Signals From Mars – Episode 403 – Jason McMaster

Signals From Mars Episode 403 Jason McMaster

SIGNALS FROM MARS | JASON MCMASTER

Jason McMaster Joins Signals From Mars to Discuss His Career, Influences, and Future Projects

On the latest episode of Signals From Mars, Jason McMaster dives deep into his journey as a musician and his various creative endeavors. Here’s what you can expect:

– Ignitor’s latest release, Horns And Hammers, and the strong NWOBHM influence behind it.
– Collaborating on the cover of the Saxon song “Machine Gun” with Marc Lopes and Ross The Boss.
– Insights into his podcast, Talk Louder, and how it connects with his musical ventures.
– Being the go-to frontman for bands like Ignitor, S.A. Slayer, Watchtower, Armored Saint, Accept, and more.
– The future of Cassius King—what’s next for this exciting project?

Tune in to Signals From Mars for this exclusive interview where Jason McMaster shares his experiences, influences, and what’s ahead in his storied career. Don’t miss it!

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AI Bio For Topics

Jason McMaster: A Heavy Metal Legend

Born: March 18, 1965 | Hometown: Corpus Christi, Texas

Jason McMaster, born on March 18, 1965, in Corpus Christi, Texas, is a renowned vocalist, bassist, songwriter, and producer. His dynamic presence has significantly influenced the heavy metal and hard rock scenes, particularly through his work with bands like Watchtower, Dangerous Toys, and Broken Teeth.

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Growing up in a musically inclined family, McMaster was exposed to a diverse array of artists, including Elton John, Kiss, and Queen. This eclectic mix shaped his musical tastes and aspirations. He began his musical journey with a three-quarter-size acoustic guitar and a Kay brand bass guitar, performing in backyards and veteran halls. By 1978-79, he was the bassist for his first band, Rampage. In 1980, at the age of 15, McMaster moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue music more seriously. There, he formed Fallen Angel in 1981, serving as both bassist and vocalist.

Watchtower: Pioneering Progressive Thrash Metal

In 1982, McMaster joined Watchtower, an Austin-based band that would become a cornerstone in the progressive thrash metal genre. As the frontman, he contributed to their debut album, Energetic Disassembly (1985), which showcased complex time signatures and technical proficiency. The album is considered a landmark in progressive metal, influencing bands like Dream Theater, Cynic, and Death.

Dangerous Toys: Mainstream Success

In 1987, McMaster left Watchtower to join Dangerous Toys, a hard rock band known for its humorous lyrics and energetic performances. Their self-titled debut album, Dangerous Toys (1989), featured singles like “Teas’n, Pleas’n” and “Scared,” both of which received heavy rotation on MTV’s Headbangers Ball. The album peaked at number 65 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA.

The band’s second album, Hellacious Acres (1991), produced by Roy Thomas Baker, included singles such as “Sticks and Stones” and “Line ‘Em Up.” Although it didn’t achieve the same level of success as their debut, it solidified their presence in the rock scene. Subsequent albums, Pissed (1994) and The R*tist 4*merly Known as Dangerous Toys (1995), showcased a darker tone and more aggressive lyrics. Despite not releasing new material since then, Dangerous Toys continues to perform live.

Other Musical Endeavors

McMaster’s versatility is evident in his involvement with various bands across different genres. In 1999, he formed Broken Teeth, a hard rock band that blends elements of AC/DC and Thin Lizzy. He also fronts Ignitor, a traditional heavy metal band, and Evil United, a thrash metal outfit. Additionally, he leads Sad Wings, a Judas Priest tribute band, and has participated in projects like Godzilla Motor Company and Spastic Ink.

Notable Collaborations and Contributions

Throughout his career, McMaster has collaborated with various artists and bands. In 2006, he provided guest vocals for Shadows Fall‘s cover of “Teas’n, Pleas’n” on their compilation album Fallout from the War. He also contributed to Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s tribute album with a rendition of “Simple Man.”

Legacy and Influence

Jason McMaster’s contributions to the metal and rock genres are profound. His work with Watchtower helped pioneer progressive thrash metal, influencing numerous bands that followed. With Dangerous Toys, he achieved mainstream success, leaving an indelible mark on the late ’80s and early ’90s rock scene. His ongoing involvement in various musical projects underscores his passion and dedication to his craft.

As of December 2024, McMaster continues to be an active and influential figure in the music industry, inspiring both peers and new generations of musicians.

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Welcome one and all and welcome to episode 403.

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Yeah, I got the numbers right this time.

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Of Signals from Mars.

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And for this episode we have Jason McMaster on the show talking igniter,

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talking horns and hammers,

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talking all types of other stuff regarding his music, his bands, projects, so on and so forth.

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If you want to hear the interview and just jump to it, it’s right at the five minute mark, more or less.

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But I do want to say that any time that you have Jason McMaster on the show,

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it more or less guarantees that you’re going to have a good conversation.

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And it’s always fun to talk to Jason.

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I think I’ve had him on the show three, four times at this point.

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And it’s always fun.

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It’s always fun to catch up, talk about different bands.

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He’s in so many different bands that there’s always something to talk about.

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So whether it is horns and hammers from igniter,

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whether it’s talking about Watchtower,

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whether it’s talking about San Antonio Slayer,

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whether it’s talking about Cassius King,

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Dan Lorenzo, I got to mention that band.

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If not, Dan will come for me.

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Dan’s a good guy.

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Hopefully I get to interview him in person next summer.

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We’ll see.

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Anyway, yeah, Jason is fun to talk to down to earth.

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And at the end of the day, he seems like a fan.

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Most of all, when he’s talking about different bands, when he’s talking about his own bands,

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yeah, he could he could showboat and he could say, oh, well, I’ve done this.

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I’ve toured with that band or I’ve done, you know, he could be a he could be a jerk about things if he wanted to.

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But he’s not. He’s really down to earth about things and really, really a good conversation, which is fun.

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He’s got his own show, Talk Louder that we’re going to talk about as well.

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And listening to currently listening to an interview that he did with Michael Wilton, which is really neat.

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It’s always fun to hear somebody from within the actual industry, not a goof like me.

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That’s. You know, that I speculate about things, you know, whether something happens or something doesn’t happen or what not.

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And I’m the first to admit that. But Jason is on the on the other side.

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So he’s got insight into things that he’s had to go through in his career.

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And people talk to him in a different manner because of that, because they know that he’s been through the same struggles that they have.

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And he’s dealt with a lot of the same things.

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So it’s always fun to hear him talk to different artists.

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I also talked to him about covers, about getting Mark Lopes and Ross, the boss on a on their take on the Saxon track.

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And it it all kind of fits in. It’s a really neat little piece to the interview.

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And we also discuss how Jason kind of became the go to person to fill in with different spots.

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You know, whether we’re talking about San Antonio Slayer, whether we’re talking about, again, Igniter or except their armored saint.

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You know, those are experiences that not too many people can talk about filling in for.

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You know, people like John Bush or even a Mark Tornillo in except.

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So, yes, so that’s an interesting part of the conversation as well.

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I do want to thank you guys for listening to this episode, and I do want to thank my patrons for all of their support.

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Go to signals from Mars dot com.

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It is the one stop shopping place for anything related to the show, whether it’s replays of the video version of this very interview,

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whether it’s other audio podcasts, whether it’s merch to help support the show, whether it’s Amazon links, so on and so forth.

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Or link to Patreon.

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You could support for as little as two bucks a month.

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Excuse me there.

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Anyway, thank you so much once again.

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And let’s jump on into the interview with Jason.

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Welcome, everyone, to the latest episode of signals from Mars.

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I am lucky enough to be joined by Mr. Jason McMaster.

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How are you, sir?

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I’m good.

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Good to be here.

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Awesome.

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This is, I think, the third or fourth time you’ve been on the show in the different iterations of the show over the years.

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I will always remember a little email exchange that we had when you were releasing a broken teeth album, which was called Bulldozer.

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Yeah.

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And being someone that grew up in a construction family writing the PR person and say, that’s not a bulldozer.

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And your response was, yeah, well, bulldozer sounded better than front loader.

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So I instantly.

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Yeah, front loader sounds like a different band.

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Maybe not front loader sounds like something the mentors would have done or something.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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There you go.

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So we’re here to talk about new album by Igniter, recent album by Igniter, Horns and Hammers.

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Obviously, there’s a new wave of British heavy metal influence going in.

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In this day and age, we were talking about technology before coming on.

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How hard is it to say, you know what, we need to keep it in that vein.

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We’ve got all these tools at our disposal.

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But we still want it to sound authentic.

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We want it to sound like something that came out or was influenced by a specific era.

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First off, I think that it’s interesting

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that even now it’s about to be 2025.

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But for years and years and years now, there has been a demographic that will have it.

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It will have it no other way.

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There is like a power just to pull a genre power metal, you know, force army of some kind.

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I believe that camps out in Germany mostly, but globally battle jackets.

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As far as the eye can see, with nothing past 1987 on the jacket in 2024, 25.

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So there’s your constituents.

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You know, getting them to buy your record is another topic.

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But you know what I mean?

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Because there’s a thousand plus, you know, there’s a million really bad power metal bands.

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I’m not even throwing rocks.

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I’m just saying, you know, oh, here’s another one that sounds just like Igniter.

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Oh, Igniter is just another one of those bands that just sounds like bad about.

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But here’s the deal.

