Joyous Wolf Opens Up About Their New Album “In Between”

Welcome And Album Countdown

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everybody. Today we are joined by an incredible artist. You definitely were going to want to listen to this one. I have a lot of comparisons. We're going to dive into it. They have a new album coming out, and we're going to dive right into all of that. But first, as always, here's our intro. I fucking love it. I'm the worst person to have a podcast. I can barely. I'm great, man. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. We have a new album coming out on August 21st. I have listened to it front to back probably three or four times now. Very excited to talk about it. Specifically, the track Karma, I think, is such an underrated track on the album. But yeah, when this album comes out, guys, you gotta give it a listen. It's so, so good. First off, Blake, I I technically I have a list of questions here, right? But I'm probably not gonna even use it because I I've become such a big fan of you guys since diving in. You have one of the greatest gifts that singers have been wanting for so long. I know we're diving in kind of deep right at the front, but guys, check out Joyous Wolf because dare I say, are you're you're Chris Cornell reincarnated.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Oh, sorry. I'm not I'm not the singer, I'm just a guitar player.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Oh, oh, oh, I am so sorry. I am so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

That's on me.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

That's on me. No worries. Well, regardless, let him know he's Chris Cornell reincarnated. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I definitely will. Yeah, he he loves that.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Um, yeah, it was it was such a mind blow when I started listening to you guys. I was like, that's insane because people have been searching for a band that sounds like that since his passing. So kudos to you guys. But now that I know you're the guitar player, I am also a guitar player. So completely scratch these questions and oh, we're going. Guys, buckle up because normally, normally I have two other co-hosts with me who are not as musically inclined as I am. So we tend to surface level a lot of like the actual music inquitricies. I can't talk, but as a guitar player, I never get to talk guitar. So first off, how did you guys form Joyous

How Joyous Wolf Came Together

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Wolf? I know you guys are out of Florida. Tell me the the backstory because this has been a long time coming.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, so actually, we're all from Orange County, California, and that's like kind of where we formed initially. And we recently just had like a pretty big lineup change with a new singer edition, like a few months ago, maybe a year. Uh no, probably like a year ago or so. And he's like from he's from Brazil, and he got all of his experience actually like playing on cruise ships. So he was like an absolute full-time musician, like three sets a day, five days a week, bare minimum. So, like, we the three of us, me, Greg the bass player, and Rob the drummer, are just like incredibly stoked to be able to be forming this relationship with him on a lot of different levels, and then being able to have have that added to the product of our album is like leagues beyond what we thought was possible. So, like, we couldn't be more stoked for the countdown to the album to come out.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, dude. Also, I didn't realize Orange County is in California. I definitely thought that was Florida. Is there an Orange County, Florida?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Also, I think there is, yeah, because I yeah, I remember looking that up too, or like maybe we were traveling through Florida at one point, and it was like, oh huh, there's Orange County, Florida, too. That's funny. Like it's it's not really like a common one you hear all that often, but yeah, uh, Orange County is just kind of like the the general one pocket of Southern California, like a bunch of cities fall within that category. I don't know if that's the same thing for the Florida area, but we're like just call out familiar. Yeah. So like we're all kind of south of LA, and then our singer Pedro lives in LA himself.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Now, are you LA native then? Born raised, grew up in the area? No, I was personally uh born and raised in Michigan. I I grew up there for like the first 12 years of my life and then moved out to California and then kind of bounced around between a few different cities, just like with family and growing up and stuff. And yeah, just been here ever since.

Midwest Roots And Sports Detours

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Being originally from Michigan, I have to ask, what's your sports stance?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Sports stance, I'm not a big sports guy. Like I'm pretty, I'm pretty disappointing in a sports conversation, I'll be honest with you. But when there was a time, I was a huge fan of like the I think it was the mid or late 2000s lineup of the Detroit Pistons, was like legendary, like with Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace. And then as far as like football goes, I was pretty into Michigan State, like college football. Was never like a big Wolverine guy. I was pretty stoked to see like Detroit do like surprisingly well. The was it the last Super Bowl or the or the Super Bowl before that one?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

But I'm not I'm same as you, man. I'm not really a sports guy, but I'm from Ohio. And so when it comes to sports, there are only two things that I know for a fact is OSU and we're not allowed to like Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Those are like our two golden roles. That's a shame. That's a shame. I don't I don't I don't have my finger on the pulse on it anymore, but yeah, that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Yeah, I I'm definitely by no means a sports guy. I'm a Dallas fan, uh, completely off the wall. So I haven't kept up with sports since I was like 10. So I I couldn't even begin to tell you. Same, yeah, same for sure.

Building A Big Live Guitar Sound

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Let's talk about the guitar work on this album, though. I'd love to, yeah. So you guys have this this very distinct kind of mix between blues and classic rock sound. Very crunch heavy. Tell me a little bit about your rig. What what is like your your rig look like as far as effects, head, amp?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah, so it's it's always going through changes, you know. Like I think it kind of depends on where we are playing at or if we're recording where it will like kind of change depending on the scenario. When we were recording the album, I was I was lucky enough to be able to use it, it was like a modded uh 1959 Marshall Plexy head that was blended with like an amazing vintage blues junior, and then in the middle of that was like a EVH combo or like an EVH small half stack. Yeah, those three sounds blended together under the microscope was was pretty sweet, I'm not gonna lie. But the rig that I use mostly for touring is gonna be like a Friedman small box, a 50 watt head, and then I'll run it through um a high watt 4x12 cabinet. It it's taken me pretty much up until up until God, four years ago, maybe, to realize that I'm I'm really not a big fan of low wattage speakers. And it so much trial and error. It's it's just like you know, you kind of feel like you're going crazy because you're like, all of these pieces are what I'm supposed to like from all of my research. So it's like, what's wrong with me? Like, why do I not like it? You know? But you start going down the list of variables, and it's like, oh, what if I try doing a higher wattage speaker cabinet tonight instead? And I'm I remember getting my hands on like a different style. I think it was like a Mesa that I tried, like a Mesa for the like the Mesa Boogie, yes, yeah, yeah. Like the big oversized cabinet ones. I remember plugging into one of those and I was like, oh, that's what I want. It was just like immediate because like the the 4x12 greenbacks, they sound phenomenal, but there's just there's not like a great feel. I I shouldn't say great feel, but like there's just there's a lot more to be desired, in my opinion, because when you play them live and you play them like pretty loud live, I always found that there's like a lot of flub in the low end, and it doesn't really like project all of the low mid frequencies that are like what I want personally. Whereas if you are able to get your hands on a good quality higher wattage speaker cabinet, all of those frequencies are so much more well maintained because they're just like built to handle more, and that's kind of like for better or for worse. It depends if you want that thing. I'm just really into that, so it it really kind of tickled my fancy, you know, especially when moving on to like a Friedman small box, that thing's gonna like put out a lot of power because of how insane the Transformer is on those things compared to like a regular Plexy. So a greenback in that case would be like a an awesome blend, but on its own, I look at like if I had to like Desert Island one cabinet, it would just be a higher wattage version of that, just because I feel like it usually gives me more for what I'm looking for for like a live experience.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

