00:00everybody in this industry tells you it's important to get all of the big looks and but we're from
00:05detroit we're hustlers so we're like what happens in between the the big looks right we're just
00:09gonna stay busy i don't know indefinitely prog metal prog and everything in between welcome
00:18to this episode of talk and rock with meltdown don't forget to follow the audio only talking
00:23rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown
00:30hey guys meltdown here along with amanda from eva under fire they're gonna embark on a massive tour
00:35with five figure death punch this summer they've also got a new record coming out we'll talk to
00:39her about that and of course uh we had to drag her in here to the riff studios uh during the snowiest
00:46day of january so amanda good to see you again thanks for coming in thanks for having me don't
00:50worry about it i got a truck we figured it out thanks for making the truck my god man yeah i was
00:56just telling him i was talking to uh i was telling amanda that i was talking to mark kendall yesterday
01:00and he's like man it looks really nice out there i'm like no dude it's freezing balls here yeah dude
01:04i heard it's supposed to get worse this weekend let's not talk about that because i have a trip to
01:09go on but uh yeah that's okay we're gonna i'm gonna go on a trip too so we're just getting out of
01:14here you know but unfortunately i'm going east oh no i'm not going south i'm going to ship rock
01:20so oh you are is that this weekend yes it is you know i'm trying to get on uh uh monsters of rock
01:26and i've got the uh i've got the the you know the hooks in the water and it's like uh i'm waiting
01:31to hear back from you are a monster of rock they should just let you on board you know come on i know
01:36i mean i don't know what they're waiting for yeah but uh anyways um yes you guys have a pretty
01:41big year coming up massive yeah absolutely massive let's go back to uh last year and the previous
01:47years now if i'm not mistaken so did you guys uh correct me if i'm wrong here did you guys switch
01:51like uh record companies management what happened recently so there was a switch up in the team we're
01:57working with the new agent now booking agent and um i think that it was just a better fit it was
02:03um you know something in the timeline that we were trying to work out before like why can't we
02:11um keep keep this consistent i don't know if it was like you know everybody in this industry tells you
02:19it's important to get all of the big looks and but we're from detroit we're hustlers so we're like
02:24what happens in between the the big looks right um so we we needed somebody that was going to be able
02:30to just do you know grind with us and um so we found an agent that could do that and we started
02:37booking um we went on the buck cherry tour in uh november of last year and then he put us on the
02:44jarris johnson butcher babies tour um which we're gonna leave for right when i get home from shiprocked
02:50okay um and and then we were we were doing a build out for headliner stuff and then we got the most
02:58massive offer of our lives which is two legs of a five finger death punch tour right so crazy um i
03:05mean we also jam-packed like these last two years we have not been idle we've been in the studio the
03:10entire time so we've turned in like 21 songs okay with and it's so we're just gonna stay busy
03:17from now until i don't know indefinitely hopefully you know for people that are listening to this
03:24outside of detroit and outside of the midwest it's like there is a certain grinding mentality
03:28and it's like you know you guys will get in the bus or the van or whatever the case is as long as
03:33there's a stage at the end of that trip uh that's what you're gonna do and it's like there are some
03:38other parts of the country where i think that um i don't know if this is even the right word but
03:42there's a little bit more of a pampered mentality we're here in detroit it's like no this is what we got
03:46to do so this is what we're gonna do that's kind of what it is too and i i think when we first did
03:51album one i was like oh okay that's not how this works then i'll just i'll try to adjust
03:58and then after a while i'm like no i was right we were right the grind mentality gets us way farther
04:05especially because it's rock music yeah people want the club things they want the up close and
04:10personal grimy like 200 people in a room thing yeah and um and so that's what we needed to do and
04:16that's what we were were and are prepared to do now it's just unfortunately the brand new agent was
04:21like well that got busy quickly let me just hurry up and scoot all of that back to after the five
04:27finger death punch tour then yeah well that's okay because look the five finger thing and that and
04:32speaking of grinding um that's a tough one too because you guys will take the stage to you know
04:38probably sparse crowds at the very beginning right and then of course as as you guys play you know
04:43people start to fill in but that's another thing too it's like you got to learn to adapt to
04:46that as well and it's part of the grind mentality also yes yeah i i think that's true um we've had
04:53enough of those like one-offs where we've we've been able to kind of see what it's like a little
04:57bit this will be interesting um to do a tour this massive you know nightly um i have high hopes that
05:05people will just start chatting about eva under fire and show up early after night two people are
05:12gonna be like uh did you guys see the opener because we did and because we're we're jazzed
