The Downbeat - ARCHITECTS | DAN + SAM ON ANXIETY, MEETING FANS + BREAKING THE USA.

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

My guests on the podcast this week are Sam Carter and Dan Searle of Architects. We managed to have a quick catch up before their set at Welcome To Rockville to talk about how hard it was to finally break the USA, on-stage anxiety, meeting fans, and more!

What's up guys? Welcome back to the Downbeat Podcast. My guests from this live but not live, welcome to Rockville are my mother freaking boys architects. Dan and Sam in the house. Back again. They were the first proper video episode, gotten back, managed to grab them for an hour and a half before they play Rockville tonight in about 10 minutes. They're currently on tour in America crushing it, but it wasn't always like that. So we talked about the early days in trying to make it over here. We also talk about on stage anxiety, something that me and both of those guys suffered and still suffer from sometimes. We also talked about meeting fans in public, stuff like that. Before we get started, if you want to support a podcast, there's three ways to do it.

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Check it out. It's Dan Searle and Sam Carter of Architects on the Downbeat podcast. Welcome. Do you want to do it? Everyone does that. Welcome to my podcast. Do you think my text tone is bad? No.

No? We don't text much, though. We just FaceTime. We do FaceTime. But Hayato admitted earlier that he thinks I hate him when I text. I think that's just more of a professional dynamic that's playing out. But then Madison backed him up. I'm his girlfriend.

It's not a professional dynamic. He just texts like a serial killer. She just says that as well. Maybe it's a British thing. I think it's a British thing. My text, not in content, but in style. It's like one word answers, no capitalisation. That's my texting.

No, I'm like that as well. Yeah, I get a key to that. I keep it very basic. Yeah, it must be a British thing. Hi, guys. Hi, hello. Welcome to Rockville. Yeah, nice weather.

It's fucking horrible. Code red right now, or is it? Code red. Code red and another code red on its way. Yeah. Do you think you get pushed back? Yeah. I don't know.

It's fine. We were supposed to be on at 8 anyway, so 9, 10, 11, it's fine. Second, no, you're last on your stage? Yeah. Oh yeah, you might just get like a nice nighttime. MySpace stage. I'm calling it the MySpace stage. Why? Just now. No context.

Well, there's like the Death Corps stage, which is like, what would that be, the summer slaughter stage? Okay. And then we've got the MySpace stage. And then there's like the Warped Tour stage. And then there's like the proper band stage. That's the main stage. So bitter. Proper band stage. So bad. The Pfeitor.

We went at that stage. We saw Ice Line Kills. It was very good. Yeah, I think it's going to be great. Do you know what? We've done the main stage other years on these types of American festivals and in Europe as well. And it's although, obviously, you know, we've been a band for a long time and you have to take out a magnifying glass to see us on the poster. The actual show.

The actual show is better for us on the small stage headlining. Yeah, night time. Normally in Europe we're headlining those ones. You are breaking America now, though. You've still got that fucking... Some spots feel really cool, but it's been a long journey. But it does feel like when we play like a major city, it feels like a good time.

Do you guys use to hate it? Yeah, it was funny because we played in Vegas on this tour. So this tour's just been like smaller cities that we haven't played. Some of them we haven't played since literally we first came here 18 years ago. and we played in Vegas it was the house of blues and it was like how many years ago did we work out? I think it was like 15, 16. We played there with Birmingham the Horizon and Parkway Drive

and I think it was like towards the end of the tour and Sam said on stage at the end of the set that we're like this was like our last song was like this is the last time we ever play in the US we're never coming back. On stage? Yeah, on stage. Classic Sam. Yeah, classy. Toys out of the bram.

Yeah, but I mean and it's not just Sam. We had discussed it. I didn't do it on a whip. Oh, right, okay. I didn't just phone my toys out of the tram. It was like, we're not coming back. Just say you're not. We made the decision.

It's over. The real problem for us at that stage was, and I don't think they'll mind me saying it, that tour didn't do well. And now people would think, well, bring me the Horizon Parkway Drive, architects would be a big tour. But it was like, you know,

between 500 and maybe the big shows were like 1,000 people. And we thought at the time, well, if Brimel Horizon and Parkway Drive are drawing crowds that small are we really going to grind for the next however many years to get to that size just didn't feel worth it?

Of course, now it's changed and obviously the rock and metal was just blown up really big now so there's a lot more you can achieve. It's crazy if you think they're obviously one of the headliners of this festival. We're headlining a stage.

Parkway were high up on that stage every day that that was doing 1,500 people is nuts. It's fucking insane. I said it on stage in Vegas as well. It's like, we were here with Bring Me Parkway and I said it's like, you could see people being like on the same fucking night. And no one was there and you were like, yeah,

and I said we weren't coming back. And we did 100 bucks on merch, that show of Vegas. And we went and just put it all on red or whatever and lost it all straight away. But, you know, if you lose, 100 bucks. Didn't do it this time? Too big. Too much.

Where was last night? Last night we had a night off in Orlando. So the show before that was in Rally. Yeah, we were staying down the street from the stadium that was hosting the Rolling Loud Festival, Playboy Carty headlining. And our hotel was like not the place to be. So at 10pm we bounced and went 20 miles out of the runway. Oh, what? It was just fucking those people crazy.

Yeah, we thought when this festival ends tonight, it's going to be just like carnage right now. But where were we the day before? Raoul, you just said, really. North Carolina, it was an amazing show. Really good, really good vibe. So after saying you weren't going to come back. Yeah, but we just played Corpus Christi and stuff.

So it hasn't all been good. Yeah, how was that? Really bad. Obviously, some people from Corpus Christi will watch this and it's a shame that I've said that, obviously. But it can be cut. You can just say. No, don't cut it.

Sam was ill. It was unbelievably hot. And it was the smallest show we played in a decade. Is it not fun, though? Other than the psychic damage. There's nothing wrong with a small show as long as there's like a buzz and enthusiasm in the audience.

Fill in the gaps. You were unwell from Mexico. Oh, we all got it. It swept through the... Was it food or... I don't know. I think it was like a... I think it started with food, but then I think it became this like viral thing

that was going around everybody. Other than Allie. Other than Alley. Yeah. Allie's Iron Stomack Yeah But it was Yeah

Those that I won't remember that show But the rest of it has been good It's been really fun Did Austin was great And Vegas was great Someone shit in the bed

Yeah Adam did Can we talk about I don't know I don't know He wasn't very well But it was that bad Yeah it was that bad

Yeah That bad In 20 years It was the earliest I felt Going on stage I had I had absolutely nothing to give.

We were getting a shuttle in LA and Adam, we were like on the highway. And Adam's like, I think I'm going to be sick. I'm like, okay, let's try and pull over. And he's like, oh no. Did he say, oh no? I think so. In my head. In my head, it was like a cartoon.

And it was just like, he was behind me and the vomit just came in like the tide under our feet. Wow, that's quite a nice. I've only ever shit myself as a grown man short of, after I broke my back. It just happened, but it didn't happen at the time. Was it anything to do with the breaking of the back? I don't know. It was the only time there was any sort of hint of maybe

there's a nerve problem that's happened. I was washing the dishes. Did you get some anxiety that you had nerve damage? After that, before that, I didn't. And then I was washing the dishes, just suddenly shit my pants. Not even like a fart or anything. That is a worry.

Just like evacuated the bowels. Never trust them. Never trust the fucking fart. Well, we've done that. Mexico itself was amazing, though. Unbelievable crowd and just such a cool place. We went for some great food that came back to bite us in the ass. But the actual place, the crowd's unbelievable.

Mexico City is amazing. Amazing place and, yeah, the audience is amazing. Just so loud. Are they way more psycho in the crowd? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, whenever you go more off the beaten path,

the crowd is more feral. There are some exceptions like Corpus Christi, but mostly if you go off the beating path, like the crowd is, like, more up for it because they're more starved. You can take your ear out at any point, and they're just all singing along to everything. You know, it's not like the big hits.

They're like the whole way across it, you know. Yeah. Which is always just a sign of like a... Yeah. Just a really up for it crowd. If I hear someone singing a riff, that's what I know. It's like... It's fucking...

Yeah. Yeah, we've got a thing here where, like, it's always hard doing our set list. It's different in different places, right? because the band sort of took off at different moments of the band's career. So, you know, like when we really, when we released Lost Forever was when the band like really started to take off, right? Especially obviously at home and in Europe, Australia. But here, it didn't, it happened a bit here on that album.

That was the first time we got a foothold here. But like when we play that stuff, the older stuff here, it's, it can be. Completely dead. Yeah. The other night, I'm not going to name the show, but we played Gravedigger. Sam made the grave error of giving like a start, bitter and then some. Autopilot. I was in Autopilot.

Yeah, he just did it on the autopilot down to the ground. Because I didn't give it out to the crowd and Corpus Christi. And it's just one dude for the first time. One dude singing along. Wait, well, well, the start of Gravedere, yeah, okay. Bitter and then some. I've never. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets?

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Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Said it. Oh, okay, yeah, so you're always playing it in places that fuck with that song so much. That you left it for the crowd. Corpus Christi, I was like, I'm gonna sing it. And then the night after, I was like, oh, they probably know this. Oh, it was so...

