Garza Podcast - 97 - VULVODYNIA: South African Deathcore & New Beginnings

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Garza sits down in-person with South African deathcore band VULVODYNIA. https://www.facebook.com/vulvodyniaslam SPONSORS: distrokid.com/vip/garza 30% OFF! emgpickups.com Promo Code: Heavy 15% OFF! VULVODYNIA is: Luke Haarhoff - Guitar Lwandle Prusent - Vocals Kris Xenopoulos - Guitar Tom Hughes - Drums CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Lwandile’s Not Into Drugs  03:13 - Chilling at an AirBnB For Days Off 04:55 - Band Member Intros 05:17 - Quick Band History 08:17 - Lwandile Playing Guitar & Singing Live 14:09 - Bob’s Burgers 15:51 - Benefits of Quitting Social Media 18:20 - Always Trying to Grow as a Musician 19:35 - Suicide Silence “Bludgeoned to Death” Guitar Play-through 21:48 - Discovering Heavy Music 22:40 - Limewire 24:30 - All Shall Perish 25:27 - Upbringing in South Africa 26:01 - Getting Mugged in South Africa 29:28 - Samsung Sponsorship 31:50 - Portable Rigs for Live Shows 34:24 - Acquiring Visas is a Nightmare 35:30 - Navigating the Industry as a South African Band 39:13 - Dealing With Poachers in the African Desert 41:52 - Inequality in South Africa 43:45 - Cool Earrings & Nate the Merch Guy 46:00 - Guitar Thumping w Tosin Abasi 48:56 - Practicing Guitar 50:44 - Getting Inspiration & Writing Collaboratively 53:39 - New Album & New Beginnings 56:06 - Sold Out Tour with Angelmaker  57:05 - Crossing the Canadian Border Sucks 58:12 - Vancouver, Portland & Seattle’s Rough Areas

In the future, we're hoping he's going to play guitar and do vocal. That's the plan. Yeah. Are you serious? I'm going to try, but I just feel like at this point, I've been a guitarist for this band for so long, and I'd hate to stop playing live. At the break that we have when we get back from this tour, I'm just going to see if it's possible. Like, I don't know if there's any other, like, quote-unquote Death Corps bands that have done that.

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that goes to sleep first. Really? Yep. What time? As soon as I can. As soon as I can. As soon as, like, are we talking, like, 9 p.m.? Like, as soon as, like, the show is done and we've packed up everything and, like, I'm ready

to go in the van, ready to go sleep. I'm not too into going out to go party or whatever. I'm just like, I want to go to bed. Yeah. You look like a very clear-headed guy. I would like to think so. I don't think I am, though. Yeah.

Yeah, well, he's the only one in the band that doesn't smoke weed, so that says something. Yeah. Ever tried it? I have I just don't think it's for me. It always makes me super duper anxious and fidgety and, you know, it's not, I don't think it's my vibe. Anxious and fidgety. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Super paranoia. It's like all my experiences with it have not been good. So I was like when I was like a teenager, I was like, I think I'm okay. And I just stopped. Mm-hmm. Where were you though?

Sorry? Where were you like, were you out, hang out with your friends? Oh, yeah. Like a very public area? Were you by a, you know, it's always just. Riddo or no. It's always just been like with a couple of friends that around like not even a huge scenario, whatever.

It's all just been like two or three people around me. And then I smoked. And then the rest of that night, I'm not feeling good. Really? Yeah. It's so funny with, uh, with weed how it affects people so differently. Yeah. You know?

And I've tried it a couple times. But like, you know that those people will be like, oh, you just smoke an indica? Do you smoke a tiva or whatever? And they're like, man, I just, it's not for me, right? Yeah. Yeah. not exactly like a what what's that word

kind of sewer yeah so I don't know like the strains people my like the guys tell me that I like dad weed dad weed is that good or bad

yeah what is that I don't know I guess that's a California thing probably a dad wheat so what what is dad weed okay that's you daddy grass

low grade low grade low grade weed it's like normal stuff nothing that fucks you up too much yeah I like yeah I like chilling. I like feeling a little uncomfortable.

Oh, yeah. Being reminded that you're a human being and you're like, wow, and it's out here in the world, dude. Oh, yeah. You know? Well, dudes, it's great to meet you. I just met you today. Yeah.

It's great to be here. Yeah, it was awesome. You guys had a day off pretty sick. Yeah, that was amazing. Rested. Yeah, all the bands just put money together. We got an Airbnb. We just all chilled out.

That's smart. Yeah. We should start doing that. Yeah. It's a good idea. If you get along with all the homies, it's a great day. Yeah, it turns into like a family. Yeah.

You know? Definitely. And everyone on this tour is super cool. So, like, it's just chilling with your boys. Yeah. Yeah. Angel Maker, doing great. Yeah, they're killing it.

Oh, damn. They're killing it. I've been seeing it the past few times that come down. Like, dang, they got, there's more people here now. Like, shit, dude. There's a lot of dudes in that band. On stage, like, what? It's like seven, eight.

Seven. That's so many people on. staged at once. Yeah, but they make it work pretty low. Yeah. Well, that's so many people in the band. Yeah. They're going to bandwagon, so they're cool.

Oh, nice. Good. Good for them. Dude, those have been hard, hard to lock down. Yeah, they are. And they're really expensive. They're way, they're overpriced. Yeah.

They're so overpriced. You're just like, but you have to pay it. Yeah. It's so worth it when you have a bandwagon for a tour. Like, you're so comfortable. You always have a green room. No matter what the situation of the venue is. It's like the most comfortable we've ever toured before.

Yeah, like going back to a van now, it's really grounded us. Yeah, it's humble to us. This is how it really is. Be humble. But you get a different experience touring in a van versus like a RV, you know, because then you always stuck at truck stops. You always like only see the same things. Where in a van, you still kind of get off, you know, you can go do your own thing.

Do it like, you see different parts of the city in a way. So it's been pretty cool. It hasn't been too bad. Can we do a quick intro just so people could put a sound to the names? Hell yeah. Cool. I'm Luke, I play guitar. Hi, I'm Londealer.

I used to play guitar, but now I'm on vocals. Yeah, I'm Tom. I'll play drums. I'm Chris and I also play guitar. Chris was the K. Yeah. Chris was the K. That's sick.

Only four words. That's great. So, God bring it up, South Africa. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. Pretty sick. And you've been a band soon in 2014, right? Yeah, yeah.

Hmm. So I just, well, I mean, I assume there's not like this, there wasn't this kind of music there yeah not really i guess we started the band because we saw like a hole in the market there and it was kind of stuff we wanted to see live so we just decided to make that music and fill the hole and it ended up working yeah i mean sometimes before tune yeah almost been in a band for nine years yeah it's crazy to think it's how it's crazy how long it took for for you guys to build up yeah like i was 16 when we started so it's crazy 16 really yeah like It's been that long already.

