Garza Podcast - 93 - IYA TERRA | Nathan Aurora: 7 Strings, Deathcore to Reggae & Best Way to Die

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Garza sits down with Nathan Aurora. Singer, guitar player of Iya Terra. Pop Punk Goes Reggae drops 9/15! https://www.linktr.ee/nathanauroramusic SPONSORS: Click this link to purchase from Sweetwater & help support the podcast: imp.i114863.net/rnrmVB CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Scented Candles & Playing Deathcore Music Back in the Day 03:43 - Mitch Lucker’s Star Power 06:49 - Combining Reggae with Metal  08:55 - Deathcore Beginnings 10:10 - Why Nathan Stopped Smoking Weed 11:57 - Deathcore to Reggae Origins 15:10 - Moving to California & Raising a Baby 18:57 - Nathan & Garza Are Cat People 22:52 - Meeting Bandmates on Craigslist 26:00 - Switching From Playing Metal to Reggae 28:40 - Starting to Write Music in 2013 32:26 - Rehearsing in a Dental Office After Hours  33:04 - The Vibe is More Important Than the Talent 33:30 - Being All In & Commitment to Music 34:54 - 311 Tour & Return of Shows, Post-Pandy 37:11 - Playing 7-String Reggae with Breakdowns 39:10 - Using Real Amps  42:00 - Grateful Dead & Jerry Garcia’s Guitar 43:58 - What Started Idea for Reggae Covers 49:45 - The Ghost Inside & Overcoming Hardship 53:38 - Using the Power of the Internet as a Tool 55:24 - How Being a Father has Influenced Perspective 01:01:00 - Embracing Challenges & Being Uncomfortable  01:02:05 - Playing 7 Strings  01:04:06 - Eddie Joining Suicide Silence 01:06:13 - Wondering What Other People Hear While You’re Performing  01:07:51 - Combining Styles & Tuning Out Gatekeepers 01:11:10 - Women Mature Faster Than Men 01:13:57 - Barbenheimer 01:22:50 - Fear of Death 01:25:30 - Best Way to Die 01:26:45 - Creme Puff, World’s Oldest Cat 01:30:34 - Playing Red Rocks & Haunted Stories 01:33:57 - Ronnie Radke, Falling in Reverse 01:36:20 - Combining Genre Influences  01:37:34 - Origin of “Deathcore” Term 01:39:19 - New Wave of American Reggae 01:43:23 - Origins of Reggae 01:44:04 - Gatekeeping in Metal vs Reggae 01:45:22 - Understanding Bob Marley 01:47:25 - Understanding Country Music 01:48:38 - Being Self-Critical 01:49:42 - Learning How to Play Reggae Guitar 01:53:35 - New Album, Pop Punk Goes Reggae / Tour

Me and my keyboard player, now he was actually in my deathcore band too. Yeah. Because we were really into like, Born of Osiris Lane where we were like progressive. Like we had a keyboard player. Like we had like the techie shit and the synth patches and Winds a Plague era. Of course, of course. Because we actually made records with Andrew, the old bass player wins a plague. He was, he tracked a lot of our old shit.

Whenever I need music gear, I always go to sweetwater.com. If it's mics, headphones, or studio and recording gear, Sweetwater has you covered. Next time you need any music gear, support the podcast by using the link in a description and comment section below. Well, apparently, uh, scinting candles are terrible for you. Dude, I just saw that because she was pregnant. So I read this thing that was like, it's, it's worse than like living in a smoggy city. Like, it dilutes your air quality so much.

And they're so popular too. They're great. Who doesn't want their house to smell like fucking fresh flowers? I know. Because we smell like shit. I know. We need, like, something to help, like, the room and gosh. That's the true sign of growing up is when you were.

realize you just really like a fucking flowery garden-scented house as opposed to like a beer-stained crash pad we come a long way huh absolutely oh my goodness and you dude you used to be in a deathcore band i did yeah and i didn't know that so in your in your teen years yeah you were fucking slamming dude we shared the stage a handful of times you and i in bagas huh yeah yeah wow yeah and that was during Mitch's years. It was, dude. Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was fucking epic. I want to save that for when we're rolling, too, because it's

important shit. I don't know if we're, did we start already? Did we start? Okay. Oh, okay. I think we're already five minutes in. Oh, what? All right, so my wife gags on religious candles. Perfect. We got. Okay, sick. Do not, don't buy sentencing candles. Yeah. Bad 3, PSA.

Boom. And Nathan was in a death core band. I was, dude. I was in a death core band and they were remarkable years of my life. And I'll never forget, dude, because we played with you guys in, like, the height of the cleansing. Oh, wow. Yeah, just crazy. It must have been, what year was that released? What year was the cleansing release?

06? Late, late, 07. Okay, yeah. I think I could be wrong. I think this show that, like, sticks out in my mind. It was at a spot called Jillians in downtown Las Vegas. Gillians was the one place I thought was kind of sick. It was sick as fuck.

What happened in that place? I don't know. It just closed down. The thing about like the Vegas scene was it, you can't keep an all ages venue open. It was like always like our, our plague. Why don't know? I don't know. I don't know.

I think the city just like constantly shut stuff down and permitting and there's so much like adult entertainment happening in the city that it was always a struggle to like, you know, we were, and it was, I think it's the same across the country. But like a lot of these metal and hardcore shows were happening at like churches, coffee shops, like random fucking spots. Halls. Yeah. Was it leathernecks?

Leathernecks was sick, dude. Yeah, yeah. Leathernecks was a spot, which was like a veteran's hole. It was, yeah. I'm like, how is this shit on the wall? It's not getting broken. I know. Because the pits were insane at Leathernecks.

It was funny because Jillian's was kind of the spot where like scene bands would go. You know, like popular scene bands, metalcore bands and shit like that. But Leathernecks, like, you had to be heavy. Like, they didn't book any of the, like, they didn't book any bands that had any, like, clean vocals. You know what I mean? it was like fucking thrash and hardcore and shit like that. But yeah, dude, back in, I think it was July of 2008. We opened for you guys.

It was Mitch era and it was just fucking incredible, dude. Just such a special memory that will stay with me forever. I remember seeing Mitch on stage and just being like, my God, what a presence. You know what I mean? He had that presence. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he was by far like the coolest guy. ever met in my life.

Right. You know. I feel like it's rippling still throughout history, just his. Still? Yeah. Yeah. It's strange, man, how, like, there's few people, you know, that are on earth that have that, whatever that is, that energy, like that star power or whatever.

And unfortunately, just, like, so many of them get taken too soon. You know what I mean? And I don't know, he kind of lives up to that lore, you know what I mean? Of, like, dude, here's this guy that's just larger than life. You know what I mean? And taken too soon. It's insane. He did have that larger-in-life thing.

You can't put your finger on. I was like, what is that? Yeah. I was around him forever. I was like, what is that? Right. Yeah, were you guys aware, like in the early days? Like, do you remember?

Because, like, how did you guys meet high school? Yeah, we met, so there's a place where we're from called Showcase. Okay. You guys are Riverside, right? Yes, Corona Riverside. Okay, yeah. And, yeah, we met, we kind of were, acquaintances, I saw him when he used to, you know, like, yeah, like the pit going.

So he used to basically throw kicks at me. I would basically do that, right? Like at shows. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of how I met him. And then, uh, yeah. And he's tall. His legs are like this long, just destroying everyone.

He's so tall and lanky, dude. It fucking pissed me off. Yeah. And then our previous singer for Suissezance, he was his idea. Hey, you know Mitch, right? I'm like, no, I never met Mitt. Right. But it's his idea to bring him on and do like a song to have two singers in one song.

I'm like, cool. So I met Mitch handshake in my garage. No shit. I said, oh, there's a guy that would kicks me. Yeah, yeah. He was coming to like try out or just coming to jam. Yeah, he's coming to jam. He wanted to do that one song with us at our first show ever.

Right. And then I'm not sure what happened. I don't know where he was, boom, he was in. Such a wild thing, man. You know, just. It's weird when you get older, a lot of those. cliches start to just make sense. You don't know what you had until it's gone.

Right, right. You know, it's just like, man, I just had no idea. Right, right. I had no fucking idea. But then when it's gone, you're like, oh, okay. Like that was a miracle, you know what I mean? It was literally, he was like a miracle. Yeah.

I mean, it's a once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime person that you meet and you get to hang out with. Absolutely. And grow with. Grow with. Become in a successful bandwidth. Like, what a crazy thing. Yeah, it's tough, man.

Yeah, his inspiration too, man, I think, is like, even for, like, it just reaches, it reaches so far, dude, to places that, like, I don't even think. A lot of people would know, like, even just to me, you know what I mean, like some guy in a fucking reggae band. Like, yeah, what are your inspirations? Like, Mitch Lucker all day, you know? Wow. All day, dude. You really touched on something special. Like, you combined, like, the reggae thing with, like, your metal influence.

Right. It's cool. Right. Yeah, it was kind of like, you know, I grew up as like a metal kid, 10 years old, got a Metallica record, started playing guitar, like all my favorite shit was just metal, hardcore, very involved in like the whole deathcore scene. And it's like original, like those golden years of death core, you know? Sure.

And when I decided to start the reggae band, like it was like this whole transition, I moved to California to like go to college and shit. I'd always love both genres. But when I first started the reggae thing, it was like, trying to distance myself from that sound because I was like, okay, I'm doing this other genre now. So like let me dig into this genre, learn it. Let me like focus on this genre. I almost try to distance myself because like the metal shit would come through. You know what I mean? Like I would like I would just have riffs and stuff in these songs. And we have, we have a fly on

the podcast. We have a fly. What's up? What's our guest? Marty McFly. This is our first guest. Oh my goodness. Anyways, luck story short, dude. I tried to like distance myself from from that sound because it's just like so ingrained in me. But I almost feel like now in the most recent years, I'm just fully stepping into it, man, because I feel like I'm finally discovering myself as an artist to just be like, yo, I'm all of these things. Like, I love reggae, I love metal,

I love emo, I love rock, I love all this shit, you know what I mean? Yeah. So just trying to combine them in a fluid way, not even trying, just kind of like allowing the music to exist. It's like what I'm trying to do now. It's good way to put it. Yeah. Isn't it wild to imagine where you wore it as a teen?

because you were playing in like this essentially it was a death core band officially right absolutely yeah and to go from that didn't you leave that band kind of like okay like my time and music is done yeah it's done like I mean that kind of my ship is sailed right let me go to college right at 20 years old that's what I thought I was like you know that naivity of youth yeah you thought it was over yeah because that was like a question I wanted to ask you too man is like

back in those days like when I say we shared the stage like I'm sure you had bands here locally that were kind of in the same scenario but you guys were kind of on this level where it was like there was these breakout death core bands of the time, you know, and Muir and suicide silence and All Shall Parish and As Blood Runs Black

like this whole generation of bands that were coming up and it was like kind of creating a genre obviously, you know what I mean? And we were like maybe I felt like we were like five or six years younger than you so we were the ones that were just studying you like how old were you guys when the cleansing came out? So seven,

early 20. In 2021? Right, okay. So I was right. Yeah, you guys were like, that's what I figured, like, 2021. We were like 15. You know what I mean? So we were like watching you guys and we were the local bands that they would stick

on the touring package show. Like the touring package would come through and then they would look and, you know, all right, who are the bands doing it in Vegas and throw us on there? Yeah. But yeah, so that was like, that's just, it was so cool to like learn from you guys. You know what I mean? Whoa. Yeah, yeah, it's cool.

And now I'm learning from you. Ah, you know, we all can learn from each other. There you go. Sorry, I totally. I lost our train of thought, but that was a point to that, and I forget what it was. What was your question? Do you remember? Word is talking.

Yeah. As it should be. Well, also, we should note that you officially don't smoke anymore. I don't smoke anymore. Why did you start smoking? Started giving me really fucking bad anxiety. When was this? Like right around the time I moved to California.

So I was smoked every day in Vegas when I was playing metal and hardcore and moved to California, got into reggae. and I don't know, I just kind of like left everything that I knew in Vegas and I moved out here, had no friends, no nothing. So like I would smoke and I would just like be by myself and just start zoning the fuck out. You know what I mean? And I don't know. Something just changed in me and I just realized like it wasn't really my thing anymore, you know?

So you came here doing the same thing you were doing back home in Vegas. Right. And realized, okay, this is not, this is not my shit anymore. Yeah, exactly. Because it was kind of like, it was kind of part of my identity, you know? Like when you're a stoner, it's just like what you are. You know what I mean? Like I just loved weed.

Like I just smoked. I listened to music. I loved reggae. Like I loved all that shit. And then so it's kind of like an ego death in a way because I moved here and I had to realize like I don't, I actually just don't enjoy this anymore, you know? Wow. Not really my thing anymore. But what was it keeping you at home?

I'd say so, but also I had no friends. So I wasn't going anywhere anyways. You know what I mean? I was like 21 years old. Just moved here. Just started going to fucking college. Like felt so out of place. You know what I mean?

How long did you go to college for it? two and a half years, two and a half years. For what? English. English. Yeah. I've always wanted to do that. Dude, it's fun.

I mean, it's like, as a musician, it's kind of the same thing. Like, I loved creative writing. Yeah. I loved reading. I loved storytelling. Like, all that shit. So similar, you know? Yeah.

When I moved here, it was in 2012. It was the same year that Mitch passed, because I remember we moved out here. I moved out here in July, and then he passed in October. And I remember, like, it's weird, man, because it kind of defines that era of my life. It was strange. Yeah, I moved out here in 2012 and started going to college because, like you said, I thought my, that's why I started saying that is because I thought my ship had sailed because all my favorite bands had like made it by like 21, 22, or what I defined as making it. You know what I mean? We were opening up for you guys at 15.

