August 22, 2024 • 53 mins
Ian Shelton is the lead singer of Militarie Gun. In this episode, we dive into the deepest depths of Ian's songwriting process, starting with the band's latest single, “Thought You Were Waving.” We also discuss the band's recent EP, working with Shooter Jennings, and the importance of collaboration and building genuine connections in the music industry. Matt and Ian also ponder the romantic implications of a first date at Olive Garden, DJing at the Taco Bell Cantina, actors as musicians, demo-itis, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Modest Mouse, Henry Rollins, horrible live sessions, and so much more! As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/ianpatrkshelton/
https://www.instagram.com/militariegun/
https://sailorjerry.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fucking A.
What's up?
G, how you doing Doing allright.
Thank you for being a guesthere on the Sailor Jerry podcast
.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, it's been a long overduething for me.
I'm a big fan of the band youknow, really like what you do as
an artist and as a singer, soappreciate your time today,
thank you.
Yeah, man Thanks for letting mecome over.
(00:20):
Yeah, this is for peoplelistening out.
There we are, uh, live in thedojo.
Okay, this is not over theinternet, this is one-on-one
mono, e-mono, uh, and it's abeautiful day outside in
southern california.
So, uh, yeah, man, let's, let's, uh, let's, get into it here.
Um, before we get into militarygun regional justice center,
(00:43):
you just put out a new, singlenew, basically digital, 7-inch
right.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we're starting the LP rollout.
We put out two songs yesterday,One that has me singing, one
that has my brother singing.
For anyone who doesn't knowabout the background of Regional
Justice Center.
It's a band that I started kindof as a tribute to my brother
when he got locked up.
He did 72 months, so it wasjust about six years, and now
(01:08):
he's out and he's singing halfthe record.
I'm singing half the record.
The record's called Freedom,sweet Freedom, which is meant as
a sarcastic title.
There's not really any.
We don't get freedom, and heespecially doesn't get freedom,
even though he's technically outand free.
He, uh, you know, subject to toso much bullshit and we'll be
(01:30):
haunted by his past, you know,but yeah so that's dope.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, everyone can go check it out online, uh, you
know, and all the uh streamingplatforms.
Uh man, it sounds brutal.
Where did you guys record it at?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
It was produced by Taylor Young who actually did
the past military gun records aswell.
Him and I started workingtogether via Regional Justice
Center originally and that'swhere our friendship started,
really.
Yeah, he knows how to make aheavy record.
That guy, that's sick man.
Where's that studio atCurrently Sunland?
He just moved.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Oh damn, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where I came from
this morning?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
oh shit, I came all the way from sunland down here.
Where are you from originally?
I'm from uh like.
I was in the bay until I was 12in concord california and then
moved uh to enumclaw washingtonwhich is like a small town at
the base of mount rainier hellyeah, what about?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
uh, one of the questions we got on the internet
was your Mount Rushmore ofNorthwest hardcore.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Of Northwest hardcore .
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Was there any bands when you were growing up up
there that had an impact on youor anyone?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
coming through on tour, I would go, jensen from
Iron Lung I would put this guyFloppy Matt and no one knows who
he is.
I guess this guy JaySidetracked and then see they're
not, it's all like really localfor me, I like that though,
(03:03):
trying to think of who thefourth would be like the biggest
influences, the people thatwhen I first saw my shows I was
like um, I guess brianskiffington yeah, hell, yeah,
that's deep, deep in the vault.
So, yeah, that's all.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's for absolutely nobody so at uh, you know how
did music kind of first getgoing for you, like, what age
did you start going to shows?
What age did kind of musicstart meaning more than just
something on the radio?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
First concert I went to was Blink-182.
Damn, it was Blink-182, newFound Glory and Sum 41.
I was in fourth grade, I don'tknow, I think my you were.
Oh, I was in fourth grade, Idon't know, I think my.
You're going to shows in fourthgrade.
Yeah, I was as a concert, youknow.
I'm saying I went to two, Ithink, my, I think I think we
just did.
My parents must have been doingbetter that year than any other
year because I never went to aconcert again you know, I'm
(03:55):
saying like it never happenedever again after that, but that
year I went to two concerts.
That was fourth grade, so sowhatever, probably 10 years old
or something, but I was obsessedwith music pretty much always.
Yeah, like loved Elton John,loved Garth Brooks.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Have you seen the Garth Brooks documentary on
Netflix?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Dude.
He is such a screwball dude, Isit?
It's amazing.
I'll watch it.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I like it I think because now, even though I was
obsessed as a kid, elton Johncarried with me, but Garth
Brooks didn't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn'ttell you a Garth Brooks song.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, my brother was obsessed with Garth Brooks so I
kind of have it burned into mymemory.
Obviously, friends in LowPlaces, the rodeo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Friends in Low Places , yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
The dance song.
Is that fucking main ballad?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Looking back.
So I think now I would know itand I would be able to sing it,
but I just don't recognize it asGarth Brooks.
They're just like songs.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know it's good that you held on to Elton John
and let go of Garth.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, I don't know, garth seems cool I'm listening
to definitely a little bit morecountry now.
A little bit of interest peakedback up, but not like not.
Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
you know, obviously not making a country record yeah
, the country revival thingthat's going on right now is
huge and there's so many dudesthat are getting a lot of praise
and I see, like you know, myfucking punk rock friends
listening to or going to checkout and stuff and I still I
can't.
I haven't, like I haven'tdipped in yet, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I mean, I feel like it's been a thing like uh, I
feel like when I first came upin in like punk and hardcore it
was like the older guys got intogaslight anthem, yeah and
lucero you know like that waswhat the old heads did at that
time, and I love lucero.
Uh, I went and saw a gaslightanthem the other night.
It's not like anything I.
(05:46):
I don't know the songs reallyyeah, yeah, um, yeah I saw him
in orange county with joyce,manor.
Yeah, yeah yeah, I was up in thenorthwest so I went.
I went to the seattle show,okay, cool, but um, but yeah, it
was just a funny thing of likebeing like.
Oh yeah, this is what all theold, you know, all the all the
really shop barbershopmotherfuckers used to get they
(06:07):
used to go to.
That was.
The next step was the countrymusic, you know, and they got
into Sons of Anarchy orsomething.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That's amazing man.
So you know from what I've seenfrom you you are a
multi-instrumentalist.
I know at least you sing andyou play drums are a
multi-instrumentalist, I know atleast you sing and you play
drums.
So at what point did you knowpicking up an instrument or
starting the band, finding yourway to a microphone, songwriting
, when did kind of that startpopping off for you?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
uh, I mean, I always just wanted to be in a band that
was a big thing was and then Irealized that there was no
drummers, so I had to be adrummer.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Drummers are sick dude.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Then luckily I had Reaper and so I started kind of
messing around making really baddemos by myself.
I had not very many friendswhen I was a kid, so it's kind
of like music was alwayssomewhat of a semi-solitary
activity you could makesomething without other people.
I wasn't making nothing gooduntil more recently, but uh,
(07:07):
yeah, I don't know, it's kind oflike the only way, my only tool
for socializing, my only toolfor expressing myself.
So it was like the only thing Iever cared about was that, yeah
and uh, basically yeah, sincelike sixth grade on, just been
doing bands that's fucking crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That's fucking wild.
And you've been playing drumsthe whole time, or I?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
started playing drums in ninth grade, so I probably,
like 14 years old, did you findyour way to the uh, to the
microphone.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
When did you start singing?
That was always.
That was all I always wanted to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I I would say that, like the really big thing was
that I was really wanting toexpress myself up to a certain
age and then I felt like um,kind of like allowed myself to
get neutered by cool guys youknow where it was like I I was
really wanting to express veryvulnerable things and then at a
certain point I was like like itwas so not cool to be earnest,
(08:02):
or or like open-hearted and um,and I allowed myself to kind of
like go with the flow and Istopped singing in bands because
I really felt like I was like,oh, whatever I had to say, is I
kind of cringe, like I?
I think that maybe I'm whack youknow, you let them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
You let them put your flame out.
Yeah, what the hell.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And then um and then, yeah, it took a lot of years to
kind of undo that and RJC waskind of the path towards
Military Gun.
I mean, I told the guitarplayer, rjc, like on our first
tour I was like my goal withthis is to like loosen myself up
, to try to like be comfortableexpressing myself on a
microphone and then finally likelearn to sing and do a band,
(08:44):
which like it wasn't a consciousgoal the whole time, and then
eventually military gun emerges.
So it obviously the, the grandvision was was seen.
But, um, yeah, it was ainteresting.
It took a long time.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, it took a long time, that's dope.
That's dope because, uh, youknow, one thing I really
appreciate about your vocalstyle is just the kind of
simplicity and rawness of it.
That's one of the things thatfirst drew me to punk rock and
to hardcore.
Then, when I listen to yourvoice and the way you sing, uh,
it just reminds me of like thelike, purity and like joy, of
(09:19):
just like expressing yourself ona microphone.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You, you know, yeah, well, I mean, that's where the
roots of the band, like mybiggest influences, were Sam
McPheeters and Henry Hollins,and then branching out into more
, like Bob Mould and all thatFirst wave of punk where it was
so much just expression and lesstechnical ability is what the
(09:45):
vibe was you know that's what Iwas chasing, and then, as I've
developed more technique, I'vebeen able to achieve more things
out of here in my head.
But it's like trying to notlose that.
Directness is an important goal.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, for sure, man, that's dope.
And you know you guys justdropped Military Gun, just
dropped the latest singleThought you Were Waving and it's
an awesome song.
You know, I want to kind oftalk a little bit about that
song lyrically.
You know where it comes fromand also just you know how it
(10:19):
was tracked and you know we'llstart there.
But I really want to get intosongwriting with you because it
seems like something you reallycare about.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I do really care about songwriting but, that
being said, it's all aboutintuition, and a huge thing was
this instrumental was writtentwo years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, was Malachi involved.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I saw you post something Malachi couldn't dream
of learning to play this riffMalachi couldn't dream of
learning to play this riff, butwe were making a music video for
Drain.
