The Downbeat - Olly Steele + Adam Benjamin

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

My guests on the podcast this week are Olly Steele + Adam Benjamin. Olly just released his latest EP Imbalance featuring an all star line up of Olly and Adam plus bassist Jacob Umansky and drummer Anup Sastry...AND it's mixed by the GOAT Adam Nolly Getgood. We talk about all that, plus a bunch more funny stuff...check out the Imbalance EP on all streaming services now!

Back when I was in a death metal band, right, there was a kid that used to come to the shows all the time. His name was Ollie Steele. He was a great guitarist. He was a good fun hang, right? And now he's got his own band. He's got his own EP. Ollie Steele solo EP, In Balance, it's called. And he's brought a singer along, Adam.

Anup is playing the drums. If you don't know who Anup Sastri is, he's of absolute shredder. Nearly swore there, you can't swear in the first seven minutes. Anyway, Olli came up to have a chat about his new EP With his singer Adam The Inbalance EP is out now Go and check it out because it's really, really cool Nolly mixed it

It's not what you think It's not like one of those guitary shreddy things I mean it is a little bit But it's real catchy Almost poppy in times You've got to check it out the Inbalance EP Ollie still On all of the streaming thingies

Before we get started about the lovely chat about this EP. I want to tell you we've got Patreon, patreon.com, 4 slash the downbeat. On it, you can get early access to these episodes. You can get them early, right? You get early access to the merch. You get anything I'm doing, you get it early. The lowest tier is a pound. It's patreon.com, for slash the downbeat. Please, you help support the podcast. You help support me. I upgrade the gear with the money from it. I go places. Patreon.com, 4.Sash and me if you absolutely despise me and you wish ill upon me in fact to the point that you're making like spells about me and stuff number one relax number two you still got to look good go to

www.ddddb.8 and by now we will have delicious delightful new merchandise for you to wear you don't have to tell anyone it's me you can just go around dripped up and everyone will be like you look cool let's get it on maybe www www dot the downbcatee dot a t so as buzzed downbeat. Help support me. Help support the podcast. The same as before, really, but with clothes. I also want to talk about those disgusting walls of yours.

I say it every week, and I'm still getting told you live in Silent Hill. You live in Resident Evil One with Resident Evil One graphics. Your stinking little house is disgusting. And the walls, not only are filthy and disgusting, but they have bare. They got nothing on them. That's where Displate comes in. Displate. Hear that?

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Check it out. It's Ollie Steele on the Downbeat podcast. Hello, Ollie and Adam. From what? Like, what's it called? called? It's Olly Steele music. It's Olly Steele.

Yeah. Solo. The Olly Steele experience. Okay. Adam's singing on it. We're going to get into that then. Because I was like, the link I had was just said Olly Steele and I was like, is that just somebody giving you your files? Well, when I was texting you to try and make this happen, I realized very quickly that I have to give you very small and iconic bits of information to make this happen.

Before we dig into that, like, therapy. You got a rock paper suit. for the cold beer. Right. Yeah. One of you was asking about the fridge in the back. That was me. The fridge in the back is a red herring, right?

I want a drink to sponsor the podcast. Desperate. Every episode, I drink something else. Something different. The fridge isn't even on. Right? It's just a little, hey, guys, this could be you. Right.

And I want one day something going, you know that fridge? Let us put a battery in it. Sticker on it. No, it's got plugged in. You're just, it does make a little which as you saw before

we started the episode of rock I'm very weird about the noises rock paper scissors for the cold beer if you're just listening to this it's a Corona Extra and a Budweiser the Budweiser is warm the corona is cold how do you do it on the third yeah one two three go

and then decide well on four decide I offered you the car I don't care but we're doing a game it's fun so on four yes rock paper scissors It's immediate.

I did some psychology there. It's his fucking project, bro. If you get big in, like, your opponent's face, they think you're going to throw rock because it's like the big aggressive thing. So is that a real thing? So they throw paper and you throw the scissors. And that's what I did.

He got me. I just shared a secret. Cheers. That's fucking two minutes in and we got some absolute gems. What do you mean? You have to give me little tip bits of iconic information. I just got the, um, I haven't seen you for 10 years.

Is it 10? On the notes? I think it's 10. I think it's download 2013. That's 11, my friend. 10.5. You just, it just came across that you were extremely busy, right?

That's right. It was not. And then I sent you, you said, what's the deal with it? What are you promoting? I sent you a little voice note. And then you started asking me questions.

And I said, I just told you. And you're like, I don't listen to voice notes. Like, okay. Okay. And I was giving Adam. Wait, it was a long voice note, though.

You can't be coming in after 10 years. with a long voice note. I bet you it wasn't. You like sending voice notes though. Over a minute. Who's signing you on? After 10 years, over a minute is outrageous. I didn't open with it.

I just thought it would be quicker. Maybe if you're driving around, you can do that. I apologize. No, no, it's your shit. I would have said no if I didn't want to do it. I said, yeah. I'm sure. I'm busy.

That was one thing. So obviously I was giving Adam, because we wanted to do it. I was giving Adam like live updates. And it was like, oh, he responded. And he was like, oh, yeah. sick so we're getting excited. And then, like, oh, I don't, I don't think he likes me.

Oh, he's just busy. He's going to get back to me. Honestly, it was just that. I'm so fucking busy. And then my favorite thing is the, uh, Adam's like, do you send it to him? Did you send it to him? Did you send him the goods? Like, no, wait, just wait. I'll, I'll, I'll see if he gives a fuck first. And then, uh, the only thing you said about it on hearing was, I love that it's not shit.

And I was like, I think that means he likes it. Yeah. I think we'll probably do the podcast. You know what? I went back to listen to it. couple more times after that and the link's fucking gone. No way. Yeah.

Oh, it's been there for a while. So I've got that, got two listens in. That's enough. That's all you need. We can work with that. I'm a lot further than that.

I do apologize, guys, for that, for me being shit and busy. But I would like to thank you for coming because you've proved what I want to do with this, which is I just want it to be the press that everyone goes, right, what do we want to do?

The down beat would be sick. You got a new, you got a new project. Oh, let's sort that out. Let me see if I can sort that out. Right. It was even like a far-fetched. It was like a, oh, it would be cool.

Yeah, yeah. We might not be able to, but it would be cool. Why is it far-fetched? I don't know. It just, you had some, like, big acts on here. Big people, a lot of things going on, yeah. Yeah, we were. It was just, we, yeah.

And I'm going off the, I know Craig like a little bit, but that was a long time ago. And now he's like. But you were day one. Mad, famous. You record. I miss you. You reckon.

Dude, I blinked. And you're in straight from the path. you have this podcast. It's like, shit, he might be like a big, big... That's 10 years. I'm not a big girl, thanks for it. You are, you are to me. Well, I'm stoked you here, and like, not like, oh you to come on here, but there's no way I would have said no.

There's no fucking way. Well, I know that now. I might have said no if it was shit. Or I might have tried to swerve it in a direction. What I've done sometimes is someone's been like, got a new EP out or a new album out, and then I listen to him, I'm like, oh, no. And I make an excuse. Yeah.

That was another thing was like, because I know you have an eclectic taste. Because back in the day we used to talk about death metal balls, like fusion. Yeah, baby. But I was like, this might be a bit soft for this platform. I don't know. Because I'm not trying to win an award for being heavy this time. No, but that's what I like because I, in my head and obviously no shade to any of the guitarists that do the solo shit, it's always the same thing.

I mean, I mean, there is events there. But like, it's all. It's like the gent-y thing. Right. And I was like, it's always still going to send me this fucking Prague. Yeah. Which is completely fair, yeah.

But I'd put it more. Do you know what the other? It surprised me because I had Aaron from the intervals on here, but not in the video one and the audio one. He surprised me because I hadn't actually listened to intervals before. He was like, hey, I want to come here podcast. And I was like, let me just check out of the band. I was like, I thought it was like,

boom, ba-dom, don't-b-b-b-d-b-b. I think he started in that area, but everyone's kind of branched. It's like poppy and catchy. He has those riffs and hooks. Yeah. When did you do, Adam? Aaron.

Pandemic. So it wasn't a video one, just an audio one. So what are you putting your EP in genre-wise then? I asked this question. We had breakfast like an hour ago. It's a good question. How would you describe this stuff? We said pop but metal adjacent or like Prague adjacent like in a way?

It's like metal adjacent pop rock. I don't want to claim to make rock. rock music, but I think it kind of is this time. Yeah, it's definitely rock. It's not metal. Yeah, yeah. There's no screaming. I guess in a weird way, it's almost like new fusion.

I'll take that. I don't know if I, I don't know if I, with an NU. I'm the fucking, I'm the genre creator, mate. Baddycore, that was me. Baddycore. Baddy call was me. That's the thing. Yeah, I fucking tweeted it.

I did not know that. I tweeted, what, how do subgenre name stick? But this isn't that, is it? No, fuck it's not. sexy enough. I mean, it's kind of sexy. Where the fuck you've been for 10 years? What you've been doing? Why is it? How many? What's this? Four tracks? Five tracks? Three in an intro. I would say four. The intro is good, man. The intro is being the best bit. Yeah. And then it just falls well. No, no. What are you doing for 10 years?

Well, I was in a gent band. Yeah, I remember that. And you juice there. They've been on it. They've been on it. Do you beef? I, I had to leave. I wanted to leave. I wanted to leave. It's, it wasn't specifically to do anything. I left because I left because I just. just didn't want to be in that situation anymore. I mean, the band is Monuments who've been on there before. Yeah, I saw that one. Yeah, what, uh, what you just left? I mean, but they won't mind me saying they're a bit of a fucking train wreck back in the day, right?

We were. Yeah. What was the problem? So during, like, lockdown, everything had to be done remotely and we were just doing a lot of, like, intense writing sessions on Skype and masked up writing sessions. I was going to leads to Jammer Brown. and it just wasn't fun. It was very intense.

