BiB: M.A.G.S. - How a Family Band & Church Basement Led to Indie Stardom & Touring with Football
Welcome back to Bringin’ It Backwards, the podcast where legendary and rising artists share their stories before the stardom. In this episode, Adam Lisicky sits down with Elliot—better known as M.A.G.S.—to talk about reinvention, collaboration, and finding new creative life in familiar songs.
A couple years after his album Destroyer made waves, M.A.G.S. returns to discuss his latest project, Creator—a reimagined record featuring ambient, genre-crossing versions of the original tracks. For the first time, he opened up his process to collaborators and crafted the entire album in just nine days, with each song emerging from a blend of spontaneous inspiration and experimentation in Chicago.
Adam and M.A.G.S. dig into the impact of growing up in a musical family, the challenges of band life, and the transformation that comes with letting go of creative control. The conversation is packed with insights on collaboration, personal growth, and the delicate balance between career and passion. Plus, M.A.G.S. shares personal advice for aspiring artists and the excitement about opening for indie legends American Football.
If you’re hungry for real stories about artistic reinvention and chasing your creative spark, don’t miss this episode. Be sure to subscribe to Bringin’ It Backwards for more conversations that go way deeper than the music.
We'd love to see you join our BiB Facebook Group.
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What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringing It Backwards, a podcast
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where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories
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of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a
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chance to catch up with Elliot M.A.G.S. over Zoom
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Video. We had Elliot on the podcast a
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couple years ago now when he first released the album
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Destroyer. And this time we had a chance to chat
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with him about the reimagined version of Destroyer, which
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is called Creator. Kind of recap a little bit on the first
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interview, where he was born and raised, how he got into music. He did grow
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up in a musical family. He talks a little bit about how M.A.G.S. was
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formed, but you can get. All of that information in the first. Interview
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we did with M.A.G.S.. So we focus a lot on the new
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album, which is called Creator, and each
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track is a reimagined version of the
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songs from the Destroyer album. He recorded the thing in nine days.
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There's nine songs. They knocked out a song a day. And he kind of
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talks about the process of that. This is the first time he's really collaborated with
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anyone on a M.A.G.S. record. So it's a
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fascinating interview. The album is amazing. And
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M.A.G.S. is about to hit the road with American Football. We talk about that as
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well. You can watch the interview with Elliot on our Facebook page
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and YouTube channel at bringing it Backwards, it'd be amazing. If you subscribe
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to our channel, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram,
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Twitter and TikTok at bringing back pod. And if you're listening
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to this on Spotify, Apple Music, Google podcasts, it would be
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incredible. If you follow us there as well and hook us up with a
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five. Star review, we'd appreciate your support. If you follow
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and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts,
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we're. Bringing it backwards with Max.
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Bringing it backwards.
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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it back.
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Bringing it back. Bringing it back.
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Bring it back.
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Hey, what's up, Elliot? How's it going, man? How are you, brother?
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I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing awesome. Thanks for
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doing this again. Yeah, thank you for
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generously rescheduling. Oh, yeah, yeah, no worries.
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And because I had you on when the album came out,
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before the album came out, before Destroyer came out. Yeah, I think it was the
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day before. Yeah, yeah. So appreciate it to
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chat about the. The. The new one or the
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reimagined version, I. I should say of the. The album. Right?
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Yeah. Yeah. Sweet, man. Well, I appreciate you doing this
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again. You kind of know the drill. It's about
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your. You and your journey in music. Since we already heard your story, really the
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first time, maybe we can just recap a little bit and
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then obviously get into this
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new project you just released. Absolutely.
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Awesome. So first off, I do remember you born and
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raised in Buffalo, New York. Right. But then you moved to la. That's
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correct, yeah. Are you in LA now? No, actually
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at the beginning of this year, I moved to Kansas City, Missouri.
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Really? Okay. Yeah, I did. I did six years in
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LA and just kind
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of was time to go, you know. Got sick of it. Well, not even that
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I was sick of it. It's just. I don't know, I think most
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of 2023 I was on the road and there was
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just a lot of like, circumstances that were kind of pushing me
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towards like. Okay, I think I need to like, get some
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space from all this, you know, so. Sure, yeah. Kansas City's
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cool though. So far. I like it. That's awesome. So why did you
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decide on Kansas City.
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Mostly? Actually, because my, my partner got a job here.
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You know, we had been doing kind of the long distance relationship thing
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for a while. I was in la, she was in New York, and
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at the end of last year, I moved to New York and spent some time
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there, and then we moved to Kansas City together once her job started.
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Okay, right on. Very, very cool. And did you. Was
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I. I saw something about this new
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album being done in Chicago though, right? Yeah. Wrong.
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That's correct, actually. Yeah. I just, I had flown up to Chicago when I
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was still in la. I just went to Chicago after a tour and like, me
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and my guitarist, we just like locked away
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and did it. It was cool. Okay, so you weren't living there, it just happened.
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You happened to do it there. Okay, right on. All right, well, so yeah, you
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come from a musical household. Your dad was a worship leader.
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Right. Mom was in the choir, ran the choir. And all your
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siblings are musical in some form or another.
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So kind of tell me about like. Okay, you and you started off on drums.
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I'm curious. We didn't really talk much about the, the first band that you played
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in, which was with your siblings, right?
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Yeah, we. We guess. I guess we may have skipped over that a little bit.
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Um, that was very much just sort of like
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a product of necessity, I would say. Um, you know, we
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were all like very, very invested in,
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in playing music and you know, like, we
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were all homeschooled as well. So like, there was a lot of like music
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based themes in the house, whether it be like, you know,
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Making up songs for school or,
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you know, my mom would make up a song to get us to do stuff.
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A lot of times, you know, just like, to clean up our
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messes or, you know, if we needed help with
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something. She always had a song to, like, kind of remind
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us to do these things, you know, so.
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And also we had, like. Like, we would all take
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turns doing extracurricular activities.