It's been taken out. It got taken out. Out of the set after that, we're like, no, that's... Yeah. We always had that with stray. The internet, love them. For what it's worth of the internet, love them. But we'd just be like, you've got to play Damien.

Why don't... They don't play negative and violent anymore. And then we'd play it and be like, okay, well, you know, particularly US. We would always be US comments. Play it. Same thing. But we play Greg Digger in Europe and we'll play colours.

And we've... Any time we've put in one of those, I was wanting... obviously does well there, but it's over here. It's obviously a difference. The newer stuff always does better. But over here, it's just so vast. I think we're really sensitive. I think maybe we're overly sensitive to it, though, right?

Like, if a song feels a bit stiff in the audience live, it, we don't tolerate it very well, do we? Well, you've got such a big catalogue. It's so easy to swap it out with something. Also, we just don't, we've never believed that, like, massively kind of in ourselves, I think, in a weird way. Like, when it comes to live, we're not just walking on,

like, we're fucking great. Like, we really do vibe off the crowd. And, like, if you're playing a show and it's like fucking nuts and then dead, you're like, what's the point? Like, let's just write something else that can go in there that will do the job. So, yeah, you need that feedback from the crowd.

Yeah. And obviously, it's true for some bands, like their older stuff does go over better than new stuff. That's obviously pretty common as well. You've actually got the problem most people don't want. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But like, there's so many people, obviously,

that live in the bubble of architects 10 years ago, and in their reality, nobody listens to the new stuff. Those people don't go to the shows. Exactly. Or they go to shows and they're like, oh. Yeah. I got a message from someone before I went to Mexico saying, don't play any of your new stuff in Mexico.

We only really like our old material. It was just a DM. Yeah. Just in case you wanted a tailor set. He probably has like a group of like three or four friends who feel like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it creates that illusion. But yeah, it's a good problem.

You know, we're glad that it's this way around and that. Got the three months of Sirius for free. Every single time I get in my car, black hole, constantly. Yeah. So you guys are fucking making it here. Yeah. We took too long to respond. No, no.

I'm trying. Yeah. You have. I don't know. I don't know if it's just British or haven't been around British for a while. I think it's just like, you kind of go like, defeatist.

We're not really, but it's sort of like, yeah, we're doing all right, but we're not doing arenas out here, whereas we're doing arenas in Europe. So it's sort of, you just go like, there's levels to accepting what people are saying. Like, oh, you're doing well? And you're like, yeah, it's okay.

But we know what actually doing well. What the ceiling is. Because everywhere else in the world, we're doing arenas. And it's not like we're going around in a bad mood, being miserable. No, no. being miserable, like complaining and winching about it.

Like, we come out here and we have a great time. It's amazing. Honestly, but the vibe on stage in rally is no different to how much fun we're having there than where we are in other places because we do just lock in and have fun. And if whatever size the room is, if it's going off, then we're going to have a good time. But, yeah, we're just very honest. There's still a lot more room for us to grow in this country and we'll keep going. And we do like, any sort of.

short fall in like the band's popularity or whatever, we only blame ourselves. Yeah, this is what I was getting at. You take it really personally. In a good way, it's like you care. Our view is if we want to reach more people in America, we need to write better songs. Like that's how we see it. It's not like, oh, the label is screwing up. We'll manage getting on the phone to management.

Why are you doing this? It's not like that at all. They're the best. It's entirely down to us. The label is the best. Are you happy with yourselves? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I'm so proud of you, and I feel like you're not proud of you.

Oh, but we're also in the middle of it and, like, you know, we're living it every day. It's different when you see it from afar, I think, you know what I mean? It's like when you see, you know, you see someone who has a kid and then, like, you see their kid five years later, and it's like, well, what happens? Yeah, what happened? You also have different moments because we're older where you, where you... Not, I'll be young. 25 next month.

Where you have different moments. We're trying to be marketable. Of gratification. It's not like, it's not just like a constant thing. But sometimes like even just thinking back, when we're on stage the year of night, in rally, weirdly, I thought about us the first time we came over here. And when we were playing one of the songs, I was thinking about us being in the van. Well. Like how, obviously, it has been a long time and a long journey.

And we're not all still here anymore. And you go like, oh, fucking oh, we've got like houses and Dan's got kids and we've got like, those kids had nothing. We had nothing. We were like begging for money. We covered mudvane at the show. Yeah. We had nothing. Did you know?

Not the other night. No, no. The first time we played. Was it dig? It was a highlight of the tour and went off. But you look back on that and then you go like, fucking hell yeah, it's nuts. You fucking made it. Yeah, yeah.

it's definitely good to get some perspective sometimes. But it's nice, because we have had a long career that still is going up. Not too long, quite new still. You were really fucking trying to get that in there. How old are you? I said 25 years. No, how old are you actually? Are you actually trying to gatekeeper?

Because I've been thinking as I get closer to 40, sort of thinking about just stopping telling people how old I am. I don't think it matters for you. I think one of the challenges that we have in trying to break in a country a country that likes new shiny things but they're going to love us

where I heart radio's best newcomer best newcomer three years in a row two years in a row two years for the big three yeah I saw some people saying it calling us a newcomer was a stretch and to be frank the thing is the band

could if if there's advances in longevity through AI and we managed to live to 300 years this band is young This bad this young, yeah. You are just starting.

So it's just that they're not seeing it. Yeah. Peptise. It's quite good. Pepit. I remember when we were called veterans when we released Hollow Crown, okay? Right. Were you actually?

Yeah. We were being called veterans like, you know, when the band was 10 years old. Yeah, so you are, I mean, IHart Radio is that the US? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just milk that. I don't mind people think we're a new band as far. No, yeah.

I'm trying to, we're a new band. Hello. I think what we should have done We were 15 years ago No, I don't change that Yeah, we've never been here before I think our mistake was We should have started over

As a new band when we released Lost Forever Because the first five out And this will loads of people on the internet We'll be angry about this But we were really, really Just figuring it out in the first five albums You know, and then it sort of clicked more On our sixth album

We're very, very slow learners and, you know, like, if I think other bands, you know, that would have us, like, so we're 12 years old, we've done, like, five albums. That's the new... Wait, there's five albums. No. Before or L'Olisd, there's five albums. There's five whole ones. That's not the fifth one.

Yeah. Fuck me, how many albums you got? I should know this. But officially, now, six. Four. Five, six, whatever the, whatever the maths is. Six, yeah. So, I mean, it is a lot.

You know, I think I like to say we've got an embassionable. embarrassing number of albums. Yeah, I... But the thing is, you are... One less than Metallica. One less than Metallica, yeah, but... Said that to Lars as well. Did you?

Name-dropping. Good. We haven't even talked about that. You told me with Metallica. Yeah. Yeah. How the fuck was that? Amazing.

They treated us so well. Yeah, so kind, so nice. You definitely felt nuts. Especially every time they came in the room, you're like, Jesus Christ, you're... Yeah, I think you told me on a FaceTime, like on night one or something. He brought us cake and flowers

and a card and welcoming us and Lars sat, me and Dan were outside I'll dress room and... I just saw that not glue's got a cake, so that's not something they did especially for us, they just do that for everyone. Lars... How nice. Lars sat with...

Still very nice. I'll take one. Lars was sat. The first day me and Dan were sat out with Lars for about half an hour, just sat on him down to practice kids. What were you going to say he was sat on my lap then? They made me feel like, oh, I should like really go and spend time

with the support bands. If Metallica can come spend time with us, then what am I doing? Is that stuck? Yeah. It has. Yeah. I think there'll be some sort of ads watching this and I like, hasn't. No, wage more had lovely things to say.

Yeah, exactly. I watched that. Yeah. I watched that and I saw the low thing. I paid them to say all that stuff. No, I heard there's an actual video as well, apparently. Yeah, he came and says, the lower policy. No, we love those boys.

We had a great time with them. Great. Yeah. Cody's the man as well. He's a fucking genius. Yeah. He's genuine years. Yeah.

Gets a lot of shit on the internet. He doesn't. Probably doing something right then. It was just like cool to step into Metallica world. Because it's such a vast, you know, it's so big. What was the show's like? To be on the inside of it is nuts. The shows were the first day, we were playing a football stadium that, like, we've watched growing up.

Like, Ali's been to that ground to watch a football match. Like, massive games had happened there, and you were just walking into sound check in the middle of Iax's stadium, it's nuts. I don't... That audience was like discovering this type of music, I think. Best newcomer. Best newcomer. Best new brand new bands.

Who are these kids? You can't go on... You can't go on and expect that they'll know who you are. So it was a like, you go on stage and you sort of wait to the second song and then you're able to like talk to them. And the thing that I always tried to get across

was like how much we were grateful for the opportunity in that we love Metallica. and we were happy to be there. And as soon as they heard that, you sort of build this bond with them. Yeah, we all love Metallica here. It builds throughout the set, like, who's excited for this and this?

