From Jazz to Metal: Maidenhead Talks Bay Area Sound, Mega Collaborations, and Musical Roots

0:04 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and our next guest has some killer music that's my favorite genres of music. So let's welcome to the show Maidenhead. How are you? Good evening. How are you, man? Oh, fucking killer. Like, I was listening to your album. That was my preparation for the show.

0:44 That's how I prep for all shows. And it did remind me of old school Bay Area thrash death. So that's pretty good nowadays because I think some of it, a lot of it nowadays is like so formulaic. you know, and not original and not, you know, expressive. And you guys hit the mark. So tell us a little bit about you guys and how this all came about. Oh, yeah. Well, I started the group forever ago. I conceived the idea of it. And then after some time, got a lineup together. We did the first release, but then had a lineup change, too. And we got Lawrence, Vance, and Bella.

1:29 But it's been me and Andre consistently for about nine years or so. And then this record, we just really wanted to do everything a couple steps above the first one. So we got Randy Burns to mix, and we got Chris Pullen, X Megadeth, to do a solo. Glenn Drover, also X Megadeth. Rich Gray from Annihilator did bass on the entire record, except for the outro. Lawrence did record bass for that, but he came into the fold midway recording. So Yeah, and we really did try to hit that Bay Area kind of death-thrash mark for sure. A year ago, we did play the Bay Area, and that was one of the compliments we got. Somebody did tell me that we sounded like a Bay Area band, and that was probably the greatest compliment I think we could have ever gotten.

2:13 It is definitely the greatest compliment you could have ever gotten as somebody that's been to Ruthie's Inn in the 80s. Fuck yeah. Yeah, and... I want to know how you got all these killer musicians to make guest appearances on the album. I was friends with Randy Burns on Facebook. He was offering his services for mixing and mastering, so we just hired him. I had met Chris Bowen at a convention a while back, and we texted for a little while. Asked him about the idea, and then he kind of fell off the face of the planet at some point. But then Randy was working with him again and reintroduced that idea, and we got him on. And then pretty much same thing with Glenn Drover. He was friends with me on Facebook, offering to do session work, so I hired him. And then Rich Gray also was contracted to just do it. So it's really people just looking for work, kind of, and they just happen to be in some of the sickest bands of all time.

3:16 Yeah right so so like for each one of you what was that one moment in your life that you knew that this is what you wanted to do. I've been playing riffs since i was like. 13 i've uh i just i just love fucking playing guitar man it's a lot of fun um i i love metal uh it I'm happy to play stuff that's not metal, though, even to be honest. I'm in a couple different bands. But I just fucking love riffs. It's just fun. When I'm playing, I always have a huge smile on my face. It's just, I love it. It's always a smile on your face, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

3:57 And listen, all metalheads listen to other music. People think, oh, we just listen to metal. Absolutely not. That's not true. I was listening to jazz the other day. Oh, yeah. I love Alan Holdsworth, my favorite. And we were, we were talking about Mustaine before the show. Like they basically, he is classically trained in jazz guitar. So like if you listen to the first Megadeth album, that is totally jazz metal fusion right there. Yeah. Agreed. So who wants it? Yeah. Right. Uh, So who wants to go next and tell me where the start came from?

4:41 I'll go last because I did a lot of talking already. I'll go next. So I was like, I guess I was just like listening when I was like really young to like the music my mom and my sister were listening to. Actually, my sister is the one that got me into metal. But I'd say like the first concert was like Ozzfest 2004. and that was like the one with Slayer had all the original members Judas Priest with all the original members and Black Sabbath with all the original members and that show yeah that was like where I smelled weed for the first time I was like whoa what is that yeah that show I was just like wow I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I want to do so yeah.

5:30 That's a prey killer show for sure hey who's next I. Guess I'll go next. It was incredible. Oh, sorry. Uh, but yeah, I saw Demi Borg here there. They played as well, which was really sick. Uh, super joint ritual, black liberal society. I saw a little bit of slip knot, which was really cool, but yeah, that, that show, like that opened the doors. Nice. Um, so it's sort of my background. Uh, there were, I came from, like, a family that was very, like, into, like, musicals and things like that. Like, I grew up doing piano lessons and choir and such. But in terms of, like, music and it's something that I really wanted to do, like, at a really serious capacity, it was from a piano lesson that I was taking. Like, the teacher I had, like, was, like, playing maybe, like, one particular part sort of incorrectly.

