EL (Christopher Elsten) Incite at Milwaukee Metal Fest - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you have done too crue. Wow for you you. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with l from Insight. What up nice? Here at Milwaukee Metalfest? Yes? Have you guys played here before? Only? But this is our first year. I have been bugging Jamie since he took it over put us in the game coach put us every year and. Here you are. We are stoked. Oh my god, it's a great festival. I love too.

0:46 That's raining outside and we don't have to worry about it. That's pretty nice. Although, like I said, I've told you before, I did get caught out there getting some canoli's from a friend of mine. Well you gotta get the canoles man to get the good from. They're from Chicago, so they're super good. Nice. Well, I'm originally from New York, so I'd have to like test it to see because there's nothing like little Lily. And she's a legit Italian so she knows her Oh well, there you go. Then it's automatically approved. That's like automatic approval. Sapienza, that's a very Italian name, I would say, So she knows the stuff. There you go. So you guys, I caught you at the Culture Room in Fort Laurredelle too. What an awesome show there, Oh my god, And like all three of you are here at Milwaukee Metalfest too.

1:34 Yeah, it's been awesome that show. I'm gonna say to this point, I would venture to guess that all the bands would say that was the show of the tour so far. You know, off the hook, I was just I was just talking to death Angel and they were saying how great it was. And I thought it was great, and I go to a lot of shows, but from the the perspective of the fan, oh my god, you guys fricking killed it. I was like, oh my god, that was so awesome. Yeah, we had a blast that night. Rare Form, Yeah we were, we were in it. It was awesome. So let's go way back. Okay, what.

2:17 Yeah, there you go. What was it that was that moment in time that you knew this is what you should be doing. Oh my god, like playing metal? Yeah. Well, because I'm a dusty old fart, my dad took me to see Kiss, like og. A makeup kiss. I was like little little and that's when I'm like, I want to do that and then fast forward because I'm still a dusty old fart. The only time I've seen Metallica is when they opened for Ozzie when they were doing Master Puppets, and I saw Cliff Burton. Like, I need to do that. Wow.

2:57 So yeah, and that was when. And you know what, it's funny you should say about Kiss first of all, because I lived at in Jersey and I was at the Jersey Shore. What was I I was like in grammar school. I think I was like, I don't know, first, second, third grade, I don't know, something something like that. And I was playing this Carnie game and you could win an album and I looked up and it was the original Kiss album and I was like, that's the one I want. And that started my whole journey to being here today, you know, like that was my first album ever, and then it just progressed from there.

3:37 Heck, yeah, that's awesome. That's the benefit of people of our stage in life. It's like the metal heads now they don't have the same foundation we had, no you know. And I do like. That Vinyl has made such a strong comeback because I feel like now younger generation, I mean, they don't go to the record store per se. But all you know, bands are always offering stuff and on vinyl, and you know, I think a lot of kids are still doing that, like probably me and you like, oh my god. That covers sick. I'm buying that exactly. And well two of my to prove that, point two of my granddaughters, when it was their birthday, I was like, so, what do you want, Let's go get something. They wanted vinyl, both of them. I'm like, holy shit. Then I was like, well, no, wonder they want me by it? It was like what they the albums were like thirty eight dollars.

4:29 I mean, yeah, that's kind that's the one downside. I think that it's kind of expensive. But like you know, when I was a kid, bands only put colored vinyl out if it was like some European special export in X sport. Yeah, and it was then it was like super expensive, and then you didn't want to play it. And now it's I love that it's like common. It's like no, there's like three color variations and black. And it's cool because you know what, there's nothing better than the on vinyl and the even the scratchiness and it's real and you have the mids. That's the thing I think the kids miss nowadays with digital there is no mids.

5:09 And I was like reverting back to this. One of my favorite childhood memories. My mom, who is. Coolly shit, would like when certain records would come out. I would get home from school and they'd be sitting on the kitchen counter and I remember dropping the needle on Rain and Blood the first time they little, you know, hiss, pop bump, you know, and oh my god, nothing, I got goosebumps just now talking about it. There's nothing better than that. How about this? How about so? This is by some friends of mine that are in thrash metal bands that said, this is the first thrash metal song. But how about Fast was a shark when they were scratching the album.

