Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.114 | Feat. Steve Sopchak from The Square Studio

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Good News York: Behind the Scenes with Music Producer Steve Sopchak In this episode of Good News York, hosts Matt Masur and Mike welcome Steve Sopchak, a talented musician, songwriter, producer, and owner of The Square Studio in Syracuse, NY. They discuss Steve's journey from recording in his parents' basement to working with major metal bands like Ice Nine Kills. Steve shares his insights on the evolving music industry, the impact of technology on music production, and the importance of relationships in business. They also delve into his creative processes for recording and composing music, and the transformative experience of balancing a music career with family life. The episode wraps up with rapid-fire questions about Steve's musical influences and favorite artists. 00:00 Introduction and Catching Up 01:42 Guest Introduction: Steve Soic 02:26 Steve's Journey in Music 05:45 Balancing Creativity and Business 09:41 Composing for Media 16:05 The Impact of Family and Future Plans 17:00 Touring with Ice Nine Kills 18:38 The Role of Labels in Modern Music Production 19:38 The Shift from Albums to Singles 21:49 The Decline of Physical Formats and the Rise of Digital 23:44 The Evolution of Artist-Fan Relationships 25:08 Rapid-Fire Questions: Favorite Artists and Bands 27:29 Greatest Concert Experiences 30:20 Steve's Upcoming Tour and Final Thoughts

Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them. Plus, time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age-appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley,

Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L' Week Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirond's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey guys, I'm Matt Meager from Growth Mode content. Welcome to Good News, York. It's a Tuesday. I think so. I think it's Tuesday.

I vaguely remember coming to work yesterday, so I think that. I vaguely remember, I vaguely remember you being here, honestly. Yesterday was a day's. It was. Dude, we're back in the saddle. It's been a while, dude. Like, I did like a quick thing yesterday. It just wasn't the same.

It was like a week. Yeah. It was like... Danny had vacation. He went out and bagged himself a mouse in Florida and... Yeah, Mickey Mouse. Had fun at the magical kingdom or whatever adults do. adults do at Disney. I don't totally understand. But anyway, dude, Mikey's bet.

What is this shirt we got today? Oh, it's a bill shirt. Of course. No, no, no, no, no. Kind of. So, my favorite, my favorite sports show on television is Good Morning Football. On Tuesdays, they do Angry Run segment. Long story short, my favorite guy, Kyle Brandt, he plays like four clips from a t-shirt for a bit on another show. Well, I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there. So he picks like four plays from the weekend of Angry Runs. And what he means by that is like when a running back just bowels someone over, right? All right, fair enough. And then they vote who wins the Scepter.

They have this SEPter and they send it to the football player. And then through homage, T-shirts, they then release a shirt that week of the player. James Cook won Angry Runs this past week. What a racket, man. Yeah, it's a huge racket. It's very brilliant. And so I bought my shirt because I'm a sucker. And here we are.

But, dude, forget. Without further ado. Yeah. We have a guess. We have a great guest. I'm very excited about this. Listen, everybody has been telling me about this gentleman, and we've been looking at his website, and I'm very, very excited. Tell us who this fella is.

This, ladies and gentlemen, welcoming Steve Sopchik to the show, Steve, writer, musician, songwriter, composer. What am I missing? The producer. Producer, right. Hello. Engineer. He does it all. He is the owner and operator of the Square Studio right here in Syracuse.

We can call him ours. Steve Sofjic. Thank you for coming, man. Absolutely. You are an impressive guy, quite the resume. Yeah. Thank you. Steve, why don't you just give us kind of a little bit of the rundown?

What is your... Sure. It started in a base. Well, I started as a recording studio in high school and just, you know, was recording. my band practices, friends bands, band practices, and sort of got hooked on the technology and the process of that. When I graduated college,

I started doing a full-time out of my mom's basement, my parents' basement, stayed there for probably two or three years and then met up with a guy named Jason Randall who owns, at the time it was called Moore Sound, now it's Capture Studio, right on Burnett Ave in Syracuse. And he had been kind of a mentor of mine over the years, opened up his space to me

and I built out the back half of his building which is where I still am today. Oh, wow. And kept recording bands, writing with bands. And then probably around 2014 or 2015, I started doing composition for TV ads, movie trailers,

TV shows, things of that nature and have sort of split my time between the composition side and the writing and producing side ever since. Wow. That's wild, man. How do you, how do you, get to that point. Like, how do you go from a local in Syracuse to these big opportunities?