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You know, I’m an attempt to be humble, right?

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So if someone hears the new Igniter or an old Igniter record and goes,

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ah, this just sounds like that’s right.

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We’re not changing anything.

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No reinvention.

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Zero desire to do anything different than what was done on the first few Iron Maiden,

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the first five priests, the first shit, even a couple of Motorhead records.

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You know, you throw the mics up, you just you write the songs as a band.

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You know, one room, you know, everybody’s cohesive and in one room.

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You know, the term is old school, I believe.

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And it’s I mean, the record’s not recorded analog.

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You know, we’re not that right.

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We don’t have that kind of time, you know, because we’re a little long in the tooth and just moving slower.

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And technology is our friend is what I hear.

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But, you know, trying to find the right button is usually the chore.

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And even then, if you’re a dinosaur, you eventually you find the right button

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and you can make your record, your song, your your tone, your bass, your your your snare and your sometimes the snare is hard.

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But you can make the instrument sound the way you want them without spending a lot of money if you can find the right button.

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And I think that I also wanted to not forget that it it does matter who you have in your small army, you know,

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who’s bringing the riffs because it’s human beings pounding on wood and wire.

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Right. That’s it. It’s cavemen pounding on rocks and sticks.

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And it’s still that. And that’s what music is, is a human creating something from nothing in a room.

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And then it’s recorded eventually, hopefully, you know, and to share and bring a smile, get your heart racing, create an emotion.

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This is all the right reasons to write a song, make a noise, make it a song and record it,

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make 10 or 12 of them and put it out there as a product and hope people will join you in that celebration.

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And that’s kind of I mean, I’m generalizing now, aren’t I?

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It’s not just about horns and hammers, but that’s pretty much our Bible.

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And we don’t really know how to do it any other way, which is another good thing.

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You know, Robert Williams, guitar player, he’s the youngest member.

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He’s the newest member. Well, that’s I can’t recall now because I feel like he’s been there the whole time.

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The lineup and I mean, I think Igniter has like nine records out.

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That’s what the press has been saying. And I’m only on six or seven of them.

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And I think one of them is a live record. So, you know, this lineup,

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I know these five dudes have been in doing this for 10 years now with three records under our belt as this group.

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And that would be haunted by rock and roll.

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Then right around the pandemic was the Golden Age of Black Magic and now Horns and Hammers.

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And as we as we move towards Horns and Hammers, Robert is bringing in even more material.

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He’s kind of beating everybody else. Stuart being really the main songwriter and Igniter is kind of his creation.

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Stuart the Bat Lord Lawrence is who I speak of.

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Robert, I mean, half the record or more he brought in a few of those tunes he brought in pretty much finished.

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And then we put an Igniter spin on them, of course.

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But he’s been a plethora of heavy metal energy and fire to what it is.

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And he loves, you know, Saxon and Manowar.

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And, you know, he loves that shit. So it’s coming from the right place when he brings in a song.

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It’s undeniable. We’re not going, yeah, this one’s OK.

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I mean, chances are we’re going to take his song and put our spin on it,

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especially when either mainly me, but me either me or Stuart come in and write the lyrics for it.

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It’s definitely turning into Igniter when we do that, when we put the patterns and phrases and content in the lyric on top.

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And also the solos to whatever Stuart’s going to do really does make it sound like Igniter.

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But Robert knows how to write a really good heavy metal song.

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And so we’re not going to deny anything that the rhythm section Billy and Pat bring in or a riff I bring in, like some of the riffs on Golden Age were mine.

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And then they just kind of like morphed into whatever else those guys were adding to it.

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And that’s pretty much the answer to your question. I hope I filled in the blanks.

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Yeah, absolutely. And you touched on a bunch of interesting points because I was going to bring up the fact that there are a million and one bands trying to fit into this niche of music.

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Yeah. And, you know, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I don’t necessarily like all of them.

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Well, that’s that’s what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

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It’s like the black jelly bean. It’s like, oh, you know, you either get it or you don’t.

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Right. And what you said previously, you start to listen to certain things and you’re like, man, I have to listen to this album now to cleanse my palate because you listen and it’s like, OK, I’ve already heard Saxon do this.

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I’ve heard Priest do this. I’ve heard.

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And I think with with horns and hammers. Yeah, you’re not reinventing the wheel, but you’re making entertaining songs that have hooks that have structures that have things to them that are working within a recipe that has your own spin on it to make to make you want to listen to it to kind of add it to that playlist where you have other songs that you go back to.

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That is that is a great slightly unbiased review of the fucking record, Vic.

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Thank you. It’s important for people to realize all of that that you just said, because if they don’t, if they put it on with their arms crossed and they have their shields up, they’re protecting their brain and how they how how they feel like a record or a song or whatever is going to make them feel.

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Oh, let’s see what you got. Hey, you know, I get that, too. People are, you know, the gatekeepers are out there.

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So here’s the deal.

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There have been a lot of really kick ass reviews on horns and hammers.

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But there’s a handful of people that I feel maybe it’s just me reacting and kind of smirking and walking away from. I’ll just call it a bad review where, you know, the writing is not very, very good.

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And they’re giving you a bad review. But what I love about a bad review, if it’s written by, you know, shit, maybe it’s AI that’s writing the review.

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I don’t know. But here’s the point I’m trying to make. If it’s very, very well written, I love it. And it makes me want to read the review.

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If I start reading the oh, articulation and and perfect punctuation and excellent reasons why this person didn’t didn’t get it or or doesn’t like it and may not be a Saxon of priest and Saxon.

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Which that lends itself to if you don’t like priest and Saxon with a little thrash sprinkled on top for some pepper.

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You’re you’re not going to dig it or you’re not going to like it. Right. No, no complaints here.

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But some some of the reviews and it’s no one’s fault.

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Have been real kind of brutal. And and that’s fine, too. But I want on the brutal ones. I go, man, they just they just don’t like this kind of metal there.

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They were wanting us to do something different and they didn’t see the sign on the door.

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I wouldn’t even enter the room if you if you don’t like this or that or if you think, you know, leather and studs is dumb or you’re above it because there’s going to be some leather and studs.

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Yeah. Yeah. I think what a lot of times what happens there’s two points that I want to make.

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One is people expect to listen to an album and want to compare it with their favorite all the time, even if they’re talking about the same band, if Killers is their favorite Iron Maiden album, if they say, well, this isn’t as good as Killers.

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OK, fine. It doesn’t have that same emotional connection, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy it. Nothing has to come along and be the best of. Nothing has to all of a sudden become your favorite for it to be worth anything.

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If you still enjoy different bands as long as as you’re saying, as long as it’s within a a genre or subgenre that you enjoy, then why shut yourself off to it instantly?

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I’ve already sort of drank the punch. If you’re I’ll just use Iron Maiden, you know, from from Number of the Beast to, you know, Power Slave or to from, you know, just within an era of of of the band.

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You know, or I’ll I’ll bring it home. Igniter from the last record to horns from Golden Age of Black Magic to Horns and Hammers. There.

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There’s some differences there that are obvious in my in my opinion. Right.

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But we really didn’t do didn’t write the record differently or we didn’t record it differently. We didn’t do anything. I feel like for lack of a better term, we’re getting better at. I’m not patting my own back.

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I’m just saying we’re getting better at part partial pieces that are in the toolkit.

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We’re getting better at this using this horn and we’re getting better at using this hammer and we had both horns and hammers on Golden Age of Black Magic. Maybe they were in the bottom of the toolkit.

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Maybe we’re using the screwdrivers and the power drill. Who knows? But my analogy is silly. But is it you know, whatever when you’re building a song when you’re writing a song, what is going to make this song different than the last song that you just wrote?

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Even if it’s on the same record. So, you know, moving on, we’re always going to be this kind of a band. It’s like, eh, you can’t really say that someone else is going to call you out on something good or bad.

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There’s a review. I don’t remember the cat’s name or the name of the publication, but, and I related to this review because I’m like this about some of my favorite bands.

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And it was basically saying that the only thing good by Igniter is the first record take to the sky, which came out in 2004, 20 years ago. And this journalist, I’ll call them, is just waiting for the band to sound like, well, hold the phone.

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We’re not that band anymore. We couldn’t even try to be that band. And the reason that, I mean, I’m the replacement singer. So there’s a reason that the other singer doesn’t want to be there.

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So they’re obviously creating this downfall of the band. Like, oh man, they haven’t put anything out since the first record. And it’s just been a downhill, like, you know, it’s just a shit show rolling down the hill.

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And he was very colorful about certain things, certain ingredients and Igniter that haven’t been as good in 20 years. So I can’t help this person recreate that because it’s impossible to do that.

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Now, being that there are fans of this genre out there that are living for this moment in a band’s career, this one thing that this band did is what they fell in love with.

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That’s how I can relate to that. I feel the person’s pain because there are bands that I feel the same way.

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You know, some people might feel that way about Van Halen’s first album. Oh, it just went to shit after, you know, it’s like, I get that. I fucking get that.

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So, you know, maybe a bad example, Van Halen, because they made plenty of heavy records in the early days.

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Yeah, but I think to your point, and I believe you, you guys talked about this on your podcast recently. These are called albums similar to like a photo album, where it’s a snapshot of that point in time in your life.

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Whereas, as you said, 20 years ago, even the members that were in the band at that time, their lives are completely different.

