May 6, 2025 • 46 mins
Forbidden Seas is a heavy post-rock band whose members hail from Chicago, Twin Cities, and Los Angeles. I was able to connect with Bill Collins to talk about this new group, their single, "Wolves, Sheep", and lots of other bits.
I've known BIll for a long time. This episode was a great opporunity for me to catch up with him on his music, family, and life overall.
Please look them up, follow them where you can, and support their craft whenever possible:
Forbidden Seas
https://linktr.ee/forbiddenseas
https://www.instagram.com/_forbiddenseas_/
https://www.tiktok.com/@_forbiddenseas_
Thank you for your continued support!
Brett Johnson
Host of B-Side Breakdown
https://www.instagram.com/bsidebreakdown
https://linktr.ee/bsidebreakdown
#ForbiddenSeas #WolvesSheep #BillCollins #bsidebreakdown #threecrowsclub #brettjamesjohnson #musicpodcast
I've known BIll for a long time. This episode was a great opporunity for me to catch up with him on his music, family, and life overall.
Please look them up, follow them where you can, and support their craft whenever possible:
Forbidden Seas
https://linktr.ee/forbiddenseas
https://www.instagram.com/_forbiddenseas_/
https://www.tiktok.com/@_forbiddenseas_
Thank you for your continued support!
Brett Johnson
Host of B-Side Breakdown
https://www.instagram.com/bsidebreakdown
https://linktr.ee/bsidebreakdown
#ForbiddenSeas #WolvesSheep #BillCollins #bsidebreakdown #threecrowsclub #brettjamesjohnson #musicpodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Free tros B Side Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey everyone, welcome to the B Side Breakdown. My name
is Brett Johnson and I'm your host. This is episode
thirty four of a podcast where I talk with other artists,
musicians and songwriters about a song they've written that's meaningful
to them that they want to chat about.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Get deep into the y behind it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
First, they gotta give you permission to play the song
in its entire day of the episode, so you the listener,
get a chance to hear it before we.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Have our conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Cool, all right, So today I'm gonna be talking about
Bill Collins from the band Forbidden Seas about their song
Wolve's Sheep.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It's a great tune. I can't wait for you to
hear it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So here is Wolve's Sheep by Forbidden Seas.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
We're trollingcaus Corts, Sir, it resting.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
In the sun.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
Time to do so eight ten side.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Away side.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Still so.
Speaker 7 (02:33):
Today aldy but chance Scott coach.
Speaker 8 (02:57):
So you trull crowd, payful aside stop.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
What I call us to get from sus Sell the
roadside never no side.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We start of sea track. We are very super ware.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
And weird, weird. It's not a secret, weird having suffer.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Job job.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Classic no closs.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
All right, and that was Wolve's Sheep by Forbidden Seas.
We're gonna take a quick break and we're going to
come back and chat with Bill Collins about the song.
So please hang tight and stay with us and we'll
be all right back.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, and we are back.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Let's bring in Bill Collins from the band Forbidden Seas
to talk about the song Wolves Sheep. Bill, thank you
so much for taking some time to talk about the.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Song with me.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
Yeah, brut, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Absolutely, it's a I I really enjoyed listening to this
as soon as I heard it. I just kind of
keep listening to it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It's there's so many there's so much history, I know,
just from your music and your pass music with Jayrer
and Jeremy Jessen, who's also a part of this as
I understand, and and just there's there's some like nods
to some of that stuff that is just super fun
to kind of feels like a you know, that that
good baseball glove that I've always used, and I'm like,
(05:50):
oh man, it's so nice to hear this combination again.
And I really really dug it, but please tell us all.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
About the song. Why did you want to talk about
wolves today?
Speaker 9 (06:02):
Yeah, so this song was one of the first of
a batch of songs I started writing right at the
beginning of twenty twenty, like January, I think, you know,
after Christmas break was all over. You know, life kind
of gets back to normal. I kind of had I
(06:23):
guess maybe in New Year's resolution or something like that,
but sure I wanted to just get back into writing
and working with the band again. And you know for
years I've been trying to start working with Jeremy Justin
again and because we had just a really good working,
(06:46):
creative relationship and chemistry that you know, I really wanted
to get back into that. You know, those days with
all the Way writer where some of the best years
of my life, to be honest with you. You know,
it was super creative and fun, and you know, the
local music scene of Minneapolis and the you know early
(07:06):
two thousands, mid two thousands was was pretty special. Man,
like so many great band bands and and friends, and
so you know, I had been away from making music
for quite a few years. So I mean the song
is special for a number of reasons. It kind of
marks uh, you know, my personal return into making music
(07:30):
with a band, but also kind of rekindling the creative
relationship with Jair. And not to mention the other guys
involved are two former bandmates that kind of I would
put them in kind of the same category as Jair.
You know, we had great chemistry and great working relationships,
(07:51):
just kind of being on the same page musically. And
Brandon Dickert is the drummer and Matt Russell is the
bass player. We both I played in a band with
those two when I lived in Los Angeles. We we
did an EP and a full length and we're together
for about three or four years, and we all ended
(08:11):
up moving kind of back home. I guess you could
say Brandon still lives in LA But anyways, Yeah, so
why is the song important? You know, just kind of
a return to music working with some of my you know,
good friends. And it was also kind of a I
started experiment experimenting with a bunch of different guitar tunings,
(08:34):
and you know, I'm sure some guitar players can relate
to when you kind of get you know, on a
plateau of just you know, using drop D or standard
or something like that, when you open it up to
open tunings or something like that. You write differently, and
(08:57):
this song was a a sorry, let me go back
with that. It's aa D g AD, So it's the
low string is tuned down an octave, okay, so it
sounds super thick, and but with that the top three
strings give this kind of warm, open sound that was
used in a lot of like led Zeppelin and a
(09:18):
lot of Shiner tunes as well use this tuning. I
think he tends to use Dad Dad. But anyways, long
story short, it was just a really a good time
for me to kind of like rekindle the relationship with
Jar and the other guys. Yeah, and get a bunch
of ideas out into the world.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
For all you listeners that are unfamiliar, I forget the
year maybe two thousand and six or seven, or it
might be later too late on that. There's a band
from Minneapolis called All the Way Rider that Bill mentioned,
and they had a record called The Eagles Revenge, and
that record was on constant repeat for me for a
two years. It was such an awesome, awesome, creative thing.
(10:06):
I loved that record. I loved that record and to
know that that's what I was talking about earlier when
I'm like yeah, Like when you say like, yeah, part
of this for you is to reconnect with with Jar
and re reconnect to that chemistry that you guys had
in that writing process and that sort of writing context,
it's like, oh yeah, man, I mean I feel it
(10:27):
right away when I heard it, I was like, that
is so awesome, And it's just super exciting to to
know that, you know, how influential you you both apparently
are on each other creatively in that way, because it's
just it's super dope.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Like I'm just I'm beside myself with it. I'm so
into it.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
That.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Plus I love the fact that uh, yeah, like this
was your first you know, yeah, good good job, your
first time back out writing a song in forever because wow, man,
like it's a great song and that man, yeah, absolutely,
and it's it's so it's it is.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I really really like it a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And there's so many things going in it with the
textures and kind of the soundscapes.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And I know the band is called Forbidden Season.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'm interested to know why that name, but there's you
know that that affects the how I listen to it
and how I hear it because I hear it with
this more open kind of.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Imagination visually, like I mean, and not to sound I'm
not comparing you guys to mast it on, so don't
take this this way.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
But in one of their records, like it sounds like
they're in a thunderous ocean and a whale's trying to
kill them, like it, and you can see it when
you're listening to it. And for this this felt like, yeah,
like I don't know what's going on in the sky,
I don't know what's going on in the water, and
I don't know if it has anything to do with it,
but it felt like, yeah, there's definitely like this voyage
kind of happening in it. I just thought all that
(11:57):
was super awesome too, Like it's just incredibly expressive and creative.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
On so many levels. So I mean, yeah, awesome, awesome work.
Speaker 9 (12:06):
Cool man. Yeah, thank you for saying that. That's means
a lot. You know, one thing, my least favorite thing
about new projects and new bands, My least favorite thing
is coming up with the name.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Oh sure, because like you come.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Up with a cool name and it's taken right. You
know some I don't know, some band that has one
single and they they're based in uh, you know, Turkmenistan,
and they have a band camp, and they took your name.
