HardLore - Skull from SKINHEAD

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

It's a beautiful day, what a beautiful day... HardLore is joined by SKINHEAD vocalist/songwriter known only as SKULL.After a lifetime of playing drums in bands such as Criminal Instinct, Black My Heart, On Broken Wings, Death Before Dishonor, Rude Awakening, Drug Test, etc... SKINHEAD is the raw, intimate and brutally honest vessel of artistic expression straight from Skull's personal mental archives, that results in an incomparable band and unforgettable listening experience.An incredible storyteller and songwriter, SKINHEAD is fresh off releasing one of our favorite albums of the year, we're honored to bring you his first ever long form interview about the band.__________________________________Edited by Steven Grise (@iamoneonenineseven) • Title sequence by Nicholas Marzluf (@marzluf)HardLore: A Knotfest SeriesJoin the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes: https://patreon.com/hardlorepodJoin the HARDLORE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/jA9rppggef__________________________________Cool links:HardLore Official Website/HardLore Records store: https://hardlorepod.comTry AG1 at DrinkAG1.com/HARDLORE to receive a free 1-year supply of vitamin D and 5 travel packs of AG1.Get 15% off MADD VINTAGE with code HARDLORE15! https://maddvintage.com/__________________________________FOLLOW HARDLORE:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/hardlorepod/TWITTER | https://twitter.com/hardlorepodSPOTIFY | https://spoti.fi/3J1GIrpAPPLE | https://apple.co/3IKBss2FOLLOW COLIN:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/colinyovng/TWITTER | https://www.twitter.com/ColinYovngFOLLOW BO:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/bosxe/TWITTER | https://www.twitter.com/bosxe__________________________________00:00:00 - Start00:02:40 - Personal Training/Skinhead00:05:07 - You're not eating the Mochi...00:09:04 - New Hampshire/Boston/Youth00:14:45 - Ancient Skinhead History00:20:48 - Evolving as an Artist00:25:23 - Skinhead Demo & EP00:29:14 - Homesick00:35:17 - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt00:37:30 - The lost Skinhead music video00:41:38 - Erik Scandalous00:49:29 - The Skinhead Live Band00:51:39 - Playing on the Mayans Series Finale00:58:20 - Pardon This Interruption...00:59:47 - Out Of The Gang01:01:32 - Back In The Gang01:05:34 - It's a Beautiful Day, What a Beautiful Day...01:13:44 - Separate Checks01:18:40 - That's A Promise01:26:23 - Future Plans For Skinhead01:30:12 - Black My Heart and On Broken Wings01:38:58 - Hammer Bros.01:47:43 - Death Before Dishonor01:52:12 - Rude Awakening01:55:07 - Criminal Instinct02:02:15 - What Skull misses about touring02:05:37 - Eatin' Good02:07:32 - Who Do You Do?02:08:20 - Top 4 HC Records02:14:58 - Ghosts02:18:10 - Patreon Q&A #HARDLORE #HARDCORE  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.

It's hard even to go to a concert. You're going to tell your friends. Are you going to go to the Skinhead gig? But you did this. You did this to me. I tell people that all the time. Hey, I love Skinhead. And they go, what are you crazy?

And I go, yeah. It was, I was like, what do we call ourselves? And all, of course, all the white power bands of all the clever ones. And you can't go down that road. Like, what's the most fucked up? What's more fucked up than a skinhead, dude? The name even incites rage within people. For better, for worse, here I am.

It's skinhead. Hello, welcome. It's Hardlord Time. How you doing, Bo? I'm glistening. It is so hot. That's how I'm doing. I'm glistening for other reasons. Tell me about it. It's out of pure joy and excitement because we've got such a fantastic guest today. And I'm going to begin by quoting the man of the hour here. Everything is stories. So we're excited today to talk directly to the source.

the man who hits the hardest on and off the drum kit, the founder, vocalist, songwriter of Skinhead. Please, everyone welcome, Joshua Long. Thank you very much. The crowd's exploding. Pleasure to be here. Everyone take their seats. I appreciate it.

Wonderful time. And I'm excited. All right. Thank you so much for being here. How you doing? How's the new record going? Good, wonderful. Great feedback.

Love this stuff. Kill yourself. People enjoy. They also enjoy the song about the dog that makes them cry. So we got a on both spectrums. Yeah, I think we're going to get there. The hits for me. I've listened to it all day today to really get in the zone. It was kill yourself, split checks. Separate checks. Separate checks. And that's why they hate you. Yeah, that's why. And 45.

Thanks, man. Yeah, those are good ones. Are you still personal training? Absolutely. coach people. I also manage personal trainers too. So I have a hard time keeping my personal life and my art life and my work life separate. You can't tell your boss that you need to take off for a weekend because you have to play a show with your band's skinhead. That's true. That's not a cool thing that people enjoy to do.

It's a damn near impossible sentence to say to a regular guy. Yeah. Or girl. No, I've never said it. Have you ever gotten the, what's the name of the band? Yeah, luckily, I give them criminal instinct every time. Okay. That works. And it's like dirty enough, you know, it's like, it's like, oh, what the heck?

You still believe it. Yeah, so like, all right, I'll let us slide, whatever, it's fine. And yeah, so that usually gets me a long way, definitely. I can't, you can't say, you can't even, it's hard even to go to a concert. You're going to tell your friends, are you going to go to the skinhead gig? Yeah. At the water cooler. But you did this.

You did this to me. I tell people that all the time. Hey, I love skinhead. And they go, what are you crazy? And I go, yeah. I'm an emotional person. I work off emotion solely. So it was an emotional decision.

And I have no choice but to stick to it. I'm also a stubborn person. I've been straight edge for quite some time and refuse, probably out of spite to ever give that up. So for better, for worse, here I am. Well said. It's still straight. It's skinhead.

That's the name of the band. For better or worse, it's skinning. Okay, good. As it should, you know, I think making it the statement is cool and owning now the word skinhead as this is me. This is an extension of me. What are you going to do about it? Also, yeah, also, I cannot believe there has never, due since the 60s, there's never been a band, a boy band, a punk band. any band called skinhead.

Dude, they all have to be like, they all have to be like, uh, like funny, like the four skins. Four skins or like they all have to be silly things. I'm like, dude, what about the thing? Your skinhead number one on discogs? I have to be. There's no, there's never been a skinhead. I need you to fact check that if you can. I don't want to, I don't want to tell you to do something, but we'll put it in. We'll put it in after. It was, it was, I was like, what do we call ourselves? And all, of course, all the, the white power bands of all the clever ones and you can't go down that road because that's fucked up. But call it the thing, dude. Why are you beating around the bush?

That is unbelievable. Yeah. Like what the heck is going on? I can't believe it. You fucking got it, man. The real, the original skinhead, you know? The original skinhead. The final skinhead.

Summer 2018, Skoll, you were the first, this is, we're going off the personal training theater. This is pre-COVID. Yeah, yeah. This is pre-COVID. I think, I think you were the first most jacked guy I ever saw. I ever knew personally.

And I remember asking you, well, how did you do this? And you said that you were dealing with a crippling addiction to mochi? Is that still something you're dealing with? Yeah, mochi and boba for sure. It was definitely boba. I had every single walk with my dog. And my girlfriend at the time was my wife. Mazel.

We passed. we'd have um we'd walk by this amazing boba place and uh you just can't help but poke your head in smell what they're cooking and get a big old uh what did i used to get i used to get a taro which is essentially a cup this big of um non-dairy creamer right and then taro uh flavor and chunks and then you got you got to get you can't get the normal you got to get the double boba got to get the double boba yeah and since you're there there, get a couple mochis, and call it a day. So that was, um, that's every walk. Probably, probably a cool 800. No problem. Yeah, we don't have cows here. We just, uh,

we just keep them. We just charge it to the game and keep it moving. But you told me your, your mochi eating technique, which was you go to the store, you tell, you tell, Candice, you're getting a carton of mochi. You get two cartons of mochi. One gets eaten on the way home. and then you get to arrive with one carton of mochi as stated it's called a black truth i am getting mochi yes she sees and we share a carton of mochi i do not i do not see the fault in that what's the who's getting hurt here other you know other than me asking you oh my god you're so enormously huge and jacked and you go well it's actually mochi that's really the only downside so col is mostly mochi did this put into your head as long as I

work it off, I can have. That them half doesn't don't know. No, no, no, no. This is me going like, wow, I just got skinny. But I want to be as big as skull here. And this is when skull officially dubbed me bones. Because he was all skin and bones. Skull and bones.

I get it. He was all skin and bones. Yeah. Wow. I think as a coach, as someone who's in like the fitness industry, it is, I had a conversation with, Justin from Closed Casket.

And I'm like, dude, it's like, let me know how I can assist. Like I'd love to, you know, like help with any workouts or things like that. And he's like, thanks. But I know everyone in the fitness industry gets like asked questions and 15% of the people end up doing the thing that you tell them to do. So I'm going to pass. I go, awesome. However, it's close to 1% of the people.

And those 1% do it wrong. And so it is this the most miserable. cross to bear being a person. So I have a skinny man who lost a lot of weight, Colin, asking me, how do I get so big? If you can't eat the mochi, how the fuck am I going to tell you do X amount of deadlifts or X amount of presses? So once you check the box, okay, have you been eating the mochi? Okay. Hey, I'll check in next week, man. It's all good, bro. it's it's all behavior stacking it's just it's just subtle you know you can't tell someone here's you're going to eat you know lettuce for dinner every day of the week and lose weight you're going to

say you got a water bottle my bro you don't let's get a water bottle let's start drinking water if you can't do that what the fuck am i doing here tiny little baby steps towards the mochi and then i'm here for i'm here for success thank you wow new hampshire tell me about tell me about grown up there. Tell me about finding hardcore punk and community in New Hampshire. Wow. Yes. Thank you for this question. So, New Hampshire, it is its own state. We can all agree on that. Sure. Of course. California, you know, Illinois. But it's essentially a giant suburb of Boston. I lived like 50, 50 driving minutes to Boston. and there was a lot of stuff happening in New Hampshire,

kind of, but it was all just revolving around Boston. So you would go into the city, you would drive into the city. But when I was growing up, like the late 90s, early 2000s in New Hampshire, people couldn't get enough grind core.

You've heard of this stuff before? I'm familiar. It's deeply familiar. It's freak shit, dude. It'll go nasty until your head spins. Also, like, like, Sacia, like weird, like a lot of my friend Tyler, he was in this band called the Farewell Chapter,

they fucking ripped. A lot of that stuff. Okay. New Hampshire, a ton of that stuff. Really? And then you also had violent, um, roving skinheads who would just show up in random places and terrify people. So it was quite the, the juxtaposition, uh, in, in specifically Manchester, New Hampshire,

where I grew up, but kind of all over New Hampshire. A lot of what you just said kind of, defines the spectrum of music that you have played so far. Yeah. It's a little bit of all that. And now you've landed on the latter, but with the message of the former kind of, which is a great combo. Thank you so much. Who are some specific people that you connected with early on that kind of guided you

towards where you'd end up, like instrumental key figures in your life? Right. Yeah, totally. I was friends with just like rough kids out this kid Jake who was his dad and brother and uncles were all bikers like 1% her bikers in my hometown. And they loved Alice Cooper. And so we started a band named Fubar that we played, is it the name that got here? A little bit. I like it all.

I'm engaged. I was going to say who was in the band. So it was Jake sang. He had gorgeous lot. He had like a part, like a blonde part. I had, dude, the second, I would, I would be dead in Chicago right now because my hair, it just curls up with an ounce of humidity. So I was never, I was never the locks guy. And, yeah, Jake, beautiful.

Like, Kirk Cobain, dude looked fucking gorgeous. I can't I? Oh, yeah. We're all adults, right? Oh, yeah. So, yeah, he was handsome, dude. He sang and played guitar, like bad company. like just normal like biker stuff

loved it. He got his dad and his brother and his uncles and so I played guitar Jake played guitar and sang. We had like a kid playing the keyboard. We got we were all in. Our first show actually was it was called Derry Palooza. You might have heard of it. So it was in Derry, New Hampshire at the local swap meet

and Common Correct played Many such cases. Oh, wow, that's a great gig. Okay. Yeah, you got a fact check on that one too. San Black Church shirts were sold by Rick to Life there. I forget it to actually played or not.

But yeah, we played, we started with 18 by the Coup Man. Was it always Fubar or did you ever call it by a fucked up beyond all recognition? It was always Fubar. Okay. It was always Fubar because I think out of the five band members, maybe one of the one of of them knew what the fuck that was. And that was Jake's dad. And he wasn't even a band member.

We just called a Fubar. It sounded sick. Yeah. It does sound sick. It's a badass name. So here's a bad ass. I mean, dude, like, where I grew up, it's, it's, everyone was like mean and mad. And, um, aggressive music was everywhere. And, you know, like in 93 and like, Rancid was on the radio. Like, things are happening. So, um, I remember, uh, a stepmother's son.

I don't know what that would be. I'm not a math man. But he gave me a tape for a fourth, it was something. But he gave me a tape that was a strike on one side,

I think, and mudvane or something on the other. He's like, check this out, bro. And I'm like, okay. And I was like,

this side's sick. This other. The mud vein side? Yeah, it was like, the muddhane side's sick. These other guys are yelling about something I don't know about.

No, but it's like things were just around, dude. Like people like, rave culture was still, happening in New Hampshire. People were wearing big pants. People were wearing kickwear. And that bled over into like the hardcore metal scene. Like dudes who went to raves and girls who went to raves also were at converge shows. Everyone was wearing a sidebag. Everyone was wearing

big pants jumping up and doing kicks with their feet to applaud the band playing. It was like a It was an aggressive style of dancing. But yeah, it was just everywhere. We're kind of right back to that now. We're a full circle. You just described the midnight hour. What time frame is this? I went to my first official show in 98, one king down, one king down played.

And you mentioned being 16 listening to Blitz and a convertible. Yeah. Is this around the time where you first also identify as a skinhead? Yeah, I would say 15, 16, for sure. Yeah. So that aspect of your life is defined that early, and now it defines you in an artistic way as well. And so much of the Skinhead songs are these like poetic details of violent instances

throughout your life. When did that become a regular occurrence in your life? Just the violence? Yeah. When does the violence become routine enough to, for this, just a roll of the decks of stories? Same old story, yeah. I mean, junior high, people were fighting. The big thing was I found out really early on that if you just punch the person first, you're probably the winner.

