Chords of Change: From Rock Bottom to Mosh Pit Miracles with Kevin Hellestad

When Kevin, a fervent music aficionado, shares his life-altering odyssey through the realms of rock and metal, you can't help but feel the electric charge in the air. Our latest episode features his tale of salvation through sound, a narrative that spans from the solace he found in music during his darkest times to the explosive energy of mosh pits and his venture into the podcasting universe. His voice resonates with the passion of someone who's not only lived through the music but has been reborn through it, and his journey strikes a chord with anyone who's ever sought refuge in a guitar riff or found their heartbeat in the thump of a bass drum.

The episode flows like a favorite mixtape, with each chapter pulsing with life's highs and lows set to a soundtrack of unforgettable anthems. Kevin and I riffed on the transformative power of tunes like Rise Against's "Savior," which not only carved out our musical identities but also acted as lifelines through personal trials. We swap stories of finding connections in the most unlikely places, from chance encounters that bloom into lifelong friendships to the shared kinship felt in the throes of a live concert crowd.

Wrapping up, we trace the indelible imprint of music on our lives, from the warmth of childhood tunes to the excitement of supporting up-and-coming talent in the rock scene. We delve into the personal branding within the music community and the thrill of interviewing rising bands, all while keeping the rock spirit thriving. It's an episode that celebrates not just the music but the community around it, leaving listeners with the beat of inspiration to seek out their musical journeys. Join us, and let the rhythm of our stories become the backdrop to your own.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome everyone to Music Junkies, a podcast about people sharing extraordinary stories about how music has impacted their lives. Welcome everyone to Music Junkies. I'm your host, annette Smith, and our guest today is far from Tame and Timid. I love it, right, but that wasn't always the case in 2017. You know, kevin suffered from depression and was thinking about ending his life, and I love that. You said music just became, you know, became your only source of happiness, and that's really what brought you back right. That and you know, 50 concerts a year and being in the Mosh pit right, and then being able to create your own podcast from that where you interview great metal and rock bands around the world, which is really cool, and I love that you spotlight new generation of great musicians too. So I'm excited to talk about your playlist, your podcast, get to know you, kevin. So welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Well, thanks, annette. Thanks for having me on the show. Hello everybody. Also, my name is Kevin. I am a crazy guy that loves to go into Mosh pits at least 50 a year, if I can. Last year I actually did hit 50 right on the mark, so whoo-hoo. And this year we're going for even more. Because, let's be honest, music just drives life, it drives emotion, it drives energy, and why wouldn't you want to keep this role? Why wouldn't you want to keep this going? Let's have some fun, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:29

I love it. So, before we get started and jumping your your playlist, what was your process putting all those songs together for me?

Speaker 2: 1:36

So my process was I mean, you know me, I listen to music all the time, I'm interviewing artists all the time, so this is I'm so consumed within this. But I just looked at, when I look, think about songs, and I listen to songs, what songs? First off of the ones that I listen to the most. But why do I listen to them the most? What do they have on me? What did they just connect with me? But, the exact same time, what are some of those moments that I remember, those big moments in life?

Speaker 2: 2:00

And is there an emotion that a song, whenever I listen to it, it connects to it because it's I think I can't remember the quote, but it was like art, it's something about like art decorates space, music decorates time. So when you think about music decorating time, you go back to all these different emotions you felt at a specific time, because music can take you back to those emotions. So, listening through songs that I absolutely love, remember going back to some of those times, some of those emotions, and then just seeing what really connected with me on them, and that's really why I went with here. So I've got a bunch for you. Some of them can get really deep, some of them are just really ridiculous in terms of the overall story, but you got to have some fun in there, right? You can't be all serious, can't be all emotional. You got to have some laughs in there and just think why the heck did I put this on my playlist? Oh, now I remember.

Speaker 1: 2:46

That's right, I love it. We're going to get started for you with your first song. You ready.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 2:53

It's rock.

Speaker 2: 2:54

It kills me not to know this, but I've all but just forgotten what the color of her eyes were and her scars, or how she got there.

Speaker 1: 3:04

So Rise Against.

Speaker 2: 3:06

Rise Against song is Savior. It's off their album Appeal to Reason, and I think it was their fifth album. I mean, I should know this up top of my head. It's my favorite band of all time. I mean, we're in a Rise Against shirt, as we're, you know, going through with this, but oddly enough, rise Against my favorite band of all time Savior is their most popular song. It actually is my favorite song of all time and this one has, like all these different pieces, connections with my life.

Speaker 2: 3:30

I still remember this was back when I was in high school. It was my first year of high school and this was like 2009. So I know Savior came out in 2008, but that's when it really started getting going on, especially radio here in the United States, and every day going to school or coming home from school, for like three months straight, the radio station we'd listen to would play this song, and, of course, I was on a car with my brother, one of my brother's friends, my best friend, and this other guy that was always in our neighborhood and they always wanted to change. I'm like, don't you dare? Because I like this song, I'm loving it and that just opened me up to just a whole new world of music of this is something that is my own. No one else liked anything like that around me, but I just took to it and really got ingrained with it and going forward, I just kept listening to the song. I loved it every step of the way.

Speaker 2: 4:18

I remember going to see Rise Against the first time in 2011 at Summerfest here in Milwaukee, wisconsin, and I was. It was the only time I've ever waited, like get at, like the gates open, go to one stage and sit there. Only time I've ever done that was my first OSEAN Rise Against and it was just a dream come true and that song ended up keeping a lot of different perspectives. For me, it was a song I always would look to as a song where I can listen to this and go back and always remember who I am as a person. I can always get back to myself at the exact center and if I'm ever to lose it, this is the song I can go back to.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Well, that actually got tested back in, like 2016, 2017. So I know in the intro you kind of talked about, yeah, 2017 went through master depression, had suicidal tendencies. That happened, that absolutely happened. And back in 2016, going to Summerfest once again going to see Rise Against met up with a couple of friends at their house Some guys house at a college house. I was like 21 at the time. We're all having a blast and I end up actually meeting this girl there. I'm not going to say her name because I just don't want to have anybody looking up weird stuff. You know people can be like that, but the first member met her was going to see a Rise Against show, so we ended up dating for a whole entire year. So my whole connection now with anything Rise Against before the Wolves album in 2017, I had a lot of emotional connection to this girl at the time. Well, we broke up at the end of June of 2017.

Speaker 2: 5:47

And that's when my life really started to spiral out of control and I put a lot of stock in, like that breakup being the catalyst. That was more the straw that broke the camel's back. There were other things in life that really were the catalyst for it, but I had so much of a struggle going back to my favorite music, going back to Rise Against If it was not the Wolves album, because it just come out right at the same time because of all the emotional connection I still felt to that, to that situation, to the girl and to just all this depression I was feeling and it just was taking me, taking a toll on me. I told myself I have to find a way to get back to myself and I have to find a way to take my favorite band back. That was just, mentally, how I looked at it. And end of September 2017.

Speaker 2: 6:31

This was in Janesville, wisconsin. They had a festival called JJO Sonic Boom. It's no longer a thing anymore, but they had it at a regional airport and they just had two stages side by side. And I went one night because Rise Against was the headliner, so I wasn't going to. I was not going to miss out on this. I should have seen some of the other bands there, but just my the way my mental capacity was, I just wanted to see Rise Against. So I got there late, but I waited, waited, waited. Rise Against goes on, and for the next hour and a half I forgot that there was anything bad in my life. Like mentally, I did not think of anything that was bad. It was incredible.

