The Downbeat - Andrew Tkaczyk - The Ghost Inside

Episode Date: January 30, 2020

My guest this week is Andrew Tkaczyk, drummer of The Ghost Inside. On November 19th 2015 TGI and their crew were involved in a horrific tourbus crash which resulted in Andrew losing his right leg above the knee. Against all odds, Andrew (with a little bit of help from his father's ingenuity) is back RIPPING the drums. We obviously talk about the crash, but also his father's invention that allowed him to relearn the drums, his solo project One Decade, and his unlikely friendship with Travis Barker. Andrew is an amazingly positive soul and I had a great time talking to him. I only nearly cried like once.

What's good? All the people in the podcast land. No, the real land. I'm in podcast land. You're actually in standard earth. Or maybe you're listening to this from... This is proper shit like radio banter, isn't it? Shit patter.

But maybe you're listening to this from an alien world. And I'm long dead. And this is like you've uncovered this in the fossil remains. of what used to be Earth and my home, which hopefully was nice and hopefully I didn't leave any porn anywhere. I don't have any physical porn.

No one has physical porn anymore, guys. Most porn is stored on the internet. And if you're still that alien man listening to this, or woman or genderless, actually definitely genderless by that point, pornography is basically just when you watch other people having sex usually doing more exciting things than you would do and things that you're too afraid

to tell you a significant other to do and then what you would do as we used to have genitals back then back now but you're listening to this from the future and you would just rub your genitals for a bit and eventually

it would feel quite nice all at once and depending on which gender which is actually what we used to have, we used to have genders. Depending on which gender you are, would depend on how quickly you could reload. I imagine you still have weapons.

Probably the only thing that survived. Hi, that was insane. I'd better be quick and plug some shit before I get into it, because I waste it quite a lot of time. Got new T-shirts. Oh, there's a new drop of T-shirts. www.

the down-b-b-a-t. So it says the downbeat. There's new, there's three, two shirts. One hoodie, which is the best fucking hoodie on earth. If I say so myself, I didn't design it. I just gave the people the ideas. Tom Bornerale designed it, very talented man. There's an, a long sleeve by the same guy.

It's got a classic, like sort of all your favorite 80s satanic bands vibe to it. There's a T-shirt, similar. Orange T-Dee. shirt, nice, vibrant. And then there is a forest green t-shirt with a logo designed by the guy that did the emperor, wolves in the throne room. I think he did the satiricon logos, maybe even the Mayhem logo. I basically told him I wanted a shirt that said the Downbeat podcast in a metal style and he's the king of black metal logos. He said, what do you want it to look like? I said, I don't want to be able to read it and also make it look like a load of twigs. And he did that and that's a great

t-shirt. She'd probably pick one up. If you like the podcast, even if you get halfway through this, you know what, I fucking like this. Do one, because I ain't going to try

and sell you a mattress. I'm just not ever going to do it. And, you know, I really need the money. So, come on. Go on, go on, www. the downb-e.

dot a T. Get one. My guest this week is for sure the most requested guest ever. And I originally put it off for the longest time. Just because I just told him, if you ever want to talk about what happened, a podcast is open.

I'm not going to push it because obviously it will get a lot of listeners and I don't want to be like a grief tourist. So we left it and then I bumped into him in Australia. We both played Unified Gathering and Unified Gathering and Unified. gathering, Unified Gathering, Unified Gathering, and he said he was ready to rock. So my guest is Andrew Takachik from The Ghost Inside. Now, if you don't know anything about heavy music, the Ghost Inside were in a horrific bus crash in 2015, and Andrew lost his right leg.

He is right-legged, right-handed. He lost his right leg. Sadly, two people died in the crash. Andrew lost his right leg and he is a right-handed drummer. And against all the odds, he is ripping behind a kit. His right leg is amputated above the knee. He is ripping double pedal. It's a crazy story.

It's super uplifting. It gets a little bit dark, obviously. I can't thank him enough for coming on and sharing it and being so open with it. there's a lot of me just sort of going, fuck, because I don't know what to say. But he's such a nice guy. He's so funny.

And I had a really good time chatting. I don't want to say good time because a lot of it's quite morbid. But he's a great guy. Andrew? Can you hear him barking? I can hear your dog barking. That's fine. He picks and chooses.

How are you? How are you? man, how are you? I'm fine. I've got to get your name pronunciation right. I'm pretty good at this usually. Is it Andrew? So it's Andrew, yeah?

That's correct so far, yeah. Right, so far, that's great. And is it Takachic? So close. Instead of Takachik, it's Takachic. Takachik, right. But I mean, you basically got it. Usually people say Katzik or ketchup up or something's

so wrong. I'm getting used to it. Where's the name originally from? It's like it's very Eastern European, Polish, Czechoslovakian. I was told recently a little bit of Russian. I don't know if I believe that, but I'm going to claim it. Nice. Yeah, definitely claim that. How's things? Good, you've got your floors put in. We had to put this off until your floors were in. Yeah, yeah, they're finally in. They just have to come, put the transitions in, and then repaint the drywall on the bathroom. I had a pipe burst in a sink I had redone a year and a half ago. What they did was, yeah, I guess what happened with the other company that did these renovations way back. I guess they popped a nail through a copper pipe.

And over a year and a half, that nail rusted and corroded and snapped off, causing the pipe to burst. And it spewed gallons of water up into my floors. Oh my God. For I don't know how long. It could have been going on for like three days for all I know. I went into my bedroom and I had carpet in the bedroom and hardwood everywhere else. And then. Oh, no.

Yeah. And I was in my socks and I was in my wheelchair. And I put my foot down and I feel soaking wet. And I look down and there's like a puddle and I'm like, oh, God, Hank got in here, my dog and pissed on the floor. Great. So I, like, smelled my foot to see if it was piss. And I'm like, that's not piss. And I soaked it up and it wasn't yellow.

It wasn't piss. And I was like, shit, this is bad. So I threw the old prosthetic leg on, went downstairs. And it was fauceting out of the ceiling in the basement, like, Home Alone style. Oh, my God. That is literally my worst nightmare. I'm currently in the middle of, like, starting to renovate my house to sell it. Oh, okay.

And stuff like that is what I think about at night. There's like, there's like an area of the wall where, you know, when you use like a wet meter thing, there's like an area which is slightly more wet than the rest. And I was like, oh my God, I've got a leak inside the wall. And then I got someone in and whatever paid them to fucking check it out. And it ends up is just salt. Oh, my God. I just got salt. I got one salty wall.

Yeah, I mean, dude. I don't know what that means. Got a salty ass wall. It's, uh, dude, it's terrifying. Like water, water damage in homes is the absolute worst. It's so detrimental. And when we were in Australia, Zach and I, um, went out to Australia a couple weeks early just to hang out before Unify. And Zach had got a call from his neighbor that his garage flooded.

Holy shit while he was away. While he was in Australia. So he was getting phone calls at like 3 a.m. Brisbane time from like people at his house to like let him in to fix it and shit like just disaster. Yeah, I mean this in the nicest possible way. But when did the ghost inside do a Ouija board? A Ouija board. Because because that is crazy bad luck. I know.

It's fucking insane, dude. To be honest with you. Both of you having two floods is very. is very similar. That's a demon, my friend. Dude, for real. When I, uh, I moved into an apartment before our accident, it was like January of 2015. And, uh, the first night in my apartment after I had moved everything in and gotten settled, I got out of the shower. And the mirror on the wall, like, my back was turned and it just fucking fell and crashed and broke everywhere. And I was like, oh, mirrors, seven years

bad luck. Sick. So you got two years left? Yeah, almost done. Jesus Christ. How was Australia? That was when I saw you. Yeah,

dude. Australia was amazing. Yeah, my girlfriend and I, her mom, she's from Australia. She's originally from Newcastle, but grew up in Brisbane, and her mom still lives there.