6:29 He's like, no, it's like this. But she also kind of learned later on, early, like, throughout the lesson that I wasn't exactly reading some of the music. I was doing it all by ear. And then she was like, okay, like, turn around. And then was playing these notes, like, what was that? And then, like, I was able to recite that from memory. And she was like, oh, you have something called perfect pitch, and that's something not many people have. And And then through on, like, moving forward, like, I could, like, teach myself songs that I could really, just from, like, listening to on the radio or something or listening to, like, an audio cassette tape or a CD. I was able to do that on a piano. Then I picked up bass first and then guitar. I was kind of able to do that.

7:16 And then Sum 41 was, like, the first sort of, like, love in terms of like rock music and then that got me to iron maiden pantera and then that got me down like uh like the rabbit hole of metal and i've loved it ever since nice yeah and it's it's helped me in so many ways like like learning other people's music like for auditions and things like that moving forward and in the studio with uh like music production it's always been a handy. Tool And it makes sense you went in that direction because metal is a derivative of classical music. It absolutely is. And life with perfect pitch, imagine the used interface of a guitar tuner that's in your field of vision and you can't turn it off. So trying to be in a serious capacity in music, I kind of have to do it.

8:10 And I really enjoy doing it. Don't get me wrong. But if I don't, I will go insane. Nice. I got a little different opinion from what Lauren just said. I mean, I feel like our past experiences are a little similar because I started to learn basic music theory since I was around two and a half years old. You know, they have those, like, small cards that let you to, like, identify, like, a whole note, treble clef, bass clef, something like that. Oh, yeah. You did that in, like, choir, like, music classes. Yeah, but I started, like, super early. And then, like, when I was five, I started to learn piano. And then I also discovered that I do have perfect pitch.

8:57 But I didn't know, like, there is such a name for it. I just always knew that I can play whatever I hear. And then every time we go to karaoke, I always knew somebody was not singing exact the same as the original song, you know, but then, uh, yeah. So I kind of just like always knew, like I would go on this whole like music path because, um, I mean, later on, like I, both me and Lawrence, we went to a Berkeley college of music and, um, Yeah, I was majoring in music production and engineering. That's pretty much what I do mostly right now. But for a perfect pitch, I can actually turn it off. I know a lot of people say they can't. Their brain just automatically analyzes everything. But I can actually turn it off and be able to just enjoy the music, I guess, from the heart. We envy you.

9:54 So I think when. I was like around 15. 15 or 16, I got into Motley Crue. That was, like, how I started my whole, like, rock and metal journey. Because ever since that, you know, like, I just, like... started to dive like deeper and deeper. And I went like heavier and heavier, you know, from those like lime rock all the way to like heavy metal and then death metal. And then to some of the newer stuff, you know, all the core, like death core, metal core, all this stuff. But then I felt like after listening, but honestly, I feel like being able to like, just listen and appreciate like, like the two sides of like metal, I feel like, you know, there is definitely something very different in between like the more newer stuff versus like the old school metal. And there is just like the whole like energy and the whole vibe, the whole like rawness is very different.

10:58 Yeah. And I feel like even though like sometimes I do listen to a little bit of both, I feel like especially after I joined Maidenhead, I started to like appreciate more and more and more Like, more to the old school metal side. Yeah. Well, the old school was, like, experimental. Everything was experimental. The Big Four, Thrash, they didn't sound the same. Nobody sounded the same. It was all, like, really new. And funny you said crew because, like, I was into, like, Sabbath and stuff like that. But the first club show I ever went to, was Motley Crue at the Roxy in 1980. Holy shit. Before they even had the album, the first album. And they were kind of horror punk then.

11:46 They weren't glam, they were horror punk. So they were trying to light everything on fire to bring Satan into the Roxy. I remember very specifically saying, I'm never going to a real concert ever again. My first show was actually Motley Crue as well. But it was actually Motley Crue and Megadeth. It seems like a weird lineup. Yeah, that would have never happened in the 80s. Yeah, I was. Probably 11 or 12 or something. I don't know. I was young. I didn't really know the bands. And Megadeth opened for Motley Crue. And Motley Crue had all the pyrotechnics and all this shit. And they put on a great show. But even when I was that young, I was like, but Megadeth was cooler, though. I've basically been a Megadeth.

