My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 408 - GRAYSCALE/L.S. DUNES/TRAVIS MILLS

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Robbie is joined by Grayscale, Anthony and Travis from L.S. Dunes, and Travis Mills from girlfriends in this triple-interview episode! 00:00 Grayscale 29:21 L.S. Dunes 59:53 Travis Mills ***************************************   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. Hello and welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with truly one of my favorite bands in the scene right now, Grayscale. You guys have been one of my favorite bands for years, and I've been trying to get this interview for years. I've been wanting to interview you guys for years because Umbra, one of my favorite albums of the past 10 years probably, absolutely love that album. How are you guys? We're great.

We're great, man. Thank you for having us. I've also seen you guys live like a ton. Have you? Yeah, because- We've been playing hard to get for an interview. Exactly. I'm always getting so close but yet so far.

You guys are just on stage when I'm near you. But you guys took the train up from Philly. We were just talking Eagles commanders. You broke my heart this weekend. It is what it is. Go Birds. Sorry, but not sorry about that. Go Birds.

Excited for the Super Bowl, obviously. But the new music is out now. It's been awesome. You put a lot of new music out towards the end of last year as well. Like the last single that came out was like late November. But you've had a chance to play it live, right? You've had a couple shows since then. I assume you've taken it out on the road. Yeah, we've had a chance to play it live, right? You've had a couple shows since then

I assume you've taken it out on the road. Yeah, we have and we actually did like a Record release show where we just played like the whole new record cuz the whole the record comes out January 31st We just put that release show We just played everything even the unreleased stuff the non singles like we just did the whole thing straight through in Philly That was like just last December. Was that the Fillmore show show yeah Yeah, sick. Yeah, how to play it was sick. It felt good so good playing at all those for the first time Does it feel weird playing songs that you know the audience doesn't know a little bit? But it's like we've never done that before so it was a cool. It was a cool change-up. Yeah, you get so used to Playing some version of a set list that's similar for years on a touring cycle

So it was cool to just like rip it yeah like straight yeah We've had those songs for so long like in a dropbox folder, so we were just like itching to play them anyway. Yeah Specifically the there's one moment on one of the new songs that Excuse my language if there's kids watching earmuffs came myself when I heard it. I'm a bass player Dude the bass fill leading into the final course of summer clothes. Oh my god, that thing goes nasty. I get into it.

It was a combination of out cab and myself. Right, right, right. That's so good. And it's such a, the new stuff is such a cool blend of pop, kind of pop punk, I don't even know, hyper pop style, I don't even know how to describe it. How do you guys blend all of that when you're in the studio? Are you consciously thinking about genres or no? No, I think honestly we have so much influence

from a lot of classic rock bands and 90s alternative and I feel so much of this record was just like, just a rock band with synths. Like that was kind of, we had much less, I feel like in previous records we've had so many things in the computer at our disposal, like all these different presets and whatever, but this one we really focused on the live performance,

like in a room with amps and like a couple synthesizers and like writing it that way, I think, and it had like a huge impact, I feel, in the final product. Yeah, like a lot of our influences, I I think like growing up learning music and playing instruments and things kind of like shown through most on this like the brightest in this record like you're saying like playing in the room and everything like Like all of this stuff is played in the room live Yeah, wow. Yeah like rehearsed very heavily

We've always done it that way But I feel for this record in particular we really leaned into it. And actually Not Afraid to Die was the first single. It came out like kind of like way out early before we started rolling out this record. And that one, all of the instruments were actually like recorded live at the same time in a room. Like we didn't, we went in after and like punched a couple things, but for the most part, yeah, it was like the band was literally live in a room like old school. Have you guys done that before or no? To like pre-pro something, but for it was like the band was literally live in a room like old-school Have you guys done that before no to like pre-pro something but for it to be the actual recording that's like released no Yeah, and then who were the like rock influences you're talking about like the 90s influences Are there specific bands that you were in the studio talking about I mean I think for me

It's always it's always kind of been like I mean as far as the 90s like You know like third-eye blind fuel Everclear fuel. I don't hear fuel. That's a good show Do we were listening to shimmer recently? Yeah, I saw them live at bamboozle I think and like this is a crazy shout, but the day that we killed Osama Because I remember bamboozle had the wildest lineup this year. It was like Fuel, We the Kings, Bruno Mars, Motley Crue, Wiz Khalifa. And it was like, what the fuck is going on?

And we killed Osama that night. So it was like USA, USA. Everyone's going crazy. And the only memory I have of Fuel's set is that the drummer was so passionately singing every one of their songs behind the kit. It was great. Do you imagine Nick doing that shit? No, never. Passionately singing every one of their songs behind the kit

So we talk a lot about origin stories on this podcast I'm a comic book nerd So I like to get every band's origin story. How did the band start? When did everything come come together for you guys 2011 was it? Well 2011 we saw we like had the name we were playing in like our basement and basement shows and whatever I think we've started touring full-time as a band in like 2017 yeah 16 we started recording our first full-length record So 2017 it's been it's been full-time, but Yeah, we've been friends. We were like 14 years old just really fucking around were you guys playing music back then too pretty much Yeah, 14 15 you guys

Yeah Yeah, I mean, that's how we all kind of met was because of music specifically 14 15 you guys know Yeah Yeah, I mean, that's how we all kind of met was because of music specifically it was like you had a friend that these guys were playing with and then I that's how I got in was through a friend and Andrew same thing I think Colin was playing with some other guys that he met Andrew through and yeah So it's all just because of the who came up with the name We get obviously a common question is like how'd you get your band and they're so Little thought it was like that sounds cool. It was like a note tap with like seven choices

Oh, yeah, was it had all Game of Thrones inspired around that time? I'm not inspired by you get that all the time we get that all the time. Yeah, you guys haven't even seen Game of Thrones I've never even watched it. I should I'm the only one is seeing him with her. I know I get shit about it I'm evil honestly watched it. I should have. I'm the only one who's seen Game of Thrones. I know, I get shit about it. Unbelievable, honestly. It's pretty sick, but it's one of those shows that I feel like it ended in a way that people aren't even like, you gotta see it anymore. They're like, yeah, you could check it out.

I hear it every time. They're like, ah, it's just like, the ending was awful. I'm like, well then, why would I even waste my time? But the first six seasons, pretty sick. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. Pretty much as good as TV gets the first six seasons.

What were your first shows like? I guess the basement shows. Do you have any horror stories? Dude, we were just talking about this. We just said this. I mean, did we literally, some of the West Philly basements we'd play, when like, I don't know how familiar you are with the drum kits, but like, when you put a drum head on

and then you screw up Nick watch you explain it But basically we have we'd have take like continues talking the rim of the drum the kick drum like off in oh, yeah fit the kick drum down the staircase because West those Westlake Basin's are like literally I thought you're gonna say to put your like custom kick head on But no, it was just the hallway like we had to put the Disassemble the furniture, yeah. Yeah, like the hoop. The hoop.

We had to put the hoop back on. Like, yeah, disassemble and put it back together in the basement, because it was so fucking tight down the stairs, like shit like that. Dude, we had one, there was one show where I had to stand. The mind shaft, we called it. There was just dirt in the corner. But there was like two air ducts, and I literally

had to stand with both shoulders at air ducts. And I couldn't move my head, because I couldn't go left or right So I just had to stand like this and play guitar between them. That was crazy Yeah, we had chosen remember that like we've we've we would do like a tour where we would drive places and play to like zero People like oh, yeah, that was crazy played to the bartenders and they would be the bartenders would walk out You know god damn they're being paid to be here and they won't even watch Yeah, that's tough I've heard that from a couple bands

Kung Fu necktie in Philly, right? Yeah, which is like it's like a cool like it's a spot like yeah You know renowned or whatever. But uh, yeah our experience with that place was We showed up in the promoter like unlocked the door was like oh you guys are playing tonight we're like yeah actually yeah we are yeah you telling him don't mind like we'll be playing so what was the first like break you guys got was the first time where you felt like oh shit we got something here I think we just we just like absolutely ate shit playing for so long in basements and then like in Philly. And then.

There's a couple of shows you got put on from. Yeah, eventually there's Joe. Joe in Philly that like worked, I think Live Nation or whatever. And he would like, we became the band that would open when tours would come through Philly and get like 15 minutes when the doors were opening, like that kind of thing.

And it was just grinding it out. We'd like kind of elevated from basement shows to that and then did that for a long time then eventually it was like okay well we'll have our own show and we'll have 50 people there and then a hundred and then it's just that was kind of it. Did you almost have to relearn the performance going from basement shows to like opening up I assume at bigger venues do you feel there's a different like actual performance you have to give in front of a smaller crowd versus a bigger crowd it's a good question I mean I feel like well I feel like I mean like maybe I feel like like

what like being on tour the other bands like you kind of just start taking notes from like what they're doing and like when we first started we like one of our first tours was with the main just like watching them every night and seeing how they interacted like just kind of like leveled up your stage presence Amazing live band. Yeah awesome live band and like so fun and interactive getting the crowd engaged Yeah, absolutely And I think like going from basements where you're like, you know for me to Dallas playing shows It's like the performance maybe not different

But like how your like your presence is on stage and how you move around and kind of interact do you prefer one of? The other I think it gets easier to be honest with you like I feel When I look back on him like that shit was hard when like it was like yeah eight people just staring at you Yeah, but like now everything's feeding back. I mean I really yeah, and everything's feeding back and you have no nobody's looking out for you Yeah, fuck like nobody cares. You can be, the mic can be off half the set. The sound guy's out smoking a cigarette. Yeah dude, he's like, yeah. I mean dude, remember that?