So we decided to go early and spend Christmas and New Year's there and hang with her family and all of her friends and stuff. And it was so, awesome to leave Michigan winter for Australian summer. Man, same. I had the same thing.

Yeah. I got burnt on day one, but it was a glorious change of pace. And now, are you back in Michigan and it's fucking cold? Yes, it's horrible. It's absolutely miserable here. It's like so fucking depressing, like cold, gray, mixed with like rain and then it just freezes the snow and melts and. got to worry about flooding.

I'm looking out my window and it's exactly the same situation. Yeah. But the problem with Australia is it's so far away. Otherwise I would go all the time if not live there. Dude, I know. So far. It's too fucking far, man. But it's the best place in the world.

It's seriously like probably my favorite country to visit out of all the countries. What's number two? Number two? I'd say, Hmm. Give me top five. Let's go straight in on the top five countries. Top five countries.

Okay, so Australia is definitely number one for me. And I haven't really put much thought into this. But I guess I'll go based off of playing shows there because that's the only reason I've ever been to any other countries was to play. Yep. Yep. I'm going to have to say Germany because the shows are. insane, but also spending so much time there, I've realized over the years that Germany is just really fucking nice. It's super clean and like, I don't know. It's sick. I think Germany's underrated in the places to visit category.

A lot of your lot, I mean American people by saying your lot, United States of America. That is not South American people. Correct. Yes. They, a lot of the, you just hate Germany. A lot of people just hate Euro touring because they don't go out and do things and all the venues are like on industrial estates. So they assume that's what the whole country's like. Yeah. But you've obviously been out and experienced the rich tapestry of Germany. Yeah, yeah. No, I've always made it a point to go see stuff when I'm traveling.

So I've definitely gone and seen like the cool, all this, you know, the centers of every city we've been in. And it's just, it's great. I love it. Um, let's see. Number three, hmm, I might say Russia and specifically Moscow because, um, I really love Red Square and where like the Kremlin is in St. Basil's Cathedral, all that like really old architecture there. It's just it doesn't feel like planet Earth. It's just crazy.

Got this crazy vibe. But other than literally Red Square in Moscow, like, I'm good. but it's high up there because of that spot. I feel like you can't put Russia in there because because of the rest of it. The rest, yeah, but I just, that place I think is so sick and I love it so much that I throw it in there. I'm also, I haven't ever put a top five in,

so I'm just pretty much just trying to feed you here. Another. Come on, come on, give more. Another one, this would be four. I think Prague. Czech Republic. So we're at one of the best places. We're in a lot of Europe right now.

Let's see. Also, I think five, and this might be in no particular order of this list I've just given you, but Thailand. Only being ones. We did Bangkok in Chiang Mai. And it was just like seriously just so far from. anything I ever thought I'd experience, like their culture and seeing all that. Our entire Southeast Asia thing we did, I mean, we played Vietnam on that. And we played, you know, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, Hong Kong, all those places.

And that was just an absolute trip. But it was so sick. In Thailand, we went to this spot that we got, um, we got these like really expensive suits made for super cheap. It was like a tourist thing we were told about. We all just got... Oh, we have heard about that. It's made for no reason. Absolutely no reason.

That's so fucking sick. Wait, did you have days off in Thailand? Yeah. Just to have like... See, we didn't do that. When I went, we had one show, and it was in Bangkok, in a bar, which was called the Immortal Bar. And it was themed, the...

The themed like the band Immortal, but in the middle of Bangkok. It had a logo, it had the immortal logo and black metal shit ever... everywhere, but it's like in the middle of Bangkok. It was fucking crazy. That is fucking insane. It was so sick. But then we like flew out immediately afterwards so I didn't get to see anything. I went to one like creepy fucking club that was like, okay, this is, this is where people go to solicitate sex.

Oh, yeah. I'm going to leave. There's that whole, uh, that whole strip right there in Bangkok, the soy cowboy. That's where it was. That's where we went. So this, uh, this, uh, this. other band from Bangkok who played, I think we played two shows in Bangkok. And this band called Anna Lin opened our shows. And on our, like first or second night off or something, we were

saying in a hotel like downtown. And these kids in this band, Annalin, great kids, they like met up with us. They like, oh, we want to take you to a ping pong show. And we're like, I would love to see some some tie dude just ripping ping pong balls just super intense fast-paced ping pong like that's sick that's cool that's you know being american that's that's that's what i thought you know where i'm going with this yeah baby yeah and we ended up in a strip club where strippers were smoking cigarettes with their vajajas and shooting pop on popping pink combos no it can't be good no it can't be good for the womb no no no i don't think that's good Good. But it was

fucking fascinating to see and I'll never forget it. Amsterdam's another good place for our old ping pong show. Never been to one. And a banana show. Oh, wow. Healthy. That's healthier. Similar thing. I really thought you were going to say Japan.

Is Japan not in your top five? You know what? Japan was awesome. Probably not in my top five. You know why? And everyone in my life gives me shit for this and you probably will too. I know where you're going. I know where you're going. I know where you're going. Come on. I want to hear what you think. I'm going to say. You're going to say I don't like sushi. How you doing? You win. You're correct. I don't like seafood. I don't like sushi or anything. So I was

eating fucking burgers the whole time. You still like you, you still get like good beef there and stuff. And the place is still cool. You know, we also weren't, we weren't there like super long either. So. I think we were there for like three nights, had a show two of them. We only had like one day, really, to go hang out in Tokyo. Oh, man, we always fly out early. You definitely need to do that if you ever go back over there. Dude, yeah. Going to see the sites in Japan was awesome.

Like, super sick. We visited some temples and we went and saw just all the touristy things you can do in one single day in Tokyo. We also played, I believe it was. was Osaka and Nagoya? Yep. Can't remember for sure, but yeah. It would have been those two.

It was actually when I'm pretty sure Crystal Lake, who are killing it now, they opened the shows and I think they were pretty relatively unheard of in the States. Yeah, now they are absolutely killing it. Yep, and they're sick. I love that band. Yeah, the album absolutely fucking rips. Yeah. So, right, we've done your top five bands.

We haven't done your top five bands. That's right at the end. We've done your top five, whatever the fuck. We were just talking about countries. We didn't finish five, but I'm bored of it now. And you don't know anyway. So we've established that you like some things. Les, do you want to move on to the fact that you fucking absolutely ripped in Australia,

like absolutely perfect? and you have one leg. Oh man. And the leg that you don't have was the leg doing all the stuff. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. That's an amazing compliment. I appreciate it.

Yeah, it's fucking crazy. Yeah, you know what? I was going to ask you. I think didn't you guys have to bounce kind of soon, like after we started? We didn't fucking play until 12, 25 in the morning. Yeah, we watched like three quarters of the set. Oh, six. That's awesome.

We didn't bounce till the end until the next day. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Before I really knew you at all, but I was in Shrey. I cried when I watched the video of you when you first played the drums again. I'm quite emotional person. And then I cried when I watched you play the drums. Not like a big old boo.

I was like, this is so mental. and I just had a little cry. I feel like crying right now. I'm emotionally, emotionally disturbed. I like you put it that way. How the fuck... I don't know where to start with this. I don't have any notes.

This isn't a professional podcast. Talk it. I want to talk about the gig first before we get into how your leg isn't there. Which I imagine we'll talk about. Because I was trying to look, but I was staged left because that fucking stage hand guy was such a dickhead and wouldn't let any,

do you remember that guy? Wouldn't let anyone watch from stage right? Dude, I pulled up like Kubla Khan had already started and I've never seen them and I fucking really liked that band a lot. And I wanted to watch them and that dude like, he like wouldn't let us go, but there was like 14 other people walking right past us. And I hated that I had to do this, but I literally like pulled the dude, I'm in the headlining band.

