LES HERNANDEZ

LES HERNANDEZ

How did you develop a love for music, and what was your first exposure to rock music? When did you reach a point where you wanted to play and write songs, and how did this come about? Were your early attempts private or shared with others, and did you receive encouragement from friends/family?

Music, rock and roll in particular, has always been a part of me. I was always surrounded by it and always glued to the oldies channel on my transistor radio when I was a kid, listening to classics from the 1950s and '60s. It's the type of music I was drawn to the most back then in the 1970s, until I caught the Ramones on Sha Na Na's TV show.

My dad managed a (then) contemporary rock/funk/soul band who rehearsed in our dining room when I was really young, and I'd sit in an watch them in awe, feeling the bass drum thump through my chest. I guess I always knew I wanted to do that--play music--so it was never a conscious decision. I wanted to grow up and be just like Buddy Holly, with becoming a priest running right behind that, based solely on the cool looking fascist-chic duds those guys wore. Of course, the priest idea was dropped in the fourth grade when I decided to read their bible and didn't like what was in there. That's when I started actually trying to teach myself chords, though I actually started taking guitar seriously later, at around thirteen.

I learned your basic open chords first, just from watching my dad play his acoustic and trying to replicate it later by myself. I taught myself simple tunes like La Bamba and Twist & Shout, writing my first song almost immediately. It was, of course, about a girl I had a crush on at the time. I won't even pretend it was good in any way, but it was a start. My friends and family encouraged me early on, until I was fifteen or sixteen and my mom found some very anti-Christian lyrics I had written. By that point I'd already been into metal and punk for a few years, but still loved my oldies music.

Was The Catalogs your first band? Were you doing any songwriting or recording prior to The Catalogs? How did you get together with those guys, and what were your goals? Which bands influenced the sound the most, and how did you end up connecting with Timbo's Mutant Pop Records?

My first band was actually a band I joined that a few friends started, called Trill. I was on rhythm guitar, playing a beast of a guitar my friends and I called my Bumper guitar, because it wasn't quite a Fender, but it had Gibson pickups and was cobbled together with a Fender neck and homemade body by a friend of my father. That band never made it anywhere the gigging stage, but we did make a whole lot of fun memories. I had a boatload of songs written by this point, but never shared them yet. Hell, I still haven't shared most of those tunes with anyone to this very day.

The Catalogs came about in either late 1993 or early '94. Some friends and I who were all heavily into bands like the Ramones, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, MTX, etc., were bullshitting over beers, as we loved to frequently pass the time doing, when we started talking about starting a band of our own. Our original singer, Pat, and bassist, Kevin, knew another guitarist and drummer, so I said we should do it--and we did. It came together immediately, and so I just kept pulling out more songs as quickly as we could learn them. We were playing shows in no time, and recorded our first demo, Viva los Muertos!, in mid-late 1995, just before we had a show booked with The Queers. The Queers covering Another Girl is what got Timbo at Mutant Pop interested in us.

The Catalogs didn't release a lot of material, but everything released was very solid. Were their plans to do a full-length? Also, what are your recollections of penning the song you're probably most known for - "Another Girl"? It's truly a timeless one!

Thank you! We did want to do a full-length, for sure! Things happen when everything moves so fast and stuff gets in the way, so we just never got around to it. Not long after we released our demo, our then drummer (who wasn't our original drummer, but whom recorded with us) quit the band to move away. Justin became our main singer a while before that. Another Girl was written about, let's call it bumps in the road, and that particular bump was affecting a friend of mine. I'll leave the rest of that one in the past for now.

Did Joe Queer tell you ahead of time that he was going to cover Another Girl? What did you think when you heard Don't Back Down and his version of it? Have you written songs for other bands before or since? 

The way it happened was, the night we played with The Queers in Honolulu, we had never played Another Girl live before in front of anyone, so it was the last song in our set right before they went on. Joe came up to me after the show and told me how much he liked the song--I was incredibly flattered! He mentioned wanting to cover it and I, of course, said I'd be more than happy for them to. So, Lookout! Records drew up a contract and the rest is history. I played their version on repeat countless times from cassette Joe sent me before the album's actual release. I loved it!

I never purposely tried to write for other bands, though I'm not opposed to the idea of writing material for others. If a band wants to cover something I wrote and are willing to go through the whole legal royalty thing, I'm cool with that!

How has being a resident of Hawaii impacted your goals in terms of touring and exposure as a musician? Is it daunting to try to plan shows on the mainland or elsewhere? Was there a significant pop punk scene in Hawaii at the time The Catalogs were active? How about since?

Living in Hawaii is pretty expensive, so that plus distance makes touring next to impossible. I moved to Washington State in 1997, when The Catalogs were prepping to record our 7" for Mutant Pop, and we played a few shows in the PNW. When I moved to Portland in 2006 and reformed The Quintessentials there, we toured. In Hawaii I prefer to keep shows few and far between because no one wants to see the same band week after week. It should be special and exciting.

The scene here today is very different from back in the mid/late 1990s. Poppunk has changed a lot as well. I can't say I really recognize it anymore. There's already a generation gap too wide to bridge the disconnect. The punk and metal scenes I grew up in are nothing like the ones active today. Needless to say, as much as I want to support the scene, I can't be disingenuous or phony about it.

When did The Quintessentials form and under what circumstances? Were you already interested in/studying Lavey's work and affiliated with The Church of Satan at that point? How did occult study and Satanism in particular become a central part of your life? Did you set out to form the world's first Satanic pop punk band? To me it's one of the aspects that makes The Quintessentials such a unique and interesting band.

Before I moved to Washington to reform and record The Catalogs, I played in another Satanic punk band called Crawling Chaos, which wasn't so poppy. When both bands dissolved and I moved back to Hawaii in 1998, I wanted to continue both, but under one banner, so I formed The Quintessentials. We originally went by The Products, but I found out that name was taken and quickly changed it.

I'd first read Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible when I was around thirteen, and I had been corresponding with current Church of Satan High Priest, Peter H. Gilmore, since I was eighteen, so I had identified as a Satanist for many years before I officially joined the COS, receiving my membership packet in January of 1997. I had been publishing a Satanic 'zine called BLOODFIRE! and had been contributing to various other Satanic publications. When I first read the LaVey's TSB, it resonated deep with me, and I just knew this was who I was. From that point it wasn't a matter of really trying, but of doing what came naturally, you could say. I suppose that the very fact that I am a Satanist means I view the world through a Satanic filter or lens, and my Satanism spills out from me into everything I create, if that makes sense.

