Garza Podcast - 248 - NO CURE: Hardcore, Avenged Sevenfold, Straight Edge & It Is Going to Get Dark

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Garza sits down in-person with Blaythe Steuer & Aesop Mongo. From Alabama straight edge band NO CURE. https://instagram.com/nocurestraightedgeGet SUICIDE SILENCE tickets here: https://suicidesilence.store/pages/tour00:00 - What Height is Considered Tall07:04 - It Is Going to Get Dark: Guitar Tones, Amps & Pedals10:22 - Writing Slowly Turning Blue15:44 - Starting a Straight Edge Band19:46 - Aesop Learning Guitar on the Job22:04 - Abstaining From Drugs26:00 - Alabama HxC Scene32:25 - Growing Up in Alabama37:48 - Guitar Effects Fatigue39:38 - Skill vs Vision53:45 - War Metal55:53 - Selling B.C. Rich Guitars to Pay Rent59:35 - Ironthrall Guitars1:09:56 - Amps1:11:14 - Writing Hang Me From the Bible Belt1:14:18 - The Cleansing & Criticism on Deathcore1:17:50 - Throwdown & Beyond Repair1:27:42 - Is It Straight Edge?1:35:13 - Internet Hate & Transphobia1:43:23 - Brain Matter Displacement1:48:38 - Future Approach to Writing Music1:52:23 - Writing Mosh Parts1:55:15 - Favorite Ice Cream Flavor1:58:10 - Avenged Sevenfold2:07:56 - No Cure’s Top 6 Albums2:18:44 - Getting Stabbed at a Show

At what, uh, what's like the exact height that makes you tall? What is that? What is that? I think someone recently told me 6.4. I think 6.4? I think 62 is tall. 62. Yeah.

And you're 62? 4. 6.4. Yeah. I give a couple inches to the other men. Let them have it. You know, I don't, I don't have a monopoly on height. 6.6.

6. Man, I'm 5.6. It's. You're close, bro. You'll get there. Like 5.1. Yeah. Yeah.

We're 5-1. You're not 5-1 anymore. I'm getting shorter. Are you really? Oh, yeah. It feels like it. Yeah, she is. Well, yeah, that's the, I've seen my, see my dad.

Like, you know, he's like 84. You see him getting shorter. I'm like, wow. Am I going to be that way too? I'm 40. I think that's just how it works. Is this how close you want me to do? Oh, sure, yeah.

Just, you're, you're the singer. You tell me. I know my. way around to SM7b tell you what oh yeah but typically I'd be holding it do you use it to record it all nice it works that's like it's hard to clip it and then I try to clip it is it yeah like it's very low output so it's hard oh yeah actually like make it peak you know that's probably why it's so good for like extreme vocals uh because even like for like this like we need like a i don't we call it like a line booster or something yeah cloud lifter yeah yeah it makes sense by heavy music you can you it's

Bitch said, yeah, she only got no idea to crowd lifters. I love Aesop Mongo. Jay, are we alive? Cool. No cure. Thank you for being here. It's also, I really appreciate you making time when you're supposed to be going home.

Blade, Aesop. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. Thank you for having us on. Are you supposed to be driving home right now or what? We're supposed to be driving to Texas right now for our third time into Texas on this single tour because of the routing just had to make a bunch of different things line up.

We played the Rumble. We played Sound and Fury. We played a fest in Panama City. One of our supports had to play Warped Tour to do the tour, so we had to go to California twice. Of course. So getting back to Alabama, you got to go through Texas.

So we have a few routing shows on the way home with Bayway. So we got to be in Midland, Texas tomorrow, which is, I guess, kind of near Lubbock, Amarillo, sort of area, like West Texas. And that is not close to Los Angeles. No, it's not. So we'll be driving all night. I'm sorry.

It's fine. Want to come say what's up? You got to do it. Hustle. It's just the nature of this. Yeah. Yeah. You've done band tours, brother.

You know how it goes. It's go. You're going to suffer. You're going to suffer and it's like it. And it's so dope. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 30.

30. 30. 30. 30. Okay. Yeah. Still, still there. Yeah, I could do a van.

It's fine. It took us longer to crawl out of Alabama. So we still got life in us. You know, like just getting a band to do stuff just takes longer when you're from the southeast. You first first. music through Papa Roach and Drowningpool, correct? That is it, yeah, the radio. And then, and then you just, which, which CD did you get?

God, it was the one with the Roach on it. That's all I can remember, because I remember being outside of the record shop and looking at it, being stoked. And I think my grandmother started reading the song titles or played it and was just like, nope. Mm-mm. I was like, fuck. Did you get, did you get the Drone and Pool CD? I want to say I got the, yeah, that's what I had.

I 100% had that. and I think I got a Drining Pool CD later on, but I might have just had one of those like WWF soundtracks that had the Drining Pool song on it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Was it bodies or? Bodies, yeah. Yeah, I think I just had that soundtrack

and that's how I get to listen to them when I was a kid. Do you know that their guitar player was the bass player for Flesh Parade? I don't even know what Flesh Parade is. It's a legendary grind band. Oh, sick. We didn't want you to bring up, Jay. Yes, I had that.

Oh, you had that? Yeah, I had that. Lempisket, Manson, Seven Dust. Oh, yeah. Kid Rock, Kri-G. Oh, you were. Yeah, we'd get home from school. You got the, you got the forcible entry.

Oh, yeah. That's a really great album title. Forcible entry, WWF. Now, well, now that logo is illegal. Yeah. Dude, your boy is good at Googling. He's good. He's got that.

It makes it to worry by saying anything. We have to back check. ASAP immediately immediately so I don't say anything too dumb that I got a volume three you'll say do they have some tunes on a cypress hill dope oh this is all bringing back lots of memory oh yeah Limp biscuit rolling you disturbed nice I wonder what year this came out ooh I don't even know was was that out was that out to us a team Was that a pay-review? Or is that just the name of the record?

Forcible entry, because they named each month they had the paper view. It was like King of the Ring in your house. Yeah. I hardly remember anything from that far back. Really? Yeah, yeah. And if this came out in 2002, then I was eight. Oh, man, you were eight.

Yeah. Wow. My grandfather was really into wrestling, so I'd watch it with him to my brother. That's cool. That's awesome. It's going to get dark. Now at this point, this comes out in a couple weeks. So it's been out for a couple months. How are you feeling about it? I can't believe how awesome everyone is being to us about it. Honestly, like, people have been really kind. Fourth record too. So we did a couple demos. We did a couple EPs. This is like actually LP one. Okay. So it's like, Oh, really?

Yeah, like the first real, like, let's sit down and make a real record situation. That makes sense. Because I was just going from, like, well, it says album on, like, Spotify. So I was just like, oh, this, this one by pretty quick. Nah. Am I on the next one already? Okay, cool. Yeah, they were, uh, we wanted to use, like, a couple long EPs just before, like, doing, like, a real LP.

Nice. Yeah. Yeah. We wanted this one to be, like, the first LP. So it's, like, a lot more went into it, you know. Yeah. So. Asap, what was the, what was the guitar tone on that?

Well, there were, we did like, what, four different tracks of guitar, but mostly I have a, I have a pedal. It's sick. I work with a guy named Jeremy that does Heretic Effects, and he has something called a bone remover, which is the simplified version is a boosted TS9, but I don't know, I just like that a lot, and that's pretty much my whole tone. Okay, so that's your red pedal, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Did they only make 10 of those?

What was that like the number? So for the first batch, we made 13, one for me, one for Jeremy, one for a close friend of mine, and the 10 that we sold. Didn't even give one to Blithe? Wow. That is true. Devastating. I'd be getting scraps. We did another run, I think, 24, and those sold out in like six seconds.

It was awesome. Whoa. Another one of the, like, the guitar layers that we did, are you familiar with S&K? No. They're doing much like late 90s, early 90s, like death metal circuits, essentially like S&K. Yeah, yeah, they have this pedal as like a VHD. So like one of those Ampeg circuits pretty much like the, yeah, yeah, yeah. That into a dual dark that we borrowed from a friend, like the orange dual dark.

Okay. Ended up having a pretty good presence in the record too, which is, you know, I've never really played with oranges before. But we had one to mess with. And then that pedal into there, I could not believe how it sounded. I was like, I got to get, like, way more money because I can't afford one of those. And they don't manufacture the dual dark anymore, I don't think either. They don't? It looks like a 50 watt?

Yeah, I wouldn't want to use it live, but like it just, yeah, that tone is monstrous. layered with her, like a stiletto, you know, use the Mesa Stiletto. Yeah. With the bone remover. Layered with this was just, wow. Disgusting. Yeah, I was listening. I'm like, I haven't heard anything like it.

I know this isn't like a tube screamer, but it is interesting that you see. say that that pedal is based out of a two-scrimmer. It sounds, to me, I don't know. Maybe it's just my ear. It just sounds nothing like a two-scrimmer. I don't really think it's that much like it either. It's just like, I'm not a nerd for the pedals. I don't know what makes them different.

I just know it sounds cool. And my guy was like, this is the simple version is boosted TS9. I'm like, that's good enough for me. It sounds cool. And it also looks cool. And that helps more than anything. Yeah. Slowly turning blue.

How does your band come up with that song um and like what regard we're talking like musically or lyric yeah both sure i mean what was like okay do you have no song yeah like what what happened you come up you do you bring in a few riffs should you have like some like a lyric concept or so we have a we have a couple different processes that we do that work there's a few there's several songs that a soft and i will do together which will have some riffs and then together we'll like bloom it into like a full piece and there's some songs that i'll just like bring to the band okay and blue is one that i brought to the band. So the intro riff, I wanted to write a section that had the capability of the stormtroopers

of death stomp, you know, the big circle stomp. I wanted it to be like that vibe. And I was just messing around with pinch harmonics. And one thing that we did on this record, I don't know if there's a name for it. Like when you do a pinch, but you don't, you know, vibrato it. I've been calling it like a static pinch. We do a bunch of those on this record. It sounds like a natural harmonic but like not quite. That explains that sound. You'll do like four or six in like a row. I think it's eight.

Eight. Yeah. It was kind of like a chromatic in a way. It was like what does it happen? Okay. Yeah, it's really bad sounding. I love it. So yeah, I had that riff and I don't know.

That's sick. I think that was one that I wrote partially on tour because we've tore so much. If you have an idea, I'll just ride it out on like tablature or something just to make sure it stays in my head. and then figure it out all the way when I get home. But yeah, that song was cool.

And then lyrically, it was a lot of, like, just stuff that I've observed or been through in life. And it's not fun, but it's a song that people are connecting with. And I'm glad for that. People are connecting with it. And it has a part in the middle that I call Sepultero drums. Because Duncan is just going like like tons of kick, tons of tombs. And it balloons very nicely into this, like, harmonized guitar section

that I'm really excited about. So, yeah, I think it's a cool song. He's a powerhouse of a drummer. He is maybe the best drummer, like, in our lane, honestly. I was watching him yesterday. He was just, like, looking at him. He doesn't care about anything besides hitting really, really hard. And he's such a good performer.

And correct me if I'm wrong. Does he have nerve damage in his hands and he have multiple surgeries, right? Is that why he wears gloves? I think the gloves help. Yeah, he has some difficult hand situations. I'm not sure what it's going to mean for him long term, but for now he's ripping. Wow. Yeah, I think it hurts like every time he plays now.

And it's like getting worse. Couldn't even tell. Yeah, he can tell. He can tell. He's been fighting with it and it's sad. But, you know, as long as he can rock, I think he wants to. No idea. I didn't know idea until it was mentioned.

Yeah, he's having like a, I don't want to talk about his stuff too much because I don't know how much he wants it to be known. but like he's been having some some have a tough time with it but he's a trooper it kind of asked to the music it's supposed to hurt and and didn't you record a record with broken ribs you are a good researcher mr garza yeah yeah appreciate that um we did it our first like at the time we thought it was our 30 people looking back our first two things are kind of demos like yeah okay actually i'm sorry not not not record now now i'm aware apologies brother but yeah um so like we did for the stainless steel i kind of struggle with s is I'm gonna be real with you yeah for the stainless steel is really hard for me to say and then curse from birth were like very DIY demos that we like

recorded ourselves we went with the guy that did it is going to get dark to do the instruments for the commitment to permanence which is the one where my ribs were rib I never got it x-rayed all the way and it's like what's the point you know I I knew it was fucked up but and that happened through motion correct it happened at a rhythm of fear show in Birmingham Alabama I'm not sure familiar with my fear they're an excellent thrash band from Jacksonville, Florida. And yeah, I got kicked so hard, I couldn't believe it. Like, I was like, whoa.

And then the next day I was like, all right. And then, like, ribs are like the part of your body. Like, I can't imagine that being broken. You can't do anything about it. You can't get a cast. Yeah. Yeah. It's just there.

Yeah, just it was redful. And then you got. And the record had to get done. You know, I recorded it. it in my room just holding an SM7B and it took longer than it would have if it did not hurt a lot but we got through it wow again you don't really know until like you hear it oh wow i guess it it kind of it kind of makes the song sound different yeah i don't know i definitely you know this is the first band i've ever sang for typically i play guitar in bands yes so i've been very much figuring it

out as i go and i don't think i'm done figuring it out by any means me either but you can start To hear some of like the progression of from me learning through touring on commitment. I think like there's more of like that shriekier tonality to it that I figured out I could do through touring off cursed from birth. Yeah. Which now I just push way hard for the newer songs. Okay. Like it's getting less safe as I go because it sounds cooler. Okay. Nice.

So you started, so you originally started playing drums. I mean, you play drums and I've heard dozens of failed bands. Dozens of Feld bands is very accurate I liked those bands I liked them they were fun but could they have gone anywhere No And wait you saw it at 14? I want to say 14 yeah 13 14 I can't remember that far back but one of those

Yeah and I've been playing drum since then And yeah they just didn't fucking work And you're always the only straight edge Remember yeah just had a band I'd say Birmingham didn't have that many straight edge people For a long time So it was just like it was me And I was just like just which is fine

I was my friends did sold drugs whatever and that was just who they were I didn't matter it didn't bother me but I was in bands with them and it never worked out And I kind of just got really tired of it not working out and I was approaching my 30s and I'm like I'm really tired of it now working out I'd love for it to fucking work out and Blase band Wasn't Blithe one of the only straight-edge? Mm-hmm musicians in the entire state yes there they were not many of us like there were some dark ages you You know, like after the Christ Corps boom died in Alabama, you know, like you'd go to a hardcore show. Christcore boom. Wow.

I never heard that. In the Southeast, when we started going to stuff, they... My 95% of bands were Christian, right? Or lying about it to play church shows. Oh, nice. A lot of lying, as I've learned. Nice. A lot of fakers.

Yeah. I'm not sure if it's more lame to do a Christian metalcore band or to lie about being a Christian metalcore band. been but either way I'm out but you know when we were coming up that's what we had you know those were the shows we had you know and you know like we'd rarely get a band like rotting out coming through and be like oh but like when we're kids like going to shows I started going to shows when I was 12 you know like I would go to the Christian metal course shows because that's what I could find and that's what there was so once that wave died once everyone was like all right this sucks you know as waves go it got really bad there was probably from like 2013 to like 20.