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Even the reviewer. I mean, if you look at it objectively, at the end of the day, we’re all people. All our lives change.

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And we’re not attacking how we write an article the same way or how we talk about a certain thing like we did 20 years ago.

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At least I hope you don’t, because that shows that you haven’t evolved, you know, or you haven’t tried to get better. I don’t know.

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I understand living in a bubble. I mean, you can tell by the landfill behind me. You know, cassette tapes and there are some laser discs back there.

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You know, I understand. I do. But it’s important to when you’re creating art, you know, it’s just not going to be the same because, you know, if I’m not 20, hell, I’m not even 40.

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And I’m not even 50. So, you know, not to put rings in the tree.

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But it like you already said, it’s not it’s not where you were to where you are, even though you’re still creating something with the, you know, what you’ve gathered along the way to put something together that you know you love.

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Right. And these things that you’ve picked up along the way, you know, let’s just keep going with that 20 year span.

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There’s things about igniter that igniter has picked up along the way and leave and let go along the way, whether we were had that choice or not, or the members of the band had that choice in life or not.

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And not to dwell on this, but I feel like what you have in your as your intellectual property and things that you’ve learned and things that still make your heartbeat fast about heavy metal or writing heavy metal songs.

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Those are the things those are the tools I spoke of those are the things you’re going to use when you put a lyric or a riff or a song or a record together.

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So, yeah, absolutely.

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How long did it take for you guys to decide on the cover of the Saxons machine gun.

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Ah, that was something again Robert Williams brought in that was his idea I think that it was sort of a whim. I think that and it was at it was at a really interesting time because watch tower we had just played keep it true and I came back and I befriended

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Mark Lopes from metal church over there, because we watched our went on weird right in front of metal church and they were over watching us and the headliner was Udo’s watch tower metal church Udo Dirksnire.

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So it was just this big quick cluster of fast friend, you know, and I ran into Kurt Vanderhoof and at breakfast on our way to the airport kind of.

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And I ended up getting his number and getting in touch with Mark and.

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And so I was already fast friends with Mark in a pinch. And then I’m, you know, I’m home and I get a text, you know, it’s a group text and marks like, I think we should cover machine gun by Saxon and it was like, everyone just chimed in and went fine.

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And I mean it wasn’t like, fuck yeah, you know, it wasn’t, it was just like, oh, that’s that fits exactly where we are on the record.

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And you know, this sort of an angry battle torn old man writing fast heavy metal song dude let’s fuck yeah and and Mark is a content creator and he has a company and edits videos and shit all time and I wanted him to make the video.

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And so he made the video and it was perfect because he’s in the fucking, he’s on the song, you know, it’s like use your fucking resources people.

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And then almost in the same breath, Robert is buddies with Ross the boss and Mark sings for Ross the boss.

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And Robert just reached out to Ross and Ross was like, fuck yeah. And I think I wasn’t in on that conversation, but I would imagine Robert’s like, hey man, your singer is already on this you might as well throw a solo on it, you know, I would imagine it went something like that.

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Right.

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So, and that’s how it was really easy it was like kind of the no brainer.

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And we all love old Saxon shit, you know, so.

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Yeah, and they’re one of those bands that’s that you can’t kill, they’ve been around forever and they still make great records and Jesus Christ they have Brian Tatler in the band now I mean if you if Paul Quinn decides to just stay home and and chill for a minute and maybe try some new things.

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Brian Tatler on board. It’s like, wait, what? It’s like adding this new fire to the you know that they didn’t, they didn’t even, they weren’t even looking for it they feel like they didn’t need it.

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It was just like, hey Brian, how’s it going? Yeah, come on over. We’re going to go on tour. So learn these songs, you know, it was like audition Brian Tatler? No.

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So, anyway, I’m a fan and think it’s cool that Saxon is this band that’s been around as long as, as anybody, priest and maiden and anybody.

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So, yeah, yeah, that that the cover came out really good and it was super fun and add something special to, you know, at least controversial, you know, to, to in maybe in some platforms.

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You know some people say when you do a cover Oh man no that’s taboo you shouldn’t be, you shouldn’t be doing a cover it’s like, hey man, go for it, you know, have fun.

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Yeah, I don’t, I don’t get that there’s there’s a whole backlash on covering songs. You’ve done cover bands in the past as well and I’ve done that myself.

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And the message I always try to get across is, it’s just fun. It’s fun to go out and play some of these bands I played in the Misfits cover band for a few years.

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And people are saying well you’re you know you’re taking time away from other bands and you’re taking money away and I’m like, it’s not my intent. I’m just going out, trying to have some fun play some cool songs and that’s it doesn’t go beyond that.

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I think people, and I’m not telling people what to think.

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Stay home.

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Yeah, don’t come out and see your friends that you’ve known forever that you respect.

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Find their smile.

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Right.

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What’s wrong with that, you know,

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you know in, and I feel like playing songs that

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when you heard them, they gave you an emotional response, right, like a romantic reaction.

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And I really feel like that is part of your, it’s called spirit, it’s called soul, I think that it’s, it can be really fun and cathartic, almost and sort of like you feel like feel a flying not falling, that you’re that you’re just getting out there with your

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buddies, you know, doing something you know.

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I mean, that’s all it was when you think about, first off, I want to say our favorite bands still do covers, right, Iron Maiden does cover Saxon does covers Judas Priest does covers.

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They still do them live 50 years into their career.

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It’s not an argument I’m just bringing up the point.

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If you remember when you’re a little kid and you got your first guitar, and you and your, the kids across the street.

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One guy plays drums one guy plays bass and you jump in a garage you’re you’re not really trying to take over the world and you know you just want to be like kids or AC DC or whatever and you just want to get together and see and see if you can start at a and end at Z, at the

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right time.

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And it’s fun it’s like learning how to ride a bike you know once you ride a bike it’s like, oh man I can ride a bike. All right, and it’s the same period in your life.

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That that’s part of what the feeling and the emotional and the romance. And that’s the most important part about playing a cover song is there’s got to be the right reason why you want to do it first.

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Right.

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Yep.

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Agreed.

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You’re a creative artist obviously with all the different bands that you play in, but you’ve just tiptoed across episode 200 you’re over 200 with talk louder. Yeah.

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What type of a creative release do you get from doing the podcast, as opposed to writing and playing music.

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Right. And you’re going to, next thing you know there’s 10 and 15 and 20 people standing around.

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You know, high fiving nerds. It’s a hive mind, you know it’s a it’s right. It’s this like vortex of nerd.

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Now, that is what podcasts podcasting is in a word, right.

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Is a nerd fest.

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I mean years ago the last thing I would want to do is listen to what I thought was just called talk radio.

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Right.

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Taking calls and, you know, dear Abby kind of shit or there’s a guest and they’re taking call.

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I thought it was like watching paint dry.

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But, but, you know, the creator of talk louder is one of my songwriting partners Jared tootin, who plays guitar and broken teeth and produces all the records.

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He calls during the lockdowns, you know, and he says, I think it was a text message he goes.

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Hey man, you know me and my buddy metal Dave, David Glessner.

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He says, what do you guys think about doing a podcast.

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And I was like, fuck a podcast, you know, I was like, I don’t know, you know, you know, right, but he goes no let me finish you know how you guys are at a party together or in a room together and you just you and Dave start nerding out, or you know he’s talking to

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you and Jason start nerding out on rock and roll or Angus young tattoos or whatever you’re talking about. And you either clear the room or next thing you know there’s three, four, five, 10 people joining in on your conversation or just listening and and almost taking notes on

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on the bullshit, you guys are celebrating. And he goes, that’s a podcast and I’m like, oh shit he’s fucking right again.

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And so we just started working on it and for too long I mean, if you watch early episodes of talk louder.

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It’s funny and this is I’m just adding to this for fun.

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It’s fun to watch those because they’re fairly kind almost kind of scripted and we were kind of like don’t really have our flow yet. And also I was going to say this like the cameras are different the angle is different.

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And then you notice, you know, it’s like I can’t wait to watch which microphone Dave is using next week, because every week he would have a different microphone you know until we just decided you need, you need the old 58 you need to.

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And then we just ended up having the exact same setup. Right. For consistency, and, and you know how it looks on the YouTube, you know.

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So, who knew three and a half years later we we’d have a couple hundred episodes and and and going strong as they say yeah. Yeah.

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It’s a trip. But it you know it’s been a lot of fun, I have to say it. I’m trying to. I’m not doing anything physically or mentally to try to not make it turn into work.

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Because it’s important that that just statement is very very very important.

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You know, and and just to add, you know research can turn into work and confession here.

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I’m not doing a whole lot of research.

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I’m just going to take a PDF page sometimes, or I’ll already be a huge fan and I’ll just have all kinds of bullshit, and it reminds me kind of just fanboy stuff.

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When you know, Chris Farland or whatever is interviewing, Paul McCartney. Right that time you wrote, let it be yeah yeah yeah man I was awesome.

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Right, and it turns, turns on that, you know, kind of totem.

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Yeah, that’s, I think you’ve nailed it perfectly, because I have a lot of people that a lot of people I’m exaggerating I have a few people that I talked to.

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I get it. I get it. On a frequent basis that are, you know, well known people within podcasting and within other outlets and they’ll tell me oh well you need to get so and so on the show and you need to have more interviews you need to do this

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and you need to do that, and then the last few years I mean I’ve been doing this for 15 years. Wow, I’ve, I’ve kind of you know you’re you’re my first interview and maybe three months.

