Rome Like Ghosts On Friendship, Grief, And The Acoustic Shift

Opening Hook And Copyright Chaos

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You ever noticed how the music that defines you at your 20s doesn't always fit you at 40? Tonight we've got guests who have lived that decades of friendship, hard, heavy hitting bands, long miles, and now acoustic songs about loss and hope. Let's talk about it. I'm the worst person to have a podcast.

SPEAKER_06 0:35

I think they're what's going on, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Welcome back to the show. I am your host, Harley, joined as always by my co-host and little sister Taylor and some extremely special guests today. We have the Virginia natives, Rome like Ghosts, on the show, guys. Please welcome Buck Matt and Bobby. Gonna love that opening saliva song. Yeah, right. Don't tell them.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

No, no, we're doing it legally.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Okay, a little peek behind the curtain here. I took the intro to that song and I ran it through a recording software and pitch shifted it like two octaves higher than it's supposed to be, just enough to where it's not going to attract the algorithm. So and we've been rolling with that for four and a half years, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Gosh, imagine. Can they come for us for all four and a half years?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

In my defense, in my defense, the man who wrote the song gave me the rights to use the song. However, he's not with the band anymore.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Can you officially fake an algorithm if you talk and record about faking an algorithm? I mean, I think so. Are they listening to you? Yeah, you never know.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

We we bring this up from time to time on the show, but one of the craziest things that's ever happened in this show's existence was Capitol Records and the band Lit threatened us with legal action. It was crazy. We had to remove like the first 15 episodes of this show because what had happened was we were doing my wife used to do the show with us, and we were doing a birthday episode for her, and it was like her birthday playlist. And I kid you not, it was like five seconds of each song, just so that Taylor, who is not as familiar with rock music, could be familiar with the songs that we were talking about. And man, they hit us and they hit us hard. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Little old us, any type of pay they can get right now, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah. Yeah. I had to argue for I think it was two and a half years, the free use or fair use act. And then basically, my I contacted a lawyer friend who uh specializes in copyright law, and he was like, basically, as long as we can prove you're not making money and have no intent on making money, then we can argue the fair use act, and then there's nothing they can do, which is why this show is not monetized, everyone. We do this for the love of the game. There is no money purposes only, educational purposes only. So if you would like to sponsor me, not the show, please let me know. Anyways, welcome to the show, guys. So we do have Rome like Ghosts on the show. We also have Nickelback and Queens of the Stone Age just dropped new albums today, and Marshmallow did a collab that you will not believe. But first, life updates.

Life Updates Halloween And Voting

SPEAKER_01 4:00

We go around the table and get what's going on in your neck of the woods. So let's start with Bucky. Bucky, what's going on in your world? Like literally, yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Okay. So my daughter's upstairs getting made up for her Halloween party. She brought some friends over. They're doing the dry run for makeup. So pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

That's fine. How old?

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Uh, she's 16. Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

I have a two-year-old in the other room. Okay.

unknown 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

He also is getting done out for Halloween.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah. Okay. What about you, Matt?

SPEAKER_04 4:41

I'm kind of well, my son's here downstairs playing video games, but uh my uh my wife does uh local theater stuff, so she's out with the theater group. They're performing some play. What is it? Uh Once Upon a Mattress, the play is. Oh, okay. She's helping do the house stuff for that. But yeah, other than that, uh voted today. So yeah, cool. Me too, man.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Where's the sticker? Yeah, yeah. It was on my other shirt. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

I don't know. This sounds fake.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Neither one of you have a sticker.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Don't don't try it, Bobby, unless you got a sticker.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So do you have a picture with a date?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, you gotta be you gotta hold the newspaper.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

You gotta get what is it, the the daily times or whatever we have here. So you guys are all Virginia, and and I am going to vote on Tuesday. Are we doing early voting? I didn't know that we had early voting.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Yeah, they've had fairly early voting here for like two, two or three weeks. Oh, first it was at the government center only, and then now that it opened, they opened up some smaller places, so like less than a mile away from me. Gotcha. My son and my wife and I went and voted today.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So heck yeah. I I will be doing it on Tuesday because I didn't know about the early voting. I might maybe I'll go Monday and then just take Tuesday. I already have Tuesday off because of the voting. So maybe I'll just take Tuesday off. I think today was the last day for early voting.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Oh at least here.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

I don't know about Hampton.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

So okay. Well, I guess I'll just go on Tuesday. It's fine. It takes what, like an hour of your day.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Ish, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah. Bobby, what's going on in your world, sir?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Uh I just got my son to bed. He's uh he's gonna be one next week, which is crazy. Oh wow. Congratulations, first. No, no, it's like a child. My daughter put her way to bed right now with my wife. She's uh six. Oh, nice. Very excited for Halloween.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Okay, so what's everyone's kids being for Halloween?

SPEAKER_04 6:49

Mine, mine don't do Halloween anywhere. My daughter's down at school at VCU in Richmond, and then my son stopped doing Halloween years ago. He just never really got into it. And not the free candy? No, he they don't eat much candy. It's really weird. My kids are weird. We always like we always have like bags of Halloween candy sitting around for months. And you know, I get to a point where I was like, I'm like, I can't eat this anymore.

SPEAKER_05 7:17

No.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

But my daughter used to love doing it. She actually uh won Halloween. We I did her makeup and stuff as Pennywise. Nice people around the neighborhood were freaking out because they didn't even know it was her. I had the skull cap with the clown hair and the makeup and everything. It's pretty good. Then she did Chucky one year, and then uh some character for some video game she played called Little Nightmares or something like that. Yes, that's awesome. That's awesome. But she's in theater and so at school, so oh, so you're you're a family of theater. No, my wife got into it because my daughter started doing it, and so my wife started helping out at the high school, and then my daughter tried out for community theater play a couple summers ago and got a part and filled it on the roof. And then my wife started helping out with them and then got on the board, and so and then last summer, this past summer, she did her first produced her first production. They did uh Deer of Enhanced. So my daughter was in that too. But yeah, my daughter's been in theater since like ninth grade. So now she goes to VC to perform. She's actually in her second production there, so we're going down next weekend to see that.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I was actually rejected by the high school theater.