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So. And we would go, like, by the school year. So, like, I remember the
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one year my older sister Lydia wanted to learn how to play
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guitar, so she started taking guitar lessons. And then
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my bro, my younger. My youngest brother, Christian, he wanted to play
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bass. And I already kind of knew I could play the drums,
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like, before I even ever got a kit or anything. I'm just like, I. I
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know I can. I. I have to, you know. Oh, so you weren't playing
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already at this point when everyone else was gonna. Say, I didn't start. I didn't
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start playing until I was like, I think 13 or 14.
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Okay. Like, I would play a little bit. Like, I would try to, like,
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like, sneak up on stage after church and, like, I would try to hit the.
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Hit the drums. But I will always get kicked off by the sound guys or
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my dad or whatever. Oh, really? Like, yeah,
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yeah, you're just a kid. You're just messing around. And then I'm like, no,
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I can play the drums. Like, I promise you.
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But, yeah, I don't know. And then my. I have another sister,
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Mariah, who's, like, younger than me.
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She's, you know, I think she started kind of learning
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piano. Like, my dad started teaching her piano,
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and, you know, all of us can sing, you know, more or less.
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So it was kind of just like, I don't even. I don't. Honestly don't even
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know, like, where the idea came from. It seems like it was always just going
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to happen at some point. But we did start,
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like, a little band that we. I think it was
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the majority of the reason was because we were trying to enter
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this, like, competition at our church.
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Oh, like a battle of the bands type thing? Not.
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It was more like a.
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It's kind of hard to explain because it was. It was like a regional,
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and then it became like a national thing where, like, all these different
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churches would, like, come together once a
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year and they would do, like, you know, like the regional round where you could,
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like, you know, be in a band or you could,
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you know, preach a sermon or you had, like, a piece of art that you
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would make, and then you'd be like, judged on it. And then if you, you
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know, got a score that was passing, you could go to the next round.
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But it was like a really big event, you know, and if you went to
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the national, like, you're, you're,
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you're competing against thousands of other people, you know.
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So I think we just like formed our band basically to enter that
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competition and we ended up like, getting
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to the national level, I think, two or three years in a row. Wow. Were
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you doing original songs or you do like, like a
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worship song or kind of both? I think we entered two
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different categories, so we had a couple original songs that we were doing for
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that, but we also were just playing like church music, you know.
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And then we started playing, like, I think we played at the mall one time.
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It was, it was weird, man. Like, I, I think when I look
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back on that, it was like we're just set up in the food court and
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like, it was just very like uncomfortable.
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I remember I was like, kind of upset because I had to play with those
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like, hot rod sticks, you know, because it's like we're just in like a really
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big echoey chamber. Yeah, I had to play really
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quietly and like my whole thing was just to play as hard as you could.
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So that wasn't really my, my jam.
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But yeah, I don't know that we ever played any proper, like,
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shows at a venue or anything like that. We played primarily like at church
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or, you know, just like
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little, little things here and there that are parents, friends
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would have. Like, we, I think we played at like a school one time, you
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know. Okay. Probably played, you probably played out like, like maybe five or
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six times total. Okay. And you're one of your sisters is still an
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artist, right? Yeah, my younger sister Mariah, she still,
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she still plays. She still records and puts out music.
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She's got her own project that she calls Renee the
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Entertainer. She's, I think Renee's her middle name. So like,
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I was wondering, I was gonna say I, I, I had written down Renee the
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Entertainer. And then I'm like, he didn't say I, did I? Maybe I
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misheard. Yeah, Renee the Entertainer. That's her thing. It's kind of like a more
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of like a hip hop infused R B kind of thing.
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Yeah, the song, I remember, I think she had just put out the song
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Heart last time we talked. Yeah, I worked on that one a little bit. We,
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we. I'll send her beats all the time. And she's actually got a new
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song coming out soon that's like a Boot a beat that I produced.
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Really? That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So we still kind of work together here and
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there, but she's kind of doing her own thing, which is great. That's awesome.
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And then. So, yeah, and then you kind of started M.A.G.S. by just
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recording yourself, Right? You'd record the drum beat and then go back in and add
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guitars and pretty much to it. Yeah. And I
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had been in so many bands, like, between, like, when we started our first
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band to. When I started M.A.G.S., I probably was in, like, seven or
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eight bands. Okay. And then with. With
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M.A.G.S.zo, I mean, the song Drugs, obviously, is a huge. Was a huge
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song for you. And was that kind of. What
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did that change stuff for you as far as, like, the success level
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of this project versus other bands maybe you had played in before?
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I think having a song that kind of, like, got baked into the
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algorithm, like, I think it definitely added a bit more, like, legitimacy,
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you know, to be totally honest,
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none of the other bands really had enough, like, Juice
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to really, like, get off the ground. Like, a lot of them stayed local.
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Okay. Never really toured with any of the other groups.
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And I don't know, I just. I think it was. It's a
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lot of the mentality behind, like, starting
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a band. Like, some people want to get on the road and they want to,
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you know, play shows and. And do that kind of life.
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And then other people just want to, like, be local and, you
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know, just play shows locally and just kind
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of have something to do, really, you know. Right. I mean, that's the thing that's
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wild about being in a band, especially bands that are. Have. The longevity
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is that you have to find a group of, you know, three, four, five people
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that all have the same dream and the same drive and
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the same, you know, mindset when it comes to those things. Because for me, I
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mean, I think about, you know, chatting with artists, and they're like, you know, the
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rough in eight years, right in the van and sleeping on floors. And
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I'm like, yeah, that's. That. That's not for me.
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And I'm sure. I'm sure that's not for a lot of people once that you
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get to that point. But then usually you'll hear about people like, you
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know, the. The few. Maybe The. The most
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passionate people in the town or whatever, all kind of get together at one point
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or another, and then that band goes on to become a success
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story because those are the people that cared enough to continue on with it.
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Yeah, I think it's really just about everyone's sort of goals being
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aligned, which is very challenging,
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you know, especially getting a little older too, and everyone's priorities
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start to change or like, you know. You'Re having kids, you're getting married
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or whatever. Yeah. You're like, I. I got to get to work, man.
