Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Zac Mayfield: Oh, Sleeper and Dayseeker

Transcript

Zac Mayfield: Oh, Sleeper and Dayseeker · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Cry Out Sad. Yeah, last saw yap yap yap Ya.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Today we've got Zach from both Day Seeker and Oh Sleeper.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: This is exciting Zach, just because you know, not every
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: time I mean, we Culin and I tried to do
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: this as much as we can, but not every time
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: do we get to interview somebody from a band that
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Culin and I have been listening to for nearly twenty years.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, probably almost twenty years ago, because
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: it was that first O Sleeper album like two thousand
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: and seven, so almost twenty years ago we started. Yeah,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we started listening to O Sleeper and we've been huge
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: fans ever since. And then obviously you know the you
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: know O Sleep branded and we'll talk about the history
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of all of that at some point. And then you
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: start playing in Day Secret and we're big Day Seeker
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: fans too, and so uh yeah, it's just really really
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: cool just to see your your music career and your
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: music journey. Uh and whether you know it or not,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you have we been listening to you playing drums for
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: almost twenty years, which is really cool.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: That is, when you put it like that, it is
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: pretty wild, right. It's it's like I blinked, and I'm
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: like thirty six. You know, it feels like yesterday I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was like playing drums on the boardwalk, right.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: You know that is pretty really Like were you that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: young when you first started playing with O Sleeper? Yeah?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: They they picked me up when I was nineteen. Wow.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Like I couldn't even lead like some of the bars
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: we were playing. They had to stink me into. Wow.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: You know, I almost I almost think they need to
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: have like a performer's permit if you're going to be
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: under twenty one performing.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: At Yeah, I think you're Yeah, I think some places
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: do that, but I mean, man, it's rock and roll
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to show up and figure it out.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: That's the way to think about it. Yeah, you you're
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: kind of the anterest one and then aren't you, because
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I mean you look like you're still like twenty.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Look, I'll take it. I'll take it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It's funny because like in high school, like no one
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: wants to date like the youngest looking dude, and you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. So it was like it wasn't
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: super tight, but now it's like I'm not complaining. You know,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: it could be worse.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: You look like you get id'd pretty frequently all the time.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Then I eat it up, give me that and so good.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Well, let's talk about just how you even
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: were first interested in music, you know, so you know
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: you said nineteen was when you started o sleeper? Like
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: what what made you even want to start making music?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: What made you get into metal music? Like what what was? Yeah?
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: What what made you want to play drums? Like? What
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: were yeah?
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: It's the story There's It's funny because my parents weren't musicians,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: but for some weird reason, they knew good musicians. Like
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: when I expressed an interest in drums, my mom was like, oh, well,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: check out Dave Matthew's band. They have a really good drummer.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, how the hell do you know about
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the drummer of Dave Matthew's band? Mom, Like, what the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: what is happening? But they used to, uh, when I
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: was really little, they they would take me to those
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: those like festival not festival holiday parades, right, so it's
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like the high school marching band would march through the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: town and it was you get your cup of hot
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: coco or whatever. And I always remember my parents would
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: always get really excited for the marching bands, and the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: only thing that I at that age is the only
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: thing I could hear from the marching bands because they'd
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: be streets away, but when the drum line started up,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: you could hear the drums like reverberate like through the town,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: like the like the walls were shaking type thing. And
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: it's like, whatever the hell that is, I want to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: do it. And so when I was in elementary school,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: there was a there was a time where I was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in my math class, which who wants to be in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: math class? And they're like, hey, if you're interested in
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: auditioning for the band, like the school band, you're going
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to do that in during your math class. And so
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I can get out of math class. Well,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: hell yeah, what do you What do you need? I'll
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: play flute, I'll play whatever, Just get me out. And
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I kind of had like a like a leaning towards
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: drums and the teacher said, okay, here's some drumsticks and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I blanked it. I'm thirty six, you know what I mean.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Like it just it's kind of did you guys have
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the requirement? I remember when I was a kid, and
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: you know, it was maybe like fifth grade was when
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: we could start like doing elementary school band stuff or whatever.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And I remember I really wanted to play drums. I
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: also really gravitated towards drums as a kid. And I
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: remember like, in order to actually be able to do
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: drums in like the elementary school band, you had to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have like two years of piano. They made you, like
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: they and I don't even know how they vetted that, Yeah,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: but like, did you guys have like a requirement like
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: that that you had to do piano before you could
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: actually even like play drums as an eleven year old.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: No, it was it was kind of just like, oh,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you're interested in this, Okay, here you go. Like as
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: long as like it was like as long as you
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: didn't give up on it, the teacher would take you seriously.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And so it quickly did become like the kids that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: really just wanted to just kind of like fuck off,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like they kind of got
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: weeded out, and then the people that actually wanted to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: learn something about music got to like stay because it
