March 24, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of The Kevin Powell Podcast, I sit down with SOFTSPOKEN, a band whose passion and authenticity are quickly making waves in the alternative rock scene. We dive into the stories behind their new EP, as the band shares what inspired their latest tracks and how their sound has evolved over time. They open up about the challenges and triumphs they’ve faced in the studio, and how their unique creative process has shaped this new chapter in their music. We also chat about their journey as a band, the personal experiences that influence their songwriting, and what fans can expect from their live shows. It’s a candid and fun conversation with a band that’s definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming year—don’t miss it!
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Follow for more exclusive content and interviews!
🎧 Listen to The Kevin Powell Podcast on your favorite streaming platform: ► iHeartRadio: https://tinyurl.com/wajjkjn4 ► Spotify: https://sptfy.com/4U03 ► Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/b1iwmz ► Google Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/93iwmz
🔥 Get 15% off your next order on Purus Labs supplements: https://puruslabs.com/?ref=kxpfit Get 10% off your next set of in-ear monitors here: https://www.basnaudio.com/?ref=kxpbasn Get 15% off protein snacks: https://redefinesnacks.com/?ref=KEVINPOWELL
🎸 Follow Gods End (My Band!) ► Stream: https://linktr.ee/godsxend ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/godsxend ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godsxend 💰 Support the channel ► PayPal: https://PayPal.me/kevinxpowell ► Venmo: https://Venmo.com/u/kevinxpowell
🔗 Connect with me! ► All Links: https://linktr.ee/kevinxpowell Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps support the channel at no extra cost to you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everyone? This is Soft Spoken and you're listening
to the Kevin Powell Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Kevin
Powell Podcast. I'm Kevin Powell. I'm your host. I love
doing this. I love talking to bands. It doesn't matter
if they're heavy not heavy, pop, folk. I'll talk to
a country artists. Hell, It's just something I love doing.
I love talking to bands, musicians, just getting to know
a little bit more about them. And now we're going
to get to know a little bit more about the
(00:29):
band soft Spoken. So who we got with us? We
got Saft Spoken. How's everyone doing and what's up?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
My name is Sam and I provide the vocals and.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I am Kevin and I play the drums.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
WHOA, Yeah, I have too. Kevin's happy to meet you guys,
Thanks for coming on. So, Saft Spoken, you got a
few things going on. You got a new release? Is
that what I remember?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Tell me about Yeah, I was gonna say. We got
a new EP coming out February twenty first. Uh, super
excited about it. We've already released a fair amount of
singles off of it. We got a new single that
we'll be coming out with it. It's February twenty first,
and yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And we're super proud of it.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And yeah, I'll let Sam say whatever if he has
anything he wants to say about it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, this EP was a good collective Kevin Dylan in
our new edition, Robbie, it's my favorite group. This lineup
and the fact that we called it Martyr just kind
of fell into place. And I guess I didn't realize
until a couple of interviews prior to this one that like,
I've been writing music that's just like bigger than like
(01:38):
I don't know if it's like I feel like we
keep writing, I don't know where I'm going. Sometimes it's
like I'm writing for something. And the Martyr kind of
just sums up, like we just love to play music
and spread a positive message, and if that's all that
we can do for one person, even then that's the
legacy that's worth dying for, worth sacrificing for, leaving families
(02:01):
to go on the road for, even if we can
save one person. So to kind of sum up the EP,
and that's it kind of helped us and hopefully it
helps everyone else out there who have purchased it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So I mean, I love I love hearing that that
kind of stuff fans do as well, and maybe new
fans learning about you guys. Tell me about, like the
the writing process for Martyr. What was what wasn't like
going into this? Was it any different compared to previous releases?
Anything at all?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It was.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
There's a few moments that were different. I can start
this one and then I could throw to Kevin easily.
A few of the songs, love Talk, Alone and Oblivion
we're kind of I call them COVID songs. So I
kind of was secluded to myself, trapped when everyone else
was too, and so lots of expression was happening, and
(02:50):
so those songs came about during COVID, and I kind
of me and Chris were just bouncing ideas off each other,
whether it be me on my computer with guitar and
just finding some free be here and there. Some like
I Think Alone had like a little hip hop beat
to it. Oblivion I kind of wrote the melody and
guitar like simultaneously, So then that happened, and then COVID
we had some some label like interest that just didn't
(03:13):
work out, and just time kind of like put it,
you know, a dent that post COVID, we've gotten some
new members and wrote some new music and you know,
one of the songs we even like hardcoregeous, old school
Dridges sat together as a band and like wrote these
parts off together and that's why I'll throw it to Kevin.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, I was, yeah, I was gonna say so. The
one in between was like my my actual first tour
with these guys, and we had to show cancel unfortunately,
but we reached out and we found out this guy,
Evan McKiever. I don't I had never heard of it, yeah,
but yeah, yeah, we just so happened to be in
his area near Cleveland, and so the guy we usually
(03:53):
write with was like, hey, goorete this guy. So we
took some ideas to him and came out with I
against Me. So that's sort of like we got the
OVID three and then we got the middle track I
against Me, and then we started writing as the current
lineup of this group, and like Sam said, Throwmia Roses
was the first one of that, and it was this
very collaborative effort. So liked, I'm the most passionate about
(04:14):
that one because it's.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
You know, we all have full time jobs.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I wish we could be doing this and making a
living off of it, but but that was one time
where we made sure that we were all together and
from the beginning, we all kind of put our you know,
our efforts into that one. So and then uh yeah,
and then Invincible and Twilight came shortly after that, and yeah,
the rest is history.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Now we're ready to release it to the world.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And I mean hearing that you guys have had what
demo ideas since COVID? Yeah, can you believe how long
it's been since that.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I know that's like it's five years ago almost, I guess, right, yeah, which.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is unbelievable because like, yeah, like you said, full time jobs,
I have multiple because man, I wish this covered the bill,
but no, that's not the case. But that's okay, we'll
get there one day. With the COVID demos, What was that, like,
I asked, because man, I can't tell you how many
bands I've talked to that maybe have the similar experience,
where like, shit on board, I'm just gonna write some tunes.
(05:17):
Was it like that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
But also because it was like also depressing in a
way too, because the game change and everyone was like,
you need to be on TikTok, you need to be
streaming live, you need to be doing this. All the
marketing that we had learned up into that point, everything
we had been doing. We even had a huge tour
out west and I'd never been out west of tour
that was plamp, but that got canceled because of COVID.
So just everything that we had done just changed. I
(05:41):
felt like overnight almost and just so I was, you know,
I'm in my thirties. I wasn't quite on the TikTok train.
I knew about it. My wife actually had it, and
she was the one that's like, this thing is crazy. Yeah,
I get on it, and you know, so famously she
had me on that one. But you know so well,
and behold, those tracks were COVID tracks, and they were
(06:04):
also just my like battle with the Internet, battle with trolls,
battle with just everyone's mindset was just like so divided.
Even kind of still to this day, it almost kind
of feels like COVID was just like this like weird
time stamp in our all timeline and now we we
use it as like a like you know, in COVID
instead of saying twenty twenty to twenty twenty five. You know,
(06:26):
we might be saying COVID years like, yeah, it used
to just really affected as yeah, sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Go ahead, No, it used to be BC and a D.
