with will Yip and then the
23:10
Speaker 2: guitars and vocals with Mike's opponent, he would produce it.
23:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, it just from you know, where we were
23:17
Speaker 2: going at the time. It just really made the most
23:20
Speaker 2: sense for us at that point. And yeah, like it's
23:23
Speaker 2: just the natural way of how bands like kind of
23:25
Speaker 2: work is like, all right, we see where things are going,
23:28
Speaker 2: we see why it's not working with Tooth and Nail
23:31
Speaker 2: or what we could do differently, and yeah we still
23:35
Speaker 2: you know, still talk with Tooth Nail, still Love No Sleep,
23:38
Speaker 2: still have all those It's just it really is such
23:41
Speaker 2: a privilege to be able to have, like you know,
23:44
Speaker 2: put out records on legendary labels like that, you know.
23:47
Speaker 2: So that's another thing that we kind of always wanted
23:49
Speaker 2: to do too, is like we didn't want to have
23:52
Speaker 2: our toes in like one pool and that's it. We
23:54
Speaker 2: wanted to really like we wanted to tour with a
23:57
Speaker 2: lot of different bands and put out splits with bands
24:00
Speaker 2: that you might not have associated with us, Like weather
24:02
Speaker 2: Box is a good example, Like we put on a
24:04
Speaker 2: split with them. It's like not two bands that you'd
24:07
Speaker 2: necessarily like put together. So it just kind of fits
24:10
Speaker 2: the trajector the band of always kind of wanting to
24:13
Speaker 2: do something different and always kind of wanting to like
24:16
Speaker 2: move forward in a way. Yeah, it's it.
24:21
Speaker 1: What what you're kind of describing and and you were
24:24
Speaker 1: alluding to this is you sort of are like this
24:28
Speaker 1: band where you're so versatile it almost becomes like a
24:31
Speaker 1: detriment where there's just so many different great sounds that
24:35
Speaker 1: are going on and like kind of different genres that
24:37
Speaker 1: you're combining that it becomes this thing where it's like
24:41
Speaker 1: where do exactly do we put you? Like it's like
24:44
Speaker 1: where where do you belong exactly? But like like you
24:47
Speaker 1: mentioned before too, like from your own reflection of your band,
24:51
Speaker 1: like that's a part of the band that you actually
24:52
Speaker 1: really like, even though if that's not from a maybe
24:56
Speaker 1: like a marketing standpoint, it's a thing that like is
24:58
Speaker 1: all that marketable. But I'll like speak for both. I'll
25:02
Speaker 1: speak for both Colin and I like we both are
25:04
Speaker 1: like that's the kind of band that we're into. Like,
25:07
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the bands that you have
25:08
Speaker 1: been maybe associated with, or even a lot of the
25:10
Speaker 1: bands that you all have been influenced by, are many
25:14
Speaker 1: of our favorite bands as well, And so whenever we
25:16
Speaker 1: see a band that like both is considered post hardcore
25:19
Speaker 1: and post rock, like, sign me up, I'm all about
25:22
Speaker 1: a band like that. And again I'll speak for Culin too,
25:24
Speaker 1: like that's definitely a band that like he's immediately and
25:27
Speaker 1: that's why, Like, especially the fact that you guys were
25:29
Speaker 1: associated with Tooth and Nail and were described in that way,
25:33
Speaker 1: it like throws me off, and I'm like, oh my god,
25:35
Speaker 1: like those that's exactly the kind of band Clin and
25:37
Speaker 1: I would have totally gravitated towards, especially the fact that you.
25:40
Speaker 2: All were on Tooth and Nail.
25:41
Speaker 1: So it's just it's like one of those things where
25:43
Speaker 1: I just can't believe we missed you at the time,
25:45
Speaker 1: especially when you all were on Tooth and Nail.
25:47
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up post rock because that's the
25:49
Speaker 2: origins of like Saint Not does that. Me and Derek
25:53
Speaker 2: loved Magua and Explosions in the Sky. Those are two
25:56
Speaker 2: bands that were two of our favorite bands and two
25:59
Speaker 2: bands that were really bond it over. And we initially
26:01
Speaker 2: decide we're going to be a post rock band. We're
26:04
Speaker 2: going to play instrumental, like we just want to do
26:06
Speaker 2: that and that's why the first tour we ever did well,
26:10
Speaker 2: sort of the first tour ever did we did five
26:12
Speaker 2: days ish, so I forget. It was like a week
26:16
Speaker 2: with a band called All the Day Holiday. And then
26:19
Speaker 2: right after that we are basically like just gott in
26:22
Speaker 2: the van and toured with Caspian and to this day
26:25
Speaker 2: our bassist Yanni is playing bass in Caspian right now.
