Off the Record

Unknown Speaker 0:01
Hello, what's going on y'all? Hey, is Matt Cal from the weekend and Paul courier from the softeners.

Plover 0:08
Hi. And this is DJ plover and you're listening to WKNC 8.1. FM Raleigh out. We are a student run nonprofit radio station based out of North Carolina State University. And this is off the record. And here's me today are a couple of people that just introduce yourself, but they also make music and have projects that have names. So what are those? What are those names? So I'm in a band called Blue weekend.

Unknown Speaker 0:32
Love weekend, low weekend, like the French word for weekend. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
It's just adjusting mine. And hotter than and I'm in the soft nurse. Yeah, thank you so much. Um, so you mentioned who you are. So where are y'all where y'all from? What what's kind of the area we're working with here? So the weekends spaced at a Chapel Hill, although one of our members is in Durham. We've actually been together since 2006. So we're we're a promising new band forever. We always seem like we're maybe one day going to write on the cover a little further, but in fact, we won't. That's the spirit. You must be comfortable. They're comfortable place to be. Yeah. We are from Raleigh, and rehearse in a in a just a space where people put their stuff usually over on Capitol Boulevard. A couple of the guys are from Durham, and Apex but I like to say Raleigh

Unknown Speaker 1:31
mingle mingles together. Um, so how did you all kind of get into both of those bands are very different time timeframes of band length, but I'm sure there's some good origin stories there. Yeah. So um, there's actually a connection in our origin story and your band's origin story in that when when we got together and fought in sorry, 2006. Two of our members who are no longer I say no longer with us. You mean they're no longer in the band. But Ben ridings and Missy things were from the band Piedmont charisma before that, and and Chad from the softeners is from that band, which was a really great band out of Asheville

Unknown Speaker 2:11
in the early aughts,

Unknown Speaker 2:14
the other members Bob wall is the bass player and he does harmony vocals. Robert Biggers is the drummer. The they're the rhythm section for detailed brass, I was think we ought to do a show with detailed brass where 20 people get off or I'm on stage, and then I get off and 20 people replace me and they just stay where there is that how many people's in that in that group. I'm maybe slightly exaggerating. It also varies a little bit, but it's a it's a it's a big brass and big rhythm section bunch of percussionist, I think there's at least 15 people in that band.

Unknown Speaker 2:47
And honestly, the weekend came out of a little bit out of my frustration of not being able to get into graduate school for music. I'm a person who's like sort of formally pursued music at different times in my life and never been able to really complete it kind of because until I got to college, I'd never read music and there's, I can look at a page and discern it, but I can't internalize it or hear it and stuff. So there's a lot of like, it's definitely rock, but there's a lot of like, time signature variation and, you know, multi parts and a lot of

Unknown Speaker 3:23
different song structures, but it's still try to make it something where you could enjoy it if you knew some of the theoretical things, but but hopefully you wouldn't have to, for it to be enjoyable or else that's, that's kind of a failure. That's that that'll cut out a very big market. Of course, we seem to have cut out a pretty big market. So maybe that's maybe that's the answer. Let's see Chad pry, and Brendan bass started a band called Secretary pool in about five years ago. And they got together through Craigslist. I don't know exactly how they did.

Unknown Speaker 3:57
It was on them buying the other one like I think it was in bartering free from to anyone that comes by, and I guess had several people in the lineup and Brendan and Chad stuck around. And they wanted to change the name and not I don't know about the style. I think we kind of kept the same style.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
I wanted to keep the name Secretary pool because I really like it. It's sort of vague and present some mental images that could be different for different people. And so we started the softeners and Pierre Le Fabra is the bass player. Think I pronounced that right. And

Unknown Speaker 4:40
I came into the band with an an offshoot of of the softeners Brendan was in a band called The holler and shout and that's how I came to be and and he said, Hey, you want to come over and play the drums with with us? And I was like, absolutely. It's in this same rehearsal studio, so why not? And that

Unknown Speaker 5:00
So that's how we got to be where we are. Now. If I could just add, it's interesting that you say you're one of the few cases where people have met through Craigslist and nobody disappeared mysteriously. That's something Yeah. Out of. Yeah. It's pretty good. I guess it worked. It seems to be a good way to for musicians in this area to hook up. I don't know of any other way. Word of mouth, maybe. But I think it seemed it seemed to work for us. Yeah. I think people are getting Facebook marketplace these days, as well. So why exactly did y'all end up changing the name to the sophomores? I don't know exactly why. But I believe that Chad more than Brendon wanted to distance himself maybe from any sort of association. That sounds kind of shady. Like there was something wrong with it.