Mind blowing. I mean, you don't really have like a roadmap. So I'm like, what, what you do? Like, we just sort of started as an internet band because we didn't really want to settle for members that couldn't play the stuff because we wanted to make what we wanted to make. So we started as just like a two-man internet project.

And then we released the first EP and a first album. And it started sort of like snowballing from there. So we figured we have to stop playing shows and then Chris joined the band. We had a different drummer for a little while, but then Tom joined the band. But only for like two shows. We had a different drummer. Tom's pretty much been there from the beginning. He still played the most shows out of any of us in the band.

Yeah, somehow. Yeah, because like I missed five shows once because I couldn't get a visa for the UK. Luke's missed a couple tours for a variety of reasons. And Luandilaj is still like the newest member of the band. Yeah. Oh yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be in forever.

Yeah. Yeah, when'd you come in? Wasn't that like 2020? It was like officially announced in 2020, but I was playing shows with them as like a fill-in from 2018. But yeah, like it became, I started writing for the band in like 2020. Okay. Yeah. How did you meet him?

Chris found me on YouTube. I think. Well, yeah. I found Luandile under an alias and I couldn't really find his name. I saw this guy playing these amazing like math, rocky guitar, crazy things on the internet. And I was like, I need to find out who this dude is because I saw someone comment that he's South African. And I was like, whoa, I need to start making music with this guy. So I found his Twitter and I found his real name. And then I found his Facebook. So I basically stopped. Yeah, I started. That's a way to find someone to join.

And then I pretty much, we hooked up a jam and it went really well. And then from there, I asked him to join all my bands eventually because he was just so good. And it's funny that he's ended up on vocals now because he's such a great guitar player. He still played guitar on the full new album we just did. And he wrote a lot of guitar parts. So in the future, we're hoping he's going to play guitar and do vocals. That's the plan. Yeah.

Be serious. I'm going to try, but I just feel like at this point I've been a guitarist for this band for so long and I'd hate to stop playing live. So at the break that we have when we get back from this tour, I'm just going to see if it's possible. Like, I don't know if there's any other like quote-unquote Death Corps bands that have done that, but I want to give it a try. If I can, I definitely will do it. You're right. Is there any other bands that do that? One with the A-string?

Yeah. Is there any mainstream players that also sing? I don't think so. Not that I know. We might have uncovered. We might have just. Yeah, I don't. Yeah.

Actually, Dom. You know, Dom, I'll drive a Dom. Oh, yeah. He is sick on, in his band, he does vocals. Yeah. Yeah. So there are people out there that do it. But I think it's very rare, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, he plays eight strings, right? The two from a emperor. I guess beyond creation, too. I don't know if they pay eight strings though, but... Does you play eight strings? I don't know. Huh.

Or at least not, like, the whole time. Yeah. I mean, Mad Heif he plays each strings, and he does vocals as well. Okay. Not on every song, but there's like a couple of songs where he uses eight strings. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess for death chords.

In this scene, yeah, I don't think there's anyone. I mean, even just a death chorus scene, like, who, yeah, who sings and play this guitar? I don't think anyone does. I know. We just literally uncovered two things. No pressure, right? I was just thinking about that today, how this sucks. It just sucks the way life is.

Like, you need pressure to, like, oh, no. It's a lot. Do you know what? It'll help you, though. If you're, like, super under pressure, even to, like, to the point where it's, like, breaking you apart, you will do the thing. you'll make it happen no matter what it is. Well, he will. He did.

Yeah. Yeah. What are you talking about? Well, you know, taking vocals on it was a lot of stress for him. And we had two months to kind of reform the band and get him on vocals and, you know, get practicing and everything and remembering all the lyrics and just the, you know, the pressure of being the front man of the band was taking a toll on him. we're here now and he's fucking crushing it so yeah it was it was a lot i think um when we got back

we had two months for me to learn and we had two months to memorize a set list for the shows we're going to play on this tour and record the album at the same time but i there's no way i could have done both those things um so i just chose to learn the vocals and then when we get back i'll record and write and everything but yeah under that whole period of time i was like super under pressure and super stressed that like I turned off all of my social media and I was only contactable to the people close to me in my band in case they needed me uh because yeah it was like a lot so I kind of just locked myself in my room for that month and just grind it every single day working on being a front man working on vocal tones watching a bunch of YouTube videos and

explanations just so like I don't get up for the first time make a fool of myself because that's like in your head the entire time you're doing this you know um but I made it I think I made it work. Somehow people have been very positive at shows. It seems to be working out. That's impressive. It was a lot. Yeah, what was your initial feeling and thought?

I mean, who, well, who said it first? Well, said what first. So, hey, do you want to just sing? Well, it was kind of like he had already filled in some shows when our ex-focalist couldn't make it before. And during sound check and stuff we could hear. hear how good his vocals were every night and he was doing backup vocals so it was kind of a no brainer we all went to that conclusion very quickly i don't know who said it first but we were all on board with

that decision from the beginning it was there was no other choice for us no no other choice slash uh accident yeah yeah well it was kind of a happy accident we not many bands would have someone to just step up and pull that role just straight up like that because because, you know, he's a fucking sick guitar player. And for him to just switch to vocals and not, they're not easy vocals. It's kind of like vocal gymnastics in the kind of death core space. So to find someone that could do that,

that was already in our band was amazing. And it's lucky for us too, because you don't add a whole, another dynamic to the band. Yeah. Like, we keep it with the people that we know and it doesn't make, like, this tour, which will be our first tour with a new vocalist, sort of like weird and figuring stuff out because we already know long dealer very well so I think

it helps with that a lot too you kind of want to just keep it in-house I think yeah yeah man you don't know who you can trust no way no way you guys had a lot experience with with that man that is a lot of pressure yeah it was so much and that's a great idea too like to okay I'm just gonna all right this is a lot I'm taking this in mentally I'm under a lot of pressure so I'm just going to, you know what, I'm going to turn off my Facebook. I'm turning off my social media for a month. I'm just going to lock myself in a room. Yeah, I didn't really have any social life at all during that time.

I was just in my room. I would wake up. I'd eat breakfast. I would memorize the mornings. The mornings would like the time when I just memorize lyrics. And then at night, I would practice all night. And then I'd like watch Bob's Burgess and then go to sleep. Bob's Burgess, you know, you remember that show?

No. The cartoon, you know, Bob's Burgess? He used to play on, like, Cartoonette, back in the day. Who is it? It's not even funny. It's just like some old cartoon that feels good to watch. I recognize this photo. Yeah.