With both Crawling Chaos and The Quintessentials, I wanted to get real Satanic thought out there because I was tired of so many bands faking a Satanic image to sell records, plus the bands that didn't want to try to understand actual Satanism and just made up their own half-assed forms of self-styled devil worship and calling it Satanism, which it wasn't. Most of these bands were metal, but there were (and still are) punk bands trying to pass off Satanism's iconography while lyrically and idealistically they are anything but Satanic. I wanted authenticity, but authenticity that could still be a lot of fun!

What exactly is your role in The Church of Satan? Do you feel that your philosophy/spirituality informs your music and songwriting? I always found it interesting that the music of The Quintessentials is still essentially traditional pop punk in every way - there's no "dark vibes" melodically or anything that would immediately clue the listener in to the bands' Satanic themes before hearing the lyrics. 

Right now I hold the title of Priest in the Church of Satan, which is our third degree of five, and is by invitation only. It's a recognition of my successful application of Satanic principles in my life and my ability to inform others on the topic in an official capacity as a representative of our religion.

As I mentioned earlier, yes, I do feel my Satanism spills into everything I do. It's not so much a conscious effort as much as it's just who I am. It's not like "Satanist" is my sole identity, but it is an integral part for certain. Much like "Guitarist" doesn't solely identify me as a whole, or "Horror Movie Lover" or "Buffy Nerd." So yeah, everything I'm made up of comes through in the music, and I happen to be a very happy guy, so that comes through in my happy sounding music as well.

Getting back to songwriting, what is your typical approach? Do you tend to start with a melodic idea, a title, or something else? How do you catalog your ideas so you don't forget them? Do you tend to write on an acoustic guitar? How quickly are you able to compose new material? Does your inspiration vary, or can you churn songs out more or less at will?

With me, it varies. Sometimes I'll have an entire song in my head and have to record a demo before I forget it. Other times I'll just have an idea for subject matter or a melody and have to start with just that. A couple of songs formed themselves in dreams and I woke up needing to learn them right away. It's as if there's a Jungian collective unconscious that I sometimes tune in with and everything just flows from it into my head. When I try without that muse feeding my brain, it can work, but it takes a lot more effort and doesn't always come out the same or as good.

What are your impressions of the newest Lillingtons record Stella Sapiente? Are you aware that Kody and Tim are knowledgeable practioners? Did the music evoke anything spiritually that you related to form an occult perspective? I felt that the record had a certain atmosphere that certainly complimented the lyrical themes of the occult, rituals, secret societies, etc.

I love the Lillingtons, and I had a brief discussion with Kody that kept getting interrupted when we played with Teenage Bottlerocket our here not too long ago. Bear in mind that when I say "Satanism," I mean a very specific thing, and that thing in defined in The Satanic Bible and is by its very definition, atheistic and non-spiritual. That said, I think they and I are on different paths, but their bands fucking rock!

Can we talk about your guitar playing a bit? Based on the music videos I've seen for The Quintessentials, you play very badass looking instrument. Is that a custom guitar? How did your style of guitar playing develop? Who are some of your favorite guitarists? At any point were you inclined to play all downstrokes and do the Johnny Ramone thing like so many other pop punk bands?

Hehe! Thanks! I'm assuming you're talking about my red Halo Invert. That I got through an endorsement deal many moons ago. It was discontinued due to some legal issue Halo was having at the time, so you can't get 'em anymore. Beautiful instrument. I switched out the pick-ups and put a Diesel '59 Woodshred in the neck position and a Mighty Mite Motherbucker in the bridge position. Great combination for that guitar. I recently lost a volume knob and so I replaced them all with these cool black skull knobs with red gem eyes. I named her Ginger, and my black Epiphone Les Paul is named Brigitte--both after the sisters in one of my favorite werewolf franchises, Ginger Snaps. I also have a black Alvarez acoustic I like to write with at home--named Morticia.

I think playing with predominantly down strokes is a natural byproduct of being really into bands like the Ramones and Misfits and learning as much of their stuff as accurately as possible. It doesn't sound right otherwise. I also like playing full barre chords instead of power chords, for a fuller sound. That's the basics for punk guitar 101 right there, really. Musicianship-wise, my favorite guitarists are Chuck Berry, Randy Rhodes, Ace Frehley, Slash, Doyle, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May. Basically Yngwie is the exception to the rule for me because I generally like big fat Gibson-style sound through Marshall amps, blues-influenced rock playing, but he plays a thinner sounding Fender Strat, which usually I don't like at all, but he makes that thing his bitch. I can't stand Led Zeppelin, but I have a deep respect for Jimmy Page's playing. The guitars on the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack are top notch, too!

Recently you had somewhat of a health crisis from what I understand - what happened exactly and what is your current health status? Did the experience provide you with any new perspectives or give you any renewed musical inspiration?

On April 20 of this year I was diagnosed with small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the prostate. It's a rare form of cancer that usually shows up as lung cancer, but I got mine in the prostate. As of right now I've gone through three rounds of chemo and am about to start my fourth, followed by surgery to cut it out. I guess you could say that, as much as I've always loved life and doing everything I can to make my dreams come true, I'm even more determined to do so now.

There is no god in the sky that's going to make my life any better. No afterlife waiting for me. If that were true I'm sure such a benevolent deity wouldn't allow such a horrible thing like cancer to exist, so it's definitive proof that by cancer's very existence there can be no such thing as god. So it's up to me to be my own god and steer my life where I want it to go. I'm sure I'll get a few new songs out of it.

What are your future goals as a musician and songwriter? Do you feel satisfied with what you've accomplished so far? Do you feel that The Quintessentials have made enough of an impact despite being a largely local phenomenon? Are there any "bucket list" musical goals that you still hope to meet?

Well, I'm currently on the final edit and mixing phase of our sixth album and already have ideas for our seventh, so no signs of stopping any time soon. I'd like to tour again. In time. I really love being in the studio and making albums--everything about the process; from an intangible brain construct to audible sound to coming up with artwork and then a physical thing you can hold and smell and put in a CD player to listen to. I just love the entire process. I just want to be able to keep doing it. Folks seem to enjoy it, so hopefully I can keep making stuff they like.

Who are your all-time favorite songwriters? Do you still follow the pop punk scene at all? Are there any current or new pop punk bands that you're interested in? What other styles of music do you enjoy listening to/playing?

