Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Joshua Roberts of Magnolia Park

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Joshua Roberts of Magnolia Park. Since unleashing their debut album in 2019, Magnolia Park have pointed ahead, combining emo-soaked rock with ambitious world-building. But though their sound is rooted in classic pop punk, their music has taken a darker turn over the years. Lately, the band have been fixated on nü metal, embracing the heaviness to tell a bigger story with their upcoming neo-gothic concept album VAMP.  In a conversation with Madden, the Magnolia Park frontman explains his love of anime, racism in rock music, and being the hero of your own story. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? I'm Joel Madden, and this is artist-friendly. On this episode, I'm talking to musician, songwriter, and the lead singer from the band Magnolia Park, Joshua Roberts. Let's go. If I'm not smoking on gas, I'm smoking out piv. That's my kind. I don't want no bad times.

I don't want to have bad. Yeah, I'm good, man. Another day. Where are you coming from? From, like, today? Are you in town or do you live here? I'm in town for like the week. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. doing some writing sessions with a few producers and stuff like that's cool yeah who you're working with uh tiny sky accord cool uh hiram i always i always forget his last name and i'm so sorry hiram yeah that's what we call him that's what we call him iroar him yeah goldstein working with him cool uh and then jeres johnson cool and boy wonder yeah that's good you having fun yeah yeah it's a lot of fun a lot of fun it's gonna be a lot of songs that we have to siphon through but that's the name of the game how many songs do you guys usually do for an album is it different every time. It's kind of different every time. I like, um, because we have albums that are, that we call

mixtape sometimes. Yeah. So for those, they're normally like 12, 12-ish songs. And then we have, like, the actual albums that we do on top of that, which are like 10. But to get to the 10, how many do you write? Oh, dude. For this session, for these sessions alone, could be working on this album for like about a year now. I think we have upwards, we've been writing upwards of like 80 songs. Oh, wow. So you have a bunch. You actually could do like three. album. Yeah. Yeah. I might do that, honestly. All those songs. Oh, man. It's crazy because, like, we have five writers in the band. Like, everyone writes. So it's like everyone's writing songs. Everyone like, oh, this is cool. Let's see what happens. Let's see what, let's see what's left on,

like, on the kitchen floor, whenever things done. How do you guys decide? Is it a democracy? Definitely a voting system for sure. Like, yeah, like majority rules type of thing. We want to make sure that the album's always is best. So, like, we have to chuck our egos at the door. instantly. We're like, all right, we might have demo ideas. You might like have, someone might have written like more parts on one song on the other. Right. Throw it out the door. Right. We have to see what's going to sound good, what's going to be cohesive with the album. So like we always have to be like, cool, do that. And we also have like a couple of producers in the room. We also want their input

as well. Yeah. Yeah. So like, hey, they have a vote as well. So it's kind of easier to pick. And then we have like the family over at Epitaph. I would also pick as well. That's good. Everyone's, everyone's picking. Like everyone has, has a vote and everything. So it's pretty cool. I think epitaph is one of the labels that I feel still has like, and I'm not a label hater by any means. I've found there's always good people out there depending on which label they're at any given time. But I do think that epitaph still has this like kind of culture around like records and music and wanting good records and they're fans of records. Yeah, I feel like epitaph just keeps it real. Yeah. Yeah, they keep it really real. Um, I haven't, we haven't,

dealt with other labels. Okay. Epitaph is the only label that we've been on. So it's like, so like the only experience that we have is just good experiences. Yeah, that's good. It's all good for us. That's good. Every artist, the journey of how they get to where they're at is different for everyone, but it's nice when you can find a partner that you like, that you work with for a long time. That's nice. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, we also says a lot about you guys. Yeah, man, like, like, loyalty is key for us, man. Like, we went with, with Epitaph for, what, two and a half, almost three years now. Oh, that's good. That's real. So like it's just been like nonstop working with them and it's like they give us a lot to to do whatever we kind of want like to branch out and just kind of see

what we can do. So we love that independence, but also we love their input at the same time. It's like it's a good duality. I would say, yeah. How long have you been to been? Since 2019? That's good. Yeah. It's doing good. Yeah. It was crazy because our first show, our first like big show was going to be a hospital with Orlando. And literally the day. that we're supposed to play it, COVID happened. Right. Everything shut down. So we were like, all right.

There was like a block in there of time that you were a band, but you weren't. Yeah. Do anything. But that's when we like, we took like a week to think about what we were going to do. And then we just really wanted to blow all right, cool. We can't go out. But social media is still a thing. TikTok was thriving like really, really hard.

So we're like, let's just see what happens. And from there, it just started blowing up like crazy and never looked back. Because we, now we were able to do both, like being a band going out and doing tours. but also still being content-oriented and doing everything we can with that. I mean, you have to. Yeah. Like, that's just anybody that's in the business

of making music for a living, right? Because that's the weird part, right? Is like, I got to do something that I love for people that I kind of come to love, right? These fans, the fan base that you will continue to grow. Yeah. You feel like beholden to their opinion of you. And, you know, you have to walk the line of caring for that.

while also making artistic decisions that you believe in. That's an interesting relationship, but it's important. And then also you have to, modern radio is TikTok, Instagram, and social content. That's modern radio. Those platforms are where people are going to listen, discover, interact with. And so if you don't acknowledge that, then you're just like, you're not coming to terms with what you do for, you know, for your life. Yeah, I feel like people do themselves a disservice.

by not tackling social media while also doing the music. I see a lot of bands kind of like just be like, oh, we're not going to do that. Like that's not us, but I'm like, sure, okay. Like, your fans are there, so you probably should be doing the same thing. Absolutely. And maybe one out of a thousand might do that really well, not do it really well.

