I had the privilege of sitting down with Colin Bartoldus, my former high school global history teacher and a lifelong musician from bands like The Fiction, Saetia, and REDS. We dove deep into the evolution of music subcultures, exploring issues like the perceived loss of authenticity and the lasting societal impacts of 9/11. The conversation blended insightful cultural commentary with personal reflections on finding your genuine voice in art. It was an honor to interview someone who had such a profound impact on my formative years.
Social Media:
https://www.instagram.com/jamthemdown
https://linktr.ee/theeandymorales
https://www.youtube.com/@theeandymorales
https://sites.google.com/view/theeandymorales/
The Podcast's Sponsor: https://www.instagram.com/wepreferpupsnj/
Follow Colin:
https://www.instagram.com/colinbartoldus/
Follow Saetia:
https://www.instagram.com/saetianyc/
https://linktr.ee/saetianyc
Follow REDS:
https://www.instagram.com/redsismean/
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/thebandreds
#jamthemdown #podcast #saetia #colinbartoldus #punkrock #music #mentalhealth #conversation #screamo #personaljourney #screamo #hardcore
Social Media:
https://www.instagram.com/jamthemdown
https://linktr.ee/theeandymorales
https://www.youtube.com/@theeandymorales
https://sites.google.com/view/theeandymorales/
The Podcast's Sponsor: https://www.instagram.com/wepreferpupsnj/
Follow Colin:
https://www.instagram.com/colinbartoldus/
Follow Saetia:
https://www.instagram.com/saetianyc/
https://linktr.ee/saetianyc
Follow REDS:
https://www.instagram.com/redsismean/
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/thebandreds
#jamthemdown #podcast #saetia #colinbartoldus #punkrock #music #mentalhealth #conversation #screamo #personaljourney #screamo #hardcore
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00we are we are uh officially in the uh 40 year olds uh parent section of the podcast where
00:07we're complaining how expensive everything is yes yes i did want to bring up something you
00:13said earlier because you did mention 9-11 um i don't know if you remember this but i actually
00:18remember where i was at i was actually it was oh yeah it was third period and it was actually in
00:23your class yes period i remember that very vividly and i was i think because i remember miss sandler
00:31was across the hall i don't remember it was her she kind of came into the room to tell you or
00:37something like that i i that's the part i remember so i said something yeah i just told this story to
00:45um several classes on 9-11 last week um uh so i just remember being uh so it was actually
00:53second period um before you guys came in i would think i was like i was stapling um documents
01:02and i don't know if you remember uh the school aid miss knee code yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh she didn't
01:09she pass away no no i just actually um i just saw her last year no she's she's alive okay so who am i
01:18thinking about because i know there was a few i'm trying to think there's a tit and there was like
01:24the the the main office i remember there was a i know it was carmen and then i know there was
01:31yeah carmen just retired uh last year um yeah i mean is unfortunately you know this happens when
01:40like you're out of place for you know almost three decades you know people are gonna move on
01:45literally yeah but uh yeah she came into my room and was like yo they just hit uh the world trade
01:53center with the airplane and i remember before she came in i heard sirens in the neighborhood which
02:00i mean not for nothing wasn't i heard sirens a lot in that neighborhood especially in the early 2000s
02:06um so i didn't think anything of it and when she said that i was like that's weird it's like
02:10my first instinct was she was joking and i thought she's making a joke about the sirens because i'm
02:17like why am i hearing sirens in brooklyn for something that apparently happened in manhattan
02:21right but then then i think you guys came in because like said for third period and that's when i was
02:28like wait what's going on and and then that's when the second plane hit right right and sandler
02:33yeah sandler told me or told us i guess and then you could see it so you couldn't see it from my room
02:41but from uh room 410 which mr brown's room if you remember mr brown yeah yeah oh jesus he uh
02:51he had a perfect view up grand street so you could you know which at the end of grand street now you see
02:56the freedom tower but back then you saw the trade center so i saw um i ended up watching the second
03:04tower come down and i just remember yeah i remember thinking that this is not healthy i shouldn't
03:13keep looking at it but the history teacher in me kind of won out because it's like hopefully i'll never
03:20have the opportunity to see something like that again um and this is literally history but i just
03:25remember i just remember thinking like in my head i knew i know i couldn't have seen it this way but
03:32in my head it looked like you could see each floor kind of like collapse on the one below it wow i just
03:38remember thinking there's 100 people dead there's 200 people dead three you know and just like you know
03:44to this day i think i probably should not have looked at it because it it's still pretty emotional
03:51thing and i know it's like i'm gonna sound like really sound like an old man here i know that uh
03:58you know you know obviously we have a lot of distance on it and you know like i'm literally
04:04teaching kids that were born well after it happened at this point which seems weird but it's
04:10you know i know there's a tendency for you know younger people to kind of joke about in the same way
04:16that like you know i would joke about pearl harbor or something like that right um but you know it's
04:23like the it's and i don't i don't necessarily have a problem with it um but like you know it does get
04:30me a little bit because like you know knock on wood i didn't personally i knew people who knew people
04:37who passed and um unfortunately you know i didn't have anyone that that worked down there so um i
04:46didn't know anyone personally but it was it was just i remember thinking like everything's different
