Connor McAuliffe from Magnitude and One Step Closer

In the immortal words of the Nora song, "Nobody takes pictures of the drummer" but here on the podcast...WE DO! I hunted down Connor McAuliffe who is the drummer for two phenomenal hardcore bands in the shape of North Carolina's Magnitude and he's also been playing with Pennsylvania's finest, One Step Closer. Connor was a great hang and we discussed the importance of 90's hardcore, straight edge and being on the road for 3 months straight. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
You're listening to one hundred words or less with Ray Harkins.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
What is happening everybody?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm doing good.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's raining like crazy here in southern California. But that's
a dumb way to start the podcast talking about weather,
Like how boring is that? Anyways, you were here because
you want to hear discussions with people who are involved
in independent music, because that is what we do here
on a weekly basis. And if this is your first
time here, welcome. You've got like six hundred some odd episodes.

(00:47):
I mean almost I'm exaggerating. We're like episode what five
ninety one? I think this is, so you got about
five hundred previous conversations you have to listen to every
single Obviously, I'm just joking, joking, but I am very
happy to welcome Connor McAuliffe. And I'm totally butchering his
last name because I've never said it out loud, and
I apologize, but Connor he plays in two amazing bands.

(01:11):
He plays in Magnitude, which is an awesome straight edge
hardcore band from the North Carolina area Charlotte. If I'm
not mistaken, but yeah, just I Magnitude is a band
that like, once they hit hit the streets and they
started to put music out, you know, play shows and everything.
I was all in, and I mentioned this in the interview,

(01:33):
But there are certain bands every like, you know whatever
three to five years that wave the banner of straight
edge and hardcore and play you know, classic classic, metallic
influence hardcore, and I'm here for it. I'm gonna probably
be like seventy five years old, and you know there's
some new band that comes out that has a varsity
font and you know, ex's around their names, and I'm like,

(01:54):
oh my gosh, I can't wait. Maybe that's what I'm
gonna sound like when I'm seventy five. Anyway, Yes, but
Connor plays drums in Magnitude, and then he also plays
drums in another incredible band that I've had the pleasure
of becoming friendly with over the years, One Step Closer.
He plays started playing drums with them for about maybe
a year. A hour ago, we talked a little bit

(02:17):
about that, because, yeah, it's exciting when you get to
participate in multiple bands and you're able to just be
on the road a lot, which that is what he is.
But anyways, sweetheart of a conversation. Let's talk about the
ways you can support the show. You can always always
email the show one underwords podcast at gmail dot com.

(02:38):
Love to get feedback that way, whether it's just saying
what's up, whether it's like, hey, here's a record you
need to listen to, because actually I recently got an
email from somebody saying you need to listen to the
new Drop nineteens record, which is, you know, a classic
shoegaze band that you know exists around the same time.
It's like my Bloody Valentine and what have you. But yeah,

(02:59):
I did, and I like it. So I love to
have those conversations with people like you who are listening
to the show. You can also please leave a braining
and review on the Apple podcast page. It helps out
tremendously as far as the algorithms are concerned. But more importantly,
you can tell your friends about this, tell people who
need to listen to conversations with stuff that they care about.

(03:23):
Because as much as this is like a interview based show,
I really just want to paint a picture for who
this person is, why their band's important, why they are important,
and whether or not you stylistically like the band or
not like that is honestly a side point to me.
What I want you to know is why this thing is,

(03:43):
like I said, relevant and build a context around it,
but ultimately be able to get you more bought in
to independent music, punk, hardcore or whatever, because like some
of the most important feedback that I get personally about
this show is that you know, I am older, I'm
not able to go to as many shows is when
I was in my early twenties or late teens or whatever,
and listening to your show gets me introduced to either

(04:05):
new bands or new music or whatever the case may be.
But it just makes you feel connected, and that's why
I do this. Like, yes, of course it's you know,
entertaining for me, and it's really fun how these conversations.
But I view this as like a audio zine, and
I know that for you some of you been listening
for many many years have heard me say this before,
but I just yeah, I become even more committed to

(04:27):
that idea as each episode transpires. But anyways, I'll get
off my soapbox. But those are the ways you can
support the show. Also, here is a weekly recommendation. I've
been doing this for all of twenty twenty four, and
I'm going to continue to do it because yeah, I
just love to share music that I trip across and
I find valuable. Some of these may end up being
in my you know, year end list and some may not.

(04:48):
But this is a record that came out last year
on Convulse Records. Actually got keyed into it via a
friend on social media. Him and I have just you know,
become recently acquainted, and we have existed alongside of each
other for quite some time. But anyways, he hits me
up with this band Spine, who I was familiar with

(05:09):
just by name and I never checked out their newest
or I think their only LP called Races. It's like
r A I cees. So I could be completely butchering
the pronunciation because I think there may be a Latin
bent on it, so rt races. But anyways, the band
is Spine. That is the name of the record. If
you worship like power violence, but you know, with a

(05:33):
little more nuanced in depth, it like this record delivers
in spades. It is pissed.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
It is very.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Straightforward, but once you start to read the lyrics and
comb through the record, like it was more. It was
one of those things where and I know you have
experiences as well where you listen to a couple songs
in the record and you're like, oh, I need to
order this immediately, and then you get it and then
you just like pour over it, listen to the record,
read the lyric, and it was just the whole picture

(06:01):
was painted and I fell in love with it. So
big recommendation on the Spine record Races, Races, however you
say it. And like I said, it came out on
Convulse Records. I love what they do based on a Denver,
really really cool record label. And I will include a
link in the show notes to where you can follow
along to all the recommendations that I have on a

(06:22):
weekly basis and you can just listen to all of
the stuff. Whether you listen to every single epso or not,
it doesn't matter. I just want you to be piped
in to music that I think is worth your time
in paying attention to. So anyways, that's what we got.
Let's let's talk to Connor. Let's talk about drums and
touring and straight edge, all the important things. Right anyways, Yeah,
let's go talk damn.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Wenesday.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
I'm sure you're like this as well, where you, you know,
discover a band, you get into them, and then for
whatever reason, like you just become slightly obsessed with them,
where you're just like, oh yeah, like I just love

(07:18):
their aesthetic, I love all the birch, I love the
way there are you know.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Demo looks or seven inch looks or whatever, and you
just really kind of, you know, become enamored with the band.
And Magnitude was for sure like that for me and
still is where what no way, dude? I was like,
And honestly, I actually reflected, I was like, okay, well,
prior to Magnitude, what like, as a early forties straightage

(07:44):
hardcore kid, I was like, all right, before this, what
band really kind of captured me on that level as well?
And honestly, it was like Foundation, that was a band
that I got obsessed with, and I'm saying obsessed from
like the oh my gosh, like I see the torch
being passed from one cool straight out band to another
straight edge band and whatever. So anyways, the point being
Magnitude was like that for me, And like I said,

(08:07):
it wasn't just about the music, but it was like,
you know, the aesthetic, like everything. You guys were kind
of putting forth and I'm gonna guess that, like, obviously
there was a very specific intention, you know, when you
guys were starting the band and obviously what you wanted
to sound like and stuff like that, but I imagine everything
else kind of just like played into the fact that
we were like, oh, yeah, we love like, you know,

