HardLore - DRAIN & HardLore Behind The Scenes: "...Is Your Friend" Tour 2026

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

A few weeks ago, Bo & I had the special privilege of traveling to Nashville to get an inside look into the making of DRAIN's "...Is Your Friend" U.S. tour with No Pressure, Haywire and Secret World, via our friends at Monster Energy.  This was our first OFFICIAL "assignment" on behalf of Monster since we started working with them officially in January, and it's a bittersweet example of what was to come of this dream partnership. We're so grateful for the memories that this has created since losing our beloved Bohan Lueders, for what has now become his penultimate HardLore episode ever.  We spent several days with the band & their crew made up entirely of hardcore musicians from bands like Rotting Out, Cosmic Joke, One Step Closer and more to give you all an inside look at their gear & production. We hope you enjoy this unique episode that was a first and last for us as a duo, where Bo’s unique knowledge and passion for gear was on full display. Go see them near you soon. Head to hardloremerch.com to grab a Bo memorial t-shirt for an amazing cause that we can't wait to tell you more about soon... ________________ 00:01:44 - Chapter 1: DRAIN, Before The Storm 00:06:29 - Chapter 2: HardLore Hardware Highlight, Drain's Gear 00:48:25 - Chapter 3: They're The Crew, Meet Drain's Touring Crew 01:17:24 - Chapter 4: Drain & Co.'s Top 4 Hardcore Records 01:22:10 - Chapter 5: Day One of Tour in Dallas Texas  HardLore: A Knotfest Series, Fueled by Monster EnergyEdited by Steven Grise • Title sequence by Nicholas MarzlufJoin the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes.Join the HARDLORE DISCORD for community discussions and to participate in our future Q&A episodes.FOLLOW HARDLORE: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, SPOTIFY, APPLEFOLLOW COLIN: INSTAGRAMFOLLOW BO: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER For sponsorship opportunities, email us! [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, welcome. It's Hardlord Time. My name is Colin. And I'm Bo. And we are here in Nashville, Tennessee, with Monster Energy to give you a special inside look at Drain's upcoming, is your friend U.S. Tour with Haywire and No Pressure. Come on inside. Let's show you.

This is a big facility of sorts that's got all kinds of music in it. We've heard tell of, should we name? Country music. Country music. Some pop stars, some heavy metal, if you will. Metallica. The fucking lads. Yeah, the Beatles were here.

Yeah, all right, we're here in room 4D because Drain is a four-dimensional band, of course. We're sick of this three-dimensional crap, you know? Hopefully it's open. It's not gonna be. It's closed. Give us a second. So we're here right now.

We're in Nashville in this crazy, ass, big-ass spa. I have no idea why they let us in here. We're building out. Colin Boe and the whole crew is doing this for 48 hours now, watching us figure out what the fuck's going on very cluelessly. And you're getting ready for Drain's biggest tour yet. Biggest tour, biggest, yeah.

Tell me about putting together the is your friend U.S. Tour. Okay. Why don't we just do four bands, make it fucking awesome, all different flavors, not too, not all heavy, it's not all punk, it's just kind of got a little everything. And that's how we ended up here. Yeah, we did Haywire, played some of those tours. those shows. Like four dates.

Two years ago, we played on, okay, Tom's played Boston. They opened. Stole the show. They could have, we should have all just went home

right after that. So here we are. Two years later, foolishly going to do the same thing again. Like, dude, that's their show in Worcester. That's your show every night. We just get to play it.

But I'm a haywire head. I'm a fucking head. And then you got no pressure. No pressure, direct support. No pressure, direct support. That's another one we've been trying to do for a while.

Like, you know, one of those things we've played fess together, but we did one club show together and like oh sick we should do this again just kind of haven't been able to line it up um so we finally get to do that which is awesome and then we got secret world kicking it off from Australia just go the goaded people that like have taken such good care of us both times we've been there in some capacity to hang in driving us um and then we checked out the band and we got to play

with them last one in australia and i'm like dude we have to we have to some way if you guys would be down to a month tour let's do it tell me about is your friend third album putting it together and the response to it so far. Yeah, dude, it's kind of nuts. Three records, what? Good job. Dude, I- Many don't make it the one.

Dude, you know, you're not wrong, and I see it's, you know, putting a body of work. Even that, I was like, dude, 10 songs. Yeah. That's crazy. And now we were counting, I think we have like 55 songs in the discog. That's kind of nuts, man.

I think with this one, we were just like, dude, let's just get in the room, just start some tracks. Just not trying to make a part that sounds like theirs or referencing us. another song and you know it's like let's just get in there just kind of just start writing yeah whatever comes out comes out and that I'm really glad that we did that it just feels right I don't know I just feel like it combines the best elements of our last two records and I think

there's more emphasis on the songwriting aspect killer riffs killer hooks just a fun catchy record man what are you looking forward to on this tour coming just a bunch of energy I just hope kids like really just enjoy themselves have a good time mosh hard all that you know just just really just want to rock out man that's really top bunk middle bunk or bottom bunk Usually top bunk, but on this one I'm on the middle bunk. Because before I could get in there, Greg and Tim, I'm going to go, I'm going top. And I was like, right. Like top.

I don't understand. I'm bottom. Really? Bottom. Okay. Yeah, I don't know why. I just, I like being high up. Oh, is it bottom?

Wait, I didn't. I. That took me a second. Respectfully. Yeah. This is the craziest tour Drain's ever done, right? Easily. What goes into prepping for a tour like this?

Should just getting tight as a band, you know? I mean, back home, you know, we just, you know, we just, we just, we just, we just, just got in a little practice spot and just drill the set like always, you know. So a bunch of that. You, Tim, and Greg, or mostly you and Tim at home? Me and Tim and Sammy. Yeah, yeah. Greg's a machine, huh?

Oh, Greg's a machine. Yeah, he can just hop in and, yeah, yeah, he's the go. They just, like, hang out and jam together. So they're always razor tight, and then I do enough band stuff from my own, and I'm always playing. You never not been tight in the 20 years I've known. So it's fun to just... Some might call you a machine. Get up.

Try me best. They get up there and then it's just, you know, we can just smash it out. It's good. I'm an avid practice, so I do practice, try to practice every day. Every day. In somewhere or another, even it's just on a pad, like I try to touch sticks every day. Greg Sherwanka, my friend of so many years. You're in Drain now.

This is true. Unbelievable. It's fun. Welcome. Look at us. I know. I know. You and Cody chopping up about riffs has to be like.

That's yin and yin. Long loss. Yeah, we can get a little guitar center sometimes. That's fine. But I mean, like, again, what are we not going to, listen? Are we not supposed to play? Sometimes you've got to open up the noodle shop. We got a little, a little portable amp here.

So it will just be like Cody and I in the backstage, just exchanging licks. Yeah. And again, like, some people might think that's going to be. You find out who's a real riffer. Really quick. Like, okay, dude. But you're planning Cody's like, that is really interesting what you're doing. Yeah.

You want to show us your, you're, you're, let's, we want to highlight your hardware. Maybe like a hard lore, hardware, highlight. All right, now it's time for the first ever hard lore, hardware, highlight. We've got Greg Sirwanka from Drain, take offense, cold stare. Whoa, deep cut. A rod of correction. You got it. There's one more.

What is it? What do you use in a spreadsheet? Excel. Oh, dude, he's in Excel. Damn. That's right. You tap into the emotional voice? Every day.

Every day. That's all the time. So what are we playing? Tell us about this base, Greg. It is a David Ellison model. How do we go around that? The guy can play. I mean, he made a good base.

What do you want? What's skirt around David Elveson? Yeah, okay. Wonderful Mike Tempesta over at Jackson. Yeah, shout out Mike. He helped us out too. Yeah, I mean, I'm a Jackson artist, all through and through with everything I play. We got active pickups.

Yeah, EMGs kind of have like a couple of ways you can split it. Do you do any of that? I got it kind of dial. I got like, honestly, I mean, this is way too many knobs. It's far too many. For me. How many of them are all the way up? This one's all the way up.

That's like all, I think that's pretty sure this is that. Again, you know, we're going to find out. We'll figure it out. don't know what I'm doing at all with these things. Well, you're a guitar player first. Yeah. You know. Boy are you.

Right. Lord are you ever. So you're playing. I know a note or two. You're playing this Jackson's signature base. Yeah. And then we got another Jackson back here. Oh shit.

By this palm tree. This is the back up. Yeah. This is the Pro Plus series. Yeah. Which are really dope. It's got this Furman. Fishman.

Fishman, dude. I love Fish or Furman. Furman makes great power, Fishman makes great bridges. There you go. Wow. Look at him. Wow. Come on.

These are fluences as well. Damn. Very good. It sounds great. That's what I really like about it. Awesome. Also, not as many knobs. I mean, we compare.

Far fewer. That's like half. You know, I can't do the math. But there's some math that would show that there's more knobs on that one. I think you're right. We'll make sure of that in post. Next through boy. Love it.

But it's just. Still active. Very nice. A little heavier, but it's great. A little punchier on this one too, which is, which is fun. Let me ask you something, Greg. What? What's your favorite fret? Fret. Oh, I'll put this back for you. I got you. I think it's just good, it's got to be the seven, right? The octave. I mean, dude, who don't love the seven? Yeah. It's the greatest, it's the greatest, it's the greatest magic trick in the music. You know what it is. A ring out halfway through, you're going ring.

Yeah. Yeah. Some time double it up, you know. It's good to pedal world. Let's talk pedals. That's me and Jeff. You got a good, you got a good base pedal board set up here. Talk us. Classic. Walk us through it. So this is one of those like, I just showed up and Sammy had just kind of gotten all of these things.

What a guy. This dark glass rules, and then we got the little vintage delug, also from dark glass. It's just a lot of kind of different overdrives. Yeah. Then I'm running through. The goat. Yeah, I mean, that's really, really all you. need you know at this point but I kind of got it paired running it into the

loop and then noisy as hell if you're doing that and so I also have an NS2 in the loop is there just the quiet it because is it a ground loop noise or is it just it's just noisy like without it uh-huh uh-huh you know but without yeah good to go how often are you having the chorus on besides playing no more tears before Recreation. Well, I mean, you know. That's what you want. For you know.

Oh, wow. You get that one, too. Renaissance, Maine. Yeah, I've been rocking that, obviously. I turn it on for good, good things a lot. Because I get a little silly on that song. You get to take it for a while. Yeah, and then stealing happiness, that's the really, you know, big debut of that

because that song just cuts that. cuts in with just base, you know. And dark glass, for those you don't know, are the hardware manufacturers for quad cortex. Hey. There you go. It's neural and dark glass make the quad cortex. They're doing everything.

And they make good shit. So this is everything. Is this power amp and power? The whole deal. And then we usually, obviously, obviously we're doing a mic and then we're, I think we're doing a blend with like the, uh,

the, uh, di in the back coming out of the head. Classic. So it's, Big rooms, you know. It's fun. It's fun. Yeah, and just the old Shur I've had. You know what I like about the Shur wireless tuner?