I was directing a music videofor Drain and we were staying at
Malachi's house.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Malachi had begged to be the Malachi from Scowl, by
the way.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
He had begged to be the PA on the shoot, and then he
found himself thinking weweren't busy enough, and so he's
like I'm going to go do jujitsufor a bit and I was like this
is the worst PA I've ever had,but it was a free hotel room,
essentially.
So that worked out.
And then so, yeah, we showed upin the middle of the night at
his house and I just picked uphis Strat and just started
(11:26):
playing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What ended up becoming?
Thought You're Waving?
It wasn't right for a long time.
I made an original demo whichhad a lot of the key pieces of
the song, but didn't have achorus, didn't have like the
chorus riff.
What is the post-chorus on thesong?
(11:46):
Used to be the chorus, okay,and it didn't have a chorus,
didn't have like the chorus riff.
Yeah, um, what, what was?
What is the post-chorus on thesong?
Used to be the chorus okay, andit didn't work, it wasn't
inspiring.
I never sang on it or anythinglike that.
And then we did these sessionswith this guy, bobby uh, who was
it goes by the hacks and cloak.
He like scored midsommar andboth afraid Beef, and he has
been such an awesome supportivefriend and he just kind of gave
(12:08):
us the space to experiment withhim recording and I was like, oh
, I'm going to write a bridgefor this song.
I recorded it the way that Ihad it and what the bridge was
was just the strummed out thesame chord progression as the
verse, but just strummed out.
And I never do anything likethat and I always am big on
wanting to switch things andlike I never think a song could
(12:29):
be one riff or one chordprogression.
And then I left and I was likeI think that's the chorus.
Can you restructure the song tomake that the chorus?
And then that was what happened, and then everything else just
fell out.
After that, where I wasobsessed with listening to the
instrumental, which is what ittakes for me to record on, the
(12:49):
song is to be like this is whatI want Now.
I want to listen to it all thetime.
Yeah, yeah so then I sang on itwith my buddy, phil Odom, who I
do a lot of my vocals with, andI had just been listening to
something and they describedexactly the situation of the
song, which was someone off theshoreline waving to somebody on
(13:11):
this run and being like I needhelp.
Yeah and not understanding andthere's a famous poem, um, with
the same imagery and I was like,oh, I wonder if this has been
like really used much and Icould.
There's a sheer terror songthat references it actually.
But uh, I was like, oh, there'slike not too many, like it's
not like over tread, like afamous poem like that.
(13:33):
You would assume it'sreferenced a lot and I hadn't
couldn't find.
I like searched waving drowninglyric, you know like just being
like would it be whack if I didthis and then, and then.
I couldn't find it, and so Iwas like I'm going to fuck it.
You know I thought you werewaving, turns out you're
drowning and we wanted to makeit like somewhat sarcastic and
kind of.
(13:53):
The original version was a lotmore cynical but we ended up
trying to dial it back andreally what I think kind of says
it all about the song was thatthe second verse.
It says I saw you through thewindow of another burning house,
but I just thought you livedthere, so I went and shot my
house, which is to try to evokethis idea that it's normal to
(14:15):
live in a burning house.
And I feel like I lived in aburning house.
Yeah, and I feel like I lived ina burning house and I have many
times and the idea that likethat's so normal for all of us,
like you're living in your ownburning house, like how are you
supposed to notice that thatsomeone else is burning more
than yours, and and it's just soeasy to miss when someone's
struggling and it's really hardto ask for help.
(14:36):
And so I just wanted to kind offold all that in and make a
song that you know again.
It's funny in some ways, but itsays what it needs to say
emotionally.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, that's sick man , and you know diving a little
bit deeper into the songwritingprocess, you know one of the
things that I have seen from youin that you know whether it's
in like social media posts aboutsongs you're releasing or stuff
like that as there's alwaysseems to be somewhat of a long
road to uh, to finishing a song,not in a negative way, but in a
(15:13):
way where you really lovespending your time getting it
right and making it feel exactlyhow you want it to feel.
Yeah, um, what is it about, uh,writing a song that you love
and what makes a good song toyou?
What are, like, the components?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I mean is a lot of intangibles.
I think in that is is is likereally just comes down to do.
I want to listen to it you knowlike I have to be the biggest
fan of a song, first andforemost because no one should
ever be the biggest fan of asong.
First and foremost, because noone should ever be a bigger fan
of a song than me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's songs that I'm not abig fan of now and people try to
be like you should play that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm like well, I'm not a fan of that song, you know
.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
But yeah, I mean, Military Gun was made during the
pandemic and the big thing thatwe lucked out on was that we
had nothing but time to writeand it was all I was doing for a
long time.
And because of that, we createda backlog to work through and
(16:11):
usually, if I do a band, I wouldhave made that demo, released
it immediately and then played ashow and then I would have been
on tour forever and there wouldhave been no more songs made.
Yeah, for a while, but wecouldn't do that, and so all I
could do to to exist within aband.
To be in a band, you had towrite a song.
Yeah, because otherwise you'rejust a guy existing yeah you
(16:32):
know like during that timethere's like what is being in a
band?
It's either you're at bandpractice or writing a song or
putting a song out.
Yeah, otherwise you're not in aband that's the way I felt, at
least uh, and so we were tocreate a backlog.
And not only that, with thatbacklog, like a, a buffer, yeah
(16:53):
we were to create a buffer sothat there was never a rush yeah
so we were releasing thebacklog of songs all the way
into our first year of playingshows, and our first year of
playing shows we were listeningto the demos for the next LP.
Yeah, yeah, so it was just boom, boom, boom.
Yeah, and then we recorded theLP and then we instantly started
writing the next record, so therecord that we are about to
(17:16):
record.
We've been having some of thesesongs for two years you know
what I'm saying and they havehad the last two years for them.
You know there's tons of songsI will never listen to again.
Therefore, they'll never getreleased.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I was going to say do you worry about getting
like demo-itis?
Oh yeah, I got terribledemo-itis Because you can sit
with a song forever and it canfuck you up.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But I get bored.
That's the big thing.
If I get bored of it, if I'msick of hearing it, if there's
something I don't care about,it's out, it's out.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's done, the song's dead to me.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Maybe we can go into it and fuck around with it and
make it exciting, but if I getover it, you know a great song
you won't get bored of.
That song has to exist for allthe time until the collapse.
When Spotify disappears off theinternet and we realize shit,
we have no other way to listento music.
Then it exists until that point, and so I have no problem
(18:11):
making it.
It has to exist in me for along time for it to make the cut
, and so that's where we're atAwesome.
That buffer is important, sothere's no rush.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely man.
And you guys put out an EP thisyear, life Under the Sun, which
is basically like a little bitmore melancholy versions of some
songs you've already put out,along with a NoFX cover.
But you've got somecollaborations on there
Mannequin, pussy Bully,manchester Orchestra.
(18:42):
You know you're someone who Ialways see bumping around like
you know, talking to this person, talking to that person.
You know kind of exchangingenergy artist to artist.
And I want to know, you know,you know, like, what kind of
(19:02):
inspiration do you take awayfrom um?
You know, just working withother people.
You know like collaborating onsongs and and just kind of being
able to sit down and work withother artists.
I mean the first first form of.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I'm a fan of music.
Yeah, like, like, like I.
I am an obsessive listener ofmusic.
Like I, I am obsessed withmannequin pussies records.
I'm obsessed with bulliesrecords.
I'm obsessed with Manchesterorchestra's record.
I'm obsessed with no effects.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Like, like, uh, so to be able, and you, there's so
much to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And we all work different.
We all have our own thing andand our own thing and, and you
know to to just especially assomething like life under the
sun, where it's it's interpretthey're interpreting.
You know, like they're similarmelodies but different.
They're different words,they're whatever it is.
You know, like my friends arehaving a hard time with
manchester orchestra, like wetalked about kanye west only one
(19:56):
, and then shooter jenningsrecorded the piano parts yeah,
yeah, we gotta talk aboutShooter too.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's my man, dude, he's the best.
So.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Shooter recorded the piano.
It was like me teaching him.
I was like it's this note, thisnote and this note.
And he'd play and I'm like, well, not that octave.
I have a video of me teachingit to him.
And then I laid down a reallybad scratch vocal where I was
out of tune and I was just likethis is what we have.
(20:26):
And then we laid down the drummachine part to kind of like.
So they understood that I waslike it should push in the
middle.
And then they went and madesomething entirely different and
they didn't vocode my voice.
What they did was they tuned'tvocode my voice.
What they did was they made myvoice a keyboard so it sounds
like a vocoder, but they'reactually playing my voice as a
(20:52):
piano on that song and makingharmony out of it and doing all
this shit and I'd never thoughtof something like that.
And then we went and workedwith them and just their
versatility and ease of movingthrough a studio, you know, like
from one instrument to another,so inspiring and like I don't
know, I'm just a student.
Like that's all I view myself asis like a person, like I didn't
(21:14):
know about this stuff that longago.
I've been obsessed with itforever, but I've been an idiot
for way longer than I've been astudent, you know like uh, and
so I just really enjoy likelearning from all these people
and and knowing that I don'tknow best and and just going in
with an open mind to everysession and and every.
(21:37):
You know like I I approachedyou at sound and fury to be like
yeah, I don't think this guyknows what I look like up close.
You know, like someone's gonnabe like what's up?
all right, how are you doing?
Like, um, also, I have a bigchip on my shoulder because I
think that I I people accuse,like, if you're in any position
of anyone knowing who you are,people accuse you being a cool
guy if you don't say hello.
So I'm like my worst nightmareis being like able to cool guy
(22:01):
is being like like I saw thatguy around and he fucking, he
fucking, he fucking ignored me,which is never the case.
I'm like uh, you know, I I justdidn't.
Well, I was also drinking, soit was easy to like be saying
what's up to people.
But, um, you know, just liketry to put myself out there and
and and put myself out there asa fan of everything you know to
(22:23):
be like I know what you looklike because I'm a fan.
You know I know what anyonelooks like because I'm a nerd
about the music and so samething with actors, same thing
with directors, like all, likeanything I'm into, like I'm, I
know a lot about and I want toexchange with those people.
Yeah Uh, first and foremost asa fan, and then if that can grow
(22:43):
into like being any sort ofpeer of collaboration or
whatever.
