We had the pleasure of interviewing The Dirty Nil over Zoom! The Dirty Nil is an alternative rock band of three including Luke Bentham for the vocals and lead guitar, Ross Miller for the bass guitar, and Kyle Fisher for the drums. This Canadian native band won in 2017 garnering the Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the year. It was during high school when the band was formed and naming it The Dirty Nil. It was the year 2006 when they made it official and started working together as a band. They released their premier debut single titled Fuckin’ Up Young in early 2011 and took that opportunity to tour in North America being part of different sets, gigs, and festivals. Because of the continuous progression of the band’s career, it was further followed by a couple of singles and EPs and a full-length debut album titled Higher Power in the year 2016. As their fan base grew over the years, the demand for their music grew further, and engaged in Minimum R&B releasing EP tracks and singles in 2017. Master Volume, The Dirty Nil’s second studio album was released produced by Dine Alone Records in 2018 in which their teaser was a single titled Bathed in Light. With their most recent project, the band announced in August of 2020 that they will be releasing a new album in early 2021 named Fuck Art. https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mGENPk4M4jtaf5D7fDi98 https://www.instagram.com/thedirtynil/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/thedirtynil/ https://twitter.com/thedirtynil?s=20 We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter!
We had the pleasure of interviewing The Dirty Nil over Zoom!
The Dirty Nil is an alternative rock band of three including Luke Bentham for the vocals and lead guitar, Ross Miller for the bass guitar, and Kyle Fisher for the drums. This Canadian native band won in 2017 garnering the Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the year. It was during high school when the band was formed and naming it The Dirty Nil. It was the year 2006 when they made it official and started working together as a band. They released their premier debut single titled Fuckin’ Up Young in early 2011 and took that opportunity to tour in North America being part of different sets, gigs, and festivals.
Because of the continuous progression of the band’s career, it was further followed by a couple of singles and EPs and a full-length debut album titled Higher Power in the year 2016. As their fan base grew over the years, the demand for their music grew further, and engaged in Minimum R&B releasing EP tracks and singles in 2017. Master Volume, The Dirty Nil’s second studio album was released produced by Dine Alone Records in 2018 in which their teaser was a single titled Bathed in Light. With their most recent project, the band announced in August of 2020 that they will be releasing a new album in early 2021 named Fuck Art.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mGENPk4M4jtaf5D7fDi98
https://www.instagram.com/thedirtynil/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/thedirtynil/
https://twitter.com/thedirtynil?s=20
We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.
www.BringinitBackwards.com
#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork
Listen & Subscribe to BiB
Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter!
0 (2s):
1 (34s):
Adam is able to talk to the Luke of The Dirty Nil over zoom video. Luke told us about how we got into music after seeing Nirvana's, you know, you're right. Music video on TV. Luke we also talked about a show and December, 2012, when he had food poisoning and still played the show, one of the people in the crowd bought their EAP and gave it to a fat Mike. I have no effects. Soon after fat mic was tweeting about how much he loved it. Luke told us about the Dirty Nils. First two records and their most recent album. Fuck art.
0 (1m 4s):
You can watch her interview with Luke from The Dirty Nil on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backward and follow us on Instagram and Twitter at bringing back pod.
1 (1m 15s):
Yeah. We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts,
0 (1m 21s):
We're bringing it Backwards with The Dirty Nil
2 (1m 25s):
Hello what's going on.
0 (1m 27s):
Luke how are you?
2 (1m 29s):
How's it going? So
0 (1m 31s):
It's all right. All right. How are you?
2 (1m 35s):
How are you? I
0 (1m 37s):
Am, well, thank you so much for doing this.
2 (1m 39s):
My pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.
0 (1m 41s):
Of course, this podcast is about your journey in music and how you got to where you are now.
2 (1m 47s):
Lovely. I it's been a wild ride thus far,
0 (1m 54s):
Right on from you're from Canada. Indeed. Tell me about that. What part of Canada it is you grew up in,
2 (2m 1s):
Well, I'm from Hamilton, Ontario, but a little town just outside of there called dun DAS. So this is about 45 minutes away from Toronto done. This is kind of like the Shire from Lord of the rings. If I had to compare it to somewhere, it's very green, very quiet and very, a very conducive to make it loud, rock and roll on the basement because it's a very, a very harsh weather most of the year.
0 (2m 33s):
Okay. Was there a big music scene there now,
2 (2m 37s):
Then? Not that we are aware of it, to be honest with you. I mean, there was a couple of, there was some rumblings of some bands when we were in kind of junior high. We'd hear about it. Like, Oh, you hear about this band from that high school. Like, you know, they have a really good rage against the machine cover and I'd be like, and he was raging against the machine. But my musical journey really began when I got my first guitar when I was 12 years old. And it, it was right around that time that I first heard Nirvana because they were reissuing were there, they were doing their greatest hits album, which included for the first time that song, you know, you're right. And that is that
0 (3m 14s):
Right? Yeah. The black race, it was like a black record. And it just said Jack Ross, the front. Okay. I remember that
2 (3m 20s):
With the silver letters. Yeah. And so we were promoting that album with the unreleased song, you know, you're right. And it was on a great song and it was on, it was on much music, which is our equivalent of MTV. Okay. And that song was that, that, that video came on one morning before school. And I was watching, my parents were eating breakfast and just the sound of the distortion and the feedback in my, and Kurt Cobain's voice. I was making my parents say, Oh, turn that off. If it's awful, what is going on? And they were like having a, almost like a seizure because of how nasty it was. And I was like, cool. Like what, what, what a, if, if, if rock and roll, like this has that much power over my parents and I wanted to invest in this.
