Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan runs Ug,
Speaker 1: but enough about me. My guests today are self described
Speaker 1: purveyors of renegade pop. That's their own unique blend of rock, punk, pop,
Speaker 1: and hip hop. The customer genre hints at their diverse
Speaker 1: blend of influences, ranging from Juice World to Justin Bieber
Speaker 1: and the Smashing Pumpkins. You can get a taste by
Speaker 1: listening to their new single, Assassin. After coalescing in the
Speaker 1: early days of the pandemic, they've been co signed by
Speaker 1: Pop Punk God's Pete Lentz and Mark Hoppus. We touched
Speaker 1: on their new music, old influences, and wants to come
Speaker 1: from this exciting new group. I'm so happy to welcome
Speaker 1: Beauty School Dropout. First off, you've got your latest single, Assassins,
Speaker 1: that just dropped, and you said it's about the things
Speaker 1: that you love that can kill you. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I feel like we've all been there in some ways,
Speaker 1: one form or another. Can you tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit more about that song? Yeah, you know, I think
Speaker 1: we wrote about COVID. Yeah, being glazed by COVID Now,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's just that the age old lore
Speaker 1: of like we always want what we can't have, or
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we get into these relationships that trap
Speaker 1: us into uh, you know, lustful desires rather than like
Speaker 1: things that are good for us are healthy for us.
Speaker 1: And we've obviously had a fair share of those toxic relationships,
Speaker 1: so we kind of tapped into that energy again. It's
Speaker 1: such a great track, and I love the teaser clip
Speaker 1: that you shared with Pete Winson Mark Hoppus was just
Speaker 1: so funny. I know you worked very closely with those two.
Speaker 1: Note what's it like being with them? I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: they're like, to me, they're like the founding fathers of
Speaker 1: pop punk. Maybe maybe Billy Joe I'm strong in there too,
Speaker 1: but I mean that's gotta be so great. Worked alongside them,
Speaker 1: it's pretty absurd. It is insane, Like they're like as
Speaker 1: being close to them, like obviously like it feels more
Speaker 1: like just like a friendship and like that's cool partner
Speaker 1: him and all these things, and but it still does
Speaker 1: feel just as cool getting a text from one of
Speaker 1: them or working with them. It's so say, Mark always
Speaker 1: texts me to ask for computer help, and so I
Speaker 1: love his personal I t I was like, I know,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty cool. It's like, it's it's pretty surreal
Speaker 1: being kind of you feel like you're kind of the
Speaker 1: chosen band in a way. It's like, okay, cool, like
Speaker 1: and we've got some big shoes to fill. Um. But
Speaker 1: I think I kind of go back to this idea
Speaker 1: that like, eventually we're going to be passing the torch
Speaker 1: on someone else, hopefully if you know, we play their
Speaker 1: cards right, And uh, I think that's kind of the
Speaker 1: thing that really inspires me, is like crushing this opportunity
Speaker 1: we have in front of us that we can go
Speaker 1: past that torch on. Oh absolutely, I mean, who were
Speaker 1: some of the other folks that made you want to
Speaker 1: start making music? Dad? Dad, all of our dads, dads,
Speaker 1: through and through. It's funny. They actually when we have shows,
Speaker 1: they all come out and they meet up and we
Speaker 1: call them the Delf Squad. So if you have y'all
Speaker 1: ever see the Delf Squad triangulating at one of our shows,
Speaker 1: definitely feel free to say, what's up? I love it.
Speaker 1: They're more They're more rock star than us. It's so sick.
Speaker 1: We don't party, we're nerds. They go hard. I feel
Speaker 1: like the harder your parents party, the more you're inclined
Speaker 1: to kind of be the more bookish like indoor type.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe that's just me, but because I gotta, I
Speaker 1: gotta part of your dad myself, so yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And then as far as the music influences, is definitely
Speaker 1: like Mark because blinkin a two boy green day, I
Speaker 1: know that Cold grew up listening to like a little
Speaker 1: bit heavier stuff. Bart and I listened to like a
Speaker 1: lot of pop punk like Somebody Want Offspring. I love
Speaker 1: like indie rock like Arcade Fire. Yeah. I came from
Speaker 1: the metal and punk, so I don't know. I like
Speaker 1: everything from from Sabbath to like Black Flag to the
Speaker 1: more modern like Postcard Court stuff that's on the Radona
Speaker 1: days like even Bring Me Early, Bring Me definitely set
Speaker 1: me up for for my hardcore days. I think influence
Speaker 1: weirdly comes from um. I mean, we listen to everything
Speaker 1: because we write and produced for other artists as well,
Speaker 1: So we write for you for pops writers too, you know,
Speaker 1: or pop pop stars and rappers and you know whoever.
