The Downbeat - BETTER LOVERS: The Birth Of A Supergroup, Band Dynamics & Touring as USA's Silliest Serious Band.

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

My guests on the podcast this week are ultra-mega-super group BETTER LOVERS. Better Lovers is what happens if Will Putney snorted the ashes of The Dillinger Escape and Every Time I Die. They're all very funny people. We also did a ludicrous collab vinyl for their new record HIGHLY IRRESPONSIBLE. Check out their tour dates and grab The Downbeat x Better Lovers here: www.highlyirresponsible.com

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the secreto professional of who not are not doing tendencies, but of who who are so much to get on with in this intro.

Do not skip it. I'm going to be really fast with it. I'm going to be really accurate. I'm going to be really professional. Let's go. We're starting from now. First off, I am going on tour, a US tour. The Downbeat Live with special guest, Brendan Murphy, on every date.

We're going to have extra special guests in each city. The dates are as follows on the 5th of December. We're in L.A., the 8th, Dallas. The 10th, Chicago, the 11th, New York, and the 12th were in Toronto, kind of his hometown. It's going to be mental. It's a Christmas extravaganza. It's not getting filmed. It's not getting recorded. It's the adult tour. We can say whatever the hell we want. I really want you to come. I'm terrified. Please pick up some tickets at www. The Downbee.E. Dot A, so it's past Downbeat. Please, while you're there, pick up a shirt and pick up a hoodie, that's that bit done. Thank you. My guests on the podcast this week are Better Lovers. What an insane band. Their new album Highly Irresponsible is out on the 25th of October. We have done a downbeat variant. It's absolutely insane.

It was a tough one to do because their artwork was already insane. Basically, highly irresponsible things that tie into the artwork, but loads of people getting killed. The normal thing. We got it on like a weird green marbly splatter thing. I don't know what it's called. It's limited as ever to 500. You can get it at highly irresponsible.com.

Really funny band. One of the funniest individual members, every single one of them is insanely funny. Put them all together. It was a riot. We made predictions in between recording this episode and then playing Furnace Fest, and I'm pretty sure they did all of the predictions, provided me with photos. There's a lot of cool stuff in there. They're also on tour in November.

If you don't know who better lovers are, they were born out of the ashes of the Dillinger Escape Plan, and every time I die, I refuse to call them a supergroup because those bands were both dead. These people made a new band with Will Putney. If I had to make a dream band, it probably looks something like this. So funny. Huge, huge, huge fan of the band. The album is amazing.

Make sure you check it out. Before we get started, this episode, as ever, is brought to you by the only people that I want to make the walls in your house look really nice. House, flat, wherever. It's display. Displate. Make metal posters. They mount on the wall with a magnet. All you've got to do, you apply the protection.

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downbeat and use the code downbeat it's better lovers on the downbeat podcast how long is the podcast at this point like four hours how long is drumbeat like an average drumbeat episode it's fucking started right now How long is an average drum beat podcast? Yeah. Do you want to fucking preface the drumbeat thing? How did that happen? This is, well, I don't know. I mean, this is my favorite drum beat.

Anyone that watches the podcast? No. Viewers of Drumbeat podcast. Fuck you guys. I'm trying to help you sell tickets. Trying to help you sell records. Yeah, we're pushing the drum beat. I don't know what else we're supposed to do. Anyone that knows, no, they fucking hate it because

people that don't know it are just like, oh, it's the drama podcast. And I get it from all the press agents. They're just like, hey, do you want to do this band? And it's a huge fucking band. And I'm like, cool, yeah, I'll do this person. Because I know that's the most interesting person. They're like, oh, we were thinking you could do the drummer because it's a drum podcast. And I'm like, no.

You're a drummer. You're a drummer. You're a drummer and you're a bassist. You go to fucking Chipotle and order a bass. I don't know what the fuck. What was the one you watched that's name? Base for life or something. Base for life.

What's that? Base to Earth? Base the world. What's that, documentary? The base podcast. Yeah. A base podcast. Who is it?

You want to plug it? Yeah, shop. Yeah. See how you're a fucking, our boy, Frank, Frank, ill or fucking. Frank it. Frank it? He's got a good smack with the bass. He plays the Dalai Lama pedal or the delay llama pedal.

The delay Lama. Anyway, this is the fucking drum beat podcast. It's the jump beat podcast. And Goose hasn't said a fucking word yet. How you doing, Goose? I have them, just quiet. Would anyone, everyone like to introduce themselves? This is bad, I love us, by the way.

You already fucking know that. Hi. Hi. Hi. I'm Mitch. I'm Jordan. about it. I'm Will. I'm Goose. Because his name is Steve Michiquet. And I just ran into Knock Loose who call him Stitch because some people call him Steve. Some people call him Mitch. And only

Knock Loose calls him Stitch. And every time I see them, they go, are we still the only people that call him Stitch? I go, yeah. Stitch is cool. Yeah, it is like what would be on like an HBO like drama and he's like the drug guy. Yeah. Yeah, he's the CD. Yeah, yeah. He's like the Stitch. Yeah, yeah. He's like CD guy. I'm, I'm definitely surprised that not many more people put that together that were just like, well, I'm just going to combine them. I'm doing it from now on in, do you hate it? No, I fucking, that's cool. Yeah, but I hate the drumbeat podcast. Downbeat is the Dow Jones. It's the Downbeat. It's the Downbeat podcast. We're back. Don't mean. Downby is, yeah, it's, um, I fucked up, okay. I fucked up. I put drumsticks in the fucking logo.

yeah, everyone thinks. That's the fucking problem. There is supposed to be a nod to my career. We're in Will Putney's place, and he has a Grammy, and the microphone stands are the worst. Shit. Yeah, well, base the world was here earlier. They weren't complaining, so I'm not sure what you need nowadays, you know.

I just don't get it. Can't you get free mic stands? Look at this. I mean, I probably can, but here's the thing. You have, like, two studios and, like, a million things set up and there's a cabin full. It's that my shit is just everywhere right now. You've got too much fucking shit.

I'm sorry. There's a ring set up to be a lemon, right? There's bound to be a couple that are just... Yeah, it is what it is. You got to prioritize stuff. What does everyone do in the band? Come on, let's get, I mean, I can do this. I can do this.

Base, guitar, guitar, drums. Yeah, we have a singer. You have a singer. You have a singer. We do. We do. I haven't seen him. I've been here for 24 hours.

I just, yeah, he's just time last week. He is, he tours the Jerry Cantrell. They harmonize. like only Jerry and Lane Staley could, honestly. And so Greg hasn't been home. It is what, September 20th? He hasn't been home since June because we went to Europe. And then he went right into that tour with Bush and Candlebox.

Saw him last week. And so he's like, I haven't been home since June. Do I have to go to the drumbeat podcast? I was like, listen, you go get a good night's rest. We'll do downbeat without you. And we'll see it. New England Metal Fest Tomorrow

Which will have already been done By the time everyone she's this So let's Oh this isn't live Let's have a prediction No It's not like Ordering the food was live

But this is not like Do you like my well-timed The Saper That's fucking perfect Is that a leaf blower right now? Yeah That's a leaf flower That's actually Greg

This is This is the drumbeat podcast And a leaf blower And the microphone And your microphone stands broken This is a bit now You know that Oh absolutely

Because we've done multiple things together. Every time winners on the podcast. Something fucks up. So you have a stand that falls and a leaf blower. A leaf blower last time. The other shit fucked up. It's fine. We fucking move.

It's like, you know, how you torture me in the studio. Not anymore. I did really good. But you know how you have. Oh, yeah, by being that. Yeah, so we're even. Okay. You get the leaf blower.

Now you have to edit that. And you get the shitty mic. I'm not fucking doing it. Remember when I brought your leaf blower out and that was leaf blowing your, your, you're, your side, like the studio door, like addicted to leaf blowing. I love leafing. And power washing. I've never done a leaf blow, but I've done a power wash and I love it.

Power washing. It's just so manly. It's so satisfying part of it. It's, yeah, it's a satisfying part of it. Can we take it outside and leaf blowing? You should see me leave blowing. I haven't got the little powers. I'm sorry.

I got a little power marks. I back up batteries, too. So like, I got like the, I got the batteries. I just bought a back. Yeah, it's not like a gas one. I got, it's like the battery power. The battery pack. Yeah, I got the battery guy too.

And then you blow it and I got a backup one. Do you put your plugs in? Like you have the high powered one? No, no. I mean, this is, yeah, this isn't like blow your dick off like speed. It's just enough to get the stuff out of there. Yeah. Yeah.

I got the battery too. It feels like Ghostbusters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a childhood connection. Okay. Anyway.

Anyway, carry on. I'll, I'd love you to give me a random prediction of one of the, what show? what shows will have already happened by October the 11th? New England, and Hargill Fest tomorrow. Yes. Furnace Fest. Furnace Fest.

