Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - KXLLSWXTCH

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Join Joel Madden as he sits down with KXLLSWXTCH, rising hip-hop artist who hails from Orange County. KXLLSWXTCH started releasing music in 2017 and quickly gained a following on SoundCloud, with fans drawn to his intense music that fuses heavy rock and rap and his horror-inspired visuals. Most recently, in February of this year, he released his sophomore album THE WALLS HAVE EYES. On the podcast, he speaks to Madden about his youth in Anaheim, California, his style and inspirations, and more.  ------- 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, everybody? This is artist-friendly. I'm Joel Madden. And today I'm talking to KillSwitch. Kill Switch. Hello. Here we are. Now we can start.

I am Kill Switch. You're from Orange County. Yeah, I'm from Orange County. Cool. Yeah, from Anaheim. Okay, cool. Yeah. But I can, I can, like, shit, fuck, bitch.

Anything you want. Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah, I didn't know you were from Maryland. Yeah. Yeah, Maryland is a unique place. But anyways, so being in front of cameras, which we have cameras here, which is it took me probably like, I probably took me like a month or so

doing this show to get used to like the cameras. Oh yeah. I hate going on Instagram live. Yeah. Just because you're like talking to yourself on a screen while people are like commenting on it. And you're like trying to have a conversation with. someone that you can't even see and like it's just a bunch of people watching you on the other side of that screen i can't do it i can't either it just makes my anxiety just yeah i don't do it i know

you're supposed to maybe somehow yeah yeah it's good for it's good it's good it's good to engage with your fans uh you know keep in contact with them let them know you're still alive yeah yeah working and everything but settle a beef yeah that's not true you can go on and be like that's not true yeah yeah something like that's not true yeah yeah something like that that, but I'd rather just like comment. Right. I post something. I comment back or DM them or something, but yeah.

Yeah, I just don't. I can't do the staring at myself and being on live. I don't know. I feel like a zoo animal. Right. It feels weird. Me too. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is cool because we've, we're still in debate about whether we let the whole video lives somewhere because people like to watch it, but I don't like, I've said before, I don't like people watching me for like an hour. You know, I'd rather just the clips be, I'd rather just take the clips of the conversation that are like relevant, just put them out there and it's like 15, 20 second clip is enough for me. But an hour continuous. But some people, they bond with you more when it's like a whole conversation and they get more in tune with it. and then, you know, they feel like they're a part of that room.

Yeah. And that's the watching part. I mean, they can go on Spotify or Apple or wherever and listen to the podcast, and that's, like, one way to listen. But I agree with you. I get it. Like, it is the modern way as to have it all out there. I'm still getting used to it.

Like you said, I just have never loved being on camera yet. I do TV sometimes. Yeah. Actually, you know, obviously when I was doing, making records and touring all the time we were always making videos and doing interviews and yeah i don't know though i never got comfortable with it never felt like 100% great about it i don't think i'm ever going to get comfortable with it maybe not this guy i'm not 100% i'm not a i'm not an internet type of person that's not why you do music why do you do music i make music uh because it makes me feel good like i feel accomplished um when i

and make like a banger, like a good song. I'm like, oh, this shit is hard. Like, I feel good about myself. Like, damn, I made this. But when I make, like, the softer stuff, it's just, like, letting my emotions flow out. And it's good, like, therapy instead of, like, writing in a notebook or a journal or something. Yep.

Like, it's like getting all my thoughts onto a piece of paper, which I think that's why a lot of people like, like, rappers and singers and stuff, is because we can put how we're feeling into words and make them relate to us or like even, you know, like make them understand things about themselves that they didn't even know. Right.

That's like a journal, just spoken in a cooler rhythm and sometimes hype at the same time. Yeah. Like Future. Future writes very sad songs, but they're always hype. Right.

Is he one of your favorites? One of my favorites, yeah. Cool. Yeah, he's like probably top 10 most inspirational artist for me. My number one would probably be Nirvana, Kurt Cobain. Yeah. Yeah, I love, I love. Changed a lot of people's lives.

It didn't. Changed mine, too. I'm young, so I wasn't like around when. How old are you? I'm 23. Oh, damn. Yeah. Yeah.

Fresh meat. But, yeah, when I was like, girl, That's crazy. I'm 20 years older than you. That's crazy. One years older? That's 21 years older. That's nuts, bro.

And you're talking about you're not used to it yet? Yeah. You know what we are. Too much longer to get used to it. No, no, I don't. I don't. No. I've made peace with it.

Yeah, no. I'm playing with you. But, but yeah. Like, since I was like... Them, that's young. I mean, you got... So really, when I see your music and what I've seen, really it feels like like 2018 was when you started really getting putting music out there

2017 but I was like feels like it started sticking in 2018 2019 yeah 2019 is when it started like okay I started to get like a little bit of a of a buzz like people from the internet would would like know me I would drop a song and it would instantly get plays and stuff like that. I don't know if it was because of the algorithms or what, but... That's good. Yeah. Also.

Of course. Of course. That's why I also like Spotify because they push the fuck out of my music and it's good with the algorithms. But yeah. But yeah, 2019, that's when I started realizing like, oh, shit, I can make money doing this. Yeah.

Like, I got like a distro kit account. And I think I remember like getting $200 for for one month of making music. And I was like, oh, I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to get a face tattoo. I'm going to become the rapper's rapper. What job were you working? Oh, bro. I was working.

There's this place called John's Incredible Pizza. Yeah. I worked in a pizza place. This was a buffet, though. This was a buffet. So it was like I had to be a bus boy. Right. And then there was too many problems because, like, I don't like talking to people that much.

And especially if they're going to be rude to me. Right. Like, I would – there would be a lot of problems with me and the guests where, like, I would try to fight the guests or I would, like, punch something in the back and I would break it. Lose your temper. I would lose my temper easily. Right. So – but they couldn't lose me because, like, I did my job good. And they're like, all right, you know what, Johnny, we are going to take you and we're going to put you in the dishroom.

So I did a dishwashing job for about like three years, got athletes' foot because my feet were soaked all the time. And then after that, it was like right after I got a rehab. Oh, you went to rehab? I went to rehab. Where were you in rehab? in Costa Mesa. Okay, but why? I was snorting 10 to 15 perks a day.

Ooh, yeah. That's serious, man. Fun times. Yeah. How did that start? Young age? So the perks, not so young. Probably like 18, 18 years old.

Young, but yeah, not as young as some, like, but yeah. Yeah, but it's young. Like the drug use in every. Everything probably started at like 11 or 12. How does that start at 11 or 12? Just left to your own devices? Yeah. Wow.

I mean, I had my first drink when I was probably, I think I found a bottle of like whiskey or something on a construction site. Yeah. And I drank it. That's dirty. It was dirty. I didn't know. I was just like, oh, we found a bottle. We were like, oh, there's alcohol in this.

So that was my first time I ever drank. But, like, I didn't feel like it was available to me at that age. I think I was 11 or 12 when that happened. And I don't feel like it was available to me. I mean, where I grew up was really remote. So I think it would have been harder than, like, say, Anaheim feels very busy. Oh, yeah. And, like, super populated.