Speaker 1: So it's just gonna be been in these situations where
Speaker 1: we get to like create a bunch of different styles
Speaker 1: of music, and I think because we're constantly in those
Speaker 1: comparison settings, we're just like always pulling those influences into
Speaker 1: our stuff. And like I was listening to some of
Speaker 1: the demos we have do other day and I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: like this doesn't really sound like anything else. It's this
Speaker 1: weird mix of like you know, hip hop, rock and
Speaker 1: pop pop all over the place. But it's just kind
Speaker 1: of like it's fun. I love I love what we're doing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw a Spotify list that that you shared of
Speaker 1: just stuff you were listening to, and it had everything
Speaker 1: from Smashing Pumpkins suggesting Bieber on it, and it's just
Speaker 1: this incredible range and that totally shows up in your
Speaker 1: music too. Do you know the social media account? Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I phrase like that so grandfa
Speaker 1: away I could have ever phrased that, but it's a
Speaker 1: Twitter accounts, Instagram account, dust to Digital. Uh. This this
Speaker 1: really interesting guy. He's like part archivists, part like music historian,
Speaker 1: and he shares all these clips of like people in
Speaker 1: foreign countries making music out of like rocks, and like
Speaker 1: there's like a people in in in South America playing
Speaker 1: the river like a drum, just all these crazy different
Speaker 1: types of music and it all shows up in his
Speaker 1: account and it's so interesting. I mean, I bet you
Speaker 1: it's probably a lot of producers you sample a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff too, because it's really interesting. But I
Speaker 1: was looking to talk with this guy, and he had
Speaker 1: this theory about how every thirty years there's a turnover
Speaker 1: of the the new primary genre. I mean, starting with jazz,
Speaker 1: jazz kind of morphing into rock and roll in the
Speaker 1: in the fifties, and the eighties, hip hop taken over.
Speaker 1: And then he was talking about how you know, in
Speaker 1: thirty years after the eighties, it is the twenty tens,
Speaker 1: what's the genre? And then he was saying the genres everything,
Speaker 1: like with the capital e. It's like we we now
Speaker 1: have all this music at our fingertips. It's just a
Speaker 1: complete amalgamation and you take little pieces of from everywhere
Speaker 1: and make something totally new out of it, and that's
Speaker 1: the new genre. Just pretty what you're saying. It's pretty weird.
Speaker 1: How like, as we have more access to information and
Speaker 1: data and obviously like everything to the internet, like the
Speaker 1: cultural pendulum starts swinging faster. It's like just even going
Speaker 1: back to that thought, seeing how we shifted from like
Speaker 1: this like nickelback Daughtry rock to all of a sudden
Speaker 1: like E d M and like Scrillis and all of
Speaker 1: vij and all these people taking over the radio to
Speaker 1: all of a sudden like trap and wrap too. Now
Speaker 1: like back to rock. It's like been in these crazy,
Speaker 1: like three to five year stints. Yeah, it's pretty well,
Speaker 1: but I like now, I think because there's no barriers,
Speaker 1: like everyone just collapse on everything and just steals from everything.
Speaker 1: But he's stealing from everything, steal like an artist. It's
Speaker 1: like true artists steal, but they know who to steal from.
Speaker 1: I think that's the phrase was a great artists copy
Speaker 1: true artists. It's true. If you steal it, it's yours.
Speaker 1: If you copy it, you're copying because you could never
Speaker 1: copy it. Exactly. We're trying to steal from everyone if
Speaker 1: we were volauvas every time we make music, because we
Speaker 1: like just be like Robin when I was a swag
Speaker 1: Oh cool. You said something really interesting in a recent
Speaker 1: interview that you think that will reach a new level
Speaker 1: of recycling rock music. Kind of what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: all the sounds of it and you name check people
Speaker 1: like Jaris Johnson. I wanted to name to ask you
Speaker 1: more about that totally. I mean kind of, like I said,
Speaker 1: the cultural penelum is swinging faster and faster, and I think, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, we obviously have seen this phase of
Speaker 1: like really heavily Blink influenced music come and I don't
Speaker 1: want to say go, but definitely it's like evolving very
Speaker 1: quickly into it is now. Like obviously, like I said,
Speaker 1: there's people doing kind of like the Nickelback thing, or
Speaker 1: there's people doing like, oh no, I was even listening
Speaker 1: to a friends records. I'm not gonna say who, but
Speaker 1: they're tapping more into like the old kiss vein and
Speaker 1: like seventies eighties glam rock and how that can be
Speaker 1: mixed in the modern production, which is that's exciting to
Speaker 1: me because that's why I'm like, okay, guys, like history
Speaker 1: of rock goes far before the early two thousands, like
Speaker 1: let's let's get deep in our pockets if we're really
Speaker 1: going to go there, you know. Um So I guess
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of where my brain has been, is
Speaker 1: like seeing who is going to steal like an artist
Speaker 1: from that bag of tricks and that palette like be
Speaker 1: able to make it into something modern and fresh. Oh
Speaker 1: that's so interesting to say. Talk to me about how
Speaker 1: you guys all came together, because it felt sounds like
Speaker 1: it was fairly recently in the pandemic. I mean, Cole
Speaker 1: and Brent. I know you were in the Strange Faces together,
Speaker 1: but how did you all coalesced? Three? Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of the app grinder? Yes? I have. They have
Speaker 1: is like for threes section and that's where, Yeah, we
Speaker 1: meet up and just kind of like you just want
Speaker 1: to make a band. We thought Barto was a catfish,
Speaker 1: so I brought be that's exactly make sure we're safe.
