Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace that
Speaker 1: we call inside the studio on iHeart Radio. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for being here. My name is Jordan run Tug,
Speaker 1: but enough about me. My guest today are a band
Speaker 1: of brothers who have been making music together since they
Speaker 1: were kids in their parents garage. You probably started tuning
Speaker 1: in around two thousand two, and they dropped their double
Speaker 1: platinum disc Wonder What's Next, which features smashes like the
Speaker 1: Red and Send the Pain Below, and they have not
Speaker 1: stopped rocking since. They're gearing up to release their new record, Nearatias.
Speaker 1: And that's an acronym, but I won't spoil the surprise.
Speaker 1: The disc is steeped in their passion for sci fi,
Speaker 1: with references to Elon Musk, missions to Marrows and simulation theory.
Speaker 1: I promised to focus on music as much as the matrix.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to welcome Pete and Sam from Chevelle.
Speaker 1: You're about to release your ninth album, Nearatius. I believe
Speaker 1: I'm saying that right. Uh. An acronym were stands for
Speaker 1: nothing is real and this is the simulation which I
Speaker 1: have to say after a year, I take a lot
Speaker 1: of comfort in that. How did you end on that
Speaker 1: for the title? Yeah, you know, um, that's just how
Speaker 1: we felt, like. You you know, we finished the album
Speaker 1: in March and we flew home the day they shut
Speaker 1: down all the restaurants in like Los Angeles area, So
Speaker 1: we were flying out March eighteen, and we we landed
Speaker 1: at home and then you know, we had thirteen tracks
Speaker 1: too that we're done, and you have to sum those
Speaker 1: up in a in a title. So we thought, this
Speaker 1: just feels insane for one, like everyone else felt, you know,
Speaker 1: and how what a better way too? It just didn't
Speaker 1: feel real. So we're like, are we maybe this is
Speaker 1: a simulation. I was getting into a lot of simulation
Speaker 1: theory and and that whole topic that that wormhole down YouTube.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of videos on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so funny. This at age thirty three, I watched
Speaker 1: The Matrix for the first time this summer purely because
Speaker 1: of what you were just saying, like everything felt so weird, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I started going down the whole simulation theory rabbit hole
Speaker 1: and great movie man. I saw it in the years
Speaker 1: when I was I don't even know what year that
Speaker 1: was or something like that, and something like that. It
Speaker 1: was like real prime Y two k A right, It's great.
Speaker 1: There's so much stuff that you can pull from too
Speaker 1: when you watch it. Like one of my favorite things
Speaker 1: about that was the deja Vu explanation, which is brilliant.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure everybody who's seen the Matrix members
Speaker 1: of the Deja Vu. It's a it's a glitch in
Speaker 1: the matrix. So every time I get a deja Vu,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, you're thinking about that movie. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Do you ever read the really interesting Chuck cost from
Speaker 1: an essay that he has about about simulation theory, and um,
Speaker 1: I forget which book of his, but it's it's really
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. No, no, yeah, we'll look that up. I mean,
Speaker 1: so to this album, I mean the mood. I know
Speaker 1: it was finished before COVID, but it really just seems
Speaker 1: to fit this era so much. I mean, you knew
Speaker 1: single self destructor the lines just they don't care what
Speaker 1: science says. I mean, it just feels so relevant. And
Speaker 1: yeah this was all written before that. Well yeah, but um,
Speaker 1: science denial has been going on for long. Yeah this Yeah,
Speaker 1: these lyrics all stem from a conversation I had with
Speaker 1: someone and I was just kind of dumbfounded and wondering
Speaker 1: where the world was headed. So that song just it
Speaker 1: just came out of me. It was, you know, from
Speaker 1: personal experience, and it was before COVID, so it is
Speaker 1: about the anti vaxers, and so it did kind of fit.
Speaker 1: It kind of fits now too, So I didn't you know,
Speaker 1: I we we don't usually get into like hot topics
Speaker 1: like that. We're a little more tame, you know, as
Speaker 1: far as like I mean, we don't always tell people
Speaker 1: what these songs are about. But this one is is
Speaker 1: pretty obvious and it's pretty like but you know, any
Speaker 1: you know, and time you have someone who's like Sam said,
Speaker 1: of science denier, For me, it's just a little gut punch,
Speaker 1: like we're headed in the wrong direction. So the song
Speaker 1: is aggressive, and you know, I hope people dig it,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's a hot button issue. I know
Speaker 1: it really is. In order to in order to be
Speaker 1: an anti baccer too. And I've done a little bit
Speaker 1: of research into this why people are anti bactors And
Speaker 1: you have to you have to literally ignore the truth,
Speaker 1: right at some point you have to say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: if I put these two things in front of me,
Speaker 1: they're in front of me, right, but you have to
Speaker 1: deny that and say no, just because I see them
Speaker 1: and can touch them, and everybody agrees that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that it's there. And you're like, okay, well I can't
Speaker 1: argue with you. I can't argue with that. So that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, on the flip side of all the science denying,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of space themes and interstellar travel
Speaker 1: on this album. I mean, I'm thinking of the of
Speaker 1: Mars Simila with the elon musk travel in the Mars.