(08:28):
nineties hardcore, and we want to kind of you know,
wave the banner of that in the you know, tw tens,
twenty twenties.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
No. No, that's one hundred percent accurate, And it's also
accurate with what you said about how like you get
enamored with the band and you can become like obsessed
with them for like such like a time, you would
like really really be obsessed with them. And I still
do that today. I still like I get obsessed with
the band all of a sudden, for like a month straight,
I'll get really really obsessed with it, and then I'll

(08:58):
But yeah, I did that a lot as a kid,
and I still kind of do that today. But yeah,
Magnitude definitely started out with the intention of I mean,
like I guess quote unquote what they what we called
it was like chug core, like nineties chug core and
stuff like that, but no, we like everyone in Magnitude

(09:19):
has actually like played in bands prior to like Magnitude forming,
and we were, yeah, we specifically wanted to like have
this kind of sound. This oh they did this sound
in the nineties, and honestly before Magnitude, I didn't even
understand this. So the nineties like chuck core kind of
means I was like, what the fuck is this? This
is not me. Like the quiet, like the sop speaking

(09:41):
parts like one came down to them a lot, and
I'm like, yo, this is not me. And it took
me forever to get into it. Matt our guitars like
actually like showed me that when we were like really little,
and I was like fuck this, and then it like
grew on me and as I was like, all right,
I get it now. I totally totally get it now.
And then and they Matt and Russell really wanted to

(10:03):
start it. They were the first two to like, I
think Matt wrote DeFi and it was like the first
song we ever wrote, and I just put drums and
he goes, this is gonna be like Chug Court straight
up nineties, and I was like, okay, great, and I
like understood what they were talking about, like right off
the bat, and we recorded DeFi and the intro or

(10:24):
we like wrote all four songs in like two days
and then recorded it in one day and released it
the next So it's like the demo was gonna have
just done in like a week.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
That's amazing and especially too where I I mean, honestly,
I really appreciate your your your take on the fact
that it's like you listen to something and you're like, yo,
that's not for me, but then over time you either
it grows on you understand it because like I mean,
I'm sure that you experienced this with certain bands that

(10:53):
you know, get spoke of as like okay, like this
is a legendary hardcore band, and you know, you listen
to the recording and you're just like this sounds like
garbage cans being thrown out a hallway.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Which like you know, yeah, it doesn't sound legendary to me.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
I always I always refer to and he will describe
this as much where it's like a band like Choke Old,
like they never had a good recording, and when you
play it for a person that you know is only
used to recordings being you know moderately good that you
play a choke old wreck and you're like, yeah, oh
my gosh, it sounds like, you know, a buzz saw
is a guitar.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's no, it's definitely. It's not easy listening. It's it's
hard to hear. It's hard to listen to. But yeah,
like I agree, especially coming from me, just because like
I record music, like I record all the magnitude stuff.
I like to mix and I like to master, so like, yeah,
I like quality. I like loud, punchy, modern like sounding mixes.

(11:50):
So it's like really crazy going back and listening to
bands like that. It's like late eighties, nineties, two thousands,
and I'm like, oh, this is tough totally to listen to.
Until you see live videos you like understand the lyrics
a lot more and you're like, oh my god, the
energy is one hundred percent there, and it makes sense

(12:12):
that recordings are that way, but there's no energy in
the recording, so you can't just go off that like
right off the bat to understand like why this man
was like a legendary band. It's like, especially like have
videos help a lot and a lot of people talking
about like seeing them back in the day helps a
lot as well, But yeah, you're right about the recording, Yeah,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
And to your point as well, where it's like there
are certain styles where you listen to and you can completely,
like almost to the year identify where it's like, oh, yeah,
that's something they really did in nineteen eighty eight or whatever,
and you're.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Just like, oh, yeah, yeah, for sure, why did I
drop this off?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Like why did this go out of the you know,
public consciousness in regards to punk and hardcore, But it's like, oh, yeah,
they only did it for that period of time.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, yeah for sure, especially with like these bands, I
get love really tight snares, like tight, high pitched like snapcase,
winking down whoever was doing it. And it was always
like the double kick into the snare. I think we
talk about it so often in the van, but one
King he just always does like the whole song every

(13:18):
time he does like a four cound beat it's at
the end of it, like snare in China, double kick,
and every single time throughout the entire song, And I'm like,
that's the sound of like the nineties, like them doing
that all the time. That was like purposely there.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I just like.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
You saying that, like it just yeah, I mean that's
triggering to me where I'm just like, oh yeah, like
I didn't think about it like that, but absolutely, And
then to your point too, where it's like it became
in vogue at one point. I mean, especially like me
being from southern California, there was a lot of bands
that like aspired to that tight snare sound and their

(13:58):
snare drums got progressively and smaller, like the piccolo snares.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
It was like, yes, like dude, you're using this.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, they just want the pingy loud snare.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
It's like no matter what, it's like a sniper shot
where it's like ping, You're like, oh my god, like
what is that.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh, it's a snare. It's like called down.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yes, yep. I think I think it was like, uh,
I think we were talking to I was on tour
with One Step Closer and Steve Evats was at one
of the shows in Pennsylvania. He just came by to
watch the show and we had a great conversation and
we got talking about him recording Snapcase and uh he
said they actually had the snare tune even higher than

(14:42):
what was on the record, and he was like, yo,
we gotta get we gotta bring it down just a
little bit. It's too high. It was like a like
a fourteen by eight and a half or some crazy
like specs of a snare drum, but like it was
so high tuned that he was like, all right, we
got to bring it down just a little bit. And
that's what they have on the record, and it sounds
like like the highest tunes there you can think of.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Look, I love that.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Even at the time it's like, oh, we get up
back and off a little bit.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
And yeah, and I was like, no way, it was
much higher than that. There's no way.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
You're like, that is ear drum piercing, Like how yeah,
you would do that?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's amazing. Well, well we'll know out a little bit
more about that later.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
But putting the focus on you, I know, were you
actually born and raised in North Carolina or where did you
come up?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah? Yeah, I was born and raised in Charlotte.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, got it?

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Which is you know the cool part of North Carolina?
I mean no, not to you know, throw shade it
all the other cities that exist.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
And you know, no, man, I'll say it, Charlotte rules.
There's all I'll always have like defensive over Charlotte, or
like I like North Carolina a lot, so defensive over
North Carolina in general, I suppose, but Charlotte rocks. I
love Charlotte. I love Charlotte as a city. I love
like I like the food, the people, and the coffee

(16:04):
and just stuff like that. Well, like my family's there,
so like I'm very very used to like going all
around Charlotte and seeing family and seeing like my friends.
But like my my everyone older than me, my parents,
my older brother and my older sister and my cousin,
they're all born and raised in New York and then
they moved to North Carolina when I was like about

(16:26):
to be born. So I was the first one out
of the family to be born and raised in Charlotte.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Oh I see, So it was very you are the
only one that has that distinct experience of like, okay,
we moved down here, but I was literally born and raised.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, they all like they remember New York, they remember moving.
I was born in Racer, and then my two younger
brothers obviously, so like there's there's five of us in
the family, so like we were all born and raised
in North Carolina and not yeah, that's all. That's all
we were right now.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah north North Cadillac as they say, yeah for sure.
And so I mean, first of.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
All, five kids is a relatively big family. How and
are you stack right in the middle.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
It sounds like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm the middle kid
of course, and.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
So you were were you you know, clamoring for attention
as that you know that whatever cliche goes of like.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Okay, yes, yeah, there's like a stereotype of like, oh,
the middle kid, he's like the forgotten kid or whatever.
But oddly enough, my parents like read a book about
like having children, and if you have five children, the
middle child apparently is the one that needs a lot
of direction because he doesn't know or they may not
know what to do with their life. So when I