Like I love that.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, dude, it's rad and I think that there's like a
uh, I mean it's obviously been asuper inspiring thing for you
creatively and I imagine you'rejust learning so much working
with all these other artists andit's it's great for the band
too, because I mean it's it'sseeing you guys pop up on radars
and in places that you knowmaybe you wouldn't reach if you
(23:09):
weren't reaching out tocollaborate with these people,
or try to talk to these peopleyou know so um, I mean, I got to
meet so many of my idols.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Now because, but what I will say?
Because it is hard, becausepeople approach us as well,
don't, I wouldn't say, lead withtrying to like collaborate with
somebody?
I would say, build a friendshipyou know like sometimes you
know, sometimes these things arelike more businessy, where
you're arranging collaborationsthrough business people or
whatever.
But I think just if you're ayounger artist, like just
(23:36):
approach people as a fan,approach people as a peer,
whatever, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And then if the vibe's there, then you can talk
about those things.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
But you don't want to seem too thirsty too hungry.
There is a peril in being toothirsty.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, yeah, true, true, true.
Shooter Jennings real quick.
What's that guy like?
Because he seems like he'samazing, he's the best, he's the
best man, he so shooter.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
You know he is someone who obviously is country
music royalty, yeah, um, but heis a rock guy yeah you know,
and and he's, and he loves allsorts of music.
You know, like we could talkabout so much.
When I go over there I wasplaying him demos and we were
talking about Ian Brown and wewere talking about Spiritual
(24:25):
Eyes and we were talking about.
Kanye West and we were talkingabout all sorts of shit, and
that's why, ultimately, we didthe EP with him.
Was that the vibe was right?
I mean, again, he's just a fan.
That's the type of thing.
We've been texting a long timebecause he knows that Mike Dean
goes to a certain spot and hiswife would see him around.
(24:46):
And then he finally introducedhimself to Mike Dean and you're
like we're fans.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's the same.
That's what we have in common.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
He didn't say hi, I'm Shooter Jennings, I'm somebody.
He went I'm a huge, I'm a hugefan, man, you know like and
that's what we have in common isthat we just love music and we
love talking about music and welove making music yeah and you
know getting to make the recordwith him was awesome.
Was just like us drinking WhiteClaws, smoking weed and he has
(25:17):
this raspberry pie that justlike shuffles movies, so
sometimes it'd be like the mostb horror movie.
Sometimes it's storytellersfrom mtv, sometimes it's you
just look over it once upon atime in hollywood.
I would be on on like a tube tvand which was just awesome to
to look at, um, and it was justlike he curated, like such a
(25:38):
great vibe and any idea I had hewas just down to try yeah you
know, and, and he's also such anamazing player you know like he
I'm seeing all these videos ofhim playing with turnpike
troubadours and like arenas onthe keys.
You know he's like playing aupright piano in an arena and
you're like that's crazy that'smy friend like yeah, but he's
(26:00):
just awesome man, he's justawesome.
Going hanging out with him isthe best.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
That's awesome, man, yeah, and I think that you know.
Going back to just songwritingfor a second, I think that
that's one of the things thatreally shines through with you
and with military gun um is just, you know the, the love you
have for the craft, for music,for songwriting, and I think
that that is something that isalways going to translate artist
(26:26):
to artist.
You know what I mean.
Like when someone really enjoyswhat they're doing, it's like
hell.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, you know, and we we, we, we know music history
.
We know you know what I'msaying, like we know all the
nerd facts and so we can go intothese conversations, like with
anyone, where you know thepeople that are there's people
I've met who are big people thatI'm like there's no nothing
behind the eyes.
(26:51):
Yeah, yeah, and you know thosepeople and there's nothing to
share.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You know, you could maybe get some dollars out of
them.
Yeah, but that's not what thegoal is.
I think that if that was thegoal, that the shit would
collapse yeah where, like, whatwe're trying to do is build a
house of bricks and that isbuilt through only genuine
connections.
We're not working with anybody.
We don't got like a legitimate,genuine connection yeah, hell
(27:17):
yeah so um.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You can tell those people yeah, you know,
absolutely, man, awesome.
Uh, before we kind of get intosome internet questions here, I
gotta ask you, uh, about veryhigh, because that's the song
that, like you know, do it, doit faster came out and uh, you
know, that song is great,amazing.
But when very high drop, thatwas the song that sealed the
(27:40):
deal for me.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, we thought that was going to be the big one,
and it's fucking.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Do it Faster I fucking love that song, so just
give me a little bit of detailon how that song came together.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I mean, as with most songs, it was kind of
freestyled in the moment.
The literal origin was I droveby a Smokey, the bear fire
warning sign and it just saidvery high.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So I was like oh, it's a sign.
I was like, I was like that's asong title very high.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I was like it's stupid, but fuck it.
And then literally I was likeI've been feeling pretty down,
so I get it just, you know oneof those things it just feels
like I'm being pulled along, itjust all just like.
Suddenly occurs to me like I'mlike I don't feel very
responsible for any of this shit, like it just like existed
already and I'm like, oh, thereit is.
Uh, I guess, but that that'sjust.
You got to be open to the worldaround you, um, but yeah, I
(28:31):
mean, there was our.
Initially.
The riffs were started by ourguitar player, will, who's never
played in a band before this.
This is the first song he everwrote.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And I think the naivete of the riffs you know,
like basically the process washim coming with that and him and
I are the same in that we'renot guitar players.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You know, like I'm not a guitar player but I write
all these songs, yeah, and so itwas like he, uh, he, he came
with it and I just made it likea little bit more cynical where
his was like more purely poppy,yeah, Um, and so that you know
it's like that little cynicalunderbelly to it that I think is
(29:11):
kind of like what makes us notjust like some shitty pop punk
band or something.
It's like that in production.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, I mean the drum beat on that song too.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's like that in production.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, I mean the drum beat on that song too it's got
like that 90s kind of drum beatfeel to it too.
That song is so good man.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, thank you, we're very proud of it.
We wrote it.
That was one of those ones thatsat around for two years and
three years Three years.
We wrote that before we wrotesongs like Ain't no Flowers,
like that before he wrote songslike ain't no flowers, like like
.
That was written very early,maybe like the fifth or sixth
song we ever wrote, but we wereso scared of it because we we
knew that it was a big song andwe kind of knew that we weren't
(29:46):
capable of achieving it yet yeahyou know, and so it took us a
long time to kind of like slowlymove it into the right, massage
it into the wood, yeah, andthen we got it the right time, I
think.
So, very proud of that song,very proud of the collaboration
with Will, I mean to have thatbe the first song you ever wrote
it's pretty crazy.
But we thought that was the bigone.
(30:09):
And then Do it Faster is thebig one.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So I don't know, I don't know how that works.
Awesome man, and you guys.
You mentioned a new recordcoming down the pipeline.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Working hard on it.
Right now, yeah, yeah, I mean,unfortunately we're on tour from
like August 15th, november 16th.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So we're going to be, you know grinding into it.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Is that a headliner support tour?
What is that?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
We're going to Europe headlining Hell yeah, doing.
Redding and Leeds, oh dude.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
So in Leeds?
Oh dude.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So much fun.
We come back and do a tour withManchester Orchestra and then
we're waiting on a tour to beannounced I don't know when.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
I would love to drop it here, but I can't Big one, or
Massive one, massive, massiveone.
What Massive one?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Biggest one.
Yet Can you give a hint?
It's bands from our world thatare doing very well.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I think I got that one All right, so let's head to
the internet here for a couplequestions.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm excited to see this.
I thought your audience wouldbe like who?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
No, no, no, Hell, no man.
All right.
Well, we got a little focus onthe important questions here,
ian.
Is the Olive Garden arespectable place for a first
date?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
For a first date If you have the right conversations
, like you know.
If somehow you land on the ideathat you're both into that, I
guess.
But I would say, have someconversations first I'm assuming
you're already kind of in asituation, chip at that point,
(31:48):
if you're willing to go there,if it's a cold call, don't no, I
would say not.
Yeah, I feel like maybe in highschool, yeah so for the longest
time check this out, Ilegitimately thought red robin
was one of the nicestrestaurants around I'm not like,
like I would go on dates to redrobin.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It's a bottomless prize.
Yeah, I thought red robin waslegitimately fancy.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I thought it was so fancy, in fact, because my
family didn't go out like thatnicest meal we ever went to was
was red robin yeah, every oncein a while, you know.
So I thought that was like alegitimately nice restaurant.
I didn't know there was scalesto this shit yeah, so olive
garden to me at one pointprobably seemed like a really,
we just never ate olive garden.
So yeah, first date, I don'tknow second date for sure, uh
(32:37):
okay, here's another questionhere actors as musicians.
Okay, yeah, is it legit or arethey acting well?
I play in one.
I play in, uh, one band, sexwith a terrorist, with an actor
who's the actor.
His name is spencer granite.
He, he's been in like, um,better call soul, okay.
Um, he's been in now I'm I'm,I'm so big on listening his
(33:02):
credits all the time and now Ifeel like I'm out of the rhythm
with it.
He's been in now.
I'm so big on listening to hiscredits all the time and now I
feel like I'm out of the rhythmwith it.
He's been in Minds.
He's been in a lot of stuff,not like a big actor, he's kind
of like, really, on the up rightnow Plays in a band that I do
with Patrick Kinlan called Sexwith a Terrorist, aka SWAT, yeah
, and so I mean.
(33:24):
The thing is these are peoplethat have other interests.
You know, like right nowthey're where there's certainly
a moment with wallow, wallows, Ithink that's what they're
called.
Big, really big band.
Uh, the kid was in that show.
13 reasons why he was in one ofthe most recent screams.
Oh, man, it's massive there'ssome band that has a massive
tiktok song with one of the kidsfrom stranger things not the
other kid, not Not the FinnWolfhard, some other kid from
(33:45):
Stranger Things Massive song, Idon't know.
It's interesting.
People have different interests.
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I saw.
It's like you know.
There's like the Keanu Reevesside of it where it's like you
feel like he just loves playingbass.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And he was in.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Dog Star, and then it's like then you have like the
Russell Crows and the StevenSeagals.