2 (4m 7s):
So I'm, I really wanted to play bass. And then my,
0 (4m 15s):
Well,
2 (4m 16s):
I thought bass would be an easy in, in, into music because that was one of the instruments that was being played in our concert band in high school, or even in junior high school rather. But then, so my godfather who had played a ton of music in the late sixties, early seventies, and then become a lawyer, eventually had heard that I wanted to play bass and he got me a Squire Stratocaster with a little Anthony said, Fuck that you should play guitar. Yeah.
0 (4m 52s):
So you bought the bundle, the bundle. I had the bundle. Oh yeah. The Squire and the, in the little amp in the bag, a little gig, back, a little gait in there, the paper thin gig bag
2 (5m 7s):
Three pics in a, a dental floss, thin patch cord. And, you know, but it had a distortion button. So it was good enough for me. So he's showed me a couple of, a couple of notes and I was just playing with my thumb. And I was just, you know, I always kind of just meandering around, but it was really focused on it, but I didn't, we didn't have to have the internet at that time. So I was just kind of like picking things out by ear and sitting with my Lincoln park CD is trying to pick up her notes off of that, but nothing was really working. So anyways, I started taking guitar lessons and I was 12 years old. And then, Mmm, yeah, my first guitar teacher was in a fairly notable band in Canada and particularly Hamilton called the Killjoys.
2 (5m 55s):
And they were around in the early nineties to late nineties and a, my guitar teacher, his name interestingly and fittingly enough was a Mike treble, Coq, and a real name or real name and a birth name. So he, he taught me how to play guitar. And he still does actually, I just live one street over for him now. And he still teaches me how to play guitar, but 'em, so you kinda showed me everything that I wanted to learn, but sometimes it will be like, Hey, can you show me a Nirvana? And he'll be like, hell, y'all sure you have some Nirvana, but basically I kinda bummed around and playing and just cover bands until I was at a 16.
2 (6m 35s):
And that was when, I mean, it was still so terrible at my instrument, but I met a guy and that was equally as shit. And his instrument, his name was Kyle. And I don't Kyle since we were five years old, but Kyle, and I said, you know what, lets start a band. So let's start a real band where we play our own music. We don't play covers, but I know nobody else will have us in their bands cause they were too terrible. So let's, let's, let's make our own band. And that's how The Dirty Nil started. We called ourselves The Dirty Nil and that was 14 years ago. And that's how it started. So, I mean, that was the first band I ever played in and played the original music and we just basically learn how to play our music, our, our instruments Together.
2 (7m 19s):
I mean, we, we, we basically started one summer in 2006 and I had just got my first buzz peddle and I had a a hundred watt amp and he had his drum set and we just blasted away for hours and hours in my parents' basement until my mom would flip the breaker for the night and be like that set up with that shit. And then we can kinda, and then I walked Kyle home and then we started again the next day, but I mean, very instantly we knew that we are starting something that it was going to be important to both of them. It was and then a good thing. So we just started out as the two of you guys' Oh yeah.
0 (7m 56s):
And then when did you finally, when did Ross during the day?
2 (7m 59s):
Yeah, well, we had a, a kind of a seemingly endless stream of baseball players while we were teenagers. Okay. We, we kinda were a three-piece for a while and then it became a two-piece and I got a pedal that approximated a bass player, and then we had a guy named Dave in our band for a few years and Dave was excellent. And so it was lovely to play with him, but Ross joined the band in 2016, so 10 years.
0 (8m 29s):
Yeah. And for awhile. Okay.
2 (8m 31s):
Yeah. And then when we did the first album we did with Ross was Master Volume and then that brings us to our newest album.
0 (8m 38s):
The higher, higher, yeah. Higher power was done with the, there are other ways
2 (8m 43s):
Yeah. With Dave. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me, OK, so you started the band, right?
0 (8m 47s):
Yeah. So you didn't put out a record for 10 years. What were, what were you guys, what were you guys do it in the midst
2 (8m 53s):
There, we were basically trying to figure exactly what to have or what to do. And I mean, to your, to your question earlier in the conversation where there are bands happening in the us, I mean, there weren't really, to our knowledge and we just, we just didn't know what to do. And going 20 minutes up the road or 10 minutes rather than to Hamilton to play a show was a very exotic concept to us. So we kind of started playing shows and Hamilton when we were a, what were, we were about a year until the band. And then when you like, and then in one year later we play shows in Toronto, which was like the ultimate In. And so, I mean, yeah, exactly.
2 (9m 35s):
So to answer your question, all of these things are just very alien, umm, alien concepts. I mean we just worshiped classic rock bands, like the hu and we love to have the drive in and, you know, led Zepplin. And we were apart of that whole classic rock Renaissance generation with the school of rock and all those movies. So, but we just had no idea, no concept of how to get from the basement to a proper stage. I think there's a Colin Powell quote, where he says there are known knowns and then there are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns.
2 (10m 26s):
And that third category that are unknown unknowns, that it was that describes all of our knowledge about how to kind of get a band off the ground. Everything was just by trial and error. And we just had no concept of the kind of necessary steps to kind of get there. So we would, every time we would open for a band at the Casbah and Hamilton, we were just absolutely punish the headline bad with questions like, okay, how do you get it? How do you get a record? How do you get a record deal? How do you do it? And they were, they were up to their credit. They are very patient with us and they would give us answers, you know, they would humorous and, and be really nice to us.
