Local Legends at Rocklahoma: Seven Foot Monkey’s Journey and Festival Stories

0:04 Hi, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Band here on the Adventure's Pipe Band W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Seven Foot Monkey. Nice, here at Rock, Oklahoma. I want to know why the cloud cover and it getting cooler happened after your set. It's just our luck. It's just our luck. Like, what's that all about? But we were just talking before, like, my hat's off to any artist that performs in this shit.

0:46 Because just sitting here is bad enough. I don't think people really realize the dedication that artists have by playing in this heat. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty much the only shows that I've ever had any sort of an issue have been the ones that were the hottest. Right. We had Rock the Equinox last year and, you know, Jason was having an issue and We've managed, we all talked about it all week, stay hydrated, lots of liquid IV, and I still got dried out there at the end of the set. I was like, oh, geez. You know? Has an effect. It's brutal. Yeah. Like, listen, I live in South Florida, and I can't wait to get home to cool off. Yeah, yeah. Who fucking says that? That's what I hear. Who says that?

1:26 That's why all the crazies are there is because the weather's perfect. Right? And you're not kidding because that's why I travel all around all the time because there's too many crazies there. I live on an island to separate myself from the crazies. You almost have to. Right? No doubt. So, how was it out there today for you? Oh, it was beautiful. I mean, like, isn't it amazing, Rock, Oklahoma, and the vibe that's here, and that people, after a Saturday night of partying all night in the campground, show up in this heat just for your set? Yes. I mean, I'm, I was born in Kansas, but I was raised in Oklahoma. So as somebody who's been obsessed with music, of course, Rock, Oklahoma is what is always brought to your attention. I mean, there's not a festival of this size in this area. So for a local kid, you know, to be up on one of those stages with the sea of people out in front of you, I mean, it's a dream come true for sure.

2:23 Yeah. And you know what too, like, People have told me you guys are local legends here. I don't know if you knew that. First time hearing of it, but cool, yes. I'm giving you the info. Yeah, yeah. And Rock, Oklahoma, I do a lot of festivals all over North America, Europe, UK. I love this freaking festival. It's special. And I'm not from Oklahoma. So it's like the first time I was going to do this, I'm like... Why am I going to Oklahoma? And now I won't miss a day. Figured it out, huh? Like, oh my God. The nicest people here, first of all. I have so many friends and everybody's so cool. And that fucking campground is sick. Yup. Like, I don't camp at any other festival but this one. Because it's sick. Yup.

3:08 Did you guys have a chance at all to go this year into the campground? Yeah. It's absolutely massive. Like, all the campsites are just... So creative. They all have their own names and their own, like, it's just badass. They even all have their own... People build, like, whole forts. Yeah, and they have their own QR code. Yeah. And I had to take some bracelets off this morning because, like, they were going up to here. I'm like, I can't even move my arm, you know? Well, that's what's really cool about Rock, Oklahoma and why I say, like, truly it is a dream come true because... You know, when you're a young local Oklahoma kid, you're walking through, like, there's an energy here. And there's all these different communities.

3:48 Yeah. All the Rockla whatevers, all the Rockla camps, all the, and they show up every year. And they have, in some cases, for decades, you know. And it really is like a family here. Whereas, you know, you can go to some other festivals with tens of thousands of people, and it doesn't have that same. Different vibe. Different vibe, totally, yeah. You know, and just people are so into it. Yeah. Like, that's what I find here in Oklahoma is, like, people are so into this festival and into the music. Yep. And that I dig, and you have to dig it as an artist because, like, nothing would suck more to go to a festival and people are sitting there with their arms crossed. Oh, it happens. Of course it does. Yeah, yeah. Even if they like you, they do that shit. Yeah, yeah.

4:30 You know? So it's like, coming here, I think for any band, it's, like, got to feel so great. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and it's, you know. That community, you can't find it everywhere, like I said. There is something that has been built here, that has been built upon for decades and decades and decades, no matter the changes, that stays. And I hadn't found it anywhere else. I mean, if you think about it, like... What other festival for, like, metalheads, people who are into, like, even just hard rock, heavier versions of rock, what other festival is around? I mean, you've got, what is it, Rock Fest, which is in Kansas City? But even that, it just, I mean, I don't want to sound cliche.

