 All right. Here we are. Another episode of Let There Be Talk. Fantastic human on today, but a band. I'm going to be talking about a band that I just heard about. And I feel like I'm late on the train because you guys have been around since like 2016 or so. And somebody sent it over to me a couple of weeks ago and I heard this song Algorithmic. And I was like, I got to have this band on right away. And then it turns out there's all kinds of cool shit around you guys. So introduce yourself. Cool. Yeah, I'm Mario Quintero from the band Spotlights. Spotlights. Man, it's just first of all this new record. What is it? Alchemy for the Dead. Yeah. I've been listening to it for the last couple of days and it's just fantastic. It comes out what April 23rd? April 28th. April 28th. And man, it is some dark shit. Yeah, I appreciate that, man. It is dark. It's like, you know, I mean, I feel like our music's kind of had a little bit of a, we always kind of ride the line of like sort of some dark shit mixed in with a little bit of hopeful, you know, kind of sound on this one. Just kind of went for it. Went all the way in. Well, I mean, I'm always attracted to the very dark music and there's tons of theme of death is surrounded by this. And I recently lost my mom. And yeah, and it's been brutal. And I think that really what triggered for me is you constantly try to ignore death. Some people do. Some people glamorize it like, I can't wait till I die. And I want to die young, you know, that old thing. But you know, for the most part, people, you know, because I'm a comedian, and I'll do a joke about death and people will just be like, whoa, they get weird. And you can feel the room go like, dude, we're here to escape. You know, it is an interesting thing that, that people do not want to talk about death. It's scary, right? Yeah, it's weird, man. That's kind of like part of the reason for the whole, the whole like theme of the record is just there's so many different takes on it. And you know, we, most people, like you said, not everybody, but most people kind of are afraid of it. We look at it as like this like scary thing. And then there's the opposite, like you said as well, with like people who are like, you know, like, it's just a beautiful part of life, man. It's cool. Like, you know, and the fact is like, no matter who you are, whether, however you look at it, like, you know, I guess for a personal, on a personal way, I'm kind of right in between. Like I'm not afraid to die. I'm afraid of like dying, you know what I mean? Like what's going to happen? How much is it going to hurt all that shit? Like, I think that's what most people are scared of anyway. You know, it's like whatever suffering or however it goes, you don't know. We don't know when or how it's going to happen. So it's like this inevitable unknown that we all have to deal with. Well, I think the scary death is the slow hospital death. 100%. That, you know, because I watched it happen and it's absolutely, it's brutal. But I think the ultimate death is just in your sleep. Yeah. Agreed. Like if I had a choice, and I hope I do, when I, if I get to the point, man, when I'm laying in a bed and I'm of the right mind enough to be like, all right, this is nothing, it's not going to get better from here on out. I'll do, give me whatever. So just put me down. Let me go to sleep and let's do it, you know. I always have this question for people. I'm 57. How old are you? I'm 46. Okay. 46. What if this was on the table for you? Somebody came and said, I'm going to guarantee you 30 more years or you take the gamble and see what you get. What would you take? Safe. So I guess I would have, I would have one question, like do I know how it's going to happen at those, at 76 or whatever? And if there is, if I don't know, I'll take the gamble anyway. Because again, you know. Well, I think the scariest part about knowing would be the last year. You're like, this is last fucking year. Right? Maybe that would make you, maybe that would push you to fucking live like all the way, you know. Can you imagine you won the lottery on the last year? You'd be like, come on, man. Can I buy a few more years? Yeah, seriously. Go back to the guy. Like, so I just won the lottery. I love the sound of the band. And thanks, man. I, you know, I'm a big, back in the day, I listened to the swans a lot, a lot of dark music. And, and of course, now you're on Mike Patton's label. And, you know, one of the greatest records ever to come out of the Bay Area where I'm from is Angel Dust. A lot of themes on that record and Mike Patton being a huge, obviously a fan of strange outside the box, amazing music. How does he come about working with you guys? Um, it's weird, man. I mean, I still, it still doesn't make sense to me because, you know, we're huge fans of his music and all his projects and, and the label as a whole too. It's funny when we first submitted to them our friend, Aaron Harris, who played drums in the band Isis, which was on EpiCack as well. He, he got in touch with Greg and was like, you know, he was producing the record Seismic, which was going to be the first one on it, ended up being the first one on EpiCack. And Greg right away, who's the, he's Mike Patton's manager, Greg Workman, uh, his manager and the owner of EpiCack. So it's basically a 50-50 split between them for, they, they started the label to put out all Mike's records that weren't bands and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just everything because they didn't want to deal with major label bullshit. Um, but anyway, they, they have a pact basically where it's the, both of them have to agree on whether they would like a band to sign them. And, uh, Greg right away was like, I love it. Let's do it. Uh, but, you know, I just don't think Mike is going to like it. And, uh, next day, he just sent us a text and was like, Mike's in, let's do it. And, uh, and it happened, man. So, and since then, you know, we've met a couple of times and he's been super supportive and just, you know, it's, it's, it's weird. I don't, I don't, you know, I don't know how or why, but we're super happy and, and, uh, grateful to be on that label. Well, I don't think there's any better stamp of indie art than