What you got? That it says E flat. Oh, yeah. And not D whatever. D sharp. You know? Who knows what that means? Just eat E flat's your G hashtag.

I want to know it. Yeah, I don't know D hashtag. I want to know E little B. Yeah. E little B. A little B. Well, it sounds great. It's loud.

She's reliable. reliable. How do you like playing bass compared to shredding guitar? I actually, my first instrument was playing, I started out playing bass first, so I knew how to like, have a good foundation of playing with my fingers. Doing all that fun stuff. A little slap. It's been cool, and then I'd say with the one guitar, I mean the one guitar band, I mean, if you look at like all your classic one guitar bands, like you gotta be able to really, you gotta be able to

really fill it in with his department. If it's two guitars, you can get some vacation mode. Kind of limp wrist, not the cool band, but like just kind of up there. Not the notable Chicago straight-edge hard-robin. And then I think, and I get downright silly with them, but I keep it all in there. You're in the pocket.

You know, we're trying to do that classic Van Halen kind of Pantera. That's how it's feeling right now, you know. And it doesn't feel that without a certified shredder. Yeah, but, you know, it's, I'm having a, blast like it's it's super fun I've I still play guitar in several other bands so this is like a really fun kind of a combo breaker for that but I still get to I mean getting to play with these dudes these guys have always been super tight yeah so that's just always a blast like just playing with Tim oh he's just locking him I mean he's just so hard hit and

consistent just it's it's great it's great playing with these dudes like it's gonna want I wouldn't want to play with anyone else it's so fun you get get the forearm burn, the rash? Surprisingly, I don't think so. Probably because you're wearing monster sweatbands, huh? No, we'll fix that. We'll get you to go on. Yeah, no rash, just, I guess, technique.

Blessed. He's got the skill. He always had, I mean, I've known him for 20 years, probably. Instant Messenger friends. That's right. What was your AIM screen name? I think it was, I think it was, I think it was Guigi X Weggie.

I think it was, yeah, it might have been, I feel like it might have been Greg offense. Yeah, it could have been, yeah, either Guikey X Weggie, Gregg offense, possibly those two, I don't know. Good. We were up on, let's boot it up. Let's, we're up on, we were up on.

That still exists, right? We were chatting online, dude. We were trying to logging on. Yeah, it's better. I feel like AIM was better than just DMs. They're so cold and soulless, but you get to out of way message and it's good. Feeling a little emotional.

You put something a little ambiguous on there. Yeah, we're really, we're off-topic. That's okay. We're not talking about hardware anymore. We've already highlighted the hardware. Yeah, well, thank you for that. Now we've got to talk about heartware. Yeah, how hardware, dude.

Wow. You know I always make it happen. Yeah, we're good. All right, well, let's go check out Guitar World. Let's go to Guitar World. Thank you, Greg. Thanks, fellas. All right, welcome everybody back to the Hard-Lore,

highlight. We're here with Cody Chavez from Drain. Yes, sir. Walk us through what you got here. Well, shit. Start with this, Boy. Start with this bad boy.

She's so pretty. So yeah, this is the MJ series, Dinky. That was the first guitar that Jackson hooked me up with. So it's very sentimental. And it's probably one of my favorites that I have. Yeah, she's got some Seymour's in here. Do you know which one? I don't actually.

Yeah, but these, I mean, they sound good. And that's kind of, they're screaming. That's screaming. To me, that's all that matters, you know. Got the Floyd? Yeah, I got the Floyd. Yeah, you know. You ever regret taking a Floyd on tour?

Probably with the tech, it's not so bad. Yeah, now. But I mean, in the past. For sure, yeah. It just, you know, it takes forever, at least for me. A nightmare. It is a nightmare. But once you have it hooked up and, you know, fucking do this.

Yeah, and once it's locked in, you're all set. Yeah. Beautiful. What's your favorite fret? Yeah. Second. Second. Wow.

Yeah, yeah. Straight up. Yeah, yeah, I just love that. Because then you can go back to the one and they're not, they don't see it coming. Oh, yeah. Or even the open is big. Oh, the open is crazy after two. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It's pretty. You know what I mean? Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Hey, the first time anyone's ever said two. Yeah, dude, I think it's just the 80s metal in me, you know. I just, I really love that, you know.

So is that F sharp? I think that would be- It's not G flat, right? No, this is... F? Yeah, I think that'd be F sharp, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somethings.

I think. Take us to... Petal world. Yeah, what we got? Shoot, man. Well, so this one right here, this Zool, Coleman, actually brought that with them. So I was, I had this,

hooked up to as I was double gating with with both of the ANS2s but this one works a lot better Ghostbusters Ghostbusters Zool yeah that's one of the dogs it's named after I did not a dog named after I did not go back and watch Ghostbusters but yeah no so I got that um sounded pretty good it's giving me you know everything that I need you know I'm able to sustain all my notes and it's not taken away anything from my pinches or whatever and or when you're hitting those gent gen jin jent and you need that you need it that intention It's a functional silence. Yeah, it's, it's definitely, it's working very well right now with the other NS2.

So you're going tuner, tube screamer, Zool. Yeah, and that's going through the front, obviously, and then the NS2 is going through the effects loop. Aha. Yeah. Dude, an effects loop with an NS2 or using the NS2 effects loop, how you can send and return on there. Gazzini, Gazada, Gazana, it is, exactly. And then the same chorus as Greg, I like that. Yeah, yeah.

Synchronicity. You guys dial it in this? I see you have the polyamorous tuner. Oh, dude, I love, I swear by the polytune man. I've never been a chromatic guy, never. Oh, I get it. There you. Our, Eric, Eric's, Eric's guitar shop, Banis, California, he's a polytune guy.

Hell yeah, yeah. You know, we all just kind of gravitate towards it. Different strokes. Been using that since, you know, I was like 19, 20, so, yeah. And then, yeah, yeah, tube scrimers, can't go wrong with that. Little guy. Yeah, little guy. You don't need much more. Which is a classic, is that Ibanez?

Tube yellow. Yeah, yeah. Really. Kind of got everything kind of in the noonish realm, you know? Yeah. The tone little dialed back a little bit. Dialed back, that's right. You're not, yeah, you don't like need a crazy amount of gain

just because you're so good. Well, and there's, it's all in the fingers. It's truly, yeah. And then you got a DD8 at the end? Is that in the effects loop or is that? Oh, yeah, that's in the effect loop. Cool, yeah. Very nice.

Yeah, so I kind of just, I have it rigged up so where I can just kind of, oh, one button. kind of thing with that big foot big yeah the big yeah size 13 good for you yeah man and then he was on the foot uh the rockman so i had that when i was using the foot switch yeah before i started doing the ns 2 in the effects yeah um i had that rigged up with the supercores and the digital way um and it sounded i mean it sounds like boston you know sure and it was it was incredible but now that i have this system going um that's just on there and maybe one day I'll throw it back in.

Eye candy, you know? Yeah. Let's just like, oh man, you got that? Let's check out the end. Let's check out the end. Show us the magic, the power. Look that. It's crazy.

So kind of sneak around here. Yeah. That's okay. Oh wow. Oh, shit, there we go. No, you're good, you're good. Yeah, so obviously I like to scoop my mids quite a bit. Uh-huh.

Just get that thrash tone, you know. Good for you, man. Confident. Yeah, man. I got the high about, you know, a little peasant. past noon. What channel is it? Oh, it's on the red channel. Red channel. So the craziest one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I was younger, I like the blue channel for some reason. Same. I mean, that was the thing with the block letter heads was green, the green channel

with the fucking, like a tube screamer. Yeah. Or like a HM2, you know, like that combo would work the best. But the head room with the red and then dialing back the game just a little bit. Yeah. I think at the time when I was rocking the blue channel, I think I had like the super OD Yeah, yeah, exactly. At the time it worked, but now it's, Red Channel, for sure. It's just, we got in this case here. Yeah.

Oh, we got the Gator. Oh, Gator. Shout out here, yeah. Big shout out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are like, yeah, game changer, man. I love these. Who's he?

Well, he is. Michael Jackson. Beautiful, huh? With Jackson pickups, what kind of pickups are? Do you have, do you? I don't know. Just their proprietary ones? I said, as long as they sound good, man, that's like,

man that's like all I really care about never I've never seen that you don't mind yeah good no no no the very rare knob switch knob made in Mexico love that oh yeah that's good shit that's good shit that feel that feels good good haptics yeah yeah you get a nice little grip on there you know go to the top pickup so you're all Floyd uh yeah yeah yeah I'm on there's another guitar we're gonna look at oh yeah definitely yeah I'm all Floyd man I used to be only a fixed bridge guy when I was a kid and that's because because I was so afraid of that.

Of course. And then that became part of your soul. Part of the thing, yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah. This is your third arm right here. Yeah, basically, yeah, yeah. Wow. So show us the final, the Pride Joy.

Yeah, yeah, it's do it, man. Been a topic of discussion, this man and his music for the last two days. Man, yeah, so this is, definitely, I would put this up. These are probably both my favorite guitars that I have. Okay. Randy Rhodes, V. One of my first real guitars ever was a Dean Dave Mustain's signature.

Yeah. And then I hadn't had a V until, you know, a couple years ago. And now this is one of my goats, man. I love it. Feels great. It's awesome. So it's funny how such a little change makes it such a cool looking. It's built for speed. Oh, yeah. You know? It's built for speed. It surely is. Like sometimes, you know, whenever I bring this on a tour, I like kind of like to do this whole like, oh, like I'll do the V this day and then the next day I'll do this one. And, you know, kind of have a system. But I love this one so much that there will be times when I'm like, Yeah, let's not play it again. The scale. I played again, you know. Is the scale different on these? It feels short. I think it is a little short. Yeah, I want to say that this is.

Oh, yeah. It feels comfy. Comfy co. Yeah. It's right there, you know. Oh, man. That's worth it. What does the pickup set?

Oh, does that seem more donkey? Maybe. And some people don't like the whole, you know, when you're sitting down with the V, you know. You like that? Yeah. Okay. That is the drawback of explorers and these.

The, you can't. Yeah. I hate. Because Explorer, you can only have it. Oh, I like that. Yeah. It feels crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Wow. What was the first two? What was the first guitar you got on? It was some shitty Ibanez that my cousin Sarah gave to me. I don't remember what model was, but like I said, my first real one that paid my own money. It was $200. The Dean?

It was the Dean, Dave Astana, all black. All black. Oh, it was the rest of peace one I was going to say? No, it's just the book. The cover art one is pretty good. I remember the, they had the cover art. one at it was this place called wise music and Salinas where I'm from and I remember they had that but I wanted the one of the black and out one yeah easy can we

ask you to play your favorite a drain riff yeah and your favorite just line check riff yeah yeah we can definitely do that I'm gonna go with this one and as we know in music everything comes from somewhere what What were the main source of inspiration? Dude, literally nothing, man. That's awesome. It literally, the stories like me and Tim were just jamming, we're waiting for Sammy to come to practice,

and I just started playing that. And then Tim were just like, oh, I'm just going to put a beat to that. And Sammy walked in, he was like, damn. And then, wow. I wasn't thinking of anything. I wasn't thinking of any like, oh, I should do a riff like this. It just came to me, yeah. Hit us with your sound check riff.

