Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Adam Harrell: Chasing Victory | Furnace Fest 2023 Series

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Adam Harrell: Chasing Victory | Furnace Fest 2023 Series · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:21
It would day jam on. Today we have Adam from Chasing Victory. We're
0:32
really excited for this conversation, Adam. Chasing Victory is a band that I
0:36
listened to back in the day when I was in middle school jamming out to
0:39
you guys. I remember all those bands on mono versus stereo, so so
0:43
good. But yeah, how are you doing today, Adam? We're really
0:46
excited chat Oh man, I'm doing great. Excited to chat with you guys
0:51
as well. Is that a Is that a Braves hat you got on there?
0:54
Or is that Alabama Crimson Tide? Oh no, this is Braves.
0:58
That is bravest. Good season they're having this year, aren't they? Yeah,
1:02
hot Atlanta, They're hot as fire. Yeah right. I try to
1:04
tell every Brave Braves fan this. But my cousin is actually one of the
1:08
strength and conditioning coaches for the Braves, and he was like on the team
1:11
a couple of years ago when they won the World Series. So like,
1:14
I get nice to get to you know. I saw him like on TV
1:15
and everything a couple of years ago. It was pretty cool. That's great.
1:19
We Jason who's in Chason Victory. He lives in Atlanta too, and
1:23
we have a mutual friend who used to be the mascot the where's the big
1:27
baseball head? He gets? Uh, he's not anymore, but he was
1:34
several years ago. So but he still gets pretty good seats. Every once
1:37
in a while, call and get his great season. We got some great
1:40
seats for the playoffs last year. Nice. Wasn't a friend that was in
1:45
a band, was it? No? I don't think he. Uh,
1:51
well, Jason was. But the friend that was the mascot? No,
1:56
what was his name? What was it? Bat? I can't remember the
1:59
ball of guys. Do you guys remember his name in the mascot? I
2:02
couldn't. I couldn't tell you. I don't remember scott name is. Well,
2:06
let's let's chat about chasing victory. Obviously, you guys announced that you're
2:10
gonna be up fern as fast. Well, we'll talk about that later,
2:13
but we want to start at the very beginning of chasing victory. And so
2:17
let's go back to those good old days. Uh, you know, it's
2:21
been over twenty years that you guys have or you know, twenty years ago
2:25
that you guys started as a band, which might be hard for you to
2:30
believe that it was that long ago now, but yeah, it was over
2:31
twenty years ago. I think it was like two thousand and one when you
2:34
guys first started and then took a few years before you guys released kind of
2:38
your first official album. But yeah, talk about those beginning years of Chasing
2:42
Victory and and how you guys came together. Yeah, man, I mean,
2:46
so there's six of us in the band now, and but the six
2:51
of us were never in the band together until after we broke up. But
2:55
four of us that are in the band now me Michael, and Jeremy and
2:59
Jay, Jeremy and Jason being brothers. We're all from the same town in
3:04
South Georgia and small town. Everybody pretty much knew each other. I knew
3:10
of them. I didn't go to the same schools in but I knew of
3:13
them, and we had some mutual friends. And they had started a band
3:17
and it was called Bailey I think it was called Bailey Drive when I joined,
3:21
but it's called Bailey Drive. That was just the street we were practicing
3:24
on. Yeah, we just set up in Jeremy and Jason's house and called
3:30
Bailey Drive. We were doing like po D covers, Project eighty six covers.
3:37
I think we did a lot of death tone stuff. This would have
3:39
been two thousand and one, and you know, we were I think we
3:45
were a freshmen in high school something like that, sophomores in high school.
3:49
And I knew I knew Michael, Michael's guitar player, and he invited me
3:55
to come out and sing with the band. I don't know why they invited
4:00
me to sing. I think they knew I played guitar or something like that,
4:02
but I had never sang, never been in a band before, nothing
4:05
like that. But they just knew that maybe I was musical. In small
4:09
town, there's not many musical people anyways, Long story short, We started
4:14
jamming through the years and played just goofing around through high school, playing shows
4:18
here and there. We did this little we cut this little record called Changing
4:25
Lanes. I think it was a pun off of Bailey Drive or something.
4:31
But you know, it sounds like what you would think a typical album would
4:35
sound like coming from a bunch of fifteen year olds. But it was cool,
4:40
like we did it ourselves. We did it with a friend, you
4:43
know, from our hometown in the in the back of a church. So
4:46
yeah, we just kind of became like a youth group band for a little
4:48
while. We did. We played a lot of church shows, like youth
4:51
group stuff, and mostly covers when we were writing a little bit here and
4:56
there. And we started doing these little mini tours around my senior year of
5:01
high school. And those little mini tours were, like you know, spring
5:05
break. Instead of going out to the beach with friends or whatever, we
5:09
would go on a five day tour and we were just trying to test the
5:15
waters to see if anybody was really interested in what we were doing and the
5:18
music we were putting out. We had a small following and in like Columbus,
5:24
Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida and some of those places. And I'd say
5:29
small, I'm talking like we could play a show in twenty five people would
5:31
show up. So that's pretty good man, you know. Yeah, I
5:35
mean we were having fun with it at at seventeen, eighteen years old.
5:40
And at any point, if I'm like rambling on too much, this is
5:44
great, Okay, getting too much into the weeds. I don't know,
5:47
you know, how long together just let me know. But no, I
5:50
mean all the stuff that you we wouldn't be able to find on Wikipedia is
5:54
great. So Okay, I have no idea somebody will listen to this episode
5:59
and be like, oh wait, no, that needs to go on Wikipedia.
6:00
Now that would be great. Oh god, I hope not. My
6:04
memory is a little fuzzy, so I haven't No one. Feel free to
6:08
embellish, is what we're saying. Okay, it wasn't twenty five people.
6:13
It is like a hundred people that were showing up to your shows right when
6:15
you were. I mean, there's pictures and videos, so I can't lie
6:19
about it. But I mean, you know, we were kind of just
6:27
like dipping our toe into the scene. And you know, I'm sure you
6:31
guys have had plenty of bands on. I don't know you guys background very
6:35
much, but you might know what the scene was like during that time.
6:39
It was pretty cool. It was like kind of this, you know,
6:42
you would show up at a church in Dunwoodie and Norma, Jean and Hims
6:47
would be playing or something like that, you know, and it was like
6:50
it was just kind of a weird time. I don't know if that's still
6:54
going on, but I don't think it was going on before. You know,
6:56
we had kind of gotten into the scene, so it was kind of
6:58
a new thing we were trying to join that where we were towing the line
7:01
of playing like, you know, youth groups and stuff like that, but
7:04
we also wanted to play those shows. And I remember maybe my sophomore junior
7:12
year of high school going to see deftoms and concert and uh, I think
7:16
Gainesville, Florida, and I just remember it being like an overwhelming experience for
7:23
me, and I was like, I want to freaking do that for you
7:26
know, I want to do that. I don't know what capacity, but
7:28
I want to I want to feel that big on stage. And it was
7:31
just like kind of a turning point for me. And that's when we started
7:34
kind of taking things seriously I think, and like writing more and stuff like
7:38
that. So just kind of long story short. My senior year of high
7:43
school, we become friends with some some like managers in the business and some
7:49
some other bands. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the band
7:53
called Forever Changed, Yeah, yeah, I'm what they were on Floodgate Records,
7:58
right, pretty sure? Yeah, yep. I mean they were exeptional
8:03
musicians, like still to this day. Like for us to be that young
8:07
playing with the band that that that was that exceptional, like just their musicianship
8:11
was off the charts. But anyways, they were a really big help for
8:16
us. Uh do you guys know like with Blood comes Cleansing, Yeah,
8:22
next Friday. Yeah, okay, Well, so they've been through a couple
8:26
of members and singers and stuff. Dean Atkinson is from our town also,
8:31
so the singer from from from one of their albums there, he was in
8:37
bands at the time, and they were kind of helping us along because we
8:41
were all very young in the band and they were older than us, so
8:43
they were kind of like mentors for us. So we we are managers,
8:48
like, hey, guys, let's put out a press baget your seniors in
8:50
high school. All of us were singiors except from one was a junior,
8:54
and he's like, let's put out this press baget. Send it out to
8:56
a bunch of record labels. Uh, see if anyone's interested in what you
8:58
guys are doing. And we got a little bit of feedback here and there.