I mean this was not even that early on. Remember that one Texas sound guy? That was like so fucked up, he just like left. Yeah, like, but my point was like. Might have to bleep the venue name if we wanna go back. Yeah, we're banned from that place. But yeah, I just felt like it got easier. I feel like we just, eventually you just stop giving a fuck. It was like might have to bleep the venue name Yeah, I just want to cut easier I feel like we just eventually you just stop giving a fuck like when when you're just you play those shit shows to nobody

And it's just like you it's like your mics off, and it's just feeding back, and it sounds and looks awful. It's like The lights are just like green the whole time Like a Christmas show yeah are just like green the whole time. Like a Christmas show. 30 minutes of just green lights. But you do that long enough and then I feel like now it's like it doesn't matter if it's a hundred, a thousand, eight thousand. It's just like, I think we just rip it. I feel like there's part of a mentality that I feel like we, like subconsciously, we're gonna walk into this and just expecting that no one's gonna help or do anything So you just walk in confident that I'm just gonna go do this and I feel like that, you know kind of

Set the bar low. Yeah. Yeah, just to go in and fucking it's rock and roll who cares And then it like as you do it more and you play more established venues Whatever like more real tours, whatever like it it just with that mentality. It just becomes like Easy. Yeah sort of like yeah, what was the first like memorable or surreal moment you guys had on tour? dude, I Mean we've been doing it for a while so many first you have one like you have one good I mean, I loved I mean and we're friends with them now So it's crazy to say but we first played we played the last full van's warp tour

And I loved I think that was right when that lovely little lonely record by the man yeah I love that record dude and I remember there's actually an interview you can probably find it somewhere of like I was doing an interview at work to art and they were like are there any bands you want to see and I was like the main but they have no idea who we are but I love them whatever and then like by the end of that summer we became like fairly good friends with them and then went out on tour Dall and I have written with some of the guys in that band before At this point and then we just did the festival with they have a festival Arizona that we just played 81 23

Yeah, I mean there's like that's just one example. I can think of like going to Europe Yeah, like we were in like Warsaw, Poland and people were singing along to our songs That's it don't speak like a word of English. Yeah, and like seeing that like was just like an unbelievable experience. Mm-hmm piggyback a little bit Yeah, I think it's just like anytime This gets to take us to a place that we've never been before or would never really have any business going to otherwise like doing Australia coming up. It's like I would never personally be able to just like go to Australia, but the fact that People care about us for dumb dumb spying songs over there that we get to go and you know you're gonna go and they're gonna sing your songs yeah yeah exactly yeah that's awesome

um so the actual sound of the band I feel like it's evolved quite a bit over the years do you guys have to balance where you want to push forward the band creatively with like what the fans expect out of you you think about that in the studio or no I don't think we consider the fans expect out of you you think about that in the studio or no? I don't think we consider the fans Expectations at all. I think we ever have even a little bit. Is that fair to say? That's fair Yeah, and like I don't mean that in any negative way. I just think it's been like We're like we don't take too much shit seriously in life

But as far as like the art and what we're making like and I hate sounding like so pompous saying that but it's like I we very much, it's like we have a mission and we really stay focused on as we write songs and a sound kind of reveals itself of what we want a record to sound like, we really lock in and are pretty unapologetic about achieving that. I think this record in particular, in my opinion, I feel like is a good blend of all of our previous three. It's all the good parts of those records sort of in one And um, I would say like we're all the most proud of this one of any record we've ever done Honestly, do you guys feel like your influences have evolved much over the years?

You've been making music or have they been pretty like steadfast staying? That's a good question I think mine have definitely evolved. Do you come back to any sounds in the studio even like oh I love the drum sound on this record. Let's to chase that down. I love the guitar on that I'm I think like for me and you guys Nikki we can let you go cuz we've been talking to time but I feel like I mean like like I think like Third I blind the killers Like I like those have always been yeah once for me even like since our first EP whatever to now and I think in some ways we've Just executed like what those inspirations are for us better now in our more recent stuff than in the past

Bruce Springsteen on this record was a huge one for me. Oh cool huge one. Yeah Yeah, I feel like if anything as we've gotten older for me least, it's my taste has just kind of like refined over the years and like I've always loved like kind of the same kinds of bands like the 90s grunge stuff is always my favorite but I think the older and the more like experience we've gotten in the studio writing music, it's kind of like learning how to channel those influences in a way that like complements the kind of music that we make. Like love the smashing pumpkins, but we don't write like that Yeah kind of music but like listening to the way Jimmy Chamberlain like plays the drums on those records and like I don't know Just taking like little tidbits of things that different drummers do has always been like a you know a huge part of

Very creative on the new stuff I feel like even though like you do a lot of stuff that like I feel like I don't even see coming which is like it's like a hit me hit me like a magic trick or something on songs that you would think are going one way like you hit a fill going into a chorus or something it's like oh shit that was fucking unique thank you yeah I love the Chamberlain shout out to one of my favorites like cool jazz influence rock drummer. Yeah Um, and then your songwriting process do you usually start with lyrics melodies?

Riffs, where does it start for you guys? I think it depends I think sometimes I'll come in with the lyrics sometimes Dal and I will come in with a melody sometimes It's a guitar part. Sometimes it's a drum loop. I don't think I Don't think we've ever had like one process where it like starts I think it's just when somebody feels Confident about a part then we kind of like start the process of throwing shit at it and see what sticks around it You know, I mean, yeah Are there any genres or artists that you think fans would be surprised to hear you guys listening to? Probably country for you though a lot of it. Yeah, I've been doing I've said it a couple times now, but Stephen Wilson jr. Is one

He put a record out I think in 2023 but I still am ripping that one and flatland cavalry is another one. I've been listening to Yeah, I saw him last month or maybe maybe it was two months ago and I was just like in my like in my chair just kind of like I was like hypnotized watching it was it was so good if grace gale could collab with any artist living or dead who you picking I think our favorite if I had a like run a thread through our favorite bands I think Led Zeppelin would probably be the most resounding one really I love that like it like it's definitely in our top five like there's shit in everybody's top five is different

But I feel like God I need a I need a grayscale Zeppelin cover. I mean, yeah Yeah, we could we fly Robert play now Yeah, do do like you know how they did Jimmy Page and the black crows right at the Greek you guys do that with Robert Plant or something Or John Paul Jones, maybe he comes out plays bass on your shit. That'd be good. Yeah, true That guy John Paul Jones. I know you're watching Who's in charge of the band's aesthetic and like album covers and stuff like that you guys all pitch in on that kind of stuff. I feel like you guys have a really cool vibe with that stuff Thanks, but I feel like it's it's kind of a collective effort I feel like creatively and then Jacob our wonderful creative director and I will like mostly kind of

like a woven idea, I think the last for the heart our new record like the we were the idea of Having this enormous clover sign. Originally we were like, this would be really cool. Well, maybe it's like a Photoshop thing. Maybe we like get it in a studio and then like scale it up, whatever. Cause it would be crazy to make an eight foot tall full one and then carry it out into the middle of a field

and take pictures of it at night. And then after going through all the motions, like going through all of the options or whatever, we realized that that was the only option. So we had like a sign fully made from Dallas' friend Joey. Shout out Joey. And then we carried it out in the middle of the night illegally without a permit and took photos of it.

Whoa, don't say that. Statue of limitations. So many mosquito bites, it was. We're gonna go do it again later this week. Yeah. Are you for promo? Just album promo? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sick.

I did it last night, actually. Such a bummer. Oh, that's my bad. I forgot we switched the days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did it yesterday for five hours. Oh, damn. Put the team on your back. That's right. Hahaha. What do you think has changed the most in the scene since you guys have been in it?

That's a good question. Um, well there is like heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard.

I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that I've ever heard. There was this like huge like everyone was going back to the old stuff Anniversary tours You guys are you guys cool with being lumped in with pop punk bands if you do get lumped into like this scene Or do you feel like that is like a mischaracterization of the band? I I definitely feel it's a mischaracterization Yeah, I don't care. If you like our music, great.

It's probably just because you guys have opened for a lot of bands in that genre, right? We cut our teeth doing Warped Tour. And we are so incredibly thankful for that opportunity and it meant so much and it's part of why we're able to do what we do. It's in no bad way, shape, or form. I just think our first record, Adornment,

being just a rock record, punk rock, pop punk, whatever you want to call it, I think just from there, especially where we're at now, I just feel, and I've always felt in a lot of ways if you really get into the nitty gritty of how pop punk music is written, specifically the parts and the patterns of it, I feel we're just a rock band.

We're just an alternative rock band, alternative band. and you could hear that when you listen to your music versus like a traditional pop punk band There's a clear difference there But I feel like a lot of people would just like you're on the pop punkers Subreddit and stuff people are talking about your music there just because it's like oh you're with these bands, but I agree It's it's like it's much different sound. I mean the main is kind of similar. Yeah true The main is a great example. I think some people it's so funny because there's great scale fans that are like Umbra and on and then there are like the early fans.

Yeah. Like the pop punkers like that. You feel like Umbra was the split for people? I think so. Yeah, probably. I think somewhere in there. And I wonder why, because that record, like it has such a rock sound. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the end especially like the hard the one coming up like in my opinion That's the most rock record we've ever written it. I mean it is the most like guitar like dirty gritty. Yeah Well, you throw synth in there and it throws people off it hit something people's brain. They're like, oh this must be pop Yeah

Yeah, but it's uh, I don't care. I think sometimes watching people try to figure out is kind of funny, but it doesn't really matter to us. You support a band, great. We're thankful for that and we just wanna rock. Is there anything about being in a band that you wish fans understood more? Oh no.