You know, I think there's some examples where you can
be like, you know what, we're going to be sharing
this name, but sure, you know, some of the names
(12:47):
that I had thought of before and kind of bounced
back and forth with the other guys were we're taken,
you know, and they were taken by groups that you know,
had some releases out there, and you know they're still active,
so you know, you gotta stee clear of that. And
this name was one that I really settled on because
I wanted to have something that's kind of open ended
(13:08):
in a way. The name Forbidden sees really kind of,
for me, expresses something of it open ended in exploration
and where we don't have a defined sound necessarily. It
does kind of sound a bit darker for lack of
a better word. And I remember sharing it with some
(13:31):
friends early on. They're like, eh, I think it's trying
too hard. Like, dude, you have no idea how many
names I've gone through and this is the one that
actually is not taken. You know, I'm feeling pretty strongly
about it, but the inspiration actually came from a video
I was found on YouTube with Carl Sagan. Basically Carl
(13:54):
Sagan who talks about it is a quote from a
Herman Melville book he wrote, Moby Dick and Herman Melville
says something to the extent of I long for the remote,
I long to explore forbidden ses. And it's like it
kind of to me was like this thing of like
(14:15):
life is going to sound like a super huge hippie
right now, but life is Life is this long journey
you take. And you know, music is a huge part
of my life and a lot of you know, my
musician friends. It's a big part of our life. It's
a big part of our you know, creative expression and
our ore. You know, it defines kind of who we are.
(14:37):
And I wanted this to be kind of a vehicle
to explore lots of different musical paths.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
You know.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
We we have some instrumental stuff that we're kind of
working on, and honestly, the the the the creative well
is full right now, and there's lots of ideas that
I'm hoping that this kind of turns into multiple releases
and live shows and things like that. So yeah, I mean,
long minute answer. But the name for me was something
(15:07):
that it took a while to find. But I think
it really sums up kind of like what I want
to do with this band and where I want to
take it. I also kind of said like I want
a project that I can be like, you know, seventy
two and have a long gray beard and play like
you know, fifteen minute prog jams and it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yep, no, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And yeah, that's that's interesting that some of the folks
you shared it with. I forget what they said. What
do they say that you're trying too hard with the name?
Speaker 9 (15:42):
Trying too hard?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Trying too hard that.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I'll tell you my I'm familiar with that sentiment and
when I see it, I recognize that too.
Speaker 9 (15:53):
And with this.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
As soon as I saw it and as soon as I.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Heard it, all I felt was, oh, this is entirely liberate,
like it felt there's such intent behind it. And that's
what really resonated with me all the way around. I mean,
it was and it's funny because even what was fun
and just what you described about the name, I felt
like in other ways you were saying back what I
(16:17):
was saying to you about how I experienced listening to this.
I mean it was which is super fun for me
and really cool. And the irony that you're talking about
this comes from Moby Dick, and here I was talking
about Masdon's record Levithan and the song Blood and Thunder,
which is about Moby Dick.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
That's what I was referring to.
Speaker 10 (16:35):
The uh.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
There's I think that's fun too, the U and that, Yeah,
that's how it feels like this, this sort of awesome journey,
I mean the one. It was funny when you said,
you know, the one thing that I hate the most
about being in a new.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Band, and I was like, oh no, sorry dude. I
thought you were gonna say it's being compared to my
old bands. And I'm like, okay, that's not what I'm
trying to do. And I'm when I mentioned all the
way writer at all, but I'm glad you didn't say that.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
But the other side of that is there's I mean,
I hear there's experiential things that I have from it.
And this is hard to convey to people sometimes when
I'm not meaning to say this is what I think
you sound like. But I had this mind blowing experience
seeing Magui perform once and it had this complete immersive,
(17:23):
post rock textured awesome. I don't know what was going on,
and I was just floored by it and went to
Lalla land in my seat, absorbing it all and truly
like I just I can sit here with my eyes
closed and listen to this and it's just like I
can have again this completely sort of transcendent visual experience
(17:45):
at the same time, and it's it's it's super fun
to have that, to still get that, and to get
that from man, dudes that I know that have been
writing music together off and on for a long long time,
and it's that's really fun. It's just fun to know
that you guys are out there doing it and super
excited for everything else you have coming up with it.
Speaker 9 (18:05):
Well, man, Yeah, I feel like, you know, with the
guys I work with in this band are busy and
have families and jobs, but and are also in a
few other music projects. So I feel like, you know,
this is kind of just a vehicle for us all
(18:25):
to kind of like express a certain part of our
you know, musical taste and creativity. You know, you know,
I also do other stuff too. Musically that I haven't
really put out to the world, but you know, kind
of more like electronic stuff and and some of that
kind of finds its way into the forbidden ceas tunes
(18:48):
a little bit. So it's just, yeah, it's great just
to kind of have different creative vehicles in your life.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So far, two songs have been released part of a
quote unquote single that I've seen on Spotify. Is there
is that single going to expand or is there more
coming as a different signal or what's kind of next
on the release front for the current body of work.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Yeah, we're working on a record actually, So we put
out those two singles just kind of like dip our
toes in the water, you know, kind of just as
you know, getting every our socials up and and all that.
And we're working on a record right now. When I
say record, I should clarify it's it's only going to
(19:36):
be about six songs. But we have a lot more
kind of in the works, as I was mentioning earlier,
some instrumental stuff kind of working on that. And yeah,
just always kind of have songs that are being worked
on in various different phases. But currently we have about
(19:58):
five or six that are all demoed out. Pro tool
sessions have been sent out to everyone and by the way,
we all work remotely, which has its own set of challenges,
but luckily, you know, it's pretty streamlined. So Brandon, our drummer,
(20:19):
he lives in Los Angeles and he has a studio
in his garage and it's a pretty legit studio. His
drums are always miked up, and you know, we both
use pro tools, so we could just trade sessions back
and forth. And Jerre has a home studio set up
in his house and then Matt our bass player also
(20:41):
had also has a setup, so we basically just trade
sessions back and forth via drought box, and you know,
they're all demoed out. And the good thing about working
with Brandon is the drums sound great. You know, he
plays them very well. But when he's done, you know,
(21:03):
we kind of go back and forth and you know,
get feedback and whatnot. But you know, he's delivering these
projects where the drums are edited and cleaned up and
on the grid with Beat Detective and stuff like that.
So it's like that's awesome, Dang dude, thank you, because
that in itself is tons of work. To get everything
clean and edited. But yeah, it's it's been working out
(21:26):
pretty well so far. I do plan to hopefully get
up to Minneapolis and we'll track Jar's vocals in a
studio and to kind of just make sure we're, you know,
getting the tones the way we want them. And Matt
the bass player, lives in locally in the Chicago area.
(21:48):
He and I get together every now and then, and yeah,
so we can always kind of work at my place
or his.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Got it?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, when did the gap start of you stopping songwriting
and picking him back up again?
Speaker 8 (22:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
When did what was the time frame like between songwriting?
Speaker 9 (22:06):
Yeah, in twenty seventeen, my wife and I we moved
back from Los Angeles for a few reasons. We wanted
to have children and buy a home, and both of
those two things are very difficult to do in the
Los Angeles area, sure, unless you live like far out
(22:29):
in the desert or something like that. And so we
moved back in early twenty seventeen. And you know, just
the whole process of you know, moving back to or
just moving anywhere. You know, you have to get your foundation,
you know, getting a job and getting a place to
live and all that stuff, but we're also trying to
(22:52):
have kids at the time, so that was a challenge
and going through that whole process, and so yeah, you know,
my priorities were not music at the time, and you know,
for a few years after that, and it's kind of
gotten to the point where you know, they're old enough
now and I have more time to kind of work
on music. So it's been It was a good five
(23:14):
years where I was just kind of not doing writing
music for band stuff. I had been doing things on
the side, doing like commercial production for some music libraries,
so like, these are some people I met out in
LA that do this kind of thing, like music for
(23:34):
advertisements and TV shows, and I was fortunate to kind
of keep my chops up, I guess, you know, using
a daw and producing and things like that. So I
was making a lot of things kind of on the side.
