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00:00When you have great musicians out there that you're touring with, I think sometimes it's
00:04more important to get that validation from your peers than even the fans. These are bands that
00:09I looked up to and bands that I grew up listening to. So to have like Scott Stapp tell you when
00:14you're walking off stage, like, dude, like you sounded incredible. Those are the moments you
00:19really live for. Rock, metal, prog, and everything in between. Welcome to this episode of Talkin'
00:27Rock with Meltdown. Don't forget to follow the audio only Talkin' Rock podcast on all
00:31podcast platforms. And now it's time for today's conversation. Here's Meltdown.
00:37Chris, how are you, my friend? Doing well. Doing well. Hope you are. Yeah, man. Things are
00:44going to be all right. Tour with Seether coming to the Motor City here October 11th. But tell
00:48me about the Creed Mammoth Tour. How'd that go for you? It was great, man. It was a fun
00:55bill. I mean, every band sounded so good every night. I mean, obviously, you know, Wolfgang
01:02is just, you know, an anomaly. Like, it's a little intimidating to have to follow that
01:09every night. But it was great. We had a great time. The fans were good to us. Creed was great
01:16to us. It was so cool to, you know, share the stage with them after, you know, them being gone
01:25for so many years and then seeing this incredible resurgence and, you know, all these younger fans
01:34that probably weren't even born, you know, when the first record came out. And yeah, it was really
01:42encouraging for the state of rock right now, you know, to see that. Yeah, I was talking about this
01:48on the radio the other day. It is kind of wild how they disappeared for so long and then they come back
01:52and just sell out. It's almost like they didn't disappear because they were selling out before
01:56they left. Yeah, yeah. They just took a little break. Yeah, right. Exactly. Well, you're taking a
02:06break. I mean, are you doing any gigs a month of September? Yeah, we got like two coming up.
02:12This weekend, we got a couple casino shows to, you know, knock the rust off a little bit.
02:18And then we're headed into rehearsals to get ready for this tour with Cedar. And yeah, man,
02:27we're excited. You know, we got the we got all these new songs to play now and we got to learn
02:31them now, figure them out and figure where they fit in the set. And yeah, it's exciting.
02:38Now, you just mentioned Shock to the System part two is out right now. Did you write both
02:43these records at the same time?
02:45No, no. Actually, it was a bit of a mixed bag because we had started the first half
02:51with the idea of of doing a whole record and things just got behind. Things just were lagging.
03:00We were, you know, once we wrote artificial, we just felt it was so like now, you know what I mean?
03:06It felt so immediate that, you know, we went ahead and released it. And then, of course,
03:12there's the video and then the promotion and then we had tour dates. And so things just kind of got put
03:19on the back burner a little bit. And we felt like there's no way we're going to get this record done
03:25in time, you know. So Big Machine kind of proposed the idea of splitting it into two parts and immediately
03:34the pressure was off. And so a few of these songs on part two were there were kind of in the infancy
03:46phase actually before going into part one, some of the songs. And then some of them were written
03:53and, you know, like The Day I Die and Divided were, you know, those were fresh entries that kind of set
04:04the tone for part two. And then we kind of knew where to go with some of those other songs that had been
04:10started.
04:12Now, I was going to say, was there a fear that the record wouldn't be cohesive with the first one or was that
04:19never even part of the, not part of the process?
04:21I think the fear was that it wasn't going to be as good, you know, because we, we had, we were, we were so
04:27happy with how the first half turned out that, that it was like, well, how do we top this? You know what I mean?
04:33Like, what do we, what do we want to do? Like, we don't want it to, you know, sound exactly like the first half,
04:40but we didn't, we didn't quite know where to go. And then I just kind of thought of it like,
04:44well, if there, if this was a whole record and the first half was the singles, then maybe the second
04:51half doesn't have to be as good. You know what I mean? Like, and that thought process kind of took
04:56the pressure off and, and we just started writing and, and, um, you know, ironically, I, I feel that
05:02it's better than the, than the first half. Um, uh, we weren't necessarily writing for radio hits or
05:10anything like that. It was just, um, we were just letting it come out and, and it took on a life of
05:17its own and it, and it felt like it was cohesive, but at the same time, it felt like its own thing.
05:22And there was a lot, it feels like there's a lot more like grunge influences on this, on the second
05:26half. And, um, yeah, I, I was really, really happy with how it turned out and, and couldn't be more proud
05:34of it. Now, obviously the latest single is called, uh, the bottom, uh, pretty inspiring. Talk about that song.
05:40Yeah. I mean, I mean, for me, that song was basically my journey to where I'm at right now. And, and, and,
05:48and this, you know, feeling of being, um, you know, stuck and, and, and not really feeling like you're,
05:57you know, fulfilling your purpose in a way or, or, or artistically fulfilled and didn't feel like I was
06:04being myself and it was kind of my way of, it was, uh, you know, me, me finding my way back to my own
06:11identity, so to speak. And, um, you know, you could look at it as, you know, someone getting over
06:19addiction or, or whatever. I think everybody has their own like idea of what the bottom is. And,
06:26and I think, um, they can all relate to it in some capacity, you know, whatever standing in the way
06:33of, of, you know, you being the person you want to be. Yeah. You talk about that. I was thinking
06:39about as I was listening to the song, does it ever feel like sometimes like when you're living in the
06:43spotlight, like you are, and of course, you know, you're a brand, uh, that sometimes you tend to lose
06:47your identity just because you're trying to, you know, satisfy other people or maybe put out this
06:52project to do and you're not really focusing on yourself a thousand percent. Um, and I, and I felt
06:58like I did that quite a bit throughout my career early on, you know, um, more cure, more, more worried
07:06about what other people thought and, and what other, you know, uh, who, who was going to validate
07:14me or, you know, or, or what's going to keep me relevant. This whole like idea of, of chasing trends
07:23or, or seeing what your peers are doing and, and, and not really focusing on your own voice and your
07:31own, uh, vision as much as you are just trying to placate to these groups and these groups and this
07:38label and, and these, um, and these people and, and you kind of lose sense of why you started it in
07:46the first place, you know? And then, um, you know, one day I woke up one day I realized I wasn't doing
07:52what I truly loved. And, and that's, you know, that was kind of, you know, a revelation for me.
