Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 836 - The Acacia Strain’s Devin Shidaker Talks New Album "You Are Safe From God Here"

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 836 - The Acacia Strain’s Devin Shidaker Talks New Album "You Are Safe From God Here" · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  It's hard to ask like, you know, a group of five dudes that are
• 0:02
  like late 20s, early 30s that have like homes and careers and
• 0:07
  all that stuff. Like, hey, drop everything for a
• 0:09
  month and come and come and do this tour with us and maybe
• 0:12
  break even. Like, because it's, you know,
• 0:14
  it's all about like merch sales and all that stuff on the road.
• 0:16
  And sometimes it's hard when you're the support band, but
• 0:18
  we've been there several times. So it's like being able to do
• 0:21
  those festivals and say like, hey, we want you to play.
• 0:23
  And they're like, cool, we'll play and that's cool.
• 0:26
  I like it. What's up everybody?
• 0:34
  It's Kefi at ghostcoltmag.com. I am back with another
• 0:37
  interview. Today we got the big slime from
• 0:40
  the KC stream. Devin Chitiker, how are you
• 0:41
  doing? Doing all right?
• 0:42
  How are you? I'm super cool, man.
• 0:44
  It's good to see you again. Good to see you.
• 0:46
  I just said another year and a half or so.
• 0:49
  Another two years, another album, a KC stream.
• 0:52
  Here we go. Here we go again.
• 0:54
  Put the lunch pail down and go to work like everybody else.
• 0:57
  When put your pants on. What's all those cliches?
• 0:59
  Put your pants on one leg at a time.
• 1:01
  How else do you fucking jump in? How else do you do my dad?
• 1:04
  I don't wear pants. I get you know as little as
• 1:07
  possible. Shirts and ties, not so much
• 1:10
  anymore. God funerals and weddings.
• 1:12
  Try not to be about holding to the corporate overlords.
• 1:17
  The new album You Are Safe from God here coming out late October
• 1:22
  from Ryze Records, long time label for the band.
• 1:26
  You know, overtime you do enough of these interviews and you do
• 1:29
  you see enough familiar faces. It feels like, you know, hanging
• 1:33
  out with friends, which is the best part of this.
• 1:36
  You know, what can you say? Another brutal record.
• 1:38
  There's a few new nuances with the band, but you know it's a
• 1:42
  consistent like Pepsi, the same every time.
• 1:47
  Yeah, I like to think that it's like it's, it's a bit different,
• 1:50
  but it's not. We said, you know, we're making
• 1:52
  the record that we want. And everyone was like, Oh no,
• 1:55
  this is going to suck. And you know what, it might
• 1:58
  suck. I don't care.
• 1:59
  But we've always made the records that we want.
• 2:01
  And that's, I think the key to making a good record for any
• 2:06
  artist. You have to be able to stand
• 2:08
  behind it and say like, hey, this is something that I would
• 2:10
  want to listen to. And I just think there's a lot
• 2:13
  of a lot of bands out there that are like, well, this is what
• 2:15
  everybody wants to hear and they make something and they don't
• 2:17
  put like 100% of themselves into it.
• 2:19
  And it shows. I think this record sounds like
• 2:21
  us. Noted Super duper.
• 2:24
  You know, it's I like that there's no fat on these songs.
• 2:27
  I think that's probably been true the last few records.
• 2:30
  It's just very short and to the point.
• 2:31
  Get in, get out, be brutal, mostly slow and groovy,
• 2:35
  sometimes fast and up tempo, you know, But again, absolutely no,
• 2:40
  this is not the I don't know if people misinterpreted that line
• 2:45
  about making the record we want, because I do feel like I agree.
• 2:47
  You've always made the record the band wants to make.
• 2:50
  But yeah, man, there's no it, there's, there's absolutely no
• 2:53
  excess on here's a lot of tracks, but they go by quick and
• 2:57
  I think it holds up on repeat listens.
• 2:58
  At least it does for me so far. Yeah, I mean for me as well.
• 3:02
  And I like I said, I want to make records that I want to
• 3:05
  listen to. And this is one that I've
• 3:07
  listened to several times. It's pretty much what I put on
• 3:10
  when I'm at the gym. And it's like I can get through
• 3:13
  it twice in a good workout. And to me, there aren't any
• 3:17
  skips. And I'm not going to be one of
• 3:19
  those people that's like, I've like everything we've done their
• 3:21
  stuff we've made in the past where I'm like, and I'll, I'll
• 3:25
  skip a song or I'll go to where I want to hear some parts.
