Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Chris Eveland | The Christian Reeve Podcast #210

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Chris Eveland | The Christian Reeve Podcast #210 · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Christian re
• 0:03
  podcast. Today's guest is a guitarist and
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  songwriter hailing. All the way from Ottawa in
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  Canada. His name is Chris even.
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  Welcome to the show, how you doing?
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  And, well, Kirsten. Thanks for having me and I
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  appreciate this. So that's really patient, man.
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  So is always enjoyable having a Canadian on my show because oh,
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  nice. Then always about you people but
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  you just always very pleasant and so yeah, that's real Joy.
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  Much less. Let's just let's jump straight
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  into it. I want to know where your
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  musical Journey starts. Catch us up, talk us through
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  your journey as a musician but from the beginning from the very
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  beginning, from the very beginning.
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  Yeah, well my, I was lucky enough to have a family that was
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  into music. So my grandfather was a
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  incredible piano player and he was a piano tuner
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  professionally. So as a young child going over
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  to his house, I would see four or five pianos ripped apart up.
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  Writes a little Grand in his back room and write from an
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  early age. I got to listen to this
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  beautiful you know these these sounds coming out of these big
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  pieces of wood and it just it was magical at that age and as I
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  got older in into music, that's what started it.
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  But then what really got me into things was when you're ahead of
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  Walkman back in the day, the yellow waterproof, Sony Walkman,
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  and I was 1986 my grandfather walked into a music store and
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  asked for. Or whatever.
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  The number one selling album was that year you wanted to get me a
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  cassette to put in the Walkman. And luckily, that year, it was
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  Van Halen 51, right? It could have been anything
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  during that genre there, right? Or that era.
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  It was Van Halen. So I got the one tape played at
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  frontwards backwards, frontwards backwards, just flip that thing
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  ran out of batteries, continue to do so.
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  And then every time the guitar solo came, I just got chills, it
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  just got inside me. I like, what is that?
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  Sound all the dive bombs? And I didn't know what.
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  Or the time is just all this flurry of notes, but I felt the
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  energy behind the notes to and it got me very interested in
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  what that was. And my grandfather told me it
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  was a guitar. So soon after I got myself a
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  summer job, Farm job, you know, corn, detasseling saved up
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  enough money, but bottom, electric guitar to start and my
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  parents got me into lessons that September.
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  I was 14, I think when I started and that's what's, and I haven't
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  put the thing down since like, But very early age, it's you
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  play as well, right? I did, yeah.
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  Let me see. You know what?
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  It's like that. You have a guitar lines hard to
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  walk by that thing and not enough for me.
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  Not pick it up. That's spot-on.
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  It's like being a kid. It's like any room.
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  I walk into if there's a drum set.
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  God would guitar bass. Guitar piano, I just can't help
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  myself but play with it. Like yeah, I'll walk into a
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  social setting, it'll be a person.
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  See the guitar in the corner, the piano you're not gonna die
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  like Is it you know what string gauge is on this thing?
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  I get excited, right? And it's it's something that I
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  wonder will. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  So yeah, that's how the journey started and then I just started
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  I think is all guitar players. Are you find a guy that plays
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  drums, right? And then you start jamming out
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  way, and then the other guy plays guitar and then someone
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  has to either switch from guitar to Bass, right?
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  Or if you're lucky enough to find a real, you know, a true
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  bass player and and that's how it starts.
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  And I've been in a number of bands over the years, cover
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  bands, tribute bands, original bands.
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  And I've been, very lucky. I've played with some very
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  talented people, some incredible humans as well on top of their
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  music ability, and then I lucked out after about 10 years of
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  doing, just the cover stuff, and opening up, for some really cool
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  Canadian Bands, A good friend of mine that came out And saying
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  for us were on the cover bands, I never met him but he showed
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  up. He became a good friend after
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  but he came out and so I'm going to die.
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  You need a singer, this guy will come sing for him.
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  I okay great. So it was on the Fly, do
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  rehearsals, he just showed up and gave him the set list and
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  the first song he sang, man, I just got goosebumps.
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  I'm like, what that, what is this?
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  You know, where did that come from?
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  This voice was just powerful and that was Aaron Aaron Waugh,
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  cool. He, he continued to Do a couple
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  of shows with us. Then he took off onto that
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  Canadian Idol show. Yeah, he did very, very well
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  with that. And you kept saying, hey, I'm in
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  the top. 100. We get the message on top 50.
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  Sorry, I can't be back, you know, I'm now in the top 25.
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  Yeah, he ended up getting third place that year, I think so that
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  landed a deal with Sony BMG and we got to record with
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  harryharste investment, music, Harry from harum-scarum, and
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  then things just don't that opened up another level of doors
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  instead of doing the covers in the tribute.
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  We started playing as a pretty big crowd, opening up with some
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  pretty big names. And then be having that
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  distribution deal with Sony BMG just it introduced us to a lot
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  of the business and the things that you don't get is a cover
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  band. Alright, I got to ask you
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  because I think you might be the possibly the first person that's
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  musician. I've interviewed, this had a
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  major label deal I think Could be wrong on that.
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  Talk me through the positives of that and what a deal like that
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  looks like in this Modern Age, because I think, obviously, you
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  hear a lot of negative things about those, those major deals
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  and I imagine that there are still positives of having such a
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  deal. So, walk us through your kind of
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  personal perspective, what it was like for you being on that
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  kind of a deal. Sure.
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  I can tell you the positive and this is a probably 2006-2007.
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  Okay. But Have to remember when we
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  played with air and we would play to a pub and their be 50
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  people or 100 people, they're having a good time but as soon
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  as he landed on that show and got that exposure and Aaron did
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  a lot of theater and stuff like that before.
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  So his name was really, you know, he had a strong solid name
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  for himself before K and I don't see it otherwise, but after that
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  show, we it was weird. We could be on the west coast
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  and walk into a music store and see our album there.
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  You know, the CD was in the store, how do you do that?
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  If you're just, you know, it's different nowadays, it's all
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  online. This is kind of like just pre
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  when people are still buying physical copies, right?
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  Not just the vinyl stuff, you know, dice?
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  Yeah, the good old days, right? So where we play, we did a bunch
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  of acoustic sets at music stores and people were lined up outside
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  and around the corner waiting to see in here.
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  Aaron sing these songs, right? Which was going from this to
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  that that quick. It took us a while.
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  To wrap our heads around it. And unfortunately, I think a few
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  of us thought that I would just be that way forever as well,
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  right? Well, this is great, we can just
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  yeah, quit our jobs. We can, we were all Factory
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  guys. You know, we all were two of us
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  work at Ford Motor Company and we just said, okay, this is it,
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  right? But the positive end of it was
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  it was a distribution deal through Sony BMG, so the music
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  was everywhere, right? But there was right at that time
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  and Harry Hess was the one that pushed to get that for us
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  because he was signed with. I think his And scammers with
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  Warner Warner Bros, but he knows a lot of the business and stuff
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  but he landed us the distribution deal with Sony.
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  So the music was out there but it's not like we had a deal like
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  we're here some of these people that get you know a full ride
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  and you know all the production recording was covered and
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  everything else, right? But I could tell you some horror
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  stories, man, I know some Canadian bands, I won't name
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  them but As soon as they got signed, it's great thing.
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  But then there was a, we need a video.
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  And again, this is 2006 2007, 2008.
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  You need a video. You need a video Back Then.
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  Videos are 200, 250 thousand dollars.
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  So they would put a video out for this band but now that
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  wasn't covered that was like a loan so we'll know.
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  Yeah. We'll take care of that but you
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  have to pay it back with your album sales so you know.
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  Oh yeah yeah. So with it, album sales in
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  Canada to platinum. Here in Canada is not like the
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  states where it's. I think it's a million.
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  It's platinum album sales. We're 100,000 here in Canada
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  right. I just getting to check for a
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  second. So what's it like how it was in
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  the UK in regards to did? You have that some major
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  alternative rock or rock stations or whatever that would
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  play your videos in perpetuity? Because we had like Quran TV
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  scars, I think empty About then merge still play music.
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  But point is, you would have your songs featured with the
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  video online constantly. And obviously that was the
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  beginning of YouTube where so I think 06 07 08.
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  You began to see those videos on there.
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  But point is, there wasn't as many platforms as there are now
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  if you have a music video, if anything now music videos are
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  kind of like, I don't know. There is still an interest in it
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  but it's not really like as big as it once was. was but back a
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  billion then the mid-2000s it was huge to walk us through a
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  little bit about Your visit visibility of videos in Canada
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  at that time. Yeah so I grew up like I'm 47
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  man so I grew up on MuchMusic was huge in Canada and there was
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  a thing called the Pepsi power hour and then it turned into the
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  power 30 it almost switch. They went from an hour but it
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  was all my favorite. You know, the bands from the 80s
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  and the guitar players, right? So before the internet, we had
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  the only way we got a chance to see them if we didn't go to a
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  live show was we would have to wait to see the concert or not.
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  Sir. But the videos that these bands
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  put out online and they were huge huge in the in the late 80s
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  into the 90s and mid 90s, right? And even when the genre switch
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  to that whole Seattle thing, there were still videos coming
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  out to promote that but you're right now with YouTube and
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  everything else, it's there's nowhere to I don't know, a lot
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  of people have cable TV anymore that they go on and see any
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  music video so it's all online but back in the day it was
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  expensive to do videos. It was like six digits a Um, to
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  get these. Yeah, it's insane.
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  So, there's been a few kid emails.
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  I know two videos, the one band they, they got two videos.
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  They pumped out and they did great.
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  They toured everywhere, they were all over the place.
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  A big name here, but there were 500,000 in the hole that they
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  owed, bass, see this? I don't understand this.
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  Again, I just wanted to talk just for a second, like Hammond.
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  What I think about me, I can't really speak for Canadian band
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  or bands at that time, but like, With a lot of bands that I was
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  listening to back then they won't really particularly
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  adventurous with regards to what was going on in the music
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  videos. I mean you had like some things
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  at the other end of the spectrum like say Red Hot Chili Peppers,
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  Californication something. You know, they've used computer
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  imagery and stuff and they've actually got to make like a
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  video game of themselves and stuff.
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  That's ambitious, that's big. That's probably gonna cost a lot
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  but a lot of bands you think like yeah, I don't know
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  Nickelback or even like Metallica and By that, like it's
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  still very basic. It'll be like, you know, maybe
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  maybe they have a small story line, some paid actors and then
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  just endless shots in the band in light, some dark and setting
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  or like rundown, Jim somewhere or something.
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  Like it's point is it's not that glamorous to the extent that it
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  would cost 250,000 pounds of dollars.
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  I don't give up, I agree with you, but you got to think those
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  bigger acts, every individual member has their Our own
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  attorney, their own agent, their own thing, and then when people
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  get involved, it's his there's music, right?
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  And then there's the music industry, right?
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  Of course, unfortunately, parts of that industry is needed to
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  push the music, but unfortunately, especially during
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  those times, the industry took over a lot of the music and it
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  was more about the business and there's been a lot of bands, a
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  lot of people. I've met big name bands, Man,
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  they got they just got taken advantage of them for the
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  royalties on the music. The oh yeah, we'll get videos.
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  I will go into her. Here you go.
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  Here's the bus. Here's the gear.
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  Are you happy? I'm happy.
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  Like who wouldn't be to go out on tour and do that but then to
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  get that letter in the mail, two months later say what do you
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  mean? We hold this much.
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  We how we going to? Wait?
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  Pause for a second, right? And it's unfortunately a very
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  common thing that happened the past.
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  And that's one thing that I love about nowadays that you see
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  these, these kids are the Younger musicians, putting stuff
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  out on Instagram and, and Tick-Tock at all these things
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  are just getting their stuff out there and they've developed a
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  following without the industry they promote themselves.
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  And they've done a great job with this.