Now it's pret yeah yeah, you know, we yeah and
we win.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just feel like that love talk, for example, is
just about like not letting numbers be your like decisive
factor and your being like you know you are, you
are outside of your phone and a computer, and one
day we're going to get to go outside again, you
know that's and one day we're going to see live
music again because this is not the same with and
so that's that's on. Then oblivion is just like me
(06:58):
in this really deep black hole that like I felt
like I was spiraling, like I'm putting so much passion
into this, and so many other people probably felt the
same way, like how am I gonna get hurt? How
am I gonna get the reach that I need with
all this oversaturation of just negativity. And and then Alone,
like literally I was me and my wife were obsessed
with this show on the History Channel called Alone, and
it kind of made me think like, oh my god,
(07:19):
like you know what the one thing I need in
my life is people that love me and love and
and I don't want to ever be alone, and that's
what's important. So I want to say that now oblivion
came last, but that would almost be a nice like,
you know, I felt like this, I really got depressed,
and then I figured out that you yeah, the COVID
(07:40):
songs like maybe they could have been their own EP,
to be honest, but you know, so Spoken was just
going through a lot, So it only makes sense to
put those with the rest of the martyr songs because
of the martyr life, the musician's life, the sacrifice would
make it that it's all. It's all in this EP.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Now did a lot of words, So I'm just gonna
call it this did the COVID songs, Yeah, gocording to
them jamming and then the newer ones. Was there any
kind of like there's clearly a divide or like no,
there's definitely all blunts together. This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I feel like they you can slowly see a
little you know, we like I'd say growth, We're always
like growing our dynamic features, soft and loud heavy software.
But I think they're a blend, Like I think like
Twiland when you hear next week. You'll hear examples of
that in oblivion, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You can clearly hear the progression. So that's cool.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, I think so. I think so. But there's definitely similarities.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh yeah, one last thing I'll say about COVID. Then
we're moving on, because we talked about are you guys
like big I mean, we're musicians, We like live music.
Do you guys go like festivals or concerts or anything
like that?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Do you guys prefer it pre COVID or post? And
why I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I don't mean the festival scene got popular before COVID anyways.
Like I feel like in our world, once Kevin Lyman
like stopped doing War tour, it was like the festival
circuit just blew up for a rock I feel like,
am I could be wrong, so correct me, But I don't.
I don't necessarily feel a difference, And maybe I'm the
wrong person ask because my wife is also on the
(09:22):
road trying to make music happen for myself.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, no, I think pre COVID there was just no
concern and not necessarily, you know, between the members of
the band, but just like people going to shows, you know,
you got this divide of how people feel and should
I be scared, should I be going in, you know,
to this giant group of tens of thousands of people.
So I honestly feel like we could start to see
(09:48):
like a dip in like attendance at bigger shows. And
I don't I'd have to check festivals. As long as
they keep having Godsmack and Lincoln Park play, I guess
they're doing all right. But but yeah, but I mean overall,
I feel, you know, there was there's just now this
concern and everybody's like, oh, if I'm sick, I can't go.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
It used to just be like, oh screw that.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
If I got tickets to the show, I'm going and
I'm gonna jump in with everybody.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
We're gonna breathe the same breath, like we're gonna have
a blast.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
That like fly by Night, you know, do whatever you
want mentality.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
When it came to.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Concerts, I'll say this, and then again we're moving on.
So I think it was Sonic Temple last year. And yeah,
I do stuff for Danny Wimmer Presents, but I'm not
biased here. I like what they do. Yeah, me and
my bass player were waiting for sleep Token and we
had to get through. I mean, no offense to them,
but I'm not a big fan of end this moment.
(10:45):
But sleep Token, well, guess what, they're huge. So we're
going to be kind of close, not all the way
up front, but kind of close. And we got i
don't know, from me, like a couple couple of dozen
yards away from the stage. That's good enough. I don't
need to be right there. We couldn't move because of
how many people were there. But what I remember prior
(11:08):
was if you were in a big group of people,
you were just too close to people. Now like even
then with sleep Token, I was like, man, there's a
lot of people, but I could still like take a
step in front of me or take a step back,
like there's just enough room. And that I don't know
if that's like a subconscious thing now that people knew,
like maybe people will give them a little bit of space,
but I like that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's probably Yeah, that's great, Yeah all right, I can
I can get behind that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, So moving forward beyond COVID, because that's that's back
in the B season, so people understand space. You mentioned that,
you know, we we had that tour that we had
to cancel. But you have tour dates coming up? What
about those? Where are you going? What's going on with this?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yeah, so we're obviously supporting the EP starts out with
just our headliners. We're going to Nashville this Friday. I
don't know when this interview will come out, but Friday,
Valentine's Day, we'll be in Nashville, and then we're going
Atlanta after that, take a few days off, and then
we'll be in Hobart, which is basically like a suburb
of Chicago, on the twentieth, and then we're going to Louisville.
(12:11):
We'll have a hometown show Cincinnati the day after that,
and then we're going up to Cleveland the day after that.
Then we got a little break and in April we're
doing a four day run with The Wise Man's Fear.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
If you've heard of them, I have, Okay, Yeah, there
are homies of ours.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
We played a show in Cleveland and connected and clicked,
so yeah, so we're doing a little run with them
in April Scranton, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Greenville, South Carolina. And
then we got Frostfest, which is in Buffalo in early
May and then everything after that. I'm not allowed to
(12:46):
say yet because we're waiting on some details or just
waiting for somebody to dot some i's cross, some te's whatever.
But yeah, definitely some big hopes about some shows that
are like right there on the press of being finalized
and being able to be announced. So yeah, so that's
what we got going on right now, though already booked.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Awesome. No, I think you guys have a manager, right, Yes, yeah.
I think he was not to say he dropped the
ball here, but I think he said you guys were
going to open up for Metallica or something. I thought, whoa,
I'm just putting that out there, you know, just for fun. Also,
I talked about Sonic Temple because they're playing anyways. Yeah, yeah,
quickly Snowballs. And when you said frost Fest, I was
expecting you say, yeah, we're playing up in Buffalo and
(13:28):
it's going to be in the middle of the ice storm.
It's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
It's uh, it probably will be. I don't care if
it's May. I was literally thinking about this morning when
I was scraping my car. I was like kind of stopped.
I was like, I wonder if in May. It's going
to be snowing in Buffalo. I swear I had that.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't know why, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
It's been a few years for me since Buffalo, but yeah,
I just remember it being like stupid cold. When I
was like, yeah, a man, what was that town? What
was that city? You said was in Kentucky?
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You might you might be thinking Hobart, Hobart somewhere the
suburb of Cargo.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But then Louisville is where we're playing in Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That was it? So I asked that, all right, he's
another festival thing, so louder than life?
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Was there.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Anytime that? So it doesn't matter, like, not just me,
but anytime that someone that does video or radio or
audio or whatever. Anytime anyone mispronounces something one time, you
better believe the comments are just flooded with that. So
I'm running with this idea and I haven't done it
just yet. But how do you say that again?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Louisville?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, the people of Louisville say it.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yes, that's how they say it, and that's how I
was Louisville. They say it, but they I was told
that I'm not from there. I'm from West Virginia. I
was told that after I made my video saying like, hey,
so Lotderdon, life's coming to I think I said Lewisville, right,
because that's what it looks like. I don't know, you
got people are like idiot. So now I'm going to
(14:55):
run with this idea where anytime I mentioned a city,
I'm one hundred percent going to say it the wrong
way every Yeah, yeah, for sure, vill it's Louiville. I'm
just gonna make it up as I go.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
An easy way to get people to engage on your content.
