Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Dissonant Echoes, everybody, the official Hauntology Records podcast. This is Alan, your host, joined by co-host Adrian. And today we have special guest Steve from Am I in Trouble, Negative Bliss, Ashton Heart, and Tuffy.
Speaker: What's up, man? How's it going? Great. Thanks for having me. It's so good to have you on. So, you know, we met because of the Amplaw Discord server, right? Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, you're really active in that community, and we'll talk all about that. today. It's a really cool new music platform that I discovered a couple months ago. um But yeah, Steve is awesome. he's He's got, you know like I just listed, quite a few music projects. He's really supportive of The Underground on Bandcamp and AmpWall.
Speaker: um And we'll talk about your music history to start out with. So I want to know, what were you listening to growing up? The question podcast interviewers ask. Okay.
Speaker: so The first CD I ever bought was Anima of the State by Blink-182. All right. That was like the first thing I bought with like my own money.
Speaker: um And then the second CD I ever bought was Issues by Korn. Okay. Nice. Like prior to that, everything I listened to was basically like anything I picked up from my dad or my sister.
Speaker: A lot of like now this is what you call music volume, right? You know, had one of those on a cassette tape. Um, but yeah, blink one 82 was like my gateway into like harder stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, totally. I mean, it's now it's funny because we're all into extreme metal and stuff, but I mean, that that's a great gateway band to get into stuff like that. My sister's favorite bands were Korn and Blink-182.
Speaker: that probably had an influence, the reason why i headed more towards a rock direction. That's awesome. I mean, those two albums couldn't have been more different.
Speaker: And like neither of them sounded like anything I had ever heard before at the time. right And then like throughout my whole teens, I was really into punk. um Like I spent a lot of my time at this place, ABC No Rio in Manhattan. um That was just like this punk collective and was like really entrenched in like the Lower East Side New York punk scene for a while.
Speaker: Um, that's actually where the band Tuffy started off, uh, that I'm in. Tuffy's technically my oldest band, which is kind of funny cause we've never actually released anything.
Speaker: Yeah. It was a three piece band from when I was like 17. that was me and my best friend Connor and our drummer Jason.
Speaker: And we played a bunch of shows. We had a really good time. um but, you know, we we were teenagers and we didn't know what we were doing and we kind of just like shifted into other stuff as we got older.
Speaker: And by the time I turned like 18, I started getting really into metal, mostly because of another friend I had at the time. um Tuffy just kind of disappeared for a really long time.
Speaker: But then like last year, I think Connor and I were talking and we were like, dude, we still remember how to play all these songs. We actually have like kind of bootleg little tabs that we wrote to remember how to perform them. We have all the lyrics. So we're like, let's just record all the songs, release like a, a best of discography album of this band. No one's ever heard of like 20 years later. so that's what our plan is now.
Speaker: um but 18 was really like when I started getting into metal, um, But even that was like a weird journey because I was basically just listening to anything that my friend at the time was sharing with me.
Speaker: So I missed like every formative band most people start with. And like the first two albums I heard were Kinetic, not The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus.
Speaker: Okay. And Under the Sign of Hell by Gorgoroth. Yeah. So you just got into like full on black metal. Yeah.
Speaker: So like only like last year did I actually start like listening to things like Metallica because I was like missing some pretty serious stuff in my yeah listening history here.
Speaker: but That's got to be an interesting experience to go to go back to like the early thrash metal stuff from extreme metal because I definitely went from Metallica further into more extreme metal like that was my journey for sure. So um I can't even imagine going the other direction. That'd be interesting.
Speaker: It's pretty fun.
Speaker: know Cool. yeah yeah you got You got into metal at 18 and then you've you from the start sounds like you were listening to some pretty cool stuff. So you've you've just been influenced by like you know the the the different reaches of black metal. What about a death metal? You ever been into death metal too much?
Speaker: Death metal was also like a similarly similarly weird path because like when I really started getting into metal, I'm very much like the kind of person to sit down at a computer and click through link after link on Wikipedia or metal archives. yeah and i can't i think i think the way I first got into any death metal was somehow Therion had been put on my radar, the symphonic metal band. and
Speaker: They have an album where Dan Suano guests on a few songs. And I remember hearing him sing on those songs and be like, this guy has a really cool voice.
Speaker: I wonder what else he's done. And like I sat down on metal archives, like looked up his name and just like started cycling through everything he's done. And you know that led to Edge of Sanity.
Speaker: So I think Edge of Sanity was like the first fully fledged death metal band I got into. Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, it would be hard for me to pinpoint the first band of any genre that I got into because I just, you know, ah grew up with streaming available to me. I was a Spotify subscriber since, you know, I was in high school. So every every time I got into a new subgenre, I would just listen to everything all at once. Right.
Speaker: And that's cool. But i mean, it's really cool to be able to pinpoint. I mean, definitely I can pinpoint when I got into metal, that was definitely Metallica because of my dad having all the tapes and then buying a box of all of their CDs, like every single demo and everything from somebody he worked with. So I had that growing up, but yeah, I mean, imagining going backwards from some really cool kind of like sub genres into just mainstream metal that, that kind of messes with my head a little bit.
Speaker: I think like a lot like the punk scene kind of lends itself to you start hearing like grindcore and stuff. So a lot of guys, they kind of skip the classics. Grindcore is kind of seen as a punk genre in itself, you know not really death metal.