And then, you know, there's a lot of people that were there with their kids that probably liked us, that would then be like, oh, these guys do like Metallica. Like, they're not taking this opportunity for granted. Yeah. But there is definitely, obviously,

some people that were just, like, want Metallica, but you've just got to try and be the... I described it as you're the YouTube advert that people want to click, off. But it's unskippable. But you've got to make it a great advert. It's a 30 minute unskippable. Yeah, we're going to have to sit for it to just make it as good as possible. West Coast, this one is for you. Aftershock Festival is back, featuring My Chemical Romance, Limp Biscuit, Pierce de Vail, and my favourite band, Tall, headlining, 26. This year,

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and stay tuned to the downbeat where I'm going to keep telling you this stuff. Metallica must be picking the bands. I think so. They're like so varied. Like, they don't need anyone. They don't need anyone at all. I think Lars is really locked in with music as well.

I mean, obviously, he's got such a great, brain, you know, he pulls out facts and dates, even just in the little conversations we had about, you know, the first time they come over or where his son was or at that time and what time, what date they met here and, you know, it's so cool. And he was right about Napster. Yeah. He was fucking right. Yeah. I'm desperate to meet him. Did you sit on his kit?

No. I sat on his kit. It was, I didn't hit it, but I just sat behind it. It was like, whoa. And he had four kits. Yeah, they did the thing when they, like, rotated them. His drum tech has to set up five kits a day. Fuck that.

One backstage and then there's four around. Obviously, they probably stayed pretty set up. Of all the people we've met, though, the band's only just started, so we haven't met that many people, but we've met a decent amount of people over the few years that we've been going. Meeting those guys was the most like

meeting someone out of a movie, you know, like a Marvel action hero. You know what I mean? There's not many of those left. I think about it all the time. Like, who would I actually get starstruck by? Yeah. Yeah.

See, Waka Flakem walking around yesterday was a little bit like, apparently he was in it giving everyone weed. But, like, in the metal world, the Metallica, maybe. Yeah. They're like the Metal Beatles. They're like the... They are the Metal Beatles.

There was one day where I turned around, and then Dan was just playing table tennis with Hetfield. Yeah, I won. Did you? Smash it, Marty Supreme style. Yeah, yeah. I was unrelenting, unforgiving. I'd be unforgiven.

Yeah, it's cool, man. Table tennis with Hetfield is awesome. Yeah. It's definitely cool doing that sort of stuff, you know, like we did the Lincoln Park shows as well, and then we're out of corn later this year. We sort of like become the support band for the MTV 2 bands that I watched

when I was on TV when I was 14. Yeah. Lincoln Park is cool. Lincoln Park is a fucking big one as well. Yeah. Particularly for you, I know. You were the biggest Lincoln Park fan still is. Yeah.

I found my little school planner that I had when I was a kid, and it's got a big Lincoln Park sticker on it. It's got an OPM sticker on it as well, which is a shame. They were probably free with the Kerrang magazine. What we're getting to, though, about the bands that open up for stuff, and it's some people's first look into this kind of music. OPM, first band I ever crowdsurfed for. Because it was like supporting someone.

No, it was Reading Festival, and my first Reading Festival, and they were the first band on the main stage. You couldn't like to get out there. Heaven is a half pipe. Yeah. Tell you friends. Get me up, get me up. And then later on the same day, this is the biggest, like, whiplash of, like, oh, I'm just getting into this kind of music.

And I, like, got and, you know, did an OPM crowd. So later that day, Greg from Dillinger, shit on a towel, swung it into the thing. And I was like, oh, no, that's my new favourite band. I mentioned that the other night when you were sick before you went on. He said maybe try it out. Did you try it out. If you're feeling balanced stage to do the band. Greg thing.

Do the Greg thing. You could have, yeah. No, that would have been terrible press. You can't do that these days. Back in the golden days, you could have shit on a stage. And it's ridiculous. I would pay money. If anyone doesn't know, well, I already explained it,

Greg from Dillinger, shit on a towel. I believe his exact words were you're going to see a lot of shit on that main stage today. So here's some right now. Shit on a towel. Into the crowd. Yeah. I would love to see what the internet's reaction would be to the imagine, yeah.

There was that girl that pissed on someone, didn't they? Didn't she? She invited him on the crowd. Oh, yeah. The internet was not happy about that. A couple years ago, yeah. He was willing, apparently. Probably weren't happy with him. Blood.

Leave it. Leave it in. Leave it fucking in. But we had a, that was a really great experience for us. Lincoln Park was really... I'm still on the shit in on the town. I was like, that crowd is more winnable because there's

there's more elements of of Lincoln Park which are familiar to what we do and what we're inspired by as well, slightly. But they like the heavy

stuff when, you know, when, when they have their heavy moments and yeah, they were really nice to us as well. She really sounds like him as well. She's unbelievable. Yeah,

I think, I think with Emily is like a really good example of what we've been saying about the internet because the internet has like all these bad things to say about her being singing at the

at the Lincoln Park. And then when you actually see it live, you realize this is actually genius. I'm out of the loop on. The first night that we watched her, watched them, but specifically her performance, it was the best vocal performance I've ever seen, ever.

I was like, I couldn't believe how good she was. And, like, we've been doing this for a while. It's five years. We've talked with some amazing vocalists. No one came near to her. good she was. I wasn't going to watch it. At a protest. No, not even out of protest. I just, I didn't think I care.

I was one of those people now. I was leaving comments. No, but you know what? I was a commentary in my head. So, Stray played a festival. It's my hair okay. You're really looking at it. No, it's just... No grace. It's amazing. Thanks. So, Stray played a festival in Lincoln Park

headlined. And I was a Lincoln Park fan when I was a kid, but I wasn't like a mega fan. and I was like I'm not going to bother seeing Lincoln Park and in my head I was kind of being a commenter because I was like

it's not him I'm not going to go see it and then I heard the song start and I heard her and I was like holy fucking shit and then went and watched it

yeah it was great it was super impressive is there anyone left on the like bucket list bands to tour with you've done fucking everything

no no we've done it yeah you've done it all I think I think we've figured out that we've either toured with or had offers to tour with like every single

big new metal band that we grew up watching. Yeah. That's crazy. I would like to do something with death zones. Well, they did ask this before. We were supposed to do Wembley with them, weren't we, like, ten years ago? But he got cancelled because of the Batterclan. I don't know how long ago I was.

I would like to do some of them. Was I drum tech in for you then? Probably. Probably. If I were in Drumtech today? Well, no. I've got Aidan who's filling in for Mark. for Mark.

Well, you said you're not worried about him today. Well, I'm not, not worried. I just haven't, we haven't,

this is his first. First show, festival, headline slot. A headline on MySpace stage. 9 o'clock. Don't give it.

Don't give it shit. And then you were like, no, you, you were, with the Myspace. Sam was like, oh, you could come do it.

You could come to it. Yeah, but what happened to it? Sam was like, you could come do it. And I was like, I was not a good drum technique. And you were like,

yeah, you were. Fuck no. Day one, lost the drum ruck. Remember that? Yeah, that's true. Reading. Home town show for me.

Drum tech. Dizzy heights have gone out. You know, we were talking... Your mum coming up to him. You thought chicken. That happened. So when you actually think about the venue we were playing, you can understand how the drum tech might not be operating at, like, a sort of military grade.

Stadium level. Yeah, but no, I was not good, but we did have a laugh. We had a laugh. But the thing is, and I think this is probably why we were late to success, is because the first 10 years was mainly just having a laugh. It's your fault. You delayed our success. It was a lot of just having a laugh.

And do you know what it's funny? Like we had no aspirations to be as big as the band is now. Do you know what I mean? Like we weren't aiming that high. And so it makes sense to me that we sort of only got to where we got because that was as far as we could sort of. imagine the bango. And then as soon as we thought,

oh, wait a minute. I remember we did the Roundhouse. It was like, it can't get any bigger than this. This is nuts. I didn't even have a drum tape for that. And I was there as well, thanks a bunch.

Why didn't I do it? I don't know. Drinking. You had, I think, was that the first proper pyro you'd have was at that Roundhouse show or something? I don't know.

You had the Curtain, Iron Curtain thing or something. We had, that was Brixton. At Round House, we had two crew. Yeah. Murch Guy and the sound guy.

And now look at us. These days, if you haven't got anyone left, you know, is a bucket list, do you then, like, really focus on people supporting you? Yeah. I mean, we always try and get the best support bands. Yeah, I mean, we always try and get the best support band we can

because we want to sell as many tickets as we can. Also, I think sometimes you have to be confident in what you're doing and take bands that you really fuck with. We took House to... with us in Europe and then we put them as main support in Australia when we were over there because we were like... They maybe were on the edge of maybe being that main support. Maybe some bands wouldn't have put them in that position,

but we were just like, we fuck with this band a lot and we wanted to put them in front of people. So I think, especially with bands like that. Yeah, we would try and find a balance, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, there's a... But yeah, House of Protection and the... Australia, some businessman on the fucking looking at the numbers would probably say you need someone bigger.

Yeah. Whereas we'd be like, no. Yeah, I think that was our section president. And I think when we booked that, the promoters for the shows were like, do we want to try and pay some more money for some big support? And we had confidence in that line. Yeah, we did. So this is pre-president blow-up.

We've looked in president on two. things before they announced that they were doing things just through the president. The president. The president. He got in contact with me. Oh, for God. That was good. Thank you.

Fantastic. Yeah. I forgot we're not allowed to say anyone's name. Yeah. It's just about to be like, oh, yeah. I was about to do a whole thing about that. But no, we can't. I do, we were talking earlier.