Unknown Speaker 5:49
But maybe since he was going to be 50% new members, he just wanted to have a new name. So we put 10 names in the hat. And the softeners was the one that came out. I worked well, what were some other names.

Unknown Speaker 6:02
Hot dads.

Unknown Speaker 6:04
And you two, two.

Unknown Speaker 6:07
I think we're we're the ones I also put a secretary pool in the mix because I wanted to, but we decided whichever one came out was the one that we were going to choose. Stick with that one and kind of on. I thought that was the one that sort of sprung out from what would y'all have committed to it?

Unknown Speaker 6:24
Would we have committed to which dads, I definitely would have committed to hot dads and I'm far from being a hot dad, even though I am a dad. For everyone not in the studio. He's lying. But so it's interesting, y'all been throwing a lot of bands names. It's kind of like a It's kind of like a nice little circle of like bands who kind of collaborate because you all have had a sort of a similar origin stories a lot a little with this band kind of became this band. How does that kind of work? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:52
That's it. That's all right. I think that happens a lot. I mean, you know, for example, we needed another band to play this show that we're going to play next month, and Chad reached out to, to Matt. And so there's definitely, I call it word of mouth that maybe just previously knowing each other, at the place where we rehearse, there are like eight other bands. And I'll sometimes walk around and listen to them. They're usually a little bit not shy, but not necessarily, Hey, come on in.

Unknown Speaker 7:22
But I always support other bands and want to, you know, help anybody out or because it's always going to come back around. Yeah, I have to admit, I'm kind of riding on extended luck, because I'm, I'm not really great about going out and meeting new people and finding new people that when I first moved to Chapel Hill, the band that I was in, I moved here with a person who had been playing bass, or he'd played bass, and I was a guitarist in a band in college, and we just called somebody we knew. And somebody else answered the phone and just started talking to me, and he was like, I'm gonna be your drummer. I was like, Okay, and so, and his, and we played with him for a couple years in a band called V Siran. But he in the house that he lived in was Robert Biggers, who I've played in,

Unknown Speaker 8:11
played in a band called Ottoman park with Robert I've played in. Obviously, I've said, Robertson on the weekend now. And I met I, oh, you know, what we were talking about ways to find people out music, Chapel Hill was how I found my second band, the news group that actually still exists, it's mostly just spam. Now, somebody occasionally goes on to it and sends it like a website or Yeah, it's like a News Group. This has now become like, an educational part of his interview, I'm learning Oh, yeah. But,

Unknown Speaker 8:43
and I went on there and just sort of said, I wanted to start a band and, and, and Gomez from Campbell Gomez and Jordan reached out to me and was like, let's, you know, I can start another band, because basically, a lot of these people are in like, 20 bands at the same time. And Bob wall. They were, they were together at that time. And Bob wall was the drummer in that band. And, you know, after the band ended, I was like, I'd heard Bob play bass at one of our practices. And I'm like, this is an amazing bass player. So I asked him if you want to play bass, and, you know, so I've kind of just kept finding people that way. And I think for a lot of musicians, it's like, most of you, you meet a lot of your friends through music, and you know, that can sound kind of sad, like, oh, it's like a different kind of work friend, but honestly, it's like, those are the best people to play music with people you really, you know, relate to. And, you know, we'd actually enjoy each other's company, maybe if there weren't instruments there, but you can do things with instruments. So, first of all,

Unknown Speaker 9:40
what's it like, like being in so many bands at the same time? Also, how do you keep track of because it's, it's honestly impressive. You're throwing out names like a dictionary right now.

Unknown Speaker 9:49
Well, I'm not really in so many bands at the same time. I've like, and at this time, I think Bob So Bob is in

Unknown Speaker 10:00
I'm in addition to the weekend, he's in Erie choir.

Unknown Speaker 10:04
And then he and I are part of a 70 soft rock cover group called the Willis's we're actually playing at the state fair on Sunday. Which actually, if I were to go through that band I would probably get exhausted by how many how many bands there are because there's like nine people in there and some of them are in tons.

Unknown Speaker 10:24
You guys wear outfits we well, I guess I should toe the company line. I know of this band and I happen to resemble and carry the equipment of but the people you know Matt caliber is not in the worst is Gordie McDowell manner.

