The Downbeat - Me #02 : A Literal and Figurative Headf***k (Q&A)

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

Hi it's me I'm back and the guest is me. Explaining a bit of what's been going on lately with me health-wise and some Q&A. Peace!

What the fuck is up? Oh, it's been so long. This is like the third time I've recorded this podcast, but it's a difficult thing to talk about, and my brain's a bit fucked, so I've been mincing my words a bit, and it's been rubbish, and then I finish it, and then I'm like, I should probably do that again

the next day when my brain's got a little bit more activity. And today I'm full to the brim with activity in the brainal cortex. Before I get started on, what the fuck is wrong with me and a Q&A, there is the most ridiculous downbeat affiliated product that came out today, or you can pre-order it today. It is a limited edition vinyl version of the new Stray from the PATH album,

Internal Atomics, but in true downbeat fashion, it has a slipcase, full artwork, death metal artwork by Koki Greenway that does the aborted albums and other such excellent, metal bands and it's so dumb it's got a huge mutated lunar coming out of a nuclear explosion melting people melting churches um and it's called infernal atomics and it is limited to 150 UK in Europe and 90 US I think there might be some Australian ones as well I'm not sure um it's on like a nuclear explosion splatter orange and red and yellow splatter vinyl and you can pick it up probably the link in my bio, probably at the downb-e.at and probably a link in the stray bio.

They're going to go. And when I'm fucking dead, it's going to be worth so much money. It'll be worth so much money anyway, because it's the dumbest thing that's ever happened. It's also a slip case. It's a full extra case on top of the normal album. So what I'm going to do with mine is I'm going to use the slip case and put it in one of those nice frames so I can have a cool death metal artwork of my dog and still have a copy of the album. Please pick one up because it's absolutely mental that we've done this and if I don't

sell them more, I'm going to look like a chump yeah that's about it. And I'll tell you what, if you get one, send me your confirmation and I will send you a discount code for the next lot of downbeat merchandise. What about that? That's a good

that's a fucking nice guy just spending my own money so I don't look like a twat. Okay, let's get started on why the fuck am I not in Japan? I'm not in Japan. It's Friday the 11th is it? Friday the 11th. All my friends are in Japan where there's a typhoon about to get hit.

The festival that we're supposed to be playing has been cancelled and moved to a smaller show on the Monday. And I'm not there. Why am I not there? Trigger warning, this is going to get pretty dark. Skips 20 minutes in if you don't like talk of stuff like that. add a bit of health bit of a health ting truth be told

I'm going to start at the beginning if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram or whatever you probably noticed for a few months I've been sleeping absolutely terribly didn't know what it was just been sleeping awful and it's just been getting worse and worse and worse

and then it sort of culminated in me not sleeping for five days straight like I'm saying I mean like not sleeping, not just, oh, I slept badly, literally not sleeping. The weirdest thing was happening, right? Just as I was falling asleep, there'd be this weird noise in the middle of my face. That sounds insane, doesn't it?

And it would just wake me up at the moment of just about fall asleep, like some sort of torture. You know, Chinese water torture where they just like drip a bit of water on you. And then you tell them the government secrets. It was like that, but in my... inside my face. And no one believed me. And I, you know, I don't know if anyone's ever slept, not slept for 24 hours. But if you do it for five days, you fucking lose the plot.

No one really believed me. I was, I fully fucking lost it. Like, went to an accident and emergency. Went to the doctors. Let's do the timeline. I went to the doctors on sort of day five. of no sleep and um he was there and by this point i'm a fucking wreck absolute wreck crying in the doctors and stuff um and he's like well you're obviously depressed um take these pills

and at this point i'd have taken anything he could have said uh you're obviously a sheet of a4 paper um so just fold yourself up and pop yourself in the postbox and it'll be fine i would have done it um i was honestly brain brain was pouring out of my ears so he's like yeah you're obviously depressed take these pills and I'm like okay sweet this is this is going to help me to sleep

he was like yeah take him at night time so that night this is already five days of no sleep I take these pills and they're not sleeping pills they're antidepressants and I then don't sleep again for the whole night and I'm like grinding my teeth I feel like I'm coming up on like an ecstasy or something

Not that I've ever done ecstasy, but what I imagine coming up on a pill feels like for the whole night, still not sleeping, losing my fucking mind. And then I was like, I was just thinking, right, I'm just going to kill myself. I'm going to fucking, this is mental now, this is six days of no sleep. How am I going to do this with the least amount of clean up or pissing people off? I just wanted to just disappear. And, you know, now I'm thinking straight. I know that was a fucking mental idea. But I was up there.