But that's all, like, to me, those are the few rare cases. And if you want to, if you want to be that band, I, whatever. But I do think that, like, you have to find your. version of it. Yeah. And do it. I think you guys do it really well. Oh, thank you. That's part of your growth. Yeah. I think for us too, like it helps because like we have so many like different skill sets in the band. Right. Like we have videographers in the band. We have, um, producers in the band. Like, so we have a lot of things that we can just be like, all right, let's sit down. Let's create a strategy and let's just see how we can do it. That's very cool. You guys are handy. Yeah. Yeah. You're resourceful.

Yeah, like we would see a trend pop up on TikTok. We're like, all right, cool. All right, this is how we do it? So how are we going to do this for our, how are we going to do this? But apply it to our music. Yeah. And still make it cool. On each different little situation, you got the one guy who's got a good idea and you're all like, yeah, run with it.

That's cool. Yeah. There's the like trust aspect of that too with working together. But that's cool. I can see why you guys are successful. You know, I always wonder that. Like when I see a band coming up, I always wonder. So success over time is not a.

Luke. It's work. It's just work. So I always say where anyone listening like that has something they're trying to do in life. I think it's aim upwards and try every day and then get more intelligent and more organized as you learn what you're doing. Yeah. That's that that sweat equity right there. Yeah, you put in those hours and then you get better. Like people start noticing that you're growing. And from there, like that following becomes a family. And that's one part. Yeah. But the music has to be good. Yes, for sure. So if you were, listen, there's plenty of other bands that are doing what you guys are doing, for sure.

Yeah. But if the music isn't what it is, it might not have the same result as good music in one part. A resourceful group of driven guys who can actually work together with effort is some version of success. Yeah. And then as you go down the road, as a group, you expand because you have, you know, your label partner comes aboard. You have your management team, you have this, that, this, that. And you just keep expanding at the right pace. But it never changes in the idea that you have to put that effort forward every single day.

It's just like another brick in the wall. Oh, yeah. You know? Yeah, I mean, like, even if that's like, yeah, we're out here writing and stuff like that. But like at the same time, we're like, all right, cool. We got like a couple hours. Let's do some content at the same time. Yeah.

Like, let's just find a spot. Let's just walk around and do some content. Yeah. What else can we do? Yeah. It's like we don't want to sit down and idle our stuff. So we always want to be like, all right, cool. This is cool.

This is what we're doing is tight. But we need to do more. We don't ever feel like we've done enough. So we always have to be like, all right, cool, us. All right. The song's done. Album's done. Cool.

Album's out. Let's get back in the studio. Let's write some more. Yeah. Like we always feel as if like we're not done. Like that's that mamba mentality. We feel like. Yes.

It's like, yeah, jobs are done. So we got to keep going. Why do you think some bands are afraid of that? Is it perception? I think it's, I think it is perception. I think some bands feel like if they put out too much music or too much content, then people are going to get tired of them and that people aren't going to care as much. But we look at it as today's day and age, a lot of people who are on TikTok, who are on reels, who are on like just social media in general, they can see the same thing over and over and over again with just different people. And it still has the same effect.

so why not have that same mindset as a band or a musician or an artist or a painter or a photographer or anything like that to keep doing it like if some people don't like it all right whatever that's cool but someone else is going to like it like someone else is going to be like wow that that that touched me in the way today that made me think that made me that that made me like shift what I was thinking about myself so keep doing it yeah yeah like don't stop but A lot of artists are like, well, our album's out. Let's just tour on the album, which is good. That's what people have done for years.

Let's just tour on the album. But then they don't talk about it. Right. They just tour. They don't realize how much power they have in their own hands. It's like they got to wait to talk about it somewhere when you could be talking about it every day. I also think I found this in my own experience is I didn't know I cared what people thought until people thought. Yeah.

Right? Like I worked my ass off and then I got some success. And then I got to, I was like, you know, just, we were just going, going, going. Not to say we ever stopped because we've always been pretty industrious. But I did find myself at certain moments caring like, well, if I try too hard, people will think I care too much. And in my youth, I think I had a couple moments like that that I had to get over because the truth of the matter is that I care. And I do care. and I do want to succeed.

So I think come into terms with being honest with people and going like, no, I actually just want to be successful as successful as I can possibly be. And yeah, I don't know and even know what that means. I just know that I want to keep going harder, trying harder, and I do care about succeeding. I do care about the result. I do care that this record does well. I do care that people like it.

And I think I struggled at certain moments with realizing, I think, when we got to certain places where people would talk. And there's always going to be ebbs and flows of people's approval. The more people that like you, there's certainly going to be another crowd of people that didn't even know you existed that now hate you. And there's like all this opinions and all that. And I think coming to terms with the attention aspect of what we do is a part of the process of like growing into your shoes as an art.

that's like going like that. Yeah. You know, you're not just doing that or doing that. You're doing this over time. And you got to kind of grow into every kind of level of what's like what's happening. Yeah. I think for us, because we always talk about this because like we get a lot of hate. Really?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I always thought everyone liked you guys. A lot of people do like us. But we also have those, those groups of people like, oh, he's a, he's a black dude in rock music. And we're like, dude, like, at the end of the end of the day, we're like, if we have hate, that means we're doing something good. Yeah, absolutely.

Like, if everyone loved us, I feel like something's wrong. Right. Like, there's, like, no hate comments or anything like that. Like, I was expecting so much hate whenever, like, we did, like, our Disney cover, for example. Which song did you guys do? We did eye to eye from a goofy movie.