Complications or? I just feel, dude, it's just like such a labor of love it's so I mean we're we're very lucky now like we're so close we've been friends our whole lives and it's always been like but yeah I mean just like the travel the exhaustion so much of it is just not doing like band stuff. So much of it is just like other bullshit. Like you think about going on a tour, they're playing a show and it's like 3% of it is playing the show.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's like. That's your hour a night where you get to have fun. If the, on a headliner, yeah. Sometimes it's half an hour, you know? And it's like, it's just like a lot. There's a lot of other like, just like little things. Like even. We were taking promos with that sign in the middle field and we like

We just like ran behind on the day and it was like we're losing daylight And then we like forgot like a can like our generator wasn't working. We forgot a converter for got an extension cord It wasn't grounded. We could smell electrical We were like smells like there's gonna be an electrical fire if we don't get a power strip real quick just like all of those little things were something where you're like oh go take pictures with this big sign I feel but it's like and there's a lot that goes into that yeah your balls off hoping there's not an electrical fire in this field you're legally in some guy came and yelled at us he's like yeah I mean it's just a lot that goes into it

yeah my shorter answer to that yeah anything from, no, I mean, it's just a lot. There's just a lot that goes into it. I guess that would be my shorter answer to that, yeah. Anything from you guys? No, I mean, I think Con makes a really good point. Like, we spend, you want to just play music with your friends, and especially like, you know, rehearsing for tour, but it's like, oh, we gotta make these files and do this and go pick up this rental and whatever.

It's like, you're just like, planning for five days of rehearsal and then it's like two and it's like all right let's let's go we'll figure it out because we do rock but yeah yeah definitely rock in case that was um maybe one of the other things that lumped you guys into that pop punk genre was the love yourself cover because we also in pop punk we have like a fake bar stool band here and he plays rhythm guitar and I play bass in it we do got a bassist build bro oh thank you yeah well it's either you're like me or you're like a huge like jazz player and you weigh 300 pounds yeah but that cover we we do like a rip off of your cover of it we started slow and then at the first

you know you should go and fuck yourself then we go into a punk version of it but at the time I was definitely like yeah we're ripping off grayscale doing that so thanks for the we do a cover of a cover I've got some fan questions from a big grayscale fan favorite touring memories with all Time Low, specifically Ryan? Just like, telling him that he looks like... Did this come from Ryan? It's anonymous. Remember we were going to make t-shirts on that tour that said Brian Dawson and had a picture of Wee Man? I think we were watching Jack something and we were like

Ryan kinda like, first glance, Ryan's a handsome boy but like first glance he kind of looks like Wee Man. Exactly. He could be the mini man. They could do that hard knock life video. Yeah, yeah. So I think that's probably, I texted, I think I texted Alex, I was like would you guys be like bombed if we made Brian Dawson photo, Brian Dawson t-shirts with Ryan, Ryan with we men on them and sold them on the tour He was like not school and I think we couldn't there was some merch limitation where we can get we men's rights Another fan question anonymous favorite all-time low song to hear live specifically Ryan's parts Man Nick what do you think? I don't know bro. There's just so many huh? So many good Ryan moments. And listen if you don't have an answer for that one I got one more question. Most surprising thing about

all time low after being a fan for decades, specifically about Ryan. I hate him dude. Yeah those were all written by Ryan Dawson if you couldn't put that together and also I've been told by a mutual friend Steve that you guys are a huge band that loves to do bits just for yourselves You just like to make yourselves laugh on tour even if it's for nobody else. Can you think of any examples of these? Oh, yeah, so we we theme like our Whether it's like a bus or bandwagon, whatever we're traveling at the time, RV, whatever it is, we theme it like super, super heavily every tour.

So we'll pick one, an example would be like Miami Vice, we'll be like okay, this theme is Miami Vice for the tour and we will spend a lot of time and energy like decorating, we'll all have costumes, like we can pull up some photos out of this of like, just all of us in like white suits. We did costume like we can pull up some photos Neon lights everywhere like I had a white suit and like we all bought like fake gold pistols and yes Like it goes so as so far as that we like build it into the budget for the tour like there is a There's a decoration budget

Because like, you know, you're inside this little bandwagon and like when you get in there when the tour starts it's bare There's nothing there. It's like white walls, dude. Like we cover like we get like Like for that one, we bought wrapping paper and like the entire wall was covered in like wrapping paper It looked like the inside of like the dormitories. We have like a platform nine three-quarter sign owls everyone Like we've it's like with the Ollies like the bargain. Where did you get this idea? Oh, we just we just pick whatever and we just absolutely but I just mean in terms of like doing this Like I've never heard of a band decorating their shit I don't know where do we just started doing it like We were like this is just to make your little better. Yeah Yeah, I mean, I think it's like tough being away from home for so long, but like I don't know also

It's just I don't know we were talking about doing one that was like the opposite of comfort It was like it was like it was um. What was it? It was the stock market one. What was it? It was like the stock market one. What was it? Oh, I forget. Shit. It was so funny. We were talking about just getting like, it was like economic collapse or something.

We were going to put like news. Oh, recession. Recession, recession. So we were going to just have, I confuse it, sorry. So we had a recession, but we were just going to have like stock tickers with like everything going down and just like newspaper clippings of like America's economy trash everywhere

But then we had another one Well, we we executed we had one that was like mail enhancement was one. Okay, now we executed really well I think there was just like mail porn basically everywhere and just like Like we're all meat and like And there was just all these like nerf it was so stupid It was so stupid has there been a theme selected for the the May Day tour coming up We've had an American dad in the pipeline for a while of just like we were talking about like just bringing a weed whacker Just to have like yeah Just like getting out like five in the morning six in the morning before everyone's awake on the bus

in the morning, six in the morning before everyone's awake on the bus. And just start whacking weeds, waking everybody up. Waking all the cabinets, waking everybody up, calling each other. You gotta get the headphones and the glasses too with it. Like the true dad maybe. Oh yeah, everyone's got monarch force. Yep, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Trip over shit, just get pissed off. Yeah. That would be a good one. Nine pairs of Nike Air Monarchs for us and the crew. Yeah. I think my dad would mow the lawn in like bike shorts that were too short. Yeah, sure. And we'd always be like, yeah

That's part of it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it though. I definitely want to see you guys You're coming to Stone Pony summer stage and Pier 17. So yeah, if you're in the area Next year mayday parade grayscale huge tour. It's gonna be awesome Appreciate you guys coming in and of course the album comes out January 31st stream it everywhere where you can stream music Hell, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, bro. Appreciate it. This was blast. Sweet.

All right, welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox and I am here with Anthony and Travis from LS Dunes. What's going on, guys? How are you? That camera? That camera. I'm just looking right at you, Robbie.

We got three cameras. I'm looking right at you. That's fair. Yeah, that's better these cameras right here How are you guys you like the city? Yeah, it's cold. It's real cold. Yeah, it's that's nasty, but yeah, I was kind of deceived by it and Anthony's asked me a couple of times if I was warm enough and Showed up and he's just like in this sweater and then he's got this cool looking jacket it's like Sire's jacket on it

You had a cool looking jacket too when you came in I got 16 layers on it You came in with a big fuzzy jacket looking like You guys kinda look like rock stars when you walk in I feel like when you walk into a place like Barstow at least Well it's worth being called then The employees walk over and they're like oh those guys are probably in a band That jacket is like

it changed my life, actually. That fuzzy jacket, because you walk anywhere with it and people are just like, what's the what the fuck? Exactly. It's that rock star aura. Yeah, you got it for sure. So this is a bit of a nerdy podcast. I have bands on all the time, but I also talk comics a lot. So I want to go back and get the origin story of L.S.

Doones because we're a pandemic group originally, that's how you formed, right? Is that kind of it? The pandemic, like a pandemic baby? I guess so. Yeah. That's where we came from. Had you guys all known each other for years

before you formed a band? Anthony and I have known each other well for many years. Co-ed and Circo have toured together a lot. Yeah. And we have a close bond through that. We never wrote music together before that though. Like worked on stuff, maybe played stuff just jamming around, but never, yeah. It's like the equivalent to a bunch of dads

who are like, oh, we're gonna play cards. Let's get together and play cards every week. Like the pandemic happened, we were all, we all lost our jobs essentially. So we were like, all right, well, what do we all felt like we lost our jobs essentially. So we were like, all right, well what do we do? Like how do we keep our creative muscle going? And Tucker really reached out to everybody. I think collectively we're a group of friends

who had every time that we'd seen each other would be like, oh, we should jam. Yeah, it's that kind of thing. Let's do something sometime. Obsession and opportunity kind of met during the pandemic and then. Definitely Tucker was the. The ringleader.

Yeah, the ringleader. Like we were all. And it started as let's get together in jam. Let's play a few songs. Was it let's write or let's play a few covers? I mean, it was flat out let's write from our end of it. I mean, it was started. I wasn't even in the band.

Yeah, Anthony. Like so I'm going to break it down. Yeah, like, but quick. So break it down for y'all. So so Tucker had actually contacted me about doing something pre pandemic, which was kind of cool. And I think I could just freely talk about it. But there was a name that got thrown around that I was like,

I don't know if we've ever discussed this, but I think it was Tucker rule and the crybabies and it was like doing like a like covers and doing like, you know And I we had a meeting about maybe doing it and stuff so fast forward a few months shit hits the fan we're stuck and He kind of like just came out of the blue right when I especially needed I think we all did and was just like I want to write and I want to like play music even we may not be able to play it out right now but do you want to just throw some ideas around and I was like sure and then he informed me that

Tim Payne wanted to do it and that Frank wanted to do it. So we were like, nobody was going to be upset if it sucked. Everybody was like, let's just try it. So I sent a group of riffs that eventually became a song called Antibodies and Frank sent a few different ideas and a couple of those. I don't remember what songs became what on Past Lives,

but everybody had ideas. By the time the week was over, we had four or five instrumental ideas. And we were like, who's gonna sing on this? And we thought of Anthony right away. And so we wanted to kind of trick him and this was Tucker's idea. Yeah. So Tucker, do you want to take it from here? No, you keep going. Okay. So Tucker's rhythm right now. Yeah. I'm gonna bust this out too. So Tucker

sent him, was it just one or two songs? Was it two songs? Oh, three. Three songs. I know that one of the songs was the first one I talked about, antibodies, and that was the first one that Anthony sent vocals to and that was it. It was like, you know, even before he knew it, it was like he's singing for this band. And so basically he told him that it was a few of his neighbors that he-

No, no, he didn't even tell me anything. He was just like, hey, would you, like I'm making some songs with some friends, like would you want to sing on this? Here are the instrumentals. And I just assumed it was like his buddies from the neighborhood. Yeah.