9:05
I think we got a little bit of feedback from Chad at at Solid
9:09
State at the time, I can't remember if it was for Tooth and now
9:11
our Solid State. And then we had talked with Brad from Montoversehysteria, and
9:18
he was kind of telling us like, hey, I'm doing this thing called
9:20
Montoverse Systerio. It was very new then. He only signed one band,
9:24
which is a band called the Evan Anthem and was talking to the showdown at
9:28
the time, but he was like, I'd love to have a bunch of
9:31
young guys like you, Like we could really build you into really whatever you
9:35
guys want to do, you know, like we could we have some freedom
9:37
here at Montoversea Shysterio. Plus we're back by a bigger record label, but
9:41
we can you know, kind of develop your your artistry or whatever. And
9:46
so he really put a lot into us. We did a developmental deal with
9:50
them, and we wrote some of the worst songs oh my gosh, like
9:56
like and we were so you know, I don't know how it is for
10:01
a lot of people with writing music, but for us, like whenever somebody
10:03
was like, you guys need to go write some music, that's when we
10:07
wrote the worst stuff ever. But when it just kind of came out naturally,
10:11
and you know, like when we were on tour or whatever and we
10:13
would just write stuff like that felt better and that ended up being the songs
10:18
we used, But I just remember we did this developmental deal seniors in high
10:22
school, trying to like apply for college and all this kind of stuff,
10:26
and then trying to write all these songs. I mean, we must have
10:30
wrote forty fifty songs, you know, over the course of a few months,
10:33
and then we went and recorded them. And I keep I have like
10:37
an audiophile about all the music that we've ever recorded. Stuff I write today,
10:43
stuff I was writing like when I was a kid. That is the
10:46
only stuff I have tried to delete and I don't want to find it,
10:48
like it's the worst. And I think the Chase of Vigor guys would all
10:54
agree with me and saying that none of it's ended up like on Spotify or
10:58
YouTube, right, I hope not. I mean I think maybe like one
11:05
or two songs from those forty or fifty we did that year ended up becoming
11:09
something later. But I think probably at that time Brad was we thought,
11:13
he was like, what have I done? These kids have no clue?
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You know. Maybe he heard one or two songs from us and was like
11:20
this is you know, this could be something, and then he heard everything
11:22
else we did and was like, you know, but anyways, he stuck
11:26
by us. He really believed in us. He pushed us and he kicked
11:30
our butts, and then he uh we did. We started putting together four
11:37
or five songs that were starting to sound more like our own sound, and
11:45
that ended up becoming our EP that we released on Mono versus Stereo called a
11:50
not So Tragic cover Up. Still, I mean, these were songs we
11:54
wrote when we were still seventeen eighteen years old, So now, you know,
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did you have that perception of yourself as maybe not like the best songwriters
12:03
like when you needed to be. Did you have that perception of yourself because
12:07
of the scene that you were in, because I mean there are some exceptional
12:09
songwriters in that scene. Or do you think that it really was just bad
12:16
songwriting. I think it was just figuring out. I mean we're so young.
12:20
I think we were just trying to figure out what we wanted to do.
12:22
We were all bringing, you know, those five of us, plus
12:26
we had a manager that helped with some of the songwriting and had these now
12:30
had a record label and producers and all these different people contributing, and we're
12:35
just I mean, we're kids, like we're just like, dude, I
12:37
just want to do a couple of riffs here and there, like we're still
12:39
we're still figuring how to play guitar, like we're not, you know.
12:43
So I think it was just the pressure of it all. And there are
12:46
some other instances like down the Road where this theme of when the pressure was
12:52
on, we couldn't that was the worst time for songwriting, which is interesting
12:56
because like some artists and the pressure is on, that's when they write their
13:01
best stuff and right, and then there's some people right like you were talking
13:05
about with yourself, when there's less pressure, when it's just coming out organically,
13:09
that's when you write your best stuff. And it's really interesting how like
13:11
different people operate differently when it comes to that kind of thing. It almost
13:15
feels like like, you know, like a comedian if you're like like tell
13:18
a comedian, hey be funny, Like yeah, it's like tell a joke.
13:24
I think it's like you trying to do a formula in your head maybe,
13:28
And I think for you know, for music to really be like interesting,
13:35
you have to kind of abandon the formula and you have to like say,
13:39
you know what, I'm just gonna see what comes in organically naturally whatever.
13:41
At least that was the case for us, Like when when we just
13:46
kind of were like in the mood, in the groove. I kind of
13:50
have a phrase with my wife, like it doesn't happen as much anymore,
13:54
but when I was in the thing of songwriting, she would know like,
14:00
like he's there for a few weeks, and that's what he's gonna do.
14:03
He's gonna go in the rooms. He's gonna go in the back room when
14:05
he gets home from work, he's gonna record for two or three hours.
14:09
Like it was just like the wheels were turning, and then when it was
14:13
over, it was like it was over. And yeah, I wouldn't experience
14:16
that again for like a month or two. So that's it comes in waves
14:20
for me. Would you feel exhausted when you were done with that like little
14:24
creative journey for the time? And I try to whenever I have those waves,
14:31
even today, like I try to just get everything out that I can
14:35
and then you know, probably twenty percent of it is worth keeping and the
14:39
rest is junk. But it's just like almost a process just having to get
14:43
it out, like fleshing out. Something else I wanted to ask, was
14:48
we've talked to a lot of bands, especially from the South, and heavy
14:54
music in the South in the late nineties early two thousands was just on absolutely
15:00
nuts, especially when we're talking about Christian influenced music, and every single one
15:07
of the bands we've talked to said that they felt like they were on an
15:09
island, that they were marooned, or that they were like isolated from the
15:13
scene, and they felt like they were the only ones that were doing what
15:16
they were doing. But you kind of alluded to this idea that maybe that
15:20
isn't the case. It maybe maybe it's just different based off of where you
15:24
were at in Georgia. There. It is kind of an interesting thing.
15:28
So would you say that you felt isolated, or would you say that you
15:31
felt like there was like this nice burgeoning scene, or maybe maybe you were
15:35
just just a little bit further along the timeline where that scene was becoming a
15:41
little more interconnected. I mean, honestly, I think it's kind of complex.