05:17and i'm i'm really excited for this that's great as soon as i saw this level oh yeah that's awesome
05:21for you guys thank you and so then by time that comes around and when what does that tour start
05:25by the way and that's uh that's here in the middle of uh august i heard pine now but anyways when's the
05:29tour start uh so it starts in july and that's a what's that 40 dates or something yeah we don't get
05:35done with that till october i was gonna say that's a long tour goes across the whole country yes yeah
05:41that's awesome so before that like you said you got you got your uh shipwrecked uh shiprock cruise
05:46coming up here this weekend and then so talk about the new record we kind of talked about a little bit
05:50off the air so who are you working with and give me the details on the new album yeah uh new album was
05:56was very um hard fought and won from different camps we got in the room with everybody this time
06:04uh our first album we did with the specific camp and we kind of did a little bit of writing here
06:09and there with different other people um but this time we got into i don't know there's probably
06:13six studios or something um six different teams that we worked with to get this new album um
06:20but i think it's very much an elevation of our work i think it's probably the most authentic work
06:28that we've ever done um you know like i said and mentioned before first album everybody wants to
06:33tell you how to do this and the second album we were like no we don't want to do that yeah and
06:38i think that it's nice too that the trajectory because of that we have a lot to say we have a
06:44lot of things that we didn't get to uh to focus on with album one so it's heavier we went we went
06:50darker we went heavier we went grittier which is also kind of part of our like detroit you know
06:55has that grit that grind so i think it's very much more aligned with who we are as people
06:59um and who we are as a garage band because like that's that's the whole the whole concept
07:05um it's called villainous and i think it's going to draw probably aligns with this five finger tour
07:13is my guess so summer 2026 we should have the whole thing um but the first track that we released
07:20end of last year was awakening and um i was really i was really stoked to see how people would receive
07:27that and a lot of those comments on social media were really exciting because they were picking up
07:33right away on those same darker themes like oh this has hit this has grit we love this this hits heavier
07:38like wow you know this is um a different version of eva under fire so i think that we'll consider
07:44we'll see that theme continue and so tell us uh tell everybody who you've been working with as far
07:49as his record's concerned we did some work with our hometown boys bj and john and uh there are michigan
07:56um people that we that we uh did album one with and then we went to california we worked with scott
08:03stevens um who's working in california i thought i always pictured him like a nashville guy but anyways
08:08so part-time okay in both places um yes so and then we did some work with um john london from point
08:17north he did lots of songs with us and that was a really cool experience um it was it was the
08:25experience that got us excited about writing like that was the first couple of tracks that we did
08:29was with john london and we called a label right away and we were like we have to come back here
08:34so that was exciting um and let's see who else we worked with oh um so the newer stuff is with
08:42grant and carson so awakening was with grant and carson they're out in pennsylvania they do a lot of
08:46work with uh from ashes to new right pennsylvania so yeah so we it's been all over the place yeah
08:51you know um so are you working with with uh writing with these guys just mixing just producing or kind
08:57of everything it's producing um there is a lot of um hey this is a cool riff let's build it from there
09:04or like hey this is a cool lyric so a lot of times what i like to do with lyrics is um
09:09because i'm ashamed to say this but i don't play any instruments so i have just me and that makes
09:16two of us me and a metronome and my almost perfect pitch though okay and i will uh i'll get something
09:22in my head and i'll i'll do a voice memo about it and um and then i try to kind of see like okay what
09:28is a similar um what's what's the key in you know and then of course i you know live with my husband
09:34slash guitar player right and i go hey i need you to sit down and grab your i need you to do the
09:39instrument thing come on and uh and then and then we kind of build it from there and then that gives
09:44us like a workable demo to take into the room to then produce what became i don't know probably
09:5010 or 11 or 12 of the songs um that are going to be a part of this giant um body of work that we
09:59turned in and then the other stuff is like you know chris will come in with a riff and be like you
10:03know i don't know what you guys think about this one but i really love that it's got that you know
10:07he's always looking for that like corn yeah gritty bounce you know what i mean so um and that was
10:13kind of what started awakening we got in the room and chris was like i got this riff and so like
10:16we took it to grant and carson and grant was talking about we want we want there to be this
10:23bounce we want there to be this jump a chug that's what we started to do like in the room together
10:27and he so we were literally in studio like jumping as though we were at a festival to get the tempo
10:34yeah so those are i mean it's it's kind of a um a team effort well some of those tricks you have to
