PipemanRadio Interviews Currents at Aftershock 2023

0:04 Hy. You have done to censure? Wow crazy you whycoume of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four c HY dot com. West pomp Beach is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. Size about it was. This wasn't a ride by bride side your way sound side. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Brian from Currents Nice here after Shock Man after Shock Festival twenty twenty three. It's just like one of the best festivals. Like I do a lot of festivals, this is one of my favorites. Yeah, it's pretty sweet so far. This is our first time here at Aftershock, so just really taking it in and trying to enjoy everything, find a way around, see some friends, and it's been a great time so far. Well, you think about this artist media area back here. You got the alcohol, you got the drip over there, you got food cooking over there. I know, I gotta give me some drip coffee going maybe a little something from the open bar, you know, I don't know, it's pretty swanky. I gotta say I like it. It's pretty cool. It's pretty chill, and you know it's media

1:36 people. We like it this way too, because otherwise, why do artists want to hang out in the media area, right, And nobody wants to be toasted all day, you know. So you know, a little little shade, a little son a drink and you're in flavorite town there you go. So tell our listeners who haven't heard your music before, how you, as the artist would describe it. All right, So people, there's this thing called metal core, and whether there's there's like old metal core, and then there's stuff from now where it kind of sounds like that, but it's a little more sampled. There's some breakdowns, there's some solos, there's some singing, there's there's a bunch of stuff going on all right, and uh, if you haven't heard it before, you need to get into it.

2:17 There's a lot of other bands. Uh, there's like Polaris, there's like North Lane and Animate and then Us Currents were also kind of in that same wheelhouse, so you know, lots of love in that scene and we're just kind of just floating along, you know. Nice, what was that moment in time where you knew this is what you needed to do oh man. I'm a Lincoln Park enthusiast. I'm a I'm a big Lincoln Park enjoyer. They were pretty formative for me growing up. And I remember the Live in Texas DVD that they had. It was like a CD DVD bundle and he had this little Chester and mic are talking to the crowd and they're like, how many musicians we got? And the people are like we and then you know, they're like, hey, you know, persevere, believe in yourselves.

3:00 One day you'll be here with us or like Lumbiscuit or Metallica or whoever it is. And I took that to heart. Watching them play and just have that connection with the crowd and just be as good as they were and be as inspirational as they were. That was kind of the tipping point for me. And I was just like, I was like a little kid. I'm like this is I'm sold. I'm sold nice. And you know, the key word I picked out what you said was connection with the crowd. There's bands that do it and there's bands that don't. And I think that makes a major difference because when you connect with the crowd, that's why they're at a live show. You know an they need it, you know, especially nowadays with all the bullshit going on. Music is like the best therapy for you the artist, but us as a listener, and you know, when we're out there during your gig, you're connecting with us. We can escape all that real life bullshit. So it's all about man, it's what it's all about. This is like, you know, this is our lives and everything, but it's all so you straddle that balance between it's like your life and it's your also your release and your like Catharsis and your your passion, you know. So it's fun to have those things intertwined. It's a challenge, but it's it's a lot of fun at the same time. Yeah, And you know, it's funny you should say it's a challenge because some people may look at band like you and like, oh, they're living the dream life. And in some ways that's true, and then there's the other side of it that maybe not so much. But that's like anything in life,

4:30 right, Yeah, And you know, you you start young and then you keep doing it and you're just you're just doing it, you know, and like, I don't know, it's I don't regret my choices for anything. If I had done anything differently, I wouldn't be here right now doing Aftershock and just chilling having a great day. So you know, it's all good. It's all good. Now if we set music aside for a second. Now, what's your passion, oh man? Play a lot of video games. I like to get angry. I like to you know, play like shooters, Call of Duty, Apex, stuff like that for anybody that knows, and you know, just get real mad and and it's it's a fun little escape from this sometimes where like you have that and then you have this, and it all it all feeds itself and it's all fun. It's all passionate. It's great. You're right. It is escape, and it's a different type of escape as somebody who's a gamer too. It's like that's really the time only time I relax. And it sounds weird to some people that aren't gamers, but you just kind of get lost in the game and relax and you know, chill out. Yeah, whatever your your vice is as far as the games go. If it's like, you know, your RPGs, you're like elden Ring or whatever, or if you play shooters and it's competitive or like league or whatever like that, whatever it is where you can hit that flow state and just be just super invested in something and focused and like locked in. It's really cool now speaking in video games, So you think it's wild how popular like Guitar Hero Guy and how it's kind of

