Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 739 - Gotthard’s Stereo Crush: Nic Maeder Talks New Album and Musical Direction

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 739 - Gotthard’s Stereo Crush: Nic Maeder Talks New Album and Musical Direction · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  We had no obligations, you know, we, we'd fulfilled all our
• 0:03
  contractual stuff. And so we had, we really didn't
• 0:05
  have any, any pressures at all. And, and we, yeah, we really
• 0:08
  waited until we, we wanted to make an album until, until we
• 0:11
  sort of had, you know, felt the urge to, to do it.
• 0:13
  And yeah, it's great when you don't have the pressure that you
• 0:15
  know, that you can just, you're doing it really after so many
• 0:20
  albums or so many years just to just to kind of have have that,
• 0:23
  you know, really waiting for that, that itch to get out, you
• 0:26
  know, to just to start writing and getting back into it.
• 0:35
  What's up everybody, it's Kefi Ghost, cultman.com.
• 0:39
  I am super excited to be joined by Nick from Gotard.
• 0:42
  How are you doing today? Hey, good to be here.
• 0:44
  Great. I'm fantastic.
• 0:45
  Thanks. So great to meet you.
• 0:47
  I have been such a long time fan of the band.
• 0:49
  You know, everyone knows Sweden is one of the homes of heavy
• 0:52
  metal and Hard Rock, and you know, this band has been, you
• 0:56
  know, at the pinnacle of music making for such a long time.
• 0:59
  And it's great to have in 2025 to have a brand new album from
• 1:04
  the band that is just absolutely so killer.
• 1:06
  Congratulations first and foremost.
• 1:09
  Oh, thank you. Yeah, no thanks.
• 1:10
  It's been, it's been a while since we made an album.
• 1:12
  So yeah, it was kind of, it's kind of time to, to, to do it
• 1:17
  again, you know? Right, The only reward for good
• 1:20
  work is more good work, the the chore of more work.
• 1:24
  And yeah, you know, hooked up with Rain in Phoenix a while
• 1:27
  back, you know, not new in terms of the business, but, you know,
• 1:31
  a newish label to the world the last few years and they've kind
• 1:34
  of set the business on fire. What's that been like for you?
• 1:38
  You know, a veteran band to come into a situation.
• 1:40
  I'm I'm sure there's a familiarity with the players and
• 1:43
  and the principals there. Well, of course, we, we, we, we
• 1:46
  know the guys well. And I mean, we, we, we were had
• 1:49
  a good relationship as well back in the day with, with the
• 1:52
  nuclear blast as well. And so, I mean, it's all, you
• 1:54
  know, everyone knows everyone here.
• 1:56
  So, you know, I suppose, I suppose the, the, the Hard Rock
• 1:59
  world is, I mean, it's quite big in Europe, you know, but it's,
• 2:02
  but you know, obviously it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you
• 2:05
  know, it's quite small. We all, we all know each other.
• 2:06
  I mean, it's like, it's like the bands, you know, it's like
• 2:09
  there's so many festivals, so many Hard Rock festivals going
• 2:12
  on throughout Europe. And we, we kind of, you know,
• 2:14
  over the years, we, we all, we all play in the same places and
• 2:18
  things. So you kind of, you kind of
• 2:19
  really get to know everyone, you know.
• 2:21
  So it's, yeah, it's a great community, you know?
• 2:23
  Like weekend summer camp with your friends.
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  Sweden rock is on my bucket list of things to go do in the world
• 2:31
  and I and I want to be a visitor to Sweden anyway.
• 2:33
  It has given the world so much and so much stuff that I've
• 2:35
  enjoyed music and art and film. So you know, it's on the list.
• 2:39
  It's out there for for the future for me.
• 2:42
  But you know, you know, we're, we're, we're Swiss, right?
• 2:44
  Not, not. Oh, sorry, yeah.
• 2:46
  Yeah, yeah, although Sweden Rock is an amazing festival, but.