He was like hanging with him, jamming. Yeah. And- So you didn't know that- No, I literally put the music on it that night. I put songs on it that night. I had like, I was, it was during the pandemic where like we were like, everything was like, you know,

I think my other band was like covering songs once a month and like everybody, I was doing Twitch streams. So I had my setup and I was just working constantly. And so I was like, yeah, this is awesome. Like it immediately evoked like inspiration in me. So I was like, boom, first best guess, which Tucker says all the time when he sends out demos. Sent out my first best guess.

And then he texted me at some point, like, hey, can I talk to you? And then I got on the phone with him and I can remember where I was and everything. And he kind of laid it all out for me. And I don't know if, was everybody else on the call too? We might've been. I mean, we all agreed that right away.

I mean, I got super emotional when we got the antibody specifically and it had his voice on it. I sat with my wife and I just really needed that at the time, you know? It's not that music wasn't happening. I mean, Coe had already had a record done. Everything was, but I had like nothing that I was really excited about to work on.

You know what I mean? Like, it was like, I just needed it really bad and I needed something to make me feel inspired. And when he sent the vocals, it just was like, holy shit. So I think that all of us were like, we gotta get on this right away. Like this could be a thing. More than just where we were messing around with our friends. We already knew it was. What let's, we got to get on this right away. Like this could be a thing more than just where we already knew it was.

With our friends. We already knew it was what it is. We didn't know. Like, but we were just like, we're going to continue writing together. Yeah. And if he'll have us, we're going to continue writing with Anthony. And then he was all about it. And so I'd say three weeks later, we have like six, seven songs already.

Yeah. And does that writing process, does that differ a lot from the writing processes that you're used to and in other bands? That differed significantly from any writing process that I've ever been a part of. That was just from a distance throwing pain at the wall, like throwing different like scenes at each other and, and, you know, and, and Anthony having to, and Anthony having to write these vocal melodies over all these random things, which kind of making those pieces fit the way that they did

is incredible in itself. And then going forward with the band, does that change a lot? Is it more getting in a room together? Do you continue to dissent each other's? Yeah, that's where we are now. We have evolved as a band. Yeah. I'm talking too much.

No, you're not. You're doing great, man. Don't listen. This is why you're here, you know? Okay, I know. I wanna hear you guys talk. I want Anthony to be able to. No, I, I.

You're right. We basically got to a point where we had to get together and everybody's tested for COVID or whatever. And we got together in Frank's basement. And from the moment we were all in the room and we're working on song ideas we already had, we knew the magic was there in person to be creative like that. And couldn't wait to do it that way. We already had past lives though. We already had a lot of that done. So that's where we're at with Violet, is we finally got to be able to be together.

And is it, when you're in a, sorry to cut you off, but more of like a super group, right? As a fan, you hear that and it sounds like, oh, this is the Avengers coming together. We've got so many people from so many awesome bands coming together and working together. Is it more ideas than you're used to? Like when you're in the songwriting process where everyone has their own ideas and influences

and stuff that they want to add to the song? Yeah, but in a welcomed way. Yeah, totally. Yeah. But I think, yeah, we all have big musical personalities and sometimes that doesn't work, but here it really does. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's like, from the very beginning, it started out as just like a group of friends

making music together, everybody sort of knowing that the other person is just bringing their A game all the time and never questioning that and using our past experiences and current experiences to try to navigate a place where everybody could feel really creatively, like, just alive and heard. You know? Do you feel creative pressure with each other or no?

No, that's the one thing that we don't. It's nice. It comes from inside. Yeah. Like, I think all of us, like, we want to, we want to bring our best to the table. And I think the way that everybody looks at their own instrument and their own respective

occupational space in this craft, I think we all are kind of just like feel that pressure of wanting to do as good as the thing that he just did. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, who came up with the thing that he just did. You know? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, who came up with the name, L.S. Dunes? There was a collective of all of us coming up with that. You know? There were a lot of names thrown around.

It was a spitball session. It was like a three month long session. It was a three month long tech spitball. We had a bunch of names too. Cause every time we'd be like, this is the name of the band. Yeah. Past Lives was one of them.

Past Lives was a past name of the band. Oh wow, so that's cool that you got to reuse it on the album title. Yeah, that's really cool. them past lives was oh wow so that's cool that you get to reuse it on the album title Yeah, that's really cool, and what was that first show like riot fest was the first show right dude? Crazy craziest first show experience my entire life Yeah, cuz you had a lot of buzz going into it too. Yeah, but I would say that like because of the fact that Like for a minute it felt like you were walking the plank a little bit, you know?

But because everybody's just such a pro, everybody just showed up ready to go. We had only had three practices, and that's including the one in Frank's basement where we all just jammed for like half an hour and we didn't even have any songs So like we were just like alright, so let's just see if it works Let's just see what happens and every you know everything just happened right and we rose to the occasion I feel like the idea of the band being more about our live performance Than what the record represents kind of was born that day Yeah, and then did that affect the way you wrote on Violet as well writing with the life form in mind?

I think so, I think they're all. For sure. Yeah. 100%. It all plays its part, you know, because the art, you know, imitates the life and blah blah blah. Violet, by the way, out on the 31st. I got a advance copy of it.

I think it's awesome. And I wanted to ask, the first and last song on the album, were they written as that, written as the first and last song? Because the intro, it sounds almost cinematic and the acapella in the beginning and then the way the song comes in, and then the way the album closes, feels like you're closing the book on it a little bit.

Yeah, meant to do that, no. No, 100%, I mean, I know that from the gate, Frank, was like, okay, he's always gate, Frank was like, okay, he's always like, the way he works sometimes, and I'm not trying to give anything away, but he's very like, okay, what's the intro, what's the outro? Yeah, I love that as well.

Me too. Like I love when an album, it sounds like, you know, it's a collective work and I feel like this really, going through that with past lives was a cool experience. And so like, kind of figuring out those little, little once you figure that out everything kind of just makes sense yeah and yeah you know sequencing this record became really easy is for me because at some point hearing them I didn't have to say anything or do anything because they somebody else was already voicing something that I was

like would have said so it was at some point once the Like Magic and is it forgiveness or violence? Yeah, forgiveness. Forgiveness. Once those were in place as the opener and closer, I literally was just like, yeah, as long as the flow feels good to everybody else, like whatever, we had some songs

that didn't make this record either that just from the writing session, like I didn't care. I was just so happy with everything. When it came time to be like, all right, what's the singles? What are the writing session, like, I didn't care. I was just so happy with everything. When it came time to be like, all right, what's the singles? What are the singles gonna be like? What are we gonna put out first? I was like, there isn't a song on here you make me disappointed to hear.

I had an opinion, but it was like, all right, whatever. It's so good to me. That's awesome. I'm delivered from having to worry. Yeah. I mean, there were songs that didn't make the record too. And when it came down to having to pick, like you're sad to see certain songs go,

but you know that they're gonna come back later. Yeah. And- It's so cool to be in a band that's down to be like, let's open the record with like 30 seconds of- Like just singing. Yeah. You know? I absolutely love it. There's so much of the decision-making from like getting seconds of just singing. Yeah. I absolutely love it. There's so much of the decision making

from like getting backdrops made to getting anything. It's just like, you're not afraid to like kind of go into the unknown, try something weird. You know, see how it feels. I love the artwork on the album too. The painting, it's really cool. Where did that come from? That actually, the artist is the same artist

that did Past Lives. Cool. Gordon Douglas Ball. And it's Tucker's best friend. He's the greatest. He's an incredible artist. He's such a really cool person. That album cover is just a vibe immediately.

We went through a lot of different art until we came back to, you know, it's like he kind of just saved our ass with coming through with what we needed in the first place. Yeah. You know? But that's what we needed to do to get back. We went on like a such a journey around like what could this be like what could we do and tried all these different things which I think is like it chews you into the best shape you can be you know and we kind of got back to the square one

where we were like what if we just let Gordy listen to the record and give us some input? And then that's what happened. He listened to it, sent some stuff in this. To me, it's almost like a tarot card feeling when you see it because people put their different things into it where somebody's like, man, it's crazy that they're on, you're like, that entity is in the storm.

And all this stuff, I think you see in it, sort of represents whatever you're gonna go looking for. And when and where did you guys actually record this album? We did it in Concha-Hawken. Yeah, at Studio Four. Studio Four, Will Yip Studio. Now Will did do Past Lives as well,

but this is definitely a good subject to get on, Will Yip Studio. Now Will did do Past Lives as well, but that's this definitely a good subject to get on is that for me personally I can say how much of a difference it made for me to be able to be in his studio and working with him. Anthony's worked up with him a lot he'll go on talk about that but I he was just such an incredible person to work with. A fantastic ear, fantastic cheerleader, great songwriter. I mean, I can't say enough about Working With Will. And this year you recorded, or 2024 it was last year? Yeah, it was like 2023 into 2024 we were in the studio.