It's, it's weird. I can, it's, the funniest thing is I can actually trace it back to my first client ever. Every opportunity I've ever had, I can trace back to the first guy that I ever recorded. I love that. And it's without, without going into all of the details of how, I think it just, it speaks to like, you know, every, every person you meet is an opportunity. You never know where the next job is going to come from. You never know who can open the next door or what door you can open for the next person or however that works. So throughout the years, just each opportunity that I've gotten has been a result of somebody that I've worked with previously or some relationship that we formed previously. So the sort of the transition from solely recording, you know, punk and hardcore bands and stuff like that into doing the custom composition stuff was I recorded a band called the Venetia Fair from Boston.

And the singer of that band was like a very talented, you know, multi-instrumentalist, really like awesome with music. And he went to school with a guy who was job out of college was working at a music house that sort of, you know, all these brands and ad agencies would come and say, we need a song like this. We need lyrics like this.

We need these sorts of things. And then his friend was like, hey, you two should try this. You're good in the studio together. Like, let's do what happens. We tried it and we won the first job that we'd We pitched on it was a national campaign for Ashley Furniture. And we were just like, we were hooked. It was like, yeah, dude.

This is way better than what either of us we're doing at the time in terms of, you know, timing and potential benefit and stuff like that. So it was, we were hooked. And he actually ended up moving to Syracuse for a couple years. We worked together in the studio full time doing that. Just every pivot has been some result of, you know, a relationship formed through the process. I love hearing that. I am a huge believer.

I think of 97% of my business has been built on relationships and networking and where it goes from there. I think that's incredible. Could you talk about a little bit? Obviously, you're a creative person. You're an artist, first and foremost, right? But you've clearly had to become a business person as well. And can you tell me how those worlds kind of melds and how that's worked out for you? It's a great question.

Kind of kicking and streaming, honestly. Sure. No, so both my parents are are business minded. My mom is a business manager for the sisters of St. Francis. And my dad has been a consultant for most of my life that I can remember. So they've always been like sort of really helpful in making sure I don't do stupid things like you know, like, you know, helping me figure out the things that. So I went to Sunniuswego. I graduated with a marketing degree. But, you know, like I graduated and I was like, well, I don't know how to do taxes. Like, I don't know. Sure.

What are I supposed to do? So my parents have been really helpful in terms of, like, you know, guiding me through that. But most of the business side of it has just been kind of like figuring it out as I go. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, I don't really do. I never really did advertisements or anything like that. It was always word of mouth and going to meet in people and going to shows and shaking hands and just kind of trying to, like, be part of the things I wanted to be a part of.

Yeah. It's, it's, I love that. Led to where it is. I love hearing about that, man. That is, it's just, just the best story. Yeah. So one thing I want to ask you is, you've grown, you've got this massive success, and you've stayed right here in Syracuse. Yeah.

You're not going to L.A. or Manhattan or anything like that, as many folks might. Why? I think a number of reasons. The first is I've always sort of felt like my, my, if my work isn't in, service to my life outside of it like what am i doing you know um so to go to a place solely because work is there if i don't have to like feels like why would i yeah um and i grew up here i grew up in marcellus i still live in marcellus um and i've i do travel a lot for work but i you know it's it's always nice to come back to the place that feels like home um and luckily through you know

one of the benefits of covid time was that all this technology was developed where where it used to feel like you were expected to be in a room with people. Now, there's all these ways that, you know, we can record remote and we can write remote. And, you know, you're not expected to be in the places like maybe you once were. So that has been super helpful. And it allows me to do, like, you know, a few trips a year to L.A. or a few trips a year around and then fill in the gaps with those remote sessions. And also some of the bands that I work with actually love coming to Syracuse.

and just like, you know, experiencing that and having just a different place to be and work. We absolutely have a lot to offer. Yeah. I can imagine, especially for a group and Mike can speak to this, because, you know, working in the studio and things like that, being able to maybe escape and a little prettier or not necessarily Bracist-type city might be kind of cool.