04:51now yeah yeah and this is going and you know i was right like and it's you know the i try to explain
05:02my students like what life was like before 9-11 versus after and the the kind of right-wing turn
05:09that our country took after that um the kind of the you know i would argue that a lot of the things
05:17that we're we're dealing with now in our government and just american culture in general have their
05:24origins and you know how 9-11 affected us um and uh you know it was just uh this is a horrible day um
05:37and you know it was a hard time to be you know a progressive or left-wing person right afterwards
05:47because anything any you know and similar to now like literally like it was yesterday like jimmy
05:54kimmel doesn't even say anything bad about charlie kirk but says something bad about um or it says that
06:00you know the maggot people are milking his death and he loses his show and in 2001 two three if you were
06:08against bombing innocent people in afghanistan or if you were against you know the iraq war who had
06:16fuck all to do with 9-11 yeah you know you were told shut up and like in some some cases like
06:23physically threatened and um it's you know going back to the point that it's you know people
06:31you know i think i think the idea of the freedom of speech and the first amendment are
06:37somewhat misunderstood by by a lot of people but like when you know you have the same people claiming
06:45that free speech is important but then doing everything they can to either silence people
06:53either through law or through intimidation then like you know it's like yeah it's like what are we
06:59doing exactly what what are we doing yeah which is like the big question for our country uh for a
07:07long time but definitely over the past past couple years oh 100 percent yeah and it's interesting too
07:13because i remember that like two period class yeah so there was the second tower you're right
07:16and miss sandler had came in and told us but i'll never forget that because i was just like really
07:21trying to understand also and i really didn't because you know it takes me a while to process
07:27things that's just how my mind is and i i i'm the kind of person okay like even though i could try
07:34to understand so i could feel the empathy part of it i'm more like you know i want to make sure
07:38everybody else is okay type of person like i don't care about me at this point like i'll care
07:44about me later but i was just in like i just didn't know how to feel right it was so numb to me
07:50because i really didn't understand and then i'll never forget it we finished third period class
07:53and i think my next class was i think it was miss humphrey's class if i'm not mistaken oh wow miss
07:59humphrey wow i haven't thought about her a long time i think it was like living environment or
08:03something like oh no no not miss humphrey i think it was miss whole way it was one of those oh no
08:06because okay miss humphrey um she taught earth science class um living environment was miss
08:14cohen's class okay yeah and i remember that was and then right when i'm walking to go to her class
08:20i see my father drenched in sweat bro sweat and he's like yo we're gonna go home i'm like
08:27what like wait why are we going home he's like just don't ask questions just go
08:31he's dressed in sweat and you remember how my dad was yeah yeah i was like uh okay and then my
08:39sister got home she was she was i think at the time she was in college i think she went to baruch
08:44college i'm not okay was she was she still going to baruch i'm yeah because that was a different yeah
08:482001 yeah she was in baruch college at the time okay she was able to get home with no problem but um
08:56but i'll never forget my dad just because i know how i could just i could just imagine him walking
09:02really fast like that's just how my dad was and he was stretched in sweat and he said yo we're gonna
09:07go home like i just want everybody together and i see my mom it's so crazy it's vividly i remember my
09:12mom because i used to live in bushwick so there's the window and you can see it's very far you know
09:18it's very far but you can see the the the that whole skyline from a distance and i just see the smoke
09:24and my mom's just there just looking just to look and i'm just like trying to understand what
09:30i'm going through her mind why she's just looking you know what i'm saying and it's so crazy because
09:36um i do concierge work at a residential building and and i remember that day you know you know i had a
09:43few residents we were just talking and he asked me oh where were you at i was like yeah i was in high
09:47school 10th grade i was in third period class when this happened and then it's interesting and then i had
09:53another resident tell me he was actually working at that time oh wow because he wore a suit and a tie
09:59so he's like oh where are you going oh no it's 9 11 and then he told me his story about how um
10:04he i think he said he's 60 something now but he was like i think he was like 40 something or
10:10something like that at the time yeah makes sense and he was like yeah like like the trains weren't
10:15working and then like everybody's dressed you know it's covered in dust and if you lived in jersey
10:21you had to go all the way to the george washington bridge because you couldn't walk through the
10:24holland tunnel or anything like that you had to go to george washington bridge walk over being fort
10:28lean and go to your destinated areas but yeah he was saying how like it was a scary moment for him
10:34because he's like dude i was working at that far off from where from where that was happening and
10:39everybody the trains were suspended you couldn't do nothing and it's so crazy to hear that because even
10:45though i wasn't there but like that's when the sympathy empathy side of me comes in like damn i i
10:52if i could i would just hug you just because because maybe nobody did it for you kind of thing but
10:57i think about that and it's like what you know and this is where i'm gonna get i don't say i want
11:03to get religious but it's more like i sometimes ask god like like why do you allow this to happen
11:08yeah like why does this shit happen right and you know i get it some things just has to happen for
