December 20, 2025 • 49 mins
A jazz gig, a Meshuggah shirt hidden under a blazer, and a chance meeting set off a chain reaction that became Aethraxia—progressive metal built on precision, melody, and a quietly defiant philosophy. We sit down with guitarist-composer Steve and vocalist Tanner to unpack how classical training, jazz fluency, and modern heaviness fuse into songs that feel intricate without losing heart. The conversation moves from early musical roots—piano, cello, choir, and a career’s worth of gigs—to the moment they realized a true frontman changes everything.
Steve shares how years of playing jazz, funk, and even European power metal tours taught him to deliver without rehearsals, a discipline that now shapes the band’s click-tight live shows. Tanner opens up about escaping a strict upbringing, finding his voice, and why he avoids practice on show days and skips weed when singing to protect coordination and tone. We break down the band’s name—Aethraxia—as a stylized nod to ataraxia, inner peace, and how that thread runs through their heaviest songs. You’ll hear how they recorded first to attract the right live bassist, why Denver’s metal scene surprised them, and the booking approach that landed seven shows in four months, including headliners.
If you’re a musician, this is a playbook: build your craft with lessons and theory, prepare a full set before asking for shows, take gigs that stretch you, and aim to be the least experienced player in the room. If you’re a fan, it’s a window into a band evolving fast, already back in the studio, and planning diverse sets so no two shows feel the same. Come for the riffs and stay for the mindset—serious musicianship, clear standards, and the joy that keeps it all moving.
Enjoy the conversation, share it with a friend who loves progressive metal, and if it hit home, subscribe and leave a quick review so more listeners can find the show.
https://xn--thraxia-lxa.com/about
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob (00:28):
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage the Stage Podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
How's it going, man?
Good.
How are you?
I'm doing real well.
Hey, at the start of theseepisodes, these episodes now I
say uh an inspirational quote.
They're typically about music,but they're just for life in
general as well.
But this one's uh pertains tomusic.
(00:51):
And it's if you play music forno other reason than actually
just because you love it, theskills just kind of creep up on
you.
And that's by uh NunoBetancourt, whoever the heck he
is.
But anyway, that's the quotefor today.
Oh, okay.
Well, uh Dana, introduce ourguest today, please.
All right.
Dana (01:09):
Well, with with us today, we've got uh a band out of the
from the Denver, ColoradoSprings area in Colorado.
Um band called Athraxia.
So how are you guys doing?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Great.
Dana (01:20):
All right, maybe you can you know good.
Cool.
Yeah, one at a time, you know,kind of tell us a little bit
about yourself and um you knowexplain to our listeners you
know what your band's all about.
Rob (01:29):
Let's start with the vocalist.
Dana (01:31):
Go ahead, Tanner.
Tanner (01:34):
Sure, you well, you what do you what do you want to know
about me?
Like my music background typestuff.
Rob (01:38):
Yeah, we're you know how you got started in a music biz
and basically just yeah, youryour your overall bio just tell
us about you.
Tanner (01:48):
Sure, yeah, yeah, no worries.
Um I started I started playingmusic uh pretty young, actually.
Um I was a little bit limitedjust because I was like I grew
up in this super strictreligious organization that like
didn't really allow likesecular music or whatever, but I
didn't You mean like a cult?
Dana (02:07):
You knew what we're talking about.
Tanner (02:09):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it is it is a cult, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, but I I started playingpiano.
My mom was a piano teacher, andshe taught me piano when I was
really young.
I didn't like ever get reallygood at it because I only did
(02:29):
that for a couple years before Iswitched to cello.
And I played cello for a longtime actually and played in uh
youth orchestras and adultorchestras and musicals in the
pit and stuff.
Um but then as an adult, I gotinto singing through a choir and
started doing solos.
(02:49):
I would audition for the solosand I get them a lot of the
time, and so I decided to dosome voice lessons and some solo
stuff, and uh basically gothooked up with Steve through my
uh teacher here in Denver.
And uh yeah, rest is history.
He had me come over one day,he's like, uh come over, you
(03:10):
know, we'll see what happens.
And we made a demo that day, sooh cool, cool.
Rob (03:16):
Steve?
Steve (03:18):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Background.
Um yeah, I started uh startedplaying, I'm super old, so I
started playing guitar in the80s.
Uh I had parents that were Idon't know, couldn't couldn't
have been more disinterested inmusic.
So I'm not sure where it camefrom.
(03:39):
But I was, you know, watchinguh MTV when I was a kid, and I
didn't want to do what my daddid, and I wasn't interested in
sports.
So uh begged my mom for aguitar at about age 12, and she
found me a guitar teacher, andthen that that was it.
That was it.
So um that's all I did.
I ended up going to musicschool.
(04:00):
I actually have a master'sdegree in jazz guitar.
Oh, nice.
Um, and I just played a milliongigs, made a living playing uh,
you know, tons of differentstyles of music.
Um, you know, my whole life.
I own a teaching studio, so Iteach lessons full time.
I guess that's my day job isteaching music and teaching
guitar, and then I still play uh2025.
(04:22):
I've probably played 120 showsat least, you know, different
bands and corporate gigs andthings.
That's busy.
Um, you know, like I think wewere talking before this
started, very little of that wasmetal.
My, you know, initialinspiration for getting into
music was all the 80s stuff thatI was listening to, you know,
it was Van Halen and Iron Maidenand stuff like that.
(04:45):
But um, you know, kind of bythe time I was out of high
school and I started to, youknow, I went to music school and
was getting paid to play a lot.
Like none of that was metal,you know.
Um yeah, I always paidattention, you know, to some new
bands and stuff, but uh themajority of my activity has been
in different styles of music.
Um a little resurgence for memaybe 10 years ago when uh maybe
(05:10):
a little more when I moved toColorado and I started playing.
I met Stefan Flores, theEtheraxia drummer, shortly after
I moved here on a on a jazzgig, like a you know, suit and
tie background jazz standardsort of gig, you know.
Um, and under his, you know,under his jacket, he had on a
(05:31):
mashuga shirt at the jazz gig.
So I was like, okay, this guyand me are gonna get along.
Um so we played like a milliongigs together since then in
different bands.
But um his band, uh when he wasa kid, late 80s, early 90s, uh
was a band called Titan Force.
Uh that they were from here butreleased some albums on a
(05:53):
European record label, and theystill have a following in
certain places.
So about the last 10 years,I've been going and playing
shows with them in Greece andGermany, and that's much more
like a kind of classic powermetal, very Iron Maiden-ish uh
sort of material.
So that's kind of where I gotthe idea that oh man, I want to
play some you know, loud, heavymusic again and play loud amps
(06:17):
and distorted guitar and uh youknow, maybe with a little bit
more modern, modern bent.
So that's kind of where thisstemmed from.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So cool.
Steve (06:26):
Well, and then I you know, so I wrote started writing
some tunes and doing some demosand started looking around.
You know, I gotta find it, Igotta find a singer that can
sing this stuff.
Uh and Tanner is the guy I findin like five days, you know.
Of course, like nice.
It's like what?
You know, so that's unusual.
Yeah, yeah, that's that'sunusual.
(06:49):
I knew somebody I knew somebodywould be out there, you know.
Um, but I I didn't know itwould be this guy this fast, you
know.
So it's fantastic.
Dana (06:59):
So when you first uh were thinking about doing the band
and and forming it, did you havethat sound in mind and that
like vocalist in mind as far asthat kind of a sound?
Or is that did the sound comefrom you guys playing?
I mean, did you did you knowright up front what you were
looking for?
Steve (07:17):
Uh not not necessarily.
Um you know, I I thought Iwanted to just do something like
incredibly heavy, you know?
Uh and uh, you know, because Iwas listening to Meshuga and and
uh like I was listening toGinger, if you know that band, I
like that band a lot.
Uh so I so I just wanted towrite some of this really heavy
(07:39):
stuff.
So some of the sound of theband kind of came from um you
know meeting tanner andrealizing like here's somebody
that can sing anything, youknow.
Um I I didn't think that therewould be uh such a multi-faceted
person out there.
Uh and you know, if peoplelisten to the album, it's like
he can do anything.
(08:00):
So that right away sort ofchanged how I looked at it.
Um also some of the tunes onthe album ended up not being
that heavy, uh, kind ofshockingly, because I have this
background and all this othermusic.
So there's you know, there'ssome tunes that kind of came out
that I was like, I didn'treally intend to write that, but
but there we go, you know.
(08:21):
Uh so yeah, so some of thestuff sounds exactly what I had
in mind, and so you know, someof the other stuff is surprising
because obviously I'm atTanner, and then kind of some
stuff came out of me that Ididn't really intend to have
come out either.
So um, yeah.
But generally, you know,generally it's what I had in
(08:42):
mind and it's going how I wantedit to go.
I wanted to write some musicand make an album and start
playing some cool shows in ascene that uh that I wasn't in,
you know.
And uh and it's it's going howI wanted it to go, and it's
super fun.
Rob (08:57):
So now I noticed on your videos, uh, by the way, uh
Thraxia's website is let mespell it for you, a-e-t-h
R-A-X-I-A.com.
And they've got someoutstanding videos on there and
and uh bios as well.
Uh, but one thing I wanted toask is I hear the bass
obviously, but I don't see abass player.
(09:17):
Do you have a full-time bassplayer?
Steve (09:20):
Yeah, we have a full-time bass player, not not on the
album, uh you know, because ourthought was you know, do the
album as efficiently as possiblesometimes.
You know, if you are dealingwith people or waiting, people
that aren't all that invested ina project, it can slow it can
slow you down, you know.
(09:40):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
So you guys know about that?
Oh yeah.
Uh you know, so our I guess ourthought was like do the album,
make sure that that's killer,and then we can attract we can
attract these other, you know,great players.
Like Steph, Stefan and I playwith a ton of great bass
players.
Uh, you know, so kind of thethought was like, okay, you
(10:02):
know, we do the album and thenyou know we can attract you know
uh some other good guys.
Now for the live shows, uh theguy we got is a guy named Murphy
Smith that had recently uhrecently moved to Colorado.