Cool. Yeah, and it was... I love that. It was cool, but it was weird. That was, like, the one song that we did that there was almost no hate. Oh, well? So, we were like, you people fucking hate us. Like, all.

offer it because we were like, there is no way no one doesn't like this. But we have to learn that like if someone hates you or like hates what you're doing, that means you're doing something right. It's either out of, it's either out of fear that like something is changing and that they don't like it or it's just they had a bad day and they want to, they want to hate on someone and obviously you're putting yourself out there. So you're an easy target. And that's just something that we had to learn. And like, even with me, Again, being a black lead singer, it's also a lot of racist shit that always happens. Right.

So I'm almost like, all right, cool. I'm going to react, but not in a way that people expect because if I react negatively to the hate, it's only going to fuel the fire. It's going to encourage people to do it more. So instead, we're just like, all right, cool. You're going to talk about me not rapping or me looking like another successful black artist. Right.

Cool. I'm going to respond by posting that same song with your comment on there. You're going to have your little five seconds of fame, but I'm also capitalizing off of that. Thank you for that. And that's something that a lot of artists and a lot of people who are doing content need to start doing. Don't, don't like answer the hate with hate or like negative views. It's be like, all right, cool. I'm going to take your hate and I'm going to spin it to make sure that you understand that you're stupid.

And I'm doing something that I love and I'm passionate about. and you're just going to have to sit here and watch it again. Right. I want to ask a good question here because I care about it. Does any part of you ever feel the word frustrated isn't even really cover it that you have to, I mean, the fact that you just explain that in such a positive way. Yeah. You framed it in such a positive way that it makes me, I mean, it makes me even more of a fan of you.

But that being said, like the fundamental idea. that you have to even think about that, decide about how you respond to that. Does any part of you feel kind of like perpetually frustrated that you even have to deal with that? Oh yeah, 100%. And how do you personally, outside of work, outside of showing up and being the best lead singer you can be

and going forward? I understand your resilience and your, I can see it already. like just within 15 minutes of talking to you, I understand who you are as a guy working and going towards his dreams and his goals. So that's one part of who you are, right? The drive we have is part of our success, right? It's like we're athletes. We want to be in the game. Oh yeah. I've always said that, like, put me in the real game. So I've always been driving towards that and I don't want to play the little game. I want to play the big game. Oh yeah. And so our drive

will cause us to problem solve, be resilient, and stomach things that aren't great. I know in the beginning, when I first started getting those type of comments, I was like, what is everyone talking about? Like, I'm not the first black person to do rock music. There's Chuck Berry, there's Prince, there's Trivian McCoy. Absolutely. So many other like artists out here that like that have touched the mic, have touched the guitar who are black. This isn't like a new thing. Right. So I was very confused. But then after a while, I was just, I did get mad.

I got really angry. I was like, why is this like the talking point of like, of our music? Like I'm not saying, oh, yeah, like, I'm black so listen to my music. I'm like, in most of our content, I don't even talk about race at all. I know that. Yeah, I see it. I just do my music. I do what needs to be done, which is show my art.

and if people resonate with my art, then I love it. If not, then I mean, good luck next time, I guess, right? But, like, even, I had to think about it in a way of saying, like, all right, cool, they're saying this online, but yet they don't say it in person. Right. They don't come to my face and I don't say this stuff.

Right. It's a place they can hide and say things they wouldn't otherwise say. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I'm just like, all right, cool, you're behind the keyboard. You're behind your phone. You're saying this.

But, like, are you really going to say it to someone in person. I mean, respect to you if you do. But like, if you're just saying it behind the screen, and I'm like, I'm not even worried about it anymore. It's like, say what you want to say. I know my truth. I know the person that I am. I know my resolve. I know why I'm doing this.

And whatever you're doing, whatever is going through your life, that makes you think that saying like a racist comment is cool, then I'm just like, well, maybe this scene isn't for you. Like, maybe you bow out on this one. Nowadays, I don't even have to say anything. Like if someone sees a racist comment, like, the people that we have accumulated through our music will be like, you're wrong for this. What are you like, like they will go after that person.

I don't have to do that anymore, which I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that now the community is growing. There's more people like me who are coming up in the scene and who are really showing out. Because I mean, I've even had these racist comments. from people of my own color. Being like, oh, why are you listening to white music? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?

It was like, white music. Yeah. You listen to Prince, bro. Like, you listen to Michael Jackson's bad album. Right. That's a rock album. If we go back actually to the foundational beginnings of, like, rock and roll, it was black music.

Yeah. And that's just how it. That's just the facts. Like Little Richard, Chuck Barry. It's just the facts. Like, everyone always forget slash is black. Like, and he's one of the best to do it. And it's like, everyone's, like, everyone's,

always talking about why you listen to this style of music like probably because I like it. Yeah. And you know, on one hand, I kind of like go, why are we still talking about this? On the other hand, I think it's good we are. Oh yeah, 100%. Because we have to, you know, the most important thing that people can do is ask, what does it feel like to be someone else? So this is my number one question I always have whenever I talk to anyone is I actually just want to know what it feels like to be you. Because that's what I'm curious about. And that's through all the aspects of what it means to be you from the band. And then usually with successful music, there is some stuff there.

There's some childhood or some life that was lived that gave you content to share. And so what I find most of the time is with people whose music I like, there's some aspect of their life that was either hard. There was real challenge. There was real adversity in some way. On the opposite of that, some people, they had this really love. loving environment, which is another thing that I'm really interested about. I had a very hard childhood. And I'm not proud of that. I'm proud of what I've done. I always say like, people say, you did it because you, because of that. And I'm like, no, actually, I did it despite that.