Speaker 1: How did how did that come into into the mix?
Speaker 1: You know? Um, I think it's just that whole like
Speaker 1: Ray Bradbury growing up reading his science fiction and there's
Speaker 1: so many stories about Mars that stuck out. And then
Speaker 1: you know, once I had a kid, Um, those things
Speaker 1: start coming up and you start digging out you know,
Speaker 1: old books and things like that, and um, that was
Speaker 1: a big influence on me when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: So it's just always been there, you know, the mars
Speaker 1: um concept getting there. You know, it's just which is
Speaker 1: completely fascinating. I mean, you know, we went to the
Speaker 1: Moon and then um it just kind of like stopped.
Speaker 1: We now we don't go back to the Moon. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't, So I'm fascinating and I'm kind of like
Speaker 1: waiting to see what we're going to do to get
Speaker 1: even further to Mars, because I'd love to see it happen.
Speaker 1: But I just also when you start learning about the
Speaker 1: complications of uh space travel with the radiation problem of
Speaker 1: keeping people healthy and then mentally as well. That's why
Speaker 1: I called it Mars simular because for me, it's like
Speaker 1: you're getting off the Earth to you know, maybe ship
Speaker 1: it is um arashing and burning here, so you know
Speaker 1: you need to go, you need to populate another planet,
Speaker 1: interplanetarry species, keep it going. But this riff just needed
Speaker 1: a heavy just kind of like a fun heavy topic
Speaker 1: for me, and it kind of fit. And I was
Speaker 1: just calling it Mars for a while. And then actually
Speaker 1: when I was looking back the lyrics when we were
Speaker 1: finishing the album, I was like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: more like it's almost like a you know, it's just
Speaker 1: not it's not we're not there yet. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: attack on Simula here because you know, there are those
Speaker 1: videos where you can virtually travel on YouTube to Mars,
Speaker 1: but m it's just a fun topic. It's not. You know,
Speaker 1: we're all just sitting here waiting to see what Ellen
Speaker 1: is gonna do. Right, isn't you know would you take
Speaker 1: a ride if he if he had ends up having
Speaker 1: the Space tourist vehicle? Oh wow, like up into the
Speaker 1: the hundred and fifty thousand miles up or whatever, Like,
Speaker 1: isn't that what they're talking about? Something like no way, No,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep my feet on the ground. Um, we
Speaker 1: had this agreed. Sorry, I want I want to add
Speaker 1: Pete than when I found out how I just want
Speaker 1: to say how many? When I found out how many
Speaker 1: people were willing to sign up to go to Mars,
Speaker 1: that gave me anxiety just knowing that there's people that
Speaker 1: were willing to do it. There's a really fascinating mini
Speaker 1: documentary Maybe I might have been a New York Times thing.
Speaker 1: It was like ten fifteen minutes long that just interviews
Speaker 1: I think five people. It might be called If I
Speaker 1: Die on Mars or something like that was people that
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, I'm signing away, like I am happy
Speaker 1: to do this and go do this, and I'm I'd
Speaker 1: be fine if I never come back. It's so fasting
Speaker 1: to hear all their their reasons and everything. It's it's
Speaker 1: really interesting because on one hand it's heroic, but another
Speaker 1: hand it's fine. There was a great program I think
Speaker 1: it was just called Mars on I think National Geographic
Speaker 1: Um in the past couple of years. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you saw that series, the three seasons, but man,
Speaker 1: is that good. Check it out. It's phenomenally done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, and they should have called it if I
Speaker 1: dropped trying to go to Mars, because that's much more likely.
