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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 going
00:44to 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, you know,
01:25them being gone for so many years and then seeing this incredible resurgence and, you know, all
01:33these younger fans that probably weren't even born, you know, when the first record came
01:37out. And yeah, it was it was it was really it was really encouraging for the state of rock right
01:45now, you know, to see that. Yeah, I was talking about this on the radio the other day. It is kind
01:50of wild how they disappeared for so long and then they come back and just sell out. It's it's it's
01:54almost like they didn't disappear because they were selling out before they left. Yeah, yeah, they
01:59they they just they just took a little break. Yeah, right. Exactly. Well, you're taking a break. I mean,
02:06are you are you doing any gigs a month this September? Yeah, we got like two coming up this
02:12weekend. We got a couple casino shows to, you know, knock the rust off a little bit. And then
02:19we're headed into rehearsals to to get ready for this this tour with Cedar. And yeah, man, we're
02:27excited. You know, we got the we got all these new songs to play now and we got to learn them
02:32now. Figure them out and figure where they fit in the set. And yeah, it's exciting. Now,
02:39you just mentioned Shock to the System part two is out right now. Did you write both these
02:43records at the same time? No, no. Actually, it was a bit of a mixed bag because we had started
02:51the first half with the idea of of doing a whole record and things just got behind. Things just
02:59were were lagging. We were, you know, once we wrote artificial, we just felt it was so like
03:04now, you know what I mean? It felt so immediate that, you know, we went ahead and released it.
03:11And then, of course, there's the video and then the promotion. And then we had tour dates. And so
03:17things just kind of got put on the back burner a little bit. And we felt like there's no way we're
03:24going to get this record done in time, you know. So Big Machine kind of proposed the idea of splitting
03:31it into two parts. And immediately, you know, the pressure was off. And so a few of these songs on
03:40part two were there were kind of in the infancy phase, actually, before going into part one, some of
03:50the songs. And then some of them were were were written, you know, like the day I die and divided
04:00were, you know, those were fresh entries that kind of set the tone for part two. And then we kind of
04:08knew where to go with some of those other songs that had been started.
04:12Now, I was going to say, was there a fear that that the record wouldn't be cohesive with the
04:18first one? Or was that never 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
04:27so happy with how the first half turned out that that it was like, well, how do we top this? You
04:32know what I mean? Like, what do we what do we want to do? Like, we don't want it to, you know,
04:38sound exactly like the first half, but we didn't we didn't quite know where to go. And then I just kind
04:43of thought of it like, well, if there if this was a whole record, and the first half was the singles,
04:50then maybe the second half doesn't have to be as good. And that thought process kind of took the
04:57pressure off. And we just started writing. And, and, you know, ironically, I feel that it's better
05:03than the first half. We weren't necessarily writing for radio hits or anything like that. It was just
05:12we were just letting it come out. And and it took on a life of its own. And it felt
05:18like it was cohesive. But at the same time, it felt like its own thing. And there was a lot that
05:22feels like there's a lot more like grunge influences on this on the second half. And
05:27yeah, I was really, really happy with how it turned out and couldn't be more proud of it.
05:34Now, obviously, the latest single is called The Bottom. 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
05:47now. And this, you know, feeling of being, you know, stuck and, and, and not really feeling
05:56like you're, you know, fulfilling your purpose in a way or artistically fulfilled and didn't
06:03feel like I was being myself. And it was kind of my way of, it was, you know, me, me finding my way
06:11back to my own identity, so to speak. And, you know, you could look at it as, you know, someone
06:18getting over addiction or, or whatever. I think everybody has their own, like, idea of what the
06:26bottom is. And I think they can all relate to it in some capacity, you know, whatever's standing in
06:32the way of, of, you know, you being the person you want to be.
06:37Yeah, you talk about that. I was thinking about as I was listening to the song, does it ever feel
06:41like sometimes, like when you're living in the spotlight, like you are, and of course, you know,
06:45you're a brand that sometimes you tend to lose your identity just because you're trying to,
06:50you know, satisfy other people, or maybe put out this project to do, and you're not really focusing
06:54on yourself?