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  So then those label guys and the suit, guys all that stuff even
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  though there are some positive things to having that, there's
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  some negative things that come along with it too and just ask
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  anybody that's been in the industry long enough to know.
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  They'll gladly, tell you what I've got to ask like did you
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  keep up sort of working relations with those?
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  And did you know what happened to them?
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  How they dealt with that, how they got through it that they
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  come out in a better place in the future or they're still
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  struggling with it, like what happened, some of them struggled
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  and they turned the turn the wrong path, right?
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  Like the, they coped with it and unhealthy matters for and other
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  people. I know some of them they got
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  business degrees because of it right there.
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  Like, well, that's not happening again.
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  You know, I'm going to represent myself or whatever, you know?
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  Like it's just a learning process, but just imagine
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  yourself as at 22. Someone said I love your music.
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  Man you wrote that. Yeah man.
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  I love it. I got a tour bus waiting for
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  you. I got all the Marshall Stacks.
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  You need. I'll get you endorse and you're
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  just like yes you're a? Yes guy, I don't know.
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  Anyone at that age will be like will hold on.
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  Let me check the fine print. And let me make sure that
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  everything is covered right. Everybody back in that are
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  anyways, was very, very eager to play.
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  Just get on the road and follow one.
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  Do is play music man, but to recoup that money is tough.
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  It's tough. So with without the videos,
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  nowadays it's when bands go out, right?
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  Like they merchandises a huge part of their income in the live
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  shows now because someone told me a while ago that used to be,
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  you know, hundreds of bands, that sold millions of albums.
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  Now there's millions of bands that sell hundreds of albums.
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  Yeah, nice. Interesting to me like how bands
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  these days? Like how do you make your money,
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  really? I mean that's stream I've heard
• 14:45
  with streaming it's like peanuts.
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  You know, it's really bad. Yeah.
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  Sometimes I suppose merchandise touring that's the only way you
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  can really make money as it rotates I guess yeah as well
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  royalties but that's again. The album sales are less now,
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  right? So royalties, wait, when was
• 15:07
  that think about was the last time you bought a now?
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  But I mean, I don't know, maybe it maybe, maybe it's just me.
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  But like, well, I think the last time I genuinely bought an album
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  was sort of God be like 10 years ago.
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  Mmm, some other. That's probably the normally I
• 15:22
  bought just recently a vinyl from one of my favorite.
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  I see. Yeah, but right there.
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  That's yeah, I gotta get that's different though.
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  I do like I get what you mean. Like, I feel like anyone Buying
• 15:33
  physical media now but you're buying because you're AF an but
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  be it's because you don't need that, you know what I'm saying?
• 15:42
  Like you need it in the sense that you want it because it's
• 15:45
  nice to have but you you don't need it to listen to it.
• 15:48
  You can just put on the same platform and if you look at my
• 15:52
  vital connection I'm not buying anything that's brand-new coming
• 15:55
  out by yeah, stuff that I already know I love and it's
• 15:59
  being released a remastered or whatever and then I'm picking it
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  up. That way.
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  But yeah, I don't I don't Physical sales, its kind of
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  shifted away from that, you know, except for the die-hard
• 16:11
  fans, but back, with a new album, came out.
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  I remember for some of my favorite bands, waiting at a
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  music store, three hours before they open in the morning, I was
• 16:19
  one of those guys in line. I want Van Halen dropped an
• 16:22
  album or, you know, the new Metallica or whoever I was in
• 16:25
  line, I couldn't wait till 10 a.m. and that store open and
• 16:28
  just wait, get my physical copy before they ran out.
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  Go home read. All the notes inside of it.
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  Listen to it. You know, it's not like that.
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  More. It's songs are kind of presented
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  in a here's a song. And I think society today they
• 16:43
  listened to it for 10 20 seconds and they make their decision
• 16:45
  that if they like it or not. Yeah, I know it.
• 16:49
  I know what you mean. Like I grew up in a similar area
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  like I'm a little bit lucky younger than you but like I do
• 16:55
  remember going into like CD shops like a HMV.
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  Yeah, and that's how I discovered but that's how I came
• 17:02
  across Megadeth for example. OK, I became a huge Megadeth fan
• 17:07
  because of their cover are like I looked at it and I took a
• 17:10
  chance on. You ready for this rest in
• 17:13
  peace? Yeah.
• 17:14
  And so far so good. So what?
• 17:16
  I looked at those of us at all, Wow, and busting piece, for
• 17:19
  those who don't know, is definitely Megadeth's best
• 17:22
  album, but one of the best thrash metal bit, but albums of
• 17:26
  all time and just a genuinely excellent.
• 17:30
  Heavy metal album from beginning to end, like will consider one
• 17:33
  of the best and I had no idea that I was stumbling across.
• 17:35
  That I was still discovering like metal bands at the time,
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  but to your point about the experience, like that was part
• 17:43
  of the experience just endlessly looking at the Rock and metal
• 17:46
  section and then you Is a commitment.
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  You buy that album, you go home and like even if you didn't like
• 17:53
  the first 20 seconds of us at well, you've committed to that
• 17:56
  now. So now you're going to sit down
• 17:58
  and listen to the other thing and I don't say that force
• 18:01
  yourself to like it, but you're going to try to find stuff you
• 18:04
  like it. And then through that it is an
• 18:07
  experience that gets you know is I purchased this.
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  I'm going to listen to it right where today is out, skip skip
• 18:14
  skip Shuffle Shuffle but I have to ask, I'm curious how you
• 18:18
  Responded. When you heard Marty Friedman my
• 18:20
  my opinion is that some of his best playing on that album you.
• 18:25
  Oh, so you don't think it is or you do?
• 18:27
  I do think it is. Okay.
• 18:30
  Yeah, I mean, that's the best lineup.
• 18:32
  I think that's down. Nick menza is drumming, was was
• 18:35
  a particularly exceptional. I did like piece cells
• 18:42
  particularly I thought that was excellent, too.
• 18:44
  But there was something about the way Rust in Peace has.
• 18:48
  And here's something interesting as well, just to get on the
• 18:50
  production side of things. So the only thing that's really
• 18:55
  wrong with Rust in Peace from a production standpoint is it's a
• 18:59
  little bit quiet. Obviously you can just turn it
• 19:02
  up on your system but like the base level for, it is quite
• 19:05
  quiet and now I'm right. And like now that I remember for
• 19:10
  a time in the early 2000s, everyone thought like, oh well,
• 19:13
  the answer to that is just turn everything up loud and there was
• 19:16
  this whole period of know. No, the problem is not
• 19:19
  production, it's turn everything up and it's like that's not the
• 19:22
  answer to everything, but interestingly around that time,
• 19:27
  Dave, decide Dave Mustaine the lead singer and and guitarist of
• 19:32
  Megadeth decided to remaster all the old albums.
• 19:36
  I think this was 0.0204, something like that around that
• 19:39
  time that he like had an arm injury.
• 19:42
  So he had a lot of time on his head and he decided to remaster
• 19:46
  now Yeah, the problem with that is it's always cool to have a
• 19:51
  remaster but he a he made it more difficult to get the
• 19:56
  original. So like a lot, I see a lot of
• 19:58
  bands do this, where they replace the originals with the
• 20:01
  remasters, which I absolutely hate offer offer it as an
• 20:04
  alternative because when people go back and they remaster
• 20:07
  things, they either do their vision of what they think it
• 20:12
  should sound like in today's and day and age and sometimes that
• 20:16
  can help complement an album. But often it gives a different
• 20:21
  interpretation of that album. Plus what Dave decided to do was
• 20:25
  go in and rerecord a bunch of stuff, so like we're talking
• 20:29
  different solos different. Yeah, different vocals.
• 20:31
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:33
  And he didn't for Rust in Peace. He did it for peace sells.
• 20:36
  It kind of worked a little bit with peace sells and it worked,
• 20:41
  especially well, I think with their first album killing is my
• 20:46
  business and business is good. Great album top because the
• 20:50
  original recording was terrible. Like it's well known fact that
• 20:52
  they spend all their money on drugs and then had like maybe a
• 20:57
  couple of grand left to record an album and they just about
• 20:59
  pulled it off. Cruising us.
• 21:01
  They learn a little bit from their mistakes on peace sells
• 21:03
  but not really. So when you go back and you
• 21:05
  listen to the remaster at the first album, it works.
• 21:08
  Second one it's up for a debate but Rust in Peace the remaster
• 21:12
  02, sorry to say it's awful. It's just everything super loud.
• 21:17
  There's There's reworked vocals, reworked solos is. it's like the
• 21:24
  equivalent of like, No, I can't say that.
• 21:30
  I wasn't gonna say anything controversial, but I was going
• 21:32
  to say something that I think it's a little bit, unfair, let
• 21:36
  some, if something is presented to you in a certain way and then
• 21:41
  you go back after a certain period of time and you change
• 21:44
  it. I don't know.
• 21:46
  It's, you know what? It's like, I tell you what it's
• 21:48
  like. Yeah.
• 21:49
  It's like when George Lucas went back and did his remasters of
• 21:52
  the original Star Wars movies and started changing things for
• 21:55
  plot. Purposes.
• 21:56
  We'll just just just to kind of add something but it didn't add
• 21:59
  anything good, a few good examples.
• 22:03
  Who shot first he added, like a weird effect thing to make it
• 22:08
  look like it was Guido. I think his name is the
• 22:12
  character who shot Han first, when we all know that Han shot
• 22:16
  first but the idea being to make him look like less of a
• 22:19
  cold-blooded killer. I'm going into that nerdy
• 22:22
  territory here but another the thing is just like there were
• 22:27
  scenes in there where he just like add CGI you know like for
• 22:30
  the team scenes on Tatooine to make it more in line with the
• 22:34
  prequels he just made just unnecessary changes.
• 22:37
  Like I get that, they just didn't have the special effects
• 22:40
  back in the seventies and eighties, but they did a great
• 22:43
  job like they were classic, still considered the best movies
• 22:47
  within that. And my point being with this is
• 22:50
  like Whenever you go back it's a risk.
• 22:53
  And I just think that you should always offer it as an option as
• 22:55
  opposed to a replacement. Yeah, - Zeppelin said they were
• 23:00
  going to remaster Zeppelin Led Zeppelin to.
• 23:03
  I would listen to it but if they said the original is not
• 23:06
  available anymore Jesus, I see this all the time.
• 23:10
  I saw this with the the Grand Theft Auto series, recently
• 23:16
  GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas were Remastered by a third-party
• 23:24
  developer. So Rockstar the developer
• 23:26
  basically handed over everything to this third party developer
• 23:32
  development team and they created something with Unreal
• 23:34
  Engine and everyone hated it because you know, it just wasn't
• 23:41
  very good to be honest. Yeah times change is good,
• 23:44
  right. But by it well, here's the thing
• 23:46
  I'm sure there's many people out there that love to changes and
• 23:49
  what it's worth, there are Some changes there, that look pretty
• 23:52
  cool. But the problem is Rockstar made
• 23:56
  the original games unavailable there, and I don't know if
• 23:59
  they've brought them back or not, but they've sort of
• 24:03
  replaced them with this. We woke many people would kind
• 24:07
  of inferior replacement and bring it back to music.
• 24:11
  I mean, I would consider the original, we must do so in the
• 24:14
  original production of say, rest in peace, is superior to the
• 24:20
  crappy. Remasters that came out years
• 24:22
  later. That's the thing is cool that
• 24:24
  they do it, but we all have different ears, right?
• 24:26
  We are here to shop different. Yeah.
• 24:28
  If we you, and I sat in a room together and listen to a
• 24:31
  brand-new release by, whoever you would hear it your way out
• 24:34
  here my way in. And they're both valid, but the
• 24:36
  both independent as well, right? I think it is, With with things
• 24:44
  like music. Yeah, it's tough because it's
• 24:46
  all subjective but I think the, you gotta go with what the
• 24:50
  majority is kind of saying to another MIT like I'm not talking
• 24:55
  like as far as like how something is written and and
• 24:59
  stuff like that. That's just up that.
