Versus Me Performs at Inkcarceration 2026 at Shawshank Prison - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you have done to bear censure? Wow for you your. This is the pipe Man here on the Avengerance pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with. Versus Me versus Lee. I like that James and Lee from from versus Me to be specific. And we meet again. Good seeing you again, my friend. Yes, yes, and and it's so appropriate because this month you're releasing a single this month. That is correct. Yes, Now tell me what was what this song means to you, guys.

0:48 So this is kind of one of the deeper ones that we've released as of recently. It's kind of like. The emotional turmoil of uh, losing somebody that's still alive and wondering if you're ever gonna come cross paths with them again. So that is a trip because it happens to all of us, right Like we have those people. In our lives that we wondered the exact. Thing, grieving somebody that's still alive exactly. So how does it feel to be an incarceration at the Shawshank Prison. This is a wild it's a wild scenery. It kind of sets the tone for the day.

1:29 But just you know, from the minute we pulled up, it's just kind of like takes a breath away and you're like, this is. Gonna be a crazy, chaotic day. The minute it starts. All the all the like videos we've seen in the prior, like in the past, I think all the like that in the background. It was pretty epic, you know, looking and stuff. So it was a cool little background to all the all the the main stages and stuff. So a perfect setting for a rock contra. Totally like the background and like, what better backdrop? But I'll shank prison for a show. And I was at your set this morning. I was lucky enough to be able to be able to be out there, and I was like, holy shit, there's a lot of people here for early Sunday morning.

2:15 Nobody went to church. They skipped it to come to the prison rock show. That's what we like to see. Yeah, they came to They came to the Versus Me Church, which is a different kind of prison, a different kind of church. Too, exactly. Now, did you know that there's a working prison right next door? So you guys were like, Johnny Cash, play into the inmates for real. We just got released on bail just for this particular show. So no, I'm just kidding. But yes, I did see that. I didn't notice that. That's kind of wild, right, Oh. Totally, because it's like imagine they probably looked forward to this every year and you just made like their whole year.

2:56 That's a pretty amazing feeling, right. I wonder how well this is around the area, if there's anybody that's kind of why we're out here, you know, as far as we are, I guess. But well, you know, it's funny. It's a real like tight knit. Community in general, you know here, and yeah, these people they love it. Like there's a lot of people that live around here that they just camp out on their front lawn and check it out. So you know, it's more than what you even see out there. That's a pretty unique thing to have in your like city, to be able to have something this big just to bring in a business and you know, just attraction to this this area. I'm sure it's Oh, these people love it. This is like the thing they look forward to every year.

3:38 Yeah. Now, if you guys done the Blood Prison, what is that? Oh, so that's the haunted house in the prison. It's in the Blood Prison. Yes, that's like another nickname for my own body, The Blood Prison. The Blood. I don't know that. I don't know what I'm see. Here's the thing, though, if you go, you don't know if it's the characters trying to scare you or the real ghosts, because it really is haunted for real. So this is not the active prison you're talking about. We're talking about Shank. Oh you thought you were gonna go over to the real prison. Oh man, that's another good idea.

4:26 Maybe everybody wanted to go to if you like to. Go to Blood Prison or the Shank prison. It wasn't but just shank because they'll shank it. I wasn't sure if our green room was just gonna be like a cell, and we all had our cells lined up for. Your Your green room is just like a bed, no mattress and a toilet. Hey guys, Yeah, we all got a crap in front of each other. So whatever it is, what it. Is, oh man. So what else you got going on the rest of the year that you want listeners to know about? So we are, We've got we're hitting the studio next month. We've got a few more singles that we plan on knocking out for release this fall.

5:09 We've got a US tour in September. We've got some weeks that were on the road in October, so it's like it's like once we're once we're done with these festivals, we got a little couple weeks of downtime just kind of knock out some more writing. But yeah, it's basically studio time and then once we're done with that, back on the road to release these songs. Then sometimes its fall. Nice and what Okay, so now you guys are siblings, So what do you guys do together in in like personal life that has nothing to do with music. He cuts my hair? Wow, he's pretty good. You want to cut my hair because you do have good hair?

5:50 So yeah, yeah, I brought my scissors too. Oh my god. There you go prepared. You know, you know this the ever you don't stage, you look good on the stage. You look at good at a. Festival, no doubt. It's a universal uh. Uh, you know occupation you can take anywhere, you know, especially doing good. Why don't we go to the jail next door and do a surprise haircut session. Let us in with a scissors though, that's probably that's yeah. Yeah, and you would have to like, uh, you know, these pay somebody or something you'd have to pay somebody to be able to do business over there. Yeah, maybe some free T shirts or something.

6:31 Oh, that just reminds me that people need to go to your merch shop because you got some fucking awesome merch. Like the artwork on there. I want to hear about the artwork on your T shirts because it's fucking badass. I literally just saw the merch the other day, even though I saw pictures in our chats, and all of a sudden I the boxes were there and I opened a bomb. But I'm like, wow, these. Are these are really cool. I'd like the way it turned out. But he's not as active on the merch design aspect of it, which is fine. But for the most part, a lot of the design work that we have done is done by our guitar player, Dustin Nice. He's a graphic designer, so he's got an eye for that kind of stuff. So a lot of the stuff he will put together, and if not, we've got our eye on a few designers that we like online that do some cool stuff too. If if in the event that he gets a little overwhelmed and you know, may not have time to knock out a designer or three D or be creative, yeah, or be creative. So yeah, so it's a mixture of that and uh, like I said, it's just trying to keep keep things fresh, constantly updating stuff.