19 almost. I would say I knew the first and last name of pretty much every person at every show. Wow. And like that's not good. You know, like, it's probably like, like 30 people was like, this is awesome. Like, it was, it was dark. And I would say there's probably like three or four straight edge people for most of that time. Like there was like no new people coming out. I mean, there were our old heads that like, you know, some people that book shows and things like that. But like the actual act of young kids in the scene, it was not, there's no straight edge people. Yeah, but now there are so many. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Really?

Yeah. We have like a straight-edge group chat of just like all the kids in Alabama and it's like 40 people right now. Whoa. It's just like, when I was a kid, I couldn't have imagined that. Yeah. So it's really something I appreciate. It's just really cool to, uh, because like growing up I'd be, I'd constantly be trying to do bands, constantly trying to figure out how to tour, all this stuff that's all I ever dreamed of.

And my friends didn't have the money, but they had money for drugs and alcohol, which is, You know, that's their fucking life. They want to do that. I love it. But no one had the money in time and energy to put into a band like I did. So it would just be like, we can't get further than being a local band because, like, nobody can make it past that stage. Because, like, the bands would fall apart in one way or another. And, yeah, I would just over it.

I was tired. I was, like, reaching my 30s. And I was like, okay, well, I should try a straight edge band now. Maybe this is the time I try a straight edge band. Blates had a band at the time. And I was just like, hey, if you have time, let's do another band. Let's do a straight-edge band.

I really want to do that. And then his band started fizzling out, so that just made sense for this to become a thing. It was supposed to be like a straight-edge site project, correct? Yeah, pretty much. Neither of us had any thought that we would do things like tour Europe or play Sound and Fury or any of that. Like, that was not a thought.

We were just like, we've always wanted to make a straight-edge record and never had the people to do it. Let's figure it out. And I always wanted to play guitar in a band and didn't know how. So I was just like, teach me to play guitar and you can figure out vocals so yeah you say hey I don't know to play guitar you teach me you don't do vocals you sing yeah that's sick she had vision and I'll be candid with you this

girl could not play guitar when we started the same I bent every chord out of tune the hands were not in sync we're side picking we're doing every sin like every power chord it was like you know it would be like that when you need to be like that you know I'm talking about I couldn't look at her now it's amazing yeah how long have you had been playing guitar now since just since the band started. Like, I own guitars. I tear apart. 2012.

Our first show was in, like, April or late March of 22. So I would say, like, late 2021, she had to, like, really start taking it seriously as an instrument. Five years. Yeah. And she's still learning,

and she's still putting work into it. We recorded the demo without the other guitarist, Kyle. And then Blath was like, yeah, we need another guitarist. We can't do just you. You're not good enough yet.

And I'm like, I did not. You didn't say that. You didn't say that, but we, it was understood. I knew I was not performance ready yet. I was like, A so, we should get someone to like, you know, fill out the sound. It goes to show like, sometimes like you need, you need, I've been talking a lot lately about visions.

Like you have like the vision first and you just figure it out later, then the sound kind of just appears out of nowhere. Because you're like, Lassart like, you know, just full of hell. Yeah. Worship and then now, and then once like the vision kind of, you actually worked a vision oh then that kind of like becomes his own life right yeah because I would not say we sound anything like full ill but that's what I wanted to do at the time because I was listening to a trumpet the ecstasy and I was just like wow this is the great thing ever it is a great

record I want to do that I want to do that so bad and then it didn't happen but this is cool too yeah basically we wanted to be like the most evil sounding straight edge band yet essentially but also still like pay respect to a lot of like the hardcore bands that put all that together congratulations thank you accomplished thanks i think we figured it out cool i'm like i want to be the heaviest band ever and then he just he just do it not just heavy it's also got to be evil it's got to be evil it's got to be evil is important uh asop just real real quick i had a curiosity when when someone is young and they're hanging around uh a certain lifestyle how do you how did you not drink how did you not do things when the influence is so easy um uh i'd say my parents were uh addicts and i watched it

and i experienced their behavior in ways that left me traumatized and i'm just growing up i'd watch my dad be the most horrible drunk and i was just like god i i know i am my parents that's just how it works i don't want to be like that if i'm ever like that to anyone else I fucking no I can't that's terrible so it was like a mixture of that and my mom had like you know her own vices and she treated me like shit in the same way and I was just like yeah I gotta do something else I have to do everything I can to not be like them Wow and I was just like I'm gonna go in the opposite direction and because their lives I could only view it as failures they just they did not succeed in any department

and all I just wanted to succeed in some way and I was like I just need to not do what they're doing and then maybe I'll figure it out. I was like if I do what they're doing I'm gonna be where they are and I don't want that because they're miserable So I wanted to not be that and I think that was the basic because like I grew up seeing that shit. I go to shows all my friends did drugs and I was just like I don't know we are headed but I don't want to go there So you kind of had the foresight You know I didn't I didn't I didn't start drinking or even smoking when I was 21. I was straight edge up until 21 but but my thing is different I just didn't hang around people and I hung around straight edge people I was in California so I was like I can't so I was curious I was like how did A sop do it because I had the luxury of what I'm surrounding by because reddish hardcore was

pop in here oh yeah but but you didn't have that we did not have there there were pockets a straight edge but it's like I didn't experience that my one of my best friends I was in band which he sold drugs that's like how we made that's how he lived that's how he survived and we were in bands together and I'm like you do you as long as can be in a band i'm happy did that ever make you feel lonely yeah absolutely it's very isolated yeah it's very isolated there was a moment i'd say like early on in okura i was like oh this is what i've been wanting this is what i've been waiting for was like a type of connection that i only get from people who were on the same path as me like i love my friends that you know we've headed down a different path

but i couldn't connect with them on so many levels like you're hanging out at your friend's house and everyone is fucked up on something and you're just like yeah how do you just i i was curious i what i what do you do yeah i kind of just observe them when we put on music and they show me new bands and i'm like okay cool i'm gonna leave now that was fun it's not even just the not partaking is that people do behave differently when they feel like they have to be on guard because you're not the same level of intoxicated as them you know it does change the vibe and i hate that if i'm like trying to hang out with friends and I'm not trying to like police their behavior but like they feel like they have to police their behavior more because we're there you know and that's

not fun like the notion that being straight edges like some cool club is like some performative like oh yeah we're so cool it's it's like not it doesn't make you cool it's if anything it makes social stuff much more challenging because that's something that a lot of people do so yeah a lot of weird takes about straight edges I am subjected to Yeah. Yeah. Congrats. You got through it. I don't know if I could have. Being from being from your home state. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's why so many our friends did what they did.

Like, that's just how it was out there. Just how. Yeah. It can be pretty bleak. Yeah. Now, I was curious, how is it like, you know, coming up in like the scene there? Because, I mean, there wasn't really a scene. Really, right? I mean, there are waves and, like... There are ways of, like, a whole bunch of unity, and then it divides. and then it falls apart and then starts over.

Yeah, that's what I've seen. Yeah, what happened once, like, the Christian wave kind of just, like... I got into booking shows because I wanted there to be shows, and it took a long time for those shows to be good, but... Oh, yeah, yeah, you mentioned that, like, you just wanted to see shows, so you just like, I'm just going to book the show because it's not happening. You've been booking you for about 10 years? Maybe more now, honestly.

Okay. That's, like, all I really do is, like, you know, I work for a guy that, like, books, like, a lot of, like, shows, and then I can, you know, do a bunch of what I want to do under that, and it makes it easier to do so. So, yeah, a lot that we do, and I bring ASOP on all the time for, like, you know, DIY and hardcore shows, and it's pretty, it works really well. Yeah, I think I actually started booking shows in 2019, and he helped me do the more, like, the part where like, oh, I need for how to pay bands, but all the other stuff, I was just kind

of DIYing the hell out of it and just being like, hey, can I use this space? Okay, cool. I guess I'm running door and sound, you know, And then he helped me figure out how to do it right. I'm good at PDFs and emails. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What was, what, uh, were the venues, uh, June and Goldsprick coffee, correct?

We were discussing coffee shops. Yeah. Those are not venues, but they are, they're, they're coffee shops, right? Those are beloved coffee shops. Okay. But, um, Goldsprint has a room, but they won't like do anything like active, really. They're like, we will do singer-songwriter night. They're like really picky, right?

Yeah. But like, we will not do it. haywire. Yeah. Yeah. Tried. You tried? Oh, yeah. It's like, come on, just... We're going to keep trying. I ask them quarterly.

Oh, yeah. I'll be like, hey, is it time for you to make some money? Because, you know, venues like to make money. You know what? Just real quick, I had a... I was approached last month here at like a local show and they're like, they're trying to get into booking. And I was just around. So they would... Their first show, he went straight to me.

I was like, okay, I mean, I appreciate, you know, just asking, hey, I mean, if someone's there, ask, you know, you don't know. And they haven't booked a show yet. And I could tell, like, they really want to try. And I was like, how do I book a show? I'm like, I told them, like, like, the guarantee. It was like, I think you should probably, I'm not saying I'm anybody, but just start somewhere else. Oh, yeah. And then just kind of build up to, like, how do you, like, how do you start from scratch?

You have to be a part of the community already. You will be rejected if you're not already a part of, like, the local community. Yeah. I'd honestly say, like, just go to every show you can, meet everyone, you know, become friends, contribute, you know, maybe figure out who booked the show. Be like, hey, do you need help putting up posters for the next one? And then, like, you know, contribute to it in that way. And then you can, like, learn and build your web of understanding and abilities that way, you know, because there's probably someone here already booking the good job. shows that probably could use some help it's a lot of work yeah and you know just being like oh shit

i'm just gonna rent this place and bring five bands and like probably do a really bad job and it's probably gonna piss people off honestly what was uh what was like your first or second like like mistake oh okay i learned i learned that to apply to the oh brother i have i am a guy that's made a lot of mistakes same here one of still still doing it yeah i'm not i'm not done messing up yet unfortunately. One of the earliest shows I booked. This is so stupid. The venue was like,

yeah, we'll just take half the door. And I was like, okay. So I had to pay out 50% of all the money to the door. And then I had touring bands

that had come through and local bands that need to be paid. So I just lost like a ton of money. Like I didn't think about it that hard. I was like, oh yeah, I want to book a show.

Yeah. So maybe if I had the advice I've given now, I would have saved myself losing lots of money many times. Sometimes you lose money book in shows as part of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Man, okay, yeah, let's take 50% of the door. That's an impossible deal.

Now that I'm like an adult, you know, like, that's not a deal that works for like a DIY show in any capacity. Also, I had like bring in sound equipment and like they had no like door person. They had no audio tech. Like, wow. They had nothing. It was like a room. Nothing. So like, yeah.

And at the time I was like, hey, that's a pretty good deal. You know, I did, I had no, I had no scope. So, yeah. Yeah. I guess I got taken advantage of. It happens. Happens. It still, it's, it happens to me still.

If you don't, you know, you'll miss something. You're like, oh, fuck. How may I not see that? Yeah. I just didn't have the perspective or the experience, you know. It wasn't until a while later. I was like, wait a second, you know. Yeah.

And things like that are like, that, that when he taught me how to book shows he would help me avoid making those mistakes because like i would have done the exact same thing the venue told me that's what they needed i wouldn't know the difference in the normal and i would be like okay i guess i got to figure that out so you got like the crash course yeah he would like run me through it um i did a few DIY shows myself and i had a friend like helping run sound we had a very we have a very DIY venue in Birmingham called the firehouse and I was just like they just let me into like the club of like oh yeah you can book here and I had a friend uh khan teach me how to run sound there

because he was moving away he was the metal guy and I was like I want to book the metal shows so he was like all right cool now you're the metal booker here and like I I'm sure I've booked plenty of messy ass terrible shows and then Blase started like helping me understand how to do it in a way where everyone has a good time and no one feels fucked over. So Aesop and I have been friends for a really long time and I feel like she's giving me a lot of credit right now, but she's taught me a lot too. We work together. We get it all figured out eventually, you know.

Yeah. We have different skill sets and that's what comes together to make things work. Yeah. So, uh, Blitz, are you, are you originally from Madison, Alabama? Yeah, it's like close to Huntsville. Like, they touch. So, like, North Alabama is, like, where I came up. And then that's like for people for for for context. That's what like an hour and a half away from

Birmingham I would say hour 10 but yeah okay cool you can get down 65 pretty quick But yeah I came up going to shows all that like the North Alabama region like I would go to like southern Tennessee for shows I would go to Florence Alabama tons of shows were happening in Decatur when I was a child I went to some Birmingham shows my parents were sketchy about it because they're like oh Birmingham's a city they're gonna hurt you Oh yeah one of my it's like it's like a bigger town. Yeah, it's like, you guys are so corny. Yeah. But then one of my friends did get pistol whipped outside the firehouse, and then

they were like, all right, yeah, it was a whole thing. Firehouse has been since gentrified, but there was a time where it was like a very affordable, dangerous part of town. Yeah, they beat all the cool parts out of it. But yeah, so then when I turned 18, I ended up going down to Birmingham, and I've been there or floating around between the two cents.

Did you actually purposely move to pursue something in music or we just it had nothing to do well it had a little bit to do with music honestly I I justified it by the most beautiful girl I knew was moving there of course and we're married now and also my dear friend Nick Chance who he is the full-time media person for Lorna Shore now and we have a side band that we do together he's just like been my my like closest friend for most of my life now he was in that region always and we were doing a band together at the time so i guess i did chase that and also i wanted to go to school with it down there and yeah so went to birmingham and i was like this is dope i mean i love

huntsville still yeah madison is like very sanitized now but like i do love huntsville and birmingham a lot like i don't intend to living anywhere but in huntsville or birmingham long term in my life it looks i mean it looks beautiful we got space camp brother we got a big old rocket i think that's a space camp yeah like kids can like do like what is that that's called a rocket garza it go up yeah we have the space and rocket center oh okay nice you go a space and it is honestly so cool like i was super into like that kind of nerdy stuff before i found out about metalcore and hardcore then i was like i'm not playing with you rockets anymore i want to learn how to play guitar yeah so you did you take uh did you you take lessons that

when you were four? No, sir. I, like, messed around in, like, one of my dad. No, no, no, fourth grade. I'm sorry. No, I didn't. Around there?

I didn't start playing a guitar all until I was 12. I think it's about six. I thought I found some. I mean, you might have, but it could be wrong. Oh, yeah. That happens.

It'd be like that. Yeah, yeah. But it's of no consequence. Yeah, I started playing, like, my dad's acoustic guitar when I was, like, 12-ish. And I had a few lessons just like make sure I had some basic technique, but then I just really ran with it UltimateGatarr.com taught me how to play guitar pretty much

Because you can download guitar tabs. Oh, yeah, just tabs, nice. So I've been messing with those for a long time and I spent a lot of time with a tux guitar, which is Guitar Pro but free and less featured because I didn't I couldn't like buy things on the internet when I was young like Oh, course. And even still now I hate spending money on the internet. I feel like such a boomer, but I'm like, why I gotta type my shit in, you know?

But yeah, that little penguin guy, that's my dog. I talk to him. We get songs done. Tuck's guitar, okay. Yeah, the one on the right with the blue background, that's my guy. I think about him quite often. Whoa, is that a Gibson?