But my heart has always been this kind of music,
you know, kind of post rock, progressive, heavy stuff like that.
(23:57):
So when these when I had the opportunity to kind
of get back into it, and you know, to find
that my my former bandmates were down for it, and uh,
it was it was It was great because I had
missed doing this for so many years.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, no, that's that's awesome. Thanks for all that context.
I you know, frankly, I didn't know you moved to LA.
I thought you had left Minneapolis and went to Chicago.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And then just have been in Chicago. So I didn't
know you went to LA. What was the band in La?
Speaker 11 (24:28):
What we was that?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
What was it called?
Speaker 9 (24:30):
So there's a bit of a story. I moved out
to LA to play in a band, and uh, it
was not the band that I was mentioning earlier. The
band there's also some old friends originally from Minneapolis by
way of Milwaukee. Oh my god, I'm blank, you got
on the name? Give me a second. Sure, Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Salare okay?
Speaker 9 (24:57):
S O L A r E. But so in late
two thousand and nine early twenty ten, my friend Josh
from Solare asked, Hey, do you want to be in
this band? And I was like, yeah. It featured Tim Dawe,
the original drummer of Shiner right and he played in
(25:20):
Year of the Rabbit for got it a while, so
I was like, oh my god, yes, yes dude, and
so we moved out there. I luckily had a job
where I could transfer and my wife was able to
pick up something pretty quickly, kind of doing the line
of work she did in Chicago out there, and I
don't know, we had a really soft landing out there
(25:41):
in LA. Like a lot of people go out and
it's tough, you know, and you got to like live
in a crappy place and all that, which you know,
we didn't live in like the greatest place ever. But
we had you know, had a band. You know, we
got jobs pretty pretty quickly, and you know, had a
little bit of a social circle out there with It's
(26:02):
funny when you move out there, you'd think like, oh,
you're going to meet people from Los Angeles, but nobody's
from Los Angeles. Like the people that we we immediately
gravitated towards were guess what, they're from Minnesota, Chicago, Milwaukee.
And not saying that we didn't meet any Californians, but
(26:24):
you know, there's just you. You like you're at the
same shows. Oh, Life and Times is playing at at
this such and such bar, Like you all go there
and you're like, you know, it's just something that kind
of we we we we found each other, I guess.
And that's the story of heard a lot, but yeah,
played with Clare for a little bit. Sadly, it didn't
(26:46):
really take off, like we rehearsed a bunch. They ended
up writing an EP, and it kind of got to
the point.
Speaker 10 (26:54):
Where the.
Speaker 9 (26:57):
Uh, the leaders of the band, They're like, we're not
We're done, We're not going to do it anymore. They
were just kind of like in a crossroads with their
life too, and they decided to, I guess, hang it
up and kind of just kind of focus on careers
and having a family and all these things too sore,
(27:18):
but yeah, and then I do have a little story
about the band that I played in with Brandon and Matt.
This is a I think it's kind of a cool story.
And so Brandon is originally from Chicago, and one of
the other guys in the band, his name is Phil,
(27:41):
also from the Chicago area, and we knew each other.
So a couple of years before LA we met in
Chicago and we again just you know, became fast friends,
and we kind of wrote some music together for a
little bit, and then funny enough, all three of us
(28:01):
were like, we all want to move to Los Angeles,
and we all kind of moved at different times, but
we ended up there within about six months of each other.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh funny.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
So yeah, it was just, yeah, let's get this project going.
That band became Sidewave. We released a full length in
twenty fifteen and a split single with this other band
from San Diego which I can't remember the name off
the top of my head. But that was great. That
was super fun. But the funny story here is how
(28:33):
we met our bass player. And coincidentally, it's kind of
in a similar way of how I met my wife.
And it's because of the event of the band Houston,
the Minneapolis band Houston. And it has nothing to do
with Jeff or Lane or Ian. It has to do
with people that were kind of in that circle, I
guess you could say.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
And so.
Speaker 9 (28:56):
Sidewave is this band. It was Phil Matt and I sorry,
Phil Brandon and I this is about twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen,
and I knew a guy or no, a guy from
the Eliat area, which I'm sure a lot of Houston fans. No,
his name is Chemo and he goes by the.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
What do you call it?
Speaker 9 (29:21):
Like what do you call your name? And like a
community or like Reddit, like your username or whatever it's called.
But the name Darshun does that ring a bell with you? No, yeah,
so he I guess I think he's the guy that
like started like the Houston Facebook page and maybe some
like I don't know, like community things online and things
(29:45):
like that, and and like he went to the Kansas
City Final show at the Madrid in two thousand and
three with Shiner and we're at a show I think
it was Life and Times potentially in Los Angeles and
we're hanging out there and I see this guy with
Houston shirt and I'm like, hey, what's up, dude, It's
like Houston, They're awesome. He's like yeah, I'm like, hey,
(30:09):
I'm from Minneapolis originally, and I played in this band
called All the Way Rider. He like takes his hat
off and throws it on the floor. He's like, get
out of here. And I'm like, no, it's true. It's
one hundred percent true.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
You know.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
It's like nobody knew who we are. But I was thinking,
like I was just surprised at his reaction. Sure, and
he's like, yeah, I'm Chemo, and he told me the
whole story and all that. So fast forward a little bit.
The band failure real night and they were playing their
first show back you know, since rejoining at the l
(30:44):
Ray in like February of twenty fourteen, and Kimo and
I had stayed in touch it a little bit, you know,
just kind of texting or social media messages whatever, since
we saw each other at that one show, and he
knew that we were looking for a bass player. So
it just happened to be that Chemo and Matt the
(31:07):
bass player, were like standing right next to each other
in line, and then you know they're both friendly, talkative people,
so they just kind of started chatting and Chemo says, hey,
this band I know is looking for a bass player,
and so he connected us with Matt, and you know,
just kind of one of those things like we ended
up just getting along great, just being like super you know,
(31:28):
good friends, and to elaborate even further and how it
was like the universe kind of connecting us or whatever.
His wife is originally from Chicago and he spent tons
of time in Chicago, so we're all like just had
all this these things in common, which is always you know,
a good starting place and you're building relationships.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
So agreed, Yeah, we we just.
Speaker 9 (31:50):
Kind of found each other through mutual friends and if
it wasn't for Houston. Who knows, maybe maybe we wouldn't
have met right.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, yeah, you know, shout outs to uh, Jeff halland
and Alan Epley for helping bring us all together with
your various bands exactly, that's for sure. The no, that's
awesome and thanks for all that. And I also love
that you did this. You know, essentially did this record
over file sharing, and I'm familiar with that too. I've
(32:21):
moved around so much that you know, I mean, I
put out a six song EP kind of the same
way where it's all file sharing, everybody's in a different state,
and where it's all recording and sharing our tracks through
Google Drive or Dropbox or something, and next thing, you know,
our engineers putting it all together. So it's it's fun
to see how that works. But it's you'd never know.
(32:42):
I mean, it doesn't sound to me like it wasn't
you know that Nothing about Forbidden Ce sounds like, oh,
it wasn't written in a practice space, which I think
is also really great that there's no disconnect in the
sound at all of how you might have put that together,
because I've heard that some other context where it's like, yeah,
it kind of sounds like this was someone did this,
(33:03):
someone did this that, and then it sort of was
slapped together. But it's I love the way that, however,
you are all able to collaborate together. It's it's amazing
in the two songs I've heard, and I look forward
to hearing more.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
Cool Man. Yeah, thanks, that's that's a good thing to
hear that. It didn't sound too like I don't know,
rigid or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, we
definitely didn't hash it out live in the studio. It was,
you know, all file sharing. But yeah, I think it's
just having other people in the band that can really
(33:38):
help out with you know, editing and sure stuff like
that makes it super easy. But yeah, I do miss
the in person stuff. I think that's really important, and
so we're going to try to get a little bit
of that happening, and hopefully at some point maybe we
all sit in the same room. I mean, I definitely
want this project to I want us to play show,
(34:00):
you know, for sure. I'm you know, just we would
all be kind of weekend warriors, I guess you could say.