Sound check riff. So I'm going to. Guitar, go, stage left. I'm going to hit some effects right now. This is my goat. Yeah. Play the chorus. Play the chorus.

Play the chorus. Play the chorus. Jake Lee! That is a riff. He lives! So who's having fun? Yeah. One of the lead singles off the new record is your friend.

Kind of a sonic departure, but you're building off of the, uh, kind of like you took what you did with the sentence cover from the last record, made it your own, added some thrash elements to it. Can you walk us through the solo in the song? Yeah, yeah. So you'll do it. What more do you want, you know? That trim dump into the A, I don't know if it's in standard tuning, but into the five, very eruption, has to feel great, right?

So the beginning of it, the phrasing is the chorus melody in a different key. Yeah. Yeah. Was this done last? This was done, yeah, definitely done last for sure. Yeah. Because the actual vocal melody is the... Yeah.

Very cool. Weezer-esque. Yeah, just something I thought of, but yeah. Love it. That's awesome. Did you write it all, or did you piece it together? Also, actually, how it started was Sammy wrote the baseline for it, but it was like the notes were slightly different. I mean, the solo specifically.

Oh, sorry, the solo specifically. Yeah, no, I just kind of, how I write my soul is I just kind of sit there, just kind of bump the track, and then just kind of... Loop it. Just kind of loop it. I guess, like, piece it together. Again, eruption-esque, you know? Very quick time. And actually, the original one, I forgot even when I did, but I didn't have the idea to kind of match the vocal melody at first a little bit.

It was like some shit I was doing down here. But then I was like, oh, I think it'd be cool to intro it with that kind of, but like slightly different. Big time. Those are the details that make things stick in people's. Nuisance. Yeah, the nuance. Sets you apart. Very good.

That's why you get the palm trees and the chair. And the whatever that is, lifesaver. And eight, eight cabs. Oh, yeah. The power. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for the hardware high like Cody. Hell yeah.

We'll catch up with you in a second. All right, we're here with Tim Flegel, drummer from Drain. Hello. It's a hard lore, hardware highlight, and I want to see what kit you're rocking, what symbols you're rocking, what pedals you're rocking. Tell me everything. Absolutely. Let me start with the shells.

Yeah. This is a beautiful Ludwig Vista Light acrylic kit. It sure is. It's one of the reissues. Is it yours or you're ready to get it? It's mine. Yeah, I bought it pretty recently. This is the first tourist done, so I'm psyched to break it in.

And the ocean blue is intentional, I would think, right? Honestly, yeah, like I love Blue, but also it kind of works with our band. More than kind of. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, like, it just, yeah. I just, I love it, man. It's cool.

Symbol-wise, have you always been a Zildjan guy? Not really, like when I first started playing drums, I used, I used Zilgin, just because I saw Travis Barker playing Zildjian, and I was like, I gotta play Zildjian. But then over the years, I was pasty for a bit, just with pasty rudes. And then I found my way back to Zildjans just because I like them. They sound nice and bright and pretty. Hit us with numbers for shells and symbols. Oh yeah, of course.

Get them all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So I run a very standard one up one down set I've always have. 22 by 14 inch kick drum, 13 by 13. Rack tom, 16 by 16 inch floor tom. That's standard. Oh yeah. You know what I mean?

The basic rock kit. That's the, I mean, that's like the hardcore kit. Yeah, right. Yeah. And you get into rock is when that bigger. Second rack comes. Yeah. No, you're right. And you, I mean, this is...

Well, I was doing the 12-inch rack for a bit, but I switched to the 13 just because, I don't know, just a little bigger. Power. Well, it's more, isn't it? A little bit more. It's one more. Yeah. More is more and better is better. Exactly. Exactly.

That is a... Actually, don't even know what that is. I switched these out a lot. A 20-inch custom A on the left. We got a medium-ride 20-inch. Straight-up ride as your... Yeah, it's just a little thicker, and I was kind of, you know, tired of cracking on these things. are expensive so you know you know how it is the China is an interesting story let's get

back here let's get back here tight on this China yeah come on back sorry but let you go back go around back I'll stay right here how much does this China cost I think that was $50 dollars whereas every other symbol in the world is about 400 now so tell me why you do the Wuhan China rather than do as a typical zil-so I was I was doing the 18 inch the what I think it's the Oriental Trash China. I want to make sure I got that name right. Not this one.

I was playing that one. And then I always bought these because they're so cheap. But I just love the way these stuff. And they're classic. They're classic sound. If you're broke and you want to play a China still and you don't want to. Yeah, I was just going to say, why don't you give us one? With a snare.

Yeah. Plug up. Yeah, I still have plugs in. So that's classic china. Wow. I love it, man. Sammy loves the, Sammy loves the Wuhan too, I know. What's your, what scenario are you using here?

This is a, what is it, 14 by 6 and a half black beauty, also pretty new. One of the greats. Yeah, that's classic. Yeah, I was using the universal brass, but I do like this one a lot. It just cuts. Are you a big, over-tone guy? Um, with a black beauty, you kind of have to be. Kind of have to be, yeah.

It sings. Overtone. Overturn, well, you get, kha, but you get, kha, that's an overtone. And the Black Beauty is famous for a big. I would imagine the brass would as well. Is it? I mean, that's just, that's, that, yeah. Any metal snare kind of right. Yeah, yeah. I never, I never, I never gel my snares too, because I do, I just like natural sounding drums. I love the way that moon gel feels. I touch it all. Oh, it's good. It's like the slappy hand.

Can't stop it. Yeah, it is. You're right. Totally. What about these hats? Okay, so these, I actually switched these out for this tour. I was, I normally do 15-inch, I think the K-Sweet hats. Crispy. But I love these 14-inch newbie high hats. I heard that Carter Buford from Dave Matthews band. D&B, brother. You know what it is?

You know what it is? Me? Unbelievable drummer. Like one of my favorite drummers all the time. I literally heard that he played those and I was like... That's the first high hat I ever owned. Was it? It was the newbie.

In 14? Me? Yeah. No, no, in the size 14. Oh, yeah. Sorry. No, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. From age 14, I was like, how did you know? I know you, too. He's a great driver. Yeah, so I just love the way they sound, honestly. And yeah, I don't know. This is my first time I'm actually ever torn with these. These are where I practiced with at home, so I was like, I'm just gonna.

What do you think so far? I love them. Oh yeah. I freaking love them and I'm just, I don't know. I don't really notice too much of a difference between 15 inch and 14 inch. I know there's haters out there. It's just weight, you know, response? You ever got to fix your clutch in the middle of a set all the time.

time. Now, this is what we need to make. We need to reinvent this. Well, dude, they're trying with these weird clutch thing of a jigs that do all these different things and they don't work either. But let's fix it. Let's do it. Yeah. Getting into contact with us. We want to do this. Actually, I want to ask you a question. Ask me. So with these, you've played these two, these two-legged DW. Yeah, yeah. So something I noticed that happens all the time is the stem comes on. Stem comes undone. And then you're, you're, you're, you're, you know, Like midset you're screwed you're ruined right because it's all closed or it's loose closed and you can't it's like tightening this doesn't you can't pull that up when a

microphone's attached do re screw get it back down yeah and you know what else when you're in the middle of drumming there's no one to tell someone what's wrong he can't go screw the thing back in yeah because you have to actually you know you have to take this off take this off undo that it you can't do that and it's it I like I like a three leg with the thing bent do you know oh yeah Do you, okay, do you put it over the pedal or do you kind of like angle it like that over the Okay, uh-huh you don't feel like that gets in the way? No, I'm not I'm not a big double kick guy, but I mean, but you listen Well, speaking- You don't need to know anything you got what I what I know to be the goat that everybody uses for your kick pedal

Dude what do we got the 9,000 that's the one right that's the goat I like you're at you're a DW guy right? I'm a 9,000 are you dude? So I think Chris is as well Yeah, yeah Love Chris Mills. Shout out Chris. Shout out Chris. My favorite guy. I grew up playing single pedal. I never played double pedal until I started Duran and I was just like, I'm just gonna try to do this.

But I always played a 5,000 single pedal and then when I got double pedal, I went to the 9,000. It's a bigger number. It's gotta be better. Bigger is better, always. More is more. Yeah, I love them, man. I love them.

I see you're a 5B stick guy? I was. I am, yeah. Then what the hell is this? These are- That's Hellhammer. I like to practice with marching sticks. Ah. I was a marching band kid.

That makes your snare efficiency make sense to me. Yeah, how's our grouping here? Oh, she's new still. Yeah, yeah. But pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I changed that right before we left. Yeah, I was 2B for the longest time and then I switched to 5B, so I, you know, I don't know. Do you notice a benefit?

Not really, to be honest. I don't know. I don't really notice it. I like the 2B weight, but when you go down to 5B, 5B for a day, you're like, oh, I'm so fast. Ah, right? Are they just lighter, or is it shorter as well? Just lighter and shorter. I think it also depends on the

Vic Firth 5B versus the ProMark 5B. You ever see videos about how they pair sticks? No. They pair the tonality and the resonance of every stick that is paired together. That's why they're $20 a pair. Straight up. So when you're asking drummers like Tim, after a set, can I please have a stick?

I think we'd all rather send you $9 at this point than give you the stick. We need this. They are expensive, so I apologize if I'm not able to get all of them. You ever get, you ever toss sticks? No. It's scary. Nine dollars.

This is nine bucks. It's so scary. It's like no one, also no one wants my drumstick. I promise. No, that's not true. So what is this? Do you do this? Dude, okay.

I don't know what, like recently, I've been, my hands have been getting so sweaty. I don't know if you ever experienced that. Yeah, but. They just, you let him fly and then you pull one out of your ass. That's horrifying to me. So yeah, it's like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid like mid is just like I don't know I try this is this working? Yes I think so. Does it tread you harder if yes to answer your question yes so they have liquid chalk I heard about that too could be an option I never wanted to do anything I was just want to play normal drumsticks and I always start the set with normal drums and say like sure is it the length of the set? perhaps? No, because we don't, we don't, we don't even play, I don't know why, I don't know. I don't know.

