February 18, 2025 • 43 mins
Remember to get your tickets to the 2025 CPMAs coming up on March 5th:
https://amtshows.com/show/6th-annual-cpmas-hall-of-fame-induction-ceremony/
This week we have:
Rich Ruoff:
Rich is the original owner of the legendary Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA and now the current Owner / General manager of The Village & Lizard Lounge also located in Lancaster! Rich began hosting live music in 1985 and hasn't looked back. Over the years, he has hosted many different genres of music, names both big and small. Rich is definitely a pivotal part the the Central Pennsylvania music community and we cannot thank him enough for his contributions. Please enjoy as we talk about the experience, joys and journey of owning a Night Club / Music venue.
https://thevillagenightclub.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thevillagenightclub/?hl=en
Eternal Frequency:
An Award Winning Hard Rock Band from Lancaster PA, front women Emelle and Guitarist Justin took the time to sit with us and speak about the journey of Eternal Frequency and their experiences as musicians. Their Hard Rock instrumentals paired with Emelle's powerful vocals led the band to a quick and staggering success. Eternal Frequency has won several CPMA's from 2020 Best New Artist and 2022 Best Hard Rock Artist, along with many more from other organizations! With New Music and shows coming soon, make sure you check them out on all their socials!
https://www.facebook.com/EternalFrequencyofficial
https://www.youtube.com/c/EternalFrequencyOfficial
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Mdnl66TIBHdOcISzoTNMd
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/eternal-frequency/1435184877
https://www.instagram.com/eternalfrequencyofficial/
You can find out more about the CPMHOF @ https://cpmhof.com/
Brought to you by Darker with Daniel @ Studio 3.
http://darkerwithdaniel.com/
All media requests: thecpmpodcast@gmail.com
Want to be on an episode of the CPMP? For all considerations please fill out a form @ https://cpmhof.com/guest-consideration
Join us back here or on your favorite audio streaming platform every other week for more content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Rich, Ruoff andML of Eternal Frequency.
This episode is sponsored byMembers, First and now your
hosts Daniel Kime and AlanMcCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello and welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Rich Ruoff, formerowner of the Chameleon Club, now
the GM of the Village inLancaster, which is where this
year's Central PennsylvaniaMusic Awards afterparty will be
taking place, followed by thisinterview.
Coming up, we have ML andJustin of Eternal Frequency
Please stay tuned Sitting herewith Rich Ruoff.
(00:51):
Rich, you've been around themusic industry here in Central
PA for quite some time,certainly a pivotal part of our
music community.
You were the original founderand owner of the Chameleon Club
in Lancaster.
First of all, I want to thankyou so much for coming on the
show.
Well, thank you for having me,of course, of course.
So you talked a little bit offair about all the different
(01:13):
things you've done and you donow.
Like I said, I always like tostart at the beginning.
Can we start at the beginningof your story and how you got to
where you are today?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sure, I opened the Chameleon Club in 1985 when I
was 23 years old, my girlfriendand partner at the time,
alexandra Brown.
We did it together and we gotrolling and it was just an idea
and if you think I'm a wealthyperson, that's not true.
I knew we both like music andwe thought the Lancaster music
(01:45):
scene was pretty limited and Ihad done some traveling and I
thought what can we do to makeit better?
So I thought we should open aclub and I finally got that idea
rolling and I found a room thatwas sitting there empty.
It was a back room of arestaurant and I approached the
owner, just cold, called him andI said I'd like to rent your
room and put music on and hesaid great.
(02:07):
And so I kind of slipped into aliquor license as a manager
slash renter and he didn'tcharge me that much to get
rolling.
I had a little money saved froma job I had and it was enough
to get rolling.
But we didn't have deep pocketsso we had to make money
immediately.
Okay, like if we had done twoor three shows that lost money
(02:27):
in a row, that would have beenthe end of it, okay.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was make or break from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Absolutely the interesting thing about it is it
made money on the first day,the first week, the first month
and the first year.
Wow, and I've since learned inother businesses.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I've done that.
That doesn't always happen.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It can be somewhat of an anomaly, yeah, but people
were definitely feeling what wewere feeling, that the town
needed something, and peopleresponded to it and started
coming out.
And also we were young and Ithink the younger people in the
town thought, oh, this is cool,let's go see what they're doing.
And so we had fun booking somegreat bands and the audience
showed up.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's amazing.
Yeah, and that was 1985.
Correct, and you owned the club.
Sorry, so that was the originalroom.
And then was it two years later, three years later, so we were
there for three years.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
It was a smaller room .
I mean legal capacity was noteven 200 people.
We always tested that limit butwe outgrew it and also, as it
got more popular, the owner keptraising the rent and since it
was a handshake deal, I reallycouldn't say anything and I'm
finally like, oh, I shouldprobably just go buy my own
place.
So we went out.
I went out At that.
(03:41):
That point my girlfriend and Isplit, uh, actually after about
six months.
So I've been running it eversince and uh the I found the
location that people who knowchameleon club, the building on
water street, uh bought that.
Uh, I bought some investors in,we renovated it, did a major
renovation, um, and we got thatopen there.
(04:04):
It was four times bigger thanthe original club.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
My goodness, yeah.
So when this all started in the80s, what kind of music did you
guys have playing in there backthen?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
The original business card said blues, jazz and rock
and roll.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Blues, jazz and rock and roll.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And rock and roll is just such a wide definition.
I mean, you know, new wave wasthe thing in the eighties and
then it morphed into alternative, uh, and of course you know you
could do, even classic rock wasalready a thing by the eighties
.
Um, and you could do hard rock,we did.
I got turned on the punk rock.
I mean I knew of it but Iwasn't really a punk rocker, but
(04:39):
I had.
There was some local promoters,there were some good record
stores in town that were punkrock stores and they turned me
onto it and it turned out to bea fun scene.
So we did that as well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Nice.
Yeah, that's really cool.
What was in your time?
Uh, owning the chameleon club.
What would you say is one ofthe biggest shows you put on
there?
Oh, you can even do yourfavorite.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah Well, okay, yeah , well, okay.
My favorite was Dickie Bettsfrom the Allman Brothers.
Okay, he came in and you got tounderstand.
The Allman Brothers had playedat Watkins Glen back in the 70s
in front of 600,000 people.
They headlined that show and Ialso did Greg Allman and Dickie
Betts.
And Dickie came in and it wasone of the best shows I had ever
(05:22):
seen and he was on a wholeother level that night.
The whole band was levitating.
They were so good, wow.
And after the show, dickiegrabs me by the arm, he goes,
take me out for a beer.
So we went down to the attachedrestaurant and it's just me and
him sitting at the bar and he'slooking at me and he goes.
I haven't played like that inyears, years and he goes, and
when I do, I just want to lookover and hand the lead to Dwayne
(05:44):
.
Now Dwayne Allman had died 15years before in a motorcycle
wreck, but you know they werethe founding members of the of
the Allman brothers, so that,just you know, gave chills down
my spine.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I can only imagine that gave me chills right now,
when you said that yeah, yeah,wow, that's, that's a crazy
experience right there, oh mygosh.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
But it was a motivating factor for me to keep
going, because that was in thefirst year of business and it
was just such an amazing thingand I said, oh, we got to keep
doing this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
You said that was in the firstfew years of business.
First year, first six months.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You hit the ground running right, yeah, yeah.
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
My.
So you sold the Chameleon Club,correct?
I sold it early on.
I sold it early on by today'sstandards.
I ran it for 17 years.
Okay, sold it in 2002, as Imentioned earlier, when we got
married and started having kids,it was just easier to not be
running a nightclub at the sametime I got you.
So it's been through a coupleowners and then around 2020,
they went belly up Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
It's a shame.
I mean the place was anabsolute staple of the Lancaster
music scene.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean just the shows.
I booked over 4,000 showsthrough there, wow, and then
subsequent owners bookedthousands more.
So it's seen a lot of greatbands.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Oh yeah, I've seen lots of great bands there.
Over the years we used to go toLaunch Music Festival every
year.
Sure, over the years we used togo to Launch Music Festival
every year and always go down tothe Chameleon for that.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Jeremy's first show.
Who runs Launch?
Jeremy Weiss his first show asa kid.
He was like 15 years old and heapproached me and he goes hey,
I want to put on a show.
And I said, yeah, sure.
And he was shocked that I saidyes, and so it got him into the
promotion game and he's been init ever since.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow, yeah, that's so cool that you have that like
there's that connection there,because jeremy's another you
know well-known name fromlancaster sure helped some huge
uh bands you know get their nameout.
August burns red.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
We have their stuff all over the studio here well
the venue, whether I'm runningit or anybody else was running
it.
It just serves as a catalystfor opportunity for bands to uh,
to do their thing, play theirmusic, get seen, get heard, and
it creates.
It, plants seeds, and Jeremywould be a seed.
Greg Barley, who runs PhantomPower.
(07:54):
He started out as a doorman forme at Chameleon and then he
became my assistant, made me abartender, then assistant
manager and then manager, andthen he managed that place after
I sold it, and then he managedTelus 360.
And then he opened up PhantomPower.
But it's just a straight lineof a progression.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's so cool.
What was it like for you?
I mean, like we mentioned, youhit the ground running.
It was make or break it fromthe beginning.
Was it just like you startedthis and you're like, well, yeah
, I guess we got to do this.
The next thing was it?
That's exactly what it was Like.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I really I had.
No, we had no clue.
When we opened I had neverbooked a band, I had never
bartended, never worked in arestaurant, and just yes, throw
it out there.
And if people like it, they'lllike it.
And they did.
And that's not unlike puttingtogether a new band.
And if people like it, they'lllike it.
And they did, and that's notunlike putting together a new
band.
You know, you and your friendshave an idea what you want to do
(08:48):
, the sound you want to create,and you create it.
And then you got to go findyour audience.
Yeah, and I had an idea what Iwanted to do with the club and I
started booking it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And you know, you're kind of hoping that people are
going to respond to it, and theydid.
Was it nerve-wracking or wereyou just so busy?
You didn't even have time to benervous.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
It really helps to be young.
