Tanner Morita: A Hope for Home and My Epic

Cullen and Mason chat with Tanner Morita from A Hope for Home and My Epic. We chat about his history in both bands, his unique guitar style in heavy bands, and if we can expect new music from both bands in the future. 

Check out A Hope for Home here: https://linktr.ee/ahopeforhome

Check out My Epic here: https://www.myepicrock.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Today, we've got Tanner Marita with us and Tanner. You've
been involved with a few bands. If you're somebody who
is a big Face Down Records fan, like Colin and
I are, and you've and you like listen to all
the Face Down Records discography, Yeah, and you're like, why
is some of this stuff sound so pretty? That's Tanna

(00:56):
Marita right there. That's the reason why it's the prettiest
stuff you'll ever hear in your life. And it's the
very reason why my epic sounds like my epic and
why I hope for home sounds like.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
The reason you can't dance or mosh or it's not
fun to watch. The biggest buzzkill musically there ever was
on Face Done Records.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
If you just want to think or get high, he's
your man.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
He is your man.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
The amount of you're so you make music that people
should study exams for.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
That's the kind of music you make.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Or love to make or love or love.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's maybe music you should have in the background while
you're studying for your exam. But yeah, yeah, if anybody's
going to make love to any of music, I'm honed,
but I wouldn't advise it I guess I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, but has anyone ever told you that they've made
love to any of your music?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I'm assuming that it's happened. I'm hoping that it's you know,
like uh, you know some of the like very acoustic
y Miampic, Broken Voice. You know there's that cover, the
like hymnal cover on us, like broken Voice.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
It sounds like a terrible idea. That sounds blasphemous. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It sounds holy, is what it does.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
I'll say this though, I've gotten a professional massage with
Hope for Home playing in the background. Yeah, there was this,
there was this. There's this is not a Robert Craft story.
Uh So in my hometown there was this. There's this
massage therapist who rented out part of my parents restaurant,

(02:41):
like kind of like a side building. Her name was
Anna Garza, and she was a big Christian alternative music fan.
So she would like play Emory and stuff like that,
like when you walked in and and then you know,
oftentimes a little bit of Hope for Home would be
playing in the background while you're you know, having all
the knots Paul so good, wow, wild, Yeah, amazing, it's

(03:04):
one of my favorite stories about Hope for Home.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
It is a great story just in general, clearly the
probably the closest that anybody's ever listened to A Hope
for Home while having sex.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's close.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Maybe Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So wow, good time, Well good good to know well
Tanner Again, obviously we're big fans of both A Hope
for Home in my epic, these are two bands that
I mean truly like, we've been listening to you guys
for fifteen years. I mean I literally have it's hard
to kind of show I literally haven't A Hope for Home.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah yeah an abstraction Yeah yeah, I know, like seriously
in abstractions, probably a top five album of all time
for me.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Like, that's incredible, Oh my god, A huge.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
Huge fan.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
And uh so you've been a part of two projects
that Colin and I have loved for many, many years,
and so we're super stoked that you're even willing to
talk about about the band.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
So we're just really staked.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, thanks for having me. That's that's so awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
I'm so did you Also, did you also fill in
with hands a few times?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, I can take credit for that, but no.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
So Mason and I saw you at a festival and
I could have swore that you were No, that was
our drummer.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Our drummer filled in for hands for a little bit
because we were on tour with them, and they're what happened,
Oh my gosh, they're current or their drummer, uh Josh, Josh.
He had some weird injury. I think he was sitting
on a donut drumming every night, and then Ed was like,

(04:43):
I have to go home. So our drummer intimate yea,
our drummer filled in for a number of dates to
finish out the rest of the tour.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Sick got you. Yeah, I'm conflating that in my mind
that you were helping out out with hands. Well, we
did see you with my epic back in like, oh,
what was it twenty twelve?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Mats was yeah, twenty eleven or twenty twelve at Sunshine
And so that that's actually a good point. Maybe that's
maybe that's where we lead in here. So to me,
this is always kind of a fun thing that whenever
this does come up on the podcast, where we, you know,
interview lots of different musicians. In some cases some of
these musicians we have actually spoken to hung out with before,

(05:25):
and more than likely, you know, knowing just the nature
of being a musician and you're meeting so many different
kinds of people, you just totally forget who you've all met,
and this is probably one of those cases. So Tanner,
we have actually spoken to you before, but like literally
like thirteen years ago.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
But yeah, we were at the yeah again. I don't remember.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was two ether twy eleven and twenty twelve Sunshine
and uh I remember I think it was maybe after
the my Epics set we went up and you know,
knowing that you were involved with I hope for Home.
I maybe it was me or maybe it was you
callin I remember who was asked this question, but I
remember asking something about, like, you know, what's like an
album or what's a band that you like listen to
a lot that like, you know, has like kind of

(06:05):
shaped the way that you make music. And I still
remember you talking all about This Will Destroy You, which
is one of Colin and I's favorite bands of all time. Yeah,
and so anyway, I remember that conversation. I still think
about that conversation all the time because I also have
this will Destroy You tattoo as well, so I love
this will destroy you. So anyway, I just remember you

(06:27):
talking a little bit about how much you love this
will destroy you.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think it was like so rare to be linking
up with people at some of these festivals that were like, oh,
I'm also into like post rock, experimental noise, skate type bands.
It was just such a rarity. Yeah, when you know
you're playing in bands that are like, I mean, Ope

(06:49):
for Home and My both have elements of these like ambient, shoegayzy,
post rocky type elements. Hope for Home Adopt did more
a little bit later on, but if you're like an
earlier fan of a Hope for Home that was like
more in the pocket of like post hardcore under Oath

(07:09):
Thrice kind of totally realm then. And we had a
lot of fans from that era, So meeting people that
got the kind of like what we were trying to
do and what we're trying to push forward and these
elements that we're drawing from that were not just from
that specific world, it was like, oh, you guys, you

(07:33):
guys get it, thank you, thank you for being here.
Oh my god, Like I get for people like.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
This, I get for probably a lot of your fan base.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
It's one of those things that might feel a little alienating,
but I will say for the two of us that
exists in the world that love under oath and love
this will destroy you, it was like literally the perfect combination,
and it's it's honestly, it's a big reason why especially
Abstraction became one of my favorite albums of all time
is because it was this perfect mix of all the

(08:05):
things that I love in music, both like the heavy
post hardcore elements but also the ambient post rock elements,
and it's just this beautiful combination of both.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Thanks, Yeah, I mean we worked really hard to like
kind of I mean, anytime you're taking a band kind
of from one context into another, and I think, you know,
we made incremental changes within that, like from Realist to
an Abstraction, but you know, we made a pretty big
jump from the Everlasting Man to Realities and then another

(08:39):
big jump, you know, further in that direction for an Abstraction.
You know, it's it's a difficult to ask your fan
base to be along for the ride and put you
in context in a different you know, ocean of sound
and not feel like not feel like you're doing dirty
to your fan base, like you're alienating them. And I

