April 1, 2025 • 42 mins
The underground metal scene has experienced a remarkable revival since the pandemic, and bands like Pursuit are at the forefront of this resurgence. Guitarist Henry joins us to discuss how this three-piece outfit from Fargo, North Dakota is carving their path through relentless touring and musical evolution.
Henry reveals the band's fascinating sonic journey from their thrash metal beginnings to their current sound heavily influenced by grindcore legends like Napalm Death. "We trim the fat," he explains, describing their philosophy of crafting concise, impactful songs rather than indulging in technical excess. This approach has become central to their identity as they've refined their songwriting process.
What makes Pursuit particularly interesting is how they've transformed potential limitations into strengths. As a three-piece, they've developed a symbiotic relationship between instruments where guitar and bass occupy distinct sonic territories while creating a massive, cohesive sound. Their pragmatic approach to touring—typically spanning 6-11 days while balancing day jobs—offers valuable insights for emerging bands about sustainable growth and realistic goal-setting.
Don't miss Pursuit on their upcoming Midwest tour, including a stop at The Ritz in Macomb on April 12th, where they'll be joined by Sustenance from Georgia and Juggernaut Agenda from Quincy, llinois. Experience firsthand the raw energy and evolving sound of this promising band as they continue building toward turning their passion into a sustainable career.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We'll be right back.
(00:55):
Boom.
Here we are.
Another, uh, wonderful podcastwith dial the wild, and I am
here with mr henry of pursuit.
What's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
not much dude just uh , I don't know doing the thing,
working hard and uh, gearing upfor tour next month.
Uh, which is next month is inlike a couple days, basically.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So yeah, and since we're on it, we'll just jump
into like the tour man.
So is this, do you guys allhave like regular jobs and
you're just taking a week off togo on tour, or is this what you
guys do?
What's the story there?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It's what we're hoping to turn into a career.
We all have day jobs currentlythat are thankfully flexible
enough to allow the road arethankfully flexible enough to
allow the road, um.
But yeah, I think ideally we'dlike to slowly transition out of
a day job and someday,hopefully, have this pay our
(01:52):
bills.
But yeah, for now we just gotthe nose to the grindstone, just
doing the best we can sure,yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
um, and you guys are coming out of where the hell are
you coming out of?
Minnesota?
You said Fargo, actually Fargo,north Dakota.
Oh, hell.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay, yeah, I think I was looking at your personal
thing when it said Moorhead andFargo are they're pretty much
considered the same city, butthat's just separated by the
state line, obviously, butthey're like right next to each
other Awesome dude.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So what got this?
What got this started here?
You guys just want to throw atour together, or did you have
an opportunity to play two orthree places and just decide we
might as well fill the dates inbetween, or how did this all
come together?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
um, we try to do, we try to tour at least, uh, once
or twice a year and we'rewanting to go out.
Um, we're still in like theearlier stages of like, uh,
really finding a good stride fortouring.
This will be the third full onewe've done, sure and um, I
(03:08):
think the first one we did waslike six days, uh, the second
one we did was 11 days and thisone's eight.
So I think this is like stilltrying to feel out that kind of
week, week and a half ish amountof time.
But, um, yeah, we just decidedwe wanted to hit the road in
april.
So a few months ago I juststarted, uh, putting out some
(03:29):
feelers and planning a route anddoing something that seemed, um
, like, seemed like we couldchallenge ourselves but also not
bite off more than we couldchew gotcha now.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Let's talk about pursuit a little bit.
When did that band start tocome together as what we know as
Pursuit now?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
just started writing, writing as many songs as we
could and just playing any showsthat we could take and learning
from our mistakes along the way.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, so, yeah, Well, like, what are some of the
things you think you you've doneright and some of the things
you think you would avoid?
That you're comfortable talkingabout, of course, but just, you
know folks that you know aroundhere we got we got a pretty
decent scene, but I wouldn'tcall it a bunch of guys that are
(04:32):
going to tour for any kind oflength of time.
We're all kind of like 30,40-year-old dads now, just kind
of still hanging around having agood time with it.
So, yeah, just what are some ofthe things you guys have
learned from the road or doingthis and since, because it only
says 21 and you guys are alreadytrying to patch together tours.
That's pretty impressive, ohthank you, gosh.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I think like the biggest lesson that we've
learned myself especially myselfespecially but is that it's
okay to take smaller steps andthat for the most part, taking
(05:17):
smaller steps will probably getyou further than trying to bite
off a big chunk.
Definitely nothing wrong with alot of ambition.
Pardon me, excuse me Like Ithink ambition is super
necessary, but learning how tokind of reign that in and be
intentional and thought out withit is probably the biggest
lesson.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Because, like going out on the road and touring is
fun, but if you are not wellorganized with it, it can uh, it
can get very stressful, I thinkoh yeah, I'm sure, especially,
um, you know, trying to do itthe way you guys are doing it,
where you're trying to cover acertain amount of of territory
(06:00):
in a certain amount of time, youknow you start weighing
probably the averages of.
You know, do we put on four tofive to six really good shows or
do we really try and shoveeight to ten shows in a week or
two span?
You know, I'm sure you guyshave to measure all that out.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, and it's like it's kind of how do I?
Sorry, my brain's kind ofslowed today, but it's Sunday,
man, it's supposed to be.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's.
We try to play like one showfor every day that we're on the
(06:41):
road, reasonably, I would say,because it's if you're not
playing a show, you're notmaking money, and so you gotta
cover all of your expenses andeverything just from the travel.
So it's like, um, yeah, ifwe're able to play a show
regardless of the day, day ofthe week, then we'll throw
something in there for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, this is something a little different for
us, for Dial the Wild isactually pulling in kind of a
touring I would call act.
We have a healthy scene in theQuad Cities, peoria, springfield
(07:23):
, quincy, within an hour or twoof Macomb area.
We've got really healthy musicscenes trying to keep it kind of
vibing a little bit in Macomb.
Um, so, taking on somethinglike a group that you know, I, I
, I tell my buddies when theycome into play, I'm like I, I
can tell you I can pay you thismuch.
You know, I, I know that we canstick to this and that we're
(07:44):
going to be okay.
But bringing in someone like youguys and I know, like you said,
you're not like beating theworld with a world tour or
anything, but I want to makesure you're taken care of as
much as you guys want to makesure you've got money for food,
money for gas, and it justbrings in a whole other, um, you
(08:05):
know list of of challenges.
I would say so, um, it's goingto be different, it's going to
be, it's going to be a coolexperience.
Um, we're going to be at theritz that night.
Uh, it's a great venue.
Good, good spot for for metal.
Uh, punk hardcore, uh, in thisarea.
Um, you guys are starting outreading it off here, starting
(08:30):
off in madison and I know, likethe the death core um black
metal scene, it's healthy inwisconsin, like that's.
That's a good place to be.
Of course you're never going tostrike out in Chicago playing
up there.
I've never played in South Bend.
Do you know what the scene'slike over South Bend, indiana
(08:53):
kind?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
of.
I do not.
I've never played anywhere inIndiana, but I do have a close
friend that is a part of thatscene and it seems like it's
popping.
It seems like there's reallystrong hardcore death metal
presence there, nice.
So I'm excited to see what theygot.
I love I don't know I loveseeing what other states are
throwing down.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's always so cool yeah it is.
It's cool going to differentscenes Just within well hell,
this last week, since Thursdaynight.
Thursday night we had had inPeoria, we had Frozen Soul, we
had Fit for a King, we hadKublai Khan and we had
(09:35):
Killswitch in Peoria.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Oh damn.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, went up for that.
And then last night my buddiesin the Hate Division dropped an
EP like uh, we had like sixbands last night in the quad
cities uh, hate division,phantom, threat, um, neck, rung,
dream, thief, post, ad, justall amazing bands and and such
(10:01):
such good freaking dudes to workwith.
So I mean it's popping, you know, in the right spots around here
as well.
Then next you'll be with us inMacomb at the Ritz.