Like, I pulled that card because I wanted to see them. And he's like, I don't know. Are you sure? And I'm like, yes, motherfucker. And he just wouldn't let us. And by the time, like, we, I think Kublei Khan only had like two or three songs left. And then they finish. And I was like pretty bummed.

I didn't get to see him very well. I caught like a song from front. But yeah, that guy was a straight up asshole for sure. He was the, he was maybe the worst stage hand that I've, or stage manager or whatever that I've ever. bumped into you. Anyway, so long story short, I'm on the left side of the stage so I can't see the money. I can't see what the fuck is happening. I can hear that your feet are fucking perfect, but how the fuck does it work? So, um, it's crazy how it happened because um when I, when our

accident happened, um, you know, uh, everything happened and I was conscious and I could, I was aware of my, I could tell my leg was broken and I was laying there, um, like in the debris. And I, I knew it was bad. I was in and out of consciousness. But like, for the most part, I was aware of everything. I could hear everyone and all this stuff. And then, you know, fast forward a couple hours. I was medevaced in a chopper to El Paso University hospital. And, um, there they put me in a coma for 10 days, medically induced. And then when I came out of the coma, it took like three days to for the effects of Whatever they put in your body to put you in a coma to wear off like I was still like hallucinating while awake, but They told me like three days later I had lost my leg and um I was coherent enough to like

Take that and like not you know I wasn't like on these crazy meds enough to like you know not take it Seriously. So like they told me that and I I didn't even know this for three days. I was laying in bed without a leg and didn't even know it. Like that's how crazy that shit is. Holy shit. Yeah. And I looked down and like my parents were there and they told me and they were obviously super emotional. But I just like looked down and I was like, give me my phone. And I just started Googling prosthetic legs. Drummers missing limbs like obviously Rick Allen came up and I had. known about that before anyway. And I was just like, my, my brain just went into like, okay, fuck this, I got to figure it out mode, you know? Like immediately, like day three. Instantly. Instantly, like, as soon as they told me. And, you know, you know, fast forward, you know, two and a half, two years, well, actually no, fast forward like a year and some change. and then I got my first prosthetic leg and meanwhile

the doctor that I had in Michigan here he was also a drummer so he like fully understood like the physics behind what I need to get back to it and like when I need when I explained to him like what I'm gonna need he got it you know what I mean like it was just a crazy coincidence man yeah

that was just a coincidence that you didn't pick a guy that was a drummer nope I had no idea dude They put me on a fleer jet from El Paso to Grand Rapids, Michigan. I landed and got, you know, hauled into my room where I'd be staying for the next month over Christmas and everything. My doctor came in and meet me. He's like, hey, I'm Dr. Stephen Bloom. Hey, I'm a drummer too.

Told me about his band. That kind of shit makes me believe in God. Dude, it's crazy. It's some crazy shit that makes me question, like, you know, like things happening for a reason and things meant to be. Like there's a lot of, a lot of things that have happened even to this day that blow my mind. But yeah, like, you know, when I got my first prosthetic leg and I started to learn how to walk on it, I got comfortable with it, took a few months, whatever, and then I started seriously thinking about, okay, I need to like see about playing drums with this prosthetic leg.

And so the hospital up there in Grand Rapids, uh, I worked with a bunch of, um, prosthetists and other doctors and professionals up there to try and brainstorm ways to make this work while playing drums with a prosthetic leg above the knee and uh they made me one that was like it just kind of like very stiffly stuck out and angled down like in an l shape from the from the tip of my my limb so it just like stuck that way. So that would be like my drumming leg. And it just like I was having these issues with like, you know, that fake ankle and fake foot would just, you know, as I would play, it would just veer off. So it had to be bound somehow. So I met Garrison from from DW. Actually, Jay from Slipknot is the one who introduced me to him. And turns out Garrison has a place in

Michigan close to me. So he drove to my house and they had made me a set of DW 5,000s that had these really strong Velcro straps, um, like bolted into the right footplate. So that would strap over my shoe and it, my, my foot wouldn't come off, right? You know, it wouldn't yeah, fear off the pedal. But, um, and it worked. But after a while, I was just like, I can't get that stabbing power. Like, I, I've always like hit hard and I'm a heel up. drummer footwork wise i i i like smashed the kick drum and i just you know my right was quiet and my left was normal and loud and it just was like not not working like i got really really bummed out on it and i kind of like went to this pretty dark place about like i just don't even

want to play drums anymore it's not the same it's never going to be the same this sucks and my dad you know and i i went i went back to stay with my parents post-accident for two years, you know, while I was recovering, I had my family there to help me. And my dad is a tinkerer. He's a woodworker. It's a hobby of his. He makes things all the time. And he told me, he saw me struggling and saw that I was like losing that, that fire that I have always had to play drums. And he came up to me and he said that, uh, since day one in the hospital in Al Paso, when they had to take my leg, he had envisioned this device in his head because he immediately was like, he's going to have to be able to play drums with a pedal that comes up to his, you know, I have just like a little,

a little limb, a little stump right there. He's going to have to have a pedal that comes up to that height, so he has no restrictions. And he went in our garage. and fucking made it out of like spare materials and wood that he had laying around his garage and his workshop like the base of it is in a coffin shape and it's like a countertop wood and then he like bolted my pedals down and bolted this this metal rod that goes up to about like your snare drum height and attached to the end of that is another pedal it's just like this leather pad so And then there's four legs that keep that sturdy and in place.

So you attach it to a kick drum like you would normally and I take the prosthetic leg off and I'm playing with this pedal that's up as high as my snare drum with just my stump. And I was fucking blown away. Blown away. I was like, holy shit.

We like both broke down into tears and like, I was like, this is going to fucking work. I can like tell this is the, we're on the right path. And like, that's it. I ran with it. And we still are continuing to make revisions on it. And I think there's just so much more that I can do with it to help me even more.

But, I mean, that is what got me out of a rut and made it possible. Just this thing my dad dreamt up in his head, which is fucking insane. Man, that's the fucking coolest story ever. Like, no offense to DW, but. like biggest best hardware company in the world can't do it and your fucking dad does it yeah and all these like doctors and medical professionals and people like they couldn't do it either you know like pretty pretty insane yeah um i think my dad's very proud of it rightfully so he should be you know i can't imagine you know putting myself in his shoes when we played our comeback show in

LA and he was there for him to be out there and see like our crowd we had and that we like got back on stage like that had to have been proudest moment you know for a father like man just just so sick man so that was the thing I was looking at and trying to figure it out because it really does come up super high yeah I assumed that was like because I couldn't really see I assumed you were resting maybe your like hip on there and you still had a prosthetic leg But no, you're actually just connecting to it. So what do you call it? Is it called The Hammer?

Or is that just the Kubla Khan song? Yeah, it's actually called The Hammer. That's actually, my mom is the one who thought of the name. She just like, we should call it the Hammer. And I was just like, that's fucking sick. It's a whole like family, family operation. Man. Yeah.

Have you, like, been in touch with any other drummers with like a similar situation? or are you the only guy? You can't be the only guy. No, yeah, there's plenty of drummers out there that have lost legs and other limbs that are back to playing drums. I was in touch with this dude, his name's Jason Barnes, and you may have seen him. I think he had like a viral thing going around Facebook a few years ago, but he lost his, I believe, right arm above the elbow. and he made his own prosthesis. I have seen it.