• 2:50
  Yeah, sure is. I I need more coffee.
• 2:53
  That's what's happened here. I woke up early.
• 2:55
  But I'll tell you what, like so many people confuse Switzerland
• 2:58
  with Sweden, It's don't I? You know, oh, that's terrible.
• 3:00
  I do actually. We were just, I was just talking
• 3:03
  about going to the Giger Museum in in Switzerland.
• 3:06
  So I do know my Swiss from my yeah.
• 3:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:11
  Yeah. Oh me, what am I going to do
• 3:12
  with myself? That's a good one.
• 3:14
  Once in a while I make a mistake.
• 3:15
  I tell you what the funniest thing we had once we did that,
• 3:19
  you know, those crews shows those crews or what was the I
• 3:23
  think the first one we did was 70,000 tons of metal.
• 3:26
  And then the other one was I guess the Monsters of Rock one
• 3:29
  or something. And, and I remember the the
• 3:32
  presenter the guy called presenting the bands beforehand
• 3:35
  introduced us as a Swiss band from Germany.
• 3:37
  Oh no. Or a German band from
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  Switzerland. I know.
• 3:41
  Yeah. I think it was a Swiss band from
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  Germany. Something like this?
• 3:43
  Yeah. That's weird.
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  That's the that's the worst I've.
• 3:47
  Heard Well, luckily I'm not presenting in front of a whole
• 3:50
  crowd of people. And I definitely, when I played
• 3:52
  in bands, I mean, you know, when you were on a tour, I've done
• 3:55
  some tour, you know, a little bit of touring and you just
• 3:58
  introduce yourself to the wrong city.
• 3:59
  Hello, Cleveland. OH shit.
• 4:01
  I'm in Pennsylvania though. Pittsburgh, sorry.
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  And they don't like each other, by the way, we're very
• 4:08
  territorial out here in America, state to state.
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  So you definitely don't want to do that.
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  Even locally I'm in. I'm on the West Coast in
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  Northern California. And if you you shout out the
• 4:17
  wrong town, they let you know. They don't want it.
• 4:19
  They don't want to mingle. Sorry about that.
• 4:23
  Stereo Crush is the new album from the band coming out on
• 4:27
  rainy Phoenix. Thanks for being a good sport is
• 4:29
  so excited about this record and you know, I figured you like you
• 4:34
  said it had been sometimes since you made a record and I think
• 4:36
  especially the longevity at this point of the lineup since you've
• 4:39
  come in and Leo kind of always, you know, guiding the process as
• 4:43
  a producer as well as writer. You know, you know what a a
• 4:46
  record sounds like at this point.
• 4:47
  But what I I find is depending on the level of band, is it hard
• 4:52
  at this point to like to self edit a little bit?
• 4:54
  Like can you get too close to new music in the demo stage and
• 4:58
  the pre production before putting down an album?
• 5:01
  Yeah, I get. I mean, yeah, I mean, I guess
• 5:04
  it's always the same process. We, we, you know, we, we'll,
• 5:08
  we'll, we'll just start somewhere and, and, and somehow,
• 5:12
  I don't know, three of us, the main songwriters are Leo
• 5:15
  Freddie, the other guitarist and myself.
• 5:17
  And, and so we, we have quite different kind of musical tastes
• 5:23
  as well. So we, we always turn things
• 5:25
  around, you know, someone will bring in, one of the guys will
• 5:26
  bring in an idea and then we'll, we'll keep turning it around
• 5:30
  until the three of us are happy, you know, and that's hard to,
• 5:33
  that's hard. We're hard to please as well,
• 5:34
  because we're quite different in, in, in what we like.