A lot of people that do not care. Like, there's where I lived over there. It's like prostitutes on Beach Boulevard. Crazy. So there's like prostitutes walking down the street all the time. You'll see their pimp at the corner. And then you'll see like look back. There's like someone shooting up right behind you.

And then there's like that's the crazy. It's weird because like you'll see all that and you'll turn around and then someone will try to like bang on you or something. Right. And it's like bro, like I've only been outside for like 10 seconds. Right. That's the crazy thing about California. Yeah. It's sold as this like picture perfect place.

And there are. Oh, there's great areas in California. There's vistas you can go and see beautiful things. But like in between every famous street, our neighborhoods that are like right down the street from Disneyland is fucking a crazy neighborhood. I know a lot of my homies are from over there. and literally like you can go to Disneyland and go down one street and you can go get some cotton candy from Disneyland and then get shot within the next five minutes just for being in the wrong neighborhood. Yeah.

I believe that that's the craziest thing about California is the neighborhoods that the greater Los Angeles area is just a collection of neighborhoods. Yeah. And there's, it's crazy to me the things I've, you know, seen in 20 years living here, seeing like, like you just said, right down the street from that iconic place, whether it's the Hollywood sign or the Disneyland is like some crazy neighborhood that you do not want to fuck with. Nope. And that's the thing that you have to learn in California is it's not all palm trees and beaches. It's neighborhoods full of real even Huntington Beach.

Yeah, Huntington Beach is like known as like this super boogie, preppy place, like a beach town. It's known as like a Republican. Yeah, where everyone's like, yeah, bro. Beers and hose. It's kind of known for that, but I don't find it to be that way. There's like a neighborhood out there. I was locked up when I was in, when I was a juvenile. And it was some guy, some funny guy.

He was from Southside, Huntington Beach. And I guess they have like a pretty big gang over there. And I was like, Denver. Like, I didn't even know like they had gangs out there. But he wasn't there for like murder or something. It's crazy. And the thing about the gang culture and the neighborhood culture is everybody's kind of of representing their neighborhood and they really take it seriously and people yeah it's crazy to me

like that's it's it's it's a lot different in uh California in that sense of like it feels super suburban yeah when you if you don't understand yeah when you go to the east coast there is the suburb and then the city yeah and it's a little it's a lot different there's certainly some some dangerous towns outside the cities but like it's a lot different than California which is like a big grid yeah it's like suburbs it's like suburbs but then you go to this block or this street and it's like gnarly ghetto as hell yeah and then the next one is like this person's a doctor this person's a surgeon this person is a dentist like crazy wow yeah so so so you got locked up So you went to, I'm guessing, juvenile hall or whatever.

Yeah. Why did that, what happened there? So I was 15. Dude, I'm getting into the book here. You have a lot of... I got a lot of stuff. You got a lot of experience. I got a lot of stuff in the good old noggin.

Yeah. So I was 15 and I have a homie. He's kind of like on the spectrum. Right. He's like... His brain's wired a different way. Yeah, yeah. And these two kids, because I used to hang out at the, I was one of those people that would hang out at the park like all day, all night.

Okay. And we were there and he was in a different part of the park. And they, two people that I knew jumped him. It was a girl and a guy. They were brother and sister. Oh, wow. So that happened. And then he came over to me crying.

And he was like, they jumped me, they jumped me. And I was like, who? and then they were like, oh, he was like, oh, them, I don't know why they jumped me. And I was like, all right, but I'm going to go take care of it. I walked over there. And I was like, yo, I know you guys jumped him. Just, I want to talk to you guys about it. And the sister was like, no, you don't want to talk.

I know you want to beat my brother's ass, this and that, this and that. And I was like, no, no, no, I want to talk. I want to talk to him. And then he came out and we started talking. chasing him. It was like me and three of my friends. And we're running and someone threw a skateboard at him. So he like tripped. And then after that, someone caught it to him. I think my homie slammed him on the ground. And then I went on the ground and choked him out. And my homie started stomping him. And I ended up taking the blame for that. But then we saw them at the

other park same day. And I was like, I want a rematch. Like I just want like a one-on-one. Okay. So I went there. Yeah, I went over there and he wasn't trying to fight. But his sister and his sister's friends got into like a little brawl with like our friends. And he, he helped. hopped out the car and he was like, yo, what the fuck you guys doing? And then right when he did that, I jumped off the curb and Superman punched him and he got knocked back down into the car and then I just went in and started, ww-whom-whom-wom-wom. So then you get into these fights, you get arrested. Yeah.

And then is he, and now, is he okay now? Hopefully. I think so. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what he's doing as well. But it's like young kids having beef with each other. Right. But the best part.

Right. part is his older brother, who was 18 at the time, was like, yo, I want to fight you now, because didn't you worry, like, people have, like, guns or knives or like. No, because I have them. So you're like, okay, I'll take it. That's crazy. Yeah. But then.

I would have been worried about you if you were my little brother. I'd have been like, dude, get out the streets, man. No. Yeah. Well, my sister was like doing her, her own. own thing. My dad was doing his own thing. So it was like a, kind of like a free game for me. Right. You were kind of on your own at that age as far as not answering, not having too much to answer to his, can I go to the park and hang out all day? Yeah. No, like I literally just

did it. And then my dad would just come and pick me up and like, that's it. Not even ask about what I was doing, this and that. And he like, obviously didn't care. Because I mean, my dad loves me, but he, I hope he doesn't hear this and get mad. I'm sure he won't. He used to be like a really big drug addict. So he was like doing meth, selling meth, all that. So when he would pick me up, he would, like, give me weed and everything to like give all my homies. So they can sell it, this and that.

And yeah, that's why he didn't care because like, how's you doing now? Is he off? Great. Oh, good. Yeah, he had a stroke. Oh, that's terrible. It was bad. But luckily, like, no permanent damage or anything, he got to the hospital quick enough.

That's amazing. I know. And ever since then, he stopped drinking, stopped doing drugs. And he goes to church, like, at least three times a week now. Because he's, like, one of the head people in his, like, church group. Well, that's great. So he's really. He flipped this whole story.

Turn it around. Yeah. Which is amazing. It's crazy. Yeah. The tough part about that, here's the thing about why I don't mind talking about parents is my parents were struggled terribly to get their shit together. So the early years of my life, we were kind of doing the same thing, knucklehead shit.

Yeah. We were just, we were left to our own devices and we were taking advice from other kids, which you're never going to get good advice from people your own age. until you get to a certain age and you kind of have experience to lean on. But what I found with the parents is then I became a parent, right? So I have two kids who are around that age, 13, 15. So if my daughter was like, I'm at the park all day, I'd be like, no, you're not. That's not happening.

