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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
00:29say like a third time's a charm right so the time we were supposed to talk um ace fraley just passed
00:37away and i had a bunch of stuff kind of pile up and then uh last week i don't know you were in a
00:41different time zone or whatever the case was but we finally made the connection today so
00:44maya great to see you how are you i'm really good thank you so much for having me yeah uh now i was
00:50gonna say that that looks like an awesome room you're in but it's actually just a backdrop isn't
00:55it's one of those uh yeah my i actually am in my studio but it's really messy so i was like i'll
00:59just i'll throw a really nice looking studio in the background so i can pretend oh that's great where
01:04are you um i'm in my home um in the bay area so i'm pretty close to san francisco now oh okay i got
01:10you yeah you're over there on the uh on the left coast so uh well great to see you man envy of none
01:15of course uh i mean this is like an obvious hack question but how do you get hooked up with guys
01:21from the other part of the continents for this project honestly it it's so funny and it really
01:28just happened kind of out of dumb luck i feel like on my part um but i i had been entering a lot of
01:35song contests and this was years ago now i think i was around 19 when i entered this song contest and
01:40i ended up winning and one of my prizes was a zoom mentorship call with andy curran okay um yeah and
01:45so we we got to talking and um we talked about collaborating and uh we ended up working on some
01:53music together and then eventually andy brought alex into the mix but he and alf had been working
01:58on some music already so at the beginning it was kind of alf uh andy and i working on some songs and
02:04then alex joined afterwards yeah just alex just he just walks in you're like okay yeah
02:08no wait wait a second was this contest in canada only it was based out of canada but it was i think
02:15it was an international like i can't remember all of the different countries that participated in it
02:21but it 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
02:35curran like uh you know uh back when i was a kid um you know back i grew up in western new york and
02:41you know coney hatch would bleed across the the border a little bit so i knew about coney hatch
02:46and whatnot and um this is like a really crazy story i don't want to take too much time with you
02:50but i had a dream one night about coney hatch i don't even know why and i woke up to an email
02:55saying would you like to talk to andy curran like how weird is that right so it's like i believe in
03:02the collective conscience i believe that we're all like connected in ways we don't understand
03:06yeah that was one of the most bizarre things i've ever experienced in my life i'm like well that's
03:11crazy i just had a dream about coney hatch for some reason uh but anyways then and then you you
03:17record this project with uh you know andy and alex and whatnot and are your parents did they have
03:23any concept of rush or coney hatch or anything definitely my parents are are big rush fans so
03:30they're very excited for me they actually didn't believe me at first when i told them i was
03:34collaborating with alex my dad thought i was being scammed and he's like are you who is this man
03:39who are you talking to so they're very excited for me no that's great man i mean i can't even imagine
03:48you know if one of my kids came home and said man i'm working on a project with one of the guys from
03:52rush i'd be like i mean that'd be mind-blowing to me so so what were you doing before then
03:57i was really just trying to pursue music um as a singer songwriter um i lived in montana for a long
04:04time and then oregon and a lot of pacific northwest kind of music scene stuff so i was playing in a lot
04:09of like bars and street corners and you know whatnot from the time i was 16 years old and um i didn't
04:18really have a lot of music connections so it was really just kind of putting all of myself into it
04:23doing my best with what i had and that meant entering a lot of online contests and um just
04:29trying everything that i could posting covers online and doing everything like that and um
04:34eventually something started to stick which was really cool now you said online contests and what
04:39now what about like uh have you ever tried out for like american idol or any of those TV shows
04:43i i have a story about that okay i have been scouted by the i think a lot of their casting
04:53agents will kind of scour the internet for people who are singers and and try to cast people onto on
04:59the show and i've been scouted for the voice and america's got talent and american idol over the years
05:06um i almost did american idol i went and did an unofficial audition for the producers and got
05:13like an unofficial golden ticket and then was like really freaked out by the contract and decided not
05:19to do it okay um and then i had a similar experience with america's got talent um they scare you into like