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: was a pretty like it was it was a pretty
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: competitive program honestly, Like they didn't really like in high
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: school if you played on the marching band. You couldn't
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: do sports because they were like, no, you can't be
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: going to practice and all, like when the when the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: when the football team's playing, the band is also playing,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and they're like, you got to pick one. You can't
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: even know.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: There was no high school musical kind of situation for you.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: But to know.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Some people they would like the teachers couldn't tell you no,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: but like if you wanted to play sports, you weren't.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You were not getting first chair anything, you know what
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, Like you could you could show up to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: band class and and they'll give you a little part
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to play, but like you weren't, like the same reason,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the same way that like the quarterback of the high
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: school like he really couldn't do any other you know
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: what I mean, Like he kind of just had to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: stay in your lane. But I think that made everyone
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: take it like way more serious too, So I think
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: that ended up being a good a good call in
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: their end.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: What about metal, because I'm sure the high school band
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't playing uh slip Knot or Lincoln Park when when
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: you guys were oh no, no, what what got you
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: specifically into like eventually even I'm sure at some point
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you got a drum set even, yeah, what what made
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: you wanna play rock heavy music? Play drum a whole
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: drum set? Like, yeah, what what inspired that?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So I, yeah, I got my drum set when I
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was like thirteen ish to to the not to the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: joy of my neighbors, for sure.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: But yeah, what did your parents think of that? I
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: always think about that for like parents, when you got
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: like a thirteen year old just whacking on these drums,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: like that's got a dude, bless its gotta be a
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: little annoying, right as a drummer.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I would let if I had
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a kid, I don't know if I would let them
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: have a drum set. And that you feel me, But
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I was. I wasn't a bad kid. I was just
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: bored and so like I'd just be on like the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: roof of the neighbor's house, you know what I mean.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And so I when I started playing drums, I wasn't
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: causing mischief and so my parents just kind of took it,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: like cause my neighbors did complain. I had one neighbor
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in specific, she'd come over every day. And it's not
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like my parents weren't they were very respectful, Like I
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't allowed to play like after like seven pm. And
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: it was like, hey, don't, like, maybe don't play on
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Sunday because for whatever reason, this is a quiet day
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: and like you know, like I had rules or whatever.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: But this lady came over and she was like, I'm
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: gonna call the police. I'm gonna call the police, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and my mom's like all right, fine, yeah, we'll we'll
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: take his drum set away. But when he's smashing you
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: your mailbox in and climbing your trees and throwing toilet
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: paper all over the neighborhood, I don't want to hear
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: about it. And the lady was like, okay, that's never mind.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good point. So it was
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: kind of like but but then like my neighbors after
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: not really appreciating it. It's like now I'm playing at
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: like the local pavilions or like you know, I'm doing
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: like these local bar gigs or whatever. Now all of
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a sudden, the neighbors are like, oh, yeah, that's cool.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: You got a musician. Oh that's really neat. I want
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to go to a show. It's like, oh, now you
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: want to go to a show. Right, remember you Linda?
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: It was that her actual name's let's call her out
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: for real. Who was the neighbor you know?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I actually I don't Actually yeah, I don't remember her name.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: It was I remember the house. I'll never forget the house.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: But chances are she's lads. Fine, Yeah, it might have
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: been Linda.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Honestly, definitely at least a Linda, if not a Karen.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, so you like start yeah playing drum
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: set like what like was there were there like maybe
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: bands that you were listening to at that time that
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: were maybe like heavier bands that you were like, oh
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: that maybe that captured your sad like your yea vibe
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: or whatever.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: My parents were never those parents that like if if
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: like if I had to slipnot poster up in my room,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: my mom would be like, oh that's interesting, Well I'm
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: glad you like it, you know, Like it was kind
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of like they knew. They weren't one of those parents
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: that were like, oh, you're gonna worship the devil if
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: you listen to screaming music. They were very aware, but
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: they also like they showed me Alice in chains, you
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like they showed me Pearl Jam.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: They showed me all these like they like, hey, check
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: out Dave Grohl. He was in this Nirvana band and
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: then he's doing food Fighters now, Like isn't this cool?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Like they kind of made it acceptable and made it
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: like a cool thing for me, and so there was
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: never a point that like it didn't click to me
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that like these are different genres, if that makes sense.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Like I was like, oh blank, Win eighty two, Lincoln Park,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Uh whatever. It's like it was all just music to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: me kind of. And I remember the first time I
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: heard it was Lamb of God specifically, they just put
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: out Laid to Rest and I had no idea what
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: like a double bass pedal was. And so I heard
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Laid to Rest and I was like, he's cheating. He's
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: cheating on the drums.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: How is he doing this?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: How is he doing all this stuff with one foot?