11:15a certain reason but why do you allow that to happen you know like you know how many people like
11:20just died from that you know and it's just it just makes you wonder sometimes like them you know
11:25like back to what we said like i feel like if something resorts to that because of a disagreement
11:30or whatever values culture whatever it is i and it's the same thing we said about charlie kirk right
11:36and i was thinking about that too while you were saying that and i was saying this to my friend i
11:41said regardless of what the reason is i feel like once you do something like that i feel like all that
11:48stuff you believe in goes out the fucking window that's just what it comes down to right it goes out
11:53the window and all that stuff doesn't mean nothing now because now you're doing the exact same exact
11:59thing you're pretty much going against and it's like we we missed the plot yeah yeah
12:06i mean it's and i feel that there there are plenty of examples you know i always say like
12:13um when you're dealing with people that are a lot of times when you're dealing with bad people right
12:22you know for use a broad term dealing with bad people look at what they're getting on your case
12:29about right that's what they are doing right that's the tell right what the things that if they
12:36get on your case about something even if you're not doing something wrong it's because they know
12:42if and when they're in that situation that's what they're going to do right they're going to take
12:47advantage of that situation so they just assume everyone else is going to do and um i feel like
12:55the current administration and their supporters everything that they they they complained about
13:01you know being woke for like you know or i always say that woke shit yeah yeah democrats uh biden whatever
13:13um it's like it's all the same stuff i mean like you know trump is old trump is not the pinnacle of
13:20health he clearly has some some stuff going on right uh but yeah they they they attack biden for that
13:28and believe me i'm not a biden fan there's plenty of um uh substantive things to to attack him on
13:35but it's all just like you know everything that that they uh you know he's an out-of-touch elite
13:44what the fuck is trump you know it's it's it's like insane so like everything they complain about
13:51that's what they're going through they they complain that the left is trying to take away freedom of
13:56speech and then they start basically taking away freedom of speech for for for certain people
14:03you know so it's uh you know it's a scary time and scary to think that um we have so many people
14:12or enough people at the very least that seem to buy into this bullshit um yeah the fact that people
14:18were celebrating kind of like disgusted me too i'm like wow you guys are just you're actually
14:22celebrating the fact that that happened like damn like you're just as worse like what's going on
14:28yeah i'm i i'll be honest i have mixed feelings about that um yeah but uh i do think that
14:37when it comes down to it um you want a world where people can have access to any kind of weapon that
14:48they want right and you want this like kind of survival of fittest mentality then that's you know
14:59as as charlie kirk himself said you know then you know some gun deaths are going to be part of the
15:05cost of that and um yeah it's you know like i said i'm not a religious person and don't particularly
15:13believe in a higher power but moments like this makes me feel like somebody with an ironic sense
15:19of humor is writing the story of what's going on because um but yeah it's you know it's it's
15:29i felt like you know when you were when i was your teacher like back then and you know allude to
15:36this earlier it was very very trying time i remember there there'd be moments where i would
15:42just think like this is you know like we were worried about the slide into fascism back then
15:50like under under george w bush who like people like want to lionize now because he's kind of goofy but
15:58he's still a fucking war criminal um but um now it's like i i get the sense of like almost almost
16:07like that was this quaint time period um because compared to now i guess it was even even if it was
16:15like i said like historically a lot of things and abuses of power that we see now right right have
16:23their origins in abuses of power back then and even going back further um and this kind of dumbing down
16:30of the electorate um and appealing to um what they call low information voters right um so i don't know
16:41i mean i i was actually i was talking to my mother about this um and saying this idea is like
16:51is there going to be something like where the fever breaks right like where things get so
16:56so kind of egregious or bad um that uh you know things swing the other way right but you know it's
17:09it's also i mean i think americans are also getting a taste or sorry like middle upper middle class
17:21upper class upper class americans are getting a taste of what life is like for people around in this
17:28country but also around the world that aren't them right and some of the horrors and and and tragedies
17:34and um abuses of of um power and for a country that's always talked about how it's a free country
17:45and how it's a just country and whatnot you know um throughout our history we have definitely
17:52lived up to that or not lived up to that in varying degrees throughout history right but now um
18:00we you know our country has you know kind of established itself as what's supposed to be this
18:10beacon and when reality like for you know basically since world war ii the united states has been
18:18you know popping up dictators in other countries killing um you know september 11th means very
18:27different thing for the people of chile than it does for the people of the united states right you know
18:32um and uh so i think now i think for so long americans could kind of kind of
18:44if not fool themselves but like kind of comfort themselves in this idea but like you know we as
18:50a people are better like we as a country are better and i think what trump's done is put a big
18:56magnifying or a big mirror up and saying like nah