That's brilliant. See you saw, Oh go ahead, Sorry, no,
I was just gonna say.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
And if you look at everybody's tour announcement, look for
Cincinnati and they misspell it all the time too, and
then they get that engagement of people being.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Like it's c I n c I n an at
I not a t T.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I like yeah, literally hundreds of comments about how you
spelled it wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So, yeah, you're right, that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
We should just make tour flyers that are horrible with spelling.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Do that make the videos like hey Louisville, we're coming
your way, and have at it?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So what about so we're in twenty twenty five right now,
but you know what about twenty twenty four, you know,
is there anything memorable you would like to talk about.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, yeah, definitely Japan for me and maybe Kevin too,
But that was definitely a bucket list that Yeah. Yeah,
the band got to go to Japan for the first time.
That was a bucket list and it's it's crazy that
music took us there. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Okay, So Chris, I think you're playing that because you're like, yeah, he.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Was a little I'll give you a little more storyline
to them. So Chris our guitarists lived in Japan for
a while, so he grew up in Kentucky, moved I know,
so that he could teach there, and he was in
a band, easycore, and he would play these shows for
(16:32):
bands like he would open for like bands that came
from America who used this R and R tours, uh
to do the tour. So he became friends with those people,
and after he moved back, there was always this talk
of like, hey man, you should come back someday and
be that American band that you know, these japan bands
would then open for. And so of course we've talked
(16:54):
about it one hundred times, and I was like, oh god,
it's such a bad idea, man, Like do we really
have a fan base over there? And he has you know,
kept a decent, like I don't know, rapport with the
people over there that he knew. But we also have
a decent following on Twitter or x and that's almost
exclusively Japan based. So so yeah, So we went over
(17:17):
there and much to me and Sam, I think, as
well as surprise, we had a great following and just
played four amazing shows and had a blast.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah. Like I was the naysayer.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I was like, let's not do this, let's not do this,
and then right before I was like I can't miss
this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I'll be there, like yeah, let's do it. Let's get it.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
And I'm so glad I did, because, like Sam said,
it's like a bucket list item to have music, you know,
take you to a different country in that way, especially
the way.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
That it did for us there before. Prior.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, I've been to a few countries in Asia. So
I was in the Marines and I actually played drums
in the Marine Corps band, so I got to play
like covers. I was in like a cover like rock band.
So I got playing like Australia and Thailand, Tonga, stuff
like that, but I never got to actually spend time
in Japan. There was always somewhere I wanted to go
back to.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So it kind of worked out that I just got
to do that as well.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And it's even cooler for me because it was original
music rather than playing covers.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Right, what was the you sat down? You're like, what
was the holy shit moment we're in Japan for you guys?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Ooops? Yeah, yeah, well I had to yeah, oh sorry,
go ahead, Well I won't to talk about that. That's fine,
go ahead, ken for me.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
So we had VIP every night, and I specifically remember
the first night we had VIP.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I was a little taken aback and I was like,
this is so cool.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
There's you know, a bunch of people in line to
meet us and take a polaroid picture with.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Us and all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And I remember there was one guy who didn't want
to talk to us, not because he like didn't want
to talk to us, because he was just so shy.
Like the people in Japan are very different culturally, right,
So anyways, this guy was so shy and he just
didn't want to talk to us, and I was like, hey,
that's cool, no problem whatever. But I remember as I
was playing, I saw him and he was front row
and we played the whole show. People go crazy, everybody's
(19:10):
slapping hands with us at the end, and he came
up to me afterwards and gave me the biggest hug
and like he wouldn't talk in the beginning, but after
he saw his play, he was just like so excited
he couldn't even like contain himself.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
He gives me a big hug and he's like, you're amazing,
You're amazing, And.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
That moment for me like you couldn't take the smile
off my I'm sorry, somebody's calling me my bad, but yeah,
you couldn't. You just couldn't take the smile off my
face at that moment because it's just such a such
an incredible feeling, and that that sort of summed up
like that entire trip for me.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I can feel it radying off of you. Yeah, really
really hope you have a picture of that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I'll go through the VIP stuff and see if we
happen to have me and him maybe like shaking hands
or something.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We'll see, I'll see, I'll see what I can do
for you.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
How about for you?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So yeah, I said, throwing up. I get a little
motion sickness. And it's a thirteen hour plane ride, so
I like to make people laugh, so I'll give him
this story. It hit me when I was in Japan. Yeah,
the pilot's like, we're gonna be landing soon, and I
was like, I got this, I got this, and then
I just blew chunks, like all on this bag, my
basis and it came with us, made for me, and
(20:19):
it was fine. I got it all on the bag,
but then it started leaking out and just run, you know,
and running, and I was afraid, so I grabbed the
blanket put it on there. When we landed, I had
to tell someone I wasn't gonna walk away. You know,
I don't know the language. So it was really awkward
getting this across that, like I threw up, like I got sick,
and she's like, oh, you know, like it's okay, like well,
(20:42):
like what what you know, like what's going on basically,
And so I showed her and she goes lifted up
and I was like no, no, no, and she screamed
like she it's like screamed and and she was like
oh and like kind of screwmeds like it's okay, it's
great off and yeah, and I was just like ow man,
like I kind of felt like dumb and just rude.
(21:02):
And the.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
More different stories about.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Couldn't have been two more different stories about how we
remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But that was literally that was meat. That was like,
you know, that was my first interaction.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
With your holy ship moment.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, and you're like, all right, guys, let's go make
you feel a little bit better. It's on about that.
This is the only way I'd be able to tell
this story because how else do you bring this up?
So we had friends miss It's just me and the guys,
and we went to it's called Crazy Mexican and it's
(21:45):
I mean, it's a really great Mexican restaurant here in
West Virginia. Yeah, put those two things together. It's around
Christmas time, it's busy. We get it. We're not excuse me,
we would like to have our food now. We just ordered, like,
we get it. Things happen. Can't really tell it's short
staffed if it is again whatever, we're like exchanging gifts.
We're having a good time, but then we noticed, like, wow,
(22:07):
it's been like thirty or thirty five minutes and we
haven't seen anything, Like we haven't even gotten our waters yet.
So at some point, like we're looking around, we're like hmmm.
So eventually everything starts coming and I get this, like
I don't know how to pronounce it, and I'll have
to just put a picture up. But it's like this
big bowl of meat and it has like melted cheese
(22:28):
and it's like sizzling as really good. It as like
chicken and steak and this and that. Now you cannot
pick this up with your hands and eat it. You
have to use a fork and knife. Guess what. They
didn't have any sware, no, because they ran out. They
told us, so here's some plastic wear, and so I'm like,
I mean you could just like wash yeah, I mean
(22:50):
we'll wash them if you want to stay anyway, So
I'm like try my best, and everyone's like kind of
like ha ha ha. But also it's been like an
hour and twenty minutes and we're just getting it. Like anyways,
we eat as much as we can, box up the
rest and my guitarist Tyler looks at me. He goes, hey, keV,
I gotta go to the bathroom. I was like, okay, go,
you don't need my permission, buddy. He goes, you understand
(23:14):
the toilet in the men's is already full, and I
can't do anything about it. I was like, well, I mean,
I don't know how much longer we're gonna be waiting. Also,
I'm not trying to make anyone sick by this, but
it's just it's a funny.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Just yea.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Else He's like, I don't know if I can wait
another five minutes, Kevin. I'm like, homie, I think you could.