This takes me back to my love for the music from the 1950s and '60s. Lennon/McCartney were among my favorites as a songwriting duo. Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, whomever was writing for all the '60s girl pop groups, Elton John back in the 1970s. Meatloaf. The entire 1970s powerpop movement. Neil Diamond.

I haven't really gotten into new music for quite sometime. There's an old-school sounding black metal band called Chapel that I recently got into that I really like--they remind me of old Venom. I like Flamingo Nosebleed and am excited to see what Hideous Monster is doing--both Portland bands. When I'm not listening to all of that type of stuff I like listening to classical music--symphonies in particular, though I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable on the topic as I'd like to be. Classical music has as deep a grit to it as any type of rock. It can drag you into the gutter and lift you to the clouds.

Do you feel that Satanism is connected to the style of music you play in any significant way? Do you think that Satanic themes or inspiration are a natural occurrence for artists and musicians? How do you define "evil" and what's your advice for living a fulfilling life spiritually and musically?

There's Satanically themed music--regardless of genre--and there's Satanic music, which is music that is larger than life in that it will move you whether you like it or not. You'll feel it to the core. Satanic music is timeless music. What I write is, generally speaking, Satanically themed and not specifically bombastic, so I won't fool myself into the pretense of creating the latter when I recognize it more as the former. That said, I do think that rock and roll in general has an inherent Satanic streak in that its very nature is rebellious and raw, lustful and angry. It isn't afraid to cover the entire spectrum of deep human emotion. That's the difference between genuine music and the plastic garbage on top 40 radio. Rock and roll comes from the blues, and the blues has always been associated with the devil, but rock and roll also has a classical influence, and Vivaldi and Paganini both have their infamous Faustian myths just like Robert Johnson. Humans have a way of labeling the parts of themselves they can't accept as "evil" and so they hide it away and pretend it doesn't exist, but rock and roll brings those parts alive.

I do think it's easier for artists to delve into darker themes because they have to reach deeper into themselves to come up with original subject matter, and that can be a dangerous undertaking for some people. Not everyone likes what they find inside. I'm lucky enough to be someone who really likes what I see inside myself.

I personally have two definitions of "evil." One is a pragmatic definition that basically means "evil" is what is bad for me or what gets in the way of my well-being, comfort, or happiness. It isn't a tangible thing, nor is it a living entity. It's a cockblock in the way of enjoying life. The other definition is the tendency toward doing malice, which isn't entirely solely a human characteristic, as we see it in many mammalian species, and it seems to be more apparent in groups. A good example of this is in Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle and displayed in the Derren Brown special The Experiments: Remote Control. Needless to say, I don't condone folks going out and being an asshole for the sake of "evil." That has nothing to do with living Satanically.

My best advice? For music: practice! For life: squeeze every last drop of joy you can from life while you have it. Drink that shit up while you can. Make the most of your life in the here and now and live as the god of your own subjective universe--and without being a dick just for the sake of being a dick. Then all of the things you're passionate about will begin to bear fruit and others will remember you after you die, fondly.

MIKEY ERG

MIKEY ERG

You seem like someone who has loved music since birth. Do you recall any significant moments or experiences in your childhood that led you down the musical path? At what age did you recognize music as a passion? What were your earliest favorites - songs, bands, styles of music?

Yeah, according to my parents I pretty much came out of the womb drumming and singing. I know that when I was very young, probably around 2 or 3, we’d go to my grandparents house and I would immediately scream “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” signaling that I wanted to listen to my mom’s old Beatle records. We’d also listen to American Top 40 on the way and I’d commit to memory the songs I liked and we’d buy the singles and LP’s at the mall. My first favorite band was definitely the Beatles. I know I owned Thriller, Born In The USA, Purple Rain and She’s So Unusual at a very young age, sometimes multiple copies so those were very early favorites. I’m told I partially taught myself how to read by scouring the lyric sheets and liner notes to those records.

When did you first pick up an instrument, and how did you learn to play it? What inspired you to write your first song, and do you recall what that first song was? When you were starting, were there certain bands or styles you sought to emulate or use as a template for your own songwriting?

My dad was a drummer in a pretty popular cover band in New Jersey and also owned a recording studio so I was alway around instruments, particularly drums. I would bang on drums at the studio whenever I possibly could. Eventually it kinda sounded halfway decent. I’ve never had formal lessons. Growing up in a recording studio, I always had access to recording gear. My dad gifted me an old Teac 4 track reel to reel that the studio wasn’t using anymore and even before I could properly play I was making 4 track recordings of me playing drums, strumming a guitar (before I even knew chords, haha), and singing nonsense. I had a lot of these “songs” but they were honestly just noise.

Did you play in bands or record songs prior to The Ergs!? Were there people early on who encouraged you to pursue music as an outlet? Who were you showing your earliest songs to for feedback? When did you begin do develop confidence in your own songwriting?

I joined my first band around 8th grade. We were a classic rock and blues cover band pretty much. It was me and a bunch of older High School kids. We’d play various school functions and had fun. Around that time I started getting into punk rock and that was when I started trying my hand at writing actual songs. The major influences were Green Day and stuff like that. The three Ergs actually started playing together in a band called The Flatliners in High School. The first songs I wrote for that band were pretty bad generic pop punk but I was learning the craft. I remember writing them and not thinking they were very good but if we wanted to play live we needed some songs so fuck it. haha. The first song I wrote that I considered to actually be “good” was a song called More Vocal In The Monitor. It was the first song I wrote where I thought to myself “I would actually listen to this song”. That ended up on the first Ergs EP “f’n”, in fact, that version is the actual demo I made immediately after writing it.

When The Ergs! formed, did you guys have any particular musical goals at the outset? The band is credited as having carried the pop punk sound towards a more individualistic and creative path - which is a notable achievement in itself considering how traditional and by-the-book many bands in the genre were. How conscious were you of developing this unique sound?

We didn’t really have any goals in the beginning except for to have fun and to take a break from practicing when the Simpsons was on. We always kinda had it in our heads that we wanted to play whatever we felt like. Why not throw a jazz or country part or song into the set? We like jazz and country! It definitely wasn’t a discussion, you know “we have to be different” or whatever. We just figured let’s have fun and play whatever the hell we feel like playing.