18:59like there there are good people and you know just like there are good people in any country but like
19:06you know there is something very ugly here and that ugliness has gotten the mic a lot more lately
19:13than the good stuff and that's just upsetting and you know going back to social media like obviously
19:22it's kind of well established the role that that's played oh yeah in spreading you know
19:29mistruths or standing the flames of discontent and like yeah like you talked about monetization we
19:35have an entire system more so than ever based on getting people pissed off at each other and when
19:43that spills out into the real world through the mass shootings or killing charlie kirk or whomever it's
19:50like um that's a problem right um so i don't know and i wish i i wish i knew this ripe old age i wish i
20:02you know could be like well this is the problem here's the solution it's all gonna get better but
20:06right no and it's true because um because as as you were telling me i was also thinking about
20:15you know i was trying to digest everything you were saying and one thing i realized from 9 11 or
20:21even with the charlie kirk thing or even with the pandemic happening it seemed like it had to take
20:27tragedy in order for us to learn what it was to be human again but once everything is forgotten about
20:34to get back to normal it's like we forgot all again we forgot yeah well everyone talks everyone
20:40talks about like not you know on september 12th right we're unified as a country and like you
20:46know we've put all of our misgivings aside to come together which a i was there that's not 100 true
20:53um like you know my muslim friends definitely did not feel part of that kumbaya moment after
21:00and it's crazy because i remember back in 2004 2005 um in wrestling wwe they created a character
21:08named muhammad hassan that was based a arab american guy and this guy in real life he was an italian it's
21:15just that this man was like oh you look at arabic so we're gonna pair you with this guy who wasn't
21:22arabic he was actually iranian and they were wearing turbos and he and i saw this documentary they did
21:27with him dark side of the ring and one thing he said was yeah like even in the airports he like
21:32to be in character he would wear like a turban just to be part because that's what he was told to do
21:38but one thing i guess the moral of that whole thing was that it's even though he was playing a character
21:43but he learned to understand what other muslims were feeling right because it was like a like damn
21:50like i get why they felt uncomfortable with me but i also felt like damn like like the fact that
21:56people would look at me and little do they know i'm just playing a character in in wrestling but
22:01he would talk about how uncomfortable doing this character really was for him because it was so
22:06many things that he had to talk to certain of his friends that would see him on tv say hey listen just
22:12letting you know they're making me play this character and it was this whole thing and eventually
22:16they took a little bit too far because during the london bombing that same day they had like a
22:23pre-recorded episode where he's supposed to have his his little guy get sacrificed by the undertaker
22:29and then these masked men and ski masks starts choking him like and then they the the network was
22:35like okay no you gotta kill this character you can't do it and it was such a controversial thing
22:40so even with that i feel like i mean i look back at the time i'm not thinking like oh that shouldn't
22:45oh that's messed up i'm thinking oh it's just a character okay this is supposed to happen
22:50but well that's that's the thing it's you know you're still at a relatively young age when when
22:57that was all going down and like you know for me um you know growing up in the 80s like we had
23:05like gi joe and rambo and um and we'd have um reruns of old looney tunes cartoons and stuff and like
23:14and i'm talking like they most of the racist ones were still in there you know so it's like yeah
23:19because they don't yeah yeah so i feel like so much entertainment directed towards children are
23:26trying to like really build up these stereotypes and um you know and in in the case like i'm not
23:33i'll be honest yeah i think wrestlemania 3 was the last wrestling thing i ever saw so like you know i'm
23:40not i'm not well versed in it but like from what you're describing it's like you know the fact that
23:47like you'd have these people try to capitalize on on to aid this tragedy but i'm assuming they made
23:56him the villain right oh um muhammad hassan yes yeah but it's true because yeah i'm sorry i'm i
24:03didn't mean to cut you off my bad um because i want to add on to this because yeah wrestlemania 1
24:07wrestlemania 2 yeah because there was also um the iron sheet yes another guy and then there was
24:14the tag team with him and nikolai volkov he was russian ussr right and it was that but even rocky
24:22what was it rocky 4 oh rocky 4 yeah yeah with drago like he was russian and he had to go over
24:28there on christmas and had to fight like even all that but again like when i was watching that i'm
24:34just thinking oh it's just resting but i look back at it now like oh damn they really should never
24:39did that like that was just like oh shit yeah that movie came out when when i was nine and i loved
24:46it it was that soundtrack i think was my favorite record at the time but looking back it's like it's
24:53all anti-russian propaganda you know it tries it tacks on like this like hey we could all get along
25:01you know type ending but right but it's anti-russian propaganda and like you know when you look at um
25:07like a lot of the entertainment we grew up with um whether you know it's stuff from my childhood or
25:14your childhood you know or even like you know my kids are older now but like you know you're watching
25:20disney channel and stuff and and a lot of the the newer kid shows still play into like like if these
25:28were adult shows doing these types of racial stereotypes and whatnot they they would have been
25:33like canceled both literally and figuratively 100 it was yeah but it's but it's different it's weird
