The Crystal Method: From Humble Beginnings to Iconic Longevity

Hey Coffee Drinkers! Ever wondered how some iconic artists maintain their longevity in the music industry? Grab a cup of coffee and join me as I chat with Scott of the legendary The Crystal Method. We dive into the creative process behind their distinctive sound, exploring the influence of Scott's upbringing, the music of his childhood, rave culture, movie scores, massive placements of their music in movies and video games, and so much more.

Discover how The Crystal Method went from humble beginnings working in a grocery store to their first record deal and collaborations with incredible artists like Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. We discuss the challenges of working as a now solo artist, and how scoring a film differs from creating their signature antagonistic, brooding dance floor tracks. Scott also shares some valuable advice for aspiring musicians, such as finding your niche, seizing opportunities, and surrounding yourself with people who support your vision.

As we wrap up our conversation, Scott emphasizes the importance of adapting, taking chances, and staying connected with your audience. He reflects on the secret to The Crystal Method's enduring success in the creative field and the key takeaways that can inspire and guide others in t own musical journeys. Don't miss this inspiring and insightful conversation with Scott from The Crystal Method.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/thecrystalmethod

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GROUNDS FOR SUCCESS LINKS
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AUSTIN SELTZER LINKS
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THE CRYSTAL METHOD LINKS
All Links Here: https://linktr.ee/thecrystalmethod

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Episode Transcript

Austin Seltzer (00:01):
Welcome to the Grounds for Success podcast.
I'm your host, Austin Siltzer.
Together we'll unveil the keysto success in the music industry
.
Join me as I explore my guest'slife stories and experiences to
uncover practical insights tohelp you align with your goals
more effectively.
Hey, coffee drinkers, I'm sostoked for you to listen to

(00:31):
today's podcast I have on theCrystal Method.
So if you like this content, ifyou like hearing about you,
know, the behind the scenes onsomebody like the Crystal Method
or other guests.
Please like, follow andsubscribe on whatever platform
you're listening on.
I want to be able to get thiscontent to you as easily as
possible and that would help meout a lot.

(00:52):
On today's episode, we talkabout so many different things
but to give you a little idea ofwhat's to come Creating a
studio that allows for you tonot always create the same track
but to keep things fresh, Sohow to make a studio feel like
you can come in and make uniqueideas each time you step in.

(01:16):
We also talk about how Scottlikes to start new tracks.
We'll talk about how he alwayshad music going on at the house
whenever he was growing up, likethe clash, zeppelin, pink Floyd
, and he found a lot of hiscreative inspiration, like
sonically, through the musicthat he would hear in the house

(01:38):
at an early age.
He also used Star Wars andother scores from films of the
time to influence, like hiscreative play, so he would take
like figurines and reenactscenes to music And this is
really a lot of what shaped thesound that would be the crystal

(01:59):
method, incredibly well knownfor having music and video games
and movies.
We'll also talk about how heloved to play air drums and how
this really helped him hone inhis rhythm and to play drum
programming machines and whatnotin their music.
We'll also talk about his bombshelter studio, which I think is

(02:20):
pretty cool.
We'll talk about how theyscored the picture and how that
came about and some of thebehind the scenes on how they
went and did that.
And we'll also talk mostimportantly, i think, about the
almost 30 year span of thecrystal method and how to go

(02:41):
about having a career.
That's that long.
So much insight into thatanswer.
All right, let's getcaffeinated.
Cheers, scott, thank you somuch for joining me.
It's awesome to have you.

Scott Kirkland (02:58):
Austin, thank you so much for having me.
It's great to be here.
It's a beautiful setup you havehere.

Austin Seltzer (03:02):
Thank you, thank you.
Lots of love was put into thatand I have to say, in love your
way, you actually are drinkingmy black coffee and I'm stoked
about that.

Scott Kirkland (03:11):
Yeah, you sent out the how do you like your
coffee request and I told youhow I like it when I'm normally
going to places that the coffeeis subpar or not as refined as
what you've been kind enough toserve me today.
So it's yeah.

(03:33):
In the studio, in my studio, ihave a guy there named Tobias,
who he's gone through hisgrowing hot peppers making hot
sauce phase and he got intoroasting his own coffee beans
phase.

Austin Seltzer (03:49):
Really.

Scott Kirkland (03:51):
And he'd come over every once in a while with
a superb cup of coffee.
It's amazing when you becausewe're so inclined to just grab
something whether it's at aStarbucks or it makes something
at home, and you tend to try tocut it a bit, try to cut that

(04:14):
bitterness, but it's quitesomething when you get ahold of
a really nice cup of coffee.
So I appreciate it.
I expected something reallywonderful and it's definitely
meeting my expectations.

Austin Seltzer (04:26):
Well, hilariously, i also think of
grounds as like ground floor.
So if I were giving Folgers, wewould be starting with the
ground floor.

Scott Kirkland (04:37):
Or if it was like a sort of the hot one, sort
of gradually start out with theshittiest cup of coffee and
then get up to the spat out of amonkey's ass kind of whatever
that stuff is, that have youever tried that I have?

Austin Seltzer (04:53):
It's not great.
It's not great.
I don't think it's great.

Scott Kirkland (04:59):
It's very interesting decor you have in
here.
It's all the technical gear.
You replace those with realcandles and we could be
transferred back and transportedback in time in here.
It's really great.

(05:20):
So was this used to be like anoverdubs in here and then you
turned it into this, or is itjust another kind of a storage
area?

Austin Seltzer (05:28):
It was a storage area, more like a white prison
cell, i can imagine.
Yeah, it was just white walls,concrete floors, not the vibe at
all.
Yeah, but same with my studioroom.
It was the same exact thing,and then this wall was built and
the opposite wall was built inthe studio, so it was like I did

(05:50):
a lot to make it feel like this.

Scott Kirkland (05:52):
Yeah And yeah, it feels very cozy and a vibe
that I appreciate.
I do have natural light in myroom, but most of the time I
keep it relatively dark.

(06:12):
Yeah.

Austin Seltzer (06:14):
I found that creators love light.
I'm a refiner.
I do think I'm a creative, butI'm not creating and refining a
mix or doing a master orwhatever.
I want straight lines.
I don't want to feel the room,i just want to be in the sound,

(06:35):
and so natural light is.
I'm totally a vampire, whichthe room looks like there is a
window right there, but youwouldn't be able to tell.
No, if I opened it, though, wewould no longer be in Victorian
evaporate Yeah.

Scott Kirkland (06:49):
When my partner, ken, was still in the band, we
bought this building and it sortof built our quote unquote
dream studio and part of the oneof the things on our checklist
was having natural light.
Because we had come from astudio in a little two car
garage in La Crescenta where wemade the first three albums four

(07:13):
albums, four albums Yeah, thefirst three albums and where it
was just a dingy, dark roomwhere we were in the studio and
we didn't have a lot of thecreature comfort.
So this building we hadliterally raised the roof so we
can build this four panelshielded component window where

(07:40):
we can independently controleach of the shades.
It's a cool, it's a greatreveal when you're showing
people the studio that onceyou're in the dark and all of a
sudden the That sounds real good.
Yeah, the things start to rollup.

Austin Seltzer (07:54):
I need to get one of those for long.

Scott Kirkland (07:58):
Unfortunately, i do have some leaks, but I think
everybody over the last sixmonths has found that their
building is somewhat flawed whenit comes to keeping the rain
out, just because we've had somuch.
But yeah, it's a great building.
I've been there, for we've beenthere for the past 16 years.

(08:19):
So it would be great to go awayfor three months and just write
down everything that I want andthen come back and have it all
implemented, because sometimes aroom just becomes a prisoner of
your own years and years ofcollecting, whether it's
especially in a room where youhave a building that has 25 plus

(08:45):
years of the band And since Ihave the space, i just sort of
hold onto it.
But it would be nice to haveone of those studio makeovers
where you get a professional inthere and HGTV.

Austin Seltzer (08:58):
Yeah.

Scott Kirkland (09:00):
Maybe that's the show that we should work on,
the Pimp Your Studio.
Yeah, pimp Your-.
Yeah, it's a great space andwelcome to come by anytime and
check it out.

Austin Seltzer (09:10):
I'd love to see it.
What kind of consoles were youguys working on?

Scott Kirkland (09:14):
Well, we started .
I mean, we never had the moneyto go and buy a big, proper Neve
or SSL or-.
Our first three or four albumswere made with just the Mackie
3208 with a 16 channel sidecarand which was really helpful to

(09:35):
have that separate sidecar onthe other side of the room with
all the gear, different synthsand another computer plugged
into it and then be able to justroute everything over.
So it was very serviceable.
It had the send and returns andeight bus and it was a great
clean.