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Like, I can't just, like, go play a pizzeria for 10
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bucks. That's exactly right. Yeah. I think, you
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know, it's interesting because I. I watched a lot of the.
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The people that I looked up to in the scene in Buffalo, like, kind of
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take that route as well, you know, and there's. There's nothing wrong with that. I
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think that's like, honestly, like, it's. It's stable,
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you know, and you. You kind of end up like, you know, you got your
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house, you got your kids, you got your wife, you know, and you just. You're
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doing your thing. And, you know, I think there is part
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of me sometimes that is like, you know, dang, that would
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have. That sounds really nice, you know, and I. I'm just at a point
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now where it's like, I'm starting to move
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more towards that as well, you know, Like, I'm in Kansas City. I'm
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away from a lot of the distractions of just kind of the big city life
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and everything. My girl and I are. Are pretty posted
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up here. We got two cats. You know, it's like sometimes it's kind of like
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having kids, 5am Wake up times, I
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guess, sometimes, sure. But, yeah, it's. It's a good life. And,
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you know, I think ultimately it's like, you know, I'm.
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I'm willing to protect it. You know, this is like the type of stuff that
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I want to come home to after I'm done being on the road, you know.
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But you must have some sort of inkling. I mean,
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like, you'll hear. I'll hear artists talk about. It's like if you sat around for
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six months or eight months, you'd probably be itching to get out and play.
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That's me. Right? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like one of
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those things where most people are like, oh, it'd be,
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you know, they do the one show and they're like, oh, that was great. Okay,
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that'll all. That'll. That'll take care of that itch for the next
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nine months. Or it's most. If you're. This is it and this is what
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you want to do, and this is what you love and what you're doing. I
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could see it being a lot harder to kind of hang up for a long
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period of time. Yeah, you know, it's. It's interesting you say that
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because, like, this past year, 2024, for me,
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has been. It's just been that, like, the last show I played was in
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December of 2023, and, like, a few
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weeks before I moved, we did, like, a
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show for Emo Night out there, and it was really. It was a lot of
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fun. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it was. It was really, really sick.
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And then I moved, and I've just basically been kind of
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acclimating to life in the Midwest. And,
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you know, I've been doing some. Some writing here and there, some mixing here and
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there, but, like, it hasn't really been in the cards to
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be playing a lot of shows right now, you know?
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And, you know, that's okay. Like, I'm. I'm honestly totally fine
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with that, I think. What's like, you know, now that I have a tour
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kind of on the books, and, like, we're about to go, you know, do this
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tour and, you know, honestly, it's like I'm about to go open for
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American Football as well, and that's one of the biggest. Biggest opportunities I've ever had
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as an artist. So rad. I love that band. They're incredible.
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Yeah, I got to see them last year while we were on
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tour. We played the same festival. Oh, you played four Chords, right? Was that the
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festival? Yeah, with Alkaline Trio and a bunch of other bands were
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on that. Yeah, that was. That was honestly, like, one of the.
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One of the best experiences at any festival I've ever had. It was. It was
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really sick. That's so rad. Yeah, I actually. It was
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crazy. The. The way I even got connected to them was
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we stayed at the same hotel, American Football and us, like, and we
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just. We were checking in at the same time that they were checking in, and
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then we end up. You know, one thing led to another. We were. Ended up.
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We ended up, like, partying with them. Like, we were
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just, like, in the lobby, just, like, just kind of tearing shit up, you
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know. Yeah, it's really sick. But we. You know, I stayed in touch with
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Steve, who plays drums for them, and, you
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know, from there we've just kind of been, you know, stayed friends, stayed in
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touch, and then they asked me to do this, you know, so. That's so
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crazy. Pretty cool. Yeah. I can't. Yeah, I can't imagine.
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Although you aren't playing here in Nashville, but that's cool.
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Honestly, I really want to get back to Nashville. I've only played there a couple
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of times, but it seems that there's a. There's a bit of a demand
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to come back, so I know it'll happen soon. Yes, I know. And
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American Football is not coming here either, but that's cool. But you both
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should. Out of date. But
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that's. I mean, that's so wild to be able to be on that tour with
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them. But I was gonna say, like, I know you're talking before. We're kind of
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talking about how, you know, a
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bands are hard to keep together and, you know, having everyone have the same drive
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and the same thing. And with M.A.G.S. is you do everything
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when it comes to the recording process of it all, but then you have a.
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A live band that you tour with. And I
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remember we're. When we were talking about the Destroyer album last time, because I want
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to hear about this, like, reimagined version of it, which is awesome. But
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you were saying that you kind of wrote that record more so with
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the live element in mind, Right. Where it was
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like before, you were just kind of writing the songs, and that
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wasn't a part of it because it was just you. But then now you have.
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Then you had a band, you guys started to gel, and then it was like,
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oh, well, how will this sound live when we play this
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song? Or whatever with Destroyer? Is that,
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like, kind of. Tell me about that. Was that because the.
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You have felt like, okay, I have, like, kind of a solid group of people
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here that are willing and have the same mentality as
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me, or was it like, I love playing live so
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much that I want to, you know, this. I want it to sound a certain
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way live. I don't know. Sure. Yeah. I think there was definitely some
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realizations on those first couple tours we did, because I had just put
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out say things, I think, the year before, like, our
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first tour ever. And even, like, the way that
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I connected with the guys that were in the band at that point, it was
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very, like, serendipitous, you know, and
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when we, you know, started the tour and we're playing shows, it's like, we
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gelled almost immediately. Like, there wasn't really any, like,
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period of us needing to kind of get used to each other. It was just
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like, boom. Like, we're a sick band. And I was like, that was. That
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was lucky, you know. Right. And, you
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know, we did, I think, two or three tours, and then I was, you know,
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I was in the middle of just Kind of getting my. Some of my ideas
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together for the next album. And,
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you know, I. I think I'm a pretty observant person. You know, I
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tend to pay attention to people's like, you know, strengths and
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weaknesses. And I think when you're on stage with people as well, it's like you.