You see that it's got like a drumstick that's like attached to this swinging hinge and that's how he gets the action of swinging a stick. It's fucking insane, dude. And he's back to it. So I've chatted with him a bunch here and there. I actually, I can't remember if I messaged him or he messaged me, but it was on Twitter and it was very soon after the, accident, but Rick Allen, like, uh, I got in touch with him. And he said like, hey, I'm sorry to hear this. He's like, I know what you're going through. Um, like, let me know if, if there's anything I can do to help. And then, really, that was kind of it. I didn't really hear much from him after that. But, uh, yeah, there's,

and then there's, there's, there's just, you know, I, I definitely, that's a, that's a, that was a hot topic for me to research after the accident was like, drummer's missing legs. And there's more than you, think out there. Yeah. Rick Allen, I'm fairly sure. I mean, not to disrespect Rick Allen or Def Leppard, but it's not ghost inside. It's not ghost inside double pedal. No, for sure.

What you're doing is absolutely amazing. Yeah, like the difference is like, you know, pour some sugar on me versus like, you know what I mean? And it's also my right leg, it's my right leg, dominant leg so even yeah even more oh I met this other guy uh fucking he's the man his name's cactus mozier and he's winona judd's uh husband and he lost he's he's a drummer too he's the drummer of her band and he lost his left leg above the knee in a motorcycle accident

and he got in touch with me i talked with him a lot um the man and yeah there's just like the The support groups and people that I had, it wasn't even in an actual support therapy group, just like our fans on social media and our label and management, all of our friends and other bands and all these people I met just, like, made this so much easier than it could have. I mean, it could have been so absolutely miserable, but I just am very lucky to have all these outlets and all these people to talk to about it and resources now. you know.

It's fucking so, I'm like just speechless, just taking it all in, which never happens on the podcast. Usually I talk more than the other person. I'm a talker sometimes, dude. I got to work on it. I'm a talking son of a bitch. I don't have to do any fucking work. So at what point did you do your solo stuff then?

So, yeah, like I started working on the one decade stuff. I would say, I think it was probably January of 2017. I was, uh, it was sort of right in the middle, dude, of like that, uh, that kind of like little rut I was in where I wasn't feeling drums and not, didn't want to play, but I was like, just itching to be creative and get creativity out and ideas. And I've played guitar actually longer than I've played drums. And, uh, I've, I've written a lot of me. music and I'm just like a a songwriter type, you know. So it's always been probably even a,

if I'm being honest, bigger passion to me than playing drums. Like I love playing drums and I love playing drums live, but even more than that, I like writing music and, and, uh, and creating. So 2017 when I was in that rut, I just kind of was like, I got to do something. I got to like, just I have all these ideas in my head and I want to get him out. So that's when I started doing it. And I called it one decade because I'm, dude, I'm so, I don't know how you are. If you've ever tried, have you ever named any of your old bands? The, um, no, I've never named a band in my life.

It's fucking hard coming up with a name that is going to sound cool. Like, I had so much trouble with it, so I just tried to, like, think of something that, like, represented me. And the music I had, I didn't think of the name until way after the music was written, but what I was writing was like this, you know, gentie, groovy, melodic, heavy, but not, like, overly technical, crazy. It's still, like, it's got a little bit of technicality to it, but mostly it's, like, catchy stuff. And, and it's just kind of like a combination. of like my influences and heavy music that I've learned since the day I went on tour till the day of the accident which was 2005 to 2015 one decade and that's just kind of how I came up with it boom there it is you know what's sick about it it's maybe the only one of those like

instrumental genty bands which is written by a drummer I think that's why I like it so much because the grooves are all correct. Oh, yeah. You know, like some of these bands with the program drums and stuff, the grooves are the guitarist just following his frets. Yeah, it drives me fucking mental.

Yeah, no, for sure. I, uh, yeah, that's obviously like, you know, and I, and I, I programmed all those drums. Those aren't, that's not me playing drums. A lot of people probably think that. And I remember seeing comments when I first release it, like, dude, you're back. He can play.

And I'm like, Well, no. I mean, yeah, but it's still like, you could definitely play it. There's nothing unplayable one there. No, no. I, yeah, no, I'm a firm believer in making sure even if it's programmed that it's possible, you know. But, yeah, no, I paid a lot of attention when writing, I would write the riffs, but I would then construct the drums around it to, especially with my flavor. Like, I'm, God, I'm obsessed with just like triplet kick fills all over the place, just flopping feet.

around and there's tons of it in there. And splashes. I remember Drew, Drew put it on in the van and I didn't know that you'd even done it. I think you might have sent Drew some stuff early. Oh, I did. And I was like, I woke up and I was like, who the fuck is this? And he was like, it's Andrew.

And I was like, what? It was like, and then he explained the whole thing. I was like, fuck, this is so sick. That's cool. Yeah, it's fun, man. I love doing it when I have the time. There's so many nice splash fills in there. Yeah, there's a splash in a film.

And, you know, I wouldn't normally, I don't use a splash when I play drums in real life, but like, I was using the, uh, the, uh, the kit, the, the program that the periphery guys made that get good drums. Yeah. Nali and Matt and Misha and, uh, dude, just those, those drums sound awesome. And I mean, there's, there's a few little extra little flavors in there. So I, I was playing around with splashes and I was just like, oh. cool it's different something i wouldn't do so i threw some shit in i have a thing with dan from architects where we have to add something every album cycle so last album cycle i i added i think

he's on like 11 symbols now last album cycle i i added a splash oh sick i added a little mini hat and then next time i'm going to add a mini china and we're just going to end up looking like fucking lamba god lamagod but dan's is like dan's is like dan's is like dan has like three crashes, two mini china's, two sets of hi-hats now. It's just because he just adds one thing every fucking album cycle. Oh, that's amazing. And then do you guys, do you guys like stick to it and keep with it, like even on tour? Yeah. That's amazing. I fucking love. It sucks more for me. It sucks more for me because I don't have a drum tech. But, hell yeah. Dan's like addicted to just adding stuff as well. Oh, that's amazing. He's,

he's fucking phenomenal person and drummer. He's just the best. He's just the best. Yeah, dude. That's so funny, all these little, like, all these little things we have with our friends. We're all kind of in the same circle of friends with these, you know, like architects, straight, ghosts inside. All these bands are like buddies, and we have all these dumb inside jokes and things we do. It's amazing. I love it.

I mean, even before this podcast earlier, me and you made a new inside joke, which was just playing word association. Yeah, yeah. It just happened organically. And we were killing it too. I'm going to read it out. Yeah, read it. You ready?

Yeah. Rock music. It actually started like this. Do you want to do this podcast in 55 minutes? You say, yes, sir. And then I say rock music. You go tour, touring musicians, bunks, green rooms. I say illegal peats.

You say Denver, CBD, marquee theater. I say, it's legal here, bro. The right strain. You say, the acacia strain. The Joshua tree. Bono. Mono, the band. Kissing disease.

Mono the disease. And then it just goes crazy. At one point it gets to tooth and nail records. And then nails, the hardware item. Teeth, the mouth item. Horse, the band. Band of Horses, the Neil Young album. And then I made a meme, which was just a picture of someone's nice nails.

and it says nails. And then we started the podcast. I love it. It was a good warm up. It was an exercise. We were getting our brains. You know, we were getting our brains.

Yeah. I'm fucking lubed up after that. You just do it every day. Hey, here's a thing. Whatever happened to your comedy shit? Oh, yeah. I was, I was going to continue doing that.

And then something came up. You know. wait wait what happens yeah it was just yeah after everything happened i just like obviously had i just had no time or like and couldn't move so uh you know that just kind of that just kind of fell off so me and dragon neck have been writing sketches we have so many sketches i think you have so many sketches i feel like we could do a nice sketch comedy series i think we actually could and I would love to get into that world. I've always wanted to. And like, I think if like, if we all just sat in a room and just dicked around, we would create skits just

from nothing just by being idiots. Like that's how, like I do it with friends and like my brothers all the time will just riff off each other with like stupid impressions and then like it'll turn into things that have story. I mean, dude, I have some fucking crazy shit. We should do it. I'm so up for it. I have a notes thing on my phone

from when me and Dragon Neck are doing exactly what you're saying, but we do it in the van. And I have a notes thing. It's like five pages long. Oh, it's so sick. Dumb sketches that we've come up with. And because he does all the video

and his misses does like prosthetic effects. Oh, yeah. Like the possibilities are endless. That's amazing. Just like, slam it up on YouTube. Yeah, it'd be amazing. I'm seriously so down.