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Like that's not He's a liar. And then I look
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: up the band and I see videos and I'm like, oh,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: he's got a double pedal? What the heck is? And
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: it just sent me down a rabbit hole. Now I'm
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: listening to my suga. Now I'm like, what's the heaviest
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: thing I can. I went through like a necrophagious kick
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: for a minute where I was like I need the heaviest,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: darkest thing ever. But it was just it was just interesting.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I just liked extreme stuff, you know, like I wouldn't
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: like clean my room to like a necrophagious song, but
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: as like a as like someone that appreciates something hard,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: something difficult. I found like a lot of like cool
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: things in these genres and kind of started picking like
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the things I liked or the things I didn't like
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: from it, and kind of started like shaping what I
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: wanted to be as a musician. But yeah, it literally
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: started with with Laid to Rest was like the first
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: like metal because I had heard Lincoln Park, but I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: thought it like they were a rock band. They weren't,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It wasn't like guttural heavy
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: like I'm Gonna kill you like kind of vocals. It
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: is kind of it kind of rocks my world.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: It is kind of interesting that it was Lamb of God.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: I don't know if we've ever heard anyone say that
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: their gateway was Lamb of God.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was, it was, you know, yeah, no, that's
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: super yeah, that's super funny. I feel like I was
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit late to the game. Like all my
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: friends they like they had heard of slip Nod or
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: they they knew who Korn was or whatever, and I
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: was just more in like the rock like Blank, Win
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: eighty two, Green Day Sphere. So yeah, it just I
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: just felt like it was like I opened my eyes
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: for the first time. Like I didn't know that this
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: genre existed. I didn't know like extreme drumming was a thing.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't. Yeah, like I I think when when it
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: was Sleeper hit me up to play for them, I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: had to like pul the double bass pedal like out
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of the closet, you know, cause I was in like
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I was like doing like rock stuff. I had to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like re learn double kick for that audition.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: So yeah, well how did how did that whole story
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: with O Sleeper start? Like you said you had an audition,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Like was it something where you like knew of those
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: guys and and they needed a drummer, Like, Yeah, what's
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: the story there of how you got connected with those guys?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it was like a it was like the right thing,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the right place, right time sort of situation. There's this
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: quote where it's like I believe in luck, and the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: It's like I try to stay even as a kid,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I just tried to stay ready because I didn't know
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: what it was going to be. I didn't know who
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it was going to be, but I just knew that,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: like this was the only thing that made sense to me.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It was the only thing that like I could do well.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And I didn't like struggle. I mean, like everyone struggles
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: with like like I gotta learn this fill or you
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: had a practice or whatever. That's like normal, but other
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: things felt like my friends would get into like they'd
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: settle into their careers or they'd settle into like this
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: groove and they and they'd feel really fulfilled by it.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And I never felt that unless I was playing music.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: And so I was my first real job. I was
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: working at a landscaping company, and of course I got
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: fired from it, and so I started street drumming in
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Ocean City, Maryland. As like my job, and my first
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: day of street drumming, I made more money. Like I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: had like the little bucket that you could put like
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: dollar bills in or whatever. I came home and dumped
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: that bucket out in front of my parents and everyone
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: was like everyone's eyes went wide because they was like
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: six hundred dollars in cash, and it's like that's that's
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: my weekly, That's what I was making in a week land.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: So it was like the first time I was like, wait,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I can I can make money playing music? Like what
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: is kind of like a like a like an awakening.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: So I used some of that money to get lessons
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: from a guy named Travis Orbin. He was the original
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: drummer for Periphery. He played for Sky's Airplane for a bit,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and then now he's the drummer for Darkest Hour. So
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I was getting lessons from him, and he knew the guys.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: He knew of the guys in a Sleeper, and so
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: they hit him up and they were like, hey, do
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you want to play for us? And if not, do
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you know anybody that would be interested in it? And
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: he already had his thing established and he was like, well,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I can't, but check out. I have a student named
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Zach check him out. And I think he sent them
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: some like my drumming videos, like like street drumming, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: then I had like a cover. I think it was
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: like a It was actually a periphery cover I put online.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: So they saw these videos and they hit me up,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and like I said, I was nineteen, I had never
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: really left Delaware, and they're like, do you want to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: fly to Texas? And I'm like, fuck it, let's go.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I got on the flight to Texas. I
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: didn't know any of these guys. I didn't because I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: could have showed up and we could have all hated
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: each other, you know, and now I'm stuck stuck in Texas.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: So it was definitely a gamble. But I just I
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: just knew. I just knew that like if hey, man,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: if like maybe this isn't the genre of music that
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you imagined yourself playing, because I really didn't think of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: myself as like a metal drummer or whatever. But I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: was like, oh dude, I'll play polka music if it
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: means I'm out of you know what I mean, I'll
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: play whatever, I'll play country, I'll play just get me
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: out of here?
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Would you play?
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I played with them for the last man, if what's
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: what's the paycheck?
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Like they like pretty much have a monopoly on the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Australian music scene.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean, it's like, yeah,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not a stickler. I'm not one of those guys
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that's like I gotta play like music is music. I
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: had so much fun in jazz band in high school.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I had so much fun in marching band. I've had
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: so much fun with O Sleeper. I just like music.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: It really truly didn't matter what it was.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: So one of the things that we discussed often on
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: this podcast is that you when you join a band, uh,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: A lot of it comes down to not necessarily your talents,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: but it comes down to whether or not you're a
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: good hang. So what was the moment for you with
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: O Sleeper in particular right away where you're like, Okay,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: I'm accepted into this this group of guys, and I
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: find them to be a good hang, and I hope
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: that they find me to be a good hang.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So there's this video game called StarCraft. I don't know
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: if you guys are familiar with this, but okay, excellent, excellent.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: So we were at band practice and uh we we
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: we were getting hungry, and there's a there's a quote
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that happens in the game when you're playing the game
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and you try to build something if you don't have
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: enough like resources to build the item, it'll be like,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: we require more resources, and it's like it's just the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: thing the game does. And so as a joke, I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was like, we're hungry and I was like I require
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: more resources, and everyone kind of stopped and they were like,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: did you just fucking quote StarCraft? Did we just become
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: best friend? Like it was like an immediate like no way,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: did this kid just say that? And then yeah, we
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: just we just hit it off. It turns out like
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: we're all into like like we all read Game of Thrones,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you know, before the movie came out, Like we were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: all like nerds, we like video games, we like that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff, and it's something that we didn't really
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: talk about beforehand. It just kind of happened. Yeah, but yeah,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: we just we've been best friends ever since.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I think it's especially cool to artists you find themselves
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: relating to other art that's not their own medium, you know,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: totally right for sure.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: So one thing that's interesting because it doesn't sound like
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: you really toured prior to like joining O Sleeper Again. Yeah,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: I would imagine like you did like some gigs locally,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and but it doesn't sound like you were like in
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: a band touring. And what's interesting is like a number
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: of the guys in Oh Sleeper came from Terminal, which
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: is also one of my favorite bands of all time,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and so those guys already, well a number of them
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: at least had some established you know, they've been in
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a band before, they've written albums, they've recorded, they've gone
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: on tour, they've done all of that. So with you
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: kind of being brand new to doing tour life and
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: recording and all of that, Like, was that something where
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: you really kind of had to learn on the fly
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: or how comfortable did you feel right away doing all
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: of that? You know, I'm just kind of curious knowing
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: the fact that they were maybe not seasoned veterans at
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: that point, but they at least had done it. Yeah,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: it was.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: It was cool because I I'm the oldest of three
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: in my family and so I didn't really have like
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: an older brother to show me anything, and so when
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I joined the band, they really settled into this. Like
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it wasn't in a way that they were like, hey,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: we know more than you. It was just kind of like, hey,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: let's like we'll show you the ropes man, just like
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: just pay attention. And so it was like I learned.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: That's why I give them the credit that that I do.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: It's it's just because like I don't know if I
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: would have put up with myself now, you know what
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, Like like like I was just this kid
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: that didn't know anything, and they they're like, all right,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: come on, we'll come on, bud, We'll we'll show you
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the way. And so there there was definitely some learning curves.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Like I thought.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I thought, like when you joined a band, I was like, okay, well,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: like where's the bus pick us up at? You know
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: what I mean, Like where's my where's the private jet?