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You get really familiar with them in like a way that is. It
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kind of goes beyond like friendship or like, you know, how you
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relate to them. It's like this almost higher frequency thing, you
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know? You know, so I would like, listen
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to. I'd be, you know, doing my parts, but listening to how my drummer
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is playing the parts that I wrote and I'm noticing how he, how
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he changes things and how he, you know, is essentially playing the
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same parts, but like, he's got his own style, you know. And
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so when I started writing the next album, I'm kind of
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thinking a little bit about him. I'm kind of thinking about like,
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like, well, I know he likes to do stuff like this, and so that's a
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kind of a cool idea. So I might borrow that a little bit, you know.
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Okay, I see. Yeah. Kind of taking like what you're observing when you're
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playing live, like, oh, like, I never thought about this little thing
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that he does on this song that, you know, that
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I already wrote. But maybe we can add something cool like that. Yeah, I
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think there's. There's a lot to learn from other people.
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Just. That's kind of an obvious statement. But like,
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I think with mags, like, it was sort of
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maybe not so obvious because I started
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doing it with such like, determination to just
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do it myself, you know, and since I started
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playing live more often, it's like, you know,
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there's a lot of room for other people to come in and like
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add their style or, you know, just bring their own ideas
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or their own sort of techniques even
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and, you know, just kind of put their own voice into it. And I think
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that's really cool. Like, you know, this next tour we're doing, it's like, I don't
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even. I have one guy from kind of the original group and the
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other two guys are new guys I've never played with before.
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Oh, okay. Just. I think it's going to be fun, you know, but it's also
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interesting because you have to kind of start the whole process over again, like
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relearning and re acclimating and everything. Sure.
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So. But I'm really interested to see how, you know, this next run goes for
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that very reason. And
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you know, I don't know. I just, like. I like to,
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you know, now that I've opened myself up to,
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you know, what other people can contribute to M.A.G.S., it's like I'm sort of
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itching to now collaborate more, you know, and
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that's kind of. That's kind of what Creator is, you know, Creator was
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the very first, like, collaborative M.A.G.S. album.
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Oh, okay. Yeah. I didn't know that. So. Yeah, because I.
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I remember when you said, like, you went with. With. With say Things
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or. And you guys would go out and play live. It was the. The
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songs translate so much heavier. Right. In a live version. Like, a live
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version. And then. So when it went into Destroyer, you know, it was.
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This is. It's heavy, and this is what's going to sound like on the recording
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and live. And then with this new with Creator,
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it's. You kind of took a. You flipped it again.
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So now it's more of, like. It's more
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atmospheric, I guess. I don't know, like, how I would describe it, but it's not.
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The songs are rad, and it's the reimagined versions, I guess.
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You kind of describe it like, it's not heavy. The newer one.
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No, it's not. Yeah. So. So, yeah, you kind of went back to more
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of the, like, less
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heavy with the same song, like, a different reimagined
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version of these songs. And, like, I guess. Why. What
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went into this? Like, why did you decide to do this? And. And you made
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it a collaborative effort. And how did that all. How did this come about, this
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project? Sure. Yeah. I think this album
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started off as an acoustic album.
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My initial idea was, like, you know,
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like, I put out Destroyer and kind of immediately jumped into.
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Just kind of getting my personal life back together, if I'm being totally honest.
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Didn't give it as much attention, I think, as
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I would have wanted to. And
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so at the beginning of. I think it was.
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Yeah, like, the beginning of this year, I kind of was just like, I need
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to. I want to go back to Destroyer, but I want to, like, go back
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without. Just, like. I don't know. I didn't want to just, like, put out a
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video, like, six months later, whatever, you know? So I'm like, how can I.
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How can I, like, give Destroyer a little bit more life?
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And the idea to just do, like, an acoustic version of Destroyer
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kind of popped into my head. So
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I just. I had the idea I'm gonna just, like, sit in front of my
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computer for a day and just, like, record all these songs acoustically,
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you know, just my voice, Naku guitar and
402
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you know, that'll be kind of like the next step.
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And as you know, I think I. I got through the majority
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of the songs. I think there's nine songs on the album. I got through like
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seven or eight of them. And I hit
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up Ahmed, who plays guitar in my band, and he's the one
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who lives in Chicago. And I was like. And I actually now thinking about it,
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I think this was actually the beginning of 2023 when this
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kind of started because I had finished
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May. I'm getting my timeline a little mixed up here, but I was working on
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it last year. Like the. The demos of it. I was working on them last
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year and I hit him up and I was like, like, I
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want to like make a. Maybe like a bit
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of an overproduced acoustic album, you know, Like, I want to add like
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all these different elements and, and make it really like,
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like big, you know, like almost orchestral, you know. He's like, bet,
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like, okay, cool. So we just. This. We just picked a couple days
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or like. I think it was like, like a nine day stretch in
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November last year to just like, like lock in and do it.
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And you know, I basically just pulled up with my voice
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and the acoustic guitars and we kind of just built everything
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around it. So I think at the very
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core of Creator, it's still just an acoustic
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album, but all the extra layers and textures
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and a lot of the electronic elements, that was all kind
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of. That just all came through experimentation.
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I went in with kind of an idea of what I wanted to
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do and I left with something that I, A,
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would have never made on my own and B,
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kind of like subverted my expectations for what I thought was possible. If
431
00:26:54,770 --> 00:26:58,530
I'm being honest, you know, I was like. I think like the first or second
432
00:26:58,530 --> 00:27:02,210
day we. We went in order of the tracks, you know. And like the first
433
00:27:02,210 --> 00:27:06,050
day it's like we made. We did Destroyer
434
00:27:06,050 --> 00:27:08,810
and it was like. Or Sequence one. And I was like,
435
00:27:10,410 --> 00:27:12,570
I think by the time we got to the end of it and like we're
436
00:27:12,570 --> 00:27:15,770
adding this like crazy, like kind of lo fi drill beat. I was like,
437
00:27:16,380 --> 00:27:19,180
okay, I don't know. Like, I have no idea. I have no idea what's gonna
438
00:27:19,180 --> 00:27:22,860
happen, you know. And then the next day we did Sequence
439
00:27:22,860 --> 00:27:26,620
two or Sins. And like, you know, that one has a bit more of
440
00:27:26,620 --> 00:27:30,300
like a. Like a. Almost like a western, like cowboy
441
00:27:30,460 --> 00:27:34,060
vibe, you know, like all these songs to me, like, as we were
442
00:27:34,060 --> 00:27:37,300
like before we made the songs we just kind of would talk about them. And
443
00:27:37,300 --> 00:27:41,100
I'm like, this is what I'm thinking, you know? And I know for, like, for.
