My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 356 - SUPER AMERICAN

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Matt Cox and Patrick Feeley of SUPER AMERICAN join Robbie in the Basement to break down their latest release, 'Gangster of Love' - track-by-track. Plus, they tell their origin story, answer the Noel Gallagher question, pay proper respect to Limp Bizkit, and more! Stream 'Gangster of Love' here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4nf1Y5JxvXivOz9EzKnl7m?si=W37wrP2oRcCd6Sp0KwIjNg Follow Super American on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supamerican/ #SuperAmerican #GangsterOfLove #PopPunk ****************************************   My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike!   Subscribe on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/MyMomsBasementWithRobbieFox Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou 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. Alright, welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with Super American. What up? Album out now, Gangster of Love. Not out now as we're recording this, so it's interesting. I think you're going to get a great reception to this, but we don't know. It's up in the air. I still hope it. It's going to be great. I really like the album.

I think it's awesome. Thanks for listening. Top to bottom, really cool, kind of like genre-bending stuff. Yeah. Really, really cool. How long did it take for this album to come together from the inception of when you started the first song on it to when you finished it? A few years. Yeah.

It dates back like one of the songs. The first single actually was a song we had demoed for our previous album, Sup. So that would be almost four years, really. Yeah, almost four years-ish. Because when we started doing, when Sup came out, those songs were already so old, at least from our perspective, so that we were like almost immediately like, all right, let's get going. And then we thought it was going to expedite the process. And then here we are five years later.

So you say they were so old. I want to go back to like the origin of the band for those that don't know it. Your first album was like 2017 or would that be an EP? I would say like an EP. You can say Spotify calls it one thing and Wikipedia called it another. Sure. Sure. Yeah. We'll have to figure that out. This time Wikipedia is correct. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. EP. I would say an EP you can say Spotify calls it one thing and Wikipedia called it another sure sure yeah we'll have to figure that out this time Wikipedia is correct okay yeah yeah EP I would

say an EP and it was like a collection of songs that we were just kind of just been like working on loosely so it wasn't even like a full-fledged uh how would you say yeah I don't even know if we like knew we were going to really be a band at the point we were just like wanted to make some songs like buddies trying it out type vibe. Did you guys grow up together? Or did you meet each other right before the band started? How did you guys meet? We've known each other for a long time, but we didn't work together until we were in our early 20s.

But we were both in the music scene, kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum for a while. And then finally, it was just time. We had always kind of talked about it too, like joking, when he would be in another band and I was in another band, like, oh, when are we going to start our band or whatever? That was this mystical thing. And then we kind of just eventually did. What is the scene like up in Buffalo you're from, right?

Buffalo. Yeah. Right now, I think it's way better. Hardcore is really big in Buffalo right now. Yeah, there's a really good hardcore scene. Hardcore is blowing up everywhere, it feels like. Yeah, it's back. I feel like Turnstile's success really put it on more of a mainstream path.

But, like, I don't know. It's still super DIY in Buffalo. Like, it has the same, like, I don't know. It's still super DIY in Buffalo. Like it has the same like soul that always had, which is sick. Um, and yeah, I mean, there's,

there's always like a bubbling little music scene there, but it's not like, it's not like New York. Like last night we went to this insane show called, the band was called fuckers and they were doing like nineties, like house pop house pop dance music. It was incredible.

Where was it? That's not some shit you'd see in Buffalo. No. Where was it? It was just like you found out that day. They just told you. And it was BYOB and like. Oh my God.

It was cool. We get some cool venues, cool like weird small venue things. I went and saw Motley Crue last week at the Bowery Ballroom, 500 cap. Wow. Which you don't expect that. Like, that came out of nowhere. They announced a secret show under, like, a fake bad name. And I was like, I got to be there for that.

New York will forward you that opportunity. Yeah. It really feels like anything can happen here. Yeah. Like. It's a riot. That we don't have at home, so we kind of have to create it ourselves a little bit. Speaking of shows, before we get into this album,

which we're going to break down track by track, I want to know your best show and your worst show. We can start with your worst, and we can turn it around and, you know, turn things around by the end. Worst? What is the worst show you've ever played? There's been a few.

I'm not even sure people would believe us. Unfortunately. There was one show we played in D.C. Yeah. This is one of two of the worst, but yeah, we played in D.C. It was like a DIY situation. I don't even know if it was, it definitely wasn't a venue. It was a laundromat.