It it's really interesting that you chase those lower tones too, because I I do the same thing, right? And like everything in what we do as like rock, blues, metal, guitar players tells us you want your mids low, you know, you want those lower frequencies low, they push for the highs, and I can't stand that setup, like it always is so trebly to me. Which everyone is always like, Well, that's what a bass player is for. And it's like, well, yeah, I know, but like I still want that boom, you know. So I that's really interesting. I I run a martial half stack, and I found the same problem is like I'm not getting the lows that I'm looking for, like the bass is there, but it's not giving me the boom and the the depth that I'm looking for in the amp. Now, as far as like the the effects, because of those amps and and the way you're calibrating them, do you find yourself pushing a lot of those highs through like like a DS1?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

You know, I'm a I'm a really big fan of kind of setting my like usually whatever amp I get, whether it's like a fender or a different style amp head, I usually have a pretty good comfortability with just like setting everything. By everything, I mean like EQ settings that the amp can offer. Usually like between six or like seven, it kind of depends on what the amp is and how it sounds around those numbers. But usually if I have them all kind of like slanted in that area, I can get like a pretty good sound out of it. As far as like a lot of the frequency manipulation that will happen, I try to have the amp set up so particular to where everything is like good to go to where I like it.

The Effects Loop EQ Solo Hack

SPEAKER_00 11:34

And then when I want to change it for like a very dramatic solo section, the EQ pedal through the effects loop of a high-powered head is like I want to like shout that from the rooftops every every kind of conversation I have with guitar players. It's like if you teeter anywhere near the brink of rock guitar and you have an amplifier that allots you the luxury of an effects loop, for the love of God, put an EQ in the effects loop and it will change your life for solos. I this is not a salesman pitch, not sponsored. It will change your life for solos 100%.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Interesting. I'm gonna have to try that. Yeah, I've never I've never I've never given that a shot. What what martial head do you have or what martial head do you run? What do we got here? I think it's a I think it's a DS1. I'm not positive. It's a little dark in here right now.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Do you know if it has an effects loop by chance?

SPEAKER_02 12:29

It does, yeah. It does have an effects loop. I've never played with it. It's always just been something that like most of my amps have had it, and I've always just been like, I don't really need it. You know what I mean? I'm I'm old school. I I take my my one chord, plug into the effects pedals, and out the other side. I've never really messed with it.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

And you know, that's how I love most of my stuff, truth be told. Sometimes even delay in the front of the amp sounds fantastic. I just I'll usually put delay of reverb and then EQ through the effects loop. And I really don't I really don't try to get fancy with it, just because I'm usually of the same mindset, but my whole my whole logic behind it is uh you know, if you're bypass, if you're bypassing your very powerful dirty amps preamp section, it should be for the things that you want to have like a very clean retention of. So if I could make any recommendation or just to kind of see if you have a similar experience with it, my favorite EQ pedal is just the very basic six-band MXR EQ pedal. Yep, yeah. That thing's like 115 bucks at any music shop, I think. If you get a chance to get your hands on it, set your amp like you normally would play, whether it's for rhythm or for solos, doesn't matter. Like pick your game, and then just put on that pedal in the effects loop and move like every dial just up like a hair, like a totally just a hair up. It will blow your mind.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Interesting. No, I dude, I might do that this weekend. I have I have a martial acoustic that I I just don't play, and I need to find a reason to go to a music store. So between that and I've always wanted the uh the the Vox vocal manipulator pedal with the the talk box basically. I've always wanted one just to play around with it. So I might just go trade it in for those two pedals, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Dude, you should. If you have any inkling to have you know your sound, but just more for like a solo, you know, because I think every guitar player can unfortunately relate to the scenario of like, wow, like I love my sound so much as it is, but when I go to do a solo, it just kind of gets more gainy and exactly. So what's happening is you try to get more gain for a couple different reasons. Like sustain is probably the number one thing, more natural harmonics and compression too, are like a byproduct of that. But when you put the EQ pedal through the effects loop, you're not like compressing your preamp because you're completely bypassing your preamp, you're just hitting the power section of your tubes and it's just bringing everything up, especially when you have, you know, you can even do this with like a 20, 40 watt amplifier. Like you're not gonna, you're not gonna hit the same kind of headroom that you would come even close to hitting with a preamp section. This is fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Dude, that's fascinating. Man, I I have a bunch of other like major guitar questions for you, but I might have to just grab your info and and we might have to talk after this, dude. No problem. No problem, dude. I have a lot of questions now, but you know, basically what I'm doing is for my solos, I'm doing the the classic overdrive pedal. You know what I mean? I just use use an overdrive as like a boost basically, and turn the the tone knob all the way down and use it as like a volume boost, which kind of does the same thing, it almost over or bypasses the the sound and just gives the volume, but you still have to have that that tone slightly up to even get the sound to come out. So it yeah, it does still add some gain. That's really interesting. I'm really excited to try that actually.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, dude. Uh what kind of what kind of pedal do you use to do that?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

I have the what the heck is that? It's the uh the the little green mini one that everybody recommends.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

The TS9 mini?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yeah, the TS9, the little mini.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yeah, nice. Yeah, you know, you'll get close to that kind of same experience for sure. You'll you know, it's kind of nature of the beast to where when you're plugging, when you're pushing something in front of the amplifier, the first thing that you hit by design is just going to be the preamp. So you can you can still definitely get close to that experience. It'll still be, you know, that's like a soft clipping kind of overdrive or distortion, however you want to refer to it as. But when you get something that is just like a clean, raw, and pure decibel increase with like frequency uh decibel gains or subtractions, and that's going through your post-section and not your pre-section. Like, I'm I'm telling you, it will be like almost too much. Like it's it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

I'm pumped. So the other question as far as guitars, I I really interested. So it sounds like you're probably a fender guy based off of your amp selection.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

You know, the majority of guitars that I play now have been Fender, just to like do something different and be more versatile with like whatever I do. But the Les Paul has always been home for me. Like, that's what I've played for uh probably a decade in now in some variant, and I've really found my home in with this specific Les Paul that I have. So, like if I were to do anything with Joyous Wolf, it would always be first with the Les Paul, and then maybe strat as like a backup variant for a different sound type thing. But that's usually like my tool of choice for that kind of sound.