And we had just gotten off this tour, we were supporting Pierce the Veil. And it was like a freeing tour for us because we had just done a lot of headlining stuff so to go up with a band that was like massive and like had this cool fan base and to go kind of have space and time to go just kind of do our thing without having to worry about anything you know yeah there's less pressure when you're you know playing main support on the tour it kind of got us all into this good shape.

We got off the tour and then started the writing process for the record and I really think that us being in the studio with Will and having a lot of the songs from the ground up, he was there just overseeing, just to help us communicate within each other and to help us see through the vision of each song. And I got to, you know, on past lives, we didn't really get that much time with him.

We did it with him, but it was like, I was in there doing vocals with him, finalizing vocals, but a lot of stuff got hodgepodged. And a lot of songs were kind of written and then brought in there and we were kind of married to a structure whereas we had a lot of ideas where we were able to experiment and be like, what would happen if we did the structure like this?

What would happen if we did it like that? Changing the keys and having somebody like Will, I mean, he's just like, he's everything I've ever looked for in a creative partner and a producer as far as like he can invoke just like moments of pure inspiration from you and he can also you know really fuel your fire when you need to just hone in on something that's just in you. Yeah. You know, knows how to do that. You know, pretty cool guy. Are there any like specific sonic influences on this album that you could think of that you were talking with Will in the studio

about? You know like I'm sure that numerous different like bands artists whatever would get thrown around to be like yeah like this but there's nothing for me. Yeah because like LS Dunes is a very unique sound to me I feel like like what makes LS dunes is that your wrist jostled and static there's probably static in the shot on the Hamilton like a pit crew with with the second mic cord. That's a pretty quick. That's a pretty quick hit right there We're back. Look at that. We never even left. We never even like NASCAR. Yeah. Yeah But we were

Yes, Sonic you actually had a sonic influence you can think of you know when I remember going into Recording this and wanting the vocals to feel raw and just wanting to make sure that the vocal takes evokes like feelings that I get when I would listen to an album like ugly organ by by cursive You know, you can just, when somebody, when the take is good, it has more of an effect than if it's just like a good melody that's tuned right. And I really wanted to make sure that in the vocal takes on this record that you could hear what the, you know, what the, like the emotion behind each thing was. And there were, you know, that smile record that came out, like listening when Tom, the way Tom York sings in the studio and the way he just seems like the way his melodies are so haunting and he knows them when he's singing them,

he's feeling them and that can be hard when you're just learning a song, you're just writing it in the studio. And I definitely had a feeling, I'm not sure if I could say, like there could be a hundred different records that have this feeling, you know, you listen to Leonard Cohen and you hear the voice and the way that makes your chest feel like I wanted to make sure that those feelings were there. And go into somebody like Will and say, hey, whatever we need to do so that you can feel

that this is like me really singing and this isn't like a ton of effects that don't take away from the melody. And having him be able to do that and add spice and still give you the intimate character, he's like perfect at that. Yeah, and still give you the intimate character, he's like perfect at that. Yeah, and I wanted to ask, because L.S. Doones is such a unique sound to me, what makes L.S.

Doones L.S. Doones to you? When you're writing a riff, do you have in your mind, all right, this riff sounds like an L.S. Doones riff when you're just fiddling around on a guitar? It's going to be what the other four people do with it yeah that's just how I you know they like I've been part of a lot of things where people go you know especially when somebody shuts something down just from hearing one riff or you know whether it be like a verse idea and of course from a guitar or something like that and then they go you know this is just so much like, all right, blame, you know, whatever artist or whatever

that ruins that idea for you. And it's just like, no, but what you do with it, what he does with it is going to make it completely different. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying you can save every melody and you can, you know, there are things that you let go, you know? you know, people say you can't polish a turd, whatever. But I like chasing everything.

We like chasing everything to make sure that's the one thing in this band that like, I've never experienced how I'm dealing with 400 other individuals who are willing to chase it, even if it ends up that you don't have anything in the end, we, we chased it to a certain place to understand what potential it had, um, because nothing is going to, nothing is going to come up just one thing alone and deciding that that's just not the right thing to go for. Right. And that sounded confusing.

If you, if you have a melody and an idea and somebody shuts it down without at least trying it, to me it's a waste. Yeah. You saying that just makes me think I'm a Big Beatles fan, the Get Back documentary. There's a moment in that documentary where George Harrison brings My Sweet Lord

to John Lennon and Paul Gartney. And immediately plays it to them and they laugh at him and they're like, you gotta remember what band you're in, buddy. And it's like, oh my God, My Sweet Lord could have been a Beatles song and they shut it down because they heard 30 seconds of it and they didn't like it. They're two of the greatest of all time, obviously,

but they shut that down. And that, like, you saying that just brought that to mind because that's, it's crazy. Yeah. Imagine all of the imagine I say Yep another song that what makes what makes an idea an LS students idea is that it's in our inbox Yeah, yeah, you know, we all are kind of have been making like rock and punk rock and psychedelic punk whatever you want to call it like we've all been doing this for so long

I think when we started it was like, okay We all brought the ingredients we're most familiar with and then you're sort of learning kind of and you kind of hear it the learning On violet like what we can like how sounds like an evolution Yeah, like how can we spread out like what we can, like how we can- Sounds like an evolution for sure. Yeah, like how can we spread out? Like what more can we do, you know? And when you have a bunch of people that kind of allow this infant freedom with each other that comes with this like respect of like,

hey, I will follow your vision to the depths of whatever, you know, because it only makes things stronger. Yeah. And knowing that is like what makes this such a fun Unit, you know, I think it a band Can be together for a really long time and lose that essence And we have this like new thing. It's still new You know like we can be old farts and still do new and do this new thing that relies on nothing to exist, you know, that's just this like

Self-you know, you know pump an engine totally Then I just got a couple of work questions for two guys that have you never know. I was a writer Talk a self of it. You never know. I'm sorry Couple tour questions when I love to ask all the musicians and bands I have on my show who do you think the funniest musician or band that you guys have ever Encountered and dealt with has been who makes you laugh the hardest You know, I really enjoyed watching was I got to be on tour with,

because I'm in another band called Cohede and Cambria and I was with Cohede with Puddle's Pity Party. Oh yeah, yeah, The Clown, right? Pity Party, no. Yeah. He, I mean it's such a fun show. Did he open up for Cohede? Yeah.

Oh my God. Well, it was Primus and Cohede, so Cohede did a tour. We were main support for Primus and Kohit, so Kohit did a tour. We were main support for Primus. What an interesting show that must have been, yeah. Oh yeah, it was definitely all over the place. But Puddles, I did not know what to expect and I watched some of the stuff

and it's intriguing how he takes elements of, you know, it's a clown. And there's definitely plays on magic and stuff like that. But it's more him performing and doing parodies of these songs. You haven't seen any of his stuff? There's like Black Sabbath songs. He's been doing it for a long time too.

You gotta check it out. I'm in like at my shell all the time. I don't get out, I don't see nothing. But that's okay, I am a lot of the time too. You can shame me for it. The only way I would have been- You can shame me for it. No, no, the only reason I would see it

is because I'm around it. Because you're not. So yeah, I felt lucky to be able to see that in person. And you know, I grew up with Weird Al. So Weird Al's one of my favorite. He's playing MSG this year and I to go for sure. Yeah, I mean I Puddles is opening for weird out this summer. Oh is he feel like I'm doing a Are yeah, you were sent here from puddles. Yeah opening for weird out this summer

Okay, and I'm like, I'm definitely taking my kids. He's like a funny You should all bring our children like a funny guy. I feel like opening for weird Al's like it's like the grand old Such an amazing tour Weird Al is like the grand old opera. It has to be. It's such an amazing tour. Weird Al is definitely the goat of parody songs. I think everyone would agree with that. And then what's the most spinal tap moment you guys have faced on tour? Funny you say spinal tap.

I actually went, my father took me because I got my associate's degree. He took me, my gift was going to see Spinal Tap. Really? And they opened up as a mighty wind. You know what, Puddles, I love you, but that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. They opened up as a mighty wind and it was before the movie came out. And the guy comes out on stage

and it's supposed to be the promoter. He's like, you guys gotta stop. Oh my God. Kicks him off the stage, like it's them all dressed in like the full, yeah. Holy shit. And then Spinal Tap came out. Where, do you remember where you saw him?

I think it was Hammerstein. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, real close to the office right here. Yeah, yeah. Crazy. I think it was Hammerstein Ballroom and they did Christmas with Satan and a bunch of elves

came out giving it, but it was pretty hilarious. That's amazing. Have you ever had a Spinal Tap moment on tour? Of course. I think we all have, right? Oh yeah, for sure. You know? There's been like too many times where you get lost in the venue.

Oh yeah. And like it's like a thing where like yeah, because it happens in the movie, but like I don't know, like for someone like me, like I don't know. It's like you're like, you're like yeah, funny, but like you're in the basement of the venue. The tunnels of an arena. Your phone doesn't work.

You know, like I forget my pass. You know, my kick down. I just had one for us. I mean we were together with, we were rise against and we were at a house of blues and it was a fucking maze Do you remember the place there where the buses were below it and you have to take an elevator up and Haley would have To keep coming and getting us. Oh my god But I a couple times like no I got this and I would walk up and I almost I walked into the crowd First time alone, yeah, I went into a different area.

