My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 143 - MOD SUN

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

MOD SUN joins Robbie in the Basement to discuss his upcoming 'Internet Killed The Rockstar' Tour in support of his new album of the same title - and they get into this current pop punk revival, real vs electronic drum sounds, musical pet peeves, Mod's roots, and more! 3Chi: Use code MMB at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com HelloFresh: Use code 14robbie at HelloFresh.com/14robbie for 14 FREE MEALS! Bearbottom Clothing: Use code BASEMENT at BarebottomClothing.com for FREE SHIPPING Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, yeah, yeah Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by Barstool Sports and 3Chi I am your host Robbie Fox and today I've got an awesome interview featuring the one, the only, Mod Sun Mod Sun is lighting up the scene right now. He's kind of being lumped in with that pop punk revival scene. He doesn't fully place himself in there. He feels very fortunate to be placed in that. I mean, we'll get to it in the interview. I don't need to give away his answers now, but before we get into it, I got to tell

everyone about 3C, the industry leader in Delta 8 THC. I tell you guys week in and week out that I swear by this stuff. I use it every day. I've got my 3Chi pen with me now. I bring it everywhere I go. I bring the edibles on flights with me. I love taking them before bed, the cereal treats, the brownies, the cookies, all of it. 3Chi is the best in the industry, the best in the market because they've basically invented the industry. If you go to 3Chi.com right now, use the promo code MMB, you'll get 5% off your complete order. Now let's get into this interview with Mod Sun. Welcome back to My Mom's Basement, ladies and gentlemen. I am here with Mod Sun. He's promoting the Internet Killed the Rockstar tour kicking off this September. It's supporting the Internet Killed the Rockstar album that you

put out earlier this year. It features your the Internet Killed the Rockstar album that you put out earlier this year. It features your return to the genre that you kicked off your musical journey in. It's finally out. It's kick-ass. How are you, Modson? Best day of my entire life. I woke up this morning.

I like to take things day by day. I'm in the middle of doing some really, really dream-come-true kind of projects right now. So I'm feeling good. I'm feeling very inspired, very, very, very inspired for the future. That's awesome. And I just mentioned the tour kicks off next month. Have you been able to get on stage in front of a crowd since things opened back up? Or will that be next month? No, no, I haven't at all. I was actually in I was actually in the middle of a tour when the pandemic started.

And I was about a week and a half, two weeks in. And I had to come back home right when it hit. And this whole new album was made while the pandemic was going on. And the really beautiful thing about this album that I got to make is that I kind of went into it in the head space of being like, I'm going to make this to be performed. You know what I'm saying? For like the first time ever, I was in the studio, really being conscious about what this music would be like performed live, you know, so this is like the part this this is finally the album that i made to 100 match my live show and it's interesting you put it out in february we saw some artists that just hit the ground running once the pandemic hit and they were putting out music putting stuff out like yourself and then

some people waited to hold their music back before like right before they could say go on tour the decision to put your music out in febru, was that just you wanted people to hear it or where did that come from? That's a really great question. I felt like people really needed new music while this was going on. And maybe I felt like it'd be a little selfish of me to not be giving people.

Art is such an escape from reality period you know and I think music for me is that um and I guess I felt I mean I'm just now this this is this is a really great question because I'm actually just now thinking about that um I think subconsciously I was thinking that uh the world needed art more than ever at that time, you know, and I guess that's what encouraged my decision. Also, like my instincts were telling me to, to release it, you know. And I honestly, I guess like the smart thing to do would have been if like I was listening to Suits, which I actually cannot stand at all, would have been if like I was listening to suits, which I actually can't not stand at all, would have been to hold it until you go on tour.