(09:01):
think a lot of people, you know, felt alienated or
just didn't understand, like, right, you know, I like these
you know, fast you know Jamie songs and stuff like that.
It's like that's cool, but that's not really where we
feel our identity anymore.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Sure, sure, you know. We were actually just talking with
with another individual actually kind of in the same realm,
you know, heavier music with some with some pretty significant
post rock type elements, and we were we were talking
about how there's actually a lot of crossover of listeners
these days with post rock and uh and and more

(09:38):
of like you're just straight up heavy music, uh scene. Yeah,
absolutely doesn't matter what what venue we go to or
where we go in the country. It seems like any
anybody we talked to in the crowds like, oh yeah,
I also love cigarettes and I also love explosions in
the sky or whatever, And it is kind of an
interesting crossover. And we were trying to like put a

(09:59):
finger on it, like, wh the most extreme ends of
the rock spectrum, Why why are they coalescing so much?
It's cool.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think it's like, I mean, I've always been into
these like post genres, you know, post rock, post hardcore,
post metal.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Post punk.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, I feel the same way, like post hardcore, post rock, yeah,
post punk, post.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Not post grunge, right, I don't even know.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Maybe the only post grunge probably like post grunge is
like kind of like a post alt, you know, post
all rock. Like so, you know, you go through some
of these and they don't really necessarily make sense, but
just like the it's it's kind of being post genre
in general is kind of its own, like, yeah, I

(10:48):
like the bucket of this these sounds, but I want
to hear something new within it, you know, and I
think that's what the whole post label is really about,
you know. And you can say, like there's post classical,
which they just call that neo classical, you know, like
you're you know that borrow from like Mills from and

(11:10):
all these like all off for Arnold's genres and stuff
like that, but it's a post genre just the same
as like post rock, post hardcore, post metal.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Do you ever do you ever feel like it might
sound pretentious to say, oh, yeah, this is post so
that was that was that that was that time, that
was like the regular genre and now we're in post
because we're enlightened and we're.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Let's post hair metal. We need a post, we need
a post hair metal.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, I mean it's really just like there as long
as you can define that stamp. But that that stamp
is just gonna mean. I mean, it's it sucks that
there's not like posts is a term of like time
temporal like signifier, and that's like not always going to
be true because if it's post, then it's going to

(12:02):
always be moving. But like I feel like, for the
most part, like post hardcore has a specific sound that
now feels like pretty early to thousands.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, it's almost like it has like we have to
like redefine it because a new kind.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Of post exactly, You're you're going to be post post
hardcore at some point, And what do you call that?

Speaker 4 (12:24):
We call that a hope for home.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, maybe that's what you get.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, Triple.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
You just start adding more to it, just keep going
quintuple post. So before we more of the music stuff,
i'd love to just hear how you got into music
to be good with. I mean, obviously, what one of
the things I love about your your particular contribution to
the music that you've you've created is you know, there's

(12:59):
definitely obviously you're primarily a guitarist, but you know, literally
a piano behind you, and so there's definitely this like
multi instrumentalist nature that I would imagine you have. So
I'm just curious, like, like, what got you involved in
music to begin with.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, So, I mean I grew up in a musical family.
My parents were both fairly musical to one degree or another.
I'm the youngest of three, and both my brother's musical
in some regard in schooling and stuff like that. So
I kind of always grew up kind of watching them
and being influenced by the things that they were bringing home,

(13:36):
whether it's like kind of their music or the CDs
that they brought home, the music that they were listening to,
and just latching onto that. So I started started in
elementary school. I mean, we had like vinyl records, you know,
at our house growing up, and I remember this, we
had like a you know, one of those classic huge

(13:58):
sound systems, like the old school analog sound systems in
our basement, and you know, you could my family would
be watching TV and I'd put on a record and
plug in the like huge bucket headphones and and just
like mess around with stuff and and just listen. But yeah,
so there's always music around and and my my my,

(14:20):
both my brothers like joined like band and stuff like
that and started learning instruments early on, and I wanted
to follow along. So I picked up like saxophone and
started playing in in like our school band and stuff
like that, and and then progressed into like we had
a we had a fairly like prominent music program at

(14:42):
our middle school and a pretty pretty successful music program
in our high school as well. So I kind of
followed the route there, playing saxophone in the classical bands
and stuff like that, but then also mainly as an
avenue to be able to like play in the jazz ensembles,
which was happening all before school, you know, your zero

(15:05):
periods or whatever, so you have to be there at
six am to be able to play in the jazz
bands and stuff. So I played saxophone all growing up
throughout high school and middle school, jazz, classical, all that
sort of stuff, all the while kind of getting influenced
with CDs that my brothers would bring home and the
music that like them and their group of friends were

(15:26):
listening to and just exploring stuff at that point, and
eventually picked up guitar in early middle school. I think
it was like ten or eleven when I started, when
I got my first guitar, started playing, sure, and then
you know.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Was it a first act?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
It was a washburn. Oh jeez, it was pretty tight.
It's pretty tight.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
How does Nate feel about that?

Speaker 2 (15:50):
How does Nate feel about though, that I had a washburn?

Speaker 3 (15:53):
That you played a washburn to start with?

Speaker 2 (15:54):
I don't know if I've told him I need to
think you play a washburn. I need to thank him
for my first guitar. Yeah, So I mean I play
guitar at that point. And then then at some point
in high school, I just like lost the like motivation

(16:17):
for all school stuff at a certain point, like I
just knew. I was like, I'm I'm in music, Like
I'm here for music and I'm playing like music. And
I committed to school because I needed to commit to
like jazz, or I needed to commit to school so
I could play in the jazz band. And then once

(16:39):
I was like, well, I kind of don't think I'm
gonna play jazz all my life, so I rather play
like guitar and be in a band and like tour
and stuff like that. And at that I think at
that point I was like kind of well, why am
I doing school or why am I trying? So I
lost a lot of drive in school, and at that

(17:02):
point I was like, this is a I just need
to kind of figure out ways to satiate doing what
I need to do so I can spend more time
playing music, playing with bands, and you know the whole
classic like playing with your friends and their basement that
also play guitar and forming these like little bands and
stuff like that, and then you know, band to band

(17:23):
to band, eventually meeting up with the guys for Rome.
I was still in high school at that time, and
at that point I just like basically worked out a
deal and begged my teachers because I was still in
high school, and I just was like, I'll take all
the course load, give me all the books, whatever I

(17:44):
need to do, and I'll just do it from the road.
And so we started touring while I was still in
high school, finishing out my last senior year of high school.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Your parents were perfectly okay with that, Huh, Weirdly, that's wild. Yeah,
So they must been pretty supportive of the whole of
the whole journey.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
They were super supportive, Like I think they knew how
like it wasn't any like secret how miserable I was
jumping through the hoops doing school and course loads and
stuff like that, and.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
It must be so nice to be the youngest child.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
It is because you've kind of given up that time.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Like yeah, it's like there's no way was getting away with.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
It's definitely true. Yeah, So I I had a lot
of leeway in that regard, and I think I had
a lot of trust from my parents, and I'm surprised
that they were chill with me doing that, but that's
what I was able to do. I almost was like
we were doing a tour with Hope for Home and
we played in Salt Lake with we got linked up

(18:53):
with this show with Life in Your Way if you
guys remember them, they they were awesome.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, favorite hardcore bands.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah right, And there was like a chance that we
could jump on that tour at the end of this tour,
but that would also mean I would miss my graduation,
and then I wouldn't graduate if I did that, So
I was like, maybe I just drop out.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
Wait to graduate. You had to like actually walk across.
I think there was some that's like is that a
class itself?