And when I was 20, 21, I started to really look at like, what are the next 10 years of my life going to look like? And my band back home in Vegas wasn't really doing much. So I was like, all right, maybe I just wasn't meant for this, you know? because I remember like all the bands we were in love with at the time you know you guys and Miss May I was like so young too if you remember when they started touring and I remember because they came out and we opened for them and dude they were like fresh out of high school like they just graduated high school I remember they were all 18 years old and like they blew a tire we came and like picked up their trailer and stuff but that contributed to yeah that contributed to just

me feeling like oh maybe my maybe I missed my shot which is so funny if I could go back and tell myself like dude it's all you're 20 years old you know at your 20 years old you're 20 years old man. Yeah, yeah. But you have a small worldview at that time. Sure. You know what I mean? And especially in the scene that we were in is like a lot of youngsters. You know what I mean? Like everybody was so young. So that's kind of what contributed to like, all right, maybe I should just go

get my shit together. I go to college. I end up going to a reggae show and being like, you know what? I'm going to shoot my shot with this. I've loved this genre for a long time. I'm just going to start at my own band. From scratch. Yeah, from scratch. I posted an ad on Craigslist. Which, you know, a lot of us did in those days, like looking for musicians.

because you know everybody and your scene. This was cool, though, because I didn't know anyone in California. You know, I had just moved here. So it wasn't like when you're all burnt on your local scene. Like, oh, I know that guy. You know what I mean? My bass player responded and was like, dude, I love the same bands. Let's jam.

We jam that week. And the rest is history, man. Just from my ad on Craig's list, a shooting your shot. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it kind of crazy how far, like, when your perception is this and then to see where you're out now? It's so strange, dude.

It's like that small. worldview, you know? And like, I think it's a good reminder too to us in like our age now is like, dude, it's, we kind of like feel like we know it. Like we know the path, but we don't know. We don't. We don't know what's going to have. Yeah, no idea. Yeah. No idea. Like maybe a little bit more now in our 30s. We're like, okay, I can kind of like clearly define and like I can kind of like arrange what I want my path to be more than when I was 20, you know? Yeah. But we don't know. Yeah, we don't know. Yeah. Like, you know, what the fuck's going to happen tomorrow? What, what do I have her breakfast? Right. You know? Right. It's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy.

We don't know, man. I always saw that this hit me like six months ago where I always tell people, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't fucking know because people will ask you how do you do this. Right. I don't fucking know. But I always know what I wanted and I always knew what I didn't want. Absolutely.

You know, that's all the, I guess, experience that I could share with you. Yeah. You know, it's like, oh, well, even as like a dumb kid, like, I kind of had that. For sure. For sure. I think that's, like, just as important as knowing what you don't want, you know? And then you just focus on the shit that makes you happy. Yeah.

You know, like playing guitar, starting your podcast. Which, by the way, dude, I know we kind of started unofficially, but thanks for having me. I'm fucking stoked to be here. Thank you for being here, man. Yeah, I'm really stoked. I know we've been talking about it for a while, so. Yeah. Finally timing is.

I mean, and the time that we were talking, a lot has happened in your life. Like, you, I saw what you were moving, and then you had a baby boy. Yeah. Yeah, I did. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. because we must have chatted in, in what, like April or something.

I think I was still on tour. Yeah. I think I was in France when you hit me up. And I was like, dude. I didn't know that. Yeah. I was like, dude, fucking Chris Garza just asked me to be on this podcast. I'm fucking blown away.

Because dude, honestly, like as a fan, I'm fucking like, yeah, I'm a big fan, man. I'm stoked to be here, dude. That's cool. So, so yeah, that was probably back in April. And a lot has happened, man. My wife was pregnant. We had our baby boy who's just awesome. It's just the fucking coolest guy in the world

We had to move which sucked I don't recommend that to anybody He was three weeks old when we had to move It was a nightmare dude We were dealing with like a slum lord landlord situation Oh fuck It's the fucking worst dude It was the worst

But it was I don't know It was like probably the hardest few months of my life dude honestly But looking back on it now Because it's been two months since all that Yeah It's like so uplifting to think like damn we got through that you know what I mean like my wife and I we got through that shit because it was rough dude I mean like days where I was we were trying to find a place we

had 30 days like yeah with a three week old our first baby so we had no idea what we were doing you know wow he's crying and screaming and we're like just trying to be parents and at the same time trying to figure out like where the fuck are we going to live you know um yeah it was rough but looking back it's like it's just cool man you got a good lady at home and like you you have your your foundation built strong you can get through that shit. Totally. We have a wide mental capacity that we don't know we have until it's tested.

100% dude. It's like shit. And then once you get it through, you're like, oh, wow, what the hell? And you have like a new like capacity. Right. It makes me any sense. Right. Like you said, the cliches start to come true.

It's like there's that cliche like you never like, you know, like God or the universe can only, like he'll give you the problems that you're able to deal with. You know what I mean? Because before I would have been like, dude, that's a nightmare. I never want to do that. And I didn't think we could get through it, but fucking here we are, you know. Yeah, dad, new spot. Yeah, yeah.

And then even during that, I think your lady mentioned, because you almost moved to my hometown. Yeah. Almost. I was stoked, dude. I was stoked. And you had a place picked out. It's done. This is it.

Yeah. Yeah, it was funny how it happened, man, because, like, we were looking locally. My wife's from Orange County. And her family's here and with the newborn. and it's like you want to be close to family, you know? Of course. Especially her. She wants to be close to the family.

The support there is just invaluable. It's like babysitting and just help. But we got burnt out on the search and then she wakes up one day and she's like, let's just fucking move to Corona. Like there's so many houses like we can get more bang for our buck. Let's go to Corona. I'm like, are you serious? Like let's go.

Because I'm down to move anywhere, dude. Like I probably would have gone and got a homestead in Montana or something by now. Yeah. But she said that and I got all stoked. I found us a place. We went out and toured it. I fell in love with it. And, you know, she ultimately just decided it's, she didn't want, she didn't want that life.

And she's never been away from Orange County. So I'm like, all right, I get it. We'll stay in Orange County. We found a great new place, too. We love it. It's a fucking awesome place. Same town? Yeah, La Habra.

Lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Close. Because that's a thing, too. She did her salons there. She's a hairstall. Oh, it's a lot.

Yeah. Good to be local. Good to be local. Totally. You don't want to add that trap big time. Yeah, it's rough. For me, I don't really leave the house still. So I'm like, I was in my studio at home.

Like, I'm good. I'm down to, like, come out to Orange County for shows and stuff still. But, like, it's easier for me, you know, having the studio at home and everything. How did I know that you were a cat person? Dude, I don't know. I just emanate that energy. I just know. You ever know when someone's a cat person?

I think so. It's funny today I was thinking, how did I know that? Yeah. How did I know? Yeah. And even me knowing? Yeah. I'm like, how did it?

Are you a cat person, too? Oh, yeah. I love my cat. Really? Yeah. What's your cat's name? Leo. Love it.

Adam. He's seven, seven years, six months old. I love it. What kind of cat? I know we don't really know breeds, but like what comes? Domestic short hair. Okay. You do know breeds. You're a cat person. Let's go. And your cat is a Siamese. Yeah. Yeah, I have two Siamese. Two of them? Yeah, I have two. Yeah, one's name is Wantan. Wantan. Yeah, he's like the classic like seal point Siamese. And then I have another one. Her name's Susie. She's a little spotted like Tordie Point Siamese. Yeah, dude. I love cats. They're the best.

I mean, how do you? It's usually in my, in my room, it's like it's rhythm guitar players and tend to be like the more like reserved people tend to have like cats cat personality yeah they always want to stay at home right you know

home body yeah yeah and my uh my cat almost uh I mean he's great now he almost died about two months ago oh no yeah he started throwing up

and I took him to uh I learned the hard way what like the it's funny you could drive past the building almost every day not even care about it right

and um this place was the Corona animal emergency hospital. Oh shit. And I was like finally, it was okay, I'll take him in. Yeah. And then I had this, they had to hold him for 48 hours.

Oh, no. He gave him his nutrients and went to visit him. I learned very quickly what care credit was. Okay. Yep. Yep. It's so fucked, dude. I mean, I get it. Like, you have to pay up front for your pets.

Right. But it's just like the emotional state that you're in and a time. It's awful. And like the price, you're like, basically what they tell you is that, okay, pay this. Yeah, we'll save them. Or you got to go home and your pets are going to die. But they don't tell you that, but that's essentially like the circumstance. Right, right, right.

And okay, well, okay, and what's the price you see? Like, oh, fuck. And then luckily, I mean, there's, honestly, there's no price I would have saw that. I wouldn't have paid. Yeah, absolutely. We do that for our animals. I don't like shit. And then care credit and then you can see the contract is like, it's like something crazy.

It's like 29%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, that's the interest rate? Yeah. So if you don't pay up in, I think my term is like six months. Yeah, yeah. Like you're going to pay that interest. Luckily, I'm going to pay it off within six months.

But man, I can see how people get into serious debt with the animals because if you don't have that income in six months, Then it's just stacking up. Dude, I made me thinking about other people and then like all the other people you see. It's out. It's out. Right. And you see people in and out. Right.

The dogs. Trying to figure it out. It's like, dude, this happens every day. Oh, man, that's so gnarly. Fuck. It makes me feel good about like my wife was adamant that we got insurance for the animals. Good. I had never fucking heard of that.

I didn't know animals could be insured. So, you know, we pay the monthly. Pet health insurance. That's a real thing. Yeah. It's a real thing. Pet health insurance. Yeah, folks out there, if you have a pet that you'll,

love it doesn't hurt to yeah to tack on the insurance so you got two right two good yeah or they again uh one's three one's four hmm good age yeah they're psychos dude psychos they're psychos they're psychos i love them i mean i know you don't know but uh i'll smoke now but uh i'll smoke sometimes and then like sometimes cats just know yeah when you're fucking stone right and they're looking at you judging you and like and it's like fucking with you yeah yeah like bite my leg yeah decide to yeah fuck you little he's i was testing you dude you're high Like that question, man, what are you? Are you high right now, dad?

Like, yeah, I am. Fuck. Oh, my goodness. That's fucking hilarious, dude. So you met your, you met your bass player through Craigslist? I did, yeah. What were you thinking when you put out the ad? Okay, I'm proud of this ad.

I mean, so you said that you thought that your career was like, okay, I'm done. Right. But during, like, you're coming back to playing music, what was like, we, we, we, we were like, I'm gonna go for it again? Or it's like, oh, I'm gonna have a, I'll do a local band. Yeah. What's like, what was like your mindset? I think for me, dude, it's like similar for a lot of musicians too.

It's like playing music was all I really knew, like growing up. It's how I made friends. You know what I mean? Like all my friends were musicians were always in bands and shit. So for me, it was like just being in this new city and really just wanted a jam. I didn't really think of it beyond that. You know what I mean? I was just like, yeah, I need like some cool dudes I can jam with and like play some music.

I wasn't really thinking about touring and. Really? Yeah. No, especially because like, like, Like, you know, before in Vegas, like my bands, we didn't really ever tour. We were just like that local band that would be on all the support gigs, festivals, all that kind of stuff. We never really got to that level of, like, booking agents and managers and like this kind of shit. All the bullshit.

Yeah, all the craziness, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, like, you know, starting the reggae band, it was really just like, let's just jam. Let's just, you know, make some new friends out here, play some music. And a couple years in, it's, that's when we all learned together what the booking agent side of it, the management, you know, as things progressed, you know? So you let it naturally kind of get to this point?

For sure, for sure. We were just, like, so happy just being 20 years old and finally being a musician again, you know? Because people would ask me, like, it was only about six months, dude, that I made it, like not being in a band. You know what I mean? Like, I moved out here to start college

and then, like, six months in, I was like, fuck, dude, like, this ain't me. Like, this being a student, like, all this, you know? It didn't leave you, huh? Never. It never did. And then people would ask, you know, like, hey, man, so like, what's up?

What do you do? like first time in my life I'm not in a band because I've been playing guitar since I was 10 first thing I did was go and join a band so always that was my answer

to the question like I'm a musician you know check out my band here's a CD whatever here's our MySpace like that kind of shit you know you know so people would ask me

on those like brief months that I wasn't in a band and I would just be like fuck I guess I'm just a student you know but yeah I wasn't really looking at the future of it man it just like

it all just unfolded in like a really cool organic way I'm just grateful dude interesting It's kind of rare. Sometimes you need like a vision. Right.

For like, I mean for anything really. Right. But you just took one step at a time. Yeah. And it was always like, yeah, I hope it gets there. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I hope. But like, I didn't even know what it would be like.

You know what it would be like to be like, first get the van and then the bus. And then like, you know, all the steps that it takes. You know, it's just like, let's just jamming. I'm sure suicide started the same way because you guys were like kids. And you have these dreams like, dude, we're going to fucking rock stages all over the world, you know? But you don't really know what you're getting into. You just want to like, let's just focus on playing the best set we can this weekend. True.

You know what I mean? And then it all just starts like unfolding, you know? And you also, you switched genres. I can't even imagine that. Yeah. Dude, so like there's a crazy thing where like I know that in metal, like not a lot of people fuck with reggae. That's just like not a thing. But in reggae, like so many of us come from punk or metal or death core.

Like there's so many. And that was kind of what blew my mind. as I started, you know, like really, our band started taking off. We're starting to meet all these friends and other touring reggae bands, all the stuff, you know? Yeah. And like, I always wore it on my sleeve

where I came from. Like, dude, like, dude, like, you used to listen to fucking, you know, this band, this band, this band. Like, me too, dude. Oh, wow. So many of us. It's a crazy thing. Crazy, huh?

Yeah. You straight have switched genres, dude. Yeah. I can't, like, because you, I just can't fathom that, like, you know, like, okay, like, you found this one style of music that you love. But in high school,

right you were both already listening to metal and were you already in like the reggae scene in a high school well there was no reggae scene but like i loved reggae but i was i was like my ipod was similar to what it would be today where it was like suicide talents all shot parish lamb of god fucking sublime slightly stupid like all that shit interesting me and my keyboard player now he was actually in my death core band too yeah um because we were really into like the like the death court band was very much in like the born of osiris lane where we were like progressive like we had a keyboard player like we had like the techy shit, the synth patches and Winds of Plague era, you know?