25:40though because like why would you take the more impressionable people and give them like all these
25:47like kind of shitty stereotypes and and whatnot and then say like or you can't when you're older and
25:56like you're more worldly and whatnot like we're not doing that um and i think like it it just i don't
26:04know it not to get all tin tin hat but it it definitely does help create a world where you know we
26:12at best like we jokingly cling to these stereotypes about people but at worst like it causes like actual
26:21damage like it creates this world where you think these are what these people do or these are what
26:27these how these people act or behave and you know that's that's not healthy and especially as you know
26:35it seems like literate people seem to or literacy seems to be less and less you know like you know these
26:43kind of like um base instincts that they play that these this type of entertainment plays to like you
26:51know it sticks with people and helps them form decisions that aren't really well informed right
26:56right no 100 you know and it's it's things like that that do make me wonder like damn you know like
27:04yeah like i said it's true because you know what's crazy i was thinking about i i don't know if you
27:08remember this but when tv was still trying to become tv i i don't know those 92 93 but do you remember
27:15when they were broadcasting the the cold war
27:19so you wait uh are you talking about back in the 90s the gulf war you mean the gulf war it was the
27:29gulf war the cold war i don't know why i'm so the cold so the cold war was in actual fighting well i
27:36mean there was fighting involved but that was like a 50-year period i think what you're talking about is
27:41the gulf war okay which is the first time right that was the first time we invaded iraq um and
27:49yeah i was in high school and that happened and okay yeah it was it like you said so like we've had
27:57like footage news footage from like vietnam and even going back as far as world war ii right but what
28:03was crazy if you look at the stuff in vietnam the thing was that you know they never had news teams
28:12in bed with soldiers in that way so the the army or the military didn't realize wait a second we need
28:19to kind of control what these people are showing and that's part of the reason what one of the
28:26arguments as to why the vietnam war ended the way it did was because public support was lost at home
28:33because they were seeing these images but what you're talking about the gulf war was that except
28:38the military was like wait a second now we know we have to tell them what they can point their cameras
28:44at what they can't they need to like basically instead of reporting on what what uh our military
28:52is doing they need to amp up and hype up what the military is doing and i remember even even at that
28:59age being absolutely i was by that point in my life i had moved from brooklyn to a very conservative
29:05um pretty racist town um in long island um who i just found out today my sister just texted me
29:14apparently uh like cash patel went to my high school he's a couple he's about five years younger than
29:21i am so we weren't at school at the same time but that kind of puts things in perspective that's insane
29:28wow but anyway um even at that age i just remember like all the flag waving all the like you know let's
29:37let's kick sodom's ass and stuff like that like it was disgusting and the way that the way that is being
29:45treated as you said it was televised is being treated like like a video game and it you know
29:53without even getting too deep into the history like no matter what you think about whether it was right
29:59to do or not i think it was not the right thing to do personally but the i just remember there's like
30:06a callousness to the way that it was being portrayed that regardless of the rightness or wrongness of
30:14of the war um it was just disgusting and i think it's once again it dehumanizes other people and
30:23makes it easier for us to say it's okay to kill these people and i have i've always had a major
30:30problem with that and um and i think you can make the argument that like if you take that same type of
30:37us versus them dehumanizing attitude but now you're not talking about people overseas now you're talking
30:46about people that just disagree with you politically here in america then of course you're going to have
30:55violence of course you're going to have mass shootings and that's you know it's a big problem
31:01and i think america you know as malcolm x said after jfk was assassinated you know the chickens have
31:09come home to roost and it definitely feels like that on a much bigger scale now wow no i mean no
31:18everything you're saying is it's it's 100 it's interesting because like because i don't know too
31:23much about the politic thing like i'm not really a political guy but like i'm always the guy that
31:28oh yeah like i want to understand so the fact that you just put it for me you're just putting
31:32things in perspective of why i should somewhat care you know if if not about everything but i should
31:38look into what's the most important thing i know for me specifically um like the student loan thing
31:44like it's just so confusing it's not clear and i'm just saying okay so what's going on right because
31:51i'm still paying student loans for a school that no longer exists and i'm like why am i still paying for
31:57this right and i know there's been a debate even with that you know and so if anything you're just
32:02giving me perspective like you know what this is up okay this is important i should understand even if
32:07i don't agree with most of it or whatever i should understand that this is a thing and why is this a
32:13thing because i mean i don't know too much about the positive i just know like whatever i'm told and
32:18stuff like that okay let me look into whatever the situation is but yeah man um well one thing i'll say
32:25is that attitude of of you know that you mentioned earlier of like what can i learn from that situation
32:31or being open to hearing things out i mean that helps a lot because you know if you if you're open
32:40to to kind of exploring things you know you're going to do it and you're going to ultimately become