444
00:27:41,490 --> 00:27:45,130
For that one specifically, I was like, I'm just thinking about my cowboy
445
00:27:45,130 --> 00:27:48,690
riding into the sunset, you know, that's the exact vibe I want to go for.
446
00:27:49,010 --> 00:27:52,490
And so we just would kind of use that as our template and just kind
447
00:27:52,490 --> 00:27:54,850
of went, you know, and just tried to figure it out.
448
00:27:56,210 --> 00:28:00,010
And even for, like, sequence three, that one was very, like, heavily influenced
449
00:28:00,010 --> 00:28:03,850
by, like, the Beatles, you know, we made that one on the
450
00:28:03,850 --> 00:28:07,530
same day that the. The
451
00:28:07,530 --> 00:28:11,130
John Lennon, like, AI track they released.
452
00:28:11,130 --> 00:28:14,690
Oh, really? Remember that? Last year? Yeah. Yeah. We woke up and it was, like,
453
00:28:14,690 --> 00:28:18,010
all over our feeds and everything, and everyone just had, like, their own opinions about
454
00:28:18,010 --> 00:28:21,850
it and everything. It's like, the first new Beatles song in, like, decades or whatever.
455
00:28:22,250 --> 00:28:26,090
And I'm just like, why don't we just kind of lean into this a
456
00:28:26,090 --> 00:28:29,850
little bit and take the vibe from that and just put it into this one
457
00:28:30,970 --> 00:28:33,530
and it worked. You know what I mean? It's like we just kept it, like,
458
00:28:33,530 --> 00:28:37,370
very, like. I think we referenced, like, sergeant Pepper
459
00:28:37,610 --> 00:28:41,010
and, like, the song Day Tripper for some of the
460
00:28:41,010 --> 00:28:44,610
guitars and. Oh, yeah. You know, we just kind of, like, just leaned
461
00:28:44,610 --> 00:28:48,330
heavily into it, you know. And what we came out of it
462
00:28:48,330 --> 00:28:52,170
was, you know, what we got. It was like, oh, this is.
463
00:28:53,370 --> 00:28:56,930
This is cool. This is actually really cool. And it, like, gives the song a
464
00:28:56,930 --> 00:28:59,930
completely different vibe that, like,
465
00:29:00,930 --> 00:29:04,210
you know, it sounds like a different song. And that was when I was like,
466
00:29:04,290 --> 00:29:07,970
this isn't. This isn't a remix project anymore. Like, this is. These are. These are.
467
00:29:07,970 --> 00:29:11,410
This is a different song, you know? Right, right. Yeah. Because it wasn't like, you're
468
00:29:11,410 --> 00:29:15,010
going in with the idea, like, oh, that's what this. This song is kind of
469
00:29:15,010 --> 00:29:18,610
about, this subject matter, so we can kind of make it this
470
00:29:18,770 --> 00:29:22,410
style. It was like, whatever you've kind of felt at the
471
00:29:22,410 --> 00:29:26,170
time it went that. That's what went into it. Yeah, exactly. And
472
00:29:26,170 --> 00:29:29,890
I think that's like. That's kind of the cool thing about collaborating is,
473
00:29:29,890 --> 00:29:33,130
like, to have that idea and then to just sit there and try to do
474
00:29:33,130 --> 00:29:36,850
it yourself. It's like, you know, maybe. But
475
00:29:36,850 --> 00:29:40,410
I think when you have another person or a couple other people,
476
00:29:40,890 --> 00:29:44,450
like, at your disposal, and they have their own ideas that they can inject into
477
00:29:44,450 --> 00:29:48,130
it, it's like, you know, I got to just kind of sit back and
478
00:29:48,130 --> 00:29:51,410
just watch. A lot of the time, you know, I'm just like. I would sit
479
00:29:51,410 --> 00:29:54,890
there For a couple hours and like make a beat or like add a little
480
00:29:54,890 --> 00:29:57,440
verse thing. And then I would just like
481
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,640
back off, you know? And then Ahmed would come in and he would
482
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,160
do some stuff for a while. And then Mike would come in and he would
483
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,360
do some stuff for a while. And we just kind of went in a circle
484
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:11,120
for nine days. Were you guys doing a
485
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,960
song a day? Was that like, kind of the, like. Yeah, Sequence one was done
486
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,040
on day one, or did you not go in order? Or did you go in
487
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:19,920
order? We went in order until
488
00:30:22,050 --> 00:30:24,850
I think we went 1, 2, 3, 4, and then we skipped to
489
00:30:25,890 --> 00:30:29,530
9. I don't know why we did that, but, like, that was just what we
490
00:30:29,530 --> 00:30:33,130
were feeling. And then we did sequence seven,
491
00:30:33,130 --> 00:30:36,250
which is the one that has the video. We did that one on the very
492
00:30:36,250 --> 00:30:39,970
last day. Oh, okay, Floyd, I think is that one right, Floyd?