We had new management and they wanted an album by a certain point and I'm not into that at all. I want to make the best shit I can. And if it takes a while, then it takes a while. But we were trying to reach a deadline and I was like, fuck this, like straight away. They wanted to record the album, a song, like record a song, get Mike to record a song.

Then we come back a couple of weeks later and reset up the kit with new mics. And I was like, you want to do that 12 times? That's not going to be an album. That's going to be 12 songs. So for me, that's the obvious. response. Yeah, yeah. There is a touch of, careful. I want to be very careful. Yeah. positivity where I think it's okay to say that's a stupid fucking idea. Yeah. This is my vote as

as one of five band members. I'm sure it made sense for certain reasons then, but I was like, I'm used to an album having a sound. Like, I just really hated that idea. That was it, the travel that made you hate it, though, because that was the first thing in my head was like, I didn't fucking go in there 12 times. I think I think I did, I didn't. I didn't. I think I didn't. I that went once. Yeah, put me there for 12 days in a row. Oh, I'm allowed to do that. I was happy to make an album, but not, not, not, not rushed to do it.

Is that how they did it then? So I don't know how they ended up doing it in the end. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I wasn't there. Should have reverse engineered this and done you first and then went to them, but you didn't have anything to promote. I didn't. So then you, what, just made these songs or what, like, do you do any other side projects

or anything? I feel like you just, I just didn't see you for two years. I mean, didn't see you for 10 years. Is what I mean? Online, yeah. Yeah, I mean, some shit went crazy in my, just in my life. So I did go kind of quiet. I was producing kind of the whole time with a friend of mine

and I did release a song last year with Andy. And it sounds a lot like monuments. Yeah, so that's what I thought I was going to get a monument. I like monuments, but I thought I was going to get a monuments. EP. So the point of that, I've been singing on that song for a while and I love working about Andy. I love his voice.

And yeah, it sounds like monuments. fucking crazy. Those songs that he's putting like covers of Ariana Grande and shit at the moment. I'm just like, he's got the race. The social game, yeah. He's going hard on that. The minute that people go, this is fake is like, that's when you know you're good. Yeah.

I've never had it. He's got a very gifted like set-fipes. Live, he's really good. I think I've seen him twice now and it's just. I always feel sorry for the singers that are really, really good. I mean, we're going to come on to you in a minute because I assume you're really good because you're on this and I've heard it. Which means you know and you have a development. Yeah.

But. But you can't have any fucking fun on tour. Right, right. Because it's like... Yeah, I have a tour coming up and you have to like warn your bandmates like, hey, it's okay for me to be a diva. Like I need sleep. Like, hey, what van are we renting? Like, I need to know I can sleep in this thing.

Is it going to be like a four transit or a sprinter or can we do better? Like, where's the lodging going to happen? Do you do the vocal rest? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I might not be at a merch table talking to people because I don't want to. I got to save it. Kind of sucks.

It does. Low key, the worst job in the band, but also you're not loading in. Yeah. The ceiling is higher. No, no, no. I'll help load in. I mean, I think like, no, no, no, it's true. It's true.

My band members will comment on this and be like, he helps set up half the drum kit. What band is that? Aviations is this like super out there, progg metal band. I think I've heard it before. Not like, not like metally metal. Yeah, we, the standout thing is we have this crazy good pianist who like colors the track and just shreds over things. I think someone made me watch this on stream.

Might be outliers that you watched. There's like a video. It's like 10-a-half-minute-long song. I fucking watched it on a stream. That must have been a bit of that. And it was really fucking good. Yeah. There we go.

Fucking full circle moment. That was in the pandemic when I was doing reaction videos. Gross. That's a whole thing. That's a whole subject. Fuck me. Something I love to hate on. Same.

But I like, we can't talk about reaction videos. I mean, we could talk about reaction videos. I fucking hate them. did them because I had nothing to do and I was getting paid by Twitch. Yeah, yeah. People like watching that, right?

Yeah. They're a fan of you. They like to hear your opinion on it or like your live reaction. That's what I didn't like about it. Yeah. People just listen to it and then they form their opinion based on someone they think they like's opinion and it doesn't make any new opinions. Who's animated to fake degrees because they need that place to be like for the thumbnail.

The positivity thing too. Toxic. Like some channels are just they won't rate a song. below an eight yeah what do you do if you think the song is shit so that's what I did I did the opposite I was like the anti-infraiser nice and I this is why it's shit I fucking I I went for all the videos that were fake first all that infant annihilator all those drum playfrews and I was just like put it on like oh everyone's telling me watch this oh you get into some turbulence don't oh yeah yeah yeah so I was just like I put it on and because everyone's like

watch this video and like within three seconds I'm like that's fake yeah and then everyone everyone that comment section still pops off i love it is fake as hell as well guitar players are flaming you're just jealous you can't do it it's like well i can't do it no one involved can do it yeah is it rife in guitar world it's it's so crazy bad it's insane everywhere and and also who's fake who's fake i'm not going that's right the thing is sometimes it's based on sometimes it's by someone who can really play so it's extra why would you why would you half-time it or mime it when you can do it. There are a few people I know who can actually do it.

How do you spot it with guitars? Because I can spot it. I guess it's maybe it's a guitar thing. I can spot it instantly with drama. It's the, it's the, the, the, the, there's no, it's zero handling noise. What's handling noise? I'm a dramatic drummer. So a slight slide when you move from position to position.

Right. If you're playing guitar and you want to be tight, you're trying to avoid that as much as you can, but you cannot completely eliminate it. Without slicing it? Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll show you some.

question we can edit it out if you tell me your answer and you don't want it out there um the fucking captain crunch guy what's his name crunchy berry what's the fucking guy captain crunch i think is his name not the guy from the serial oh oh i know what you're talking about yeah yes buried alive yeah yeah yeah like simon what up simon real i don't think so what do you think i mean i don't think it's real i don't think it's real i obviously i you can you can you can respect like what he creates though even if it's not real and he wants that video element but it's like maybe maybe he should just say this isn't an actual like one take thing but like this is my interpretation of what I've created splice it together and edited and stuff it doesn't matter because the views go up up right

so just don't people don't know if it's real or not people don't care and the new generation of kids are looking at it like I'll never be able to do that no you won't because it's like airbrushing for models and like snapchat filters right I'll never be this hot so then people get super super depressed on the flip side doesn't really work for the model thing though the devil's advocate with the music thing is people like rudy who just thought all their favorite death metal albums were one take were just like one take so it just made him definitely at the expense of his mental health yeah the fucking most insane machine drummer ever so there's that you do get like an outlier out of that but probably at the expense of his mental health yeah the fucking most insane machine drummer ever so there's that you do get like an outlier out of that but probably at the

expense of a million people that practice all day long and can't fucking get better. I think as long as people are honest about their approach and that the yeah, what goes into it, the process of what goes into it. I use editing in my songs. I, if I can't do something in a long take, I'll do less of it. Oh yeah. I need to fucking Johnny punch. Yeah. Punch me in. But I'm not recording things half time. That's just me. But we, the thing is I can hear it, but other young people can't really hear it. They just want to see your hands doing this and hear crazy shit. If that's the way to get the effect you want, then you should do it.

But I never see anyone going out of their way to say, oh, by the way, I quantized every single note of this to a grid. This guy in specific, you mentioned his name. Yeah. I didn't bring him up. Very diplomatic. I don't know how he, what his process is. It's really cool.

You got a bit of a all-star lineup. Mm-hmm. Hangary, you got a name for the EP? Yes. What's the name? It's called imbalance. Inbalance. What's that about your brain?

Basically, yeah. Yeah. And my most popular song is called Balance. So it works nicely. What, your most popular song pre this? Yeah. Nice. So what,

has something changed? Are you okay? I've lost my fucking mind. Fame, bro. What happened? I just, it's too much, but. Too much for a pod.

What I can say is I'll look back on this era and go, that was fucking insane. Same, but a phoenix must rise from the ashes. That's what we fin are doing. That's what we fina do. And create the imbalance EP. Right, by this point, you're watching the video or you're listening to the podcast and you're like,

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Neuraldasp.com. The code is the downbeat. What's the line up? So we have a Noop Sastry on drums. I thought it was programmed. Yeah, fuck you. Oh yeah, I'm never hearing that thought. The first thing he said was, why did you program the drums?

And I was like, if you listen to the voice note, I quite clearly told you that Anup played. Didn't listen to voice notes. Can we confirm that I said, I don't listen to voice notes like that? Can someone pull it up? And he sent it as a voice note. So a nop is. amazing he's a friend uh i'm sure the people who are watching this no new i love working with him

instagram dms is it yes people like mixing his drums as well so he was a great choice unbelievable drummer and yeah he's the guy and i like just having his name on my my stuff oh what was it say over there my bad give us the the exchange you want the exchange 27 second voice no i could have fucking listened to that is that too long and then you was like oh no that's fine. I definitely was driving at the time. Oh yeah, it's mixed by Nottie. So you're about to tell me that. Spoiler. I said, why didn't you use real drums? Should have asked me. That's actually me just being like let me play on this. It's good. And then I said, unless it's Alex reading her, because he sounds like programmed drums. And then you said, I literally just said, and he played the drums. And I said,

I ain't listening to voice notes. That's, that's the moment when I was like, this might be too tricky to make happen. I was giving, like I said, I was giving Adam lie about this. I was Dude, we might or might not make this podcast. That's so weird because I just type and I just assume everyone knows like the intention. Oh, yeah. It was meant. Like, it just, I didn't listen into that. Like, a joke.

But obviously, in the cold light of days, I think it's because we were trying to book flights. So it was like, okay, we got to figure this out. Like, we want to do this? Yeah. So we get it. Yeah. It didn't plan things. Basically, we need, I needed you to say that's one of two perfect dates for me.