So you can be with this momentum. My instincts always tell me what to do. And they were telling me the opposite. It was like, the world needs this. Like, and, and,

and you gotta, I follow my instincts, not the suits, you know, it seemed like it paid off I mean your pandemic like felt like that was your real blow-up would you agree with that yeah honestly uh I mean 100% like I mean my the numbers here's the crazy thing is like um you know I pretty much and I'm saying this in the most trying to be self-aware and not narcissistic way possible,

but like, I've been pretty self-made my whole career and my numbers, you know, especially like, let's say your monthly listener number on Spotify. They actually like that number does mean something to me because like, I actually picture all those things as real people, you know? And so those all kind of represent the fact that like I grew to like the biggest moment in my career so far right now. You know, my numbers basically doubled, even tripled throughout the last year. And I was really, really, bro, I'm not even going to lie to you. I've been praying that like this tour would match that it would match those internet numbers, right? And turn into real people.

And, you know, this is the first time that I'm about to be going out onto a tour that I have shows that were selling out within 24 hours of putting them on sale. I mean, dude, look, man, I've been touring since I was 16 years old. Okay. More than half of my existence I've been touring and I've been very fortunate enough to have done pretty much all headlining tours. And like, I really built up this support group that listens to me. And this is kind of the first time I'm feeling this whole wave of like people being really excited to see me live, bro. And I feel so grateful, honestly.

So it's just been amazing to see that like these these numbers that I've seen grow over the last year and a half, like really turned into real people, you know? Yeah. And we know that you are obviously very close friends with MGK. He kind of brought pop punk back into a mainstream or at least really push it there recently. How much would you credit that to you jumping back into the genre? Because I know, like I mentioned earlier in the interview, this is really where you started and you were a part of the scene from the time you were pretty young. Yeah, 100 percent. I would say, you know what? I was just with Machine Gun Kelly two minutes ago. We're actually doing a very secret, awesome project that the world will know about very soon. And, you know, that is my best friend. He's been my best friend for a decade.

And he definitely, definitely pushed this pop punk genre and all of that to a whole new place. That being said, I'm going to speak from my heart real quick. You know, I've been releasing songs with guitar and singing since the inception of Mod Sun. That being said, like you were briefly talking about me starting in the genre, I played drums in a band called Four Letter Lie that was signed to Victory Records, played drums in a band called Scary Kids Scaring Kids,

toured with Pierce the Veil before before like all of this kind of stuff um definitely this scene is in my dna what really started my projection into the scene that i'm currently landing on is actually a project i did in 2015 with one of my other best friends named black bear it's called hotel motel we started a band called hotel motel it's all singing it's all guitars it's all that um and i i feel fortunate to be placed in the revival of pop punk but again speaking from someone who's been in this scene forever um i don't 100 put myself in the whole like pop punk genre you know my biggest song being off my album being flames um i picture that more as like a really like alternative kind of song i really picture myself as being like an alternative artist um more than like a pop punk

artist that being said in my bag of tricks like pop punk is in my blood like you know in high school i wore dickies and famous stars and strap shirts every single day so like i, like pop punk is in my blood. Like, you know, in high school, I wore Dickies and Famous Stars and strap shirts every single day. So like, I'm a pop punk kid at heart. But what really pushed me into the way my music sounds right now is getting back behind the drum set. That's what did it all. You know, I've made this album with a guy named John Feldman, who is the singer of a band called Goldfinger and an amazing producer. One of my favorite albums back in the day would be the used debut album, the band The Used, right? That album completely changed my life, and John Feldman produced that.

So since I was 16 years old, I've been wanting to work with John Feldman. Now, John Feldman was the one that was like, when we went and made, on the first day of recording together, we made my song Karma and Bones on the first day within three hours of each other. We made both those songs from nothing to something. I had no intentions of playing drums. He was like, yo, I read online that you're a drummer, like go get behind the kid. And I was like, oh, really? Like, I haven't really played drums in a while. Got behind the kid and I was like oh really like I haven't really played drums in a while got behind the drums and it was like I hadn't forgotten anything that was really the catalyst to like push me into fully committing into what's being called is like the pop punk revival because