Speaker 1: Are you are you willing to go to Mars? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll die in Mars. Are you willing to die before
Speaker 1: you get to Mars? Yeah, that's a different, different questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you mentioned those great you know, seventies sci fi
Speaker 1: novels and stuff, and that gets me to your album
Speaker 1: covered by the great Boris Palleo, who did all sorts
Speaker 1: of incredible uh seventies novels and of course the posters
Speaker 1: for National Lampune's Vacation and night Rider. How did you
Speaker 1: first approach him for this? Well, I would love to
Speaker 1: say that, you know, Sam called him up and I
Speaker 1: had a nice conversation, or I did, but we just
Speaker 1: went through the label and it's not very exciting. But Um,
Speaker 1: I had this, uh about a decade ago. I came
Speaker 1: across a it was a massive kids book, like an
Speaker 1: oversized kids book like three ft I too, like seventies
Speaker 1: who was early eighties book in a in a thrift
Speaker 1: store and it was it was selling for like ten
Speaker 1: bucks or whatever, and I bought it and I've had
Speaker 1: it in my just in my collection of things that
Speaker 1: I like from the road, and it's it's awesome. You
Speaker 1: could open it up. It's like these you could frame these,
Speaker 1: these these posters you know, in book for him, if
Speaker 1: you were to cut him out and frame them. They
Speaker 1: look that good. So it was just this little score
Speaker 1: I had of his work, you know, from a children's book. Um,
Speaker 1: So for the Last Man, probably the last decade, I've
Speaker 1: been like, I wonder if you could, I would love
Speaker 1: to have some of Boris's work for a cover. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it fit, it fit up fit the time
Speaker 1: right now for us, in our in our in our album.
Speaker 1: So UM hit him up and he was into it
Speaker 1: and we were super excited. And you should go check
Speaker 1: out his website because it is um it's it's it's yeah.
Speaker 1: It's's rad I mean, he it's funny because he runs
Speaker 1: the gamut, doesn't he He's got like now he's he's
Speaker 1: doing a lot of like you know, it's the sci
Speaker 1: fi nude. It's so like, wow, they're red. I mean
Speaker 1: they're they're really chiller to look at. Lots of dragons,
Speaker 1: lots of tales, lots of space space travel with the
Speaker 1: naked people, a lot of naked dudes too. So he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's open everything absolutely. So yeah, saw
Speaker 1: that as well. In fact, one of the one of
Speaker 1: the ones that we actually we're looking at to make
Speaker 1: to use as a record cover was just we sort
Speaker 1: of deemed it too much. So yeah, it was just
Speaker 1: a little too close, um with the creature that was
Speaker 1: on it. So but we love the visuals for all
Speaker 1: of us are so cool. I mean, of course, the
Speaker 1: video for Self Destructor is like Men and Black with
Speaker 1: way better cars and vehicles that look how when did
Speaker 1: you when did you put that together? Was that all
Speaker 1: filmed before COVID? I mean it's just it's like a
Speaker 1: mini movie. It's awesome. Um, And that's a good question.
Speaker 1: It did turn into a little mini movie. Pete and
Speaker 1: I sat and brains brainstormed over over that thing and
Speaker 1: just kind of came up with that and then we
Speaker 1: gave it to um our director and our production people,
Speaker 1: Rob Gibson and and they just sort of built it
Speaker 1: from there. Um, it was weird to shoot it. We
Speaker 1: shot most of it outside. It was a small team
Speaker 1: six people because you have for insurance and everything, you
Speaker 1: have to wear masks, you have to check, you have
Speaker 1: to get COVID tests and all that stuff. It's difficult
Speaker 1: to work right now you had to do anything. So
Speaker 1: but we did it. We did it the way that
Speaker 1: they required us to do, and everybody was good. But
Speaker 1: it was fun to shoot. Is probably most of them
Speaker 1: we've ever had shooting a video, to be fair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it looks absolutely amazing. I mean just the
Speaker 1: visuals for this are just so striking. It's so cool,
Speaker 1: and of course the music. Obviously, you worked again with
Speaker 1: Joe Barressi, who produced your last four albums. I believe
Speaker 1: since No Bull. Um, what is it about Joe that
Speaker 1: makes it such a fruitful collaboration? Like, what what does
Speaker 1: he bring to the table for for you when you're recording, Well,
Speaker 1: right out of the gate, he's just he's just there
Speaker 1: for the artist. So it's really difficult to give that up,
Speaker 1: you know, once you have that working relationship, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean I, you know, Sam and I will will
Speaker 1: do demos and I'll just email them where we're at
Speaker 1: and he gives us his notes and we you know,
Speaker 1: either you know, either he's digging it or he's like
Speaker 1: this song is complete and utter. Ship you need to
Speaker 1: go back to the drawing where which happens to you know?
Speaker 1: So he sent back seven songs. He was like, I
Speaker 1: don't like these seven Yeah, so those are just kind
Speaker 1: of waiting there, you know, to be adapted to be Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm gonna do this, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a demoralizing, it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: hard conversation to have because you're like, wow, so nothing redeeming,
Speaker 1: but we'll see. But he's honest, he's so that helps.
Speaker 1: You don't want to dick around when you're trying to
Speaker 1: get something great done. So that's what you're always shooting for,
Speaker 1: is to beat your last project and beat the last
Speaker 1: song you send him. So it's just a good working
Speaker 1: relationship is really what it is. You know, we like him,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you'd be mad about it. He didn't
Speaker 1: get so much better music out of us, So it's
Speaker 1: like you can never be mad about it because like
Speaker 1: he was right, I wrote this much better of a
Speaker 1: song after that, I think after me said he sent
Speaker 1: those original seven back. I think he wrote mother Earth right.
