Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Chris Ratzlaff: Fallstar

Transcript

Chris Ratzlaff: Fallstar · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:00
M why today we have Chris from False Star with us. And Chris,
0:34
you've been on the podcast in the nerve times at this point, you are
0:38
a good friend of the podcast, and anytime there's any Fall Star stuff that
0:43
we can help, you know, uh, whatever to fall you know,
0:47
two listeners that we have, you know, whatever we can do to get
0:50
them to listen to Fall Star, We're gonna do because you know, we're
0:53
just big fans of what you guys do in the world. So hey,
0:56
thanks for hanging out with us for the third time. Now. Yeah,
1:00
absolutely, this is great. I do have a question before we get started.
1:03
Is this video recording available to the public. Yes, it will be
1:08
on YouTube. It will. I'm glad I asked. I almost did some
1:12
horrible things, just funny stuff, like what I'm like, I'm not a
1:19
bad person. I would have just done funny stuff, you know, funny
1:23
stuff. Nobody has ever murdered another person on our podcast. I mean that
1:26
could always be a first, right, I almost murdered a raccoon during the
1:30
last podcast. That's metal. That's metal. That's exactly what I said.
1:38
Good, I'm glad we checked. Yeah, I'm just curious. I'm curious
1:44
if the cameras were not rolling. What things does Chris Rats laugh I'll show
1:48
you after, I'll show you after the undertaking light worker knows the ongoing concept,
1:55
definitely knows. So you're saying that this is uh Chris Rat's laugh after
2:00
dark Huh Rats laugh gone wild. I'm trying not to be a Rats laugh
2:13
hole on h are These are these things that Face Down Records would be like,
2:20
no more of you anymore. They're like, yeah, you're the black
2:23
ship of the Facedown family. Now, gosh, I don't I don't know
2:27
if I am. I'm trying to think of like a really evil band on
2:30
face down right now. Oh, I hope for home for sure they're communists.
2:34
Oh yeah, well they're not. Yeah they're not on face down anymore.
2:38
Yeah they're not technically Yeah, well I wonder why because they're communists.
2:42
They're communists. I just don't think they love the Lord the way they used
2:46
to to. Like, they don't do the alter calls after their shows anymore,
2:49
and that's really disappointing. Yeah, I hate hate matt ellis what kind
2:55
of alter calls does face the False Star do these days? That is it
3:00
like we got like some sort of substance. You're justine in those alter calls
3:04
or what's going on in those ones snakes. We just have a little espresso
3:07
machine, dude, it's cool. Yeah. So you're like you're like every
3:13
sort of megachurch lobby. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to say Portland,
3:17
but the fellowship, the church, ye, the fellowship, you know,
3:23
welcome to you. Altered. We used to do like thirty minutes of not
3:28
thirty minutes, thirty minutes of like preaching every show. We stopped playing that
3:34
in twenty fifteen, like we were very serious about like what Rob bellbook got
3:38
you to stop that doing that? Yeah? Yeah, what made you?
3:49
What? What? What's that question? What made you stop? I just
3:53
felt irresponsible about it, Like, well, first of all, it's terrible
3:58
for a show, like unless you're doing it in like a church, where
4:00
it's like that's it's kind of like an outreach thing. But it's like,
4:05
as a band, you're primarily an entertainer and it's performance art. So anytime
4:11
you're bringing any sort of agenda into it, like even if you're a vegan
4:14
preaching about veganism, it just kind of kills the show vibe. So like
4:18
I don't I just tell jokes now, but I don't give any sort of
4:23
like sermon or anything or but I just felt irresponsible with it because like I
4:28
would preach this thing, and like we'd be in a different city and then
4:32
like so maybe they do get interested in my belief system too. Maybe I
4:38
persuaded them in some way to check it out, and then they're going to
4:41
go to some church, which is just some horrible experience for them. And
4:45
I was like, I don't I'd rather just keep it in the music and
4:48
not push so hard for like some sort of like conversion or thing, which
4:55
but I mean, I feel like I was. I don't feel like I
4:57
was preaching bad things about like Christianity, like really judgmental ship or anything,
5:02
but I still felt irresponsible about it. So that's why we stopped doing it.
5:06
And now when you were when you were doing your like Seattle shows and
5:10
you'd be preaching, some kid was like, oh, I'm gonna check out
5:13
that Mars Hill church and then all of a sudden they end up and now
5:16
they're traumatized by Mark driscoll Is, Is that what you're talking about that could
5:21
very well have happened. Yes, not like you're speaking from experience or anything,
5:30
right, No, no, no, no, but yeah, I
5:34
just yeah, I felt weird about it. And so now now we're now
5:38
we're just funny on stage and like try and give a good performance. Do
5:43
you ever I know you enjoy some of my like Twitter posts, but on
5:46
Instagram? I love I put on Instagram? Yeah, do you ever read
5:50
those dream shows? Now, that's how preposterous of a question that was Mason.
5:59
That's that's the response. It deserves. Just a giant ass laugh Frank
6:05
Mason's tweets and read one wouldn't that be great performance? Art? Come on,
6:14
just art? Wouldn't that be greatweets? Oh? Mason, you know
6:21
you need. What you need to do now is you need to send him
6:26
one of your tweet shirts. Oh there we go, Yeah, there you
6:29
go. You can. You could wear those during wear your shows. There
6:31
you go. Wait, you made shirts with your tweets on them. They're
6:35
like an on demand printing kind of thing. But yeah, if you if
6:40
you enjoy a tweet, I'll get your shirt and then you can wear it
6:43
on stage if you'd like. That'd be nice. I'd wear there you go,
6:46
that'd be great. You just let me know what your favorite one is,
6:48
I'll get it made and send it over to Portland. There's some bangers
6:53
out there. Maybe I'll do like a full front and back of like the
6:56
greatest hits. Oh there you go, just having like tour dates on the
7:01
back. I have thought about, I don't know, I'm oh Neil Neil
7:11
Brennan. Do you know if you get do you guys know Neil Brennan.
