Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Matty Mullins: Memphis May Fire and Anberlin

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Matty Mullins: Memphis May Fire and Anberlin · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:17
Speaker 1: You like to save our head A dark oash O
0:21
Speaker 1: prifect bag, a place that's.
0:23
Speaker 2: A star yourself. You say, I know that rid a
0:28
Speaker 2: long time show.
0:29
Speaker 1: Today I've got Mattie Mullins with me. Maddie, at this point,
0:33
Speaker 1: you might be the busiest man in alternative music business.
0:37
Speaker 1: I mean, does it feel like that for you? I?
0:40
Speaker 3: You know, I I guess I don't have the inside
0:44
Speaker 3: scoop on enough of the other people's schedules to really
0:48
Speaker 3: make that claim, but I would say it is definitely
0:52
Speaker 3: the busiest season of my life and is requiring a
0:55
Speaker 3: lot of time management and pre prioritizing certain things over others.
1:02
Speaker 3: It's definitely crazy.
1:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, obviously alluding to the fact that you know,
1:07
Speaker 1: you're now doing live stuff with Amberlin, and then obviously
1:11
Speaker 1: Memphis May Fire, Might or not Might is going to
1:15
Speaker 1: be releasing a new album soon, and so I'm imagining
1:17
Speaker 1: at some point you'll be touring on that as well.
1:19
Speaker 1: So at this point, like it's not like you probably
1:22
Speaker 1: have like some sort of other like non music side gigs.
1:24
Speaker 1: Like music's got to be like full time, like that's
1:27
Speaker 1: how you're paying the bills, right, Yeah, it has.
1:30
Speaker 3: To be everything right now. You know, like with with
1:35
Speaker 3: one band, especially with kind of how the trajectory of
1:41
Speaker 3: Memphis was, I was able to dabble in some side
1:46
Speaker 3: ventures and things, but it's just like now, the way
1:50
Speaker 3: that it was last year is Amberlin and Memphis tours
1:54
Speaker 3: right back to back, and this will it'll be the
1:55
Speaker 3: same way this year as well. So it's just it
1:59
Speaker 3: just has to be the only the only focus, man.
2:01
Speaker 3: And it's it's cool. You know, I'm stoked, but I
2:04
Speaker 3: need I needed to like put instead of putting things
2:09
Speaker 3: on the back burner, I needed to be like, all right,
2:11
Speaker 3: those things are gone. This is you know, this is
2:14
Speaker 3: where music is everything.
2:15
Speaker 2: So yeah, I get it. That's gotta be fun.
2:17
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, everybody, you know, like every kid
2:20
Speaker 1: that's wanting to maybe start a band, like their dream
2:23
Speaker 1: is to like be able to do that full time
2:24
Speaker 1: at some point. And you know, especially with the music
2:28
Speaker 1: world the way it is, like even big bands a
2:30
Speaker 1: lot of times, like artists are having to have like
2:32
Speaker 1: other side things in order to like supplement you know,
2:36
Speaker 1: income and be able to play.
2:37
Speaker 2: Pay the bills.
2:38
Speaker 1: So it's gotta be really cool, like you're actually in
2:40
Speaker 1: a position where you are able to dedicate all of
2:43
Speaker 1: your time and energy musically because that like you've got
2:47
Speaker 1: like enough going on with that that it is able
2:49
Speaker 1: to pay the bills. Like that's gonna be something really
2:51
Speaker 1: cool because like not a lot of musicians, especially in
2:54
Speaker 1: today's like music economy, can say that.
2:57
Speaker 3: Definitely. Yeah, I mean it's you know, fifteen sixteen years
3:02
Speaker 3: in the making. If anybody else was like, hey, I
3:06
Speaker 3: want to be rich, I certainly would not recommend is
3:10
Speaker 3: the path, you know what I mean, like its bitcoin
3:13
Speaker 3: might be a better route at this point. Yeah, yeah,
3:16
Speaker 3: for sure. But yeah, man, no, I'm grateful. It's it's
3:19
Speaker 3: really cool. I mean, you ten thousand hours, man, It's
3:23
Speaker 3: it's real. You know, you put in the time, put
3:25
Speaker 3: in the effort, and if you're willing to make the sacrifices,
3:29
Speaker 3: you can turn literally anything into a career if you
3:33
Speaker 3: want to put enough time and energy and effort into it.
3:36
Speaker 1: So, knowing that you're going to be gone a lot
3:40
Speaker 1: this year from home, like is that something you have
3:42
Speaker 1: to emotionally kind of prepare yourself for that, Like, you know,
3:45
Speaker 1: there very well could be like a number of months
3:47
Speaker 1: that you're not actually sleeping in your bed, like your
3:50
Speaker 1: home bed, like that's got to be I don't know
3:53
Speaker 1: about I've never been gone that long, but I would
3:55
Speaker 1: imagine like that's going to be something, especially knowing that
3:58
Speaker 1: you could be what like maybe six months of this
3:59
Speaker 1: year that you're you're gonna be away from home, right.
4:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, last year was the same.
4:07
Speaker 2: It's not so.
4:08
Speaker 3: I went through seasons where I would just like ignore it, right,
4:11
Speaker 3: like try to just like not even think about it,
4:14
Speaker 3: And then you get to a point where you're just like, man,
4:15
Speaker 3: why am I so drained? Why am I Why do
4:18
Speaker 3: I feel so disconnected? Now it's more so it's not
4:23
Speaker 3: like the situation changes, but you just staying present and
4:29
Speaker 3: focused on the moment, not thinking about, you know, when
4:32
Speaker 3: tour is going to be over to get home, but
4:35
Speaker 3: thinking about how thankful you are for each and every
4:38
Speaker 3: single day that you get to do what you you know,
4:40
Speaker 3: love is really important and just you know, like rolling
4:45
Speaker 3: rolling with the punch is going with the flow and
4:47
Speaker 3: not thinking about the next day but really just making
4:51
Speaker 3: everything about that day. That's the newest thing that I'm
4:54
Speaker 3: practicing and trying to get better at. But yeah, I mean,
4:57
Speaker 3: being present, being grateful, gratitude is, man, it is The
5:03
Speaker 3: most important part of loving and being thankful for anything
5:08
Speaker 3: is just like focusing on what it is that you
5:10
Speaker 3: are thankful for what you do have, not the things
5:13
Speaker 3: that you don't have, and not the things that you're
5:15
Speaker 3: missing out on. And it's just a mindset, man, Everything
5:18
Speaker 3: is a mindset.
5:19
Speaker 2: I love that.
5:20
Speaker 1: What it's like a maybe a little thing when you're
5:22
Speaker 1: out on tour for that long that at some point
5:25
Speaker 1: you're like, I absolutely hate this part of touring. Like
5:28
Speaker 1: maybe it's just a little thing, like I would imagine
5:30
Speaker 1: just being away from home is tough, but like a
5:32
Speaker 1: little thing like for me, like you know, I live
5:35
Speaker 1: at home or whatever, and the thing that I hate
5:37
Speaker 1: every single day is to I don't have one of
5:40
Speaker 1: those garbage disposals in the sink and I have to
5:42
Speaker 1: pick the food out like with my hands, right like
5:46
Speaker 1: like I would imagine like a lot of people have
5:47
Speaker 1: that right where they've got like the the faucet stop
5:50
Speaker 1: or the dream stop thing. Yeah, and to pick that
5:52
Speaker 1: out is like the thing I hate about existing every day.
5:56
Speaker 1: Like that's the one thing that I'm like, if I
5:58
Speaker 1: could eliminate for that form my life, like my life
6:00
Speaker 1: would be great.