(17:42):
was really young, they pushed music on me, or like
playing something like an issrmy or doing something I always
like skateboarding. Me and my brothers would skateboard, and but
my parents really try to like push something on me
for me to like continuously do. So I tried guitar

(18:02):
when I was really little and it did not work out.
I just hated it. It sucked, and I was like,
it doesn't make any sense to me. But one of
my friends that was a little bit older than me
at the time, I was like eight, he played drums
and we skated together and I didn't know that, so
he started teaching me drums, and I like, I just
really liked it after that, and then I got a

(18:24):
drum kit for Christmas, and uh, I think like the
first song I ever learned on drums at like nine
years old was through Struggle by As I Lay Dying
until today it's fucking dope band, dope song. So like
I'm still rocking it in my car. It's it's awesome,
but it's just kind of a weird, like I guess,

(18:45):
how weird thing to learn as a kid, like just
starting out like as are they dying? Yeah, but I
mean it's yeah, I don't know's.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
I would say an easy drum too, you know, an
easy band to play drums along with, Like you know,
I mean you might look.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
At I didn't say I played it good, but you know,
I like played it right.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
You're like I stumbled through it.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
I got there, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Well, because yeah, usually it's like you know, you might
be starting with like some simple you know, for the
floor classic rock like whatever, you.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Know, Green Day, Wheezer.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Or something like that.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
But it's like yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's something you know.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Hall ass No. Right when I bought a drum KD,
I made sure I was like, mom, dad, you have
to get me a double kick pedal as well. Really yeah,
have to? Oh yeah, like right away.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
So you've learned so yeah that and then you scaled back,
you know to yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
I like that. I like that, and I mean I'm
gonna assume as well.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
I mean, you know, pushing you towards you know, playing
an instrument or obviously having something that is a through
line that you're dedicated to drums is probably like the
least you know, appealing thing for parents to introduce to
a house because that's just you you know, like poorly
playing a sla dying songs very loudly.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, they quickly realized this sucks. Okay, the neighbors absolutely
hated it. But I never heard any of that, just
because you know, they would like not tell me yet
of like protection or whatever. But no, I definitely, I
mean we had like since we had five kids by
that age, I was like, I need my own bedroom,

(20:23):
even if it was really small, so I'd fit my
drum kit in there, and I'd close the doors and
I'd try to like, you know, sound provoked with carpet
as much as I could. And yeah, I would play
all the time. It was annoy but I would only
play during the day. I wasn't like a like an
asshole about it or anything like that. But yeah, still
it's it's drums. It's no it's no acoustic guitar, it's

(20:43):
no bass or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
So like, yeah, they're not getting there.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
It was definitely definitely annoying for sure, they're not getting
you the v.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Drum kit where it's like, all right, here's the electronic drums.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Have fun.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
They Yeah, at that time, they were like this is
too expensive. Here's a here's a five hundred dollars drum set,
here's a go crazy. And I was like all right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
And what kind of kid did you find yourself being
as you were, you know, growing up and developing a
little bit of an identity. As far as I mean,
it sounds like music was obviously encouraged at a pretty
early age. And yeah, you were learning from your parents,
but were you also learning from like your older siblings
or how did that all kind of you know work.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh yeah, for sure. I don't know. Throughout my life
I've had like such like identity crises, I guess, not
really like in the sense of like like my identity
as in within music, but just like high school was weird.
I was like, I got to stop wearing all this
black clothing. Maybe I should like get into Hollister like clothing.

(21:44):
And then like after that was weird, I was like
really into I was impressionable as hell, and I don't know,
I just kind of changed my style or this just
because I was like I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't really know like how I should fit in
or so. So I definitely it was just like a
trend follower. But in regards to like developing as a

(22:06):
kid within music, my sister's a bit older than me.
She's like like thirty two, and she's the one that
really got me into music. Like she was the whole
reason that I got into anything alternative anything like that.
Like she took me to Warp Tour in two thousand
and four. I was like eight years old, and me
and my brother would skate, So we skated the halfpipe

(22:28):
because they had like a metal half bite like every
year at Warp Tour, and so two thousand and four
was like like throw down and I think the starting
line and who was it? I think it was a
lot of like the Offspring and some point. Yeah, I
think under Oath, but like some forty one bands like that.

(22:49):
The year prior with two thousand and three and they
had Poison the Well on and I was like really
obsessed with Poison the Wild, so like I was kind
of bummed about that, but I was like seven. I
was like I would have been like seven years old,
I wouldn't have known anything anyways. But yeah, she like
definitely got me into like everything, and she showed me
like Thursday and Saves the Day and h two oh
and I mixed PX and she was really into Newfound Glory.

(23:11):
So like everything from then on it was just like
popunk from like the two thousands and then hardcore bands
that were adjacent that she knew of, and she brought
me to all the shows, all like the local shows,
all the big like tours that came through town and
stuff like that. So that she's definitely the whole reason

(23:32):
I'm even like where I'm at today.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
That's amazing, especially too, where it's like, I mean, I'm
sure you've obviously met a ton of other you know,
peers and bandmates and friends that have experiences with their
older siblings either just being like dude, I don't know
what the hell they're into, or they kind of have
that like gatekeeping in a good way where it's like, Okay,

(23:54):
I don't want to expose them to this because like
you know, like a kid could punch them in the
head or something like that. But it's like it's yeah,
you had that positive experience with your sister just being
able to like, oh yeah, let's go together and we'll
you know, experience this as a as a.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Unit for sure. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
And with that as well, I mean, and going back
to actually what you were saying, with the idea of
you know, you kind of jumping around and figuring out
like who you were, I mean, you know, truthfully, that's
most of people's high school experiences where they're like, all right,
I don't fit in as a sports kid, like I'm
gonna try being in chess club or whatever. It's like,
I mean, that's all normal. Merchandise is important, right, It's

(24:34):
important to you. It's important to me. It's important to
anybody that cares about independent music and you want officially
licensed merch right, you want the real deal, you want
the bands to get paid. All that other stuff that
you know just is really obviously very important within the
context of music. That is why you go to rockabillia
dot com and use the promo code one hundred words
or less that gets you ten percent off of your

(24:56):
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So go ahead use that promo code and visit rockabilly
dot com. Did you care about school, Like, were you,
you know, studious, were you encouraged to get good grades
or was it kind of like, all right, as long
as he's getting sees collars.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Okay. It was kind of like that, only because my
sister was the first child. She was the overachiever. She
was like, you know, top of the class, this, top
of the class that like, and everything got into college.
My older brother absolutely did not give a shit about school.