• 25:01
  Yeah I completely agree. I think it's just subjective.
• 25:04
  But when it comes to production see that's different because
• 25:07
  that's like How, what is the best way to hear this?
• 25:14
  Do you know what I mean? So, like for instance, classic
• 25:16
  example and justice for all bases, turned out.
• 25:18
  Why, why is the next turn down or you we know way we what we
• 25:22
  know why? Yeah, but and why have they
• 25:26
  never released a version that has the base intact.
• 25:29
  They've got the Masters these possible that they've chosen not
• 25:33
  to, I'd love your because that album is tough for me, great
• 25:36
  music, great songs, read band. That's a tough one.
• 25:39
  And for me to listen to yeah, I isn't it.
• 25:41
  Yeah, once you become a musician, start working in
• 25:44
  producers monster bass player. Oh yeah.
• 25:50
  But again, there's two people that made that decision, right?
• 25:54
  But anyways my yard. Yeah, we are going to see
• 25:58
  Megadeth May 9th. They're coming here to Ottawa at
• 26:01
  the Canadian Tire Center so I'm excited to go see them there.
• 26:04
  Have. I hope they do well for you Mom.
• 26:06
  Yeah, yeah, first time seeing them.
• 26:09
  I've mixed Cadence about my Megadeth life.
• 26:13
  I don't know. Right man.
• 26:14
  Dead that they are good. I think from a technical
• 26:19
  standpoint but I think the thing that I was quite disappointed
• 26:24
  with this, they don't they're the musicians band.
• 26:30
  They're the sort of band that you go and see if you're a
• 26:32
  musician and you appreciate it. But like if you're expecting
• 26:35
  like a show, You're not really going to get anything that's
• 26:38
  particularly that if you don't see Metallica, that's a ship.
• 26:43
  That's a performance for sure. That's like you could see that.
• 26:46
  I've seen them like four or five times now.
• 26:48
  And I must say every time it's been amazing.
• 26:50
  Yeah. I've seen - Twice first time I
• 26:54
  was just thrilled to see them because it was getting, you
• 26:57
  know, it's just hearing when your favorite bands, it's always
• 26:59
  do good. And I also eat when you go see
• 27:02
  them, it will be fantastic, it will be tired.
• 27:04
  Be because, like, one thing you could say, A about Dave Mustaine
• 27:07
  as he's always had that attention to detail.
• 27:10
  He's very OCD it when it comes to that sound.
• 27:13
  So it will be tight. But that is kind of it, really?
• 27:18
  Yeah, I mean but you know, I said it's again area.
• 27:23
  Depends what you're looking for, if you just want to see them
• 27:25
  perform the songs that you've listened to, then that's what
• 27:28
  will happen. But yeah.
• 27:30
  Now I remember like crowd interaction when I saw them.
• 27:32
  The second time was odd. Like he'd come on.
• 27:35
  Then you just be like he's introducing Hangar 18 and he's
• 27:39
  just kind of like Yeah. There's some is about aliens who
• 27:46
  and it just starts playing Hangar 18.
• 27:48
  And I was like no, no, like this like a girlfriend.
• 27:52
  It did this. This is he that the whole song
• 27:54
  is by conspiracy theories and the government was ones that
• 27:57
  build it up, build up, build up that you like, come on and just
• 28:02
  no, really, I've never seen but I'm used to going to shows to
• 28:07
  like I'm a huge Dream, Theater fan.
• 28:09
  I love doing that. Right there.
• 28:11
  Oh my God, amazing. Sorry gone.
• 28:14
  No no man. They're one of my favorites and
• 28:17
  and they do have they put on a show as well, excuse me.
• 28:21
  But I'm going there for the music, man.
• 28:23
  You know, they don't need to put pyro on or they don't need
• 28:26
  anyone dancing on stage. I'm like, I'm just watching John
• 28:29
  Campbell day. I will, I will say, it's not
• 28:32
  just we're not what to be clear. It's not just about what we're
• 28:36
  just looking like visually when I talk about performance.
• 28:39
  What I mean is Is interaction. Gotcha.
• 28:42
  Do you know what I mean? Like when you go see about that
• 28:45
  Megadeth play Live, you're seeing you just seen him play?
• 28:50
  I don't know how to explain it when I saw dream.
• 28:52
  When I saw Dream Theater and they did have your visuals and
• 28:54
  stuff but like you can tell they're into it, they rip off
• 28:57
  the crowds there's interaction, they played to that they do
• 29:01
  things like you get to choose set lists and stuff because
• 29:04
  obviously with the band I dream forever got so many songs and
• 29:08
  it's crazy. Like remember what I saw Didn't
• 29:10
  first time they played like six songs and that was like three
• 29:15
  and a half hours that. Yeah.
• 29:17
  Well slide to our show. I think some songs are all ya
• 29:20
  mad. I forgot like October.
• 29:21
  Yeah, some of the best musicians in the world are on stage
• 29:29
  together when they perform, it's crazy how talented they are.
• 29:34
  And I know it take a lot of flak from some musicians, but hey,
• 29:37
  Danny. Oh yeah, I've known a few guys
• 29:40
  who was too much or sounds like video games and this Madam at
• 29:43
  any point. I just take a guitar and I like
• 29:45
  here than just you know just show me one riff a Dream Theater
• 29:49
  and tell me how easy it is. You know, there are no that's
• 29:52
  pretty talented people, man. Speaking of pretty talented
• 29:56
  people, you're very talented musician.
• 29:59
  Talk us through, you know how you became the lead guitarist of
• 30:04
  your current band gelatin skeleton all that one.
• 30:08
  Yeah, it's I think It might have been banned mix.
• 30:13
  So we have this is kind of like a nap.
• 30:15
  It's like Tinder, but for musician.
• 30:17
  It is. As you can kind of swipe and you
• 30:21
  can listen to audio samples of their singing playing or demos
• 30:25
  or whatever it gives a little bio where they're from.
• 30:28
  It's been, it's been a really cool app for me because my wife
• 30:32
  and I just went down to New Orleans in January, and I just
• 30:35
  jumped on there, a couple months prior to, and it's a great way
• 30:37
  to network with people when I got a chance to perform and play
• 30:40
  with people, how else would you? You do it right?
• 30:43
  Like I gotta watch that. Does it what the functionality
• 30:45
  is? It same as tin but these swipe.
• 30:46
  No, it's more like a classifieds like you just yeah yeah you can
• 30:54
  break it down to. If you're looking for a trumpet
• 30:56
  player bass player whatever and it breaks it right down and then
• 31:01
  you don't have to connect or anything like that.
• 31:03
  You just pretty much shoot them a message and get it going but
• 31:07
  the singer Brett Kelly reached out to me.
• 31:10
  Or somehow we connected that way, but then, that's great.
• 31:12
  When covid was just starting. So there was no getting
• 31:17
  together. There's no rehearsing all that
• 31:18
  stuff. So, Brett just said are you into
• 31:21
  like Glam, big hair, rock metal, you know from the 80s.
• 31:27
  I like oh my gosh. Yeah.
• 31:28
  And he started naming off all these bands and players and like
• 31:30
  test. Holy when I grew up on man.
• 31:32
  I love, you know, braddah I love all these these 80s players,
• 31:36
  right? And he said well I want a piece
• 31:38
  something together that honors. That style, but kind of, you
• 31:43
  know, modern not so much the steel, steel panther stuff, you
• 31:49
  know, just kind of original music that that had that edge to
• 31:54
  it just kind of move some energy to it.
• 31:57
  So covid happened and we didn't talk for a while and then right
• 32:00
  when it started to get back to somewhat normal, the phone rang
• 32:04
  again and it was Brett and he said, he's ready to go.
• 32:07
  And I went online, they had a couple videos.
• 32:09
  It already, but I don't think they had performed anywhere
• 32:11
  live. So we talked about a few things
• 32:16
  and we got together and everything seemed to click
• 32:20
  music-wise. We were on the same path, but
• 32:22
  more importantly, everybody's really good guys in that band.
• 32:25
  You know, it's at this age it's not all about.
• 32:28
  We need the fastest drummer or the best gear.
• 32:30
  It's like can you light a barbecue and flip a steak with
• 32:34
  this guy, you know, can you travel in a van?
• 32:36
  And to like can you after day three?
• 32:39
  Are you still going to be able to chat with this guy or is, is
• 32:42
  their ego involved? Is there other?
• 32:43
  Stuff that, you know, I just no time for that anymore.
• 32:47
  But I say like, I feel like whatever age you are.
• 32:51
  That is the absolutely, the most important thing.
• 32:54
  Yeah, but I've been in bands before, and here's the thing,
• 32:58
  like music is it with, in my life, like, I write all the
• 33:01
  time, but have been a musician on my life.
• 33:05
  Always will be, but it's something that's kind of taken a
• 33:08
  side seat. You know, I, I don't actively
• 33:11
  pursue it in the way that I know of.
• 33:13
  The people want me to and I'm not gonna sit here and lie, like
• 33:17
  there is a bit of a broken heart element to be in that area, but
• 33:21
  like, it is what it is. But when I think about what it
• 33:26
  would take for me to join a band again, I can tell you hands down
• 33:32
  100%. It is all down to chemistry.
• 33:36
  Yeah. If I walk in that room and I'm
• 33:38
  like, yes, then I know that's, that's all it is.
• 33:42
  It's like a job interview. It's like, you know, getting
• 33:45
  with a lover, it's exactly the same thing.
• 33:47
  It's do we do we click like I remember one time I did a told
• 33:51
  this story before but I did a audition for a band and it was
• 33:54
  not long after I had broken with this, the last sort of True band
• 34:00
  that I had been in that, I was in a band for about three years,
• 34:04
  growing up between 18 to 21 or 7220 and that was the last time,
• 34:10
  I felt like true chemistry with a bunch of musicians.
• 34:12
  I've had, like, I've worked with other musicians and like clicks,
• 34:18
  but like, never really felt that kind of same chemistry.
• 34:23
  Hmm, it's just kind of sad, but it just is what it is.
• 34:26
  But I remember like this one band, I auditioned for it was
• 34:29
  And while when everything and they were really into it, it
• 34:34
  just didn't feel it. I just wasn't feeling it and
• 34:36
  they were like oh and they felt really bad.
• 34:38
  They will at all you're not feeling it.
• 34:40
  Like I thought we were got something here, haven't we?
• 34:42
  And I'm like, as like to me is like pretending that you love
• 34:47
  someone or something, like, you just can't do it.
• 34:49
  Nice just means you just letting someone down, I just don't know,
• 34:53
  especially with original music because if you're writing stuff
• 34:56
  together, it has to like if it I've been brought in and just
• 34:59
  done. Souls for people and that's
• 35:00
  easy. Like here's your section, just
• 35:02
  do it, no problem in, I don't need a connection for that,
• 35:04
  right? Or I've done you know, tribute
• 35:06
  shows a cover bands, I can show up as a higher guy or even do a
• 35:09
  multiple like a string of shows or a tour and that's okay.
• 35:14
  But to sit in the studio and record stuff, you know, there's
• 35:16
  been people over the years like well let's do it this way.
• 35:19
  I'm like, okay, try it that way and you get the back-and-forth
• 35:23
  going. You do realize that it's
• 35:25
  something else going on. That's like, they just want to
• 35:29
  do it there. Way.
• 35:29
  But they want to have people there around them.
• 35:32
  Yes. Quit sort of just do your solo
• 35:34
  stuff, family do it. Let me know what you need.
• 35:36
  But this is not a collaboration you know.