Unknown Speaker 10:39
Okay, and he's in there. I might put his amp up on stage. But yes, those folks were what we would deem is costumes, but are just them every day because it's still 1974. So where they are, I get it. I do not know how I veered so wildly from your question, but I guess I interrupted you. Sorry. No, no, I veered myself quite quite before that. But so honestly, I kind of wish like Bob, Robert, were here because they're they are in a lot more bands simultaneous than me. I've usually been able to keep it to two, anyway. And yeah, yeah. When I was in the two bands here in Raleigh, I liked it. We weren't juggling a lot of gigs. So it was easy. But I liked how the different styles of music that we play, they wouldn't translate between the two. So it was fun to play different two different styles of music and with at least one of the same people. And also just to just to be with different minds and

Unknown Speaker 11:37
skill sets or talents, I guess you'd call it. It was fun. Yeah. What were the multiple styles? Well, I mean, the Secretary pool and the softeners it's hard. The hardest thing to explain is what kind of music you play. I find I like you got you got this the 70s thing that's that's nice. But the Holland chat was sort of like a soul r&b thing with keyboards. And

Unknown Speaker 12:03
the softeners is more guitar driven, loud.

Unknown Speaker 12:07
And energetic, whereas the Holland chat was more chill, relaxed,

Unknown Speaker 12:14
easier to play on the drums. So it was a nice break for that, I guess. Yeah. And to be clear, the 70 soft rock thing is a cover band. So that's it's easy to describe because somebody else came up. I find the same problem like you want to. You want to be evasive, when people tell you what kind of music you play, but you're also it's like, you're always worried about what bad association people have with stuff or how you're getting how you're pigeon holing yourself, I would say the weekend definitely.

Unknown Speaker 12:43
I mean, it's definitely rock. I mentioned that there's, you know, there's elements in it that are from that are more,

Unknown Speaker 12:51
I guess, complex than, than a typical rock fair, but it's all very, you know, rooted in kinda like indie rock we, we all liked kind of The Chapel Hill, stuff of the, of the 90s, in particular, late, mid late 90s.

Unknown Speaker 13:07
And then,

Unknown Speaker 13:11
yeah,

Unknown Speaker 13:12
basically, trying to do different things with it from the normal confines of like, what you might hear from a rock slash pop kind of band. But on the other hand, it's not like say, like a genre study where we're doing different different styles all the time. We kind of we sound like ourselves, I believe, but, and you can tell that we started playing in the 90s. Probably, even though, which is B. It's a sound that kind of comes in I think it's kind of having a resurgence now. We won't. We won't have any part of the resurgence, I'm sure, but it's happening here. There. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 13:46
I like that explanation that you sound like what we what we are. Yeah, I mean, that's what we did. When people ask me what kind of music we play. I usually ask what kind of music do you like, and whatever they say? I'm like, that's that's exactly where

Unknown Speaker 14:00
we're at 60s rap duo. Exactly. Why would you think like with our different elements, there's something in there for everybody to not like?

Unknown Speaker 14:10
You're gonna like some of this and then we're gonna turn you off

Unknown Speaker 14:13
very differently than I thought it went like that. So I know y'all have both been releasing some music lately. You you dropped in an EP this was April May. Yes. Yes, a five song EP on Bandcamp. Which we're trying to get it released. So you can hold it in your hands because that's the way I like it. Yeah. It seems to be streaming is the most popular accessible way. And then currently, we're doing a two song I guess a single would they call it back in the day?

Unknown Speaker 14:42
That's going to be out hopefully before the end of the year. We're not very speedy at production, but on steady wins the race. That's right. Well, we're gonna win the race then.

Unknown Speaker 14:53
Nice and you dropped something. Let's see. Bandcamp described it as live ish. Yeah. So so our

Unknown Speaker 15:00
current, current thing we're working on since I mentioned that we've been together as a band for it's, you know, it'll be, well, it's been 16 years. At the very end of our 15th year, we said, you know, we should put out a compilation. And the easy thing to do with a compilation is just take all these studio recordings, and put them together. But you know, we had not been playing together because of COVID. And we're like, we're going to start practicing, we should learn our old stuff again. And we should just, you know, stick a phone in the room somewhere that you can hear every instrument and that's about the standard. Yeah. So it sounds like somebody bootlegging a show. And, you know, we did do like, the vocals got done in a separate session, but they were kind of done the same way we had, I think I sang into a PA and I had my phone, pick it up, you know, so it was still recorded to phone and we just layered these voice memos. And, and that was a really fun way for us to both relearn it. But I also think it's more interesting to hear, like, here's 15 years of a band, but not, you know, getting exactly what they put out 15 years ago, and of course, true to form, it's almost the end of our 16th year, and we still haven't gotten into somebody to miss it, or you know, which I know, it sounds like there's not a lot to mix, there isn't really, but we want to have somebody just our friend Nick Peterson, who we've worked with,