6:01
Speaker 2: Is there like a.
6:01
Speaker 1: Little thing just in terms of touring like that where
6:04
Speaker 1: you're just like, I wish this was not a part
6:05
Speaker 1: of touring, but I gotta deal with it every day.
6:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, other people's cleanliness or lack thereof, right, Like.
6:14
Speaker 1: You know you're for me, my you you can name names,
6:18
Speaker 1: by the way, like throw somebody under the bus.
6:19
Speaker 2: I'm all about this.
6:22
Speaker 3: For me, my environment is directly related to my mood
6:27
Speaker 3: and my mindset, and so you know, like I've said
6:30
Speaker 3: this in other interviews, but I think it's just for
6:32
Speaker 3: anybody in life that has a hard time. If you
6:36
Speaker 3: feel like everything in the world is constantly being thrown
6:39
Speaker 3: at you and you cannot handle it, I would encourage
6:41
Speaker 3: you to make your space clean, make your space organized,
6:48
Speaker 3: because if you start the day off and you feel
6:50
Speaker 3: like you have a grasp on your on what you
6:53
Speaker 3: can control, it makes it so much more digestible for
6:57
Speaker 3: things to get kind of thrown at you constantly. And
6:59
Speaker 3: so I do the absolute best I can at being
7:02
Speaker 3: that way on tour. But when you know other people,
7:06
Speaker 3: creative minds think differently, and some people really kind of
7:12
Speaker 3: feel most comfortable in their own like mess and like
7:15
Speaker 3: shoes on the ground and stuff like that, right, I
7:18
Speaker 3: do not thrive in that. So I definitely My wife
7:21
Speaker 3: is exactly the same. She is extremely clean and organized,
7:26
Speaker 3: and so I love that about being home, but on
7:30
Speaker 3: tour that that's difficult for me, for sure.
7:33
Speaker 2: I get. I totally get that.
7:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's I'm kind of the same way
7:37
Speaker 1: where yeah, I'm pretty pretty clean and organized, and I
7:41
Speaker 1: think a lot of that is I'm fairly convinced my
7:43
Speaker 1: parents like have some mid mild form of OCD, and
7:47
Speaker 1: so that's awesome, Like I think that, like, right, I
7:49
Speaker 1: definitely am not to the level that they're at. Like
7:51
Speaker 1: my dad literally hand washes his cars every single Saturday,
7:55
Speaker 1: like it's just his like.
7:57
Speaker 3: Sick and honestly, man, that's discipline.
8:00
Speaker 1: That's rat It's total, oh, total discipline. Yeah, And certainly
8:03
Speaker 1: I'm not to that level of being clean and organized,
8:06
Speaker 1: but certainly that rubbed off on me to some degree
8:09
Speaker 1: where I'm I remember like in college, like I was
8:12
Speaker 1: always known as like having the cleanest dorm room, and
8:14
Speaker 1: it's like in college, especially, like every dude's s dorm
8:17
Speaker 1: room is just disgusting, and I was the one dude
8:20
Speaker 1: where you could like actually exist in that space and
8:22
Speaker 1: like girls weren't going to be like you.
8:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, dude, Honestly, that was when I was really young.
8:28
Speaker 3: I mean maybe like seven or eight years old or whatever.
8:31
Speaker 3: I think I had my first girlfriend. She was coming
8:34
Speaker 3: over the house and my mom had said, hey, you
8:36
Speaker 3: need to clean your bedroom otherwise that's gonna be unattractive.
8:40
Speaker 3: And I was just thinking to myself, like what, and
8:42
Speaker 3: so I like cleaned my bedroom because she was coming over.
8:45
Speaker 3: I remember this, and it felt so good just to
8:49
Speaker 3: have something like a space or something that I was
8:51
Speaker 3: proud of that that I could control. So much of
8:54
Speaker 3: life is out of our control, and your environment is
8:57
Speaker 3: one thing that you can control. So yeah, I just
8:58
Speaker 3: can't stress that enough. For me, so vital to have
9:03
Speaker 3: to enjoy my surroundings to the best of my ability.
9:06
Speaker 1: Is that how Maddie Mullens got his wife was he
9:09
Speaker 1: just like made his bed one day and she was like, well,
9:11
Speaker 1: the other guy does that for me, So you're the one.
9:15
Speaker 3: Not her, not her. We had a different story, but
9:19
Speaker 3: by the time we met, I definitely was already very clean,
9:22
Speaker 3: which was definitely a plus.
9:25
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's great. That's awesome.
9:28
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the new album. It's called shape
9:31
Speaker 1: Shifter coming out in March. There's already actually quite a
9:35
Speaker 1: few singles out. It almost feels like most of the
9:37
Speaker 1: album has kind of been released, right, Like, I feel
9:39
Speaker 1: like there's like at least like six singles out or
9:41
Speaker 1: something like that.
9:42
Speaker 3: More than not. Yeah, yeah, it's six or seven or something.
9:45
Speaker 3: I can't remember either, but yeah.
9:46
Speaker 2: I remember looking. I looked the other day.
9:48
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, it almost looks like the entire album
9:51
Speaker 1: was out, but not quite yep. So yeah, I'd love
9:54
Speaker 1: to just kind of hear the story around how this
9:56
Speaker 1: album came about. I know that you guys had an
9:59
Speaker 1: EP just a few years ago, and so this is
10:01
Speaker 1: kind of the more recent music. So yeah, how did
10:04
Speaker 1: how did this album come about? And yeah, what's the
10:07
Speaker 1: story around that?
10:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we actually haven't put out an EP since
10:12
Speaker 3: like two thousand and nine.
10:14
Speaker 2: Or maybe it wasn't. Was it like a single?
10:16
Speaker 4: Why why did I Talk with You a few years ago?
10:18
Speaker 3: Yeah?
10:18
Speaker 2: No, it was like a remix.
10:20
Speaker 3: I was going to clarify that. So the when you
10:24
Speaker 3: roll out singles the way that we have been and
10:27
Speaker 3: it's kind of a newer way of doing it, right,
10:31
Speaker 3: DSPs will just compile it however, they think it's supposed
10:36
Speaker 3: to be compiled, so like, as soon as you have
10:38
Speaker 3: five singles out there, like here's this EP and it's
10:41
Speaker 3: actually not not at all. But yeah, we have people
10:43
Speaker 3: all the time that they are like, I love your last EP,
10:45
Speaker 3: and I'm like, dang, it's been a very long time.
10:48
Speaker 3: But no, it's it's actually just like an accumulation of
10:51
Speaker 3: singles that are already out. That's how like Apple Music
10:54
Speaker 3: and Spotify, that's just how they they can like process
10:57
Speaker 3: their info or whatever. So yeah, it's uh, seven songs,
11:01
Speaker 3: maybe six seven songs that are out already, and we love,
11:04
Speaker 3: love love this format of releasing songs in a manner
11:09
Speaker 3: where people can digest each song as its own single.
11:12
Speaker 3: You know, every song has its own spotlight, which is
11:16
Speaker 3: really beneficial on you know, when we're touring as much
11:18
Speaker 3: as we are, and we can kind of roll out
11:20
Speaker 3: a new song or maybe two for every tour that
11:23
Speaker 3: we're doing, and that way it's not it's not so
11:26
Speaker 3: much for people to get all at once so much
11:28
Speaker 3: new material. So yeah, it's cool, man. It's it's been
11:32
Speaker 3: a lot of fun to watch the reactions to each
11:35
Speaker 3: song and for each song to have its own opportunity
11:38
Speaker 3: to get playlisted and things like that has been really
11:41
Speaker 3: beneficial for us. So yeah, it's cool, it is.