Another notable feature of The Ergs! catalog is the variety of flavors and aesthetics that evolved with each release. Is there a certain album that you're most proud of from The Ergs!'s discography? Do you see dorkrockcorkrod as the quintessential or milestone album as many fans do? How often do you revisit those albums, and how do you feel when you listen to them now?

Yeah, I mean dorkrock is certainly the favorite and I think the reason that is is we didn’t really think about it. It was like, “ok, lets make an album, thats what bands do right?” There was really no over thinking it. There’s a certain honesty in that and I think people can hear that. I think my personal favorite is Upstairs/Downstairs. That one feels like more of an “album” to me, like a statement of a time and place. It’s also way closer to what we actually sounded like as a band than dorkrock was. The goal for that one was tour out and record it in the middle of the tour so we’d be tight and fast and live! I think it really captures everything that The Ergs! were. I pull em out every once in a while and they’re fun listens. We were a fun little band.

You were at the forefront of a very strong scene in New York that seemed to be pushing the boundaries of the pop punk genre into an even more independent style that didn't adhere to the same old "chucks, leather jacket" aesthetic that many still associate with it. As a community, were the bands all rooting for each other? Did your songwriting benefit as a result of collaborating with and befriending so many other talented local songwriters during those years?

I feel it was a very close scene, we played with each other constantly and it definitely felt really special. I’ve never thought about it that way but I’m sure I subconsciously fed off of being around so much music and so many people that I loved.

What was your take on the Pop Punk Message Bored as a resource and a community? What do you think the Insub Fest did in terms of solidifying the scene of the 2000's? Do you feel connected to that scene today? You have always seemed very approachable and easy-going, but there's alway been a fair amount of negativity associated with message board culture in general and I wonder if you felt that you had a specific role to play within it?

I do think the bored and Insub was a great thing. It really was a tight community and Insub Fest was something we always looked very forward to every year. I met so many friends through that community that I’m still tight with to this day. It was so cool to see it grow from the first year at a very small club into this massive multi-room thing. As a musician, you always knew your best show of the year was going to be at Insub.

You're known as someone who has participated in and collaborated with more artists and bands than most can count or keep track of at this point. Do you have a list written down somewhere? If asked to produce a comprehensive list of every release you've played on, or every band you've played with as a live member - could you? And what motivates this ongoing "all in" approach to music? Does it ever become exhausting or stressful to be involved with so many projects? Has your songwriting benefited from these experiences?

I haven’t kept a list and I REALLY regret it. I’m sure anytime I’d try to list it all I’d forget a bunch of stuff. It’s always funny when I’m at a show and I hear a song on the house system and say to myself “this song is super familiar, what is it?, oh yeah it’s For Science, I played bass on this record” haha. I made a decision pretty early on that I just wanted to be playing music every waking moment of the day, practicing, shows whatever. So I pretty much just joined any band that would have me. I was just so eager to play. It sometimes was exhausting to schedule it all but I had a lot of very patient bandmates and it usually all worked out. By the time I was really active in a ton of bands I wasn’t really writing as much and I think thats what I needed/wanted. After the Ergs I kinda wanted to not be the songwriter for a while.

Your solo album seemed to be a personal milestone, and the songs were great as expected. Do you consider that one to hold special significance to you? The name "Mikey Erg" has by now taken on its own distinct place in the community separate from The Ergs!. How do you feel about the evolution of your music career? Are there unexplored avenues that you'd like to pursue?

Yeah, of everything I’ve ever done, Tentative Decisions is by far the thing I’m most proud of. It’s the only thing in my discography that I wouldn’t change a single note of. I think the next record I’m gonna do is gonna be kinda modeled on “McCartney”, Paul McCartney’s first solo album. I wanna do something where I just record and mix and play everything myself. I think it’ll be a pretty mellow poppy thing. It’s something I’ve never done before really so I’d like to try that.

Your lifestyle seems to be a nomadic one, and I've always wondered how you sustain youself - both in the material sense but also emotionally/mentally. Do you find enough stability in your daily life to feel sane? How disruptive and difficult has it been to constantly tour and live on the road under what I imagine to be often unideal circumstances? Do you envision yourself "settling down" to a more domestic lifestyle at any point in the near future? What would your ideal lifestyle include that you're not currently getting?

It’s funny, once you’ve been on the road as much as I have you really tend to get used to it. It just kinda feels natural to me at this point. I’ve actually gotten the chance to have the best of both worlds the last couple years because my job on the Chris Gethard show keeps me home for a few months of the year.

The Hamiltons is a great project with great songs, and one that has interested me in particular because it's a direct nod to a style of pop punk that The Ergs! specifically weren't. Who conceived of this band and what has motivated its continued activity? Both releases so far are great! I think you achieve a humor and irreverence that is truly rare, plus the songs are very memorable and catchy.

It was just one of those ideas we had for years, like let’s do a three chord ramonescore band about the movie Dirty Work. It actually became a reality when, we had just been playing so many Ergs shows cause we’d been doing a lot of shows for our friends that had hooked us up on tour. For one of the shows I was like “we can’t play ANOTHER ergs show” and I think I wrote 4 of the songs that night. I showed em to Joe and he wrote the other two, throw in a Ramones cover or 2 and bam, you have a set. It was a fun little exercise to just restrict myself to that style of songwriting.

You're 100% capable on all rock instruments, but you're usually performing alongside other musicians on stage and recordings. Do you prefer to work with other musicians in studio rather than just recording everything yourself? What do you enjoy most about collaborating? Do you feel that you learn more as a songwriter through these experiences of working with other artists?

I feel it’s always great to be able to bounce ideas off of someone else. There’s always something you’re not thinking of. Every Ergs song would have been totally different if it were other people playing them. Tentative Decisions would have been a COMPLETELY different record if Jeff Rosenstock and Lou Hanman weren’t involved. The songs were there but there’s just these little nuances that happen when you play with other people that kinda make the songs. Someone suggests an idea and you’re like “can you do that?, yeah of course you can do that!, why didn’t I think of that?” It’s also great to kinda immediately hear what the song sounds like as a rock song as opposed to just sitting in your living room playing it acoustically.

I've always been interested to know who your favorite songwriters are - could you name some of your all-time favorites? Have you received positive feedback from any of these favorites? Also, what does your family think of your music career? Are they supportive and proud of what you've accomplished so far?