15:46
Like I think that one we were babies, like we were, we
15:50
were a young kid. I mean, compared to the other bands were playing,
15:54
not saying that they were old guys or nothing, but the most of
15:56
them had like we're either in college, out of college or even like you
16:00
know, in their late twenties early thirties, and we were like Jason was
16:06
touring with us. He dropped out of high school to come tour with us,
16:08
and so, you know, we were still young, and so we
16:11
just felt like babies in a scene that was already kind of in the middle
16:15
of turning into something cool, and we just were happy to be a part
16:19
of it, you know, happy to get to play these cool shows where
16:22
we got you know, we were we all came from like a youth group
16:26
scene, and but we wanted to play the venues, in the bars and
16:30
the other places that were allowing these type of shows to go on. So
16:34
we were happy to see like it kind of presenting itself as you know,
16:38
where we could tow that line and do it because we were kids at the
16:41
same time. So there were some bars and venues that you know, weren't
16:45
letting us in period. And then there were churches that kicked us out because
16:48
we did a bon Jovi cover or something crazy, you know, like you
16:52
know, is this you can't do the bond Jovi cover, but you can
16:59
do that one Lifehouse song. Oh yeah, we should have think that we
17:04
did this like uh, like punk hardcore version of Bad Medicine, and it
17:11
was just a goof you know, we just we were goofing on tour and
17:15
wanted to do something different, but we literally got kicked out of a church.
17:21
You should have just done you two instead, a punk version of where
17:26
the Streets have No Name or something or Creed or something create. Yeah,
17:30
exactly exactly, Adam. At what point in these early years did you get
17:37
a sense like, oh, vocally, I'm pretty good at this, Because
17:41
there are a lot of heavy bands, even in the Christian music scene that
17:45
you all are in, where it's like there's one guy doing like the screaming,
17:49
there's one guy doing the klean vocals, but rarely is one person doing
17:53
both. And not only that, but like your screams in particular, like
17:57
you you have some of the low stuff that you're doing and you get like
18:00
some of the higher screams. You're kind of doing it all over with the
18:03
screaming and then obviously you're also singing as well. Like, at what point
18:08
in tho, like the nineteen or eighteen year old Adam, did you realize
18:14
like, oh, like I'm pretty good at this and like a lot of
18:17
other people that were playing with are not nearly as good as me, because
18:21
like there probably are a lot of bands that you're playing with. It you're
18:22
like, I'm better than you. Man. Yeah, I mean, I
18:27
thank you very much for that compliment. But I promise you that has never
18:30
even crossed my mind. I mean, I'm probably my worst critic. Honestly.
18:37
I think that I was willing to just try different things. I never
18:42
felt like I really I never really felt like I nailed down exactly what I
18:48
wanted to do. But I did want to try different things, and the
18:52
guys were always encouraging me to, you know, like the we started out
18:56
being a pretty heavy band, and I did a lot of screaming, and
19:00
as I was kind of learning how to sing a little bit, I wanted
19:03
to do more of that because it was I mean, it's cool to like,
19:08
like, you know, when you're in the middle of a show and
19:11
you're out in California and you're from Georgia and you throw the mic out into
19:15
the crowd and people are screaming something back at you that you wrote. You
19:18
know, that's a cool feeling. But when the guitars go down, music
19:23
goes down, and you hear somebody singing a melody that you wrote. That's
19:26
a cool feeling, like it's a it's special to me. It's very very
19:30
special because I never fancied myself a good singer or a good melody writer or
19:37
anything like that, just kind of drawing influences from other stuff I was listening
19:41
to at the time and stuff I grew up listening to and trying to create
19:48
some kind of, you know, something that was my own out of all
19:52
of that. And but you feel like you finally got to that, or
19:56
like to at least to a certain degree. Did you fee feel like you
20:00
got to when you saw death Tones that first time and you were like,
20:03
wait, that's what I want to do. Like when you had those moments
20:06
where people are actually singing some of your songs, You're like, wait,
20:08
this is sort of like what that is? Yeah, I mean it definitely
20:11
had those moments. You know, I told you we we we started out
20:18
covering Project eighty six and then got to do a huge tour opening up for
20:23
them, and you know, that was pretty surreal for us because it was
20:27
like, I mean, I literally think we did a Project eighty six song
20:32
at a Battle of the Band's when we were in high school, like we
20:34
wanted to win a contest, contest emulating them singing them. You know,
20:41
do you remember what was that that you that you tried. I don't remember
20:48
the name of it, but I remember it being from a movie soundtrack.
20:52
I think it was the Witch movie. What was the Witch movie? That
20:56
was supposed to be like a real it was supposed to be a real movie,
20:59
Blair Blair with Project. It was from the sequel to that movie.
21:03
So I don't remember what song that was, but we were all like dope
21:07
on that song when we were growing up, you know, And is it
21:10
and is it? Uh? Is it called p S? I think i'd
21:15
say it actually nice. We're gonna be We're gonna be talking to them here
21:18
soon, and so we'll make sure to to say that the Chasing Victory guys
21:22
tried out a project. Boy, is it this one? It's a longer
21:30
song? Oh yeah, is this it? This is one? This is
21:36
such a good song. It's kind of hard to believe this band was like
21:42
headlining, uh, and like opening bands were like Lincoln Park and kod Yeah.
21:49
It still blows my mind anyway. Cool, I mean, dude,
21:55
that was such a surreal moment when when I met Andrewed the singer for the
21:59
first time, trying not to be a nerd, Like, you know,
22:06
I had been covering his song's just like two or three years prior to that,
22:08
and then I'm beating this to It'm gonna be opening for him, and
22:12
yeah, it's just mind blowing. So yeah, I mean I think the
22:17
original what was the original question you asked me? I'm sorry I got so
22:19
far. The original question was just like how like your your sort of sense
22:26
of like, hey, I'm pretty good at this. Like I'm like,
22:30
I'm not a bad singer, and I can do a lot of different things.
22:34
And especially in the scene that you were in, a lot of those
22:37
like tasks between like clean singing and screaming was divided between like two or three
22:42
different guys, and you're doing it all about yourself. You're the good cop
22:47
and the bad cop all the same time. Well again, I mean the
22:52
confidence was never there until we were alive in the studio. I struggled.
22:57
I mean I couldn't the guys will tell you, like I couldn't even have
23:02
them in the other room because like, oh, you know, when they
23:04
patch you, the room noise back into your headphones and you hear the guys
23:08
laughing, you hear him laughing. You're like, what do you guys?
23:12
Yeah, you think they're laughing at you. They're just in there gorooping off.
23:15
But like my self esteem was just like, you know, shrinking,
23:18
and but honestly, like we went into the studio for I call His Abandonment
23:25
with Nathan Danzler and we recorded it in his house. He had a great
23:30
studio in his house. That guy. I mean, we owe so much
23:34
to him in terms of our development, like just from going from our EP
23:40
to to our full length record and then he ended up doing Fiends as well.
23:44
You asked about like vocal development, I owe most of it to him,
23:48
Like he whipped me into shape Abandonment. He was very frustrated with me
23:52
because I wasn't singing good. You know, I was struggling and I was
23:59
trying to sing outside of my range. There wasn't a lot of There wasn't
24:04
a lot of what is the word I'm looking for? It was just high.