But there's so many cartoons that we all haven't seen. This show got me through that month. I attribute this show to get me through that whole month. Bob Burgers saved your life. Oh, yeah. It's so, it's like, therapeutic to watch. Because it's like, there's nothing really going on in that show. And it's not really funny.

It's just kind of like bubble gum for your mind. So it was like, it was always on in the background, even when I was, like, practicing and everything. Those are, those shows are needed, too. But sometimes you just need to, like, kind of veg out. Yeah, I don't want to focus on anything all the time. Right now, I'm focusing the whole day. Let's, I just want to enjoy some. Just lay back.

No, no thinking. Yeah. And that was perfect for me. Bob's burgers, huh? And I didn't used to like it because, like, I said, it's not a funny show or whatever, even though they try to be. But I think because of that, it kind of, like, attracted me more. Like, I watched it on the plane rides. to and fro any tour that we're doing just because like it's a cartoon that's on and I like

watching cartoons. I was like, I'm just going to watch this. I don't care what it's about. But yeah, it's really grown on me. And it's like my favorite show in the world right now. That's sick. How do you feel after like, how do you actually feel and your mind like to step away from my social media?

Because a lot of us can't do it. It's tough. I needed to. So it was like really nice. man it was like for the first day it was weird because like I wasn't checking my phone every two seconds but like after a week like I could really feel a difference like I'm noticing things more I'm like smelling things that it's so weird like when because you're so attached to your phone that you don't notice things like I could smell like what my room smells like now like

my room is my room is most terrible that's what I figured out but yeah it really it tears you away and like kind of forces you to be back to real life and like I was spending more time with my family and spending more time with my dogs and going on lots of walks with them and everything and really yeah it was actually really really therapeutic like when I turned my phone back on I had to like get used to it always being there again and you know yeah whoa yeah it was it was really different it was a trip I would advise anyone to like at least for a month to like turn off all social media so it was like a straight month yeah it was like the only people I would keep it on for was for my band and my family.

Everything else was like off. Nothing. Nothing was on. It's pretty wild. That's what we used to do. Yeah. I was like, you know, I have a, I guess, I'm they called a landline.

Oh, yeah. You know, because, uh, and only, only your close friends knew, knew that number or, or your close family. Oh, yeah. That's what, that's crazy how it, it affected your smell.

Yeah. For sure. You affected the way you smell. For real. Because you're in like, because I told you all just in my room. like for entire days, just memorizing and practicing. So when you're there for way too long,

you start to like forget like what places things smell like or whatever things look like. And when you're there for so long and I had nothing to distract me besides the work I was doing, like, hey, I can kind of smell. This room doesn't smell that great. And that's just what it always smells like. So then I was like, okay, trying to fucking clean up and do some shit about it.

If it affects your smell, I wonder how, because that's one form of your senses. Oh, yeah. I'm sure it does way more. Imagine your sight. Imagine your hearing. Yeah. I also kind of felt like my mind was like way like clearer and not completely boggled up.

Because like I was worried about what people were saying on the internet. But like because I wasn't online like I was way less worried because I don't have to get checked, you know. That's a. Yeah, that's a very smart thing just so like not read the comments. It's like, okay, I'm going to do work because. To this day, for on that month, every comment, every post we've done, I still haven't read them. Good. Yeah.

It's not it literally does nothing for you. Yep. Yeah. It just doesn't do anything. It's weird. You know what's even weirder is that the good comments will actually, depending on your personality, will actually be worse. Oh, yeah. Because then you start to like, it soaks in.

Yeah. And then you start to believe it. It's like, who the fuck am I? Yeah. It's a very dangerous place to get comfortable with whatever you're doing. If you're like comfortable and like, okay, I can handle this. I'm not afraid of anything. Even though, you know, mentally I think that's a bit healthy.

but it's also like if you're completely chill and you don't think you can get better and whatever you're doing, I think that's a dangerous spot. Dangerous. Because there's always somebody better than you. There's always someone that works harder than you. There's always someone more talented than you.

If you're okay with just being over here for the rest of your life, that's kind of like, you know, you have no room to grow. So, yeah, I'd always think that, yeah, there's still someone I need to catch up with. Whether that's guitar or vocals or like just being alive, you know,

there's always better you can do. It's always better. Yeah, that's, that's, I did, you know, back, back in a day. You know, every being comments and you, yeah, you just lose yourself. You know, it's cool that that you have that. Because, you know, in my position, you know, you see bands like you guys, like, this riffing.

It's like, man, I got to, like, go home and practice, you know? It's cool. It's like, it will push you. Oh, yeah. That was me when I found suicide silence for the first time in high school. For sure. Like, before I heard a song by you guys, you guys did, like a guitar world lesson video. Bring it up.

The guitar world lesson video, you did have, like, bludgeon to death. And I'd never heard of you guys before at that time. It just came out. And I was at my dad's workplace because he had internet. We didn't have internet at home. So I just download a bunch of guitar videos and go back. And I learned that whole song on guitar from that video before I heard the song ever. Because we didn't have internet back home.

So, like, two, three months after I learned the song, I actually went back to his work. And I downloaded the music video. And I was like, I can play this song for the first time. I'm hearing it. That's crazy. That's not right. If I knew people... There it is.

If I knew people would be watching this, I would have said no. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. God. You guys were so stoned during this video, too. I love it. People always see that. I'm not stoned.

I think Mark says that you were so stoned or something, something like that. No, man. People like watch this. I'm like, I wasn't stone. I was just an awkward kid for a long, long time. This is bringing back some great memories. I didn't smoke. Oh yeah.

Oh, I sound like shit. Oh, no. I never watched this before in my life. Really? Yeah. You have no idea how many times I've watched this video. You have no idea how many times I've memorized everything about this video. Mark's tone sounds bare into mind.

I think you got a better amp. That's why guitar players hate us. They're like, what are they playing? Wow. I think this was also like, my introduction to deathcore. I think Blodding to Death was like the first deathcore song I'd ever heard.

Yeah, same. I had it downloaded and it was named wrong. So it said, Bring Me the Horizon or something. I thought for like six months solid that it was Bring Me the Horizon. Sick. But I was like 12 years old. You're 12?

Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How did you? I mean, so. 14.

Yeah. How did you find like heavy music? My dad always listened to like, stuff like Pantera and. Sepulchura, but I remember being 12 years old going to the skate park and I met my friend Greg and he showed me Krukebanger by Chelsea Grin and then from there it just kind of like spiraled. I had that first pig spill and I was like sick. I like this. Yeah. What's this? I just saw my own band. Yeah, pretty much. Hmm. You guys, so how did you download song? Was it, what is it this?

