Latest / ATX Metal Podcast / Wolvera: Navigating Challenges and the Path to Success

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Wolvera: Navigating Challenges and the Path to Success · ATX Metal Podcast

• Ryan Rayle (00:01.715) What is up everybody? Ryan, ATX Metal Podcast back again here with Wolvera from Dallas. I'm pretty excited because I don't really get to speak to bands, which is crazy in Texas, but not in Austin or the central Texas area. And I was really excited to be able to get in touch with these guys and set them up. They got new music out. They got music coming just like everybody else in the world, but we only care about those in Texas right now. So, Introduce yourself, who you are, where you're from, what you do in the band, and then let's go from there. Jerry Gomez (00:34.252) Yeah, so my name is Jerry Gomez. I'm a bass player and vocalist from Dallas, Texas, born and raised. Ryan Rayle (00:45.845) Alright, thanks Jerig. Ha ha ha. Karth, what's up with you man? Jerry Gomez (00:48.11) Thanks. Garth Rogers (00:50.334) Yeah, so I'm Garth, I'm the drummer. I've been playing drums for 16, 17 years now. I'm also out of Dallas, Texas, born and raised as well. we all kind of share a bunch of responsibilities in the band, but sometimes it leans to other things like I'll help. We created a website here recently, so I'll do some more of the techie side of things and help promote and push our music. then Jerry is more of the main creative ideas around writing music and formulating that as a band. then Ozzy, our guitar player, he does a lot of the social media posts. He runs the Instagram page and the Facebook page and makes sure that our content stays updated and is pushing that weekly. Ryan Rayle (01:48.063) Awesome. Awesome. Well, cool, man. Well, thank you guys for joining me on a Sunday. We had, as per the usual, little technical difficulties in the beginning, but you know what? That's okay. We're here and we're gonna push through. So just give me a quick, either one of you guys can take this. I don't know if either of you guys are like founding members. Just give all listeners like a brief bio of like, you know, how the band started, where it went from, how we got here, all the important details so everybody gets to know Ulvera. Garth Rogers (02:25.958) Hey Jerry, you can take this one. Jerry Gomez (02:28.398) Yeah, yeah, so we started back in, man, I don't even remember what year was it 2020 or 2021? Yeah, I think it was like late 2020. I don't remember honestly, it's been a long five years or four. But yeah, man, we started back in 2020, know, Garth and I had been in a band prior to this, where we were just kind of... Ryan Rayle (02:35.393) The internet says 2020. Garth Rogers (02:37.064) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (02:55.042) You know, making some heavy metal stuff, but it was a lot different, but was nothing too serious. And around that time, a couple years prior, Ozzy had just moved back home from, he was in North Carolina working, so we started just writing some riffs, me and Ozzy, Ozzy's my brother as well, so he's a guitar player, he's my brother. So we started writing some riffs, he had ideas, I had ideas, we had collected, and yeah, we just started making some songs, and we decided to put some drums into them. Ryan Rayle (03:13.974) Okay. Jerry Gomez (03:24.846) So we had to obviously find a drummer and yeah, very important and not easy to come by. Ryan Rayle (03:28.247) Drums are important. Ryan Rayle (03:34.793) No, quick question, Garth, how many projects are you a part of right now? Garth Rogers (03:39.422) So I keep pretty busy, in the music scene right now, I'm only doing one project. Ryan Rayle (03:44.919) man, typically drummers have at least three. Garth Rogers (03:49.981) I know. And I have that opportunity, but it's, it's overwhelming. You know, I, I work a full-time job and, to keep my mentality saying, I try not to, you know, take on too much stuff. try to, I like to have free time. like to do, do things outside because music now is become, you know, more than a hobby. It's another business, you know, the way that we have to manage it and run it. Ryan Rayle (03:55.255) I've Garth Rogers (04:19.056) since we're independent. So I have tippy-toed around that. mean, during these last five years, I've been part of, I've worked with other projects. I was in a short, very short term Prince Trivia band. Yeah. So, I mean, I think we played one or two shows and then, you know, they got rid of the keyboardist and then they couldn't replace the keyboardist and then it just went downhill from there. So. Ryan Rayle (04:35.275) Really? Ryan Rayle (04:48.183) Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You'd need it. Yeah. If you're playing Prince, you need a fucking keyboard for sure. Garth Rogers (04:48.466) which is pretty important for prints. Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean, so it comes and goes. There's been a lot of people reach out to me to get me to, you know, come on over and jam, but none of them are, 90 % of the people that reach out to me are not full fledged projects. And so, you know, songwriting and the practicing and the, you know, travel and because Dallas, Texas is so big, you know, DFW. 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, driving back and forth. So right now I'm just keeping it to this project. I like to be able to have the time and the mindset to be able to be productive for this project. Ryan Rayle (05:38.007) Dude, that's awesome, man. Yeah, I mean, like I said, for a drummer to dedicate fully to one band, that's, they're all in, right? Cause you know, highly sought after. So, all right, so you picked up, you picked up Garth. How'd you, how'd you get Garth? Jerry Gomez (05:52.908) Well, because we were in a prior band, I kind of already knew them and we had played together. Ryan Rayle (05:55.305) sorry. I'm going edit that out and make me not look dumb. Ha ha. Jerry Gomez (05:59.406) But, but to that point, Garth was in a band after that. So after we played together, he joined another band. you know, so he was in the current project when, you know, when we reached out to him. Ryan Rayle (06:14.809) okay. So was in one, then Garth, went over here and Jerry, you and your brother were still doing things or you brought him on after Garth. Jerry Gomez (06:23.84) Yeah, so me and my brother started writing some riffs first. Yeah. Right. Ryan Rayle (06:27.425) That's what it was. See, man, I need to, I need to, I'm getting older guys. So I need, I forgot to take my, my pills this morning. So my apologies. Garth Rogers (06:34.398) your honor energy, alpha brain. Jerry Gomez (06:34.562) Hahaha. Ryan Rayle (06:37.303) Yeah, yeah, alpha brain and all the new tropics. No, man. man. That's great. OK, OK. Garth Rogers (06:44.924) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (06:49.422) No, but yeah, so so yeah me and Garth were in a band and then from there he went to another project and I stopped doing music for a little bit but just writing riffs at home and Ozzy had some ideas. I had some ideas to put them together and then from there we reached out to Garth. His project was it was doing pretty good you know that that's a couple shows here and there but you know we were playing metal before And his new project was a little more, what should we call it, art, funk, funk rock. Garth Rogers (07:21.54) Yeah, was, yeah, funk rock. had some red hot chili peppers, sublime and Led Zeppelin vibes all kind of, yeah. So we were making some pretty cool stuff, but the members, we're kind of clashing a little bit and some people weren't as, know, die hard, you know, ready to put the time and effort and... Ryan Rayle (07:30.507) Whoa, okay. Ryan Rayle (07:45.623) I got you. Garth Rogers (07:48.583) other things were going on in their lives. So we decided to separate, which, you know, we're all still really good friends. You know, that doesn't always happen when you leave a band. When I was younger and leaving bands, there people getting mad at each other. I mean, they, would just separate. You never talk to them again. So. Ryan Rayle (08:10.389) It's a tough breakup. Garth Rogers (08:12.434) Yeah, so it's good to, I still talk to those guys and I still have really good relationship with those guys. So it's, great. But just, you know, musically, just didn't combined. So Jerry hit me up and was like, Hey, I've been writing these songs with my brother and it'd be cool if you can come by and put on some drum tracks. And so we can kind of see what it sounds like. And, and I mean, I'm, I'm a more of a metal player. Ryan Rayle (08:35.382) Eh-heh. Garth Rogers (08:42.346) you know, that's my go-to genre of drumming. play all, I try to play all genres, but that's the main one. And so I jumped in with them. We kind of rented out a little practice studio to get our feet wet. And we started, you know, it made sense. And his brother was really vibing with what I was putting down. And me and Jerry already played together and we were already tight, you know, like. Ryan Rayle (09:09.259) Right, like you guys had that connection already. Garth Rogers (09:11.9) Yeah, mean, our music interests are the same. And then the ideas that we had in the previous band that we were in were always very compatible. So it was just seeing how his brother liked it and how it was moving forward. So it turned out good. We're here now. so, yeah, the music is sounding great. We're working well together. Ryan Rayle (09:35.851) Yeah. Garth Rogers (09:41.467) After about what, maybe a year or two of working through those scratch tracks and kind of really building them out and building that first EP that we released towards the deep, during that time when we first started recording, if we were gonna play live shows, we needed another guitar player. Ryan Rayle (10:01.057) Yeah, tell me about this band mix story. Garth Rogers (10:04.088) yeah, man, it's wild. Ryan Rayle (10:06.487) I did, I'm trying to like, trying to dig a little bit and I found that and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna stop reading. So. Garth Rogers (10:16.158) So years ago, 10, 13 years ago, I was in a metal band when I was 1920. It's called A Lorian and it was a three piece. And I had put out, I created my band mix account at that time because we were looking for singers. And then one of the main guys went to rehab for, you know, cocaine and stuff. So, and he was 18. Ryan Rayle (10:43.808) Okay. Garth Rogers (10:45.502) you know, 19. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and so that band mix ad, it was still running. I mean, it was still up and up on their platform and saying, Hey, I'm, we're, I'm looking for a guitarist. So Ryan Rayle (10:46.967) starting early. Okay. Ryan Rayle (11:00.833) like a Craigslist ad that never goes away. Garth Rogers (11:03.098) Exactly. So fast forward 10, 12 years later, I get hit up on band mix from our new our latest guitar player, Omar. He hits me up and says, Hey, you know, I, and it was just at the same time that I was, we were talking about adding a guitar player, it literally, within like a month or two, it just kind of came together where we were talking about it. Ryan Rayle (11:23.935) haha. Garth Rogers (11:30.64) And then Omar randomly messages me on Band Mix. And I'm like, hey, you know, and we really wanted to get outside of our circle because we know a lot of people, like all of our, a lot of our musician friends, we've all kind of played with, you know, like different project or. Ryan Rayle (11:46.679) Of course. It's like playing in the sandbox when you're younger. Like you're just hanging out and everybody's there cause you know, that's the place to be. So the music scene is where you're at is, mean, it's like your sandbox, you know? Garth Rogers (11:54.995) Yeah. Garth Rogers (12:00.115) Right. And so we really wanted somebody that we hadn't worked with, you know, that could be a different influence that had, you know, different cadence, different mind and music. And then he sent that message over and I said, hey guys, this guy could be a potential addition to the band. And then he sent some riffs over that he works on in his own time. And Jerry liked what he heard. And he was like, hey, let's meet him. You know, let's see what this is. And we met him at, do you remember the bar that we picked to meet him at, Jerry? Jerry Gomez (12:37.866) Mmm, I think it was the armory. I was it the armory. It was the armory. Yeah Garth Rogers (12:41.756) Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And so that's in Deep Bellum here in Dallas. And we met for a few drinks, talked to him, and we got good vibes. So we said, hey, man, come this next weekend. Come by. Kind of play with us. Let's see how you mesh with the band. And here's some of the tracks that we're working on. And here we are. Now he's part of the band. But it is really wild. that it was from Band Mix of all places. And I mean, and you know, a lot of people reach out to me on that as well from, you know, wanting to join their bands and such. So it's a platform, you know, I wouldn't, I would, if anybody was ever hesitant of joining it, I would say, your name out there, you know, make a profile, put your, put your stuff. Ryan Rayle (13:13.047) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (13:32.459) Yeah, if you could just a brief explanation of what band mix is. Garth Rogers (13:36.923) So yeah, it's kind of like a Facebook of musicians. you it's an online platform, you know, and you can you'll create a profile and you can put a little description of who you are, you know, what you've done or what your past experiences are. You can put the type of genres of music that you're interested in playing in and and you can and you reach out to other musicians you with. And then there's also people that put out ads like I did with that, looking for a guitar player for this type of project and give a short description of that project. And it's such a better way for people to communicate because it's very streamlined in the music. The other ones, it's everything. All the other platforms are just big social media platforms. It's for everything. And Bandmix is just... Ryan Rayle (14:25.089) Yeah. Garth Rogers (14:34.054) strictly music with musicians. it's definitely better than Craigslist because that's what I used to do when I first started. yeah, just got in the days, man, running through those and getting and running into random bands and playing with them. And all you have to go off of is a short description on Craigslist is wild time. Ryan Rayle (14:39.781) Hey Hell yeah! Ryan Rayle (14:49.225) I... Ryan Rayle (14:57.793) Yeah, dude. I, I, again, I, I love, like we spoke before we hit record. I love, I love finding out, you know, the stories, right? The people behind the music, you can, you can love the music, hate the music, but if you like the people playing it, there, you're more than likely to, you know, make a connection. so hearing stories like that, brother Craigslist, I think I'm going to tell I'm gonna tell AI to go through every single one of my episodes to find all of the Craigslist mentions. There are some ploppers of stories. So if you're listening now, the only place that you can find all the old shit where we talked about Craigslist was on SoundCloud. Not that I'm promoted by SoundCloud or anything, but SoundCloud is the only place where every single episode exists for the podcast. I have been lazy and I haven't transferred everything over to the other episodes, but anyway, I digress. So with that being said, finding new members, meeting them in deep Elam, Jerry, tell me about navigating the metal scene in Dallas and like we said, yeah, the AI question, that's what it was. Let's see, we asked the internet what we should ask Woolvera and the internet came back with navigating the Dallas scene. Jerry, discuss the challenges and opportunities of being a metal band in a city with a cyclical and sometimes unwelcoming scene. And there's a footnote there. I didn't care to check it out. Sounded like a cool question. So Jerry, how does Wolvera navigate an unwelcoming scene in Dallas? Jerry Gomez (16:37.472) Yeah Jerry Gomez (16:42.35) Yeah, it's tough, know, like the scene, first of all, the scene isn't that big. So it's niche, it's a little bit smaller. Ryan Rayle (16:55.627) Which, may I just say, I would imagine that the Dallas scene would be way bigger than what it is for a local aspect just because it's so fucking, I mean, compared to Austin and down here, but still like, anyway, go ahead, sorry to interrupt. Jerry Gomez (17:14.552) Yeah, yeah, no, it's strange. It's like when we look at the scene, the metal scene, it's big, but it's also small. And because, know, like when they do have a metal concert, like Alice in Chains comes to town or Meshuggah comes to town or whatever, like people go, venues are being sold out. you know, people, there are metal fans out there. They're just like hidden. A lot of people are hidden in disguise. You don't know who they are, but they're out there. But for music in Dallas, I wouldn't say it's unwelcoming, but it is a challenge to get into it. You know what I mean? It's more of a who you know type of basis and who do you get along with and who likes you in a personal level or a business level or music. that has to be one of those three avenues. It's challenging, it's very challenging to find who the key players are in Dallas to know who, you know, we quickly found out that like, okay, there's 10, let's say there's 10 bars where we could potentially play, but you know, six of those might be owned by the same people, you know? So our three of those might be one group of people and then the other three, another group, you know? So it's like, okay, so it's. Ryan Rayle (18:28.503) Jerry Gomez (18:35.562) You know, one guy you could probably play at three different venues. So it's just finding who is who, getting along with them, shooting them a message. You know, we tried a lot of different things to get shows. We tried the direct approach, just shooting them a message on Instagram, showing them our music, meeting them in person, like, hey, this one band's playing, let's go. Ryan Rayle (18:38.177) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (19:02.03) check them out and get to know them and see if they'd like to put a show on sometimes or whatever. So it's a challenge and we've definitely learned this past year, year and a half on how to maneuver it. But yeah, it's a little difficult for sure. Garth Rogers (19:19.536) Yeah, a lot of the shows that we play, get invited to by other bands. yeah, and because like Jerry said, we've tried the direct approach to the venues. And something to add on to what he was saying is if you don't