Unknown Speaker 16:21
you know, given a little touch so it's, it's as good as it can be given the circumstances. Um, if I could, though, just sort of barring on pandemic time, we have an album that I still feels new to me, because we had planned to have the release show in May of 2020. So we maybe didn't time it well. But that one is, is I'm really proud of that. It's and it's not represented on the,

Unknown Speaker 16:49
on the live stuff. Because what we did was intentionally I said, 15 years, we actually just took only our first decade in that one. So this one is called Three good songs. And the basic idea behind it was I was like a write all the songs that have different forms. Why don't we try where everything has to be a verse, a chorus, a bridge very discernible, and I just was having trouble finishing any songs and then just came up with a game. Basically, I play a lot of games when I'm writing. And this was I just had the nine best chord progressions, I put them down on a three by three grid. And in the first song is, this is the verse that I can't, I'm doing the pointing thing on the radio, that doesn't work. But if you go horizontally, ABC, that's the verse, the chorus and the bridge of the first song after you've gone through three, you start going up. So now D, C, I can't even picture with the letters are going to be G, D, A, originally, all the verses now that's the verse chorus and bridge of the fourth song and so forth. And, and, and I didn't do it similar words, like you just, you know, each one of them is kind of rewritten for the song it's in, but it was also kind of likely just arbitrarily force yourself to make some decisions. Because sometimes it's hard to hard to finish and out the door. And honestly, I think I'd like turned out really well. I was I was really pleased. I mean, it's a large part of that is even though I'm describing a writing process that starts with me, our songs are always collaboratively written, Bob and Robert really bring lots of arrangement ideas, hey, let's do this part last let's, I mean, they just bring so much to it, that it's not it's not a real song, even if I can, like describe the the bones of it like that, until we kind of all go through it. And I thought we just did a great job. And I really, really regretted not that that is by far the most, you know, from the worst thing that happened during that period of time, but it's just kind of an annoyance that, oh, that's not gonna, that's gonna be looked over and just how many songs are on on that? So, so there's not three

Unknown Speaker 18:47
Yeah, the three good songs is kind of a kind of a wink there, right, but

Unknown Speaker 18:52
because there was only enough material, the first three songs contain all the progressions, but actually, I'm trying to remember there was a, there were 11 tracks, because in addition to writing nine songs using that method, we had this thing where ASEA can't do math, there were 12 tracks because we had three other pieces that occurred every time we hit a prime number. Wow. And they were not based on that idea but they're based on they were similar to each other. So you know, right right with some ostensibly goofy but sometimes I can have interesting results kind of idea. It's like explaining a magic it's it's I do you make all your albums like this, do you like Oh, this one? I'm gonna go backwards and I'm gonna reverse it. Um, no, there have been there. There has been there at times. So like our I wouldn't say there's any kind of overriding writing theme in our first EP but our second our first full length album was called Double secret and it was right after two of our members left amicably but, but we were how do we become a three piece after being a five piece something where I've really never, never before? Have is

Unknown Speaker 20:00
A band that I've been in not just broken up when somebody left, but we're like this really feel special, we should continue. And the members who left said that too. They're like, we think you guys should keep going. But at the time, I was like, you know, what's really interesting is now we're kind of relearning all this stuff. And we're also working on new material. And we keep coming to these points where it's like, There's choices. And both are good. And I was like, let's write this thing twice. Well, so So we, not every song felt it was like, basically, there was an first song that was like, a bunch of parts and, and nothing in that really repeated later. And there was a final song. And everything else in there, it was like the first side was all these ideas, the songs, the second side in a different order was a recurrence of them. And actually, we kind of mix it up where sometimes, the way we wrote it, first would be on the second side, and we tried to make it not where like, you could predict what the next version was going to be. We didn't, we didn't change them. On site, we didn't change them all the same way, like record them all acoustic and electric or something.

Unknown Speaker 21:02
But that ended up being really interesting. And I think honestly, that that caught a little bit of attention. Because that was that was your like, Grayson Kern it was at the end he, he had had someone do a pretty good, like, a review of it with like, somebody came in took a weird photo of me at my house and stuff. And we talked about it at length, and then we played Hopscotch the following September. And so maybe we should do more, you know, sort of gimmicky things, because that was probably the most attention we ever got for anything. But the short answer is no, they're not always like that. But we do have like, sort of times where that's, that's what's happening. And they're usually to solve writer's block. I think, honestly, I do plan on playing hopscotch. Again, that sounds really cool. It'd be nice to be asked to play. And we have played the day parties a few times the potluck one, but we would play hopscotch. If if asked, but we've not been on, on that list in. I guess it's over 10 years now that people don't seem to knock on the door to say, Hey, would you guys come and play? Yeah, it's more like it's a lot of searching and, and hunting and making shows happen like this one that we're gonna play? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 22:12
Can you talk more about that? What What are y'all doing together? We're playing at the Nightrider On November, the fifth November, the fifth Saturday night, Saturday night. And like I said, Chad, mentioned that he had a friend last weekend, but also, I guess, a human being who's sitting next to me. And I was like, we can just do the show ourselves. And he said, We will, it would be more fun if we did it with someone else. And I like that. I like that idea.

