PipemanRadio Interviews Gloomchild & Spiderwall at Aftershock 2025

PipemanRadio Interviews Gloomchild & Spiderwall at Aftershock 2025

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Aftershock 2025 Draws Record-Breaking Crowd Of Over 164,000 Fans, The Largest In The Festival’s History  

The West Coast’s Ultimate Rock, Punk & Metal Destination 115+ Bands • 4 Unforgettable Days • Fans From Every Corner of the Globe

Danny Wimmer Presents’ record-breaking 2025 festival season concluded October 2–5 with the largest Aftershock in history — drawing over 164,000 fans from all 50 states and more than 30 countries to Sacramento’s Discovery Park, generating an estimated $35 million in local economic impact.  

The West Coast’s biggest rock, punk, and metal festival reached new heights in 2025.

Debuting in 2025, Aftershock introduced several new fan-favorite experiences that elevated the  festival weekend to new heights. The Capitol Club offered an all-inclusive oasis with premium amenities and elevated views of the main stage, while Tremors Dive Bar kept the energy high with a pop-up set by  DJ Rock Feed with surprise guests My Darkest Days, and a special Sunday takeover by Sacramento’s own The Jungle Bird. Fans also discovered spontaneous performances at Beatbox and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speakeasy hidden beneath the underpass — each adding to the sense of discovery and excitement that defined this year’s festival.  

To celebrate DWP’s cultural and economic impact to the region, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty, Senator Angelique Ashby, and Assemblymember Maggy Krell honored Danny Wimmer Presents with official recognitions from the City of Sacramento, the California State Senate, and the California State Assembly. The proclamation and resolutions celebrate Aftershock’s decade-long legacy, recognizing its profound cultural, economic, and charitable contributions to the Sacramento community and beyond, and highlighting how the festival has firmly established the city as a premier destination for live music in California.  

The 2026 dates for Aftershock will be announced in the coming months along with early bird tickets, allowing fans to lock-in lower level pricing and maximum payment plan options. Fans are encouraged to stay tuned to the festival’s official social media channels and AftershockFestival.com.

In addition to music performances, this year’s edition of Aftershock featured various partner onsite activations, award-winning beverages and delectable eats from partners including Animal Place, Astral Tequila, Beatbox Beverages, Black Shades, Blackcraft, Body Art Express, California Army National Guard, Coors Light, Don Julio, Eargasm, Freak On a Leash, Fxck Cancer, Golden State Cider, Hyatt Vacation Club, Jack Daniel's, Jeffree Star Cosmetics, Little Rocker Clothing, Mortus Viventi, Nowhere Fast, Parlor Root Beer, Red Bull, Sierra Nevada, Strüng, Take Me Home, The Pretty Cult, Tito's Handmade Vodka, To Write Love on Her Arms, Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, and Waterloo Sparkling Water.  

Aftershock is proud to partner with Visit Sacramento and is produced by Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents, one of the largest independent producers of destination music festivals in America.  

For more information on Aftershock please visit:
Website: www.aftershockfestival.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aftershockfestival
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aftershockfestival
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, you love them too, Yes, that's true. For see
why were You young?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
There's a pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man
w four Cy Radio, And I'm here.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
With Joey Francois from gloom Child and Spiderwall.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Nice here at Aftershock. So what brings you to Aftershock?
What is cool about this place to be at Aftershock?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Dude, this is the coolest place in the world.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
He's got every band that I grew up listening to
performing here. It's a blessing and honor to be out
here rocking out with the biggest bands out there.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Nice and so tell us a little bit. But are
your two bands? Yeah, how are they similar? How are
they different?

Speaker 1 (00:55):
So they're similar in a way that we actually are
some of the same members from gloom Child. We gloom
Child is a six piece metalcore band, and some of
our members we decided to start a new band one
night on a late junken night and start like a
punk type of band. But really we don't like to
put ourselves in a box like. We like to make

(01:16):
whatever music that that we feel. But yeah, they're really
different in a way that's a gloom Child has a
big discography out we've been grinding for the last six years,
and Spider Wall we just have like a few singles out.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I think it's cool that you do different vibes because
I think people don't realize that just because you're a
metal head doesn't mean you like don't like other music.
Just because you're punk doesn't mean you don't like other music.
It used to be that stupid gate keeper shit. Yeah,
but really we did like it. We just been admit it.
Now we can actually admit that we like all kinds