And then I found out a little later that you don't even got to punch a guy. You can just hit him with a crazy thing. And then it's over even faster. Like an object. yeah like a solid solid object if you want it's uh that was yeah junior high

mostly high school we had these um dude it was just it was a high school movie there was uh there was the the football kids who fucking hated us it was me and like 20 like punks and skins they hated us

there was the we called them corn kids this is before like we knew what new metal was but we called them corn kids That's how big corn was. They were huge. They got a whole thing, dude. They got a street named after them. So the corn kids hated us.

Everyone hated us. But the freaks, like the musical freaks. Like there was kids, like my friend Derek loved, you know, small brown bike and like stuff like that. Some of my closer friends, we liked, you know, more oi and punk. there was dudes just like, you know, repping, you know, like American Nightmare and reached the sky and like more classic like Bain, stuff like that.

But it was all, it was just a known that like we are like music. People like punk indie adjacent. So we just like we have each other's backs. All spectrums rock together versus the football team and and cut. And corn kids. Yeah. So you guys were against the corn kids. I don't know how it started, but we didn't, they didn't like us.

We didn't like them. Yeah, there was like plenty of meetups like West Side Story. Rumbles, yeah. Rumbles, yeah. It was pretty awesome. I remember the football team tried to get a rumble with us, and we showed up with like, yeah, 20, 30 kids, and they ended up running away and we like all cheered.

It was very strange. It was a very, it was like a very innocent outcome to like what could have been a horrible, disgusting, terrible incidents. Yeah, let me ask you the question. Maybe this wasn't always true, but in my eyes and in my life, finding out about OI and like the skinhead subculture specifically, it was way more niche at the time than discovering hardcore through for us. It was like the Bridge Nine board or whatever, you know. How did you find that specific subculture out of the hard rock thing? And like what did what as a 15, 16 year old, what did the skinhead subculture and like lifestyle mean to you?

Like, why did that grab you? Yes, skinheads are just the most rotten people you could possibly imagine. Truly, it's this, like, you look at a skinhead. And to me, they're just, like, big, mean, like, their pants are, like, cropped in a certain way. I didn't even know how to tailor pants, you know, like, they're, they look big with, like, they're bombers, you know, like, there's, like, they just look menacing. And as a kid who, like, my parents were divorced when I was, like, six-month-old. and like, you know, I had alcoholics in my family and, you know, there's drug addiction.

And so, yeah, no shit that I turned to something straight edge that I'm just like, you know what? I can't just moderate my lifestyle. I have to say, fuck you to everyone who isn't this. And it's kind of the same thing with like, like, what's the most fucked up? What's more fucked up than a skinhead, dude? You even talked about it 10 minutes ago. The name even incites rage within people. It's still a dirty word to most people because they don't know.

Yeah, of course. They don't know the full context. They only know that little context that dirtied it for so long. Yeah. And it's, I mean, dude, I grew up in New England. The Bruisers were from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the Dropkick Murpies. Like, do or die was in a, it was, that was everywhere. That album was everywhere.

This girl on the bus, I was listening to Operation Ivy and on my CD player. And she was listening to Dropkick Murphys. I'm like, oh, let's do like a trade for a week. and I never gave it back. I was like, you can have that Operation Ivy CD. She's like, I don't want it either. And I'm like, well, no, well, you can throw it away, but I'm keeping the CD. And it was, it was that that fucked me up because I thought, uh, on do or die, you know,

the cover, it's like a bunch of construction workers. Yeah. I'm like, dude, skinheads are just like, they look like my dad. My dad was an iron worker. I'm like, all these guys are crazy looking dude. I was like, anyone could be a skin head. I didn't know. It was just like a picture because of like art or whatever.

Like these dudes. are fucking gnarly. And do you hear that they're from near here? And then you get off with it even more? Yeah, definitely. That was like a very special thing. Because if they're from Idaho or whatever, it wouldn't make any sense to me. This guy could be in the same union, union as my dad. Not only does it look like him. I've walked those streets, those cobblestone streets downtown, back bay, God, we've trenched the same path. Yeah. When I listen to the current, like What Skinhead has evolved into, it feels like such a, like an intimate look. It's like a personal, intimate look into your diary.

It's a collection of stories that nobody can actually relate to. Nobody else has experienced them. But it ends up as a relatable listening experience somehow. What made you want to explore this side of yourself artistically after spending your life playing in bands like Black My Heart on Broken Wings? Criminal instinct, Rood Awakening, etc. So funny story

about Black My Heart. They were just bad dudes and they were amazing people. And again, like I was in this band called Drug Test. That was more like youth crewy kind of stuff.

I played with like outbreak for a couple tours. So I was in that scene. And so I remember when I joined Black My Heart we were playing a show at the Cambridge Elks Lodge in Massachusetts.

And I forget what the band called, but it was a couple of the dudes from, um, do you guys remember that band, Parpit? I know the name. They were from Virginia, um, specifically in Virginia Beach. And, uh, a couple of the dudes were like, oh, they, uh, they recognize me from the drug test days and like, dude, what's up? You in a band? I was like, yeah, yeah, we're called Black and Harder. Like, fuck yeah.

And then the dude went to all his friend. There was like six of them on Tortiga. Like, yo, they're all wearing like minor threat shirts and shit. And, uh, they're like, yo, the drummer of a, of a drug test is in a new band's called Black Black Marrard. They're like, fuck yeah. we played 30 seconds of the first song and the look the just the sadness that these men had like I just hung up the dream dude I truly betrayed them and dude back then that was a betrayal bro yeah like like bands like uh I don't even know like you like that scene like that like internal fairs drug test in black my heart in a singular lineup today,

nobody would bat an eye. It would be like, oh, great, this is great. Yeah. 2004? Yeah. That's a mixed bill. Yeah. What are you doing?

Yeah, totally. So, yeah, I mean, so they were bummed. And I don't know, I feel like, to answer your question, I mean, I've written a little bit. I've had that project,

Sisters a little bit. Like, I think, and also the demo to Skinhead, that was my feeling at the time. That was what I felt. The self-title after that, that is how I felt. The record before this one,

that is how I felt. So I'm just expressing what I'm feeling. I'm an emotional man, like I told you. I go purely off emotion. And so this is where I am. Were you always writing? Like even when you were young,

did you journal or did you write in any creative way? No, I thought reading was for bozos. And most of the, You're the reading guy, dude. Now I'm the man who reads. That's how they know me. No, dude, because, like, in school, you, like, you just, you get all these books, and they're like, all right, what's the purpose, you know, like, what's the theme behind?

I was like, I don't know. It was cool when, like, you know, the sister peed off the, you know, thing with the brothers or whatever. That was from, to kill a mockingbird. And they're like, no, this is about power. And I'm like, yeah, whatever. I don't know what it's about then. Or like poetry when like, because dude, Robert Frost was from New Hampshire and still

reading his poetry. I'm just like, what is this guy talking about? And it makes me so mad because there is poetry that makes sense to people and you can read something. And you're like, wow. And then dude, you want me to talk about like Robert Frost walking through a path and like seeing a bush and be like, well, the price of oat brand was 60 cents on the dollar back then?

And so what he's actually referring to, it's like that doesn't, how the, fuck off. Poetry doesn't have to be haikus. It can be about kicking a fat skinhead down the stairs. For sure. Yeah. And, yeah. And do the first shows that I've ever played in skinhead. And even, I mean, I don't know one show that we've played that I didn't just like laugh on stage because I'm like, God, you guys are, you guys like this?

You guys, what's wrong with you guys? You're hearing what I'm saying and you're excited. excited about this? I was like, this is great. I'm glad I'm here to say it then. I like that. So the demo, the fuck fake skins, the first release, that was recorded in a single day. Is that true? Yeah, everything. Wow. You want to tell me about any stories that come to mind about these songs and the people who inspired them? I mean, yeah, there was a real dude in Idaho who, uh, like, who was just really rude. Very a rude man. Yeah. Black Marr was playing a show in, uh, in Idaho. And this kid came up and he declared his space.

He just, he did one of these in the middle of the pit. And I don't know what it was, but he wasn't happy with us. And then whatever happened after and I wrote a song about it. Just don't be rude and you won't be in one of these songs, you know? Yeah, extreme rudeness. I do not like hurts me. I'm trying to be a chill dude. Yeah, it hurts you inside.

The Skinhead EP was up next. also a single day. Wow. Yeah. Two shots. Done. RSVP, there's a line that says, fuck your plants.

Yeah. Can you tell me how the fuck your plants line came to be? Yeah, living in Boston, you're going to a lot of house parties. People got plants. Something happens. Someone wants to say something, and all of a sudden maybe a plant goes somewhere or plant disappears. Are you writing the music?

is what? Yeah, so I'll I'll write all the music, all the lyrics, and then just go to Taylor and say, I have an idea. Yeah. And then he can want your lives. Yeah. Give me a day of your time. And that's why,

I mean, that's part of the reason why I love Taylor so much is because he just gets it. Kind of like Martine with like graphic design stuff. You can kind of just say a thing. And he's like, oh, like this, you're just like, God. Damn. Yeah, yeah.

That's better than I thought. Martine is, Martin and Taylor are very similar in the facts that, like, very easy to explain, hey, here's this convoluted idea I have. Holy shit, you just made it real.

Taylor also talked sense into me. I just, because, dude, like being a one man's band, like, yeah, I,

like, overthink things and freak out. I mean, the last record we wrote, I recorded, like, three vocal tracks. And then,

I think I was texting him for probably an hour and a half being like, no, the whole thing. I'm going to change my name. I'll probably move to Kansas. And he's like, we could just, you know, just sleep on it. I think they sound pretty good. I'm like, all right. I feel like the first time you did the like speaking double layer vocal, it was the first time I noticed it. And I really like that. So you should do that more. I'll do it more. Thank you. Did you play drums as well? Yeah. So I just go in there and play drums. Then I pick up.

a guitar, play the guitar parts, and then I pick up a bass and the bass, and then I do the leads, and then I sing, and I ask Taylor if he wants lunch, and of course he does, and we get lunch, and then I drive home. What's Great White Hutt or Panda Express over there? No. Great White Huts pretty good. Yeah, it used to be burritos at the old pit, and I think it's been Jimmy Johns at the new pit.

Jimmy Johns? This isn't by, this isn't, it's by necessity. It's just like what's near there. I mean, hey, the Italian nightclub, I think, is one of the great American accessible sandwiches. But I didn't know that he had access to that. I believe, is it Jimmy Johns or Mike's? Might be a Jersey, I might be a Jersey Mike. Might be a J.M's.

I love J.M. No problem there. Yeah. Both of those are just no nothing places to me. So you eat a sandwich and then you leave. You paint a guy first and then you leave. Yeah. Right.

Hom Sick, I think, is a song. That's where you kind of really. started to experiment with like, I think I'm just going to really speak some feelings over some guitar. I don't even need drums. What made you not want to put drums on these two singles? I do think it made these two songs stand out so much that they kind of, they shock me every time.

And they're so, the homesick is so beautiful. I really like, hearing this happen in real time in the discography, like, like, really made the future of Skinhead Click for me. Tell me about this song, please. Yeah, my friend Ted passed away. And luckily, I mean, I'm surrounded by beautiful people and we can all openly talk about our feelings. And no one was having a good time. And no one was in our close friend group, no one was able to kind of express, you know, like our sorrow and like this sudden shock. Because, you, like, in our late 30s, you know, like losing a friend is completely insane.

And unfortunately, it's happened a lot, whether it's, you know, drugs or just, you know, like suicide or something. And I wanted to help his sister out because, like, yeah, someone passes away and it's sad. But also there's logistical challenges, man. There's like funerals and there's costs. And my friend Ted passed away. And it's the same place that Chapmaker, Paker died. Amsterdam. He died in Amsterdam. And so to physically get his body back to, you know, uh, Ottawa, where his family was. Like, and so, um, a part of it was just me, um, just needing to

talk about that. And, uh, a part of it was just, let me put out a hundred tapes and I'll send all of, you know, all of the proceeds to her should have done 10,000 because, you know, hundred tapes went in like 40 minutes, but, um, what about, Either way, dude, it's, I think, I don't know. Again, talking to Taylor conceptually helps a lot. Dudes like bands like the Lemonheads or like J. Mascus, you can do full band stuff. Even like Bob Mould's.

Like I saw Bob Mould open for Patty Smith. This is probably like 20, I forget it was 2018 or something. It was fucking awesome, dude. And he was just him with a guitar, but he was doing Hustker Do songs. He was doing his solo stuff. He was doing sugar. He was, I was like, damn. I was like, I would love to be in a place where I can, I can do stuff just like a man in the guitar.

Or do stuff like as a band's. Like it's, um, so I don't know, a lot of that had to, had to do with it. But it was, it was mostly, um, I'm very sad about my friend not being here anymore. And I'm very sad that, um, things come up. and I want, I desperately want to tell my friend these things that happened to me. He was getting me for, he grew up in Manchester with me. And he was getting into jiu-jitsu, like in 2004, 2005. And when I got my black belt, or sorry, my black belt, Jesus Christ,

when I got my blue belt, I was like the, I was like, if Ted knew that 20 years later, after he was just calling me a coward for not wanting to fight people in a gym, that I would be getting a blue belt, he would just be, you know, beside himself and just that feeling of, um, like there's nothing you can do. Your friend is gone. There's nothing you can do. Um, so I just needed to tell, you know, my friends mostly who knew Ted. This is how I feel. All of them reflected, or all of them, you know, felt the same way, which is nice and, um, kind of celebrated it. And also, um, just reminding people that if you have, if you have friends and family who are going through a hard

time and you don't say anything, it's, it's, that's, that's a part of your fault, man. If they're not there anymore, you have to. Yeah, it is your, it is completely your responsibility as a friend if you truly love someone to have hard conversations, maybe sometimes not even, um, could maybe cut them out of your life. If that's what they need at the moment, you know, like there's plenty of friends where they were going through terrible things and I just had to, um, accept. I was like, cool, my friends, my friends, my friend's going to die. That's, there's nothing I could do. Um, So yeah, it was it was something that I just felt like I really wanted to do and I just wanted to try to heal that.