24:08
I was singing high all the time. And most of that, I've
24:11
realized over time came from we wrote all of our songs live. Yeah,
24:15
and I'm just trying to compete with the guitar ramps and the drums, and
24:18
so I'm just singing with everything I've got and then I get into the studio
24:22
and I try to do that, and it's it's really tough. It sounds
24:26
rough. So that's a really interesting thing because that's such an awkward moment because
24:30
you've you've you've practiced it one way, you've done it one way, and
24:34
that live setting is way different than the studio it feels. So it feels
24:38
like you're under the microscope in the studio, right, and it feels like
24:41
you'll never get it right, because that's right. You can't replicate that same
24:45
thing unless you're doing it all live tracked or whatever. But that never happens
24:49
anymore. Under a microscope is a perfect way to say it, because every
24:55
little, every little fault in your voice is amplified and so now, oh,
25:00
you can't hide it under the distortion of the live guitars. It's out
25:03
front. And so he really worked on me a lot with abandonment, and
25:08
then it's kind of funny like he, uh, can I cuss on this
25:14
podcast? Okay, I'm almost offended that you haven't yet. Well, I
25:19
try to clean up a little bit, you know. But he I walked
25:23
into the studio for Fiends and we actually recorded themes in a in a studio
25:27
in Franklin, Tennessee. And I walk in the first night and like hugging
25:33
in, Hey, how you being Nathan And and we actually had to go
25:37
that night and like set the studio up with his equipment because we're moving all
25:41
his equipment into the studio for the for the sessions. And he's like,
25:44
I'm doing good. He's like, I hope you're singing and not doing that
25:48
screaming shit on this record. And so I was like, well, there's
25:53
there's definitely a lot more singing on this. And I was like, you
25:56
know, gonna help me. And and on that record, we spent a
26:00
lot of time doing the vocals for Thieves, and he really really helped me
26:04
develop a lot just try to like come up with my own techniques and and
26:11
you know, having one record under my belt with him knowing his style,
26:15
knowing how he likes to do things. He was just a great producer to
26:18
work with, Like the coolest guy, super nice, like had us over
26:22
to his house and stuff all the time, and would spend you know,
26:26
twelve fourteen, fifteen hours in the studio every day, no days off.
26:32
Like just a great hard working dude. He's now he's done some amazingly huge
26:37
stuff, multiple Grammy winner. Just a cool, cool guy. That's awesome.
26:44
Would you say that he kind of like just basically taught you how to
26:47
sing within yourself. I think so. I think I had a vocal coach
26:52
for a little while, like when I was like a senior junior in high
26:57
school, and she kind of showed me the basics of like, you know,
27:02
the technique of singing, how to not blow your vocal chords out,
27:06
stuff like that, and and then like how to posture your mouth and stuff
27:11
like that for certain sounds, which you know kind of goes out the window
27:15
when you're doing like hardcore, you know, but you can't help in the
27:19
studios. And and then Nathan was really the one that just took it to
27:25
the next level. Like he's like, none of that, You're not doing
27:29
that crap anymore. We're gonna have a dynamic. That was the word I
27:30
was looking for earlier. And you're gonna sing with more dynamic and instead of
27:34
just up in the rafters the whole thing, like we're gonna work on melody
27:38
and all this kind of stuff. So he was he was crucial just to
27:41
the singing, the drumming, the guitars, the development of the song.
27:45
It's just really almost like another member of the band. I mean, wow,
27:51
that's pretty cool. That's that's got to be something that I'm sure you're
27:55
very, very thankful to have as a young artist at the time. I
28:00
mean, it was. It was priceless and I think, you know,
28:03
for what he was. Maybe I'm not supposed to say this, but he
28:07
did it. He probably did it for a lot less than he was used
28:10
to doing stuff more because we were you know, we weren't anybody special.
28:14
So uh, it was. It was one of the coolest experiences ever.
28:19
Sure, I dig it. So you guys released the two albums. Uh,
28:25
and then things happen and your break up basically or at least like go
28:30
on a hiatus, and you want to talk a little bit about it,
28:33
kind of that part of the story of Chasing Victory. Yeah, So we'd
28:40
gone through a couple of member changes, not too many. We hit we
28:45
had our manager kind of toured with us a little bit as our bass player,
28:48
and and he told us you know, it was gonna be temporary until
28:52
we could find somebody, but he ended up staying out with us for a
28:55
while and then ended up helping us write some Jason continue to help us write
29:00
some for I call this abandonment. And even though he decided to leave the
29:04
band and go back give us, you know, give us a diploma,
29:07
ged and everything, and then and then he started college. So then we
29:12
recruited our buddy Chris Cargil from a band called Ascension an Escape. They were
29:18
a band from Columbus, Georgia that we played with all the time. So
29:23
they broke up and became three bands, I guess, so he joined us,
29:29
some of them became with Blood Comes Cleansing, and then some of them
29:33
went into another band that I can't think of their name right now. They
29:37
were really good too, I hate I can't think of their name. They
29:40
were like a three piece southern rock band. But but yeah, so that
29:45
ended up. Chris came and played with us, and then who else left
29:51
after that? So that was when Matt our manager left, and then when
29:57
Jason left, that's when we the singer from with Blood Columbs closing again.
30:03
Michael had a friend that he knew from his hometown named Chris Crutchfield, introduced
30:10
us, said he played bass. The dude shows up to our practice plugs
30:15
is bass in and we're back in the back room just talking and we hear
30:18
him playing bass with the drummer from Forever Change. I have no idea why
30:23
all these people were in the same place at the same time. I can't
30:26
remember, but that's what my memory. The guys might call me out and
30:29
be like, you were way off bass, dude, but I think I
30:32
remember that correctly because the drummer from Forever Change was phenomenal drummer. And then
30:37
we hear Chris Crutchfield and they're playing bass with him, and we're like he's
30:41
so eff and good, like, oh my gosh, he's so much better
30:45
than all of us, Like should we ask him to play guitar for us?
30:48
And one of you guys moved to bass because he's you know, he's
30:52
so much better, and we're like, either way, he's joining the band.
30:56
So after like ten minutes some deliberating, we walked out and we're like,
31:00
dude, if you want it, you got it. I don't think
31:03
we even let anybody else try out, but maybe we did but I don't
31:07
believe so so so anyways, that was kind of the way everybody became into
31:12
the band. And then at the end, the five of us were on
31:17
tour with I can't remember which tour we were on when Michael, our guitar
31:22
player's dad passed away. And it was a very sudden thing. What he
31:27
wasn't sick or anything. He went in for like a routine surgery and just
31:32
had a freak incident and he passed away suddenly. Michael immediately flew home.
31:37
We were at Ikthus Festival when that happened, and so we ended up playing
31:42
Igthus the next day as a four piece, just me, Chris, Crutch
31:47
and Jeremy, and then we made our way back home. Took some time
31:52
off after that, and then I think around the same time, Jeremy's dad
31:57
came down with cancer, and so I think just the feeling of like wanting
32:01
to get back home and be with our families. We had been touring pretty
32:07
pretty solidly for like three years at that point. Having not to be a
32:10
bomber, I know, such a bomber to our story, but that was
32:14
kind of what brought us back home. I had recently gotten married and so
32:19
once we spen, we didn't really decide we were going to break up.
32:22
I don't think. I think we just said we need to go home,
32:24
we need to spend some time at home. And we were on tour with
32:29
Showbread and Showdown at the time, and we picked the worst possible place on
32:37
the tour to break up, which was completely out with and uh yeah,
32:44
and I just remember, it's kind of a hilarious story. So I gotta
32:47
tell a short story within this story, of course, to dig us out
32:52
of this huge bummer I've put us in. So do you guys know a
32:59
band called Sons of God? I don't think so, I don't think so.
33:04
Okay, I heard him on a pot this guy I'm gonna tell you
33:07
about on a podcast recently. I couldn't remember if it was your podcast.
33:10
But anyways, our friend of ours name Aaron. He was in his band
33:14
called Sons of God, and before that he was selling merch for us and
33:20
just hanging out with us on tour. He did like guitar tech for us
33:22
and just became a really good friend of ours. Well, he was a
33:27
huge fan of ours, and that's really why he wanted to tour with us.