Yeah, like now that I'm olderand experienced.
You know, somebody paid me toconsult and say you know how do
I make money in the nightclubbusiness.
I'll be like give me 50 grand,I'll save you a million dollars.
And then I would say don't doit Because it's such a risky
(09:26):
business.
It's like trying to hit aconstant moving target as far as
what people want to see, what'spopular, what to listen to, not
to mention the whole.
You know the liability end ofthe business too so yeah, is
there?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
have you had your moment where you just kind of
look back and go like holy crap,how did I do that?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
yeah, actually the older I get, um, it's pretty
amazing that it happened at alland then it happened as well as
it did yeah, yeah, well, andyou're still not done.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You're still working on oh yeah, projects right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So you know I tried to get out of it and I was out
for a while and then I createdLancaster Roots and Blues, which
is a music festival Okay, is amusic festival still going on 10
years.
And you know we've booked over500 bands for the festival once
a year.
You so like not all 500 yeartotal over the 10 years?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but bandsfrom all over the world.
(10:17):
So wow, yeah.
What are some of the namesyou're working with with that oh
see, this is like people dothat to me.
I'm like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That was before.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Now we got to look forward and the next festival
now is not going to be until2026.
Uh, and I'm not really bookingit yet, okay, but I've had a few
good bands at the yeah, okaysome blues.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I mean, I believe it.
I think my dad goes to thatevery year.
My dad's a huge blues fan rightright yeah, cool, yeah, that's
really cool.
So you do that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You're also the gm of the village yeah, so the
village nightclub closed in 2022and the same family had run it
for 70, 69, 70 years and theywere just decided, you know,
time to get out and they sold itto an out-of-town investment
group who they originally wasconsidering to knocking it down
(11:06):
and building a high-rise,because Lancaster is kind of a
hot city right now.
There's all kinds ofdevelopment going on, but then I
guess because of interest ratesand building costs of sword and
they had a lot of otherprojects in the pipeline, they
slowed the roll on the conceptand the realtor who sold on the
property said sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Anyway, I think it's just one of the pipes.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay.
So the realtor who sold on theproperty said well, look, while
you guys are thinking about whatyou want to do with it, why
don't you reopen it?
Sold on the property, he saidwell, look, while you guys are
thinking about what you want todo with it, why don't you reopen
it?
And this investment group saidwell, we don't really know
nightclubs or music.
And the realtor said well, wehave a guy.
I know a guy who actually wentto high school with him.
His name is Jim Pointer.
So he introduced me to them andthey said it was a slow process
(11:53):
but we eventually got around to.
I am now the general manager wejust reopened in September and
actually tonight, while we'refilming this, taping this,
recording this, digitizing this,tonight is actually the
official grand opening at theVillage.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wow, yeah, what do you have?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
planned for it.
We have two bands and a greatDJ.
We're doing the Band of Llamas,which is a really kind of a
cool jam band, and then we'redoing the Thompson Triplets,
which is like an 80s fun partyband.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I know Mitch Hood.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Okay, he's in the Thompson Triplets.
He's been on the show before.
Great guy Good.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're finishing offwith DJ Major Vibes and Free
Food, food, and it's just goingto be a blast.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Oh man that sounds awesome.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I'm gonna have to make a trip out to lancaster
tonight.
I'll give you some tickets, allright.
All right, you're now.
You're speaking my language.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So what kind of what can we expect from it in the
future?
More, more fun?
Uh, yeah, it's like that.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Well, I mean the same way I ran chameleon club is
real diversity of music, youknow.
Uh, I mean, obviously I'lltouch on blues once in a while,
just because it's one of myfavorites, of course, and every
genre of rock and roll that youcan imagine, and we'll even do
the occasional reggae band orNew Orleans bands and things
(13:08):
like that, and it'll be amixture of local, regional and
national artists Wow.
So we'll get some big nationalbands in there.
What's the capacity you havethere?
It's a big room.
As far as nightclubs go thesedays, legal in the main room is
$550, and then there's the backroom I created is the Lizard
Lounge which I created that atthe Chameleon Club.
(13:29):
Since they're no more, I rebuiltthe Lizard Lounge.
It's more of an intimate stagespace.
Okay, and that's another 180.
So really, you can do 730 inthe building at once, wow, and
two shows at once, correct?
Well, it's not soundproof, sowe might do.
I'm going to bring back a BlueMonday series which I ran
successfully for 10 years at theLizard Lounge back in the day,
(13:53):
and that's where you get touringnational blues artists.
They're on the East Coast, forwhatever reason, and we catch
them on Monday on the way in orthe way out and we did almost
all the major blues bands youcould name over those 10 years.
We'll start doing that and then, when we don't have a national,
we'll put in some of the betterlocal blues bands too.
Wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So it's not going to be 500 people, but you know it
might be 100 people just havingfun on a monday night and
they're going to hear some greatmusic.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That's amazing yeah, that is so cool and I forgot to
mention we talked about thisearlier back to, uh, you know,
back when you were running thechameleon club, you also had
your own record label andrecording studio yeah, I got
into that in the mid 90s.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I record label called Lizard Records and we put a
recording studio in the club,you know, did a major
construction and got all theequipment and did the whole
thing and we got rolling just acouple bands and then we
actually won a Grammy Award inthe first year we were open.
The studio doesn't win it, butthat's where it was recorded.
(14:55):
It's funny, the Grammy peoplecalled me.
They needed to know the name ofthe engineer so they could get
on their Grammys and I'm likedon't I get one?
They're like no.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Just give me like a little one.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
But that was also the same time that the digital
recording and actually then soon, mp3s were becoming a thing and
it was becoming clear thatrecord sales were going to
plummet and I made the decisionto not continue.
Yeah, universal Music Group hadjust laid off 3,000 people.
I saw the writing on the walland I'm like I'm not going to
(15:29):
put any more money into it.
So I got out of it as quicklyas I got into it.
Well, hey, I mean, you soundlike you had great success in
the time you did and, yeah,start, you know, finish while
you're on top right.
Yeah, and, as I might havementioned, we had a tv show, uh,
at the same time on a networkcalled prism, which was like a
premium cable network and, uh,kind of like early hbo, and uh,
(15:52):
it was called the chameleon andwe did basically five camera
shoot of bands, live bands, andthen we interspersed it with
interviews with the band, muchlike this oh, wow, uh, and we
did three seasons.
We were the number onenon-sport show on prism, uh, and
uh, we were renewed for thefourth season but Comcast came
in and bought the network outand disbanded it and the network
(16:17):
out and disbanded it and theygave me a huge box of two inch
videotape and said yeah, therehe goes, you, you own it so, but
in that time we got nominatedfor three emmy awards, so wow
yeah, yeah, dude, you have likeseriously done a lot of big
stuff over the years yeah, it'sbeen a fun run I gotta ask this.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This question has been in the back of my brain
chameleon, lizard, what's,what's?
Where did that come from?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
so actually, my girlfriend at the time,
alexandra, she was reading abook called the Chameleon and
when we were trying to figureout what the genres of music we
would be doing at the club, aswe opened it, we thought, well,
we're going to do a diversity ofmusic, changing music.
(16:57):
And she thought, well,chameleons change colors.
So that was the theme.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Okay, yeah, all right .
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I like it yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It worked.
That's actually a really coolanswer.
Yeah, yeah, that's sweet.
Well, I mean, you've done somuch cool stuff over the years.
I'm so glad that we got to sitdown and talk about all this,
definitely looking forward tocoming and checking out the
village.
Um, is there anything else I'mmaybe missing that you wanted to
mention or shout out heretonight for?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
well, I mean, I would just say, for the short term,
what I'm doing is running thevillage and we're just getting
our feet under us because ittook a lot to get it open, uh,
but I think you're going tostart to see a lot of great
bands developing up through it.
I mean, if you go back to whenI ran chameleon, you know I
helped develop a bunch of localbands who went on to national
success.
Yes, of course the biggestwould be the rock band Live.
(17:42):
You know they started out inhigh school.
They were playing at the cluband they were called Public
Affection.
Then they got a record deal.
I found them their manager, Ifound them their agent and they
had a very good run.
I think they sold close to 20million records.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, yeah, and then inducted to the Hall of Fame,
yep.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
The Innocence Mission went to A&M Records.
They were Lancaster CatholicHigh School kids.
Suddenly Tammy Hemfield HighSchool kids.
They got signed to WarnerBrothers.
So the list went on and it wasfun.
There's less record deals now,so it's more of an independent
thing.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
There's less record deals now, so it's more of an
independent thing, but I thinkwe'll help find Some good
original bands and help theircareers a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I agree.
I just lost my train of thought.
It's always great to have morevenues In the area too, the more
venues, the more music we get,the more it helps out the bands
and people love live music.
It's interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Covid was rough on live music.
It was rough on promoters.
It it helps out the bands andpeople love live music.
Well, it's interesting.
Covid was rough on live music.
It was rough on promoters.
It was rough on the bands and alot of people came inside their
houses and just played computergames and they just kind of got
out of that whole.
They didn't have the routine ofgoing out to see bands and I
think the Village and othervenues in the area are going to
(18:57):
help, you know, break the iceand getting the bands back out
again.
For we're creating an all agesseries which we used to do with
the club back in the day.
That's like a Sunday afternoonnon-alcoholic series and it
gives high school and collegeage bands a chance to play.
We usually put like three onthe bill, keep the cover
relatively affordable and it's agreat way to develop new
(19:19):
artists.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's so cool that you'regiving back to the local
community like that.
Now, speaking of the localcommunity, actually, one
question I should definitely askyou because I think you would
have a great answer for this.
We ask a lot of people on theshow what do you think makes
Central Pennsylvania's music sospecial?
We see great success come froma lot of local artists.
What do you think we dodifferently than maybe other
(19:40):
people do.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I mean, I think that you know, first of all, it's a
pretty big area and I think,just having the opportunity, you
know cities and towns thatdon't have venues and don't give
bands places to play,especially original bands.
They don't have a scene.
They just can't get a scenegoing.
In just Lancaster alone, wehave what I'll be doing at the
(20:04):
Village.