I went to, I was going to the spare room to try and sleep. And I was like, I'll tell you what I'll do. I will go to, like, there's all these, like, lorries and stuff around here that everyone in the village sort of hates because they don't put, like, a bit on the top to stop the debris falling off. and it falls on the road and it could injure people or whatever. I was like, you know what I'll do? I'll just sit on the corner and then when a lorry comes past from one of the factories around it,

I'm going to stick my fucking head underneath it and blow my fucking head up like a watermelon. And then sort of in a way, there might be an investigation to the HGVs and the lorries. And then I'd actually do a service. This is fucking mental. Saying it out loud now when I'm fine, it's fucking bananas. but that's what I was going to do. Instead of that, I went downstairs. My parents are up here.

It came up by this point because my wife didn't know what to do. No one knew what to do. I'm still telling everyone about this fucking noise happening in my face and no one knows what it is and everyone just thinks I'm fucking crazy. So then, and by this point I am fully crazy. So I was just like I said to Katie, I think Kate, no, my mum, I think I was like, I need to go to hospital. I don't, I'm going to fucking, either I'm going to kill myself

or we go to fucking hospital. So, we went to A&E and I get to see this fucking mental health crisis nurse because again, everyone just thinks I'm losing my mind and by this point I am losing my mind. And she's like, she does all these tests, blah blah, blah. And she basically says,

why didn't a doctor give you sleeping pills? like from speaking to you like I just think you need to sleep you know and you need to see an ENT about whatever this noise is she's like that's you know that's not a thing like believing your face is making noise isn't like a well-known mental illness

you just need to sleep so she prescribed me some sleeping pills and she also said the fucking antidepressants that the doctor had given me you shouldn't take them at night the first time because some people it has like a stimulating effect and for some people it can actually worsen thoughts of you know doing mental shit

and I've never had thoughts of doing mental shit really so it's just like a side effect combined with the six hours of no sleep or whatever and this doctor just rashly prescribing me pills before before sending me to an ENT for the fucking nose thing I were trying to tell him about and before, you know, you should at least have some sort of therapy before they just slap you on a fucking pill. Anyway, so she gives me some sleeping pills. I go home, I get three hours sleep for the first time in six days because I've got these

sleeping pills. And obviously the next day I feel a lot better because I've had three hours sleep, but I'm still fucking mental. My nose is still making this fucking noise. So I go to emergency CP and she is a complete asshole she takes one look at me it's a Saturday morning takes one look at the hand tattoos and everything and she's like what drugs are you on? I'm not on drugs they don't take drugs

yeah what drugs are you on I'm not going to give you Valium and I'm like I don't want Valium I want you to look up my fucking nose and tell me what the fuck is going on but I don't have the tools to do that I'll give you two milligram value in my mom I don't want it right I know what that does

it's a muscle relaxant I don't want that I want you look up my nose she looks up my nose begrudging me she doesn't have the tools to do it and she's like yeah there is some sort of growth up there I'm like thank fuck for that she's like yeah I can put you forward to any

an ENT or you can no I would should put you forward for an ENT oh it'll be three months it's like well I don't have three months because I'm supposed to be going on tour in four days or whatever it was. She said, well, you'll have to pay to go private then. So by this point, I'm like, my mind is still gone,

three hours sleep in six days, combined with some antidepressants that I arguably didn't need. By this point, I probably did need them, but at the time, I didn't need them, and they were given to me in strange circumstances. So at this point, I'm like, having panic attacks and stuff because I'm supposed to be going on tour I haven't played the drums in fucking two weeks I'm worried I'm gonna let all the boys down blah blah blah so my wife phones Tom explains everything that's going on and Tom's obviously just the best and like yeah we'll just sort it apparently I spoke to Tom I can't fucking remember anything apparently I was like crying and stuff um the you know the boy's got Matt Google Elmo Am I saying that right?