• 3:28
  But this one for me is like, it's pretty consistent.
• 3:32
  And I think part of that is that we have started trimming the
• 3:36
  fat. Like it's kind of one of those
• 3:37
  things where if you get to, you know, a minute and a half, two
• 3:41
  minutes into the song and everything that needs to be
• 3:44
  there is there and happens and you feel satisfied listening to
• 3:48
  it. You're like, OK, am I going to
• 3:50
  do we need to add an extra minute and 1/2 or two minutes of
• 3:54
  like stuff just so it hits some arbitrary time limit like, well,
• 3:57
  a single is 3 1/2 minutes. I don't care.
• 4:01
  Like we've, we've made enough songs that are over 10 minutes
• 4:04
  long that we can have short songs.
• 4:07
  And it's I, I think that you get to the end of the song for me.
• 4:10
  I'm like, hell yeah. And that's how we were in the
• 4:12
  studio. We got to the end of it more
• 4:13
  like everyone was like, I think that's it.
• 4:16
  I don't think we need to add anything else because at that
• 4:18
  point we're just. Then you're just dragging it on
• 4:19
  too long. Right on.
• 4:20
  And I think the band, like everybody had the play gears,
• 4:24
  progressive, you know, moment. It's like, let's get as wild as
• 4:28
  possible. We've got nothing else to do.
• 4:30
  Yeah, let's experiment. But I feel like that phase is
• 4:33
  past. And I'll be honest, like, I feel
• 4:37
  like a lot of this material brings me back to the first time
• 4:40
  I heard the band. So you were not in the band from
• 4:42
  the very beginning. But like, I, I recall seeing the
• 4:45
  band the first few times. And this music has that vibe for
• 4:49
  me, like, very especially urgent compared to, you know, let's
• 4:53
  say, the last 10 years, which was able to sort of, you know,
• 4:56
  go through all these, you know, movements and motifs and, you
• 5:01
  know, explore everything the band always wanted to do, which
• 5:04
  is awesome. But I really feel like this
• 5:06
  material, I think a lot of people who are longtime fans are
• 5:08
  going to feel like, oh, this is a kind of a throwback in a way
• 5:12
  to some of the earlier material. Well, I think with that one, I
• 5:16
  do think that the new stuff does have a lot.
• 5:18
  We still carry a lot of that like motif kind of things.
• 5:20
  When you listen to it as a full piece, a lot of it does flow
• 5:23
  together and that is, you know, kind of by design.
• 5:26
  But I think part of what can give you like, you know, a fan
• 5:30
  of the older stuff, some excitement here is that we
• 5:33
  didn't try to we didn't sit there and go, Oh well, what was
• 5:36
  really clicking when we did like the dead walk and continent.
• 5:39
  We I think what captured what's get gets captured here is the
• 5:42
  energy and that's what drew people to us in the past.
• 5:46
  Like when I've because I was an Acacia Strain fan before joining
• 5:48
  the band and I still remember the first time I saw them, I was
• 5:52
  like, this is a scary band. People were just getting beat
• 5:55
  up. And at that point it was like,
• 5:56
  you know, you'd have people circle pit for whatever band was
• 5:58
  playing. And then a cage string came on.
• 5:59
  And it's like, and I think it more than anything, like that's
• 6:02
  what I want to capture. Because if if we made a record
• 6:04
  full of songs that sounded like, you know, songs off the Dead
• 6:07
  walk, people that listen to us back then aren't going to go,
• 6:10
  yeah, this is this is what I wanted.
• 6:12
  They're going to go. They're just trying to do what
• 6:14
  they did in the past. So this is it's something new.
• 6:16
  But I think like we are showing that we still have that energy.
• 6:20
  And I, I like to think people are going to grab onto that and
• 6:23
  go, Oh yeah, this, this makes me feel like I'm 15 again without
• 6:26
  it sounding like, you know, we're just trying to make a
• 6:28
  record that sounds like it came out in 2004.
• 6:30
  Because this is very modern sounding as far as I'm
• 6:34
  concerned. And tones and all that stuff.