That kind of stuff is like impossible to get around. When Dooms was in England the first time, we were in Manchester and there was like a big show in the big room, but I didn't know what was going on. I just woke up in the morning and like went into the venue and there's this huge catering spread and it was all this crazy shit and there was like, oh my god There's like veggie sausage and all these crazy things and I'm just making this huge trait

Then I went in and I went into the dressing room and I you know I like it was eating my sausage and I put down I was like using the bathroom and I left And I guess like there was some other show and it was all their stuff and nobody said anything to me Apparently like I just didn't know I wasn't yeah I was just floating around but like we got in all this like they were they locked down the side of the building yeah you know so nobody could get in the building so everybody from our camp had to go all the way around and do all this shit my bad I'm sorry Ite someone else's rider, yeah. That's tough. Yeah.

We could sit here for a long time. I'm sure. Because I've toured the world multiple times over. You know, with LS Dunes, we're relying on... You'd be surprised at things we can't do on our own as grown-up musicians in our 40s. Like, still now, even booking a flight, I'm like, what the fuck? What's the zip code in my business? It's just shit.

I don't know how to look for things in my email. I couldn't even get in the building because there was a PQR code. It's not just tour life. It's just regular life is tough for anybody. It's just full-time musician. I think tour life is a good way to like, oh yeah, but we're just-

Full-time musician just means you're really good way to like oh, yeah, but you could excuse it full-time musicians Just I tried to give you a really good at this one thing, but then you just can't fucking function doing anything Well, I appreciate you guys coming in today the album is out January 31st. It's really kick-ass Obviously thoughts with Frank and everyone dealing with wildfire stuff right now. It's horrible, but everyone dealing with wildfire stuff right now. It's horrible, but appreciate you guys. He's safe in New Jersey now. Oh good. He came back.

Good, I'm glad. He's safe. Yeah, it's really crazy out there. I hope that there's some relief soon. Absolutely, yeah. All right, LS Dunes, thank you. The record's out January 31st. All right, hello and welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox with a now recurring

guest, Travis Mills. It's been about a year and a half since you've been on the show. How's life? Second time is a charm. Life's good, man. I can't really complain. I mean, I think the last time I saw you was in DC. In DC. And I went to your show. You came to a pop punk show which was super cool. I appreciated that very much. You guys ripped. Thank you very much. That was a very fun show. It was also just cool to have you there. It was funny that night you messaged me or texted me or oh my god are you in DC. We're in DC, came to the show and me and my girlfriend or fiancee actually always watch help I'm in a

secret relationship it's a marathon show for us okay so I text her and I say oh my god Travis is coming to the show tonight how cool is that she sent me back just like a screenshot of she was watching the show on TV and at the exact same time this is like an inception it was a weird talk about today help I'm seek I'm gonna secret relationship is back. It is. So it's kind of a full circle thing there. I love it, man.

But yeah, thanks for coming to the show. Dude, thanks for having me. Yeah. Always. Yeah, the show's back. Another season. It's crazy because we've been filming these episodes since it's been like over a year. So-

Of the ones that haven't aired yet? Yeah. Like, cause like we shoot them, we shoot them like in batches, right? So we film like 20, like when we get like orders, it was like 24 episodes. So last year, 12 of them came out and then we were still filming. And now the other 12 are starting to air. So I was looking into it because I feel like I've seen a lot of episodes. I'll be honest. Yeah.

But there's still like episodes that I'll be like, is this a new one? And it's not a new one. There's so many episodes that are already out. So many that are coming out. Like how does that work in terms of, how many do you film a year? 20, so-

Is that 24 in a calendar year? Last year it worked out to about like 20, because we started filming season three and four in 2023. But then I went on tour. So like the show shut down. With Avril. Uh-huh. And then my co-host Ronnie, she had a baby. So we both took like six weeks of just time out,

which was really cool. Because when you're filming a show like that, dude, it's two to three flights a week. I was going to say a lot of travel on top of your normal media touring, all of that. I become a pro at travel. Really? Do you have any hacks or tips?

Any hacks or tips? Because I travel a decent amount for work, but I still wouldn't consider myself a pro at all. How many flights are you on? You think a month. It's so dependent on the specific month. This month, zero flights. I had from September to October, like 13 flights.

Do you have lounge access? No. OK. Get a credit card? My fiance does. Get a credit card? Get a credit card. I'm always like, oh, can I get into the Delta lounge with you? You got a plus one?

Yeah. It's kind of burnt out now just because everyone's gotten smart. I know, and they're doing that thing. But dude, just get a credit card. Just get a credit card. This is, by the way, this is not an ad for any credit card company or anything. I know, Big Delta is getting into the interview now. Yeah, I'm pushing Big Delta's agenda.

Big AMEX over here. Unless MasterCard wants to sponsor the pod. Or you got to be like Diamond friggin' Medallion by now, right? I am. Yeah, dude. I hit it in December, like right before Christmas. And I got really excited for a second.

And then I realized, like, this is stupid. Why the fuck do I need it? And it just resets now, right? So you just gotta hit it not have it for all this year. Yes, but you gotta You gotta hit it this year for next year. That's the scam. Yeah, and that's how they get you You got to keep flying fucked It's like drugs when you have travel days like when you're on the show or when you're on tour Yeah

When you have like off days or travel days where you're not filming or you're not playing a show that night Are you just staying in the hotel watching movies or you try to get out and do things? So tour is definitely more time to go explore Yeah cities right because I also like it's just a way different method of travel. You're on a tour bus So, you know and you have off days so like the bus parks in DC So, you know, and you have off days. So like the bus parks in DC. We don't have a show till the next day. So I hit you up, take an Uber into the city,

go to a venue and like go to a mall, go get food, go and watch your show. Go back to the bus, wake up at the venue the next day. For the TV show, you fly in the day before you film. And depending on how long that takes, it's like by the time you get in, unpack, get ready. You're waking up at like six or seven in the morning, getting ready for the day,

and then you're filming for like 10 to 12 hours. Holy shit. And then do that for three days. It usually takes us about three days to film an episode. And then, yeah, film for three days. And then your fourth day, you're flying back. You filmed so many now. Do you have like one experience on the show that sticks out as the craziest situation you guys have been in? I've said this so many times, but I still think it's the quote unquote, there's two. Okay. There's

two. One is, and if you go on TikTok or whatever, you're going to see clips of it. This dude and this doll. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you've seen it. The doll episode. Yeah, the doll episode is pretty crazy. The doll episode is definitely just like, I mean,

I'm literally chewing my hand so I don't bust out laughing. But this dude was for real. Yeah. You know, he makes videos with his doll. He eats dinner with his doll. And how much prep do you have going into the episode? Like, how aware of it? Like, nothing.

They don't know. It's not like, hey, guys, we're filming this episode, and there's this guy with this doll. We don't know. We don't know anything. So like, when he brings the doll out, we're sitting on a couch like this. And what was crazy is we got hit up by his best friend.

It wasn't a romantic relationship. But they'd been friends for 20 years. They grew up together. They grew up skateboarding. They grew up playing music, doing the kind of shit that we did when we were growing up. They lost touch. And then when they started hanging out again,

like he just realized like something was off. Like he couldn't go over to his friend's house, like his friend wouldn't return all of his calls. And these are like two people that grew up together. They're like best friends from small town, you know? And when his homie brought this doll out, he was like, he was pissed because he's like, dude, like, are you, is this a joke? Are you fucking with me? You know, um, understandably. So I think, yeah, I told him. So there's also like,

we shoot a lot of stuff that doesn't make the episode because it's just like a lot of content that has to get done to 12 hours a day, three days. Yeah. So I even told him, yo, dude, your friend sucks. Because, dude, he was so, and I think his name was Matt, he was just such a good person, such a good human, that you really want people like that to win and His friend was not I think his friend was an opportunist and like just trying to be I don't know Just wants to be the center of attention kind of guy

Like make everything about him Which is probably why he's walking around with the doll in the first place to be the doll guy the doll guy Yeah, you don't want to be the dog. You don't and if you do want to be the doll guy something's but that's the thing right people come on the show too, and I feel like they think it's gonna look like They either think they're gonna be famous Or they think like they're just gonna look great or like, you know Hey, I'll fuck this person over and then a bunch of people will want to like be with me after this and it's like Dude, you look crazy. Yeah

The other one was in Arkansas Was the Arkansas or Kentucky it was one of those all right when I say Kentucky travel all over yeah when I say Kentucky It's Kentucky when I say Kentucky. What is what does it make you think of? Lexington, I don't know. No, no, but like But like, like fried chicken? No, no. What's like the stereotype of Kentucky? Like redneck. But go a little deeper. What do people do in Kentucky? Are you trying to get me canceled right now? No, no. Just like what happens in Kentucky that doesn't really happen in New York City. Farming. Okay. But like familial familial. Oh, incest. Is that what you're trying to get me?

You should have said Game of Thrones. I said Kentucky. Alright, yeah, fair enough. We had an episode that we filmed there, and these two people- so the guy didn't want to introduce his girlfriend to his family because there was a possibility that they were cousins. Which on paper, you're like, what the hell? This is the most crazy thing ever. But then when you sit down with them and then they explain it

and how she didn't know her dad's full side of the family and how he had like 10 kids and had other families. And then, you know, this dude shows a picture of his girlfriend to his mom and she's like, well, like you start connecting dots. So we paid for a DNA test. Like the show paid for a DNA test. And they turned out to not be cousins. Which is great. You got to be Jerry Springer in that moment, you know? It wasn't, and by the way, we had to wait like three months. So like when we were sitting there, we were like, well, this very well could be, and they weren't like, now I'm justifying. They weren't like first cousins. They were like third cousin yeah I'm justifying having a hot cousin

yeah so but yeah you know we sit there and we're just like what a spot for you to be in what's next yeah you know and so the show paid for and I think that the reason why they didn't they were like hesitant because those things are expensive and so we're like DNA tests and stuff yeah we're like we're going to pay for this, and we'll figure it out. And so by the time the episode aired, we had figured it out, and they weren't cousins. So good for them. You got to put a little thing at the end, right?