So, but that is a parent who has the time, the resources and the personal kind of, the personal liquidity to spend on their kids, right? The personal capital. So when we're struggling with drugs or mental, but my parents had both. My dad was a struggle with addiction and my mom struggled with all kinds of mental health

and things like that. And then there's the financial thing. So you didn't have any money and they're always trying to figure it out. It was just really hard. You got kids on the back burner. Yeah. You're still kind of, it's funny at your age,

you're still kind of coming out of your youth. Oh, yeah, for sure. You probably grew up fast, but at 23, you just don't have enough life experience to get a bird's eye view on like these kinds of things to go like, you know, my dad was a fuck up. Yeah. Right? Mine was. Yeah. Later on in life, we had a great relationship.

It took a long time. And it took therapy. I had to go to therapy. I had to make peace with all the. anger I had. I had a lot of anger. I was pissed off. And he didn't necessarily do what your dad did. Your dad, your dad went after it. He turned his life around and he was no longer, he's no longer an addict.

Well, he's no longer in his addiction. Yeah. Right. So that's a success story. And likely over the next phase, it's interesting because we come out of our youth, I think, with all these scars. And we have to work it out. make sense of it. And us musicians, we make music.

Yeah. Interesting, because I listen to your music and I hear, I like your music. Thank you, really. It's like all the anger I want, all the rage I want. But then the new stuff and the acoustic stuff is actually like the vulnerability I want from someone. I want someone that's like, like, I want to hear someone that's not afraid to bleed on the song.

Yeah. I'm not afraid to say that's share. their pain. Because I feel like, and maybe you can speak to this, but I feel like in, you know, popular culture, especially in and around, you know, all the subgenres of hip hop. And, you know, what I think, I think hip hop is the most important music in the world. Yeah. And all the sub genres of it.

That's why. There's so many different subgenres. of music that was born out of hip hop. And then you guys infused rock. And so I also think punk rock, garage rock, the Nirvana, the classic rock that's organic and made in the garage. And it's created by people who don't know how to play and don't know the rules of music. Yeah.

Equally important. For sure. As what we, what I get out of hip hop. And so all the young artists like you, I wouldn't say new, but I'd say to me as an older guy, I'd say like it's a new generation. Yeah. Right. I see the ones who stand out to me are the ones who can be themselves and share, right?

The guy who is not afraid to say I worked a shitty job. Yeah. So it's not that cool to a lot of artists will never share the struggle. Like, yeah, man, I was just trying to pay my rent however I can. I'm Anna Mena. And, like my music, my cabo changed with me and has to be

able to be able to keep my rhythm. For so, Potion 9, of Sebastian Professional has all what my cabo needs. Nutrition Profunda.

Protection contraband. 99% less of rotura and Puntas abirtas under control. New Potion 9

of Sebastian Professional, the secret professional of who not are not they're the

people who can't people. Convient your passion in a business with Shopify

and I bet records of the rents with the form of the way of the form of the market

the world. You're heard the best of the world. The incredible

system of the Shopify facilita the on your website,

in the social and in the music for your ears no

let's more your business is a super success with

Shopify and you start your per per per

record's I'm an open book like I don't I don't care if people look at me as an artist, if they look at me as a therapist because I've helped people out as much as I can in my DMs too.

Like a lot of people ask for advice. I get them my best advice. Like, I just want, that's cool. I want people to feel as close to me as a friend would be to them. So I can care less about the whole artist status, this and that. Like, oh, I'm an artist to have to have an image or this and that. But I think it's whack. I think having an image is whack.

Yeah. It's tough though because you have to be really sure of yourself or whatever you're feeling to be that way because by all other accounts, we're told that this is how we're supposed to look. This is what success looks like. If you're not buying this and you're not acting like it's no big deal. That's no big deal. I spent, you know, 300 grand on a chain, whatever. Like, it's just another, whatever, and I'm like, I get the persona and the image, but no one feels that way. No.

Anyone that comes from nothing doesn't feel that way. Yeah, facts. Like, it's just, but there's this, I feel like there's this modern image that the, like, it's unrealistic for kids out there that are watching, maybe with their own dream. Like, some kid, what, I worked at a buffet. I worked at Golden Corral. Yeah. So it's funny because I relate to a lot of your jobs. I worked at a pizza place.

Yeah. I guess it's just crazy to me how parallel our stories kind of are, even though you're from Anaheim, I'm from Maryland. When you tell your story, I don't think I was as confident in the violence department when I was that age. I don't think I was as ready to fight. I loved violence. I was always like, I think maybe you have a little more rage, which is, you know, can be good.

Yeah. Also, I can get you in trouble. Yeah. As an older guy, I'd say, be careful. Try to use your head. At my age, I say, protect life at all costs, walk away as quickly as possible. That's what I tell me to kids. I'm getting to that point where I'm, I feel like I'm adulting to where I'm like, okay, I know this is wrong.

Yeah. But I'm also not at that level of an adult to be like, okay, I'm not going to do it because it's wrong. I'm like, yeah, this is wrong, but I'm still going to do it. But maybe, maybe when this frontal lobe is done progressing. Yeah, maybe. But also maybe that's the part of the healing process is the music and the mosh pits and all the shit that happens at your shows. Like maybe through over time there is this like, it's kind of like this controlled chaos

that is good for everyone there, right? Even though I'm sure some crazy stuff goes down at the shows. Oh, yeah. It's still a pretty safe, controlled place for people to go let it all out. Yeah, no, like even at every show, like when there's a mosh pit, like I'll tell them, like, I'll be like, oh, what do we do when someone falls in the pit? And they all scream, pick them up. And then I repeat it again just in case people didn't hear it.

So, and then I also like, when someone does fall and they pick them up, I'm sure. Show the person gratitude. And I'm like, yo, I fuck with you. You helped out your friend in need that was on the floor. Like, you guys are like family. You guys need to take care of each other. You guys are just letting out aggression. It's all fun in games.

If someone gets hurt, hug it out, whatever. Like, you guys are good. This is a safe space. That's the vibe. So I love controlled violence. Yeah. Yeah. It's like getting interring and sparring and working out.

Like, there is something about that, like going to a heavy show. going to these shows. I used to go to hardcore shows when I was a kid. And that's where I learned about a lot. Learned a lot about a lot there. And I was not as, I think it took me a long time to get confident. So I'd go as a little, me and my brother would go and we'd start buying the clothes. Like we'd go to thrift stores.

We'd look for like the camouflage BDUs, cut them off, make them shorts, get a pair of new balance, get a hoodie. And we were like, oh, we look like hardcore kids. And that's kind of where we learned to dress, where we learned to like do everything, man. Like in the 90s, things were very classified as like, what genre are you? Yeah, for sure. So for us, it was like punk and hardcore music in the 90s was kind of how we found our self-esteem and our style. Because everybody needs their own style. Yeah, of course, of course.

That's, I mean, as much as I hate having an image, like. But your style is. different than an image, it's like you're, like, what you would choose, the version you'd choose is your style. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I love buying clothes. Yeah, yeah. I would dig it to buying clothes.

Me too. Me too. But yeah, I see, yeah, the Chrome Hearts hat on. Always. I love been wearing Chrome Hearts for 20 years, man. As soon as I could get my first Chrome Hearts out, I bought it. Same. Yeah, I love paying for clothes.

