Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / #58 | Juan Manuel (ZombieKing)

Transcript

#58 | Juan Manuel (ZombieKing) · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What's going on, y'all?
0:01
SPEAKER_00: Corpus Christi Originals back at it again, coming to you live from the uh produced Streamlabs studio downtown Corpus Christi, Texas.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh today we got uh Zombie Kings vocalist Juan Manuel.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: What's going on, dude?
0:12
SPEAKER_02: What's up, everybody?
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how's it going, man?
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how's it going?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: So uh so we uh we met through TikTok.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: So you saw some of our stuff, and then you're like, hey, let me just uh uh I guess shoot my shot so you can be on the podcast or what?
0:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, uh yeah, so I just I mean we were just talking about this.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: I got on TikTok maybe less than a year ago.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: I don't really pour much into it, but uh yeah, I'm trying to you know build up my I guess individual uh portfolios.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: What or yeah, in a in a sense.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: And um on my feed I saw a few of your clips, and then uh um I was like, you know what, man, it kind of makes sense to you know collaborate with people from from the area, and uh I'm a corpus boy, and I saw your your page and I was like no brainer, right?
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Like what school did you go to?
0:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh Miller.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh, hell yeah, bro.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Buccaneers in the house.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, man.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's cool.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: It's rare we get some bucks in here.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: A lot of them are from Moody.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: They have to do it from yesterday, some RMA.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: But dude, glad you're here, bro.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: And uh, yeah, so you do you know uh Robert Beltran?
1:13
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: So you know him, well, I guess from the neighborhood or whatever, or because y'all are recording with him now, or yeah, so we got um we got put in touch with him really through um some of the guys that he's worked with in the past.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Um do a little shout out to uh um shattered son.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Those guys, you know, from Atlas, Texas, they're uh they're still doing their thing.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: I think they're they're they're trying to do a little uh comeback.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: They just had a show a couple of months ago and we that we were on.
1:42
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, that kind of like brought us um together with Robert.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh he's the guy in town in the area that does you know rock and metal, and that's his like that's what he specializes in.
1:53
SPEAKER_02: So we were like, let's go, let's go try that out.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: And so we've worked, we've worked with him the last uh I want to say four years, four and a half, five years.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: What's that been has so the change is has that been what's that like as far as changing recording engineers to him now?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Is it is it a different recording process uh for you guys?
2:11
SPEAKER_02: It's uh so it's weird because um you would think there would be less um I guess less creative freedom or less say so, but it's still all there.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: Um I I guess the biggest thing is uh we have a lot more direction now.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, there's that extra member of the band who's not really, but he's there watching and he's the the guy to like you know kind of just bounce ideas off of, or if we're kind of just getting too crazy with things like hey, like bring us back in and like this is your bread and butter, let's let's stick with this, you know.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: Um whereas before the last you know, the few guys that we've worked with here in town, it was kind of like set up the mics and um you know, set up everything, do your thing.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: So and they yeah, they had their um they had their uh ideas too, but it was more of like we're going in, we got our ideas, this is what we're gonna do.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: And now it's more of like, hey, we should try this, we should try this, just in case, even if it doesn't work, let's get everything out there, put it all together, and then end product is what pretty much what we've been putting out now.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shout out to Robert Beltran, which I I was I think was in the same grade, group metagrador graduated the same year, but uh excrete was their band that they were in with uh Seth and can't remember the other dudes in there, but yeah, shout out to them.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I I had a band 2000s, and we were we recorded with Robert.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I I had no idea he had a studio in his home.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, uh so you so you guys are open to the ideas that he might have for y'all's stuff?
3:46
SPEAKER_02: Most of them, yeah.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and there's even like and he'll tell you himself.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: There's times where like he's tried stuff and is like he's like, oh shit, that didn't work out.
3:52
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I know.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, you guys are right.
3:55
SPEAKER_02: Let's try this again.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: So it's I mean, no, it's it's it's cool.
3:58
SPEAKER_02: It's like uh kind of kind of fifty, uh, I would say like maybe 60-40.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, I was gonna say 50-50, but um no, he lets us do our thing too.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what's up, man.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's so he's working on y'all's new, y'all got a new EP coming out in the summer of uh 2024.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: The reveling?
4:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: Um originally scheduled to release uh late last year, last uh you know winter, and um we have we've had it's uh it's something that keeps happening throughout our career.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: We had a few setbacks, pushed uh the dates back, and now it's looking like summertime is gonna be uh when this uh EP is gonna drop.
4:33
SPEAKER_02: Um we had a single drop late last year.
4:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh that was Paralyzed.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: That's the first track that we've dropped from the EP.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: Um we have another one coming soon.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: I would say in about a month.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: So uh we're yeah, we're four or five weeks out from dropping uh the next title track, The Reveling.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So okay, so so you're so you're dropping uh songs from that EP one by one, like uh for the most part.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: I think we're gonna uh by the time we by the time summer comes around, uh we're gonna have I think maybe two songs that haven't been uh released yet.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: So that'll be with the the album drop.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, cool, man.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, dude.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: But we try to do that.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: We could we try to keep consistent and every couple of months they drop another single.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Why why is that just so people uh what I think it works for us best here, man.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh we don't have as far as um we haven't we haven't yet put together a full album of like say your 10 or 12 or 15 or so songs, right?
5:27
SPEAKER_02: We don't have that, we have material, we just haven't had the means to like put that all together.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: And um, so what we do have is like a handful of things, and we're like, hey, like let's stay um, let's stay busy, let's stay relevant, let's stay um, you know, uh just grinding.
5:43
SPEAKER_02: So like let's drop whatever we have at the time, and that's just what it's been, and it's worked for us.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: And so you guys are signed to are y'all still signed?
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh yes and no.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: So our our music um is uh we have a 50-50 partnership uh with uh pavement entertainment for the first EP that we dropped uh in 2020, uh Dead to Life.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: And uh so they own half of the rights of that of all of the music that's on that EP.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, but we are free to sign it with any label.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: So we're we're still doing our thing.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: So it's still for us very much uh DIY.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: So right on, dude.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So so I guess you guys gotta start touring or playing in different places.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: How are y'all approaching that aspect of y'all's uh journey, I guess?
6:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's the that was the next step that we've talked about a lot this year.
6:37
SPEAKER_02: Um we wanted to do it last year, but like I said earlier, there was there were a lot of setbacks with us.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: Um and I'll get to I guess I'll get to that eventually.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, we uh we want to shoot for um doing like San Antonio, Austin, Houston, maybe even as far as like Dallas, the valley.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: So that's the next step for us.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: So you and you have to make those days or find out okay, so who so that's all on us, man.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not like the label does it for you.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: You can actually do it.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: And and we actually, yeah, so we're not signed, so it's like we're doing everything ourselves.
7:09
SPEAKER_02: And uh what's what's neat about it is we're really working with guys or connections that we've made in the past, like through playing shows here in the area.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: So that's why we named a lot of the the cities that I named.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: There are bands in almost all of those that we've worked with, so we're like, hey, reach out to them eventually, and like let's go help you guys out.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: You got a show coming up, we'll open for you guys, or we'll you know, yeah, vice versa.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: So that networking is is good.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it I guess it it pays to like not hate on other bands, I guess you can say, 'cause you never right, you know what I mean?
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's tough though, but it's hard.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: I feel like every scene has it.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: Like, and it's like doggy dog, man.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, exactly.
7:51
SPEAKER_02: No, we felt that like, oh man, I've heard so many.
7:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's it's it's hilarious, man.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: But I get it, you know, because I was that little kid that was like, I want to get out there, man.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: And like, oh, they got a shot, they got a shot.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, what about us?
8:04
SPEAKER_02: What about us?
8:04
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, you gotta put in the work to get there, and it all makes sense now, you know.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, a lot of I feel like a lot of those guys are probably in that position that we used to be in, like, yeah, man, we should be doing this, but make it happen, man.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh, put in the work, yeah.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Put and grind it, grind it up, yeah, yeah.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, grind it out and get there.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome, man.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So how so you're the vocalist of the band, original vocalist of the band, or uh man, because I yeah, yeah.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: So Eddie and I will kind of go.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: I I I I would say yeah, man, because uh yeah, because they had a guy trying out probably a couple of months before I joined, but they were in the garage, they hadn't played anywhere, you know.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: So so us as a full like unit, like playing live shows, like this is the the OGs are myself and Eddie, the guitarist.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: So that's cool, man.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Is Eddie the one with the so uh I think the uh toastinob uh what is it?
8:58
SPEAKER_00: What's the dude's name?
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh Tosin Nobassi or whatever, he's got that guitar.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's him, okay, okay, yeah.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true, man.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: That's so it's such a beautiful guitar, man.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: That thing is uh Do you play guitar?
9:10
SPEAKER_02: I a little bit, man.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: I dabble, but I'm not I'm not really yeah.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: No, I I focus on just singing.
9:16
SPEAKER_02: I I play a little like play some piano, I play uh guitar, but I really like I tried each instrument out and I was like I got as far as I could with each.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh you know, maybe it's not for me.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: And I and I'll and I'll still go back and play um you know some some guitar, just you know, chords and singing along.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: I I really love it more for um for accompaniment because like I love to sing, so I'm like, I need something to go with it.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: So either that or if I have a keyboard around, but uh yeah, voice voice is my thing.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's up, man?
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks a lot, Garza, for all the gifts.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Thank you everybody for joining the TikTok.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we got somebody in there with uh triple star.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know who that is.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: He says, What's your favorite band inspiration?
9:53
SPEAKER_00: Damn.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Or bands.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: Right off the top of the head, right now, favorite band inspiration.
10:02
SPEAKER_02: Let me go with something that's uh kind of inspired this next record right here.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: I'll say uh Kohit and Cambria because of their ability to just um take a an idea, a dream, a concept, and turn that into something that's just like they've done wonders with what like their whole catalog is like just an insane story, and and it's that's um that's for me, that's goals.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: Like I want to, I want to I want to be able to be a storyteller, um, the way the way they're able to do that.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, Claudio is an insane vocalist, guitarist.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, yeah.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: That's one that's just one of them, man.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: That's cool, man.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a bunch of old OGs too, you know, Maiden and Metallica, you you name them.
10:46
SPEAKER_02: It's yeah, they're all there.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: That's cool, man.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, just that's pretty cool.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: They I I'm not uh I don't follow them, but that sounds pretty cool how they how they have an idea.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: So does it span across the whole album that like their ideas for so they've got man, what record are they on?
11:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh they're like on either like nine albums now.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: One of them was out of out of all of those, only one of them is not a concept record.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: Um and the others are yeah, they all follow this um this saga.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: It's almost people liken it to like Star Wars or something, something like that.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's insane.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of Tool, like Tool or one of those prog metal bands, you know.
11:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, man.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so let me see, recording process with what's the hardest song to sing live or the easiest song to sing live from your set?
11:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, uh you know what?
11:44
SPEAKER_02: I would have to say I'm so comfortable with all of the old songs um on the set list, all of the uh all of the old EP, the Dead to Life EP, um anything before that, or you know, Exit Life or whatever, um early demos, those are all like put me on stage, I'll get it like that.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the newer stuff that gets me.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: Um and it's not because of any um like I'm not capable of it.
12:10
SPEAKER_02: Um I've had some things happen to me in the last like two years that has really um limited me physically.
12:17
SPEAKER_02: Um so hitting certain notes or like doing certain things on stage in in the moment, like um with all the energy and the crowd going wild, and like you're out of breath, you're you're moving around, you're jumping.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh certain times I find myself just like oh shit, I'm not gonna reach that note, or I'm gonna like, you know, like I might just mess it up.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: But um I get through it, yeah.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: I get through it just fine, but I get in my head sometimes about the new stuff.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: So I would say, yeah, the new songs.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, so those are the hardest.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like right now, like paralyzed.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: Like I can, I I can do it, man.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: I can do it for sure.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: But uh my thing is um sometimes physically I'm like hurting uh hitting those notes.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: So and I don't know if anybody like notices that while we're on stage because we do a pretty good uh job of like covering up any little mishaps or things like that.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, live is different, definitely.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: And you feed off the crowd, so it's like hey, fuck it, you know, like I'm I'm going all in.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: If I hit it, I hit it.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: If not, they ain't gonna know it.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: Like they're gonna it's it's gonna work, you know.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: I'll find a way to make it work.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so do you use do you use the in-ears or do you rely on the monitors on the floor?