26:29
Speaker 2: Brad Our drummer is their front of house and their
26:32
Speaker 2: tour manager, you know. So they're a band that we've
26:34
Speaker 2: had a very very close relationship with for wow, like
26:39
Speaker 2: over fifteen years at this point. But those are kind
26:42
Speaker 2: of the roots, Like I think that we always wanted
26:45
Speaker 2: to kind of have this through line of post rock
26:48
Speaker 2: and what we did as well, and a lot of
26:50
Speaker 2: our early shows we had like a couple of songs
26:52
Speaker 2: where it was just instrumental. We've always just really loved
26:55
Speaker 2: that dynamic of building from something quiet to something really
26:59
Speaker 2: loud and everything in between, and the root, the roots
27:02
Speaker 2: and the influences of post rock, especially like some of
27:05
Speaker 2: the more heavier post rock bands I think are really
27:08
Speaker 2: apparent in the in the early days as well. But
27:10
Speaker 2: we also realized like that's not really it's a very
27:14
Speaker 2: hard like genre to kind of break into unless you're
27:18
Speaker 2: there's no halfway post rock bands, like you're either a
27:22
Speaker 2: post rock band or you're not. Like you know, Caspian
27:26
Speaker 2: is a great example of this, and they've done a
27:27
Speaker 2: great job of branching out and touring with other bands
27:31
Speaker 2: like Apple Seed Cast you mentioned before, they toured with them.
27:34
Speaker 2: But like, if you're a post rock band, you're getting
27:37
Speaker 2: put on post rock shows. You're getting put on shows
27:40
Speaker 2: where there's no vocalists. And that's kind of how like myopic,
27:44
Speaker 2: these a lot of a lot of these scenes are
27:46
Speaker 2: and it's not just on them. It's like, you know,
27:48
Speaker 2: promoters think like, oh, fans of post rock only like
27:52
Speaker 2: post rock, they only want to hear they want to
27:54
Speaker 2: hear four of the same sounding bands. And that's kind
27:56
Speaker 2: of where like, you know, we we always did well
28:00
Speaker 2: to stand out and tours and stuff because we always
28:02
Speaker 2: had a different sound. But again, like Mason what you said,
28:06
Speaker 2: like I think it's just it's hard to like really
28:08
Speaker 2: market it's hard to find that like niche of you know,
28:12
Speaker 2: which is like also, I think a reason why we've
28:16
Speaker 2: kind of stuck together for so long is because it's
28:18
Speaker 2: always interesting and it's always fun. It's never just like
28:21
Speaker 2: all right, let's go back and rewrite the same record
28:24
Speaker 2: and hope this one lands. It's like no, like fuck it,
28:27
Speaker 2: We're just gonna do what we feel like. And the
28:29
Speaker 2: new record has so much of that too.
28:31
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, and I know we talked about this,
28:34
Speaker 1: you know, sort of like being the band's band. And
28:38
Speaker 1: I don't bring them up just because they were also
28:40
Speaker 1: in Tooth and Nail, but I know you mentioned them
28:42
Speaker 1: a little bit before. And I don't compare you guys
28:45
Speaker 1: to Me Without You because I think you sound like
28:47
Speaker 1: Me without You. In fact, I think you actually sound
28:49
Speaker 1: quite different in a lot of ways from Me Without You.
28:52
Speaker 1: But the reason why I bring them up, though, is
28:54
Speaker 1: Me Without You feels like one of those bands, especially
28:57
Speaker 1: a band that was associated with Tooth and Nail, that
28:58
Speaker 1: could have been so much bigger given the influence that
29:02
Speaker 1: they have in the music scene. Like they're one of
29:05
Speaker 1: those things where, like you talk about you, you you
29:08
Speaker 1: talk to lots of like super popular artists that were
29:10
Speaker 1: really influenced by Me Without You, and you'd think they're
29:12
Speaker 1: way bigger than they actually ever were. But they were
29:14
Speaker 1: one of those bands that, like you couldn't really like
29:17
Speaker 1: especially early on they were like pretty post hardcore punk,
29:20
Speaker 1: even like pretty hardcore punk, and then they like go
29:23
Speaker 1: into this like indie phase, and then they go into
29:25
Speaker 1: this wulkie phase and then they kind of go back
29:28
Speaker 1: in this indie like So there they were always a
29:30
Speaker 1: band that's like how especially and again, like I think
29:32
Speaker 1: from the tooth and nail standpoint, like where do we
29:34
Speaker 1: market this band? Like how do we market And regardless
29:38
Speaker 1: of the marketing ability of the band, like, at the
29:40
Speaker 1: end of the day, they were a band that clearly
29:42
Speaker 1: became very influential, especially to a lot of other bands
29:45
Speaker 1: and artists.
29:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I just think when you're an authentic band,
29:51
Speaker 2: that's that's going to come across me without you as
29:53
Speaker 2: such an authentic band, there is no pretense with them
29:56
Speaker 2: at all. They're equal parts like intense and this, but
30:00
Speaker 2: they're also like so whimsical, like there is no other
30:04
Speaker 2: band like them. They are a one. They're a one
30:07
Speaker 2: and only, and you know, I think they they also
30:11
Speaker 2: like really grounded out for a long time too. I
30:14
Speaker 2: think you know, they caught on pretty early, and I
30:17
Speaker 2: think that helps to sustain a lot of bands when
30:19
Speaker 2: they can capture some like really early success, but it
30:23
Speaker 2: afforded them the ability to be more experimental kind of
30:26
Speaker 2: going going forward, which is something that we always like
30:30
Speaker 2: really admired with them, and you know, we like we
30:32
Speaker 2: were fortunate enough to play you know, with them many
30:35
Speaker 2: many times. But they're just, yeah, like they were in
30:39
Speaker 2: so many ways, Like yeah, maybe not like a one
30:42
Speaker 2: to one comparison of like sound. There was not a
30:44
Speaker 2: lot of times where like, I know, me personally like
30:46
Speaker 2: writing songs, I'm not really calling to like you know,
30:49
Speaker 2: their style, but just more like their their approach to artistry.
30:55
Speaker 2: Like I'll give you a good example, like when they
30:57
Speaker 2: were write out their set lists, they would do a
30:59
Speaker 2: different set every night, and they're even their set lists
31:02
Speaker 2: were art like they would drop pictures of each song
31:05
Speaker 2: title and they would be like really colorful, and you
31:08
Speaker 2: know they tore it out of a bus that ran
31:10
Speaker 2: on vegetable oil. Right. They were just like the way
31:13
Speaker 2: that they were always kind of like you know, putting
31:16
Speaker 2: a different angle on everything and not fitting into one box.
31:19
Speaker 2: That was always kind of what I took from it.
31:22
Speaker 2: But yeah, they were just a real like one and
31:25
Speaker 2: only band, and I think that's why a lot of
31:27
Speaker 2: people really gravitated towards them because they did have Like
31:31
Speaker 2: I said, I think they were like they had the
31:33
Speaker 2: post hardcore early on. I think that was enough to
31:36
Speaker 2: like get people to latch on, but also just incredibly
31:40
Speaker 2: smart and there you know, Aaron's lyrics are just other worldly.
31:45
Speaker 2: But yeah, like I think a lot of bands like
31:48
Speaker 2: they're a band that are very difficult to try and replicate,
31:51
Speaker 2: but also at the same time a band it's very
31:53
Speaker 2: easy to be influenced by.
31:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. Well, and speaking of you, we have
32:02
Speaker 3: some pretty interesting writing on the new album on Dull Bliss. Now,
32:06
Speaker 3: I've only heard a couple of songs, but it sounds
32:09
Speaker 3: like you have a little bit of a concept going
32:11
Speaker 3: on with the new one, Dull Bliss. I love the title,
32:14
Speaker 3: by the way, and I think that it's definitely leading
32:18
Speaker 3: listeners into a certain state of mind. Would you would
32:22
Speaker 3: you care to kind of explain where this new album
32:26
Speaker 3: is going and what they should expect and why they
32:29
Speaker 3: should listen.
32:31
Speaker 2: They should listen because it's fucking awesome.
32:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, brother.
32:38
Speaker 1: Kind of cut out at Colin.
32:41
Speaker 2: I was talking about Derek.
32:43
Speaker 3: We're talking about of Dull Bliss.
32:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, so Dull Bliss is basically like all right,
32:53
Speaker 2: so when Derek was writing his songs and I was
32:56
Speaker 2: writing mine, we kind of realized, like derek songs are
32:59
Speaker 2: more on the a lotic side, They're more you know,
33:02
Speaker 2: like they're a little bit longer and more introspective, whereas
33:05
Speaker 2: mine we're kind of like shorter and heavier. So it
33:07
Speaker 2: really is this kind of like you know, juxtaposition of
33:10
Speaker 2: two different styles. It's like our own shitty version of
33:12
Speaker 2: like Love the Love Below and speaker Box right like,
33:16
Speaker 2: but it's it's we got to work with someone that
33:19
Speaker 2: we wanted to work with forever we want. We were
33:21
Speaker 2: working with our good friend Brett Romnez who we call
33:24
Speaker 2: him Rahtt and he he plays drums in on the
33:28
Speaker 2: Avalanche and Crime in Stereo in the movie Light, but
33:30
Speaker 2: he also produces tons and tons and tons of bands.
33:33
Speaker 2: He recently produced and engineered for Anxious, he produced for
33:38
Speaker 2: Hot Mulligan and engineers from them, and just whole whole
33:41
Speaker 2: bunch of including all the bands that he plays in.
