00:00Okay, we're going to play a game with the guys from Return to Dust.
00:04What are the names of all the guys in the band that I just met?
00:07Okay, Graham, Matty, Sebastian, London.
00:11A plus.
00:13All right.
00:15That's enough. Wrap it up.
00:17How you guys doing? Good to see you guys.
00:19Good, man. Yeah.
00:20Where are you guys from?
00:22Southern California?
00:24Yeah, LA-based.
00:25Me and Matty grew up in Texas.
00:27These guys grew up in California.
00:28We all met up in the sunny LA area and been a band for a couple years now.
00:36I was going to say, 2022, if I'm not mistaken, right?
00:39That's pretty cool.
00:40Now you're out here playing big shows on this big tour.
00:43Yeah.
00:44Pretty crazy.
00:46Put that microphone in his face right there.
00:48Pretty insane.
00:50Yeah, dude.
00:51I mean, we were literally playing house shows and just whatever, bar gigs,
00:55like whatever we could get, like a year ago.
00:59What was the thing that turned you guys around?
01:03Maybe I just signed on these big tours.
01:04What was that?
01:06Well, our initial tour was, our very first tour was with Chevelle.
01:10Okay.
01:10And I feel like it definitely snowballs.
01:13Like once you get on one, you start to just, you know,
01:16your name kind of circulates in the touring world and, you know,
01:20some bands start to kind of realize that you're real.
01:25You know what I mean?
01:26And we just try to put on a hell of a show and we've been lucky enough to get on
01:31a lot of great tours.
01:32So, and here we are on yet another great tour.
01:36And for those, for those that I've ever heard of Return to Dusk before,
01:40you know, I describe this, I describe you guys like this,
01:43and you guys can tell me if I'm wrong.
01:44You may have heard this a million times.
01:46Alice in Chains meets Helmet and Screaming Trees.
01:49That is like what I hear from your stuff.
01:51That's a good one.
01:52I dig that.
01:53Love all those bands.
01:54Well, I mean, is it accurate?
01:55Yeah.
01:55I mean, inspired by all those bands for sure.
01:57Yeah.
01:57And I like their deep cuts.
01:58So like you got the Joshua Tree, like the desert thing of Josh Hame
02:03and like Screaming Trees and all that.
02:05And Helmet with the riffs.
02:08And I mean, even our, hi, Adam.
02:11Peek-a-boo.
02:12Yeah.
02:13Good Canadian.
02:14And then like the chuggy, you know, riffs of Helmet.
02:16Like our producer even works with Helmet.
02:18So he's like highly involved with Paige and all that stuff.
02:21So it's cool.
02:22Yeah, that's great comparison.
02:23And Alice in Chains, obviously, huge inspiration with the duo vocals and stuff.
02:27Yeah.
02:27So I was going to say, are all you guys into all that stuff?
02:31Yes.
02:31And how do you find each other that are all into the same thing?
02:34Like, you know, there's famous stories about Metallica and how they form and stuff.
02:37Like, how did you guys form?
02:38So Graham and I, like you said, grew up together in Texas.
02:41We went to middle school together.
02:43We've just always like been playing songs together.
02:45Not like in a band, but just acoustic guitars.
02:48Like we'd always sing, harmonize, like sing our favorite songs, that kind of stuff.
02:52And there was this like coffee shop that we were performed at every Thursday.
02:54And it was just, you know, a way to just-
02:57So it would be like kind of a Lane and Jerry type thing?
03:00Just like kind of just playing around?
03:02Sure.
03:02Yeah.
03:02I mean, we just messed around a lot and didn't really think anything of it.
03:06And somehow, just long story short, found ourselves in a studio in Los Angeles with our buddy and Jim Kaufman, who's our record producer.
03:16And he convinced us to drop out of college and move to L.A.
03:19And so we did.
03:21We quit our day jobs, like all of that, and moved across the country.
03:25And that's when we met these guys and how we met them.
03:28I mean, Seb, you want to go?
03:30Sure, yeah.
03:32I was like about three and a half years ago, I was on a walk with my mom.
03:39My mom one day was just like, oh, let's go on a walk.
03:41I was like, all right, sure.
03:42And just down the street from the little town I live in, in California, they were just jamming in their garage with our drummer at the time.
03:54And then my mom was like, oh, you hear that?
03:57Like, let's go listen.
03:59And then just we're standing outside the garage door listening to them.
04:02And my mom was like, knocks on the door.
04:04And I'm like, ah, geez.
04:05And then they come out, and my mom's like, my mom does all the talking.
04:10She was, she's my manager at this point.
04:12She was like, oh, he's a guitar player.
04:14He loves metal music and Metallica.
04:15You guys should totally jam one day.
04:17And then I just exchanged numbers, and then like a week later, we jammed.
04:21Man, I'll tell you what, I've done a lot of interviews, maybe a thousand, and that's the most metal story I've ever heard.
04:26My mom got me hooked up with the band.
04:28What about you, London?
04:29How'd you get hooked up?
04:31Was your dad walking down the street?
04:32Yeah, I was actually, I was walking my dad down the street.
04:38I was working with another band that our producer, Jim, was doing at the time, and they needed a drummer.