But if we could play something like regionally Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison,
I would be super down with that. And that's kind
of the goal is to you know, have these first
few songs and followed up with another batch and hopefully
(34:23):
we can get on a bill somewhere.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well when that happens, please let me know, because that's
a show I would I would travel to go see.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
You would really love to see it. Oh right on, dude, yeah, man,
Well let's do this.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and
let's find out what you're working on next and other
things got going on?
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Cool, cool, all right, cool, everybody stay with us. We'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
All right, and we are back with Bill Collins from
Forbidden Seas. We were talking about the song Wolf Sheep
and everything that's going on with the band. Bill, Thanks
again for taking the time today. So quick question then,
So I know that there's the two songs out on
the streaming services right now, that's the single. You have
kind of an EP in the works or record in
(35:08):
the works depending on how that shakes out, that's eventually
going to get recorded.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And is in process. But the stuff that's out there
now is there? Is it sellable? Like do you have
it on? Can I buy a CD? Can I buy
a seven inch. Can I buy a T shirt?
Speaker 9 (35:24):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
What's going on with what you got with it?
Speaker 9 (35:28):
Yeah? Right now? The only thing we have you can
buy a download on band camp, okay, and then it's
on all the streaming services you know, Apple Music, Spotify,
et cetera. But yeah, nothing beyond that. I you know,
once the record comes out, I think we'll have, you know,
(35:49):
kind of do the regular stuff. We'll have our shirt, sure,
our shirts, maybe some other merch maybe some vinyl. We'll see.
I haven't really thought that far ahead. Yeah, definitely, we'll
get that stuff happening at some point.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Cool. So you also talked about how right what's your
drummer's name, Brandon Brandon?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, Brandon that Brandon like mixed or not mixed, but
he edited all of his drum tracks and got everything
all nice and where it needed to be before they
were included in.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
The ultimate mix.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
So I believe your depth in audio engineering would indicate
to me you probably mixed and mastered this, but maybe
not who was also was involved in the process.
Speaker 10 (36:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (36:37):
So one thing that has happened to me in other
bands that I've been in, I love the process of
recording and mixing. I really enjoy it. I don't necessarily
enjoy mixing my own stuff because we all know the
idea behind that is, like the mix is never done.
(36:59):
It's done, you have to turn it in basically. And
I got to the point where I was not able
to kind of turn off the guitar player artist hat
or I wasn't. I wasn't able to turn that side
off and kind of enter mixed mode, because you know,
(37:21):
you always hear like, oh I can I can add
this little delay guitar here in there, or experiment with
the fuzz on the bass in this part or whatever,
or let's try a different drum sample. You can always
go back and forth. So I just knew that, like
I needed to hand it off because if I didn't,
it wasn't going to get done. And I will likely
(37:41):
kind of continue that that going forward. We'll see. But
luckily there, You know, I know a few people that
are I really respect is is mixing engineers. They just
really really know their stuff. So I reached out to
my friend igor And and he he's mixed some other
(38:03):
friends projects, but most notably he's the front of house
engineer for Animals as Leaders. Oh wow, so he's he
knows his stuff, like he knows he knows how to
mix heavy guitar bass music and you know we're not
we're not as heavy as as animals at all. But
(38:23):
you know, he's just the kind of guy that like,
he's incredibly intelligent and talented and you know you don't
have to like, uh he gets it, I guess to
sum it up, so sure, and he's super fast working.
Uh so you know I would hand a hand over
the mix, and you know, the feedback would be quick
(38:44):
and we could kind of go back and forth quickly,
so it got done really quickly. So it was it
just took a lot of stress out of the situation
for me. And then mastering, I reached out to a connection.
I had a guy named Mike Nulty of Eureka Mastering
out in Portland, and I met him through my old job.
(39:07):
I my day job, I work in kind of music
software marketing and sales. So I met Mike a few
years ago, and then I went online to look at
his discography like who he's worked with. I'm like, he's
the guy that mastered all the Shiner stuff and Life
and Times and the Alan Epley stuff, and I'm like, Okay,
(39:30):
So first of all, I emailed and I kind of
had a fanboy a little bit, and I'm like, dude,
Darles the Egg, Oh my god, these are some of
my favorite albums.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
And you had the.
Speaker 9 (39:41):
You know, the fortunate the fortune to be involved with,
you know, mastering those records and they sound incredible and anyway,
so I reached out. Very nice guy, affordable and great work.
So yeah, it was great to work with a people
that I really trust and respect, and we'll most likely
(40:05):
kind of go that path for the upcoming record too.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Oh that's awesome, man, that's cool to hear. What a
fun story.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So then what are you You mentioned something about electronic
stuff that you've also been writing. Are you in other
projects actively right now or writing for other projects or
is Forbidden Ce's kind of the primary jam.
Speaker 9 (40:27):
Forbidden Ce's is totally the primary jam right now. I've
always kind of written stuff kind of on the side
here and there. Yeah, it's nothing that's really notable, nothing
that really has a name or anything like that. It's
just all kind of messing around for the most part.
(40:48):
But it's it's a bit different than Forbidden Seas, but
it's kind of in like that same vein of you know,
kind of ambient, kind of progressive, kind of dark what
I've or you want to call it. But yeah, no
idea when that stuff is gonna find the light of day.
But I'm really kind of focused on the limited time
(41:10):
I have available to get this Forbidden Seas record done.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, right, there is that.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I mean, children and the rest of life will certainly. Yeah,
takes its time, for sure, And it's not just like
there's an abundance line around to get everything else done.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
So totally understand that.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
What then, Oh so one question I wanted to ask
before I forget what where's like the centralized spot that
I know you you were saying you're standing up socials
and you got these two singles out or this single
with two songs out?
Speaker 3 (41:43):
What where? Where do where do people come find Forbidden Seas?
Where's the best spot? Is it band Camp?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Is that the kind of portal or is there specifically
Instagram is better or somewhere else.
Speaker 9 (41:54):
I would say Instagram is probably the place that I
would post anything on first, And there's there's a uh
wait a second, I should double check that I'm actually
saying some accurate information I have haven't really updated a lot.
We do have a link tree on there so you can,
you know, find links to some of the other stuff.
We'll be building it out more, but yeah, Instagram is
(42:16):
pretty much where you'll find everything. Uh, and then you know,
everything will go up to band camp right away and
it'll be on all the streaming platforms too.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Awesome. Awesome. What else are you working on?
Speaker 5 (42:30):
Then?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Anything else besides that?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I mean, you've got a full plate anyway, But I
just figured i'd ask, is there something else that you're
you're working on or have your eyes on getting going
in twenty twenty five cents early in the year.
Speaker 9 (42:42):
Oh, man, honestly, not really. You know, it's just kind
of like music, and I try to make music as
much as possible good for you. And you know, having
a couple of first graders to chase around that keeps
me busy.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
I'm sure it does.
Speaker 9 (43:04):
Well.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
That's great, man, Bill, Thank you so much for taking
the time today to talk to me about all this.
It's super fun catching up. It's awesome to hear all
the context and background of how this came together and
what y'all are working on. And it's super exciting music.
It's super exciting to know that there's another record coming
and that you know there's potentially live shows like all
that is just amazing. So I'll make sure to post
(43:25):
on when I post the episode, I'll share with everybody
where they can come find you guys, your band camp
and Instagram. But yeah, man, thanks again for just taking
the time talk to me. It's been super awesome.
Speaker 9 (43:36):
Yeah, thank you, Brett. Great to catch up and I
really appreciate you reaching out and asking me to do this.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Man, absolutely free Crows.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Beside Breakdown, So stupid.
Speaker 6 (44:07):
People steps Dan Rosity Feeds, Stay.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Cheesmillis Feeds, Challousness, Famala sound.
Speaker 12 (44:35):
Cone.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
All right, and that wraps up another episode of The
b Side Breakdown. I want to thank Bill Collins for
coming along to talk about the Forbidden Sea song Wolves Sheep.