Of course, of course. Because we actually made records with Andrew, the old bass player of Windsor Plague. He was, he tracked a lot of our old shit. Really? Yeah. We're at. Rancho Kumunga.

So you were in Rancho? Yeah. Okay. Well, we would come out from Vegas and we would track with him. Oh, sick. I don't remember what he was calling his studio at the time, but I'm sure you remember Andrew.

Yes. Yeah, Andrew Glover. Glover, of course. Yeah, cool cat. We were very much like, we loved born of Cyrus Winds of Plague, all the like, because we wanted to have the keyboard player

and play like cool, spacey, Egyptian-sounding shit, you know? Of course. But anyway, so my keyword player at the time, he was into metal with me. But he also, we fell in love with reggae together, you know? So, and then, you know, the other half of the band would be like, why are you guys listening to this shit, dude? You know, this reggae shit. Wow.

We just loved them both, man. There's a lot of, like, similarities in the genre where it's really just about the groove and it's about the vibe of the song, you know what I mean? It makes your head bob. Yeah. Yeah. And so you were already loving reggae,

and then you see a show when you're, when you're 20. Yeah. And he's kind of sparked something back. Yeah. And we had been going to reggae shows a long time, you know, but I think it just hit different when I was, like, in California and I wasn't a musician.

And I went to a reggae show with some coworkers and was just like, why don't I start? I've always loved this genre, too. Like, why don't I try and start one, you know? Dang. Yeah. It was meant to be, man. I think so.

I think so. At what point were you writing, so once you find your bass bass for Nick, right? Yeah. Yeah. Once you find Nick. Like, when do you start writing like the EP? Because you guys formed in 2012.

13. 13, yeah. Cool. Yeah. All right. Early 13. Yeah, that makes sense. And then EP came out in 2014?

I think it actually came out 13. You probably have it in your notes. I should probably know this. You make me a second guess myself. No, no. You're the one that you actually went on the internet to find out what was real life. Hey, dude. Wiki dude, is off a lot.

Yeah, that's true because it's like users submitted, right? Yeah, I'm always trying to figure out how do you change the information on the wiki? Right, right, right. I had no idea. Yeah, I have no idea. I actually don't know how you do that. And then I'm like, where's this shit coming from? Because can anyone just go on there and change it?

I know. I was like, what the fuck? I don't think so. I think you have to have some credentials, but I don't know what it is. Okay. Oh, there you go. He's got a highlight. There we go.

But I just lost my glasses, so you have to read that. Okay, I got you. I got you. Release their first. EP in 2014. Okay, there you go. You were right, Chris. I'm in the band already. Yeah, you fucking know, dude. Oh my gosh, dude.

Yeah, so EP comes out, yeah. Six. So when you're writing in that, is there like, you guys serious? Is this feeling serious? We were all in, dude. Me and my bass player, Nick. Like, once we met each other and we started jamming, we were all in. We were like, let's make this music, you know? Like I said, we didn't really envision a future. We knew our fly's back. Our guest is back.

Yeah. You want to have a beer? Dude, let's fucking go. We got Dosecis. We got Dekate. Yep. I'm cool with you. I saw it in a bottle.

I saw it in a bottle. You got Dosecis in bottles. Of course we do. Okay, we do, let's do, pull out four Dosecis. All right. I like your style, Chris. Because you don't want to ask again.

Yeah. Hopefully this flag gets it for us, okay. Yeah. There you go. And then obviously, because then you do the record, oh wait, and one more thing.

Wiki also says that your band formed in 2012. Oh, fucking. It's wrong. Whoever wrote that, whoever went on Wikipedia, you're wrong. So it was 2013.

I think it was 2000. I moved here in 2012. It was about six months before I met Nick, because I feel like we met in January of 13. So the band kind of started January, early 13. And then I guess, yeah,

maybe we took about a year to put the EP together or something we were jamming. That's quick, dude. Yeah. It's not bad at all. It was a quick EP. I think it was five songs. Thank you, my brother.

Ooh, okay. I'm a classic kind of guy. Classic, okay. I'm a classic, man. Thank you. we got these corn coasters sick thank you brother

appreciate you so you guys went quick once like once you met him yeah when you're vibing with somebody yeah he just know oh dude we just knew it's like shit cheers my brother

thank you for having me dude anytime anytime yeah we decided we like the same bands and we found we found it well it has that amber one that's all right it's good okay it's heavy dude Is it?

Yeah. It's like a riff. This is such a sick coasting here. Yeah, we met and it was so fucking funny, dude. We found a drummer on Craigs Us too. His name was Frankie. Shout out to Frankie. I don't know where he is these days.

All right, where are we going to jam? And Frankie's like, well, my dad has a dentist office in Burbank, and I think we can jam there. Our first jam session was at this dude's dad's dental office in Burbank. Damn. Yeah, but I just remember because we kind of knew from the jump. You know when you meet a new musician, like you can kind of talk. tell like, oh, I could vibe with this guy, you know? Me and Nick hit it off right away, and we were all in it, and not really so much with Frankie,

but I remember Nick came, a bottle of red wine, he's rolling fucking splits, and we're just, just hit it off, dude. Wow. How did you rehearse in the office space? We would get kicked out if we did that in here. It was at night. It was like after hours. I think it was like 10 p.m.

We all meet there. He's got a drum set there, so we bring in some amps. It was illegal? Probably. Yeah. Probably. Frankie's dad, if you're hearing this, sorry, dude. Yeah, I guess people get anal when you start, like, when you're just going too loud.

Yeah, absolutely. It's like, what is going on in there? Yeah. Holy crap. I can't imagine if we did it during office hours. I wouldn't have never happened, but. That'd be sick, too. It would be sick, too.

That would be a good video. Yeah, it would. And also, it's kind of crazy that, doesn't the vibe matter more than their actual planes sometimes? Oh, for sure, dude. That's kind of been the spirit of like our band too. It's like you don't have to be the best, most fucking talented, like most accomplished guy. Like you just have to want it the most.

It was like that with almost every member that we added later on. You know what I mean? Like no one in our band came in as like, this guy's prolific. He's going to carry our music. It was always just like, like we all wanted the same thing. You know what I mean?

Which does matter the most, the vibe. We always that way like, okay, if I do this, like I'm all in. Like this is what I'm doing. Yeah, I'm a psycho like that. You're a psycho. Yeah. You kind of have to be a psycho.

psycho to kind of pursue. Dude, you do. I'm sure you kind of felt that with the podcast too, right? It's like you have the idea like, yeah, I'm gonna start a podcast. And you start and you're like, well, I need to do this, I need to do this, I need to do this, I need to do this. Yeah, you just go all in. He just go all in. But it's working, dude. The fucking, the podcast is amazing. Thank you, man. Yeah, it looks great. Sounds great. I love it, dude. Thank you. Yeah, it's cool. It's a cool vibe. It's a really fucking cool. I mean, yeah, you just like, you get like these things like, oh wait, I didn't know. Oh yeah, I do, I do want to do this. Right.

because yeah there's all these little tests and little like roadblocks for sure and then we just naturally like oh whatever did you start in the pandemic is that kind of like I can't care let me yeah the pandemic weird time it was like that weird time where like you kind of knew who your real friends were like wait like they'll like they'll come over totally and they don't really care you have like the smaller circle yeah yeah so it's sort of inviting like the smaller circle friends over for the pod in person yeah kind of like that's when One of the rare times in my life, I was right. I'm like, you know what, I see this kind of opening up in like a year. So why start right now have a friend's over by hopefully by a year it's going to, I mean, yeah, if we're still locked down. Dude. Oh my God, that would suck.

It was fucking weird, dude. The way that we had it too was we, you know, obviously like as musicians, like everybody's tours were canceled and everything. Yeah, it sucks. We were out of it for a year and then they booked this huge fucking tour. We went and opened for 311 for. three months across the country. And they did it, like, right as they thought the pandemic was going to be over. So, like, oh, everything's opening back up.

Oh, no. They booked that massive summer tour, 2021, and then, like, the variance or whatever started coming out, and then people started freaking out again. But this tour was going on because it was, like, a band, like 3-Elevens investing a lot of money into this tour. So, like, tour's happening. So it's really weird. We were out there on tour for three months, like, kind of in a really weird time where, like...

So it happened. It happened. I didn't know that. This was summer 21. So it was, like, like, they thought the shit was going to, you know, to be over and then like variance and the media starts pushing oh variants everyone stay back at home you know but the tour still went off but it was just a it was a strange long three-month tour where like no guests no friends family backstage i don't know if you guys ended up having to do any runs like

that or it's a weird time dude i think the first initial time that people were going out was summer 2021 yeah tour started happening that's a gamble okay let's just book a three-month long run oh yeah wow dude got fly yeah no it was sick dude. It was sick. You know what's cool about a band like 3-11, too, man? They just played that sick New World Festival, the one in Vegas with all the new metal bands. Oh, they did, huh?

And I'm like, that is so fucking good. They're like the one band in our genre that can change lanes like that. To be like, they're on every reggae festival, but they can also fit in somewhat at these like new metal fest and stuff. Really? Yeah, they were there. I got to check them out again.

Yeah. I mean, it's very, like it sounds 90s. You know what I mean? I like, well, yeah. I mean, but dude, some of the tours that 3-Eleven was doing back in the day, you know, being on the road with them and seeing some of their stuff, like backstage and everything, like the lineups that they used to, I'm pretty sure they've toured with corn and they've toured with like, like, they definitely did co-headlines with Limp Biscuit and stuff like that.

I'm like, that is so fucking cool. A band that like kind of refused to stay in a lane, you know? I mean, you're kind of doing it now. I'm trying, dude. And definitely it was some inspiration from them, man, because like they fuck, they just couldn't be put in a box. You know what I mean? And like the early days of Iator, like for sure, the first couple of years were like, like, we're a reggae band. But now, like I said, it's kind of like coming full circle where I'm like, I'm just letting the music exist, dude.

So like, I just bought a new guitar. I just bought a seven string. And I'm putting that shit in reggae. I saw. Okay, so I have that that's in my nose to bring up at some point. Okay. So what are you doing? So.

Yeah. Reggae with breakdowns. Okay. Yeah. Like I said, like there's similarities in the genres. Like there's grooves, you know? Okay. And I've always been a riff guy, dude.

Like I, all of our, like a lot of the Iythera shit, like it has, has riffs. You know what I mean? But now it's like, I'm going to put real fucking riffs. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I bought the seven. It took me a while to figure out which one I actually wanted. But I bought a Legator because it had a kill switch already on it.

Okay. Yeah, I've always wanted a guitar with a kill switch. So it had like a couple of requirements. I needed a Floyd Rose. I needed a kill switch and I needed to be seven strings. So I was like, there's not really many guitar. is that come factory made like that, you know? And everyone's like, dude, it's so easy to put a kill switch,

but I'm like, I don't want to go buy, like, I almost bought a music man, like a really expensive music man, Majesty 7. Yeah. But then I don't want to dig into that thing and like put a kill switch. I don't know what I'm doing. So I just bought the Legator. It was like perfect. It fit all the specs.

Really? I started writing with it, man. I'm obsessed with this guitar. It's so fucking cool. And just been having a lot of really cool ideas of these kind of like riffs and grooves to put into reggae. And it's in, it's tuned in drop G. so it's low as fuck, dude

Oh my gosh Yeah, it's low as fuck It's fun man It's a wet one, correct? Yeah, it's the white It's actually the Charles Caswell signature He's the dude from buried alive Oh wow

Yeah But it just fit the specs, man It fit the specs with the kill switch and everything There it is, the white one Boom Yeah That is, oh, what? It's sexy, dude

It's a cool shape too It's a cool shape Dude, how are you not smoking in anymore. Look at that like, dude. It makes you want to get stone to jam? No, it's like you'll probably got high in wood. I'm gonna get a semi-string.

That shit is perfect. Yeah. No, it's fun, dude. It's really fun. And I wanted to ask you, too, since we're on here, is like, what are you guys using, like in studio these days? Because gear has changed so much since I was, like, playing heavy shit. Oh, dude, it's constantly changing.

Are you guys still, are you guys using amps in the studio still for your records? Or are you guys using a lot of plug-ins and real apps still? What are you using? Dude, we roll onto tours, but we're the only band with amps. I fucking love that, dude. It's coming back, dude. It is, though. Because, like, in 2018, 2019, all the bands were like, bro, we're on Kemper now.

And so, like, we all got campers, which is really easy, because this summer, I have the baby. We've just been doing fly dates. We didn't tour this summer. So it's just been flying, fly out. So fly with a Kemper, have your exact tone. It's been fucking awesome. Yeah. But all those bands that switch to digital are now, like, starting to load the stage back up with amps.

There's just something about it, dude. There's something that it's all about the unexplainable. It's the oombs, dude. It's just the oom. What is that? What do you guys have? Like you guys like 6505s or EVH? Yeah, you're close.

I got the 50.52. O.G. And Marks, he has a bunch of mesas, like, triples and like Mark fours and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, good shit. Hence his name. That's the, that is literally the death core amp. I know.

That is the one. Oh, yeah. We all had them. We all had them, dude. They were the shit. Literally just a noise suppressor running into it. Just have the NS2 running. We're good.

That's all you need, man. We're good, dude. There's so much gain on that fucking amp, dude. It's so sick, dude. When I first started in the reggae band, I still had that amp because I was coming out of a deathcore band. And I fucking used that at the first couple of Ayatara rehearsals, a reggae band with a 5150. Dude, that's sick. So you guys were using Kemper's, but aren't they known or not have the best cleans?