33:45
Speaker 2: So just working with him like that was another reason,
33:47
Speaker 2: like we we always like we look at that side too,
33:50
Speaker 2: is like we want to work with engineers and producers,
33:52
Speaker 2: Like yes, we want to write our own songs, but
33:54
Speaker 2: we want to kind of like work with the people
33:56
Speaker 2: behind the scenes as well. We love working with designers
33:59
Speaker 2: and people you know, to create merch for us. It's
34:02
Speaker 2: just the real collaborative spirit of that. So Dull Bliss
34:06
Speaker 2: kind of came together as like, you know, I had
34:08
Speaker 2: a song called Dull, and the rest of the band
34:13
Speaker 2: was really adamant that I included It's an acoustic song,
34:15
Speaker 2: and I was like really not sure if if I
34:18
Speaker 2: wanted it on the record. I'm like, I don't know
34:20
Speaker 2: if it really fits. It's really like Elliott Smith's sounding song,
34:23
Speaker 2: like it's it's great, but I'm just not sure if
34:25
Speaker 2: it's a sanehood song. But they were very adamant to
34:28
Speaker 2: include it on the record. And then, you know, when
34:31
Speaker 2: we're trying to come up with idea like names for
34:33
Speaker 2: the record, were like, Dull is a great name for
34:35
Speaker 2: the record. There's a lot like a lot of the
34:37
Speaker 2: lyrics kind of revolve around that and this idea. I
34:41
Speaker 2: had another song called Bliss that was like a you know,
34:45
Speaker 2: a recurring theme we that we were kind of touring with.
34:48
Speaker 2: So it's like all right, yeah, like Dull Bliss. That
34:51
Speaker 2: makes total sense, because a lot of the lyrics just
34:54
Speaker 2: kind of revolve around that idea of like either you know,
34:57
Speaker 2: you're kind of just either trying to dull yourself to
34:59
Speaker 2: get through the day or you're looking for bliss, or
35:02
Speaker 2: just somewhere in between. And it could either be like
35:06
Speaker 2: you know, one and the same, right like, it could
35:07
Speaker 2: be if you know, for people who are into drugs,
35:11
Speaker 2: like drugs are the definition of dull bliss, right like,
35:14
Speaker 2: but it's also about you know, relationships and just how
35:18
Speaker 2: relationships could fall apart or you know, the struggle to
35:21
Speaker 2: keep relationships now that can turn into sort of like
35:23
Speaker 2: a dull bliss. So it's this idea, like bliss doesn't
35:25
Speaker 2: always have to be this concept of like you know,
35:28
Speaker 2: you're just in complete elation and you're just floating about.
35:31
Speaker 2: It could just be like you're kind of just going
35:33
Speaker 2: about your day just or you know, in this sort
35:36
Speaker 2: of like malaise, but you're also like just too afraid
35:39
Speaker 2: to kind of go for it, I guess. But that's
35:41
Speaker 2: kind of like where you know, they're just like the juxtaposition,
35:45
Speaker 2: but we just the reason why I said before, why
35:47
Speaker 2: it's like the culmination. It just kind of brought everything
35:50
Speaker 2: together before where it was like on earlier releases it's like, oh,
35:54
Speaker 2: this is the Jesus Lizard song or this is the
35:56
Speaker 2: balancing a Proto song. Now it's kind of like all
35:59
Speaker 2: of our songs are like, you know, definitively us I
36:02
Speaker 2: guess in a way like where it doesn't really sound
36:04
Speaker 2: like it just sounds like a band that has really
36:07
Speaker 2: kind of found their own voice and like not really
36:10
Speaker 2: focused so much on the influences but more just like
36:14
Speaker 2: all right, this is like where we are, and this
36:16
Speaker 2: is you know, the trajectory is like kind of the
36:19
Speaker 2: same as just the path to get there may have
36:21
Speaker 2: taken a little bit longer, but yeah, it's like, yeah,
36:23
Speaker 2: really really excited about it's gonna be really really great.
36:27
Speaker 2: I love that idea of like self actualization, right, Yeah,
36:31
Speaker 2: you look at like some of like the greatest bands
36:32
Speaker 2: from history, and you know which record is their self
36:37
Speaker 2: actualized record every time. I mean, if you look at
36:39
Speaker 2: the Beatles, right that you make a lot of like
36:42
Speaker 2: not bubblegum pop, but like pop music that's definitely aimed
36:46
Speaker 2: at like teenage girls first and foremost, right, and then
36:51
Speaker 2: they come out with rubber Soul and it all of
36:54
Speaker 2: a sudden, it's self actualized and its introspective.