• 6:36
  Like we put a lot of work into just making it sound disgusting
• 6:40
  and not just very sterile like bedroom gente guitar player
• 6:44
  sound. Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:45
  I agree 100%. I feel like it's very, it's very
• 6:49
  fresh sounding, it's very current and I love the the
• 6:54
  haunted quality of Vince's voice.
• 6:58
  He's always trying to. I know he's always trying to
• 6:59
  improve and top himself. He's particularly brutal and
• 7:04
  extreme on this record, I think to a new level that a lot of
• 7:09
  people are going to be super impressed with.
• 7:11
  Not that he's not always, because he always is, but like,
• 7:14
  yeah, like really, some of these tracks are just, you said it,
• 7:17
  disgusting in the best way possible.
• 7:19
  Yeah, and I think when it comes to Vincent, he always sounds
• 7:23
  like Vincent, but he always finds a way to evolve that, to
• 7:26
  add more to what goes under that umbrella of sounding like
• 7:30
  Vincent. There's this thing when with
• 7:31
  like this kind of music where there are some of the most
• 7:35
  annoying people you've ever met in your life who were like,
• 7:38
  they'll, they want to compare every singer to like, well, this
• 7:40
  persons technique And and it's like, dude, I'm not listening to
• 7:44
  technique. I'm listening to songs.
• 7:45
  I'm I cool. This person can do every sound,
• 7:49
  but it sounds there's 100 bands where everyone is doing the same
• 7:53
  thing. And I could not pick like if if
• 7:55
  you're just having vocal clips, I'd be like, I don't know who
• 7:58
  that is. Take Me Out of this band for 20
• 8:00
  years and play me a line from Vincent I haven't heard.
• 8:03
  And I'd be like, that's Vincent Bennett.
• 8:04
  He sounds like him. And I think that that's like the
• 8:07
  most important thing with like a vocalist or a singer or whatever
• 8:10
  is like you hear them and you know who that is?
• 8:12
  They have their own voice. And he just, I think he knocked
• 8:15
  it out of the park on this one. Absolutely.
• 8:17
  Vincent is genuinely who he is authentically all the time.
• 8:21
  Yes, and I'm glad to know that that makes me, that gives me
• 8:25
  comfort as a listener and a fan, not just a journalist.
• 8:29
  I don't know if it's a concept record, a lot of religiosity
• 8:32
  going on here. Even the promo photo, I don't
• 8:36
  know if it was, you know, I don't know if you guys all
• 8:38
  dressed up in robes or not, but it was extreme.
• 8:40
  I was like, what is happening? I was expecting this kind of,
• 8:44
  you know, the band dude pose, just the kid, you know, the,
• 8:47
  the, the, the lean pose. But no, it's it's extremely
• 8:51
  spooky. Yeah, I don't know.
• 8:52
  We we pretty much hate every picture of ourselves because
• 8:56
  it's like what happens is like you'll take promos or whatever
• 8:59
  with somebody and it's like, hey, these are cool.
• 9:01
  And then every every time a show gets announced, announced or a
• 9:05
  tour or any news outlet, pick something up.
• 9:07
  It's like, Hey, here's this picture of you guys, like from
• 9:09
  the basement of a venue where you're like hanging out and
• 9:12
  you're like, oh, that one or worst case scenario, it's which
• 9:16
  is usually the case is they'll show a picture from like 18
• 9:18
  years ago and you're like, where did there was a picture for a
• 9:21
  show on this last tour that they were using online that we were
• 9:24
  all like, well, I've never even seen this picture.
• 9:26
  I don't know where you found this.
• 9:28
  It was in the picture. It was DL on guitar, Vincent,
• 9:33
  obviously Kevin still playing drums back then, but then like
• 9:35
  Seth was playing bass like and that's it was so long ago and
• 9:39
  I'm like you had to dig for this picture.
• 9:41
  Just type the band name in Google and work and the picture
• 9:44
  of us is going to be there. So I'm like, what are you?
• 9:46
  What are you guys doing? In in fairness again, promoters
• 9:51
  show bookers, venue people, journalists, lizard brain.
• 9:55
  I always say this, we have a pea brain like goldfish brain and a
• 9:59
  lot of you see it all the time in music media.
• 10:02
  Stuff is recycled and I think it's an old school PR thing.
• 10:05
  Like I have one chance, one journalist somewhere, 1 fan is
• 10:09
  going to open up an e-mail, give them the whole history in 30
• 10:15
  seconds. It's not really possible.