A little chiron. Yeah, after three months, the DNA tests revealed that they were not cousins. They were still together. What do you do that night, right after filming with those people, is it just go out with the crew and grab a milkshake and talk about the horrors that you guys have experienced together?

Trauma bonding? It's not traumatic because we're not ruining anyone's life. Yeah. We're helping people get answers. Not traumatic, but it's just jarring. It has to be jarring to be put in these people's, you know, you're thrown into the midst of their crazy situations. So there is definitely situations like that, right?

Where like people have other families and you're helping someone navigate like. Sometimes it gets real heavy. It really does. Yeah. And then like you'll, you know, when the cameras shut off and people are outside on their front porch like bawling their eyes out, you know, we're like with them after everything is

said and done, you know, or people rip their mics off and don't want to film anymore, like that stuff happens all the time too. I think to your point, it's crazy because 58 episodes, so you get, there's like a muscle that you develop, you know, and like how to kind of deal with these situations. Yeah. You're almost becoming like, not, you're not a therapist, but like, you have, you have an understanding of how to like handle people when they're going through this. Cause it's also like people aren't used to being filmed, let alone being filmed through these situations.

I feel like you have a comfortability with all of it that now that can help that. Yeah, 100%. And I think that this, I think the show, it's also like a last resort for people. Definitely. You know? It feels like that's, well, you get that in the emails

that people send you guys sometimes like, hey, this is the last resort. 100%, yeah. And then, you know, you go meet people and emails that people send you guys sometimes, like, hey, this is the last resort. 100%. Yeah, and then you go meet people, and they're so uncomfortable on camera. And so we're just like, hey. You got to make them comfortable, because it's almost unusable footage.

Oh, yeah. Hey, it's all good. This is going to be great. This is fine. And if it's not, we'll help you through it. And telling people fake reasons why you're filming a show, this is fine and if it's not, we'll help you through it. Yeah. And telling people, you know, fake reasons why you're filming a show, that's another thing

where every time I'm like, I hope this person's cool when they find out about their relationships. We don't do that. We don't do that. Yeah, but it's, you know, people will sometimes be, oh, you're, we're filming a show about ballerinas or whatever. 100%.

You know where we do tell people, like a fake show that we're filming is when we're actually, like when're outside or we're at like a like a coffee shop or something, you know, and like people just walking by the amount of times that people just stop because they see a camera. Yeah. And just hang out like they will stop whatever. I'm like, dude, don't you have a job like a job to go to, but they'll just stop and and just sit and pull out their phone and what are you guys filming? And so it's always like documentary. Yep. You know, Hey, we're filming a doc. Cause you don't want to like tell them the show. Cause then you're going to have, they're going to ask, can I be on it? Can you be on it? All this stuff. I, for a little while, just started making up crazy, like crazy shows to tell people that were just like walking by.

And can't, can't get too crazy though. Cause you don't want follow up questions. But that was season one. And I feel like now that the show's on, it's like, if I tell someone, then maybe they've seen the show, then I'm being an asshole. So I don't really do that anymore. We just say a documentary, but like season one before the show had come out I was making up the weirdest like I was saying like sister wives

I was just like saying whatever came out of my mouth. That would even say in a documentary You would almost make me worried that you would get the follow-up of like what's it about? Relationships. Okay, fair enough. And if you said that, I would be like, yeah, sounds like a boring documentary. It's super vague. Yeah, mayonnaise commercial. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. I heard, was it something that, I think, in ice cream commercials, they sometimes use like potatoes and mayonnaise because ice cream would melt under the lights. So you have to get stuff that looks like ice cream but isn't. Total side note, doesn't have anything to do with this. Potatoes and mayonnaise.

OK, you can't believe everything you see. Yeah, next time you watch a DQ commercial, have that in your mind. We're not even at Barstool Sports right now. No, this is all green screened. I'm literally in your mom's basement. She's a very nice lady. Yeah, I appreciate that.

Yeah, she is. I do want to talk a little bit about girlfriends. Any new stuff coming 2025 for you guys? Yep. We're in Jersey. She's a very nice lady. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yes, she is. I do want to talk a little bit about girlfriends. Any new stuff coming 2025 for you guys? Dude, a lot of new stuff. Because you guys, you have output for sure. A lot of music in a short period of time. We talked about that in our last interview.

You have like 40, 50 songs or something like that already. Yeah, dude. And I think last year we only put out one song. But we toured a lot. We were on the road. And we just didn't want to rush anything last year. Because bouncing around in between studio and being on the road, it was really tough to juggle those two.

Had a lot of writing sessions where we were just trying to figure out, I guess, the next era for the band. Um, had a lot of like writing sessions where we were just trying to figure out, I guess, the next era for the band. Um, you know, what we wanted things to sound like, what we wanted things to look like, obviously how you build that out into a live show. Um, but some things are about to be announced very soon that are going to be really cool, like bucket list things that I'm just really excited about.

And it was crazy because the last night of the Avril tour, we were in Canada, we were at catering, we had just finished our set. We'd been on the road for like two months, six and a half weeks. And there's this and there's this, I, I, I hate leaving for tour, and then I hate coming home from tour. Yeah. Because it's like, it's, you got to make sure that you pack everything right, and like, you're not going to forget anything,

and you know, hopefully you had enough rehearsals so that the first night of the show, you don't, you don't mess anything up, and all the gear works, and, and then the last night of the tour, it's like, I got to accumulate all the stuff that I got, like on the bus into my suitcase. I got to like fly home early in the morning. And then you're leaving the greatest summer of your life.

You lose the rush of it. There's nothing to replace that. So we're sitting at a table kind of eating after our set. And we're in this, we're in the hockey arena, you know, like just legendary shit. And I'm just like, it goes by so fast and so slow at the same time. So we're all kind of like bummed. We're sad that it's over.

We're a little excited to go home just cause like you miss your own bed. Of course. And you're tired. But we got an email literally sitting at the table. Me and Nick are on our phones, and we refresh. And he goes like this, and I look at my phone, and we open it. And it's an offer for something else. Because yeah, we were just sitting there. OK, cool.

What's next? We just did the biggest tour of our lives. Who knows when we'll get to do something like this again? And then literally as we're sitting there, the email comes through. And it just felt like fate. Some out of a movie. God was just like, here you go.

Yeah. It just made leaving just OK. Man, I'm stoked. OK, cool. This is great. Everything's good. Sick, we're gonna keep an eye on your socials and keep an eye out for that announcement.

We're like, we're like two weeks away from everyone finding out. All right, good. We're excited. When you go into the studio with Girlfriends, where do you like to go in, in terms of like progress on songs? Do you like to go in with a clean slate and say, let's write a song today, let's record it? Do you like to go in in terms of like progress on songs? Do you like to go in with a clean slate

and say, let's write a song today, let's record it? Do you like to go in with pieces of a song and put it together with Feldman or whoever in the studio? Or do you like to go in with like, hey, this is the song, let's record it? I think with my ADHD, it's like I'm a clean slate guy. I have a problem finishing songs. I love starting songs.

Because every beginning, it's endless possibilities. And then when you start, when a song starts taking shape, there's so many other ways that it could go. Or maybe, I think the hardest part, too, it's when you have an expectation of what something, like you want something to sound like. Because then you become attached to this idea, and it never goes how you think it's going to go in your head.

Um, and you know, when you're in with Feldman, like he's just such talk about output. Like that dude is, you know, we're writing like two songs a day with him, which is really cool. Also, cause it's like, if you don't like something, all right, well, let's finish this idea because in two months you're going to maybe listen to that folder and something that you didn't love today. You're going to be like, wait, why didn't I like this? You know?

And then you're going to write another one the same day. And then in like 48 hours, it's going to sound like a finished record just because that's how he produces things. He has it down to a science, which is really cool. Like that writing process, it's hard to beat because there's no, like spending four months on one song. Yeah.

You know? And I feel like when, when that happens, it's like, it, I just, I can't, I can't work like that. I get over it. I'm so ADHD, like, and I'm so like instant grati- like if I have an idea that I love, I want to hear it like now. And I assume you're working with Feldman on upcoming Girlfriend stuff as well? We've been in the studio with Feldman, yeah.

Cool. Which has been awesome. Yeah, last time you said he's basically the honorary third member. He is. Yeah, that's awesome. He's the ghost member of Girlfriend's. I mean, great guy to have as the ghost member, a legend of the scene, you know? Someone that really knows pop punk and anything associated with pop punk inside and out. Um, what is the best and then also the worst show that you've

ever performed? The best and worst show that I've ever could be, you know, before girlfriends as well. Oh dude, so many bad shows, so many, so many literal basements. You know what, like what was huge when I was, like, growing up and in the scene was, I don't know if they did it here, but backyard shows. Oh yeah. It was a huge thing, like, especially- It was more, I feel like, at least growing up, personally, it was more basement shows than backyard shows, but there were

backyard shows. Yeah, like, especially on the West Coast, it was like, you would go to someone's backyard, not in good neighborhoods, and it would be like a shitty PA speaker. And you would literally just set up drums and cabs and the microphone, everything coming out of just that one PA speaker. I mean, all the guitars. Nothing was mic'd. Drums were not mic'd.