Speaker 1: Mother Earth was probably the first one back, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: others came from there. And it was great because he
Speaker 1: called up Pete and he was like, dude, I'm sitting here,
Speaker 1: me and June. June's the engineering the engineer, and and
Speaker 1: he's just like, we're sitting We're sitting here and me
Speaker 1: and June, and we just listened to this three or
Speaker 1: four times in a row. We can't stop listening to it.
Speaker 1: This is what we've been waiting for. And he's so encouraging,
Speaker 1: made you want to keep working because then he ended
Speaker 1: his conversation with now go right seven more of these. Well, Pete,
Speaker 1: I think there was an interview recently where you said
Speaker 1: that this was sort of the most difficult time that
Speaker 1: you've had writing material for an album. How do you
Speaker 1: push past that or is it just is it just
Speaker 1: endurance like sheer force of will? Or is it a
Speaker 1: case of just waiting until you feel inspired. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's part um, you know, it's part not wanting to
Speaker 1: be bored, it's part inspiration. And it's part of being
Speaker 1: brainwashed over my career, okay, because we were brainwashed and
Speaker 1: you can never sit idle right you like you can
Speaker 1: you always they keep you on the road, you know,
Speaker 1: and um, which is good and bad, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, because you you love it at the same
Speaker 1: time you're like, you don't know which way is up
Speaker 1: half the time. So but that's more in the beginning.
Speaker 1: But it's just kind of like this um, this machine
Speaker 1: that you know when you when you when you stick
Speaker 1: to it, you're you're you're happier. That's where I am.
Speaker 1: That's why I just I just start, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's not a huge, you know, secret behind it. It's
Speaker 1: just what we do, which is what makes you know,
Speaker 1: so awful for musicians, you know, you're just prevented from
Speaker 1: getting into groups clusters of people and sharing your your
Speaker 1: music and your art. So I know that it's affected everyone,
Speaker 1: but you know, in the in the arts, it seems
Speaker 1: like it's really um, it's just been like this you know,
Speaker 1: this bulldozer that just like went through your career. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been tough. Not gonna say it was easy. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's still not and we're not back yet either,
Speaker 1: so we're just waiting to see what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Like everyone, have you been able to get together the
Speaker 1: two of you in in in studios together? Is it
Speaker 1: mostly been over zoomed for? Yeah. We have a studio
Speaker 1: at Pete's house, so I go there, um four times,
Speaker 1: five times a week work. It's just his family and
Speaker 1: my family. We have little kids, so there we're all
Speaker 1: kind of like in our own bubble. I mean we
Speaker 1: are in our own bubble. So so we're still that
Speaker 1: would work, but it's hard because I think the part
Speaker 1: that makes it hard to work is you you write
Speaker 1: the music, you record the music, and then you play
Speaker 1: the music, and since you can't play the music, it's
Speaker 1: just it doesn't ever feel like it's going to feed back.
Speaker 1: So you're just just keep working. Yeah, and you keep
Speaker 1: working in and you're just kind of like, when when
Speaker 1: does this get to see the light of day? And
Speaker 1: who knows if it will? I feel be able to
Speaker 1: play the songs, but um, I mean right now, it's
Speaker 1: like our management, our attorney, people like I say, just
Speaker 1: keep writing, just keep writing, and you just kind of going,
Speaker 1: I just I want to do this thing. My pattern
Speaker 1: process has been this for so many years. You write
Speaker 1: record and it's the full circle of that process. And
Speaker 1: right now we're just kind of like it's like a
Speaker 1: glitch in the matrix again. Going down to that, you're like,
Speaker 1: it's something's off here, you know, right, And I'm not
Speaker 1: complaining about it. I'm just saying that. It's almost like
Speaker 1: you're just you're waiting to do it, is all. And
Speaker 1: so without doing that, it's difficult to just keep writing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know Prince did it, so so we
Speaker 1: can do it. Writing and writing and writing, right. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was always writing, but Pete's always writing too. So
Speaker 1: are you ever superstitious at all when you write? Like
Speaker 1: is there a place you'd like to do it, or
Speaker 1: a time of day, or or an instrument you'd like
Speaker 1: to use? Uh? No, not really No, I mean I started,
Speaker 1: uh using a keyboard on this album a lot, so
Speaker 1: I wrote, I wrote a couple of well, like a
Speaker 1: piano on the end of a self destructor and I
Speaker 1: you know, that was the first instrument I learned. As
Speaker 1: a kid, we were all we all had piano lessons,
Speaker 1: and that was I think it probably a good thing.