2 (11m 6s):
And you know, I got to live up to give it a lot of credit to them for giving the time of day to answering our stupid, very remedial questions. But that was it. I mean, and then there are the really exotic thing, a, B, C, we went on our first tour in 2009 and we went out East to Halifax, the, and the East coast of Canada. And we looked at ourselves and the tour was two weeks long and we played and we are to tourism. It like you can drive. Yeah. It's like in Australia where you you'd fly there and play like four shows and two exactly that.
2 (11m 49s):
Well, they call the train Canada highway, the band, a breaker. And I totally the why. Yeah. So we, when we went out to Halifax and back and forth over two weeks, and that was our first taste of the, of the touring life. And we were very excited by that. But our first real tour of the United States, which United States was always the goal, but it just seems so exotic and unattainable to us for so many years. Like it was like, how did we get Visa's? And we were having conversations with people on the phone, like, how do you get a visa? How do you get a P to, and they're all like, you know, you guys are way, like, first of all, it's gonna cost you a few thousand dollars. We were like, fuck, like we don't have a a hundred dollars.
2 (12m 29s):
So our first real tour in the United States starting in 2013, it, we basically, we would just do, we were doing the EPS. We are doing seven inches when were released the song. Fuck it up. Young in the spring of 2011 or summer rather that's when things like that is when we really started getting some attention worldwide. Like we started having people from Germany, Right us and all across the United States saying, when are you going to come here? And we're like, I don't know,
3 (12m 59s):
Can you help us in there? All like, Oh, but like, what do you mean
2 (13m 2s):
Com we'll see you I'm. So it was about two years. I'm still just kind of bumming around and trying to, you know, get some funds together before we got some money together to get our visas, to go play down in the United States. And that's that we, we did our first tour in 2013. Oh, wow. Yeah. Tell me if it was just for a single, like, how did it get recognition? Like how our people that across the world hitting me up about it while, I mean, first of all, it's fucking banger, right?
3 (13m 34s):
Yeah. And do you find the bank?
2 (13m 38s):
Oh, well we met, we met when we were recording that song or actually just mixing it. We recorded it all up in a cottage, a little cottage that my godfather gave me my first guitar and actually owns. I was like, you can do your, you can do your recording up there. So did you record it at the Squire tho? I did not make a Rickenbacker. Yeah.
3 (13m 57s):
Yeah. But if it's quite a, quite a step up, there are a little bit of a step out for sure. Yeah.
2 (14m 3s):
Yeah. So we did, we, we recorded a batch of songs and there was a few in there that were clearly that felt very exciting about it. Like, you know, we're at a three piece at that point and we knew that we were making some songs that it's a distinct feeling when you start making music that, you know, other people are going to like, not just, you know, like I remember that personally, very distinctly of like, this is not, this is like, this is something that's going to, it's a special feeling of, of where you feel like you've kind of tapped in to something that's greater than you're all the three of you peanut brains put together. If it feels like something very, very special and that you almost weren't that it, it couldn't have been planned.
2 (14m 51s):
You just did it. And so fucking up young was that one of those songs for us and when we were mixing it in Hamilton, we were approached by a guy who basically said, listen, I would advise you to not put out this album. I would advise you to put out a single and let me work. It, let me work the PR Ford over the internet. And it was like, Fuck the internet? Like the internet has a passing phase of fat. I didn't have it until I was 19 years old. And they matter, we are a country bumpkin, basically M and he's just like, okay, well maybe just think about it. So they were like, okay, fine. So he worked this single online and that really basically opened us up to a modest, but, but, but distinctly in global audience, like we had people from all over the world that had suddenly hurt our band.
2 (15m 40s):
We were riding us messages, emails, and were asking us to come and play there. So that was that really kick things off Fuckin was our, our, our, our, our introduction to the world. It again in a very modest way, but it's still,
0 (15m 54s):
But you were able to, I mean, you're a couple of years later come down to the States and, and do the whole tour,
2 (15m 59s):
A whole tour. And we, I mean, fat Mike from no effects heard that song or a mutual friend of ours, a funny enough that we had mutual friends at the time to play at a show. And so this isn't even dumber crazier story. Like we had, we had to show up in December of 2012 and I had a terrible food poisoning. I was, and it wasn't a Hangover anything. I had eaten a MC chicken from McDonald's and I was just, absolutely, I was, it was green, sick, like green, and we still in to show up and we don't quit. We don't cancel. So we were going to play this show even if it was puke in everywhere. So I re I, I kind of a drag myself out on a stage and we played this set and one of the guys in the eye and say, just like, Hey, this is not a bad.
2 (16m 47s):
And then they had bought a couple of our seven inches. And one of these guys' was a friend of fat and MC and he flew out and was meeting up with fat Mick the next week and gave him the a seven inch and said, I think you're going to want to hear this. And fat Mike listened to fuck it up. Young and immediately got in contact with us and said, you started tweeting about us and started, he went all over the internet and saying, you know, I really, really am down with this band that spans Awesome and how can we get in contact with him? And where are you a fan of? I have no facts. No, no. I was not. I mean, like, I didn't dislike them. I just didn't, I wasn't knowledgeable. I just find a few of them.
2 (17m 27s):
Yeah, exactly. I D I M E
0 (17m 29s):
Do you know how big of a imp, like how, you know, a big fat Records and all of that was at the time
2 (17m 37s):
You started messaging me and bill, have you seen this shit? And I'm like, no, I don't even have a smartphone. What are you talking about? I had a flip phone when people are like that my ex reaching out and all of a sudden you should get in contact with them. So I, like, I went to my family's like dial up a phone and I phoned them up and we talked it over the phone and he was super cool. And you said, look, I want to put out of a single for you guys. I want to put out a single. And so we were like, hell yeah. So we recorded some material. And yeah, that was basically the springboard for our first us tour. We were doing a seven-ish with fat req and we did a full six week tour that we booked ourselves.