Speaker 1: But but he's not a He's not a catfish. He's
Speaker 1: more beautiful in real life. Yeah. Yeah, he's actually just
Speaker 1: a bad I don't know if radio I'm not a catfish.
Speaker 1: It's a bad bitch. But yeah we know. Actually, Uh,
Speaker 1: I slid in too. Uh His exs d m him
Speaker 1: being deepest and she was like, oh, yeah, we can
Speaker 1: hang out. Can I bring my boyfriend? And I was
Speaker 1: like yeah, And then it turns out he actually just
Speaker 1: became my boyfriend. Uh, look where this part? This is
Speaker 1: true story and then uh, I used to co produce
Speaker 1: events with this place called Winston House. Our mutual friend
Speaker 1: was performing, and she introduced Barto and I and at
Speaker 1: that point, like, I've been kind of into like songwriting
Speaker 1: for other people. His whole backgrounds producing for other people,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we've all been in bands our
Speaker 1: whole life, so when we got in there was just
Speaker 1: this like this tangible synergy that was so hard to
Speaker 1: recreate with anyone else. And from then on it is
Speaker 1: like I mean really, it's like since that day, it's
Speaker 1: been like every day for the last three years. We
Speaker 1: fell in love. Yeah, yeah, just happened out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: Definitely not expecting it, but we are because you're cold.
Speaker 1: Weren't you initially considering being having like a solo venture
Speaker 1: and then it just sort of became what it is now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's funny because like the front end
Speaker 1: of the other band started kind of like writing his
Speaker 1: own stuff and and and at that point, I was like,
Speaker 1: I've spent my whole life playing guitar and bands, but
Speaker 1: I always knew that the one I wanted to like
Speaker 1: fully send on I would be fronting. And so at
Speaker 1: that point I was just like, well, I'm already homeless
Speaker 1: and broke, Like what else is there to lose, you know,
Speaker 1: so you may as well to choose the lowest paying
Speaker 1: job in America and be a songwriter. Uh did that
Speaker 1: and started songwriting for other people. And now at that
Speaker 1: point I was kind of like flavor testing with producers
Speaker 1: and just like also learning how to be a songwriter
Speaker 1: and like how to make music, you know, in a
Speaker 1: way that is not just like I don't know there's
Speaker 1: levels to it, right, Like I think that there's there
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. There's a certain like
Speaker 1: algorithm and math that comes with songwriting that you can
Speaker 1: acknowledge that you can't. And like, at that point is
Speaker 1: when I started to acknowledge it how much when your
Speaker 1: songwriting is a result of what you hear in your
Speaker 1: head versus experimentation. Just like in the moment, I think
Speaker 1: it's like pretty fifty fifty. I think the first fifty
Speaker 1: is usually what you hear in your head, and then
Speaker 1: bringing that from pen to paper and then and then
Speaker 1: from there it's usually like the rest of it is
Speaker 1: revising it and molding it into something that is bigger
Speaker 1: and better. As Bartow always says, it's like we're designing sound.
Speaker 1: You know, we're literally designing sound waves. That is what
Speaker 1: producing and songwriting is. So it's like really an interesting process.
Speaker 1: But yeah, i'd say, like it's really weird when you
Speaker 1: think about what we're doing. We're just like tweaking things
Speaker 1: to make sound waves sound different. Like these things you
Speaker 1: can't see, what you can feel and they make you
Speaker 1: have dopamine boost in your brain and then we put
Speaker 1: them out. That's what we do. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a big experimentation, like none of us
Speaker 1: really know what we're doing at all. Like you go
Speaker 1: into session and like this is gonna be shitty, and
Speaker 1: then this is really dope, you know, like this cool
Speaker 1: thing came out of it. Or like you had this
Speaker 1: throwaway idea that you thought was trash that you know, be,
Speaker 1: I mean be had an idea that you said you
Speaker 1: played and like when you're in high school, right for contact, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that base risks like actually like super influenced from a
Speaker 1: song that I wrote when I was like yeah, So
Speaker 1: it's like ship like that where you're just like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: I did not think this would be anything, and then
Speaker 1: it becomes something and then you turn on a microphone
Speaker 1: and you're just like all right, you try it, and
Speaker 1: you try it, and you try and you just throw
Speaker 1: melodies down with just gibberish and then you fill in
Speaker 1: the blanks, you know. So there's there's no right or
Speaker 1: wrong way to do it. But we've also recently been
Speaker 1: tapping into like trying to write the song first before
Speaker 1: we even produce it, and just like we call it
Speaker 1: the camp fire test, where you just once you get
Speaker 1: an idea, you're like, cool before we throw anything else,
Speaker 1: because you can kind of get disguised. Like that's where
Speaker 1: like a lot of modern production now is like cool,
Speaker 1: you have a crazy beat, like the song, can you
Speaker 1: like sit there by a campfire and sing it? You know.