Inside Karma And Album Flow

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Speaking of variants, let's talk about the variation of the song Karma and compared to the rest of the album. I'd love to be able to like dude, like Juniper, Juniper is definitely like the push, right? I get that it's super catchy, a little poppy, it's got that punch, it's it's everything that a classic built song has, right? But karma has this beautiful intro where you guys it's almost like it's gonna be a ballad, and then you give a big heavy punch right in the middle. Talk me through the process of like deciding that song and and any input as far as like lyrics that you guys had, because I think lyrics are are beautiful too.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Oh, they the lyrics in that song are really, really good. And our our prior singer, Nick, wrote the majority of those lyrics, and they're really well done from like a songwriting standpoint. Like they they really do hit home in the context of what we were able to record for it. The composition for that song was like really interesting because we wrote the intro first and had this like very pretty kind of intro. And I kind of was like plucking those notes on the guitar that are like the vocal melody in like the exact order. And then when we realized it had like a pretty melody, we wanted to make that an actual rock song and not just have it be like a pretty other kind of sounding thing. So once the intro was fleshed out, we just kind of like wanted to turn that into a verse, but just like a heavier version, and then so like that kind of started, and then you know it's like stepping stones from there, but it was a very natural progression once we had that intro thing kind of solidified because I think that there was like a lot of melodic potential in that.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also think that the the idea of karma is kind of like scattered, not both lyri or not just lyrically, but but melodically also throughout the song. Like you have that sense of the beginning is your your opening actions, and the center is the repercussions from those opening actions, and then your your tail end on the song is kind of like the payoff of karma itself. It's it's a really cool thing you guys did melodically. But but why why is that song located where it is on the album? Like is is there a purpose to the to the track listing?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

You know, in in my opinion, yes, uh, but more so from just like an album experience perspective. That was kind of like the thought in mind was to kind of cue everything up so that if you were to listen to it front to back, the experience of roller like the roller coaster of emotions would kind of make sense for whatever a user experience or story could be. And I I feel like in the excuse me, I feel like in the context of karma, I feel like where that is in the album is kind of like, all right, you're listening to like enough of the band at this point to where like you kind of get to the get to the heart of like what the band can deliver. If you want to call it like that kind of like a deep track thing, like you can, but I I think it has a lot more potential than just being like a deep track song. It's like that's one of my favorite songs. So I was like really cool that you resonated with that as well, because I really resonate with that song, like performance and listening to it wise. But for where it's located in the album, I think it's just like a really good uh deep dive into like a particular emotion. If I had to make any kind of comparison, one of my favorite Soundgarden songs of all time is called uh Fresh Tendrils. If you're familiar with that song, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That song is like buried in the super unknown album. And like I'm always like, I want to hear. That song so much more. But then, you know, every time I listen to Super Unknown front to back and it gets to Fresh Tendrils, I'm like, oh yes, this, you know. And the the funny thing about that is that I don't think that I would feel that same way if Fresh Tendrils was like the first song on the album or the third song on the album. You know, it's like you take that experience for not just where it's at, but for everything around it as well. So, like what happens before that song, what happens after that song? And it's very that thought process is not radio friendly at all. And like that, no, that's a very, very important thing that we want to stay true to as a band, is where it's like you have these songs that are very, very deep, but don't necessarily need to have like a like a sink or a placement for them, you know. But it's just like when you give that as part of an experience to somebody, it just like it really means a lot because I feel like it meant a lot to us.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Well, and especially coming off of In Your Shadow Master, like like the polar opposite of those two songs is wild, man. Like the first three tracks, it's like so Run a Runaway, Juniper, and then In Your Shadow, right? Runaway is this super right out of the gate, like, hey, this is who the fuck we are, and then Juniper, like I said, is that clear cut, like this is our single, this is the one we're pushing, and then in your shadow gives like an even even like heavier push, like runaway, like it's like runaway on steroids. You guys come in hard on that one, and it's dark lyrically, emotionally, and then you get the karma, and I'm like, oh shit, this is wild.

Juniper Storm New And Influences

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Let's talk about Juniper though. Uh, I have to ask, it's got a really cool story. Is Juniper a person in anybody's life in particular?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

No, I think because Nick Nick wrote a good a good portion of the lyrics. It was actually he mentioned that it was like a dream that he had, so it was like this whole this whole setting and reality of this dream that he had. That's at least what he told us. But I think that's kind of like the basis about it. But it can it can mean anything to to anybody listening. I just remember remember that being like a main source of inspiration for it.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

How about Storm New?

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Oh player. I mean, come on, man. That that song is probably like one of one of three, if not the most important song to me personally, because that's like one of my favorite riffs on the album is the chorus riff.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

And that was the first song that we actually fully wrote for the album. And I actually talked about this in an in another interview where like this album was so special for a lot of different reasons. But one of the main reasons for me was because it was the first time that we were able to kind of like have a dimmer switch for ourselves as a band, instead of just being like, okay, this is only a ballad slow song, or it's like, okay, this is only a like immediate in your face, three minutes, 30 seconds, get in, get out type rocks rock song. So I feel like on this record, one of the main goals, if there was one at all, but it was really to be successful at the execution of like all of the in-between, sorry, dynamics of a song, you know, like not just do well on 10% slow song, not just do well on 100% in your face rock song, but like really use all of the colors in the palette to be able to paint with. And that was the first song that we wrote where I genuinely felt like that was achieved because it's kind of like really cool, big open intro and then melodic, like kind of dynamic verse, and then a little bit of both in the chorus. Like, I have a hard time describing it because it's it's very there's an interplay with it that is not very in your face that takes away from the experience of enjoying the music, but it's not so laid back to where you're just like kind of bored, I guess. You know, like there's a lot of stuff going on.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but clear, clear inspiration from David Gilmore, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:26

I mean, probably just generally, yeah. I mean, I'm a huge, huge David Gilmore fan. I I remember I was a really I was really into Stone Temple Pilots when this record was being written, and I wanted to be like very, very musically interesting without like putting it in somebody's face, like, hey, look at all this music theory stuff I'm doing. Like, isn't this so interesting? And like, I don't think that that usually works out well in rock music, in my personal opinion. Agreed. No, I agree with you. Yeah, yeah. I don't really like to do that a whole lot in rock music because I feel like it takes away from like the caveman, like unga bunga, kind of like good, good instincts in rock music, you know. But Dean DeLeo is a guitar player and you know, Rob DeLeo as a bass player and songwriter for that band, they just had such a beautiful way of taking like such unique songwriting perspectives and techniques, and then mixing it with really badass, awesome, powerful rock music. I think this song was where I really wanted to take that because I studied music theory in college and I really wanted to I try to implement that in a lot of the songwriting that I do. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. But this was one of the instances where I really wanted to kind of like use music theory as like a way to weave in and out of a lot of like emotions throughout a song.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Right, right. See, I and to me that's where I'm picking up the David Gilmore part of it of like he had or had he has such an amazing craft ability where leaving room tells the story, you know what I mean? And and I felt like you captured that in that song perfectly, where it's like the the air in the song is allowed to breathe, and it lets the the listener really digest what's going on musically in that song compared to the rest of the album for sure, but it but in general in music, like you don't get songs that allow that room anymore. And that and I love David Gilmore, so that was a huge one for me.

