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Spinning Plates with GREG PUCIATO · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Hey man, good to chat to you again. It's Simon from Heavy mag
• 0:03
  in Australia. What's going on, man? Oh, not a whole lot.
• 0:06
  Man. I'm sitting here knocking these out, you know, trying to
• 0:08
  trying to remember how to do this. I haven't done this in so long.
• 0:11
  It's it every time you start these kind of things back up, it
• 0:14
  always feels like you're like, oh shit, fuck, I forgot that this
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  was part of the job, you know. Yeah, man, well,
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  well, yeah, I'll spoke to you. It must have been maybe three
• 0:25
  years ago or something. I think, maybe even longer. But the world's
• 0:28
  a different place, man. Did we Did we talk because a killer be
• 0:32
  killed? I'm guessing maybe that was it. It might have been a Black
• 0:35
  Queen? Who knows? Yeah, yeah. So one thing I just noticed
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  to kick off the conversation is you're coming back to Australia in the form of
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  yourself. You're coming back to Brisbane exactly four years after your tour with the
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  Black Queen. No way, really four years? Yeah, January seventeen,
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  twenty nine eight. You're here. That's crazy. Five years five years sorry
• 0:59
  part yeah wow, yeah, that doesn't make any sense. That's tough.
• 1:03
  Obviously, you know, we all the COVID thing is like this weird like
• 1:07
  non time, Like I don't really it feels like you're just in this portal,
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  in this void where time wasn't passing, but it did. So that's
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  it's really disorienting anytime I have to try to whenever, when I have to
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  try to pinpoint how long ago something was that was before COVID, it's like
• 1:23
  a mystery. I'm like, wait, what did I do for a year
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  and a half time? You know? And like if I hadn't to put
• 1:30
  solo records out and that Killer be Killed record, which even that I don't
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  really I kind of like, wait, did that come out during COVID,
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  Like how Like I don't. It's all remember doing during COVID is like the
• 1:42
  same fucking thing every single day, you know, And and that went on
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  and on for so long that I don't really understand how long it was.
• 1:49
  Yeah, man, it just it felt like twenty twenty was like three like
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  it in twenty twenty to twenty twenty two almost felt like one year. It's
• 2:00
  just weirdest thing that I remember. Not to go off topic, but I
• 2:02
  remember when we were told like it's gonna be about two weeks. You know,
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  everyone just chill for about two weeks and this over and in my head,
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  I was I remember being like two fucking weeks. That's fucking insane.
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  I'm I want to sit inside for two weeks, you know. And then
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  fast forward to a year later when I'm playing Call of Duty for the nine
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  millionth time or you know, Fortnight for the time. It's just waking up
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  every day and eat the same food, it's wearing the same clothes. It's
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  like, holy shit, man, yeah, yeah, and then it sapes
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  into do you feel it saped into sort of lyrical content and like yeah,
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  musical, yeah, like topical in the music. No, you know what,
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  here's the thing, right, So a lot of people are like,
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  once I got over like the initial hump of like not being able to go
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  out and not being able to do stuff because I'm a big I'm a like
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  I like to go do shit like a lot. And like when once that
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  happened, you know, I wasn't a lot of people found that they had
• 2:59
  a hard time being creative in that environment, but I didn't. Like I
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  was an only child and I spent a lot of time. I'm a very
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  internal person, like if I get if I'm alone for more than a little
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  bit, I just start to become very internal and my creativity goes up,
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  you know. So I think because of that, you know, the The
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  Child Soldier became more interesting because I was I was left alone with it and
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  I had so much time, and I think that's why it ended up being
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  so varied and there's so many different genres on it and so many different flavors
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  because I was really free to just not be There was no there was no
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  end in sight to this thing that we were all in. So I was
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  just like, all right, cool, I'm just gonna like really go as
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  far as I can on this and do whatever I want and not really fucking
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  think about there being an end to it, you know, and when it
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  when I'm done with it, I'm done with it. And I think it
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  made that record maybe more interesting because I had sort of no real incentive to
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  like wrap it up so we can get on tour or something like that,
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  you know, nothing like that. It was just I was just like,
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  well, I want to keep writing until I hit a wall, and whenever
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  I hit that wall, that's going to be the album, you know.
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  So there was nothing more to it than that. And now you have Mirosol
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  as well, so you know there we go. Yeah, yeah for sure,
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  which is a much different record. Obviously. That is a very honestly
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  uh concise record. It's not all over the place like the first one.