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Yeah, in between it’s been just a lot of different discussions on music nerding out like, like what you just mentioned you know we just did an episode on 1988 where people voted on their 10 favorite albums of 88 and we did a whole countdown based on that

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and we talked about just different topics or maybe stuff that’s in the news and it’s, as you’re saying it’s just friends getting together and just remembering why we started to geek out about this form of music so yes, if I were after, you know, X amount of downloads

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of time and stuff I’d probably be going crazy saying I need to get somebody on every single week, but I’m kind of cool with this you know just being able to nerd out and talk about things and do things like that because I do think at the end of the day it’s

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therapeutic to talk about this stuff and yeah, you know a misconception with a lot of people a lot of known artists that have tried the podcast where I think the pitfall has come is they’re looking for the big bucks instantly.

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And yeah, yeah, they’re thinking that oh well I sold X amount of albums 40 years ago so by me just talking about myself. I’m obviously going to have millions of people listening in, and it’s not quite that interesting that that’s a premise for their

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casting.

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I’ve, I’ve talked to people behind the scenes where they’ve, they’ve said I’ve sold this amount so I’ve got it you know I’ll get advertisers and I’ll have this and I’ll have that and well it’s not exactly that you know if you come from what a lot of people

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don’t realize I think if you are somebody that has a outlet like an Eddie Trunk had or like a Jamie Jost or

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yeah, where there’s already a built in audience that’s going to follow you. Yes.

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I’ve always said I think there’s a 1% that follows you those diehards that always come in and you can count on them so if yes if you have millions of people on VH one.

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And you get 50,000 100,000 people to listen to your podcast. Sure.

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It’s easier to sustain that then someone like myself as a music nerd.

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Well, well let’s let’s let’s not to turn this into a big thing but,

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and I’m not calling Eddie Trunk names, but

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come on he’s a nerd. Right. He’s a heavy metal rock and roll nerd and that’s why 100% he is an influencer for heavy metal nerds, use the term loosely, such as you and I. Yeah.

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And he is an influencer for people like us. And I call this high brow tailgating, because it’s the same thing you’re at your tailgating.

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You know it’s like coffee talk. Right. It’s just, it’s fucking tailgating but you’re, you’re not wasted you’re not out of your mind you’re not losing your mind you’re not.

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You’re just conversing about something that you’re emotional about. And I think that that’s what I mentioned cathartic you know it’s cathartic it’s therapeutic it’s it’s it’s emotional you know when when I get to talk to Wolf Hoffman or

299
00:42:12,000 –> 00:42:26,000
you know, Graham bonnet, or, you know, Ripper Owens or whoever that has this thing about them that you know they’re not going to start a podcast.

300
00:42:26,000 –> 00:42:37,000
So they’re a pretty good come in for a half hour an hour or if they start having fun and we loosen them up they stay even longer and that’s what’s cool about talk louder.

301
00:42:37,000 –> 00:42:45,000
So, you know, all right, we’re going to try to keep this we want to we know you’re, you know, you don’t have much we don’t have much time today.

302
00:42:45,000 –> 00:42:51,000
Half the time, Vic there’s you know what they say. Oh no let’s keep going I’m having a good time.

303
00:42:51,000 –> 00:42:57,000
I’m having a good time. That comes from the guest from the horse’s mouth.

304
00:42:57,000 –> 00:43:07,000
So that doesn’t happen all the time and we don’t we have low expectations of that to happen, especially with the names that I mentioned.

305
00:43:07,000 –> 00:43:22,000
So it’s great sometimes when you get that. And that’s the tailgating part that’s the fun part that’s the nerd part. And that’s what I feel like Jared was talking about when he created talk louder.

306
00:43:22,000 –> 00:43:28,000
No, I hear you. Sidebar here.

307
00:43:28,000 –> 00:43:42,000
Eddie trunk is from the same general area where I am from. So as a as a 12 year old 13 year old kid. He was on a show called Metal Mania and WJ in New Jersey.

308
00:43:42,000 –> 00:43:56,000
And I would stay up on Fridays at midnight to hear Eddie trunks metal news. It was a pre recorded segment five minutes long and it was, oh my god I need to hear what he’s going to say about my favorite bands.

309
00:43:56,000 –> 00:44:04,000
I kind of nailed it on the head. He’s a defined influencer of you, dude.

310
00:44:04,000 –> 00:44:28,000
Wow, that that’s a really great almost like, you know, boom, like an accolade, you know, a paperweight, but whatever, you know, some kind of substantial reality that here you are this the 12 year old kid banging on a guitar riding wheelies down the street.

311
00:44:28,000 –> 00:44:40,000
Headbanger. I gotta stay up late and listen to Eddie trunk talk about maiden or whatever. Yeah, it’s no different than staying up late to watch the midnight special kiss is going to be on tonight.

312
00:44:40,000 –> 00:44:42,000
It’s the same.

313
00:44:42,000 –> 00:44:56,000
You know Wolfman Jack was an influencer because a 12 man Jack you know he was trying to get in your head and go we are rock and roll tonight with kid you know Aerosmith or whatever it was and you’re like you can’t wait until next week.

314
00:44:56,000 –> 00:45:17,000
This is the culture, and it’s important and, and you know what, for people who I don’t want to say are haters or don’t understand it because you know what, I’m kind of a hater because I confess, you know, I don’t want to listen to people talk, unless they’re talking about

315
00:45:17,000 –> 00:45:29,000
Ian Simmons, you know, or whatever you know if it’s something that I love. This is that that’s the nerd thing. So if you’re not a nerd, you can hang up now.

316
00:45:29,000 –> 00:45:35,000
Right. I mean, kind of right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

317
00:45:35,000 –> 00:45:52,000
I would be remiss not to ask you about Cassius King. During the episode Dan Lorenzo again I mentioned you’ve been on the show three four times I think Dan’s been on here twice that amount I think every time he releases something he hits me up for

318
00:45:52,000 –> 00:46:00,000
does he know that I’m on right now. He does not. He just texted me a second ago. I think that in fact yeah he was.

319
00:46:00,000 –> 00:46:23,000
He’s doing. He’s doing the Ozzy’s boneyard. Okay, sends me excerpts from shit that he’s going to say on the like it’s pre recorded, and yeah, like whenever he’s going to plug something because you know he knows how to sell use cars.

320
00:46:23,000 –> 00:46:31,000
He’s a salesman. Yeah, he’s badass at that, you know, he can write a riff and sell it to you, you know, and.

321
00:46:31,000 –> 00:46:38,000
And so he’s, he sent me he’s, he’s got something really good for his next boneyard and I feel bad I don’t know.

322
00:46:38,000 –> 00:46:43,000
I don’t know when when it’s kind of air but pretty cool.

323
00:46:43,000 –> 00:46:49,000
Yeah, Cassius King the Cassius King records are really fun.

324
00:46:49,000 –> 00:46:53,000
I love that kind of rock.

325
00:46:53,000 –> 00:47:09,000
It’s not doom and sludge and stoner, but it’s when it grows up it might be right. And that’s the way he writes that old Sabbathy droney kind of like early sludgy Aerosmith riff.

326
00:47:09,000 –> 00:47:14,000
Yeah, that’s the way he writes and

327
00:47:14,000 –> 00:47:23,000
it makes it real easy for me to write melodies and phrases and lyrics on top of that stuff so we made those Cassius King records.

328
00:47:23,000 –> 00:47:32,000
And now he’s got me slugging it out once in a while on a song or two with patriarchs and black to write. Okay.

329
00:47:32,000 –> 00:47:44,000
So there’s a new patriarchs coming out at some point and it’s, he’s got me on it. This one song on there, and then I was on the last one as well.

330
00:47:44,000 –> 00:47:48,000
That song was called curse my name.

331
00:47:48,000 –> 00:47:57,000
And I think the new patriarchs and black song I wrote with Dan is called

332
00:47:57,000 –> 00:48:04,000
me and my shovel. Okay, me and my shovel is what it’s called.

333
00:48:04,000 –> 00:48:07,000
Basically about an undertaker.

334
00:48:07,000 –> 00:48:10,000
Yeah.

335
00:48:10,000 –> 00:48:24,000
Is there anything beyond this that you think you’ll be doing with Dan. No, there’s, there’s the never there’s never been any plan to try to play live.

336
00:48:24,000 –> 00:48:27,000
If that’s what you’re fishing for.

337
00:48:27,000 –> 00:48:39,000
There’s never been any plan to, and we’ve made some Cassius King videos you know they’re just in house, you know, low budget fun lyric video stuff.

338
00:48:39,000 –> 00:48:51,000
And, you know, I feel like the underground sort of like raised eyebrows and, and, you know, took a bite to check it out.

339
00:48:51,000 –> 00:49:10,000
And a lot of people have, hey man I heard this thing you’re doing Cassius is that what’s it called cat and I’m like Cassius King. Yeah. And so you know just randomly a year later you know two years later people will find out about it and, and, and dig it, because it’s, it’s right, it’s right up their alley.

340
00:49:10,000 –> 00:49:22,000
The push behind it has been almost no, you know, no real campaign behind it other than Dan, you know, Dan’s, Dan’s the salesman here.

341
00:49:22,000 –> 00:49:43,000
So we, you know, if we did have deeper pockets you know throwing a publicist out at to get some more spins and some more sales would probably be worth it, it would be lucky to break even, because it’s just the climate, right.