I don't know how we... I'm going to send you after this. I'm going to send you my notes thing. Yeah, I want to get down. If you're into it. I love Neck so much. Oh, he's such a funny fucking bastard. He's getting on the podcast.

Dude, he needs to do it. Yeah, I scored one of his short horror films. Did you do the passage? No, I did the lights. Oh, the alien thing. The alien one, yeah. Man, that's so sick. Yeah, I was stoked because we had been talking.

Like, I'm always like, dude, if you have anything, let me, I was like, I want to score something. I want to do something with, like, horror movies and make creepy shit. And he just, one night he's like, hey, I have this idea. We're going to film it in, like, two days. I want you to do it. And I was like, fuck you. I got right to work.

So sick. Man, when he sent me that, I was actually blown away. Yeah, he's insane. It's like a short, a short film about a fucking alien abduction, isn't it? but it looks so high budget. It seriously looks so pro. It's crazy. He's a fucking freak, man.

He's so good at it. If anyone doesn't know, he does all the stray videos, and he just, like, levels up. Every time we do a new video, it's like, he'll send it back, and I'm like, this looks like it cost us a million dollars. Dude, yeah. And it costs us $3,000. Yeah, he probably just, like, wanted, like, ramen, and that's it.

He really does want ramen. Yeah, he did a, he did a, he did a, ghost and side video too the video for Move Me. Fuck yeah and he's just getting better all the time. Anyway let's stop sucking him off. Do you want to talk about the accident? You talk briefly about it. Yeah. I've got some questions but we don't have to

No, I'm good, man. Hit me. I'm an open book man. Is it all like settled so you can talk about whose fucking fault it was? That I can't. I can't talk about. I didn't think so. Okay so change that. You've said said you were pretty much conscious for the whole thing.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, um, dude, it's fucking crazy. It's, it's, it's, it's pretty unreal. We played Lubbock, Texas. It was on November 18th, 2015, Lubbock, Texas at Jake Sports Cafe. And, uh, we had like, uh, I think it was kind of a late bus call that night, uh, uh, And it was just us on the bus, us and crew, and our driver, obviously.

And then I think it was a late bus call by the time we left. Everyone was already asleep. Everyone was already passed out in their bunks. And, I mean, for the most part, I just went to bed and woke up in hell. Like, I have a faint memory of hearing a loud bang. and feeling kind of the van bump, but it was like I didn't feel the impact on my body.

It was like, it was like having a dream, but you're half awake, so all you see is blackness and you just hear a bang. And then I, and then I don't remember anything else but waking up and like looking up in the sky and we were in the middle of the desert. We were like super close to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

We were in route to... Was it daylight? Yeah, it was. It was nine in the morning. So it was, it was sunrise already. It was bright. And yeah,

we were, we were, you could just see the sky. Yeah, I was, I woke up, I was on my back, sitting in a bunch of chunks of sharp wood and metal.

And it literally looked like a scrapyard. Like, there's no other way to describe it that it, other than it looked like a scrapyard. And for a second, I fully thought like I was, dreaming and this is this isn't real kind of thing and then i realized that it it happened and all i could smell was diesel fuel and um i was just laying there and i could hear i could hear my

guys screaming like fucking could could could could hear it but like i couldn't really i couldn't really like turn my my my my torso or like my pretty much my whole upper body like shoulders to waste i couldn't really turn or or or anything all i could really do was kind of tilt my head up just enough to like look down at my feet and uh when i realize this was happening i i couldn't feel the pain of my leg but i knew that something fell off and i looked down and my right leg my heel was where my toes should have been. Oh my God. So, so I, I like put my head back down and I was like, well, it's in my head, I'm going, it's for sure broken. Like, this happened. This is real. Holy fuck. And then something, something in me, I just started telling myself, catch your breath, breathe in throughout,

in your, breathe in your nose, out your mouth. Don't let your heart rate get, elevate too high. Just, just breathe. breathe in deeply and out deeply there will be you know ambulance here whatever police here soon first responders just get to the hospital i was i remember thinking in my head literally i was like i this is not it i can't i can't be done right now i have to i i my family needs me my mom my dad my brothers you know my friends like i was just like this isn't gonna be how it ends. Like I was like, just breathe and control your breathing.

And that's what fucking got me through it, dude. Like, I literally just, just like, in through the nose, out the mouth. So I, like,

went into fucking Zen mode. And I was in shock, so I couldn't feel pain. I felt fucking nothing, dude, nothing. Felt no pain. I just breathed in and just kept doing that.

And, uh, dude, I didn't feel like it. I mean, I guess it kind of did, but, you know, I heard first responders start showing up. And Timmy was my, Timmy toured with you guys, right? Yeah, I love Timmy. Yeah, he's the man. And he was, he was my drum tech.

And he, I remember one point, he, like, came up to me and was hovering over me. He's just like, you want some water? And I was like, I was like, yeah. And he, like, very carefully poured a little bit of water into, like, just little drips of water so I could. have something and uh and then he he walked away and then i started hearing first responders showing up and um it was this is when i started kind of going in and out but like still can just fully remember um and uh i remember hearing people you know police and in paramedics talking and i swear to god like something in my brain i heard it wrong but i swear i heard someone go yeah chris is dead

So I was laying there. And that's that what that didn't happen. He he survived. But like for like an hour, I was laying there thinking that my friend died because I thought I heard someone say it. That's fucked up. And yeah. And then I guess we were laying there for like two hours before anyone showed up.

And, uh, or actually, I think people showed up like an hour maybe into it. And then it was another hour before everyone got put in. an ambulance or in a helicopter to get to the hospital. An hour? Yes. Everyone just fucking.

Everyone lay in there and screaming, yes, because we were so fucking far. We were so far out in the middle of nowhere, desert El Paso. And yeah, got to the hospital, all that stuff happened. They had to take my leg because it was infected. It became like septic gangrenous. And they just, they tried saving it and they just couldn't. It was either take my leg or I was going to die. And my dad was there and he's the one that he had to sign for it.

So you can imagine how hard that would be for a father. He fucking built you the new shit. He's redeemed himself. Yeah. And I also, I mean, I thanked him for making that call because they showed us what quality of life I would have had if they had been able to save my real leg. This doctor, like, got up, and he goes, yeah, if we can save it as it is now, your son will probably walk like this for the rest of his life.

And he demonstrated walking, dragging a dead leg behind him. He demonstrated. I'm sorry, I'm laughing because I'm so uncomfortable. No, it's fine. He did. He did, though. Like, he's like, this is what he's going to walk like and, like, walk with, like, dragging his leg.

And I'm so glad my dad. dad was like, no, take it. Because with my prosthetic leg, I don't have to drag it. I can at least walk. So I'll take that over over what he was saying. You know what I mean? So. And then, uh, yeah, man, there were like first responders that like came back to the hospital,

like a couple weeks later to visit us and check on us. Like two of the guys, I think one of them was like a Marine or, or, uh, Navy. Maybe just army. I don't know. But military, these guys, they, they said like, Yeah, we've been, uh, we've been, you know, out in the field and we've seen, uh, like, hummers and tanks get hit with RPGs that look better than your bus. Fuck. That's how, like, that's how like much of a disaster the, the bus look like.