Speaker 2: 7:07

It was that moment where I could finally feel like, you know, I have a chance of getting back to being myself.

Speaker 2: 7:12

And then they ended playing.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Then it was savior. So everyone's going nuts and I see the mosh pit form and I'm just thinking I've never been in one of these things. I had never been in one up to this point and I decided you know what, if I'm going to ever jump in and try this, it better to be my favorite band, it better be to my favorite song. So let's go do it. I jumped in and all I knew in that moment was I don't care what happens, this is just making me feel so much happier and I finally felt like me again, at least for a moment. So when it came to trying to get everything coming back and get it going, I could always go back to save my rise against, because, even though I still had the emotions from that relationship tied to it, I now had a new set of emotions tied to it as well that was even stronger. That was getting back to me. So anytime I feel like I'm not like myself, anytime I'm feeling down, I can always go to the song and get right back to it.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Yeah, you're re-anchoring yourself, right. You spoke a lot of work and I don't know if you know this, I don't know if you do a lot of personal development, but you spoke a lot of that kind of terminology, right, it's rewiring, it's re-anchoring, it's rediscovery. So I love that you had to go through that massive process.

Speaker 2: 8:21

It wasn't easy. Let me tell you, it was not easy.

Speaker 1: 8:24

No, and it's interesting because a lot of people I'm sure a lot of people have a song. You know, for me it's like if I hear love bites from across the room, like I don't care where I am, I will walk across the room and rip the fucking jukebox out. We're not fucking playing that song, right? That song triggers a memory of, like you know, really, my first real boyfriend that you know took my virginity and then played Russian roulette and shot himself in the face. You know what I mean. It's like that song.

Speaker 1: 8:59

I never want to hear that song because it's like it's so wired into who I am that it's like I don't want to hear it. So I love that you could go and hear music and rewire yourself, or it's a different outcome. That's impressive. Not very many people do that, because music does trigger you. They're going to be triggered to happy, or you remember something I always thought, even when I did this podcast, I'm like how could I ever hear it? Never come up with 10 songs. Like you know, I'm always so impressed that my guests do, because I've tried in three years. I'm like, I don't know, maybe okay, but I like them to be amazing stories too. So I think we can go down our own little rabbit hole where we're like oh, that's not really that great of a story, but it's our story.

Speaker 2: 9:45

Yeah, it's all our story and I get you know, when you talk about love bites too, why it can be such a difficult thing, because of how much emotion is tied to it. And when it comes to music it is, you know, we go down an emotional journey, go down an emotional path because as humans, when we listen to it, we get so in tune with how that those different sounds, how the tones, how the pacing, the vocals, whether they're those unclean screams, those real raspy kinds of just clean, melodic, whatever it is, it's going to evoke that certain emotion and because if we felt that emotion mentally in our brains, we're going to go back to that time. It's going to be like a movie where we're playing. So if it's something that is that intense and you don't even want to hear it, you know it's going to have that response. For me, yeah yeah, savio was essentially starting to have that response and it was. It takes work to have to like rewire yourself just to think that and it's not like, it's not easy. But when it comes to like certain music, especially if you have so much positivity to it and then the negativity starts to come in having a frame of reference to try and rewire it and have a base to start out with gets it going, because even for life, for me after that show, things start kept going downhill. But at least I had this like beacon of hope because I finally had rise against back. Yeah, and I mean, since then I've seen them. Since that day, god, how many times have I seen them? It's like at this point I'm at total like 15 times already, but since that that there was probably like my fifth show seen them, I think. So I'm like at like 10 cents then, and every time I go in there it is ridiculous. No shit, no band will ever get me to go as crazy in the pit. Even though I go see heavier stuff, more manic stuff, pits are a lot crazier. Nothing in my brain gets me going like rise against. I've even went to a show back in 2021. It was December.

Speaker 2: 11:27

I woke up in the morning and I thought I had COVID. Like it was terrible. I body aches, stuffy, couldn't taste anything, couldn't smell anything, just lethargic as ever, and I was supposed to go see rise against. That night ended up going to like going through my full day of work took multiple different like rapid COVID tests and everything came back negative and I'm like, well, do I go? Do I not go? Ever made my decision? I was laying on my kitchen floor just trying to get any sort of energy to get up and I'm like I can't do this, I can't do this. Next thing, I know I'm in my car driving down to Chicago get to the show and I don't think I can do this at all. Like I can't do this, rise against goes on stage.

Speaker 2: 12:05

They open with prayer the refugee. Right when the intro riff hits. I don't know what happened to me, but all the body aches gone. I could breathe, I could smell just fine. I had energy. I'm like, is this a superpower or something? And I just went off and I had one of the most. It's one of my most favorite shows of all time. I remember going home. I'm like I don't care how I feel tomorrow. That was worth it.

Speaker 1: 12:28

Yeah, it's interesting how you can get. You know you can trick yourself into feeling better or just it's just a mindset.

Speaker 2: 12:34

It's crazy, but it's. You have that focus in there and especially if it's something you're super passionate about, it's a lot easier to do, because then that drive just takes over.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Yeah, so tell me a little bit about your most challenging thing in high school, since this is kind of where this band comes from.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Oh um, my most challenging thing was finding kind of finding myself and finding myself within, like like other people as well, cause of course, you know, with high school you have everyone kind of breaks off into little clicks and whatnot. When I was in high school, though, I was kind of always on my own, where it's like I could like different people, like I knew a lot of people like different, like different groups and whatnot, but I never had people that actually like considered me, like oh, he's one of our friends, like he's one of our good friends, like no, I wouldn't get invited anywhere, I wouldn't get to go and do anything, nothing. So I was always kind of by myself and it got really bad, especially my junior year when I was like 16, 17, cause even though my brother and I at the time we weren't really all like get doing stuff together, we weren't like that close, but my first two years, you know he was, he was still around, but then he went to college. So now I'm kind of basically all by myself. I did have a best friend when I was a kid and he lived across the street from me, but at the time, like just the way that life had gone, we had grown apart massively and I'd see him maybe like once every two months and that was it, and we literally lived a hundred feet across from each other, didn't go to the same school, nothing. So trying to go through that whole entire period of time was just utterly ridiculous. Just lonesome, just not really feeling connected to anything. But I could always kind of go back to my music, go back to jumping, arise against.

Speaker 2: 14:15

But then there was one day I was going for a run, cause I played soccer a lot, or football for everybody else in the world. That says it the right way. I was going for a run and I found and I was like a foot got a quarter mile away from running, on the sidewalks, right by my neighborhood, and I saw a guy just start standing on the corner and look at me as I was running towards him and I just I'm like what's going on? I might have to go and beat up. This guy ends up actually being my friend and he's like hey, man, I'm just going for a walk you want to come with? Mentally I'm like I should finish my run up. I'm almost done. But no, I'm just going to go for a walk with them, just talk to them see what happens.

Speaker 2: 14:50

It was in that exact moment where I became friends with him again. We started talking again. He started dating a girl from a completely different school. Her best friend was going to invite me to something and then I met this one other crazy guy at this event. His name was Chris, one of my good friends now, cause his name is Chris, and we just kind of like took off from there in terms of like now I've got this like whole group of friends where I'm back being best friends with my best friend, I get to be friends with all these new friends. Then my buddy, chris, says hey, I'm going to introduce you to my best friend. It's a guy I've known since I was five years old. So it was just like massive freak out moment.