And you know, again, Stefan andI met him, we we've played some
jazz gigs with the guy, uh, youknow, so he's a very schooled
(10:23):
player.
You know, again, hasn't playedmuch music like this, but has
played a ton of music.
Um, and he's doing all the liveshows and is fantastic and is
very into it.
So now the new recording stuff,like we're back in the studio
already with new material, andnow the new stuff he will play
on, you know.
Uh because we have somebodythat that gets it, uh, that I
(10:47):
think is a little invested andenjoys it, uh, you know, and is
a good good peer and friend ofours.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
So cool.
Tanner (10:56):
Okay, he he can he's going there.
He um I mean he has like jazzbackground and stuff, so he can
play all the music great.
But the thing that stuck out tome the first time first time I
performed with him actually iswhen I really noticed it.
But we had this um, he's justso good with his tone.
Like we had um, we have thisone song that kind of starts
off, um, not necessarily startsoff, but it gets into the verse
(11:19):
a little slow and like subdued.
It's almost a jazz solo withlike a little voice line on top.
And like I had to like likeremind myself to sing because he
started playing that and I waslike, oh my god.
Like it just sounded so cool.
But and I he wasn't likeplaying the line any different,
but his tone was just yeah, itwas so good.
Cool.
(11:39):
Like, I like this guy.
Dana (11:41):
Nice.
Okay, so getting back to thename Athraxia.
Um, when I first discovered youguys with you know some of
these groups that you know Ilooked at and stuff, uh I saw
the name and the way you had itspelled with the A and E kind of
combined, and you know, I wastrying to you know figure out
it's like, well, how do they saythat?
You know, I gotta say themarketing behind it's fucking
genius because now that name isjust etched into my brain
(12:03):
forever.
Um I mean, was that you knowwas that something you guys did
on on purpose, or how'd you comeacross that name?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Man, so for a team.
Uh we we were looking around,um, and I I had just it was
around the time like Stephanieand I were going going to Greece
uh with this other band.
So I was kind of checking outsome some Greek stuff, and I
think I think we wanted a wanteda name that in a way was
(12:35):
positive.
Because you know, Tanner and Ikind of talked about, you know,
maybe if there's a message ofthe band or or whatever, and you
know, despite the aggressivenature of a lot of the music, I
think there is an I think it'soverall positive, if anything
else.
And then if anything is likesuper dark, like wake me up,
(12:56):
that's maybe more likepersonification or storytelling,
you know.
Um so this yeah, this Athraxianame kind of was born from like
uh I was looking into like Greekphilosophy and stuff, not
really for myself.
I'm not that deep, but uh, youknow, looking for a cool name.
Um and I think the the core ofthe word uh really has to do
(13:21):
with like sort of uh the idea oflike peace and inner peace and
serenity or whatever.
So while it looks cool with theX and you know, we spelled it
with the A E thing, so it looksmaybe you know, maybe more metal
or something.
Uh you know, actually the coreof the word is is like inner
(13:41):
peace and calmness, you know.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So isn't it things it's based on ataraxia, right?
That's the word.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think so, yeah.
So we're like, oh, we couldchange it a little bit, you
know, make a made up made upword, but there is a thread to a
real thing.
So yeah.
Rob (13:58):
Okay.
Like it.
Do you mind if we uh give ourlisteners a taste of your music?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Uh please do, yeah.
Rob (14:08):
Cool.
We're gonna play a song.
It's called Nameless Grave,just a piece of it here.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
I guess we're all right.
Rob (14:39):
Okay, well, I just want to give our listeners uh a piece
of uh your music because it isoutstanding.
I I kind of hear a lot of uhlike dream theater kind of
influence.
Is that is that an influence ofyours or at all?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Not really.
Not really.
I think um I I mean I'velistened to Dream Theater.
Uh you know, there's a lot ofstuff that I've spent a lot more
time listening to, but I I getthe comparison uh because like
I've got this jazz backgroundand a lot of that stuff sneaks
(15:12):
in, so I guess that might be thethreat or the similarity, you
know.
Rob (15:16):
Okay.
Um we haven't discussed uhStefan yet.
Can you give us a little bit uhhis background?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Um Stefan uh he started playing drums pretty
young.
He grew up in Hawaii.
Uh so his first experiencesdrumming were like playing in
jazz band and stuff when he wasa kid in Hawaii.
Um and he had some reallysupportive parents.
Um, he often tells this storythat like for his 13th birthday,
(15:46):
his mom went and checked himout of school to take him to the
music store to buy him a drumset.
Uh you know, I didn't havethose parents, man.
Um and uh, you know, him andhis brothers, so this band Titan
Force, if you check this out,that was him and two of his
brothers.
(16:06):
Uh he has a brother named Mariothat plays guitar, and a
brother named John that playsbass, and they all live in
Colorado now.
Um, but this was their metalband in in the 80s, and it
started out as the three of themuh and the bass player sang.
Uh and they ultimately ended upgetting, if you know the band,
uh this is pretty underground,uh Jag Panzer.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, so the singer, um the singer from Jag Panzer,
uh Harry, uh became the singerfor Titan Force.
Uh, and then they were able torelease some albums on a
European record label.
So when Stefan was young, theyhad a little bit of notoriety
and toured a bit in Europe uhdoing that.
But you know, he was kind of aguy like me, like he got into
(16:53):
metal, but then he was alwaysstudying drums and taking
lessons, um, you know, aiming tolearn anything, you know.
So when I moved to Colorado andMetam, I mean I knew him as a
you know, his name was tossedaround as a jazz drummer, you
know.
Uh then I finally got to playwith him and you know, we became
good friends and stuff.
But um, you know, I thinkthat's primarily what what he
(17:15):
was known for.
But um, yeah, just a guy that'sthat's worked making a living
playing drums all these years.
Rob (17:22):
So and Tanner, I apologize for uh playing a piece of music
that you weren't uh featured onhere, but on the way out we'll
make sure there's some music isplayed with with your vocals
there, because your vocals are akiller.
Dana (17:34):
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So I mean Yeah, I would I would say I kind of had
this vision of this band whereyou know there'd be like some
vocal tunes and someinstrumental tunes.
And really after meetingTatter, man, I I have not like I
have no interest in writing anyinstrumental music for this
band.
Speaker (17:53):
You know, that's a good compliment.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Oh shit.
Speaker (17:57):
Yeah, that says that I'll write that one, you know.
I can still play selling, wecould we could do it.
That needs to happen, man.
That definitely needs tohappen.
Dana (18:08):
So for each for each one of you guys, I mean there's
there's a point in everymusician's life of when you know
that light bulb goes up andthey're like, oh shit, this is
what I want to do the rest of mylife.
Um for each one of you, whendid that happen and how did it
come about?
Rob (18:21):
Great question.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All right, I'll go.
Man, I was like, um, I think Iwas like I said, I was born in
this this cult inspired.
I had like distorted visions oflike um like um like what was
possible or what I could do, orlim maybe limited visions,
right?
But I think I was like five orsix years old.
(18:47):
I I actually remember this umgoing and visiting my
grandparents, and they're like,what do you want to do when you
grow up?
You know, like everybody asked.
I was like, I'm gonna be acomposer.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
Huh.
Cool.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Like, you know, because I'm like raised in
classical music.
I think that's like what peopleplay, you know what I mean?
I'm like so so out there, butI'm like, yeah, I'll be a I'm
gonna be a composer.
But um, so like from a prettyearly age, I was I wanted to
write music, and I actually didwrite like some sheet music even
as a kid just for fun.
Um but in high school, and Ididn't mention this when I was
(19:21):
talking earlier, but highschool, you know, I was um I
actually went to public schoolfor high school, and that's when
I kind of you know becamenormal and got got into like
actually like got into goodmusic and stuff.
Um I shouldn't tell on myparents too much.
I love my parents, they'reawesome, and they fully support
(19:42):
me, you know.
I've met them, they seemawesome, yeah.
Cool.
They're super cool.
But I remember my first, I'mgetting off topic here, I'll get
back on in a second, but Iremember I got my uh my first my
first iPod shuffle, and I hadto like save up my own money,
talk them into it, and the firsttwo songs I downloaded was The
Final Countdown and uhTeenagers, Teenagers by My
(20:06):
Chemical Romance.
And my dad heard Teenagers andI was so pissed, man.
He was like, It's like there'sthe dad, where is that talk?
But anyways, yeah, so I I gotexposed to good music, and in
high school I actually startedum producing like electronica
and stuff.
But um, yeah.
From a real early age, I knewwhat I I knew I wanted to be
(21:01):
involved in music.
Um, but I would say I didn'treally fancy myself or see
myself as a vocalist until aboutfour or five years ago.
Um and really committed tometal about two years ago.
Rob (21:19):
Who and Steve?
How about you?
When was that moment, thatlight bulb going off saying, oh,
this is it, music?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Uh man.
I it was it was pretty early.
I always I always knew Iprobably needed to do something
uh creative, like maybe naively,but you know, I think back, I'm
like, man, I'm glad if that wasnaive, I'm glad that's what I
that I followed that, you know.
Um I was uh like I was acreative kid, you know, like
(21:51):
before I got into music it wasart.
You know, I I always had I waslike this nerdy kid that um you
know always traveled with likenotebooks and colored pencils
and shit, you know.
Now I'm like a nerdy adult thattravels with a guitar.
But uh you know, and I would Iwould like, you know, I got like
a super eight movie camera andmade like claymation movies and
(22:15):
stuff like that.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
You know, sweet.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
And yeah, and my dad, you know, my dad's probably
horrified because he, you know,I grew up in North Dakota too,
which you know, much likeTanner, man, you know, I grew up
in a place you gotta get outof, you know.
Uh so I think my dad wanted meto be involved in sports and
stuff, and I just had nointerest, you know.
It's like I, you know, I couldsit there for hours on it and
(22:37):
make frickin' claymation movieswith a super 8 video camera, you
know.
My my dad was probablyhorrified.
Uh but I think I got to likeage 12, and it it was like, um,
you know, okay, I do thiscreative stuff.
