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286: CIERRA WHITE from OAK, ASH & THORN; EMASCULATOR; & more | Interview
8 Plays7 months ago
Interview with Cierra White, the multitalented drummer of OAK, ASH, & THORN; EMASCULATOR; HARBOURED; LAST WORD; DIRTY WORTHY; and probably some more bands! OAK, ASH & THORN [Pagan/Folk Metal] - https://oakashandthorn.bandcamp.com/ EMASCULATOR [Brutal Death Metal] - https://emasculatorbdm.bandcamp.com/ HARBOURED [Atmospheric Black/Post-Metal] - https://harbouredmusic.bandcamp.com/ LAST WORD [Death/Thrash Metal] - https://www.facebook.com/WeAreLastWord/ DIRTY WORTHY [Western Metal] - https://open.spotify.com/artist/78KQTHgk01xa3bJHeNwF94 @oakashandthorndenver #oakashandthorn #paganmetal #folkmetal @emasculator_bdm #emasculator #brutaldeathmetal #deathmetal @Harboured_music #harboured #atmosphericmetal #postmetal #blackmetal #postblackmetal #lastword #deathmetal #thrashmetal #melodeath #melodicdeathmetal @DirtyWorthy #dirtyworthy #cowboymetal #westernmetal #metaldrums #metaldrummer #metalpodcast #oxfordsemicolon PODCAST THEM DOWN - https://linktr.ee/pctd https://patreon.com/podcastthemdown
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Transcript
Introduction and Sierra's Musical Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Tonight on Podcast Them Down, we are interviewing Sierra White from like 80 bands, including Okash and Thorne. I'll fix this. I'll clean this up in post. I missed the button. Hey, old metal nation. You are listening to Podcast Them Down. I'm Tim as usual. That's Doug as often.
00:00:25
Speaker
And joining us is Sierra White, like I said, several seconds ago. So let me see if I have your entire resume here. Correct. Oh, man. And then we can go we can go and update Metal Archives. So you are the drummer of Oak Ash and Thorn. Indeed. Emasculator. Yes. Harvard. Yes.
00:00:54
Speaker
Live drummer for Depths of Dementia. It's been a long time, but yes, I was. Mount Cairn. Also many years ago, but yes. Unreasonable human. Same answer. Uh-huh. And former drummer of Seva. That's a lot of L's. Yes. Is that everything? No, it's not actually.
00:01:20
Speaker
Metal Archon's incorrect. What a surprise. Yeah. I currently am in a band called Last Word from Fort Collins, Colorado. I have seen them. OK, yes. And then also in a little group called Dirty Worthy. It's like our southern rock and roll hard rock, really fun type project. So that band's just on a music video and released an EP. But that's that's been it for that one so far. But yes.
00:01:47
Speaker
dirty worthy. All right. Taking notes. I'm taking notes. Okay. So, uh, well, I guess what I wanted to do was go through each of these bands, talk about them.
00:02:03
Speaker
You can rant about whatever you want to rant about, and then Doug will interject with whatever he wants to interject with. That sounds great. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, and just so you know, Eisenmore open for you. So, you know, I'm a musician. Doug is not a musician, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge about
00:02:28
Speaker
metal,
Oak Ash and Thorn: Evolution and New Beginnings
00:02:29
Speaker
especially Judas Priest. We love Judas Priest. Oh, well, that means that... Where is everything? That means I have to hit this. We got a great big banner that says, Timmy love Judas Priest. All right. Oh, Cash and Thorn. Let's start there. Founding member, you are the only remaining founding member. Is that correct?
00:02:49
Speaker
No, I'm the only one who's been in the band the whole time. But Adam is the other founding member. And one other guy started the band back in 2012. And then Adam, actually everybody who's in the band now, aside from me, has left and come back at different times. So Adam was in the band from 2012 until I...
00:03:17
Speaker
I think 2015 or so? It's been so long ago. It doesn't matter. He was in the first three to four years of the band and then he left to pursue some other artistic interests and had some family stuff.
00:03:36
Speaker
in which we had some other people come in. There's been many people who have fronted the band, many people have played guitar. And then the other two guys, Jason and Eric, they both came into the band, I wanna say.
00:03:52
Speaker
2018 or so um which is funny because we were we were all in each other's bands us three me Jason and Eric um so we all just kind of joined each other's bands at different times uh so those guys came in and then at the end of what was it i believe it was the end of 2019 we played a show in Grand Junction opening for Havoc and that was
00:04:16
Speaker
many things had come up and people wanted to quit and go pursue other stuff. So we were just kind of like, okay, let's finish this show. Let's do this show. It'll be the last one for a minute and then we'll disband and everyone can go their separate ways. And then it must've been 2020, 2021. Everybody came back. There was some pretty hefty lineup changes in there as well. But this current lineup has been since
00:04:44
Speaker
probably the end of 21, I wanna say. So. And a new album coming out. Yes. What was it? April 18th, I think. 19th, it's up by a day. Yes. April 19th, 2024, our grief is thus. That is the artwork. I'm really worried about this guy setting my head on fire. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say that. Nice background, man.
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, he's kind of looking at me weird too. It can't be this corpse behind me. Right, yeah, you're doing better than that person. So I noticed, I'm going to get this out of the way, I noticed everything on Bandcamp.
00:05:30
Speaker
All right, it's either digital or vinyl. No CDs at all. I'm pretty sure I'm the last person buying CDs, but every band, at least on the East Coast, is still making CDs, if at all. That's awesome. So was this the label's decision or your decision to not press CDs?
00:05:55
Speaker
Um, so as far as, um, eternal, the eternal EP and, uh, our brief is thus, right? Yes. Um, our label lost feature. They only print vinyl as far as physical anything goes. It's every, every band that's on that label, you can get a vinyl from, um, and just, just cause like the vinyl resurgence, it's a cool thing to have. Um, it's kind of a timeless thing, but, uh, yeah, so that was their decision. There should be some CDs for.