5:15 It just feels more corporate, I guess. Most in the U.S. are now. When I go do the European and U.K. festivals, I'm like, holy shit, this is how it should be. This is how it used to be. 100%. You know? 100%. And I also listen to artists. Like, I always want to find out, how does the festival treat the artists? And then I find over there that they all say, oh, it's me. Like, Hellfest. Especially the year after COVID. They had 360 bands. Not one went off late. And every one of them told me that I interviewed. That sound check was five minutes and it was perfect. Like, that's unheard of.

5:55 No, that's pretty. I mean, I've never been to Hellfest. I'd love to fucking play Hellfest. That would be insane. Let's put that out there. Yes. Hey, whoever books for Hellfest, give 7-Foot Monkey a call. Let us know. There it is. So how does Rock, La Jolla treat you guys as an artist? Ah, dude. They've got all the amenities you could ask for. I mean, we've got an air-conditioned spot. I mean, they've all been super nice. The AC is blowing in there. It's perfect for us. Nice. 100%. They've been nothing but hospitable, man. Nothing but good things to say. See, I love hearing that because other artists I talk to, too, it's like no matter who you are on the list, you get treated exactly the same. See, that's fucking cool. 100%.

6:43 Because that's the way it should be. I agree. I don't think people realize how hard it is to be a musician and to do this. They all say, oh, you're living the dream life. And part of that is true. But there's a lot part that isn't. You know, like people even say it to me because they see me going to all these festivals. You're living the dream life. And, yes, part of that's true. The other part is I didn't sleep in the last week. Yep. You know? And my voice is gone after the first day. Yep. And, like, now and last night, I'm dying from the festival dust. Like, I'm lucky I can breathe for this interview.

7:23 My engineer even knows what day of the festival it is every time he does my interviews because my voice gets progressively worse. Oh, yeah. And my nose gets progressively more stuffed. Yep. Yep. And I'm stupid anyway because I do bring a gator and then I never fucking use it. I understand. But you can't use it while you're talking either. Right. I think even like smaller bands especially that are playing in the middle. Of the day. Right. The hottest of the hot. They probably got, they don't probably all have a super killer tour bus. You know, they're showing up in vans. So having just a good trailer that's cool and everything and some amenities, some waters and some things to chill out with is always nice. Now, the headliners, you know, not that they have it easy, but they may fly in. They may have all the stuff.

8:19 But I think the real heroes of the festivals like these are those guys that play at 3 or 4 or 5 o'clock that the sun's just beating the shit out of you. And, you know, you're still making it happen. You're still, then you're getting back in and you're probably hauling ass to some other place the next day, you know? No doubt. And as musicians up there performing, I always talk about this, like, you guys get into a zone. So even though it's like this, you don't allow yourself to die till after the set. Pretty much. Right? You know? I call it Devonland. Unless you have no control. Right? I go off into Devonland and I don't, you know... I have a couple of memories where he may have said something to me on stage that kind of pulled me out of it for a moment. But other than that, it's just... It's a flow.

9:07 You.... In life and in anything, you kind of get to where you find this flow where everything is in alignment, everything is rolling the way that it needs to be for it to be successful. So that's just the place I try to find, you know. So it's exactly, yeah. And, like, even with me, like, I'm also a speaker. So whenever I'm on stage speaking or as a radio personality up on stage, when I look at the crowd, I'm basically looking at, like, a blob. Yep. In my mind. The amorphous gray blob. Exactly. Yeah. Just like being on the radio now, even in my live show, I'm just talking to a mic. Yeah. I don't even think there's anybody there. I'm just talking to a mic. And of course, there's millions of people there, but I'm not going to focus on that.

9:54 See, I actively avoid doing that because that's natural is to just amorphous. Blob. But like, you know, you have that moment where I look out into the crowd and I see a face I've seen before who's saying the words back to me or anything like that. So it's important to just take a second, come back to and have that moment with someone. I think it's totally important. And I actually learned a trick in speaking and not the one that they teach because that one's stupid. They teach you imagine everybody. In their underwear. I've never fucking done that. That would not do anything for me. But if you look right here at people everybody in the audience thinks you're looking at them and their eyes don't change you. You know because you're not focused on the eyes. So like But you do have to connect with these people because that's how, like, they'll have a memory for the rest of their life.

10:50 Well, that's the point. You know? That's the point. It's like, I mean, there's hours and hours and years and years of preparation and effort that go into the 30 minutes opportunity that you get to have that with people. Yeah. I mean, that's the whole point. We all got into music because we were connecting to something on a deeper level that was more than just, you know, some words that were said, you know, so. Yeah. And speaking of what you just said, that is one of my questions is, and it's different for all of you. What was that moment in time that you knew this is what you had to do? You're the one they want to start with. Basically, what was that one moment in time that you knew music was your life?