342
00:49:43,000 –> 00:49:56,000
And I think that it is and, you know, whatever but by no means is slouchy, because Dan’s great, and he always has a kick ass drummer.

343
00:49:56,000 –> 00:49:58,000
Always.

344
00:49:58,000 –> 00:50:03,000
And that’s important to that kind of metal, you know. Yeah.

345
00:50:03,000 –> 00:50:06,000
Absolutely.

346
00:50:06,000 –> 00:50:12,000
Is there anything else that you have in the works right now.

347
00:50:12,000 –> 00:50:15,000
I’m going to

348
00:50:15,000 –> 00:50:28,000
finish up a record it’s an EP with Dave Austin, ex nasty original founding member of nasty Savage. Okay.

349
00:50:28,000 –> 00:50:34,000
Ditto for I’m writing a record with Jack Frost for his seven witches.

350
00:50:34,000 –> 00:50:37,000
Okay, project.

351
00:50:37,000 –> 00:50:44,000
And I mean it’s just a matter of time until those records come out.

352
00:50:44,000 –> 00:50:48,000
And, you know,

353
00:50:48,000 –> 00:50:57,000
we’ve got one or two more songs for each of those projects not to, because they’re not the same thing at all. Yeah.

354
00:50:57,000 –> 00:51:14,000
And the, the jack stuff is very old school power metal kind of sabotage, big stretch there right sabotage meets maiden kind of a vibe, which I love that, which is even very different than the Cassius king vibe.

355
00:51:14,000 –> 00:51:16,000
Yeah, keep going.

356
00:51:16,000 –> 00:51:23,000
Like back to Dave Austin stuff the nasty Savage guitar player he’s I’ve known him forever.

357
00:51:23,000 –> 00:51:30,000
And he’s a, he likes to write kind of progressive weird.

358
00:51:30,000 –> 00:51:50,000
He loves watchtower you know so he likes to, you know, it sounds like nasty progressive nasty Savage riffs you know and he’s always got those Floridian death metal dudes playing, playing the bass and drums, and I fucking love that.

359
00:51:50,000 –> 00:52:10,000
I feel terrible that the guy’s name slips my mind right now but on the, the DNA that’s what he’s calling the project David, it’s his initials Dave Austin has the guy who played on the last like five or six, six feet under albums, drums.

360
00:52:10,000 –> 00:52:14,000
And he’s just going nuts. And it’s amazing.

361
00:52:14,000 –> 00:52:17,000
Well, yeah.

362
00:52:17,000 –> 00:52:23,000
It’s a, it’s a cool little mix of people, because everybody knows I don’t sing death metal.

363
00:52:23,000 –> 00:52:24,000
Right.

364
00:52:24,000 –> 00:52:30,000
I mean I could I guess but it’s not, it’s not what I do, you know, right.

365
00:52:30,000 –> 00:52:34,000
The other thing there that I kind of laughed.

366
00:52:34,000 –> 00:52:37,000
Was because you mentioned with Jack Frost.

367
00:52:37,000 –> 00:52:44,000
Yet another project of seven witches, where you’re interchanging with Alan tech you who saw on the last seven with that.

368
00:52:44,000 –> 00:52:53,000
That’s right. And then before that my fellow Texan James Rivera from Hellstar was on seven witches as well.

369
00:52:53,000 –> 00:52:57,000
Right at full circle. I.

370
00:52:57,000 –> 00:53:06,000
And then there’s the Cassius king is also the Hades connection with Alan. Yeah, it’s pretty weird the watchtower thing and then but, but to keep going.

371
00:53:06,000 –> 00:53:19,000
There’s a new Hellstar record coming out and I did a cameo on one of the songs of the new Hellstar record so it’s incestuous and there’s no way around that.

372
00:53:19,000 –> 00:53:21,000
Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

373
00:53:21,000 –> 00:53:23,000
Yeah.

374
00:53:23,000 –> 00:53:27,000
The, you’re talking about all these projects where they’re asking you to sing on obviously.

375
00:53:27,000 –> 00:53:45,000
I think the last time that I spoke to you, you had done the fill in spots for armored saint. Obviously you’ve mentioned already with igniter that you weren’t the original singer, 10 Antonio Slayer, all these bands, except.

376
00:53:45,000 –> 00:53:56,000
I did the except that too that’s that’s right. Yep, yep. And that that was like, sort of a in a roundabout way the catalyst for the armored saint.

377
00:53:56,000 –> 00:54:08,000
The catalyst for the armored saint gig and, and it was over two years ago, and people still want to talk about it and that’s, that’s great.

378
00:54:08,000 –> 00:54:25,000
And, and Mark turn illo has become like, like, this sounds weird and he might hate this a little bit of a hero by way of his age, he looks so good, and he’s fucking crushing it every night.

379
00:54:25,000 –> 00:54:34,000
And to have that gig, it’s like a second coming for him because I don’t know if he’d been in like our, I hate this phrase as well, a real band.

380
00:54:34,000 –> 00:54:41,000
Right. Whether it be a replacement singer or not, you know, for a little while.

381
00:54:41,000 –> 00:54:50,000
And then he got a call through some friends at a studio where Peter Baltes and wolf were working on tunes and hey well let’s get a singer in here and jam.

382
00:54:50,000 –> 00:55:00,000
Right, they were fucking around and then like they hear Mark and like everybody knows the history but anyway Mark has become the, that’s, it’s just an awesome story.

383
00:55:00,000 –> 00:55:09,000
And now they’ve, they’re crushing it, you know, 15 years into the mark version of except is so killer.

384
00:55:09,000 –> 00:55:16,000
Like a new fire story right.

385
00:55:16,000 –> 00:55:31,000
You know if I can look as good and sound as good as Mark does in 10 years because he’s 70 now I think. Okay, it’s fucked up. It’s great. Not that being 70 is fucked up but like I said, he looks great sounds great.

386
00:55:31,000 –> 00:55:36,000
He’s a touring, he’s a, he’s a heavy metal singing touring monster.

387
00:55:36,000 –> 00:55:39,000
When I grow up I want to be that.

388
00:55:39,000 –> 00:55:44,000
There you go. My point, my point.

389
00:55:44,000 –> 00:56:00,000
That was sort of a, a newish thing, like singer becomes ill can’t or in is in danger of making things worse if they could take it, excuse me, they continue.

390
00:56:00,000 –> 00:56:05,000
Right, they get a second stringer to come in, help out.

391
00:56:05,000 –> 00:56:20,000
Da da da da. But, but then it’s like wow that was really cool and playing with my heroes and meeting new people and, you know, very little haters, which is fantastic.

392
00:56:20,000 –> 00:56:25,000
I was led in, I was led in by their fans a little bit. That’s great.

393
00:56:25,000 –> 00:56:37,000
And befriend to the guys and, and then six weeks later, Joey Vera calls.

394
00:56:37,000 –> 00:56:44,000
And I’m wait what? No, lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Right.

395
00:56:44,000 –> 00:56:47,000
Three times.

396
00:56:47,000 –> 00:56:59,000
So yeah, that thing replacement singer. I don’t really like that. I mean, I’m even a replacement singer in dangerous toys. The band was called something different before me.

397
00:56:59,000 –> 00:57:07,000
But I’m still, it’s still the same guys that were in that band with another singer. It’s just, I joined and we changed the name. Right.

398
00:57:07,000 –> 00:57:18,000
Yeah, you know, I guess replacement singer doesn’t really work because it was always someone singing before you, whether it be the guitar player or whatever. Even Crocus had a singer before Mark Starachi.

399
00:57:18,000 –> 00:57:20,000
Right.

400
00:57:20,000 –> 00:57:29,000
Well, I didn’t want to use the term replacement singer I wanted to kind of steer the… I’m sorry, I did. I, that was all my fault.

401
00:57:29,000 –> 00:57:40,000
I wanted to steer it in the direction of saying, being Mr. Reliable, where all of these bands are coming to you and saying, you know what?

402
00:57:40,000 –> 00:57:49,000
We need someone in a pinch. We know that Jason is going to kick ass. Let’s give them a shot.

403
00:57:49,000 –> 00:57:53,000
Everyone still gets to work that week.

404
00:57:53,000 –> 00:57:55,000
The crew gets a paycheck. Yeah.

405
00:57:55,000 –> 00:57:59,000
The band gets a paycheck.

406
00:57:59,000 –> 00:58:03,000
People aren’t really even thinking about that.

407
00:58:03,000 –> 00:58:08,000
And my first thought innocently going in is like,

408
00:58:08,000 –> 00:58:29,000
shit, I have a chance to help out some of my peers and even some people that I look up to. Right. This is a great chance for me to not get my foot in the door at all. That’s the last thing I’m thinking. It’s more like, oh shit, these guys wouldn’t be calling little old me if they didn’t need somebody in a…

409
00:58:29,000 –> 00:58:51,000
Oh man, we can’t cancel any more shows. We got to do something now. You know? Yeah. That’s crazy to be in that position as a band out on the… You’re in the middle of a tour. You’re not at home where you can think about it with time off. Right.

410
00:58:51,000 –> 00:59:00,000
To be considered at all is an honor and no rehearsal.

411
00:59:00,000 –> 00:59:03,000
Show up to the sound check.