13:24
SPEAKER_02: Right now I don't do in ears.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: That's for me, like personally, that's next step for me.
13:29
SPEAKER_02: Um and the other guys have talked about it too.
13:31
SPEAKER_02: The only ones the only one that has the in-ears would be uh on the drummer.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: Um everyone else is uh just monitor.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh which I I don't mind, but I feel like all the way up to this point, I feel like I'm I've almost always had trouble hearing myself.
13:50
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't matter to me right now because I'm I stay on time as long as I hear the guys, you know, give me some guitar or give me some bass, give me a you know drum in the back, I'll I'll stay on, I'll stay on, you know?
14:04
SPEAKER_02: Um but I would love to at one point um just have it all there and not have to uh exercise so much of that uh extra effort, you know?
14:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: Um it would help me vocally too.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: It would help me like probably hit everything that I need to hit.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what's up.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: So did you take like uh vocal training or did you teach yourself uh when you first started singing?
14:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh yes and no.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: Um knock loose, hell yeah.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: They were just on uh uh Signe World, right?
14:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, three stars.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we gotta if you're listening, we got a comment uh through TikTok that says, Have you heard Knock Loose Knocked Loose?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: They have a song that they used uh reggaeton beat on their breakdown.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: No way! Yeah, wow, that'd be interesting to hear.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, knock loose was that a band?
14:54
SPEAKER_00: No, okay, yeah.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, what was I I forgot what I was getting at.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, no, I was I asked you about your your vocal training, yeah, lessons.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: Um so yes, I did take lessons, um, but I actually had been like from a young age, like three, four, five years old, always uh singing whatever my parents had on.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, it was always something that I loved doing, but it was I I didn't really think about it.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: I just did it, you know, just like whatever, like emulating whoever they had on.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times, like it was very different stuff.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like rock and metal.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: There was a little bit of rock in there, but it was like the 80s or 70s or you know, the older oh, yeah.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: Some of it was like glam or whatever, uh Journey, Death Leopard, all that stuff.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Those are like some of the best singers, yeah, exactly.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: Right.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, uh, but a lot of it was also like you had your like funk and RB, you had like uh De Hano, you had Selena, you had like which all of us, a lot of us have you know listened to growing up because of our you know, parents, grandparents, right?
15:57
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, no, I so I was uh I did love singing at an early age.
16:03
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't until I was in uh college, I want to say I was like probably my second year in college at Delmore.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: I took vocal lessons uh with Dr.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: Rada there, and I don't know if he's still there.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: He might not be there anymore, but um man, I took maybe two semesters of it and I was like, I feel like I got what I need.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: Um and even you said like you this is all the stuff you need to do at home.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: It's all on you to like take it home and do it yourself and not have that person there directing you.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Did you do actual did you do actual classical pieces with that?
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: There was a lot of classical, a lot of um, and it was all over the place.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: Um old like folk songs, um, Irish, German, oh, for different languages.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: I didn't learn the languages, but I learned them enough to get through the music.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: Like you learned the words for the for those pieces, and that was it.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: Move on to the next, and he always switched it up, you know.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's interesting to me because you gotta like enunciate certain sounds, and that makes you a better vocalist, I think.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do you do you find yourself utilizing that stuff in your stuff now?
17:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh one thing I yeah, actually, um there was a uh one thing he said way back, um, this was maybe my second semester.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: We were uh he had a project for us.
17:15
SPEAKER_02: Like we would go in and sing a song that we love, something that inspired us, uh perform it in front of him, and he would grade whatever, or you know, technique or whatever.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: Um and I think I did uh I did audio slave.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: I think I did um uh I'm not the highway or I think it was I think it was that one.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: Or I'm the highway, sorry.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh he I don't think it was when he was grading me on that one.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: He told me I think before we picked uh music, he mentioned about country music.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Um most singers like at the tell ends uh phrases, they'll end the phrase early but keep the the keep that note going way longer.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: Whereas more classically, like say like you're ending with like a E, like like they'll go right to it.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: Whereas like classically you'll like stretch it like you'll draw out a sound longer than it than it um gotcha to keep going.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: Um longer, I I I forget how he worded it, but um that was one thing that stuck out to me, and I notice it in pop music now.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: I notice it on like radio like hits.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: Little things like that could change, like it make a break a song, you know.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so do you read so you read music?
18:29
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, man.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, it's been a little while, but yeah, if I need to, yeah.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so do some of the d so you said you mentioned one of your bandmates.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: He was at he was at he was in college with you.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think I read it somewhere.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Eddie was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: We actually um we ran into we crossed paths.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: This must have been like 2009, 2010, when we were both at Del Mar taking classes.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: Um I he was doing like liberal arts or something, and I was and I was over doing like um uh accounting or business management.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Um and um in between that we I would um there's probably a lot of people if they were it at Del Mar at the time, they might remember.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: Um I would sit at either like the Harvin Center or like the Coles building or one of those uh I would take my guitar with me in between classes because sometimes I would have to wait like up to an hour, right?
19:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like well shit, I need something to do, right?
19:23
SPEAKER_02: I just don't want to be like sitting there bored or whatever.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Take my guitar and just fiddle around, start singing stuff.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm just playing little chords or whatever.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: And more like a handful of times, this dude comes walking by in the hallway and like, oh hey, what's up, man?
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Nice guitar, whatever.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: Eventually, like third or fourth time, he's like, hey, uh, sits down.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: He's like, You mind if I play real quick?
19:45
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, sure, why not?
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Just he sits down real quick, just freaking going to school, you know.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm like, bro, this guy's got it.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what I'm doing.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: I need to stop bringing this with me because I don't know how to play this.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: No, but like, yeah, he was he was just like, I was like, man, this guy's got he's crazy talented.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, it never it never went past us talking like crossing like that.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: You know, it wasn't until um 20 2014 when I put myself out there like looking to join a band, and these guys had an ad on Craigslist.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, come to find out, I end up showing up and after the after the rehearsal or whatever, or the tryout, I mean, um, I I looked at Eddie and I was like, man, don't I know you?