It was pretty much a laundromat. Get out of here. And we played for only our buddy's band who booked the show and i think it was also from buffalo there was like there was like a chaperone there almost that was like okay i'm gonna open the doors and let you guys do it make sure you don't destroy the venue yeah and we were playing as a three-piece i was playing bass he was playing guitar and uh our buddy greg was on drums and like in at least two songs like he yanked his whole rig, the power, out of the wall. So it was just bass and drums playing to my buddies. And that was it.

It was dark. Yeah, that's definitely the worst. And we had not been playing shows a lot together yet. And I kind of knew going into it like you know it was going to be a rough weekend. I just like told Pat I was like yeah no it's going to be good.

Did you know what the venue was going to be like or did you like show up and you were like oh fuck this is where we're playing? Oh yeah we had no clue. No clue. We had no clue. We were like

we really hadn't played any shows out of town like this was probably like six years ago or something. Yeah like we had rented a Chevy Tahoe. How far of a drive is that? Buffalo to D.C.? Seven? It's seven or eight hours.

Seven and a half? Oh, that's such a bummer to show up and see the venue. We've played more of those shows than I'd like to admit. Well, that's the grind, I guess. The grind set. Yeah. What about the best show you've ever played? There have been a bunch of great ones i don't know it like we've played we played this awesome show on the water in buffalo um opening

for taking back sunday was that two summers ago yeah i think that was two summers ago um and just in terms of like it was like middle of the summer, perfect weather, a band I grew up listening to, thousands of people. That was awesome. But we've also played like a couple like really good headlining shows that are much smaller to like a couple hundred people where like everybody knows the words and that's kind of the vibe too. Like in Michigan at the Hot Mulligan holiday show. people where like everybody knows the words and that's kind of the vibe too like in uh in michigan at the hot mulligan um holiday show that was a good one i like i love that one there was just like a lot of people like traveled from out of town to be there and it was just like i know that's like a big thing every year for them the holiday show yeah and it was just super fun like a small

room bunch of folks having a good time and singing the words to hot dogs do you do you prefer like one or the other in terms of like you know you've opened for these huge bands having a crowd like that like a taking back sunday style thing or a small room where they're there for you and everyone knows the words to all your songs i mean i would say that's definitely the the preference yeah it's's just so fun to like... I mean, I got into it to try to connect with people. That's just like, generally speaking. So when that is happening, that's the better feeling.

But I wouldn't necessarily say there's a preference. I like playing the big gigs too. Yeah. Yeah, like the big ones I think are a little bit easier. Oh, really? Only because it's like... And in situations when we play a bigger show, it's like, what do we possibly have to lose? You know, like.

Like, yeah. If you're the opener, I guess. And there's all these people there, like, it's like, they're not there for us. It's like, we could win over half of them. Yeah. That'd be awesome. Yeah, it oddly feels like lower stakes. Yeah, it's what they're there to do.

That's interesting. We, my band, which is a fake band, we played a real festival. And seeing like a big crowd immediately, we all did like the Scooby-Doo gulp. Like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it went fine. And we do covers. So it's like, you know, it is what it is. But that was not easier for us.

We were immediately like, oh, God, this is real. Well, if you're not playing shows consistently, dude, like... Yeah, we don't. I've done the Scooby-Doo. I probably did the Scooby-Doo when I was playing in front of my buddies, honestly. It's tricky. Every time is like, are we gonna be fine on stage this time, or are we gonna be looking

at each other like, ooh? I don't know. That's the beauty in it. Yeah, it's fun. That's the beauty. Alright, let's get into this album, because it's awesome. Kicks off with Mama, I'm Gonna Be a Star. Nice way to fade you into the album. I love the shout out to Prince in it as well. You guys Prince fans?