I just like will power like I'm trying to talk
him into eos. So we're like setting. Eventually we stand up,
like all of us just stand ups. We're like, maybe
we can get out of you're faster with our checks,
and we're done. Like I don't know what We're standing.
(23:47):
We're looking at each other. He's sweating. I'm looking at
him sweating. I'm like dog. So he goes, keV, I'm
gonna need you to stand outside the women's. As I
go in the women's and I'm looking at him, I'm like, Tyler,
I can't I cannot do that for you, Like I
would love to. This is the very best friend moment
that we're going to have, but I can't do that
for you. He's like, okay, So he just runs to
(24:07):
the nearest person. He almost like grabs him. He's like, listen,
do you have a second bathroom? He goes my friend, Yes,
of course, it's over here. He's got my thoughts. So
it was just it's kind of similar. I want you
to feel a little bit better. It didn't get any
worse than that. Everything's good, thank god.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah, but that's the.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Only way I can tell that story. So thanks for listening.
So moving on twenty twenty five is here? What goals
do you guys have for twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Play more, bigger, better shows. That's that's definitely one. And
just keep on the same trajectory that we've been on
writing with the writing and we keep hammering the dynamics
that we like to deliver. Stay true to that. Yeah,
We've got a good community on Discord, the Speaker's community
that we're building there, and we've been having a lot
(24:52):
of fun there, so I want to like take that
to the next level. It just like really provide for them. Yeah,
it was a few months.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, I was going to say, like we had really good,
steady growth in twenty twenty four. We'd like to just
see that double or triple or however many multipliers move
we can get. But yeah, as long as we're kind
of continue to grow and continue to go in the
correct direction and giving the people who've been supporting us
the content that they want, then I think we're ultimately
(25:20):
going to be very happy.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Doing what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
So, yeah, we're stoked on on where we're at right
now and what we've already been given. We're very grateful,
and yeah, we just appreciate everybody being on the ride
for us and hope that they stay on the rid.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Very well said, So you got your goals, you got
the new EP coming, you got a tour. What a
bad advice? I asked this question towards the all of
my views toward the end. It doesn't matter who I'm
talking to. I've talked to huge, crazy bands and then
bands that just started like last week, and they all
have different answers. So what would your advice be for
a band just starting out or maybe they want to
(25:54):
move up to the next level?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I was like to tell everyone first and foremost, like
you really believe what you've got, You're passionate about it,
and it's genuine, because I think that's really like what
cuts through the most and lasts. Sometimes fat, you know,
fad is a fat it comes and goes. But if
you got something genuine, it's got something that lasts. So
if you've got that and you believe in it, then
(26:16):
don't quit.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, that's good. I like that.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I guess to add to that, I know it can
be very daunting everything that's in this game, you know,
keeping up with Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever the.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Heck Lemon eight is.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
You know, there's just so many different things that you
could be doing.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Focus on what you do well.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I would definitely say that that's a very important piece
of it. And like Sam said, stay authentic to what
you you know, what got you started. Basically, I think
it's okay to mature and adapt and evolve and things
like that, but if you're not authentic to what you're doing,
you're going to get burnt out on it. So you know,
make sure that you leave in the message that you're
putting across, Otherwise you're just going to burn out and
(27:04):
not want to continue it. So we've been very fortunate.
I would say that Sam and Chris are very fortunate
that the members who have joined since them have been
willing and able to kind of continue with the same mantra,
the same ideals and kind of yeah, just continue to
push this authentic self and our mottos speak true. BU
(27:25):
We're all about it, and yeah, I think we're just
rolling with that, and as long as you're able to
kind of follow that, then I don't think we're going
to burn out.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yes, sir man, I can't wait to see the captions
as you're saying that, because you're saying be authentic, you
guys can attest to this. I did not send you
guys questions. This is all off the cuff. I'm just
rolling with it. Yeah, both of you very well said
on that, So like, I hope people really grasp onto that.
And Kevin, especially with the social media thing, have either
(27:58):
of you guys been like out of work for whatever
reason for hoever long?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I got very I was gonna say, I got very lucky.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Actually my business kind of boomed when COVID happened because
everybody I'm it's really funny that the two of us
are on here too, because so I'm a general contractor
and the way that I got into this band was
I was looking for painters and Sam is a painter,
So now Sam works with me.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So yeah, it's that interesting.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
So so I think Sam's in the same basic boat
around COVID. It kind of boomed because everybody went home
and they wanted to see stuff happening at their house
because they were stuck there. They were like, I want
my bathroom renovated, like this place stinks. Want I want
my house painted. So yeah, luckily, we've been very fortunate,
and I think I can speak for Sam when I
say we've been very lucky that neither of our businesses
(28:44):
have slowed down that much.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
So I asked that because, like, keV, what why are
you asking that question? I'm still recovering from a torn
thing in my bicep and I was out of work
for basically a month sitting here board and I was
thinking about h COVID. But at the same time, you
were mentioning all these streaming services and this and that.
Do you guys have one guy or do you split
that up amongst yourselves? Of all right, listen, we got
to do social media, like is it just one guy
(29:07):
in the band or is it everybody?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
No, we we kind of divide and conquer, I would.
I think everybody kind of plays their role, and we
really try to push each other to this. This is
a constant point of emphasis. It's like, hey, Sam, can
you make this video?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
You know?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
And Dylan be like, hey, here's an idea, and Robbie
be like, oh, I thought, yeah. We're we all five
kind of push each other to make it. But me
and Chris tend to do the most like editing and pressings,
you know, or whatever. But we're all making it and
we're all pushing each other to make.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It so great. I'm glad you guys do that. I
asked because you can see. I mean, if you had
to do everything, every post, every real, every this, every that,
Like people are like social media that's an all the job
one of me.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
It's like a full time on paid job for bands, yep.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And they won't get paid. It's just like they're just
doing it for fun. So thanks for answering that. Now
I have just enough time to ask my very fun question,
and I have to disclose this. I have stolen this
question from the e c h L, which is right
under the NHL. I don't know anything about hockey. I
don't know anything about sports.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Cyclones baby in the lah Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you might have heard of the Wheeling Nailers.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Yeah, yeah, wheel I feel like we play the Wheeling
Nailers like every week.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Where's the Cyclone from Cincinnati? Cyclone stolen this question from
the Nailers. Who in your phone contacts is the most
famous person you know? And would they answer if you
called them?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Man, displeasure. We're not calling anybody, but.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, I was gonna say mine is. Probably it's a bit.
It's for sure a Bengals player. Because I was a
property manager for a while and I managed a bunch
of Bengals players. I highly doubt they would answer a
few years ago they would have because they had been like,
what's wrong? Because everything okay with my apartment? But I
don't manage that property anymore and they don't live there.
(31:12):
So yeah, I probably got like, I probably got like
eighteen Bengals players and like ten Reds players in my phone,
So actually I know, I know it's probably Adam Duvall.
He's uh, he played for the Reds and then he
played for the Braves, so he's won a World Series.
I'm gonna say he's probably the most famous. But there's
a slew of professional athletes in my phone.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
How about the level of fame here might just be
like echl Kind or something. But I was either thinking
it's either going to be someone from Soft Spoken or
my uncle. His name's Herb Sendek and he's a NCAA
basketball coach whoa coaches. He used to coach Arizona State
(31:56):
and had the pleasure of coaching James Harden who's in
the NBA, and a few other NBA players, but he
currently coaches Santa Clara out in California.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I bet he'd answer for you.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Very nice.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
He calls me.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
He calls me Sam and slammy baja. I don't know
where the baja came from, but I do like baja blast.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Well, guys, I do appreciate a little bit of your
time today. As you can see, it wasn't super duper business.