I seem to need to be able to dothis, but like this this other
stuff isn't really cool.
You know, like um, you know,like like I'm 12, you know, 12,
(23:03):
13.
I'm like, I'm starting to thinkabout like, hey, like, am I
gonna get some girls with likeyou come over and watch my
freaking claymation movie?
Um so so I think that thatfactored into it, but that was
you know, MTV was in its primetoo, and I was just like, oh my
god, this whole culture of musicand being cool and the
(23:23):
creativity.
Um I begged my mom for guitarlessons, and I I don't think I
had, you know, there's probablymost people are probably more t
naturally talented than I was,because it was tough going
trying to get, you know, learnhow to play an instrument at
first or whatever, but I wasjust determined.
So I think I think I decidedearly on, uh, even though I
(23:45):
don't even think I hadconsciously decided, I had
decided, you know.
Um, and now that I'm old, I'min my 50s, and I've been doing
this my entire life.
I've managed to make a meagerliving in music.
And um, you know, I just thinkthat I thank thank my younger
self for getting me into thisbecause I don't know what else I
would have done, you know.
Dana (24:07):
Okay, well, talking about the claymation and the getting
the girls, it's let's get realnow.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll,right?
I mean, that's that's that'swhat this is shit's all about.
Uh now have you guys had uhdiscussions and you know uh
about that in the band as far asyou know expectations and you
know limitations and how far youcan take it before you're
(24:28):
professional and or notprofessional.
Uh have you had any problemswith that and or discussions
within the band about you knowwhere the limits set?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Uh no.
I mean it's a good thing.
Rob (24:44):
You haven't had to.
That's a that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, I don't know, man.
I mean, I I have I have workedas a musician my entire life,
you know.
Um been around tons of greatmusicians, tons of gigs.
Uh most of the people I'veworked with, stuff I've been
around is like super pro.
You know, I mean, sure there'syou know, a few people here and
(25:09):
there that uh you know drink toomuch on a gig or whatever, but
uh my experience is they sort offilter themselves out, you
know.
Um yeah, so no, and and thenreally like man, I'm married.
Stefan's married.
Uh I'm not really in a, youknow, maybe in my 20s, early 20s
(25:30):
for a while.
I was I was in it partially forthe partying, but even then not
really, because I waspracticing my ass off so I could
do this for my whole life.
Um so yeah, I mean for me, thelike whatever, man.
It's it's uh I like to drink alittle bit.
That's about it.
Stefan's probably about thesame.
I don't, yeah, there's noissues, you know, we're not on
(25:51):
the road or anything either.
You know, if it ever got to thepoint where we're traveling, um
yeah, I don't know.
I don't I don't even know ifthere if a discussion is to be
had at all.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Well that's that's a good thing.
You know, if somebody falls offthe stage, then it's like, hey,
this is now affecting the fan.
Rob (26:09):
Yeah.
All right, gotta do somethingabout this.
All right.
Well, we have one one portionof our episodes where we was I
ask our guests if they've had auh oh shit, an oh shit moment
where something's gone terriblywrong either during a
performance or a practice orwhatever, where you just said,
oh shit.
Dana (26:30):
Lay it on us, guys.
We know we know there's storiesout there.
Every band has them.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Tanner, you first I try not to get like I try not to
like dwell on shit because Iknow it happens, but the
actually the last gig we played,I just came in because we
played to a click track.
Um, and I just came in tooearly on my verse, and I got to
the end of the verse, and I waslike, oh, you're still playing
(26:59):
the verse.
And um, and like some of thesongs are more screamy, and it's
like I can if I like messed up,I could really get away with
that pretty easily, just likeyou know, make some noise.
People are gonna be like, ohyou know, he's probably said a
word there.
But this was like uh this wasone of the songs that was like
(27:20):
no screaming, just pure singing,no screaming, and I just I
fucked it up so bad.
I pretty much got into it onlike the last chorus.
unknown (27:29):
Yeah.
Rob (27:30):
Well that's not too terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Now I did just I did just get I'm now I'm just having
conversations with Tanner.
Sorry.
I did just get the video fromMichael of that show, and I
didn't hear that part, but Ijust heard a little bit of like
a different part of the tune,and you sounded freaking
incredible.
So whatever it's worth, man,you know.
(27:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Rob (27:54):
Steve, do you any like equipment malfunctions or just
something that was an old shit?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Um I mean, I've probably played thousands of
gigs in my life, so there'syeah, there's probably stuff in
the past.
Um probably stuff in the pastthat's they would there's some
really funny stories that Icould tell for sure, but they
but they would be long andwouldn't really pertain to this
band.
Um I would say in this band,just the uh the first gig I had
(28:23):
a little pedal uh guitar rigissue that was resolved pretty
quick.
I'd say like my ongoing theongoing equipment uh issue in
this band that has given me aproblem uh is actually that for
some reason on this gig, uh, youknow, you would think nine or
ten songs wouldn't be thisintense, but super intense.
(28:44):
So I end up like sweating onthis gig more than any other gig
I've ever done.
And then my glasses slide downmy nose.
So so I'm so I'm trying tolike, you know, this is like a
very metal uh problem to have.
But so I need to, I'm trying tofigure out a situation where I
gotta like tighten this shit upor get some tighter glasses, or
(29:04):
you know, you sore contacts, youmay have to go back to that.
But yeah, so that's like my umreally my pressing gear issue in
this band is is uh glasses.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Well, that's pretty metal.
Yeah, that's pretty metal.
That's not bad.
It's our show.
You know, our show is that.
Yeah, there you go.
Dana (29:35):
Okay, so our course our show is called you know
Franklin's Garage the Stage, andyou know, on the whole premise
of helping musicians that arejust starting out to try to find
their way of how to get out oftheir bedroom into the into the
stage.
Um Do you have any advice forstarting out musicians?
And I mean, shit, we can goback all of our episodes about
the trials and tribulations ofjust starting a band, let alone
(29:57):
gigging together.
But um, the one piece of advicethat each one of you would have
for new new musicians and newbands that are trying to take
that next stage up to actuallyplay live.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Uh Tanner, you got anything?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Uh I mean you have way more experience with this,
but I would say, you know, youdo need to do a like make sure
you're ready.
I would say like work on youryou can never go wrong with
working on your craft.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
But if you're ready to go on the stage, then just go
get on a stage.
Whether it's an open mic orkaraoke, go get on a stage, talk
to people, be ready to berejected.
But um I think the best way toactually get a gig, if you want
to get a gig, you need to have ashow ready.
You need to have a set ready.
(30:47):
And if you have somebody thatalso have sets ready, that'll
help a lot too.
Um biggest just one piece ofadvice though is just to do it
and be ready.
Not be afraid of rejection.
Rob (31:02):
Good advice.
See, what do you got?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Um I would say, yeah, on the on the personal level,
making sure that you are as goodas you can be at what you do,
you know.
So um, you know, I was alwayslike a just incessantly
practicing, and I went to musicschool and studied all these
styles of music.
Um, you know, my thing foryears was that I just wanted to
(31:26):
be able to go to any gig, beable to play jazz, play funk.
If I someone paid me enoughmoney, I'd play a country gig or
whatever, and be able to do allof be able to do all of that
legitimately, because I wantedto make a living with a guitar,
right?
I mean, that was like the firstand foremost thing.
Um so I would say, you know,for instrumentalists or
(31:49):
vocalists, like, man, study,take lessons, like learn
everything you can.
You know, people will say allsorts of things like, oh, you
don't need to know a musictheory, that'll ruin your
creativity, or like, no, learnas much as you can, learn
everything, you know.
Um, and then I would say, like,take take any gig, you know,
like when you're starting out,if someone wants you playing a
(32:11):
cover band is gonna pay you todo something, you know, take
take any gig and just do it, youknow, just be be brave.
Um, you know, it's kind of twodifferent things.
I think if you take the trackof like you want to be a working
musician like I did, or if youjust want to head right into
being an original band, I thinkthere's maybe different things
to focus focus on.
(32:31):
Uh, but you can do bothsimultaneously, you know.
I'd say take take every gig,align yourself with the best
musicians, or trying try toalign yourself with um, you
know, like when I was youngyounger, it was always like I
wanted to play with older, moreexperienced players, always be
the worst.
You know, if I'm the worst,then I'm always learning, you
(32:52):
know, in the bands that I'm in.
You know, probably um a bigpiece of advice would just be
like try to enjoy it all too,right?
Like, this is supposed to befun, even if you're working, um
forcing yourself to do thingslike uh this shit's really cool.
Music's really freaking cool,and uh remember to have fun, you
(33:13):
know.
Rob (33:14):
That's that's what it's all about, right?
You may have already said this,um, and I apologize if you
have, but when did the bandactually form?
And what are your plans for2026?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I think the band formed when I met Tanner.
It was like it was an ideabefore that, you know.
It was like, uh, you know, wasthat recently or what?
We can write some music orwhatever.
When I when I'm like when I metTanner, it was like, okay, like
hell yeah, you know, when youfind uh you know a key piece or
(33:50):
another person that's likelike-minded and motivated, then
it's like hell yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So yeah, oh yeah, we know that, yeah.
Yeah, we know the field.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We met uh I think I think I came over and met you,
was it November 1st last year?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Oh yeah, last year, okay.
Rob (34:08):
So a year, all right.
You've accomplished quite a bitin that short time frame.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, I th I think so, and it's really only been
the first show that we playedwas August, what was it, August
11th?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Uh 22nd.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
22nd, August 22nd.
So yeah, we have a show againin a couple weeks, so then it's
you know, really in the firstfour months since we peaked our
heads out.
Uh, we released that album andit played at this point like a
like a number of shows.
Dana (34:37):
So yeah, what I've seen very recently, you guys have
been really busy.
I mean, I see a bunch of clipsof shows that you guys have
done, and it looks like you'reout there quite a bit, which is
nice.
Any any pre-show rituals?
Good or bad, lay it on us.
Anything crazy?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
No, I mean, I think I think maybe you'd have to be on
tour or something at a certainlevel before you can afford to
have a ritual, you know.