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  But I dig them both, you know. Oh, same here, same
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  here. Man. I actually ended up with a inadvertently ended up with a
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  second copy of the vinyl of that record. So if I ever get to
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  meet you, have to get you to throw some signature on it or something
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  for the for the collection. Man. That's cool. That's a field one,
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  that one. That one's staying that way. So man, where do
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  we begin with you? Right? So we've got Astray Intur for your solo
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  finally coming back to our shores, which is excellent with King Yusuf and Trace
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  Amount. I hope I got that right. How can you to get back
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  to Australia, man, dude, I mean, I'm sure this is well
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  known, but I really love it there and like it's I don't understand,
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  Like I said that it's been five years since I've been there, because I
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  love it there and I feel like I've had the fortune of being there a
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  lot more than most bands. Like I talked to some bands that have been
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  around for ten twelve years and they've only been to Australia one time, you
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  know. And I feel like from the first time Dylan Drever came, you
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  know, we were we were embraced pretty early on by you guys, and
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  that made it so that we always went there, you know, sometimes twice
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  on ALBM cycle. So I've ended up being there a lot. And then
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  Killer be Killed went down there, Black Queen went down there, you know,
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  So I've ended up being there probably. I mean, god, man,
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  I might have been there for like fifteen times you know at this point,
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  and I love it. I love it, man. I think this
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  is the first time ever though, that I'm going to stay. I really
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  think I'm going to stay after that final show for like a week and just
• 5:50
  fuck around. And because you don't really get to do a whole lot when
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  you're just going from show to show every day, and this time in particular,
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  we don't have any day is off like it was. It's just five
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  in a row, you know. So I'm going to try to get there,
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  try to get there a few days early and stay for maybe four or
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  five days. Or so after awesome, man, awesome. Yeah, I've
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  always struck it as a punter. I've always struck a really with yourself.
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  You know. The last Dylan to show in Australia was in Brisbane. The
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  first Black Queen show was in Brisbane. And now you say, now your
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  first solo show is going to be in Brisbane. So that's so cool.
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  I think I'm saying I can't believe that. Yeah, it's crazy. Five
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  years to the day is absolutely insane. That's not they and I didn't think
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  it was. On a second, there's some fucking phone here doing something weird.
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  I'm in a studio right now in Chicago and I'm out of the lounge
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  and there's a there's something going on with their intercom or something. All right,
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  Well that's a that's a leading question, man, because the better Lovers
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  thing. You guys just dropped a new single like hours ago. Yep,
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  who Alive Amongst the Dead? I've gotta say, man, personal preference.
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  I think you guys, I think your best song yet. Do you think,
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  Oh my god, yeah, I agree, man, I fully agree,
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  like I do think that, and it's it's funny. We got to
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  road test that for a little bit before we put it out. So before
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  we even put it out, like I was already like really like I could
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  already tell every night that without people even knowing it, it was starting,
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  it was becoming our favorite. It was pretty easy to tell that. And
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  then you know, just just hearing it out now, I feel like,
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  man, okay, like we're this is this one's fucking beating ass. You
• 7:41
  know, Like the first one was like they wrote that first record without knowing
• 7:44
  that I was going to be involved. They wrote the music, you know,
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  so that when I came in it was kind of me smashing my thing
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  on top of something they had already written. And this one we had we
• 7:53
  put together. It came together as we were touring, and we were working
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  stuff out as we were touring and kind of fine tuning it as we're retoring,
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  So it has more of like a I think we're just I think we're
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  just a little bit I don't know. It feels like a little bit more
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  powerful to me. Yeah, maybe that's just because it's new, but yeah,
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  there's something. It's got some something vital about it for sure. Yeah.
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  And my comment was on it was it just feel that song feels like
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  you guys are a band like the Five, you know, And I'll leave
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  it as simple as that. It just sonically, it's just it just just
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  really vibes well. And you can can tell that you guys been together for
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  a little while now and sort of done things on the road and all that.
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  There's a bit of a gelling going on, and that's what the first
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  thing Sinners tracks out. Aha, here we go, here we go.
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  Here's the best of our world coming together. Yeah, so oh thanks,
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  I appreciate you saying that. Man. Yeah, I mean, like I
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  said, that first record, we had never even played those songs together until
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  the rehearsal for the first show. Like it was just like completely separate,
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  you know, Like I said, they had recorded it, they sent it
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  to me, I tracked vocals. So it really is still sort of felt
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  in a way like that band was this these people plus Greig, like there
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  were you know, two separate entities and we were kind of mashed together,
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  whereas this thing feels like the actual band as a unit. Like you said,
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  so that's cool that you pick up on that. Man. Yeah,
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  I've sent it to one of my guys straight away. He's a massive fan
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  of all the projects. And here we go, here we go. Yeah,
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  it's like the moment that it dropped on all all media platforms like check
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  it out, check it out. So yeah, oh yeah, man,
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  that's cool. Well I'm excited to get there. Get there with talking better
• 9:33
  lovers too, th buckle Wild. Yeah, man, I've had the I've
• 9:37
  had the privilege of been able to hang out with Jordan once before and he's
• 9:41
  just such such a cool dude, and I'd hope to do it again one
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  day. So oh yeah, we definitely will. Yeah. And actually leading
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  question because when I hung out with him, I had to cut it,
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  shure it because I had to go watch Ellison chains now on that been doing
• 9:54
  some work with Jerry, which is insane, absolutely insane. Yeah, still
• 10:00
  insane to me. He's one of my two or three best friends in the
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  world, which is crazy too, you know, which kind of keeps me
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  from ever now. It's like, once you become friends with someone, it's
• 10:09
  hard to remember that they're this guy you know and like because we just you
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  know, he's like my legitimately one of my best friends and like it,
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  which is also really weird because it just shows that you can meet people who
• 10:22
  you know you might be fifteen years apart, and like you've gone through you
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  know, one someone of you is wildly commercially famous, you know, and
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  someone else is like, I'm more like a cult thing like, but we
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  have so much, like we vibe so instantly together that like it's we just
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  have such a cool thing interpersonally. And it's been but sometimes when we're on
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  stage, like I'll look over at him and he's fucking you know, we're
• 10:45
  you know, doing the solo to them bones or something, some big,
• 10:48
  big blonde hair flip you know is happening, and I'm like, holy shit,
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  that's Jerry Cantrell. You know. There's like a little moment of that
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  still. But yeah, it's been super Bowl man. Man, that's so
• 11:00
  But we're going to keep doing it together too, so we'll get down there.