Speaker 2 (19:20):
I think there was like stuff I had to like
be there to specifically file for and stuff like that,
and I had to be I was like planning to
be back for to like finish up my high school stuff,
and I was like, I could maybe just not and
we can just tour with life in your way, which
would be awesome. We ended up not jumping on that
tour and I went home and I eventually actually graduated.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
But are you the youngest guy in a hope for home?

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Okay, So that's like because if it seems like if
they were maybe all in this like part of their
life where they're like, let's like do this whatever, Like
if if you're still finishing a high school, then in
some way you could have been maybe potentially the person
that's like holding them back because it's like, well I
gotta graduate.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Still, Yeah, for sure, I didn't. I definitely didn't want
to be the one keeping everybody from being able to
pursue these things that were like opportunities, and especially for
something that I really didn't give a shit about, which
was school.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Did you ever do you ever feel like you use
some of that those jazz methods or jazz stylings within
your guitar work as well.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Definitely, like like I think like voicings and jazz voicings
are really like interest creates some beautiful dissonance, and I think,
you know, I've always been like I think I was

(20:51):
like more technically proficient earlier on in my guitar playing,
and then at a certain point, I think, especially after
touring with all these like face sound bands and these
like metalcore bands, that these are incredible guitar players and
I will never play notes as fast as them. H

(21:11):
I think at a certain point I just was like
kind of a less is more kind of mentality, And
at that point, it's like, what can melody play in
in something? And what can emphasizing inter voicings within chords
bring to change the mood? And what's most important is

(21:34):
how the sound makes you feel, not what the notes
are played. It doesn't matter. I've always been the lessons
more in that in that in that sort of range.
But but yeah, definitely that that's a lot from jazz.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
That's good. That's good that it wasn't like, uh, you know,
totally wasted on saxophone.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah, I mean you could joined a sky band.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah. I was never really huge into Scott. I liked
SKA for the punk elements when I was at Once. Yeah,
and that's you know it was. It had a lot
of attitude, you know, but I never got a zoot
suit or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well, that's good for you. Some of the cringiest parts
of the whole scene.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
I feel like there's rumblings. I think that's coming back.
I think we're just so close to to like zers
picking up SKA bands and be like this is the
cool thing because because you know that they want to
like find the thing, because they're doing all these like
callback like oh we're into Nirvana now, they're.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
Like taking all these metals coming back.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, but they want to make it so that, like,
you know, millennials are not cool with it, and I
think SKA would be the secret like the dagger to
be like we're we're showing you how lame this is
by adopting it and saying it's cool, and you guys
will never be able to latch onto that because you know,

(23:04):
because you went through this and you know how bad
it is.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Our listeners are going to lamb based.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
You, Oh, I got a lot of Scoff fans.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, the ones that are Scoff fans are like next die.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Hard and like rightfully so like there's a lot out there,
so you have to like really be you know, punching
it hard.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
They're like the Trump people of the music world.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
You've just married them together. That's gonna that's gonna make
them even stronger.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
This is how Trump won in the first place.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Leonora, Leonora is there Trump.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
She's gonna love that. I hope she hears that.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's so funny, you know, I have thought about Okay,
so obviously like Scott Super nineties, uh and we still
haven't quite seen like quite the huge Like obviously there's
probably like a fourth Way scar or whatever, but it's probably.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Lesser known than Yea.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
His name is Postcus called Postcu, but like one of
the one of the genres of music that feels like
it just it like had a five year shelf period
that just has not come back that I'm just like,
we're like a twenty year period now from it where
I'm like, ah, this has got to be coming back
at some point. And that is piano rock, Like when

(24:29):
is the next Fray gonna pop off right or or
like or the next the next train old Play?

Speaker 4 (24:36):
Like when is when is that gonna pop off again?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah? But Coldplay is not really a piano rock band anymore,
you know.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Not anymore.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
But like, yeah, when is that version of Coldplay gonna
pop off again?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Like somebody somebody's.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Like, somebody's got to like recreate that, because there was
a point where, you know, piano was seen as like
it's kind of like an Elton John like old school
kind of thing. But then there was this whole group
of this whole wave of artists that were like bringing
this in back into the forefront of rock music. Yeah,
that made it cool again. See I was hoping I
gotta be getting close to that again.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
I was hoping that you were going in the route
of like, where are we going to get the next
Billy Joel.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
I think we're past that. I think we're past that.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
I hope we get another Billy Joel, be.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Honest, I mean, I love I love that, But I like,
I think we're at like that twenty year period of
when when during the heyday of piano rock, you know,
I remember all these big piano like even the Christian
ones like the Rocket Summer I.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Was a big one.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah, Bird, you were a receiver.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Bird, yes, Seabird until June they had a huge hit
out in like Europe or something. So there was all
these like piano rock bands that.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
They had.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
So there were there were these piano rock bands that
that were big, And it's just like kind of hard
to believe that like that that version of music or
that genre of music hasn't like we're in like that
twenty year period where it feels like every.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
You know, I think I think piano rock goes in
I think it goes in thirty yard waves because.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
So yeah, well maybe maybe we're five to ten years
awa the cycle.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
You know, each each genre has a different kind of
cycle rate, you know. I mean we're we're in the heavy,
We're in the heavy, like uh, Nirvana, we're hitting like
you know metal, Third Eye Blind, and like shoegaze is
having a huge moment right now. Yeah, like you know,

(26:28):
especially stuff in the vein of like hum and stuff
like that, like that's having a huge moment. So and
pop is borrowing from grunge a lot. So I feel
like it's if that's like nineties, you know, we're about
to hit the like late nineties and early two thousands. Ye,
and that's when we're going to start, you know, we're

(26:50):
going to be really receptive to the cringe of that
era exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
So point so we were kind of talking about this earlier.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
I'd love to kind of dive more into it than
and we don't really necessarily, I think, need to go
like album by album with a hope for Home. But
we were discussing earlier about how there was kind of
a sound change, especially from and why am I blanking
on that first the album right before Realis? Why am
I blanking on.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
That name right now? Everlasting Man?