• 35:39
  And if it's driven by ego and if it's driven back up by second,
• 35:43
  has anyone ever said that to you like this is not collaboration
• 35:46
  pal. Well, that's what I said to
• 35:48
  them. O mad but not in and not enough.
• 35:51
  Hey this isn't a collaboration, this is mine.
• 35:53
  I'm like hey man let's write a song and then you go there and
• 35:56
  everything that you do from start to finish is they've
• 35:59
  Ready, had the vision in the mind in the song in their head.
• 36:02
  Let me get two dozen human that you've already got all the parts
• 36:05
  worked out. This this isn't a collaboration.
• 36:07
  I mean it in a positive way, but you've got it all worked out,
• 36:10
  man. Like let's let's just record it.
• 36:12
  You don't watch this sense of saying try this.
• 36:14
  No thanks, I'll try this. No, thanks okay man, you know,
• 36:18
  but there's there's other people there like yeah, like let's
• 36:20
  throw everything on the table. Let's try that.
• 36:23
  Let's listen to it, does it sound good?
• 36:25
  And if everyone's thumbs up, we move forward, you know.
• 36:28
  But sometimes you Over the years has been that one guy.
• 36:30
  Nope, nope. Nope.
• 36:31
  I like mine, but I don't like your guy, you know?
• 36:33
  Oh, and you got to tell me, man. Tell me about some egos, he
• 36:36
  dealt with but some stories that stick out like yeah, throw
• 36:39
  people under the bus. Well, you don't have to, okay,
• 36:42
  I'll say that you'd never have more people under the bus so
• 36:44
  much on my show because I understand why.
• 36:46
  I know it's not it's not professional and I never do that
• 36:49
  either. But I'll talk about the people.
• 36:51
  I just would never say their name, but come on prep for a
• 36:56
  mother. I'm a, no, I can't do that.
• 36:58
  I gotta keep. Positive man.
• 37:00
  But I will. Okay, I hope it's usually a
• 37:02
  thing as though. I know we joke about it, we call
• 37:07
  it LSD, right? It's lead singer disease and
• 37:10
  that's what it is. But honestly, man, today, like
• 37:14
  I'm involved with with an Abba Tribute.
• 37:17
  There's 10 people in the foot, okay?
• 37:18
  Before we get, yeah, you've introduced A New Concept.
• 37:21
  It. Yeah.
• 37:22
  Look his for lead singer disease.
• 37:24
  Come on. What's that?
• 37:27
  Say that lead? Singer disease.
• 37:28
  Come on. That's what, you know.
• 37:30
  I think some singers go to vocal lessons, they go me, me me, me
• 37:33
  me, and they just take that to heart.
• 37:35
  They're like me, me, me, me me. All right, are you think that's
• 37:40
  the industry? Ya know it, I've been pretty
• 37:45
  lucky man. All the guys, like, John knows
• 37:48
  that I play with one of my best friends and we've got some new
• 37:51
  music coming out, are wall, pools, and singer.
• 37:53
  He 0e going that guy. Super humble.
• 37:56
  Just been a lot of singers. I played with over the years
• 37:58
  that have fabulous. Because I'm just joking about
• 38:00
  the LSD is just kind of an industry thing.
• 38:02
  But typically with egos, we do find, especially if we're
• 38:06
  playing with other bands, you know?
• 38:08
  If its original stuff in that, band comes in.
• 38:10
  Usually the, you know, the bands, usually really good.
• 38:13
  Sometimes the singer comes in a little hot with whatever, but
• 38:17
  sometimes those singers and eat. Right since we just met each
• 38:21
  other, I know that there might be a bit of like, oh, this
• 38:23
  guy's, he's trying to like, push me.
• 38:25
  I'll share some stories with you about my experiences.
• 38:28
  I've had put your mind. Is and to show you what I'm
• 38:31
  trying to do with this. So every musician has ego
• 38:34
  stories from people. They work with to people they
• 38:39
  play with. I think the biggest examples for
• 38:40
  me in my first band. I was the ego guy.
• 38:46
  I'll put my hands up and say right there, I was the reason
• 38:49
  that my first band ended because I was a jackass but I was a
• 38:52
  young, it informed jackass. So that's the difference I learn
• 38:58
  anyway. But it was it wasn't it was
• 39:02
  never like that. I thought I was better than
• 39:04
  anyone in my band or contrary, I thought that our band was
• 39:09
  excellent and we were we genuinely were excellent and I
• 39:13
  thought that we could have gone a lot further.
• 39:14
  And I push them a bit too hard and I kind of suck the fun out
• 39:17
  of it. That was the problem but then
• 39:21
  the crazy thing for me is when we started playing with other
• 39:23
  bands, then I really started to see ego.
• 39:28
  Best example, I Bars playing a show one time and this is okay.
• 39:34
  This isn't funny. This is just sad, this is so I'm
• 39:38
  paying a show in London with my been banned and I think we're I
• 39:44
  think we were headlining but we had to sound check first first
• 39:50
  back. Yeah, so yeah yeah, yeah.
• 39:53
  So I think so, I don't know, I don't remember if it was that
• 39:57
  awkward kind of thing where It wasn't, you know, we never had
• 40:01
  big crowd or anything often, you'll just end up playing to
• 40:05
  the other bands. Absolutely.
• 40:08
  And here's the weird thing about that.
• 40:10
  Everyone else is really nice. We met the other bands and
• 40:13
  they're all cool and they're all like, yeah, you know, might as
• 40:15
  well, grab a drink, get to know, people have fun, like, you know,
• 40:18
  it doesn't matter that there's like barely anyone here who
• 40:20
  cares. This is the girls.
• 40:23
  So like we're connecting with the other bands and having a
• 40:26
  good time but there's one band. And best way I can put this, is
• 40:33
  there a bunch of guys in mid forties who used to be, like,
• 40:39
  you could tell where, like, you know, this, like, super serious,
• 40:42
  punk band and, you know, probably in their mid teens or
• 40:46
  early twenties. They were probably some, you
• 40:49
  know, lethal force to be reckoned with for the birds are
• 40:53
  thrown ready to go right now, they're in the mid-forties and
• 40:57
  yeah, these peoples dads. Maybe even granddad's and
• 41:01
  there's nothing wrong with that by the way.
• 41:03
  Yeah, punk forever. Absolutely.
• 41:05
  The issue was when we would try and talk to them.
• 41:09
  There was that kind of, you can't talk to us, attitude
• 41:11
  hours, that we're playing the same gig as you just trying to
• 41:16
  make conversation much want to get to know how long you been
• 41:19
  doing this, learn from you, you know, and it's a when they got
• 41:22
  on the stage I remember in particular the singer was like
• 41:26
  He's just in a different world. It's just like, I'm so above
• 41:30
  this, you know, like just, you know, that his face kind of,
• 41:33
  said it all and it was painful to watch.
• 41:36
  It was just one of these moments, while it felt kind of
• 41:39
  surreal and it's not happened load.
• 41:43
  I've had this more in the acting industry than the music
• 41:46
  industry, to be honest. Because most people you meet,
• 41:48
  you know, they're in the same boat as you playing all these
• 41:51
  tough shows endlessly and they're just grateful to get an
• 41:54
  opportunity to play and I know we We were so that was kind of
• 41:59
  my experience of the goes I did have one experience where I play
• 42:03
  with a band for about three, or four months and I was, I came in
• 42:09
  as the singer. I knew this band because I
• 42:12
  played with them with my previous band and their lead
• 42:17
  singer, Lily guitarist used to be the singer, but he kind of
• 42:22
  introduced me into the band and wanted me to be the singer.
• 42:25
  We got on Well, the rest of the band liked it, the fans of the
• 42:28
  Band Lighter, they were like, yeah, this works, like we've got
• 42:31
  something here and then the singer one day just turns
• 42:34
  around. I was guitarist Stones around to
• 42:35
  me, one day and goes, oh no, I need to be the singer.
• 42:38
  Again, I can't have this. Did it is?
• 42:41
  Yeah, it is. And it was like, he was
• 42:43
  brilliant guitarist. Fantastic enough.
• 42:46
  He was an okay, singer, not saying I was like, amazing
• 42:50
  compared to him or anything. We were both, you know.
• 42:53
  But that was I was taking steps to do that and that was like, my
• 42:57
  main thing and I will allso, I kind of fully respected.
• 43:01
  This was like their family and I was kind of coming in.
• 43:03
  And that's another thing tube and, you know, it's the family
• 43:07
  element and I tried everything to be part of that, but it was
• 43:10
  clear there wasn't the place for me at that.
• 43:12
  Yeah, it was weird. You know, it's very strange
• 43:16
  joining a band that is like it's how I imagined Rob, true hero
• 43:22
  must have felt joining Metallica.
• 43:24
  Like when you It to a certain level or whatever.
• 43:26
  It's like it's no longer a family thing.
• 43:28
  It's like business almost it's very much so yeah. 15 however
• 43:34
  long he's been in there now. I don't even know.
• 43:35
  It's been, it's been a decade in a bit for sure.
• 43:38
  He probably still feels like the new guy there.
• 43:40
  Right? Like what a sweet and I mean I
• 43:43
  imagine it maybe who knows honestly?
• 43:46
  Like I just think I go back to that some kind of monster
• 43:48
  documentary and you know like there's some people that still
• 43:53
  called Newsted the new guy. I like that would be fans of
• 43:56
  when Cliff. Wasn't it?
• 43:57
  Like, you know. Yeah.
• 44:01
  Like I feel like you had 150 like a, how many he did?
• 44:04
  Yeah, it's crazy. Cliff was the original new stick
• 44:07
  came in and was accepted, but hazed.
• 44:10
  But he was very much part of the family when Trujillo came in, he
• 44:15
  was inch. I mean, they introduced them in
• 44:17
  and they immediately gave him 1 million dollars of my business.
• 44:22
  You know? Now it's not and I think now you
• 44:24
  could Say it's family but like India in the beginning.
• 44:28
  Yeah. In the beginning is Sly are and
• 44:31
  that's always an interesting dynamic in a band.
• 44:33
  But especially when you're coming in, what was I like come
• 44:36
  for you in within this established brand gelatin,
• 44:38
  skeleton like they weren't too established.
• 44:42
  So that was the cool part. I get that they've been around a
• 44:44
  long time, right? They were just getting going.
• 44:46
  I think they released a couple of videos but not not many.
• 44:50
  Maybe one live show. I'd have to check with Braille,
• 44:52
  so they still quite a new Fresh. So fresh.
• 44:55
  But I will was the new guy coming in, right?
• 44:59
  And, and then shortly after the drummer he tours a lot with
• 45:03
  Destroyer like a really good kiss tribute all over the time
• 45:07
  so his schedule was pretty busy. So we ended up getting a good
• 45:10
  friend of mine, Kevin demon on drums and then there's Brett
• 45:15
  singing and then miles work on base.
• 45:17
  So it's just for really good guys.
• 45:19
  I know it's funny because the Kevin, the drummer has his first
• 45:22
  time meeting. The guys, we were driving to a
• 45:24
  Go shoot. So he had never rehearsed with
• 45:27
  the band. He had never met the guys.
• 45:28
  His first day was showing up and doing a video for 80s, Ladies,
• 45:33
  playing a song and and Brett with the videos and stuff like
• 45:37
  Brett, Kelly does a lot of that, he's produced over 35 movies.
• 45:41
  I think I shouldn't say the number because I don't know
• 45:44
  100%, but he's done a lot of movies.
• 45:47
  If so he's very well versed, you know, producing this stuff and
• 45:52
  editing it everything. So it's really nice having that
• 45:56
  Yes, we just did a couple of shows.
• 45:58
  We opened up for Steve Kerr. No I guess it doesn't matter who
• 46:02
  played but we did a show at the at the Brass Monkey here in
• 46:06
  Ottawa and Steven the wildcards keep creeping.