(26:22):
He was so bad. He just refused to do anything.
I think my mom just did all his work just
enough to where he can graduate and get him out
of there. So like those were my two reference points,
so me just being in the middle. They were just like, hey,
as long as you, you know, get b's rece's like
in your pass, like you're straight, we don't care. I

(26:43):
was like, all right, don't. I didn't mind school. I
honestly hated going to high school, but like the work
wasn't the worst thing in the world. And I wasn't,
you know, the smartest person ever, but I was good
at math and I liked history and stuff like that.
So like it was fine and bees really nothing like detrimental,
but nothing like overachieving. It was just kind of straight,

(27:04):
straight and arrow sure it.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
And you know, I know that obviously straight edge and
is an important part of you know who you are,
and obviously you know what the band is about. When
did that kind of, I guess enter the picture. I mean,
North Carolina clearly has a you know, history within the
context of you know, straighted hardcore and stuff like that.
But how did that was? Was that just basically you

(27:27):
kind of observing that from a distance as you started
to go to warp tour in shows and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Actually not really at all. My sister was dating some
guy and he was straighted, and I would think I
was like six sixteen, and and I was like, what
what does this mean? And this was like me just
then getting into hardcore and he was a hardcore guy,
and so I got like, I dove really into that

(27:54):
and I was trying to understand and then I was
just like, I don't know what to do. I don't
drink anyways, so and so forth, and I wanted to
be like part of something, but I was like, I
don't want to be part of this or that. I
don't even know like what I was truly thinking, but
I just remember him saying, you should be.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Straight edge, and you're like, sure.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
You'll be straight like, and I was just like I
should be straight edge, Like I think I'm gonna do that.
And then ever since I was I was like sixteen,
and uh yeah, I claimed it, and I was like
I know exactly what this is. I know what it means,
and now I don't have to all right. So I
was so so afraid as a kid. I was so

(28:38):
afraid of being in trouble. I hated getting in trouble,
and my older brother would get in trouble a lot,
and I was like, I don't want I was like,
you're gonna get caught, You're gonna do this, it's gonna
get bad, it's gonna get the police involved, and like
all of this shit would happen, and I'm just like,
I'm not dealing with any of that. I want to
be the total opposite of this. That way, I can

(29:01):
still go to all these shows with all these crazy
people who are drinking and smoking. But my parents would
know I'm okay because I don't do that. That's not
my thing. And they got a lot of shit from
other parents that are like, how could you let your
you know, your thirteen year old kid go to these
clubs and all these people are drunk and smoking this,
and then he's gonna get in drugs. You're gonna let

(29:21):
him in a band? Like, you can't do that. He's
gonna end up like a dirt bag. And I, you know,
I'm like the absolute opposite. I live in the suburbs,
I have no tattoos, I don't drink, I don't I
don't do drugs. Nobody at work thinks I play the
music that I play because it does. It just doesn't
look like I would play that music if if that

(29:42):
makes any sense. But like, so yeah, I straight edge,
Like I don't really know well, I mean, like I
think I've always just been you straight edged since sixteen,
I was like, ah, this is just the way my
life is. I'm just gonna stay this way.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
And I mean I get that, especially when you have
this level of you know, discontent of finding like who
is you know you're no that's used to large of
a word, but like your tribe, your community of people.
And then when you find this label that you could
put on yourself that distances you from what you were

(30:24):
trying to distance yourself from trouble.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Like it's easy to be like, oh, yes, if I
do this, like I'm gonna be given more latitude with
my parents because they know that I'm not going to be,
you know, a bonehead and making I'll be making mistake.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Honestly, Yeah, yeah, I wanted to go do stuff. I
wanted to go to more shows, so I wanted to
be sure I was not going to get into trouble,
and then I want to hang out with more people.
And I was like, they're straight edge too, And I
actually felt like, oh my god, these are like everyone's
thinking to the same thing. I'm thinking. They want to
be straightish. I'm straight. I'm part of something, and I
play music. We can start a band. We can get
a straightedge band. And That's what I was thinking of

(31:01):
so much, and really just not getting in trouble. I
just I hated it so much. I hated getting in trouble.
My parents are cool, they would let us do stuff,
but like you know, they're from New York. They're a
little scary, they're a little this and that. So like
anyone gets into trouble, it's to me, I was like,
oh fuck that, I'm not I'm not especially, I'm not down.

(31:22):
I'm not down with that.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Especially because you literally saw what it was like on
the front line for your brother getting in trouble, and
it was like, dude, I don't want anything like that.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
So I'm about, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
With my power to make sure that not doesn't happen
to me.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yeah, I don't. And I don't know what it is
about everyone, but like everyone just kind of hits a
certain age and they're just like, I'm I'm gonna like
grow up. For me, it was I feel like maybe
I was really young when like the feeling of like
I'm grown up, I'm a little bit more mature than
my age. But my brother like automatically randomly stopped getting

(32:03):
in trouble. He started working in construction with my dad,
and he immediately just became like a man. Like he
became like just like a grown up, you know what
I mean, someone just like does not really flip a switch,
like automatically, but like progressively, he got so good at
the job, and now he actually owns like my dad's companies,

(32:24):
like in his name now, and you know, he has
a house, he's married this night, he's got two dogs.
Like him and I are like good friends. And it
was just weird. It was just at a time period
when we were young, in like high school, he was
such a dirt bag and I was like, this is
the complete opposite of who like the person I am.
And now I see how similar him and I are,
and it's just like, oh, you shouldn't have gotten in

(32:46):
that much trouble in the first place, to be honest,
it was just weird, Like she's fucking Christ, it's not
that big of a deal. But it's all you know,
it's all yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Of course, right, and you can you can look at
that and be thankful that even though you were taking
two paths, that those paths would eventually converge and you'd
be like, oh, yeah, like it's good. You know you're
responsible now and that's great.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
The so as you started to you know, play drums
and obviously be active in music and going too shows
and stuff like that, were you immediately enamored with the
idea of playing in a band, or did you have
to kind of work your way up to that.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
I definitely wanted to play in a band, and uh,
at first, my parents signed me up for this like
this school of rock things where it was like a
pro It was like a program where like these uh,
like music teachers would like get all their students together
and say, we should let's form a band. What kind
of band do you guys want to be. Let's do

(33:46):
like eighties covers. Let's do eighties rock covers or metal covers.
And immediately I was like I was real into like
metal at the time. I was like like eleven, and
I was like, yeah, metal band, and they're like, yeah,
Black Sabbath and I was like, oh no. I was like,
that's not what I meant about like metal, but that's

(34:07):
what they meant. So like when I was a kid,
they first signed me up to do all these like
covers with these really random people that I didn't know,
and then older kids and like local bands saw me
play and they're like, yo, you should come play in
our band, and then it just like progressed from there.
I think I just played in really really bad bands
with older kids when I was a kid, and then

(34:31):
and then yeah, I definitely. But I definitely wanted to
be in a band, like for sure when I was
a kid, I was like, and people hyped me up
a little bit when I was a kid, and I
didn't have any like reference of what a really really
good drummer was. So I was like, yeah, I'm the
best fucking drummer ever. I'm so good, like I'm so
young and cool. And I was like, I just want

(34:51):
to be in a band. I want to be seen.
And then uh like slowly I would see like really
really good drummers and I'm like, ah, I'm not shit,
Like I'm not anything going. I'm shit. I got humbled
so hard, Yeah I got I got coble. I still
get humble all the time. I'm just like, man, damn
it is. It is what it is. But yeah, I

(35:14):
for sure wanted to be in the band when when
I started playing dropesefs like That's what I want to
do for sure.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Right, And was there any I guess aspiration of you
like as you started to you know, go through high
school and like quote unquote figure out your life from
you know.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Like oh no, no, no, going going to.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
College or like you know, potentially following in the foots
what your you know, brother was doing as far as
construction was concerned.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Well, actually I did start working contraction with my dad
and my brother at like seventeen, but that was just
like just to have money, you know what I mean.
I would do it sometimes when I wasn't at school,
and then when I graduate school, I just did that
because I didn't know what I wanted to do at
that time. I was like playing in bands and stuff
like that. Me Russell and that we were like seventeen eighteen,
nineteen years old, and uh yeah, so I would do construction.