The entire time. We got to learn a little bit
more about you guys as individuals and more about the
band Soft Spoken. I'm gonna talk to you guys here
in the second off air. Okay, sure, yeah, that's Soft Spoken.
They got a new EP coming out, they got tours
coming out. My cat is coming up. I'm just get
(32:39):
him up here. This is Max. He's gonna join me
on my shoulder for a little bit. So thanks for
joining this episode of the Kevin Pewell Podcast. We appreciate it.
As always, we'll see you guys next time.
What's up everyone? This is Soft Spoken and you're listening
to the Kevin Powell Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Kevin
Powell Podcast. I'm Kevin Powell. I'm your host. I love
doing this. I love talking to bands. It doesn't matter
if they're heavy not heavy, pop, folk. I'll talk to
a country artists. Hell, It's just something I love doing.
I love talking to bands, musicians, just getting to know
a little bit more about them. And now we're going
to get to know a little bit more about the
(00:29):
band soft Spoken. So who we got with us? We
got Saft Spoken. How's everyone doing and what's up?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
My name is Sam and I provide the vocals and.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I am Kevin and I play the drums.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
WHOA, Yeah, I have too. Kevin's happy to meet you guys,
Thanks for coming on. So, Saft Spoken, you got a
few things going on. You got a new release? Is
that what I remember?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Tell me about Yeah, I was gonna say. We got
a new EP coming out February twenty first. Uh, super
excited about it. We've already released a fair amount of
singles off of it. We got a new single that
we'll be coming out with it. It's February twenty first,
and yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And we're super proud of it.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And yeah, I'll let Sam say whatever if he has
anything he wants to say about it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, this EP was a good collective Kevin Dylan in
our new edition, Robbie, it's my favorite group. This lineup
and the fact that we called it Martyr just kind
of fell into place. And I guess I didn't realize
until a couple of interviews prior to this one that like,
I've been writing music that's just like bigger than like
(01:38):
I don't know if it's like I feel like we
keep writing, I don't know where I'm going. Sometimes it's
like I'm writing for something. And the Martyr kind of
just sums up, like we just love to play music
and spread a positive message, and if that's all that
we can do for one person, even then that's the
legacy that's worth dying for, worth sacrificing for, leaving families
(02:01):
to go on the road for, even if we can
save one person. So to kind of sum up the EP,
and that's it kind of helped us and hopefully it
helps everyone else out there who have purchased it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So I mean, I love I love hearing that that
kind of stuff fans do as well, and maybe new
fans learning about you guys. Tell me about, like the
the writing process for Martyr. What was what wasn't like
going into this? Was it any different compared to previous releases?
Anything at all?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It was.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
There's a few moments that were different. I can start
this one and then I could throw to Kevin easily.
A few of the songs, love Talk, Alone and Oblivion
we're kind of I call them COVID songs. So I
kind of was secluded to myself, trapped when everyone else
was too, and so lots of expression was happening, and
(02:50):
so those songs came about during COVID, and I kind
of me and Chris were just bouncing ideas off each other,
whether it be me on my computer with guitar and
just finding some free be here and there. Some like
I Think Alone had like a little hip hop beat
to it. Oblivion I kind of wrote the melody and
guitar like simultaneously, So then that happened, and then COVID
we had some some label like interest that just didn't
(03:13):
work out, and just time kind of like put it,
you know, a dent that post COVID, we've gotten some
new members and wrote some new music and you know,
one of the songs we even like hardcoregeous, old school
Dridges sat together as a band and like wrote these
parts off together and that's why I'll throw it to Kevin.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, I was, yeah, I was gonna say so. The
one in between was like my my actual first tour
with these guys, and we had to show cancel unfortunately,
but we reached out and we found out this guy,
Evan McKiever. I don't I had never heard of it, yeah,
but yeah, yeah, we just so happened to be in
his area near Cleveland, and so the guy we usually
(03:53):
write with was like, hey, goorete this guy. So we
took some ideas to him and came out with I
against Me. So that's sort of like we got the
OVID three and then we got the middle track I
against Me, and then we started writing as the current
lineup of this group, and like Sam said, Throwmia Roses
was the first one of that, and it was this
very collaborative effort. So liked, I'm the most passionate about
(04:14):
that one because it's.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
You know, we all have full time jobs.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I wish we could be doing this and making a
living off of it, but but that was one time
where we made sure that we were all together and
from the beginning, we all kind of put our you know,
our efforts into that one. So and then uh yeah,
and then Invincible and Twilight came shortly after that, and yeah,
the rest is history.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Now we're ready to release it to the world.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And I mean hearing that you guys have had what
demo ideas since COVID? Yeah, can you believe how long
it's been since that.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I know that's like it's five years ago almost, I guess, right, yeah, which.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is unbelievable because like, yeah, like you said, full time jobs,
I have multiple because man, I wish this covered the bill,
but no, that's not the case. But that's okay, we'll
get there one day. With the COVID demos, What was that, like,
I asked, because man, I can't tell you how many
bands I've talked to that maybe have the similar experience,
where like, shit on board, I'm just gonna write some tunes.
(05:17):
Was it like that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
But also because it was like also depressing in a
way too, because the game change and everyone was like,
you need to be on TikTok, you need to be
streaming live, you need to be doing this. All the
marketing that we had learned up into that point, everything
we had been doing. We even had a huge tour
out west and I'd never been out west of tour
that was plamp, but that got canceled because of COVID.
So just everything that we had done just changed. I
(05:41):
felt like overnight almost and just so I was, you know,
I'm in my thirties. I wasn't quite on the TikTok train.
I knew about it. My wife actually had it, and
she was the one that's like, this thing is crazy. Yeah,
I get on it, and you know, so famously she
had me on that one. But you know so well,
and behold, those tracks were COVID tracks, and they were
(06:04):
also just my like battle with the Internet, battle with trolls,
battle with just everyone's mindset was just like so divided.
Even kind of still to this day, it almost kind
of feels like COVID was just like this like weird
time stamp in our all timeline and now we we
use it as like a like you know, in COVID
instead of saying twenty twenty to twenty twenty five. You know,
(06:26):
we might be saying COVID years like, yeah, it used
to just really affected as yeah, sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Go ahead, No, it used to be BC and a D.
Now it's pret yeah yeah, you know, we yeah and
we win.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just feel like that love talk, for example, is
just about like not letting numbers be your like decisive
factor and your being like you know you are, you
are outside of your phone and a computer, and one
day we're going to get to go outside again, you
know that's and one day we're going to see live
music again because this is not the same with and
so that's that's on. Then oblivion is just like me
(06:58):
in this really deep black hole that like I felt
like I was spiraling, like I'm putting so much passion
into this, and so many other people probably felt the
same way, like how am I gonna get hurt? How
am I gonna get the reach that I need with
all this oversaturation of just negativity. And and then Alone,
like literally I was me and my wife were obsessed
with this show on the History Channel called Alone, and
it kind of made me think like, oh my god,
(07:19):
like you know what the one thing I need in
my life is people that love me and love and
and I don't want to ever be alone, and that's
what's important. So I want to say that now oblivion
came last, but that would almost be a nice like,
you know, I felt like this, I really got depressed,
and then I figured out that you yeah, the COVID
(07:40):
songs like maybe they could have been their own EP,
to be honest, but you know, so Spoken was just
going through a lot, So it only makes sense to
put those with the rest of the martyr songs because
of the martyr life, the musician's life, the sacrifice would
make it that it's all. It's all in this EP.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Now did a lot of words, So I'm just gonna
call it this did the COVID songs, Yeah, gocording to
them jamming and then the newer ones. Was there any
kind of like there's clearly a divide or like no,
there's definitely all blunts together. This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I feel like they you can slowly see a
little you know, we like I'd say growth, We're always
like growing our dynamic features, soft and loud heavy software.