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  So, but we've always, you know, I mean, I've, I've been with the
• 5:40
  band for what, getting getting close to 15 years, I guess 14-15
• 5:44
  years. So it's, it's we, we've, it's
• 5:47
  kind of always done that, that same process since I've been in
• 5:51
  anyway. And yeah, I mean, we, we, we,
• 5:54
  you know, demos, well, I mean, we already started writing this
• 5:57
  album back in, in, I guess it was around mid of 2023 or
• 6:01
  something. We, we already started putting
• 6:02
  some ideas down and, and the songs go through big changes
• 6:06
  before they, they really end up on an album, you know, and until
• 6:09
  we're, until we're really 100% happy with with what we're
• 6:12
  doing, you know. Right on.
• 6:14
  I think Freddy probably doesn't get enough credit.
• 6:16
  When people talk about the band, obviously, you know, you came in
• 6:19
  at a very tough transition time and you've been there ever since
• 6:23
  and, and, you know, carried the flag beautifully.
• 6:25
  And everybody I think knows, you know, Leo has been, you know,
• 6:28
  kind of the the linchpin. But I think Freddie is very like
• 6:31
  a secret weapon, maybe not so secret to you, but like to
• 6:33
  everyone else. I think Freddie doesn't get
• 6:35
  enough, you know, maybe like enough props.
• 6:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe. I mean, he's, he's, he's amazing
• 6:42
  songwriter. He's a really, really good
• 6:43
  songwriter. Very musical.
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  Very, very, I suppose very advanced in, in, in, in
• 6:49
  songwriting and a great player as well.
• 6:52
  I mean, he's, yeah, yeah, he's, he's a huge part of it.
• 6:56
  Right on. And at this stage in your
• 6:57
  career, I mentioned offline that I did some singing myself and
• 7:00
  I'm doing some again and I'm finding it challenging to come
• 7:03
  back after a very long break and try to be a singer again at a
• 7:06
  professional level. So for you at this stage in the
• 7:10
  writing stage and, you know, when you're hearing the songs
• 7:12
  for the first time, do you find yourself, oh, I don't want to
• 7:15
  repeat anything I've ever done, but also like, here's what I'm
• 7:18
  good at. How do you kind of put together
• 7:20
  your parts, that kind of latitude?
• 7:22
  What do you, you know, take in feedback?
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  What's that process like for you and the guys?
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  I, I guess, yeah, vocally, I guess I'm, I'm, yeah, it's hard.
• 7:31
  I mean, I, I have my style, I have my way and, and I will
• 7:35
  generally tend to overdo things a bit where Leo will tend to
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  kind of say, hey, you know, let's, let's keep it.
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  You know, I'll tend to, oh, you know, I'll throw in a few runs
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  here and there and do some kind of whatever, you know, because
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  I'm, I sort of really get into that, you know, the kind of, you
• 7:52
  know, kind of the Blues way that I sing anyway.
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  And, and, and I'll tend to, I'll tend to try and add a lot of
• 7:58
  stuff here and there. And Leo tends to take it out.
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  He tends to just kind of, you know, hey, simplify, you know,
• 8:06
  simplify. So we, we get a kind of a good
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  balance, you know, kind of an in between balance there, you know,
• 8:13
  and then, you know, then yeah, it's, it's, I guess we've got a,
• 8:18
  we do a lot of vocal stuff we do together as well.
• 8:21
  So it isn't, it's particularly recording, you know, recording
• 8:24
  the album. Naturally, the the challenge
• 8:27
  between Leo the writer and bandleader and Leo the producer.
• 8:31
  I bet that's, you know, that's, that's some work, of course, and
• 8:36
  guitar players always try. We'll put another guitar on
• 8:39
  there. We don't need a vocal part
• 8:40
  there. You know, always, always this
• 8:42
  is. Yeah, let's, let's, let's make a
• 8:44
  big wall and we'll just, we'll just slide in the vocals there
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  in the middle somewhere, you know?
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  Right on, of course. Yeah, you got a.
• 8:50
  Part to make your way. Amazing, amazing.
• 8:54
  But it's a really strong record. I really appreciate just like
• 8:57
  how powerful it is. I still listen to whole records.