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Everlasting Man? That's right.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
So there was certainly a sound change from Everlasting Man
to Realis, and then certainly from Realities to an abstraction.
And I've wondered this just generally for bands that try
their best to have some sort of sound change album album,
and there there must be some sort of balancing act

(27:47):
of there's there from the band's perspective, they want to
push boundaries around this is the sound that we want
to create, but there also must be a balance around Okay,
this is the sound that our fans expect, and if
we go too far off the deep end, We're going
to totally alienate all that fan base and now we're
an entirely new band. But also I think good bands

(28:11):
like a Hope for Home want to push their sound
more too, And so there is this balancing act of
like album the album, trying to figure out, Okay, how
much can we push our sound to something new but
not alienate our fan base. And I think under Oath
has done this.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Really well, done it just about this one as well.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
So my Epic certainly has done this well. You've talked
a little bit about Thrice Tanner. I think Thrice has
done this really well. Under Oath has done this really well,
especially under Oath from like Chasing Safety, we're super emo
to like basically to find the great line being essentially
a hardcore Yeah, for sure, like they they navigated that well,
but in a way that still resonated with fans. So

(28:53):
I'm just curious, like as a band, whether you think
you did that successful or or not, Like, as a band,
that must be a conversation you're having with each other.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
How do we balance this well?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah? I think I mean part of the major sound
change for Hope for Home was talking about these like
identity crisis kind of moments that we had about like
what kind of band are we because if we're going
to be an under oath cover band, we're like all
of us are out. Nobody here wants this. And I

(29:28):
think we specifically had like and not to dog on
our drummer for like, you know what he did. He's
an incredible drummer, but he had a certain style that
was like his pocket was very different than the pocket
that we were trying to move to, what we were

(29:49):
influenced by and what we were trying to move toward.
So ended up we found a new drummer. We moved
on from from the drummer that we had to a
new drummer, and that tone change allowed us to make
that jump, but also it changed These were two very

(30:13):
very stylistically different drummers, and I think neither of those
drummers could replicate the style of the other drummer. Like
if we wanted to play old old pro home songs,
it would it would kind of not work. And if
we wanted to play new promo songs with the old drummer,
it would also not work because there's so much feel

(30:34):
involved in both of those and texture that that was
just inherent in that style. So which then that sets
the pace for a lot of your music. So for
a hope, from Home, part of that was like when
we when we lost that drummer and found a new drummer,
there was a necessary like identity change because of the

(30:55):
style of our new drummer, which we wanted to embrace
at that point and go further. But I think that
was like so it's like kind of a pragmatic move
in one way, but it was also like it unlocked
a lot of stuff for us that like we were
wanting to kind of let happen anyways. And I don't

(31:15):
know that we necessarily had a whole lot of a
whole lot of let's say, like motivation to like honor
where we came from in a in that regard, like
I think if you over if you overproduce your own

(31:36):
creative output, you're gonna be lost because your identity is
your identity. And like I've made a lot of music
over over my years, and you know, with over Home,
with my epic, with other projects, with my own stuff
doing like you know, solo work. I've done music for

(31:58):
like film and stuff like that. From here and there
and even within that, like I can definitely, regardless of
how much I think that I can just like adopt
a new genre or adopt these identities. It doesn't work
because you're always working from your palette and you're always
working from your own framework, and you are always going

(32:18):
to be influencing what is the output of that, you know,
And so when Hope for Home changed its you know,
palette base with a new member, we our tone changed significantly.
But I don't think we had the idea to like

(32:40):
how much of one thing to keep and how much
of another thing to push. I think we were just like,
let's make output. Let's let's let's make what sounds right
for us being in a room together, and just keep
pushing it. And that's always going to change, it's always
gonna adapt, but it's at the same time, it's always

(33:01):
going to sound like you and your specific mixture. And
I think that's what's really special about being in a
band specifically, is because like you're balanced by each member
of the band, and that specific mixture will never be
replicated anywhere else, Like you can't you can't bottle that

(33:24):
up to anything. You can change out members and stuff
like that. But you know when when when a specific
piece is not there.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I also loved I also love like the idea
of growth with time as an individual and as a
musician all that because if you listen to Years of Silicon,
it's it's evident that you guys matured significantly, you know,
as musicians, as intellectuals, and how you emotively express all

(33:57):
that through the music itself rics the presentation. And I
know Mason and I have listened to Years of Silicon
on repeat for a while now, and I don't know, Mason,
is would you say that Years of Silicon is your
favorite or is an Abstraction still your favorite?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
I think nostalgia makes an Abstraction my favorite. But I
think I'm able to pretty definitively say Years of Silicon
is the best for home music. I agree, but I
but I do think an Abstraction just holds this special
spot simply because of nostalgia.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
That's that's that's really cool. I know there was a
big I mean, we weren't making music for a long time,
so picking that that back up and writing music together again,
it was it was a big risk. You know, that
was a project that was born out of you know

(34:55):
COVID and twenty twenty and and yeah, you know that
it was an opportunity to look back and make connections,
even if they're like even if you can't really like
physically make those connections, but it was an opportunity. And
I think that album was really special from that standpoint
because I think we all got to rely on each
other through that like time create art in that time,

(35:16):
which I think for us, you know, particularly with not
just COVID and what was happening in the world, but
Trump coming into office, George Floyd, all these huge moments
that felt like the world is collapsing and we get
to come to we have no work, nobody is doing anything,

(35:39):
so we're stuck at home and we're finding ways to create,
like to find Hope, you know, not to be too
on the nose with our band name.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
But like.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
But it was really like true, yeah, yeah, Hope stuck
at home. Yeah, but I think that album was really
like special and important for all of us to like
reconnect and continue to make music again and address kind
of everything that we were all feeling over like basically

(36:12):
like the ten years it's been since we've written music
together again. Yeah, So yeah, that was such a song.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Yeah, well along those lines too, with that kind of
ten year gap or over ten years even I remember
asking Matthew this when we last chatted with him. And
maybe this question probably makes more sense to ask Matthew
than you just because obviously you have you know, even
after in Abstraction, you had been doing work with my Epic,

(36:43):
and so it's not as if you have been totally
out of the loop of recording music and whatnot. But
from two thousand and eleven or whenever you all recorded
in Abstraction to the time that you start recording years
of sil Like, I mean, it's almost a ten year gap,
and there's a lot just just from a recording standpoint

(37:06):
of so much that has changed. I mean, you guys
literally got to a point where, you know, in twenty eleven,
don't I don't think you all could have foresaw a
time where you all could have recorded your own instruments
in your own room thousands of miles away and make
an album together that sounds awesome, like, and here we