• 10:17
  And sometimes photos get, you know, resurfaced and reused and
• 10:20
  it's not fair. I think I was at one of DLS last
• 10:23
  shows and I've seen him jump on with the band locally.
• 10:27
  So like what, you know, and that was a long time ago even.
• 10:30
  But like, yeah, just, you know, great guy and, you know,
• 10:33
  integral to the beginning of the band.
• 10:35
  But you know, yeah, this is different band today.
• 10:37
  It's, you know, completely. So you know, what are you gonna
• 10:40
  do? Yeah.
• 10:40
  It just is what it is, man. Just is what it is.
• 10:43
  We. Always just kind of laugh about
• 10:44
  it. Like especially I think
• 10:46
  promoters, it's a big one where we're like, dude, we sent you
• 10:48
  like ad mats and all this stuff and you're just like, we'll make
• 10:51
  our own flyer with this picture. Like you made more work for
• 10:53
  yourself. Yeah, I mean, I I appreciate the
• 10:56
  effort. Yeah.
• 10:57
  But put a little more effort and find out who's in the band
• 11:00
  today. Not that that this band is, you
• 11:04
  know, been a, a darling or anything.
• 11:07
  You know, I don't, I don't remember if Metal Archives has
• 11:10
  lifted the band on hardcore adjacent bands or bands they
• 11:14
  perceive to be more hardcore than metal.
• 11:17
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:19
  Same, same, same. I just, yeah, I live my life,
• 11:23
  you know? For a band that hasn't had a ton
• 11:26
  of features and guests over the time, super cool to see Brody,
• 11:30
  Collin and Sonny pop up on this record.
• 11:33
  Did you get to work with them in person?
• 11:35
  Did they fly in tracks? I know a lot of stuff is
• 11:37
  disconnected these days with. None of it, none of it was in
• 11:40
  person because it was kind of like we got we got done with
• 11:43
  what we were doing and it was like, here's what's going to
• 11:45
  happen. And thankfully it's like we can
• 11:47
  send a session to like Sonny had a promote like a producer that
• 11:51
  she had worked with for Blackwater, Holy Light.
• 11:53
  So she did that there. Colin went to Taylor's brother,
• 11:56
  also In God's Hate and Twitching Tongues and a million other
• 11:59
  bands that are awesome. And Nate flew up to Portland
• 12:04
  for, I want to say a wrestling thing.
• 12:07
  And right before the thing, he went to Leon Del Marte's studio
• 12:11
  and tracked it with him. And yeah, everything sounds
• 12:14
  great. It sounds like it's supposed to
• 12:16
  be there sometimes, like you'll get a guest spot or a feature
• 12:19
  from like a friend because that's usually it's like we
• 12:21
  just, we want somebody that we like or are friends with,
• 12:24
  usually both. And there's times you get
• 12:26
  something where you're like, what did they do?
• 12:28
  We have to fix this. Like not like the performance,
• 12:30
  but it's like just the recording where you're like, this sounds
• 12:32
  very out of place. We got to do some magic here,
• 12:35
  like when we got Aaron from Jesus Peace on the song Seeing
• 12:39
  God and it sounds great, but I get like what got sent had like
• 12:42
  a bunch of distortion and stuff like all over it.
• 12:44
  And we're like, we give us the raw thing so we can like mix it
• 12:47
  the same as everything else. So it was Randy made it work
• 12:50
  because he's a he's a genius at all of that stuff.
• 12:54
  But sometimes you're like, oh, what cool.
• 12:56
  We have more work. You know, that's how it goes.
• 12:58
  What? I didn't see Nate in the
• 13:00
  credits, do you? What track is he on?
• 13:02
  I'm not sure. Nate and Colin are both on.
• 13:05
  Oh yeah, OK, the machine, the bleeds.
• 13:07
  Yeah, OK. And then sunny.
• 13:10
  Yeah, I'm a huge fan actually. Of of Blackwater.
• 13:13
  Holy Light is such a cool, you know, why is the trash being
• 13:16
  picked up at 12:17 PM in San Francisco?
• 13:21
  I don't know, but anyway, sunny super cool, great, you know,
• 13:25
  great part and you know such an the the one real epic track,
• 13:30
  right, like obviously meant to be this big build up.