20:35
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Where from?
20:37
SPEAKER_02: And we were like trying to figure it out.
20:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure enough, we're like, man, oh yeah, that's right.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: We were we used to uh turn into each other.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: That's fucking wild, like five years later or whatever.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: So wow, so you didn't start, so y'all didn't start in high school, it was in more in the college age.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so is that the first time you started looking for a band?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Is that the first band you've been in?
21:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, it's the first time I was in a band or joined a band or tried out.
21:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, I had been already looking around for at least a year before that.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: Um I would go to open mics around here.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Um I would go to House of Rock.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: Right.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I started jamming with some guys.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't really a band, it was just like uh I would go to open jam sessions uh with uh I don't know if you remember uh Imperial Cafe.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah uh right behind Best Buy, right?
21:28
SPEAKER_02: On Corona.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: Um so my homie Eric, whose family owns owned that place, um, he used to do like every Thursday would be like a college night.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: But they would do like open jams and it would get crazy packed, right?
21:42
SPEAKER_02: And uh I went because a buddy of mine, my friend Mike, had gone.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: He was like, You gotta check it out.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: He pulled me over there.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: So I ended up sticking that sticking around and going almost every week and jamming with all the guys there.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
21:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, so that's really what I was doing before.
21:56
SPEAKER_02: And that was a lot of that was like more like reggae, scal, terror.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Alternative.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: I remember hearing the yeah, I heard a band in there one time.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: They were doing like hip hop.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: It might have been might have been you guys.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And then one time I went, there was like a jazz group.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's a lot of guys that I still see around town that used to go to that too.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I don't know if you know Tello, Adrian Tello.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, he used to go there.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there was uh Eric Enriquez, a drummer.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: I think he used to go there too, man.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: There's a bunch of dudes that uh that used to uh jam there with us.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, that's that's really what uh when that's when I started.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: Um even before that, like when I was going through college, um one of my best friends who was my roommate at the time, his band used to jam in our in my garage.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: They they would rehearse every you know other weekend or so.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, so that kind of started the itch too for me wanting to try it out myself.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would hear them, not that they were bad, but I'm like, man, I feel like I can do that too.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: You know, like so that kind of led to me wanting to like maybe that's what I need to do.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: I always like singing anyways.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I should try out for peer too.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: You got peer pressured into it, yeah.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: It worked out though.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome, man.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the so you you guys are some of you guys are from Robstown.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Is it are are okay?
23:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, so Drew, the bassist, and uh Eddie the guitarist, they are from Robstown.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: Those guys grew up together, went to school together, they've known each other, you know, their whole lives.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: Um and I joined through um that ad that I saw online of uh Edward and uh at the time he was jamming with a different drummer, um Havo.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: Shout out, Havo.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: What's up, man?
23:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: Um they were oh hell yeah, Lincoln Park, yes.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: But I heard they might have a female singer.
23:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I heard that too.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Who knows, man?
23:48
SPEAKER_02: I I think if they find the right one, they can do it.
23:51
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, as long as they have that spirit and like they honor everything that Chester did, I think it's a cool move, man.
23:57
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll go watch it.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you're listening, there's somebody asked on TikTok, it said excited that Lincoln Park might do a reunion tour.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And I and I heard that that that it might be that girl that actually did a song with them.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: There was a there was a girl from I don't know, I don't remember her name, but they were saying that that she might be the singer for the tour.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: That'd be pretty cool.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll definitely check it out, man.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: And one of your songs was influenced influenced by actually Chester and uh the dude from uh Soundgarden.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right?
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um, yes.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: And we and that was oh my gosh, and I'm still throwing little Easter eggs in there too, like lyrically.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: Like if uh people like really like sit down and read them, they'll they'll see little little bits and pieces that I've just like um they were I didn't realize how big of an inspiration they were until they passed away.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I had never really big celebrities, big artists, uh musicians, bands, or whatever, when like when they would like, you know, you would see that somebody would pass away.
24:55
SPEAKER_02: You see on the news all the you know the bad stuff.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: I none none of them really ever made me like they never really like hit me hard, right?
25:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, but uh when Cornell passed away, you know, SoundGuard and Audio Slave, I was like, holy shit.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: I felt weird, man.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: And me and um my ex uh at the time, we were we were like driving, we we heard it on the news, and we were like both like, what?
25:18
SPEAKER_02: Like, no way, like that guy, really?
25:20
SPEAKER_02: What?
25:20
SPEAKER_02: And then I started thinking about it, and I'm like, man, this guy was a bigger influence on me that I I than I realized.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: Like, I it's one of those things like you you're like almost nostalgic too.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Like you turn on that music or you hear it so often, it's like you're comfortable, you're at home, you know?
25:36
SPEAKER_02: So that one that one was like that one kind of got got me freaked out a little bit.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: I was like, damn, dude, that one hit me.
25:42
SPEAKER_02: And then um, yeah, Chester too.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: It was uh I mean middle school, high school, like everybody was jamming hybrid theory, meteora, like yeah, aside from like System of Down, um Corn Slipknot, you know, all those guys were we were jamming all that stuff too, yeah.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: Mudvane, whatever, but uh yeah, everybody Lincoln Park was like one of those big bands that almost everybody was like, Yes, we love them, we're gonna check them out.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, so that was huge influence too, man.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they both sided that of the same thing, man.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, damn, seriously, how what's going on?
26:13
SPEAKER_02: Like uh whatever that was, a belt on a door that's yeah, I don't know.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: They both but they both killed themselves.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was saying.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: Some something like that.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: I was like or whatever, right?
26:22
SPEAKER_02: For TikTok uh purposes, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, for for sure, man.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I think Soundgarten had more of an influence because I'm more 90s.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: I l I listen to yeah, so like that's the shit, man.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Grudge is like the arrangements are awesome, and the way a Cornell would go around those different chords that wouldn't even it was weird because the chords wouldn't be in the key, they would just like uh transpose for a few, yeah, for a few chords, you know what I mean?