There's Telus 360.
There's Zootropolis, there'sPhantom Power in Millersville,
which is right next to Lancaster, there's the Shirt Factory in
Lidditz, there's Mickey's BlackBox in Lidditz.
All these are good venues thattreat musicians with respect,
like the concept of a liveconcert with good sound, good
lights and hopefully goodpromotion.
(20:25):
That wasn't always the case andareas that don't have that kind
of luxury of a bunch of venues.
It's tougher for them.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah that's a very solid point we do.
We are very blessed to have allthe local music venues around
here, and that's just Lancasteralone.
You go 30 minutes over toHarrisburg and then you have so
many more venues over there Sure, mechanicsburg, york, all over.
It's amazing what we have here.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah.
So if you haven't been goingout lately, you should get off
the couch and go out, becausethere's a lot of opportunity to
see some great music.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And at this point you have no excuse, because you
don't even have to drive 20minutes in either direction to
find a venue.
There, you go Well, rich.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Thank you, dan, I reallyappreciate it, and we'll talk
soon.
All right, all.
And we'll talk soon.
All right, all right, Iappreciate it.
Yep, sitting here with Emma Land Justin of Eternal Frequency
Guys.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Of course, of course, really excited to have you here
.
So Eternal Frequency, you guysare coming back from hiatus.
You're really excited.
What kind of new stuff do youhave planned for the future here
?
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Lots Do um, lots you want to elaborate on that, or
should I?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
no, you go ahead both of you at the same time.
Yeah, I mean, we're back, we'reback.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Yeah, no, um, uh yeah , just a lot of music, a lot of
really cool videos we're alwaysbrainstorming everything and a
lot of really cool shows, a lotof big shows planned, so very,
very excited about that awesome,great.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So you got new music planned.
What's, uh, what's the vibewith that?
Are we sticking to the originaleternal frequency sound?
We're changing anything up?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
um oh, go ahead.
Oh, we're changing up a wholebunch of things okay um, most
people have known us for likeheavier, our heavier style, and
we still have that a little bit,but we've modernized it to
where it's just like what ifmetal could win a grammy?
okay it's really like going downthat realm to where, uh, we're
incorporating a lot of genresthat was kind of like taboo to
(22:28):
use um, to where you know we'regonna be putting like reggaeton
style vibes into metal.
Um and ml is.
She's channeled her disneyprincess, so like you're hearing
, like these cleans, that younever really hear from her
because you know she's normally.
She's known for grit.
She's known for grit but, yeah,some of these songs are just,
(22:48):
they're downright beautiful.
But also she's a littlegangster too, like she's.
She's in.
She's found this like littlehip-hop child inside of her as
well, which excites me becauseI'm a child of the 90s and so
you know, 90s rap is where itwas at, you know, and so it's
really exciting because now thatwe have the independence of it
(23:09):
really just being the two of usright now Granted, we're going
to have players live and stufflike that, and we do have a new
lineup that's coming up but thiswhole building and rebranding
that we've been doing, it's beenvery freeing because we're able
to do things that we neverthought we'd be able we would do
.
Yeah, but now there's noboundaries.
(23:29):
That's pretty, it's prettyexciting.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That is really cool, and it's awesome that you're
taking that opportunity to growas a band and make these new
avenues of sound for you.
So that's really cool.
Where did you pull thatinspiration from?
Speaker 4 (23:40):
That it literally just came from within, when you
don't really have anything,anything tying you to.
Like obligations.
Oh, we need to sound this way.
Oh, like obligations.
Oh, we need to sound this way.
Oh, we're part of this scene,so we need to be modern.
It's more of uh, it's justbecome a free-for-all, to where
it's like I could wake up oneday and you know, I don't want
to sound like.
(24:00):
You know your common metal core, I want to do a brian adams
style song and she'll be likecool, let's do that yeah,
ultimately it's we're doingmusic that we, personally, would
listen to okay that we love andthat's all types of genres.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
You know what I mean.
Like we, like I.
I have a like a broadwaybackground, musical theater
background okay so like gettingto incorporate that also with
the hard rock and metal that Ilove, and also maybe a little
bit of rap, just all thesethings that we grew up on and
that we love and that we havethe freedom to do now it's.
It's a major game changer andyou know, if you're not gonna do
(24:41):
music that you personally wouldlisten to.
You shouldn't be doing itanyway.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's what I mean so .
So you're sticking to yourroots, you're being true to
yourself, you're like all right,this is the stuff that I truly
love.
I'm already working on thismusic.
You know why don't we justbring this all together and
bring out the product that youtruly want, absolutely?
Speaker 4 (24:56):
and we're confusing the hell out of our fans, which
is fantastic.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
That's what we want to do there's a little bit for
everybody, though there is, butthey don't know what's happening
.
They don't keep them on theirtoes.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, when we say like these different genres and
everything, everybody just goes.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
No they don't understand it.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
But so we're excited to unveil Be like you see what
we mean.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Yeah, we're not going to go like totally left field,
like they're still going to getthe eternal frequency that they
know and love Okay, but we'rejust going to be able to throw
in some more extra flair andmore of our originality now,
okay.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yes, there's still breakdowns.
That, yes, there's stillbreakdowns.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's the question everybody actually wants.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Exactly.
Is there a payoff in the song?
Yes, there's a payoff in everysong.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Someone can still go.
Yes, this is what I needed.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Exactly who?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
are you guys working with on the new?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
music.
This is actually reallyexciting.
Right now we are almost fullyself-produced.
Wow yeah, we will be workingwith Carson and Grant to
basically all of my crappyrecordings.
They're going to makenon-crappy which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Um, I mean, your recordings could be amazing.
Carson and grant are stillgoing to make it.
Even those guys are amazing.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
They've been our producers for the past seven
years okay, so we love them andwe trust them.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So obviously we're stillcollaborating with them, but so
much of it is just coming fromour house, which is once again
very exciting because andcheaper.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's really cool that in thisday and age we have that
technology just at ourfingertips where it's like,
right great, I can do all myrough takes at my house, get
through this sound I want, andthen bam, we're gonna go to the
studio and make this beautiful.
Exactly so now you guys beenaround for a little while now.
I guess what seven years?
She said right?
Speaker 5 (26:40):
yeah, roughly like I well, I think well, so I've
known them before.
Like I said, I did backgroundvocals on that from ashes yeah,
yeah.
So I knew them during that timeum, but this band I formed in
2018 okay so it's been like what?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
six years ish yeah, I don't know where does it count
to four and start over?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
I don't know when covet happened.
From 2020 till now, it's allblurred to me so I feel like I
lost four years of my life ohyeah, same here, but pre-COVID.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
in 2019, you won Best New Artist, which is awesome
from the Central PennsylvaniaMusic Hall of Fame Awards, and
then 2021, best Rock Band aswell, correct?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Yes, best Rock Band, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So what was it like to form this band and just hit
the ground running and just bam,oh my God, we're the best new
band right now.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
It was very unexpected.
You know, like I, I don't evenremember like I didn't that
first year, it was the veryfirst year of the cpmas and I
didn't submit us.
I don't know who submitted us,but whoever did, I'm very
grateful for you.
Um, but yeah, when we got thataward, when we were even found
out that we were nominated, Iwas flabbergasted.
I was just so honored.
(27:48):
It was I.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I wasn't expecting it , so that's really cool, yeah I
was too new, I felt veryundeserving of that.
They had, like this,accomplished uh portfolio
already.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
And then I kind of was just like, hey, I'm here, oh
, we're getting an award, coolyeah, thanks when you get an a,
but you don't do any of the workexactly I was definitely
looking over over, but I finallyearned the second one.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, that's really cool and so coming up in the
future, you have some big showsplanned for next year as well,
some music festivals.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Yes, yeah, some big things.
They're not announced yet, butwe're planning to hit the stage.
Like roughly March is going tobe our return to the stage.
Okay, but we'll have music outby then, new music out by then.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Oh, awesome, all right, great.
What kind of what are wethinking for new music?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Or, if you're allowed to say singles, EPs, albums,
yeah, so we're going to do,we're going to continue with
singles and singles joined withmusic videos.
you know, just put a lot ofemphasis on that because you
know we live in a day and agewhere if you're not like on a
label, like a major label, it'sit's really hard to put out
albums and have them get thetraction that they deserve yeah
it's kind of like when you're anindependent artist you have to
(29:02):
put all of your eggs into thatone basket for just a second,
where you focus on an epicsingle, just one one kick ass
single, and having the musicvideo conjoined with it and just
doing proper promoting and, um,just putting the emphasis on
that.
Because, like I said, whenyou're not on a label and you
put out an album, people it'snot going to get the same
(29:25):
reception as a single and amusic video would like a really
kick ass single.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, I mean you guys have donea great job of promoting
yourselves over the years.
I mean I've been following youguys since probably pretty much
the start, like 2018, 2019, ish,and like you guys immediately
got on some big, some big showsand like the way you guys
promote yourself is really cool.
What do you guys?
I mean?
I'm not asking you to shareyour secrets unless you want to,
but like what do you feel likeyou guys do differently than
other bands that made you startout so hot?
Speaker 5 (29:51):
well, the thing is there, that's.
There's no secret, you know,it's just being true to yourself
and being an honest artist andputting out good material and
just connecting with your fansas much as possible.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, you know like just be a human being.
Yeah, just be a human being.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
That's as simple as that just be a human being.
It's not about human being.
That's as simple as that justbe a human being.
It's not about I mean, yes,it's important to you know, put
money into ads and stuff to youknow, get your music out to a
broader audience, but we don'tbuy followers, we don't buy
streams.
There's so many artists that dothat, yeah, and it actually
hurts your algorithm as opposedto helping it.
So we just, like you said, justbe a human being.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah exactly like you .
You guys build true fans andit's just like when you build
that true fan, that's going tobe way better than just buying a
follower, because it's like,great, you have a follower, then
they're never going to look atyour stuff again.
You build a true fan.
They're going to continue tofollow you and support you.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Yeah, absolutely like , if I can go on your band page
and I can scroll through and hita random person and they are
bought, then that's not lookinggood for you, you know what I
mean?