It feels good. You work for it. Exactly, exactly. I don't know. I just, I don't look at other people's style. I'm like, oh,

I want to dress like that. Yeah, but like, yeah. I want to get into like the modeling and fashion business like whenever I can. So I like to like style myself. I like to even when I'm going to like a designer store,

I'll make them tailor it a certain way and they'll be like, are you sure like it was meant to look like this? And I don't care what it was meant to look like. I want it to look like. I want it to look how I want it to look. So I like it. Yeah. And that's, I don't know, I feel like that's my style.

Yeah. But I think there is something about being an artist where you feel like you have to express yourself. Yeah, for sure. Whether it's clothes, whether it's the music. I mean, the music obviously speaks for itself because you got to express yourself on the music. But definitely like being your own person speaks way more than the music. because, you know, those kids are going to look at you and see, like, a video of you doing something, and they're going to be like, oh, he's, he's cool, he's acting funny with his friends.

Like, I can have a good time with my friends and joke around with them, and they're not going to get butt hurt or something. Yeah. Like, just like with a odd future. Like, it was, when I was growing up, I saw them and I was like, oh, shit. Like, I don't have to be like a, like a rapper, rapper. Like, I can just, you know. To be who you are. Yeah.

Be who you are and have fun and still do what I want to do. And yeah, I look up to Tyler the Creator a lot from like just his road in the rap career. I think a lot of people look up to Tyler. I think he's blazed a trail. I see it like my own kids. They like him. Yeah. He's one of those artists that I'm so glad.

Not only I'm glad that he exists. and then he is himself. I'm glad my kids like him. Because I don't know, when I look out there and I look for art, I always look for art. I want to find someone who's making art and who's just doing what they want. That's the definition for me with art is no rules. I'm going to sit down and make something that I want to make and I made it. It's not constructed for a reason.

It's constructed for no reason other than I have to do this. Or I'm going to fucking go crazy. Go insane. Yeah. If I don't get this out. I feel like he's a real artist. But so you, so before I get to your music, because I guess what I wonder is with, let's say, buying if you want to buy a nice thing, which I'm the same. I grew, I wasn't able to buy things when I didn't get Jordans or I didn't get to like buy shoes that I wanted to buy.

So I was like hand me down, donate to clothes, things like that. Yeah. And occasionally. A McDonald's trip. Yeah. Or my mom would like, there was the occasional thing. I don't know how she pulled it off, like my uncle or someone would like take us. We could pick out a piece of clothing or whatever.

But I think that's why I'm obsessed sometimes over things. Like if you see all the crap I have. Yeah. I just like things. You never had, when you were younger, you never had control. I didn't have a lot of toys. You never had control of what you wanted to get. Yeah.

Control. So now it's like, I have money like, wow, I can get the stuff that I want to get. Yeah. And it makes you want to get everything that you wanted to have when you were little. And it turns to an addiction. Yeah, yeah, it could be an obsession. Yeah, that's, in my case, it's like, it's bad. But listen, yes, it can be bad.

Anything of too much of anything can be bad. But there is the side of it where I try to like lean into the things. I'm interested in and just let myself because I think there's a lot of value in understanding and I say this is my wife laughs at me because she's like, you just like to buy shit. I'm like, no, no, no. Listen to me, Nicole. This is why I like to understand craftsmanship. I want to understand why is this hat better than that cheap hat over there that could be any other hat that's, you know,

15, 20 bucks and why is it better? And then you actually look at the craftsmanship and it is better. It is. It's amazing. And it lasts forever. Yeah. Like my girlfriend is the same thing. Like, oh, why are you spending this much on designer shoes or designer pants?

And I'm like, bro, like, you pay for. Things are comfortable. They last forever. They only have creases in them. It's crazy. But, yeah. I mean, everyone else from the outside. outside is going to look at that as like an excuse.

Yeah, or like, yeah, B. Like, oh, you want to look cool. And it's, I'm always like, I also get when people are flexing. I get it. And, you know, flexing works for some people. And some people, most people, I think it doesn't work. No. Every now and then, though, you see someone flexing and you're like, cool.

Like, like, if it's something, if it's something crazy. If it's something crazy, like, if they got like a grill that has never been seen before and they put on a fit that's like completely ridiculous. This is a natural ability to flex. Yeah. I don't have that. I have to do a soft flex. Yeah.

Low key. The thing that stood out to me too that you said that I want to know about. Okay. So you go to juvenile detention. You get into drugs at 18 in a heavier way than maybe you had before that. you get addicted, I guess, or just have, would you say you get addicted or you have a trouble getting off? Like, what's the, how do you define the addiction? I don't like to call it an addiction. Got hooked. I got hooked because I did it once and it was one of those things where like I did

it once and I was like fine the next day and I'm like, oh, I can do it again. Then it became impossible to stop. Yeah, then it became like, I. I was doing it every day, and I realized it, but I realized it too late. Because when I stopped doing it, I got the withdrawal symptoms. And that's when I was like, fuck. Like, now I have to do this. So I just kept going and going and going. At 18.

At 18. At 18. Yeah. And it was bad. It got to the point where I was doing, because I was spending like three, three to $4,000 a week on perks because I was. I was snorting them fucking left and right. They got too expensive, so I started getting fentanyl-pressed ones on purpose.

Oh, terrible. Yeah. Crazy idea. I don't know why. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. Right. Well, because you were 18. Yeah, and I was saving 10 bucks.

I'll tell you why. That's why. Because you were in a full-blown cycle of addiction. Yeah. And I think anyways. And you were young. and you were doing what you had to do to keep that. I wasn't worried about the consequences.

I was just worried about getting high, like feeling normal because it got to the point where I just, I had to wake up and crush a whole pill and snort the whole pill out once just to feel normal. It's crazy. Yeah. At 18. At 18, yeah. I know that it's not uncommon either.

I know that. But like for me, I just see kids and I go, I mean, I didn't have, when I was. When I was 18, I was lucky. I had my brother. We were so focused on making this band happen. We were just like going to work, going and trying to make a demo, sending demos out the labels. It was like a whole, took all our time and energy.

And I think because we had each other, there was no loneliness enough to want to do anything to take us out of it. And also, you know, if one fucks up, the other one is. Hold you accountable. Yo, like, stop doing that shit. We got to get, we got to go. Yeah. But also I think about my kids.

I'm like, that's fucking scary, man. 18. Yeah. So, but also I don't judge because I know, I know what it's like to get hooked on something. Yeah, everyone has an addiction. Right. And so I never judge anyone who gets on any level of addiction because I know, and I really do believe that there are people who are in their DNA, in their genes, their addicts. Yeah.

And that is a disease that they have. And I've certainly had it in my family, so I know a lot about it. Yeah, for sure. I have a lot of people in my family that are sober and have sobriety for many, many years. And I have a lot of people in my family that can't get sober. Yeah. And so I see both, right? And then I have myself who I've never had a problem with addiction.