Big Prince fan, yeah. I like Prince. I love that. And I always ask bands if the opening and sometimes closing songs were written to be just that. This sounds like a song written to be like the album opener. Was it that? No, I think we i believe matt suggested it at a certain point it was just kind of like the demo was just a voice memo that i had my phone from like covid times um

just would like randomly record shit at my apartment just like with whatever words i had and it was just sitting there i don't even think we were really planning on putting it on the album and at the last second Matt suggested it and then we realized it would be a great opener just because like like you were saying kind of like fades in almost I think I like lost in the sauce I think I was having like a couple campfire beers in the backyard digging through like old ideas and I saw this one and I was like I had forgotten about it and then uh I sent it over to him like yeah this should and I was like I had forgotten about it and then I sent it over to him I'm like yeah this should probably it was like three other ones too that were in there that ended up making the album we're like they should probably go on the album

like the last minute slide on we had written one we wrote one that we thought was going to be the opener and we kind of like used this one instead just because it felt a little bit more on the and is that one on the album, or is that one... You tucked it away. Maybe it'll be the next opener. Hopefully, yeah. Manager Haircut. And this one's out now, so people have heard this one. Just came out yesterday, yeah. This one goes so hard.

I love the genre-bending stuff specifically in this song, where you go back and forth with it. How does a song like this come together? Is your songwriting process similar throughout the the catalog or is it very different in terms of voice memos and writing differently separate together it's actually pretty different this one was um i just went over to his apartment on a saturday which we used to do a lot when he lived like around the block from me and um yeah we would show up with nothing and like if we kind of would just chill until like he had a riff or something and then

we would kind of just build it from there so it was just like yeah that one was really easy yeah at least the instrumental part of it was done like really quick like we were probably just hanging out having a coffee and then probably a beer and then it it was 6 p.m., and it was done. Like, that was really quick. And then I just, like, probably had the instrumental, and I, like, driving around in my car and, like, making up words. So, like, the words came after totally separately. Yeah, it's cool how it feels like you're almost, like,

rapping over a rock song, but it works. Yeah. It feels, like, a little ironic in a way like in a almost intentional way like the robin hood line and stuff like that yeah playing golf with an old guy yeah well that's the fun thing about like when when we were making music like all the time consistently like i would just run out of words so like it was just like written when like robin was getting shut down because of amc and shit uh No, it was prior, actually. It was like I worked at 9to5 for many years, pretty much like a sales account management job.

And I was making a lot of money, for me at least at the time, before we were touring or anything. And so I thought it would be fun to just start day trading and shit, and it did not go well. It's like you were saying, it's fun to just start like day trading and shit. And it did not go well. It's like saying like, it's fun to like start gambling kind of like, I was putting money in like, I put like five grand in like a Chinese electric car company and like lost like 80% of it. It was awesome. That's not great.

We did like a day trading game when I was a freshman in high school. We had like a personal finance class. And I have an uncle who like is like a stock guy. Like he does this for a living. He has huge clients. So I just gave him my login. And like a week later, the teacher was like, can I talk to you? And I was like, what's going on?

She's like, you just set the state record. What's going on? I was like, oh, fuck. So she knew something was up because he was investing in these real specific companies that no high schooler would know about. But I put some into WWE and I was like, no, see, that's me. There you go. Smart.

Smart. And I love the guitar tone in this song, specifically in the intro. Is there any specific influence or inspiration behind that? I guess I've swallowed my pride. Probably like a little Limp Bizkit to be honest. Oh dude, I love Limp Bizkit. I do too, but I can't say that I'm kind of like a...

I'm not an OG, so I can't pretend like... It's Limp Bizkit, but it's fully in standard tuning. Yeah, it's like Limp Bizkit, but like major chords. Not even drop D. It's like the Tom Petty Limp Bizkit. Yeah, it's like the Tom Petty Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit yeah like kind of like feel but that's never been said before I love that I don't think I don't think it should be said again ever

I feel bad for both parties the chorus though like I don't I'm trying to remember I remember the chorus that synth was that I had was at your place

and for it was like the only time we ever used it yeah and neither of us can like really play keyboards so we were like manually MIDI editing. He does the left hand, I do the right hand. I love that.

I love the Limp Bizka chat. Wes Borland and John Otto, the drummer, both sick musicians. They don't get enough credit for that. Definitely. Mental Karate. I love all the random voices in this one, like almost like skit-ish. Do you just get your friends to do those? Are they you guys?

We did this one. But I feel like once a year we'll listen to Eminem. Depending on if we're on tour. Just once a year? We'll have an Eminem night. The skits on Marshall Mathers LP are like we weren't going to go that

dark. We were going to keep it. But it is an ode to that. and like Marshall Mathers LP are like we weren't gonna go that dark yeah you know like we were gonna keep it but it is an ode to that yeah just like the funniness those albums were like so crazy to listen to

as like an early teen yeah I had actually had my grandmother buy me the Marshall Mathers LP when it came out when I was maybe

god maybe six or seven years old she bought it and my name is was on. And she's like, this very sweet, old Polish woman, first generation, she's just like, this is so nice. I'm like, yeah, I'm glad you like it. My Name Is.