Well speaking strictly about songwriting, John Lennon and Paul McCartney of course. Elvis Costello is a huge influence, as is Andy Partridge of XTC. Joe Jackson, Paul Westerberg, Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Emmit Rhodes, Juliana Hatfield. I mean we could be here all night but they’re all huge for me, just to name a few. Yeah, my folks have always been pretty supportive and proud even if they didn’t really understand why I was doing all of this stuff for little to no money. Getting a job on TV didn’t hurt. Haha.

What does the future hold for you as a songwriter and musician? Are there any specific goals or accomplishments you've yet to check off the "bucket list"? Reflecting on your career so far, what are you proudest of in terms of experiences and also in terms of output? Is there a song or set of songs that you feel proudest of?

There are a couple studios I’d love to work in. Hoping to at least get something mastered at Abbey Road just to see the inside of the building! That’s probably my biggest bucket list item. I’m proud of everything I’ve gotten to do really. Traveling the world and getting to see a bunch of places I’ve only dreamed or read about because I wrote a couple dumb songs in my bedroom is a pretty amazing feat. As I said before, Tentative Decisions is the thing I’m most proud of, I only hope I can surpass that. We shall see!

MIKE PATTON

MIKE PATTON

At what age did you realize that you loved music? What kinds of music do you recall hearing first? What was the first music you loved, and which was the first favorite band that you discovered on your own?

It was immediate. It's all I really remember from when I was very young. I grew up in New Orleans, and my dad would take me to all these rock concerts, from Memphis to Florida. Journey, Iron Maiden, Queen, Heart, etc. I have ticket stubs from all these shows, and I can remember parts about a lot of them. So I grew up listening to that kind of rock, along with all the Headbangers Ball stuff that came along later.

When I was like 5 or 6, I really started to dig Rick Springfield and REO Speedwagon. So I started my own record collection, and if either of those came to New Orleans or Baton Rouge or anywhere near, my parents would take me to see them. I saw both of them a bunch growing up.

After about 10 years old, I had an uncle who started to introduce me to all kinds of music. I discovered many of my current favorites through him, starting with The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, The Cure, etc. and then even bands like Oasis, Weezer, and Fountains of Wayne in the 90s. He heard those bands before I did. He bought new cassettes every week, and he'd dub me copies of almost everything he bought. It was really cool.

High school and college was when I really started to seek out all the albums by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Ramones, after realizing that every song I'd ever heard by these bands was amazing. But those aren't bands that you really "discover." Then Ramones stuff led to MTX, the Queers, the Huntingtons, Groovie Ghoulies, and all of that.

Somehow MTV and rock radio gave us stuff like Green Day, Superdrag, Nada Surf, and Eels, along with all the British stuff. It’s hard to imagine such cool music being mainstream, but it was, at least for 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation, right?

So I guess the first bands I "discovered" on my own would've been bands like the Apples in Stereo and Belle & Sebastian early on, just stumbling across those initial reviews or whatever. And then it soon became discovering bands who were just on tour and playing shows with them.

The Beach Boys are obviously an important band for you - how did you get into their music, and how did your view of their songwriting changes as you developed knowledge of songwriting yourself? Did you ever "study" their music in order to better understand harmonies or song structure?

I've always written songs, but I didn't get serious about it until college, which is when I also got serious about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. I was a music major at the time, and I was studying everything about music.

I spent my second semester at the University of New Orleans, and it was just all of this jazz stuff. I'd drive to school listening to the Doors and the Beach Boys, and then I'd spend hours breaking down crazy chords at school.

There are entire books and even some documentaries out there which focus on Brian Wilson's songwriting. I've spent more than 20 years trying to absorb it all. And while you probably would never know it based on my three-chord progressions, I do hope that the harmony studies have paid off in some way! That's what I've always tried to bring to the table: catchy melodies and harmonies.

When did you first pick up an instrument, and how did you learn to play? When did you write your first song, and what inspired you to go for it? Were there certain bands that you were trying to sound like at the time? How did you develop your knowledge of music and songwriting? Any lessons or theory courses along the way?

I had a snare drum and a guitar when I was 5, but I never learned how to play guitar until college. With that first guitar, I'd just sit and pretend I knew how to play Rick Springfield songs. This is also when I started "writing songs," but I think they were basically just plagiarized rewrites of songs that I liked.

In middle school, I became a pretty good trumpet player, and that became my ticket to college. I did write a little in middle and high school, but it was mostly goofy rap songs.

I got serious about writing right around the time I started college, which was perfect. As a music major, I was starting each day with theory classes and spending hours each night at rehearsals or in practice rooms. I was surrounded by music and started to come up with some really fun ideas. I had a pile of songs within a few months.

Over the next few years, I taught myself to play guitar, worked on writing as often as I could, and eventually started The Robinsons.

The Robinsons was a great band that was also a well-kept secret during their active years. What were your goals with that band, and what are some of your most memorable experiences playing and recording with The Robinsons?

With The Robinsons, we didn't really have any goals. We just wanted to have fun, and we wanted our audience to have fun. We loved playing all-ages shows, basements, garages, or anywhere else, and we loved being a part of the New Orleans DIY scene. Everyone really accepted us, despite the fact that we were a whimpy pop band posing as "pop punk."

Things really changed for us when we established ourselves in Baton Rouge. Our NOLA shows were fun, but the Baton Rouge shows were the kind of thing you'd dream about when you're first starting out and playing guitar in your room. Everyone knew the words to our songs, and they'd all sing along. Eventually, when we got to play House of Blues and other big venues in NOLA, our Baton Rouge friends would always come down and support us when we needed them. It was great.

The other cool part about the Robinsons was all the friends we made, not only locally, but through all the touring bands we played with.

As for the best memories with that band, there are just so many to choose from. Once in 2002, we showed up to play at a bar in Baton Rouge. LSU had won a football game, and the place was packed. Then we found out they’d double-booked us with a cover band. We went on stage and played about 30 minutes, and then we announced we’d be cutting our set short cause we were double booked. I think “near riot” is OK to explain what happened next. But then a few guys yelled that we should come to their apartment and play there. Our friends in a local band left to grab their PA system. And the guy who booked us wrestled a bunch of the door money away from the door guy and ran! We played until 2:00 a.m. outside of this apartment building, and it was one the best shows we’ve ever done. Several of the LSU football players were even there partying with us.

How did Hurricane Katrina impact your life? Did it change your lifestyle significantly? What are your feelings about that event looking back on it? How did it impact your activities as a local musician? How long after the storm did you stick around New Orleans?