Unknown Speaker 22:42
But now, I totally forgot the question by logging in when it's happening, and Oh, yeah. So I think you've already kind of did some of the major points. Yeah. And hopefully, you know, we can do, we can network from there. Yeah. And find some other places to play together other people to play with and

Unknown Speaker 23:01
if that's how that show came together, and I'm really really, really looking forward to it. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 23:07
The Nightrider is, of course, a cowboy themed bar. Do y'all plan to incorporate that into any of your? Any of your I might do a couple year hauls. Excellent plan. Maybe now that you say,

Unknown Speaker 23:20
I can't say there was any plan. I didn't know that we're not committing your plan after I've played it before. And I did not notice that the I really liked the bar. But I didn't notice the cowboy thing. I guess I wasn't paying much attention. I'm under 20 ones. I've definitely got time in there. There's certainly the like, the online decor of does certainly indicate that.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
While I would say

Unknown Speaker 23:51
I would say not. What's the word I'm looking for? I would say it's it's not required to be a cowboy. Not only not required, but imagine there is a level of irony. Yeah, that's that's what I'm trying for a cow girl. You know, there's girls, cow person people. Yeah. i What other shows y'all tend to play? I was pandemic OSI, just like what's like a standard show for y'all. What do you mean? Like what what would it look like?

Unknown Speaker 24:19
Like, where would you play it? Like, oh, gosh, we played

Unknown Speaker 24:23
at the cave

Unknown Speaker 24:26
at cat's cradle, and the poor house pin hook and typical show you looks like you just haul all your stuff there. Usually they have a back end, which is a PA and sometimes amps. But some guitar players are kind of picky about their sound and wondering their amps.

Unknown Speaker 24:45
You haul your stuff in there and check the sound and make sure it works and hope some people show up and then you just do it. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 24:56
I'd say for our list. It'd be pretty pretty

Unknown Speaker 25:00
similar we've also and you probably weren't trying to be fully comprehend. But like, yeah, it's always hard to think it's like what bands do you like suddenly, like, oh, like 6000 But I can't think of two. Slim's is a place that I haven't played there in a while, but very much enjoyed that Secretary pool. And Louie can show which was, you know, many years ago, was that Neptune's which I, I don't know what the future is of kings. And, you know, I understand kings may do something, and they did something. Gosh, yeah. So I do hope those folks continue, because they, they, it is great to play there. To that point, you made me think that we played the Berkeley Cafe as well, which is, I think the the future for them is uncertain, too. I have heard that they are going to stop being in existence and which is a shame because they have been there.

Unknown Speaker 25:53
I played they're actually in college in 1988. So yeah, I don't know the future of that. But it is, it is hard to see these places that you've played or gone to

Unknown Speaker 26:06
go out of business, for lack of a better word. So everybody get out and go to all these awesome, places that around. There's there's so many to choose from. And it's so great to be back in live music and just you know, with people in the world too. But the live music I was I was just bumming out during the pandemic watching YouTube videos of concerts and and pretending I was there. Right. Well, and along the lines where you're talking about Chapel Hill

Unknown Speaker 26:39
temporarily closed and and really hope that that is just, you know, where it says temporarily mean, the reopen? I mean, I think they will because they're working on some renovation but the nightlight in Chapel Hill, that's a very special place to me. And, you know, it's been a long time since Luke and played there as well. Of course, you know, we've never been very great about going out and booking shows. So it's like, even though we've been together, you know, for 16 years. It's not like there's 1000s of shows under our belts anyway. But that was just, that was always a fun place to play. And they are doing some shows the same people like Charlie here, and it's insane for they're putting on shows out

Unknown Speaker 27:17
in the ER, all day records parking lot, and Carrboro. And those are fun actually saw detail and brass. They're not. Maybe a few weeks ago, it was great. I've been able to make it over there. So those have been those minutes success. Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course with that kind of thing. It's like basically, you've got a limited time of the year when it's feasible to do.