00:06:25
Speaker
Hold on, I have not done my homework on my band stuff. So on band stuff. So on band stuff. Yes, To Gaze on Star of the Frost, we still have some copies of that. Those, I will say, those are burned. It's very DIY. So just know that. And then we might be sold out of the May every altar lingers CDs, actually. I might have to double check that. But yes, To Gaze on Star of the Frost, I think we still have a few copies left of.
00:06:55
Speaker
So one thing I liked about your live setup, so you toured, you toured what, the Eastern two thirds of the country last year? Yes, yes. There's good branding. You got your three swirly things. I know there's a name for it. And if Nick is listening, he's like punching his podcast device. Because he knows the name and I don't. It's called a Triskelion.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yes, and it's clever everywhere and it has O A T in all of them. Yes. Yes. So that was our, that was our original logo. Obviously the Triskelion is
00:07:38
Speaker
an ancient, ancient, ancient symbol from the ancient Celts, of course, can actually be traced back to the ancient Greeks is actually where it came from. But yes,
Sierra's Role in Emasculator and Challenges in Metal Genre
00:07:48
Speaker
we use that and just to kind of put our flair on it, we put the O the A and the T in the spirals, just because I mean, there's there's a few other bands that use that symbol, like similarly to black and thrash metal bands using the pentagram, you know, every band kind of like
00:07:59
Speaker
It looks similar, so we tried to put our own little spin on it. No pun intended. But actually, we just actually retired that logo. So if anybody has any merch with that on it or anything, then you're one of the lucky ones.
00:08:18
Speaker
Nice. Now I'm wondering what was on what I got. Probably the Triskelion, I think. We didn't have the new logo until really just a month or two ago, I think. What's the arrangement? Did you commission an artist?
00:08:44
Speaker
The upcoming album? Yes. For the new WOGO, and yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we went with Kaitlyn Stokerman's for that. And he absolutely knocked it out of the park.
00:08:54
Speaker
It was cool, we gave him some inspiration and he sent us back a few drafts and we were able to say like, oh, this is cool, we don't really like that part, what if we did this? And then, you know, just typical back and forth that you do with any artist, but it was really cool. And then as soon as we got the written logo out, he took that and then made the sigil after it and incorporated things from that with the new sigil. So the process was really cool, but we were all really stoked on what he was able to come up with. And the cover, the cover too is like,
00:09:24
Speaker
Nothing, nothing we've ever done before. We've never done a painting to begin with, let alone anything this detailed. So at first we were like, man, is this, is this, is this it? We, we looked at it and we were like, huh, I don't know, but you know, slept on it for a few nights and we were like, okay, now this is great. So decided to go with it.
00:09:44
Speaker
going to look great on a big vinyl sleeve. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The whole the whole vinyl, like the jacket and everything, the inside, it looks so sick. Like I am very, very stoked about that. I think people are going to like it a lot. So it's definitely the most professional looking art job, anything that we've ever done. So. So your most recent release that's out.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yes. Is Eternal, the EP, available on a seven inch. Yes. I take exception to it. And I'll tell you why. Yeah. The A side is called the song is Distant Mountains Distant Gods. Uh huh. You're based in Colorado. Uh huh. The mountains are not distant. No, we're very close to them actually.
00:10:37
Speaker
So I realize it looks like Adam wrote those lyrics. Yeah, yeah, he pretty much writes everything. Jason does write some lyrics as well, but Adam is definitely the main word writer. Well, you can you can pass along my helpful criticism to him. I will. Yeah, nearby mountains, distant gods is more nearby and closer to mountains, maybe.
00:11:07
Speaker
where we grew up, the closest mountain is Sugarloaf Mountain. Mountain's intimidating us, it sounds like. Yeah. Okay. For a thousand feet tall, I think. Oh, hell yeah. It's a hill and you can walk up with a three-year-old. Amazing. Amazing. Let's see. The only other thing I wanted to bring up about Oak Ash and Thorn is that everyone is very tall.
00:11:38
Speaker
Yes, except for me. Except for you. It's not obvious because you're sitting.
00:11:47
Speaker
Indeed. Yeah. So I don't stick out that much, which I much enjoy. So after you got off stage, it was like, hello. Hello. They probably be eye to eye with Doug, but I, I felt short. And then, but it's also hard to tell from your promo photos because they're, they're like, well composed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you guys.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, so if you see photos of them, they're all taller than they appear. Unless they're sick. Yes. Okay, so next up, a Masculator. All right. Brutal death metal, obviously from the U.S. and Chechnya. So how did that come about?
00:12:36
Speaker
The lead singer, Malika, who's amazing and has been in the scene a really long time. She's been in a lot of different bands. I think the one that I knew her from was Abnormality. Of course, they were on Metal Blade split up some time ago. But she actually reached out to me over Instagram and was just like,
00:12:58
Speaker
Hey, I'm really impressed with your drum videos, trying to start this project or I have this project and we need a drummer. Would you be interested? This is what we do. This is kind of where we're going and dah, dah, dah. And I'm not gonna lie to you. My first thought was I was leaning towards no. And I feel like this is such a slippery slope to talk about because like as a woman,
00:13:25
Speaker
I feel like anytime it's all female, anything, especially in music, I feel like most, it's either gonna be like hell fucking yeah, or can I curse on this? Can we say that? Absolutely. Yeah, we get demonetized all the time, it's no problem. Okay, I mean, so it's either like fuck yeah, or it's a giant eye roll just because all girl bands tend to come with a lot of,
00:13:52
Speaker
Bullshit and I hate to say that because like I'm here for all the girl bands, you know, I fucking love it But it just in my experience. I I just personally I haven't ever had like a good experience with it So at first I was like no but
00:14:10
Speaker
We talked a little bit, I asked her some questions, and then, you know, I checked out her profile, I checked out Rhea and Morgan's profile, and then the band, and then kind of did some digging and kind of like realized who these ladies were, you know? And I was like, oh, shit. Cool, yeah, let's talk about it. You know, and like, I don't know, I hate to be that guy about it, but it really was kind of like, oh, like,
00:14:33
Speaker
these girls are fucking doing it. They all live in different parts of the world. They're all in their own bands already. They're all pretty well known and like they're just trying to work and play some sick shows and record some awesome albums. So I was like, okay, sick. So Malika then just sent me some, sent me the band camp link and the Spotify link and was like, this is kind of what we're going for. And
00:14:59
Speaker
The first time I listened to it, I was like, Jesus Christ. Because, you know, like you, you guys know what Ocassian Thorne sounds like. And like, if you've heard last word, that's just like, lamb and God and black dolly murder worship. You know what I mean? Like, I come from the melodic side of the world, like the groovy, mellow death, thrash, black and thrash, black and roll side of things. So very much like, yes, we love blast beats and fast double bass, but like,
00:15:27
Speaker
like just a four on the floor backbeat every now and again. You know what I mean? So just coming from that world and listening, listening to the brutal death metal stuff, I'm just like, holy fuck, you know, just doing my mind. So I was like, dang, I don't know, I don't even know if I can do this, but I'm gonna give it a shot.