Personally it was huge. I didn’t lose my house, only because we had just moved across the lake 10 months earlier. The house I’d just sold got 12 feet of water, as did most our friends’ and relatives’ houses. “Gutting” houses was something I’d never heard of, but suddenly everyone was doing it, either to their own houses, or helping others.

Although I stuck around for two years, I knew pretty soon that I’d be leaving. Our sons were both under two, and it just suddenly had turned into a place where I didn’t think I could raise kids. So we took a little while, looking at the East Coast first, and then settled on Nashville in 2007.

In the meantime, we did everything we could to help bring the music scene back together. Earlier in 2005, I’d broken up my band Sally Stitches, and we’d just started an awesome project called the Sunflowers. We played a few shows, including two shows the weekend before Katrina. My brother Brett was in that band, and we practiced at his house. Unfortunately, all of our equipment was there and was wiped away.

Brett had evacuated to Nashville and stayed here, so then we decided to continue as a three-piece and just went back to using The Robinsons as our name, figuring it’d be less confusing during all of the rebuilding. But that time period was a lot of fun, as everyone started moving back to town, venues started opening and re-opening, and touring bands started coming through again. We played a bunch of shows in those gutted houses, bringing in generators for power at first. They actually made great venues, and the neighborhoods were mostly empty anyway.

Our friend Bryan Funck, who plays in the awesome band Thou and runs noladiy.org, moved back to town and jumped right back into booking shows. He made each show a community event, usually with free jambalaya or red beans, and also started adding documentary screenings at the start of each show.

Overall, the storm sucked, obviously. But I was so proud to be a part of that community for the next two years, both as a musician and a resident.

The Loblaws were a great band but was the only release the 7" on Mutant Pop? How did that come about? It seemed to be much later when I wasn't even sure the label existed anymore. How did you come into contact with Timbo, and do you still keep in touch with him? What do you think of his contributions to the pop punk scene through his label? Do you recall writing the song "Tossing and Turning"? I consider it to be one of your best.

It WAS much later, and the label did NOT exist anymore. It was one of those crazy times in life where awesome and fun things just happen. I’d moved here in summer of 2007, and we started the Loblaws in January 2008. My brothers (Todd and Brett) were both living here, as was our best friend Wyatt. So it just made sense to finally start a band that we could all play in together for once.

I had a few songs I’d written since the last Robinsons shows, including “Tossing and Turning,” and we threw in some of my old songs too, along with some covers and new stuff that Wyatt and I were working on. It came together super quick, and after a few practices, we were ready to play live. It was the kind of thing where you might stop a song once to work out a harmony, but then we’d mostly nail it after that.

In March we decided to demo a few songs in Wyatt’s studio. We shared the demos with friends, and it just spread from there. The songs got posted to the Pop Punk Message Bored and got mostly positive responses. Timbo was a member there and was immediately supportive. I signed up to the forum and just started interacting with everyone. I couldn’t believe the response, honestly. (In hindsight, it’s even more amazing, considering those guys mostly hate everything and everyone.)

Eventually Timbo started joking about reviving the label to release a record for us. It was like he wanted someone else to beat him to it so he wouldn’t have to, but for us, there was no rush. It’d only been two months, and we were fine with taking the time to write enough songs for a full-length.

One day Timbo sent me the official offer, and that was it. We were going to do two 7-inches and then a full-length. But first, he had to do some catching up, as far as I understand, to complete some deals he’d made before originally shutting down. In the end, he ended up putting out like four or five releases at once, including ours, which cost a ton of money of course. As a result, before we could finish recording the second 7-inch (“Arrested Development” theme!), Mutant Pop was shut down again.

It was fast, but it meant so much to us to be a part of Mutant Pop. It’s the only time we’ve been on a label where people just bought every release, even if they hadn’t heard the band. Then with the color variations (and we had an unfortunate “error” sleeve as well), it was fun to interact with collectors. For me, it was also great to be introduced to James from Kung Fu Monkeys, Adam from Dirt Bike Annie, and other awesome songwriters on the label. It was a lot like That Thing You Do, but online.

We had the opportunity to play Insub Fest in 2009, and we did a split with the Sci-Fi Nightmares for Killer Records in Finland. But Todd moved to Cincinnati around that time, and Insub Fest actually ended up being our last show.

Yes, Timbo did a bunch for pop punk, which I think is a given. But he also did so much for me personally. I’ll never be able to thank him enough for the confidence he’s given me as a songwriter. We talked every day for months. He wanted to hear every song I’ve ever recorded, and he had nothing but praise for anything I did. I think he has great instincts, and we’d talk about song lengths and arrangements and things like that. He was like a great coach who made me feel like I really belonged in this genre. We do still talk every now and then. I always tell him I’m waiting for the next Mutant Pop revival. In a perfect world, someone would put up enough money to fund Mutant Pop, and he could just run it like he used to.

For “Tossing and Turning,” I definitely remember writing that one. It was spring of 2007. I was about to move, and I was already feeling nostalgic about the Robinsons. The lyrics were originally about some of the terrible bands that the Robinsons used to play with back in the day. That’s where the “ska, then metal, then a ska band playing metal songs” line comes from. But once I moved here and we decided to do The Loblaws, I knew I needed a good song to start with, so I grabbed that one from my demos. We wanted to be Lookout Records pop punk, so I tried to make the subject and lyrics sound something like that. Wyatt did most of the arrangement. He’s always been the perfect producer for my songs.

How did Vista Blue come about? At what point did you start recording and releasing songs using Garageband rather than going for a "real" studio sound? What are your thoughts on home recording in the digital age? You and I both have taken advantage! What are the pros and cons?

Well, in 2010 I did another Robinsons album, which Brett produced and Wyatt helped a bunch on, but then I kind of went into sleep mode. I did a few songs for some movies, mainly some horror films for our friends at Slasher Studios. I was finally making myself learn how to record on my own. Todd and I did a “soundtrack” EP for my horror novella that was published in Australia in 2013. I did podcast theme songs for a bunch of friends, and I recorded a couple of Christmas songs each year. But mainly at this time, I was writing articles for Yahoo Sports, podcasting, and writing children’s songs for this education company. Looking back, though, I know all of this helped me to step away from the typical boy-girl pop songs I’d mostly written and helped prepare me to write based on themes.