You do a little bit of a backwe were kind of talking about
that before we recorded butyou'll do a little bit of a
backtrack to Champaign, which Imean I don't think you're going
(10:22):
to be out much.
It gives you another night toplay somewhere.
You just have to kind of headback east a little bit before
you head back down to st louis,and then you're popping back up
to des moines, damn.
So, yeah, you're kind of makinga nice big uh, we'll call it
like a capital G going around.
(10:44):
But no, that's cool, man,that's that's cool.
You guys are able to do that andyou're able to to to pursue
that.
So, um, yeah, the whole pursuitdeal, like what are you guys
all about?
I mean, I don't want to, Idon't want to put you in a box,
because I was listening to a lotof your guys's stuff today and
you guys have stuff that, likethat, touch on old school punk.
(11:07):
You've got some stuff thattouches on like thrash metal.
You've got some stuff thattouches like, um, almost
deathcore at times.
So, like, what are you guysreally into, and how do you come
up with the sound that you guyshave?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wow, so earlier on that's kind of a loaded question
, so you know dissect it how youchoose.
Yeah, no worries, that's totallycool.
The first, like a few years orcouple years, honestly, um, we
had a lot more of like kind ofan old school thrash metal sound
(11:46):
.
Yeah, and we were not that.
It was like we were necessarily, excuse me, trying to like be a
thrash metal band, but it wasmore so like we were writing
songs and trying to figure outjust what we wanted out of the
music that we were creating, andso we had it was like the
(12:09):
Scourge of Humanity album.
And then we put out a 2023 demoand those were kind of more on
that older thrash side.
And then, uh, after the demo,we started experimenting a lot
more with like influences frombands like napalm death and like
(12:30):
there's a newer one calledconcrete wind.
That's kind of like a grindcorepower violence band they're
super good and a little bit moreon like the rhythmic side of
death metal and stuff like that.
And I think we've we now reallyreally like where the sound is
(12:52):
at, where it's just very like inyour face, we kind of what we
say, we trim the fat on it.
So it's like yeah, yeah,absolutely hell, yeah like.
Uh, in the early stages of thewriting process.
I think we were trying to justlike shove riffs in whenever we
could, and then after a while wewere like, you know, it's okay
(13:15):
to like throw some riffs away ifwe don't feel like they serve
the song.
And then I think that's wherewe kind of started allowing more
of those grindcore influencesin, because it was, like you
know, bands like Napalm Deathback in the day and still today
(13:37):
I don't know how to explain itmuch better than they just kind
of go into the song, they maketheir point, they'll throw down
a few heavy riffs and drag theirknuckles for a little bit and
then they're like done andthey're on to the next idea.
And that's really what we, Ithink, have kind of come into
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, that makes, and , uh, part of that, that show we
went to the other night, um, uh, uh, one of our buddies bands
Dirt.
God is one of their.
Yeah, I was like that soundsawesome, because the group I've
been playing with is, you know,we could put three of those
(14:26):
together.
It seems like at this pointbecause we just got a guy that I
love breakdowns, I love oldschool hardcore, and we got a
guy that loves to shred deathtype stuff and then we got a
great drummer that like kind offigure eights in between it, and
it's just a matter of you know,what are we trying to
accomplish here?
You know, do you want to make ita full circle, or is like okay,
(14:48):
this is really cool, let's justfocus on that for a while.
So you know, it's just.
It just fascinates me thedifferent styles that are out
there.
Like some guys want a trueverse you know, bridge chorus
verse, bridge chorus breakdown,whatever and then the guys are
just like, hey, we're gonna play, we're just gonna grind for
(15:11):
like two and a half minutes andbe done.
I'm like, okay, that's cool too.
Yeah, yeah, it's just.
Yeah, it's just cool to seewhat people come up with,
because it's getting to a pointwhere it's so hard to be
original doing this shit anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah that's exactly it.
It's like now.
Granted, there's obviouslynothing wrong with standing on
the shoulders of people thatinspire you and stuff like that,
absolutely, but I definitelyagree it's in terms of um, I
think it's harder to feel likeyou're kind of successfully
(15:47):
navigating fresh water just withthe volume of uh influences
that are constantly coming out.
You, you know, which is like Ilove it Cause it's uh, I think,
since around like 2019, 2020,underground metal has, I mean,
been flourishing and it's anawesome, it's like a really good
(16:08):
time to be a metal head.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, but yeah, I definitely agree, though,
especially you know having thepandemic and stuff to fight in
that time frame as well.
You know it really took.
It took a hit there for a yearor two and, like it, it took a
minute for it to kind of get histraction back after all that.
So, yeah, as you said, you guysstarted in in 2021, so like
(16:35):
you're starting right after thethe kind of the craziness of it
all, so you probably just hadmore time to really focus on on
making your product rather thanreally worrying about going out
and playing a whole lot to startyeah, and it was like we
definitely had a lot moredowntime.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And then we kind of had a little bit of cabin fever
too, because it had been, yeah,so long since we had gone to a
show or been on stage.
So it was like, you know, justget some songs together and just
go play anywhere.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Really, you know, anywhere we can get a show well,
like on a personal note, wasbecause you guys are right there
on the line, was playing inMinnesota much tougher than
playing in South Dakota, or werethey both kind of the same at
the time?
Was one opening up differentthan the other?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Um, not really.
Uh, did you mean sorry?
Did you mean North Dakota?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
North Dakota, yeah, I'm an idiot.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Go ahead.
No, no, you're totally.
Did you mean north dakota?
Yeah, north dakota, yeah, I'man idiot.
Go ahead, no, no you're totally,you're totally fine.
I just want to make sure, um,yeah, honestly, they were both,
um, pretty equal in terms ofwhen everything was kind of
opening back up.
Um, that's like, yeah, yeah,it's nice that there's some
carryover between Moorhead andFargo.
(18:01):
So there, yeah, it's weird.
This is just a side notetangent, but it's like, yeah,
sure, yeah, the North Dakotastate laws differ in a few
different ways than likeMinnesota does.
So it's like between theborders there's like a lot of
(18:26):
different technicalities, butthen the general community kind
of just considers we call it theFargo Moorhead community.
Essentially, it's just likefeels like one big area, but
anyway, so that was kind ofirrelevant.
But it's just like feels likeone big area, but anyway, so
that was kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But no, it's all good .
What's what's the scene like inthe in that fargo area?
Awesome um fargo, moorhead,sorry but, yeah, tell me about
what's going on in that area,with your music scene, with your
metal scene.
Underground, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
dude, it's, it's popping man.
It's like um, prior to thepandemic it was uh kind of dying
down and got very clicky and um, I think like being deprived of
shows for like pretty much ayear, a little over a, really
(19:16):
just made everybody kind ofhungry for them again.
And it's just as soon as showscame back, people just started
rolling out to them.
I mean not just metal shows,but like multi-genre.
There's different.
There's like some grunge andgood, like straight up rock and
roll bands here too, and it'sawesome, dude.
(19:37):
There's like there's shows allthe time.
There is, um the main venuecalled the aquarium, okay, that
uh people throws the most events.
They do um like internationalbands and mostly local shows as
well, okay.
And then we have like some DIYspots.
(19:57):
There's one called theparachigo and they throw a lot
of like all ages like honkingmetal shows and it's been cool
man, it's like you just roll outto a show.
People are just happy to bethere and I don't know it's's.
It's so nice.
(20:18):
You know what I mean it can belike I just I love going out and
just chilling, but God, it's myfavorite.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's my favorite thing to do, dude, is go to a
local show and take it in andI'm in literally the sticks,
like McComb is the sticks, butI'm like a little further into
the sticks.
So out where I'm at, you know,it's a lot of cover bands, it's
a lot of, you know, guys thatcan play 80s hair metal.
It's it's the guys that canplay Kansas.
(20:49):
It's it's the guys that can dothe old school rock and roll and
do decent country acts andthere's nothing wrong with that.