7:13
He's a comedian. He was on The Chappelle Show, or like, he
7:15
was one of the writers for The Yes. But he's got a stand up
7:18
tea. Yeah, yeah, Okay, that's exactly what about to mention is
7:24
the three mics thing on Netflix, and you know, one of those mics
7:27
he just does one liners. And I've thought about if I ever did like
7:30
some sort of show kind of thing, you know, I would have like
7:32
the one mic where I'm maybe be more sincere, and then one where I'm
7:35
talking about maybe like my own like personal stuff or whatever. And then I'd
7:40
have one mic where I'm just literally like saying some of my tweets. Like
7:44
I thought that would be like a funny way that So you do you want
7:46
to straight up rip off someone else's totally I mean, that's what what is
7:51
art if not just ripping off each other? Right? Amen? Amen,
7:58
that might be a little too blatant. I feel so far it would be
8:05
like a metal band, like all of a sudden now like taking something from
8:09
like Sufian Stevens and like, you know, like those audiences are not overlapping
8:13
enough to like know that like they're ripping each other off. Yeah. Maybe,
8:18
I don't know. Do you think you're as different as metal compared to
8:22
like folk music as I don't know. I think I'm that different. My
8:26
audience is that different from Neil Brennan's audience, I certainly think. I don't
8:31
know. I don't know either. I don't I definitely don't have enough libertarians
8:39
that follow me for you know, for that crossover it happened. You've got
8:43
one two, well the two of them that know who need Brennan is all
8:52
right, Well, I'll just make sure that you guys don't go to my
8:54
show. It's okay. I wasn't planning on it. I'm actually a communist
9:01
too, Sorry, I just like to pose as a libertarian. We're like,
9:05
uh, they call us watermelon, so it's like green on the outside,
9:07
red on the inside. Water Do you use that one in front of
9:15
the in front of your crowds. No, that's the thing me and matt
9:18
Ellis talk about in private. I like it, are you actually a communist?
9:22
Or are you are you were a libertarian? Or are you just whatever?
9:28
You're just a BROWNHD away from being a communist? Is that a I
9:33
see? There's I don't have, like a a political ideology, a pragmatic
9:41
approach to how I would solve our problems. I would be an anarchist like
9:46
the Amish or something, but you can't it can't work with cities. So
9:50
there's I don't have. I don't have much. You'd be like the Amish
9:56
are anarchists that would like just go full out during on Springer. As soon
10:01
as you're getting into a city, you'd just be like, oh fuck,
10:05
yeah, dude. You might be h. You might be a minarchist though
10:13
it might be a what you might be a minarchist, which is like minimal
10:20
government. It's like it's it's basically anarchy, both like the very vote.
10:24
Sorry you cut out on us? What was that? I thought you were
10:28
gonna make a minnite joke and I'm my father's mind night. Oh oh no,
10:33
no, I was a little bummed that you weren't making a mind of
10:35
Night joke. Well, I actually I'm sure Mennonites actually probably would dig minarchy
10:43
quite a bit. But yeah, wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, yeah,
10:48
let's talk about fall Star since uh, of course you're a rassle off,
10:52
and so you we have to talk about fall Star. You know, I
10:54
mentioned right at the beginning, I've got a funny story to share, uh,
10:58
and and so I feel like at least I well might as well mention
11:03
it. I was hanging out with this guy a couple of weeks ago who
11:09
has been like, has been in a band sort of in the Christian music
11:15
scene or whatever I think they were. I think his band was even signed
11:18
to Blood and Ink at one point. But I was mentioning him, like
11:20
we were chatting or whatever. I'm like, what you know kind of got
11:22
you into music? Like what what got you into that scene of music?
11:24
Whatever? And He's like, you know, I never really listened to bands
11:28
like Under Oath or Acidy's Burn or Norma Jean, like some of the big
11:33
heavy hitters from like kind of that Christian hardcore world that we all grew up
11:37
in. It was like no, No, I didn't really grow up with
11:39
any of those, Like, I didn't realize those bands existed until later on.
11:43
The bands I first got into where I was like, oh, I
11:46
want to I want to do this stuff were like fall Star Wow, And
11:52
I'm like, wait, there is one person in the world that like started
11:56
their band because a false star. Besides the band, there's a fall Star
12:01
that is wow. I couldn't believed. I was like, I know Chris,
12:05
he's great, he's wonderful. But anyway, this person I'm talking to
12:09
maybe you know him Chris, but he plays for a Household. Oh yes,
12:15
yes, yeah, dude, Household freaking rules. Yes, yeah,
12:18
they're so good. Yeah, but Josh so But Josh was like telling me,
12:22
He's like, yeah, I started listening. I didn't know about any
12:26
of this music until I started listening to Fall Star, and he like kind
12:30
of even jokingly, was like that that's such a weird gateway into all of
12:33
this music as fall Star. You know, for a lot of us that
12:37
you know, it was like under Oath or whatever, and then and then
12:39
we found out about bands like fall Star, but for him it was just
12:41
their reverse. God we met them in Cornerstone. I think twenty eleven.
12:46
They came down from Canada like him and his whole family, and I think
12:50
they knew our stuff or something about it. I think they knew our songs
12:54
or something like that. But we were just so surprised. We were like
12:58
wow. Eight And I think that was before we signed with Face Down too,
13:03
I believe. Oh interesting. Yeah, yeah, I don't know if
13:07
you found you guys on like noise Trade or I don't. I don't know
13:09
what you guys are. Come and live, dude, Come Home. Yeah.
13:13
Sixteen thousand downloads of that record, so like a lot of people heard
13:16
it, which is crazy because it's not a great record when I listen to
13:20
it now, but I think people enjoyed it back then. Sixteen thousand,
13:24
that's big numbers. That's big numbers, man, that's really big numbers.
13:28
Yeah. We have songs still from like a Sunbreither that are just hitting sixteen
13:33
thousand listens. Wow. Yeah, it's crazy. It was a wild time.
13:39
That's super strange. To me. I would not have I would not
13:43
have guessed that. Mm hmm, Like to me, like, your new
13:46
stuff is so much better than your older stuff. I mean, and that's
13:50
not like, that's not any knock on it. It's just just the way
13:54
the world moves, you know. But yeah, I feel like our band
13:56
didn't get good. Feel like there's a new phase since we did Sun Breather
14:01
in this last one. Those are separate albums than anything we did from before.