And yeah, it helped a little bit. The only terrible thing is a lot of people like that song. And so I've had to play a live twice. And that's probably the worst thing I could possibly think of. Yeah. So I do think that. Yeah. I mean, but that's like why this works.

You embrace the vulnerability while being called Skinhead. And all these songs are like these grand opuses where you talk about. this cast of characters. You know, you got Jobi and Eric and and Brendan and Kyle in the songs. And on the new record, you're reflecting how all these other people that you'd like to talk about

are not all here anymore. While you're talking about smashing bottles and people's heads and stuff. And it may, that's the complete package of skinhead. And that's, that's, that's what sets you apart. You get a little bit of everything.

It's so real. And that's, the authenticity is, is like, impossible to fake, you know? Yeah. Which is kind of redundant to say, but it's true. You know, just in the nature of the music itself and for people who know you, you know. It makes it fun too because all the old, like the classic oil bands all have these guys they just talk about.

These vague first names that you hear and you're like, what was, who was little Jimmy? Dude, he sounds crazy. Yeah. But your little Jimmy is Jobie and that's fun for me. Yeah, it's great. It's better if you know the people. Oh, it's a blast. Definitely.

Yeah. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. debut LP. Tell me about creating this record, the difference between setting off to make a bigger record and the stories that made it come to life. I still think I could have done everything in a day, and I'm kind of mad at Taylor that he didn't let me just blast it out.

But it took like a day and then lyrics to the other day, which I'm still sour about. But yeah, dude, it's, after everything I record, I go, great, I'm never going to write any other, just going to anything ever again. And then maybe 30 seconds later, I go,

I'm like, that actually sounds pretty nice. Let's put some lyrics over this thing. Yeah, if I can kill yourself. And then it turns into a song and I'm like, fuck, man, I have six songs. this is insane and then uh two more i'm done yeah right this is almost 20 minutes i can't

i can't be here yeah yeah it's uh yeah you got some you get some bangers on that one you get some uh some hard ones some soft ones some nice ones and again the uh the out of the gang trow like i talk about my dog who at the time was here and she's like we had to put her down last february and so i'm like dude it beatrice my love

Yeah, she was a wonderful lady. But, dude, like, playing, everyone likes the song. Like, I love it. And I'm just like, yo, I got to sing about straight up my dead dog. Every goddamn, playing drums is so much easier. Oh, yeah. So much easier. You can't lie when you're singing.

Right. No. If you're not telling the truth, you're ruined. And if you are telling the truth too hard, you're extra ruined. Because of these words are hard to see. sing sometimes. Not okay, dude. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't think that over. I don't think the, I mean, yeah, I get some sad ones on the newest one. I don't know what I'm doing. I'd say that has the grandest collection of a sad per minute is really on this newest one.

Can you tell me about your grand idea for a music video that wasn't able to happen? Dude. Dude, I thought that would have been amazing. I thought that would have been fantastic. was for the first song on that record. Welcome back. Let me set the scene. Okay? It's a close up. Close up on a man's face.

Starts to zoom out. You notice that he's in the woods, daytime. It's in the woods. This man's wearing a bala clava. This man is walking towards a home. In the window of the home, this man is just standing at the door, casual, bala clava. In the window of the house that this man is

It's in the middle of the forest. This house, there is these three people laying down watching television. Song starts. First line, knock, knock, whatever the next line is. The man in the ball club kicks the door open. As the man kicks the door open and walks through the door, the camera's panning out. They see this man.

and 50-50, 50, 0, interpretive dancers wearing just bright blues and purples and pinks come exploding through the door. The man is singing the song, yelling at the camera, talking about it. People are interpretive dancing all around you. The people on the ground that were watching TV

are getting brutalized the TV. And then it gets to the end of the song, all four walls of the house collapses, and you realize, wow, this is, they're just, there's no one around. They're in the woods. And then we all just look at the camera as it slowly starts to rise into the heavens. Well, I feel like it's not too late.

That was the basis of it. It didn't come to fruition because of, it was hard to get 50 interpretive dancers. I found 15. Like good, like learned interpretive dancers. They were from a school. A dance, a dance school. Dude, you could make 15 look like 50. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, my friend Dylan, he was open to direct it and do all the stuff. It was just a big to do. Yeah. It was a big to do. I got you. You know, a lot of production. Well, again, this record is so full of other grand poetry such as easy come, easy go. Your friends are all pussies tell them.

I said so. Which like, if somebody just said that, that is poetry to me in elementary school, think about how different our lives. You would love, but yeah, you'd be a little poet. We would start. I would have started so much earlier. So Skull, thank you for inspiring. The fourth and fifth graders today are all going to hear this and really change their shit. I love the, so the why me, why not cameo from one Kyla Young.

Yeah. Gets me every time. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know that voice anywhere. Yeah. I do anyway, for sure.

Kyla, also the queen of dupes. Man, I have this $50 dish soap that I use that smells like a tomato vine. She put me on to this $5 a bottle smells like the exact same thing. She is like a true gem of a person. And yeah, she's, she's unbelievable. She puts you on to the chocolate candle from Trader Joe's. Not that one yet. I don't know if I can do chocolate.

That one's, it's too extreme. It's maybe her one flaw. Okay. I used to go, I used to go to the pit and use the restaurant. wash my hands every time I would have to go, what is, what is that, what is that soap? And honestly, dude, every time she would go, from Target, I go, get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. And then I would get that soap. If I show you my closet right now, I have four of the refill bottles of one specific soap that she had. Of this Kyla tomato soap. She's amazing. No, this was a

different one. The tomato soap, this is dish, dishwashing. Oh, okay. Awesome. Awesome. Fantastic. So the song Fat Skin has this incredible, detailed shout out to Eric Scandalous in the end. I love so much. Can you tell me about meeting scandalous and your description of him at the end of the song? 108 pounds sop and wet really gets me. I think, I don't know, this is all friend groups, but the more you love someone, a lot of the times that means the more you can, how you say, take the piss from them,

if you will. Take the piece. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, the first time I, I mean, the first time I met Eric, I was in Black My Heart, we drove to, we were doing a tour, we ended in L.A. Eric was living in L.A. He opens the van door.

And he goes, who the fuck is this guy? It looks at me. And I'm like, oh, I'm just like, I'm the dude in the bands. And he goes, where the fuck are you from? I was like, I'm from New Hampshire. He goes, the last guy met from New Hampshire, I kicked the fuck out of him. And then did his Eric laugh. And I was like, what is this guy?

What's this guy all about, dude? This is your friend. And then he turns to our singer. He's like, yo, I'll let you guys stay in my house but like, I don't know these fucking guys.

And just only pointed at me like I was guys. And he's like, these guys can sleep in the fucking van. And I'm like, I'm the only other guy. And, uh, and then he looked to me.

He's like, you know what I'm saying, though. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're not sleeping in my fucking house. And I'm like, yeah,

yeah, this is cool man. It's all right. I just, can I use the restroom? Uh, So how long, how much later until you guys are chums? Probably six hours.

My favorite things about scandalous are when you hear something, somebody's having something bad happen to them. And Eric is there telling them that they're ugly as well. Yeah, he's not a good person. Yeah. But he's so... No, he's not a good person. Yeah.

again, dude, like straight edge. I think I'm just friends with them out of spite because I'm like, dude, I can't not be friends, just stubborn. You know, I just can't not be friends of this guy at this point, you know? So there was, my friend Josh Hines had a club in Havril. Yes, he did. And you were throwing a show and there was like beef.

This is way before me or any of my friends were like familiar. Well, not familiar, but like friendly with any of the Boston people. We were from New Hampshire and there was like a weird thing where hey, you can't throw a show and Josh was like, I'm actually just going to throw it anyway. And so dude showed up sold out show. I think it was a it was slap shot or something and a dude showed up. I walked outside to be like, all right, I guess we have beef. I saw a tiny

Puerto Rican man wearing the largest gang hat I've ever seen in my life. It looked like those oversized Dodgers hats. The brim, the brim was impossibly flat. It looks like Earth. That's how flat it was. It was impossibly flat. And he was wearing a Canada goose

jacket with the fur. This is like, this is 2000, again, like three, maybe four. Dude, like, it was insane. So that was the first time I saw him with my eyes. And then I met him

maybe three, three years later and get introduced in the fan of that serraity. And everything was okay with the Haverill Show after all? Was this anchors up or is this pre-anchors up? It's just pre-anchors up. There was a, there was a club called Exit 23 in Haverill, and then Josh took it over, and it was called New Direction. Then after New Direction came anchors up. Yeah.

What a place. Yeah, it was a cool time, dude. I'm thankful. I'm a loser. I have the worst luck. Don't laugh at that. I have the worst luck with, I'm laughing because you told me that I too.

You're going to give me the chuckles. Dude, I have the worst luck with like guessing. Like I would go, there was a, in my hometown, there was a Strawberry's music, which is like a CD by CDs and whatever. whatever. And I would go to like the punk and the hardcore section and I'd be like, sick, biohazard, let me get this record. And it's just like one of the duds. Oh, okay. What the fuck is this? And then my first, dude, it was one of the songs was like,

it was like, welcome to the rat race. People. And I was like, what in the hell? Not okay. It was not okay, whatever it was. Oh, Bobby Hamble. It wasn't the same. And so, same with like strife dude i bought the what is it like uh truth no well i did buy anger means but uh truth through defiance the i think it was true through defiance the one that had all the live shit and like the i just was like i wasn't picking the ones yeah i was like this guy's yelling and they're aggressive and um so i'm so thankful for all of my friends who just knew what the fuck was up like josh hines i remember he came up to me we're at a show in manchester uh righteous He's like, what's up, man?

I was like, nothing because you like them? I was like, yeah? He's like, okay. And I was like, this dude's like putting a spot on me. This dude's like, that was like, that was a test. And so I had to watch her. I was like, what do you like, man? And then he was a huge youth crew guy, so we bonded over like 10-yard fight and that

that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm so thankful for all my friends around me because I was hearing about bands from friends. I was hearing about bands from people playing CDs and in cars and be like, who's this? Menace? Oh, sick. And then just having to remember it because iPhones are not real and writing things down with a paper and pencil. That's like serial killer shit. Like what the 15 year old is going to do that. So I just have to be like, writing menace, menace, menace, with an anarchy sign and like Bart Simpson's skull. Yeah. So it's, yeah, so thankful for all my friends. So, yeah, Josh, thankfully, had a couple of venues, and we thankfully could, you know,

commit horrible crimes of assault within these walls and know that the owner isn't going to call the cop. So it was awesome, dude. Anchors up was unbelievable. Got to play there a few times. Probably the hottest experiences every single time I was ever in there. Chris puked while playing drums. It's pretty sick.

But what a place. Josh, as a guy, just like one of the most, what a warm presence. you know yeah yeah i always felt so comfortable with whatever he was booking so inviting great guy miss him excited to hear the new band oh yes yes yes yes i'm excited too uh first show is in uh yeah december i'm excited what's it called the uh it's called recollection got some bangers on it if you like good this is you and josh back together me and josh finally back together i'm playing guitar and doing backup singing and Josh is singing. The first time I went over

to Josh Hines's house, he looked to me and goes more. And I go, what? We're in his kitchen. He goes more. And I go, I don't understand. He goes, dinty. I go what? He goes dinty more. Timor? Yeah. And I'm like, what does that mean? And then he pulls out a can of

dinty more beef stew. And he goes, would you like some soup? I went, yeah. And we've been friends ever since. Perfect. he's an amazing person love him tell me about rounding out skinhead with a live band

after after grinding out this solo project how do you how do you round out this rotating cast of characters here well I thought I would have to beg my friends to play but luckily they heard it and there were pumps to play so the first show we had

yeah I think it was Frank Martine played I just kind of asked people that were around I'm like, hey, I got this thing. You want to hear it? And you want to play a guitar? It was like I was asked him to the prom. It was like super weird, dude.

Because like, no one helped me write this. I just wrote a thing and I'm like, you guys like, kind of, you guys like this thing? And it was super weird and humbling. And luckily people liked it. So we had a, my boy, Joby, had to have him in, had to play. Can't play a lick of base. At the time, specifically, couldn't play a lick. So we had to get, um,

My friend Poops on the back base. Ah, he's a great video. Here it is. He looks like he's playing so well. Yeah, that's movie magic there. Yeah, but Poops is on the back base, holding it down for us. The back base. And it was, yeah, it was awesome.

And also, dude, the band is called Skinhead, so fuck you. That's kind of like the attitude. My friend, my friend Ted who passed away. I mean, New Hampshire, the state motto was live free or die. and when Ted was alive, I used to go visit him in Montreal. He was a tattoo artist, and he gave me this tattoo.

It looks like it was done with a crayon because he was so terrible in tattooing at the time. It just says, live free or fuck you. And that's kind of how all of my friends have acted, no matter what state,

no matter what city we were in. So who's to say we can't have three guitar players and two bass players? You should. Fuck you. You know? Live free or two guitars and two bass.

Three guitars, two bass. Right. Four guitars, two bass. Yeah. I don't know. Coming soon. Skinhead played live in the Mayans series finale. Can you tell me about how that came to be?

And I know for a fact, Josiah was plugged in for that. He came and he conquered and he ripped it, dude. He got private lessons. I think Taylor and, dude, Josiah just shredded it. He learned the entire song on one string. Nice. He shredded it, dude. Yeah.

I, so being bad, being a loser, being bad at picking out music, helped me in movies because if you go to Blockbuster and go to like the 50 cent horror movie section, you can't go wrong. 100%. So I would pick whatever one is the weirdest one. And so a lot of my younger friends and friends were into punk. and metal and all that stuff. We would bond over like, we would bond over

just like shitty B movies. We had a, I had a, like a death metal band called the Sons of Shitar that was off this, this movie Blood Diner. It was like the demon that like they were building. This is in like high school. And we just obsessed with movies,

trauma films and like just fucked up movies. And so every movie dude, if they would have like a band or a punk band, we would be sitting in Manchester, New Hampshire, being like, dude, how does that happen? Yeah. Like, this is crazy.

And, like, Valley Girl. There's, like, all, every single, like, perfect, shitty movie, for the most part, it has, like, a band out of bar or whatever. And there's always some cool explanation to how they got that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the director, the director bought Coke from the bass player. And then he brought him it or whatever it was.

or yeah, cannibal corpse with like Ace Ventura. All the shift you were just like, dude, being in a bill, like you made it. Trying to find out that's not the case. But, yeah, Elgin, Algin was directing and writing all of Mayans. He came from, from Sons of Anarchy and started this thing on his own. And he heard some of the stuff. Eric hooked it up. two and they were filming the final season.