You know, they're all very,very good at what they do, super
talented.
But you're going to catch thoseon fundraisers for your fire
department or you know differentthings in the area, which is
cool.
It's like we can use music toraise money for those needs.
(21:12):
But it's also still really neatto still have an underground
following of some sort aroundhere for metal, for hardcore,
for metalcore, for whatever thehell you want to call it.
But, like you know, and it seemslike the whole the punk side of
things kind of died off a bit.
But there is a band out of QuadCities called Blaster, who's
(21:33):
amazing and they do kind of theold school, obnoxious punk shit.
Blaster, who's amazing, andthey do kind of the old school
obnoxious punk shit and you knoweverything else for that matter
is is just you know.
It reminds me a lot of a kidwhen we would go to a show.
You go to some guy's garage orgo to some local vfw or legion
hall and you could catch likeone band doing covers.
(21:55):
You catch one band being a punkband, one guy doing like Ebo
stuff, and then at the end ofthe night we had a hardcore
group.
Yeah yeah, you know that's, andnow that we're a little older we
kind of those circles haveshrunk a little bit.
But I'm really hoping you knowto kind of pull more, more of
those bands together ofdifferent sub genres.
That'll that'll make for bettershows too, because not
(22:19):
everybody likes listening topeople screaming into a
microphone yeah, it's like god,and it the same goes for people
that even love metal.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's like I don't always want to go to a metal
show, you know.
Sometimes I want to go justcatch like even a nice acoustic
act that's on, or like a morechill, more chill band like I
don't know.
All music is beautiful, so it's.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
It's always really cool to have the variety I think
yeah, and it's, it's just crazyand you go out, you can catch
some of these open mics at someof these places and see some of
the people in your area that areamazing and you didn't even
know they were there or existedor that you knew this guy, but
you had no idea he was asawesome at music.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's cool how it all pulls together.
So pursuit, pursuit's big thing, let's get back to pursuit.
So you guys do a lot, like wesaid, kind of in a small circle
of stuff, but um, kind of on thewhat three minute or less type
songs, um yeah, and there's alot of what I really heard out
(23:31):
of the newer stuff.
There's like a lot of punkinfluence in some of that which
is really cool.
Like you know, you don't seethat in a lot of punk influence
in some of that which is reallycool.
Like you know, you don't seethat in a lot of thrash metal.
You used to, but like nowadaysyou don't see a whole lot of
that.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting like how that came
about, because earlier on too,when we were writing, I know for
myself um, I wanted to try towrite uh music that I thought
was uh gosh, I don't even knowhow to explain it I wanted to
(24:08):
write something that had, like,challenged my own playing more,
and I think in doing that I lostsight of the purpose of just
writing music in general is, youknow, I mean, you should always
challenge yourself with thethings that you're doing,
because that's how you getbetter, but you know, you
shouldn't be challengingyourself in a way that takes
(24:31):
away from the artistic side ofit, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
No, that makes perfect sense.
I mean, you see what I don'tget me wrong.
I love gents metal, but like,look what some guys are doing
with it, if that makes sense.
No, that makes perfect sense.
I mean, you see what I don'tget me wrong.
I love gents metal, but like,look what some guys are doing
with it.
And you know, do you reallywant something you can play with
24 strings on it?
You know it's cool, but am Igoing to watch that guy for an
hour?
Probably not, you know.
And you know, you can it astechnical and crazy as you want,
(25:06):
but at the end of the day, ifit doesn't have some sort of
solar meaning to it like it'skind of lost in the wash and you
guys, even you know, being athree-piece, that makes it even
more difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, it can be well, it's, I don't know, it's.
It's weird.
I've only ever played in likethree piece bands, you know what
I'm saying.
I guess that's not true.
I briefly played in a coverband where there was another
guitar player, but um, that itwas such a short span of time, I
(25:32):
don't, I don't, uh, count itvery much, but yeah, every like
I guess this is, aside from thatcover band, pretty much the
only band that I played in, butso I don't know, kind of pulled
that out of my ass, I guess.
But yeah, it's, it's kind of funhonestly because um, dalton,
(25:54):
our bass player, he like he'sconstructed uh his bass tone to
just kind of fill everythingthat my guitar can't on my own
end and it just like it almostcomes together as one instrument
sound.
It like just meshes so well andI don't know, it's kind of fun
(26:17):
like, uh, we've seen bands thathave you know two, three guitar
players.
Um, our homies in mall theyhave performed as a six piece
before and it like it shakesyour bones, it's so heavy, right
.
So it's like it's kind of coolto try to see if you can uh rub
elbows with that a little bit.
(26:37):
You bit with two less guitarplayers.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, and what we found is that's two less
schedules you got to deal withwith practice and scheduling
shows and our homies that playin the 8th division.
They don't play with a lot ofbacking tracks, but he's able to
put his rhythm guitar to abacking track just so they don't
have to deal with anotherschedule.
So it's cool what you can andcan't do with it, and you can
(27:05):
definitely overdo it at timeswith different aspects of it.
Like you said, if you've gotthree guitars in one band and
you're all in drop A orsomething, how many of you are
competing for that low end ofspace?
So it's really cool that you're.
You take the approach of youknow, I'm gonna play in this
(27:25):
space, he's gonna play in thisspace and, um, it's all gonna
come together nicely, soabsolutely yeah, I I don't know
how maul does it.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
All their, their guitar players all have really
good ears and I've like it'salways really cool to see when
they're doing the six piecething and then you can still
hear their bass player throughall three guitars.
That's like impressive Dude.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, it's crazy that is just stuff they all
harmonizing on different planes,then I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I'm not sure what the different guitar parts are, but
I think they share the sameriffs for the most part, but I
think their tones are a littlebit different between each
person.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
But I'd have to see it't need it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, I haven't.
I haven't even picked theirbrains about that, if I'm gonna
be honest, so I should.
Now I'm curious, but yeah, it's, it's, it's insane.
It literally like shakes yourchest when they play as a six
piece yeah, it's all good,though hey, uh, let's get into.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Uh influences man, like what do you guys mostly
listen to, or what are you guysmostly inspired by, or you know
um, quite a few different things, I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
uh, it varies uh pretty decently between dalton,
myself and our drummer, wyatt.
I know, for me I'm really intoNapalm Death, as I named earlier
as one of them, and Sangua,sugabog and Gate Creeper and
(29:12):
different avenues of death metaland grind and stuff like that.
Dalton is into Nails andmashuga.
Yeah, uh, he likes, uh, he's uhreally into the most recent
knock loose album okay, yeah andwyatt is super into.
(29:34):
Like man, he loves metallicaslayer sepultura and you gotta
have that guy.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, you gotta have that guy.
So, absolutely, yeah, that'sawesome.
Yeah, I mean you coulddefinitely like feel the maybe
like the dying fetus and youknow some of the, some of the
death type stuff.
Um, that that's in there.
You can definitely hear and youcan feel a lot of that in the
way that you guys play and theway that it sounds, and it's
(30:04):
just raw energy from the startof a song all the way to the end
.
It's pretty wild stuff, man.
I was just listening, actuallybecause I forwarded on your
guys' stuff to a couple otherguys today, but just what it was
from Lion Must Go Up to whatwas the other one I listened to
(30:28):
today, the Scourge of Humanity.
Yeah, I mean, it's all goodstuff.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
It's crazy how you kind of shifted from that to
that in that period of time.
Thankfully, all of us have acommunication style amongst
ourselves that's very, um,conducive to um, kind of just
(31:10):
moving forward and, uh, alwaysjust putting our nose to the
grindstone.
I guess you know it's very um,we're we're all uh good at
understanding, like feedback andcommunication.
So if there's an idea that'sfloating around and it's not
really working, nobody has anytrouble saying that it's not
working or not fitting, andnobody takes it personally.
We just kind of on to the nextthing and go, go, go.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, that's key is being able to cut your losses
and swallow your ego at timesand do what's best for the
collective rather than what youreally want to see or what you
really want to hear happen.