10:41pull off sometimes yeah yeah just to make it work so um a couple of things here i'm just going to
10:46throw these out at you i have no idea what you're going to say but uh any special guests on the
10:50record and are any of these songs going to be used in anything we'll see like in a film or anything
10:53like that coming up why you got to ask me about things that i can't necessarily tell you about
10:58that are currently in the works okay so uh the answer is probably yes to both of those things
11:03okay gotcha well since i'm not musical i'm not one of the guests that's for sure but uh
11:08uh but anyways though so you're working with maybe getting some stuff in movies and that
11:13um there is always going to be a pitch to licensing i think they have an angle with two of the songs in
11:18particular um so i don't know that that'll work out but you'll be the first to know when it does
11:23um and then uh definitely guest vocals from a couple of those uh peoples uh really cool artists
11:30that i know that you've heard of before um two in particular are in the works okay um one is closer
11:37than the other you know what it always it always amazed me when these bands they use the like these
11:42guest vocals or guest guitar players or something and i've never had an artist tell me this before
11:46but it's like what if you got the stuff back and you're like yeah i don't like this i you know what
11:50it's it's interesting i don't really we try not to ask for specifics on um like i have to like
11:58their voice right right like we have to like their music in order for us so we're not just going to go
12:03randomly to like oh because you have a big name we want to work with you right like we have to enjoy
12:07what you do um so i'm i'm like 98 confident most times that we do want to work with somebody else or
12:15feature somebody else that i'm going to love whatever they throw on the track um i am also
12:20manifesting like a third and fourth opportunity to work with some well i would love to have lee from
12:27the funeral portrait on one of our songs because he threw me on one of their songs i was going to say
12:31how hard can that be that would be yeah and i just i also love lee's voice and i think that his voice
12:36and mine compliment one another really well um there are some like next level artists that our
12:43our team the suits have their eyes on for us so i'm gonna let them work their magic on that one so
12:49there could be when the record comes out some special guests yes yeah the reason i brought it up
12:53is because of course you starred in that movie what was it called again the retaliator retaliator that's
12:59right yeah yeah we i did you know i'm an amateur movie critic and i didn't that one didn't do very
13:06well for me no no it's a terrible horror movie that i was but i had the quintessential part of being the
13:12first one exactly so i think i get an award just for that scene i know i can't speak to you couldn't
13:18have acted any better you couldn't have gotten out of there there was nothing you could do nothing i
13:22could do nothing you could do just you know i loved watching that movie just for the mere fact it's
13:26like hey there's so so there's so so change change the tire in the middle of the woods you get what
13:30you get that's right exactly no that's great yeah the retaliator i remember i wanted to watch that so
13:36bad and then i watched selling all right next yeah right right well at least you can say you checked
13:41the box it was fun you know it was fun and nothing else and i think that's what it was going for
13:45honestly was campy horror film yeah so you guys gonna do anything uh like before the five finger i know
13:51you said you got some tours at butcher babies stuff like that anything else going up maybe even
13:54locally or um you know we have um some things that we will announce locally there's going to be
14:00like a afterwards hometown party oh after in the fall yes okay yes so um we're gonna we're gonna have
14:08more details on that eventually um and you know wink wink nod nod you know who we're working with on
14:15that and so you'll probably be the first before we actually announce it to know who that's who that's
14:20with and when that is um but i do think uh there's been a lot of work that we've done for this this
14:26next uh touring that we're going to be doing obviously is going to be next level which means
14:32we have a lot of pre-production to go through and a lot of other things to do with costuming
14:37and a lot of other things to do with our you know gotta set this and that at these levels and get
14:43you know some cool lighting and or our own stage production to like level up yeah i was gonna say
14:50because you're you're going out with five finger and it's like do you guys know like how much stage
14:54you'll even have i mean how does that even work and well you expect a foot and then you if you get
15:01more than that you're happy yeah right right i'm not probably gonna get anything that's like
15:06has to have a plot right it's gonna have very skinny video wall situation and or a very skinny
15:14stick light situation and or maybe a riser and maybe yeah that's it one ego ramp that's it i just
15:24just for my ego because i'm five foot two and no that's cool you know i remember the guys from
15:30shinedowns got their jack and i remember they said that they had their uh when they toured with van
15:34halen they had this little tiny spot in a stage and i guess that they just jump around all the
15:39time and they were telling me that the guys from van halen were calling them like the the mexican