No, exactly, but if you go onour page, it's all real people.
That's awesome, and it's peoplethat we love and appreciate and
hopefully we can continue tobuild them up from here.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Honestly, just piggybacking off of that, it's
like why would they invest ifyou don't invest in them?
And and that's any businessthat you have.
You know you have to followthat same kind of rule.
You know you have to, you haveto care.
You have to care about them forin order for them to care about
you.
That's just the way it worksand stuff like that.
It's like we have something togive, but they're giving
(31:24):
something to us as well andthey're giving.
They're they're.
They're giving their love,they're giving their adoration
for something that we musteredup, you know, in our house.
You know, something that is ourdream and where we're
incredibly grateful for therelationships that we've built.
Honestly, mainly, she's built.
I'm kind of like an introvertbut um but, uh, the
(31:47):
relationships that she's built,and she's built relationships
all over the country and thesepeople are there for us, even if
she's just having a bad day,whether we're releasing a new
single or she's just having arough day, they're there.
And that's a community andthat's a fan base to me.
You know the evolved fan baseto where it really is.
(32:07):
On a much more personal, levelnow.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
People, they're smart , they'll know when you're being
phony, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
and they, they don't want none of that you know,
nobody got time for that ain't,nobody got time for that no, you
can definitely see, like the,the uh oh, my goodness, what's
the word?
Uh people being genuine totheir fans, like, um, like one
of my favorite bands, forexample, like the main.
They're uh, like an alt rockband from like arizona.
Love them, uh, and like, everysingle time I go see them,
they're just like you get thisintimate experience with the
(32:35):
band playing live.
Doesn't matter if it's like apacked room of thousands of
people or a room of just 100,200 people, like the interaction
with the crowd.
It just builds that, thatrelationship, and it's like you
already have this mentalrelationship with your favorite
band.
And then you get there andyou're like, wow, I feel like
I'm like having a conversationwith them Right.
Building that kind of stuff, Ithink is super important.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Like, we've played shows where we played like one
or two people, but it doesn'tmatter if we're playing to one
to two people or thousands ofpeople those one to two people
we're going to make sure thatthey're taken care of and that
they're having a good time andthat we make that connection
with them, because they're goingto remember that for the rest
of their lives.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Of course you're going to give them the same
exact show as if that stadiumwas sold out.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think that's super important, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
It's the most important Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Of course, now you're working on some solo music as
well, correct?
Speaker 5 (33:27):
It's not so much like solo, so I just had a song.
Well, I don't know, I love todo everything.
I'm always working on things,but just a couple months back I
did release a song.
It was a collaboration with aproducer out of Germany.
His name is Nino Helfrich.
Oh wow, it's called Rise Up andit's a song about hope and
(33:53):
renewal and rejuvenation and, um, that was kind of like it was
more so like we penned it likeeternal frequency and nino
halfridge, but it was just mewho did the vocals and he
actually wrote the music, okay,um, but yeah, I'm like I'm
always down to do more stufflike that, like both of us were.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
We're so down to collab with everyone, like we
actually have a couple in theworks there's, there's actually
there's four that I can think ofoffhand, that we are already in
collaboration with.
That are not going to beeternal frequency at all.
It's just going to be eithermyself or it's going to be her,
both of us, but we're not, we'renot putting it under that, so
we're.
We're literally doing a wholebunch of subsidiaries of our own
(34:27):
product, which is really funactually that that's really cool
.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
You really have a passion for music.
You're like it doesn't justhave to be this, I'm just going
to do this for fun over here,Just do it because you love it,
right, we get bored withourselves all the time.
We're musicians, you're alwayson to the next thing.
Absolutely, that's amazing.
Now, speaking of collaborations, are we going to see any
features on the new music forEternal Frequency or anything
like that?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Mm-hmm, no, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, okay, silence.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Definitely you'll see some names that you know and
love, for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, that's really cool.
Awesome, you heard it herefirst.
No, I mean you did.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Yeah, oh, my goodness Well, oh, my goodness, well,
that's really cool.
Now, what would you say is likeone of your favorite
experiences over the yearsplaying in Central PA or, I
guess, anywhere really aboutearlier, about how I've made
(35:29):
these connections with people.
I've literally become likefamily with these people.
These just like the camp goersthat you know.
They save up their money allyear long, they save up their
vacation and this is, you know,what they look forward to all
year long.
And we played and I was reallyinvolved with like the
campground and like thedifferent campsites and stuff
(35:50):
like that, and really developedsuch a good relationship and
just like friendships with somany people.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Like.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I can think of 30 people right now that I still
talk to daily from Rock Oklahoma.
They live in Oklahoma.
That's amazing I don't get tosee them, but I talked to them
and they want us back.
Really bad, so, but just therelationships that we developed,
that that is single-handedlythe most that's of all time, and
um, my second thing would bewhen we opened up for john five
(36:20):
at phantom power okay um, thatwas a huge deal because john
five's my favorite guitar player, besides you, of course I lost
my mind, I lost my mind yes it'sjust like I followed him ever
since marilyn manson and youknow, to see that guy like she,
she's, she's that person.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
To where she'll, she'll be like, oh, let's go
talk to him.
He's right there becausebecause Ash Costello, from New
Year's Day, her band, the Haxons, was playing as well, and that
is a project that she does withPiggy D from Rob Zombie.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Ok, so now in Marilyn .
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Manson now in Marilyn Manson, right.
But we were playing with themand Ash Costello was just
walking around.
It was it was.
She was just very nonchalantlywalking around.
But then you know, john five, Isee, I see him in passing and I
freeze I don't fanboy at allokay.
The only time I other I've everfanboyed was seeing mike
portnoy and she said you shouldgo up to him and I said no, so
(37:14):
she just went, I love you.
And he pointed at his.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
And so it was like a just really awkward situation.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
I didn't want to have that with John five.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
It was his daughter.
Uh, it was his daughter.
He was also a singer.
He's like did you mean me orher?
Cause she's?
She also has a social media andit was just awkward.
It was awkward.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So I didn't, I didn't want to have that with John me
being a guitar player, he kindof helped shape me, you know,
along with others obviously, buthe was one of those guys to
where you know it's okay tobreak the rules and he's just,
he's a crazy shredder, hecrosses genres and I love that.
Um, and yeah, just being inthis small, close-knit place
(37:56):
right here in in pennsylvania itwas wild.
It was wild to where it's justlike he felt like he was one of
us.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
But I still can't I'm not walking up to him, yeah
it's not happening so you didn'tmeet him, though.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
No, oh no, I admired him from 50 feet, just as good
right it was just, it wasfantastic
Speaker 2 (38:16):
any person.
Just did catch a pic, though,though Did catch a pic there you
go?
Was it like I don't know whatto do with my hands right now?
Speaker 4 (38:23):
It was that.
It smacks you in the foreheadand you're just like.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You keep it there.
That's so real.
Just keep it there for the restof the night, I'm not budging.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
Shout out to Greg Barley from Fan of Power for
booking such amazing shows there, and Greg Barley from Phantom
Power for booking such amazingshows there, and we love him.
Actually, I do want to mentionsome other really important
shows that I've been doing forthe past couple of years.
I've been putting togethercharity shows called Horns for
Hearts, so I've been doing thisfor the past three years.
Last year was actually atPhantom Power and this year was
(39:00):
at Love Drafts in mechanicsburg.
Oh um, so that's something thatI want to continue doing and
it's it's my pride and joy ofand being involved with this
scene.
Yeah, and it means a lot to me.
It means a lot to the charities, like this past year we raised
money for suicide awareness.
okay, that's um shout out tonick myers for helping me put
that together.
And then the year prior we hada fundraiser for Water Street
(39:25):
Mission for the homeless inLancaster County, so that was
really important.
So next year I'm stillbrainstorming what I want to do
with the charity.
I want to hit up Rich, now thatyou've had him on the show I
want to hit him up and see maybewe could do something at the
village and put togethersomething there for the Horns,
for Hearts.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That would be really cool.
Speaking of charity, you guysare also working on, basically,
an acoustic cover of your song,and it's a charity version for
Chris Rider, correct, chrisRider?
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Yes, If you guys don't know, chris Rider, if
you're living on a rock orsomething, you know, chris.
Rider.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know Chris Rider.
If you don't know Chris Rider,you should know Chris Rider.
Exactly, exactly, chris.
Speaker 5 (40:05):
Rider is an amazing human being.
He's an incredible photographer.
He's done so much for so manybands.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
And he unfortunately tragically lost his house in a
fire, his two, all of hispossessions.
So um, we're doing an unpluggedversion of our song breathe and
breathe out.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
No, no, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Similar thing um, it's an unplugged version of our
song breathe and breathe out,which is about hope and and
renewal, and I know, I'm prettysure it's his favorite song of
ours.
I'm pretty sure, sure, I'mgoing to have to ask him, chris.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
It will be, I hope I didn't butcher that it will be.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
But essentially we are putting together.
It's going to be on streaming.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (40:47):
But we are putting together hard copies and they're
going to be available forpurchase.
I don't have a date yet, butit's going to be within the next
few weeks here.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Okay okay, um, they're gonna be ten dollars and
all the proceeds are gonna goto help chris and his family.
That's amazing.
Thank you guys, so much fordoing that for him.
That is so cool.
I mean, chris is obviously ahuge fan of the or a huge member
of the, the hall of fame.
He's uh, he's on the.
I believe he's on the he's onthe committee committee.
Yeah, I was like is it eitherthe board of directors or
committee.
It's the committee.
Um, he did our photos for uswhen we first started this to
(41:17):
get us promoted out there, andhe's worked with so many artists
.
He's just the most selfless guy.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
He's just the most amazing person.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
And it's time for us to be selfless for him 100%
Because he is family now.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yes, and people are showing up for him.
There was another charity showat HMAC last week for him, and
then there was one coming up onthe 17th for him as well yeah,
it's.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
It's really shown how important the central
pennsylvania music scene likewhen, when times get tough,
we're there.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, we're all there , yeah, we all come together and
, just you know, support eachother which is amazing.