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And uh that was cool with the way he did it.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I even still listened to his range, man, was insane.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was the one thing that got me too.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: I was like, man, there's not a really there's not really another voice like that anymore.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: And it's hard to find those those unique uh voices that can just like do almost all of it because he could get aggressive too if he wanted to.
27:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what I was saying.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: And you would hear that on like older tracks, but uh yeah, but beautiful at the same time.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: So it's oh yeah, that's that's goals for me um to have a universal um singing voice.
27:21
SPEAKER_02: Um so many of the new cats out here that are jamming, uh they love like the hardcore heavy shit, and that's cool too, man.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: I love I love bands who have like screaming vocals or guttal, harsh, you know, heavy vocals.
27:34
SPEAKER_02: That's that's awesome.
27:35
SPEAKER_02: I jam a lot of it too.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: Um but the goals for myself, I want to be able to sing and have it be timeless too.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: You know?
27:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like a lot of times the heavy, harsh vocals aren't as aren't um, they don't have that um I guess that chance of being timeless like the other uh you know uh uh I guess sung uh pieces would be would have.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Do you find that you're still finding your your I guess your your voice as a vocalist?
28:07
SPEAKER_02: Um I think I've found what works.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: I found what works with this band.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: Um what's weird is like we're only scratching the surface right now too because I know before I join these guys, I know when I'm not there jamming with them, when I'm at home, my influences, like the genres are like almost all over, like they're all over the place.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: So it's like I know I can do a little bit of I I can do like some clean stuff, I can do reggae, I can do RB, I can like I can do all those things.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it hasn't presented itself like in the band yet.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Um but it but it will eventually, I know.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: So so are are do you are you um are you gonna are is your thing like to stay with the band or to work with other groups?
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Like what what's your I guess your personal goal as a musician?
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, um so I I'm all for any of us in the band working with other guys, like working outside, where whether you're doing a feature or full-on like um side project.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Um but we know that uh to be at our best, like to do our best work, the focus has to be on on ZK, you know, 100% of the time.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: It's hard to do that when you have so many other commitments um uh around around recording with us, playing live shows with us.
29:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, that's where a lot of the setbacks that come back for us personally.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't have anything else going on outside of the band right now.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: I've entertained it, I've thought about hey, if people need a voice on whatever music around, I'm not that plugged into the scene as I as uh you would think.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm corpus born and raised, but um I see a lot of people put things out like here and even with all the produce guys, like you know, I see like house or like um RB.
29:59
SPEAKER_02: Um I see different like music going out, yeah, and I'm like I have um I have a gift or I have a talent to offer if people need um you know vocals, I'm down to do it.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't see why not, you know.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: It would it would it wouldn't hurt, it wouldn't hurt the band, it wouldn't take much for me.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know.
30:17
SPEAKER_02: I love writing, it it helps, it honestly helps me out.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: When the way I work best writing, um when I get like a writer's block, I step away from that piece to work on other pieces until I get that spark again to to get this piece going again.
30:34
SPEAKER_02: You know, so it's that's something I picked up from piano class way back, you know.
30:38
SPEAKER_02: Learning learning um music, uh you're gonna get stuck at times, yeah, but don't stop.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just step away, work on this instead.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: It'll it'll probably spark something or give you ideas that you needed in this other piece.
30:54
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's how I work, especially with writing too.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's awesome.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Thanks a lot, you guys, for joining.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you guys on TikTok and uh uh Jesse Ocho on Facebook.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Thanks a lot, man.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you guys.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: What's up, brother?
31:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that yeah, that's awesome, man.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh writing, talking about writing music.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so what's the process like whenever you're writing with the the band?
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Because you're you write for yourself, right?
31:20
SPEAKER_00: And then do they bring you the song and like hey, put vocals to this, or do y'all write it together, or how does that work?
31:27
SPEAKER_02: Um, most times, except for I guess this last this last one or two songs that we're we're still finishing up in the studio.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: We still gotta master a few c uh songs um that are from the EP, the new EP.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, all of the songs prior, we've almost always had um Eddie write riffs, and uh we kind of just um build off of that.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: Um we take that to studio, we do pre-production, or we demo at home um at our jam spot.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh add you know, drums and bass with that.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: They they they um they jam, we figure something out, we try to get a full full song.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: Um that gets thrown to me if I'm not present.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: A lot of times we're back and forth.
32:16
SPEAKER_02: The guys are based in Robstown, so sometimes I can't make it over.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: So we'll a lot of times email back and forth, Eddie and I.
32:23
SPEAKER_03: Oh, crazy.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: Um, that's how a lot of it's been up to this point.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we're trying to do things differently now to where we're all in the same room and just throwing out whatever is on the spot to see what now sticks, you know?
32:36
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, a lot of it's been starts with Eddie, um, and then the guys jump in, they all put the music together, they get ideas or rough rough demos.
32:49
SPEAKER_02: They get sent to me so I can start getting ideas um for vocals.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of the times the the melodies and the patterns come out um first.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I have already um lyrical content that I wanna that I want just for that piece, and I work around that that um idea and then I put them the patterns to whatever words that I have in mind for that.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
33:14
SPEAKER_02: Um so it's yeah.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Do you find the stuff is it in the same key, most of the stuff y'all write?
33:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of it, yes.
33:21
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, we've got I think the entire uh Dead to Life, I think except for the uh track Texas Sky, that one's uh different tuning.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: But all of the others are the same.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: And then the new stuff, now I think we've I think now we're in a different tuning again.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, but I mean it works.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you have to adjust much going from one tuning to the other?
33:48
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: It's been pretty uh consistent, like as far as vocals go.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: If anything, I've gotten less um less harsh, less uh, you know, when you're young, you're just like going all out and like less harsh on your vocal cord, yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:06
SPEAKER_02: And um, it's one of those things where like when you start off, you see what like a lot of bands do it, like like say like Avenge Sevenfold or somebody like that, where like M Shadows was like you hear the first record or two and you're like, holy shit, why he's screaming his like lungs out.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh same with like slip knot, right?