Yeah, man. For 10 years, I had a band, and we recorded three albums. We toured. So my life has been back and forth between stand-up comedy and music, and I too, I know exactly what you're talking about. You know, we had to become our own label. So like, I was the same way. I'm like, wait, I have to create,

we have to do business as what? And then I have to do sales tax. And it's like, oh, and then I've got to register with ASCAP. And you really do just learn as you go. And again, I relate to the city thing. I never had the means to be able to live in New York or L.A. I didn't have the money. And we were in a time like you where things were happening.

to where you could do everything from where you are. And I think you and I made out okay because with the way things are going, I don't know if I want to be there. Yeah. But the reason I'm telling you all this is because at one point in my music career, we've got approach to do some composing and you've done a lot of composing.

And I remember thinking, you know, songwriting is, I don't want to say easy, but, you know, songwriting is natural to me. Composing was a whole different story. And so I didn't know what the process was, right? Like, there's no handwritten. So I kind of just had the guy send me some footage, and I watched it and sat through my guitar and just kind of just wrote to what I was seeing. And I was just curious what your process is in composing, if there is one.

Yeah, I mean, every project is different. Some of the projects, you know, I never see picture, which is the craziest thing in the world. you know, I'll get a creative brief that, you know, in words describes what's supposed to happen. Yeah. And gives me sort of general time stamps or things I'm supposed to hit because a lot of times that footage is like, they're trying to keep it real secret so they don't want it distributed. And that's always weird because the natural thing would be I would love to watch this and make the thing that looks good against this.

So, yeah, I would say, you know, many of the projects are things that I never see against picture. until it's released. Interesting. But there are certainly a fair share of lower stakes projects that, you know, everybody will send video and I'll be able to do whatever I need to, to the video. And that's nice. But process-wise, it's different every time. Right. I get asked to make a lot of different styles of music, you know, a lot of, I'm one of the few composers in the companies that I work with that still record things in open air. So I'm mostly playing everything. thing, you know. I do use samples and I do, you know, if I need to use synthetic things,

I do. But that is, I think, a lot of the reason that, you know, the process looks different every time. It's like I'm grabbing a different instrument or I'm in a different space. Every project has its own DNA. Totally. Yeah. And I think that's the fun of it is just to try to chase that. Like what it, you know, there's times I'm like, there was, I don't know why this reminds me out, but I think it's a funny story. There is a time where this huge thing of chicken white. blew up against the back of our building on Burnett Ave. And it was just this like ball of like weird wire. And, you know, so I went out to my car to leave for the night.

And it was against my car and I picked it up. And it sounded weird. And like I was shaking it. And it was strange. And so I brought it into the studio. I was like, we'll mess with this tomorrow. And so we did. And we were, you know, we took like violin bows down it and did all these crazy things.

And it became a like major backbone of a sound effects for this Netflix show that we We scored, called Fearless. Yeah. But that was literally just happenstance, that that blew against the car. That's the greatest. We shook it. It was weird. But that's, you know, those are kind of like the things we were chasing.

In my experience, I've had times in the studio. We had this one thing where I was doing a guitar track, but I was in the live room. I forget why. And all of a sudden, like, I just got this weird feedback. And I remember looking at the producer and he's like, keep going. So I just kind of got closer. And we ended up using it as kind of like a over top. And like those moments of those beautiful mistakes are the best.

Chicken wire is next level though. That is fucking next level, that's fully sound shit. That's why he stays in Syracuse. Right. Yeah. But random sounds that appear. You're going to get in your car in L.A. and find chicken wire. Right.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That's fantastic, dude. I love it. I love it. Let me ask you. So out of all these different things that you're doing, is there one that's really predominant? Are you doing composing more than anything else?

Or do you find yourself? I feel like it's kind of. kind of switched over time, you know. Initially it was almost all recording and then it like very quickly switched over to almost all composing. And then in the last couple of years as, you know, the I think just honestly like the production music and sync music market has just become like so sad. Yeah. There's so many people doing it. You know, I've just, I've gone back to songwriting and I've been doing a lot, a few of the bigger metal bands that I work with, they're on the same cadence with their album cycle.