Well, I don't know. You want to hit us with your favorite line check, sound check, drum. Yeah, I'm pretty basic, but I will. That's okay. Yeah, I just like to, like to incorporate all the drums. And what would, what would, what would, uh, Carter Buford did you? Something like that. That he absolutely would. But way better. Like, not even close. Oh, look at that. Jesus, nobody's even going to see that. That's just for you. I have no affiliate. I have no affiliate. with Ludwig, I just love Ludwig. Every time, I mean, like, a lot of the times it's like we use a rental kit, and

every time it's been a Ludwig, I'm like, I love this. I love these drums. I love like, I don't know. So, I kind of just went for it. I bought all this myself, and I just love the brand. I have a Ludwig carpet, too. You really do? I do. Oh, wow. I just committed to it, man. I was like, I'm going to buy the acrylic kit. I'm going to buy the throne.

I'm going to buy the... That's called manifestation, well, brother. Yeah. So Ludwig, if you're watching. Mr. Beethoven, please. Please. Mr. Von Beethoven. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I love it, man.

This is beautiful. This is great. Thank you guys. Can't wait to see it in action. All right, we're back with the hardware, highlight. Sammy, you've got a couple extra tasks during this set other than just singing. And conjuring, you know?

I've got some conjuring. Sing is a really, it's an overstatement, but I'll be doing something in the mic, but I've got my own, I got my own rigs. I got my own gear. I actually came with, I've got props, I got my old thing here, you know? Let's see it all. Okay, so, well, show, I don't know what I should start with, but the only real thing I need. This saved as a whole sound person,

and there's not a knock at sound people. I just didn't, we hired someone so I can play one sample, and then I realized I guess to do it from a pedal. Yeah. I have one pedal. I don't even know what this is. I kind of figured how to do it. I dubbed it off my phone.

We did the song with Shakewell, so I do my little thing midway. There I go. That's all me, baby. He did that. Oh, you want some drums on there? I don't know what that is. I just turned that off.

I don't know how to get rid of it. I don't know what that is. You know, I got some other fun stuff I like to play with. Damn, son, where do you mind there? Wow, McLeodman. Lots of tricks up my sleeve. I got my own, I was just showing this. I got my own piece of hard case.

I got my little stickers. With Evan Moses, the 8-1, I think 8-18. Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah. Mainstay. There's no AI on this. That's just all fat-faced landing as all the fat by-face pulled you on. And he's so proud of that photo.

Dude, I think he framed. I was like, you know, we really could keep this off the wraps and off the grid. But then a homie made a stick on. That's why it's on the backside. Yeah, it's a backside. I was like, well, if anyone asks like, yo, who's this? I'm like, I promise you, it's mine. Now, Sammy, I see you brought along, you chose the Aquamanitor.

Yeah, the Aux. For this tour. Okay. We realized it pretty much every show isn't out of barricade. We're like, we should just do something cool with it. I would prefer to play on the floor everywhere if I could. It's just not always in the car. So the stages are bigger.

I don't know. Let's have fun with it. So we're going to build a live car tower. Then we just actually buy one. So shout out Aqua Mentor. They do not hook it up. You know, next time, future reference. Yeah, yeah.

This thing got a little wobble. Little wobble. Oh, good, good. This is the best seat in the house. Truly. You know, player cards, right? You could end up on here in one of these days. Wow.

And we'll see. But yeah. And then, yeah, tell us about the PMP 40. The P&P 40, which runs on four of six. Six. six. Six. Of the big ass batteries.

Which were not included. Not included, yeah. What the hell? Pile. Yeah, dude, I figured we're going to put the tower up here. We should put a life card up here. And lifeguard has got this. What can this thing do?

Sure, take us through the pedal train here. All right, so check it out. So to get on, I got, oh, so it does work like, this is way better. Okay, but in case you want to be real fancy. But for pictures sake, it shows the light is incredible. Yeah. This, dope. Love it.

Absolutely love. We got this. We're talking a little megaphone. We got a little alarm. want to just let people know, it's, you know, the modus is coming. Heads up. Heads up. What if I'm watching Drain and I want a little break from the heavy riffs and I want to hear

a little Mozart? Oh, you want a little Mozart? Got you covered. I know that one. It's beautiful. At whatever frequency that is, that hurts. That's dog. That's dog.

Dog whistle. Yeah. Dog whistle level. Yes, we got this. I think, I think I may have marks me up in here. Okay. And then there's, of course, some accessories. We got some accessories.

Yeah, this thing, which actually I realized this is going to really fucking hit someone. hard so we're gonna probably take that off but yeah dude's toss me you know it's gonna get him yeah we're gonna do it right man we got to look rope me and you know we're gonna get gave the pigeon now see which is that we're rope right yeah oh yeah we got a practice yeah we got a practice yeah yeah I got see that's why I'm not the tower and then of course there is one more really important piece of equipment oh but yeah we got to do it this is this will come out after the first hour so we don't know hopefully we're gonna cut to this actually working right now Okay, but...

He's a natural. Complete disaster. Yeah. So, it's also a little bigger than we thought. It's bigger than this hour! So, actually, a little... Some true hard lore. Hit me.

Played F.A. Uh-huh. I'm playing the set with one song in. And then I see these people emerging up to me on some vessel. And I don't understand how they're doing this. And they've ripped the door off of the stall in the bathroom. And they're surfing up to me. And in that moment, amongst all the chaos and confusion,

I'm, like, clocking this in. like that's a great idea we should do that the other way since it's a barricade and kids can't do that i can go out to them so we got i actually don't know how to get it out for back here but and let's just say as as inspirational as that moment was at f y a don't do that don't do that don't make that a thing but it was inspirational it was cool life imitates art or art imitates life yeah yeah we got this hundred dollar fucking thing full of air and i'm hoping i can hand pumped by yeah he did it i'm hoping we can carry this out and i'm hoping i'm hoping i We did a test run last night.

We did a little test run. It took six guys, and I got on it. Let's see your text. Yeah, I mean, again, I'm not a real surfer. I have no idea what the fuck's going on here. I can't really swim, so I hope I can land on it. But I'm thinking I could just get this down there and, you know, get up and do the thing and pop it up and have a mic and do it. Yeah.

So I'm hoping this pans out well. If not, it is full of air, but it's kind of fucking hard. Yeah. I think it'll be okay. And, you know, who knows? I think Colin her bow. be going on this Detroit. I heard Detroit that they're going on it.

It's true. I don't know if that's true or not. We're going to find out. Cut to that. Cut to that. Boom. Yeah. We got to set the scene right.

You know, make it look right. Backdrop coming in. We keep joking that as the tour goes on, we're just going to keep adding more nonsense. By the end, like, sand and then just bullshit. But yeah, it'll be fun, you know? I think I heard a rumor about sand. Didn't you want to do sand? At one point, when we first, I was like, that's crazy.

Dude, we did, I was trying to think we did a knock tour. And they had like, crazy trees. Oh yeah. I never seen that. I was like, wow, it's like,

this is just so cool. But there's a reason they didn't have sand. They didn't have to say, yeah, dude, I think it was, we put some shows, we had some shows with King 9

and I don't know, we tongue's played. One of those things like, yeah, we want to buy a bunch of sandbags and crabs. Oh, Gia. Yeah, he's like, what he's,

like, ah, look, that's so sick. When I do that, but yeah. Who knows? By the end of week four, maybe we will. But that's,

that's my full rig run down. Yeah, That's your, that's your, the hardware, hardware highlight. Hard lore, hardware highlight. Thank you. Thank you. Hell yeah. Can we talk about the song who's having fun for a second?

Oh, dude. Get in the middle. We, oh, yeah, we can. So everybody has said that you kind of singularly brought this skeleton in, and then they crafted it from there. Worth brought this thing on. Dude, so, okay, so we actually have a bass player now. We got Greg.

He's a go. As you saw his run down. But for this last record, I tracked bass on it. and I kind of did, I helped out as the writing, but I can't, I got two fingers. That's all I really know. I can't really go between much. So I was just like, if I can kind of place some of that sounds, I don't know,

it's simple. It's what I can do and I bring it to code. That becomes what it is. Sure. So I just was noodling around. Before we even start, like, writing the record, it was just playing. And then it just went to practice, like, hey, this is like kind of cool, because we tried.

The first version, we changed one, one note. The first version made a very pop punk. Ah, you don't want that. You don't want that. You don't quite want that. Nothing else changed. We just changed one note, and then that's what it is. But yeah.

Yeah. And is this informed off of the descendants cover from the record before that my brother didn't think you should put on the record? Dude. Okay. More hard, yeah. No, you know what? Sometimes I'm like, I don't want to say yes, but in a way, yes. It wasn't like, oh, this is fucking, we can make money.

Well, just experimenting with other. And it's just in the DNA of where you come from in the culture. Dude, when we did that song straight up, we were like, when we did the cover, we're like, I don't even know if we ever play this live. I still, that was three years ago that came out, I still am learning every day how to sing it a little better. I don't think I'm, you know, I'm getting there. I'm not putting myself down, but I'm not like a, I think I'm such a good singer, we should do this. You know, but we did it and we're like, I don't even know if we'll ever play it live.

I don't know if people would want it live. Let's try it. And it was like pretty immediate, like, oh, dude, kids, this looks just like how every other song looks. It's not like a weird, like, you know, kids. kids are surfing, they're piling up, they're singing along. So yes, we're like, okay, that fits in our set that doesn't take away, it adds. So maybe we would be cool to try that, but on our own, you know? So yes.

It was very long with way saying. No, you did great. No, that makes a lot of time. How does Monster play into the crazy things that you do? Dude, Monster rocks, man. Straight out, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on a mic, but honestly, like, and when they first hit, when, when Tim hit us up, via email, I'll be on a mic, I'll be honest, was so apprehensive.

Yeah. It's just like, I don't know. This is, you know, I just don't really know. It seems foreign. It seems really foreign. We did a call and it was just all that I could have ever asked to hear. I was like, hey, man, we don't want you to be something or not. We don't want to take away.

Just want to help you get to the next level and want to make it a little bit easier. I want to help you do your thing. You find out that guy saw the misfits in 82 and you go, okay. Dude, we started. He's forced to. Oh, dude, we're just sitting there just getting the stories like, dude, can you tell us about, I mean, I love anthrax. You went, you go wait. dude when SOD dropped, you heard the demo version tell me about that.

You know, like, all that, it's dope. That's who you want in the corner, and it makes you feel good knowing that you've got someone backing you that actually understands it, you know? So it's kind of no-brainer. I think, I know the other couple generations past had already done it. I think we were the first in our generation to, like, do like an outbreak. I could see that.

Yeah, I think so. Not that matter who did it first, but it was a little bit of like a, I don't know. I mean, there's a risk there. Yeah, of course. Are people going to trip or whatever? And do you do, it was like, everyone was stowed. Yeah, I was on it. It was great.

You did it was stope, man. Like, oh, here we pulled the venue. It's like a monster fucking truck. Pulled it out front of those cases of shit. Everyone's got like, we all went full like bandana mode. Yeah. Garth. Yeah.

Garth. Yeah. It's sick, man. But it's, you know what? It helps us to just do what we want to do and bring our vision to life. This stuff, these are the types of thing that doesn't happen. We don't get to roll in comfort for a month. You know, like, no, that we need that.