34:21
SPEAKER_02: And then you see like a shift to where it's like more controlled vocally, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_02: And uh, so I think that's where I'm getting to now.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to where like I know when to turn it on and off or or use it without like overdoing it and messing myself up, you know.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: That's one thing I I don't ever want to happen is to like to lose because like then what am I good for, you know?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there was uh I saw a TikTok video.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: The singer from Mudvane was uh he was like, This is what my voice sounds like before the show, right?
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen that one?
34:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh Chad, yeah.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: With his uh his his vocal coach, his vocal coach comes out with him, yeah.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh what's her name?
34:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh Cross, right?
34:58
SPEAKER_02: I think it's uh I don't know.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: I think that's her name, Melissa Cross.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: Um apparently she teaches a lot of the dudes in Steam, you know.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't I don't know.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: She's kind of creepy to me.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: She's got a look in her eye, and I'm like, man, something's up with this chick.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: She's teaching everybody those those fucking badass vocals.
35:14
SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, that's that's pretty cool.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: That's funny, man.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh Christina Reina on Facebook, appreciate you.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: ZK all day.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Love y'all.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Barbie Ramos, appreciate y'all for commenting.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh Dino Lucarnos, oh yeah, yeah, man.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's good stuff there, buddy.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's see, upcoming EP.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: What else we got here?
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, future aspirations and goals, life performance and touring.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: So you said you're not much into the the South Texas scene.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what's it like?
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh for the I guess being in South Texas, a metal band in South Texas.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: What's the scene like?
35:50
SPEAKER_00: Or is it, I mean, what's it been like for y'all?
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, so we uh we aren't as plugged in as we would like to be.
35:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's because uh we've for the most part had to just play here in town.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: Um, but we have like I was saying earlier, we've connected with a lot of bands that I think eventually it's gonna pay off in the long run when we finally do, like say maybe even later this year, when we finally want to get out of here and go San Antonio or Dallas or yeah, so and we've played I don't know the number of shows we've played.
36:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh we need to count them one day.
36:27
SPEAKER_02: We need to get like Jesse, we need to get like Eddie and everybody on that in a count number of shows, even if we didn't like get on stage and actually play, but we were on a fucking bill, right?
36:38
SPEAKER_02: But um, no, uh we have played mostly here at like um Rich's House of Rock.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we played a couple of times at Brewster Street Ice House now, downtown.
36:50
SPEAKER_02: Those are great gigs, by the way.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: Um, and our most recent one that was uh in February, early February, we played with uh Shattered Sun.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: They had a a reunion show, and um man, 800 something people, almost 900.
37:05
SPEAKER_02: Wow, that must be almost 900 heads, and it was fucking wild.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that was fun.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: I preached time man, that's awesome.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: It was great, man.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: I remember every second of it.
37:13
SPEAKER_02: I I I we had played before during COVID uh at Brewster's with Shattered Sun and a couple other bands, and um that was 2020, like I think after the summer.
37:24
SPEAKER_02: It was like Halloween, I think.
37:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:26
SPEAKER_02: And only only uh tables, right?
37:31
SPEAKER_02: You had to buy like six or whatever tickets all together.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: So everybody seated.
37:35
SPEAKER_02: It was not the kind of show that we normally play.
37:38
SPEAKER_02: So it was so it was just like surreal for us to do that.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: We were like, we did it.
37:43
SPEAKER_02: The energy was way different.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, you know, and I remember leaving that show, and I'm like, man, that just didn't hit the spot like the way I thought it would, you know.
37:51
SPEAKER_02: Like it's been a dream for us to get on stage like at Brewster's.
37:54
SPEAKER_02: We want to do Concrete Street, we want to do the Bank Center, we want to know what I'm saying, and it's like, man, that didn't it work.
38:02
SPEAKER_02: Did that really did that really just happen?
38:03
SPEAKER_02: Because that wasn't that didn't seem like a great show for us.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm thinking about the AB Quintanina contradiction.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: What do you think about that?
38:10
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, that's bro.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: He can't he apologized, right?
38:15
SPEAKER_02: He said um something about like not taking his meds, something about something.
38:20
SPEAKER_02: I think he's just like I think he's just like entitled, like, you're not gonna you're not gonna stand up for me, but yeah, like no, that's definitely I think it's just ego attitude.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Crazy, man.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know, man.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: If it was if it was meds, then hey man, uh shit.
38:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, don't forget him next time.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, maybe there is a next time.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, maybe like you're saying, like that show that you were at, it might maybe maybe something similar to that.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Because you said people were sitting at tables, yeah, and you were playing wow.
38:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was mostly seated.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, there was a little spot for like some people to get up and stand up up front by the stage, but it wasn't the same, man.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: But this last one, like I said, in February, it was yeah, 800 something heads almost.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: I want to say like 860 or something like that.
38:59
SPEAKER_02: And uh man, I enjoyed every second of it, man.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: I remember being on stage and just like you know, little breaks in between my vocal parts and like just soaking it all in, man, just staring at every single person that was there.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: Like, this is what it should have been like the last one, you know.
39:17
SPEAKER_02: And in my head, I'm like, we're gonna do this again, and I want it to be even bigger and better next time, you know.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's that's where our heads are at, yeah.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, man.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, dude.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: I hope you guys get there, man.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mary Ali.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, thanks, appreciate you.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: JD Vietta.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: He says he was there at Brewster's, Jesse Ochoa.
39:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, all local bands.
39:37
SPEAKER_02: I think we had one from uh San Antonio, yeah.
39:40
SPEAKER_02: Local bands, yeah.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Shattered Sunder from Alice, yeah.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's amazing.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, dude.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: So, so what's uh man?
39:49
SPEAKER_00: I wish your your bandmates were here.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: We could have made that conversation a little longer, but that's all right.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, so songwriting process, live performance.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: So what's the few what so what's in the future for you guys?
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Future aspirations, uh in terms of musical achievements and maybe personal growth as artists.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: So up next, yeah, we want to um really we want to get this this EP rolling.
40:10
SPEAKER_02: The release of this EP.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: Um like I like like we said, it's uh gonna be uh probably uh sometime in the summer.
40:16
SPEAKER_02: Um first we want to drop another single and then get that get everything else packaged and ready to go for the for the full release.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: Um the next goal for us would be to start shopping around um to see if um there's any partnership that makes sense with any uh any labels.