So the last two years, I've been, like, heavily focused on the songwriting side of that. And I'm still doing the composition stuff, but it's kind of, it's been a nice, like, kind of fortunate blend that as the composition opportunities have sort of, you know, the low-hanging fruit in that is, is essentially gone now, the things that would keep me busy sort of every day. But I've, in a weird way, just, like, replaced that with the songwriting for some of these albums and been able to kind of stick with the bigger composition projects. Yeah, and see, you're lucky, too, in that, you know, when these music projects, when there's a lull between the actual songwriting and recording of bands or artists or playing yourself, you know,

we're in a time now where there is so much work out there for scoring and composing that, you know, it's funny that back in the day would be like, we got to get more bands in here. We got to, you know, it was harder to get those kind of those licensing gigs to. do music for movies and film and video games. And now, you know, that could almost be your bread and butter more than the music, I would think. Yeah, and it was for many years. I think, I think, unfortunately, AI is kind of shaking

that up a little bit. But, yeah, I mean, I think everything changes over time. And there was a time where that was scary, like, you know, not knowing what you're going to be doing in five years, but now I kind of feel like that's exciting. Are your projects just kind of

like falling into your lap? Like, you always got like an oar in the water? Or do you find in between projects, sometimes you're kind of out there looking. I feel like I say yes to everything. Yeah, right. I know. I do feel like there's not often a lull, but I do also, like in the past, I would say, five or six years since having a kid where like time became this much more precious

commodity. I've been trying to, you know, set up the long-term things, you know, like what? What am I trying to build? What am I trying to do? And when a project or an opportunity comes along or I'm out there trying to secure those things, it's easier to assess, you know, does this meet my goal? Does this help me get closer to the thing I'm trying to do? Rather than just yes to everything.

You know, you said something really key there because I experienced it too where you hear about artists, bands, people in general, they have kids. And then, you know, all of a sudden the career kind of takes a back seat. And when I was younger, I would think, that's never going to happen. Like, I thought that it's like the kid makes it so that you can't go do what you love. It turns out it's the other way around. You're like, like you just said, you're like, time is precious. And I found in my adult life now that I care more about time than anything, who I'm with and where and when.

Yeah. And it's because where else would I rather be than with my kid, you know? So I love that you said that, man. It's wild how that happened. Yeah. And you still love it. Like, you still have the same passion for your art. But it's like, now you have something.

that you've never loved more than anything and trying to balance that could be tough. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ig-Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades,

we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Uniworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is going to explode? Well, liquid death now makes a better-for-you energy drink.

Liquid-death sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose or aspartame or artificial colors and dyes. Plus, it has essential vitamins. You can find it in four delicious flavors. that have a clean taste. Scary strawberry, strawberry, kind of a hint of lemon, tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada,

orange hares, tasty orange with a hint of orange cream, and murder mystery, a blend of cherry cola and spices. You see, I love a good energy drink to keep me moving, and I'm glad now I have liquid death sparkling energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. They have unexstream 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee.

You can buy liquid death. sparkling energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-Eleven or learn more at liquid death.com. But you're in a fortunate situation because speaking of the work you're doing, dude, you're going out on tour with... Yeah, I'm filling in on guitar for Ice 9 kills in Europe. So that will be fun. Dude.

One of the biggest metal bands in the world. And I kind of are, I kind of cheated. I already know how this happened, but for the viewers and listeners, how did this come about I know you worked with Ice Nine Kills. Yeah. So I've, again, this is one of those things I can trace back to almost the first client I ever recorded. But I've been working with some version of people who have been affiliated with Ice Nine Kills back to, you know, probably honestly, 2004 would be the earliest time. But, but actually with the band Ice Nine kills since 2008 or nine.

And we've been friends forever. I've produced their first three or four records. And then, you know, when they moved to L. because they used to be Boston based, but they moved to LA in 2016 or 17, and we just kept writing together remotely. We've done that for, you know, ever since. And so, yeah, so when their guitar player, you know, couldn't do this one, they just reached out and were like, hey, you know, would you be down to do this? And I sort of instinctually said no, because, you know, thinking about like, do I want to be away from my kid that long? Yeah, that long, you know.

I went home that night and I told my wife like kind of half jokingly like, can you believe they asked me to do this? And she was like, why wouldn't you? Yeah, that's awesome. He married the right one. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You make it work. Yeah. You make it work.

Yeah, so I sat with why wouldn't I for like 20 minutes and I was like, oh my God, I have to. Yeah. Yeah. And then a piece of chicken wire hit him in the right. Exactly. And he was like, we got to do this. Yeah. Man, that is amazing.