So Elgin was just like, how do we cultivate this feeling of, you know, this show? And so I got a call saying that Elgin wants to put your song in one of the episodes. And I freaked out and said, absolutely no, what's the money?

Talk to my lawyer. Then they gave me an offer, I can't refuse. So I said, absolutely, let's do it. And then it kept like, It kept molding. At first it was like, oh, we're just going to put it in. Yeah. Like, it's going to be at a thing.

And I'm like, all right, that's awesome. And then they're like, actually, there's another scene where we want you to be the backing band. And I was like, what's the scene? Okay, so it's a white power biker group. And I'm like, perfect. Sign me up. But dude, it's like this pinnacle. I haven't watched the show.

But it's this pinnacle scene of like the Mayans coming in and just fucking murdering. people. It's while you're like a guy. I'm yelling in a thing. Jovi's Riffin. Josh James. Like all the dudes,

Aldo. Everyone's playing. People are getting murdered. Mexie is beating a man half to death with a baseball bat. This dude, like the first thing they do, they walk in the show.

People turn around and a guy gets his head blown off. It was pretty awesome, dude. It was really cool. What I didn't know is that was maybe like 15 or 20 seconds long and I was there for 13.

hours. Oh, yeah. That's how it goes. Yeah. So they used the live audio of you playing in the show. It's not the recorded song. So that's pretty cool.

Yeah. Wow. It was awesome. Yeah, it was cool. And dude to be like, yeah, it was a dream come true because I was like, I'm finally a shitty band in like a show or a movie. This is awesome. Like a bunch of our friends were extras.

I think Vic was wearing a, he was in like a punk game. he was wearing a vest that said the fucking assholes. That was their, that was their like, yeah, it was awesome, dude. And just like all the fake posters, you know, because it was a real bar, but they set it up as a fake bar in a real bar. And it was just like, the high voltage is playing tomorrow night. And so it was just, it was awesome. Fake beer cans, it was cool.

Kind of reminds me of the Green Room Death Metal Band that plays before. Dude, they're so good. They're so awesome. And they're just, like, what was it? We talked to him about it. We got to go back to that episode and look it up. But, dude, the band was incredible. And they're hard as shit.

And they're not white power. And they're not white power. Thank God. So it's all good. Yeah, there's a band, there's a band Dino Lee that plays in Blood Diner. And he's just a sick freak, dude. The guy's absolutely insane. His pompadores is like four feet tall.

But yeah, he was the backing band in Blood Diner while they were having like a blood seance. And people were freaking out. Ever. I never will either. Lord willing. Pardon this interruption. This episode is brought to you by Mad Vintage.

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Go to drinkag1.com slash hardlore and get started on your health journey today. So out of the gang, let's go back to the record here. Out of the gang opens with We Beat So Many Cases. Is there any concern documenting these alleged incidents via your art? I think the the main word to focus on is art. Art, yeah, right. I love it. So fucking, fucking prove it.

Yeah. Okay. You beat them, you know? And also the cases are done. Like, what are you going to bring up old shit? Like, they're done, though. Yeah, the judge has rung his gavel and I am allowed to move on. Outstanding.

But also, dude, it's like, yeah, there's like glory and winning fistlights. But also sometimes having to rely on people and having to be the person that people rely on fucking sucks. Yeah. And that song in particular, I felt like I kind of portrayed how it kind of sucks to like have so many friends that you love unbelievably. Just like have this thickening deep love for someone that you're like, I love my wife. and like my son is the coolest dude I've ever met and I have a house in South Orange County, I will murder you if you ever say that to my friend. You know, there's also like this weird fucked up thing in my brain.

Hopefully I never get in trouble in my life. Hopefully I never throw up this again, out of man's face. Agreed, agreed, agreed. You tackle this topic very earnestly where I would have to imagine even your friends that you're talking about would hear that and go, we understand. Yeah. we love you too Hey thank you very much

Back in the gang The closing track on this record This is where I think you've done something You've really cracked the code on some A new type of art here I'm onto something here You document the story of losing your virginity And so much more

While literally narrating a spoken word story Over punk music What inspired this Can we expect more of this this is this this this is this this is fun to hear every time yeah i mean uh just youth is youth is so fucked up man yeah straight up i'll never forget that girl that my friend got a blowjob from um her teapock t-shirt it was like i don't even know where like i don't think spencer's had teapok t-shirts back like it was she got it from someone like it was it was such a small thing but

it said so much about this individual girl that it always stuck to me. And it being summertime, like the whole story is true, but it being summertime and the winds, like I will, I will never forget this day for the rest of my life. There was like this cool summer wind breeze, and it was truly like a hurricane. And it was golden hour. Like you see your friends like you're like you've never seen them before like physically. And the excitement inside. being like, dude, Brian's going to get his dick suck. This is fucking crazy. Like, I've seen Channel 76 of like the blurry things

and then all of a sudden it has a tit on it. But like, this dude's going to witness it in real life. So this is a lucid experience of you in real time realizing you're witnessing a memory. Yeah. And years later would write it into this beautiful story over punk music. Over punk music. I got to hear more.

I need more of these stories. in this format. I know you've got some. I got a couple. Yeah. Are Ryan and Chris still alive? You seem to unsure at the end of the story.

They are actually dead. They're long dead, apparently. I'm one of my friends' wives. This is, I went back, I don't know why all this stuff we're talking about death and murder, but my aunt passed away in May. And so me and my wife and my son went back to New England to go to a funeral and spend time with family. And I played a skinhead set, just me and a guitar.

I sang a bunch of covers and did some original stuff. It was super fun. And my friend's wife was talking to me. And she's like, wait, where did you grow up? What junior high did you go to? I was like, oh, I went to Gilbert H. Hood Middle School. And she's like, I did. I'm like, I did.

she's like when did you graduate I was like this she's like that we were wait a second were you and Fubar and I was like yeah holy shit so she dated the base she dated the basis of Fubar and I was like holy shit man and so I we

we were rifling through people and I was like yeah and this person she's like yeah he's dead I was like oh shit and I was like I know Stefan killed himself and she's like yeah and then what about Ryan just like Ryan Odeed like eight years years ago. I was like, what about, oh yeah, they're, they're dead. Suburban New England, baby. Dude, people can't get enough opioids. It's like, it must feel, it must feel awesome.

Dude, I've been saying that. How many times have you said that? It's got to be this, this is like the true, like the edge trifecta brain speaking, you know, just like, it has to be so awesome. I damn, I never want to know. You have to respect your enemy, you know, 100%. Like if they're willing to give for a second of joy, it's got to be awesome. Oh, yeah, dude. It's a beautiful day. Yeah. What a beautiful day.

What a record as well. Tell me about putting this together. Tell me about the stories that come to mind and writing it. You say every time you finish a skinhead song, you swear you're off. You're done with it. You're off the stuff forever. And then you get this beautiful nine song. record that everyone I know is in love with.

How did this come to be? Tell me about putting it together. Yeah. I mean, after I recorded the last record, I was, I was just like, that's it. No more. I was like, let me do something else. Like, I can't do this again. This is really great. People like the spoken word thing. Like, what am I going to do? Write another record with a spoken word song and then a nice song and then a kill your enemy song. And I was like, what about yourself? Yeah, yeah. We got to do something different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is all about yourself now. So, yeah, I was just, I don't know, there's something inside me. It's like this, it's this driving force. If I don't, if I don't create something, photos or writing something or music, it's mostly music. I just feel not good. I don't feel okay. I feel like, you know, I think if I had a better mom, I would have probably learned how to deal with my

emotions better, but thankfully I've found punk and hardcore music. So I just always, I'm always writing. I'm like, I just have a guitar on garage bands. My friend Pat from a different opt-fit from an opt-fit for an autopsy. Yeah. Because it's from an autopsy. Four, four. You fit them for the autopsy. Yeah, they are fit for that autopsy. Dude, straight up. The Pat looks awesome, by the way. He's amazing, dude. He's slenderman. It's a great. He, he, was talking to me, I forget what record came out and he's like, dude, these songs are great and I was like, yeah, I write him on this thing and I held up like a $69

like Squire like whatever. He's I rig the Squire app. He's like, you're not doing that, bro. And then so he hooked me up with a with a strap and I'm like, hey, this does sound better. This is cool. And so I wrote most of that, most of that

record on that. And yeah, I'm always just creating and I just have these you hear comics talk about it where it's like I have a premise and then all of a sudden just like magic it just comes to you. Wow. That's that's kind of what happens to me is I'll sing. I'll just in my head, I'll like hum a thing and then I'm just like, oh, it should go like this.

And then I'll just pick up my guitar and go and just play something. And that'll turn into a song. And then actually that song might just get butchered up. And that's three separate songs that I kind of branch off of. So yeah, it's, it sucks. I think Neil Young, I heard a question. quote from him and he's like if you uh if you got it it's my favorite it's my favorite it's my favorite quote i love it give it to me really you know what i'm going to say yes neil young said um

if you have i'm going to paraphrase if you have the gift if you have like a gift of of um music and you don't um give into that gift like if you have if the moment strikes you and you do not act on that you're doing your gift in this or you're throwing your gift in the trash that can't be the same quote that you just lebron to you because I've never heard that quote in my life. That's my favorite saying. That's my favorite. That's my favorite saying.

Mine is if I knew were the good songs where I'd go there more often. No, I don't care about that one. I love that one. That's like, give me time. I don't know. They got to find me. I can't go find them. Yeah.

I'm also not a guy who just writes, you know, 40 songs a day because like, I got it right, man. Same. Who said that? Bob Dylan. Was that, was that your boy or was that Bob Dylan? Like, I got to write, I got to get all the bad ones out of the way. Remember that's Tom Petty? He's one of those dudes.

Maybe, yeah, I can't. He's like, I write a song every day because I got to get the bad ones out of the way or whatever. I can't even write out. I get deeply emotionally invested in one, if I play one note, I'm like, well, I got to figure out where this note goes. It could take me a year. I can't even write a bad song, let alone fine to fucking give them. Yes, you can. Wow, that must be nice, bro.

That must be nice. You've heard your bands? You've heard all your bands before? Yeah. I have a. My wife. was cry laughing because

Kyla posted something about me listening to the 100th bounce it was just like a woman crying next to this guy playing some fucking demo band that was my wife was like I'm painful inside

but I think that's very funny because I'll just smell like I just wrote the best song I've ever written in my life and she's like that's nice and I'm like we're going to listen to it 700 times until I hate this song yeah oh yeah And then I know it's the line. You got to hear version 5Z.

Honey, I promise. This is the one. Taylor says the mids are a little higher and the vocals came down a little bit. It's totally different. I'm sure I didn't mention this earlier or anything, but I do think this is the best skinhead record. Colin and I did have spoken several times separately that the overall arc, like this is by far the best music, the catchiest music,

which I think is really important for this kind of thing. and then also like to have your is the number one Spotify song kill yourself yeah i believe so yeah which is pretty amazing which is an anti i mean what do you want to say something about that sure it's like it's i fucking agree with you man yeah yeah well said beau thank you it's a great song there is something please because there's something somber and intimate about this record even though it starts with kill yourself and and then kill yourself you know the the message is kill yourself and then it's really kill yourself but like chuck is this beautiful take on grief did you did you approach this record overall with a different theme or again is this just what you're feeling at the time

yeah i'm just like writing music and the more fucked up the content is like it kind of has to be a little more catchy so i think it worked well um and yeah dude chrisd Chuck, like, it sucks, but, you know, plenty of our friends, unfortunately, like, or people who are around us have died from drug or alcohol abuse. And then, uh, you go to their funeral, you go to a party for them. And then you just see all of the people who do drugs, doing drugs to be fucking sad. And I'm like, you have learned absolutely nothing. Most of these songs come from anger. Kill yourself, I would say, is like almost an anti-suicide song because the guy in the song is such a loser. Why would you want to be like that guy?

but all the songs are just like anger dude i'm just mad i'm mad about stuff um yeah chuck dude it's like how many times i have to see three friends leave a bathroom out of a funeral and like then talk to me about you drive here you take the train i'm like what the yeah yeah like i heard i heard cocaine's like coffee i don't believe it and i don't believe it i don't believe it man i don't believe Coffee's like to me the only thing good for you. Yeah. Water's good too. Yeah, water's good, but it's in coffee, right?

It's made primarily from coffee, yeah. Bean water. I would love your perspective on this as a trainer and a man who knows about fitness. Oh, great. James from my band maintains that if he drinks 10, 12 Diet Coke a day, he's ingesting, taking in as much water as he would if he drank. drink, you know, 10, 12, 12 ounce things of water. Yeah.

How do you feel about that? I believe that the proof is in the pudding, so that guy looks ripped, and I think you should keep doing whatever the fuck he's doing. There it is. Water is everywhere. It's everything. Can you tell me about Eric doing the, what do you guys want, this, it's so Eric, this performance here in separate checks.

What do you guys want to eat? How did you get that performance out of them? Um, you know, he is about like 108 pounds. So he has a lot to prove. Um, and he's the most. He's got to be like 190 at this point. He's rock hard. Yeah, I don't think so.

A is so insane. Bring a scale, dude. Do one of those YouTube things where you go, I step on the scale. How much do you weigh? Awesome. Bring a scale. I'm not afraid but yeah

we got them in the we got them in the booth and we're like yeah we need someone to be like let's go let's go to eat let's go get some for tip for food and the first like seven takes

he was like well you guys want some you guys want some stakes we're like dude what are you doing man you don't talk like that he's like I'm just talking like I talk and everyone's like what are you what are you doing man

weren't you an actor or whatever it was like just say what you're doing he's like all right you guys you guys hungry? I'm looking for some food. And we're just like, dude, just say what, you know, how would you say it? You know, we're hanging out as a group, like, you know, getting the things like, all right. Anyone wants? And we're just like, I am saying it how I say it.

And then he's just like, like, what do you? I don't know what I'm saying? You guys want to eat? And then we, Taylor was recording the whole thing. He goes, got it. See you. That's it. Get out of the boot.

And it's perfect. Perfect. It's perfect. It's perfect. You're the motion. Yeah. You directed. You're a director.