Unknown Speaker 27:37
Yeah, yeah. There they aren't, you know, there was a good choice. Yeah, so So you heard about like doing resurveyed renovations, excuse me. Has that been like a thing? That's been like kind of floating around? Yeah, yeah. They, they announced it like they closed at the end of July. I won't say the end of July. Yeah. And there's, there's some stuff. And I'm not I'm not a person who's like one I may have had some conversation with Charlie that may may or may not be things he want me to talk about? I don't know. But, but I know that they are definitely working to make that work. It's not and they've been pretty, pretty public about that.

Unknown Speaker 28:15
We've been having problems. They've been public about that, too. But they, you know, rumors of closing, they're like, No, that's not you know, that's not what's happening here. Very, very public about having to like have porta potties in the parking lot beside it. And then the Yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 28:33
So let's see, I noticed I was going through your Bandcamp earlier, you'll have all names. You have kind of an aesthetic going for your band. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 28:42
gosh, I should know all those names. I don't. Actually I didn't know that I am stone, which was the past tense of sting. I thought that that was kind of suitable for whatever reason. mousy Brown I believe is in there. This sort of follows on your thing with the the band you're talking about? I believe she didn't want to? Well, Chad is the security guard number three, perhaps and Pierre or Brendan? Shucks, I don't I don't know. If that's your peers. Massey Brown and candidness Tommy sandwich. That's it, Thomas. Sounds like you guys are allowed to call each other by your real names on stage. I mean, you got to commit. Well, these are ridiculous names that you have to I need you because I did not know them.

Unknown Speaker 29:27
But that was an idea. He had another idea. Have you read the bio? He's because you know, band bios. I just sort of like what kind of music do you play? They're very

Unknown Speaker 29:39
boring. So his when he wrote it? I was I thought it was hilarious. It takes you on an adventure with all those characters. But I think maybe I will embrace stung a little bit more. Yeah. Nice.

Unknown Speaker 29:53
So yeah, y'all mentioned places where you, you go to play, or where do you like go to just like experience live music or what

Unknown Speaker 30:00
I plan to go after coming back after all these years, the list is the same. Yeah, I mean, I'm not frequently going to go to, you know, some of the bigger an arena show or something. It's just not nothing against that. But I mean, the bands that I like are gonna play the same. They're gonna play the bigger versions in the more filled out audiences frequently than then we made that's a low bar for for the weekend. But but it's still going to be in the same kind of universe in the same. And I've always kind of enjoyed that, that there's a lot of great music. Yeah, you don't have to sell rooms, you don't have to know who's playing in some place sometimes. Like Slim's used to be my Hangout, I love that you're at the same level as the band, you're gonna at least see two, maybe three bands when you're there. But yes, that's a good answer. That is the list will be the same. I think I can't think of anything that I haven't mentioned. That hasn't been mentioned that we wouldn't had that I've been to. So yeah, you mentioned you kind of like rehearse with a number of bands, or is it like everyone at the same time? It's like every corner of the room? What's that kind of environment? No, it's, it's actually just in like a storage facility. So there's rows of them. And different places in the in the in the area, or where their bands are, we are in just a room by ourselves. We actually do share it with the dapper conspiracy, but we don't do it. On the same nights, we sort of have various nights when we can play and that helps to cut down the rent. But I was like it when when I show up for for rehearsal, there's noise wafting around with there's like a mariachi band over here. And then there's someone that's trying to sing and doing it, you know, as best that they can and it's just great. But yeah, it's it's a nice neighborhood environment, but it's not like you also can't loiter. So you have to be sort of just always walking. So you're not loitering. I think if you're moving, you're not loitering. Gotcha. Yeah, we were also in a storage space that as far as I know, the only other band that practices there is require Eric Roig a very choir is the one who's got this space in his name. And now that you mentioned it, it's like there's, I realize you're talking about like, are you talking about a storage facility or you're talking about a place that's mainly kind of I guess

Unknown Speaker 32:27
there's a guy being some welding over here and awesome. There's junk everywhere. Um, but our room sorry to interrupt you, but our room is really it's nice. I mean, we got carpets in sort of made it our own. So it doesn't feel like what people might picture which is a storage place space with concrete and metal walls. Yeah, I was I was getting at more of the realizing that at the place that we're practicing.