Furness Furn as Fus Fus. Furness. A louder than life in Louisville, Kentucky, and Aftershock. Yeah. Let's predict something. Okay. Predict something that happens either at a show. I'm going to hang out with Project Pat from Thru Six Mafia.

Juicy J. Because they're playing after us. What are you going to get into? So right now you're going to show the picture of me and him hanging out. Perfect. Thank you. What are you going to get into? Nothing.

Did I ask for a picture. We're sharing the state for body count. So we're going to have a pretty good time with them. So you can cut to a picture of us in body count. Are you going to provide me with all these things? Yeah. I'll provide you. I would love to.

I would love playing with them. Yeah. I'll probably play some songs with them. Yeah. I'll probably smoke some weed with Be Real and Sendog, a Cypressill at Aftershock. Yeah. RIP gangstaboo.

So we'll cut to that picture too or Photoshop. Okay. Yeah. These are all really good. Now you have to go and do these. Right. Yeah. We probably.

Now you have to go out and source these for me. And if we get all of them. them, that's fucking great. Yeah. Cool. That's a clip for the Instagram. I predict the furnace vest shed set is going to be pretty epic. Yeah, that's going to be real good.

What's the shed? What's the stage? There's like a main stage at furnace. Yeah. Which is cool. It's a big open field, you know. And then there's the shed stage, which just is a little more energy. It seems to be the spot.

That's where you're playing. And that's where we're playing. We did the main stage last year and it was like pretty bonkers. So I imagine. Our stage is, Colosson Bain? Yeah. Because us being cold. less. And then, but on the main stage.

Wait, Bane's back. Bain's back. They're just back. I think they're just back on and off, on and on. On and off for 15 years. You're going to have a good set. Good for them. Oh, less is back. Should be the conversation, but that's all right. Yeah, but it's less. They went. Who's headlining the main stage? Is it Coheed our day or? Coheed? Maybe. Under oath, our day?

No, Under oath's the last day. At the Fernis. At the Fernis, like a, like a nostalgia trip. show meets like new bands well it was a festival it was it was a festival in like 99 2000 2001 and it was awesome and then it kind of took like 20 years off

and then it came back with pretty much all those old bands again and it was even bigger and better and now this is the last one for some reason they're done so they're kind of like Bain they're done and then they're back

and then they're done for a year and we're coming back yeah you're talking about I fucking know It's melting my brain. It's funny. It's chaos. It's fucking fine. Oh, it's really funny. It's really bad.

Oh, it's going. Has anyone, have you ever had this? Have you ever had? This is perfect. Yes, I have. Does it go away? This is my first one ever. What happened? I closed it in my car door when I was taking my kid to school because I was getting work texts

and I couldn't concentrate and I shut my thumb in the door. I just fall off. No, but see, it's not throwing it. It's not. See, it happened to me on a toe. And what happened is it went black and another toe now grew on the knee. Yep, grew underneath and pushed it out. Pushed it out and off.

Like a molting snake. That has happened to me. That has happened to me three times. Does it hurt to hold a pick? No, no, it's fine. I think it's just not changing my socks. I think I might just have to paint my tour. Pay my fingernail.

That's fucking gangrene. Yeah, it's, well, yeah, I mean, it's just, you know. It's like an athlete's foot meets like fungus meets like, you know. I hate to see that. Wait, so the nail comes. off from sheer dirt. I'm learning this in real time too. Me too. Yeah, this is terrified.

Mine was like I stubbed my toe and the nail sort of came off. Yeah, no, this is just like, I don't know, probably moisture and just not keeping it dry, not spraying it with. Yeah, I mean, but I mean, they grow back. Human body's crazy, man. It's normal now. You want to see it? Just, yeah. Don't get foot out for the pod?

We can get foot out. No free feed picks. Come on, guys. It's one of my new ventures too. I'm looking into it, too. Patreon exclusive? Is there an exclusive for the feet? Okay.

All right. Yeah, well, I'm down with that. Yo, I got, it wasn't catfished because I knew it was a dude, but there was a picture. This is a true story. There was a picture of me without shoes on, like at Warp Tour, which we're not allowed to talk about. And I was at the merch tent. And the picture made it to a fucking foot, like message board. And so I got messaged by a girl.

asking to like for to pay me for feet picks. And at the time like, yeah, I was, I don't like, okay, I know you're not a girl, but tell me more about how much you can make. And like, once someone tells you you can make a living selling pictures of your feet, you can't help but not consider it. And yeah, and I was at the time I was Jordan E. Tid and I was going to change it to Jordan Feetid. And number one, did you do it? Did I do what? Did you send him? Did the conversation get to a price?

Listen, I don't know if I'm ready to commit to the end of the story. Come on. Commit to the end of the story. You can say it and then afterwards you can tell me we can cut it out. But I feel like it's great. I think I may have dipped my toes in. Just to see how the market is. And then I was like, can you just stop saying you're a girl?

Like, I know you're fucking. Let's be real. You're a guy. You want to see my feet. Cold hard cash. Right. And then he was, he almost. He, like, wanted to manage me.

Like, it was like, I can get you. As a feet guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. This is pretty cool. Yeah. Do you have nice feet? Like a consultant. I can't recall your.

I feel like he's got nice feet. He might have nice feet. You got cute feet. Yeah, all right. That guy's got cute feet. We'll have to show feet. And, um, nice. Those are okay.

They will be. They will be. They do. You're supposed to spread them. Oh, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That is one. Whoa.

Whoa. Wow. Wow. They like. They like they, I was, because I was. . Because I was just so interested. They like when they're flexed.

They like, like, they don't like relax. They like when you could see all the fucking. Yeah. Remember, you can curl it? You see? They're like an arch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been doing physical therapy on my foot.

Mitch woke me up live on his account. And then we started showing a feat. And then people were like saying to like spread them. So I think that's right. I think that's supposed to be hot. Yeah, my foot's fucked up. But I do have like a cool tattoo of Ralph. Yeah.

It's already. a perfect podcast. So everything from now is absolutely fine. I had a similar thing. I used to have, when I did my drum play-throughs, I would have a foot cam and I switched to playing in socks. And then I took the foot cam away and a guy messaged me, who probably watches this, saying, hey, I just, I just want to ask if you would consider bringing the foot cam back. I'm happy to pay. Oh, by the way, maybe it's the same guy. Before we get. That could have been like a kick drum technique thing. You know, what you can also do is I'll send you the picture that got, that made it to the thing.

So we can keep updating. Oh, we need to fucking talk about your album. Oh. I mean, we actually don't. But at this point, today, there is a variant of the album coming out, the downbeat variant. Drumbeat exclusive. That's right. You know what?

Quite difficult to do. Fuck you. Quite difficult to do because normally, I do. I do like bands that have super serious art and then I'm like yeah let's just go fucking crazy with it and do something crazy but your art was like already crazy

yeah a guy's face getting blown off so I had to just one up it yeah yes we had to one up it it was quite difficult yeah you did nail it really cool great now it's just a lot of guys getting blown up I've never had a band have notes and actually this is something that I wanted to ask you guys

do you think because you came from like basically you had notes on the ridiculous artwork, which is ridiculous. Because every other band I go, oh, we're going to do this fucking zombies and they're getting melted by a dog and everyone's like, okay, cool, that's fine. And then we had this crazy idea

and then there were notes. And the notes were all great. Like, let's tie in the fireworks from the record, which I wouldn't have thought of. Do you think, because you all come from fucking years of a million different established bands, you,

hyper-analyze things either positively or negatively based on that. I think we take our ridiculousness seriously, if that makes sense. There's always notes on everything. But yeah, the straightforward answer is yes, we hyper-analyze. Do you think that comes from trying to do things differently than before, or just being wiser and having done it a million times already? I would say it comes from just, well, one we, that's fun to us, you know, it's fun. It's not work.

Yeah, it's just who we are. It's just we want to make sure our merch, our music, our everything is as fucking good as it can be. Not good enough. Yeah. But like, yeah, everything's better than everything else. Yeah, I think this band, everybody in this band has good. ideas. I see a lot of bands operate where there's like one or two guys that sort of steer the ship and stuff and in this band the best stuff happens when everybody's in on it. So everything is a

chat, a discussion, a pile of notes, a mini debate about what's better. I'm insane with notes. I straight up have like a notebook and everything's journaled down. Yeah, where's the guardian? I've seen the notebook since I've been there. I've never thinking. I have a notebook. I tab everything out. Every single note, every single note to every song. Real me off a note. Is tab. What kind of notes to be talking about? Well, I mean, well, this in particular, this is just stuff for the record.

Like, I'll take like specific songs like, okay, here's go off king. That was like a working title. And I got intros, mosh, and just break it down. I just kind of tab everything out. So this is more just like song like tabs. But then when it comes down to like stuff like the. Do you play another instrument that isn't bass? I mean, I started on guitar.

This is not bassist behavior. Yeah, I mean, I started on guitar, but that's all. It's guitar and bass. You know, poor drummer, but rhythm, you know. You looked at him and said poor drummer. That's me. It's that beat that you do, it's like, get, do, get, get, get, that's your one. That's your beat.