Speaker 2: 15:26

And then I found out that Chris liked a lot of the same music that I did. So, okay, now we're starting to get something. He liked heavier stuff than I did at the time. For now Chris and I like a lot of the same stuff, and Chris myself and then our other friend, his best friend, sam. We all went to a lot of them life in Kentucky last year. Chris and I went to a lot of life in 2022 as well. We were also out at the ill fated blue Ridge rock fest of 2021. So we like got into doing all this stuff too. Love's going to shows. My buddy, sam's now all in on this and it's just like it was a struggle to get to that point, just because of all the lonesome feelings.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Yeah, it does sound like you need to find your people.

Speaker 2: 16:02

Pretty much, yeah, and one thing that I wish I would have done to find my people a bit easier would have been to put myself in position to do that. I didn't really do that when I was in high school, and it kind of just happened. When I was in college, though, I put myself in a position where I was on my own and I had to make it, so I had to force myself to do that. Wasn't that easy. Did make some good friends there, but then, after I graduated college and now starting to go to a lot more concerts, start to the podcast stuff. It made it so much easier to connect with people.

Speaker 1: 16:32

Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2: 16:35

Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for asking the question, because I don't get to stuff like this that much.

Speaker 1: 16:39

All right, we're going to look at your next song. Yeah, I wake up every morning with my head up in the days. I'm not sure if I should say this Fuck, I'll say it anyway. So popular monster.

Speaker 2: 16:55

Yeah, popular monster by falling in reverse. That was their second single from, I think, 2019, and this is the song that really took them into a whole different level of notoriety. Now, say what you want about falling in reverse. Say what you want about Ronnie Radke. I know he's a very polarizing figure. A lot of people like him. A lot of people don't like him or vehemently don't like him. A lot of it based off of just perception, personality and different political ideas. However, I still remember I was. This was right before the pandemic.

Speaker 2: 17:27

This came out of November 2019, and so I'm doing stuff for the podcast. I'm trying to grow and trying to figure out what's going on. I've got another ideas I'm still working on and I see that falling in reverse released a new song called popular monster. Okay, I got to go check this out because I liked the other singles they had released after the coming home album from 2017. So I listened to it while I'm at work. I have the music video up on my phone and I'm sitting there and I'm enjoying and I'm listening to it, and when the bridge and the breakdown hit, I just stood there. I sat there, mouth just wide open, frozen, watching my phone in a little cubicle and when the song was done, I dropped my phone and my first thought was I have to be dreaming. Like this can't be real, this song cannot be real. And I watched the video again. I'm like, no, this is, this is legitimate, this is actually real. And I did not really care that much like for the band all that much up front. But at this point I'm like now this song is going to be already one of my favorite songs of all time. This just takes it over and I want to keep listening and keep getting into more. I want to see this band live. I want to see what they have to offer and just go from there and during the pandemic I kept listening to a lot of their stuff end up actually meeting a girl online and we tried dating for a while.

Speaker 2: 18:45

It didn't work out. And then she reached out to me and said, hey, can we try and be friends? Just, life was fun, we're hanging out with you. I said, yeah, sure, and one thing that she wanted to go do was go disc golfing. That was one of her favorite things to do that she picked up during the pandemic. I did disc golf for a while. So I'm like I got my stuff, let's go. I have my mini speaker with me too and I started playing falling in reverse because that's what I enjoyed playing, played this song, popular monster, and she got into it. So now all of a sudden, like her and I had this other connection of like okay, now we're like we're friends again and we're like we're starting like the same kind of music. Now this is getting nuts. So we're having a blast, we're having a lot of fun with it.

Speaker 2: 19:23

She ends up coming to she lives in Green Bay, wisconsin, so it's about two hours north of where I'm in Milwaukee. She travels down for a weekend where it's going to be summer fest it's after the pandemic, kind of lifts and I'll. We're live music is back Fun, versus going to headline one of the stages one night. And I told, and she wanted to go and I said, all right, but you got to stay the weekend because then we're going to go disc golf for the next day and we're going back because now you get to see then my favorite band with me because Ryza Getsis was playing the next night.

Speaker 2: 19:52

She like fell in love with live music once again and it was all because of like going to these shows scene falling reverse, absolutely loved it. Also told me at that moment where she actually started dating some other guy and I'm like, oh cool, we hope I get to meet him. Well, I met him and they were had their wedding back in September and they had a DJ and they're like I'm like listen to music. I'm like they're not playing anything. That's really my kind of style. Both of them specifically requested that the DJ play popular monster by falling in reverse, so that they could.

Speaker 2: 20:24

So, because I knew I loved it, they also enjoyed the song. So like we got to see what happens. It came on and I was outside of the venue and I heard it. I'm just like, oh my God, guys, I got to go and I ran in and when I ran and I yelled, I heard people yell it where the hell is Kevin? I was like I'm here. And then the groom and I started mashing in the middle of the floor and I can finally say I moshed at a wedding and it's all because of this song. I moshed your wedding because of popular monster by Fallen Irreverse. I love it.

Speaker 1: 21:00

What were your parents' types of music growing up?

Speaker 2: 21:03

So my dad is a very much more like 70s, 80s rock. If you could take my dad and put him back into your 1982, he'd be the happiest person in the world. He would always. I mean, his favorite band ever was is Electric Light Orchestra. However, when we were kids he never really listened to a lot of Electric Light Orchestra around us. We were always listening to stuff like Van Halen, ZZ Top, Poison, Journey, Rush Basically kind of a lot of stuff around that realm. My mom really never had like a very strong affiliation for it. Of course she liked the stuff, but it was a lot of stuff that was popular and she grew up in like she was growing up in like late 60s, early 70s, so she always had a thing for the Beatles, Paul McCartney, but that was kind of really it that I really ever knew. When it came to my mom really likey music, it was more my dad's influence that really kind of had a lot more of a prevalence with me and my brother because it was more consistent with what we were seeing.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Yeah, what's your favorite 80s rock band?

Speaker 2: 22:09

Oh, my God, oh, this is I don't even, I kind of think about that, even Woo.

Speaker 1: 22:17

That's even go a little bit deeper. If you could be any frontman in the 80s, who would you be?

Speaker 2: 22:23

Oh, oh God, David Lee Roth.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Nice pick. Yeah, would you even do the karate kicks.

Speaker 2: 22:30

I'd have to stretch out first, but yeah, yeah, way better than Sammy Hager, way better. I got my own little affinity with Sammy Hager too, which we can get into in a little bit. Trust me on that, literally, because I think that's maybe the next song on the list.

Speaker 1: 22:46

Let's play it, let's throw it in. It's time. Hey, come on, man Wake up, I love it.

Speaker 2: 22:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, that's Van Halen.

Speaker 2: 23:09

The dream is over from the Four Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album. So this was during the Sammy Hager era of Van Halen this is, I think, 1991, I want to say so. When I brought up, like, okay, you know, david Lee Roth, you know, definitely be. If I was, could be an 80s frontman, that's the guy I'd pick. But then all of a sudden, why is there a Van Halen song in here? That's a Sammy Hager song. Like doesn't make a lot of sense, but to me it does. And it also goes back to my dad.