You were like, I think I could do a mask. We were talking about makeup. I mean, obviously we can't do a mask now. But like, new band. You can do whatever you want. I can see having spoken to masked musicians, I can see the appeal. Like, you get to not be you.

So you can detach your ego a little bit from it. I don't think it would do things for me. No, it would do stuff for me on stage, like a bit of war paint or whatever, like get out of the zone. But I think I would love it to just, obviously you need a band that's incredibly successful to do it, but to just be like the anonymous member of a band and then you're just normal online,

you're just not there, just normal life. Yeah, I mean, that's, that, people in bands that aren't the singer, none of them are well known anymore. Like, everyone except Chris Martin could walk through, from Coldplay, could walk through any town anonymously and live a totally normal life, and they're the biggest band in the world. So, like, with the exception of singers,

everyone else has got it like, You basically have anonymity, right? It's only really for the singer. Speak for yourself. I can't bloody walk around fucking Rockfield. Jesus. No, I'm joking. No, I know what you mean.

Here, yeah, I mean, but this is different, isn't it? This is a slightly higher sort of... Percentage of Grebo's. Yeah, exactly. Travis Barker, he's probably one. Yeah, but it's not, what my point is, there's not many. He couldn't go to curries.

There's not many, do you know what I mean? His curries still are even around. Need a HDMI. But it's for singers, I can get the appeal. Well, that was that. It's really going anywhere. But, look, I think that playing with a mask would help me because I, you know, and you're like me, and Sam's like me,

we all get in our heads when we perform. Yeah. And it's like, and it can be hard to enjoy the experience of performing because you're getting in your own way all the time. Yeah. It can really hamper your performance. Yeah. Sometimes, sometimes anxiety is so bad.

I can't scream. sometimes when it like grips my throat so much I can't distort my voice and I've had to work so much over the last year at like coming back to like getting a nice yell again because it because it's all But the problem is you get off stage and you can do it fine Yeah, you must say that

It's like okay well I'm ready for stage I can play it The fucking leg But him is the voice for us It's like one leg The amount of times like I'll come off And be like well that was a fucking great show And I'm like whoa

there it is and then like down will come off and you're just hearing that the other room just like prud-prud

and you're like off the stage both of you like fucking I knew I could fucking do it yeah but sometimes

you have to go and do it so you can go to bed yeah we are all the same yeah otherwise you're lying in bed like I am I don't know

you gotta blow it tomorrow it's gonna get fucking worse yeah do you find it's harder and now you quit drinking I did for a long time

yeah I did and I would say up until maybe the start of this tour weirdly? Just like not having the confidence. Did you find drinking helps? I mean,

help me get out of my head, but then alcohol as its very nature is slowing you down. I think so. I'm like a little oneer. 17 years I was drunk before every show. I would have a few drinks before every show.

And then you have to just learn that it doesn't make a massive. It doesn't make a massive. call to do. Because, in no event, you got fucking pretty plastered before stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there.

I was pouring them. So did you, to be fair. Yeah. But like, to go from Matt to sober is... We had some... It seems mental, though, doesn't it? I mean, I remember the first time we sold 10,000 tickets, I went on stage so drunk.

Was that the time you nearly didn't get there? Yeah. Where was that? I almost didn't make... That was at Alexandria Palace. I'd like... I sat down and it's like, pick up six. I started playing into.

there's a video. It's mental. What was actually really helpful was we played a festival and Cross has played and they got added really late to it. We didn't know they were playing. We went to go and watch them at the front of house

and I was watching them being like, this is fucking unbelievable. And our friend Ben was doing front of house. I was like, Chino looks great, sounds great, the best I've ever seen him. I said that to Ben and he was like, Sober Gino. And I was like, oh. Sounds like a boozy drink.

Soberchino. But I needed someone... One sobuccino, please. I needed someone at that point where I was like, oh, fuck, I can... I'm looking up to someone doing that and I want that, you know? We talk about it all the time as well. Like, when you pay money to go and see someone,

if we went to go and watch a football match and someone went on and had that five years. You'd be like, you're fucking idiot. I've just spent all this money to come and watch you perform. And yeah, it just takes a while to get used to it. But I'm definitely in the groove. I mean, there's still a lot of self-hatred between... We're not performances. I don't know if you can ever fully get rid.

Like, you're just either you're the type of person that over-analyses your performance and you get it in your own way and you'll always have that aspect of you a little bit. Yeah. And there's some people, and you can see who they are. They just don't have that. I don't think those people, those people that don't have the over-analysing and the crippling. Yeah, Aaron Gillespie. Yeah, Aaron Gillespie was like, yeah, it's a life sentence for just like what we do.

Like, you either have that or you probably. won't make it because whatever is wrong with your fucking brain that makes you analyze is what makes you get further. You're like worst. I was talking to someone, like, they were like, your worst is somebody's best. That one helps me as well. When you're like beating yourself up, some people can't even get on the stage because they're so nervous or anxious or whatever.

It's like just... I think the challenge is to try and realize how little it matters. Yeah. And they can't fucking hear it anyway. Mix your shit. You go out of front Well, that's good. It's so loud

You know what I mean? And in year and ears, everything's under a microscope. So, yeah, it is a challenge. That's like the biggest challenge of touring for me.

Absolutely. It's the mental. Yeah, just like, especially now the band's bigger, especially when we're doing, like the really big shows, the pressure,

like, I feel the pressure so much. Well, I think it's a testament to fucking practicing as well. Because, like, the only way you can be better on stage is obviously practice,

but you need to practice enough. It's so hard to practice live though. It's like you have to tour. It's like a two, three weeks in a tour. You're like, okay, I'm in. Do you know what's disheartening? When you're like, you know that there's a part of your playing that you're struggling with.

So you practice it for like a year. And then you still go to stage and have this problem. Yeah, it's a mental thing. It's a hundred percent a mental thing. And that's where you want to immediately, all that tension from the year of work comes up and you want to be like, fuck this. But what I've thought about that before,

because when I've been streaming, I've noticed this a lot. and this is why I'm always telling people that they should film themselves playing no matter what. So when I've been practicing for a fucking year on a certain thing and then let's say I'm doing a live stream because I don't play shows anymore.

And I think I blow that section like I think I'm blowing it. And then I go back and watch the video and not only is it like oh it wasn't that bad, it's like oh no I got it. I think the more you practice is you know the space between zero and one is infinite so like if getting something

perfectly right is somewhere in between zero and one, like, when you're hyper-analytical about it because you've practiced it so much, you are thinking you're getting it wrong. Yeah. But it's leagues better than it was before you did that practice. I also think when you're stressed, time slows down a little bit. Yeah. And so you feel, as a drummer, you feel those spaces between the beat are even longer than they

actually are. Yeah, I was definitely late there. And then you watch your back and I was like, oh, fucking nailed it. But you probably were late, but by... You know what I mean? You know what I mean? I also think there's something in, like, you know, like I've realized recently and obviously my therapist has helped me as well is actually

if you're like trying to look all moody and tough and like grumpy on stage it doesn't work for me I just start getting pissed off so like if I'm having fun and like if I'm smiling like if I look over at Pete who does our playback and I smile at him and we're like having fun I'm going to have a good show yeah so it's sort of like I have to go on now and just be like just fucking, it's not too, don't take it too fucking seriously. Yeah. Like Dan says, like, if you fuck up in the first couple of songs, who no one in this room gives a fuck.

But that's the thing. The best shows aren't the ones where you play the best. Yeah. The best ones are the ones where you feel the best. Yeah. Who cares about how you play, it's about how you feel? Yeah, I've had it like where I've loved a show and my drum tech where I've been,

you have to tell me what I did wrong every night because I want to fix it. And he's been like, he didn't play that good. And because I had enjoyed it, so much. I'm like, I don't fucking care. Whereas if I wasn't feeling it, because I wasn't getting it right, that's the end of the fucking world. Also, no one's coming to

see you be perfect. They're coming to see you be you. And they're certainly coming to see you be perfect more than me. Yes. Yeah, he's actually, while pointing, side note, I'm so proud of your sobriety. Thank you. I really appreciate. Dan's done it at the same amount of time.

What? Yeah, Dan hasn't drank. I didn't even know that. Since we stopped around the same time. I'm sorry, but a bad friend. But famously as well, you're saying that he gets away with it less than you. Well, by that, I just mean that vocalists are more analysing the drummers. One of the last ones not using loads of tracks. Well, there's some.

But I mean, it's like... But it's not like your main vocal is not on the track. You just... I have five or six different types of vocals what I do throughout the set. It's one of them, I always say, there's always one of them during a show that's not going to be as good as it normally is. And then I'll just lean on the other ones to... to sort of get through it. But I'm never going to be exactly what I am on record

because it's really hard to do that style of vocals, you know? But loads of people in your genre, all the vocals are on track. You don't have to throw anyone on the bass. I don't want to do it. I enjoy performing. I want to sing and try. This is also the thing.