(36:06):
I'd play in like hardcore bands or youth for bands
or this or that, and but I never had like
an idea of like am I going to figure my
life out. I definitely didn't want to go to college.
I didn't want to do a four year university. I
was like, yo, I don't have like the schooling all right,
like I or like the drive to go to school.
I was like, I'm not going to do the work.

(36:28):
I know, I don't spend the money, Like I'm not
gonna like doing the work. I don't know what I
want to go for. Just just don't do it. Don't
waste the money, it's fine, but they were like, you
should really pursue something. We would like you to produce something.
So I was like, I'll go to audio engineering school
because I wanted to not only like playing bands. I
wanted to record. I want to record my drums in

(36:50):
my groom. I wanted to figure out how to people
make the drums sound that good and this and that.
So I started recording at like seventeen, but I was
like really just figuring it out. And so there was
a school in New York called the Institute of Audio Research,
and it was like a year long program, but you
like learning on pro tools and I already know pro tools,
and you get certified and protols at the end of

(37:12):
the year and so forth. But there's like a bunch
of classes. There's a music theory class basically electronics, and
all these classes about like MIDI and exploration about like
the software in something. So I was like, yeah, fuck yeah,
like sign me up, I'll do that. So I moved
to Brooklyn at like seventeen, and my sister was already

(37:34):
living in Manhattan, so I was just like thirty minutes
away by train, and my school was also like thirty
minutes away. By train. It was like one stop and
I would just go to school like five days a week.
It was kind of like high school. It was like
the same exact time every single day, weekends off. But
at least I got, you know, a certificate in Avid

(37:55):
pro tools. So I'm certified and that's cool. But that
was like the high your education. My parents, I guess,
wanted me to pursue and I did it and I
came home.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
At least you were you were like focused on something.
There was a discipline there and not just like whatever,
I'm gonna hang out and you know, just whatever.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah, not know what to do and this and that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
So I'm going to guess that the first bands that
you played in were absolutely terrible. But who were you
trying to like rip off and or like play shows with?
And you know, what were you kind of trying to
do with some of the first bands that you played in?

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Oh man loved a question.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
The reason that is not to embarrass people. It's more
so the fact that, I mean, everybody starts somewhere, and
usually the band name that you give is like people
can identify what the band sounds like immediately, you know,
like you're like, oh, like I'll tell just in the
spirit of sharing. The first band that I played in
was called Doom Society, so you can immediately conjure up

(39:02):
what we sounded like.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
So there you go, Doomed Society sick.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
It's funny.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
But it was like, yeah, we covered we covered strife
and then we also covered Dead Kennedy's because why.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Not, right, Okay, no, that's awesome. I don't care anyone
says that's awesome When bands like covers other bands that
don't sound like them at all, I think that's the is.
It's funny.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
So yeah, what were some of your what were some
of your first you know endeavors as far as like
actually getting out of you know, the practice space or
whatever and playing shows and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
By the very first band after that, like that programmed
band that my parents signed me up for, was a
band called Articuno. And that's a Pokemon by the.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Way, I was gonna say, I was like that sound
that registers on Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, yeah, that's funny. So I don't know. Some only
kids had a band called Articuno and they would just say, yeah,
we start drum around, do you want to play? And
I was like yeah. Cool. So we did like house
shows and garage shows and I thought it was the
coolest fuckest thing in the world. And they were just
obviously really really bad shows and I didn't play that good.
I didn't hit that hard because that was fucking eleven

(40:14):
and uh. But like that was the time where I
was like, yeah, I'm in like a I'm in a
DIY like local like metal band and this and that
that was cool to me. I don't even know what
to compare us to. It made no sense at all.
It was definitely confused as hell. There are like, you know,
like random metal parts and then there was like the

(40:36):
classic like clean guitar parts that made no sense.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Evilgreed dot net is the place where you should point
your web browser two because they provide web store solutions
for bands and record labels to sell you, the end
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complicated way of me saying, yo, go to that website
and order stuff from them. But Evil Greed is very

(41:00):
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you a little overview of what it is that they do.
Like I said, they send you merch et cetera, et cetera,
vinyl shirts, sweatshirts, whatever you need. But they kind of

(41:22):
act like a record label in the sense of they
have a very specific point of view, like they don't
open the floodgates for every single band and every single
record label. They traffic in what I would like to
call the artistic heavy stuff. And that is why I
personally love Evil Greed because it matches my own personal
music sensibilities and I think for anybody that checks out

(41:42):
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(42:02):
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(42:24):
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Speaker 1 (42:38):
Me and Russell I think started. I think after that
was a youth group band called Rapid Change and me
and name that's good, rapid Oh yeah, thank you. I
came up with it. I didn't even really come up
with it. It was actually a fucking like pro Paine

(42:59):
company and it really says rapid x Change because I
guess the company is called Rapid Exchange, but they had
an X in the middle, and al was like, that's
the dopest name I've ever seen. It's already a straight
edge logo. Look at that. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
So that's no idea that they were naming a straight
edge band at.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
All, not at all. And I was like, we're using that.
I swear to God. So yeah, rapid Change was actually sick.
I liked rapid change.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
If you start to pull influences and be inspired by
bands that are clearly above your musical talent, it doesn't like,
it doesn't matter. You're still going to try to sound
like it, but just like a bad version of it,
because that's what every band does when they first start,
you know.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, no, yeah for sure.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
And so when you know, I guess when fast forwarding
a little bit, like when Magnitude came in the picture,
and because your demo that was twenty seventeen ish, right,
correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah, yeah, I think I had to yeah, twenty sevens here.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
And so I mean it seems like, I mean, even
though the fact that you guys have you know, done
a lot, I mean, the fact that you got to
two full lengths as a hardcore band, like that's a
heroic feet in and of itself. But yeah, of course,
did you I guess notice people paying attention to you guys,
like sort of outside of your you know, circle of

(44:21):
friends and you're scene like was that around the demo
or was it around like.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
When you guys started to work with Triple B and stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Like that uh no, pretty much right off the bat,
we got some traction because a lot of our friends
are like not in the state of North Carolina. Like
we have a lot of friends in South Florida. We
had a lot of friends in Philly. I had friends
in New York and and in Atlanta. So like, right
off the bat when we put the demo out, they

(44:47):
kind of like wrote hard for us, and I was like, oh,
that's awesome, Like they fucked with the demo and it's cool.
They were all friends in this band, like it's all
North Carolina kids and we we're all like really good
friends in general. So like I just felt really good
about Magnitude. I was like, yeah, this is like the

(45:08):
first band where it's just like the dream team of
people and I'm like, this is great, this is good time.
And then we wrote music with a purpose. We were like,
we want purposely to sound like this. It sounds awesome,
and uh we released the demo and our friend Lenin
put it out on Plead your Case Records in Florida,
and it was this like it was just a tape,

(45:30):
but it was in like a Manila folder. It was
so cool, and I was like, I fucking love this,
but he wrote really hard for it. Everyone I saw
Florida wrote hard for it Landa and everyone like like
really deal good and that kind of just gained some traction.
But I think what really helped is Lenin helped us
get onto f ya Fest right like after the demo,