So what we come down to.
What we come down to is andthen you have the Jared Leto,
who's, like the ultimate actor,musician, I think.
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Oh he's.
I can't talk too much about himbecause we're the same company
gives out the checks, I thinkyeah, yeah, yeah, I got you, I
got you.
But, yeah, that one's hard forme.
No, I mean, he seems like adouche for sure.
What we're talking about, then,is taste.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yes, we're talking about tasteless people versus
people with taste, whichultimately is it.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I remember seeing a band once open a massive tour
and I was like I'm in the stands, I could play every instrument
on that stage, I could sing theway they're singing, but there's
an intangible there thatthey're a part of that I'm not.
But then it arrived and I waslike, well, it's all about taste
.
Yeah, Taste and perspective iswhat makes art meaningful.
(34:58):
The exact same piece could bemade by two people, but it is
the story and the taste thatsupports it you know what I'm
saying, like what I thinkseparates our music from others
is the roots in classic rock andwhat.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
What is the the, the bedrock that it's laid upon, is
different than just like someyounger kids that are like we,
like title fight and titlefights like the end of their
music history or some shit youknow, yeah, um, and so I think
it comes down to that, whereit's like, yeah, russell crowe
has no fucking taste you know,like he's gonna play in a shitty
(35:34):
band because he has no tasteand he's surrounded by yes men,
you know like uh, what I wouldsay.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
That's probably the problem with most of these
actors is they?
Got no taste and they'resurrounded by yes men.
So it can be good.
Most likely won't be good, butwe're seeing a renaissance of
people playing bands that aresuccessful actors that are good
yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It would be unfair to say that an actor couldn't be
capable of wanting to do thosethings.
But then I think it's justbecause they're actors.
Sometimes it just uh, as if itlike lifelong diehard musician.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Sometimes you just kind of, you know, wonder, you
wonder if it's real or not, youknow well, I mean, it's the type
of thing where it says likeevery uh actor and comedian
wants to be a rock star and thena rock star wants to be like
you know, like it's the samething as everyone.
Everyone wants what they don'tgot.
There's not enough money inmusic to really truly envy what
(36:34):
we got.
Going on, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
All right, here we go .
Ian, walk me through DJing theTaco Bell canteen.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It was fun.
I mean, this is one of thosethings where, like, we've just
kind of lucked our way intowhatever all this shit is you
know yeah um.
The first hour was allexecutives, uh, and I played
laughing hyenas and it wasreally funny because taylor
young was there with us, and hejust goes too aggressive he like
turns, he's like too aggressiveand so like I was like.
(37:05):
But then I'm looking around, noone's batting an eye, and I'm
like all right, I'm playing somesongs off life of crime and no
one's batting an eye, so whereelse can I go from here?
You know how much moresubversive you know.
At one point I played doc,don't talk to me by gg allen
there you go, looking around, noone's noticing and you're like
this is just funny.
You know like there's no purposefor me there, but it's like
(37:29):
that.
I, I don't know, I don't evenknow why it happens.
I don't know what it does forthem.
I know what it does for me,yeah, but I don't know what it
does for them.
And, and you know, like some dowith, like some would call that
a dream gig, by the way, yeah,I don't know, it's one of those
bizarre things, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
You find yourself in strange places, sometimes in the
music world.
Shout out to Tim Bergevin andJohn Landman, of course.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
John Landman, let's go.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
They're the fucking best.
All right, here we're going todive into the live music spirit
world, okay, okay.
So what we're going to do hereis we're going to pretend we're
in the cosmos and there's twodoors.
Okay, there's a door to yourleft.
There's a door to your right.
Okay, which door are you goingto walk through?
(38:20):
Okay, the first test hereAerosmith on the left, kiss on
the right.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I like more Aerosmith songs than Kiss songs.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I'll do Aerosmith.
You're going to see Aerosmith,all right?
What about Red Hot ChiliPeppers on the left, grateful
Dead on the right Chili Peppers,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chaparron on the left, charliexcx on the right.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
charlie charlie charlie, I don't, I don't listen
to chaparron ice cube on theleft, ice tea on the right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Cube, nice, nice, uh.
Modest mouse on the left andthe strokes on the right oh,
this is the hardest one.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Okay, wait, I gotta say we did just have a night
with isaac brock and it wasamazing he's, he's fucking, he's
the best I, it was, it wasamazing uh like the most, like
life-affirming shit, you know tobe like holy shit, like I grew
up, yeah, and I'm hanging outwith this guy that part on, uh,
(39:26):
on, thought you're waving thatwell, uh that's awesome.
That's got some.
Someone might be in the studioright now.
Really hopefully, hopefully,hopefully.
It goes through hell, yeah, butuh, maybe thought you're waving
too.
I'm going to have to gotemperamental rock stars.
(39:48):
Here I'm going to go, modestMouse.
Strokes are one of my favoritebands.
I'm going to go Modest Mouse.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
All right.
Pixies on the left, radioheadon the right.
Radiohead.
No effects on the left.
Pennywise on the right.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
No effects.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh, straight, no effects.
All right here, last coupleones.
We're going to just throw outsome general, just softball
themes.
Okay, all right, just pump itor dump it here, mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Rocking with him, mario Lopez Not rocking with him
.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Sports Rocking with them.
Mario Lopez, not rocking withthem.
Sports Rocking with them.
Exercise Rocking with it.
Politics.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Fuck them.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Sex.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That's how we go.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I enjoy it Canada.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I'm rocking with it.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
E-bikes Definitely rocking with it.
Vaping Not rocking with it.
E-bikes Definitely rocking withit Vaping.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Not rocking with it.
Hell yeah, professionalwrestling Rocking.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I got it.
I got it legally.
I got to say, yeah, yeah, wejust dropped the wrestling intro
.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
You guys are on the fucking you guys are on the game
, right, yeah?
And then we wrote a wrestling,oh that's sick, dude.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Hell yeah, All right, A couple more questions here
then I'll let you get out ofhere my man.
This is the Sailor Jerrypodcast.
Norman Collins, the traditionalgodfather of tattooing here.
Do you have any tattoos?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
You got a couple right, I got a couple None good,
what was your?
First one.
My first one was this logo forthe band Neanderthal right here.
That's pretty tight.
This logo for the bandneanderthal right here, that's
pretty tight.
I've always been a fan of theblast beats and uh, yeah, hell
yeah, that was my first oneawesome, all right, hypothetical
here, bill and ted time machine.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You walk out the apartment, you know the booth
comes down, door slides open.
Rufus says ian, get in here inhistory first place.
You want to go, and why oh?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
this is hard.
I guess if I could do anythingI would just be an assistant at
Abbey Road just in the 60s, inthe late 60s I mean the records
(42:05):
you could, just the songs youcould hear being made on a given
day.
That would be insane, like Ithink that would be the most
special thing you can witness.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Have you guys done Maid of Veil like BBC session?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, we sucked, I sucked, I sucked.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Dude.
Okay, so real quick.
So the Bronx has done a coupleover the years.
The first time, bro, like youknow, we were still I was still
really young, figuring out Ididn't really have any sort of
technique or like any sort ofvocal responsibility.
Let's just say that, you know.
So we were out every night, wewere raging and I don't know
(42:43):
what it is, but there'ssomething about that studio that
is like extra brutal and extradry on vocals, yeah, and you
hear yourself back and it's itcan be fucking tough.
I had a session there that wasa fucking nightmare, dude.
I, I, I hate the recording thisis so.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You know you learn some tricks, like we've
half-stepped some songs and likemade them easier on the voice
live.
You know we did a blowoutLondon show, where of course I'm
so stupid.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
We fucking did an encore you know, and my voice
was fine, and then it was likethe encore ruined my shit.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
And yeah, you know, I remember I was in the booth at
Maid of Ale, like trying my bestnot to cry, to be know just I
would.
I remember I was in the booththat made avail, like trying my
best not to cry to be like wow.
I can't believe I've screwed upthis crazy opportunity.
You know, like our manager waseven there, like he flew out to.
England and, and you know, Ijust feel like I'm humiliating
myself in front of the engineers.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
They're tracking their shit and it sounds all
good and you're like I can't domy job.
I suck at myself in front ofthe engineers and the bands hide
their track and their shit andit sounds all good and you're
like I can't do my job.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I suck at this.
You know it made better sense,but I swear to God, every time
we have to do one of these livesessions we'll be fine.
And then I'm like something badhappens right before and I'm
like great.
I'm going to be bad again.
We finally got a good livesession.
That's going to drop this month.
I don't like a single one yet.
You did KXP too right.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Yeah, it sucks.
You don't like it.
I hated it.
I love that one.
I hate the way it sounds.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
No, I mean, I liked doing it, but I hate the way.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I sound Got you, got you.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
We had to play a show later that day.
We played a show the nightbefore we to do that.
Like, yeah, it sucks sometimes,man, what's the one that's
gonna drop soon?
What one is that?
Uh, we did a a late night.
We played in the round atprimavera, oh sick, like at 2 am
, oh dope and um, yeah, I justbeen very pumped on the
(44:35):
performance I didn't even havemonitors, it was I.
I started with an in-ear in andlike, yeah it like I.
I never used ears before,though like we pulled up and
they were like well, none of theother artists had instruments,
so we don't even like monitoringwhat do you mean?
Speaker 1 (44:54):
like there's no monitors.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
You know I was really drunk and it was.
I got a black eye because Ibeat myself up during the
performance but, I because Ithought I sounded terrible.
And we got it back.
I was like I sound good, yeah,uh.
And so that's where the blackguy came.
Yeah, the black guy was meself-inflicted.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, yeah, awesome man.
Well, uh, it's been a pleasurehaving you here on the silly
jerry podcast, my man thank youfor having me thank you for
making the time.
Thanks for coming down.
Last question here uh, what toyou is the meaning of life?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
The meaning of life.
I guess it would just be toshare something.
You know, yeah, like, thinkabout all the moments.
I think about it as moments ofsharing something, whether that
be sharing music or sharing in,just like family.
You know, like those areprobably my music and my family
are probably two, two mostimportant things to me.