412
00:59:03,000 –> 00:59:16,000
And that’s my rehearsal. Three songs. Well, which one of these songs on the set list? Do you know, are you the most shittiest at Jason? And let’s do those for the sound check.

413
00:59:16,000 –> 00:59:27,000
Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. It was crazy being, being like a paraphrasing, a go-to guy. It was not a plan.

414
00:59:27,000 –> 00:59:33,000
But, but me knowing the armored saint guys for long, long, long time.

415
00:59:33,000 –> 00:59:53,000
And them knowing that I just did the accept thing prior. And the funny thing is, is like, you know, just a couple of months after I think I did or less after I did the except thing.

416
00:59:53,000 –> 01:00:08,000
I’m seeing armored Saint and Wasp in San Antonio as a fan and a friend. And I, I go back after their set high five. Hey man, great set. How you doing? You know, the whole like, Oh, I missed you guys.

417
01:00:08,000 –> 01:00:16,000
So dude, except you did the except. Wow. Tell us all about that. Bet that was weird. And how’d you, how’d you pull that off? And blah, blah, blah.

418
01:00:16,000 –> 01:00:31,000
So I’m telling him, Oh my God, it was crazy experience ever. And just give them the whole nine. Right. Nine days later, Joey Vera is calling me dude. He’s like, dude.

419
01:00:31,000 –> 01:00:36,000
And I’m like, no, dude, real dude.

420
01:00:36,000 –> 01:00:52,000
So, so weird. Nine days later, after I was just, just saw John Bush kick ass. Right. You know, he’s, and you know what’s even weirder that Eastern seaboard.

421
01:00:52,000 –> 01:01:14,000
They’re getting there in the fall this time of year, right? Eastern seaboard. And they’re getting RSV or some kind of upper respiratory or something’s drying out their, their pipes, you know, and they have to start steroids, which causes other problems, you know, whatever their doctor is suggesting.

422
01:01:14,000 –> 01:01:22,000
But both of those guys were on the, you know, Mark and John were on the same regiment.

423
01:01:22,000 –> 01:01:43,000
It’s crazy. One is one crowd scarier than the other one. Or do you, is there, let me, let me phrase it this way. Is there any crowd that you could, that you’ve had to step into where before going out, you were maybe hesitant about fitting in or them accepting you.

424
01:01:43,000 –> 01:02:03,000
I feel, I felt stronger and more confident in front of an armored saint crowd than maybe just by a couple of waves, not like this entire ocean apart from the accept crowd because

425
01:02:03,000 –> 01:02:15,000
Well, and here, here’s a, here’s a couple of things from my side, from the, from the inside looking out from me personally, for years and years, I use these for cover bands or whatever.

426
01:02:15,000 –> 01:02:33,000
You know, I call it my tour, my poor man’s teleprompter and it’s a binder, a book, mind, you know, a notebook, right. And it’s got the lyrics printed out printed, not handwritten in large font, all capitals in sheet and page protectors, plastic, right.

427
01:02:33,000 –> 01:02:46,000
And I have a book light clamped onto this, you know, open the book and throw it on the stage under the monitors and turn on this book light. And I’ve got a teleprompter that will fit in my backpack and I can fly with it all over the fucking world.

428
01:02:46,000 –> 01:02:58,000
And I’ve used that for years for just in a pinch kind of gigs and, Oh, we’re doing a couple new songs and I, well, I’m not quite, I don’t know the verses that well yet. I should bring my little thing. Right.

429
01:02:58,000 –> 01:03:13,000
And I did that forever. I, you know, I have the tour manager tape it to the stage. So the guitar player, when he takes a solo doesn’t kick it across the stage. And I got to chase my lyrics across the state spinal tap shit. That would have been hilarious. Anyway.

430
01:03:13,000 –> 01:03:21,000
When I did accept I had this poor man’s teleprompter I’ve up, I’ve upped my game.

431
01:03:21,000 –> 01:03:29,000
I did it with armored saint. I had this poor man’s teleprompter the second time, which was like, here’s that lightning strike again.

432
01:03:29,000 –> 01:03:43,000
Since then I had up to my game. I got new microphone new in ear monitors. And I, and I, and I have a different confidence monitor. I was told I should call it.

433
01:03:43,000 –> 01:03:54,000
And I liked that better. It was the sound man, buddy, my Jonathan that works at a club here, a venue here in here in Austin called come and take it. I love you, Jonathan. You’re a badass.

434
01:03:54,000 –> 01:04:08,000
He goes, that’s your confidence monitor you I see you you’re barely looking at it. You only look at it when you need to. And I’m like, bear hug. You’re exactly right.

435
01:04:08,000 –> 01:04:22,000
It’s basically a laptop that you can turn that you can view in, you know, it’s landscape when it’s long vertical, what are their portrait, right.

436
01:04:22,000 –> 01:04:40,000
And it’s big as fuck. And I’ve got a Bluetooth page Turner and this one transforms and folds up into a briefcase that goes in the overhead bin and I carry it through the airport like a briefcase. I can do a gig anywhere in the world now with a fucking backpack and a briefcase.

437
01:04:40,000 –> 01:05:01,000
It’s fucking great. It’s great. And you know, just for you marketers out there, I have a patent on it, but I need someone to help me get this to a reality of what I’ve described a teleprompter that folds up into something this big and goes into your backpack or in the overhead bin.

438
01:05:01,000 –> 01:05:13,000
Right. Because you know, the road crews got this hey this fucking teleprompter weighs 200 pounds where you want it, and it costs two grand, where you want it where you want. Is this, you want it right here you want it over here.

439
01:05:13,000 –> 01:05:32,000
No, this thing’s like VP, it’s a transformer. So, I finally got that figured out. And it’s just way more pro. Cool. Yeah. You know I’ve learned a lot from just those pinch hitter gigs, right.

440
01:05:32,000 –> 01:05:46,000
The accept gig might have been a little like I said like I was beginning to say might have been a little bit. I’ll use a term that kids use cringier. Okay.

441
01:05:46,000 –> 01:05:51,000
Then the armored saint, as far as comfort meter.

442
01:05:51,000 –> 01:05:55,000
And maybe the haters that might be there.

443
01:05:55,000 –> 01:05:58,000
But no one threw anything at me.

444
01:05:58,000 –> 01:06:05,000
And no one flipped me off that I saw, I have bad eyesight.

445
01:06:05,000 –> 01:06:13,000
I think I remember someone standing there with their arms crossed and shaking their head one of those.

446
01:06:13,000 –> 01:06:15,000
Not a whole bunch of them.

447
01:06:15,000 –> 01:06:27,000
And, you know, I’ve said this in the press before that I only had to do one headline setlist with except.

448
01:06:27,000 –> 01:06:30,000
And that was in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

449
01:06:30,000 –> 01:06:36,000
Okay. And that was really fun and for that soundcheck we did the whole set.

450
01:06:36,000 –> 01:06:43,000
Just because I think wolf wanted to hear what I was going to you know what where I my strong points.

451
01:06:43,000 –> 01:07:01,000
And that was great because you know it just felt really good and it was obvious like oh shit man I’m really messing up that song and that song sorry guys hey man you’re you don’t know the song, you’re going to save our ass tonight you know it’s very positive like that and forgiving.

452
01:07:01,000 –> 01:07:14,000
And I was like oh thank God these guys are fucking just super nice. Right and forgiving is the right word, because they know you know shit I’m not sitting on the bus in front of a Walmart tonight I’m fucking on.

453
01:07:14,000 –> 01:07:20,000
I’m working. I’m playing my songs in front of fans, and you’re helping us do that.

454
01:07:20,000 –> 01:07:37,000
So, Mark comes back to the New York and the Jersey dates, and we tag team and they create this monster setlist where Mark was coming out and he wasn’t 100% yet so they kept me on, you know, the rest of the week.

455
01:07:37,000 –> 01:07:41,000
But he created this sort of like wrestler tag team.

456
01:07:41,000 –> 01:07:49,000
You know, sort of like setlist which I thought was fucking genius, you know, where, you know, I would sing.

457
01:07:49,000 –> 01:07:59,000
You know I would sing a lot of Udo things, and then he would sing of course all the new stuff and then do a couple of Udo and then I come out and we do one together.

458
01:07:59,000 –> 01:08:16,000
Like we do breaker together and switch verses and such and then, and then I’d leave and he do a couple more and it was so fun. And we did like three or four of those like that so I only had to do a full set without Mark even in the building.

459
01:08:16,000 –> 01:08:30,000
And then I just won the rest of them were me and Mark high five and nerd tag team, heavy metal party with two singers three guitar players.

460
01:08:30,000 –> 01:08:42,000
It was great. It was great. It was like a heavy metal party on stage. Right. And the pictures I have where there’s like six dudes on the state you know, it’s great.

461
01:08:42,000 –> 01:08:52,000
Two singers a bass player, three guitar players, and a drummer seven people on the stage.

462
01:08:52,000 –> 01:08:56,000
Dude, that’s a heavy metal party.

463
01:08:56,000 –> 01:09:01,000
It was like the Leonard Skinner of metal.

464
01:09:01,000 –> 01:09:05,000
Right. Right. Yeah.

465
01:09:05,000 –> 01:09:16,000
Could you envision doing something like that with all the various projects that you’ve been involved in over the years where you do a, a McMaster fest.

466
01:09:16,000 –> 01:09:26,000
And just for one night, you get all these musicians together and play music from throughout your history.