11:44
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's hard to believe that even
11:46
Speaker 1: like maybe ten to fifteen years ago, just the way
11:50
Speaker 1: you release music was so different, you know, because it
11:53
Speaker 1: was like, you know, an album was like a big thing,
11:56
Speaker 1: so you'd have a whole album cycle. But like now,
11:58
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got some of these songs have probably
11:59
Speaker 1: been out for a little while, where I mean, there's
12:02
Speaker 1: what there's probably a possibility that you've even played some
12:06
Speaker 1: of the number of these songs live already, right, Yeah, yeah.
12:09
Speaker 3: We started rolling them out. I mean Chaotic was the
12:11
Speaker 3: first single from the record that we released, and we've
12:13
Speaker 3: played that on multiple tours now, and we've been introducing
12:17
Speaker 3: new ones on every tour that we've done. So yeah,
12:19
Speaker 3: I have all of them. We have not played shape
12:22
Speaker 3: Shifter the song live yet, which will be very sick,
12:27
Speaker 3: but we have not done that yet and looking forward
12:29
Speaker 3: to doing that on the Shape Shift or tour.
12:31
Speaker 2: Love it love that.
12:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, was there anything in terms of just like a
12:38
Speaker 1: sound or maybe even for you lyrically that you were like, hey,
12:40
Speaker 1: I want to I want to try this a little
12:42
Speaker 1: differently with these songs versus maybe prior Memphis music, Like,
12:46
Speaker 1: was there any sort of intention around like we're going
12:48
Speaker 1: to try to make this a little different in this way.
12:51
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't think so. I mean, I go
12:54
Speaker 3: into tracking, and in the last two records, you know,
12:58
Speaker 3: vocals have been recorded here shape I recorded all the
13:01
Speaker 3: vocals myself completely, and I noticed that when I'm doing
13:05
Speaker 3: that now, I will be I will kind of like
13:08
Speaker 3: discover different things about my voice that I like, things
13:12
Speaker 3: that I don't like, you know, and like just kind
13:14
Speaker 3: of playing with things in a way where if you
13:17
Speaker 3: write a song, you go and you have, you know,
13:20
Speaker 3: a week in the studio to do all the vocals
13:21
Speaker 3: for the whole album, you're not thinking about You're thinking
13:24
Speaker 3: about getting a song done to the best of your ability,
13:26
Speaker 3: but you're not like experimenting as much as I have
13:30
Speaker 3: the ability to do now here. And so just in
13:33
Speaker 3: that regard, you know, definitely some exploration, some experimenting, but
13:39
Speaker 3: I don't think I would say I went into it
13:41
Speaker 3: lyrically being like this needs to be different than everything else.
13:44
Speaker 3: I think I naturally feel like every record has its
13:47
Speaker 3: progression lyrically and its own kind of thing without really
13:52
Speaker 3: having to make that an intentional focus.
13:55
Speaker 1: Is there where there like maybe specific themes that you
13:58
Speaker 1: were wanting to touch on lyrically for this album, maybe
14:02
Speaker 1: in comparison to some other albums like Where, or maybe
14:05
Speaker 1: were there like themes that were coming up for you
14:08
Speaker 1: that were that seemed to be fairy common for or
14:11
Speaker 1: that they were coming up for you fairly commonly.
14:13
Speaker 2: Uh. Yeah, I'm just kind of curious, like what.
14:15
Speaker 1: Did you I don't know, maybe maybe every song is
14:17
Speaker 1: like just totally different lyrically from each other, But I'm
14:19
Speaker 1: just curious if there's like some sort of maybe common
14:22
Speaker 1: theme or at least maybe themes that are stories that
14:24
Speaker 1: you were wanting to touch on.
14:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm you know. We called the album shape Shifter
14:29
Speaker 3: because I think so much of the record points back
14:32
Speaker 3: to the things that we struggle with as humans and
14:38
Speaker 3: the faces, the masks that we put on to feel
14:41
Speaker 3: like we become something acceptable or lovable. And I think
14:46
Speaker 3: for me in this season of my life, what's been
14:48
Speaker 3: so important has been to let go of the idea
14:53
Speaker 3: that if I'm not perfect for you, I'm not lovable
14:56
Speaker 3: and to literally be like here are all the things
14:59
Speaker 3: that I am struggling with, and to still believe that
15:04
Speaker 3: you're a valuable person when those things are out in
15:06
Speaker 3: the open, when those things become something that you're not hiding,
15:10
Speaker 3: something that's no longer in the shadows, right, And so
15:13
Speaker 3: I've really wanted to be very blatantly open and honest
15:19
Speaker 3: so that these songs could be something that other people
15:21
Speaker 3: could relate to as well. I think that the more
15:24
Speaker 3: we talk about the things that we struggle, the more
15:26
Speaker 3: that those things are normalized, and the more people realize
15:28
Speaker 3: that they're not alone in what they're dealing with, which
15:31
Speaker 3: has been a very common theme throughout a lot of
15:34
Speaker 3: our records, but this one especially from addiction to you know,
15:40
Speaker 3: mental health to relationship issues and everything being just as
15:45
Speaker 3: raw as possible, which is sometimes uncomfortable, But when you
15:49
Speaker 3: get to that point that's really the only that's the
15:53
Speaker 3: only way to really connect with the listener is to
15:56
Speaker 3: be honest, because they want that too, you know.
16:00
Speaker 1: That seems like the whole point of music is to
16:02
Speaker 1: just like have that honest expression of like who you are,
16:06
Speaker 1: warts and all right, and like, yeah, there's just no
16:09
Speaker 1: other way to make music, at least in my opinion,
16:12
Speaker 1: like if music is like avoiding that, then it's literally
16:14
Speaker 1: defeating the entire purpose of art.
16:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I've definitely been somebody that has avoided that
16:21
Speaker 3: in the in the past, you know, you So it
16:25
Speaker 3: feels like there's so much on the line when you're
16:28
Speaker 3: writing a song that you know is going to be
16:29
Speaker 3: heard and you feel like you just want to hide.
16:34
Speaker 3: I think it's natural as a human to just want
16:36
Speaker 3: to hide. And I just I think that's a lie
16:40
Speaker 3: that we believe. I think that the more we test
16:42
Speaker 3: the waters, the more we are, Like I wonder if
16:46
Speaker 3: this person will still like me if they know this
16:49
Speaker 3: about me and then you tell them they're like, oh yeah,
16:51
Speaker 3: well I deal with that too. And it's this really
16:53
Speaker 3: beautiful thing where I just think that humans can be
16:58
Speaker 3: more confident in their skin than they believe that they
17:00
Speaker 3: can be.
17:01
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Yeah.
17:02
Speaker 1: I have toen like think about just like even some
17:04
Speaker 1: of the like important leaders in our world, Like it's
17:08
Speaker 1: just see especially like for a lot of the men,
17:11
Speaker 1: like the male leaders in our world, Like so many
17:13
Speaker 1: of them are probably navigating their own like issues, but
17:16
Speaker 1: they're like hiding it, right, Like they they don't want
17:19
Speaker 1: you to know, right, and like, I wonder, like how
17:21
Speaker 1: much our world would totally change, especially if like our
17:24
Speaker 1: leaders were willing to be like, hey, like I'm really
17:26
Speaker 1: struggling with this, and like, I know it's it's not
17:29
Speaker 1: you know. I know that as a leader, I'm not
17:31
Speaker 1: supposed to be vulnerable like this, But I wonder how
17:33
Speaker 1: much of the world would change if, especially if men
17:36
Speaker 1: were like willing to say, you know what, like I'm
17:37
Speaker 1: really struggling with this right now, and uh yeah, I
17:40
Speaker 1: just especially for our leaders, I wonder how much would change.