Yeah. So I was trying to get it done quickly. Right. We got it done though. I do appreciate you, like, being on it because I'm fucking terrible at, especially Instagram DMs. I'll be days where I don't open and then also just fucking busy. Anyway, Anoop, I figured out why I thought it was programmed.

Because it's shit. No, because it is good. A Noop uses those specific symbols that sound a little bit like programmed drums. it's like it's like the classics customs or something like that's one of those they're very shiny they sound a little bit it sounds good but it's i was just like oh this is a program but it's just a very fucking good drummer right and i'm the fucking idiot who else uh jacob umanski is playing bass i've seen the name around who is he where's he from oh yeah is he officially in intervals or he's yeah he's been no he's been doing shows with them for years now with aaron for

years i think it's i don't know if it's still i don't know if he's just like yeah i don't know if it's like considered a band i have no idea he's the most popular basis basically right yeah yeah he's kind of like the anoop in that he plays on everything and quite incestuous the progg world isn't it yeah he played on my band's first album 2018 where's he from he's from new york i think jersey nice right now i thought he was a canadian no no no a lot of Canadian proggers though they're slightly more reserved with it though american proggers are like here it is in your face yeah canada's a little bit like whatever yeah yeah this bit of be in seven.

Anyway. So how'd you get in touch with him or do you just know all these people? I usually ask James Leach to do stuff right because it's James Leach. Yeah. And I know him personally. We hang out sometimes.

We grew up with six being the gods. Exactly. We were chilling with Mikey the other day. Yeah. How is he? I often think, I don't know him. He's like the only one that I probably wouldn't know enough to say hello to.

He was very chill, very social. He introduced me to some people. there was a moment where he was like man if I can do anything for you you let me know why I appreciate it but I don't it got him to drop a fucking slam poetry on the well I did I did I did say can you get me a ticket to the periphery after party and then things got quiet they had a ticketed after party it was a wristband thing I don't know I told I told Adam like I was like I'll be backstage I know those guys we were not backstage they did they fuck you out no I think no one was it's just a busy it's a busy day

fucking roundhouse backstage is absolute horse shit as well. That's that whole thing. So he's the guy, basically, that wasn't James. Work with a nuper bunch. Adam,

the new bassist of monuments is in aviation. Yeah. Monuments and aviation are like. Sizzlings are really... Yeah, just trading around. So there is no beef. There's a sort of implied

beef earlier. When? You were monuments? Not all. Just sizzling under the side. I did all. Brotherly love. No, no, not beyond like, you know what it's like you have a bandmate and their family and you do want to kill them sometimes. Oh yeah. And they want to kill me sometimes. And when you leave, part of them is dead to you. But still.

I've gone to every monument's show in London since. Oh, you're good, then. And I was on stage with them a couple of months ago. No beef. I'm glad we clear that up because in my head there was implied beef. No, I mean, there are things that like if I thought about them now would fuck me off. But there's no, no one fucked anyone's girlfriend. No one stole anything as far as I'm aware.

I mean, that would do it. Wait, so, wait, who's playing bass? Duke or Werner. How many fucking people have you just given me, run me down the line up again. I'm sure you said bass. Base is Jacob Umanski on the EP, on this EP.

Right. And we were talking about who's on this EP. Monuments basis is Werner. Oh, you've got different bases on the EP? No. I'm a fucking brain dead moron. Give me the lineup of the EP written like in Crayola that I can understand.

It's a noob, Jacob, myself and Adam, and it's mixed by Nolly. That's it. That fucking Nolly mix is good, isn't it? Yeah. Shoesy fucking. He's pretty good. He's pretty good. He's the fucking man.

I'd never worked with him before as well. Really? Wait, really? Tide? No. Yeah. He mastered a song for me once, but it was cool to finally get, like, do that thing with him. Did you record with him?

No. Did everyone, how did a, how did recording happen? A nob in his thing, a noop in his space. Have you been there? No, but it looks lovely. Fucking amazing. Yeah. So sick.

It looks like a real fucking, it was like Hans Zimmer's house. He built that house with his dad. Really? Yeah, that must be. That's cool as far. I was like, you are the fucking manliest man I know.

I can't even cook. Can't you know? No. I'm still alive though. What did you guys have for breakfast? You said you were talking at breakfast. Oh, dude. I had beans on pancakes.

Stack and stick. Stack and still. Yeah, yeah. I was thrown off by the beans. Pretty, uh, I mean, that's on you though. Yeah. It's a skill issue with the menu. it was their preset it was like the number one thing but i'm not used to that it did the job i'm

quite like that place all right carry on ep and everyone does it by themselves you did yours yeah i did mine by myself what was interesting for me this time is usually i have someone like for the aviation's material i'll sing all the parts and we'll get together track them together but i'm not editing it i won't like go in and melodyne and like time correct things and stuff like that so this was like oh i've got to line all these backgrounds, which I went crazy on. And I'd never really done that before. Just full-fledged vocal editing. Wait, because someone else does it or because you just didn't do it? Someone else does it for me, typically. And yeah, it was crazy this time doing it. But proud of it, worked out. It's half decent. I think it's the EP. That's not a digger. So are you, are you going

to have the same line up to play shows? Have you got that far? No, I, there is zero ambition to play play live for me so far. Really? Yeah. Why? Because my solo stuff. is all in different genres. You can do that. Fucking look at Devin Townsend. Speaking of James Leach, is he still playing for Devin Townsend? He just got off tour with him a couple of months ago.

Sick, good for him. Yeah. So fucking thing. It's about time. I would rather do a whole set in this style with a vocalist or all instrumental. Yeah, but what, four songs on the intro?

The answer is no, Craig. No, but I need to get into the reasons behind the mind, the mind reasons for this. I'd rather have the material that I feel strong would make a good set. Yeah, but, uh, okay. So you don't like some of the songs on the EP that you're here to promote?

No, I think one of them is more of a ballad that wouldn't necessarily translate as well live. Got it, so there is only three, two songs in the genre that you want to play live that exist currently. On this EP, there's one prior. So you've got three songs. Yeah.

That's not a dis. My voice just sounds like it's a disc. So I'm just trying to think, how like three, yeah, you probably need five to, open something, don't you? 25 minutes or something. You can bang out fucking two songs? You'd think.

I've seen, what's the video where you were fucking dripped up shredding I saw recently? I do that a lot. He does do a lot. Man, there's one, like you're wearing like a tan jacket and there's like a bookshelf behind you, I think. That's in a whiskey shop. Oh, yeah. Right, that video is fucking sick.

Cool, right. It's so sick. I really blagged that. What was it? Called the whiskey exchange on Regent Street. And I walked past it and I was, I wanted, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, It was a rock song, right? Like a Southern rock show.

Yeah, I loved it. Which I would never play life. So that doesn't count for what we're talking about. But I walked past it and I was like, man, that would be amazing. And I walked in and I said, can me and my mates fuck around in here for a few hours with a camera? And he was like, I really doubt it. But I'll talk to my manager. And he was like, okay, he named the price.

And he was like, you get three hours and you can do three hours tomorrow. What was the price? I can't remember. It's the price of you can go in and do a whiskey tasting hour or a whiskey tasting. whiskey tasting tour and therefore you can book out the space so what were we talking hundreds thousands i think it was probably like a couple of hundred a day nothing crazy that's pretty fucking sick but if i'd slipped and knocked over a 50 grand they had some shit in there yeah like they had so my i'm giving the brief like listen if any of you fuckers fuck anything up like i'm not

the biggest liability yeah well you still like that no what do you mean are you a wreckhead bro so was i So was I, but I'm just wondering if it's still in you. I did when we were setting up and you were fucking beatboxing and fucking rattling around the place. I was like, oh, he's exactly the same. I have ADHD. I am. Are you diagnosed?

Yeah. Have you got the pills? I was on the pills when I was a kid. Yeah. And there was a stage when they said I grow out of it or something, but not. Yeah. Clearly not. I've never bothered with the diagnosis and everyone I know and love is just like, you are

fucking insane. What do you think you have? spectrum ways definitely ADHD I mean I've definitely got depression that's on the fucking doctor's record yeah but uh undiagnosed not like being a fucking tick tock person but like my whole fucking life like I'll walk into a room with the fucking toothbrush which I had upstairs earlier because I was thinking about something else as I came down and then I'll realize something over here is unplugged I'll go plug that in up put the toothbrush down and then later on when I go to brush my teeth where is my tooth brush my tooth brush I'm where is my

Toothbrush? That fuck is my toothbrush? So I've either got incredibly early onset Alzheimer's or ADHD or underlying anxiety at all times, which is there. I think we have a similar mix of good shit. Probably all the drugs we did 10 years ago. First of all, I've never done drugs in my life. You never done a drug in your life? No, I'm just like, I'm chatting out of the shit now.

He was giving it the big one before we started. Yeah, I'm going to say whatever I want. That didn't happen. I've never done drugs. No, I said I want to get the expletives out before. Oh, yeah. You fucking dropped an expletive, my friend. Is it going well?

We're doing, I'm having a great time. Look at my relaxed posture. My posture's fucked. I hope you're having a good time. I do really appreciate you coming. Yeah. It makes me feel, because I spend most of the days just wondering like, is this shit?

Is everyone just watching it because it looks nice? Because that was my plan in the first place. Make it look really fucking nice. No, for me, in my brain, it's like the one you want to be. on. Yes. That's what I want. That was my perception anyway. That's what I want. And I was like, to be fair, I think it is. Yeah. Duh. But mainly because it looks nice. Man, people that don't have a good camera. Just fucking get a credit card. I got a credit card in the pandemic. I brought all this shit. And then it's fucking forever to pull it off. You don't have many beers, though. I can get

you another warm Budweiser. Oh, you have more warm. I got more warm Budwisers. I won't make you stand up now, but. The downbeat is the greatest podcast. Oh my God, dude. We were just saying that pause and just Budwisers appear. Love having a, I can just start, a little Simon glow up in here, your gas up. Love having just a guy to look at the fucking check everything's going. Right. Monitoring.