But fuck, if you have it? Yeah. Why not? It's dope, man. And we don't have to change who we are. We can do our thing and just get to the next level. And we got dope, joke bands and podcasts also on the team. It feels real good.

The Monster Fan, it feels very good, man. Happy to be here. Yeah, I'm very stoked. I have a little helping that, dude. Yeah, he's a little team. He's a guy. Oh, dude. He's good.

Dude. I love it, man. Thank you guys, dude. Show me. You get a shirt. Show me the shirt. Oh, this looks way brighter. You get a shirt.

What do you mean? Yeah, this is what you're put on. That was great. That's a lot of good. That was great. Oh, that one. Oh, that's great. This is so much brighter.

Your arm will get through it. Oh. You know what? Oh, yeah. Oh, my. Oh, my. Tim, are you having flow? Oh, that's, that's funny.

You're, uh, you're peeing your pants. I am. What's hot. 1500 phone calls for me. Like, my hair back, what do you get? Holy shit. And sometimes. Oh, yeah!

Yeah. Holy shit. Wow. Hey, this just speaks to the durability of that blank. It's not bad. That's shirt's gonna last. It's not good. It's not good.

There you go. You like this funny. Hey, hold on. Grant, can I? No, no, you gotta go down here. You gotta go down here. Oh, that's yesterday. Oh.

In your professional opinion, what do you think... What do you think is going to be the item of the two-minute? I like the tour shirt with the... Tim. Oh, wait, this could be the display store. Matt, here's your display. It looks so much better in person. You got your sword, it's coming to a sitting near you.

Yeah. Show them the front. Please buy these. We have a lot of them. That's cool. No, you say the opposite. They didn't make that many of these. Yeah, there's really... We're here with Oscar.

You're doing front of house for Drane? Correct, yes. How did you get into this world? I got really lucky that my high school hired people to do sound. Really? And they liked that I ran around a bunch. I was like 15 and they're like, hey, do you want to coil cables after school? Yeah.

Dude. And so if you can't coil a cable, get out of here. Now, dude, every time I'm thinking about miles of cable I've never done it the same. And you know who told me it doesn't matter? Oh, your brother. He's insane. And you know that. You do it around the...

Yeah, no, I don't do that. No, I don't do that. Is this your console? This is not. This is sound checks. Did you bring one? No, we're rocking house. You're a house dust, dude.

Yeah. Punk. Well, that's cool because you've got to know. Yeah. You know, and sometimes, you know what I love on tour is when if you have a front of house guy, he goes, we got a good board tonight. Oh, that's such a good feeling. It helps keep my skills up.

Yeah, of course. The technology has changed so much. I don't want to get comfortable yet. How easy is it to adapt to whatever board you're going from the whole it really depends on the board. I try to go quick and it helps when the band sounds good. You know, great sources. These guys are good.

Yeah. I like choice, you know. Did these things, I mean, I see USB, I know there's flash drives. These things exist in a way where you can like, this is a popular board. I'm going to take my shit. Yes. And then when we run and do it again? So you can do that.

And a lot of people do that. Now, I, here's the thing. A lot of people do their USB stick and then go to a festival. They think it's set it and forget it. And then you'll plug it and out of outputs or something's routed poorly. And then the show is just fucked. So you go out. I don't know if you cursing is.

Who cares? Cursing is fine. You build it out every time. I just use whatever is working, festival scenario. Yeah. And then I'm like, okay, this is working. It's not going to ruin the show. Go from here.

Even if you've got to be adaptable. Although, I always start from scratch if it's a, As you should. As you should. Now, I've heard that doing sound, some may think that doing sound outdoors more difficult than indoors. I've heard the inverse. I've heard that outside is... I find it easier.

Because there's no obstructions. Yeah. Well, it's just... It depends on the engineer. Sure. And the band. If you don't have good sources, everything's revealed. Sure.

You know? But if it's, I personally love mixing outside because it's just right in your face. Now, no reflections. Why is it that sometimes you can... You can spend an hour, two hours line checking. And then when it comes time for the show, you're not getting any of that. None of that is happening. Is that just a bad engineer?

Is it a bad board? Is it the bodies? What does that come down to? I'm going to try to be nice. If it's like a festival, the guys working, they're stressed. They're doing 30 bands. Sometimes they can get messed up. But I don't think there's a reason that it should sound different from sound check other than like bodies being in the room.

It's a comforting answer. You ever do monitors? I've done it a few times for festivals, but mainly front of house I've found myself in. More front of house or monitors from house. I found monitors, I find monitors to be the most like. If that's bad, why did I spend an hour and a half doing this? Yeah, what are we doing?

And it's now it's different every song. How do you get hooked up with the drain camp? Drain I got hooked up with, so, okay, this is a fun story. World's Meeting. I, should I not look the camera or should I look at? No, absolutely. You're doing great. I do it all the time.

So I've always been a punk. kid into like old school hardcore minor threat gorilla biscuits blood for blood and my buddy like I was just so depressed at the time drug me to I'm from Philly so he drug me to the first Unitarian church and it was these guys with Pain of Truth in March of 2022 yeah never I never I never got the heavy thing and then I like walked into Pain of Truth playing and then drain and it just blew my mind so I just started talking to the guys and we became acquaintances and like passive friends for a little bit And then by the time Haywire recommended me, I think Sammy was like, let's do it. So.

Had you been to the church before? That was, I saw like one punk show, but that was like my second time. First hardcore show at the church. That's a good first show. Got so many concussions there, yeah. We're here with our good friend Gabe Becerra, aka Gabe the Pigeon. You're doing photo and video work for Drain? I am, yeah.

How did you get this gig? It fell into my life. on my lap, but I've known the guys for like 10 years. You've been grinding forever, though. You've been on that road. Many a, many a years. Yeah. Why pigeon?

Best way I kind of chop it up to is my dad is an Eagles fan, the band and the team. My older sister, her name is Bridget, but as a kid, I'd spell her name bird. So, which is something, big bird family. Yeah, big bird family. So I just had to stick with a... I bird myself, so. Not hawk or... No, no, I mean, you know, I don't put myself that high up on that tier.

Yeah. Your first days on the road, some of your first days on the road were with me. Yeah? How has a touring evolve for you since then? You've gone truly to the pinnacle of extreme music. Yeah, I mean, became the bread and butter. I remember the twitching tongues tour, van tour outside of the metro. It was there.

I was there. That's why I'm talking about it. because you were showing off your bunk is showing up your area in the van nah eight years later and still gets brought up yeah yeah because you did so good yeah yeah such a star i did so good you did so good uh what's the most rewarding part of touring with the band like drained oh i mean the entire energy in the entire room it's explosive from start to finish and for me taking photos like hardcore bands, metal bands, this is like the cream of the crop with photographing a horror band. You want energy the entire set, Sammy brings that and the band just

glues it all together with them. So they just look like they're having fun the whole time. Yeah. And that's the best thing to photograph. Yes. Yeah. Especially if I stop midset and I'm actually like enjoying the set too that it's rating off on me not just the crowd like that's the best part and that's what I love. most about it. What's cool than a photograph? Moshing, stage diving, or singing along? Singing along. Hear that? So do that. What's your rig like these days?

Yeah. Do you gatekeep? No. I'm a dark horse. I shoot on Nikon. Not many people do. I use Nikon Z-6-2 and a D-780. Wow. Yeah. Is that good shit? Or... Yeah. All right.

It's good shit for me. I got you. And I get it done. with what I got. Hey, Trivante, PRS. You know what you? Some people. Some people make it work. Yeah, and you don't need $10,000 to make it work. It ain't the gear. It's the finger, right? Yeah.

That's what they say. Yeah. Yeah. That's what everybody says. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Gabe. We're here with Coleman, Guitar Technician. You play in many bands. Could you list them all for us real quick?

I played a band called One Step Closer, A Knife in the Dark, and Inza Sanity. Wow. You know him. But today he's Drain's Guitar Tech and this whole month. Right. How did you get linked up with them? Oh, great question. James brought me out to some festival appearances that they did to just overlooked the band

and make sure everything was going smoothly. I think the first thing I did with them was Incarceration Fest in Ohio. Incarceration? Yeah, it was cool. Yeah. And is that from a tech standpoint or like stage management or where were you... A tech standpoint. Yeah.

Just an extra set of hands on the back line and just making sure that everything runs smoothly for them so they don't have to worry about it. Yeah. How'd you get into guitar stuff? I think it comes from having a lot of different guitars and a lot of different tunings and being fed up with all the setups. Yeah, dude. And I think I just needed to figure out how to make them stay in tune and operate as needed.

operate as needed with different string gauges and tensions and stuff. We all want toys. We gotta know how to use your toys. Right, right. What's your favorite fret? Open. Dude. Zero?

Zero. Just zero fret. On the occasion, one. Oh, I mean that's... Maybe eight. The two to get... Eight is crazy. Eight in the barred setup?

Yeah. Get away. In the barred setup? Come on town. Maybe it resolves to seven. It's to say. It all, you go down to six, and it's game over. Nobody.

Gets a little evil. Nobody sees that coming. Yeah. Very good. Zero is the best for it. What's your favorite guitar? Les Paul. Get real.

Les Paul custom. Yeah. It's the greatest guitar of all time. It's all... Anyone ever needs. How is it touring with these guys? They are awesome. They are so fun all the time.

Never a dull moment until they all fall asleep. Uh-huh. Any hazing? No hazing. Drink this monster, Coleman. Just pranks non-stop. But no hazing. Nothing, yeah.

Not hazing. Correct. Beautiful. Yes. And now, do you find more relief in doing guitar tech stuff versus touring your own band? That's good. Come on.

Yeah, you know, I think there's a cool balance about being able to work touring and then having an appreciation for playing in your own bands when you're not working. So, I think it's given me that appreciation. when I'm playing that it's more fun that way. What's the hardest part of the job? There's no hard part. Setting up a Floyd. Yeah, it sucks, huh?

Do you do one string at a time, or do you put something under to lock the bridge? Today I put something underneath. I have a big 9-volt battery that I taped over and I put that under there. Take them all off, start over. I really don't like Floyd's. Yeah. I'm a Kailer man. But hey, okay, respect.

Also, lots of steps. A lot of steps. All right, we're here in the drain RV. What would you come? call this? This is an RV. It's a recreational vehicle legally that can be driven without a CDL. Very nice. Excellent. That's nice. Yeah, very good. We are here with our good friend Walter Delgado. The world knows him as the vocalist of the Great Rotting Out, but the Drain Camp knows him as Mr. Driver. Senior Driver. Senor Driver. Yeah. How did that come about? When did you start driving for band?

So I was doing stage production for a long time for festivals, like insomnia, I could stuff like that. And I was benching one day. Bench pressing. Bench pressing. I'll bet you were. Look how jacked is. Cut to this.

Wow. Unbelievable. So jacked. And I blew out my tricep tendon. So tricep tendon came in, sounded like a bag of ruffles, gave out. Oh. Yeah. So sat there going, it sucks.