493
00:30:39,970 --> 00:30:43,570
Yeah, we had to get up early to do that one because Ahmed had to
494
00:30:43,810 --> 00:30:47,610
fly out of Chicago that day. So we got. We got up at like 8
495
00:30:47,610 --> 00:30:51,120
or 9 and just like started. And that one came together like,
496
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,960
extremely quick. I think we had that one pretty much
497
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,200
ready to be mixed by like one,
498
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,080
you know, which was really. Was that the fastest one? I remember you're saying, like,
499
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,200
when you wrote Drugs, that you wrote that song in like 30 seconds for like
500
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,400
a friend's. It was 30 seconds. Yeah. It wasn't. It like, okay, I already have
501
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,960
this. He just wrote it down and it was this huge song. But
502
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:16,810
did all. Was that. Was Floyd the next
503
00:31:16,810 --> 00:31:20,050
one that kind of came that quickly? Or did. I mean, that obviously didn't take
504
00:31:20,050 --> 00:31:23,890
30 seconds, but you know what I mean. Was that from that album, Was
505
00:31:23,890 --> 00:31:26,930
that the. Was that the fastest song that you guys have put together? That was
506
00:31:26,930 --> 00:31:30,730
definitely the fastest one. Yeah, I think it was just because we. We
507
00:31:30,730 --> 00:31:33,930
had that sense of urgency of like, if we don't finish this today, then we're
508
00:31:33,930 --> 00:31:37,730
kind of screwed, you know, so let's. I think we. I
509
00:31:37,730 --> 00:31:40,830
know we started with kind of like a pre made beat. And
510
00:31:41,710 --> 00:31:45,230
you know, our. Our kind of like, system was like
511
00:31:45,950 --> 00:31:49,390
just to take what we had and then layer a bunch of guitars, you know,
512
00:31:49,390 --> 00:31:52,910
Molly acoustic guitars over it. Just like a bunch of different melodies.
513
00:31:52,990 --> 00:31:56,790
And then we'd add the drums, and then we'd add whatever low
514
00:31:56,790 --> 00:32:00,550
end bass or whatever. And then we just kind of would build everything out
515
00:32:00,550 --> 00:32:04,110
from their textures and like, you know, cutting things if we
516
00:32:04,110 --> 00:32:07,770
needed to. And yeah, a lot of it was
517
00:32:07,770 --> 00:32:11,330
just like. A lot of it was already there. You know,
518
00:32:11,410 --> 00:32:14,290
we put some reverb on the vocals. And it was just like, okay, like, this
519
00:32:14,290 --> 00:32:18,130
is the vibe. Like, let's just. Let's just lean into this, you know? Yeah.
520
00:32:18,130 --> 00:32:20,890
I was curious about the vocals because they've been on sequence one. I mean, with
521
00:32:20,890 --> 00:32:24,610
the song itself on Destroyer, your vocal is.
522
00:32:24,690 --> 00:32:28,290
You're. You're singing such a higher oct. It sounds like you're
523
00:32:28,290 --> 00:32:31,880
singing in a higher octave. And then in the sequence one version of that song.
524
00:32:32,350 --> 00:32:35,950
Yeah, I actually just pitched the vocals up. I just used like a plugin.
525
00:32:35,950 --> 00:32:39,070
Just like. Okay, yeah. Because there's no way I could sing that high.
526
00:32:40,270 --> 00:32:44,070
It sounds great. I didn't know if maybe was like the.
527
00:32:44,070 --> 00:32:47,829
The vocals that are on. On the recording in that first
528
00:32:47,829 --> 00:32:51,190
acoustic track. Did you keep all that or did you re. Record it the. When
529
00:32:51,190 --> 00:32:54,950
you were there in Chicago? No, those are all the original vocals. Yeah. Oh,
530
00:32:54,950 --> 00:32:58,110
wow. Yeah, I just. I just pitched them up and I'm like, this sounds great.
531
00:32:58,110 --> 00:33:01,780
Let's just. Let's go with it. And did
532
00:33:01,780 --> 00:33:05,380
you come up with, like, an idea? You said like, you know, one
533
00:33:05,380 --> 00:33:09,140
song at the Beatles Vibe or the Western vibe. Like, was
534
00:33:09,140 --> 00:33:12,980
that an idea? Did you have, like, a concept like that going
535
00:33:12,980 --> 00:33:16,820
into each song? Each sequence? Almost every song. Yeah. I
536
00:33:16,820 --> 00:33:20,140
don't remember all of them, but I know for like.
537
00:33:20,300 --> 00:33:22,860
Yeah, obviously sequence two was the western thing.
538
00:33:24,140 --> 00:33:27,950
Sequence two was the. The Beatles thing. I remember for
539
00:33:27,950 --> 00:33:31,750
sequence four, which was. Which is swimming, we had
540
00:33:31,750 --> 00:33:35,470
been going for three days nonstop, and
541
00:33:35,710 --> 00:33:39,150
both of us were pretty tired and feeling a little, like,
542
00:33:39,230 --> 00:33:43,070
drained, I think. And we hadn't left the house either. So we were just
543
00:33:43,070 --> 00:33:46,910
like, locked in, just like, you know, not stopping at
544
00:33:46,910 --> 00:33:50,390
all, basically. So we decided we were going to, like, go out for a walk
545
00:33:50,390 --> 00:33:53,150
and we were going to also, like, collect some sounds. You know,
546
00:33:54,590 --> 00:33:57,310
my. It's funny because, like, my initial idea for
547
00:33:57,950 --> 00:34:01,710
swimming was I had a dream that I
548
00:34:01,710 --> 00:34:05,550
was. I don't know if I was. If I was like an orca or
549
00:34:05,550 --> 00:34:09,230
if I was just like, like, like observing
550
00:34:09,230 --> 00:34:12,910
like a whale basically. Just like zooming through the water and,
551
00:34:13,470 --> 00:34:16,870
you know, you just. You're kind of like looking at all of the different, like,
552
00:34:16,870 --> 00:34:20,670
sea life below you and then, like, you. And then for the. For the verses,
553
00:34:20,670 --> 00:34:23,969
like, you kind of come up for air and you see like, the sun and
554
00:34:23,969 --> 00:34:27,689
you dive back down. It was all very, like, surreal and sort of
555
00:34:27,689 --> 00:34:31,409
strange. But that. That visual has
556
00:34:31,649 --> 00:34:35,409
kind of always stuck with me, you know, So I was like, how can we
557
00:34:35,409 --> 00:34:39,249
kind of make this song feel more like that?