Speaker: so like I mean, like I got into cattle decaptation pretty quick. I didn't really listen to classic music, the classic metal bands. So it seems like kind of like a similar journey, like extreme and then backwards.
Speaker: I like that. It's it's it's cool seeing like these weird pathways people take to get to stuff, especially with like how the internet really opened up the ways people can access music.
Speaker: like When I was a preteen and like a really young teenager, like the only ways I could really hear stuff were you know on the radio or um like there was a ah CD store, um Sam Goody,
Speaker: in in the mall on Flatbush Avenue in in Brooklyn that I went to a lot and would just like flip through. And if, you know, album art caught my eye, i would look at it and CDs were like 20 bucks back then. Yeah. Like even being able to afford ones was a reach sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker: You're taking a big risk, like buying a CD you didn't know about. Totally. But it also kind of like forced you to, try to like something. Yeah. yeah So yeah if you put a CD and you're like, I don't know about this, but you're like, okay, well it's all you have to listen to. So you're going to listen to it 10, 20 more times and learn to like it.
Speaker: That part I definitely relate to. Not really the buying process because my first CD buying process experience was probably at FYE in the mall and they had like the listening thing where you could scan it and listen to it.
Speaker: So I didn't ever have to take a crapshoot on a CD really. Those listening booths are so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Metallica Black Album was my first CD, I'm pretty sure. Nice.
Speaker: I don't remember yours, Adrian. What was yours? My first CD? Yeah. I don't even remember. Okay. It was a long time ago. Yeah. Oh, man. Probably like 20 years now.
Speaker: Well, catch me up a little bit. We don't have to go into your entire life history, but you you got into metal at 18. How did you get from there to like writing metal? So, you know, I played in a lot of bands as a teenager, like some kind of quickie things and, you know, other stuff that lasted longer and got more serious, but I've just always been really into writing music and playing music.
Speaker: And
Speaker: In my like early and mid-20s, started working a lot with this other guy, just writing. um And ultimately, we wound up like writing a lot of pop music.
Speaker: Yeah. And we were determined at the time to like work for a living writing music. but more like pop and like sync licensing stuff, like writing stuff for ads or like, you know, the background music that plays in like a TV show.
Speaker: And, you know, it was going pretty well for a while, but after a while i kind of just realized in my gut that it was making me miserable because like so much of my life I spent devoted to music as this thing that I really loved.
Speaker: And I had been convinced by a lot of people I was working with that like you know the only way to make it with music was to to to make stuff that would sell.
Speaker: um So eventually we parted ways. I stopped doing all that. And I basically was just like burnt out on music, period. yeah So I stopped um doing anything with music really, except for like occasionally picking up my guitar and noodling around um for a long time, like almost 10 years.
Speaker: And like in that time, like I had my first kid and, you know, it was just living life. um But some of the songs on the Am I in Trouble album, Spectrum, I had actually started writing like back in like 2010 2011.
Speaker: I wanted to ask about that because it says 2010 on the liner notes. I was like, holy shit. Yeah. because It's been like a weird journey. because Like, it's not like I was actually working actively on the music from then until now, but some of them, you know, I didn't want to lie in the liner notes and some of them, I actually did start recording like demos and stuff way back then.
Speaker: um Like there was a point, I think it was 2011 where my, my wife was living in Ireland for her master's degree. And I wound up going over there to stay with her for like a month.
Speaker: And um there are parts of like the song White on on Spectrum that I actually like programmed in Belfast. And those are like the final recordings that are on the album. So like bits and pieces of that album were recorded like in all these weird places around the world just because of how spread over spread out the recording was.
Speaker: But like yeah, i started those songs way back then, but then spent like almost 10 years just not doing anything with music because I was just like so burnt out about it, so jaded about it.
Speaker: yeah But then in like the last two years, um I finally felt kind of like the spark again. And also like largely coincided with um negative bliss forming.
Speaker: which I didn't start that band, but that band actually started from our drummer. he had put out a ah want ad on Facebook basically um because he also has two kids and it was like a, you know, drummer in his younger life and then had a similar thing where he just kind of like stopped doing music for many many years. yeah,
Speaker: and He put out this want to ad on Facebook basically saying, like you know long lapsed musician. i have two kids. I work full time. i amm dying to play music again.
Speaker: Here's the music I like. If you are in a similar situation in your life, please reach out to me. And i reached out. you know The other guys in the band reached out.
Speaker: And we all got along and we're all like super good friends now. But like the timing was just perfect. Like right around the time that he put that want to add out, I was also getting back on track with that. My in trouble album.
Speaker: um So that like yeah, I think that was like late 2022 where I was finally like, all right, I'm ready. Like I'm ready to do music again. And i was like ready to like do music that I felt like passionately about again and like really cared about like that. That was the big difference.
Speaker: Like not writing music that is like work. but instead random music like that like actually speaks to me. Yeah. I mean, we can talk about a spectrum a lot. I've got a lot of questions for it.
Speaker: Uh, but just a little bit of history about, am I in trouble? When did you like decide that it was, am I in trouble instead of just writing some riffs? Um, that name started sort of as a joke, which isn't surprising because it's such a goofy name.
Speaker: um, But it it came from this one like really weird interaction I had with this guy when I worked in a video rental store and my like late teens and early 20s.