You know, he needs an iron thrall, but he's got whatever that is right now. Yeah. Do you still have that epiphone? I do still have the guitar. That's a beautiful guitar. It's awesome. That I got the explorer when I was 14 I toured it a ton doing orthodox shows pre-COVID and I play it still I write tons of music on that that's like my guitar

Beautiful yeah I will and it's beat up so bad now I remember once I was doing a practice and like I was bad at putting my strap on right Because I was a kid and it just crashed into the garage floor and like there's a huge chunk missing out the bottom like point of it and it'll just be like that always and I'll see him like yeah I was a kid yeah yeah it sounds great I replaced the pickups a long time ago like before I understood anything so it has like passive EMGs in it for some reason maybe I don't know but that's what it sounds like so I use it have you used it for any tracking I haven't true I don't think I've tracked it I thought you tracked stainless steel with it I might attract stainless steel with it um we typically use a lot of ASOP's guitars because they're pointing which means they sound better um yes

I also have access to this 80s custom shop Jackson that has like an old school Floyd on it. And it's, that's a rip-in guitar. It also has this crazy tiger like paint job. Yeah, that's my explorer that I still play. I posted that like the little harmonic progression from. That's what it is. You know what? It's so weird when you hear something.

I'm like, how are they doing that? And then it's like explained to me. I'm like, oh, that's so simple. How do I not hear that? It says you do harmonic, but you're not bending it. Yes. Is it cool if I'm a little bit of a hater? Please.

A lot of bands are doing lots of guitar pitch effects right now. Like, they'll offset it by a semi-tone or, like, octave, throw it all around and, like, blend a ton of shit together to make a really gross sound. Yeah. And I am very fatigued on the guitar pitch effects automation stuff. So that riff was partially me trying to find something that I could do that sounds crazy that I don't need a bunch of pedals to do Yeah, because I have to play it. I'm not using a bunch of pedals I don't want her to tap dance She's had other concerns yeah, yeah is that the riff? Yeah, yeah, is that? Oh my, how do you?

I'm fascinated with just like you find like the simple Simple is it's just the way to go I've also heard you both talk about about, which I might take it, smooth brain riffs. I never heard someone explainer like a simple riff that way. I'm always like, yeah, simple riffs easy, but smooth brain. Yeah, like the dumber, the better. Like, you don't need to try so hard.

That's what we used. Those are the guitars. Like, I've never written a complicated riff in my life, and I don't plan to. He does, and I have to learn them, and it's... It makes her unhappy sometimes, but it makes her much better at guitar. And I'm willing to make her suffer for that. How did you like, okay, it's like, all right, like she knows nothing about like the instrument how to play, nothing. How do you, what's like the first starting point?

I mean, what's like, how do you start? I feel like the first thing taught me was, hey, you're bending that. And it sounds bad. Stop bending that. And she was like, what do you mean? I was like, I don't know. She couldn't hear like the chords being bent out of the tune. like she hadn't developed the ear for it yet, you know?

And I think you've done that since. Like, you can tell now when a guitar is out of tune or two guitars are not, like, in tune with each other. Like, she didn't, like, have that going into it. But honestly, like, all that technical knowledge is, like, near the bottom tier of, like, what's important. Sure. Honestly, like, she had vision and she had drive.

And, like, that was enough for me, be, like, let's put some time into this and see what we can do together, you know? And also, I had known her for 10 years plus and saw her play drums and bands. And I knew that she was the one that cared. And if you were with someone that cares, they're going to figure it out. You know? It's caring more important than playing.

Sometimes when it comes to like core music. Becoming good at playing is important. Like there is an expectation to play the instrument well eventually, you know? But like you can't teach someone to care. You can teach someone how to hold the guitar. You can't. Mm-hmm. I just really wanted this to happen.

I was just like nothing else matters. So. What did you start? You're just like you just pick up like the instrument and like this. I just, um, I got to a point. point where I was getting really, really tired of drums of it not working. So I started being like, okay, well, I love Jeff Hanniman and Max Cavalera, and they're phenomenal guitarist. I want to do

that, whatever they're doing. I want to play thrash. That sounds cool. So I'd buy guitars, I'd tear them apart. I'd learn the ends and outs of them, and that I'd play them really, really poorly, and never be in a bam, because everyone who would try to be in a band, like, yeah, you're kind of terrible at guitar. And I was like, okay, I'll keep sticking the drums. And then, yeah, how I started really was asking him to tell him. me how to stop being bad. I am a patient man. He's so patient.

It's crucial. But the way Aesop plays drums is so, as you said, smooth-brained. Yeah. It's all feeling. She brings that to guitar and it's like sick. Yeah. And then it's like, okay, let's do some finesse now. But like, the starting mindset was correct.

That makes sense. And I love talking about this. It's not to be like, Asoap's a newer guitar player. It's like, you can just learn. Like, you can be later. in your 20s, you know, and you can just do it. Or if you're a kid, like, you can just, you can really do it if you're a kid, you know. Like, people are like, oh, then I'll start my band.

You know, they have like all these goals. It's like, no, you just need to start doing it right now. Because he saw me, I'm trying to do some math. You're 25, 26 at this point, I think 27. Yeah, I was 27. I was 26 when we started. Yeah. And then later I thought, wow.

Yeah. Which is, like, growing up, I was like, oh, I need to figure out my band now at like 18 because I was, I think, I don't know, what was that, 2010? That would have been 16 years ago. I'm a teenager and I remember watching terror and being like, they've been a band for like 10 fucking years now or something that wasn't right.

But I was being like, and they're just now doing like, this, they're doing this crazy record which is Keepers of the Faith. And I was like, what a record. They had just accomplished so much and me being young and wanting to do that, looking at it. I was just like, oh, I gotta get started now. If I ever wanna get to that point,

I gotta do it right now. Because in 10 years from now, it's going to take so much to climb that ladder to get to a point where people give a fuck about my band. So, like, the idea of being 27 and starting a band felt so scary. It was scary. And I honestly feel like we caught, like, the last bus out of town. Like, this is probably, like, my last real attempt I'd get to have to do these sorts of things. I mean, I've been touring since I was 17. Like, I've been trying, you know.

I'm even, like, for a while I was doing, like, merch gigs and TM gigs and lighting gigs and, like, all that just to, like, try to meet people. and to eventually work into doing this sort of thing. So I've been laying groundwork, but like, after the van before this stopped being a thing. I was like, oh, what are we doing? Like, it started getting a little scary, you know? I had some identity crisis. Whoa.

Not like, I never questioned who I was, but like, I was, like, really, like, bummed it myself for, like, just having literally nothing to show for what had been, like, at that point, like 10 years of even more than that, honestly, like, consistently working towards it. It's like, I've been playing shows since I was 14. And like I never like haven't been in a band trying like always pushing. I was

always like the punishing guy in the band. They're like guys let's practice guys let's do something. Everyone be like chill out. You know, oh no. That that was that was my role in life. Get away from me. Yeah, it was a demoralizing. But I am persistent and uh persistence. And this lined up this band coming out lined up, you know, looking back, we benefited from, you know, a renewed interest interest in like DIY metal, hardcore, all that after the COVID stuff went away. I don't know if you can say that word on YouTube now, but... Yeah, it's fine. And for a while, you couldn't say that word, you know.

True. But, yeah, we benefited from that wave and just made it easier to, like, start. Because really, since she and I started doing this, things have been on, like, a slow decline, which at the time, we didn't know that. We're like, oh, we're just going to shows, but, like, numbers were down. We just didn't know. we were just kids. Yeah.

But we actually managed to be making something new at an actually correct time. So that was nice. Interesting. I remember when we were about the tour, they're like, I don't know, Garza. The records aren't selling. They're not selling anymore. They're like, fuck you. It's going to keep doing it.

Yeah. Y'all figured it out. Yeah, I just do it. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. At what point did NoCure feel like, oh there's like

something here even though like I'm not singing Aesop is just playing what would it really feel like this is like the sound well I mean the sound is still growing as we're not going to make the same record twice but we want to like keep

true you know it needs to sound like a Nokia record that can just shift over time as we figure out what we like about each one of them because you obviously had something to follow yeah I mean we had a pretty strong initial vision for it. She's good at vision.

A lot of my previous bands didn't have clear vision, and that's part of what helped me a lot with this, is that she is unflinching in her visions. Yeah, crucial. I know what I want for my band. Yeah. That's great. When it comes to, like, Howard presented.

All about. Things like that. I guess to answer your question, which I have not done yet, and I apologize. Some days it still doesn't feel real. you know how it is yeah still sometimes I'm like what the hell how did it how it is happen I would say

around I hope I die here our last EP like the longer EP we did before this record people started to connect with the music more and we started playing some better shows and more like pylons because like pylons are the most exciting part of doing a band like this

and like people singing along and that's been happening more and more and more and it feels more real then you know but then you know you get home from tour, I spend three days breathing, and then I like, my self-worth plummets. And then I'm like, I am nobody. I have nothing. I have accomplished no things in my life. Like, I do that. I have that crash out every time after a tour. Really? Yeah, because like, you know, we've been out for five and a half weeks right now. This is what I want to be doing. It's been amazing. These shows

have been incredible. And then you go home and it's like, you're just like a guy again. Yeah. And it's like, oh, maybe I need to figure out who I am again. You know, it's, you know how it is. Like, the, having, you know, the dichotomy of, like, the show being amazing. And then, like, just 95% of suffering every day until the show. And then, like, that push and pull, like, really wears on you. And you go home, like, that's all removed. And it's just so, like.

It's a strange. It's so flat. Yeah, it's just, like weird. Yeah, it's not correct. it's not good for a person but that's what I want to do I'm wondering if it helps that

you both don't drink because I took the road home and that's what fucked me up but it might be worse for you because you're not going to like a vice you're just like oh this is you're like literally sitting in it yeah you just got to

feel it exactly as intended yeah it's important to feel those things yeah It lets you appreciate it more, you know. It does. And, you know, you do get better sleep, which is a big part of healing when you're not fucked up. You had to sleep. You have to sleep.

I have to sleep, dude. I love sleeping. If I'm not getting sleep like I need, I start being a very bad singer. I start being very cranky and I'm not getting sleep. And I can't. You, Asov, what do you mean? Yeah. Oh.

Yeah. Some band beef? No. No, I'm just the most pissed off on tour all the time. I'm like, wow, why am I so frustrated right now? Oh, yeah, I haven't eaten and I have four hours of sleep. Oh, yeah. So that's me, baby.

If she ain't have dinner, it's not a good vibe. Yeah. Oh, yeah. If, like, if you haven't, like, had some good sleep, you're, like, two weeks in, someone buys, someone is next to you, farts. Like, it just sets me off. Like, is it the most little thing? Well, it set me off, but I keep it in my body. Yeah.

You handle it. other way. I mean, this guy has stage clothes that are bad sometimes, as any touring band does. It's interesting, the expectation of the stage clothes to be pristine. I'm curious about that. I thought, I thought we were all working here. I thought we're doing shit. And he'll be running around stage, and when it gets to the peak of how bad they are and it hits me, I'm just like, ooh, this sucks. I'm not proud of it. Go over there, man. I've threatened to play guitar. I can't think. worse on this tour we've been playing last you know headlining whatever I hate saying headline we've been playing last in this tour which is new for us this is

our first like actual headliner that big deal it's been amazing I think over half the show sold out which is yeah it's it's really been amazing I mean we've had great support bands shout out to a big truck the large truck yeah who is in a van by the way I thought that they would be in a truck that's part of the reason why I wanted them because I thought we had to deal with an 18 wheeler every day. Oh yeah. And we haven't had an 18 wheeler a single fucking day. Big as truck, Bayway, bolt cutter and bolt cutter. The three bees. Yeah. Oh, they're all bees. Nice. Yep. And my name is Blithe. None of that was planned. But yeah, it's been incredible. But yeah, the issue is that we've been playing last. So my clothes

don't always have the time to dry. And we've been playing longer. I mean, I'm going to sweat either way, but like they've been getting soaked. They'll, uh, they'll get soaked. They won't dry. before we pack up they'll sit in the hot trailer you open the trailer the next day it just hits you it's hits you and you're like it's brutal i don't like that and it's like every one stage clothes you know and our trailer is like packed except mine because i'm the only one who doesn't sweat yeah you're built different no i just don't move a lot on stage so i don't really sweat that much so i'm moving double for a so yeah um yeah so it's been pretty wretched at points but like there's just no time for it to drive before we have to go to the next show and we drive overnight because

we have to do shit during the day and it's something I got to figure out but when we're a support band I was like oh it's easy you just wear their clothes till they're dry you hang them up it's fine but yeah it's been a logistical challenge in the uh nose department on this tour yeah and uh we sleep in the van pretty night of tour like every night of tour and uh so we don't always have access to immediate laundry and we're playing DIY spots and some venues but like a mix and it's the middle of the summer and the shows are sold out or close to sold out and it's like oh it's gonna be hot

like if a show is cold it means that it's a bad show so it's like can't be too mad that it's hot but it is hot you know I don't want to acknowledge that on stage everyone knows it's hot of course

I hate when singer and band's like fuck it's hot up here it's like bitch I know we're in the same room yeah I don't like either shut up it's a good one to bring up

a good comment to reference. 226 likes. Yeah, we're rocking out here. 100 degrees with the puffy Norface jacket. Yeah. I have a theory.

I'd love to hear it. Because I will wear long sleeves as matter how hot it is. People tell me, aren't you hot? I don't know. Something about the long sleeve with the sun. I don't know.

I feel like... It's better. It keeps the sun off you. It feels the sun off me. Yeah. That's my theory. It could be wrong. wrong. I'm not married to it, but I fear the sun a lot. Both of my parents either have or have

or currently have forms of skin cancer. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah. It's fine. It'll be right, but like, you know, probably not supposed to be a white boy living in Alabama. So you've got to take care of your skin. I wear sunscreen every day and I try to wear sleeves and pants. So, it all adds up. He wears a hoodie in the summertime with glasses. Like he's just like fully hidden and covered up everywhere he goes looking like the Unabomber. Yeah. Some could say it's off-putting. I want to get one of those like goth girl umbrellas.

I think that would be fun. Carousel. Is that what it's called? I don't know. I just call them the hot goth girl umbrella. Oh, yeah. I want one of them. What do you park to sleep?

Typically outside a coffee shop or a venue or something like that. So that we can wake up and immediately have access to a bathroom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have to like do things for the band.

during the day like social media takes up hours yeah yeah yeah that's the shit I want but I don't have one if you need it like the lace is performative I'm talking I need some UV protection yeah that's what I'm going for I think mine has both how can it has holes in it no it's lace on top that's the next merch item I am not kidding I've thought about a no cure

umbrella I just don't know if there's a market for anyone wanting a no cure umbrella okay well I got to figure it out before this gets released so someone doesn't take it the idea. I see you do merch designs on an iPad. Yeah, I use Procreate. I, uh, that is my number one way to contribute to the band is creating the t-shirts, I guess.

Um, yeah, her and our drummer do every design for the band, which is huge. Yeah, they have singular vision, which is, those are done by Duncan.

Um, you can, if you get an eye for it, you'll be able to tell who's done what, but like the hoodie's done by me. Um, yeah. I like that,

I like that old school death metal punk like Xerox to fucking, back look, it's just blown the fuck out and it looks gnarly. It makes my art feel finished whenever I do that. Yeah, how do you come up with these concepts? Um, I, I, you know, like, inspired by it. I'm super inspired by the visual aesthetics of black and more metal. I was gonna ask you about that. I don't know what war metal is. I, I would say, so war metal is just black metal for people who lift heavy weights. It's like the more, it's like if you kind of divide it black metals for nerds and war metals for jocks. That's a dumb, simple way to put it. Okay.