Speaker 1: So it's like I think that's that's the real key.
Speaker 1: Does the song stand up? But the song stands up,
Speaker 1: the production just comes easy. Well, here's a question with
Speaker 1: from a very personal place. I'm somebody who's loved music
Speaker 1: my whole life. I can play a couple of different instruments.
Speaker 1: I have never been able to write a song in
Speaker 1: my entire life. Just I can't do it. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's I'm just not tapped into that part
Speaker 1: of the universe. I'm too inhibited. I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is, But what would you say to someone like
Speaker 1: me who's having a hard time sort of tapping into
Speaker 1: that that part of themselves? Like, how do you how
Speaker 1: do you start? Basically let go mushrooms a number of
Speaker 1: times some of my dearest friends. Yeah, but Barta said, also,
Speaker 1: just like letting go, it's like a matter of just
Speaker 1: like the first thousand are probably gonna be terrible, but
Speaker 1: that's like it's just like experienced through it. Like it's
Speaker 1: like if you finish a song, that's the hardest thing
Speaker 1: ever to do. Yeah, it's like it's it's this crazy
Speaker 1: ego chapter. You're like, oh, dang, I gotta like I mean,
Speaker 1: you just gotta not care because there's really is no
Speaker 1: right way to do it. There's no right answer. There's
Speaker 1: no like, oh this is good. It just does it
Speaker 1: feel good? Cool? Have you heard baby Shark before? Yes?
Speaker 1: Pay for that song sucks, but like like when you
Speaker 1: listen to it, you're like, this song, Hey, it's awesome,
Speaker 1: and like it's like a cultural phenomena. It's like if
Speaker 1: I told you I read a song about baby sharks,
Speaker 1: Like don't do it. It's the whole family of sharks
Speaker 1: and family sharks. Also keeping that there's like four or
Speaker 1: five parts at most usually, and like keeping that that
Speaker 1: the ground you is like you know, it is this
Speaker 1: big scary thing. It's like, oh, I have to make
Speaker 1: words and sounds and all these things work together. But
Speaker 1: it's like, realistically, a song usually is a composition of
Speaker 1: four or five parts. It's like, you know, as fung
Speaker 1: as you, they don't even have to be good parts,
Speaker 1: just just identify those parts. My mom. I went to
Speaker 1: visit my mom a couple of weeks ago, and I
Speaker 1: was like helping her clean out like her closet. I
Speaker 1: found this box that she had kept all my like
Speaker 1: original songs. It was literally a binder like this thick
Speaker 1: of just all these like songs that I had from
Speaker 1: like early early days. And it was just like like
Speaker 1: little like like napkins and or whatever. And I just
Speaker 1: like just had a song called just the song is
Speaker 1: called nine was just lyrics was the whole time in
Speaker 1: different like cadences, different flows, but basically it was like
Speaker 1: I think I wrote that it was like two or something,
Speaker 1: but it was just like at least like little things
Speaker 1: but she kept it. Now like actually, like I've like
Speaker 1: it was wild to see because I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's like things Ukulele was a kid just like but
Speaker 1: I think it's that kind. I think that he said
Speaker 1: the first thousand we're gonna suck, and it's like look
Speaker 1: back then, it's like, yeah, well, these songs are just
Speaker 1: like random words thrown together. But like you evolved and
Speaker 1: you flex that muscle. He's work out. I'm still on song.
Speaker 1: I can write a really good thing. Yeah. What would
Speaker 1: Malcolm Gladwall say about that six hundred? You're getting close? Wow?
Speaker 1: That So it sounds like this is this has been
Speaker 1: a part of your life making music, all of you
Speaker 1: since you know you you were you know, learning to
Speaker 1: walk and learning to sing around the same time, it
Speaker 1: sounds like my dad wanted to name me Stevie Ray
Speaker 1: or Eddie Van. That's yeah. My mom was pissed about it,
Speaker 1: says she didn't like to happen. We're definitely bred by
Speaker 1: our parents. They thank you dads. There, dads. My dad's
Speaker 1: like not very into music at all. My dads like entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: very creative person. He's the most probably the most eccentric,
Speaker 1: well he's more escentric than all of us come by,
Speaker 1: and that's true, but like, weirdly enough, I just kind
Speaker 1: of like I was like, yeah, music, and he was
Speaker 1: supportive of That's the key. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: kids don't have support from the parents. I think that's
Speaker 1: the big difference. Is like the reason all of us
Speaker 1: are in this position today is because like throughout our lives,
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, even when b was in trouble,
Speaker 1: he was grounded, but his punishment was he had to
Speaker 1: play music, like that was like his things. So it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, it all kind of flows back
Speaker 1: and this thing of like where a lot of parents big, no,
Speaker 1: hell no, you're not playing music. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: But it's like there, it's you know, it's fun. It's
Speaker 1: it's a great life. It's like, you know, we're all depressed,
Speaker 1: but it's awesome. I mean, yeah, to take an instrument
Speaker 1: out of a kid's hand feels like taking a book
Speaker 1: out of a kid's hand. It's like that seems cruel
Speaker 1: to me. That's yeah. You mentioned earlier about the campfire
Speaker 1: test versus stuff that you're doing in the studio, and
Speaker 1: it almost sounds like the difference between you know, composing
Speaker 1: and songwriting is a skill versus sort of making like soundscapes.