There are those times whereit's like, man, I really hear
this, I really feel this, Ireally want it to kind of shake
(31:56):
out.
And then, when it doesn't, youget so pissed yeah, you know,
and either you come back to itand it works out eventually, or
it was just like you know, itwas a great idea, but it just
wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Today, yeah, and there's like we've had songs
that were we've had a riff inone of our songs that was its
own idea for a completelydifferent song in the past, and
(32:29):
we'd spend days to weeks tryingto flesh out this idea and then
we'd be like, nah, this sucks.
The riff is kind of cool, butwe're not really getting out of
it what we're trying to.
And then you know, down theroad another riff will come up
and you know somebody be likeplay that.
(32:51):
You know, play that with thisother riff that we essentially
couldn't use, and then all of asudden you find a place for.
It's just wild how that happens, I guess.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Absolutely yeah yeah, and every band's a little
different how they constructideas for songs and how the
whole thing comes together.
So it's cool.
You guys kind of you kind offound your niche and what works
for for you guys in your processand and uh, uh, yeah, that's
good stuff, man.
Um, is there any bands that youhave played with or shows that
(33:24):
you have played that were morememorable, or or you know people
you look up to you're able toplay with?
Something like that?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Um, we always are grateful for shows that we play
with, like uh mall and any ofthe guys that had been doing the
thing since, like before wewere doing it.
Um, it's just like it's alwaysvery humbling and always a
really good learning experienceto see, like, how hard they're
(33:53):
working and the things thatthey're doing to be successful.
So that's super cool.
And as far as like a memorableshow, um, we played uh in
january.
We played in cedar rapids, iowa, and it was like a one-day
festival and it was like anall-agres thing.
(34:14):
There was some like hardcorebands there, there's some death
metals and, excuse me, it was.
It was insane.
Like all ages shows are supersick because, like you know,
kids are just as pissed off, ifnot more, as like adults.
Right, and they got to get someaggression out and so, like
(34:35):
kids, they love moshing, theylove throwing down.
I mean, we're up there, we'rejust doing our thing and there's
people crowd surfing and likebig pits going and it's just
like I don't know.
It was so much fun, you knowjust what festival was that?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It was called the Cold Shock.
It was like a Midwest likemetal, uh metal showcase.
Um, yeah, nothing.
I don't think that it hadhappened previously and I'm not
sure it might have just beenlike a one-off thing as well.
But, um, the people that put ittogether are called iowa metal
(35:16):
underground.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
They know their shit.
They're really good dudes, yeah, just they put together awesome
events and they're super goodto work with.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That's awesome.
How far is Cedar Rapids fromyou guys, from where you're at?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Oh shit, probably, I think, 10-ish hours, eight to 10
hours.
Let's see if we drive toMinneapolis from here.
It's like three and a half fourhours and then you're way up
there yeah, yeah, we are.
(35:54):
Let's see, yeah, we're like alittle geography here holy hell.
Now I'm curious.
I think it's close to a 10 hourdrive to like Cedar Rapids from
here?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
no kidding, I didn't think it was that far let's see
Fargo to Cedar Rapids.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Oh, I'm dumb, it's a 7 and a half hour drive.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
No, that's still a stretch man, Holy shit.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, In a tour van I'd say give or take an extra
hour or two just trying to savegas.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
But yeah, it's a lot of.
You guys will be a straight 10hours coming here to play.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, it'll be Gosh.
How many hours is it?
Fargo to Madison?
I think is eight-ish hours.
Yeah, the first, justlocationally, the first show for
tour.
We usually try to drive out asfar as we can so that the rest
(37:06):
of the days, yeah, we can kindof work our way back.
That's awesome.
Oh yeah, thank you.
So it's like it's.
Yeah, fargo is pretty out ofthe way.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
So in general if we're playing out of town, we
can expect anywhere from like athree to hour drive so it's,
it's like you're good, you'rejust gonna, you're gonna drive,
bro, it don't matter, yeah,that's wild man but that that's
cool, that, like, you guys havesuch a good scene and such a
good following and stuff whereyou're at and with what you're
(37:36):
doing, um, but you want to getout, you want to go see what
else is going on out there, andyou know that that's awesome.
I wish that somewhere along theway, you guys have found a way
to like play peoria or quadcities or something, because I
think that would have beenreally conducive to like what
you're doing.
Um, but you know, look home, wegot a nice little pocket here
(37:59):
between all that.
That.
Uh, you know the, the folksthat know they'll be there, so
hell yeah and, like I said too,man, we, we really appreciate it
.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Dude, we really appreciate you getting us up I.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
I was like I said it was given to me and I was asked
if I could handle it.
I said I don't know but we'llsee and we made it happen.
So I'm excited to have you guysdown, excited to meet you guys.
I really like what you're doing.
It's kind of a really cool oldschool thrash metal meets like
(38:34):
kind of old school, where punkkind of met hardcore vibe and,
as weird as it sounds, it worksand it sounds really cool.
Thank you, I appreciate that alot.
So we're going to put it onhere on the 12th and we got you
guys a couple bands here.
(38:55):
The guys that you're travelingwith will be here as well.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Sustenance, by the way, sustenance from Georgia.
Definitely check them out.
They're super sick.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
They're coming up from.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Georgia.
Yep, they're coming up fromKennesaw, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I definitely need to get one of them guys on here
pretty soon.
That's awesome, they're comingon up.
Then I got Juggernaut Agendafrom Quincy Illinois coming here
to open up for you guys.
He runs a small I won't saysmall, he's outlapped me by
miles, but he puts on MidwestSponsor Productions, promotions,
(39:36):
whatever you want to call itover in Quincy Illinois, kind of
where Illinois meets Missouri,and he's been putting on shows
left and right, doing everythinghe can to keep his little
circle and his little communitygoing.
So it's nice when we can.
You know, we got the folks inthe Quad Cities, peoria, we got
Quincy Springfield, just tryingto hold each other up at this
(39:59):
point.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Absolutely yeah, high tide and raises all Springfield
.
Just trying to hold each otherup at this point.
So absolutely yeah, I tied in.
Raises all ships.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, so we want, you know, we want to see everybody
when, uh, rooting for everyoneand uh, hopefully we come in
have a good show, have a goodtime.
Um, you know, you guys get yourrooms and stuff booked and like
a crash and shit.
Or are you, are you guys, acrashing type band, or do you
just finish and head on to thenext?
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Uh, we're a crashing type band for sure.
So, um, uh, yeah, garage floor,somebody's couch, wherever If
we um, we'll do.
Uh, we'll do like motels andstuff if we um don't find a
couch to crash on.
But yeah, we're pretty, we'renot super picky, we've even done
(40:46):
like free campsites and shit.
We usually throw a tent in theback of the van just in case,
but wow you guys are hardcore,man, I don't.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
there's nothing I look forward to less than
sleeping on the grounds, man.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Fair enough it it kind of sucks if you sleep wrong
.
I've definitely had morningswhere my back hurts more than
I'd like it to, but I don't know.
After a while it's like I don'tknow Sleep is sleep.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
It just piss you off and make you want to play that
much harder to the next day.
It's just like I'm mad.
My back hurts.
My day is just like I'm mad.
Yeah, my back hurts, my backhurts, so you better just pit up
, let's go.
Let's go and deport a littlesixth grade kids out there, like
let's go no, that's your backuptoo they're gonna walk and we
(41:35):
graduate high school.
No, I can smile, man.
Man, it is great.
Out the seat itself, we policeeach other up.
Don't take us the wrong way onany of this.
A sixth grade kid is not goingto get messed up in the pit.
There's enough people therethat knows what's going on.
Don't hear what we're notsaying here.
We're not trying to destroychildren.
(41:56):
It's a good time though.
Man know I'm stoked.
I'm glad to have you guys down.