I think that's what makes ourmusic community here so special,
absolutely definitely yeah,well, I don't want to end us on
a sad note.
Is there anything else that weare?
Or I guess not really, but yeah.
Is there anything else?
Maybe I may have missed.
You guys wanted to cover oranything like that before you.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
We basically covered everything.
Just keep a lookout for newmusic from us and new videos,
lots of exciting shows.
And yeah, we're back and we'rebetter than ever.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
And yeah, we're back and we're better than ever, and
yeah just just excited for thejourney.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I'm very excited.
We'll have all your guys'information below in the
description If anyone wants togo out and check out your stuff,
so please go.
Support eternal frequency,support Chris Ryder and guys.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (42:32):
Come on the show Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Thank you for real.
Yeah, well guys, I think thatabout does it for this week.
Huge thanks to rich, ml andjustin for all making it out
here today.
Everyone, thank you so much forwatching and we'll see you next
(43:06):
time.
Outro Music.
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Rich, Ruoff andML of Eternal Frequency.
This episode is sponsored byMembers, First and now your
hosts Daniel Kime and AlanMcCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello and welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Rich Ruoff, formerowner of the Chameleon Club, now
the GM of the Village inLancaster, which is where this
year's Central PennsylvaniaMusic Awards afterparty will be
taking place, followed by thisinterview.
Coming up, we have ML andJustin of Eternal Frequency
Please stay tuned Sitting herewith Rich Ruoff.
(00:51):
Rich, you've been around themusic industry here in Central
PA for quite some time,certainly a pivotal part of our
music community.
You were the original founderand owner of the Chameleon Club
in Lancaster.
First of all, I want to thankyou so much for coming on the
show.
Well, thank you for having me,of course, of course.
So you talked a little bit offair about all the different
(01:13):
things you've done and you donow.
Like I said, I always like tostart at the beginning.
Can we start at the beginningof your story and how you got to
where you are today?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sure, I opened the Chameleon Club in 1985 when I
was 23 years old, my girlfriendand partner at the time,
alexandra Brown.
We did it together and we gotrolling and it was just an idea
and if you think I'm a wealthyperson, that's not true.
I knew we both like music andwe thought the Lancaster music
(01:45):
scene was pretty limited and Ihad done some traveling and I
thought what can we do to makeit better?
So I thought we should open aclub and I finally got that idea
rolling and I found a room thatwas sitting there empty.
It was a back room of arestaurant and I approached the
owner, just cold, called him andI said I'd like to rent your
room and put music on and hesaid great.
(02:07):
And so I kind of slipped into aliquor license as a manager
slash renter and he didn'tcharge me that much to get
rolling.
I had a little money saved froma job I had and it was enough
to get rolling.
But we didn't have deep pocketsso we had to make money
immediately.
Okay, like if we had done twoor three shows that lost money
(02:27):
in a row, that would have beenthe end of it, okay.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was make or break from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Absolutely the interesting thing about it is it
made money on the first day,the first week, the first month
and the first year.
Wow, and I've since learned inother businesses.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I've done that.
That doesn't always happen.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It can be somewhat of an anomaly, yeah, but people
were definitely feeling what wewere feeling, that the town
needed something, and peopleresponded to it and started
coming out.
And also we were young and Ithink the younger people in the
town thought, oh, this is cool,let's go see what they're doing.
And so we had fun booking somegreat bands and the audience
showed up.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's amazing.
Yeah, and that was 1985.
Correct, and you owned the club.
Sorry, so that was the originalroom.
And then was it two years later, three years later, so we were
there for three years.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
It was a smaller room .
I mean legal capacity was noteven 200 people.
We always tested that limit butwe outgrew it and also, as it
got more popular, the owner keptraising the rent and since it
was a handshake deal, I reallycouldn't say anything and I'm
finally like, oh, I shouldprobably just go buy my own
place.
So we went out.
I went out At that.
(03:41):
That point my girlfriend and Isplit, uh, actually after about
six months.
So I've been running it eversince and uh the I found the
location that people who knowchameleon club, the building on
water street, uh bought that.
Uh, I bought some investors in,we renovated it, did a major
renovation, um, and we got thatopen there.
(04:04):
It was four times bigger thanthe original club.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
My goodness, yeah.
So when this all started in the80s, what kind of music did you
guys have playing in there backthen?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
The original business card said blues, jazz and rock
and roll.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Blues, jazz and rock and roll.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And rock and roll is just such a wide definition.
I mean, you know, new wave wasthe thing in the eighties and
then it morphed into alternative, uh, and of course you know you
could do, even classic rock wasalready a thing by the eighties
.
Um, and you could do hard rock,we did.
I got turned on the punk rock.
I mean I knew of it but Iwasn't really a punk rocker, but
(04:39):
I had.
There was some local promoters,there were some good record
stores in town that were punkrock stores and they turned me
onto it and it turned out to bea fun scene.
So we did that as well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Nice.
Yeah, that's really cool.
What was in your time?
Uh, owning the chameleon club.
What would you say is one ofthe biggest shows you put on
there?
Oh, you can even do yourfavorite.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah Well, okay, yeah , well, okay.
My favorite was Dickie Bettsfrom the Allman Brothers.
Okay, he came in and you got tounderstand.
The Allman Brothers had playedat Watkins Glen back in the 70s
in front of 600,000 people.
They headlined that show and Ialso did Greg Allman and Dickie
Betts.
And Dickie came in and it wasone of the best shows I had ever
(05:22):
seen and he was on a wholeother level that night.
The whole band was levitating.
They were so good, wow.
And after the show, dickiegrabs me by the arm, he goes,
take me out for a beer.
So we went down to the attachedrestaurant and it's just me and
him sitting at the bar and he'slooking at me and he goes.
I haven't played like that inyears, years and he goes, and
when I do, I just want to lookover and hand the lead to Dwayne
(05:44):
.
Now Dwayne Allman had died 15years before in a motorcycle
wreck, but you know they werethe founding members of the of
the Allman brothers, so that,just you know, gave chills down
my spine.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I can only imagine that gave me chills right now,
when you said that yeah, yeah,wow, that's, that's a crazy
experience right there, oh mygosh.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
But it was a motivating factor for me to keep
going, because that was in thefirst year of business and it
was just such an amazing thingand I said, oh, we got to keep
doing this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
You said that was in the firstfew years of business.
First year, first six months.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You hit the ground running right, yeah, yeah.
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
My.
So you sold the Chameleon Club,correct?
I sold it early on.
I sold it early on by today'sstandards.
I ran it for 17 years.
Okay, sold it in 2002, as Imentioned earlier, when we got
married and started having kids,it was just easier to not be
running a nightclub at the sametime I got you.
So it's been through a coupleowners and then around 2020,
they went belly up Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
It's a shame.
I mean the place was anabsolute staple of the Lancaster
music scene.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean just the shows.
I booked over 4,000 showsthrough there, wow, and then
subsequent owners bookedthousands more.
So it's seen a lot of greatbands.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Oh yeah, I've seen lots of great bands there.
Over the years we used to go toLaunch Music Festival every
year.
Sure, over the years we used togo to Launch Music Festival
every year and always go down tothe Chameleon for that.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Jeremy's first show.
Who runs Launch?
Jeremy Weiss his first show asa kid.
He was like 15 years old and heapproached me and he goes hey,
I want to put on a show.
And I said, yeah, sure.
And he was shocked that I saidyes, and so it got him into the
promotion game and he's been init ever since.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow, yeah, that's so cool that you have that like
there's that connection there,because jeremy's another you
know well-known name fromlancaster sure helped some huge
uh bands you know get their nameout.
August burns red.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
We have their stuff all over the studio here well
the venue, whether I'm runningit or anybody else was running
it.
It just serves as a catalystfor opportunity for bands to uh,
to do their thing, play theirmusic, get seen, get heard, and
it creates.
It, plants seeds, and Jeremywould be a seed.
Greg Barley, who runs PhantomPower.
(07:54):
He started out as a doorman forme at Chameleon and then he
became my assistant, made me abartender, then assistant
manager and then manager, andthen he managed that place after
I sold it, and then he managedTelus 360.
And then he opened up PhantomPower.
But it's just a straight lineof a progression.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's so cool.
What was it like for you?
I mean, like we mentioned, youhit the ground running.
It was make or break it fromthe beginning.
Was it just like you startedthis and you're like, well, yeah
, I guess we got to do this.
The next thing was it?
That's exactly what it was Like.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I really I had.
No, we had no clue.
When we opened I had neverbooked a band, I had never
bartended, never worked in arestaurant, and just yes, throw
it out there.
And if people like it, they'lllike it.
And they did.
And that's not unlike puttingtogether a new band.
And if people like it, they'lllike it.
And they did, and that's notunlike putting together a new
band.
You know, you and your friendshave an idea what you want to do
(08:48):
, the sound you want to create,and you create it.
And then you got to go findyour audience.
Yeah, and I had an idea what Iwanted to do with the club and I
started booking it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And you know, you're kind of hoping that people are
going to respond to it, and theydid.
Was it nerve-wracking or wereyou just so busy?
You didn't even have time to benervous.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
It really helps to be young.
Yeah, like now that I'm olderand experienced.
You know, somebody paid me toconsult and say you know how do
I make money in the nightclubbusiness.
I'll be like give me 50 grand,I'll save you a million dollars.
And then I would say don't doit Because it's such a risky
(09:26):
business.
It's like trying to hit aconstant moving target as far as
what people want to see, what'spopular, what to listen to, not
to mention the whole.
You know the liability end ofthe business too so yeah, is
there?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
have you had your moment where you just kind of
look back and go like holy crap,how did I do that?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
yeah, actually the older I get, um, it's pretty
amazing that it happened at alland then it happened as well as
it did yeah, yeah, well, andyou're still not done.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You're still working on oh yeah, projects right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So you know I tried to get out of it and I was out
for a while and then I createdLancaster Roots and Blues, which
is a music festival Okay, is amusic festival still going on 10
years.
And you know we've booked over500 bands for the festival once
a year.
You so like not all 500 yeartotal over the 10 years?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but bandsfrom all over the world.