40:33
SPEAKER_02: That's a that's a big goal for us to see to see what's out there.
40:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:37
SPEAKER_02: And um yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: And then uh full full album.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Nice man.
40:43
SPEAKER_02: We we have enough material, yeah.
40:45
SPEAKER_02: Just in the vault, just locked away.
40:47
SPEAKER_02: We're like, we can record.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like if we had you know somebody back and us just throw us in the studio, dude.
40:54
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll come up with 20, 30 songs, you know.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: Crazy.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: Easy.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up, dude.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and your first so the first uh signing that you had, you actually sent them a demo or something like that.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:06
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: And so they actually called you guys back on that one.
41:10
SPEAKER_02: For sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: So so what we used on uh that time, it was uh we had dropped a single, it was our first um Exit Life.
41:20
SPEAKER_02: That was back in 2017.
41:22
SPEAKER_02: Um we had been jamming for like we had been playing live shows for about two years by that point.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: Um we went and recorded that song, dropped it on YouTube.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: Um I want to say when we shopped it around, we must have had it around 10k views or something, something like that.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: Um we sent them that link with the track together.
41:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, they were all for it.
41:46
SPEAKER_02: They were like, okay, it's good stuff.
41:48
SPEAKER_02: We like where you're headed.
41:49
SPEAKER_02: So then we started working together with that partnership deal crazy um for the E for the first EP.
41:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's what's up, man.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: How's it going, Francesca?
41:57
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining, man.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: Mama, yeah, dude, that's awesome, bro.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh so any uh any final thoughts you want you like to share?
42:04
SPEAKER_00: We're coming up on 40 45 minutes here.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
42:07
SPEAKER_02: Um actually want to do a little bit of a um, I guess a little shameless plug.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: Everybody that's anybody that's tuning in, like from here, the corpus area, local area, um people that haven't heard about us, check us out on social media.
42:24
SPEAKER_02: We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, YouTube.
42:28
SPEAKER_02: Um we throw everything on our Instagram and Facebook, and we're on all streaming platforms too, man.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: Pandora, Spotify, Apple.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: We're we're we're on it all.
42:40
SPEAKER_02: We uh on our socials, you can find us at zombie king official.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, that's yeah, for a lot of people that haven't hopped on board yet, you know.
42:52
SPEAKER_02: We want we want to get out there a little bit more, man.
42:54
SPEAKER_02: We feel like we've we've got a good following here locally, but there's still so many people that don't know.
42:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
42:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, I I think a lot of it too has to do with our band name.
43:04
SPEAKER_02: I think people read that or see that and they get kind of uh they assume that it's a certain maybe a certain type of music or certain genre.
43:11
SPEAKER_02: I still get people asking me, like, you do that Screamo, like heavy shit, right?
43:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, actually, if you gender music, like you would see like it's it's really accessible to like damn near everybody.
43:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, it's just a different killer name, you know.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: It sounds kind of like radio friendly too, like it could be played on like uh rock radio stores.
43:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
43:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, shout out to uh Monty Montana.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Um he played us a lot back in the day, man.
43:32
SPEAKER_02: He was still on C101.
43:33
SPEAKER_02: Um Rex not there anymore?
43:35
SPEAKER_02: He's not there anymore.
43:36
SPEAKER_02: I think he's on uh classic on 1045.
43:38
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, him, Rios, Rex, uh Hitman, they've all helped us out a lot, man.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
43:44
SPEAKER_02: So they're all yeah, they were at the most of them were at the last show, too.
43:47
SPEAKER_02: At that first show.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: That's what's up.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: What's the story behind your the name anyway?
43:51
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, that would be a story for Eddie to tell you.
43:55
SPEAKER_02: He came up with the name.
43:56
SPEAKER_02: It was already a thing when I when I had joined, like it was.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: Kind of already there.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:01
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Even like y'all's designs are pretty sweet too, man.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Like on the albums or whatever.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: No.
44:08
SPEAKER_02: So this last, so the most recent for Reveling, we shopped around and I found a guy, um, one of my good friends, uh DJ here in town, uh, Ray Marauder, he put me in touch with his homies back in Seattle, where he used to do a lot of uh drum and bass.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: Um uh one of them happened to be an artist too.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh he put me in touch with him, Seth Grimm.
44:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh we told him what we were kind of looking for, and he made that happen.
44:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh, yeah.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: As for like the band name, like the font, if you see the logo and everything, the logo and the font.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, that was a uh cousins, uh one of Eddie's cousins who I want to say he's I know he's locked up, but I think like in San Antonio area, I'm not sure.
44:48
SPEAKER_02: I might be wrong about that, but yeah county, the Backstar County offered.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so no, his uh as soon as his cousin, like, because Eddie's parents were in touch with him, telling him hey, he's he's we're they're starting to play live shows, this and that.
45:02
SPEAKER_02: He was like, bro, he sent he sent him in like those drawings of just the name.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we kept that ever since.
45:07
SPEAKER_02: So that's our that's our band, that's our band logo, and then the that Z, the ZK logo.
45:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, he drew that on a piece of art.
45:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you'll see it on our first Ben T for all the OGs that have the first shirt that we put out.
45:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a it's a king with the crown and a scepter.
45:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh and on the scepter has that logo.
45:26
SPEAKER_02: I um I was like, we gotta use that, man.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, cut it out.
45:31
SPEAKER_02: We uh sent it off, and they made they made a logo for us, and yeah.
45:34
SPEAKER_02: So that's where all that came from.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, hell yeah.
45:37
SPEAKER_02: A lot of it is done in-house, man.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: Just like we've uh our um a lot of our music's in-house uh with Robert Beltan, and then um the music videos too.
45:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so almost almost every video that we've done is been us, yeah.
45:51
SPEAKER_02: Um with the exception of I want to say the uh the very first one exit life.
45:57
SPEAKER_02: We worked with um Case Coker.
45:59
SPEAKER_02: He used to be here in town.
46:00
SPEAKER_02: I think he's in Austin, based in Austin now, but um he's he had done work for uh Shattered Sun and a few other uh metal bands here in town.
