June 15, 2026

Ankor at Download XXIII Donington Park - PipemanRadio Interview

Show Notes
Transcript

PipemanRadio speaks with Ankor at Download XXIII Donington Park about their performance at the legendary music festival.

Spanish alternative metal band Ankor performed at the Download Festival at Donington Park as part of the summer 2026 lineup. They played the Dogtooth Stage, delivering an energetic set that drew widespread praise and packed the tent.

Festival Performance Details

Venue: Donington Park, UK
Stage: Dogtooth Stage
Set Highlights: The band played fan-favorites blending electronic pulses and heavy riffs, including "Darkbeat", "Embers", "Venom", and "Prisoner".
Vocal Performance: Frontwoman Jessie Williams anchored the performance, seamlessly transitioning between death growls and melodic cleans.
Crowd Reaction: Their energetic set drew in wandering festival-goers, resulting in massive circle pits and earning rave reviews from attendees who were discovering the band for the first time.

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WEBVTT

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Hi, you love Lunt Yes, Cruee Wow for you.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe

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Man W four c Y Radio and I'm here with

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I'm a lettle note down.

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I'm the drummer of Fankor and thank you for having me.

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Well, thank you for being here at download. How's it feel?

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Awesome? It's our first time in download, Like we've played

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Bloodstock before in the UK, but it's our first time

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here and it's amazing.

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We loved it and I love Bloodstock. I do Bloodstock too.

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Oh cool, but it's like two different vibes.

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Right, yeah, totally, totally. This is so nice. I'm the

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artist there is amazing.

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Yeah, So tell us for the listeners that don't know

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much about you, how would you explain your band? Not genre,

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but us the artist, what your band all about?

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So, first of all, our band is a weird mix

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of ethnicities that I think that makes it cool. Like

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our singer is British, he was born in Bristol, Bessie.

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He's been living in Spain for almost our whole life.

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The rest of the band, they're all from Catalonia, Spain, Barcelona,

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and I'm the only Greek person in the band, So

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you know, we're a mix of European British ethnicities, and

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I think that also like blends into the band as well.

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We're different people with different styles and personalities. We love anime,

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we love Japanese music and culture, and that blends into

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the metalcore, pop rock, metal, a there the music that

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we're doing.

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See. I love that you are from different countries because

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as somebody that does festivals all over the world and

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I've like done Resurrection fest and I you know, I

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do all the different countries. It is a different vibe

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everywhere and different influence that comes into it. So that

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makes you unique, you know.

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Yeah, I think that's something that I see a lot

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of these days, like bands being multicultural. You see people

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from all over Europe or the US or wherever like

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blendy to a band. But I think that's super cool

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that it's happening nowadays, that it's not only people from

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the same town necessarily that belong to the same band.

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I think it's important too because a lot of time

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nowadays there's so many bands that a lot of them

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can sound the same if they're like one genre from

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the same place. So band like yours, I think brings

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a lot to table that. I'm sure you guys have

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like conversations, well let's do this, and somebody else says,

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well this would kind of work better or and things

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like that.

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Right, Yeah, totally. And as I said, we come from

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different backgrounds, Like three of the guys they are actually

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childhood friends, but the others not. So we come from

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completely different backgrounds and that makes it cool. I think. Like, also,

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we've heard it from our fans that we don't have

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two songs that sound alike. Its song is totally different

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from the other end. I think that's pretty cool.

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I think that's so important because like, as an artist,

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why do you want to write the same song over and.

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Over again exactly even if it works, Like why don't

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try something different? Maybe it's even better.

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Yeah, And that's an artist you want to grow, so

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you want that means experimenting and going outside your comfort

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zone and getting better at your craft.

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Totally agree with it. Yeah, Like we evolved from song

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to song, well, like we try crazy different things like

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orchestral music, techno music, whatever you can put, we put it.

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And that's an earth day. I talk about the blending

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of genres nowadays, Like I come from a time where

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it was like you only do this, oh yeah, and

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that's stupid because even as a metal head, we like

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other kinds of music, you know, exactly, So why not

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bring it to the table and create something that is

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memorable exactly?

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Like I hate this phrase. This doesn't sound metal enough,

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I know, right, Like who cares if it's good? It's good?

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It's stupid, like you know, if you're if you're into it,

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who cares what the label is? And I come from

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that time where it was like the gatekeeping of oh,

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it's not this metal, so it's not really metal, and

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that's bullshit.

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Totally agree with you.

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So how did all start for you? Like when was

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that moment in time that you're like, oh my god,

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music needs to be my life for me personally?

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Yes, okay, Like I was young. I I think I

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was thirteen. I started playing the drums when I was twelve.

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The first year I didn't take it much seriously, Like

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I didn't even think I was good enough, you know,

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being a girl in a small island in Greece. Everybody

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told me like drums, are you crazy? Like why don't

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you drive something different? So you know, I didn't take

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it seriously. I thought to do it just for fun

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because I really loved slipn I enjoyed Georgison, so I

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was like, I want to try this. But then I

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started getting more passionate with it year by year, and

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I started getting pretty good at it eventually, Like when

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I was fifteen sixteen, and I hated doing everything else,

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you know, in school, I hated everything, Like I was

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pretty good of a student, but still I was like,

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I don't do academics or whatever. I want to be drummer.