• 9:00
  I like when a record is sequenced very well and takes
• 9:03
  you on a journey as a listener. I don't think the band has ever
• 9:06
  really repeated itself album album.
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  So that's the thing that I really will come back to about
• 9:10
  this band and I I think this records, you know, very, you
• 9:14
  know, exemplary in that, you know, style that it's just kind
• 9:16
  of like different types of songs, trying new things.
• 9:19
  It's still the sound of the band, but like, you know, a
• 9:22
  little bit better every time. And I think this record, people
• 9:24
  are going to really appreciate how how rockin this thing is and
• 9:27
  and the journey it takes you and you as a listener.
• 9:30
  Oh, cool, Thank you. Glad, glad you like it.
• 9:33
  It was, it was, yeah. I mean, we, we, I think one of
• 9:36
  the good things that we, we had with this one is because we
• 9:38
  hadn't done an album for quite some time.
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  And, and we, we didn't have any pressures either from I mean, we
• 9:45
  were before that, we were with Sony Records and we got a couple
• 9:48
  of albums done there. And, and so we were out of the,
• 9:51
  we had no obligations, you know, we'd fulfilled all our
• 9:54
  contractual stuff. And so we had we really didn't
• 9:57
  have any, any pressures at all. And, and we, so, yeah, we really
• 10:00
  waited until, until we, we, we wanted to make an album until,
• 10:03
  until we sort of had, you know, felt the urge to, to, to do it.
• 10:06
  And, and I think it's it's a good, yeah, it's great when you
• 10:10
  don't have the pressure that, you know, that you can just,
• 10:13
  you're doing it really after so many albums, so many years, just
• 10:17
  to just to kind of have have that, that, you know, really
• 10:20
  waiting for that, that itch to get out, you know, to just to
• 10:23
  start writing and getting back into it.
• 10:25
  Nice. I think it's, yeah, it's very
• 10:27
  important. I think at this point it has to
• 10:29
  stimulate and please you first as the artist.
• 10:31
  Like, if you don't like it, it's definitely going to be a
• 10:33
  problem, probably going to translate to the listener.
• 10:36
  And so obviously you have to be comfortable with the material.
• 10:38
  It's a very long album. Like I said, no skips to me.
• 10:41
  I enjoyed listening to this thing a few times.
• 10:43
  I always go back and listen to the catalog and the hits and,
• 10:46
  you know, do a deep dive before we chat with anybody.
• 10:49
  And yeah, I love the, again, like I said, the journey of the
• 10:52
  record. I, I wanted to talk to you
• 10:54
  beside the fact just as a singer or in general, if you have some
• 10:57
  personal favorites already because you have some touring
• 11:00
  coming up. So I'm sure we're going to hear
• 11:01
  some new songs on tour. It's really hard to say.
• 11:04
  I mean, we, we, which in terms of favorites because we, we
• 11:07
  spent so much. So, you know, we heard the
• 11:09
  songs, you know, millions of times obviously, and, and we
• 11:12
  were very involved in the, in the mixing process as well.
• 11:15
  So, so it's just, I mean, you've heard the songs a million,
• 11:18
  million, million, millions of times.
• 11:20
  But yeah, I, I, it's going to be, it's hard to tell because we
• 11:24
  usually what we'll do is we'll actually, we'll probably soon,
• 11:27
  you know, next few weeks we'll start rehearsing for, for the
• 11:29
  tour. And we, we will probably, as we
• 11:32
  usually do, we'll just play all, all the songs from, from the new
• 11:35
  album. We'll just play them all and,
• 11:36
  and, and we'll kind of relearn them because we don't know them
• 11:40
  that well, obviously. So we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll
• 11:42
  play, we'll rehearse them and, and see what, what sticks out.