The first night of snare, and now we're on the drumbeat podcast. I just, right. I just like the drums. Your favorite beats is the punk beat, right? It is. I love the punk beat. Yeah. We're all really good with notes and sharing them and everyone brings pretty good ideas.

No one, they're usually for the better too. It's screaming like, I mean, it's only because of my experiences with my fucking band. Like, that's not too many cooks. You don't just fucking get to a stalemate because four people have four different ideas. You can sometimes. And if you ask Tom, he'll probably be like it. So I can't get it done. I just want to get it done.

I just want to get it done. And then everyone has to think about it. And it's like, yeah, but it makes it better. It just makes it better. But like, I, I know you very well. I recently, you know, we're hanging out. But I know. You got to sleep over while you were hiding.

Yeah. Where did you sleep last night? The pink room. The pink room? You're in the pink room. Yeah. Okay. But I was jet-laked.

You didn't want to sleep without us. That's cool. I would, you know, knowing your old bands and all that stuff, I feel like you would have, if I was just in a band with one of you, I'd be like, I respect that guy, but you have five people all worthy of fucking respect plus a manager worthy of respect. Thank you. Feel like that would be infuriating.

I think it's not infuriating because the amount of hours put in, the amount of wisdom we have, one of the things that has kind of completely dissipated from the equation is the taking things personally, you know, you deal with that in the early years of your career, if someone doesn't like your idea, it hurts. Or if you don't like someone else's idea, you have to think of a way to break the news to them, where we're just so past that that, if you don't like an idea, let's go to the next one,

let's go to the next one, let's go to the next one. Like, it's almost, you're guaranteed to have 100 bad ideas before you get to the 10 or 20 good ones. It's fucking lucky in a way that you get to do a new band with all that wisdom. because most bands were just fucking persevere and then just fucking fall off. Because you guys, well,

there's one song out. Do you play a show when there was one song out? Or did you wait for the EP and then do that? The EP came out like two days before our first show. Yeah. Where was the first show? Buffalo, New York. EP out.

So how long is the set? Oh, dude. It was about that. I mean, we were pulling out all the like extending breakdown, sizzling shit, playing covers. Yeah, we were,

okay, so tomorrow. Wait, Show. Headline show. Headline show. Headline show. It was one day, two shows. They both sold out in seconds.

I think it was 50 kids at each show. So it was like 700 people. And I said this was eight songs. It was four people knew. Three people didn't and a cover. Listen, you got this far into the podcast. So you're obviously a fan of big, huge, big, dirty riffs, right? You love riffing.

You got one of those instruments that has strings on it. I wish I did. I don't. Okay, I can't do it. I'm untalented, is that the word? Anyway, I'm not talented enough to play that sort of instrument. But you obviously are. Now, I want to help you out.

You can go to neuraldisp.com. Use the code downbeat, and you can get 30% off any of neural DSPs insane guitar and bass plug-ins. All you've got to do, get that stringed instrument. I don't really know how it works, but I know there's a cable. You plug that into something else. Interface, maybe? Plug that in there. Load up something like arched,

type Gojira. Pliny X. You know what I've been listening to a lot of Pliny at the moment? It's kind of my fall music. You could load up Nolly's pack. They've got a dark glass bass one. There's so much cool stuff. Loads of people I know use it. 30% off. I'm pretty sure you can't get that anywhere else except the downbeat. Neuraldisp.com and use the code the downbeat. Thank you. It's fun because tomorrow, our tomorrow, but not when they're watching it's tomorrow. when they're watching it, it'll already have happened. But the New England Metal Fest will be the first time in our band's career that we will be playing. Our set will be full of songs that people know.

We have played songs that people don't know in every single set for, and we played 80 shows already. Tomorrow, we get to play seven songs and people will know all seven for the first time ever. It's fucking so funny. Yeah. But it's also, I have. another question about this. It's also like really fucking old school. Like remember when you were just like in a fucking band and you were writing songs and you couldn't afford to record yet. So you were just go and play gigs and these were the fucking songs. We were altering songs.

We were playing songs and going, oh yeah, when we do this, let's make it like that. Like Greg was writing. Greg was. Greg was auditioning versions of the song. We did a $10 ticket for our first show because we're like, yo, this is a practice for us, basically. Like, it's like people coming to the show is like doing us a favor. It's like that day, the first show day was the first time all five of us were ever on stage together performing. That sound check before was the first time we ever had Greg on stage doing vocals with us. We filmed a video.

We pretended to play a song together before we ever played a song together. That was in April, 2023. Yeah. Explain that. Okay, so we recorded music. It was me, Steve Goose. We went to Will. We didn't have a singer yet.

In November of 2020. Yeah, but we just knew we got to get this thing off the ground. Let's, how about let's record with Will. And then we'll use that to find a singer. And we did. We recorded four songs. Got him to Greg because we ran into Greg in Las Vegas when he was on tour with Jerry Cantrell.

And then he just, the story goes, like, he didn't, you know, get to it right away because he was on tour. And he wasn't, he hasn't been in a heavy thing for a while. And so I got a text like four months later at three in the morning, which is just so great. And all the text said was, let's give these motherfuckers what they want. And I was like, I think that means he wants to do the band. And we haven't seen Greg. Yeah. I mean, forever.

Yeah. So we, right. We saw him. We were in Vegas for me and Jordan were there for some reason. I don't know what we were doing there. Maybe it was just kind of like a, the band broke up and we're like, hey, let's just take a vacation.

Yeah, yeah, sort of thing. Pretty much. And then Greg just happened to be in town with Jerry. I, I missed that. I didn't go, I didn't check that out,

but Jordan went to see him. It was really, yeah, and he was. And then we sent Greg the songs. And then in January, 2023, he's like,

oh, I'm going to record one of the four. So me, Will and Jordan, flew cross country for, I think, 20 hours. Tops, flew to California, watched him do half the song. At that point, I hadn't seen Greg in a decade. Yeah.

Hey, dude. Yeah, because he's been in a band with you now, you know, like. He didn't even know Will, so he's got a guy. He met him over the first time. Yeah, I was like, hello. Yeah. Guy sings for the band now. So what are very good?

He's like, you're very good too. Okay, this will be fun. What was the name? What was the name of the guy that he recorded the vocals? Josh. Josh. Josh. Yeah.

was we went to Josh's place and like, you know, Greg came in and did his thing. And we were like, what do we do? Do we tell them good, bad? Yeah. Do we make a note? Yeah. Yeah. So we finished half the song and it was like, now what? Let's just go get sushi. Yeah. We just went and ate food and kind of got to know each other because it's been a minute. Got a little fucked up. And then we're like, okay, we should make a video. Okay, well, we only have one song done. It just was like, it was complete stars aligning. It was like, I guess, well, we had to make a video for that song because it was the only song that was done.

But meanwhile, it was such a good choice anyway. It's our biggest, you know, people go off for that song. And because a month after that, we had a Furnace Fest offer with no band name. And one song. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Furnace Fest. Because they just called that.

We got an offer for new band. Yeah. Yeah. It was just the new, I don't know, Eid Dillinger project. I don't know what they would like call the, the official. offer was hilarious, whatever they had on there. And then so we get this offer for the under oath tour because we had a booking agent Nick Storch who stuck with us and was like, I'm going to do whatever you guys do next for

sure. So he gets us this under oath tour and we're like, okay, well, let's get this EP done by the time the tour starts, please. That kind of set a goalpost. It was the time there, how long we got? This is like February, where we're like January maybe, we're like, okay, we got, right after we kind of got this first song out of the way. It was like, okay, well, here's what could be

like a plan. There's a tour here. Yeah. So if we could work that backwards, that means a record's got to be done by then. Yeah, it was a lot of working backwards. And this, you know, so it was like, a race. Because, like, we're putting all the pieces together. We didn't have a band name. Getting shows and tours before there's songs, band names.

Right. So it was totally like, we're fucking crazy. No band name, no music video, no complete record. no merch No stuff Like we need a backdrop We need to this Yeah just like Okay let's just do it

Here we go You know And yeah And we were gonna go on this Under oath tour And the Buffalo show Was like two or three days Before it

And we're like Ideally it'd be nice to go on tour With people knowing more than one song And so we You know we surprised dropped that first song And then we surprised Drop the EP because we kind of had to Because we're like going on tour

Yeah And we wanted people to know as many songs as possible. And it just all was kind of, like I said, the universe was just being like, okay, now do this. Okay, now do this. Okay, now do this. Okay, now do this. Hurry up. We're starting.

Was the EP surprise drop with a label? Yes. Yeah. Were they cool with just doing that? No. No, they were mortified. Absolutely not. I thought so.

No, I mean, we signed in a sharp tone. Yeah. Love Sean Keithy's greatest job. Shout out sharp tone. And we were like, okay, heads up. this is going to be crazy because we're trying to make this mark. So, like, just trust us. We'll get it there.