During that time with Ice 9 kills, because things have changed in the business. How much is it just you in the band? Is the label involved at all during the recording process? Not in a creative sense, really in any way that I'm aware of. I mean, we've definitely, like, I've been in the studio where somebody from the label will drop I and say what's up and check it out or whatever, but never in like a you got to do this or make this kind of way. Like, they, you know, those days are kind of over, I think, right?

I mean, I can only speak for like the camps that I work at. with, but like the creative, like the driving creative force of, like, more successful bands that I work with are, like, such visionaries that, like, I can't imagine a scenario where somebody's ever telling them like, hey, this is what you're supposed to be doing. Especially when they have a resume

like they do. Yeah. It's kind of like, you've earned the right to, like, you just, we'll trust you. Yeah. Go ahead. Use chicken wire. That's fine. I mean, like, yeah. Steve, tell me a little bit about the sort of modern, I guess, state of music, right? Are we making traditional kind of full albums?

And then when you do, are you thinking about track order or things like that? Like you may have 20, 30 years ago. Great question. I think it's hard because people tend to consume things in like these bite-sized, you know, snip, like snippets now. I have not necessarily thought much or gotten into a situation in a studio

where anyone's thinking about like, how will this work on TikTok? you know like nobody's asking those questions because I think first and foremost like the bands are are interested in making like the thing that they want to make and if it works across those other platforms then great but

that's not like a been a chief goal but I do I do think that you know the album is sort of sadly like a dying thing and it's because a lot of the reason I think is because the digital aggregators like Spotify and

and all those things that are putting content out, reward frequency of release over, like, you know, so you're better off releasing one single every, you know, three weeks or six weeks or, it's like social media. Three months, then you are, you know, especially as an up-and-coming artist, like you're rewarded the more you put out. So, you know, dropping an album all at once,

you rarely will see. I mean, even the bigger bands will do, you know, three and four singles now before the record is actually out. So it's definitely more single focused or more single piece focused. Are you recording the same way? Recording more individual songs? Are you still doing a bunch together? A lot of the smaller or mid-tier bands are just coming in and doing, you know,

either they'll do one song at a time or they'll come in and they'll do three, but it'll be three songs that will be released three months apart from each other, you know? The bigger bands were still making albums, but the way that that rolls out is, and I don't have a say in that really or whatever, but it will still roll out in pieces. So then on that same track, you know, the last album I recorded with my band was in 2015 and things have changed drastically since then.

We were only pressing, we would press like 100 CDs just to have physical stuff. Yeah. And then we'd have download cards. Are you mixing and mastering for multiple formats now and what's kind of the go-to format for like an album? Yeah, I mean, so typically I'll give a digital master and a vinyl master because vinyl is such a different medium and the dynamic range is,

you know, so much smaller. Well, actually the content can have a much greater dynamic range, but in any case, the, you know, I'll deliver those two masters. Sometimes I still will deliver, like what's called a DDP, which is for CDs, but not a ton of people are doing CDs anymore. I think, you know, kind of the novelty of vinyl is like the physical, that's the physical sale now, and then the digital stuff is just, you know, it is what it is. And the target for that is always changing. It seems like depending on what platform it is and how it's coming out. I feel like the biggest loss here is the loss of the hidden track.

Dude. Dude. Corn? Corn? Every album I would wait because I knew there would be some sick, twisted, dark thing about Jonathan Davis and his father. And sure enough, he would deliver. You know, that's the thing about the CDs. I mean, I guess vinyl's kind of helping supplement or whatever.

But I feel I don't feel bad that I don't get to listen to these anymore. I feel bad. You know, we're the same. I remember the day Green Day's Duky and I think Blues Travelers 4 came out on the same day. And like we made an appointment after school, my friends and I, to get in the car. We drive around smoking cigarette, whatever we're doing, and passing around the liner notes. And that, I'm getting goosebumps. Like that was, am I old for that?

Sure. I don't give a shit. But I'm just saying the younger generations, it's not. about us not getting to do that. I'm sad that they don't get to experience. Yeah. And maybe the vinyl brings that back a little, but I think there, I mean, it's hard to, it's such a different world. Like, we didn't have these sort of like parisocial relationships with our, you know, the band we love. Like, we didn't have access to like Billy Joe Armstrong. We got, we got him through Rolling Stone or whatever. But like now, now you can tweet him.