(37:28):
are ten years later and you all are able to
do that, And like there's just something from like a
technological standpoint that allows you to just from a recording part,
Like you're just able to make something so much different
than twenty.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
Eleven would have allowed you to do.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
So I'm just curious for you, like what do you
think over those like ten years that has allowed you
to just like do something that's way different in terms
of recording and writing music with people that yeah, could
be a long ways away from each other and you're
just all in your separate homes.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's like ten
years of technology is like a big thing at play.
Like we're all here on like studio microphones plugged into
like you know interfaces and with like you know whatever
modeled preamps and stuff like that, and it's like crazy
that we can. We can. It's so accessible to make

(38:22):
stuff that sounds pretty good, and you know, convolution technology
and modeling and pre amp modeling and you know, analog
gear modeling and all this sort of stuff. Like it's
come so far, Like it's crazy what you can do now.
And it's you'd be surprised how much music film scores,

(38:44):
like you know, orchestral arrangements that you hear in you know,
big box office movies that are like it's it's all
made in a computer, you know, Yeah, because the technology
is that far and it's that much easier, and it's
like I don't have access to like, you know, you know,

(39:05):
every amp I could ever dream of at my fingertips,
but I do because of technology. So yeah, I can
just download a like, you know, Fender Tweed amp if
that's what it needs at the moment, or I'm gonna
download a you know, AC thirty amp and plug directly
in and stuff like that, and it sounds really good,

(39:25):
especially in a mix and stuff like that. Even without
a mix, I think they sound phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
There's something about being in a room with a live
amp and all these things and being able to tweak
knobs and push buttons and feel the air pressure kind
of coming at you. There's something that you can't replicate
in that regard. But how much of that is literally
the sound and how much of it is the the

(39:51):
energy of that, you know, And that's hard to replicate,
which I think is why you know, live shows and
experience art, you know, physically is really important because it's
so easy to stay stuck in a digital world. But
the the like technology is undeniable, Like this wouldn't happen

(40:14):
like without And we've gotten a lot of experience with
recording with Matt Goldman. Nate is an insane recorder like
producer and stuff like that. So I learned so much
just like being in a band with him and being
able to talk music and production and stuff like that,
and being able to record, you know, at these studios

(40:35):
where the Hope from Home recorded, like the Red Room
and stuff like that. You learn so much just like
being in the room and soaking it up for sure,
and you just kind of take that and now we
can like now it doesn't take you know, you know,
a huge freaking bank loan to actually buy all the
analog gear that you need to like do make the

(40:58):
sounds that you want to make. You can just do
it in the box and it's not that right crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Your guitar work especially is really I think known for
almost creating soundscapes. You're just creating lots of different kinds
of noises with your instruments, especially guitar, and so knowing
that you just have like all of this availability in
front of you, all these different kind of amps that

(41:25):
you can just you just plug it in on your
software and now you've got that sound like does it
do you feel like does it make you either lazier
or does it give you even more of a challenge
to create the kind of like interesting soundscapes that might
be going on in your head that you're wanting to create,
And does it just like make that easier and challenge

(41:47):
you to, like I want to do even more or
does it feel like you're may be like, oh no,
I'm just like I've got like too much at my fingertips.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Now I can like like I can sort of maybe
like such a good question, like.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
I can Yeah, I'm like, now it might it might
even feel like you can kind of skip corners totally.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
And and I definitely feel like a lot more like
for the longest time, my like guitar rig and my
pedals and stuff like that, they were just they were
what they were. They're not the most like glamorous pedals,
like you know, I'm not like a worship band musician
that's making that worship band money and buying the like

(42:23):
Streyman Reaver pedals and and Elk caps and stuff like
that that like and just like adding pedals on. I've
been able, by the.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Way, I don't know if you've seen this before, but
one third of the new guitars bought in the United
States are bought for worship. It's it's crazy, it's a
nuts amount.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
But but the especially like it's funny because there's a
lot of like worship musicians that are like so like
I make ambients and stuff like that, and these like
big soundscapes and stuff like that, and and to me,
it's like, I've just never worked that way I've done.
I've like I've never had like the ability to just
like get this new pedal that does all these like
crazy stuff. I think it's like I feel more limited

(43:05):
by that because you don't like whenever you're playing like
reverbs and delays and these really like these instruments that
I mean, I consider them instruments like they affect your sound.
They are your sound. And if you're not able to
play that, then you're not playing the instrument. And if

(43:26):
you can't get familiar with it, it's quirks. It's nuances
how to like build up sound into it, how to
like create what you want to create within that context.
Then you kind of like I mean, I with to
your point with all this like limitless new sounds available
through like in the box technology or plugins and these

(43:47):
like cool things that you can do with like digital
tech and granular delays and huge freaking reverbs and all
this sort of stuff, and you know feedback loops that
are just like auto generated lfos and stuff like that.
You can do crazy stuff, but if you can't play
into it and really feel like you're playing it as
an instrument, then like you're gonna be like, oh, I

(44:09):
can do some cool stuff, and it's then it's just
like a one trick pony and you move on to
find the next thing. But like I think the bands
that have really been impactful and made like huge kind
of genre and like sound shifts have been like we

(44:32):
have like we use these this rig and maybe Kevin
Deshields is not a great, like great person to put
at that, like you know, figurehead for that, because he's
also known for using all sorts of different gear and
stuff like that. So it's like kind of defeats its
own purpose. But generally, like these sounds are made because

(44:52):
of specifically being able to play into these pedals units guitars.
It's the whole thing. Your guitar is, like, not the
instrument the guitar. If you're playing a guitar with a
delay pedal that is your instrument, and you have to
play into that. So like you know, Mono, this will
destroy you. Kevin Deshields from My Bloody Valentine from Siegarros,

(45:15):
like these guys, all these bands and all these like
figures developed sounds based off of kind of limitation and
being stuck within that box and then exploring every fucking
corner of that box.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
There's almost like a there's like a there's a level
where choice becomes crippling. Right, absolutely, We're like, you can
you're never gonna find the sound that you are searching
for because the sound is in a million different places.
But if you learn how to hit every single corner
of the soundscape that you're looking for or that you're

(45:52):
that you can play with like you're talking about, you're
gonna find I see this like with you know, me
guitarists versus high end guitarists that really really know their
instrument in and out, and the medium skilled guitarist will
play and it sounds cool, sounds great, right, and then

(46:12):
that guy who's just that next level plays the exact
same thing. You're like, that was a completely different thing
that wasn't even close to the same thing, And it's
just the mastery over it and just knowing exactly what
they're gonna get out of that guitar changes the whole
feeling altogether. That's such a weird thing to think about,