You know how grind and power violence are like different versions of a similar concept, like from more like punk world or more metal world? I feel like black and war metal you can kind of look at in similar ways. Yes. So good, good war metal bands to reference would be archgoat, blasphemy, revenge, Antichrist's Siege Machine. They have all hints of death metal in them, but they're just like music for people who are lifting heavy things and really stupid riffs and just like sonically oppressive noise. But the visuals, as you can see, you might be able to see where No Cure gets its vibe from. Archgoat's one of my favorite bands of all times. So like...

Archgoat, okay. Yeah, fuck with this so much. I owned Ritual Butchers guitar for a short moment before I had to sell it to keep making No Cure work. And it was my favorite guitar for a bit. It might be like the best karma or worst karma ever. It might be this evil. It had some juju in there. Oh, he told me he used it to record all the leads on like when.

of their latest records and I was like fuck I don't want to get rid of this ever it's so evil it's it's just it's just coated and cursed and I need it and then fucking I was like oh I got to pay rent if I and I got to take off work so I can go and tour and all that we were very destitute for pretty long for a long time she had this crazy collection of guitars and gear that she's basically been like slowly selling to afford doing this and it's not been the same thing it makes me sad to think about like you had so much cool stuff it's like all gone now yeah when this band started I couldn't play my instrument but I absolutely owned so many of them

because I worked like 65 under the table type job like hours a week under the table type job and I would just buy gear that I didn't know how to fucking use and I had so many cool PV amps and like fucking iron birds and just rare cool shit and then over time I'm like oh uh rent is due I want to go on tour

let me sell this fucking iron bird let me sell this you know PV and I'm just like down to like it sucks I got like three amps left they're my favorites but I got like three amps left and like four guitars. At one point I've had like 30 iron birds. That's not an exaggeration. Like that's not for the pod. That's like real.

I've seen 30 guitars at Asop's house. I was like Asop really likes B.C. rich guitars. I think the 80s for B.C. rich was just a prime time for the coolest instruments ever made. And then the company just shit the bad and hasn't got back in my opinion. So did you actually get like the 80s versions? Yeah. my main guitar right now is my 1986 made in Japan

NJ series Ironbird Mark 1 Um It plays incredible It's I'd say the second most sought after Ironbird I fucking love it It's amazing So good

Um You've had some guitars that I think should be thrown to the wood chipper But that guitar is awesome Yeah But uh Yeah no I I wrote for that 80s Because they just their quality

And all that was just It just held up Because they built them in like Japan and Korea and then I don't remember what happened I'm not as Locked into the lore of BC Ridge, but I know at some point someone else bought them and they moved production And the quality went to shit and it was just like oh this guitar looks crazy plays like garbage and then it's just been bought and sold so many times So I only really care about the 80s ABC Rich because those are like you pick one up and it's even beat up it plays great Wow so maybe uh Maybe sometime in the future you could re-collect.

Oh, I'm working on it right now. I'm literally working on it right now. I have a drum set at home. I haven't played in forever. I met this girl on tour who has the exact same model that Ritual Butcher had for Archgoat. And I'm like, I'll trade you my drum set for it, please. Because she wants to be a drummer, not a guitarist anymore.

Oh, nice. So I'm like waiting for October. And, yeah, she's going to, Bring the Ironbird down to Alabama, and I'm going to give her a drum set and acrylic Toma kit. So, yeah. Nice. I'm trying to collect again. It's literally that photo.

Like, if you could find it a non-black and white, it's that iron bird that ritual butcher is playing. It's like a red and black crackle platinum series with a verse headstock. No crackle in the headstock. I fucking love those. They're so cool. Okay, so I was also curious, like, so, you professionally would paint cabinets. Yeah, okay. My family on my dad's side had a cabinet business and I worked there since I was 15 to 27 when

Nokia started taking off. Okay. And because I'd access to all the paint room, yeah, I painted and built a bunch of crazy guitars for a while. She painted some guitars for me. Yeah, because I was curious, my, okay, are these like, are these B.C. Riches? Because I heard you mention you found someone named Hugo in the UK and you would get the bodies Yeah. And so did you buy the next separate or how did you kind of build these?

So the first iron thrall, which is like my, like inspired by the iron bird obviously, but it's like better. I designed it and I found Hugo. I've been trying to find someone to see and see me a body for years. I've been like, I want this shape to be a real thing. And he was like, oh, this is awesome. I believe in this shape. So I'm going to build this for you. But you need everything else obviously. So I was like, okay, I went on one of the BC rich groups on Facebook. And I was like, who's got a reverse XL harpoon neck? And someone sold me a warlock neck from, I'd say, 89, 90. Nice. I painted that for the body.

And that's the red iron thrall right there that I play. Hugo C&C, the body. The neck is from 89 or 90. It's a platinum series. And I painted it and put it all together. I had my friend Brenton do the proper setup on it because I hate setting up guitars. I can. I just don't want to do it.

I'm not doing that shit. Yeah, so that one was prototype the one and then I have a white one that is the same thing A little pointier with also an NJ series BC Rich Neck which is this most sought after one and I stopped playing that one because the body is made of Mahogany saple and Sapels is that I don't know it's the heaviest fucking mahogany and that's why it's like cheaper and more affordable and it just weighs so much That does it sound though. Incredible.

I love it. We've used it on all the records. These are all like heavy woods. I love mahogany, dude. I've always aimed for mahogany. Oh, my god, Mahogany, so sick. Like, see the white guitar, my friend Jeremy's holding. I have the black version, and that is actually made of, I want to say, Alder or Maple, which is crazy, that that guitar plays so good.

And it's not mahogany because it's like, mahogany is the total. So did you draw that shape? Yeah, the red one. Yeah. I just drew it up on my iPad and sent it to you go and he's like, all right, let me figure this out. And did you send him, do you send him like the neck and he knows how to like see and see it? How do you get it to actually like connect and work? So my Iron Thrull V1 is kind of fucking.

It's not the best guitar performance wise. So I didn't send him the neck because he's in the UK and shipping was insane. So I was just like, I here's the scale length and all that. And like the neck does not fit in the pocket perfectly. And because of that, getting pinches is. so much harder on that guitar. Like I can adjust to it and I can do it but the my NJ series that was Japanese built 10 times a year so that's why I'm playing it right now. So yeah I just kind of gave him a few measurements and I just kind of figured it out

as I went so. I think here's your you're painting the bodies mm-hmm yeah I painted it with like graffiti paint it's like what's that brand Montana or 94 it's a brand of spray paint existing just for graffiti, but I was like, I really like this color. And I bought that, painted it, and clear-coded it with a clear-code that's meant for cars, you know? And that's like not ideal. It's cool. It flakes off and it has, like, you can see when you love it.

But it's not like a factory finish at all. Factor finish, if you've ever chipped a guitar, it's usually pretty thick. This is not thick. You can kind of see where, like, the wrist would hit, where it's just completely worn down crazy so whoa so five five years in you're already taking axis apart

drawing shapes painting them yourself wow yeah and we're already at the same time yeah i mean i built that guitar like not even a year into the band what the fuck before i had the first ironthrow built i was building things called grave birds where i would take like a stratocaster that you got for and $30 from a pawn shop and I would basically chop off all the surrounding areas like I'd make sure where the bridge goes and the pickups in the neck is all that and untouched I'd chop off the rest and I'd take like a staple gun and some wood glue and build an iron bird out of a stratocaster so it's like all the parts I don't understand about getting guitars built like you know making sure the scale link's right and all that those are already figured out I just have to reshape the body and fucking paint it and put it together and I made I think like 15 of those maybe I'm not sure a lot I don't have any left I would buy on play them

fuck with them it'd mostly be the building experience that I loved and then I'd sell them for as as cheap as I could because I was just like it wasn't the owning the guitar that I liked it was just like the building process of it that I really loved like this is my guitar this is yeah and a few people out there have them now and they love them I think I sold the last one like a like a tour or two ago because I needed rent for like 300 bucks. It was like a seven string built out of an old Ibanez from the 2000s.

How that has the base pickup in it the seven string was the... I was like you have a... I think it's this one where it's... Yeah, that's the white one. There's a P90 a P-Base. Yeah, it's a what is it? What do we get? Pick up. Quarter-pounder. Yeah, yeah. See more Duncan

quarter-pounder. I was like, who does that? There's a... I got to give credit. The first band I saw do it was a rock band called Local H. And I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. I want to figure out how to do this in the same sense that bands like Antichrist Siege machine has one guitar player, but they have, you know, two full stacks in a bass rig. And I was like, but I want to figure out a different way to do it. So I was like, there's two separate inputs, volume knob for each input.

One goes to the P-Base pickup. One goes to the bridge. And for NoCure Live, I never got to use it, sadly. but for our recordings on even this record there's like I think you can mostly hear it in convulsions in the dark where it's just like sounds extra gross and extra gnarly because it's only picking up the bottom four guitar strings

but with a P-base pickup and it's just like I'm running that in through like what did we get through an SVT? I believe so yeah I have all the notes written out somewhere for the record but I don't have easy access to it yeah it does not sound like a bass, but it does sound different than the guitar. And it's mixed in, I think, like, very low.

But I believe it to be in the general mix with the record. Yeah. Just like always. But yeah, that concept was built with the idea of me being, there being two people in a band. I play bass and guitar with my guitar. And then we have a drummer. And that's for like a side project,

but I use it for NoCure. And the concept itself is just really dope. I just wish I got to use it live for NoCure. We just haven't got around the bag yet. We have a bassist, so why bother? Yeah. I was like, man, who thinks about putting a bass pickup in there? It's sick.

Yeah, it does sound gnarly when you get to actually use it. Same. I mean, cool. Simple concept. Mm-hmm. I mean, the simple ones are always the best. Oh, of course. Yeah.

Who produced a new record? This is, um, it was produced is, I'm not sure the exact right word. We like work engineered because you both. Yeah, we were kind of like like a team correct. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. His name is Kevin Langley.

Heaven. He is the best. Like, I don't even know how to tell you this, bro. Like, he's been recording my, like, local band since I was 15. He's serious? Yeah. Like, we kind of came up together. He's only a few years older than me.

And he is just, like, so patient. And, like, the reason why I'm, like, I don't want to say, like, I'm good at guitar. Like, I can play guitar. I can play riffs. I can play tight. It's because of recording. with him and him giving me very direct but helpful feedback like he'd be like you're picking too soft you know I had baby hands when I was a kid I didn't know you had to play guitar like an adult

and then next time I did a record he's like you're playing way too hard you're knocking it all sharp and I wasn't aware of that you know it's like that's what I'm like in my teenage years but like he helped me get calibrated with that yeah um yeah that's Kevin that's my buddy um he does a lot of like rap stuff and like local metal bands and stuff like he doesn't do a ton of like touring band stuff so i'm hoping that how good our record sounds helps that become more of a thing for him because he's amazing like that was one of the first things that stood out to me on it's like oh it sounds like a great record he's really good at you telling him what you want and him being like i know how to get that if you have a vision he can make it come to life you know he's not driving the ship exactly

like, but he is helping us refine it and making this record with him was incredible. And yeah, we like got him to move his whole studio out to a cabin in the woods and set up like a DIY recording situation. Like all those pictures of his like actual studio. That's not where we made the majority of the record. It looked way worse. We recorded actually. Of course. But we needed to like be able to like sleep and like walk out in the woods and chill.

And yeah, he came through. on that and it's nice to like go back to the guy that like is like my youthful friend you know like he's done probably like 10 records with me over the years like various bands because you know when you're from Alabama's like who's doing this shit here yeah i don't have money yeah i'm not flying to you know l.a to use a real not only say real but like acclaimed producer like these are the people we have and we're going to figure it out and yeah he did an incredible job with it is going to get dark. Yeah.

I was like, man, much of the guitar tone and the quality. Yeah. We use real amps. We were big on that. And I think, you know, some people said they can't tell,

but I think you can tell them. Yeah, I'm going to stick with real amps and my back makes it where I don't get a choice. Yeah. We ain't letting that happen. You're using real amps.

You ever hurts? Cool. You think I'm pulling up with a PlayStation to play a show? I'm not doing that. It's like, here's my switch. Yeah.

Yeah, plug it in. Plug it in. And I get a D.I. for my Switch, please. It's, oh, it's, it's going there. I don't know. I mean, good for them if they make it work. I like my, my amp with nine fucking tubes in it that hurts to pick up. Yeah, there's so many tubes in that amp.

It's like extra tubes in the stiletto, you know. Oh, for like a normal one, 50-150 or something. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the saletto on top there. There's so many tubes in that fucking amp. Great amp. Yeah. Oh, I love it.

It's like a modernized, hot-rotted J-CM-800. I love it. I am looking to find something else eventually, but right now I still think it's awesome. I don't know anyone else that uses that, to be honest with you. Me neither. It's not a very popular pick,

which is fun. It's harder. I don't know where someone will even start to figure out the No Cure tone, but we're giving away the sauce, I guess. Yeah. Another song that people connected with was, hang me from the Bible Belt.

I know the initial, like, the seed of the seed that planted at least the song title name was there was a band from alabama that super inspired me growing up because uh my friend khan that i mentioned earlier he was the frontman of it and uh always looked up to him they had a lyric um i've got the bible belt around my throat and i was like that is so cool um it's just like you know song about like the fucking church in the south and you can't get away from it and it just fucking sucks. And that was a seed for what Blake came up with.

Yeah, that whole record, I hope I die here, as well, like, growing up in the Southeast and, like, you know, the good, the bad, the things that are embarrassing, things that we're proud of, and just the entire, like, experience of it. But yeah, the Bible Belt song was, like, our first song that people were, like, yo about.

And I can't imagine us not playing it for a very long time. But yeah, the first, like, intro riff, I don't remember making it. Wow. It was sometime during COVID, and I never had a band that played in D standard, but I, like, found where I tabbed out that riff essentially, like, as it is. Because I, like, going through, like, old archives,

but, like, see if I had written anything that I could pull from, and I found that riff, and then she had, like, the verse riff, and then we came together for the rest of it, and, yeah, it just came together extremely fast. That's how you know it's real. It was a tapped-out riff already? Yeah, like, the inter-riff, the very, like, Like metal-ass riff.

And don't remember. I think, I don't know. Because I was on tour into COVID where like everything got shut down. I was filling in for Orthodox on guitar at the time on a Spighton tour. And obviously we all had COVID, you know, and I had to isolate for three weeks like by myself. Because we didn't know how COVID worked yet. You know, I thought I would kill my family if I went upstairs. And I wrote a lot of music in that time and coughed a lot.

And maybe that riff came from that time. I also played Breath of the Wild on my switch until 7 a.m., which I never do things like that. So that was just a really weird headspace time. And I was very unhappy, obviously, because I was like finally like touring. And it was like a real thing. It wasn't my band, but I liked doing Orthodox stuff at the time a lot. You know, I love those guys still to this day. They felt like it was all taken away.

So it's a tough time. I'm sure COVID wasn't fun for you. Of course. You were in a professional band many years before that. And I'm sure it threw everything on this. head. Yeah, we dropped the record the same month. Yeah, that's rough. Whatever.