11:39 Oh, Frank Zappa. You're the second one to say that. Yeah, after that, I was like, God, that's what I want to do. What did you love about that that created that feeling? You know, I mean, there's rock and roll, there's music, but Frank Zappa is just, I mean, it was like orchestra, jazz. I mean, it was a little bit of everything. I went to a roller skating rink a lot, so it was Zappa and Parliament. So, I mean, you got the best of both worlds. There you go. I love it. And, of course, I picked drums because it's the most expensive thing to play. I also think sometimes it's the hardest, especially in this weather. Yeah. Like, I look at drummers, I'm like, fuck. Thank God I quit drumming.

12:24 So that is my first of many mistakes in life. How about you, Tim? How about you? My first, I would say, was the Warehouse out in Bartlesville. And it was P.O.D. And Project 86. That concert just absolutely... slaps for me and i was like i'm sold so i uh started with the guitar because i thought that would be easier and then i moved to bass i wanted to do the drums but then i realized how much crap you have to carry so i was like i better stick with the bass and that's that's my. Most expensive thing exactly. Yeah like i don't have any money so you know all.

13:06 Right so i have a trivia question for you then Who's one of the most famous bassists of all time that also was a guitarist first, but because the band had two guitars, he drew the short straw and had to be the bassist? Man, that's a great question. It is. He's contemplating it. So is he. They're like in deep trance thinking of who it might be. We'll do like the Jeopardy music. Do-do. Is it the guy from the Metallica? Nope. Oh, Julio? No, but the guy that died. Oh, Cliff Burton?

13:47 No. That's who I was thinking of. Go further back. Further back. Shit. Yeah, I think you got me stuck. All right, I'll give you another hint. Okay. That band has a connection with Charlie Manson. What did he say? He has a connection with Charles Manson. Oh, gosh. Wow. In fact, one of their songs was the basis of everything Charlie wanted to do. Beatles. Yep. Okay. And I started to say Beatles earlier. Paul McCartney. Yeah. Now, if you go listen to the Beatles, which is what happened when I found out, I'm like, holy fuck, he is playing it like a guitar.

14:27 Hey, what'd you do to my bass drum? You know, I bet there's more than we know. Oh, I'm sure. That way. A band yesterday was naming off a whole bunch of them. Oh, dude. Stephen Richards from Taproot. Okay. So they're one of my favorite. I'm a new metal head through and through. Nice. And Taproot's one of my favorites. Well, he was originally their drummer. And their singer quit. And they were like, you better figure it out. And so he wound up, they took the second guitar player, I guess, made him the drummer, and he became their vocalist. And he's got such a unique tone. You know, he comes from a totally different approach. Right. It's definitely one of those. Smile is one of my favorite. Yes. I just love that band.

15:17 Your question. Well, we figured it out. No, his question. No, the original question. The original question. My bad. So, I basically got enamored with extreme vocal styles listening to Lamb of God. That was like my first Randy Bly, of course. And when I knew that music is what I was made to do, I had kind of... I had been kind of singing. People had been hearing me sing just to myself and stuff. And it was coming up, oh, you know, you ought to do this and you ought to do that and the things people always say. And I had a music teacher who had heard me sing in church. And she was like, hey, there's this talent show for the school that you need to get involved in and blah, blah, blah. And I was blowing her off because I'm really not, I'm very much an introvert.

16:16 But she said, hey, there's this band that's rehearsing for this talent show, and you ought to just go in there and jam with them and see how it goes. And so I walked in there, and they just happened to be playing Bat Country, Avenged Sevenfold. Nice. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I know this song. So I sang it with them. And they were like, well, we want to do an original song. So that night, we went back to the guitar player's house. We wrote this song. It was really a shitty song. It was called Shocked and Mistreated. It was some bullshit song. But we wrote it that night. It shot him mistreated. I can't stop this feeling. Like, just dumb, just real bad.

17:04 But point is, we got the song written, and we played it the next day for the talent show, and we wound up winning the talent show. But there was this moment. And look, I sounded terrible. I was terrible. The song was terrible. But that's what showed me that we're talking about deeper things. We're talking about deeper things than just how well you play or how good your performance is or how talented you are because... There was this moment, people, like, it was in front of my whole high school. You know, I was a football player, state powerlifter, all that, but I was very to myself. So all these people from high school to elementary school, they've only ever seen me from the outside doing sports. Right. And here I get up there and I'm singing this song, shitty, not very well. But point is, after we got done...