14:05
I feel like, so yeah, but I don't know, Like music
14:11
tastes just changed so quickly, and like styles seem to get more concise and
14:16
more straight to the point as you go on. So like metalcore when we
14:20
first started was like a lot of the songs like didn't have choruses or maybe
14:24
have one chorus or two, and just weird structures. And now I feel
14:28
like metal core structure is pretty established and streamlined now, and so it's weird
14:33
to listen to that old stuff and be like it feels all over the place
14:37
like all the bands. Yeah, no, I would agree with that.
14:41
Hey, can we talk about how fucking awesome this record is? Though,
14:46
Thank You Second Mirrors is easily in my top five records this year. I
14:52
dud, dude, thank you. He's listened to five albums, by the
14:56
way, you know, I've almost listen to six. I'm almost I'm almost
15:01
to the sixth one. But no, for real. It is insane to
15:05
me that you're you're where you're at now, you're more than a decade in
15:09
and like you've like cracked the code. To me, like this is like
15:13
like there's always been songs on other records that you guys have done that.
15:16
I'm like, yeah, this is really really good. We're like one song
15:20
like really really stands out. But to me, like it hasn't been like
15:24
the full picture yet until until this album. It's just like whoa pro like
15:31
that? Yeah, yeh dude, it'll be twenty years in twenty twenty five.
15:37
Oh wow is that? Oh my god, that's a that's like an
15:41
athlete like about to retire and finally won like an Olympic medal. I know,
15:46
yeah, yeah, it's been a long time, but thank you that.
15:50
I was super proud of it. It's not doing near as well as
15:54
Sun Breathered it, but I just have to remember, I'm like, I
15:56
think it's a really good record, So I'm glad you said that. I
16:00
think it's I think it's easily the best through and through and you have some
16:03
of the strongest songs in your guys entire catalog. I'm I'm I adore it.
16:07
I really do you like that screaming through the Wall song? H Yeah,
16:15
and yes, it's it's so like there's so many like catchy parts,
16:19
but it does not pull any punches for the heavy stuff, you know.
16:26
I mean, it's just it's it's it's the perfect blend of everything that I
16:30
want to hear in a great heavy record these days, you know. Cool.
16:36
Yeah, yeah, I've got the next one ready, so already.
16:41
Yeah, I have sixteen songs, but I think about twelve are like really
16:47
really good. So I just I was talking to Dawson today. I was
16:51
like, do I have your permission to start sending over stuff or Dawson's in
16:53
the ongoing concept. I was like, yeah, you start with me cole
16:56
through all this shit now, and so yeah, I'm but I'm getting ready
17:00
to record it. I I have to finish up some stuff we did for
17:03
the crowd fund. Like today I was working on this hymn that someone got
17:07
for a cover song, and then I make the songs into cover songs.
17:10
And then the one I did before this was like a you know Foxy Shazam.
17:15
I love fo That's the band I was showing you in the car with
17:19
with with Kevin Oh really yeah, it's Deaf from that mackemore song Downtown,
17:25
Who's like dawn down? Yeah? Crazy? Yeah, yeah, So I
17:32
one of the guys had me do a cover of that one, and so
17:34
it's once I finished up the covers East sides. Can you hit like Foxy
17:40
Shazam notes? No? Wait, so you covered it, but you can't
17:48
hit his range? Is that? Well? That song? I can because
17:52
he's not super crazy. It's the old Field song. Okay, it was
17:56
like my first record, but hit there later stuff. No, he's wild.
18:00
It's got an awesome voice. But yeah, the first time hearing them,
18:03
I was like, are you kidding me? No, No, I
18:06
don't want to make this into a song. But now I actually kind of
18:10
appreciate it after digging it apart, and it's just like the most wretched time
18:15
signatures and like really were and like it's not in a scale like you just
18:18
goes Dan Dan Dan, I'm like, dude, but I'm not with that
18:25
one now. I love. That's so cool. I have those covers to
18:29
finish, and then I have a little B sides EP that I give to
18:32
our crowd support for crowdfundbackers, and then after I send those out, then
18:34
I'll start recording the next album. Yeah, one of the bands that Colin
18:40
and I I feel like we it. It gets brought up pretty frequently,
18:44
even though we've never had them on the podcast, but Loathe, you know,
18:47
and Loathe is so good at melding all of these different styles together of
18:52
kind of new metal stuff, gent you even kind of have a little bit
18:56
of like this alternative rock vibe going on. And I feel like this new
19:00
album, you know, even as much as the last album, somebody there
19:03
did a little bit of this, This this album especially feels like you're really
19:07
dialing in of melding those all these different genres together in the way that I
19:12
think Load does that just so so well. And Load is you know,
19:17
they're kind of popping off and doing really really well right now. So I
19:19
think you guys are happy kind of Yeah, you guys are totally in that
19:23
same vein to me. Hmmm, you're happy. That's cool? Yeah,
19:30
yeah, yeah, I like to I like to see bands like like a
19:36
Data Remember or like Bring Me the Horizon when they put out some some of
19:40
their projects, they're just they almost don't feel cohesive, but there's just such
19:44
a wide range of genres that they can cover, and I feel like they
19:48
give me permission to just have like some softer songs some really heavy, heavy
19:52
songs and then mix them up. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I
19:56
guess I never had permission. I just felt like, maybe now it's more
20:00
acceptable because our albums are pretty all over the place. They really are.
20:04
They really are. But I also appreciate that too, you know. Yeah,
20:10
I think kind of cohersive though it doesn't feel like, oh, I'm
20:11
listening to like an alternative song and all of a sudden it's going into like
20:15
gent or whatever. Like for whatever reason, it just kind of all melds
20:18
well together. Cool. That is good to hear. That is like one
20:21
thing I kind of worry about. What do you think makes it cohesive?
20:26
Chris, what like your whole catalog? Like, like what is it that
20:32
like that if you could like distill it down, what makes it fall Star?