And I couldn't work because of OSHA and all that stuff. They're like, you can't be on site, understandable, right? I'm all fucked up. So I needed money fast. Ah. Not money fast, but I just need, I was like, I don't like sitting on my ass. Sure. And then a friend was like, hey, have you ever driven bands and stuff like that?

I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back on the road, like, tour again, right? Like, I was away from it for a while while I was like, I don't know if mentally I could do it or not. Anyways, I took it. I was like, yeah, fuck it. Let's do it. I toured with this band, Japanese band. Metal, kind of like a, they called Hanabia. So they were kind of like a metal, all-girl, like, very much that cutesy Asian heavy metal energy.

Cool. Cool. Cool. Like that. And only could speak to the tour manager because no one spoke English. he spoke pretty decent English and I didn't talk to anyone How long was that?

That was a month and it was rad because I loved being by myself and for the first time on tour I didn't really have to socialize. It was kind of nice and all I did was listen to podcast and like revisited old records and I knew all the drives like the back of my hand And I was like, oh, I remember this gas station.

I remember this venue. Oh, sick. And that's just kind of how that happened. It was an accident that I realized I really like. I love driving. Wow. It's like really nice. Yeah, you were the night guy.

So my first tour's ever with you. We played in a band called Alpha and I'm not going together. And you're a big night guy. Yeah, drive guy. Post show. Like zone out, throwing a record, something that's probably depressing as fuck. You know, probably like Manchester Orchestra. Yeah.

There you go. And just sit there and just like. Yeah, sulk. That's all that was. Usually maybe some Tegan and Sarah. Dude, I was going to bring up Tegan and Sarah. Yeah, probably some Tegan and Sarah, some MHS orchestra. We met Tegan and Sarah together.

Yes, we did. The interaction is so unbelievable that nobody would believe us. Nobody would believe it. You probably should not talk about that. No, no, exactly. So when did you find hardcore punk music? I was 14 years old. A kid in school gave me a camo CD.

And he's like, you should listen to this. I was like, what is this? He was like, you like Slipknot, right? I was like, yeah, for sure. I love Slipknot. And he's like, this is a band called Throwdown. Whoa. And I was like, oh, that cover is cool.

And I listened to it. And I was so primitive with instruments. I didn't understand how they were making the noises they were making. You know, like that first, like, I didn't know it was like triplets. Yeah. it just sounded like noise explosion and I was just like

this is sick and he's like yeah they're a hardcore straight edge band and I was like that's wack I came from punk so like getting fucked up was part of the identity of being punk at that time

when you say coming from punk is that Pennywise no even even more like LA backyard punk oh yeah like crust punk like ska punk in San Pedro South Bay like that whole area Wilmington Carson like all those things you go to a backyard show I was like eight years old at those shows you know and all the kids that were older than me 12 who are all getting fucking trashed and drunk and I was like oh this is the culture this is what we do yeah and so at that time I thought things like

sobriety were for adults and like fucking losers people that were squared and now how long have you been straighted edge for 25 years yeah 25 years sober now now. Yeah. Good job. Good times. And the name Wally Edge. Tell me the origin. That came from Kai, from K. Kai, however you want to, from Havhart. I did a tour in 2007 with Havehart. I was replacing their merch guy who was Polly Edge. From Syracuse, Meltdown. Meltdown, Syracuse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also a great lifter. You know? Great mosher.

Great mosher. Great merch guy. Enthusiast, great merch guy. Great landscaper. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. And he made the joke that it was like, oh, so now you're Wally Edge.

And I was like, yeah, don't do that. No, we're not, no. And because of that, they just kind of pushed that on me, and it kind of stuck. Did Throdom being from Orange County mean anything to you? Not necessarily. To me, it was like, oh, a California band. Yeah, yeah. I guess I did mean nearby.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't understand that there was shows that weren't in backyards that weren't stadiums. You know, the mid-level stages, right? The 500,000 cap rooms. I didn't know that because the only other concert I had gone to was Corn Rob Zombie in seventh grade. and Weezer, Tenacious D. Jimmy World. Ooh. Yeah.

Front to back, bang. That's just the perfect. I'm going to get there early. I'm going to go have a hot dog for like an hour. Up front, just sitting there with my red Weezer shirt at like age 13. You know, just having a blast. So anything in between a backyard and a stadium, I hadn't realized they exist. So when I went to the showcase theater to see Throwdown, it was, I was kind of confused.

like oh are we not allowed on stage are we like what's it's not on the floor this is confusing you know and then we don't have seats but I'm not on stage I don't understand you know and it was a it was pivotal man to see that the band and the fans were kind of interacting at a level where it didn't matter who was on stage or you couldn't even just figure out distinguish who was in the band and who wasn't you know like that was so cool to me and that That's hard for. Yeah, that's what that is.

Only hard for. Yeah, at its bone, that's what that is, man. And this was early throwdown. This is Keith thrown on. Keith thrown on. Because the Camel of CD was beyond repair. Yeah, beyond repair. So how do you get introduced to the drain guys many years later?

How do you get this job? So I met Sam, riding out, played with Zavala at the Gilman. And there was this kid with the St. Pedro shirt, stage diving for riding out. I was like, oh, dude, what are you doing up here? He's like, oh, I'm from San Pedro. I was like, oh, he's like, I go to school in Santa Cruz. I was like, oh, rad. He's like, yeah, my band just recorded like a demo and like, you know, we're stoked to like potentially maybe tour on it.

I was like, sick, dude, like get to it. Yeah. And I would see him. I was like, oh, that's the kid. That's the San Pedro kid. I was like, yo, his band's ripping it. Yeah. Like, they're just on the up and up, you know, even you got to a point where our records came out on the same day.

Jesus. You know, and I was like, oh, this is appropriate. This is cool, you know. And then down the road, I got the phone call. I think they found out I was driving or something like that. And they're like, hey, like, we're upscaling our crew, and we're going to start needing a driver. And, you know, just any successful band,

they start doing add-ons with, like, driver, permanent merch guy, tour manager, whatever. Quality of life. Yeah, you try to build your crew right off the rip, because, you know, we've all had members or people on the team that just like, they're your friends, but they're not good to work with rank. Where in their case, it's all people in bands. Yeah. All hardcore.

A lot of frontmen. A lot of frontmen. Yeah, we got Mac, Cosmic Joke, you know. And it's cool that everybody, at least for the majority part, is from California. Everybody grew up going to the same shows. Maybe I missed it. Who was Sanpedo kid? Which one was it?

Sammy. Oh, it was Sammy. He's from down there. Funny story about Sammy. I had an ex-girlfriend and we were at the mall in Torrance, Delama Mall. And she's like, dude, this kid's like, I fucking the shit out of you. And I was like, what do you mean? And I look over and this kid's just like, because he knew, he's like, oh, I think he knows

I'm riding out. And he goes, just like, oh my god, this kid in high school, like, for sure, teenager. Yeah. It was Sammy. Sammy. Of course so much. Because Sammy shorts. His mom was there with him buying him pants. Yeah. Oh. Pants? Wow.

He's like, we can't air this. Yeah. Nobody can know. What are you doing there? He said, I was with my mom. She was buying me pants. I was just like, that was you. He's like, that was me. I was like, I remember that because I felt awkward as shit. Uh-huh. What is your favorite travel stop one on the road? Where do you go? Travel stop as in gas station?

gas station, but like maybe you want a little more. You know, like not just, not just gas and some shelf stable foods. You want a roller. Maybe you want a nice soda. Maybe you want a terrible subway sandwich. Or delicious monster. So my staple is loves two for five hot dogs. There you go.

So loves. That's the staple. If I'm going luxury, we go the double XLB. brisket sandwich from Bucky's. Dude, come on, man. How is it? How do they do it? It's so cheap. They do it. And so good.

It makes no sense. Buckies is great. I do think that Loves is like, old faithful. It's old faithful. I could take a great shower. People think Love's bathroom is like disgusting. It's amazing.

Oh, it's immaculate. It's amazing. I take a shit, good stroke, hot shower. We're good, Dodd. How's that, what's up with rotting out right now? we play when we feel good about everything, but also two of our dudes have kids. That's priority.

We all have different jobs. I'm always on the road, like, seven to nine months out of the year. So we try to fit it in when we can. We got some festivals this year, and then we just signed up for something in the fall that we're kind of stoked on. Won't be announced for probably a couple months, but yeah, right.

which is fun because I feel like you get to a level where you did what you wanted to do of course and now you want to not change your sound but invite new elements in you know and so that's that's and that's exciting that's that's like oh cool now you're writing music not that you don't write music for yourself but you don't feel constricted to the sound that made you popular or you know favored the crowd or whatnot yeah you just do what you want freedom and i think that's where i see some friends not all my friends but some friends feel kind of afraid to get out of their element that was very tried and true it's scary because if you fail you're ruined but if you succeed you're set for life kind of creatively yeah yeah it's like dude okay so a good

example was suffer, survive, no warning. When it came out, motherfuckers hated it. It killed the band. It killed the band. Which is insane to me, because if that record came out in the last five years, it'd probably be the biggest thing. Yeah. Or

if Lincoln Park didn't exist. No, I don't even think... I don't even... I think that would play into its favor. You think Lincoln Park plays into it? Because that gave them an avenue to go down, and it didn't help them, you know? Yeah. Oh, I guess.

Gave them a sect of people to appeal to who were still not interested. Yeah. It's so funny how... But once again, the generation now of kids is so open to diversity. Because of what our generation kind of laid the groundwork for and endure it big time. Oh, man. The doldrums, we talk about it all the time, 2005 to 2010. Dark, the dark ages.

Where you couldn't step out of line in punk and hardcore without getting shit upon. Yeah. And it was, dude, okay, the biggest one was rotting out getting shit for wearing their own merch. Oh. We were one of the- Because you're just doing the suicidal thing, you know? Yeah, we did the suicidal black flag thing. We're like, yo, these are the bands we fucked with. They did it.

Why aren't we doing it? Also, we're fucking poor. You're going to tell me I'm going to print this and not wear it, like kiss my ass. Also, when you're on a football team. Yeah, it's a team. That's exactly right. It's a team mentality. I think if it started negative, it became overwhelmingly positive.

Yeah. I was always a fan. Some. I will not mention. bands some bands gave a shit said that's weird is that what you guys do in LA that clearly they went from Los Angeles two years later they're rocking you got to make what you like you're not making what you like exactly if you wouldn't wear it what's the point yeah that's it's kind of also it's like it lets

people know what they're watching when they're on stage or when you're on stage at least you know what I mean and that that's how I took it as a kid I was like oh yeah suicidels rocking their own shit I'm gonna fucking do that yeah you know they beat up Chrome eggs, that's hard. I'm gonna do that. One of them is in Chromex now. That's crazy. That's crazy. Like that look how they beat their way into ChromeX. Could we get an impromptu tour of this facility? Yeah. You sleep, you sleep elsewhere. I sleep in a whole town. I sleep in a whole town.