It's like, I can't be exactly like the record because I wasn't, I don't know exactly how I felt at that time locally. Something could have been working better that day. that isn't, so it's sort of very jazz. Yeah, but people, it's funny because people don't seem to know what they want because you get like, I'm not even going to say

a band's name, but you get some some bands that are big in the metal core genre and then a lot of the discourse about it is like, I went and it was too perfect. Like, it must all be on tracks. And then you got the flip side where

you've got someone, a band where you know, it's not as much tracks as most bands, like yourself, not as much tracks. And then you get people going, well, it doesn't tell not the record. Me and that. Which do you fucking want? Me and Mike from Royal Blood,

we talk about being a vocalist on tour. It's basically, you're just surviving. It's just, you've just get enough to just get through it. If you can get out your head, you're golden. But it's really a mental challenge of like, the AC, is the AC right?

Last night I got out of my bed three times to check whether the AC was too cold or right. I'm like, can we not smoke weed here? Can we not do this? And a lot of the time, in my head, I want to just go, shut up. But it's hard because you feel a lot of pressure because you're like, if I'm fucked, shows off. Just me vaping worrying you.

No, no, no. I'm trying to let that stuff go because it doesn't. So yes. No, no, no, really, no, no. It's all here. But it is just trying to accept that, like Dan, like Dan's saying, you're not going to be perfect. But who fucking cares?

It's a live sentence, though, isn't it? I don't think I'll ever not be like this. And the people that are the biggest gobshites that think that they can do what we do, you may be able to sit in your room perfectly slept at night and record your vocals really quietly and do this. You can't do a six-week tour where you get on do it every night, and that's what...

And we've only been doing it for four years, so it's like it's still a lot of learning to come. Still practicing. Still green. Brand new. No, I know the variables I mean, I've never ever played a show on tour as good as I've played at home, ever in my life.

Which is why I stream now. But we've spoken about this, and the streaming is good in the sense that there is some pressure. It's practice for live. Yeah, 100%. That is a good way to get in the grid for playing live. You get the numbers, I'm so big of the shows. It's great.

You make a little bit of money, I don't know. Please subscribe. But no, I, the love. Last straight tour, I didn't stream before it because I hadn't figured out my new streaming rig in the US. I saw you in the middle of a real stressful tour in Brighton when you were like, nothing's working. I don't want to play drums anymore. I can't do this. Fuck yeah, that little show. You had a run on that tour where we were texting loads that you were just like, I just don't have any drums.

What did you got in your head about? Feet, always. But it was actually, I was still touring with a broken back. so my back was technically still broken. I've shit myself. I'm thinking, is there something wrong? And then I'm in my head about it. Practice before and everything was fine. And then at the shows, I was just fucking blowing it.

I remember that tour where we did the Roundhouse. I called you on that tour and said, you're going to out. Oh, yeah, shit. I can't play. I've just, it was my legs. They just stopped working, like playing slow. I couldn't do it at all. Was that broken cross or something?

There was something in the tour? in like it was before it and we were like, we can't do it. We've had to drop songs loads of times because of me. But it's the head thing. Which time? But it's the same with me. It's all the head thing.

You start hitting, like, we've done stuff before where I'm tracking vocals and Dan's like, you do not need to be singing it that high or hard. It's trying to hard. Calm, calm, calm. And you're like, it's not in that range where you're pushing it. And you're like, oh, great. It's so hard.

I messaged Crim. Yeah. That's a great. Great guy to message? Because he's obviously insane. Yeah. And I was like, do you ever the problem where, like, it all goes out of the window live because you're playing too hard?

And he's like, every show. Really? Yeah. I was half expecting you to say that he just said no. He was like, yeah, you just turn into an ape live and it all goes out of the window. Yeah. Damn. It is.

Yeah. I always think this is like the first song of the set. It's just as well. You just, and on the second one, it eased off and by three, you're like, okay, I'm in there. Not to make this about drums, because this isn't a drum podcast. but Eloy maybe is nailed it because he's nailed playing like at like 127 philosophy. You know what I mean?

It's like you need to practice at home. The power. Playing as hard as you physically can, which you don't necessarily do. His left hand is scary. Switched it on and just goes. Yeah. Lovely guy as well.

But that last stray tour that we just did, I didn't do the streaming before it because of fucking I didn't have the room set up and I had way more maybe some of it was the last tour ever nerves but way more problems and way more nervous days but not as stressed as you were on that tour

when I saw you shit fucking up not as stressed because we were splitting up but like had we not been splitting up and I'd be like I've got to do this again in six months it's gonna be the end of my fucking me off every tour every long gap when we have like really long gaps

when we come back I'm like fuck I like the long gaps because I create the illusion that I'm going to fix all the problems. I just push it, push it, push it, push it, push it, push it. We do like a vocal lesson once a week, do a little bit screaming. And then when it comes to it, you're like,

you forget that the main issue is walking on the stage. And you're like, can't practice for this. My dogs don't really care. Streaming is a good thing. Obviously, if you streamed vocals, I mean, if it was you, I'd be fine. But if anyone else did it, I'd be like, that's the lamest thing I've ever seen.

Yeah, it's not, it's not for me. That's a joke. You're like, how many of my friends do that? Yeah, it's like literally I thought about it. I don't actually think his name at all. No, fair enough, it's just not, that's not me. What about you? You're on the stream train?

No, I don't have time, honestly. Kids? Kids, trying to write songs. Oh, yeah, who's writing the riffs now? Well, me, yeah. Learning guitar. I can't play guitar. How are you writing riffs?

Midi. Midi riffs? Yeah. I'm just hoping they're physically possible. Yeah. And then we send them to add them to work them out. They seem to be. Oh, it's working great.

I've got an idea. I didn't know if there was like ghost writer coming in. When we did Seeing Red, I wrote that on guitar. Yeah, that's playing guitar. That is playing guitar. But I, like, I tracked the demo like half speed because I can't play guitar. The thing with writing music is not being worried to be like embarrassed or scared. You know what I mean?

Like, I've started learning how to play guitar and I've already asked for like a heavier guitar so I can start trying to get stuff to send over to Dan because if it's not good, I'm not bothered. I'll just keep throwing stuff at the wall. And I think the relationship that me and Dan have with writing is Dan's not afraid to send me stuff and be like, what do you think of this? What do you think of this?

That is writing, really, is having the bottle to not be scared. You've got to be able to handle it, though. But some people in the band don't have at the moment. Oh, throwing shade. No. Not throwing shade. Some people with the band don't have that want to create like me and Dan do.

And again? Is that shade? I'm joking. I don't know if it is. I don't... What I'm saying is, the door is open for them to... Yeah, fuck your ideas up.

It's not like me and Dan are like... It's not like me and Dan are like, you guys can't write. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely... I mean, it's normal, isn't it? Yeah, to be some members of the band that are more creatively involved.

Yeah, every band I can think of ever. Except the Beatles. And even, you know, Ringo didn't... Anyway. Ringo's the reason drummers don't get paid for songwriting. You know, that whole scene was because when they were figuring out music business,

like the law of it and what counts the songwriting, they were like, okay, 50% is lyrics, 50% is melody. So is that why they gave him like a couple of songs per record? Yeah, so they would say that Ringo wrote melodies and stuff so that he would get royalties because you technically as a drummer, even if you changed out. If you were doing, I don't know, fucking, if Charlie X-E-X, whatever the song is, I don't know, song? Just, uh...

365. 365. Yeah. 365. All right, you're in the studio with that and you're the drummer. And Charlie's like, okay, the whole thing's got to be a blast beat, the whole thing. And then you go, Charlie, don't you think it'd probably be more of a clubbanger if he went, Bumpter?

And then she went, yeah, okay. And then that song becomes a massive hit because it was originally going to be necrophagist. style drums, but you as the drummer changed it into a club song, no royalties. I like the way you illustrated that. You could have said Club Classic as well, which would have been more. Yeah. I'm sorry, guys, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, I hope people got my illustration.

My point is that you don't have to necessarily be a guitarist to write music these days, which is great. And Dan just has this, has always had him. he's here, I'm going to be nice to him, so let me be nice. Here we go. He has, after Tom passed away, been the massive driving force behind this band continuing on, because if he didn't want to, it wouldn't be happening, right? But at the same time, he's picked up so much, writing, production, everything.

I don't think he gets enough credit for it, which is one of the reasons why I used to kick off about the noises and the blurs and stuff, because I would be like, can we please just pay attention to how great this is. And I think a lot of people think that I do, I'm the band or whatever. It's not the case, you know. I just, I think people should know how hard Dan has worked for us to be here. He won't take this and he'll make some sort of joke now. But I'm very proud to be in a band with him and grateful for him.

I should be more famous. See? Yeah, he did say a couple of things earlier. Like, drummers aren't getting recognised. Oh, hello, I wrote it. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That was beautiful.

Our band's unusual because, obviously, like, we were trying to figure out how to be a band with Tom writing. We kind of, like, got it figured out, and then he died. Yeah. And then we had to start over, like, obviously, we had learned a few things, but it's like, it was really a new beginning. I mean, everyone knows that. But, like, I was obviously, like, we were indebted to jobs. gosh, because we needed a guitarist that was, you know, going to be involved like that. We needed him and we couldn't have done that without him.

And it was useful because I needed time just to figure out how to make a song. Yeah. I remember when Tom died, I don't know how long it was after Tom died, but I sat down like, okay. Okay. Or at a computer, like, you know, and obviously. Open the logic project. How do you do this? No chat then.

Yeah, fuck. So, yeah, it was definitely like completely starting over and trying to figure out how to be in a band again. And, you know, and that's why people will hit. That's why the songs were so bad. That's what people will say. That's why the songs are so bad. He's still figuring out.

