 as a backup. Absolutely. And here we go, fellas. Here we are streaming on the metal voice today. Matt Barlow, Ashes of Aries, as well as Xthys Earth and replacing Alan today. Unfortunately, well, fortunately, unfortunately is Kenny, KK, our man in the street in New York. What's going on Kenny? How you doing? I can't replace Alan. I try. Good, good. I just a quick shout out. You know, unfortunately, you know, a friend of ours, a mutual friend of ours passed away this morning. Alan was like completely shocked. Claude, you know, rest in peace. He was a great friend of Alan's and he was a mutual friend of mine. So the show is dedicated to Claude. Okay. There you go. Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Let's talk music. Matt, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. How long has it been? Has it been a year? Yeah, I think it's probably been a year. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah, great. Yeah, probably. Ashes Aries came out the last time. Yeah. Yes, that's almost two years. But I mean, I think probably you had me on a little bit after that, after the came out. So yeah. We're always kind of touching base, see what's going on. Some cool stuff. You've got two great projects. I mean, you have Thorn of Iniquity, right? Yeah, E.P. Thorn of Iniquity, mm-hmm. Yeah. That's coming out December 18th on Roar Rock of Angels Records. That's Ashes of Aries, right? And Shaefer Barlow project. Winter Nights. That was probably just released. Very, very, just Yeah, yeah. So that was, yeah. So that was done through Quick Starter and we had, we had a lot of, a lot of our Kick Starter rather. We had a lot of, a lot of backers for that project, which was very, very nice. It was nice to be able to get the, it was nice to be able to get that kind of response right out of the game. And, you know, the feedback that we're getting, at least from the backers, the pledgers, which is, you know, who that's, that's who we're here for, has been really positive. I haven't really heard anything negative. I mean, you know, I've heard some, some folks that apparently don't like, like Christmas music or don't like anything that could possibly be Christian or religious or whatever. And everybody's gonna have have opinions on that. And that's, and that's fine. I mean, that's not, that certainly wasn't, you know, our, our motivation, you know, as you, as you can imagine, John and I are not entirely devoted to a particular religion one way or another. But we certainly, you know, we grew up in the United States at the time that we did, we were certainly, you know, influenced by, by these, you know, tremendous songs. And we understand that it, it's not so much about, I guess, about the, the religious aspect of it, but about the spirituality of it. And, you know, how it, how it affected us in growing up. And, you know, it's, it's always been a big thing for me as far as the this time of the year. And it's, you know, it's Christmas, you know, and so I think it was a, it was a something that we had kicked around doing a long time ago about doing something like this. And it just worked out right now for us. Because we're, you know, obviously, Ice Earth is, is, you know, going, was going strong until COVID hit, obviously. But there's, there's still a killer entity with Stu behind the mic. And, but it's just it, it lent itself to this was a good opportunity for John and I to work together, because obviously, Ice Earth and, you know, blind or Ice Earth and demons and wizards and everything is on hiatus for him. So the timing was, was good for this project. It's, you know, obviously terrible, terrible 2020, you know, a lot of the aspects of 2020 have been very horrible. But hopefully this is a, this is a, at least a shining, if not just a tiny shining star in the, in the darkness. And hopefully that's the way people take it. You know, we certainly were trying to do something that was inspiring, you know, we reworked a couple old Ice Earth, Ice Earth tunes and just kind of did a different take on well, Kenny, Kenny actually has the the tell us about it. Kenny, what do you think? I backed it. I saw it. I met I'd saw it on a mat site a long time ago. And I, it must have been in the summer and I backed it. And they sent it to me about two or three weeks ago. And I put up the Christmas decorations around the house to it this year. It's really good. I like Christmas out. I, they don't bother me at all. And I like the reworking of the Ice Earth songs too. But it silent night, they do two versions, a traditional one and a really heavy one, nearly nice stuff. It's, it's very festive. Guess that's the word, isn't it? So silent night. Do you hear what I hear a little drummer boy? I died for you. Right? We three kings. We three kings. That's a really good version of it. We three kings. Yes. Watching over me and silent night. Silent night's got some growls there. It's got some growls. Yeah. And that's, you know, we're obviously we wanted to do something that maybe nobody has done before, you know, that and that's kind of the part of it. I mean, when you're dealing with with traditional songs, and you're trying to kind of reimagine them, you want to reimagine them in a way that hopefully that nobody's done done it that way before, but also sticking to a style, at least that you're known for. So that's kind of what we did, you know, same same way with with we three kings. I mean, you know, that that just that that opening gun gun gun gun. I mean, that's, that's John Schaefer all over it, man. If you if you can't hear that like in the first, because you don't even know if you if nobody said, hey, this is we three kings and just played it, you would go, that's that's I start that's John Schaefer stuff, you know, that's that's his his style. And then everything else, you know, after that, obviously I, you know, there's certain vocal melodies and things like that that you have to lock into to get that that vibe of the song, but then try to put put your own kind of kind of swing on it. So that's that's what we did. And that's that that was, you know, we're, we're not trying to completely redo the songs or certainly the idea of the songs, but give people a different just a little bit different taste, because you you hear the songs in different renditions by a lot of different artists. And, you know, many of them are fantastic. And but, you know, we're we're trying to just give, especially folks that are really more of a metal crowd that might give them their Christmas, you're giving them their Christmas, right? Exactly. Exactly. And maybe and maybe, you know, maybe we'll help, you know, bridge that gap for some other people that may not have necessarily been metal fans. But maybe they just go, Well, I kind of liked it. Like, you know, obviously, TSO TSO did a phenomenal job of bridging the gap for a lot of people that were not necessarily metal people, but introduced, you know, these these songs in a heavier way than they'd ever been introduced before. And they I think