• 11:46
  You know what, what works the best live, you know, and
• 11:48
  because, because it doesn't often, a lot of the times it
• 11:51
  won't necessarily be, you know, you might, you might absolutely
• 11:55
  love a song, but then it doesn't quite translate live the same
• 11:58
  way. Or, or even though we recorded,
• 12:00
  you know, most of it, you know, we, we played them live
• 12:04
  recording, even though, you know, let's say if we're
• 12:07
  tracking the drums, we'd still be all in the room actually
• 12:09
  playing the song. So, so they are totally
• 12:12
  playable. But some, some, yeah, I don't
• 12:15
  know, just some songs stand out more than others.
• 12:17
  Like wow, that just comes across so, so, so great, especially for
• 12:21
  the for big bigger stages as well.
• 12:24
  So, so it's going to be hard to, I guess we'll be playing the
• 12:26
  singles for sure. We'll definitely give them a go.
• 12:31
  But yeah, it's hard to man favorites.
• 12:33
  I know it's really hard to it's, it's, it's hard to kind of pick
• 12:36
  favorites, to be honest. Fair enough, fair enough.
• 12:38
  I personally I love the opening track AI and I and I do love
• 12:42
  Rusty Rose. It's it's a banger and, and a
• 12:44
  very heartfelt song. I think it's very, you know,
• 12:47
  we're in a very strange and interesting time.
• 12:49
  We've been talking a lot about AI to artists and the role that
• 12:52
  it plays. There's a there's a bit of
• 12:55
  paranoia about it. There's a bit of like, you know,
• 12:57
  where is my place in the future with this?
• 13:00
  Is it, you know, we've been using, you know, you know,
• 13:02
  learning technology for a very long time from our cell phones
• 13:06
  to this Zoom call. But at the same time, I know
• 13:10
  that there's kind of like a lot of apprehension.
• 13:11
  So I thought it was a fun topic for for the band to tackle right
• 13:14
  out the gate. And it's a very strong song.
• 13:16
  So hopefully if there's a message it it gets through to
• 13:19
  people. I think the over alliance is the
• 13:20
  concern. I think for me as a journalist,
• 13:23
  I wouldn't want any band to over rely on anything too hard.
• 13:27
  I think I still want music made by people.
• 13:29
  I want art made by people for album and things like that.
• 13:32
  But yeah, it's a it's a cool take and it's a it's a killer
• 13:35
  song to open the album. Yeah, I think it's, I mean, it's
• 13:38
  a balance to, you know, you can, you can if you use it, if you
• 13:41
  use it as a tool. You know, I, I mean, I, I've, I
• 13:46
  mean, I've, I've tried, I haven't been able to, to, you
• 13:50
  know, lyrically I've tried to kind of use it a bit to see if
• 13:53
  it can help, but it hasn't, hasn't really being able to help
• 13:56
  me. It's helped me actually in one
• 13:58
  way, which was to bounce ideas in terms of, you know, you
• 14:01
  might, you might start a song and you've got, you've got like
• 14:03
  maybe half a, you know, maybe 1/4 of a song written and you
• 14:06
  got a verse idea or something and you just kind of not really
• 14:08
  sure where it, where it goes. You could bounce it off and just
• 14:12
  sort of say, Hey, what do you think that means?
• 14:13
  You know, what do you, what type of song do you think this is?
• 14:16
  You know, and it might give you some, some ideas and say, well,
• 14:19
  this is a song about this and that or whatever.
• 14:21
  But I mean, that's the same discussion you can have with
• 14:23
  your girlfriend. So.
• 14:26
  So it's not, it's not that helpful, you know?
• 14:29
  Yeah. For, for yeah.
• 14:30
  Personally, I, I haven't, I haven't found it that useful
• 14:33
  yet, you know, but I, but I'm, I'm keeping and, you know, I'm
• 14:36
  trying to keep a little bit of an open mind to it.
• 14:39
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:40
  It's, I don't think it's going to, you know, we call it
• 14:43
  intelligence, but I, I don't know really how intelligent it
• 14:46
  really is yet. You know, it's, it's, it's not
• 14:50
  really, I don't know if it's really creating anything.