They have beautiful cleans. Do they? Really fucking nice. Yeah. I mean, and, you know, we're playing. We're playing reggae, so the clean, it's like, you know, they're genre specific, but they have great, like, Fender amps, and I use a lot of, like,

I use a lot of, like, orange and stuff like that. I know, like, one of the new ones that's coming out is, like, the neurod-spe, though. Everybody loves those things. That's the next... Quad-Cortex. No one in reggae is using them yet, but, like, all the metal guys I know are rocking the quad-cortex. Guitar players are fucking

scatterbrain. They want the newest thing right now. I know. Every day open up Instagram, it's another homie selling gear. is to get something else. I know. What's it going to stop? It never will, dude.

It won't. It's an itch that's never going to be scratched when you're a musician. You're just constantly buying the next thing. No. Well, I notice that my favorite guitar players tend to stay with the same thing. Yeah. Like my favorites, it's like, oh, that's their amp. Right.

That's guitar. Right. It's an iconic tone. Yeah. It's like they're, you know, if you're at their show. You expect to see that. You're like, corn better have an Ibane's. Yeah.

and play de those masas. Yeah. Well, that's fucking awesome, though. And there's, like, there's cool, like, folklore around that, too. Like, you know, like, I'm a big Grateful Dead guy. And they, like, Jerry always, like, rocked the same guitars. And there was, like, huge controversy when he switched to a Stratocaster. And it was like, oh, dude, we're talking about the dead's, like, strat ears.

You know what I mean? It's, like, it becomes, like, your iconic sound. It's like a thing, huh? It is. I like that, though. I like that. What kind of guitar is that? So, he was rocking, like, I actually have a really similar,

one that's an Ibanez. It's called an Ibanez musician. I'm not sure the brand that he was using that might actually be an Ibanez, but I feel like it's someone that was custom-making guitars for him, but they're fucking wild, bro. Is that 24,000 fucking dollars? Well, that's probably, oh yeah, and that's not even his actual guitar. That's just a signature model. They've got the actual one at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though, in Cleveland. They've got like a nice collection of his. But yeah, his guitars were fucking wild, dude. I think it was late 70s. He started using a strat. Wild, though. Have you seen the shows they've been doing with John Merrier?

Yeah, they're fucking incredible. I want to see that. Dude, John Mayer's a beast. I was never a fan before. But, dude, to be able to sit in with the Dead, they played three-hour sets. You know what I mean? Like, the songs that he's learning and the way that he's playing is fucking phenomenal, dude. Imagine, like, being that guy, John Mayer, you're invited to play with Great Grateful Dead.

Insane. And it's, damn. What a honor, man. I know. And he's killing it, dude. He's killing it. And I think a lot of people were skeptical at first, too, because it's like, you know, you're putting someone to fill the shoes of someone iconic.

Obviously, people are always going to have their doubts, you know? But here we are. I think they've been doing it four or five years, and he's impressed everybody. I think they're on their last run together now, though, with Mayor. I think they announced this is the final tour that they're doing as Dead & Company with John Merr. Yeah. So I think Bob Wirro keep doing his thing, but I think that is the final run with a little Johnny Boy. Take two things.

You don't think it's going to work, and then it works. There you go, dude. So fucking sick. You never know, which you've been doing. I mean, I found out about you, Nathan, like, through just looking at my phone. Yeah. And then it's just, you know, okay, as someone, I'm seeing someone do like a Lama God song. Right, right.

Reggae style. Like, what started that? I mean, so I'm dropping a record next month that I produce called Poppunco's Reggae. And it's a collection, 16 emo and pop punk songs that are in a reggae style featuring 16 of my homies that are all in reggae bands. Wow. Yeah, it's cool. And that was the original idea. I had it last summer.

I'm a big fan of emo, pop punk, all that shit. So that was the original idea. And then the videos just kind of came after as like a form of marketing, you know? Like the social media stuff is really just a tool for musicians these days. And so it's like you got to use it in ways that you can. You know what I mean? But Nathan, with you, why does it work? I have no idea.

I have no fucking idea. Oh, my goodness. I'm just doing what I love, man. That's a thing. I'm just doing what I love. I would be looking at my phone, look at you, and it's waiting for the song to come in,

and I start laughing. Yeah. Why? Because I noticed, specifically, like, some songs work. Right. Like, you did. I thought it was a murder song.

You did. Dude, I tried so hard to do a suicide silent song. I tried so hard. I was going to do, you only live once, and I think I could still do it. The thing about the metal shit is it's so much harder. Like, doing emo and pop punk songs

fucking easy because they're melodic. You know what I mean? Is it because like the vocal cadence or like the pattern? It's more so like the key of the song. Like you know what I mean? If you're playing a death core song, it's like, well, you're tuned in what? Drop C. So like the song's just in C, yeah, or A, whatever you're tuned to.

And there's not really too many chord progressions, especially on like the classic suicide silence tunes. It's riffs that are just in, you guys are tuned to drop A. Yeah. So you're just down. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I don't know how I can turn that into reggae because I would literally

just be skanking in a chord. Oh. You know what I mean? But it's possible. It's possible. It's definitely possible. Hey, go down, Jay? The one I got me was Mudvain Dig.

So they're not all on YouTube because YouTube has a... Oh, we're on YouTube. Well, you might have to, yeah, do Instagram or TikTok just because YouTube has the strict 60-second limit. And some of them go over 60-second. And you just started doing them. Yeah, the metal ones actually did first. The first video that I did that popped off was the Thy Artist's Murder Cover. It was fucking weird.

It was that one? Yeah, I've been doing covers for a long time, just kind of like, you know, just posting music online for fun and just having a good time with it. Yeah. One night I'm just at the gym, The Artist's Murder comes on, one of my favorite bands, I go home, like, let me just fuck around and do a reggae cover. This is going to be silly. Wow. Next day I wake up, and my phone was like fucking blowing up like it hit somehow. I was like, this is fucking weird.

You know, CJ comments, like, bro, this is fucking awesome because CJ's a huge reggae fan. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he fucking loves reggae. So he co-signed on it And the internet was like What the fuck is this? And why does it work? Yeah, it's a ways back

Because it was like one of the first ones There's the Lamb of God one But it's funny dude Because the idea that I had for the record Was the emo pop punk record And then I started posting all these videos The videos that hit off more Are the metal

Yeah Really? The metal ones So I feel like It's just that combination You don't expect Right Okay metal and reggae

Where it's gonna do like a It's counterintuitive the genres are like pretty different so people are like well this is never going to work and they're like it can yeah well it can

and I'm doing it right now and it's on an internet yeah yeah the internet seems to like it that's what's funny though man is like a lot of people are asking me like yo why is it a pop punk record like we loved your metal covers

I'm like well fuck dude the original idea I've been working on this pop punk record for a year and then I just started posting the videos and the metal ones are the ones that actually really took off so some of the internet's like dude put out a metal goes a reggae record and I'm like fuck it's so much work dude I spent like eight months working on this album, you know?

The volume one isn't even out yet. You're only getting asked to do another one. Yeah. Yeah. And it would be really fun to do the metal one because like some of those were fined like the masuga and fucking, you know. But Andrew reached out to me. Andrew Glover and was like, dude, if you don't do a fucking wins a plague cover,

I swear to God. Oh my God. I have it still the project on my computer, but it just was really hard to figure out. Some of the metal songs, the genre is just so different. You know what I mean? Like how do you, turning a blast beat into a reggae groove, fine, that's fine, but some of the stuff

like the musicality of it, like the guitar riff is just kind of can't really translate into like a chord progression that you could do in reggae. Some of it you can. That's what I was going to do, you only live once because I feel like it was more of like you guys were kind of chasing a more pop structure with a song like that as opposed to stuff

from like the cleansing. You know what I mean? It's where I would think that a blast beat you wouldn't be able to do it with but it turns out... You can because they're just 4-4. You know what I mean? Most of them are just 4-4. So you're just like, all right, whatever, just put a reggae group behind it. That's my favorite timing.

Yeah. Dude, I was, I was watching your podcast where you had some of the OG members of suicide on and they were talking about the Garza Blast. And it was so reminiscent of us back in the garage in the day too

telling our drummer like, dude, it's like this. Like, you can do it, you can do it. Yeah. It's funny because you can't do it but you know in your head and your eyes. Okay, no, the ride is separate from the snare. Right. Alternate them.

All right. But really fucking fast. Yeah. And then follow it on the kick. That's it. Yeah. Yeah, that was a thing Not a lot of drummers could do that

I know It was actually that they get blast But they get like the switching right Yeah It was called it I think it was called it like the off The off time blast Yeah You hear the off blast

You hear the Euroblast Yeah the Euroblast Yeah But why I'm just Then you have ghost inside too Yeah those are my fucking boys dude That

They were just here I know It was sick Did you go I went yeah I was sick You could do that early show or the late show?

Late show. Dude, I was so bummed because I've been looking forward to that show all year. And then I had a festival reach out to us, this emo festival, reach out and be like, hey, do you want to come down and promote your new record at the emo fest? There was this thing in Huntington Beach called, it was never a phase fest on Saturday. And it was a bunch of emo tribute bands. It was fucking rad. And so we went down with a clothing company.

But they asked, and I look at the ITERRA schedule, oh, August 19th, I'm not doing anything. That sounds familiar. I know there's something on that day, but it doesn't say in my Iatera calendar. All right. I'll book it, and then I book it, and then two hours later, wife goes. You know, that's the day of the ghost inside. I'm like, fuck. Dude, they're like my, yeah, all times.

It's how it is, man. I'm sure the show was amazing, though. That's great. Yeah, those boys are the best, man. They've been through a lot. Yeah. Holy shit. Did you guys grow up playing a lot with them, too?

Just kind of, you know, they were L.A., you guys were out there in Riverside, Corona. Yeah, yeah. Coming up around the same time. Coming up around the same time, but in the scene around, literally seen him around world. Right. Remember, metal festivals and shit?

Yeah. Yeah. We were out, remember the first time I met him was actually in France. Really? Crazy story there. It was that the, what's that been in called? Baptist Klan. Okay.

Paris. Oh, okay. And then, uh, met him. They were great. Andrews, their drummer. Yeah, he's the man, dude. He's a special guy. Yeah, he is.

And then two months later, that fucking shooting happened. Which one? The one that. Oh, in Vegas? Eagles of Death Metal. Oh, I remember that. It was a Paris venue. And when we were just there, a lot of bad luck.

Yeah. This surrounds, like, both our bands. Yeah. And when, uh, I didn't do confirm with Ghost Inside because I was kind of waiting for the, you kind of bring this up to them. Right, right, right. When they got into the crash, uh, I believe we were on tour with corn. Really?

And our driver left mid-tour to do their tour. No shit. To drive for them? Yeah. And then he was the one that Really? That was your guys' driver before? Yeah. Oh my gosh, man, that's insane. It's a weird.

That's fucking insane. It's a weird circle, dude. It's a very tightness circle. Absolutely. You're just so close to the tragedy. You just don't. Yeah. Sometimes it hits you.

We also too, like just doing what we do, put ourselves in some fucking weird predicaments. You know what I mean? Like just being in that bus driving all night, like most of the year. It's like, dude, when I had a kid, that's when I really thought about it. I was just like, damn. Like, it's just weird being, like, sleeping in a moving vehicle, like, most of the year. Like, a lot of people are never going to be in that situation because they're just never going to sleep in a bus.

You know what I mean? Like, music life is fucking crazy, dude. And your thoughts at, like, 3, 4 a.m.? Yeah. And then you, it's far as you start to empathize with every band. You do. Because then once, like, you start hitting, like, the brumple strips, you're like, okay, where's his bus going? Oh, God, yeah.

It doesn't go away. I listen to the podcast that Ghost and Thurbanes. I did about that and it's probably not a great idea for me to listen to that being a touring musician, you know, because they're recounting the whole tragedy and shit. I'm just like, this is like so close to home for anyone that spends a lot of their time on a tour bus. You know what I mean? Anyone. Is this the actual picture?

Yeah. I love them so much, dude. That's fucking terrible. The fact that they overcame that and put out one of their best records to date and just like they're the most stand-up guys. They're fucking cool, man. I met them during the pandemic too because I switched over to, I started streaming on Twitch a lot during the pandemic when we couldn't tour and everything. Oh, wow.

So I was playing a lot of music on the internet and stuff. And their guitar player, Chris, also was Twitch guy. And so we just started streaming together and became buddies. Oh, wow. Yeah, formed a real friendship off some weird internet shit, you know? It does. There is a bright side to the internet and social media. There is, man.

There is. There is. There's like these connections that you can make. This is like the bright side of it. Yeah. You know, this is like the cool part. It works like how you want to use it too. You know what I mean?

It's weird being a musician in today's day and age is like we're not in the scene anymore where you can just get signed major record label and just get 30 mil and go buy a house and provide for your family, you know? It's like you got to use it as a tool. Yeah. Like you really got to love it now. You really got to love it, dude. You have to fucking love it.

Yeah. And it's fucking weird because you can't just write a great song anymore. You know, write a great song and then figure out a way to get it and people's ears. You know what I mean? Used to just be write a great song and maybe break through the void and people would hear it and your band would be successful. But now it's like you're going to figure out how to make content for that fucking song. It's weird, dude. It's weird. It's cool. It's funny what you would do for something that you love. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we've done some weird shit to be successful. But you know what I mean? Like the stuff that

we do, man, like I remember when I first moved and I like was in college and I felt like I had to I've lived so much life more than my other college classmates, because these are kids that are just getting in college, 19 years old. They just went to high school and maybe played some sports and stuff. And here I am, I'm like, dude, I've been fucking playing music and living this crazy-ass lifestyle, you know? I feel like I've lived like a much crazier life, you know? We've done some crazy shit as musicians.

It's just not a lot of people that are going to experience the things that we experience, you know? You've seen a lot. In those early years, too, you know? Those early years of just being in a van and just, you know, traveling and all that. That shit, it's wild, man. How's your perspective change on what you do now with now that you're a father? I feel like you just give energy to like what's really the most important. It kind of clearly defines like what's important.

