Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Steve Kleisath: Further Seems Forever

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Steve Kleisath: Further Seems Forever · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Fountains for Sunnis.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Season. Is this snow Birds, You're crowning.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: The Towniess calls me that, so time jus in traffic and.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: That's up.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Today we've got Steven from Further Seems Forever. I feel
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: so honored to even be talking with you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Steven.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: Further Seems Forever is a band that I've been listening
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: to for a long time. I will say, when you
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: guys first broke up and what was that like, two
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: thousand and four, two thousand and five. I was pretty
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: young when you guys first broke up, and so I
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: got into you guys like basically after you had broken
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: up initially, and so but yeah, obviously you know all
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: the different iterations of Further Seems Forever. I've always been
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: a huge fan of each of those first three albums especially,
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: and so we'll get into all things Further Seems Forever.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: But before we dive into all of that, how are
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: you doing today?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, man appreciate it. Thanks for the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: support of the band over the years by Hooker Crook
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: with our lineup changes, particularly on the singer spot, which
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: is kind of rare to I don't know, still be relevant.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Maybe through so many different singers. But but yeah, happy
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to be on, look forward to to tackling whatever you
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: so choose.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. Well, well I'm excited.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: So well, let's maybe before we dive into like the
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: actual history of further seems forever, I'd love to just
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: hear like how you got into music.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: I would imagine at some point you were you know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: maybe that kid that was pulling out the pots and
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: pans and started banging on them, and maybe that's what
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: inspired you to be a drummer. But yeah, I'd love
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: to hear just like what inspired you to want to
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: start drumming?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I did another podcast with a Florida Sound Archives
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: god by the name of Jeff Kaiser, and here this
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: question too. Actually a couple of weeks ago, but I
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: vaguely remember, but my late parents basically said when I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: was four years old, they were both musically inclined to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: a certain except my dad was actually a singer. He
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: had a forty five inches or record actually, and he
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: went by a stage name and voice kind of sounded
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: like Elvis, and this is before my time, but he
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: was musically inclined. But apparently when I was four there
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: was a drum set set up at one of their
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: friend's houses, and as the story goes, apparently at some
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: point I just got up and started playing as if
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I already knew how to play, and apparently the people
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: there freaked out and kind of remarked, well, we know
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: what he's going to do to a certain extent. And
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I guess that was my unofficial start to being drawn
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: or magnetized to that particular instrument. And then just again,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: when I was really young, just listening to a lot
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of radio in the background, and back then terrestrial radio
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: was much more relevant in different genres and subgenres that
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: would be played within the realm of rock or pop
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: or what have you. And then fast forward a little more.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: You know, when I was in school, you know, just
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: started I had different friends in different peer groups. I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: was kind of a chameleon. I was never really like
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: hanging out with a certain type of people as far
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: as you know. It's like back in the day in school,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: you know, you had like jocks if they were into sports,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and you had preps if they were rich kids, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: you had like I'm dating myself probably with this terminology,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: but and then you'd have like burnouts or headbangers, if
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you're in the hard rock or metal or you know,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: new wave or punkers or what have you. And I
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: kind of had developed friendships with people all over the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: spectrum of these peer groups, and I think in a
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: way in the long run, it helped me when it
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: came to correlating with music, listening to different sounds, different artists,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: different types of music, and I took a lot from
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: all of that and kind of enjoyed certain aspects of
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: different genres. And I think that started to help shape
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: me being kind of eclectic for my lifetime as far
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: as what I'm influenced by throughout my progression of continuing
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: to drum and kind of a sharpening in the craft
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: as I got older.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I love that.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: What maybe like inspired or what maybe what was the
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: catalyst for getting into hardcore? Because obviously you actually I
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: think I don't know if a lot of people know this,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: but maybe you know, diehard for their seems forever fans
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: would probably know this. But you started out in strong Arm,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: which is a hardcore band, and so I would imagine
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: like that was like probably the earliest band for you,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: and and.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: So yeah, what was that what was that catalyst.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: For you to like get into hardcore music in particular,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: because it's obviously you're not listening to hardcore probably on
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: the radio, so at some point you had to have
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: gotten into the niche mark that is hardcore.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: So I'm originally from Virginia, just south of Washington and DC,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and I lived there until it was about ten or eleven,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: so I was right on the cusp. Didn't quite get
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: introduced to that rich, underground DC punk Northern Virginia scene
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: that blossomed in the early eighties, early to mid eighties.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But when I grew up and got a little bit older,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: I kind of rediscovered, or not rediscovered, but discovered that
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: scene around where I lived or where I grew up
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that was so influential when it came to punk rock, hardcore,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: post punk, alternative, and I was kind of drawn to
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: some different DC bands that kind of was, in my case,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: I guess, the gateway into heavier music from what would
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: be considered classic rock. And so I was in a
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: few bands actually before the strong arm era for me.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: My first band band was a band called friend Er Foe,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: and this was an introduction to because these guys. You know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: we actually recorded a demo with a guy who's kind
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: of known. He's part of a seminal Florida hardcore band
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: called No Fraud and his name is Dan Destructo, and
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: he recorded our first kind of music that we wrote.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: And then from there that band became another name. Put
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: out a four songs seven inch on a record label
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: called Stiff Pole Records, which old school people in Florida
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: may remember. And this was kind of like a punk
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: hardcore type label, and so I was kind of initiated
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: in the punk and hardcore. Probably that would be before
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: strong Arm materialized. But yes, as far as strong Arm,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you know, I was in this band that was Friender
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Foe then they were called Poll. We did that seven inch.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: We were still trying to do stuff around the area
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: that we lived in Florida. But strong Arm guys I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: kind of met vicariously through some different through a church.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I played drums at a few of them. Some others
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: were in yet another band that I had caught, you know,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: at a venue and kind of connected the dots that
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: they knew. These other guys I met through the church
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: I was playing drums at. So we developed kind of
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: a friendship and kind of already knew them, and they were,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: of course this band also called strong Arm. Well actually
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: originally that band was called Icthus and then it changed
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the strong Arm. And then come nineteen ninety five, I
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: want to say, their drummer left the bit or there
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: was some something that happened, and you know, he departed,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I think, and then one of the other guitarists departed,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: and then they asked me at that point, becau they
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: already knew me. They'd seen me drumming in this makeshift
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: church type deal that was in downtown Saint Petersburg, Florida
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: at the time, and they had seen me play and
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: they liked my style. They wanted to know if I'd
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: be interested in joining them, and so I moved to
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: South Florida where they're based, and pretty sure it was
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, and then from there, of course, kind
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: of obviously for a period of time was way deep
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: into the weeds, if you will, at least performing wise
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: with the hardcore type of music. Although I think for
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: strong Arm and also Shai Hallud, which I'm also drummed