• 13:33
  I love the book ends like very thematic, very cool.
• 13:36
  And again, like I said, not sure.
• 13:39
  I'll have to see if I see Vincent in person and ask him.
• 13:41
  But like a lot of Morningstar, sacred relic, Eucharist, you
• 13:44
  know, a lot of Acolyte, holy Moonlight, like a lot of that
• 13:48
  imagery I know. Holy Moonlight is a weapon from
• 13:53
  I want to say he's gonna kill me.
• 13:55
  Somebody is wrong, but I want to say that it's from Bloodborne.
• 13:58
  It might be from Dark Souls three.
• 14:00
  I'm not sure. But a lot of times it's like,
• 14:02
  oh, that fits the vibe of this song.
• 14:03
  Let's use that. Typically, like, we've had so
• 14:05
  many songs where the title has like, nothing to do with it, but
• 14:08
  like, that's kind of like we let him do his thing.
• 14:11
  I the only time I'll have any of us really have input on a song
• 14:15
  title is like, hey, that sounds awfully close to this song from
• 14:18
  this band. And I'll go, oh, cool.
• 14:20
  I didn't know that that was a thing, so let's change that.
• 14:22
  Otherwise, it's always like, you do your thing and it's gonna be
• 14:25
  awesome. We trust you.
• 14:27
  So it's like, yeah, he went, he went a really cool direction
• 14:29
  with this one. Yeah.
• 14:30
  Absolutely. And I love there's a super cool
• 14:33
  sample. Everybody's gonna be like
• 14:35
  Googling what is this from? But I know it's from.
• 14:38
  It's like, I wanted to see what it was like to kill a guy.
• 14:42
  Everybody's gonna be like, oh, what's that from?
• 14:45
  I know what that's from, you know, always very clever with
• 14:48
  the occasional sample. I know that kind of stuff is
• 14:51
  overdone in some genres. Not, not so much from your band.
• 14:55
  But yeah, what a just, yeah, really top to bottom, very
• 14:58
  strong. And like I said, except for that
• 14:59
  last track that is meant to be, you know, an exclamation point
• 15:04
  on it, on the sentence, like I said, super short, great listen
• 15:08
  on repeat. Do you guys do the car test when
• 15:12
  you get the masters back, like the first mixes or masters?
• 15:14
  Do you do the car test? Drive around.
• 15:16
  Like I want to hear it on my monitors.
• 15:18
  I want to hear it in my like headphones.
• 15:21
  I want to hear it in my car. I don't hear it in my gym
• 15:23
  headphones. Like everyone wants to hear it.
• 15:25
  Like all you. I'll listen to it like through
• 15:27
  my phone. I want to make sure everything
• 15:29
  translates, however you hear it. So that like if somebody who has
• 15:33
  not heard our band before hears it in their car, like, you know,
• 15:36
  something comes up on like Sirius or like they were
• 15:39
  listening to Spotify or Apple Music or whatever fucking
• 15:42
  streaming platform and you know, suggested listen, it just comes
• 15:45
  up. I want that.
• 15:47
  I want it to sound good. So they're like, Oh, wow, my, my
• 15:50
  skill at production is very low. I'll make something that sounds
• 15:53
  like to me, I'm like, this sounds sick on my monitors and I
• 15:55
  listen my car and I'm like, wow, I no idea what's going on here.
• 15:58
  Garbage. But Randy, he's just he's great.
• 16:01
  I'm usually like the first mix we'll get all usually have a
• 16:04
  couple notes, if any, because he usually does such a good job.
• 16:08
  And I let Griffin, who are more studio guys, like they're both
• 16:12
  producers. When they have no, I'm like, OK,
• 16:14
  like I'm going to take a back seat and be like, because my my
• 16:17
  notes are whatever. I'm more listening to the song.
• 16:19
  And I'm like, can I hear, does everything translate?
• 16:21
  And when we get a mix from him, I can't imagine being like
• 16:25
  giving him this laundry list of like, what are you doing?
• 16:28
  Do this, do this, do this. It's it's like we're like 98% of
• 16:31
  the way there. And there's like little small
• 16:33
  things like, oh, I wish I could hear this part here a little bit
• 16:36
  more. But yeah, thankfully it's it's
• 16:39
  not too hard when we get stuff to like let me do the car test
• 16:42
  and all that stuff like cool, sounds good.