You have less energy to give to like petty bullshit and the things that you don't really want to do because your time is so much more limited now you have a child to raise, you know? And you just want to do the things that your kid's going to be proud of and that are going to help like push your family forward, you know? We're still new in the game. He's three months old. But yeah, a lot of fucking crazy, like, revelations just come at you, like, pretty quick. It's like, boom. It's weird, dude.

And you don't even, you don't even got to smoke weed to get those, like, oh. You have a brain blasts, dude. Yeah, it's fucking, holy crap. You have children, Chris? No, but it's been, I'm 37 now. Yeah. So, I've been dating my chick for going on four years. Okay.

So, you know, you're having, like, the conversations now. There we know. Trying to get, you want the house. Yeah. You can have kids. It's like, man, I never thought I would be in this position. I know. But it's a beautiful thing, man.

It really is a beautiful thing. I'm terrified, dude. Yeah. But lean into it, man. It's good. Yeah. It's good. Like, I feel like, obviously everybody, like, live whatever life you want to do.

But I was the same way, dude. I was so terrified. But my wife's a bit older than me. She's three years older than me. So, like, emotionally, she was so much more mature than I was. You know what I mean? Yeah, I was like a 23-year-old, like, fucking musician kid, you know? I was like 18 in my mind.

and she always had a vision of what she wanted for the family and stuff. And it's like, it's so fucking cool, man, to just, like, be stepping into that and seeing, like, I don't know. I feel like I can look at my life from an outside perspective and be like, I'm pretty proud of what we built, you know? Like, I'm saying, like, getting through the hard times and shit. It's like, I got a great wife. I have a fucking amazing baby boy. Like, the band's doing good. I'm just like, this is the kind of shit that I feel like when I'm older.

I'll be like, I'm proud of this. You know what I mean? You are a rare person. You actually did it. Yeah. Like, okay, my, my music is successful. I kind of reset my life multiple times. Now I have a woman that I love.

Now I have a kid, now a family, a home. Yeah. The band's fine. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing, man. It is. Yeah, I wish it for everybody. Like, I wish everybody gets exactly what they want out of their life.

But just have a fulfilling life, you know, whatever that means to you. It's a beautiful thing. They would have a family and still do your art. Yeah. I'm figuring it out, dude. Because, like, with this guy, I haven't been able to be in the studio much. But, you know, he's three months old. So it's kind of an all hands-on-deck situation.

But it's starting to get more and more every day. I'll put him on my lap and play guitar. Wow. Yeah, he's cool with music. He likes music. But it's hard. You know, if he starts crying, and it's like, all right, put the guitar down.

Wow. Gotta carry the baby. You know what I mean? Were you, when that first started happening, did that give you a new level of patience? Oh, dude, that's kind of been my go-to saying. It's like a whole new level of patience I never knew existed. Because we don't really realize before children,

Like our lives are a bit selfish and not in like a bad way, but it's just like, what do I want to do today? You know what I mean? Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? Yeah. And then when you have a kid, it's like, it's not about what you want to do anymore. It's like, what does this kid require of me today? You know what I mean?

But I think that's good, man, especially for a person like me, because I've been like really used to just like, oh, I want this. I'm going to go get it now. I'm going to do this. I'm going to, you know, jump in, dive all in. I think it's brought me a more sense of like being grounded of just like having this child to take care of, you know? it brings things back to basics as fuck dude you wake up in the morning and you're just like your mind's not racing with a million different things and calls and things you have to do it's just like I'm here at home with my family and that's where I'm gonna be like the presence too man

it's made me so much more present you know yeah yeah yeah you really have to be in the moment yeah you know absolutely yeah it's taking no steps terrified dude it's scary dude it is a scary thing but it's fucking beautiful a lot of things in life that are beautiful are also scary. It's true. You know what I mean? Like a lot of people wouldn't want to get up on stage in front of 10,000 people. They'd be fucking terrified.

But when you do it, like, that's one of the most beautiful feelings in the world. It is. You know? But it's scary. It's funny in what your mind does to you, huh? It always is like, no, don't, don't do that. Don't do this. Don't do that.

Yeah. But it's like once, I think it takes a different human just to be able to shut that shit off. Yeah. And then you push through it. Yeah. Or do the opposite. Yeah, but then you get the reward, you know, because there's no feeling like, damn, I fucking did that. Even though I was terrified, you know, I fucking did that.

Yeah, it's a cool thing. Yeah, I took on a dead. Now, now I'm a dad. Yeah. Oh, wait, I'm still doing it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's why I say lean into it, man, you know? Yeah.

Just lean into it. I mean, if that's what you want, obviously. But I always tell my wife, too, because she'll get nervous before, like, a big event, you know, big something that we've got going on. And I'm like, you know what, that feeling of butterfly is like, I think that just means that you really give a shit about what you're about to do. It does. You want it to go well because you really give a fuck, you know? So, like, that's a beautiful thing to lean into that emotion, you know,

and to do things that scare you. Yeah. You know? It's like 100% going to happen. Yeah. If you do anything that's sick. Yeah. You know.

For sure. Anything that's fucking cool. Yeah. I'm going to be nervous. I mean, probably have a mental breakdown. Right. Or a couple. But what a boring life to never experience that though

You know what I mean? Like to never experience that feeling like I don't know if I can I do this like I'm so scared I care about it like what a what a what a what a stale life to not ever experience those things You know there is something worse Yeah, there is like a comfort and being uncomfortable Yeah Which I think Artists have For sure

It's like this like you know like oh it's like this fucking sucks either it's uncomfortable all the time but it's like a comfort in that It's a weird like You kind of get addicted to it a little bit. You do. You got to do things that make you uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm just going to get a 7th string.

I don't think what was going on. Yeah. Dude, so as a guitar player, I have to tell you how fucking funny this is, too. I bought it and I go, all right, I'm singing a lot in the key of G now, so I'm like, I need it tuned in Drop G's so I can chug open G's and shit. I buy it from Guitar Center. They ship it to Guitar Center. I call the guy, and I'm like, hey, before I pick it up, can I pay you guys to, like,

set it up in Drop G for me? The guy at Guitar Center is my homie, sets up all my guitars before Tori's. It's cool. Yeah. So I go pick it up and I take it home and it's right when we're in the middle of the move. So I pretty much pick it up and just throw it like in my truck and I don't touch it for like two days because like I just have no time. We're moving. You know?

I have a three week old. We're moving. And I take the guitar home. I finally plug it in for the first time and I'm like, this feels fucking weird. Like what is this? His apprentice had tuned it to Open G or to Open G. So it's like the most beautiful pretty tuning. Oh my goodness.

It's like the most beautiful pretty tuning on a seven string like just a ripper of a guitar. He's like, call him and I'm like, hey, man, you guys accidentally tuned it to OpenG, not drop G. And he just starts busting up laughing. And he's like, that was my apprentice. That's pretty on brand for him. Just bring it back. We'll tune it again. I guess it doesn't sound like my sugar.

No, not at all. So beautiful, dude. Man. Holy crap. It was so fucking funny having a seven string tune to Open G. Wow. Probably should have wrote a song while it was like that. Oh, yeah.

But I didn't have fucking time. I'm like, all right, let me go move this couch. Wow. Yeah. So you actually obviously brought it back. Brought it back. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you play a seven? Yeah, seven, yeah. Okay, yeah. I try sixes. I tried eights and go back. You know what you love. Yeah, absolutely. When did you guys, were you guys always sevens with suicide?

Or did it like change at one point? The moment that we did the change, yeah. Like, you know, teens. Okay, yeah. I was a dishwasher first and you're just buying sixes. Right. It's what you could afford. Yeah, and it's what you know and everything grew up playing.

And then before the first record, for the EP on it was like oh it's the sevens yeah yeah you guys set the stage for that though for the sevens because I remember you know we would go record

with Andrew from Wins a Plague and they were dude they were playing in standard E standard on six strings E standard man and it was heavy it was heavy it was heavy

I remember being tripped out by that because we were still playing six as two but tuned to drop C yeah in those times yeah it's all the guy I do when you're coming up yeah

yeah but the sevens is a I love it it's a game changer dude so you guys are tune to drop a drop a yeah yeah cool haven't changed yeah very fucking cool man

you have like a it's like a it's like a it's like a it's like a it's like a I don't know I try to go lower

and higher I was like this is just like the sound of our bodies yeah absolutely you know it's like that unexplainable oh no

yeah you know how was it for you man when when Eddie joined the band I was tough yeah it was it fucking sucked

but uh in what way just like it was hard obviously it was impossible to replace Mitch and a lot of people were like, we can't replace Mitch kind of shit. Yeah, of course, but which is, I mean, which is true.

Yeah. This is when I think probably the few moments in my life for is like having expectations actually helped me. I see. Because I knew once like Eddie joined, once I first heard Eddie's,

because we asked Eddie just had a curiosity, hey, can you sing over a yolo? So we could hear someone's voice over. Right, right. What would it tell me? What would it sound? What would it say? sound like him. Once I heard it, it was a shitty, it was a shitty mix, which is even better,

because you get the, this is what it sounds like. No doctoring. I heard him like, it has to be him. It has to be him. He killed it. If it's not, I think we're going to have to hang it up. Yeah, I see. Timing happened and it worked our way. And I knew, I did know back down like, this is going to be rough. Yeah. Just a hard transition. Hard transition, fan base touring. Right, right, right. Then you get old, like, when you get older, you kind of things carved to click, oh, wait, like, you knew this is coming, but you didn't know exactly what it was. Right, right.

People are growing up. Right. Late 20s is a horrible age. Yeah. To like, for any kind of adjusting. Major life transitions. 30, yeah, it's tough. That's when they happen, though.

That's when they happen. That's when they fucking happened, dude. And you cannot stop life. No, you got to just deal with the best you can. I know. I think you guys handled it with so much grace, man. having Eddie is so fucking sick, dude. I'm such an Eddie fan, too.

It made sense to me, you know? Yeah, he's a fan. He's great, you know. It's a fucking ripper, dude. I remember those old AllShaw Parish records. I was in high school, just, fuck, dude. Beginning of Death Corps, dude. Yeah.

That fucking beginning of Death Corps. You guys in AllShop Parish. Wow. Such fucking cool years, man. And you were just high as fuck. That was high as fuck, dude, jamming around. Yeah, it was fucking good times. I always wish I knew, which you probably know what I'm talking about, like, what, like, other people actually hear.

What do you mean? Because you don't only know what your band sounds like. That's true. Isn't that fucking weird? You don't only, you'll never know. Dude, have you ever thought about, like, how sick it would be to be able to just step outside your body and actually watch your band play? Have you had that thought? I thought all the time.

Yeah, I'd be like, dude, I wonder what we sound like out there. Look like and sound like? Yeah. Because you see videos and you're like, it doesn't matter. It's not the same. Videos don't do shit. What's it like being in the crowd watching the show? Yeah, it's like, we'll never know.

Never know, dude. Never, ever know. Yeah. It sucks, dude. It sucks. Maybe it's for the best. It's probably for the best. I don't want to hear how terrible we are.

We don't quit. We'd all just quit. Like, all self-conscious. Like, God damn it. I don't always suck that much, dude. Dude, I look like shit up there. What the fuck? I look like on my 30s.

Yeah, what a weird thing. It's weird, yeah. but we'll never know what an other human hears. Right. You know. Right. Yeah, we'll never know. But it's tight.

Yeah, it's tight. Yeah. It's kind of, it's what, like, requires you put in so much time. Yeah. You know, like you gotta make sure it's the best. Well, this better be the best because it's no idea what people are going to fucking say about it. You just have to make sure you can stand by it, right? Totally.

Like, this is something that I fucking like. It sounds good to me. Like, that's all you can do. Which to the world, see what happens. And you've always been that way, like, because I, I, I, assume like the metal community is I mean there is a part of it that's very gatekeeping totally so when you're combining two things uh in in your songs right I assume that you're just tuning that that shit out yeah I mean honestly I've never really done it at the level that I'm

about to do it at so it's never been that gnarly but like we'll we'll really see what it's like once the seven string songs start coming out and stuff like that because before it was like all pretty palatable you know what I mean it's like Reggae music with some guitar riffs. Like, that's not the end of the world for some people, you know? Yeah. Like, okay. They're not sludgy guitar riffs.

They're like melodic, pretty guitar riffs. I love it. Yeah. But now, like, I'm starting to do, like, more progressive shit, so we'll really see. But it's not just the metal scene that's gatekeeping. I think all music scenes are kind of like that, you know? People like to protect what they view as theirs. You know what I mean?

Like, you fall in love with the show. But that's also, like, it's kind of a young man's game to be gatekeeping. Because once you get older, you kind of just like, yo. Like, what was I talking about? when I was 15. Good music's good music, dude. You know? And I think young people

love to attach their identity to the genre that they're into and they're just like, have to protect it at all cost. These guys aren't heavy enough. These guys aren't roots enough, you know, like that kind of shit. So I think as you get older,

you just let go of all those expectations and all those kind of like preconceived notions of what is metal or what is reggae. I just like, do good music is good music, you know? Do you think that only comes to age? I think so. I mean maturity really you know because some people never mature

as they get older but I think but I think it more so comes no you're good to go Chris I think it more so yeah it comes with maturity man you know yeah like how like when you think of like a 50 year old dude that's gatekeeping you're just like that's the classic stereotype of like bro you're in your mom's basement

on the internet saying that's not heavy enough no one wants to be that guy no no one wants to be that guy you know I call it comparing small dicks. It's pretty much what it is. It's a great way to put it. It's like, yo, dude, first of all, I don't know why I should say this. My dick's small.

Your dick small. Why are we, I'm not going to compare our small dicks and touch belly buttons. Right. It's fine. I don't want to touch belly buttons. Right. You know what I'm saying? 100%.