they they won a lot of people over to to metal type music, or at least heavier music, just based on on the way they delivered these kind of traditional holiday songs and and and their own and also their their own original holiday songs. So it's just it's just cool stuff. Was it like working with John again? If you're good, if you're comfortable, or just like you guys have always been friends and always, always work, you know, work well together. And, you know, along with Jim, I mean, we had a lot of laughs, man. I mean, you know, we're just sitting in the studio and, you know, knocking tracks out and just, you know, laughing in between and, you know, just like, like nothing, you know, it's just like old times, you know, so it's the it's pretty it's pretty, pretty relaxed, pretty chill. It was it was a good time. Kenny, do you have anything to add? No, it's just hanging out. I didn't want to jump in. I'm a kind of guy who just cuts people off. I know what he meant about the metal stuff with like Halford did a great Christmas album. He did two two good ones and Twisted Sister did a fun they used to tour and do a bunch of shows like that. And there is I think John's like, John's approach to the music is just like it's like I start doing Christmas. That's what you want to hear. If you want to start doing Christmas, this is for you. I mean, the thing that I measure to his deal of doing, you know, God rest you, Mary, gentlemen. That's that's that's the one. And it's funny because, you know, my wife and I, like every every year since it's come out, we try to watch the movie Christmas Office, or is it? Yeah. Yeah, Christmas Office Party. I know you guys have seen that or not. Just hilarious movie with Jason Bateman, but that that's that's that song plays a key in that in that that movie that's really cool. So yeah, let me let me throw some texts. And if you if somebody wants to call, feel free to call in. I know there was somebody before that was on but we wanted to first talk to Matt. Stefan is saying this when I was in high school, Ice Earth was one of my favorite bands. I learned the entire song Dante's Inferno and sang and played it full blast. Life, long, long live Ice Earth. Go Matt, go. Nice. That's pretty good. And I mean, what do you remember from recording Dante's Inferno? It's like, What, John, what are we doing here? This is this is intense. What's going on? What are your thoughts when you're recording this song? Toodle blur, man. Toodle blur. You know, it was it was really a long time ago, man. It was my first, like major step. I mean, I had done some demo stuff that in like really kind of low budget studios. I mean, dude, I was I was in more sound. I was like in the the heart of, you know, of what was going on at that time in the in the early 90s, the late 80s, early 90s, more sound was, you know, they were the center of the universe, certainly for like death metal song, you know, for death metal records. So it was it was I was a bit, you know, starstruck, obviously, you know, working with working with Tom on that on that record. It was just it was totally different. It's crazy, you know, we work and we did that record with two inch tape. I mean, that's how we go how long ago that record was done. Yeah. But but that two inch tape probably you lend itself to some of that some of the darkness of the of the tone of that record to not not to say that it wasn't totally dark. It was, you know, it's a, you know, it's got got John written all over it. But but just that the fact that it's analog, it was analog first and all that is just just cool. And it you know, that will always that record will always kind of be a pretty special thing for me because again, my first professional stuff and the fact that that people today, you know, still go back to Dante's Inferno and go, you know, this is class. This is just classic metal stuff, you know, you know, that's pretty, pretty amazing. Yeah, pretty, pretty, pretty, always gives me a good feeling whenever people say that because that that's that was just the for and it was it was it was tackling Dante's Inferno was like, you know, holy cow, man, this is this is just huge. People who don't know what Dante's Inferno is, I think it was was it a short story of the descent all the way down to hell. Dante's journey through through through the nine the nine planes of hell. So it so yeah, it was, you know, and there was a lot to it. And John was inspired because he actually I think I think he bought this book, he got the book. And it was like very, very old. And he got it at a yard sale or or a flea market or something like that, just delved into it. And you've got to know John to understand that, you know, when he gets into something, just like a spawn, when he gets into it, he's in it all the way. You know, so when he was introduced to spawn, you know, he was in it all the way and he'd record an entire record about it. That's that's that's who he is. Exactly. So he was he was totally and probably, you know, and if maybe if he had more time and it was a better situation, you know, who knows, I was looking for this long. So it definitely holds up and that kind of sound and, you know, we still are. And I think it shows in what we do now, even though, you know, we have a, you know, a modern sound just because of, you know, recording and, you know, amps and things like that. And all the technology that are there, we can, we can have a modern sound, but you can definitely still see where our where our roots are. And even, you know, with even with Freddie, you know, Freddie's a bit younger than I am. But he's still a child of the of the 80s, you know, and he's, he's definitely got roots in that. And he he writes much the same way. Now, Freddie has probably more inspired by by death metal. Because, you know, he was a big, big death metal guy for a long time, but also that Iron Maiden influences there as well with with with him. So was Paul Stanley an influence of yours? Because a lot of people say, you know, that kind of sounds like Paul sometimes. Paul Stanley. Not at all, man. The only thing I can say is maybe that's what got me the gig. You know, I don't know if I knew John was a huge kid. So he's wearing a kiss shirt. I never was. Honestly, I got to say probably because my brother never was, you know, my older brother was probably my my biggest influence as far as the music that he brought home and introduced me to when I was younger, because I'm, you know, five years younger than him. He never brought home any, any kiss. I mean, you know, he was he was a wasp guy, you know, Iron Maiden wasp, Judas Priest, Rush, you know, just any number of things, but not never. I don't think ever kiss. So yeah, no, I think it's just a coincidence. I just got a big nasally voice. And I just got a big giant cranium with a probably a large, you know, I don't know, you know, whatever it is that makes me sound like Paul, that's what I got. And that's, I can't stop it. And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna try. So