I've got no idea. I'm so bad at second names. You know, they sorted him out and apparently he had a band practice. He smashed it. So that was that out of my mind. Now it was just like, let's get fixed. I paid to go to a private E&T, which cost me so much fucking money. I love the NHS and everything, but it's amazing if you're like dying and you can't afford it.

But if you're in a hurry, you still have to pay to go private. And that's, you know, that's fine. It's because the NHS severely underfunded and completely crippled from the inside by the conservative government but

so I paid with my own hard-earned money so please buy a t-shirt please buy a t-shirt to go to this private ENT he takes a look at my nose

and he's like yep your inferior turbinate it's called is completely swollen shut and you need this steroid spray to sort it out and if that doesn't work

you'll need to surgery or whatever. And what's happening, what he hypothesized is happening is that it's completely sealed shut. It's like these things inside your nose that tell you what the temperature of the air is and they change it and whatever and they alternate to allow you to breathe if you've got a cold or whatever. Anyway, one of mine is completely sealed shut from an allergy, could be a food allergy, could be anything, could be a combination of things. and what's happening is when you just when you fall asleep all your muscles relax and what was happening is mine my turbinate was sealed shut but when I fell asleep it was just

separating because of the muscles relaxing and it would make this huge noise in my fucking face and I was just like I couldn't believe it there was an actual you know I wasn't making it all up and then he gives me a steroid spray and we get home I'm trying to nap and then my wife actually hears the noise herself because it makes like it's so loud this time that she hears it and she's like what was that I was like that's the fucking noise and I've always had shit sinuses but as you can probably hear fucked but she could hear it the doctor just told me I was like it's like the biggest fucking weight off my mind um start taking the steroid spray.

That clears up. And then, so obviously we made the call for the boys not to go, and I thought, you know, I thought it was getting better. And then I just had this mad relapse where I was just waking up in the middle of the night,

just sweating, and I was choking. I was, like, choking myself awake, like sleep apnea. So I've had a load of blood test for that, and there's, like, a load of theories. They're like, it could be your thyroid. You could have been hyperthyroid.

and that would explain why you're like waking up into sweats or whatever could be this could be that so I'm waiting on those blood tests I just got an email imagine if that's the blood tests it fucking is as well how unbelievable is that I've just got my thyroid test result as I was doing this Tsh 1.93 which is apparently very normal

T3 6 3 thyroid I don't know what any of this means but it's all green. Autoimmune immunity 12.3. That's all green. That's all good. So it's not my thyroid.

We've just figured that out live on air. Oh, that's good. Yeah, so fuck no. So the other theory, I can't believe that just happened as I was doing it. The other theory, which is probably the correct theory, is that now, because of all the sleep deprivation, the longest anyone's ever stayed up was 10 and a half days,

and I was on fucking six. six and a half. They're like, you've probably just got some sleep anxiety now and like actual PTSD from the situation that happened and that's why you're waking up choking because you're remembering it. Anyway, I read a book. Josh Middleton's wife suggested a book about sleep

by Dr Guy Meadows and it's about anxiety and sleep and stuff like that and I read that and that sort of helped I think and I've had now I think I'm probably five out of seven days of good sleep so I think I'm fucking back baby and I'm definitely coming to America because I'm losing my fucking mind sitting here

I don't know if I've left anything out but it's been rough I've always been someone that sort of teeters on the edge of mental health as in like I'm usually pretty fucking upbeat but you could it will take one thing and then I'm like

right that's it this is the end of the world I've always been like that but I think it took this sort of sleep deprivation for me to realize what it really feels like when someone's well that really wants to die and it is horrible and I've got so much newfound empathy not that I didn't have any before but you don't know until you, you've sort of been there just how bad it is, like, thinking about doing something

like that. And you fucking, you plan it. And you're like, well, how is this going to be less annoying for people? Like, they're going to be annoyed, definitely, definitely going to be annoyed. But is there anything I could do to just sort of even make it funny or, like, that's what I was thinking. It's fucking crazy. Um, but, Now I'm fine. I know that was just an horrible, horrible time. And barring some sort of six-week South Africa, South Africa, Southeast Asia tour, shan't be not sleeping for that long ever again.