(01:51):
of music.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Oh yeah. It's so healthy for the scene to embrace
each other because really all music, it does it, all
does relate to each other. I mean, we're all just
expressing ourselves and the music that we put out is
just a reflection of how we feel.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
So totally and listen. As an artist, it would be
boring if you played the same thing over and over again,
wouldn't it.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
I can't even imagine a world where I would have
to just play the same thing over and over again.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Man, come on, exactly, yeah, exactly. So what do you
feel the difference is in your fan base and how
people see you based on the different bands.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So I would say that Gloom Child, we're more of
an introspective. We have a very introspective audience, so we're
for like really overcoming your toughest battles, and we kind
of share that side of ourselves with our music. And
Spider Wall is more of like we're there to just
rock out and have fun and really just drink as
much beer as possible.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, there you go. That sounds punk though, yeah, that
does sound pump. So who would you say your biggest
influence for each band has been?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
So I'd say for gloom Child, our biggest influences are
like kill Switch, Engauge, Avenge, Sevenfold, under Oath, spirit Box,
just a lot of bands slip not with Spider Wall.
We take a lot of influence from indie music actually,
so bands like Always and Blink two and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
So and what started your musical journey? What was that
moment that you started realizing you wanted to be a musician.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
When I was just I want to say, probably two
years old, and I saw a piano and my grandma
had a piano, and I learned I started playing piano
when I was really young, around like two or three
years old. So that was when I first realized that
when I resonated with music, and.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So how did the transformation happen through all the years
from that to where you are now?

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Now that's a great quest because without that piano experience,
I would have never even got asked to be in
a band. Because when I was in middle school, I
had a friend who lived across the street and in
my neighborhood there was some kids that became my best
friends that they needed a keyboardist for their band that
was like metalcore, asking Alexandria's style. Like still, it's almost

(04:20):
the same solid stuff we do today, except we elevated
it over the years. But yeah, around fourteen years ago,
we were playing. I was playing bars and stuff when
I was fifteen and stuff. So I had to always
battle my parents and tell them I'm gonna be at
this bar this weekend playing and they, no, you're not,
you know, But we had to do it anyways because
we booked the shows ourselves, and that that Tampa has

(04:42):
a has a really big like metal scene and death
course scene and everything. So we've always been inspired by
a lot of breakdowns and like mosh pits and stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
So it's funny too, because I'm in South Florida and
I cover. I've covered shows up in tam and obviously
where I am. I prefer the venues in the scene
much more up in Tampa than South Florida.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Oh yeah, man, it's such a tight scene in Tampa.
Just on my street there's probably like three breweries that
have metal shows every single weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
I love that, yeah, And I just find it's the
way the whole scene is like South Florida. It's we
still have kind of gatekeepers, and you have spurts of
good shows, but nobody wants to come down to us
because then they have to go all the way back up.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
I've actually met my girlfriend at a show we played
in Miami and we've been dating for two years now.
And Dude, I love playing shows out there in South
Florida because y'all have those turn up party vibes. Like
sometimes in Tampa people just are watching us without any movement,
And in Miami or in South Florida, dude, people love
to move and start those pits out there. That's what

(05:54):
I love about South Florida.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I love these conversations because I want to hear the
artists perspective doing things. Of course, I'm giving a media perspective,
then there's a listener perspective. So absolutely there's always different perspectives.
So that's cool to hear because I would think if
it was such a great metal scene up there, there
would be pits and stuff like that. But what you're
telling me is South Faria is a lot more brutal.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, man, I mean, dude, I just think people love
to like have fun down there in South Florida, man,
and in Tampa two we do. But it's one of
those things where hardcore and metalcore there's almost like a
there's a fine line between like the fan base that
the hardcore kids are there to throw down and fucking
start pitch, and then the metal core is like more

(06:38):
about technicalities and they want to just watch the riffs
and really soak all of that musicality. Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
See that's educational right there, because most listeners think that
don't know metal. They think nothing of like technicality or
studying musicianship. But you have people say it's just noise,
and but there is serious musicianship. Oh.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
I encourage all those people to check out Dream Theater,
right yeah, because it don't get more technical than that.
I mean, that's one of our big influences as well,
So I encourage everyone out there to check out bands
like Dream Theater, Tessa Act, all these types of technical
metal bands that really push musicianship to the next level,
I think for all genres, because there's a lot of