558
00:34:39,329 --> 00:34:42,049
You know, we actually, like, went down to
559
00:34:44,049 --> 00:34:47,649
the lake. And we, like, recorded some, like, sounds from
560
00:34:47,649 --> 00:34:51,470
the. From the waves. And we found some, like. Yeah, we
561
00:34:51,470 --> 00:34:54,870
found some rocks. It's just like some like, like some smooth rocks. And we banged
562
00:34:54,870 --> 00:34:58,430
them together and like, we were just using our iPhones and just
563
00:34:58,430 --> 00:35:02,150
like collected like, all these sounds. We took the
564
00:35:02,150 --> 00:35:05,750
train down to this. Down to the circle and
565
00:35:05,750 --> 00:35:09,310
like, just recorded the train sounds, recorded people,
566
00:35:09,390 --> 00:35:13,110
like, just anything that we thought sounded kind of interesting, we just recorded
567
00:35:13,110 --> 00:35:15,790
it. And then we just dumped it all on the computer when we got back.
568
00:35:16,610 --> 00:35:20,250
And so a lot of the first half of Sequence four is
569
00:35:20,250 --> 00:35:23,970
just like, found samples and like, bullshit,
570
00:35:23,970 --> 00:35:27,770
really, you know. Really? That's rad. Yeah, but that was like. That
571
00:35:27,770 --> 00:35:31,410
was kind of like the. The creative kick that we needed to, like,
572
00:35:31,810 --> 00:35:35,290
you know, get inspired again. Cause it was like, you know, a lot of the
573
00:35:35,290 --> 00:35:39,050
ideas were. Were just flowing so fast that we weren't really, like, thinking
574
00:35:39,050 --> 00:35:42,050
about them. It was just we were doing. And then that day we both woke
575
00:35:42,050 --> 00:35:45,850
up, we were just like, yo, like, we gotta do something different because
576
00:35:45,850 --> 00:35:49,690
I'm tired, you know? I love that. I
577
00:35:49,690 --> 00:35:52,970
had Noah from the band Bad Omens on
578
00:35:53,370 --> 00:35:57,050
a while ago, and he was. For one of the more recent albums. That's what
579
00:35:57,050 --> 00:35:59,810
he did a lot of that stuff like that, like, he was recording weird things
580
00:35:59,810 --> 00:36:03,650
like in his house, like during the Pandemic and utilized on the record. Like, I
581
00:36:03,650 --> 00:36:06,290
never heard anyone else talk about that. I think that's so cool that you did
582
00:36:06,290 --> 00:36:09,770
that. Like, that's definitely an idea. Yeah, I think
583
00:36:09,770 --> 00:36:12,970
sometimes just like getting out of the box a bit, you know, because it's like
584
00:36:12,970 --> 00:36:16,590
you. You can kind of find any sound that you might want on the Internet
585
00:36:16,590 --> 00:36:20,150
at this point, but there's nothing like just getting
586
00:36:20,230 --> 00:36:24,030
your own original sample. You know, whether. I
587
00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:27,350
remember being at an In N Out one time, and I don't know if you've
588
00:36:27,350 --> 00:36:30,350
ever been to In N Out, but like. Yeah, I'm from San Diego. Okay. So
589
00:36:30,350 --> 00:36:34,030
you know how they have that machine that they actually like, they make their own
590
00:36:34,030 --> 00:36:37,670
French fries. They like put the. Oh, yeah, they. Where they put the full potato
591
00:36:37,670 --> 00:36:41,030
in it and go. Yeah. So somebody was like.
592
00:36:42,090 --> 00:36:45,250
Someone had like a really good. They had like a good system that they were
593
00:36:45,250 --> 00:36:47,210
doing it with. It was making this, like,
594
00:36:48,970 --> 00:36:52,530
kind of like crazy, like, rhythm. And I was like, yo. Like,
595
00:36:52,530 --> 00:36:55,690
that's like actually a beat, you know? So I remember just like going up to
596
00:36:55,690 --> 00:36:59,410
the counter and just like holding my phone, just like trying to get
597
00:36:59,410 --> 00:37:02,610
like a. Like a maybe 20 second clean sample of it. And then I just
598
00:37:02,610 --> 00:37:06,330
came home and, like, made a beat out of it. Really? Yeah. Like,
599
00:37:06,330 --> 00:37:09,640
I think that's the kind of stuff that is, like, that's the kind of stuff
600
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,000
that makes me excited about making music is, like, when you hear something, you're like,
601
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,840
oh, that's kind of dope. Like, you know? That's so awesome. Did you
602
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:19,440
put a song to it? Like, is that a song? Is that in a song
603
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,800
yet? Yeah, it's like, somewhere on my hard drive, I've got tons of music that
604
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,520
isn't actually out. That's just, like, sitting on a hard drive.
605
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,320
That's so cool, man. Well, with this tour coming up, are you going
606
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,840
to, you know, play any of the sequence
607
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,310
songs, or is it just gonna be rock and
608
00:37:37,310 --> 00:37:41,110
roll? It's gonna be, like, a blend of both.
609
00:37:41,190 --> 00:37:44,950
Honestly, I want to, like. I know for, like, my. My
610
00:37:45,030 --> 00:37:48,830
live shows, I like to keep the energy up. Yeah. You
611
00:37:48,830 --> 00:37:52,270
know, I do want to, like, blend in some of the
612
00:37:52,270 --> 00:37:55,950
elements of Creator into, like, the Destroyer
613
00:37:55,950 --> 00:37:59,790
versions. You know, we do sometimes use, like, backing
614
00:37:59,790 --> 00:38:03,590
tracks for. For our stuff live. So,
615
00:38:03,590 --> 00:38:07,240
you know, my plan is to have some of that stuff
616
00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:10,320
in the track so that, like, when we get to a certain point in the
617
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,800
song, it just kind of cuts into the Creator version, you know, and
618
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,560
creates this different kind of vibe, you know, so.
619
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:21,400
Yeah, but I think realistically, it's like, I. I do want Creator to kind of
620
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,840
have its own moment, and I'd like to do some.