So hopefully that's it. But I think it's quite apt that this is the day after mental health awareness day or whatever, which I don't really post about stuff like that. but it's it's a tough one because I see a lot of people posting about it who I know for a fact don't check in on their friends or have been annoyed with me or other people for bailing on plans due to anything to do with mental health

and I think it's a little bit insincere but then again everyone talking about it is better so I don't really know so in closing for this section just fucking be nice to your mates check you on in them be like all right mate you're doing all right and if they just go yeah She'd be like, are you actually doing right, though? Are you playing on fucking smashing your head like a watermelon with an HGV on the side of the fucking road? Anyway, to sum that up.

I'm good now. We're good. Oh, he's so brave. He's been so brave to talk about it. Oh, what I'm going to do? Not talk about it? I don't give a fuck. 100% honestly.

I'm straight shooting the hip, babe. Listen, this shit is normal. everyday people all over the world feel like that. This is the first time I felt like that, but it's normal. It happens to everyone at some point, or most people at some point. It's not brave,

we've just got to normalize it a little bit. Talk about it. Speak to your mates. Can't stress that enough. I know this is all, you know, what everyone says to get likes on Twitter, but fuck me. If I didn't have, in particular,

the boys in the band, just dealing with everything so well, my wife and Samuel David Carter from hit Noisnix Architects. He's been my rock, my FIFA-based rock. Shout out to Sam. But yeah, talk to your mates. Talk to anyone. Do you want to do a Q&A?

Because it's going to be way more fun. And my thyroid's not fucked, which is good. Excellent news. Excellent thyroid news. Let's do a Q&A. Shall I do the downbeat jingle here? because then it would be like two different podcasts. It's question and answer time.

That is, of course, the jingle for question and answers on the downby podcast that I've just created. Number one, did you enjoy recording slash engineering bands? How did you go about getting into that? And then would you do it again in the future? And there's another question of someone saying, how did you get started with drum mixing and stuff like that? So I'm going to answer this in two, answer both your questions in one thing.

Number one, I fucking hate it. I hate recording other people. I hated it. Very particular with my substitute bench of friends. And sometimes, you know, if you've got five brand new people, chances are I'm not going to like one of them. And that doesn't go very well. And then the other thing, the biggest pet peeve of all with that is that,

Everyone in the fucking world, with the exception of maybe sort of 10% of people, thinks they are far better than they are at their instrument because of edited videos or not having, what's the word, mindful practice where you can hear yourself. So they'll come in and be like, yeah, yeah, I've got these songs. And then I'm like, yeah, you're not really nailing that bit, mate. Not really nailing it. You're probably going to need to do another take there.

really? I thought I nailed it and you play it back and they're like oh oh was that was that the take I just did was that take before it no no that was that take you fucking shit mate and then with drums that means you need to fucking record you need to edit everything I hate editing drums you know this I hate it both on principle and how tedious it is and then the same with guitars and also I don't really care about guitars so it's just like was that good and I'm like yeah I guess so if it's not not, I'm going to ring Josh and I'm going to get him to record it instead. Did that twice when I was recording bands. Sorry bands I was recording, but your EP came out pretty fucking good because I phoned Josh from Silosis and Architects and I said, Josh, can you fucking play these songs better than this cunt? And how did I learn how to do that shit? I'll tell you how I learned.