Yeah, partially. Yeah, absolutely. Just think about that. Can you explain your stance on getting several checks? And like why was this particular topic one that had to be put to wax? Again, I'm going to go back to it. New England is a miserable place. It's got mosquitoes in the summertime.

It's got the cold. Some days you cannot. I know you know this being in Chicago. Some days you cannot start your car. Gasoline, something that does not freeze. somehow freezes, what's happening here? So the only

solace we have is just gorging ourselves for the endorphins. So in high school, we used to go to this place called the Belmont Hall that we knew some girl that worked there

and she would give us the great end of the greater breakfast. There were two different options. The greater had three pancakes. Oh. And it was always a fuck about. It was always, Always, okay, all of a sudden, yeah, and dude, this is, what, 2001, 2002?

So this is the bill, $28 and we're like, we are financially ruined from this. Yeah, it's over. And so some dude has like a Visa gift card or like a Simon's gift card for, you know, $4.80. And I'm like, dude, this is pretty much five bucks. And you're like kind of scrounging all this shit together. And then you have like $3 less than that's been my entire relationship with my friends. I'm like, how do we love each other and care about each other so much? but we are the biggest scumbags when it comes to just the simplest thing.

How about you pay for what you're fucking getting, dude? Yeah. I saw you get the lemonade and the coffee. I saw that. It's not $10, dude. I guarantee you it's not. And it's not split. Splitting never works.

Even split is just impossible. Unless you get the same thing and it's all you can eat and you get the identical words. It's not possible. Yeah, I thought, I'm glad people resonate with the song. dude because big time yeah and writing a song about again i'm just angry dude i just write about angry i'm angry uh just writing about angry stuff dude put the just the whole 20 don't start taking the things with the whole 20 and also that's not enough in addition to that 20 that's not enough yeah i agree you are like if larry david was a skinhead

And wrote music instead of television. You know? Situational, I would say. Yeah. You're a situational songwriter. Situational it's thing. Yeah. You know what I'm liking now is the places that do the thing where they bring you the little scanner.

You pick just what you got. Then you tap. Then they pass it around. That's perfect. Every restaurant in America should have that. Absolutely. I thought I was ruined because of that technology. I was like, this is dead technology.

I was like separate checks. This is dead technology now. This is a thing of the past. But now people still get checks. No, yeah, 100%. But that is a form of a separate check. So you, I mean, you're going, you're going if they got that thing, right?

Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be at Fred 62 later. That's exactly. You nailed it. Yeah, that's exactly right. Smoked it, dude. That's a promise. The song about a dog, masterpiece.

Work of fucking. Van Gogh painted this song. There's this incredible video. of you playing this song years before this record would come out and giving this beautiful monologue beforehand about a dog you got to know and grew to love over time. I want to play that entire video right now in this episode for anybody watching it. So here it is.

It's two minutes long. Please enjoy. You know, have you ever had a relationship where it was a little bit tumultuous in the beginning and then ended up blossoming into an amazing friendship? I'm gonna share a story with you real quick, two minutes. In 2006, I was sleeping on a floor. There was a dog there, right?

I love dogs. I didn't like this dog because it was fucking mounting me like the goddamn lone ranger. It viciously humped me for, I don't know, probably four hours, and also it ate my blanket that I was sleeping in. Piece of shit, right? Anyway, fast-forward two years, I met the dog again. And the dog saw me, and I saw him, and he started wagging his tail. Like, you know what?

Water under the bridge. I want to give this dog a chance, right? Fast forward another two years. I moved to California. I ended up sleeping on this dog's floor again. So, you know, I grew up in New England. I'm a long way from home. This dog looked at me and he said, you know, I can tell that you're kind of scared.

You know, your family's over here and you're over there. I want to do you something. I said, okay, I love that. What is that? This dog said, he looked at me in the fucking eyes, Martine. He looked at me in the eyes and said, you know what? If you're friends with my dad, he said you're my family and I'm friends with you. I said, wow.

Okay. And he said one more thing. He goes, you know what? If it's okay with you, can I in the morning just sleep on your bed sometimes? Right? I was sleeping on the litter room. Can I sleep on your bed? And can I just make sure that you're okay while you're adjusting to this new home?

And I said, absolutely. Me and the dog had a wonderful relationship. But as all things, you know, this dog started getting older, unfortunately. Started getting up a little slower. You know, it couldn't go for walks as long. You know, I love this dog very much. So, I'll tell you one thing. No matter how much pain this dog was in,

any time I would walk into the room, that dog would get the fuck up. It would come over to me and it would say, hey, man, I love you and you're my family. and if we can all get a round of a pause of this fucking dog you just watched it it's unbelievable

you'll see Taylor standing there holding the base which you don't know is he's fighting back tears because Duke had just passed so you're doing this beautiful monologue about it might get me right now I was talking about it

and then you shout out Duke and then like eight other dogs and Taylor's just ripping into the song tears in his eyes. Oh, man. Yeah. Beautiful stuff.

Yeah, it's, uh, yeah, man. It's hard, dude. Fucking. Yeah, my dog, Beatrice, um, I adopted her 10 years. I had her 10 years. And, um, she was all my friend Paul calls your life for dog. Like the dog that you have when you go through all the shit, you know, like when you're younger, you have a dog and you're just like, relationships and jobs and moving.

And Beatrice is just there. and she was so perfect. And I know how my friends feel about, you know, their dogs and their companions and just like how they appreciate love. And I don't know, like, I don't think if you're a singer in a band, you have to say important things, but I really, like, if I have something to say and if I want to, like, tell my friends that I care about them, I was like, what a perfect way, but I'm on stage,

like, hey, before we play, I just want to say this thing. And, yeah, Eric's, dog passed away. There was Duke. Yeah, there's, from Gibby's dog. Yeah, there's a lot of them. And it's just,

I was just like, I really want to, you know, thank the dogs who've just loved us. And we're terrible people sometimes. Not to the dogs, but just like terrible people. It feels so good to, like, go home and just, like, cuddle this dog. And it's

almost like a redemption. It's almost like, you know, man, I just did something terrible to another person and I'm coming home and I'm like Beatrice I'm not a bad person you know there's like a bit of that you're the best person to me I mean I'm my favorite one you're out of that door don't matter who you are when you're home you're the best person in the world to this one thing yeah and it's the best part of my day yeah no it's it's awesome dude and it's just like yeah they unfortunately like pass away way before us and uh dude owning pets that's fucks man

Owning pets knowing we will most likely outlive them is one of the craziest things that we do that everyone does. It's so brutal. But dude, I mean, how that time we do get with them is so valuable. It's all we got. It's all they have. It's the only life they know. It's their whole life. And then it turns into these portions of our life that define us.

And now, like, I got a senior dog recently. Never wanted a senior dog. Now I will never not have a senior dog. As soon as he's out of here, I'm saving some other fucking dog because I can't believe this guy with his shitty little eyes and his dumb little legs. I can't get enough of it. And that's the silver lining, the solace is knowing

you delivered the best possible outcome for this thing that just loves you on condition. And I'll never stop. Yeah, fuck yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. It's the best. I love it so much.

Yeah. I love Beatrice's born and I think she's amazing. And I just think that. that me knowing I love her, me knowing that she has an expiration date, unfortunately, made me drive to Josh Retrie on Thanksgiving to go take a hike with her. Made me wake up early and be like, fuck, I'm so tired and I do not want to go to work, but I'm going to wake up early and give Beatrice like a perfect hour and a half walk around piece of shit at Echo Park. And like that's the same way I think we have to treat our friends.

sucks that, you know, we have friends who pass away and we're like, we should have done this or this. And if you have friends who are alive and you love them, dude, just call them, text them. I have a rule. This is probably like eight years ago. One of my friends died. And I said, if I think, if I just have a thought or if I see something that reminds me of a friend, I'm going to text them no matter what. I have to. If it's stupid, if it's late, I don't care. Oh, dude, this, this weird clown, this like tiny two inch clown remind me of you, Eric. here's a picture of it. Like it's just, it seems like a non-negotiable, dude.

I've had bad days and friends text me and I'm like, fuck, her friends call me and I'm like, dude, I haven't heard from you. And two years, how's it going? And when they're, it's, yeah, it's so beautiful having friends. And then you commit violent crimes of them and you become closer. And that's skinhead. There you go. And that's skinhead.

We've got, we've got this annual call going on that I look forward to now. So we'll see. 2026 is just around the corner. I'm looking forward to the annual call. Yeah, keep it up. Yeah, thanks, man. Can you tell me about plans for Skinhead going forward? Because I really feel like I'm seeing people outside of Punk and Hardcore connecting with Skinhead.

You know, random, regular people in my life reposting this record. It's connecting with people profoundly, despite how personal it is to you. it means what it means to the listener. You know, they interpret it, how they're going to interpret it. Are you feeling no more music mode? Are you feeling I'm inspired? Let's write another book. Let's write another record mode.

Definitely want to write another book. I have never had a plan for Skinhead. If songs come to me, I'll record him and hopefully people still like him. There was an interview with Jamiriqui where he goes, once people are calling me Jamiro, what's your habits? I'll never, I'll never, I'll know that I fell off. And so that dude fucking fell off hard. And there's still the video of him.

So I don't want to look like an asshole and say, you know, we're going to take over the world, baby. Yeah, sure. But yeah, it's just a vessel for me to express myself and my anger. And hopefully not take it out on anyone else. And yeah, but I'm constantly, it sucks, it sucks doing the things that you never wanted to do. I've been doing moitai on and off for like 12 years. My boyfriend Brennan

got me into it. And it has, martial arts has made me a better person. And it makes me so annoyed admitting that. But with music, I go see artists and I'm

immediately inspired. I'm like, fuck, that is awesome. I would love to create a song that sounds like this. And so that shit's happening all the time. Yeah. All the time. As soon as you turn that off, life sucks.

You know? As soon as you turn off inspiration, shut yourself out, everything gets fucking miserable. And then you start appreciating everything around you. I see a good band now that genuinely moves me. I'll think about it for weeks. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't know how to write anything that sounds like it, but I'll do it in my own little way.

So I fully hear you. Dude, what's this, what's this singer in the Lemon? Lemonheads. What's that guy's name? Evan, Evandando. I saw Evan Dando, I saw Evan Dando play. It was him in an acoustic guitar. He played for two

hours. It was the most magical, he played a I forget what Metallica song, he played a full Metallica song with solos on acoustic guitar. I was like fuck yes. Wow. Wow. Fuck yes. That like, where did you see that?

That was at the in the Constellation Room at the Observatory. There was 17 people there. Oh, and he played for two hours. Holy shit. Two full hours. Yeah, he was truly amazing.

And then I think his merch guy goes, hey, Evan, why don't you play the new song? He had like a new release. And he goes, I'm sorry. And ran off stage. And that was the end of the show. That was it. Yeah.

He's phenomenal. Yeah. The get-up kids. I saw the get-up kids recently with there something to write home about tour. Dude. Just like constantly inspired, dude. Awesome. Music is great.

Post Animal was the band that I saw recently where just like 45 minutes of just like, what am I doing? I need to be making something. We both. Yeah. We left that show talking about an unreleased song for hours. Crazy. Now it's out.

Now it's great. It's called Setting Sun. it out. Setting something. So Black My Heart on Broken Wings. These are pivotal moments in your life. Can you tell me about some tours you did with these bands? Yeah.

Yeah, Black My Heart, we were so poor. It was insane. My rent in Boston, we had a two-bedroom apartment with seven people living inside. My rent was $280. And so we were just like, let's get on tour, dude. We need to make money, dude. dude. And also, fuck being home. It sucks being home.

So, yeah, we were, dude, we did so many tours. We did a Europe tour, the first Europe tour we ever did. We had this Hungarian driver named Yaqui. Yaki. I know Yaki. We know Yaki. We've had Yaki. Yeah. Yeah. He lives in England.

So he hated us. Yeah, he didn't like us. I'm sure he still does not like us. I don't like them. No. And, uh, like my war. What? I this is like maybe two years or however, I think two years after the tour, Pat Flynn, came up to me at some show and he's like, dude, we had Yaki, your driver at Black Heart.

I was like, oh, yeah, cool. He's like, we were like pastured him. We were like, hey, he was like the worst band. And Yaki goes, I love all of my bands. Black, my heart was the worst bands I have ever toured with in my entire life. Dude, we just was the worst. We just wanted a party, dude. And also, if I'm in Europe, why am I getting to the show at noon to load in?

Bro, I'm playing at 10.30 at night. True. Bring me to the water park. Stop on the side of the road. I need to run up to this castle. I need to punch you. I need to do something. I need to grab the ground.

And the venue's never near the castle. Fuck no, dude. It's in the shit. It's in the fucking sewer. Yeah. And then the most beautiful monument you've ever seen is 10 miles away. and going to it is not possible. Didn't?

Yeah. So we had yaki together on our tour? Yeah. Chad, that's great. Think about James saying yaki. Isn't that? Can't you hear it in your head?

Yaki. Yeah, I can't. Dude, we had a hack. So if we wanted to stop somewhere, we would, our first line of defense, we would just be driving down the road. We would go,

Yaqui, let's go get some snacks, dude. He was like, we must load in the show. And we would just start chanting snacks. Snacks. Snacks. snack and violently shaking his poor van. And then if he still didn't pull over, we would just straight open the door and just be like,

Yonka, snacks. And stick our feet out and just try to like pretend like we're jumping out on the highway. And he's just, he's a good man. Yaki's a great man. So he would, of course, not want us to die. And then he would pull over and we would get snacks. And then stay at the rest area for probably two, two and a half hours, eating jelly beans.

Being like, yo, Yaki, they got pasta here, man. man. And he's like, we are so late. We should die. Yeah. Dude, by, I think it was like four weeks long, maybe. Yaki, he stuck in there, bro. By week three and, by week three and a half, we broke his ass. We broke his ass. Finally, we were like, Yaki, let's go to the water park.