(09:56):
You know what you're gettingwith the Mackie stuff.
And then, as we wanted to beable to recall things, we picked
up the DBA or D8B or I thinkDBA did a little digital board

(10:18):
that you could recall certainthings.
And then eventually, when wewent to the Neve Studio, we went
fully into Pro Tools and wewere using their D-Command,
which essentially became just agiant paperweight because, you
know, because much of the it wasmore intuitive although it was

(10:42):
more intuitive for Ken tobecause he was more of the
engineer to use the dials andeverything to EQ.
But you know, but after a whileyou just mouse it or, you know,
trackball it and-.

Austin Seltzer (10:58):
Oh, that's so quick.

Scott Kirkland (11:00):
And then, when it became to, you know, but it's
still we still used it forfader movements and different
things like that and but soon ashe when he retired, and then I
decided to sell that and Ibought this Chandler and little

(11:25):
it's a sidecar mixer because Iwanted to get I wanted that
analog sound, if you will, andeven though I don't really use
that much either, because it'sagain you get into recall and
then and then when you have somany tracks you're just dealing
with the latency and going inand out.

(11:47):
But anyway, so but yeah, it's ait's a great room.
I've had a lot of room for myvarious synths and it's the one
I've been comfortable in.
But I do find that it would Ithink it would be sort of a sort
of a fresh a breath of freshair if something you know were

(12:11):
to happen in there.
That would sort of change theroom around a bit and give it a
fresh feel.

Austin Seltzer (12:17):
Yeah, I talked with one of my guests about
inviting chaos into your life,just like to break out of the
cycle, break out of your norm,to be more creative.
I think it's so necessary.

Scott Kirkland (12:30):
Yeah, and I find when I go to other people's
studios it helps me get awayfrom the mindset of also being
the engineer, you know, runningthe board or running the
computer.
I could just sit in a noodle ona synth and then you know,
listen on headphones and gohow's this sound?
Oh, that sounds cool.

(12:51):
I could record that in and then, you know, do multiple takes of
things like that.
I did that a lot more on thelast album, the Trip Out, and to
a certain degree on The TripHome, where it was, you know,
hooking up synths and getting asound, getting something that

(13:14):
inspired the rest of the, youknow, the rest of the movement,
the rest of the tracks, becauseit's very daunting to turn on.
you know, start fresh on a newsong and you know you're not
sure where to go.
And so lots of times I try toremember the ways that we, when

(13:34):
we didn't have the unlimitedpower of digital audio and
computer processing power oflike, oh yeah, that's right, we
just kind of set up a synth andput it through a bunch of
distortion pedals and got anearly sound and jammed out on
that for a while and then tookwhatever, you know whatever

(13:55):
layers that were there and thenfed that into a sampler and
started cutting into it And thatwas the creative process.
So doing that a bit more, as oflate, does help kickstart
things and kind of get you outof that that sort of you know
that momentary, you know sort ofduring the headlights vibe that

(14:22):
one can get when they're whenthey're staring at a blank
canvas.

Austin Seltzer (14:25):
Yeah, yeah, for those listening and watching,
this is this is somewhat deep inthe weeds of production, which
is great, and I want people torealize that.
What you just said, i think, isit's like the very fabric of
how to create.
It's just like do the damnthing.

Scott Kirkland (14:42):
Yeah.

Austin Seltzer (14:43):
So you said, just dial in some distortion
with guitar pedals which isreally cool on a synth and just
jam, yeah, and after a whilesomething is going to click and
you're like, oh shit, thatlittle thing was cool.
And then you put that down andyou keep moving, put it in a
sampler which, for thoselistening, it's just a way that
you can take a section of whatyou played and played on keys,
different notes, bend it,shorten it, make it ramp in

(15:08):
trying to make this lesstechnical, yeah, it's very much
like you're just writing stuffdown, writing notes down,
writing paragraph, twoparagraphs, three paragraphs And
maybe, after furtherexamination, only two of those
paragraphs work.

Scott Kirkland (15:26):
You just sort of pull those out and then you can
build around that.
It's all about gettingsomething flowing, something
going, something in just, andthat's something that sometimes
that I have to remind myself of,especially when I'm in a room
by myself where I'm just shouldI pull up one of the 15 to 500

(15:56):
different ideas that I'vestarted over the last five years
, where every once in a whileI'm reminded of something that's
worked on?
that little idea And I do havesuccess that way, like going
through and just pullingsomething up and going oh yeah,
this was something that Istarted, this might be good with
this, and you have to kind ofgo through the archives a bit

(16:19):
and sort of rediscover thingsthat may be lost to another idea
, another project.
But yeah it's a process, and onethat I sometimes, remembering
different ways that we've donethings in the past, sort of help

(16:40):
lead things that happen in thefuture.

Austin Seltzer (16:43):
Amazing.
I would love to go all the wayback to the start And this isn't
the start of your career, thisis the end, the start of your
life.
I would love to know some aboutyour family growing up and how

(17:05):
childhood, like things that youdid in childhood and how you
were raised, and kind of justtrying to figure out the fabric
of what sets you on this path.

Scott Kirkland (17:16):
Well, i was a latchkey kid.
I was one.
I'm only child, so my parentslove music.
Those are not necessarilyconnected, but but because there
was always music in the house,i was always my mom loved.
They were really young when Iwas born too.

(17:37):
So so you know, and we'retalking.
I was born in 1970, so as I wasgrowing up, i grew up in the age
of you know, of classic rock,progressive rock, disco, punk,

(17:57):
metal, new wave modern music,electronic music and and, of
course, rock was everywhere andso any age of MTV.
So I was always around musicand I started to find the things
that I liked and then, being alatchkey kid, i was, you know,

(18:17):
really into Star Wars and youknow, if I could only imagine if
Star Wars would have come outin an age where video was on
demand, i would have burnedthrough hundreds of hours of
rewatching it and I think Iprobably would have become numb
to it.
Where, back in my time, youknow, you had the score.

(18:39):
So you had John Williams scorewhich pretty much told the tale
of the movie in sequential order.
So you know, i had actionfigures and you know I'd put the
score on and I would, you know,i would visualize through the
score.
So in a way that really helpedme understand how I think about

(19:03):
music and how, how it becamelike, especially in the kind of
music we ended up making, it wasvery antagonistic, you know.
There was like a here's thebaseline, kind of setting the

(19:23):
mood and all sudden here comessomething else, some you know
synth, that made its way in andstood out, and then there was a
bigger synth There's alwayssomething bigger and then
there'd be the chords and thefluff that would kind of change
the dynamic of the track orchange the mood of the track.

(19:47):
And so you know again, that'svery much like you know a score
to a movie, where you knowthere's all this build up and
tension and then you know thenthere's a release and so it.
So making music was a realvisual thing for me.

(20:07):
And then I, you know, i again Istarted to hear music in a
different way and experiencemusic in a different way, and I
got really into rock and metaland I always wanted to play
drums.
It was always my, i felt, my Idon't know it felt the most
primal instinct to me was to youknow to play drums.
I love watching drummers.
I love watching, you know,tommy Lee Twirl of Sticks and

(20:29):
you know I love the action, thetiming of it.
I don't know if I would everhave been a drummer.
You know I've been a drummer.
You know I've been a drummer.
You know I've been a drummer,the timing of it.
I don't know if I would everhave been a good drummer,
because you know you have to.
You know air drums is muchdifferent, you know you never

(20:52):
miss.
You never miss, you know, a hitwhen you're air drumming, and I
would do that a lot and I wouldalways want to drum kit.
But my mom was not justreluctant, she was adamant that
I would.
You know that, because herbrother was, you know, was in a
band that they would play in thegarage and all she'd hear, you

(21:14):
know, is this shitty drummingthrough the walls.
It was like you know, and shecouldn't imagine having to go
through that again, and so shepointed me towards guitar, which
I, which, again, i also wasfascinated with the that aspect
of it you know the having youknow an instrument and
performing with it.
And you know, i was real, youknow, driven by the sound of it

(21:40):
and the different layers of it,and so I took guitar lessons,
but I still would, you know, i'dgo and I had one drumstick and
a stick from the backyard and Iwould sit, you know, and I would
air drum with headphones on inyou know living room to various
different Metallica and crew andall the different bands I was

(22:07):
into.

Austin Seltzer (22:07):
And then damn what one second you?
you were definitely.
There's a lot of parallels tomy story.
I wanted, i definitely wassupposed to be a drummer.
You could see it by.
I was an absolute professionalpots and pans smacker but, just
like you, and my mom was likeabsolutely not, i'm not getting
a drum set.
It's going to be noisy and loudand this and that, but what I

(22:29):
was going to say is I was notdrumming to shit, you were doing
it to Metallica.
I was just.
you know, you can see it.