I also want to thank Adam Coolong you carry Bosel
for helping me put to the jingle you hear at
the beginning and the end of this episode. In the background,
you're listening to a track called Buffalo by a band
called Nowhere Fast. If you're like witch here, please go
back and listen to that episode because that's what that
(45:10):
episode was about. Up next, I got a really really
cool song from a band called The Snorts called Weird
but Okay super dope and I can't wait for you
to hear it.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
I'll give you a taste of that at the end
of this episode. What else.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
and thank you so much for your continued and ongoing support.
Stay safe and saying out there, and we'll catch up
on the next one.
Speaker 11 (45:32):
Thanks God, Ben the Morning, Ben Alo with the World,
(45:56):
and three thirty more.
Speaker 12 (46:02):
Three thirty four.
Speaker 10 (46:06):
Nothing on my mind except all the noise of existential
trap followed by the clabready up, already.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
Knowing exactly.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Lion at this bad.
Speaker 10 (46:28):
Wasn't something that
Speaker 6 (46:41):
When thousand
Free tros B Side Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey everyone, welcome to the B Side Breakdown. My name
is Brett Johnson and I'm your host. This is episode
thirty four of a podcast where I talk with other artists,
musicians and songwriters about a song they've written that's meaningful
to them that they want to chat about.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Get deep into the y behind it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
First, they gotta give you permission to play the song
in its entire day of the episode, so you the listener,
get a chance to hear it before we.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Have our conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Cool, all right, So today I'm gonna be talking about
Bill Collins from the band Forbidden Seas about their song
Wolve's Sheep.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It's a great tune. I can't wait for you to
hear it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So here is Wolve's Sheep by Forbidden Seas.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
We're trollingcaus Corts, Sir, it resting.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
In the sun.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
Time to do so eight ten side.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Away side.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Still so.
Speaker 7 (02:33):
Today aldy but chance Scott coach.
Speaker 8 (02:57):
So you trull crowd, payful aside stop.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
What I call us to get from sus Sell the
roadside never no side.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We start of sea track. We are very super ware.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
And weird, weird. It's not a secret, weird having suffer.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Job job.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Classic no closs.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
All right, and that was Wolve's Sheep by Forbidden Seas.
We're gonna take a quick break and we're going to
come back and chat with Bill Collins about the song.
So please hang tight and stay with us and we'll
be all right back.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, and we are back.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Let's bring in Bill Collins from the band Forbidden Seas
to talk about the song Wolves Sheep. Bill, thank you
so much for taking some time to talk about the.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Song with me.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
Yeah, brut, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Absolutely, it's a I I really enjoyed listening to this
as soon as I heard it. I just kind of
keep listening to it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It's there's so many there's so much history, I know,
just from your music and your pass music with Jayrer
and Jeremy Jessen, who's also a part of this as
I understand, and and just there's there's some like nods
to some of that stuff that is just super fun
to kind of feels like a you know, that that
good baseball glove that I've always used, and I'm like,
(05:50):
oh man, it's so nice to hear this combination again.
And I really really dug it, but please tell us all.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
About the song. Why did you want to talk about
wolves today?
Speaker 9 (06:02):
Yeah, so this song was one of the first of
a batch of songs I started writing right at the
beginning of twenty twenty, like January, I think, you know,
after Christmas break was all over. You know, life kind
of gets back to normal. I kind of had I
(06:23):
guess maybe in New Year's resolution or something like that,
but sure I wanted to just get back into writing
and working with the band again. And you know for
years I've been trying to start working with Jeremy Justin
again and because we had just a really good working,
(06:46):
creative relationship and chemistry that you know, I really wanted
to get back into that. You know, those days with
all the Way writer where some of the best years
of my life, to be honest with you. You know,
it was super creative and fun, and you know, the
local music scene of Minneapolis and the you know early
(07:06):
two thousands, mid two thousands was was pretty special. Man,
like so many great band bands and and friends, and
so you know, I had been away from making music
for quite a few years. So I mean the song
is special for a number of reasons. It kind of
marks uh, you know, my personal return into making music
(07:30):
with a band, but also kind of rekindling the creative
relationship with Jair. And not to mention the other guys
involved are two former bandmates that kind of I would
put them in kind of the same category as Jair.
You know, we had great chemistry and great working relationships,
(07:51):
just kind of being on the same page musically. And
Brandon Dickert is the drummer and Matt Russell is the
bass player. We both I played in a band with
those two when I lived in Los Angeles. We we
did an EP and a full length and we're together
for about three or four years, and we all ended
(08:11):
up moving kind of back home. I guess you could
say Brandon still lives in LA But anyways, Yeah, so
why is the song important? You know, just kind of
a return to music working with some of my you know,
good friends. And it was also kind of a I
started experiment experimenting with a bunch of different guitar tunings,
(08:34):
and you know, I'm sure some guitar players can relate
to when you kind of get you know, on a
plateau of just you know, using drop D or standard
or something like that, when you open it up to
open tunings or something like that. You write differently, and
(08:57):
this song was a a sorry, let me go back
with that. It's aa D g AD, So it's the
low string is tuned down an octave, okay, so it
sounds super thick, and but with that the top three
strings give this kind of warm, open sound that was
used in a lot of like led Zeppelin and a
(09:18):
lot of Shiner tunes as well use this tuning. I
think he tends to use Dad Dad. But anyways, long
story short, it was just a really a good time
for me to kind of like rekindle the relationship with
Jar and the other guys. Yeah, and get a bunch
of ideas out into the world.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
For all you listeners that are unfamiliar, I forget the
year maybe two thousand and six or seven, or it
might be later too late on that. There's a band
from Minneapolis called All the Way Rider that Bill mentioned,
and they had a record called The Eagles Revenge, and
that record was on constant repeat for me for a
two years. It was such an awesome, awesome, creative thing.
(10:06):
I loved that record. I loved that record and to
know that that's what I was talking about earlier when
I'm like yeah, Like when you say like, yeah, part
of this for you is to reconnect with with Jar
and re reconnect to that chemistry that you guys had
in that writing process and that sort of writing context,
it's like, oh yeah, man, I mean I feel it
(10:27):
right away when I heard it, I was like, that
is so awesome, And it's just super exciting to to
know that, you know, how influential you you both apparently
are on each other creatively in that way, because it's
just it's super dope.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Like I'm just I'm beside myself with it. I'm so
into it.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
That.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Plus I love the fact that uh, yeah, like this
was your first you know, yeah, good good job, your
first time back out writing a song in forever because wow, man,
like it's a great song and that man, yeah, absolutely,
and it's it's so it's it is.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I really really like it a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And there's so many things going in it with the
textures and kind of the soundscapes.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And I know the band is called Forbidden Season.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'm interested to know why that name, but there's you
know that that affects the how I listen to it
and how I hear it because I hear it with
this more open kind of.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Imagination visually, like I mean, and not to sound I'm
not comparing you guys to mast it on, so don't
take this this way.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
But in one of their records, like it sounds like
they're in a thunderous ocean and a whale's trying to
kill them, like it, and you can see it when
you're listening to it. And for this this felt like, yeah,
like I don't know what's going on in the sky,
I don't know what's going on in the water, and
I don't know if it has anything to do with it,
but it felt like, yeah, there's definitely like this voyage
kind of happening in it. I just thought all that
(11:57):
was super awesome too, Like it's just incredibly expressive and creative.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
On so many levels. So I mean, yeah, awesome, awesome work.
Speaker 9 (12:06):
Cool man. Yeah, thank you for saying that. That's means
a lot. You know, one thing, my least favorite thing
about new projects and new bands, My least favorite thing
is coming up with the name.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Oh sure, because like you come.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Up with a cool name and it's taken right. You
know some I don't know, some band that has one
single and they they're based in uh, you know, Turkmenistan,
and they have a band camp, and they took your name.