20:38
I think that it's weird. Like I think since we don't get like
20:44
big producers helping us on our records, a lot of really stupid ideas get
20:51
are allowed to be on the record. And I think that's what makes Falstar
20:56
Fallstars. Is like there's just weird shit that would get through out right away,
21:00
but keep it on and yeah, that's it. But also yeah,
21:07
and then the chorus is I like, that's like what I care about the
21:10
most in every song. So like, even with the songs with all screaming,
21:15
there has to be like a good chorus that has good rhythm to it.
21:18
Even if it's just screaming, there's gonna be a chorus and yeah,
21:21
yeah, something you can like take your teeth into. Yeah. Yeah.
21:26
And the double lead thing, like anytime I do a guitar lead, I
21:29
do what Jimmy World does and just do an octave over it. And I
21:32
don't like automate it like where you can do a pitch shifter over it.
21:34
I double track both of them and there's definitely a feel to that, and
21:38
I keep that in all of our songs too. Yeah. I love that
21:45
so classic. It's like it's like classic songwriting mixed with like, uh,
21:49
whatever the fuck comes to your head, And I love that mm hmm.
21:53
It just allows for just freedom, you know. Yeah man, Yeah,
22:00
that's the most fun. It is, like it just as long as it's
22:02
a good song, it can make it on there. But like the weird
22:06
I just get so bored. I get so bored so quickly, and like
22:10
that's why I have a hard time listening to a lot of music. I
22:12
just get really bored. So like I think it shows in my songwriting that
22:17
I get bored quickly with like something that seems really safeer, like it'll be
22:22
a so I just have to put shit in it to keep me stimulated.
22:25
I think. Sure, speaking of that, when you're when you're talking about
22:32
you know this record came out not long ago, and you already have the
22:36
next one like ready to record. What does that? What does that do
22:41
for the music that is out right now in your mind? Like do you
22:45
want to keep playing it? Do you are you bored by it? Do
22:48
you want do you just have to keep making new music? Yeah, by
22:52
the time the record releases, I've I probably won't listen to the songs again.
22:56
And so like I'm already like because the record takes so long to come
23:02
out, Like so I record the music and then there's like a six to
23:06
eight month sometimes a year gap before the label can put it out. So
23:11
in that period of time, I'm I'm just kind of done with it.
23:15
Like I'll listen to the masters and I'll be like, oh, awesome,
23:17
sounds great, but I'm I just won't listen to it again because I've been
23:21
listening to those songs for the past two years, just getting them up to
23:25
snuff. And so by the time I hand in the stems so that I
23:29
can get mixed, I'm already writing the next record. So it's not so
23:33
like the record came out in like June or July Sacred Mirrors did, but
23:37
even before that was out, I'd been writing for six months for the new
23:41
one. So now by now I've been writing for nine months and just yeah,
23:48
I mean, we don't tour that much, so and it's like writing
23:52
is just what I have to do to get by, Like it makes me
23:55
happy, and if I don't do it, I'm kind of not that happy,
23:59
or I don't feel like I'm doing anything with my life, and I
24:02
get really stressed out, and I really enjoy writing. So it just happens
24:04
like we're not on the road a ton, and yeah, that's how I
24:08
decompress every night. Wow, dang man, that sounds like a That sounds
24:15
like a wild trip inside an artist's mind because your attention almost inevitably has to
24:22
be focused on the record. That's out, but then you're also like bad
24:29
all the fun stuff is what I'm working on. Yeah, that just sounds
24:33
like such a difficult place to be in, like constantly. Yeah, I
24:37
wish I was more of a business man because like I can't. I don't
24:41
know how to promote a record very well, and I'm horrible with social media.
24:44
So like this record's maybe gotten a couple posts, but it's really hard
24:48
to like try and make like little shorts or tiktoks of every song, which
24:52
I need to do, but I I would rather and this is all my
25:00
thought, Like I don't ever count on my band blowing up, So there's
25:03
not really a huge point of like pushing it super super hard when the people
25:08
that care about this record will hear it, and they're the ones that help
25:11
us make the records over and over, so like I don't really care about
25:15
this abstract number of people that could possibly hear our band and could possibly push
25:21
us into stardom because they could exist or they or they might not exist at
25:25
all. And that Yeah, and that's kind of the mentality. Like I've
25:29
been just shifting more towards too, like with Spotify, like caring about playlists
25:33
or like releasing songs like six singles in like seven months just to boost numbers
25:38
before the record comes out. Now, I'm like, I don't care,
25:41
Like it'd be cool if people heard our band for the first time from one
25:44
of these big playlists and liked it, but really, like, we're making
25:48
music for like five hundred to a thousand people, and those are the ones
25:51
that keep us going. And if our Spotify numbers are big, that's cool,
25:55
but it really ended the day. I just want to keep the people
25:57
that are invested in us happy. Then that's enough to make record after records.
26:00
So yeah, I kind of just stopped giving a shit about anything bigger.
26:04
So that's why I don't promote it as much because I'm like, ah,
26:07
I mean, everyone who cares will listen to it, so I don't
26:10
know one who cares going to care, right, Yeah, And then I
26:12
get to get my rocks off writing songs and just not stopping and worrying about
26:17
social media and so kind of works out. Dude, I love that are
26:21
such a cool mentality. Are you primarily like writing and recording and doing everything
26:26
in your studio? Like obviously you've got your studio space right now that you're
26:30
in like, is that where everything's happening essentially. Yeah, it's a little
26:33
six foot by eight foot office. Yeah, and even all that's happening,
26:41
all the mixing is happening in there too. No, I don't mix myself.
26:47
We pay this guy justin Abel. He's in town and he's awesome,
26:51
So he does the mixing and mastering. Okay, but you're but you're everything
26:55
is getting recorded in that in that space right that you're in right now?