I think that's the thing that's really really putting the label on the music that's coming out is real drums right yeah if i had to narrow it down um it's really the real drums that's what's kind of pushing everyone to be like this is pop punk music this is pop punk right um and uh so yeah i mean i'm gonna credit cal's 100 for pushing this scene into the forefront but like to be totally honest, like I believe in this form of art as being every 10 years, you reinvent yourself as an artist. And I had started my reinvention into the music that I was making,

I would say in 2017, when I released the song called I Remember Way Too Much. That was like my song that was like, all right, I'm going to fully commit into singing and melody for the next 10 years of my career. As a drummer yourself, who obviously is very in touch with the hip hop scene, how do you feel about the balance of real drums versus electronic drums? I do a great you're really good at this, my man. You're very good at this. Great question.

I think that there's like this really, really strange balance that is obviously like right now, if you're going to, here's my take on it. If you're going to be making music that can be the most relevant possible right now, you would want to add a trap drum flavor to your songs, right? Me personally, I sound better over real drums. My singing voice, I sound better over real drums, right? I just do. And like that being a drummer, like it kind of paints the picture for me to be on the drums and then do the vocals. The drums kind of make me perform the way I perform vocally. And so like, I see my music as being better with a real backed drum, but I also see the plus sides of having like trap drums intertwined in it.

And like, it's a beautiful give and take, like I'm also a producer. So producer so like i understand when when a good time is to use it but like just being a writer and a producer for other artists like i have to sometimes hear them listen to suits and everybody is like you gotta have trap drums in here too right you gotta like let's go the verses trap drums and then the hook can be real drum and i'm just like you know i think music takes the shape that it wants to. And that's obviously like the most relevant right now. And I think there can be a great balance. I remember when I went in the studio with Travis Barker like two years ago and we worked on something.

I was like, yo, there's no way to make like upbeat trap drums, like a clap being like in double time, like that just sounds weird to me not being real drums. He was like, no, bro, bro, bro. I figured it out. And he kind of did figure out like a formula to make that happen where it sounds like cool to me, like hearing trap drums be double timed and like and like, do-do-ga, do-do-ga, do-do-ga, it was weird to me. It was truly, honestly, weird to me. I think like the formula has kind of been like figured out at this point. And there are good ways to do it, which kind of surprised me. There are good ways to do it. But I'm a sucker for real drums. And I think my voice just sounds best over that, you know?

All right. I hate to cut off this chat, but I'm going to tell everyone about HelloFresh for a second. HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit. It cuts out that stressful meal planning, the grocery store trips with less prep, less effort and minimal cleanup. So you can enjoy cooking and get dinner on the table in just about 30 minutes. I love this stuff. I really put in my own promo code and cook it each and every week. Last week, I got the sloppy joes. I got the raviolis. They were delicious. This week, I've got chicken katsu and beef flautas supreme on the way. Still

got to pick my meals for the week after, but HelloFresh really is the best in the business. They're saving me a lot of money right now. You get better value with them. It's 28% cheaper than shopping at your local grocery store and 72 percent cheaper than shopping at a restaurant you're not sacrificing the quality either this stuff is delicious go to hellofresh.com slash 14 robbie and use the promo code 14 robbie for up to 14 free meals plus free shipping today let's get back into this interview so like as a producer yourself then what would you consider a perfect sounding record of mine or of someone else of someone else's of yours something that you you want to pull from for inspiration whatever you may think of as like

that's a perfect sounding record like for me take off your pants and jacket is a perfect sounding record oh my god i was just thinking about like how much of a huge step that was from enema of the state like how crazy of an evolution that was like opening with anthem part two it's just no like a like a gunshot those snares like reckless abandoned like crazy songs um i agree i think that's a perfect record um but again like i am i am fortunate enough to be true to this and not new to this. So like, I really like, it's so funny. Like people are like, just finding out about right, obviously not you, you sound like you, this is in your DNA. And you listen to take off your pants and jacket when it came out. People like finding out about that record right now is so astonishing to me, because