467
01:09:26,000 –> 01:09:47,000
The only time I’ve done anything that’s remotely similar is there was a cancer benefit for a buddy of mine, Steve, Steve, and he, he’s doing great, by the way, and this was many, many years ago but I had like a kiss cover band for a little while

468
01:09:47,000 –> 01:10:01,000
and I did a live piece I played bass and I split all the vocals with a lead singer who did most of the Paul stuff. And I did most of the gene stuff and but we, we would do the harmonies together and all that but we, we had two guitars and a drummer

469
01:10:01,000 –> 01:10:11,000
as well. Right. So, that was called sick just kiss spelled backwards. Okay, that was on the bill. My band broken teeth was on the bill.

470
01:10:11,000 –> 01:10:21,000
And dangerous toys got up and did like three or four songs at the end of the night, you know, which is what really sold the ticket, you know, okay.

471
01:10:21,000 –> 01:10:37,000
And there was another I want to say another one of my bands or another band Oh I know what it was it was a, it was a project that two or three of the other dangerous toys guys had.

472
01:10:37,000 –> 01:10:42,000
I can’t remember the name of it now but they played as well and I’m not I wasn’t involved in that.

473
01:10:42,000 –> 01:10:52,000
And then I think Scott from dangerous toys had his band I think they were called monster rod at the time they got up and played like 30 minutes or something.

474
01:10:52,000 –> 01:10:58,000
So it was really close to a McMaster fast and me and my friends spearheaded the whole thing.

475
01:10:58,000 –> 01:11:00,000
And it was really fun.

476
01:11:00,000 –> 01:11:05,000
But I think I was on stage like five hours that day.

477
01:11:05,000 –> 01:11:08,000
It was crazy.

478
01:11:08,000 –> 01:11:14,000
Could you be able to pull something like that off in 2024 2025.

479
01:11:14,000 –> 01:11:19,000
Um, for a good cause I would do it.

480
01:11:19,000 –> 01:11:23,000
But I think it would hurt.

481
01:11:23,000 –> 01:11:30,000
I think my back and my voice my. Yeah, would probably be a little, little tired.

482
01:11:30,000 –> 01:11:39,000
But you know if I paced myself and you know we were running like donation buckets around the audience the whole time.

483
01:11:39,000 –> 01:11:43,000
Okay, it was a great success.

484
01:11:43,000 –> 01:11:48,000
So, I think, I think that I’d be into it if it was.

485
01:11:48,000 –> 01:11:56,000
Yeah, if it was something for the right cause. Yeah, but, but just as a, as a go go. No.

486
01:11:56,000 –> 01:12:00,000
It would have to be for for a reason, it would have to be a good reason.

487
01:12:00,000 –> 01:12:07,000
Because I don’t even do like broken teeth opening for dangerous toys. I don’t do that. Right.

488
01:12:07,000 –> 01:12:10,000
Conflict of interest.

489
01:12:10,000 –> 01:12:13,000
Yeah, makes sense. Yeah.

490
01:12:13,000 –> 01:12:21,000
Yeah. If anyone wants to keep up with you, the best spot is still the website.

491
01:12:21,000 –> 01:12:30,000
Yeah, there’s a feedback forum, like contact you just click that and you can send me messages that way.

492
01:12:30,000 –> 01:12:33,000
I’m easy to find.

493
01:12:33,000 –> 01:12:42,000
Facebook seems to be you know Facebook Messenger seems to be the way most people get a hold me and

494
01:12:42,000 –> 01:12:55,000
you know I appreciate that everyone’s really cool about that and not so clingy or, you know, bug, bug out on me or anything so right, but I’m easy to find.

495
01:12:55,000 –> 01:12:56,000
Yeah.

496
01:12:56,000 –> 01:13:06,000
As far as the dangerous toys.us Jason McMaster.net igniter band.com.

497
01:13:06,000 –> 01:13:17,000
Jason McMaster.net has a lot of friendly links, probably not all of them work all the time but that’s a good start if it’s just something specific.

498
01:13:17,000 –> 01:13:21,000
But, you know, the essay Slayer stuff coming up.

499
01:13:21,000 –> 01:13:34,000
There’s no way for people, there’s no essay Slayer link for them to contact me but I know that Don van Stavrin the bass player is taking calls for that via his socials.

500
01:13:34,000 –> 01:13:36,000
So, okay.

501
01:13:36,000 –> 01:13:48,000
And if people want to pick up horns and hammers or any other release where should they go igniter band.com for the horns and hammers record.

502
01:13:48,000 –> 01:13:53,000
They’re now taking orders for the.

503
01:13:53,000 –> 01:14:09,000
I call it the revolt vinyl version to CD but the, the, the label is called revolt vinyl records.com is where you would go to buy the version that actually has machine gun the saxon cover on it.

504
01:14:09,000 –> 01:14:31,000
And igniter we are selling the import version domestically at igniter band.com. Okay, where that has the bonus track on that is actually a live version of a song that was on a previous record called hell shall be your home recorded live and 29 2020 January

505
01:14:31,000 –> 01:14:35,000
2020. Right as the shit was hitting the fan.

506
01:14:35,000 –> 01:14:53,000
And that was previously released that year as well on our own our own little label just independent as a live record called before the plague appropriately titled before the plague.

507
01:14:53,000 –> 01:15:15,000
And it’s our last live gig that we didn’t even know was being recorded live digitally, you know with stems and everything. And we mix that and put it out and it was a good vehicle for us to release a cover of a scorpions cover virgin killer, which metal on metal.

508
01:15:15,000 –> 01:15:24,000
And we have the euro label the European label that we’ve been with for a few records now.

509
01:15:24,000 –> 01:15:26,000
And they’re great.

510
01:15:26,000 –> 01:15:41,000
They don’t really like to release our cover songs on their, the issues that they put out on metal on metal. So we usually do an independent and put the cover on it whether it be live record or we save it or we just do it as a single or whatever.

511
01:15:41,000 –> 01:15:51,000
And I’m in. And once again metal on metal doesn’t want the cover and we’re like, well, we’re going to release it on another label domestically and they’re like, that’s fine.

512
01:15:51,000 –> 01:16:02,000
Eventually this domestic version with machine gun on it will be on vinyl colored vinyl with some goodies stuffed inside.

513
01:16:02,000 –> 01:16:18,000
So we’ll look out for that. So again, that’s revolt final records.com and they can preorder their with the CDs aren’t in yet as far as that version with machine gun, but you can do they’re taking pre orders for that.

514
01:16:18,000 –> 01:16:29,000
And currently you can buy as many copies as you want of the import version for a domestic price, you know 1314 bucks or whatever from igniter band.com.

515
01:16:29,000 –> 01:16:45,000
And the shattered crosses video is out. It’s doing well in like 14 days there’s over like 3000 views and that’s a lot for us, you know, because we’re just another power metal band and a sea of power metal bands.

516
01:16:45,000 –> 01:16:54,000
So please check it out igniter shattered crosses. And there’s also the machine gun video which features Ross the boss and Mark Lopes of course.

517
01:16:54,000 –> 01:17:01,000
Okay. And anything you can tell us about talk louder any upcoming guests that you’re.

518
01:17:01,000 –> 01:17:15,000
Yeah, I’m excited. Our upcoming guests I can, I can talk about here is we had this guy crusher jewel and crusher jewel is an artist he created the Karang logo he worked for Karang and the art department.

519
01:17:15,000 –> 01:17:27,000
He created really cool stories. You know the Ozzy Osborne that has looks like static that was on diary of a madman and all he created that. Oh wow. He’s awesome.

520
01:17:27,000 –> 01:17:35,000
And he did a lot of tour book layouts for a lot of like he did an Iron Maiden, a couple of Iron Maiden tour program layouts.

521
01:17:35,000 –> 01:17:46,000
He’s sharing his time with Karang, tons of album cover stuff Ozzy him and Ozzy and Sharon, you know, a lot of stories there.

522
01:17:46,000 –> 01:17:54,000
We did an episode about Ozzy’s Hall of Fame. They’re two separate from the crusher jewel.

523
01:17:54,000 –> 01:18:13,000
We had a tour in wrap up which was really awesome where we go through a lot of our favorite guests that we had this year, 2024. We had Claudio Bergman who did the album cover for igniter, which I never really answered your question about deciding what to do, you know

524
01:18:13,000 –> 01:18:27,000
because as the album cover in a pinch we talk about the igniter album cover in this upcoming episode with Claudio Bergman the artist who did his famous for infamous for doing Judas priest firepower.

525
01:18:27,000 –> 01:18:35,000
Also he’s he did both of those Cassius King album covers. Right. Okay.

526
01:18:35,000 –> 01:18:56,000
He doesn’t use any AI. He uses digital drawing, but he illustrations, I should say. Right. But in photographs and but he’s still drawing from scratch, you know, any we talk about his process but that episode is more about AI and specifically we talk about the new igniter

527
01:18:56,000 –> 01:19:01,000
horns and hammers art.

528
01:19:01,000 –> 01:19:24,000
The character is on on that horns and hammers record is sort of created out of sort of after the fact from the lyrics from the lyrics from the title track and Imperial bloodlines as a song there that inadvertently helped me sort of have a vision of this really fucked up child of

529
01:19:24,000 –> 01:19:39,000
incest who’s now a captain on in an army for the Kingsmen for a general that very well could be like his grandfather, you know, fucked his mom and you know what I mean just crazy.