Speaker: um This but strange guy just came into the store one day when I was there working alone. And like after wandering around the store for some time, he just like came over to the counter.
Speaker: And he was like really tall, too. I'm not tall. I'm only five five So this guy comes over, like towering above me, comes over to the counter, and then just really blankly says that to me.
Speaker: Just says, am I in trouble? And then leaves the store. Okay. Utterly bizarre interaction. Yeah. But it like left this weird impression on me. So when I started writing these songs back in 2010 and 2011, I was like, I need some sort of name.
Speaker: So I just threw that on, you know, kind of as a joke, but the longer they existed and the more I kept writing these songs and they didn't have any home with any other kind of like band name or artist or whatever, I just stuck with that.
Speaker: And yeah but that's it. Cool. Well, I've got the record here, Spectrum, that came out recently. um this is This came out great, by the way, the vinyl.
Speaker: It's a really nice pressing here. Thank you. And the first question I have is why Spectrum? Why is this called Spectrum? So
Speaker: that it's funny. like Again, like so many things that I do with this band in particular kind of start off as like jokes to myself, but then develop like a a little bit more of a substantial meaning.
Speaker: And part of the reason I started naming all the songs just colors was partly because I'm just really bad at remembering song titles for other bands.
Speaker: um I had met the drummer of Leprous once and like when they were performing in New Jersey, and he asked me like what my favorite song was, like if they could you know perform it, because I met him before they played.
Speaker: And even then, like but I was like, I can't remember the names of any of your songs. Yeah. Like, I've listened to your albums, like, hundreds of times. I could sing all of them, but I don't remember the song titles.
Speaker: So when I was naming the songs on Spectrum, I was like, all right, I'm going to name these with someone like me in mind who can't remember song titles and make them as easy to remember as possible.
Speaker: um But then ultimately, like... a lot of the lyrics tie to the colors that each song has. And then I kind of just felt like it, it suited the overall sound of the album. Cause it's so varied and kind of scattered.
Speaker: um You know, a lot of albums like, tonally pick like one mood or a handful moods or tones and then stick with it from the start to the finish.
Speaker: And, you know, this album, I specifically wanted each song to, to cover like a different vibe. So, you know, ultimately spectrum just felt like a really apt title in terms of this broad range of like sounds and emotions and all that.
Speaker: time even since 2010. That's pretty crazy. Yeah. um I think it's awesome. The songs definitely do cover a lot of ground. I mean, you've got flute on there. You've got all kinds of different vocals styles on there. Well, lots lots of singing. And then you've got Alex from Ashen Heart on there, hu which that song is awesome.
Speaker: Thank you. You did a great job. Yeah. I wanted to ask about one more thing I noticed in the liner notes, which is that it was dedicated to grandma Norma. So tell me about her. So Grandma Noma is my mom's mom.
Speaker: um And she was just like the pinnacle of creativity and in in terms of like anyone I've ever known. like Literally up until she passed away, she was writing a musical for like her local theater Like the whole story and script and all the music, she sang opera. She like spoke four different languages.
Speaker: you know, she, she was going to school like as an adult, like just, she was so, so committed to like keeping her brain and creativity active.
Speaker: And just was like, you know, it it feels a little bit like a ah phrase that's like thrown around a lot. But like she she said to me like multiple times when she was alive,
Speaker: um ah body in motion stays in motion. And I feel like she really embodied that. And, yeah you know, I keep that in my mind now a lot. but Just like, you know, keep engaging with the things that I care about.
Speaker: Don't get complacent.
Speaker: Okay, well, that's awesome. I haven't ever dedicated an album to anybody. I feel like I really need to work on my like thanks section in my my notes and stuff. But, I mean, yeah, i just had a question about that because um it just seemed like it was a cool story. But, yeah, that is inspiring to just be you know chasing after creativity your whole life long.
Speaker: Yeah. That's what we all need to do. agree. um And then you got – who did you get to play drums on this album again? So the drummer is Chris Barber.
Speaker: He's a drummer from England. um When I was nearing finishing the album and just kind of like listening to, you know, mixes over and over again, ah eventually just like my gut instinct was like the program drums aren't cutting it.
Speaker: yeah I had all the drums programmed and, you know, a lot of bands that I like a lot and kind of look up to use program drums. So I convinced myself that was the way I was going to do it.
Speaker: um But like the closer I got to finishing, the more I kind of just like kept looking ahead to the future, like imagining myself looking back on releasing it and being like, am I good?
Speaker: Will I look back on this? satisfied or will I look back on it with regret? And, you know, that was ultimately where I was like, I got to get a real drummer.
Speaker: And like, I just, I looked and looked and finally found Chris. And at first he just did the song white. Um, and once he sent back the finished drums for that, I was like, Oh yeah, I want you to play on the whole album.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a very nice cherry on top to the album, I would say, to have live track drums on it. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a great decision on your part there. And yeah, they sound great.
Speaker: and The flutes also sound awesome. That's a cool addition as well. There's like sections of the album that kind of remind me of the album Heritage by Opeth with like the kind of classical guitar thing going on and the flutes and stuff.
Speaker: you That's awesome. It's really cool. I love that. There are definitely things in there that I, I, you know, lifted from Opeth, even like the, the Ebo on, on white.