• 14:52
  And, and, and one thing for sure that it will not probably well
• 14:55
  until robots come around, but I don't think we're, you know, at
• 14:57
  least we still have the live aspect that's completely ours.
• 15:00
  You know, that at least. I mean, you can't really, I
• 15:03
  think people still will always want to want to just just, you
• 15:09
  know, get the goosebumps from going to a show and seeing
• 15:12
  people and, and the emotion that comes across.
• 15:14
  I think would be very hard for that to come across from from AI
• 15:18
  at this point. You never know.
• 15:20
  You never know. Right, I couldn't agree more.
• 15:23
  I I do feel like the human element is always going to need
• 15:25
  to be present, especially in the creative process or live.
• 15:29
  And I always say I think it's more machine learning than
• 15:32
  anything else. And and I'm not a big fan of
• 15:34
  teaching the AI how to do how what we do.
• 15:37
  I don't like that at all actually.
• 15:39
  And I just found out that a lot of the distribution platforms
• 15:44
  are baking in kind of like literal generative AI language
• 15:49
  that if you, you have to make sure you opt out when you upload
• 15:51
  your album to things like Tune Core and Distro Kit and Lander.
• 15:55
  Because now I found out that they are, oh, you know, if you
• 15:58
  opt into our letting our AI learn from your music you're
• 16:02
  uploading, we can then use that learned information any way we
• 16:06
  like, including maybe to replicate what you do.
• 16:09
  So I don't like that language. I understand that companies are
• 16:11
  going to company, they're going to corporate and they have to
• 16:13
  protect themselves. But like, I'll, I don't like
• 16:16
  that at all. I feel like that's robbery a
• 16:18
  little bit That's theft. And I don't want that.
• 16:20
  I I think if it's a benefit to the industry or benefit somehow,
• 16:25
  we've been, like I said, it can't be.
• 16:26
  I mean, musicians are the ultimate original technologists,
• 16:29
  right? Like we learned like a guitar
• 16:31
  became a guitar because we needed to take an acoustic
• 16:34
  guitar and amplify it for a hall.
• 16:35
  Like, that's how, you know, Yeah, that's the purpose it's
• 16:39
  served. We get to yell into an electric
• 16:40
  stick because we need people to hear it in the back row or the
• 16:43
  back of the festival grounds. But at the same time, I don't
• 16:47
  want it taking away from the beauty and the power of art,
• 16:50
  right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:51
  I mean, exactly as you say. We we've, we've always been,
• 16:54
  we've always used technology and and yeah, let's see where this
• 16:58
  one goes. But it's, it's, it's, I mean,
• 17:02
  and, and the other thing, I mean, as you know, every, every
• 17:04
  time a new technology comes in, you know, from, from what was it
• 17:07
  back to vinyl to, to tape already.
• 17:09
  That was, you know, cassette tapes.
• 17:11
  It was like, well, you know, everyone's ripping it, you know,
• 17:14
  ripping the recording, the albums and then of course the
• 17:18
  MP3 thing and the, you know, that's, I mean, it's so we've
• 17:23
  always lost. We've always being the kind of
• 17:25
  at, at the losing end, you know, musicians in that sense.
• 17:27
  So, so we, yeah, it's, it's, but we adapt, you know, we're always
• 17:31
  adapting, you know, somehow. I never thought vinyl was going
• 17:34
  to come back after the 90s and CDs and I and then MP threes and
• 17:39
  stuff. I still have.
• 17:40
  I have one of these on my desk still, an iPod somehow with a
• 17:43
  bunch of songs on it. It works still, even without the
• 17:47
  software I don't bother with. But like I love that my thing
• 17:50
  here and it still has like 70,000 songs on it and probably
• 17:53
  room if I wanted to re reboot it up and put stuff back on it.