Speaker 1: Are there any people who really influenced you as soundscapers,
Speaker 1: Like I'm a big Brian Eno fan and Pepe Floyd,
Speaker 1: I'm a big classic rock guy. Yeah, Robin Thick, Trent
Speaker 1: Reson for me, like oh yeah, just so good at
Speaker 1: just like creating a motion through sound, and like Hance
Speaker 1: White his many movies stuff like it's so cool to
Speaker 1: like listen to someone that like writes really good songs
Speaker 1: and then writes really good compositions that make you feel
Speaker 1: something without necessarily where its I was really insparted, like
Speaker 1: Kanye West as a kid, his level of just weird
Speaker 1: sounds and you're like, he'll put something out and then
Speaker 1: a year or two later you'll see everyone else kind
Speaker 1: of catching up to what he did, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's like the his like level of sound design is
Speaker 1: crazy or it's like, you know, that's he's a true curator.
Speaker 1: You know, you can take other things. It creates is
Speaker 1: a weird things Deptnes and um Frank Ocean for me
Speaker 1: entirely creator earlier Tyle the Creator and Kendrick as well
Speaker 1: a lot of rap dudes. It's funny because people always ask,
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, like, if you could write with anyone,
Speaker 1: or if you could get in the studio with anybody,
Speaker 1: who would it be in Every single time I answer
Speaker 1: like all the rap, dude. I love Baby Team, I
Speaker 1: love Kendrick, I love Tyler, I love bass App. I
Speaker 1: think they have like that. Rock has such a formula
Speaker 1: to it, you know, and and rap does as well,
Speaker 1: but I think there's a different nature to it in
Speaker 1: that spirit of like that swag and that kind of
Speaker 1: like uh. I definitely like to let influence a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that we do. For sure. I love
Speaker 1: just taking apart some of those songs, like My Beautiful,
Speaker 1: Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of my favorite albums of
Speaker 1: all time, And just like picking apart all the sample
Speaker 1: and seeing where they all come from. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things to do. It just goes
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, it helps me appreciate it more
Speaker 1: because it's just like, oh my god, not only are
Speaker 1: you such a fan of music that you're pulling in
Speaker 1: stuff from such a wide place what we're talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: but just the way that you assemble in such a
Speaker 1: way that I I'm a big old vinyl nerd. I
Speaker 1: love collecting old soul forty fives from the fifties and sixties.
Speaker 1: I had no idea that that was that baseline from
Speaker 1: like you know, an old Stacks track or something. It's
Speaker 1: crazy like the high contrast of things. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: oftentimes I like a lude kind of picture. Music is
Speaker 1: like a thing in my brain, like I can like
Speaker 1: see like the textures of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I think there's this really cool thing that Kanye
Speaker 1: is where he just like everything's really saturated and distorted,
Speaker 1: you know. But it's like something that like like a
Speaker 1: smooth vinyl record and then like pairing that with like
Speaker 1: a really heavy hitting snare that is clipping and just
Speaker 1: like mangled, and it's like, oh, but then it goes
Speaker 1: back to like a quiet moment, and then allowed moment.
