PipemanRadio Interviews Stowaway Keith Wallen of Breaking Benjamin on Shiprocked 2025

0:04 Hi, you have done too, sensu. I'm see wow, were you young Rob? Why Become of America? It's time for. The Adventures of White Man. I'll W four C why dot Com West pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. If you know. Our a solvent of my homesis so you you wife of Grim.

0:49 I know where you've been Sawmill p Lies. I can see. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four CY Radio. And I'm here with Keith Wallen nice here on ship Rocks. So here tell me how many times have you been on ship Rock? So this makes four for me? Did it once with Breaking Band in twenty seventeen and then the last three years in a row it's been myself with the Stowaways and of course me with my my solo band. It's funny they introduced me on the mic getting up to stage. They're like, all right, everybody big hand for Keith Walling from Breaking Benjamin and Keith Wallen.

1:35 I was like, yeah, if they know, but if they don't, they're like, what right. It's pretty funny, and you know, it's pretty wild. I love the whole Stowaway thing like. Okay, so amin eighties teenager metal head and. The best era of me in my opinion one hundred percent. Like I grew up in Jersey, but my dad moved me to California to LA in nineteen eighty. Okay, can imagine that was the perfect time, yeah man, to move to LA and be in the metal scene. For sure. It's so cool to watch you guys last night all performing songs that the fricking gatekeepers of my time would have never approved of.

2:16 That's awesome, man, that was the pop kind of the more pop set too. I think the next Stowaways set tomorrow Night's going to be more like the metal yeah side of things, so that'll be interesting. Well, Tom told me one of my favorite old time ever songs you're doing tomorrow night, Well, not you specifically, but just just snowways yeah, whiplash, Oh yeah. You know. So I'm very excited about that. But last night was cool because it's not in your world, Like we were talking beforehand, and you were like learning songs and practicing, and if you're doing your own genre, your own songs, you wouldn't have had to work that hard to be prepared. Sure, I will say though in the air tonight is my favorite song of all time, And when they asked me to do that, I was like, fuck yeah.

3:05 And you like they nailed it. I was like. I turned to whoever I was with, I was like, damn, that kind of sounds like Phil Collins. I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm a big fan, so I knew the words at least to that one. And how does it feel to be an artist to go out there and play that kind of music that you don't normally play. I would imagine that that's really fun because it's out of the box of what you have to do every day. I think you nailed it. It is so far removed from the day job, but that's what makes it fun, right, It's just cool. I mean. And I'm an eighties kid too, you know. I was born in nineteen eighty, so I think back to just like being a kid and my older brother like waking up for high school and just like turning on hystereo and hearing like Tears for Fears and hearing like you know, Thompson Twins and all the eighties hits, and I just I loved it from then on out, and I still do.

4:00 So yeah, it's been fun. Well, it's funny. One of my friends now who I've interviewed a few times since, Josie Cott, and then the first time I interviewed or I met her, I'm like, you know, in the eighties, I wasn't allowed to like your music, but I secretly did. So it's cool that forty years later, I'm interviewing you about your music. That's so cool. And I love that we're like that today, that we're more open and the gatekeepers are very minimal nowadays. Because you're an artist, you don't just like one type of music. As a listener, I don't just like one type of music. Oh for sure, for sure. And you know lots of artists they don't like to create one type of music. It's fun to make all kinds of different production and sounds for everything, different genres. Yeah, it's nice that we're not as much, you know, forced to be in a box.

4:48 You know, it's funny you should say that because I love what Alie from Bring Me said in an interview one time, because they were giving him so much flack for doing all this different type of music, and he's like, why do I want to write the same song over and over again. Yeah, that's it. He's got a good point, right, Yeah, I mean you want to change it up exactly so hair, I'll dye my hair blond every once in a while, I gotta change it up. Well, you know, it's funny you should say that, because I do change up my hair a lot, like it's blue a lot of the time. Yeah. But I was like, yeah, I'm going on cruise. I don't think blue is a good idea because the man I get in the words gone and it is eighties themes. Though, I'm gonna do something I wasn't allowed to do when I was a teenager. I'm gonna go with the kind of like the new wave hair.

5:31 Look, yeah, let's do it, man, flock of seagulls, let's go. I know. I actually it's so funny you should say that, because I said to her like, yeah, I'm surprised they didn't do a Flock of Seagulls one. And it was so funny because I actually covered a festival they were playing that. Oh really, And I told my bro I'm like from back in the day. I was like, yeah, I can't believe. I thought I made my whole life without being a flock of seagulls show. But I'm here, but it got ya. But it was great, and it was the type of thing like, Wow, I'm allowed to do this cause you're work right, you know. So what else you got going on for twenty twenty five?