17:51 Like the whole gym, you know, elementary school to high school, they jump up and they're roaring just to see somebody they know do something they didn't expect. Nice. But that energy, what was created out of that. And I remember the next day, like whenever I got to school, it was the first time that I ever was like, oh, this is me. Like within myself, I felt like I was in alignment. Like I now know what... ain't what meaning i'm aiming at to navigate my life and whatever that looks like it's fucking this nice you know and that that's how i knew that it's just what i was meant to do. I love it your answer is way better than mine thank you.

18:34 For that it was very thorough and detailed right. Dude you'll have to stop me if you're because it'll keep going it'll keep going yeah I let it go. Let it go. And to your point of the new metal, by the way, were you here last night for Papa Roach? I wasn't, but. He did a whole, the whole encore was, as he called it, new metal time machine. He played Korn. He played System of a Down. He played, who else did he play? Fuck. He played, like, a bunch of bands. Yeah, yeah. New metal bands, man. See, and I love those bands, but, like, I'm really into, like, American Head Charge and Flaw and 40 Below Summer. Like, I could keep going. But, like, that was my, like, I like heavy music. But I've never liked heavy for the sake of heavy.

19:28 Right. You know? And I enjoy melody. And those things are so opposite each other that it's not obvious how to marry them in a way that's coherent in music. And so I've always been really impressed. I mean, shit, Faith No More. I mean, the original guys. that, I mean, I wouldn't call them heavy, but you get my point. Well, Mike Patton's just like a genius. Greatest of all time. Greatest of all time. I love him in Mr. Bungle, too. Whatever he does. Well, it's like Maynard. Right. To me, they're kind of cut from the same cloth. Yeah. You know? Okay, it's Killer's turn. You know, I.

20:10 I think I used to have my older sister had a friend. Where I lived, we had no cable. We had like three channels. So, I had an older sister whose friend lived about five miles from us, but she could get cable. So, I would send her a VHS tape and she would tape Headbangers Ball. Nice. And then on Sunday, I'd go pick it up or have somebody pick it up and then I'd watch it. And.... You know, the very first song that really, like, I don't know why, but Smooth Up In You by the Bullet Boys was, like, was a weird, like, first one.

20:54 And then, yeah, I mean, it was weird. So, anyway, yeah. So, I just started. I got into music after that. I started every Saturday. It was, like, go crazy. Take this tape to Jeanette and make sure she tapes Heckin' Bangers Ball tonight, you know. And I started playing guitar after that. Learning Tesla songs and Guns N' Roses songs and that. The rest is history. Yeah. The rest is. So I have one more question for you and one statement connected to that. Okay. It's a two-parter. Cool. One is I want you to tell everybody how to reach out to you, connect to you, Check out your music.

21:36 Check out your upcoming tour dates. And most importantly, buy your merch, because they can't listen to my show unless they buy your merch. I love it. And she had some killer merch there. Yeah. The earrings. Oh, yeah. So, ladies. They're on it. And guys. They're on it. Go out and get the earrings. We've got the 7 Foot Fam. They take very, very good care of us. So we have, let's see here. I know we've got our link tree, which pretty much will take you to absolutely everything. Link tree at, you know, backslash seven foot monkey. I think, do we have stuff available? So, yeah, we've got, you go to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube.

22:16 We have everything there. Seven foot monkey. We do have a website, sevenfootmonkey.com. We have shirts and everything up for sale there. You can find us anywhere you stream music. Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Pandora, wherever. We're fixing to release a new single on the 25th of September. Nice. Called Yes. Yes. I like it. And, yep. Then we got a bunch of shows coming up in tri-state area. Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, the next Texas. Yep. Next few months. And I want to know when the tour is going to be of you guys and 12 foot Ninja just for shits and giggles.

23:01 12 foot Ninja is one of my, I actually, so they were doing open tryouts for a new vocalist because he was going to step away. They're one of my favorite fucking bands. And, uh, so I, uh, And actually, the name didn't come from that at all, which is kind of funny. And I was almost going to send my tryout for Start the Fire to 12 Foot Ninja right before they had gotten in touch with me. And I was like, ah, I think I want to pursue this. But I would love that, dude. They are one of my favorite bands. So I'm putting it out there for you right there. Yes, 12 Foot Ninja, hit us up. There it is. Well, I love that you guys are here at Rock, Lahoma, the local legends.

23:42 Yes, sir. And, hey, thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Dude, thanks for having us, man. Thank you very much. You got it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY radio.