26:57
Yeah, yeah, and you don't need much, right, I mean that
27:03
That's one of the other things that seems like, you know, back in
27:07
ten, fifteen years ago, even twenty years ago, you would have had
27:11
to have gone to some sort of studio that would have been thousands upon thousands
27:15
of dollars. Uh, and then you record there, and now you're just
27:19
able to do it right at home with like probably like a few few hundred
27:25
dollars of equipment that you buy up front and then you have to worry about
27:27
paying that. Ever. Again, it looks like there's probably nine thousand dollars
27:32
worth of guitars at least right before there is that. Yeah, there's I
27:38
mean those ones I built a few of those those ones are those ones are
27:42
cheaper ones. The ones you can't see are the ones in the cases down
27:45
below me. So what I what I did, which any other musicians or
27:51
people that are trying to pay for records. This is good advice. I
27:55
think it could be bad. It could be really really bad advice. But
27:57
what I do is any time Sweetwater or Guitar Center musician's friend does offers four
28:06
years zero interest financing plan, I buy the most expensive less Paul I can
28:12
get checked out for credit on and then so I have a couple of those
28:17
back there, and then I have another gibs in and I pay fifty bucks
28:21
a month for each of those guitars. So it's one hundred bucks a month
28:23
that I am paying for these guitars. I don't use them, and then
28:27
if I get in a pinch or if we don't meet our crowdfunding goal,
28:30
sell that guitar. It's just like even alone for myself. So I do
28:34
have something. I'm not in the insurance world, but I have a couple
28:40
of friends who have some very very expensive pieces of equipment and they have musical
28:47
gear insurance. Do you have that? I don't know. I think it's
28:52
Renter's insurance. Right, you have to get musical equipment insurance. It's insane.
28:59
It's like it's like six a month. But I like one of my
29:02
best buds, he has like a three thousand dollars really really great touring keyboard,
29:08
right, and uh, that thing got stolen one time and they replaced
29:15
every single dollar in a moment's notice. So, like your house burns down,
29:21
not only would Renter's insurance like take care of it, but also your
29:26
musical gear and insurance would also take care of it. It's it's a really
29:30
really great thing to have, Like I I have it. That's how much
29:34
I want to ensure and I don't have that many instruments compared to especially six
29:38
bucks a month. Yeah, yeah, I can't beat it. That's half
29:44
the price of your of your internet a third making deals. Yeah, I
29:55
mean you're you're barely paying anything for these nice last Palls and Gibsons you don't
29:59
have. Basically you're paying nothing for your internet. I mean, do you've
30:03
have any expenses? I guess you're living in Portland, so maybe maybe you've
30:06
got an expense there. Yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah, yeah it's
30:12
expensively yeah, yes, it is very expensive, but we we bought a
30:19
house in twenty fifteen and we got it for two fifteen, so we did,
30:26
Okay, wow, great you're making money. Yeah we're okay. Yeah,
30:32
we got really really lucky. But if we were trying to buy a
30:34
house right now, like there's no shop yeah yeah luck right yeah yeah yeah
30:41
but yeah all this stuff or make records with. And I'm so glad I
30:45
wasn't born ten years earlier, where I just maybe it would be too intimidated
30:51
by it, or like like the bulk of my writing years, I would
30:55
have just been dependent on someone else. So that's yeah, I think that's
31:00
also what I do with this big too, is like from he's I don't
31:11
have money, so kind of just get at it. Man. We uh,
31:17
we just lost you again there for probably like the last like fifteen seconds
31:23
were still still lost. Ye I'm sorry. I'll like I'll like to hear
31:29
in my headphones. Yeah I can hear you now. But it's also kind
31:33
of drowned out by like your I don't know your rich privilege. I think
31:37
because you pay for that's hard tec privilege. Bro. That teacher salary.
31:48
Bro, I'm a teacher. Amazon Amason coaxes people into coming to a seminary.
32:02
I tell you what, I love it. You know, they say
32:07
you can marry more money in five minutes than you can make in your entire
32:14
lifetime. But you can also divorce and make more money in five five minutes
32:17
then you can earn in a lifetime. Both are true, just not generally
32:24
for just not generally for men. You know, you know which I'm okay
32:30
with. And if you're like Limp Biscuit, it's the same kind of thing.
32:34
But when you're fall Star, you're gonna have to work an eternity being
32:37
false star to make in a lifetime. Have you ever have you ever made
32:45
that thought experiment? Have you ever thought about how many Fall Star records it
32:49
would take to earn what Bill Gates earns in five minutes? Dude, I
32:57
would I would be so curious just to see how many records we'd have to
33:00
sell to earn thirty thousand dollars. Yeah, for real, no merch,
33:08
no merch, just records. Yeah, oh records now, yeah, impossible.
33:14
I think it makes thirty thousand dollars each from their records. Oh,
33:20
I bet you they do. They probably do, they have to, right,
33:22
Yeah, yeah, especially in those early years. Oh for sure.
33:25
Speaking with you, did you guys see the most recent video where they came
33:29
out dressed like or Fred Durst came out dressed like a total cowboy, so
33:35
freaking cool, and no one recognized him right away, and then like he
33:38
just goes right into the song and it was awesome. I'm not a Limp
33:44
Biscuit fan at all, but I thought that was one of the coolest things
33:47
I've ever seen. It was really cool. I watched that real like five
33:52
times in a row. I think Fallstar used to do something like that.
33:54
There you go. You know, I haven't looked so good in a cowboy
33:58
hat. Chris God, Oh, Broke Back Mountain is definitely what I That's
34:07
that's what would be on my mind. Colin spitting in his hand, I
34:12
would definitely be. My God, I've seen Broke Back Mountain. I haven't
34:22
seen it, but I know what that means. I think, Yeah,
34:29
I think too, Oh, Evans, that's pretty good. I have a
34:42
I have a gay friend from Minneapolis who when I was living with him at
34:45
one point, and he was like one of my rituals, my handsome watch
34:51
I Broke Back Mountain and so and when I was living with him. He
34:53
was like, you have to watch it once with me. So I watched
34:57
it once with him, and I was like, all right, this is
34:59
broke Back Mountain. Was it great? Uh? You know, it actually
35:02
is a really touching story, you know, more the ways one. Did
35:07
you find yourself oddly attracted to Heath Ledger? No, there was nothing.
35:12
There was no part of it where I was like, oh, I would
35:15
like to fantasize about all of this, but but I was like, you
35:17
know, like the storyline, It's like, God, this is probably like
35:20
very true for a lot of people, you know, Like I feel really
35:22
like, wow, this is that. This feels very true to a lot
35:25
of people on it. You know, any story that feels very true is
35:30
touching to me. Did you spit in your hand afterwards? No, I
35:35
was waiting for you to do that. I wasn't there, man. But
35:40
next time you come over, we can watch it and we can uh we
35:44
can spit in your hand. You can both spit in Mace's hand. Yeah,
35:52
oh my god, we are so off track. This is great.