Like lime wire and shit. Yeah. But yeah, back when they changed the title. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They'll always fuck up the abandon. So they call us, Bring Me the Horizon. Bring me the Horizon bludgeon to death. Yep. That's so... Exactly what it was named. What's the fuck.

Why do they do that? That's so weird. Probably some other guy that downloaded it that didn't know what it was. Oh, yeah. But Limer I was like that everything was like misnamed. Everything was different. You download a movie and then it turns out to be like some baseball thing or it was so weird. Every once in a while.

everyone's when it was porn. Oh, yeah. Well, just a massive virus. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because now, yeah, I look back now, I'm like, why don't my computer get all fucked up? Oh, yeah, though, they fucking, they, uh, hey, Jay, try, try to help me out here. I wonder if, like, those videos, they, like, literally inject viruses in those videos,

so when download it, you download it onto your computer. For sure. You know? 100% they did, they did that. I got, I had so many viruses all because of live wire. That's my caveman brain trying to understand. technology and the way of viruses work. Well, okay, if you're downloading a video,

you're downloading what is on the video in the video. It's okay, so whoever made the video put in whatever the fuck they want. The second you click on it is when the virus is like, hey, your computer's free reign then. Oh, yeah. I fucked up my computer's so many times. Same. They put anything into files back then? We went, I want this Chelsea Grins.

It was worse it back then. It was, though. Yeah, definitely. on so many bands of LimeWire even though like illegally downloading their stuff is some of the best bands in my life than shaped I am to their F on Roof of LimeWire. Who's your fun? Ocho Parrish. Also Parish. Oh, yeah.

That was like, that's like one of the biggest bands in my like that shaped my guitar playing life. Their guitar is like my first guitar god, like guitar idol, whatever. Really? And yeah, I downloaded all their stuff from LimeWire. And yeah, they were like my favorite band for the longest time. So fucking sick. Eddie's all one of your favorite bands. They still are, for sure.

But they don't exist anymore, so rest in peace. We'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see. Yeah. I hope that's a hint. People will approach being drunk at shows. I'm like, what?

What's up of all she pairs? I don't know. And I don't give a fuck. I tell Eddie all the time, I get approached it all the time about your band. I'm getting sick of it. I'm not trying to get drunk and just having a good time. Like, I don't want to talk about this fucking band, dude. they're phenomenal my favorite also parish record is i hate malice revenge oh that's a good one god that was

that was such a sick one they would play around here we would we would go like me me and mitch and our previous drummer and it's got mosh yeah by and all by the same shirt yeah that album is so heavy even by today's standards i think they were big for it the whole like that death core scene and movement man they were massive we fucking loved them too yeah damn amazing they went across the world It's so bizarre that this music is where you're at. Yeah, it is crazy. It's such a niche, especially in Africa. Oh, yeah, especially in Africa.

Yeah, look, what was your upbringing like? It was pretty normal. Like, it's not as crazy as people make it out to be. Yeah. Like, if you go there, like, it's pretty much the same as L.A. There's bad areas. There's good areas. So it was pretty standard.

Like, nothing crazy. I don't know about you guys But yeah I'm pretty much to say Yeah we grew up pretty normal Middle class lives you know Like just music and you know Sports and you know

Living life skateboarding One of that sort of stuff Yeah and that's like It's a pretty dangerous place in South Africa But I think none of us in the band I ever like really experienced anything crazy Other than being like mugged or something like that

But I've experienced You've had some crazy Yeah You got mugged? We've all been mugged. What? Multiple times. Multiple times?

What happened? I'm sure we all have different stories. I used to live in the CBD of Johannesburg, which is like, I guess the most dangerous place around Johannesburg. And I would just go to school and then I'd come home late because we had late projects and stuff. And I'd be walking home and then someone would mug me. And then a week later, after they've taken my phone and my money, I'd be walking home and someone will try to mug me again. I'm like, I don't have anything left. I got back last week.

And then they'll get mad at me because I don't have anything on me. Then I just try to run away. That sounds terrifying. It's kind of a normal occurrence. Like what, yeah, so what do they do? A gun point or knife points or just a bunch of them together and that like surround you. Yeah, you just learn not to walk around. Yeah.

As much as you can. You learn. You don't. You shouldn't. rarely walk at night or in specific areas during the day either. There's very specific places you need to, you know, that's safe enough to walk around. You just need to be like street smart, I guess. And I would say for people coming to South Africa on holiday, always have a buddy with you that can show you the right places.

Because sometimes you can just turn the wrong corner and you're in a super sketchy place. This one wrong corner and boom, mugged. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. so wait so you're my you're not exactly the street smart you're you guys keeping you mugged I mean that doesn't doesn't happen too as well it doesn't happen but like when you're a teenager you always get up to stupid things you know get yourself in the wrong places at the wrong times and stuff so it was more like situations like that yeah actually you know being targeted and you know rob like at our

house or something like that um like all teenagers are dumb you know you do dumb shit go skating at night you're smoking weed in the wrong place or buy weed from someone back in the day where it wasn't legal yeah hmm yeah well I never been mugged thank

thank God yeah what do you what do you do and what do you think about like so someone approached you with with the gun like what does that like you just do whatever they want you to do give up whatever they're asking for don't fight with them let it happen and then I mean South Africa dude will

like rob you for you know like five dollars yeah whatever you have whatever you have you know it's not like they're really going for big ticket items even those days it was like shitty ass phones yep like it's like it's just um a kind of place where it's like lots of violent crime and lots of you know poverty and stuff in certain areas and yeah people are willing to you know to kill over nothing yeah poverty causes desperation yeah yeah that's where the crime comes from Yeah Fuck that, dude Yeah

A gunpoint Mm Yeah That's It's not the best You just for like a shitty phone Like what kind of phone was it I mean

Back in the Two thousand before smartphones even came out The Samsung made a phone called an E250 I had three of those phones In my lifetime Two of them were stolen What? Yeah

So it's kind of like on purpose Is this it right here? There it is The slidy one, the silver slidy one? Oh, yeah. I was banging some real tunes of that thing back in the day. Phones have come such a long way. Yeah, they have, right?

Do you have an iPhone now? I had my phone for a while. He's got a fancy phone. My phone is sick. My phone is hell of so. Check it out. I got one of these, the flippy boys. What is that?

I got the flippy boy phones. It's the Samsung. Z Flip 4. So it's like I feel like they're just trying to like make a resurgence of like flip phones because there's a couple companies

doing it now but like yeah this was like my favorite era of life where like you can hang up a phone mad at someone just be like you know

They need to sponsor you off to this They better please Samsung This is a sick phone And I'll advertise it We gotta get the sponsor going I need it IPNAIDS Orrispi

and Samsung. The first band sponsored by Samsung. Death metal bands sponsored by Samsung? That'd be fine. Well, you gotta tell him, hey, I get mugged like once every two times. I need,

like, a supply of cell phones. Every month, give me a new phone. Fuck, that would suck, dude. I mean,

just a thought of losing my phone is terrifying because, I keep, I gotta remind myself to say to back it up, but have all these riffs there. Oh, yeah. The fucking voice memos.