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: with at the same time, for a period of time,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: they were definitely under the guise of hardcore, but I
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: felt the music was a little more than your standard,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: you know, traditional type of setup or design. I think
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: these two bands like the music was. It was very musical,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: very melodic, very transitional, a lot of movement, and I
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: really love that about their style of hardcore, if you will.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And it matched my style of drumming, which some people
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: on the face of it may say is unorthodox, but
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: it fit perfectly. It's like a perfect marriage of a
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: writing styles at that point when it came to the music.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: So mm hmmm mmm, yeah, I totally agree. Like and
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: so you're referring to, like the musicality of both the
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: guys from strong the rest of the guys from Strong Arm,
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: and obviously probably Shihalud as well. I'm guessing that's who
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: you're referring to.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean they, like I said, their approach
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to right, especially Josh Colbert with Strong Arm and Matt
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Fox with Shilud, their lifelong friends. They're both the writing
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: guitarists of the band. Yeah, their styles which are similar
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: in a different way, if that's possible.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: But.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Really messed with the way that my approach to drumming
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: was at that point in time, it was like we
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: were we found each other, and we were in these
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: groups together like kind of right place at the right time.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: When it came to writing original music, that was kind
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: of our own thing, yet it was within that genre
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: because of the screaming and because of the maybe other
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: aspects that kind of kind of encompassed us in this
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: hardcore scene. Although I thought our music was different enough
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: to where I think a lot of different people at
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: least musically. I mean, screaming is you know, in heavy
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: vocals or an acquired taste, I'm sure, but from the
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: music standpoint, I think there's a lot of different people
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: that could get something out of it.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I totally agree.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, especially and I haven't listened to strong
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Arm nearly as much as obviously Further seems forever, but
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: knowing the musicality that you here in Further seems forever.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: You know, obviously that musicality is certainly there to some
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: degree with strong Arm, and you know, again obviously strong Arms,
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: you know, very much still a hardcore band and has
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: those hardcore elements, but there is kind of this intricacy
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: or like dynamic level or level of dynamics in strong
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Arm that probably isn't that you might not hear so
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: much in other hardcore bands. And I think you're absolutely
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: right about Shiahaloud as well. We've actually had Matt on
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: a few tures on the podcast. Such a such a
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: great guy, and and I think that's what is in
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: part of like what really set Shai Halued apart from
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: other hardcore bands is you know, obviously they incorporate maybe
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: some more metal aspects to to their music as well
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: as you know a lot of other kind of interesting,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: more interesting things than you would hear in.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: The kind of the standard hardcore band.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Josh and Matt were in a band together
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: and many moons ago before strong Arm and Chailude even existed,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: so they go back a bunch of years.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: They really go back.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: It's it's one of those things where like you know,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: you hear about like you know, obviously like eventually Chris
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: joins further seems forever and like I know, you guys
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: were connected to like under Oath coming up at the
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: same time, and then obviously there's Shi Halued and it's
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: just like it's so funny, like how many bands were
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: coming out of that Florida scene. In the in the
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: nineties and early two thousands that ended up becoming really
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: important artists. It's just really cool, like how how saturated
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: that that time was specifically in Florida and it just
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: geographically that's it's kind of nuts that there was like
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: something in the water or something.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: There's a lot going on in Florida between Tampa and
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: South Florida, in particular Gainesville two to a certain extent, Yeah,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: it seems like a lot. We were a very tight
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: knit community musically and even doing shows like shows, especially
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: in South Florida. I always called them variety shows when
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: I would perform some of these, because it wouldn't just
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: be one genre. It would be like all these different
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: bands that kind of encompass alternative music, but we could
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: all play together and all kinds of different people would
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: be there and just you know, supporting just the music
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: community of that area in general, especially in like the
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: mid nineties, and that was cool to see.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that I mean exists in the mid nineties.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Like I remember early on, like Copeland and under Oath
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: would play together and it's like you can't think of
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: like two more different bands, but because they're both South Florida, bands,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: and because you know that, for whatever reason, they're kind
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: of still in the same scene to degree even though
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: their music sounds very different. Yeah, and I would imagine
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: that's the case for like Chaiahlud. I'm sure you guys
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: played with a lot of a lot of bands that
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: probably sounded nothing like Chaihalud or you know, obviously even
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: the case for like strong Arm, and then probably even
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: for their Seams Forever. So well, let's talk about further
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: seams forever and like how that all started, Like I
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: know you so pretty much like all the guys in
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: strong Arm ended up moving over and starting for their
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: seams Forever. And I guess, like the question that I'm
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: curious about, and I think I've heard you talk about
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: this like on the Labeled podcast before or somebody mentioned it.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you were the person on the
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Labeled podcast, but the sense that I got was that
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: the reason for the movement away from like you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: going from like one hardcore band like strong Arm into
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: creating a new one there it sounded like you all
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: were like just really interested in that kind of emo
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: style of music or indie style of music at the time. Yeah,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: was that the case for you, Like, were you guys
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: just kind of like, all right, we're gonna just we're
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: more interested in different sounds than just hardcore, and that's
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: why you wanted to start a band that sounded very
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: different than the you know, a strong arm kind of band.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Well, different sounds would be a more accurate way to
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: describe it. I hate the word emo. I'm not a
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: big guy on labels in general, and I think our
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: music supersedes what's typically defined as emo music, especially modern
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: really modern emo music. But yeah, obviously we're clumped with
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: that title from early on. But yeah, in essence, we
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: like all of us just like so much different types
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: of music that you know, it's you know, it's funny
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: we wrote towards, I guess you could say, and obviously
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: performed hardcore music quote unquote, but we all would listen
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: to so many different things most of the time, Like
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: most of the time when if we're on tour and
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: we're in a tour van or we're hanging out where
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: we're usually not listening necessarily to hardcore music. We're listening
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: to all types of different bands from different genres. Me
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: in particular, I'm pretty eclectic. So yeah, it definitely got
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: to the point where we were, like strong Arm was
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: kind of cited more towards a ministry oriented band, but
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: we had all this, you know, these different ideas percolating
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: and just you know, we didn't want to be pigeonholed
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: and to you know, having and continue to write one
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: specific or at least within reasoned specific type of music
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: or label. So we you know, we were definitely writing
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: different stuff that wasn't as maybe fast or aggressive per se,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: but it still had some of the qualities of dynamics
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: and transition and movement. So yeah, I would say about
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: probably summer in ninety eight, I want to say, like
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: I think I was doing my what would be my
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: last tour with Shilud, and the rest of the guys
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I think had already met. I mean, we all knew
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Chris Chris Graba from the scene because he was in
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: a band called the Vacant Andies, and we were friends
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: with all those guys and we liked that band a lot.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: And yeah, the other guys were already looking to you know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: strong Arm kind of winding down and wanting to broaden