But I think they're a blend, Like I think like
Twiland when you hear next week. You'll hear examples of
that in oblivion, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You can clearly hear the progression. So that's cool.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, I think so. I think so. But there's definitely similarities.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh yeah, one last thing I'll say about COVID. Then
we're moving on, because we talked about are you guys
like big I mean, we're musicians, We like live music.
Do you guys go like festivals or concerts or anything
like that?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Do you guys prefer it pre COVID or post? And
why I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I don't mean the festival scene got popular before COVID anyways.
Like I feel like in our world, once Kevin Lyman
like stopped doing War tour, it was like the festival
circuit just blew up for a rock I feel like,
am I could be wrong, so correct me, But I don't.
I don't necessarily feel a difference, And maybe I'm the
wrong person ask because my wife is also on the
(09:22):
road trying to make music happen for myself.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, no, I think pre COVID there was just no
concern and not necessarily, you know, between the members of
the band, but just like people going to shows, you know,
you got this divide of how people feel and should
I be scared, should I be going in, you know,
to this giant group of tens of thousands of people.
So I honestly feel like we could start to see
(09:48):
like a dip in like attendance at bigger shows. And
I don't I'd have to check festivals. As long as
they keep having Godsmack and Lincoln Park play, I guess
they're doing all right. But but yeah, but I mean overall,
I feel, you know, there was there's just now this
concern and everybody's like, oh, if I'm sick, I can't go.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
It used to just be like, oh screw that.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
If I got tickets to the show, I'm going and
I'm gonna jump in with everybody.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
We're gonna breathe the same breath, like we're gonna have
a blast.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
That like fly by Night, you know, do whatever you
want mentality.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
When it came to.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Concerts, I'll say this, and then again we're moving on.
So I think it was Sonic Temple last year. And yeah,
I do stuff for Danny Wimmer Presents, but I'm not
biased here. I like what they do. Yeah, me and
my bass player were waiting for sleep Token and we
had to get through. I mean, no offense to them,
but I'm not a big fan of end this moment.
(10:45):
But sleep Token, well, guess what, they're huge. So we're
going to be kind of close, not all the way
up front, but kind of close. And we got i
don't know, from me, like a couple couple of dozen
yards away from the stage. That's good enough. I don't
need to be right there. We couldn't move because of
how many people were there. But what I remember prior
(11:08):
was if you were in a big group of people,
you were just too close to people. Now like even
then with sleep Token, I was like, man, there's a
lot of people, but I could still like take a
step in front of me or take a step back,
like there's just enough room. And that I don't know
if that's like a subconscious thing now that people knew,
like maybe people will give them a little bit of space,
but I like that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's probably Yeah, that's great, Yeah all right, I can
I can get behind that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, So moving forward beyond COVID, because that's that's back
in the B season, so people understand space. You mentioned that,
you know, we we had that tour that we had
to cancel. But you have tour dates coming up? What
about those? Where are you going? What's going on with this?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yeah, so we're obviously supporting the EP starts out with
just our headliners. We're going to Nashville this Friday. I
don't know when this interview will come out, but Friday,
Valentine's Day, we'll be in Nashville, and then we're going
Atlanta after that, take a few days off, and then
we'll be in Hobart, which is basically like a suburb
of Chicago, on the twentieth, and then we're going to Louisville.
(12:11):
We'll have a hometown show Cincinnati the day after that,
and then we're going up to Cleveland the day after that.
Then we got a little break and in April we're
doing a four day run with The Wise Man's Fear.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
If you've heard of them, I have, Okay, Yeah, there
are homies of ours.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
We played a show in Cleveland and connected and clicked,
so yeah, so we're doing a little run with them
in April Scranton, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Greenville, South Carolina. And
then we got Frostfest, which is in Buffalo in early
May and then everything after that. I'm not allowed to
(12:46):
say yet because we're waiting on some details or just
waiting for somebody to dot some i's cross, some te's whatever.
But yeah, definitely some big hopes about some shows that
are like right there on the press of being finalized
and being able to be announced. So yeah, so that's
what we got going on right now, though already booked.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Awesome. No, I think you guys have a manager, right, Yes, yeah.
I think he was not to say he dropped the
ball here, but I think he said you guys were
going to open up for Metallica or something. I thought, whoa,
I'm just putting that out there, you know, just for fun. Also,
I talked about Sonic Temple because they're playing anyways. Yeah, yeah,
quickly Snowballs. And when you said frost Fest, I was
expecting you say, yeah, we're playing up in Buffalo and
(13:28):
it's going to be in the middle of the ice storm.
It's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
It's uh, it probably will be. I don't care if
it's May. I was literally thinking about this morning when
I was scraping my car. I was like kind of stopped.
I was like, I wonder if in May. It's going
to be snowing in Buffalo. I swear I had that.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't know why, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
It's been a few years for me since Buffalo, but yeah,
I just remember it being like stupid cold. When I
was like, yeah, a man, what was that town? What
was that city? You said was in Kentucky?
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You might you might be thinking Hobart, Hobart somewhere the
suburb of Cargo.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But then Louisville is where we're playing in Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That was it? So I asked that, all right, he's
another festival thing, so louder than life?
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Was there.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Anytime that? So it doesn't matter, like, not just me,
but anytime that someone that does video or radio or
audio or whatever. Anytime anyone mispronounces something one time, you
better believe the comments are just flooded with that. So
I'm running with this idea and I haven't done it
just yet. But how do you say that again?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Louisville?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, the people of Louisville say it.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yes, that's how they say it, and that's how I
was Louisville. They say it, but they I was told
that I'm not from there. I'm from West Virginia. I
was told that after I made my video saying like, hey,
so Lotderdon, life's coming to I think I said Lewisville, right,
because that's what it looks like. I don't know, you
got people are like idiot. So now I'm going to
(14:55):
run with this idea where anytime I mentioned a city,
I'm one hundred percent going to say it the wrong
way every Yeah, yeah, for sure, vill it's Louiville. I'm
just gonna make it up as I go.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
An easy way to get people to engage on your content.
That's brilliant. See you saw, Oh go ahead, Sorry, no,
I was just gonna say.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
And if you look at everybody's tour announcement, look for
Cincinnati and they misspell it all the time too, and
then they get that engagement of people being.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Like it's c I n c I n an at
I not a t T.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I like yeah, literally hundreds of comments about how you
spelled it wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So, yeah, you're right, that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
We should just make tour flyers that are horrible with spelling.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Do that make the videos like hey Louisville, we're coming
your way, and have at it?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So what about so we're in twenty twenty five right now,
but you know what about twenty twenty four, you know,
is there anything memorable you would like to talk about.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, yeah, definitely Japan for me and maybe Kevin too,
But that was definitely a bucket list that Yeah. Yeah,
the band got to go to Japan for the first time.