Because normally I'll be doing this and before Simon was here I'd have the screen over there that TV would have all the monitoring on it. So we'd be talking, you tell me some really good story and I go, God, I hope that this is getting filmed and I'd look over here. And then I'd forget what you were talking about

when I come back and go, that's rough. Do you have that issue in general? Yes. I could be sitting with someone really cool. It's probably going to happen today. And they're talking to me and I'm actually genuinely engaged but something just got, now you forgot.

ADHD break. Yes. It's why we're good at your instrument, though. What you got? What have I got? I mean, the toothbrush thing sounds like me for sure. I was reading up on this because I thought I might have ADHD. another symptom is like say you're in the workplace or you're working with someone and you make a tiny little mistake very forgivable it's like ruining for you like it's you you exhaust yourself thinking about that tiny little fuck up yeah um i guess that's an ADHD symptom it was surprising to me but that that would happen to me sometimes

i know very little about the uh symptoms outside of i fucking have this thing what's what's going on what you got you asked me what's on what's on your my spectrum menu what's on yours diagnosed is only um it's only ADHD but there's more I must be a little bit Tourette's I must be a little bit OCD Tourette's the stimming man I'm squawking all day long making silly noises

you're doing quite well here though yeah but all I want to do is just like that might just be music musician stuff though man I'm pretty sure all you want to do is what? I'm pretty sure Gav from biotrophy had Tourette's I mean you got it diagnosed later on I might be making it up that's a band but like it was a band Man, let's talk about this.

What you want to talk about? I want to talk about the unreleased Viatrophy. You posted a drum cover of it and that was the only way you can listen that song. Me and my boys used to rinse that thing in college. It was a good song. So fucking cool.

We had so much recorded. We had a demo like eight songs. Did you drop that play through after you already split? Yeah, we split up and I was like, I've been put it. Man, that was such a golden song for us in college. Which one was it? Because there was two of them.

The first one I did. There is a Tinti Tinti Tettit Tadit Tinti Tis There's like an accented blasting Yeah I think that was the first one It was fucking amazing I loved this one Thanks man

I miss playing death metal So much So that was I think that's why we first start chatting Because you liked We agreed that organic hallucinosis Is the one The number one

Death Metal album Yeah and various other things And you're a sick You were a sick drummer I can't play the kicks anymore It left me The speed Yeah

It fucking just didn't practice to see it because at viatch fee split up was like worse than any breakup i've ever had because i did fucking everything like i did the merch designs i saw i booked the tours there was no we didn't know what we're doing so there was no tour manager there was no like booking agent so i booked the tours that last tour i phoned the venues like there's a different fucking world i phone the venues like i'm in this band blah blah blah this is what we're called this is how many my space followers are And yeah, we know you. You played it before.

I was like, we were splitting up. Can you book our last tour? And they went, yeah. And we were getting like, we were like selling out three to 500 caps on that last tour. And we were getting about 350 quid a night because I just thought that's what you got. Oh, yeah. Like completely fucking got completely fucked.

So after that, I was like, the amount of practice for getting like your feet, you have to be an athlete to play that stuff. Yeah, I just. But you are, right? But you. are also my feet how old are you

37 next month are you really yeah look amazing bro thanks bro so you but you have to you can't just dip back into the DM like that you can't my feet

I've just gone so I've noticed recently that I have I can still play quick but I cannot be asked anymore that was my life before was like playing technical playing quick

showing off flexing a little bit that was the whole monument's thing is the downpicking of the tightness and just keeping up with Brown was a whole learning curve at first and that was just the whole thing being the technically best. I'm not saying I was, that was just the thing

and now cannot be fucked to do any of that. So what tickles your pickle musically now? Writing great, great tunes. And preferably with a great singer with fit harmonies and just little flexes of like musicality. How does that, how does,

how do you write an Ollie Steele song for the EP? Give me from the ground up because there's a lot of moving parts here there's a lot of everyone's a virtuoso in their own right but then it's Ollie Steele so how much are you

writing? Can me pick a song from it from Inception idea of song to Nolly's mix Pick Sirens Yeah? Yeah because there are really great parts in there

that you wanted to throw away Sirens is a little hybrid picked melody that I had when I was in from 2015 What's hybrid picking? Oh, it's when you use your middle finger as well as a pick. So you're picking and then you're using your... Nerd shit.

Other fingers to hit strings. What does it sound like? This bit goes jim, but this bit goes bang. Yeah, a little softer. Is that like the polypheria thing? Yeah, very possibly. Okay. They must hybrid.

Yeah, he incorporates it. Yeah. He's got every... Because you went, chum, bang, and I went, oh, prolifer. Polyphory. Polyphory. Never read that. Got too many fuck.

I mean, that was literally my brain melting. Too many bands. You know what I can't do when there's an Adam and an Aaron and a... Right. And an Amy and a whatever. I can't do that bit. Right, an A in the name. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's all it takes to scramble me. What's your name, Aaron? Aaron Schumer. It's rough. Go on, carry on. Sirens. Yeah, a little melody and I had some chords behind it. And so at this point, I only wanted to do one song with Adam.

Shade. No, I mean, I only planned to do one song with Adam. Okay, so you didn't plan to do an EP, or you wanted to do an EP with different singers? I wanted to do an EP with one singer. No, I wanted to do a single with one singer. Right. That was a... Yeah, yeah, I didn't.

I don't think I knew that. But by the time I found you, I had two songs. Okay. And then I decided that's not enough. I want to do a little bit more. So Sirens starts with a little melody. I can't remember how the fuck. So yeah, the plan with that was to do everything I can with fingers because that's weird.

What I like to do with tunes is try and have a main focus for each song and preferably something I haven't done before. So intro is structuralist and fun. That's the point of that one. Animals is simple and rocky trying to go back. The intro called intro? It's called intro. Is that a problem?

Well, no. Is there the parentheses around it or something? What is it like intro? I was going to call it in balance, but I think the track list was alpha back. I don't know. I like albums with intros. Yeah, I know, but called intro. I haven't seen that in a fucking hot minute.

Yeah, maybe a while, yeah. Well, we're bringing it back. I feel like, am I a dicket? No, no, I like it. Okay, cool. I like, I like it. It looks, it looks. I like the fact that it's understate because you think you see intro and you might think,

oh it's going to be 20 seconds of since but it's not it has that motif in it though too it's got the best guitar work on the thing I'm getting back into my 20 seconds of synth era though like a death metal album that starts with just eerie, eerie shit

screams and and torture victims in the back yeah that's decapitated again that was a it's not going to get that summing off the negation yes so everything's finger style basically I had them I had the melody and had some nice chords. So where do you have this?

In brain or on computer? On logic. And I sent a couple of, I just jam. I don't necessarily know if it's going to be a song or not. I never go. I really try and never pressure myself to do stuff because it never works out. It's never creative and it's never the best of me. But I had some stuff and I sent the sections to Adam and I was like,

I could probably finish this if you think you could sing over this. Right. And he liked it. Program drums at this point. Yeah. And the demos sound like shit. All the best, all the best bands. Start with shitty fucking demos.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, but at this point, I shouldn't really have terrible sounding. I mean, it's really quite bad. Oh, I've got a theory about it, though. If you can make your point musically come across whilst being encased in shit, then once you get everyone's fucking big brain in on it, it ends up something fucking then you're polishing something that's good. Also, the vocalist needs a demo, like, to write to.

Yeah. You know, like it doesn't really matter as long as the chords. But imagine if it was half mixed, you would have had so much more fun. Yeah, I would have asked for stems at that point. Yeah. I reckon you might have been concentrating too much on getting that mix and not enough on, is this actually good? A thousand.

I'm all about the material. I'll leave that to someone else. I want it to know that the material is as good as it can be. Yeah. So basically blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah is what I'm here for, bro. I need to blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah is, I don't think Sirens was hard to structure.

No, no, that one came most natural. for me with like melody writing i sent him a chorus idea i think i labeled it like chorus idea one shit and then i sent him another chorus idea two and he was like go with the shit one yeah yeah yeah and so then we flesh that up i don't know i felt like i was doing things that i like naturally revert to doing like just whatever's in my dictionary yeah yeah so i just i don't know i picked you yeah yeah he's like oh yeah just go with that sounds good so we went with that so we we i got it to we got i got it to a place where it was basically a finished song i thought it was a little bit short and i fucked around with an outro and i was like i was convinced it's whack

this is not this is this is nonsense this is a trick this is like a gimmick why because i think i have to feel like i've tried i've had to put in a certain amount of effort to legitimately feel like to feel like it's legitimate right this is a stupid mental thing that just came real fucking easy and you're like stick this on the end yeah and the problem the problem with that is it means that I don't write a love shift. Sometimes that's the best stuff though, whatever's at the front of your brain. I always give that a chance.

But I'm used to developing things or changing things slightly or just sculpt things a little bit. Anyway, I was going to delete the outro. Yeah, I was like, no, you can't. I was convinced. It's a slapping thing that's super rhythmic and nice. And I think we have some ambient backgrounds going on and A Noop is just like locked in.

Now I know it's sick. It's sick. I'm not very good at taking advice. or I'm very much like, this is my song, and I'm pretty sure this is shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was like, you should not delete it. Yeah.

And then over time... Is there like synths in there? Or is it all guitar-based? Every sound on that is synths and vocals. Right. Every melodic sound. Sins and vocals? Sorry.

Guitar's and vocals. There isn't a synth on that one, no. You got synth on the EP? No, no. Yeah, there's a little one in intro. Who did it? You? I mean, I programmed four MIDI notes, but yeah.