It's kind of like a lot of alot of these shows are like uh,
you know, there might be threeor four or five bands on a show,
so it's like, man, you'rehanging out.
I mean, I just like hanging outtalking to other musicians.
That's what we're like reallysuper fun thing for me.
(35:16):
Hang out, and what's your timeto set up and go, you set up and
go, you know.
Um, I think I remember seeingan interview with a singer from
that band, Train, uh, a fewyears ago.
And he was, you know, they'relike a super famous band, right?
So you have the luxury of like,you know, green room and
dressing rooms and stuff.
And he was talking about he hadsome multi-stage uh pre-show
(35:39):
ritual of applying essentialoils, you know.
I'll never need that, man.
I'll just like make like housedrink some beer and talk to some
other dudes and some otherbands and then go play, you
know.
So there's none for me.
I don't know.
Rob (35:54):
No superstitions or I don't really have any.
Alright.
No superstitions, like favoritesoccer or whatever?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I have superstitions.
Yeah, I don't have rituals, butI have superstitions.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Alright.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Uh one of my superstitions is I don't uh I
don't, it's not totallysuperstition, but I don't
practice the day that I'mplaying.
Speaker 7 (36:14):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I like obviously, but um never never practice the day
I'm playing.
And part of that's just like aprinciple of mine so that I make
sure I'm ready by the time thatday comes.
And if it's like I'm not ready,well it's like, well, you
fucked yourself, so deal withthis and maybe do better next
time.
But no, I I um I really wanna Ireally don't like to practice
(36:37):
the day that I play.
Um, and I think that's kind ofsuperstition.
The other thing I don't do onthe days I play that I do almost
every other day is uh smokeweed.
Don't do that on days I play.
Um maybe if I wasn't singing Iwould.
Maybe if I wasn't singing, Iwould, but it um I just don't
want to risk anything with myvoice.
Dana (36:58):
You're like right before a podcast and I was playing to
smoke.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Yeah, yeah, no.
It's like a qi chi-chong momentthere, you know.
Rob (37:08):
So 26, what do you guys got lined up?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Um I actually I teach voice actually, and I um part
of vocal health and stuff.
I've I've like watched videosof people like vocal cores and
stuff.
And um with weed, it's um it'snot necessarily the smoke, like
people smoke and they're fine orwhatever.
But like when you're stoned,your vocal cord like mental
(37:32):
connection isn't as strong.
And like there was a video ofone guy singing stoned, and like
his one um like one side of hisvocal fold like wasn't
activating, so the other sidewas like having to work harder,
like they weren't comingtogether.
It's like the other side wascoming to it, and it's like you
know, people there's so manygreat stoner musicians, singers
(37:53):
out there in the world that havemade incredible careers for
themselves.
Um, but you know, I just I knowit makes me sound different, so
I don't want to mess with it.
So yeah, don't don't smoke,don't practice.
Um that's about it.
That's about it.
Rob (38:09):
So 26, what do you guys got lined up?
I mean, what's what's the firstthings on your calendar in 26?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Uh we I think we have three shows in January.
Um and then man, uh I we'regonna release a bunch of
material, hopefully, in 2026.
So we've already been back inthe studio.
Uh Tanner and I are gettingtogether, and there's uh at this
(38:37):
point a growing mountain of uhmaterial to finish and and
release and stuff.
So hopefully we have a goodyear being able to you know feed
that to people who already digthe band and pull some more
people in and uh you know beable to play a lot and you know
at this point we're playing thealbum.
(38:58):
Uh but hopefully, you know, assoon as the next show we got
enough material so no show willbe the same, you know.
Dana (39:05):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
That's very cool.
Dana (39:07):
So when you do your live shows, do you uh do you do have
your own sound guy and hold andlight lighting guy, or is that
depending on venue?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
We don't have our own feedback.
No, I think uh yeah, I think wehave to get to a certain point
before we could before we coulddo that.
Uh most of the venues uh thatwe have played, maybe save one,
um are super pro.
Uh you know, the the gear, uh,the sound guys that we've dealt
(39:42):
with, people have been superpro.
So you know, the at least youknow, the region that we live
in, we're we're pretty we'repretty lucky with it with the
venues.
So sure it'd be great to haveyou know, lighting guy, sound
guy, and probably at some ofthese places, you know, we could
probably lobby to bring our ownguys in, but um, you know,
(40:05):
that's logistics and paying themand stuff.
And I think for for for whatwe're doing, the guys, the house
guys are doing a pretty goodjob so far.
Rob (40:13):
So um, what was I gonna ask you?
Oh, yeah.
Um, if for a brand newlistener, how would you describe
your music and your band to belike brand new listeners?
And right now you're speakingof almost uh like nearly 75,000
downloads in 30 countries and200 cities.
(40:33):
So tell tell our listenersabout the band, how you would
describe it, somebody asking youon the street.
Speaker (40:41):
Tanner, how would you describe it?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Oh, okay.
I always start off, I say it'sI say it's progressive metal,
just to get a nice umbrella termout there that they can fit it
under.
And then I and then I usuallysay something like it's like
kind of highbrow and it's umreally virtuoso and There's a
lot of talent.
(41:04):
Yeah, that's you that's usuallyhow I describe it.
Rob (41:08):
Okay, very cool.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, and I think it's gonna evolve, you know.
I mean, that's like kind of thefirst, you know, the the album
is the first crop of tunes, youknow.
Um so yeah, we'll see, we'llsee what happens.
I don't even really know how todescribe it, you know, being
being close to it.
Dana (41:23):
So there's so many delay.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
It's probably too high brow.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
But it's like, you know, it's not um it's not like
it's not necessarily groovemetal.
It's you know, it's you gottalisten to it.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Okay.
Yeah, there's elements of a lotof things in there, you know.
So yeah.
Dana (41:44):
Cool, cool.
What's your what's your guys'practice regimen like?
How many times a week?
How long?
You know, I mean, is thereanything set in stone or is it
just like you call Tanner'slike, dude, let's make some
music.
Make some noise today.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Um, yeah, I mean, we could we could get together
more, but the the guys, youknow, at least the
instrumentalists involved inthis band, uh, you know, we come
from this world of like forlike decades, I've done gigs and
Stefan and Murphy the bassplayer.
(42:22):
For decades, we've done tons ofpro gigs where there's no
rehearsal, and you might noteven have met the people you're
playing with before you play.
Uh, you know, sort of corporateband gigs.
Actually, Murphy subbed with adifferent band that um Stefan
and I play with um on Saturday,and he came in and there were
(42:43):
tunes uh with with a differentsinger, none of us had played
before, and they were great,right?
So we kind of come from thisworld where, you know, since
I've been young, it was expectedlike, hey, if you get called
for this gig, there may not be arehearsal, you show up um and
you just kill the gig, or wedon't call you again, right?
Uh you know, maybe maybedifferent than a lot of, you
(43:06):
know, I think a lot of rockbands maybe do a thing where
they have to they play together,they get together and play
together all the time, or theyhave to do that to keep things
sharp or whatever.
But it's like, man, guys likeme and Stephanie Murphy, we're
sometimes playing three or fourother gigs that week.
So it's not a question of it'sno longer a question of like,
oh, can I play my instrumentwith these people or I need to
(43:27):
practice my instrument withthese people?
It's like can you play theshow?
You know?
Yeah, I would probably preferum to get together a little bit
more, but uh I feel like thetunes that we have that we've
been playing live, we we don'tneed to get together very much.
(43:48):
You know, I think it's gonna beif we haven't played for a
little bit, definitely when weadd some new tunes to the set or
whatever, you know, then whenwe get together, but it's like,
man, I can count on you know, wecan all count on each other to
like, hey, if we haven't seeneach other for two weeks and
we're gonna show up and play ashow, that show's gonna kill.
Oh, that's very cool.
(44:08):
So I don't know, Tanner, whatyou think about it.
I mean, I would prefer gettingtogether a little bit more, but
it's like everybody's busy, buteverybody's also super pro and
doesn't necessarily need it,maybe like some people that have
less experience.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
So yeah, I know I think I think it's been working
great.
I mean, as we add more to theset, we can we'll run the set
again.
You know, we'll just do a quickrehearsal for any time we
change the set, and it'll befine.
Um yeah, and then Steve and Iget together a little more often
just to uh like make demos andstuff.
(44:42):
How is that?
Yeah, we we get together moreon the creativity side, but
yeah, as far as rehearsal, Ithink we do we do pretty we do
great.
Rob (44:51):
We have to have that confidence level with each
other.
That's that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, I think I think last the last time we
rehearsed, I think we had thethe space reserved for three
hours or something.
We got together and we playedthrough the set once, and we
were all like you know what wecould run it through it again or
not, like yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I mean we're playing to a click, we're playing to a
click, and we're playing itexactly as it's written, exactly
as it is on the album, so it'ssuper easy to like practice at
home.
You can just practice with thealbum, and it's like nice, you
know.
Rob (45:26):
How is the uh Denver area for getting uh shows?
You guys uh for new for newvenues, what are the club owners
like requiring of bands outthere?
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Um it's pretty cool.
I I'm pretty shocked becausethis was not my really not my
scene around here before thisthis band.
Um and I've been doing the onereaching out and booking, and
man, we've played in less thanfour months.
I think we will have playedseven shows.
Uh you know, a number of thosehave been headlining shows,
(45:59):
whether we deserve it or not.
Uh I don't know.
Our band's pretty cool, butwe're still pretty new.
Um and it's it's beenrelatively there's some annoying
things about booking in thisscene, but it's been relatively
easy, I think.
Um you know, and I think it'sgonna continue to be uh easier,
easy, easier as we reach morepeople at shows and as we play
(46:23):
with more more other bands andstuff and build the you know,
build those friendships andconnections and stuff.
But man, I've just been havingan unbelievable amount of fun at
the shows.
And uh yeah, it's really cool.
I think it's gonna I think it'sgonna continue, and this is
actually a pretty good areawhere you can have a band like
(46:44):
this, an original band, and andbe kind of busy with it,
actually.
Dana (46:48):
That's nice.
Yeah, you can't do that in awhole lot of areas.