(10:17):
So wow, yeah.
What are some of the namesyou're working with with that oh
see, this is like people dothat to me.
I'm like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That was before.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Now we got to look forward and the next festival
now is not going to be until2026.
Uh, and I'm not really bookingit yet, okay, but I've had a few
good bands at the yeah, okaysome blues.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I mean, I believe it.
I think my dad goes to thatevery year.
My dad's a huge blues fan rightright yeah, cool, yeah, that's
really cool.
So you do that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You're also the gm of the village yeah, so the
village nightclub closed in 2022and the same family had run it
for 70, 69, 70 years and theywere just decided, you know,
time to get out and they sold itto an out-of-town investment
group who they originally wasconsidering to knocking it down
(11:06):
and building a high-rise,because Lancaster is kind of a
hot city right now.
There's all kinds ofdevelopment going on, but then I
guess because of interest ratesand building costs of sword and
they had a lot of otherprojects in the pipeline, they
slowed the roll on the conceptand the realtor who sold on the
property said sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Anyway, I think it's just one of the pipes.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay.
So the realtor who sold on theproperty said well, look, while
you guys are thinking about whatyou want to do with it, why
don't you reopen it?
Sold on the property, he saidwell, look, while you guys are
thinking about what you want todo with it, why don't you reopen
it?
And this investment group saidwell, we don't really know
nightclubs or music.
And the realtor said well, wehave a guy.
I know a guy who actually wentto high school with him.
His name is Jim Pointer.
So he introduced me to them andthey said it was a slow process
(11:53):
but we eventually got around to.
I am now the general manager wejust reopened in September and
actually tonight, while we'refilming this, taping this,
recording this, digitizing this,tonight is actually the
official grand opening at theVillage.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wow, yeah, what do you have?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
planned for it.
We have two bands and a greatDJ.
We're doing the Band of Llamas,which is a really kind of a
cool jam band, and then we'redoing the Thompson Triplets,
which is like an 80s fun partyband.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I know Mitch Hood.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Okay, he's in the Thompson Triplets.
He's been on the show before.
Great guy Good.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're finishing offwith DJ Major Vibes and Free
Food, food, and it's just goingto be a blast.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Oh man that sounds awesome.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I'm gonna have to make a trip out to lancaster
tonight.
I'll give you some tickets, allright.
All right, you're now.
You're speaking my language.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So what kind of what can we expect from it in the
future?
More, more fun?
Uh, yeah, it's like that.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Well, I mean the same way I ran chameleon club is
real diversity of music, youknow.
Uh, I mean, obviously I'lltouch on blues once in a while,
just because it's one of myfavorites, of course, and every
genre of rock and roll that youcan imagine, and we'll even do
the occasional reggae band orNew Orleans bands and things
(13:08):
like that, and it'll be amixture of local, regional and
national artists Wow.
So we'll get some big nationalbands in there.
What's the capacity you havethere?
It's a big room.
As far as nightclubs go thesedays, legal in the main room is
$550, and then there's the backroom I created is the Lizard
Lounge which I created that atthe Chameleon Club.
(13:29):
Since they're no more, I rebuiltthe Lizard Lounge.
It's more of an intimate stagespace.
Okay, and that's another 180.
So really, you can do 730 inthe building at once, wow, and
two shows at once, correct?
Well, it's not soundproof, sowe might do.
I'm going to bring back a BlueMonday series which I ran
successfully for 10 years at theLizard Lounge back in the day,
(13:53):
and that's where you get touringnational blues artists.
They're on the East Coast, forwhatever reason, and we catch
them on Monday on the way in orthe way out and we did almost
all the major blues bands youcould name over those 10 years.
We'll start doing that and then, when we don't have a national,
we'll put in some of the betterlocal blues bands too.
Wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So it's not going to be 500 people, but you know it
might be 100 people just havingfun on a monday night and
they're going to hear some greatmusic.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That's amazing yeah, that is so cool and I forgot to
mention we talked about thisearlier back to, uh, you know,
back when you were running thechameleon club, you also had
your own record label andrecording studio yeah, I got
into that in the mid 90s.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I record label called Lizard Records and we put a
recording studio in the club,you know, did a major
construction and got all theequipment and did the whole
thing and we got rolling just acouple bands and then we
actually won a Grammy Award inthe first year we were open.
The studio doesn't win it, butthat's where it was recorded.
(14:55):
It's funny, the Grammy peoplecalled me.
They needed to know the name ofthe engineer so they could get
on their Grammys and I'm likedon't I get one?
They're like no.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Just give me like a little one.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
But that was also the same time that the digital
recording and actually then soon, mp3s were becoming a thing and
it was becoming clear thatrecord sales were going to
plummet and I made the decisionto not continue.
Yeah, universal Music Group hadjust laid off 3,000 people.
I saw the writing on the walland I'm like I'm not going to
(15:29):
put any more money into it.
So I got out of it as quicklyas I got into it.
Well, hey, I mean, you soundlike you had great success in
the time you did and, yeah,start, you know, finish while
you're on top right.
Yeah, and, as I might havementioned, we had a tv show, uh,
at the same time on a networkcalled prism, which was like a
premium cable network and, uh,kind of like early hbo, and uh,
(15:52):
it was called the chameleon andwe did basically five camera
shoot of bands, live bands, andthen we interspersed it with
interviews with the band, muchlike this oh, wow, uh, and we
did three seasons.
We were the number onenon-sport show on prism, uh, and
uh, we were renewed for thefourth season but Comcast came
in and bought the network outand disbanded it and the network
(16:17):
out and disbanded it and theygave me a huge box of two inch
videotape and said yeah, therehe goes, you, you own it so, but
in that time we got nominatedfor three emmy awards, so wow
yeah, yeah, dude, you have likeseriously done a lot of big
stuff over the years yeah, it'sbeen a fun run I gotta ask this.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This question has been in the back of my brain
chameleon, lizard, what's,what's?
Where did that come from?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
so actually, my girlfriend at the time,
alexandra, she was reading abook called the Chameleon and
when we were trying to figureout what the genres of music we
would be doing at the club, aswe opened it, we thought, well,
we're going to do a diversity ofmusic, changing music.
(16:57):
And she thought, well,chameleons change colors.
So that was the theme.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Okay, yeah, all right .
Speaker 3 (17:02):
I like it yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It worked.
That's actually a really coolanswer.
Yeah, yeah, that's sweet.
Well, I mean, you've done somuch cool stuff over the years.
I'm so glad that we got to sitdown and talk about all this,
definitely looking forward tocoming and checking out the
village.
Um, is there anything else I'mmaybe missing that you wanted to
mention or shout out heretonight for?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
well, I mean, I would just say, for the short term,
what I'm doing is running thevillage and we're just getting
our feet under us because ittook a lot to get it open, uh,
but I think you're going tostart to see a lot of great
bands developing up through it.
I mean, if you go back to whenI ran chameleon, you know I
helped develop a bunch of localbands who went on to national
success.
Yes, of course the biggestwould be the rock band Live.
(17:42):
You know they started out inhigh school.
They were playing at the cluband they were called Public
Affection.
Then they got a record deal.
I found them their manager, Ifound them their agent and they
had a very good run.
I think they sold close to 20million records.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, yeah, and then inducted to the Hall of Fame,
yep.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
The Innocence Mission went to A&M Records.
They were Lancaster CatholicHigh School kids.
Suddenly Tammy Hemfield HighSchool kids.
They got signed to WarnerBrothers.
So the list went on and it wasfun.
There's less record deals now,so it's more of an independent
thing.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
There's less record deals now, so it's more of an
independent thing, but I thinkwe'll help find Some good
original bands and help theircareers a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I agree.
I just lost my train of thought.
It's always great to have morevenues In the area too, the more
venues, the more music we get,the more it helps out the bands
and people love live music.
It's interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Covid was rough on live music.
It was rough on promoters.
It it helps out the bands andpeople love live music.
Well, it's interesting.
Covid was rough on live music.
It was rough on promoters.
It was rough on the bands and alot of people came inside their
houses and just played computergames and they just kind of got
out of that whole.
They didn't have the routine ofgoing out to see bands and I
think the Village and othervenues in the area are going to
(18:57):
help, you know, break the iceand getting the bands back out
again.
For we're creating an all agesseries which we used to do with
the club back in the day.
That's like a Sunday afternoonnon-alcoholic series and it
gives high school and collegeage bands a chance to play.
We usually put like three onthe bill, keep the cover
relatively affordable and it's agreat way to develop new
(19:19):
artists.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's so cool that you'regiving back to the local
community like that.
Now, speaking of the localcommunity, actually, one
question I should definitely askyou because I think you would
have a great answer for this.
We ask a lot of people on theshow what do you think makes
Central Pennsylvania's music sospecial?
We see great success come froma lot of local artists.
What do you think we dodifferently than maybe other
(19:40):
people do.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I mean, I think that you know, first of all, it's a
pretty big area and I think,just having the opportunity, you
know cities and towns thatdon't have venues and don't give
bands places to play,especially original bands.
They don't have a scene.
They just can't get a scenegoing.
In just Lancaster alone, wehave what I'll be doing at the
(20:04):
Village.
There's Telus 360.
There's Zootropolis, there'sPhantom Power in Millersville,
which is right next to Lancaster, there's the Shirt Factory in
Lidditz, there's Mickey's BlackBox in Lidditz.
All these are good venues thattreat musicians with respect,
like the concept of a liveconcert with good sound, good
lights and hopefully goodpromotion.
(20:25):
That wasn't always the case andareas that don't have that kind
of luxury of a bunch of venues.
It's tougher for them.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah that's a very solid point we do.
We are very blessed to have allthe local music venues around
here, and that's just Lancasteralone.
You go 30 minutes over toHarrisburg and then you have so
many more venues over there Sure, mechanicsburg, york, all over.
It's amazing what we have here.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah.
So if you haven't been goingout lately, you should get off
the couch and go out, becausethere's a lot of opportunity to
see some great music.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
And at this point you have no excuse, because you
don't even have to drive 20minutes in either direction to
find a venue.