7:42 So yeah, yeah, people gotta go buy your mercher. They can't listen to my show. You heard it here. Well, it's the only way you guys get to the next gig. Like, I think it's important for listeners to know that that, like support the band, you like the band, that's the best way to support them, and of or show up for the live shows and the music and all that, you know, but merch is what gets you to the next bus stop. Well, as I will say though, as an independent band who you know is still in charge of our catalog, you know, streaming the music does help. That does help, yeah, And so we are one of those occasions where you know it does actually directly help us too.

8:28 So it's it's across the board, you know, just wherever you can find us. Yeah, what's the one thing that you have not done in music yet? That is basically the biggest goal of yours? I think a couple from myself, I think, you know, doing some like an arena shows and uh, maybe uh overseas of some kind. I think those couple of things are. The country in particular, you think of that, you're like, oh man, I want to play that are. Not necessarily I feel like everybody, yeah, the whole Europe thing whatever you know that ever that means as far as everybody goes over there and just seems like this really cool. Uh, people really appreciate that kind of music, and uh, I think you know, catering to that you know, fan base, that's that's something I think we would really love to do.

9:16 So and the people over there are really like loyal to the music. They're like, I. Feel like the country support all genres, you know what I mean to the fullest, you know. I will say though, the uh probably the top countries that I think we would do pretty well, and just based off of if you look at the analytics, because uh, they're they're consuming our music over there, but playing over in Germany, I mean Germany really likes it seems like being a place that according to analytics, like I said, uh, they really stream our stuff. It'd be cool to play over in Sweden. We toured with a band from Sweden a couple of years ago and they couldn't speak more highly of how well like this music scene does over there. And then maybe just like a personal favorite, it'd be it'd be cool to play over in like Japan.

10:09 I always cool. They love their music too, you know, and like as for instance, next week I'll be at Vakin, which proves. The point about Germany because. It's like the biggest festival in the whole world, you know, and they're they're like such sick loyal fans over there. And you go to Berlin, Like the first time I went to Berlin, I was like, holy crap, this is like the coolest place ever. All these like underground metal clubs and stuff and just and every genre. Like you said, they'll have like every genre type of club and live music everywhere. Is hell that's in France. I do that one too. That one's pretty sick.

10:55 Yeah, I always hear about that one too. Oh yeah, there's a there's a. Few of the festivals that it would be really cool to check off the list as well, the Download and yeah, hellfest that'd be really cool, you. Guys would fit a great at Download. I just came from there. The Vodkin is actually a list for me because I haven't done that one yet. It will be my first time. So it is cool seeing the different festivals, even here in the States, even the Danny Wimmer festivals. Each one has its own personality to it. You know, you noticed that so far, just from the difference between like this one and Louder than Life, like they have, you know, moments where they have some similarities, but like you said, they're they're vastly different.

11:40 They got totally yeah, totally different vibe. Right, Like Louder than Life is an amazing festival, and then you have this festival that you know, you get the prison and the community and it's an amazing festival. It's just like each one has its own bonuses, but yet like you said, they have that core foundation similarity and that that leads me to a question I always like to ask, how does Danny Wimmer treat you guys as an artist? It's incredible. I mean we've we've talked about that amongst each other. How like how like finely tuned everything is you show up, I mean even before you show up, they make sure everybody's on the same page. And you get here and everybody takes care of you and they.

12:31 Make sure everything is handled away. I mean, it's just great. It's like a rock star treatment for that, you know that. I'd say like the pinnacle for a lot of bands, you know, the Midsummer festivals that you guys said, you get those special treatments for that, however many you get to play, you know, And I think that's like the one thing we really look forward to. All the hard work to get to these kind of spots. You know. See, that's so cool to hear too, because like it's hard if you don't have that support. So there's some place as you would go and like maybe the sound would be a problem, or there's all these heads of loading or confusion, and then it kills your vibe for being in the zone for playing.

13:15 So this makes it. So stress free that you can get up there and just give us the best you because you're feeling great, and. That's what the fans deserve. Absolutely one n any final words for our listeners. Be on the lookout this fall, new music, new shows, new tours on the horizon. Thank you very much for constantly supporting us, whether it be like you said, out to the shows, streaming literally all of it. We see it all. We run our own social media, so we are you know, we get to respond to the fans directly, and it's just been really cool to see the progression over the years.

13:59 So thank you guys. Take a listen to meet again as well, because yeah, it's doing it well and a little different for us. But I think it's you know, it's it's such a bad ass a song for everybody in our lineup of music. So I think, like you say, different for you, I think that's what artists should do. Like artists should be able to evolve, experiment, Like you're an artist, so you want to perfect your craft, but also you want see what else you can do. Yeah, yeah, come back to it every once in a while, can I give the you know, the hills, you know, original fans kind of what they want, but also kind of just dripped into something a little bit different to see if we can grab a few other ones, you know, and see if that's something they might like as well.

14:42 So I also find that a lot of the fans that are resisting at first, they come around too. I've been one of those in the past, you know, when I was young, you know, and like for instance, when the Black album came out, you know, because I'm from the list. I went to Metallica's first show or me and my friends were like, fuck post posters. But you know what, it's a really good album. But that's the point, Like you gain. I always say that you gain, you lose a little for a little bit, but they come back and then you gain a lot more and then you can spread your message throughout the world and we all enjoy it. Yeah, metal is really different, and now it seems like, you know that the bands are really crossing over into different kinds of stuff, but they come back to it sometimes in the song, are in different songs itself.

15:34 But yeah, it's. Different than what it was back then. You know, you did too much soft and it was, you know, not not cool. But now all of it could be soft, but yet it's still got that little edge to it that you know, it does sometimes exactly. And that's why we're just a great community that I think that if we want to solve all the world's problems, everybody just has to listen to all this music and listen to versus me until we meet again. Until we meet again. Thank you, Thank you for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Appreciate thank you for listening to the adventures of pipe Man on W for c u I Radio