like, literally, I played that album out. Like I literally played that from sunup to sundown when it came out. Like, so what I'm personally, personally like on a kickoff is like, I mean, a perfect song to me is Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. Right. I saw you tweet about them the other day. Yeah. Yeah. As opposed to like Anthem part two by blink like i'm i'm loving like okay iris by the googa dolls goes from a six time signature into a four time signature in the same song like that is brilliant songwriting because you as a listener you don't even know that

until you break it down and start counting time signature and you're like oh my god after this hook all of a sudden they went into four and like in this bridge they went and it go oh my god changing from six to four is like dude you're brilliant you're brilliant for that and like johnny from the goo goo dolls he even like was talking about when he wrote it he didn't even notice that he was jumping in and out of time signatures and that's how you know you wrote an incredible song because you let the song take its own form and like so that that's like a perfect song to me you know everyone out there listen to the Goo Goo Dolls like yeah do you have any musical pet peeves that you try to avoid when you're in the studio putting on your own music

oh yeah 100 this is my first one is like treat your audience like you treat yourself. Right. Like there is a term in music that is dumb it down. And like I think that that is literally out loud saying that you think your audience is unintelligent. Right. I think that like you should uphold your audience to the level of intelligence that you hold yourself to so if you think that it is like too basic then it's too basic like i don't care if it's like a hit song if you personally think it's basic like you know what i can't stand is an artist that has a hit and then five years later doesn't want to play that song live yeah like i can't stand that.

I really think that's like cheating your audience. I think that you should stand by your work until the end. And like, I've come around to all my songs at some point and been like, yo, like, if the people that love it, like they deserve to love it. And you shouldn't be trying to take that from them, you know? So that's one of my pet peeves. The other pet peeve, and this comes from like working with other people is like allowing the thought process to kill the magic, you know? Like I truly, truly believe that being an artist is like going into the wild and hunting for magic.

Right. And like I literally picture it like sneaking in bushes and like looking over and like seeing magic in the distance and trying to hunt it down. Right. I really see that every time I go into the studio um and that's the that is the one thing that i try to teach like all these younger artists that i'm working with is like remove the bone i say this all the time this is like my biggest my biggest uh advice to any artist out there is like remove the bone of embarrassment from your body be totally comfortable with sounding absolutely idiotic before you can sound amazing. Like walk in, get behind the mic and be like, right before you walk in and you're like, what's my note? Like, am I hitting C sharp? Right? Like, I just, I want to hear you make a fool of yourself. So then we can work, we can reverse engineer it and we can

find the magic like so many people stop themselves because they're like embarrassed to like look a certain way and um i just try to like bring that out of people like the first thing i'll do in any session with someone is that i'll get behind the mic and be like totally outrageous, just totally outrageous or say like the most ridiculous idea and then try to like find magic. Yeah. Can you hear me? I can. Yeah. And those are the two things that I really bring with me is like you got to like you got to hold your audience up to to a standard that you hold yourself to. And you got to remove the bone of embarrassment from your body. Like those are the two things that like I stand by so firmly. I mean, I think your fans especially appreciate and respect that as well. Yeah, you know, and like, there's a lot of people I agree. And I'm glad you said that. Because like, as as I make music, I really I really do

everything I can to, again, this is like my self-awareness like i know humble looks best on me and sounds best on me so i try to speak from that um but like i am doing everything i can to try to make timeless music absolutely everything i can like i would rather make something with feeling than something that's like relevant. Really, truly, I want to if I don't feel something when I'm singing something, I don't expect my audience to feel something. Something I thought was really cool that you did last year that wasn't even I mean, it was in the music lane, but it was kind of out there. It was Down Falls High with Machine Gun Kelly, where you guys like did an actual movie for this album and i just wanted to ask if you were to take a song from your album and make a short film out of it which song would you want to make a short film out of