When The Ueckers (Mooster Records baseball punk) came to Nashville to record in 2013, they asked me to come out and help on some songs. I fell in love with writing about baseball. In 2014, I wrote like 10 songs for them and told them they could have them. But then they entered the studio that summer with like 30 songs, since they write a ton themselves, and they really didn’t need mine!

At the end of 2014, Bryan Funck opened a record store in NOLA and asked me to write a theme song (“Sisters in Christ”). I got Todd to help me with it, and I realized we’d both become pretty decent at home recording. We did another song for a Slasher Studios film and finally decided to just start a new project. He could stay in Cincy, I could record here, and we could put it all together on computers.

We settled on the name Vista Blue, which was the playground where we played baseball growing up. I went through all my files and found I had collected more than 200 demos/song ideas in the five years since the last Loblaws/Robinsons records. Then Todd sent me another 50 or so demos that he had! It was all pretty awesome. Not many projects start with so many decent ideas to choose from.

We had the pile of complete baseball songs that I had written for the Ueckers, so we started there for our first record. My retina detached while we were recording in early 2015, so Todd finished it up, and we released our debut (Good Eye) in time for Opening Day 2015. We realized that we could write baseball songs pretty easily at that point, so we planned baseball EPs for the All-Star Break and the World Series. As Mark Hughson told us when he interviewed us for Zisk! baseball zine, if we didn’t want people to think we were a baseball band, we were going about it the wrong way.

But to us, it didn’t matter. We had no plans and no road map. It was so great to be playing music with my brother again. We had no idea that people would actually like it.

Clearly, recording at home has made it so easy to just produce music whenever I want to. I can write a song, record it, and release it within an hour or two if I want to. I guess some people don’t like it, but there will always be people who don’t like what you do, no matter what. Most people who record in studios make really awful music. I don’t care where someone records, as long as it’s good. I’ve always loved lo-fi recordings anyway. And even though I record digitally, I try not to go in and correct every mistake. I try to get every part done in one or two takes. After that, it starts to feel more like a science project. I don’t know. You’re right, there are pros and cons. But the pros are far greater, I think.

I should note, we have used the studio a little bit. The drums on our curling split were done at Drastic Sounds, as were the drums for all the Loblaws tracks and the Vista Blue songs on the “Betsy Took My Baby Away” EP. We’ve talked to Drastic about taking a weekend to do a full EP with him, but we’re all just so busy, especially him. His studio stays booked.

Vista Blue is interesting because you've released many "themed" albums but there's no set aesthetic aside from the consistently melodic songwriting. Do you plan to continue exploring different themes with that band? Will Vista Blue remain your main project going forward?

Vista Blue is definitely it for now. Aside from Todd pitching in when he can, the other guys playing with me are so awesome. Mark has played bass on most tracks since the start of 2016, and Reese joined as our live drummer that year as well. Reese did drum on the curling split, and he’s done some vocals on a couple of tracks. My wife Donna has done some vocals, and I’m probably going to get her more involved as we go.

The plan is to keep doing themed releases, although we’ve signed on to do another 12-inch for Something To Do Records, this time with no theme. So that will be fun. We’re going to keep returning to baseball, and we’ll definitely record Christmas songs every year. We’re doing another set of songs about urban legends this fall, and we’re hoping to add Thanksgiving songs this year as well. We did our first basketball song this year, and eventually we’d like to add football and soccer, among others. After doing the curling split with the Zambonis for the Winter Olympics, we’ve already talked about possibilities for a 2020 Summer Olympics split with them. Badminton and ping pong have been popular themes to joke about so far.

Overall, I have no idea how long I’ll keep this going. We have a long list of releases planned for 2018 and 2019, so we won’t slow down any time soon. But I could see myself starting to hit the brakes sometime around 2021 or so. Maybe just do a baseball EP and a Christmas EP each year. Something like that. I don’t know. I will say, though, that as long as people are listening and as long as labels are releasing our music, I’ll probably keep doing it.

Your songwriting is VERY consistent and your songwriting personality is distinct. How did you develop your style? When I think of a Mike Patton song, the following comes to mind: concise and straightforward melodies, advanced understanding of harmony, deep knowledge of classic traditional rock, a traditional pop punk chord progression, and a neatly wrapped package that always feels just the right length. Thoughts on your own songwriting style?

So, take that description and apply it to the Beatles. The Queers. MTX. I don’t know. I think it fits most good bands (that lean heavily on melody and harmony). So to me, that’s a huge compliment.

I love bands like Fountains of Wayne, or even The Zambonis, who can totally adapt and fit many different styles. I could attempt to change things up and keep people guessing, and I guess I’d be OK at it. But why not just stick to what I’m good at? There is so much music out there to listen to. I feel like we fill one very tiny groove within people’s music collections, and I’m totally fine with that.

I guess overall, I like my songwriting style. I throw away any song idea that doesn’t immediately get stuck in my head. I like to think I’d probably listen to my band if I weren’t in it.

We both share a love for 90s rock music that kind of teeters on the edge of being pop punk. So let's name some favorites starting with me: Gin Blossoms, Goo Goo Dolls, Lemonheads, Weezer, Nada Surf, Semisonic... now you! What is it about these bands that draws you in? Have you ever considered writing more in a "rock" style and straying from your pop punk instincts?

OK, my top ten 90s bands… Weezer, Better Than Ezra, Oasis, Fountains of Wayne, Superdrag, Nerf Herder, Nada Surf, Pulp, Everclear. Man, that leaves out Gin Blossoms. And Goldfinger. And Ash. And Blur. I can’t do it. Did you ever see The Refreshments live? That might be the BEST 90s band, and no one ever mentions them. There are just too many great bands from that decade. It’s like everyone forgot that you were supposed to play actual instruments in the 80s, and then the 90s came along to totally redeem it all. Suddenly dudes were playing guitars and drums again!

Like I said, I know my limits. I’d love to write more of a rock album some day, but I probably won’t. Todd is such a good rock writer. He’s responsible for “Bad Days” on our Jamie Lee EP, as well as “A Life Worth Living,” the closing track on our newest baseball record.

I’ve joked for years about starting an Everclear cover band, but it’s such a dumb idea because I’d be useless. I can’t play the guitar, and I can’t sing. If you want me on keyboards in an Everclear cover band, I could make that happen.

And actually, Mark, Reese, and I started a cover band recently where we mostly do 90s rock songs. Mark’s wife is a great singer-songwriter, and she sings lead on a lot of the songs. We had our first gig recently, and it was a lot of fun. Plus we made actual money. So that will probably be my “rock” outlet, I guess.