33:30
He kind of bounced around to a few other bands and hadn't really found
33:35
his place yet. We really loved just being on tour with us. Great
33:38
musician, great singer. So we're on this tour with Chauvren and showdown and
33:45
we get out to like New Mexico or something like that, and he wasn't
33:49
on tour with us at this point. But Michael's like, we're out on
33:52
tour. Michael saysters, hey, guys, you know I've been talking to
33:54
my family with Dad gone. You know, I think I'm gonna go back
33:58
calm. I think I'm to call it quits and chasing victory. You know,
34:01
I love you guys, but I just need to do you know,
34:04
I need to get home and just be my family. And we were all
34:07
like, absolutely, we understand, like you know, we're we completely understand.
34:12
You're the rock of this vand we love you when you're gonna miss you
34:14
and all, but we want you to be happy. So we started thinking
34:20
like, well, what is our succession playing here? How we're gonna keep
34:22
going? And we immediately Aaron came to all of our minds. What about
34:25
Aaron. He's a great guitar player, he could sing the parts of Michael
34:29
sings and all this kind of stuff. He knows our songs. He's toured
34:31
with us. We know, we get along with him. Pick up the
34:34
phone and call him and be like, hey man, what do you think
34:36
about joining Chasing Victory? And he's like blow, just screaming his lungs,
34:42
like, oh my god, ma, ma, mom, Chasing Victory.
34:45
They want me to play. He's bringing his moms in the room. We
34:47
can hear him like screaming on the phone and he's like, dude, I
34:51
was I don't know what it was. Something told me you guys would call
34:52
me and he's like so happy everything, and we were so happy. You're
34:57
tell him like because we were, you know, genuinely to join the band.
35:00
And so, like a couple of hours past we get off the phone
35:04
with him or whatever, and we start chatting and we're like, dude,
35:07
I don't think we can do this without you. Michael, like you know,
35:09
you're he was such an integral part of the band, uh, just
35:14
for so many reasons and kept us all sane on tour. I mean,
35:17
you got I don't know if you guys have ever toured before, but it's
35:21
hard to stay sane at all. I mean, when you're broke and you're
35:24
in a different town every night and you don't know, sleeping in walks,
35:29
damn man, you know, hanging up your white T shirt in the van
35:35
and then you had to put it on the next night for a show and
35:37
you haven't washed clothes in a month, and you know, it's just it's
35:40
you gotta do. You gotta be creative to stay sane. And Michael was
35:45
that guy for us. So anyways, we're chatting, man like I just
35:49
don't know if we can continue to do this, and we all just decided
35:52
like, like we can't, we can't do this, like if Michael's out,
35:58
Jeremy's dad, you know, going through this now, like we think
36:00
it's best we just kind of go home for now. And then we're like,
36:04
oh shit, we gotta call air home. And it's so we had
36:10
to call him and he was like, you guys have broken my heart.
36:17
I mean, he's still it was all love. He completely understood, but
36:22
it was just like, I don't know, it's like a segn Feild moment.
36:24
I'm like, but I heard him tell the same story, so I
36:29
had to tell our version of the story. But but but Anyways, it's
36:34
kind of the silver lining to our break up. We got home, you
36:37
know, I was married. I got home and got a job. We
36:42
kind of took that summer off and Michael ended up going and working with his
36:46
dad's company that he had trying to help, you know, keep it going
36:52
and rest. The guy spread out, got jobs, girlfriends, enrolled in
36:57
college classes, and then it was just it was pretty impossible to get back
37:00
together at that point. And so we you know, we we stayed in
37:05
touch. We have, I know it's been you know, over twenty years
37:08
since we started, but we have honestly stayed in touch, like we're at
37:12
the best of friends. It was Jason Vigory was just a huge party for
37:15
us, Like and I don't mean like in the debaucherous sins. I just
37:19
mean like we were all bros hanging out doing exactly what we loved every day,
37:25
even the roughing at part. Like we loved camping and going and hiking
37:30
up these crazy mountains and stuff like on our days off. And so we
37:34
still try to do that kind of stuff today, Like we about once a
37:37
year or so we try to get together. We'll rent a house like in
37:40
the mountains or down at the beach or at a lake somewhere, bringing all
37:45
of our families with us, and just all six of us in our families,
37:49
like stay in a place somewhere and just goof off for three or four
37:52
days, like we try to do it every year. That's interesting because it
37:55
sounds like the perfect excuse and opportunity to, like you make some music.
38:00
It sounds like you're doing everything, but so we tried to make some music.
38:07
We originally started doing this at my house before I moved to Atlanta,
38:12
I lived. I lived down in South Georgia and I have a farmhouse pool
38:19
in the backyard, you know, extra bedrooms and stuff, and so that's
38:22
where originally started doing it. We'd have to rent a house or anything like
38:27
that. Guys would come stay with me and we try to jam a few
38:30
songs out here and there. Then over the years it just became like,
38:34
hey, guys, don't even bring your instruments. Let's just barbecue and have
38:38
some SuDS and you know, let the kids play in the pool. Maybe
38:44
the guys would bring like some guns out or we didn't go shoot out on
38:46
the farm or something. It's tapline. So that's what we do now.
38:52
When we practice for furnace Vest, we go back to the farm, just
38:55
the six of us. Do you still have a fun Yeah? So I
39:00
have a farm in my family, Uh, and I used to live on
39:04
it. I don't live on that that house anymore. But we just go
39:07
down to that farmhouse and bring our guitars and our guns and make a weekend
39:12
out of it. That sounds like yeah, pretty much exactly. That's great.
39:20
Well, so we'll want to talk about furnace Fest. But it sounds
39:22
like you guys are in a really good place. Uh. And it's been
39:25
a number of years and I know you guys did some like, you know,
39:29
some music in kind of all these intermittent years and everything. But yeah,
39:32
like we potentially expect something from teas in Victory besides just this kind of
39:38
one off show with Furnace Fest. No, I mean this is Uh.
39:45
I wish I could say yes, honestly, I wish I could, you
39:47
know, tease people. But this is just something we feel honored to do.
39:52
Like, uh, this is we had no expectations of playing together shows.
40:00
This was just something that when they reached out to us, it was
40:04
like, hey, guys, this is you know, and they kind of
40:07
showed us a feedback from like, I guess where they had pulled people want
40:12
to play? Who did people want to play next year? And when we
40:17
saw like there was so many people that wanted us, you know, I'd
40:21
kind of voted for us, I guess to play, it was just an
40:23
honor, Like it felt like a really cool thing and we felt like,
40:27
man, like we should do this just for you know, just for the
40:30
experience. All of us are down for that, you know. And Jason
40:34
Victory was never really about like a career or becoming like the biggest band in
40:39
the world or anything like that. I mean, all that would have been
40:42
great if it would happen, But it was from the day one, like
40:45
hanging out with those guys and just jamming music, doing what we loved,
40:50
meeting all these insanely cool people all over the country and in Canada and stuff
40:54
like that. I could have never gotten that experience going to college. You
40:59
know. It was just a once in a lifetime experience. So that was
41:04
what it was always about for us. But but to answer your question,
41:07
I'm sorry, I'm such I get off track so easily. Uh No,
41:09
new music, I don't think, I mean never, I never say never.
41:14
You know, like you said you're a right, you said you were
41:15
still writing some music right yourself. I do when the when the itch comes,
41:21
I scratch it. Man, I can't say that all of it would
41:23
make sense for Chasing Victory. I'm I love all kinds of music, so
41:29
I've dabbled in a lot of different stuff. Most of it's crap, like
41:32
it will it will never leave my drop box account. But you know,
41:37
it's it's fun to like go back and see where I was like five years
41:42
ago or ten years ago or whatever, and you know, I'll find little
41:45
nuggets here and there from and I'm like, dangn that was I hit it.