00:15:43
Speaker
So I learned their song Age of the Goddess and I sent them, it's a hard fucking song to play. It's really hard. It's just fast and heavy and hard all the time. But I got like a really sick
00:15:58
Speaker
like minute, minute and a half go at it or whatever. And I just kind of clipped the best take and laid the song over it and sent it to Malika. I was like, hey, so I don't have this whole song yet, but I have this section really, really tight and here it is. Let me know what you think. And she forwarded it to the girls and they were like, hell yeah. And
00:16:20
Speaker
That's pretty much it. And that video actually is one that we shared. Once I agreed to be in the band, we did the post of me at my drum set to announce. And then later that day, we posted the drum video of me blasting through that part of Age of the Goddess.
00:16:37
Speaker
It was pretty well received, which was sick. But yeah, so now I will be in the studio April 13th in Denver with our boy Taylor Hahn at Hahn Audio. Love him. He's tracking drums with me. And then once that's done, we'll send that off and the girls will all do their parts in their respective parts of the world. And then, yeah, it'll come out on New Standard Elite record label later this year. Don't think we have a date for that yet, but
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah. I haven't found one. It was an incredibly impressive demo. It sounded, you know, studio quality already, so I'm really looking forward to the record. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, yeah, those girls, like, they fucking busted that out. It's awesome. It has been, I will say, learning how to play Brutal Death Metal has been quite the learning curve for me.
00:17:32
Speaker
You know, just the speed aspect alone is just crazy. I mean, these dudes are out here blasting like, like 200 BPMs, like mid tempo for them, or like, you know, they like warm up with that shit. So I'm like, and 200 for me is like kind of capping out, like I'm getting better. You know, it's been a few weeks that I've been practicing this stuff and I've definitely seen some improvements, which is great. But yeah, it's been tough. It's been very challenging. But I assume there's a, there's a stamina aspect as well.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why I was like that clip that I sent to Malika to be like, yo, this is this is where I'm at on this song. Like I at the time could not keep up that intensity for that whole like four minute song or whatever it is. You know what I mean? So we're getting there. It's like weight training. Honestly, I'm just trying to like apply that work ethic to this because I mean, it's really the same, you know, so. But yeah, it's been really cool.
00:18:29
Speaker
And a masculine, great name, brilliant name, by the way. I literally, when I realized that that's what the name was, I was like, damn. You know, like, oh shit, like, this is gonna rustle some feathers for sure, let's do it, you know? Well, you're playing- That was in your comment about the bullshit around all female bands, but I thought a big part of that is the bullshit the audience brings. Sure, yeah, absolutely.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know, dudes just think that, I mean, I shouldn't just say dudes in general, but I mean, people think that because it's an all-female group, any group, not just us, but I feel like there's a certain level of like, oh, it's an all-girl group, so I'm just gonna do this, or say this, or I can say this, or I'm not gonna treat them this way like I would some other band, literally just because it's all women, you know? Not because of anything else.
00:19:25
Speaker
I've never understood that, but I think it's important to have a band named such a way because people are out here telling on themselves when they react to us or the name or what we do or on our personal pages or whatever.
00:19:50
Speaker
Some of these people out here commenting are just so unhinged. And I'm just like, that's a good word for it. This is why we are named the way we're named is because people like this exists. And it's just like our website. More metal than big transgressive fronting. So yeah, perfect.
00:20:11
Speaker
Well, that's also like a $5 word. So you have to be smart enough to like know what the word means. Yeah. Dumb enough to be, uh, what insecure about. Right. And that's, and that's honestly what it is. I mean, like.
00:20:28
Speaker
it's just you can tell the people who are insecure about it because when they like when they ask you questions like they're talking about something and then there's like bugging like hey so why why you guys call this or like or like just I mean I don't have any other examples in my head right now but it's you can just tell there's a certain energy about it where you're like oh you're mad
00:20:53
Speaker
Well, I'm sure no one at the Texas Domination Fest is going to be mad about it. I certainly hope not. It took a surprising amount of digging to figure out where this was just because I'm not from Texas. So it's near Fort Worth. Yes. That is what I gathered as well.
00:21:16
Speaker
Yes, my understanding also is that Dallas and Fort Worth are just like a smear of just metropolitan hell. Oh, okay. Cool.
Harvard Band Dynamics and Musical Shift
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. I've never been to Texas. So I've been to Dallas, so I'm told. Anyway, September 26th and 27th, Fort Worth ish area, Texas. Yeah. Um,
00:21:46
Speaker
Was there anything else on that one before I moved to my next complaint here? Okay, Harvard spelled the British way. Yes. Why? That is a question from Michael Stansell. How dare he? Okay, so it's atmospheric. Probably to just set us apart, I imagine. Question mark, maybe?