But I do have an addictive personality around things like sugar. As bad as stupid as that sounds? Yeah, no, there's an addiction for everything. Like, you can have... I have to watch what I eat, bro. Like, I will... If it's up to me, I'm just eating all day long. The food loves me.

It makes me feel loved. Yeah. And it's just gonna, like, always love me no matter what. And I'm just going to sit here with all the food. It's going to love me. Everything is good in moderation. Yeah. You can't indulge too much.

That's it. But it just, you got to... It's all on your head. It's all on your head and you got to have the brain power. It's a... But do you feel like the... Do you feel like the rehab helped you? get out of that.

Hell no. Hell no. I ran away from that place. So what got you out of it? Literally just I looked in the mirror one day. You're like, I don't want to die? Yeah, well, it was like, so I have a little sister. My older sister at the same time as me, she was doing drugs also, but she was doing heroin.

So it was like, now is the next step for me too. Like, I wasn't getting high off the blues anymore. like I was either going to smoke them or I was going to do heroin. So I was like, fuck, I can't do that. I don't want to end up like that. Yeah, that's terrible, bro. Yeah, and then I looked in the mirror once because I went to like a family Christmas dinner. Right, gathering.

My mom was there, everyone was there, and I'm such a piece of shit. I went to the bathroom. I was like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom. Went in there. I acted like I was taking a shit and just snorted like two, three perks. and then went back out there and like knotted off like the whole the whole time my mom's over here just like next to me hugging me and I'm like if I felt like a scumbag. Right.

And then I just went back home, looked in the mirror and I was like, bro, like what would I do with my sit? My little sister was like this like be really sad. Yeah, I'd be sad as shit. Because you love her. Yeah, I love her. I love her like she's my daughter. Right. And, like, I just looked at myself and I was like, damn, I look terrible.

What if I die? Like, is she going to, like, be super depressed? Like, is she going to scar her? And that's when I was like, all right, fuck it. Like, I have to do this. I don't want my little sister to, like, be scared or nervous for me. Fuck up her childhood. So I was like, fuck it.

I got to do it. So I checked myself in a rehab. went cold turkey and as soon as the withdrawal symptoms were done, I ran away. And then is that when the music all really started? That's when everything started to fall into place. Right. Because at that time, yeah, at that time, I had gotten fired from my dad's job as a forklift driver. Right.

because the rehab wasn't like, it wasn't, I wasn't taking vacation or time off. So I got fired from that. And then I didn't have a job for like a month or two. And that's when I just focused on music. Linked up with, I don't know if you know who he is, but Flexitelli. He's a producer from Santa Ana that produces for like Fat Nick, all them. And then that's when I met him in that same year, I think.

And he was like, yo, you got to make a project so I can send it to Mikey, Mikey the magician. And see if he likes it, see if he wants to sign you to management and fly you out there, whatever. So we sent him music and he liked it and was like, yo, want to get you on the management. We can possibly get you into a label like empire. which I thought was perfect because I wanted to sign with empire regardless. So that happened. And he was like, yo, fly out to Miami. So I went to Miami and Puyah was nice enough to never even spoke to me, did not know me one bit.

And he let me stay inside his house for like. I've heard he's a cool dude. He's a great guy. I've always gotten that impression. Yeah, one of the nicest guys. I've always thought that. Yeah, super selfless. Like he always, he's always looking out for someone else more than he'll look out for himself.

That's amazing, man. Yeah. And especially when he's at that level right now, like, he doesn't have to do that. Yeah, but there is like this through line I find with a lot of the great people in this, you know, in this world we're in. It's crazy world. And there's certainly you hear all the cautionary tales and the bad. But I find there's more good. And I find that real artists are selfless and they care.

and they actually want people to be happy. They actually, I think we get a lot of gratification out of, like, the good stuff. Yeah. And then we're pinned against each other by bullshit. And it's all bullshit. I always say if all the bullshit was out of the industry and all the bullshit, the gatekeepers, the middlemen, and you had all the artists in a room, there would be a bunch of kids playing, making songs, having fun, like creating videos.

That's what it really comes down to. And that, he strikes me as like that artist. Oh, it is. Like, we don't, we don't worry about like, it's fun, like being around them, like, Puyah Fatnik, all them, like, since they were like the originators of like this, this generation. Right. Yeah.

And there were also, like, the people that, like, there were skaters. They dressed however they wanted. And they made music. They grew up in the suburbs. And so, like, when I'm with them, it's not like, okay, we got to, we got to dress a certain way to make this video, this and that, like, it'll just be spur of the moment, like, yo, we should just do this funny-ass video where we just do this. And then, like, you have a ducky stain on your, on your

underwear and you're, like, butt-naked, kind of. And, like, I should be, like, swinging off a ladder or something or, like, some weird shit. And we're just like, yeah, and we're just like, all right, fuck it. And we put it out. And, and we put it out. And obviously, Some people are like, oh, it's fucking whack. You guys are corny or this and that. Well, when the music's good, anything goes, anything works. So I think about it when I'm sitting here and I go, okay, anyone that's out there that's listening, right? That may have, are your parents divorced together?

They're divorced. Okay. So coming from a, for all that intense purposes, I'm not saying it's a broken family, but a broken home, like myself. 100% broken family. I would call it. Yeah. So I would call mine a broken family too. In fact, I would say a lot of the healing we did was because the kids when we got older,

because there's four of us, we really worked on ourselves and figured it out. And then we took the healing back and we put the family kind of back together as much as we could as far as like helping, I think our parents evolve and grow. and like, because all we ever wanted was our parents to be happy as little kids. Yeah, of course. And then you get older and life hits and you kind of, at first you get kind of a fuck you attitude. Yeah. You're like, fuck you. You didn't care about me.

And you're like, then you get older and have kids in your own. And you're like, oh, I know you did actually care about me. It was just fucking hard. Yeah. Four kids. No money. Yeah. And I had the same problem like similar shit to you where me and my dad or me and my mom weren't on like good

terms at all. Yeah. And for the longest time until I was probably like 17, 18, I was always like, oh, fuck them. I don't like them, this and that. Like I don't even want to fucking look at you. But as of recently, it's just like, like, you know what, whatever you did in the past, like, I forgive you.

Like I know you had your own problems and you took it out on the wrong people. Yeah. But I'm not going to judge you for that. You're just another person. Exactly. Exactly. And I know you didn't like mean to do that. Like it wasn't in your right mind to be like, yeah, I'm just going to wake up and be a shitty person.

But I end up just forgiving and just letting shit go. And I feel like that helped me too. Well, you've got an abundance of good things in your life now. You have this incredible career happening. And you have what looks like. the whole world in front of you, right, not behind you. The reason I say that, though, and I point out the family, because we have very similar, right, there's probably a lot of details different, but similar, is anyone that's listening

that might be in that same situation. Maybe they're in a broken family, broken home, maybe they have a parent who struggles with addiction. Maybe they have a parent who struggles with mental health. Now, the difference is I do also understand that there's probably people out there listening that have an abusive parent or someone that's doing something wrong. That's different. I'm not saying that's okay, but I'm saying like in general what a lot of people are up against are dysfunctional family. Yeah. Broken in some way. Parents who are humans and have human problems.