36:56
Speaker 3: And it's more it's more their unique voice and out
37:00
Speaker 3: of them trying to be something else or taking taking
37:03
Speaker 3: bits and pieces from some from something else. The Pink
37:06
Speaker 3: Floyd has the same trajectory. It doesn't matter what band
37:10
Speaker 3: you're talking about. Under Oath has that trajectory almost to
37:13
Speaker 3: a certain extent.
37:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think.
37:15
Speaker 3: That there's there is a lot of wonderful maturity that
37:20
Speaker 3: comes with that that is very easily expressed and understood
37:26
Speaker 3: in the music by the listener. And I think this
37:30
Speaker 3: is going to be one of those records that is
37:32
Speaker 3: going to absolutely nail that to the to the floor.
37:36
Speaker 2: I think this is a record that anybody who was
37:40
Speaker 2: into us like, It's like anybody who's into the first
37:44
Speaker 2: two records are gonna love, and people who may not
37:46
Speaker 2: have caught onto the first I think it's a great
37:49
Speaker 2: introduction into in a lot of ways, like the first
37:51
Speaker 2: two records are I don't want to say more complex,
37:54
Speaker 2: because this is very complex, but it is more of
37:57
Speaker 2: a more of a ride, I would say, like the
37:59
Speaker 2: first records is, this one is much more like focused
38:02
Speaker 2: and there's a very natural progression and kind of like
38:05
Speaker 2: home what you're saying about, like you know, to use
38:07
Speaker 2: like to use the Beatles as example, Like, yeah, like
38:10
Speaker 2: Rubber Soul comes out, but there's little nuggets that happen
38:13
Speaker 2: on help and before that where you can see like
38:16
Speaker 2: the seed kind of growing into something. And I think
38:19
Speaker 2: when people hear Dull Bliss and if they're familiar with
38:21
Speaker 2: Monoculture and like the you know and Headswell and you know,
38:25
Speaker 2: the music that we put out in the interim, I
38:28
Speaker 2: think you'll hear kind of like the inklings of where
38:31
Speaker 2: this was going. And this is kind of like the
38:34
Speaker 2: amalgamation of all that and so like something that's fully realized.
38:38
Speaker 2: So it's you know, I can tell you right now
38:40
Speaker 2: definitely like the best that we've ever felt about a record,
38:43
Speaker 2: you know, being put out. It's just it's also just
38:46
Speaker 2: really reflective of where we are in our personal lives
38:49
Speaker 2: and as musicians and kind of incorporating everything that we've
38:54
Speaker 2: learned as people. Just it's so it's just really exciting
38:58
Speaker 2: to put this out. You know. We it was never
39:01
Speaker 2: really a question of whether we're going to put out
39:03
Speaker 2: another record after Headswell, was just a matter of when.
39:08
Speaker 3: So yeah, well why why so long.
39:14
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, So after Headswell, we kind of decided like,
39:19
Speaker 2: all right, you know, let's take a break from this
39:21
Speaker 2: for a little bit. Things weren't really going as we
39:24
Speaker 2: had hope that they were going. You know, it's just
39:27
Speaker 2: the you know, trials and tribulations of being in a band.
39:30
Speaker 2: It's hard, like you know, being away from family, being
39:33
Speaker 2: away from loved ones and you know, all less. Like
39:36
Speaker 2: even for bands that are crushing it, it's really hard.
39:39
Speaker 2: So under the best of circumstances, it's tough. So if
39:41
Speaker 2: you're a band that's not really kind of kicking on
39:45
Speaker 2: like we were, like we were, you know, we had
39:47
Speaker 2: we had some good things going for us, but we
39:49
Speaker 2: all kind of agreed as we were getting older, like yeah,
39:51
Speaker 2: you know, it's not really going where we wanted to.