15:41jumping beans because all they did was jump around they're like you know we got to fire up this crop
15:44we've only got this much space to do it yeah so if you go vertical then you're you're good i guess
15:49right yeah so well what else do you have going on anything else you want to plug oh gosh come and
15:55hang out with us in the clubs we're gonna get a couple more songs with butcher babies and and jaris and i think
16:00we will on the uh the five finger death punch run but and when does that start that starts in a
16:04couple weeks you said yeah our first dates out in oregon are like i think february 7th or 8th
16:11okay then february 6th you might drop another song yeah perhaps maybe okay no for sure we will yes we
16:17will uh the new song that we're dropping on february 6th is called murder scene i'm very excited about
16:22this one um it's sonically a bit different than awakening but still very dark very heavy um it has
16:29like a really cool paramour-esque vibe in the like bridge part which i love um and i wrote it about
16:38just the existence of humans sometimes is very hard right and so we lose track of ourselves a lot of
16:46times and it feels like this is too much too fast um but it's not and we can we can navigate things so
16:52it's like this this nightmare dream that i had and i wrote it about the nightmare dream that i had so
16:57um i'm really excited to for people to hear that one well that sounds cool yeah i'm really jealous
17:04you guys get to go on ship rocked and i get to stay here i thought you were saying you were going to
17:10the east it's still not good it's still snow much better than here i'll tell you that much it's still
17:14snow yeah sorry i won't brag to you about bimini beaches then now that's awesome there's probably
17:19gonna be a lot of people on that that boat i know yeah yes you will yes what bands are playing i
17:24forgot is i prevail guys on there uh so no it was last year but uh eric is a stowaway so and i think
17:31i get to do a song with him okay that's awesome yeah he's great and i'm a stowaway so um i get to
17:37jam with a couple of really cool people um doc coil is up there on guitar uh there is i think al
17:44actually the guy that did the whole ask for entertainment wait what is your band going or are you just
17:48going to stowa okay gotcha okay that's even better yeah i get to prep everybody and tell them that
17:54they'll have us back next year because we're gonna have a new record okay you're doing this as a team
17:58player as a team player right they're sending me right i volunteer as tribute i was just gonna say
18:05i'll get the words right from my mouth so who else is uh in the stories oh there's there's quite a few
18:10um i should look this up before i started talking um our girls in conquer divide are up there okay um
18:17so uh i think i get to sing with i don't think kristen is playing guitar on the one that i sing
18:22with but i think charlie is on a song with me um and then diamante is on there and who else am i singing
18:31with gosh what are some of the bigger bands what are the sort of bands they're playing
18:36oh this year who's on it sleep series on it um i forget what the headliner is hailstorm is playing
18:45one of the uh beach parties which would be super rad yeah um who else is on the ship i mean i could look
18:53it up that's okay we'll we'll figure it out but uh i'm just jealous that you get to go and leave this
18:58tundra that is the motor city yeah i'm hoping to escape before whatever happens on saturday that'll
19:04be that'll be interesting to get on a plane but um last time i got on a plane during this weather
19:09they had to like de-ice it and it took us like an extra half hour to get up in the sky but you know
19:14what i'm okay with that yeah just make sure it doesn't ice over while we're up there yeah well have fun
19:19on the boat and uh represent the d and of course uh we'll see you here i i want to say it's august
19:2516th if i'm not mistaken yes at pine knob with five finger and i can't believe i get to play pine
19:29knob main stage that's your first time right it's the first time is eve under fire yeah wow that is so
19:34cool yeah because you went on stage with the dude from uh with jared leto yes i did yeah that's awesome
19:39i don't know if i've ever even talked to you about that i interviewed him right here in this studio not
19:41in here but he was uh on his you texted me that day and you were like yeah let me know if you i
19:46i didn't even meet him until we i crashed his set but i thought he was nice yeah i'm sure he was i
19:53think what his team told me was that he was uh dealing with some vocal stuff so i think he was
19:59probably trying to save it for the stage which i totally understand um but yeah that was huge and
20:04um and then they called me the next day i think on the previous five finger death punch tour that came
20:09through funeral portrait opened and i was on their song and so they wanted me to go back up there for
20:13that so i sang on that stage uh twice but never for my songs right your songs yeah when your songs
20:20come to life on stage it's probably a different animal yeah that's cool awesome um yeah because
20:25jared leto you know i'm an amateur movie critic like i said but i didn't go see tron so you need
20:30to see i loved i loved it but that's just me and i don't i don't critique movies very hard so
20:35rob is probably like she's a pushover don't listen to her well amanda thanks so much for coming in
20:40and uh good luck with everything okay thanks a lot thanks for having me check out talking rock
20:45with meltdown on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
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