Yeah. A hundred or a hundred percent. Yeah. Plenty of people become drug addicts or become this or that. And I have empathy for them. I'm not judging anyone. But to come out of a tough situation and and thrive is despite of the tough situation. It's not because of it. Yeah. I believe if I had two loving parents who were there and they had the tools to support me and they had the resources and all that, I would be even further in life. Yeah.

Because I had to go to therapy and do all the work on myself and all the different ways and search for personal growth to actually get my arms around my life. Music at first was like an escape and I was running away. Yeah. And then I learned that I thought I was going to something good for good reason. I was going to something good. And some of it was a good reason, but some of it was a bad reason to escape the reality of what I needed to deal with, which was like lots of trauma and lots of stuff.

So it's not that I don't think people should be successful and get away from their problems. That's not it at all. Success can be a great way to grow. But I still think people got to go back and unpack all the shit. to make sense of it so that they can be like a whole person and be in their real life and live in their real life. So empathy is, and the idea, like, if I can understand what it feels like to be someone, I can have a more connected idea of them and me, no matter how different we are. And I just think that we aren't necessarily, we've never been in a culture that puts that first. We are in a

culture that thrives on separating everyone. And we always have been. It's like just get groups against each other. And then the guys who are controlling those groups are the big winners. And the rest of us are just the dummies. Pretty much. I mean, yeah, that's just how like culture, culture is these days, for sure. But I've always been interested because I know I've watched you guys come up over the last

few years. And I've had a sense of this. But to sit with you is really nice because it gives me real context for. for like the people that I kind of just know through their music. This is why I love this show. For me, this is my like favorite thing I do because I get context every day

when I talk to someone on the music that I've heard and the idea that I had of them or whatever. But did you grow up in Florida? Yeah, yeah, for the most part. What was that like? It was, it was weird because I wasn't, my family situation wasn't like my friend's family situations. Right.

Like, I didn't, like, both, both parents, were not there. Okay. So I just grew up with my aunt and my, my grandmother and stuff like that. Oh, wow. So where were your parents? So my mom, she was like in and out, in and out of like just trouble. Okay. And she ended up getting deported. So she was gone from there. To where? To England. Okay. Yeah. And my dad just like really wasn't there. He worked for like a state fair for a while. And then I would see him every once in a while. So he was a traveler, really. He was a traveler. I would see him like, I think about four times throughout my childhood. Wow.

About that. That's tough. But, yeah, I mean, it was weird. Yeah. It's all you knew. It's all I knew. So, like, everyone was always like, oh, man, like, how does it feel like saying going like parent teacher conferences and stuff like that?

Right. Or, like, having those, like dad, like those father, like moments. I'm like, I didn't have that, man. Like, I self-taught everything. Right. I think that alone taught me how to, how to. tackle my, tacking my shit head on. And like, right, if I'm all I got,

am I gonna be proud of what I'm doing? Or am I gonna look at myself in the mirror and be like, I don't know who this is? So I definitely had to learn a lot of myself at a young age. On your own. On my own. What I found, I just tell my kids,

get to the good source of information. That is how we make sense of the world. The world is a cause-related place. This isn't magic. You do something, there's a reaction to it. So get good information, make good plans, make good decisions, and you stack those up over years, and that equals success. Yeah.

In all aspects of life, how we live, how we function, and how we work. As a kid with no parent, my parents were all over the place. My mom was there, but she struggled. My dad left a little later on in life around 11 or 12 was when it all were fully dissolved. But it was a very complicated. My dad struggled. and both my parents struggled. So they weren't available to parent us.

And when they did, it was a very religious household. So the information was religious-based. Yeah. I think there's a lot of great values in religion and faith. And I have no, I'm definitely like all four people having those aspects of their life, even if they're the biggest part of your life. But be careful if you're getting your day-to-day information of how the world functions, from a religious source that is only saying,

here's the rules of life. Yeah. You go to heaven or hell, and this is how, and that's what everything is revolved around. Whether you believe about heaven and hell, I'm not criticizing that. Oh, yeah, no. But on the day to day of how to build things,

it's not, I don't actually think even God wants us to function like that, in that simple idea. I think learning how to grow things, learning how to build things, learning how to nurture things, learning how to navigate. that's actually to me the most important part of day-to-day life.

And so for me, it was getting this bad information and then going in trying to navigate or so where I'd get it from some other kid. And you really like have to figure out how to get your information. And I can imagine for you, I mean, you likely, it sounds like your aunt and your family, you had some support. But you know they're not your parent. Yeah. So that's interesting.

It was like, it was. support, but it was like a, like, we support you because we family type of thing. Yeah, like we're obligated to support you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, just because like, whenever it came to like doing music or anything like that, like they were like, dude, why are you doing music? Just do a nine to five. And I was like, no, I want to be musician. I'm putting all my, all my, all my chips into music. It was either music or filmmaking for me. So it was literally just like that. Likely both. I'm telling you right now, I'm sitting across from you and I'm like, oh, this guy's,

fucking gee. Thank you. This is why I do this because I get to learn a little bit. And I go, oh, this is a winner right here. He had to work through some very difficult situations. And it's the nature of nature. If it doesn't kill us and we get out of it, we're going to be unstoppable. Yeah.