Yeah. And growing up to as kids, I think we tell ourselves whatever story we need to believe. So a lot of times we tell ourselves it's us Because we don't want to believe our parents Could ever be imperfect or fucked up Yeah We want to believe that we're fucked up We're not good enough, whatever At least this is how I understand

How I probably develop a lot of my self-esteem stuff And all that Because I actually wanted to believe My dad was my hero And my mom was the angel And the saint and then I was a bad kid And that's why I didn't get time with them or they were angry at me all the time or whatever.

And now as an adult, I realize they're just stressed as fuck. Yeah. They couldn't keep the water out of the boat. It just felt like we were always sinking. Yeah. So, but we get to the other side of it. And then I take a long time, but I'm going to a point here. For the people listening, right?

Because there's probably people listening that either know you or know me, maybe they aspire to be in music but maybe they don't maybe they aspire to just get through college or build a business or or just be healthy right yeah maybe just just needs some motivation right find the motivation and this is the thing that's hard is when you're alone it's fucking hard that's why I look at your story and I go oh you didn't have a twin brother I had a twin brother I always go yeah well it was hard but not that hard because I always have my twin brother He would always just be like, yo, like, hardened up, let's go. And now I would do that for him.

So you get through addiction. You get through, obviously through some violence and some, you know, you're getting in trouble. Then you get through addiction. Then you start making music. Then you find your friends. And that see you, believe in you. They obviously thought you were talented enough to come fucking hang with them. Yeah.

Right? And there's generosity there. Right, which then you pay forward. Yep. Right, because you seem like a generous guy. Oh, of course. You seem like an open guy who's like... I'm in debt to everyone that has gotten me to this place right now.

Like I had... But I feel that. I owe my life to them. But I feel that. And that's really important because some people feel entitled. Oh, for sure. For sure. There's a certain person that just will take and take and take.

Yeah. But when we met today, we've never met in person, right? I was aware of you. I've never met you. And actually, your music, as angry as it can be and as rage-filled as it can be in some spots, it can be just as, like, vulnerable and open in other spots. I always look for those colors in an artist. I want the whole spectrum.

I want to hear the anger and then I want to hear the, like, the real... When you're sad, when you're, like, you know... Borderline, I'm embarrassed. ...leading out your heart on a piece of paper or... Or just saying dumb shit and being funny. Yeah. That's like all that I do. Like I don't want to cage myself in.

I literally want to give everything to whoever listens to me or to whoever's watching me. I don't want to hide anything. I just want to put everything on the table. What you see is what you get. If you don't like what you get, then leave. And you do. Yeah. But so that, to me, that attitude is,

is the one of an optimist. Someone who, no matter what, there's a possibility inside of them that it could work out. Yeah. I'm going to go forward. Yeah, I'm going to go forward. Even if I'm tired, even if there's a possibility, this might not work. I still feel like there's a chance. You know, like this morning.

Right, right? One hour of sleep, you show up here and you're like, you know what? I'm going to go give it a chance, right? But to anyone listening, I always want to extract one. thing that they could take because there's people out there that I know you're listening and you're going it's not even about music it's I'm I want to get into better shape because I'm my I feel unhealthy or maybe I am actually physically in harming myself or maybe I'm I'm going down a road that leads to an early death whether it's drugs or or any of it like there's people out

there that are alone that come from the same situation we come from and they don't have They haven't met those friends yet. But here's the interesting thing, and this is maybe my point, you have to go forward and meet those friends. And if you don't go forward, if you stop, you won't meet those friends and you won't find out. And you let life win. Yeah, you let the hardships. You let the other reality is that if you want it to be bad, it can be really bad.

Even when it's bad, if we want it to be good, there's the possibility that it will get better. But we have to go forward. Yeah. And I found that out myself because I believe that I had a very hard childhood and it left a lot of scars on me. And then we started making the music. And because I had my brother, I went forward. And then I found out what was ahead and in store for me was this really incredible life. Yeah.

And now, just like you said, now I choose what I want to wear. I choose what I want to eat. I choose how I want to live my life. That's not how it felt when I was that age. Hell no. And so when I see people struggling to go forward, I always just want to encourage them, keep going forward because you're going to meet that friend,

you're going to meet that person. And they're going to give you that strength and they're going to give you that opportunity. They're going to see you like you met your friends, right? Yeah. And you are the one with the talent for yourself. You were the one with the drive to make your music to go out and do your thing. But you found people who saw that in you as well.

And they're not seeing a lie. They're seeing the truth. But you had to step up. But you had to step up, step in and keep trying. And you continually have to. But 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify is no fluke. You know what I mean? That's not, oh, that just happened.

That's a lot of work. TikTok. TikTok is, I get it. TikTok is an avenue, right? And next year or in a decade, there'll be another avenue. Yeah. But it's the person that knocks down the door for themselves. It's the person that keeps trying that gets the benefit of TikTok.

But all I'm saying is, is what 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify says to me is someone's been trying, someone's been working, someone's been doing, someone's been doing, been showing up and not fucking sniffing percissette. No, and I'm not, I'm still not happy with, with seven million. Yeah, exactly. I want 70. Yeah, I want, I want to keep going and going and going. It's like, it's kind of like the thing with like super rich people, like how much money,

like me, I'm looking at them like, yo, how much money do you need? But once you get that much money, you're like, fuck, I got 10 million, I need 100. It ended up the money. It's the game. Yeah. I want to see how. far I can take this thing. I want to see how high I can climb. I want to see how fast I can drive this thing. I want to see how beautiful I can make it. That to me is what it's all about.

When you get with the real ballers, it's the game. It's like LeBron is not playing for money. He's playing for the score. The greatness and everything. The greatness, the legacy. It's the legacy. That's what I believe all artists want is a legacy. They want, it's some kind of thing that you can, that no one can take. Because they can take the money. They can take the stuff. Yeah. They can take everything, but they can't take the legacy.

The imprint that you, that you leave, if you leave one. Absolutely. And I kind of try to remind myself that whenever I get caught up in the stats. Because we all do. It's like, how did that do? Yeah. And then you look for. stats.

Yeah. Instead of how did it feel. Yeah. And it sucks because like you you get validation from like, let's say all your songs are doing shitty in a month. You're like, oh, okay, all these songs are shit. But when you made them, you're like, oh, these are good. But then no one seems to like them or they don't catch all the ears.

And then you start to think, okay, this, all this shit was fucking ass probably. I don't even like it anymore. But then one blows up. And you're like, oh, that's how works. You never know. Yeah. Which one is going to connect with the larger audience. But I always try to remind myself anyways and my friends if they ask.

And certainly, like, all the artists I'm around, I always try to go like, how does it feel? How do you feel? And we forget sometimes to even check in with that. Like, damn, you know what? I fucking love this. Yeah. No, I have that same issue because, like, People ask me the same question, like, yo, you have seven million monthly listeners.