Um, regardless, you know we'llcome down, you guys tear it up
and then, uh, we'll send you onyour way to the champagne and uh
, yeah, hopefully you guys havea good rest of the tour and able
(42:19):
to make some strides that youwant to make, and you know we,
hopefully you guys have a goodrest of the tour and able to
make some strides that you wantto make, and you know we'll
definitely be pushing it here onon all sides as much as we can
and look forward to seeing you,look forward to meeting, yeah,
oh thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
I really appreciate you setting us up and I
appreciate your time with thezoom call man.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
It was really nice talking to you.
Yeah, you too, bud.
We'll, uh, we'll catch up heresoon hell yeah, dude, have a
good one.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
We'll see you in a couple weeks.
Yep, sounds good man.
We'll be right back.
(00:55):
Boom.
Here we are.
Another, uh, wonderful podcastwith dial the wild, and I am
here with mr henry of pursuit.
What's going on, man?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
not much dude just uh , I don't know doing the thing,
working hard and uh, gearing upfor tour next month.
Uh, which is next month is inlike a couple days, basically.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So yeah, and since we're on it, we'll just jump
into like the tour man.
So is this, do you guys allhave like regular jobs and
you're just taking a week off togo on tour, or is this what you
guys do?
What's the story there?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It's what we're hoping to turn into a career.
We all have day jobs currentlythat are thankfully flexible
enough to allow the road arethankfully flexible enough to
allow the road, um.
But yeah, I think ideally we'dlike to slowly transition out of
a day job and someday,hopefully, have this pay our
(01:52):
bills.
But yeah, for now we just gotthe nose to the grindstone, just
doing the best we can sure,yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
um, and you guys are coming out of where the hell are
you coming out of?
Minnesota?
You said Fargo, actually Fargo,north Dakota.
Oh, hell.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay, yeah, I think I was looking at your personal
thing when it said Moorhead andFargo are they're pretty much
considered the same city, butthat's just separated by the
state line, obviously, butthey're like right next to each
other Awesome dude.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So what got this?
What got this started here?
You guys just want to throw atour together, or did you have
an opportunity to play two orthree places and just decide we
might as well fill the dates inbetween, or how did this all
come together?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
um, we try to do, we try to tour at least, uh, once
or twice a year and we'rewanting to go out.
Um, we're still in like theearlier stages of like, uh,
really finding a good stride fortouring.
This will be the third full onewe've done, sure and um, I
(03:08):
think the first one we did waslike six days, uh, the second
one we did was 11 days and thisone's eight.
So I think this is like stilltrying to feel out that kind of
week, week and a half ish amountof time.
But, um, yeah, we just decidedwe wanted to hit the road in
april.
So a few months ago I juststarted, uh, putting out some
(03:29):
feelers and planning a route anddoing something that seemed, um
, like, seemed like we couldchallenge ourselves but also not
bite off more than we couldchew gotcha now.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Let's talk about pursuit a little bit.
When did that band start tocome together as what we know as
Pursuit now?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
just started writing, writing as many songs as we
could and just playing any showsthat we could take and learning
from our mistakes along the way.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, so, yeah, Well, like, what are some of the
things you think you you've doneright and some of the things
you think you would avoid?
That you're comfortable talkingabout, of course, but just, you
know folks that you know aroundhere we got we got a pretty
decent scene, but I wouldn'tcall it a bunch of guys that are
(04:32):
going to tour for any kind oflength of time.
We're all kind of like 30,40-year-old dads now, just kind
of still hanging around having agood time with it.
So, yeah, just what are some ofthe things you guys have
learned from the road or doingthis and since, because it only
says 21 and you guys are alreadytrying to patch together tours.
That's pretty impressive, ohthank you, gosh.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I think like the biggest lesson that we've
learned myself especially myselfespecially but is that it's
okay to take smaller steps andthat for the most part, taking
(05:17):
smaller steps will probably getyou further than trying to bite
off a big chunk.
Definitely nothing wrong with alot of ambition.
Pardon me, excuse me Like Ithink ambition is super
necessary, but learning how tokind of reign that in and be
intentional and thought out withit is probably the biggest
lesson.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Because, like going out on the road and touring is
fun, but if you are not wellorganized with it, it can uh, it
can get very stressful, I thinkoh yeah, I'm sure, especially,
um, you know, trying to do itthe way you guys are doing it,
where you're trying to cover acertain amount of of territory
(06:00):
in a certain amount of time, youknow you start weighing
probably the averages of.
You know, do we put on four tofive to six really good shows or
do we really try and shoveeight to ten shows in a week or
two span?
You know, I'm sure you guyshave to measure all that out.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, and it's like it's kind of how do I?
Sorry, my brain's kind ofslowed today, but it's Sunday,
man, it's supposed to be.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's.
We try to play like one showfor every day that we're on the
(06:41):
road, reasonably, I would say,because it's if you're not
playing a show, you're notmaking money, and so you gotta
cover all of your expenses andeverything just from the travel.
So it's like, um, yeah, ifwe're able to play a show
regardless of the day, day ofthe week, then we'll throw
something in there for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, this is something a little different for
us, for Dial the Wild isactually pulling in kind of a
touring I would call act.
We have a healthy scene in theQuad Cities, peoria, springfield
(07:23):
, quincy, within an hour or twoof Macomb area.
We've got really healthy musicscenes trying to keep it kind of
vibing a little bit in Macomb.
Um, so, taking on somethinglike a group that you know, I, I
, I tell my buddies when theycome into play, I'm like I, I
can tell you I can pay you thismuch.
You know, I, I know that we canstick to this and that we're
(07:44):
going to be okay.
But bringing in someone like youguys and I know, like you said,
you're not like beating theworld with a world tour or
anything, but I want to makesure you're taken care of as
much as you guys want to makesure you've got money for food,
money for gas, and it justbrings in a whole other, um, you
(08:05):
know list of of challenges.
I would say so, um, it's goingto be different, it's going to
be, it's going to be a coolexperience.
Um, we're going to be at theritz that night.
Uh, it's a great venue.
Good, good spot for for metal.
Uh, punk hardcore, uh, in thisarea.
Um, you guys are starting outreading it off here, starting
(08:30):
off in madison and I know, likethe the death core um black
metal scene, it's healthy inwisconsin, like that's.
That's a good place to be.
Of course you're never going tostrike out in Chicago playing
up there.
I've never played in South Bend.
Do you know what the scene'slike over South Bend, indiana
(08:53):
kind?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
of.
I do not.
I've never played anywhere inIndiana, but I do have a close
friend that is a part of thatscene and it seems like it's
popping.
It seems like there's reallystrong hardcore death metal
presence there, nice.
So I'm excited to see what theygot.
I love I don't know I loveseeing what other states are
throwing down.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's always so cool yeah it is.
It's cool going to differentscenes Just within well hell,
this last week, since Thursdaynight.
Thursday night we had had inPeoria, we had Frozen Soul, we
had Fit for a King, we hadKublai Khan and we had
(09:35):
Killswitch in Peoria.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Oh damn.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, went up for that.
And then last night my buddiesin the Hate Division dropped an
EP like uh, we had like sixbands last night in the quad
cities uh, hate division,phantom, threat, um, neck, rung,
dream, thief, post, ad, justall amazing bands and and such
(10:01):
such good freaking dudes to workwith.
So I mean it's popping, you know, in the right spots around here
as well.
Then next you'll be with us inMacomb at the Ritz.
You do a little bit of a backwe were kind of talking about
that before we recorded butyou'll do a little bit of a
backtrack to Champaign, which Imean I don't think you're going
(10:22):
to be out much.
It gives you another night toplay somewhere.
You just have to kind of headback east a little bit before
you head back down to st louis,and then you're popping back up
to des moines, damn.
So, yeah, you're kind of makinga nice big uh, we'll call it
like a capital G going around.
(10:44):
But no, that's cool, man,that's that's cool.
You guys are able to do that andyou're able to to to pursue
that.
So, um, yeah, the whole pursuitdeal, like what are you guys
all about?