Speaker 2: 23:31

This is the song where this is the first song I can actually remember having any kind of cognitive memory of like as a kid. And the reason for that is because when I was like one, two, three years old my brother's a year and a half older than I am my dad would have these like, had this like old school, like you know, like 1980s, maybe early 90s, like speaker stereo system. So in the year that we're doing this list, like 96, 97, 98, tower speakers, cassette deck, vinyl player, cd player, all this stuff Like in a huge, like mahogany looking cabinet and we would go down there and he would play some music. We'd call it loud music because of course we jam out to it. We'd be playing a lot and we would just air guitar down there as little kids Like my dad's doing his air guitar, just like having fun with it. Of course I'm like two years old, so I'm just like flailing all over the place looking like a little kid, just that had way too much sugar, and my brother is just acting kind of cool, but also looking like he had a little too much sugar at the same time. But he my dad always had like a range of songs that he would play and we would always start out with the dream is over by Van Halen. Then we'd go into a under pressure by ZZ top. We then go into sharp dress man by ZZ top. I've got the six by ZZ top, where again I'm like two years old and the chorus for that song is I've got the six, give me your nine. As a six, as a two year old, I got no idea what that means. When I finally listened to this song once again like and actually had a cognitive feeling of it when I was like in college, I'm like we listened to this when I was old. I also listened to Fallen Angel by Poison as well. Sometimes we do some dirty in there, but the dream is over. By Van Halen was always that like first song that started out.

Speaker 2: 25:17

So whenever I hear that hey, come on, man, wake up. Like I know exactly what's coming, I know the riff that's coming, I know Eddie Van Halen's riff. I buy mental, like capacity mindset. Roman's going to take me away from that moment where, in any kind of like journey into music, when it comes to me starting to get like like this kind of stuff, me like finding out about, like guitar hero and having disturbed me, my first favorite band of all time, rise against taking over as my favorite band when I was in high school, then getting into all the heavier stuff you know, like that I'm into now, like ice night kills, we came as Romans falling reverse data, remember, bring me the horizon. I could go on and on. It all starts with that moment. It all starts with that riff.

Speaker 1: 25:59

Did you actually ever play an instrument at all growing up?

Speaker 2: 26:02

I did. I put I was. I tried to be a drummer from like when I was between 10 and 14, I want to say, and I definitely broke a lot of different drumheads in my time, not because I was an anger kid but because I would hit the hell out of those things. I broke a couple of snare drumheads when I had played in like a school band. One night. The band director was always yelling at me because I was overpowering all the other kids with my sound.

Speaker 2: 26:24

I'm like, well, I don't play louder, but when I got in a high school I was playing a lot of soccer as well and I was playing a lot of and I was trying to also play drums at the same time. And at the time I had much more of a stronger affiliation for sports over music and I was going to pick one or the other because I could have done both easily. But I thought, oh, but then I might not have friends. Well, no, I knew about what I know now. I wasn't really going to have friends that much for about another two and a half years. So I probably could have stuck with it.

Speaker 2: 26:53

I didn't. I stuck with soccer because that was the more like, the more impactful thing for me at that time. But I look back and like, man, if I would have stuck with drumming, not only where could I've got that, but could I've started this whole entire music thing a lot earlier. But if I would have tried the drumming thing, would I be in the same kind of stuff I'm into right now, what I want to do, this kind of stuff again. That's kind of like going back and, you know, like back to the future type stuff I might change one thing the whole entire what if?

Speaker 1: 27:18

Yeah, I got an amazing kit downstairs. I play drums, so I love it.

Speaker 2: 27:24

So what kind of a kit?

Speaker 1: 27:26

It's a pearl kit. I've had it since I was oh, it's probably 22 years old now. Oh yeah, it's really nice. I remember buying it. I remember going along in McQuaid and like throwing the kids in the car and like putting this kit in there. I just wanted Tommy Lee's kit. That's what I wanted. That's what I was going for because I loved Motley career growing up. They were my band and I still have that kit today, which is crazy. It's just kind of grown.

Speaker 2: 27:56

Do you still play it a lot?

Speaker 1: 27:57

I do.

Speaker 2: 27:58

Yes, I love it.

Speaker 1: 27:59

I love it. My husband plays guitar, so it's pretty fun when we can go down there and just kind of jam and have some fun.

Speaker 2: 28:05

Do the kids get involved with that at all?

Speaker 1: 28:07

They're moved out on their like. They never picked up an instrument. I think they might have did something like alto, sax or something in elementary, but no, my daughter wanted to sing. She was very obsessed with that. They both played professional rugby and so they were very sporty right Like we did lots of travel with all of that kind of stuff. My daughter always wanted to sing, but it was like kind of one of the other. It was like either rugby or singing, what do you want to do? And she just absolutely loved rugby and sort of my son. So no, they didn't, which is kind of crazy, because I love all sorts of music, all types of music.

Speaker 1: 28:49

But it's interesting to listen to their music. Now, even though they know everything from the 40s, 50s, everything, they're such like music goers like you, Kevin. They love that metal they love. And it's so interesting when they share kind of that screamo stuff and all of that kind of stuff, Cause we we really play this little game when we get together and we just kind of pass on the phone on Spotify and everybody's pics are in their queue and so we just do that for about 10 minutes and then we have music for like three hours. So it's really cool. We get to learn a lot of their music. We get, you know, they get to still hear a lot of our music and then nobody's fucking around with the music. It's like to sleep the music alone. Your song's going to come on, Don't worry about it.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Yeah, it's not like you have to like go to bar and like pay touch tunes like an extra $2 to hear your song next, so you don't have to hear. Um, try to think what would you have to hear at that same point time. Uh, Whitney Houston wanted to have somebody here, especially if it's Christmas time. You don't want to hear that Mariah Carey Christmas song.

Speaker 1: 29:54

You gotta listen to Twisted Sister Christmas, not Mariah Carey.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Come on now, Geez oh you definitely need to twist it Christmas. Just the fact that it did, oh come all you faithful and the whole backing is, we're not going to take it. I mean, come on.

Speaker 1: 30:05

How awesome is that? It's so awesome. All right, next song. Was that a thing or an example? My friend Harvey Mary Tracy McCall, my Christ, she was a scary old doll. A voice out of hell and a temper to boot. Arms like a Naviana, face like dried fruit. Don't go for the one.

Speaker 2: 30:25

Don't go for the one by the band Gaelic Storm. So I mean I've pretty much talked about when it comes to rock and metal. That is my thing, you guys know. I mean, just taking a look at the three songs we played first, but why is a Irish song peeking into the mix? Like that seems kind of weird.