17:43
Speaker 2: Man.
17:44
Speaker 3: I would hope that we would see that one day,
17:47
Speaker 3: because I totally agree. I think that the people that
17:52
Speaker 3: other people are looking up to, pretending that they are
17:55
Speaker 3: something that they are not, or that they have it
17:57
Speaker 3: together in a way that they don't, is the most
18:00
Speaker 3: poisonous thing. Yeah, because it gives people the false belief that, oh,
18:04
Speaker 3: what I'm struggling with is actually like really abnormal in
18:07
Speaker 3: something I should hide.
18:08
Speaker 2: I just don't.
18:09
Speaker 3: I don't buy into that anymore, you know, Like I do.
18:13
Speaker 3: I want people to listen to this record and feel
18:16
Speaker 3: like they can be honest and relates. That's really what
18:20
Speaker 3: it's all about.
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
18:24
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about this album already
18:27
Speaker 1: is you have maybe arguably my favorite or what I
18:31
Speaker 1: think to be the most talented vocalist ever in alternative history.
18:35
Speaker 1: And sorry, like I think maybe you're probably like top five,
18:39
Speaker 1: but like you're not the Christian Linkskag And so tell
18:43
Speaker 1: me the story of how you get that guy to
18:45
Speaker 1: be involved in this album, because that is it's so
18:47
Speaker 1: cool that like a Blindside feature is on this, Like
18:51
Speaker 1: Blindside is I would imagine, like you're probably a huge
18:53
Speaker 1: Blindside fan, and so just to like get Blindside and
18:56
Speaker 1: Christian involved in this like that is so cool.
18:58
Speaker 2: So, yeah, what's the story of getting should involved?
19:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he is like my favorite singer screamer ever
19:06
Speaker 3: and has been a bucket list guest vocalist of mine
19:09
Speaker 3: for a long time. We just connected over Instagram a
19:11
Speaker 3: few years ago and then I saw him at Furnace
19:14
Speaker 3: Fest for a split second. But more than anything, it
19:19
Speaker 3: just came down to like the day, you know, I
19:22
Speaker 3: thought we had the song, we had the song that
19:24
Speaker 3: made the most sense for his vocal on it. This
19:27
Speaker 3: was after four albums of considering him for you know,
19:30
Speaker 3: guest vocals, and I just messaged him, and I was like, hey, dude,
19:35
Speaker 3: I've got a song. I'd love to have you on it.
19:36
Speaker 3: And we just we hopped on the phone a few
19:39
Speaker 3: days later and just talked through things in Sweden obviously,
19:43
Speaker 3: and so I think he wanted to wrap his head
19:46
Speaker 3: around the lyrical concept because just you know, him being
19:50
Speaker 3: Swedish and everything, you know, just maybe a little bit
19:53
Speaker 3: more difficult to understand exactly what I was saying. And
19:56
Speaker 3: it's also like a really dark con about my own
20:01
Speaker 3: problems with moderation. I have the hardest time with moderation
20:04
Speaker 3: with everything in my life. And uh, and if I'm
20:10
Speaker 3: not careful, it will be what kills me, you know.
20:12
Speaker 1: And are you saying you might be in three band someday,
20:14
Speaker 1: like if you control yourself.
20:18
Speaker 3: No, but I am in too, and that's enough. Yeah, yeah, no,
20:22
Speaker 3: that's that's funny. I I just you know, I was
20:25
Speaker 3: explaining that to him, and it seemed like it resonated
20:28
Speaker 3: with him really well, and he he recorded his parts
20:33
Speaker 3: in the studio in Sweden. He filmed his parts for
20:36
Speaker 3: the music video in Sweden. It's kind of a cool
20:38
Speaker 3: thing about the time that we're alive today and making music.
20:42
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just hit him up and and he
20:45
Speaker 3: was down. I had it been earlier in our career
20:48
Speaker 3: and there wasn't as much to show for like this
20:51
Speaker 3: being something that would be worthwhile for him. I don't
20:53
Speaker 3: know if it would have worked out. So I think
20:55
Speaker 3: the timing was perfect.
20:56
Speaker 2: And sorry, my dog's there. We've gotta all out war going.
21:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's a compressor on this mic too, so
21:04
Speaker 3: you're like they're at the other side of the house
21:06
Speaker 3: and you're like really hearing them bark. We can pause
21:09
Speaker 3: for a second if you want while they finish barking
21:12
Speaker 3: at the post office guy.
21:15
Speaker 1: They're just it's like intrinsic to dog nature to just
21:20
Speaker 1: absolutely hate a male person.
21:21
Speaker 3: They see him every single day because he picks up
21:24
Speaker 3: from our house for on point, you know, which is
21:26
Speaker 3: still happening for the next couple of days. And every
21:30
Speaker 3: day it's been the same guy for the last eleven
21:32
Speaker 3: years we've been in this house, and they just want
21:34
Speaker 3: to murder him. Dude.
21:36
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
21:36
Speaker 1: I'm sure like they hang out like they would they
21:38
Speaker 1: would like figure it out and be like, oh this.
21:40
Speaker 3: Mays be buddies, but they've never Yeah, they've never gotten
21:43
Speaker 3: to spend any time with the guy. He's the sweetest
21:45
Speaker 3: dude ever. But yeah, anyways, they should be done.
21:49
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, I gotta like keep going along this Christian
21:53
Speaker 1: linkskog uh kind of trail just because I'm just like,
21:57
Speaker 1: I think again, he's I think he's probably maybe the
22:01
Speaker 1: most talented vocalist.
22:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, we are going for it today.
22:07
Speaker 3: That's probably Amazon now, which is another really common way.
22:10
Speaker 2: Yeah they yeah, I like.
22:16
Speaker 1: You mentioned like he might be like your favorite vocalist.
22:19
Speaker 1: I think one of the things about Christian's vocals that
22:24
Speaker 1: I think like set him over the top for me
22:26
Speaker 1: of like just unbelievable talent was he would have these moments,
22:30
Speaker 1: especially like an earlier maybe like Silence and about a
22:33
Speaker 1: Burning Fire era of Blindside, where he would like be
22:36
Speaker 1: in the middle of a note singing it, and then
22:38
Speaker 1: it would go into a scream.
22:39
Speaker 2: Or vice versa. Like he'd be in the middle of
22:40
Speaker 2: a note screaming.
22:41
Speaker 1: It and then going to like it seamlessly in the
22:44
Speaker 1: same syllable sing it. It was just like, no, like,
22:48
Speaker 1: very few people can actually do that, and I don't
22:51
Speaker 1: is that something that you've ever practiced or like, have
22:53
Speaker 1: you ever been able to figure out, like how does
22:55
Speaker 1: Christian do that, like I've that to me, like seems
22:58
Speaker 1: like something where it's like he must just have like
23:00
Speaker 1: some sort of like abnormal vocal cord or whatever to
23:03
Speaker 1: be able to do that.
23:05
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it is something that I that I mimicked
23:07
Speaker 3: a lot, you know, growing up and tried to emulate.
23:11
Speaker 3: And there's a handful of Memphis songs where you can
23:13
Speaker 3: tell that I'm doing that. It's he is really gifted.
23:17
Speaker 3: I also just love the tone of his voice. It's
23:20
Speaker 3: different than I think anything I've ever heard, Like his
23:22
Speaker 3: actual natural born vocal tone is just cool. It's just
23:27
Speaker 3: like a cool sounding thing. But yeah, he's rad really
23:32
Speaker 3: good dude. And I hope one day we'll have the
23:35
Speaker 3: opportunity to play the song together. It would be sick.