Scott Kirkland (22:37):
But what I did notice from the very beginning
is that it helped me with myunderstanding of rhythm, or you
know, getting in and you know,on a drum machine or you know
being one that had to tap thingsout and play.
You know, i didn't take pianolessons, i took guitar lessons

(23:00):
for years, but then, soon as Idiscovered the Pesch Mode, i was
like put the guitar aside.
Not necessarily I didn't put itcompletely aside because I was
still making music with guitars.
When I met Ken, i had samplerand a little drum machine and a
four track and a guitar and asynth.
I think I must have said that.

(23:21):
But and so I love bands like NewOrder and Pesch Mode and still
love rock and still listen to,you know I'd still listen to
Heavy Metal or The Colt anddifferent bands that had
electronic elements or more rockelements, but they were all
just blending of the world.
So but I started to get moreinto, you know that, more

(23:49):
electronic stuff.
The guitar took it backseat,although on the first album,
vegas, there's, you know there'sa track like High Roller that
has some guitar in it, that youknow that I played.
But again, I just didn't ever.
I never had the necessarily thepatience or the focus to focus

(24:09):
on one instrument.
Mainly.
That came.
My focus became on, likeunderstanding how to put
everything together in a DAW orwork with.
you know, the emerging world ofmaking music with computers,
which I was, which we were, 8990and the very sort of you know

(24:33):
beginnings of it.
We had a Mac 2CI and an earlyversion of Performer, which was
everything, was all MIDI, youknow.
You know staring at you know youknow small little screen and
rudimentary graphics, and and,but it was.

(24:53):
It achieved, something that youknow, that allowed us to move
forward, and and so that was myfocus over the years.

Austin Seltzer (25:04):
So yeah, well, i want to know when.
When did you pick up the guitar, because it sounds like?
is that the first instrumentthat you started to learn any
kind of musical structure?

Scott Kirkland (25:16):
Yeah, yeah, but I was, I was my guitar teacher
actually was.
this is this very famous 80srock star named Mark Slaughter,
who was in the band calledSlaughter And he was my guitar
teacher before he went on togreat success in those in the in

(25:37):
the height of the 80s hairmetal days.
But I was, he was always intoteaching me, you know, scales
and and and although I didpractice that stuff, i really
wanted to just know what, whatthe riff was.
you know, in a in a song.

(25:58):
That was sort of how I, you know, initially, sort of
understanding you know that,that aspect of of making music,
but it was really about justtaking in all the things that I
that I've, you know, i'velearned and heard over the last
you know, 40 years of.
you know, at the time you know15, 20 years of my life where

(26:20):
I've just been a big, you know,fan of of music from all
different genres And so and justreally listening to a lot of
music you know all the time.
And so I would say, when wewere making our first album,
there were moments when I waslike, you know, because we were
all we were making music thatwas more club based or club that

(26:43):
was rooted in.
you know the electronic technorave scene at the time.
But we we understood that thatyou had to do like a typical
track that we would enjoy in aclub.
We'd come home and we'd go andbuy that album or that 12 inch
and come back and be like, ohshit, this thing is like five
minutes of the same shit, wedidn't realize that it's all

(27:06):
about how the DJ manipulates itand how you blend and mixes, and
so we we felt that, if we weregoing to have success, we would
have to make something or createsomething that one can listen
to in any environment.
It could be played in a club, itcould be played in the car, it
could be played, you know, onyour, on your headphones and

(27:28):
your Walkman or whatever wasavailable at the time And it you
know.
So that was.
So those that structure and ofunderstanding how to put a song
together, you know, was, youknow, sort of rooted in the
things that we both and Ken wasa big lover of music as well And
he had a different taste, hewasn't as much into the heavy

(27:49):
metal stuff but but we bothreally loved public enemy and
beastie boys and, and you know,and and you know everything, our
how we understand how to createa track came from our shared
love of, of, of music, and andthen just understanding where we
wanted to go and what we wantto hear for in our own, in our

(28:09):
own music.
Once we got it done, I lovethat.

Austin Seltzer (28:12):
When did you meet Ken and how did you guys
decide like we're going to dothis?
It was very random.

Scott Kirkland (28:19):
We were both working in the same grocery
store.
He's about eight years olderthan me, so I was in my late
teens, maybe it was 20.
I would say it was 1920.
And I brought a drum machineinto to work.
So at grocery store you havelike two 15 minute breaks.
And so I thought, well, youknow, i've, i'll, i'll.

(28:44):
You know, i was really excitedto to to play on this, this new
piece of gear that I picked up,so I just brought it in.
I was working on it, playingwith it in the in the break room
, which not something younormally see, you know, in in in
that environment, somebodyworking on a little drum machine
and with their headphones in ain a break room So he's like, oh

(29:04):
, you make music.
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,i have a guitar and I write, you
know written a couple songs,you know some lyrics and and.
And he said, oh, okay, cool,well, i'm working with a singer.
You want to come by and play mesome of your songs?
Maybe it might be good for thesinger I'm working with.
And so I was like, yeah, sure.
So I went over and and he had ayou know little apartment, he

(29:27):
had a little setup in there AndI brought my little gorilla
ampere amplifier and my guitarand and and and you know he he
had a little reel to reel.
So he set me up with some and Ijust started, you know, playing
the song and turned out it was,it worked well with the singer
And then we started working withthe singer.

(29:49):
Both of us started working withthe singer And then, and then
Ken eventually got a job workingfor producer out here in
California And he moved we wereboth in Vegas at the time and he
moved and got set up And then Iwould come every weekend or
every other weekend we'd we'dwork on music, but we also got
to these raves that were thatwere happening underground

(30:11):
events in Los Angeles and late80s and early 90s, and that was
where you know, we, you know, gointo these rooms and be blown
away by the energy that wascreated by, by, you know, a DJ
playing records from differentartists from around the world

(30:32):
and the way that you know he wasable to manipulate, manipulate
those you know records and theenvironment, the, the, you know
the.
You know you're in a dingywarehouse in the middle of you
know CD downtown and you were,you know, in a room with five to
1500 people of ever differentrace and creed you can possibly

(30:58):
imagine.
And there was no tension, therewas no aggression, we just were
all there to to experience thissingular moment And and it was
really inspiring.
So we have this gear that wewere, you know, we thought that
we were going to be produced, wewere going to be like the white
, jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, youknow we were going to do
remixes and work with andproduce people.

(31:21):
But, and we had done that, wehad found a studio with that
that was in Hollywood, melroseand La Brea and and had already
had a studio built into it.
And it was, you know, this is1991.
It was $1,800 a month, which islike $4,000, $3,000, $4,000.

(31:43):
I mean it's.
It was crazy.
We, you know, we burned throughour savings real quick on that
And you know, that sounds like anice place back there, for sure
.
It was.
It was really great.
And then things started tobecome a little bleak And I went
back to work, deferred thegrocery store that I was working
with on in Vegas, and Ken tooka job to working with various
different production companiesactually worked with rapper the

(32:08):
Humpty Dance, humpty Hump or.

Austin Seltzer (32:10):
Oh, do the Humpty Hump.

Scott Kirkland (32:11):
Yeah, my mind is is failing me right now, but
but they had a.
He had a little record labellabel up in Santa Clarita And so
he'd work in that.
He worked, you know, engineeredlike some early Tupac stuff and
and and and I, and then we juststarted to, you know, get our

(32:32):
mojo back.
We moved.

Austin Seltzer (32:34):
I got to interrupt there, So you went
back to Vegas.

Scott Kirkland (32:38):
Well, no, i moved, no, we stayed in
California, That company thatthat I was working for in Vegas.
they came to California.

Austin Seltzer (32:43):
I see, okay Yeah .

Scott Kirkland (32:44):
The grocery store this, this grocery store
called Smith's.

Austin Seltzer (32:48):
I see.

Scott Kirkland (32:48):
And I went.
I was, i was working in thevideo department.
They had a.
This is back when they hadlittle blockbusters inside this
massive grocery store.
So you know, one of the days Iwas working in the video store
and I put on.
You know it was like the darkcrystal which I think I'd seen
in passing, i can't remember, ididn't go to the movie theaters,
but I put it on.

(33:09):
And you know another world,another time, in the age of
wonder, this, the crystalcracked and I was like, holy
s***, take that, rented that,take that home.
You know, hooked it up, sampledit And eventually, you know,
became, you know the.