32:47better um uh informed and make better decisions based on this information because there the the
32:56thing is there's there have always been many many voices trying to to gain your attention and trying
33:04to to cultivate you as someone that's on their side um and that's never been more true than now
33:11right and we have like you know like algorithms that are purposely like and very efficiently trying
33:19to sway you one way or the other so you need that openness now more than ever and the willingness to
33:26to to to learn about things and and and you mentioned empathy earlier right you know like empathy doesn't
33:33mean you have to agree with people that are suffering you know or but it could be but it could be
33:40understanding like that they are and and be like you know even if i disagree with you maybe you should
33:46not be suffering you know right exactly it's like you don't find like even if we could agree to disagree
33:50but you know but the fact that it's bothering you like let me just be there for you because maybe some
33:54people just want to be heard you know maybe people don't always want an opinion back you know they
33:58just want to just express and i feel like that kind of thing is being it's it's working its way to
34:06being censored and i think that kind of sucks because it's like damn dude like really like this
34:10is what we're doing today and it sucks it's like you said if we are free then we should be we should
34:16have some kind of boundary type understanding of what that free speech is and i feel like even that's
34:24not 100 clear because in one aspect okay there's the free speech in a good way but then another aspect
34:31there's the negative connotation that comes from that it's just like oh that fucking sucks great
34:35yeah well you know it's uh you know it's definitely a major major work in progress all of this of
34:45course yeah 100 i mean i mean thank god for um thank god for podcasting though because we could have
34:50these conversations you know so definitely um i don't know i didn't think the conversation was
34:56gonna go all the way over here but i mean thank you for that because this is what i like this is
35:01what i like about doing these podcasts because you just because i i do things off the fly so i'm like
35:06okay hey let's just see how it organically flows because i feel like even though i'm doing this but i
35:12feel like i'm learning from you i'm i feel like we're learning from each other i believe yeah definitely
35:17this just teaches us some stuff and i feel like you know if people watch this then hey like i hope
35:22you guys learn from it too you know um um damn i i did have a question about something and i don't
35:30remember what it was but um but um i guess i'll end it with this you know so since you know in teaching
35:40and when you do with satia or with reds and that's i guess we could do another interview next time and i'll
35:48ask you about reds or something but um because being engaged we just got our test pressing for
35:52the new record today so oh nice so hopefully it'll be out uh in a month or so well i have this so i did
36:00buy this one oh nice yeah that's uh yeah i didn't play on that that was that was the original record but
36:07that was okay heavy you know as much as i was criticizing bands in in the 2000s and even before i was part of
36:16reds i love that band so right i'm stoked to be a part of it so you know what screw it so let's take
36:21it here then let's just take it here to reds then so um how did this happen as far as reds like how
36:27did this band form and how did you get into this like how does this happen for you let's talk let's
36:33talk about that yeah so reds um the first time around uh reds started while i was in the fiction
36:42uh with uh dima who's our bass player want to try playing guitar in a band and um evan who
36:51is the singer reds he was kind of like a roadie slash honorary fourth member of the fiction he went
36:57on every single tour we ever did except for the european tour um so he always wanted to sing for a
37:06band so um at the time he didn't play an instrument so he's like i'll be the singer so they started
37:12playing with uh our friend randy who's uh in a band called deer tonight um and this guy scott who
37:19i'm not even sure where he came from or how they they met him but um uh and yeah so while the fiction
37:26was kind of on its way out reds was on its way in um okay and i think we played a couple of shows
37:32there was like a little overlap um and then yeah so uh fast forward to like 2020 2020 2021 something
37:47like that um this guy ron who runs this uh label called gene scene creamers i'm in pittsburgh um he
37:55was a big reds fan and got in touch with dima and evan about reissuing that record um and
38:02uh and then so they did that and then he said hey i'm putting together this festival in pittsburgh
38:10excuse me would you guys like to play it like the reunion so they had fallen they had fallen out of
38:18touch with the drummer scott um and they approached randy the the original bass player and randy is
38:26a brain very famous brain surgeon now um and like social media guy brain brain surgeon guy um
38:38uh so he's like ridiculously busy uh so there's no way that he could do that um all that so i got back
38:48in touch with dima when seisha was um doing the shows he he wrote it for us or uh for a little bit
38:56and uh so me and him were driving to i remember we were driving new jersey to see anthrax and um
39:03uh he brings up the fact that reds is getting back together but randy can't do it and you know um i don't
39:11know if he was like fishing for an answer or fishing if i was interested or right or not but i jumped as
39:19like well you know it's like i'm playing bass again i own a bass you know i could play for you guys and
39:25then uh yeah and so we just started playing and originally we just started playing the songs on
39:30the record and then we started writing new material and uh we had some songs left over from very short
39:37live band that the three of us tried doing uh which was called fake fake news um okay and uh but we never
39:47got to the playing show stage so yeah and then it's just been really awesome and oh and uh we got a new