Yeah, still counts, though. all I've been listening to lately at the moment is like Trent Rezner's soundtrack work I've never checked out a single nine inch nails anything am I whack you're not whack but you're just jealous I'm missing out let me give you a fucking Spotify playlist though because there's a there's so much it's like when you get in on the bangers then you appreciate like there's a there's four ambient albums and it's literally just like I don't know about the sound creation but no that's what I mean you don't want to pull it up on Spotify and you end up with those

you're like, what the fuck is it? Come in on the bangers. Okay, right. So now it's bare bones or it's done? No, I need to know that everything is finished from every drum hit to every bass note. Very particularly of this one. Yeah.

At what point does it go to a new? Or is everyone working simultaneously? Jake was first? Jake track first. It goes to Newt when I have programmed the drums that are as good as I can. Yeah. If he comes up with a drum fill

that's based on one of mine, but it's better. Because at the end of day, I'm not a drummer. I have a strong relationship with drums, but it always happens. With Mike, I'd program shit and I'd be like, that does the job, but he will come up with something like that

because that's his language. Just a little saute. Well, it's Mike and it's a noop. So, of course they were. Well, seasoning. But I get, yeah, I get my brain. Then I send it to him. And if there are happy accidents,

I worked with a noop a lot. He doesn't really fuck with shit a lot. But he'll give me the whole, you need five arms to play that. And I'm like, really? Oh, you want to those? No, I don't think I am, but I clearly am. Yeah.

Yeah, because it's always the things, we work with Will Putney a lot, and he's like, it's always the things where he's like, no, look, I can see that there's, I can see nothing's playing at the same time there. It's like, yes, but then there's seven notes on different things straight after it. He's pretty good at it, though, but his thing is like, just see if you can do it once. And then, like, because I'll punch in. And he's like, yeah, see, you did it.

And then that goes on the record. And now I have to figure out of play it life. Yeah, legit. One thing that we don't consider as guitar play. is sticking. You might know that technically it can be done. Yeah. I'm like, why would ever consider that? So Jacob had a lot of, he was like, can I try this? Can I try this? And I was like, calm it down. Because he's very, yeah, he's got a lot of tools. Yeah. He's, what's here? Slapper? Is he a fingerless? He's got, what I say? Finglerless. Fretless.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's got, he's got all of it. Yeah. I think, wait, did you ask him at one point like, I need this picked? Is it picked? Possibly. Yeah. Possibly. Maybe animals. I know what I fucking want. Give me that. Give me that. But for example, he wanted to slap with me at the end of Sirens. And I was like, that's, I want you to hit the root notes. And then he was like, I'll do one of each.

And then you can do what you want with the file. And obviously it was sick. And it's fun to slap with one of the best slap basis along with it. Do you know what I mean? So that stuff's obvious. But I just get very in my brain at the time. How does this go? This might be a sore point, but we'll get it on film.

How does this go royalty-wise? Because you've got, look at that fucking look. Because do you want to do we supposed to give you figures though? No, you don't have to give me, you give me as much as you want. I don't care. I mean,

you do? Okay, no figures. This fucking business is. I, so. No, because everyone,

this is good. Do people give you figures? Oh, this is like a music business class. We're about that. Yeah, that's the whole point in the podcast. You don't have to give me,

you can give me, I would vote to not. Okay. No. You don't have to give me, like, are you talking about percentage is or figure? Yeah,

per cent splits, like percent. Splets. Splets. release the instrumentals. Right. And Adam. Very small.

But the vocal versions are so pretty. I'm not hating on it. My fan base wants to hear. I'm, I'm not only interested, but I'm also, it would be interesting for other people to know. You don't have to give me figures.

But like, did you pay these people for their time? Or was it like you're all mates, you want to do this project with me? I would like to answer this one because I was psyched. He asked me in the first place. Yeah. You know,

someone who isn't very known or anything. So I was like, dude like just a fair songwriting master split and like don't pay me a cent it'll motivate me to get something really good um so i was like yeah just sign me up let's do it and anoop and jacob were session players sort of so you just paid them no split for drums anyway yeah that is rough isn't it's fucking the worst if you're a drummer there's no harmony it's like yeah but if you're a noop sastry you are a news astry so you can command right you're right and he's so efficient like yeah i don't it's not too hard for him the time exactly

Especially if it's based off stuff you did anyway Like this is where I have no bones about it. If anyone doesn't know, uh, writing the entire drums to a record from there being zero drums. If you don't change the length of a bar or a note on any other instrument,

you have not legally song written. Yeah, song. Composed. Huh. Which is a rule that came about, yeah, composed. Thanks. Big brain. which is a rule that came about in like the 50s and 60s

when the drummers were literally like just going. Right. And like you're four and four. You got Paul McCartney like, he doesn't fucking deserve anything. Yeah, it doesn't work with technical music where the drummer is the backbone of the song.

Like, like, yeah, no, I get it. I've polished so many program drum turds. Right. And then,

I mean, and then just not been paid for it. Like, because you don't technically get a songwriting, but you can get paid for the. the session team. This is why you should sing. But,

this is why I've got a podcast. But like, it's obviously up to the band at the time. Like, but legally if someone decided to before the split gets right,

before the split happens, legally if you left the group or whatever, anything like that, legally you're not owed fucking shit. That's, yeah, that's crazy.

I know, I know in America there's a law, there's some like default where if we went to a session, we wrote a song, we didn't agree on anything or sign anything. and the court had to decide.

It's like 25% melody, 25% lyrics, 50% band. Which is why it's pretty sick being a singer. Yeah, I get half. And also, no, regardless.

This is for pop music, though. You know, that's based on like the top line being the selling point to big, wide audiences. But if you get real fucking, this is a little hack for anyone listening, if you get real deep into the legality of it,

if I was in on one of your writing sessions, and you wanted to say dogs and cats not that that's a lyric on the Ollie Steele's in balance you wanted to say dogs and cats and I piped up from behind the drums not getting paid and I went what about drums or cats

and you went yeah go on then boom split that in half you get in there split that fucking immediately in half for one way yeah it's fucked yeah it is crazy it is crazy well people that's why I bring up the splits because everyone you got to get that shit sorting before stuff comes because then everyone's agreed this is how it is everyone's happy blah blah blah but that shit can bite you she's a fucking drummer and i'm always interested in how it goes with solo stuff because i'm like obviously like i said the incestuous nature of progressive music comes from everyone just loves

making music with other sick musicians so i'm always like does it you're doing that for free or they're getting whatever yeah and some people just don't care either like uh i remember working with someone like a year ago was just like yeah let's just do this thing and he might have been able to sell a lot of the song or get a lot of streams but it was just like whatever so you know i think about this all the time not to derail it but i'll fucking derail it's my podcast um i think about this a lot i've got an on-off relationship with twitter like i come back to twitter i'll leave twitter and a huff i come back to twitter and the funny thing that i mean you were like we know a lot of people's business the funny thing that i like seeing is like discourse on twitter and you'll get like

people who are just like sort of famous on Twitter for really liking music, which is fair enough or whatever like their opinion or something happens and they post their opinion on it and it starts a debate or whatever, just people who really love fucking metalcore or hardcore or anything like that.

And then I'll see their takes and I'll see them like either dunk on something because whatever is public knowledge and then I see them gas someone else up and I'm like, you motherfuckers really just don't know, do you? You don't even, you don't even know. Like, you're gassing this person up and then you're sharing this. I'm like, we all know what that person's up to.

You just don't know because you're not here. You're not in the trenches. You know, I'm never, do you have Twitter? No, I hate the UI. I don't know why. I remember, like, signing up for Instagram, Facebook, whatever. I've got one, but I think I've posted on it twice. I've never been, I've never got the appeal.

Yeah. And I feel like, for me. Yeah, I think that's the problem. Because if I let the thoughts in my brain come out as soon as they do, we wouldn't I wouldn't be here yeah now but I've been doing it and it makes you bigger this is true but you're are you not in constant like battles with people yeah that's why most people are stupid yeah and it is very it's honestly it's in the last sort of fucking year it's got mental with Elon Musk going yeah just being like you can do whatever you want now yeah

I'm gonna save it now guess what you can do and say whatever you want it's like oh everyone is mean here mm that you see anything happen in metal But what is the point as well? So when I was... Four people, they're bored, they're bored. When I was a child, a teenager, my natural reaction to seeing something I didn't like on YouTube would be to say this is shit.

Leave a comment. Yeah, it's not clever. I grew out of it though. That's the thing. There's always going to be new people that haven't grown out. But why debate with something? You're not going to change anyone's opinion ever. Saying yours feels good.

Saying theirs feels good. That's what it is. It's the dopamine. It's therapy, yeah. But I've never read a fucking thing and gone, I do you know what? Thank you for that. He's got a point.

Yeah. I think that is people growing out of it. Because it weirdly, because it used to be the YouTube comments were the cesspool. Now Twitter is the cesspool. YouTube comments are generally pretty like, there's obviously still shitty ones. But like, for the most part, everyone's less biting each other to death. Because I think people are more, I don't know, there's weird. There's a more positive vibe on.

YouTube now and it isn't on Twitter and it used to be the other way around. Right. But it achieves nothing. Like a positive comment can actually achieve something. Yeah. No one needs that. But a negative one. If I see a negative comment, I'm like,

ah, you're probably just deaf. You don't understand what you're looking at? You ever left like a positive review for a restaurant or like a Yelp, positive Yelp review? No. I said that like it's a segment on the podcast. I feel like people are motivated to bitch and complain if they get like a disservice done to

them, you know, like, oh, you didn't you wrong. I need to call you out now to get this off. The most I've done is leave a positive review for like a venue. If you're doing a photo shoot because someone asks you like, it would be really handy if you did it. And I'm like, yeah, no problem. Everything was smooth. But I don't leave a restaurant like,

these motherfuckers are going to hear it from me. Yeah. Sometimes if a restaurant's like, the reason I thought about this is a bit like YouTube comments. Like majority or Twitter, majority is negative because no one seems to want to say the positive things. So I've made a habit now of like if I went to a little like, small restaurant on tour and they were really nice and i'm like i'm gonna leave them a yelp right

and then i'll leave him like a glowing yelp and that gives me more dopamine than like fucking arguing with someone it's a thing it does do something for someone i remember on tour a nupe was very in to like leave the review win lose or draw i forgot he was in monuments we've had it all baby real real fucking incestuous shit there are only so many people who can do those jobs though you know what's um what's the plan for are you going to do a full length or another EP or what? Because you needed to get songs out before you can play a show.