You're a father and a high school teacher. Here we also have something in common - how do you balance your busy life with your passion for music? Is it difficult to find the motivation to continue at times? Are there people in your life who are sources of encouragement for what you do? What does your family think about it? How about your kids specifically - do they enjoy your songs?

The trick is to just not sleep! That’s kind of a joke, but it’s also kind of true. Whenever friends tell me they just don’t have the time to do all the things I do, what I think they’re saying is that they sleep more than I do. (Or watch more TV shows?) As I’ve gotten older, I have had to slow down a bit. For a while, I was doing a podcast and a zine and was going on about four hours of sleep a night. Now that I’m actively playing music again, though, I had to cut back on some activities.

There is absolutely no way I could do the things I do without the support of my wife, Donna. She’s been in bands with me, she’s sat through hundreds of shows, she’s put the kids to bed while I’m locked in a room recording, and everything else in between. It’s probably much easier for a spouse to support this stuff when there is some level of money and fame involved. But to support this as basically a hobby takes a special relationship, I think.

My kids are definitely in the same boat. Even if they don’t always dig the music, I think they definitely appreciate that I set goals and work really hard to achieve them. I think they certainly respect that people out there do enjoy my music. They get a kick out of things like when I was interviewed on NPR or when one of my songs is in a movie. My daughter is 9, and she loves everything about it. My sons are a bit older, and while they’d never listen to this kind of music on their own (yet!), I can tell they think it’s cool. They’ve also grown up sitting through shows and traveling around to do this. They’re all very supportive.

My parents have always been supportive, and I’m lucky enough to have a bunch of uncles and aunts and cousins who are also totally behind anything I do.

And then there are friends who have just always been there. There are too many to name, but I can say most recently that Matthew from Something To Do Records has put so much effort, passion, and money into my music. It’s amazing. The guys who contribute to this project, Mark, Todd, and Reese, have obviously been behind me 100 percent. There are so many guys and girls with radio shows and blogs who constantly promote our work, like the Ice Cream Man, Cat Beast Party, Just Some Punk Songs, Mr. Suave’s Mod Mod World, Red Red Wine on a Sunday, Chasing the Essential, and a bunch of others.

As a teacher you see what kids today are into, and if it's anything like my experience there seems to be a shrinking number of teenagers starting rock bands. Are you able to find a connection and common ground with your students when their musical tastes veer more towards the mainstream? How often do you encounter kids who are really interested in rock, and how much of that do you think comes from parental influence?

Over the years, I have made it my mission to help any kids who are willing to put in the time to start a band and attempt to write songs. Before Katrina, I’d bring out our PA system for any band who needed it. I’d try to put at least one high school (or middle school) band on every show I booked. I’d record their bands on my four-track, or I’d just loan them the equipment to record themselves. I’ve been lucky enough to work with quite a few talented bands consisting of teenagers. The last one I worked with was in 2014, and they had so much talent and potential. But, being teenagers, they had some weird drama and they all ended up quitting music. Very weird.

The trick, I think, is figuring out which kids would appreciate help and which ones would rather be left alone. So I tend to default to the latter and just let them do their thing, even when I know there are ways that could help them if they wanted it. But you know, most kids start bands to move away from adults anyway.

It is always cool to come across a kid who likes Weezer or the Beatles. Sometimes you can find a Smiths fan too! I had a couple of really cool kids this past year who were doing podcasts where they explored the discographies of the Beatles and a bunch of other bands. I brought them on my radio show that I do here in Nashville, and I had them listen to some Beach Boys albums to discuss on the show with me. It was fun.

Your music has always felt timeless and your lyrics are clever, tasteful, and relatable without being too extreme or vulgar. Is this something that you designed from the beginning? Throughout your catalog there seems to be a "general audiences" feel where pretty much anyone from any generation with an interest in rock could potentially become a fan. Have you purposefully steered clear of controversial themes and lyrics?

I like music that is timeless, or evergreen. And yeah, our all-ages DIY background has definitely somewhat influenced the language we use in the songs. There have been a few examples of profanity, but when it happens, it has the right effect. For the Mutant Pop record, we all sat down and wrote “It’ll Take a Lot” together. Todd threw out the last line about “your Mickey Mouse shit,” and it was perfect. It had to stay. So it’s not that I’m totally opposed to it, but in the end, if something worked for the Beatles and the Beach Boys, I think it’s OK to follow that line of thinking.

Aside from music, we all did a horror podcast together for about six years. That was definitely not all-ages friendly.

What are your future goals as a songwriter and musician? What would be part of your "bucket list" of accomplishments to check off? What are the accomplishments you're most proud of at the moment, musically or otherwise? And finally, who are your favorite songwriters of all time?

Wow, I feel like I’ve done so much. I always feel like it’s a good time to walk away since I’ve done way more than I ever thought I’d do, but then some new fun opportunity comes along.

Let’s see… First of all, growing up as a rock fan in New Orleans, the ultimate dream was just to play at House of Blues. The Robinsons did that twice in 2002. We played Howlin’ Wolf, Tipitinas, and all the clubs we could ever dream of playing. I guess all that’s left down there would be JazzFest, which would be crazy.

I think the accomplishments I’m most proud of would include the Mutant Pop record, playing Insub Fest, having songs in about five different movies now, releasing our first 12-inch, being interviewed on NPR about our baseball songs, and self-releasing the curling split with the Zambonis.

I really have no idea what else I feel like we could/should do. I think eventually when I slow down, I’ll probably try to do some actual songwriting around here in Nashville. I know I could do it, but I don’t know how hard I want to try to knock down all the doors it would take to get into that scene. Of course, money can provide a lot of inspiration, and there are guys living here in huge houses who you’ve never heard of. But they’re writing songs for all the big artists around here and putting their kids through college.

Other than that, I’m just enjoying the amount of collaboration we can do these days. I’m able to work with some of my favorite musicians. Digital splits are simple to throw together, and even songwriting is easier with the internet. It looks like I’ll be helping one of my favorite bands, Parasite Diet, write a sci-fi record very soon, and I’ll also be joining them for some live shows, starting this fall. There are other collaborations in the planning stages as well, but none that I can announce yet.

Meanwhile, we’ll be very busy the next two years. We have at least a handful of digital releases planned for the rest of this year, along with a few physical releases already set for 2019.