have the direct contact or are somebody that knows those people that runs either the promotion or the booking for those venues, sending them an email is almost worthless. Yeah, absolutely. There's been so many times where we've had people, just send it to our booking email. And it's like, bro, we've been sending to your booking email for the last six months. Yeah. Right. Ryan Rayle (19:50.775) pointless. Ryan Rayle (20:02.625) That's why I'm coming to you now, because I've been emailing you, brother. Garth Rogers (20:06.682) And I mean, I've even talked to one of the venues, the promotion guy or booking guy manager was like, man, you guys sound great. You know, we'd love to have you on more. And it was a venue that we were trying to get in and we got invited to buy another band and we've sent him stuff before and he goes, yeah, I mean, it's most of the booking managers are relatively lazy about that whole process of, you know, siphoning through the emails. figuring out, putting those projects together and everything. the best package I would recommend people to have is say you have a date in mind or a time frame. You say you reach out months in advance and you say, have, want to play between these two weeks. And we have four bands already that are ready to go. Ryan Rayle (20:53.547) yeah. Garth Rogers (21:04.598) And here are their names, here's their social medias. And then you basically put the show together and you give them the package and then they accept the package or not. And that's one way of doing it. And that doesn't always work as well. And so I think that's been the most challenging about it as well. And also, there's only so many clubs you can play as a metal band in in I would assume in any city, but in Dallas, you know, there's maybe five to 10 good venues that you can play that are, you know, more, more dedicated to metal than the than, you know, your average venue. And with that small, you know, that's what makes it small, but big, because you have you do have a lot of metal fans, you do have Ryan Rayle (21:34.711) That's true. Garth Rogers (22:03.814) a lot of people trying to do metal bands, but when you only have a small number of venues that, you know, it really makes it hard for everybody to, you know, to really get in there and make something happen. Ryan Rayle (22:19.137) So do you think that as a community at the local level, you're saying that instead of relying on the venues and the promoters and the bookers to, you're you're saying that you're already doing the legwork for them. All they have to do is just accept, right? So working, that's, I mean, that's great because like you said, it's who you know, you guys got invited by other bands. Then once you got in the venue and played your music and, you know, draw your crowd, cause that's the only way you're going to get draw is you have to play. So the venues, you know, they have to take a chance on the locals. Right. And, and, and like, like Jerry said, and even like it's, it's a big market, but it's, it feels big, but is small, but is small, but also can be very big because you can, you can get your music to Jerry Gomez (23:16.172) Mm-hmm. Ryan Rayle (23:19.081) all the corners of the planet these days. so, you know, reaching, reaching those numbers or reaching those fans, you know, is, is also reasons that you guys have to be, you know, your own social media people and your own PR team and your own marketing team. But, I, really, I think that's great advice because then, you know, again, the sandbox theory, everybody's there to play and to have fun. So why not? do a little bit of the legwork. And then in my opinion, I think that that would look really good on you guys or any other band that is trying to play themselves, but let's get two or three other bands and then we can present because whenever I build a lineup, you know, I have to go out there and do my due diligence, but I only throw one show a year, maybe two, come and take it live in Austin. But they're always asking me, you know, we need to fill a date. So go find me, you know, three locals or we have a tour package coming through that wants, you know, two openers and you know, then I'll put the mass, put the message out. or bands will come to me and say, Hey, us and these two bands, like you just said, between this date and this date, we're open and we're trying to put a little tour together. So if there's anything coming through, maybe we can ping pong around the state. I think that's, I think that's an excellent idea. have you guys, have you guys done that yet? Or. something you're working towards just to kind of put together your own little package to present to the promoters so you guys can get out there more. Garth Rogers (24:54.494) Yeah, so in that sense we've made a lot of connections with other bands in the last, I'd say, two years, probably a year and a half or two years that we've been playing live shows. And so it kind of builds that roster for us to have that package. And every time we play a new show that we get invited to, we talk to the other bands and we let them know, hey, you know, if we have something coming up, you know, we'd love to, you know, we'll put you guys on or vice versa, because, you know, that seems to be the best way that we're able to continue with these live shows. So yeah, I mean, we're We're building that right now, you know, with the live shows, we're taking it as they come because we really want to finish this EP. And that's our main focus. And once we get that out, we will definitely be pushing harder to try to do a small, you know, small tour, you know, trying to, you know, hit the main cities here in Texas, maybe something in Oklahoma, you know, we really don't know at that point, but that, you know, we have to We have to manage our goals with the time that we have that we're able to put into the project. So yeah, mean, is something that we, it builds with you as you play these shows, meet all these other bands, talk to the venue owners or the booking managers. That definitely, it's definitely helped us be able to build that roster and get ready for when we decide to take that head on. Ryan Rayle (26:30.475) Right. Well, cool, man. Yeah. I, you know, always, always, always support locals, you know, any chance you get to, obviously bands go into the whatever venue to see their homies, you know, every, every little bit helps. and speaking of going to the venue to check out music, let's talk about that. Let's, switch gears. so desperate dogs is out. That's the latest one. Yeah. That's the, that's the next, that's the hottest. Jerry Gomez (26:53.678) Hmm. Ryan Rayle (27:00.193) hottest thing since sliced bread. The internet also wanted to know what inspired the theme and the tone of the track. Jerry? Jerry Gomez (27:05.496) you Jerry Gomez (27:12.15) Yeah, so that song was actually an older song that we wrote probably like when the band first, that's one of the riffs me like me and Ozzy got together and made, you know, before Garth got into the band. So we were kind of just, or better yet, before we started with Rivera. But yeah, that was older riffs and then, you know, Garth was able to put some drums into it. But that song was very, you know, the first iteration of that song was very ambitious. long, kind of had like a, you know, what was it? Maybe like old school Metallica type of length and progression to it that it just didn't sit right with me at the time. you know, we put drums on it and we had some mock-up vocals, but yeah, I was like, nah, let's just not record that for the EP, Towards the Deep. Let's just keep it in our back pocket and we'll see what we do. So. Ryan Rayle (27:50.036) yeah. Jerry Gomez (28:10.478) When writing this new EP, that song had some good riffs in there that I felt could have some good use. So we pretty much had to remake the song. We probably kept maybe 60 % of it, 70 % of it, and then just made it into what it is now. But at the time, it had a working title, Rain God, and we weren't too sure what we were gonna do with it. Lyrically, it just had some vocal melodies, but no actual lyrics. So when it came to write this one, definitely wanted to go for a more sludge-ier, nasty sound, at least from the production and the guitar work. You know, very old Macedon, Melvin's type of acid bath type of sound, very gritty and heavy and big, right? So... We wanted to go with that and yeah, we wanted to try something different. We were like, well, let's give it a shot on this song. It's a short one and let's just make it sound as heavy as we can and as big as we can and switch it up a little bit from the other recordings we've done. Lyric wise, I was kind of, I was writing the lyrics to go one direction and. you know, they just kind of started moving towards something else and I just went with it. It definitely, it was a challenge to kind of figure out where I wanted it to go. But once I saw where it was going, you know, it's just like that's where it needs to go, right? So Desperate Dogs definitely, know, it's, you know, it's all about, primarily it's about, you know, cage fighting, dog fighting, but. not necessarily metal. Ryan Rayle (30:03.585) I legitimately was like, I'm curious what's it about? Cause I haven't gotten into the lyrics. So it's about dog fighting. Jerry Gomez (30:05.89) Yeah. Yeah. To some sense, metaphorically, it's kind of a, yeah, I mean, that's the image I