So they had a plan. It got thrown out the window, had a plan. Things just kept like, they had to work really, really fast to get this into existence with us, you know. Yeah. And to circle back to the original point about playing songs live, well, one, we didn't have a choice. But two, we also thought it was cool because no one was doing it anymore. Yeah, it's really always cool. The example I always think of is I was on a warp tour and Bring Me the Horizon was on that warp tour.

I like those guys a lot. And, you know, Warp Tour ends in August. They had a new record coming out in like September. And all summer, they didn't play a single new song because they just didn't want people's first impression of their new record to be a phone video. Yeah. And we just had to decide we don't care. We just had to. So if you're like some diehard,

better lovers fan, you can go back on YouTube, I'm sure, and there's probably 30 different versions vocally of a song that's coming out on our full length. It's fucking sick. It's cool. It's like Jeff Buckley.

Now you just all got to die and then some label will make all the money. Yeah, they're like RIP deluxe deluxe version of it. can have every city's version. Yeah, yeah. You mentioned not having a band name for however long. Oh, yeah.

First off, that's a little bit of fucking respect. It's a fucking great name. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I think it was the, my least favorite part of the entire process. It's so difficult. You know, when you're coming in, like, as established people, new name,

trying to put two words together that have never been put together for me. No joke. No joke. I think I would rather be asshole naked at like my in-laws holiday party for an hour talking to their aunts and uncles than me reading off my list of band names. I read them back the other day to delete them. You have to hit you one down. I deleted them. I have like 60 band names and I'm like, I couldn't even bring half of them to these guys.

I'm like, this is so embarrassing. It's the worst. I didn't even care at the end. It's horrific. Just call it whatever. It's absolutely horrific. I know second place was big news. Big news.

Big news. That's right. News was second place. So what happened was Jordan, Jordan came up with lovers and I had better something in my notes. And I was like, let's put better in front of it. And that's how the band name starts.

There's a lot of synchronicity in the band. That's fucking cute. Jordan had lovers and I had better. So we put better lovers together. And what we learned during this process is, that there is a German DJ with every band. Like every single thing we came up with that we thought was good. You go to Spotify and you search up,

a German DJ already has that. You're by a German DJ or Russian rapper? Yeah, yeah. It's already taken. Oh, it's already taken. Oh, it's already taken. No, the band name. Yeah.

Yeah. Like anything, like big news or if you just go through the list, at least 10 times we're like, yeah, that's a good one. Oh, wait, it's already a German DJ. Do you think if it had been big news? The logo would have been different, the typeface. Did you have something in mind? I got a headline in mind.

Well, we did. Navarna font style. Oh, yeah, Nirvana font. Okay. New news could have been sick. All right, let's switch it up. No, better lovers is better. Yeah, better lovers one.

Were there a stinker that someone was like dead set on? No. Oh, thank God, no. No, that was the problem. Everyone was just like, no, no, no. Even our own list. My seven-year-old came up with rodeo trash, and I kind of liked this. Kind of like this.

Yeah, yeah. But they're just like, you were just pumped to not tell people I was in a band that had die in it. Or like, I think we just agreed on two words. Like, let's just try to think. Yeah, that was the rule to one or two words. Oh, you know, what did you? Patience was a good one. Like, we almost had that, right?

No, what was it? Sure, we got therapists. Therapists. Therapists. Yeah. We were talking therapists. That was not. No one's taken therapist.

What's up? No one's taking therapists. Not taken. They fucking have that. Or it might be a German DJ. They fucking have now. I feel like the single word band, we must be near the end. There's nothing left.

And then two words is coming up. That's next. Yeah. Found howling. I was one that I can't believe no one liked. I liked that one. I got high and I walked around Barnes and Noble's. Barnes and Noble.

Barnes and Noble. Because I can never remember if it's one noble or two nobles. That's me with Baskin Robbins. I'd say Baskin and Robbins. He's one guy. Okay, so is there two Barnes and one noble? There's a Barnes and a noble. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Barnes. If it was noble and Barnes, it would be so fucking easier. Anyway, you were walking around trying to find a hit man to kill your eyes. I actually just. I said it. You didn't say it. It's fine.

Just writing words. Just writing words. And like I would look at a word and then I would turn my head and look at another word. And then I would text it. It's fucking sick. Yeah, it got to the point where we were. just combining the English language in whatever way we could. I never want to do it.

How long did it take from new band to better lovers? Months. Forever. It was the worst part. You are really traumatized. He's so much anxiety. Yeah. I was over it.

Yeah, because if you fuck it up, it could be, that could be it. There were two rules. Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and batter records of ventas with the form of pay with The best conversion of the world. Has heard it. The best conversion of the world.

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per per record's. The one or no more than three words and I think we were

just kind of going with will know it when we hear it. Like none of this, like, you have to convince everyone. It was like a, ooh, yeah. Okay, there it is. Was that what happened when battle lovers went together? Yeah.

I remember seeing everyone came out and just going, oh, okay. Fuck, yeah. Yeah. They fucking did it. And it is funny, like, it's funny the two bands that you came from, the fucking names are so insane that there's obviously the trauma there.

Like, I'm not doing that again. No. Oh, yeah. Like, having a, when you go to a diner, like, for 20 years and the waitress is like, y'all in a band? Yeah. What's the name of your band? Every time I die. Every time I die. So, like, the first time this happened with this band, I, and like the old muscle memory of like, like, like, kicked in. And I was like, oh, wait a minute. We're called better lovers. Like, proud. For the first time of my life, I'm shaking her hand. The Wazer, they like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Greg probably has the, the worst deal there explaining the old band name, like the Dillinger escape. What does that mean? Yeah, it's a tough one. That's a mouthful.

Yeah. I'm good on that. I'm even good on mine. Like, in my accent, I'm like, I say straight from the path and they're like straight from the path. Yeah. What were you saying? Oh, can you say small balls for me? I've been getting bullied today.

first by Will for my accent racist kind of secondly by Mitch for the drumbeat podcast that's that's by the by earlier on I was talking about I've got small balls I've got kind of small balls he's leading into it yeah oh Jordan hasn't heard this oh you missed the bagel rod before

yeah so will just earworm and Will just could not stop saying small balls in the car. Smooth bulls. There it is. And then he was like being quiet and like shut down for a bit while I was driving. And I had to go, Will, just say it again. And he was like, no, I can't, I can't do it.

I've been trying to curb my outbursts of offensive things. No, I like it. It's fine. It's funny. I like it. Tom ruined me with saying offensive shit in public for years. Do you know the tick with the burp? Have we ever talked about this?

We have, but I can't remember. So please tell me. So do you know how he would always go, oh, fucking shit, bro? all the time, like some kind of weird Monter. When he burp? No, so I started burping. I started saying it. Then I started burping and it's like an, oh,

sound. And I would go, oh, fucking shit, bro. And it stuck for fucking years. It stuck to the point where, like, I'd be in public. So Tom was saying it just for no reason? Tom would just go, oh, fucking shit, bro. Yeah, I say it because of Tom as well.

Yeah, and you say it. Everyone says it because of Tom. It was like a tick he had. And then he passed it on to me. So I'd be like in a line at the bank. and I would push a burp out audibly louder than like you're supposed to and then say it loudly. In public doing that is insane anyway and then you're adding an extra layer of insane onto the top of it. So I try to become more self-aware of like, don't just say offensive things like a psychopath. So that was I was trying to exhibit restraint and not just repeat small bulls over and over you.

Thank you. But you brought out. I said small balls. And then we came to the conclusion, the worst thing about in my particular style, of English accent, which is southern, just like west of London, is P-A-U-L.

Say that for me, America. Paul. Oh. P-O-O-L. Four. Cool. Cool. Cool.

Cool. Cool. Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. It's every single fucking word. I have a new tick as well.

Just while we're on that, we're still not talking about the fucking music. We talked about the music. It's fine. I got a new tick. What do you got? First off, I once actually had a tick. Just happened once in my fucking life.

I was in a mall and I was at... With pole. With my small balls. And you know what? I really tried to say mall there because I would have said more. Did you say, I'm in a mall with small balls and ball? Do you want me to say that how I would actually say it? Yeah.

I'm in a mall with pool and I've got small balls. There's fucking almost just noises. Anyway, I'm in a mall with pool. No, I'm on my own. It was closing. It was like fucking 455 or something. Some small shit more. Small shit more, fuck me.

Okay, keep going. I'm going to kill myself. You're doing good. I was at one end. This woman was at the other end. And it was just us, really quiet. I was pretty hung over. I remember vividly being like, you know, when you're hung over,

you kind of dissociate a little bit. And she dropped her keys. And I just went, drop your keys. And it's never happened since. And it's never happened. Like, it never happened before that. And I remember thinking at the time in that, like, hungover panic.

I was like, oh my God, have I got Tourette's now? Because that never happened again. But I got a new one, and it is actually coming out a bit. If someone looks like someone, while I'm walking past them in the street, out loud, I'll say Joe Biden. What? Well, that took a turn. I don't know what it is. That's the one that I remember because I did that one recently.