00:22:15
Speaker
Uh, it's atmospheric black slash post metal. Yes. And it has two members of I, and I, I never, I realized today that I've never had to say this name, Dan's name out loud. This is a thing. I just want you to know, this has always been a thing for the entirety of their career. So let me, let, let's hear it. Let me, let me hear. Alla gay on. Alegion.
00:22:41
Speaker
There's, there's, it's 50% vales. You are not close at all. I'm not at all surprised by that. A legion. No, no, that's not how that's spelled. No wonder he's throwing U's in Harvard.
00:23:05
Speaker
No, that's, for Allegiant, that's been a thing. Allegiant, I see it now. Yeah, for the entirety of their career. Like, Greg, so the, I'm really good friends with those guys. Obviously, I'm in a band with Michael, but even before Harvard was a thing, we were all super close. We all go back to Fort Collins, Denver. We all play shows together, duh, duh, duh. So before they were Allegiant, they used to be called Allegiance.
00:23:32
Speaker
spelled as the word is spelled. Oh, that's the worst part. I saw that it was formerly allegiance and I still didn't put it together. Yes. They became a, they became a Legion. And since they made the switch to a Legion just on
00:23:49
Speaker
Probably like every third flyer every third show announcement or something somebody would spell it wrong on the promo or on the event page or whatever So I mean Greg had this thing for a while where he was just like taking screenshots Of how people were spelling his band's name and it like it just became a thing The audio version Yeah, so Harvard Yeah, that's
00:24:16
Speaker
Another side project thing that Michael hit me up about, in the time where my time in Seva was ending, I wasn't in Seva anymore, and then Mikey was like, hey, I'm starting this band, you want to play drums? And I was like, hell yeah.
00:24:34
Speaker
He basically just kind of wanted an outlet for like stuff that isn't quite Allegiance vibe. So Harvard is, yes, more black metal, post-metal. There's a good dollop of like synthwave EDM. There's like a synthwave EDM break in one of the songs on the full length.
00:24:57
Speaker
Um, which is sick. Like I love that. Um, and then one of the other songs, um, has like this kind of surfer rock vibe as well, kind of mixed with the black and post ness. So it's, it's really cool. It's really cool project. What did we just review that had the surf surf rock guitar in it?
00:25:20
Speaker
ministry, the new record. Surf, surf, surf style stuff is turning up in all the weirdest places now. It's awesome.
00:25:30
Speaker
The self-title was excellent. I was listening to a lot of your stuff all at once, and I kept hearing this and trying to remember why this is in my playlist, and I couldn't put it in the box, which is good. I couldn't immediately classify it as anything, so it was challenging in a really positive way.
00:25:54
Speaker
That's awesome, thank you. And honestly, I got a credit where it's due to Michael because he wrote literally everything. There are some spots where Brandon, the other member from Legion on bass, where he was like, yo, I'm gonna do something more like this. And then there were a couple drum parts where I was like,
00:26:13
Speaker
Michael, I love you, but that I don't have five arms. Look, I can't play that. You know, so it's a guitarist writing drum parts. Yes, yes. So, you know, he kind of like just gave everyone the meat and potatoes of the songs like, hey, this is where we're going. And then we all each kind of like put our little flair on it here and there. But yeah, Michael was the mastermind behind that album. And also, I also have to say, just to his genius, that was the first time he'd ever
00:26:43
Speaker
been in a studio to record vocals ever and he just walked in and I mean he'd been practicing of course for like some months up until that point but I feel like for never recording in a professional studio with your doing vocals before to come in and lay down what he did both growls and cleans was like I was blown away um so yeah that guy is a monster and everything he does he's really rad but
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's a fun project. I think we should be... I believe we're going to do album two this September. Going back to California to do that, so... Oh, man. You're... You're... You're covering everything you didn't cover on the Oak Ash and Thorn tour. Yeah. Yeah. Should be dope.
00:27:41
Speaker
Alright. Unreasonable human. Yes. Yes. No releases out. That was a question. They're not yet on Metal Archives, which tends to mean that... Interesting. No releases are out or no one's bothered to put them in.
00:28:03
Speaker
That's
Unreasonable Human and Mount Cairn: Stage Performance and Aesthetics
00:28:04
Speaker
probably because of the no releases. We did one music video. We did do one single back in the day called Obsession, which Greg from Allegiant actually shot the music video for. That's on YouTube somewhere. It's all winter to one. Everyone in Colorado is, dude. The Colorado metal scene is...
00:28:22
Speaker
Literally. Well, yeah, every every Colorado band that's in Decibel magazine based in Philly, you know, is all the same. Has has like a handful of the same people in every single band. And yes, I didn't realize that until it was pointed out to me. And I was like, oh, no, I can't unsee it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's rad for sure. But yeah, Unreasonable Human was
00:28:50
Speaker
Okay, me and Eric, the bassist for O'Gash in Thorn, Eric Hoffman, Unreasonable Human was his band. And I joined them probably...
00:29:05
Speaker
What was it, 2015 or so I joined that band? They'd already been doing the thing for a minute. And my very first band that I was in, it's actually not on this list. I was like, dang, I'm forgetting one. My very first band ever, Morbidus Fixi Asian, was a thing. And we all used to play shows together. And anyway, so at the time, Unreasonable's drummer, Jordan Paschlin, an amazing musician,
00:29:31
Speaker
was going off to Berkeley. He's going to music school. And the band wanted to keep playing shows and stuff. So I was like, I'll learn your stuff. You can play some shows. It would be cool. So I ended up stepping into that band while Jordan was at school. And then, yeah, that's Eric's band. So that's kind of, that was the first time I'd ever played music with Eric. And we've kind of just been playing music together ever since then, really. But yeah, we did the one music video. And that band was, how do I say this? It was a party.
00:30:01
Speaker
We were a party band. Like the heavy party years in my life were when I was in that band. So we just, we played a lot of six shows and we had a lot of fun on stage, put on a great show. We always had like great crowd feedback, pretty decent crowds. But yeah, we were just crazy party days, man.