Speaker: Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. I've never owned one of those. I've always kind of wanted one in the back of my mind. It's like, yeah, it would be like, i don't know. It seems hard to learn how to use it, but it sounds awesome.
Speaker: But yeah, man, and the ah the album came out great for such a long time like coming. you know like I think it's an awesome release. so Thank you. Stoked you finally got it out.
Speaker: um I wanted to ask a little bit more about another band you joined recently, which is Ashenheart. So how did you get hooked up with Ashenheart?
Speaker: you know For all the things you could say bad about social media, i will say there are good things. And Ashenheart is definitely one of them for me personally. Because i think I first discovered them as a fan. you know they They haven't been around that long, even though they've been very you know active since they started. um But as a fan, I think I first stumbled upon their very first single because of the review from Sleeping Village Reviews.
Speaker: And I you know bought the single and I just really liked it. And like you said earlier, like i and very so I try to be very supportive of of other artists when I really like something.
Speaker: yeah And you know at the time i was on Twitter and they were on Twitter. So I just very enthusiastically would be tweeting about Ashenheart, being like, check out this song. I love this song. It's really good.
Speaker: And then they released another single, and I really liked it. And then they released their full-length Faded Gold on Syrup Moose Records, and I loved it. Awesome album.
Speaker: It's great. And you know it it struck something that I feel like I hadn't really felt from ah black metal album since like getting into like early Arcturus, like this weird, like the word atmospheric gets used a lot now, but it is like an atmospheric quality and just like Amanda's tendency to write songs that are relatively slow and mid paced a lot of the time.
Speaker: um, kind of like, you know, flies in the face of what a lot of people expect with black metal. And like when I heard Alex's voice for the first time, like it reminded me of Christopher Riggs vocals from like 1995.
Speaker: And he's one of my favorite vocalists. And, you know, he obviously hasn't done harsh vocals since like 97. Um, um So I don't know, it just like clicked in all the right places for me. So I was just like a very enthusiastic fan. And, you know, because it was Twitter, we would interact here and there.
Speaker: um And then finally, when I got to finishing up the song Black by Am I in Trouble, And I heard the vocals I had for the pre-chorus parts.
Speaker: I just wasn't satisfied with them. So I reached out to Alex to be a guest to do the part that he ultimately wound up doing. And then not long after that, they in turn invited me to be a guest on an Ashenheart song, which was the song House of the Demon, which was a standalone single after Faded Gold came out.
Speaker: And um originally I was just a guest. Like I, Amanda asked me to write like an acoustic intro for that song. Yeah. So I did, and it was great. We released it.
Speaker: You know, i I was all over social media being like, look, I did a guest spot on this band that I love. How cool is that? And then not long after that, Amanda reached out and was like, how would you feel about joining? And, you know, she had heard,
Speaker: some of the synth work I did on a negative bliss song and she said she really liked it. So she's like, how would you feel about joining on synths and acoustic guitar and backing vocals?
Speaker: Just part, you know, I have such a different voice than Alex. Um, so we wound up going back to the drawing board on that song, house of the demon and having me add,
Speaker: more parts to it rather than just the acoustic intro. And um we released it a second time and announced me as a band member. And i think that was back in October.
Speaker: So it hasn't been that long, but it's it's been great. Yeah, that's really cool and that you were just like an an enthusiastic fan and kind of weaseled your way in there. know.
Speaker: Like I keep joking that like like before we released this latest EP um and I was like listening to the finished mixes before it was out in the public, I was like, this is great.
Speaker: Like I stuck my way into this band and now I get to hear stuff before it comes out. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, it's really cool writing for black metal. Like, I definitely think Amanda has a very unique approach to it as well. And it is fresh.
Speaker: And know I mean, i like the new EP a lot, too. It's got like kind of a little bit more of a death metal influence as well. definitely. um And it's not about Elden Ring, which is cool that you can branch out. you guys can make music about different things.
Speaker: But I am also a FromSoft fan myself. So the Elden Ring thing does it for me quite a bit. Nice. Yeah, I like that. um You know, the the first album, she wrote all the lyrics.
Speaker: And then with this new EP, Alex wrote all the lyrics. Yeah. um And then with the next album, Amanda's writing all the lyrics. So I think it's really cool that they're kind of taking turns with that.
Speaker: Yeah. It's also really cool, like the the type of member that you are. Like, I think it's it's kind of a lost thing. ah most Most bands that are kind of doing it themselves these days and not going to like a commercial studio, they'll kind of program all the extra stuff.
Speaker: And that's fine. But having a member to add like real... layers that were played and thought, like thought about deeply by somebody is really cool. Like, it's kind of a cliche thing, but it's like, you know, pay the keyboardist, like hire a keyboardist. Right?
Speaker: Yeah. And it's funny, like when I joined originally, she was like, how about you join as the keyboard player? And i was like, okay, It sounds great. you know And then she was like, and also acoustic guitars. And i was like, fantastic. Love it.
Speaker: And then I think I posted a video online of me playing the guitar solo to either white or black from Spectrum.
Speaker: And she just like casually writes like a comment on, I think, Blue Sky or Twitter or something. saying like, okay, you can play solos in Ash and Heart 2. I was like, all right, great.
Speaker: And then, you know, now this new EP, I have a solo on every song. Yeah. And then somehow in the mix of all that, I also, you know, got thrown into backing vocals.