So, and that extends to myfriends, my friends and my
(45:48):
family very close, createfamilial bonds with my friends
so yeah, man, they can't escapeme, you know can't get out of
this one.
So yeah, I don't know.
I'd say just like sharing andsomething, hell yeah, at all
times awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Thank you and appreciate your time, man thank
you.
Fucking A.
What's up?
G, how you doing Doing allright.
Thank you for being a guesthere on the Sailor Jerry podcast
.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, it's been a long overduething for me.
I'm a big fan of the band youknow, really like what you do as
an artist and as a singer, soappreciate your time today,
thank you.
Yeah, man Thanks for letting mecome over.
(00:20):
Yeah, this is for peoplelistening out.
There we are, uh, live in thedojo.
Okay, this is not over theinternet, this is one-on-one
mono, e-mono, uh, and it's abeautiful day outside in
southern california.
So, uh, yeah, man, let's, let's, uh, let's, get into it here.
Um, before we get into militarygun regional justice center,
(00:43):
you just put out a new, singlenew, basically digital, 7-inch
right.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we're starting the LP rollout.
We put out two songs yesterday,One that has me singing, one
that has my brother singing.
For anyone who doesn't knowabout the background of Regional
Justice Center.
It's a band that I started kindof as a tribute to my brother
when he got locked up.
He did 72 months, so it wasjust about six years, and now
(01:08):
he's out and he's singing halfthe record.
I'm singing half the record.
The record's called Freedom,sweet Freedom, which is meant as
a sarcastic title.
There's not really any.
We don't get freedom, and heespecially doesn't get freedom,
even though he's technically outand free.
He, uh, you know, subject to toso much bullshit and we'll be
(01:30):
haunted by his past, you know,but yeah so that's dope.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, everyone can go check it out online, uh, you
know, and all the uh streamingplatforms.
Uh man, it sounds brutal.
Where did you guys record it at?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
It was produced by Taylor Young who actually did
the past military gun records aswell.
Him and I started workingtogether via Regional Justice
Center originally and that'swhere our friendship started,
really.
Yeah, he knows how to make aheavy record.
That guy, that's sick man.
Where's that studio atCurrently Sunland?
He just moved.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Oh damn, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where I came from
this morning?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
oh shit, I came all the way from sunland down here.
Where are you from originally?
I'm from uh like.
I was in the bay until I was 12in concord california and then
moved uh to enumclaw washingtonwhich is like a small town at
the base of mount rainier hellyeah, what about?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
uh, one of the questions we got on the internet
was your Mount Rushmore ofNorthwest hardcore.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Of Northwest hardcore .
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Was there any bands when you were growing up up
there that had an impact on youor anyone?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
coming through on tour, I would go, jensen from
Iron Lung I would put this guyFloppy Matt and no one knows who
he is.
I guess this guy JaySidetracked and then see they're
not, it's all like really localfor me, I like that though,
(03:03):
trying to think of who thefourth would be like the biggest
influences, the people thatwhen I first saw my shows I was
like um, I guess brianskiffington yeah, hell, yeah,
that's deep, deep in the vault.
So, yeah, that's all.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's for absolutely nobody so at uh, you know how
did music kind of first getgoing for you, like, what age
did you start going to shows?
What age did kind of musicstart meaning more than just
something on the radio?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
First concert I went to was Blink-182.
Damn, it was Blink-182, newFound Glory and Sum 41.
I was in fourth grade, I don'tknow, I think my you were.
Oh, I was in fourth grade, Idon't know, I think my.
You're going to shows in fourthgrade.
Yeah, I was as a concert, youknow.
I'm saying I went to two, Ithink, my, I think I think we
just did.
My parents must have been doingbetter that year than any other
year because I never went to aconcert again you know, I'm
(03:55):
saying like it never happenedever again after that, but that
year I went to two concerts.
That was fourth grade, so sowhatever, probably 10 years old
or something, but I was obsessedwith music pretty much always.
Yeah, like loved Elton John,loved Garth Brooks.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Have you seen the Garth Brooks documentary on
Netflix?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Dude.
He is such a screwball dude, Isit?
It's amazing.
I'll watch it.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I like it I think because now, even though I was
obsessed as a kid, elton Johncarried with me, but Garth
Brooks didn't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn'ttell you a Garth Brooks song.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, my brother was obsessed with Garth Brooks so I
kind of have it burned into mymemory.
Obviously, friends in LowPlaces, the rodeo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Friends in Low Places , yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
The dance song.
Is that fucking main ballad?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Looking back.
So I think now I would know itand I would be able to sing it,
but I just don't recognize it asGarth Brooks.
They're just like songs.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know it's good that you held on to Elton John
and let go of Garth.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, I don't know, garth seems cool I'm listening
to definitely a little bit morecountry now.
A little bit of interest peakedback up, but not like not.
Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
you know, obviously not making a country record yeah
, the country revival thingthat's going on right now is
huge and there's so many dudesthat are getting a lot of praise
and I see, like you know, myfucking punk rock friends
listening to or going to checkout and stuff and I still I
can't.
I haven't, like I haven'tdipped in yet, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I mean, I feel like it's been a thing like uh, I
feel like when I first came upin in like punk and hardcore it
was like the older guys got intogaslight anthem, yeah and
lucero you know like that waswhat the old heads did at that
time, and I love lucero.
Uh, I went and saw a gaslightanthem the other night.
It's not like anything I.
(05:46):
I don't know the songs reallyyeah, yeah, um, yeah I saw him
in orange county with joyce,manor.
Yeah, yeah yeah, I was up in thenorthwest so I went.
I went to the seattle show,okay, cool, but um, but yeah, it
was just a funny thing of likebeing like.
Oh yeah, this is what all theold, you know, all the all the
really shop barbershopmotherfuckers used to get they
(06:07):
used to go to.
That was.
The next step was the countrymusic, you know, and they got
into Sons of Anarchy orsomething.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That's amazing man.
So you know from what I've seenfrom you you are a
multi-instrumentalist.
I know at least you sing andyou play drums are a
multi-instrumentalist, I know atleast you sing and you play
drums.
So at what point did you knowpicking up an instrument or
starting the band, finding yourway to a microphone, songwriting
, when did kind of that startpopping off for you?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
uh, I mean, I always just wanted to be in a band that
was a big thing was and then Irealized that there was no
drummers, so I had to be adrummer.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Drummers are sick dude.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Then luckily I had Reaper and so I started kind of
messing around making really baddemos by myself.
I had not very many friendswhen I was a kid, so it's kind
of like music was alwayssomewhat of a semi-solitary
activity you could makesomething without other people.
I wasn't making nothing gooduntil more recently, but uh,
(07:07):
yeah, I don't know, it's kind oflike the only way, my only tool
for socializing, my only toolfor expressing myself.
So it was like the only thing Iever cared about was that, yeah
and uh, basically yeah, sincelike sixth grade on, just been
doing bands that's fucking crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That's fucking wild.
And you've been playing drumsthe whole time, or I?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
started playing drums in ninth grade, so I probably,
like 14 years old, did you findyour way to the uh, to the
microphone.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
When did you start singing?
That was always.
That was all I always wanted to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I I would say that, like the really big thing was
that I was really wanting toexpress myself up to a certain
age and then I felt like um,kind of like allowed myself to
get neutered by cool guys youknow where it was like I I was
really wanting to express veryvulnerable things and then at a
certain point I was like like itwas so not cool to be earnest,
(08:02):
or or like open-hearted and um,and I allowed myself to kind of
like go with the flow and Istopped singing in bands because
I really felt like I was like,oh, whatever I had to say, is I
kind of cringe, like I?
I think that maybe I'm whack youknow, you let them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
You let them put your flame out.
Yeah, what the hell.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And then um and then, yeah, it took a lot of years to
kind of undo that and RJC waskind of the path towards
Military Gun.
I mean, I told the guitarplayer, rjc, like on our first
tour I was like my goal withthis is to like loosen myself up
, to try to like be comfortableexpressing myself on a
microphone and then finally likelearn to sing and do a band,
(08:44):
which like it wasn't a consciousgoal the whole time, and then
eventually military gun emerges.
So it obviously the, the grandvision was was seen.
But, um, yeah, it was ainteresting.
It took a long time.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, it took a long time, that's dope.
That's dope because, uh, youknow, one thing I really
appreciate about your vocalstyle is just the kind of
simplicity and rawness of it.
That's one of the things thatfirst drew me to punk rock and
to hardcore.
Then, when I listen to yourvoice and the way you sing, uh,
it just reminds me of like thelike, purity and like joy, of
(09:19):
just like expressing yourself ona microphone.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You, you know, yeah, well, I mean, that's where the
roots of the band, like mybiggest influences, were Sam
McPheeters and Henry Hollins,and then branching out into more
, like Bob Mould and all thatFirst wave of punk where it was
so much just expression and lesstechnical ability is what the
(09:45):
vibe was you know that's what Iwas chasing, and then, as I've
developed more technique, I'vebeen able to achieve more things
out of here in my head.
But it's like trying to notlose that.
Directness is an important goal.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, for sure, man, that's dope.
And you know you guys justdropped Military Gun, just
dropped the latest singleThought you Were Waving and it's
an awesome song.
You know, I want to kind oftalk a little bit about that
song lyrically.
You know where it comes fromand also just you know how it
(10:19):
was tracked and you know we'llstart there.
But I really want to get intosongwriting with you because it
seems like something you reallycare about.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I do really care about songwriting but, that
being said, it's all aboutintuition, and a huge thing was
this instrumental was writtentwo years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, was Malachi involved.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I saw you post something Malachi couldn't dream
of learning to play this riffMalachi couldn't dream of
learning to play this riff, butwe were making a music video for
Drain.
I was directing a music videofor Drain and we were staying at
Malachi's house.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Malachi had begged to be the Malachi from Scowl, by
the way.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
He had begged to be the PA on the shoot, and then he
found himself thinking weweren't busy enough, and so he's
like I'm going to go do jujitsufor a bit and I was like this
is the worst PA I've ever had,but it was a free hotel room,
essentially.
So that worked out.