(33:31):
You know the lead, the intro for, you know Triple I Got You,
which was, you know, the firsttrack on our, in our, our album
Vegas.
So you know these littlemoments where you're, you know
you're just doing what you'resupposed to do and you're paying
attention to the world aroundyou, and we would continue to go
out to clubs and continue to,to experience.
You know what was happening inthe, in the, the electronic rave

(33:55):
scene at the time, and thenthings got a little bleak.
You know, grunge kind of tookover 92, 93, 94,.
You know nobody was reallypaying attention to.
You know which was basicallydisco at the time.
You know, dance clubs with kidswith big pants and lollipops
and, and.
But we continued to persevereand we continued to believe that

(34:18):
you know we.
You know we're on the rightpath And we made our first
single called Now Is A Time, andit was released on the on the
first release for this labelcalled City of Angels, printed
up 3,012 inches, and, and allthose sold And we were like, wow
, that's amazing.

Austin Seltzer (34:39):
And then we, we have to, we have to look into
this.
You're, you're skipping oversome crazy cool things.
So we first how did you get ona record label?
Cause?
so we, we went from you're inclubs and you saw how this music
affected a room and you felt,you felt at home in that room.

(35:01):
It was like everybody was justhere to enjoy this music.
in a dark, dingy room.
You were inspired to no longerproduce for other people, but
now to be an artist.
And how did we go from thatmoment to signing your first
record deal?

Scott Kirkland (35:16):
Well, we put together a demo and we were
introduced to a.
I can't remember exactly how ithappened, but somehow we got a
small, really small productionpublishing deal with EMI.
It was really small And in theend they made out really well

(35:38):
from that publishing dealbecause they had they had a very
good percentage of ourpublishing going forward for a
certain amount of time.
But they gave us $750 tobasically find somebody to help
us put this track out.
We had a demo tape And then sothere was an.

(36:01):
There was a herb magazine, whichwas a big local sort of
lifestyle magazine based aroundthe rave scene.
That was run by Raymond RokerAnd it was, i think it was came
out every couple of weeks Andthere was a classified section

(36:21):
and there was an advertisementin there for starting up a
record label looking for demos,12-inch for this particular
style of music.
And we sent our demo in and wegot a little bite from this
company And then it went awayAnd then we went down to we kind

(36:44):
of had to move out of that onestudio and started getting back
to keeping our heads above water.
And then we all of a sudden outof the blue, these two guys
that were part of that.
Other company reached out to usJustin King and Stephen Melrose
to one.

(37:07):
Stephen was from Scotland andJustin was from the UK and
they'd been over in the US for alittle while And they were like
, really like this track, wewant to put it out And we're
like oh really That's amazing.
You know, so we.
But we need two more songs.
We need to fill out this12-inch You need, so we did

(37:28):
another remix.
The first one was now.
It's a Time to feature thissample for Martin Luther King Jr
.
Now is the time.
And you know.
So we sampled that off of, youknow, one of those speech albums
that are out there, and thendid a remix of that.
And then we did the B-side,which was this track called
Doublishes Groove, which was adown tempo, you know real groovy

(37:53):
, kind of bubbly, kind of vibeysynthy track that came out in
1994 on City of Angels, and butbefore that we moved back up
from Orange County into a littlestudio, a little house, two car
, the little two bedroom house.
It was probably 1200 squarefeet if it was that, and it had

(38:17):
a two car garage in it And ithad a bomb shelter in the front
yard.
That was buried in the frontyard And so when we first rented
yeah, when we first rented itwas like a little sphere that
was dropped into the ground.
You know, 40 years prior Andduring the Cuban Missile Crisis,
they were selling these bombshelters in a day And so, yeah,

(38:39):
so we thought, wow, cool, wewould go down there and like
maybe we could put an amp downthere.
You know, you know we thinkabout what a bomb shelter could
be.
But it was completelydilapidated and you know, and
broken down from years of smalltremors and water damage And but
we named our studio that webuilt.

(38:59):
We basically took, got drywall,built this little enclosure
inside this garage, you know,did the whole wall in front, put
all our shit in front of it.
So anytime we open the garagedoor, just look like oh my God,
these kids look in this entiregarage.

Austin Seltzer (39:15):
They're just full of shit.

Scott Kirkland (39:16):
But, and lo and behold, behind that wall was a
little, you know, a little smalllittle studio.
That time That was genius, Yeah, and because it was in La
Crescenta right, basically, the210 Freeway was basically in our
backyard, so we were never asloud as that semi truck coming
by in the middle of the night,so we were able to, you know,

(39:38):
make all the noise that weneeded to make.
And it was in a safe placebecause we, you know, we'd go
out in the morning and, you know, go to breakfast after working
all night, because we didn'thave an air conditioner in our
either, especially during thesummertime.
You can only time you can workin this two car garage was like
during the, during the night,and we'd go out there and we'd
be people walking their dogs and, you know, water in their yards
and be like Hey how's it going?

(39:58):
We're just two guys just livingin this little spot here, going
to work.
And then we'd just go out andget some breakfast, come back
and sleep and then you know,work throughout the night the
next night, And so that firstsingle now's the time sold the
3000 copies and then they were,like you got to do another one.
So we had the sample from 1992Democratic National Convention,

(40:24):
where Jesse Jackson gets upthere and, like you know, this
big inspiring speech about, youknow, keep up alive you know,
there's hope.
you know there's all this stuffAnd we had recorded it you know
VHS that and we were like, yeah,what if we use that?
So we, you know, pulled thatout of the archives and then
sampled that and that came outwith another you know B-side

(40:47):
that was more down tempo Andthen we just that turned into
the third single.
And then in 1996, we localradio station in Los Angeles,
the world famous K-Rock, had aDJ on during the drive time who
was.
his name is Jed The Fish and amutual friend of ours connected

(41:10):
us to him and he was wanting tobuild a studio.
So he wanted to come by andcheck out our studio And so it
was like 11, 12 o'clock in theafternoon.
he was on from like two to sixand so checked out the studio.
We, like you know, gave him ourtrack Keep Up Alive on vinyl
And he called us up a few hourslater says you want to hear what

(41:30):
your song sounds like on theradio.
Oh man And we were like are youkidding us?
And we were like, absolutelyYeah.
So he had to.
He said it.
Later.
He told us that he sweatedcause he had to pull out the 12,
he had to pull out the recordplayer and you know, get it all
set up And actually, well, dropthe needle, for you know this

(41:54):
prime time spot.
You know, jed, The Fish is catchof the day And we listen.
I remember we'll never forgetwe listened to it on a little
clock radio in our studio And itjust sounded massive because of
the compressors they use onthose.
You know the radio stations,everything sounds great And so
it just sounded.
it just sounded freakingawesome And from that playing

(42:17):
multiple people, including areally amazing individual by the
name of John Seidel who wasjust was starting become.
He was the first A&R guy forthis new record label that was
being put together by threereally, really amazing people

(42:41):
Andy Gershawn, who was smashingpumpkins manager, mark Williams,
who was smashing pumpkins A&Rguy, and a bunch of other bunch
of other A&R.
He A&R'd a bunch of other bigacts.
And then Scott Litt, who was aproducer for like all the big
R&M records and you know, theunplugged Nirvana album and he

(43:03):
mixed he's mixed a bunch ofthings And they were starting a
label, record label calledOutpost, And John Seidel heard
that.
He heard Keep Up Alive on theradio that day and was like we
need to sign these guys.

Austin Seltzer (43:17):
Holy crap, wait.
I wanna highlight some stuffreal quick.
That is just wild, because I'mpretty sure you guys started in
93.

Scott Kirkland (43:26):
Well we started the first thing that we ever,
the first thing that ever cameout was 94.
Two things happened that year.
That little publishing dealthat we signed was that Help Get
A Sink, and there was a moviecalled Species.
That was this sci-fi movie witha really pretty girl who's

(43:49):
basically an alien, who's goingaround killing a bunch of guys,
having sex with them and killingthem.
You know it was a bigproduction at the time, had Ben
Kingsley and a bunch of otherpeople in it and through that
connection, through the, anearly version of Keep Up Alive

(44:11):
was synced into that movie.
So that was like a good.
I mean, i think that boughtlike a bunch of our gear.

Austin Seltzer (44:18):
But you guys didn't come up with the name
until like 93, right, well,actually in the name.