I mean, I don't want to, Idon't want to put you in a box,
because I was listening to a lotof your guys's stuff today and
you guys have stuff that, likethat, touch on old school punk.
(11:07):
You've got some stuff thattouches on like thrash metal.
You've got some stuff thattouches like, um, almost
deathcore at times.
So, like, what are you guysreally into, and how do you come
up with the sound that you guyshave?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wow, so earlier on that's kind of a loaded question
, so you know dissect it how youchoose.
Yeah, no worries, that's totallycool.
The first, like a few years orcouple years, honestly, um, we
had a lot more of like kind ofan old school thrash metal sound
(11:46):
.
Yeah, and we were not that.
It was like we were necessarily, excuse me, trying to like be a
thrash metal band, but it wasmore so like we were writing
songs and trying to figure outjust what we wanted out of the
music that we were creating, andso we had it was like the
(12:09):
Scourge of Humanity album.
And then we put out a 2023 demoand those were kind of more on
that older thrash side.
And then, uh, after the demo,we started experimenting a lot
more with like influences frombands like napalm death and like
(12:30):
there's a newer one calledconcrete wind.
That's kind of like a grindcorepower violence band they're
super good and a little bit moreon like the rhythmic side of
death metal and stuff like that.
And I think we've we now reallyreally like where the sound is
(12:52):
at, where it's just very like inyour face, we kind of what we
say, we trim the fat on it.
So it's like yeah, yeah,absolutely hell, yeah like.
Uh, in the early stages of thewriting process.
I think we were trying to justlike shove riffs in whenever we
could, and then after a while wewere like, you know, it's okay
(13:15):
to like throw some riffs away ifwe don't feel like they serve
the song.
And then I think that's wherewe kind of started allowing more
of those grindcore influencesin, because it was, like you
know, bands like Napalm Deathback in the day and still today
(13:37):
I don't know how to explain itmuch better than they just kind
of go into the song, they maketheir point, they'll throw down
a few heavy riffs and drag theirknuckles for a little bit and
then they're like done andthey're on to the next idea.
And that's really what we, Ithink, have kind of come into
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, that makes, and , uh, part of that, that show we
went to the other night, um, uh, uh, one of our buddies bands
Dirt.
God is one of their.
Yeah, I was like that soundsawesome, because the group I've
been playing with is, you know,we could put three of those
(14:26):
together.
It seems like at this pointbecause we just got a guy that I
love breakdowns, I love oldschool hardcore, and we got a
guy that loves to shred deathtype stuff and then we got a
great drummer that like kind offigure eights in between it, and
it's just a matter of you know,what are we trying to
accomplish here?
You know, do you want to make ita full circle, or is like okay,
(14:48):
this is really cool, let's justfocus on that for a while.
So you know, it's just.
It just fascinates me thedifferent styles that are out
there.
Like some guys want a trueverse you know, bridge chorus
verse, bridge chorus breakdown,whatever and then the guys are
just like, hey, we're gonna play, we're just gonna grind for
(15:11):
like two and a half minutes andbe done.
I'm like, okay, that's cool too.
Yeah, yeah, it's just.
Yeah, it's just cool to seewhat people come up with,
because it's getting to a pointwhere it's so hard to be
original doing this shit anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah that's exactly it.
It's like now.
Granted, there's obviouslynothing wrong with standing on
the shoulders of people thatinspire you and stuff like that,
absolutely, but I definitelyagree it's in terms of um, I
think it's harder to feel likeyou're kind of successfully
(15:47):
navigating fresh water just withthe volume of uh influences
that are constantly coming out.
You, you know, which is like Ilove it Cause it's uh, I think,
since around like 2019, 2020,underground metal has, I mean,
been flourishing and it's anawesome, it's like a really good
(16:08):
time to be a metal head.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, but yeah, I definitely agree, though,
especially you know having thepandemic and stuff to fight in
that time frame as well.
You know it really took.
It took a hit there for a yearor two and, like it, it took a
minute for it to kind of get histraction back after all that.
So, yeah, as you said, you guysstarted in in 2021, so like
(16:35):
you're starting right after thethe kind of the craziness of it
all, so you probably just hadmore time to really focus on on
making your product rather thanreally worrying about going out
and playing a whole lot to startyeah, and it was like we
definitely had a lot moredowntime.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And then we kind of had a little bit of cabin fever
too, because it had been, yeah,so long since we had gone to a
show or been on stage.
So it was like, you know, justget some songs together and just
go play anywhere.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Really, you know, anywhere we can get a show well,
like on a personal note, wasbecause you guys are right there
on the line, was playing inMinnesota much tougher than
playing in South Dakota, or werethey both kind of the same at
the time?
Was one opening up differentthan the other?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Um, not really.
Uh, did you mean sorry?
Did you mean North Dakota?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
North Dakota, yeah, I'm an idiot.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Go ahead.
No, no, you're totally.
Did you mean north dakota?
Yeah, north dakota, yeah, I'man idiot.
Go ahead, no, no you're totally,you're totally fine.
I just want to make sure, um,yeah, honestly, they were both,
um, pretty equal in terms ofwhen everything was kind of
opening back up.
Um, that's like, yeah, yeah,it's nice that there's some
carryover between Moorhead andFargo.
(18:01):
So there, yeah, it's weird.
This is just a side notetangent, but it's like, yeah,
sure, yeah, the North Dakotastate laws differ in a few
different ways than likeMinnesota does.
So it's like between theborders there's like a lot of
(18:26):
different technicalities, butthen the general community kind
of just considers we call it theFargo Moorhead community.
Essentially, it's just likefeels like one big area, but
anyway, so that was kind ofirrelevant.
But it's just like feels likeone big area, but anyway, so
that was kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But no, it's all good .
What's what's the scene like inthe in that fargo area?
Awesome um fargo, moorhead,sorry but, yeah, tell me about
what's going on in that area,with your music scene, with your
metal scene.
Underground, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
dude, it's, it's popping man.
It's like um, prior to thepandemic it was uh kind of dying
down and got very clicky and um, I think like being deprived of
shows for like pretty much ayear, a little over a, really
(19:16):
just made everybody kind ofhungry for them again.
And it's just as soon as showscame back, people just started
rolling out to them.
I mean not just metal shows,but like multi-genre.
There's different.
There's like some grunge andgood, like straight up rock and
roll bands here too, and it'sawesome, dude.
(19:37):
There's like there's shows allthe time.
There is, um the main venuecalled the aquarium, okay, that
uh people throws the most events.
They do um like internationalbands and mostly local shows as
well, okay.
And then we have like some DIYspots.
(19:57):
There's one called theparachigo and they throw a lot
of like all ages like honkingmetal shows and it's been cool
man, it's like you just roll outto a show.
People are just happy to bethere and I don't know it's's.
It's so nice.
(20:18):
You know what I mean it can belike I just I love going out and
just chilling, but God, it's myfavorite.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's my favorite thing to do, dude, is go to a
local show and take it in andI'm in literally the sticks,
like McComb is the sticks, butI'm like a little further into
the sticks.
So out where I'm at, you know,it's a lot of cover bands, it's
a lot of, you know, guys thatcan play 80s hair metal.
It's it's the guys that canplay Kansas.
(20:49):
It's it's the guys that can dothe old school rock and roll and
do decent country acts andthere's nothing wrong with that.
You know, they're all very,very good at what they do, super
talented.
But you're going to catch thoseon fundraisers for your fire
department or you know differentthings in the area, which is
cool.
It's like we can use music toraise money for those needs.
(21:12):
But it's also still really neatto still have an underground
following of some sort aroundhere for metal, for hardcore,
for metalcore, for whatever thehell you want to call it.
But, like you know, and it seemslike the whole the punk side of
things kind of died off a bit.
But there is a band out of QuadCities called Blaster, who's
(21:33):
amazing and they do kind of theold school, obnoxious punk shit.
Blaster, who's amazing, andthey do kind of the old school
obnoxious punk shit and you knoweverything else for that matter
is is just you know.