SPEAKER_06 8:43

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

They they had me, so I was in choir and show choir, and I wanted to do theater, and I can't dance. So instead, they had me behind the stage, and I was the the singing voice for one of the characters that was a great actor but couldn't sing.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Oh wow, but he was he was lip-syncing to you, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, so yeah, I never did learn how to dance, but I do love to sing.

New Releases Nickelback And QOTSA

SPEAKER_01 9:16

So, speaking of singing, we do have some big news from one of my favorite bands, Nickelback. It's a massive Friday for rock fans. Nickelback released their 11th studio album called Everything Under the Sun, while Queens of the Stone Age also returned with Perfecteth, their ninth studio record. Both albums arrived on October 30th, which is today. How do you guys feel about Nickelback?

SPEAKER_04 9:47

I've actually seen them live when they we first when they first came out, they were on one of those bills, like you know, the radio stations put on, like had like six or seven bands. I think it was Nickelback, System of the Down, Pete Yorn, Lounge Against the Machine, Blink and Blink 192.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Wait, Lounge Against the Machine, the rip the Richard Cheese project? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

What we love him.

SPEAKER_06 10:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Dude, that's an incredible show. Oh, and I think Coldplay was on that bill, too. It's insane.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

That that one I feel like is a little random for that.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

Yeah. That was uh the the HFS Nutcracker, I think, when HFS was still around. 99 HFS. They were the big alternative.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Wow, man. What a bill.

unknown 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Have you guys ever thought about like some of the concerts you've seen over the years? I think about that from time to time where I'm like, I've seen like smaller to mid-range artists that at the time you have no idea that they're going to be monumental successes. And you just think back on those shows.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

I remember going to uh one of the first warp tours in Uncle Side on the side stage was Limp Biscuit, but the only song that anybody knew was uh the uh Faith song, George Michael Cover. And Blink 182 was a side stage band, and I think even Green Day was. But wild, yeah. So cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

But does anybody dislike Nickelback here?

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Um I'm indifferent. I don't I don't listen to much radio or anything anymore, so you know my musical taste stick to uh like bands that I've been listening to for years, or or if Bobby recommends something.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Like we we we just went and saw curator, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Yeah, we we just went and saw President last uh last month. And so I was like, who who's that? And he can't explain who they were, but we saw I listened. Their new album came out, I think what a couple days before we went to see him. It's really good.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

So given your guys' background, that actually surprises me because Nickleback is one of those bands that is secretly a super heavy, awesome metal band.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah, super awesome. She says sarcastically. No, Taylor, Taylor is Taylor actually is diehard Nickelback, yeah. Big fan.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

But no, I so I I don't like their slower stuff. They have any of their like poppier hits, I don't like, but Silver Side Up, I think is is such a fantastic, like middle of the range metal album. Like somebody that if you're trying to introduce somebody into like harder music and you don't you don't want to just show them like I don't know, cannibal corpse, for example. You know, you don't want to just jump right in, you gotta ease them into it. So you you show them like like animals or or what's another one of their like heavier songs on their side of a bullet, you know what I mean? Like you show them those things and you kind of ease them into the other stuff, polyphia or or periphery or whatever that band is. But speaking of your guys' background, you guys have been doing music for nearly what like 30-ish years, right? 90 93, I think.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

And you guys have but you guys have been in

From Metal Nights To Acoustic Days

SPEAKER_01 14:15

some heavier projects. Do you do you ever find yourselves like missing that harder music?

SPEAKER_06 14:22

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

But at this point in in in my life, it's just like it's like you don't miss going to shows and loading in at six o'clock and not playing till eleven and then getting home at three in the morning. On a Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday, Sunday night, or yeah, or you know, it's just when you when you're an independent band, you know, all the you know, a lot of the marketing and the booking and all that stuff is on you. So it it gets it's I've found over the over the years that it's gotten tougher and tougher and tougher to do yourself. So it's like with with what we do nowadays, we we end up playing like breweries and wineries and stuff like that that want you to play for three hours and have have covers mixed in and stuff like that, and we're just like, uh, you know, so we'll learn a couple covers just to say we do them. Right. We can predominantly play our stuff, but yeah, back in the day it was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

So a lot heavier. Although Harley, what I'll say is if you think about the the progression of our three albums, you know, the first one, yeah, the first one was a little more falky, the second one we introduced some percussion into the folk and got a little bit more Americanish, and then got a little bit a little bit heavier on the third one. So if you think fourth album and background, a little teaser, you never know, man. Yeah, distortion pedals could be coming back out.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

We're and we're gonna dive into the new album. The new album is called Church. That's a little teaser for later. But let me uh I I know you have a son that's playing video games right now, and Taylor and I are big, big fans of

Marshmello Pokemon And Dream Collabs

SPEAKER_01 16:13

video games. One franchise in particular. Marshmallow did an incredible collaboration. It says here, gotta rave them all, the EDM superstar Marshmallow teamed up with Pokemon for their night out event celebrating the franchise's 30th anniversary. October 24th, the show was in Los Angeles and featured Alice in Wonderland, massive Pokemon-themed visuals, lasers, a special DJ set, and the collaboration will be heading to London's O2 Arena on November 10th for one final show. Taylor, I doubt that you actually sat down and watched it, but I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

It was two hours long.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, yeah, it was incredible.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Right? Two hours long. No, I didn't watch it. I I'll I'll I'll listen to a bit of it though.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

However, you guys formed in the 90s, so Pokemon came out in '99. Were any of you guys traveling around with Game Boys back in the day?

SPEAKER_04 17:21

Uh I was never a Pokemon fan.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

I mean, I grew up, you know, don't like picklebone, don't like Nick.

SPEAKER_04 17:31

I grew up, you know, NES. Atari 2600, and then you know, Nintendo NES and then Sony's Sony Sony PlayStation. But there was a certain point that I didn't play anymore. So right. And then then my kids, then you know, when they started playing Xbox and Call of Duty and stuff, I started doing that to try to play with them, but I am not fast on that stuff. So it was like every five seconds dying.