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Like does that?
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Does that pick me up here?
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Do?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Like? Do I have to go to it? And they're
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: like what, Like no, dude, Like you're going to be
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: eating taco bell all day every like that's the only
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: thing we can afford. You're not gonna make any money.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: You can shower once maybe a week if the venue
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: has a shower. Maybe it doesn't, you know, because sometimes
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it's like we played VFW halls like where's the where's
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the green room? And yeah, I thought it was like
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be this like magic
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: carpet ride and in a way. It was just not
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the way I thought it was going to be, you
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. I would come home from tour
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: with five dollars from you know, like we were on
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: tour for a month and I made five dollars and
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I'd come home and my friends would be like, oh,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: it must be nice man. While they're on there, Like
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: they're on they have their salary jobs and they have
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a house and they have a car, and I'm like
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: still living with my mom. It's like, yeah, dude, must
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: be nice. Like you don't really know any of that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: shit though, until like you get in the trenches though,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and it's one one of those things it just kind
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: of separates, Like I quickly saw it separate the people
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that wanted to be in a band versus the people
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: that like love their instrument, right, because it's like if
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: you just want to be in a band and then
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you go in too and you make no money and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you have to eat taco bell and it's not this
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: glamorous lifestyle that you thought it was. It's like, oh,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll maybe I will go back to my day job.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe like maybe this isn't for me, And I think
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that's maybe like a like a feature and not like
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a flaw, you know, because you got to separate like
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the week from the metaphorical chat there. Like it's not
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: for everyone. And there were days where I was like
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: is this for me? Like it was really hard, you
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: know it was. It was really freaking tough. It's like
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to, like I have to go on stage
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and give this performance when I'm like hungry and broke,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and I feel this big because I see all of
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: my peers or all the people I went to school
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: with or whatever, like they're succeeding, they're doing their job,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: they're chasing their dream and I'm trying so hard. But
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: it's it's I don't get the reward that they get.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't get, you know what I mean, Like they
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: got to like go out to dinner and buy their
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: girlfriend's nice things. It's like I couldn't do any of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: that shit right, but it like it makes you. I
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: don't think you like grow by being like comfortable. I
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: don't think you grow by like doing you know, like
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: staying to like the safe and like narrows. I think
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: you have to take these risks and you have to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: be willing to be like a little bit uncomfortable to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: get where you want to be because it like if
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: it was free and easy, everyone would do it right.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Like right right off.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Because now you're living in North Hollywood.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah it's great. I'm broke in LA. It's awesome. No,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it's cool. Yeah, I never, like nineteen year old me
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: would be stoked for thirty six year old me, and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that I'd try to keep that in mind, you know,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like when I have a hard day, I'm like, dude,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: look where you're at, Like shut like shut up, put
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: your head down and keep working right.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Like you're still making music and you're still doing what
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: you love. And yeah, like there's a lot of people.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I'm sure there's a lot of beings that maybe early
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: on you toured with and a lot of those guys
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: had to give up on that dream.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: And oh some of the most talented people I've ever seen,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and you get to still do that, which is really
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: totally hell. Yeah, yeah, I don't take it for granted.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: How did your family respond to you, know, like, nineteen
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: year old you, I would imagine like you're you know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: you grow up, especially being the oldest. I'm the oldest
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: as well, so I like I kind of know that
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: there's like this higher sort of expectation or higher pressure
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: to like be successful and succeed, And so I would
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: imagine to some degree, like you know, then you're going
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: on route on the road and you come back with
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: just like five dollars, and like, does it kind of
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: feel like that you're sort of letting your parents down?
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Did it? Were your parents super supportive throughout that entire time?