Like, she had no clue right over her head. My mom absolutely refused to buy it for me. No chance. I got away with the edited version of Lil Bow Wow's first album. Wow. That was the only thing I could get. That's funny. My mind that I wasn't allowed to listen to growing up was Slipknot.

So my brother would burn me decoy CDs where he would write a fake track list on. Oh, that's smart. Yeah. That's smart. What a nice brother. He's the best. Also, great bass tone on this one. I like when everything kind of drops out for the bridge and you just hear the bass.

Yeah. Also, great bass tone on this one. I like when everything kind of drops out for the bridge and you just hear the bass. As a singer who also plays bass, I'm a bass player myself, I cannot do two things at once. Was that hard for you to learn? A little bit, but I had played guitar and sung prior. It's not much different than playing acoustic guitar and writing a song and trying to sing, at least for me. So not terribly hard. The first instrument I ever played was drums, and you kind of had to learn limb independence.

Yeah, true. I feel like that kind of helped my brain be able to... Do you play drums on this? No, hell no. The drums on this album are great. Who plays drums on this? The drummer from Bearings. Oh, shit, cool.

Mike McCarrick. Yeah. He's super good. We were very excited to hear that he was going to be playing on it. Yeah, he did such a good job. We actually did the drums last on this album, which is something we had never done. Oh, wow. Did you play to demo machine drums?

We built, just because we didn't want to like make too many decisions in advance like the way we write songs like up to the last minute we might want to like

shorten the verse or put the bridge there or whatever so like Sam Guayana who produced it is really good at programming drums

and they sound like practically real so like we built drum tracks and tracked to that, and then he recorded a real drum performance on it after. Did he produce the whole album? Yeah.

Was it your first time working with him? Yeah. That's awesome. It sounds really good, and a lot of different style songs, so it's very cool to see a producer be able to handle all that. He was awesome. I don't want to take away from from his musical like abilities or whatever, but he's just like more than anything, just like a really good guy.

Yeah, you need that. You need a good vibe in the studio, right? He really cares. For a good album to come out of it. Yeah. Okay. Eat me alive. Flow in this song.

Absolute flow. I like the vocal effects here too. Like the almost echoey sound in the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to just like differentiate the parts because it's literally the same chord progression for three and a half minutes so like we had to use an effect oh i couldn't tell yeah um yeah i don't know it's uh another demo that was sitting around for a long time probably years yeah probably like 2022.

I had moved into my current apartment at the very beginning that I still live in with my girlfriend. I don't know. I'm really drawing a blank on that song right now. It's got a great drum fill leading into the final chorus. Yes. And that is it.

Is there a full performance from Mike McCarrick on that song, or is it is there a full performance from Mike McCarricker on that song or is it like programmed until I don't know if it's a full performance but he's playing on it okay yeah it's just kind of like a chill little pop hip hop song

do you guys like being called a pop punk band or do you not like that because you kind of do go in different directions for sure i don't mind it but it's definitely hard to put a finger on one thing that we do because like it is so eclectic just like yeah i don't know i used to be a little mindful of it but i just don't really care anymore like when i think about it more i guess it's like when you think about pop punk it sounds like two different things but if I had to describe our music I would probably say they were punk and pop so it's like yeah flip it on its head a little pop maybe

yeah I like that it's like Crayola had yellow green but they all said green yellow yes exactly like at the end of the day like it's I don't know it's maybe just cuz I've gotten older and I listen to pop-punk music my whole life that I'm yearning for some more established title as an artist. But I guess that's just what I do. Well, yeah, because it's not like we're like Newfound Glory where it's a very consistent thing. You know what I mean?

That's why I'm always weary of calling us a pop-punk band because there's songs like OK Eat Me Alive where's like rap yeah and like r&b and like stuff like that so like i don't know we just like too much i mean the three in succession okay eat me alive hopefully pitchfork fork doesn't hear this and then drowning like three very different songs on the road yeah it's like uh oh god i never realized how insane that is yeah it's like a hip-hop song and then an actual pop-punk song. And then like an R&B. Then like a beautiful song. Like you walked down the runway or something.