Well, which ones, though, because they can't really decide which ones I don't like. No, no. They just want to moan. I really do like. They just want to moans. I really do like watching it, though. Because, and it changes. It's the same I was talking about it.

I can't. I've lost count the amount of times where we're back. It's architects are back. Back. It's like, it's almost like, we never left. Yeah. One per album, oh, this is back to the old stuff. They're back.

Well, that's the same thing. But it's the same, we were talking, I was talking to someone I can't remember the other day about it, about bring me, count your blessings and stuff like that. Like, I remember when that came out, and they were a very, very popular band, but in my circles, not including me, or just in metal forums and shit like that,

universally fucking hated. Like, you would expect that band wasn't going anywhere, but they fucking went there. And then now they're doing that show for it. And everyone's like, oh, fuck, yeah. I can't wait. Like, that's the good shit.

I hate the old shit. And in a couple of cases, I've seen people posted about it. I was like, no, you hated them back then. But now you say you hate the new stuff. You like the old stuff. You wouldn't know what they want to them. Yeah, it's just whatever's coolest, I think. And you know what? In my old age,

I have thought, 25, I have thought stealing his bits. I have thought about this long and hard, speaking of ages as well, I think anyone under 25 who is annoyed about a band's new direction or old songs or anything, like a moaner in general,

if you're under 25, I'm like, I was probably a bit like that. I was probably a bit of a shithead. If your age starts with a three, and that's how you're acting, like whether in real life or on the internet you are a fucking loser grow up yeah

I know like I get disappointed with with some bands releases that I like you know and you know I I don't go on the internet and talk about it I just don't listen to it but like I understand that feeling of disappointment when you're anticipating

something like I get it it it's just that it's a nostalgia thing though you're not where you were I love it when bands take a risk and I hate it when I put on a band's new record and it just sounds like

the last record. So like we'll keep on, it will keep changing. The next record will be different again and that's just because that's what we like, you know, and I feel like when bands do that well and you know, people can dispute

whether we've done that well or not. But like when bands do that well, it's the best. Who's done it well? Radiohead. Oh, fucking great answer. you were going to say coldplay and I was going to disagree. No, Radiohead. Radio is a lofty example.

Yeah, but that is. No, you're right. Absolutely right. But by the way, if Radiohead came back and released an album that sounded like the Ben's, I would also like that. It's now, do you know what I mean? And so, you know, it's not even impossible. Every Beatles, yeah, fuck me.

Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. Yeah. Change every record. It's not impossible that we would come back at some point and do something that sounds more like, you know, Lost Forever. It might just be a song. You've done that a couple of times.

Yeah, we might do that. But, you know, I think people felt like when we did Seeing Red, it's like, oh, they're back. But it's like, well, actually, have we ever done a song that sounds like, this? This doesn't sound like anything we've ever done for. Really? It's just heavy. Yeah. It's different style.

I don't know what anyone wants. That's one thing I don't miss about music. Well, we don't... It's making it for other people to talk about it. We don't go on that at all. We just go on, like, are we excited about this music? Yeah. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't, it's not, we're not writing for a song to be heavy or not heavy, or there's no rules. It's just like, what does this piece of music need? I hate releasing music. I love writing music, but I hate releasing it. The release is like so stressful and there's so much anxiety. What part of the release? Just the day it comes out, or then just waiting for it to come out and just seeing what people, seeing if people like it or not, you know. How many songs are you going into the studio with, and then how many you coming out?

with. We write a lot. Yeah, we've written a lot of songs. We've got a lot at the moment. I mean, it's been different on different albums. Yeah, and it depends on how much energy we have at that time. I think, you know, a good example would be on for those of which to exist.

The 22nd song we wrote was Animals. And thank fuck we wrote 22 songs. Fucking hell. The mistake on that album was probably putting 15 songs on the album. It would be a better album if it was like 11 songs.

The more you can write and whittle down, the better. But it's an exhausting process as well, isn't it? Full songs with lyrics and choruses. Yeah. Yeah, fuck that. The reason I asked was because Stray, normally we'd go into the studio with probably three, write the rest of them in the studio

and record them over two weeks, as long as it gets to 10. We get to 10 and then leave. I think we had one record that had one song it didn't get released. Yeah. But if we get to that quote, this is an album now,

see ya, and as a result, last three tracks, or like before the last track, so what, track eight, no, seven, six,

seven, seven and eight, maybe on a stray record or seven, eight, nine, they're never that good. I mean, you could say that for most albums.

Doing a full album is, it's increasingly feeling like, chucking, righting yourself on. That's not that good. They're never that good. always the skippers. It does feel like at the moment,

to make an album is to make more than what people want. Yeah. And that's a difficult thing. I mean, there's still validity to the format, obviously, and there are still a lot of people that do want albums, and it's like a standard part of the economic sort of makeup of the industry.

So, you know, there's no world where our label are saying, don't make an album. They definitely want the album. but you can see it online you'll put just as much effort into the 10, 11, 12 songs

but the ones that don't get the music video don't be playing. And we really saw this clearly because after the album had been out for a year we did a video for Broken Mirror and the song suddenly starts streaming five, six, seven times as much a day as it was before the video.

And it stayed there just because it's got that moment of focus. Yeah. And you raise a good point about the economy of this. Like everything from press to the labels to everything is around the album. But like if you did zoom out and people are, you know, I'm probably against this, but zoom out like actually just people releasing songs when they're ready to forever would probably be more beneficial for everyone.

Yeah. And you've seen bands do that. a good effect over the last few years. Well, but it's still an album. But it's just like we're doing seven. So I think people would be less annoyed with that if it was just like, we're just doing singles now. Yeah, because then, yeah, you release the album and it's got the,

the four. It's got the, but, you know, some of the songs have been out for a year, 18 months, or, you know, like we saw falling in reverse. Maybe they've been out for a few years. And then people obviously, you know, we got a lot of shit about releasing too many singles. We went to the range in Vegas, and it's, It's an experience.

It's fucking awesome. Americans will laugh, watching, you know, hearing the British people talk about this, but like just the volume and the power is... Scary. Well, and because you see, like, American movies, they're just like this, you know?

Like, it's nothing like it's a toy gun, like a BB gun. And the reality is like... Yeah. Every time it goes off, you go into like a different dimension. Yeah. It feels like the air moves.

Yeah. You know what I mean? It feels like you can see the air moving. I could help but feel more, like, not scared of the gun but just in a shooting range with lots of people with guns with guns

any of you yeah any of you could be mental I was terrified of them still am fucking terrified of them but like everyone in Nashville's got one yeah so like I would have one if I lived here

we moved and we moved to an area we didn't know and no one we don't really know enough people to like fucking know anything we had some guy turn up at our house just it was just I think it was just a homeless guy

looking for money but it's like at the front door. And I was like... Yeah, I mean, I guess not really totally related to the gun thing, but, you know, in terms of like feeling safe, like with the person telling me at your door, nowhere does the severely mentally ill, homeless man screaming in the street like America.

It's so sad. It's so sad. And you don't see it on TV. try to explain this to people. Before you came to America for the first time, you just think, especially if you're a kid, you just think like, oh, it's such an affluent land of excess and everyone's fucking doing great or whatever.

And then you go and you see like the homeless population in Austin or something like that. It's just like... These people just needed to go to a doctor and go, hey, I'm hearing voices. And the doctor goes, okay, well, let's figure that out and give you some stuff for it. Instead, they're just on the street.

Yeah, a lot of people are falling through the cracks. You sense that here big time. But, I mean, it's funny because at home, when I say to people, they say, oh, you know, you're going away soon. I go, I'm going to go to America. A lot of them are like, ooh. Yeah, there's a... How's that going to be? And I'm like, fine.

Yeah. So, like... We do love it. Love being here. I feel like from our childhood, you know, watching lots of, like, big 90s Hollywood movies, we were bought up with this very... shiny, glitzy image of America. And now I think people at home are getting sold maybe the really bad side of America.

My parents are terrified every day about what I'm Austin and Nashville, I love being in those places. I mean, we used to hate being in America when we were driving the van ourselves and all staying in one hotel room, blah, blah, blah, blah, doing all that stuff, we didn't like it because that's just shit. I mean, no matter what we're doing it.

But now we come here and we, you know, that we have a little bit of money and we can go to nice restaurants and stay in nice places and see cool things. Like, we love coming in. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't live there if I didn't love it. I fucking love it.

But you do see on the homeless population thing. It is fucking horrendous and could be fixed very easily with some sort of health care. But what you're saying about, like, people saying, oh, America, I see it on the flip side here

where I'll say to some people like, where you're from? And I just say London because it's easier. And they are so short. They're like, oh my God, how's that nice stuff? They're like, what do you mean? I was going to say people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. It's like, we haven't exactly got a house in order of way.

Yeah, true, yeah. Glad your houses are not an order now. I saw you made the news. Bro, what the fuck? Why was that news? Late news, but six months out. Did you see this? You heard about this?