It's just dumb. That's a great way to put it, though. God, dude. It's small dick energy is what it is, dude. And I know that energy. Yeah. Oh, it's out there, dude. And it's like a big stereotype of like, like, dude, coming from metal and hardcore

and shit like we were dicks to each other dude back in the local scene days remember the shows like no one sharing a drum set and you had like 10 bands on stage and drummers being like fuck that band dude they fucking suck he's not playing my drums you're like okay but you're all playing 20 minute sets and there's fucking 10

bands can we just share kit but you know it was that young man's ego like yeah you know it's just is what it is it exists in all genres you know I've seen it in all genres but it goes away man you know, especially with success to it. Like, the more successful you get, the less you care about what other people are doing.

You know what I mean? Like, if you have your own lane, that's fine. You know? You can stay in your lane, be happy, do the things that fulfill you, bring you joy. You care less what other people are doing, I guess. Yep, maturity. Now, you said it the right way, not age, just maturity. Yeah.

Because I know some fuckers, dude. I know. Oh, fuck. I think I got mature. 35 solid though I'll like to think so there you go

yeah that's solid that's a great age telling you as men dude we mature at a slower rate women are faster oh they're so much

smarter and more intelligent than us yeah they are it's so true don't mean a stereotype but god damn it's true

it sucks to be a woman I assume because I was telling my lady this I feel so I feel sorry I'm like man what is it like dating me

you're a fucking saint I'm a suck. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Especially because when you date, like the artist's kind of brains, it's different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Women too. I mean, yeah, they'll teach you a whole new level of being patience, being mature, processing your emotions in a healthy way, hard work. Right. Expanding your mind with what hard work actually is time. Right. Right. Oh, yeah. I mean, if I didn't mean, my lady, like, we wouldn't be here for sure. She just.

She pushed you to... Push and his... Yeah. Well, that's how you know, man. You got a good one. If she can make you a better man, you know? And I'm sure you make her a better woman as well, dude. Yeah.

Yeah. They'll probably show up five minutes early to something. Yeah. There you go. Dude, if I could have saved myself so many fucking headaches, if I would have just listened to my wife more times, like in our younger years, you know what I mean? Of course.

Could have saved myself so many dumb headaches. And sometimes they'll, like, they'll say something that you won't process to maybe like a month or two later or a year or later. Oh, yeah. You didn't say that, huh? You were right. I was laughing so hard because I went to go see the new Avatar movie with my wife when it came out. I thought it was sick.

It was sick. But it was so fucking funny because in the beginning of the movie, they get into the war, right? And then the wife is like, you have to fight. And he's like, we're not going to fight. We're going to run. And then three hours later of just fighting, fighting, they just end up fighting. And then in the end of the movie, he goes, you know what I've learned? Sometimes you have to fight.

and I'm all, if you were to just listen to your damn wife, we're going to save that whole three hours and a whole world war. Yeah. And then he destroyed our community. So many people got fucked up. And his wife's just sitting there like, I'm glad you learned that, that you had to fight. That was a good movie. I don't know why a lot of people didn't like that movie.

I mean, I think it's like hard. The first one, like had so many, like it set a standard, you know? It's hard. People don't like sequels and shit, you know? Yeah. People don't like sequels as much because, like, The first ones always leave such a high bar. You know?

Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's like, dang. Like, watch, dude, when Barbie 2 comes out, people are going to hate on it. Have you seen Barbie yet?

Me either. I have a new boy. We can't see anything. I'll watch it when it comes out at home. Okay. I really want to see the Openheimer, though. What's that movie about? The fucking dude that invented the nuclear bomb.

Really? Yeah. I saw my, what is this movie? Yeah. It's about the dude that invented the nuclear bomb. That's all I know about it, but I heard it was sick. And that just came out, right? It just came out on the same day as Barbie.

That's why the internet kind of broke, because they were like, people were comparing the two. Like, you want to go see Barbie or you want to go see this fucking thing? Oh my goodness. For what it's worth, I heard they're both great movies. That's a thing. No gatekeeping, dude. You'll catch me watching a Barbie movie. I don't care.

Let's go. Let's fucking go. And it has Marvel Robbie in it. She's beautiful. Of course. Yeah. Barbie, okay? Yeah.

I'm probably watch Barbie. I probably going to watch Barbie. Go up, Jay? top left is that the two of them is that Barbie Barbie and Barbie yeah Barbie

now that's that's the fucking fusion right there oh my okay Chris I'm gonna crack this second beer is that all right sure yeah it's fun Barbieheimer okay so I assume

that's a true story Oppenheimer yeah yeah yeah which is pretty fascinating dude because he was known to like say some he said the most epic quote he quoted somebody I'm not sure what it was. I think it was like a Hindu religious text or something that he quoted.

But right when the bomb went off, the legend is that he said, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. I was like, that is the most metal shit I've ever fucking heard in my entire life. This guy is not, this is, he is mental. This guy is not a poser. He actually. He's not a poser. Oh, people call me a poser all the time.

Oppenheimer is not a poser. This guy is definitely not a poser. He's the fucking real deal, dude. Wow. I bet he was wearing camo shorts and black vans when he did it. I wonder why did he invent the bombing in the first place. I really don't know, but I think, yeah, there's the quote. I really don't know, but I think that he was employed by the army or the government or something.

He was a scientist, you know what I mean? Like some physicist or something that obviously knew what he was getting into, but like, God damn, dude, the weight of having to do that something like that. Recall the line, now I am. become death The Destroyer A World's Geez Sample that

Before a song, dude Fuck Throwback Wow Well I gotta see that now I really want to see that I would have saw that

If I knew what the movie was about I had no idea Yeah They should have given a little Comtext Oppenheimer The guy that invented The Nuclear Bomb

It's heard it's three hours too Which I don't know About sitting in a movie theater For three hours It's not like my favorite thing So maybe I'll watch it When it comes out at home especially with the baby

and baby yeah watch a movie about it yeah mom's been wanting to go see Barbie for a long time but I'm like alright well we'll see when we have some time you mean but movies come Netflix pretty quick I was hoping because I'd like to watch both of those at home

look at that picture dude when the bomb goes off fucking insane holy shit got that picture yeah it's fucking insane where was that test do we know where was like the first was it New Mexico because remember the hills have eyes that was all about

the people that were there when they tested the nuclear bomb and they were all like mutated and shit you remember those movies hills have eyes that's what it was about they were all they all had nuclear fallout from the testings of the bombs and i think it was probably new mexico well that i'll explain that that state very very well now yeah that's why they say that there's aliens and shit there too because they a lot of theories are saying that like aliens go to like they come to nuclear activity so that we don't blow ourselves to smithers So they would have test bombs Yeah That is fucked

Yeah I think that's what that was Like they originally tested it before they ever dropped it You know Oh my god Seems like a fascinating movie dude Imagine imagine Imagine inventing that Fuck no

Glad that I'm I'll just write a riff dude Dude I want to kill myself When I throw away plastic Right It's like I'm a piece of shit I just killed four dolphins And it's like dude

And like to invent a bomb Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine, dude. Here we go. See, Robert Oppenheimer. Yeah, I can, yeah, I'm very thankful. There's so many jobs in the world that I'm glad that that's not my job. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Like, I'm glad I don't have to make those kind of decisions. Oh, my goodness, dude. I just saw it last week with my lady. Sound of Freedom. Have you seen that movie? Sound of Freedom? No, I haven't.

Oh. What is it? Make sure. War movie? No, it's about sex trafficking of children. Oh, shit. And it's a quick movie, like hour, 10 minutes. It's been out for a few months now.

Okay. And I saw it. Was that the guy, though, that just he produced the movie and then he got caught sex trafficking? Was it that one? What? Because I just saw that on the internet last week. I got a. Some guy made a documentary about it, and then it came out that he got caught doing this shit that he was making a movie about.

I was like, talk about projecting, brother. Whoa. Fuck. Well, this is a pretty dark movie. Is it good? It's great. I mean... I'll have to watch it.

I mean, the subject matter is pretty dark. Yeah. But the way to tell the story and it's pretty... Okay. It was pretty amazing. I'll have to watch it. Dude, this is fun. I've never been on a podcast with the fucking thing right here where you can kind of just scroll and like talk shit.

Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. I mean, so I can't say anything that's too wrong because we can just pull facts and then we'll see a fact in real time that I could always correct myself because I'll say some wrong shit. It's fucking fun, but I could see how we could just go down a rabbit hole and just like look at all sorts of shit. Yeah. Yeah.

It's fun though, dude. It's fun, man. But even though the subject matter is dark, some of the darkest stuff, it's way worth watching. If you're going to do a date like I did, make sure it's in the afternoon. I see. So you have time to recover, have a dinner. Yeah, it's one of those, huh? Yeah.

It's funny. Have you guys tried to watch Netflix? but like it's like a like a dark like documentary like I'm very sensitive to that shit and you can't go to sleep after you can't go to sleep and you can't like make out or anything it's just you know yeah you definitely don't want to make out after sound of freedom you don't okay yeah fair enough um yeah no I'm sensitive to that shit dude my wife loves horror movies and loves all that shit it's not really my thing and a lot of people are like dude how do you like death metal and deathcore and all this shit but you don't like horror movies because the two kind of do go hand in hand you know a lot of the guys that are into that death metal and shit love love horror stuff you know a lot of like tattoo guys and stuff like like tattoo artists and shit love horror they're obsessed with horror yeah I don't like it never have you like horror stuff no no no scares the shit out of me did yeah I can tell it would scare you too because you just said and it's like you watch something dark and then you have to decompress after it still it still scares me man that's how I am I gotta decompress yeah I kind of I kind of

like being scared though I it's fun yeah I don't I like being scared by real life shit like going on stage or doing stuff like that. But like the spooky shit, like just hopping out of nowhere with a knife. No, no, no, I can't do it. It's funny, though, because I remember I'm the same way with having to decompress. I remember watching horror movies and then having to go watch like an hour or two of Beavis and Butthead afterwards just to cool down. You know what I mean?

Like, you're like, I need something fucking lighthearted. You need a cool down period of for sure, man. You do. You do. I like doing weird shit. I like looking at like... I like being curious and aware of what's out there. don't recommend this.

I'm not an advocate for it. Okay. But just... Just what you like. What works for me. Okay. I like this being aware of like, there's... I look at like the news, real, like the real news.

Yeah. And like this, oh, so-and-so has been stabbed in New York and there's a video. Right. Just know what's possible and what's out there. Yeah. And then you see, like, like, the aftermath, like, I don't like it, obviously. But I just, I just, there's something about... You want to learn it.

I just want to be at least aware of what's out there. Right. without being completely this ignorant. Right. It sucks. I mean, O'Don Javi kind of nutty. Yeah.

But there is a healthy. I think it's healthy. There's a healthiness in it. I don't know what. I can't put words to it right now, but there's a healthiness mentally to that kind of just being aware of that stuff. Right.

It's weird. No, I think that's good. It's weird. I think that's good. I think we're attracted to that kind of shit as humans, too. Why are humans attracted to death so much? It's a fucking survival instinct, I think. I think it's a biological instinct to be like,

I got to make sure that doesn't happen to me. You know what I mean? Like, I really do think it's some primal shit where, like, we got to see this kind of stuff in order to avoid it in the future. Yeah. I think it's subconscious primal. It is subconscious, huh?

Yeah. You want to know what thought I had when I was listening to your band last night when I was high? Yeah, what you got? Which is great, by the way. Thanks, man. When you're high and listen to reggae, dude,

I get it. Thanks, man. It was like, I was, you know, wanting down. Yeah. I'm hanging out with my cat outside. Yeah. And, you know, some thoughts is, what's just pop in your brain?

I was like, why? Why are people are, why are we afraid of death? Yeah. Why? Yeah, it's going to happen to us all. But why, though? I don't know. We have no idea what it is.

So why are we afraid of it? I think that's the exact reason. I think it's because we're afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of the unknown. We hate not knowing shit, dude. Humans hate not knowing. I hate it. Yeah, it sucks.

And the death is like the, ultimate unknown. Like, dude, people have fought wars over what's going to happen when we die. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

Everyone has a different idea and act like they know. No one fucking knows. We don't know. No one knows. We don't know. And that's scary, dude. And I think that's why we're attracted to it.

But, okay, let's say we don't know. Right. So what's the scary part? Are we afraid that there's an afterlife and it's hell? Are we afraid that it's black? Yeah. Are we afraid that it goes on? I think maybe different people are afraid for different reasons.

For me, like, here we go. Are you afraid of death? And that's my next thought. Yes. Yeah, we kind of analyze it for ourselves. Like, am I afraid of death? I'll be lying to you if I said I'm not. Right.

I'm definitely afraid of dying soon. Right. I don't want to die. You want a lot of life. When I'm 40, like there was a kid there. and I have a family I like to die older But even now

Will I be scared? I don't know I am afraid of death Yeah For sure I think all of us to an extent You know Yeah

I put on I do put on the face It's a conversation I'll be like yeah I'm not Right But deep down Yeah

I think deep down for sure But like it's not something That's in your mind all the time Like oh fuck No I'm afraid Yeah That's called being paranoid

And a pussy Yeah And that does not get you pussy So you don't want to do that Have you met Chris? He's really afraid of death He's like, oh, he's worried about it I'm not gonna fuck him

No For sure, not That's not gonna go well Yeah, no, I don't know man It's a fascinating thing I don't think about it much I don't think about it much I just hope the people that I love don't die

And I Um When it's my time to go I hope it's quick and you know What's the best way to die? Old age Yeah, old age at home I know it's not an exciting answer

But I think that's the I think that's my honest answer What's old to you? 80, 90? Yeah, 90 90 something I think the same thing I want 90

I mean fuck dude I'm white so I'm probably gonna die at 60 You're probably gonna die of 60 I'm sorry My wife's family is Okinawan Really? Yeah And they all live till their 90s

Hundreds Oh wow Very healthy people So I gotta like go above and beyond to keep up with her. You know what I mean? My life's always like, don't do this, don't do that. I don't want you leaving me early.