12:29 Fan ever since. Motley Crue was one of the smartest bands in L.A. because there wasn't a telephone pole in all of L.A. that you could not see a Motley Crue flyer. It was everywhere. They were always everywhere. And it was just a thing. Now, they went in a different direction. And then it was kind of funny because... Once I started going to Slayer and Metallica, then all my friends were like, all right, we have to burn all your Motley Crue shirts. And it was kind of like that. You went to a Slayer show and somebody wore a Motley Crue shirt. Somebody took it off that dude's back and threw it up to Tom and he would light it on fire on stage. It was definitely a lot of fun back in those days, but That's where it all started, and, like, nobody really... Nobody knew what they were doing. Slayer, you had two punkers and two metalheads, so they were combining it, and there you go.

13:34 That's how you got thrash, was combining it, you know? Yes, sir. Yeah, I get the total old-school vibe from your music, so I like that, because, like I said earlier, you know, it sounds original. It has, you know. You know, it has that, like, bring me back to those times, the nostalgic thing going, but at the same time, it's original and modern for 2026. Yeah, I feel like, like, around here, the. New England area, I don't know, where are you from? I'm originally from New York and New Jersey, but in 1980, my dad said, pack your bag, we're moving to California in three days, so. I spent the eighties on the sunset strip and all around there. Yeah.

14:25 The rainbow. Like around here, there's just, there's really, there's not a lot of just like, like thrash bands. Like, like, like you'd think there would be, but I don't know. It's really just not that common of a thing. Um, it's all the, all the local bands are all like, uh, like, like either like metal core or just like straight, like death. Metal, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Hardcore. Um, well, Even back in the day, really, you had, what, Overkill and you had Anthrax. That was the only thrash on the East Coast, and it was very different than the thrash in L.A. and in the Bay Area. Yeah. Yeah, so definitely, I mean, I love Maidenhead because I feel like it just blends that, those, like, head-bangable riffs, you know, and, like, classic thrash, you know, with some touches of, you know, some more modern bits here and there, but it's, like, that classic.

15:16 You need those, like, head-bangable moments here. No doubt what's cool about Mustaine too is that you know a lot of people give him shit but he is one of the most amazing guitarists there is yet he hires the amazing guitarist to play the leads like so he you know he doesn't have the same ego he did in Metallica the reason Metallica never worked is there was three egos too many egos like you can't have that in a band okay and And I mean, think about it. He got kicked out of a band we used to call Alcoholica for drinking. There's something wrong with that picture. But the bottom line is, is like with his own band, like he does bring on these great musicians. He doesn't look to be the only one to shine, you know? And I think that's, what's cool about him. A lot of people don't notice that.

16:13 I mean, I think it's also just the same, like, like how, He sings and plays at the same time. A lot of people do that, but a lot of those riffs are fucking kind of hard. He's doing some very complicated riffs while singing at the same time. It takes a lot. I wouldn't be. Able to do it. I wouldn't be able to do it, man. Another friend of mine, Dan Spitz, who is originally from Anthrax, he's a good friend of mine. He said when Megadeth got started that Dave was like, oh, I don't know how to sing and basically he was just taught like just talk sing and if you listen to him that's kind of what he does he's gotten better throughout the years but in the beginning that's all he was really doing was like just talking and he kind of still does now.

17:06 Oh yeah definitely now more so with his register getting real low he can't hit those notes so it's probably a comfort zone more so now and in the middle he got pretty good. At it yeah exactly So what's your story, Zach? You're the last one. So I don't really know the exact moment I wanted to play music, but I remember my first exposure to metal was going to the mall and being told to wait in my dad's truck. And he went in, got a couple CDs. He got Iron Maiden, Number of the Beast, and Megadeth, Greatest Hits record. And those two just totally got me hooked. Then I got into Metallica, then rediscovered Megadeth after that again. And then I was growing up with a lot of other musician kids my age. And we would just share music back and forth. And that's how I got into like Death and Morbid Angel and stuff like that. And just kind of evolved from there.

18:02 And probably around when I was 13, yeah, probably 13. I just love that stuff so much. And I really wanted to glue all that stuff together. And that's really kind of what I've tried to do with a lot of the writing is mix a lot of Megadeth kind of style thrash with stuff like Death and Morbid Angel and kind of take what thrash was and move forward with it, but not too much. You know, still stay rooted in the bands I loved from the 80s, but also adapt some of the things from the death metal of the 90s. And like you said before, have more of a modern identity to it to, you know, not segregate the type of listener we do get, I guess.