Hopefully Pitchfork doesn't hear this. That was the first one you put out from this album, right? The first single. That's the one, yeah. Yeah, and it was the first one written for it, yeah. Also, you lived out many childhood dreams in the music video. You got slimed. Yeah.

Everyone always wanted to get slimed growing up watching Nickelodeon. How'd you do that? What did you use as slime? Do you buy slime? It was terrible. Did you make slime? You've got to add water. So we were doing the video with Michael Herrick,

and he had the crew preparing the slime in the back kitchen of this roller rink and you gotta just mix this powder with water but this roller rink only had ice cold water so when they dumped

this slime it was freezing cold and they had no towels until they had to like run to the store but it was we ended up yeah they were gonna

pour the stuff on us and then just leave us there cold turkey I was like we could die it was very cold walking out of the roller r to pour the stuff on us and then just leave us there cold turkey. I was like, we could die. It was very cold. Walking out of the roller rink with the slime on you. Yeah, that'd be weird.

Five hours from home, no extra pour. Yeah, so we did get towels eventually, but God. Did you regret doing the slime? You sound like people that regret doing the slime. No, I mean, obviously the video was great and it was a super fun experience, but it was... It was cold, and I don't really like being cold. We did do it in one take each. Did you cheat?

Did you have your instruments on? No, right? No, no, no. I always wonder about that in videos. Just the straps. When people do stuff like that, pink splatter stuff. Yeah, we just don't quite have the budget yet to just throw away instruments. Who does?

Yeah, right. Yeah. Unless you buy like a hundred dollar used guitar for the video it's funny because when we

brought it up I was like oh should we bring like you know what should we do with our instruments and Michael was just like oh I guess I didn't

think about that yeah like well we don't want these to get slid well this is all I got here really cool the like

almost a call and response style chorus I dig that did you guys come up with that like you said it was the first song written on the did you guys come up with that like you said it was the first song written on the album yeah yeah it was like that like even from the demo that's really cool yeah yeah it just sounded it sounded cool it feels like a good uh

like amalgamation of what we can do as a band so i like that yeah and what is the super american philosophy when it comes to naming songs because i feel like the names of your songs are very pop punk yeah maybe that's more so the most pop punk quality yeah i don't know that there's one philosophy i mean a lot of times it's just taken from a lyric in the song like which is pretty boring but sometimes it's a good word if there's something funny or if it's like, we accidentally do a lot of food names throughout our discog. Yeah, he's the food.

He's like, never intentional. It's like, oh my God, another one. We've got hot dog, coconut shrimp. Oh, yeah. What else? There's at least two more that I'm not thinking of right now. It would be sick to have a menu at one of your shows one day, though. You do like a Hot Mulligan year-end type show,

and that's what is on the menu? That would have to be. All song titles? Yeah, I mean, or at least in forms of drinks. Yeah. Hot dog water and vodka. And no ice. And then pulling from Lampiskin.

Hot dog water. There we go. Drowning, beautiful guitar intro obviously more of like a poppy song production wise who would you say again the three songs in succession are so all over the place who would you say your biggest influences

are as a band I just think there are so many what about on this album then um like vocally I got really into like how Stephen Jenkins writes in Third Eye Blind

like especially Out of the Vein especially because he's more of like a rhythmic singer I would say that's a big influence but then it's almost like every song has a different influence. Blink is an influence in terms of songwriting and guitar playing. It's embarrassing that we both shirt up in Blink shirts.

Don't notice. I'm borrowing it from my buddy. Blink is always there, maybe not from a music standpoint, but I definitely never have forgotten how cool they were when i was a kid like what i would have done to be like that it's not that i want to be exactly like that but just be as authentic as blink like that's definitely the an aspect of blink that i try and keep around but like trying to think like other music like i like listening to a lot of like singers like SZA

and like Frank Ocean and stuff like that that's probably where the like softer side of things comes in but like rock wise we listen to like all of our friends bands like Hot Mulligan and Mom Jeans and like I feel like we listen to new music

a lot of modern music in terms of inspiration like even going to the show last night, if we were doing that while we were writing, we would have probably got up today and we're like, oh, we should maybe make a house song. Like a pop song. Yeah, maybe we could try doing something like that.