Speaker 1: In a quiet moment, there's like intense dynamics and the
Speaker 1: high contrast of stuff, and it's just like it's weirdly enough,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the same kind of like style
Speaker 1: like in like like physical art, like the high contrast
Speaker 1: like the pop art like Warhol was doing and like
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But I kind of picture. A
Speaker 1: lot of those like screwll X as a similar kind
Speaker 1: of vibe, you know, like the really intense, like their
Speaker 1: whole the whole motive beyond what they're doing is is
Speaker 1: to distort everything. And like but like digital distortion, where
Speaker 1: everyone was how you do not distort things digitally and
Speaker 1: they're like, no, no, we're going to that's the whole point.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty cool. It's like breaking the rules is
Speaker 1: like rule number one. Absolutely. What was that great Warhol
Speaker 1: piece where he took an early Xerox machine, one of
Speaker 1: the first Xerox machines, and just zero a picture. I
Speaker 1: think it was a chairman MAO over and over and over,
Speaker 1: and because the technology wasn't that great, it would be
Speaker 1: it woul almost look like silly putty. It would get
Speaker 1: all distorted and strange. And then he would take those
Speaker 1: and frame those distorted pictures and frame them and that
Speaker 1: was his piece. And that's sounds like similar what you're
Speaker 1: say in the distortion exactly, Like I love rules and
Speaker 1: just like twisting things like Warhol was remixing art. He's
Speaker 1: just bacon beats on canvas. While we're on the topic
Speaker 1: of influences, I need to ask this. I am a
Speaker 1: a big fan of Greece. I was in the play
Speaker 1: in high school. I was vis Fontan, I have to
Speaker 1: ask your name, give me, give me the story on
Speaker 1: the name. I love the name so much. That was
Speaker 1: my grandma's favorite song in Greece. And I watch that
Speaker 1: movie probably over a hundred times. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: funny because when the name came, it wasn't even like
Speaker 1: that wasn't really the thought process. It just kind of
Speaker 1: super weird and O c D about titling things um
Speaker 1: and this was like still when I was like riding
Speaker 1: alone on just like a lot of music and I
Speaker 1: think the project. I was calling it like doom or
Speaker 1: something completely different, and then I was opposite, Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: totally different. And so I threw Beati school drop out
Speaker 1: in my bio on Instagram and then like I remember,
Speaker 1: I had a cut coming out with this group highly Suspect,
Speaker 1: and at that time I was like, oh, like should
Speaker 1: I make this my artist name, like you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and he's like Johnny was like no, dude, just use
Speaker 1: your name, and I was like okay. But then we
Speaker 1: at all met and I was like, okay, well fuck it,
Speaker 1: maybe it makes sense for it to be the band's name,
Speaker 1: and it kind of just ended up sticking just convenient.
Speaker 1: I think we all have an attachment decrease to Like
Speaker 1: I was down, I was dancing on my buggy and
Speaker 1: my diaper, seeing Kogaris flighting and like swinging the shirt
Speaker 1: like there's been I never talked about it, but like that.
Speaker 1: I was literally obsessed with this movie too when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, like I was like four years old.
Speaker 1: You never told me about that. I know because it's
Speaker 1: I like you have your moment where you're like your
Speaker 1: sweet grandma moment, Like I wish I knew this, but yeah,
Speaker 1: one of these videos that I'll get them please do well?
Speaker 1: Is it as a music video? That would be that's
Speaker 1: a great TikTok. I remember, like I was a kid,
Speaker 1: my little sister was in Greece and I went to
Speaker 1: see the play. I remember asking my mom, like what
Speaker 1: is Beauties will Drop Out? And and she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's like when you failed out of everything you like.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, I'm like I'm like damn, Like
Speaker 1: that's hard but it's weird. But like I distinctly remember,
Speaker 1: like of the entire play, I don't remember the play.
Speaker 1: I just remember like that asking my mom that it's
Speaker 1: weird like for all these years, and I'm like, and
Speaker 1: then this band called Beauty Will drop Out and I
Speaker 1: was like, wo manifested it, Yeah, failing out of everything
Speaker 1: former band. The meaning behind it, I think was very
Speaker 1: tongue in cheek with like I used to make these
Speaker 1: magazines for I had a project. I called it Death Cells,
Speaker 1: and like the slogan of it was Vanity Kills Death Cells.
Speaker 1: And I've always been very drawn to the idea of like,
Speaker 1: just as a society, obviously we we kind of have
Speaker 1: uh this nature of like sheepishly going for things with
Speaker 1: vanity and than you know, just being our full authentic
Speaker 1: self because obviously every human has our ego attached to
Speaker 1: everything we do, and so um, I think like in large,
Speaker 1: that statement of Beauty School dropout was like the prettiest
Speaker 1: way of saying something synonymous to that idea of like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's okay to detach from those things and those feelings
Speaker 1: and to just like completely be yourself and feel safe
Speaker 1: in your skin. I feel like you gotta get like
Speaker 1: an album blurb from Frankie Frankie Avalon or something. Though,
Speaker 1: I feel like that you got to bring a full
Speaker 1: circle with them. We also it's a nice like identify
Speaker 1: how big we are because when you type and drop
Speaker 1: out a minute, you don't see Frankie Avalon anymore. We
Speaker 1: know we've made didn't We're hopefully rich at that point,
Speaker 1: hopefully we can ye once the top Google. God, that'd
Speaker 1: be fun. Beauty school dropout is just such an amazing phrase.
Speaker 1: And you've described your sound as I love this so
Speaker 1: much renegade pop. I just think that's that's the coolest phrase.
Speaker 1: I I want to ask you, Uh, who are some
Speaker 1: people in the past who maybe had a renegade pop
Speaker 1: sound and didn't know it? Or or are you the
Speaker 1: first or there are no others? Nirvana, Alice and Chains
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber. Yeah, I'm just kidding. Actually, the later on
Speaker 1: at his career, I was gonna say, I think it's
Speaker 1: like it's this kind of thing of I bring the
Speaker 1: right now, but they're doing they will. I think it's
Speaker 1: kind of this thing of like it's pop but you
Speaker 1: don't know it is. And I think that's what like
Speaker 1: Nirvana crushed. They were just writing pop songs but just
Speaker 1: made it heavy. Like we always go into sessions We're
Speaker 1: just's like we literally will say like assassin them while
Speaker 1: it's coming out tomorrow or the or the it out.