Like, how does that feel? Like, that's crazy. And I'm like, bro, I don't even think about it. I'm like just thinking about making more music and like just trying to like push it as far as I can go. Like I don't have time to just sit there and bask in like, wow, yeah, I did that. Oh my God. I'm so proud of myself. Yeah.

I feel like that. Just keep going. Yeah. I feel like that just like holds you back. keeps the motivation to a minimum because like you feel accomplished, I guess. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm hard of myself.

But it's for a reason. So I don't like feel too accomplished and like I still have more to do. And a lot of people think I'm like stupid for that because like you have to you have to bask in your own greatness sometimes. But no. I think it's good to just believe in what you're doing. And believe that you have the, you wouldn't be here if you didn't believe you had something to start. Yeah. You were a kid who said, like, no one gave you permission.

Yeah. You didn't have to, you didn't go around and ask permission to make music. You just said, I'm going to figure the, I want to figure this out. Right. Yeah, except I did ask for permission for it to my friend to record me because he knew how to record. Right, but you said no. Right. But like, you didn't ask yourself.

permission to believe you could do it. Oh, no, no. I literally just started doing it. It was like, I think I could do that. Yeah. It literally started with just like YouTube type beats and I would just, I didn't know how to record myself so I would just write lyrics in my notes and then saving for later and start another song, boom, boom, boom.

And then all of a sudden my friend finally let me record. And then he was like, oh, it's kind of fire. And I was like, oh, yeah, this is fun too. I want to keep doing it. And then kept doing it and putting out music and people liked it. And I was like, oh, people like it. Cool. I'll make more.

And then, oh, I'm making money. Oh, cool. I can make a living out of this. And then all of a sudden, here you are. Yeah. So where did the acoustic stuff really, how is that born? Because I feel like it's interesting because I love like, I love heavy music. I love rage music.

My kids always laugh. Because I'll be in the car and I'll put on like some heavy shit. Yeah. I'll put on architects all day. And like it's rage filled heavy music. But beautiful, important lyrics in my opinion. All stuff I relate to. Sam, I don't know if you are an architect's fan, but you should check them out.

Sam has a way of his, the way he sings shit, the way he says it. And the way that band plays together, I just feel like. It's not far away from what you do, be honest with you. Like there's a lot of music in the heavy music scene. Another band I love is bad omens. I fucking love bad omens. They just say things in a way that I feel. And I'll put it on in the car anyways and my kids are like, I picked my son up with his friends and I had like some heavy-ass music playing.

And they were just like, oh. It's embarrassing. Yeah, he's like, dad, can you turn off your? heavy music and they want to listen to hip hop it's fine i give them the i give them the ox he can play but um my girlfriend says i have the the music taste of a 40 year old man yeah yeah yeah well then like me so um i like that the heavier rage stuff you do but then the acoustic stuff really struck me there's something about it that i felt really like it keeps me listening like i hear it i feel it like you're telling some stories or something that i always

Whenever I make acoustic stuff, it's obviously from the heart. And I don't know if it's true or if it's just like in my head, but I feel like the energy that I put out while I'm recording, those frequencies are going to reach the other person and they're going to hear those frequencies and it's going to resonate with their brain to make them feel what I was feeling while I was recording. Right. And that's like what I try to do.

Like I put my all into into like the softer songs and how I'm feeling, make sure like what I'm feeling is like what I want the listeners to feel and to relate to and everything. I don't know if you realize though. That's kind of like that's actually like I'm just going to say it as like a 40 year old guy who is like, analyzes everything. I overanalyze everything. That's very like therapeutically speaking. That's very kind of like sound therapy. It's a little shamanistic.

It's a little bit like it's pretty cool. It sounds to me like that intention, whether you realize it or not. I don't think you thought about it like that. I think you're literally just, no, I have. I'm a big person in like energy. and like subliminal things like where if you see the color blue, your mind's going to feel calm for a second. Right. Like I'm a firm believer in painting a picture first before so they can look at it and get a feeling of how things are going to be based off that picture.

Yeah. Like if I want a song to be sad and I want them to feel a certain type of way, I'll make the cover art a certain color, like based on a certain color. So they get the full experience or... That's cool. It's like very, it's meditation-ish. It reminds me of some things in meditation. It's very psychological. Yeah.

It's cool. Yeah. That's dope. It's weird how the brain works. Like, it's like the type of stuff that like back in the day. when they would have like a McDonald's commercial or something and then for like a split second they'll have like one of those little subliminal messages. Yeah.

But your eyes didn't process it, but your brain didn't because it remembers it. So it's like one of those things. So is that when you know it's done? Like when you get the right color, when you get the right cover, when you get the right vibe, is it because it hits you like that and then you know it's going to hit them like that? That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, I mean, the song that blew up, my song Waste. Yep. Fed up version is good, too. Thank you. Which is, like, crazy to me, the new thing. I know. I know it's not that new, but to a 40-year-old, it's new. Speeding up all the songs and everything.

We used to have chopped and screwed back in the, like, in the 90s and 2000s. I was actually going to drop a, I was, it's funny, I was going to drop that song as a chopped and screwed song. Cool. Like, because we know it's a little slow, all right. Yeah, we slowed it down and it sounded like just majestic. Yeah. And I was like, damn, should I drop it like this?

But sped up. Sounds dope. It sounds like a choir of midgets. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. But yeah, like I literally made that song in, there's like 30-something words in that song. I made that song in like 20 minutes because I was like super depressed.

And I was like, I was like, bro, I need to like just get. something off my mind and that's why it's so many so little lyrics and then that that chorus comes in and it was just like the only thing I can do was like harmonize with it and and I didn't have anything to say I just wanted to like let vocalize my emotions right and that harmony was just a vocal of how I was feeling yeah so I don't know a lot of people will say like oh shit it gives me chills this and that. It was good. Yeah.

I like it. Thank you. Thank you. Not everybody can pull off a good acoustic song. It's a weird space, acoustic music, the singer-songwriter acoustic spaces. Especially the people that do like hard shit. Yeah. That's why I like it so much.

Because it was very hard for me to imagine. But they both work for you, which is cool. I think you got to keep playing with all of it. because I think you're going to continue to develop this cool. There's an organics to it. That's super cool. Yeah. Like I need to, I honestly, like, I hate doing the same thing over and over again.

So like I'm always trying to find a new sound I can play around with or mix into something. So I just keep like looking for inspiration and finding new sounds to, to, mess with so nothing sounds the same. Someone can be like, oh, I love this album, but I hate this album because it's only like focused on this type of sound. And then that's like an era gap. It's like, okay. Well, I think with the acoustic music, your voice lends itself to it. So that's one thing. I think where you could go with it, just for me speaking musically, I think you could probably find some acoustic players out there, some musicians that are badass. There is a, there is like this, there are guys who are just better at playing the acoustic

guitar than anyone else. There's just something about how they play. I think you get with one of those guys and you start writing together and that's going to bring out a whole other layer of like, there's something about with a, with different players bring out different songs, right? This guy plays a little bit like this. We write a song together. It's different than this guy.