(46:37):
but I mean that happens all the time. Yeah, and thankfully,
thankfully you have people that are that good at that.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
And it wasn't made because you downloaded a plug in
and you have five hundred presets to cycle through and
you can just like click through the next preset and
see what sounds cool.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Yeah, like, no one's no one's gonna sound as good
as David Gilmore playing David Gilmour.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Licks right, yeah, or the edge the edge sound. You know,
it became a thing because he explored every kind of
facet of what that sound is, you know exactly. It
changed society, changed worship leaders changed worship at the very least.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
Yeah, Well, reminds me.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
I forget who it was that we interviewed a while back, calling,
but I remember he was talking about actually you know what,
it was actually Aaron from my epic. So Aaron was
talking about this interview. You won't like him.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
He's he's not any good.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
But but Aaron was talking about how he was watching
this interview with the guitar tech for Cigaroes and the
like interviewer like made note of the fact that in
Jonesy's guitar rig like his his pedal board was tiny
in comparison to what you would assume his pedal board
would look like. And and the guitar tech who is

(47:57):
also this like super Icelandic guy. And I still remember
like hearing Aaron's like Icelandic impression, but he was like
the Icelandic guitar tech for Jonesy was like, it's just
in these fingos, It's just his fingos that makes the sound.
And and I'm probably butchering Aaron's impression of this.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I think that was every every Scanavian person I've ever
met sounds exactly great.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
Glad I nailed it. Glad I nailed it.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Peter's gonna be so pissed.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
So anyway, but that, like, I think it's to at
least like highlight the fact that even someone like Jonesy
is is like so perfect at like he has like
mastered his instrument and is able to create all of
this amazing sound without having to like like he he
sort of has figured out like what are the few
like pedals that are needed to create this sound as

(48:53):
I've like actually mastered the guitar with it, Like he
doesn't need all these plugins to create that sound.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, such a cool, such a cool thing.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Well, speaking of my Epic, Yeah, I was gonna talk
about My Epic.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
My epic record, it feels like one of those records
that's like taking everything and then just turning it on
its head. It's it's very very experimental. I would almost
say it sounds like you guys had a ton of
fun definitely, I think, and just coming up with new stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
I think it's like it's it's funny because it's definitely
like it's a different form of experimentalism than Hope from
in a completely different realm. Yeah, Like where Hope for
Holmes like we can get in a room and we
can jam on something for you know, twenty minutes, and
to be like, oh, we're supposed to practice songs, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
And then you realize that that twenty minutes is actually
just one song right.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Exactly, And that's where a lot of our songs come from.
For the my Epic record, it was kind of like
an floriation into I don't know, just like like these
these feelings, you know, in a way less less, just
like let's let's make some songs or let's jam on

(50:14):
stuff and figure out what works. It was kind of
like how do we like kind of really refine and
capture a feeling. And I think those feelings were pretty
defined for us in the process, and we we did
a lot of work to like write the song that
we thought did it, and then we listened back to
it and go like, it's not hitting that feeling that

(50:36):
we wanted it too, Like it doesn't feel like you know,
it doesn't feel like growing up, you know, So we
gotta reread it, we gotta scrape it, and we got
to re record it, recontextualize the song. And there was
a lot of songs that were exactly that, whereas like,
this is a good song. And I definitely feel like
there's a almost for the whole album. There's alternates for

(51:00):
every song that was written on that album that is
like it's a completely different song. It's the same exact song,
but it's a completely different song because we wrote it.
And then we're like, it's not that thing though, it's
not hitting that that kind of moment or space in
time or just that like whatever sauce that we expected
that thing to hit.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
You know what I did. I think it is so
funny about it. This sounds like the art department of
an ad agency. It's like, this doesn't feel quite like
childhood yet. This doesn't feel quite like the energetic first
kiss or something.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Like that, right that That was a lot of the
communication around the album. Honestly, like it was a lot
of that. So it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
You guys are just like in their drinking scotch in
the middle of the day, we're wearing suits from the
nineteen sixties. This doesn't feel like it should yet.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
I think Nate's Nate's favorite show is mad Men, So
I think he was just pushing hard into that he
got his best his best suit on and smoking cigarettes
the whole time.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
What's it? What's it like being in a band with
those guys, Because I feel like every single, every single
one of you have a very distinct personality that is very,
very creative in a completely different way than one another.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
It's it's a it's a it's a hoot. Man.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
It sounds like it would be Yeah, it.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Is great, Like, you know, those are my best friends,
and and it's being able to like kind of push
and pull on them and be like, you know, like
when you're when you're so close with somebody, you you
go like I know all that. Dude's like I know
where he's gonna go with everything, you know, Like I
know when like somebody says something that's going to spark

(52:54):
an Aaron story, you know, and he's got he's got
like you know, a couple in the queue and like, Okay,
he's gonna do the you know, he's gonna do the
tour story from this time or whatever, be like see cool,
zone out, come back in when I like something to
add to it or whatever. You know, these I don't know.

(53:14):
And then Nate's the the same way, Like I know,
like I know the things that like are gonna make
Nate like just kind of completely like zone out and
like Nate's lost in the ether now, and then the
things that are like gonna bring him down, and he's
gonna like you know, you can just k of you know,
kind of larp together. So how often do you.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Guys talk about K pop? Because I know I know Nate's.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Been Yeah, he's so deep in it. He's so deep
in it. I had one of Nate's my good buddies
as well, but Nate grew up and with with this
guy and good good friend of ours and also member
of author you guys know, author Trevor. Trevor. He came

(53:59):
through on a K pop tour just like was it
like a week ago, got a bunch of coffees from
the coffee shop for all the like K pop members
and stuff like that, and got to hang out and
chat and they're having a blast with the with the tours. Man,
it's it's great.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
That is the wildest thing he is. He just looking
at Nate, He's the last person I would imagine being
involved in the world at all, you know.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
I mean Nate is as a voyeur in in that regard,
like he's like there's no discrimination on any any singular genre,
and it's like, all right, you want to go there,
Let's go there, Let's go all the way in, and
let's like figure out what's cool about it, like what's
interesting about it, and we're we're gonna get there and

(54:48):
find all those things.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
You know.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Yeah, he's just down down to clown.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
The way you talk about your relationship with Nate and Aaron.
So when it comes to recording and writing, sounds a
lot like a married couple, Like you just sort of
know each other well enough to kind of either finish
each other's sentences or know where each other is gonna go.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
With certain things.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
So I do think that begs the question do you
fight like a married couple too? Like are you able
to have disagreement with each other as a married couple,
And if so, what does that look like?