So circumstantially, we're always kind of got our eyes peeled between the two of us. Yeah, and I feel like the influences more so come from what we listened to when we were like much younger, like things that we aren't like, we aren't actively making decisions, like trying to, uh,

like make a song like the counting crows or like, yeah. Any of that. But like the music my dad would put out on Saturday morning is like probably what I really hearken back to. That's cool. Yeah. Like 10,000 maniacs and like crowded house and like shit like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Limerence too. Is that how you say that word? Limerence? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I Googled it to be like, let me try to say that word right.

And it was just like, it was a bunch of YouTube videos with women being like, let me tell you what limerence is. And it was like 30 minute long video. I was like, I don't know. It's basically being down bad. All right. Like in a romantically, it's like actually in,

can you look up the, the actual definition? Cause it would, I got a computer in front of me. I can't do it. Yeah. Let's see. Limerence means having an intense longing for another person,

even when, even when they don't fully reciprocate. Yeah. So unrequited love. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Which is like I feel like one of the more powerful human emotions. Like when you're just totally overtaken with like a crush on somebody that's literally like he doesn't understand her like I do.

Yeah. That kind of that type of shit. But like it's not real. Literally like, he doesn't understand her like I do. Yeah, that type of shit. But it's not real. I think that's the craziest part about limerence once I learned what it meant. A little bit of lust? Yeah. Lust, longing, yearning, etc.

I like the nature sounds in this one, too. I thought that was a nice touch. Those are real, too. It makes the song feel warm. We recorded that. We went out and hooched the guitars outside, actually. That's awesome. For the intro song and for Limerence, we put it outside.

So there's birds and bugs. Planes flying overhead. I'm a huge Oasis fan. And for What's the Story of Mourning Glory, they wanted to... Noel just got, I think, a coked-up idea to record Wonderwall on a wall. So they like set up a chair for him.

They like drilled it into a wall and he was like, let's record it outside. It'll be like vibey and stuff. And he said he got out there and immediately hated the way it sounded. He's like, let's go inside. But I think they use the intro,

like the outside recording as the intro to the album. And it's very low because they wanted everyone to crank up their volume. I've done that. And then when the song kicks in, it's like so loud. It hits you like Marty McFly. Morning Glory is one of the best albums of all time. Definitely one of my favorites, yeah.

I-D-W-L-G. I don't want to let go. Yeah. Not, I don't want to live forever. That's another. I looked up the acronym before I listened to the song, I'll be honest. And I was like, no, I don't think that's it. And then, obviously, you listen to the song to hear it.

There isn't, like, that's a thing? It is. It's a song by one of the One Direction guys. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Zayn. Yeah, I know Zayn. Personally?

No. No, I know Zayn. Personally? No. No, me neither. Nice, like, short one, though, that, like, brings the vibe, the upbeat vibe of the album back. Yeah. It feels almost like if I were to see you guys live, this would be, like, the song that you play right after you were to play a song like Limerence. Yeah, I think it does serve that purpose, just kind of, like, getting you back out of that like sad sappy little world of limerence out of out of limerence like snapping you out of it like bro get a grip yeah um that one's a really old one too that one is it is old it's just fun another yeah banger great on drums great tone on the guitars we had no plans of

recording it either like we just popped open a computer and it was just sitting there. Yeah, that was literally decided when we were... We'd already recorded a handful of songs with Sam, and we just wanted something to kind of wrap up the album. I don't know how that demo ended up playing off my computer, but we were like, oh, that sounds good. Let's just record it. Toxic Bloodstream.

This is one of my favorite songs on the album. This one sounds like it would go really, really hard live. Hopefully. Have you played it live yet or no? No, not yet. People haven't heard this one yet. No. That one was a grind in terms of making it.

Not as much of a grind grind but definitely a little more attention to detail on that one it transformed in a few ways and then kind of came back to certain original things but it's like we did a bunch of demos for it it was an idea that he had that we kind of just like kept trying to get it right in different

did it go in different directions? Different kind of styles and directions like it ended up having the synth and the like a lot of pad stuff in it in the final recording, whereas it was a little more straightforward in the beginning demos, which was, like, kind of two guitars and maybe, like, an octave is doing the lead.

But, like, kind of wanted to have the big parts and the verses be a little dynamic but not lose all the energy in a song. And, like, you know, like, fully close on the hi-hat or whatever. Yeah, we were doing like small verses and big choruses, whereas like the final recording is more of just like a linear. Yeah.