Math Gaming And Nerd Life

SPEAKER_02 28:29

I do want to ask you a couple of like more personal questions. Uh one thing that we're trying to kind of do to give the audience more perceptive on perception on you is get to know you a little better personally. Do you have like a like a more nerdy side to you? Because I mean clearly music theory in itself is a very nerdy subject, if you ask me. I know my wife thinks it's exceptionally boring when I try and talk about it. So outside of music though, do you have like like a nerdy-ish hobby or anything that you do outside of the music? Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah, very, very nerdy. I'm like I'm a very nerdy person. I'm like, I'm I'm decently into anime. I have a couple of like video games that I tried and true by, and I'm like really into math. Like really into math as like a hobby. It's it's very nerdy. I'm I'm studying computer science for like my career in my college major right now, but just like for fun. I know it sounds sadistic, but like math, I really like doing math. There's just like there's some essence of like problem solving that transfers over from music theory that just like somehow connects these dots, like in my instincts or like intuition. I don't know, it's weird, but like I've I've grown a huge affinity for math.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

It's it's really funny. I am also a guitar player and it helped me with math, but I hate math. Like I understand it on a fundamental level, and I understand, especially talking music, I understand it far more, and I can understand like business-related math. But when you dive into extreme math or like anything above basic algebra, I get lost immediately.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Man, see, that's that's where I'm like having the best time of my life. And like every time I show try to show my girlfriend what I'm working on, she's like, Don't ever show me that again. Like that that gives me that just stresses me out looking at that. But no, I'm like, I'm very cool though. I'm very into calculus. Yeah, it's like a I don't know, it's that's kind of weirdly fun for me to like just study it. That's incredible, man.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Like, especially at your age, you know what I mean? Like, dude, as soon as high school was over, I was like, Oh, I am never touching another calculator again.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

You know, I think it was just because it was so engaging. And after after touring for so long, like you know, touring is such a like a wind-up toy act. What I mean by that is it's like you, it's just a stand, it's a game of like it's a war of attrition. Like, yeah, you have to just have stamina to go out and perform, and you're kind of constantly just do do do doing. After a while, I I remember feeling like this kind of like feeling where I'm just like, oh god, I feel like I haven't learned anything in a while, you know. Like, and I very I very well could have just like gone out and taken more guitar lessons or like learned more music theory, but it just wasn't really something that I was into. And then I just kind of found math and I was like, damn, this is like kind of sickly interesting.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

It's incredible. Um, I I did notice the Zelda Cup. My wife is a diehard giant Zelda fan.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Did you see that they just released the trailer for the Switch 2 on the Up Ring of Time remake?

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Doesn't it look incredible? Oh my god, I'm so excited. She's more excited, but I'm also very excited.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Yeah, like I'm I'm more so of a Zelda fan of like the older games. Like Zelda 2 was like my favorite game, and it's probably like the hardest and maybe worst Zelda game ever made, but it's so messed up. I love it so much. And then Link to the Past was like my go-to Zelda game. That was like my my home territory. But my girlfriend is like even more into Zelda than I am, and she was very much so like Ocarina of Time, uh Wind Waker, kind of like that.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, my my wife, it's it's Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Breath of the Wild, those are her her three that she's like, I can play these games anytime. But oddly enough, she I mean, she's excited, but she also watched the trailer and said that she kind of misses the N64 version, you know what I mean? And I'm like, yeah, I get it, but like this looks beautiful, like I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

It does, and I'm I very much so usually lean on the side of like purist rather than like trying to enjoy a remake, you know. But maybe it's because Ocarina of Time wasn't really my thing. I think that because like I played so much Donkey Kong Country 64 and uh Banjo Kazooie, and like you know, around the N64 era, there were so many of those 3D video games coming out for like the 64-bit system, to where it's like I think what ended up happening for me is that like I got my fill from those games. So then by the time Ocarina of Time came around, I was kind of just like, I like I played the ones I already wanted to, essentially. You know, it's like not that I don't like it at all, obviously, it's an amazing game. I I listen to the soundtracks all the time, but it was just kind of like I think my time was spent on those ones, so it's harder for me to like enjoy that now just because of that. Right.

Anime Picks And Replay Value

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Speaking of anime, you know, you're an anime fan now. Definitively, what's the best anime in your opinion?

SPEAKER_00 33:58

In my opinion, the best, well, I haven't seen like a whole lot of anime, and like if there's any anime fans watch like listening to this right now, they will probably think I'm such a poser and like don't know anything about anything, which you totally might be right about.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

But before you before you say it, I have I have two guesses. Please, you're you're one of these two people. You're either going to say Attack on Titan or Dragon Ball Z.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Ooh, okay, so Dragon Ball Z is like the best anime. Like, I I can't I can't say that's not true, but you know, I I I went to go try and watch it again right now. And you know, I'm kind of like checking my watch, being like, oh god, this is like going on forever, you know. I like I agree. As an entire arc and an entire experience, of course, Dragon Ball Z is the best anime, without a doubt. But it's like I just don't have time to invest into something like that right now. And I think that has something to do and to say with people experience or trying to experience that for the first time, and also possibly the replayability of the anime itself. The best anime, in my opinion, is Hunter Hunter. I am like a huge Hunter Hunter fan because I will go back and and just see snippets of it and I'll be like, oh my god, I want to watch it again. Like it's it has that kind of allure to it because I feel like what's so important about an anime, and this kind of goes for like any show too, but maybe particularly anime, is like you cannot overstay your welcome at all. Agreed. As soon as you overstay your welcome, you will be resented and your replayability just immediately tanks.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

So, like unless you're one piece that for some reason a great show they could just do forever, and everybody's like, no, it's the greatest, dude.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