First learn on the Andy Sneep forums. I don't know who Andy Sneep is. He's like a thrash producer, legend. Apparently lives quite near me. but I don't know how I'd go about being like You want to be mate But I've just learned a lot on there And fiddling around

And then I tell you who I learnt the most from Adam Nolly get good Because he doesn't keep anything secret I went, wait Nolly, how'd you make this sound good And you do exactly this And I was like oh I thought you were going to give me some fucking wacky concept that I had to unleash

Like a puzzle to figure out He was like, no, you just do this, click this, click this, do this Scoop here, blah blah blah and he has a creative live masterclass that he did with Matt Halpern and on that he just tells you exactly how to sound like Nolly and Nolly's the fucking... Nolly's my favourite mixer for drums He's just fucking and I don't care about anything else so yeah he's my favourite mixer

Sorry Will Putney I'm so sorry you're my second favourite I do love Will one I do love Nolly because both of them use real drums That's question one let's do question two Quite a few pretty good like quick fire ones here that I'll do before I go more in depth with a couple of them. You know, we know you're a huge tall fan. Which tall song do you think has Danny Carey's best performance?

I would say, best performance. Probably the song Lateralis. Maybe Eulogy. Both of them, excellent. Both of them ripped off by me in various forms. If you listen to those songs, you'll be like, oh yeah, that's where he stole that from. The guy's not as clever as I think he is.

Don't put me on a pedestal with my friends, because I'm fucking stealing everything. What pedals do you play? Slash prefer speed cobra And I love iron cobras as well Have you played the dynosink? I have, it was not for me I'm not a

What's the word? I'm not a, what's the fucking thing? Direct drive, not for me. I'm already like, something fucking going on. I've got a really particular way of playing the bass drum And it's called having no technique whatsoever.

Have you ever thought about having your own signature drumsticks? Well, I've thought about it but no one's going to give me them. I can get those Vic Firf ones with my signature on them, but they're fake. You know what everyone says, my signature drumsticks are available? They're not.

There are 5B we fucking name printed on them, and they're not pitch matched because they can't do that. So, and it takes six weeks to get them? I just can't be asked. Because I'm always late at ordering stuff. Do you spend more time in the gym or behind your set? Definitely more time behind the drums. and lately I've been to gym not twice in three weeks

because I've been upset How do you approach fresh tattoos to heal before playing drums Slash working out? You put the panther on them, you cover them in the panther Don't work out or do anything for at least 24, 48 hours afterwards and then you just keep them lubed up and it's fine I've only ever ruined one tattoo which was my chest piece because I went and benched the same day

like a fucking moron If stray called it quits tomorrow What would be the next? Or died in the typhoon I just read between the lines there Fuck, imagine if they did now And I've said this Please don't die everyone

Now I've said it, it won't happen That's the way it works That's the thinking of an OCD person If stray called it quits tomorrow Or died in the typhoon What would be the next path you take Whether it's new bands, new business ventures, both, etc? Oh, I don't know

it gives me fucking anxiety just thinking about that because I've never I've been in a lot of bands I've never been in a band where I love everyone so much um it's literally just like being with your mates um honestly I probably go mega serious with the podcast get some cameras and stuff

employ someone to film it and be a Jamie or whatever um and wait for somebody to ask me to join their band but I ain't gonna like go looking for a band I don't think I'm old um I'd probably just sort of yeah do the podcast more yeah be sad I'd probably have to move I'd probably have to move somewhere closer to my other real life friends because currently all my friends are on tour and when I come home I don't have any friends oh he's sad oh he's so brave for talking about all of this Fuck off.

My guy here's got a solid two questions, so I'm going to break the rules, I'm going to answer both of them. Benjamin Bleach Breath. This is funny, I should start actually saying what people's names are. How did you begin touring? Obviously, it's a lot of work,

but I'm terrified of becoming one of the local bands that fizzle out. What's my story? How did you get touring? You said that. What was that like? What did you have to do? They're all the same question.

And he's got another one, which is how does your wife come to a common ground when it came to me being gone. I'm a newlywed. Congratulations, Benjamin. Love your podcast and you're drumming. Thank you. Um, hope you get to feeling better. That's nice. Somebody's actually asked how I am. Oh, how are you? Oh, actually, I'm sad.