6:13 This is a busy year for me. I'm on tour right now with a band called ten Years. Yeah, and yeah, we were both on the boat. So we picked back up after we get off of ship rocked and we got another two weeks I guess to finish out the tour. Then I got some time. I'm gonna do some recording with Breaking Benjamin. We've got a Breaking Benjamin tour in the spring, then the summer we've got some stuff going on. I think in the fall there's some stuff going on, and then after that I have another Keith Walling solo tour to round out the year. And yeah, my year is done. It's in the books. Nice, we'll see. So for the listeners that only know you from Breaking ben yeah, describe to them you're solo project. Let's see, you've ever been starving, just like really really hungry and someone just serves you a nice, fresh, hot, melty cheesy pizza and you take that first bite, it's just like that nice.

7:05 That's the feeling I had. What was it Tuesday night? At about midnight here on the ship, it went to the twenty four hour Pizza. Oh I'm a mainstay, right, yeah. You can ask my friend Courtney. I'm like pizza. She's like, no, not again. We've been good pizza too. I was shocked. Listen. I'm from New York and New Jersey. I'm a pizza nazi. Oh yeah, you do know pizza for sure. And I ate that. I'm like, this is freaking real pizza. It hits the spot. Oh yeah, it's great. I was looking for it last night. You know. It's like I gotta do that again. Oh yeah, it hits a spot. But to seriously answer your question, you know, it's hard rock, it's melodic. I try my best to sing, and I feel like fans of Breaking Benjamin can appreciate it. You know, a lot of different influences. I've always loved Metallica, and there's a little eighties flair in there, but there's some modern stuff for sure. But yeah, I feel like it fits right in there with everything they play on Octane and they actually played one of my songs.

8:02 Nice on Octane. In the spring, I had a single called Headspace Holiday and they had it on there for like three months or something. So yeah, it's been good and just incredible support from all the different stations and satellite rating. And all the stuff. So yeah, just hard modern rock. I guess. And I love Lenaris like you do your side project, solo projects things like that, because being a musician, being an artist is about creativity, experimentation, and I think by being doing different things that gives you the ability to do that. For sure, I play guitar and breaking band and sing harmony, so it's definitely a challenge to be a front man. It puts me out of my comfort zone.

8:43 But I just love it. I live for it, and I tell people this all the time. They ask me, why would you do it? Because you've already got a band and you're pretty busy, And I mean, number one, why not? And then number two is I know there's going to be a time where I'm just too old and got our writers or whatever, my voice doesn't work and I'll be like, man, I should have played more shows, right. You know. So I'm getting it while they're getting good. There you go, and I think it makes you feel better as a band member, because like even Hetfield and Laurs recently talked about that with Jason and maybe they should have allowed him to do that one, you know. I mean, obviously hindsight's twenty twenty. But there's no way that anything that you know Jason would have done was going to affect the monster that Metallica is just like anything I do, it has no bearing on Breaking management whatsoever.

9:35 And and Ben, for the record is he is like my biggest champion. I love that he's behind me so much, and it's just been amazing. I mean, honestly, that makes me just, you know, love playing with Breaking benaemin even more. The fact that he supports me so much. The key right there, that's been great. What you think of, like if you were Ben, I think you gotta think of you're gonna be happier, so you're gonna perform better in Breaking Ben being able to have an outlet for things you want to do. That may be different for sure. If things go well, it only helps everything else. You know. If Breaking Ben's taking time off and I'm doing some stuff and there's still you know a little bit of.

10:18 Yeah, it's it's cool. So, I mean from the get go, Ben has just been an amazing leader of a band. And so supportive and it's just been great. I mean it's ten years now that I've been in the band, and I mean it's gone by in a flash, so right, that just proves that we're all having a lot of fun. So and that's key because if you're not having fun in this business, this is a wrong business. Right, it sucks. I've definitely been there where I'm like, this is miserable. And people don't realize, like they always say things because they look at your socials or look at whatever you're doing. They're like, oh, you're living a dream life, you know, but they don't see all the things that go along with that dream life. Yeah, there's a lot of sacrifice. I mean it's like you know what Steve par and faithfully, you know, loving a music man ate all is what is supposed to be because you're gone, you are gone and you're living out.

11:07 Of suitcase and stuff. But you get used to it. I knew from a young age. I know, I didn't I never wanted to have it's just a regular nine to five, and yeah, this is it. I'm there. It is yeah. And you know, like I say too, is that the fact of what you said before about being a front man because you're not used to that? I bet you it makes you a better musician and player in Breaking Ben because you have a little more of that, for lack of a better way of putting it, confidence of sure being in that role for sure. When I get back in Breaking Ben, I'm just like, ah, this is nice. I don't have to sing all that, you know. Yeah, it's a little easier, it's a little less on the place.

11:49 So I'm like, all right, this is cool. So there you go. You hit it for sure. Well, I love that you're here on Ship Rocked. You killed it last night. Thank you, man. I can't wait for tomorrow night because that's gonna be badass too. It'll be fun. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Dude, thank you for having me man my pleasure. Hey, this is Keith Wallin from Breaking Benjamin. You're listening to Pipe Main on. W four c Y Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man.

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