Oh, yeah. Oh, we've all done that. You get an idea, you got to pull out your phone. You get a done, dun, dun, don't, don't, don't. That sounds like a ball of the denious song. It does, yeah. That's literally the first song we play every night. There we go.

Yeah. It's just put on your phone. There's like, there's so many of them. Like little riffs. Dude, same. Same. Every thought you got to, you got to make it a habit, you know. Which is crazy now because technology is like at a point where, like, you don't even need to do that.

You can plug some tiny thing into your phone and then plug it into your guitar and then record the riff properly and then, you know, in like two seconds. I mean, yeah, your rigs in your backpack. Yeah. And I love that. Like, it's sick when like a band comes out with like a full stack and, you know, all these amazing cabs surrounding it. You know, like visually that's sick and audibly that's also super sick. But like I'm over having to haul super heavy things in and out of venues every single day. If I can condense my rig and still sound sick every night, I'm all for that.

That's my goal to right now is to get the smallest thing I can to take onto it. Because like even my camper right now, I'm like, this thing's too big. I need something. Really? Yeah. Oh my goodness. Chris just with the 50-150 that he holds everything. Oh, my goodness, dude.

If you would have saw what we were doing, like, we have like two headcases and like the two cabs. like hauling that shit upstairs and downstairs. Oh, yeah. So over that. I don't miss doing that at all. Yeah, this is the first tool we actually haven't rented cabs just to save space and money. And it's actually going pretty well. I was scared to do it without cabs, but as long as you've got some sound happening on stage with monitors and stuff, it still sounds sick.

The moment you take the monitors away and empty stage. Yeah, and have like in years, I've seen a lot of bands. that way you'd like stand in the front row and then you can't hear anything. And that's what I was scared of happening when we went to no cabs on this tour. But honestly, it's been sick. I can hear my guitar every night on the videos that I've heard. Sounds sick. Obviously, if we can, we want to have cabs.

Yeah, that's the first choice. But the technology these days, it's cool that you can just pop something in your backpack show up. And that's it. Get away with it too. Your backpack. Yeah, I carry my car. can't be in a backpack. Wow.

I don't even have a rack case for it and it's breaking because of that reason. You guys are lazy. Yeah. No, we are. I'm too busy getting a mug, dude. I just want to, I just want to rig in my backpack. I'm going to have something you can run with in case you get hooked. That's why I rigs are so small.

We can run away with them. Also, just because we need to fly in for like every single tour we do ever, we've learned how to like just travel with all of the gear we need in like luggage looking cases and shit like that. So like when we're flying and going in, we never have to answer questions about are you a band, what are you doing here? That sort of thing. You just fly under the radar. Yeah. But we

do have the right visas and everything to prove ourselves. It's not like we're sneaking in. It's just, yeah. Smaller is better these days. Is it hard for you guys get visas? Very. Well, it's not that hard, but it's a lot of money and a lot of admin. Yeah, it's a process.

Yeah. Why is it, why is a visa is so difficult. Sucks. I don't know. Yeah, we have to get lawyers to do it for us, and it's this whole crazy thing. But basically, we need visas for everywhere except Asia. Our possible is a super weak. Well, some places in Asia, we need visas to.

Yeah, like Japan, that's all. And Indonesia on a ride. But that was, like, the tour that we needed, like, the least of visas. That sucks. Man. Yeah, because you guys only, so you guys are in South Africa. So you have to fly out to do pretty much anything outside. Yep.

It's like the further as possible place you can be so isolated because you're like all the way to the south of Africa obviously. So you have to fly over the whole of Africa first, usually stop in Dubai or something like that and then connect from there. Did you think about that when you first got the band going? It's like, hey, we got to get past this fucking hurdle. Not at all. I mean, I was 16, so I didn't really think about anything.

I just wanted to make music. True. Yeah, like, I didn't even know that we were going to be a live band. I thought it was just going to be like an internet project type thing and just be like a sort of side hobby. But it just snowballed, like I said earlier. So we sort of figured stuff out as we went along. Ended up working out.

I think we've figured it out now. Yeah, I feel sorry for any other band in South Africa that's going to have to try, figure this out. Please, if you're listening to this, ask us questions. If you need questions, no one ever asks us. for help and ask us because, you know, we've done it. And it's quite the process. And people are going to need help out there because it's confusing.

And you need to do it right. Yeah. Yeah. So since we got you guys now, what's the scene out there like now? It's pretty good. Yeah, there's great bands. There's loads of sick bands. I mean, there's not necessarily like you could say, death poor scene or death metal scene or

something like that. But the scene's pretty mixed. There's everything like covering fucking everything in metal, basically. The shows are pretty mixed lineups in terms of things like that But shows are good Like the festivals are good when they bring internationalers out Like the turnouts are sick Like it's pretty much

I mean you could have shows In essay as good as any show in America Like our level you know Black Dahlia had like 5,000 people in South Africa At this show So that that says something When was this? 2020 just before the pandemic

Yeah right before yeah That was lost international banders Yeah like everything shut down like two days off to that. It was crazy. Because I remember, because we could offer us to go down there pretty kind of often.

And like almost, we're like, what, where's there to play down there? Who's, who's down there? The show will be sick. Yeah,

especially if you guys play. Yeah. Oh, yeah, so does that all definitely drove a bunch of people. It's always, yeah,

we just have nothing to base off of, you know? Yeah. The problem with South Africa, though, is like, because it is so isolated,

it's like one of those you've really got to catch after your European tour after an Australian tour or something like flying back to add the extra dates. It's like kind of out of the way to travel on any sort of rooting. It's so out of the way. It's like, yeah. And it's like long flights no matter what.

Yeah, how long do you guys fly it's? To get to San Francisco was 37 hours. Oh, that's cool. But it's cool like if you go there, you can sort of make a holiday out of it. You can go on a safari and do all that cool stuff. Safari? See lions and all that shit. That's what the festivals and stuff normally do down there.

Like, bays will come down one weekend. and play Johannesburg the next weekend. If it's possible, or they do, like, an extra few days where you go to, like, safaris and see lions and see, like, the real wildlife vibes, you know. I want to get mugged during a safari? That'll be... It's possible.

