- 4 months ago
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00my parents are big rush fans they actually didn't believe me at first when i told them i was
00:04collaborating with alex my dad thought i was being scammed and he's like who is this man
00:09who are you talking to rock metal frog and everything in between welcome to this episode
00:17of talking rock with meltdown don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on
00:22all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown well they say like
00:29third time's a charm right so we were supposed to talk um ace fraley just passed away and i had a
00:37bunch of stuff kind of pile up and then uh last week i don't know you were in a different time
00:41zone or whatever the case was but we finally made the connection today so maya great to see you how
00:46are you i'm really good thank you so much for having me yeah uh now i was gonna say that that looks like
00:52an awesome room you're in but it's actually just a backdrop isn't it so one of those uh yeah my i
00:57actually am in my studio but it's really messy so i was like i'll just i'll throw a really nice
01:01looking studio in the background so i can pretend oh that's great where are you um i'm in my home
01:06i'm in the bay area so i'm pretty close to san francisco now oh okay i got you yeah you're over
01:11there on the uh on the left coast so uh well great to see you man envy of none of course uh i mean
01:16this is like an obvious hack question but how do you get hooked up with guys from the other part of
01:22the continents for this project honestly it's so funny and it really just happened kind of out of
01:30dumb luck i feel like on my part um but i i had been entering a lot of song contests and this was
01:36years ago now i think i was around 19 when i entered this song contest and i ended up winning and one of
01:41my prizes was a zoom mentorship call with andy curran okay um yeah and so we we got to talking and
01:47um we talked about collaborating and uh we ended up working on some music together and then eventually
01:54andy brought alex into the mix but he and alf had been working on some music already so
01:59at the beginning it was kind of alf uh andy and i working on some songs and then alex joined
02:04afterwards yeah just alex just he just walks in you're like okay yeah so wait a second was this
02:11contest in canada only it was based out of canada but it was i think it was an international
02:16international like i can't remember all of the different countries that participated in it but
02:22it was the first year that they did it online and um i won the cover song contest for creep
02:27oh the uh stone table pilots or radiohead radiohead okay gotcha so yeah because i mean you know andy
02:34curran like uh you know uh back when i was a kid um you know back i grew up in western new york and
02:40you know coney hatch would bleed across the border a little bit so i knew about coney hatch and whatnot
02:46and um this is like a really crazy story i don't want to take too much time away from you but i had
02:50a dream one night about coney hatch i don't even know why and i woke up to an email saying would you
02:56like to talk to andy curran like how weird is that right so it's like i believe in the collective
03:02conscience i believe that we're all like connected in ways we don't understand yeah that was one of the
03:08most bizarre things i've ever experienced in my life i'm like well that's crazy i just had a dream
03:12about coney hatch for some reason uh but anyways then and then you you record this project with uh
03:18with you know andy and alex and whatnot and are your parents did they have any concept of rush or
03:25coney hatch or anything definitely my parents are are big rush fans so they're very excited for me
03:31they actually didn't believe me at first when i told them i was collaborating with alex my dad thought
03:36i was being scammed and he's like are you who is this man who are you talking to so they're very
03:44excited for me no that's great man i mean i can't even imagine you know if one of my kids came home
03:49and said man i'm working on a project with one of the guys from rush i'd be like i mean that'd be
03:54mind-blowing to me so so what were you doing before then i was really just trying to pursue music
04:01as a singer songwriter um i lived in montana for a long time and then oregon and a lot of pacific
04:07northwest kind of music scene stuff so i was playing a lot of like bars and street corners and
04:12you know whatnot from the time i was 16 years old and um i didn't really have a lot of music
04:19connections so it was really just kind of putting all of myself into it and doing my best with what i
04:24had and that meant entering a lot of online contests and um just trying everything that i
04:30could posting covers online and doing everything like that and um eventually something started to
04:36stick which was really cool now you said online contests and whatnot what about like uh have you
04:41ever tried out for like american idol or any of those TV shows i i have a story about that
04:46i have been scouted by the i think a lot of their casting agents will kind of scour the internet for
04:55people who are singers and and try to cast people on to on the show and i've been scouted for the voice
05:02and america's got talent and american idol over the years um i almost did american idol i went and did an
05:10unofficial audition for the producers and got like an unofficial golden ticket and then was like
05:16really freaked out by the contract and decided not to do it okay um and then i had a similar
05:22experience with america's got talent um they scare you into like not talking about anything so i'm
05:28scared to talk about it now but it was a good experience but i had a similar similar kind of