That was a bucket list and it's it's crazy that
music took us there. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Okay, So Chris, I think you're playing that because you're like, yeah, he.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Was a little I'll give you a little more storyline
to them. So Chris our guitarists lived in Japan for
a while, so he grew up in Kentucky, moved I know,
so that he could teach there, and he was in
a band, easycore, and he would play these shows for
(16:32):
bands like he would open for like bands that came
from America who used this R and R tours, uh
to do the tour. So he became friends with those people,
and after he moved back, there was always this talk
of like, hey man, you should come back someday and
be that American band that you know, these japan bands
would then open for. And so of course we've talked
(16:54):
about it one hundred times, and I was like, oh god,
it's such a bad idea, man, Like do we really
have a fan base over there? And he has you know,
kept a decent, like I don't know, rapport with the
people over there that he knew. But we also have
a decent following on Twitter or x and that's almost
exclusively Japan based. So so yeah, So we went over
(17:17):
there and much to me and Sam, I think, as
well as surprise, we had a great following and just
played four amazing shows and had a blast.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah. Like I was the naysayer.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I was like, let's not do this, let's not do this,
and then right before I was like I can't miss
this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I'll be there, like yeah, let's do it. Let's get it.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
And I'm so glad I did, because, like Sam said,
it's like a bucket list item to have music, you know,
take you to a different country in that way, especially
the way.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
That it did for us there before. Prior.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, I've been to a few countries in Asia. So
I was in the Marines and I actually played drums
in the Marine Corps band, so I got to play
like covers. I was in like a cover like rock band.
So I got playing like Australia and Thailand, Tonga, stuff
like that, but I never got to actually spend time
in Japan. There was always somewhere I wanted to go
back to.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So it kind of worked out that I just got
to do that as well.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And it's even cooler for me because it was original
music rather than playing covers.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Right, what was the you sat down? You're like, what
was the holy shit moment we're in Japan for you guys?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Ooops? Yeah, yeah, well I had to yeah, oh sorry,
go ahead, Well I won't to talk about that. That's fine,
go ahead, ken for me.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
So we had VIP every night, and I specifically remember
the first night we had VIP.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I was a little taken aback and I was like,
this is so cool.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
There's you know, a bunch of people in line to
meet us and take a polaroid picture with.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Us and all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And I remember there was one guy who didn't want
to talk to us, not because he like didn't want
to talk to us, because he was just so shy.
Like the people in Japan are very different culturally, right,
So anyways, this guy was so shy and he just
didn't want to talk to us, and I was like, hey,
that's cool, no problem whatever. But I remember as I
was playing, I saw him and he was front row
and we played the whole show. People go crazy, everybody's
(19:10):
slapping hands with us at the end, and he came
up to me afterwards and gave me the biggest hug
and like he wouldn't talk in the beginning, but after
he saw his play, he was just like so excited
he couldn't even like contain himself.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
He gives me a big hug and he's like, you're amazing,
You're amazing, And.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
That moment for me like you couldn't take the smile
off my I'm sorry, somebody's calling me my bad, but yeah,
you couldn't. You just couldn't take the smile off my
face at that moment because it's just such a such
an incredible feeling, and that that sort of summed up
like that entire trip for me.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I can feel it radying off of you. Yeah, really
really hope you have a picture of that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I'll go through the VIP stuff and see if we
happen to have me and him maybe like shaking hands
or something.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We'll see, I'll see, I'll see what I can do
for you.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
How about for you?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So yeah, I said, throwing up. I get a little
motion sickness. And it's a thirteen hour plane ride, so
I like to make people laugh, so I'll give him
this story. It hit me when I was in Japan. Yeah,
the pilot's like, we're gonna be landing soon, and I
was like, I got this, I got this, and then
I just blew chunks, like all on this bag, my
basis and it came with us, made for me, and
(20:19):
it was fine. I got it all on the bag,
but then it started leaking out and just run, you know,
and running, and I was afraid, so I grabbed the
blanket put it on there. When we landed, I had
to tell someone I wasn't gonna walk away. You know,
I don't know the language. So it was really awkward
getting this across that, like I threw up, like I got sick,
and she's like, oh, you know, like it's okay, like well,
(20:42):
like what what you know, like what's going on basically,
And so I showed her and she goes lifted up
and I was like no, no, no, and she screamed
like she it's like screamed and and she was like
oh and like kind of screwmeds like it's okay, it's
great off and yeah, and I was just like ow man,
like I kind of felt like dumb and just rude.
(21:02):
And the.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
More different stories about.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Couldn't have been two more different stories about how we
remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But that was literally that was meat. That was like,
you know, that was my first interaction.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
With your holy ship moment.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, and you're like, all right, guys, let's go make
you feel a little bit better. It's on about that.
This is the only way I'd be able to tell
this story because how else do you bring this up?
So we had friends miss It's just me and the guys,
and we went to it's called Crazy Mexican and it's
(21:45):
I mean, it's a really great Mexican restaurant here in
West Virginia. Yeah, put those two things together. It's around
Christmas time, it's busy. We get it. We're not excuse me,
we would like to have our food now. We just ordered, like,
we get it. Things happen. Can't really tell it's short
staffed if it is again whatever, we're like exchanging gifts.
We're having a good time, but then we noticed, like, wow,
(22:07):
it's been like thirty or thirty five minutes and we
haven't seen anything, Like we haven't even gotten our waters yet.
So at some point, like we're looking around, we're like hmmm.
So eventually everything starts coming and I get this, like
I don't know how to pronounce it, and I'll have
to just put a picture up. But it's like this
big bowl of meat and it has like melted cheese
(22:28):
and it's like sizzling as really good. It as like
chicken and steak and this and that. Now you cannot
pick this up with your hands and eat it. You
have to use a fork and knife. Guess what. They
didn't have any sware, no, because they ran out. They
told us, so here's some plastic wear, and so I'm like,
I mean you could just like wash yeah, I mean
(22:50):
we'll wash them if you want to stay anyway, So
I'm like try my best, and everyone's like kind of
like ha ha ha. But also it's been like an
hour and twenty minutes and we're just getting it. Like anyways,
we eat as much as we can, box up the
rest and my guitarist Tyler looks at me. He goes, hey, keV,
I gotta go to the bathroom. I was like, okay, go,
you don't need my permission, buddy. He goes, you understand
(23:14):
the toilet in the men's is already full, and I
can't do anything about it. I was like, well, I mean,
I don't know how much longer we're gonna be waiting. Also,
I'm not trying to make anyone sick by this, but
it's just it's a funny.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Just yea.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Else He's like, I don't know if I can wait
another five minutes, Kevin. I'm like, homie, I think you could.
I just like will power like I'm trying to talk
him into eos. So we're like setting. Eventually we stand up,
like all of us just stand ups. We're like, maybe
we can get out of you're faster with our checks,
and we're done. Like I don't know what We're standing.
(23:47):
We're looking at each other. He's sweating. I'm looking at
him sweating. I'm like dog. So he goes, keV, I'm
gonna need you to stand outside the women's. As I
go in the women's and I'm looking at him, I'm like, Tyler,
I can't I cannot do that for you, Like I
would love to. This is the very best friend moment
that we're going to have, but I can't do that
for you. He's like, okay, So he just runs to
(24:07):
the nearest person. He almost like grabs him. He's like, listen,
do you have a second bathroom? He goes my friend, Yes,
of course, it's over here. He's got my thoughts. So
it was just it's kind of similar. I want you
to feel a little bit better. It didn't get any
worse than that. Everything's good, thank god.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah, but that's the.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Only way I can tell that story. So thanks for listening.