had in my head. Yeah, it's a brutal subject and obviously we don't support dog fighting or anything, but it is, yeah, it's terrible. But we did kind of, the idea was just kind of having, you know, being in a place where you can't get out of and you're forced to do what you don't want to unwillingly, you know? Yeah, metaphorically, right? Ryan Rayle (30:12.957) okay, bye. Slow down, Kevin Vick. Garth Rogers (30:17.47) Hahaha Ryan Rayle (30:23.585) Hell no. Ryan Rayle (30:36.087) metaphorically caged dogs, desperate dogs. I get it, okay. Jerry Gomez (30:40.63) Yeah, right. Like, you know, whether it's your own internal struggles or not, or experiences you live through, but you know, sometimes you're stuck in a rut. You want it to end and it can't. It just doesn't. And you have to go out and perform or go out and do what you got to do or get up and go to work or whatever it is that's weighing on you. Ryan Rayle (31:00.727) The song is literally just about having to go to work. Being forced to do something you don't want to do, but you're here. So fuck it. God. Garth Rogers (31:11.282) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (31:12.446) Exactly, right. yeah, so I don't know. just had that idea in my head of like, just like dog fighting and how fucked up it is and how bad it is and you know, like just the imagery of it was kind of like, you know, kind of playing in my head. So was like, all right, well, let's, how can we use that to make a song that's more relatable and not necessarily, you know, right on the notes about that. Ryan Rayle (31:43.905) Go ahead, Garth. Garth Rogers (31:44.433) Well, I was just going to say, you know, it came at a surprise to, you know, the rest of us because the working title was Rain God for a long time. so we didn't, know, Jerry was Jerry usually has his lyrics ready, you know, a week before studio time. So we really don't know what it's going to be until we get in there. And he's like, yeah, guys, it's going to be called Desperate Dogs. And so me and his brother Ozzy are looking at each other like, where's this coming from? And it was like, are you sure? And he goes, yeah, trust me, just wait till you hear the lyrics and how it's put together. And that's part of the band, trusting each other and how it's going to be put together. And it just came out of a sudden surprise to us, but we really liked the outcomes. Jerry Gomez (32:18.798) Thank Ryan Rayle (32:19.041) Hahaha Jerry Gomez (32:39.116) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (32:39.383) was gonna say, how are the, let's talk about the band dynamics. Tell me about how you know, so you said you took this song from before the first EP. And quick question, everything that you guys have produced is currently available on streaming platforms, right? Okay, so anybody can go and check out everything that you've done, that you've put out. So, yeah, so tell me about like when, Jerry Gomez (32:57.27) Yeah, everything. Ryan Rayle (33:09.301) Not only when a song is done, like you said, you took this one, it was a back burner idea. This doesn't quite fit this EP. Okay. We'll put it somewhere in a Google drive and we'll peel it out later. Then you rethink of it or you know, you have this new idea. So Jerry, you're the, you're the main, the main songwriter. Did I get that right? Jerry Gomez (33:28.851) yeah, for the most part, I would say. Ryan Rayle (33:30.581) Okay. So do you, so yeah, just help us understand the band dynamics. So you, you, you come up with the lyrics or you come up with the riff and then you all get together and Garth is like, no, we need a drum fill here. Like walk us through that and then tell us like when you guys feel that the song is done. Jerry Gomez (33:48.13) Yeah, so usually I would say about 80 to 90 % of the time, it's probably just riffs. We start with riffs that I have or Omar has or Ozzy has and it kind of comes a little spontaneous. I'll start writing something and that might spark the interest or I will think of, hear music. I hear a lot of different music and just get ideas and shit's always playing at the house or in car. And from there, I'll get an idea, get inspired. And then from there, be like, all right, that's cool. I like that vibe. I like that groove. How can I make something with that same energy? And then I'll write some riffs, or I'll just go through the catalog. I've recorded tons of riffs on my phone that I just have on the drive and share with these guys. Ryan Rayle (34:40.841) yeah, you're in the Taco Bell drive through and you're like, fuck. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Yup, okay, got it. Jerry Gomez (34:45.602) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So vocal melodies too, you know, depending just random stuff that, you know, sometimes just pops up at the worst time. Always. It's always the worst time that it happens, right? When you it to work, it doesn't work. And you're like at work. Yeah. Right. I'm like, I'm at work and I hear it and I'm already recording it right quick. Or the rest is recorded. Ryan Rayle (35:02.153) I feel like I gotta get this out of my head. Ryan Rayle (35:10.199) Just I'm going to lunch Phyllis. I'll be right back. Jerry Gomez (35:13.294) I'll be right back, yeah, exactly. So yeah, we get some riffs and we start just putting riffs together, you know, just so it kind of has some kind of skeleton to it, you know, some kind of body and it's not fully perfect and all the little, like to call it the studio details haven't been thought of, but the bones are there. And also we got, this is the riff, this would be the chorus, this would be the bridge or whatever, you know? Ryan Rayle (35:36.46) Of Jerry Gomez (35:42.862) I share it with Ozzy, I share it with all three other guys and they hear it and then we'll just try to put some drums on it, try to explain the vision to Garth and to them what I'm thinking and give them references of kind of like, you know, the breakdown has to have kind of this feeling and I'll show them a song, kind of like what I'm trying to do or try to explain to them, you know, how this is the part where people jump or this is the part where they start mashing it up. Ryan Rayle (36:10.162) Haha, hell yeah. Jerry Gomez (36:11.19) or this is the lighter part where people pull out their lighter or flashlight at this point, Stuff like that, but just to kind of see where we're going, show them the roadmap. And yeah, I mean, it's a pretty long process in the sense of, Garth would put some drums on it. Or we do a lot of this, a lot of homework. It's a homework-based band, is what I like to say. So I'll show them the riff in the jam room. I'll play it. Garth might write some drums there. but at end of the day, he'll go home sometime around Wednesday. He'll send me the track with his idea of the drums. We'll meet on Sunday and then just go through it again. And we'll do that a couple of times, you know, until we get something that we all like or something where we could come to an agreement on. And, and yeah, and then that would be part of much of the song at that point. vocally and lyrically, I'll write that at home. I'll put it together. I try to desperate dogs was. you know, one of the harder ones to get the lyrics out because since I already had like pre-made ideas, it was hard to break away from those because they just kind of, you what I mean? Like, yeah, oh, I used to always sing it this way. And now it's like, oh, now it's like, I'm trying to completely change it. So now it's like muscle memory is telling me to go that way. But I'm like, no, you know, I'm trying to go left instead of right. Yeah. So that was. Ryan Rayle (37:18.263) okay. Ryan Rayle (37:32.117) I got you. Jerry Gomez (37:34.52) very difficult for Desperate Dogs and that's why for that one for sure the lyrics weren't done until like two days before I had to go to the studio and it was hard to even get the theme right like it was just a lot like it was a lot harder than the other songs. The other songs usually have an idea beforehand like okay I want to write about this I just need to figure out the words and how to say it or how to structurally put it together vocally and you know I there's been times where I can even show the guys the lyrics before we go into the studio or we'll jam it out a couple times you know with vocals before we go. to studio to record. But yeah, once the lyrics are done, I mean, that's it. We go into the studio and lay it all down. Ryan Rayle (38:15.319) When you say go into the studio, are you physically going to a recording studio? Okay. Awesome. Garth Rogers (38:20.455) Yes. Jerry Gomez (38:20.94) Yeah, so we go. Yeah, we work with a guy named Alex, Alex Gerst, I believe is his last name, I might be pronouncing it wrong. But he's out of Carrollton, Texas. So he has a really, really nice studio that he has and we've recorded everything so far with him. Ryan Rayle (38:34.262) Okay. Ryan Rayle (38:39.361) Do have a comp like a production company name or something? Garth Rogers (38:41.95) Yeah, his studio is called Empire Sound Studios. Yeah. Jerry Gomez (38:42.466) Wow, what's it called? Empire. Mm-hmm. Really good work. He... Yeah, shout out to Alex for sure. Ryan Rayle (38:46.111) Empire Sound Studios, got it. Shout out to that guy. Garth Rogers (38:50.812) Yeah, he's a drummer as well and sometimes he can be a little, you know, he doesn't mean to hurt you, but he will tell you what's up. He will say, hey, that doesn't sound good. You can't do that. And you're like, crap, I don't have another thing to do right now. So like, mean, Desperate Dogs is one of those examples. It's been a couple of times. Jerry Gomez (39:13.89) Thank Garth Rogers (39:19.838) on the past songs. And the first time we went there with him, it was definitely like a eye-opening experience about how we work with him and how that all flows. But over the time with all the songs, we've developed a good relationship with Alex. We feel, he might not say that, but. Yeah. But, so we feel like we've. Ryan Rayle (39:40.215) He's like watching this episode, he's like, fuck those dudes. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Garth Rogers (39:48.211) developed a good relationship, communicating to him what we're trying to do, and he'll listen back, you know, and it works really well together, we feel. And so, especially on this song, you know, during the scratch track process that we do, you know, everybody was like, sounds good. You know, the song is good. It's laid out, we're good to go. We booked the scheduled time, we got into the studio. And that process is Jerry will get down a scratch track on the metronome while I'm setting up drums. Drums then get set up and are ready to go. And then I'll put down that drum track on that scratch track, and then we'll go to each instrument afterwards. And during that process, though, I'll play through it a couple of times to warm up and make sure everything is kind of lining together. And during that, you know, that recording right then he's like, hey, Jerry here's something different now because I do the recording here if you can see in the background, I do the drums. Ryan Rayle (40:55.895) Let's say you've got some gear back there, brother. Garth Rogers (40:58.172) Yeah, so I do the scratch tracks here at home. I use right now, you know, I just set up a couple mics overhead snare kick, and just, you know, and then work off that with what you know, what Jerry does just through at his house with his bass and guitar. And so we don't always hear everything that you do in a, you know, $2 million studio, right? So you go there and now you're hearing different things. Ryan Rayle (41:22.145) course. Garth Rogers (41:26.458) stuff doesn't line up exactly how you thought it did. And Alex will be the first one to be like, that doesn't, that's not working, you know? And then so, and so, and during the song, and I would say it's the chorus or the verse, Jerry, it's the verse. So I was doing too much and yeah. And I was, it was just too big on the drums. Cause Jerry's like, I got to sing. Jerry Gomez (41:42.486) I think it's the verse. Yeah, it was the verse. Ryan Rayle (41:48.775) okay. Garth Rogers (41:54.953) during this part and what you're doing is, you know, overshadowing and taking too much and it's too much to focus on while we're trying to push this melody, lyric melody. And, you know, I was, I was like, well, you know, I don't really have anything in my back pocket right now, because I thought we were all agreeing on this is what we needed. And, and then Alex was like, nah, it's not working. You know, you know, we, you guys need to think of something else and Ryan Rayle (41:58.871) Garth Rogers (42:24.796) Just as Jerry has those issues when you already have that stuff built in your head on when you're writing a song, you're kind of locked into that area. And it's really hard to, especially when you're in the studio, pressure's on, you're running throughout the day, you're wasting time. You have to think of this new rhythm, this new pattern that matches well, and you have to feel good about it. Ryan Rayle (42:50.529) Yeah. Garth Rogers (42:52.19) That's, then on this time we had to, I had to come out of the drum area and, know, we sat down, you know, we, thought of different things, how it's not working and we listened to a couple of different songs to try to get some different influence in my ear. Cause I couldn't, I couldn't hear anything different, but we figured it out, you know, and, that, you know, that I feel like that's very important. And, and it's something that happens in the studio a lot, you know, when You go in with a certain idea and as you work through it, it doesn't always play out to the way that you thought. you got to give, you know, it's good props to Alex to be able to sit there and have that ear and have that vocation to be like, hey, you know, guys, you guys got to do something different here. You know, he doesn't tell you, you you need to do this or that. He's just like, hey, we got to figure something else out. Ryan Rayle (43:50.743) That reminds me, thank you for that. And honestly, that's a great, it's great that you guys work well with your producer. That's what they're for, right? Regardless if it's your friend or if it's someone that you met on Band Mix or Craigslist, it doesn't matter. They are there to do a job. obviously, know, going, not every studio and not every producer is created equally. So you gotta do a little homework. Is it? just my ears, but as the first few singles produced differently than what's new? Or maybe it's just that maybe just the upload. I don't know. I always like to ask. Garth Rogers (44:24.079) probably. Garth Rogers (44:28.102) No, mean, Alex has done all of our songs, but it has been over a three to four year process. And we do do the songs one at a time. And it could be months in between those songs that we get the other one finished. And so it definitely our Ryan Rayle (44:37.835) Long time. Garth Rogers (44:54.75) He he learns new techniques he you know to and he Understands our sound better as more times that we record with him So and also, you know sometimes what we're looking for in that song has a different quality than something that we've done previously but there and you know and he'll be like look at this cool new snare I got and we're like, okay, you know, let's let's try it out. And so that changes and Ryan Rayle (45:13.963) gotcha Ryan Rayle (45:24.727) You're like, let me just tune it up real quick. Like, is that good? It's got enough fucking bomb in it for you. Garth Rogers (45:26.578) Yeah. Garth Rogers (45:31.132) Yeah, so I mean, so things do change over time, but we've been very happy with the product that we get with Alex. Ryan Rayle (45:40.183) Well, I can say that the quality has improved. Again, I don't know if it's just the way I'm consuming it. typically, I'll hear it in some ears, some in-ears, and then I'll put it in the car, give it the in-car test. I just, it's good. like, you know, it even sounds a little thicker these days, if that makes any sense. So you guys are kind of growing and evolving with each other. He's getting better at his craft. You're getting better at your craft, together equally you're making, you're making improvements to my ears. So. Garth Rogers (46:18.908) Yeah, and I would agree. I listen back to the older ones and I thought maybe it was a biased opinion of them being older and I've listened to them and I play them. But it's good to hear that feedback because it's good to see that it's moving in a positive direction and the changes are making a difference. Ryan Rayle (46:31.34) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (46:43.799) Well, I mean, if, if, if you don't get that, regardless of the feedback, negative or positive or neutral, if you don't get it, then you, you know, you don't know where it's landing. And, you know, the bands that I've talked to 94.7 % of them make music for themselves, like the music that they want to play. But you, but you have to take into account who's going to consume this is, are we going to go down? You know, the, the zeppelin path, or are we going to go down, you know, mega death path, or are we going to go down? You know what I mean? Like you every, I actually just learned some shit today or I was told some shit today. Uh, my former co-host, uh, and best friend, uh, told me about how Metallica in the early nineties with the black album, that was like, there was like this split. They're like, Oh, Metallica sold out and they're not, you know, doing Garth Rogers (47:19.666) Mm-hmm. Ryan Rayle (47:42.389) what they were known for. I personally don't have the knowledge to speak on the seventies eighties and even nineties metal, because that's not the, that's not the metal that I was introduced to. I'm, you know, mid two thousands metal core, like fucking through and through, you know what I mean? But history has a tendency to repeat and now this polished perfection studio, $2 million, $3 $5 million studio sound starting to wane on people and the thrashier, sluggier, you know, the shit that started it all is starting to come back. mean, fuck Ozzy, rest in peace. Just had the show of all shows for that kind of era of music. And for anybody that got to go to it, God dude. just, then like three weeks later he passes away. Like that's man, that's a whole nother conversation. But the, how like y'all style of music, that thrashiness, that old school vibe. Do you like, find myself starting to gravitate more towards it just, just simply because of how it sounds. It's like, sitting on my back porch, just, you know, having a moment and just with that shit in the background is here comes a solo. You know what I mean? it's, good. It's good. Do you guys, do you guys find that you