Speaker 3 (55:23):
This kind of feels like a polyamorous relationship, though I'm
not gonna lie more than one. There's more than one
person married here.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
I think all of us are like super or conflict avoidant,
you know, so I think I actually I don't know
if Aaron's like the most conflict avoidant, but I know
that he knows that me and Nate both are, so
I think he does. You know, Aaron has his whole

(55:51):
like you know, type a like he takes his whole,
like he wants to get everybody involved in like kind
of camp counselor type kind of vibe or like bring
everybody together in the room and all hang out together.
He just wants to facility.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Does he like spin the chair around where he's like
sitting on the back of the chair, and it's like
that that really is totally has that.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Yeah, Aaron has that energy.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
He definitely has that energy. But he knows that like
me and Nate are the hardest people for him to
ever deal with and rope in in that same way
because he knows we're both so like just we're gonna
be there if we're gonna if we're there, you know. Sure,
So I think it kind of infuriates Aaron because he
can't kind of go to his like go to his bag,

(56:38):
so to speak, so he just kind of like waits
for us and stuff like that. So yeah, we definitely,
like I think we we honestly don't really argue much.
And I think we just because I think we leave
so much space for each other. And I think it's
taken Aaron a little bit to learn how to give

(56:59):
us space when he knows like we need it, you know.
But he's he's done a really fantastic job as adapt
to our needs. Ye.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
Yeah, he's it's almost like he's just gotta let you
guys go cook for a bit, and.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Then yeah, he knows when to fold them exactly.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Yeah, all right, well let's get let's get into your
top five most influential albums.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Okay, I was I was thinking about this a little
bit kind of as we were talking. It might not
be like fully fleshed out, might not be completely accurate, kind.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Of probably daily so yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
What's happening today, but kind of taking on I guess,
taking on most influential, and it kind of takes on
a I don't know, a journey, a narrative, so to speak.
So the first album that really like grabbed me that
was like this is like crazy and this is cool

(57:58):
because like these this is what my like my older
brother's friends were listening to and stuff like that. And
finding these CDs was super like eye opening to me,
especially when I like first got a guitar. It was
like kind of the main reason I got a guitar
was was a band called Rufio. The album is called

(58:18):
Perhaps I Suppose that was like their first album, and
it was, you know, a punk pop punk type album
kind of thing, and you know, insane guitar work and
it's like, dude, just freaking shreds and stuff like that.
And that was probably the first album that I ever
listened to that was like this is this is crazy

(58:41):
and that was like the that was when I like
opened the door to like rock music to me.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Sure, I think, how old would you say you were
around that time.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
I don't know when that. I think that album came
out in two thousand and one or something like that,
so I was eleven dang nice. Uh yeah, I don't know.
I don't know exactly the age, but right around that time,
I would say. And then I think the next album
after that that took me deeper into that was Thrice's

(59:14):
Illusion of Safety. Oh yeah, so pre that was the
album just before Hardiest in the Ambulance, I believe, And
that was like where it came from Rufio's like kind
of like fun like pop punk type, you know, guitar
heavy music into Thrice's Like, well, there's there's yelling, there's screaming,

(59:38):
it's angry, and it's loud, and it's like messy and
dark in a lot of ways that I'd like never
really experienced in the past. And I think that pulled
me in really really deep, and that was a really
really important album for me.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Can we also just say about that album, well, maybe
just Thrice in general. You know, a few years ago
they re released or they actually even re recorded Artisan Ambulance,
and I know, with like their more newer releases, Dustin
isn't screaming as much, but his scream has gotten so
much better that I like as much as I'm really

(01:00:17):
glad that they actually re released Artists and Ambulance, and
I actually really like the re release way more than
the original album. I kind of wonder what that would
sound like for all of those early albums like Illusion
of Safety, because I just think his scream has gotten
so much better.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
It's just so much more refined.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the whole band has, like I mean,
they have so much experience in just like kind of
refining their sound and figure out what they are and
also just being able to do it. I think there's
something to me that is, like I'm really endeared by
bad screams. You know, like these these like not refined,

(01:00:58):
like you know, shred your throat guttural screams that are
like this happened once and then this guy couldn't talk
for a week.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
You know, have you ever listen to the tiny moving parts?

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
I know the band, but I never listened to them
He's got.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
That vibe too, for sure, kind of like sort of like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Yeah, yeah, like totally like it's it's not a good scream,
but it is like guttural and it's it's raw in
a way.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
It's addicting to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Aaron Weiss, I think on those early albums, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
And then from there, I think the thing that started
pulling me out of uh like hardcore, post hardcore, this
whole like kind of genre. I think once Cigarros's I
was torn between Cigarros, Agati Spurgen or their untitled album.

(01:01:55):
I'm gonna say they're untitled album just because there's an
added layer to that of just experimentalism soundscape. Taking these instruments,
you know, guitar, drums, bass, and then making Sacarros is
just insanity, you know. And that was just like something

(01:02:15):
that was like so so different to me and super
hugely influential on my kind of guitar playing and just
how I thought about music and how to create songs
and how to create emotion. That was huge.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
They're a band that, like I and maybe it's just
because like I don't know that many bands in comparison
to other people, but they're a band that when I think,
and again they're like one of my probably my third
favorite band of all time, second favorite band somewhere up there.
I genuinely like don't know if I've ever heard a

(01:02:57):
band that like existed before them that they could be like, oh, like,
we're just trying to do you know, the same way,
like inasmuch as I love for Hoole for Home, Like
if you guys said like, oh, yeah, we were just
trying to do like under Oath, or we were just
trying to do like Thrice in the early stuff, like
I would be like, Okay, that makes sense. I just
like I don't know what that would have been like
for Cigareroes, Like it truly seems like they literally created

(01:03:19):
an entire sound and genre that has never existed, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
How did you like get especially like if one guy
had and was like, oh, let's explore this thing. But
it's like four dudes, yeah, yeah, all on a fucking
Icelandic little island together being like we're just gonna do this,
and it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
I just I just don't know how they were able
to accomplish that without having like oh, we're gonna just
do that other band or whatever, and we're going to
just do it in our own way, like it's not
even that, it's just they're literally creating their own sound
as a brand new band, and that to me is
like it just blows my mind that was even I.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Would be really curious. I haven't done a deep dive
into it, but I would be really curious to see
if there's like interviews with them to talk about their influences,
because that would just be like it's probably I mean,
they're you know, they're Icelandic weirdos, so it's probably like.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
It's like folk music and Icelandic chants something like that,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
Meets electric, like it meets electric guitars or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Probably again, Yeah, it was like we just wanted to
play YouTube, and this is what we thought sounded like YouTube,
Like like no, you didn't, you didn't nail it, but
you did something.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Else, something else.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Yeah, and that worked so good on you. Yeah, okay.
Uh And then so that was three number four. I'm
gonna say uh after klang Uh Pirameda after clang is A.
They're pretty large for the region that they're from. They're
they're Swedish, very very cool band. One of my one

(01:04:57):
of my favorites of all time. They're Peyrameda album more
specifically is kind of Mary's kind of brings stuff back
into like you know, from this world of like post
rock soundscapy, ambient stuff, which and then brought it in
context in a way that kind of married some of
the stuff that I loved from the kind of more

(01:05:19):
traditional songwriting that I came from. But the Pyramid album
is more specifically kind of a project born from taking
these sounds. They traveled to this island and it was
like pretty much like a desolate island in Scandinavia, I believe,
and basically took recording equipment and then recorded everything that

(01:05:44):
they could find in on the like you know, ghost
town island. You know these old mind shafts and these
old oil drums and it's like empty town and knocking
on doors and stuff like that. And they basically made
this out infused with and built from the sounds of
this like dead island essentially, and it's amazing. It's a

(01:06:09):
phenomenal album, and you wouldn't it just like it brings
it in context, it feels it's very approachable, it's very listenable,
it's not esoteric in any regard, but the heart and
the motive and the process behind it is really special
and impactful and a beautiful moment in time and an
art piece, and it just also is really really great songs.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
I have to take that out. That sounds fascinating.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Yeah, they came up with a film kind of talking
about like going through the process of making it as well,
which is really interesting. And then that would bring me
to my last one, which is Nils from his album
Felt Most Specific, where it kind of lands nicely into

(01:06:59):
this kind of bad of minimalism, neo classical. It's not
about the notes, it's about the mode and the feeling
and the space in between notes and the warmth of sound.