35:54
Just like I think Jake Jillen Hall is way better looking at Yeah, it's
36:01
not wrong. I mean I think Jake Jillen. Okay, here's here's the
36:06
controversial topic. I think Jake Jillenhall is a way better actor, but I
36:10
don't think he's better looking because Jake Jillenhall has like the like really deep,
36:15
sunken in eyes and like they're kind of like bug eye a little bit,
36:19
you know. I think it freaks people out. It freaks me out a
36:22
little bit. I'm not gonna lie, h I'm not. I don't see
36:28
what you're what you're talking about. I'm looking up Jake jill Like when he
36:31
smiles, it's fine, like obviously, but if he's like this, like
36:37
if he's like making like any like exasperated face, his eyes like bug out
36:42
a little bit, I'm like, huh, It's just it's a thing for
36:45
me, you know, just kind of makes me he just looks like a
36:49
normal looking dude to me. Watch the movie Night Crawler, and I think
36:52
you'll know what i'man. That's such a great movie. That's one of the
36:58
most surprisingly good movies. I see it now, I see it. I
37:01
see it now. Yeah, I'm not wrong, but I feel like his
37:06
normal his like just normal like smile isn't like that. But I see it
37:09
now. Yeah, it is very His eyes get very large. Holy shit.
37:13
Yeah, it's surprising, Chris. Do you have that problem? Maybe
37:19
I just yeah, maybe I like his eyes large because mine or so,
37:21
just like I don't have eyelids or my eyelids recess under my front lid.
37:28
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like most people don't see their eyelids.
37:31
Yeah, Like is it called the hooded eyelid? Is that what they
37:35
call it? Oh, that's dope. I don't know. I don't know.
37:38
My wife said that I have hooded eyelids the other day. I was
37:42
like, yeah, I'm pretty gangster. You know, it's hard out here
37:47
for a for a g I guess you got, you know, one kind
37:52
of white hood. Yeah, that does sound kind of bad, doesn't That
37:58
sounds a little bit. It does. I'm starting to move on. I'm
38:02
not a part of any like nationalist group or uh, you know, a
38:08
white racial hoods. Have you guys seen American circumcision. I've heard of it,
38:17
No, but I have heard of her since. It's very good.
38:22
It's a document it's it's like a documentary about male genital mutilation. Yeah,
38:27
and why became such a big thing? And America is like one of the
38:30
only places that still does it, like on a regular I mean, we're
38:35
well. When we were having our first kid, I asked the nurse.
38:37
I was like, what's the percentage of people that get circumcisions. She's like,
38:42
it's really a fifty percent now, and it's trending down people. Yeah,
38:47
it really is trending downwards. I've heard about that too. I wish
38:51
I would have watched it before I had. Uh, we had our first
38:53
one because my wife was adamant on circumcision and I was like diagnostic about it.
39:00
I don't really care, I guess, but I also didn't really like,
39:06
Yeah, yeah, my my circumcision was recorded on VHS. My my
39:12
dad filmed like the first Like my dad filmed like the first twenty four hours
39:16
of my life essentially, And uh, there was there is certainly a scene
39:21
there you could watch on VHS one of these d Have you ever come over
39:23
to the Mendica household You could watch it. But yeah, my dad's bringing
39:27
me in and the nurse does her little snipping and I start then it was
39:34
like a nurse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure it has
39:37
to be a doctor, doesn't it. I don't know, some somebody who
39:42
should be doing it that isn't my dad. Uh and uh anyway, he
39:46
but he's recording and he's got it. You know those old like vh uh
39:52
like the became quarters quarter. Yeah he there he is behind the came quarter.
39:57
Just you know, as I'm screaming, po off, did he zoom
40:00
in? I don't remember if it? Maybe, well, Mason, next
40:05
time we're at your house we're watching this. I still have to zoom in
40:08
these days. But yeah, probably bonus footage, like for a Patreon or
40:14
something. Yeah, there you go. So dude, you should do that.
40:20
Put it on a T shirt. Hell yeah, you can make some
40:22
money off this experience you had. How do you spell circumcision? I definitely
40:28
like tweet circum see you m C I S I O N. Yeah you're
40:37
a teacher. You're good at this stuff. I made like a joke once
40:43
about circumcision on Twitter, and I'm like blinking on what I Oh? I
40:47
said something about I said, Paul spends half the New Testament talking about why
40:52
you don't have to get circumcised to be a Christian, and yet my evil
40:55
evangelical parents did it to me anyway. And then there was somebody who was
41:04
like this, like anti circumcision activist person that like replied to me or whatever,
41:10
And I was like, why you're like something about how I could like
41:15
sue my parents for it or something. I was like, what I don't
41:17
want to do. Your parents are loaded. They said, have you considered
41:22
suing the hospital or so not suing my parents, suing the hospital for a
41:25
green to do it? Something needs to be done about this horrible child mutilation.
41:30
One high profile case might be enough. And uh and then I tweeted
41:35
I screenshot of that and posted it and said I made a joke about my
41:38
circumcision and some random person on here told me I should make it a high
41:42
profile case. And I can assure you that if it involves my dick,
41:45
it will be a small profile case. I'm reading that at the next show.
41:53
There you go. Are you guys from uh do you guys like Rob
42:01
Delaney? Yeah? For sure. Uh, there was a great let me
42:06
see if oh he uh there was this person that posted this. It was
42:10
like this woman that posted this hat that said Dick inspector and robbed a'laney replied
42:15
to that tweet and said, you'll be shutting mine down. And issue issuing
42:19
no numerous fines, And somebody replied back to that and said, I hear
42:23
they're much more lenient on small businesses, aren't you. Guys like just completely
42:32
impressed by the humor of the Internet. Sometimes it's so there's so many great
42:37
jokes out there. Sometimes it's they're not even trying to be funny. Sometimes
42:42
they're not even trying to be funny, Like like I was just I just
42:44
read you remember the forty to sixty faral hogs? Remember that where this guy
42:47
like it was like a it was around like a gun gun controlled debate thing
42:52
or whatever, and this guy was like needing like a He was like,
42:54
I need a like a assault rifle for my forty to sixty farrel hogs that
43:00
could like kill my family or something. But it was just like the way
43:04
he worded it, whereas like forty to sixty faral hogs, it sounds like
43:08
it sounds like a setup for a joke, doesn't it. It totally does.