08:00But at the end of the day, that's still kind of, it's kind of difficult, isn't it?
08:03Yeah. I mean, I think there's always, you know, as an artist, I think, I think we always,
08:11you know, want to, there's this, there's this people pleaser, you know, aspect of being an
08:18artist because, you know, on one side of the coin, you want to be, you know, my way, this is
08:26exactly what I want to do. And at the same time, you're like, but do you like it? You know what I
08:29mean? And, and so, yeah, I think there's always going to be a hint of that. Um, um, but I think,
08:36I think that also shows you care as well. Now, when, when you go on a tour with, with the guys
08:41like Creed or Mammoth or Seether or something, uh, do you always, do you always think in the back of
08:45your mind? I wonder what they think of this song or do you ever think about that?
08:48Always. I'm always, sometimes I even find myself look inside stage to see if they're checking it out
08:53and be like, man, are they digging this right now? And sometimes I'll see, you know, a few of the
08:58guys. And then of course you feel like you got to really turn it on. Um, yeah, I think there's,
09:03there's some healthy, uh, you know, uh, I wouldn't say competition, but yeah, I mean,
09:08when you have great musicians out there that you're touring with, you, you, you do want the,
09:14I think sometimes it's more important to get that validation from your peers than, than even the fans,
09:19because these are, you know, these are bands that I looked up to and bands that, that I grew up
09:24listening to. And, um, so to have like Scott Stapp, you know, you know, tell you when you're
09:31walking off stage, like, dude, like you sounded incredible. And, you know, that's, that stuff
09:35means, that means a lot, man. That, that means, you know, the teenager in me that, that, that,
09:41you know, uh, grew up listening to this band and seeing them and, and wanting to be, you know,
09:48in that position, you know, that, uh, that's kind of a, you know, those are the moments you,
09:53you really live for. Yeah. It's almost like you don't want to let your heroes down.
09:58Right. Yeah. I want to prove my worth here, you know, that's right. So a shock to the system part
10:04two, uh, dropped last week. And, um, Hey, by the way, uh, I'm going to see it for the second
10:08time tonight. Have you seen spinal tap yet? Oh, is it out already? Yeah. So I guess, is it good?
10:14I'll tell you, I, like I was telling somebody the other day, I think the final scene is worth the
10:18price of admission and it goes, it goes back. I can't wait. Yeah. So that, that's what I thought.
10:23Anyways. All right. I might, I would have to go see it. I, I, I, I remember I was sitting in the
10:27theater watching, um, I went to see, uh, weapons, uh, a few weeks ago and I saw the trailer for it
10:34and I didn't even know it was, was happening. I'm like, Oh my God, this is incredible.
10:40Yeah. I saw it, uh, Brian, I'm going to see it again. So I was some other friends, but,
10:43uh, Paul McCartney and Elton John are actually in it quite a bit. So it's kind of cool. That's awesome.
10:48Yeah. Uh, but, uh, Hey, I saw on your Instagram over the summer, you got a chance to sing with
10:52Joey from Anthrax. Uh, tell me about that. That was really unexpected. That was really cool.
10:59Actually. Um, we, uh, our bass player, Marty, Marty O'Brien, he's really good friends with
11:06Joey. And I met, I met Joey when we did, um, uh, I think it was welcome to rock. Uh, no,
11:12not, not Rockville. It was, um, Blue Ridge Rock Fest a couple of years ago and, and I met him side
11:18stage and he was, he was one of the dudes watching our show. So, you know, kind of goes back to what
11:24we were talking about earlier. And when you've got your peers over there watching, you're like, Oh man,
11:27this is, they're either, you know, loving this or they're over there, you know, laughing at me or
11:33whatever. Um, but, uh, no, it was, he was, he was super nice and, and, and I met him there and then,
11:41um, Marty said, Hey, he's going to be at the show tonight. Um, he kind of jokingly,
11:47you know, mentioned, you know, Hey, if you guys play separate ways, get me up there. Cause he had,
11:52he has a, um, uh, a journey tribute band as well. And, uh, I was like, dude, absolutely. If he,
12:00if he doesn't need like a sound check or anything, cause we didn't really have time to go through it,
12:04then I would be, I would be honored for him to come up and join me. And sure enough, he showed up and,
12:10and, uh, he came out and ripped it. That's so cool. It's like a full circle moment when you get
12:14moments like that in your career. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, they're giving me the wrap up sign
12:19here, Chris, but I really appreciate the time. We'll see you here with Cedar on October 11th here
12:23in Detroit rock city, safe travels. And I congratulations. Always good to see you meltdown.
12:28Always good. My friend will talk to you soon. All right. Be well.
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