You know what I mean? She's going to live a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully you're trying to get those jeans. Yeah. You know? My son has them.

Yeah? So there we go. He's part of Okinawan now and now. There we go. Boom. Long life to him. Long life. You ever heard, you're a cat guy, and then we'll part close it off.

You ever heard of cream puff? Green puff? No, cream puff. Cream puff? What is it? What do you mean? Think cats. No.

Cream puffs. A meme cat. This blows me away, but to be honest, I didn't know who cream puff was until two months ago because my cat almost died. For some, I was, I was started, I typed in longest living cat. No shit. Dude, I think I did hear about this cat. Pull up cream puff right now. But I didn't know her name was cream puff.

Bro, is this like 30 years old? Cream puff, I believe it's a she. Oh, my God. 38 years old. Cream Puff. Is there a video of this cat at 38? I don't think so. Like, what does a cat look like at 38?

Remember he or she look good? Fucking let's go, Cream Puff. I was just curious, you know, what is so, because the bet says my cat's going to live to nine. I don't let that answer. Why? Fuck that. Fuck that. Look at Cream Puff.

Oh, my God. How old is Cream Puff here? Looks kind of old. What a legend. Oh, my God. She was already 38 here. I don't want to miss gender. But the name like Cream Puff, I'm thinking that's a girl cat.

I do not know. I want to say a girl cat. It sounds like a girl cat to me. But at the same time, funny name for a boy cat. True. Okay, what do you think the effect of how good your cat's name is has on its lifespan? Because, like, would that cat have lived to 38 if his name was like boots? Or it's just because it had a legendary name like Cream Puff that it was like I didn't fucking that.

That is a legendary name. I'm saying, dude. Greenpup is a legendary name. I'm saying, dude, is it a coincidence that a cat named Creampub lives to 38? Because I want to ask the vet questions. Okay, so what can I feed the cat now? And supposedly, he is an older man.

Yeah, the vet, you mean? The owner of Creampubbos. He has, I think, four cats. See that picture right there? And they're all, like, in their 30s. No shit. Supposedly he feeds these cats, eggs, broccoli, raw food.

Okay. And these are kickers. Bro, 1960s. Coffee with heavy cream. Really? Feeds it to the cat? Yes. Also. Oh, this 1967, dude.

Wow, look this, dude. Oh, my God. 34. Perry was... This guy knows something. He's the cat whisper. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay, here we go. Here's your diet. Okay, dry cat food, fair. Chicken, to be noted. Broccoli. Broccoli. The eggs. Yep, see.

Coffee for cream Oh my God turkey bacon What's it's coming up Boom Let's go He will feed the cat Eye droplets or red wine

Eye droplets Yeah How did he come up with this He fucking claimed That it opens up their arteries Can you get that guy on the podcast? Is he still alive? I don't know

Probably he's probably gonna live 200 He's got it figured out dude Oh my good Yeah that's fucking legendary Shout out the cream puff And to that phenomenal owner That's pre 38, man

Dude, that's fucking sick I'm 30 in fucking a couple months That can't cream puff live longer That'd be sick Oh come on It's fucking bad We want cream puff to live forever Right

In our hearts In our minds Oh my goodness Jake Perry Jake Perry He passed Did he pass? I don't know

I lost my glasses In Huntington Beach this last weekend sucks I had to go to Target and get an eye exam Never fun Really Yeah, it sucks

What, should you drop him somewhere? Yeah, I was about to get on stage And I thought I put him in my pocket And I'd come off stage I'm all, let me put my glasses back on Not there Oh, sucks Yeah

Yeah That sucks, dude Kick yourself in the ass Because yeah You know, you have to buy the exact same thing That you just had Like you don't upgrade it or anything Like you just lose something

And you're like, I need the exact same one Like if you lost your guitar And you're like, I'm gonna buy the same one And buy the same thing Yeah, it's not going No, I'm gonna get a new one A different one, no by the same one.

Dude, how was it playing at Red Rocks? Because you were just there. Yeah. Dude, Red Rocks is the shit, and I hope to see more heavy bands start playing there. I was talking to The Ghost Inside about it a few years ago,

and they were working on a show there. And I don't know whatever happened with it, but I hope that heavy bands start going there, and I don't know why it's not like a thing, because Red Rocks is the fucking coolest venue in the world, dude. Supposedly the acoustics are perfect. It's phenomenal. It was our third time playing there.

Third time. Yeah, third time. Fuck. It's a natural amphitheater So I believe this is true But I believe it was like a Native American site Amphitheater beforehand Which is kind of fucking crazy

Because now it's just filled with a bunch of people Doing acid every weekend But the acoustics are Dude even on stage Like you're on stage And like I say you know we're on in-year monitors But I'm like my in-years have never sounded this good Ever every time we play it

I don't know why Like how does that even affect it But it does What is that? like the air or what's the I don't know because it is at altitude too so head banging and shit you do get tired way faster you're up there

you've played Colorado you're up there you're up there too in Colorado too you know you're like at the top of them yeah it's so have you ever been been there once but it wasn't for a show because it let it people just go there hang out yeah you can go hang you can people run the stairs and people do yoga and shit there's pretty dude it's phenomenal man

it's such a cool place there's some there's some folklore too of it being haunted I have my buddy has a first 10th story where they were on their way up to their gig. They were playing there that night and they were kind of being frivolous about it like, oh yeah, it's haunted all there. You know? And then they got there

and they had their worst show of their entire career like fucking broke like eight strings or something. Like in one show amps started flickering and going out and then their buddy Kyle took a picture and there's like a little figure on stage dude like you can kind of see. It's pretty sketchy. So every time we go

there and then someone brings it up I'm just like we are here in respect You know what I mean? Like, we come in peace. Yeah. Thanks for allowing us into your home. Hatchet lady. Is that a thing?

Fuck. Hatchet lady of Red Rocks. Fuck, dude. Have you guys ever talked about playing there, though, with suicide? Like, has that ever been on the... It's obviously, like, a bucket list. Because, yeah, why can't you have, like, fucking Lamb of God headline a fucking... You know what I mean?

Like, it's only 10,000... It's 10,000 people. So it's like, dude, there's... Oh, you're right. We did get close. Literally. last year because I wonder if it's a

moshing thing It was actually Llam and God but we ended up playing the film war Okay Because something happened Where like they

Like the Because it was right When COVID was Right So like literally booking at venues Everyone was Everything was taken

Everything was taken Because everyone's on tour At the same time Yeah You get it That was the first time Where we were All in competition

With each other Yeah Every genre of music Yeah Because usually like Booking agents Work around And oh we want to sell

tickets All this shit I'm just curious Do you have any insight on that? Like, does Red Rocks not do heavy shit? Is it like a moshing thing? No, no, they do heavy shit? Yeah.

Is that something we can look up? Like, what's the heaviest band that's ever played at Red Rocks? Because I feel like... I think I saw... Didn't the Gorgiara and Macedon package... Yeah? Go there. Okay.

Oh, sick. Falling reverse, Einstein kills at Red Rocks. That would be a sick show to see. Fuck yeah. Shout out to Ronnie. He's a fucking maniac. Dude, fucking Las Vegas. hometown hero for us right there. Is he? Yeah. He's in Vegas? Yeah, the old bass player of,

you know, because he was Escape the Fate before. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, their base player was my band's manager for like four years. Oh shit. Max Green, Escape the Fate. And then all the crazy shit happened, Ronnie ended up going to jail and the, you know, Max. It's just, it was a crazy Vegas local scene thing. But to see where Ronnie's got, man, it's so fucking inspiring, dude. It's insane. Yo, the music is sick too, dude. Like some of the new shit in the music videos, Yeah fucking phenomenal, dude So good

He has a special brain I just think Dude some of the people That like inspire me the most Are people that refuse to stay in a genre And Ronnie's like that too You know what I mean I remember people talking shit

On falling in person to him Always They were coming up Always He was I think like They were the first like Combining like what was it hip hop And like metal

Yeah like trap Yeah it was like Seen metal shit Yeah Remember when It was years ago Wow at this point Yeah it is

Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Crazy. But now it's like... It's a thing. People do it. Cool. Yeah.

Yo, and it's heavy, too. Like, he's got some of the fucking, like, I know, like, people, oh, whatever, it's corny. It's this, it's that. It's a gatekeeping thing. It's a lot of people just, you know, not wanting to fucking, I don't know. They just are afraid of change and shit. You know what I mean? But it's dope, dude.

I'm a fan. I'm a fan. 100%. Of anyone that can build an empire like that, dude, you got to put some respect on the name. You have to, because that's more rare. Yeah. It's already rare to break through playing any kind of music. It's even more rare to even excel with that and go to that even next level.

That's fuck. It's like, it's down there impossible. Yeah. It's fucking. 100% let alone to like create a new lane, which you guys did too, brother. Appreciate that. You guys fucking think you. You guys started a genre that changed so many fucking kids' life, like myself included, dude.

Wow. I feel like I was there front row witness to like the birth of death core. You know what I mean? Just being a kid my age in that time watching bands like. you guys fucking literally create a genre and start something that like that it changed the trajectory of my life dude it is a trip how far that's that's that's gone via genre you know for you like do you think like so i'm sure people stick you with like hey dude like you guys created deathcore kind of like energy you know like you guys were one of the first death core bands but

like for you like was there bands before you that you felt like helped inspire other than like the you know the corns and the like the kind of new metal stuff or was it just you guys were taking those bands, making it heavier. Yeah, it's just combining things that were, at the time. Yeah. It just wasn't being combined. Like, it was combining new metal, hardcore, and death metal. Yeah.

It sounds like, duh now, but back then it was like, it was brand new. It was like, who fucking did that? Right. You know, corn grew, new metal grew, Iowa slip knot, combined with like brutal death metal, combined with like Orange County Hardcore. Right.

It was like, it was a, you know how it is when you're, you know, teenager. Yeah. I want to play this. Is it cool? Who cares? I bet you guys didn't even really think of it too much. You were just playing music that you loved, right?

Like you just were inspired by all these genres. Yeah, now that I look back, it was like, yeah, really, we were obviously ambitious, but we really didn't know what we were doing and it didn't really even feel new. Right. Now not thinking about it, so yeah, we're just playing music. We just wanted to play. This is what we want to do this and we're going to do it. Like you guys didn't set out to be like, let's create a new.

genre. No. It just happened. It just happened. You guys were playing who you were. Yeah. Do you remember when the term death core came about? Not, there's no exact memory. But I remember the only memory that do you have is like some past, like some pastor by like what's talking about it? Like what's death core? The fuck is that? And then like, is it a pastor? No like a like some like passing like comment was made. Like always someone like put it in a magazine. Right. It's just in past. We're like, huh? Okay. Then we never heard that before. Yes. That's weird, stupid as fuck. And then we just... I guess that's what we are. Yeah.

It's weird. That's fucking crazy, man. I'm actually, I actually claim the term death court because I always find it weird that, like, when you see interviews with corn and stuff, or, like, or slip on, whatever, they, they don't, uh, take in the word, new metal, no, no. I, I totally get it as an artist. Yeah. I get it. However, when, when you're a fan of it, I had that perspective where it's like, we are, we will literally die for this term. Right.

We live by these two stupid words combined. Right. So when it comes to death core, I'm like, you know, I know that fan perspective. So, you know, I claim it. That's a fucking cool take. Death Corps, we fucking fuck, yeah. That's us. I know people live by that word.

100%. 100%. That's fucking cool. So you're saying like you saw corn in them like being like, oh, we're not like new. We're just a band. We just play our music. I get it. I never.

I see. I get it totally. I respect them as fuck. but I just, I never resonated with that one thing. Right. For you, you're just like, yeah. For me, I never resonated. So I just did the opposite.

That's fucking sick, dude. I love that. As sad for fucking death core and fuck you. Yeah. Well, yeah, because obviously you guys have progressed. You guys have changed your sound. You guys have evolved. You guys have done all sorts of different stuff since, you know, the fucking

creating of fucking death core. But, yeah, I like that. Just embrace it, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's fucking cool. Do people ever put a term on you? Yeah, I feel like the thing that,

we're doing now as like reggae artists like in America it's still like a relatively new thing like you had sublime in the 90s yeah um and then beyond that you know you had a few bands like slightly stupid and bands like that come about 311 and stuff but there's like this new wave that's been happening in the last 10 years which is like very much what my band is involved in that no one really knows what to call it it's just like an american reggae scene that's going on you know what I mean because it's not it's not it's not Jamaican reggae it's not roots it's not like foundation like doesn't sound like Bob Marley, but it also doesn't sound like sublime. You know what I mean? It's not like surf rock reggae. So people are always trying to put a name on it, but I don't think anything's

ever really stuck. I think the closest thing, which, but it's kind of like a, it's kind of like degrading in a sense. Like people call it Cali Reggae. Yeah, people are, oh, Cali Reggae, but some of the best fucking bands that fall into that genre are from Massachusetts or Florida or whatever, but it just kind of gets dubbed as like Cali Reggae. But I think what the overall, what is trying to describe as like this new wave of like American reggae, you know? So some people call it contemporary reggae or modern reggae or, you know, American reggae, Cali reggae, but nothing's really ever stuck. Like we didn't actually get a real fucking genre name, you know? But if even like you go on Pandora and shit, like there's playlist called like Cali reggae, half the bands on there are not even

from California. It's just the term that has kind of been dubbed. You know what I mean? But there's never really been anything that stuck. But and then that kind of name, it kind of seems to simplify the genre of what it is. But I really do think, man, it's something really fucking cool and really special that's been going on in America with these younger reggae bands coming up. It's a fucking beautiful scene, man. And it reminds me a little bit of those early Death Corps years where you had these bands

that were coming up, kind of pioneering a genre. You know what I mean? That was going to have waves for decades to come. Kind of the same thing going on. We just don't really know what to call it, but like there's a bunch of fucking really cool reggae bands coming out from America that are like changing the game right now, you know? And how many years is it going on?