18:44 So I think it's important to take elements of all that and make a big. Sandwich of it. I agree. Cause even the old school thrash and death metal, like that's exactly what it was. Or if you take like Venom, they were the original black metal band and most black metal people would not consider them black metal today. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I gotta say the album name too. Okay, so you could take, I always say you could take songs from the 80s and change a couple words or change a couple names. And unfortunately, they're still appropriate in 2026. So the way I look at it is in the 80s, your album name would probably be Maximum Carnage. And now in 2026, it's Maximum Clonage because that is exactly what's going on in 2026. Okay.

19:44 Well, it's pretty funny you say that, because both the things are references to Spider-Man. Maximum Clonage is a Spider-Man comic from the 90s, and then Maximum. Carnage is also a Spider-Man comic from the 90s. There you go. And see, what's funny about that is a lot of the theme of my radio personality is Dark Knight. Oh. Oh, yeah. So that I think, cause I love Spider-Man too. So that, I think that's pretty cool. I'm both a Marvel and DC. Like people ask, what are you? I'm both. I don't give a shit. Like, and so let's go around the table and ask that Marvel or DC.

20:31 I want to say I'm with you. I feel like it's a silly argument. Like, it's like, you know, whatever. I just, you know, just, I like some of both. Like, you know, it's fine. Exactly. How about you guys? I'm both, but probably more Marvel. Which one's Lobo? That's DC, right? Yeah, DC. Yeah. Batman, DC, Batman, DC. Batman's DC. I'm both the X-Men. That's Marvel. Yeah, which one is X-Men? X-Men's Marvel. That's Marvel. Okay. Yeah. I'm a little bit of both. I'm not, I used to be way more, like, I loved, like, yeah, like, Batman and X-Men. But I've never been a big superhero person.

21:16 I don't know. See, I like Batman and Arrow because they have no meta powers, no super powers. They're not aliens. They're just humans that had some fucked up shit happen to them and they turned into badasses from it. But Batman, he's a rich boy. He's been through some shit. So is Arrow. So was Arrow, another billionaire, but they both had, like, devastating shit that happened in their life. I'll say this. My favorite superhero of all time has to be Hulk, because he's just. Like, I feel like he's, like, I don't know. Angry Man Smash.

21:57 Yeah. He would be a good drummer, I feel. Wait, how about Hot Take? You know, what about Dark, wait, no. Is it Dark Horse Comics, Spawn? Oh, yeah, that's a good one. That's not Marvel or DC. I still vote for Lobo. It's like heavy metal personified. How about this? How about this? In a couple days, I just got back from Larry and Life. I go on tour and I do media coverage at all the festivals all over the world. I'm going next week to Aftershock and I'm going to be watching Death Clock. Oh, man.

22:37 Yeah, let's go. And it's cool how they do it because, like, the focus is not on the band. Like, you just see shadows, and they show the anime, and they're playing to the anime, and it's like you're in the anime. It's cool as shit. They play like an orchestral pit, and then the rest is just the media on top. Wow. Yep. Yeah, I've missed them every single time they came by. I wish I could have seen them. Damn. Now you've got to go to Aftershock. It's only on the other side of the country. Neely Brosh? Yeah, I've got to check out Death.

23:18 Clock, man. Oh. They're so awesome. Live, they are so fucking awesome. Say that again? I just want to hear the Duncan Hill's coffee thing. Do you folks like coffee? Do you like coffee? It's like one of the best guitar solos ever. That's sick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like the drop D. Mermaid. Mermaid. Gene's drumming is insane. Yeah. He's a machine. Gene the machine.

23:59 No. So what else do you want to tell the listeners about your band and what they should look out for, how they should connect you on socials and all that good stuff? Well, we got our website, maidenheadusa.com. We got a store on there where you can get the CDs and shirts. We'll be uploading all the merch we have when we tour or play shows or whatever. That'll be up there hopefully relatively soon. Then we're on Instagram, maidenheadofficial666. We mostly use that for social media, but we do also have Facebook, which is also. Facebook.com slash made in the USA. Yeah, that's the majority of the stuff we're on. I mean, we're on all the streaming sites, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp.

24:44 So you can find us anywhere there. Nice. So last question then is, if you were to pick one band that you would tour with, what would the choice be? Anything ever serious? Maybe this. We know where he's going. See, I'm trying to think of something that's not that. That's the obvious answer. That would be crazy. You better hurry up because they're on their final shows. Yeah, it's probably not going to happen. Okay. I mean, doing a run with a band like Exciter would be fun.