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My mom didn't like the idea, but you know, I

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stuck along with it, and I just kept going, like

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I found the day job, still kept playing drums at

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the same time. I kept pushing, pushing, pushing, And then

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when I was twenty five, I got hired by a

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band called Nervosa. I don't know if you know them,

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I know, and that's what started for me. Like I

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did YouTube videos. They saw me from that and they

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hired me for a couple of years and then I

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quit and right the next day Anchor contacted me. Wow, yeah,

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like and that was almost four years ago when I

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joined Anchor, So yeah, thanks to YouTube, like it kind

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of worked out for me. Eventually, and now I'm in

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for almost four years. I'm happy. We're doing a lot,

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We're playing all this amazing festival, so it's super cool.

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Yeah, and I'll even add to that, I think it's

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your motivation that did it, because I'm also a motivational speaker.

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But I was also I played drums when I was

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a kid for like nine years from first grade, and

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I sucked. Why unlike you got involved in other things too.

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I didn't really practice. I remember in the beginning, you know,

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I had the practice pad and I hated that.

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Oh suck, to be honest, but oh yeah, I kept.

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Asking my dad, I want drums, I want drums. When

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I finally got one, it gave me like some small

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baby one as far as I was concerned. So I,

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you know, and I didn't have that drive that I

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sensed you had from what you were just telling me.

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I didn't have it from day one, to be honest,

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because also I don't come from a music and family,

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so I didn't like have the background or the boost

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to keep going. So at first I was a bit lazy,

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to be honest. I was just more interesting playing PlayStation

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and rollerblading. But for those now, yeah, like I don't

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like PlayStation nowadays, but I still love my inline skating.

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So but you know, I loved music, so that's what

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kept me going. I was more in love with music

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first and then drums. So I was listening to music

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every day, and I realized that I'm not passionate about

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anything else, literally, so I said, okay, drums, I'm playing.

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It's fun. Why not get better at it? And then

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I kept practicing and practicing. I goes around the dates

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that you started getting more serious with your life, around

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your like fifteen sixteen, that said Okay, I'm gonna do

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this and I'm gonna do this seriously. And then I

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kept practicing a lot and it paid off. But I

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didn't have a drive from day one. I think if

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you don't come from a musical background, you need to

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get older to realize what you want.

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See that's good advice for people out there that probably

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are in the same position you were in, so that

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they can see that there there could be a future

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if they really want it.

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Yeah, you just need to work for it. Like I

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spent all my summer vacation basically drums from one and

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agent on. I sacrifice things to get to the point

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I am today.

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I love it. So back to the inline skating.

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Oh cool.

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Are you familiar with three wheel skates?

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Nope? Never know it.

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Okay, So I have like two pair of hockey inline skates,

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but I have this three wheel skate. You're gonna have

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to check it out, okay. So they go off road

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to the wheels are like this big okay, and for

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those of you listening, they're about I don't know, four

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times the size of a regular inline skate wheel. Super

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fricking fast. Like the first time I put them on,

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I've been skating for many years. I went outside my building.

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It was windy, and the wind just took me. I

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was going straight for a concrete wall. And they don't

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turn easily like you gotta turn them like way ahead

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of time because of the big wheels. So I was like,

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oh shit, I'm gonna die, you know shit. But now

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that I'm used to it super fun because they're super

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super fast. And then you know how when you're on skates,

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if you hit a rock or something, you might oh

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yeah yeah yeah, not these because they're made for like

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off road, like I can go on trails hiking.

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Line skates, You're dead if you go on an exactly.

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So you have to check it out. It's a totally

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different way of skating, and you know you don't you

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can't really break the same, you can't turn the same.

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But once you get used to it, you're like, oh

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my god, this is so much fun, so so cool.

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So check it out.

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I need to check it out when I go back

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to Chris to see how you can buy these things.

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Yeah. So what else you got going on for Anchor

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after download?

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Oh? A lot of stuff. Actually, this year has been

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insanely busy, Like we just finished our first US tour,

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so we're doing this now. We also have grass Pup

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in a couple of days with a bunch of headline

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shows in small German cities, and then we have one

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German festival in July, and then the big stuff we have.

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We're supporting Amarans Nice in their Nordic tour October November,

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and then right after we have a co headline tour

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with Self Deception in Europe and the UK.

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So a lot of So I love it. Have you

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played the DWP festivals in the States yet?

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No, we never done a US festival.

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I'm putting it out there for you because I do

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all those festivals. I'm telling Danny Wembery needs to put

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you on those phos.

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Oh, thank you so much. We'd love it like we

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did a full tour. It was a big one supporting Bloodygoods,

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but it was just venue snow festivals.

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Nice well, you rock, You rock too, You guys rock,

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and everybody asks to go check out your new music

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because you just dropped a new single yep. And your

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merch too, because they can't listen to my show, and

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let's say buy your merch.

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Thank you so much and thank you for having me.

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Was a blast.

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Thank you for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

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Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Patement on

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w for c u I Radio.

Ankor at Download XXIII Donington Park - PipemanRadio Interview

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