That's very true. I mean, like, even though I had that aunt and grandmother, like, relationships there or stuff like that, like, I mean, there were times. that we didn't know what the lights were going to be on where we got home. Yeah. Like, there are times where, like, I had to be kind of like the man of the household at some points. Um, just because growing up, like, my grandmother, she, she was like, what, 80, 82, 83.

Mm-hmm. She, like, had a stroke. Mm-hmm. So then I had to go from, all right, cool. I'm trying to finish school, but now I got to make sure my grandma was good, too. Mm-hmm. So I got to go. home take care of her. So like whenever it came like to social life, I was like, I don't,

I don't need it at the time. Right now, like my focus is making sure this is good type of thing. So I was always like, all right, cool. There's a problem. Everything drops. We're going to figure this out. And then. Grew up fast. Yeah. You were a man by 11 or 12, I bet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I literally like my family, like my nickname in, in like my family is Louis Pops. Yeah. Because they were like, dude, like when you were like a young kid, you were mature. You knew what to do. know you knew what not to do i realized this me and my brother talk about it a lot even before my dad had really left he was he was gone i think it was too much i think i think he was struggling with addiction and he was uh you know he he was working jobs that didn't pay enough and he had four kids and

my mom had her struggles and it was it was tough but so i didn't get a lot of the father time i can remember it on one hand. Yeah. You know, on one hand, how many, how many of those moments I actually got to have with him? And I really hold on to those. And for a long time, as a kid, I told myself, that's what everyone has. And then when he left, I was so angry at him. And I didn't realize he was gone long before he left.

But I also didn't have any adults talking me through how, how this works. Like, yeah. So no one was telling me, like, listen, your dad doesn't make enough money. He's underwater. Your mom is struggling. He doesn't have the capacity to help. her. He's been gone. And it is your fault. And he still loves you in his own way. But y'all are never going to have that storybook, father or son relationship. Yeah, I think as kids, like, we,

we realize, like, we, we notice what's going on, but we don't realize it until how it works. Or how it works until we're of age or like, so we're adults. Yeah, to we're adults. And that's kind of why we did the goofy movie song. Right. Um, kind of to tie it on in a little bit. Yeah, I like that. That's important. As a kid, you watch a goofy movie. Oh, like, you're siding with Max. Like, oh, Max just wanted to go have fun. He sees a girl he likes.

He wants to go impress her or stuff like that. And as an adult, you watch it back. You're like, dude, fuck this kid, dude. Like, why are you being so disrespectful to your dad? Like, he's literally trying to, like, show you love and nurture you right. And you're out here spinning on him. And when we saw that on the list, we're like, yeah, we have to do this. That's dope.

Just because, like, one, I grew up on that movie. That movie was like one of my favorite movies growing up. Like, Tevin Campbell is a literal, like, legend. By one of my wife's favorites. Like, oh, my God. And so when we saw it, it was a no-brainer. He doesn't get enough credit. He does not.

Tevin Campbell. He doesn't get enough flowers. Like, he gets flowers, but not like he should. Like, it's funny because in my house, my wife, she has all her favorites, but it's funny. She has such a soft spot and a reverence for Tevin Campbell. she'll put his music on on this list of like oh yeah 90s r&B like can we talk is like yeah a literal classic and a lot of people don't even like bring it up anymore it's like it's funny you all forget about tevin like what's going on with this like he was running things yeah so we

I was like I think I can do it justice if we do this cover I feel as if I won't stray too far from the path of like what he's created and like really pay homage to him to give him his flowers why he's still here by doing a song. And it's got a sentimental, real sentimental. That's important. Yeah, 100%. The sentimental side of life is important. We can't lose it.

Yeah. And it's good to share. Like, a lot of times I think we are scared to share things that are sentimental to us because they're so special. And we know what the world can do. Yeah, you're afraid that the world's just going to turn it. Yeah. Like just straight up destroy what you feel is like your anger.

I'm glad you did it. Oh, thank you, man. Also showed a little bit of a softer side. I think you guys are like a hard band. I like I like I like I like I like I like I like I like I like I like I like I like Like I like the aggressiveness of you know how you guys look how you sound Um I think showing the sides of us is is good when we can in music Uh it's like takes real guts to do that I think sometimes it's good.

I think for us too is like we never want to stay in I feel like one genre. Yeah like we always want to want to want to showcase that hey like yeah we're doing this but like we're so into the music culture as a whole that we have to showcase everything that we listen to or like put something that we listen to like in our own music that should showcase other genres that people may not

listen to. There's been sometimes that people are like, yo, I don't listen to hip hop but I listen to Mag Park and they have a sick trap beat in there and then we're like, yeah, like we got this trap beat, we had the idea from this artist. And now they're listening to that artist because of like what we've done. And so like we love doing stuff like that, like putting tidbits of like other cultures and other

genres in our own music. And having people discover that they do like that style of music, that just didn't know where to start to listen to that style of music. Yeah. Well, listen, I think I have to say this because it came to mind and I have to say it. So you hear me say it. Me and my brother like I was saying, we realized somewhere in our, in our teens when we were, you know, I started working real jobs when I was.