It reminds me a lot of a kidwhen we would go to a show.
You go to some guy's garage orgo to some local vfw or legion
hall and you could catch likeone band doing covers.
(21:55):
You catch one band being a punkband, one guy doing like Ebo
stuff, and then at the end ofthe night we had a hardcore
group.
Yeah yeah, you know that's, andnow that we're a little older we
kind of those circles haveshrunk a little bit.
But I'm really hoping you knowto kind of pull more, more of
those bands together ofdifferent sub genres.
That'll that'll make for bettershows too, because not
(22:19):
everybody likes listening topeople screaming into a
microphone yeah, it's like god,and it the same goes for people
that even love metal.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's like I don't always want to go to a metal
show, you know.
Sometimes I want to go justcatch like even a nice acoustic
act that's on, or like a morechill, more chill band like I
don't know.
All music is beautiful, so it's.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
It's always really cool to have the variety I think
yeah, and it's, it's just crazyand you go out, you can catch
some of these open mics at someof these places and see some of
the people in your area that areamazing and you didn't even
know they were there or existedor that you knew this guy, but
you had no idea he was asawesome at music.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's cool how it all pulls together.
So pursuit, pursuit's big thing, let's get back to pursuit.
So you guys do a lot, like wesaid, kind of in a small circle
of stuff, but um, kind of on thewhat three minute or less type
songs, um yeah, and there's alot of what I really heard out
(23:31):
of the newer stuff.
There's like a lot of punkinfluence in some of that which
is really cool.
Like you know, you don't seethat in a lot of punk influence
in some of that which is reallycool.
Like you know, you don't seethat in a lot of thrash metal.
You used to, but like nowadaysyou don't see a whole lot of
that.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting like how that came
about, because earlier on too,when we were writing, I know for
myself um, I wanted to try towrite uh music that I thought
was uh gosh, I don't even knowhow to explain it I wanted to
(24:08):
write something that had, like,challenged my own playing more,
and I think in doing that I lostsight of the purpose of just
writing music in general is, youknow, I mean, you should always
challenge yourself with thethings that you're doing,
because that's how you getbetter, but you know, you
shouldn't be challengingyourself in a way that takes
(24:31):
away from the artistic side ofit, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
No, that makes perfect sense.
I mean, you see what I don'tget me wrong.
I love gents metal, but like,look what some guys are doing
with it, if that makes sense.
No, that makes perfect sense.
I mean, you see what I don'tget me wrong.
I love gents metal, but like,look what some guys are doing
with it.
And you know, do you reallywant something you can play with
24 strings on it?
You know it's cool, but am Igoing to watch that guy for an
hour?
Probably not, you know.
And you know, you can it astechnical and crazy as you want,
(25:06):
but at the end of the day, ifit doesn't have some sort of
solar meaning to it like it'skind of lost in the wash and you
guys, even you know, being athree-piece, that makes it even
more difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, it can be well, it's, I don't know, it's.
It's weird.
I've only ever played in likethree piece bands, you know what
I'm saying.
I guess that's not true.
I briefly played in a coverband where there was another
guitar player, but um, that itwas such a short span of time, I
(25:32):
don't, I don't, uh, count itvery much, but yeah, every like
I guess this is, aside from thatcover band, pretty much the
only band that I played in, butso I don't know, kind of pulled
that out of my ass, I guess.
But yeah, it's, it's kind of funhonestly because um, dalton,
(25:54):
our bass player, he like he'sconstructed uh his bass tone to
just kind of fill everythingthat my guitar can't on my own
end and it just like it almostcomes together as one instrument
sound.
It like just meshes so well andI don't know, it's kind of fun
(26:17):
like, uh, we've seen bands thathave you know two, three guitar
players.
Um, our homies in mall theyhave performed as a six piece
before and it like it shakesyour bones, it's so heavy, right
.
So it's like it's kind of coolto try to see if you can uh rub
elbows with that a little bit.
(26:37):
You bit with two less guitarplayers.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, and what we found is that's two less
schedules you got to deal withwith practice and scheduling
shows and our homies that playin the 8th division.
They don't play with a lot ofbacking tracks, but he's able to
put his rhythm guitar to abacking track just so they don't
have to deal with anotherschedule.
So it's cool what you can andcan't do with it, and you can
(27:05):
definitely overdo it at timeswith different aspects of it.
Like you said, if you've gotthree guitars in one band and
you're all in drop A orsomething, how many of you are
competing for that low end ofspace?
So it's really cool that you're.
You take the approach of youknow, I'm gonna play in this
(27:25):
space, he's gonna play in thisspace and, um, it's all gonna
come together nicely, soabsolutely yeah, I I don't know
how maul does it.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
All their, their guitar players all have really
good ears and I've like it'salways really cool to see when
they're doing the six piecething and then you can still
hear their bass player throughall three guitars.
That's like impressive Dude.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, it's crazy that is just stuff they all
harmonizing on different planes,then I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I'm not sure what the different guitar parts are, but
I think they share the sameriffs for the most part, but I
think their tones are a littlebit different between each
person.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
But I'd have to see it't need it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, I haven't.
I haven't even picked theirbrains about that, if I'm gonna
be honest, so I should.
Now I'm curious, but yeah, it's, it's, it's insane.
It literally like shakes yourchest when they play as a six
piece yeah, it's all good,though hey, uh, let's get into.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Uh influences man, like what do you guys mostly
listen to, or what are you guysmostly inspired by, or you know
um, quite a few different things, I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
uh, it varies uh pretty decently between dalton,
myself and our drummer, wyatt.
I know, for me I'm really intoNapalm Death, as I named earlier
as one of them, and Sangua,sugabog and Gate Creeper and
(29:12):
different avenues of death metaland grind and stuff like that.
Dalton is into Nails andmashuga.
Yeah, uh, he likes, uh, he's uhreally into the most recent
knock loose album okay, yeah andwyatt is super into.
(29:34):
Like man, he loves metallicaslayer sepultura and you gotta
have that guy.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, you gotta have that guy.
So, absolutely, yeah, that'sawesome.
Yeah, I mean you coulddefinitely like feel the maybe
like the dying fetus and youknow some of the, some of the
death type stuff.
Um, that that's in there.
You can definitely hear and youcan feel a lot of that in the
way that you guys play and theway that it sounds, and it's
(30:04):
just raw energy from the startof a song all the way to the end
.
It's pretty wild stuff, man.
I was just listening, actuallybecause I forwarded on your
guys' stuff to a couple otherguys today, but just what it was
from Lion Must Go Up to whatwas the other one I listened to
(30:28):
today, the Scourge of Humanity.
Yeah, I mean, it's all goodstuff.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
It's crazy how you kind of shifted from that to
that in that period of time.
Thankfully, all of us have acommunication style amongst
ourselves that's very, um,conducive to um, kind of just
(31:10):
moving forward and, uh, alwaysjust putting our nose to the
grindstone.
I guess you know it's very um,we're we're all uh good at
understanding, like feedback andcommunication.
So if there's an idea that'sfloating around and it's not
really working, nobody has anytrouble saying that it's not
working or not fitting, andnobody takes it personally.
We just kind of on to the nextthing and go, go, go.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, that's key is being able to cut your losses
and swallow your ego at timesand do what's best for the
collective rather than what youreally want to see or what you
really want to hear happen.
There are those times whereit's like, man, I really hear
this, I really feel this, Ireally want it to kind of shake
(31:56):
out.
And then, when it doesn't, youget so pissed yeah, you know,
and either you come back to itand it works out eventually, or
it was just like you know, itwas a great idea, but it just
wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Today, yeah, and there's like we've had songs
that were we've had a riff inone of our songs that was its
own idea for a completelydifferent song in the past, and
(32:29):
we'd spend days to weeks tryingto flesh out this idea and then
we'd be like, nah, this sucks.
The riff is kind of cool, butwe're not really getting out of
it what we're trying to.