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: our horizons with our music that we wanted to create
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: or come out of us, and so I remember they
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: not befriended, but they they kind of came across Chris
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: and asked if he'd be interested in doing something new potentially.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: But I remember getting a phone call while I was
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: still on tour with Shialud, and I think it was
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Josh that was telling me, how, hey, we you know,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Chris has agreed to kind of potentially work with us.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: And I got it some new tunes and you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: when are you going to be back, you know, obviously
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: to show it to you, and they wanted me to
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: be a part of it, and I was like absolutely,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: you know, I can't wait. I was really excited. And
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: when I got back home, you know, that summer, I believe,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I want to say ninety eight, we started writing what
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: would be the first few Further Seems Forever songs that
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: would be submitted for a compilation and like an EP,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I believe, And that's kind of where you know, or
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Further Seems Forever started materializing, if you will, at that
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: point in time.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: So so you're saying that Chris was involved that early
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: for whatever reason, My sense was that Chris came on
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: like like you guys had already even written that whole
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: Moon Is Down album, and then like after like writing
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: all the instrumentation. My sense was then Chris kind of
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: came in last minute to record vocals. But you're saying
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: that Chris was even involved before then?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Chris was.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: You think some reason I always had in my mind
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: that he came on way later.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Well, No, Chris already left the band prior to us
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: recording the music officially for the Moon Is Down. But
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: we had already done tours with Chris forming those songs.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Like those songs had some of them had already been written.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: There was only one song, I believe, and that would
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: be a New Desert Life, where the music was done
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: but there were no vocals at all, and Chris would
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: later go into the studio after us we weren't in
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the studio together, and he would lay down and did
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: an amazing job, of course, the vocals for that piece
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of music, that particular song he was listening to for
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: his first time when he was in the studio. But
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: the rest of the record we had already been playing
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: those songs and touring on them. I remember specifically, we
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: did a tour with a band called Legends of Rodeo
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: they were prior to that, they were Recess Theory, and
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: so we did a six songs split EP US and
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Recess Theory, and that was like our first, one of
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: our first releases that came out. It was on take
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Hold Records, which was Chad Johnson's old record label before
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: he would become an A and R. Rep with Tooth
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: and Nail and three of the songs oh No, two
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: of the songs that are on the Moon Is Down
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: were also on that EP first, and then we wounded
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: up re recording it. I think for the Moon Is Down.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: One song, Justus Prevail, is kind of on the Moon
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Is Down, but it's it's in cbe background radio form
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: in between Wearing Thin and before New Desert Life starts.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: If you listen to really use in the background, it's
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: kind of.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: Like it's like that, it's sort of like this transition
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: between the song.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Radio frequency of Justice Prevails. That was actually on the
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: first EP that we did, So.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: That's a fun little easter. I didn't realize that.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, yeah, we had been touring already, and a
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: lot of those songs, like we had already been performing,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: we just never professionally recorded them. We were just we
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: wrote them, we were performing them, and we were you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: eventually planning to record. However, some different things happen. You know, Chris,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: you know, Dashboard was more of a side project, and
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: he would play a few songs acoustically during further shows,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: kind of in between our songs, and then that, you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: it's just one of those things right place at the
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: right time. He started to catch wildfire. You know, he
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: wanted to pursue doing his own thing because he could
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: tour whenever he wanted to. And further, some of the
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: guys weren't really sure how much they wanted to tour. That
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: was one aspect. Now, I was one of the ones
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I wanted to tour. I was like Chris, But some
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: of the other guys didn't see themselves touring full time
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: per se or thought it was realistic maybe. And then
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Chris also had this other music that, while it was good,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: it wasn't really further, it was more you know, stripped
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: down and more raw and more of a singer songwriter
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: type feel, which is what you know, turned into Dashboard.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: So yeah, did you ever have a sense, you know,
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: when when even Chris is playing some of those songs,
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: you know, acoustic songs between songs at a set, Like,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: did you ever have a sense that like Dashboard would
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: become what it became? Like, I don't know if you've
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: ever met one of those kind of people where like
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: you just meet them and you're like, this person is
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: going to be something someday, Like you just kind of
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: know that. Did you have a sense when you met
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: Chris that that was going to be the case or
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: was it something that became more like surprising? You're like, wait, now,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: like Dashboard is like one of the biggest bands in
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: the world, you know, at one point.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Probably somewhere in between. I don't think I could you know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: maybe visualize to the extent that he became. But at
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: the same time, you know, obviously good looking guys, super talented,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: you know, writes good songs. Definitely the potentials there for
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: him to make a career out of him, for sure.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: So probably not to the uh, not not to the
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: ceiling and not to the floor. But he had a
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: really good medium, if you will, I thought. And then
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: obviously that became more than that to his credit, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: and you know, and congrats to him, you thankfully for him, and.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like I mean, it's it is super cool, you know, like,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: you know, for a kid that grew up in like,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: you know, the the Christian music you know, youth group
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: culture scene or whatever, like I did, you know, it
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: was like kind of the you know, because really the
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: only music I listened to was the you know, the
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: kind of proved music you know on like tooth Andy
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: l whatever. And I'm sure you've met lots of people
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: who that was kind of there how they grew up.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: But in order for me to like connect with my peers,
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: you know, some someone like Chris Krabba was a huge
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: deal because it was like, yeah, there's a band that
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: I listened to that I'm allowed to listen to that
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: he actually used to be you know, like used to
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: be the frontman for. And so he was kind of
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: this like connection to popular culture that I wasn't normally
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: able to have because I always listened to you know,
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: this alternative, weird Christian music.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's understandable. I could see how that bridge was
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: kind of foreigned.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he was totally a bridge in that way, and
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: which was always yeah, which was always really cool.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: So that's cool.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, so obviously Chris you know, moves on because
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: of dashboard and then you end up finding Jason.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: And you know.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: What's what's so cool about the fact that you guys
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: were able to release those three albums with three different singers,
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: is they all kind of have their own vibe of
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: singing style and even I would imagine writing style. Uh,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: but there is like this cohesion between their voices as well,
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: Like it doesn't sound like totally different bands with each album,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Like there's some sort of cohesive voice that you hear
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: between each one of them. But yeah, love to hear
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: just like how you guys end up finding Jason, and
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: you know that part of your guys' with how to
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Start a Fire.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, once we knew that Chris had, you know, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: to his credit, he fulfilled his commitments. We had some shows,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: we had some festivals, obviously finishing what would be The
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Moon Is Down, and then at that point we were like,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: you know, what do we want to do? Do we
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: want to continue try to find another singer? Are we
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: going to be that active enough to where it's worth it?