Yeah, there's like a kind of wall of sound type deal. Also, speaking of live shows, I know we've talked about you've been on tour with bands like Neck Deep and Taking Back Sunday and Belmont, a bunch of great bands. Do you have any favorite stories from the road that you feel comfortable sharing on the podcast? Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm trying to think of a good one.

Just the Mom Jeans tour in general was a real eye-opener in terms of, like, on a humanitarian level. Like, they were such nice people and, like, very talented artists doing it for the right reasons and how infectious that really is when you're a small band, like, that you don't know everyone on the tour

and you're playing one of four. Like, they were so nice to us and went above and beyond for us. So, like, that whole experience, I think, definitely opened our eyes a little bit that, and like kind of had a set of goal like we want to be like a band like that that can kind of create its own little world and you can have people come and go out of it um but like a specific story i don't know if you have one. I was just thinking about the time our trailer was lodged into the pavement like a foot.

Like, it hopped off the hitch. Oh, man. So the thing you would roll out. And it went down. And like, it was so hot. Like Hulk smash.

It was so hot that the pavement like melted around it and it like went in and it was just stuck there. How do you get it out? We had to get a tow truck there to yank it out, and then it was a whole disaster. We missed a show in St. Louis, I believe, that day, unfortunately. But yeah, as far as crazy tour stories, I would say they are mostly the trailer falling off of our hitch.

And we're not really going out and partying after shows because we're probably drinking at the show and then we're really tired and going to bed after. So we don't have any rock star stories like that, I don't think. But if one comes to mind later in the pod. Do you have a favorite city to play? I really like Denver and Austin. I don't know about... If one comes to mind later in the pod. Do you have a favorite city to play? I really like Denver and Austin.

I don't know about... Yeah, Denver rocks. Austin rocks. I love coming to New York. Yeah, LA. I just love New York. LA, the sun's always out. I would say those are... I mean, like, playing pop-punk music in, like, Ohio and shit also rocks.

Yeah. Like, Cleveland, Columbus. People just... They love having a good time. And like those shows are always really fun. Who's Gonna Get Me High. This one has like darker production, almost like industrial sounding drums. I thought that one was really cool.

Did it have that feel from the beginning? Yeah, a little bit. It always like had that really dark feel. And then like initially when we recorded it kind of like lost that. It like turned into like a piano ballad kind of feel yeah and then at the last second we're like no we need to make this fucking dark it's another one where you're spitting because it's like yeah well that's why like i can't be like rapping over like i don't like a major piano chord yeah yeah yeah so like

we we just went back to that haunting feel. The lyrics are just really weird and dark, too, so I just didn't want that to get lost. I wanted it to fit in that world. Yeah. And then Ugly Crying With My Dog. Some piano in this one, too. Is that a piano loop? Or is it like...

It's not a real piano. What are you guys playing? There's no guy. You said you weren't good at keyboards. What are you playing that or no? No, it's programmed. Yeah, programmed. It's a cool sound.

It's kind of like an early 2000s sound to me. Sure. Is that intentional? Yeah, I would say like, yeah, I guess like Vanessa Carlton. Yeah. Or like White Houses. When I think of a piano with rock music I always think of White Houses yeah

but yeah there is piano in that one except we're just playing three chords yeah it's yeah she's

wheeling and dealing on that thing but we're literally just they just sustained chords luckily so it probably won't be

in the live show or maybe who knows yeah I feel like we'll play it I like that song a lot. Yeah, I think it's cool. I mean, like, the keys in general, unless, like, I don't know.

You're going to have to get some backing tracks. I'm going to have to learn or something, I don't know, or just, I don't know. Do you play piano? No, I wish. We have a bunch of pianos around the studio. We have a piano player in our band now. We have a studio band. We didn't for a long time, and then someone around here,

one of the producers at Barstool, was like, oh, I play piano and rhythm guitar, and I know how to play bass, and I know how to record. And we were like, welcome to the band. That's awesome. Yeah, no, you can't. Admire, very cool song, and I want to use this song to admire some albums.

So Letterboxd does your four favorite movies. I want to know your four favorite albums as a band if you could i know you probably have way more than that but if you could put together four albums um well recently commit this to memory by uh motion city soundtrack i'm loving what do you got we've got to do a blank one no I was gonna do maybe boxcar okay I like the boxcar album a lot just because it's against the grain I really like it yeah I love the song in the new album the new blink album yeah I mean sounds like boxcar yeah it's I am like you're gonna get me started here I am a big advocate for that the new album, the new Blink album. Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable. It sounds like boxcar, yeah. I am like, you're going to get me started here. I am a big advocate for that.