• 16:44
  Right on, now's a good opportunity since we already
• 16:46
  mentioned streaming, that this artwork is awesome and Ryze
• 16:50
  always does a great job with the physical packaging.
• 16:52
  So please go buy merch and physical records and CDs and
• 16:56
  vinyl from bands that you want to keep supporting, because
• 16:59
  that's actually how people get paid beside touring and selling
• 17:03
  shirts. So please buy it.
• 17:07
  And you know, with with physical sales of like records as well as
• 17:12
  streaming numbers because that's important too.
• 17:14
  Like there are a lot of, you know, booking agents and all
• 17:16
  that good stuff. They look at those numbers when
• 17:19
  it comes time to like book a band for the next, you know,
• 17:22
  touring cycle or whatever for a record.
• 17:24
  And if when it comes out, it performs well, they're like, oh,
• 17:27
  cool, this bands like they're on a hot streak.
• 17:30
  So let's let's do this, this, this and promoters will, you
• 17:33
  know, they end up paying more money to have you come and play
• 17:35
  and you're like, oh, cool. So that's like the workaround
• 17:37
  way that like that stuff does make you more money if it does
• 17:40
  perform well. But beyond that, like we're
• 17:42
  always gonna make vinyl because we like it.
• 17:44
  We like the physical packaging, like pretty much everyone.
• 17:48
  The band like collect something, but we all like, love vinyl
• 17:50
  records and a big piece of the artwork and really putting like
• 17:53
  a lot of attention into the layout and the way everything is
• 17:56
  put together as opposed to just being like, yeah, here's the
• 17:59
  artwork and it's in just like a slip cover.
• 18:01
  Like we want to do a gatefold and have all that cool stuff.
• 18:04
  It's fun. Yeah, I think that actually
• 18:07
  concurrent with your time in the band has been the resurgence of
• 18:10
  vinyl, right? Like, I never thought as a
• 18:12
  medium this was going to make such a comeback in my lifetime
• 18:15
  from my childhood. So, you know, I've been very
• 18:18
  excited to get a couple of these on vinyl.
• 18:19
  And of course you know. I think the reason behind that,
• 18:22
  it really is streaming. People listen to a band and they
• 18:25
  go, oh, I like this band, I want to support them and buy
• 18:27
  something. I'm still probably going to
• 18:29
  listen to this on my phone. So I feel like most people to
• 18:32
  have our records or have collections don't really even
• 18:35
  listen to them on a turntable. They just want to own physical
• 18:38
  media and have that. And there's a lot of people that
• 18:40
  do listen to the records. But if you're gonna listen to
• 18:43
  your phone and you want to own like the physical version of
• 18:45
  something, get the biggest thing, a record and the whole
• 18:47
  like all the variants you can do with them.
• 18:49
  You can't really do that with ACD.
• 18:51
  So true, so true. You cannot.
• 18:53
  And then, you know, I think Rise Again has done such a nice job.
• 18:57
  The band has been there for a very long time, which is, you
• 19:00
  know, super rare these days where people, you know, it's
• 19:03
  kind of like going to a new job. The only way you can get a raise
• 19:05
  is to go to a new job sometimes in your industry.
• 19:08
  And it's the same thing in the record business.
• 19:10
  But the reason to stay loyal, the reason to stay with somebody
• 19:13
  is trust is a familiarity, consistency.
• 19:16
  So Rise has all those things go, you know, all those things going
• 19:19
  for it, which is, you know, awesome.
• 19:21
  Just as we start to wind this down, I want to give you back
• 19:24
  your day. I appreciate your time, man,
• 19:25
  always. You know, I think it's pretty
• 19:28
  interesting that the band now has its own little cottage
• 19:30
  industry with like the sadness and Failure Fest, very
• 19:33
  successful from what I was told by my spies and then the year
• 19:38
  show again. So I think it's a lot of like
• 19:41
  fun in between touring and maybe supporting other bands are going
• 19:44
  out on a headline run that you have these kind of poles during
• 19:47
  the year to go lean on these big things to build up to.
• 19:50
  Yeah. And I just, I like that we've
• 19:52
  been able to do that stuff because it's when we go on
• 19:54
  tours, we like to bring like smaller bands we want to get
• 19:57
  peoples attention on because like we're lucky enough that we
• 20:00
  have people that want to come and see us play.