And, uh, that was crazy to hear stuff like that. They also told us the stretch of road that we, our crash was on, uh, I guess. people in that area call it the Bermuda triangle of El Paso because they said there's just been countless accidents right there where it happened to us that like they couldn't really ever figure out what happened

that's fucking spooky. There's a lot of spooky shit around it man. It's crazy but do you know what I feel like on this podcast just to change the subject a little bit because I can see the waveform right and it's like you talking and then I just go fuck I feel like you know when Joe Rogan has

someone who's way cleverer than him on it. And they're like talking about fucking the science of sleep and all this shit. And he just goes, yo, bro, fucking whoa. It's just because I can't add anything. I can't, all I can do is listen. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, like you said, you were even, I mean, at least you were like courteous enough to be like, hey, is there anything you don't want to talk about? And I'm like, no, I'm good. Like, I'm, I'm totally comfortable with talking about it.

So I also like you're maybe if not the most requested guest to have because everyone has that fucking morbid curiosity I guess and also wants to know how the fuck you can still shred but I remember telling you because somebody said you were up for it and I remember just hitting you up saying I'm not going to pressure you but you can come on as soon as you want and or you don't have to or just if you want to come on and just talk about other shit then just do it. Yeah.

Yeah. And I get loads of people are like, you should get Andrew on. And I'm like, I'm not going to fucking pressure you to do it. Yeah.

It's obviously a horrible thing to talk about. Even like, I taught, I did tissue. I did, uh, Timmy's first tour back was with us. And he,

you know, he didn't lose a leg and he's still fucked up from it. I've taught with tissue since then. You're a sound guy. He's still. fucked up from it. You lost a fucking leg. So the last thing I want to do is like bring it uploads. I mean, I know I just said you lost a leg three times now. So it's all good. Dude, I don't know, man. Everyone, everyone deals with things differently and processes things in their own way.

And I just, I guess just the way I am, I just do it differently. And I don't know. I, I, I don't ever have a problem talking about this stuff. You know, the one thing that, that is most, annoying is when a stranger will come up and just so bluntly go, it's kind of fucked up, but I make a joke about this sometimes. Literally this guy once came up to me and goes, where'd it go? No. I swear to God, in a grocery store. And I was like, huh?

He's like, how'd you lose it? Where did it go? Yeah. Oh, he went to the shops. I went to the fucking different shop. It's gone to the blockbuster. Yeah, it's fucking. Dude, yeah, people just like, like, the people that come up like that, it's like, oh, it's so punishing, dude.

And like, they'll be like, oh, what happened? I'll be like, oh, I was in a horrific accident. My tour band, or I just fucked that up. My rock band got in a tour bus crash. You know, like, I don't want to say that. I'll just be like, I was in an accident and I lost it. And then they're kind of just like, oh. And it's like, yep, anything else?

What are they expected? Where's the conversation go now? And then, like, some of them will be like, oh, man, well, like, this happened to me and this happened to me. And I'm like, okay, so now, now you're comparing? Like, I'm just trying to buy, I'm just trying to buy, like, a Gatorade dude. I'm out of here, you know? That can get annoying. Uh, yeah, lemon lime, dude, classic.

I'm an ice cold lemon lime. I used to be a blue Gatorade guy that's strictly. But it makes my poopies a funny color, like green. And I don't like that. Yeah. So I've switched to the glacia cherry. You know the white one? Yeah, that's a fucking banger.

Also, yeah, green poop. No, thank you. Not for me. I don't like it. For me. Whenever it happens, I'm like, what's going on with me? How do I fix this? What do I do?

Some sort of gatorade poisoning, I think. No, but I hate that with anyone, let alone, I can imagine it's mental with, you know, actually what you're going through, but people that compare shit. Like, I know, because that will be comparing. But it sucks.

When you've gone through something and somebody, it's totally different. It's not a physical thing. I went through some like mental stuff recently. And all anyone wants to do, because I put it on a podcast because I was like, I don't give a fuck, I'll talk about it.

But all anyone wants to do is like, they'll ask how are you doing for like maybe upwards of you know between 20 and 40 seconds of how's all that stuff and then it's like well I'm going through this and this time I went through this

and I get it if that's maybe your therapy but please don't talk to me about it and I can imagine with what you're going through it's times a fucking thousand I think we're just as humans we're just curious we're curious creatures and yeah just it depends on the way

you bring it up There have been people complete strangers that have come up and been like, hi, like, I don't, I don't mean to, if, to, like, offend you or anything, but I am genuinely curious of, of, of how this happened. And if you don't mind. And when they bring it up like that, like, I'm fine with it. But it's people who come up and, like, tap me on the shoulder and they go, how'd you lose your leg? Just like, I mean, get out of here. The former of those is still crazy to me. Like, I don't, if, I see anyone anywhere. That's like there's none of your fucking business. But the other one the second one that you mentioned is in my head no offense, such an American thing. It's so fucking American. I don't think that would ever happen

over here. No one would do that over here. No probably not. We do the first one, definitely. Yeah, and it's different when like two, you know, if there's like, you know, fans or people that are curious, like I'm totally cool with it, like, you know, as long as like, I feel okay with it. It's kind of a situational thing, I guess sometimes. But, you know, if I were not, you know, in my situation I'm in now and I saw someone who was, I would just let, leave them be. I wouldn't be like looking down at it. I mean,

maybe I would when they weren't looking, but. Yo, so let's talk about Will Putney and being in. a band that's recorded an album with Will Putney. Oh, I fucking love Will so much. He's the man. Yeah, we hit it off, like, right away. Is that the first record you've done with it? That's the first record we've, yeah, this one, this new one's the first one we've done with Will.

Yeah. Have you got a name for it? Is it common knowledge? We don't, actually, I don't think we have quite settled on a name yet. But the record is done. And literally as of like last night, it's like we're like listening to the mix and all this stuff. So super exciting. Wow.

Yeah. Is that common knowledge? Have I got a scoop? We have definitely been alluding to it here and there on social media. Like, geez. Oh, yeah. I saw Vigil talking about mixes on his Twitter, I think. so yeah and like even like actually it was about a year ago

uh was january of last year the guys came to my house to i have i turned one of my bedrooms into a little studio set up and they came out so we could kind of start writing it diluzia again yeah are you tapping your air pods by chance uh i can't remember maybe i did does that hang up is it i think if you double tap it hangs up oh yeah one was kind of falling out and i did push it back in maybe that's what it was. I won't touch them from now on. Are you still recording?

I am, yeah. Okay. Did you finish what you were saying? I did finish. Shit, shit show. What was the last thing you said? No, it's not your fault. What was the last thing you said? I was saying that a year ago, around a year ago today. Yep, the guys came and we started writing. And did Will come to you or did you go to Will? So we, um, when we got a hold of Will telling him we were in. interested in him producing the record. We also had Jeremy from a day to remember on board,

which we've had on the last two records. So how it worked was we first initially met up in Orlando at Jeremy's studio and Andrew Wade's studio to like do these pre-pro demos and stuff. And that was in May of last year. So he came there and we also all flew to Florida and we spent like, I don't know, two or three weeks in Orlando. And then we took a little break because we had to do our comeback show in July

and we had to prepare for that. So we did that. And then went right back to Belleville. Good old Belleville, New Jersey to finish, actually track the record and all of that. So. All right. The Downbeat podcast is making Belleville a visit,

like a tourist destination. Because I've done two episodes, there and everyone that comes on has been there and recorded and we all talk about how shit it is but actually how fucking sick it is so true it's just a vibe there's just a vibe with all the guys in the studio oh i love them all steve and randy and geo matt all those guys are so sick and it was so fun hanging out and working with everyone yeah and it's it's like the most charmingly uncharming place ever, like, hanging out out front next to the dumpster with, like, the piss mattresses.

With the piss, with fucking, what are they calling him? Mush. Mush. I was going to, I was going to say, like, squish or some fucking shit. Yeah, mush. Fucking mush. Mush and the piss mattresses. Yeah, fuck that guy.