(45:50):
and then by f Yafest we had released a seven
inch and which was also on Plead Your Case Records first,
so like we had a demo in the seven inch
and then we play fy and I'm kind of just like, oh,
people see it, see like them sing along and mashing
like crazy. So I was like, this is the best
feeling in the world. I've never had a band where
people would sing along too, Like, I've never been in

(46:12):
a band where people knew the lyrics or gave a
fucking shit. So it was really awesome to see that.
And I was like, Ah, this this might go somewhere,
This might actually people might like this, like for real.
So I was super pumped on that. And then uh,
I think Sam came and talked to us at United
Bloodfests and that was the person we met Sam. He

(46:33):
was like, let's let's do a record. We were like,
fucking yeah, sounds great, perfect, and uh like, hell yeah,
we want to be on Triple Be Records. You fucking
kidding me? So it was great and uh then he
repressed the seven inch and it just got you know,
more and more attraction and stuff like that. But but
I really, I like, I could keep going, but I

(46:53):
don't even know what I'm talking about at this point.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
You're good, I I but I appreciate the description of
that idea where it's like the moment that you sing,
you see someone singing along that you don't know, and
you're just like, how how did you know about that?
Like this is so incredible, and like, yeah, reaction and
like those feelings of when you you know, even if

(47:15):
it's on such a small scale level, it's just that
feeling that your art and the music and the ideas
that you had with friends all of a sudden steps
outside of anything you ever would have anticipated.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
It just feels so cool.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
No, yeah, yeah, And and I mean we had people
singing along to like the at the very first show,
and I was like, how did you even know the lyrics?
So I was like, this is the first show ever,
Like it was really really cool. I liked that aspect
of it a lot. But that's yeah, that's definitely what
made me think, Yeah, this might like go somewhere, even

(47:51):
if it's not like the biggest thing in the world,
it might go a little bit further than any money.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
All the ships and did you the idea of I
mean whatever, going down to Florida and touring and playing
shows and stuff like that. I mean, I know touring
is a big part of your life. Now, had you
always wanted to tour and had that goal or was
that just something that you knew came along with playing
a band.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
I think it's just something I knew that came along
with it, honestly, Like, yeah, it's like anytime I think about,
oh we're going to get to a tour, yeah, I
get excited, I get pumped and whatnot. But uh, it's
never been a thing of like, this is what I
want to do. I'm down for it. I'm down for
the everything, the equipment of the travel of this. That's

(48:37):
never been a thing in my head. It's just kind
of like, oh, this is what you you know, this
is what you do, you tour and whatnot. So I
kind of just I guess I just go along with
the flow. If someone wants to book a tour. I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
You're like sounds so cool.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah yeah, I'm like, yeah, yeah, we should tour. It
sounds like a good idea. And then I like, I
hope someone else takes care of all the reskuse, I'm
just like, I don't know, I don't know how to
book a tour, and I'm just hoping someone else does it.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
That was actually gonna be my next question, just because
it does. I mean, even though you know, hardcore is
as popular as it ever has been in the history
of it's you know, it's it's young lifespan, there's that
idea that you know, once you get to play in
front of people and get paid, you know, one hundred
and fifty dollars to play a show, you start to
have to think about like, oh, what does this mean

(49:28):
from a you know, business perspective and stuff like that.
So it sounds like you like to keep yourself not
removed where you just like don't care about it, because
clearly you care. But do you try to stay as
much of away from it as possible or do you
like to you know, be a little bit more informed
than that.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Oh no, I'm very involved when it comes to touring,
I feel like I misinterpreted that a little bit. But no,
like in terms of like booking the tour, like contacting
people and doing this and that, I don't know how
to do any of that. So like any tour we've
been on, like someone else kind of did that for us,

(50:11):
but or maybe it was Rustle, or maybe it was
so and so or Lenin if we were like torn
with Ecostruck at the time, like Lenin put together you know,
you know what I mean. But in terms of like
like the business side, I guess you could say of
it like I'll deal with all the money. I'll deal
with all like the merch and I'll even sell the merch.
I'll deal with paying the merch companies and all the gas.

(50:35):
I like the vans always in my name. A lot
of this like that, I guess the responsibilities of like
touring I like to handle and uh just keeps like
if I don't know what's going on, I'm not comfortable,
and I'm like, are we losing money? Are we making money?
Are we super super in debt? Is someone lying to me?

(50:57):
I don't know, So like I just want to do
it myself. So I'm like this is the deal everyone.
This is how much money we have, this is their guarantee,
this is what you know every single day. I like
doing this stuff. So like even this password that I
just got hold from, like I was TM for that
any of the Magnitude tours, I kind of like settled.
It wasn't really doing TM duties because you know, there's

(51:18):
not much to do when it's just like a hardcore band,
I suppose, but I would, yeah, I would settle at
the end of the night. I would cast checks, I
would have I have a bank account just for the
band and stuff like that. So I'm hands on when
it comes to touring, but not when it comes to booking.
I'm very, very just I don't know what to do
about you.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
No, And that's fair and that's fair and that I mean,
and that's definitely what I was meaning more on the
business side of things, where it's just like, yeah, I
know I am comfortable in you know, dealing with you know,
Excel spreadsheets of our merch and how much we made
and stuff like that, versus some people are just like, dude,
I don't want to have anything to do with that
because I'm terrible at it.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, Now, I love the Excel spreadsheets. That's that's my shit.
I love that. I want I want new algorithms. I
want to know this and that I want to like.
I love using Square, sure, I love being able to
see like because you know, I work in a in
a cafe, so like, I'm very used to Square as
a point of sale, so I know it really well.

(52:20):
I know how to operate it and know how to
like do everything. So I love using Square for merch
and I show everybody, I'm like, this is how you
do this. This is if Russell wants to sell merch
or if someone else want Burke wants to sell merch.
I'm like, this is where you see your tips. This
is everything through credit card, so and so forth. And
then I'll deposit it into the like the band's bank account,
and I'll just be like, this is how much more
do you have? Do you guys want like a thousand dollars?

(52:43):
Do you need this or that or whatever happen? But yeah, yeah,
that's cool.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
That's that's great because it does especially as you become like,
you know, literally getting a bank account for the band,
like all these things that you don't ever really consider
until you're confronted with the idea where it's like geez,
I have a thousand dollars, like I can't put on
my own bank account, Like what the hell do we
do with this? But it's like just yeah, those things
of how to you know, operate in a band on

(53:10):
a more professional level, even though you're not like doing
this to you know, make money. It's just like, well,
the fact that we did, like that's sick.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
That's great, We'll keep doing it exactly. The fact that
we did it is just like that that really rocks
because this maybe like we did the longest tour we've
ever done before wait, which was actually the we toured
with Knocked Loose and Gate Creeper and Karma in twenty
twenty one, and it was like the longest tour we've
ever done before. It was like five weeks, and we

(53:37):
were like, oh man, so we got to get really
set up, we got to do this and that. And
I was like all right, so like yeah, we came
home with like some money enough to like maybe pay
our bills at the end, because like it was longer
than a month. And I was like, as a band,
I think our overview is if we can make enough
to pay our rent, then yes we can go on.

(54:01):
Like that's really it. We're just like yo, if we
make enough personally to where all the like the merch
bill is paid, the van is paid, everything's paid after that.
If we can just pay our rent or pay our bills,
then I'm comfortable touring. It's not like we're really profiting,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (54:17):
Right right?