06:55A thousand percent. And I, and I felt like I did that quite a bit throughout my career early on,
07:02you know, more, more, more worried about what other people thought and, and what other, you know,
07:11who, who was going to validate me or, you know, or, or what's going to keep me relevant. This whole,
07:19like idea of, of chasing trends or, or seeing what your peers are doing and, and, and not really
07:28focusing on your own voice and your own vision as much as you are just trying to placate to these
07:36groups and these groups and this label and, and these, and these people and, and you kind of lose
07:43sense of why you started it in the first place, you know, and then, um, you know, one day I woke up
07:50one day I realized I wasn't doing what I truly loved. And, and that's, you know, that was kind of,
07:57you 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?
08:05Yeah. 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 artist
08:18because, you know, on one side of the coin, you want to be, you know, my way, this is exactly what
08:26I want to do. And at the same time, you're like, but do you like it? You know what I mean? And,
08:30and so, yeah, I think there's always going to be a hint of that. Um, um, but I think, I think that
08:37also shows you care as well. Now, when, when you go out on a tour with, with the guys like
08:41Creed 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 Derek, do you ever think about that?
08:48Always. I'm always, sometimes I even find myself looking side stage to see if they're checking it
08:53out and 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 walking
09:31off stage, like, dude, like you sounded incredible. And you know, that's, that stuff means,
09:36that means a lot, man. That, that means, you know, the teenager in me that, that, that, you know,
09:42uh, grew up listening to this fan and seeing them and, and wanting to be, you know, in that position,
09:49you know, that, uh, that's kind of a, you know, those are the moments you, you really live for.
09:54Yeah. It's almost like you don't want to let your heroes down.
09:57Right. Yeah. I want to prove my worth here, you know,
10:02That's right. So a shock to the system part two, uh, dropped last week. And, um, Hey, by the way,
10:07I'm going to see it for the second time. So have you seen spinal tap yet?
10:11Oh, is it out already? Yeah. So I guess it's good. I'll tell you, I, like I was telling somebody
10:16the other day, I think the final scene is worth the price of admission and it goes, it goes back.
10:21I can't wait. Yeah. So that, that's what I thought anyways.
10:23All right. I might, I would have to go see it. I, I didn't, 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, Friday. 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.
10:47That's awesome. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, Hey, I saw on your Instagram over the summer,
10:51you got a chance to sing with, uh, Joey from Anthrax. Uh, tell me about that.
10:56That was really unexpected. That was really cool. Actually. Um, we, uh, our bass player,
11:03Marty, Marty O'Brien, he's really good friends with Joey. And I met, I met Joey when we did, um,
11:09uh, I think it was welcome to rock. Uh, no, not, not Rockville. It was, um,
11:14Blue Ridge Rock Fest a couple of years ago. And, and I met him side stage and he was,
11:19he was one of the dudes watching our show. So, you know,
11:22it kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier.
11:25And when you've got your peers over there watching, you're like, Oh man, this is,
11:28they're either, you know, loving this or they're over there, you know,
11:32laughing at me or whatever. Um, but, uh, no, it was, he was,
11:37he was super nice and, and, and I met him there. And then, um, Marty said, Hey,
11:42he's going to be at the show tonight. Um, he kind of jokingly, you know,
11:48mentioned, you know, Hey, if you guys play separate ways, get me up there.
11:52Cause he had, he has a, um, uh, a journey tribute band as well.
11:57And, uh, I was like, dude, absolutely. If he,
12:01if he doesn't need like a sound check or anything,
12:02cause we didn't really have time to go through it, then I would be,
12:06I would be honored for him to come up and join me. And sure enough,
12:09he showed up and, and, uh, he came out and ripped it.
12:12That's so cool. It's like a full circle moment when you get moments like that in
12:15your career. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. Well,
12:18they're giving me the wrap up sign here, Chris,
12:19but I really appreciate the time we'll see you here with Cedar on October 11th
12:23here in Detroit rock city, safe travels. And I congratulations.
12:26Always good to see you meltdown. Always good. My friend.
12:29We'll talk to you soon. All right. Be well.
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