Everyone has. I didn't even look at it because I don't like the comments. any more these days so I just don't look at stuff but everyone started hitting me up like are you okay are you okay and I was like yeah I'm fine what's going on there I heard about your house and I was six months ago and then they sent me like it must have just done the press

thing it must have cut out on one of your pocket it was a vlog I did right but it was just like catching everyone up with everything and I was like yeah this happened in January tree fell on our house we were visiting my parents it sucked house was flooded we were out of it for three weeks they put a tarp over the top and never

Then they never fixed it and then I was just moved. But like, it was fine. And then this news article comes out, Craig Reynolds loses house in Ice Storm. And it was so dramatic. This is a good sign. Why is it a good sign? Because it means you're becoming somebody here. You're jealous.

Goddum it. Grummer. He's not going to be able to go to Whole Foods soon. They didn't care about you until you became a podcaster, did they? They fucking didn't. And you know what? And I owe it to the drummers to turn it back to a drum podcast

so that they get stopped in whole foods. Sent you that picture the other day. What was it? In that nice botanical gardens I was in? Yeah, stay on the path. Do you like getting recognised? Love it. Do you actually like it?

I fucking love it. Do you? Yeah. Say I'm terrible with it. Yeah, but you don't like it or you just feel awkward. I definitely feel awkward. But I always have. I mean, like, even when the band was small,

15 years ago. go that we'd get recognised from time to time. The good one the other day in Nashville, I was talking to Dan, not in Nashville in Austin, I did unwell. I was just sat at that to cross the road and I had to sit down and I was like, I'm going to pass out, fucking shit myself.

And as I said, shit myself, someone just tapped me on the shoulder. And they were like, can we get a picture? I was like, fucking great timing. Yeah, of course you can. Yeah, I'm bad of it. They must have heard the conversation. You don't like it? I think it's just not, it's just not compatible with my personality.

you must be able to see that. Not really. I don't know what to say. They don't know what to say. Yeah, those ones happen. Those ones happen. I'm not saying don't talk to me. I'm just saying I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just drive it and just go.

I just don't do well with it. Do you my picture? Like just my, I never do that one. Yeah, he's famous. He's famous. He's famous. He's famous. I don't, I never, ever, since one time, go, do you want a picture?

Because one time, a guy said, No, I'm all right. It's like, no, I'm never doing that again. My favorite ones are, we have one every day. We had a really good one. Guy came out of a whole fitz in a throne shirt and just went, I just went, he walked off and Dan went, do you know him? I went, no.

Awesome. But I love it when someone comes, if someone comes up and says something, like, I do truly fucking love it. And, yeah, it is awkward sometimes. If they don't have something, when it's like, hey, man, just want to say, like, love the podcast. And I go, fuck it, thanks. Like, great to meet you.

What's your name? And then they go. Yeah, that. And like the, go on then. Like you're then supposed to go. That one, like, and I don't put it on them or whatever. And that is, it sucks to feel like that in a way. Yeah.

When I leave the interaction, I'm still always like, I'm kind of cool. Like, no, I don't get that. It doesn't give me, like, I don't get a big head. It almost like the opposite. I'm like, why the fuck I'm going to get stopped? We had, we were, we were walking through Mexico City Airport the other day. and we were sort of walking through to the gate and there's fans scattered through the airport

and they're sort of running after us at one point and they're shouting at Ali, they're going, Tom, Tom! It's funny. I literally nearly choked on my vape, I thought I was going to get a vape break in there. Yeah, it's difficult. What does Alie do? Mr. Sam, take off sunglasses?

No. I mean, we're, now, the rest of them are. What did the alley do? No, wait, wait, wait. I don't think he, I think he turned around and realized that Tom wasn't alive. That's the moment the fan realized. His face just dropped. No, that's Sally.

Wait, I remember now. I knew I didn't see Tom on stage last night. Usually, if the whole band are out and someone sees us, we just, three of us keep walking and we just leave Sam to do the thing. Because I think for the rest of us, we don't like, wouldn't assume that someone's going to want to. I had a good one a few years ago. We were walking out of the venue in Stockholm after the show and the venue being cleared out.

And our videographer, Isaac, just tap me on the shoulder, point at the floor, drumstick on the floor. He just goes, no one wanted it. That is actually soul crushing. That would fucking end me. Like that person grabbed the stick and went, actually. No, I'm right. Some shows, they're like splitting them in half

And this show, it's like, everyone's gone, passing it around, anyone? No, just drop it. Do you like getting recognised? He doesn't, he does, he doesn't. I don't hate it, but I don't enjoy it. If we're somewhere, we're going somewhere, I can see someone coming over, I'm like,

but I'm never rude. I'm always not, but I used to do it when I was a wee. But is that because you are preempting the awkwardness? Yeah. It's not like you're annoyed people are bothering. I also just feel a little bit embarrassed. We're not good at it. We're not good at it.

And when you were just like, you know, there's people in the shop or wherever, if I'm at dinner with my wife or whatever, and you're just like, everyone else in the restaurant's like, who fuck is this? That's what I don't like. Yeah. Should I know who you are? I've never heard of you. That one's good.

You realise that the band is getting bigger when it, because it happens to be every day at home. It will be like at some point throughout the day, even if I'm in my small little village. It will be, I think, the only thing that I'm more wary of now is like if I'm out trying to have coffee with a friend or whatever. Trying to make Craig jealous?

No. It's just, I've got to be careful what I say something. I think I'd probably get it, less than you. So it's still, it rarely happens to me. So it's like, when it does, it's still very novelty. Like, oh, I'm doing something right, this random person. Yeah.

I think I like it the most when it's, I mean, I do like it all the time. But, I'm, at least I'm honest. I like it the most when I'm somewhere real fucking random. I think the best one ever was, I like it when I'm somewhere random and the person doesn't really know who I am. So I was in like a bar in fucking Brooklyn, I think, just getting a drink before something. And some guy goes, it's going to sound weird. Are you the guy from the internet that plays the drums?

And I was like, that's me. And he was like, oh, nice to meet you. Like, I see you all over the internet. And that was it. And I was like, yeah, I'm on the fucking algorithm, boys. I'm there. I feel like once you are in the algorithm, though, on YouTube, your face can become so recognition. Can't, you know, we've seen what it's like with some people who are, you know,

who are out there on the internet and they, it's like everywhere they go, every shop, you know. The ones I do hate, I tell you what, drunk people ones. I hate drunk people. The drunk people ones, when they don't know who I am, they are actually the worst. And I do, what I was going to say on my point is when I'm, the further I am from something that we do and I get recognized, I love it. Yeah. The closer we are to our subculture than it happens, it gets less and less enjoyable.

Is it because it feels lower value? No, no. It's more if someone's drunk and they're like, oh, the fucking guy, oh, and then, like, actually, that does become a time thing because then maybe there are five or six people who want to say hello. And I'm definitely going to say hello to all of them. And then she's fucking stood there and they're like, can you take up people that grabbers? Can you take a people that grab you and pull you around? I hate that. As soon as people pull me, I'm like, I'm done.

You got pullers? Yeah, I'm not like that. Do you remember the Russian one? Pullers would fuck me off. Pullers fuck me off. Immediately, I'm like, I'm going to bus. Don't touch me. We were doing some photos.

We were in Russia years ago when we could, you know, when you could go. And we're like, it was late at night. It's burnt into my brain. Some fans were there and they wanted a photo of us. So we all got in a line, you know. Maybe you were like, one of the time letting people in. I was like saying something to one of the guys. And one of the Russian fans just went like this to me.

If that was me. And that's, you really, yeah, I mean, that got me right now. I got fucking pissed off with you. He's crazy. Well, let alone a random Rusky. Yeah. Can you say Rusky these days? Yeah, you can do it.

So we want about those guys now. Me? We will be back. I'm not suicidal. Yeah, listen, listen, I should say that most... We will be back. Most fan interactions are absolutely fine. And it's mostly me that just feels awkward.

I feel like he's the same. It's more like, I don't know how to react. If there's nothing past hello. Yeah, nice to meet you. And then they want you to go, I don't know, what you want me to do. Introduce the podcast. Yeah, I think I feel like I'm coming off. I feel as though I'm coming off bad every time.

That's what happens is afterwards. I have an interaction and then immediately it's straight to Madison Was that okay? Was it like, I wasn't rude or anything, was I? He came across arrogant

like he didn't care. Yeah, because sometimes a lot of the time you are in a hurry or you're somewhere fucking doing whatever at coffee, you need a shit

or you're at coffee with a mate. Sometimes you're saying to your friend, I'm going to shit myself. And then you have to post for a picture. I'm not listening. But yeah, my brain afterwards is very much like, God, I hope I didn't fucking

I'm rude or something if that person really wanted to meet me and my head was somewhere else and they had these like grand illusions of like oh he's going to be really funny or whatever and they go away going it was a bit boring

yeah that's how I think it's a bit of a boring wanker so you like the meeting but you don't like the be you still feel bad afterwards I still feel bad the whole time but then the grandest the grandest I feel bad as in worried about the interaction I don't feel bad that it's happening

it's validating though isn't it So validating. What's our new set time? Our new set time. 1045. 1045, you heard it here. First, this is coming out in weeks from here. Weeks from now.

Our set is delayed by two hours and 45 minutes. This isn't actually the first time we've closed the US Festival, is it? Do you remember the last one? Yeah, dude. We clash with Paramour. And so... That must have been... 60 years?