Mike Patton signing a band in my eyes or taking a band out on tour or any of that. Because to me, he has the ultimate career. There's a few people in the world that have like this type of career where it's very vital that the fans grab what they're doing and are willing to take a ride from multiple different sounds and vibes, you know, from Mike's stuff is all over the board from faith no more to phantom host to anything that he's doing. So I think being on that label is just so amazing because the people, it's a lot like early deaf jam or deaf American when Ruben would sign something, whether it be Johnny Cash Slayer or work with the Beastie Boys or anything. You took the ride because you trusted Rick and that's a lot like Mike Patton. You really will trust what Mike's, you know, instincts and taste are. Yeah. No, and it's, it feels good. And I think, you know, for us, it ended up being the perfect place because I don't know. People have trouble kind of pinning this down to like a specific genre or a specific sound or whatever. And I mean, I think unintentionally sort of been semi fluid with what we do, even though I think we have a kind of a maybe a quote unquote sound to the band. And I think that's why it works, you know, it's not just they are, they have everything on that label from like jazz to straight up thrash to math rock to noise rock to whatever, you know, classical, basically. Um, so it's nice to be somewhere where you're not just kind of like lumped in to like, oh, this is a post metal band or a post rock band, because you're on a certain label, you know, yeah, label, label by the label. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it happens. It's crazy. Yeah. And that's really like, I mean, as a musician, as an artist, as a fan or anything, like, that's my biggest like concern with music really is like not being boring and not being stagnant really, you know, like don't get stuck in doing the same thing over again or feeling like you have to do the same thing over again, because people think you you are part of this like scene or genre or whatever, you know. So it's awesome. And like I it's, like you said, being having that stamp of approval kind of gives us the confidence to do whatever we want to do. And it's just awesome. The fact that they keep putting our records out is, is crazy. Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic to know that there's people out there that are going no way is this going to be on the radio. Right. It's such a weird world that, you know, where people just, of course, we know what it is. It's the music business. But it's that world of somebody understanding, let's figure out how to put these records out and stay in business somehow. And that key, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, and I mean, it's nice to see now, because they've they've picked up a couple bands, not necessarily new bands, a couple new bands, but the label seems to kind of be like having a little bit of an upswing now to, you know, I think because things are a little freer now, we're not so like pinned down by like radio or just major labels or, you know, the marketing and everything is a little more even these days, especially with like streaming and all that shit. So it's good to see that they they can still survive and or to and, you know, from what I know relatively well as a label, but they also do it smart, you know, they do it. It's literally two people that run the label. It's Greg and Mark Shapiro, who's like their main production manager. He does everything basically. He's he's an incredible guy. And, and, you know, Mike is part of the label, but he's mainly kind of an outside voice on on who they sign. So, and that's it. So, you know, we get I get questions all the time about like Ipacack or bands that are interested in being on the label or, you know, asking about it. And people have an impression that it's kind of like this big, this big thing, but it's it's just two people that work their fucking asses off to make something cool happen. Is it out of Cisco? Um, yeah. Initially is out of out of San Francisco. Greg actually moved recently, but, uh, you know, the label still is basically based there. And Mark Shapiro lives in New York, which is where we we lived. We formed in New York. Yeah. You guys started in Brooklyn and now you're out in Pittsburgh. What made that move happen? I know you're married to Sarah. It's a three piece band. It's Sarah, you and Chris on drums. What made you move? Was it during COVID, a way to survive as artists getting something cheap and being able to, uh, record and be all in where you're at? Because I know you recorded the record at your house. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, all of the above basically, but we did move before COVID. So we moved here 2018, like right at the end of 2018, excuse me. And, um, but yeah, I mean, New York was just kind of like killing us, man, trying to be a small band like us and touring a lot like we were at the time, coming home to, to Brooklyn with like little or no money from a long ass tour and then having to just nonstop hustle to pay rent. It just wasn't feasible anymore. You know, and like barely, barely possible really. Cause like, you know, I couldn't really, I had a job when I lived in Brooklyn for a while, working at a college doing just like audio visual shit and it paid relatively well. Like anywhere else, it would have been a great salary, but in New York it just disappeared. Yeah. But, you know, and then we started touring a lot and I just eventually couldn't hold down the job anymore and then come back. I was just doing sound at venues and whatever, you know, just the constant hustle to make it work, which we're, we're all about and we don't mind doing it. But when you're doing that, putting all your effort into that and you can barely pay your rent and barely just like, you know, we weren't going out, we weren't getting anything out of New York. We couldn't even go out to like shows anymore. Cause you'd have to just an Uber to St. Vitus is, you know, $50 and then on the way back, like that's just, it was unattainable. What we wanted to do with the band wasn't going to happen there. So, How did you pick Pittsburgh? Pretty