2 (18m 19s):
Actually, Dave book for a state of Nevada is a very challenging, they haven't already booked for us. And we did a full U S tour. And people were still talking about this song that they came out to hear that song that we had recorded, you know, two years earlier. And we had an EVP at the time that we were working on it, which is much faster and much more aggressive, not quite as anthemic, more, more kind of hardcore leaning, to be honest with you, we were kind of going in a, in a, in a much more aggro direction at that point, but it was clear that people were really responding to that song. And so it was like the ultimate achievement for us as kids growing up in Canada who had worshiped rock and roll and absorbed it through YouTube and through pictures, like basically a coffee table books about bans, the ultimate goal, a Mecca for a rock and roll as the United states'.
2 (19m 16s):
So, I mean, it, it was such an accomplishment and achievement to go to the United States and how it was just even in a handful of fan's in every city already, because of this song that we made in my parent's basement, in Dundas, Ontario, there is a little tiny town. And from there on our, our ambitions really grew and we started recording our full first full length album in 2014 and a, it didn't get finished until 2015 and we didn't have a label or anything. So we kind of had to do it ourselves. And we, we only really signed a record contract because we ran out of money and we needed some money to finish the thing.
2 (19m 56s):
So we signed in Dine Alone Records in Canada. And then we did the warp tour and the warp tour. It brought us to a much bigger audience, even though the general, the general feeling of the warrior was, was a mood of total defeat. Because I mean, when we signed up for it, I thought we were signing up to play with bands, like no effects and bad religion and, and lead, lag wagon, all the usual suspects that you associate. But it was like, okay, when they die. So we signed up for it. And then they started announcing the M the lines of that headliners. It was like the black veil brides. Right. And then it was like a riff Raff. And I'm like, that's kind of funny, but whatever.
2 (20m 39s):
And then it was like a Tila and, and I'm like, fuck, who are idiot? Like, I just don't know. I'm not going to like fan. So anyways, we were definitely extreme outliers on that tour. What year was it? Did you guys play work for 2015? Okay. It was 2015. We were on the Ernie ball stage, which as I like to call it, the stage that God forgot
0 (21m 4s):
There, wasn't a piece in advance on that. I saw some good bands played the learning both feet. Yeah.
2 (21m 9s):
It was an awesome stage. Very, very inconspicuously hidden with regards to the rest of the festival. Like it would be like in the basement are like, you know, a far off like kinda of corn patch away from the rest of it. That was, you couldn't find it. So anyways, no one was really coming to see us in the are fans that would come in to see us, we'd have a hell of a time and trying to get it to us, but we weren't really playing. And many people who are of what started happening on his tour is that all of the bands and the big bands on the tour, like bear tooth and Silverstein and all the guitar techs for these big bands, but also worked for bans like the foo fighters, you know, massive bands started coming to see us.
2 (21m 57s):
And we were just packed side and stayed at every single one of our gigs and play it all. Like every day. It was just the faculty of the tour there, like the head chef and the organizer, the festival, they were there every day and watching this play, and those are making those kinds of fans and yielded as a massive dividends over the years, even if we weren't really playing to many people, I mean, or a fan or a kind of a casual attendees of the tour. I remember my first recollections of the tour, as soon as we landed in Pomona, California was I described it in three sentiments, number one, heat dust and children with e-cigarettes.
2 (22m 43s):
That was the, that was my number one vision. Have that issue of that entire tour was that is
0 (22m 49s):
Right. It does sound like Pomona though, or I can see it. So my sister actually went to college in Pomona.
2 (22m 55s):
Oh, okay. Yeah. Well that, that was the name of the dominant, the dominant a visual that I recall on the work tour and kids walk around with braces, like me on braces with e-cigarettes like billowing out neon green cloud. And they had shirts that said, suck my fuck. And I'm like, that was the first time I remember distinctly, this is the first time I felt like I'm old now. And I was 24 or got
0 (23m 23s):
To just like, yeah,
2 (23m 25s):
No, I have, I have, I can relate at all to this.
0 (23m 28s):
The smoke was, the smoke was colored. Yeah. Is it was okay that I see. Okay. Well that makes me feel better. Cause I thought I had this million dollar idea when the vape things were popular and I'd see the cars coming out, like, you know, they pull up and then it'll just be like Cheech and Chong, but it's just like the vape things. And I'm like, that would be dope if they could figure out a way to make the smoke colored. That would be a million-dollar idea. But I guess I've already done it.
2 (23m 53s):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. I think somebody somebody's may have already gotten that too to that one. I thought that I saw many, many a time when the warp to Europe, the other thing that I would say it was going to Take to build out a time machine and you can, you can retroactively invent it. But one of the things that I really distinctly remember from that was one of the longstanding tenants or tenements of the tour was that each band we'll get a case of water and a case of beer every day, regardless of if you were on the main stage or the Ernie ball stage, which is the lowest or the pecking order, the one that we were on, but the case of water was water, but in monster energy drink cans.
2 (24m 38s):
Oh yeah. So in very small, a fine print, it said monster tour waters around the lip. So your fresh, it looks exactly like a monster energy drink. So were crushing these cans of water. I had kids all day. It would be like, I need to go get a monster energy drink to be like Scrillex or a Not Scrillex, but I'm on a tiller. I need to be like a Tell. So anyway, brilliant. But fucking evil marketing. I got to say. Yeah.
0 (25m 6s):
Oh yeah. I've seen those before and now I would see band's on stage drinking and I'm like, damn he did that guy killing to add to monsters on stage. He was going to wait it out. But yeah, it was, Oh, it's water. Okay.