We didn't even get off like you don't, do you not want to play shows or it's, you just want the right set? I would if the, if the situation was right. I don't think I have enough, yeah, buntz.

I don't think I have enough tunes in one style. I'm not in any rush to do that. I want to make the best music I can and be slow and methodical and just make it because everything, music lasts. the natural thing to do would be to make an album in this style with these people you can always reuse the EP tracks right it'll just waterfall

I refuse you refuse fresh fresh shit some kind of advance you know yeah if all that if all that shit snowballs then we'll see you seem to have really low expectations of it why because I don't want to play life no you're just like if all that shit snowfall like snowballs like yeah I think it's the metal background it's a different like playing yeah I don't know He's like venturing off in a different area of sound. So what's an ideal tour for the Ollie Steel project? Is it just called Ollie Steel?

That's what I'm looking at a flyer right now. What does it say? It would say it would say Ollie Still. So what's the ideal tour? With this EP. Like say you had it a full length of this. Clean shit. So not monuments.

No, sorry. Monuments would work straight for the path. Would not. I don't think their fans would care. Would BadiCorps work? Yeah. Sleep tokens or carnival, maybe Tesseract. Now I'm going to throw,

Tessarat would fucking work. That would be cool. I want to know because I don't know because I'm not in that world. But like on a flyer and there's all these bands and then there's a name. Yeah.

That not worry you about the, like the trajectory that you can get because I can't think, unless you're going to give me some examples, I can't think of someone in this and similar genre who has a name, just their name. Right.

And the name is the, the band so the only i was in a band i've kind of had that experience i am not um the only the only point of doing that being oly steel on spot flyer or on a flyer is because i have i can do more musically than i was doing in monuments yeah so i just want to explore it you know steve vi has just got a name obviously i'm not steve i but he does have a name yeah he's only steel is a cool name i'm not I just like, and that's not saying it can't be done. I just haven't seen it done recently since like your Steve buys. Yeah, I think most, most people who make solo music also have a band as well.

Or they call their, like Pliny or intervals. Pliny or intervals. Pliny is his name. What? Wait, is it actually? I thought that was his name. Fucking dude's an interesting name. I could be good one.

I met him the other day. He's Australian, right? Yeah. That is actually his name. He is tall. That's really, that's really his name. Oh. Simon.

Yeah, that might be, that might, if I'm wrong. Simon, drop a Google full name, please. Pliny Rosula? Yeah. Colgate. Colgate? Some of that would be his name. Colgate.

Colgate. Is Pliny a real name? Jury's still out there. I mean, it's an Australian name, so, yeah. But they're normally like Greg, I know. French or something. Rasselier. I mean, it's a cool name. But Steele's a cool name.

You just got by Steele. Nah, it sounds like Steele pamper. You don't have to do anything. I'm just, if I was, yeah, I'm not, I'm happy to deal with that shit later. It was something that would... It must have been thought in your head at some point. Or was it never a thought?

Oh, maybe like seven years ago. When I started to, for example, I was doing technical, like, instrumental, techie guitar stuff. Yeah. And I made the rock song. Then I did a song in this style with Ian Kenny from Carnival.

Yeah. And this is like a continuation of that. That was sick. One of the sick as sick as most moments ever. I want to do other things. I want to do some death metal shit. I want to do some ignorant. I'm the same name.

That's who's made. making the music. So what are you going to, I'm just trying to think about this touring shit. You said you want enough. But you, are you going down to go on tour? Are you going down this? So I knew he didn't want to go on tour. I'm not fussed. Is it more like a Devon Townsend vibe then? As in like, I'm just like Devin and Steve Vibe is what I'm trying to say. No, but like Devon will have like, I'm doing fucking opera for this album or whatever. I'm doing a whole album with a puppet. You know what I mean? That makes. Yeah, because he's got a few different things that he wants to try. That's what I mean. Is that is that the kind of thing that you're doing? I'm trying to make sense. I'm trying to

make sense of it. Yeah, I'm just trying to explore because I like a lot of different styles and I think I can probably make them and I haven't proved to myself that I can or can't yet. I love death metal. Do you know what I mean? I haven't really done that yet. Who are you going to get to do the death metal? The death metal, whatever.

Drums? Yeah. I might have some names in my phone. Who are you thinking of? No, because then if it doesn't happen. I'd be Rudy. I'm thinking of everyone you're thinking of. Yeah, really.

I'll show you the list. Yeah. Just give me the fucking list now. Manifest it. Get it out on there. At some point. It would be nice. It would be nice to get Vogue to do a guest solo.

Yeah. That would be sick. It would be wicked to get Cheney or Naveen involved. Mendoos. That would be cool. Get a two for one on those as well. Scott from Valuja. I think his name's Scott.

That would be cool. Getting corpse grinder on something would be sick. Tried to get him on the podcast. I said no. Really? Yeah, press agent was like, Cannibal Corp is not doing any press for this album and all this stuff. And I was like, I assume it's because everyone wants to talk about Pat O'Brien

and the fucking meth and the fucking house down and all that shit. And I was like, Like I hit up Paul indirectly just on Instagram. I was like, hey, I got podcasts. Like, I just want to talk about drums with you. I'm not going to talk about any of the, you know, previous shit that's like clickbait. And he was like, yeah, okay.

But I think for a song, you've probably got a chance. Pops grinder on a song, be fucking sick. But we're not talking about your death metal one. We're talking about this one. I'm just trying to make sense with my head. Craig, right now what I want to do is make musical statements that hopefully when I'm dead, people can look back and be like.

Is that it? Is that the goal? He was quite good, yeah. I've done, I've done, I've done, I get more money now than I did in monuments. What are you doing now for money? I teach. I teach, guitar. Teach guitar, uh, on Skype and shit, Zoom.

Uh, sometimes I do master classes and colleges. Yeah, because you are a fucking shredder. I'm trying not to be a shredder. No, shredder just means playing fucking guitar really well, doesn't it? I guess, to me, it's like, you also are a shredder, though. It's fucking in there. Oh, I'm trying not to be a shredder, but it's fucking in there. When I think of your videos, I'm like,

I'm really trying to. So when I teach, I usually say I can help you with this, this, isn't this, I can't do jazz and I can't, I can't do jazz and I can't do classical. Solo writing too, I think you said, right? It's songwriting, lead technique. Right, okay. Riff writing. But now I also say, if you want to learn how to shred,

there are many other people who can help you with that. But I'm trying to retire from that. Really? I know exactly what I want and what I'm going for. Yeah, I know. I'm really trying to, really trying to decipher it. It's very interesting to say. I might join another band.

And then I'm on tour. Cool. It wouldn't be touring my shit. Okay. You said touring's not out of the question. No. But I'm not like, I'm not like gunning for it. I have to get full length so I can go and tour.

So are you? I'd rather swap styles after this. Are you completely complacent in life right now? You sound like you are either incredibly complacent, not in a negative way as in like everything is as you want and you just happen to be able to put out an EP of music you want to make. Or is there a must. much grander scheme or scheme sounds negative as well much a grander like thing that you'd

like to do but you're skirting away from saying it out loud uh i think it's close i wouldn't use those words but it's probably closer to the former right now i have this with adam um i like how it sounds i'm not too inspired to dig back into that hole because it's been my whole life for the last year we're shooting videos with we're shooting videos tomorrow we're doing another podcast later on in week who the fuck you doing radar festival it's brand new will be episode one baby really you know what they asked me to do podcasts at radar last year that would have been sick huh i can't remember why i didn't do it something come up and i couldn't do it i was going to do three days it was going to be i think maybe six across the whole thing and i wanted like three of the big big boys

and then i'll be like okay with just like oh i got mates that are on it or whatever or maybe do some fun ones and every motherfucker was like yeah i get i was like what time do you get in blah blah blah blah like do you want to do the podcast yeah if i've got time and i'm like i am not packing up i can't that's not booking is driving down to fucking manchester to like have them cancel last minute because it was going to be ticketed like the masterclass stuff and i was like i don't want that on me if it's shit would have been sick all that's a cool idea that is a really cool idea and that's what radar do

they have a bunch of sick shit they have this digital media village upstairs that just has video games where you can go and scream and it counts the decibels and guitars that's cool as fuck the lineup was fucking shit as well yeah it was really really sick we had it sorted out well we were going to do it in

like the bit of Victoria warehouse there's all brick you know the big so just literally like this it would have been fucking sick didn't work out and then you know what they were going to pay me good as well like and I just when I was speaking to the guy

I was like you're fucking sick like I wish I could make this happen but I can't because that early it's never too late they've now seen the podcast yeah fuck this guy we'll do ourselves next year I'm still trying to dig in before we get into this two truths and a lie right I'm still trying to dig in like you've done the videos for it we've got a video for every song right

what is the fucking end goal what's the point yeah Yeah, without me, I'm trying to make a musical statement and flex some of the things that I can do. Yeah. And collaborate with people who have nice voices and play drums good. That's the only thing I want to do right now. It's create. It's create.

I'll worry about shows later. Yeah. Because it depends on what the reception is. You don't really know. Because your fan base is more, like it's on the heavier side of things. Yeah, there's every chance. It's like, they're going to like it. I can tell you that already.

We'll see. I love not having the pressure. If I didn't have any pressure. until five minutes ago. Why? Until what? I started talking. Why aren't you touring?