Yeah, it's like, and now, you know, the engagement between the artist and their fan base is such a, but it's so much more direct. And so I think, like, on the one hand, you lose... That's a great point. On the one hand, you lose the sort of, like, you know, misheptile nature of, you know, music is a pastime. We're devoting time to that. But, like, the entire thing that is the artist,

you have a little bit more... It's more of a two-way thing. You just blew my mind open. No, no, no. I see what you're saying. Like, the whole thing about passing around the liner notes was the equivalent of, like, getting to see behind the seat. footage or seeing them on Twitter.

Right. And now they don't have that, but they get to, I can see them like, hey, get ready with me. Right. Here's my new shoes. You know, that's a great observation, man. Yeah, and I don't know that one is better than the other. I don't even. I think if I could pick one, I'd love to go back to the time where I would sit and listen to something and be consumed by, you know, the liner notes of the music that's happening.

But, um, but yeah, I don't think, I do think that it's just, it's just different. It is. Very different. All right. Steve, I got a couple of. of quick. Yeah, me too. No wrong answer question.

Good, good, because that's where I was going. All right. And don't think about this too much. Yeah. It's your favorite metal band. Oh, man, favorite metal band. That's impossible. It's tough.

I would honestly probably X-Tol. Okay. Would you say that the godfathers of metal are Black Sabbath? That seems to be the consensus. In my world, it's Metallica, but I know that I don't, I don't have an opinion. I'm not an authority. I lied to him.

I said no hard-hitting questions. Yeah. What's the best? All right. I got more. I got more. Favorite country artist. Ooh, Rustin Kelly.

I loved that. I just saw him in Philly too for like the third time and he was awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Favorite rap artist? Hip hop, I guess. We'll go any of those. Whatever the kids are calling it these days.

So tough. I mean, near and dear to my heart, I think, over the long haul. is a little boozy. That's nice. Throw a little in front of it, you know it's going to be good. John, a little lazy badass now. But I, yeah, I have not been super current on my... I've been busy getting ready to tour with Ice Day and Kill.

Last one of these. Any genre, any time in history, who would be your top musical artist? Oh, man. Like, who would I want to see or who do I think is the most... you know, the first one that comes to mind. The, by far, I think the most influential band on me out of all time in history is a band called Lifetime. They were like a punk band from New Jersey, but they were the first band that I heard that was like super fast, super aggressive, not manicured in any way, but like also somehow melodic. And it was outside of what I had heard ever in punk and hardcore, meaning like, you know, the chords had like interesting extensions and, you know, the rugs had like interesting extensions.

and the rhythms were different. And so first hearing that record, that changed probably the course of my life. It was the first time I was ever like, this music is me. It speaks to me, you know? So, yeah, I think it would be that band. That's awesome, man.

All right. I've got a couple. Go for it, buddy. All right. He's here. I got to do it. Greatest concert you've ever been to. Oh, good question.

Oh, man. I know it's tough. Greatest concert I've ever been to where you left like holy. Fuck. I've been to a couple of those, but if you had to... I honestly think one of them would be seeing Rust and Kelly at the... I got a checklist. What is the studio? The studio on Woodstock, the guy for the drums band.

Yeah, a bunch of people have recorded there. The barn studio there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was a very small show, probably 150 people. And he came and he played it acoustic. And I went with my wife. That was the first time we saw him live. And he was awesome. Dude, that's rad that you even went there. That's a pretty famous. It was so cool. It was so cool to be in that space and, you know, the whole time just thinking like, to be a feel. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, that was one where it was on a small scale, but it was, I definitely left being like, wow, I've never seen like that was awesome. I think, well, I mean, one that sticks out, I hate to say it about a band that I've worked with, but when Ice Sank Hills played the amphitheater here, you know, I had not seen him in forever. The last time I saw him, it was like, you know, in Syracuse, they were. like playing the Lost Horizon and it wasn't full. So a couple years ago when they came here and, you know, they were playing. I think it was like there was 11,000 people or so.

It was some crazy number. You know, and to hear everybody singing along and all that and I texted my parents and was like, hey, you know, like seven miles away, we made like the first record for this, you know, in your basement and now look what it is like this many years later. But that was one where it really actually like hit me that like what I've contributed to was actually grown in this way. That was like an experience that I feel like I wouldn't trade.