Speaker 2: 30:41

But for me, this, when it comes to the music especially like me, my brother, my best friend, who the guy that lived across from me growing up, and my brother's best friend, who is also lived across the street from us growing up, because he's my best friend's older brother so it's like a group of four of us when it comes to music. None of us could ever agree on anything or find the same kind of stuff that we liked. Irish music was the one thing that all four of us were into, like we actually enjoyed listening to it. So we know we'd always try and find a way to actually go see a show together the only time we could ever possibly do. That would be like if Gaelic Storm was playing, which we finally got to do last year in 2023, right around St Patrick's Day, because Gaelic Storm loves to come to Milwaukee whether it's St Patrick's Day or during our big, gigantic Irish Fest in August. And it's just, I listen to Irish music and it's just, I can't help but smile during it. It's just about like, even if something about you know something heavy, whether it's a topic of depression, like something that's massively there, there's just some sort of joy that comes to my mind when I listen to it, whether it's listening to Gaelic Storm or something that has more of that like Irish punk flavor to it, like Drop Hick Murphy's or Flogging Molly both great bands to listen to but it's, it just has this affinity for me where I love listening to it, I love getting into it and I can't help but smile about it. There's also we've done this a couple of years, me and my best friend what we try and do is, if Gaelic Storm was going to be playing at Irish Fest in Milwaukee because the grounds they play on are the Summer Fest grounds and it's right along the lakefront for Lake Michigan Well, it's Irish Fest.

Speaker 2: 32:20

We want to go and drink beer, at least because it's Irish Fest, but I do not want to spend eight to $9 a beer inside the festival. I do not want to do that. I got to make this, you know a little bit more cost effective for me. What we'll do is is we will meet at a park right on the lakefront, that's just north of the grounds, and I'll meet my buddy there and I'll bring a shit ton of beer. Like I'll go liquor store and I'll get, like you know, I'll get a 12 pack of something and like it's another six pack of something because it's just two of us. Maybe if someone else comes they'll bring some more stuff and we'll just drink in the park until about maybe 30 minutes for Gaelic Storm is supposed to go on.

Speaker 2: 32:57

And at this point I mean we are, we are drunk, like we are having a blast, and we will walk in to Irish Fest and go and see Gaelic Storm and everyone's having a good time. And you see the two of us and we are dancing like we are trying to Irish dance, but clearly can't. You know we can't. You know we're just being goofs at the whole entire time. But it's just so much fun just to be able to just kind of let loose, let go and just enjoy the same time with music, where you really don't think that all of us would like this kind of stuff because, given all of like, especially the four of us, all of our different backgrounds, in terms of what we like to listen to, just music, affiliation, everything, personality. But Irish music, especially Gaelic Storm, is the one where it's just there's a connection point and it's just so much fun.

Speaker 1: 33:42

Yeah, I agree A hundred percent. If we're kind of sitting around and not quite sure what to listen to, it's stuff like Drop Kick, molly's Vlogging Mall, it's all of that kind of stuff where people it's like good background music when you're playing cards, when you're just kind of hanging out, you know when the grandparents come to visit or whatever. It's just it's. I love it because everybody's kind of tapping their feet underlining and you don't have to worry about. You know, oh my God, like this metal song is on or whatever. The situation is right, so it's great. Even kill music.

Speaker 2: 34:19

I agree, I think we're going to get a lot of different like classical instrumentation into this stuff, just based on its cultural significance and how it all connects. So yeah, if I play this when my grandparents are around, my grandparents maybe wouldn't be as big into like Drop Kick Murphy's or Vlogging Molly Gaelic Storm. They would have probably got it.

Speaker 1: 34:37

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 34:38

So I'm like, okay, now let's enjoy, let's have a good time. Plus, you think about Irish music, you're thinking about drinking and having a good time. It's like it's in the background. It's good party music just to keep the energy flowing.

Speaker 1: 34:49

I agree. So you've been to lots of concerts. What was your very first concert you've ever been to?

Speaker 2: 34:54

My first concert ever was at. I think it was Sticks actually.

Speaker 1: 34:58

Oh nice.

Speaker 2: 35:00

Yeah, that was my first ever one. I believe it would have been in 2008, I think, maybe 2007. It was right around there, but it was they were. So here in Milwaukee like we don't have an NHL team for hockey, but we have an, a HL team we have the Milwaukee Admirals.

Speaker 2: 35:16

They're the affiliate for the national predators and a couple of times a year they will have bands play after games and one of the first I ever saw was Sticks and I actually got to go down on the ice, got to see Sticks perform down there and, of course, it's like an 11, 12 year old, like 12, 13 years old. I'm like you know, this is cool, this is fun, but it just at the time it just wasn't fully connecting with me because if Sticks, again I got interested for my parents and my parents were at the show, so it was just like it wasn't my music yet I really didn't go. Like. My first concert where it was actually my music was that 2011 show where I saw Rise Against for the first time. That was my first ever me show, the first ever one to like, I would have to say, by myself, but like without my parents with me.

Speaker 1: 36:02

Yeah, have you been to a show where it was like just an incredible experience? Maybe you, you know, met the artist, or the show was phenomenal or something significant kind of happened for you.

Speaker 2: 36:14

Oh man, I'm trying to think because I could probably rip for like a different show every single year with that question, but I'm going to stick with just one and I'm going to go. This would have been I can actually remember the day November 2nd 2019. And I had tickets to go see this show because my sole purpose wanting to go see it was because this band called Light the Torch was one of the openers. Now Light the Torch the lead singer is a guy called Howard Jones who was the original. It wasn't not the original, but it was one of them like one of the lead singers were Kill Switch, engage during their 2000s run. So if you ever listen to my Curse the end of heartache, like that's him and it's just an incredible voice.

Speaker 2: 36:54

And I didn't, and I had to work overtime. I didn't work eight hours that day. I had a long day. I did not want to go to the show, but my mom basically was like no, you're going to that show. You bought the ticket. I know you want to go do this. You're going to regret it if you don't. Okay, I'm just going to go and see what happens and Light the Torch goes out when I get there and the like I want to be in a pit, a mosh pit.

Speaker 2: 37:15

But the crowd wasn't really as into it. I'm like, oh, you know, this was okay. Maybe it wasn't worth it. Well, there's two more bands still to go. The next one is Fit for a King and that crowd we were in a basement of like 500 people. Maybe that crowd just went off and I'm like, oh, this is a lot of fun. Now I'm curious what the headliner is going to do. I had no idea. I had listened to like one or two songs from this band, so I had no idea of what their whole aesthetic was, what their whole gimmick was.

Speaker 2: 37:44

Nothing Again. This is two days after Halloween and it's Ice Nine Kills going on stage. This is the year after they released the Silver Scream, so I don't know if you know Ice Nine Kills in it, but the last two albums that they've done, each song is based off of a different horror movie. So and now they're like with their playing shows. They're playing in front of like thousands of people. If they're doing their own headliners, they're opening from a talicon, a bunch of things.

Speaker 2: 38:08

But the first time I got to see them was in a basement with like 500 people. They go on stage and this is the first time I've ever known, the only time I've ever done this. From the moment they went on stage, I was into it like, captivated, and at the end of the show they played 19 songs. Like two hours, 19 songs. And when they ended the set, the set it was 18 songs and then like 10 minutes and nothing but like no extra music had come on, no lights had gone up. So we're all waiting for the encore and we're wondering what's taking 10 minutes? The final song they're playing, a song called it, is the End. It's all based off of Stephen King's it and all of a sudden, here comes the lead singer, spencer, coming out, not with a clown mask, on no full actual makeup, looking like Pennywise the Clown.

Speaker 1: 38:52

Wow.

Speaker 2: 38:54

And I'm just like, oh my God, okay, I'm into this, like this is going to be awesome At the end of the set and I waited in line to get it for about maybe 45 minutes just to like I have to get a t-shirt and I have to keep listening to this band and see what happens. That was my first time ever seen them and it's the only time I've ever seen a band where I had no idea who they were, but they instantly became one of my favorite bands, just off of one show.