You know, I think there's some examples where you can
be like, you know what, we're going to be sharing
this name, but sure, you know, some of the names
(12:47):
that I had thought of before and kind of bounced
back and forth with the other guys were we're taken,
you know, and they were taken by groups that you know,
had some releases out there, and you know they're still active,
so you know, you gotta stee clear of that. And
this name was one that I really settled on because
I wanted to have something that's kind of open ended
(13:08):
in a way. The name Forbidden sees really kind of,
for me, expresses something of it open ended in exploration
and where we don't have a defined sound necessarily. It
does kind of sound a bit darker for lack of
a better word. And I remember sharing it with some
(13:31):
friends early on. They're like, eh, I think it's trying
too hard. Like, dude, you have no idea how many
names I've gone through and this is the one that
actually is not taken. You know, I'm feeling pretty strongly
about it, but the inspiration actually came from a video
I was found on YouTube with Carl Sagan. Basically Carl
(13:54):
Sagan who talks about it is a quote from a
Herman Melville book he wrote, Moby Dick and Herman Melville
says something to the extent of I long for the remote,
I long to explore forbidden ses. And it's like it
kind of to me was like this thing of like
(14:15):
life is going to sound like a super huge hippie
right now, but life is Life is this long journey
you take. And you know, music is a huge part
of my life and a lot of you know, my
musician friends. It's a big part of our life. It's
a big part of our you know, creative expression and
our ore. You know, it defines kind of who we are.
(14:37):
And I wanted this to be kind of a vehicle
to explore lots of different musical paths.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
You know.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
We we have some instrumental stuff that we're kind of
working on, and honestly, the the the the creative well
is full right now, and there's lots of ideas that
I'm hoping that this kind of turns into multiple releases
and live shows and things like that. So yeah, I mean,
long minute answer. But the name for me was something
(15:07):
that it took a while to find. But I think
it really sums up kind of like what I want
to do with this band and where I want to
take it. I also kind of said like I want
a project that I can be like, you know, seventy
two and have a long gray beard and play like
you know, fifteen minute prog jams and it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yep, no, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And yeah, that's that's interesting that some of the folks
you shared it with. I forget what they said. What
do they say that you're trying too hard with the name?
Speaker 9 (15:42):
Trying too hard?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Trying too hard that.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I'll tell you my I'm familiar with that sentiment and
when I see it, I recognize that too.
Speaker 9 (15:53):
And with this.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
As soon as I saw it and as soon as I.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Heard it, all I felt was, oh, this is entirely liberate,
like it felt there's such intent behind it. And that's
what really resonated with me all the way around. I mean,
it was and it's funny because even what was fun
and just what you described about the name, I felt
like in other ways you were saying back what I
(16:17):
was saying to you about how I experienced listening to this.
I mean it was which is super fun for me
and really cool. And the irony that you're talking about
this comes from Moby Dick, and here I was talking
about Masdon's record Levithan and the song Blood and Thunder,
which is about Moby Dick.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
That's what I was referring to.
Speaker 10 (16:35):
The uh.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
There's I think that's fun too, the U and that, Yeah,
that's how it feels like this, this sort of awesome journey,
I mean the one. It was funny when you said,
you know, the one thing that I hate the most
about being in a new.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Band, and I was like, oh no, sorry dude. I
thought you were gonna say it's being compared to my
old bands. And I'm like, okay, that's not what I'm
trying to do. And I'm when I mentioned all the
way writer at all, but I'm glad you didn't say that.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
But the other side of that is there's I mean,
I hear there's experiential things that I have from it.
And this is hard to convey to people sometimes when
I'm not meaning to say this is what I think
you sound like. But I had this mind blowing experience
seeing Magui perform once and it had this complete immersive,
(17:23):
post rock textured awesome. I don't know what was going on,
and I was just floored by it and went to
Lalla land in my seat, absorbing it all and truly
like I just I can sit here with my eyes
closed and listen to this and it's just like I
can have again this completely sort of transcendent visual experience
(17:45):
at the same time, and it's it's it's super fun
to have that, to still get that, and to get
that from man, dudes that I know that have been
writing music together off and on for a long long time,
and it's that's really fun. It's just fun to know
that you guys are out there doing it and super
excited for everything else you have coming up with it.
Speaker 9 (18:05):
Well, man, Yeah, I feel like, you know, with the
guys I work with in this band are busy and
have families and jobs, but and are also in a
few other music projects. So I feel like, you know,
this is kind of just a vehicle for us all
(18:25):
to kind of like express a certain part of our
you know, musical taste and creativity. You know, you know,
I also do other stuff too. Musically that I haven't
really put out to the world, but you know, kind
of more like electronic stuff and and some of that
kind of finds its way into the forbidden ceas tunes
(18:48):
a little bit. So it's just, yeah, it's great just
to kind of have different creative vehicles in your life.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So far, two songs have been released part of a
quote unquote single that I've seen on Spotify. Is there
is that single going to expand or is there more
coming as a different signal or what's kind of next
on the release front for the current body of work.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Yeah, we're working on a record actually, So we put
out those two singles just kind of like dip our
toes in the water, you know, kind of just as
you know, getting every our socials up and and all that.
And we're working on a record right now. When I
say record, I should clarify it's it's only going to
(19:36):
be about six songs. But we have a lot more
kind of in the works, as I was mentioning earlier,
some instrumental stuff kind of working on that. And yeah,
just always kind of have songs that are being worked
on in various different phases. But currently we have about
(19:58):
five or six that are all demoed out. Pro tool
sessions have been sent out to everyone and by the way,
we all work remotely, which has its own set of challenges,
but luckily, you know, it's pretty streamlined. So Brandon, our drummer,
(20:19):
he lives in Los Angeles and he has a studio
in his garage and it's a pretty legit studio. His
drums are always miked up, and you know, we both
use pro tools, so we could just trade sessions back
and forth. And Jerre has a home studio set up
in his house and then Matt our bass player also
(20:41):
had also has a setup, so we basically just trade
sessions back and forth via drought box, and you know,
they're all demoed out. And the good thing about working
with Brandon is the drums sound great. You know, he
plays them very well. But when he's done, you know,
(21:03):
we kind of go back and forth and you know,
get feedback and whatnot. But you know, he's delivering these
projects where the drums are edited and cleaned up and
on the grid with Beat Detective and stuff like that.
So it's like that's awesome, Dang dude, thank you, because
that in itself is tons of work. To get everything
clean and edited. But yeah, it's it's been working out
(21:26):
pretty well so far. I do plan to hopefully get
up to Minneapolis and we'll track Jar's vocals in a
studio and to kind of just make sure we're, you know,
getting the tones the way we want them. And Matt
the bass player, lives in locally in the Chicago area.
(21:48):
He and I get together every now and then, and yeah,
so we can always kind of work at my place
or his.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Got it?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, when did the gap start of you stopping songwriting
and picking him back up again?
Speaker 8 (22:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
When did what was the time frame like between songwriting?
Speaker 9 (22:06):
Yeah, in twenty seventeen, my wife and I we moved
back from Los Angeles for a few reasons. We wanted
to have children and buy a home, and both of
those two things are very difficult to do in the
Los Angeles area, sure, unless you live like far out
(22:29):
in the desert or something like that. And so we
moved back in early twenty seventeen. And you know, just
the whole process of you know, moving back to or
just moving anywhere. You know, you have to get your foundation,
you know, getting a job and getting a place to
live and all that stuff, but we're also trying to
(22:52):
have kids at the time, so that was a challenge
and going through that whole process, and so yeah, you know,
my priorities were not music at the time, and you know,
for a few years after that, and it's kind of
gotten to the point where you know, they're old enough
now and I have more time to kind of work
on music. So it's been It was a good five
(23:14):
years where I was just kind of not doing writing
music for band stuff. I had been doing things on
the side, doing like commercial production for some music libraries,
so like, these are some people I met out in
LA that do this kind of thing, like music for
(23:34):
advertisements and TV shows, and I was fortunate to kind
of keep my chops up, I guess, you know, using
a daw and producing and things like that. So I
was making a lot of things kind of on the side.
But my heart has always been this kind of music,
you know, kind of post rock, progressive, heavy stuff like that.
(23:57):
So when these when I had the opportunity to kind
of get back into it, and you know, to find
that my my former bandmates were down for it, and uh,
it was it was It was great because I had
missed doing this for so many years.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, no, that's that's awesome. Thanks for all that context.
I you know, frankly, I didn't know you moved to LA.
I thought you had left Minneapolis and went to Chicago.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And then just have been in Chicago. So I didn't
know you went to LA. What was the band in La?
Speaker 11 (24:28):
What we was that?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
What was it called?