He's a day room, baby. Yeah, this isn't the projects anymore. Okay, good. I'm a free man. Good for you, man. They're, they're bulldozing the project, unfortunately, but rest of peace. Why don't you lead, like we'll stay behind and ask. Okay, we'll start from the back. Let's start from the back. And let the cameras go. Let's get you some fucking lighting, boys. I'll get this to the audio.

Cool, cool. So back here, we got the bathroom, which is nicer than my apartment. Dude, no, I'm serious. Is there a shower in there? Look at this shower. No, seriously, like, I need you to look at the shower. This is a nice fucking shower. Oh, it smells new.

I need you to look at this fucking. I can't get in there. No, no, no. Well, I will open. Can I open it? No, I can't open that. It's a nice shower. It's a better shower head.

It's not like other companies shower heads. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Toilet solid. I don't know. You got a bunch of other shit to hang on. We got the dark room that I call it where if you're in the band, you want to sleep in this area,

because everything will go pitch black, and that way you get good sleep. You know. These seem like tall bunks, too, huh? Dude, they're spacious. Yeah. In my opinion. Pretty good.

Better than a bus. Yeah, they're kind of long, too. So if you're tall, what are you calling? 6-2. 6-1? 6-1. These are 6-3. All right.

Let's go. Yeah, so this is a dark room. We got six bunks here. We got a $5,000 fridge, which is insane. Okay. To give hardcore bands. Yeah. There's no food in here because they're poor right now.

So they spent on their budget. Well, it's day negative one. Day negative one, yeah. So, you know, in a couple of weeks, they'll be. hot pockets. Who gets the non-dark rooms typically? Is that crew? Usually crew. Usually a TM or a merch. Yeah, so we got crew. I know Mark, the TM will be in one of these. Top bunk? No. Yeah, yeah. Put a minute's up. No, we can't afford that injury. Walsh-Dilgado. If you see this RV flying, he's driving. Or falling asleep.

Or falling asleep. Get out of the way. Tegan and Sarah. Lise did crying. Crying. I just sobbing in the front. Could you tell us your top four hardcore records of all time? Of all time. Okay, now let me ask you this. Do you want the truth or do you want what I think I'm supposed to say? No, we want the truth. We want the truth.

Always to go genuine. Here's the thing. I would weirdly, you know, this combo would come up. I'm like, dude, if I'm being honest, for me, top four of all time, when I think of that, I'm like, yeah, this is what inspires me the most and got me so hooked in. That's what it should be. Yeah. I mean, I could, I mean, dude, I might say number one street prowl.

Rodding it's all shit in that like general that's when I first really got like hooked in you know I don't know if it's a comp whatever but plagues walking disease trash talk I don't know if it's two and one that's just what I had um those two honestly probably fucking

I don't know I guess it's non-stop feeling I'd probably throw it in there maybe scared of death actually as four I'd say yeah there it is that four you know just like of course do I love I don't know fucking time to shine set it off all the other yes but though that is probably what I spent the most time listening to and just being just consuming it in you

know what I like that answer I will start with life of dreams crumbs suckers yes sir I will put the the vision of disorder the green drip album oh it's just that's just the self-time yeah yeah I just always called the green drip album go like I get it the yeah the Nicarodeon slime yeah yeah yeah I would say that's probably my favorite like 90s hardcore record that is about his 90s it gets you know so many layers. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like sometimes people think I'm just like one-dimensional. I just like one thing, but you know, I like I love, love vision disorder. I would probably put, I probably put age of coral, you know, third. Goated. And fourth one, I'm going to put, I think I'm

going to put the first GB record because that was like very early on. Seven-ish. Like the like the, self-titled, right? The one with like the grill on it. The grill. Yeah, yeah, with like the hoodie. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. And it's self-title, I just want to do it. That was like very early on. Just the opposite of Sammy's answers, just so you know. Oh, wow. You're a classic old school.

Oh, man, that's what I started with. Dude, but 80s hardcore. I mean, that seven inch is timeless. I'm going to go donate a reason. I know it's like more of a modern band, but again, that was kind of like my, that was how I got into hardcore. I love it. God, I'm going to give it to Master Killer.

I heard that in high school, and it kind of changed what I thought about hardcore. It's not just. us. Yeah. It's not just us. One with the underdogs for sure. Come on. Man, I'll, you know what we were talking about earlier? I'll go quickness. I think that's the record I listened to the most. And that's Mackey. That's Mackey on drums too. I against I for sure, because that's just such a good. You got that something. Yeah. I mean, it's just such an incredible mix of, uh, so musical. A lot of Van Halen in that record. Dude, absolutely. A lot of Van Halen in that record. Number two.

Two, screaming for change probably. That's the old straight and alert. You've been saying that a long time ago. I'm not straight-ed. Straight-in-alert. Damn, all right. That's cool you remember that. Come on.

I've known you for so long. It's true, yeah. AOL instant messenger. That's right. You ever heard of it? I mean, it's so cliche. Asia quarrel. Yeah, I mean, this is gun of the head.

Gun of the head right here. Fuck it, I'll put victim in pain. I can be in an island with those. Yeah, there you go. That's good. That's a way they answer. That's good. I'm gonna say Earth Crisis, destroying the machines.

I'm gonna say, hate breed perseverance. Oh, huge. I'm gonna say, strife in this defiance. And I'm gonna say Marauder Master Killer. Hey. Number four. Hard. Yeah. Outstanding.

There you have it. Really good. It's a guy who's known a ball or two. Thank you, Coleman. Master Killer Marauder, Keepers of the Faith, Terror. Climate of Fear, Bitter End. Wow. Ill blood, no warning.

I raised him well. Chain of strength. One thing that still holds true. Straight edge. Today, can't close my eyes. Ten yard fight. What is it? Hardcore.

Hardcore pride, yeah. Five songs about straight edge. The rest about football. The rest about football. And suicidal, self-titled. Wow. Yeah. I grew up in punk.

So it's like, I try to keep it close. Honorable mention. Honorable mention, carry on. That was the one. All right, that's a wrap here in Nashville. Two days. That's right. We've been having fun.

We're not the only ones. Now we're going to Dallas to take you to the first show on the tour. Let's go. Welcome back. We are in Dallas, Texas with Monster Energy. We're at day one of the Drain Is Your Friend Tour at the AMFM lounge with no pressure, haywire, and Secret World. Let's get in there and check it out.

We've got Mark here, tour manager to the stars that are drained. Which is the truth. How intensive is this for you putting something together like this chair, the big board, the banner? I mean, if I'm being humble, it's not that bad because I do this every day. That's right. You know, I got my master's in production from the University of Illinois. Wow.

That's true. Fighting a lot, I. For a while. Okay. Humble brag, but you know, it's fun to do every day. So I'm happy to bring it to them. I've been talking about this since we started working together. This?

Four years ago. This, everything. Just in general. How long you've been doing it? For a drain? In general. General production, 13 years now. I teach at a college in Long Island when I'm not doing this.

Wow. Yeah. What part of Long Island? I teach in Nassau, but I'm from Suffol. Good, very good. How did you get the gig of being the guy in the chair and the watchtower? Sammy has been asking me for a lifeguard chair for years and he always has said you have to be the one in it when the time comes

I love it and you weren't you weren't gonna deny the call you're going tarp off or on see what you know what calls I gotta get a little zinc from my nose yeah sure yeah you need the full gimmick a whistle yeah this is a whistle good idea about kind of the megaphone though I do have the megaphone there is a mega yeah we got yeah you got to twirl the whistle during the parts Dude, yep.

I got the umbrella. You'll see it all come together. Beautiful. Is Drain your favorite band to tour with? Oh, absolutely. Anytime I tore with another band, I'm like, I wish I was so great. You have a favorite venue in the country? Oh, great question.

Fuck, dude. Layton, consider everything. Load in. Commodations. Accommodations. Staff. Oh, man, this is really hard. I can tell you my favorite venue Drain's ever played.

Favorite show I was talking about this morning. It's not really a venue. Salt Lake City. it was between three buildings a sneaker store, a gun shop, and a print shop. Perfect. You go down the alley,

and they built a full stage at a scaffolding, and people were like, kind of looked like this, and people were monkey barring off the scaffolding, like front flipping during the set. With new sneakers, new guns. Yeah, post Malone was on the roof across the way,

watching, hanging out all day. That is top five great show ever. So that might be, you know, a favorite venue that was brought from nothing? That'll do it. What about a more conventional sense of a venue? Hollywood Pallone. was awesome. Great choice. Great, great venue. Makes sense. Slayer Riot, Black Flag Riot.

Not trying to ball out here in Chicago Metro. Yeah. He takes great care of everybody who comes. She really does. He is the go. Shout out to Christy. One of the most fun venues, especially who are there for two days. And yet, brutal load. Yeah. Kind of a tight stage. And a haunted elevator. And a haunted ass elevator, you know. So you never know. Nobody's perfect. All right, Mark. Last note, could you tell us your top four Hartford records of all time? All right. Silent majority, life of a spectator. That's Long Island. Yep, Long Island.

King Nine, scared to death. That's Long Island. That's a Long Island. District 9, School of Hard Knocks. Recipe's Puerto Rican Mike. It's New York. Puerto Rico, got to put on. The last one, some would argue, is hardcore isn't in our core.

It's kind of a tie between misery signals of malice and the Magnum Heart. There's seven angels, seven plagues, Jasmine Zolvite. Kind of interchangeable. I got to do the last misery signals tour, and that was awesome. Up on the front. Yeah. So that's kind of, that'd be my top four. Very good.

Yeah. Honor will mention MasterCiller. Okay. Oh, okay. You know. When you're here, you're here. He does. He really does.

Well, we'll see you back here in a couple hours in this very same chair. Thanks guys. All right, we're here. Day One is your friend tour. We've got Merch Man, Merch Master, Mac Miller here, my very good friend. One of my best friends. How you feeling day one of this tour? It's hot outside, you know, it's always fun to set the pace for a whole tour with like the only outdoor show that's gonna be nothing like the rest of the tour.

Perfect. Love it, yeah. How hands-on are you with them in terms of developing the spread of items? This was the first tour that I was super hands on. Like Sammy kind of Banks art. I mean, anytime he sees an artist he likes he just hits them up, has some design something. It's the way to do it. So he's got a big old folder of designs and then I kind of mix and match.

It was like, all right, tour shirt, something different, something for women, something is black, something colorful, you know, kind of cover all the bases. Try not to overlap designs with each other. Yeah, but pretty stoked on how it all came out this time. Yeah, it's a diverse spread. We'll find out tonight. Cromes, yeah. Grateful Dead. James Busema.

Shark. Metal core, huge back. Yes, that's what it's all about. Pull the trigger beach. Yeah, exactly. You need one. You got to pull that shirt. Especially outdoors.