Life, brother. Just another obstacle. I'm many more to come. Yeah. Ain't done struggling. No. And then something else will happen. I'm like, well, here's this enough. I learned to enjoy the taste of shit. Hell yeah, bro. Yeah.

Yeah, you get so used to eating shit. I guess you just eventually learned to like it. Yeah. So, oh, I get to eat this. Am I allowed to ask you a question? Of course. As a fan. I'm very, what,

when this thing started, I was very surprised that, uh, it's very rare when someone asked me a question. I thought it was going to be more like a back and forth, but it turned out to be like, I'm a full on host, but so it's very rare.

You are a host. And then we'll go back to your scheduled program, I'm sure, but, you know, the cleansing. Okay. Very special record for a lot of people.

I heard it young. It has continued to influence bands. Like, it's an undeniable piece of music. And I'm, I'm not just trying to be like, yo, it was a, I'm not trying to like glaze you too crazy. Like, it's an amazing record. It sounds great.

It was recorded in a way that I think is very cool. But I was curious, you know, since then, like, the Death Corps world has been very self-referential. Like, bands are influenced by the bands that walked 10 seconds before them. And I think that's part of why, like, modern death core is, like, not very exciting for me. It's like, they're all just copying the bands that came immediately before them. And they're not looking to the past beyond that, you know? They're not drawing from outside of that little sphere. So it's getting it's like very incestuous now.

Sure. But when you guys put out your early stuff, like there was no blueprint. No. You know, you guys copy writ the whole book at that point. And I was curious like what your original like riff inspiration was for some of that stuff. Like where did it come from? Like were you just a kid and you just found a couple cool things on your guitar in your room and you were like, yo? Or like were you referencing, you know, cryptopsy or something?

I don't know. Like where were you at? The smooth brain, which. me and my friends will talk about I told her friend in high school like I want to start a definite band with breakdowns like just like the

smooth brain version out there I want in public it was just that and it's just similar to your band vision oh no one's really doing this it was like death metal combined with I was jamming and throw it down a lot

nice there it is so it's like combining hardcore breakdowns with death metal I got into skinless all right that's real shit bro yeah and then I took

which is the problem with the death core scene Like they take like the I always feel people take the sound. They're not taking like the spirit. Dude, exactly. And so back then I took the spirit of new metal. Like I want like the look. Okay, like two guitar players head and monkey.

They're not there. They're no one alike. Two different personalities. Long hair. Rock out. Go crazy. Groove. People bouncing.

Okay. Now hardcore. Death metal is kind of make it all things. So combining like a vision with like some like spirit like I don't look at new metal. And I didn't take. the sound. I was like, oh, what's like, what's like why, why, why are they doing that? I completely, this makes a lot of sense. Because I feel like a big problem with a lot of deathcore bands now is like, they have no respect for death metal and they have no interest

in hardcore. And I think you need that to make, to combine the things, you know, like, that's like what makes good death core bands interesting, I feel like. So that makes sense that you have completely validated my theory. Cool. Is that you guys cared about shit that is good. Totally. And also just in the top of the like the spirit corn really influenced me to be a leader like be do your own thing like there's like there's if there's no path you literally make your own path. I took like the look but also like you know be speed be a leader. Yeah. And that that has pros and cons. You know if you do something first I might not you'll do a sick record and then you'll do other record that flaps. But at the time it's just not being afraid to do your own thing and be a leader and just take the spirit. I do have a question. What was it like seeing early throwdown? It's amazing. Living our dream.

Keith Barney Live back then was like, I mean, it changed my life. I have to see Beyond Repair eventually. You know about Beyond Repair, right? Yeah, yeah. I've already seen him two times out here. Right? I saw the first show back. It was amazing.

I had to relive it. Some men go swimming while some men dive thirst. I, on this tour, we get to pick all the locals because it's our headliner. So I'm like investigating the scenes that I don't know enough about. And when you have one of the California shows, I was like, I know this is not going to happen, but I'm going to ask if we can get beyond repair to play our show. And our guy is friends with him. So our guy was like, hey, could y'all do that?

And they're like, yeah, but then your show would be a little fucked because we're like, we don't have to like travel. And I'm like, okay, why? I need to figure it out somehow. I gotta get my band even bigger so I can be on where to play it so I can see them Figure it out I'm figuring it out favorite hardcore release of all time is to throw down a driving dead EP hell yeah and it's like raise your fist you knee air truck free you know I was straight-edged back then and I was I was edge Everybody was straight-edge and everything was awesome it was so sick it was still and then they they had Mesa caps and PV heads and the

No one, even now, no one did breakdowns like, like that. I want to pick their brain about stuff one day. Maybe I need a podcast. No. I don't need that. Yeah, he did one of the early ones. I think he's, really? I think he's number like 15 or something.

Okay, cool. Now I have to look that up. I got to bring them back on because, I mean, I was, I mean, I'm not the best right now, but I was terrible. Like 15? Like, I need like a, like a do-over. I really go into like the history of like the Orange County. hardcore scene in 18 visioners throw down it's just tough because

being in those circles now like you learn about all the little beeps and that are still present oh they're real yeah so they're so like you know I don't talk to this person so it's just kind of but I think now with I think I can navigate that a lot better so I gotta have Keith back

Blue Hair Garza Oh my God yeah I was having a midlife crisis. Keith Barney did shout out. He's the goat. Okay. Well, I hope you do a second take at it because I'd love to watch it and learn everything from that era. I just love the early 2000s hardcore a lot.

Like they hardcore, hard before bands like them, and I just love learning about it. I remember Keith talking a lot about Sepatura roots and disembodied. Those are very good things to talk about. Yeah. I was, I missed. Like there was like a disembodied train But since I think they weren't West Coast I missed the whole hype of it

So I didn't get in I didn't get until I didn't get into disembodied until Keith mentioned it Okay who who is it And I sat down and listening and now I it's in it's in my regular Like playlist now It's just fucking I was like whoa this makes you feel crazy I love it A billion bands have jocked that part And they all get it wrong

Yeah But I'm fascinated with that too like you know what created that because there's no blueprint. So I'm always fascinated by by people that do things out of all air. Now there's this era. I think you

your band is paving your own way. I'm always fascinated with like you know what do you do when there's no blueprint? Because I understand how hard it was to make your own path sucks. I'm always always fasting it by each era and each genre subgenre of just

paving their own way. I'm always curious about you know especially your band. No cure. I'm always curious and what's it going to be in like 10 years and now, 20 years from now. It's impossible to tell if I'm always curious. I wonder where this band is going to go. I wonder what I wonder what this record is going to mean in a decade or two decades.

Sometimes it takes two decades for a record to do that full circle. They're actually like finest audience. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of bands that are, I've been popping off in the last like 10 years that, anytime I talk to an old head they're like no one fucking cared about them I'm like that sucks y'all should have

they're good y'all are sleeping yeah y'all are out there playing with the wrong shit I know it took uh felt like the cleansing really popped at like 18 years really I noticed a big difference two years ago like a well we are having that's been on my shit my entire life

I've been yeah that was an early record for me we are having that revival for that fucking era crazy right now everybody is like my space bring it back so i'm hearing it um i get the experience the end of my space i didn't have internet a lot growing up but i got experience the end of it so i had a profile on my space but i didn't get it because i was like 11 i didn't understand it i was like there's people on here but the bands and by the time i was 11 it was already super dead too like i didn't know that at the time but like yeah i

missed it i just thought it was um that was a very special time for people i think yeah but in the last few years, I've seen so many local bands cover y'all. Oh, yeah. I have heard out. I can tell when all the local bands are covering a band from 20-something years ago, that's when it's like having this little revival. I have heard some very interesting

interpretations of an answer to my life. Oh, yeah. Very creative liberties being taken. I respect the attempts. Of course. I'm sure it feels flattering regardless of it's great. It's time. It's, it's, it's, It's just hit me in the past like a few months. I'm like, wow, what the hell was going on?

Do people get the riffs right, or they're missing nuances? Uh, they, the rift is simple enough where it's pretty dead on. That's good. It's just two, two one zero, two one zero. It's just, yeah. And I try to write every riff like that. I love stupid, simple riff. I want to be able to do stuff with my body.

If the rift's too complicated, I got to think. Yeah. If I have to think, then it's not smooth brain enough. I'm fascinated because even with those three, four frets, I mean, like the possibilities of a simple, pattern is actually infinite. If you find it, you're like, oh my gosh. But the same fret, same, you could do like some

little nuance, oh, that's, that's my band now. I'm just this is going to be a forever journey. And then you have, you know, you can do a billion different things with the drum arrangement and then the vocal style can completely change all of it again. Totally. Yeah, and then what the base does or doesn't do, you know, a lot you can do with that as well. Yeah. All our favorite breakdowns are like

done done you know and that's it and you just figure how to make that done done into something just a lot enough for people to go crazy we started going like in the breakdown I'm out I'm out I'm not dancing then yeah yeah what did you I mean yeah we're talking about the cleansing I mean what did you and Asob do like you because you you're you're doing the same thing you're you're you're paving your own path I mean you're you are being leaders in your in your respected space I appreciate that. We haven't been really knocked off yet, but I think that will be funny when it happens, you know.

I think that part of the reason why the band sounds the way it does is because we both come from pretty different influences, but also have overlap, too, where we can find common ground, you know. And the things that come together to make our sound are pretty rich, you know, like, you know, she has a huge love for war metal and black metal. And I like some war metal, but like none of our people, peers know what that is. You know.

I didn't know until 48 hours ago. Yeah. So that special sauce, like, it's huge in the visual, but it's in the music, too. That's, like, some of, like, the extra sauce that people, like, don't always understand, you know? Mm-hmm. And then obviously, the band worships foundation. You know, that's huge.

We worship hate breed. We worship terror. I worship dying fetus. Mm-hmm. You know, you start getting a picture of, like, where some of this influences is from. And also, you know, we love bands like death and bands like carcass. And then you start looking at all those things. And it's like, it's pretty diverse.

It's pretty wide ranging. And, yeah, but like, you know, not all that influences each instrument at the same time. Right. So like there's like nuance to how all those are applied to what makes the sound, what it is. And then, you know, the more we tour, the more we delve into those things and we figure out what we like more and what works and what does. And we definitely get better each record and I don't think we're done doing that You never done yeah I mean I hope not and it's it's interesting like our first like couple demos are like not beloved you know like people aren't like yo play for the stainless steel they want to hear the new stuff

Which is awesome you know because I don't really want to play all those songs all the time anymore so it's great very rarely we'll get a request Yeah song off stainless steel and I'm like I don't remember how to play it'll play that. I remember how to play that. You do. I know. But yeah, it's like a lot of bands of people are like, yo, their first demo, that was the real shit. But like, we don't have that at all.

Yeah. So I'm pretty thankful for that, honestly. I'd hate to be trapped in the demo core world of like people only wanting to hear that stuff. Yeah. So I hang out with, you know when like you have like a few friends that like just no matter what, they're always straight edge. They're just straight edge. I, I, I, I,

I have a few friends that are still a straight edge from my back in the day till now. So we'll hang out every once in a while. And I kind of, I've invented the game with one of my friends. He's a shout out to Gabe. He's a singer of previously bound in blood and now durisome. Oh, yeah. So I always, I always ask him. So is this straight edge?

Because I always like, okay, this fucking game. Yes. Yes. Because I'm also recently sober. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you.

I should have did it a long time ago. What a waste of years. People would be saying that. They got to find it at their own pace. No one can make the decision for you. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

So I like, because now we have like non-accoholic beer. And it's like, there's like little things. So I'm like, so he'll like, I'll see Gabe at a show. And he's like, well, What are you drinking? I'm like, I'm not drinking anymore. He pulls away my non-acoholic beer. He's like looking at it.

Point five, huh? I'm like, shut up, dude. So I was, so then I tell him that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a modern straight edge. I'm modern. It's a joke. I'm not rocking with this one, Garza. I know. I'm out.

I know. I know. I know. So I told him, I'm going to get a shirt that says X, 2026 X. I'm just, I know you guys, you're going to eat it. So I was just curious. Like, I asked him, green tea. Can you drink your green tea?

Yeah, caffeine's fine. Coffee? Caffeine is fine. I mean, as long as you're not like fucking drinking 14 monsters a day because then it feels like you're abusing it. But like, caffeine is fine. You're not getting high, you know. Because we were going back and forth with caffeine. Okay, well, can you drink?

Can you? he always shows up with with tea okay what can you drink coffee it's not it's not like a mental escape like how real drugs are you know what i mean yeah that's the important part like that was the point of it when it was created was it was just about i don't want to be a part of that it wasn't really about like well tylonol you know so right i personally don't drink any beers um and for me it's not because of you know the point zero i mean i don't want to drink any alcohol at all but like for me it's more of a complete rejection of that culture and the companies that profit from you know people suffering like I am just so out like I if I'm at a bar I'm bummed out like I don't

want to be there yeah you know I was at them as a kid and you're not supposed to be at bars as a kid you know and that still hasn't rubbed off from me wow um yeah so like I don't want to drink an in a beer like I'm not going to like check someone's card on it you know like I don't I'm not the Arbiter or straight edge, but I personally wouldn't do it. But it's not because of the three axes exactly. It's because of the culture and the consumption and the capitalism behind it. That is also a big problem for me. Yeah.

Yeah. It helps a lot of people get off actual alcohol, though. And I think that's a net positive. I mean, so I'm glad they're becoming more and more available for people. My girlfriend doesn't drink, but she likes not an alcoholic beers. I'm like, good for you. Yeah. If you want the $8 bread soda, have fun, Bestie.

Yeah. So it kind of goes against like the culture of it, kind of like the idea. Yeah, it's more than just what I eat and consume. You know, like that's part of it. Like it's also a bigger scope to why I am still straight edge. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Also, it's different for you and ASOP because you lived it.

You grew up being straight-edge. but if I'm going to look at it from an outsider, I think straight edge is still very new. It's still very, and like how are you, being straight edge is still like, how do you do it still? Because no one really, it's easy. You don't have to do anything. Yeah.

You actually aren't doing things. And the only thing you're doing is just rejecting, like the industries that are just like pushing these things on you. You're just rejecting it. You're protesting it. They're not pushing it on you because it's fun. They're pushing on you to make money and they're pushing it on you to make you easier to control and to sell you things. It's not just some benevolent, oh, you know, I've made this beer in my basement interior gold.

It's not like that. Yeah. Well, I know that's probably a question you get often, oh, here's a straight-edged combo, here's a straight-outes question. Oh, yeah, they try to pimp us on it. It is the nature of it at this point. Dude. Some people are so offended by the concept. And it's like it has nothing to do with you

This is a me think Yeah Yeah You ever get shit for it? Oh yeah Yeah I mean a lot of people have bad experiences From the 2000s era of Straight Edge And they just don't realize like that was the 2000s

Not the 2000s anymore Things are different So like but then they'll just You know we read the comments On our bullshit And people should be like Fucking I knew this straight edge guy It was a piece of shit

The worst guy ever knew This was in 2004 buddy this is not that anymore there's not those kind of guys around being straight edge anymore so like yeah you can have a new

idea of what it is it's like been like a pretty big problem for me at some points in social interactions like I had a couple feel like want to fight me over this and this is so fucking stupid sir I was doing merch and lighting gig for the bug

no this was a revocation at the time. I guess I was going to air this out, but whatever. Maybe I'll get in trouble. I don't care. Revocation. Awesome guys. I would probably still be doing that gig of this band hadn't picked up. I loved working with them, Dave, Ash, incredible guys. Like, I really enjoyed it, but we were sharing a band wagon. And we had Christian, which is a Brazilian death metal band, dash death metal, great band. Incredible songs. They've contributed a lot to, like, you know, the conversation of those genres. And it was an honor to, to spend time with him honestly and they had a lot of great times but they had one person in the band who would get very drunk and he would be very offended that i would share a drink with him he'd

like what is your problem what is your fucking problem why won't you drink with me whoa and it would get hot and like i'm not a very aggressive person i try to talk things out like it could get kind of cornered in a bandwagon you know there's nowhere to go and that was pretty uncomfortable um then he was when he was sober the next day, he was like, what's up, man? It was like, fine. You know, and I've toured with other bands where, like, dudes would, like, get drunk

and then be like, just fucking try it, bro. And it's just like, this is in recent years. It's just like, what the fuck are we doing here? Like, relevant death metal bands would do that shit. And it's just like, you are so fucking stupid. It's crazy.