Speaker 1: 39:19

I love that.

Speaker 2: 39:20

I never forget it and I've seen Ice man Kills a total of 10 times in my life, and that was the first one back in 2019.

Speaker 1: 39:28

That's awesome. I love when we go to show, like because I love going to festivals too and I'm always like excited to go kind of see who's playing who I've never seen before. We just bought tickets to the Indy 500 because I've never been and I'm wanting to go for a while. So I'm going to take my brother for his birthday. His birthday is on the 24th, so I'm excited. So I just got we're doing like the snake pit. I heard that's a really cool thing to do. So I'm like, okay, I'll buy tickets for the snake pit and then also the.

Speaker 1: 40:01

I guess the Friday night they have like more rock bands, like it's Coors Light something. Because I interviewed this guy and he's like in Indianapolis and he was like you got to go see the Indy 500. And I'm like I'm buying tickets after this show. You sold me. So I went and did that and I was showing my daughter and I said, because we love all types of music and I always take them to like a bunch of raves and stuff like that, and so I was like oh, here's a lineup.

Speaker 1: 40:29

I can't remember now, but like one of them was Timmy Trump and I was like, oh, that's going to be kind of cool, right. Like he's been around, like even when I was listening to raves. That'd be kind of cool to go see that. But then all the other ones, she was like freaking out. I wish I had the list in front of me. But she's like oh my God, I'm so upset that you're going to go see all these fans, but I guess they're pretty cool. I guess they put on like an amazing show and I haven't seen like three of those bands, so I'm excited to go kind of get exposed to them. So I love that and I love just being like ah, when you're older you'll be able to do that.

Speaker 2: 41:01

Well, I will say I'll say this because when you brought up the Indy 500, I don't know if you saw, but like I like kind of flew back in my chair a little bit because right when you said that you said you were going this year. I was just about to say I'm going to have to find you and have a beer with you at some point, because I've gone the past three years with my dad and my brother. We made it a yearly tradition. We're going again this year, okay.

Speaker 1: 41:19

Well, let's just like let's connect and have a beer for sure.

Speaker 2: 41:22

Absolutely, I'll bring my.

Speaker 1: 41:24

I mean, I don't have to buy them Like they if you can bring in your own soft side of cooler with beer in it like they have to spend some time outside of here and talking, because I've been hearing like lots of fun stuff and I'm just like I want to go and have like the full experience there. We bought the tickets in the terrace. That's where we're kind of sitting, so right in the middle, right by the. I guess that's where we always sit too.

Speaker 2: 41:49

That's hilarious, I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 41:51

Like my husband's, jack too, I love going to like big sporting events. So you know the Kentucky Derby, like that type of stuff. I love to go and engage and be like immersed in that kind of shit. I love that's the kind of stuff that I love going and doing.

Speaker 2: 42:09

Oh yeah, when I come, when I come, I can't like we can talk and after this too, and I can give you a bunch of like. Okay, this is kind of like what we do, like the ideas of, so that you have an idea of what to go Like, basically what you're expecting. Like when you get there and leaving, because that's always. I mean, there's 300, over 300,000 people trying to come into this one area.

Speaker 2: 42:26

all I know, Like it's going to take some time, but no, I know how kind of my ways around here I'm going to pick your brain. Make sure that you're not only in the track on time, but also make sure that you're inside the track for all of this other fun stuff happening too and then leaving, making it as easy as possible, basically.

Speaker 1: 42:44

Yeah, I love it. We'll spend some time. I love that. All right, next song Ready oh yeah. Sometimes, something beautiful happens in this world. You don't know how to express yourself, so you just gotta sing, I just have to sing On the island. I love these guys.

Speaker 2: 43:04

On the island, I just had sex. Oddly enough, the reason why I picked this on here has absolutely nothing to do with sex, which is wild, because every time you hear the song, it's like oh, is this like after you got done? Like if you got done losing your Virginia, did you play this song just for the hell of it. And me, the extra is actually no, like I always wanted to do that and I've actually never done that. You know what Next time? Next time, watch, watch, how it's going to happen and I'm going to post about being like I finally did it. Well, I mean, I'll play the song afterwards, but yeah, you know I'm going with it. But the reason I put this on here was because I'm not. I actually don't think I've ever told this story to anybody before.

Speaker 2: 43:42

So this was my sophomore year of high school. I think this is when the song came out. To came out around 2010 and my brother's a senior in high school, my best, so that's car group of five when I was talking about savior. That car five now is just to me and my brother, because the other guy my brother's best friend. They had just graduated high school, so they were in college. My best friend was at a different school or the guy that's still my best friend now is at a different school. So just my brother and I and the drive to school was like maybe nine, 10 minutes long. It wasn't that long to drive, but whenever I would put on I just had sex. He would actually sing all of the ACON parts.

Speaker 2: 44:21

I don't know why we started doing it and then I would just do all the other parts. Whether it was Amy Sandberg's friend, I can't remember the other guys aim, but whether whoever's part was, like I would just go off on it and we would sing it together and we would do it a number. Like we didn't do it just once, like we did this, it was like a weekly thing. And once we were done with that like okay, you know he graduated from high school, he's going to college, I like was driving the car I'm like I can't play this because I can't sing it with my brother, even though this is something you would never expect us to even do.

Speaker 2: 44:53

This came out so much far in the left field and I've never told really anybody the story, but it was just so weird. With the fact that my brother is my relationship, it's always been kind of like this. Really, it's been pretty consistently back on the upswing, so I'm happy about that. But this was the like one moment, especially at that timeframe, where we never really talked to each other, we never really did anything together, but this was the one thing that we did and it made no sense, but it kept a little bit of this like strength in there for that relationship going forward, all because we would sing a freaking lonely island song together in the car and no one knew about it.

Speaker 1: 45:32

I love it. We actually have you ever heard of comedy festival supreme? Yeah, okay. So we went to the first one in Santa Monica. Jack Black, adam Sandler we seen lonely island.

Speaker 1: 45:45

That was when YouTube was just kind of you know, and it was like ain't nobody got time for that. They were all there. It was like it was, it was unreal. But the last song, right, obviously, they came out, they sang on a boat and all that. We played that song all the time because we have a boat. We always play that. Some of them were on there. We used to do that with the kids all the time and let them swear when they were younger.

Speaker 1: 46:08

But when we went to, when the last, like the very last song, jack Black, when he was out there, he had these guys and Sarah Silverman and all of like Adam Sandler and all tenacious D and it was like unreal. They were all kind of like intertwining all their songs and it was, yeah, that was they were unreal, unreal and I forgot who, like I forgot that I knew so many of their songs and I was like who the hell is that? And then when they said, I'm like, oh, my God, it's Lonely Island. So they had all these guest speakers and Billy Idol and like it was pretty, it was pretty fun, it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 46:42

So, like I mean Lonely Island, it's like if you were I mean, if you were around, you know, like you know in the 2000, like late 2009, 2010, 2011, around that era, if you had, like you know, just more into the like what was going on in pop culture, you'll listen to some of those songs and you'll instantly remember them. Like I just had sex Gizmy pants is always one of them the dick in a box with Justin Timberlake yeah, I've tried the. The one about Jack Sparrow with Michael Bolton Bolton, where he just starts going crazy on Jack Sparrow. It's just like why do I still remember these things and why do I remember every single word to these songs that haven't heard of in like 10 years? Like you can put them on, you just instantly know them. They were that much fun.