There, you go Well, rich.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Thank you, dan, I reallyappreciate it, and we'll talk
soon.
All right, all.
And we'll talk soon.
All right, all right, Iappreciate it.
Yep, sitting here with Emma Land Justin of Eternal Frequency
Guys.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Of course, of course, really excited to have you here
.
So Eternal Frequency, you guysare coming back from hiatus.
You're really excited.
What kind of new stuff do youhave planned for the future here
?
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Lots Do um, lots you want to elaborate on that, or
should I?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
no, you go ahead both of you at the same time.
Yeah, I mean, we're back, we'reback.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Yeah, no, um, uh yeah , just a lot of music, a lot of
really cool videos we're alwaysbrainstorming everything and a
lot of really cool shows, a lotof big shows planned, so very,
very excited about that awesome,great.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So you got new music planned.
What's, uh, what's the vibewith that?
Are we sticking to the originaleternal frequency sound?
We're changing anything up?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
um oh, go ahead.
Oh, we're changing up a wholebunch of things okay um, most
people have known us for likeheavier, our heavier style, and
we still have that a little bit,but we've modernized it to
where it's just like what ifmetal could win a grammy?
okay it's really like going downthat realm to where, uh, we're
incorporating a lot of genresthat was kind of like taboo to
(22:28):
use um, to where you know we'regonna be putting like reggaeton
style vibes into metal.
Um and ml is.
She's channeled her disneyprincess, so like you're hearing
, like these cleans, that younever really hear from her
because you know she's normally.
She's known for grit.
She's known for grit but, yeah,some of these songs are just,
(22:48):
they're downright beautiful.
But also she's a littlegangster too, like she's.
She's in.
She's found this like littlehip-hop child inside of her as
well, which excites me becauseI'm a child of the 90s and so
you know, 90s rap is where itwas at, you know, and so it's
really exciting because now thatwe have the independence of it
(23:09):
really just being the two of usright now Granted, we're going
to have players live and stufflike that, and we do have a new
lineup that's coming up but thiswhole building and rebranding
that we've been doing, it's beenvery freeing because we're able
to do things that we neverthought we'd be able we would do
.
Yeah, but now there's noboundaries.
(23:29):
That's pretty, it's prettyexciting.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That is really cool, and it's awesome that you're
taking that opportunity to growas a band and make these new
avenues of sound for you.
So that's really cool.
Where did you pull thatinspiration from?
Speaker 4 (23:40):
That it literally just came from within, when you
don't really have anything,anything tying you to.
Like obligations.
Oh, we need to sound this way.
Oh, like obligations.
Oh, we need to sound this way.
Oh, we're part of this scene,so we need to be modern.
It's more of uh, it's justbecome a free-for-all, to where
it's like I could wake up oneday and you know, I don't want
to sound like.
(24:00):
You know your common metal core, I want to do a brian adams
style song and she'll be likecool, let's do that yeah,
ultimately it's we're doingmusic that we, personally, would
listen to okay that we love andthat's all types of genres.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
You know what I mean.
Like we, like I.
I have a like a broadwaybackground, musical theater
background okay so like gettingto incorporate that also with
the hard rock and metal that Ilove, and also maybe a little
bit of rap, just all thesethings that we grew up on and
that we love and that we havethe freedom to do now it's.
It's a major game changer andyou know, if you're not gonna do
(24:41):
music that you personally wouldlisten to.
You shouldn't be doing itanyway.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's what I mean so .
So you're sticking to yourroots, you're being true to
yourself, you're like all right,this is the stuff that I truly
love.
I'm already working on thismusic.
You know why don't we justbring this all together and
bring out the product that youtruly want, absolutely?
Speaker 4 (24:56):
and we're confusing the hell out of our fans, which
is fantastic.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
That's what we want to do there's a little bit for
everybody, though there is, butthey don't know what's happening
.
They don't keep them on theirtoes.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, when we say like these different genres and
everything, everybody just goes.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
No they don't understand it.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
But so we're excited to unveil Be like you see what
we mean.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Yeah, we're not going to go like totally left field,
like they're still going to getthe eternal frequency that they
know and love Okay, but we'rejust going to be able to throw
in some more extra flair andmore of our originality now,
okay.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yes, there's still breakdowns.
That, yes, there's stillbreakdowns.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's the question everybody actually wants.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Exactly.
Is there a payoff in the song?
Yes, there's a payoff in everysong.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Someone can still go.
Yes, this is what I needed.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Exactly who?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
are you guys working with on the new?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
music.
This is actually reallyexciting.
Right now we are almost fullyself-produced.
Wow yeah, we will be workingwith Carson and Grant to
basically all of my crappyrecordings.
They're going to makenon-crappy which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Um, I mean, your recordings could be amazing.
Carson and grant are stillgoing to make it.
Even those guys are amazing.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
They've been our producers for the past seven
years okay, so we love them andwe trust them.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So obviously we're stillcollaborating with them, but so
much of it is just coming fromour house, which is once again
very exciting because andcheaper.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's really cool that in thisday and age we have that
technology just at ourfingertips where it's like,
right great, I can do all myrough takes at my house, get
through this sound I want, andthen bam, we're gonna go to the
studio and make this beautiful.
Exactly so now you guys beenaround for a little while now.
I guess what seven years?
She said right?
Speaker 5 (26:40):
yeah, roughly like I well, I think well, so I've
known them before.
Like I said, I did backgroundvocals on that from ashes yeah,
yeah.
So I knew them during that timeum, but this band I formed in
2018 okay so it's been like what?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
six years ish yeah, I don't know where does it count
to four and start over?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
I don't know when covet happened.
From 2020 till now, it's allblurred to me so I feel like I
lost four years of my life ohyeah, same here, but pre-COVID.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
in 2019, you won Best New Artist, which is awesome
from the Central PennsylvaniaMusic Hall of Fame Awards, and
then 2021, best Rock Band aswell, correct?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Yes, best Rock Band, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So what was it like to form this band and just hit
the ground running and just bam,oh my God, we're the best new
band right now.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
It was very unexpected.
You know, like I, I don't evenremember like I didn't that
first year, it was the veryfirst year of the cpmas and I
didn't submit us.
I don't know who submitted us,but whoever did, I'm very
grateful for you.
Um, but yeah, when we got thataward, when we were even found
out that we were nominated, Iwas flabbergasted.
I was just so honored.
(27:48):
It was I.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I wasn't expecting it , so that's really cool, yeah I
was too new, I felt veryundeserving of that.
They had, like this,accomplished uh portfolio
already.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
And then I kind of was just like, hey, I'm here, oh
, we're getting an award, coolyeah, thanks when you get an a,
but you don't do any of the workexactly I was definitely
looking over over, but I finallyearned the second one.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, that's really cool and so coming up in the
future, you have some big showsplanned for next year as well,
some music festivals.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
Yes, yeah, some big things.
They're not announced yet, butwe're planning to hit the stage.
Like roughly March is going tobe our return to the stage.
Okay, but we'll have music outby then, new music out by then.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Oh, awesome, all right, great.
What kind of what are wethinking for new music?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Or, if you're allowed to say singles, EPs, albums,
yeah, so we're going to do,we're going to continue with
singles and singles joined withmusic videos.
you know, just put a lot ofemphasis on that because you
know we live in a day and agewhere if you're not like on a
label, like a major label, it'sit's really hard to put out
albums and have them get thetraction that they deserve yeah
it's kind of like when you're anindependent artist you have to
(29:02):
put all of your eggs into thatone basket for just a second,
where you focus on an epicsingle, just one one kick ass
single, and having the musicvideo conjoined with it and just
doing proper promoting and, um,just putting the emphasis on
that.
Because, like I said, whenyou're not on a label and you
put out an album, people it'snot going to get the same
(29:25):
reception as a single and amusic video would like a really
kick ass single.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, I mean you guys have donea great job of promoting
yourselves over the years.
I mean I've been following youguys since probably pretty much
the start, like 2018, 2019, ish,and like you guys immediately
got on some big, some big showsand like the way you guys
promote yourself is really cool.
What do you guys?
I mean?
I'm not asking you to shareyour secrets unless you want to,
but like what do you feel likeyou guys do differently than
other bands that made you startout so hot?
Speaker 5 (29:51):
well, the thing is there, that's.
There's no secret, you know,it's just being true to yourself
and being an honest artist andputting out good material and
just connecting with your fansas much as possible.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, you know like just be a human being.
Yeah, just be a human being.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
That's as simple as that just be a human being.
It's not about human being.
That's as simple as that justbe a human being.
It's not about I mean, yes,it's important to you know, put
money into ads and stuff to youknow, get your music out to a
broader audience, but we don'tbuy followers, we don't buy
streams.
There's so many artists that dothat, yeah, and it actually
hurts your algorithm as opposedto helping it.
So we just, like you said, justbe a human being.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah exactly like you .
You guys build true fans andit's just like when you build
that true fan, that's going tobe way better than just buying a
follower, because it's like,great, you have a follower, then
they're never going to look atyour stuff again.
You build a true fan.
They're going to continue tofollow you and support you.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Yeah, absolutely like , if I can go on your band page
and I can scroll through and hita random person and they are
bought, then that's not lookinggood for you, you know what I
mean?
No, exactly, but if you go onour page, it's all real people.
That's awesome, and it's peoplethat we love and appreciate and
hopefully we can continue tobuild them up from here.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Honestly, just piggybacking off of that, it's
like why would they invest ifyou don't invest in them?
And and that's any businessthat you have.
You know you have to followthat same kind of rule.
You know you have to, you haveto care.
You have to care about them forin order for them to care about
you.
That's just the way it worksand stuff like that.
It's like we have something togive, but they're giving
(31:24):
something to us as well andthey're giving.
They're they're.
They're giving their love,they're giving their adoration
for something that we musteredup, you know, in our house.
You know, something that is ourdream and where we're
incredibly grateful for therelationships that we've built.
Honestly, mainly, she's built.
I'm kind of like an introvertbut um but, uh, the
(31:47):
relationships that she's built,and she's built relationships
all over the country and thesepeople are there for us, even if
she's just having a bad day,whether we're releasing a new
single or she's just having arough day, they're there.