• 17:56
  But maybe it'll take over all the devices in my house and my
• 17:59
  coffee maker will kill me if I want to be scared of it.
• 18:03
  I don't know, you know, it'll poison me with my morning cup.
• 18:06
  But yeah, I I, you know, I think it's a a good time for bands
• 18:10
  that are, you know, making music.
• 18:11
  And again, I love hearing that you, you know, you guys had the
• 18:14
  opportunity to come in at, you know, kind of at a good place
• 18:18
  and not pressure or anything like that.
• 18:20
  So that's really good. And you know, again, with Leo,
• 18:22
  you have kind of your way of working for a long time.
• 18:25
  So it's very good to have that consistency.
• 18:26
  A lot of bands don't, a lot of bands don't have that person
• 18:29
  that can be a leader and knows what the vision of the band is.
• 18:32
  That's that's important. I think it's probably something
• 18:34
  that younger bands could pay attention to and maybe learn a
• 18:37
  little from. Yeah, but I think, as you say, I
• 18:39
  mean, he's been, you know, we will will, you know, we're going
• 18:44
  to have, you know, different ideas and, and, and different,
• 18:47
  you know, kind of creative, you know, we'll we'll come in with
• 18:51
  some different things for songs and whatever.
• 18:52
  And he will, he will, he'll kind of bring it back to the centre
• 18:56
  of a bit where, you know, where the band is.
• 18:58
  I mean, he really he's he's got a good instinct for that.
• 19:01
  So, so so whereas Freddie and I'll tend to just kind of be
• 19:04
  left and right, he'll you know, he'll kind of bring it in.
• 19:07
  So. Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:09
  And, but I mean, the other thing is it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
• 19:14
  it's a game about, you know, it's all about time and, and how
• 19:17
  many years and years and years you, you, you, it's a lot.
• 19:20
  It's a, it's the long game, you know, with the band and, and the
• 19:23
  longer you're there, the longer you're doing it, the longer
• 19:25
  you're active. And, and, and it takes time.
• 19:29
  It takes a really long time. You know it's not, it's not a
• 19:31
  quick thing. Right on.
• 19:32
  When you're not making music, what kind of music is your
• 19:34
  favorite music to listen to at home or around the house?
• 19:38
  I don't really listen to, is it getting more hot?
• 19:41
  To be honest, I think especially when we're, when we're spending,
• 19:45
  you know, we've just spent so much time riding and yeah, I
• 19:48
  spend one more time just riding and, and, and working on what
• 19:53
  we're working on. And, and, and I mean, I'll even,
• 19:56
  I'll even switch on the radio sometimes and listen to just pop
• 19:59
  or whatever or, you know, whatever the local radio is
• 20:01
  playing or, you know, if I'm in the car or whatever.
• 20:04
  But I'm not really. Of course, if some new, you
• 20:07
  know, some new. Friends of mine releasing albums
• 20:10
  or whatever is going on that I'll.
• 20:12
  I had lately was Mark Staracci from from Crocus.
• 20:16
  He released his album and you know, listening to that.
• 20:21
  Yeah, just just whatever is actually I found myself.
• 20:25
  I did. What was I listening to lately?
• 20:27
  Yeah, I found myself listening to the old Soundgarden stuff,
• 20:30
  which is really cool. Yeah, right.
• 20:32
  That's that's one of the latest things I did.
• 20:34
  Just just you know, YouTube and some some Chris Cornell stuff
• 20:38
  and. Yeah, he was magical.
• 20:39
  He had such a great depth of talent.
• 20:41
  Could do any kind of song. I definitely played, played my
• 20:45
  hand attempting to do some Cornell and I'm like, can we
• 20:48
  pitch this down like 2 whole steps so.
• 20:51
  I can. Hit anything close to his notes.
• 20:53
  But he was he had a magical quality to him.
• 20:56
  I always compared Chris for the early part of his career, very
• 20:59
  similar to Robert Plant, like a wild, untrained talent.