So that's that's awesome thatthat you've got that out there.
Well, we're gonna check outsome more music from you guys
here.
So let's get this queued up andhere we go.
There's Tanner.
Speaker (47:37):
Hold down the A until the special characters come out.
That might have been the onemarketing squaw with the name of
the fan.
Dana (47:46):
I love it.
Speaker (47:50):
We're not the only fan, we're not the only metal band
that has the best.
Rob (47:54):
Well, we're gonna be putting your website link as
well as your titles on ourwebsite.
So uh thank you guys very much.
Dana (48:03):
Appreciate it, guys.
You guys are awesome, and I'mgonna end up I'm gonna end up
the total of let's live eachdate to the fullest potential,
because that's what we all loveto do in the music world.
Go after give it your best.
Thanks, guys.
Speaker 5 (48:18):
Thank you.
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage the Stage Podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
How's it going, man?
Good.
How are you?
I'm doing real well.
Hey, at the start of theseepisodes, these episodes now I
say uh an inspirational quote.
They're typically about music,but they're just for life in
general as well.
But this one's uh pertains tomusic.
(00:51):
And it's if you play music forno other reason than actually
just because you love it, theskills just kind of creep up on
you.
And that's by uh NunoBetancourt, whoever the heck he
is.
But anyway, that's the quotefor today.
Oh, okay.
Well, uh Dana, introduce ourguest today, please.
All right.
Dana (01:09):
Well, with with us today, we've got uh a band out of the
from the Denver, ColoradoSprings area in Colorado.
Um band called Athraxia.
So how are you guys doing?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Great.
Dana (01:20):
All right, maybe you can you know good.
Cool.
Yeah, one at a time, you know,kind of tell us a little bit
about yourself and um you knowexplain to our listeners you
know what your band's all about.
Rob (01:29):
Let's start with the vocalist.
Dana (01:31):
Go ahead, Tanner.
Tanner (01:34):
Sure, you well, you what do you what do you want to know
about me?
Like my music background typestuff.
Rob (01:38):
Yeah, we're you know how you got started in a music biz
and basically just yeah, youryour your overall bio just tell
us about you.
Tanner (01:48):
Sure, yeah, yeah, no worries.
Um I started I started playingmusic uh pretty young, actually.
Um I was a little bit limitedjust because I was like I grew
up in this super strictreligious organization that like
didn't really allow likesecular music or whatever, but I
didn't You mean like a cult?
Dana (02:07):
You knew what we're talking about.
Tanner (02:09):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it is it is a cult, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, but I I started playingpiano.
My mom was a piano teacher, andshe taught me piano when I was
really young.
I didn't like ever get reallygood at it because I only did
(02:29):
that for a couple years before Iswitched to cello.
And I played cello for a longtime actually and played in uh
youth orchestras and adultorchestras and musicals in the
pit and stuff.
Um but then as an adult, I gotinto singing through a choir and
started doing solos.
(02:49):
I would audition for the solosand I get them a lot of the
time, and so I decided to dosome voice lessons and some solo
stuff, and uh basically gothooked up with Steve through my
uh teacher here in Denver.
And uh yeah, rest is history.
He had me come over one day,he's like, uh come over, you
(03:10):
know, we'll see what happens.
And we made a demo that day, sooh cool, cool.
Rob (03:16):
Steve?
Steve (03:18):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Background.
Um yeah, I started uh startedplaying, I'm super old, so I
started playing guitar in the80s.
Uh I had parents that were Idon't know, couldn't couldn't
have been more disinterested inmusic.
So I'm not sure where it camefrom.
(03:39):
But I was, you know, watchinguh MTV when I was a kid, and I
didn't want to do what my daddid, and I wasn't interested in
sports.
So uh begged my mom for aguitar at about age 12, and she
found me a guitar teacher, andthen that that was it.
That was it.
So um that's all I did.
I ended up going to musicschool.
(04:00):
I actually have a master'sdegree in jazz guitar.
Oh, nice.
Um, and I just played a milliongigs, made a living playing uh,
you know, tons of differentstyles of music.
Um, you know, my whole life.
I own a teaching studio, so Iteach lessons full time.
I guess that's my day job isteaching music and teaching
guitar, and then I still play uh2025.
(04:22):
I've probably played 120 showsat least, you know, different
bands and corporate gigs andthings.
That's busy.
Um, you know, like I think wewere talking before this
started, very little of that wasmetal.
My, you know, initialinspiration for getting into
music was all the 80s stuff thatI was listening to, you know,
it was Van Halen and Iron Maidenand stuff like that.
(04:45):
But um, you know, kind of bythe time I was out of high
school and I started to, youknow, I went to music school and
was getting paid to play a lot.
Like none of that was metal,you know.
Um yeah, I always paidattention, you know, to some new
bands and stuff, but uh themajority of my activity has been
in different styles of music.
Um a little resurgence for memaybe 10 years ago when uh maybe
(05:10):
a little more when I moved toColorado and I started playing.
I met Stefan Flores, theEtheraxia drummer, shortly after
I moved here on a on a jazzgig, like a you know, suit and
tie background jazz standardsort of gig, you know.
Um, and under his, you know,under his jacket, he had on a
(05:31):
mashuga shirt at the jazz gig.
So I was like, okay, this guyand me are gonna get along.
Um so we played like a milliongigs together since then in
different bands.
But um his band, uh when he wasa kid, late 80s, early 90s, uh
was a band called Titan Force.
Uh that they were from here butreleased some albums on a
(05:53):
European record label, and theystill have a following in
certain places.
So about the last 10 years,I've been going and playing
shows with them in Greece andGermany, and that's much more
like a kind of classic powermetal, very Iron Maiden-ish uh
sort of material.
So that's kind of where I gotthe idea that oh man, I want to
play some you know, loud, heavymusic again and play loud amps
(06:17):
and distorted guitar and uh youknow, maybe with a little bit
more modern, modern bent.
So that's kind of where thisstemmed from.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So cool.
Steve (06:26):
Well, and then I you know, so I wrote started writing
some tunes and doing some demosand started looking around.
You know, I gotta find it, Igotta find a singer that can
sing this stuff.
Uh and Tanner is the guy I findin like five days, you know.
Of course, like nice.
It's like what?
You know, so that's unusual.
Yeah, yeah, that's that'sunusual.
(06:49):
I knew somebody I knew somebodywould be out there, you know.
Um, but I I didn't know itwould be this guy this fast, you
know.
So it's fantastic.
Dana (06:59):
So when you first uh were thinking about doing the band
and and forming it, did you havethat sound in mind and that
like vocalist in mind as far asthat kind of a sound?
Or is that did the sound comefrom you guys playing?
I mean, did you did you knowright up front what you were
looking for?
Steve (07:17):
Uh not not necessarily.
Um you know, I I thought Iwanted to just do something like
incredibly heavy, you know?
Uh and uh, you know, because Iwas listening to Meshuga and and
uh like I was listening toGinger, if you know that band, I
like that band a lot.
Uh so I so I just wanted towrite some of this really heavy
(07:39):
stuff.
So some of the sound of theband kind of came from um you
know meeting tanner andrealizing like here's somebody
that can sing anything, youknow.
Um I I didn't think that therewould be uh such a multi-faceted
person out there.
Uh and you know, if peoplelisten to the album, it's like
he can do anything.
(08:00):
So that right away sort ofchanged how I looked at it.
Um also some of the tunes onthe album ended up not being
that heavy, uh, kind ofshockingly, because I have this
background and all this othermusic.
So there's you know, there'ssome tunes that kind of came out
that I was like, I didn'treally intend to write that, but
but there we go, you know.
(08:21):
Uh so yeah, so some of thestuff sounds exactly what I had
in mind, and so you know, someof the other stuff is surprising
because obviously I'm atTanner, and then kind of some
stuff came out of me that Ididn't really intend to have
come out either.
So um, yeah.
But generally, you know,generally it's what I had in
(08:42):
mind and it's going how I wantedit to go.
I wanted to write some musicand make an album and start
playing some cool shows in ascene that uh that I wasn't in,
you know.
And uh and it's it's going howI wanted it to go, and it's
super fun.
Rob (08:57):
So now I noticed on your videos, uh, by the way, uh
Thraxia's website is let mespell it for you, a-e-t-h
R-A-X-I-A.com.
And they've got someoutstanding videos on there and
and uh bios as well.
Uh, but one thing I wanted toask is I hear the bass
obviously, but I don't see abass player.
(09:17):
Do you have a full-time bassplayer?
Steve (09:20):
Yeah, we have a full-time bass player, not not on the
album, uh you know, because ourthought was you know, do the
album as efficiently as possiblesometimes.
You know, if you are dealingwith people or waiting, people
that aren't all that invested ina project, it can slow it can
slow you down, you know.
(09:40):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
So you guys know about that?
Oh yeah.
Uh you know, so our I guess ourthought was like do the album,
make sure that that's killer,and then we can attract we can
attract these other, you know,great players.
Like Steph, Stefan and I playwith a ton of great bass
players.
Uh, you know, so kind of thethought was like, okay, you
(10:02):
know, we do the album and thenyou know we can attract you know
uh some other good guys.
Now for the live shows, uh theguy we got is a guy named Murphy
Smith that had recently uhrecently moved to Colorado.
And you know, again, Stefan andI met him, we we've played some
jazz gigs with the guy, uh, youknow, so he's a very schooled
(10:23):
player.
You know, again, hasn't playedmuch music like this, but has
played a ton of music.
Um, and he's doing all the liveshows and is fantastic and is
very into it.
So now the new recording stuff,like we're back in the studio
already with new material, andnow the new stuff he will play
on, you know.
Uh because we have somebodythat that gets it, uh, that I
(10:47):
think is a little invested andenjoys it, uh, you know, and is
a good good peer and friend ofours.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
So cool.
Tanner (10:56):
Okay, he he can he's going there.
He um I mean he has like jazzbackground and stuff, so he can
play all the music great.
But the thing that stuck out tome the first time first time I
performed with him actually iswhen I really noticed it.
But we had this um, he's justso good with his tone.