So moving on twenty twenty five is here? What goals
do you guys have for twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Play more, bigger, better shows. That's that's definitely one. And
just keep on the same trajectory that we've been on
writing with the writing and we keep hammering the dynamics
that we like to deliver. Stay true to that. Yeah,
We've got a good community on Discord, the Speaker's community
that we're building there, and we've been having a lot
(24:52):
of fun there, so I want to like take that
to the next level. It just like really provide for them. Yeah,
it was a few months.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, I was going to say, like we had really good,
steady growth in twenty twenty four. We'd like to just
see that double or triple or however many multipliers move
we can get. But yeah, as long as we're kind
of continue to grow and continue to go in the
correct direction and giving the people who've been supporting us
the content that they want, then I think we're ultimately
(25:20):
going to be very happy.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Doing what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
So, yeah, we're stoked on on where we're at right
now and what we've already been given. We're very grateful,
and yeah, we just appreciate everybody being on the ride
for us and hope that they stay on the rid.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Very well said, So you got your goals, you got
the new EP coming, you got a tour. What a
bad advice? I asked this question towards the all of
my views toward the end. It doesn't matter who I'm
talking to. I've talked to huge, crazy bands and then
bands that just started like last week, and they all
have different answers. So what would your advice be for
a band just starting out or maybe they want to
(25:54):
move up to the next level?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I was like to tell everyone first and foremost, like
you really believe what you've got, You're passionate about it,
and it's genuine, because I think that's really like what
cuts through the most and lasts. Sometimes fat, you know,
fad is a fat it comes and goes. But if
you got something genuine, it's got something that lasts. So
if you've got that and you believe in it, then
(26:16):
don't quit.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, that's good. I like that.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I guess to add to that, I know it can
be very daunting everything that's in this game, you know,
keeping up with Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever the.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Heck Lemon eight is.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
You know, there's just so many different things that you
could be doing.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Focus on what you do well.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I would definitely say that that's a very important piece
of it. And like Sam said, stay authentic to what
you you know, what got you started. Basically, I think
it's okay to mature and adapt and evolve and things
like that, but if you're not authentic to what you're doing,
you're going to get burnt out on it. So you know,
make sure that you leave in the message that you're
putting across, Otherwise you're just going to burn out and
(27:04):
not want to continue it. So we've been very fortunate.
I would say that Sam and Chris are very fortunate
that the members who have joined since them have been
willing and able to kind of continue with the same mantra,
the same ideals and kind of yeah, just continue to
push this authentic self and our mottos speak true. BU
(27:25):
We're all about it, and yeah, I think we're just
rolling with that, and as long as you're able to
kind of follow that, then I don't think we're going
to burn out.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yes, sir man, I can't wait to see the captions
as you're saying that, because you're saying be authentic, you
guys can attest to this. I did not send you
guys questions. This is all off the cuff. I'm just
rolling with it. Yeah, both of you very well said
on that, So like, I hope people really grasp onto that.
And Kevin, especially with the social media thing, have either
(27:58):
of you guys been like out of work for whatever
reason for hoever long?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I got very I was gonna say, I got very lucky.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Actually my business kind of boomed when COVID happened because
everybody I'm it's really funny that the two of us
are on here too, because so I'm a general contractor
and the way that I got into this band was
I was looking for painters and Sam is a painter,
So now Sam works with me.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So yeah, it's that interesting.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
So so I think Sam's in the same basic boat
around COVID. It kind of boomed because everybody went home
and they wanted to see stuff happening at their house
because they were stuck there. They were like, I want
my bathroom renovated, like this place stinks. Want I want
my house painted. So yeah, luckily, we've been very fortunate,
and I think I can speak for Sam when I
say we've been very lucky that neither of our businesses
(28:44):
have slowed down that much.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
So I asked that because, like, keV, what why are
you asking that question? I'm still recovering from a torn
thing in my bicep and I was out of work
for basically a month sitting here board and I was
thinking about h COVID. But at the same time, you
were mentioning all these streaming services and this and that.
Do you guys have one guy or do you split
that up amongst yourselves? Of all right, listen, we got
to do social media, like is it just one guy
(29:07):
in the band or is it everybody?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
No, we we kind of divide and conquer, I would.
I think everybody kind of plays their role, and we
really try to push each other to this. This is
a constant point of emphasis. It's like, hey, Sam, can
you make this video?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
You know?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
And Dylan be like, hey, here's an idea, and Robbie
be like, oh, I thought, yeah. We're we all five
kind of push each other to make it. But me
and Chris tend to do the most like editing and pressings,
you know, or whatever. But we're all making it and
we're all pushing each other to make.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It so great. I'm glad you guys do that. I
asked because you can see. I mean, if you had
to do everything, every post, every real, every this, every that,
Like people are like social media that's an all the job
one of me.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
It's like a full time on paid job for bands, yep.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And they won't get paid. It's just like they're just
doing it for fun. So thanks for answering that. Now
I have just enough time to ask my very fun question,
and I have to disclose this. I have stolen this
question from the e c h L, which is right
under the NHL. I don't know anything about hockey. I
don't know anything about sports.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Cyclones baby in the lah Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you might have heard of the Wheeling Nailers.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Yeah, yeah, wheel I feel like we play the Wheeling
Nailers like every week.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Where's the Cyclone from Cincinnati? Cyclone stolen this question from
the Nailers. Who in your phone contacts is the most
famous person you know? And would they answer if you
called them?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Man, displeasure. We're not calling anybody, but.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, I was gonna say mine is. Probably it's a bit.
It's for sure a Bengals player. Because I was a
property manager for a while and I managed a bunch
of Bengals players. I highly doubt they would answer a
few years ago they would have because they had been like,
what's wrong? Because everything okay with my apartment? But I
don't manage that property anymore and they don't live there.
(31:12):
So yeah, I probably got like, I probably got like
eighteen Bengals players and like ten Reds players in my phone,
So actually I know, I know it's probably Adam Duvall.
He's uh, he played for the Reds and then he
played for the Braves, so he's won a World Series.
I'm gonna say he's probably the most famous. But there's
a slew of professional athletes in my phone.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
How about the level of fame here might just be
like echl Kind or something. But I was either thinking
it's either going to be someone from Soft Spoken or
my uncle. His name's Herb Sendek and he's a NCAA
basketball coach whoa coaches. He used to coach Arizona State
(31:56):
and had the pleasure of coaching James Harden who's in
the NBA, and a few other NBA players, but he
currently coaches Santa Clara out in California.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I bet he'd answer for you.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Very nice.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
He calls me.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
He calls me Sam and slammy baja. I don't know
where the baja came from, but I do like baja blast.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Well, guys, I do appreciate a little bit of your
time today. As you can see, it wasn't super duper business.
The entire time. We got to learn a little bit
more about you guys as individuals and more about the
band Soft Spoken. I'm gonna talk to you guys here
in the second off air. Okay, sure, yeah, that's Soft Spoken.
They got a new EP coming out, they got tours
coming out. My cat is coming up. I'm just get
(32:39):
him up here. This is Max. He's gonna join me
on my shoulder for a little bit. So thanks for
joining this episode of the Kevin Pewell Podcast. We appreciate it.
As always, we'll see you guys next time.
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