It's honestly possible. Nowhere and safe. Are you fucking kidding? Well, there's, like, poachers that hang out in some of the reserves. Poachers? Yeah, like... Rino poachers. elephant for the tusks

So there is chill in there And they might rob a person Maybe I don't know about that But people with guns could show You never know Oh You guys are from a different place Wow

That's a party sounds so fun And innocent You won't get back You'll have a great time remember that time. Okay. So I was shooting a music video in like the middle of nowhere. It was like, it was like desert vibes, I guess.

It was like a salt mine or something. And these dudes showed up like I was just taking a piss and I turned around and this dude had like this fucking Tommy gun. Tommy gun. Like Scarface style. Tommy gun. Yeah. And we got the biggest fright and I try to get out of there quick. And then I got my car stuck.

So I went out of the car stuck. So I went out of the car to try to push it out and they came right up to us. Oh my God. Yeah. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I thought we were going to die. But luckily they were looking for other people to shoot. Yeah.

Yeah, they were. They were looking for dudes that snuck into their place and like their super armed guns out. Like they came up to us with the guns in their hand, finger on a trigger. Like, have you seen any of like these guys around the area? And they've not seen anything. Yeah. We've not seen anything. And they went about their way.

They haven't seen anything. Here. Here my sound time. Yeah. It was my flip phone. That was crazy. That was really scary. Were the guns like this?

No, you know, with like the... Round big... Like a super... There it is right there. Yeah, that one. Oh, fuck that. They're going out to kill somebody. That's like extreme firepower.

And it was so weird because, like, they're wearing, like, torn clothes. Yeah. They look super poor and everything, but they had these crazy guns. I wonder where they got those guns. Yeah, me too. Where do you pick one of those up? Proper Scarface gun. Probably stolen.

Probably. Probably. That is, yeah, that is like the classic. Wow. Yeah. It's like being rubbed with a musket. I will be terrified. Yeah, we were really scared.

You guys have a lot of courage, man. You should really give yourself credit for that. No, we were freaking out. It was not okay. This was not okay. Yeah, we were not okay. But maybe you had like a, like you're getting a radio for it. And that sounds, sounds weird to say.

Yeah, we're trying to like do our best to like keep, well, I was trying to do my best to keep composure. Because like, I don't want to alert these guys anyway or like make them think I'm any sort of a threat. So it's like super nice and like kind of like ignored the fact that they're armed. They're like, oh, we didn't see anyone. We've not seen a thing since we're here. And they're like, okay. And they just carried on walking out. And we got back in his car and we drove out.

Yeah, but we had to call my friends back. to help get my car back out of the sand. That was, I'm feeling the stress again right now. I feel it's sick. Yeah. That was of Africa. No, but there's good things too. Yeah, no, it's a beautiful place.

Yeah, there's a lot of beauty, a lot of good people. It's just unfortunate we come from a place full of poverty and desperation. That's the whole thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It sounds like there's no middle ground. No, it's very weird. It's one of the most unbalanced places in the world because you get like super rich parts and then right next to it you get like the biggest township. A township is like basically this area full of these metal shacks. They're just houses built by the people there. And that's where all the poverty mostly comes from. And like for example, there's Santon, which is the richest square mile in Africa. And right next to you. And right next to you. And right next to, to it is the biggest township in Africa.

And if you'd, like I said, if you take the wrong corner, you can end up somewhere really bad. Is this it right here? That looks freaking nice. Oh yeah, Santa City. Yep. Riches square a mile. Yep. And then right next to that is the township called Alexander, which is not as nice as these pictures.

That looks really nice. Alex, yeah. That's right next to that. to santa so that's right next to it yep one one turn and you're there hey click a picture jay even cape town airport has kaili oh yeah yeah right outside of it yeah so those are the shack i was talking about hmm and that's by like your rich richard square yeah right next to it that really sums up what you're talking about yeah just like that that that the opposite complete opposite right next to each other wow you get so wesso which has like over a

million people living in it. Biggest township in the world. But so it's just like kind of nice now. Yeah, it's not that bad. It's a big tourist attraction. Yeah. Real quick, we've got to talk about your earrings. Oh, my ones?

Hell yeah. So sick. So I think a fan brought these, right? Adam, yeah. Yeah, Adam. Oh, yeah, he brought them out and he gave us like a goody bag full of like treats and gifts and everything. And then one of those things are like a bunch of different colored earrings.

Nate is also wearing a pair of. Yeah. And they're so swag. Why not wear them? Are those cats too? Yeah, they're cats. They're like spole cats, though. That's it.

Vampire skull cats. Wow. Shout out Nate in the background. Our merch guy slash fill in slash biggest member in the band at this point. Yeah, Nate fills in when like Luke couldn't get a Canadian visa now. So Nate's been filling in on guitar

on the Canadian date. Yeah. And really? He's the most talented merch guy in the war. Yep. And your songs are not easy to play. So you're also ripping. Yeah, Chris is actually my guitar teacher.

Really? Yeah. That's how he started touring with us. I was like, hey, Nate, do you want to come on tour with us? Because I knew he's a hardworking dude. He always went home and practiced really hard. And we got on super well ever since the beginning. So I was just like, well, me and Tom had a discussion and we were like, we should bring Nate on tour with us.

And we need a merch guy. And then he just killed the merch thing. and when we needed him to fill in, he was just there. So in Europe, even when we didn't have a vocalist for a little bit, he was filling in on vocals. He can do it all. Really? Yeah, he played bass.

He's played everything but drum for this band. Well, we all know what's coming next. Tom, watch your back. But he's got a twin brother that's sick at drums, and they've got a band called Divided Specimen. And so it's pretty cool. They're twins. Divided specimen is the name.

And Nate does vocals and guitar at the same time. There's an eight string guitarist who does vocals and guitar at the same time. Right there. And his brother, mad drummer. So they got a sick little thing going. You guys are all very extremely talented. Also watching video because you guys do the, uh, just watching videos you just jamming, like the, like the dump. Thumping thing.

Oh, yeah. Dump and thumb. My man, I can't, I can't. wrap my head around that. We're trying to get that in death metal. It's like a very progressive thing. We're not trying to overdo it, obviously. But we're trying to like, every place that we can,

it'll be like a song in an album that has some of it, maybe a song or two, you know? I can't wrap my head around it either. I've tried it, and I'm just like, this is crazy. I'll stick to chug it. I think it's because Chris and I are like progressive bass guitarists, usually. We like progressive music, progressive metal and progressive rock

and like, you know, scary guitar music with players that, like, go nuts. We're trying to get that world and kind of combines with what we're doing now in the death metal lane. It works quite well, because I just like breakdowns. That makes with what I like.

Combined it to? That's sick. Good. Sometimes things that don't make sense. Makes sense. You don't, never know. There's the guy himself. Yeah.