SPEAKER_05 17:59

You know, like going, How can you guys run through this game and kill all these players? And I I dive every I die every five seconds.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

So I I haven't played in years, but my son downstairs he's he's constantly on Call of Duty. So he gets to every version, every every year. I was gonna say the the new one just came out, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4. It's not right now, pre-ordered for months. He's got it couldn't wait for it to get here finally, what, last week?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

So, like I said, I am a diehard fan. I did watch the two-hour event, it was absolutely incredible. The stage presence and performance that Marshmallow put on, that just the effects and the and the oh yeah money invested in in the uh the stage and everything. It was it was really cool to see. But that proposed a bigger question that I wanted to ask you guys is if you guys had the opportunity to do a collaboration with like a major brand, do you guys collectively have like one franchise, one like IP that you guys are passionate about that you would like to see? Like, like for me, I think Pokemon's awesome, but I would love to collaborate with like maybe like a Mortal Kombat or something, you know, something a little more metal core.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

I don't I don't think what we do nowadays goes with any anything like that. So it's it's kind of tough. I don't have anything that comes to mind that I think you know our music right now could collaborate. But you know, back in the day, like like Bucky's and my band in in the 90s set up, you know, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff we had back then that could go go now. And then, you know, Bobby and I had a band in early 2000s that were probably were alternative rock bands that probably had stuff that could probably go with a video game or something, but I don't I don't think you know singing about l love and death and stuff and acoustically is gonna go in in with you know you wait, Matt, you mean to tell me a chocolate brand, maybe what it's tough chocolates, yeah, yeah. Commercial-wise, or something if you're talking about getting license for a commercial and stuff. I always thought our our track crap bring disappear on our second album, our first single. That would have been a great car commercial. You know, I could see that. I could see that on our first album, uh Ballad of a Friend or even you know, Smile that could have been on soundtracks to movies.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I I think your music uh it would be fantastic as soundtracks to different movies. There, especially this new album, Church. Uh there's several movies that I think songs would would fit scenes really nicely. But but Matt, you mean to tell me you don't think that monster energy is gonna be calling you guys up to maybe like Jaegermeister? They they don't want crazy, they don't want weight playing in the background of a monster energy commercial, man.

SPEAKER_04 21:11

Come on, man. I don't know about that. Maybe death and me. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

So funny funny story, but back in this 90s band we keep referring to, Matt and I, we had this song, we'd never record it, but we we thought it would be uh we thought it'd be a great song to play at a hockey game. You know, I'm talking about Matt.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Oh prize fighter.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Prizefighter, yeah. Yeah, it was it was like a fight anthem.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

It was pretty hockey game or football game. It would yeah, definitely was had a very anthemic uh chorus and you know fight, and and that I mean a sample of like crowd cheering. You know, that's awesome. Yeah, that would have been that would have been good. Too bad we didn't have lawyers working for us back then.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Speaking of you, you just brought up the the hockey experience and and mixing that with the fight thing. It reminded me,

Rocky Culture Shifts And Running Steps

SPEAKER_01 22:06

did you guys see the commercials for the new Rocky Balboa like documentary or or what do they call those biopics where it's the story it he's it's the story of him writing Rocky, yes, or not rock, not Rocky. I said Rocky Balboa, I meant like the Stallone, yeah. It's it's his biopic, and it's about him writing the movie Rocky and making the directors force him to play Rocky play Rocky, and he's like a really bad actor in the beginning, yeah. In the beginning, uh through the whole movie, but But also recently that Rocky has come up a lot recently in my life, and I keep telling people that that is a movie I hadn't seen it until last year. I had never seen it. And I watched it and I was like, yo, you could not make this movie today. There are things that are said in that movie that threw me for a loop. I was like, whoa, I didn't know we were ever allowed to say those things.

SPEAKER_04 23:09

Well, there's there's tons of movies that wouldn't. I was like past. Yeah. Yeah. A couple months ago, I think I was flipping around the TV in uh Revenge of the Nerds, the first movie. Oh, you never. Oh my god, you can't do that. That's isn't that you know this? Isn't that that?

SPEAKER_05 23:29

They didn't be arrested.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

There's no way. No way. Cancel. But back then it was like, oh, fun and games.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

48 hours.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

48 hours, yeah. We can't, it's like it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Harley, did you since you're into Rocky, uh you're gonna run the you're gonna run the Rocky steps at the uh art museum in Philly?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Uh you know what? I might. I might. Uh as you guys can tell, I am a big runner. It's like it's on his 2026 bingo bird. I'm I'm right here with you. Yes, uh wellness and fitness are my are my two big things over here. But I would like to go walk up the steps, that would be fun. I've I've only been to Philly once.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

I would like to do the Rocky statues there, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Yeah, yeah. And and I could do it holding a cheese stick, so that's pretty cool. I've never seen Rocky. Do I need to watch it? You should watch Rocky. Actually, I can send you like five scenes. You don't need to watch the whole movie. I can send you five scenes to pretty much yeah. Well, there's a guy and he fights another guy.

SPEAKER_06 24:36

Yes, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

You saw it. Yeah, all five of them. And and one of them is Sylvester Stallone, and he has a hard time with the English language.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Well, let's dive into this interview, guys.

Building Rome Like Ghosts Sound

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Uh, we are here to talk about you, right? So the first thing I want to talk to you guys about is you have been in the industry for a very, very long time. And I'd like to know how has the last 30 years and seeing the scenes shift. Yeah, I know. I keep aging you guys, right? But it's been 30 years.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

You have seen no no, 24.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

You have seen the the shift in the shift in different like music scenes, especially in rock music. Like we have gone through so many changes over those years. How has that influenced where you guys have ended up today?