Oh, man. How much did you, did you hang out with Steve a fair bit? Steve is fucking unbelievable human. I did. I did. There was, there was a few nights where well. had like a quick little project he had to work on on the side and uh Steve would come in and work with us and dude there was one night where we like we didn't do shit we were just like showing

each other our favorite like really dumb YouTube videos and like listening that sounds like terrible bands and like that's all we do when we're there it's my favorite fucking thing to do and Steve's always got a new one Steve's so good he's just like he's got like a really like low soft spoken voice but everything he's says is like funny bangers. He's like that type of humor. Yeah, he's awesome. We often share our favorite

like memes with each other, like the Kerger Bing, which is that Burger King weird one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. The Pebbis one. Yeah, Pebbis and Pankox and weird Steve Burrell type lingo. I was just going to come out with a good,

with a Steve classic, but it's so insane that I can't. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I just can't put it out there. It's not like mega offensive. It's just so insane. I would like his permission before doing it. I think once he came into the room and went,

yeah, I'm going home now, guys. I'll see you in hell, but I'll be in heaven. Oh, that's so sick. And then he left. That's another thing too. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, like, dude, the way they talk to each other has rubbed off on me so much. Like, I find myself, because we spent so much time there,

I'm always going so sick or like insane or like oh disaster person like that's how I talk now they fully like that's it's so will partner disaster person yeah dude it's fully rubbed off on me and I love it um yeah he he's amazing dude will is a fucking maniac dude there there was a day uh iced tea was in there and uh we went in and because because we were we were about to start, but he was doing some stuff for body count real quick. And then Ice-T came out and we were all hanging out in, like, the very front room with, like, the couch and the TV and all that before you go into Will Studio. And, like, we were just chatting with him and stuff.

And then Will comes out. And Ice-T was like, he's like, well, you guys went to the right place, man. Will Putney is the Dr. Dre of Metal. Wow. Yeah. And, like, he walked in, he left in his fucking Bentley. And then, uh, uh, oh. I just looked at Will.

I was like, iced tea just called you the Dr. Dre of metal. That's unbelievable. Why hasn't Will told me that? Do you know what? I thought you were going to say that. I thought you were going to say,

ice tea comes out and goes, where'd it go? Yeah, but, dude, he, he's also the man. But yeah, like,

can you imagine that compliment? Someone giving you a compliment like that. That's so insane. It's, it's, It's the best compliment you could possibly have. It's the best. And, uh,

yeah, so, dude, Will is just a maniac, man. Like, we, uh,

um, I did like, um, I, I'd say it's probably fair to say I did, like the majority of, like the writing and even the playing, like,

uh, with guitars and stuff. But like, everyone had their input. Like, everyone did, everyone did multiple things and performed a multiple things on this record, which is awesome.

everyone sang something like everyone like played an instrument even vigil like does like a ring out on a guitar just so like we can say everyone did everything on the record it's awesome but uh will and i when we sat down and like just started riffing uh when we were in florida it just clicked immediately like we both knew where each other like where our heads were at with like where we wanted with like direction and like rhythms and stuff. It was just so fucking easy and natural, like, it was such a good experience, man. I loved it. He's the man.

What, and what's the mix like? King of the mix? It's a Will Putney mix, man. He's, he's, he's a doctor Dre. He's the Dr. Dre. A metal. And that's fine. It just gets better every record as well. Yeah, dude, the drums

are so fucking sick, dude. They just sound oh, we use that snare, dude. I know you love that snare, that VK. use the VK or use the bell brass, the tamer? The VK, I believe. Oh, wow, that's sick. Maybe it was the Tama. Jesus, why can I remember?

Was it a Tama with a VK hoop on it? That's what it was. Yes, yes, it was the brass hoops, yeah. Will Putney owes me so fucking bad for that, right? So I came to do Only Death is Real with Stray, and I brought my Tama bell brass, and then Will's like, I need one. How can I get one? And I was like, okay, so I'll buy one for the states.

You can split it or whatever and we'll just leave it here. And then when I flew back to do internal automics, I brought my VK hoop. And the same thing, he goes, ah, I need one. And then I was like, let me speak to the guy from VK. And I told the guy from VK was like, look, Will Putney really wants this. I didn't say this, but he's the Dray of Metal. It will be on every recording coming out of graphic nature. Can you sell me another one at a cheap price?

And the guy from VK was just like, just give him yours, and then I'll give you another one. Oh, sick. So I gave it to Will out the kindness of my heart. I believe he said, oh, thanks. And that was it. He didn't even buy me sushi or anything. That sounds like.

Oh, thanks. It sounds like Will. Sounds like Will. That sounds like him. Oh, that's sick, though, yeah. It's the price you get for the Dr. Drey amount. Yeah. Let's do your top five bands.

I think I've taken enough of your goddamn time. You can give me a top five bands. And we'll talk about them a bit if we've got any in common. Okay. Because you've got shows coming up, but you fucking, they sell out immediately so no one can get tickets. There's no point in plugging it. Yeah. Yeah, we got the...

Have you got the... Tentative album release time? Or can you not talk about that? I don't think I can talk about it quite yet. But I have a strong feeling that we'll be able to talk about that soon. So be out of look at for that. I got. Immediately fucking advertisers' voice.

Okay, give me a top five bands. Give me some five to one. Or are they in no order? This is in no order. Okay. I might have to do some thinking, too. I'm going to come out the gate with misery signals. So many people say this on the podcast,

and I have nothing to add because I never got it. Yeah, that... What's your fate? Edit of Malice, is that your one? That's the one to go to. That is the one. I tried it again recently because I'm going through a like, oh, a miserable phase.

And, you know, that's like along the same lyrical ballpark as, like, poison the well and shit like that. Yeah. And I tried it again. I just can't get into it. I think if someone were to hear that record for the first time now, I don't think it would have the effect it had, like when I heard it when it first came out in 2004.

You know what I mean? I think it's like one of those kind of things. But yeah, just that record, just probably the biggest influence on my style of writing and just, I mean, I still to this day, like once a month at least, I'm playing that front to back.

that record like 100% um nice let's see give me another band so I can talk about it another band oh god I haven't put much thought into this either I gave you pre-warning I think I gave you two days it's more than most people listen man I was talking about my tragedy I couldn't think about bands oh god I love it I love it you know you got a joke you got you got to laugh you got to laugh about it um here's another one uh man this is more of like a for me top five records um another record i'm always blasting to this day you're always twisting the top five rules yeah i'm fucking your shit up aren't i you are fucking the shit i but carry on uh you know what it else what else it is too is like when i'm put on the spot i like it's an obvious

answer and I just can't think of it. My brain goes 48 hours of notice is not being put on the spot. Go on, give me this record then. I would say under oath, they're only chasing safety. Everyone that says misery signals also says under oath. Those records came out at the exact same time too, so that might be something to do with that. Hmm.

Let me think here. Definitely blink 182 for me. Okay, now we're talking. What's your, what's your favorite blink album? I would have to say, probably Enema of the state. Classic. Number two? Number two, probably self-titled.

And then number three, pants and jacket? That's correct. That is, I would say, the correct order. I would say maybe self-titled goes number one for me often because I'm an emo. kid? Dude, it's so good. Yeah. I actually more, as of as of more, you know, the more recent years, I actually, I probably

listened to that one the most. But when I was like, you know, little kid growing up when I first heard, what's my age again and all that? Yeah. That's it. The drumming. Dude. Yeah. The drumming is insane.