Speaker 1: 47:20

I love it. So walk me through how he got started with your podcast. You know, promo yourself a little bit. Where can we find you? What's your podcast about?

Speaker 2: 47:31

Alrighty. So the promo for the court progression podcast is on. The tagline we have is inspiring young rock and metal fans to discover new music, find a place, then connect and feel accepted. So you can find us on YouTube where we record all the interviews All their videos are out there with artists from all over the place, from the rock and metal spectrum, whether they are small artists in the upcoming Canadian hardcore scene around the Ontario area, whether it's bands that are starting to really get their footing bands like avoid I remember having the girls from GFM on when they were still around, got kingdom collapse or we've been had some of these bigger artists on tour. It's like Kevin, how'd you get these and how'd you get some of these crazy stories, like LJ from seven does talking about how they wrote truth killer on his grandma and grandpa's farm in the middle of Kansas. Matt Medeiro from from Ash's studio before they released blackout, tell you from the word alive was on and you're just going to find people, to find artists and get to know them when completely defores unhinged conversations where you don't know what's going to happen. You know we're going to talk about music, but the stories that come out there, those are the good ones, but I also know you might not want to watch my YouTube, so you might listen on Spotify Apple podcast. We're right there with you as well. Just look up the chord progression podcast and you will find it and you're not going to disappoint it. So go check it out.

Speaker 2: 48:48

But I got started with it. So this was right after, like that like 2017, 2018, right when I finally was starting to break through that depression time and I realized that a lot of the things that were causing it was my full time job, because I'd gotten out of college at the time I would have been 23 just the beginning of 2018. And I was like I can't do this for life. I can't do work for somebody else. I have to work something that is towards my own goal. And I wanted to find something to do. And I was listening to a lot of Gary Vanderchuck at the time, trying to find some ideas like professional development stuff, and he was talking about Amazon Alexa with Alexa skills, and I'm like, okay, I want to try something out here with this. See what I can think of. So I bought an Amazon Alexa and I was trying to figure out what was going on. I just use it for music.

Speaker 2: 49:34

Basically, and while listening to savior by rise against, I had an idea of maybe there's like a song of the day feature type thing here. When I first tried it I needed to be like have like Amazon music subscription which was like $9 a month, and I'm like I don't want to do that, but I wonder who has that and what is going on with it. They're like, yeah, it curates it to you, but you're only getting like the most popular songs. So if someone was a big breaking Benjamin fan and there was a song a day, they were only basically getting like Diary of Jane, which again not a bad song, but you're only getting the same songs over and over again. So I thought let's start a skill that's all about rock and metal, that has that song of the day feature, but then at the same time have a mute like a online following around, online community around it and really build that up from there. So that was just kind of like the jumping off point. I tried adding other things to it there, like a YouTube channel. I tried adding a couple other things there, but I kept hearing, try and start a podcast, try and start a podcast. And I said, yeah, we'll start it, we'll just see what happens.

Speaker 2: 50:32

This was purely as just an experimental supplemental thing, and I really didn't start interviewing bands until a woman from Texas said hey, you know, I've like these two bands, you can interview them, go for it. And I said, yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot. First band is called ascending from ashes. I don't even know if they're around anymore. Second band ever is a band called Kingdom collapse and they've grown pretty substantially from my first talk to me in 2019, bring them out of the show once every single year. And then I'm like I want to keep trying this, I want to see where this goes. And then the pandemic hit. Now it's. I'm like now it's like okay, you know, there's no shows. I can't talk about that. I can't talk about what bands are going to be doing like in the next year or so, because no one knows.

Speaker 1: 51:17

Yeah, but then it hit me.

Speaker 2: 51:19

No one's doing anything. There is no way for these people to even stay relevant when everyone's at home. How can they do that? Especially the smaller ones? Oh, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Let's give this a shot. Let's double down on this and let's go for it. And I just kind of I started. The Alexa skill thing is no more A lot of the like, the YouTube channel being like all these other different types of videos.

Speaker 2: 51:42

That's all the podcast stuff now, but the podcast just took over fully from that, as this is the thing I enjoy doing the most. I enjoy connecting with artists, I enjoy talking about music. I enjoy getting to connect with people over music. On top of that as well, I wake up every morning and if I have an episode to do that day, I'm happy. I'm ready to go. If I had a bad day leading an episode, I could be groggy as all hell. I could just be the most miserable person you could talk to. All of a sudden, I see that zoom call open up and I see that person join it and my energy level goes from oh, I don't know if I want to do this. I wish I could just like sleep right now to we're into this shit, let's go. So it just kind of took over and I've been doing this for five years and I'm not stopping.

Speaker 1: 52:29

I love it. That's a great journey. It's exciting. I love that you're interviewing. You know, obviously, all types of bands and then giving other people a shot Like it's so important.

Speaker 2: 52:41

You have to in this day and age. There's so much competition out there too. But at the same time, how many especially for rock and metal how many times from like 2010 to 2020, do we hear taste makers and people in the pop culture say that rock was dead and how much it stunted the growth of the genres? Well, it's because no one was actually putting any like any stock in anybody that was coming up. No one cared. There was always a cap on what they were able to do because everyone was so focused in on still what was popular like 10, 20, 30 years ago. It still kind of is that way, but now we're seeing the breakthrough of that with a different band every single year. We're seeing bring the horizon constantly change their sound.

Speaker 2: 53:23

2021, we're seeing after I wrestle a bear once after all, that kind of went through when the up on Courtney and the guy started Spirit Box. I mean they took off in 2021, 2022, death of peace of mind with bad omens. Bad omens just went. Gangbusters in 2022. They're headlining festivals now, like they're going to be headlining day two of upheaval. This year and last year the two headlines for upheaval were bring me the horizon and falling in reverse. But then 2023, okay, do we get another band that's going to kick in? It took five days.

Speaker 2: 53:54

It took five days until Sleep Token put their first new song on TikTok and now we know where Sleep Token is. Now it is near and possibly going to ticket to see them. So we're starting to see what happens when you actually put stock into some of these bands. But I don't want to see that happen again. We're all of a sudden now we have a new crop of bands and then we stunk growth for 10 years. If anyone's going to continue, we got to continue to put a lot of support behind these younger bands, because all these bands that are bigger they were that at one point they need the support and they need the notoriety. So someone's got to do it. Someone's got to get it. Of course, do I still want to talk to all the big guys, all the big girls, all the big bands? Absolutely Do I still want to also talk to the new ones coming up? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:31

Yeah, for sure. All right, we're on your last song, you ready?

Speaker 2: 54:35

Oh yeah, I'm ready for this one. The new songs are called Robot Voice.

Speaker 1: 54:47

Songs called whatever.

Speaker 2: 54:49

Songs called, I would buy a band called Avoid. So I'm glad that this is the last one, because we talked about just you know, supporting new bands, supporting bands that are upcoming. This is one of those bands that you're definitely going to want to check out. As a record of this, they're opening the metalcore dropouts tour, which has Fit for a King, devour's, prada and counterparts. In the spring, they're going to be going out with Rain City Drive, polaris and Dayseeker. But the reason I put this on here is to prong. One is because of who the band is and one is because of the specific line in this song.