Yeah. I don't know. People are really weird about it, man. Like, and it's not like I'm sitting there being like, hey, you shouldn't drink that. I am minding my own business. I'm playing Pokemon, you know, like I got my own shit going on. Yeah, I was really, that was one of my, uh, I was this curious outside of our thoughts of no,

no cure. I'm wondering of like, uh, there's, if they get any shit for being straight edge and if Aesop gets any shit for living the way she lets hurt her life, I was kind of always curious. Yes. Because you both kind of have like the double thing going on. Mm-hmm. Um, internet is a terrible place for terrible people to have very terrible opinions and being anonymous about it and face no backlash.

or punishment whatsoever. People are so heartless. It's just like, me just existing as myself on the internet sucks, us just existing as ourselves on the internet sucks because we do not care

what you do with your life. It is your life. I want you to live it. However you fucking want. I'm going to live mine how I want, and that's how I, like, for myself, it is not imposing on you. You do not need to think

that I'm looking down on you because I'm not. I don't think about you. And like, we have to deal with so many, anti-straight-edge comments on the internet. But thankfully, none of that exists in the real world because that's just people on the internet.

It's losers. They don't go to shows. They don't participate in the culture. They're in their armchair. And they have no fucking friends. And it is what it is. But the good outweighs the bad tenfold. Oh, totally.

There's so much kindness and just supportiveness out there that it outweighs the one dickhead with a shitty transphobic comment or like these losers need to just drink a beer comment. Like, shut up. No one asked you, buddy. So. And they're never funny. Like, if they were funnier, it could be different.

Like, if they were making me giggle a little bit. I've been hoping for one funny transphobic comment, but they're not. There's not comedians in that camp. I don't know how to do that. Yeah, you can't. Yeah. Because it's not a funny bit. That's not a good one.

Does that ever get to you? Yeah, absolutely. I am extremely sensitive because I take HRT, which makes me sensitive. So, yeah, some days I, I'm just like, I'm going to do. off my phone for days because I'm I just read a bunch of dudes just being gross and hateful for no good reason anonymously with no punishment I'm just like okay I'm just gonna say on I'm making a statement fuck lamb goat they should not be making money off of people anonymously visiting their site to be hateful I hate that website so much that's where people go to be the

absolute worst versions of themselves to say the meanest most hateful bullshit and like it's pretty brutal And they'll also sexualize her a lot too, which is Disgusting Super gross Yeah It's awful I mean any woman in the scene

Has these The social issues But like It's just so rough to see And like I can't fucking do anything about it Yeah, it's just like I'm sorry That's happening to you Yeah

So places like that I hate I hate it But I go to a show I'm not dealing with these fucking losers They don't come to shows They're not come into concerts They don't even know where they're at

Yeah They're not tapped in. At our shows, everyone is awesome and nice, and there to have fun and not be a dickhead, and these losers on the internet aren't there, you know, so fuck them. But yeah, no, it gets to me a little bit because, like, it just feels like why. Like, I think recently, it wasn't even a post about us. We were just on a fest that got announced.

And, like, on the lamb goat comments, it was like, someone, my friends sent it to me. It was, like, 10 comments about me. Like, Nokia's not even the headline. People will be talking about this. They just saw it. I existed. So it was about ASOP.

Yeah. I'm like, shut up, dude. I don't want to live in your head rent free. Like, my existence should not be hanging out in your brain at all. So it's just like. It's a sad thing. Yeah, it's, it bums me out. I'm like, I just want to, I just want to do my thing.

I just want to exist. I just want to play music with my friends. I don't, I don't, I don't need to be. I don't, I don't need the idea of me to be something that pisses you off to the point where you gotta go be a dickhead yeah like she is more of a person than just like you know character traits on your stat sheet you know like there's much more to that you know it's more than just being straight at it just more than just being you know a woman in metal and hardcore it's more than being transgender it's more than being beacon you know there's she's just someone

that i fucking hang out with all the time you know it's awesome it's but they don't understand that you know they're such a simplified small sad world view you know it's just it's a sad thing yeah it sucks don't love it on on the bright side it is a it's a great sign that your band's doing something yep they know we exist they like it or not yeah it's good that we also have good songs and it's not just identity propelling the band i always tell people like no matter what no matter how you live your music is what truly speaks for you your work is what it's actually speak so if you have sick tunes i'm in and uh did it If people are going to comment on it, but you have the tunes to back it up.

We have the riffs. If you got the riffs and people are bummed out that they don't have the riffs, they're going to, people talk shit. I remember like someone told me, like, oh, don't, I mean, this was like when, uh, when sui was first starting to kind of break out of that. Oh, dude. I can only imagine how much the real death metal bands are talking shit. I'm still, it's still, they had to, because you guys actually had people going to your shows when death metal was in like a bad place.

You know yeah it was I bet they were hateful and you know you guys are got like good looking guys You know I bet they those people were pissed I can only imagine oh yeah it was uh and then someone told me like oh it's just it's all like one big joke i mean it's i mean it was just trolling you know and you're oh i'm like oh no i'm 20 okay so i didn't really took it seriously and then the years pass and then the thing happened with mitch and then i remember that day uh i was like oh this isn't a joke and the people it stopped like it's like the comments stop being uh or opinions stop being like a trolling or like a funny joke to say it was like oh this is this kind of transcends it this is very serious and i learned like that that day and as as the months would go on i'm like oh now i'm completely checked out i'm just it's just i can't read it i can't be around it yeah your friends i've got to stop sending you comments i i have had to get to have conversations with many friends who be like,

hey, you don't have to send me the land goad article I can already assume. Your friends do that? Yeah, because they'll, or sometimes it could be a fan. They'll just be like, wow, they're fucking saying this about you. I'm like, there goes the good mood I was having things. Oh, no. You got to stop reading it and people got to stop sending it.

Yeah, I mean, that's literally the only place their shit heads, though, in the occasional fucking burner account on Instagram. Or Reddit. Reddit's nice. Reddit's so sweet to me. Everyone's on Reddit's been nice to me, which is insane. That's insane. Everyone on that's

because they're all furries. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah, I've told them like, yeah, I want to enjoy my life on and wake up and have a good day, drink a coffee, and fucking go play a show. I don't, I don't need to know what these losers are saying about me.

Let them say it. Don't tell me. You know, it's fine. If anything, comment and tell them to go fuck themselves. And then you're doing your part. That's better than telling me. I don't need to know. I do.

Oh, you ever just channel it, just take it as fuel? Like, I look at as, I think it's gasoline for, for my soul. I'm writing songs about it. I'm trying to find a way to poetically, uh, write a song about how much they suck. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not the lyricist, but I have ideas. I've come up with a few of our fun little one-liners. We talk.

And, um, yeah, I'm trying to channel that into something that's more productive. Of course. I always try to tell people, man, what, whatever you're, feeling like just this man just take that and channel it into like your your music or your chosen art or something is like this is like it feels like it like it sucks and it does but just take that hate it's you can channel it specifically the song bring matter displacement was me at an extremely low depressed point it was literally christmas day when i wrote that song i uh i don't have family to hang out with on christmas not really they don't they do not accept me for i am so i don't

have them um wow i'm sorry no this is what it is i've chosen family and that's more important but christmas day i'm depressed i don't have anyone to be with i am alone i'm like fuck this sucks i hate holidays and i'm in my fucking basement at the time of a house filled with mold that's just like shitty i'm miserable that house fucking and i just i it was a bad place bad i should live there for two years i wish i had not it was so bad but like i'm miserable i'm angry i'm sad i I'm like, I definitely had recently read comments about me that were terrible and note not needed. And I'm just like, okay, I'm going to write a song that's just like simple. And I can imagine what my body gets to do when I play this.

Like I'm writing a song where I know if I wanted, like I can move my body in a way that feels good by playing like the breakdown and all that. Sometimes you write a riff. You know, that sounds cool. But you don't think like, how would I move on stage when I'm playing this? How is this going to make me feel? And I wrote that with that intention using like my depression and my anger to like, like structure it out and what felt just felt right so I feel like that song is my baby on the record because it's so smooth brain it's so stupid it's just like just enough to be like angry and

dumb I saw the video that you sent me of like the entire bitch on this like it changed very little yeah um so there's a billion vocal on that song but like yeah she had the vision for that i remember when i sent it to the band they were all like this is everyone agreed this that was their least favorite song it's like I wrote the instruments to be so simple that the vocals could be the part of the song yeah it was I don't want to say it was it was the least cool song until it was completely done like out of like we recorded like 15 songs for this record like we wrote 24 recorded 15 put out 12 and uh brain matter was the last one to be like this is a good song and it just needed so much massaging like from drums and from

vocal to be what it is. And then we have that like downpresser riff in the middle where Jayway sings on it. And that's just because we need to do something different because it's been so much vocal and drum assault into that part. It's like how can we wind up it now? Because like we have the smashers skull in the pavement like gang chant part. Yeah. That's so like maximum stimuli had to get someone else to do something that sounds nothing like me.

So that's kind of how the Jayway thing came together. Also that's my dog and I love him. So he's really cool. Jay's a great guy. Oh yeah, he's the best. No, he's great. I have loved every moment. What was, uh, Aesop, do you remember the first riff?

Uh, for this? Yes. What's crazy enough, so it goes like, dun-da, nah, nah, I wrote that, thinking there would be some really crazy, complicated drums that would play with it. I was actually thinking of, like, foundation drummer. I really think he is creative with his drums. And I was thinking of that in my head, or I wrote it. And then when I got together with Blithe, Blithe was like, fucking half.

Blast war metal is like that is the war metal beat is the where in a song is that very beginning yeah like it opens up with it DJ let's let's crank it for 10 seconds just so people get contest it's just dun dun dun yeah it's really like I don't know I just wanted it to be like a nonsense riff I didn't want it to do anything but just kind of be like what is happening at the beginning of this song and to kind of feel disin it and like give the drums a chance to show off something while because like I don't know I don't like songs that start straight into any part that makes you groove particularly I like it when there's

something that's such an assault like it's really really abrasive and I didn't have brain riff yeah it's literally so dumb yeah and I didn't have vocals in the beginning at first like that came very late it just wasn't there's like no hook to it first right and they had like the god raw ver you know like with the gang vocals it's like so much and then like the two steps starts after that like the verse two step and like that's like a vocal like pulls you into that so like brother i employed every trick i could think of to like make the song work and it's so maximalist like singing it live is pretty brutal um but it does work very well and it's different than a lot of our other songs and i like that a lot of our songs are different from each

other they have their own identities yeah and a lot of bands i feel like don't it's like song number six and it's like i've heard this you know yeah i don't think that we've been criticized for that yeah but yeah the song came out of a lot of depression and feeling so well sadly sadly i i know it might come out weird but sadly i love it i love i love i love hearing when someone's bummed out and then they write a song i think we don't do this enough but with the next run I want to is like we don't write in a room using feeling as much as we should. It's a lot of like I bring something to the table and we put it together. I want me and Blath for the next record specifically me and him to really start it to like

be in a room with drums and guitar and like writing in the moment with feeling instead of like oh I came and I already have all these ideas and this is going to happen. I want to be like no we're going to write it as we go and because that's like how I did it with all my hardcore bands and I felt like those were the most creative bands at least for me that's what like that's what like

scratch my creative itch the most and I want to get that more with the next record so like yeah we're gonna I'm going to use as much feeling as I can on the next one great

yeah no more it's like right with less intention and more feeling and see what happens yeah well that that's when you know you have a good record or a good release like you're

it's done and you're already okay wait I could do this on on a next one Yeah. You're already like super inspired. I've been walking around the past month just like, rifts are already like, damn, I'm trying to like shut it off like a few months. Because we just recorded our last record.

I'm like, I'm turning off. And then now you can't shut it off. It's just, I'm like, wow. That's this, that's a blessing. Yeah. A blessing. You got to have it when you have it. Oh yeah.

Still still pissed. Yeah. 40, sober and pissed. Yeah. I'm excited to find time to write the next record, to be honest. Yeah. I feel like I could have written even more on this record. And I want to write I want to have so much input and feeling in the next one we just ran out of time you know

Because touring we ain't stopping yeah the only month we have off this year is November No we don't we have half a November off we have half a month we have off this year's our schedule is pretty brutal right now We have this six week tour then we have like five days and we're doing like this big hometown free show We fly to Australia immediately the next day for our first Australian tour Then we have a couple weeks which is great and then we do this festival called within the these walls with incendiary in Mesa, which is going to be one of the coolest shows we ever played. Then we have a week, I think.

And then we do Spites Headliner all October, including Furnace Fest, which is going to be interesting this year. And then we have two weeks. And then we have thrown in counterparts in Heaven's Gate in Europe. And then it's fucking Christmas. Wow. But that's the rest of our year. And if people, I don't know, if you want to see the band,

you can see the band. You know, I don't want to hear it. Oh, fuck, they didn't come to Hamburger Town. Bitch, I'll kill you. We went to Hot Dog City. Yeah, we're both in the same boat. You got to, like, create time to write music now. Yeah, ideas will come and I'll write them down,

and then we'll flesh them out, and then we'll get it going. Now, this is since this band has become our main thing, it's no longer our side thing. It's like, I just want to. like pick a week or two go out to the cabin we would record at normally and just like we're isolated let's just write and that's what I that's like how I want to approach the next creative process is a I want to approach it the way I used to write in hardcore bands and not the way I write in this band and see what happens and if we use it we use it if no one likes it we don't

yeah we'll try it yeah you change the process you change the outcome we do like and people do like what we have right now but I think there's room to improve still Like I said, we're not done. Of course. A lot of me. Maybe even more than you think. Yeah. There's actually no limit to how good I'm going to get at this.

There isn't. No. Yeah. I'm still learning how to chug. There's no limit. Dude. Not every chug is made equal. No.

Some people are really bad at chugging. I had to figure it out the hard way. Yeah. Like the both hands are everything. Yeah. Yeah. There's so much nuance to get in the perfect. Mosh chug.

It's true. And people that don't like go to shows and dance, I feel like can't ever get it right. They shouldn't be, if you don't go to shows and you've never been like a mosher, why are you writing Mosh parts? Why do you think someone else will Mosh to it? You know what? I've heard you mention that and it's true. Like, it, like, I heard you say it and it brought me back.