• 20:02
  And almost all of our fans are fans that want to watch whoever
• 20:07
  is opening as well. And I want to always be one of
• 20:10
  those bands. It's like, hey, this band over
• 20:12
  here has been like kicking ass doing stuff they need they need
• 20:15
  a shot. Let's take them out.
• 20:16
  And our fans are going to find them.
• 20:18
  And if we like them, they're probably going to like them too.
• 20:21
  And I think that's really cool because there's, you know, there
• 20:23
  are a lot of, you know, bands that are older out there that
• 20:26
  have the fans that like, they go to the show and like, we only
• 20:29
  want to watch the headliner. We're going to yell at the bands
• 20:31
  that are playing beforehand. And I'm like, that's so dumb.
• 20:34
  Like maybe you'll find something cool.
• 20:35
  Just pay attention. So we're we like doing that on
• 20:37
  tour. And then the the fests are
• 20:39
  giving us an opportunity to like bring more bands out and more
• 20:42
  small bands that we like that maybe you're like, like, hey,
• 20:44
  you know, we're we're adults and we have lives.
• 20:47
  Like we can't really go on tour, but we can play festivals or we
• 20:50
  can do this thing and that's like cool.
• 20:51
  We can get bands we like that don't tour because it's, it's
• 20:54
  hard to ask like, you know, a group of five dudes that are
• 20:57
  like late 20s, early 30s that have like homes and careers and
• 21:02
  all that stuff. Like, hey, drop everything for a
• 21:04
  month and come and come and do this tour with us and maybe
• 21:06
  break even. Like because it's, you know,
• 21:08
  it's all about like merch sales and all that stuff on the road.
• 21:11
  And sometimes it's hard when you're the support band, but
• 21:13
  we've been there several times. So it's like being able to do
• 21:15
  those festivals and say like, Hey, we want you to play.
• 21:18
  And they're like, cool, we'll play and that's cool.
• 21:20
  I like it. Right on, I've seen 2 bands this
• 21:22
  year that really blew me away live that I had never seen
• 21:25
  before. Gates to Hell earlier in the
• 21:27
  year and Missing Lincoln. I know Missing Link played with
• 21:29
  you guys at the Sadness and Failure.
• 21:31
  So yeah, such a killer band and so good live.
• 21:34
  Like Exceptional Live. Yeah, missing link.
• 21:37
  It's, I mean, you got Paul Dove on drums who's in Recon with
• 21:40
  Mike. And so that that as soon as I
• 21:44
  knew like, oh, it's Paul's band. Yeah, let's before I had even
• 21:47
  heard them like that because we'd played with them before
• 21:49
  they were on like any of the show stuff with us or any of
• 21:52
  that stuff. But like the first time I heard
• 21:53
  of them and like, oh, Paul's in the band.
• 21:54
  Let's check it out. And there's so many bands like
• 21:57
  that. Like check out every band that
• 21:59
  plays those fests because you will find some stuff that you
• 22:02
  didn't know about that you like. Yeah, that's actually my
• 22:04
  favorite thing to do is go to a festival and see bands.
• 22:07
  I don't know, not just the you know, but come early and stay.
• 22:10
  What else you got to do in your life?
• 22:11
  Go home and jerk off on Pornhub. Come on, you need that worst.
• 22:15
  Worst case scenario if you find a new favorite band.
• 22:18
  Yeah, support this music support.
• 22:19
  And you get to do the cool guy thing, be like, Oh yeah, I saw
• 22:22
  them when they were opening this thing and cuz you know, they
• 22:25
  bands get big. We took Knock Loose on tour in
• 22:27
  like 2016. I remember told them at the end
• 22:31
  of the tour, it's like next time we tour together, like we're
• 22:33
  going to be supporting you guys. No, no, no.
• 22:35
  And I'm like, we've done long enough.
• 22:36
  Like you guys are doing everything right.
• 22:38
  You have the right attitudes. Sure enough, 2019 comes around
• 22:42
  and they're like, hey, do you do you guys want to do direct
• 22:44
  support? We're like, absolutely we do.
• 22:46
  Told you so. I am RSVP ING yes now.
• 22:50
  They're the biggest band in the world.