14 because I had to help pay the bills because things would get cut off you know the lights would get cut off or the phone or whatever and at the same time we were starting our band around 15 16 and so it was uh I remember that time it was so challenging in so many ways but also really exciting because we found this thing we cared about for the first time was like there was hope in life we had this goal we suddenly look it looked achievable yeah to us like if we could just make it everything be better. But we realized me and my brother. I was lucky to have my brother. You were alone. We realized like, oh, we had to be our own fathers. And sometimes we had to be that to each other. If I was scared, I didn't know if we were going to get evicted again or this or that. I was always

the one that I was nervous about the things to come, the bad things. Like, because we got to, I remember we got evicted uh well and it was the one time that it was really traumatic was the police came and we didn't know as kids like oh like it was my mom's responsibility to like and keep they actually had to tell us to leave and we it was like shocking to us because we weren't prepared for that and as a kid and she wasn't there and i remember that was like a really i still have like stuff around moving like i get weird oh yeah i hate i hate moving you know for that for that reason yeah I hate moving. And I remember we moved from this place and I remember we were living with people.

And so that was also really embarrassing to go to school and like, and then it was just like very tough time. And there was a lot of stuff that I carried into my adult life with me. And I had quirks around that weird stuff like moving. And I always, to this day, now I know like part of my personality was developed out of that and some of it's good. And then some of it I just have to work on. But I still have, like, I've contained it to, like, my one room in the house that I have,

like, I still have a bag that's packed that I literally live out of. Like, I've been home for nine months. I haven't left L.A. And I still have a bag that has stuff in it. It's very similar. It's weird. It's weird. It's weird to me.

Yeah. And I have a weird way of organizing my stuff because I remember at this time, really critical time, I think when I had like my stuff was just piles on the floor because we were staying in someone's basement. And like I still have, this is weird, still have little piles on the floor of my office of my clothes that I wear like during the week. Like the day-to-day clothes because it's there. Yeah.

So I've gotten to a place where I can organize it where it doesn't drive my wife nuts and it's contained to one room and thank God I live in a big enough house that like I can have a room that's my like past. Like if you really want to know what's going on in here, go in that room. and I collect things because I also didn't have a lot of toys or things growing up. So like I still love toys and collecting things. For me is camera equipment. Okay.

I have more camera equipment than anything else in my house. I'm just like, all right, cool. That's a good investment though. It is. It is for sure. It is for sure. Like I have all like my lighting stuff, all my camera stuff like that. But like whenever comes to clothes, give me a trash bag.

Everything's filled up and I'm done already. Give me a trash bag. Yeah. That's crazy. Not even suitcases. Give me a couple trash bags. I'd be out in like five minutes. I didn't stop using trash bags to move until our last move.

We probably move every five years, whatever. Like we're a moving type based on like where the kids are going to school, whatever, whatever. It's a blessing to be able to do it. But it's funny, we're in the process of moving right now. And I think we're moving to like our forever house probably. And I'm not using trash bags. Oh, you're actually getting boxes.

Yeah, yeah. It's so weird. It's like, oh, like, what do you do with this? But that's crazy, dude. Yeah. And I have, but I have a, now I still have a thing where I don't let anyone move my stuff. Yeah, I have to move my stuff. I move my stuff.

No one else is touching it. It's a quirk that I picked up from living, you know, the way we had to live. But what I was saying was before we move on, I think one of the aspects that makes you successful and why you'll be really successful if you can. to allow yourself to be you, whether that's with music and with film. I wouldn't ignore that because people with the best stories tell the best stories. So I think that's important that we had to be our own father. We had to be our own cheerleader.

We had to be our own teacher. And we had to figure out how the world works a lot on our own. that makes the first part of life zero to 20 something really hard. But once you start to figure out the order of things, you really truly become unstoppable because you're not afraid of figuring something out. And that's the key to success is continually solve those problems. Go forward. Go forward.

Go forward. And I think that's likely why a big part of why you're successful, why you'll be continue to be successful. So it's such a through line I find with a lot of artists is the early part of your life was challenging. And you got to give a credit. Yeah. Like if you, if you accept the challenges, then, I mean, once you overcome them, you'll realize that it was there for a reason. And if you figured that out, what's this? Exactly. I mean, you figured that part out. This is nothing. Do you have any heroes? Chester Bennington for sure. Amazing. Oh, man. What an amazing. Like, his voice is literally the reason.

reason why I started doing rock music is literally just like Lincoln Park, just being goats at whatever they do. Yeah, they are, but we're, especially, you know, with Chester there, they were just that big rock band, great songs, but Chester was a very, very special guy. Yeah, no one could do it like him. No one could do it like him and he was like a really sweet, kind, good person. Yeah, he, He lived his songs on his sleeve. Man. That's what I love the most is like, yeah. Like he's like, look, man, I'm about to lose it.

And even like he keeps that same entirely, even when he was doing interviews, he was like, look, man, like there is a scary place in his head. I have to live with that. But he also puts that in songs to showcase. Like, yeah, I'm living with this. I'm fighting this. I'm fighting these demons, but also you can too.

That's always what I got from the messages of his songs. So that's what really got me to be like, I want to do that. I love Lincoln Park. I still listen to Lincoln Park a lot. Same. But I like, I remember being intimidated. We came out around the same time. And I remember being intimidated and shy to meet anyone.

But I remember meeting them and Chester was so, like, nice and supportive. But everything you would hope someone would be when you meet them. And it made me forever like a fan. And when I listen to the music, I just, I love their music. And I love his voice. I've always wanted to sing more like him. He was just a special. He was, he was special.

I agree. I mean, like, even with our songs, a lot of people are like, oh, I hear, I hear that influence, especially like our songs like like animal and like some of the heavier stuff. They look, yeah, we hear that Lincoln Park. We hear that Chester influence. something's like that's all i can do yeah is that's a good hero is keep keep that legacy alive by just like doing me yeah but also like you know having those tidbits and and those special moments that that he was able to create in his music yeah just hits mm-hmm just those moments in all those

songs when he would sing there's just those moments that hit he was sing right into your soul What did you grow up on? What kind of music is you grow up? I grew up on R&B. R&B. Like 90s R&B? Yeah. Like Tevin.