39:55drummer named zach who uh is uh he's a bit younger than us uh but like an amazing drummer and awesome guy
40:04and also does great sound uh so yeah it's just been really fun and it's definitely stretching
40:11different muscles than seisha does like musically uh you know like definitely both branches of of a tree
40:20but probably a little further apart from each other um it's a lot faster so like i definitely had to build
40:27up my my speed and playing bass and uh which is which has been fun um and yeah it's just been
40:34awesome and i'm really really proud of this record um and uh between this and the seisha record um
40:43it's the most music i put out in like 20 years so i'm pretty stoked right and even with seisha i'm glad
40:49you brought that up like how did how did that come about too like um when it came to the new music
40:56that you came out i remember you told me privately like you said you guys um wait okay i don't know
41:02if you said you were okay with putting on new music but everybody else wasn't like i think that's the
41:09part i need clarity in but i remember but but how was that like and what was the pinnacle that's like
41:14you know what let's just do it yeah so you you were at the garwood show so that we had just recorded
41:23the new record two days before that show um but we we weren't telling anybody um and um which sucked
41:34because i really want wanted to play those those songs live um but uh yeah so i think from the the
41:44jump like i i always wanted to just make new music um and i think some of the other guys
41:54were a little uh you know less enthusiastic about writing new music um and for for various different
42:03reasons um and i had this song kicking around uh what would end up becoming tendrils um i had this
42:13song i wrote it on guitar originally and i tried it with different bands over the years that just
42:17never came through um it's based on it's based on the song so what by miles davis um which you i don't
42:25think anyone could pick out from what we ended up doing with it but it follows the um the modes that
42:33miles um has on that song and uh you know i sent it to the guys and um
42:43yeah it just nothing really happened so i'm like all right let me let me try sending on bass
42:47and uh so i rewrote it on bass i added some parts to it and i had most of what you hear is what i had
42:53okay um um and you know me tom who's one of the guitar players and um steve our drummer we would
43:06sometimes get together in new jersey um to practice uh because um we're all on the east coast adam's on
43:14the west coast he wouldn't be able to do that so um started working on tom started adding parts to it
43:22um he uh that that like kind of like quiet interlude after the first parts over he came up with that
43:28um um and kind of some ideas for general arrangement the song and then uh we recorded the three of us
43:36recorded i think on like an iphone or something something like that and my lord that damn i think
43:42those are like the best ones too like even though it's on the iphone but like i think those are like
43:46the best ones the best stories you know dude i would i would have killed for something like an
43:51iphone back when i was in high school because uh it's it's so easy to yeah yeah the sound quality is
43:59way better now but uh so the um we uh what was i saying oh yeah so when we we then sent that
44:08you know to the other guys and um all of a sudden adam got really excited and that night he wrote his
44:15parts and you know put in garage band and added to it all of a sudden it's like we have our first song
44:22and it sounds you know we were happy with it at least um and then you know the other two songs adam
44:29brought in uh three faces past which is the the second song um and that that went through a lot of
44:37iterations um and that one took us the longest to put together and tom came up like the whole end i
44:44had a completely different baseline for and until i came up with what's on the record which i'm really
44:50stoked about um and then um corkscrew spine was actually the very first song we tried working on
44:58um and uh it that took a little while too but you know it just sucks because we're all spread out
45:06like no one lives in new york city you know uh adam's in san diego tom's in albany uh steve's in
45:13philly so you know getting to go pretty far holy god yeah so it's it's kind of slow going but um
45:22we then yeah like i said two days the day before we played the show you're at in garwood um we played
45:30a fest in philly and the day before that we recorded the three songs and uh yeah and it's just been
45:38super excited um i would say over overall it seems the response has been excuse me really positive um
45:47and uh which is always nice to hear but like more importantly it's a record that like the three of us
45:53really really dig and uh you know we're uh we're we're writing new stuff um for uh you know hopefully
46:02next year so wow that's cool man uh that's awesome um colin thank you for this um thank you for doing
46:13this with me no thank you for having me this was a lot of fun yeah even if it got dark yet
46:19no but you know what and that's the thing i like that i love i love shit like that this is like when
46:24i was doing unraveled influence back in the day even though it was poetry and art based but we did
46:29have these conversations like we were really really touchy ones too that were like oh this actually
46:35oh wait but but this actually ended good like no one got upset oh great you know but um
46:40you know doing this means a lot to me you know and the fact that now i have you a part of this
46:47thing of episodes you know like thank you for that um you you know i i went through a lot in my life i
46:55went through a lot in high school and you were one of those people that gave me a reason to like you
47:01know to keep going you know when i felt stuck in so many places in my life and um it was the inspiration
47:07and i kept writing because of that you know even though i had a period where i stopped but the times
47:13that from high school even to like college like you know it was those things you know that um i