guys have enough room to grow in, that field in Dallas? Jerry. Jerry Gomez (49:26.828) Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, like us as a band... You know, like the recordings sound different, the songs all sound different. It's kind of one of the, I guess you could say like a motto slash idea that Wilber is a band that we can, we can do whatever we really want as long as it's metal. I think even if it's not fully heavy metal, get, we're comfortable with it. You know what I mean? So, you know, we take influence from a lot of bands all around. So the newer stuff, the older stuff, progressive stuff, rock. everything. So in Dallas for sure, there's a lot of bands of different styles. You know, get the more modern day progressive kids and then you get the old school Pantera style. Pantera's a big influence obviously in Dallas. So, you know, there's always a band that, you know, has that Pantera influence on the bill. You'll find one for sure. Ryan Rayle (50:21.239) course. Ryan Rayle (50:27.543) dude, you can, it's like, you just hear one section and you're like, ba ba da da da. Yup. There it is. Fucking send it. Jerry Gomez (50:37.526) Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. there's enough room for us to grow in Dallas for sure, at least in this metal scene. But at the same time, we're not tied down to it if we wanna make something more metalcore style. more progressive metal, I feel we have the room and the capabilities to do so. And it just kinda really depends on the band, how we feel or what we feel the band needs at the moment. And some of these songs, when we write them, it's just how the spark that happens at that moment. Like, this is what the song is becoming. I'm not gonna force it to be more modern or more technical. If it doesn't, it doesn't allow it. You know what I mean? Like we'll add the bells and whistles to it and we'll be like, okay, well this is the structure is there. It's a, it's a little too simple. What can we do? Like, oh, you know what? Let's just not go over the top. Let's not try to add a orchestra section in this or a fucking drums, a keyboard or a drum solo if it doesn't need it. You know what I mean? Like let's, okay, what can we do? All right, well let's see. Maybe we can make this riff off. Ryan Rayle (51:43.703) Keyboard. Ryan Rayle (51:49.047) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (51:52.514) Maybe we can make it off time but hide it so people don't know it's off time. It just feels different. Ryan Rayle (51:59.299) brother, finding little Easter eggs like that in a song is, is cool. You'll be, you'll be bobbing along to like, you know, whatever time signature. And all of a sudden your head isn't quite with the snake. You're like, the F... Okay. Now we're back. Jerry Gomez (52:02.218) Right. Jerry Gomez (52:12.526) Yeah, exactly. Right. So we've tried to do a lot of little things like that. You know, the riff sounds too old school. is like, can we make a little bit more modern? Maybe the drums need to be a little more modern. Maybe the riff can be more modern, you know, but it really depends on the song. But we're open to do, you know, whatever we feel is right and whatever we feel at the moment. Because, you know, we're musicians, we're going to grow. Sometimes we discover a new band who's our new favorite band, you know. Garth Rogers (52:14.814) Thank Jerry Gomez (52:41.102) And then boom, we're like, hey, I want to kind of take that and use that as an influence for this next song or these next three songs or whatever. And, you know, there's, it's always an open format for us and we're able to, you know, do what we want really long as we like it. Ryan Rayle (52:57.239) Yeah, dude, that's the key as long as you like it because like a job, if you don't like it, you're probably not gonna do, you you're not gonna put it all, put your all into it. But speaking of new bands, we're coming up on an hour. I don't wanna keep you guys too long. I got a couple things. I wanna circle back to something that Garth had reminded me of. The openness and honesty of somebody telling you that your music is not. Jerry Gomez (53:00.365) Mm-hmm. Jerry Gomez (53:08.309) Right. Ryan Rayle (53:24.809) It's not good in this section or it could use work here. for everyone listening, all 14 of you, if you're close to your chest and some, if the song is close to your chest and someone tells you that it's not good, don't, don't lose your shit. Ask, pick, you know, well, what don't you like about it? Right? Like you don't have to please that one person, but that one person probably is a representation of a lot of people that you don't even know. so constructive criticism is great, which means. What you reminded me of is I'm going to try to bring back what we used to call does it stank? we used an, and a combination of the Google drive, real quick, I want to play this for you real quick. This, this track that was created, this is, this is a back burner, kind of like, kind of like desperate. Do you listen to this? Jerry Gomez (54:04.141) Hmm. Jerry Gomez (54:12.947) All right. Ryan Rayle (54:33.383) Love that. Did you guys hear that? Thank God. Last time it didn't work and I looked like an idiot just dancing in front of a screen. Jerry Gomez (54:35.15) Yeah Garth Rogers (54:35.172) Yeah, that was wild. Jerry Gomez (54:41.482) Nice. Ryan Rayle (54:44.417) But yeah, man, was signed up earlier before the podcast got a foothold. I guess this is a little bit of lore, like I was telling Garth earlier. We used to do the Google Drive and a really good friend of mine, Jeremy used to be in a band called Bury the Rod and then he moved away. We still love you Jeremy, but I kept that. Jerry Gomez (54:56.289) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (55:09.291) And it was the introduction to where we would just go into the Google Drive, where we were signed up for a shitload of like PR and marketing, know, hey, new release, you know, open for interview. And we would pick the email based off of the band name. That was the Google Drive. And then we would throw that into our segment called Does It Stank? Where we would get new song submissions. Like if you guys wrote a track, Jerry Gomez (55:25.902) Thank Ryan Rayle (55:37.591) or, it just had this just disgustingness to it that you guys just, it's almost like a test drive, right? Like I like test drive octane. Like that was kind of how it all came together. was like random email band name or song title name with a little bit of constructive criticism. And dude, we found some absolute bangers in there, but we also found some stinkers. Uh, but we would always, you know, let the band know like what we didn't like or, know, or, you know, Jerry Gomez (56:00.13) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (56:07.531) just trying to give that real-time feedback. Cause like you said, you step into the studio, you got one idea and the next thing you know, you're like, that doesn't fit there. Then you fix it. You think it's great, send it out and it just flops or, you know, not saying it did flop. I'm just saying in theory. So trying to bring back, does it stank in the Google drive? So if you guys, for anybody listening out there, bands, friends of bands, producers, if you've got a track that you just want to... Garth Rogers (56:23.198) Sure. Jerry Gomez (56:23.757) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (56:35.467) get out into the world and see what happens, just send it to me. Just austintxmetal.gmail.com or DM me anywhere. The second thing was, I wanna know what you guys are listening to these days, whether it's a local, a national, who's in the playlist these days? Garth Rogers (56:59.326) man, I mean like Jerry said, first I would like to tack on to what you're saying about the criticism and feedback. So during the promotion phase when we released a new song, I use a platform called Groover, which allows you to boost your music or promote it to a bunch of playlist curators, magazine writers, podcasts Just all it's called Groover g are yeah and But yeah, so what you do is you start a campaign and you Push they have a bunch of people that sign up with it that run those things so there could be labels there could be You know like I said magazine writers blog posts radios Ryan Rayle (57:27.215) What is this? I can access this? Interesting. Ryan Rayle (57:51.478) Holy shit. Garth Rogers (57:52.509) Yeah, so what you do is you set up a campaign and you push your music to all of these different individuals and then they decide if they want to share your music on their platform and also they give you feedback. Yeah, it's really good. I mean, it helps us a lot get out there because, you know, that's one thing that's a very big part of music is maybe you have a really good song. Maybe you have really good music that you're writing and creating. It's just nobody's heard it. Ryan Rayle (58:06.455) Pro. Garth Rogers (58:22.844) you know, and to get it out there, you know, and that's where I think we kind of stand as a band right now. I think our music is top notch. think quality is great. It's just, we need more people to be able to hear it. You know, the internet is vast and it is. if, if you, you know, sometimes you can put out there and sometimes it gets caught onto something and people are using it and the algorithm built it up. And sometimes you put it out there and nobody ever