Um, fuck, I'm allowed to do that now. Uh, la la la la. Okay, how did I begin touring? Just being in bands. I think I played my first gig when I was 13 at the Roebuck Hotel in Tilehurst. We pretended we were 16 so we could go. and then we got really fucking drunk and then I've just every weekend of my life was being

in her local band and then I think I've got a reputation of being the drummer in the local scene that was the best one in the local scene I guess not saying much no offence do other drummers in the local scene probably just had the most sort of

banter and semi-exceptional drumming and that is what we're working with these days as well and then like the bigger boys band when I was 16 and there was the bigger boys band who were actually doing tours they were like do you want to do a tour with us and then I did that and then I was hooked on touring

and then yeah just doing DIY tours with my punk bands and hardcore bands DIY you know getting to know the local promoters and stuff I think I think I don't know what it's like but in the, I was mainly just in punk bands, punk bands, harkle bands, and the scene is just so, at least it was then, I don't know on the lower, like, not lower level, but the kid level now, but it felt so good. You wanted to book a tour, you just went on like punktastic or whatever, and you're like, I'm trying to book a tour for these boys, and then, or like for my band,

and then people would help you out and they'd have you stay at their house and make your food and stuff. It was such a good time. It was super DIY. I made loads of friends. And I sort of cut my teeth on touring a lot. So when it came to bands, you know, you end up knowing so many people that as long as you're not a twat, when someone needs a drummer, they'll ask you.

So you just got to keep throwing yourself out there, I guess. And also taking some stuff for no money. I didn't take money for a gig until I was like 21, at least because I just wanted to rip them gigs. What was the other question about my wife? How do we find a common ground? Well, here's the one tip that you need for having a significant other that supports you being away is they need a fucking hobby.

If you get yourself a girl or a guy and they ain't got a hobby and you're going off on tour, you are fucked, my friend, because they're doing nothing. If their hobby is you, they're sat at home going, right there goes although in my case my wife is she looks after horses and she has a horse

so she's an horse girl and she loves it when I'm away because she can spend more time fucking planting their hair or whatever fucking shit they do melting them down

and make glue I don't know I don't know it works but you know what I mean she's like mad into horses so I barely talk to her when I'm on tour because she's out

fucking riding not like that you sick fucks Yeah, so get one with a hobby And if you don't have a hobby Get a fucking hobby Because

Oh, that's something you're interested in If you're just interested in Fucking watching the TV or whatever I mean, watching the TV is sick But you need more than that in life in general If you listen to this podcast You're definitely a musician That doesn't fucking matter

My biggest pet peeve My biggest pet peeve That's from Kane Dubek Dobeck Mr Dobeck My biggest pet peeve I'll tell you what it is You all know what it is

If you're on my Instagram Editing drums on drum On drum videos Every motherfucker does it Even people I thought didn't do it I did a podcast the other day With a lovely gentleman And I was so sure he was

O'Natural I'm so sure he had Just natural B-cup drumming double D drumming actually Not that I'm going to body shame anyone Because I personally would prefer a B And there's other people that would prefer a double D Let's get off that subject

Um The Yeah fuck that, didn't I Is that cancellation? Nah Nah, because I covered the broad spectrum there I think And also I was rooting for the underdogs

In the grand scheme of things Um This is psycho Yeah, I'm fine So completely lost my fucking train of thought This is what I mean I've got holes in my brain

From this shit Oh yeah The quantizing shit Ends up Yeah A friend of mine Slightly juices their videos It's the equivalent of steroids