Like, oh, yeah, we would be in my Frankfurt high school. We would be in my room and we would play riffs. and then like I'll write something and they'll he'll mosh like and then I'll give him the guitar he'll play I'm like okay I'll start moshing like dude we were like 14 is I'm like wow that's because we would mosh to like throw down it's like super uncool to do that but like that those synapses you formed very critical I mean realistically if you don't know if you can mosh to it but you're writing a a mosh part how's it going to happen?

you know like if you don't know how moshing works and you're writing moshing music no one's going to be able to mosh to it like all the best mosh writing music are good moshers that's just facts yeah we've all we've all been there yeah so if you want to be get better at writing mosh music you have to get better at moshing you need to be going to your shows brother you know what I'm saying you need to be you need to be like Tyler short you know from inclination still goes to every show still beats everyone up Still the hardest mosh. He still doesn't have a write a good song. Incredible. The lyrics, the style of the mosh. Like, I admire that man, dude. It's a science. He sang on one of our new songs, Ironclad, and it's just so sick.

He's the best. What an honor. Dude. The people we, our friends that are willing to contribute to our records are amazing. Like, I love doing the guest spot thing, the feature. I love it. And, yeah, all the ones on this record are really awesome. And, like, it's not like we're, like, sending, you know,

you know guy from a mirror $2,500 to sing on the song you know these are like friends that we've toured with that we know that I have personal connections with I think that makes it special that that have all mosh at some point pulling up his insgram is funny because he doesn't even have a smartphone anymore he's got a flip phone he said at his house recently and he's like you guys want to see my phone flip and then told us a hundred amazing stories about hardcore and it's just oh that's sick he has every cool record too yeah that's awesome and that's why he's the guy he lives it you know you gotta live it or round running third i have a couple more questions yeah uh asop you're you're vegan yes but also your favorite ice cream is ben and jerry's

cherry garcia the non-dairy version that's so so so the non-dairy version is being in correct yes yeah yeah yeah i don't know something about it's just fucking awesome i don't i never even fucking cared about cherries and then i tried that and i'm like okay now i guess i care about cherries He said, yummy. Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's great. Is that your favorite one? Yeah, absolutely.

The chocolate and the cherries is perfect. It's amazing. You know, I would just look at the Ben and Jerry's flavors and just look at it. And I'm like, who gets that one? Who gets this one? When I finally met someone that gets the cherry Garcia. Okay. I mean, I don't fuck with plain vanilla.

I give me something a little fancy. It's awesome. Yeah. Is that like your desert Ireland? Like, my sweet treat? Yeah. My desert island sweet treat. Yeah, for sure.

Sick. Yeah. You have a beer ice cream place? Brother, I don't know. I don't really keep rankings in my head about things. People are like, what's your favorite band? I'm like, fuck. Yeah.

And I'm probably like, Avenge 7Vold. Oh, you're, oh, you're going to love the next question. Oh, let's fucking go. I am becoming the Avenge 7fold believer in our world. It's so funny. People can't believe that I love the band. Yeah, I do. Anyway, we'll get to that.

They're a great man. Dude, you're going to get me going. I want to talk about ice. Please. I can talk about the fold because we'd be getting folded. Please. And I coined that.

Okay. What's important for you to know. But I've always loved mint chocolate chip ice cream. People call it toothpaste. I say it's good. What's the brand? Briars. Briars.

I don't like that performative green mint chocolate chip. It's straight up. It shouldn't be green. Why would it be green? The mint leaf does not make it green. Mint chocolate chip just straight up. up, Briars. Yeah, I'm in.

This is Mickey Mosh hard. I think it could help. My wife likes to bake a lot, so she's like, I have created brownies for you. So I often just consume what she makes, and it's great. But yeah, if I'm going for ice cream, I'm going with that. It's a great ice cream. Yeah.

I let the Ben & Jerry's salted caramel core. Hell yeah. That's the desert island. My mom, out here forever, this is it. I'm glad you told us because I don't think we would have asked you because we forgot that we can ask you questions. Yeah. It says it's all good.

Good. People forget this is. That's your shit. Yeah, this is it. Dude, you've lit up. That looks crazy. There's tears in your eyes, man. It's just serious. He's getting emotional over here.

It's beautiful. That's great. Ben and Jerry's, sometimes I always, like, throw it in the day. I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to have some ice cream right now. You can do that. Why not? You can.

You're allowed. You're a man. Okay. Is this straight edge to have Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Is this ice straight edge? Yeah. Straight edge. Yeah. Okay, so this wasn't on my list, but what's up with you in a bench sevenfold?

I'm a pretty big fan, to be honest with you. I don't think it really affects what we do here very much, but they are why I wanted to get good at guitar as a kid. I heard Bat Country, and I was like, I didn't know you could do all that, you know, like just really cool guitar and drum work. And it was very accessible to like listen to that. don't have like a metal like or hardcore like background yeah because you're 11 12 whatever yeah you know it just like sounds like rock music but turned up further so it was very interesting like I feel like as I've gotten older you know I found more I appreciate about the band because they have like all these Prague records and they have you know waking the fallen which is like honestly one of the best metalcore records ever put together like true um like song for song like the writing is just there you know

like a lot of bands imitated it but they didn't have the writing or the sauce that came from that they had going into that right you know and they have all these records now that like where they heavily referenced mr bungle and like i like that stuff a lot too so i don't know they have this they have a lot of good music and they may want to be good at guitar and i fuck with bands that want that make kids want to be good at guitar um i like that first record that had the angel on it oh yeah i started getting it hardcore and i had had an asshole friend who was like yeah that band sucks don't listen to it when I was like well I'm still going to but okay that record so good yeah there's like incredible mosh parts on that record and people

don't talk about it it's like liking them is like supposed to be embarrassing which makes you want to like them even hard oh yeah yeah they're like oh you like that casual butt rock band it's like that's not what they're doing you know so I dug in even deeper in like face of the bullshit yeah and now it's funny to be like guy and like you know band that played Sound infuri yesterday, loves Avenged Sevenfold. That's just, like, funny. I like them. And they have that new record.

Everyone hates it. Okay, so is this a thing that people all hate this or what? People will be hating it. However, track four is pretty good. So you as a fan? I can get there. What is going on here? I think they gave him too many drugs.

I'm not really sure. I think someone in a band took acid. And we just went with that vision. It does a little. little bit give tried hallucinogenic for the first time in my 40s, which is a little bit of a bummer. But there's enough interesting, like, stuff. And, like, the nuance of this record is that it's, like, very synthy and, like, doesn't sound like a rock band, right? They have different tones.

But, like, if you listen to, like, the arrangement of, like, the melodies and there's, like, all these, like, very classic of inseparable things happening, they just sound different. It is baffling, though. Like, when I first heard it, I was like, what is happening? Also, I think they're calling it like a different band. Like it's not even a Vintestown, it's like Statica. It's like supposed to be its own standalone thing. Oh, wow.

That's why it's a Statica hyphen Statica. Interesting. But we've been on tours as this has came out, so I haven't dug in crazy. But the last song on that little EP Ashes is interesting. The lyrics are compelling as well. So I also respect this band because I can't imagine being in a band that hates their fans as much as they do. They have to just outright hate their fucking fans. Like to give them this, when their fans want to hear afterlife, they want to hear bat country, they want to hear Beast in the Harley, they want to hear like fucking rock, opera shredding, dual guitar, you know, punk drums, stuff. And they're like, fuck you. Like, they are antagonistic. They hate their fans. It's crazy. They're kind of at the point where like they, they, I don't know them, but they seem like artists. So they seem like they're always going to do what.

what they do, which I have pros and cons to it. They're not putting the fries in the bag. You know, like people, they know what people want. Yeah. And they're not putting the fries in the bag. They're not doing that. And I want french fries. Sometimes I want them bad.

I'm like, what if you guys did like one song, you know, that sounds like an event simple song, but it's fine. I wonder if it's one of those things where it's like, like you put out this record, but it's supposed to add to the disavisle. as like a hole where it's like you okay we can do this but we're just going to add to the piece of the fold if so i am not understanding the vision but i'm still i'm still rocking with it though i was uh because i was seeing clips pop up of their production i was like oh shit i should probably go out and see them just watched the damn show i've never seen the band never seen the band live they played hanswell oh it's so sick they played hanswell when i was a kid And, like, it just wasn't the vibe, like, to ask my parents for concert money.

So I just didn't go. Wow. And, like, you got us. And, like, looking back, like, I could have gotten to do it, probably. And, like, it's honestly a big regret of my life. Like, it was, like, peak self-titled era, too. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it was, like, that tour.

I think Hollywood Und Dead and Asking played that, which are not bands that ever mattered to me in the slightest. But, like, seeing them at the time would have been. I went to that tour. That's really cool, man. I've seen us. in the p-time. I'm sorry. It's really cool, man. I bet you, Matt Shadows,

M-Shadows, go hang out. I bet. I could keep going. I bet you and Zachary, vengeance are fucking chilling. It's cool, man. It's whatever.

Oh, yeah, there's a video of it. Yep, I remember that big old fucking bat, dude. You're going to piss me off. I saw him at the tour. I think it was like the Up War.

Because at that point, it was such a gap because I used to see him here at local shows, like before they blew up. Oh, yeah. Southern California people are funny about a VIN 7-Fold. Oh, yeah. They're like, band sucked. Why them?

Yeah. You get each side, but I think people are just fucking jealous. But I remember, like, suicide went, you know when you're in a band, and now you're out in a whole of the world. You're trying to make your own, like, your own thing work. And I just lost touch for years. And I didn't see him again until they already, they were avenged. And it was that disturbed war, up war.

And their intro was someone falling from the fucking Raptors, like the lighting and being hung. during a nightmare. I was like, this is just one of the sickest things I've ever seen live. That's pretty brutal.

It was like, it was during, I think they had a mic from a Dream Theater playing drums, unfortunately. But that intro was just like, wow.

And like he was hanging like the whole set. I'm like, this is so sick. From what I understand, it was a dark time for the band. Yeah. Unfortunately,

unfortunately, they had dark time, but they put on a phenomenal, They definitely are channeled the right way. And that record was amazing. That's a very good record. And I'm not even a bench band.

You're not a Venice fan. Well, I'm like, I'm... You think you're fucking better than me. Yeah. No, I mean, no, I listen to corn and seven dust and stuff. I love corn so fucking much. But I just respect the... Sometimes the bands that are big are big

because they wrote the best songs. You know, people are always like trying to find the most niche unheard thing. And there's some... gems to be found sometimes a band is big because they wrote the best songs and that's why metallic is big they wrote the best songs best songs best riffs they got them all that's why they're big yeah got the most hate mm-hmm yep they have a man named lars that's a funny name helps yeah people talk shon lars all the time i do well he wrote he wrote he wrote those songs

mm-hmm talk talk talk all the shit you want he wrote you wrote those songs or did yeah if If there wasn't for events, I mean, you wouldn't even be... I would be different. Like, it, I know it's like a funny band, some people, but like, I do truly love the band, and I appreciate the comfort I find in those records still as an adult. Oh, of course. Because, you know, touring is brutal, and, like, you can just throw on records from your youth, and it's like, yeah.

But I still stay up with current bands. Like, I do like to listen to old bands, too. But, like, yeah, early on, just them being so, like, music-focused, like, the guitar being so prominent it and like it's like the like the wrists are like not that hard but they're very precise and the leads are hard and like as a kid it gives you something to aspire to like learn how to do and then having like that background made it so that when I started like finding out about like more metal and hardcore bands is like oh I can play all this shit you know like wasn't like a problem and I'm very thankful for that great band shout out yeah so I still get folded

all right officially around running in third first I mean first Is there anything about no cure that you want out there that I might have missed? I try to get the origin story and how you were very thorough and I appreciate that. Cool, cool. I mean, you know, we talked about the record. We probably could have talked about some of the songs more, but, you know, people can listen to it and draw their own conclusions. My interpretation of them isn't the chief thing that drives what the songs are anymore.

They're out there. You're out there. They have now that has their own meeting. And if someone's listened this far in the podcast, they've probably heard the record or they're going to, you know. Yeah. Just listen to the record. Yeah, we talked about the, uh, two hits we talked about the gear who who tracked it yeah she picked up the bass that i used it sounded

really good the bass tone's great and yeah i have an eye for old instruments and i found him a nice platinum warlock she said buy this and i said yes man nice i love it when the my concern is removed as listen you know i try to put good pickups in it and sounds great sounds sick all right last question um What are three albums that influenced you so for so for both you will be six because three three and three You have to go first. Yeah hate breed satisfaction is the death of desire. Oh yeah the Bible of Hardcore a phenomenal record that band helps me decide structures of songs with that record That record is so important Three records. Oh God on the spot. I can't remember shit

I know what records you like Okay What records? Throw a few at me in a There's got to be a blasphemy record that you talk about Oh I mean Fucking I really like God's War

That one's good But I don't know if those are like The inspiring record for No Cure They inspire you The record itself It's more like the dysogry for those bands Like the blaspheme discography is great The Revenge Disrographies is great

The Revenge Disrographies Okay well She's locking in Yeah, locking in. Archcoat. The one with a pile of bodies on the front. I love it, but I can't think a name. Oh, word.

Father of, no, what the fuck is it? We've been on tour forever, people will understand. My brain does not work, even when I'm not on tour, so it doesn't matter. I was giving you that. I was trying to throw you a lifeline there. You're almost there. Where to go? Where the fuck is it?

I have the flag in my fucking bedroom. It's the one with a bunch of bodies on it, and then a fucking baffement at the top. My brain is just not it. Um, fucking that record is awesome too. I fucking love that record. Um, I have that flag as well. Um, um, so it has a lot of bodies on it. Yeah, it's like, it's literally like a triangle pile of like naked bodies of like demon and demon women just doing fucking perverted shit. Maybe that's the hidden image. Oh yeah, no, that is it. Luciferian ground. That's it. Sorry. Brango, Burr. But there it is on the right right there. Yeah, that is really important.

Oh, yeah, there it is. Fucking love that record. Oh, that's a record cover. And the guitar tone on that is phenomenal. Oh, my goodness. That is... Oh, my goodness. That was a huge inspiration for the early start of the band where I was like,

I wrote so many riffs that were like arch goat-style riffs that, like, I couldn't figure out how to make them moshable so we never used them. Wow. So I'll return to them one day, hopefully, but they're just so, like, simple and just evil. That would be a good record. Um Fucking What is that one?

Archangel Archangel Archangel That would die by overdose That one's a good one Yeah Are you talking Archangel

With a K Yeah A RK Angel Yeah that's them That shit's so awesome Yeah A Dead Men Walking

I think I like that one more You like that one more I like overdose more Yeah Yeah Walking is great too I think that one was a huge inspiration

on what I wanted the band to be after the first record. We really haven't got there all that much, but I'm like, there's still plenty of records to write. So I really want to hold on that on that 8,000, like, edge metal, metalcore sound. Are they vegan? They were, sadly.

I don't know if any of them still are, but I've heard they're not a vegan band anymore. But they were big fucking deal back in their day. Still sick today. We're giving way too much sauce for all these children. Yeah, Archangel, Arch, Goat, and Hatebreed, three records by them are my top three I'll put it right now. It's a great, it's a great three. Yeah, yeah.

Archangel hasn't been brought up yet. Fucking love that, man. The past five, five, six years, first time. Cool. You got the wrong people up here, brother. I'm just playing with you. Blade, you're up, man. I want to start with Hate Breed record, too.