05:27not talking about anything so i'm scared to talk about it now but it was a good experience but i had a
05:32similar similar kind of mental process in that one as well um but that one i went further through the
05:37process because they give you like an initial contract that's like oh this is fine this is just
05:41like a talent release form and then once you go through the next steps and they feel like you're
05:45actually going to be on the show then they give you the like 800 page contract and you're like
05:50what is this yeah well i mean it is life change same point it's like you know if you don't feel
05:57comfortable about it i guess you got to go you know you got to use your own intuition
06:00yeah you know i think i'm i'm also just like i lean towards the cautious side when it comes to
06:07that kind of stuff and it probably would have been fine but some part of my brain was like
06:11so did it did andy write your contract on a cocktail napkin
06:16yeah pretty much no that's great so the record came out do you guys have any plans on touring
06:24uh we've talked about it a lot we have a lot of desire to tour and i think it's just about finding
06:32the right time because we would need a lot of time to rehearse and kind of plan what our show was
06:38going to be because we've never really performed together live ever which is so funny but it would
06:44be really fun and we all i think would would really enjoy it so we've we've talked about it a lot
06:48i was gonna say have you ever met alex yes honestly it's so funny we we work on our music
06:57like we spend so many hours on these songs in our studios and doing zoom calls and emails back and
07:03forth and and then our time in person is spent like celebrating and eating food
07:09so so you've been to toronto yeah i've been to toronto a bunch now and it's it's always fun
07:16it's a beautiful city are you are you uh subconsciously or consciously pulling for the
07:21blue jays now i yeah if i were a sports person for sure go sports ball go sport yeah so uh so so
07:33you're a singer songwriter so you wrote you wrote a lot of lyrics for uh mvm none correct yeah i did a
07:38lot of the lyrics uh vocal melodies and um millions of vocal layers and harmonies
07:44yeah no doubt and um you know what i was thinking about this um that i mean alex has pretty much
07:51only worked with one songwriter in his life for the for the most part does was there was there any
07:57intimidation or because this is completely different you just kind of you just kind of put it out of the
08:01back of your mind i think i just threw everything out the back of my mind because it's more helpful
08:06that way yeah for sure um but also i think it does help that we are so different like the genres that
08:14we're working in and and my life experience and where i'm coming from um is so different as well
08:20and so i think while there's obviously universal themes in so many of russia's songs that anyone can
08:26relate to but i i still feel like thematically and kind of interpersonally i think we just relate
08:31in very different ways and it kind of makes it easy not to sit there and compare them too much
08:36yeah because you know neil was obviously i mean one of the greatest drummers to ever walk the planet
08:42but he was also a great lyricist too and i'd be a little bit yeah yeah i'd be a little bit like i
08:46don't know maybe self-conscious about i would out but like you said it is two completely different
08:51things and when when you when you when andy approached you about this project did you think
08:55this was going to sound like russia what what was your thoughts on this or did he tell you what
08:59no no well especially because i had no idea alex was going to be a part of it okay so when we first
09:05started like rush wasn't even on my mind like it was never even a possibility in my mind at that point
09:11we were creating in my mind it was like going to be sort of electronic industrial dark moody stuff that
09:17we were going to be working on and that's kind of where we started out just andy and alph and i kind
09:22of this like a very different approach genre wise to what we were creating um and then i think
09:29a couple songs into at least i didn't know alex was going to be a part of it and you might have
09:33known but i was completely oblivious so um once he he called me like three songs into it and was
09:40like i showed this to my buddy alex and he's gonna play some songs or some guitar on these songs and
09:44that was obviously a very mind-blowing conversation um but it didn't really change the direction of what
09:51we were doing i think it was always kind of its own thing yeah and um so so there's this uh this
09:59what is a three song ep you got coming out now with the thrill of the chase and there's a um there's a
10:04video and once again you're not in the video with alex right it's all it's all it's all cartoon
10:09animation correct yeah it's it's they're real puppets okay all right yeah but it does kind of look
10:19like a cartoon animation um they did a really great job but yeah we are this is the first video
10:24um where we're all in it together technically