Scott Kirkland (44:25):
The name was sitting on a chalkboard for back
of probably 92, because when wewere still, when we were
thinking about at that time,like we were still working as
producers, but we were thinkingabout like writing, working on
our own stuff, and so there wasa rapper that we were working
with that said the name and,passing, said, oh, the crystal

(44:48):
method, referring to this, youknow, mode of transportation
that we were gonna you know,there's a girl, crystal that's
gonna give us a ride to thisclub.
Oh, the crystal method.
Oh, we were like, oh, thatsounds cool, like right that up
on the board.
And so when, so that sat thereon the board.
And then when we, when westarted to make our own music
and we started to get we hadthis small publishing deal and

(45:13):
we had a sink in this, we weremeeting, we met with one manager
and the first thing he likeremember we went to a nice
restaurant and we sat down andhe's like, yeah, your demo
tape's awesome.
You know you guys are, you knowreally think there's something
going on, but you gotta changeyour name.
And there's not, you're never,there's not gonna be, there's
not gonna be a radio stationthat's gonna play your music,

(45:34):
cause your name is too, you know, controversial.
And we were like, really,that's what your, that's your
first thing you're gonna, youknow, tell us.
And we were like, you know,you're wrong, you know, our name
is freaking killer, like it.
At the time, our big market, wethought, was the UK, and they

(45:55):
didn't know what the drug was,and even at the time the drug
was a big deal.
But we just, you know, we werealways making it's all the
crystal healing and we had allthese different meanings for the
name And yes, there was drugconnotation, yeah, there was a
drug connotation there, but it'sreally about, you know, the

(46:17):
three words.
They just sounded, you know,they flowed and they, and at the
time, like a lot of bands, werenaming themselves after piece
of gear.
You know, the prodigy was namedafter Mug synth and the Juno
reactor and 808 state And therewas all this, you know, and you
know we.

(46:38):
But we just thought it wasdifferent And so we, you know,
we, stuck with it.
I don't know if we could.
You know, i don't think we canget away with it now.
I don't know if.
You know, i don't know if wewere.
You know, nobody's gonna becalled the fentanyl method.

Austin Seltzer (46:50):
You know it doesn't really flow off the
tongue but I think that's why,yeah, but yeah, but at the time
it was, it was you know it was,it was in and we were coming
from the rave scene and it sortof it stuck And so so, yeah,
this thing just started to, youknow, snowball and Yeah, i want

(47:14):
to highlight something foreverybody that I noticed early
on in your story And you alsoactually hinted at, is that I
think one of your superpowers isthat whenever an opportunity or
something presented itself, youalways leaned into it.

Scott Kirkland (47:29):
Absolutely.

Austin Seltzer (47:29):
Whenever you heard the crystal method I mean
it just resonated.
You wrote it down.
Whenever You were at that liveshow in that warehouse, You felt
that this was something and youleaned into it.
Whenever you got that first pubdeal, you you were like this is
a great opportunity.
You leaned into it.
It it sounds like your NorthStar has always guided you in a

(47:54):
direction that that took you towhere you are.

Scott Kirkland (47:56):
Yeah, and it wasn't always.
You know it wasn't always easyand it wasn't always.
There wasn't always, you know,a reward at the end of it that
that we again, like when wefirst released our track now, as
a time, you know we were, wewere never gonna see any of that
.
Maybe we got a $1,500 signingbonus or something like that.

(48:17):
But you know these are albums12 inch vinyl, that were, you
know, limited to 3000, that weregoing out to DJs, you know,
around the country and you justkeep, you know, moving forward,
to keep, you know, you move in.
That It's not about the, youknow, it's not about the numbers
.
It wasn't, you know, it wasn'tabout, you know, the likes or

(48:39):
anything of that nature for usat the time, i mean, and it was
about, you know, just doing thework, keeping a positive, you
know, outlook on things and andand and, pushing forward, making
, making, taking everyopportunity and again, that that
continued.
The reason why I'm still sittinghere in front of you 25 years

(49:01):
later is that, you know, afterVegas came out and was
successful and went on to sell amillion albums, things that our
manager always pushed us to do,things that weren't in our
coverage zone.
So you know, at the end of thattour we were on family values
tour with like corn and filterand and you know Limp biscuit,
you know playing in front ofreal Heavy rock kids, that you

(49:25):
know we're like initiallysitting there with their feet,
you know, middle finger up inthe air, and by the end We're
like they would come up to usand you get a kid with the limp
Biscuit shirt come up to us andgoes, oh my god, that was
fucking pretty good dude.
I haven't hurt you guys before,but that was fucking rad.

Austin Seltzer (49:39):
You know, well done, you know like you guys
brought the fucking energy Yeahyeah, we, you know, we brought
the.

Scott Kirkland (49:43):
You know, we, we wanted to, we didn't, we did
nothing but live shows.
So we, you know, we'd spent themoney on, like you know,
bringing out all the, you know,the lights.
We had a really amazing, youknow, lighting director named
Laurence upton, who, who workedwith bands like smashing
pumpkins and beastie boys andMarilyn Manson, who understood
how to do, you know, do a rockshow, and so he backlit us and

(50:06):
we, you know, we started outwith eight strobes and we went
to 16 strobes and then, you know, we had a show with 128 the
strobes.
Oh my god we're, we're, you knowwe're.
You know it's like you knowwe'd have to start posting
things in the lobby.
That you know.
If you're sensitive to light,you know, you, you know, be
careful, because we were, youknow, at some point we were
losing people during it's forthis track out.
They portrayal like right, whenwould we reveal this?

(50:28):
You know this.
These strobes were like I Thinksomebody just passed out over
there.
So we were able to really, youknow, cultivate this, this vibe
that we were the people's Band,if you will, and again, and and
they're one of the greatest JoysI get from, from meeting those

(50:50):
people that supported us throughthose years is Just like that
kid that came up to us at theshow in the family Valley show
in Pixburg or Columbus orwherever we were playing like we
were the bridge, we were thebet, we were oh I, you know, i
was only I was only in hip-hop,or is only only only in the rock
.
But I heard your, your band,and it was like oh.

(51:12):
I like this electronic music, ilike the vibe of this and then
that that I mean we were.
You were the first electronicband We ever listened to and
we've we discovered his wholeother world because of your
music.
There's two and a half years,three years later, we were like
We gotta get back in the studio.

Austin Seltzer (51:27):
We got we would.

Scott Kirkland (51:29):
We were in the studio, we would do things, but
we were just, you know, we werejust, you know, we were kind of
exhausted from being out theroad a lot, and so we'd come
back and work for a little bitAnd then it, well then it was
like, okay, how do we, what dowe do?
How do we?
you know we, we were, wecouldn't just go back and make
Vegas 2.0.

(51:49):
It was not, it wasn't you knowwe.
It would have been Disingenuous, and it would have been It
wouldn't it?
we couldn't capture the magicof that, and so we started
thinking of it as like, what dofilmmakers do?
what up, you know what?
how do we just Find somethingelse that we really like?

(52:11):
and so we leaned into the rockstuff that we were.
That we really, you know, wereally enjoyed, you know.
And Tom Morello from Ragingagainst Machine We'd heard
through a friend that he reallyliked our stuff, so we reached
out to him, you know, we took achance and we're like, hey, is
that true?
you?

Austin Seltzer (52:28):
dig us and he's like you know Who knows.

Scott Kirkland (52:29):
He might have been thinking about the
Kemblebee brothers at the time,but he was like yeah, yeah,
where you guys where you guys at.
He's like oh yeah, we got alittle studio and like lacrosse
enter.
It's like you know it's not the, you know it's not a I mean
he's used to going in the realstudios, you know.
He's came, he like slipped hisway out to the lacrosse enter
and and and brought his amp inand Wasn't like what a dump.

(52:52):
This is what it was, you know.
It didn't have any of that rockstar bullshit and like he was
like Let's make some music.

Austin Seltzer (53:01):
I love that, because that's that's Rage's
brand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Kirkland (53:05):
Yeah, yeah, he set up his amp in the kitchen
and, like you know we were bythat time, we did have a air
conditioning We had.
We had a window air conditionerthat we and it was so ghetto,
we like we had a our friend puttogether like a little tube
Venting system to where we, youknow, we did able to take the
window air conditioner, the thecooling that came out of that

(53:27):
and we had this thing all tapedup and it was just super, super
ghetto and but.
But you know it did the trickand you know, and we did.
You know the next, we did Vegasthere, we did tweak in there,
we did Legion of boom there and,yeah, we, we made the most of

(53:49):
it and, and and move forward.

Austin Seltzer (53:51):
I want, i want to ask some questions, though,
about some of these sinks,because I I'm thinking about,
like, of course you guys make,have made great music, but like
what actually made you guysiconic and really cut through.
And I was thinking about itWhenever you said, like we don't
have a BBC, one radio that canjust make a whole nation listen

(54:14):
to a song.
We don't.
But you guys had sinks, and Imean you had the Matrix trailer,
right, like the first no, weweren't in the Matrix trailer.