what's the point, right? Julio says, no, don't go ahead, getting go. No, don't stop. Your voices are made even like on the remake of watching over me. It's I was listening to that this morning at work. And I was like, wow, you still got it. Don't change it. Appreciate it. Your range is like incredible. It's just wow, your range is like from the lowest lows to the, you know, the head voice eyes. Man, it's just just incredible. Here's some more comments. Julio saying Barlow is a great, is a great vocalist. John saying Matt, you are the best. Julio saying welcome to Brazil. So welcome to Brazil. Martin saying the man sounds like Dave Elfson talking. That's a weird one. Yeah, I don't I don't know, man. You know, I know Paul Stanley singing Dave Elfson talking. That's what it comes down to weird. I've got a weird speaking voice. I know it never sounds like me when I when I hear myself recorded of just just in speaking. And it's just very odd to me. But I guess that's just with everybody. Yeah, your top three or Lionel saying your top three metal, your favorite metal singers, I guess your favorite in your influenced by your favorite singers, metal singers. Well, you know, obviously Rob Halford's got to be in there. Ronnie James Dio and, you know, I want to say Bruce Dickinson as well. I mean, it's really hard to kind of narrow it down to like those that that inspired me. I mean, I was inspired by a lot of people, you know, Russ Anderson from Forbidden. I mean, you know that at the time, like when the first Forbidden record came out, that was like right when I was starting to kind of get into into metal and like starting to singing metal. Anyway, and he was a big inspiration for me as far as his style, because he was obviously Forbidden was more of a thrash band, but then he threw some of the high stuff in there too. And that that's kind of where I was going. So he was big influence. You know, James Hetfield was a was an influence on me for sure, just in the way that he delivered certain certain things, just the the kind of just the power of the way that he delivered lines and probably more, more so because, and I will say this about James, probably because he is a rhythm guitar player, the way that he delivers certain lines are based around his his rhythm and what he's doing. And I've always kind of been akin to the rhythm of songs been very closely related somehow to drum rhythms. And I use I use drums oftentimes as keys to like what I do with my voice and the way that I deliver certain lines. I don't know why that is and I don't know if I'm the only vocalist that does that or not. But I'm guessing I try to I try to draw parallel sometimes I just sit and sit around thinking go why did I do that? And then I, you know, that's that's the kind of I think what happened was you had the 80s with the sort of the high voices that say those tenor high tenor voices, the power metal vocalists like the Dickinson's right in the 80s. Yeah. And then when you had is when the 90s came, you know, you had the smashing pumpkins and the nirvana's and the grunge and they're all sort of singing in the deep tones. And that's why you kind of fit in at the time because you were seeing sort of like in those deep tones, but metal, right? And it kind of all changed. You got more serious, right? Yeah. Not to say you don't have a range just saying that that's sort of how everything sort of transitioned, right? Yeah. And I guess I kind of I kind of lucked out with that. And and also, you know, obviously, like when I when I came into East Earth, you know, probably one of the one of the reasons why probably more more than my my ability to sing was was just maybe just who I was at the time. I like to think that anyway, that, you know, who I was was a big thing for John and for the guys in the band. And they were sort of willing to kind of work with what with what I had and what I was doing and the stuff that I was doing. But I did I did take some some lessons in like in between in between burn offerings and dark saga. And there was a guy I was working with in Tampa and he was recommended by by the. The guys from Morrison. And I worked with him and we kind of had to sit down one time with with with John. And he basically said to to John and to me, look, you know, this is this is this is his voice. This is what, you know, you basically not not to say that, you know, you got to work with what he's got to work with what he's got to work with. But that's kind of basically what it was. This is this is who he is. And, you know, he can't be somebody else because this is the kind of voice that he's got. And I always kind of took that and and ran with it. But also, you know, I wish obviously I was working to improve what I was doing. And I've always tried to improve on what what I was doing. But but also ground myself in the fact that, hey, this is this is my voice. I'm not I'm not going to try to be somebody else because that, you know, at that time as the third singer going into ice dirt. And so at that point, that was when we really started like looking and kind of reworking some of the older songs to to to my style and what I was doing. And so then you get days of purgatory, you know. So we took some of the older songs and reworked them into what I was doing because I wasn't I wasn't Jean and I wasn't John Greeley. So and, you know, it's it's one of those things. Yeah, there it is. There it is. So the rework versions of the first two albums. Yeah. And then demos, right? And then the demos. And I think that's a that's a big that's a big thing whenever you're, you know, kind of going into it's like, you know, I mean, I love Ozzy all day long. But Ronnie James Dio, you know, did Black Sabbath. You know what I mean? I mean, he he took it and completely different kind of style singing. But he I mean, he just there's there's nothing that guy couldn't do, you know, as far as as far as vocals. And he was his own guy, though. That was the that was the thing. He wasn't in Ozzy. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Kenny, do you have anything to add? No, he wasn't ever trying to be Ozzy here. No, no, no. Even when he I remember, you know, listening to Live Evil or still listen to Live Evil, he made all the songs his own, you know, from Warpigs to, you know, Paranoid. He just made it his own, right? And that's what you did on this album. He's a purgatory, right? You just kind of made the songs your own, right? And it's a great album, you know. All right. So tell us. OK, we're kind of like talking about Iced Earth. Tell us about the new Ashes of Aries EP. And where does how does it lead? What's it about? I mean, there's only three songs. Is it available on violin only? Tell us just tell us about that. Yeah, it's available on vinyl only. The the the idea of it's basically one of the tracks off of the next the next full length record. I think I could put it on screen here. Yes. I don't know if you could see it or not, but. It's sort of a single and but and then the way they wanted to do it, they wanted to do the 12 inch vinyl. It's something that that's kind of, I guess, big now in the industry. I don't know how that works. But as far as the industry is concerned, but it's it's apparently there's a demand for it. You know, people are wanting the vinyl, the 12 inch vinyl and stuff like that. So they wanted to do a single. We actually worked it into an EP because we wanted to do. You know, it's kind of a weird, weird thing. So when we were talking about doing this record, I was I was listened to to the radio and I heard I heard 25 or 64 Chicago, right? And I was like, man, that is just such an iconic baseline. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, if you hear it, you know, you know, even if you don't know what the song is, even if you don't know it, Chicago, you know that baseline, man, because it's just it's just so iconic because, you know, it's been around forever. Fifty years by 1970 is when that that song is as old as me. So and it's amazing. So I floated the idea of Freddie. I said, hey, man, if we do if we do this single, you want to do do this cover and he was totally on board with it. I mean, like it wasn't even a question. He was like, absolutely. So so we had that song and we were going to do. We wanted to do Throne of Inequity because it's it's sort of it's sort of the you'll you'll kind of get the idea, especially if you look at the. At the at the artwork that that that Camille has done, if you look at it closely, you'll see a character in the in the artwork that may be familiar. You can't see, but I'm actually putting it on screen right now. And I see some sort of bat. Yeah, there's a little person in the middle. Yeah, that's that's the throne. You see the throne. And then you look closely enough. You'll you'll like a spike. Yeah, there. Yeah. So I don't want to give it away. I want it to be a mystery if I can wait for it to be available, Matt. That is what is it? December 18th, I think. Yes. Yes. OK. Yes. So through the site, the band site. It's it's on a Rock of Angels records. So you can you can I think you can order it through there. I think it's limited, limited to 300 copies. Yeah. On the vinyl. But yeah, so that yeah. So that that that song should be on the next record, because that's kind of the idea that we were going with. So if you know, but it will be available for download as well. So when we when Freddie and I decided to do the Chicago tune as as the second part, well, the guys at Roar really, really wanted us to do. Dustin, the wind. Yeah, which I really love. But we wanted we wanted to make it our and we've we've heard, you know, certainly other versions. There have been other versions cover versions of Dustin the wind. So we sort of wanted to make it our own, but also pay homage to obviously the original. So it's definitely not the, you know, sit down in Kumbaya. Kind of a kind of applied that that maybe that maybe some might think that that it is, but there is certainly a nod to the original, which is a beautiful, beautiful song. But Freddie gets to do some killer guitar work in this record. So on this song, so and on this record. So it's a great song. Dustin, the wind is is a staple of radio, right? It's been playing now since what was it? Late 70s that it's been released forever. And it's a beautiful song, man, is absolutely beautiful. It is. So we did we we left some of the beauty in there, but we we also, you know, punched it up a couple of notches too. So it should be fun. And because we added the third song, they agreed to kind of do the they they they still figure they could get all of the information on a 12 inch vinyl. So we we did it. And so it's basically kind of like a bonus track. So we got we got three songs on the 12 inch vinyl and limited, limited pressing of those. And I'm really anxious to see, you know, how everything turned out. We got Camille to do to do the artwork again for this. We like the I absolutely in love with his work. I love his his style. It's very dark and very just I don't know. It's just just totally up my alley. You know, I mean, I love just the darkness of his work. So we're really happy to have him back on board. And we're going to obviously continue to to to work with Camille for, you know, for as long as we can, because that's just, you know, his style is kind of our style and and we love it. So I'm really happy with what he's done with this record and and really looking forward to what he's doing. And I've seen some of this artwork that he's already doing for us, for the for the record coming up. And I'm excited about it. So the song's done for the record or are they just sort of at the demo stage? Where are you at? We're somewhere in between. We're somewhere in between demo and done. So we're we're we're working on it. We're and we'll get we've got studio time coming up. And in the end of December, the end of this month and beginning of January. So where's the what's the timeline look like? Like, when do you think you'll have it completed? Well, we should we should have it we should have the record completed by the end of January into the to the record company. Now, whether or not they can relate, it's going to really depend on when they can release, obviously, with with with this this whole thing with COVID going worldwide, it's it's tough. But, you know, we want to we want them to at least be able to have it so that they can do what they need to do with it on their end. That's kind of kind of the idea. There's there's two thoughts on this. You could release the album during this pandemic. And it might be beneficial because there's less records being released and there'd be more eyes and more money going towards it to buy it. Right. Or right. You could just go out there and people could forget about it in a week because there's no tour or there's no other promotion behind it. Are you thinking about maybe a live stream? Are you thinking? How would you, I guess, optimistically, how would you like to promote this a few shows, a few dates or? Well, you know, that would that would all be that would all be good. But again, I'm you know, I'm still I'm full time employee and all this other stuff that we were talking about. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. But really, for for us, the the touring to promote it is not the not the big, not the biggest thing. Obviously, we're not a working band. We're not we're not touring to make money. And my, you know, certainly my hats off to every every person out there, whether it be musician, roadie, light sound. Everybody in my heart goes out to you right now because I know it's extremely tough time and I can't wait until shows get back, get back to going and our life gets back to back to normal as normal as can be. But so for us, the record release is not it's not going to matter to us probably one way or another. We'll still promote it the best we can. I mean, obviously, we would like to get some some videos and things like that done. I'm kind of hoping in a way for for us, it may be a good thing. If we can, if the the concept of doing these live stream concerts still stays popular outside of the actual live concerts, that may be a window for us and an opportunity for for like Freddie and I to to to do more stuff like that. Like we could we could actually, you know, put together a show and do a live streaming show for a lot for a lot more people because we we'd be able to touch a lot more people that we wouldn't necessarily be able to because of our limited ability to tour. But, you know, we'll see how it goes, man. I mean, I'm I'm I'm interested to see if if this if this concept still stays true and people and bands can actually maybe make make some money doing this. I mean, I obviously I think it's it's a cool idea. And it certainly at this point, it's helping a lot of bands, probably more, more bands that have bigger budgets and things like that that can afford to do these shows the right way and do the streaming and all that. It's going to help them a little bit more than it's going to help, you know, bands that are, you know, opening acts and things like that and really need that the exposure more to be to become, you know, to become bigger bands. But I guess you can do with what would Ahmed Saint didn't play the whole album straight through life when he was out to a release like like a release party. And that's a cool thing. And it still keeps I think it still keeps fans engaged, which is very, very important. I get that because you want it. And the other thing it also does is that it it gives the band the best opportunity to present to present their art in the best way possible. You know, if you can if you have the ability to have a budget that you can do really good sound, really good video, really good lighting. It's it's obviously going to help a lot of these a lot of the people that work in that industry as well, the lighting sound. Stage stage folks, you know, that may not be working right now, may not be on the road, but they can at least do these sets and really do a big production. I mean, that's that's cool stuff. That's so it's if it's if it's helping and the money is there and it's, you know, people are willing and I certainly am. I mean, we're we're going to be, you know, we're certainly going to be buying the the TSO is doing that on the what is number 18. Yeah, I'm doing too. Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, obviously we want folks to to do well. And if we can, if we can help out, if there's a band that we want to support, then we'll certainly buy that that package if we if we can, you know, it's interesting this live stream, because so far I've seen two of them. And, you know, it's really if it's done right, it works. Yeah. And I got to say, it's like, watch and people say, oh, it's just like watching a video. I don't think so because they are live. They are literally live. Right. And if you and if you sort of take questions sort of as well. That's what I mean. That made me more personable. Yeah. All right. So we got to Kushal. I'm going to admit somebody in here. Let's let's see what Kushal you're ready for this. Don't let Kushal in. Do you know Kushal? I do know Kushal. Is it OK? Yeah, absolutely. All right. We'll bring him in. Kushal, you there? Connecting to audio. Can you hear us? What do you have to do to connect audio? You got to press a little button, right? It came up on the side on the left hand corner. He's coming up, but Kushal, can you hear us? You got to you got to connect to the audio. That's the one thing we haven't figured out there, Matt. There he is. I think you're OK. Kushal, can you hear us? Mike, check, Mike, check. There he is. OK, can't hear you. Put your speakers on. We can't hear you. No, no, no, talky talky. Nothing. Kushal. Want me to write it down? Just write it down. We can't hear you. We can't hear you. We'd love to hear you, but we can't hear you. Connect to audio. What did you do, Matt? Did you press a button there that said audio on now? I think either. Can you hear us? Yes. Can you hear us? OK, there we go. Can you hear us now? You got to love technology. Right. You got to love technology. Well, you made your your cameo. Yeah. Come on, Kushal, you're better than this. You can do it, man. You can do it. Where's it going? Get your phone. Look at that. Do that, Kenny. Can't hear you. Check, check, Mike, check. Don't worry, we got all night. Yeah, you know. We'll wait on. We'll wait. Should I do an advertisement in between? Sure, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. What do you got? This is brought to you by Devil's Backbone Vienna Lager. I'm trying to get promoted by these guys, but I don't know. I keep drinking their beer in front of, you know, in front of large crowds, but I can't seem to. What the heck is he doing? Is that like a shower? No, that's a microphone. Can you hear us though? Say yes. If you can't just not. Can you hear us? We just can't hear you. My God. He's on mute now. Now you guys go on. Okay, you're on mute. Did he turn off his mic on his phone? I don't know if he's using his phone or his computer. Man. Okay, there we go. Check. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, there we go. What are you doing? My mic wasn't plugged in. You are the first guest today. You are the first guest today. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. So anybody else who wants to join, join on. Yeah, how's it going guys? Hey, I agree. Is that what a university of Delaware education will get you? You know what? It'll, it'll, it got me, it got me the problem solving aspect. I'll say that. Nice. Are you in Delaware? Are you in Delaware? Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm up in Northern Delaware. Which is not for Delaware. Yeah. Well, basically, yeah. Especially because I was in a, before COVID I was living in Philly going to the school there. So I've basically been in Philly for a few years now. Okay. Well, you haven't, you're, I don't think for sure you haven't majored in computer science. I'm a biology major. So, you know, All right. Yeah. Nothing biological here, sir. Yeah, exactly. So you have any questions or? Matt knows that I then have no shortage of questions, but I actually, you mentioned something that I was actually, you wanted to follow up on about like, maybe 10, 15 minutes ago. You were talking about how Matt, Matt specifically about. Not me, not me, right? Go ahead. Second. All right. You were mentioning how your vocal cadence is sort of matched to the drummers that you play with. Yeah. They don't, they don't always match necessarily, but I go off of sometimes rhythmic cues. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm just wondering, because both ice earth and ashes of areas have had, like several drummers go through them. I'm kind of wondering what the experience is, you know, if ashes of areas after van left, did you have to sort of chain, did you change to adapt to a new drummer? Or did you kind of say, here's how I patterned my cadences for this band and, you know, Yeah. Well, no, that's actually, it's kind of funny because no, um, I, even for, even for like the first, the first ashes record, um, Freddie and I pretty much had that laid out prior to van coming, coming on board. I mean, most of the songs were already written. So, uh, I don't know if you know this or not, but Freddie's a drummer as well. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's an all around guy that I hate because he can do everything. Um, but I love him for the, for the same reasons. Um, so yeah, I mean, you know, Freddie, Freddie can, I mean, he's like the, the songs that we're working on now, uh, he's, he's mapped them out whether he, whether he actually physically played the drums or he just mapped the drums out. Okay. Yeah. So I, yeah, you know, he, he does, he does what he does and I, and I do. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I just, some, there's always been something with me as far as relating to drummers and I've always had that that kind of thing with, with drummers. I don't know why. I don't know if it's just, maybe it's just me or if other, if other vocalists are the same way. Um, but I definitely liked the cue off of, you know, drums, which is why I sit there and pound my leg. Like, you know, when I'm doing a live performance, I, I, you know, bruise my leg because I'm just, you know, hitting the, the cadence of the drums. So it's just, you play music, Kusher? Yeah, I, I actually, I play the drums myself. Oh, that's all my questions are always drum related. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the, I can't say that I'm probably the only, the only front man that's, that's had a relationship with, with the drummer, you know what I mean? There's always that, that thing, but, uh, you know, as, as anybody that I've worked with, any, any drummer that I've worked with, I always try to go back there and spend some time with them, you know, uh, and we have that, that kind of connection, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's good. It's good stuff. It's the same in ice earth where like, you know, if you got like Richard Christie on the drums, then you had to kind of switch up because he's a, you know, very different drummer from pretty much anyone else. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Richard is phenomenal and a phenomenal guy as well. So, um, yeah, I mean, I only said I had a great time. And besides the fact that I was, you know, whenever we were touring around in the van and the, and the, doing the Winnebago tours and stuff like that, I was essentially a drum tech as well. So that may, maybe help. Okay. I appreciate you jumping on. Thank you so much. We've got two other guys jumping on. Thank you very much. Thanks guys for having me on. Thank you so much for jumping on. And I'm happy you got everything going there. Have a good evening. Thanks. Cheers, man. Okay. Who's next? What? We've got Joe Sharp. Sharp or Sharpie. Joe. Connecting Joe. Joe, what's going on? It's always this problem about connecting the audio. You notice that? Joe, what's happening? Can you hear us? Yes, I can. Perfect. Look at that. Joe. I'm being stalked. Well, I have subscribed to these guys before. So it's kind of hilarious. So I saw Kusha got on here and I was like, you know what? What are the odds? So it's pretty random. What the hell? Good. I like your, I like your cool Andy cap hot fry hat. It's pretty bad ass. Very much. Thank you. I'm really trying to, trying to act my age now. Let me ask you something, Joe. Joe, are you in Delaware as well? Well, Tri-State here. I'm in Maryland. So right of the Delaware line. I met Matt a couple of years ago. He's pretty much. I don't anymore because I'm a man of God, but he's the person I looked up to that got me into singing and stuff. I always show a lot of respect for him. He's, he's the man. And then I saw him at the demons of wizards concert in September. So I'm not trying to stalk you, Matt. I just was having to come up. It's all good, brother. It's all good. Do you have any questions? Yeah. What is this thing? I'm seeing a Schaefer and a Barlow thing. What's, what's going on there? I like, I like what I'm hearing. What is that? Well, it's a little, a little project that we decided it was, it was time to time to do, man. So we, we kind of honed in on the, the vibe of the holiday. And obviously we had this idea back before, before the summertime, but, you know, we needed enough time for production and all that other stuff. And also doing the Kickstarter program, which was really, really successful. So I'm very happy on that. And again, if you were a person that pledged, thank you very much. If not, then we certainly have the, the other stuff available to, to everyone, but it's really cool, man. I'm really looking forward to seeing the, the actual physical copies because I haven't gotten any physical copies yet either. The test pressings. I think John has, John has gotten the, got the test pressings for the vinyl and things like that, which are pretty cool. And, you know, I'm just really anxious to, to anxious to hear it on my, on my turntable. Joe, can you sing a few lines of an iced earth song since you're a singer? I guess I've been dealing with some acid reflux stuff recently, but I can sing a little bit. This guy Matt, I have to do it right now. Can you do it? Forbidden love could only taste this sweet. You're not like the others. So incomplete. The symbolic hair roll. The pierce is my heart. Sings the shape of a wooden stove. You're a great job, man. I love it. On the spot. Look on the spot. That was on the spot completely on the spot. Unless you had a pre-planned, but I mean, there's no joke, man. He's got the pipes. Got the pipes. Joe, I'm going to let in Bruno. So I thank you so much for jumping on. Thank you so much. See you, buddy. See you. See you. See you. See you, man. Knock Joe off here. Let's bring in Bruno. I don't know. Do you know Bruno? Does he live next to you? Is he your milk man? I don't know. He lives in my shed. I think no. Bruno, you're there. He doesn't have voice or audio or video. There he is. See you. See you. See you. Okay. Have you met Matt before? There's a theme here. Have you met Matt before? You know Bruno? I am not. That's what you got to do. You got to turn the computer volume off. Bruno, you're there. He doesn't have voice. He doesn't have voice or audio or video. Bruno, you're there. See you. See you. See you. Okay. Have you met Matt before? There's a theme here. Have you met Matt before? Turn off the volume mute. That's what you got to do. You got to turn the computer volume off. Bruno, you're there. Okay. Bruno, turn mute. Yes. There you go. This is live people. This is live. Repeat. Cutting edge, Jimmy. Cutting edge. Okay. You don't mute. What you got to do is you're probably watching yourself. Bruno, don't watch yourself. You could see it later on. It'll play later on. Just turn that off. Okay. You're watching yourself. You're seeing as the repeat. Bruno, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I