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  Well jeez, man, I'm just it's going to be just a circle
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  of touring touring circle for you and maybe, yeah, it's a little it's
• 11:11
  a little it's a little bit much. Man. I'm trying to uh not
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  not to lose my I don't know, I don't know how long I can
• 11:16
  keep this pace up. But yeah, sure, I mean I'm not going
• 11:18
  to say no to going out and singing man in the Box with Jerry Control.
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  That's sure, please done, play place man. I'm kind of white
• 11:26
  to say that. Now New Black Queen as well. Yeah, it's yeah,
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  there's a lot happening. It's a little overwhelming. Yeah, there's a
• 11:35
  lot. And and I'll spill the beans on this. There's a fucking uh.
• 11:39
  There's going to be a new EP, a new solo EP, coming
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  out sometime before March, and probably the first song is going to come out
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  before I get to Australia. So yeah, I know it's it's a really
• 11:52
  little ridiculous and we're supposed to record a full length Better Lovers record in the
• 11:56
  early part next year. I think Jerry might want to do another record next
• 12:00
  year. Black Queen is waiting on me. It suddenly is a lot.
• 12:03
  I didn't, you know, I asked for this, but it's definitely at
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  the point now where I'm just like fuck, you know, starting up,
• 12:11
  trying to freak out a little, you know, yeah, while do while
• 12:13
  you're still young. Mate. It's like the frog and the boiling pot,
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  you know, Like I'm suddenly aware that the pot is boiling, you know,
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  and I'm like, oh shit, you know, there's a whole lot
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  going on. People are like, you know, starting to be like,
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  hey, can you tour during this time? Can you tour during that time?
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  And I'm like, fuck, man, there's only so many months in
• 12:30
  the year. Yeah, I wish, I wish I had a clone,
• 12:33
  you know, I wish I could clone man totally. I love all of
• 12:37
  it, Like I don't prefer one or the other. Like I love all
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  of them so much that it's it's it's tough to Uh, it's tough to
• 12:43
  fucking schedule things, just just hoping the trying. The boys from killerby Kill
• 12:48
  be like, hey, man, what have you been up for you?
• 12:50
  Yeah? Yeah, I mean we talk. We talk all the time about
• 12:52
  it, you know, every time I see Max, we talk about it.
• 12:54
  Ben Kohler lives in La so I see him all the time, and
• 12:58
  uh, we got a group chat going. And it really is just about
• 13:01
  honestly, man, it's fucking Max and Troy. It's mostly Max. Like
• 13:07
  Max is a fucking touring machine. Man. It's very hard to catch him
• 13:11
  off tour for long enough to get much done. So I think we'll probably
• 13:16
  end up starting to just piece together album number three. Yeah, because we're
• 13:20
  having such a hard time touring, having such a hard time finding windows to
• 13:24
  tour that it's I mean, me and Ben just the other week we're like,
• 13:28
  at this point, we should just start writing for album number three and
• 13:33
  we'll shoot for that and then maybe by then we'll have some time to fucking
• 13:37
  play some shows again, because those shows in Australia were fucking amazing. Man.
• 13:41
  Yeah, dud it was almost ten years ago, now, nine years
• 13:45
  ago or something. Yeah, yeah, it's insane and Ben and Jeff joined
• 13:48
  Yeah, I remember that as Oh they got a different drama. Oh it's
• 13:50
  Ben, right, Yeah, that was the last sound way of her two,
• 13:54
  right was the last one? Yeah, that was nuts away. Man,
• 13:58
  I'm gonna respect the time restraints that we've got with this. It's been
• 14:03
  a whirl wind chat. But man, that's the way it goes with you.
• 14:05
  You are a busy man, and I don't want to keep you any
• 14:09
  longer than we'll talk again. I was so Yeah, I look forward to
• 14:13
  I'll be at the January show Man in Brisbane. Yeah, I can't wait.
• 14:18
  I can't wait to see that show. I remember for sure, absolutely,
• 14:22
  I remember the last time we spoke. It was a maybe that you
• 14:24
  were going to even put this together as a band, and now here we
• 14:26
  are so excellent. Man, fuck yeah man, I can't wait.