Scott Kirkland (54:27):
I a lot of our music, we, we were up for a
Matrix stuff but we didn't getit.
But we were, but we, we were inthe, we were the born, the,
some of the born trailers Wewere.
Blade was a big one, there was.
There was some other thingsthat we also, but the biggest
sink that we ever got was Well,first there was a I can't

(54:48):
remember which one came first,but it was them.
There was a Mazda Miata ad thathad high roller in it And it was
, as you know, mazda Miata goingacross like the flat desert
with the, you know the, the, theheat Blooms coming off of it
and you know this really cool,you know aggro, our Pigeon part,
and and you know and.
And.
Then the other one was Therewas a gap ad that had busy child

(55:12):
in it and and it was likesummer of Winter of 97.
Here you have this ad that's on, you know, during Seinfeld and
During friends, this big gap adthat that was this being played.
So then that started to really,you know, to take hold.

(55:33):
The song was reallyrecognizable.
And then that radio, then radiostations like K-Rock and the end
and HFS and and and DC and FNXin Boston started to, you know,
adding, added the song intorotation.
And here we're here, a trackwith, you know, just a vocal

(55:54):
sample, and no singer was beingplayed.
You know, in the middle of youknow, nirvana in Stone Temple
Pilots, so, and then we startedto do radio Festivals.
I'm still still remember thatmoment.
We're like let's go kick ass,let's get out there And let's
listen.
You know not, let's not beapologetic that you know we're

(56:14):
different or we're not the same.
We're gonna go out there andwe're gonna fucking do our thing
and and and we you know, maybe,again, you know, you just went
over, you win people over.
You win people over with anattitude that that, you know, is
like.
You know We belong here and youknow, and take that opportunity

(56:36):
and make the most of it And andso we did a lot of those.
Our manager, richard, wasreally you know.
He came from a rock backgroundand he understood That world and
I remember, you know the, iremember being another moment, i
remember being in his officewhen we were about to release
Vegas and goes this is gonnasell a million albums And we're
like what are?

Austin Seltzer (56:54):
you talking about Wow?

Scott Kirkland (56:55):
We've only sold, like You know, five thousand
vinyl.
You know, before this and goes,we're gonna you this album is,
is, is is amazing, and and, andI believe if you guys work hard
enough and you You take everyopportunity that's in front of
you, this is, this is eventuallygonna sell a million albums and
we're like, okay, let's do it.

(57:18):
That's and you know and and youknow it's so, but it's again
It's like doing the things thatyou know, that maybe you know.

Austin Seltzer (57:28):
I mean we had.

Scott Kirkland (57:29):
You know we were doing like You know, tamp on
commercials, or we weren'tplaying.
You know Events where we feltthat it didn't fit our brand.
I mean our brand was, you know,two guys from the same world
you're from and then we just,you know, we, we've found our
way and and and we were also.
We always like, when we perform, we always pushed our gear

(57:50):
right to the front of the stage.
We weren't hiding anything.
You know, like this is there'spedals on the ground And there's
my got my Nord over here and wehad all these DX7 twos that
were all you know MIDI.
You know they're middied up andI would, you know I was super
aggressive moving around and Kenwas, like you know, you know,
kind of Initially likefine-tuning the.

(58:11):
The sounds like oh, here's.
You know you can hit the delayhere and you know, carving out
some of the EQs for for some ofthe things that we're playing,
but For the most part we werejust, like you know Too, normal
guys that you know that havethat appreciate.
You know rock and electronicmusic and this is our fusion of
it and you know I hope you likeit.

Austin Seltzer (58:33):
We know you're gonna like it.

Scott Kirkland (58:34):
We know you're gonna like it because it's like,
because we like it and we loveit.
So we've we.
We were confident that you'regonna love it as well.
Yeah.

Austin Seltzer (58:41):
I mean that's, that's beautiful.
I think that that that I hopefor people listening if they're
an artist or a singer Or aproducer or whatever lean into
that collaboration or take thisas a sign, like if they've been
thinking about I should.
I should just Let these thingscome to me and say yes whenever
it makes sense, obviously, butlike, don't be so precious of

(59:03):
your sound that you, you Removethis cool collaboration.
That could happen.
Yeah and I think that from thesinks that you've mentioned Plus
we haven't talked about I mean,you guys have been in so many
different video games To I.
I think that to my point thatwas making before of Maybe we
didn't have this a DJ that couldreally televise a track

(59:26):
everywhere.
I think that you guys foundyour fan base like you.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but Ifeel like Yolce Fanbase is very
much like the nerddom world,like people who love video games
, dark video games, people wholove darker movies, people who
are like die-hard fans becausethey associate you guys with

(59:48):
great times in their life thatmaybe have come through some
kind of video format.

Scott Kirkland (59:52):
Well, to your point, one of the biggest
moments when we back in 98, whenwe did a sync for the biggest
global video game of the timewas FIFA, and so you know you
had Busy Child, keep Hope Alive,and I think now is the time

(01:00:13):
synced into this video game thatyou know you couldn't help but
hear the music.
It was like I think there mighthave been a thing you can turn
it off.
But also in that same game wassong number two from Blur, which
is the biggest, you know, oneof the biggest sync songs on the
planet, and there was a coupleother ones that were really

(01:00:35):
globally big tunes and you knowhear three of our songs.
And so you know we also did avideo game called N2O, which
where we Dude, I used to playthe shit out of that game.
Yeah, where we did all of ourmusic.
It was only us, so we usedremixes and different things and
it was an epic game.
And we did a tour, the N2O tour, which I didn't know.

(01:00:58):
You were a fan of that game, istill.
I came across a very limitedsupply of the original stickers
from that era.

Austin Seltzer (01:01:06):
Oh yeah, dude, I Yeah my friend growing up.
I didn't have a PlayStation, hedid, i had the N64 or I had an
older Nintendo at that time.
So I'd go over to his place toplay pitch black in the room and
loud as fuck speakers just sowe could jam out And I see where
you're.

Scott Kirkland (01:01:25):
Yes, you like to pitch black?
That's Yeah, yeah.

Austin Seltzer (01:01:28):
And his TV was backlit.
It was quite a big screen, butit was backlit, which I mean
that's just not a thing anymore.
Obviously It was like aprojector projecting into it,
and so if you had a pitch blackroom you could see much better.

Scott Kirkland (01:01:42):
Oh, wow, yeah, Just the experience.
Oh, yeah, yeah, i imagine.
So, yeah, yeah, without a doubt, the video game world was huge,
especially in those early years.
That's not, they're not goingthere for the music, but the
music's in there, and that'ssomething that, without a doubt,
propelled us even farther,because, you know, again, you

(01:02:03):
just got to find a way to getpeople to hear you, and then
that's where they can make thechoice for themselves.

Austin Seltzer (01:02:11):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
I want people to understandthat there are just so many
different ways to make it as anartist or to get to your fans.
Just don't cut yourself off toreally cool opportunities that
may come.
And that leads me to How didyou get into film scoring?
Because I think that that camealong, or at least you guys

(01:02:33):
making soundtracks to full films, right.

Scott Kirkland (01:02:36):
We did a couple of things and we were just doing
syncs and maybe we do a changeof, maybe an edit or something
that was different for a sync,and then we just started.
People asked us to do certainthings and we just said, yes, to

(01:03:00):
do so, yes, a lot, and I thinkit would have continued on if,
if Oh sorry, hey, honey, hi, canyou get me?
I can't get you right thisminute, but I will be able to
get you soon.
Okay, where are you at?
I'm at the police.

(01:03:21):
Can you hold there for 45minutes?
Yeah, okay, all right, thankyou, bye, my daughter, my dad,
calling in her dad Uber service.
But yeah, so we did that almosthuman show.
It would have gone on farther,but it was a big.
It was a Warner Brothersproduced show that was on.

(01:03:45):
That was a JJ Abrams Bad Robotproduction that was on Fox And I
think there was just.
It cost a lot to make, but itwas very cool, especially
because we were just kind of onour own.
We didn't have those notes whereyou, where you?
Okay, on this scene I wanttension.

(01:04:07):
I don't want it to wrap up toomuch until it gets to this spot
right here.
Then I want the relief withsome chords and something.
Were you really getting seriousnotes?
It was just like we like whatyou do.
Just do more of that.
It's something that I.
It's not my comfort zone, butit's one of those things that I

(01:04:28):
did like because, again, when Iget, when I reflect back on
staring at an empty canvas, herewas something to follow.
Here There's a ship that'scoming across here and there's a
fight that breaks out here andthen there's tension here and
then there's a relief and then,and so you're like, okay, i've

(01:04:49):
got a blueprint to work withsomething that to follow, and I
did like that aspect of it Gowith the flow, follow the
directions, follow the scene, dowhat you can to help the scene
along and to be a servant to thepicture, rather than, in the

(01:05:16):
past, just doing something foryourself or doing something in
the name of the crystal method.
This was like you got to servethe scene.