hears it ever. And it could be one of the best songs ever. Ryan Rayle (58:24.395) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (58:38.167) It's a big ocean. Garth Rogers (58:53.04) So you really just, that's a big part of it. It's getting your music out there to other people in some way. And I just think it's really funny about the feedback because it's very interesting. You don't know these people, they don't know you. And they give you their honest feedback, whether it's good or bad. And it's just interesting. I could have one person on one side say, this mix is amazing. know, great job on these heavy guitars. The vocals are perfect. Ryan Rayle (59:05.985) No. Garth Rogers (59:19.804) And then on the other hand, have somebody who goes, this mix needed work. know? Yeah, absolutely. Cause you're a podcast. Ryan Rayle (59:25.583) my God, I can apply to be a curator? Dude, yes. Thank you, Garth. Party on, Wayne. Motherfucker. This is amazing. Garth Rogers (59:32.819) Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, and just onto your point, it's just crazy. know, have to be somebody who can just take it with a grain of salt, you know, and it's really funny because I'll go back to Alex. Alex is super proud of his work. You know, he does great work. He works with other really big named artists that come through his studio. So us to be able to take advantage of his time and get something out is really great. Jerry Gomez (59:33.166) you Ryan Rayle (59:47.105) Yes. Garth Rogers (01:00:02.514) take go back to him and say, this random guy in Brazil was like this makes this mix needs work here. goes, yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Ryan Rayle (01:00:14.679) Dude, it's almost it's almost like not crowdfunding but crowdsourcing Like improvements, you know, I mean and that was the whole point The biggest point of of what I mean, this is exactly it I mean damn if I can be a curator I would just I would just feature Texas man. Obviously I would listen to stuff, but I would try to curate for Texas man. Holy shit, but but yeah, it's it's it's Garth Rogers (01:00:22.429) Right. Ryan Rayle (01:00:44.511) It's commute, everything that we do in the music community is community oriented and community driven. And if anybody from anywhere on the planet can help improve someone's work in some way, or form, I think that's a win. You just have to be able to like, you know, open your, be a little vulnerable for a little bit. and just accept it like, damn, he's right. Instead of this lead, I should follow. Jerry Gomez (01:00:51.735) Right. Ryan Rayle (01:01:13.483) with this or, know, maybe you should try a tune a little bit, know, tune it a little bit different or, know, I will not tell anybody anything musically cause I don't know any, I may have a guitar or two back here, but it's just for looks. Okay. I can't play. I'm just target demographic white dude that likes ones and zeros. And, and always, always a huge fan of just a fucking sloppy riff. You know what I mean? Just a good, a sexy solo. Garth Rogers (01:01:25.726) you Jerry Gomez (01:01:31.659) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (01:01:38.112) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (01:01:41.801) harmonic solos I have a heart for or or that actually that doesn't even make any sense. Harmonies not solo sorry about that. But yeah it's and like y'all style of music is just wide open for just killer killer shreds. So that's damn dude that's cool. So yeah so who are we listening to and then we'll do all the at's and we'll get out of here. Jerry Gomez (01:02:00.398) Thank you. Garth Rogers (01:02:09.052) I mean, I listen to all sorts of music. Ryan Rayle (01:02:13.313) Here, I'll join the party. I'll just go to my recents. Garth Rogers (01:02:15.1) Yeah, I listen to a lot of drum and bass and so there's some... Yeah. Yeah. So there's a random artist on my Spotify, like StarJunk95. I don't know. I just found him the other day, but he has an amazing song, LX-777. You know? Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's been great. Ryan Rayle (01:02:21.4) okay. Well, EDM fan, let's go. Ryan Rayle (01:02:38.241) sounds like a copier. You got the latest LX 77? Sure do. Ordered it yesterday. Garth Rogers (01:02:45.212) Yeah, but like on metal side, mean, Bleed From Within has a couple of new releases that I've been big fan of. don't really listen to a lot of country music, but the Stephen Wilson Jr. guy, he has an album out, but I've been enjoying that, listening to that. Ryan Rayle (01:02:50.968) Ooh, there you go. Garth Rogers (01:03:09.254) And I mean, going back to the good old days, mean, have recently I've been listening to some Sugar Ray. So yeah. So it really it really goes everywhere. You know, it's funny, I was playing golf yesterday. Ryan Rayle (01:03:18.625) Why not? Right? Why not? Garth Rogers (01:03:26.25) And this guy was playing music and he goes getting on the back nine he goes, hey, do you want to listen to music? You know, what type of music would you want to listen to? And he goes, don't tell me you like to listen to everything because nobody likes to listen to everything. And I go, well, I mean, I'm a musician. mean, I do like to listen to everything, you know, and then and then five seconds later, I go, OK, but maybe not Taylor Swift. I lied. I don't like to listen to everything. Ryan Rayle (01:03:45.015) Yeah Garth Rogers (01:03:53.919) don't put on Taylor Swift and he just busts out laughing. yeah, mean, it goes everywhere for me. I listen to it Jerry Gomez (01:03:56.686) Thank Ryan Rayle (01:03:57.452) Nice. Ryan Rayle (01:04:03.127) Cool. What about you, Jerry? Jerry Gomez (01:04:05.998) Well a lot of Aussie these last three days a lot of Black Sabbath, you know, just kind of reliving Ryan Rayle (01:04:09.441) Hell yeah. Jerry Gomez (01:04:14.574) You know, his whole catalog, a lot of great hits, of course. But other than that, I have been somewhat on a music rut lately. I haven't been able to find, I feel like Spotify used to have a way better suggestion list, you know, like, like I would hear one band and then the bands that came after were like pretty good or similar, but now it just kind of repeats songs I've heard before. you know, like, like why? Like, so it's hard to find new stuff. Ryan Rayle (01:04:29.335) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (01:04:40.012) Yes. Jerry Gomez (01:04:43.406) But if I go through my last couple songs I liked I got in the morning of the magicians by the flaming lips really good song Yeah, I have never entered my mind by Miles Davis really good song Sea of sons by the helix nebula that was actually really good And yeah, this last this one was called the last looks by the band horse really good song like it's really heavy Ryan Rayle (01:04:53.079) Flaming lips heard, okay. Ryan Rayle (01:04:58.443) Cool, okay. Ryan Rayle (01:05:13.045) By who? Jerry Gomez (01:05:13.334) The band Horus. Ryan Rayle (01:05:15.659) Like W H O R E S whores. Okay. Jerry Gomez (01:05:17.16) yeah, they're like a punk band. They're like a loud punk band and they're pretty, good, surprisingly. These are the last couple ones I've ran into that I'm like, okay, that's really cool. Been saving these to jam about later. But yeah, man, just a little bit of everything, man. Of course, I've always listened to Metallica and Judas Priest, stuff like that. Ryan Rayle (01:05:23.841) All right. Ryan Rayle (01:05:41.719) I was just jamming Judas on the way over here. the, I'm sorry, on the way back to my house, not over here. Like, it's like, well, that's good. I'm happy that I think about my own studio as a destination. you know, that's great. Jerry Gomez (01:05:43.072) Nah. Yeah, yeah. Garth Rogers (01:05:46.353) You Garth Rogers (01:05:52.744) Yeah. Good mindset. Jerry Gomez (01:05:52.94) Yeah, that's good. But yeah, just a bit of everything. yeah, mostly in the rock and metal side and a little bit of indie rock here and there. yeah, man, just try to keep it open and keep it broad. Ryan Rayle (01:06:05.623) Cool. I do. So what I do is I start off with a local band. like, for example, I'll just go, I'm on right now, right now I'm on Spotify. Got you guys pulled up. We'll just go to desperate dogs. I'm going to pause that cause that's loud as shit. And then I'll just go down to go to radio and see what happens. And so right now you guys get put in. So based off that song, the following bands, blank, Jerry Gomez (01:06:13.102) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (01:06:26.779) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Garth Rogers (01:06:28.605) Hmm. Ryan Rayle (01:06:38.423) Slipknot, Shock, what the hell is that? Shock, Narcotic, Jinko, Balboa, Wolvera again, Entrails, Severed by Dawn, and Baby on a Rampage. That is the list that you guys have been put in. I've never heard of any of the bands except for Slipknot and you guys. So this is why I like to do this kind of thought process is to kind of see like where you guys are at personally and then to see where Jerry Gomez (01:06:42.702) Hmm. Garth Rogers (01:06:57.918) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (01:07:08.107) the algorithm is throwing throwing me based off of you guys. And so I've actually found a lot of, a lot of cool, a lot of cool sounds, doing that. And that I'll, I'll start, like I said, start with the local latest track, you know, some single