that's such a great question um i mean there's two i'm gonna say two songs because it's like it's like i have this song karma that is like totally like youth inspired. It is totally like. I go. Do you remember watching American Pie for the first time and Mutt by Blink-182 started playing? And he's like running from the house across in like underwear or some shit like that is karma to me. Karma invokes like so much nostalgia of being young to me that like I could turn that into like the coming of age breakfast club in two seconds. Right. The other one would be like Internet killed the rock star. The actual song, because I think that is like my message to being doing everything I can to to be you know there's this quote in fear and loathing in Las Vegas where they say too weird to live and too rare to die okay and what lies in between that is like doing your best to be remembered that you were here to be a one of one and it doesn't take

genius or anything to be a one of one what it takes is like fearlessness to be a one of one and internet killed the rock star that song to me is like standing on your own mountaintop it's like when you have already learned how when you have ingrained into yourself how to deal with the valleys of life the peaks take care of themselves and like internet killed the rock star is like the antithesis to me of like you have gone through the valleys you have been doing this your whole life that like, if you had a last statement to the world, which in the song Internet Killed the Rockstar, I say, remember me just like this was the last thing I said. Like, remember me like this is the last thing I said.

And like, it is like your last statement to the world. And like, that is kind of the song that I know, like I'm going to have like my my career i've had half my life into this i know i'm gonna be doing this bob dylan is my favorite artist of all time he's 80 years old and he just performed like a live set the other day right like that is what i'm going to do i'm going to be doing this until i'm a very very old man still at that point i'm talking about when I'm 80 years old, seen from that lens, I would still say play Internet killed the rock star at my funeral, right? That's how I feel about that song. It is like me in every version. And I don't think that

another artist could make that song because it's a one of one. It's truly has to come from my heart to make that song. I love that. And make that song i love that and in the same vein no in the same vein i i think that's a great answer noel gallagher of oasis once said that he summed up everything he's ever wanted to say with rock and roll star live forever and cigarettes and alcohol he said after that i'm pretty much repeating myself so for modson if you were to pick three which would those three songs be for everything that you've ever wanted to say? Wow. Heavy. That's a heavy question. All right. I'm cutting this chat off one more time to tell everyone about our friends at Bare Bottom. As I record this, I'm wearing my Bare Bottom joggers. They're my favorite pair of pants in my wardrobe,

and they're affordable too. It's high quality, versatile menswear. They've got over 10,000 five-star reviews, so you know they're not messing around. You can get two made-for-summer lightweight tech tees and a pair of stretch shorts for under $100 if you're looking to get a little active with it. But if you're not looking to get active, this stuff is for you too. I mean, it's designed to transition from the couch to the gym, to work, to play, to whatever you like to do. Go to a dinner with bare bottom on, go to the couch with bare bottom on, go to the gym, go work out, whatever you want to do with bare bottom. It's versatile. You got it. Giving back is at the core of what bare bottom does as well. They've donated over a hundred thousand pairs of shorts to children in need. So starting this summer, they'll be

donating a school lunch for each item sold right now. Our listeners get free shipping on their first order of these super comfortable threads at barebottomclothing.com with the promo code basement just go to barebottomclothing.com that's b-e-a-r like the animal bottomclothing.com and use the promo code basement to get free shipping on your first order let's get back into this interview the the three songs i guess i'm just gonna like not repeat the last two that I just said. But like, I would definitely say my song Bones is in there. I feel like I hit an emotional spectrum there. That song still gives me goosebumps, you know, and I feel like i could never recreate that song for real so like just

talking about songs that are unrecreatable like if you were like okay this song did really well for you let's go into the studio make 10 more of those like i could never hit what i hit with that song bones is like so chills evoking you get the chills listening to that i mean i want my listener to and pretty much everyone that tells me they enjoy that song says the same thing that they like feel this extra emotional feeling there's a song that i made that's called i remember way too much that i said like kind of like was the uh the the start the uh it was the what is it was the, what is the word I'm looking for? The driving force.

There's a way better word for this, but lack of better terms, the driving force to everything that I'm making right now. The catalyst, maybe? I remember way too much. What's that? Catalyst. Yeah.