So I was so not into one piece when I first tried. I tried watching it like two separate times, and I was just like, this is just like kind of lame, and like I don't really get what the hype is, you know. My my girlfriend like kind of forced me to like background it after a while, and so I would just be working on stuff and then I'd look over and watch it, and it is probably currently my favorite anime right now. I'm I'm very, very early on in it, but it it is my favorite anime at the moment. I think as far as like front to back goes, I would say Hunter Hunter is the best anime, and then I have a really hard time like saying that Demon Slayer is not one of the best animes, and I only say that from the perspective of like the budget is just yeah, unbelievable, dude.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Oh my god, if we're talking quality, like has to be top three, at least.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Like, have you watched Demon Slayer? Oh yeah, oh yeah. I can't remember the name of the fight or the guys, but what the what was the anime fight scene with the the the demon who was with the it was the brother-sister demon? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh dude. I think literally from the time I watched theatrical level, literally theatrical. Like from the time I watched Dragon Ball Z as a youngling when I was like nine or ten years old, to me, where I am right now, that was probably the best scene in anime I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

The buildup too, like it was just it's such a great story, man. It's such a good arc.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Yeah, like as much as I love Hunter Hunter and it's my it's my favorite anime. I think that that fight scene was one of the best things like I've ever seen with my eyes. Yeah, like and I I kind of said the same thing because my girlfriend and I saw the Demon Slayer movie, and I don't know if it's just because techno and like I like to feel like I'm pretty caught up with technology, like just in general, that's just like a thing that I like to stay up to date with. And I remember we went to go watch the Demon Slayer movie, and I was like, this might be one of the best things I've seen with my eyes. Like, they must have invented new rendering technology just to make this happen because I can't even compare this to anything, this is just different.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Oh, that's incredible, man. I dude, I I think that Dragon Ball as a franchise is trying to lean a little more into that these days. Like, Dragon Ball Super is pretty solid. The movies they've done are very nicely animated, but like I don't know. There's something it's missing the mark. There's something off, like I don't know how to describe it, but it's just not it's not the DBZ that I grew up with. You know what I mean? There's there's no longer the excitement. I I don't know. I I feel like they they are missing that that scene where Goku goes Super Saiyan for the first time. Like, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

They're just missing the black caption. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I think that is that is probably one of the hardest things to do as a show and as an anime in general, is like when you have cemented yourself as like the anime, yeah. When when that was the thing, that was the anime. No one could say anything about it. Like you've you rewind however many years, that was the anime. The problem with keeping on with that is that you have to not only keep that level of engagement, but exceed it every time. I don't know how you do that. I I don't know how that's possible.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

Agreed, yeah, yeah. I mean, it it was a moment that not only captured an anime audience, but like just general public. Like it almost everyone knows the term Super Saiyan, like that's impressive, a globalized term, like that's that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

I completely agree, and it that's a that's a testament to how how foundational that was for everything in that industry, and that's almost like the the shadow hanging over them for doing new things now, too. You know, there always be there will always be diehard fans of franchise, and it's not like they have anything to worry about, but as far as being like you know, a a younger person's favorite anime, I mean the competition for animes nowadays unbelievable. Yeah, dude. And there's stuff I haven't even seen yet that I know is good, and there's stuff that I have seen that I know is good, and I haven't even had time to watch it because there's too many.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

So being involved in researching tech and and your love for math, that gives me an interesting question and concept.

AI Music Laws And Artist Fears

SPEAKER_02 40:31

I'd love to hear your opinion on. Recently, we did a story talking about Sony suing an AI company over the training model using over, I think they said 5,000 Sony copyrighted songs and artists for the training model. And my take on that was it's going to be interesting to see how that case turns out because to me that opens a precedent for them to also say, like, you and I can no longer study and sit down and listen to artists to develop inspiration. Like let's say that you tomorrow, being a rock artist, wanted to write a country album, and let's say you're not familiar with how to write a country album, so you start researching country artists and you sit down and you listen to those albums front to back to get familiar with the play style and everything. Do you feel that it should be allowed? Like AI, technically, I I to me, I don't understand where there's an issue. Training on something is no different than a person training on something. But what's your take on the entire AI environment right now?

SPEAKER_00 41:47

You know, what whether it's in a in an artistic field or in a tech technologic field, I think at the end of the day, like AI is a tool, and it will always be a tool for the foreseeable future. I think the problem with that is that when you know, when people are sold on the idea of AI, now there's this precedent of, oh, it's it's not just a tool because everybody's using it, it's going to take over everything. We're going to be in in human factories for robots now, you know? And so it's like it's it's really tough from an artistic standpoint. I personally would just I wouldn't use it. I I I don't find the gain in that because music is like always a human experience, you know? And I think that you should pave your own road and have your own experiences. Now, that's that's my that's my opinion. How how somebody else would want to use it? Like if you wanted to use uh a recommendation model that was like, hey, I have this thing here, like what should I do after this? You know, is that so much more different than going to like a music theory professor and being like, hey, you've trained your entire life on all of these compositions and have a huge resource bank of knowledge. What should I do here next in my progression? How different would those responses be? What is, you know, what truly is the difference? That's a really hard question to answer for the music industry. I think that when you start talking about artificial intelligence being the music production and what's actually creating the music, that I kind of have a problem with because now you're taking the art out of the artist and you're trying to put like AI as like a production thing, which I am pretty confident that's gonna try to happen, if not definitely happen. Because even when things transitioned from analog to digital, they weren't signing bands anymore because it was easier for artists to get popular just as individual artists. And you have these development deals where, like, now you don't have to worry about the collection. Collective group and like worry about, oh, is this guy gonna OD? Like, are one of the members gonna do something else? You just have one guy who this it's this project, you can sit in pr in front of Pro Tools and like make a bunch of songs, right? The reason why that's so much more popular nowadays for pop music is because it's less risk for the business and it's easier capital to gain from and less to lose. If you think about AI doing the same thing, well, that's even more so than the individual guy making stuff. So I'm sure that's gonna happen. My personal opinion, I don't really use it personally. I'm sure there's people that could benefit from it. And hell, you know, maybe even I could, but it's just it's probably something that I wouldn't do. I remember seeing some kind of case with Warner Brothers and like NVIDIA or something about some kind of like artificial intelligence songwriting agreement, and like that's where I get kind of nervous, and I'm like, Oh, what's gonna happen to the music industry? This is gonna be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

My my biggest concern with that case is simply setting the precedent because who is to stop Sony from then if it if it goes through and they win, what's to stop Sony from coming to somebody like me and saying, Hey, you clearly took inspiration from my chemical romance when you wrote this song, so you clearly trained on my chemical romance, and now we're gonna sue you because you did that. Like it opens up that precedent to where like you can now use that for real people because we don't really have an AI precedent in place. Uh, it is interesting though that you bring up the the tool concept. I I think that I could see a world where production-wise, studios start having some major problems because that could be a huge tool for musicians. If you if you write an album, say on Pro Tools, and rather than sending it for mastering to a company, you can go into an AI and say, Hey, do the tedious work that I don't want to do. Here's what I want it to do.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