The new Blink album is very good. Oh, I think it's great. I've been getting a lot of shit, or sorry, a lot of stuff back home. It's Borstal. You can say shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, fuck. Do whatever you want.

I've been getting a lot of heat for it. Really? Amongst people back home and whatnot. I know some people are down on the production of it and some people think the drums are too loud they're 50 years old it is so good for that age I do agree

it's like 18 tracks the fact that they gave us that much everyone has to have at least 3 or 4 that they like from it I think it's really solid. But not to get off topic, sorry. I would go Boxcar

and then I'm probably like a... I'll go Transatlanticism Death Cab for Cutie. It's one of my favorite albums of all time. And I'd probably

maybe go Pet Sounds. Oh, I love that. Like something like that. Pet Sounds are like... Yeah, probably Pet Sounds. It's like the best emo album of all time. It's the first emo album. I like that take. I've never heard anyone say that. Something like that. Pet Sounds are like... Yeah, probably Pet Sounds. It's like the best emo album of all time. It's the first emo album.

I like that take. I've never heard anyone say that. I can't take credit for it, but it is allegedly the first actual emo album if you really look at the lyrics. It's pretty emo, yeah. I like that. My guy was horny.

And then Ultima Song. Such a jazzy vibe on this song. Yeah, that's probably the weirdest song we ever recorded. It's the weirdest song on the album, but I think the perfect outro. It feels like, I don't know. It just felt so weird that we had to put it on there. I don't know, it was just unlike anything. It's like the Wizard of Oz or something at the end.

It's like, what just happened? It's like the Wizard of Oz or something at the end. It's like what just happened. It's like the credits music to the album almost. Yeah, we definitely wanted to feel like we extended the outro once we decided it was going to be

the last song just to kind of like let it ride. Yeah. But no, it's cool. Those are like the only like jazz chords I know on guitar

so I just fuck it. GC, AC. That was perfect. You nailed the vibe with like the first chord you play it's like jazz yeah it it's got a little feel to it I like it

I like it a lot and that's the album that's the album it's a great album before I get you out of here I ask this question to all of the artists and bands that I interview again I'm a big Oasis fan so Noel Gallagher once said he summed up everything he ever wanted to say with Live Forever, Cig cigarettes and alcohol and rock and roll star he says after that he's just like repeating himself in different words if you had to pick three of your own songs that

sum up everything you've ever wanted to say oh that's good which three would you pick um for me it would be for our own songs yep for me it'd probably be... For our own songs? Yep. For me, it would probably be How Big Is Your Brain. Banger. Man, this is tough. I'm really talking about the... I think Admire is one for you. Yeah, probably Admire. How Big Is Your Brain, Admire.

Fuck it. Yeah, maybe fuck it. I'll just do another new one though like honestly limerence yeah on the new one yeah just like are one of those your favorite on this album like you have a favorite is that like picking between your kids it used to be but now i kind of like don't feel bad. I like I Don't Want to Let Go only because it's just like... It was never going to be there. In my mind of imagining the album in the future, we had our songs, and the fact that in its final product that one just is in there is...

All right, I'll take it. It's like the dad who doesn't want the dog, but takes care of it. Yeah, that's a good one. I agree with that. I like that. All right, the dad who doesn't want the dog, but like takes care of it. Falls in love with it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I agree with that.

I like that. All right. The album is out now. Go check it out. Spotify, Apple Music, all of that. Do you have any shows you want to plug? That'll be post May 31st. Yeah.

Come to the Gangster Love Tour. Presented by E-Money Brooklyn. Yeah. With People Are Ugly, Sidney Sprague, and Summer Brews. Yeah. And we're playing like places we've never played before. We're coming back to North Carolina. We haven't been...

South Carolina. South Carolina. Florida, we're going to Morgan Island. Are you coming to Jersey or New York? Virginia, hell yeah. New York Knitting Factory. Knitting Factory. Oh, hell yeah, I'll go.

I'll be there. It'll be fun. It'll be a lot of fun. We'll be on the guest list for sure. Hell yeah. Yeah, we're playing the whole U.S. and Toronto so it'll be fun

there you go stream the album go see him on tour Gangster of Love