didn't believe that I would be able to log in. Actually, I just saw the link and I said, why not? Cutting edge. Welcome. What's up, Bruno? Matt? No, I had never met before. Okay. Where are you from? Are you in the U.S.? I'm from Brazil, but I'm based in Toronto. I'm a Canadian. So I'm the only Canadian here and now Bruno, you're the second Canadian. Are you actually born in Brazil or born in Canada? I was born in Brazil. So I moved to Toronto in December, 2015. How do you like being a Canadian? It's been amazing. Hey, Bruno, I have a question. Hey, Matt. Were you issued that denim shirt when you moved to Canada? Actually, I got it in Brazil. I don't know. You had the Canadian tuxedo thing. Someone who had to explain what's the Canadian tuxedo is, because whenever I use this shirt, people say, oh, you're wearing your Canadian tuxedo and I have no idea what. Didn't sure, man. That's all right. I got like three of them. That's okay. So you have any questions, Bruno? It's not a question. I just wanted to say something actually to Matt, that when I saw you guys announcing that you would be doing the Christmas songs on Facebook, initially I was so underwhelmed and disappointed, right? Like such a big chase of seeing you guys together and suddenly you were doing the Christmas songs. So it took me like a couple of weeks to start to give it a chance, but when I listened to it, I was so, so impressed. Like the arrangements are first class. You're singing us, you're at the top of your game. All versions are amazing. The Christmas songs are amazing. The acoustic versions are spectacular. So I just wanted to say congratulations. It's an amazing work. Even though it's like Christmas song, I'm very impressed. Well, thank you, man. I appreciate that. You know, the thing is, and I know that, you know, we sort of knew that there may be a little bit of, you know, a little bit of skepticism where that's concerned, but we just, we were looking at this as our, our ability to, to go in as something other than ice earth, you know, to begin with it's shape or borrow a project that's not iced earth. I'm not coming back to ice earth, you know, stew block is the lead singer for ice earth, but John and I wanted to work together again. This was the opportunity to do it. And the theme of it was just seem the right thing to do because it's something that we, again, we had talked about it before wanting to do together. And, you know, this is just the beginning. This is just sort of the introduction to that. So, and I'm not saying that we won't do more Christmas stuff, but certainly more. And we had talked about this before as well. You know, it's, it's our, the idea of it is to introduce the shape or borrow projects to people. And in doing it in this way, we can, we can sort of knock out a couple of things off of our, off of our bucket list, so to speak. Hey, John and I working together again. We're going to be the Christmas songs that we had talked about doing before. And then, you know, C is doing some reworking of some classic Easter stuff, but also, you know, the next thing, the next step will be doing some original stuff together. So, and that's ultimately that's what our, what our, our goal is, you know, we want to build up this and add on to it. I still love the, I still love the idea. I'm totally in love with the idea of doing more Christmas songs, more imagining of classic stuff and maybe doing some original Christmas stuff or holiday stuff or, you know, just winter stuff together and then maybe doing some other stuff that's outside of that realm as well. And that's, that's what we're, that's what we're doing. And that's what we're working towards, I think. Matt, did you see yourself again? I think so much for, for what you're saying because that's definitely the people that were skeptical of it. We'll listen to this stuff and enjoy it. I hope so. You know, maybe they won't, maybe some, there's just some people that just don't like Christmas, Christmas music or holiday music or whatever. And that's fine. It may not be for them. And that's okay. You know, that's all right too. I'm sorry, man. I cut you off. No, no, no. Can you see yourself in the future when everything goes back to normal playing live, like one off shows or a couple of shows with John again for the, for the holidays. I'm calling it something else maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know how, you know, winter nights around the holidays, you know, just do like a one off show once in a while. I mean, you know, I'd be crazy to say, I wouldn't love that. You know what I mean? So, but, you know, again, that, that's just really going to determine, you know, music is John's full-time gig. It's not my full-time gig. It would really have to revolve around what, what he's doing. So, yeah, I mean, I would love to do something like that, but I can't do that every year, you know, once in a while, you know, acoustic show with him or whatever, you know, it would be good. Yeah. What about Ash's and Murray's? Any, any chance of playing some iced earth tunes going in the back catalog, digging deep? You know, I don't know. I mean, obviously I'd want to, I'd want to get John's blessing on something like that. I wouldn't want to do it without. And if that were, if that were the case, then that would be, then that would be cool. But, you know, at this point, you know, we're building up our catalog. The Ash's catalog is building pretty well. Actually, we're going to be looking at our third record. And, you know, that's a lot of music. Plus, you know, we tend, we tend to like to do some covers, cover tunes here and there as well. So that's a lot of stuff, you know, it's, it's, it's pretty good, pretty good stuff. All right. I'm going to come down the doorway and see you guys live when you ever get to play. I'll drive down. Just, just drive. John, Matt. Anika, she's all the way in Serbia. She can't join by Zoom. I have no idea if you read the comments. Unfortunately, it's almost one a.m. here in Serbia. So I'm unable to join, join Zoom. I'd like to say something to Matt, but she didn't say nothing. So I guess she wants to say hi. Let's say hi to Matt. Hello. That's it. So nice. Hello, Bruno. Anything else? Nice. No. I just want to thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations to you again. And I hope you are coming up to Canada as soon as possible. I hope so too, man. I love Canada. It's a beautiful place. Still. And love your kitchen, by the way. I just want to say that. Thank you. Thank you. It matches. It matches. All right, man. Thanks, Bruno. Thanks for joining us. Oh, here we go. We got Caesar. You want to bring in Caesar? Let's bring in Caesar Garcia. Admitting Caesar. Hope it's not a bubba-booey thing. Caesar is joining Caesar. Caesar. Oh, Caesar. What's going on, man? You got to connect to your audio. Can you hear us? There we go. We hear you're snapping. What's going on? Hey, Caesar. Hi. Hi. My English is very bad. Don't worry about it. I'm from America, Uruguay. Uruguay? Cool. I