I I do think that I would do that. Yeah, and you know that that's the thing, too, is because wow, if we don't have to pay a mastering producer, why would we? This AI program can do it, and you pay $50 a month for the subscription. It's like you'll own nothing and be happy. Like it's it's the the famous saying. I I definitely see that being like a a foreground integration of things. I the thing that just worries me the most, honestly, is it's like imagine that a record label signs a brand new artist and they're like, hey, we trained this AI model, and based on all of the songwriters that we had write the hits, we submitted it to this AI model, and now it has a 98.75% probability to make you a hit song. So now that we don't like that, right? So now that we signed all these new artists, we're not even gonna pay songwriters anymore. We they might get royalties from the AI, probably not. I don't even know how that would work. We might do a bunch of different things. That's where it gets scary for me, is like because I like what you said. It's kind of like a stepping stone because what happens in the Sony case will kind of determine what can happen down the road. I I'm I'm a big fan of like artificial intelligence and machine learning for making business processes and like all of those kind of things be like more integrated with a business and in a technology standpoint. When it starts crossing over into the art field, I mean, that is just a personal thing. That is me having an opinion and my personal opinion being I wouldn't use it as an artist. It would be interesting to see what people did with it or and how people would resonate it if they did resonate with it. I would say that it does scare me from the artist perspective. Because just to reiterate, if somebody wants you to sign to a record label and they're like, hey, instead of songwriters or producers, we have this AI model that's gonna write all your songs for you. Like, go out there, like you'll be fine. It's gonna, it's gonna record everything, it's gonna write everything. You're gonna be the face of the band. Like, it's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

That's so dangerous, dude. You're so right. That's so dangerous because labels have a habit of signing image, not talent.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

So yeah, because image can always be molded, you know. You can exactly you can always have backing to be like, hey, we can bring in this guy, we can do this. The branding in the image is what we need to sell. Everything else can be outsourced, like you'll be fine, you know. It's it's the McDonald's motto.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

It really is.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Literally, it's the the movie, the founder, but in music. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

And I I just I always go back to the thing where if you look at the biggest change of artists from an actual band to one guy who is writing stuff behind a computer and making hit songs like that, the next step is gonna be well, instead of one guy, we're gonna have this software that did what that one guy did. And what that band did, that one guy. So it's like it's like this evolution of things, and from the artist perspective, it's it's terrifying to think about that happening for new artists. Absolutely, dude.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

I yeah, that that gave me such a bigger perspective on it, too. That's crazy. You're absolutely right. I I mean it's it's literally happening right now, and I don't see any way to stop it, which sucks, but yeah, that yeah, you know, it's a great business move, and as a business person, business-minded person, it's like I can't I can't blame the industry for what's happening, but like it sucks, man.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

As an artist, it sucks. Yeah, you you know, it it would definitely be something that I would not want to do as a music artist. It'd be pretty cool to work on it as like a software engineer. I mean, it would it would at least it would at least be interesting to like see what's going on, or at least to maybe not work on it, but just like do research on it and see like what exactly they're doing. But I like to keep those things like kind of separated, like you know, the technology work stuff, like I love to do all of that stuff with AI and like what the tools are available for, and then with music stuff, I just like to do the music stuff just because it's like what I like to do, you know.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

Yeah, exactly. Like the reason we're creatives is because we want to be creative. So if you're taking the creativity away from the project, it kind of loses its soul, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

It really it really does feel like that, and that's my knee-jerk reaction to that, but you never know. Like, if maybe that could help people like AI is an amazing tool for helping people learn, so maybe it could help somebody learn more about music theory. It is at the end of the day a tool, so it just depends how it's used, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

Yeah, I do, I really do love the idea though, of of being able to be a production assistant to do like there are just so many tedious tasks in the production process, and a lot of anytime you go to a studio for this is for people listening, not for you and I, but anytime you go to a studio, and let's say you just want to record a song, you go in, you lay down your vocals, you lay down your guitar, and then everybody else lay down their parts, right? And then you get 50,000 questions for the next two months about one song. It's always like, well, here's a here's a rough draft. I EQ'd the vocals to this level. Tell me what you think. It's like, okay, yeah, it sounds good. And then it's like, okay, well, I added this effect, or I added this, or I did this, or I I panned this over here, and then it becomes like, I don't know, man. I just make it happen. Like, I just I've paid you, give me my track.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Exactly, exactly. I think that in any context where it can be used as a tool, I would be really interested to see what it could be used for.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

Right, right.

Mixtape Game And Wild Song Choices

SPEAKER_02 52:09

I do want to dive into this game just to recap everybody. We have Blake from Joyce Wolf. The album is coming out August 21st. It's called In Between. Highly, highly recommend it. Like we talked earlier, Karma is my personal favorite on the album. Juniper is also a fantastic song, but truly just listen front to back. It's an incredible album. Today, we are playing a little game that we call mixtape. Are you familiar with cards against humanity? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. So this is super similar to that. Your answer is going to be the title of a song, and I know we are running short on time, so I am gonna only do a handful of these. So we can go over if you if you need to. I mean, I'm I'm in no rush. Okay, oh, perfect. Okay. Um, so basically, you give the the answer is the title of a song. You can either be funny or serious, your choice. This is to give the audience a little more perception of you as a person. So, and I'm gonna play with you. I'm gonna give my answer as well. The first card we have is slow motion gunfight song.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Ooh, oh, I like this already. Oh, I like this game. Oh, sweet. Okay, okay, awesome. Slow motion gunfight song. Oh my gosh. Can I hear yours first while I think? Do you mind? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

My pick, I am a giant Caether fan, so I'm going country song by Caether. The the opening lick in that song is incredible. It already kind of has a western theme to it. The music video is fantastic, it's very funny. So that's my pick.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

Ooh, dang. That's a good one. Oh my gosh. Slow motion gunfight song. I thought I just had one too. God, I'm so bad at recalling things on the spot. I'm so sorry. Oh, that's all right. Pink Pony Club is also a fantastic answer. That's fantastic. Oh my gosh, dude. Since I've been loving you by Led Zeppelin. Oh, there you go. Oh, yeah. That's kind of like just one of my favorite rock songs of all time, but that would be like a really good one for it. Oh, actually, actually, if I could change it, this this might be more of like a bleeding out in like the winter kind of like screen. Like, I mean, it could be a gunfight, whatever. Do you know, do you know Pyramid Song by Radiohead? Absolutely. That is my D Radiohead gun. That's my favorite song of all time. Like across the board, that is my favorite song. And you just mentioned I I thought of like slow motion, and I was like, oh, that song has such a like slow motion capability to it.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