Speaker 3 (54:19):
And on that tip too, like when you first started to,
you know, experience the touring lifestyle, especially when you go
over to Europe, because I know you guys have done
that a decent amount. How how different is it over
there for you? I mean, I know, generically speaking, obviously
Europe takes care of bands, you know, relatively well. They'll
you know, give you your your you know, yeah, it's awesome.

(54:42):
They're awesome too, and we'll hook you up with the
place to stay.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
So the vegan stew, yeah, we call the vegan slap
just big old stew slap.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Yeah, broiled egg plant in there. I guess, I don't know,
sure it was.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Awesome, Like yeah, I guess our first experience going over
there was actually kind of crazy. It was the Triple
B Takeover tour, and so it was like four or
five US bands, And so instead of getting multiple vans, uh,
Sam teamed up with Monster Energy and they got a

(55:20):
tour bus, like a twenty person bus. And I was like,
this is the most insane living thing I've ever experienced,
Like touring Europe and I always have to drive or not.
It's not I always have to drive, but like I
duck predominantly drive during touring in the like in the US.

(55:40):
So when I realized I don't have to drive and
I just get to sleep and wake up in a
new country, I was like, this is the greatest thing
in the world. I love this so much, Like I
never want to like not do this, but yeah, touring
over there, like even without because you know, we toured
with one set closer uh in Europe as well, so
it's just a fan in trailer. But they still care

(56:02):
to us, like really really really well, and they you know,
put us up in hostels or have a combination for
us or whatever have you. But it's definitely different than
the US, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
They actually someone care about the bands that come over here.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
As opposed to like just yeah yeah, yeah for yourself
over here in the States.

Speaker 7 (56:21):
Yeah yeah. And I think it's just because I don't know.
I think geography just has a part to playing it.
The United States is just so big that you know,
you could drive in the same state and cross three
time zones and like that one state could be the
size of Germany. Like Texas is like the size of Germany.

(56:42):
It's just like it's different.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
I don't know. It's not like, yeah, if a band,
like a hardcore band from Europe comes to the US
and tries toward the whole US, it's like, not everyone
is going to care as much as if someone went
to Europe. And maybe my opinion, because like it's such
a giant, giant country. It's like you're touring so much,

(57:08):
like there's so much land, there's so much, so many
places to hit. It's like I don't know if they've
heard of my ban, even my band. I'm just like,
I don't know if we're gonna do well here. I
have no idea. Must like sometimes for someone who played Nashville,
it was like ten, like maybe ten people, and then
the first time we ever played Germany, there was maybe
nine people, and I was like, oh man, this is rough.

(57:31):
Like but even though there were nine people at the
show with Germany, they still catered to us all of us,
and most of us were vegan, so like, I mean,
Germany does vegan food very well. Over there, they always
like cater so like even though there was only nine people,
they they had a huge spread for us and they
had green rooms and everything, and I was like, man,

(57:52):
what the fuck, like we want to do this over there?
That's over here. This is crazy.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
You're lucky. You're like if you get a case of
water dog.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Like, yeah, like could we give it a walk?

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Yeah? Exactly.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
And now that you've experienced because I mean, when did
you actually start playing drums in one step closer? Is
that like, forgive me for my ignorance, but like is
that a permanent thing that you're playing with them or
is that basically you're just you know, kind of filling
and stuff as they figure things out.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
No, No, you're fine. You're fine. Yeah. A lot of
people have had the same exact question, because it seemed
just like randomly I started playing with them, and then
that was that. There's no real announcement, there's no real
anything like that, especially because you're from the started like that.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
I mean, it makes sense when you're just like, oh yeah,
like they've toured together their friends, like you know, yeah,
the Connor's just filling in or whatever.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
So anyways, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah that that also makes sense.
So last year, the end of last year, I started
to do merch for I still want to do merch,
but I started doing merch for a few bands, and
most closure was on tour with Arow dustin Movie Mints,
and so I did merch for One Step Closer, and

(59:03):
I was just gonna be their guy, Like I was
just gonna be their rich guy. The following like two
months was like the beginning of this year actually twenty
twenty three. In January, they had a ten day headlining
tour and then immediately a Southeast Asian, Japan An Australian tour,
and then like a month later they did like a

(59:24):
Silverstein tour. But right at the beginning of January, their
drummer had like had quit, and they were like, oh fuck,
what do we do? And obviously they were just like, hey, Connor,
do you could, like can you fill in? I was
like yeah, sure, Like I already I know the song,
it's like one I love, Yeah, I love What's Up Closer.

(59:46):
I toured with them in Europe. I know all their stuff,
and like I already tour with them because I was
doing merch for them anyway, so I was gonna be
on the tour anyways. So I was like, yeah, I'll
fail in like of course. So we did the headlining
tour and then they bought my ticket for Japan and
Southeast Asian and put me on the names. I was like,

(01:00:06):
holy shit, and this is all like super rat it's
like two weeks. Notice, oh You're touring for like a
month and a half all over the world. I was like, oh, yeah, okay, cool.
So yeah, that kind of just randomly happened, and then
we did the Silverstein tour. During the Silver Stain Tour

(01:00:27):
that they were talking, they're like all right, so like, well,
you know we want you, and I'm like, yeah, I know.
It's just there's a lot of touring going on right
now and I just I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm just riding along. I'm just riding the way. I'm
just saying yeah, I'm just saying yes to everything. And
so like they did a Silver Steam tour. The day

(01:00:50):
that ended, I flew to New York because Magnitude is
flying to Japan. So like that tour ended, it was
a month long, like five weeks. Then I immediately flew
to Japan. Magnitude toured there for five days. Then we
went to Southeast Asia, and then after we toured Southeast Asia,

(01:01:11):
we couldn't tour Australia because we didn't get it booked
in time. But they flew home and I flew back
to Japan to vacation with my girlfriend, and so we
stayed a week in Japan. Then I flew back to
the States and then we immediately went on another month
long tour with Draine. So like that was like the

(01:01:34):
longest I've ever been away from home, and it was
like three and a half months or something like that
of like literal world traveling. And I was like, this
is it's awesome, but it's a little crazy. And I'm like, yeah,
she's gonna hate me. This is no, I don't know
what's going on here. But I told myself, I was
like I told her and myself, I was like, let

(01:01:55):
me just let me just tour as much as I can,
let me go experience some things, let me do this
and that. Because COVID took away like two years of
our lives, and I was like, I don't know what
to do with myself being at home all the time.
I've never not played shows, I've never not played music,
So like a whole year of not doing anything, that
was like what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
What are we do?

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Like what am I supposed to do? Yeah, So I
really took advantage of this entire year. So like, now
that the year is coming to a close, I think
I've been away from home more than i've been home,
Like like I think I've been away for like two
hundred sixty days out of three hundred and sixty four or.

Speaker 6 (01:02:29):
Whatever, and which is kind of crazy, but I still
don't feel like it's been that much touring, maybe just
because it's with two different bands and I'm playing two
different styles of music or yeah, you know what.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
I mean for sure, And that was actually I was
going to ask you just because you've had this experience
of like, you know, I mean, magnitude is clearly like
you're influencing the song structures. You're you know, really in
the weeds with that, whereas one step closer, like you
are a literal fan that is filling in and hanging
out with your friends and playing music straight that you
didn't show. And then also to your point, you're playing

(01:03:08):
much larger venues, you're playing to people who really have
no idea like what I mean, they know generically speaking
what hardcore is, but like not in the way that
you know you or I know it. But yeah, yeah, yeah,
like with both of those experiences, like were you know,
is there surprises that you saw when you were playing
with one step Closer or vice versa, like, oh, I'll

(01:03:30):
be able to take what I learned from this and
be able to apply it towards magnitude.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Do you mean in like a show wise or like like.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
What you're so like using the one step Closer stuff
like you playing you know, House of Blues style venues
and stuff like that, where you know you are not
getting the same sort of reaction as you would when
you're playing you know, this is hardcore with magnitude or whatever.
How are you I guess kind of you know, getting

(01:04:03):
inspired in the way of like, Okay, the crowd is
not going crazy like they're liking us, but we're not,
you know, getting the same sort of reaction Like do
you have to?