Speaker: So yeah, it's a weird role. it is It is a weird role, but it's really cool to see. Like, I just like seeing people, you know, my not necessarily like, from a strictly like financial standpoint, but just from a collaboration standpoint, like hiring people to do more parts on the songs, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. but I'm a big fan of that. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was hard with spectrum when I was doing the track list, I realized like eventually that literally every song had some sort of like guest or featuring role.
Speaker: And, you know, I, was actually debating when we were doing the design for the, the vinyl sleeve with my artist, um, Ava, I was like, should we put the featureings next to each song title or is it going to look really clunky?
Speaker: um we wound up not, it's just in the liner notes, but like, yeah, like that, that's kind of the mindset I was coming from with that. it was just like, you know, the more the merrier, like you, you wind up with like a more interesting release, the more you get other people to do things and add their own takes on things.
Speaker: Yeah, totally. I mean, I'm here talking to you because I i did a split EP with Adrian back in 2023. Yeah, it's just a, you know, it's a beautiful thing collaborating with people yeah music and other forms of art.
Speaker: Bands definitely need to collaborate more. Like, it's just good for everyone. Just try and get as many features as you can to work with as many people as possible.
Speaker: i love it. Yeah. I know I'm bad about it with some things. Like sometimes I'll just be so single minded about a project and I'll just want to do it all myself, but I'm getting better about it as time passes. I feel like to like the mentality I've kind of taken with it is um like really trying to like, it's like soul searching, like zero in on the stuff that I really don't enjoy doing.
Speaker: And like realizing that there are people out there who do enjoy doing those things. So if I can you know give up control over those parts to someone who's going to enjoy doing it, it's going to result in like a better final piece overall.
Speaker: And it's one of the reasons why I stopped mastering my own work. Cause I was like, I don't enjoy doing this. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. And I feel like ultimately anything I released that I master, I'm going to look back on like questioning for the rest of my life.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, that's a, you know, that's a definitely a wise decision. I would say for anything that you're not hundred percent on, you should definitely like If want the best result, you should collaborate with people that, you know, are happy to do it kind of thing.
Speaker: Definitely. and And it was Eric Peabody for this album. Yeah. Eric, Eric mastered spectrum. And then, you know, I suggested him to Amanda and Alex and they were both on board. So he mastered tales from eternal dusk also.
Speaker: Nice. um And he's just, he's just such a pleasure to work with. Yeah. and He like, just Oh, and he mastered Everything Hurts and I'm Dying ah Negative Clips. He's my go-to guy.
Speaker: As I say that, I'm like, yeah, he's done everything I do. so but Once you find engineers that you gel with, it's like, there you go. Yeah. Well, awesome. I have one more question about Ashton Hart, which is just, how's the reception been for the new EP?
Speaker: it's been great. mean, I don't think I've seen a single bad piece of feedback yet. Um, which is wonderful. You know, the tape sold out before it even released, which is really cool.
Speaker: Um, nice, you know, and FIA productions released it on tape and like, they just look gorgeous.
Speaker: Um, like everything from that label. Um, And yeah, the reception's been great. I think the only negative comment we got was someone on Threads um complaining that because the title is also the title of the Dark Fortress album, that we didn't include a Dark Fortress cover song on it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: well that's pretty miraculous to not have any negative comments. I mean, people that are into extreme music can be very opinionated. So yeah yeah, just goes to show how good it is. I've gotten, I've gotten some brutal comments before. ah Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. It's all right. yeah Sweet. Well, let's talk about, um I want to talk about Ampaw, but before that, just tell me what Bulwark Collective is. Oh, Bulwark's great.
Speaker: Okay. So Bulwark was a nice surprise. Because i always dream of releasing stuff on vinyl. I'm a big vinyl guy, but I never imagined it was going to be a possibility for Spectrum. You know, new band, debut album.
Speaker: Who am I? i'm like, there's no way anyone's going to take a chance on this. And then i one day just, um, the A&R guy, Steve reached out to me and I,
Speaker: was sure at first that it was like a scam. I was like, there's no way this is real. It's too good to be true, but it was real. And, um, they're, you know, relatively new label.
Speaker: Um, it was founded by, um, this guy, Jr. Who owns a brimming horn meadery in Delaware. And he's also, you know, a big metal guy. And I don't know, like, exactly what led to the label starting, but we were the second release, which was, you know, very exciting. The the first thing that they ever released was um the album Ethereal by Ann Autumn, which used to be an autumn for crippled children.
Speaker: No worries. Sorry. You're good. You're good. I keep forgetting that my phone is like connected to the computer in that way. but Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, that that band, um and Autumn for Crippled Children, the Black Gaze Band, they changed their name to Ann Autumn and Bulwark released the vinyl of their album, Ethereal.
Speaker: So like when we were first getting acquainted, like I, i wound up buying the vinyl, just like being like, Oh, let's see what the quality of their releases is like. And was great. So it's just, yeah, I, it's it's a really exciting label. It's very new. um They've got this fantastic band from Colorado um lined up to release their debut called Dread Majesty.
Speaker: That's just like some of the most,
Speaker: bonkers, theatrical, unhinged, genre-defying metal I've heard in ages. They've released four singles so far, but they will be releasing a full length through Bulwark.
Speaker: Um... And they're just great people. that that's like They've been like really honest. They have a lot of integrity. They have total freedom with like all the creative choices I've made with but the vinyl release. they you know They have an in-house artist named... I forget how to pronounce his last name. Dan Oropolo, think.