And he goes, who gives a shit? You don't want to go to the show anyway. Now you got it. Yaki. Let's go, Yaki. But dude, I'm on. tour. I don't know if you guys are the same, but Blackmore Hard had a hard rule. No hardcore in the van when we're on tour. We're going to go to the venue. We're going to play hardcore. You guys are a little different. I can see in your in your mannerisms. I've got Taylor Young in my band. Yeah. That rule is he's, if it's not extreme, it ain't playing. Yeah. I just, it's like, you're going to

go to the venue. There's going to be the thing playing over the speakers. It's going to be the bands. It's like, let's know. And dude, Yaki opened up his, his CD booklet. to his funny van. And dude, it was just like local straight edge demos. A lot of rikers. It was a gather was a band

that I remember. I'm just like, dude, get this out of here, Yaki. So we played we played Suzanne, that single from Weezer. Weezer, we played. We played.

Yeah, we played that song. We played get up kids, something to write home about, and we played Miss Ohio from Gillian Welch. Repeat. On repeat. On Eric's, like, MacBook 1 that he plugged the jack into it until Yaki went crazy. And then we found this Hungarian that actually brought it, so we're going to play the clip right now. Unbelievable.

Wasn't that insane? So we played that song, this Hungarian fiddle song. For some of you had all straight-edge local European bands. And one classic, like Hungarian fiddle, dude, it was like track two. We're like, turn that fucking shit up, Yaki. No, because we would say, play it again, Yaki. And you go, this song has already played. I'll go, you're going to play it again.

It's a long drive to Copenhagen. You're going to play it. until you can't play it no moe. Yeah. Wow. It was awesome, dude. That's how you do it, though. You got to remember, like, bands got to remember.

These guys are working for you. I don't want to get to the show, you know? Yeah, you, my tax dollars pay for you, man. Straight up. And my regular, though. I want to have a good time. I'm on tour. Black, my heart, we would go on tour because we wanted to have fun.

Like, playing the show was just because, that's the thing. Oh yeah, we got a thing to do. Yeah. We would show up. I can't tell you how many times we would show up. People would hear rumors about Black My Heart. They would hear all this fucked up shit that happened the night before and then the night before that. And we'd pull up to the venue. There'd be like 10 dudes looking like they listen to Shattered Realm with, this is like 2,000 sticks shattered like tall tea. Everything's gold foiled. And then we'd walk out with short shorts and like, like, wicker hats that we just got from like south of the border. And, uh, And they'd be like, what?

We're like, you guys got burritos around here? Who's got a pool? They were like, we don't, you know, like, we were constantly a letdown and we were having a great time doing it. When did On Broken Wings come along for you? I mean, Wheeler and John Blake, I've been best friends forever. And it was mostly, I don't know what their drummer was doing, but they needed a drummer. John knew me for a while. I played in Black My Heart.

And so it was mostly, I did like two tours with them or two and a half tours of them. So fun. So sick. One of the coolest things I did was play the palladium. And I got like three of my friends on the list. I felt like a fucking man, dude. It was awesome. I was like, not only am I playing the big room palladium, but I got to ask someone to please let my friends.

King of Worcester that day. Yeah. Absolutely, dude. You and Scott Lee, man. the Kings of Worcester that day. Do you have any, uh, any fond memories of playing or attending the Tiger's Den?

Um, define fond. Uh, I guess, uh, anything that stands out. Yeah. Good?

Uh, no good memories. Um, it was in Brockton. And dude, it's like, that's like an hour plus from, from,

from Boston. And, uh, I mean, I saw Ramallah. That was, truly horrific. That was a horrific set. Was that pre-kill celebrity or?

No, that was that was kill celebrity. And the shitty thing about Brockton is, dude, I'm like a guy who wants to hang out. I want to get snacks. I want to like walk around. People were actively getting robbed. Just walking to their car by Brocktonites. By people who live and grew up in Brockton, they would just rob you. So you weren't really walking to the store to get like a, you know, Swiss cake rolls. You were staying inside the venue and, you know, the pizza's not that good. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't, I don't have fond of memories.

I have fond of memories elsewhere. The Cambridge Elks Lodge, the ICC church. That was, that was number one. Me and Wheeler lived like a 15-minute walk from the ICC. That was pretty phenomenal. Yeah, it was a good time. Let me tell you about a band I love, Skull. band's called Hammer Bros.

Talk to me about Hammer Bros. The vitality I got day of, dude. Day, I was a release day pre-order. I don't know if it came by release day, but I had it. I loved this band. Saw you a few times once in Riverside. Please tell me what you can, some stories that come to mind. Were you an original member of Hammer Bros?

No, I wasn't. Hammer Bros came out with a demo. You know what's funny by Hammer Bros is New England and California and Tacoma, Washington are the three locations that enjoy Hammer Bros. The entire rest of the country and world couldn't give a fuck or don't even know who we were. But those three specific places, dude, Tacoma, God bless them. Zach and all those dudes like, dude, Steve, like, it was a big. The Lutz.

Oh, Logan. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude. You guys got over in Southern California for a while. It was happening for Hammer Bros, man. The community was a buzz for the bros.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, people were talking. Hammer Bros came out with a demo that was two songs. The demo was maybe like 90 seconds long. And I was in drug test at the time. Our friend Jim was singing. We listened to the debt. We were playing a show in Long Island.

So New Hampshire to Long Island, that's like a five-plus-hour drive. We listened to the Hammer Bros demo for maybe four and a half hours of that. And then Hey-Y'all was on the radio. So we listened to Hay-Yah. You could scan, when Hay-Yah came out, you could scan the radio until you found Hay-ya again. And then when it ended, you could scan it again. And so we listened to Hay-ya and the Hammer Bros demo for five hours. and we were just obsessed, dude.

They were fucking awesome. Yeah. When did you come into the fold? I joined in maybe like 2007 or eight. Okay. So before the second record? Yeah. The one with Animal came out and then I joined then.

I played on the last record that we did. It was sick, dude. Herbro was awesome. I only saw him once. It was at the Great American Hardcore. Bash or whatever it was. I don't remember exactly what it was called. It's like a big fest outside of Boston.

And I think Hammer Bros. played right before us. Yeah, that was in Revere. Yeah. Did you play the Great American? I was, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It was cool. Like, again, like local stuff, dude, like if you're from the Merrimack Valley, you don't fuck with people from here. And if you're from here, you don't fuck with people from all this stuff. So there was always weird stuff. So it was always kind of funny when,

we would play Boston or whatever, like, people wouldn't fuck with us. It was all weird. And Boston's always been like that. New England's always been like that. It's just kind of like, you know, you think you're better than me. Like, that's everyone's attitude. When outside of Boston to like us, it's all Boston. Yeah.

Like Matt, like to the layman, Massachusetts is Boston. And you think it's one beautiful united thing. Well, yeah, that's because you think you're better than me. And you live over there. Yeah. Yeah, dude, it's, yeah, I love Hammer Bros. That was fucking awesome. I love that. I was, we, uh, we wrote the last record knowing we were breaking up. Um, so we have, um, I think in the inside of the records is like our suicide notes. Um, oh, wow. And, uh, so that was, that was pretty fun. But, um, yeah, love that band. It was, it was a fun time. Play drums again. Dude, I played, I played guitar in this band called, uh, Mom's Still Death. and I play guitar in this band Big Rig. Other than that, all drums.

I just got sucked into it, dude. Every drummer. You were the guy. Not even. Not even. It's just drummers are either motherfuckers or they're annoying or they're just like, oh, I'm actually going to do.

I have this theory that if you are a good drummer, where I grew up, if you're a good drummer, it's probably because you have a house with a garage and you're a cunt because of that. I've said this on the show. Have you? It's not the cunt part, but I do think it is an access thing. And I do think that, and I don't know if the president or whoever's listening is ready for this,

we need to be subsidizing drummers. There's not enough. There needs to be a system in place. We need to be testing small children for rhythm. early. Early. Doing rigorous testing, physically exhausting testing to these kids to figure out if they have rhythm.

If they have rhythm, the president buys them a house. End of story. So that they can learn in a peaceful environment. We don't have to stick them with the bass guitar or the acoustic guitar or a microphone. They get subsidized drumming. No, that is beautiful. We'll make it happen. But tell me about the cunt thing.

I just got back from England to Saw Oasis a little while ago. How was that? Yeah. I'm saying cunt. I'm saying cunt all the time. How was the set? Fuck, dude.

Oh my God. I went to, we went to the first part of show. I went there. The first one. The first one. We were like, hey, if they despite each other on stage, we at least saw it.

If they play forever and we eventually get sick of them, we at least saw the first one back. Yeah. Yeah. I went there as a normal Oasis fan. Love the songs. Definitely maybe. It's got a bunch of bangers in it.

Love that record. I left. Dude, I feel spiritually changed. My wife could not be more annoyed. I've talked about. I've listened to. They were,

they are the greatest rock band of all time. I'm a firm believer. just looking at them, dude, being there looking at them, they're playing fucking open chords, bro. Every single song, they're, I'm seeing a D. I'm seeing a G. Bro, that you need two guys in these Oasis cover bands. Have you ever seen one of them?

They need two people to do what Noel's doing by himself. Yeah, yeah. He's a secret, absolute fucking Ripper. And the fact that he's right, that's coming from his mind. and he's singing 30% of the time. Yeah. There's a go. I'm with you.

They're unbelievable. Do you have a number one favorite track? I'm a sap. I do like half the world away. Beautiful. I love that one. Yeah, there's a ton of them. I love many of the songs for different reasons.

Some are like the lyrical stuff. Others just let's fucking let's rip it. Rock and roll star. Let's just shred. Yeah. Yeah. acquiesce as I've gone on record to say, it's the greatest rock and roll song ever written.

That song played, and I remember I was next to my friend Charlie and Eric, and I was watching them, the chorus hit to that song, and I go, we need to get ISIS together. Yeah. We need to all witness this together.

All the beef will be squashed, guaranteed. I was moved, bro. I was moved. I can't even tell you. It was like we were in England, so everyone was singing like it was like a soccer hooligan chant. I came home and I said, Candice, we are buying tickets to the Los Angeles show immediately. I know it's not going to be as good because it's not going to be 7,000. Well, it was in Cardiff, so Welshman singing along.

But dude, it was, oh my God. I think for that reason, I'm going to go to Mexico City. Beautiful. How fucking lit does that sound? Unbelievable. 100%. You have to go. you have to buy the tickets.

I also want to make this podcast the most just like timely podcast or doesn't make sense even like a month. So hey, if you haven't seen Oasis, if you get off your butts. Yeah, yeah. I'll be going to the Soldier Field show here for sure.

It's in a couple weeks. Can't wait. I'm jealous. Can't wait. I'll go to that too. Death before a Sonor. Tell me about your time playing in that band and some stories that come to mind.

Yeah, man. I don't know what it is about me. I think it's, I've been saying this for years. As a big guy, people perceive me as a big guy. You know, you've talked to me about being a big guy before.

Other big guys, other big guys look at big guys and just go, fuck this guy. What does he think he's big or something? Dude, as a big guy, you walk into a room, you see three other big guys.

It's okay. Yeah, fucking Niever. you all day, bitch. Like, what was this big guy? And then you walk up, you like, what's up, man? But there's always this, like, fuck this big guy. And I don't know what you know about Death Ford's Honor, but all the fans are just big

guys. And I'm just some dude trying to just like riff with my boys. Yeah. So, yeah, there was some scuffles, some hubbubs across the, across the ponds. You know, there was this guy, we were playing a show in Adelaide. Australia and this guy

was buying drinks for everyone. I was like, oh, no thank you. Like, I don't drink. He goes, all right. And then he comes around again. He's like, oh, you know, let's get some drinks. They look to me and he goes, I don't buy fucking soft drinks. I was like, that's totally fine because I have a water. And I do not need to drink, but I thank you very much.

And then he comes back and says, hey, here's your drink. Here's your drink. By the way, do you want me to ask the bartender if they have a shot of concrete so we can harden your ass up because you're really acting like a bitch right now. Why? Why? I have no choice. Yeah. He's given you. He's given you no choice. I'm a product of my environment. Unbelievable. That's literally the cranberry juice. The cranberry drink. Yeah, that's right. Departed. From the departed. You're right.

He departed. He sucks. He did. He did. He pre-in. He pre-ed it. Suck, man. He was like a coal mine or something. It was super funny. Um, and, uh, yeah, that, I mean, just things like that happened all the time. And like, it's kind of same thing like black my heart. Like, dude, dudes would just walk up to me and be like, yo, Boston Bita was my Bible. And I was like, what is that? We weren't even in Europe. We were in America.

We're on American soil. And a man told me that to my face. I was like, how is that supposed to make me feel, dude? It's like, wasn't even in that thing. Yeah, death force honor was fucking awesome. I think, like, Friends Family Forever is a, like, truly unbeatable record. I think Bruce LaPage and Brian Harris do best. The number two, they're tied at first, hardcore vocals of all times, Brian Harris and Bruce LaPage.

There is nothing that I will ever hear that will match those two. I respect that. And what Brian manages to do while. with the amount of cigarettes that he smokes, like I would think would be legit, be biologically and scientifically impossible. You're not supposed to have a voice with that many sigs. And he's,

dude, it's miraculous. His voice is impenetrable. It is, there was a study where it's, they, they took lab rats and did a bunch of cigarettes. They were like in a,

they're being hot boxed with cigarettes. And then, they dose him with um with corona and it completely quit they had like this unbelievable vocal talent and that's why brian got the uh the idea of only drinking coronas because it it counteracted the cigarette but made this guttural noise it's um it was like an 82 study it was in the harvard journal he showed it to me it was it was i read that i read that i read that i read that one margaret's been cigarette free for like 10 months now no fucking well. I'm proud of my guy.

I don't even know how I should tell you guys on it. This is like... Dude, that's unbelievable. Congrats, congrats, Brian. That's insane, man. By all it's a very difficult thing to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. I can only imagine his voice now.

About 10 dB louder. Yeah, dude. Root Awakening. Talk to me about this, this incredible band, doing another band with our boy, Josh Heinz. Please. Film in.

Yeah. Hammer Bros broke up. Josh Hines was like, let's get back in the saddle, dude. And so we recorded a demo. The thick thing about Josh is that, I don't know how he wrote every single Brut Awakening song on guitar. Whoa. Shredded.

I was like, I don't even know you had that in you, bro. Shredded. It was awesome. I had no idea. Yeah, he's the man. but yeah we had some iterations like hammer bros broke up so jim the singer of hammerbrose played guitar um we got our our friend dave who played guitar and since the flood um on guitar at one point um but it was just like a rotating cast of just like you're a boy that's you play bass you know

my good friend jordan played bass for a long time it was fun dude and sparkman was in it for a while right yeah he was in it um i think when i moved to california I said, I don't want to be in a band with that fucking guy. And so when I moved to California, they let him in. And yeah, it's every band I was in, the whole theme was, we're just going to do whatever the fuck we want. Whether it was like musically or like attitude. Yeah, so that was a Rewakening, dude.