530
01:19:39,000 –> 01:19:48,000
You know who was his dad’s sister, you know, Game of Thrones shit, you know, crazy shit crazy shit.

531
01:19:48,000 –> 01:20:05,000
And he’s angry and he’s upset and he’s depressed and he’s a born machine of a murderer for the King’s army, you know, I needed this emotional face and Claudio nailed it.

532
01:20:05,000 –> 01:20:18,000
And it really is about the guy’s face. And then just the bleakness of the battlefield behind him in the dawn, you know, and that’s the art and I think the Claudia fucking nailed it.

533
01:20:18,000 –> 01:20:23,000
And you don’t really. If you read the lyrics in this in the album.

534
01:20:23,000 –> 01:20:39,000
And you look at the album cover, which is exactly what we’re supposed to do as nerds, right, is worship the album cover while you’re listening to the record and read the lyrics and read who produced the record and who played what and who drew the cover and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

535
01:20:39,000 –> 01:20:46,000
If you totally get into it and and and this is this process is called the ritual.

536
01:20:46,000 –> 01:20:57,000
If you practice the ritual, you will start to feel that guy’s pain and that guy has eyes and he’s on the album cover and he’s looking at you.

537
01:20:57,000 –> 01:21:02,000
Back to the talk louder we fucking interviewed Nick Boca.

538
01:21:02,000 –> 01:21:03,000
Oh, wow.

539
01:21:03,000 –> 01:21:07,000
So good. So great.

540
01:21:07,000 –> 01:21:19,000
And then we just, you know, we’re fanboying at the beginning and then we’re just high fiving friends dudes by the end of it, and he was on for like an hour and a half just shooting the shit.

541
01:21:19,000 –> 01:21:22,000
Wow. So awesome.

542
01:21:22,000 –> 01:21:26,000
And then we have Michael Wilton from Queens, right.

543
01:21:26,000 –> 01:21:29,000
And he was just awesome, of course.

544
01:21:29,000 –> 01:21:33,000
But that’s talk louder and that would be.

545
01:21:33,000 –> 01:21:41,000
I think Michael Wilton will technically be our first 2025 episode.

546
01:21:41,000 –> 01:21:44,000
Okay.

547
01:21:44,000 –> 01:21:51,000
Is there any guest who is like a fantasy guest that you’d love to have on the show.

548
01:21:51,000 –> 01:21:52,000
Oh my god.

549
01:21:52,000 –> 01:21:53,000
To interview yet.

550
01:21:53,000 –> 01:21:57,000
Too many to mention number one.

551
01:21:57,000 –> 01:21:58,000
Rob Halford.

552
01:21:58,000 –> 01:22:00,000
Okay.

553
01:22:00,000 –> 01:22:03,000
Number one.

554
01:22:03,000 –> 01:22:11,000
And I don’t really have a number two, you know, I just really think that having him on the show.

555
01:22:11,000 –> 01:22:14,000
And I mean I just want to give him a hug.

556
01:22:14,000 –> 01:22:17,000
I’ve read his books.

557
01:22:17,000 –> 01:22:27,000
I’ve toured with him but I was too scared to, you know, have a face to face right closest thing I got back in 91.

558
01:22:27,000 –> 01:22:30,000
And then the toys were on the.

559
01:22:30,000 –> 01:22:36,000
Well, it would have been the last run of painkiller dates for priest.

560
01:22:36,000 –> 01:22:42,000
That would have been the second release for the toys.

561
01:22:42,000 –> 01:22:47,000
But it was metal church and motorhead and Alice Cooper.

562
01:22:47,000 –> 01:22:51,000
Hey stupid album for Cooper.

563
01:22:51,000 –> 01:22:52,000
Right.

564
01:22:52,000 –> 01:23:01,000
Maybe blessing in disguise or human factor was the hit, I think for metal church.

565
01:23:01,000 –> 01:23:03,000
1916 was motorhead.

566
01:23:03,000 –> 01:23:04,000
Okay.

567
01:23:04,000 –> 01:23:05,000
Yeah.

568
01:23:05,000 –> 01:23:10,000
So I talked to his manager his personal assistant.

569
01:23:10,000 –> 01:23:12,000
Yeah, talking about Rob Halford.

570
01:23:12,000 –> 01:23:14,000
Right. I go hey.

571
01:23:14,000 –> 01:23:24,000
You’re in between songs can I just be a fly on the wall and come hang out with y’all and his like dojo on the side of the stage you know.

572
01:23:24,000 –> 01:23:33,000
Right. He’s like, let me ask him and see and you know what he was totally cool you know it comes back an hour later and he was like, Rob says come on man come on.

573
01:23:33,000 –> 01:23:49,000
So in between songs Rob, you know, there’s a big solo or it’s the big breakdown and one of the songs or whatever. And I’m literally from, you know, this far away from Rob and I’m just going, Oh my god.

574
01:23:49,000 –> 01:24:03,000
You know, and I can’t talk to him and they’re busy changing his jackets and such and, and I’m like, waving at him and he’s like, hey man, you know, but I didn’t talk to you know hey he’s in his, he’s at work, he’s at work.

575
01:24:03,000 –> 01:24:06,000
Yeah.

576
01:24:06,000 –> 01:24:24,000
But so that’s as close as I got. Yeah, so you know I just love what he’s done for all of us, you know, and let me, I got to sort of befriend Lemmy, but wouldn’t he, isn’t he just the best interview, you’ve seen interviews.

577
01:24:24,000 –> 01:24:27,000
He’s the best. He’s the best.

578
01:24:27,000 –> 01:24:29,000
Just chilling.

579
01:24:29,000 –> 01:24:33,000
He talked to a snake, you know, right.

580
01:24:33,000 –> 01:24:41,000
And yeah, I don’t really have another one. I mean anybody in priest in anyone.

581
01:24:41,000 –> 01:24:45,000
New guy old guy, whatever.

582
01:24:45,000 –> 01:25:04,000
I think that people that are carrying the flame for something that I fell in love with when I was a kid that’s still doing it right as I’ve watched my friends and my family grow and they’ve watched me grow the people that have been in my life the whole time from

583
01:25:04,000 –> 01:25:19,000
afar that I just the artists, you know that I’ve got my claws and my teeth into and like follow around and celebrate daily for, you know, half a century.

584
01:25:19,000 –> 01:25:22,000
Any one of those, I would love to have on my.

585
01:25:22,000 –> 01:25:28,000
And some of them are even sort of peers now it’s fucking weird.

586
01:25:28,000 –> 01:25:34,000
But Rob is like this unicorn, right.

587
01:25:34,000 –> 01:25:36,000
Yeah.

588
01:25:36,000 –> 01:25:43,000
Steven Tyler, you know, big boys would be Steven Tyler. Yeah.

589
01:25:43,000 –> 01:25:50,000
You know, I don’t know what he’s doing but he might have some time now.

590
01:25:50,000 –> 01:25:57,000
Because Aerosmiths kind of done aren’t they right. Supposedly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

591
01:25:57,000 –> 01:26:13,000
But you know big big influences is who I you know, I like to talk to singers because I like to hear their technique and hear them describe it, you know, because every singer is different.

592
01:26:13,000 –> 01:26:20,000
And in that matter every guitar player is different, really, your tone is in your hands.

593
01:26:20,000 –> 01:26:23,000
And a singer your tone is your tone.

594
01:26:23,000 –> 01:26:26,000
Right. You’re an individual, you know.

595
01:26:26,000 –> 01:26:32,000
So, it’s interesting, isn’t it. Yeah, yeah.

596
01:26:32,000 –> 01:26:39,000
So no, sorry my answer was a bit lame. No, no, not, not at all. Not at all.

597
01:26:39,000 –> 01:26:50,000
As someone who has a nerdy heavy metal podcast is gonna want to is gonna say Rob Halford somewhere, you know, right. I gotta have Rob Halford on here you know.

598
01:26:50,000 –> 01:26:51,000
Yeah.

599
01:26:51,000 –> 01:27:02,000
Many of the people that you’ve mentioned I mean same same deal. So I get it. I understand. Yeah, of course, of course, of course. Yeah.

600
01:27:02,000 –> 01:27:18,000
Cool. So I appreciate you spending all this time with me today. I had a blast. I had a great time man. Yeah, me too. It’s always fun to talk to you and anytime you want to come back and nerd out and talk about more music.

601
01:27:18,000 –> 01:27:31,000
Yeah, and anytime that you like hear something or I wonder what Jason would do or anything like that. Just set it up. Yeah, and I’ll be and I’ll be here. Cool.

602
01:27:31,000 –> 01:27:45,000
Well, again, I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing all the stuff that you mentioned that’s going to be coming out and want to encourage everyone to check out the igniter album it is.

603
01:27:45,000 –> 01:27:57,000
It’s really good. So I appreciate that. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, sir. Of course. All right. See you. See you man.

604
01:27:57,000 –> 01:28:23,000
Cool. So that ends our interview with Jason McMaster. Awesome talking to him once again. Hope you guys enjoyed the interview and we will see you next time right here on signals from Mars. See you folks.

605
01:28:23,000 –> 01:28:38,000
Thank you for listening to the signals from Mars podcast. You can subscribe to the show on all your favorite podcast platforms like Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, Amazon and more. Go to signals from Mars.com for more information.

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