Everyone thinks Larry Wheels And all these people On fucking Instagram Jiu and all that shit Everyone thinks that these people are natural athletes And they're not

and everyone thinks every drummer on Instagram on YouTube is a natural athlete and they're not. I saw a comment today on one of my Big Furf videos, someone saying, yeah, micro-timing seems a bit off, but it's still nice. And I'm like, okay, microtiming being off, you mean that's me being a genuine human being, and a good drum performance would then be quantized in every other video you've ever fucking seen. And that creates the microtiming you're talking about, you fucking cunt. so shut the fuck up

everyone should stop editing their videos I don't care when people say that I'm sloppy because I know that I can watch a video I can watch if I'm feeling shit about myself I can watch which is a lot of the time oh he's so sad he's so brave I can watch back a video and I can go fuck

I didn't edit that that's sick I am sick and then I go play the drums and then I'm sick I can only imagine I think the mental health aspect of the imposter syndrome of faking your drum videos and then having to go out there and play would be far worse than the mental health aspect of getting a few shithead kids going sloppy.

It needs to tighten up. I know personally a drummer who's fucking left his band because in the studio they just programmed stuff that's just so impossibly fucking hard that he just got in his own head about it and he can't, you know, he can't, can't perform because the pedestal was so fucking high,

just be a bit shit. Let everyone see that you're a bit shit and then everyone knows you're a bit shit and then there's no lying. And then when you play good, people would be like, he's actually fucking good today. I like that. That's a question.

That question's being answered. If you weren't endorsed by Tamo, Vic Firf, Minor and Evans, what would be the brands that you would like to be in? endorsed by and why. A lot of people ask me that actually. There's more than two, aka three. The lion's share of four. Here's the thing, not being that guy, but pretty much by this point, with the amount that my band tours and my glowing social media presence, I could probably get endorsed by anyone I wanted. And that is why I want to be with the

companies that I'm with. It would take a lot for me to leave any of these companies. In full disclosure, I was actually turned down by DW before I went with Tama. And I just did that out of ease. I had two DW kits. Tama have always been my favourite, but I had two DWs, which I managed to get for cheaper a long time ago. So they were just my kits. And I thought, well, it would be just be easier for me to be with DW because I wouldn't have to buy any kits? And I asked them and they said, Fuck no, because you're not a Christian. They didn't say that, but I think that's the subtext. Very Christian, DW, isn't it?

August Burns Red. And I'm the antithesis of the Christian. Not that I've got anything wrong with Christians or Christian values, but I occasionally burn churches to the fucking ground. And it would take, by this point, I love the people that I work with at these companies. for the most part. And it would take a lot.

It would take people moving. I think if you, yeah, rough, if you took a few members of staff from these companies and you put my other companies, then there's a chance that I would jump ship.

And that's only because I've got such a great relationship. But in terms of my favorite companies, they are my favorite companies. I know I talk shit on other companies, but it's only because it's funny. I think every company out of the big ones make good products and everyone has their own thing which is better than other company's things which is cool

it's the variety, it's the spice of life, my friend. Top five movies, that's a good one. I should probably think about that. Come back to it, I'll come back to that later. What's the name of your podcast? Fuck off, man. Well, pet pee, people who think they're funny.

I've ever seen a ghost or had any paranormal experiences. Yes. Someone that doesn't listen to the podcast, obviously, because the piss ghost, graphic nature, haunted by the piss ghost. If anyone doesn't know, listen to the Tom Williams episode. I shouldn't have to keep telling you to listen to episodes. Everyone's like, oh, when are we getting a new episode?

And then they asked me a question to do with old episodes. You haven't listened to them all, motherfucker. Again, this is another one. Listen to the fucking podcast. What's the most bad tour experience you've ever had? There's so many people asking this question. On another episode, I talk about the time the dog was perioding everywhere and someone

rubbed the dog shit all over someone's face. That is the tour story. Listen to the podcast. There's a lot of questions about recording internal automics, but I'm going to single out this one and it will sort of answer some of the other ones. The most demanding and rewarding things about recording and working with Will Putney, The most demanding things is if it's a part where he's programmed the drums, he is unable to hear any other concept.