41:51
You know that was the spot, Like I I scratched that itch right
41:53
there. And so I I, you know, I write here and there,
41:58
Jeremy Dustin writing in there. I think Cargyle does some writing here and
42:01
there, Michael does, Jason and I have wrote together everyone because we're here
42:07
in Atlanta and over the last few years. But you know, it's just
42:12
we don't really have any aspirations for like what we want to sound like.
42:15
We just get together and like what's your jam? And lately, you know,
42:19
lay something down? Is it? On a keyboard, Is it on
42:21
guitars and on a drum machine? What does it sound like? I don't
42:23
care. Well, we'll figure it out, you know. Yeah, well
42:28
that's how it always starts. I mean, that's how it basically probably started
42:30
back when you were like sixteen years old. So who knows. Yeah,
42:34
definitely, But I'll never say never guys like we, you know, we
42:39
have nothing in the works, no tours, no music. The coolest thing
42:45
we've got going on, well, I'll wait till the end to reel bad.
42:50
I'll save that for things I don't have much else. I don't have
42:52
many other bullets here. Uh well, something something I was interested in is
42:59
how you guys put your yourself out there. It was a little bit different
43:05
than a lot of the other bands, you know, kind of in the
43:07
same vein as you guys. I mean, obviously you guys have some Christian
43:12
influences and stuff like that, but at least in my perspective, from my
43:17
from my view, I never viewed you guys as quote unquote like a Christian
43:22
band or even Christian adjacent necessarily until I heard the Jesus Freak song the cover,
43:28
and I actually only recently discovered that. So to me, I'm just
43:32
curious if there was like a conscious attempt to maybe not necessarily lump yourselves in
43:38
with that crowd necessarily. Yeah, I mean that's a great question. And
43:44
honestly we never figured it out either, Like we like I told you,
43:49
we were so young doing it, Like I think at one point we had
43:52
we we kind of were laughing about this this situation where we had a record
43:58
label that was on by a large or Christian label, and then we had
44:04
a booking agent that was mostly booking metal bands, and then you know,
44:09
we wanted to write like rock music. So we kind of had like three
44:15
different people pulling in three different directions. And that's why I said, we
44:17
kind of told that line for a little while. You know, we came
44:21
out of out of youth groups. We played youth groups, we played churches
44:24
and stuff. But at a certain point we outgrew that obviously and we wanted
44:30
to just write music like and in terms of like one thing I've learned about
44:36
like writing lyrics is it doesn't matter what you meant when you wrote it.
44:40
People are going to interpret it anyway they want. And that's that's okay.
44:45
Like, you know, I'm fine with that. But most of my songs
44:49
were just kind of like just writing, now, whatever I was thinking at
44:52
the time, you know, and I was I was in youth groups.
44:55
We were we were all Christian guys, and so that became a topic that
45:00
I talked about, just stuff that I was thinking about or maybe had questions
45:04
about, or or like figuring out you know, it kind of bled through
45:07
my lyrics. But then you know, as I got started dating and getting
45:13
uh, you know, having girlfriends like that became a big topic of what
45:17
I was singing about. And uh, and then just getting out on tour
45:22
and meeting I mean, I don't think I wrote songs was about like homeless
45:25
people that we encountered on tour. So it was just like, you know,
45:29
it's almost like whatever I was going through at the time, I just
45:32
kind of had the stream of consciousness thing that I just threw it out on
45:35
some paper and it became a song. It never really had this super deep
45:38
meaning. I wasn't ever I don't think I was ever trying to say anything
45:43
like very definitively. I hope I wasn't, because I didn't know what the
45:45
hell I was talking about. So so like I looked back at my lyrics
45:51
and stuff now and some of us kind of cringe you. But at the
45:53
same time I understand, like I was just a kid, you know.
45:55
I was just like I was just writing down ship that I saw around me,
45:59
and I like that. I feel like that's such a more organic answer
46:06
and probably the actual way it was. Because if you talk a lot to
46:09
a lot of bands, especially from that same that same scene, they'll say
46:14
like, yeah, I really wanted to like push it, I wanted to
46:16
like really send a message, or I really wanted to explore a topic that
46:22
would make someone think or like change someone's life. And it's like, no,
46:25
that's not always so necessary. Yeah, sure, like some of your
46:29
music I'm sure has definitely changed people's lives, but it's maybe not something that's
46:32
gonna It doesn't have to be that all the time, right, Yeah,
46:37
And look, there's people out there that are way smarter than I am and
46:40
like it, and so I'm I'm down for whatever. Like people are into
46:45
writing. I just never are you sure you're a lead singer? Why?
46:53
Because the lead singer is always like, yeah, I'm pretty much the smartest
46:57
man in the room. They might not outright come and say that, but
47:00
it's like the lead singer with the bass bass guitarist syndrome. Yeah right,
47:07
exactly, brother, I promised you. I'm I'm a few fries short of
47:12
a happy meal. So I'm just I'm just happy to be able to trot
47:15
down to the mailbox to get the mail every day. I love a good
47:20
Southern little like expression like that, too. Fry short of a happy meal.
47:24
I love that so much. I think I told told this lady got
47:29
assaulted outside of my house today and she beat as a neighbor of mine and
47:34
she beat she beat the guy off of her and it got captured on a
47:37
ring camera and all this kind of stuff, and it was kind of comical
47:40
when I was talking to her husband about it, and that's it just came
47:44
out and said, dude, your wife stuffer and woodpecker lips, and I
47:51
don't know where they came from. I know I heard it like years ago,
47:53
and I'm like, hey, that was pretty quick. Are you actually
47:58
like seventy years old? I love that, dude. That's great and well,
48:05
Adam, let's talk about Furnace Fest. Obviously, we're just talking a
48:07
little bit about how you guys were asked to play and there was a lot
48:10
of interest from furnace Fest fans up you get for you guys to play,
48:15
but uh yeah, in terms of the the actual like experience of what you
48:20
guys are gonna have at furnace Fest, Like what what what can fans expect?
48:24
Like are there certain songs that we can maybe expect? Is there anything
48:29
kind of surprising, anything that you want to at least like kind of give
48:31
it a little taste of for fans? But yeah, what what what can
48:35
fans expect at furnace Fest this year? From chasing Victory? Well, dude,
48:38
we're gonna we're gonna bring the fun. We're gonna have a great time.
48:43
Uh, we're gonna we're gonna be well practiced, you know, having
48:46
having not played in a long time. Our our our old a and R
48:51
grip at Monta versus stairs. Like, dude, y'all better not show up
48:54
and sound like crap. He's like, because everybody's gonna remember that if you
48:58
do. So we took his advice and I've really been practicing hard. But
49:02
no, man, we were just we're gonna have a great time. We're
49:06
gonna hang out, We're gonna be there for for uh most of the days.
49:09
You know, we're gonna be seeing bands we haven't seen in a long
49:14
time, being seeing bands I've never seen before, like Turnstyle, what I
49:17
mean, what a great band to get to share the stage were over that
49:22
festival, Like, I mean, just that's that's so cool for me,
49:24
Like I just feel honored to be there. But we're gonna hang out,
49:29
dude. In terms of what music we're playing, we're gonna do a little
49:31
bit off of both of our full length records. We are not doing Jesus
49:36
Freak. So that's all right. Well, I'm selling my tickets, so
49:40
guess I'm not going that's our that's our free Bird. Yeah, so we're
49:49
not we're not doing that. What if what if Cullen and I heckle you
49:52
guys enough in between songs to play Jesus Freak? Would you play Jesus Freak?