No. Yeah. And yeah, you would just have like. Nobody's paid, right? Just for the love of the game. Oh, dude. Yeah. No. Free shows. Like nothing was my like drums were not mic'd. You know, and yeah, you would just have like Right just for the love of the game. Oh, dude. Yeah, no free shows. Yeah crazy pits like fights Cops breaking it up and there'd be like equipment like the next band that's about to play like their drums are like in the living room

Like about to get dragged out to like backyard, where the porch would be. People jumping onto air conditioning units. I gotta tell you, this kind of sounds like you're setting up the best show you've ever played. It sounds awesome. What's crazy is it was amazing. I remember we played a show at a mattress store like in a parking lot of a mattress store Wow like a mattress Depot Parking lot that was like abandoned and it got broken. It's see they'd always get broken up Yeah, by security guards by cops. So

Hopefully your band Got to play. Yeah for it's like the Beatles on the roof, you know, and they only got to play for X amount of time. So yeah, just like you at the mattress store thinking about, like, I wouldn't want to do that now, but dude, it was so, it was amazing. Yeah. I like, I didn't fully get to do that stuff. I played shows growing up. Um, but like we played like battle of the bands that were kind of in real venues. I played the stone pony like three times before I made it to high school. Yeah. I had to wait until about two years ago to play that.

Yeah. It's like, and my brother, my older brother's 12 years older than me. He is 10 billion times the musician that I will ever be. And he's the same way. He's like, yeah, I've never played the stone pony. My little brother's in middle school and he can't stop playing the stone pony stumbled backwards into it. So I didn't have that experience. I want to play. I want punk to play like backyard shows. I want to, I want to have the experience of what the fuck is up Denny's playing a Denny's. We played a Bojangles parking lot. So warp tour 2009, I was not officially on the tour.

I just followed the tour and I would play in a tent every single year. Um got a bunk spot on this band Attack Attack's tour bus. Yep. So Denny's, this is crazy about Denny's. Denny's sponsored Warped Tour. Yep. I remember. 2009 and the way that they did it is it was called like Denny's All Night or some like weird rock adjacent name. Yeah. And you would get, if you were one of the bands, I think there was like five or 10 bands on Warped Tour that did the deal with Denny's. Attack Attack was one of them. So I'd become friends with the guys, so I got the laminate.

And so what would happen is, after Warped Tour, you would drive to the local Denny's, the bands who were on part of that promotion. And you would sit down and you would order whatever you wanted. And then fans who opted into this experience would come around the Denny's and take photos with the band while they ate Denny's. I want to see these photos. Someone needs to do a photo book of Yes. Of like these pictures dug up from Warped Tour 09.

So you'd be like eating with like, the band would be eating. And then like fans would like come and like stand in front of the table for like their photo op where you're like crushing a grand slam. But the cool thing was that you didn't have to pay for any of the food. That is cool. And huge for bands on Warped Tour, you know, nine.

Yeah. I wasn't actually playing. Like I wasn't an artist. What do you mean by that? You weren't on Warped. So I wasn't booked. Like I didn't have an offer from Warped Tour. Yeah.

So what I did is I finagled this. So I had a buddy who owned a t-shirt company who was just kind of like, he had a brand, a t-shirt brand that was really big in the scene. What was the, can you say it? Um, I, uh, baby cakes. It was from a UK, he was from the UK. Um, and so he loved my music. I only had like five songs out at the time. It was like just on my space. I didn't even have like a real, you know, kind of thing, but I had fans online and he was like, hey, sell t-shirts for me and I'll let you play at the tent.

I see. Because he had this huge tent. He had like, you know, this insane pop up at Warped Tour every day and he's like, I'll let you play a set. And I was like, done. My other buddy was selling t-shirts and was like, hey, if you come and sell my shirts for me, I'll pay for a bus spot for you. And we're going to rent these bus spots from a band. And then we'll do that.

So I was like, cool. So every morning at 6 AM, I'd get up. I'd get the easy up tent out of the trailer. I'd go find a tent spot. I'd set it up. I'd count in his t-shirts. I'd go to my other buddy's baby cake's tent. I'd count in his t-shirts.

I would go back to the bus. I would burn CDs of my EP on my MacBook, like when you had a disk drive. And I would write my MySpace on there. Just to give out to people, sell. I had a CD player with headphones. I'd go walk the line. I'd play people my CD, sell them for $5.

Then I would go and sell my French shirts from whenever Warped Tour opened 9 or 10 AM. So early. Until like 1 or 2. At 2, I would take my lunch. I'd go back to the bus. I'd grab my microphone and my laptop and my little set. I'd walk over to the big tent.

I'd set it up through their PA. I would play a 20 minute set because I only had five songs. Kids would come into the tent. Then I would go bring my stuff back to the bus, go back to the t-shirt thing, sell t-shirts all day, break it down, count it up. So, dude, it was a grind, but I'd make like $100, $150 a day selling discs.

I didn't have, because no one was paying me. I was getting paid for a bunk spot, so I got to sleep on the bus. Then I was getting a slot. But the Denny's thing, I got to eat amazing every night. And then you'd have catering on Warped Tour. So during the day, I was good. But then after the shows, I didn't have to spend money.

And what Denny's would let me do, what would any band do you could order as much as you wanted? Wow, so I would eat and then I'd order like deal I'd order like three more meals and put them on the bus Yeah, and so I would just stack these meals. Yeah, that's us was smelling like eggs Bacon all that every day. Yeah, like I didn't eat Denny. I mean I Could not even look at a Denny's for like years after that. Yeah, I could imagine. But dude, shout out to what the fuck is up, Denny's. Because it literally, that's how this whole thing started.

Yeah, Denny's is for the scene. Always has been. Love that. We talk about a lot of geeky, nerdy stuff on this podcast. You have anything you geek out about Pokemon Yeah, just a huge Pokemon nerd I definitely shared a lot more of that like during like 2020 when I was stuck at home Yeah, 2021 and then the show started and I've been gone all the time and I I haven't had

As much time to like really kind of dive into that. But yeah, I started streaming like when everything was shut down and we were just at home, I started streaming. I was opening up packs. Have you talked to Ryan from state champs about that? I haven't. He's a huge Pokemon guy. Yeah, dude. I built up a, like a pretty crazy collection. I also helped a lot of people find their grail cards. Oh, that's fun. Logan Paul connected him with Gary, who he bought his first Charizard for.

Steve Aoki, I helped connect him to get his first edition Charizard. Almost better than finding your own stuff. It's like hooking someone else up and having them get a grail. It's like buying someone a great present. Yeah, dude. Me and Gary V, Gary and I would talk about Pokemon all the time. I met so many friends just through like collectibles. That's sick. Which is pretty crazy and then you know

like 2021 got to open up like some legendary boxes like you know 20, 30, 40 thousand dollar boxes of Pokemon cards. Which was awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. It's very my mom's basement. It's very this show. So I appreciate it. Personally, I can't pretend to be a Pokemon guy. I'm not anti-Pokemon.

I was just never into it growing up. I played some of the video games though. The video games were fun. I really liked those. Video games are sick. But just yeah, in general, I feel like it's a very my mom's basement thing. The fact that you're in a pop punk band into Pokemon,

bit of a nerdy thing, very cool. I'm building out another stream setup right now at my house. Oh, sick. So I just want to play video games with my friends when I have time. We're trying to do streams out of this room. I just did my first one this week. So maybe we'll do a stream together in the future.

This week, I tried Marvel Rivals, because everyone's playing that right now. That's exactly what everyone's telling me to get on. I know. Everyone's obsessed with it. It took me maybe an hour to get the hang of it. Because it's like Overwatch, right? Exactly, like Overwatch.

I've never played Overwatch, but everyone is telling me it's like a ripoff, basically. And then every week, they're adding a new kind of super characters and stuff. It's free, which is you know, very nice But once I got the hang of it, it was fun. I was a big apex legends guy I was on that from like season one pub G back in the day. I'm so bad at all of these games Oh really? I look like maybe I would be good at these games, I'm not. I suck at Call of Duty, I hate, like I cannot play Warzone for the life of me. I can't do Warzone, I can play normal multiplayer.

I'm a multiplayer, yeah. I'm multiplayer, like just- Give me the old school team deathmatch too, like I don't want to get fancy with the objectives and shit. I'll play those, yeah I don't mind. Give me like Domination or something. Dude, I'm Nuketown 24-7 right now. Dude, I can't even do Nuketown 24-7. I think I'm too old for it.

Really? I think it moved past me. Oh. The game passed me by. Wow. Yeah. That's sad. I go on there and it's like I flinch and I get killed.

100%. The youth of today. Yes. They're outrageous. I have to like, I can't play every day. I just like wait until, you know, until I really need it. And then I go and get my fix. But on tour, the only game that we play is NHL. Oh, really? Would like the modern NHL or NHL 2025. I think that 25, yeah, like 2k 25 or

whatever. Um, that's all we played on the Avril tour. It like, well, it's like a tribute to Canada tour. Yeah. But also, I mean, the year before that we were on tour, Pierce avail is just NHL 2024. So it is the best multiplayer game when you're like around, like on a tour bus with people. It's even cool just to watch other people play it. It is. It's like fun. Yeah. Super competitive. We have tallies that we like. Do you play as the same teams every time? Does each of you have a team? Two teams. OK.

Who are your teams? Two teams. I was running with the Dallas Stars a lot. And then I was running with Golden Knights. Oh, Vegas. Shout out Vegas. Yeah. And I was just absolutely just destroying.

Are you the best at it? Me and Nick, we had a tally on the board. And I think this tour, I took that. Edged him out a little bit. Last tour, he definitely ran with it. And yeah, I had to come back with a vengeance. Yeah. All right.

Well, thank you for coming in. I appreciate it. Help, I'm in a secret relationship is back on MTV. So watch the new season. Obviously, a lot of episodes are going to be coming out soon. So I'm excited a Secret Relationship is back on MTV. So watch the new season. Obviously, a lot of episodes are going to be coming out soon. So I'm excited to watch them all. It's a perfect marathon. Help I'm stuck in a Denny's.