Austin Seltzer (01:05:26):
Yeah, scratching a different itch for sure It
was fun.

Scott Kirkland (01:05:29):
I did like it and I do appreciate it And I
will.
There are some other thingsthat hopefully in the come up in
the near future that will allowme to scratch that itch, as you
said, that's awesome, andthat's what we were talking
about earlier.

Austin Seltzer (01:05:45):
throw a little bit of chaos in there and I'm
sure that you learned somereally cool things and you bring
it over to the crystal method.
And also there's this beautifulfull circle moment that you're
giving to your child self.
whenever you're listening toJohn Williams or whoever and you
were listening to a score thatmade it up a world You're

(01:06:05):
fulfilling that little prophecyfor yourself.
I think that's kind ofbeautiful.

Scott Kirkland (01:06:10):
Yeah, it is.
It's still.
Every bit of this journey hasbeen something that I reflect
back on.
I remember moments being onstage and thinking like having
flashbacks of the kid that wasplaying guitar in front of the

(01:06:32):
mirror, trying to imagine whatit would be like to create
something that had that momentfor and so far out of reach.
You can't even again, it's allfantasy.
But then have the fantasyfulfilled through not a hit, the

(01:06:57):
lotto moment.
It's more of a grinding it outand putting in the effort and
belief in oneself and focused onmoving forward one moment at a
time, doing the best you can andnot taking anything for granted

(01:07:18):
.

Austin Seltzer (01:07:19):
That's beautiful .
Well, so I want to fast forwarduntil now, or roughly now.
What does it feel like creatingjust on your own?
It's just you now.
You touched on it a little bitearlier, but I want to know the
differences, other than just younoodling around and then now

(01:07:39):
you have to change the hat.
Is it more fulfilling incertain ways and less fulfilling
in others?
I just want to know thedifferences.

Scott Kirkland (01:07:51):
Well, ken retired and said I want you to
continue on and do your thingand I'll be your biggest
supporter.
I took that as being anopportunity for me to understand

(01:08:12):
the legacy of the band, butalso take it in my own direction
.
There was some moments of yes,there's not going to be that
tension that sometimes happenswhen you're working with another

(01:08:34):
person, where sometimes you getcarried away in the moment and
you're like, no, i like this forwell, fuck you.
then We were both of us veryopinionated, very strong willed.
So there was a yes, therewasn't going to be that.
But out of that comes somethingI think better than my ideas

(01:08:59):
wouldn't have been anythingwithout Ken, and Ken's ideas
would have been yes, we couldhave individually done great
things, but collectively we didsomething even better.
So I do miss that part of itand I do collaborate with people
.
I do send things to people.
What do you think of this?

(01:09:20):
Because I really relied on Ken.
you're going to like this,because then he comes in and he
goes.
that's awesome.
And then he starts to take overand works off of that like a
baton That he's going to loopthis lap and come back around.

(01:09:42):
I'm going to grab it in aminute, but, wow, it's nice to
have somebody else take thisidea further.

Austin Seltzer (01:09:49):
You're a collaborative spirit.

Scott Kirkland (01:09:53):
I think that I need that as a collaborative
spirit, that working withsomeone that can give you notes
and can tell you let's lose thatsection.
Oh really, oh yeah.
Well, i just spent three dayson that section, but you know

(01:10:18):
what?
You're right, let's dosomething better.
Or just somebody giving adifferent perspective.
So initially I took thechallenge and I ran with it and
I enjoyed sort of being a soloartist, if you will, but at

(01:10:44):
times it became a littledaunting and it became like I
just need to hear some feedbackfrom somebody else.
So I do have a group of friendsthat I collaborate with and
other people that I'm meeting.
This last album I worked withDavid Martinson, who goes by the
name of Val VAL, who is justlike wow, you're just so

(01:11:14):
creative and you think outsidethe box.
I G or YouTube, we would havebeen filming all those little
moments that happened, althoughthat might have been distracting
.
So anybody who can post andstill be productive without

(01:11:35):
overthinking the post, that's aworld that is a challenge for me
.
Those people that can think inthat way or have a setup that
allows them to live in thatmultiverse, if you will, of
social media and the creativespace, i find fascinating, but

(01:11:58):
I'm happy to be able to lean onthe things that Ken and I did
together.
I do still hear him, his voiceand good and bad in my brain
sometimes when I'm doing the inthere by myself.

(01:12:23):
But I chose to embrace theopportunity and then reach out
to kind, like-minded individualswho like to create music or
create something without drama.
Ken and I did some fuckingamazing things and it's given me
this platform to continue on asthe band And although I do miss

(01:12:49):
him greatly at different times,i've come to the point now.
It's been six years since heretired, seven years since he
retired, so I'm happy with theopportunity that I have and make
the most of it is my goal on adaily basis.
That's beautiful, but actuallysome days I get distracted by

(01:13:15):
life, family, and my daughterdoesn't give up crap about dad
being productive in the studio.

Austin Seltzer (01:13:23):
She's like.

Scott Kirkland (01:13:23):
I need a ride.
come pick me up.
I'm like okay, annie, i'll seeyou soon.
So although I did plan on goingback to the studio today, i
could still do that later.
but it's nice having this otherlife that takes me away from
the studio every once in a whileand gives me a distraction.
And so I'll be back in thestudio tomorrow, then going out

(01:13:49):
this weekend to do a show inAsheville, north Carolina.
So Hell.

Austin Seltzer (01:13:53):
yeah, i know there are questions about a
question about continuingforward, but I want to ask you
this big question of what doessuccess mean to you?
I'm really curious.

Scott Kirkland (01:14:07):
Success.
Well, success has met to me.
I'm grateful for the lifethat's given me, that I've been

(01:14:27):
able to wake up every day, makemusic for a living, and although
at times you get frustratedwith that what that means.
Success means that you've gotto.
Somehow.
It's like a balloon that needsto be blown up a little bit

(01:14:47):
Every once in a while.
You can float around the roomfor a while, but you're
eventually going to have to giveit a little bit of life or give
it a push, and so it's been ablessing to be able to have this
life and to have made, createdsomething that has somehow found

(01:15:18):
its way into another person'slife.
But success is something thatyou can't take for granted.
So it will give you lots ofhighs, but it will also put you
in a situation where you feellike you've got to continue to
work, because there's a thousandartists every day discovering

(01:15:45):
themselves in their bedrooms, intheir basements, noodling on a
computer or playing on a pianoor opening up a DA with the
thought and process of I want tocreate.
And so every day, there'sthousands of kids that discover

(01:16:07):
that this is what they want todo, and I'm in a situation where
I get to do that.
So don't forget that, continueto grow and don't take anything
for granted.

Austin Seltzer (01:16:20):
Thank you, that's a great answer.
I think I want to end off onsomething that I think the
listeners and viewers couldreally learn from, especially if
they're artists.
But I really just think, likeany creative field whatsoever,
you're in a unique positionwhere I think this is the 30th

(01:16:41):
year that you guys are creatingmusic together.

Scott Kirkland (01:16:44):
I always thought that the movie Species came out
in 93, but I think that was thetrack that was in.
The movie came out in actually95 or 94.
So official release, the firstone ever being now is a time

(01:17:07):
which came out in 94.

Austin Seltzer (01:17:08):
So next, year will be the 30th anniversary.

Scott Kirkland (01:17:10):
Yes, next year will be the 30th anniversary.

Austin Seltzer (01:17:11):
Okay And I want people to know, and I'm really
curious, how, how can we allstay in, whatever industry you
create a field we are, for thatlong and continue going, cause
you're playing shows thisweekend and you're doing
festivals this year How canpeople have the longevity and

(01:17:36):
art like you have?

Scott Kirkland (01:17:38):
It takes, just like if you ever watched the
construction site.
You just, you know, one day at atime, you know one day you
gotta put the pavement down andthen and you know, it just
doesn't happen overnight.
You have to work, hopefully,have a group of people like I've
had surrounding me for the last25 years, plus 30 years almost

(01:17:58):
where they have your interestsin mind and give you great
advice and help, nurture andprotect and steward your.
You know your ideas and yourcreativity.
And if you don't have thosepeople, then jettison them and
find people that do you haveyour best interests in mind.