Like we had um, we have thisone song that kind of starts
off, um, not necessarily startsoff, but it gets into the verse
(11:19):
a little slow and like subdued.
It's almost a jazz solo withlike a little voice line on top.
And like I had to like likeremind myself to sing because he
started playing that and I waslike, oh my god.
Like it just sounded so cool.
But and I he wasn't likeplaying the line any different,
but his tone was just yeah, itwas so good.
Cool.
(11:39):
Like, I like this guy.
Dana (11:41):
Nice.
Okay, so getting back to thename Athraxia.
Um, when I first discovered youguys with you know some of
these groups that you know Ilooked at and stuff, uh I saw
the name and the way you had itspelled with the A and E kind of
combined, and you know, I wastrying to you know figure out
it's like, well, how do they saythat?
You know, I gotta say themarketing behind it's fucking
genius because now that name isjust etched into my brain
(12:03):
forever.
Um I mean, was that you knowwas that something you guys did
on on purpose, or how'd you comeacross that name?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Man, so for a team.
Uh we we were looking around,um, and I I had just it was
around the time like Stephanieand I were going going to Greece
uh with this other band.
So I was kind of checking outsome some Greek stuff, and I
think I think we wanted a wanteda name that in a way was
(12:35):
positive.
Because you know, Tanner and Ikind of talked about, you know,
maybe if there's a message ofthe band or or whatever, and you
know, despite the aggressivenature of a lot of the music, I
think there is an I think it'soverall positive, if anything
else.
And then if anything is likesuper dark, like wake me up,
(12:56):
that's maybe more likepersonification or storytelling,
you know.
Um so this yeah, this Athraxianame kind of was born from like
uh I was looking into like Greekphilosophy and stuff, not
really for myself.
I'm not that deep, but uh, youknow, looking for a cool name.
Um and I think the the core ofthe word uh really has to do
(13:21):
with like sort of uh the idea oflike peace and inner peace and
serenity or whatever.
So while it looks cool with theX and you know, we spelled it
with the A E thing, so it looksmaybe you know, maybe more metal
or something.
Uh you know, actually the coreof the word is is like inner
(13:41):
peace and calmness, you know.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So isn't it things it's based on ataraxia, right?
That's the word.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think so, yeah.
So we're like, oh, we couldchange it a little bit, you
know, make a made up made upword, but there is a thread to a
real thing.
So yeah.
Rob (13:58):
Okay.
Like it.
Do you mind if we uh give ourlisteners a taste of your music?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Uh please do, yeah.
Rob (14:08):
Cool.
We're gonna play a song.
It's called Nameless Grave,just a piece of it here.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
I guess we're all right.
Rob (14:39):
Okay, well, I just want to give our listeners uh a piece
of uh your music because it isoutstanding.
I I kind of hear a lot of uhlike dream theater kind of
influence.
Is that is that an influence ofyours or at all?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Not really.
Not really.
I think um I I mean I'velistened to Dream Theater.
Uh you know, there's a lot ofstuff that I've spent a lot more
time listening to, but I I getthe comparison uh because like
I've got this jazz backgroundand a lot of that stuff sneaks
(15:12):
in, so I guess that might be thethreat or the similarity, you
know.
Rob (15:16):
Okay.
Um we haven't discussed uhStefan yet.
Can you give us a little bit uhhis background?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Um Stefan uh he started playing drums pretty
young.
He grew up in Hawaii.
Uh so his first experiencesdrumming were like playing in
jazz band and stuff when he wasa kid in Hawaii.
Um and he had some reallysupportive parents.
Um, he often tells this storythat like for his 13th birthday,
(15:46):
his mom went and checked himout of school to take him to the
music store to buy him a drumset.
Uh you know, I didn't havethose parents, man.
Um and uh, you know, him andhis brothers, so this band Titan
Force, if you check this out,that was him and two of his
brothers.
(16:06):
Uh he has a brother named Mariothat plays guitar, and a
brother named John that playsbass, and they all live in
Colorado now.
Um, but this was their metalband in in the 80s, and it
started out as the three of themuh and the bass player sang.
Uh and they ultimately ended upgetting, if you know the band,
uh this is pretty underground,uh Jag Panzer.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, so the singer, um the singer from Jag Panzer,
uh Harry, uh became the singerfor Titan Force.
Uh, and then they were able torelease some albums on a
European record label.
So when Stefan was young, theyhad a little bit of notoriety
and toured a bit in Europe uhdoing that.
But you know, he was kind of aguy like me, like he got into
(16:53):
metal, but then he was alwaysstudying drums and taking
lessons, um, you know, aiming tolearn anything, you know.
So when I moved to Colorado andMetam, I mean I knew him as a
you know, his name was tossedaround as a jazz drummer, you
know.
Uh then I finally got to playwith him and you know, we became
good friends and stuff.
But um, you know, I thinkthat's primarily what what he
(17:15):
was known for.
But um, yeah, just a guy that'sthat's worked making a living
playing drums all these years.
Rob (17:22):
So and Tanner, I apologize for uh playing a piece of music
that you weren't uh featured onhere, but on the way out we'll
make sure there's some music isplayed with with your vocals
there, because your vocals are akiller.
Dana (17:34):
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So I mean Yeah, I would I would say I kind of had
this vision of this band whereyou know there'd be like some
vocal tunes and someinstrumental tunes.
And really after meetingTatter, man, I I have not like I
have no interest in writing anyinstrumental music for this
band.
Speaker (17:53):
You know, that's a good compliment.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Oh shit.
Speaker (17:57):
Yeah, that says that I'll write that one, you know.
I can still play selling, wecould we could do it.
That needs to happen, man.
That definitely needs tohappen.
Dana (18:08):
So for each for each one of you guys, I mean there's
there's a point in everymusician's life of when you know
that light bulb goes up andthey're like, oh shit, this is
what I want to do the rest of mylife.
Um for each one of you, whendid that happen and how did it
come about?
Rob (18:21):
Great question.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All right, I'll go.
Man, I was like, um, I think Iwas like I said, I was born in
this this cult inspired.
I had like distorted visions oflike um like um like what was
possible or what I could do, orlim maybe limited visions,
right?
But I think I was like five orsix years old.
(18:47):
I I actually remember this umgoing and visiting my
grandparents, and they're like,what do you want to do when you
grow up?
You know, like everybody asked.
I was like, I'm gonna be acomposer.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
Huh.
Cool.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Like, you know, because I'm like raised in
classical music.
I think that's like what peopleplay, you know what I mean?
I'm like so so out there, butI'm like, yeah, I'll be a I'm
gonna be a composer.
But um, so like from a prettyearly age, I was I wanted to
write music, and I actually didwrite like some sheet music even
as a kid just for fun.
Um but in high school, and Ididn't mention this when I was
(19:21):
talking earlier, but highschool, you know, I was um I
actually went to public schoolfor high school, and that's when
I kind of you know becamenormal and got got into like
actually like got into goodmusic and stuff.
Um I shouldn't tell on myparents too much.
I love my parents, they'reawesome, and they fully support
(19:42):
me, you know.
I've met them, they seemawesome, yeah.
Cool.
They're super cool.
But I remember my first, I'mgetting off topic here, I'll get
back on in a second, but Iremember I got my uh my first my
first iPod shuffle, and I hadto like save up my own money,
talk them into it, and the firsttwo songs I downloaded was The
Final Countdown and uhTeenagers, Teenagers by My
(20:06):
Chemical Romance.
And my dad heard Teenagers andI was so pissed, man.
He was like, It's like there'sthe dad, where is that talk?
But anyways, yeah, so I I gotexposed to good music, and in
high school I actually startedum producing like electronica
and stuff.
But um, yeah.
From a real early age, I knewwhat I I knew I wanted to be
(21:01):
involved in music.
Um, but I would say I didn'treally fancy myself or see
myself as a vocalist until aboutfour or five years ago.
Um and really committed tometal about two years ago.
Rob (21:19):
Who and Steve?
How about you?
When was that moment, thatlight bulb going off saying, oh,
this is it, music?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Uh man.
I it was it was pretty early.
I always I always knew Iprobably needed to do something
uh creative, like maybe naively,but you know, I think back, I'm
like, man, I'm glad if that wasnaive, I'm glad that's what I
that I followed that, you know.
Um I was uh like I was acreative kid, you know, like
(21:51):
before I got into music it wasart.
You know, I I always had I waslike this nerdy kid that um you
know always traveled with likenotebooks and colored pencils
and shit, you know.
Now I'm like a nerdy adult thattravels with a guitar.
But uh you know, and I would Iwould like, you know, I got like
a super eight movie camera andmade like claymation movies and
(22:15):
stuff like that.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
You know, sweet.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
And yeah, and my dad, you know, my dad's probably
horrified because he, you know,I grew up in North Dakota too,
which you know, much likeTanner, man, you know, I grew up
in a place you gotta get outof, you know.
Uh so I think my dad wanted meto be involved in sports and
stuff, and I just had nointerest, you know.
It's like I, you know, I couldsit there for hours on it and
(22:37):
make frickin' claymation movieswith a super 8 video camera, you
know.
My my dad was probablyhorrified.
Uh but I think I got to likeage 12, and it it was like, um,
you know, okay, I do thiscreative stuff.
I seem to need to be able to dothis, but like this this other
stuff isn't really cool.
You know, like um, you know,like like I'm 12, you know, 12,
(23:03):
13.
I'm like, I'm starting to thinkabout like, hey, like, am I
gonna get some girls with likeyou come over and watch my
freaking claymation movie?
Um so so I think that thatfactored into it, but that was
you know, MTV was in its primetoo, and I was just like, oh my
god, this whole culture of musicand being cool and the
(23:23):
creativity.
Um I begged my mom for guitarlessons, and I I don't think I
had, you know, there's probablymost people are probably more t
naturally talented than I was,because it was tough going
trying to get, you know, learnhow to play an instrument at
first or whatever, but I wasjust determined.
So I think I think I decidedearly on, uh, even though I
(23:45):
don't even think I hadconsciously decided, I had
decided, you know.