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Yeah. I remember I remember Matt when we were trying to get signed with Seta, and we kept getting these messages at the time, what was that? Mid 90s, I guess, early 90s. We kept getting these messages that you're not hard enough because the new metal was breaking, right? And you're too hard for what was also breaking, which was the stuff and uh yeah, and the Matchbox 20 and stuff like that. So we were in this zone that just didn't like fit, and that was like the theme of many of our or several of our rejections, and you know, it's frustrating because you're trying to be also be original and not like fold to one, you know, lean to one side or the other. But I don't know. I mean, I think I think for me, I think it's a it's it's so many. I mean, because of the longevity that you mentioned, Arlie, there's so many musical influences that I feel is is kind of in the fusion of what we do, whether it's you know in the in the musical style or it's or in the themes that you know in the style that Matt sings in. So so I think like I feel like even though you could say, hey, it sounds a little bit post-grungy, acoustic-y, folky, but like it's hard to like put a label stamp on it, you know. When people ask, like, hey, what do you guys sound like? It's like it's always the hardest question to answer. Yeah, definitely. Well, uh, you know, who do you who do you listen to? Maybe we can say we're close to this, we're close to that. So yeah, well, so oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 28:04

I was gonna say with the each of the albums that have come out, I I've sent to people and go, Hey, listen to this, and could you throw out names of other acts that are current that we would fit in with, or sound like, or genre like, and and you'd get back no response, or just be like, I don't know, you know, and it's just like just give me something.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Give us one. Well, for for me, like when I listened to church specifically, and and hold on, because I have it written down here, yeah, death and me. This this will lead into that question, but but for me, specifically death and me, I really, really heard a lot of 90s influence, and and it was a combination of I would say like like dishuala vertical horizon type, but then you also in that specific song brought in. Do you guys remember Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles? Like you're you're no, so well, so they have this song called Seven Bridges Road, and your harmonies in that song reminded me a ton of like those earlier Eagles harmonies with like the 90s grunge kind of persona singing. Like those 90s, yeah. Um I could do like five seconds and then we gotta shut the show down. But um, I do think that like there's there's this really cool thing that you guys are doing where you guys are this acoustic trio and and you have this very, very eagles style because they were really known for a lot of their more soft and and harmonic and and melodic tunes, but you also have this 90s instrumental influence that you can clearly pinpoint and hear in the songs, yeah. So I I thought that was like really really cool. Uh but as far as like the the changes over the years, like the 90s, you saw a lot of the the goo-goo dolls and and matchbox 20 and hootie and all of those bands, but you also had bands like the Toadies and The Butthole Surfers and uh uh drawing blanks right at the moment, Silverstein and and other, you know, a handful of bands that I would say that are not necessarily new metal, but like they're in between, you know what I mean? I think there was a place. I just it sucks because uh the industry was so uh heavily structured around labels then, and and I feel like now things are just so different that you guys have an opportunity to to grow and prosper and and be what you guys intended to be with a new outlook and a new influence. Because I do love the acoustic stuff and I do love the the like I said, the harmonies and stuff of all of you singing together. I think that's a really cool thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

So I I sorry, I got lost in my own in my own phrasings there, but I mean I think one one thing uh that comes to mind for me is that when when we formed Ghosts, yeah, this was this was an intentional effort to be to sound and be different than what we had been before. And and the material, as you can tell, is is a lot different than come the much earlier stuff. And and but it was it was also an exploration, you know, because it was it was you know coming up with you know riffs and ideas and what you know we call these little micro tracks, you know, and recording on the phone and sending it to Matt, and Matt put uh you know a lyric over it and sending it back, and then we build it into a song and and so forth, but it was always in this kind of acoustic-y, folky approach, which was never the approach before. The approach before was just you know, turn it up, crank the distortion, make it as loud as possible, you know, and the more feedback the better. So it stripped it stripped things down to a like a purity level, you know. Um I remember doing early shows with Matt where it's just me and Matt, an acoustic guitar and a vocal and uh, you know, on a stage. You talk about like exposing yourself, you know, to like the purest element. So you can't you can't really hide behind that. You don't have a distortion pedal to hide behind, you don't have like a full, you know, band to hide behind. And right I think there's that interesting kind of purity in this kind of style of music that we're doing that it resonates for me.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

And for me too, it was just, you know, when Bucky started sending me these tracks, somewhere had little country twinge to them or Americana, and it's like you know, it's it wasn't something I thought ever thought about doing, but it's not it wasn't far from a lot of stuff that I I'd listened to over the years, you know. Um so it was just like, okay, you know, I could but I I'd also hear like things in the songs that reminded me of you know, alternative bands that you know I'd listened to over the years and stuff like on our first album, Smile, when I when I wrote that, I totally had Dinosaur Jr. Yeah in my mind. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'd be like, oh, this is so cool if J Massis could sing this and you know, do this song. And and just the way I I think I phrased some of the wording and stuff, I I, you know, was influenced by him. And you know, even lyrics to songs, I kind of put in little Easter eggs like for things to other bands or something that I've listened to over the years. So I'm not gonna point them out, but you know, here um you'll have to write somebody like check. That's right.

SPEAKER_06 33:56

I might be in your copyright shoes, but um don't worry, man.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

We're lawyered up. We we're good.

SPEAKER_04 34:05

One of our songs uh when me and Bucky aren't set up in the 90s, we had a song that I I sang in at the bridge. I sang A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down. Yeah, you know, it was a it was a you know a song about a you know being on drugs and stuff, you know. And I was just like, I wonder if we're ever gonna get sued for this. Well, Mary Poppins, yeah. Yeah. It never happened, but I don't know how many people listen to that album.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

So do we think Mary Poppins was on drugs?

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Quick pull. Ooh, good question.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

I think so.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

Somebody in that production was somebody in that production.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

I was gonna say, are we talking about the actress or are we talking about the character? The character,

Mary Poppins Daycare And Siestas

SPEAKER_01 34:47

the character, the character, probably probably right. Yeah, she's the one that comes down on like a like an umbrella, right? Yep, yeah, definitely the whole time that she's just dripping, dripping deliberately, dude.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Also crazy that they just left their kids. Like, I dude, I have a two-year-old, so child care, I understand it's hard, man. Like sometimes you just gotta make choices, and thinking about Mary Poppins now, this woman just comes out of the sky, and you're just like, Yeah, sure, it is too hard.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Like a godsend though, right? If you if you need child care and then like a nanny just comes down with an umbrella from the sky. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