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, we started doing putting the word out
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: that we were accepting auditions. There were a few other people,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: one in particular, they got really close to joining us
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: prior to Jason, but kind of at the last minute,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: at the eleventh power, he kind of had a change
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: of heart maybe like he didn't think he could commit
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: to the extent that you know, we were that he
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: thought we were expecting him to maybe. But yeah, eventually
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Jason came along, and you know, he was a kid
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: from Minnesota and he had been in a heavy group
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: as well, like we had been prior to auditioning for
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: further trying to think what the name of the band
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: was that he was.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: I didn't realize he's from Minnesota. Where in Minnesota is he.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I think the Minneapolis area. I'm not sure the exact town,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: but definitely.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: His origins iaul. So yeah, he's idea that he was.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: I did not know that what I.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Can't think of the band that he was in prior
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: to us, but it was a it was a heavy
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: like hardcore band as well, so there was that kind
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: of you know, similar history. But yeah, you know he uh,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: you know, he made the grade sound wise, and then
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: he his level of dedication was ready to be there
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: what we would have needed for that period of time,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: and you know, he winded up coming down and then
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: eventually moving down to South Florida. I think he lived
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: with Derek, our guitarist, one our guitarist for for a
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: period of time, and one of our filling guitars, because
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: usually Josh wouldn't tour that much, so we usually would
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: have to find a fill in. And he had another
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: friend by the name of Brandon Swanson who would go
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: on to be in Man I'm terrible with names, tonight
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: in a band with a Vinny from the movie Life.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I forget what band they became after that, but Brandon
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: wounded up playing with Oh I Am the Avalanche, That's
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: the Great. Oh Brandon wounded up being in them later
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: down the road. But but yeah, no, Jason made the
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: great and the dedication level was there and he was
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: ready to hey, you know, this is this is what
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I'm looking for, and this is what we're looking for,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: and let's see what we can do with this, and
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: eventually we would, you know, obviously record what would become
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: How to Start a Fire. And even though the moon
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: is down, I think maybe historically is people I don't know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: people I come across, seem to always view that as
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: the influential album. How to Start a Fire actually sold
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: the most records and it's the record we did the
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: most touring on between probably I want to say two
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: thousand and two to two thousand and four, especially during
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: that period of time and when he was first in
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: the band. We were doing you know, most of the
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Moon Is Down material that he was singing because we
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: were in the midst of writing new material. But when
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: he came aboard, you know, we hadn't written like the
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: whole House Startifire album yet. I think maybe there was
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: like one or two songs, and so we were doing
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: you know, he was performing a lot of Moon Is
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Down for about a year, a year or two before
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: we would transform into the How to Start a Fire ere.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: So it sounds like, you know, you tour a lot
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: on that album, and yeah, what kind of happened there
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: with him, like ended up departing and then eventually you
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: guys bring in John. But you know what was was
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: it was it one of those things kind of where he,
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: you know, touring just got too much in he just
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: wanted to kind of move on to the next thing
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: in life. Or Yeah, I'm just kind of curious, what's
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: the story there.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't really you'd probably have to ask him,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: would probably be a better represent of why he ultimately left.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think there was like a bunch of
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: different maybe little things that in totality became enough of
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: a you know, issue to uh to now. I mean,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I know, he got married at the time, he moved
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: to a New Jersey. Our management at the time, if
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I can't remember correctly, we're kind of like, I don't
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: know if they were trying to steer them or trying
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: to get him to kind of like go a Chris
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Karaba type route to maybe a solo artist or or
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: even you know, eventually he would do a different it
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: would be a different group actually with some people that
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: were in a band that toured with us for here
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and there called Element one oh one from a New Jersey.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: He was really tight knit with all those guys and
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Gal obviously the singer he would he would go on
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: to marry for a while and then so, yeah, I
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: think there's just a bunch of stuff going on, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: he was kind of being pulled in different directions perhaps
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: and not didn't really have a compass of if you
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: wanted to just stay focused on just continuing with us
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: or obviously there was enough of other things going on
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: in his life from a personal standpoint and maybe even
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: business to where at the time, you know, he thought
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: it best to not be with us anymore in depart
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I mean again, a lot of this has been water
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: under the bridge now and we've reconciled about Yah. Yeah.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: At the time, it was you know, it was a
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: bad blow. You know, we were music was written for
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: what was supposed to be the next record with him.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: He did record one song and there's a different version
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: of that that John would wind up doing. That's on
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Hide Nothing and that's called Bleed. But the original song
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: was called there now I've said it, and that was
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: kind of Jason's initial vocals on that body of music.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: And you know, at the time, I guess the lyrics
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: were kind of about us, like just you know, in
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: his mind, making his piece maybe and moving on. But
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: again we would go on later down the road to
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: reconnect and to do some touring and some anniversary stuff
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: for how to Start a Fire, and you know, we're
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: all on good terms these days, and it's you know,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: it is what it is that happened in the period
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of time that had happened, and you know it sucked,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, because we wanted we were dedicated to continuing
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and we were definitely building momentum, and we definitely were
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, at least the rest of us
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: thought we had our schedule set for the upcoming year.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: But you know what, some things are a blessing in disguise,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: and it obviously I don't I don't want to say
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: happened for reasons. I don't know if I even necessarily
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: believe that. I'm kind of something shit happens and then
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: other things it feels like maybe there was a reason
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: behind it, But I don't know. I'm a hopeful, but
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I get that. So but what that did do was
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: usher in what eventually would be the John bunch E
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: era and you get a great record with Hide Nothing
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: as a result, which is a beautiful record in my opinion,
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: and it's hard to listen to some of those songs.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Rest in peace with the passing of John and but yeah,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: we had another era with him, and he put his
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: stamp on the band and we got to do some
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: touring and we got to continue our career through him,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: and then eventually kind of full circle with Chris and Jason.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: You know, we played with Chris too again, so they
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: it is kind of a one odd kind of big
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: family that kind of comes back full circle sooner or later.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: The yeah, totally. Yeah.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: How do you think about the history and the legacy
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: of Further when it comes to the fact that especially
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: again obviously those first three album which obviously is what
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: you're maybe most known for. We can definitely talk about
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Penny Black in a little bit, but yeah, when you
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: think about the fact that, like, you have three albums
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: with three different singers, like, not many bands can survive
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: one lead singer change, much less two of them. So yeah,
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: I'm just yeah, I'm curious, like how you think back
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: to the legacy of Further and about the fact that
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: you guys are very unique in the sense that you
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: were a band that was able to withstand kind of
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: the storms of having a different singer with each album.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Well Van Halen did it.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: That's well, that's true. Yeah, they they're the blueprint.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I want to say, it's a testament to the music
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: that enough people cared about the band to stick with
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: us through the different eras. I think the originality music
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: carried weight. You know, if you listen to these albums today,
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: In my humble opinion, I don't feel like they're dated.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I feel that they actually keep evolving and the way
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: I love to write music, and I know Josh and
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: the guys, you know, it's like layers. It's like there,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: it's definitely what's coming out of us at the time.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: But there did seem to be somewhat of a formula
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: to it, unorthodox wise, and it was you know, it's
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: it keeps like you could listen to one of those
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: songs and then listen to it again down the road
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and maybe you get something out of it that you
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: didn't initially hear or know that was going on, maybe
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: whether it be a certain segment or part of the song.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: And then our singers had a really uncanny ability of
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: taking by themselves what would be somewhat complex pieces of
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: music and really compatibilizing them to make a hooky with