• 46:08
  The wild cards from Montreal came and you were just talking
• 46:10
  about meet the other bands and that's something I missed with
• 46:13
  Originals is that when you played a tribute band, you show
• 46:16
  up, you do your show, it's great, you know, it's nice and
• 46:18
  go home, but when you see a band rolling in on a van that, you
• 46:21
  know, three of the four tires are working.
• 46:23
  The other words matter, Black smoke.
• 46:25
  But the guys come out there so happy to be playing and those
• 46:29
  guys were incredible. Incredible musicians, incredible
• 46:31
  band and just the, you know, the hang afterwards and beforehand
• 46:35
  was. I miss that.
• 46:36
  So it's that was really cool and we're coming out your way here
• 46:39
  in August. We're going to I don't know if
• 46:41
  you've ever been to the hrh sleaze festival at the huh?
• 46:45
  No. Is it Mal Festival?
• 46:46
  Rock festival. Yeah, come on.
• 46:48
  Big hair. Kind of leather Rock.
• 46:50
  Just 80's rock, kind of stuff. It's at the O2 Academy.
• 46:54
  Nice. The in Sheffield.
• 46:55
  Yeah, we're on the main stage on the 26th but we've also got a
• 46:59
  show coming up. I think it's in.
• 47:02
  How do you is it lyster? Is that how you pronounce it?
• 47:04
  That's tough master. We're playing at Leicester on
• 47:07
  August 24th of the metal monocle.
• 47:09
  I think ice and then the top and Tumblr in Nottingham on the 25th
• 47:13
  we got a little three things waiting to hear back.
• 47:16
  There's a festival going on there in Belgium around the same
• 47:19
  time like the first week of September, okay?
• 47:22
  So hopefully, if we can tie things in but for right now,
• 47:24
  we've Just got those three shows locked in and looking forward to
• 47:27
  coming over to the UK, man. Check it out.
• 47:29
  I'll say if you do come to Manchester, I am there, I will
• 47:32
  be there. Okay man.
• 47:34
  Yeah 1000%. I'll let you know, absolutely
• 47:39
  best of luck with those. And yeah.
• 47:40
  So you mentioned that you've been in tribute bands.
• 47:42
  I want to kind of explore this a little bit.
• 47:44
  Yeah, talk us through. You know, the I know you've
• 47:48
  always avoid you sort of touched on a little bit of a talk us
• 47:50
  through the differences, between being an original band versus
• 47:53
  being in a cover band. Also, so, tell us some things
• 47:56
  that other people might be surprised to know about being in
• 48:00
  a cover band. Maybe some things, you know, you
• 48:04
  sort of come across that you maybe you hadn't anticipated as
• 48:08
  well. Yeah, tribute recover.
• 48:12
  Oh okay. Well, let's go there because
• 48:15
  yeah, that is a different thing. Yeah.
• 48:17
  Okay. Cause you're in a bit of a
• 48:19
  tribute band. So, let's let's run through that
• 48:21
  first, sure. So we have the main.
• 48:26
  Yeah, we'll get to the differences soon.
• 48:28
  The aperture is a really cool thing is a 10-piece band.
• 48:31
  There's no tracks involved. Okay.
• 48:34
  Yeah, we have two keyboard players, the singers in this
• 48:39
  band are absolutely incredible. That's what separates this band
• 48:43
  from maybe some other tributes or whatever.
• 48:45
  If you hear the people in this Band sing the harmonies.
• 48:47
  Like I think there's seven vocal my seven or eight vocal mites
• 48:51
  when we play out of the 10 and the harmonies that they that
• 48:56
  they work out as just it's beautiful.
• 48:58
  It's a thrill to play with this band and the best part for me
• 49:02
  coming from, you know, two decades of playing crazy train
• 49:05
  and Van Halen. I think guitar starts or the
• 49:07
  drummer starts the guitar just blows up, right?
• 49:11
  Some of these ABBA songs, it's all driven by key.
• 49:13
  So I'm just finding these little holes, these little, you know a
• 49:17
  couple notes here a couple chords there.
• 49:20
  It's not driven by guitar. So as a guitar player it's nice
• 49:24
  to kind of go back a bit and go I can just find the space is now
• 49:28
  do some harmonies with the keys and it's a fun gig.
• 49:32
  But a before us is for me it's been the widest age Spectrum
• 49:38
  I've ever played for because there's five years And there's
• 49:41
  85 year olds. I've never had that with
• 49:44
  anything and it is if you played in cover bands before you know
• 49:48
  the first set you, do you play your whatever second set ramp It
• 49:52
  Up by Third set, you know people are having a good time there on
• 49:55
  the dance floor in the third set is it's the most enjoyable part
• 49:59
  of being in a cover band. Being an avid tribute first song
• 50:03
  over the gate, everybody is on the Dance Floor.
• 50:06
  Everybody's happy. We've seen people in there.
• 50:08
  Don't usually sound check in front of people but it if you
• 50:10
  know, there's a couple of workers in there or whatever
• 50:12
  venue were up, as soon as we soundcheck a song, people are
• 50:15
  dancing and we're just testing levels and that's just Abbott's,
• 50:19
  fun music. It's I don't know, we've been
• 50:23
  really lucky. I think the last 16 or 17 shows
• 50:25
  have sold out and would just not be the right guy.
• 50:28
  Yeah man it's getting into the soft seat stuff now.
• 50:31
  Right so we're doing theaters. We're traveling we're doing the
• 50:33
  east coast of Canada here in June.
• 50:35
  There's talks about playing up in iqaluit which is like
• 50:38
  Northwest Territories of way up in the are Which is a crazy but
• 50:43
  I think that's a that's fairly new.
• 50:45
  That's just a couple years into that band but I think it's going
• 50:47
  to open up a lot of a lot of opportunities for us to travel
• 50:52
  and see different parts of the world.
• 50:55
  Really, with that band. If we you know if we allow it to
• 50:58
  it's a fun show man. It's interesting as well because
• 51:02
  I mean I know that Aber right now is what exactly is it?
• 51:07
  It's a pre-recorded show that there.
• 51:10
  Promoting, isn't it? Something like that?
• 51:12
  That will Voyage, was it was because they released a new
• 51:15
  album which was incredible to just to hear it was it was good.
• 51:20
  It was good album. It's all right.
• 51:23
  Yeah, I personally didn't blow me away personally, but it was
• 51:26
  just so amazing to hear them release music after all this
• 51:29
  time and you're glitter or whatever it was.
• 51:31
  Yeah. And I think it's suffice it to
• 51:33
  say they still got it but yeah, they crucially, they chose not.
• 51:40
  Not to perform because one of the reasons why they never kind
• 51:43
  of weird. I think it's cool.
• 51:46
  They've retired at the height of their Fame and they always said,
• 51:50
  they wouldn't go back on stage because they wanted people to
• 51:52
  remember them how they were. And I always thought, you know,
• 51:55
  that's really cool and they finally come back, they decide
• 51:58
  to they change their mind. They're like, G naught.
• 51:59
  We will put some new music out, but we're going to do.
• 52:03
  I guess the code. Was it like her free detour
• 52:07
  where they've got like young versions of themselves hologram,
• 52:10
  that's it. Yes, a hologram.
• 52:12
  We built a stadium to do this. Yeah, they didn't have a venue.
• 52:17
  So, then, he'll be or one of those guys just said, well,
• 52:20
  we'll just build a stadium and will hold it thicker.
• 52:23
  So, James down. Yeah, it's their Timeless though
• 52:28
  right there. Just absolutely if someone asked
• 52:31
  me like, I I asked you guys, when we needed a, we needed a
• 52:35
  Bjorn. I asked a few of my musician for
• 52:38
  it, you know. Do you want to try out for an
• 52:40
  Abba? Tribute was just like, no, it
• 52:42
  was just a no. And it's not a shot at
• 52:44
  Applebee's. Yeah, they're like no no man.
• 52:46
  I don't think because they think of the outfits, maybe your, they
• 52:48
  thought and have to wear something silly.
• 52:51
  But we're not like that. We don't do the wigs at all that
• 52:53
  stuff. Oh no.
• 52:54
  Ready just you just okay. That's interesting.
• 52:57
  So serious we dress the part you do.
• 53:01
  Okay. So yeah.
• 53:01
  The two front. Israel vawa and Christina irons
• 53:07
  the two female singers up front. They wear the outfits, they do
• 53:10
  thing. And then our Benny and Bjorn
• 53:13
  definitely, you know. But it's not to, you know, some
• 53:16
  of the tributes other they put on wigs and they do that.
• 53:18
  And that's cool. That's the yeah.
• 53:20
  No, no, I'm not knocking it works but it's just something we
• 53:23
  collectively. As a group said, we're not going
• 53:25
  to go too far that end of it, right?
• 53:27
  It's more about the music. We do have some imagery.
• 53:31
  I think it's the most interesting.
• 53:33
  Thing as well as, as I was saying there, like a burr, is
• 53:36
  not really like performing live like how, you know.
• 53:42
  Okay. You've got many tribute acts the
• 53:46
  perform and it's like, it's always incredible.
• 53:50
  I've seen quite a few go bad and they there's like a lot of work
• 53:54
  that goes into it and it's truly exceptional.
• 53:56
  But the thing that always intrigues me is when it's an
• 53:58
  artist who you can't go and see life anymore even because the
• 54:03
  Test is passed away or because, you know, they've retired, you
• 54:06
  know, and there's lots of good examples of this.
• 54:08
  Like, there's an amazing George Michael tribute act.
• 54:13
  I can't remember the guys name, but he looks so much like him.
• 54:16
  It's actually kind of like, kind of heartbreaking, but incredible
• 54:21
  and I wonder like, what's your thoughts on that?
• 54:23
  Like, you know, because you're kind of providing people with
• 54:27
  with something truly special, then they're never going to get
• 54:30
  to see Abba live. So, So you're giving them that
• 54:34
  opportunity to see what it might sound like, you know.
• 54:38
  Thoughts on that. Yeah, I like the journey Tribute
• 54:42
  here, the you? Okay, I'm here.
• 54:45
  Yeah, sorry I thought you froze in for a sec.
• 54:47
  There was a journey Tribute that played here a little while ago.
• 54:49
  Been Journey was playing here in the month after like I'm going
• 54:52
  to go see dirty right tribute but the ones that I performed
• 54:55
  with over the years like I did. What made me open to doing the
• 54:59
  app? I was I went from the cover band
• 55:01
  stuff right into Roy. The Blanc had an Elvis tribute,
• 55:07
  he went out to Vegas and one, you know, best Best Elvis in the
• 55:11
  world competition. Wow okay yeah well I think they
• 55:15
  hand those out once a month, they're right.
• 55:16
  But that back and I'm not minimizing it really is
• 55:19
  incredible but with that kind of title from Vegas, that opened up
• 55:23
  a lot of doors in. There was a lot of traveling
• 55:25
  there. I was a backup guitarist that
• 55:27
  their main guy didn't want to do a tour.
• 55:30
  I got lucky, you know, I jump in the van with those guys and do
• 55:32
  this, but that was my first time going from a cover band.
• 55:35
  Oh my God, like this, this theater is full.
• 55:38
  There's 800 people in here. And they're all looking at the
• 55:41
  band, they're not playing pool and that the, you know, doing
• 55:44
  their thing, eating their meals and not looking their stereo.
• 55:47
  So my introduction to the soft seats was was with Elvis who
• 55:52
  people kids couldn't see anymore and then we did Roy Orbison as
• 55:55
  well. Same situation, I think Johnny
• 55:57
  Cash at the end as well. And you know, so all those
• 56:00
  musicians that people can't and then but hearing these people
• 56:03
  come up that had seen Elvis over the years and hearing them say
• 56:07
  oh my gosh, the the music tonight was amazing and it
• 56:09
  brought me Back. It was like a time machine and,
• 56:12
  yeah, screw the women. You saw them crying, during some
• 56:14
  emotional, some of the gospel songs there, they get really
• 56:17
  emotional wrapped up in the moment.