00:30:26
Speaker
And then yeah, so I don't know where you were gonna go next but just because we're at unreasonable human we should also talk about mount karen because Because it was all the same people except the singer So me and eric also were in mount karen and then brandon christiansen who was the other og member of unreasonable human
00:30:51
Speaker
was the other guitar player in Mount Karen. Jeremy Arnold, guitar in both. Mount Karen was Jeremy's band.
00:31:01
Speaker
Jeremy had Mount Karen, Eric and the boys had Unreasonable Human, and then we all just assimilated. So I started playing, we all started playing in Mount Karen, and then everyone in Mount Karen was already an Unreasonable Human, but they just had different singers. So we practiced at the boys' house and shit, you know, like we practiced the Unreasonable set, take a break, practice the Mount Karen set, you know. This is pretty much how my bands are going now, by the way. Really?
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, half of Eisenmoor is in Burning Shadows now. And then a third of Eisenmoor is also in the death metal band, recently Baggedy Graves. But I don't have time to release things or record things or play shows, but you know. Yeah, I sure you do. Yeah, I just won't sleep. I assume you don't sleep, so. I sleep very little. I mean, it's a lie. I guess it's like seven hours night.
00:31:57
Speaker
I can see you needing a party band after doing black metal, because for proper black metal, it needs to be serious and unhappy. Yeah, I mean, Mount Karen was pretty serious. We were a little more black and roll at times.
00:32:16
Speaker
We had a couple songs where there's just a solid, just slow back beat and we're just kind of like, the dudes are playing some dark fucking heavy riff. So it wasn't all like tremolo and blasts, right? But there was plenty of that as well. And then of course we did the whole head to toe, corpse paint, spikes, chains, blood.
00:32:35
Speaker
we did we did it all that was the only time i've ever done that as far as like stage get up goes with the full corpse paint and to be honest i never really got good at doing corpse paint um i i always had to have like one of the guys just helped me out because i could apply like the white you know what i mean and like the black circles but as far as like the the cool lines and everyone's like personal face the shapes and shit never got good at that so
00:32:59
Speaker
You know, it was a lot because you're like obscured by the symbols. So it's a lot of work for. It's not like you're out front. Right. Right. Yeah. It was fun, though.
00:33:11
Speaker
I imagine that gets in your eyes with them just swift. Yeah, you can get different kinds of paint though that kind of help with that. They make those now. I'm not too well versed in like the brands or the types, but I do remember that was at one point we had switched to this type of paint that was supposed to like kind of repel water. And it worked for a while, you know, but I mean by the end of the set, you're just
00:33:34
Speaker
completely drenched like there's no avoiding that so i'm just picturing true norwegian black metal bands in uh in the 90s sharing makeup tips you know yeah right like oh yeah pretending all this doesn't come from kiss right no it's evil
00:33:59
Speaker
I gotta give Mount Karen credit. That's an amazing logo. Amazing. Oh, thanks. I don't, oh man, I don't remember who made that. Probably Sean, I think. Sean was our singer and he was the artist of the band. He's a fine artist and a tattoo artist. So I imagine he probably drew that. It might've been Jeremy or somebody else over the years, I'm not sure. But yeah,
Last Word and Dirty Worthy: Recording and Style Exploration
00:34:20
Speaker
I assume Sean had something to do with it. But yeah, it was definitely a sick logo for sure. See that being a tattoo.
00:34:27
Speaker
That would make sick tattoos naturally Last word, let's let's uh, yeah Yeah, that is a band currently in they have been around For a long long time like 15 years. I think they've been in the scene in in northern colorado and they've just always like I
00:34:53
Speaker
In all these other bands, like Karen, Unreasonable, when we were like a baby band, my old band, whatever, we all would go see Last Word Play or play shows with them. They've just kind of always been there and they've always been really good friends. Just super sick. Over the years, like back in the day, it was just straight kind of Lamb of God, Pantera worship.
00:35:17
Speaker
You know, Jordan, my boy, love him to death. He can fucking shred, like, the fucking best of him. I would say he's very akin to Dime in the way that he plays. It's been one of the biggest influences for him of that I know of. And the man's just, he's just a joy to watch on stage. He's a ball of energy. And just fucking shred is super tight. It's amazing. And all the other guys in the band are fucking sick as well. Been quite a few lineup changes over the years for that band too, but Jordan's kind of been like the mainstay.
00:35:47
Speaker
and Eric Walker as well, the other Eric who plays bass, if we're not confused yet. So that band, I joined, I know, like it's just, yeah, we need like bullet points and shit. I joined the band, fuck, in the before times. I joined pre-COVID and then, and then COVID happened and then went through a bunch of bullshit. I ended up leaving the band for a bit and then,
00:36:16
Speaker
and then came back is the short story. Yeah, so we recorded an album when we were coming after, it must've been like 2020.
00:36:31
Speaker
one or 22. Maybe we recorded the album that's about to come out this year at Mordor Studios in Fort Collins. There's a Mordor Studio? Mordor Studio, and that's because- I wouldn't record anywhere else.
00:36:47
Speaker
Right and you know we we're all Lord of the Rings stands for sure but it's called Mordor Because there's so many doors in the studio itself. There's a door you have to walk through so many doors So and then also because of Lord of the Rings obviously, but I saw so we recorded the album there it's a fucking like 11 album just banger and It was a lot of fun and it's finally coming out. It was mixed and mastered by David Sanchez from Havoc
00:37:15
Speaker
We've released two singles so far with, I think, one more on the way at some point. And then we're playing the Aggie Theater in Fort Collins May 23rd with Havoc and Dragoria and Ex-Mortus. But yeah, as far as that band, this will finally be my first show with them after being in the band for, I don't know how many years now.
00:37:39
Speaker
But yeah, just really awesome. These days, the band's more mellow-desk. It's a little less Glamagod, a little less Pantera, and a lot more...