39:55
Speaker 2: So you know, we took a step back from it
39:57
Speaker 2: for a couple of years. You know, like I I
39:59
Speaker 2: decided like, yeah, I'm going to go to school, whereas
40:02
Speaker 2: the other Brad and Yanni decided that they're going to like,
40:05
Speaker 2: you know, pursue other projects. Derek has you know, pursued
40:08
Speaker 2: other projects as well, you know, running a business. So
40:11
Speaker 2: we just decided to like really take a step back
40:13
Speaker 2: and let life kind of you know, dictate where we
40:16
Speaker 2: want to go. And after like a year or two years,
40:19
Speaker 2: like people were asking us to do shows with them,
40:22
Speaker 2: asking us to do tours still, and like we kind
40:25
Speaker 2: of realized, like, there's still a lot of interest in
40:27
Speaker 2: this band, and we all still like each other, so
40:29
Speaker 2: why not let's just keep playing and then let's just
40:32
Speaker 2: see how we could fit it into our lives. And
40:34
Speaker 2: then you know, twenty and seventeen eighteen, we decided to
40:38
Speaker 2: just like, let's put out a couple of songs, right,
40:40
Speaker 2: just see what happens. And then that happens, and then
40:43
Speaker 2: you know, we decided to stay active and start thinking
40:47
Speaker 2: about like, all right, maybe we can like start writing
40:49
Speaker 2: a record. But you know, so COVID happens, so that
40:54
Speaker 2: like shifts everything around. But we always just kind of decided, like,
40:57
Speaker 2: all right, we understand that, you know, we're not not
41:00
Speaker 2: actively touring right now, so that's going to delay the
41:04
Speaker 2: amount of time, but it also gave us a lot
41:06
Speaker 2: of time to really kind of hone in on what
41:09
Speaker 2: we want to do and you know, how we want
41:12
Speaker 2: to present ourselves as a band. I think if we
41:14
Speaker 2: had put out a record like you know, five years
41:17
Speaker 2: ago or so, it would be a very different record
41:20
Speaker 2: than what we have right now. So yeah, obviously, like
41:24
Speaker 2: a lot of the delays, there's like logistics delays and
41:26
Speaker 2: all that stuff. But essentially, you know why we decided
41:29
Speaker 2: to give it some time to breathe is just to
41:32
Speaker 2: pursue other things, and I think it really was the
41:35
Speaker 2: best thing for us. It allowed us to really kind
41:38
Speaker 2: of like not worry about like, all right, what scene
41:41
Speaker 2: does this belong in, or like what label or what like.
41:45
Speaker 2: We just went in with, all right, we have good songs.
41:49
Speaker 2: I like this song, let's record it. I don't like
41:51
Speaker 2: that song, fuck it, I don't. Let's not use that way.
41:55
Speaker 2: It was just very very laid back, and it just
41:58
Speaker 2: made it so much more enjoyable to be in a
42:02
Speaker 2: band with with the with these guys again, you know.
42:04
Speaker 2: And I think the time apart and to do other
42:07
Speaker 2: things really help us shape the records where it is.
42:13
Speaker 1: Did even like some of the other projects that like
42:16
Speaker 1: the other guys are working on, or even maybe like
42:19
Speaker 1: your own kind of exploration with music, were there new
42:22
Speaker 1: sounds or even like new bands that you had encountered
42:25
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh, I kind of want to like
42:27
Speaker 1: see what that would be like for Saint Hood Ress.
42:29
Speaker 1: Like what was there?
42:30
Speaker 2: Yeah?
42:31
Speaker 1: Was there some sort of kind of new influence just
42:33
Speaker 1: from like a sound standpoint that you're like, oh that
42:36
Speaker 1: like that adds like that that could add or like
42:39
Speaker 1: that could that could like get us to that point
42:41
Speaker 1: of like whatever we think that the Saintthood Reps sound is,
42:44
Speaker 1: like that gets us there? Like were there new bands
42:47
Speaker 1: or new things that you're listening to that like helps
42:50
Speaker 1: bring that along because it sounds like with this new album,
42:52
Speaker 1: you guys feel like, oh that this is this is
42:54
Speaker 1: Saintthood Refs, Like this is what the Saint Hood Reps
42:56
Speaker 1: sound is.
42:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. So obviously, like you know, we played in another
43:02
Speaker 2: bands Derek, Like Derek started to do his solo project
43:06
Speaker 2: called Gristmill that was very much electronic focused. It was
43:09
Speaker 2: very electronic forward think if you know, I think like
43:12
Speaker 2: Alex g or you know, Dejeon or McGhee or some
43:16
Speaker 2: like like artists like that. So we really kind of
43:18
Speaker 2: branched out into more like indie aspects of it. But
43:21
Speaker 2: also what happened, like two things happened. One was like
43:24
Speaker 2: all right, we realized in this era of social media
43:27
Speaker 2: that engagement. It used to be like the way you
43:29
Speaker 2: stayed engaged with your audience was mainly through touring and
43:34
Speaker 2: mainly through putting out records, And that's not the case anymore.
43:37
Speaker 2: You can stay top of mind and engage with your
43:39
Speaker 2: audience through social media, through creating content. I know it
43:42
Speaker 2: sounds like buzzword galore right now, but it really is
43:45
Speaker 2: kind of how it is. So it's like wow, like
43:47
Speaker 2: there are ways to stay in touch with your audience
43:50
Speaker 2: and really hone in on with hone in you know,
43:52
Speaker 2: with your audience in ways that are that don't require
43:56
Speaker 2: you to be out on the road for two hundred
43:58
Speaker 2: days of two hundred days of a year. But also
44:01
Speaker 2: we started to notice, like you know, we were a
44:04
Speaker 2: little bit ahead of the game when it comes to
44:06
Speaker 2: like grunge and like incorporating that into emo. And as
44:11
Speaker 2: we kind of like noticed over the last few years,
44:13
Speaker 2: a lot of the bands that I started to really like,
44:16
Speaker 2: and the rest of the band too. But like you know,
44:19
Speaker 2: Super Heaven became a massive band, and they were a
44:21
Speaker 2: band that we played with all all the time. They
44:24
Speaker 2: were like contemporaries of ours, right, and now all of
44:27
Speaker 2: a sudden, their TikTok trend, and we see like a
44:30
Speaker 2: whole bunch of bands start to crop up right like
44:32
Speaker 2: it's a band called you know, Glare Nothing, just this
44:35
Speaker 2: whole like grunge gaze genre, and We're like, holy shit,
44:39
Speaker 2: like all.