can believe. This is amazing for me. Wow. I communicate with Barlow. Wow. I went to say salut. Congratulation for all projects. I am a fan of Isaac Harris. All projects... Barlow is a great tinking. I wanted to salute you. My English was great. I think your English is great. You're doing great, man. Thanks, thanks. Really, I never talked in English. I wish I spoke Spanish. I wish I spoke Spanish. I'm on my fifth time. But I could speak French and Greek. And well, nothing. For me, with Communicates, I mean, I'm satisfied. And we want to say the almost... Say it in Spanish. Say it in Spanish. My parents say it in Spanish. But I want to, in one moment, can view in life a battle. I want one time in a tour to come with high-tech heart, cancel the tour with a problem with the tour. And I can say never battle life. But it's amazing. I want to ask, I want you to... Edir, I want to... You want to ask me. Edir. Edir. I ask if you can sing a little of Dracula. Oh, I put me on the spot now, okay. Oh, I can't, boy, that's a tough one. Let's see. I had a friend many years ago, Well, tragic night, he died. Set his time of my life. Weeks and weeks, I cried. Through the anger and through the tears, Through the spirit, through the years, That's where he's watching me. Getting me through our times. Brilliant, brilliant. Look at that, on the spot. Brilliant, Caesar. Good job, Caesar. Good job. Brilliant, Matt. Brilliant. All right, guys. Salute. Salute. It's all for me. But I know, that's it. Okay, I'm going to let you go, Caesar. I'm going to see if there's anybody else. Thank you, gracias. Thank you, gracias. Saludos. Salute. That was pretty incredible there, Matt. I mean, we're talking to your fans, live around the world and in Delaware, of course, right? In Canada. All right, here's part two, as we are going to near the end of this show. But if anybody else wants to jump on, one last person, do it now. Anika, my brother introduced me to, this is the girl from Serbia. I think it's a girl, I'm not sure if it's Anika's a guy or a girl. My brother introduced me to Ice Earth when I was eight, and I immediately loved it. Firstly, your hair, your incredible range and music, of course, I never stopped listening. I appreciate you guys. Hopefully, you'll do this again, my brother, and I would be able to join soon. Thank you for reading this. Wish you all the best. You really influenced my life in a positive way. And we had Ezio saying, hi guys, I want to ask Matt what his favorite song is. So, last question, your favorite song. And I mean, I guess it could be Ice Earth, and it could be not Ice Earth. Or Ashley Perry's. My favorite song. My favorite song. That's a tough one. That is tough. I mean, there are so many, I don't know, man. I mean, that's really tough. That's a really tough one, because the thing is, even encompassing, throughout so many genres, I mean, it would be easier for me if you said, hey, what kind of song do you like in this genre? But there are so many just phenomenal songs, but my gosh, man. I don't know. I'm stumped. You know, though I'm a metal guy, I mean, I've got, I think of so many songs, like from when I was a kid that influenced me and got me kind of where I am right now. I mean, almost anything Elvis Presley. That was the kind of stuff, you know, Bluesway Jews, even that was the Carl Perkins version. That's the beautiful thing about music. I don't have to pick one that I like the most. I mean, because they all, you know, there are so many things, so many songs that influence who I am and what I am and the way that I view life, I guess. It was just way too hard to pick one. It's like what year, what generation, what decade, you know, it just did go on forever, right? I mean, there's, what genre? What genre? It depends on the day, right? Yeah, I just, music, I love all music. I mean, even music that I don't like, it's almost like the beautiful part about, you know, freedom is the fact that you can pick and choose what you like. I just love music and, you know, music has been a huge part of my life and maybe even a defining part of my life. So I just gotta say, just music, it's all good. It's all good. Even the stuff that I absolutely hate, it's all good because somebody else likes it. Somebody else is inspired by it. So. Well, you know what? On that note, everybody go pick up. I gotta look for the times here, the dates. December 18th, only 300 LPs vinyl throne of iniquity. Yes. And look up that word, iniquity. And then you'll figure, you'll kind of figure out what, and look at the artwork. And you'll kind of get what the vibe is a little bit. You might, it's a hint to some older Ash's stuff. So, and what this record might represent as well. And also the Schaefer Barlow Project, Winter Nights, you can pick that up, right? Yes. And that's about now, right? It is out now, it's like all the major streaming things and it's available for download. And so if you want to really kind of support the artist, download that stuff, it's gonna be like the highest quality kind of downloads that you can get. So it's a beautiful thing. And then also there are some things that I think on the Ice Earth website, there may be some stuff still available for sale. It's pre-order for sale, but we're, again, we've done a limited run of things. We're trying to make sure that the people that pledge to us on the Kickstarter are feel as though they have contributed and they've got the ability to get these things that are very special, if you know what I mean. So very special items. So, but the music itself is downloadable on different platforms and available through Spotify and all that other good stuff. And please, whenever you get on things, please share whenever we say, hey, can you share this? Because we would like other people to kind of pick up on this stuff. It's the only thing we can do, right? It's the only thing artists can do. They can ask their fans to share, right? Get the word out. That's correct. So we're trying to utilize these different platforms to the best of our knowledge, even though we're old school guys and we don't exactly know how it works, but we do know that it works. We don't know how. You know, I had a great time today. We got to, you know, get some guests. Thanks for inviting me, Jimmy. It didn't go haywire. We had Kenny, of course. And Matt, always a pleasure to have you on the show. And I kind of like this vibe, this live vibe thing, you know, and get to see the fans around the world, different countries, it was fun. Absolutely. Yeah, you know, you can't edit it, but at the end of the day, you know what? You don't have to edit it now, you know? It's done. It's done. In the can. In the can, my friend. All right, everybody. Have yourself a wonderful night. Thank you for joining Matt and Kenny. Have yourself a great night, okay? Jimmy, grab me on, man. For sure. Thanks for your service, Matt. Thanks for your day job. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it, man. Okay. Good night, everybody. I'll just shut it down here.