2009 or something. And it was like... Good for you. Bamboozle? Yeah. I remember watching us and Alexander crush it. It was like every... band that played before us, it was like

chaos, and then we played to 100 people. I remember watching them being like, we're not a fucking good one then. It was one of those ones where we were asking if we could play earlier. Not headline. 2009 Paramour as well. That's like...

I'm at like peak. Before we went on stage, you can hear them on stage, and it was like, there's just car park with just chips and shit in it. Yeah, again, I mean, I don't know how how much crossover there was. That time, technical metal and Paramour, but yeah, it It was that first headline experience was like really, really depressing.

You got anything left on the bucket list for the band? No. Just do. Actually, you get quite a lot of them now. I would like to be more invited to football things. We get quite a lot of that. Fucking body me, I'm sorry. Football things.

We get whatever now, really. We are, honestly, we are so miles beyond the bucket list. Like, miles and miles. Just rolling on an empty tank now. The dream was to sell a thousand tickets in London. Because when we started, that's name me a British band at that time that was doing any bigger than that. We were like playing with sixth at the mean fiddler,

and we thought this felt like the pinnacle. I mean... When we did The Roundhouse, it was like, this is fucking beyond anything that we could have imagined. Yeah. And our low ambitions held what held us back. And we'll continue to by saying stuff like, Now we're going to Wembley Stadium.

Well, there you go. There's a bucket list. We definitely have. You said no. That's kind of what we're, yeah, okay. But maybe I'm not being entirely genuine. I say there's nothing on the bucket list. Like we still have ambitions to grow a lot, especially here.

Yeah. Just keep the same thing that we've always done, just trying to write better songs and really try and write better songs and really focus on ourselves. And what the best thing is. for architects to help make it grow. Yeah, we're very focused on that. You know, you look at bands like deaf tones

and look at them in the last few years. I mean, they just kept writing great music and eventually it just fucking bang everywhere. I wonder if they're, like, satisfied. Yeah, I think they are very. I'm so jealous of anyone that's satisfied. I have this thing in my brain where it's like, okay, what's the next thing?

Yeah. What's the next thing? Well, it would be nice. I mean, they're a bit older than us, So I think it would be nice to think that by the time we were their age, maybe we would feel a little bit more. I think it's common for people in their 30s to feel like these are the grinding years.

I've got to make it happen right now. 30s and 40s. I think people generally just like go for it. In our 20s it wasn't like that. We were just messing around. Yeah, I do long for two things on my deathbed, which one is like just going, oh, I was actually pretty good at the drums.

One time I'd like to do that, and then to know that I was at that moment satisfied with where I took everything. Because I'm constantly like this. And I moan about it after I do it. I get the offer. In my head, it was like, I always want to do all the Danny Women festivals

with the podcast, because in the States, this is the fucking, this is the goat. And then I say, yeah, and I get here, and I'm like, fucking how,

I've got to do all this shit. And then I'm doing it. And after this, I'll be like, yeah, that was sick. And then I'll be like, what's next?

And I'll book something bigger and more stressful. That's why you keep succeeding. What is next? Let's go. There'll be plenty of times. It can't be good for us. Yeah, no, it isn't. But if you find something that you enjoy it doesn't mean it's not going to be a grind sometimes.

You know, like it's definitely still a grind at times for us. But then there's also lots of, you know, good moments in there as well. You know, and we are like unbelievably grateful, probably partly because we had a good decade of not really successful. or we didn't feel that we were succeeding. And so now what we have feels like such a gift, it feels like such a blessing. We don't take it for granted at all. So it's been nice, not having it handed to us,

has been good for us. It means that we really, we really enjoy it now. Quick fire. First album you ever bought? With your own money. I don't know what the first album I bought my money is. No, I know that the first album that my dad showed me, never mind and I listened to

me and Tom listened to Nevermind for a year. I got Nevermind from my uncle. Both, Nevermind. Nevermind was the first album I was obsessed with. You don't remember the first. I don't remember the first album. I remember buying Blink Records. I'm buying Lincoln Park and buying like those records.

There wasn't like a number of war. But like the first CD that was smashing around was never mind. I remember the CD. My dad eventually came silver with green. It was like silver but it had like the green. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I went from Nevermind and then on to Food Fighters, obviously. Yeah, so did he

Fucking, I hope that got a pop Because that might be the best joke I've ever told First show you ever went to Oh, I went to see This is a very British reference I went to see stereophonics supported by James Nice Went to see the Atari's

Played the Concord too I think the Atari's played earlier today here I think around the same time I went to see Paul Weller with my dad Nice I can't remember which was first The show I went to was for a friend's birthday and he just took me. The first show I...

I thought you were going to take it like rich friends. Seriophonics at their heyday playing my birthday party. It was at the Brighton Centre. So it was like five... It was before they were doing stadiums and stuff. It was actually James supported by seraphonics. Wow. Yeah.

The first show I chose to go to was muse. And again, it was small. It was like 1,500 people. Worst thing that ever happened to you on stage. I've stood on my mic stand twice and knocked myself out. Yeah, what's the Simpsons guy? Yeah. It's like the show Bob.

Like the rakes. Yeah. You did that. I've done that twice. Yeah. Both times it was in Bratislava. Yeah. I'd have like an ambulance come out

where it's like cut my face and... No fucking way. Yeah. Yeah, I can't think of... But I saw it was real slow-mo. You know when people say like, you see you laugh, flash with your eyes. Yeah.

It was like, I was like, oh, fuck. For me, it's like something crap like breaking my kick drum head. You know, nothing's really dramatic, but it is a problem. Well, there used to be good... Snows God.

Good amount of times when when you'd just be like we'd be playing a place that maybe the pre-sales hadn't done that well and you'd be like I'm just gonna get really drunk in this show you're all pouring my drinks and I would just get you hammered during the show

nice when the snare goes on the bottom and it all of a sudden comes quite quite scoff. We've told the napalm death story before haven't we? Napalm death's been on a that's a great story my bad

they played today as well advice for any people out there want to start a band and keep it going for as long as you have put all your energy into the songs And find people that you really like. Almost every single. Yeah, I think that's really key.

Yeah. Like, I think we're a rare breed from what I've seen that we all hang out all the time. No, I think that, especially in the early days, you need to all be pulling in the same direction and be very similar. Do you think that's by the reason for so many line-up changes for loads of bands is that if you've got such a close-knit, like, family, trying to join that is never really going to happen.

It's just not for everyone either, is it, you know, like, going on tour. Architects sense of humour. Well, that, but going on tour, you know, like, it can be really fun, but it's also just like, it's a different lifestyle, isn't it? It's not like some people want to be at home. Yeah. They want that stability, security, of feeling out they're at home. and when you're away

you don't have that it can be uncomfortable for some people like the first singer of architects identified that instantly and was like I'd the same for me yeah

he's kicking himself no I mean look I mean I think about that sometimes with all the members that we've had in the band that have left

you know but with respects to him the band wouldn't be the band we wouldn't be here without Sam so yeah what you said about

put 100% into the songs. That's like my advice every time I don't have good advice. Despite me asking you as well, you're the same age as me. When a kid asked me like how do I make it? My answer

is like, I don't know how this shit works right now. Touring was the answer to you know, getting in front of people and I do think there's something in that but actually if you write a really really really good song and it blows up that's it. You got to have the song. Yeah, you just got to have the song.

You just got to keep writing until you get this off. And I can't possibly give advice when someone's like, what shall I do? And it's always like, okay, so which part of social media

should I concentrate on to get, you know, for my band to make the next step? And I'm like, I don't know really how that works for music right now because even when I joined straight,

social media wasn't as big as it is. I don't know. All I can tell you is that every band that writes bangers will eventually get there. Yeah. If you're writing great songs, it's going to get.

out there and you don't need to do the fucking tic-tock dance or any of that shit it will get out there does help short term i think long term i think long term it's you know i always say didn't see deaf tones or quinzistown it's doing yeah i think i think you know the marketability of bands now is more important than ever and i would that i would i would say that's you know a weakness for us just because we probably because we existed before that was so important maybe it was just an important we just didn't realize it. And if I get asked to do anything, I say no. But it's not, it's not in me.

Yeah. But bands with a strong image. Young man's going. Bands with a strong image, obviously, the algorithm likes the strong image. And so then it helps project the signal. Do you know what I mean? So it does help. But if those songs aren't good,

no. Yeah, let's say you do that. But if the songs aren't there, you won't get back in it. You might get there for two seconds. People will know, oh, you're talking about Sleep token, talking about slip-knot or whatever. Will they? Well, maybe.

But those bands have the strong image, but they also have great songs. So it's just when you pair the two, it's obviously that's the most effective. Solid advice. But yeah, you can't be done with that. Do it with the boys or girls or anything in between.

Do it for the songs. Yeah. That's it. You've got shit to do. I've got shit to do. Hang out in our dressing room. Yeah. 100%.

That's what's happening. Without this on. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Pleasure. Yeah, cheers. Great, just see you, Craig. Thank you. Take care. Check out Architects at Welcome to Rockfield today at 1015.

Check out their fifth album. Check out. Check out brand new. I'm here with brand new boys on the scene. Upstarts. Noise nix. I'm here with brightens.cotex.c.c.c.m. I'm here with Brighton's metalcore imps.

Anyway, fuck this. Goodbye. Thanks.