I was like, it's a C word. Very good. Yes, catalyst. It was the catalyst to everything that I'm. Very good. Yes. Catalyst. It was the catalyst to everything that I'm doing right now. I remember way too much. And like, there is a certain, there's a certain innocence in that song that like, I can never get back. You know what I'm saying? And I guess my third one, I would say Karma just because like, again, like again like just i'm just gonna bring one back from

the last thing you said karma is like one of those songs where it's like i personally can say this like we're talking about a pop punk revival i think karma is the only song in this pop punk revival that has gang vocals true gang vocals i hope you choke on every like that is an ingredient to pop punk it's gang vocal right and like i'm all about using the ingredients that like you had to have been there to know and like i guess like hopefully maybe some of these other artists that are in the pop punk revival conversation will hear this. We'll hear this interview or maybe I get to keep it like my little secret. But like gang vocal is immediately going to throw you into a pop punk emotion.

Right. And I'm guessing, you know, this very well. Like those old drive through records and all that, like Newfound Glory. Thank you. Drive through records. I was and all that, like Newfound Glory. Thank you. Drive-thru records. I was going to say it's Newfound Glory. It's like Newfound Glory's ingredient because like the gang vocal truly comes from hardcore music. And Newfound Glory has a guy named Chad Gilbert in the band who is like the documentarian of hardcore music.

He like brings that into Newfound Glory and into pop punk. And that's what like made Newfound Glory stand out so hard because they would make songs and like drop d and stuff and uh so like that's another secret for all y'all out there in the pop punk you tune to drop d and do a little bit of chugs in it like you know what i'm wondering when we're gonna hit our like four year strong part evolution of this pop punk like when are we gonna add some like double pedal breakdowns and like i don't know if i necessarily want to be the one to do it but i know someone's gonna come along and hit that because i know you remember for you oh yeah oh yeah and you remember when we first heard these these major chord poppy breakdowns and we were like what the fuck and i'm

not talking about like a day to remember even though though they did have, it'll be the downfall of us. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, listening, again, one of you artists, like I can see Kenny Hoopla doing it like so well, totally. He has like that kind of screamo scream too. It could be great. It could be great.

I agree. Modson, this has been awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time. It's been great getting to sit down. If you talk about this album a little bit, I've been spinning it since it came out, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the Internet Kill the Rockstar Tour when you come to New York. Well, thank you so much.

Also, I'm a big fan of you guys' platform. so like this was honestly like a really cool thing to to do um and uh please have me back gone this was like a really easy conversation to have like we could go on for hours and hours if you have any more questions feel free i'm not in a hurry oh you're not you're not i don't know if you have any more if you have any more comments, like, good, I'm chilling now. We got to push this back again. Thank you for pushing this back for me. But, like, I love y'all. I'll talk forever. I appreciate that.

I did want to ask about early in your career when you were drumming for Scary Kids Scaring Kids, you accepted that job on the condition that you can open for them as Modson, as yourself. And you talked about some of those shows being like really tough getting booed off the stage. And like, how did you a get the confidence to have that idea? Hey, I would love to open for you go from a drummer to a front man and be pushed through like stuff like that. Like I can't imagine getting booed off a stage and coming back up and doing the same thing the next night. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Like, here's the thing, like, I never actually so when I say booed off stage, like they tried to boot me off stage. I never left the stage.

I stood out there and I was like, I don't care here. Here's what, like, here's why I was able to do that with a smile on my face is that like, I was in front of 1500 people. And you would think that would add more reason to not want to go out there. To me, I was used to playing when I came up shows to my mom, my sister, and like four other people, maybe. So I had understood how great, like, I'm so grateful to get on stage in front of people because I have played hundreds of shows to nobody, to absolutely nobody. And like one thing that's like always stuck with me and how I always relate live shows and and to any artist out there that's a new artist, like like I'm just going to throw it out there. Like there are people that just played their show, and it was Lollapalooza. There are artists that just played their first show this last weekend,

and it was to 30,000 people. You're very, very fortunate, but it's also a different battle that you're going to be fighting for the rest of your career by having that. If you go out on your first tour and you have a tour bus be all praise please don't complain yeah where i came from i was in a 15 passenger van at when we were lucky a 15 passenger van with six other dudes playing for free going city to city getting on stage and saying yo we have nowhere to stay tonight whose house can we stay at can we please sleep on your floor?