• 21:03
  And then as he got older, he got so like better and better and
• 21:06
  better, which is usually not the case for most singers because
• 21:09
  our our instrument takes takes a beating.
• 21:12
  Out of curiosity, what was the first song you remember ever
• 21:15
  hearing that made you want to sing?
• 21:17
  Do you know what that is? Actually, I, yeah, Hell Hell's
• 21:20
  Bells from ACDC was when I was a kid, like when I heard that.
• 21:24
  And it just kind of up until that point, I was not, I wasn't
• 21:27
  really a huge music fan or, or, you know, I mean, I played piano
• 21:31
  like when I was really young. My dad's a piano player.
• 21:33
  So I've always been musical in that sense.
• 21:36
  But, but I was never like, you know, really into anything like
• 21:39
  crazy until I heard that like one day on the radio, this, you
• 21:42
  know, Hell's, Hell's Bells came out and, and, and I was just
• 21:45
  like, what the hell is that? You know, and that just
• 21:48
  completely, that was it from that, from that moment on.
• 21:51
  I, I must have been, I don't know, I mean, I was about 11
• 21:54
  years old or something and I heard that and that was it,
• 21:57
  that, that was the, the pivotal moment, you know, but, but I was
• 21:59
  actually into guitar. I, I, I became a guitarist
• 22:02
  first. And it wasn't until a few years
• 22:04
  later when when we, we needed a, a singer and, and, and I was
• 22:11
  living in Switzerland at the time and I was the only one that
• 22:13
  could speak English, right. And we wanted to sing in
• 22:15
  English. And so I just temporarily, you
• 22:18
  know, took up singing and and then I'm just kind of stuck, you
• 22:21
  know? Nice work.
• 22:23
  Hard to believe that record is 45 years old this year.
• 22:27
  And so it's like kind of put a chill into me a little.
• 22:30
  Like and still sounds like. So good.
• 22:33
  It's just, yeah. Great band, Mutt Langy on
• 22:36
  production, phenomenal stuff. Just just the last question
• 22:39
  because I love to end these with a wild card question.
• 22:41
  I love to see a room full of guitars.
• 22:43
  What is your favorite guitar in the room there with you?
• 22:47
  Probably my white Falcon, I'd say.
• 22:51
  I got my old hand. I'll bring that.
• 22:52
  Yeah, it's just behind me. This is what?
• 22:55
  One of my one of my white Falcons.
• 22:57
  But this is my this is my 70s. See, I think it's a 78.
• 23:01
  Yeah. 78 White Falcon. Love this thing.
• 23:03
  Absolutely love it. Nice work.
• 23:05
  I think Neil Young played one of those, if I'm not mistaken, and
• 23:08
  probably one of the guys in the Eagles, probably Don Felder.
• 23:11
  But I'll tell you what, while we're on guitars, I'll this is
• 23:15
  the last thing I bought. Bought myself for Christmas
• 23:18
  about about a year now, two years ago.
• 23:21
  Beautiful. This beautiful.
• 23:23
  It's a 6068 telly. Beautiful.
• 23:26
  Love this thing. Yeah.
• 23:28
  I think this is actually the best sounding guitar I have.
• 23:32
  Nice work. I love that tail piece and that
• 23:34
  tremolo. That's that's a classic right
• 23:36
  there. Yeah, it's beauty.
• 23:37
  Absolutely. Nice work, Nick Mader.
• 23:40
  Oh God darn. Thank you so much for hanging
• 23:42
  out with us today. I appreciate you so much for
• 23:44
  your humor and your patience. And congratulations on this new
• 23:48
  album coming out soon on Rainy Kings.
• 23:49
  Music will probably be out by the time this runs, but just
• 23:52
  thanks for hanging out with us today.
• 23:53
  I appreciate. It thanks a lot.
• 23:54
  Thanks for the interest. Of course, take care.