05:33mental process in that one as well um but that one i went further through the process because they
05:38give you like an initial contract that's like oh this is fine this is just like a talent release form
05:42and then once you go through the next steps and they feel like you're actually going to be on
05:46the show then they give you the like 800 page contract and you're like what is this
05:52yeah well i mean it is life change same point it's like you know if you don't feel comfortable about it
05:58i guess you got to go you know you got to use your own intuition yeah you know i think i'm i'm also
06:03just like i lean towards the cautious side when it comes to that kind of stuff and it probably would
06:09have been fine but some part of my brain was like oh so did it did andy write your contract
06:15on a cocktail napkin yeah pretty much no that's great so the record came out do you guys have any
06:23plans on touring uh we've talked about it a lot we have a lot of desire to tour and i think it's just
06:31about finding the right time because we would need a lot of time to rehearse and kind of plan
06:36what our show was going to be because we've never really performed together live ever
06:41but it would be really fun and we all i think would would really enjoy it so we've we've talked
06:48about it a lot i was gonna say have you ever met alex
06:51yes honestly it's so funny we we work on our music like we spend so many hours on these songs in our
07:00studios and doing zoom calls and emails back and forth and and then our time in person is spent
07:07like celebrating and eating food so so you've been to toronto yeah i've been to toronto a bunch now and
07:14it's it's always fun it's a beautiful city are you are you uh subconsciously or consciously pulling for
07:21the blue jays now i yeah if i were a sports person for sure go sports ball go sport so uh so so you're
07:33a singer songwriter so you wrote you wrote a lot of lyrics for uh mvm none correct yeah i did a lot of
07:38the lyrics uh vocal melodies and um millions of vocal layers and harmonies yeah no doubt and um you know
07:47what i was thinking about this um that i mean alex has pretty much only worked with one songwriter
07:53in his life for the for the most part does was there was there any intimidation or because this
07:58is completely different you just kind of you just kind of put it out of the back of your mind
08:02i think i just threw everything out the back of my mind because it's more helpful that way yeah for
08:08sure um but also i think it does help that we are so different like the genres that we're working in and
08:15and my life experience and where i'm coming from um is so different as well and so i think while
08:21there's obviously universal themes in so many of rush's songs that anyone can relate to but i i still
08:27feel like thematically and kind of interpersonally i think we just relate in very different ways and
08:33it kind of makes it easy not to sit there and compare them too much yeah because you know neil was
08:38obviously i mean one of the greatest drummers to ever walk the planet but he was also a great
08:42lyricist too and i'd be a little bit yeah yeah i'd be a little bit like i don't know maybe
08:46self-conscious about i would out but like you said it is two completely different things and when when
08:52you when you when andy approached you about this project did you think this was going to sound like
08:56rush or what what was your thoughts on this or do you tell you what no no well especially because i
09:01had no idea alex was going to be a part of it okay so when we first started like rush wasn't even on
09:07my mind like it was never even a possibility in my mind at that point we were creating in my mind it
09:13was like going to be sort of electronic industrial dark moody stuff that we were going to be working
09:18on and that's kind of where we started out just andy and alph and i kind of this like a very different
09:23approach genre wise to what we were creating um and then i think a couple songs into at least i didn't
09:30know alex was going to be a part of it andy might have known but i was completely oblivious so um once
09:37he he called me like three songs into it and was like i showed this to my buddy alex and he's going
09:42to play some songs or some guitar on these songs and that was obviously a very mind-blowing
09:47conversation um but it didn't really change the direction of what we were doing i think
09:52it was always kind of its own thing yeah and um so so there's this uh this what is a three song ep
10:00you got coming out now with the thrill of the chase and there's a um there's a video and once again
10:05you're not in the video with alex right it's all it's all it's all cartoon animation correct
10:10yeah it's it's they're real puppets okay all right yeah but it does kind of look like a cartoon
10:19animation um they did a really great job but yeah we are this is the first video um where we're all
10:26in it together technically until i see you and alex nanny like walking around i'm not even met any of
10:34them in person it was probably just like this could have been so no that's great well congratulations so
10:43that comes out this weekend uh phenomenal saying where does where does like your your musicality come
10:49from did you grow up in a musical family a bit yeah i have a lot of um musicians in my family
10:55um i also have a lot of like teachers and engineers and computer programmers and mathematicians and so
11:01there's a lot of like mathy engineering people who also happen to play an instrument um and you know
11:09what they say like math and and music go well together i think in the brain so um like my dad plays
11:15the piano and i was very influenced by that growing up my grandpa's a bluegrass musician um played banjo