And a tent. How does this differ from working with bands like Death Cab and Postal Service and Wallows like you do? Well, it's a lot less merch. Uh-huh. And it's a lot more merch that I like. Uh-huh. But yeah, it's just different. It's fun.

I feel like going on a tour with Drain is a treat because it feels like doing the DIY tours that I grew up doing, but still. in a more it's like the best of both worlds they're at a place where it's a little more comfortable it's my job still but then we're also all like just being a bunch of idiots in the van like you know it feels like home yes as opposed to clocking it yeah it's not that different from if I was torn with harm's way or but like it's it's my job still it's it's cool it's a crew made up of entirely people and like other hardcore bands all our friends yeah it's awesome it's cool and it's like coming back for summer

Like, you know, Walter is also touring with different bands year-round. And it's like, oh, even if I don't see when we're all in LA, we all come back together for the month when we are in there. Now, Mack, you're in this world, you're the merch man. Tell us about some trends. What should people invest in for the year? You're saying, hey, this is what's moving this year. We're in March, 2026.

Got to get a squeaker in this guy. I've been off tour for like five months, so we're going to find out real soon. No, no, no, no. Make a prediction, then. You know? Shirts are out. Yeah. Pants are in.

I think it's just start just selling six different tote bags. Just, just toads. We gotta put them in something. I'm post t-shirt these things. Okay, I love it. So are we. Get a bag for your bag. So pop them off.

Yeah. And we'll see you in there. Tarps off, get in the pit. Exactly. All right. What's your name? Mo. Yeah.

I'm here to see all the bands. That's right. Drain. No, it's actually my first time. from the bay I grew up in the bay but I like moved to Texas and just work and shit what is the first time what are you expecting from seeing Drain from first time to live to have a lot of fun who is having fun are you expecting props maybe yeah props everything dude shit getting thrown around will you be pitting and diving probably not I'm

I'm old as fuck my back hurts already I just kid they had like two shows in a row so okay well let's make it three we'll see you out there all right thanks Alright, what's your name? Jonathan. Jonathan, where are you from? Dallas, born a race. That's right. You're gonna see...

Have you seen Drain before? No. First time seeing Drain. First time seeing Haywire. They're coming to Dallas, couldn't miss it. I made it here. What do you expect tonight? My mind to melt.

You gonna be diving, Mosham? I want to, and I probably will. I just got a fresh tattoo and it hurts so fucking bad. Yeah, but if it gets peeled and scarred a little bit then you have a beautiful memory a beautiful infection I might have to do it beautiful I probably will I got in for shed when they did that I was like okay I got a

I mean so you're already infected you're fine you and me I'll see you in there all right what's your name where you're from I'm Keitel I'm from the Dallas Fort Worth area that's what's up thanks for having us hell yeah what's the best what do you like to do in Dallas well I'd like to do in Dallas yeah

hardcore sheet set out ozone ohzone big shout out of Yeah, full-war hardcore. Have you seen Drey before? I have. Yeah, I always dressed up as a shark. My dad's actually here with us today, too. He's taken off over there.

But, yeah, I usually dress up as a shark, but I'm taking it easy tonight. I had school today, so I had to pop out. Take the head off. You don't have Shark Day at school? Sometimes, but I always miss it. I'm always absent. What do you expect from this show tonight? I'm expecting.

I want nothing but stage dives. I want full crowd participation. I want everybody in the front. I represent sexes. Hard as hell. You sing for terror? No, I don't. Oh, okay. I could have sworn. Sounds familiar. Well, we'll see you in there. Oh, hell yeah. We'll get you later. See ya. What's your name? Where are you from? Elena, I'm from Dallas. Who? Well, Elena, thanks for having us.

Thank you. Have you seen Drain before? I've seen Drain lots of times. Oh, alright. Describe those shows for me. Fucking insane. Yeah. It's like the circus. Oh. Will you be joining the circus tonight? I will be joining the circus. Trapese or... Uh, little stilts. Yeah, there we go, perfect. Well, we hope to see you in there.

What's your favorite Drain song? Who's having fun? That's a great song. Yeah, it is. I do love that song. That's a great song. All right, we're here immediately posted. It's been seconds with the tallest man in the world, Tim, from Drain.

Night one, how was it? Unbelievable. Unbelievable lives. I'm still processing. I don't think that could have got any better. For a first show, too? First show of a tour? That's crazy.

Dude, I like, oh my god, yeah. How is it playing all those new songs for the first song? awesome awesome yeah unbelievable um it felt so good sorry I'm like I'm still still it was seconds ago I know yeah you're literally still wet what was the number one highlight you think honestly seeing Sammy surf for good good things like we were just like praying it worked out and it worked out and see just it's magic yeah it was like yeah sorry I'm like I'm giving you guys nothing other than no I'm loving it but it was awesome I have this is a triumphant moment yeah you're here the full band

is here yeah new A bunch of new songs. How was that playing all those new songs? The first song. It's so good, man. Loudice in the room with the Wall of Death was so cool. Yeah. What are you looking forward to for the rest of the show? If every show looked like this, I would be ecstatic. But honestly, every band rocks, every band kicked ass today. Everyone is cool. I'm bummed. You guys are leaving because I wish it could be the whole tour, but yeah, it's been unreal vibes. I got it out. Speechless. So cool. Fine. Cooperation, not competition. That's how, that's how Drain rolls. That's what the righteous path is all about.

You know these guys know. Righteous path, baby. Let's go. All right, we're here with Cody after night one of the Drain is your friend tour. How did that feel? You're an incredible man of the great first start to this gonna be awesome tour.

You know, I feel amped up already and I'm so excited. Also, thank you guys for being here too. Good, thanks for having us. You played good, you sounded good, your downstrokes were solid. Thank you, man. How do you feel about your performance? I feel good about the performance.

Like I was saying, my little earbuds, I think I might take those out. It was kind of ruining the experience for me. But you got to protect yourself, man. I got to protect myself, but I like to feel it. We'll figure that out. But hey, other than that, show was incredible. That we played great.

I thought kids were viving. Incredible. It's been a few months since the new record came out. This is the first night you played a lot of those songs. How did it feel to play a bunch of those new songs at first time? It felt great. Loudest in the room.

That was our first time playing alive. Wow. That felt great just with the whole wall of everything. Yeah, it was great. What was your favorite part? the set. I think that was in the room, man. I think, yeah, I get really soaked on like the newer songs, you know. Every time we get to play those for the first time, that's like, I'm like, yeah, and they all worked. And they all worked. Sounded great. People loved it. People knew the words.

They all worked. Thank you. Can you believe the paddleboard worked? Yeah, I was like, you know what, let's see how this goes. I was kind of like doing the chin thing like, hmm, and then it was like, yeah, I was like, and I was like, yeah, and it was incredible. And I can't wait to see it a million more times over the store. Amen. Well, we can't wait to see it, too. What are you looking forward to? to do recreationally between shows? Recreationally, go to the gym, man. I need to get a pump.

That's what I'm talking about. I haven't been in the gym since I was like home. So yeah. You're making beats too? I make beats man, yes, sir. Dude, tell me about making beats. Tell me about beats. What's your doll?

FL Studio. FUL studio. FURG-LUPS. 20-22. 20-22. Soldier boy, tell them. Yeah. Exactly.

Dude, yeah. A lot of, a lot of great hits were made on the FL Studio. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I started with the FL11 when I was 1617, now we have 22, so. That's what's up, yes. Well, we can't wait to hear about the rest of the tour.

You're rocking, dude. You're locked in. You're rocked in. We'll see you soon. We're here with Sammy from Drain. Immediately after the first show in Dallas, what's going on through your mind right now? I'm feeling ecstatic. It's crazy when you think about a plan and then it actually works out but better than what you plan.

Let's talk about it. Dude, there's a new plan. How did you do it? I don't know. It's awesome. You know what? I didn't think he was going to pan out. That's kind of scary, but that was awesome.

Dude, got on the board, made it work all the way out, didn't drop, I jumped in. Incredible, dude. You did, like, once you got on, you were high up. Dude, I'm not going to lie, I really was like, please don't drop it. It's just gravel and we're fucking up there. The mic was gone. Oh, immediately, I tried to dangle it down and just like kind of lost. Yeah.

Night one, we're going to get there. We're going to get there. Unbelievable core strength, that, that. It was kind of a lot, dude. I got back on the stage where it's like solid and my legs were like chelo, dude. Oh, wow. I just, I just, like, balance it out. It's fucking great, though, man.

You pulled it off. first try. Dude, miraculously, how is your hair dryer? Dude, I, dude. I'm balding, dude. Let's go. Nuciful, send the check! Okay, dear.

So you played a lot of new songs. Yeah. First time, some of them. How to feel? Feels good, man. You know the feeling we're like, we know the song, and you just don't know where you breathe. What part you breathe? Like, muscle memory.

Sure. Dude, and the other ones, like, I don't even think I just know if I finish that line. Yeah. So I had to figure that, but, dude, it feels great, man. It was like, you know how nerves go. You get up there. I have all these things like planned I want to say and do then you just go and rip it then you're just like what's up dude started my way through the whole thing was

start the song start the song yeah oh there's one I'm like I can get it okay let's go let's go it was great though man I'm still that you guys were here I'm still doing I'm still doing here if you were here Dallas thank you man it was incredible what are you looking for to for the rest of the shows dude you know what honestly it sounds dumb and there's things that probably nobody else would notice but I'm as players you know little things I want to get a I just want to hone in on a little bit. I want to just hit that pitch out while. I want to just feel a little more juiced.

That's just going to come from time. I say, I'd say my stamina. I think I just want to, you know, it's the first show. We're playing a couple months. Oh, that'll do it. You know, and just kind of going in, just excited and just fucking went for it. So I'm hoping to find my flow, you know? I just feel like stamina the whole way, not like strong burst.

You know what I mean? Tell me about how it felt to get the production together and feel everything right the first time and seeing the lineup that you put together tonight. Dude, unbelievable. And that's the thing, like, it's a bummer when you have so many dope bands and you have to stretch or get warmed up. You don't want to miss it, you know? I like, kind of a little bit of no pressure. Like, fuck, I got to go like warm up.

Yeah. Let's watch all the Ciro world, all the haywire. A little bit of no pressure. It's incredible, man. It's just kind of what my Spotify would look like. You know what I mean? Like, tiny little corner. If it's a sunny day, this is what my Spotify is looking like.

So, and we got to experience that. But yeah, like, walking up the little ramp, like, I'm not too good to put a palm tree up myself. But for the show, environment, it's kind of cool. cool we have help they put it up so i kind of got to walk out of so i'm like oh this is it dude it's like that like big ass warehouse but it's real yeah there's like light hitting these trees and like this is really cool it's special man i'm excited to do that every night dude yeah it was perfect dude i'm a little slice of heaven do right here how about that man we're signing off here drain 2026 is your friend thank you monster for bringing us out thank you drain for having us

dude it's gonna be an incredible tour you're gonna love it see you soon thank you guys