Speaker 1: It kind of gave us a It gave us eight
Speaker 1: octaves of you know, notes to um sort of train
Speaker 1: your brain. So I'm actually getting back to to my
Speaker 1: my roots in the piano world and keyboard world. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear a lot more of that on on
Speaker 1: this new album as well. Learning an instrument is difficult
Speaker 1: in that you don't understand the writing process of it.
Speaker 1: So when you're a kid, you're playing these, you know,
Speaker 1: crappy little songs that somebody developed that are easy because
Speaker 1: they're easy to play and easy to learn, and then
Speaker 1: you start learning classics, you know, Beethoven and things like that,
Speaker 1: and but you're not really learning. Somebody's just teaching you
Speaker 1: the notes. You're not learning what it's useful for. I
Speaker 1: think that that's I'm sure there's people teaching that. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's people that are great music teachers, piano teachers,
Speaker 1: teaching people to expand beyond that. But when we were kids,
Speaker 1: we weren't learning that. We're just learning this thing. And
Speaker 1: it was like, I do not want to sit and
Speaker 1: play how much. Is that dog in the window anymore? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you hated playing piano, Brot, you needed to find your
Speaker 1: your instrument there, which it turns out I just like
Speaker 1: to bang on ship. So I mean you did it.
Speaker 1: You located your passion there. So but man, yeah, I
Speaker 1: I love piano. But um, once I got ahold of
Speaker 1: the guitar, I was, you know, by bye piano for
Speaker 1: a minute. But like I said, yeah, I'll write on
Speaker 1: any thing, you know, so um, you know, did John
Speaker 1: Lennon say, you know, give me a tuba, I'll ret
Speaker 1: your song. It's like, you know, really, if you just
Speaker 1: need to start, sit down with that and you'll end
Speaker 1: up somewhere. It might suck, but it might be great.
Speaker 1: Piano is such a cool thing to learn on because
Speaker 1: I remember taking music theory classes in school and they
Speaker 1: would say, you know, we're not trying to train you
Speaker 1: to be a good pianist. We just want you to
Speaker 1: see visually what this all is, like, how this all
Speaker 1: fits together, and then you know how the notes correspond
Speaker 1: to the page. And it's such a great even if
Speaker 1: you you know, if you do do want to write songs,
Speaker 1: even if they are you know, guitar oriented. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean being able to have a background in piano makes
Speaker 1: it I think so much easier too. That's a really
Speaker 1: good point. I mean being sort of more I guess
Speaker 1: house bound these days, is there is a feeling of
Speaker 1: almost like returning to your roots, like being back in
Speaker 1: in the garage at your parents house or something like that,
Speaker 1: like that, is there any sense of that with you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you think, Sam? Well, well, we have little kids.
Speaker 1: So I have a six year olds, a six year old,
Speaker 1: and a four and a two. So what is six,
Speaker 1: four and two? So Sam's he's in the thick of
Speaker 1: it right now. I'm coming out of like the real
Speaker 1: stressful baby part of it, and now it's really like
Speaker 1: six year old is is is great? I mean you're
Speaker 1: like he's doing minecraft on his own and he's like
Speaker 1: make he does these train train simulators. That's really big
Speaker 1: into that, which is amazing. I don't understand it. Uh,
Speaker 1: they create these worlds with train tracks and they can
Speaker 1: pick and choose and make all their own like freight trains.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's a passenger train. That's a blah blah blaff.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but I mean it's uh, you start digging
Speaker 1: out your old toys and then you see the that
Speaker 1: amazing thing he's playing with the same hot wheels that
Speaker 1: you played with as at six years old. Great, but
Speaker 1: um yeah, so, I mean I think we're Sam and
Speaker 1: I are trying to motivate each other while we're home,
Speaker 1: when you're not with the kids, when you're not doing
Speaker 1: the family stuff, to to keep continuing on. And that
Speaker 1: is why we got a video done, and that is
Speaker 1: why the album is being released. You know, it's for
Speaker 1: our mental health and moving forward. Even though we can't tour,
Speaker 1: we still have to move forward in some way, and
Speaker 1: we had to get back to our fans. I mean
Speaker 1: it's been like five years. Yeah, pizza right, And for
Speaker 1: me personally, the struggle is being home so much that
Speaker 1: you get so involved in the kids lives, where before
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be quite as much, you'd have more of
Speaker 1: a I don't know, you're just traveling so much, but
Speaker 1: now that I'm home so much, now I struggle to
Speaker 1: get away. So I'm just struggling with the work and
Speaker 1: family life. Um. It's that's why you go to a
Speaker 1: studio two thousand miles away from your home, right, so
Speaker 1: that you you focus twelve hours a day and you
Speaker 1: actually get something done. So it is tricky to work