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: choruses and you know, sing along, and you know, all
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: three singers had this interesting knack of pulling the music
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: together into something that's compatible for maybe you know, sections
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: of people who are not necessarily in the instrumental music
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: or math rock or what have you. And you know,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: they're like a good chorus and a good melody, and
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: that's what all three of these singers brought to the
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: table in the wrong way, I feel.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, yeah, that's a great point because there is
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: so much complexity to the instrumentation of Further and yet
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: especially when it comes to you guys singles, there is
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: this pop element to it, and I think you're right
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: that it's the singer just being able to sing in
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: a way that makes it catchy, makes it hooky. But yeah,
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: if you start to peel back from the vocals of
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Further songs, you hear that complexity. And that was something
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: that as a kid when I first started listening to
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: you guys, I don't think I could have appreciated that.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: But as I go back and listen to your Guys'
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: discography now I can like really pull back and look
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: at it and hear, like, wow, there's actually so much
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: complexity to your drumming, to the guitar work, to just
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: even the arrangements of the songs. Like, there is so
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: much complexity there that I don't think is maybe maybe
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: explicit right away, but if you like start to peel
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: it back a little bit more, and then I think
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: it becomes a little bit more obvious.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And also the way we typically write is the
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: music is written first, and then the singer will come
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: up with the lyrics and the vocal harmonies to kind
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: of fit within the framework of what's going on musically.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So it is an interesting process in our case with
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: and it's usually a lot of kind of back and
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: forth and you know, maybe a part not being as
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: long as it initially was, and it's kind of sculpting
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: until eventually we don't like to write filler. I think
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: with our albums they take a while, but it's like
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: we're kind of squeezing the jewe well hopefully we're trying
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: to squeeze the juice out of the element of each song,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: so they're you know, not necessarily like just to fill
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: in time, but there's actually like a lot of a
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: meaningful thought behind the ideas of the way some of
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: the songs got So.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I've heard the National.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: We'll write songs in that way too, where all the
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: instrumentation gets finished and then Matt, their lead singer, will
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: then go and write the vocal melodies and and even
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: like the lyrics and so that that all happens afterwards too.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: So it does seem to and I love the National too,
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: and I love the complexity of the Nationals. So maybe
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: there's something we said about writing the music first and
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: then adding the lyrics and vocals later.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're good, bad. Yeah, I like them, especial the national.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah that's cool.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk about so obviously, you know, the John
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: Bunch era kind of ends.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: You guys even released that.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: Sort of sort of sort of the greatest Hits album
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: of sorts, sort of the ending album. I forget how
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: it's like, I forget even the name of it that
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: you guys called that, Oh the final curtain, right or no,
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: hope this finds you well? Yeah, so yeah, what's kind
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: of the like, did you guys just kind of get
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: to a point where you're wanting to just kind of
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: be done with the band or you know, what's what's
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: the story there of just kind of wanting to finish
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: the band Initially, well, usually.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Me and Chad Basis where the original members that were
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the constant touring members of the band, And honestly, it
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: just got to a point by about two thousand and five,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: two thousand and six where even Chad you know, wasn't
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: able to tour sometimes and we did a few tours
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: in the John Bunch era, like we did Japan, and
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: we did like a like a five week tour of Europe,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: and at the tail end of that me myself, I
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: was just really sick. You know. The routing was terrible
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: for that European tour, Like we had no days off,
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: we were traveling through tough terrain, you know, like you know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: fifteen twenty hours to get to the It was just
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: the routing and the management just wasn't the greatest for
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: that particular tour. And at that point I kind of
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: reflected myself like on the touring end, Wow, I'm the
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: only original member of this band at this point, Like
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: is this even it's more like a tribute band or
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: with one original member or a cover band that further
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: seems forever at this point, and I started having those
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: kind of feelings, and I think there was just an
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: instinctual kind of feel that we were you know, we
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: had toured a lot. At that point, I was kind
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: of worn out. The rest of the guys kind of
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: were already living, you know, they had their careers and families,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: and there wasn't really any sign of doing anything at
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: that point in time, like another album with John and
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: so I think life was pulling some of the other
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: original guys in different directions. I think they felt their
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: time was kind of served and done with further and
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: with me, Like I said, I still love the tour,
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: and I did those last few tours, but it was John,
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: it was me, it was Derek, you know, Derek who
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: was had been our guitarist since after the Moon Is
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Down came out, so he was close to an original member.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: But other than that, it was just constant having to
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: find people to fill in and and it just got
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: to the point where I think it was time to
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: at least shut it down. It was getting a little
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: overbearing trying to hold up the band from a touring aspect,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: and then also knowing at least at that point, there
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: was no new music that was going to be on
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: the horizon, So I think at that point we're kind
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: of like, you know, the final curtain in essence was
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: supposed to be the last concert with John that was
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: performed in Atlanta at a venue called the Masquerade, and
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: then Tooth and Nail is the one that did the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: hope this finds you well, and I think they kind
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: of mixed and match a bunch of different recorded songs
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: with live footage and so forth and so on, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: that was kind of it for a while. There would
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: be some you know, recreation or resurrection of a couple
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: of the lineups some years later in the form of
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: touring and yes, doing one more album with Chris, which
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: would be Penny Black and but yeah, at that point
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: in time, it was there was kind of a feeling
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: the writing was on the wall.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that makes sense. I would imagine I'm guessing you
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: were probably in your late twenties at that point, or
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: I wish not to.
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: Date you at all, but I'll probably also.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: One in the band. Oh well, John would have been
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: older than me, if you've still a lot now at
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: that point in time, I mean we're coing mid two thousands.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: I was like I was thirties, like early thirties.
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: So you were probably at a point yeah, where just
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: even just in generally in life, where were like, Okay,
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: it's kind of probably time to move on to the
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: next thing as well. And maybe you had already maybe
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: started to do that. But I can imagine once you
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: get into your late thirties, unless your band is like
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: a massive touring band, it's probably really difficult to to
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: sort of justify touring so much. When yeah, when when
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: you're in your thirties and you know, whatever else is
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: happening in life at that time.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: From a financial standpoint, yes, from a loving to play
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: music standpoint, not necessarily. I would go on to be
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: a part of a bunch of different projects and another
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: band that was on the cusp. I thought of something
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: significant as far as a career path, but didn't quite
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: get to that point. But yeah, you know, further, it's
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: it's Further's the kind of band now where we're just
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: like if everybody schedules a line and we feel like it,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: I think we've built up enough of a resource to
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: where we can, you know, financially speaking, do some shows
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: a little bit of supplemental income and have fun with
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: it and be able to still service our listener base
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: with something that they can Oh cool, we're going to
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: be doing something. Let's let's catch it if we can.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: And so it's that's kind of where it's at these days.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: It's just like like there's actually nothing Like. We had
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: some offers this year and just for whatever different reasons,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: some of the guys just had prior commitments and unfortunately
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: for me, because I wanted to do them, but we
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: couldn't do them. I'm not saying I'm not busy, because
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: I do a bunch of other stuff too, But but
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I'm sure at some point, you know, I know that
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: there is music that is unfinished that could materialize it.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: Who knows, maybe maybe not. Chris is pretty neat deep
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: of dashboard at this point, kind of his second wind
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: with with his main gig. But the intention is always
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: to stay in touch, to check up on each other,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: make sure everybody's cool, and you know, if the if
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: the moment strikes and the timing is right, to potentially
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: do something again. But I definitely have no definites as
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: far as that goes. Right.