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Like I'm just curious where they're just really worried, Like
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: we're sending this nineteen year old kid off to like
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: hang out with these like twenty somethings and he's only
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: coming back with like five bucks in his pocket. Like
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Like just how did they think about
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: that whole experience? For you?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Yes to all of it. It's funny. When I got
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the call I got Mike, it was the one that
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: called me from O Sleeper, and I was I was
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: like driving to like my community college course or whatever.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: They're like, my parents were like, you have to do something,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: so like get a job, go to college, like do something.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And so I'm like it's like ten o'clock in the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: morning or whatever. I'm hating my life and I'm just
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: about to turn into the school when I get this
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: phone call and he's like, Hey, I'm in My name's Micah.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I'm in a band o Sleeper. Are you interested in
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: this gig? I didn't even make it to the parking lot.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I just turned around. I just turned my car around
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and drove straight back home until my parents. I dropped
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: out of college and I'm going on tour. I didn't
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: even audition yet. I didn't like, there was no there
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: was no guarantee of anything. But I was like, this
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: is what I'm doing. And I remember my mom being like,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: cause the pitch from Sleeper was if you if you
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: get this audition. I think it was like we had
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: three weeks before the tour started and the first tour
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that I won on with them was an Australian tour.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: And so at first my parents were like, really, Zach,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: you're going to join another band. Gonna like you're doing
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: this again, because in their mind it's like I'm joining
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I quit college to join like some local bands. And
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I was like no, look and I showed them like
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: they're signed, We're going to Australia, this and that, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: they were like, Okay, if you don't do this, you're
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: stupid like it it like it like flips for them
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: kind of they're like, oh wait a minute, this is
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: like this is actually an opportunity. You should definitely just
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: go see just go. College will always be there, you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: can always get another job. My dad was like, I've
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: worked with people that have been saving up to go
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to Australia for like ten years to take like their
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: significant other there, and they still just haven't found the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: time to do it. You're about to go to play music, go,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: we'll be here. Go And so there was there was support.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: It was it was like a hey, just make sure
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: this is what you want, because we're not like they
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: didn't like we weren't poor growing up, but like we
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: weren't like rich. It was like a normal middle class family.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: But it was like, hey, if you do this, like
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: we're not paying for this, we're not like you can't
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: like go make it yourself. And so it just yeah,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: it just taught me a lot about like how bad
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: do you want it? You know, like I could I
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: could always call my dad, I can always come home,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: like you know. They told me like, hey, if you
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: need a flight, if things aren't going well, if you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: need to get out of this. Of course, we'll be
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: there for you, but like this is your bed and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you got to lay in it like you you made
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: your bed, and but having that like pressure, it was
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: just like okay, it's time to go. Like I needed
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that pressure. Like I don't think I would have if
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: I knew there was like a safety unit if I knew.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I didn't, you know what I mean, like, oh, here's
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: your here's your food. You're you're fed, You're you're not hungry,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Like I needed to be hungry. I needed to like
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: have that to really see if I wanted it. I
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: will always appreciate them for like quote unquote like allowing
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: me that that opportunity.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: For sure, that's awesome. It's great when you have like
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: parents that support you in that way and and also
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: like still give you the like they also train you
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: in a way where it's like, all right, this is
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: your responsibility for you to like you know that you
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: like you know that they're gonna love you and they're
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: gonna care for you regardless, but like they also are
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: like this is your responsibility, Like you're an adult now,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: like you got to figure this shit out for yourself too,
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: exactly exactly. Yeah, Well one thing that I'm just curious
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: about with Like it's because it sounds like, uh, before
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: you got into a Sleeper, you hadn't heard of them before.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing like I hadn't.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so like and I don't know what your I know,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: you mentioned like some of the bands that like some
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: of the metal bands that you grew up with, you know,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: like Lamb of God and My Sugar and uh, like
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: I'm just curious like with that whole Solid State world
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and like that whole scene, like what what did you
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: have any familiarity with like any of those types of
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: bands or like the kind of that like Solid State scene,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Like was that anything you were aware of at that
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: time before joining?
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hadn't heard of a Sleeper, But I knew
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: about August Burns red there because I'm from the East
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Coast and they're East Coast boys, and so I like
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I knew them, and and like Matt's drumming was like
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: that's that's another drummer where it's like I go back
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and it's like I would And he was doing all
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: this stuff on like a splash symbol and he had
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: his bells and all this, and I just I didn't hear.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't hear drummer doing that beforehand, so I was like, oh,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: that's really cool. And I look it up and like
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: their own solid State or whatever, and and then this
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: band hits me up and I'm like, oh, you're on
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: solid State too, Like oh, that must mean like you
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: guys are the same thing, right, and like no, but
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: in my brain that's you know, like that's how it works.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I was like, I knew of the Chariot. I knew
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of like these like there's like this Christian metal core
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: movement thing that was happening back then, and uh so
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I like I knew of it, but I wasn't really
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: like in it, if that if that makes sense.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: So once you're in it, so what was like your sorry,
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: my network is struggling, I think a little bit. Again,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: So once you're in it, uh, this is a little
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: bit maybe different kind of atmosphere than maybe what you
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: were used to in other bands and things like that.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's this this overarching theme of Christianity and
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: things like that. Was that something that you struggled with
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: or dealt with fine? Or was it was it weird?
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Or how would you maybe like describe that whole art over.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: It was an interesting it was funny. Like one of
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: my pitches to my parents was like, no, they're a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Christian band, it's safe, right. And then like I go
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: on tour with these guys and we're just drinking whiskey
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: from the bottle and I'm like, oh, whoa hold on,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Like is this like communion?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Like what is this holy water?
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I don't like what's going on?