621
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:29,400
Some. Some shows that are just creator stuff,
622
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,940
you know? That'd be cool. That's awesome, man. Maybe one in Nashville. Who
623
00:38:32,940 --> 00:38:36,700
knows? Yes. Do it. Come here. We'll figure it out.
624
00:38:36,700 --> 00:38:39,180
We'll get you on a show or book a show.
625
00:38:40,300 --> 00:38:43,980
Right on, dude. Well, thank you so much, Ellie, for coming back and. And chatting.
626
00:38:44,300 --> 00:38:48,019
Yeah. I love your music and what you're doing. I think that's so awesome
627
00:38:48,019 --> 00:38:51,180
you're opening up for American football, too. I mean, what a huge
628
00:38:51,420 --> 00:38:55,260
moment that will be or has been with that
629
00:38:55,260 --> 00:38:59,110
one festival and whatnot. But I asked you this last time, and it's
630
00:38:59,110 --> 00:39:02,950
my last question. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring
631
00:39:02,950 --> 00:39:03,510
artists.
632
00:39:06,390 --> 00:39:10,110
Advice for aspiring artists? I will
633
00:39:10,110 --> 00:39:13,350
give the advice that I have been giving myself lately
634
00:39:14,230 --> 00:39:17,590
because I've been in a bit of a, like, you know,
635
00:39:18,150 --> 00:39:21,030
creative rut, I would say,
636
00:39:21,590 --> 00:39:25,270
lately, and I'm working really hard to get out of it. I
637
00:39:25,270 --> 00:39:29,110
actually. I just started this book called
638
00:39:29,110 --> 00:39:32,830
the Artist's Way. Oh, pages. This is a. Pages.
639
00:39:32,910 --> 00:39:36,550
Doing the pages. Yeah, I'm. I'm doing the pages right now. And
640
00:39:36,550 --> 00:39:40,350
it's. It's honestly been really good. But yesterday I wrote like, I
641
00:39:40,350 --> 00:39:42,110
was talking to myself about
642
00:39:44,030 --> 00:39:47,750
passion, you know, and like, why I started making music in the first
643
00:39:47,750 --> 00:39:51,550
place and the things that were inspiring to me and like, the,
644
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,160
the motivation that I had to just like, get out of bed
645
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,480
at, you know, 2 o' clock in the morning when I wanted to change a
646
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,280
mix or if I wanted to get an idea down, you know, like, that
647
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:07,080
was very much like my. My MO for
648
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:08,560
a good portion of my life. But
649
00:40:10,720 --> 00:40:14,480
I think having fun
650
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,000
and being excited, you know, like, that's to me what
651
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,710
passion is. And when it comes to music, if
652
00:40:21,710 --> 00:40:25,470
I'm having fun and I'm excited about what I'm doing, then the
653
00:40:25,470 --> 00:40:29,030
passion just kind of comes forth. And, you know,
654
00:40:29,110 --> 00:40:32,870
there's. There's not really anything else that you need to, like, overthink or
655
00:40:32,870 --> 00:40:36,070
take seriously, you know, because at the end of the day, it's like, you know,
656
00:40:36,070 --> 00:40:38,630
doing music as a career is.
657
00:40:39,670 --> 00:40:43,310
You have to be a little delusional to do it. You know, like, you have
658
00:40:43,310 --> 00:40:46,630
to believe in yourself so much and believe that you're right,
659
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,000
like to a point where you're. You're almost like. Like
660
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,800
you can't let other people really influence you very much. You know, not your parents,
661
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,760
your girlfriend, like, your teachers. Like, you just have to. You have to
662
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,600
believe. And I mean, you see that, like, you know, for
663
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:06,280
the most part, it's like if you just keep going and you just keep. You
664
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:09,720
just stay the course, it's like something will happen. You know, you do find your
665
00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:13,360
audience eventually. It might take 10 years, it might take
666
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:17,190
15 years. You know, a lot of these people that like, you know, go
667
00:41:17,190 --> 00:41:20,910
viral or, you know, blow up overnight, it's like
668
00:41:20,910 --> 00:41:24,750
you don't see the. The hundred thousand hours of
669
00:41:24,750 --> 00:41:27,510
work they had to put in just to get to that moment, you know,
670
00:41:29,270 --> 00:41:33,110
but the one thing to never forget during that time is
671
00:41:33,110 --> 00:41:36,950
that, like, you're just having fun and you're just. It's not that serious.
672
00:41:36,950 --> 00:41:40,430
You know, you're just. You're just trying to get your ideas out. You're sharing your.
673
00:41:40,430 --> 00:41:42,950
Your own human experience. And,
674
00:41:45,020 --> 00:41:48,740
you know, that's. That's exciting. Like, that's like, that's one of the.
675
00:41:48,740 --> 00:41:52,460
The greatest gifts that you can give and receive about
676
00:41:52,460 --> 00:41:55,660
being alive is just like, you know, sharing your
677
00:41:55,660 --> 00:41:59,380
creativity. You know, the numbers don't really
678
00:41:59,380 --> 00:42:03,220
matter that much. Your online presence, it's
679
00:42:03,220 --> 00:42:06,900
not really. It's. It's intangible. You know, like, if. If
680
00:42:06,900 --> 00:42:10,540
all that social media stuff, like, broke or like somebody
681
00:42:10,540 --> 00:42:14,310
accidentally deleted Instagram. It's like, what do you have
682
00:42:14,310 --> 00:42:17,990
really? You know, you have. You have your own creative experience, and
683
00:42:17,990 --> 00:42:21,790
that's. That's the important part, you know, so just. Just
684
00:42:21,790 --> 00:42:23,790
keep going, Keep going and have fun.
685
00:42:29,630 --> 00:42:31,070
Bringing it backwards,
686
00:42:34,910 --> 00:42:38,430
bringing it backwards, bringing it backwards,
687
00:42:38,670 --> 00:42:42,190
bringing it backwards, bringing it backwards,
688
00:42:42,350 --> 00:42:43,630
bringing it back.