Um, and now that I'm old, I'min my 50s, and I've been doing
this my entire life.
I've managed to make a meagerliving in music.
And um, you know, I just thinkthat I thank thank my younger
self for getting me into thisbecause I don't know what else I
would have done, you know.
Dana (24:07):
Okay, well, talking about the claymation and the getting
the girls, it's let's get realnow.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll,right?
I mean, that's that's that'swhat this is shit's all about.
Uh now have you guys had uhdiscussions and you know uh
about that in the band as far asyou know expectations and you
know limitations and how far youcan take it before you're
(24:28):
professional and or notprofessional.
Uh have you had any problemswith that and or discussions
within the band about you knowwhere the limits set?
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Uh no.
I mean it's a good thing.
Rob (24:44):
You haven't had to.
That's a that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, I don't know, man.
I mean, I I have I have workedas a musician my entire life,
you know.
Um been around tons of greatmusicians, tons of gigs.
Uh most of the people I'veworked with, stuff I've been
around is like super pro.
You know, I mean, sure there'syou know, a few people here and
(25:09):
there that uh you know drink toomuch on a gig or whatever, but
uh my experience is they sort offilter themselves out, you
know.
Um yeah, so no, and and thenreally like man, I'm married.
Stefan's married.
Uh I'm not really in a, youknow, maybe in my 20s, early 20s
(25:30):
for a while.
I was I was in it partially forthe partying, but even then not
really, because I waspracticing my ass off so I could
do this for my whole life.
Um so yeah, I mean for me, thelike whatever, man.
It's it's uh I like to drink alittle bit.
That's about it.
Stefan's probably about thesame.
I don't, yeah, there's noissues, you know, we're not on
(25:51):
the road or anything either.
You know, if it ever got to thepoint where we're traveling, um
yeah, I don't know.
I don't I don't even know ifthere if a discussion is to be
had at all.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Well that's that's a good thing.
You know, if somebody falls offthe stage, then it's like, hey,
this is now affecting the fan.
Rob (26:09):
Yeah.
All right, gotta do somethingabout this.
All right.
Well, we have one one portionof our episodes where we was I
ask our guests if they've had auh oh shit, an oh shit moment
where something's gone terriblywrong either during a
performance or a practice orwhatever, where you just said,
oh shit.
Dana (26:30):
Lay it on us, guys.
We know we know there's storiesout there.
Every band has them.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Tanner, you first I try not to get like I try not to
like dwell on shit because Iknow it happens, but the
actually the last gig we played,I just came in because we
played to a click track.
Um, and I just came in tooearly on my verse, and I got to
the end of the verse, and I waslike, oh, you're still playing
(26:59):
the verse.
And um, and like some of thesongs are more screamy, and it's
like I can if I like messed up,I could really get away with
that pretty easily, just likeyou know, make some noise.
People are gonna be like, ohyou know, he's probably said a
word there.
But this was like uh this wasone of the songs that was like
(27:20):
no screaming, just pure singing,no screaming, and I just I
fucked it up so bad.
I pretty much got into it onlike the last chorus.
unknown (27:29):
Yeah.
Rob (27:30):
Well that's not too terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Now I did just I did just get I'm now I'm just having
conversations with Tanner.
Sorry.
I did just get the video fromMichael of that show, and I
didn't hear that part, but Ijust heard a little bit of like
a different part of the tune,and you sounded freaking
incredible.
So whatever it's worth, man,you know.
(27:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Rob (27:54):
Steve, do you any like equipment malfunctions or just
something that was an old shit?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Um I mean, I've probably played thousands of
gigs in my life, so there'syeah, there's probably stuff in
the past.
Um probably stuff in the pastthat's they would there's some
really funny stories that Icould tell for sure, but they
but they would be long andwouldn't really pertain to this
band.
Um I would say in this band,just the uh the first gig I had
(28:23):
a little pedal uh guitar rigissue that was resolved pretty
quick.
I'd say like my ongoing theongoing equipment uh issue in
this band that has given me aproblem uh is actually that for
some reason on this gig, uh, youknow, you would think nine or
ten songs wouldn't be thisintense, but super intense.
(28:44):
So I end up like sweating onthis gig more than any other gig
I've ever done.
And then my glasses slide downmy nose.
So so I'm so I'm trying tolike, you know, this is like a
very metal uh problem to have.
But so I need to, I'm trying tofigure out a situation where I
gotta like tighten this shit upor get some tighter glasses, or
(29:04):
you know, you sore contacts, youmay have to go back to that.
But yeah, so that's like my umreally my pressing gear issue in
this band is is uh glasses.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Well, that's pretty metal.
Yeah, that's pretty metal.
That's not bad.
It's our show.
You know, our show is that.
Yeah, there you go.
Dana (29:35):
Okay, so our course our show is called you know
Franklin's Garage the Stage, andyou know, on the whole premise
of helping musicians that arejust starting out to try to find
their way of how to get out oftheir bedroom into the into the
stage.
Um Do you have any advice forstarting out musicians?
And I mean, shit, we can goback all of our episodes about
the trials and tribulations ofjust starting a band, let alone
(29:57):
gigging together.
But um, the one piece of advicethat each one of you would have
for new new musicians and newbands that are trying to take
that next stage up to actuallyplay live.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Uh Tanner, you got anything?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Uh I mean you have way more experience with this,
but I would say, you know, youdo need to do a like make sure
you're ready.
I would say like work on youryou can never go wrong with
working on your craft.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
But if you're ready to go on the stage, then just go
get on a stage.
Whether it's an open mic orkaraoke, go get on a stage, talk
to people, be ready to berejected.
But um I think the best way toactually get a gig, if you want
to get a gig, you need to have ashow ready.
You need to have a set ready.
(30:47):
And if you have somebody thatalso have sets ready, that'll
help a lot too.
Um biggest just one piece ofadvice though is just to do it
and be ready.
Not be afraid of rejection.
Rob (31:02):
Good advice.
See, what do you got?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Um I would say, yeah, on the on the personal level,
making sure that you are as goodas you can be at what you do,
you know.
So um, you know, I was alwayslike a just incessantly
practicing, and I went to musicschool and studied all these
styles of music.
Um, you know, my thing foryears was that I just wanted to
(31:26):
be able to go to any gig, beable to play jazz, play funk.
If I someone paid me enoughmoney, I'd play a country gig or
whatever, and be able to do allof be able to do all of that
legitimately, because I wantedto make a living with a guitar,
right?
I mean, that was like the firstand foremost thing.
Um so I would say, you know,for instrumentalists or
(31:49):
vocalists, like, man, study,take lessons, like learn
everything you can.
You know, people will say allsorts of things like, oh, you
don't need to know a musictheory, that'll ruin your
creativity, or like, no, learnas much as you can, learn
everything, you know.
Um, and then I would say, like,take take any gig, you know,
like when you're starting out,if someone wants you playing a
(32:11):
cover band is gonna pay you todo something, you know, take
take any gig and just do it, youknow, just be be brave.
Um, you know, it's kind of twodifferent things.
I think if you take the trackof like you want to be a working
musician like I did, or if youjust want to head right into
being an original band, I thinkthere's maybe different things
to focus focus on.
(32:31):
Uh, but you can do bothsimultaneously, you know.
I'd say take take every gig,align yourself with the best
musicians, or trying try toalign yourself with um, you
know, like when I was youngyounger, it was always like I
wanted to play with older, moreexperienced players, always be
the worst.
You know, if I'm the worst,then I'm always learning, you
(32:52):
know, in the bands that I'm in.
You know, probably um a bigpiece of advice would just be
like try to enjoy it all too,right?
Like, this is supposed to befun, even if you're working, um
forcing yourself to do thingslike uh this shit's really cool.
Music's really freaking cool,and uh remember to have fun, you
(33:13):
know.
Rob (33:14):
That's that's what it's all about, right?
You may have already said this,um, and I apologize if you
have, but when did the bandactually form?
And what are your plans for2026?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I think the band formed when I met Tanner.
It was like it was an ideabefore that, you know.
It was like, uh, you know, wasthat recently or what?
We can write some music orwhatever.
When I when I'm like when I metTanner, it was like, okay, like
hell yeah, you know, when youfind uh you know a key piece or
(33:50):
another person that's likelike-minded and motivated, then
it's like hell yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So yeah, oh yeah, we know that, yeah.
Yeah, we know the field.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We met uh I think I think I came over and met you,
was it November 1st last year?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Oh yeah, last year, okay.
Rob (34:08):
So a year, all right.
You've accomplished quite a bitin that short time frame.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, I th I think so, and it's really only been
the first show that we playedwas August, what was it, August
11th?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Uh 22nd.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
22nd, August 22nd.
So yeah, we have a show againin a couple weeks, so then it's
you know, really in the firstfour months since we peaked our
heads out.
Uh, we released that album andit played at this point like a
like a number of shows.
Dana (34:37):
So yeah, what I've seen very recently, you guys have
been really busy.
I mean, I see a bunch of clipsof shows that you guys have
done, and it looks like you'reout there quite a bit, which is
nice.
Any any pre-show rituals?
Good or bad, lay it on us.
Anything crazy?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
No, I mean, I think I think maybe you'd have to be on
tour or something at a certainlevel before you can afford to
have a ritual, you know.
It's kind of like a lot of alot of these shows are like uh,
you know, there might be threeor four or five bands on a show,
so it's like, man, you'rehanging out.
I mean, I just like hanging outtalking to other musicians.
That's what we're like reallysuper fun thing for me.
(35:16):
Hang out, and what's your timeto set up and go, you set up and
go, you know.
Um, I think I remember seeingan interview with a singer from
that band, Train, uh, a fewyears ago.
And he was, you know, they'relike a super famous band, right?
So you have the luxury of like,you know, green room and
dressing rooms and stuff.
And he was talking about he hadsome multi-stage uh pre-show
(35:39):
ritual of applying essentialoils, you know.
I'll never need that, man.
I'll just like make like housedrink some beer and talk to some
other dudes and some otherbands and then go play, you
know.
So there's none for me.
I don't know.
Rob (35:54):
No superstitions or I don't really have any.