• 22:52
  I mean, yeah, they were the direct support to, they're doing
• 22:56
  Metallica next year. They were the direct support to
• 22:59
  Slayer this weekend ahead of other bands that at Power Trip,
• 23:04
  you know, doing their thing and Cavalero Brothers doing KSAD and
• 23:07
  Exodus and a bunch of other bands.
• 23:09
  Brian just Brian just threw the opening pitch at the Chicago
• 23:12
  Cubs big game. That's insane.
• 23:14
  Come on. What fly the W and the cubbies
• 23:18
  fans fly the W Good for them and good for and good for.
• 23:22
  Not lose man and I always. Say loose and you know once for
• 23:24
  everybody, but for a band like that, it's good for everyone.
• 23:27
  That's right. That's correct.
• 23:28
  Yeah. Like same thing with Go Jericho.
• 23:29
  Jericho will be that next band behind Metallica because there
• 23:33
  is no next Metallica or Maiden or or Slayer.
• 23:36
  But like this generation, we're seeing like a lot of legit new
• 23:40
  bands. And I'm glad to finally see that
• 23:42
  because that is something like I've talked about before where I
• 23:45
  think that era of bands like Metallica and all the bands that
• 23:49
  got really big, Metallica is the only one that really seems to
• 23:52
  take that chance on like smaller bands because they're kind of
• 23:56
  like, you know, we're going to sell tickets regardless.
• 23:58
  Like, do you want to see us take out the same bands we've always
• 24:00
  taken out or should we try some younger bands?
• 24:03
  And a lot of these other bands, like they just refuse to like
• 24:06
  give up their like we're headliners and whatever.
• 24:08
  And like, we're not going to who's this small band?
• 24:10
  We don't care about that. And I'm just, you got to bring
• 24:13
  them out because you have to continue the whole genre because
• 24:16
  at some point you're going to get too old to be doing it.
• 24:19
  So seeing like a band like Ogira being like that next, you know,
• 24:22
  goes, you're a Lamb of God. These bands are like stepping
• 24:24
  into that territory of like, OK, we're going to, we're going to
• 24:27
  fill these shoes and then we're going to bust out of them.
• 24:29
  If you ever think your band can't make it, Ice 9 Kills was a
• 24:32
  weird ska punk band for Beer mass and now they are doing
• 24:36
  stadiums with Metallica all over the world.
• 24:39
  You can do it too. I believe me, it's possible.
• 24:43
  Dream big. You can be the worst musician in
• 24:46
  the world. If you have the right attitude
• 24:49
  and just work ethic to just keep going, you can make it work.
• 24:53
  Word good advice, good advice from Dev got the showing the
• 24:57
  wisdom really quick as as I want to give you back your day.
• 25:01
  This interview in this album is coming out and my favorite time
• 25:04
  of the year October and spooky season and you got the Friday
• 25:07
  the 13th flag and the and the ski mask.
• 25:09
  What is your favorite horror movie or Halloween tradition for
• 25:14
  horror movies to watch? Favorite horror movie is sleep
• 25:18
  away camp but if I want AI want a Halloween season movie I like
• 25:24
  I like scream. We usually if we're touring in
• 25:27
  October that we are watching scream every single day.
• 25:30
  But I also I love Halloween 3 that was filmed just down the
• 25:33
  street from my house. The whole, the whole little town
• 25:36
  they use in Halloween 3 is just there.
• 25:38
  The mask factory is just there unchanged.
• 25:41
  And yeah, I like, I like that stuff.
• 25:43
  I like decorate for Halloween. And I'm gonna go get my giant 12
• 25:46
  foot skeleton from storage here soon.
• 25:49
  And then I have a camera that I usually set up on it because
• 25:52
  we're also by a high school. So kids like to mess around.
• 25:54
  And I'm more just, I want to see what they do because usually
• 25:57
  there's somebody that walks up and tries to touch its Wiener
• 25:58
  area and you're like, OK, that's assault.
• 26:01
  Please get consent from the skeleton that is 12 feet tall.
• 26:05
  Yes, consent is everything these days.
• 26:07
  Awesome stuff man. Again, just super cool to link
• 26:10
  up with you and chop it up. I really appreciate you.
• 26:13
  Yeah, you are safe from God. Here is coming out October 24th
• 26:16
  on Ryze Records. Devin of the Casey Strain.
• 26:18
  Always a pleasure bro. Pleasure was all mine, just so
• 26:22
  much.