Speaker 1: at home, it is, and and of course you like
Speaker 1: your kids and you want to be around them and
Speaker 1: all that, but you also have to work. You need
Speaker 1: to work. So that's a little bit of a that's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a struggle that I had ever
Speaker 1: put up with me. So I've been traveling the world
Speaker 1: for twenty two years. That's when we really started traveling.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's weird not to. It's very strange not
Speaker 1: to what's filling that space for you with connecting with
Speaker 1: fans now that you can't tour. I mean, it saysn't
Speaker 1: it can't really be filled I don't think. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not going to do it through social media, that's
Speaker 1: for sure, because that's something you're doing anyway. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no there's no way that can fill that in
Speaker 1: between and that that's the hard thing is that seeing
Speaker 1: somebody play a song live, I mean as a fan
Speaker 1: of bands and things, and it's just there's just no
Speaker 1: replacing it whatsoever. Yeah, No, there, you're right, there's no
Speaker 1: replacing the live show. I mean, we we've only rehearsed
Speaker 1: with um with our new bass player, twice and then
Speaker 1: COVID hit and then we haven't seen them. So you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about doing a live stream for the release,
Speaker 1: but in reality, Sam and I are in a bubble
Speaker 1: together and we we we don't even see friends or
Speaker 1: family in person, and so even to get ready to
Speaker 1: play a show right now is a little difficult. We're
Speaker 1: going to figure out how to do it, you know,
Speaker 1: um through testing and things like that. We're waiting for
Speaker 1: these home tests to arrive, and then we're going to
Speaker 1: get back on the horse see if we can. You know,
Speaker 1: this year at least to a live stream, but the
Speaker 1: live shows don't come back, so you know, it's tough.
Speaker 1: We're all encouraged that we're hoping the live shows come
Speaker 1: back starting in June July. That's what we're all. We're
Speaker 1: all holding our breath. This is kind of a strange question,
Speaker 1: but I've been finding in them over the last year.
Speaker 1: I've been listening to stuff I haven't listened to since
Speaker 1: I was in high school, just like musical comfort food.
Speaker 1: Have you been feeling that too, Absolutely, man, I've loved
Speaker 1: it in movies too. Um Our our web guy said
Speaker 1: the same thing is like everything is about everything that
Speaker 1: makes you feel comfortable or remembering something something positive. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen so many movies that I grew up with
Speaker 1: and I've been I mean, Pete and I spent yesterday
Speaker 1: we were doing a couple of things together and we're
Speaker 1: listening to um Corn's album Issues and went through that
Speaker 1: whole album twice and just I mean, it's a great records,
Speaker 1: still a great record and reminiscing a little bit, Yeah,
Speaker 1: reminiscing a little bit about and just the songs and
Speaker 1: all that. So yeah, definitely that's true. Yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: eating a lot of croissants lately for some reason. That's
Speaker 1: you know, that's comforting. And uh, I don't know if
Speaker 1: maybe it was like when we were in Paris at
Speaker 1: one time, Sam, remember that coffee shop that great? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's was that Jean Claude, Jean Luke, Jean Luke, that's
Speaker 1: old coffee commercial. There. You go see those things pop
Speaker 1: up in your YouTube feed and you're like, why am
Speaker 1: I watching a what's that? What's that coffee? And know
Speaker 1: it's like coffee in International coffee or like Greade eighties commercials.
Speaker 1: Oh and I'm gonna watch this on YouTube? What is
Speaker 1: wrong with me, Oh, they're totally in your mind though.
Speaker 1: I mean like I'll have a phone in the other
Speaker 1: room and I'll think of something and I'll go get
Speaker 1: my phone and there'll be an ad for whatever that is.
Speaker 1: Like I I fully believe that. I mean, it's the maze. Guys,
Speaker 1: goes back to the matrix. Yeah, hey, Sam, what she's
Speaker 1: saying that? Like you you came across a like a
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties b X bike magazine and you're like, holy
Speaker 1: sh it, this is what I saw when I was
Speaker 1: like okay, yeah, it was like Neon, you know, pink
Speaker 1: bikes and ship and like we're reminiscing over that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I would. I think those magazines would have
Speaker 1: been like EIGHTI six, something like that, and yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was amazing because all those feelings. I have, all
Speaker 1: this I have all this vintage early freestyle BMX stuff
Speaker 1: in my head and it won't fall off the conveyor
Speaker 1: belt and they put new stuff on. I can't get
Speaker 1: rid of it. So it's all there and it's printed.
Speaker 1: My brain died with it. They're like, I know all
Speaker 1: the part numbers or something. It's crazy stupid, but but
Speaker 1: it was such a great time in my life that
Speaker 1: I focused on it so much that it just stuck.