(01:18:20):
And then you know you gottacontinue to evolve and you gotta
continue to move forward forthe good end of that.
And so, and then you know,don't be afraid to take chances,
don't be afraid to fall on yourface, don't be afraid to to
disappoint, because you gottaturn the page and move forward.

(01:18:41):
And what really I think itallows me to continue to do
these shows and festivals andtour and still make music is
that you have to make aconnection.
There's no one more excited tobe there than I am.
I go up on stage and then I'mlike you know, I've become a

(01:19:02):
completely different thing, andI'm combustible and I'm I know
what it feels like to go to ashow and watch somebody that
doesn't feel like does thatperson only wanna be here?
Like are they having any fundoing this?
Like yeah, i mean, i'm intenseand I'm like really like in the
moment, And you know, and thensoon as the show's over, i'm

(01:19:28):
back you know, i'm like but I go, you know, and I, instead of
going back in the dressing roomand like going, yeah, fuck, that
was awesome show, i just I getto, i go into the crowds and I
talk to people and I get thesestories and I take pictures with
people and, yes, it's very,it's kind of like, oh you're,
you know, you're just living inthat moment.
And, yeah, because our music haslived in their moments and they

(01:19:51):
get to share these moments withme, think about the future, but
be accountable for your energyand the opportunity you get in
that moment when you're on stageor when you're meeting someone,
or how do I think like that 20year old kid that was really
hungry and you know, it'ssomething that I work on and how

(01:20:14):
to reconnect.
But be grateful, i'm reallygrateful for everything and I'm
excited to get into the studiotomorrow.
And if I do, and when I do,make the most of it.
And if, at the end of the day,i don't accomplish my goals,
well then, lick your wounds andcome back the next day and keep

(01:20:36):
trying, keep punching.

Austin Seltzer (01:20:38):
Yes, i'm grateful for you saying that and
for you being here, and if youwant to give us some final words
and explain your quote overthere, that you chose.
Oh, yeah, you probably Forthose like listening.
This is I guess this is goingto be the second episode out.
I have a chalkboard here that Ihave people write on if they're
not visually watching, but sowe have a chalkboard and there's

(01:21:00):
a quote in Well, it's a quote.

Scott Kirkland (01:21:03):
I can't remember where the quote, it might've
come from, a movie or a TV show.
It's two wrongs don't make aright, but three lefts do.
And I just found it to be liketaking that, saying two wrongs
don't make a right, and justflipping it around a bit.

(01:21:25):
Or, if you think of it in adifferent way, yeah, you may be
making wrong turns or makingwrong decisions, but eventually,
enough of those will get yougoing in the right way.
So two wrongs don't make aright, but three lefts do
visually get you going right isone of those things that I just

(01:21:48):
I thought it was a fun plan,words and something that I, when
you asked me to put somethingup there, that's what I came up
with.

Austin Seltzer (01:21:58):
I mean that is perfect for this podcast.
That's really what it is failforward.
Keep on just trying just movingforward and fail.

Scott Kirkland (01:22:08):
And then when the floor does fall from beneath
you, you're not wallowing thatpit, you gotta find your way out
of it.
And then that gives you theconfidence to avoid falling in
that hole again, or at leastwhen you go down you can get out

(01:22:30):
of it quicker.

Austin Seltzer (01:22:32):
Yeah, thank you.
That's perfect way to end thisCheers.

Scott Kirkland (01:22:37):
Thank you so much for coming.

Austin Seltzer (01:22:42):
Cheers.
Thank you so much.
Cheers, cheers, cheers.
All right.
So now that you've listened tothis episode, i am certain that
you've taken away so manydifferent key points from what
Scott had to say about hiscareer, the crystal methods you
know, career in video games andfilm and touring and almost 30
years of experience.
From this episode I took awayseveral key points that I'd like

(01:23:06):
to highlight here.
So one of them is to create.
You have to start, and thatseems so common sense.
But if you don't just noodlearound and play and you know
kind of be in the sandbox with asynth, a guitar, your voice,
whatever you never get to justbe in the mode of creation.

(01:23:30):
If you sit down with an endgoal in mind, chances are that
you're gonna get lost trying toget there.
But if you just have fun, likehe said, plug a synth into
guitar pedals and distort it andjust like play and noodle
around, eventually something isgoing to happen.
That's really cool And it'syour job to just be able to know

(01:23:51):
okay, this is a thing, thissounds cool, let's run with this
.
You know I can't help you withthat part, but getting started
is the key.
Secondly, his parents alwayshaving played music in the house
is just a recurring theme thatI'm hearing with my guests.

(01:24:14):
You know, at an early age we'rejust so impressionable on
whatever is played around us,and the ability to just absorb
whatever your parents areplaying and have it channel
through what you later createjust seems to be a thread that
goes through most of theseguests.
Number three I'd love tohighlight this, and whenever he

(01:24:36):
said it it made so much sense tome.
But finding your niche is soimportant.
But even more than that, whereis there a hole in the market?
And what I mean by this iswhenever Scott talked about the
crystal method.
Whenever they went to a rave ata warehouse downtown LA, they

(01:25:01):
heard DJs playing out music in aroom that was black, you know
dark, and everybody was justhappy and excited to be there,
no bad feelings at all, it wasjust moving to the music.
But then they went home andthey tried to get those same
records and play them at homeand just hear them over their

(01:25:21):
sound system.
They couldn't find these clubmixes.
So instead of just going to theraves to hear this music, they
decided why don't we make thatmusic but then add their touch,
which is aggression and thislike antagonizing force in their
music.
I just thought that was hugeAnd I think that a lot of people

(01:25:42):
could implement.
That Brings up a point in mymind, actually, that I heard
Rick Rubin say that you know hewould used to go to places and
listen to people rap and spendvinyl, but rap and the
aggression and the feeling thathe felt in the club could not be
heard on records And that's whyhe sought out to make that kind

(01:26:04):
of music with artists.
So great parallel there.
Find your true fans Again.
Maybe an obvious thing, butwhat the crystal method did so
well is early on they started toget sinks and these cult, what
would become cult classic typemovies or nerd kingdom you know

(01:26:25):
nerddom fandom world, wherewe're talking about video games
and sci-fies and thrillers andjust he said FIFA and Spawn and
all these movies that just havelike this cult following.
They never didn't service thesefans.

(01:26:47):
Continuously on their mind Theywere like how do we service
those fans more?
How do we keep on giving themwhat they want?
And you know a lot of peoplethink that that's not the way to
go about making music.
But I never understood why itwas wrong to give fans what they
want.
Keep giving the fans what theywant.
They love you for that And Ithink the crystal method did

(01:27:08):
that incredibly well.
Another huge point Wheneverscience in life show you that
you know here's an opportunityand it may seem difficult to
make that choice because you'regiving up on something else, or
it's just a tough choice ingeneral, or an opportunity

(01:27:29):
presents itself but you're notlooking for you so you don't see
it.
What Scott did so incrediblywell and you can hear it in this
podcast is that whenever anopportunity showed itself, he
realized it and he leaned in.
And of course, i'm sure therewere times that he didn't, but
you can hear all the times hedid and how it took him to where

(01:27:51):
he is.
Lastly, i think this is such agreat point, but to have a 30
year career, or almost a 30 yearcareer, surrounding yourself
with people who continuouslypush you to be better at what
you are day after day is, itseems to be the answer.
Whenever somebody is holding youdown is not helping you move

(01:28:15):
towards your goals.
You have to get rid of them.
You have to remove them fromyour team.
We have to be as lean and meanas possible to reach our goals.
If we want to reach the top atany craft, you have to surround
yourself with great people, andyou yourself have to be great,
and so them being great and youbeing great is kind of the
cyclical thing that you all helpeach other And maybe the people

(01:28:39):
around you aren't supposed tobe around you forever, but
realize when they are notsupposed to be around you and
cut them out, you're doing thema service as well, because maybe
they need to move on tosomething as well, or something
else rather.
So hopefully that really helpsyou hone in on what the key
takeaways from this podcast are.

(01:29:01):
This one was incredible.
Thanks for listening to theGrounds for Success podcast.
I wanna thank all of the peoplewho work on this podcast and
help me out.
My team is everything to me,and without them I couldn't
bring these to you every singleweek.
I wanna also thank all of myclients on the Mixing and
Mastering side, because withoutyou I could not have Grounds for

(01:29:23):
Success.
So thank you so much.
If you're enjoying the Groundsfor Success podcast, please
follow, like and subscribe onwhichever platform you're
listening or watching on.
It helps us out a ton, and Iwanna keep getting this content
to you in whichever way youlisten or watch.