Unknown Speaker 32:52
There's not really it doesn't seem like there's a lot of other bands out there. But I recall like almost every other time I've done this so like there was a long period of time on the weekend practice at my house. And obviously there weren't other people at my house doing that kind of stuff, but but in all the bands I'd been in before and all the time storage before it's been like what you described. I don't know if maybe we're in the one where it's like it's haunted or something. Although if it's haunted, we'd hear noises. I don't the one that's not cool to be in I guess that there's no other bands out there anymore. Well, there are there are a bunch over on Capitol Hill as a drummer though, just like a drummer practicing

Unknown Speaker 33:27
maybe, yeah, there's one that plays next to us some time and it's the speediest Metalist drugs that I've ever heard and I mean, I play the drums and I'm quite impressed sometimes I'll try to play along but we cannot it's just loud. So we try not to do any recordings on those nights but it's it's always funny that this person I've never seen him but energy for days was like some of the like the the earlier bands are going to like this so I'm like first like I guess like stepped into this like world? Oh gosh, I've I've been listening to music forever. Columbia record club. I was a member where you stick a penny on the piece of paper and get 12 cassettes. So I started out with AC DC rush,

Unknown Speaker 34:15
Black Sabbath, all the classics, I suppose. Nowadays, there are so many bands, you can go down a wormhole. It's a lot of fun to do but

Unknown Speaker 34:27
the wedding present has always been my favorite band. That's what I answer I suppose when people asked me the Melvins

Unknown Speaker 34:36
the bad plus the ones we did here pretty recently that said yes. Poor house. I think they did yeah, I wrote them a letter well an email. Nobody writes letters anymore, asking if we could open up for them but I did not hear back that's a short list I could go on for days but but

Unknown Speaker 34:56
not a lot of contemporary bands that I know of. It's on

Unknown Speaker 35:00
Fortunately, a lot of I'll just hear it in the peripheral and be like, gosh, that's why I like the WKNC that you can go back and see the playlists are very, very helpful. Because there's just too many to keep track of. How about you, man. So similarly, like,

Unknown Speaker 35:15
when I first started, like really paying attention to music, it was like elementary school and this would be in the 80s. And I didn't really have access to it except for basically what came through the radio. And I'd often listen like with a cassette ready to dub, anything from like, the top 40 or top 100 shows that I found interesting. And I would record maybe one thing, a show or something. But I found like what I was always into was, whatever the heaviest version of what was still popping up to be on the radio. So it's like I ended up recording Def Leppard or Motley Crue. And a little while later, I had a very brief, not illustrious stint in a Catholic junior high school, and they they just kind of handed me the thrash metal tape that they issued of the kids did to that they issue to everybody. And I got into, like, I got into thrash, like Metallica, Slayer, those kinds of things. And I wouldn't say that's really something I connect with on that level anymore at all, really, but I'll hear it occasionally be like, oh, yeah, I did, you know, but it probably had some influence. Because the, you know, I'm thinking about those bands, they actually had a lot of, you know, some of them had things of like, varying tempos and time signature changes, obviously, it was very different in that I like, I like, melodic things that they would, you know, would never appear in that kind of stuff. And then think like a lot of people from that era, Nirvana was sort of a gateway between being really into metal and then being into

Unknown Speaker 36:44
things that had more poppy elements. But oddly enough, it's like in college, I discovered the Beatles, which I think is just hilarious. You know, it's like, How did I not but somehow I had kind of missed a lot of the standard stuff that everybody was aware of, because I was so into, like, the metal stuff. Did you know that they were not around anymore? Oh, it wasn't like, I was like, Who is this but I mean, more like saying, You know what, I should listen to this, it was more like I should educate myself on this stuff. And then I was like, Wait, this isn't all the like, there's, there's all these weird elements of this that I knew nothing about.

Unknown Speaker 37:20
And then because I was living in or going to college in Kentucky,

Unknown Speaker 37:26
and there was like, kind of a Louisville hardcore scene, I got into a lot of those bands, Rodin crane.

Unknown Speaker 37:35
And then later, junuh, 44, and then their satellite bands around there, but But honestly, probably the most, like, influential thing for me was a trip in college, where we were visiting a friend out here who was at UNC, and we went to a show, we came out to see SeBO. But we went to a show with a cat's cradle the night before just to see what was up. And it was the archers, Allah. And also we were staying at my cousin's house, who I checked if we could stay with them. And they're like, well, actually, we're going to be out of town, but have the house yourself. So it was like me, and like four friends who had driven over and they had, they had like something signed by someone in superchunk. And they had like the the merge, whatever number of rows of tea, I think it was 10. At that time, it was only for one of the merge compilations. And they had celebrate the new dark age by poll though, and I guess maybe the statute of limitations out on this, but we dubbed all that stuff, not having listened and listened to it on the nine hour drive back to Kentucky that we did, like overnight, Saturday or Sunday into Monday. And I just was like, I can't believe this music. It's just amazing. And it really opened up for me so many, many years later, I moved here because of that. I'm sort of cutting myself off because I like a lot of current things too. And I like a lot of things in the music scene now. But I guess we're talking formative. But yeah, it's it just like you were saying, it's like you really, once you've lived a long time, and especially if you lived a long time and you were interested in music, then the list is kind of insanely long.