47:20always think about it i feel like it's it's the little things right and to me those little things
47:24make a big impact you know you were one of those teachers that you you didn't you didn't you didn't
47:29treat me like just another student like you actually cared you know and i feel like we don't get that a lot
47:34in schools anymore you know and i really appreciate that a lot you know you you gave me like i said you
47:40gave me this you know like and like even though you know it's not in publication so sorry that's the
47:48only copy that exists but like i look back at that and it's just one of those things like jesus you know
47:55i look back and it gives me um gives me hope to know that then the fact that this represents like
48:02a person that believed in me enough that they were willing to spend time with me to do that in
48:08areas of my life that you know and that other people could not do and i really appreciate that
48:14you know and um doing this to look back in these things like that really means a lot you know because
48:20there were times where i almost ended my life you know and it's just like it's stuff like that i look
48:24back and like no i have a lot there is more out there you know i just have to find it you know and
48:29you know like i said this this world of punk rock because i've been to shows before i've been to
48:34like metal court shows because you know my my cousin was into that kind of stuff and these local bands
48:40and stuff but like when it came to satia i've never been to a satia show until garwood until you know
48:46that and but the fact that we have stories about those events like again the hot sauce story
48:53like that's like the funniest thing ever but you could do that at a punk rock show you could do that
48:59in little venues like that because it's that's to me that's what intimacy is us having this
49:04conversation go you know to to live enough to go back and talk about it that's intimacy right there
49:10you know and um like i said before um you were definitely a big part of that you know and it's
49:17like yeah i was sad that we lost connection because you know what happens you know people move on we
49:21move forward and stuff like that but that's the good thing about social media right when i started
49:25doing you know the the podcasting the poetry the platforming and then we reconnected that way you
49:32know and here we are doing this episode and like it's just good to go memory down memory lane you know
49:39and i absolutely really appreciate you for that because you were one of those people that really
49:45believed in me you saw past my bullshit let's be real because i wasn't easy to deal with you know
49:52but thank you so much for that thank you for this but listen man yeah it's it's it was
49:58this this tonight has been awesome and i really appreciate you know the opportunity to talk with
50:05you and um and you know as far as your bullshit when you're in high school like it's high school
50:11you're supposed to have bullshit right and uh and god knows you know you know i i had my own you know
50:20back then back when i was in high school so it's having having people that you can feel a connection
50:27to or like you know could kind of be a mentor or have as a mentor or you know that's important and
50:36like you know in any area of life but especially like when you're young and it's i never like i could
50:44see that now but at the time it just viewed it as like it's a good hank like you know this kid
50:50wants to express himself and if i can help him do that in any way then like you know it's a good
50:56hang you know so but it's it really means a lot to hear you say that so thank you oh thank you man
51:03and it's okay because i know i mean out of all the teachers my dad definitely like enjoyed your your
51:07you're you know just you he enjoyed you a lot you know and it's like your dad was a great guy
51:13yeah yeah i mean god rest his soul because you know like he died like yeah 2018 he actually died
51:19three months after i got married you know from pancreatic cancer but it's those little things i look
51:24back in like you know what i kind of get it now because i'm a parent myself and it's like you know
51:30those you start saying saying the same things that they did and you're like wait what oh wait did i
51:35just say that no i didn't say that who said that but it's made an impact in my life for sure and
51:42thank you for i guess bringing me into that part of your life as far as the punk rock aspect of it
51:49because i guess i've been to shows you know i mean you know because punk rock could be anything in my
51:54opinion honestly because i know there's different forms of that but to that particular niche you know
51:59thank you for you know reconnecting for me to experience that because it's those things that
52:06i i look forward to a lot and um again thank you so much you know no problem thank you um any any last
52:14words any um now i feel on the spot yeah i mean just you know going back to this idea of just like you
52:27finding ways to to make connections with people even in in limited amounts of time you know it's
52:35important and like you know just there's something about you know like i've always been a firm believer
52:41in you know doing the work like if you want to do something do it right if you want to try to make
52:48something better then make it better and i think you know it's awesome it's very touching to see
52:55um you know people like yourself that like you know uh you know i've taught hundreds and hundreds
53:04of students at this point i don't get to see you know them as adults all the time and so it's it's
53:12always awesome to when you get those moments where where you can and see like man this kid is is a man
53:19or a woman or you know there's a full-grown adult and they're they're doing it yeah that's still
53:26still blows my mind but uh you know it's it's it's pretty it's pretty awesome and just keep on keep on
53:34doing it and and you know just you know you're good you're you're a good person and you know creative
53:40person and just keep on doing it no i think i appreciate you man so yeah um i i would like to do
53:48this again one time or sometime man let's let's do it again man all right absolutely dude
53:53you
Be the first to comment