23:37
Speaker 1: Oh, that would be awesome. That'd be awesome. Well, I'm
23:39
Speaker 1: super stoked for the album. It's just again, like I know,
23:44
Speaker 1: a lot of it has already been released, but it's
23:46
Speaker 1: so great. And yeah, the Christian song, I'm just like,
23:50
Speaker 1: this was so cool to get him involved. You know,
23:54
Speaker 1: we don't hear his voice very often anymore in music.
23:57
Speaker 1: I know they maybe what was it like six years
23:59
Speaker 1: ago or five years ago? They released that Grave Digger song,
24:02
Speaker 1: but you just like don't hear his vocals very often anymore,
24:05
Speaker 1: and so it's just always really refreshing to hear him
24:08
Speaker 1: sing again.
24:09
Speaker 3: Dude, say, I could not agree more if anything, like
24:12
Speaker 3: just bringing him into this song was me bringing his
24:15
Speaker 3: voice back to the airwaves so that I could listen
24:19
Speaker 3: to it, you know, Like I love love that, dude,
24:22
Speaker 3: love that band?
24:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, love it.
24:25
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about Amberlain. So we'll go part two
24:30
Speaker 1: now of band. Yeah, yeah, what's the story of getting
24:33
Speaker 1: involved with the Amberlin Because I've been a lifelong Amberlin fan,
24:37
Speaker 1: you know, ever since even like when Blueprints initially came out,
24:40
Speaker 1: Like I was a huge fan.
24:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how how how did this?
24:44
Speaker 1: What's the whole story involved in this of how you
24:46
Speaker 1: got involved with like knowing that you know, uh, Stephen
24:49
Speaker 1: was kind of stepping down a little bit at least
24:50
Speaker 1: from like live stuff. Yeah, what's the whole story of
24:53
Speaker 1: you getting involved with them?
24:56
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, I mean it's pretty much just as random
24:59
Speaker 3: and crazy as anybody could imagine it to be. Steven
25:03
Speaker 3: and I had been like internet buddies, but nothing too deep,
25:07
Speaker 3: and maybe spent a total of fifteen minutes together ever
25:10
Speaker 3: in person. He asked me to come out to Furnace Fest.
25:14
Speaker 3: And that's the third time I've mentioned Furnessfest on this podcast.
25:18
Speaker 2: It seems like an important part of.
25:21
Speaker 3: That was an important day, dude. Yeah, I went out
25:24
Speaker 3: and sang with Amberlin. He had just messaged me and
25:26
Speaker 3: asked if I wanted to come out and do like
25:28
Speaker 3: a quick guest vocal and I did. Didn't know the
25:31
Speaker 3: rest of the guys. I had like loosely known Christian
25:36
Speaker 3: because I was a big Acceptance fan and I had
25:38
Speaker 3: seen him at like bars in Tampa and stuff like that.
25:41
Speaker 3: But yeah, he texted me completely out of the blue
25:46
Speaker 3: and it was like, Hey, I don't know what your
25:48
Speaker 3: future looks like with Memphis, but would you be interested
25:52
Speaker 3: in doing a world tour with Amberlin. That was kind
25:54
Speaker 3: of how the conversation started, was like me just doing
25:56
Speaker 3: a world tour with the bands as their singer like that.
26:00
Speaker 1: That's like you go like zero to one hundred there
26:03
Speaker 1: really quick, because like you're expecting if you get a
26:05
Speaker 1: text from Steven, you're thinking like, oh, like hey, can
26:07
Speaker 1: we're recording a song? Do you want to do guest
26:09
Speaker 1: vocals or whatever? To go from maybe that was your
26:12
Speaker 1: expectation seeing a text message from him, But to then
26:14
Speaker 1: see like world tour, that's got to be like what
26:17
Speaker 1: in the world, Like this has got to be fake.
26:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like honestly, just I wasn't even I
26:22
Speaker 3: wouldn't even have thought that he was going to ask
26:24
Speaker 3: me to do a guest vocal. Like I thought maybe
26:26
Speaker 3: he just was like in Nashville and wanted to get food,
26:29
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, but yeah, it was crazy, dude.
26:33
Speaker 3: And I got I like went downstairs and I talked
26:36
Speaker 3: to my wife, and I was like, what do you
26:37
Speaker 3: think about this? And then as I got onto the
26:38
Speaker 3: phone with the rest of the guys in the band
26:40
Speaker 3: and everything, it was pretty clear that everything was still
26:43
Speaker 3: very up in the air. It wasn't one world tour,
26:45
Speaker 3: It wasn't like one quick idea. It was like, we
26:48
Speaker 3: don't know what the future of the band looks like
26:50
Speaker 3: right now. All that we know is that Steven is
26:52
Speaker 3: very committed to his church, to his career, to his family,
26:56
Speaker 3: and he has to prioritize those things right now. So
27:00
Speaker 3: we are you know, we know for a fact that
27:02
Speaker 3: he will not be touring. We don't know what everything
27:04
Speaker 3: else is going to look like and you know, if
27:07
Speaker 3: you want to do this, here's kind of what it
27:09
Speaker 3: would look like. And I had my own, like you
27:11
Speaker 3: know things. I was just like, this is a I
27:14
Speaker 3: would never say that yes to any other band. It
27:16
Speaker 3: was a full circle dream come true moment for me.
27:20
Speaker 3: Very cool. These albums like shaped my early music. I
27:24
Speaker 3: wouldn't call it a career experience, I guess. Yeah, dude,
27:28
Speaker 3: it was just wild, like wild, and we have some
27:32
Speaker 3: even crazier, very crazy, very wild. You're you have no
27:37
Speaker 3: idea news coming here in the next few days for
27:40
Speaker 3: Amberlyn as well. Okay, but it's a yeah, dude, it's
27:47
Speaker 3: it's so it still doesn't feel real like I did
27:51
Speaker 3: twelve twelve weeks of touring with them, we released music together,
27:56
Speaker 3: all the things that you imagine it's going to take
27:59
Speaker 3: to to be like, okay, yeah, like now I'm locked in.
28:03
Speaker 3: It's still like every day, like I'll see Dia for
28:05
Speaker 3: whatever reason, Dion his face. I remember watching music videos
28:10
Speaker 3: of them and just thinking he looked so cool, like
28:12
Speaker 3: his hair and the way that it kind of like
28:14
Speaker 3: flipped and everything, and I was just like, Damn, the
28:16
Speaker 3: guy's so awesome. And I'll still like wake up. I'm
28:19
Speaker 3: drinking coffee like in the bus and he's sitting across me,
28:21
Speaker 3: and I'm just like kind of like blinking and shaking
28:24
Speaker 3: my head, like where what is happening right now?
28:27
Speaker 1: You know?
28:28
Speaker 3: Because uh, I mean there's just like the professional face
28:31
Speaker 3: you have to put on for the public and for
28:34
Speaker 3: you know, like for the whole machine to work. But
28:36
Speaker 3: I am very much still just sixteen in that bus
28:40
Speaker 3: wondering what's going on and how this is possible. That's
28:44
Speaker 3: very much still me on a daily basis.
28:46
Speaker 1: So well, at one point Nathan was even sixteen and
28:49
Speaker 1: on that bus. Yeah, it's unbelievable how young he was
28:52
Speaker 1: when he first got involved with him. It's like, yeah, yeah,
28:55
Speaker 1: there's no way he graduated. Yeah, he was still doing algebra.
28:58
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.
28:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:59
Speaker 3: I think they started touring when he was like a
29:01
Speaker 3: freshman in high school.
29:02
Speaker 1: Really young, So ridiculous crazy, that's like that's like prodigy
29:07
Speaker 1: kind of level status.