Speaker: His handle online is like BerserkerDan. But... He created all this like custom artwork for merch for for that for the band.
Speaker: um Yeah, it's just been like nonstop fantastic. And they had a booth at the Decibel Metal and Beer Festival in Philadelphia. um so it was just like a trip. Like I went to the festival.
Speaker: Originally, I was just going to the festival to see Mother of Graves um since they play so infrequently and I really wanted to see them. But then i was like, oh, cool. Bulwark's going to be there. So I get there and I finally got to meet the guys in person.
Speaker: And then I go to the Bulwark booth and Spectrum's sitting there on the table. yeah that's like this is so cool. I'm at this huge Decibel Music Festival and my record is here.
Speaker: It was wild. It's just good to hear that you've had a good experience with your label because, you know, I mean, everybody these days kind of distrusts labels and we're trying to, you know, do the right thing and change that opinion. But we'll have to talk to Bullvert. That sounds awesome. Yeah, give them a shout. They're they're great. They're great people.
Speaker: Them and Negative Wingspan. like Negative Wingspan is the label that released the cassette for Spectrum. And they're also just stupendous. They make a great actual physical product. And you know they they care a lot about actually like promoting the artists.
Speaker: And they're great communicators. They're nice people. You know, they have a fantastic roster of artists. So I felt like really proud to like go on their website and see my name alongside all these other awesome bands.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. There are great labels out there. Yep. That that's, it's good to hear about more for sure. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't realize an autumn for crippled children changed her name. Like I, I, really liked that one record, the pink artwork. just So we send that they put out their, their newest album.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay, I'll have to check that one Now they're just an autumn. autumn, okay. Yeah, yeah. i I had no idea. have to go back. Trying to streamline after all these years. Yeah. But yeah, and the vinyl's really pretty, too. It's just like this beautiful bright blue disc.
Speaker: Okay, sick. Sweet. So yeah, we got, we got linked up because of Ampwall. So how did you get involved in the Ampwall community?
Speaker: So Ampwall was funny because i feel like there's like so many different websites where you can buy stuff from bands. So like not always like super aware of like what's what like Bandcamp is obvious.
Speaker: Like everyone knows Bandcamp and everyone knows like, you know, you can go to a record label site and buy straight from the label. Um, but then there's like stuff like Shopify or big cartel or indie merch store.
Speaker: And you know, all of those are like these third party sellers. So you know They kind of all just mushed together in my head. so it was the band Woe, when they released the album Legacies of Frailty, I was really into it.
Speaker: was like, I like this band. I like this album. I want a shirt. So I like found Woe's, I think, like Twitter account or something and went to like the header on their account and saw this link for Ampwall.
Speaker: And I just assumed it was, you know, the same as like Big Cartel or Shopify or whatever, just some other store. So I went there, and bought a shirt from Woe. And then I get an email from Ampwall from the founder, Chris, saying like, how was your experience shopping on Ampwall? You're one of the first customers who's ever purchased anything.
Speaker: I was like, oh, cool. That's kind of weird. i'm like I didn't realize I was doing something like that. um But then you know slowly all these connections started occurring that I wasn't really aware of at the time that Chris from Woe, you know who's like the main guy from the band, is the founder of Amp Wall.
Speaker: And that's why his band is there was there so early on to buy stuff because he was basically using his own band as like a test subject. yeah um So, you know, I think from there, like I just started following Ampwall and trying to understand better, like what it was. And right around that time, Song Trader bought Bandcamp And all those articles started coming out talking about how, you know, this big corporation bought Bandcamp.
Speaker: You know, it had previously been bought by Epic Games, so it was getting passed around from corporation to corporation. SongTrader bought it immediately, like, ignored the union and fired some tremendous number of employees who were all union employees practically, um including like, I think the majority of the actual union representative employees they fired.
Speaker: So they not only fired union employees and ignored the union contract, but they fired the people who would be speaking on behalf of the union to defend the whole goings on, you know, so it, it left a sour taste in my mouth and the timing just kind of worked out by chance. I think more than anything that Ampwall was starting to take steps to becoming public.
Speaker: So, um, you know, I, it was all kind of those things that led to like me getting invited to be like an early adopter and joining the discord. And, you know, from there is just, I just like the people involved.
Speaker: Like everyone's been great. The platform's grown so much. I think it only went public in September, if I remember right. yeah,
Speaker: And yeah, it's just like this perfect combination of like, you know, I love Bandcamp. Don't get me wrong. And, you know, I can't blame the people who run Bandcamp for the things that the owners do.
Speaker: And, you know, there's no denying that it's the go-to service still for like most listeners. It's where a lot of people have like their entire music collections Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, I'm always going to use Bandcamp also, but I think it's great that now there are these other platforms popping up to be alternatives and, you know,
Speaker: It's not like an either or kind of thing. i think artists should just try to get on as many platforms as they can without losing their minds. Yeah, I definitely think you should ah you should all, everyone listening that's in a band, you should be on Apple too.
Speaker: I mean, it's a better cut for the pay that you get. That's the first thing. right And then you get access to a great community on the Discord server, which is has been awesome to get in touch with everybody on.