I literally just we so we just just did this whole thing with my son where we're trying to find daycares, right? And and one of the in-home daycares, the lady's never gonna listen. I'm not gonna say her name or anything, but the one of the in-home daycares, Taylor knows this story. I get in there and I'm looking at the facility, and it's this very, very small room. And I'm like, okay, this is the playroom, right? Where do the kids nap? Where's like the nap room? And she goes, Oh no, it's here. And I was like, Where are the beds? And she was like, Well, you send them with a blanket, and I have this pack and play, he can sleep in there, or I have these little like bouncy chairs for like babies. And I was like, Well, he's two and he's three and a half feet tall, so the chair's not an option. And I was like, How many kids do you guys have? And she was like, 11. And I was like, I can't fit four of me in this room standing, and you're you have 11 children sleeping in either one pack and play or on the floor, clearly.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Like, yeah, they're they're putting those babies on the floor. It's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

But the bad part was the bad part was if she was in my top three choices. Because you're like, well, I mean, the price though.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Yeah, he'll be all right, he'll be all right on the floor. I mean, I'd send the kids with a yoga mat. I'd be less upset if they were sleeping on a yoga mat.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Ain't no way we were fitting yoga mats in there, dude.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

I don't want to date myself, but when I was in kindergarten, they'd send you with this called a sleep mat. Yes, because you'd have nap time in the middle of the day in the kindergarten.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Oh, same thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

So yeah. When did nap time stop, by the way? Can we bring that back?

SPEAKER_02 37:14

We gotta bring it back.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I think I think once you hit 30, you should be allowed to get nap time again. Like one hour during the workday just to refresh. Unfortunately, I think they call it lunchtime. But yeah, yeah, it's like eat or nap. You choose. Yeah, you choose.

SPEAKER_06 37:34

Either way, we're gonna take it.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Either way, we're gonna need you to be productive. What is it in Spain? Don't they have siestas or something like that? When in the middle of the day, you can go take it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Isn't that like a four-hour thing too? They're like, Yeah, you just go home. I think there's I think like halfway through the day, they're like, You go home, come on back when you're ready. We got you. I think we're left drink, too.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

Coming back's gotta be the hard part.

SPEAKER_06 37:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

I don't know, man. If if my employer told me that I could go home in the middle of the day, do whatever I need to do, just come back, I would probably be amped to come back. Honestly, if you were like, hey, at 11, go ahead, cut out for like four hours, do what you need during the day, and then come back this evening, I'd be like, dude, sold. I will be there.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Anyway, sorry, back to back to the questions. If Rome Like Ghosts had to become a wedding cover band, what is the one wedding cover song you would refuse to play? Everybody's got theirs. Mine's Freebird.

Covers We Refuse And Surprise Requests

SPEAKER_01 38:39

If you ask me to play Freebird, I will pack my guitar up and leave. You mean any song for okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Well, I haven't I haven't done a lot of covers, so Bobby and I were in his dad's cover band for a while. And all the covers we picked were songs that we wanted to do, so I can't I can't think of uh I'm thinking of Matt.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

I'm thinking of the cover requests from the uh the the drunk crew of people at our last show. Remember, they kept coming up saying and then I kept playing the rift to it every now and then, and they were getting all wound up. You know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_04 39:17

Vaguely, I vaguely remember.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Sweet home Alabama. It's like, yes, yes, do you know it? We're like, yeah, of course you know it, right? Because it's like a staple, but like we don't play it, and then they then they like didn't believe we knew it. So then I like played the riff, and then you know, they react because they think you know it's yeah, you gotta mess with them sometimes, but you you blue balls an entire group of people.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

That's so funny. Yeah, just a bunch of drunk bros, like, oh, and then you just like nah.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

We're not going there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Yeah, that's a great one. Sweet home about Alabama is a great one. Freebird for me. I think there's there's another one that like every time I would play, oh, Thunderstruck. Every time I would play somebody, it was either Thunderstruck or the Van Halen one eruption. Okay. That was I always hated when people would be like, Can you play? Can you play this? Can you play that? It's it's really annoying as a musician when like you have your set and you're like, dude, I've been practicing these 35 songs for weeks, and you just come up here and you're like, Well, what about this one?

SPEAKER_03 40:23

Yeah, the one you like you don't have in your arsenal. Yeah. We've had like, I don't know, it's actually an interesting thing. We've had we've had interesting cover requests out besides the drunks with the sweet home Alabamas, which I think probably speaks to how people are receiving our music, right? So, like Matt, at the one show with the dude that came up was like, Can you play Outshine? by that's like good, right? Yeah, you know, and then the the dude that came up at the music festival asked if we knew Screaming Trees. Yeah, the Screaming Trees, which is a cover that we actually do. We just haven't done it forever, so yeah, we didn't own up to it. But so you you you start to wonder, like, are they hearing something there? Right. Yeah, they're they're hearing some 90s stuff, or or they're just drunk and nostalgic on 90s stuff.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

I have no idea, but yeah I I do like when somebody brings like an interesting cover choice.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Yeah. We have one. Do you?

unknown 41:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

Yeah. You want to tell them about it, Matt? The one that people, the one that people think starts to sound a little bit like Metallica, but then uh breaks into a little RB.

SPEAKER_04 41:37

Yeah, we do we do Billy Jean. No we do it slow and acoustic. It's similar to the Chris Cornell version, but it doesn't sound like him, but yeah, like us. But yeah, when Bucky starts playing it, I kind of want to start singing what uh is it Unforgiven by Metallica? Because it sounds like that pace. Almost the same notes, yeah. Yeah, so I'd I'd love to like just do like a verse of that before when we start playing it and then go into Billy Jean, it it would be cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

But I saw, I'm sure you guys have heard of them. They're called Woe. They're a big like Virginia 90s cover band, but I saw them one evening and they did a a mashup of Inner Sandman and Alice and Chains. What song was it? Not not Rooster, yeah, Man in a Box, yeah, yeah. They did a mashup of those two, and I was like, oh dude, I never would have thought of putting those two songs together, and it was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

Similar BPM, that's what makes it work, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

So let's discuss the new album Church. Okay, I do want to talk about the lyrics because we've had a great time tonight, but you guys write

Church Album Stories Of Grief

SPEAKER_01 42:59

some real heavy depressing shit. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

I pride myself on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

You nailed it, man. You nailed it. The the weight changed my afternoon when I heard it. Yeah, I had to like re- I was I listened to it on my way home. I was already going through like a depressive episode, and then I put that on because I was doing some research and I was like, fuck, I picked the wrong song for this drama. So if you could tell me a little bit about well, I guess let me let me tell you what it was for me. Yeah, I think I even told Taylor on the phone recently when we were having a discussion about depression about like the weight of everything, like just just feeling like the world puts so much weight on your shoulders, and and you want to be a provider and you want to be able to handle everything. So you just keep carrying it and carrying it and saying, like, yeah, I got this, I can hold this. There's there's a a very famous um book. I I don't remember the book, but like the Atlas Shrugs basically of like Atlas is holding up the weight of the world, and then he shrugs and it falls off his shoulders. Is that kind of the the lyrics in a nutshell?