Speaker 9 (24:30):
So there's a bit of a story. I moved out
to LA to play in a band, and uh, it
was not the band that I was mentioning earlier. The
band there's also some old friends originally from Minneapolis by
way of Milwaukee. Oh my god, I'm blank, you got
on the name? Give me a second. Sure, Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Salare okay?
Speaker 9 (24:57):
S O L A r E. But so in late
two thousand and nine early twenty ten, my friend Josh
from Solare asked, Hey, do you want to be in
this band? And I was like, yeah. It featured Tim Dawe,
the original drummer of Shiner right and he played in
(25:20):
Year of the Rabbit for got it a while, so
I was like, oh my god, yes, yes dude, and
so we moved out there. I luckily had a job
where I could transfer and my wife was able to
pick up something pretty quickly, kind of doing the line
of work she did in Chicago out there, and I
don't know, we had a really soft landing out there
(25:41):
in LA. Like a lot of people go out and
it's tough, you know, and you got to like live
in a crappy place and all that, which you know,
we didn't live in like the greatest place ever. But
we had you know, had a band. You know, we
got jobs pretty pretty quickly, and you know, had a
little bit of a social circle out there with It's
(26:02):
funny when you move out there, you'd think like, oh,
you're going to meet people from Los Angeles, but nobody's
from Los Angeles. Like the people that we we immediately
gravitated towards were guess what, they're from Minnesota, Chicago, Milwaukee.
And not saying that we didn't meet any Californians, but
(26:24):
you know, there's just you. You like you're at the
same shows. Oh, Life and Times is playing at at
this such and such bar, Like you all go there
and you're like, you know, it's just something that kind
of we we we we found each other, I guess.
And that's the story of heard a lot, but yeah,
played with Clare for a little bit. Sadly, it didn't
(26:46):
really take off, like we rehearsed a bunch. They ended
up writing an EP, and it kind of got to
the point.
Speaker 10 (26:54):
Where the.
Speaker 9 (26:57):
Uh, the leaders of the band, They're like, we're not
We're done, We're not going to do it anymore. They
were just kind of like in a crossroads with their
life too, and they decided to, I guess, hang it
up and kind of just kind of focus on careers
and having a family and all these things too sore,
(27:18):
but yeah, and then I do have a little story
about the band that I played in with Brandon and Matt.
This is a I think it's kind of a cool story.
And so Brandon is originally from Chicago, and one of
the other guys in the band, his name is Phil,
(27:41):
also from the Chicago area, and we knew each other.
So a couple of years before LA we met in
Chicago and we again just you know, became fast friends,
and we kind of wrote some music together for a
little bit, and then funny enough, all three of us
(28:01):
were like, we all want to move to Los Angeles,
and we all kind of moved at different times, but
we ended up there within about six months of each other.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh funny.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
So yeah, it was just, yeah, let's get this project going.
That band became Sidewave. We released a full length in
twenty fifteen and a split single with this other band
from San Diego which I can't remember the name off
the top of my head. But that was great. That
was super fun. But the funny story here is how
(28:33):
we met our bass player. And coincidentally, it's kind of
in a similar way of how I met my wife.
And it's because of the event of the band Houston,
the Minneapolis band Houston. And it has nothing to do
with Jeff or Lane or Ian. It has to do
with people that were kind of in that circle, I
guess you could say.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
And so.
Speaker 9 (28:56):
Sidewave is this band. It was Phil Matt and I sorry,
Phil Brandon and I this is about twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen,
and I knew a guy or no, a guy from
the Eliat area, which I'm sure a lot of Houston fans. No,
his name is Chemo and he goes by the.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
What do you call it?
Speaker 9 (29:21):
Like what do you call your name? And like a
community or like Reddit, like your username or whatever it's called.
But the name Darshun does that ring a bell with you? No, yeah,
so he I guess I think he's the guy that
like started like the Houston Facebook page and maybe some
like I don't know, like community things online and things
(29:45):
like that, and and like he went to the Kansas
City Final show at the Madrid in two thousand and
three with Shiner and we're at a show I think
it was Life and Times potentially in Los Angeles and
we're hanging out there and I see this guy with
Houston shirt and I'm like, hey, what's up, dude, It's
like Houston, They're awesome. He's like yeah, I'm like, hey,
(30:09):
I'm from Minneapolis originally, and I played in this band
called All the Way Rider. He like takes his hat
off and throws it on the floor. He's like, get
out of here. And I'm like, no, it's true. It's
one hundred percent true.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
You know.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
It's like nobody knew who we are. But I was thinking,
like I was just surprised at his reaction. Sure, and
he's like, yeah, I'm Chemo, and he told me the
whole story and all that. So fast forward a little bit.
The band failure real night and they were playing their
first show back you know, since rejoining at the l
(30:44):
Ray in like February of twenty fourteen, and Kimo and
I had stayed in touch it a little bit, you know,
just kind of texting or social media messages whatever, since
we saw each other at that one show, and he
knew that we were looking for a bass player. So
it just happened to be that Chemo and Matt the
(31:07):
bass player, were like standing right next to each other
in line, and then you know they're both friendly, talkative people,
so they just kind of started chatting and Chemo says, hey,
this band I know is looking for a bass player,
and so he connected us with Matt, and you know,
just kind of one of those things like we ended
up just getting along great, just being like super you know,
(31:28):
good friends, and to elaborate even further and how it
was like the universe kind of connecting us or whatever.
His wife is originally from Chicago and he spent tons
of time in Chicago, so we're all like just had
all this these things in common, which is always you know,
a good starting place and you're building relationships.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
So agreed, Yeah, we we just.
Speaker 9 (31:50):
Kind of found each other through mutual friends and if
it wasn't for Houston. Who knows, maybe maybe we wouldn't
have met right.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, yeah, you know, shout outs to uh, Jeff halland
and Alan Epley for helping bring us all together with
your various bands exactly, that's for sure. The no, that's
awesome and thanks for all that. And I also love
that you did this. You know, essentially did this record
over file sharing, and I'm familiar with that too. I've
(32:21):
moved around so much that you know, I mean, I
put out a six song EP kind of the same
way where it's all file sharing, everybody's in a different state,
and where it's all recording and sharing our tracks through
Google Drive or Dropbox or something, and next thing, you know,
our engineers putting it all together. So it's it's fun
to see how that works. But it's you'd never know.
(32:42):
I mean, it doesn't sound to me like it wasn't
you know that Nothing about Forbidden Ce sounds like, oh,
it wasn't written in a practice space, which I think
is also really great that there's no disconnect in the
sound at all of how you might have put that together,
because I've heard that some other context where it's like, yeah,
it kind of sounds like this was someone did this,
(33:03):
someone did this that, and then it sort of was
slapped together. But it's I love the way that, however,
you are all able to collaborate together. It's it's amazing
in the two songs I've heard, and I look forward
to hearing more.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
Cool Man. Yeah, thanks, that's that's a good thing to
hear that. It didn't sound too like I don't know,
rigid or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, we
definitely didn't hash it out live in the studio. It was,
you know, all file sharing. But yeah, I think it's
just having other people in the band that can really
(33:38):
help out with you know, editing and sure stuff like
that makes it super easy. But yeah, I do miss
the in person stuff. I think that's really important, and
so we're going to try to get a little bit
of that happening, and hopefully at some point maybe we
all sit in the same room. I mean, I definitely
want this project to I want us to play show,
(34:00):
you know, for sure. I'm you know, just we would
all be kind of weekend warriors, I guess you could say.
But if we could play something like regionally Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison,
I would be super down with that. And that's kind
of the goal is to you know, have these first
few songs and followed up with another batch and hopefully
(34:23):
we can get on a bill somewhere.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well when that happens, please let me know, because that's
a show I would I would travel to go see.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
You would really love to see it. Oh right on, dude, yeah, man,
Well let's do this.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and
let's find out what you're working on next and other
things got going on?
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Cool, cool, all right, cool, everybody stay with us. We'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
All right, and we are back with Bill Collins from
Forbidden Seas. We were talking about the song Wolf Sheep
and everything that's going on with the band. Bill, Thanks
again for taking the time today. So quick question then,
So I know that there's the two songs out on
the streaming services right now, that's the single. You have
kind of an EP in the works or record in
(35:08):
the works depending on how that shakes out, that's eventually
going to get recorded.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And is in process. But the stuff that's out there
now is there? Is it sellable? Like do you have
it on? Can I buy a CD? Can I buy
a seven inch. Can I buy a T shirt?