And speaking of, speaking of that, he, Travis is also someone who was a big help to me with our with our stuff um really yeah i met him through the a day to remember guys and uh we chatted at the at the show and he just told kevin he's like yeah give him my number and all this stuff and he's like he's cool like i'd like to talk to him more and for about like two weeks i mean i was just it was just me and him texting and like talking about you know what he went through with his plane crash and the crash and like how sorry i keep fucking up your top five bands thing going off on another tangent but this this is absolutely fine yeah this

is worth talking about naming fucking one city instead of a country no but Travis barker texting yes right yeah and like like there's like two weeks like he he fully took the time to like have real conversations with me. And like I told him where my head was at and he was like, this reminds me of, you know, where my head was at too and was a guy who was just super reassuring about about getting, me getting back to it and telling me like that it's possible. And I like, I bought his book and read it and dude, he's just, he's the fucking man. He's so sick and so easy to talk to and relatable, you know?

So that was really huge for me. It was also right in that weird little rut I was in. So that helped a lot. Man, that's fucking cool. Yeah. It's so cool to hear that he's a cool guy because he seems like a cool guy. And he's such a sick drummer. He's so sick.

He now is even twice the drummer he was back then. Oh, he's incredible. Yeah, it's fucking crazy, dude. Yeah, he's insane. And like, I mean, an absolute influence on my drumming for sure, without a doubt. Oh, 100%. Blink fan before I ever even played drums, you know? So, like, that was one of the things, you know, that especially, you know,

enemy of the state when that came out, the drumming was the thing that stood out the most to me and fucking made me want to play drums. That and Slip Not Self-Titled. And at the same time, like, I'd never heard anything like the blink drumming, though, because before then there was never like techy fucking sick drums in what is essentially pop music. Yeah, for real. Like pop punk band with like crazy technical drums and like super composed drums. He writes drum hooks, dude.

Yeah. He writes parts that. And there's never been someone since, even in pop punk. No one does like, no one rips as much as he does. No. No, it's crazy. He's the goat. And like, yeah, he writes drum parts that.

even just everyday normies know how the drum part goes he writes drum hooks it's fucking sick nice okay that's a good blink chat we finally got a good chat in your twisted top five okay two more um you're probably gonna hate these because i'm uh i'm a fan of new metal to this day i still am uh seven dust wow great drummer i couldn't name you a song but i know the drum is fucking sick. Morgan Rose is so fucking sick and just has the most insane groove and all that stuff,

like home and animosity was so ahead of its time. Like, uh, that's just a band I still listen to all the time. Uh, yeah, absolutely love Seven Dust. Tom puts them on quite a lot in the van and I like it every time, but then I never go and listen to it. But I remember Morgan Rose having those sticks without. the tips.

Oh yeah. Back in the day, I was like, what? Yeah, crazy. Does that even work, bro? Bro, is that work? So Tom was rocking seven dust.

Because I remember he came up to me once and he's like, he's like, hey, tell me about Seven Dust. He's like, I want to give him a shot, but like, I want to get why.

And I think I kind of told him just probably more or less the same thing I just told you. So that's cool that he actually listens to him now. Is that a thing? Yeah, he got it. It's awesome. You did it. You spread it the word.

Spread it the word. Yeah. Oh, number five You're a fifth one And then we're gonna bounce Yep I would probably I'd probably say deaf tones

Nice Now we're fucking cooking my gas What What's your favorite Def tones This might be The unpopular opinion If you say gore

I'm deleting the entire Fucking podcast right now It's definitely not gore And I wouldn't blame you I would I'd be pretty bummed out Myself Okay good

Coino Yoken. Wow. It is controversial, but it's not Gore controversial. No, but it's, and you know, I obviously like, you know, around the fur is what I first heard. You know, I actually, you know, around the fur is one of the first songs I ever, like, tried to learn on drums. So, like, that was a huge record. And then obviously White Pony. Everything they've done is solid gold, in my opinion, for the most part.

But I think Coino Yolken. is solid, solid duty. Yeah, I was pretty, I was pretty fond of Gore. It could be, but even just, yeah, I don't know, man, like diamond eyes and then Koi No Yoken, and then Gore came out, and it just was a little bit of a letdown. I'm not going to lie. But, uh, damn, Koy No Yokin's so good, man.

You just can't go from having, like, Terry Day, literally the best drum sounds in the genre, and then having us out. album that sounds like a blackmail album. Yeah, it's so weird. Yeah. Like, how good is, oh my God, my AirPods are going to die.

How good is the drums on White Pony? Like, how many sound guys ring out a room to digital bath, you know? Every single town guy on that fucking earth. So good. Even like fucking around the fur, my own summer, the snare, that little Tom snare, boom back to guff, it's so tight and cracky,

but, yeah, it's so good. I actually know I found out from his drum tech what those snares were. So the digital bath snare is a 13 by, no, it's a 14 by 6, Orange County 30 ply with two vents in it. Oh, wow. And the around the fur drum is a. 13 by 6, I want to say. Same spec? That actually doesn't surprise me.

The 13. Cool, yeah. But the digital barf ones are 14. It doesn't sound like it though, does it? Cramped, like a motherfucker. It is so cracky, dude. It's mixed so sick. It sounds incredible.

The whole album fucking rips. And he's such a great, creative drummer. He really is, dude. And watching him is like effortless. And he's always rocking, like, relatively unheard of bands which have sick drummers. I remember seeing them about maybe six or seven years ago and he had a Gojira t-show on.

And I was like, this motherfucker knows what's up. So sick. You know, before Gojira, like, blew up. Yeah. Talk about another insane drummer. Jesus. Yeah. Gojira, like, Gojira drift in and out of my top five.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, they're incredible. I've got, like, a top three and then two that sort of... What's your favorite Gojira song? My favorite Gojira song is such a deep cut. Oh yeah? It is...

It's one of the bonus tracks on... Hang on, my dog needs letting out. You are ruining the podcast. I'm surprised my dog's been quiet. De-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de. It's called... This... I can't even remember what it's called

because I just know it's the secret track. Not the secret track. a um it's like a b side or something on the the slipcase edition of l'an font savage um this emptiness that's what it's called um and it's like a track 13 or whatever it's not on the normal album but it's fucking crazy heavy dude hell yeah they're so good yeah i think mine's mine's uh mine's probably a common one flying whales it was the first one i ever heard and it still is just fuck

so good have you seen that video of them playing it live in the studio yeah actually I have I definitely seen that they're so tight dude

they're such a machine it's insane unbelievable I speak to the Mario like sometimes on Instagram and I tried to get him on the podcast a couple of times but I think

he might be slightly worried about the French English vibe oh sure well if the good I'm a translator. I'll imagine that if it was just some sort of weird translator lady over the whole podcast. I'm not having that. I think we're going to call it there because I've got to make dinner.

What are you doing for the rest of the day? I don't really know. I think I need to go grocery shopping. That's one thing. Other than that, dude, I'm probably going to play Call of Duty. I just got a download code for it yesterday and I spent all evening getting it downloaded so I could play it later. Do you want to play it together? I do.

Are you, it doesn't matter what you're on, but are you PS4, Xbox, PC? I'm PS4. PS4. We can still play because it's cross-platform. What are you on? I'm on Xbox. Oh, good, you're not on PC. Let's do cross-platform, but only console people, because fuck playing against PC.

Oh, no, yeah, nightmare against mouse and keyboard. Do you have a headset so we can chat? I do, I do. Oh, baby. We're going to rip. We're going to rip later. I play with Adam Gray quite a bit. I mean, and by quite a bit, I mean,

nah, every day. Just about every day. We just talk shit and play Call of Duty, and he's a psychopath at it, like pro. It's fucking crazy. Is he? I'm going to be shit, but I was good at Battlefield,

so I'll just, it would take me a minute to get used to this fast-paced action. Anyway, thank you so much. Dude, of course. Yeah, thank you for having me on, man. We've been wanting to do it for a minute. We made it happen.

I'm so glad. What we're going to do, we're going to do a fake goodbye, and we're going to stop recording, and then I'm going to still speak to you for about one more minute after that. All right, sounds good. Okay. Bye.

All right, bye.