Speaker: Those two things alone. Competition is great. for ah It's going to be good for Bandcamp also to have a competitor that's actually like competitively paying their artists. It's really just going to give people more eyes on a different way of listening to music other than streaming. Bandcamp, what happened to the employees really sucks.
Speaker: I mean i'd imagine the owners paid a lot of money to buy band camp so right you know like i have no idea what's going on behind the scenes you know so i mean running a business is extremely complicated you know we found that out like a lot of expenses you know right um so you know i wish the best for band camp they've been good to us but Yeah, we're going to be looking to for other options any chance we get. you know, AmpWall seems like a really good good platform, and we're going to start you know i started putting all ah bunch of our merch on there and music.
Speaker: I mean, you know, it's it's there's like there's also like some really cool features that it has that Bandcamp doesn't have. i mean, you know, there are obviously features Bandcamp has that AmpWall doesn't have.
Speaker: um So it really is like, you know, every one of these platforms has something to offer. um i just joined Merlot recently also, which is another one of these, like, you know, music kind of direct to direct to fan platforms.
Speaker: And it's also lovely. i mean, i think it's it's a lot smaller than AmpWall so far. But the user interface is great. um They also have a Discord group, and everyone in there has been really nice so far.
Speaker: um You know, it's a much smaller um actual base of artists so far. Yeah. But, you know, i was free to join, and I was just like, why the heck not? You know, maybe I can join, and maybe there'll be something Merlot's doing that the other two aren't doing that is kind of eye-opening.
Speaker: Yeah. Competition is great um because, you know, we're all just artists trying to have somebody listen to what we make and, you know, having a better way to have some kind of relationship with the audience and to get our stuff out there. That's what we're looking for here. So, and also community. That's a big part of it. That's a big part. Like we found a ample cause of a Simon from,
Speaker: Total dissonance worship. Yeah, that's right. His band Nightmare made an announcement that they were on AmpWall and that's how I found out about AmpWall was from that. That's cool. I remember when they joined. That was a big deal for me because yeah um the the way that they phrased it was like, you know, this is a ah viable alternative to Bandcamp. And to me, Bandcamp has been all encompassing for my time putting out my own music. Right.
Speaker: So it just kind of like, It kind of shook my worldview a little bit. And then I wasn't even aware of like the the firings and stuff. So, I mean, it's all kind of... I'm still processing it. But I will say the fact that that Chris is a metalhead and that a lot of the community at AmpWall is into extreme metal is has been really encouraging to me because obviously it's music is music. If it's good, it's good. But I just feel really welcome there because um yeah that's what I do.
Speaker: Right. i And it's been like a double-edged sword because... I think when it started, it was predominantly metal and like heavy stuff. Um, so I think there's still this perception of it being like this metal platform and, yeah um, you know, it's been kind of hard to shake that and make people realize like, no, it's actually like,
Speaker: gotten a lot more diverse. yeah and you know um Chris asked me a couple months ago, I think at this point, to help him co-run the social media stuff for AmpWall.
Speaker: Basically just like all the kind of hype man stuff that I do just for my own fun to do that for him Paul too. yeah so you know, I'm probably way more aware of every artist who joins than anyone else.
Speaker: Yeah. I'd say so. I mean, you've, you've announced like everything I've put on there. So thank you. You're welcome. But like, I don't know. It's very, it's very There's no better feeling as a musician than when someone you don't know pays attention to something you've made in like a sincere way.
Speaker: And, you know, if I can give that to other people, it makes me really happy. And, you know, it it doesn't take all that much time when something new gets added for me to sit down and like listen to it for a little bit.
Speaker: read through you know the descriptions that the people have spent their time writing and and putting onto the site. And yeah, it's just been it's been a blast because it's it's exposed me to so much stuff that I probably wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.
Speaker: And you know it's also been revealing of being like, oh, wow, it's not just metal and hardcore anymore. Ample's got like a lot of interesting stuff on it.
Speaker: Yeah, it's great. It's got new tools for visual artists on there to put their stuff up as well. That's really awesome. I love that. Yeah. So overall, I'm just over in the moon with it.
Speaker: And we'll definitely eventually have to have some more people from the community on the podcast. um We'll just ah see how it grows. And we're going to get more involved with our artists getting on there too. I know we're paying attention to features for labels. Whenever that expands, I know we'll probably be like,
Speaker: all the way in, all the way um sold on it. so yeah Nice. Yeah, I keep hearing them talk about that they're know working on more label-centric features.
Speaker: But, you know, I don't... I think the the most recent thing that you know it was to help with label functionality was this like new collaborator feature where you can yeah list multiple artist entities on a single album and like the album will appear on those multiple pages at the same time. Yeah. um Yeah. I'm excited.
Speaker: I mean, you know, Chris sends these emails every month kind of recapping everything they've done. And every now and then I'll look back and be like, wow, like so much has changed since September.
Speaker: Yeah. It's a really great like feedback loop. They've got a lot of community feedback that's really taken to heart and then implemented almost instantaneously when it's easy to do. And,
Speaker: you know, just, just really caring developers and a community that's awesome. So I'm all about it for sure. I'm sticking around and I'm excited to see where it goes. Sweet.
Speaker: Well, man, what are your plans going forward for any and all projects you're involved in?
Speaker: Ashton hearts working on the next album, And we also have a standalone single coming up soon that actually is full of a few surprises. um ah am I in Trouble next album is in the works.