49:57
I don't think we could strom the first note of it if we try.
50:01
That was you know, that was an experience. Brad, R,
50:06
R, A and R guys are gonna hate me for saying this, but
50:07
we did not want to do that, and we we tried to get out
50:12
of it. Was a cool thing, but you know, like I kind
50:15
of explained like trying to get out of the youth group thing and trying to
50:19
become like we felt like kids, but we wanted to kind of grow up,
50:22
you know, and we wanted to be We were like Britney Spears,
50:25
you know, retired of everybody seeing this as this young girl. We wanted
50:29
to be a woman, and uh, we wanted to be a woman here
50:36
first clip that, but but we you know, we were trying to get
50:40
out of that scene and trying to become our own band, and that asked
50:45
us to do another. It was four got records because Tubby mac On got
50:49
records and were it was all supposed to be an homage to him, and
50:51
we loved him and we wanted to do it, but we just didn't really
50:53
know like how we were gonna play a DC talk song and then and everybody
51:00
on the record labels were doing all these songs for Tubby Mack and then whatever
51:04
song they gave us, we're like, we cannot do this song, like
51:07
this is gonna sound terrible, and so we got out of it and we
51:12
were like, okay, cool, we don't have to do this and it
51:14
sounds terrible forever and then they came back to the singer like, guys,
51:17
we want you to do Jesus Free, and we were like, we can't
51:22
not do the biggest song that DC Talk ever did for this Amage record.
51:28
So we were like, all right, but if we do it, we're
51:30
gonna do it our way. And they're like, that's what we want,
51:34
do it exactly the way you would do it. And we tried our best.
51:38
Man, I think we didn't have much time. It was like already
51:42
to a deadline. We went into the studio and this guy we've never met
51:45
before threw it together in a weekend and and then it ended up becoming like
51:51
a kind of a underground hit for us, Like not a hit, you
51:54
know what I mean. It's like it was one of our more popular songs.
51:58
At least I didn't try to talk you into doing colored People or something
52:00
like that. Oh my God, And that was probably the original song they
52:04
asked us to do, and I was like, yeah, I love it.
52:10
So you mentioned that you're looking forward to Turnstile, and you said that
52:14
you guys are mostly going to be around kind of the entire weekend. What
52:16
are some other bands that you're looking forward to seeing? Knowing that like you
52:21
know, a festival like this, I mean, like you don't really get
52:24
many chances to see this many bands that you know and bands that you really
52:28
want to see that maybe you haven't seen before. So yeah, what are
52:30
some of those bands? Well mostly, I mean I'm just looking forward to
52:36
seeing our friends when blood comes cleansing. Those guys are wonderful dudes. Yeah,
52:43
and they're like our brothers would play together so much, and you know,
52:47
like our paint. Like I said, our bands have similar DNA and
52:51
all please for purging love those guys. I saw he was on You Guys
52:55
podcast. I mean, have you guys ever seen our video lunch with those
53:02
are on YouTube? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, just like meeting guys like
53:08
him, that's the whole reason we did it, Like, I mean,
53:10
that's the best part about it. So looking forward to seeing those guys.
53:15
I saw Sparta's playing, Yeah, is that right? That's gonna be funny.
53:21
I don't know how they swung that, man. I thought Sparta was
53:24
huge, huge band. Yeah I could be wrong about that, but I
53:28
grew up a big at the Driving fan, and I know they have some
53:30
DNA from at the Driving. Sorry you put me on a spot dude,
53:35
you're good. Those are all great bands to go see. I mean,
53:40
what is Acid? I thought they were playing. I want to see those
53:45
dudes. We got to play some shows with those guys. Wonderful like Salt
53:50
of the Earth, Louisiana Bros. Like love those guys. So yeah,
53:53
man, I mean, we're just I'm excited to be hanging out and seeing
53:57
seeing everybody this plan. I know we're gonna probably be there some Friday for
54:01
the for the uh the big heavy show, you know I want to see
54:06
with Blood and Plea and and then I'm gonna come Saturday for Turnstyle for sure.
54:10
And it's Sparta playing Saturday to food I remember exactly, so we can
54:15
go check you real quick. Yeah, and then we're playing Sunday, but
54:22
I don't know what time yet. I think it's Sparta play Saturday. Okay,
54:27
yeah, yeah, usual Usually they don't. They don't put out the
54:30
uh the times until like two weeks before or so. Yeah, I dude,
54:37
and you guys actually got the worst member of Chasing Victory to talk about
54:39
for his fist because I haven't. I'm like going as a fan. I'm
54:44
not like in the loop like the guys. They all know what's going on,
54:46
what time we're supposed to be there, and how many tickets we got.
54:49
I have no clue, dude, I've just been like chasing trees around
54:52
Atlanta all week, all month. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta
54:55
do, chasing trees, Chason Victory, you know it is what it is.
55:00
But now it is time to chase your top five most influential albums.
55:07
So I'm excited for this because I feel like you could. You're probably at
55:10
the kind of person that's going to draw from a whole bunch of different influences.
55:15
Now this is your personal influences. I think the songs, sorry,
55:19
albums that changed you as as an individual, as an artist. So where
55:24
do you want to I think we have so we mentioned death Tones, so
55:30
I think we gotta go. Yeah, you gotta start with the deaf Tones,
55:31
right, Yeah. I mean they've They've probably been one of my longest,
55:36
like, uh running bands that I've continually listened to throughout the years.
55:40
White Pony, I mean that was just such an incredible record. That was
55:45
a record I got to see them play. I think back to school that
55:50
song and she just dropped. So definitely White Pony, I have a favorite
55:57
record that. Now that I've had fudes, I can't. I can't listen
55:59
to sad music anymore, like makes me emotional. Elliot Smith EXO. Oh
56:06
yeah, so that's gonna be one of my top I listened to that album
56:09
every day on tour. Chris Gargyll turned me onto the to Elliot Smith,
56:15
and I just I burn a hole in that CD, like listening to it
56:17
every day. Most CDs already have a hole in them. So I was
56:25
I was reaching for a southern saying that wasn't there. So oh gosh,
56:34
I knew we were gonna get here and I was gonna get stumped. Oh
56:37
let's see here. Battle of Los Angeles, Yeah for sure, Okay,
56:45
yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta go with a little rage. Yeah
56:50
where yeah you get from like Elliot Smith the Rage to deaf Tones, that's
56:53
a you're you're already starting to get chasing victory vibes. Ollh yeah, dude.
56:59
Rage was huge part of seeking vibes. Oh I got a great one
57:05
cave in Antenna. Oh we're talking as my number one of all time?
57:12
Really? Yeah, definitely, And it was absolutely forever change that turned me
57:17
on, you know, forever James wasn't really a heavy band and they turned
57:22
me on to cave In that that would change my life. Did you see
57:27
that they're playing uh with Converge, Cavan and Botch. They're doing like a
57:32
little mini tour like one one show or something like that soon. So that's
57:37
a show. I think they've had maybe one of the guys that Converge is
57:43
in Caven Mail or something like that. Yeah, the basis of Converge,
57:45
who also I think does some screaming as well and Converge, but he is
57:50
like, yeah, like one of the lead people or one of the yeah,
57:52
one of the people in Caven Okay, Yeah, Brodsky like he's dude,
57:58
he's the rock god to me, like he is, uh, he's
58:01
my James Hatfield like he's he's Uh. I think he's probably the most underrated
58:07
dude that's ever done it. I mean, I think he's been to rehab
58:09
less though probably he seems like a pretty just chill guy too, Like that's
58:15
why maybe that's why he's not as as big as he should be. But
58:20
I've loved Kvin, I love the other band he did I'm drawing a blank.
