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Ultimate Power With DAN CLEARY From STRIKER · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  I'm the singer and I guess the longest member of the band, been in
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  the band since the start. We've been around since we formed in two thousand
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  and seven. I mean, we didn't really do anything until two thousand and
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  nine ish, but you know, just screwing around being like high school kids
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  for the first couple of years. And yeah, the Ultrapower is our new
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  album, and it is coming out February second, and it is our seventh
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  album. Thanks for joining us today brought us. Yeah, appreciate you having
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  me. Oh pleasure strike a return with your seventh studio album, Ultra Power
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  on February the second. So how do you feel about it. I'm super
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  pumped. I'm really excited to get it out. We recorded it, I
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  guess it was like early last year, so like February March, and and
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  it's always nice that, you know, you sit on the album for a
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  long time. It's always nice to finally get it out and you know,
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  see how people are liking it and stuff like that. I still really like
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  it. There's been albums that we've recorded that you know, by the time
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  it comes out, you're kind of sick of it. But I'm still digging
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  this one. I think there's a lot of different types of songs and stuff,
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  so it's uh, it's never too boring, I guess. Well,
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  so on those I said, it's been done since around February last year,
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  so it's about twelve months has been done for now. Hew do you go
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  in that twelve month period or do you listen back to it and go,
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  fuck, I'll put it on there so I should change that, or do
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  you just put it to bed and move on or I mean you kind of
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  always do that stuff. But uh, I feel like after doing it seven
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  times, we're sort of like, you know, we know what to expect.
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  I think the first couple we did, we look back and we're just
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  like, oh god, we should have you know, we should have gone
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  to record in this studio, or we should have we shouldn't have recorded that
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  song or whatever, you know that kind of thing. I mean, even
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  even on this album, there's still some some grumbling from some people being like,
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  you know, we should have put that more brutal song on there,
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  like you know that kind of thing. But I mean that's always gonna happen.
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  Yeah, sure, So it tell us me more about the album from
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  a musical point of view Broban and you've gone forward it. This one's kind
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  of interesting because we like, we haven't put out an album since twenty eighteen,
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  and we we spend a lot of time writing music just because we like
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  doing it, and we ended up with a lot of songs, like a
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  lot of ideas from all over the place. And it's like you can imagine,
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  over the span of like five years, you know you're listening, tastes
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  change. It's like you get into certain you know, it's like, oh,
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  I was really into you know, like Toto for a while, and
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  it was like, oh, you can hear where that is in the in
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  the album, and then they're like, oh, okay, well then I
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  then I kind of transitioned over. I was listening to like death core type
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  stuff and and and then you know, there's a little bits and pieces of
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  that. So it's like it's it's interesting because it's sort of like a collection
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  of everything we were kind of listening to that was inspiring us as far as
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  writing goes over the that course of five years. So there's a lot of
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  different stuff. I mean, even all the way to like a full on
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  synth wave production song on there. So it's like it's all over the place
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  they go. So you mentioned that five years mate and the songwriting, but
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  it was five years is a long time in the modern age between albums.
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  So was there anything else you focused on specifically for this album? You mean,
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  like and then you paid extra attention to you to sort of make it
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  take a bit longer. Oh. Yeah, I mean one of the biggest
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  things about this one was, I mean that the reason why it took so
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  long was COVID. Basically it was like that just like you know, we
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  were we were touring and stuff, and then of course you know that all
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  that stuff happened and we just kind of got derailed. But the main difference
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  with this album is we the last three we self produce, so we recorded
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  them at home and sent them out to get mixed. This time we actually
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  went into the studio with Josh Rader, who does like Lorna Shore and you
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  know, lots of death course stuff like that, and so that that would
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  that's a big difference for this one, because it's nice to have someone like
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  a third party there listening and being like this, this is shit, this
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  is good, you know that kind of thing. How do yourself in that?
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  Yeah, I mean it's it's luckily the band works together pretty well,
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  but I mean it can still be pretty difficult if if people have different ideas
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  about certain things and that kind of stuff. So the last time we brought
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  out in twenty nineteen, played a Win was a Juno winning album. So
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  for the extra pressure on you with this one now that that one was so
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  successful, yeah, man, we peaked all down here. Uh yeah,
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  I don't know, not really. I think it's the Juno is like a
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  cool you know, credit to us, and and it's uh, it's it's
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  really cool. But I mean, like ultimately, our our biggest like reward
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  as a band has always been like playing live, seeing people come to the
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  show, getting stoked on the on the show. So I think we will
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  be more excited when people know the lyrics to the new stuff, you know,
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  that kind of thing. But so now we didn't have like, didn't
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  feel like we had a lot of pressure. It would be sick to win
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  another one. We've got. There's another band from Vancouver, Unleash of the
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  Archers, friends of ours, and uh we wanted Juno before them. They
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  won the year after. So we so we do that kind of hold that
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  we're like that first and then and then now it's like, well, who
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  can win a second one? So that's a bad mate, Like, is
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  is there ever a temptation on your next album to rehash that winning formula on
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  the one before? I maybe I don't know. I don't. I don't
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  think we ever really paid attention too much to that. It's like, I
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  mean, we we sort of just like all our albums are flopped, so
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  we may as well just keep going, you know, do whatever we want.
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  Really, I mean, we don't have We're an independent band, so
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  we don't have any label like being like you should do this this way or
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  whatever, so we just kind of do whatever we want. So for this
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  album, mate, you've already released a single, Circle of Evil the Best
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  of the Best of the Best, which is a great title, and give
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  it all, Like, are any good sonic representation of what to expect from
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  the whole album? Uh? Yeah, pretty good. I mean I think
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  it's fun because we've always had like a continuous contingency of fans who are like,
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  uh, they want to hear like the old school, like the speed
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  metal type stuff that we we did some more of that in like the earlier
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  days, and we didn't release the songs that are like that yet, so
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  it's like they're like, oh, it's it's like the sky is falling.