Alright.
No superstitions, like favoritesoccer or whatever?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I have superstitions.
Yeah, I don't have rituals, butI have superstitions.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Alright.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Uh one of my superstitions is I don't uh I
don't, it's not totallysuperstition, but I don't
practice the day that I'mplaying.
Speaker 7 (36:14):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I like obviously, but um never never practice the day
I'm playing.
And part of that's just like aprinciple of mine so that I make
sure I'm ready by the time thatday comes.
And if it's like I'm not ready,well it's like, well, you
fucked yourself, so deal withthis and maybe do better next
time.
But no, I I um I really wanna Ireally don't like to practice
(36:37):
the day that I play.
Um, and I think that's kind ofsuperstition.
The other thing I don't do onthe days I play that I do almost
every other day is uh smokeweed.
Don't do that on days I play.
Um maybe if I wasn't singing Iwould.
Maybe if I wasn't singing, Iwould, but it um I just don't
want to risk anything with myvoice.
Dana (36:58):
You're like right before a podcast and I was playing to
smoke.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Yeah, yeah, no.
It's like a qi chi-chong momentthere, you know.
Rob (37:08):
So 26, what do you guys got lined up?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Um I actually I teach voice actually, and I um part
of vocal health and stuff.
I've I've like watched videosof people like vocal cores and
stuff.
And um with weed, it's um it'snot necessarily the smoke, like
people smoke and they're fine orwhatever.
But like when you're stoned,your vocal cord like mental
(37:32):
connection isn't as strong.
And like there was a video ofone guy singing stoned, and like
his one um like one side of hisvocal fold like wasn't
activating, so the other sidewas like having to work harder,
like they weren't comingtogether.
It's like the other side wascoming to it, and it's like you
know, people there's so manygreat stoner musicians, singers
(37:53):
out there in the world that havemade incredible careers for
themselves.
Um, but you know, I just I knowit makes me sound different, so
I don't want to mess with it.
So yeah, don't don't smoke,don't practice.
Um that's about it.
That's about it.
Rob (38:09):
So 26, what do you guys got lined up?
I mean, what's what's the firstthings on your calendar in 26?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Uh we I think we have three shows in January.
Um and then man, uh I we'regonna release a bunch of
material, hopefully, in 2026.
So we've already been back inthe studio.
Uh Tanner and I are gettingtogether, and there's uh at this
(38:37):
point a growing mountain of uhmaterial to finish and and
release and stuff.
So hopefully we have a goodyear being able to you know feed
that to people who already digthe band and pull some more
people in and uh you know beable to play a lot and you know
at this point we're playing thealbum.
(38:58):
Uh but hopefully, you know, assoon as the next show we got
enough material so no show willbe the same, you know.
Dana (39:05):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
That's very cool.
Dana (39:07):
So when you do your live shows, do you uh do you do have
your own sound guy and hold andlight lighting guy, or is that
depending on venue?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
We don't have our own feedback.
No, I think uh yeah, I think wehave to get to a certain point
before we could before we coulddo that.
Uh most of the venues uh thatwe have played, maybe save one,
um are super pro.
Uh you know, the the gear, uh,the sound guys that we've dealt
(39:42):
with, people have been superpro.
So you know, the at least youknow, the region that we live
in, we're we're pretty we'repretty lucky with it with the
venues.
So sure it'd be great to haveyou know, lighting guy, sound
guy, and probably at some ofthese places, you know, we could
probably lobby to bring our ownguys in, but um, you know,
(40:05):
that's logistics and paying themand stuff.
And I think for for for whatwe're doing, the guys, the house
guys are doing a pretty goodjob so far.
Rob (40:13):
So um, what was I gonna ask you?
Oh, yeah.
Um, if for a brand newlistener, how would you describe
your music and your band to belike brand new listeners?
And right now you're speakingof almost uh like nearly 75,000
downloads in 30 countries and200 cities.
(40:33):
So tell tell our listenersabout the band, how you would
describe it, somebody asking youon the street.
Speaker (40:41):
Tanner, how would you describe it?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Oh, okay.
I always start off, I say it'sI say it's progressive metal,
just to get a nice umbrella termout there that they can fit it
under.
And then I and then I usuallysay something like it's like
kind of highbrow and it's umreally virtuoso and There's a
lot of talent.
(41:04):
Yeah, that's you that's usuallyhow I describe it.
Rob (41:08):
Okay, very cool.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, and I think it's gonna evolve, you know.
I mean, that's like kind of thefirst, you know, the the album
is the first crop of tunes, youknow.
Um so yeah, we'll see, we'llsee what happens.
I don't even really know how todescribe it, you know, being
being close to it.
Dana (41:23):
So there's so many delay.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
It's probably too high brow.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
But it's like, you know, it's not um it's not like
it's not necessarily groovemetal.
It's you know, it's you gottalisten to it.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Okay.
Yeah, there's elements of a lotof things in there, you know.
So yeah.
Dana (41:44):
Cool, cool.
What's your what's your guys'practice regimen like?
How many times a week?
How long?
You know, I mean, is thereanything set in stone or is it
just like you call Tanner'slike, dude, let's make some
music.
Make some noise today.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Um, yeah, I mean, we could we could get together
more, but the the guys, youknow, at least the
instrumentalists involved inthis band, uh, you know, we come
from this world of like forlike decades, I've done gigs and
Stefan and Murphy the bassplayer.
(42:22):
For decades, we've done tons ofpro gigs where there's no
rehearsal, and you might noteven have met the people you're
playing with before you play.
Uh, you know, sort of corporateband gigs.
Actually, Murphy subbed with adifferent band that um Stefan
and I play with um on Saturday,and he came in and there were
(42:43):
tunes uh with with a differentsinger, none of us had played
before, and they were great,right?
So we kind of come from thisworld where, you know, since
I've been young, it was expectedlike, hey, if you get called
for this gig, there may not be arehearsal, you show up um and
you just kill the gig, or wedon't call you again, right?
Uh you know, maybe maybedifferent than a lot of, you
(43:06):
know, I think a lot of rockbands maybe do a thing where
they have to they play together,they get together and play
together all the time, or theyhave to do that to keep things
sharp or whatever.
But it's like, man, guys likeme and Stephanie Murphy, we're
sometimes playing three or fourother gigs that week.
So it's not a question of it'sno longer a question of like,
oh, can I play my instrumentwith these people or I need to
(43:27):
practice my instrument withthese people?
It's like can you play theshow?
You know?
Yeah, I would probably preferum to get together a little bit
more, but uh I feel like thetunes that we have that we've
been playing live, we we don'tneed to get together very much.
(43:48):
You know, I think it's gonna beif we haven't played for a
little bit, definitely when weadd some new tunes to the set or
whatever, you know, then whenwe get together, but it's like,
man, I can count on you know, wecan all count on each other to
like, hey, if we haven't seeneach other for two weeks and
we're gonna show up and play ashow, that show's gonna kill.
Oh, that's very cool.
(44:08):
So I don't know, Tanner, whatyou think about it.
I mean, I would prefer gettingtogether a little bit more, but
it's like everybody's busy, buteverybody's also super pro and
doesn't necessarily need it,maybe like some people that have
less experience.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
So yeah, I know I think I think it's been working
great.
I mean, as we add more to theset, we can we'll run the set
again.
You know, we'll just do a quickrehearsal for any time we
change the set, and it'll befine.
Um yeah, and then Steve and Iget together a little more often
just to uh like make demos andstuff.
(44:42):
How is that?
Yeah, we we get together moreon the creativity side, but
yeah, as far as rehearsal, Ithink we do we do pretty we do
great.
Rob (44:51):
We have to have that confidence level with each
other.
That's that's very cool.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, I think I think last the last time we
rehearsed, I think we had thethe space reserved for three
hours or something.
We got together and we playedthrough the set once, and we
were all like you know what wecould run it through it again or
not, like yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I mean we're playing to a click, we're playing to a
click, and we're playing itexactly as it's written, exactly
as it is on the album, so it'ssuper easy to like practice at
home.
You can just practice with thealbum, and it's like nice, you
know.
Rob (45:26):
How is the uh Denver area for getting uh shows?
You guys uh for new for newvenues, what are the club owners
like requiring of bands outthere?
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Um it's pretty cool.
I I'm pretty shocked becausethis was not my really not my
scene around here before thisthis band.
Um and I've been doing the onereaching out and booking, and
man, we've played in less thanfour months.
I think we will have playedseven shows.
Uh you know, a number of thosehave been headlining shows,
(45:59):
whether we deserve it or not.
Uh I don't know.
Our band's pretty cool, butwe're still pretty new.
Um and it's it's beenrelatively there's some annoying
things about booking in thisscene, but it's been relatively
easy, I think.
Um you know, and I think it'sgonna continue to be uh easier,
easy, easier as we reach morepeople at shows and as we play
(46:23):
with more more other bands andstuff and build the you know,
build those friendships andconnections and stuff.
But man, I've just been havingan unbelievable amount of fun at
the shows.
And uh yeah, it's really cool.
I think it's gonna I think it'sgonna continue, and this is
actually a pretty good areawhere you can have a band like
(46:44):
this, an original band, and andbe kind of busy with it,
actually.
Dana (46:48):
That's nice.
Yeah, you can't do that in awhole lot of areas.
So that's that's awesome thatthat you've got that out there.
Well, we're gonna check outsome more music from you guys
here.
So let's get this queued up andhere we go.
There's Tanner.
Speaker (47:37):
Hold down the A until the special characters come out.
That might have been the onemarketing squaw with the name of
the fan.
Dana (47:46):
I love it.
Speaker (47:50):
We're not the only fan, we're not the only metal band
that has the best.
Rob (47:54):
Well, we're gonna be putting your website link as
well as your titles on ourwebsite.
So uh thank you guys very much.
Dana (48:03):
Appreciate it, guys.
You guys are awesome, and I'mgonna end up I'm gonna end up
the total of let's live eachdate to the fullest potential,
because that's what we all loveto do in the music world.
Go after give it your best.
Thanks, guys.
Speaker 5 (48:18):
Thank you.
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