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And I at the time I considered myself like a Christian.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: It's just like you only know what you know, right,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Like this was just what I grew up around, and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I never really like thought of it on my own.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: And so one of the craziest questions that anyone's ever
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: asked me. But I played a show with O Sleeper
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: and this kid comes up to me and he's like,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: hey man, what's your favorite Bible verse?
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what if?
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: What's my what? But he was serious, you know what
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, Like I I didn't want to like laugh
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: in his face or whatever. I just I was like, oh,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: what a question. But then I thought about it and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I was like, actually, I don't I've never read the Bible.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: So I go home and I read the Bible and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: That's when I start asking all these questions. That's where
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, hold on, if you know, like if
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the if the earth was made before the sun, how
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: does that How do I explain that scientifically? Because that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't that goes against everything that right. I just started
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: asking all these questions and I've arrived at like I think.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I think like religion can be like really like a
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: good thing for some people, you know what I mean,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Like some people need that in their life. But I
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: don't find myself like being one of those people. And
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Shane in O Sleeper, he doesn't believe in God either.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: So it was an interesting dynamic. Like we wrote like
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Reveries of Flight as a song that they actually wrote
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: directly about that. It's like there's two voices and Mike
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: is speaking from the position of like, if God was real,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: he would love you, and then Shane is talking from
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the position of like, well, if he loves me, where
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the hell is he? Why don't like? And and so
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: it was never it was never weird. It was never
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: like a hey man, we need to talk. If you're
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: not going to be a Christian, you can't because like
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: bands have done that, like we I know, bands that
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: like will kick members out for not being Christians. And
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that was never. It was always just like, hey, just
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: be a good person, Like if if Jesus was a
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: real person he hung out with like the poor people,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: he hung out with the prostitutes and the disenfranchised or whatever.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: He wasn't like kicking it in Beverly Hills with Jeff
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Bezos or whatever. So it's like like, and that's like
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the people like like Garrett from Silent Planet. He's another
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: great example of like, if all Christians were like these people,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I don't think we'd see a lot of like the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: hatred that we'd see sometimes emanating from from these people
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: or whatever. But yeah, it was never it was just acceptance.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: It was like, hey, man, whatever you want to believe,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to do, we love you. We want
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: you to be in this band, like and it led
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: to great conversations like I've never been able to talk
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: like normally when you ask a Christian like, hey, well
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: what about this or what about that, and they can't
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: answer it. They take it as like an attack on
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: like their right person. But with Mike, it was he
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: would just be like, honestly, man, I don't know that's
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a really good question, right, Like I was like, Oh,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: this is blowing my mind. Like I can talk openly
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: about these things and it's not weird, there's no judgment.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Like it was like revolutionary for me as a kid.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Colin and I both grew up you know, super Christian,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: you know, in the youth group world, and so that's
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: like a huge reason why we got into solid State
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: bans and why some of our favorite bands still are
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Solid State bands. And one of the things I always
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: noticed about, Oh, Sleeper was the fact that, like as
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: much as like like you alluded to the fact that
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: there are those like Christian metal bands where like they're
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: super preachy. They they're the ones that would kick a
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: member out if they weren't Christian or whatever. And one
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: of the things that, even like when I was super
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: like a conservative Christian, one of the things I always
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: appreciate about ole In Micah was the fact that it
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: never felt overly preaching. It certainly never felt like he
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: was the kind of Christian singer that had all the answers,
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Like he seemed like somebody who was really thoughtful and
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: was willing to question his own beliefs to doubt, and
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: that was something I picked up early on before I
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: would even even been aware of like, oh that, like
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: that's maybe an important part of being a person of
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: faith is like maybe questioning and doubting some of your beliefs.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: And one of the cool things about oh sleeper in
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Micah was the fact that I think I appreciated that
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: even before I was aware that I could appreciate that.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he he. I looked up to these guys so much.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I just thought they were like these like unstoppable forces
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: of nature. And then to see him be vulnerable, to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: see him be like to open up about these things
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: that like because I'm sure y'all can relate. It's like
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: when when we were little, it was just like rub
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: some dirt on it. Your feelings don't matter. Be a man,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: don't ask questions, like shut up. And then I see
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: this guy that I look up to and he's like, no,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. I don't have the answers
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and that and that's it's okay to not have the answers.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Who's expecting you to have all the answers? That's who
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: has all the answers? Like that's I just never Yeah,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: just kind of opened my eyes and and kind of
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: taught me how to be like a normal person in
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a way, because I think when you're raised in that,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: back in that bubble of like the super hardcore Christian world,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: you almost like you it's hard to be a normal
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: person totally right, Like you don't you don't know how
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: to interact with people that have different beliefs. But when
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: you get out into the real world, it's like everyone
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: has their own beliefs. And that was kind of core.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: MICA's thought process was like, I don't care if you're
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: a Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, whatever. I want you to
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: come to the show and get something good from it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I don't want you to feel ostracized. I don't want
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: you to feel left out just because like we happen
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: to believe in a different whatever. Like that's silly, and
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I just I just thought that was badass, man.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: I just like absence, Like that's cool. Absolutely, yeah, that's awesome.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Well let's talk about uh yeah, so obviously, like oh Sleeper,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: you guys release Children and a Fire. But that was
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: like twenty eleven, still still by far my favorite O
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Sleeper album. I think I played that, I played that
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: thing religiously mowing the lawn all the time. So good. Uh.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: And then you know, obviously I think there was the
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: EP that came out, and then you guys were on
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: hiatus for a while, then came back, made that album
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, and then here we are now twenty
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: twenty six, and it was like maybe a week ago
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: I scrolled through Facebook or Instagram or whatever and see
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: oh Sleeper's back. Uh and uh yeah, Like, what's what's
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: that whole process been? Like? Was it something where you
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: guys were like, you know what, we're just gonna like
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: take a break, or was it something where you're like, well, nope,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: we're actually done and then now we're back, Like, yeah,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: what's the whole story of I almost kind of coming
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: back and making this album.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: I almost wish we did break up because we never
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: really like we kind of just faded away, you know
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: what I mean. And I've seen it where like when
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: bands announced like a hard breakup and then they have
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: like a hard comeback, it creates all this hype because
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh shit, they're back. We're like, we never
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: got to do that. But it's it's like we we realized,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: we realized that like, we're not gonna be like the Beatles.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna be you know what I mean, Like
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: we're not gonna be this like massive thing. And so
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: we kind of had to retool our life around it
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: because we didn't want to give it up. We didn't
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: want to stop doing it, but like what if I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: have kids one day? How am I going to pay
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: for their school?