Speaker 9 (35:24):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
What's going on with what you got with it?
Speaker 9 (35:28):
Yeah? Right now? The only thing we have you can
buy a download on band camp, okay, and then it's
on all the streaming services you know, Apple Music, Spotify,
et cetera. But yeah, nothing beyond that. I you know,
once the record comes out, I think we'll have, you know,
(35:49):
kind of do the regular stuff. We'll have our shirt, sure,
our shirts, maybe some other merch maybe some vinyl. We'll see.
I haven't really thought that far ahead. Yeah, definitely, we'll
get that stuff happening at some point.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Cool. So you also talked about how right what's your
drummer's name, Brandon Brandon?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, Brandon that Brandon like mixed or not mixed, but
he edited all of his drum tracks and got everything
all nice and where it needed to be before they
were included in.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
The ultimate mix.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
So I believe your depth in audio engineering would indicate
to me you probably mixed and mastered this, but maybe
not who was also was involved in the process.
Speaker 10 (36:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (36:37):
So one thing that has happened to me in other
bands that I've been in, I love the process of
recording and mixing. I really enjoy it. I don't necessarily
enjoy mixing my own stuff because we all know the
idea behind that is, like the mix is never done.
(36:59):
It's done, you have to turn it in basically. And
I got to the point where I was not able
to kind of turn off the guitar player artist hat
or I wasn't. I wasn't able to turn that side
off and kind of enter mixed mode, because you know,
(37:21):
you always hear like, oh I can I can add
this little delay guitar here in there, or experiment with
the fuzz on the bass in this part or whatever,
or let's try a different drum sample. You can always
go back and forth. So I just knew that, like
I needed to hand it off because if I didn't,
it wasn't going to get done. And I will likely
(37:41):
kind of continue that that going forward. We'll see. But
luckily there, You know, I know a few people that
are I really respect is is mixing engineers. They just
really really know their stuff. So I reached out to
my friend igor And and he he's mixed some other
(38:03):
friends projects, but most notably he's the front of house
engineer for Animals as Leaders. Oh wow, so he's he
knows his stuff, like he knows he knows how to
mix heavy guitar bass music and you know we're not
we're not as heavy as as animals at all. But
(38:23):
you know, he's just the kind of guy that like,
he's incredibly intelligent and talented and you know you don't
have to like, uh he gets it, I guess to
sum it up, so sure, and he's super fast working.
Uh so you know I would hand a hand over
the mix, and you know, the feedback would be quick
(38:44):
and we could kind of go back and forth quickly,
so it got done really quickly. So it was it
just took a lot of stress out of the situation
for me. And then mastering, I reached out to a connection.
I had a guy named Mike Nulty of Eureka Mastering
out in Portland, and I met him through my old job.
(39:07):
I my day job, I work in kind of music
software marketing and sales. So I met Mike a few
years ago, and then I went online to look at
his discography like who he's worked with. I'm like, he's
the guy that mastered all the Shiner stuff and Life
and Times and the Alan Epley stuff, and I'm like, Okay,
(39:30):
So first of all, I emailed and I kind of
had a fanboy a little bit, and I'm like, dude,
Darles the Egg, Oh my god, these are some of
my favorite albums.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
And you had the.
Speaker 9 (39:41):
You know, the fortunate the fortune to be involved with,
you know, mastering those records and they sound incredible and anyway,
so I reached out. Very nice guy, affordable and great work.
So yeah, it was great to work with a people
that I really trust and respect, and we'll most likely
(40:05):
kind of go that path for the upcoming record too.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Oh that's awesome, man, that's cool to hear. What a
fun story.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So then what are you You mentioned something about electronic
stuff that you've also been writing. Are you in other
projects actively right now or writing for other projects or
is Forbidden Ce's kind of the primary jam.
Speaker 9 (40:27):
Forbidden Ce's is totally the primary jam right now. I've
always kind of written stuff kind of on the side
here and there. Yeah, it's nothing that's really notable, nothing
that really has a name or anything like that. It's
just all kind of messing around for the most part.
(40:48):
But it's it's a bit different than Forbidden Seas, but
it's kind of in like that same vein of you know,
kind of ambient, kind of progressive, kind of dark what
I've or you want to call it. But yeah, no
idea when that stuff is gonna find the light of day.
But I'm really kind of focused on the limited time
(41:10):
I have available to get this Forbidden Seas record done.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, right, there is that.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I mean, children and the rest of life will certainly. Yeah,
takes its time, for sure, And it's not just like
there's an abundance line around to get everything else done.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
So totally understand that.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
What then, Oh so one question I wanted to ask
before I forget what where's like the centralized spot that
I know you you were saying you're standing up socials
and you got these two singles out or this single
with two songs out?
Speaker 3 (41:43):
What where? Where do where do people come find Forbidden Seas?
Where's the best spot? Is it band Camp?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Is that the kind of portal or is there specifically
Instagram is better or somewhere else.
Speaker 9 (41:54):
I would say Instagram is probably the place that I
would post anything on first, And there's there's a uh
wait a second, I should double check that I'm actually
saying some accurate information I have haven't really updated a lot.
We do have a link tree on there so you can,
you know, find links to some of the other stuff.
We'll be building it out more, but yeah, Instagram is
(42:16):
pretty much where you'll find everything. Uh, and then you know,
everything will go up to band camp right away and
it'll be on all the streaming platforms too.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Awesome. Awesome. What else are you working on?
Speaker 5 (42:30):
Then?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Anything else besides that?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I mean, you've got a full plate anyway, But I
just figured i'd ask, is there something else that you're
you're working on or have your eyes on getting going
in twenty twenty five cents early in the year.
Speaker 9 (42:42):
Oh, man, honestly, not really. You know, it's just kind
of like music, and I try to make music as
much as possible good for you. And you know, having
a couple of first graders to chase around that keeps
me busy.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
I'm sure it does.
Speaker 9 (43:04):
Well.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
That's great, man, Bill, Thank you so much for taking
the time today to talk to me about all this.
It's super fun catching up. It's awesome to hear all
the context and background of how this came together and
what y'all are working on. And it's super exciting music.
It's super exciting to know that there's another record coming
and that you know there's potentially live shows like all
that is just amazing. So I'll make sure to post
(43:25):
on when I post the episode, I'll share with everybody
where they can come find you guys, your band camp
and Instagram. But yeah, man, thanks again for just taking
the time talk to me. It's been super awesome.
Speaker 9 (43:36):
Yeah, thank you, Brett. Great to catch up and I
really appreciate you reaching out and asking me to do this.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Man, absolutely free Crows.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Beside Breakdown, So stupid.
Speaker 6 (44:07):
People steps Dan Rosity Feeds, Stay.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Cheesmillis Feeds, Challousness, Famala sound.
Speaker 12 (44:35):
Cone.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
All right, and that wraps up another episode of The
b Side Breakdown. I want to thank Bill Collins for
coming along to talk about the Forbidden Sea song Wolves Sheep.
I also want to thank Adam Coolong you carry Bosel
for helping me put to the jingle you hear at
the beginning and the end of this episode. In the background,
you're listening to a track called Buffalo by a band
called Nowhere Fast. If you're like witch here, please go
back and listen to that episode because that's what that
(45:10):
episode was about. Up next, I got a really really
cool song from a band called The Snorts called Weird
but Okay super dope and I can't wait for you
to hear it.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
I'll give you a taste of that at the end
of this episode. What else.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
and thank you so much for your continued and ongoing support.
Stay safe and saying out there, and we'll catch up
on the next one.
Speaker 11 (45:32):
Thanks God, Ben the Morning, Ben Alo with the World,
(45:56):
and three thirty more.
Speaker 12 (46:02):
Three thirty four.
Speaker 10 (46:06):
Nothing on my mind except all the noise of existential
trap followed by the clabready up, already.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
Knowing exactly.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Lion at this bad.
Speaker 10 (46:28):
Wasn't something that
Speaker 6 (46:41):
When thousand
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