I'm just not. Yeah, but why? No, but I'm like genuinely, not only, like ignoring the fucking cameras and microphones, A, I want to know, B,

like I'm intrigued by the thought that this man is just, I want to make some fucking music in here it is. But then you're like, we're doing videos for everything. I'm like,

man, there must be a fucking goal here. There is no, there is no secret support slot for sleep token or anything. We've spoken about stuff in the future But I really like not Not having to be beholden to a certain style

I like it that people can't expect I want to put out a rock song in a whiskey shop Just because I feel it just because I'm feeling it I love that like legit I'm just saying it like shit like that's cool And you know in this is the This is kind of part of the thing with monuments as well Is like everyone in that band

Has a lot of eclectic tastes They're all fucking amazing players But we Stop flexing all of the outside influences and the experimentation I was trying to do things like that and for whatever reason it was just never really happening that way so now I can I can do what I want and I can fuck around and make a nice little melodic EP but then what are you gonna do if it pops off like fucking pliny then we'll talk then if someone says you know I'll

pay you this to go and do this I'll probably find two songs the reason I was talking about the complacency thing is I used to teach so teaching your full-time gig pretty much Yeah, that's my job. The money's fucking great. You're in your own fucking boss. It's the most rewarding possible fucking thing you can do. Depending on the student. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But you just sort of slightly bully those so they fucking quit, don't you? Whoa. That's a good idea. Yeah, but I found that it slightly doled my sword with wanting to get out there and play music. That's why I'm going so deep on this, because I was making sense. so much fucking money that I was like, why the fuck would I want to go on tour? Why do I want to fucking do this? Well, dude, the other thing is like, I only, I only quit Monuments like two years ago. Up until then, I've been on tour since I was 19. I'm okay to take a little break.

Yeah, and you definitely didn't get paid well for almost all of that, if not actually all of that. Yeah, we were grinding. Monuments are still grinding. They came, they did the podcast and they were telling me, I can't remember if it was on the podcast or not just like. Yeah, that was a, that was a good conversation, yeah, just like the whole merch thing too with the venues, all that. They go into the splits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These guys are still making no money and they were a band when fucking Viatry was a band.

I'm sure they're making some money, but like, I think you need grander ambitions. I just got a little boyed on the down there. No, and not, I don't, I don't make you feel like that. I just think it's fucking good enough for like, I can see it

being fucking massive. So you're going to have to fucking think about what you want to do. Let's see. Let's see. I am enjoying the, this is the opposite to having a manager going, we need an album by this time. It's the opposite. This is me chilling and wondering what the fuck I want to do today musically. Which one is not out yet though. The minute that's out, you're like, oh shit, just got an offer for radar. That's fucking going to happen immediately. We got an offer for radar 48 hours ago. What would you do? Say no. I said maybe next year.

When's radar? I said to you. Was he a fucking radar ever? If anyone deserves it, then. Probably June or July. I don't know. Yeah, like a summer thing, right? I can't wait for this to get massive writing. I mean, you just go, fucking told you.

That's it. It comes from a place of love. I hope you don't think it's me. No, no, not at all. And I understand that what you usually do is you write songs, you love, and then you want to get out there and play them in front of everyone. But, like, I've played big shit before.

I've had the experience. It's cool. But that did serve a band. And also, you don't get fucking paid well. That's the other thing. I don't have a label. taking everything I earn all my streams. I don't have to argue with five people to make music.

All I have to do is go back and forth a little bit with Adam. And realistically, it's my music. So I kind of get the final say, which is fun. I'm not a control freak, but I do care about every instrument and everything that is sung, everything that's played. Was there any disagreements? Like a big one. No, I can't actually remember any.

I know when I demoed everything, I was like, I'm going to sing it all again, obviously. like I'm going to sing all this and he's like okay just don't change one note or one word because I might freak out because I was loving it because he's like I'm attached claim if not being a control freak he let me do whatever you want

and then he was like I love it no but he's like yeah he's already yeah he loves it this is these are the songs in his mind like they're cemented now like don't there's no reason to change things this is hitting yeah I think the only thing we really disagreed on was I was like I'm gonna delete the outro

of silence. Oh, that. This dude. And other than that, like, what, the odd harmony note. Right, worked out a little bit of harmonies. I know there's, like, a word we changed, like, the word, uh, exploration to expiration. Who changed it?

Uh, all he did. Probably me. Fuck you. Even more about fucking money. Why is it going to be delayed then if you're sorting it out yourself? Because I'm waiting for. That's why, yeah. Artwork.

Yeah, so much background stuff. Who's doing your artwork? The artwork has been, it's a dude called, I don't even want to say his name in case. Nah, his name is his... Wait, think before you do it because what you don't want to say his name in case someone else steals him for their art.

No, no, no, no, not at all. Just... I didn't tell him like. Because he is the fifth person, artist I have worked with to try and get art for this. Yeah. What, you sack the others off? I sacked the others off.

Two off. Well, I need this. Need this story. What I've sacked me off. Man. So I'd just like to preface this by saying artwork is my favorite bit about creating. Because all the hard work has done it, I love creating the aesthetic. And things tend to snowball.

It never snowballs when I'm writing music. I'm always like second guessing shit, convincing myself that it's shit. But when I see the images that match the music that I'm trying to make in the theme and the vibe, I love that shit. And that was important to me as well as a kid. And you pick up a CD and you look through it and you're seeing the aesthetic and the vibe that people are creating for you. loved that shit.

Going on MySpace and looking at their banner and just like, this is the flavor of the band. Caring about the layout and everything. The branding is the adult word. And I actually have fucked that up before because bands that we know will send us an album early, but you're just looking at 10 files on Dropbox and that that flavor isn't there. So I love the artwork process.

So I found the concept in my head. Everything snowboard. It was perfect. I was like, okay, sweet. This relates to some of Adam's lyrics. It relates to the music. When it's out now, so you can tell me what it is. A sculpted Android woman.

with a golden blinding mask and a blood spell sounds very nice but the lore though it sounds cool from previous releases though yeah but you don't want to give that no I would like someone to work that out okay oh there's an easter egg yeah there is lore which is cool okay so four artists fucked it up yeah so the I can't even fucking remember the first guy was great I'd have my eye on him for a while on instagram I save guys because I'm like yeah I'm gonna approach that guy I take photos of things when I'm watching TV and I'm like I'll use that for something in music like like you're saying aesthetically it's watching a fucking Danish crime drama last night and someone I'm not even going to tell people what it was but something was on there like the killer did and then like

the mark the killer left and I was like that's fucking that's how I'm going to see how I'm going to leave right anyway sorry first guy first guy perfect style loved it um he wanted to use a weird payment thing he was abroad uh that it did work out because you can't self-load you can't add money to it you have to receive money to it from a different sort it was fucking weird was it was it was western unions it was a millionaire and i was going back and forth to them i had to make a new account blah blah blah blah was was he in indonesia no i think he was in i can't remember where it was maybe he was turkey i think he was japanese but lived in turkey i don't know he was far away just have pay pal brav come well this is what i'm saying this is what i'm

So he was like, well, we could try a bank transfer, but the last time I did that, it took ages and then the money disappeared. I was like, well, I'm not going to try that then. Yeah. So I was like, bro, it looks like this isn't working out. Had he done it by this? No, he'd had he'd done a first draft, which looked pretty cool. All right.

So it's not you going, I don't like it. No, no. Yeah, yeah. It's not me going. It's been a week where is it? Yeah, yeah. Again, I'm happy to take time and have everything be where I would like it to be. Got it.

the second guy, amazing art page on Instagram. Yeah, this one was interesting. Everything looks cool. Have a call with the message them. Have a call. They're like, yeah. So I get on a call as a Skype call with someone. And it turns out they're a team of artists.

And I'm like, well, who made this piece? And they're like, oh, no, don't worry. We'll assign someone to you. And I'm like, fuck that. And I'm chatting to an Indian kid and his manager, who I think is probably his cousin. And he's not listening. he's sending me drafts and he's like you should go for this one i'm like that's not

that's doesn't refer to the briefing it doesn't refer to any of the things like no no i think it's really good i think it's really good i'm like you're not listening to me trying to say i think i think i think i think i think i was probably so many it was like i was like are you doing this with a i think no oh well there's probably so many it was like it's a collage of people i was trying to ask him i was like are you doing this with a i and they were like no we have a team and all this stuff and i was like yeah but can you just give me the artists like Instagram hand it's the style I want yeah and it just it screams AI to me yeah next one was amazing but she responded to me once every six weeks with it wasn't it wasn't she wasn't addressing the edits I would like yeah so I said

this is not working for me everything's already too delayed but it was amazing she she was really good but not also not like but were you like being mixed note guy like can the hi-hat it's not in bath what I'm asking for it's not that crazy no it's not that complicated and he already has so many references. Yeah, at this point, like the path is designed for them. Yeah,

I'm stacking references. You can see the through lines. It's getting easy and easier. Yeah. So I said, I mean, I'd have done the same thing. No,

this is not happening. Yeah. Goodbye. But the reason I prefer this by saying I love art is because it's always the smoothest, most fun bit for me.

I love this process. Yeah. I've always found the person to get it. So the next one, who's the final one it didn't work with was an AI guy. And I said to Adam, bro,

I think I'm going to have to do an AI thing. I might as well try it because I'm running out of options. This is crazy. You'd have fucking murdered yourself. Yeah, well, he... That's what I said that to you. I was like, people are going to get pissed or...

I'm glad it didn't work out that way. But what I did get was, he sent me 50 of this image. I was like, oh, this is cool and there was a lot to get from. But he could... There was a specific shape or something I wanted and we don't have that control. They can't do it. They don't have the creative control to go there. So I sent him a message saying, do you know, what level of control will we have?

Do you reckon this is actually achievable? He looked at it and didn't respond. But I found this guy. He's from the UK. He gets it. he's very talented. It's called Romeo Romeo on Instagram. Romeo done.