Yeah. Listen to like even earlier like New Edition. Jodesy. Boys and Men. Jodice. Cisco. Brian McKnight. Yeah.

Genuine. I even like like Luther Vandross. Oh, Luther. Luther hits the soul. Yeah. Luther hits the soul. Jamie Fox actually. Jamie Fox is an amazing singer.

Amazing. A lot of people, a lot of people sleep on Jamie. That's weird because he's like, it's so funny, he does both things. I mean, he's an amazing actor. He's also like a really amazing guy. But it's like crazy because he's as good a singer as he is an actor. Yeah, and a comedian too.

Like the first time, yeah. But the first time I even heard of Jamie Fox was the Jamie Fox show. Right. And then like my fan was like, yo, you got to watch his stand-up. So I was like, oh, he does stand-up. And then he's out there like doing comedy while playing piano and singing. I was like, one of one. What?

Yeah, one-of-one. Like, he's incredible. incredible incredible talent musically that's a really good place to come from i think i also think that like the singing aspect of what we do isn't it's almost like dismissed as not serious music or serious singers but rmb obviously that's the main i mean the song has to be good but then you have to be a good singer yeah and i think coming up with that in your like musical uh DNA will likely make you a more thoughtful singer and like throw less away. So I think in rock music a lot of times the singing part of it, that's probably why you like Chester because he was a, he, he took what he did seriously.

But there are plenty of people in rock music that are, that kind of dismiss themselves as not a real singer or not a serious singer. And I'm like, no, you're a singer. However serious, you take your own craft is up to you. Anyone can be a singer. It's like the fact of like, what style of singing do you want to do. Yeah. It's like even for us like the album that we're working on now, we're, we're mixing a lot of those R&B influences. Cool. But we're also doing a lot of that mixed with a lot of metal influences. Like, like Corey Taylor, for example, amazing singer. Yeah. Amazing screamer. Yeah, a good screamer. Really, really, really good. But the one, the one flaw that I always said about Corey is like, he can't do a genre like R&B. His voice just doesn't,

fit that. Doesn't make him a less talented singer. It's just like, it's just the way how the voice sits on a baseline can, can work like that. And, but he's also one of my, one of my big vocal inspirations. So I take from like people like that, people like Chester, but I also take from people like Michael Jackson, like, like no audition, like Stevie Wonder, like all these other singers who boys to men, boys and men, who are very technical. I don't know, every word, every song. Like, it's, like, those singers, singers like that are super, super technical. Mm-hmm. Whereas you have singers like Corey Taylor and Chester who, they are technical, but they're

technical in the emotional side. You can't, you won't hear a boys and men vocalist do a rock song. Same thing as you won't hear a Corey Taylor do, a R.B. song. It's just different sides of the world. And on this new album, we're trying to put. two and two together. I like that. In a very complex

but also easy to listen to from both aspects type of way. It's cohesive. Yeah. And it's been challenging. This is the longest album we've worked on because we wanted to make sure that it's so right on both sides.

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bar records yeah well it's musically ambitious and that's worthwhile it's worthwhile to try to be ambitious

with the music and grow because that is how you're going to have a long career and a great rich career of making shit that people care about because they can feel that in the music when someone just, we got to get the quota, get another album, get it out, that's different

than we're trying to make something for you. Trust us, it will be good. And then they get it. It's art. That's the art part. Yeah. It's trying to do, you want to be ambitious. You want to express what you're feeling

and get it out of here. to hear, and that takes the trying and the time, wherever long it takes. Yeah. Yeah. And like, everyone has so many stories to tell. Every day can lead to a new story. So I think for us is that we write so much is because we have so many stories to tell and we feel like we're catching up with ourselves on these storytelling aspects that we

want to be like, well, on our last album, we weren't able to tell this story. So let's see how we can tell the story and then kind of grow from there. And that's how like we just never stop writing. And the new album has like some theme. Yeah. To it. Yeah. So it's kind of like an anime theme in the sense.

Cool. So there's enemy back in the 80s called Vampire 100D. Uh-huh. And we were like, another one of my sons. Oh, really? He loves that one too. Yeah.

So we were like, cool. Let's do an album based off of just vampire anime. Let's type. Let's just do this. So the album's called vamp. Like, and the thing is we've been talking about vamp. for over a year.

We've been talking about this album for over a year as we've been working on and stuff like that hints here and there. And we really wanted to just like dive into that darker sound and with the stuff that we have and the stuff that we've been creating, we've really been doing well with it.

And hopefully people like it. I mean, like our inspiration is to create our own anime one day. Yeah. Like that's one thing that we really want to do. You gotta do it. We have a lore. We have characters and everything

that we've been doing since day one. So like we've been building this this these this anime story for like since 20 2018 late 2018 so it's always been in the works like we always like I'm for my for me I always want like Kubo who he's the creator of bleach I would love him to do it because he he understands drawing black characters like like people like really good and just the storytelling aspect even with this album we've been writing just different lores and different stories for each song And within every song is a story.

Would it have like a book for each song? I would love it too. I would love for it too. That's a lot of work. It's a lot of work for sure. But like we will have like a just a long story. That's one thing that we have to give credit to for like 21 pilots, for example. Because they were able to create a story, their own atmosphere with their music and having a film around each aspect and have it tie in together.

some weird way. And it kind of grew over time as they got more and more resources to do to execute each time. That's actually like a real, the reality of like these things as they grow over time. Yeah. Like for us, like we have this character, he's called Baku, and he's been in a lot of our music videos, just a mass figure going around causing havoc. And then in this new era, like we have this huntress, almost like a Van Helsing type.