Speaker 1: I don't know if when we're doing this interview timeline
Speaker 1: for those you can cut this, but um Assassin the
Speaker 1: single Assassin is like when we were writing it, we
Speaker 1: were literally like, how can we write a biber song
Speaker 1: but just make it as heavy as like bring me
Speaker 1: or something? And I think we kind of we did that.
Speaker 1: That was the goal. So, I mean, I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: been asked is a bunch of times, but I'm so fascinated.
Speaker 1: What was it like to start a band in the
Speaker 1: middle of a global pandemic. I mean, on one hand,
Speaker 1: I imagine there must be all sorts of logistical nightmares
Speaker 1: that go along with that. But in another, was it
Speaker 1: almost nice for for lack of a better term, in
Speaker 1: incubation period, Like I read that you you went up
Speaker 1: to a warehouse space for like a week and had
Speaker 1: you know, like a like a lock in and kind
Speaker 1: of started to learn to jail. Was it one of
Speaker 1: the pros and cons of sort of starting out in
Speaker 1: the middle of all this A lot of learning went
Speaker 1: down through the pandemic. It's like the worst thing we
Speaker 1: possibly could have done, but in spirit probably like the
Speaker 1: coolest thing we could have done, just because I mean,
Speaker 1: imagine being a band, right where sevent of your career
Speaker 1: is like playing shows, meeting people, congregating, doing all these things,
Speaker 1: and then having to basically try and create a platform
Speaker 1: for yourself where your only leg up it's like digital
Speaker 1: platform and digital footprint. Um. So it was it definitely
Speaker 1: led to like a very heavy incubation period. You know,
Speaker 1: at the time when COVID started, we had already been
Speaker 1: in the studio just about every day for like six
Speaker 1: months cataloging, and so that didn't really change like like
Speaker 1: in fact, i'd say most of the bigger changes to
Speaker 1: the band that were made were like almost in the
Speaker 1: second half of COVID when we really started thinking like okay,
Speaker 1: things could open up and like this is what it
Speaker 1: could lead to. You know, how do we tackle it?
Speaker 1: You know, this is a bigger project than just the music.
Speaker 1: This is like the business, the operation or web fee stuff,
Speaker 1: like so many different ventures under one umbrella. Um. And
Speaker 1: that's when I think it allowed us the time in
Speaker 1: space to realize like, oh, this is much more than
Speaker 1: just like a couple of dude, just playing music and like,
Speaker 1: this is what we need in order to achieve the
Speaker 1: goals that we're going for. You mentioned the digital footprint,
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of talk on the on
Speaker 1: the internet lately about artists and their relationship to TikTok.
Speaker 1: For diplomatic reasons, that's all I'll say about that. I
Speaker 1: was wondering about your thoughts about TikTok and the how
Speaker 1: it relates to the creative process of making music and
Speaker 1: how it's what it's been changing the industry. Love hate
Speaker 1: for sure. It's it's one of those things that only
Speaker 1: comes along once in a blue moon and it's like
Speaker 1: a crazy, crazy, crazy discovery tool. Um. But it's also
Speaker 1: a complete disruptor of the entire market, and it's like
Speaker 1: it's democratized everything. It's it's made it so you know,
Speaker 1: a girl in her bedroom who's writing songs that in
Speaker 1: Alabama that doesn't even think of being in the music
Speaker 1: industry can all of a sudden pop off and okay,
Speaker 1: cool and maybe now I can start something here and
Speaker 1: it gets the ball rolling. But it's like that's unheard of,
Speaker 1: Like that wasn't a thing twen years a don't you
Speaker 1: know and that was the thing five years ago. So
Speaker 1: it's like that's a crazy, crazy powerful tool. But it's
Speaker 1: also this intense like pressure that it puts on a
Speaker 1: lot of artists that's like, oh, if you're not doing it,
Speaker 1: you're you're going to fail. And it's like my frustration
Speaker 1: with it is that I feel like there's a lot
Speaker 1: it's like people put an emphasis on TikTok like it's
Speaker 1: the only thing, you know, it's like the only thing
Speaker 1: to do. It's like, oh, you make music, well you
Speaker 1: should make a TikTok, and it's like, well, okay. I
Speaker 1: think I think the greater issue is like the mechanics
Speaker 1: of it, right, because it's like you now have this
Speaker 1: thing where I mean, I'm sure as you've seen like
Speaker 1: Halsey speaking up on it a lot, is the the
Speaker 1: idea that like most of these labels are declining releases
Speaker 1: based on whether or not they can like peak on
Speaker 1: a trend. And I think that's a little bit. It's
Speaker 1: it's made it easy for the labels to say no, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, if you're not trending, great, we're not
Speaker 1: going to do ship for you. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it's like at like you still got
Speaker 1: to promote your music. You know, if TikTok dign exists,
Speaker 1: it's like kids would still be bitching about the fact
Speaker 1: that they have to go down to motows and fly
Speaker 1: out their posters. You know. It's like there's always going
Speaker 1: to be something to complain about. So it's like it's
Speaker 1: like the end of the day, it's just an opportunity
Speaker 1: to promote your music and like it's reach to new
Speaker 1: audiences and that's one you can do from your bedroom. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I think I think the key is like turning into
Speaker 1: something fun and turning into like turning into something like
Speaker 1: isn't a chore, you know, I mean, and finding your thing.