And then you know, down theroad another riff will come up
and you know somebody be likeplay that.
(32:51):
You know, play that with thisother riff that we essentially
couldn't use, and then all of asudden you find a place for.
It's just wild how that happens, I guess.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Absolutely yeah yeah, and every band's a little
different how they constructideas for songs and how the
whole thing comes together.
So it's cool.
You guys kind of you kind offound your niche and what works
for for you guys in your processand and uh, uh, yeah, that's
good stuff, man.
Um, is there any bands that youhave played with or shows that
(33:24):
you have played that were morememorable, or or you know people
you look up to you're able toplay with?
Something like that?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Um, we always are grateful for shows that we play
with, like uh mall and any ofthe guys that had been doing the
thing since, like before wewere doing it.
Um, it's just like it's alwaysvery humbling and always a
really good learning experienceto see, like, how hard they're
(33:53):
working and the things thatthey're doing to be successful.
So that's super cool.
And as far as like a memorableshow, um, we played uh in
january.
We played in cedar rapids, iowa, and it was like a one-day
festival and it was like anall-agres thing.
(34:14):
There was some like hardcorebands there, there's some death
metals and, excuse me, it was.
It was insane.
Like all ages shows are supersick because, like you know,
kids are just as pissed off, ifnot more, as like adults.
Right, and they got to get someaggression out and so, like
(34:35):
kids, they love moshing, theylove throwing down.
I mean, we're up there, we'rejust doing our thing and there's
people crowd surfing and likebig pits going and it's just
like I don't know.
It was so much fun, you knowjust what festival was that?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It was called the Cold Shock.
It was like a Midwest likemetal, uh metal showcase.
Um, yeah, nothing.
I don't think that it hadhappened previously and I'm not
sure it might have just beenlike a one-off thing as well.
But, um, the people that put ittogether are called iowa metal
(35:16):
underground.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
They know their shit.
They're really good dudes, yeah, just they put together awesome
events and they're super goodto work with.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That's awesome.
How far is Cedar Rapids fromyou guys, from where you're at?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Oh shit, probably, I think, 10-ish hours, eight to 10
hours.
Let's see if we drive toMinneapolis from here.
It's like three and a half fourhours and then you're way up
there yeah, yeah, we are.
(35:54):
Let's see, yeah, we're like alittle geography here holy hell.
Now I'm curious.
I think it's close to a 10 hourdrive to like Cedar Rapids from
here?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
no kidding, I didn't think it was that far let's see
Fargo to Cedar Rapids.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Oh, I'm dumb, it's a 7 and a half hour drive.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
No, that's still a stretch man, Holy shit.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, In a tour van I'd say give or take an extra
hour or two just trying to savegas.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
But yeah, it's a lot of.
You guys will be a straight 10hours coming here to play.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, it'll be Gosh.
How many hours is it?
Fargo to Madison?
I think is eight-ish hours.
Yeah, the first, justlocationally, the first show for
tour.
We usually try to drive out asfar as we can so that the rest
(37:06):
of the days, yeah, we can kindof work our way back.
That's awesome.
Oh yeah, thank you.
So it's like it's.
Yeah, fargo is pretty out ofthe way.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
So in general if we're playing out of town, we
can expect anywhere from like athree to hour drive so it's,
it's like you're good, you'rejust gonna, you're gonna drive,
bro, it don't matter, yeah,that's wild man but that that's
cool, that, like, you guys havesuch a good scene and such a
good following and stuff whereyou're at and with what you're
(37:36):
doing, um, but you want to getout, you want to go see what
else is going on out there, andyou know that that's awesome.
I wish that somewhere along theway, you guys have found a way
to like play peoria or quadcities or something, because I
think that would have beenreally conducive to like what
you're doing.
Um, but you know, look home, wegot a nice little pocket here
(37:59):
between all that.
That.
Uh, you know the, the folksthat know they'll be there, so
hell yeah and, like I said too,man, we, we really appreciate it
.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Dude, we really appreciate you getting us up I.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
I was like I said it was given to me and I was asked
if I could handle it.
I said I don't know but we'llsee and we made it happen.
So I'm excited to have you guysdown, excited to meet you guys.
I really like what you're doing.
It's kind of a really cool oldschool thrash metal meets like
(38:34):
kind of old school, where punkkind of met hardcore vibe and,
as weird as it sounds, it worksand it sounds really cool.
Thank you, I appreciate that alot.
So we're going to put it onhere on the 12th and we got you
guys a couple bands here.
(38:55):
The guys that you're travelingwith will be here as well.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Sustenance, by the way, sustenance from Georgia.
Definitely check them out.
They're super sick.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
They're coming up from.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Georgia.
Yep, they're coming up fromKennesaw, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I definitely need to get one of them guys on here
pretty soon.
That's awesome, they're comingon up.
Then I got Juggernaut Agendafrom Quincy Illinois coming here
to open up for you guys.
He runs a small I won't saysmall, he's outlapped me by
miles, but he puts on MidwestSponsor Productions, promotions,
(39:36):
whatever you want to call itover in Quincy Illinois, kind of
where Illinois meets Missouri,and he's been putting on shows
left and right, doing everythinghe can to keep his little
circle and his little communitygoing.
So it's nice when we can.
You know, we got the folks inthe Quad Cities, peoria, we got
Quincy Springfield, just tryingto hold each other up at this
(39:59):
point.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Absolutely yeah, high tide and raises all Springfield
.
Just trying to hold each otherup at this point.
So absolutely yeah, I tied in.
Raises all ships.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, so we want, you know, we want to see everybody
when, uh, rooting for everyoneand uh, hopefully we come in
have a good show, have a goodtime.
Um, you know, you guys get yourrooms and stuff booked and like
a crash and shit.
Or are you, are you guys, acrashing type band, or do you
just finish and head on to thenext?
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Uh, we're a crashing type band for sure.
So, um, uh, yeah, garage floor,somebody's couch, wherever If
we um, we'll do.
Uh, we'll do like motels andstuff if we um don't find a
couch to crash on.
But yeah, we're pretty, we'renot super picky, we've even done
(40:46):
like free campsites and shit.
We usually throw a tent in theback of the van just in case,
but wow you guys are hardcore,man, I don't.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
there's nothing I look forward to less than
sleeping on the grounds, man.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Fair enough it it kind of sucks if you sleep wrong
.
I've definitely had morningswhere my back hurts more than
I'd like it to, but I don't know.
After a while it's like I don'tknow Sleep is sleep.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
It just piss you off and make you want to play that
much harder to the next day.
It's just like I'm mad.
My back hurts.
My day is just like I'm mad.
Yeah, my back hurts, my backhurts, so you better just pit up
, let's go.
Let's go and deport a littlesixth grade kids out there, like
let's go no, that's your backuptoo they're gonna walk and we
(41:35):
graduate high school.
No, I can smile, man.
Man, it is great.
Out the seat itself, we policeeach other up.
Don't take us the wrong way onany of this.
A sixth grade kid is not goingto get messed up in the pit.
There's enough people therethat knows what's going on.
Don't hear what we're notsaying here.
We're not trying to destroychildren.
(41:56):
It's a good time though.
Man know I'm stoked.
I'm glad to have you guys down.
Um, regardless, you know we'llcome down, you guys tear it up
and then, uh, we'll send you onyour way to the champagne and uh
, yeah, hopefully you guys havea good rest of the tour and able
(42:19):
to make some strides that youwant to make, and you know we,
hopefully you guys have a goodrest of the tour and able to
make some strides that you wantto make, and you know we'll
definitely be pushing it here onon all sides as much as we can
and look forward to seeing you,look forward to meeting, yeah,
oh thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
I really appreciate you setting us up and I
appreciate your time with thezoom call man.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
It was really nice talking to you.
Yeah, you too, bud.
We'll, uh, we'll catch up heresoon hell yeah, dude, have a
good one.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
We'll see you in a couple weeks.
Yep, sounds good man.
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