44:40
Speaker 1: These bunch right now.
44:43
Speaker 2: Amazing amazing stuff. And I'm like, I wish these bands
44:47
Speaker 2: were around when like these are the bands that I
44:50
Speaker 2: wish we could have toured with. These are the bands
44:52
Speaker 2: that have all the same influences they grew up on
44:55
Speaker 2: at like or not grew up because they're young on us.
44:57
Speaker 2: But they love Alison Chains and they love of the
45:00
Speaker 2: early grunge, but they're incorporating that into emo in a
45:03
Speaker 2: way that bands just weren't doing before. And they're also
45:06
Speaker 2: adding like elements of like new metal, and they're adding
45:09
Speaker 2: like shoegaze and stuff. And I'm like, these are like,
45:12
Speaker 2: damn man, we were like ten years off with this.
45:15
Speaker 2: Like if we were just starting out now, we would
45:18
Speaker 2: be like killing it. So like in a way that
45:20
Speaker 2: was inspiring to us. We were like, we're seeing a
45:22
Speaker 2: lot of bands and now before you know it, like
45:25
Speaker 2: there's like a band called Split Chain that we just
45:27
Speaker 2: played with that are just like they're on epitaph and
45:29
Speaker 2: they're blowing up and they're like all these bands that
45:32
Speaker 2: are just really like you know, you know, like the
45:35
Speaker 2: bands that are all wearing like Jenko's now or they're
45:37
Speaker 2: wearing like airwalks again, like they're really bringing back the
45:40
Speaker 2: Y two K aesthetic. And I'm like, damn like this.
45:43
Speaker 2: So it's hearing like how much that's kind of blown
45:46
Speaker 2: up kind of really made us like, yeah, this is
45:48
Speaker 2: like a really great time to be back in back
45:52
Speaker 2: in the scene, you know, making music. And the other
45:55
Speaker 2: part is that, you know, we're all from Long Island
45:57
Speaker 2: and I mentioned before like growing up what the scene
46:00
Speaker 2: was like the last few years the scene, and we're
46:03
Speaker 2: all still much I know, I like we all live
46:06
Speaker 2: you know, adjacent's Long Island. This has been like the
46:09
Speaker 2: best time for Long Island. Like this, the Long Island
46:13
Speaker 2: scene right now is stronger than it's ever been. I
46:17
Speaker 2: think we all kind of saw them and we're like
46:19
Speaker 2: just there was just so much inspiration happening around us.
46:22
Speaker 2: We're like, yeah, like let's we want to let's make
46:25
Speaker 2: more music, Like I want to make music. I want
46:27
Speaker 2: to play with you know, stand Still or Paint of Truth,
46:30
Speaker 2: like I want to play like you know, our our
46:32
Speaker 2: buddies and like Inner Love, like Movie Life is still
46:34
Speaker 2: doing it, like Bayside still doing it. So it's like,
46:37
Speaker 2: let's just yeah, like it's just so much inspiration going
46:40
Speaker 2: around and just taking what they're doing and incorporating that
46:43
Speaker 2: into what we're doing. It's just super exciting right now.
46:47
Speaker 3: It's it's crazy to hear that, Mason, I don't I'm
46:50
Speaker 3: failing to remember what group did we just talk to
46:54
Speaker 3: from Long Island? That's yeah, Johnny said the exact same
47:00
Speaker 3: thing as you. He's like the culture here right now
47:04
Speaker 3: is just insane and there's so much support behind it,
47:08
Speaker 3: so I believe you one hundred percent.
47:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's it's a wave, right like and you
47:15
Speaker 2: have to kind of ride that wave like because it
47:17
Speaker 2: doesn't happen very often. There's a lull for like over
47:20
Speaker 2: ten years where yeah, there's always bands, there's always stuff
47:22
Speaker 2: going on, but like the two biggest bands from Long
47:25
Speaker 2: Island we're in Sendiuri and Backtrack and or at least
47:29
Speaker 2: like in hardcore, and now it's like all right, there's
47:33
Speaker 2: like huge hardcore bands from from Long Island, but now
47:36
Speaker 2: there's Johnny Booth is another example. Like, you know, there's
47:39
Speaker 2: also Iron Chic is still doing it. There's you know,
47:41
Speaker 2: Inner Love that's like really like in the indie side
47:45
Speaker 2: of things too. So there's just and now they're all
47:48
Speaker 2: playing together too. So it really is hearkening back to
47:51
Speaker 2: like what the nineties were like on Long islandhere, just
47:54
Speaker 2: all these different bands are Like Koyo is another example
47:57
Speaker 2: of a band that's like, you know, kind of shrivling
47:59
Speaker 2: between hardcore but elements of pop punk. And you know,
48:04
Speaker 2: so there's just everyone's just kind of doing so many
48:06
Speaker 2: different things. That's just such an exciting time to be
48:09
Speaker 2: a part of it. And you know that's why we're like, yeah,
48:11
Speaker 2: you know we we got to be a part of this, man.
48:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that.
48:16
Speaker 2: I love that.
48:17
Speaker 3: All right, well, are you ready for your top five
48:19
Speaker 3: most influential records?
48:22
Speaker 2: I am let's do it. So all right, this is
48:26
Speaker 2: not in any order, but I am going to put
48:29
Speaker 2: number one is I'm going to put pet Sounds from
48:33
Speaker 2: Boys and honor of Brian Wilson. That yeah, number two,
48:38
Speaker 2: and I'll do a quick number two. Number two is
48:41
Speaker 2: Smile from the Beach Boys, the unreleased record that never
48:43
Speaker 2: came out. No. Nothing changed my life more than hearing Smile.
48:48
Speaker 2: I used to work at a record store, and then
48:50
Speaker 2: the record store closed down. They let us take home
48:52
Speaker 2: all these different records, like just take whatever you want.
48:55
Speaker 2: So I brought home a Beach Boys box set and
48:58
Speaker 2: I'm like, cool, I listened to all the this is
49:00
Speaker 2: like two thousand and five whatever, listen to all these songs,
49:03
Speaker 2: and I leave. I was on a CD. I leave
49:05
Speaker 2: the CD running and I walk away and come back
49:07
Speaker 2: and I just hear what sounds like like a freak
49:09
Speaker 2: show carnival, and I'm like, what is this And it's
49:13
Speaker 2: They're like demos and stuff that were from the Smile sessions,
49:17
Speaker 2: like this is insane. I feel like I'm on an
49:19
Speaker 2: acid trip like this. And I started digging deep into
49:22
Speaker 2: the history of the Beach Boys, and I just became
49:24
Speaker 2: fell so in love with Brian Wilson that you know,
49:27
Speaker 2: I decided, I'm like, I'm buying a piano, I'm getting
49:29
Speaker 2: into harmonies. I'm just being intricate with music as much
49:33
Speaker 2: as possible. The way he commanded a studio, I'm like,
49:35
Speaker 2: this is, you know, just completely reshaped how I thought
49:39
Speaker 2: about music. So that's one and two. Number three I'm
49:42
Speaker 2: gonna say Loveless from from my bloody Valentine. I was.
49:47
Speaker 2: I was a I loved three eleven as as a kid,
49:50
Speaker 2: like in high school. Three eleven was my favorite band,
49:53
Speaker 2: and I was stay positive and love your life. I
49:56
Speaker 2: was just a total I was down, I was all
49:58
Speaker 2: mixed up. I was all the Free leven stuff, right.
50:02
Speaker 2: They were my favorite band. And then I put on
50:05
Speaker 2: Loveless and everything changed. I was like, wait, you can
50:08
Speaker 2: make the first chord of only Shallow. I'm like, I
50:13
Speaker 2: want to make my guitar sound like this. I'm not
50:16
Speaker 2: a great guitarist. I'm never gonna be a great guitarist.
50:18
Speaker 2: I'm never gonna be Randy Rhodes. I'm never gonna be
50:22
Speaker 2: Eddie Van Allen. But I can make my guitar sound
50:25
Speaker 2: like that. And little did I know that he you know,
50:29
Speaker 2: Kevin Shields is a genius and it's not as simple
50:32
Speaker 2: as doing that. But I was like, all right, that
50:34
Speaker 2: changes everything.
50:36
Speaker 1: Well, Francesco, thank you so much for Chatty Moore about Saintthood.
50:39
Speaker 1: Rep sound just really super stoked about the new album.
50:42
Speaker 1: I know it's been quite a few years. It's been
50:44
Speaker 1: over a decade since the last album so we're just
50:47
Speaker 1: really really stoked that there's new music in the Saint
50:49
Speaker 1: the Saint Hood reps world, and so we're just really excited.
50:52
Speaker 1: Very well could end up being like an Album of
50:54
Speaker 1: the Year contender in our End of the yearless so
50:57
Speaker 1: we're just really stoked.
51:00
Speaker 2: I FOD like go the