04:45Just stepped in.
04:46Yeah.
04:46Been here ever since.
04:48Now, I was just talking to Ben Burnley from Breaking Benjamin, and obviously, you know, he grew up on Alice in Chains and all this stuff,
04:54and he's a big influence on his life.
04:56But you guys are obviously a lot younger.
04:58Where did you discover Alice in Chains?
05:00Like older relatives, or where'd that come from?
05:03Yeah.
05:04So, I mean, when I was, I'm sorry if, you know, they hear this, but we were in middle school listening to their music, like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin and that stuff.
05:13Yeah.
05:13And that's what got me into rock initially, and then, like, as I, like, fell in love with the genre and kept digging further and further, I found the old 90s bands and just kept, like, a domino effect, just kept falling in love with different bands.
05:28And you know how it is whenever you, like, listen to rock metal for the first time.
05:32It really, like, strikes a chord in you.
05:34Of course.
05:34And you just want to do the deep dive and listen to every single band.
05:37And that's what happened to us and honestly inspired this whole band, like, made us want to do what we're doing right now and bring it to a new generation.
05:45Yeah.
05:45So, Graham, what do you guys have lined up for the rest of the year?
05:49You got this tour here.
05:50You going to record any new stuff?
05:52You got anything written?
05:52What's going on?
05:53There's another tour before the year ends.
05:56Can't say what it is yet.
05:57Okay.
05:57Another big tour.
05:58Under legal contract.
06:01I can't.
06:02They will know.
06:05Yeah.
06:05So, there's another tour.
06:06Super exciting.
06:08Staying on the road.
06:09Staying busy.
06:10Working on more tours for next year.
06:12Working on overseas for next year.
06:15Which is super exciting.
06:17We've never been anywhere other than the U.S. at this point.
06:21That makes three of us.
06:21Five of us.
06:22I never have either.
06:24Hell yeah, dude.
06:26Yeah.
06:27And we're kind of always just working on new music.
06:29Anytime we can find some downtime and we're back home, we try to get in the studio and just, like, record some new stuff.
06:35So, I mean, you can look out for it all.
06:39We just dropped an EP, if you haven't heard it yet.
06:42Go check it out.
06:43But it's called Speak Like the Dead.
06:46We're really proud of it.
06:47And, um...
06:49Why an EP and not a full record?
06:51Um, I think...
06:52I think after...
06:56So we released a self-titled, and I think we just wanted to pack a tighter punch and be a little bit more concise about the next thing, you know?
07:06Um, and I think a six-song EP does that really well.
07:11Um, and, um, yeah.
07:14Where in Texas did you guys grow up?
07:17Midlothian.
07:18Whereabouts is that?
07:19South of Dallas.
07:19Okay.
07:20So you don't sound like a Texan.
07:23Oh, yeah.
07:24We do not.
07:25Pardon me, let me tell you.
07:26We have it in us.
07:30Yeah.
07:30We can pull it out in a moment's notice.
07:32Hell yeah, brother.
07:33Maybe it started on stage in Detroit Rock City.
07:37I'm like, what in Sam Hale's going on, Michigan?
07:40Hell yeah.
07:41Hell yeah, brother.
07:42One of my friends from Nashville, like, say, gad-dum.
07:45You guys say that down there?
07:47Yeah.
07:48Dagnabbit.
07:49Yeah, dagnabbit.
07:49I thought maybe you grew up in Texas by, like, the Dangerous Toys guys or anything like that.
07:55Dangerous Toys?
07:56Yeah, I don't remember them.
07:57No.
07:5880s Rocks.
07:58I am, though, interested in whatever the Dangerous Toys are.
08:03Yeah.
08:04You should go down a rabbit hole with those guys.
08:07Yeah.
08:07Dangerous Toys.
08:08Man.
08:09I was telling Ben that I saw Alice in Chains for the first time on the Clash of the Titans tour in 1991
08:14with Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth, and nobody knew who Alice in Chains was.
08:19Yeah, and that was the first time I ever saw him on stage, and I think Lane a few times
08:23played the shows with his hoodie on, like, what's the kid from South Park?
08:28He just pulled tight, yeah, you know?
08:30Yeah.
08:31Because people would be throwing stuff up on stage at him, so.
08:33Damn, Ben.
08:34Thankfully, I haven't had that experience yet, which is kind of a shame.
08:36I feel like we need to get humbled, you guys.
08:38Everyone's been so nice to us thus far.
08:40Someone's got to tell us we suck at least once or twice.
08:43Well, it's not going to be me, because I dig you guys.
08:45I'm like, oh, you could be the first.
08:46No, I don't want to be the first.
08:48I like you guys, so.
08:49I feel like crowds were bolder back then.
08:51Like, you don't get that nowadays.
08:54Like, people, if the crowd's pissed off, you won't know.
08:58Yeah.
08:58You know, everyone's too nice.
08:59We got to get more honest and more mean, all right?
09:04Let me tell you something.
09:06This is the worst interview they've ever done.
09:10Well, you guys, thanks so much for stopping by and talking with us,
09:13and also thanks for playing Riff Fest and safe travels with the guys from Breaking Benjamin
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