6:02 in some ways, it's kind of cool. You have people that maybe that's how they learn how to play guitar. Absolutely, yeah, I mean post Malone's a big example of that. He credits Guitar Hero to him learning how to play guitar or like you know, going to pick up the instrument and like take it seriously. I have friends in my hometown that will still they'll play like they'll play rock band still. They have this crazy setup. They've got like amps wired different like splitter cables all set up so it's connected to the console and they've got like you know, they'll like do vocals and play guitar at the same time, and they'll just like scream their brains out to like doublewhere's Prada playing rock band? And it's still a thing. But it's crazy to think about how it's all kind of like a lot of people's music taste for shape by that stuff just even not even just like guitar Go, but like those old video games and stuff like, some of those had the best soundtracks and it was really formative for people that are like my age group, you know. Yeah, and that's cool. On the other end, when you're playing a video game and all of a sudden, this song comes on that is like way of your favorite songs, and you're like, holy shit, that's playing it in the game. You know, yeah, You're like, wait, they got Opeth in this game. That's crazy. You know. If your band were to have a song in a video game and you had the choice of picking which one would it be, Oh man, GTA Radio, Saints Row Radio, either either of those would be great.

7:23 We thought about, like, oh man, if we found out about some sick game coming out, we should try to like make a song for it. That's smart. Yeah, right, I've heard of people having some success doing that. We'll see, we'll see what happens. So craziest thing that's happened to you or craziest story in your journey in music, Oh man, I don't know. There's just so many things. I'll give you a recent cool thing we went to Australia for the second time. To be able to say that it's our second time going because of music is crazy, right, got to play some cool stuff there. We got to watch our friends Polaris late to five thousand people with fire and sparks and frigging smoke coming out all at the same time, playing breakdowns and screaming. And I'm just like, I was literally laughing at the sound booth, being like this is incredible, getting to like see this happen, be part of this, and uh, you know it's got me stoked for our fire spark nice smoke moment, you know what I mean. And you know, traveling around doing stuff like this festivals and stuff, is it kind of wild to you, Matt. You're you know, involved with all these other artists that people don't realize just you're all just a bunch of normal people. And you know, you meet people that were like your band, and you're just sitting there chilling talking about the weather, right exactly, Like you walk by him. You haven't seen him in a few months, but you know you're gonna see him again in like a couple of weeks. But you walk by each other, Oh hey,

8:54 dude, what's going on, Hey I was the other week. Oh good, okay, cool, you go your separate ways. That's some guy that you used to listen to in high school and you're kind of just like, oh whatever, Yeah, it's kind of cool how that works out. But it's all just the thing. You know, you land in spots and you just try to like be a person and get to know people and just hang out and be cool, and you know, it is surprising. I try to like take it out of my brain and it's like, oh my god, that's that guy, you know, right, it's kind of weird even for me, Like even some of the people I've known. It's like the way I see hitting them back here and the way I see them on stage, or it's two different people. Absolutely, I don't even recognize them. Sometimes sometimes I'll be out in the Crown and somebody will come up to me like a Chris motionless and be like, hey, what's up and pipe man, and I'm like, who the fuck was that? Yeah, that's the thing. That's kind of the way you want it though, right, is just to kind of have that low profile energy when you're not doing your thing and you can just kind of like actually be a person, right, But then you know, I feel like everybody puts on when they go up there.

10:00 I want to have their certain way of like being or just whatever their process is. So yeah, I get that there's sometimes a complete contrast between who you see on the stage versus that guy just walking around going to get food at catering or something. Totally. It's like Alice Cooper, how does he always end his show like and me playing Alice Cooper? You know, he says it straight out that he's like playing a role, absolutely, and that's how it has to be. And that's like a healthy separation too, I think so because the same thing with radio, Like I have the pipe man personality and part of that is the dean personality, but part as just when the switch goes on, when the mic goes on, and it's my role. Yeah, you know thing so and you know what that's like, how do people connect to you guys on socials on the web, check out all your stuff by your merch all that good stuff. So on Instagram specifically, we got currents just ce you are r e nts. That was so lucky, blessed. You know, I don't know how it worked out, but we got it Twitter. I think we're Current ct. You can find us on Facebook, you can find us on you know. I feel like Instagram is probably the best one personally. But yeah, our merch is at currentsofficial dot com. We're on Sharp Tone Records. We have a story there.

11:22 We have a record called The Death We Seek that just came out this summer. It's pretty good. I think you can check that out on Spotify, any of those places. We're everywhere. Honestly, we're freaking everyone. That's badass and everybody has to get that album. Thanks and thank you for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Glad to be here. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.