Speaker: And then May 3rd, Silk and Steel Patches is releasing an Am I in Trouble Spectrum patch, like woven patch, which I'm really excited about. Nice. um And Bulwark is working on a CD release.
Speaker: Sick. Which is cool. it'll be Often overlooked these days. Yeah, totally. i mean, it was the last one for for the album. We've done tapes and records. um And I'm working on the second album, but you know this is the one band where I'm like, it's my project, so I'm going to take whatever time I feel like I need to I mean, you took 15 years for the first one, so... This will be faster.
Speaker: I'm not releasing the next album in my 50s. pri um Yeah, Negative Bliss. We're currently working on like a series of covers that were...
Speaker: Each one, the money raised from each one is going to be donated to different organizations. So in February, we released the cover of Love Song by The Cure.
Speaker: And all the proceeds from that were donating to Trans Lifeline. um So we're just in the works on the next one, which is going to be really cool. It's going to be really long.
Speaker: Yeah, I have to admit, I still haven't gotten through the first ah Negative Bliss release, but what I have heard has been awesome, so I'm excited about that. Thank you. Yeah, it's really cool stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm really happy with it. And, you know it's the one band where I actually, like, get in a room with other people and play as a band. Yep. Totally different experience, and it's very awesome.
Speaker: it's it's Yeah, it's vital. yeah Like, I kind of need that, at least with one project. Right. um And then Tuffy, we're releasing a two-song EP as like a getting to know us.
Speaker: So our drummer has the tracks and we're just waiting to get those back and then we can get rolling with releasing some stuff.
Speaker: I'm excited about it. I think it's going to... throw a lot of people for a loop because it's nothing like anything else I am on. and Right. It's essentially yeah pop punk.
Speaker: Yeah. That's what I was thinking it was. Cause I think I've heard you talk about it. seen you talk about it a little bit, but that's awesome to be able to express yourself in a different way than your other stuff. Yeah. Right on dude.
Speaker: Excited about what you're doing. It's really cool stuff. And it's been good to get to know you a little bit more today and you know, and we'll keep chatting and, see what happens in the Ant Ball Discord. And yeah, good stuff.
Speaker: So yeah i wanted to ask you, um are you a big hot sauce and chili pepper guy? Yes, I am. So that is, I've always been into like, i've so I've always kind of went to restaurants that are known for spicy food and got like the hottest thing they serve. That's just who I am.
Speaker: That's what I do. I guess my mouth is kinky. I don't know.
Speaker: That's one way to put it, but um yeah, that's just what I do. And so I've just gotten more into like the YouTuber community of like chili heads. And I just, I have bipolar disorder and I have a lot of manic energy and sometimes I spend it on some stupid ideas. And one of those stupid ideas was a joke band about peppers. So I love it.
Speaker: So now we have pot eater, which has got a single out and I'm working on the full demo for July. Amazing. That was exciting to me. i used to, at one of my old jobs, i was involved in the production team for a chili pepper festival.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. um In Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. So I, yeah, for years, I was like very immersed in the chili head culture.
Speaker: so when I saw that thing- You never know what kind of, you know, who who what kind of things you'll have in common with other musicians. Totally. That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, i'm still I'm still on the journey. I mean, it's a lifelong journey and peppers keep getting developed that are like hotter than the last one and everything. So i guess it'll just keep going. But it's an exciting an exciting thing and it's fun to write music about, that's for sure. It's kind of a fitting topic for brutal death metal.
Speaker: Like unexpectedly fitting. but I don't actually know what the hottest pepper is nowadays. It's probably the Warthog. The Warthog is a cross between the Warthogs and the Seven Pot Primo, I believe, which are both extremely hot peppers. Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not about to try that one yet. I got to work up to it. but I think last time I was like really tuned in, the hottest one was the Carolina Reaper.
Speaker: Yep, which is an insanely hot pepper, but it's definitely not the hottest anymore. Wow. You've got your Chocolate Prima Tolis. You've got your Warthog. Yeah. Oh my God. So are ghost peppers like, like really far down the totem totem pool now? They're kind of, they're, they're like right in the middle.
Speaker: In fact, there are a million Scoville units and people kind of classify ghost peppers as the first super hot pepper as when you're going up the list. Fascinating. And I actually, I just wrote a song about the ghost pepper. That was the second song I wrote for pot eater. It's a, it's one of my favorites.
Speaker: Wow. Man. I remember when ghost peppers really hit, It was like such a big deal. yeah And now they've been demoted. Yeah. I mean, everybody still loves them. They have the classic creeping burn that builds up over time and everything. And it's just a really awesome pepper. and
Speaker: Well, thanks for asking about that, man. Yeah. I'm very excited about that project, even though it's literally just a manic episode. how if you can turn it into something that cool, that that's exciting. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, hell yeah, man. appreciate your time and thanks for coming on. And thank you everybody for tuning into Disney echoes episode 10. We're going to keep this train rolling and we'll see you next time. Thank you guys.
Speaker: Thank you so much for checking out Dissonant Echoes, the Hauntology Records podcast, episode 10 with Steve. It was a great interview and a great conversation that we really enjoyed having. To end the episode, I'm going to play two songs that Steve chose.
Speaker: The first one is Pink by Am I in Trouble? And the second one is Apparitions of the Abyss by Ashenheart. Please enjoy. it Piano music plays
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