Speaker 2: 55:26

So I got to know Avoid because in 2021, there was a guy that had a created this big giant group on Facebook, the Sirius XM Octane Fan Club. Guy's name was Joe Alfano. He unfortunately passed away in August of last year, but when it came to supporting like new music, this dude was always on it and he would reach out to me at times like, hey, you want to check out this band, you want to interview this band. And in January of 21, he said, hey, you want to check out this band. We're featuring it's band called Avoid. Absolutely, I'll give it a shot, why not.

Speaker 2: 55:57

I got to interview their lead singer Guy's name is Benny and it was one of the funniest and most wild interviews I've ever had in my entire life. Like this dude has crackhead energy. It's funny as all hell. And then I followed along with them. So I'm like I like this band. I want to see what they can continue to do. Well, they 2021,. I think it was the third NASCAR race, like there was a truck series race and Avoid was going to do the national anthem. They're going to do like guitar solo national anthem.

Speaker 1: 56:25

I'm not solo.

Speaker 2: 56:26

Nope, they said that this someone has to at least sing it. So they. Benny had to like, learn it within a day how to sing the national anthem. Right, they got out to the middle of the track and there was no power out there, so he had to sing it acapella without ever having to do this beforehand. He did it and it was God awful Like. It's one of the worst national anthem I've ever heard my entire life.

Speaker 2: 56:50

I did not know this at the time, but they were meeting with their. There was a new label called at the time they're getting a lot bigger right now called Thriller Records. Bob Becker is the founder. He's the guy that founded Fearless. This is his second label go around and this is the first time that they were meeting. Him was at that race. This is the first time this dude was ever going to get them to see them actually like singer perform anything live and it was a train wreck the next day, you know.

Speaker 2: 57:14

And then like online NASCAR Twitter is just ripping on the band like crazy. And they're online, they're having fun with it, they're rolling with the punches, they're having a blast. Ends up a big time sports commentator, jim Rome. He has his own podcast used to be on ESPN, a lot picks it up and starts ripping on the band and tall Like this band should not be called a void, they should be called delete. So that was the first segment. Second segment of the show he actually had his producers like show him some of their actual music and he's like this band should not. This band is called a void and I said they should be called delete. No, no, no, they should be called embrace, because this is awesome. Third segment Benny just called into the show and like actually like got to be interviewed by Jim Rome. He just called into the show because he found out what was happening, just went for it and it's just ridiculous. I kept following these guys over and over again and they just keep getting bigger and bigger Every time I go and see and play live. It is still just one of the most wild experiences you'll ever see in a show. When it comes to an opening band, I feel bad for whoever has to go after them because I'm like how can you, how can you keep that energy going? These guys are manically crazy and I will always support the band. I had Benny on right before their cult mentality album came out in 2022 and we still talked a lot, had a great time.

Speaker 2: 58:33

But the reason I picked whatever is the song because, again, it's just one of those bands where I found about them when they were young. I'm going to continue to support them all throughout and I'm going to get as many people know them and seeing how they're growing as well and seeing how many people have gotten into them. First time I saw them maybe like three people in the pit to start out, but by the end of it, everyone was going. When I saw him in January of 2024 as the opener, that whole entire crowd was the pit, like everyone was going nuts.

Speaker 2: 58:58

But in the song whatever, in the chorus there is a line that they say that it goes in a room of empty faces, don't go changing. And through my full time job that I work right now, just because there's a lot of things that are going on, I've got more responsibility. It's like, oh, you have to look for this way to present yourself, you have to go about this, you should be doing this, you should be doing this, and everything is basically trying to change what I've done already, how I've gotten there, and I'll change. Basically, take what my personality is and just change to what is gonna be like corporate America appropriate. But I didn't get there doing that and I'm not gonna change up just because people that I can't see, people that are saying they're gonna influence what I'm supposed to do, that that's what they want. I'm like no, in a room of empty faces because that's all I see them on camera. Room of faces. Don't go changing.

Speaker 2: 59:56

Because in the end, if I went so boring, normal SpongeBob corporate America type guy, could I potentially get further in that realm? Yeah, absolutely. But personally, would I actually enjoy life at all because of it? I remember what it was like when I didn't enjoy life. Why would I change that up? Why would I go against what actually is in me? And that line just keeps reminding me of it. And I look at these guys and avoid and I'm like these guys are manically wild. They've never changed up who they were and they just kept going after it and this is why they keep. This is why it's like I look at them like this is amazing. So why would I mess with that? So, even before I go into different calls and whatnot for work, I'll listen to whatever I avoid.

Speaker 2: 1:00:35

Remember that I've been on some like big meetings before and everyone has their. It's kind of funny. Everyone has their like background, like they're like the green screen background, so I looked like they're in an office. All of a sudden, you see me calling. I'm the only one that doesn't have like a green screen background. This is what you see, like the background I have here. I've got skate decks. I got a sign we Came as Romans tour post. I got a 30 seconds of Marseille. I got a huge we Came as Romans banner in the back. I was on a call and I was supposed to be presenting something to a bunch of different people. I was wearing a voice of batchet prod shirt. That's the Indonesian band I talked about. I was wearing their T-shirt while doing this and I'm just like, yeah, whatever, you guys know the work, you guys have seen the results. I'm telling you the results. Are you gonna? Is it gonna change up anything of what I did just because I'm looking?

Speaker 1: 1:01:21

In a suit and tie.

Speaker 2: 1:01:22

Yeah, like the most boring person ever. No, the reason you know me not only is my work because now you're gonna remember the fact that this was the one that was different, like it's all part of also kind of like a marketing tactic too. I use that back when I was going to shows, like right after the pandemic kicked in, because they were like okay, you know I'm always in the pit, but I recognize faces. I never know names. How are people especially gonna recognize me in the pit? I always wear the same hat to every single show. Yes, I do wash it at times because otherwise it gets really stinky, but I'll wear the same hat to every single show and everyone knows if you see the Milwaukee Brewers hat in the pit, you know it's me. So there's already that connection there. And if you know, I do a podcast. Now you're coming up, you're talking to me and we're having a blast. Already at that point in time, it allows people to find me, but it also allows people to know me at the exact same time.

Speaker 1: 1:02:11

Yeah, kind of have that piece there too.

Speaker 2: 1:02:13

So in a room with empty faces, don't go changing, that's right, I love it.

Speaker 1: 1:02:18

Thank you so much, kevin, for joining us today on Music Junkies. I so appreciate your time. Like, follow, subscribe, go watch his podcast We'll put everything out there for you and go stalk him and hunt him down, but before we let you go today. You wanna leave us with some words of wisdom.

Speaker 2: 1:02:35

I think we kind of just did it. Just follow what a boy said In a room with empty faces don't go changing.

Speaker 1: 1:02:40

I love it. It totally is great words of wisdom. And I have a poster there that says don't try to change, because you're great just who you are. And I love looking at that every single day because I feel like so many people are trying to go and change to become somebody else because they want those people's results, but they're there for who they are and the journey that they went to go get those results and you can go get the same results. You just have to go fucking do some stuff, right?

Speaker 2: 1:03:09

You just gotta follow that, almost like Shia LaBuffa YouTube video, just like, just do it. Make your dreams come true. Thank you.