And it's usually old men, like Colonel Sanders. That was another one. Okay. So is it people that look like Joe Biden? And I walk past, and I literally have to say it. I don't say Atman, but I just say it under my breath. It's almost like an OCD thing. That's okay. That's all right.

Anyway, join me in doing it. It's really satisfying. Well, I have the, oh, shit, tick. So you do the Joe buy one. I'll do my. Any other ticks? Yeah. That's about it.

Whenever, let's see here, I was in a mall one time and a guy. With Paul? With Paul. Yeah, these are all mall stories. And a guy, like, he was getting in a fight on the phone. And then he just goes, I'm losing service. I'm losing service. And he kicked over a chair and, like, walked out.

And so I will yell that anytime I have a phone issue, but no one knows that I'm referencing this. You're quoting your own fucking experience. So I'm just like, time loves the service. How long ago did that happen? 2012. It's a fucking 12 year bit. Yeah, yeah.

But it's rare. Only for you. But I cannot have an issue with my phone without saying it. That's so fucking funny. It's not like I'll say it like when I'm eating pretzels. I'll just. You know what's funny about this podcast as well? You've fucked it now because.

somebody is going to shout it at you at a show. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll get them. Yeah. Drew came on once. We had to fucking, I think Tom had to, like,

tell me to put on my story to tell people to stop doing it. Like, because Drew came on and he was just a fucking psycho, and he was doing all his jingles. And he had, like, one fucking, like,

just a little, like a tick jingle. And it was, it was, it was like, it was, I'm a greasy man. That's JV for short.

That's exactly what it was. And then we would go on stage and about to sing a song about racism. Oh, okay. And someone in the crowd would be singing that song. I'm a green sea man. At fucking Drew before we're about to talk. Literally because there's a gap and then Drew's about to talk about something really political. And then someone's,

Oh, I thought you meant. Someone's doing a bit. You might have to cut this, but I thought you meant like you were about to sing like a pro-racism song. Like, oh, I haven't heard your new stuff yet. But okay. We're going to go out. We're going to sing a song about racism. I was like in the podcast.

Yeah, we flipped it. Drew. We flipped it. We get chance for the five-string bass, which me and Jordan encourage pretty heavily. So you'll see an occasional guitar swap. Yeah, when Steve has to go to five-string, we'll try to get a five-string chant going.

Yeah, if you're listed in five-string bass, five-string bass. That's what you want to do. Yeah, that's locked in. Five-string bass. But here's the problem, though, I think on the upcoming tour, it's only going to be for the first song. So people will have to chant it after the song's done. You can change when he puts it away.

Four string bass. Oh, yeah. Switching to the four. Because I was picking up the four string. So it'll be like a new one. I'm about to go through four hours of footage of us recording. And it's not even worth explaining the garbage that we say all day to each other. It makes no sense.

So I actually do want to put together like a montage of the most nonsensical garbage that comes out of our mouth with no context. And then just release it to the world. Just so you know, this is how our brains work. Yep. All day. And nothing will make sense to you. And it doesn't have a story. It just happens.

Yeah, but that's happened before. Yeah. Because I fucking shit happens DVD. Literally made me want to go on tour because of the dumb shit in it. Yeah. Fucking shimfo was like canon. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. So you need to fucking do that. And that's why it's kind of, I, that's why I'm going to be going through this fucking four hours of footage of of our Tourette's because I know at the end of the day people want it. Yeah. People fucking want us to hear me and Steve

singing to Will while he's mixing. Cheeky rubbish governor, isn't it? One day they were just being... More racism against they were just being like sheep one day or lambs. Oh yeah. Goose. Because he's the greatest of all time,

which just turned into 96 straight hours of us making And it turned into the Amazon a chef hat for him because we were calling him the chef because he was cooking up the riffs. Yeah, we wrote chef on it. He had to wear it all day. Yeah.

And then he didn't wear it. So whoever was tracking, had to wear it. And then so like, and the next day it was goat noise. I had to stop a session. Do you like, hey, we've been recording for seven minutes and you're all gold snows. I love it when you get real to snap.

He's all in on the fun until he's not. Yeah. You come in, goat noises. Yeah. We come in and immediately to start doing that, like, very beginning of the day. And Will's like, you guys, it's only been like three minutes. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's a great clip.

Oh, yeah. He's like, we've been down here for seven minutes. That's on camera. Who's been a good thing going where he was like shaking Uber Eats driver's hands. Yeah, they would drop stuff off. That was kind of cool. I had to shake their hand. Oh, I live for bits.

That's such a good bit. Yeah, it has to shake. Like a proper formal handshake. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to start. Hey man, come back. Yeah, I'm big on just telling people I love them. Like, just total strangers.

Like, I go to a bar, so he gives me a beer. Like, thanks, man, I love you. Yeah. Or like, when you leave, like, dude, text me when you get home, get home safe. Or when you get the Uber notifications, like, driver's here. Go shake his hand. Like, I got to get, I've got to shake his head. And then, like, he'll come back.

Disappointed if he's, if we miss the hand. Like, fuck, he's already in his car. We had a lot of fabricated fights. What do you mean? Well, we get a lot. Like, we never fight. No one in the span's ever had to argue. with each other.

It's for real. Since the inception of the band. And so now if there's anything that even kind of resembles a disagreement, someone in the background goes, guys don't fight. Like it will just be like, like, can we watch the Bill's game? Yeah, hold on. I don't know where the controller is. Guys, just stop fighting.

That's the level of course. We had to like go for walks to cool off. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was like a big thing. I'm just, I'm just going to take a drive. I'm in a cool. off. I'm going to tell you this. You need to get someone to film.

As simple as like, does it, does it sound good to start on the open or should we wait and come in with drums? One person says one thing. One person just goes, you know what, I got to go cool off. It just goes outside for a walk. Oh, there's so many bits. I need it. I need you to fucking do it. I know talking about bits.

We'll show it. So it'll give us some contact. I'm really enjoying it. When we actually put, you know, we'll put some content out while we're here. and we have favorite comments that people will leave, like the very overused comments. And then those become lyrics to the songs that day. My body is ready.

Shut up and take my money. Okay. You know, this serves cunt. Yeah. All the stuff that we know people are going to write, the more they write it, the more likely it is to become a lyric to the song that day. And then I'm learning like,

and like, I'm just staying in the song. In our heads. I was going to say I don't remember We sing the riffs Like we'll sing them Yeah We'll sing the riff with the words

It's just It's it's musician brain And usually like musician mania And usually there's like two in a band And you have a full band of it It's so It's so cool though It is so

Like my kid's nine And his sleepovers Just resemble our Our knights here Just giggling And inside jokes And And I, I seriously, I'm 42 years old.

I feel like I'm at a, when we record here, I feel like I'm at like a six-week sleepover. It's so fun. Yeah, I'm the same. It's my favorite. Yeah, yeah. It's always like, oh, is it crazy touring, like, in your 40s? Like, because that's like a young man's game.

And I'm like, we're 12 years. Like, yeah, yeah, don't worry about that. That was like a big, I mean, get serious for a second. That was like a huge thing for me, too, like, starting this new band. It's like, I've been with Jordan for a long time. And Goose, you know, was in heated for a little. little bit. But to start over at age 43 and do a band, it's like the biggest thing for me was like everyone's got to get along. Yeah. Like I think, you know, without sounding arrogant, like,

we're all kind of, we know our instruments. We know how to write songs. Like, we know what we're doing. But, you know, I'm going to leave the house, you know, leave the wife, leave the dogs, like, you know, leave family and all that. It's like, I got to get along with these guys. Yeah. Because if I'm not. If that's not there, like, what are we even doing? Exactly. If you're not doing that, then, you know, what are you doing? So that was kind of like, yeah, I think we got that here, you know?

Even with Greg, it's like. It's crazy. You got that first time, though. It wasn't like. Yeah. How we got to kick this guy out? No, we just got a great. I can honestly say, knock on wood, aside from a tragedy, I don't, I don't ever see a member change in better lovers ever.

I mean, if someone breaks a finger and they got to get a fill in, that's one thing. But I don't, I don't see it happening or want it to happen. Yeah, I feel like if you take anyone out of the span, it's all wrong. And I can't speak on Greg because he's not here as well, I don't know him. But he's just just perfect. He's so much fun. And he's seeing her. So it's like, and what, he kind of got to be a bit, if he's crazy, you're going to

be a bit crazy. Every good thing is fucking crazy. His texts are like a high school football coach at halftime. Like I will run through a wall After reading some of his texts Like even just last night Hey what time you're getting in Oh dude blah blah blah blah blah we're gonna fucking crush

Fucking New England Meta Fest Are you fucking kidding me These motherfuckers are getting fucking torched Fuck no one's gonna wanna Oh so he's like hyping it out Yeah yeah yeah It's like you know Every time

His like you know I don't want to speak for him too much But like from where His career ended in this world To where he is now He's become such a different person and he's on such a cool wavelength like this where he's like, I want to have fun.