00:37:50
Speaker
like insomnium dark tranquility type stuff with also just the thrash is still there like the heavy heavy thrash is still there but it's a lot more mellow death now um thanks to mr aaron gersick came back in the band he's an original member of that band as well he came back in with all these sick mellow deaths just awesomeness and so we just kind of melded all the sounds together and it's been great so
00:38:17
Speaker
That venue you mentioned seems like... That seems to keep coming up when I was looking through these bands. Yeah. I assume it's... Okay, where's Fort Collins relative to Denver? It's like... To Denver? It's an hour, about an hour and a half. Depending on where in Denver you're coming from, it's like an hour, 20, Northeast.
00:38:48
Speaker
So it's like on the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Okay. Well, there's nothing up there. So it's your last chance for metal. Essentially. Yeah. There's, there's some shows that happen up in Cheyenne, like not, I don't think there's a big venue up there that I'm aware of. Um, but we've dealt like, like early November's record store, we've played shows there before, you know, or like the crown bar, crown pub crown, something up there, I think.
00:39:14
Speaker
I think that's it for metal shows in Cheyenne, but... Well, that probably takes care of the whole state, too. Yeah. I'm the Jasper. Yeah, no. But yeah, the Aggie Theater's dope. It's a cool theater. Seen a lot of cool shows there. Last one I have on here is Dirty Worthy, which I added at the end.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yes. So Dirty Worthy is a super fun, laid back, chill, Southern rock and roll type jam. My buddy Corey Pressley hit me up and was like, hey, trying to do this.
00:39:59
Speaker
this project. I've already got all the music written. Just kind of like need people to be in photo shoots and music videos and I will pay you and I was like hell yeah brother. So I shot the music video with him. He's also the singer and guitar player of the band. He's the front man and then our buddy Baz on bass.
00:40:20
Speaker
So it's just a three piece and we shot the music video out in bum fuck nowhere. I don't even remember where. Somewhere like out of town, out of Fort Collins, just in like the desert-ish flat top. I don't even, I don't remember where it was. It was a very odd place, but we hiked all the gear out. It was like over a mile, took a couple trips.
00:40:46
Speaker
Hiked everything out there, set it up. The video looks great. The video is, it's amazing. Corey did such a good job, but loading in and loading out was terrible. But yeah, so there's one music video out. There's an album that you can find on Spotify. I'll have all the links. It's amazing. I'll dig them all up. They'll all be there.
00:41:12
Speaker
And then we just did like one photo shoot. And then, and then that's, that's all we've done, but we've, we've worked with Corey outside of that. So he's actually the guy that has shot the last two music videos for Ocash and Thorn. So he did the auras video that we just put out recently. And then our next video that is coming out.
00:41:31
Speaker
on Thursday this week, um, for dying culture, he shot that as well. So by the time this airs, that video will be, will have been out. So yeah,
Professional Growth with Oak Ash and Thorn's Label Support
00:41:42
Speaker
go watch that video because we haven't seen yet because it's out.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yes, hell yeah. But yeah, I just like, once I realized how good of a videographer he was, I was like, oh shit, what if, what if instead of you paying me to like be in your band, what if I was just in your band and then you kind of hook us up with some deals? I mean, we've still paid him, we still pay him money, right? We don't get the shit for free, but I was like, what if you hooked it up on, like gave us a homie hookup on a video or something and I'll just be in your band. And he was like, okay, so.
00:42:16
Speaker
We actually, we have worked with him a lot. He recently just moved, but I have a feeling that we do know the music video anytime soon. Probably going to fly him back home for some shit because he's great. He's awesome to work with. If you are in Colorado and you need a music video done, Cory Presley is your boy. I think I'm just going to do what Jack Panzer did and pull off at a scenic overlook and do it there. Yeah, there you go. I mean, that'd be easy. Pretty sure that's what they did. I'm not positive. Hell yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
So it seems like you've gone, at least for Ocashing Thorne, you've gone from a lot of DIY stuff to always recording in the studio, professional photo shoots, video shoots. At what point did that
00:43:10
Speaker
What was the tipping point? Because eventually you need large cash infusions and that's usually where a label comes in. Did a label help? Absolutely. Yeah. So we've been signed to Lost Future for, oh God, almost a couple of years now, I think.
00:43:31
Speaker
And yes, so they then it's been it's one guy Ben is amazing he Brought us on board at the end of Was at the end of 22
00:43:48
Speaker
I feel like we signed at the end of 2022 and then started working out the details of like, you know, what we were going to do for the release and stuff. And yes, he provided the budget for the vinyl, both vinyl runs for Eternal and what we will do for our grief and helped us financially get into the blasting room studio where we recorded the full length in Four Collins.
00:44:16
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, he's been great. He's been awesome to work with. And we certainly wouldn't have been able to afford any of this shit without that label support. So yeah, it's been a fucking whirlwind of emotions and everything just going from like doing everything yourself to all of a sudden you have a budget, you know? And thankfully,
00:44:41
Speaker
Um, Adam is our money guy. He's like our, he's our business, business person handles all of like the tax shit and he'll just do, he'll, he's the guy that crunches numbers. And so he's like, cool, this is our budget. We're going to spend this, this and that. We'll have that leftover. We can allocate that into like promotion or a photo shoot or a music video or something. He's just very good. So we're lucky that we have that too, because
00:45:04
Speaker
Number, to be honest with you, numbers scare the fuck out of me. I don't like them. I don't like dealing with large sums of money. I just don't like it. As a drummer, you only count to four. I do. And that's actually true. I fucking hate an odd time signature. I mean, I love it. I just haven't practiced it. I haven't spent any time with odd time signatures. Seven is easy because you count to four and then you count to three.
00:45:32
Speaker
And that's true. That's true. That's how my drummer does it. Hell yeah. But yeah, dude, it was kind of crazy. It was really surreal to be like, oh shit, we're going to go spend a week at the blasting room. This has been a bucket list thing for all of us since we were, you know, umpteen years old. So yeah, it's been really rad.