I remember there was this like, there was this tweet from a Salinas hardcore page. We played Salinas out of all places. and had a great show. Our merch guy was moshing, and it was like the classic, who's this guy? So like eight dudes, like jumped our merch guy.

He was an idiot. But eight dudes jumped our merch guy. And then everyone at the show got the shit kicked out of him. And it was just like early tweet days, like early like Root Awakening ruined Salinas hardcore. And so we were just like, do you? We were like posting like, you know, fuck Selenia, like Root Awakening's new fuck Selina CP. Yeah, it was, it was, I don't know, do people hate, people hate when you have a good time.

Oh yeah. People hate, they can't stand it. And that's really a reflection on them. They don't like to be having a worse time than you, you know? No, and we're always having the best time. Yeah. And, and you're, you're, you just described Rude Awakening as another example. example of the

live free or fuck you mentality. That's the vibe, bro. You're not lying. You're saying you're being who you're saying you are. What do you want from these bands? I chop down the cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie.

That's what I've been saying about you. Tell me about joining criminal instinct and rounding out this photo of criminal instinct is maybe my favorite band promo ever. I know the exact one. One of the most menace. groups of people ever. Tell me about joining Criminal Instinct and your time in the band. I was Inuit Awakening, me and my friend Brendan and Richie and a couple others. We went to Thailand

to train Muay Thai for like a month. We lived there. We were the poorest we've ever been in our lives. And we get back and I'm like, fucking I'm moving to California. I was like something I was like something happened to me, you know? Thailand changed us. It was one wonderful. You had a good experience there? Oh yeah, this is 2012. I've been doing Muay Thai for like two weeks and I go, let's buy a ticket to Thailand. Me and Brendan bought China air tickets, the cheapest. I think we were both somehow in middle seats next to each other.

It was the worst experience. We had a layover in Hong Kong. Yeah. And we were starving, dude. We went to sleep, woke up and the stewardess was like beef noodle. And I was like, yeah, whatever, it's breakfast. That makes sense. And then we go to sleep again, wake up.

She's like, it's dinner. Would you like beef noodle? I'm like, this is it. Yeah, let's do it. This is great. Yeah, so we were just starving, dude. This is like a portion this big. And Hong Kong, they had all these convenience stores, but they were all just like chicken feet

and stuff, like in like lays potato chips bags. I don't, I do not feel emotionally ready to do this right now. Yeah, I'm too hungry. So, yeah, Thailand was amazing. We lived in Pouquet in 2012 for a whole month. Me and Brendan were pretty dead set on becoming just killers. And we trained twice a day. I almost did a fight.

My coach, Song, who was like 50 years old, he looked about 100. He wasn't allowed to ride a scooter. And when you would see him riding a bike down the road, he would just be drawing big S's because he couldn't, he's been elbowed and needed. so many times in the head he couldn't just ride a straight line. He tried to get me to do a fight. I'm like, all right, let's do it.

And then being like a big American, there were no, like the pool was smaller for fights. And the guy to the gym was like, he's like, hey, train with the pros, but I don't know if we'll have a fight for you. And so I got to train with the pros for a while. That was awesome. Yeah, we had nothing but the best time. How much running did you do while you're doing your training? I ran twice. The whole lot.

Oh, wow. Yeah, two times. But the secret is you tell the coach that you ran before class. And everyone is sweaty, so it's like, who's the same? I'm like, coach, I'm poops. I have to do class now? You just like, yeah, just drinking, M150 energy drink and started sweating immediately. And you have the most energy of anybody there now.

Yeah, right. Good hack. Smart. 100%. Yeah. So it's criminal instinct, yeah. So we get back from Thailand. Me and Brendan are just on a rampage.

We're playing, what's that fest in Richmond? United Blood. Word Awakening is playing United Blood. And they have a tour lined up with criminal instincts. And I was walking up the stairs and I see this joyous, bouncy kid, like waving his arms. And I looked behind me. And he goes, what's up, man, I'm just saying. We're doing a tour tomorrow, like next week.

I'm like, what? He's like, I play in criminalistic. I'm a Sarah criminalistic, dude. I'm psyched to do a tour with you. I'm fucking rude way. He's awesome. I'm like, I'm moving to California, bro. And he was super bungs.

That was how I met Josiah. That was it. And then that was it. Yeah, I forget how we got connected later on. But Criminal Instinct just recorded Zone 6 music. Oh, okay. So, okay. This is later on.

Right. Yeah. They just recorded Zone 6 music. and a friend, Josiah was like, yo, can you hit up Skull? We're going to do a string of shows. And the friend just dropped the ball.

The friend's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll text them. Never did. And me and Josiah met, like, later on. He's like, dude, it sucks. You can't do that tour. You couldn't do that tour. And I was like, what tour? And he's like, will you play drums?

I go, absolutely, dude. Let's do it. And so the first show I played was, this is hardcore in 2016. 16. Wow. Right after re-meeting him. Yeah.

He's an amazing, dude. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, being in a band with him is so fucking sick. I love criminal instincts. The band is just like, I don't know what it is. The only way I can describe it is just like, it's almost like like military anthems.

Like the caveman songwriting style that Josiah has and this weird like, like militia like all that shit it's like it's so amazing I think CIA is so sick

he's another one of those musical minds that we were talking about where like oh yeah like he somehow translates these ideas into these hard songs that aren't like traditionally hard in like the beat down way but it comes across as

uber violent insane music That you really can't replicate, which is awesome. And then is simultaneously able to put out the Josiah Daniel stuff. You know, like one mind, just two crazy halves. It's amazing. Yeah, that's awesome, dude. We did a tour once where we stayed in casinos.

It was like a long weekend. He racked up enough points or was like a platinum or whatever member that we got to cut three roads at casinos on it. I think that was a tour with you guys, maybe. With Eyes of the Lord? Yeah. It was, yeah. That was awesome. I don't know if any show lasted until the end on that tour.

Not a one. Very unsustainable way of touring, but I'm glad it happened. Yeah. That was our only tour ever, so pretty cool. People just don't, people just don't like having a good time. It's all what to live free or fuck you. Yeah. And sometimes they choose fuck you.

Yeah. That was the tour. That was the tour where I'm like, dude, this calling guy, I'm going to be friends of this guy. I'm going to try to be friends of this guy. I'm going to crack this guy's nut. You did.

You did. I felt the same, though, you know? I knew I won you over. Because I'd seen you play for so long. I only knew you as there's the guy who hits hard from all these bands. Yeah. Which what more do I want, do I need to know I'm in good company? Fucking A.

And then you call me bones years later. And when Skull calls you bones. You did all right? Bones it is. Bones it is. Skoll, could you tell me something you miss about touring regularly? I don't know if people have said this already, but the like imprompt to conversations that you have of your friends, I used, I worked for bands like stage managing, guitar teching, and we're in buses and like it's not the same. Yeah.

When you're in a van with your friends and you have nothing. And you're driving to Billings for a fucking show at a pizza shop. Lord knows. Lord knows what goes on between now and Billings, baby. Yeah. And dude, it's like your boys driving and you like wake up, you got a piss. And you're like, where the fuck are we? Oh, we're in so and so.

Like, damn, man, you just sit in the pasture seat and no one say anything. And then like just conversation strikes. And dude, like the sun's coming up. Like people don't see that, man. I'm living like a Jack Kerouac novel. People don't see that. I think if you are a person who lives in America and you do not just drive with a friend or yourself or your dog or a bunch of friends, just cross country, you're missing out on so much because that boredom just, it boils up into just like either insanity and chaos or like these beautiful conversations. and that is my absolute favorite thing about touring.

Going into a gas station and, you know, like Topeka or something, or like, you know, two hours away from Topeka. Yeah. Someone looks at you like, where the fuck you come from, man? Dude, but then you get to that gas station, you go, oh, I've been here before. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

We are so fortunate to experience that boredom. Like, the people I went to high school with won't ever know those magical moments, how lucky we are to be bored looking at that. sunset or that sunrise. There is a sense of there's no other place I could possibly be right now because the most important things that I'm doing are all in this van with me, barring probably a relationship at home. But other than that, it is a sense of like, I'm with my four best friends. This is all I want to be doing. This is the best. Me and Wheeler had this thing, being of four best friends where we would, it was mostly at Waffle House. But whenever we were in

the cell. Somehow, me and him always had like, if it wasn't my turn to drive, it was his. If it wasn't his turn to drive, it was mine. It just always worked out like that. So we play a show in like Florida or the South or whatever, and we always be at Walthas. And whoever the person who wasn't the driver would always be eating their waffling being like, oh, man, their sweet tea just being like, oh, man, I'm just eating myself to sleep right now. I can't wait to just cozy up on that little bench and the driver was always just like you are the most hated person in my entire life but dude guess what tomorrow now i'm that motherfucker oh i'm eating myself to sleep to now man you got to drive after this oh baby no not me let's get another hash brown with my chili please thank you very much

just waking up 40 minutes later with the explosive emergency diarrhea that's the best part you got clean the tank for the next meal yeah come on man That's a great answer. Speaking of food. You seem like a man. You know, I don't know if we've ever formally met before. But you seem to me like a man who eats who will take the time to eat what he wants because it's, you know, eat or fuck you. My God given right.

Yes, sir. That's right. So I would love to know, Colin, should we hit him with the question? Yeah, I think so. I think we'd make this maybe go the personal route and the like ban route, depending on who's touring. If you're in the United States of America and you're touring and you see this big magical sign, this exit now for all these things. Anything. What's the one that's getting you to pull over? I'm an adult.

So my answer now is not going to be as exciting. But when I was touring, especially with Black My Heart, our bass player, Ben, was vegan. So it was Thesis's pizza. Oh, man. It was $5. All You Can Eat, Cece's Pizza. Legend be told that the cinnamon buns somehow are vegan. Or vegan.

Yes. That has, I need you a fat. The third thing I need you to fact check about this. I have no need. There was all this vegan lore around. All these vegans on tour in like 2003 to 8 were just like circus people. They were just Jack in the Rock's tacos. I'll tell you what.

Yeah. They were getting poisoned. Yeah, it was, dude, it was Cece's pizza because we had no money in $5 to get full. Oh, baby. You better believe I'm getting that water cup and it's going to be, it's going to be Coke. Diet Pepsi. You better believe it, bro. That's a crazy answer.

The dessert pizza, pretty good. Dessert pizza is pretty good. I think that's our first Cici's, too. First Cici's answer ever. Here's another fun question. This one was first. asked on the show by Mr. C-O-A, the question is, who do you

do? And that is, who are the musicians you've studied in life, who you've subconsciously taken things from on stage? For Skinhead, who are you doing? The fuck? Like, I don't know. I think it's a call. I mean, it's Skinner is a culmination of everyone that I've

ever known in my entire life. And I'm only free to be me because I've been supported by all my friends to be my and I think, so I guess I'm doing them, I guess. No pretty good answers. You're doing the community, basically. I'm doing the community from behinds.

Yes, sir, of course. Doing it dirty, baby. You've got to do it wrong. So true. You got to do it. Here's another fun question. You can take your time with this one. Okay.

Can you tell me your top four hardcore records in history? Yeah. I got beef. I don't got to be, whatever. It's your personal thing. Whatever, dude. But I feel like when you throw in age, your quarrel, master killer, sure. But obviously.

You think that, dude. But people, the guy, the 80s guys think we're crazy for the master killer stuff. They think they're insane. Yeah. It's obvious to some. It's obvious to, you know, intelligent people with great taste. It's obvious. Top four.

There are so many honorable mentions, but I'm going to abide by the rules. I will abide by the rules. This is what got me into straight edge. 10-yard fight, hardcore pride. All right. Great. Great. Proud to be straight.

I've had an argument with plenty of people. Proud to be straight is my number one. I don't ever want to say. say fuck firestorm i don't ever want to say fuck a more season ended and ends but um um proud to be straight dude so many of my friends have fallen like just truer than ever mother fucking right yeah my friend called my friend called me uh i won't say their name but they called me two weeks ago and they're like dude i don't know it's i i don't even want to have this conversation right now is like you know i've been talking to people

and it's only right that you hear from me. And I go, you drink alcohol, don't you? He goes, fuck no. They go, oh, okay, what is it? And then he just told me some terrible thing. And I'm like, oh, that's awful. Literally. We're still part of the gang.

Okay, good. We're good, man. The first. One of the first songs I got on LimeWire was proud to be straight because I was able to find, you know, something about Straight Edge and Hardcore, and all like tied together. My personal favorite 10-year-fight song is the only way.

Josh Hines is talking about that, about that one. What does it do? There's like a, the lyric is like as long as there's a breath in this body, my blood will run pure. Throw these fights on. Oh, God, dude. It's insane, dude. Fires me up.

To this day, fires me up. I think, yeah, 10-yard fight. Amazing. I was in a band called First and 10, where it was me, Josh Hines, Clevo, the original basis of 10-yard fight and ranch, where we played all 10-yard fight songs. I think we played like maybe three or four shows, but that was a fucking highlight of my,

it was like a full-circle moment. That was insane. People don't even know that the, that edge day exists because 10-yard fight broke up. 10-17-99. That's it. Also, to be fair, Sweet Pete was the man who coined it. Sweet Pete was.

the man who says this is 10 york fights last day this is edge day um so yeah that's that's definitely on my top four love it um great answer love it we don't get a lot of 10 yard fight love on the show fucking love it man i was a weird metal i like i loved hardcore love punk love oi but like metal i loves and weird shitty metal metalcore all the stuff big fan be new hampshire makes you screwy um uh in no particular you got it all there it's the last land of plenty. Sorry. There you go. It's true. It's the goal. It's the, yeah, the granite state. This is an easy one. I'll give this one to you. Death threat piece of security. Piece of cake. No problem. The other two might come to quite a surprise. Maybe the most,

the last one, which I'll get to the last. My third one, um, Carry on A life's left plague A life less plagued Outstanding Fantastic thing Straight edge You know

Fucking straight edge There's nothing else you can say It is what it is What a record And being like Dude Loving that record Being in drug tests

And playing with internal affairs Like that shit was awesome Corey telling stories about Carry on I'm like dude This is nuts That was pretty phenomenal I'll see a 10-yard fight

death threat carry on and then the fourth and final I think this is going to be a wild card for you guys I don't know if anyone's ever said top four hardcore albums I will defend it I will defend it a little band from the northwest

named trial yeah these are our lives yeah that record insane fucking insane I mean it opens within like all time pit part right off the back. And like so ambitious and crazy. It's awesome. It's amazing.