Speaker 1: But it's a good it's good feeling to have something
Speaker 1: like that in your light that you can look back
Speaker 1: on and it just brings all those memories and all
Speaker 1: that those ideas and what you were feeling at the
Speaker 1: time back. And I just went through that the other day.
Speaker 1: It was fascinating and funny. I gotta ask you, I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to but that truck in the self destructor
Speaker 1: video that was a sick truck. Who's was that? Was? That?
Speaker 1: Was that a rental? Is that one of yours? The
Speaker 1: green h Yeah? It uh was really built by a
Speaker 1: place called the Roster Shop that's down the street. It's
Speaker 1: like a town over from us. And yeah, we're we
Speaker 1: grew up with hot rods. Our dad was a sort
Speaker 1: of a greaser and um we have you know still yeah,
Speaker 1: still a greaser, Yeah greasy. You know. We didn't go
Speaker 1: to sports events. He wasn't that type of guy, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't He wasn't actually a He was kind of
Speaker 1: hands off, we'll say he was. He was hands on
Speaker 1: in the garage on his on his hot rod. So
Speaker 1: we would wander in what's going on? What are you
Speaker 1: doing today? And he was like, listen up, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: welding something. Don't look at the light. You know, there
Speaker 1: was no safety involved. Don't look at this blue light here.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like get out. He wasn't like saying
Speaker 1: I don't want you there. It was like it was
Speaker 1: just complete and utter dangerous danger for a child. So anyway, um,
Speaker 1: so Sam and I like we were still into cars.
Speaker 1: It's just this residual thing from growing up around a
Speaker 1: dad like that, and we hoped we hopped into this
Speaker 1: truck one day that was in the show room and
Speaker 1: it's all original patina on the outside, so that's the
Speaker 1: original color. It sat and baked after it was used up,
Speaker 1: baked in the Arizona Sun Sun which is what they
Speaker 1: tell us. And um, you know, they redid enough of
Speaker 1: it so that you could drive it and it starts up.
Speaker 1: It's fuel injected, and it's just a hoot because our
Speaker 1: six year old love it. You know, they just they
Speaker 1: want to go for a ride in a in a
Speaker 1: vintage car. To them, it's full on, you know, the
Speaker 1: hell is this thing? You know, it's it's actually kind
Speaker 1: of dangerous. I would say, you know, there's no air bags.
Speaker 1: It's um you know, but it has harnesses. It was
Speaker 1: built for autocross, so it's a full chassis, it's full everything.
Speaker 1: So it drives. It's great, but your face is going
Speaker 1: into that metal steering wheel if you if you at
Speaker 1: four miles an hour and you hit a curb. You know. So,
Speaker 1: but it has a has a modern um steering column
Speaker 1: and stuff, so it's not a long steering column that
Speaker 1: will go through your chest and it's a it only
Speaker 1: goes to the Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean you shouldn't
Speaker 1: getting knocked out. Yeah, if you're wearing the harnesses here,
Speaker 1: you should be fine. You should just snap your neck,
Speaker 1: just your face. But no, it's crazy. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It's a lot of it's way
Speaker 1: too much power and it's dangerous and that's why it's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It actually has a actually has a roll bar in
Speaker 1: the back of it too, so it's not completely you
Speaker 1: can't see it. It's hidden behind the seat. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: why it's fun. Yeah, we took and the fuel tank
Speaker 1: is in the rear instead because on those old trucks
Speaker 1: the fuel tank is on the inside. We took that
Speaker 1: out as well, you know, I mean it's it's like
Speaker 1: a modern vehicle, but it just looks old and cool.
Speaker 1: It's obviously it's so hard to plan anything these days,
Speaker 1: but mean, what's next for you? What can fans look
Speaker 1: forward to? Uh? In addition to the album coming up soon? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's tough to say, yeah, because I always Sam and
Speaker 1: I always talking about touring because that that's the full
Speaker 1: circle thing here. So if it doesn't come back, I
Speaker 1: guess we'll open up a Dominoes. What do you think of, Sam,
Speaker 1: Papa John's pizzeria or you want to start you know,
Speaker 1: your own sort of thing there. We'll see Papa John's.
Speaker 1: That's really gonna catch you. Yeah, we have the square
Speaker 1: pizza idea, might do that. It's a pastor RELI not rectangle,
Speaker 1: but square. No, I mean we'll we'll probably Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting interested in doing um more of like
Speaker 1: the soundscape sort of things, almost like for movie soundtracks.
Speaker 1: So I've been dabbling in that. So if we have
Speaker 1: to take a little bit longer of a break from
Speaker 1: the rock world, um, I'm I'm I'm going to be
Speaker 1: continuing on in some capacity, which you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it anyway, but this would just I'd probably shift
Speaker 1: a little bit more, Um, you know into that. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just something that's different and exciting, you know.