00:45:57
Speaker
Yeah, the, I talked to, we didn't get too much into it, but I talked to, see, I never, I'm never sure if I should call him Ty or Fang, but we talked to the guy from Lords of the Trident, the singer, and they are pretty much completely crowd supported. So they have a Patreon.
00:46:22
Speaker
And that's how they can afford to tour and do videos and all of that. For bands coming up, it's like, at what point do you, you have to make a choice at some point. Are you going to be crowd supported? Are you going to throw all your money into this hole? Are you going to have a rich uncle that dies?
00:46:48
Speaker
or are you gonna get a label? And it's just, it's interesting to see all the sides of it. I'm hoping for the long-lost relative, you know, oh, it turns out here's a billion dollars, okay. Right, I mean, you know. I can't buy credibility. That's also true. As far as like, I know people have a, it seems like people have,
00:47:17
Speaker
an adverse reaction to most people who do Patreon things. And I don't know, I don't know where I'd stand with it or if I agree with like the pushback because
00:47:30
Speaker
If you have a, I've never done Patreon myself and I've, I have been on other peoples where I've given like two bucks a month, four bucks a month, whatever it is to like, you know, like certain podcasters or there's like one of my favorite Tarot readers has a Patreon community. And I was, I was doing like the $5 a month tier for her for a little bit. And I never understood the pushback because the people that you're supporting through Patreon
00:47:58
Speaker
are essentially working for you, like they're making content specifically for you guys that are on their accounts, giving them money every month, you know what I mean? So, and I guess it's not the people on the Patreon accounts who are mad about the people doing Patreon, it's people who aren't, and you don't understand how it works. But I just feel like, I mean, that's something that we've considered for sure, before, you know, before the label came along, but it's commendable, really, because, I mean, that's a full-time job.
00:48:27
Speaker
If you really want to do it right, I feel like having your own Patreon is a full time job just to keep creating new, fresh, engaging content for your people who are giving you money every month. You know, you really want to like spend as much time as you possibly can making cool shit for those people. Well, what's it like?
00:48:45
Speaker
What was it like transitioning to recording in a studio? I imagine I'm greatly simplifying the different ways you can record not in a studio or in a studio, but how does it change the vibe? Is there a different kind of pressure or playing as a band while you record typically? For Oats record, we all track separately.
00:49:12
Speaker
Yeah, going to a professional studio was amazing, but it was also very stressful. Yes, to the pressure because... You're on the clock. I mean, you're on the clock. Yeah, there's a time constraint. And then also you're on other people's dime as well. So that brought in a level of like...
00:49:34
Speaker
Oh shit, what if they don't like it? What am I gonna do? I have two days to do drums. That's not a whole lot of wiggle room to be like, oh, let's go back and change some shit. So, you know, there's pressure to like nail it, and then there's pressure to nail it in time, right? And I think next time, if possible, if we have the time,
00:49:57
Speaker
I think I would like to do three days for drums. I've always kind of been one like do five, six songs in a day, like when we did Last Words record.
00:50:07
Speaker
That was, I mean Mordor is a, I would say Mordor is a professional studio for sure. Not as pro as The Blasting Room by any means, but like there I did seven songs in one day. But the tracking style was very different. So the thing that got me about being at Blasting Room for the Our Brief Is Us album is working with Colton, Colton Crone, one of the lead engineers there, love him. The way he tracks is like, um,
00:50:36
Speaker
We're doing like intro just piece by piece, right? So we'll do the intro and then like 15 seconds after the intro, stop. Do it again. Same thing. Like 30 and 40 second passages. It's not a song. It's parts of a song that you go and mail. And I wasn't accustomed to that because doing seven songs in Mordor, I just like seven songs in a day.
00:51:03
Speaker
our buddy Chris, who was engineering for us, he was like, cool, we're gonna, I'm gonna have you play the song like two, three times, and that should give us everything. And I'm like, sick. You know, so then you just kind of cut and paste and chop it up and take the best parts, the best takes from each of the three takes that you did and kind of splice it together. This one, this session, Colton was, I didn't play one song from start to finish. It was very like,
00:51:29
Speaker
intro this part, this first chorus, do it again. You know, and that, that was challenging. Um, definitely got in my head a little bit for, for parts of it. Um, and then, you know, does he know what he wants to hear or is he just getting two, three options for when it's all cut together later?
00:51:48
Speaker
So he definitely knew what he wanted to hear, for sure. There was only one song, Ora's actually, was the most undercooked song of the whole batch. Everything else, we had like, this is the drum part, we like it. And we had a producer as well, we brought in Taylor Hahn from Hahn Audio to produce us. And he was really good at like, A, I don't think this feels quite right, why don't we do something else? Or like, let's just omit this section entirely, it's too repetitive. So he was there to also kind of like piece things together.
00:52:20
Speaker
But as far as tracking goes, like, yeah, I mean, I knew my parts. I was as prepared as I could have been. I was stoked on that. Hadn't been that prepared for a studio session before, you know, but it was just the do it again, do it again, do it again. Oh, that was good, but I think it could be better.
00:52:35
Speaker
do it again. So at the end of day one, we had one song done. And I was like, oh, fuck.
Drumming Techniques and Inspirations
00:52:44
Speaker
Because in that same day, we did load in, set up. We got tones, got all the mics set, all the pre-recording stuff. We did that day one. And then we started tracking evening of day one. And I got one song done. So I had one more day.
00:53:01
Speaker
to do the other five or four or whatever it was and just going the way Colton tracks I was like dang I don't know if I'm gonna get this done in time you know so that was stressful and day two was like a 16 hour day or like a 14 or 15 hour day it was very long and by the end of it I was just totally burnt like my brain was so fried um but it was sick because Colton got
00:53:27
Speaker
the best takes I could possibly have done. And I'm very proud to say that every drum thing on the album I actually played, you know, there was no, we'll just put it in, which I'm not against that, I'm not against doing that, but I wanted to go ahead and play everything. There were some really challenging parts on the album, so I was able to get that done, which is sick. But yes, very stressful.