That's a great pick, man. Hell yeah. First song you knew would get you knew that you would get in trouble for listening to.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Did you have any music censorship growing up? I did. You know, I actually don't think I did. My my parents had like pretty good taste in music, and so they wanted me to be like exposed to some things. Maybe my parents weren't like a big fan of like rap music when I was growing up, but I liked I liked all genres of music, so rap was definitely one of them. I would maybe say like maybe I'd get in trouble for listening to like I don't know, like Biggie Smalls or like oh god. I can't think of any other good rapper, good rappers that I'd get in trouble for listening to. Maybe Eminem, probably probably not. Um probably Biggie Smalls. Yeah, yeah. Biggie Smalls for sure, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Dr.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Dre. Yeah, dude, all the all the great Nelly. Absolutely. That was my experience too. I was not allowed to listen to rap music growing up or hip-hop, or honestly, I also wasn't allowed to listen to like heavier rock. I could listen to like classic, like super Led Zeppelin, Leonard Skinner type stuff, or country music. Those were what I was allowed to listen to until I was like a teenager. I didn't I didn't discover bands like Nirvana, Cether, who else? Breaking Benjamin, God Smack. Like, I didn't discover any of those until I was like 13, 14 years old. Oh wow. Disturbed, disturbed was a oh, disturbed was a big day. That one I did get in trouble for listening to.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

Really? See, my mom was the one who showed me disturbed, so it was like kind of impossible to get in trouble for that. Yeah, what a cra was it down with the sickness? Because that's crazy. It was, it was actually the whole Down with the Sickness album, all of the songs on that. So good. But that one, maybe maybe she would like skip that song sometimes, but I'm pretty sure like she was the one who showed me that band.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

That's just wild. The interlude on that song. Having your mom show you the interlude on that song is crazy, right?

SPEAKER_00 57:10

Isn't that hilarious?

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Best song for a school cancelled snow day. Ooh. Your snow day song.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

Oh, I mean, can I pick like the entire Skyrim soundtrack? Oh, yeah, there you go. There you go. There's like what is it called? Second Secunda? It's like S-E-A-U-N-D-A, I think. Dude, yeah. I mean, I listen to that whenever I'm like working or studying. That is an album that gets gets played almost once every single day. But that song in particular is like I feel like no whether it's whether it's 90 degrees and the sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky, or whether it's pitch black at night, whenever I hear that song, I just feel like I can see the Aurora Borealis like wherever I'm at.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

Right. Isn't that that's the that's the song that plays near like the elve area, right? Like the the school of like basically like Hogwarts in the Skyrim. It's like full of magic. Winterhold? Winterhold, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

I I think it is. I think it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:21

That's awesome. Man, that's a great answer. Mine is limp biscuits break stuff.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Oh my gosh, that is a perfect way to celebrate a school day, definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Let's see here. Best song to listen to while driving Gravegigger at a monster truck rally. This is actually a great question for your genre because you guys fit right into my I have a two-year-old, almost two, and he is super into monster trucks, specifically Gravedigger. So I know all the classic songs that play for those monster trucks.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

Man, oh man, for that, I'm trying to think. Probably let me see if I can think of anything heavier. Oh, oh, I know exactly. There's a song by Buck Cherry called Somebody Fucked With Me. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

That's a great song.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

Whether you're like ATVing, monster trucking, that is the song to play.

SPEAKER_02 59:26

I remember when they did the tour for that album. It was I guess it was an EP technically, but that was 20, it was 2014, and the first time they ever played that song was at the show that I was at. I saw God Smack. Oops, sorry, my camera.

SPEAKER_00 59:45

That was that was such a good intense moment for the story. I I loved that.

SPEAKER_02 59:50

So it it I was seeing God Smack, Buck Cherry, Skillet, and a band Pop Evil. And Buck Cherry played three songs from that five-song EP for the first time ever at that show. Dude, it was it was that song, it was the the say fuck it version of I love it, and then whatever that other one was on that album. But dude, that's such a great album. I love that album so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:18

Dude, that song, like I think they have some serious hits in that band, but that was my favorite song by that band for sure. The live experience and just like the attitude behind that was like uh like unparalleled, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

And the lead singer's story is incredible. Oh, for sure. Went from being an aggressive addict to just an upstanding moral citizen. It his transformation is wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:45

Totally. He is such a uh great human being. We didn't get to interact with him much, although we toured like very extensively with that band. But he was he couldn't have been a nicer guy whenever we did. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

He's he's so awesome, man. That's that's incredible. Buckcherry, everybody, such an incredible band. Oh, here you go. What hip s hip hop song best describes your first year of college? There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:12

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

Oh god. Oh, I haven't listened to hip hop in such a long time. I have such a hard that's such a specific emotion, and also I haven't listened to hip hop in such a long time. I'm trying to even think of something that would come close to answering that well. For me, all of Little John's catalog. All of nice. Oh, dude, that's awesome. Oh, that's a great one. Oh, God, I'm trying to think of man. You so you might stump me on this one. I don't know if I can think of a hip-hop one for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

So I don't know if this is considered hip-hop, but specifically when I was in college, I was obsessed with the song I Love College by the one and only Asher Roth. I don't know if that's technically hip-hop, but it it was it was my college song.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:13

See, I'm so ignorant that like I wouldn't even be able to tell like most hip-hop genres apart just because of my inexperience with with the genre. I'm just trying to think of like hip-hop stuff that I've listened to or that I would know. I'm gonna have to pass on that one. I can't I can't think of a understandable. Sorry, sorry. I want to be accurate, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

If you had but one country song to listen to while stranded on a desert island, what would it be? One country song.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

Oh you know, I don't know if this I think it's country personally. Maybe it's like more blue grassy, I'm not exactly sure, but what I think top one of my top three bands is this trio country band called uh The Devil Makes Three, if you've heard of them. Oh yeah, yeah. Dude, they're they have some live album that has like unbelievable energy, and it's one of my favorite albums of all time, on top of being one of my favorite bands of all time. And they have almost every song on that live album is incredible, but if I if I had to listen to one, it would probably be just like their their biggest one, like old number seven. Okay, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That song that's a great evil kind of like country song, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

For me, I'm going classic country, I'm going neon moon by Brooks and Dunn. Ooh, I want something that when I'm really sad and alone, I can sing. The replayability factor, too, is good. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