SPEAKER_04 44:13

It it's kind of that way, but when I wrote it, my dad had passed away and he he passed away from dementia and and heart attack and stuff like that. And and I I always when I write, I kind of think of a story or something to write about. And then, you know, when I was writing it, I I it's kind of based on how at the end of life, his life, you know, he was just too tired to do anything, he couldn't go on, you know, and and it was the like you said, the weight of everything that just pulled him down that you know it it's nothing, it's something he couldn't come back from. And so, you know, if you if you you know, at the very the the end of the song where he says, you know, you know, I did my best and I loved you all.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

So dude, that that hit me so hard that day. I I kid you not, I I balled like a baby in my driveway. Like it was like the it was the thing that I needed to hear because it was the words that I needed to get out myself, but I understood like the gravitas of it, you know, and and like like yeah, that that is like I didn't realize that story behind it, but for me as somebody that was dealing with some really, really deep depression stuff, it was that that like final note, basically, you know what I mean? So, like, yeah, it hit it hit hard, man.

SPEAKER_06 45:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

I also want to say that so. Hard to say goodbye is my favorite song from the album. Thanks.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

That's another song about losing somebody.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Oh that one for me was more instrumental. Like I just think that like instrumentally that song just kicks ass. I don't know how I'll say it. It's like the most kick-ass song on the album. How did you guys decide instrumentally how you were gonna like kind of carry this album? Because it does change rapidly from the beginning from Death and Me to I I forget what the final track is right now, so I do apologize. But like the transition melodically and instrumentally and everything, like they're all vastly different, and and it does kind of carry this, like kind of like you said, like a story throughout of like just such a change in emotion throughout, you know? So how did how did you guys kind of approach that process?

SPEAKER_04 46:40

I I think we try to with music and stuff, we try to, you know, it's always different things and different influences. And then then when it comes to me writing something, I just it's what I feel at the time goes with that music that Bucky presents, you know, and then it's then when we get those pieces together, then we go, okay, what else do you hear in this? You know, like we've got uh hasta luego, and it's just like dude, it'd be cool to like have a Spanish trumpet and in that you know, like loungy background, and the the songs about just your life's mundane and you're looking for something to like give it some purpose, you know, and it's yeah, it's it's just that you know, like like I said, so hard to say goodbye, it's like lose somebody. So, you know, you got those you got the ham and organ in there, yeah that you know really hits you along with everything else. And yeah, it's just it's just crazy how each song is sound different. Definitely sounds different, but it I guess that's why people find it hard to to to say, oh you sound like this, because not every sound fits a certain genre you know, or or the all the sounds to songs together don't fit a certain genre. We've we're all over the place. But then that's what makes it us.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

That actually leads me into my next two questions for you. Number one, like we've talked about throughout this interview, comparing the collection of your music, the first three albums you guys have done, each album vastly different than the other, right? This one vastly different within the album. Do you find that because of how do I want to put this? As an artist, we want artists to do the art that they love and not try and fit into our box, right? You want to make the art that you're proud of, and it doesn't need to be for anybody else but you. But at the same time, this is an industry. So do you find the lack of cohesiveness within this album making it difficult to transcend with the industry?

SPEAKER_03 49:10

That's a good question. I mean, I think for me, I don't even think about the industry. I I I don't really care about it, to be honest with you. I think we try to just make music that is important to us, you know, and tells our story and reflects our art. You know,

Art Versus Industry Streaming And Licensing

SPEAKER_03 49:26

that's that's how I approach it. I mean, we're obviously not doing like crazy experimental stuff that has no structure. I can't translate because that's not who we are either. But but you know, when we when we go into record though, I think we we that's when kind of the industry context comes in a little bit for us, you know, because you know, we you know, we wanna, I mean, we've evolved and we said, okay, we're not doing seven-minute songs anymore, you know, and and things like that. And you know, we want to make sure we have, you know, the good hook and and and our engineer, you know, gives us a bunch of shit all the time about, you know, don't bore us, get to the chorus, and things like that that are like principles that we've used over the last three albums. And but like I for me, I don't think industry, I don't think like, you know, we've got to write it this way to sell it this way. We don't need to sound like nickelback, sorry, Taylor, uh break through, you know. I want us to be me, right? I want us to be us, right? You know, and and uh and I think we put a lot of we put a lot of energy and creativity into our studio productions, you know, because we we think that that takes stuff to the next level of what we're trying to express, not necessarily to get it on the radio, but to like lift the expression, you know, for right for it. So that that's how I view it, but I'm not sure what the other guys care more about the industry than I do.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Yeah, Bucky, I think like we have to talk about the writing process a little bit. So, like when we start out with the song, Bucky will have a little idea on guitar and then you know show it to us. Matt and I'll kind of build off of it, try and create a hook or whatever we can do, add harmonies, whatever needs to be done. And we're not really trying to make sure everything has the same sound, we're kind of just trying to make sure that whatever we have out there is the best version of what it could be. Yeah, like Bucky said, once we get with the engineer, we start building on that, we start adding layers, like, oh, organ would sound great here, and then our engineers, like, oh, I know a guy, and then we kind of just go from there.