And that's a community andthat's a fan base to me.
You know the evolved fan baseto where it really is.
(32:07):
On a much more personal, levelnow.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
People, they're smart , they'll know when you're being
phony, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
and they, they don't want none of that you know,
nobody got time for that ain't,nobody got time for that no, you
can definitely see, like the,the uh oh, my goodness, what's
the word?
Uh people being genuine totheir fans, like, um, like one
of my favorite bands, forexample, like the main.
They're uh, like an alt rockband from like arizona.
Love them, uh, and like, everysingle time I go see them,
they're just like you get thisintimate experience with the
(32:35):
band playing live.
Doesn't matter if it's like apacked room of thousands of
people or a room of just 100,200 people, like the interaction
with the crowd.
It just builds that, thatrelationship, and it's like you
already have this mentalrelationship with your favorite
band.
And then you get there andyou're like, wow, I feel like
I'm like having a conversationwith them Right.
Building that kind of stuff, Ithink is super important.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Like, we've played shows where we played like one
or two people, but it doesn'tmatter if we're playing to one
to two people or thousands ofpeople those one to two people
we're going to make sure thatthey're taken care of and that
they're having a good time andthat we make that connection
with them, because they're goingto remember that for the rest
of their lives.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Of course you're going to give them the same
exact show as if that stadiumwas sold out.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think that's super important, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
It's the most important Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Of course, now you're working on some solo music as
well, correct?
Speaker 5 (33:27):
It's not so much like solo, so I just had a song.
Well, I don't know, I love todo everything.
I'm always working on things,but just a couple months back I
did release a song.
It was a collaboration with aproducer out of Germany.
His name is Nino Helfrich.
Oh wow, it's called Rise Up andit's a song about hope and
(33:53):
renewal and rejuvenation and, um, that was kind of like it was
more so like we penned it likeeternal frequency and nino
halfridge, but it was just mewho did the vocals and he
actually wrote the music, okay,um, but yeah, I'm like I'm
always down to do more stufflike that, like both of us were.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
We're so down to collab with everyone, like we
actually have a couple in theworks there's, there's actually
there's four that I can think ofoffhand, that we are already in
collaboration with.
That are not going to beeternal frequency at all.
It's just going to be eithermyself or it's going to be her,
both of us, but we're not, we'renot putting it under that, so
we're.
We're literally doing a wholebunch of subsidiaries of our own
(34:27):
product, which is really funactually that that's really cool
.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
You really have a passion for music.
You're like it doesn't justhave to be this, I'm just going
to do this for fun over here,Just do it because you love it,
right, we get bored withourselves all the time.
We're musicians, you're alwayson to the next thing.
Absolutely, that's amazing.
Now, speaking of collaborations, are we going to see any
features on the new music forEternal Frequency or anything
like that?
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Mm-hmm, no, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, okay, silence.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Definitely you'll see some names that you know and
love, for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, that's really cool.
Awesome, you heard it herefirst.
No, I mean you did.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Yeah, oh, my goodness Well, oh, my goodness, well,
that's really cool.
Now, what would you say is likeone of your favorite
experiences over the yearsplaying in Central PA or, I
guess, anywhere really aboutearlier, about how I've made
(35:29):
these connections with people.
I've literally become likefamily with these people.
These just like the camp goersthat you know.
They save up their money allyear long, they save up their
vacation and this is, you know,what they look forward to all
year long.
And we played and I was reallyinvolved with like the
campground and like thedifferent campsites and stuff
(35:50):
like that, and really developedsuch a good relationship and
just like friendships with somany people.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Like.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I can think of 30 people right now that I still
talk to daily from Rock Oklahoma.
They live in Oklahoma.
That's amazing I don't get tosee them, but I talked to them
and they want us back.
Really bad, so, but just therelationships that we developed,
that that is single-handedlythe most that's of all time, and
um, my second thing would bewhen we opened up for john five
(36:20):
at phantom power okay um, thatwas a huge deal because john
five's my favorite guitar player, besides you, of course I lost
my mind, I lost my mind yes it'sjust like I followed him ever
since marilyn manson and youknow, to see that guy like she,
she's, she's that person.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
To where she'll, she'll be like, oh, let's go
talk to him.
He's right there becausebecause Ash Costello, from New
Year's Day, her band, the Haxons, was playing as well, and that
is a project that she does withPiggy D from Rob Zombie.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Ok, so now in Marilyn .
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Manson now in Marilyn Manson, right.
But we were playing with themand Ash Costello was just
walking around.
It was it was.
She was just very nonchalantlywalking around.
But then you know, john five, Isee, I see him in passing and I
freeze I don't fanboy at allokay.
The only time I other I've everfanboyed was seeing mike
portnoy and she said you shouldgo up to him and I said no, so
(37:14):
she just went, I love you.
And he pointed at his.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
And so it was like a just really awkward situation.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
I didn't want to have that with John five.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
It was his daughter.
Uh, it was his daughter.
He was also a singer.
He's like did you mean me orher?
Cause she's?
She also has a social media andit was just awkward.
It was awkward.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So I didn't, I didn't want to have that with John me
being a guitar player, he kindof helped shape me, you know,
along with others obviously, buthe was one of those guys to
where you know it's okay tobreak the rules and he's just,
he's a crazy shredder, hecrosses genres and I love that.
Um, and yeah, just being inthis small, close-knit place
(37:56):
right here in in pennsylvania itwas wild.
It was wild to where it's justlike he felt like he was one of
us.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
But I still can't I'm not walking up to him, yeah
it's not happening so you didn'tmeet him, though.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
No, oh no, I admired him from 50 feet, just as good
right it was just, it wasfantastic
Speaker 2 (38:16):
any person.
Just did catch a pic, though,though Did catch a pic there you
go?
Was it like I don't know whatto do with my hands right now?
Speaker 4 (38:23):
It was that.
It smacks you in the foreheadand you're just like.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You keep it there.
That's so real.
Just keep it there for the restof the night, I'm not budging.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
Shout out to Greg Barley from Fan of Power for
booking such amazing shows there, and Greg Barley from Phantom
Power for booking such amazingshows there, and we love him.
Actually, I do want to mentionsome other really important
shows that I've been doing forthe past couple of years.
I've been putting togethercharity shows called Horns for
Hearts, so I've been doing thisfor the past three years.
Last year was actually atPhantom Power and this year was
(39:00):
at Love Drafts in mechanicsburg.
Oh um, so that's something thatI want to continue doing and
it's it's my pride and joy ofand being involved with this
scene.
Yeah, and it means a lot to me.
It means a lot to the charities, like this past year we raised
money for suicide awareness.
okay, that's um shout out tonick myers for helping me put
that together.
And then the year prior we hada fundraiser for Water Street
(39:25):
Mission for the homeless inLancaster County, so that was
really important.
So next year I'm stillbrainstorming what I want to do
with the charity.
I want to hit up Rich, now thatyou've had him on the show I
want to hit him up and see maybewe could do something at the
village and put togethersomething there for the Horns,
for Hearts.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That would be really cool.
Speaking of charity, you guysare also working on, basically,
an acoustic cover of your song,and it's a charity version for
Chris Rider, correct, chrisRider?
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Yes, If you guys don't know, chris Rider, if
you're living on a rock orsomething, you know, chris.
Rider.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know Chris Rider.
If you don't know Chris Rider,you should know Chris Rider.
Exactly, exactly, chris.
Speaker 5 (40:05):
Rider is an amazing human being.
He's an incredible photographer.
He's done so much for so manybands.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
And he unfortunately tragically lost his house in a
fire, his two, all of hispossessions.
So um, we're doing an unpluggedversion of our song breathe and
breathe out.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
No, no, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Similar thing um, it's an unplugged version of our
song breathe and breathe out,which is about hope and and
renewal, and I know, I'm prettysure it's his favorite song of
ours.
I'm pretty sure, sure, I'mgoing to have to ask him, chris.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
It will be, I hope I didn't butcher that it will be.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
But essentially we are putting together.
It's going to be on streaming.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (40:47):
But we are putting together hard copies and they're
going to be available forpurchase.
I don't have a date yet, butit's going to be within the next
few weeks here.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Okay okay, um, they're gonna be ten dollars and
all the proceeds are gonna goto help chris and his family.
That's amazing.
Thank you guys, so much fordoing that for him.
That is so cool.
I mean, chris is obviously ahuge fan of the or a huge member
of the, the hall of fame.
He's uh, he's on the.
I believe he's on the he's onthe committee committee.
Yeah, I was like is it eitherthe board of directors or
committee.
It's the committee.
Um, he did our photos for uswhen we first started this to
(41:17):
get us promoted out there, andhe's worked with so many artists
.
He's just the most selfless guy.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
He's just the most amazing person.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
And it's time for us to be selfless for him 100%
Because he is family now.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yes, and people are showing up for him.
There was another charity showat HMAC last week for him, and
then there was one coming up onthe 17th for him as well yeah,
it's.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
It's really shown how important the central
pennsylvania music scene likewhen, when times get tough,
we're there.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, we're all there , yeah, we all come together and
, just you know, support eachother which is amazing.
I think that's what makes ourmusic community here so special,
absolutely definitely yeah,well, I don't want to end us on
a sad note.
Is there anything else that weare?
Or I guess not really, but yeah.
Is there anything else?
Maybe I may have missed.
You guys wanted to cover oranything like that before you.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
We basically covered everything.
Just keep a lookout for newmusic from us and new videos,
lots of exciting shows.
And yeah, we're back and we'rebetter than ever.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
And yeah, we're back and we're better than ever, and
yeah just just excited for thejourney.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I'm very excited.
We'll have all your guys'information below in the
description If anyone wants togo out and check out your stuff,
so please go.
Support eternal frequency,support Chris Ryder and guys.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (42:32):
Come on the show Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Thank you for real.
Yeah, well guys, I think thatabout does it for this week.
Huge thanks to rich, ml andjustin for all making it out
here today.
Everyone, thank you so much forwatching and we'll see you next
(43:06):
time.
Outro Music.
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