So she was in shallow, our music video shallow and really, all right, cool, how do we keep adding this now? How do we, how do we elevate this? And how is this going to tie in to Baku's story some weird way? And it's been, it's been challenging, but it's been fun because, yes, music is a lot of storytelling, but now we have to explain that storytelling without a musical background. So now it's like actual storytelling that we have to like we don't have to like mince words with the story We can actually like explain it indefinitely because in music, you know like you got to you got to shorten things

You got to make sure that you know it's still kind of fit in the inside of a box that it can be put out in yeah yeah so like for us now it's like cool we have this song we have these characters Now we have to explain these characters why are they here what are they doing what's their motive and it's it's been fun It's been really really fun yeah Yeah, you got to keep doing it. Don't let, don't, don't let any problem become unsolvable. You know, just keep trying to figure it out because it'll be worth it. And I think it ties in somewhere with your, with your filmmaking. You know, it's interesting.

I was talking to Claudio from Coheed, Cambria. He came in here, we talked, and he's really into comics. And again, though, I think the best filmmakers and artists of other mediums come out of music. I do. I think they're music guys. I think if you look at lots of guys in film that got a lot of their early understanding of art through like bands and stuff, I think it's important to not put a lid on or a ceiling on what's possible with the creative aspect of you in these other mediums. Think about how many music video directors become film directors. I mean, it's one of the pathways that like, if you know, Mark Webb or just so many of them. Music is a, as a,

an amazing place to cultivate artistic ability because there are less rules. Yeah. You know, and we all get there different ways. I think that's cool. The comic things is cool. I'm excited for you guys to keep doing that. Thank you, man. Thank you.

Are there any bands in the, you know, from a touring perspective or like the bands working now that you guys feel like are kindred spirits that you've become friends with on the road or bands you feel like have have been influential to you and your growth or that have helped you guys along the way. Oh, yeah. Like, like, a midday parade. Oh, cool. For example, like, they, they were the first band to take us out on a big tour.

And we were out there for, like, two months. And they taught us so much of them and also, like, real friends and stuff. Yeah. They were really, really open and willing to teach us a lot of things about being on the road and just, like, being musicians to do this. So that was really cool. A day that remembers, another, another band that really was like, all right, guys. Like, this is what we're doing type of thing.

Throughline, all those bands are really nice guys. Yeah. Yeah, really, really cool people. Like, Simple Plan is another one. That's really, really cool. Bowling for Soup, actually. Like, we haven't toured with them yet. We're going on tour.

We're going on tour with them. In February, it would be our first actual tour with them because we played one show with them. Right. Before our tour of Simple Plan. And it was really cool. We were, like, after the show that. we played like we were just sat for hours talking it was us baller for sue bless and jake and some 41 so that was really cool yeah those are nice guys too yeah all we toured with all those guys

yeah man some 41's there everyone's cool man everyone that we've toured with has been has been really really cool i think that's the case with most bands that have been out there and doing it and they there is a lower respect you have for the thing when you've been out there you know what at the end of the day like we all go on stage and we play our role and you know on stage i'm the singer of the band but off stage i'm a member of a organization of people that are all away from their families away from you know uh and and doing the same things you you want things to be nice and easy and fun and i find most bands like are pretty like pretty good like that it's very rare that you have there's some i I guess, but I haven't run into too many assholes, to be honest.

Only ones that we've kind of run into, it's just like crew. But never band. Yeah, yeah. Everyone's just like, oh, all right, cool. Let's just chill, have fun. Like, yeah. Yeah. How much longer are you in town for?

We're in town until the second. Is the whole band here? Yeah. Okay, cool. Old bands here. What part of town are you in? You staying in? North Hollywood.

Oh, cool. Honestly, like 10 minutes from here. Great. Yeah, so it was like, it was pretty nice. Do you like L.A.? Hit or Miss? It's hit and miss. It's hit and miss.

It's hit a miss. for sure. This time around it was really fun. It could be lonely here. Yeah. Until you get your people. Definitely like being out here sometimes, this makes me think. You know, like it's just like with everyone kind of going for the same kind of goal. I feel like people isolate themselves a lot out in Cali.

Right. Versus Orlando or like even New York. It's more like a, all right, cool. Like we're all doing this. Yeah, whatever. Like, all right. We were friends or not. type of thing. But with LA, I've noticed that it's a lot of like, all right, cool, this person's

doing his own thing and we might see him. He might pull up. Who knows? Right. So it's like a, it's like a weird, weird, like, it's very hit or miss. Yeah. But I mean, LA's cool. Nice weather. It is nice weather. It is a lot better than Orlando. Yeah, a little less unpredictable. Yeah, no, Orlando, it makes you feel like you're a boiled crab out there. Yeah. Versus out here. It's all right, cool. And the tour is in February. Yes, in February, it's going to be out in the UK. That's the first tour of the year.

Of the year. The year for us. Okay, cool. Yeah. I'm happy for you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Josh, thanks for coming.

Thank you for having me. And good luck with the record in the tour. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks, brother. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of artist friendly. If you really liked it, you can follow, like, subscribe to the show, anywhere you listen to podcast, Spotify, Apple, Amazon.

I appreciate your support and we'll see you next time. I'm gonna. I'm gonna, and I'm gonna be able to be able to be able to my rhythm. For so, Potion Nine of Sebastian Professional has all what my cabo

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