And so it's good to do it all. Because the acoustic music you have is good. I'm not saying the player isn't good. But that's the amazing thing about live and organic, like kind of unprogrammed music. Yeah. Is the organic, unpredictable nature of the player writes a different song. It's crazy. It's funny you say that too because, like, I have.

have three people that I trust to make like my acoustic, my acoustic or anything with the guitar. There's one I trust only with like indie and R&B music. There's one I trust with like the grunge stuff or just like sad, sad melodies. And then there's one that like I just experiment with because he's like super good at playing the guitar so he can just do whatever. And I'd always go back and forth, back and forth and that's good. Just see what's like, what's fresh out of their mind. How much more tour do you have left? A long time? The rest of the year. I think we have 30 more shows left. In America? In America.

And then after that, I'm going to Germany for rolling loud, for two rolling louds. And then I have a break for like a month or two. And then I'm going on tour in Germany on like doing my own tour. Cool. Germany is great. Germany is amazing. I love. I mean, I've never even been there.

Oh, dude. I feel like most of my fan base is. I would imagine you'd have a lot of fans in Germany. Yeah. When we did it, when we were touring all the time, Germany is one of our best. Yeah. Our shows there are still huge. Like they're crazy, dedicated.

They're dedicated. Loyal. And they also love like the hard shit. They love the hard shit. They love something that sparks like rage. Yeah. Like I don't know what it is. Anyone that's pissed off.

Yeah. It's good. Yeah. That's why I feel like we fit in with that crowd more. But maybe we'll tour together one day. Maybe. When we get the engines fired back up. I don't know when that's going to be.

We always talk about it. I always say this. We're trying to figure out when. when we could go back out and really we just when we won't when we go back we just want to fucking do it yeah we don't want to like half start so we want to like go and hit it hard and like really put up like put like put the big show together and like do the big show and so to you know the last five years I feel like we've all been just kind of meditating on that because the last tour we did was great what what I do

is or the way I think is if you're thinking about it too much, you have to just do it. Just do it. Just do it. I feel you. Spend a whole week. Go forward. Yeah. Spend a whole week.

Get all those preparations plan. Yeah. The next week. Hit up everyone you need to hit up like to get it all lined up. Yeah. Get it all lined up. Yeah. And then all of a sudden.

Oh shit. Poor announce is coming. Now I have to do it because it's all lined up. It's all locked. Yeah. You just have to do it. You know what? Great advice.

Same thing with buying clothes. Yeah. Just pull the trigger. You just pull the trigger. That's it. If you think about it too much, it's on your brain. Obviously, it's on your brain for a reason because you want to do it. Yep.

So I think you should do it. Don't be a sitting duck. Don't be a sitting duck. That's right. Don't let that engine, you know, get cobwebs and rust all over it. Yeah. Yeah. That's good advice.

WD-40. I might take that advice. Yeah. Do it. Well, job. Do it. Do it. It's a, I mean, bro, everyone would love to see you.

Oh, that's nice to say. Yeah. We would, we would, when we do it, we are going to be excited about it. Because our last tour was probably the best tour of our career. In 2018, I think we did a big European tour and it was like fucking sick. Yeah. The next one, we're going to, like, we're going to go even bigger. So, like, because we felt like we missed a few opportunities.

to do some things that we wish we would have done. And we probably should have just playing another one and done it. But we want to put out some music and stuff with it. We want to do it. Yeah, of course you have to. It's coming together in our minds. Yeah, I like your advice. Just fucking go.

Yeah, you just got to do it. I mean, because the only thing that's going to happen is like... It takes a year to set up shit anyways. Yeah. And the thing is, like, when you're thinking about it, like, oh, okay, yeah, we're going to put this together. Okay, if you want to go get lunch, I'm kind of hungry. You guys are at lunch?

Come back. Okay, we got to set this podcast up. This and that. It always is a thought for a second, but that thought can turn into, like, notes or whatever that you want to write down for ideas and everything. And that's one step towards it. So just not keeping it a thought. Do you have more new music coming? I imagine you have tons of songs probably that we haven't heard.

I don't. Oh, you don't? I don't. Okay. I literally, that's the thing. that's cool actually i i wait until the last moment to when i like want to release an album um to just knock out like a bunch of songs yeah and and just drain myself mentally um and see where i'm at and that point of time and then have the album you know kind of correlate to each other

because i hate making like songs here songs here songs there i'm kind of like that yeah like i'll wait and then we just do the album yeah and then we just do the album yeah and then that's Those are the songs we have. I don't write all the time in between. I need to focus on the album and get a vibe. Exactly. I'm not that person that can like, you know, oh, we have a studio session. Cool.

Let's go have a studio session and, you know, just work on a song. If we like it, we don't, whatever. And then go to the next song. I like have to sit. It's got to feel like a project. Yeah, it has to feel like a project. Like I have to feel like this song I'm making is for a purpose. and it has to go with this song too.

I like that. I like with my albums, I like my albums to tell a story. So that's one thing I'm big on with albums is like the roller coaster feeling of it, which is like the track listing. And then also like, you know, if there's one song that's like I'm pissed about like my ex-girlfriend, or something and I'm mad. The next song is going to be like I forgave her or whatever and now I'm shitting on her, like this and that.

But yeah, I like the songs to like correlate with each other. Yeah, I feel the same way. It's got to feel like a project. Yeah. Otherwise, why am I doing it? Exactly. When you're getting anything right for nothing? Yeah, it's going to be a mixtape, I guess.

Yeah, no, no. It's got to feel like we're here with some purpose. Mm-hmm. Do your friends call you Johnny or do they call you Kill Switch? So people call me Johnny. Some people call me Kill. Some people call me Switch. Some people call me Kill Switch.

My preferring is either Johnny or Kill. Kill or Johnny. Yeah. Yeah. Because it just rolls out the tongue more. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But there's some people that are like, oh.

No, John John. No, no John, John. Okay. No John, John. That's a very, uh... My dad, my dad calls me homie. Okay. My dad calls me homey because I, whenever, when I was, like, young, I would just stay inside the house.

Like, he'd be like, oh, why don't you go outside and, like, make some friends or something? And I'm like, no. I want to sit here and play video games. And he was like, always home. Homey. Yeah. Yeah. So he calls me, homie.

But everyone else is either killer or Johnny or the Johnster or Killiam. Killiam switches. Yeah. Yeah, that's another one. That's another one there. Johnny Kill. J.K. J.K. Johnny Kill. Johnny Kill. Thanks for coming on.

Appreciate it, bro. Thank you for having me, bro. Yeah, it was awesome. Thank you. Yeah, really appreciate it. Of course. I appreciate this opportunity and everything. It was great. Hey, thank you for listening to artist-friendly.

I'll see you next week. on gas, I'm smoking on up if that's my kind. I don't want no bad times. I don't want to have bad.