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Is it a difference there?

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
That's definitely, Yeah, that's it. Definitely sucks. I'll be honest, Like,
there's nothing weirder than playing on a drum riser, like
playing hardcore songs on a drum riser looking at a
crowd that's literally not singing along, and I'm like, that's
so hard to like get into because even I'm playing

(01:04:36):
drums and I'm singing along, I'm like, I love these songs.
These I'm going crazy. But like I sometimes I do struggle.
I find it hard to like when when it's a
tough crowd or it's a tough interaction, but like, it
is what it is. Sometimes it even makes me go
harder because I'm just like, they need to see us
going really crazy for like, for it to leave an

(01:04:57):
impression on them, because after all, once I'm closer to
playing Like a lot of tours with bands that are
not necessarily a hardcore bands, they're like playing with pop
up bands or like or maybe indie bands or or
whatever have you, because they want to be exposed to everyone.
They want there. They want to be the bigest fan
of the world, and that makes sense. They're just like

(01:05:17):
I want to I want to play to everybody, and
so like, obviously that means playing to new crowds like
almost all the time. So the energy is that. I mean,
I've definitely played to new like new crowds with magnitude.
Like I said, that first tour was a knock tolose tour.
It's not like all the fans know who Magnazud is, like,
so some people do. Yeah, And we played on rises

(01:05:39):
on that too, and that was like my real first
experience of playing like giant stages. And it wasn't even
like a giant stage tour. It wasn't like a big
venue tour for them, but there was like one or
two stages that were like massive, and I was like,
there's so much room, Like what are we going to do?
This is so weird. And it was very weird for
me to because I had a monitor and I was

(01:06:01):
up on a on a drum riser, and I was like,
I feel so disconnected from my band. I was like,
where are they. I can't get the energy because there's
there's no kids falling on me, there's no this or that.
There's the amps aren't right next to me. I was like,
this is very very strange, but yeah, I think I
think it's I think it's great either way. If you're

(01:06:24):
playing to new crowds, even though like maybe the reactually
kind of kind of lose, it's like tougher, but like
it's still inevitably like a good idea.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Well, and it gives you, like you as a you know,
even though you are a you know, hardcore kid playing
in hardcore bands. It gives you the you know, versatility
in the experience to be able to be like, oh, yes,
like I am up here playing my drums regardless if
there's anybody watching, like you know, i'd be doing this
in my room or whatever, and so just like, yeah,

(01:06:55):
I have to almost pay attention to more than you know,
people spilling over your sims or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Yeah, you're right at that point. I'm just like, I better.
I gotta focus on playing well at that point because
I'm like, I forgot, I'm not just in a hardcore band.
I gotta perform like I've bet, like I gotta I
gotta look like I know what I'm doing, Like I'm
I can play the whole songs all the way through,
because I definitely struggle with like, if I didn't write
the song, I'm not gonna play it. I'll never sit

(01:07:23):
so like I have to practice at home a lot,
and I'm like, even then, I like choke up live
if I'm not at the same setting I practiced him,
and I'm like, if I forgot a part two a song,
I definitely will forget. I'm like, fuck, like I'm really
I beat myself up a lot. But yeah, I think
definitely the energy of like like the crop being right

(01:07:45):
next to me and no one cares if I mess
up a little bit, we laughed off helps that is, like, yeah,
it helps for sure. But going back to like the
one step closer question, Yeah, I I recorded on the
new album that's gonna come out in like next year.
We recorded in October, so like I'll be on the record.
So yeah, like I'm like I'm part of the band.

(01:08:06):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
No, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
I mean I would, I would have put the words
in their mouths. We haven't really had the conversation like, yes,
you are a band member, but you know, I'm in
the promo pictures and like I'm on the record, and
I feel like that solidifies the idea because just like yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Totally you are, you are progressing, you have you know,
made your your value recognized.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
The last thing I'd want to hit on was the fact,
like you mentioned previously, where you know you have recorded
all the magnitude stuff. I know you record other bands
and you mix other bands and stuff like that. Has
that like, how is your experience playing in a band
informed that or do you feel like you try to
keep now you're you're not going to keep those two
worlds separate because clearly people are going to you know,

(01:08:52):
come to you based off of the music that you've recorded.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
But how do you think.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
That you know you being in a band informs how
you record and mix.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
I've definitely noticed that when I watch a band and
the drummer doesn't hit hard enough, obviously this is gonna
be a bias question. Yeah I'm a drummer, but it
can go same thing with like guitarists. They'll notice that
if someone doesn't pick hard enough, like you need to
be a strong picker, and same with the drummer. You

(01:09:27):
have to be like a hard hitter. And I'll definitely
take that with recording as well. If someone like they
want you to be hard and consistent with every hit
you do, it has to be heard and like I
would notice live if especially at hardcore shows because the
drums aren't always miked up. If they're not hitting hard enough,

(01:09:48):
I can't hear any of the drums behind the guitars.
It sounds like it sounds like a heavy breakdown and
I don't know where the snare is, and I'm just like, man,
I want it to crack. I want to hear it
so oh bad, but I don't, and I'm like, yo,
just hit it so hard. So like I really started
to like hit my drums like hard as hell, no

(01:10:09):
matter what, like every fill, every everything, Like I'm just
hitting hard as shit. And that definitely definitely helps with
recording as well. So I'll record myself for all the
Magnitude stuff, and I'm just like making sure I'm not
like being really sloppy, especially with editing. Like I'll edit
the drums and I'll be like, Okay, that sounds like shit,
I didn't play hard or mixing. I'm just like, well,

(01:10:32):
it's I can't mix this because like I didn't fucking
hit the tombs the right way, like they're not there's
too much simple bleed. I didn't hit the shit that hard.
So that's I think something that I've noticed about myself.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
I guess yeah, and that to your point, that's going
to help you from the tracking side of things, like
you know what will get a good performance on record,
and that will be help a live performance as well.
So it's like those you know it benefits each other.
There you have it. Please listen to Magnitude in one

(01:11:10):
step closer if you haven't. Massive appreciation to Connor for
coming on the show, and shout out to mutual friend
and friend of the pod Colin, who is a great individual.
He's behind LTB Fest and he manages bands and just
a great dude in general. So yeah, big shout out
to him for making the connect and pulling this together
next week. I have a friend who I am well,

(01:11:34):
I've given him no choice but to be my friend,
but I'm obsessed with his record label. And he actually
was kind of enough many many moons ago to send
me a package, a care package, and it did not
get lost on me because it was one of those
bands or one of those labels that I just became
obsessed with over the past probably it'd say two two
and a half years is where I really felt like
he is is blossomed. But his name is Jonathan Gonzalez

(01:11:59):
and he runs a lay cold Sunday drive records, so
that's what we have next week and until then, please
be safe, everybody,