25:32 That'd be cool. I love that you said that, because there aren't many people nowadays that would say that, and I love Exciter. I've seen them a couple times. They still kill it. Very fun stage show. Yeah, there you go. Who else wants to chime in? Vance, who will go next? I stand by the Megadeth. I know it's probably never going to happen, but he said any band. That's the fucking band. Hey, you never know. Slayer retired, and look. We just saw them a couple weeks ago. The best we could get would be Kings of Thrash, probably. That's the closest.

26:14 There you go. I'll say, for my pick, would definitely be Slayer. Yeah, Slayer. Definitely Slayer honorable second mention is a new band that I kind of discovered this band Dissimulator from Canada they are like extremely fucking sick and they have really good musicians Philippe from like Beyond Creation he plays drums Antoine Dignal does bass like they're amazing so yeah nice. Honestly, I feel like it'd be fun if we can actually tour with Exhumed. I always loved their whole stage presence, all those little bloody activities they have.

27:01 Yeah, I always loved. That. Yeah. Nice. That made me think of before when you said the Hulk, imagine the Hulk could probably be in like GWAR. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I could see that for sure. Gwar would be fun to tour with. Gwar, absolutely. It would be kind of fun. That's what I wanted to say, like Gwar. Like they could have, they could have Hulk come out and like rip like Trump's head off or something. Yeah, no doubt. I would give a second choice would be Overkill. They still tour all the fucking time. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

27:42 Doesn't, like, Pete Webber play drums for them? He's also in Fear Factory right now, I think. Yeah. Very sick. I think they got, is he recently? Yeah, no, no. I forget who's playing drums for Overkill right now. I think they lost their long-term drummer. Yeah. Well, cool. Yeah. Nobody mentioned Exodus. I was also sort of thinking like Tasman would be sort of cool. Yeah, I was. Thinking about Tasman earlier too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris Dovis plays drums for them. The smaller band I would love to tour with is our first show ever was supposed to be opening for Toxic.

28:23 If they come out of the abyss, whatever happened, they canceled their entire tour. That's why we didn't play with them. If they come out of the woodwork again, that would be really cool to play with them. On a bunch of shows. Nice. Nice. Well, you guys rock. Everybody's got to check you out. And I hope to see you at one of the festivals. You need to get on a couple of the festivals. I'm definitely working on it. Hell yeah. Yeah. We are working on something for California next year. So hopefully we can see you out there. All right. Beautiful. Where are you exactly in California? Well, I'm not in California anymore. Right now I'm in South Florida. Oh, I see. I see.

29:03 But I'll be in California in a couple days for Aftershock. I'm in California. Yeah, I'm in Los Angeles right now. Whereabouts in LA? Huh? Whereabouts in LA? I live pretty close to Hollywood area. Nice. It's not what it used to be. You know, I went to the Rainbow Room at. 13 years old. I'm like, how the fuck did I get in there? Oh, I walked in with Motley Crue. Because it was time. We were all kids basically at that time. Who wouldn't know? Slayer, Metallica, Motley Crue, any of it.

29:50 Just trying to imagine going to see those bands that are local band status at the time. No doubt. That would be crazy. And like there, you know, there was like the punk metal scene and punks and metalheads couldn't really be together. If you were a long hair, which I was, you got your ass beat if you went to a punk show. And if you're a punk, you got your ass beat if you went to a metal show. And it was stupid. You know, it's good that now we all are together because we realize we're the same type of music. You know, it was kind of weird back then as far as that goes. were a lot of bands that i loved that i never got to see until i was an adult like dri before they didn't cross i saw that they still are one of my favorite bands ever like if you take their first album and their second album they're most of them are the same songs but one is the pure punk that they were in the beginning And then you started to see the crossover, you know, because they were like, they grew their hair out. They were the first ones to make that statement and grow their hair out to show that it was stupid. So they play all the time. They play, there's a venue near me that they play every single year in December.

31:17 And it's definitely, their shows are definitely, what was it like playing with them? I know it's like being at their show, but what was it like playing with them? They're just, Regular news. It's a really packed show. Yeah. Pretty chill guys hanging out out back. Yeah. I love how, like, one of their best songs, I Don't Need Society, they basically recorded in his mom's bedroom. Oh, yeah. To me, that's metal and punk right there. Yeah. All right. So get a lot more and play all those bands you mentioned. I'm holding you to it. And I'm putting it out there in the universe too. So when they listen, they'll bring you on tour.

32:04 Hell yeah. Let's go. Thanks a lot for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man, guys. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man. On W4CY Radio.