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  It's like it's not doing anything fast or shred or whatever, and like we're
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  like, oh, just you know, just wait there there are some on
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  the album. We didn't totally disregard that because I mean that's still a big
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  part of like who we are as like metal fans is like, you know,
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  we're never gonna not like thrash and speed metal. It's just you know,
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  our horizons are broadening, I guess. And then the our school people
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  hate to hear that d it's not allowed. Yeah, yeah, And I
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  mean, like I think we on this one, the song blood Magic is
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  probably our most like King Diamond esque song we've ever done. And it's like
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  that'd be a surprise to people who listen to like Give it All, for
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  example, or even best of the best of the best. It's kind of
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  like, you know, more like I guess, for lack of a better
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  term, poppy in a way, but like I think they'll be pleasantly surprised
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  with some of the songs on the album. So you mentioned give it All,
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  mate, Like that's a great song. But it's different in the fact
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  that it faces a lot of saxifyed in it, which is isn't isn't purest
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  metal. I guess you could say of it, what was the thought price?
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  I said that one's just like influenced by stuff like you know, like
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  Eddie Money. That's like a big one Eddie Money, take Me Home Tonight,
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  like that, that kind of thing where it's like, yeah, it's
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  not really metal, but it's like in this world of like I don't know,
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  I guess it's more just like in the eighties style where you know,
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  not necessarily metal, but like we're sort of hooked on everything. Like I'm
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  a big like we love Huey Lewis and like I said, Toto and stuff
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  like that. So all the aoar and that kind of like pop rock from
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  the eighties is really influential for us as well. So I mean, for
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  us it makes sense. But you know, if you're like a diehard speed
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  metal guy who does not fuck with Huey Lewis, then yeah, you might
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  not like it. I love it, Bry, like they kind of have
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  a bit of sacks every now and then, Yeah, why not. As
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  This album also welcomes new member and a long time friend, John Simon Fallen.
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  So what did he bring to the to the sound of the album,
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  the sound of the band. It was great working with Simon. He's yeah,
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  like obviously been a long time friend of the band, and he was
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  in the band when our other guitar player and one of the founding members of
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  the band, Chris had left, Simon came in Chris back, then Chris
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  left and then Simon came back, and then this time it worked out that
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  he was actually able to play on an album, like he did lots of
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  touring with us. But he's a great guitar player, some of the best
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  guitar solos in our band's history. I think he's put down on the new
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  album. So I'm really really excited for that. I've very touched on this
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  a bit, Mike, but yeah, you're there's many influences on the album
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  range him from speed metal to Hot Care to hand metal to stelly dance death
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  Call, Like, were you ever mindful that there might be a little bit
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  too much the variety on that, Yeah, I mean, I yeah,
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  we've thought about that. I mean, I I've definitely had like pushback from
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  like friends of mine who are just like, bro, you can't like,
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  you can't put hardcore riffs in, Like, no one's gonna like that.
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  No one's gonna like both. And we're sort of just like, well,
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  whatever, let's try it and see if it really sucks, then we'll know.
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  I mean, part of working with the producer was like, you know,
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  he can be maybe the guy to be like, you know what,
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  that is really not cool. So I don't think it's too far off.
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  And I think for us we've always thought like we're pushing the boundaries so far.
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  We're like, oh, it's so crazy what we're doing. And then
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  and then when we look back on it, we're like, this just sounds
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  like a normal Striker album. I mean, it wasn't that crazy, but
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  we're all those sort of different dolls and Vrotti's on there. I guess when
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  it came trying to put in the track listing together for the album, like
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  did you have to pay extrattention and to make sure there's a flyer to a
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  sensor? Did you just just throw them in and let everyone go on a
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  journey. Yeah, I mean we tinkered around with the you know. I
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  mean, I think a lot of it was like we wanted sort of the
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  songs that we thought were the best to be right at the front. You
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  know, that's sort of typical. But yeah, I mean it's like it's
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  like building a like a live set. When you're playing, it's like you
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  don't have too many of the slow songs in a row, or it's just
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  like, come on, get on with it, you know what I mean.
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  So we try and switch it between. It'd be like, you know,
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  sort of the more faster one than the saxophone one and then like you
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  know, maybe something that's heavier or something, you know, like something like
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  that, just to break it up. All right. So the album comes
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  out for every Second, which is one a couple of weeks, so it's
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  what's the next for Striker After that, we're looking at getting some tours.
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  We've got some shows booked for next year or this year, I guess it
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  is now and time flies and yeah, just getting out and touring. It's
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  been a long time, Like last year we didn't get a lot of touring
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  done just because it's been like, you know, hectic, getting the album
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  together, doing it all ourselves. It's kind of just like a little man.
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  There's a lot of stuff to get done. So yeah, we're excited
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  to get back out on the road and tour. I mean that's sort of
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  like the payoff. It's like, you know, we love recording and stuff
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  like that, and then you know there's all this work you have to put
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  in and then it's like, oh, the payoff is you get to go
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  out and actually play and have like you don't have a good time and stuff.
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  So excited to like actually get out and especially play some of the new
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  songs. So all right, all right, right, well, thanks very
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  much for you timed to IDE's being a pleasure of the album. Ultrapower is
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  out forebry second and I can attest to the fact that it has got a
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  bit of everything on it. But of what well bro sns really good.
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  Congratulations, Thank you very much man. Yeah, all of the things I've
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  seen that s the best way said. No want says jack A here losing
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  it all to fun all the week. I say, it's sad. It
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  is stas j Sis of the rest of the past.