And then so, yeah, we showed upin the middle of the night at
his house and I just picked uphis Strat and just started
(11:26):
playing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What ended up becoming?
Thought You're Waving?
It wasn't right for a long time.
I made an original demo whichhad a lot of the key pieces of
the song, but didn't have achorus, didn't have like the
chorus riff.
What is the post-chorus on thesong?
(11:46):
Used to be the chorus, okay,and it didn't have a chorus,
didn't have like the chorus riff.
Yeah, um, what, what was?
What is the post-chorus on thesong?
Used to be the chorus okay, andit didn't work, it wasn't
inspiring.
I never sang on it or anythinglike that.
And then we did these sessionswith this guy, bobby uh, who was
it goes by the hacks and cloak.
He like scored midsommar andboth afraid Beef, and he has
been such an awesome supportivefriend and he just kind of gave
(12:08):
us the space to experiment withhim recording and I was like, oh
, I'm going to write a bridgefor this song.
I recorded it the way that Ihad it and what the bridge was
was just the strummed out thesame chord progression as the
verse, but just strummed out.
And I never do anything likethat and I always am big on
wanting to switch things andlike I never think a song could
(12:29):
be one riff or one chordprogression.
And then I left and I was likeI think that's the chorus.
Can you restructure the song tomake that the chorus?
And then that was what happened, and then everything else just
fell out.
After that, where I wasobsessed with listening to the
instrumental, which is what ittakes for me to record on, the
(12:49):
song is to be like this is whatI want Now.
I want to listen to it all thetime.
Yeah, yeah so then I sang on itwith my buddy, phil Odom, who I
do a lot of my vocals with, andI had just been listening to
something and they describedexactly the situation of the
song, which was someone off theshoreline waving to somebody on
(13:11):
this run and being like I needhelp.
Yeah and not understanding andthere's a famous poem, um, with
the same imagery and I was like,oh, I wonder if this has been
like really used much and Icould.
There's a sheer terror songthat references it actually.
But uh, I was like, oh, there'slike not too many, like it's
not like over tread, like afamous poem like that.
(13:33):
You would assume it'sreferenced a lot and I hadn't
couldn't find.
I like searched waving drowninglyric, you know like just being
like would it be whack if I didthis and then, and then.
I couldn't find it, and so Iwas like I'm going to fuck it.
You know I thought you werewaving, turns out you're
drowning and we wanted to makeit like somewhat sarcastic and
kind of.
(13:53):
The original version was a lotmore cynical but we ended up
trying to dial it back andreally what I think kind of says
it all about the song was thatthe second verse.
It says I saw you through thewindow of another burning house,
but I just thought you livedthere, so I went and shot my
house, which is to try to evokethis idea that it's normal to
(14:15):
live in a burning house.
And I feel like I lived in aburning house.
Yeah, and I feel like I lived ina burning house and I have many
times and the idea that likethat's so normal for all of us,
like you're living in your ownburning house, like how are you
supposed to notice that thatsomeone else is burning more
than yours, and and it's just soeasy to miss when someone's
struggling and it's really hardto ask for help.
(14:36):
And so I just wanted to kind offold all that in and make a
song that you know again.
It's funny in some ways, but itsays what it needs to say
emotionally.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, that's sick man , and you know diving a little
bit deeper into the songwritingprocess, you know one of the
things that I have seen from youin that you know whether it's
in like social media posts aboutsongs you're releasing or stuff
like that as there's alwaysseems to be somewhat of a long
road to uh, to finishing a song,not in a negative way, but in a
(15:13):
way where you really lovespending your time getting it
right and making it feel exactlyhow you want it to feel.
Yeah, um, what is it about, uh,writing a song that you love
and what makes a good song toyou?
What are, like, the components?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I mean is a lot of intangibles.
I think in that is is is likereally just comes down to do.
I want to listen to it you knowlike I have to be the biggest
fan of a song, first andforemost because no one should
ever be the biggest fan of asong.
First and foremost, because noone should ever be a bigger fan
of a song than me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's songs that I'm not abig fan of now and people try to
be like you should play that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm like well, I'm not a fan of that song, you know
.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
But yeah, I mean, Military Gun was made during the
pandemic and the big thing thatwe lucked out on was that we
had nothing but time to writeand it was all I was doing for a
long time.
And because of that, we createda backlog to work through and
(16:11):
usually, if I do a band, I wouldhave made that demo, released
it immediately and then played ashow and then I would have been
on tour forever and there wouldhave been no more songs made.
Yeah, for a while, but wecouldn't do that, and so all I
could do to to exist within aband.
To be in a band, you had towrite a song.
Yeah, because otherwise you'rejust a guy existing yeah you
(16:32):
know like during that timethere's like what is being in a
band?
It's either you're at bandpractice or writing a song or
putting a song out.
Yeah, otherwise you're not in aband that's the way I felt, at
least uh, and so we were tocreate a backlog.
And not only that, with thatbacklog, like a, a buffer, yeah
(16:53):
we were to create a buffer sothat there was never a rush yeah
so we were releasing thebacklog of songs all the way
into our first year of playingshows, and our first year of
playing shows we were listeningto the demos for the next LP.
Yeah, yeah, so it was just boom, boom, boom.
Yeah, and then we recorded theLP and then we instantly started
writing the next record, so therecord that we are about to
(17:16):
record.
We've been having some of thesesongs for two years you know
what I'm saying and they havehad the last two years for them.
You know there's tons of songsI will never listen to again.
Therefore, they'll never getreleased.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I was going to say do you worry about getting
like demo-itis?
Oh yeah, I got terribledemo-itis Because you can sit
with a song forever and it canfuck you up.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But I get bored.
That's the big thing.
If I get bored of it, if I'msick of hearing it, if there's
something I don't care about,it's out, it's out.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
It's done, the song's dead to me.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Maybe we can go into it and fuck around with it and
make it exciting, but if I getover it, you know a great song
you won't get bored of.
That song has to exist for allthe time until the collapse.
When Spotify disappears off theinternet and we realize shit,
we have no other way to listento music.
Then it exists until that point, and so I have no problem
(18:11):
making it.
It has to exist in me for along time for it to make the cut
, and so that's where we're atAwesome.
That buffer is important, sothere's no rush.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely man.
And you guys put out an EP thisyear, life Under the Sun, which
is basically like a little bitmore melancholy versions of some
songs you've already put out,along with a NoFX cover.
But you've got somecollaborations on there
Mannequin, pussy Bully,manchester Orchestra.
(18:42):
You know you're someone who Ialways see bumping around like
you know, talking to this person, talking to that person.
You know kind of exchangingenergy artist to artist.
And I want to know, you know,you know, like, what kind of
(19:02):
inspiration do you take awayfrom um?
You know, just working withother people.
You know like collaborating onsongs and and just kind of being
able to sit down and work withother artists.
I mean the first first form of.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I'm a fan of music.
Yeah, like, like, like I.
I am an obsessive listener ofmusic.
Like I, I am obsessed withmannequin pussies records.
I'm obsessed with bulliesrecords.
I'm obsessed with Manchesterorchestra's record.
I'm obsessed with no effects.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Like, like, uh, so to be able, and you, there's so
much to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And we all work different.
We all have our own thing andand our own thing and, and you
know to to just especially assomething like life under the
sun, where it's it's interpretthey're interpreting.
You know, like they're similarmelodies but different.
They're different words,they're whatever it is.
You know, like my friends arehaving a hard time with
manchester orchestra, like wetalked about kanye west only one
(19:56):
, and then shooter jenningsrecorded the piano parts yeah,
yeah, we gotta talk aboutShooter too.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's my man, dude, he's the best.
So.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Shooter recorded the piano.
It was like me teaching him.
I was like it's this note, thisnote and this note.
And he'd play and I'm like, well, not that octave.
I have a video of me teachingit to him.
And then I laid down a reallybad scratch vocal where I was
out of tune and I was just likethis is what we have.
(20:26):
And then we laid down the drummachine part to kind of like.
So they understood that I waslike it should push in the
middle.
And then they went and madesomething entirely different and
they didn't vocode my voice.
What they did was they tuned'tvocode my voice.
What they did was they made myvoice a keyboard so it sounds
like a vocoder, but they'reactually playing my voice as a
(20:52):
piano on that song and makingharmony out of it and doing all
this shit and I'd never thoughtof something like that.
And then we went and workedwith them and just their
versatility and ease of movingthrough a studio, you know, like
from one instrument to another,so inspiring and like I don't
know, I'm just a student.
Like that's all I view myself asis like a person, like I didn't
(21:14):
know about this stuff that longago.
I've been obsessed with itforever, but I've been an idiot
for way longer than I've been astudent, you know like uh, and
so I just really enjoy likelearning from all these people
and and knowing that I don'tknow best and and just going in
with an open mind to everysession and and every.
(21:37):
You know like I I approachedyou at sound and fury to be like
yeah, I don't think this guyknows what I look like up close.
You know, like someone's gonnabe like what's up?
all right, how are you doing?
Like, um, also, I have a bigchip on my shoulder because I
think that I I people accuse,like, if you're in any position
of anyone knowing who you are,people accuse you being a cool
guy if you don't say hello.
So I'm like my worst nightmareis being like able to cool guy
(22:01):
is being like like I saw thatguy around and he fucking, he
fucking, he fucking ignored me,which is never the case.
I'm like uh, you know, I I justdidn't.
Well, I was also drinking, soit was easy to like be saying
what's up to people.
But, um, you know, just liketry to put myself out there and
and and put myself out there asa fan of everything you know to
(22:23):
be like I know what you looklike because I'm a fan.
You know I know what anyonelooks like because I'm a nerd
about the music and so samething with actors, same thing
with directors, like all, likeanything I'm into, like I'm, I
know a lot about and I want toexchange with those people.
Yeah Uh, first and foremost asa fan, and then if that can grow
(22:43):
into like being any sort ofpeer of collaboration or
whatever.
Like I love that.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, dude, it's rad and I think that there's like a
uh, I mean it's obviously been asuper inspiring thing for you
creatively and I imagine you'rejust learning so much working
with all these other artists andit's it's great for the band
too, because I mean it's it'sseeing you guys pop up on radars
and in places that you knowmaybe you wouldn't reach if you
(23:09):
weren't reaching out tocollaborate with these people,
or try to talk to these peopleyou know so um, I mean, I got to
meet so many of my idols.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Now because, but what I will say?