5:51 Yeah in the beginning, yeah, with. The little German folk song and yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and then the scratch. Yeah. A kid that I went to school with, I remember he made me a mixtape. I remember mixtapes. Oh yeah, he gave me a mixtape where one side was half of Haunting the Chapel, half of Kill Them All, and on the back was like a mixture of like a bunch of accept and Saxon and stuff like that, and that I remember it fast as a shark, and I'm like. Well, show my mind, check out this story. I went to see Ozzy Osbourne on New Year's Eve with Randy Rhodes. It was one of those things where I told my dad I was sleeping at my friend's house. He told his parents he was sleeping at my house. And we went to the show. And so when we get back I lived. There was a hill behind my house down to a lake, and so we were hiding down there so my dad would see and we were just gonna go up in the morning, like we were already there.

6:48 And my next door neighbor comes out and I'm like, oh shit, and she goes she sees all the Ozzie Swick She's like, oh, you boys, were you at the Auzie show last night? And we're like yeah, and she goes, stay right there. I want to go get my husband and we're like, fuck, we're in trouble. Husband comes down and invites us up to the house. Turned out he was Ozzie's promoter, Oh day, and he brings us into his studio, which was wall of wall cassette tapes, pulls a cassette tape out of the Wall, hands it to me and says, listen, as this band isn't even in the United States yet. They'll be here in six months and they're going to be huge. It was restless and while hell yeah that tape like hell yeah, Like it was like wow. And I remember hearing that the first time.

7:36 I'm like, oh my god, I've got some bangers on it, I know, right. And then I was just at Hell's Heroes a few weeks ago and Udo played it and I'm like, holy shit, like this made my whole decade. Hell yeah. And then you guys played a Culture Room with Death Angel and with Violence, and that to me was like being at those old school shows in the Bay Area in the eighties. Hell yeah. Well I was just telling I was telling their audio visual guy they got chewing with them. Like Mark Osageta. You know, he's this interesting kind of like bridge between like kind of like old school traditional metal like Priests and Deal and all that and into thrash because he incorporated a lot of that high scream stuff.

8:27 Yeah, when you know. A lot of other thrash other than Joey Belladonna, Like they were like kind of the only two that were really doing that. Everybody else was trying to sound like a strangled cat or do the kind of punk bark, you know. And it's cool to see that he's taken such good care of himself or he's. A witch or something. He sounds just as good now as he did back in like nineteen ninety. Well, you know what's funny about that, because I sang thrash Mellow as a teenager, and I sucked because I had no technique, so I lost my voice. You know, sure doing that, you lose your voice just screaming and at your show. But while Death Angel was playing, I turned to who I was with and I was like, I was like, man, he still has the scream. And I'm like, and my friend goes, Now you know why Carrie King picked him? Because I said, Tom doesn't have that scream anymore. Yeah, you know, and like Tom's great, oh he's husband, but he can't like there's certain songs he can't do anymore.

9:29 And that's what that's what I mean. Like, out of all his peers, he still has his pipes. You know, not a lot of those dudes, you know, heat deal can't say that Tom Mariah can't say that. Exactly, you know, none of them dudes. It's wild and Mark's just still like belt him out one hundred and ten percent. I love it. Yeah, it's awesome. So one story good or bad in your whole career of music may be specifically insight. Okay, what would you share of, like a crazy story. It could be crazy, it could be memorable, it could be good, it could be bad, it could be shit, whatever you want to be.