Like you didn't get to stay in hotels, nothing. So I truly came from having nothing and having to like work this up until this point. And like the biggest thing that's always stuck with me. And actually, you know, I don't know if I shout this out enough. So I'm going to right now. Tyson Ritter from the All-American Rejects. He was the one that personally told me this face to face because he saw me play one of the shows on Scary Kids, Scaring Kids Tour. And he came up to me and he gave me a piece of advice because of what he saw in me.

He saw this fight in me and he was like, listen, my son, he's like, you just won the boxing match. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he's like, every live show is just like a boxing match. Every boxer wants to go out there and knock them out. First swing, first round, right as the bell hits, right when they start, you knock them out and everyone's cheering for you. But it doesn't always happen like that. If you still knock them out with one second on the clock in the last round, it's a knockout. And at the end of the day, you count your knockouts. You don't say knockout in the first set.

Oh, I'm so good. It's just you knocked them out. And he would see me fight this entire set and then somehow be able to maybe get them to put their hands in the air by the last song. He saw this one show that I actually got them with the last 30 seconds left, because I've always been like, I'm going to get right up in your face. If you're not, I am going to find a way to make you give me your attention. And so I kept that in mind my whole career, and I kept that in mind that whole tour was just like, I am going to go down swinging. I'm going to go to the last round and and I'm going to do everything I can to get these people's attention.

And even if that happened, because they would hate me the whole time I was doing my Mod Sunset, I would come up at the end of the night and I'd get on stage for the headlining band that they were all there to see. And I'd play drums for an hour and a half. And then I'd get off the drums and I'd run to the Mod Sun merch table. And I'm like, people are high-fiving me. Like, dude, that was, that was sick. I hated you for the first four hours,

but then you won my respect by getting up there and doing it because like, bro, you know, that, that was really them seeing someone who was fighting for it, you know? And I think that, I think that, um, in this world, you want to root for the underdog period, you know? And I've been that I've really been that role still to this day. I feel like I'm the underdog I'm speaking for the underdog you know and uh and so it really like you know for everyone out there like keep that in mind when you play your live show because you're gonna run into a crowd that doesn't like you so I mean if you get to headline your whole life you're very very fortunate but you know if you get the chance to go open up for a crowd, you're going to get

into a crowd. That's not yours. You're going to get into a moment where you've got to fight for it and like, never lose that fight. And you never lose that want to get to the end and get them. You know, I love that that had to make you a better and more comfortable live performer now, right? Like thinking back to those shows, if you go out there on like, let's say this tour coming up, a headlining Monson tour, and you're going to walk on stage and the crowd's going to lose their mind

just for you walking on stage being like, oh my God, here we go. Does that feel 10 times better now that you've gone through what you've gone through? I mean, you know, first off, like, yes, that feeling is amazing, but then there's something in me that never is able

to expect that I still go into it. Like, here's the thing is like, when I was playing shows to five people, I was playing like I was playing to 30,000 people at Lollapalooza. I was going my absolute hardest. I've never half-assed a show. I've never half-assed anything that I truly believe in. And so, like, I still, I never will expect that, you know? I'm still there going, like, I got to put on the best show I've ever put on, you know? And does it feel better when it goes off great? Like, absolutely. It feels unbelievable.