2 (25m 18s):
Yeah. I have one of those full cans still sitting on my mantle on my parents' house. Its like my, my memory, every time I look at that I can remember the entire summer.
0 (25m 29s):
Yeah. That's cool though. What a cool, you know, momentum to have sweet, so, okay, so you didn't work in 2015. We didn't put your first record out until the next year.
2 (25m 40s):
Higher beginning of 2016. Yeah. I mean I was just going to say that it was that that kind of ushered in our new Like are the opportunities to go play overseas. And we went in there three times that year.
0 (25m 53s):
You said that was when you said you had signed a dye, a Dine Alone Records before the warp tour.
2 (25m 59s):
Yes. We had signed a 2015 and so they were basically responsible for allocating the necessary funds to complete the album and press it. So yeah, we signed on them world-wide and they had distribution in the United States and yeah, there was a very important relationships that we began with them. Yeah,
0 (26m 21s):
Yeah, yeah. And they took you to Accra, you know, across the pond so to speak.
2 (26m 26s):
Yeah. We got to go play a lot of great festivals over in England and, and in Belgium. And then we really started kind of planning our C our, our, our roots in Germany. And then by the end of the year, by the end of 2016, we had gone and played a stadium tour of Germany with the band Billy talent. Oh wow. And yeah, that was the big, that was a big, big tour for us.
0 (26m 49s):
He there from Canada to Right really talent.
2 (26m 51s):
They are. Yeah. We're good friends with them. Yeah.
0 (26m 53s):
That's awesome. What a cool tool. Tell me about, have you ever been to Europe before, or was that your first experience?
2 (26m 59s):
I have been to Europe for a couple of times. I've had gone once when I was 18. I went on a backpacking trip for two weeks in Europe, which involved, you know, sleeping on this street in Berlin and seeing radio had a couple of times a school. That was great. Town on the in rainbows tour is a great Oh. Wow.
0 (27m 18s):
Yeah. I mean, I think that's like their best record, to be honest with you.
2 (27m 21s):
So you got that in college. And then the second time I went to Europe was the go play in this band called single mothers. And we had, it was just after the war tour and Dave and I played guitar and bass and single mothers. We played reading and Leeds festival and one of the whole tour through a Western Europe. And that was just such a cool thing. But yeah.
0 (27m 45s):
Was that a brand that you guys just jumped on to play with them or, or no?
2 (27m 49s):
Yeah. And we had, we had done a tour with them earlier that year and then the line up and kind of dissolve. So we kind of, we, well, it's funny, Dave got asked to be in a band and I just kind of like inserted my way into I'm about a year up to you. They're like, Oh yeah, we got to the right to refuse from the side stage.
0 (28m 12s):
Yeah. Yeah. I got to see refuse when they did the RI they reunited for Coachella that one year. Yeah. But before Coachella they did because of the radius clause, they were able to apply. I was living in San Francisco at the time. There are able to play the Bay area and I saw that the Warfield or summer in San Francisco, it was nice sane. Yeah.
2 (28m 31s):
Great. One of the best live bands. Oh
0 (28m 34s):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good. That is rather you got to see him that close. Yeah.
2 (28m 38s):
Kendrick Lamar was, it was like on the main stage to this. This is such a surreal experience. It was great.
0 (28m 43s):
Yeah. That's wild. Wow. Okay. So the HIE a higher power got you to Europe. The next record you guys put out was Master Volume. That was the first one you said that has your, your new base player on it. I can do the same right now. A Ross sorry, the one K the wonderful Ross. Ah, tell me about Master Volume what was the highlight for that record?
2 (29m 9s):
Master Volume is really important because it was the first full length record that we had done, where it was all completely brand new material. There was some real recorded material on a higher power. And I would say Master Volume was really important to us because it was the first time that we work with a proper producer, no offense who are friends, that it's just a mess on higher power, but it's the first time that we had, you know, we spent quite a bit of money on making an album and we had worked way harder generating the material for Master Volume than we had on generating the material for a day or doing anything prior. It was the moment we had rehearsed every single day in and amongst touring with, against me and going to Europe.
2 (29m 52s):
And, you know, we haven't had a ton of big experiences while we were making the Master Volume material. And I was just very, very confident in the material. I thought, I thought it represented a new kind of side of us that was embracing our classic rock roots are kind of like queen and a little bit of a Arrowsmith. And also we were, you know, we had, we had toured with With flag right before, which is like the most of the guys from the first lime of black flag. So we've watched them every night and we had kind of crafted the song, kind of like stealing all of the best moves from there, set and gone and
0 (30m 35s):
Got Greg and in it, or it was that the one that
2 (30m 37s):
Did not, that was that he was in. So he owns the black flag name. That flag had bill Stevenson. It had a Keith Morris on vocals and it had a Chuck to Koski on base Dez Kadena on rhythm guitar. And from the descendants Steven Egerton. Oh, doing an incredible, incredible job of, of Greg gins guitar parts are in the same identical rig it's sounded fucking perfect. It, it was that it was a great tour.
0 (31m 7s):
You have a crazy black flag, sorry for you. It's real quick. So I have two sons. One's 12 and one's a four, but when my 12 year old was in second grade, his teacher, her brother is Greg Guinn. Oh, wow. Yeah. So we got to meet him and like, he's signed a thing for my son. It was crazy. You've got a picture of him and I guess he doesn't do stuff like that. Like he doesn't do chairs or sign anything and he did, but it was only because his sister was my son's teacher, but yeah. And they have another brother like his brother, her name is Erica. So between her and Greg, then there are other brother is the guy that does all of the art like Raymond.