Like if I'm doing this, I want it to be fun. He's like prioritized what's important for him. It's like music and his life and everything. You know? You take your old shit and you go, I didn't like me like that bit. I'm not going to bring that into this. Everybody has some form of an experience, whether it's like the past bands

or working with a million bands or, you know, coming from different parts of our world where it's like, just know what we want out of being in a band out of doing music now. Yeah. It's like, that's why it all translates any, it's complicated music with lots of cooks, but it's easy to move it forward all the time, you know.

Yeah, that's why, you know, we all feel fortunate, like you were kind of saying earlier, like starting over, like a lot of bands don't get that. Like you ride that band for 10, 20 years, go back to nostalgia, but like starting over, it's like, all right, we can, we all can pick a band name that we like. Here's our, you know, we can pick an aesthetic we like.

like merch that we like like every direction of the art like you know that we're all a part of that even from like song one we like you know what I mean it's like it's not like when you're 18 and like you're just figuring shit out like you don't know what the hell you're doing you're like well the old stuff but like just some of the new stuff it's like now it's like I don't know I like everything we've done it's all new and you don't because I feel like your formative years sometimes you write what ends up being a fan favorite and then you fucking hate it in like 10 years time, 15 years time. Whereas you guys, no offense, because I'm the same, you can be fucking old by the time

you hate these songs. Exactly. And your formative years are gone. So your personalities are pretty much fucking settled in. Right. You can probably gamble that you're still going to like them in 10 years. Yeah, it's made the music pure in a really cool way because there's not like a chase for anything.

It's just like, what do we like? Okay, let's do that. Yeah. And it's like, you've heard the record. you can see where the curveballs are and stuff, just making music we like now. It isn't like figuring it out anymore. Who's responsible for like the psychedelic

fucking guitar in like the soloy stuff? Which one of you does that? Kind of a mix. Yeah. Will is a better guitar player than anybody I know, myself included. I don't know. He's,

so the solos, I kind of. Might be a little. Yeah, we dabble. We kind of, whoever, Whoever's got the idea.

Like whoever's, yeah, whoever, you got the, the, the big ones that sound like, slash flew in, those are Will. Yeah, they, they, they took me on the record. I was like, oh, this is like a fucking ripping. Yeah, I was like, are we doing this? Yeah. And I'm not a, I can't remember what,

it's early on, maybe, like I track three or something. Yeah, there's one or two in there. There's like a fucking, I'm like, fucking slash playing Pink Floyd over fucking fucking head to shit. Sometimes it's like kind of funny and we'll just like do us all over it and start laughing like should we really do it though? Oh, I've seen the sound check funny with the shit riffs. Yeah.

The shit riffs. They made it in? They creeped. A couple do. A couple do. For sure, a couple do. I remember seeing on your stories like a couple of them and I was and you were like someone was talking about how it was a joke and then everyone started to be like this is actually sad. Yeah.

Yeah. That's fucking awesome. There's a, there are several recorded shitrifts for sure. I'm sure you've had this. happened before, but I feel like when you write something and the response is like laughter, like the good

kind, that's the best response you can get. Like, when you write a part that's so heavy, you like laugh. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing better than that. First track is so in fact, I got exactly the same thing and I fucking, I texted you about fucking 20 minutes later.

The same thing, the first track on the record, I'm shit with names, I got sent a fucking Dropbox link, I'm sorry. I was Slay with an A. Slay. I was in... Working title was Slay. It was what? Slaid.

Slay. Slay. Yeah. It's... We're normally tuned to Lyft G, but that song is tuned to drop A. Yeah. And so it was sleigh with a heavy emphasis on the A. That's funny.

Yeah. I audibly laughed in the gym. Yeah. Because I read, Oh. Right. Yeah. That's fucking sick.

You work out? What? You work out? Oh, yeah, dude. Nice. What are you back? That's cool. Thanks.

And we're back. It's a downbeat. What in a one, two, three, four? Welcome, Downbeat episode one. Hey, what's your favorite time signature, bro? Honestly, I'm a four guy. You're a four guy. I'm a four guy.

I actually had a point. Any good dittles lately? What's your favorite simple stand or a piece of hardware? Yeah. Definitely not these mic stands. Oh, you don't like that one? We should get the tamar ones. You should get the tamar ones.

I had actually something on your point of like when you said, you know, something's really good when you laugh out loud. The, I have a theory unproven, because I don't know them, that that's how Mushoga writes songs. Like bleed, they, which probably just went, and then someone went, whatever, we did that for nine minutes. Everyone laughed and it's the biggest fucking song. Yeah. My God, they have the, nine minutes of that. They have, I got my soul knocked out of my body watching them on too much mushrooms.

I did the thing where you take mushrooms and then nothing. works and you're like, oh, I guess I'll take more. And then they all kick in. And the, um, demurge, I don't even know how to say it. But when that song kicks in with the, oh, damn, yeah. Dude, I'm not joking. Did you ever see Dr. Strange? No, Marvel.

Yeah. Anyway, he gets his soul knocked out of his body in the, in like the first half hour of the movie. And I felt that happening to me. Like when the Marsh part kicked in, I felt like, like I was looking, I had an out-of-body experience. I was looking down at like everyone else. Yeah, that's the heaviest part. I think I ripped it off on the last E-Tid record.

Or I just, you can't. I was like, okay, this is the heaviest thing I've ever heard. I kind of want to try to write the heaviest thing I've ever heard. But you know, cool thing about my show-gur, you can like, oh, I'm going to rip it off. But you still won't, right. And then you make a new thing. Yeah.

He's done it on every record. Yeah. Are you familiar with that technique? Yeah. Or anything I ever come to. Perhaps that's something you should explore? By the way, I don't rip it off. I just go, oh, this is the heaviest.

I want to see if I, what would happen if I tried to do this? I mean, I try and rip it off and I'm an idiot. So it ends up just going like, I bring it to Will. I go, I want to rip this off. And then I'll program the drums wrong because I haven't listened to it properly. But it kind of does the same effect. And then we get a sweet breakdown out of it. Guillotine breakdown, Corridor of Chalier.

Thank you. Firm side to side. Don't. Let's do a two truths on a lie. Okay. With Jordan Buckley. All right. So we're playing a Christmas festival called Blissmas on December 14th, right?

Yep. Yes. It's going to be awesome. Converg is playing. Let's read the lineup here. Converge. I see. Let's see where this is going.

Quitting tongues. Dying wish. Teenage wrist. Anxious and Andy Williams new band, Atomic Rule. That's a great long. Yeah. Number one, the day before, two truths and lie.

Option one. The day before, on December 13th, hard lore and downbeat will be combining for a live podcast at the Buffalo Seneca 1. Okay. Okay. Number two. Number two, after that. and and Greg Pushato and Soulblind and Fatal Vision will be playing at the rec room as like a little pre-show to Blissmas, which is right next door to a bar that me, Steve, and our friend Dan bought, whose kitchen is open until 2 a.m. And has the best wings in Buffalo, vegan wings two.

Number three. Great work, by the way. Number three, there will be a hard lore down drumbeat podcast. on the 13th, followed by an end Greg Pushado show at Rec Room that is next door to a bar that me and Stephen, our friend Dan, bought that kitchen closes at nine. So which one's the lie? I'll tell you, it's the one where the kitchen closes at nine because our kitchen is open to two, Best Wings in Buffalo, vegan wings, full menu.

It's right next door to the show. I answered it for you. I answered it for you. That's the lie. We got a kitchen open up until two, prep medium later that night. right. Four. So it was all a lie. It was a whole lie.

Seven days a week. Two lies. So, one my truth and two lies. The reason we've done this so early is because I kind of thought Jordan was going to use it to promote a number of things. What are you talking about? We do what you went. Which is fantastic.

Next for announcing the podcast. Hopefully I'll get to just use that you saying that as a clip. Yeah. For my promotion would be perfect. That would be the announcement. Oh, speaking of Tourette's. You just reminded me when you said clip. We have a, I think, did you hear it today?

We just walk around going, me care all day. Because do you ever watch that show from your country? Naked, dating, naked attraction? Yeah. There was one episode where the host was like, what do you think is your favorite part of your own body? And then the girl goes, me kit. And then so.

You're saying clit. Yeah. No, but me kit. You have to get like the daffy duck. I don't know. But I've been saying that for six months. So. All of us have.

So anyway, back to Blissmas. Back to Blisness. So, yeah, we're just so excited to make it like, Steve, I don't know how you get this data. Steve is throwing me off, by the way. Steve or is it Mitch or is it Stitch? Pick one. What's your favorite one? Stitch now.