46:07
SPEAKER_02: Um he did that first one for us, and then there was uh Dead at the Scene from Dead to Life, EP, Jake Gonzalez, Renee Garretto.
46:16
SPEAKER_02: They did uh they worked on that video with us.
46:18
SPEAKER_02: Um they're still in town doing things.
46:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh and these last two that we put out, or the last one that we put out, that was all us.
46:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh shout out to Epps, Ellington, Jesse Ochoa, who's on right now.
46:34
SPEAKER_02: And then um we're we're uh working on the next release, which is the title track, Reveling.
46:42
SPEAKER_02: We're we're doing the finishing touches on that video as well.
46:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've got just a few little things to add to it.
46:48
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's that's all us right there, too, which has taken us a lot longer.
46:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's that's really why it takes us a bit longer to uh to roll out these releases and to get everything going, because we're doing it ourselves, man.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's a grind.
47:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's worth it.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's tough, man.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: So remind us again.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: So it's coming out uh uh June.
47:08
SPEAKER_02: I'll say uh so yeah, so the next drop, uh the reveling title track um off of the EP um is going to drop, I want to say late May, early June with a music video as well.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: So that's um, yeah, for anybody that's been following us, that's that's the update.
47:25
SPEAKER_02: There it is.
47:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're gonna hear it, you're gonna see it soon, real soon.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, appreciate you guys.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: All right, man.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: Any message, words, encouragement for aspiring vocalists or musicians in the heavy metal scene?
47:38
SPEAKER_02: Ah man, I don't want to get all like too long and sappy about it, but I would say uh stop paying attention to uh to whatever everyone else is doing.
47:48
SPEAKER_02: Um you can you can stay aware of the scene, stay and and be aware of like every other band here locally, but pay attention to the people that pave the way for you personally, like as far as your influences go, uh whatever genres that may be.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: Um look to those guys.
48:08
SPEAKER_02: That's that's where you want to be, that's your goal.
48:11
SPEAKER_02: So um whether it's emulating or actually like putting in the the the work um yourself, you know, perfecting your craft, uh block out a lot of the bullshit too, man.
48:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh what we were saying earlier about the scenes like haters being everywhere, it's it's never gonna stop.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: That's just how it is.
48:29
SPEAKER_02: I think it stopped for a little bit during COVID.
48:32
SPEAKER_02: I saw everybody come out and be very like gracious during that time.
48:35
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
48:36
SPEAKER_02: Because we weren't playing anywhere, we weren't doing anything.
48:38
SPEAKER_02: We're all sitting at home.
48:39
SPEAKER_02: Right, man, we miss we miss being out there on the shows and throwing down in the pit and blah blah blah.
48:44
SPEAKER_02: It was beautiful for a little, you know, for uh what half a year or whatever.
48:48
SPEAKER_02: But now it's like back to the same old shit.
48:50
SPEAKER_02: Like everybody's hating on each other.
48:52
SPEAKER_02: This guy sounds like whatever, cooking wants your shit.
48:54
SPEAKER_02: This guy can't sing, that guy can't play, whatever.
48:57
SPEAKER_02: If I was there, I would do this and this instead.
49:00
SPEAKER_02: But uh block all that shit out or use it, use it to uh to you know spark your fire and um yeah, yeah.
49:08
SPEAKER_02: Tunnel vision helps, man.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: That's it's helped me.
49:11
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm I'm Corpus Christi, born and raised.
49:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:15
SPEAKER_02: And I guess, yeah, I'm a part of the scene here, but I stay away for enough time.
49:23
SPEAKER_02: Um I stay away enough to uh help myself grow you know, outside of it.
49:30
SPEAKER_02: And when I come back and and play shows or whatever in the scene, that's that's what the finished product is, man.
49:36
SPEAKER_02: And I I it helps to block those things out or to just not even I'm we're well aware of like people who've talked shit, you know, and I I I I still remember all of it, you know.
49:46
SPEAKER_02: It is what it is.
49:48
SPEAKER_02: Some of them are homies now, some of them are like really cool with us now, you know?
49:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, shit gets old, it's all in the past or whatever.
49:55
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, no, I would say do the same, man.
49:57
SPEAKER_02: I that's what I did, that's what got me here.
49:59
SPEAKER_02: A lot of it was um me being oblivious to a lot of that noise.
50:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
50:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh just focusing on what I can control.
50:08
SPEAKER_02: What can I control?
50:09
SPEAKER_02: What can I do?
50:10
SPEAKER_02: I can learn how to sing better, I can learn how to scream, I can learn how to project, I can learn how to write, I can learn how to, you know, come up with ideas.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, that was all it, yeah.
50:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, stay focused on the on the goal.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Zombie King in the House by Belinda Rios.
50:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, thanks.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, appreciate you guys, everybody for joining.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming on the show.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: It was a good show.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: I hope everything works out for you, man.
50:33
SPEAKER_00: Anything else?
50:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so uh we find you guys you want to share your I guess your handles or your tags or whatever where we can put it on.
50:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so so most of them uh you'll find like Instagram, Facebook, uh, YouTube, Zombie King official.
50:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, and for everybody just like searching in the search bar or whatever, it's uh Zombie King one word.
50:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um a lot of people tend to miss mess that up.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I put so I put zombie and then I'll capitalize the K instead of putting the K.
50:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:59
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty much, yeah, you know what's up, man.
51:00
SPEAKER_02: Mega Death ain't no like right.
51:03
SPEAKER_02: That's what I gotta tell people, man.
51:04
SPEAKER_02: There's so many people that still get it wrong, man.
51:06
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, no, that's it.
51:08
SPEAKER_02: You'll find us on there, YouTube, uh, Spotify, Pandora, Apple, iTunes, all of that.
51:13
SPEAKER_02: We're on all of it.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right on, man.
51:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, appreciate you coming on, man.
51:16
SPEAKER_00: If nothing else, thanks for coming on.
51:18
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, brother.
51:19
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned, you guys, for the next uh few episodes Corpuscity Originals podcast.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and yeah, uh, thanks and shout out to Ma back there, the producer.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, make making this all look nice for us.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: And you can shop corpuscurityriginals.com to get some merch uh for to help support the show.
51:33
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you guys.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.