43:13
Yeah, see if I can find it. It was so good.
43:19
Oh, there's even a VOX thing about it. Yeah, legit. Question
43:22
for rule Americans, how do I kill the thirty to thirty to fifty faral
43:28
hogs that run into my yard within three to five minutes while my small kids
43:31
play. That just sounds like a worse version of pet cemetery. Sometimes I's
43:43
dead is better? Uh, Colin, I feel like at this point,
43:49
Oh, we've lost a plot here. Yeah, we should do our thing,
43:52
right, Chris, I'm so sorry. We've just we've we've been hanging
43:54
out. Hopefully this has been entertaining enough for you too, But it is
43:59
time to do our top five. And your top five today is bands I
44:04
should like on paper but don't, or bands I don't like on paper but
44:07
do or you could do both. I just I don't see what this has
44:13
to do with the attack on Titan series finale? Oh yeah, do you
44:21
did? You? Guys know I'm not I'm not an anime fan, but
44:24
I do sympathize with you. Tack on Titan. Isn't that a? Is
44:30
that teen Titans? Oh my god, Mason, shut the hell up.
44:36
It's just the best piece of media I've ever consumed. It's I know there's
44:42
people out there that. Okay, so real quick is if you were to
44:47
recommend one piece of anime that you think a typical adult would really, really,
44:54
really really enjoy ye would be Attack on Titan. No, Well,
45:01
depends on your threshold for discomfort, but I would say I love discomfort as
45:07
you can tell. Okay, then that one you was circumcised. Ones you'll
45:12
know, Yeah, you'll know the first episode, whether it's for you or
45:15
not, I would say just anyone's spit in a hand, sorry, but
45:23
I would say generally full Alchemist, full Metal Alchemist, Brotherhood. Okay,
45:29
awesome, easier and it's so fun and it's really good. But Attack on
45:32
Titan is my favorite thing I've ever watched. I don't like I think my
45:37
life there. I will never watch anything that good. I'm pretty sure I
45:43
would love it if I could, but I can't imagine a world beating that.
45:47
So like when I was in middle school, I was obsessed with Yasha.
45:52
If you watched it in You Yasha, no never, you should check
45:57
out in Yasha. And in fact, I'm gonna go I'm gonna I'm gonna
46:00
stick by what I say here and I'm actually gonna go back and I'm gonna
46:04
go watch it again because I loved it that much. In You Yasha,
46:08
yeah, I n you y a s h okay, I see it cool
46:17
I'll check it out, sick. Let me know what you think text yea,
46:22
yeah, I'm always looking for stuff cool. But yeah, so bands
46:29
that I should like that I don't like. I think the worst band,
46:31
Oh my god. Yeah, everything's good about them. They do the right
46:36
things, but I hate their music and it would have to be blessed.
46:38
The Fall just don't like it at all. It just like anytime I listen
46:45
to it, I'm like, God, you guys are such posers. I
46:47
hate it. It just feels so fake. I don't believe them. It's
46:52
too precise. I just hate it. I hate it so much. Interesting.
46:58
Yeah, so that would be one you know we have We have had
47:00
Craig Mabbott on the podcast ones he doesn't count. He doesn't count when for
47:07
Blust the Fall, I don't know that first record is that. That one's
47:10
horrible. I don't think that counts. That's not the time period I'm talking
47:15
about. That one sounds like like terrible. I don't know how they took
47:20
off. But the stuff with bo where it's more refined and like good production
47:24
and stuff. Yeah, that's mainly what I'm talking about. I hate that
47:28
so much. Next one that should like because I'm a new metal guy,
47:31
but I really really really hate Corn. Can't listen to him Corn Corn.
47:37
I need him so much. They're just horrible, Like I mean, they're
47:39
they're they're good obviously to some most people, but like I just hate that
47:45
all the discordant stuff, like man, like it's just too like a little
47:52
overdone. I can see that. Yeah, it feels like just like I'm
47:54
listening to this floppy fish just trying to get back in the water, but
47:58
he's like so dead that he doesn't have any fight left. It's not heavy.
48:02
That's a really interesting thing because I actually had that same kind of thought
48:07
for a long time, like where it's just like it's it's almost that it
48:10
wouldn't be a problem if it was discordant, if it had some extra behind
48:15
it. But oftentimes when when they when they do that discordant stuff, it's
48:20
so sparse, there's so much space. It's like, I just as you're
48:25
saying, it's like a fish, it's like it just can't get back to
48:29
the water. That's such a that's such a great analogy there. Yeah I
48:32
dig that, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then one band the other
48:38
one was one band that I like you shouldn't on paper like or enjoy,
48:44
but for whatever reason, you actually really love. Yeah. So I played
48:50
a lot of Rocket League and like a lot of the highlight videos, you
48:52
know, Rocket League, soccer cars video. What what rank are you or
48:57
what league you're in? Diamond two, I mean too, and I think
49:00
I can get losing streak. I was gonna say we should play together,
49:06
but I'm nowhere near that good. I mean, it still fun to play
49:08
together. I mean, like I've hit like Gold three before and I thought
49:12
I was like on top of the world. I think Gold was the one
49:15
that took me the longest to get out of. It's just too wide of
49:20
a skill set. Like people that just start the game get placed in Gold,
49:23
and people who have been playing for like five years are in Gold.
49:27
It's really hard to get out because you're just at the mercy of your matches
49:30
and you have to be able to hard carry entirely out of Gold. And
49:32
then Platinum is pretty easy to climb through. But like Gold sucks. I
49:37
think it's kind of that way with most video games, like just that that
49:42
mid level where like you could have some good skill but you just can't like
49:46
hard carry out of it and then all the beginners are placed and they flood
49:50
that rank and it sucks for sure. What do you play on PlayStation?