Unknown Speaker 39:06
And I'm very, very grateful for that long list. That's nice. Did that like for like a first band or something that y'all like put together in college? Or those kinds of things influencing it? Or is it like more of like a koji DIY absolutely influenced my bands in college, I've listened back and realized how much more influenced I was than I may be recognized at the time. But we were when we started out, it was me and a friend. His name is David Nam. He's, he's he's back in Chapel Hill. Now, after being away longtime Audubon Park is his band, which I'm in with him. But anyway, we started a band without really having much in common at all. And then we discovered Sebo kind of together and we liked that and a lot of early stuff sound like that. But then we were discovering other things at the same time and we discovered a Louisville kind of hardcore postcard.

Unknown Speaker 40:00
Of course stuff, and suddenly I need time signature changes in everything. And, you know, he learned that with me along with our drummer, friend Jonathan, who wasn't even a drummer, but he was like, you know, sure, I'll play drums in your band. And he just kind of amazing all the stuff we how much we change in a period of time. And then we discovered the

Unknown Speaker 40:22
Chapel Hill stuff and Guided by Voices as well around that time was a huge and so suddenly it's like, oh, yeah, maybe we should think about things like the melody of a song existing and stuff. And

Unknown Speaker 40:33
yeah, so it was it was very influential. And

Unknown Speaker 40:36
I'm sure all of that is still baked in, I may not always recognize it. And you know, I had a different experience, where a friend of mine was in a blues band. And while I knew what blues was, I certainly wasn't versed in it.

Unknown Speaker 40:51
So I joined them. And we played Otis rush covers Son Seals, Freddie King, and I hadn't heard of any of the music that we played. But we had a pretty good following. And we kind of we were up in Boone, but we come here to Raleigh, and we play Chapel Hill and Greensboro. And I love that because I had no idea it was almost like a new experience for me. And but then, after college, I was in a lot of different bands influenced by I can't think of specific bands, a stiff little fingers, I think inspired a band I was in in Colorado. We were listening to them all the time, a guy actually got a stiff little fingers tattoo. So I suppose that influenced him too. But I liked that. In college, I was in a blues band without having any clue what the blues were, that was pretty much fun.

Unknown Speaker 41:46
Let's see, is there anything else you want to talk about? I think we hit a good amount of stuff. Is there anything in a plug heading forward? I was gonna say maybe just a reminder that

Unknown Speaker 41:56
we're playing at the knight rider in rally on Saturday, November 5

Unknown Speaker 42:03
softeners in the weekend.

Unknown Speaker 42:06
And if you want to come see that show, we will not say no.

Unknown Speaker 42:11
I don't have any upcoming music in my drop. I know yet the 15 year. Yeah, our 15 year thing will probably come out at the end of our 16th year this year or the beginning of our 70s next year. We're the funny thing is it's it's there's nothing really much to the process. It's all the time in between when you take a step and then you go, Oh, wait, we got to get back to this thing. So it's like something sitting on my computer that I just have to line up. And then I could give it give it to Nick that's been sitting on my computer for three weeks, which is not that big a deal. Considering the basic tracks before I started doing vocals, they sat on my computer for like eight months. So

Unknown Speaker 42:49
I need to rush. But I think it's unlikely we'll get it just because of schedules by the end of the year, but hopefully early next year, and then we we do have quite, there's not ready to release. But just we have like a good batch of

Unknown Speaker 43:05
10 or so new songs that we're just starting to incorporate in the live show, we'll probably play three or four of them at the next one, we play two of them at our last show, if you've got a pretty vast library, I was checking it out. It's it's fun to dig through. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 43:21
We have the single flip side, A and B side coming out when I don't know when. But you can catch that on Bandcamp or on our Facebook page. And if we ever get it in a place, you can hold it in your hands, you can come see us and I'll give you one for free. We the sophomores are also playing a show in November at the station. But the date we were just having a text train conversation today got a little bit confused. So I don't know I think I have no idea when it is but it is in November, I know that much some idea that is an idea.

Unknown Speaker 43:57
Just come to the station various times might find them. And maybe you could you could turn into like a 20 year thing you can I don't rush it you just drop some money, we just add some more stuff. And by the working title of that is note to selves, or notes to selves. But I haven't even you know gotten approval from the band for that. So it will be called that or it will be called something else. I imagine you've heard it here first, if you're listening, that is what your record will be called it. Lu weekend.bandcamp.com is your source for things that may or may not be called that.

Unknown Speaker 44:32
Very nice. Um, yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 44:36
Yeah,