Stitch? Okay, calm stitch. So like 80, like almost 80% of the tickets sold for Blissmas are from out of time. which is insane. I mean, it's amazing. And so that's always just made us go, okay, if people are traveling, you want to show them a good time. You want to give them something to do. It's kind of like you have that weird, like, anxiety about hosting a party that you want them to have fun. And so if people are going to be flying in from very far away, yeah, you want to make sure they have enough to do. So we added a show to Friday, a little smaller secret show. And then we added the live podcast thing.

and then, you know, we'll be hanging out at the Buffalo Tap House right next to the rec room all weekend. Let's talk about the Buffalo Tap House. It's cool, right? How did that happen? Steve, Steve knows more about this. I think I just needed some chaos in my life, I think. I don't know. So this girl.

Brand new band at this age wasn't enough. Let me own a bar. Do you know anything about bars? Zero. Fuck, yeah. He's never been the industry of my life, never seen every episode of Bar Rescue. But I, yeah. Exactly.

Exactly. I mean, I basically like. And always sunny. Yeah. Those two at the same time. John Taffer is basically my uncle at this point. I know so much about him. Yeah, I don't know. I think something hit me the past like year or two.

Dude, it might be it's like a midlight crisis thing. Like we used to tour so much that I get home from tour and I would just be like, I love doing nothing. Like I could just watch TV. I could just fucking zone out. Get into fucking gardening, you know, just like goof off of my friends. But I think, I don't know, ever since. after the pandemic happened.

Even the pandemic, I don't know how it was for you, but like, I wasn't even, you know, I wasn't that bored or I wasn't like thinking it was the end of the world. I was just busy. I ended up, we ended up buying a house out of foreclosure that George, we used to live in in our 20s, like his father used to own with his business partners. We just rehab the house, just learned how to do that, you know, like stayed busy. I don't, I didn't practice guitar. I wasn't playing bass.

I was just busy doing other stuff. It's like, okay, well, if we can't tour, your jobs are literally ripped from us. It's like, I was just, you know, but I was never like just bored. Like, I got to do something. I got to do something. But that was a little bit different. But it's kind of like a passion project. But I don't know, ever since I think just this past year, I just can't sit still.

Like I hate days off now. Oh, my God, he hates days off. Yeah. And like something just like snapped in my head where it's just like, I just can't sit still. We are coming home from tours. And I'm like, I can only walk the dogs so many times. I can only clean my house so many times. That's me.

I can't fucking handle it. And I was just kind of going crazy and I was just wrecking my brain. It's like, okay, well, what can I do? It's just so limited. Like, I can't just, there's a lot of things I want to do. But I need other people involved because like we leave, you know, like we're gone like four or five months out of the year. So it's like I can only do so many things. It's like, well, I don't, I don't want to open a bar restaurant.

But like this opportunity just happened. This girl that was, she owned it. She was selling it. She was moving to Hawaii. but she wanted to keep the name of the bar, and she wanted to keep all her staff. Because a lot of them, like her friends and her family.

And she was getting offers for like double, but they wanted to change the name, fire everyone. And our good friend Chris, who runs the rec room next door, who's been promoting shows in Buffalo for like 25 years, he's like,

if I can find guys, the right guys to buy this from you, from what you're asking, they keep the name, they keep the staff. Are you cool with it? She goes, yeah. So I was just,

we got back from our two, tour in July. Like this is two months ago. And they, I heard about it from Chris. I was just like, I don't know. Let me,

let me, I'm very impulsive. I'm like, man, I think I want to do this. I looked at the numbers. The next day I woke up, I'm like,

I'm in. Like, no, no. That's like an ideal situation. Because I'd love, I love doing shit like that. Like,

yeah, I think in my head, I'd love to own a tattoo studio. I don't know anything about it. I want it to fall on my fucking lap. Like, this is going to close down unless someone buys it. Everything's already there.

Yeah. be creative with that's just it so it's turnkey it's so it's not like i need to like there's four just four walls and you just got to build the bar you know it's already got an identity it's got a spot but it's like you know it needed some work so it's like okay let's change up some minor aesthetic things you know like put our spin on it we've been to thousands of bars and pubs as a view of the world right so i don't know i think i just needed some chaos just to get me out of the house a couple days of the week and I don't know just kind of wanted I think it was just kind of time to I don't know like Jordan is kind of like you know we do the house together in Buffalo and it's like you know

fuck it let's do this you know let's jump in and try to it's right next to a music venue so it's like you know you can send people that we know and yeah and straight up like when people come in for bliss it's just like they're always what do we go where they want they want the best food they want They want like the Buffalo experience. They want everything. And so it's just one more place where we can be like, unfortunately, the Dye Bar and Buffalo burnt down.

And we are absolutely not trying to be the new one. But if a lot of people are coming in from out of town and they need somewhere to go. Yeah, this bar is on a strip where it's all like nightclub dancing stuff. This is the only alternative there. And it's by all the hotels. It looks really cool as well. Yeah.

Our front looks like a pub. Yeah. It's got a nice vibe and it's like a nice change of pace from everything else on the street. I think people like appreciate that. You know, beers are three, three dollar beers. You know, food's cheap. The drinks are cheap. Yeah.

And it's just like, you don't know, try to create like a cool, comfortable space for just everyone. Just all walks of life. It's like fucking any misfit, any degenerate. Yeah. Any white collar person that's at the hotels. Like I've seen all walks of life in there already. It's cool. And that's exactly like the vision that I was thinking when we took it over.

So so far, so it's only been a month. We don't know what the hell of we're fucking doing. It's going to be fucking busy at Christmas. I'll be there. Yeah, before my fucking podcast set getting a little fucking buzz on. It's like, you mentioned like decorating it.

Did you put any memorabilia in there? Do you think about that? A little bit. We're easing that in because, I mean, we, I even appreciate just talking about this now. you know, I never want to, we should be talking about the new record, so I appreciate that. But, you know, you never want to just be like, okay, we're the band guys.

Now put the band name everywhere and just cash in on that, you know. We've never, you know, and we kind of have this rule with better lovers. We're very, very, very conscious of not trying to just milk any dollar out of our fans. you know, we never make people pay to meet us. We're never like, you know, this isn't like the better lovers bar. This is, you know, we're just, it's just cool that they let us talk about it. When you start doing stuff. In my opinion, it devalues the music when you start doing stuff like that.

I agree 100%. And also as like a, almost like a fucking, I don't know, like mental science of it. In my opinion, if you see bands paying for people to, meet them and stuff like that. It's, not only is it putting them on a pedal stool themselves. To me, and I know it's not the case,

but it's like, can't be that successful. You need that little bit, you need that little bit, extra money. There's that too. I'll fucking roast VIPs. These people haven't done it.

I'll fucking do it. They're fucking suck. You'll never fucking see me do you. Come and find me. It's a line. It's a line that you, either are a band that does it or you're a band that doesn't. Once you take that leap,

then you're just that band that does that. It's weird, because I've said it on Twitter a couple of times where I've, like, roasted BIPs. And then I've had a lot of people being like, oh, I actually love it because I really just really want to meet this person. I'm like, that in two ways is like, yes, that's awesome because you get to meet them.

And it's also really sad because it's like, you can only meet that person if you fucking pay for them. Right. It kind of sucks. I do like, you know, I was on tour. I have been on tour with bands that do it well. You know, taking back Sunday, did it well. They played an acoustic show before doors.

Yeah, that works for me. It can be done the right way and the wrong way. Yeah. Because I have seen like bands give a lot to their fans where it's like, oh, that you're getting your money's worth. Like you're getting a bunch of merch and stuff. The table lined up for a meeting is where I'm out. Yeah.

I'm out on the just here's a table. and you bear a little bit more money and go to it. I think. I think it's always situational. But I think we're definitely the type of dudes where it's like, you don't feel comfortable. Yeah. And I think like anything that we do,

if we're trying to get you to buy something, it's got to be collectively all of us going like, this is the best we can do. You know? And that's not the best we can. Yeah. You know. There's the good and the bad of being the accessible band too that doesn't

go that route. So we just were at the merch table every day. So, you know, we're very just, you know, you can talk to any of us. There's no like, you know, we're very approachable. But then there's also the guy that grew up with shit happens. It's just like, dude, come on, man. I hear that. So you here on fire. Come on. Fucker. Like there's, and he gets that, you know, or they don't know the line. They feel like they know you, but they don't, you know you, but they grew up watching you. So I get with this as well. And I love you all. but relax

yeah yeah just know we'll relax pay me to fucking mean me know that we're making fun of you later no don't do that guy my reason for the memorabilia question

was more like you know a lot of fucking people you could do it if you wanted like one of my favorite bars is fucking Duffs in uh no Duff's in fucking Springfield and the Simpsons

Yeah they make the beer No they make the beer yeah exactly Duffs is in Brooklyn and it's It's like, it's the bar. It was like typo negative's bar. Oh, okay. And they have, just all the walls of memorabilia because of whatever.

So, like, yeah, you got Guar Bar. When Pete Steele was fucking, went to fucking Rikers and then came out, he went straight to that bar and he took off the underwear that he was wearing in prison. And it's like framed in a thing. Oh, that's cool. And I'm like, that kind of shit is fucking sick to me. It could get there if, but only if it's like not, you know, cringy. If it's like, oh, that's cool. I mean, I got a broken guitar behind me.