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, it's probably just different too. Of like you know,
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: I would imagine like when you guys were writing, you know,
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: near you know, twenty years ago, twenty five years ago,
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: it was probably something where you had to be like
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: in the same room together or whatever. And you know,
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: knowing how so many bands right now, just because of
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: the technology, you're able to you know, maybe there's a
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: drum part that you're kind of thinking, and so you
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: just get that quickly recorded and then you can send
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: that off and hey, guys, what do you think about this,
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: and and so on and so forth. So I would
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: imagine like it's probably slower to right now, but there.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: Is something to be said about that.
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: You know, obviously clearly your passion for music still there,
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: and so you know, maybe maybe there's something where it's
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: just it takes a little bit more time to write,
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: but needless to say, like the technology makes it accessible,
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: it makes it something where it is possible to be
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: apart from each other and still be able to write music.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: So absolutely, I'm sure you guys have thought about all
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, so we're all scattered too, Like I
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: live in the Orlando area, Chad lives in South Florida,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: still where we were originally based. The rest of the
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: guys live in Nashville or Franklin, Tennessee. Derek lives in
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: South Carolina, you know, Jason lives in New Jersey. So
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: we're all over the place too at this point. So
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: it's just a question of getting schedules a line. But
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: definitely when it comes to the moon is down line
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: up in particular, like three of the guys live in
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Tennessee and I used to live in Tennessee on the
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: east side. Many moons ago. So if anything, it's a
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: good excuse to get together, to just hang out and
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: catch up and maybe take a weekend and have some
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: fun and do an escape room or do something fun
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: to get There's some things that we've done right periodically
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: when we happen to be together.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: So that's cool, that's awesome.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, does it feel like one of those things where
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: it's like, you know, longtime friends, where you get when you.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: Guys get back together, it's just like you go back
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: right back.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: To the same old jokes and you're the same old bits,
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: and it feels like, you know, the conversation picks up
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: right off where it left.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I had a question recently about that with Chad,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: because me and Chad are on every single album with
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Further where there's rotating members obviously singer wise and then
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: even guitarist wise on some of the albums, but you know,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: with me and Chad, it's like we're you know, we've
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: been playing music together for so long and known each
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: other for so long that we don't really talk super
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: frequently right now, but whenever we do finally get a
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: minute to talk, it's like, you know, we've been talking
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: every day you know, it's like that kind of vibes, right, Yeah,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: it is that kind of.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: Deal, and Chad's the basis right, yeah too. So there's
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: probably some unique connection by the fact that you guys
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: have played together.
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: For so long.
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: I would imagine it's one of those things where, you know,
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: especially when you guys were writing, it probably just felt
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: like you you almost didn't even have to maybe.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: Talk to each other because there's such a.
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: Long connection where you kind of know how each other
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: writes and kind of maybe I don't know, maybe I'm
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: wrong there, but as like a rhythm section, because you
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: guys had been together for so long, I would imagine
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: the writing process felt so natural with one another.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: And that's with everybody because a lot of my drums,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: what makes them kind of what some people may feel
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: unorthodox is because I'm actually writing with the guitar and
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: not the bass sometimes and then a bass is kind
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: of like.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: You know, that does kind of make sense underbelly.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: But in saying that, yeah, all of us have an
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: instinct of eventually where we're going in the song and
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: what we may kind of transition to or little accents
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: or touches or you know, subtleties within the framework to
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: kind of make it, make a part interesting, and we
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: do all I feel have that that instinct when we're
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: finally together and if we have any period of time
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: allotted to really focus in on the music writing, then
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: there is that instinct and familiarity with how each other
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: and how each other plays together.
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: Yet I've never even quite put it, or I've never
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: really quite thought of it in that way that you're
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: writing your drum parts with the guitars rather than the bass,
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: and it does now like now they think of it,
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, that's why it sounds so unique that
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: like you're drumming in particular sounds so unique because you're
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: actually writing with the drums.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Rather than the bass.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: And is that something that you picked up when you
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: guys started further or was it something that you were
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: you writing like that when you were even playing like
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: strong Arm or even before, Like, is that something you've
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: been always doing like you've always done or is that
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: something that came along later on with Further.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: It's not always with the guitar, but a lot a
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: lot of the times it is. I Mean, there is
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: some pockets where obviously me and Chattel will be kind
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: of choral connected or with the other groups. But no,
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: it's just I kind of have I don't know if
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: NAC's the right word, but I kind of see stuff
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: in what is being presented to me that maybe the
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: other guys don't see at the moment. And then when
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: I kind of kind of write my parts or what
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do to it, They're like, oh, yeah, that's
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: a cool way to approach what I was initially writing
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: or playing. And I don't know, it just kind of
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: comes together that way sometimes where I'm I'm liking what
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: I'm hearing, but I'm seeing in a different way of
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: how to approach that part where maybe it's going to
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: wind up being a little bit different than maybe originally
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: envisioned by the guitarist or bassist or singer, and it
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: tends to evolve our music and kind of wrap around
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: or you know, it's funny. We have a song called
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: the Bradley on the Moon is Down, and the Bradley
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: is kind of a funny reference to a piece some
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: military equipment that keeps getting built on and it's called
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: the Bradley, and it's kind of a good connotation of
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: the music. Sometimes is there's an idea. Then it evolves.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: Then everybody, not just me, everybody's adding their parts and
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: it kind of keeps building until we all feel that
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: it's it's at least at that point finished. So so yeah,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: there's definitely that, you know, listening to what's initially being
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: presented to me, maybe if it's a part or a
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: skeleton or even a whole song maybe sometimes and then
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, they give me that freedom to
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: kind of do what they feel I want to do
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: with it, and then kind of revisit it and you know,
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: icing on the cake, you know eventually and that kind
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: of thing. So as a as a connotation metaphor.
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I remember even watching you guys at Furnacest. You
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: guys played furnesce Fest I think twice, right, I think
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: there was that one year that you played maybe in
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: the Shad, and then there was that other year at
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: the Pond, but or was it just the one year
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: they played for.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: I've played every furnace Us except one with either strong
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: Arm Further or the Darling Fire, the other band we
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: further played in two thousand as strong Arm did. That
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: was the Strong Army Union and that was Further with
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Chris that's one of the last shows he would do
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: with us initially until he came back with us like
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: two thousand and five ish. But Furnace Fust two thousand
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: we played with Jason I want to say, twenty twenty
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: two probably, and then we played in recent years. We
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: did like a pre show one year and then we
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: played the stage that is not plug your Holes and
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: not the main stage. But the other one we did
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: that was that there with Jason, So yeah, we played
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Furnes Fust a handful of.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: Times full time.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I just remember, like as I would watch
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: you specifically play your drums, like not only is obviously
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: your writing unique in the sense that so much of
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: it is being written with the guitars rather than the bass,
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: but just the way you move when you're drumming looks
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: very different. And I've I just that was like where
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: I was gravitated towards like watching you guys live for
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: the first time, was you just you look different when
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: you drum than almost any other drummer. I don't know
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: if you have anything to say about that, or if
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: that's something that you've noticed as well, or if you've
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: gotten that comment before.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm a lefty. That's one big reason right there.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: So I play the opposite direction of most drummers. I mean,
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: obviously there's other left handed drummers, but clearly there's the
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: percentile of right drummer right handed drummer still left is
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: a severe Phil Collins, he's a lefty. And then there's
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: others that I'm probably not thinking about at the moment,
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: but that may be part of it. Also, I tend
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: to play pretty low to the ground. I like kind
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: of playing on top of the drummer, yes, because I
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: feel they too better that way, and so I usually
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: have a mental.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: Feels like like maybe a jazz type of setup.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a minimal setup. I think you can
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: do a lot with a little. That's what I always say,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: as opposed to having like a Neil Pertz set up
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: or something. Although I respect him and love him, of course,
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: but but yeah, my playing being a lefty kind of
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: playing on top of the drums to a certain extent,
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe these are some factors. Probably wacky facial expressions, I'm sure,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: as every drummer has, but maybe me even the power
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: of ten. Who knows.