58:24
Recent more recently, he did just I've been a huge fan of his
58:29
for for probably twenty years now, so and Antenna is at the top.
58:34
That's number one for me. I think you got one more, right,
58:37
Yeah, I gotta get outside of the rock genre for this one. Uh
58:44
let's see here, haba. I don't I don't want to say something where
58:50
people are gonna be like, Okay, he's a dude, like come on,
58:55
like like Miles Davis or something like that. I mean, with the
59:00
greatest jazz artists of all time. Then but if I said I have a
59:05
friend that said that and I called him a douche, so I feel terrible
59:07
now. But okay, well, if you were to say Dizzy Gillespie or
59:12
something like that, so like someone who's look in that second tier of like
59:14
the greatest jazz artists ever, then I maybe would say you're a douche.
59:16
But well, I mean, he's no doubt about it. Miles is great.
59:20
He's the best they ever did. But it's just like you know,
59:22
I just guy, don't even play the trumpet. Come on, nah,
59:30
I'll tell you what. I've got a band that I've listened to a lot
59:35
over the last few years. It's become one of my favorites a band called
59:38
Greyhounds. They're a lesser known band from Austin, Texas. I just they
59:45
have a special place in my heart for a lot of weird reasons. Two
59:47
piece band, very strange, a guitar player and a keyboard player. But
59:52
they play some of the best songs, I mean, write some of the
59:55
most incredible songs, all reminiscence of like town and blues and stuff. And
1:00:02
but they have a record I want to say it's called Accumulator or yep,
1:00:08
they've got fourteen Okay, I don't know if that's that might be the wrong
1:00:14
one. But I could listen to every one of their songs. I literally
1:00:17
just put their band on repeat and listen to it for weeks at a time
1:00:22
because every song I love, so they're one of my favorite bands of all
1:00:27
times. Sweet, I'll be checking that out. That's up my alley for
1:00:30
sure. And the voices are gonna throw you for a loop at first,
1:00:34
because the dude's voice is like nothing you've probably heard in years, like almost
1:00:37
like Verry White or something crazy, yeah, like Joe Cocker or very white,
1:00:43
something something real bluesy. Sound all right, sweet, sweet, Well,
1:00:49
we can definitely hear all of those influences in Chasing Victory, especially grounds
1:00:53
I hit five, dude, I didn't got to feel good at them.
1:01:00
What do you want to plug? Obviously, Furnace Fast, you guys are
1:01:04
gonna be plain. We're really really stoked to see you guys there, But
1:01:07
yeah, what else do you want to plug? So I would love to
1:01:12
plug, Like we are actually going to press a vinyl for I call this
1:01:16
Abandonment and sell that and it may be available now. I told you guys,
1:01:22
I'm so out of the loop. I don't think it's available yet,
1:01:25
but it will be soon and we will have it available for Furnace Fast.
1:01:30
We've also got some some merge out there and stuff, you know, just
1:01:34
kind of help us, help us get the van crank back up and get
1:01:38
it puttering back over to Birmingham, and you know, cover the bills and
1:01:44
stuff. But it's all just you know, merch abandonment vinyl. I guess
1:01:51
our music still on iTunes and Amazon. Un that's to say real quick.
1:01:58
Uh. The Abandonment cover album cover is like when I think of two thousands,
1:02:07
like metal genre, anything in the metal genre, I think of that
1:02:12
album cover. That's a dope album cover. Man, it is the great
1:02:15
it's the coolest and the entirety of the scene. I've honestly wanted to get
1:02:22
that, like tattooed somewhere just because I love I don't want to get the
1:02:25
whole snakes coming out of my chest thing, but you just get Yeah,
1:02:30
you should just get snakes. Yeah, just right there, that would be
1:02:32
great. Yeah, I thought it just make yourself the album cover. Yeah,
1:02:37
when I was much younger, I thought about doing that, but not
1:02:40
these days. I can't sit through a tattoo that long. But no,
1:02:45
honestly like it. It made picking album covers for Themes very hard because Abandon
1:02:51
set the bar. Really Yeah, yeah, you totally set the bar.
1:02:53
That's pretty cool. Is this the first vinyl that you guys are doing.
1:02:58
We did a vinyl for Themes. We sold a limited amount and we just
1:03:01
we pressed like several hundred and then I think we sold out of those pretty
1:03:06
quick, so we did a few more hundred and uh So our record label,
1:03:09
they're still up and going and everything, and they press things from now
1:03:13
and you know, press rerelease things and stuff, so you know, it
1:03:16
may come back available. We may do it again in the future. But
1:03:20
this is the first time we've pressed abandonment sweet fun, fun, wonderful of
1:03:24
it. Adam, is there anything else you'd like to plug? Got one
1:03:28
more merch item we're gonna have is some special scented candles. Uh ag Yeah,
1:03:34
special candles, man. We tried to get smells from our old tour
1:03:39
van. We also got some smells from our our trailer where we kept our
1:03:45
clothes, and then we also got some smells out of Michael's beard. So
1:03:51
uh, all very unique chasing victory items, exclusive items. They would have
1:03:59
to be very exclusive because I can't imagine too many people really wanting these scented
1:04:02
candles. You'd be surprised what the market is like for uh these scented candles.
1:04:09
Man, they're popping off big times. So they're definitely the next doge
1:04:13
coin or whatever you know, So so invest now before you know the thing
1:04:18
goes to the moon. I feel like that's like, uh, that's an
1:04:23
untapped market, you know. I think we have we have candles for the
1:04:25
bathroom, we have candles for the bedroom, we have candles for the living
1:04:28
room. We don't have candles for the garage yet. And there needs to
1:04:31
be candles for the garage. I think that's where I'm gonna put mine.
1:04:33
I'm gonna I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some chasing victory. Is it called
1:04:38
chasing victory? Is that it? Yes, that's exactly you guess it right
1:04:43
on the head. Actually, guess that's amazing. I love it. Yeah,
1:04:45
My Chasing Victory candles are going to go in the garage so I can
1:04:49
have a pleasant smell of tour van while I work on my el Camino.
1:04:55
You'll you'll smell some hits of Doritos and Mountain dew and Michael's beard candles.
1:05:00
So, uh, I love it. Can we expect these at furnace fest?
1:05:04
Uh? No, these are only on our Craigslist page. Okay,
1:05:09
you have your own Craigslist place? She is? Wow? Is that linked
1:05:15
to your MySpace as well? It is? Uh, you can find uh
1:05:17
you know that's that's where you can find our hits on my Space and uh
1:05:23
you know that'll link you to our Craigslist page. Love it, I'm in
1:05:27
I am in love it. Love it well, Adam, thank you so
1:05:30
much for chatting about the history of Chasing Victory. I'm glad you're already smelling
1:05:36
one of your candles. I'm sure it's gonna be great. Uh. And
1:05:40
we're really really stoked to see you at Furnace Fest. I'm sure we're gonna
1:05:43
we're gonna see you there. We'll give you a big, big hug when
1:05:45
we see you, all right, Heck yeah man, looking forward to it.
1:05:47
Guys, thank you so much for this. I had a great song
1:06:00
while I love my sud Es,