Yeah, it it was a toss-up between that or any Toby Keith song, preferably Red Solo Cup, because oh red solo cup would be so fun, but then I feel like it would it would, you know, preemptively start your madness from yes, you only see you only hearing red solo cup, red solo cup, and then you slowly go insane.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, by the time the boat gets to me, I just have like a stack of cups with faces on them.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

Or they put you in like a they put you in a stray jacket because all you can say is red solo cup after a while, and they're like, we don't know what to do with them, we don't know what's wrong.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

I I only I exclusively answer through Toby Keith lyrics. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

You're eight years old riding shotgun next to your dad, and he cranks the volume on the radio. What song comes on? So this is you and your dad's song. Oh, uh, can't always get what you want with the Rolling Stones. Fantastic, fantastic. Mine would definitely be Money by Pink Floyd. My dad is a giant Pink Floyd fan.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:01

That's uh I am a huge fan, and this could be a whole other interview as well, but I'm a huge fan specifically of the division bell, like front to back. Oh yeah. Oh wow, what an album! What an album. That's my favorite Pink Floyd album. Money, money is incredible. I mean, excuse me, Dark Side of the Moon is incredible. The front to back experience of the wall is just like a human experience. It's like it's required, it should be, I feel like, you know. But the division bell, I just I resonated so hard with that for whatever reason it be like guitar, atmospheric, a combination of the two songwriting, like that song just beautiful. I mean, that album is beautiful to me. Absolutely, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

Yeah, there is there is such a big conversation between my sister and I. She hosts the podcast with me usually. We both grew up with listening to Pink Floyd, obviously. And she, out of respect, will listen. To it on her phone, I tell her all the time that honestly to me is disrespect to Pink Floyd. If you're gonna give Pink Floyd respect, Pink Floyd is a sit-down listen environment. Like, I can't listen to one song from the wall. Are you crazy? Literally, I need to pour a drink, I need to put it on my record player, sit down in a chair, and digest it like an adult.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

Absolutely a human being having a spiritual experience. Like, can you imagine starting or ending a Pink Floyd song on Shuffle? Like, that's sacrament. That's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:36

I was like, Taylor, or her saying her name's Taylor. I was like, Taylor, you've how many times have you listened to The Wall Part One? You didn't listen to two or three? Like, what were you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

Oh man, that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:48

Oh geez. On the turning away is my personal Pink Floyd favorite. That is I love that song so much. That's awesome. Last card the song you want your significant other to play when he or she surprises you with an adult-rated strip tease.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:09

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:11

That's amazing. Oh my gosh. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:21

Mine is always Genuine's pony.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

Wow, okay. I can see that. Yeah, yeah. There you go. There you go. Oh my god. Oh, oh, there's a song. So it's it's a cover, actually. Do you know the band the Maria's? Absolutely. So their their cover of uh Toxic is yeah, that would be it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

Oh man. Oh, that is a great song. That's a great pick for that specifically. That's a great pick. It's a good vibe, right? Yeah, exactly. That is all of our cards today, guys. That was mixtape here with Blake from Joyous Wolf. I have one more question that I want to ask you before we finish

Life Advice And Album Pre Save

SPEAKER_02 1:08:05

things up. Well, two technically. You have a significant other, you have your girlfriend. Have you guys been together for a while?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

Yeah, we we actually just had our year anniversary, our year anniversary, ATM machine, sorry. June 29th. So yeah. Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:23

Is there any message to leave for future you to your future significant other? Like, let's say this is 10 years down the road because you're a young guy, you're not married yet, so things are blossoming. What what message do you want to leave to future you and your significant other?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:45

Oh man. You know, I would just say the same thing that I've always thought. I've I've that I've always kind of held dear. It's it's not anything too abstract or out there, it's just like just work hard and be a good person. And I think those two really go hand in hand and they can truly benefit from each other and be fantastic byproducts. But I think that those are two things to live by that you could build an entire life around.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

Absolutely. And then I want to ask you if you could give inspiration to a young guitar player out there, what message do you have for the upcoming generation of incredible musicians?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:28

Oh man, I would say don't listen to anybody besides the people that you care about. And sometimes maybe not even them. I would say the most important thing that you have to do is if you feel something in your intuition and in your instinct, then you need to seek that out to the absolute fullest extent and surround people, surround yourself with people that will enable you to see that out to the fullest extent. Don't leave any stone unturned. If this is, if being an artist and being a musician is truly something that you want to do, do not half ass it. You have to do it 110%. And if you get to where you want to be, then congratulations. And even if you don't, you still saw it out to the very end. And it doesn't even mean that it's the end either. Like I just think that it's it would be a tragedy for somebody to be a musician or to be an artist and to not do it 100% because it it's it's such a creative passion. And to know that that's something that you want to do is already rare enough in this life. I think that you can be good at anything, but the decision to actually do it is a different story. And I think that that gets coupled with working hard and being a good person. I think that as long as you do those two things, you will be successful as an artist because creativity is a natural byproduct of being a musician. The most important thing is that you work hard and just be a good person.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:03

Absolutely. That's a beautiful message. And and honestly, speaking of experience to those younger guitar players out there, he's 100% right. I truly like I had a dream of doing something as a guitar player and stepped away from that dream to follow a different path. Now I'm very happy with the path that I end up choosing, but that memory will always live on. There's always going to be that what if in my soul, you know, and I 100% co-sign everything he just said. Like, don't give up, continue on, do what you want to do. Blake, thank you so much for being on the show today, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:46

Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure talking with you about the the formal stuff, the informal stuff, getting specifics. Like, I really like that. So I appreciate the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

Absolutely. Yes, please, please keep in touch, man. I would love to talk to you after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

I would love to too. I'll the I don't know who will send it to you, but I'll I'll make sure to give them like my personal contact to stay in touch. That would be awesome. Yeah, awesome. Is there anything that you would like to promote before we hop off? Just to uh pre-save the Joyce Wolf brand new, very first of its kind LP record, the first one we've ever done. It's called In Between. It's coming out August 21st. We already have two singles out right now. Uh, we have a lyric video out for our single Runaway and a music video, uh performance video out for our single uh Run Up. Well, wait, wait, did I say those backwards? Boy, sorry. The lyric video is for Juniper and the live performance video is for Runaway. Sorry. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. If you guys uh want to check those two singles out, if you like any of the conversation we had today in like rock music, that would be awesome. And then try to, if you want to, also just pre save the album on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, whatever for the album in between.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:57

Hell yeah, guys. All right. That was our show. Thank you so much again. And everybody, we'll see you on the next one. Thank you so much.