29:08
Speaker 2: Well, I'm curious, like, you know, it's obviously very.
29:12
Speaker 1: Much part of this is like touring, and it sounds
29:14
Speaker 1: like you're even you know, maybe like more involved even
29:17
Speaker 1: with the band. But yeah, I'm just like it's kind
29:19
Speaker 1: of interesting to think, like maybe from your perspective as
29:22
Speaker 1: you know, vocalist now of Amberlin, would you like would
29:26
Speaker 1: you say like Steven still like is involved in some
29:29
Speaker 1: capacity like or what what would you say? Certainly right
29:32
Speaker 1: now Steven's involvement has been like he has he been
29:35
Speaker 1: just like kind of maybe a mentor to you. Is
29:37
Speaker 1: he like actually involved in like a creative process still
29:40
Speaker 1: with Amberlin or I'm just curious, like what for you, like,
29:43
Speaker 1: what's the sort of support you're getting from Steven?
29:47
Speaker 3: I mean, if I'm looking for it, He's definitely there
29:49
Speaker 3: to offer support. We've hopped on the phone a handful
29:52
Speaker 3: of times and just talked. But uh, for the most part,
29:55
Speaker 3: like what the band is doing and what I'm doing
29:58
Speaker 3: as a part of the band is giving him like
30:01
Speaker 3: full space to do what he's doing. You know, Like
30:05
Speaker 3: he didn't step back from the band so that he
30:07
Speaker 3: could still be you know, like still have all the
30:10
Speaker 3: tasks need you know that you know, would keep him
30:13
Speaker 3: busy and like away from his family, away from the
30:16
Speaker 3: church and stuff like that. So we're giving him that
30:19
Speaker 3: ability to do everything that he needs to do as
30:22
Speaker 3: far as like creatively and stuff like that. I mean
30:25
Speaker 3: it's it's very much. I've kind of jumped fully into
30:29
Speaker 3: the picture there, and I and I have no clue,
30:32
Speaker 3: no clue like how long that will be or if
30:35
Speaker 3: it's forever or if it's a month or whatever like
30:38
Speaker 3: it just as as like wondering as the public is
30:42
Speaker 3: like so or the rest of us. And ultimately all
30:45
Speaker 3: that matters is that the band is still alive, They're
30:48
Speaker 3: still touring, the live show is still sick. Stephen can
30:54
Speaker 3: at any point whenever he would want to come back
30:58
Speaker 3: and reclaim his throne, Like would make me happy to
31:01
Speaker 3: see him with this band again, for sure, But I
31:04
Speaker 3: don't know what the future holds, and so what does
31:08
Speaker 3: what is going to happen? What does matter is that
31:11
Speaker 3: we are working super hard as if this is what
31:14
Speaker 3: it's going to look like forever, and if Stephen comes back,
31:19
Speaker 3: then we will have built even more onto that foundation
31:21
Speaker 3: for him to return to. And if he doesn't, this
31:24
Speaker 3: band is still a very exciting project. These other dudes
31:27
Speaker 3: are so freaking talented and just like they are full
31:33
Speaker 3: of so much life and music. Still, it's really cool
31:35
Speaker 3: to see and it's cool to be a part of.
31:39
Speaker 1: I really love like the potential direction that this could
31:42
Speaker 1: go because I've always thought like Amberlan's kind of an
31:45
Speaker 1: interesting band where essentially, at least from like just the
31:49
Speaker 1: instrumentation has always to me been especially their earlier stuff
31:53
Speaker 1: was like really legitimately like heavy stuff, like heavy, I
31:56
Speaker 1: mean even at times like kind of arguably like post
31:59
Speaker 1: hardcore kind of like riffs and instrumentation. But Steven's vocals
32:03
Speaker 1: have always like he obviously has that very distinctive kind
32:06
Speaker 1: of soft style, and I've always been really curious to
32:10
Speaker 1: like think, like what would Amberlin sound like with somebody
32:13
Speaker 1: who really like could do the gritty kind of edgy vocals,
32:17
Speaker 1: And so, you know, obviously with your background with Memphis,
32:19
Speaker 1: like I'm kind of like, well, now we get to
32:21
Speaker 1: at least see that, And I'm like, I'm just curious, like,
32:23
Speaker 1: have is that something you've ever thought about, like knowing
32:25
Speaker 1: that Steven's vocals are very distinctive and you know, kind
32:29
Speaker 1: of have that really soft tone to them despite the
32:32
Speaker 1: fact that their their instrumentation is like heavy stuff typically.
32:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean there's definitely Steven and I are
32:38
Speaker 3: very different vocalists in that regard, and there is a
32:43
Speaker 3: lot of room to play with aspects of things like that,
32:47
Speaker 3: you know, and the band is definitely stoked on the
32:51
Speaker 3: heavier side of themselves and could see you know, going
32:55
Speaker 3: down that road even more in the future, and we'll see. Yeah,
32:59
Speaker 3: I think that's all I can say for now.
33:01
Speaker 2: Love it, love it.
33:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:03
Speaker 1: Well, I think I mentioned this earlier, but I will
33:05
Speaker 1: be seeing you guys here. I don't remember if it's
33:08
Speaker 1: March or April, but I'll be seeing you here in
33:10
Speaker 1: Minneapolis on the Never Take Friendship Personal tour. And that's
33:16
Speaker 1: gotta be something for Like I would imagine you listen
33:18
Speaker 1: to that album when you're a kid, right, Like, it's
33:20
Speaker 1: got to be kind of cool that you get to
33:23
Speaker 1: literally sing for the tour for the twenty eighth anniversary
33:27
Speaker 1: tour for this album, like an album that I'm sure
33:29
Speaker 1: you grew up with, right Yeah.
33:31
Speaker 3: It's it is like actual psycho level, Like, yeah, it's
33:36
Speaker 3: just as crazy as you think. Dude.
33:38
Speaker 1: It's uh cause, like there's no way, like you were
33:40
Speaker 1: listening to that album for the first time in two
33:42
Speaker 1: thousand and five and ever thought I actually would be
33:44
Speaker 1: singing that album with this band twenty years later.
33:48
Speaker 3: No, dude, never, It's it's definitely gotten to the point
33:51
Speaker 3: the Amberlin has got the Amberlin thing in my life
33:55
Speaker 3: has definitely gotten to the point where, at this point
33:58
Speaker 3: my involvement in the band is going to be a
34:01
Speaker 3: part of the band's history, which is insane, Like it
34:07
Speaker 3: is absolutely insane, And being a part of this tour
34:14
Speaker 3: is uh yeah. I cannot describe how important that album
34:21
Speaker 3: was to you know, my early years, and how much
34:24
Speaker 3: I still love that album, and how crazy it is
34:29
Speaker 3: going to be to sing those songs every single night
34:34
Speaker 3: to celebrate that record with their fans, because I am
34:37
Speaker 3: the fans I am, I am the right right and
34:41
Speaker 3: so there will be not one degree of separation between
34:44
Speaker 3: the crowd and the stage on that tour. I am
34:46
Speaker 3: just as excited as every single one of you.
34:49
Speaker 1: Right Well, I was about to say, I'm like, I know,
34:50
Speaker 1: there's a level of professionalism that you're able to accomplish
34:54
Speaker 1: where you know you're you're gonna nail all the notes
34:56
Speaker 1: and everything.
34:58
Speaker 2: And also it's got.
34:59
Speaker 1: To be feel like a little weird that you're on
35:02
Speaker 1: that side of the stage and not the other side
35:03
Speaker 1: with all the other fans, like because like, you know,
35:07
Speaker 1: in a different world, you would be one of those
35:09
Speaker 1: fans like out you know, singing to these songs, but
35:13
Speaker 1: this Yeah, but not on the stage.
35:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a tour. I would not have missed.
35:18
Speaker 3: This is a tour I would have gone to multiple
35:20
Speaker 3: cities for you know.
35:21
Speaker 1: So even if you were out on tour, like even
35:24
Speaker 1: if Memphis was on tour, you would like try to
35:26
Speaker 1: find a way to make it work.
35:27
Speaker 3: Oh for sure. And a lot of times that makes
35:29
Speaker 3: it easier because you're not in one spot. You're in
35:31
Speaker 3: a different spot every day, so like at some point
35:33
Speaker 3: you get at least kind of close right in the
35:35
Speaker 3: routings and then you're like, oh, I can go to
35:37
Speaker 3: that one. But yeah, I certainly would have wanted to
35:40
Speaker 3: see this show as a fan. Absolutely.
35:44
Speaker 2: That's so cool.
35:45
Speaker 1: Well, I'm I'm really stoked, Like again, when I saw
35:47
Speaker 1: the announcement a while back about you, you know, sort
35:50
Speaker 1: of getting added to the mix and kind of knowing that,
35:53
Speaker 1: you know, Stephen more or less is taking a step back,
35:56
Speaker 1: and I just was really excited. I'm like, no, you know,
35:59
Speaker 1: especially the interviewing you before a few years ago, I
36:02
Speaker 1: was like, I can't think of a better person to
36:04
Speaker 1: fit this role right now than you. And obviously I've
36:07
Speaker 1: never been in Amberlyn. I don't know those guys at all,
36:10
Speaker 1: but I would imagine that they also very much knew.
36:14
Speaker 2: Like you vocally.
36:15
Speaker 1: You're just like how cool and chill you are, Like
36:18
Speaker 1: you just have got to be like the best fit
36:20
Speaker 1: for this band.
36:21
Speaker 3: It's been a really good fit. And they are like
36:24
Speaker 3: they constantly are really good at showing gratitude for my
36:27
Speaker 3: presence there, which they know that I am equally as
36:33
Speaker 3: excited to be there, you know. But it's been a
36:35
Speaker 3: really cool thing, dude, And I appreciate what you said.
36:39
Speaker 3: It's really great to hear that, because I am constantly
36:44
Speaker 3: in a state of imposter syndrome. I love Steven's voice,
36:48
Speaker 3: I love Steven as a front man. I love this
36:52
Speaker 3: band with Stephen. Any negative comment that anybody posts about
36:56
Speaker 3: me being in the band, I'm usually like, yeah, I
36:58
Speaker 3: feel you know. I mean, it's like, I get it.
37:01
Speaker 3: But I'm very honored to be a part of keeping
37:05
Speaker 3: this band alive because it's a band that deserves to
37:07
Speaker 3: be alive with or without Steven. Truly, genuinely, Joey and
37:12
Speaker 3: Dion and Nate and Christian are dudes that deserve to
37:16
Speaker 3: continue to celebrate the legacy of this band. Because they
37:19
Speaker 3: were just as much a part of creating it as
37:21
Speaker 3: Stephen was, and so I'm honored to be there, honored
37:25
Speaker 3: to be a part of it. It is psycho, dude.
37:27
Speaker 3: I mean, anything that anybody could ever dream up or
37:30
Speaker 3: make a movie about it is so that for me,
37:34
Speaker 3: it's insane. And yeah, don't miss the never take Friendship
37:37
Speaker 3: personal twenty year or two. It is gonna be sick
37:40
Speaker 3: and I cannot wait.
37:41
Speaker 2: I can't again.
37:42
Speaker 1: I'm so excited, and yeah, like I know I maybe
37:45
Speaker 1: joked at the beginning, but you know, I would imagine
37:47
Speaker 1: it's a lot right now to balance both bands. But
37:50
Speaker 1: I hope you're able to find like the right rhythm
37:52
Speaker 1: in life to just make this work because obviously, at
37:56
Speaker 1: least for fans like myself, like fans of both bands,
37:59
Speaker 1: like for like myself, we want to see this work
38:02
Speaker 1: for you just in terms of your life, because obviously,
38:05
Speaker 1: like seeing you in Amberlin and seeing you in Memphis
38:07
Speaker 1: is like such a cool experience for those of us
38:10
Speaker 1: who really like your vocals, thank you.
38:12
Speaker 3: So much, and it is awesome. Like the how different
38:17
Speaker 3: the two bands are getting to be, getting to express
38:21
Speaker 3: creatively in both of those is a huge gift, and
38:24
Speaker 3: so yeah, I want it to work out just as
38:26
Speaker 3: bad as anybody else, and we are. We're making it work,
38:29
Speaker 3: and Amberlin is working around the Memphis tour schedule, so
38:32
Speaker 3: there's no threat to Memphis at all, to the other members,
38:37
Speaker 3: to our fan base, to anybody like that. Band is
38:39
Speaker 3: so full steam ahead right now. And this is not
38:43
Speaker 3: affecting that. It's just me being on tour forever is
38:46
Speaker 3: really what it looks like. And I'm well aware that
38:49
Speaker 3: nothing lasts forever, and I'm just choosing to see only
38:55
Speaker 3: the gratitude in this season of like, this is awesome
38:58
Speaker 3: and I can't wait to look back on how crazy
39:01
Speaker 3: everything was and be like, dang, but right now it
39:04
Speaker 3: just is crazy and I'm just doing all of it
39:06
Speaker 3: and it's cool and and I love those dudes. I
39:09
Speaker 3: can't say that enough. And I'm just I'm honored to
39:10
Speaker 3: be there.
39:11
Speaker 1: So yeah, love that well dream it's gotta be a
39:13
Speaker 1: dream come true. And I'm one of those people when
39:15
Speaker 1: I see people's dreams like come true, it's I'm just like,
39:18
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for you. So's I'm giddy exper excitement
39:22
Speaker 1: for you right now.
39:22
Speaker 2: I just think it's really.
39:23
Speaker 3: Cool that's awesome.
39:25
Speaker 1: So well, I think now we're ready for your top five,
39:30
Speaker 1: or at least not maybe at top five, maybe you
39:32
Speaker 1: want to rank it or anything.
39:33
Speaker 4: But five guilty pleasure artists.
39:35
Speaker 1: So these are the artists, Maddie, that you know, basically
39:39
Speaker 1: not necessarily that you feel guilty for listening to them,
39:42
Speaker 1: but maybe others would make you feel guilty for listening
39:45
Speaker 1: to them. So what are maybe five guilty pleasure artists
39:48
Speaker 1: that you just can't help but enjoy.
39:52
Speaker 3: I mean, my entire childhood is guilty pleasure artists and
39:58
Speaker 3: artists that I would get made fun of for listening to.
40:01
Speaker 3: I wasn't allowed to listen to anything mainstream or secular, right,
40:05
Speaker 3: and so like my introduction to just like distorted guitars
40:12
Speaker 3: was reliant, kay, you know what I mean. It's like, yeah,
40:15
Speaker 3: I was. It was DZ Talk, Audio, Adrilline, Mercy Me,
40:19
Speaker 3: Jars of Clay, like that was my entire childhood. And
40:23
Speaker 3: my older brother played in a in a CCM band,
40:26
Speaker 3: and so we would, you know, the family would travel
40:28
Speaker 3: to watch him play. And my sister Amy dated you know,
40:32
Speaker 3: one of the dudes from Petra and like all this
40:35
Speaker 3: stuff where it was just that was my whole life.