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Like I am?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I Like, this is obviously not going to do that.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: So it was kind of bumming us out when it's
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: like we'd be so burnt out. We would you know,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: we'd tour nine months out of the year or whatever,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and then it's like we'd have bills come up or
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Christmas is coming up or whatever, and it's like, all right, guys,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: we got to book this tour because we gotta. We
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: got bills to pay. And then we'd come home and
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: still kind of not be able to pay the bills,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and it's like what are we doing? Like we started
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to like hate it, and then so we were like,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: well what if we there's there's this Are you familiar
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: with the term minmax It's like a gamer, it's like
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: a nerdy culture. It's like you minimize the shit that
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you don't want, and you maximize that you do. And
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: we kind of took that approach to the band where
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: it was like, what if we got jobs that allowed
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: us to tour and then we didn't care about the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: money of touring. Okay, we all got jobs, we took
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: our pto or whatever, and then we'd go on tour.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: And now it's like, it doesn't matter if five kids
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: show up or five hundred kids show up. I'm still
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: gonna play my drums as hard as I can because
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I like drumming. And it took the like we have
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to make money thing out of it, and it just
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: like we're just on stage smiling and it didn't matter.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: The crowd didn't matter, the merch sales didn't matter, all
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: that other shit that like it's just noise. It's like,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: why are we here. We're here for the music, right,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: We're here for the connections that we make with people,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Like when kids come up to us at the end
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: of the show and they're like, dude, your music saved
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: my life. It's like, how do you put a freaking
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: price on that? Like totally, And so yeah, we just
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: kind of like reshaped it in a way that like
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: we could still do it, and it was more of
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: a passion project than like our soul source of income,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and that that changed how the band operates a lot,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: like music became like fun again, like we got to
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: like refall in love with it. And that's kind of
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: how we ended up here because we were on tour
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: with bad Omens when the pandemic hit and we I remember,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: we we just put this big merch bill or merch
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: order in because we were like at the time we
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: had never been on like a like a tour that
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: was doing that well. We're like, oh my god, we're
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: we're selling more than two t shirts a night, like
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: this is incredible. So we put this like twenty thousand
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: dollars merch order in. WHOA a week later, COVID happens.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Everything gets shut down, like the tours just can't national emergency.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Everything's done. So we're twenty grand in debt now on
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: this tour that was supposed to be like our big
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: comeback thing, and it just it just like killed it
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: just killed the hype. But you know, we we went
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: home and we were kind of defeated. And then a
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: couple months later, Shanes me, Shane sends me this like
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: song idea, and I'm like, what is this, Shane. He's like,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I was thinking this could be like the single for
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the new album, new album. It's like, even at our
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: worst point, we still wanted to write, we still wanted
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: to make music. It didn't Matt, like, Okay, the tour
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: got canceled. Who gives a shit? Like does that undo
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: everything that you've been excited for the last sixteen years?
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Like no, it doesn't. Like this is not ideal obviously,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: but like we've been through worse, and so it just
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: kind of became this thing that like it just feels
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: like the even when the universe is trying to like
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: stomp it out, we're still like, actually, no, we're not
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: done yet. So it's like it's like, uh like it's
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: like we're like force of willing this into existence kind
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: of even with us doing this album. I just got
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: back from Virginia. I flew in Monday night. I got
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: in at like eleven. We worked for like two hours,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: so now it's like almost one We wake up at
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: a eight am track from eight am to one pm
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: or one am. Sorry wow, yeah, eight am to one am,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and then I flew home Wednesday to do some stuff
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: with those Sleep or with Day Seeker, and it's like
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: it's this like whirlwind. It's it's this chaos of like
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: we got so much shit going on, but we still
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: all made time for it. We still all like because
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: we care about it so much. And it's like, I
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: know that this album isn't gonna like it's not gonna
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: buy me a house, it's not gonna get me a
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: new car. But it's like it's like I said, it's
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: just noise, Like I don't like one day I'm gonna
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: be dead, right, and then these albums are the only
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: thing that will remain of what I've done, and that
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: to me is like so much deeper and meaning more
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: meaningful than like a check, like who gives a ship?
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Like money comes and goes like it doesn't like doesn't
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you know that doesn't matter?