SPEAKER_04 51:19

Yeah, yeah. I I do think about the industries to a certain extent because I'm not looking to like go on tour and sell at arenas or anything like that. I'm looking more at the business of it of getting licensed, you know, getting in getting in a commercial, getting in a in a video game if if necessary, or you know, in a movie and stuff, because those are the paydays, you know, that that and once people start hearing that in a movie, they're gonna go, then they'll flock to to get your stuff because they're like, Oh, wow, did you hear that? Or if they see it in a series that's on like every week or something like that. You know, I think of it in that way because you know, I I'm at the age now where I I'm not young and sprid that where I want to just drop everything and go on tour or something like that. Yeah. So I mean, it would be nice to have shows that you know you have a full house of people come to see you. But um, absolutely. But yeah, I I I think of it more as like, hey, let's get streaming, get let's, you know, like a lot of people are doing it because of the because that's the industry nowadays, streaming and and all that stuff. But so it's just like when the album comes out, I I'm constantly, you know, pushing it to playlists and doing the marketing and stuff for it, you know, and advertising for it so people go play the album and we get the streams and get on other people's playlists and stuff like that, rather than hey, I need to go play this live somewhere and be fit this, fit this mold or do this. But yeah, that's that's the the part of the industry I think about.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

But the industry is so saturated, man. I mean, it's just yes, it's just out of control. You know, Matt does a really good job of uh putting our shit out there and and trying to find spaces for it. But it's just like it's like throwing a pebble into the ocean, man. It's just like it's it's absolutely crazy. But Harley, to hear that the weight touched you the way that it touched you, man, that makes all the difference to to me. And uh definitely, you know, I mean, like, you know, that that takes this art expression to another level, meaning that it is actually reaching people in a you know in a in a particular moment. I take that over, you know, the song being played on a local college radio station any day, you know. Right. Any fucking day. Yeah.

unknown 53:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

I don't think people are gonna sing the weight at hockey games.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

Well, I it it is one of those things where like, you know, even with our podcast, right? Like you we we constantly have to look at our audience, look at you know, we're we're putting up various things every week, so we have to look at it and say, oh, well, they like when we're more like this. Do we do we kind of do more of that and sacrifice what we originally wanted to be, or do we continue doing what we want to be and hope that it finds the right people?

SPEAKER_02 54:18

So it's for nobody, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

That's right. It is something that you do have to grapple with as an artist, you know. You have to really sit and think and say, like, okay, well, I I want to be me, I want to be authentic, but I also want people to enjoy what I'm doing, and I want it, I want to pay off in some capacity, right? Like, we all want to pay off in some capacity, whether it be monetarily or or literally like this discussion we're having, where like now you guys know that your song did touch somebody, like that is that payoff, you know. So it doesn't have to be the monetary side, it can be that and and understanding that like do we it's such a tight rope to walk, you know? It's very difficult, very difficult.

SPEAKER_04 55:02

Yeah, I feel I feel we don't cater to any specific thing, you know, and that's what I like about uh that we do not do that. And we're there's not a formula for thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

We we're not gonna the other thing too though, which is is good for what you guys are doing, is unfortunately I think that the album is dying. I think

Are Albums Dying Vinyl Returns

SPEAKER_01 55:30

that we have officially moved into the world of singles, yeah, and more and more artists are now putting out singles, and all of their album releases become this like hodgepodge of every single the last three years, and like none of it's cohesive, none of it goes together. And as somebody who's an album collector, as somebody who loves to sit down and listen to an entire experience, that can be frustrating for somebody like me, not with your guys' stuff, though. Like be and and specifically like church, like I said, it is kind of everything is different, but there is a through line, there is a sound, you know what I mean? Like every ACDC song is exactly the same, but every Scorpion song isn't, you know what I mean? Like there is a through line that I appreciate. But right now, I think a big issue that is hurting the industry is this idea of instead of putting out albums, we're putting out singles, and then to the music collector and the music enthusiast, we're putting together these large collections of songs that don't go together. And like yours at least tell a cohesive story. Yours have a through line and have like the emotion and like you know, the the melodies and the and the sound choices. There is that through line of like everything is produced together, yeah, instead of here's a single, here's a single, you know.

SPEAKER_03 56:55

Well, and the uh and you know the song orders aren't by accident either. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:00

I mean, yeah, we we go back and forth.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Spend a lot of time while we're talking through that, yeah. Um we've actually created songs to fit the album in order, right? Like the the outro track to to church is, you know, like we felt like it needed something to close it out.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Right.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

And it needed to be unique and it needed to be, you know, different and and kind of capturing kind of you know some of the some of the story essence and it's and it's also instrumental, right? So so things like that I think are are are really interesting. I don't think we I think we do we don't approach studios. We do approach studios as from an album perspective, you know, we don't approach it from a single perspective. Right. We have an idea of what we think a single would be, you know, of course. But by the way, I was just speaking, just thinking your your comment about you know, you know about that. There is hope because you know they say they they say analog's making its way back, right? So you're seeing, you know, the you know, the the LPs and the and the and the um record players and you know, people hanging out, you know, waiting in line to get in Radio Shack to buy some like analog tech. And Bobby's our tech guy, so he, you know, he could talk about like the analog stuff, but you know, I I think that that hopefully can you know bring back some some some hope for you know our larger story than just one song, right? You know, right, right. Larger experience than just one song, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

Yeah, vinyl's on the way up, man. We talked about it, I think, last month, but it's the the second largest music medium as of recently. So vinyl is definitely on its way back, and young kids are actually going back to collecting CDs too. I think just physical in general is is coming back.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

Yeah, I just got rid of like 400 CDs, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Right. Rookie move.

SPEAKER_04 58:52

Yeah, totally. They've been in storage for the last 15 years, my whole CD collection, because it's all it's all it's all burnt on hard drive now. And yeah, I've got backups of everything, but I you know, I've got had a storage unit, and I was going, I gotta get rid of this because it just keeps going up every year. So we got rid of we had all our DVDs in there that could probably furnish a DVD store. We had like over like 700 DVDs, and my my one of my wife's co-workers found out about what you were giving away, and my wife had meticulously logged all the CDs in each of the bins. And so she just took them to work, and the girls like highlighting all the ones they wanted. So we gave her enough movies for to watch for at least two years, I think. But then I gave the rest to Goodwill.