Okay. I'm going to say perseverance. Nice. I have an opinion that if you like perseverance, you're a metalcore. If you like satisfaction, you're hardcore. Oh. Which is funny because satisfaction is a metal core. record if you listen to it. It's a technically

but it's more of a hardcore record. It's like everyone loves hate breed but which record do you think is better? That says a lot about you and your taste. Yeah. I respect both but perseverance is my favorite. I feel like they really honed in the song structure and like the things I like about

a hate breed really came together there. These are songs you can play in a huge room or even in a stadium. Satisfaction is meant for tiny intimate rooms. We have W in basements. Yeah, that's where the scary stuff happens. Yeah. Very good record though.

And Josta is just undeniable. Never met him. I loved to meet him. I'm a very big fan of his work and his consistency over the year. I think their newer records are still good. Ooh, I feel like I heard the new song. Didn't they put on a new song the other day? Did they?

They're on a new release schedule now. I don't know. I feel like I heard something in the guitar tone like threw me off or something. I don't remember. I was like, ooh, that's new. Yeah, they've been keeping it going. They sound great. So I guess that's a good first record.

You know, I can talk about a hate breed all. day but like this band doesn't exist without hate breed and you know the bands that hate breed have influences like all of them that are good oh yeah it's like kind of a litmus test like does your band comprehend hate breed yeah if not I'm probably out I'm gonna have to say for a second record it's kind of like an easy pick but like symbolic from death is amazing and I think there's a lot more like death in our most recent record than the other records and I don't really know why that is because we've liked it the whole time but you know sometimes things are higher up in your brain at the time

i reference this record when i'm trying to tell dewey with the play on drums yeah i like what they do with the bell they did some crazy drum stuff on this record and like every song is like good some records have some bad songs on the b side and all these songs are good crystal mountain is like the hit but like that's an amazing song zero tolerance empty words i'm getting excited yeah this record has got the riffs your truck's work has been taking by everyone. Oh, of course. Now, yeah.

It's everywhere. And it deserves to be. It's incredible. He's the real deal. And Gene, you know, his work on this record. It's undeniable. So this is a big record for me. It's a big record for everyone that cares about death metal, probably.

And it's like, you know, like an easy, like top of the pile pick. Everyone knows it. But like I said earlier, sometimes the popular ones are popular because they're the best ones. 100%. It's amazing. I think for my third one, I'm going to pick, since she did a bunch of like war metal and hardcore, I guess I'll pick heartwork by carcass. Oh, nice.

Just to give some more variety. They kept writing riffs on this record and be like, yeah, this is kind of a carcass riff. I'm like, I don't know what that means because I don't listen to the carcass. She's not a carcass girly, but I am a carcass guy. And, you know, Jeff's work with this and Michael's work, like the riffs, the vocals. I mean, this was a big departure record for them because they were doing like Gorgrine stuff. Like they invented Gorgrine pretty much.

Did some records doing that and then moved on to, in my opinion, perfecting like melodic death metal. And yeah, I mean, this record pissed their entire fan base off at the time to my understanding and I think that's badass. And then made them a whole huge new fan base and this is obviously all been jocked to hell.

Oh, now it's like a staple. Yeah, people are like... Yeah. Interesting how that turns out. Death too, I heard. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great record and I love it a lot. Death came out.

So those, like, you know, some bogs and people were not fucking with it. Yeah. And now it's like, that's kind of how you know, you know. If people just kind of like quietly accept your record, they're not really that worried about it. And you need people to be passionate about it on both ends, I think. Totally. Which makes me excited because, man, people will be shitting on this. Yeah.

It's awesome. Congratulations. No, it's good. I know what it means. It's a big deal. Yeah. Please keep doing that. Yes.

It's awesome. People can not care. Yeah, that would be much worse. Yeah, it's silence is so much worse. Look how cool those dudes look. There's look like a dope metal band. I rock with that. That's a great six.

Yep. We'll get it done. It's great. I think so. We probably should pick a foundation record between us, but, you know. Yeah. Everyone knows we like foundation. I'm a foundation discography person, though.

That's different. Turnco is my favorite. Also, you got to have a foundation. throw in a no cure. You got to check it out. It's going to get dark. I'll throw it in there. Boom.

Again, check out the new record. It's been out since July 10th. It's been out for a couple months at this point. Yep. Perhaps so. I have no idea what day it is now because this is the future now. It is. We're constantly living in our past, trying to be present, and in the future, all at the same time.

It's called life. It's weird. Yeah. Yeah. A Sob Blade, thank you for being here. You could have been driving to Texas, but instead you chose to be here on your day off. So I really appreciate your time. Yeah.

I was told me to get to hang out with you and I was like, yeah, that sounds cool. Awesome. Where do you want people to go? To a show. A show? Preferably ours, but a show if nothing. There's shows in every city, pretty much at this point in the country. Like, if you're not going to stuff.

Check out the Spite Tour that will be in October. Yeah. All over. Yeah. You'll, you're actually going to be right back here, October 5th, I think. And San Hanna. Yeah. Oh, sick. So we're chilling. Yeah. I love not knowing what we're playing until the day of. I can't keep up with it anymore. I used to book all our shows, but it got to be too much. That's a lot. Yeah. It was also cool to hang out with your band because I was in such a different mindset and way of living last time I spoke to your band. So it's cool. I think I was, I was so drinking. I saw you at a, uh, I saw you at a, uh, you at a, you. I saw you at, uh, chain, chain action. That's where I met you, I believe. Yeah, it was probably four,

four beers deep. Fun, fun little story. I know your name, and I've known your band, but I had not connected your face to your band yet, or your name.

And when you came up and introduced yourself and you said something very nice about how you liked our set, and then you walked away and I was like, oh, cool. It was nice. And my friend was like, do you know what that was?

I'm like, no, I didn't. He's like, oh, that was a big deal. That guy, he's important. I'm like, oh, my goodness. How sweet of him. That's so nice. It's so weird. Yeah, that's all, yeah.

Which is cool. I don't really connect a lot of faces to names until I, like, meet someone, you know? Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Yeah, we don't do a lot of, like, celebrity, you know. Like, I'm not trying to feed into that too much. No. It's just people.

Mm-hmm. So. It's kind of cool to be here because it's like, we're in California. We're also separated from L.A. It's nice. Oh, wait. I almost forgot. Oh, my gosh.

Okay. We have to bring it up. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. He's not. bothered by it. Okay. So I forgot Jay brought up

Cobra Bar. Yeah. So this is some mini trauma. No, he's fine. So you got, your band got stabbed. Essentially, we're just

breaking up a fight. And one thing I learned is that you can be doing a fight. And no one's going to be like, yo, real quick. We're doing knives now. They don't give you a heads up.

They just kind of start cutting people. And I didn't realize that my leg was opened for a while. until I was like oh it's very wet you know and actually it's actually I guess not that funny I think it's really funny because like so stupid like why would you stab me like this is so dramatic like just get your ass beat a little bit it's not I'm not gonna kill you you know it's goofy but yeah I got stabbed like here-ish I didn't wear shorts I'm sorry but um you know there's a your femoral you know branches around your knee right and we actually nicked my left

side. And that was spurting pretty good. But the EMS, people like to joke like, oh, no cure called 911 because we like, you know, don't do that. I did not call the ambulance. But someone else. There were like 150 people at the show. Yeah. And I think probably the venue did it. Yeah. But there was blood. It was really nice of them to do that because I needed to be tourniqueted pretty quickly. And I think I got a tourniquet on me with like a couple minutes of being stabbed. They had to like double trinacet my leg and they took me to Vanderbilt and I remember being really bummed because they had to cut my pants off me and I loved my pants. I was really concerned about I was trying to get someone to grab my pants for me but like you know I was

They were laying on the sidewalk soaked in blood afterwards and I was like yeah he doesn't need those I was doing so many jokes though with the paramedics I was being really unsurious because my wife's in medicine and I was like I remember saying them like if you ever have Adam Easterling from Orthodox here he was like right there with me and he can give some pretty good quotes But I remember saying something like guys my wife is gonna hate this Because she's a pediatrician so she like went through medical school and all that I'm the one had to call your wife a so okay I said no one tell her So let me tell you what the fuck Asop said yeah she calls Shannon and she says hey girlie

So blithe got a little bit stabbed but he's okay and And then that's like the extent of the conversation. And then I get a phone call. I'm in the ambulance. And I say, guys, is it cool if I take this? It's my wife? I say, yeah, it's whatever. It's fine.

And I say, hey, what's up? Very nonchalant. And she said, did you get stuff? Like, she's the pieces. And I was like, yeah. And then she, like, made me, like, read out all the vitals. And she wanted to talk to them. Yeah, she knows too much, you know.

Yeah. And I joke about a lot. It was definitely like a serious wound, but like I am fully mentally recovered. Like it just happened. It's like not that deep to me. It's like funny. I think our drummer witnessing it was more traumatic. Experience more trauma than Blath getting the stabbing.

Yeah. I'm pretty hard to traumatize. Yeah. So I don't know. It's a really funny anecdote because like I'm not like a super aggressive person. I'll handle it if I have to. Like I'm, that situation needed to be. handled right it was it needed to happen but like that's not my first route and people know that you

know like i'm happy to talk things i'm like hey here's what i meant here's what bothered me etc you know like the kind of speaking is very natural for me but yeah funny times wow we did have to it's the only time we've dropped a show we dropped a florida show because of it because but we did play a show the next week yeah we're like yeah we can't make it to the show tomorrow yeah i wanted to play yeah but you weren't the only one stabbed. I did want to play, and I would have been willing to play. But yeah, then we'd have played Furnace Fest the next week. I had this leg immobilizer on, and it was a whole moment.

And people were pissed at us, actually, because we took incendiary slot because they had to drop. I'm like, bro, I wanted to see incendiary, too. I'm sorry, but you got me right now, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's that. Yeah. The guy who booked the show and Phil Books at Cobra messaged me like a week ago, because I have another band. He's like, hey, does your other band

won't play Cobra? I promised there won't be any crazy, fucked up insane people this time. I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good. Thank you, though. I don't want to go back there. I'm down to play there again. What is that? I mean, the venue has nothing to do with it. It's just something that happened, you know?

So did you feel? No, I was busy. I had other shit going on. It never really hurt that bad. After this, I can show you the photo of what my leg looked like. It was like opened. You can like see like my knee bone. It was pretty gross.

I'll show you the picture if you want to see the gore, but I don't think it should go on your stream. No, no. It'll get you demonetized. Yeah. It's pretty brutal. But the thing that sucked most about it is that the physicians were concerned that my joint was perforated.

And so to check that they took, I think, a six or eight gauge needle. I'm not sure. And they had to inflate my knee joint through the wound with saline. so they're pumping this much like water into my leg joint to see if there's any coming out of it and it felt like the inside of my leg was going to explode because there's so much pressure luckily my joint wasn't perforated so the recovery was all right um but yeah that part that that that's what hurt the statting was just like whatever we're just boys chilling but like the the joint inflation sucked it is I really appreciate

to you it's not a big deal but if I got stabbed that's a it's a big deal so imagine how funny it could be I

like me now imagine being the guy that stabbed Garza like that's that's a good anecdote like if I stabbed you after this like you'd be like

that'd be so funny yeah and didn't and the guy that stabbed you didn't his son reach out and say I'm sorry

someone a few people in the family really wanted me to press charges and I refused to cooperate with anything because a we're touring constantly and B I don't really want to go talk to cops or judges about it so I ended up doing nothing and I'm at peace with that but yeah some people in the family like hey this guy needs to be

locked up can you help and I think he'll get his he'll be taken care of it's karma it has nothing to do with me that's probably another night I think it'd be really funny to take a picture with him I've ever seen him you are Another level No cure Can you imagine Man? Be like post on my Instagram

Yo this guy stabbed me once Oh my God That'd be so funny That's why I'll never get in the fight I can't like There's just crazy people It's like We can't fight

They might Busset a knife Dude it's so dramatic He did not need to stab me It's fine If you think the way He's reacting about it It's funny

You should see the people On the apps They rate music Being like Oh this music sucks that guy was a time traveler trying to stop this. I'm like, dude, dude. I do get a lot of comments about how I should be stabbed again, but more successfully.

I'm just like, okay, do it. I have every location of where I'll be at publicly available. We play DIY spots all the time. You can just walk in there and you can kill me. And it might be really funny. Well, the music is, to me, slowly making more sense. It's awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. It's good in a good way. It's just, because there's something about putting your entire being into music. Mm-hmm. Everything, everything.

I'm going to leave home. I'm going to have a positive mindset. There's something about it. I think it puts something subconscious in the music. I think there's something too why bands that tour, you know, their records go harder than a lot of bands that just play fests and fly in for that. You know, there's something about living the lifestyle. And it's about to get in the band mentality and just how what it does to you.

Yeah. It's not good, but it does do it to you. Yeah. Wow. You lived what your band lived what I'm terrified of. Like someone stabbing me. But it's funny. You're laughing.

He's giggling. He thinks it's funny. I'm trying to laugh. He thinks it's funny that I got stabbed. That's a clip. Garza has no sympathy. Oh, my. Well, I'm very, it's great to know that your band has moved past it and you are still alive.

I don't give a shit, bro. You both still alive. It was annoying that I couldn't walk right for a while. It wore my hip out because I walked way more than I was supposed to because I don't care about things like that. I was a walk around furnace that's dragging my leg behind me. So it wore out my right hip. And then, like, I'm recovered from all that now. But, like, that was just, like, annoying.

I couldn't put my shoes on. I had asked my wife to help. and she's beautiful she don't need to be tying my shoes you know she got other she got hot girl shit to worry about so it's just tough

that was that was annoying the knife part's funny wow well there is something to be said as something terrible happens to you because that could I guess

that could ruin somebody they could be permanently traumatized by it and you seem to I guess in a way it Persevere. Yeah, like the positive approach is what...

I know what you're doing. Persevere. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I love Jamie Joste. I don't think he'd ever stab me, to be honest. I think he'd be like, nice to meet you. Yeah.

So I fuck with that. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. But if Jamie Joste stabbed me, that would be funny. That's great press. Yeah, yeah. Make sure you drop a record or a single around the same time.

That's, that, so... Featuring Jamie Jost. sorry I stabbed you that'll be sick see beautiful man look at him thank you for sharing that story yeah maybe it was a mistake

but yeah we'll see no I think I think it was awesome that made me laugh I'm sorry it's good for your clips brother no it's not like

I'm not it's funny now because you because you're here and you're alive but it's just and I think the way you're telling it to me yeah

is causing like a body reaction inside me that I cannot control and I It manifests into laughing. So it's your fault. Really, I'm making you so uncomfortable, and I know it. He's really good at that.

You're awesome. We're out here playing games and shit. Well, thank you for doing the podcast. And again, thank you for sharing that story. That's a great, that might be one of my best closers. Appreciate you, brother. It's awesome. Everyone check out the new record.

It's been out for a couple months. And check them out on tour with spite all of October, all across the U.S. Going to Australia. Australia. Europe. Europe. And we'll probably tour all next year, too. We're sick for it.

We'll be out there. Check them out. 27, 27, 28. They'll be on tour 24 seven. Yeah. Appreciate you, Garza. Thanks for having us. Anytime.

I'm honored. Thank you. All right, everyone. That's it. Later. Love you guys.