0 (31m 49s):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, he did all the crazy art work for him. And, you know, Sonic, you met, did you really, you know,
2 (31m 57s):
Yeah. A really nice guy. He did the tour laminates, which were just incredible. It was like, it was fat Elvis on the cross. Oh yeah, yeah.
0 (32m 9s):
Yeah. His art is so like twisted and Awesome
2 (32m 12s):
Taconic. It's like Konica. Yeah. Very
0 (32m 14s):
Cool. Yeah. Sorry on that side, tangent, but again, so you got to see black people or you got to tour with flag Yes. Wow. That's amazing.
2 (32m 24s):
That was excellent. So, I mean, we had kind of, you know, between the Right and the writing process for a higher power and recording process had completely ended by the end of 2014. And we didn't even have to put it out for about a year and a half after. Oh, so yeah. So, I mean, I just had all these new rips and ideas cooking around, but I mean, we had essentially to rebuild the band with a new new member Ross so it was just a very wonderful process of expansion and exploration. And, you know, Derek is a rebirth, you know, it was just like a If it felt like really a clean slate in that any of my life, by the time we were at the end of the year that we were playing with Dave, like things had become very stratified and very kind of awkward.
2 (33m 14s):
And we were kind of, we had written ourselves into a corner by what we can and can't do. And we, we had some kind of unspoken rules about our musicality and when Ross joined the band, all of those were out the window. And suddenly we had kind of a sense of, of, of sarcasm and mean spirited celebration of Like like sugar Ray and insane clown posse whilst also have chorus, a cherishing, the work's of clean and black flag. So this kind of a new sense of playfulness really assisted in a germinating.
2 (33m 56s):
The song is that it became Master Volume. So it was a very exciting time, as I said, it was a first time that we record at a proper studio with a proper producer. And we had done our homework. We had jammed every day, had all of the arguments blasting away at these songs in a concrete room. And I got it all together and I knew that it was going to be a big record for us. And he was going to go really well because of how much work we had put in. And by, you know, I, I was a very confident in, in what we have made so that it was, I mean, today is our most important thing that we've done is that one, I mean, people were aware of us when we made Higher power and we, we made it onto some people's radar, but with Master Volume it's the first time we had, you know, people are really getting lots of tattoo's with my lyrics, their bodies.
2 (34m 51s):
And is that the first time you saw that that was the best. And as the guy who has no tattoos at all, I was like, this is really cool. It was, it was the thing that allowed us to finally after basically, you know, for years of playing to maybe 50 people in a room and the United States to play it at 250 people in a row. And every city we went to it, it gave us a career that album, and it, it, it allowed us to, to, you know, expand our operation in every respect. And, and so we toured on that album for quite awhile, we tour and we, it came out of the end of 2018.
2 (35m 39s):
We've got to open it for the hu. That was a really good on my birthday
0 (35m 43s):
Earlier that you were like an iconic brand for you guys and my daughter.
2 (35m 47s):
Yeah. Yeah. My 27th birthday, we opened for the hoop and I met Pete Townson and I met Roger Daltrey. Oh, wow. We played in front of a, a hundred thousand people in Quebec city. Oh, wow.
0 (35m 58s):
That must have been absolutely insane.
2 (36m 2s):
You can't really beat that one. That's a pretty good one. I mean, that's been a good one for me ever since, but yeah.
0 (36m 8s):
So tell me about walking out on stage to a a hundred thousand people. What was that?
2 (36m 12s):
Oh, yes. We walked out to the song, mannish boy by muddy waters. It's the one that's like bowel ma'am no, ma'am out. You and I walked out with a wine bottle and you know, and it was clapping along. And I remember just saying it to the microphone and I was like, guys, I'm not going to lie is my fucking birthday. I have broken for the who and its the best day in my life, but let's have a good time when my grandma, Oh man. Yeah, it was. And the next day we got to see Metallica and Oh wow.
0 (36m 48s):
Yeah. That's so awesome. And that's so awesome. And your new record is coming out new years, day on 2021.
2 (36m 58s):
It is indeed. Tell
0 (36m 60s):
Me about, tell me about the new record and I want to, and I want to talk to you about this cameo video I saw with a Mark McGrath and all of these people in it. Yeah. Well tell me about this new record coming up.
2 (37m 13s):
Okay. So our new album is called fuck art. And it's a, you know, on, on, on, upon first mentioning or on paper, it kind of looks nihilistic. But to us it couldn't be further from the, the truth is it's full of jubilation and optimism. Like when you say Fuck art out loud, can you, you have to smile. You have a smile. Even, even in my angry grandmother can help with a smile. He says that title and the way it originated was I was playing or I was taking painting lessons at the local community center at the beginning of the year.
2 (37m 53s):
And it was mostly in the older crowd of people in their sixties and seventies. And there was this one really cranky old dude who kept just putting his hand up, like my painting doesn't look like that and instruct her a very patient. We could say, you don't worry. You were just, you know, you're just starting to see the patient. That's all good. You put his hand down on his hand would shoot it up again. There is Breslin stuck at my painting and to be like, don't worry when it all dries, you can pull them out. And then at some point you heard him the whole, a whole room style and you get to see the brushstrokes going. I, at one point you'll hear him slam down his brother and he goes, Fuck art and presented that to the band.
2 (38m 33s):
And that became our, that's it that's our album title. So this album is, is a very, it's, it's a very different one from our last one, in my opinion. It's at times it's simultaneously both, I'm more vulnerable and much heavier and nastier than our last one. And, and, and it's textures. It's kind of like a, it's kind of a, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a different kind of a more confident album. And the last one eye, I really, really am super excited for people to hear it.