40:38
Speaker 3: A lot of people watching this probably won't even know
40:41
Speaker 3: the artists that I just mentioned, and if you do
40:43
Speaker 3: know him, you're probably like, huh, you know, nerd. And
40:46
Speaker 3: then to some of us, it's like, no, like that
40:49
Speaker 3: DC talk that was that was your entire life. It
40:52
Speaker 3: was my entire life. It truly was. And it wasn't
40:55
Speaker 3: until like the tooth and nail Solid State era that
40:57
Speaker 3: I got into heavy music because I was allowed to
40:59
Speaker 3: listen to it, and then from there it just grew
41:01
Speaker 3: into this love for like very expressive music that turned
41:05
Speaker 3: into what is now Memphis May Fire and it's you know,
41:08
Speaker 3: so yeah, I would say that's my whole life, but
41:10
Speaker 3: I would the one current example of music that is
41:15
Speaker 3: that people think is funny or whatever is that I
41:18
Speaker 3: these days almost predominantly listen to low five beats.
41:23
Speaker 2: Oh that's that's awesome. Actually, I'm a big things that.
41:27
Speaker 3: It is like parties at my house. It is in
41:31
Speaker 3: the bus twenty four to seven, and people come over
41:34
Speaker 3: and they are like, is this like god, jazz, techno?
41:37
Speaker 3: What's going on? And I'm just like, dude, don't hate
41:40
Speaker 3: on it. I love this. I think that I love
41:43
Speaker 3: it because it it's a it's an environment enhancer. In
41:47
Speaker 3: my opinion, I think it just makes every environment feel better.
41:49
Speaker 3: But also there's no lyrics, and so it's not my
41:53
Speaker 3: brain like processing someone else's like writing styles, and just
41:58
Speaker 3: like the way that my artist brain works. It's like
42:02
Speaker 3: I often, since this has been my career, have a
42:04
Speaker 3: hard time listening to music without like an analytical brain,
42:09
Speaker 3: which sucks, Like I hate that about myself, and so I, uh,
42:13
Speaker 3: Lo Fi Beats is just like I don't know who
42:15
Speaker 3: that artist is. I don't care who is it. Is
42:17
Speaker 3: it a kid in his bedroom that's sick, right, And
42:20
Speaker 3: I just listened to that like all day long. So
42:24
Speaker 3: that's that's what I listened to. And like Cody from
42:26
Speaker 3: Wage War, he's like one of my best friends in
42:27
Speaker 3: the world. It's always comes over and he is like
42:29
Speaker 3: a really good DJ for parties, Like he will hook
42:34
Speaker 3: him up to Bluetooth and he'll just go away with whatever,
42:37
Speaker 3: like the newest, hottest thing is that everybody loves. And
42:39
Speaker 3: so when I put on low Fi Beats, he's like, yo, dog, like, hey,
42:43
Speaker 3: this ain't the vibe. Yeah, And uh, to me, it
42:47
Speaker 3: very much is the vibe. I love it.
42:51
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan.
42:52
Speaker 1: I love especially can we're watching like a YouTube video
42:55
Speaker 1: or whatever, and if you hear like a low fi
42:57
Speaker 1: beat in the background of somebody's YouTube video, I'm like,
43:00
Speaker 1: I love this already. H I don't know what it
43:03
Speaker 1: is about the lo fi sound too. I like it
43:05
Speaker 1: doesn't even necessarily have to be like lo fi beat
43:08
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, but like just lo fi in general,
43:10
Speaker 1: there's just something Maybe it's nostalgic even though I didn't
43:13
Speaker 1: like I grew up in you know, the the digital world.
43:16
Speaker 1: But like, I don't know what it is about the
43:18
Speaker 1: lo fi like sound. But they're even like there's a band,
43:21
Speaker 1: an indie band that I really love that's a lo
43:23
Speaker 1: fi indie band called Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and like they
43:27
Speaker 1: have obviously.
43:29
Speaker 2: Unknown Mortal Unknown Mortal.
43:31
Speaker 1: Orchestra, but yeah, they have like it's like it's like
43:34
Speaker 1: very indies, very indies vibe, but very low fi. Like
43:39
Speaker 1: they have a song called like Swim and Sleep or something.
43:42
Speaker 1: Highly recommend checking that out. But there's just something about
43:45
Speaker 1: that lo fi sound where it almost sounds like is
43:47
Speaker 1: this even produced in the same like generation right now.
43:51
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. I just think it's
43:52
Speaker 2: it's so great.
43:53
Speaker 3: Though, produced by an alien. Yeah, dude, it's so it's
43:57
Speaker 3: so sick, and it really is just a vibe. And
43:59
Speaker 3: I know, like a lot of the playlists are called
44:01
Speaker 3: like study beats and stuff like that or whatever it's
44:04
Speaker 3: on in our tour bus, like twenty four to seven,
44:06
Speaker 3: to the point where someone else will put something on
44:08
Speaker 3: and I'll just like switch it back, and everyone's given
44:11
Speaker 3: up on the fact that that is just what it's
44:14
Speaker 3: gonna the playlist and the sound of our bus, that's
44:16
Speaker 3: what it's going to be. I'm a huge fan.
44:18
Speaker 4: Love it, Maddie. What do you want to plug?
44:22
Speaker 1: Obviously too, like tours going on, albums coming out here
44:26
Speaker 1: and just over a month, Yeah, what do you want
44:28
Speaker 1: to plug?
44:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, keep an eye out for new Amberlin music as well.
44:33
Speaker 3: Obviously Memphis May Fire, Shape Shifter coming March twenty eighth.
44:36
Speaker 3: So excited for the whole record to be out. Even
44:39
Speaker 3: if you're someone who's been listening to the singles as
44:41
Speaker 3: they've come out, listening to the record as a whole
44:45
Speaker 3: and digesting it as a whole is a different experience.
44:47
Speaker 3: I'm really stoked for people to do that, and also
44:51
Speaker 3: watching all the music videos in sequence and so you
44:53
Speaker 3: can kind of watch the whole album is a lot
44:55
Speaker 3: of fun too, and yeah, new Amberlin music stuff that
45:01
Speaker 3: nobody knows about yet it is coming soon. They never
45:04
Speaker 3: take friendship personal. Twenty year tour, the shape Shift or
45:06
Speaker 3: tour for Memphis may Fire. If you followed me on socials,
45:11
Speaker 3: you're not gonna miss a thing. So do that at
45:13
Speaker 3: Mattie Mullens on stuff and we'll see you guys on
45:15
Speaker 3: the road.
45:15
Speaker 2: Love it, love it, anything else you'd like to plug, Mattie.
45:19
Speaker 3: Dude, just thanks for having me. I'm always I'm one
45:22
Speaker 3: of the weird ones that loves press. I feel very
45:26
Speaker 3: lucky that anybody would want to talk about anything that
45:28
Speaker 3: I do creatively, and so thanks for having me.
45:31
Speaker 1: Love it, love it well, I'm super stoked again. I'll
45:34
Speaker 1: be seeing you guys here and just like over a
45:36
Speaker 1: month or again. And I don't remember when the Minneapolis tours.
45:38
Speaker 1: I think it may be at the end of March,
45:40
Speaker 1: so I'll see you then and super super stoked for
45:43
Speaker 1: that show and really excited. I think the album's coming
45:45
Speaker 1: out around that time too, So just really really excited
45:48
Speaker 1: for all the things that are coming out of your
45:49
Speaker 1: camp and I'll see you in a month and a half.
45:53
Speaker 3: Stoked, awesome man, thanks for having me, God shape.
45:59
Speaker 1: Shaft well
46:06
Speaker 2: Sade, Sat, Sad Sat