• 56:18
  Wow, yeah. So it's been pretty, pretty,
• 56:23
  more rewarding being in a lot of these tributes and especially
• 56:27
  Abbas, just so fun. Like there's nobody after a
• 56:29
  knavish. Oh, that's In a bad mood or
• 56:34
  negative energy, It's Just Smiles and dancing and people
• 56:37
  their comments online. From that show of just makes it
• 56:41
  all the rehearsing and, and all the fine tuning of stuff and all
• 56:45
  the work that goes behind it. Because it's a big show to setup
• 56:48
  and teardown, right? It makes it all worthwhile, just
• 56:51
  getting all that positive feedback from people.
• 56:53
  It's fun. Best live, experienceable time.
• 56:58
  Oh man, I always say the next one, right?
• 57:03
  Yeah. The universe is going to be the
• 57:06
  next one. Ask your marketing mix, but
• 57:09
  there's the best show hasn't happened yet.
• 57:13
  Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it still is my next one.
• 57:15
  Yeah, I think my first arena with Aaron wall pool, it was
• 57:19
  walking in. We opened up for, it was Colin
• 57:21
  James G, small coin, The Road Hammers, Maybe One else it was
• 57:27
  the arena and it was the kick drum sound check that and you
• 57:32
  know we always dream about playing in an arena and then the
• 57:34
  arena was full you know because Colin was there.
• 57:38
  He's incredible and Aaron's voice in that Arena was just uh
• 57:43
  I still get Goose Bumps thinking about that.
• 57:45
  So I think that's one of the big highlights was playing in the
• 57:46
  you're in the arena for the first time with him just
• 57:51
  visualizing that all through my teens listening to the Walkman
• 57:54
  thinking about what Be like to be on a stage and then hearing
• 57:57
  original music coming out of that team and all that stuff.
• 57:59
  So yeah, that's probably a highlight then it having some
• 58:02
  family there to witness it to observe that special man.
• 58:06
  Yeah, having your family. That's see.
• 58:08
  I've always wanted my family to see me and see me play live.
• 58:11
  I I did my step-uncle did see me actually one switch, which meant
• 58:15
  a lot. It was completely out of the
• 58:17
  blue. I was just like, wow, thank you
• 58:19
  so much and I didn't even invite immediately.
• 58:22
  Just turned up another. Oh my God, like it meant a lot.
• 58:25
  It changes things to write, you got ya, thousand people out
• 58:29
  there, it's no big deal, all of a sudden for me, if it's my son
• 58:32
  or daughter is there, you know, or someone changes things?
• 58:37
  It's like, it's like, yes, personal isn't it that you're
• 58:39
  sharing sharing something? Just like, hey, here's something
• 58:42
  that I'm passionate about. I'm glad I can share with you.
• 58:45
  Yeah. And I hope you receive it.
• 58:46
  Well, right, absolutely, okay, worst live performance or live.
• 59:00
  Hmm, I don't always want. There's always one, come on got
• 59:05
  something there. Hasn't been the first thing that
• 59:09
  comes to mind is Hooligans holiday.
• 59:11
  That was a band and we got together and it was before here
• 59:15
  and saying with us. So I'm the singer came.
• 59:18
  He wanted to do something different wonderful man.
• 59:23
  We were just a we were just a cover band and He came out I
• 59:26
  when nobody knew like we did soundcheck, he went away and he
• 59:28
  was a different cat and he came back with some kind of mask on.
• 59:32
  It was like a Halloween mask, like it was a Godzilla thing or
• 59:35
  some lizard green thing. All right.
• 59:38
  At least, 20 belts or not you had a tool but all these tools
• 59:41
  hanging off his belt and I'm all like a locket that Workman
• 59:44
  tools. Like it was a weird combo is so
• 59:47
  strange. But first song and he tripped,
• 59:50
  over two k Modi fell and I think he knocked himself out on the
• 59:53
  monitor Megan's first, the bizarreness of this guy wearing
• 59:58
  a lizard on his head and then he follows knocked out and we start
• 1:00:03
  with what is going on. So it was that the first time
• 1:00:06
  you decided checked. So I don't know.
• 1:00:08
  First song is set, right? People poking me because I like,
• 1:00:14
  hey man, we still got like what he meant, that 30 minutes come
• 1:00:16
  on wake up because I didn't see it happen.
• 1:00:20
  So, I look down, he's lying down at her.
• 1:00:21
  Okay. Is this part of the show?
• 1:00:22
  Like he's a Liz. I didn't know what was
• 1:00:24
  happening, man. Was, there was a lot going on
• 1:00:27
  there. What did you do?
• 1:00:28
  Did you just have to like stop and wake him up and maybe like
• 1:00:32
  that? And, you know that would be 90?
• 1:00:33
  I don't know, man. I don't remember how it bounced
• 1:00:36
  back, but that's probably how we ended up getting aired at the
• 1:00:40
  next couple of sessions because we did you finish the show?
• 1:00:43
  At least. That was it.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah. Oh yeah.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah, we were there. And we had enough singers in the
• 1:00:46
  band. They could have taken over.
• 1:00:47
  Yeah, we had some oh. Okay, right.
• 1:00:51
  Yeah, but I don't see those more honestly, man, like these days.
• 1:00:55
  Days. There's really no.
• 1:00:56
  It's pretty smooth. And we've all been doing it
• 1:00:58
  awhile. Yeah.
• 1:01:00
  But back then. Yeah.
• 1:01:01
  I've got some crazy stories. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:04
  We've seen a lot, right? Yeah.
• 1:01:06
  It's inside of tapping into this month.
• 1:01:08
  Yeah, I know. It's good.
• 1:01:10
  Speaking of crazy stories. Yeah.
• 1:01:13
  Any crazy touring stories that stick out to you?
• 1:01:16
  Anything that's just like interesting about touring or
• 1:01:19
  because you here, I was like this as well.
• 1:01:21
  You do hear a lot about touring. And sometimes it's grammar,
• 1:01:26
  sometimes it sounds fun, but a lot of it actually sounds like
• 1:01:29
  pretty grueling for quite a lot of bands.
• 1:01:31
  Like what it may be like something that's, maybe not as
• 1:01:34
  enjoyable as think. People might think like,
• 1:01:36
  remember one. I think it might have been a
• 1:01:38
  loudwire video which is a great YouTube.
• 1:01:43
  What I do their company, I think they're mainly, do that metal
• 1:01:46
  stuff but they do like these clip compilation sometimes and
• 1:01:50
  there was one video that they put up one time which was
• 1:01:53
  specifically about touring and every single artist just said,
• 1:01:58
  love performing hate touring, like every single one of them
• 1:02:02
  was just like, oh like there's one in particular that stands
• 1:02:04
  out where it's I think it's Greta Van Fleet at sitting there
• 1:02:07
  talking about it and you can see their faces just like, yeah, you
• 1:02:10
  know, like you just have to like travel here and do this and way
• 1:02:13
  around. And this is like it.
• 1:02:14
  What it's like in the airport and a little bit and they just
• 1:02:17
  like, yeah, yeah. So we'll get free.
• 1:02:20
  Come on experiences at Orion - well, I've never Into the level
• 1:02:24
  of flying around, and doing all that kind of stuff.
• 1:02:27
  For those kind of things has been, mostly, you know, a bus
• 1:02:30
  forbidden to, or like a van band and all those kind of things,
• 1:02:35
  bass player wants to my good buddy.
• 1:02:36
  Darrell Gratton said it was 23 hours of bullshit from one hour
• 1:02:41
  of fun. Aw, 13 hours.
• 1:02:45
  Damn, yeah. Well, that's what he said
• 1:02:46
  because the show was one hour because, ah, man, this is $29
• 1:02:49
  for one hour fun, but I love playing man and I do love going
• 1:02:52
  to different cities. He's, but I'm starting to know,
• 1:02:56
  like what I drive around. If we go through whatever City.
• 1:02:59
  I my oh I played there and there and there were the city.
• 1:03:01
  But if someone said what's big in the city, what are they known
• 1:03:03
  for what's their industry or I have no idea.
• 1:03:06
  But I can tell you what the stage are, you know, what the
• 1:03:08
  stage was like, where the inputs are, who the sound man was.
• 1:03:13
  So it's changed over the years before it used to be, right?
• 1:03:15
  We were younger. So we will go out to a pub in
• 1:03:18
  the area and we would do our thing and the show up to the
• 1:03:20
  show and it was kind of a party thing for bit but Now, it's
• 1:03:24
  enjoyable. I'm in a position now where I
• 1:03:26
  travel with my wife night, we had our show, we have overloaded
• 1:03:31
  our Taro but beforehand like we'll go explore the city will
• 1:03:35
  check to see what has you know it's just more of a travel
• 1:03:38
  vacation but there's a show at night right?
• 1:03:42
  But I do know back in the grueling days.
• 1:03:44
  Yeah getting a 4 p.m. slot on a festival.
• 1:03:47
  Isn't fun man you know it's a good time on stage and yeah
• 1:03:51
  there it is but like opening up For kiss in 2010.
• 1:03:55
  We thought that was not. Yeah but it wasn't you know you
• 1:03:59
  went you did it. Some of the crowd was there is
• 1:04:01
  at 2:00 in the afternoon right in l.a. they hadn't even flown
• 1:04:05
  to Canada yet. No, I really get everything set
• 1:04:09
  up. They do the thing, go home.
• 1:04:10
  But we weren't allowed backstage during that time and I go home.
• 1:04:14
  Oh no man, not with them. All the other bands that we've
• 1:04:17
  done has been really good but Noah kiss is like as soon as
• 1:04:19
  you're done, you get your gear, you go, you're off that, you're
• 1:04:21
  out of that back area. Yeah, they wouldn't That's a
• 1:04:24
  shame. Yeah, so you get excited.
• 1:04:26
  You pump it up and you tell everyone right there.
• 1:04:28
  We are going to get a picture with Jean.
• 1:04:29
  You're like, I hope so. You know all those things, but
• 1:04:31
  it doesn't happen. So there's some, there's some
• 1:04:34
  letdowns, there's been things. I'm going on the road, man.
• 1:04:37
  Driving five hours to a pub and oh, sorry.
• 1:04:39
  We're double-booked. We're using this band because
• 1:04:41
  they have a following. Yeah.
• 1:04:44
  That's outrageous, that's crazy. And, you know, well, but we need
• 1:04:48
  the gas money. We just drove here.
• 1:04:50
  You know, we're in our 20s. This is challenging.
• 1:04:53
  What do we do now is you got to wait at night and what helps a
• 1:04:56
  lot of those bars back in the day.
• 1:04:57
  But when you played, if it was a bar on a strip there, whatever
• 1:05:01
  they would have like accommodations for the band's up
• 1:05:03
  top, right? So they would have a room.
• 1:05:06
  Now, would just be a mattress on the floor.
• 1:05:07
  I'm not talking to you. Yeah, we got accommodation.
• 1:05:11
  It's like running water and no, she It's or anything, right?
• 1:05:14
  But you know at that age, you are on the road, but if you
• 1:05:18
  didn't play that bar, he didn't get that room.
• 1:05:20
  So there's been those over the years to write.
• 1:05:23
  I just stuff like that. Always just outrageous made,
• 1:05:25
  like I saw her. I recently watched the Anvil
• 1:05:29
  documents. Are you familiar with the band
• 1:05:31
  Anvil? Yeah.
• 1:05:32
  So for those who don't know and will give a quick synopsis
• 1:05:36
  thrash, metal band right at the early era of the thrash metal,
• 1:05:41
  the beginning of the documentary.
• 1:05:43
  Because I think the documentary was filmed around 06 07 and
• 1:05:47
  people liken it to being like the real-life still Panther.
• 1:05:50
  I still have it. So real life.