2 (39m 15s):
It's got, we were listening to a lot of, kind of like first wave thrash, like Slayer. And we were also listening to a lot of sugar re and like Neil Young and stuff. And Joel, are you,
0 (39m 26s):
Was it that early, early sugar Ray? Cause that first record was heavy, Heavy. It's crazy.
2 (39m 35s):
Yeah. So, I mean, during Master Volume are listening to a lot of like what most people with this fight as terrible as music, but we were all about it. So we really decided to double down on, are on our general mission statement of control the world with this album. And our intention is to confuse in a muse the rock fan of the world. And I think we're going to do that with his album. I'm very excited about it. But anyways, Jon, our producer Goodmans and who did Master Volume
2 (40m 17s):
And we had just finished the drums and the bass and he had a, you had to catch the last flight out of Canada and it States because Corona was, was ramping up. Yeah. So basically I was the, the owner of the studio basically said to me, listen, okay, so here are your choices. We can push pause and you can resume and take all the rest of the time that you had booked a as soon as we can get back to work or you have 36 hours for cord all the guitars for the album before the city shuts down and you just have to get to do with the engineer here. And I said, well, let's do that one. So the engineer and I did all the guitars in 36 hours, it was fucking insanity.
2 (40m 59s):
And you stay there for 36 hours. Yes we do. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we, we drank coffee, we had a pizza pockets and it was madness. Like, I mean, I, I was a chef. I was, I was hallucinating by the end. So we finished this, this thing. And then over April, we, the band all lives together. So we just did vocals at the house and, and, and shot them over to John in Seattle and a very luckily. And fortunately we were able to finish the record rather than push pause, which I think a lot of people had to do. So this is, ah, it's a miracle that a thing got done. So I'm very pumped with that.
2 (41m 39s):
First and foremost, But the same thing. When we approached the music of the exact same way that we, we got together and we jammed every single day for a year and a half, and then we, we road tested it and we, we yelled at each other and we laughed and we, we hugged and we, we got the thing done. We did it like a real band. I was just the modern trend or the modern trend is to kinda show up at the studio with an idea. And I'm a producer of holding your hand and kind of put a song together with drum loops and shit. Right. And that's not anything we're interested in at all. We I'm suspicious of anything that requires less work and will never do anything like that.
2 (42m 22s):
So, I mean, we've bashed it out in the same way that we liked doing, which is, you know, as I said, having those arguments and those shitty jambs and those fucking, you know, points that are like, where are we going with all of this? And then ultimately leading towards something that you really, really proud of that makes you laugh. It makes you really happy. Umm, that's what this is. And we're super pumped on it. Yeah,
0 (42m 46s):
Yeah, yeah. And the first, the first single doom boy, that ones out. Right. All righty. And you guys got to collaborate with, it looked like a, a brewery up in Canada
2 (42m 57s):
For what we did. Yeah. We had a doom boy. A beer. Yeah.
0 (43m 0s):
Cool. So how did that happen? They had come to you and wanting to do something for you. Yeah,
2 (43m 5s):
Yeah. Yes they did. So they, they said, Hey, we, we love you too. And do, and boy, we want to make it real. We want to make it a beer. And there are like, so what we're thinking is like, this is kind of like dark cherry stout thing. And I'm like, Hey bro, we need to be able to drink it too. So maybe not, maybe not something like that. It looks like motor oil. We were like, what's the most drinkable beer you could make. And they're like this one and we're like, that's great. And we try it and we're like, this is actually fucking delicious. Right.
0 (43m 32s):
Cool. That's cool. So what are they going to beat? They can do it, obviously. It's not can, is that going to be something that is just like a limited run? Are you guys able to sell it and it shows or how is that going to work?
2 (43m 43s):
I think it's a limited run right now. So if you're interested, check out our, our, our socialism there's links to it, but it's selling really fast. I think there were, I think there was only a bit left. Right.
0 (43m 53s):
Wow. That's good. That's good. I mean that's cool. Very cool. And then you guys have, you did like a live stream tour, right?
2 (44m 0s):
We are. That's coming up. It's called the dancing to thrash tour. Tell me about that. And so where are we? We're, you know, sitting around think about what we were going to do. And you know, as I said before, a lot of our mythology and our kind of Hope's and career aspirations are all revolve around the United States. We've got a lot of amazing friends and in some of the best times of our lives have been spent down there. So we just decided to, you know, start emailing some of our favorite venues and say like, Hey, would you be interested in like, we want to do this, like this live stream tour where we will split the money with you, help give you guys a float Because we know that you guys are fucked right now.
2 (44m 41s):
So let's do this thing together. You help us promote it. We'll split the money and we'll make a super, super weird, but Awesome a tour. And so what we did was we filmed 15 unique sets, you know, all different set lives in a green screen studio. Like pro audio, a bunch of different at HD cameras. And so it was going to kind of be a combination between like a concert film and that Tim and Eric show is going to be very, very loud and very absurd.
0 (45m 14s):
What are some of your green screen videos on your Instagram now that you said Tim and Eric, that sort of a reminder that that's what it reminds me of it in some of them. Yeah.
2 (45m 21s):
Yeah. We're a big Tim and Eric guys and that's definitely going to come through on this tour. So it's called the dancing just the last tour and you can check out tickets to that on our, our socials, but we're, we're, we're really excited to announce we've got some opening acts that we'll be announcing soon. So we're super pumped that we can make any kind of modest contribution to helping to keep these venues a float because you know, there, there are an integral part of the ecosystem of live music
0 (45m 54s):
And it looks so you got some radio stations involved throughout the tour as far as like presented by or helping promote it.