(07:24):
other genres now that are taking from metal and trying
to turn Like now pop music is becoming metal, and
I love that because something like I don't know if
you know of like Young Blood and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I love Young Blood, yeah, especially I loved them before,
but after that performance at back to the beginning, I'm
like I would. I talked to all the press and
publicity people and we all agreed, like we were blown away.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Absolutely. Man, that guy is one of a kind, right.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
He said, besides Ozzy and Sabbath, he was a highlight
of his show, and that that dude he showed up
and put on that performance and left to go do
his own show that night. To me, that's badass.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
That's badass, that's dedication, that's goals, if you ask me,
that's the type of stuff that if you're a hard
working musician, you deserve to play two shows in one
day and enjoy yourself that way. Because I don't understand
when musicians they don't enjoy their jobs sometimes because it's
such hard work, and I mean, I do understand it,
but also it's one of those things that I don't
ever want to become jaded in that way. I always

(08:31):
want to enjoy this because my whole life I've been
working towards this, and I think that's the thing that
separates us from a lot of bands is that we've
been working at this for twelve years and we still
are fighting for our shot and we're gonna keep fighting
for it because we believe in ourselves.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
And that's what it takes, because it takes like twenty
years to become an overnight success. Facts like Metallic is
a perfect example of that. They ate blowney sandwiches with
no bread, slept with three other bands on a floor
in a room for like ten years.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
I think I think every band at this festival has
gone through that. Yeah, that's what I love. I respect
that so much, and I love that about this because
it's a true example of what it takes to do
this job well.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
And that's why you're talking about when joying yourself having fun.
If you're not having fun in this business, it's still wrong.
Business because everything else kind of sucks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, it's long hours and long yeah, long drives, lots.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Of rejection, a lot of business. Bull You know, the
best part is going and performing and writing the music.
If you're not having fun with that, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Exactly? And that's what I love about Gloom Child and
Spider Wall being in these bands. It's like I'm with
my best friends that I grew up with and we
still have that love. We never there's not ever a
time when we're hanging out where there's not a lot
of love involved.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
That's key too, because how can you go on tour,
whether it's a big tour or a little bus with
the whole band and spend twenty four to seven with
them without killing each other. You gotta be best friends,
you really do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I know that that's not always the case, and I
don't know how those bands do it, but hey man.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Respect respect, right, It would be so hard, you.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like, sometimes the band and the brand really becomes such
a big business that you have to keep it going. Yeah,
And dude, you got to do whatever it takes sometimes,
and even if you're with people that aren't your best friends,
but you' all gonna make it work and that's dedication.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well, it's like Slayer came back last year to do
some festivals and carry King's playing here. Carrie hadn't talked
to Tom in all that five years that they weren't playing.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
And none of us would have even known that, right
because the way that their chemistry on stages, it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
No doubt, no doubt. What else do you want to
tell the listeners about your bands and also tell them
how they can connect to you on social check everything out.
If you have merch by your merch, they can't listen
to my show unless they buy band merch.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Hey I love that man, shout out Dean Man. That's
a great thing. That's a blessing. So gloom Child. You
can find us on all streaming services, Instagram, YouTube, I
just at gloom Child. Gloom Child music dot Com is
our website where you'll find our merch and spider wall.
We have a few singles out. Check out Black Pepper Grinder,

(11:26):
check out Wardrobe, check out Honeymoon. Those are some of
our newest singles that we put out with gloom Child.
Now we have a big discography. I want to let
y'all know we have about five albums you can check
out and a couple EPs, So go check out Midnight
and Limbo that we put out last October about to
celebrate one year, and then Summer's Over we put out

(11:48):
three years ago on the last day of Summer in
twenty twenty two, and then our newest single grim It's
gonna be This is exclusive right here, but we're coming
out with a new EP this year or early next
year called Gloom Season two. Go check out Gloom Season,
the EP that we put out a few years ago.
That's it's basically the preface of this of this EP.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Cool and is there anything else you want to share
that we haven't covered or ray that they need to know.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
No, man, I really appreciate your time, and I hope
y'all rock with us because we want to come rock
for you and rock with you.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, you definitely rock and everybody's gotta check you out
or they can't listen to my show. And thanks for
being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Thank you, Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipement.
I'm w for CUI Radio.