Last one for me, and I just, by the way, I almost just shit my pants. I thought we'd been interviewing him for an hour and a half. I realized we haven't set our clock back. I was like, boy, I knew I was enjoying this, but I didn't know we've been here for a fucking hour and a half. Now, this one we might have to add it out, because you might have to get back to me in a day on this, but this is my all-time favorite question

to ask other musicians and songwriters. If you could pick alive or dead, your ultimate band to be on stage. I'll give you an example. Like, for me, it would be Stephen Tyler as the front man. It would be Carter Buford on the drums, Victor Wooten on the bass, and then I would probably go Eddie Van Halen on guitar.

I'll just say that for now. Damn, I mean, that is a very difficult question. That's why I said we probably have to edit it out. But, you know, you might just have it top of mind. I don't. And I feel like this actually makes me feel guilty if we're not, like when I think about bands, think about them as a unit.

I know you mean, you know, and I'll listen to it. Technically, it's got to be what's good for this genre and what's good for this song. You can't just pick. But then for me, it's like, I don't know if I could identify, like, you know, it's hard. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

We'll edit it out. But, man, you are what? Steve, you have done so much. Dozens of film and game trailers. You've co-wrote and produced 200 albums and top 10 singles. and the square studio, which is not square, it's actually rectangular we found out, but we won't hold it against you.

And you're right here in Syracuse, and we're so happy. I mean, that's what Good News York is about, is shedding light on awesome shit going on in New York State. And when it's right in our backyard, it's even better. Yeah, it's so cool. Love having you on. Steve, is there any plugs websites stuff

where people can check out. All of it. My website is just stevesopjack.com. You know, if anybody's... Oh, I also should plug Capture Studio. That's the building that I'm in that my buddy Jocko owns. You know Jock

Yeah. Oh no shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like he's the guy. He's been a mentor forever. I recorded and either played with everybody surrounding him but have never, like we all know him, but I've never worked with him. But I know Jocko, that's a big name around here. Well, so his building, you know,

which is the building that I'm in, there's three studios, a bunch of engineers, but he just did a really cool project where he remodeled the whole thing and essentially like, you know, if you're used to recording on your laptop and your bedroom, now you can go in and in like five minutes with a USB drive, you can, you know, put drivers on your computer and have access to his entire studio. Oh, holy show.

And run it from a front end that you're comfortable with. So it's wild. It's super cool. And the building is super cool. And all my friends work there. So, yeah, we should, you know, definitely check that. I think that's capture. Dot studio is the web address for that.

Awesome. And catch Steve on tour with Ice 9. kills. Yeah. No, he's not just hanging out. He's playing fucking guitar, man. I'm excited for you. Thank you. How long is that tour? Uh, I think there, I think it's like 21 shows maybe. I leave over like four months, three months. No, it's short. I leave the 10th and I come up of this month and I come back to 17th of December. Oh, okay. We're in time for Christmas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome, man. But yeah, it should be fun. I'm excited for you. Enjoy your travels and I hope you have some fantastic shows. This has been really awesome, man. I really appreciate you come

Yeah, definitely. And I can, these guys will attest, I don't ever, if I say this, I say it off the air. I'm going to say it on the air. This has been one of my favorite interviews that we've ever done. Well, cheers. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I don't get the opportunity to do stuff like this very often.

I appreciate it. You can come back anytime, man, for sure. All right. I think we got it, my friend. I don't know what else there is to say. I mean, I could think of a million things, but we've been here for four hours according to that clock. According to that clock. This is good news.

You're sponsored by ads on the go. Get it on the go down. What do we got later this week? Well, Amanda. Everson Museum. Everson Museum. We're going there, right? Samaritan Center.

We're going there. We're going to get very culture. Samaritan Center. Yeah, I feel like... I'm talking to SOS about their trip to Ghana. Nice. We're getting worldly, we're getting culture, we're getting... Wow.

I'm going to blow your mind again. Dude, we're going to be smart by Friday. We're going to be, like, really small. I totally hope. Yeah, well. I'm mad, that's my Danny behind the board. Steve's object. The Square Studio, check him out.

Peace out. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Univoreau Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast, on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more.

Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at rss.com.