SPEAKER_03 59:37

I mean any uh any gems in there, Matt, you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_04 59:45

No, I I gave all our CDs to Goodwill to I had I had some uh R R V uh Richmond V CDs I pulled and took a picture of and posted on the Richmond forum. Because yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

I love that. I have Harley's original CD in my car.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

I also have Harley's original CD in the studio somewhere. Yeah, old Sunset Boulevard, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

That's right, with your with your little hippie outfit.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Yeah, nice. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

Well, guys, Taylor's got stories. Yes. Oh, she's got a lot of stories. Um I I just want to take a moment and say thank you so much for being on the show today. I do want to ask you guys one final thing. Where can we find you and what kind of dates you got

Where To Find The Band Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

going on? And obviously, like I said, the the band is Rome Like Ghosts, and the new album, Church, is out right now. You can listen to it on Apple, Spotify, and all those good things. But where where can we see you?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:52

Currently, we don't have anything booked. Um we've we're done for the year. We're taking time off. We haven't written a lot this past year just because of our our lives have been so busy, you know. Bobby's got a new baby, and you know Bucky's got work in a 16-year-old, and I got two kids in college that I'm going back and forth in two different places, you know. So it's been kind of a little tough. Yeah. So we're gonna take a break and then focus on trying to get some new tracks together and stuff like that, and then see what happens then. Maybe studio or you know, maybe a couple of gigs here and there next year. But we're not sure. But you know, we we keep every our our website updated. And we've got Instagram and then Facebook as well, Facebook group page or whatever that we we constantly post on. Well, not constantly post, but we keep updated with new new things, like uh albums or shows or anything like that. So yeah, roam like ghosts.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:57

So Harley, Harley. I'm spending quality time now with my resonator and my 12th string. There you go. Um, some interesting things are emerging, so we'll see what comes out of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:11

It was funny. We saw Toad the Wet's Brocket last week, and one of the guitar did it, they're on their acoustic tour, and one of the guys, extras they had in the background was playing a resonator slide guitar. My god, my my wife goes, What is he playing? And I was like, I'd explain the whole resonator guitar, how he's doing slide.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

Shout out, uh, I think Glenn Phillips was his name. He was a guest on the show once. But if you guys ever need a feature, I am looking to to get back out there. I'd be happy to play on a track. Just say it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

Please put him on a track.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

He needs a track. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

He needs a track, guys. But he cover your ears. He really needs that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

I got I got I got I got this this beautiful ESP right here, and I got a uh a PRS that's begging to get played. So it's difficult when you have a kid, man. I I get it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

All right, your baby's pretty good at drums.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

So yeah, but he he hates, dude. I tried to I was playing Drowning Pole the other day because I've been on a Drowning Pole kick. Yeah, he came in, I was playing Tearing Away, and and he came in and literally walked over and like put his hand on the guitar and was like, Dad, oh okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

My kids did that to me when they were they were little too. I'd be playing my cooistic or something or singing, dad. Shut up, stop singing. Yeah, they they hate it. Um, but do you play the drowning pool version of you know I can count to five?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

I I have he likes the music. He loves drowning pool. That's that's why I was like, what do you mean? You love this song. He's he's a big Drowning Pull, Lincoln Park, God smack, stained, clubhouse. We're right, we're raising him good. He's not a big system of a down guy, though. It's it's kind of disappointing. So I'm a big system of a down guy. Yeah, you like nickelback? Like he does like nickelback.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:06

He does like nickelback. Oh okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

Listen, the nickelback hate is forced. You cannot like them, but if you come on, you're like, I hate nickelback, but you don't.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:17

I'm not saying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

You heard that on the internet somewhere, yeah, and you went with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

I never said I dislike them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

I just know that I just know them by name. I have no, I couldn't, I couldn't pick one.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

I'll accept those answers. I'll accept that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:31

They had an album called, I think it was called Feed the Machine. It came out in like 2016, something around there. 16, 17. I don't know. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I would

Nickelback Hate Origins And Comeback

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

I would encourage you to listen to that album if you're if you're a big metal guy, because like man, they really killed it on that one. It but it went unnoticed because everybody hated them at the time. So it just like yeah, it just kind of disappeared into the algorithm. But like that, that's a killer album. Where did the hate come from? So it's they they have a very fantastic documentary. I can I can give a brief synopsis, but they they do have a great documentary about it. More or less, they were so popular when they came out that they had crossed over so many genres that the song How You Remind Me, I think they in the documentary talk about the the time, but it's like that song was playing on a radio station every two minutes for like a year straight. So people just were so sick and tired of hearing that song. And then a comedian, well, no, a comedian did a joke on a late night show. I forget the comedian's name, but he was on the big bang theory. He played the geologist on the big bang theory. But he made I know you're talking about yeah, yeah, yeah. It's uh Brian Brian. Yes, yes, yep, that's him. Um, so he made a joke about Nickelback on a late night show, and the world just went with that, and they became the laughing stock of an entire generation.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

Yeah. But like if you play someone in Nickelback's all, they'll be like, hey, it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

I mean, it got it got so bad that like there are videos of Chad Kroger like raging off of stage because they they just were getting so much hate. But they made a massive comeback with Taylor's generation. Her generation loves nickelback from all of the memes of like the photograph song. So now they've had a giant resurgence, and yeah, they're doing great.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

I'm glad Gen Z could do something.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

It's about damn time, it's about time.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

All right, I'm going to work.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

No, Taylor does have to go to bed, she's got to work early tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

Actually, this Gen Z does have to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:54

So, again, thank you so much for being on the show, truly. This was absolutely awesome. You guys are great.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:00

Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

Of course, of course. You guys are always welcome back. And and like I said, I'm a Virginia guy, so please hit me up. Love to have you over.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:08

That's cool. My stepson lives in Virginia Beach, and I got my best friends live in Norfolk.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:14

So hey, there you go. You got to drive right past me. In Harley's neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

So, Harley, when he shows up, don't be surprised now. That's right. Hey, you invited him.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

Hey, I got beers ready, man. With my toothbrush and pillows.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:28

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

All right, guys. Thank you again. We'll see you later. This has been the Hook and Bridge podcast, everybody.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:35

All right, bye bye.