Speaker 1: It's like your thing is going to be different than
Speaker 1: the other person's thing, and the reason their thing worked
Speaker 1: is because they're the one doing it. So it's like
Speaker 1: your sauce is different inevitably because it's you. So it's
Speaker 1: like finding what works for you and and connecting with
Speaker 1: your audience. I think that's that's the real takeaway. I
Speaker 1: think that's something we've been trying to happen too, is
Speaker 1: like we're on TikTok with do your Thing, and like
Speaker 1: we've you know figured out a long time. It took
Speaker 1: us like what are we even doing on here? Like
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous. But then what we realize, like, oh,
Speaker 1: people really like these covers were making we're making during
Speaker 1: the quarantine. We're like remixing these. Basically we're taking like
Speaker 1: Drake songs and turning in into rock songs and or
Speaker 1: like other popular songs and like flipping them into these
Speaker 1: other things. And and people were like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: really cool, and we're filming it in our living room
Speaker 1: us like playing it and stuff like that, and that
Speaker 1: caught on to a lot of people. And then now
Speaker 1: it's just kind of like keeping keep we're feeding the
Speaker 1: beast and like you know, to our audience and it's
Speaker 1: like this is this weird thing, but it's like it's
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, and it does mean another thing, and
Speaker 1: it's like I'm very grateful for it, but I get frustrated.
Speaker 1: But I've also been like realizing as you grow, there's
Speaker 1: more things. There's other things than TikTok, like this, this
Speaker 1: podcast is what we're doing, Like this is valuable interviews
Speaker 1: and interviews, meeting fans, like you can't take away shows
Speaker 1: like shows are still how this whole thing works. And
Speaker 1: I think that's something that a lot of labels and
Speaker 1: TikTok artists are realizing now because they had songs pop
Speaker 1: off on TikTok during the quarantine and shows come around,
Speaker 1: they're like, cool, I'm gonna play the show and there's
Speaker 1: like four people there and they're like, oh damn, this
Speaker 1: is way harder than I Like, that's you can't. You
Speaker 1: can't do that, you know what I mean, unless you're
Speaker 1: doing something that the audience connects with. And I really
Speaker 1: didn't know the day None of this ship matters unless
Speaker 1: you have a community. That's our day one, we've been like,
Speaker 1: a thousand fans is far more important than a million
Speaker 1: of streams. I don't give it. I don't give a
Speaker 1: ship about streams because they're paying us like point two cents. Sorry,
Speaker 1: yeah you believe at all. It's okay, it's a good
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's like it's it's way more, way more
Speaker 1: entertaining to have an audience that cares about what you're
Speaker 1: doing and it's like believes in what you're doing. And
Speaker 1: that's that's what we've done with the dropouts. We have
Speaker 1: this audience that like, we love our family, so that's
Speaker 1: where we're gonna keep doing. Hell yeah, that's a beautiful message.
Speaker 1: Like what do you have coming up next? I mean,
Speaker 1: is there a a release date for an impending album
Speaker 1: on the horizon. We got Assassin's coming out the day
Speaker 1: of this podcast drops, so can we talk about it.
Speaker 1: We can't give you dates yet. We do have uh
Speaker 1: an EP in the works. It's you know, album EP,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, a project of multiple
Speaker 1: songs coming out later this summer before we go to
Speaker 1: a festival we're playing that. We also are yet to announce,
Speaker 1: and but we will be. We will be going to
Speaker 1: the UK in August, so make of that. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we got we got a lot of music coming out
Speaker 1: really soon. It's been actually so relieving to be not
Speaker 1: only signed obviously, but like to get signed and then
Speaker 1: to have that same sense of urgency of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to roll out and we need to be consistent,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna put it out now. Like I can
Speaker 1: tell you how um hard it is to put music
Speaker 1: out and have a song be coming out by the
Speaker 1: time you already are like over it? Where is no Assassin?
Speaker 1: We less than like three months ago and we're still
Speaker 1: stoked on it. So it's such a cool feeling to
Speaker 1: have music that you're like genuinely excited about and super
Speaker 1: proud of coming out like while you're still super excited
Speaker 1: and proud of it. Oh, that is awesome. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to hear what you have in the pipes. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see out there. Here's cool drop up.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time and Dani, your
Speaker 1: music has was such a pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You 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
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite podcast. Ye