2 (46m 3s):
Yeah. We've been really lucky, like starting on Master Volume to get a little bunch of radio love in the United States, I'm on the rock station. So I mean, it's really cool that we can, we can partner up with them and they can, they can advertise it. And you know, as I said, drive money back towards the venues that desperately need it. Yeah.
0 (46m 22s):
Yeah. That's amazing. And that is that's kicking off, but a couple of weeks from now. Right. So yeah, there are mid October.
2 (46m 28s):
Yeah. October. Very
0 (46m 30s):
Cool. Very cool. And how did you, did you shoot all the sets? Like how many days does that take?
2 (46m 35s):
Yeah, it took two weeks. We'd just basically two at night. And so we do a set and then we go outside and drink doom, Boyd, beer, and talks about the next one. What, what, what city we were going to be in what venue we were playing in kind of ham it up, which the venue we're at. Like if we're in Chicago, like talk about our favorite Mexican food places in Chicago and like the Chicago music exchange a store and I was in a big Toronto Raptors fans. We can be talking to mad smack about basketball and ah, yeah, we, we definitely see a tailored the banter, a D each city that we are planning and, you know, we didn't, we, we had a really good time doing it.
2 (47m 19s):
It was super weird, but I mean, I think it was a wicked concept that we pulled off. Very. Yeah.
0 (47m 24s):
Yeah. That's really cool. I haven't seen anybody do that yet. I mean, I've seen some of the virtual tours, but like that and nothing where it's like a fully produced live sets and everything that is really wrong. And I love this video that you guys got of this Cammy of video with all of the people in a Mark McGrath, you've got a, the guy from cheap trick and just like, how did that come together? And tell me the concept behind that Because this is amazing.
2 (47m 48s):
S so that was another idea by our hilarious and mischievous management at Parkside, Mister Mike Renaud. Umm, and so what he said is listen, so what I want to do is get a reaction video over cameo from all these celebrities. And nobody seems to have used it this way. Like nobody's seen as too of most of them are Cammie. It was mostly for like a happy birthday, shout out and steal of the $400 that he kind of drunkenly mumbles through a happy birthday and what our manager was like, Oh, what if we get these kinds of the whole air? It's like celebrities that are going to that appeal to us and maybe a slightly mean-spirited way, but also like on your way.
2 (48m 32s):
And we, and we, and we get them to review do boy. And I was like, Oh, that sounds fucking awesome. So we got Gary Whole from Slayer. Yeah. And Mark McGrath from sugar Ray and Gilbert Godfrey, who is my favorite one. And it may I quote Gilbert Godfrey, you? And he said about our video, I think that they should take this video to Guantanamo Bay and replace waterboarding with The Dirty Nil Dubois video. So yeah. And then he got Perez, Helton fucking hated it. Also all of my favorite ones where the ones were, they hated it because it's just allowed us to start a conversation more. And I love when people love our band, but it's, it's, it's great when we get shit on.
2 (49m 13s):
So there's something, so a masochistic, a element of me that enjoys that too. Yeah.
0 (49m 17s):
So yeah. That's hilarious. So he just reached out to these people or did you actually do it through cameo?
2 (49m 22s):
We did it through cameo and basically cameo realized what was happening in realize that we were doing this and they reached out to us and said, Hey man, like nobody's ever done this before. This is awesome. And they want, they partnered with us and started promoting that we were doing this. Yeah. So they basically started advertising that as now. Like, they're like, it's cool that you did this, but if people want to do this from now on, they have to pay this extra fee because we realize that this is a loophole in our policy. So yeah. We kind of game the system and use to charge advantage. So now they are going to do it.
0 (49m 59s):
Yeah. You can go on cam you know now and like create your own little hopeful list of people like that. Is that going to work or do you don't even get it? You know?
2 (50m 7s):
Yeah. So what are they kind of painted that? Yeah, I know we already did our thing. I don't feel good again. Good man. We got out. Yeah. Yeah.
0 (50m 16s):
Rick Nelson, some of these people, they don't even think I have seen on camera. Oh yeah.
2 (50m 20s):
Yeah. I know. That's funny. Yeah. There's a couple that I wish we got, we try to get violent J from insane posse. That'd be rad. Yeah.
0 (50m 30s):
Yeah. That'd be a, Cisco is a pretty good Hasselhoff. It was a pretty good, I mean, that's pretty good. It's amazing. So that they are, that's a red, red concept, man. Well, and thanks to Luke. Thank you so much for talking with me today to do it. I really appreciate it.
2 (50m 45s):
It was my pleasure. And thank you so much for having me. This has been a blast. Yeah,
0 (50m 48s):
Yeah, yeah. I do have one more question. I wanted to know. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists. Yeah.
2 (50m 57s):
Yes I do. In terms of the aspiring artist and the COVID era, I would say a number one is, do not despair. Okay. B you got to be positive. You got to focus. Now, one thing I'd say is focus on what you can do rather than on what you can, because obviously there are some glaring things that we can't do right now, but don't despair because there's that famous quote. It says they may have been more of a elegant and majestic times in this, but this is our time. And I really think you need to run with that right now. We have barely scratched the surface of the type of mischief that you can get up to you on the internet.
2 (51m 38s):
And that's what I would encourage all of the younger artists out there to do right now. Live music is a problem. So online promotion is your newest and your best friend, and you really just need to put your noodles together and figure out how to do that. But I want to say, don't despair. This is, this is, this is just, this is a phase and we're a card on your craft and make good songs and have fun with your friends because it's, it's a short but wonderful