49:57
I used to play on my Mac, but then they stopped offering max support,
50:00
so like I can't play on my computer anymore, and it was it's
50:02
way better on the computer. I could see two hundred and forty four frames
50:07
and I'm like thirty thirty frames. But it's still fun. But yeah,
50:14
honestly the one band that yeah, so I oh anyway, so Rocket League.
50:17
So the highlight videos all have drum and bass songs ye behind them.
50:22
Everything's one seventy five beats per minute, and I just fell in love with
50:27
it. And I don't like any sort of DM or anything, but the
50:30
drums. The pace of the drums is awesome. So the artist I most
50:34
listened to on Spotify for like the last three or four years in a row
50:37
is Faint and he just has like guest singers like Villa and some other people
50:42
I don't remember their names, like really pretty girl voices, and I just
50:47
love I love that guy. Like everything he puts out is like my favorite
50:52
thing. And my kids like it too, because my kids hate heavy music.
50:54
Yeah, but they don't like hot sauce on their food yet either,
50:57
So they shouldn't like heavy music yet grow hair on their chest before. Yeah,
51:02
they got to grow into it. Yeah, so yeah, that's my
51:06
favorite. And then I guess as a caveat, I feel like I've never
51:09
really appreciated, uh, female voices in heavy music, and then just this
51:16
last year or two, that's like all I've been listening to. It's like
51:20
spirit Box, The Hell Freaks, Terminal Sleep, Nosh Wish, listen to.
51:31
Interview just came out today. Way, dude, that's so sick.
51:36
It was great. Are Chris Are you into Tamasi? No? Oh there.
51:52
So that's also a female fronted metal band that like does like gent stuff,
51:57
but they'll also do like like songs that are just a hundred sent singing
52:00
like kind of alternative stuff. They're fantastic, fantastic, But they've been around
52:07
since two thousand and about two thousand and eight, yeah, I think.
52:10
Yeah, their first album was like two thousand and eight, uh, and
52:14
their last couple of albums I think are even some of their best stuff they've
52:16
ever done. But their first album was very like kind of math mathy stuff,
52:22
very similar to Animals as Leaders, but with like singing and screaming,
52:25
but their last couple of albums have like gent stuff, metal core stuff.
52:30
It's actually like it almost feels like almost like a female fronted version of Vulsar.
52:34
Have you showed me thefore? Yeah? Well how do you spell it?
52:37
I'm just getting an old guy are O l O and then Tamasi t
52:42
O M A S s I. They're fantastic, so so good. Like
52:50
just listen to their like top stuff on Spotify initially, and I think it
52:52
is a really good like intro to all their stuff. Sweet, I will
52:57
listen to them, but yeah, so the woman screams everything and then she
53:00
sings everything like she's just a fantastic singer. She's so good. But yeah,
53:07
all all their top stuff on Spotify, just like listen to that and
53:09
you'll be blown away. They're so fantastic. If you do like recommendations too,
53:15
and you want a little bit more drum and bass as well. There's
53:17
one artist that I always go to for it called Noise. Yeah, I'm
53:22
not sure if n O I S A. I would start with a song
53:27
called like split the Atom or something like that, or machine Gun. I
53:31
think Split the Adams is my favorite though, but very drum and bass,
53:36
a little bit like dubstep to a certain extent, not like not not too
53:40
far into dubstep. But what would you like to plug here, Chris,
53:45
I would say I have a couple of things. So the first one would
53:51
be our merch store. So there's the face down merch store, and then
53:55
the band for merch store. So our merch store is called Fall Star Motorcycle
54:00
Club. I think our search into an optimization is horrible, but you can
54:07
find it from our Instagram or our Facebook. But that's that's all the merch
54:12
that we make, and a lot of people have been buying it. And
54:15
I design all the stuff and it looks really cool. Dude, I didn't
54:17
know this existed. That's crazy. Yeah, it's really hard. Yeah.
54:24
Yeah, So there's that and and I just did We just did stuff for
54:30
Fall and they're really cool. And then I'll do a couple of things for
54:31
winter. But we do a lot of pre order stuff. So if you're
54:34
like a bigger dude and you need three XL like, we order some anyways,
54:37
but a lot of big dudes want stuff and that's like the first thing
54:42
to sell out. Or a small if you're small so we do some pre
54:45
order stuff but that but on that website, there's a sign up for a
54:49
newsletter and I send out one a month and just if you love our band,
54:54
just follow our newsletters so that you can know when we're funding our next
54:59
record, and we'll be doing that this next year. And it's awesome to
55:05
fund our record because it helps us and then we just do all the like
55:09
the cover songs and the b sides and there's just like a bunch of cool
55:14
perks that come with it. So if you like that stuff, then follow
55:17
there. But I mean other than that, no, we'll do some more
55:22
tours this year. We've been doing a lot more lately, So sitting out
55:25
something soon. Yeah, any chance you guys come to the Midwest maybe like
55:31
Minneapolis area or Omaha. Yeah, we're figuring the routing out right now,
55:38
but yeah, hell yeah yeah. Can you can you make sure you bully
55:44
the undertaking guys into the doing that too, and potentially light workers as well,
55:50
maybe even you know there we go yeah sick yea. Yeah, So
55:55
we're just still figuring it out right now, but yeah, we're I'm ninety
56:00
eight percent sure will be there this year. Very cooly, Yeah, very
56:04
very cool. I love it all right, well, Chris One, the
56:08
album is wonderful. It's great. There's a reason why it's gonna be at
56:13
least between Colin and I, it's gonna be in that top five albums of
56:15
the year for us. So uh, it's it's so fantastic. It does
56:20
really feel like you guys are getting every better, like better with every single
56:23
album. Like it doesn't find you've really gotten to that point where you've peaked.
56:28
Like it feels like you guys are totally getting better and better every time.
56:30
So thanks so much for talking about the new album, and also like
56:34
thanks for just like doing the rambling. This is what happens if you,
56:38
like, if you just hung out with Colin and I, like, this
56:40
is the kind of shit that comes up the decision we'll talk about a female
56:45
friend and hardcore bands too, like it just it all happens. I must
56:49
spin in hands racing don wa wa week jumped way week jot it when week
57:17
count? When come we jut