And I like, as a joke, so I was like, oh, it's hanging up at the bar. It's like, maybe, but maybe not, you know. Yeah, I feel like you'd have to stockpile a bunch of stuff and then either decide like, do we do this? Yeah. Or not just like one fucking guitar on the wall. November, December, US tour. Correct? Correct.

Headliner? Yeah. Headliner. Yes. First proper. A market. Proper mental headliner. With a full-length record out.

And songs people know. Yeah. Songs people know. Really? Let's get the plug out the way. Who's the support? We're taking Full of Hell. Yep.

Spy. Yep. And Cloak Room. Yeah. Nice. And on Select 8 it's Goudjoye. Okay. That was perfect.

Big. Yes. Very fun. Very, very heavy in places. A little something. You got some stony grungy stuff. You got a hardcore band that's super ferocious. I don't know what you would call full hell.

But they're fucking awesome. Like a bit of everything. And a little of us. Yeah, it's a lot of a little of everything. That's cool. In the U.S. Yeah, in the U.S. Basically, the whole country.

Canada. Yeah, touches Canada. List every day. Two tree. Canada. Favorite fast food to eat when touring the U.S. As a band. Like, if you're consciously making the stop,

where is it? Okay. We have to specify. He's serious. Is it a sit-down? Is it a sit-down? It's a sit down. You've got enough time on the drive.

Everyone's hungry. We can say that all at the same time. Three, two, one. P. Chanks. Really? 100%. Hyundai every day.

Every day. I've never been. Oh, my fuck. All right, guys, that's a wrap on the drumbeat podcast. I see you guys. I feel like we could stop on the way to Metal Fest. We probably need time for it. I mean, Greg was the same way.

Greg's like, I've never been here. And now he's like, seeks it out. Like when he's by himself, he like goes to chains. I think like solos. Tell me on P.F Chang's. That's just something for everyone. Chinese. Is it buffet or?

No, no. Sit down Chinese. Yeah. Why'd you get bad rat? I didn't know. I didn't know. Who you told me? I don't know.

They make fun of it. Like South Park. Oh, no. I don't know. They make fun of everything. There was one time where the coffee tastes like soy sauce or something. It was that.

Yeah. I'm the only one that eats meat. But like, I'll get into their world. Like, I can fuck with it. But if there's something for everyone at Chas. I'm Nevada vegan. Which apparently means that when we're in Las Vegas at a very nice restaurant treating ourselves and they bring out steak.

Apparently, I'll have some for the first time in like seven years. Yeah. Apparently. Nevada vegan. Okay, that's fucking cool. P.F. Chang's.

I mean, I feel like Shai has been holding this from me. Eight years of touring the States, I'm never into P.F. Changes. Well, that's Tom, because Tom is a Thai and sushi guy.

You'll never get to enjoy Chinese food in the ban. You're in the northeast. He has it. Yeah. Sometimes. But yeah. Okay. I'm going to PF Janks.

And then what was favorite thing? Favorite thing to do on a day off if you're all together and you have to be together. Is there a thing? It turns out that we're an amusement park band. We just learned this. Yeah, I think we're an amusement park band. How did you learn? We were in Copenhagen.

And Greg actually is a really good. He kind of organized his day off pretty well. And so, yeah, we took a train to the oldest amusement park in the world. Oh, I know the one. I've never been, but I've seen where it's awesome. Tavoli Gardens, I guess. And we were just laughing it up, horsing around, and then we're just, at the end of the day, we're just like, are we in an amusement park band? I think we're an amusement park band.

We took a bunch of children. That's everything you've said today. There's rides. There's laughs. That's fucking cool. And then you've got UK tour in January. In January. I'll see you on that because you're playing Glasgow.

And I'm around. That's right. Finally getting up there. Very cool. Yeah. You haven't been? No. No?

Leaves, the farthest north we've been. Yeah. I just got back from a trip from Ettenborough. Is that you say it? Edinburgh. Edinburgh. How was it,

man? It was it fine. It was beautiful. It is, but it's very... What's your favorite street? It's for you people. It's for like...

It's for us. U.S. Like... It was very touristy. Yeah. But like it was a different part of Scotland I haven't seen. It's definitely nice of the Glasgow to look at. And I did like the whole Highlands tour and all that.

I did that. I did that recently too. When did you do that? About a month and a half ago. Right after we were in Europe. Right after we did the last. I did it like a month and a half ago. That's so weird.

This is funny. So my parents are retired and so they travel a lot now. I thought you said something else. Simon. Simon, you can keep it. I fucking said it and he didn't say it. So they go on these, they went on a thing called the Viking tour. And then they're like, yeah, we're going on another one.

And they were showing me pictures. And I didn't know that Viking was like the name. of the company. I thought they were just really into Vikings and were going on like, like, oh, this is where the fucking invasion. This is where the invasion of this happened. When you started that, sorry, I thought they were going on a Vikings. No, it's, it's a company.

I'm glad to know, I'm not the only one that was very confused by it. But I learned, you know, like, they're like in their 70s. How do I just find out that they're into Vikings? But no, it's a, it's a company that organizes like just tours that you take, you know, retired people on. So they're not into Viking They actually might be though I don't want to negate the fact

That it could be in the Vikings Separately from this They're going on a Viking tour But it's called something else It's called Norse lovers Yeah yeah yeah I thought they had the horned helmets Yeah

But now Okay so in the UK Yes Favorite Oh fuck Yeah I guess you Maybe you've done enough to know Where are you going for food?

Nando's I probably do Nandos 10 out of time Yeah I'm a sucker for the late night kebab. It's literally the only two answers anyone ever fucking has. I like either Nando's or the fucking Nats. I like the messy ass falafel wrap and I eat it over the fries and then everything just falls into the fries.

Nice. Love it. Is there another answer? Wagamama maybe? Wagamamas, I'm always hungry. We got a thing in the stray camp where we call certain restaurants ghost food. We just ordered some. It's probably here.

Exactly. Oh, yeah, we're going to have ghost food. Just salad is pretty fucking ghost food. Like, you have an apparition of the food, isn't you? Right. But you're, that's good. You're haunted. Right. And I feel like Wagamamas is that.

An air of bread is that. Just salad is that. Do you have anything that you've done on days off in the UK and Europe? It can be like, are you going to be an amusement park, man? You want some fucking, there's some fucking great ones in the UK. We really never have days off. Last time it was like a show every day. Yeah, last time you were there, like two shows in one day.

Last time you were there, it was five shows in four days. That was our first tour there. It's almost statistically impossible today. I guess you did three or one night. We caught around there. We had a ton of fun there. We had an afternoon. In October.

Yeah, it was fun. That was fun. What's that crazy sex shop? Oh, yeah. The God store. Cyber. Yeah, cyber something. Cyber something.

Yeah. Cyber dog. It's cyberdoll. It's so loud in there. That was so loud in there. Fun day, good food over there. Some sights in there. Respectfully, absolute fucking baddies inside a dog.

Right. Bristol, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leads Birmingham. You have, yeah, you hear that, you should go. Yeah, you have no days off. Oh, you have one day off. Oh, good. Between Glasgow and Newcastle. Oh, we're coming to your house.

What are we doing? Oh, what are we doing? What do we do? Let's go. What can we do? I don't know, plan our day. Wait, have you been to it? Have you all been to Edinburgh?

You haven't been. I think so. I feel like I played there before. I'll take you somewhere. What's like the venue there? The Bell Angel. There's like there's an O, is there an O2?

Where are we playing? Plug, plug, plug, plug. You're playing Slay. Woo-hoo! Slay! We're going to have a game. Slay. Of course we are.

That's like a fucking, it's like a five. Is it five? Cool. That show will be fucking nuts. Glasgow is crazy right now. Looking forward to it. Any of the bands that are fucking.

good. I mean, I could safely say the UK has been our favorite runs. Every time we get there, it's just bananas. So looking forward to that one, tremendously. Seen in the UK right now is fucking great. It's great. Stray hasn't done a headliner in the U.S. for six years. Wow.

Mainly because we're scared now because the UK is so fucking crazy. You guys would be fine. I'd like to do it. Unless you got all those new racist songs. Oh, yeah. No, I think we'll end up there. Thanks for coming on, guys. I'm sorry, it was like a fucking janky Jerry Riggs set up, but I'm glad we did it.

No, it's okay. It's a super fun. Anytime we can do the Bound B. I mean, that's what I was just thinking there, but it's like real close. Yeah. Part two. Let's do it. Yeah.

I mean, I could do it. Yeah, thanks. It was fucking easy and fun. If you haven't picked up the downbeat variant of the vinyl, pick it up. Go see the band on tour. If the downbeat variant is sold out on the Patreon, which it always fucking does, because I love you. Give me a pound.

then just pick up the record because it's fucking sick. Thank you. October 25th? That's right. For that. I'm a fucking press guy. Festival press. I'll see you there with a handheld microphone.

Thank you guys. Thank you.