It feels like I just won, won you know it feels like my dreams come true and like i'm becoming like a hero you know what i'm saying and like uh you know we want we want to to be able to see like a hero you know what i'm saying you want to see someone and like if they were a victim you want to see that victim become a hero and that's like the underdog ism is like you want to see someone who has been told no you want to see them win and like I think that's why I have a support group or what people call a fan base it's still hard for me to say fan base like right like I'm really like I'm not doing nothing that y'all can because I started in the crowd I started front row going to every single show in my town you know and uh so like I really try to get that across to people I think that I think that my gratitude is the only reason I am where I'm at today you know yeah 100% and

that's why I say stuff like humble looks best on me like do I have a shitload of advice to give people oh my god yeah and could I talk from like the place of ego and be like, I had to do this all on my own and nobody helped me out. Look at me now. I'm popping. Like, yeah, I could talk like that because I have made my world, especially this industry that I'm in, is like I make the people that listen to me believe that they can do it as well. Yeah. I don't have the superstar syndrome where someone's like, they're a star and I'll never be that.

I really think that the people that listen to me look at me and they're like, he's given me the blueprint and I'm going to take this and I'm going to do it. That's why Bob Dylan's my favorite artist in the world, because is that dude a superstar? Absolutely. But does he, is he a total polarizing artist? Like there are people to this day that are still like, I hate Bob Dylan's voice. He has the shittiest voice. How the fuck is he a singer? Right. And it's like, he got booed off stage for the first year of playing Like a Rolling Stone.

And now it's regarded as one of the top three greatest songs ever written in human history. He got booed off stage when he would play that song for the first year. People look this up. This is history. You need to know. He was known as a folk artist with an acoustic guitar. The second he turned electric and dropped Like a Rolling rolling stone he was getting booed off stage yeah i mean look at dave grohl when he started the foo fighters and he was the drummer for nirvana the foo fighters were getting booed off stage and people were just

shouting marigold at dave because it was the only song they knew him singing from nirvana and all that and you push through you persevere and they're becoming rock and roll hall of famers this year that's not incredible man and like? And like, that's one of the people that I can always look to is Dave Grohl because it's like, obviously the drummer turned singer thing is so, it's such like a thing to me because I understand being at the back of the stage

and being like, I have so much to say. I want to get out to the front, you know? And like, again, that's a great story. I mean, and I'm pretty sure there are people in this generation that don't know that tape girl. I saw a meme the other day that was like someone actually tweeted, dude, is it just me? Or does the singer of Foo Fighters look exactly like the drummer of Nirvana? And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is crazy. He's got a point. He looks just like him. He looks just like they oh my God. Oh my God. This is crazy. He's got a point. He looks just like him. He looks just like him. They're not wrong.

They're not wrong. All right, man. I won't keep you all day. I'll definitely have to get you back on the pod soon. Maybe if you're in New York, you could swing by and we could do this in person someday. That would be awesome. Hey, please, please. I'm playing Brooklyn on this upcoming tour that I'm on.

The show is already sold out. You got to come. I'm going to put you on the list 100%. You got to be there. But yeah, Internet Killed the Rockstar Tour. Half the tour is already sold out. The other half is getting dangerously close to that as well. I'll be out September 4th to October 3rd.

And I'm so excited to be on this tour. Anyone out there listening right now, my name is Mod Sun, M-O-D-S-U-N. It stands for Movement on Dreams Stand Under None. I thoroughly, thoroughly believe in making your dreams come true. That is literally why I feel fortunate to get on and do any kind of interview. But with a platform like this, like, thank you for having me. You're great at your job. You're really great at what you do. Thank you. You too. Don't you slow down with this journalism because there is such a need for good journalism in this world right now. So keep it going. Thank you for having me, man. Let's do this again. A hundred percent. Thank you, man. I really appreciate the

time and have fun on tour. And, and real quick too, I have a, a, a great, great, I'm going to be dropping a brand new song right before I leave for tour with an absolute icon legend. And, uh, so I have some really cool stuff on the way. And yeah, I'm working on a very secret project that will be announced with a very, very big press release before I leave for tour. And that's going to really shake the world as well. So keep your eyes open. Nothing but cool stuff coming. Appreciate you all. Thank you for this. Love y'all. Fuck yeah. Can't wait.