Yeah. Wow. All the political, all the political stuff, I completely didn't know, like, Kosovo. I didn't even know, like, where that was when I was listening to it in high school. But I remember my dad waking me up Saturday morning, mow the lawn. I would get the lawn mower out. I was wearing a booted sweatshirts because I just got three X's tattooed on the back of my arm. And I was freshly out of high school and my my dad would have killed me if you knew I had any tattoos so I wore a hooded sweatshirt for probably two years uh he thought I was on drugs and I was just my CD player with trial on the headphones just just trudging through my lawn just mowing it on a Saturday in August in New England no problem straight fucking edge wow so so death threat the real the the exception to straight edge bands in your top four hardcore record wow yeah there was a point of time

I was seeing death threat every weekend. Especially in New England, like reach this guy and death threat played every single, seemingly every weekend. And then sometimes convergent play, like, it was just like, it was such a mad. The early 2000s, dude, goddamn. Magical time to be in New England's. Great.

Unbelievable answer. Yeah. Good, different. The only one that's common is death right, as it should be. As it should be. Yeah. Wow. As it should be.

Yeah. Speaking of which, this has. nothing to do what we were just talking about. You, you're a very rational person. I think you look at life, you know, very literally. What you see is what you get. This is the buttering. This is very intelligent person. So I'm curious what you're, do you believe in ghosts? Goulds, Spectres? Yeah, yeah. The big three. Wow. I do believe that the veil of this world is much thinner than we'd like to believe. I don't think that, you know, you're getting spooked by a guy who got his head chopped off.

But I do believe there are times in which you are feeling and hearing things and experiencing things that are not there for a reason. And I think that's very special. and I think we would be very ignorance not to pay attention to those things. Have you ever experienced anything yourself? No. I see. But you're open to it and you're not convinced otherwise. Yeah, like Skinhead played Boston last year and it was December and it was snowing.

And like I felt there was some feeling. It was like me, Aldo, Vic, we left this pizza place. Our boy Alex was there. It was snowing. And you know that silence? Yeah. when it like big thick snow and there's just it sounds like you're in a sound booth um played an amazing show and it just felt like everyone was exactly where they were supposed to be no one was

like oh i got to get to this thing or like no one was like texting like whenever i was like with someone i felt like this is exactly where we should be i looked at this the street lamp as it was snowing and i felt my friend ted with me i felt my dog beatrice with me and not that i was I was sad. I wasn't sad. I wasn't angry. I was just like, wow, this is like a very special moment that I'm feeling. And I would be truly ignorant not to appreciate and just live in this moment for just a second. Unbelievable. Wow. That was profound. That's, that was good. I'm with you 100%. They were there. Yeah. You don't feel that for no reason. You're more of like, I saw the guy with a nightstick. He was running up the stairs. I haven't seen it. There's a

night stick, I mean, per se. There was a, I've seen a gal, you know, long black hair, grudge-esque, Ju-on, if you will, if you will. I want. But, you know, but I, I, the, the energy is, is more so, I think, like, constant,

everywhere. You get, no. You get horny when the thing goes, that's what you get. I love the thing, yeah. Yeah, I love that. That's, you get the feeling of all of the energy. No, you, you want to see. I know that I know the feeling of energy is all around us

when the EMF tells me that they're right here and that they've maybe farted towards me in this moment I couldn't be more undeniable truth so I'm glad you agree yeah

all right we've got some questions from our Patreon people here a couple good ones this is a great question this one is from Jay Bastie 227 Mount Rushmore bands or albums to introduce someone to oil music Yeah, I think just go Coxbar, just like, that's fine.

I had a friend, me and a couple of my friends opened up a Moitai Gym in Florida in Gainesville, and one of the members texted me and was like, I'm thinking about getting into oil. He has a child and a wife. And I'm like, yeah, he goes, what should I do? And I'm like, dude, just listen to Coxbar. Like, you'll get it, you know. But if that doesn't do it, if shock troops or guilty charge alone, aren't like signing the deal for you.

It's maybe not for you. Yeah. And get the fuck out of here. But, um, the trouble, um, listen to the trouble. Like that's like, just do that. You'll be fine. Boston or England. Just, just do some Googling.

Yeah, figure it out. You'll find it. Yeah. Yeah. Best Adidas Samba color. This is from AG. Uh, athletic greens. Oh.

I mean, technically, yeah. This is all from athletic greens. I'm going black, dude. You don't got to be weird. I do a... This is... Can I... May I digress for a moment?

Yeah, you may I digress for a moment? Back when you're a gentleman, you're a bit older, you're around my age, when you saw a person with samba sneakers on, when you were 16, 17, 18, that meant something. Yeah. You were like, oh, shit.

Like, that's crazy. either like some super cute girl who likes small brown bike, or it's this weird guy who's going to do something weird. He's better at moshing than me. Therefore, I need to keep an eye out. Yeah. And Chuck Taylor's meant a thing. Like, it was like, there was all these subtle, if you had sombos, cuffed jeans, and a carabiner, that meant something different than if you wore somba's cuffed jeans and a track jacket,

a Fred Perry track jacket. Like, there's so much nuances. I just go black. I mean, what you're saying about subcultures are just culture now. You know, everything is one thing and nothing means anything. What I was getting with that is if you get the black Adidas, but you put the white laces, it used to mean something doesn't necessarily mean anything anymore. Well said.

Top five dog breeds. This is from Run the Jewels. The guy, not the guy. Aren't there two guys? Yeah. Not in this one. Not this guy. Um, top five dog breeds.

Uh, I've only had pit bulls. I think they're the most magical dogs in the world. What's a sweet pit bull will change your life. Truly. Yeah. My aunt had a, uh, beagle named, uh, ginger. Wonderful dog. Outstanding.

Snoopy. Good dog. Is Snoopy a beetle? Oh yeah. I think so. Yeah. To learn something new every day. Pit bull beagle.

That's it. How do you, what's your stance on chihuahua? Uh, I met a really nice. nice chihuahua um in 2015 love that thing took a picture of it yeah me come meet mine you'll you'll change your life it'll change your perspective on this whole dog it is the thing where growing growing up i only had big dogs only ever wanted big dogs dated a girl who had a really tiny chihuahua and the first thing first time that thing sits on your lap it just curls up

it just changes everything nothing else in the world yeah yeah it's true yeah uh carl speck Spackler asks, Spackler from Caddychack, asks, is there any one place you love slash prefer to do all of your writing, anything in particular that gets the creative juices flowing? Airplane? Oh, nice. Because there's fucking nothing, dude. I can finally be alone with my thoughts. I would love nothing more than to just go in a cabin for two weeks and just not talk to anyone. I might not get any writing done, but I'll feel a lot better.

so like an airplane an airplane's like the second best dude when I'm on an airplane like I'm kind of sad because I miss like my wife or like it's airplanes to me is always like is always just like

there's something happening so you get funeral or whatever or to show I'm excited like there's some there's not just a casual there's an emotion attached to the trash yes you're not going to go to CC's pizza and take an airplane there so fucking true

airplane dude it just clears all the shit and then I start writing a thing and then yeah that's definitely airplane for me phenomenal answer interesting uh Andrew Tucker asked favorite favorite memory of playing in outbreak yeah there was a there's one I can't talk about and there's another one that I can't talk about either um those are probably my top too perfect outstanding actually when I was in when I was in outbreak the coolest thing because the drug test and outbreak did a tour in 2004 maybe It was both bands first U.S. tour. The drummer outbreak couldn't make it for some reason,

so I played drums for both bands. And I knew when drug test was playing, and we got a crazy reaction, that the outbreak reaction is going to be fucking crazier. So it was just like a double whammy. That was pretty fun. And just going across, we were in a Winnebago that the singer of Drug Test's girlfriend's parents had.

We were just pissing in that thing. It had a toilet. We were, dude, we would drink more water. just so we had the piss. Just the piss. Yeah. Had no one. We just thought it was a toilet.

Oh. That just sorted itself. We were like, oh, it flushes. Like, it goes somewhere. Oh, no. By week one, we were like barricading the door. The stench of rotten piss was just overtaking this Winnebago. That was a fond memory.

You'll never forget that smell. Everyone was like sharp. Yeah, ammonia. It's sweet and strong. We and sharp. It's spicy. Fuck, man. Good job, champ asks.

Who are your top three skinheads, fictional or non-fictional? I really like the, the, what's that movie? This is England. I like the show. The movie was cool. I like the show version. Mookie was a cool guy. I don't look.

I try not to look up to anyone. I try not to look up to anyone. Out of fear of disappointment? Yeah. And it's like, then what am I doing? I'm just trying to emulate this person. Sure. Like, I try not to do that.

There are some, the first skinhead I ever saw is burned into my head. Um, and then a, there's a couple other skinheads that I've seen in my life that are burned into my head. I try not to emulate them because they're truly horrifying. Um, but, uh, yeah. I don't know. How am I supposed to answer that? I'm trying to be cool.

I just did great thing. I'm trying to be cool, all right? You did great. JBL asks worst birthday party you've ever been to. I really like this question. That's a good question. This is awesome. Yeah, I think there was this birthday party that I was not invited to.

We showed up. I was making out with a girl in a bedroom. And someone kicked one of my friends kicked the door up and said, yo, we got to get the fuck out of here. I got torn away from her. I was like probably 16, 17. I got torn away from her. Romeo and Juliet, I get outside.

My friend is swinging a baseball bat. Chaos ensues. A plant goes missing. This damn plants again. That was the worst. And yeah, I didn't know her aim. It was a whole thing. That is sad.

That's a bad birthday party. Oh, aim, like instant messenger. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's tragic. That is tragic. You never knew her away message could have been. longing and yeah and heartfelt for you and you'll never know

it could have been screaming infidelities Mark Armenta asks if an alien came down to earth and his first question to you was what is a skinhead how would you describe it um I would punch him in the fucking eye Independence Day

live for your fuck you welcome to earth yeah welcome to earth that's the whole vibe I saw that movie with my dad me too never been the same yeah Never forget the people cheering when the dog, Boomer, when Boomer makes it in the tunnel. The whole- Because it's like finally, you know. The whole theater cheered. Everybody.

We're sick of the dog getting killed. Yeah. You know what's crazy? I thought, when I was a little kid, I thought a lot of things that weren't true. I thought that if it was a movie based in the 50s, that meant that the movie was filmed in the 50s. So I thought John Travolta, who wasn't in Independence Day, I thought John Travolta was like 140 years old. I'm like, this dude's been in Greece.

Because of Greece. He's been in that disco movie. I was like, bro, he's in all this like, I think that alien movie came out after Independence Day. I was like, this dude is 100 years old. Did you guys think that at all? Like the concept of a period piece was just impossible to you. Oh, they filmed it all weird.

I was like, what that? I had they got all these cars? Like, I haven't seen a car like that ever. I definitely thought the sting was filmed when it, like in the 20s or 30s when it was in color. I definitely did think that and then later on was like, oh, wait a minute. So kind of. That's just being done. Maybe you're right.

We don't know. John Bolta could be a lot older than we give him credit for. I had a lot of ideas when I was a little kid. I had an idea that credit cards. Yeah. Because no, my mom didn't tell me how a credit card works. She would just swipe the thing. And it was gold.

I think it was American Express or something. Sounds right. And I was like, I get it. Because they put it on the thing and so, so. Yeah. And I was like, I get it. They give you a card with like a $5,000 limit. Or back then I thought it was $200 because that's a lot of money.

And that's the amount of gold you got on it. And then the grocery store shaves off the $7.85 worth of gold. I mean. And then they turn it into the bank. That's as reasonable as the stork, you know? Or actual credit cards. Or actual like commerce in Rome. Like they did do that.

That is what they would shave precious metal off and that's how you would pay. I mean, it works. So I wasn't far off. What was your stance on unicorns as a young guy? Did I like him? I mean, I know you liked them. We all like them. Yeah.

Do you have any closing remarks for the people here? And we've had such an unbelievable conversation. Yeah, I think if you have children, don't lie to them, talk to them like they're an adult. I thought that tooth fairy was real. I thought Santa Claus is real. I thought Easter morning was real. I come home. I'm mad.

All my friends are saying those things are not real. I'm pissed off. I go to my mom. I go, yo, Santa Claus, tell me right now. is it real? Is it real? She's like, you know what? Sweetie, it's Yeah, it's not real, but it's just the magic of it. There's, um, there's no difference than, you know, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.

And I go, you're telling me there's no Easter bunny or toothberry as well. What the fuck? Where do I get my bearings? So you know, you're saying don't ever tell any kid that these three things exist? You're saying end the illusion of Santa Claus? Or do you just, you commit all the way? Yeah, I'm having a hard time. Like, when do I teach my son how to read the hands on a clock? I'm losing my mind.

So I don't know. So how do I talk about, he's 15 months old? But how do I talk about Santa Claus, dude? At month 16, you start doing the Coca-Cola St. Nick propaganda. You start showing them the red and white real quick and flashes. What in the hell happens? Where did you take me? Ah, you transported.

Unbelievable. We were just about to sign off. Sorry about that. So so many unbelievable life lessons were taught throughout the recording of this episode. But lastly, don't lie to your children. That's very important. Josh, Skull, thank you so much for being with us today. What an incredible time.

It's a beautiful day. What a beautiful day is out now on Closed Casket. and the book companion, 28 pages, 25 pages. I see 28 and 25. Very conflicting. That's for you to find out. Okay, good. Records on an island.

Out now, written by you, designed by Martine Stewart. Did you take all the photos in the book? You better believe it. Wow. I knew it. Check that out. Check it all out. Listen to Skinhead.

Rewind this episode and listen to the whole thing. And maybe you'll learn something all over again. and if you're straight edge, you're a great person. We love having you. Skull, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, we ain't going to stop. Fuck you. That's right.

Live free or fuck you. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.