10:10 Yeah, I wouldn't even know where to well, okay, this is kind of I just had told this to somebody the other day. So we were on tour and this would have been like twenty seventeen or eighteen. We were on tour six feet Under in Europe. Barnes always does the Christmas in Hell tour, and we were. It was like a second to last stop. And you know, people, if you don't know a lot of bands, you know, we don't get the luxury of showers and laundry and all this stuff, you know, or you got to really plan accordingly. And so I always have a set, show close and then walk around clothes. And my show clothes had been nasty. I hadn't I've been wearing them for like six days, six shows. We played a forty five minute set under hot light. So it's like nasty, crusty, stinky, you know, like pickles and feet, you know whatever. And I had my clothes out on I have him on a hangar and I had them out on this fence that was like fencing off the bus, you know, and somebody stole them.

11:16 They stolen I. Mean the shirt I get because it was really cool. It was like this cool like gauntlet hand holding some tattoo needles because I'm a tattooer when I'm not meddling out. So it's from this tattoo supply company where I buy stuff from really cool art. So I understand stealing the shirt, but my pants and my underwear and. Well maybe it was a chick that stole the underwear. Hey, I don't know, but I gets your nose, I know, right, Yeah, it's but then, you know, I've had dudes asked me for my shirt lobby, you know, I've had to like change outside or whatever because you don't have dressing room, like, oh, please, gonna have your shirt, And I'm like no, Well, either if it's something I don't want to part with, or like I usually I'm like, dude, it's gross.

12:02 Growth don't do it exactly. You can't even watch that shit anymore. No, it's so bad sometimes. What's your favorite thing about Milwaukee Metal Fest so far? Like I said, we haven't you know, this is our first time we did. Me and me and a couple of guys came down here last night to do the pre party thing watch Emir and Jost and all that. But since we're just getting going here today, I really like just all the fucking people. You know, you see people all watch life from all over the place. At our meet and greet, there was a guy that flew from Central Mexico to. Come to this today. Wow, you want to make sure. He got here for our meet and greet, which is very flattering because I was feel weird like autographing stuff.

12:47 But I like all the people. Everybody is a really cool vibe. Everybody's like having a good time. Just you know, a really good mix of bands playing this weekend. It's like something for everybody, no matter what canind of a subgenre of metal you're into, It's there's something for everybody. It's really cool, it is. I'm super excited to play because, like I said, I've been wanting to do this forever. Well, I can't wait for your set for sure too. And last thing I wanted to since you brought it up, tell me about the tattooing. What would you like to know? Well, what got into that, what's your specialty? And how can people find out about getting the tattoo from you? Well, I was in the third grade and I was at a Fourth of July biker party and I watched a dude get a tattoo. This guy had a travel kit in a suitcase that had his power supply and machines and ink.

13:40 And all that. And I watched this guy get an eagle, you know, traditional style American eagle in the kitchen when I'm eating a hotdog, and that just it was like kind of it was in this same line. I saw a kiss and then I saw this, and I'm just like, that's my life right there. And you know, I just learned about as I got older and finally got an apprenticeship a couple of years out of high school and did all that, and I've been a tattooer for almost thirty years. And you know, it's like I'm one of the few probably guys in metal, like, I don't mind my day job. There you go. Well, it's it's kind of a related good day job, that it is.

14:22 And I'll bring my stuff out on tour every now and then. You know, I have. Clients that have moved away, and as long as I have a clean spot to work, you know, I'll lace them up. See what we gotta do is we gotta get Danny Wimmer to have you guys on the Incarceration Festival and then you do tattooing too. Do you know about that festival? I've heard of it. Yes, Oh my god, that Shaw Shank Prison. Put the word in for your boys. I'm playing it out there right now. Please Danny hit us up. We would love to do it, and I'll fucking tattoo well to night. There you go. That would be such a great pitch for him to use, like one of the bands is going to be back there tattooing.

15:03 Yeah, oh my god, I would love that. There you go, So I would love let's make that happen, Danny. Yes, Danny, please call your boys. Well, you guys rock. You killed it in Fort Laurde. You're gonna kill it here at Milwaukee Metal Fest and thanks for being on the adventures of pet Man. Pipe man, pipe man, doing what a pipe can. Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. Thank you, Thank you for listening to the adventures of Pateman on w for CUI Radio.