Speaker 1: So Um, I I don't know. I think we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. Man, I don't know. Do you know where
Speaker 1: you're gonna be? Sam? If if touring doesn't come back
Speaker 1: this year, I mean, what are you gonna be up to?
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a whole other plan. I mean,
Speaker 1: because that's something that a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: about bands. Um Uh, you pretty much don't make any
Speaker 1: money whatsoever from record sales, right, Actually nothing pretty much.
Speaker 1: Anybody that's not a major label really doesn't make any thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: unless you're selling like thirty million albums of ten million
Speaker 1: albums of one album. But if you're selling like a million,
Speaker 1: two million albums of each record, you're not making any money.
Speaker 1: It's so the only way to make I mean, you
Speaker 1: have to. If you don't tour, there's nothing I mean.
Speaker 1: And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. So um,
Speaker 1: if the music, if touring went away for for years,
Speaker 1: you've got to do something. You have to work. I
Speaker 1: mean we have to work, so um, I've got a plan.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it. I'd rather do what
Speaker 1: I'm doing. Um, I like touring and I like writing,
Speaker 1: I like recording all that stuff, and that's what we
Speaker 1: want to do. But I mean, music's got to come back.
Speaker 1: It's got to. I mean, these are just the things
Speaker 1: you think about every day when your job isn't completely
Speaker 1: in limbo. Yeah. Yeah, what you're seeing right now is
Speaker 1: the the active, optimistic side of HIVEL. Right now, We're
Speaker 1: we're actively trying like every day. It's like be positive,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's uh, it's it's such a weird
Speaker 1: just weird time, you know. Yeah, it's I mean I'll
Speaker 1: go I'll take it too. I'll take you to what
Speaker 1: the normal the five days out of seven is. If
Speaker 1: you want to hear it, it's fucking terrible. He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that. You don't want to
Speaker 1: hear that. But I mean, it's not gonna come to that.
Speaker 1: I I have absolutely all faith that things are, you know,
Speaker 1: getting a little better every day. And come summer. I mean,
Speaker 1: I saw you had some some dates in uh, I
Speaker 1: think Michigan and a few other places in June, July
Speaker 1: and yeah, we do. We're really hoping those happen, and
Speaker 1: I mean we're encouraged. I mean our agents talking about it.
Speaker 1: They they're like, we're pretty sure those are going to happen. So, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know how. I don't know what the system
Speaker 1: is because as these festivals and things that insurance can't
Speaker 1: cover those things. Insurance can't cover a pandemic. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 1: No insurance company could do that. So um, so how
Speaker 1: do you put on these shows without insurance? Well, the
Speaker 1: answer is you cannot so until the insurance companies are agreeable,
Speaker 1: that's when that that's when the shows will start happening. Well,
Speaker 1: my my last question for you, and it's been so
Speaker 1: fascinating asking everybody this because they answers always really run
Speaker 1: the gamut. If you can snap your fingers and everything
Speaker 1: go back to to normal, whatever your definition of normal is,
Speaker 1: call it. Um, what would be the first thing that
Speaker 1: you would do? Obviously you would go go go tour
Speaker 1: and go back on the red I mean after we
Speaker 1: took the pill, exactly after you took the red back
Speaker 1: is it the blue bill? You have just taken the
Speaker 1: red pill? I was, I think, But what would be
Speaker 1: the very first thing you do. But people, you hug, trips,
Speaker 1: you go on restaurants, you go to whatever would be
Speaker 1: the very first thing you do. Um, I would fly
Speaker 1: my mother in law in from US. That's a good question.
Speaker 1: The first thing I do. Whoa head out to Australia
Speaker 1: visit her better beaches there. That's true too, um, But
Speaker 1: I think realistically I would have work, so I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to do that. So I'd buy her in
Speaker 1: so that she could be with the kids and see them,
Speaker 1: and my my wife could actually be with your mother
Speaker 1: for a little bit because she hasn't seen her and
Speaker 1: you know, almost two years. So yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I think. I think I do something similar. I would
Speaker 1: probably just call up about ten of my closest friends
Speaker 1: and family and I'd say come on over, or I
Speaker 1: would rent out a room and be like, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna go party because I haven't seen any of
Speaker 1: you in person. So I think that's probably would it be.
Speaker 1: And you know, just download and talk, hang out, feel normal,
Speaker 1: you know, and drink beer, lots of beer, maybe some
Speaker 1: tequila and you don't get some breath. Some number one
Speaker 1: sam number one number one tequila Ron white tequila. Yeah,
Speaker 1: get some breath in my face and put my breath
Speaker 1: in someone else's face. Be close to somebody. It is
Speaker 1: a solid answer. Pete Samp, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time today. It's been such a pleasure. Thanks for
Speaker 1: talking to you, got it absolutely, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows, check out the
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