He's obviously a huge inspiration. Yeah, he's like God. He's the guy. I have that exact same guitar. He's a signature model that he's had with Ibanez. That guitar is sick. It's so sick. It's the best guitar.

It's so sick. You know what? I gotta get an A string. Oh, yeah. I can't, what? I just don't get it. It's crazy. This is the riff.

Yeah, that's the riff. Yeah. I just, I just don't, like, I'm looking at him. How is he making that sound? Yeah. It's like single-coiled pickups. It's a combination of your tone. And obviously, you're getting a couple different timbers from your different fingers hitting the string. Your nail first, then the flesh of your thumb.

And then every finger sounds a bit different. So you're getting this cluster of all these different sounds, which makes it sound so crazy. Yeah. We obsessed over that technique for, like, so long. How long did it take you guys actually get it down? Like, for me, it took, like, three years. You had that, you were doing it kind of like differently before. Yeah.

Yeah, it took me about three years to completely understand even just like the tone you need and kind of understanding the different groupings and getting them down because every finger you can create a different note grouping. And just, you know, practicing rhythms, it's almost like drum rudiments in a sense. So it's just Yeah Getting it down took a while But now that I've got it

It feels easy It's not It just feels like At first It feels like you're learning guitar all over again But once you have it It just feels like another thing you can do Yeah

Yeah So when you're in a home Like how many hours are doing it today How many hours are you trying to Well guitar is still my favorite thing to do Out of everything in the world So I when I'm at home

I feel bad for playing video games so these days I'd rather just pick up a guitar like I love relaxing and trying to play a video game but I don't know guitar is always the first thing I go to when I'm at home so I can't say how many hours it depends

on the day some days of the day most of the day if I'm at home doing nothing yeah and then if I'm not doing that I'm working which you know our job is music music for the most part. Well, yeah, it is out of job. Yeah, for all of us. Yeah. So it's your it's your life. Yeah, it is my life.

Hmm. All of our lives. Yep. Yeah. Do you find that, uh, because, because sometimes you just want to like, okay, I, I want to jam, but I also want to have, what do you see, I want to have a social life. Yeah. And I've, it's a, it's a weird balance. It's a weird. I always say every player is different especially in the kind of scene that we're in right now but uh i find that sometimes am i playing guitar too much it will like i'll get uninspired but then once i go out and see a show or hang on with friends it's like dude do just do dumb shit i mean i want a pizza and beer dude oh yeah laugh laughing not not have that thinking thing yeah but it feels it does feel like you're wasting time yeah it feels like yeah but i i could be you know practicing you're like i'd be practicing that

that fucking dump you know but then but then you come back like the things will tend to click more. Yeah. It's a weird life balance that I have to have a balance. I mean, I think all of us listen to such like different music and inspired by such different things that like it's interesting to pull out of everything else that we like

and try and collaboratively put it involved in your song. Like that's kind of more where we're at now and like the writing thing is like all of us bring ideas and we write songs together and everything's collaborative. Like we write the riffs together. We'd like whereas before. you know it was like he wrote a song or Chris wrote a song or Luke wrote a song so I think like that change for us has been like super inspiring with everyone doing their own thing and having their

own things that they like and listen to you know it's like making the music really fresh yeah and keeps the writing interesting when we like only doing writing focused times and stuff like that i think that's way better too instead of like splitting songs now if we're going to write a vulva dina song we have to write it as vulva dina yeah it has to be a collaborative process now i don't think anyone's allowed to like make songs by their own anymore or like they'd write a little bit and send it to someone that's yeah the collaborative process is so much more fun yeah aspiring than just like writing a song by yourself but a lot of the time we don't even go in with any ideas we just literally get in a room together and we go okay let's write yeah and we sit down and just go for it

pick a tempo yeah just sometimes it's very rare one of us will have a riff that we've been sitting on and then we'll bring that up. But it's from scratch, we start with nothing and then just pass a guitar around and let the ideas flow. And we record it shitty first, and then after that we piece it together and we re-record everything again.

Yeah. Interesting. So you don't even come in the room with the riff. It says, no plan, nothing. Just get them ripped. And it's like Chris said, so much more fun like that. Yeah.

It is. It doesn't feel like a chore when you're like, okay, I have to write songs for this album. So I'm going to sit by myself in my room and go on guitar pro and write it. It's so much better like doing it like that. You go one riff, one riff, one riff. And it turns out to be something totally different to what you would have written by yourself because you have so many ideas going, which is cool.

Yeah. And like as someone's holding the guitar, we all go, no, do it this way, do it that way, do it this way. And then, yeah, it's, it's, completely a combination of all of our thoughts and influences at this point, which is cool because our new album has turned out to be the same old shit like Volvidenia wise, but there's so many unique parts. It's like Bolivir d'i on steroids. It's more tech, more slam, but also stuff that you haven't heard in these genres before, which makes it unique. And that just like Tom said,

It comes from all the different influences and all the different shit we listen. Because we're not listening to Slam on like an everyday basis. We're listening to mostly reggae in the band right now. And this new album is like, it's deathcore. Yeah. But there's stuff in there that you would say that would never fit in a death call song. It's very tick. It's got a bit of everything.

You guys sound proud. We are. We are super excited. And I can't wait to hear it with Lwandae's vocals on it. now. So that's our plan when we get home is just to finish off this album and put it out next year. Yeah. And it's going to be a whole new beginning for us, I think, which is going to be great. Yeah, looking forward to it. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. I think it's time for you guys that have like a new life. Yeah. New beginnings. Yeah. And you and you have like,

I can tell this by being around it. You're just a good energy dude. Thank you. It's cool. I appreciate that. You need that, dude. It's just like one person will bring it down. Fuck, dude. It's tough to get out of that, you know. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, the band is definitely, like, this tour has been, spirits have been good. Oh, yeah, by far. Like, this tour has been so sick. Been such a pleasure doing everything, even though we've been driving ourselves.

Yeah. And, like, it can be hard. It's like, it hasn't been hard, you know. And we're, like, three weeks into driving, like, every single day, like, nearly 10,000 miles. And it's, like, been easy pretty much, you know. Smooth sailing shows have been sick. Tours have been sick. The tour's been sick.

Like, it's been. When your team is cool, things are easy. Yeah. It's true. Yeah, it's really important. Yeah. Did you guys get your IG back or what? No.

You guys started a brand new one, huh? Yeah, we just started a new one. Fuck, that sucks. But the engagement's pretty much the same. Like, I figured, too, there's probably a lot of debt accounts and bot accounts on that other one. Like, there's no way there's actually 80,000 people or whatever that's going to interact with the posts. So the people that are following the new. page are the ones that support us

die hard and it's growing pretty quickly yeah I think he's doing pretty well dude sick dude yeah I've always pointed out like man who's who's even following us are these even like real people yeah at a certain point it's just like bot accounts and fake things you know to like because if you're kind of lots of followers

you get followed by a lot of like add accounts of bot accounts to like message you random things you know yeah so I don't know it's kind of better knowing that now it's like super organic and just homies that are supporting us now. Yeah. Yeah, it's good.