It's hard. I feel like it probably started kicking around in like 08, 09, but bands are, like it's really just starting to get its roots and kind of really take shape now until, you know, there's some bands that are really pushing the genre forward. But yeah, see, I mean, there's bands like UB40

that are not from Jamaica, you know, and there's bands that have been playing reggae for a long time. Like the UK and England has one of the best reggae scenes in the world. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And Hawaii. It's huge in Hawaii.

Like there's so many Hawaii. Hawaiian reggae bands that they've started their own lane out there of just island reggae. Yeah, it's fucking cool, man. But it's like we have something here too in America. You know what I mean? We have something here too that's bubbling up. That's really fucking cool. Have you guys put Hawaii yet?

Yeah. Yeah, we did a Hawaii tour. We just did a one Hawaii tour in the summer of 2019. We did four islands. How was that? It was fucking cool, dude. And it was right around an album release that we did. It was my birthday.

Oh, dude. That's sick. It was cool as fuck. We did Maui, Kauai, Big Island, and Oahu. Wow. Damien Marley. Yeah, that's the tour that it was. So that band Soja, that's the homies.

They're on this new record. I'm dropping next month. They actually just won the Reggae Grammy. They're the first non-Jamaican artist to ever win a reggae Grammy. That's a massive deal. It was a big deal. So, you know, they're American. It really, like, I don't know.

A milestone. Yeah. They took a lot of heat for it. weird way because like people gate keep all genres and obviously there's like a lot of you know differing opinions some sure uh but but a crazy thing just because when it comes to a genre it's like they're gonna evolve man genres are gonna evolve you know what i mean and so all them they all are man they all are like if you it's the same way where like you know you get old heads and metal that were probably like dude deathcore isn't fucking death metal you know what i mean like i'm an old head you know what i mean

and he still do it he's still dark shit oh that's the new age shit you know I'm imagining out what is in reggae Yeah it's the same thing man you know Because reggae is such a important Like political and like You're right It's such an important genre for like America started in the 60s correct

Yeah around 60s 70s yeah It started with Scott Yeah and I mean it started by Jamaicans That were fighting oppression in their own country You know what I mean But music's fucking profound And it found its way all the way across the globe To where now different people from different countries

Like fall in love with it And put their own spin on it So now you have, you know, Australian reggae, UK reggae, American reggae, Hawaiian, yeah. Music's music, man. And it's going to find its way to different people and inspire different people. And it's going to fucking change and evolve. And you can fight that and be pissed off your whole life or you can just embrace good music, you know? How is the gatekeeping different from the two genres that you personally have seen?

I'd say it's fairly similar other than maybe in the sense that like in death metal, like there's no actual like religion behind death metal. People often live by it like it's an ideology, you know what I mean? Like you see a death metal guy, like that's a death metal guy. Like he hates poser shit. You know what I mean? He hates Garza for sure. No, no, no. But like in reggae, it's like, I mean, it's been used that like there's actually a whole religion, you know,

Rastafarianism behind this music that the music is an actual, the main vehicle to push the religion forward in Jamaica and things like that. So it's like the gatekeeping can be a little more intense, you know, but at the end of the day, like I said, good music's good music and you got to just embrace it for what it is and know that it's going to affect people differently and different people, different people will be inspired by it and create new forms of it. Develop in Jamaica during the 1930s. Yeah. So that's the religion itself.

And then Reagan music kind of became a huge staple in this religion. You know what I mean? Whoa. Yeah. Which took 20 to 30 years after this. Huge part of the culture, man. Huge part of the culture. That's a pretty massive like cultural.

a dent. Right. And then Bob Marley put it on the fucking map. Bob Marley put it on the map. I finally understood Bob Marley about two years ago. Yeah. Went to the beach. I'm with France. You put up the umbrella, sat down. Yeah.

It's a couple beers. Right. Right. They put on Bob Marley. And I was like, oh yeah. I get it. Dude, it's profound. It's profound, man. You could literally feel the tension leaving your flesh. 100%. And like you could feel the music doing its work under subconscious.

Yeah. It's just like a, it's a very universal sound. It's a groove, man. It is. Everybody's into, you know? And then it's crazy too, man. Like a lot of people look at reggae as like, oh, it must be the most, especially dude, coming out of metal into reggae people.

How could you play it? It's so simple. You know, we were into the techie metal shit, you know? Like, we loved sweeping and fucking techie. Yeah, it's not really my thing. I'm more of a riffer. I'm never really a shred guy. I'm much more of a fucking give me some dope riffs.

But a lot of people look at reggae and like, oh, it's such a simple form of music. But dude, when you put on Bob and you listen to the layers there, the musicality in some of those Bob Marley tracks is fucking insane, dude. Fucking insane. I mean, the harmonies, the backup singers, the keyboard players, the bass player, the percussionist. Like, musically is fucking phenomenal. I think a lot of it just comes from letting your expectations down and just, you know what I mean? Like, you were just in a space right there on the beach where you're just. Like, you know, I'm not going to put any prejudgments on what this music should make me feel like.

Just feel, just feel it. Feel it? Felt good, man. Last night, I felt so good. Right. It was so nice. Right. Damn, just outside, chilling.

Dude. It was fucking, it was just pure. It was just pureness. Yeah. You know, I think we all kind of create that pure joy energy into your bodies. Right. You're not thinking about it. It's just nice.

Dude, I had that happen so much like with country, dude, because I always had fucking, I like everything but country. I was one of those guys. fucking love country now. Just love it, dude. Wow. Just love it. I'll open-minded, man. Okay.

I'm open-minded. I got a re-themed country then. You never know. You might be on a back road somewhere just driving and a certain song comes on and you just go. Oh, you get it. My buddy, my best friend in the whole world, Kyle K. Go-Ha just texted me last week and he was visiting his family in Colorado. He always hated country. He texted me yesterday.

I understand country now. And he was just on the back road in a golf cart and he just text me, I understand country now. Come all. All right, dude. You know, just music is music, man. Damn. Yeah. That's what's up. Yeah, it all takes a certain moment and it does. The right song and come on and boom, you're in. And letting a piece of our ego go enough to allow it in.

That's it. You know what I mean? That's it. All music is sick, dude. You never know what's going to strike a chord, you know? Some music does suck ass, but it depends on what's the intention, you know? Our old stuff sucks. Yeah. I mean, fuck, dude, ours is so bad. Your guys' old shit is sick. Appreciate that.

Oh my goodness. Yeah, we all feel that way about our old stuff, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you just look back and cranged, you're like, oh, yeah. Fuck, I suck. I still suck. Well, every artist is going to feel like that, dude. We're bound to feel like that.

Yeah, it's just, oh, it's just, it's just one of those things where it's like, if you didn't have it, that would actually be a real problem. Right. If you weren't critical or you weren't, like, you don't look back in. I know people like that, dude. It's fucking weird. Really? Like, they think their music is the best thing in the entire world. And I'm just like, dude, how are you?

not self-deprecating at all. Yeah. Like, there is like a... Fuck. That's fuck, dude. I don't know, yeah. Yeah, it's important. It's important to be a little bit like self-conscious just to, you know, we're artists,

man, you know? I put out a song and never listen to it ever again. Really? A lot of the times, I'm not going to listen to my own shit, you know, unless I'm listening to it from like an analytical perspective. Like, what did I do here that I could do different? But I'm not going to put on my own song and fucking vibe to it. You know what I mean?

That's not once it's released, not once it's out. Oh, so it's just, boom, it's over, it's done. Yeah, you know, I listened to it a million times when making it. It's gone, you know. Yeah, you're right. There's, like, a lot that goes into it. Yeah. You know.

Yeah. And it's the same thing you said of, like, you can't really hear yourself as a fan can hear it. You're always going to fucking hear, oh, I know how I played it right here. Oh, this part. Fuck me up. You know, this kind of shit. Yeah, and then your skills evolve and, like, man, I suck back then. Yeah.

Fuck. Yeah. Speaking of, like, reggae, and then, and we'll actually quote, Close it off. Yeah. So the people really understand the technicality of regular. To me, I was like driving up here. I'm like, you know what?

I want to ask anything for guitar lessons. Yeah. That's my thought process. I'm like, you know what? I hear something that I can't do. Right. Because still, you'll be like, oh, yeah, you can probably just do a few chords. The skank.

It's the skank. But there's a tempo in that in the right hand that I know I cannot fucking know. No, you could fucking do it, dude. You're a fucking insane guitarist. You just, yeah. It took time. Yeah. I need someone to fucking, like,

You could get it. Like, show me like, okay, this is the way guy I do, you fucking idiot. Yeah, yeah. It's so funny you say that, dude, because I was on Chris from Ghost Inside's podcast during the pandemic. Nice. And I said, the opposite thing to him, I said, Chris, I just want to show you. I just want to see if you can play a guitar skank. And he was like, don't make me do it, dude, don't make me do it.

And I had him play along with a night there song and stuff. Different timing. Yeah. No, it's fucking easy, though, dude. Like, you play some insane shit on the guitar. It's easy. It's just a feeling. You know what I mean?

It's just a feeling. Because, like, also two reggae guys are going to be like, like, how do you palm mute a riff like that? A Pind harmonic? What is that? You know what I mean? It's just different. It's just what you dedicate your energy to. You know what I mean?

It's just what you dedicate your energy to. You could play it in a heartbeat, dude. Yeah, I just need to just, I just need someone to show me. Yeah. I'm just fascinating what, like, the right-hand can do as far as, like, rhythms and timing. Well, I'd be honored to show you. Thank you, Nathan. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Fuck yeah. Well, now you're on the spot. You can't. Yeah. You got, you gotta do it now. I actually asked, I'll show you right now. 100%.

Okay. This one? You know what? You could play the corn one. Okay. And then you can show me. Okay. Are these tuned to A?

That's standard A. Okay. That's the corn tuning. So you would want to just like rip a bar chord like this? Like a D minor? We're at a tune, but. D minor? Yeah.

The first time we're actually bust these out. Really? Yeah. And so we don't have picks or anything, but yeah, any minor chord, it's just a percussive thing. So you're just looking at it like a percussion. So you're going to hit a down, down, and then palm mute on the, well, it's not even a palm mute. It's more of a finger mute, you know, where you kind of lift off a little bit. So you're letting the down kind of breathe and you're choking on the up.

Yeah, there you go. You hear how dead end of the up is, though? I mean, already right there is fucking stellar. So I'm kind of lifting my fingers off just enough to choke out the sound on the. the up. So I'm pressing down and then these fingers, my left hand. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Slightly letting up so it chokes the sound. And then I... Okay. Yeah. It's just a percussive thing. That's the basic reggae skank. Okay. Yeah. That's so fucking awkward. It's different. It's just different, man. The beauty of it

too is like everyone, like, dude, some of these guitar players that are like my acquaintances in this reggae thing like everyone has their own style of doing that kind of thing the same way it's like not everyone's pinch harmonics going to be the same you know what i mean like that's it's all different own voice like playing there these things and like even something as simple as the reggae's king dude there's so many cool and unique ways to make variations with that and stuff you know and it's infinite too it's infinite like you'll hear guys and just be like fuck i never thought about playing like that yeah you know what i mean it's fucking cool dude it's that's that's Hopefully you could capture.

Well, wait, that's not. I just wrote that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Those are those big victories, dude. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah, 100%.

Well, Nathan, you have dates coming up, right? We do have dates coming up, yeah. Cool. So just so you know, this drops Monday. So whatever you have after Monday, you could push. Sweet. The big thing for me right now is pop punk goes reggae. It comes out everywhere September 15th, 16 songs of emo and pop punk bangers,

covered by me and a bunch of my homies. from this reggae world. That comes out September 15th. And then the band, Aya Terra, is going to be on tour in September. We're doing two weeks up the West Coast. So what's that first day? Well, that's an Orlando gig we're doing next week. Nice.

Excuse me. Tour starts September 8th until I want to say like the 20 something. Nice. Yeah, 20 seconds. So if you're on the West Coast, come check us out, come see us. And it should be cool. We're dropping a single a week until the album, It comes out next month, so every week it's new music, and then the full record comes out on the 15th.

Great. Yeah, dude. So you first dated towards September 8th in Montana. Yeah. Hemp Festival. Washington, September 10th, 12th. Wonder Ballroom never been there. Portland, yeah.

Sick. Yeah. UC Theatre here, fuck, yeah, that's gonna be sick in Berkeley. Yeah. It's the Spades, Sacramento, catalyst Santa Cruz. Oh, you guys have a lot of fun. You guys like the cat. You guys do the catalysts.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's cool. Fun spot. Yeah, dude, should be cool. Looking forward to it. A little badass. Yeah. And you'll be going back home, apparently.

Yeah. October 8th. It's been great. Yeah, yeah, there's a big festival called Reggae Rise Up. It's always fun. Would you consider that like a hometown? Yeah. Yeah, we do one for sure.

We do one every year in Vegas that that festival sponsors. Like, it's called the Ayatara hometown throwdown. But then this is a, they just started doing it. Last year was the first year for Regie Rise Up, Las Vegas, October 6 through the 8th. and it's a fucking incredible festival. So I'll be there with Ayatera, and I'll also be there. My clothing company does vendor spots at all of these festivals.

So I'll be running that with Wifi. That's what's up. We'll be hanging, dude. I feel like we didn't cover a lot, but we're just hanging. I'm sorry. It's way better this way. Just have me back because we have so much more shit to talk about, dude. We're just fucking hanging.

Well, before I, I pick my pants, Nathan, thank you for making time to hang on me. And also open up my mind, but also open up the mind. minds of people watching and listening to some new music. Yeah, yeah. Dude, thanks for having me, man. I'm a fucking incredible fan, and I appreciate your open-mindedness

to even just have me on the pod. It's been a blast. Honor, man. Cheers, my brother. Everyone, that's it. Later. Yes.