I mean, that's not true, but he's very specific. And all fucking guitarist producers are Josh is like this as well. So specific with kick drums and guitars at the same time. There's no room for juicing. And then he'll always need a china on a snare, even if it's the hardest fucking thing to do. but he's a very good producer and

the most rewarding thing is when he tells you to try something ridiculous and in my case I moan about it before I've even tried it and I'm like, I can't fucking do that, it's impossible, I've never done it and then you get it in like three takes and then he's like C and then he makes you feel bad for doing that but it is quite hard because he's recorded some of the best drummers in the world it's quite you want to impress him

and sometimes that gets in your own head a little bit because you think he probably recorded someone last week that could play this quicker I wonder how I compared to that person I wonder how I compare to this person I'm still sort of

I'm 32 years old and I'm still getting over that I'm still getting over just being yourself and not comparing yourself to other people so that's the most rewarding and demanding things

it's also quite rewarding rewarding, rewarding, rewarding, rewarding, going to BGL in the morning with him, get a nice bagel, have a nice little chat, love him. He's one of my favourite people. A lot of health ones, I'm not a doctor, I don't know what I'm fucking talking about, I'm in relatively decent shape before I stopped going to the gym because, he's so brave. Without any issues in your elbows from drumming, no, but I had issues in my elbows from bench press.

And I tried to get rid of them. I took months off the gym once. This is about five years ago. And I couldn't figure out what it was. And it ended up, I went to a massage therapist. It ended up. I had huge knots in my triceps. Um, and that, I'm tired.

I haven't slept. I have. It was glorious. But I had huge knots in my triceps, which, um, once I got them massaged out by a professional, the elbow issues went away immediately. Another question about RSI. No idea. Never had it.

touch fucking wood I know you love 9x nails but you rarely talk about them on the podcast Favorite 9th Nails songs slash album Favorite song is head like a hole recently fucking butchered by What's her name?

The Black Mirror Ashley O, I can't remember the name of the actual The Wrecking Ball girl Is that her? Anyway God I sound like a fucking dad But I can't remember her name Because I am Bahrain dead but my favourite album's probably with teeth

great band if you don't like orange nails then that's your decision and it's okay how would you keep your left bass drum pedal from moving I've tried weights and Velcro nothing works for me and that is from

the Abominable Snowman no I don't know you're too strong mate I've never heard of that there's little spikes for that to happen I'm sure if people like Eloy don't there's don't move There's sandbags. You can get little tamar sandbags. I know Alex Rudy going to use them on his snare.

I just use a bellbrass so it stays where it is. So does he... Oh, actually, Alex does use a bellbrass. Shut up, everyone. Buy a t-shirt. There's a lot of questions like this one. As if I'm some sort of... fucking self-help guy. What steps work for you that you embed in your lifestyle

that assist your growth, attitude and energy for life? I'm just a fucking dude, right? and I'm fucking all over the place and you talk to any of my friends who are telling you they'll either tell you yeah sometimes he's a fucking miserable prick and other times it's very funny to be around

I don't have anything that I do I don't think I'm doing anything right no one knows what they're doing I think there's a there's a lot to be said about people looking to not calling myself this but like internet figures or whatever

to tell them how to feel or how to be or to meditate or to do this or to do that. But no fucker knows what they're doing. No one. Not your favourite fucking musicians. Not your favourite athletes. Absolutely no one knows what they're doing. Everyone is just riding life.

And the best thing that you can do is be yourself and work hard. at whatever you love to do and that sounds so fucking easy and now actually plot twist I've become one of those people that I'm just talking about that I hate I don't know mate no one fucking knows just fucking hang out

have a bit of fun don't be a cunt to people I've said to see words so many times in this episode and it's fine and I'll get away with it because my mum knows that I'm sad and he's so brave for talking talking about things, so I'll let him off for saying the C word.

Cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt. I think we might end the podcast on that. Please buy the downbeat vinyl variation or a t-shirt or both. Because I spent so much money on the private E&T. Oh, go fund me. I left my nose in the van and someone broke in. And now I don't have a nose anymore. So please, I was in crack a barrel.

And they broke into the van and they stole my inferior turbinate. And now I spent money on a new one. Go fund me. Go fuck yourself. Bye.