It's good to know that, the honesty, you know. So how's a tour, tour looks like it's been going great? It's been amazing. Great bands look like you guys are in, in good spirits. Yeah, definitely. This is where it's been super sick from beginning up until now, and it's almost over. And there's been so many sold-out shows. And if the show is not sold-out, it's like right at the brink of selling out.

So it's been sick. It's been, every single band is so sick on this tour, too. Just watching them every. every day yeah so it's it's kind of like the sickest tour it to be like ending ending kind of ending the gear off i don't know if we're going to do it uh anymore i think we're just going to work on the old yeah so yeah this may be the last tour we do for the year and if it is like i'm happy with that yeah it's a good way to end off the year to get way to end off the year in vancouver home of uh angel maker yeah oh yeah and then we have to drive back to san francis

go after that and then fly home oh that's that sucks yeah it's okay we're used to the long drives now oh you got go you got to that border twice yeah it's the worth border on the planet really yeah Canadian border the last time we crossed it it was pretty easy it's easy for us yeah really if we just have all the right stuff and like you know we know that everything is all legit so our visas have to be like pre-approved you know like the same as the US visa for us so now that we got those we just get there and they're like okay sweet Maybe they just hate Americans. Probably.

Well, a lot of people do. I've come to realize that. It's like, man, I'm just, I just live here, man. I'm just, I'm, oh, fuck. I'm not part of anything. Well, yeah, that maybe it might be it. But these guys are American. This is give them shit.

Yeah, let's just make their day bad. Let's look with him. Make them pay a tax and have him wait here for three hours. Oh, yeah, and it's 4 a.m. Yeah, it's been, luckily, super easy. So hopefully when they go back that it's going to be easy as well. Well, you might have spoke to you.

I might have jingston. You might have spoke too soon. You might have been across the board and get a fucking mug. Just like home, baby. Especially in a, in Vancouver. I'm pretty sure the, uh, that the guys will tell you. It's a, it's a wild area. Oh, we've played in.

We played in Rickshaw. Oh, yeah. So you know. Yeah. Zombie City. Damn. That was the first time I think I saw someone fucking you know, Perry went, I'm like, oh my goodness.

So casually, too. It's casualty. On the sidewalks. I'm trying to go to Starbucks. I have a, it's a coffee, you know. It's wild over there. Really wild. Portland's getting kind of wild, too.

Is it? Yeah. It was pretty wild last time we were there. It's all a blur to me now. Seattle, too. Seattle, too. Oh, Seattle, really? Yeah.

We're about to play there, too. It's that 10 city next to El Carzon. Hmm. I heard that he's cleaned up. what was the venue that you guys played in Seattle? Elkhazan. Really? Yeah.

How was, so there's a freeway overpass. Yeah. And there's a, there was, oh, this for years, it's been like a homeless encampment. Yes, there is. Yeah, under the bridge. Still there? Yeah. Still there.

Yeah. Just to win last week, it was cleaned up. Well, maybe it, maybe it is. We'll see when we, we play there. Yeah. It's the second roster. Yeah. Always, oh, wait, you play there.

A roster. previous tour, got it. Okay. Yeah, we're about to find out. Okay, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's still there. It's probably back up by now. There's just really sick, like a timing spot there. It's crazy to have like a menu menu.

They have a vegetarian menu and a vegan menu. And it's all the same shit. That's good for Chris. Oh, sick. It's right, it's right by there. But I was like, am I risking my life just to have a fucking vegan pizza or something? Yeah, I heard, I think I think is it. And plus you got to go

Oh yeah, I remember that You got to go through under that Overpass because So there's the restaurant to the right But if you go up a little bit more And turn left That's like the like the Starbucks Starbucks The good one

They're like that the massive Starbucks Yeah Because Starbucks started in Seattle Yeah yeah Yeah they have like a It's like a massive fucking bar In like the middle But they serve coffee

I haven't seen that one It's cool Yeah It's really cool Yeah that's it Yeah Wow that's a Starbucks Yeah, it's a kind of cool place to chill

I always go there When I'm one When we put that venue But I'm always sketched out Walking past that area I don't trust anybody You know That's the best way

Yeah, you shouldn't Like a state They could come out of nowhere Yep You know You say walk walk with your head down Yeah You know

Always be aware of purpose And someone told me You guys would have You guys are perfect to ask this Someone told me Don't walk around with a couple of Starbucks because then you look like you could get robbed. Oh yeah.

There's many things that like don't walk around with that. Don't walk around with earphones in your head, you know? So many things. Walk with purpose. Look where you're, either directly where you're going or down. Like you learn depending on where you live that like if it's like a dangerous area, you hold demeanor changes.

You know, like I don't walk how I walk in Johannesburg CBD, how I walk in like when I'm at home or around people I know, you know. Yeah. Got to act tough. You adapt, you know. You look like don't mess with me when I'm walking. It's like if they only knew that I'm not tough at all. If they only knew.

Well, maybe that that's what confidence is, right? It's like, it's false bravado. Yeah, it's like, you know, like, well, I'm scared, but I'm just going to walk like. Tough it out, you know. I'm going to walk like I'm sick, dude. Why don't you guys get to L.A.? It's a long drive. Brush hour is approaching.

Oh, yeah. But I appreciate your time and thank you for stopping by. Thank you. We love it. It's been an absolute pleasure. It's been amazing. That's cool, man. You guys,

good luck on the rest of the week. Thank you. Yeah. You guys got it also a very exciting end in the year. Yeah. Yep, new album. Coming out, working on it. Should be out next year, I think.

Maybe. Yeah. Early next year. Yep. Yeah, I always wonder, like, how do you, are you guys doing vinyl or what's like? Everything. Yeah.

Everything. Everything. You guys have to deal with the final shortages or no? I think we did. It did affect this. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

The vinyl shipped like a month later. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The album dropped and there was no vinyl for like a couple months. Yeah. But the order still went through.

So those people got their albums like way off to the album. What's that? Sick. Cool. Where can people find you? You can find us at our new Instagram at Volvedinia official. I can find us on our Facebook page, Wallvedinia. Facebook forward slash Volvedinia.

We're on all streaming platforms. All the Ninja slam on Facebook. Oh, Volvinia Slam, I'm fault. We have a website, too, that links to all of our social medias and everything that we're doing and all the tours that we're doing. Yeah, we're out here. Oh, you are out here. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.