To multiply by 10, that's one. Yeah. So I finally got it. And when he sent... Someone gets the So Solid quote. Yes. You know about So Solid quote? No, I don't.

No one in America who has ever been on the podcast. You need to be from a very specific part of the UK. And we're from there. The way it's worked out with him, he sent me in my first draft. And I was like, that is fucking great. That is exactly what I wanted. He's got it.

Is it digital art? Because I haven't seen it by this point. Yeah. So it's made by Blender. like 3D rendered. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to see a 2D image, but it is of a 3D space. Is that getting used in a video or anything?

You're getting a little... We might refer to it later on. That could be cool, yeah. Yeah. I never thought of that. We will see. Two truths and a lie. For me, please.

So we spoke about this. Ollie is taking this one. I'm going to do these. Ollie is taking this. Well, it's his EP. I think I got thinking. Yeah. No, but I just...

He's got crazy ones. Well, that's not big up too much. I also don't know what people think about this section. Yeah. because only one of them has come out. I've done about seven, but only one has come out. So hopefully,

I love it. Like, I used to do a dream festival. It's like, no. How many times have you, I was kind of up for doing that? I mean, you could give me both if you want.

You know, I'm going to say all the shit. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. It ends up every dream festival is the same shit. Anything Brown said is what I'd probably say. And then everyone's like, oh,

I'd probably do it in Australia and it'd be warm and whatever. It's like, right, fucking. Nice backstage, sick man. Yeah, exactly. Everything on my iPod, please. It sucks.

However, two truths and a lie. Bit of fun. It's the penultimate day of a born of Osiris tour. Speak of the fucking devil, we were just talking about them. Monuments, born of Osiris, after the burial, and the harp machine. Oh. It's my birthday. So I wake up and I have a Long Island iced tea for breakfast.

I am shit-faced all day long. It's my birthday. I'm like 21, I think, maybe. What happens next in this very true story? Okay. We go to the bus. later. You know, it's a German, it's a German venue, so it turns into a club.

There's a lot of raving Germans around. Get on the bus. There's a guy there. None of us know him. He's just sat on the bus by himself. We're like, hey, bro, who's mate are you? And he's just sat there like this. We're like, hello?

Whose friend are you? How'd you get on this bus? He says nothing. He's just looking forward. He's a little bit nervous. So someone gets him out of his seat. He's got a rucksack on. a backpack and it's got some people's laptops in it

PSPs phones everyone's shit basically we take him outside I'm shit-faced by the way we take him outside we're like what the fuck you're playing at we take all this shit or our shit back sorry I tried to swing now everyone's very offended right which is fair enough I'm actually in a pretty loving mood

because it's my birthday and I'm shit-faced but anyway everyone's like having to go at him I tried to swing at this guy guy. He's a stationary target and I just miss and eat shit. Someone in a good mood. I was in good mood. So I went to swing it. No, but one thing is I got caught up in the drama. Oh, okay. I try and hit him again. Same thing again. But the second time, I land on the floor. There's broken glass and I split the middle of the palm of my hand open. Next gig was shitty.

There's a scar on my hand to this day. But I'm not going to let you check if that's true or not. Next story. Story number two, we played in Manchester. I was in Sikliman at the time. my first man is how you pronounce that yeah i thought it was psych coming shout out hiato yes fucking legend he basically like gave me the in he fucking took stray on tour in japan it was fucking sick he's he's the guy for that now he's the man we played manchester so we played the uh satan's hollow circular one yeah funky place we go back to a friend's house a friend of hiatus we're staying at hers staying on couches on the floor whatever ask her if i can have a towel so can have a shower She gives me one I go upstairs a shower

Get out of the shower I'm about to dry myself I don't know what it is But something tells me to look at the towel I look at the towel It is covered in streaks of shit Human shit Your own shit or is this foreign Is this post shower or pre?

This is post shower It still could be your shit It's I assure you I'm not like that bro Can you just dry yourself for shit or are you No no I didn't I didn't I drive myself my clothes But I could have if I had dried my I wouldn't be telling you this story because dude imagine i could have dried my face yeah oh man so i just drive myself with my clothes uh i go back

downstairs try not to touch anything that's the end of story too story number three i was writing music with my mate we'd hang out once a month sorry once a week we're on like our fifth sixth session we finish the song so we're pretty pretty bubbling uh we go to my local tescos it's either to So we're hanging out outside. I think it's either so I can finish the cigarette or get cash out, I can't remember. Someone comes skipping down the road. It's like a high street.

And he stops and says to my mate, hey man, nice hoodie and skips off. We look at each other and we're like, was that Chris Martin from Coldplay? It was. Guess what bands on his hoodie, Craig? What band? It's stray from the path.

That one's the end of my story. That one's a lot. That one's a lot. there's no way. That one's a fucking line. It's too easy. Too easy. The other two are really, really specific.

But he sells it so well. No, he didn't sell that one. No? If you just said any other band other than mine, there'd have been more time spent on this. So is that your official prediction? Yeah. I'd done you because all three are absolutely true.

There's no way. There's no way. I promise you, I was there. You broke the rules though. I did because I was like, because it's a cool story to show. I woke up at 6 a.m. And I was like,

Why didn't you tell me? I couldn't remember. I don't even think you were in straight at this point. When was this? Maybe 2015? No, it wasn't. So this hit me at 6 a.m. yesterday. And I was like, yo.

No, I checked that out recently. No, I meant Chris Martin. Oh, I said. So it hit me at 6 a.m. yesterday I woke up. I couldn't sleep. And I was like, that's perfect. Because he won't believe that.

Yeah. So I'm going to hit him with three real ones. He hit me three reals. And he will predict that that one's fake. How bad you cut your hand on the first one? It's all right now. But if it's all right now. I landed on it, you know.

On your birthday as well. I mean, it was my special day. And in the shit one, a lot of shit ones in these two shoots in one way. I mean, sometimes, you know, on tour, I think I've cleaned

and I'll dry myself and then, oh, oh, man. See the little streak there. I can't defend it. I reckon maybe it's happened twice in my life, but that's why it was believable to me. But I always,

I always dry my asshole last for that reason, just in case. But I'm a very clean guy. It doesn't sound like it, I'm glad we know this. I'm not here to judge. Do you shave your asshole, anyone? No.

You don't do it. You just let it go. Just let it go. What about Bush? Yeah, yeah. You got, oh, trim. I don't say, shave or trim. No, no, no, no.

I don't think you full balled the thing. Yeah, I'm a trimmer. Yeah. I'm the trimmer. I used, I went through a period of wet shaving my asshole before a tour. It's probably because of this sort of towel situation that would come up. Wet shave it. Literally in a mirror, like spread eagle, like I'm about to fucking,

like a, like a, like a, like a, porno and i'll just shave my like wet shave it you won't believe it on tour how easy it is to you know when you get those really annoying you're getting a rash hung over no exfoliate get a bit of fucking grit around your asshole and then it just made me you know when you have hung over on tour and you got like a real fucking just a rubbish shit that happens it's just like oh that is not good yeah like that is not good and i fucking it's like wiping the tip of a sharpie you just keep going keep going keep going doesn't happen if you've got a wet, shaved arsole,

but there is a lot of admin involved. I got nothing to add. And I can't wait to get off this topic. It's probably a pretty good place to end it. Ollie Steele, In Balance EP, is out now if you care to listen to what we've been talking about and it will make much more sense.

In fact, I should probably... What I'll do, I'll tell you at the beginning of the episode to go listen to it and then to listen to this. And then, guess what? Go and listen to it again. Maybe you should check out aviation which is Adam's band as well.

I already have, but they should do it as well. It was really, really, really fucking good. I remember it. The minute you said the name, I was like, I know that. And then you said the fucking. It's out there. Pianish shit. And they just dropped an album.

Yeah, Luminaria was out in September. Hell yeah. It's got some long ones on it, but it's all over the place. A lot of color. You tour that one? We will be in, what you say, tour? Yeah. We're going to, yeah, no, not.

We're doing like a 30 minutes. Oh, so it's hard. It's hard. We're doing four songs. Where's that in the U.S.? Yeah, in the U.S. Where are you from in the U.S.? Boston.

Boston. Why ain't got Boston accent? Because my family is originally from Louisiana. I thought you're going to say, because my family is very well off. No. Louisiana. It canceled out.

Yeah, yeah. My family's all from New Orleans, like deep south. My parents have a southern accent. I'm terrified of the deep south. It is kind of crazy. The swamps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are from the Gulf.

Like my mom. Like trawl for shrimp as a kid, like in airboats and shit. Yeah. My, my, my, my papa, which is a, something slang for grandpa, he owned a marina. That is the third mention of airboats on the Downbeat podcast, and I lose my mind every time. I'm just like, yeah. Yeah. I want a fucking airboat.

Look that right next shit. Yeah. They're so sick. I didn't know they existed. It was just Kubla Grum for the first time ever. I was like, what? I loved his whole segment on the camper van. Oh, man.

loved that was amazing and then i seen he dropped a video explaining he's the man you know what like by the way as brits do we say process or process i say process but they say process don't remember i think if i was at a job interview i'd say process but there is actually two things in the creation of this podcast there's been more but two that stick in my mind about me going oh i'm doing it like this is good right one of them number one is when kuba can hit me up after they've done the episode and now i already thought that's a big fucking band and they were like bro you will not believe how many people that are at our show because of the podcast and i was like that's fucking sick and the other thing is you guys hit me up saying we want to come on your podcast it's got to be ukraine

like i honestly appreciate that so much because that's just what i want to do i don't want to have to fucking dm people i want people who are cool to go hey we really want to do a podcast and i go through that's cool yeah and i really appreciate it thanks for coming on hope you come on again hope everything goes well with the ep and i'll come on with the album i'll see you on a fucking show because you're definitely going to play a show cool thanks guys thank you very much thank you peace peace thanks simon