11:22mandolin um my both my grandmothers play the piano and um so it's just been nice to like grow up and
11:30and have those reference points for for music and um i learned a lot just by watching both my dad and my
11:38grandpa play and just like looking at their hands and i'm self-taught on almost all the instruments that i play
11:43and so much of that for me is just visual and like the the mimicking of somebody else's hand movements
11:49that's so funny you say that because uh i've my brother plays guitar and he taught himself how to
11:54play by watching videos from the 80s like you know all the mtv yeah that's kind of crazy it works i feel
12:00like some people are just really visual learners and i'm one of those people like if you told me
12:04with words what to do with my hands i would just give you a blank stare yeah nothing would compute
12:11right i know yeah well i don't play any instruments so but i've often said if i can't manhandle a guitar
12:18like ted nugent i don't even want to play that's um it's all or nothing yeah oh so besides your your
12:25family your grandparents and your what kind of other musical influences did you grow up uh watching
12:30you know i i like to think that i have a pretty eclectic music taste you know growing up
12:36everything from heavy rock music from the 80s um you know grunge in the 90s singer songwriter stuff
12:44really underground um more jazz and blues influenced singer songwriters um little blends of everything
12:54and then lots of bluegrass when i was living in montana folk music um little sprinkles of of
12:59everything and then living and growing up in uh washington there's a lot of like uh alternative
13:05kind of grunge rock sure going on there too and so there's there's little bits of everything and um
13:11i like to i like anything and everything i think every genre has something that i can connect with
13:18yeah to offer you yeah yeah so um after the record came out and right around the time i was supposed to
13:24talk to you the first time i think uh you know russia announced these dates and stuff uh do you see
13:29yourself going to some of these shows or multiple shows or yes
13:32i hope i can get extra tickets i am very excited it'll be my first time seeing rush
13:40live so i'm very excited about the opportunity and um it's just it's already becoming such a huge tour
13:47that i just know it's going to be such a like beautiful experience and um i know they have such
13:54incredible fans too like everybody that i've talked to who has been a long-time rush fan is
13:58like i've seen them 87 times and i'm like how that's so amazing
14:03have you seen the movie i love you man from 2009 no there's a movie you got to see the two guys uh
14:12jason siegel and paul rudd they're gigantic rush fans in the movie see nice and rush is in the movie so
14:18um no that's great so so i would will you see the shows like when they when they come around like on
14:24the west coast or are you gonna you plan on traveling a little bit um that's a good question
14:30i think for sure the la one of the la shows um but other than that i was thinking traveling could be
14:37fun never been to mexico they're playing in mexico they might need a keyboard player or something we
14:43don't know exactly um yeah i think the last show they ever played was in 2015 was at the forum there
14:50yeah yeah yeah it hasn't been that long it was at 2015 yeah 2015 because then you know neil passed
14:59away i want to say in 2020 right at the very beginning of the year so it would have been five
15:04years but uh man what what kind of rush songs uh do you like hmm i like kid gloves is one of my
15:12favorites okay pass and i also really like i like some of their softer stuff too the trees
15:20or tears which i think is an underrated song um there's so many good ones and i feel like
15:27it really depends on your mood you know there's so much variety and so many records that you can
15:33comb through and find something that will suit the mood that you're in which i think is really cool
15:37yeah i think it's really cool too that this that envy of none is is completely nothing like rush
15:43and alex is like all about it i talked to him about it like uh back in the spring and
15:47and it's like it's describe the band to someone who's never heard it
15:51it is very eclectic um a good variety of pop rock alternative grunge with some like
16:02sprinkles of world instruments um and like haunting soft vocal layers yeah that that
16:12that nails it yeah no doubt um working with all these guys from canada have you uh have you have
16:18they turned you on to the trailer park boys yet yes yes i've been hearing a lot about it and i know
16:24that alex is in it so uh it's actually my parents the other day they're like you have to watch this
16:29episode so i watched one of the episodes that alex was in the other day so was it was it one where
16:34he got where the guys took him hostage yeah oh my and they taped him up good yeah
16:41that's hysterical well listen i couldn't be happier for you envy of none is out right now like you said
16:47uh the the thrill uh the thrill of chase is uh coming out this weekend as well and uh it's really
16:53cool to uh connect with you and i i've already told andy about the uh the dream thing but you don't
16:58have to tell him that okay just i'm gonna tell him that i think he will be delighted we're just
17:03gonna leave it there and that's all that's all andy about any more of my dreams about coney hatch
17:07i think honestly he's gonna be very happy about that well he'd be happier if you're rooted for
17:13the toronto well but i think he's a chicago blackhawks fan maybe that's what you should root for so
17:17well my so great to talk to you good luck with everything and maybe we'll see you on tour that'd
17:22be really cool thank you so much it's really great to talk with you
17:28you
17:29you
Comments