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: Sometimes that's great, Yeah, I just have I just was
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: so impressed watching you guys play, and you know, and
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: obviously Jason's voice is just as good as it's always been,
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: and you know, you guys are so much fun. And
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: you know, Chad typically seems ton't be the one that's
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: kind of caring for He sort of seems to be
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: like the voice oftentimes of the band. And yeah, I
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: just think you guys are so much fun to watch,
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: and so yeah, I mean it sounds like, you know,
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: certainly you're open to still playing shows, and who knows
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: what you guys might be writing at some point, but obviously,
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: if you guys are playing anytime soon, I'd love to
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: be there because yeah, you guys are You guys are
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: a blast and you sound so good still.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, appreciate that. Yeah, Chad is
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: the MC, He's the MC of the band. He takes
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: the mic in between the songs, you know, gets the
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: gets the crowd lightened up. And yeah, it's it's fun
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: to watch him kind of interact with the crowd periodically
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: through our set breaks.
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. So well, thanks for chatting about history.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: Should we dive into your top five most influential albums?
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's right, I'm supposed to be thinking about that, right, Well,
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: I can give you one right off the top of
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: my head. And I don't know if you're gonna know
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: any of these because these are some of these are obscure,
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: but they were definitely extremely meaningful to me at the
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: periods of time that I discovered them myself, and especially
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: where the drumming and the rhythm section is involved. So
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: the first album I will mention is by a Canadian
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: metal band called Voivon And.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: Oh wait, we've interviewed boy Be four years ago. Yeah,
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: what's is Dennis?
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: Is it? Dennis is the vocalist. I think I think
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a snake.
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's his like stage name, but his
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: real name is that's a stage name, but I think
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: his real name is Den and.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: Rest in piece. Piggy Piggy the guitarist is just on
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: another planet. And I don't feel as much as I
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: love Void God, I say voy God. Actually, uh, they'll
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: never be the same without Piggy. Piggy is just a generational,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: once in a lifetime guitarist. I mean, you listen to
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: the album nothing Face, which is my that's the guru,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: that's floating on top of the mountain for me record wise,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: and you're just like, how in the world did somebody
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: come up with us? I mean, it's absolutely mind bending
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: to me that album and the drummer his stage name,
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: if you will, is away Love that name. I forgot
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: his real name offhand.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: But it looks like Michael Langevin.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think so and Matt Fox that we were
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: talking about, and you've had on the show. He met
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: him before, so he's a super nice guy. And both
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: me and Matt this is one of our pinnacles of
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: a musicality and inspiration for me drumming wise. So i'd
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: say Voivod Nothing Face. I would say a band by
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: the name of the Jesus Lizard. The album is called
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Goat one of the greatest rhythm sections and recording of
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: Steve Albini Rest in Peace. The late Steve Albini recorded
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: that record and it's on Touch and Go Records. And
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: The Jesus Lizard is another band. Very unique singing is acquired.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: David Yao is a madman, but the music is absolutely
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: incredible and I think that album defines classic historically wise,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: that band, so Voyvot Nothing Faced Jesus Lizard.
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: Liar looks like Jesus Lizard just releasing album just a
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: couple of years ago.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well less than a year ago, I think. Yeah.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: So all their every single title of their albums is
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: a four letter word, and.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: So yes, yeah I'm seeing that right.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So Goat and Liar are my two. Depends
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: what day, it could be either one in my top
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: five for those guys. As far as hard on your
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: sleeve inspiration, I would put you to the War album
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: in my top five. I absolutely love War. It has
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: so many layers to it. Obviously, one of their biggest
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: songs in Sunny Bloody Sunday, derives from that album, but
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: the whole album is just chock full of every kind
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: of emotive vibe, from desperation to celebration to triumphant to anthemic.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely love that record. So we got, we Got Lizard,
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: We Got you two. That's three, we got we need five?
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: Yep, two more man.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: That's really tough. There's so many. I will say probably
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: led Zeppelin two K four as a strong contender too,
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: but John Bonham is God. It's not debatable the greatest
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: rock drummer of all time. In my opinion when it
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: comes to rock. Although he's multifaceted and just was an
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: absolute beast, passed away way too early before most of
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: our times, but got to get Zeppelin in there. I've
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: just lifelong history of me always coming back to that
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: band sooner or later. Ironically, there's something I do for work.
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: I'm in the cover tribute band type arena now, which
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: I've never done in my life. I've always kind of
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: been an original artist. But in the last year and
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: a half two years, I've been performing with a Pink
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Floyd tribute Bandplode, and you can check us out maybe
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: on the next question stuff you could check me out
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: at much. Yeah, so Pink Floyd's a strong contender too,
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: because I wish you were here. Just a generational album,
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: but let me see for five, maybe I'll try to
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: do something more modern. We'll keep led Zeppelin two and
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: then I will go to You know what, This is
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: a good submission to talk about because recently the Steve
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: Albini sessions of this record were released officially. They had
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: been kind of been circulating for years. I knew some
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: people who had it, but now you can get the
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: Albini session of this record on band camp, and it's
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: like for a charity if you purchase it, and this
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: would be Fugazi and the record would be in on
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: the kill Taker legendary record. That first riff of the
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: first song of that album still to this day, even
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: if overall maybe I played it out, still goosebumps and
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: chills when it kicks in. I can't remember the name
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: of the song now, and I know the lyrics too,
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: but I can't remember the name off him maybe if
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: you google it. But I'm gonna say that because the
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: Albini recorded version of the album was recently released for
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: charity for people to purchase through bad camp. And I
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: absolutely love Fugazi and other generational band that I have
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: heavy influence with the rhythm section of Joe Lally and
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: Brendan Canny. So we'll round it out with that particular
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: album from Gazi.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: That's great.
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that definitely makes sense given you know,
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: you mentioned at the very beginning that you were really
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: influenced by that hardcore scene, specific specifically in Washington, d C.
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: And you know, obviously Fugazi kind of being maybe the
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: pinnacle of DC the hardcore punk bands.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: The song, I'm thinking it's called facet Squared by the way,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: I just remember.
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm not sure if I'm as familiar with that
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: album as and I'm forgetting the name. It's the one
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: that Waiting Room is on. Yeah yeah, yeah, so I'm
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: more familiar with that album than probably really any.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: Waiting Room would be the gateway drug to Fugazi.