Because it is hard, becausepeople approach us as well,
don't, I wouldn't say, lead withtrying to like collaborate with
somebody?
I would say, build a friendshipyou know like sometimes you
know, sometimes these things arelike more businessy, where
you're arranging collaborationsthrough business people or
whatever.
But I think just if you're ayounger artist, like just
(23:36):
approach people as a fan,approach people as a peer,
whatever, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And then if the vibe's there, then you can talk
about those things.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
But you don't want to seem too thirsty too hungry.
There is a peril in being toothirsty.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, yeah, true, true, true.
Shooter Jennings real quick.
What's that guy like?
Because he seems like he'samazing, he's the best, he's the
best man, he so shooter.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
You know he is someone who obviously is country
music royalty, yeah, um, but heis a rock guy yeah you know,
and and he's, and he loves allsorts of music.
You know, like we could talkabout so much.
When I go over there I wasplaying him demos and we were
talking about Ian Brown and wewere talking about Spiritual
(24:25):
Eyes and we were talking about.
Kanye West and we were talkingabout all sorts of shit, and
that's why, ultimately, we didthe EP with him.
Was that the vibe was right?
I mean, again, he's just a fan.
That's the type of thing.
We've been texting a long timebecause he knows that Mike Dean
goes to a certain spot and hiswife would see him around.
(24:46):
And then he finally introducedhimself to Mike Dean and you're
like we're fans.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's the same.
That's what we have in common.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
He didn't say hi, I'm Shooter Jennings, I'm somebody.
He went I'm a huge, I'm a hugefan, man, you know like and
that's what we have in common isthat we just love music and we
love talking about music and welove making music yeah and you
know getting to make the recordwith him was awesome.
Was just like us drinking WhiteClaws, smoking weed and he has
(25:17):
this raspberry pie that justlike shuffles movies, so
sometimes it'd be like the mostb horror movie.
Sometimes it's storytellersfrom mtv, sometimes it's you
just look over it once upon atime in hollywood.
I would be on on like a tube tvand which was just awesome to
to look at, um, and it was justlike he curated, like such a
(25:38):
great vibe and any idea I had hewas just down to try yeah you
know, and, and he's also such anamazing player you know like he
I'm seeing all these videos ofhim playing with turnpike
troubadours and like arenas onthe keys.
You know he's like playing aupright piano in an arena and
you're like that's crazy that'smy friend like yeah, but he's
(26:00):
just awesome man, he's justawesome.
Going hanging out with him isthe best.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
That's awesome, man, yeah, and I think that you know.
Going back to just songwritingfor a second, I think that
that's one of the things thatreally shines through with you
and with military gun um is just, you know the, the love you
have for the craft, for music,for songwriting, and I think
that that is something that isalways going to translate artist
(26:26):
to artist.
You know what I mean.
Like when someone really enjoyswhat they're doing, it's like
hell.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, you know, and we we, we, we know music history
.
We know you know what I'msaying, like we know all the
nerd facts and so we can go intothese conversations, like with
anyone, where you know thepeople that are there's people
I've met who are big people thatI'm like there's no nothing
behind the eyes.
(26:51):
Yeah, yeah, and you know thosepeople and there's nothing to
share.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You know, you could maybe get some dollars out of
them.
Yeah, but that's not what thegoal is.
I think that if that was thegoal, that the shit would
collapse yeah where, like, whatwe're trying to do is build a
house of bricks and that isbuilt through only genuine
connections.
We're not working with anybody.
We don't got like a legitimate,genuine connection yeah, hell
(27:17):
yeah so um.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You can tell those people yeah, you know,
absolutely, man, awesome.
Uh, before we kind of get intosome internet questions here, I
gotta ask you, uh, about veryhigh, because that's the song
that, like you know, do it, doit faster came out and uh, you
know, that song is great,amazing.
But when very high drop, thatwas the song that sealed the
(27:40):
deal for me.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, we thought that was going to be the big one,
and it's fucking.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Do it Faster I fucking love that song, so just
give me a little bit of detailon how that song came together.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I mean, as with most songs, it was kind of
freestyled in the moment.
The literal origin was I droveby a Smokey, the bear fire
warning sign and it just saidvery high.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So I was like oh, it's a sign.
I was like, I was like that's asong title very high.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I was like it's stupid, but fuck it.
And then literally I was likeI've been feeling pretty down,
so I get it just, you know oneof those things it just feels
like I'm being pulled along, itjust all just like.
Suddenly occurs to me like I'mlike I don't feel very
responsible for any of this shit, like it just like existed
already and I'm like, oh, thereit is.
Uh, I guess, but that that'sjust.
You got to be open to the worldaround you, um, but yeah, I
(28:31):
mean, there was our.
Initially.
The riffs were started by ourguitar player, will, who's never
played in a band before this.
This is the first song he everwrote.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And I think the naivete of the riffs you know,
like basically the process washim coming with that and him and
I are the same in that we'renot guitar players.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You know, like I'm not a guitar player but I write
all these songs, yeah, and so itwas like he, uh, he, he came
with it and I just made it likea little bit more cynical where
his was like more purely poppy,yeah, Um, and so that you know
it's like that little cynicalunderbelly to it that I think is
(29:11):
kind of like what makes us notjust like some shitty pop punk
band or something.
It's like that in production.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, I mean the drum beat on that song too.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's like that in production.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, I mean the drum beat on that song too it's got
like that 90s kind of drum beatfeel to it too.
That song is so good man.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, thank you, we're very proud of it.
We wrote it.
That was one of those ones thatsat around for two years and
three years Three years.
We wrote that before we wrotesongs like Ain't no Flowers,
like that before he wrote songslike ain't no flowers, like like
.
That was written very early,maybe like the fifth or sixth
song we ever wrote, but we wereso scared of it because we we
knew that it was a big song andwe kind of knew that we weren't
(29:46):
capable of achieving it yet yeahyou know, and so it took us a
long time to kind of like slowlymove it into the right, massage
it into the wood, yeah, andthen we got it the right time, I
think.
So, very proud of that song,very proud of the collaboration
with Will, I mean to have thatbe the first song you ever wrote
it's pretty crazy.
But we thought that was the bigone.
(30:09):
And then Do it Faster is thebig one.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So I don't know, I don't know how that works.
Awesome man, and you guys.
You mentioned a new recordcoming down the pipeline.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Working hard on it.
Right now, yeah, yeah, I mean,unfortunately we're on tour from
like August 15th, november 16th.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So we're going to be, you know grinding into it.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Is that a headliner support tour?
What is that?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
We're going to Europe headlining Hell yeah, doing.
Redding and Leeds, oh dude.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
So in Leeds?
Oh dude.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So much fun.
We come back and do a tour withManchester Orchestra and then
we're waiting on a tour to beannounced I don't know when.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
I would love to drop it here, but I can't Big one, or
Massive one, massive, massiveone.
What Massive one?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Biggest one.
Yet Can you give a hint?
It's bands from our world thatare doing very well.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I think I got that one All right, so let's head to
the internet here for a couplequestions.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I'm excited to see this.
I thought your audience wouldbe like who?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
No, no, no, Hell, no man.
All right.
Well, we got a little focus onthe important questions here,
ian.
Is the Olive Garden arespectable place for a first
date?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
For a first date If you have the right conversations
, like you know.
If somehow you land on the ideathat you're both into that, I
guess.
But I would say, have someconversations first I'm assuming
you're already kind of in asituation, chip at that point,
(31:48):
if you're willing to go there,if it's a cold call, don't no, I
would say not.
Yeah, I feel like maybe in highschool, yeah so for the longest
time check this out, Ilegitimately thought red robin
was one of the nicestrestaurants around I'm not like,
like I would go on dates to redrobin.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It's a bottomless prize.
Yeah, I thought red robin waslegitimately fancy.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I thought it was so fancy, in fact, because my
family didn't go out like thatnicest meal we ever went to was
was red robin yeah, every oncein a while, you know.
So I thought that was like alegitimately nice restaurant.
I didn't know there was scalesto this shit yeah, so olive
garden to me at one pointprobably seemed like a really,
we just never ate olive garden.
So yeah, first date, I don'tknow second date for sure, uh
(32:37):
okay, here's another questionhere actors as musicians.
Okay, yeah, is it legit or arethey acting well?
I play in one.
I play in, uh, one band, sexwith a terrorist, with an actor
who's the actor.
His name is spencer granite.
He, he's been in like, um,better call soul, okay.
Um, he's been in now I'm I'm,I'm so big on listening his
(33:02):
credits all the time and now Ifeel like I'm out of the rhythm
with it.
He's been in now.
I'm so big on listening to hiscredits all the time and now I
feel like I'm out of the rhythmwith it.
He's been in Minds.
He's been in a lot of stuff,not like a big actor, he's kind
of like, really, on the up rightnow Plays in a band that I do
with Patrick Kinlan called Sexwith a Terrorist, aka SWAT, yeah
, and so I mean.
(33:24):
The thing is these are peoplethat have other interests.
You know, like right nowthey're where there's certainly
a moment with wallow, wallows, Ithink that's what they're
called.
Big, really big band.
Uh, the kid was in that show.
13 reasons why he was in one ofthe most recent screams.
Oh, man, it's massive there'ssome band that has a massive
tiktok song with one of the kidsfrom stranger things not the
other kid, not Not the FinnWolfhard, some other kid from
(33:45):
Stranger Things Massive song, Idon't know.
It's interesting.
People have different interests.
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I saw.
It's like you know.
There's like the Keanu Reevesside of it where it's like you
feel like he just loves playingbass.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And he was in.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Dog Star, and then it's like then you have like the
Russell Crows and the StevenSeagals.
So what we come down to.
What we come down to is andthen you have the Jared Leto,
who's, like the ultimate actor,musician, I think.
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Oh he's.
I can't talk too much about himbecause we're the same company
gives out the checks, I thinkyeah, yeah, yeah, I got you, I
got you.