• 1:05:55
  Spinal tap there. That's the one they are
• 1:05:58
  Canadian. Yeah, so spinal tap is the most
• 1:06:03
  famous mockumentary of all time. People thought it was real.
• 1:06:05
  When it first came out, as hilarious is for anyone who's
• 1:06:08
  ever been in a band or been a musician.
• 1:06:10
  If you haven't seen spinal, tap, go watch it, you will find stuff
• 1:06:14
  in there that will just resonate and you'll be like, yes, this is
• 1:06:16
  exactly what it's like being an about.
• 1:06:18
  Obviously it's over the top and ridiculous, but it's there and
• 1:06:22
  Vu is like almost Just a real-life version of that but in
• 1:06:25
  a kind of sad tragic way and it's confusing because very
• 1:06:31
  talented band, they were like the arguably that template for
• 1:06:37
  like fresh metal in the very very early days.
• 1:06:39
  We took like 83 something like that.
• 1:06:42
  And there's this joke that a lot of the bands that went off and
• 1:06:46
  became big, kind of said that like what happened was and for
• 1:06:50
  set, the template, everyone rip them off and then everyone else.
• 1:06:53
  Became successful and they didn't.
• 1:06:55
  But they had every reason to be successful and there was no
• 1:06:59
  reason they shouldn't have been right.
• 1:07:01
  And in this particular documentary, Lemme is
• 1:07:04
  interviewed and he says that. Let me at Motorhead he says
• 1:07:08
  that, you know, that they had all the factors and everything
• 1:07:10
  there, it's just that, you know, Right band wrong time and
• 1:07:14
  sometimes it is just being in the right place at the right
• 1:07:16
  time and so that's kind of the beginning of the documentary.
• 1:07:20
  It throws you in and you see the lead singer is working a pretty
• 1:07:25
  tough day job and then you know, at night he gets to you know,
• 1:07:30
  perform these gigs keep doing this show.
• 1:07:32
  It's obviously 20 years later and it kind of did this
• 1:07:38
  documentary kind of follows them fly on the wall and it shows
• 1:07:41
  everything from them getting To record a new album, overseas to
• 1:07:45
  them, doing like a mini European tour.
• 1:07:47
  And it's I so painful, and there's a moment.
• 1:07:51
  This is why I wanted to bring this up where they go play a
• 1:07:53
  show and this guy refuses to pay them and they just played the
• 1:07:59
  show and he has to like he's threatening the guy.
• 1:08:02
  Yeah. It froze him up against the
• 1:08:04
  wall. It's like, give me my fucking
• 1:08:05
  money, did it, you know like what what how is this?
• 1:08:07
  And it's the guy just never pays him and it's crazy and a lot of
• 1:08:12
  For comment on that band. That, you know, this is a band
• 1:08:15
  that has played for, you know, in front of thousands of people
• 1:08:19
  and should be playing in front of thousands of people.
• 1:08:21
  But sometimes they're lucky, if they can play in front of five
• 1:08:24
  people and it's but like, the one thing that kind of stood out
• 1:08:27
  for me was that the lead singer in the rest of the band, a very
• 1:08:32
  passionate about it and for them, it does, it doesn't
• 1:08:34
  matter. Of course they want to have like
• 1:08:36
  thousands of people there but they're still very passionate
• 1:08:39
  about what they do and for them it's just getting to do that and
• 1:08:41
  there are some Some at hardcore fans who've stuck by the band
• 1:08:44
  throughout the years and if they feel that when they go see them
• 1:08:47
  live, like if a bear's they are there's only five people here.
• 1:08:49
  That's just half-ass. This no.
• 1:08:52
  Never. That's right.
• 1:08:53
  Yeah. But that's, that's an attractive
• 1:08:55
  quality for a Fandango. Make they gave it like there's
• 1:08:57
  only 50 of us here, but they gave it their all.
• 1:09:00
  And that's, that's a really good thing.
• 1:09:02
  I used to know, they're, like, guy and gust.
• 1:09:04
  I forget his last name, but he used to do a venue somewhere in
• 1:09:07
  London. London, Ontario got something.
• 1:09:11
  But he would always have Symbol for a while.
• 1:09:13
  They would want just white lights.
• 1:09:14
  They took all the gels out those old school cans, right?
• 1:09:17
  The really hot ones that on small stages.
• 1:09:19
  They be right here and they melt the side of your face but they
• 1:09:22
  took out the gels and he did all white, but he was incredible
• 1:09:24
  lighting guy. I just can't remember the venue.
• 1:09:26
  But yeah, just It's All Coming Back to Me Now with the Anvil,
• 1:09:29
  dudes. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:31
  It's an intestinal and then they kept going off to that.
• 1:09:33
  But it was, I don't know, a very interesting documentary, I
• 1:09:37
  think. And yeah, In a band man.
• 1:09:43
  It's not easy. It's not what you think is, it's
• 1:09:45
  fun, it's great but it's tough. Sometimes nowadays back, then
• 1:09:52
  people be in one band Only typically write a lot of the
• 1:09:55
  musicians out there play multiple bills now which can be
• 1:09:58
  a logistic issue at times with scheduling, but what I find is
• 1:10:02
  like going up and do and gelatin skeleton where I get to shred a
• 1:10:06
  little bit and turn up a marshal and have some fun with overdrive
• 1:10:09
  and feedback like that. It feels good to get that out.
• 1:10:13
  But then I do the acoustic stuff too, like John Milius and I are
• 1:10:15
  putting out some original music and then it's a nice melodic
• 1:10:20
  acoustic stuff and then AB has a little bit of that electric
• 1:10:23
  clean, you know. So it's every Spectrum I had a
• 1:10:25
  chance to do a little bit of this with because if it was only
• 1:10:30
  Abba or only the gelatin, you know, like I would be craving
• 1:10:34
  all that other stuff to do like it's a really it's made me
• 1:10:39
  better as a player to play different styles you know I
• 1:10:42
  teach Each as well. And I got guys coming in real
• 1:10:44
  metal heads and they don't want to learn a country, like I like,
• 1:10:49
  I understand you don't like country should learn it.
• 1:10:52
  Oh, yeah, yeah, no, it's it's the that.
• 1:10:55
  See, this is the thing about about being a musician as well,
• 1:10:58
  like because I grew up saying way, you know, elitist or that
• 1:11:03
  line owner, it's going to be as fast as possible as got me this.
• 1:11:06
  That never. And then when you stop, that's
• 1:11:08
  the thing. And then you start sitting and
• 1:11:10
  studying the craft and you realize music is the Country
• 1:11:13
  where everything is interconnected and like yeah,
• 1:11:15
  the BET metal comes from the blues.
• 1:11:18
  You know, you look at you all your favorite metal bands, even
• 1:11:22
  the bet you know, like Black Sabbath or something like that.
• 1:11:25
  It's all pentatonic. Scales all comes from the blues
• 1:11:27
  scales. It's all interconnected, you
• 1:11:31
  know, that country music is an. I don't know how you can be a
• 1:11:34
  fan of country. Music is incredible.
• 1:11:36
  Just anything, even country players that don't like
• 1:11:39
  meddling. I don't want to learn that I'm
• 1:11:41
  like, well, there's some stuff. Tough in there.
• 1:11:43
  You might want to. Yeah, it doesn't mean you have
• 1:11:45
  to like it, but just, just learn it even Jazz.
• 1:11:47
  Like, jazz isn't all for me. Like, I don't understand those
• 1:11:51
  players. I wish I could, but when I hear
• 1:11:53
  it, I am, I respect it. Because I know the, the level of
• 1:11:59
  commitment it would take to get to that level.
• 1:12:01
  It's a took me awhile with jazz, but I gotta say, give it some
• 1:12:04
  time you'll find some that. Like, I'm just getting into it
• 1:12:07
  now. After years of being like, Oh,
• 1:12:09
  that's your world, that's not mine.
• 1:12:10
  But now it's like, yeah. I like listening to it but the
• 1:12:13
  chord voicings if you're a rock guy you know if you're like
• 1:12:17
  Dream Theater and play which is intricate tricky.
• 1:12:20
  Very challenging stuff. Jazz is just that your hands
• 1:12:23
  aren't used to playing those chords that are very whole
• 1:12:27
  nother level the whole nother world but it's fun.
• 1:12:30
  Yeah. At, what advice do you think you
• 1:12:35
  could give to aspiring musicians based on your years of expertise
• 1:12:39
  and everything? You've kind of gone for over the
• 1:12:41
  years, what sort of sticks out for you will keep playing
• 1:12:47
  continue to play. Don't listen to what other
• 1:12:48
  people see, what other people say about your music, if it's
• 1:12:52
  Originals it doesn't matter. It's just how you feel.
• 1:12:55
  If you think it sounds good, then it is good to you, right?
• 1:12:58
  Don't don't listen, anybody say our needs.
• 1:13:00
  There's a needs that you know. It just just be yourself
• 1:13:04
  completely. And if you want to be a working
• 1:13:05
  musician, that plays in multiple acts just be humble.
• 1:13:09
  Leave the ego at the door. Don't attitude, there's so many
• 1:13:13
  people that they see that don't play a man's that are very, very
• 1:13:16
  talented. There's a reason, you know, if
• 1:13:19
  you're very humble, you just show up and play the part and do
• 1:13:22
  your thing and do it. You know, it's it's more of a
• 1:13:25
  personality thing to for a connection because it is a, it's
• 1:13:27
  a network. It's a, it's a, it's a family of
• 1:13:30
  people. And if you're known as that, Is
• 1:13:33
  a person that's very difficult to deal with the lot of doors
• 1:13:37
  close. So I think, staying humble in
• 1:13:40
  the big thing is be a lifelong lesson, don't say.
• 1:13:44
  Yeah, man. I've been playing metal for 20
• 1:13:46
  years. I got that down.
• 1:13:47
  No, you don't, I guarantee you don't.
• 1:13:50
  And if you think, if you man call me and we'll talk about a
• 1:13:53
  few other things that, you know, there's just the best players in
• 1:13:58
  the world still practice and still have instructors.
• 1:14:01
  You know. They go.
• 1:14:02
  John Mayer, still goes to guitar lessons.
• 1:14:04
  Wow, it is another yeah, yeah he goes.
• 1:14:06
  I forget the guys name is all over YouTube but we have.
• 1:14:11
  Yeah. Like in everyone you talk to is
• 1:14:13
  just Paul Gilbert still, it still receives lessons, you
• 1:14:17
  know, we still go Gilbert. Hey yeah, we got that learning
• 1:14:23
  right. That's why I'm in here.
• 1:14:24
  Look at Ian Thornley from Big Rack.
• 1:14:26
  Are you familiar with this ban? Big wreck caused a its own.
• 1:14:30
  Check him out, dude. We got there from A couple of
• 1:14:33
  goals states to but Ian Thornley is the guitar player and he's
• 1:14:36
  one of the few musicians in my lifetime.
• 1:14:39
  When I listen to the next album you hear a progression, you hear
• 1:14:43
  something new, you hear something fresh.
• 1:14:46
  But you just in his first album is incredible.
• 1:14:48
  He just keeps growing as a player and he's been playing
• 1:14:51
  forever but he's just continuously evolving learning
• 1:14:55
  new things and his fraid you'll hear one of his solos you know
• 1:14:58
  how you hear AC/DC? Oh yeah.
• 1:15:00
  That's major. Pentatonic has minor pentatonic.
• 1:15:02
  They Switch to a mixolydian mode, whatever you hear, Aaron's
• 1:15:04
  really Iranians, you know, what is that?
• 1:15:07
  What what scale is that? You know, it's all of them.
• 1:15:11
  You just takes everything and just he's or Guthrie Govan,
• 1:15:14
  right? Had, you know, him as a player,
• 1:15:17
  I'd knock on. Say that idea, dude, that then
• 1:15:20
  that's, that's another next-level stuff, right?