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean I think it was their
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: most popular, like most mainstream, if you will, song that
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: they probably ever had.
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: So but such a cool band.
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: The ethics of that band was it was just always fascinating.
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: So just like they are a band's band, Like it
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: seems like they're the band that, like all the other
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: bands really love and so yeah.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: Anyway, well let's her let's your way.
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: You want to plug It sounds like you're already plugging
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: your your Pink Floyd tribute band.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, you plug in that.
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: It sounds like that, you know the Steve Albini record
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: with Fugazi.
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: We want to plug that? Yeah what what do you?
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: And plux Steve so Uh.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: The tribute group but I'm a part of is called
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: rex Floyd www dot Rexfloyd dot com. We're actually playing
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: in Arcadia, Florida. This Saturday at an old school opera
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: house and we do Laser Light Show, three hour concert.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: We cover every era of Pink Floyd. It's like a
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: hired gun kind of deal for me. But I've really
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: become family with this group, and I've been playing with
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: them about a year and a half now. And you know,
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: like I said as we were talking earlier, I still
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: love to play music, and this is an opportunity and
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: that that came to me that I took advance. You know,
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: I decided to be with and it's a blossomed and
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: it's become more of a pseudo regular kind of gig,
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: like once a month or once ever a couple times
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: a month, once every couple of months, and you know,
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: it's it's been rewarding for me. It gives me a
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: chance to keep my chops up, get behind the music.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: I actually played to a click track, so it's very
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: even though we're interpreted, we don't play exactly note for
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: note the songs, but you know, within the framework of
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: what it typically is. So that's going on for me.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: I'm also the co host seasonally between September and December
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: of a show that is aired live on YouTube every
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Wednesday at about noon. This is a completely different subject,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: but it's regarding NFL roster construction to build teams to
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: put into tournaments on fan Duel and DraftKings to make money.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: The website is called a fantasy, but DFS not the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: drafted fantasy as much as you build a different team
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: weekly to put into tournament entries to make money. I'm
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: with a site called One Week Season dot Com o
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: n e W e e kseason dot Com and I'm
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: part of the team. My nickname is Maximus, and during
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: the NFL regular season, which is September through December, we'll
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: do a show live on YouTube on that One Week
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: Season channel every Wednesday about eleven am and noon. And
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: I also write an article for them, and we have
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: a discord. I'm this old, but I know Discord, and
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: so I'm very heavily involved with that team and some
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: of those guys that's all they do for a living
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: is DFS. I haven't quite reached that threshold yet, but
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: I've been very close, and I think it's just a
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: matter of time. I have this very geeky love for
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: statistics and roster construction for NFL teams.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: Do you feel like you could actually be a GM
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: for an NFL team, perhaps possibly perhaps even it could
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: be like that, is that how we Roseman some money.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately but yeah, how we wrote that he's a
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: great executive actually right, And then one other thing. You
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: can look me up on this oh so, on Instagram,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: I'm at Cleisath, which is my last name. Obviously, Further's
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: instagram is at FSF official, and on Twitter, I'm at fsfslk,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: which is my initials my first mental last name Rex
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: Floyd as an Instagram Also check out the Darling Fire.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: I played with them for a while. Great band. We
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: did an album called Distortions off Iodine Records. Casey at Idine,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: great guy, great label, and I love that album. It's
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: dear to my heart. I'm not with them at this point,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: but definitely as part of my music history. If people
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: are interested in other stuff that I've been on, definitely
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: check out that record. And then I guess the only
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: other thing is we didn't bring this subject up, but
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: I'm I hold the Guinness Book a World's record, a
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: world record, and I had the highest score ever recorded
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: on the actual arcade cabinet of the original game. Mario
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: Brothers No way so my score is five point four million.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: No one's ever eclipsed it. I achieved this in two thousand.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: Like on an actual like arcade.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: Actually, like not the console at home, but the actually thing.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: Like the wh whoa wait, is there a maximum score
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: in that game?
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: No, there's actually no kill screen, if you will. Most
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: classic arcade games during that period of time, they had
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: an end of the game where there was no more memory.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: Mario Brothers, as far as anybody knows, is not one
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: of those games. Now we're talking about original Mario Brothers,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: before Super Mario Brothers, even nineteen eighty three the game
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: came out. It's the first time you had the turtles,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: the coins, the crabs, and you had Mario and Luigi
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: and you could even play two player. And I do
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: hold doubles world record with my doubles partner, a man
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: by the name of also Steven Stephen Boyer, And that's
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: been a crowning achievement to you know, to be recognized
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: as the best of the world and anything is kind
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: of fun. So yeah, so you can in this book
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: of world records. I think, I do you have.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: The plaque and everything?
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: What's up do you have like like the Guinness World
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: Records plaque or the like, you know, because they have
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: The addition that I'm in nice so and also Queen
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: Galaxies is like was the arcade division of Guinness. And
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: so the I stream, I actually live streamed it on Twitch.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: I recorded it, and oh I have a Twitch channel
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: as well, Maximum Steve, but I'm kind of kind of
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: dormant on it right now. Okay, but that's where I
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: executed it, and then it got later verified, you know,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: and accepted.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: So it's awesome.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so there I'm known for that. In this
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: there was this niche classic arcade community that really isn't
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: around as much anymore for different unfortunate reasons. But uh,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: but that was a cool scene I kind of got
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: involved with for a little while when some of these
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: video game documentaries started coming out in like the mid
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: two thousands, and so that's another kind of twist and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: turn in my life that I'm done for something.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: And so wait, so is it something that you kind
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: of more recently then picked up or was it something
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: that you were always really good at.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: Well, when I was younger, I would go to arcades
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: after school and there was no social media. This is
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: where the social hangouts were run to meet people, you know,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: play games, have fun, you know, unplugged from school for
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: a few hours. And so back in those days, I
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: knew there were a few games I just happened to
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: be Sylvan good at. And then later on in life,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: when I found out about this community where people who
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: are now older are kind of going after world records
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: that were done in those earlier years, I kind of
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: got connected into that scene for a period of time.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's cool, that's awesome. Well, congratulations, that's pretty sick.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: I'll be honest.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: You're probably the first Guinness World Record holder that's been
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: on this podcast and potentially the only that's a crowning
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: achievement as well.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: So that's fun cool.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: Well, Steve, thank you so much for hanging out and
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: chatting more about further scens forever again. It's a band
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 4: that has been an important band in my life for
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: many years. I've been listening to you guys since I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 4: mean nearly twenty five years now. It's just been super
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 4: super cool to be able to chat with you. You hold.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: You didn't know this, but you hold, You and your
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: band hold a dear part of my heart. You've got
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: You've your band and your music has really helped me
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: through a lot of different times of my life. And
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: so yeah, it's just an honor to chat with you,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: so thanks so much for sharing more about it.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: It's an honor to know that thank you so much
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: for the support and maybe hopefully down the line we
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: can contribute something more for you to come back to. Yeah,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: if it was up to me, but that's it's a
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: team effort. So but thank you so much for having
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: me