00:53:52
Speaker
Aren't you done first as the drummer? Traditionally, I assume you do the drums and then everything else, right? Yes. Yes. I do love that part about being a drummer because I'm just like, hell yeah, get shit done in a day or two and then you're chilling, you know? I'm going to sit here and criticize everyone now that I'm done.
00:54:14
Speaker
Nah, nah, I'm going to sit here and eat snacks and like cheer everyone on and, you know, be the food runner if anyone needs, like, you know. But I do like that. I do like being dumb first. That is that is quite nice. Did you ever get your China symbol fixed because it was it was on the tour. It was in a it was in a bad way. I assume it didn't make it back.
00:54:42
Speaker
It's worse now. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, Minal, if you're listening, I need help, please. I'll tag them. I'll make a note to tag them. Oh, that would be amazing. Yeah, no, I've still got that same China, and it is completely, completely fucked. I mean, it's still playable. Yeah, how does it sound, though?
00:55:10
Speaker
not not as bad as it looks i will say that not as good as it used to not as good as it used to not as bad as it looks it's still playable it still does the thing it's not like like you know choking on itself you know um but yeah i think i've got
00:55:27
Speaker
We don't give a s- Sorry, I was going- I was reaching- I don't know if you can see this. No, you can't. No, I can't, I can't. I was reaching for my mute button to cough, and I hit- Yeah! We don't give a shit button. I do give a shit. No, keep that. We have to keep that. I'll leave it in. Hell yeah, okay, amazing. But yeah, of all the symbols that I had on tour,
00:55:55
Speaker
I think my ride, which is not mine. Oh, that's my Sabian ride that I've had for a decade. And my high hats are the only things not cracked. So there's that. Well, at least symbols are nice and affordable and cheap. Yes. Yeah. You know, you go through them really quickly, but yeah, they are, they are quite easy to replace, you know,
00:56:21
Speaker
So I was watching a bunch of your videos this morning. My son wants to know how you play so fast. How do I play so fast? I tell you what, I start really, really, really slow. You just take things that look and sound really, really fast and you slow them down till they're a manageable speed.
00:56:44
Speaker
do that until it gets comfy for you, and then when you can do that, increase it five or 10 beats per minute, and then do that until it gets easy, and then increase five or 10, and so on and so forth. But you just gotta start super, super slow. Apparently you can't just skip the painkiller. Oh, God, I tried though. The way I tried, I like literally within the last
00:57:12
Speaker
probably four years of my playing could actually like play that song accurately. You know, that intro is just, I mean, it's insane. Like it's, and it's iconic and it takes a lot of practice to just be able to nail it and make it sound right. You know, but I tried. That was like, that's been on my list of songs to learn since I've just started. And I just remember thinking like, I'm never going to be able to play this song. It is so crazy. You know, are there any more like that?
00:57:41
Speaker
songs that I like wanted to play as a when I was just starting out that I can now I haven't tried it but I know I could do it is probably disposable heroes Metallica that song was I don't know if still is my favorite office master but
00:58:00
Speaker
for a long long time in my formative years it was my favorite song off of master and i just remember that that fucking skank beat that's like that whole entire song i just remember my mind being blown and being like i am that was another i'm never going to be able to play this um and now i haven't tried yet but i'm i'm sure i could now uh
00:58:22
Speaker
But yeah, that's that's like the first one that popped into my head. I think that Dyer's Eve would be one of the most challenging Metallica songs because Lars has never even played it. Yes. Oh, I have to say.
00:58:45
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. On the Lars of it all, I like, okay, I am so, I'm not conflicted, right? But as a kid, he was my number fucking one. He was like top of the list, Lars fucking over at Metallica, period, no one's better, right? And then the older I got, and the more I dug, you know, the more I kind of just was like,
00:59:13
Speaker
Okay, like he's okay, you know, like he's not, I mean, maybe at one point he was the fucking man, but I feel like there are some clips where I'm like, I just question it so much because I'm like, buddy, you have been playing that part for 30 years and we're still struggling. Like, I love you, I love you, but,
00:59:42
Speaker
I do have the same anger snare in here. There it is. Amazing. Amazing. You know what? I don't hate that one. I don't hate that one. We have discussed it at length and it's... Have you? Amazing.
00:59:56
Speaker
That shit came out when I was like not to get too off topic for more shit here But that album came out when I was really young and really fucking mad and it just it scratched an itch for me and I fucking had it on repeat for like four months straight, you know, so I Know that I don't get the last shit, but I do love that record. I
01:00:17
Speaker
When we do our annual St. Anger show, we should just have you back as counterpoint. Yeah, would you? That'd be dope. Oh, yeah. Do you guys just talk shit about it? Some people have strong opinions on it. That's fair. That's fair and understandable. But no, I loved it. Yeah, that sounds really fun. Doug, do you have anything else? It was very enlightening. Thank you. Sarah, did you have anything you want to do to bring up plug?
01:00:47
Speaker
Oh, man. God, there's way too much shit going on. Um, yes. New Old Cash and Thorn music video this Thursday, the 21st. Last Words album comes out in May. Harvard's gonna be recording another one this year. What am I missing? Oh, a Masculator. Hello. We'll be recording for a Masculator in April for the album that comes out later this year. We'll be at Texas Domination Fest in September. Um...
01:01:15
Speaker
And then there's some other fun things going on in the Oat Camp that'll be a later this year thing that we can't quite talk about yet. So very busy year. And I probably forgot like three things. The only one I know is the album comes out April 19th. Hell yes.
01:01:33
Speaker
Very stoked, very stoked. If that's everything, then until next time, Metal Nation, if you want to join eight bands at once, move to Denver or Fort Collins or whatever. Yes. Or wherever. This is usually where Matt says something funny, but he's in Peru.