10:28until i see you and alex and annie like walking around i'm not gonna even met any of them in
10:35person it was probably just like this it could happen 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
10:49come from 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 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
11:30have 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
11:42that i play and so much of that for me is just visual and like the the mimicking of somebody
11:48else's hand movements that's so funny you say that because uh i've my brother plays guitar and he taught
11:53himself how to play by watching videos from the 80s like you know all the mtv yeah that's kind of
11:59it works i feel like some people are just really visual learners and i'm one of those people like if you
12:04told me with words what to do with my hands i would just give you a blank stare yeah nothing
12:10would compute right i know yeah well i don't play any instruments so but i've often said if i can't
12:18manhandle a guitar like ted nugent i don't even want to play that's um it's all or nothing yeah oh so
12:24besides your your family your grandparents and your what kind of other musical influences did you grow up
12:29uh watching you 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 and
12:54then lots of bluegrass when i was living in montana folk music um little sprinkles of of everything
12:59and then living and growing up in uh washington there's a lot of like uh alternative kind of grunge
13:06rock sure going on there too and so there's there's little bits of everything and um i like to
13:12i like anything and everything i think every genre has something that i can connect with yeah to offer
13:20you yeah yeah so um after the record came out and right around the time i was supposed to talk to
13:25you the first time i think uh you know rush had announced these dates and stuff uh do you see
13:29yourself going to some of these shows or multiple shows or yes i hope i can get extra tickets i am very
13:38excited it'll be my first time seeing rush live so i'm very excited about the opportunity and um
13:44it's just that it's already becoming such a huge tour that i just know it's going to be such a like
13:50beautiful experience and um i know they have such incredible fans too like everybody that i've talked
13:57to who has been a long-time rush fan is like 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 rushes in the movie
14:18so um no that's great so so i would will you see the shows like when they when they come around like
14:24on the 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
14:42or something we don't know exactly um yeah i think the last show they ever played was in 2015
14:49was at the forum there yeah yeah yeah it hasn't been that long it was at 2015 yeah 2015 because
14:58then you know neil passed away i want to say in 2020 right at the very beginning of the year so
15:03it would have been five years but uh man what what kind of rush songs uh do you like
15:08hmm i like kid gloves is one of my favorites okay pass and i also really like i like some of
15:18their softer stuff too the trees or tears which i think is an underrated song um there's so many
15:26good ones and i feel like it really depends on your mood you know there's so much variety and so
15:32many records that you can comb through and find something that will suit the mood that you're in
15:36which i think is really cool yeah i think it's really cool too that this that envy of none is
15:41is completely nothing like rush and alex is like all about it i talked to him about it like uh back in
15:47the spring and and 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 sprinkles of
16:04world instruments um and like haunting soft vocal layers yeah that that dude that nails it yeah no
16:13doubt um working with all these guys from canada have you uh have you have they turned you on to the
16:19trailer park boys yet yes yes i've been hearing a lot about it and i know that alex was in it so
16:25uh it's actually my parents the other day they're like you have to watch this episode so i watched
16:30one of the episodes that alex was in the other day so was it was it one where he got where the guys
16:36took him hostage yeah oh my and they taped him up good yeah that's hysterical well listen i couldn't
16:45be happier for you envy of none is out right now like you said uh the the thrill uh thrill to chase
16:50is uh coming out this weekend as well and uh it's really cool to uh connect with you and i i've already
16:56told andy about the uh the dream thing but you don't have to tell him that okay just i'm gonna tell
17:01him that i think he would be delighted we're just gonna leave it there and not tell andy about any
17:05more of my dreams about coney hatch i think honestly he's gonna be very happy about that
17:11well he'd be happy if you're rooted for the toronto well but i think he's a chicago blackhawks fan maybe
17:16that's what you should root for so well my so great to talk to you good luck with everything and maybe
17:21you'll see on tour that'd be really cool thank you so much it's really great to talk with you
17:31you
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