(01:07:21):
And I feel like it plays on color and tonality
and softness and subtlety and quietness in a really beautiful way.
I think influences a lot of kind of my motive
of operating musically.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Yeah, I like most problem as well. You have to
be kind of in the right mood to listen to
it in my in my experience.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Though, I mean, but with all these, you know, with all.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Of them, yeah, sure, sure, except for cigarettes, And you
can always listen to cigarettes in every.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Mood, that's true, right, I mean that's how I do it.
I'm actually a little surprised at there're know this will
destroy you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Yeah, I feel like set like this will destroy you
would be there. But I feel like Sigar Roast also
capsule it, like encapsulates a similar tone and moment. Yeah,
you know for sure. And I think Sigar Roast got
to me first.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
I can see that. Well, sweet love it, love the list.
I think that's uh. I think it's very telling of
who you are as an individual. But what would you
like to plug? Tannem Rita.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
So, I mean we we we haven't been talking about
it a lot. I mean, if you notice, we haven't
been doing a ton, we haven't been touring on the
new album all that much. We're hoping to record a
little bit more, but the main reason is because we've
been working on kind of some of this side project
stuff and we're really excited about We kind of got

(01:08:50):
reached out to for this opportunity to kind of write
some songs, and I think kind of some of this
stuff from there are new tones for the next record
or for the record that we just came out with
kind of helped influence that. And I did not expect
it to kind of I definitely did not expect us
to come out of that and try to you know,

(01:09:11):
capturing our tone and all that sort of stuff. But
we're writing some songs and contributing some sounds to the
new Justin Bieber record. Oh yeah, I mean we didn't
expect us at all, you know. So we've been passing
stuff back and forth and kind of contributing tones and sounds,

(01:09:32):
and it's a whole weird thing because you have to
work through the operations of that most like that specific way.
This is like a whole thing that we've never really
dealt with in the past.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Is like bureaucratic, Is that what you're trying to get
at exactly?

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Like like there's there's kind of like a politics at
play in that, and like how how we contribute is
very like unique in that, like you know, you have
to be really conscious about like contact and you know,
how can how much communication can him back and forth

(01:10:08):
and stuff. But you know, uh, it's it's a cool opportunity.
So we're excited for that and it Justin's really great
to work with. Like, honestly, when we've been able to
be in contact, it's been awesome to kind of hear
the feedback there.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
Yeah, what's he like? I mean, is he is he
kind of like what the media portrays or is he like,
you know, is he still like that kind of like
disciple of the Hillsong world or what's going on with
Justin Bieber these days? Because I'm I've always I've always
feel like I felt like the media gives him a
bad portrayal, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
I honestly, he's like he's super collaborative. He's just like
really curious and wants to like kind of like be
additive to the process and be witnessing it in a
great way. So it's been really cool to kind of
see that. And obviously like the media has their own
kind of interpreting of like what they want to like

(01:11:01):
make him into. And the Hillsong thing, I think that
was from you know a number of years back, so
that's like kind of tainted, just just might murked up
the water and stuff like that. But he's really just
been trying to like get back to roots in a
way and get trying to like make music that is
like borrowing from these like tones and sounds and kind

(01:11:26):
of doing some like really really cool like progressive stuff
and yeah, really excited about it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
Do you know how he came upon you, like, like,
what what was it that he's like, Yeah, the guy's
from my epic? Or is this or is this the
whope from guys which which grew?

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Oh, this is my epic? But I honestly don't know.
I I think I uh, I think he just like
his people, reached out to our people.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
I mean, have you seen his tattoos these days? He
looks like somebody that listens to my ep.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Like, you know, like you see him like, you know,
he's depressed like the rest of us.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Yeah, and he probably went to a youth group up
in Saskatchewan.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
You know, Like I think he's built. He's built the
same in a lot of ways, and you know, a
weird history of you know, his own like kind of
pathway to get here, you know, being you know, child
pop star and all that sort of stuff. But like,
you know, he listens to good music. You know, he's
always going to be in that like kind of pop

(01:12:34):
range just because that's the stratosphere that he like lives in.
But you know, he wants to he wants to put
out good music and we're stoked to do some sick
ship with it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
So you're you're saying you could be like a part
of like the next like Desposito level kind of song.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
That's that's the goal, I guess, But I mean, we
have no idea what what it's actually.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
Hopefully hopefully you guys signed a royalty deal of some sort.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
I mean yeah, like there's like credits and stuff like that.
They'll go like that. It's like weird back end stuff,
you know, and it's it's it's kind of like a
sample like you know, Kanye's samples, Drakes samples like ye.
Like it's kind of a vein of that where it's
like you're not the artist necessarily like making the music,

(01:13:29):
but you're credited and sampled and then then royalty whatever.
I don't know, So we'll see what happens with it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Sure, Sure, what an exciting thing. I can't believe that's
not like bigger news. I suppose you haven't like released
this yet or is it or is this like a premier.

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Well, it's like it's all in process, okay, right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
Do we need to like wait to put this out
before we can?

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
I have no I honestly have no idea.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
So we're just gonna let her black. I like it.
It's not about it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
You got your podcast isn't big enough to affect it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
Is true.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
Put us on the map.

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
You know, there are a lot of people out there
that you know that they're like, oh, I can't, I
can't say that quite yet or whatever. I'm like, you're
really underestimating how big or overestimating how big are a podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
I won't.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
You know, You've been in a Hope for Home long
enough to know you don't have to be you have
to so well, Tanner, thank you so much for chatting again.
Both Hope for Home my Epics one of our favorite
two bands in Colonized Lives lives for the last fifteen years,
so thank you so much for chatting more about about them.

(01:14:44):
And uh, yeah, we're excited. I you know, I I
would imagine a Hope for Home. At some point there'll
be something new. Who knows how long that will take?
Maybe another ten years, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
You never know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
But and then it sounds like, you know, my Epic
stuff is kind of chruggling along as well, So we're
excited for whatever will.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
Come out in the next number of years. So thanks
so much for chatting yeah, of

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
Course yeah, thanks for having me on