• 1:15:22
  Like these players are just people that blow my mind.
• 1:15:26
  I don't understand, you know, how, maybe what they do.
• 1:15:29
  But yeah. So my advice would be to be a
• 1:15:30
  lifelong student. Aunt, always continue to learn
• 1:15:34
  practice as much as you can and just be humble.
• 1:15:39
  I advise thank you so much. A couple of final questions for
• 1:15:42
  you completely. Unrelated to what we spoken to
• 1:15:43
  today. I always ask my guests, these
• 1:15:46
  questions. What's the best advice you've
• 1:15:49
  ever received? Hmm, there's a guitar player in
• 1:15:55
  life. One is only the guitar player
• 1:15:58
  one because it's Cano. Yeah, please do ya guitar
• 1:16:01
  player? One was when I was 19 20 21,
• 1:16:05
  dude, try to play as many notes as I possibly could.
• 1:16:08
  In this little thing, there was a guy in a studio and they said,
• 1:16:13
  have you ever listened to a saxophone player?
• 1:16:17
  And I was like, well, yeah, but not like I've never studied it.
• 1:16:20
  He goes listen to them every once in a while, they have to
• 1:16:23
  take a breath Right dude. Dude, it heals if you bring that
• 1:16:30
  into your guitar playing and that's it.
• 1:16:32
  Soon as I said that, I thought of David Gilmour, Eric, Clapton,
• 1:16:37
  b.b., King, Buddy Guy. All these guys have played
• 1:16:39
  beautiful lick and then they be backing off.
• 1:16:41
  Play it again, right? Even some of the stuff I love
• 1:16:44
  like patru. She's a little bit, it doesn't.
• 1:16:48
  But just that advice. Musically is hate.
• 1:16:50
  Every once in a while, take a little note, sometimes the
• 1:16:55
  space. Between the notes is just as
• 1:16:57
  important as the notes. I like to this as well because,
• 1:17:02
  well, a couple of things. One Patricia, yeah, incredible
• 1:17:07
  lightning speed player but at the same time, he he played, he
• 1:17:14
  plays to the song. It makes sense within the
• 1:17:17
  context of what he's doing. Lars Ulrich Metallica drummer.
• 1:17:21
  Once famously said, I'd play to the song, I play for the song
• 1:17:25
  and I think that is always key. For any musician if you're in a
• 1:17:30
  band and you're you know, maybe your concern like a ho, what I
• 1:17:35
  play, Maybe It's not technical math, maybe it's not this, maybe
• 1:17:37
  it's not that it doesn't matter how technicals the stuff is, you
• 1:17:41
  know. Sure.
• 1:17:42
  You can add that in sometimes, but What's always going to
• 1:17:45
  matter? Most is what makes sense in that
• 1:17:48
  song in that moment. Yeah, 100%.
• 1:17:52
  You have you have your moments where?
• 1:17:54
  Like it's maybe it's one whole big jam session.
• 1:17:57
  Maybe it's You know, a grand performance, whatever but I
• 1:18:04
  think yeah I think Pink Floyd is a really good example of this
• 1:18:07
  because often in the incredible guitar solos that they have.
• 1:18:12
  It's been building up to that moment.
• 1:18:14
  Hmm. You know or there's you know
• 1:18:17
  elements where it's Grand and all over the place and other
• 1:18:20
  moments where it's soft and calm and relaxed a perfect example.
• 1:18:25
  This is exactly why I thinking yeah.
• 1:18:29
  The whole of Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 1, just the build
• 1:18:34
  and everything and it's just yeah a journey.
• 1:18:38
  That's what it should be. It should be a journey takes you
• 1:18:41
  through. But the best advice I think
• 1:18:46
  outside of Music would be my out, my outer experiences.
• 1:18:54
  Are a perfect reflection of my internal condition.
• 1:19:00
  So if I'm good on my image, if I'm good inside things on the
• 1:19:06
  outside of pretty good. If I'm not good on the inside.
• 1:19:11
  Well, guess what? Things are not going to be good
• 1:19:13
  on the outside. So my internal condition if I'm
• 1:19:19
  at peace inside my outside is at peace as well.
• 1:19:22
  So it all starts and that's why not to bring music back in my
• 1:19:25
  one. Instrumental that I released
• 1:19:28
  it's called within. There's no lyrics.
• 1:19:30
  It's just a guitar instrumental. I've got forest from Big Rack
• 1:19:33
  and Gary from honeymoon, suite played bass on it.
• 1:19:38
  That within just means everything's within, I used to
• 1:19:42
  ask people questions all the time about you know not music
• 1:19:44
  related and they say you have the answer it's inside you it's
• 1:19:48
  within if you don't go with any go without.
• 1:19:51
  So those are two of the biggest things that I, you know, my
• 1:19:55
  outer experiences are a perfect reflection of my internal
• 1:19:58
  condition. Absolutely brilliant.
• 1:20:03
  Never another question for you similar vein but slightly
• 1:20:06
  different approach. What's the biggest life lesson
• 1:20:10
  you've learned so far? I think I'm still learning.
• 1:20:15
  Yeah, me too, buddy. I think that what you said
• 1:20:24
  before about when you think, you know, it and then you know,
• 1:20:26
  nothing dude that with everything right?
• 1:20:31
  It's just yeah, sometimes we think we're in the basement,
• 1:20:34
  right? I want to learn how to play
• 1:20:35
  guitar and go up the stairs, okay.
• 1:20:36
  I've learned guitar like now you're just on the first floor.
• 1:20:39
  Yeah, this is a high-rise, right?
• 1:20:41
  But yeah, I'm still learning. And I think if you looked over
• 1:20:46
  here, I've got a bunch of music books.
• 1:20:47
  In theory, books beside, that's a bunch of self-help and
• 1:20:50
  spiritual books, right, personal growth that I've needed to do
• 1:20:53
  over the years and it's been a process, but I think just living
• 1:20:59
  in the moment, right? Like, that whole Power of, Now
• 1:21:02
  thing is huge for me. So, the biggest life left lesson
• 1:21:05
  is not thinking about yesterday last week.
• 1:21:08
  Last month. Five years ago, that's that's a
• 1:21:11
  negative energy. It could be And not worrying
• 1:21:13
  about tomorrow. Next week, next month, next
• 1:21:15
  year, that's saying anxiety, and stress and everything but being
• 1:21:19
  like the only moment that matters right now.
• 1:21:21
  You and I talk right now and everything's good right now,
• 1:21:23
  right? We are completely in the moment
• 1:21:25
  right now and that would be my like let's just live right in
• 1:21:30
  the moment and then when that moment passes you're in the next
• 1:21:34
  moment. I totally agree.
• 1:21:37
  I'm going through a bit of a difficult time in my life right
• 1:21:39
  now and who that it's like, Everybody's, I was doing a
• 1:21:44
  livestream earlier today, and I say, I was looking forward to
• 1:21:46
  doing the show and, you know, people people would say in
• 1:21:50
  response to what you say, you say I'm going through a
• 1:21:52
  difficult time. They say, I hope it gets better.
• 1:21:54
  I'll night. So do I, but yeah, whenever I do
• 1:21:58
  anything in my life, I'm all-in 100%.
• 1:22:02
  Same with you. I'm right here in this moment
• 1:22:04
  with you and I'm thinking about how amazing is that.
• 1:22:07
  I get to have these conversations with people across
• 1:22:11
  the world in a completely different place, different
• 1:22:14
  different time, zone, different ages, reference of reference,
• 1:22:20
  everything it every single time I do this, I absolutely love it.
• 1:22:24
  And I'm reminded why I do this and why this show Why I started
• 1:22:31
  to be honest dish with I mean there were over 200 episodes at
• 1:22:35
  this point and it's a good for you man.
• 1:22:37
  Thank you. It's it's a real kind of It's a
• 1:22:45
  journey. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:22:49
  you're being consistent, right? I know that people to start
• 1:22:52
  podcast, and we'll do five or ten episodes then say, yeah,
• 1:22:55
  they stopped. Just keep doing it.
• 1:22:57
  If you loved, I can tell by your face, you love doing this right,
• 1:23:00
  just continue to do that. And I worked at a factory for 21
• 1:23:05
  years brother, you know, 21 years and it just sucked the
• 1:23:09
  soul out of you. And I got Bri Thankful for the
• 1:23:12
  wages iron. And I had a family and it
• 1:23:14
  provided me with all those things.
• 1:23:15
  But I was a musician at heart in a factory 12 hours a day with
• 1:23:21
  all of this creative stuff going on my head.
• 1:23:23
  And it didn't get used, you know, and I thought in that
• 1:23:26
  moment it would never happen. I would get glimpses of, oh, I
• 1:23:30
  can go on tour for, you know, a week or two, or I can record
• 1:23:33
  something, and you go back to the factory.
• 1:23:35
  But I put myself into a position where enough people told me to
• 1:23:39
  follow my Bliss. Follow your dreams, follow Your
• 1:23:41
  passion, I do that now and now it's a full-time thing.
• 1:23:46
  There's no Factory that I step into anymore.
• 1:23:49
  You know edible stuff man. Yeah Alan never final question
• 1:23:53
  for one final final Final question is, do you have any
• 1:23:58
  upcoming projects or some final thoughts you'd like to share
• 1:24:00
  with our listeners? Oh yeah, me.
• 1:24:02
  And I'm super excited about John.
• 1:24:04
  Miller's is my best buddy back home.
• 1:24:07
  And we had we've performed as a Duo for years and years and
• 1:24:12
  years. But we started write some songs.
• 1:24:14
  We just released one called moment in time a little while
• 1:24:18
  ago and you No, it did pretty good right out of the gates and
• 1:24:22
  we're just really excited as we've got a bunch of other
• 1:24:25
  Originals that we just never for whatever reason we didn't record
• 1:24:30
  them or whatever. But we're starting to do that
• 1:24:32
  now with Randy Orton, Randy or good buddy of mine here in
• 1:24:35
  Brockville and so we're going to get those in order.
• 1:24:40
  I've got another song coming up where I've asked, Kelly, Heenan
• 1:24:44
  and credible rock singer here from Ontario and Darren.
• 1:24:49
  It from here in scams going to play on drums and we're going to
• 1:24:53
  piece together this song and I'm very excited about that.
• 1:24:56
  So there's a lot of stuff coming out here shortly and a lot of
• 1:24:59
  touring coming up a lot of live shows.
• 1:25:02
  So yeah, that's what I'm most excited for is to get this music
• 1:25:04
  out with John and because it's ours, right?
• 1:25:06
  It's just the two of us and we've got a great connection.
• 1:25:09
  When it Brothers, the chemistry we talked about earlier is there
• 1:25:13
  it's been there since day one. The journey we've been on
• 1:25:15
  together. He's my closest friend and now
• 1:25:18
  we get to Produce this music together and release it and you
• 1:25:22
  can hear the the connection in the music.
• 1:25:25
  I think with this there's no there's no void there between
• 1:25:29
  John and I it's just here we are and people that are seen as a
• 1:25:32
  lot over the years. When they hear this I think it's
• 1:25:36
  just special that we get a chance to do this at this time.
• 1:25:38
  It's just the right time to do it.
• 1:25:41
  Awesome. Man I wish you the very best
• 1:25:43
  with all of that and you spend absolute pleasure having you on
• 1:25:46
  the show. Thank you so much.
• 1:25:48
  Thanks brother. If we if we end up in Manchester
• 1:25:51
  I'll shoot you a little email there.
• 1:25:52
  Yes, please do. I would love it!
• 1:25:54
  Love to see you! Boom, right hand out to all the
• 1:25:57
  listeners of the Christian. Right podcast.
• 1:25:59
  As always, I hope you enjoyed the episode.
• 1:26:01
  Be safe, be well. And I'll see you in the next
• 1:26:05
  one.