But, yeah, that one's hard forme.
No, I mean, he seems like adouche for sure.
What we're talking about, then,is taste.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yes, we're talking about tasteless people versus
people with taste, whichultimately is it.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I remember seeing a band once open a massive tour
and I was like I'm in the stands, I could play every instrument
on that stage, I could sing theway they're singing, but there's
an intangible there thatthey're a part of that I'm not.
But then it arrived and I waslike, well, it's all about taste
.
Yeah, Taste and perspective iswhat makes art meaningful.
(34:58):
The exact same piece could bemade by two people, but it is
the story and the taste thatsupports it you know what I'm
saying, like what I thinkseparates our music from others
is the roots in classic rock andwhat.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
What is the the, the bedrock that it's laid upon, is
different than just like someyounger kids that are like we,
like title fight and titlefights like the end of their
music history or some shit youknow, yeah, um, and so I think
it comes down to that, whereit's like, yeah, russell crowe
has no fucking taste you know,like he's gonna play in a shitty
(35:34):
band because he has no tasteand he's surrounded by yes men,
you know like uh, what I wouldsay.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
That's probably the problem with most of these
actors is they?
Got no taste and they'resurrounded by yes men.
So it can be good.
Most likely won't be good, butwe're seeing a renaissance of
people playing bands that aresuccessful actors that are good
yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It would be unfair to say that an actor couldn't be
capable of wanting to do thosethings.
But then I think it's justbecause they're actors.
Sometimes it just uh, as if itlike lifelong diehard musician.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Sometimes you just kind of, you know, wonder, you
wonder if it's real or not, youknow well, I mean, it's the type
of thing where it says likeevery uh actor and comedian
wants to be a rock star and thena rock star wants to be like
you know, like it's the samething as everyone.
Everyone wants what they don'tgot.
There's not enough money inmusic to really truly envy what
(36:34):
we got.
Going on, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
All right, here we go .
Ian, walk me through DJing theTaco Bell canteen.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It was fun.
I mean, this is one of thosethings where, like, we've just
kind of lucked our way intowhatever all this shit is you
know yeah um.
The first hour was allexecutives, uh, and I played
laughing hyenas and it wasreally funny because taylor
young was there with us, and hejust goes too aggressive he like
turns, he's like too aggressiveand so like I was like.
(37:05):
But then I'm looking around, noone's batting an eye, and I'm
like all right, I'm playing somesongs off life of crime and no
one's batting an eye, so whereelse can I go from here?
You know how much moresubversive you know.
At one point I played doc,don't talk to me by gg allen
there you go, looking around, noone's noticing and you're like
this is just funny.
You know like there's no purposefor me there, but it's like
(37:29):
that.
I, I don't know, I don't evenknow why it happens.
I don't know what it does forthem.
I know what it does for me,yeah, but I don't know what it
does for them.
And, and you know, like some dowith, like some would call that
a dream gig, by the way, yeah,I don't know, it's one of those
bizarre things, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
You find yourself in strange places, sometimes in the
music world.
Shout out to Tim Bergevin andJohn Landman, of course.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
John Landman, let's go.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
They're the fucking best.
All right, here we're going todive into the live music spirit
world, okay, okay.
So what we're going to do hereis we're going to pretend we're
in the cosmos and there's twodoors.
Okay, there's a door to yourleft.
There's a door to your right.
Okay, which door are you goingto walk through?
(38:20):
Okay, the first test hereAerosmith on the left, kiss on
the right.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I like more Aerosmith songs than Kiss songs.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I'll do Aerosmith.
You're going to see Aerosmith,all right?
What about Red Hot ChiliPeppers on the left, grateful
Dead on the right Chili Peppers,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chaparron on the left, charliexcx on the right.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
charlie charlie charlie, I don't, I don't listen
to chaparron ice cube on theleft, ice tea on the right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Cube, nice, nice, uh.
Modest mouse on the left andthe strokes on the right oh,
this is the hardest one.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Okay, wait, I gotta say we did just have a night
with isaac brock and it wasamazing he's, he's fucking, he's
the best I, it was, it wasamazing uh like the most, like
life-affirming shit, you know tobe like holy shit, like I grew
up, yeah, and I'm hanging outwith this guy that part on, uh,
(39:26):
on, thought you're waving thatwell, uh that's awesome.
That's got some.
Someone might be in the studioright now.
Really hopefully, hopefully,hopefully.
It goes through hell, yeah, butuh, maybe thought you're waving
too.
I'm going to have to gotemperamental rock stars.
(39:48):
Here I'm going to go, modestMouse.
Strokes are one of my favoritebands.
I'm going to go Modest Mouse.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
All right.
Pixies on the left, radioheadon the right.
Radiohead.
No effects on the left.
Pennywise on the right.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
No effects.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh, straight, no effects.
All right here, last coupleones.
We're going to just throw outsome general, just softball
themes.
Okay, all right, just pump itor dump it here, mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Rocking with him, mario Lopez Not rocking with him
.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Sports Rocking with them.
Mario Lopez, not rocking withthem.
Sports Rocking with them.
Exercise Rocking with it.
Politics.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Fuck them.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Sex.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That's how we go.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I enjoy it Canada.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I'm rocking with it.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
E-bikes Definitely rocking with it.
Vaping Not rocking with it.
E-bikes Definitely rocking withit Vaping.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Not rocking with it.
Hell yeah, professionalwrestling Rocking.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I got it.
I got it legally.
I got to say, yeah, yeah, wejust dropped the wrestling intro
.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
You guys are on the fucking you guys are on the game
, right, yeah?
And then we wrote a wrestling,oh that's sick, dude.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Hell yeah, All right, A couple more questions here
then I'll let you get out ofhere my man.
This is the Sailor Jerrypodcast.
Norman Collins, the traditionalgodfather of tattooing here.
Do you have any tattoos?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
You got a couple right, I got a couple None good,
what was your?
First one.
My first one was this logo forthe band Neanderthal right here.
That's pretty tight.
This logo for the bandneanderthal right here, that's
pretty tight.
I've always been a fan of theblast beats and uh, yeah, hell
yeah, that was my first oneawesome, all right, hypothetical
here, bill and ted time machine.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You walk out the apartment, you know the booth
comes down, door slides open.
Rufus says ian, get in here inhistory first place.
You want to go, and why oh?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
this is hard.
I guess if I could do anythingI would just be an assistant at
Abbey Road just in the 60s, inthe late 60s I mean the records
(42:05):
you could, just the songs youcould hear being made on a given
day.
That would be insane, like Ithink that would be the most
special thing you can witness.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Have you guys done Maid of Veil like BBC session?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, we sucked, I sucked, I sucked.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Dude.
Okay, so real quick.
So the Bronx has done a coupleover the years.
The first time, bro, like youknow, we were still I was still
really young, figuring out Ididn't really have any sort of
technique or like any sort ofvocal responsibility.
Let's just say that, you know.
So we were out every night, wewere raging and I don't know
(42:43):
what it is, but there'ssomething about that studio that
is like extra brutal and extradry on vocals, yeah, and you
hear yourself back and it's itcan be fucking tough.
I had a session there that wasa fucking nightmare, dude.
I, I, I hate the recording thisis so.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You know you learn some tricks, like we've
half-stepped some songs and likemade them easier on the voice
live.
You know we did a blowoutLondon show, where of course I'm
so stupid.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
We fucking did an encore you know, and my voice
was fine, and then it was likethe encore ruined my shit.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
And yeah, you know, I remember I was in the booth at
Maid of Ale, like trying my bestnot to cry, to be know just I
would.
I remember I was in the booththat made avail, like trying my
best not to cry to be like wow.
I can't believe I've screwed upthis crazy opportunity.
You know, like our manager waseven there, like he flew out to.
England and, and you know, Ijust feel like I'm humiliating
myself in front of the engineers.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
They're tracking their shit and it sounds all
good and you're like I can't domy job.
I suck at myself in front ofthe engineers and the bands hide
their track and their shit andit sounds all good and you're
like I can't do my job.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I suck at this.
You know it made better sense,but I swear to God, every time
we have to do one of these livesessions we'll be fine.
And then I'm like something badhappens right before and I'm
like great.
I'm going to be bad again.
We finally got a good livesession.
That's going to drop this month.
I don't like a single one yet.
You did KXP too right.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Yeah, it sucks.
You don't like it.
I hated it.
I love that one.
I hate the way it sounds.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
No, I mean, I liked doing it, but I hate the way.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I sound Got you, got you.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
We had to play a show later that day.
We played a show the nightbefore we to do that.
Like, yeah, it sucks sometimes,man, what's the one that's
gonna drop soon?
What one is that?
Uh, we did a a late night.
We played in the round atprimavera, oh sick, like at 2 am
, oh dope and um, yeah, I justbeen very pumped on the
(44:35):
performance I didn't even havemonitors, it was I.
I started with an in-ear in andlike, yeah it like I.
I never used ears before,though like we pulled up and
they were like well, none of theother artists had instruments,
so we don't even like monitoringwhat do you mean?
Speaker 1 (44:54):
like there's no monitors.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
You know I was really drunk and it was.
I got a black eye because Ibeat myself up during the
performance but, I because Ithought I sounded terrible.
And we got it back.
I was like I sound good, yeah,uh.
And so that's where the blackguy came.
Yeah, the black guy was meself-inflicted.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, yeah, awesome man.
Well, uh, it's been a pleasurehaving you here on the silly
jerry podcast, my man thank youfor having me thank you for
making the time.
Thanks for coming down.
Last question here uh, what toyou is the meaning of life?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
The meaning of life.
I guess it would just be toshare something.
You know, yeah, like, thinkabout all the moments.
I think about it as moments ofsharing something, whether that
be sharing music or sharing in,just like family.
You know, like those areprobably my music and my family
are probably two, two mostimportant things to me.
So, and that extends to myfriends, my friends and my
(45:48):
family very close, createfamilial bonds with my friends
so yeah, man, they can't escapeme, you know can't get out of
this one.
So yeah, I don't know.
I'd say just like sharing andsomething, hell yeah, at all
times awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Thank you and appreciate your time, man thank
you.
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