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, as long as you can eat and as long
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: as you can continue to live another day, right, you
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: still get oh yeah, still get to uh, you know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: express yourself in the way that you want to, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: that's that's what matters. You're living life on your own terms.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Right exactly exactly, And it's it's it's weird the way
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: it's shaped up. You know, it's not a normal life,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I like, I miss a
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: lot of birthdays, I miss a lot of like get togethers.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not there for holidays, you know, Like I've missed
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Christmas because of this stuff. But would I change any
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: of it? Like, absolutely not. I do it again in
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: a heartbeat, right, Yeah.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: How did the whole day Secret thing happen? Like, you know,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: because they had been a band for a little while
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: before before you join, and it was like twenty twenty two,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: so yeah, by that point, I'm guessing, like you know
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: that the O Sleeper album came in twenty nineteen. You
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: said the tour you know, ends abruptly because of COVID,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: and then it must not have been like that much longer.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: You probably get a call from those guys from day
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Syacrime guessing. Yeah, I was.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I was managing a restaurant in California at the time,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and Rory just kind of like randomly slid in my DMS.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: He was like, hey, man, like are you still drumming?
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, what's up? And he's like,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: we need a drummer. Are you interested? It was like
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the same situation as but you know, it's like they
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: like because with O Sleeper, the drummer quit like three
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: weeks before the tour was supposed to happen, so they're
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: like they're scrambling. It's kind of the same deal with
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: with Day Seeker. They needed to do a tour and
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: their drummer he just he just couldn't do it. He's like,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I sorry, I can't, like I have things going on
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I just I just can't do this tour.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: So Rory hit me up. He's like, hey, are you interested.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I had one rehearsal with those guys pretty much, and
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: it was almost the same thing. Like I just walked
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: into the room and we all were just like it's
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: like the Spider Man meme. We're like, are you cool?
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Are you You're cool? We're cool, Like we all just
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: it just clicked. Yeah, you know, literally like we all
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: just got along and we clicked and then yeah, it
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: just kind of it just made sense to keep going.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Like the the drummer they had before me. It was
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: just like I think he I think he likes writing
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: music more than he liked touring. I don't think he
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: enjoyed that aspect of it, you know what I mean.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: And it hit a point where they were like, hey,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: like you can't keep missing tours, Like we're gonna like
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you got to do this or not do this, you
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. And so yeah, it was another situation.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I just quit my job and crossed my fingers and
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you know, here we are.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: It worked out for sure. Well with that said, then
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: let's jump into your top five most influential albums. So, yeah,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: the albums that maybe have shaped you as a person
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: or a musician.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Like I said, the Late to Rest by
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Lamb of God, that blew my mind. I'd never heard
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: an album like that before. Under the Table in Dreaming
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: by Dave Matthews Band. That drummer is just nasty. Like
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I don't like, say whatever you want about the music.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Carl Beaufort is out of his freaking mind. That's such
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: a tasty Like if I if I could be a drummer,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I'd want to be him. Just in the pocket Tasty
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Phills plays for the song I Love it and I'm
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: of the State blankwin Ey two. That was just it
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: was like good drum tones. It was like I'd never
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: heard of like a drummer. He was doing like hip
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: hop beats over like pop punk stuff, like no one
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: was doing that at the time.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's one of those few artists. I mean
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: there's been others like this, but like Travis has been
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: one of those artists that has remained relevant for so
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: we like he's still making music with like gen Z
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: or even like you know, younger bands, like bands that
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: are like really getting into the scene now. And so
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: it's really cool like how he sort of transcended eras
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: in yeah a cool way.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: And it's like at the time too, like drummers weren't
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: really the focus of bands, and so to see people
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: talk about Blakeuin e Dy two and like Travis was
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: kind of the front man in a lot of ways, right,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: I just I just thought that was badass. And then
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: met Hybrid Theory by Lincoln Park. I mean, it's on
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: it's on everyone's list, right, Yeah. Yeah, those were those
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: were the big ones for me growing up.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: For sure. Those are great albums, I mean, and you
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: can definitely hear that in your drumming obviously No Sleeper
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: and to some degree even day Seekers. So that's that's
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: super sick that I appreciate that there's just like like
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: very rarely do you get a Lamb of God album
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: and a Dave Matthews album in the same breath. That's
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: that doesn't happen very often.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's pretty good.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Cool, sweet, Well, Zach, what do you want to plug? Obviously,
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: new O Sleeper albums coming out soon? Obviously the day
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Seeker album came out last year. So yeah, what what
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: do you what do you want to plug? Yeah, yeah,
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: so yeah, O.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Sleeper's got a new album coming out. We'll probably have
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: a single out in a couple of months here, get
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the album out by the end of the year. Day
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Seekers about to go on tour with Motionless and White
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: in Europe. If you're on the other side of the world,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: come say hi. If you're not, Day Seeker is doing
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: a headlining tour with north Lane. I think that's in April.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: Love those guys are fun.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to watch them every night, like I
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: cannot wait. Yeah, but trying to stay busy, you know.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Love it. I'm I'm I'm excited for all the music
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: coming out again, like love day Seeker and we've loved
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: O Sleeper for so long and so it's just really
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: really an honor honestly, for us to be able to
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: talk to somebody who has U you know, their music
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: has been a part of our lives for so long,
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: so it doesn't happen very often, so it's it's real.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: It's always really cool for us when we get to
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: chat with somebody who has made really important music in
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: our life.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Man, thank you guys so much for having me. This
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: is really fun. Yeah, it means a lot.