they're trying to push out. So I get more familiar with it, go for a run, go to workout, whatever. And then just as I'm listening, I'll just, she had to like that one. And then I'll send the band a message at me like, Hey man, I heard you guys based off of. Jerry Gomez (01:07:10.574) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (01:07:36.631) you know, this Texas local, um, that way it kind of, you know, if you or them ever are in the same neighborhood or they're on tour, it can be like, oh yeah, that one band or whatever. So, um, but I've been listening, I've been listening to this. one of my favorite bands is called Harbor. H A R B O U R. It's, it's, it's softy music. So don't, don't at me, but I've, I love me some Harbor, especially a song gets you high. That it, I mean, it's. Jerry Gomez (01:07:47.768) Yeah. Garth Rogers (01:07:59.624) me. Jerry Gomez (01:07:59.918) you Ryan Rayle (01:08:06.775) You'll just have to listen to it. Maybe I'll plug it in here somewhere. speaking of plugin, any final shout outs, any final thank yous and what are all the at's so people can reach you guys directly. Jerry Gomez (01:08:08.79) I need to check it out. Jerry Gomez (01:08:24.13) Garth? Garth Rogers (01:08:25.136) Okay, well we do want to let everybody know that we have a show coming up in Reno's August 15th. The 27th. Okay. Ryan Rayle (01:08:35.671) Wait, fuck, what's today? Hold on. Okay, this will be up by then. Ryan Rayle (01:08:44.157) man, I have, me, I have fucked that one up so many times that anytime someone's like, we've got a show. I'm like, wait, hold on. Let's double check the release date. So this will, you said August 15th. Garth Rogers (01:08:53.95) Yeah, August 15th and there's four or five bands on there. Jerry, do you know the name of the bands? Jerry Gomez (01:09:02.242) Yes, I do. We're playing with a band called Memorin, and I believe they are from out of town. I can't really remember exactly where. Ryan Rayle (01:09:13.345) Do say memory or memories? Garth Rogers (01:09:19.356) I think they're Houston based. Ryan Rayle (01:09:20.225) Good. Let's go check out that band memory. Jerry Gomez (01:09:21.006) I they're Houston based. wasn't sure if it was Houston or Austin based. Garth Rogers (01:09:26.642) Yeah, I think it's Houston. Ryan Rayle (01:09:29.153) That's either core, I don't know what the background is, but it kind of looks Corpus Christi. Let's see if they've got anything. side note for bands out there, please. I don't know what it takes to get your information here when we scroll all the way down, right? Like, here we are. Basically like the verified artist section, the about, when you click into it. For the love of God, please just put where you're at and how many people are in the band. Like. At a bare minimum, you know, I understand like y'all's profile is dead on. It's perfect. In my opinion, gets to the point, tells us who's in it, where you're from and what you sound like. And then we can kind of journey from there. Some of them. And again, I'm not telling any band how to do their thing, but as a piece of constructive criticism, it would woefully put you in. Cause like when I find bands, I'm like, where are they from? And I go the about and I'm like, fuck, fuck. I gotta go to the link tree. They go to link tree. And then it's like, Jerry Gomez (01:10:12.716) Mm-hmm. Ryan Rayle (01:10:25.015) I'll go to the website. So go to the website. And then the about section is just like shows and whatnot. I'm like, fuck, man, like, where are you from? Just tell me where you're from. Garth Rogers (01:10:31.293) Yeah. Jerry Gomez (01:10:31.618) Right? Yeah. Garth Rogers (01:10:34.238) I mean, they can do that with their Spotify artists page. Ryan Rayle (01:10:37.867) Yeah, so there you go. See, easy answer. If you're on Spotify, on your artist page, just put location where you're from. But yeah, memory is emerging in the rock and metal music scene in Houston, Texas. July 23rd, memory conveys the human experience through heavy melodic, groovy and catchy songs performed with soulful emotion and energetic intensity. I'm going to give them a call. See, this is how this machine feeds itself. Jerry Gomez (01:11:00.076) Yeah. Garth Rogers (01:11:00.104) Cool. Yeah. Jerry Gomez (01:11:05.76) Right. Ryan Rayle (01:11:07.167) I will never run out of bands, ever. Garth Rogers (01:11:08.638) But yeah, we're excited. They reached out to us a couple months ago and asked us to be on the bill. So we graciously accepted that and we're excited to be playing with them on August 15th at Reno's Drop Shop in Dallas. So we're super excited for that. You know, we're also in the mix of finishing out our EP. We're doing three more songs, if I remember that correctly, and then Ryan Rayle (01:11:23.573) Awesome. Garth Rogers (01:11:37.234) We'll be releasing that full EP hopefully at the end of this year. So we're. Ryan Rayle (01:11:43.831) Dude, come back on, we'll talk about it. Get a little PR in there. Garth Rogers (01:11:46.183) Yeah, that'd be great. mean, we're, we usually release a single, but we want to finish those three. So we have some content for people to really buckle down and absorb, you know, and have some new stuff to listen to. So we're really excited about that. We're working hard on that right now. And, you know, and then we have our website, Wolvera TX, Wolvera-official.com. Ryan Rayle (01:11:59.078) yeah. Garth Rogers (01:12:12.314) And it'd be great if people wanted to go on that website. We have our merchandise on that website. We'll be posting us a little discounted sale on our shirts and posters here soon within the next week. So we're, you know, we have shirts, posters, and we're looking at, you know, building out more merch as we go along. So if people want to help support us and, you know, get help us fund our EP and all that and you know, it's not cheap using the studio. So that's always a good thing. And then, you know, checking us out on YouTube, we'll Vera TX on YouTube, checking out our new song, any of, you know, we're releasing content monthly. We got playthroughs so you can see how we play the song on the drums, on the guitar, on the bass, and be more intimate on that side of things. So A lot of stuff to be coming, you we're working hard. We all have full-time jobs, but we really are dedicated to this project and making this a real thing. you know, the more the merrier. We're always down to have more bands, coordinate with more people, you know, so we're here to have fun and grow. Ryan Rayle (01:13:31.051) Hell yeah. Jerry, you got anything else? Any final thank yous or shout outs? Jerry Gomez (01:13:32.75) Thumbs it all up, obviously. Thanks to you for having us on, man. I really appreciate it. Definitely, man. It's good to have the conversation with the other metal lovers and podcasts and obviously, anybody listening, thank you very much. Thanks for the support. We really, really appreciate the event. Ryan Rayle (01:13:39.562) yeah, dude. Ryan Rayle (01:13:54.647) Cool, man. Again, I appreciate y'all spending some time with me and hopefully we can get this thing out and get you guys get some more ears and eyes on the project. If you guys are down, like I said, I'm kind of the eyes and ears on the ground. Kind of how you said, shoot me some dates. Like if you guys want to come down and play Austin. your sound would fit in very well here. There's a lot of thrash, lot of old school metalheads. Hell, that's what like, that was dirty dog bars, fucking bread and butter was just fucking metal. You know what I mean? And, you know, before metalcore really turned into that like shiny cool thing, it was just a dirty bar to go fucking play a set in. Missed that place. Jerry Gomez (01:14:36.174) Yeah. Ryan Rayle (01:14:51.927) But anyway, again, thank you very much for coming on the show. Just stick around for a little bit. Once I hit stop, it's got to do some behind the scenes kind of thing. Everybody that's listening, thank you very much. This is Wolvera. I am Ryan with ATX Metal Podcasts. You can find me at ATX Metal Podcasts on all the platforms, primarily operating Instagram, because that's just seems to be where everybody the fuck is these days. I'm definitely gonna check out Groove. Band mix is still a thing. So yeah, try that out. I don't know of anything else to shout out. shout out, come and take it productions and come and take it live. If you guys ever want to come down and hang out, just go to comeandtakeitlive.com or comeandtakeitproductions.com and check out the calendar and just see what's happening. Other than that, stick around for all the shit that I produce. Hopefully we can get some cooler segments back and kind of pump out some more content because that's what everybody wants. Content, content, fucking content. Garth Rogers (01:15:22.622) you Jerry Gomez (01:15:49.279) Red. Ryan Rayle (01:15:51.211) And just we're in this fucking rat. We're in this cage, if you will. Right. And we just have to get out there and do it. Sometimes we don't like it, but sometimes you really fucking love it. And I really, I really love doing this. So, um, again, Garth, Jeremy, thank you guys for coming and, uh, just stick around for a little bit and we'll, uh, we'll chat afterwards. Cool. All right. Thanks everybody. See you later. Jerry Gomez (01:16:03.49) Thank you. Garth Rogers (01:16:12.552) Cool. Thanks, man. Jerry Gomez (01:16:12.801) Cool. Sounds good.