randomly, really just from touring. Every time we came through here, we really liked it. Visually, it's a beautiful city. People were always cool. And when we finally started trying to look at places to get out of New York, we were thinking we wanted to stay kind of close just because to kind of keep the, you know, we have a lot of friends there and Chris still lives there. Chris, our drummer still lives there. So we're looking like upstate New Jersey, etc. And even there, everything was already all blown out. So we just remembered like Pittsburgh school was checked that out. And it was like insane how cheap it was compared to New York, obviously. And we just went for it, man. Like we, we didn't know anybody here whatsoever. Just came out here for a weekend, looked at houses and rented a place and moved out here. I love that. I love that. Just like, fuck it. Let's go for it, man. Hell yeah. Yeah. Tell me how much that rent is for the house. Oh dude. Well, the one we moved into was a two bedroom house with like a giant yard. It was 900 bucks a month. Wow. Yeah. Which, and I mean people here were like, yeah, it's getting expensive, right? I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? 900. Yeah. And then during COVID, we were able to buy a house, which is something I didn't, I never even thought would happen in my life. You know, I've, I grew up in Florida and Miami. And then I moved to Boston, which was crazy expensive. Then I moved to San Diego, which is insanely expensive. And then New York. So like to me, that was, that's how much things cost, you know, a piece of trash house in a shitty neighborhood cost $600,000. So, but here, we, we bought a house for 90 grand, the one. 90 grand. Yeah. And it was, and it's a nice house. That's a car. That's a car. And like a used, that's a used Mercedes. Exactly. So we were like, cause we, yeah, we, during COVID, we were just like, just started kind of poking around and seeing what was, what the deal was with house prices. And I was just like, holy shit. So, yeah, we were able to buy a house. We have a yard. We have, you know, it's a nice, like little two bedroom house. I had this basement that I was able to build out. So now I have a proper, it's small. Like I would, you know, obviously it's, it's not everything I would want. But again, my mortgage is like $700 a month. That's rough. I love hearing that, right? Yeah. Like the quality of life, man, just your, your stress levels, everything goes down. And like that, I think opened up a lot of space for just being able to be more inspired to work and make music and, and not only music, but like my recording work started getting much better because I could, I could kind of like sit back and wait for work to come in instead of just constantly being stressed out and pushing and, you know, like bothering people, trying to be like, Hey, hey, you want to record? You want to record? We're like, I just think that doesn't work in that industry really, you know. Yeah. It's, it's a word of mouth thing and people have to start coming to you, you know. Yeah. It's really wild. I was just out at Rancho de la Luna, you know, Dave's video. Yeah. And, you know, was that, was a guy named John Russo? He's the producer. Yeah. He's an engineer there. Oh yeah. Yeah. The guy from what, what England or whatever? No, no, no. He's, he's a, he lives out there like in Joshua Tree. Oh, no, dude. I worked with him for a while. Sorry. They had a dude from England there. Fuck. I forget it because I'm just old, but, but my point is he moved out like 30 years ago and started that studio and here they are celebrating their 30 year anniversary this year. And, you know, to think about it's, it's really wild to think about the old days where you had to be in New York or LA or a scene like let's say Seattle was happening or Detroit or something, you know. Sure. And now with music and social media and, and home recordings and how great everything sounds, which by the way your record sounds fantastic. Thanks, man. You can really live anywhere and it's kind of knocked down that wall of, uh, you know, people are like, well, we got to be in New York and it's so expensive. Man, I follow this cheap old houses on Instagram and I'm like, well, look at this house for 40 grand. And if I was playing music back in the day when I played music, we had a band house, you know, I'm thinking, well, like a $40,000 house or 90, like you're saying, you could buy a house and all live in it and just go crazy. Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy, man. I mean, and yeah, like if, you know, it's a, I think it's a plus, like I'm all for like home recording and people getting into that shit just because that's how it is. Like I try and embrace it even though it's my job. I feel like it's helped my job. I feel like bands can record themselves at home and then I mostly mix records anyway. So like, and it's really what I enjoy doing the most. And that's kind of the thing where like, you know, you can kind of learn how to record and it's a little easier to do, but the mixing part, it takes a long time to get to that point where, you know, I've been doing it for 25 years and I'm still just like scratching the surface. I feel like, you know, so it's actually helped because so many bands are able to record without having to spend thousands of dollars on the studio, get relatively decent tracks and then they send them to me and I have something decent to work with, you know. Yeah. Now let's get into how you start. How do you start Spotlights and what was this your first band and what was the initial influences? Like what were you listening to to get into this? Were you into like nine inch nails and ministry and all of this or what guides you into this, you know, instead of just being, hey, here we are a rock band, you know? I mean, we never really like Spotlights itself. I've played in a bunch of other bands and Sarah and I actually played in a band before Spotlights when we lived in San Diego. But this band, the point of it really was for us to just do something for Sarah and I to do something that like, we didn't, we didn't have to like, we weren't going for any specific sound. It was just like, let's make what we want to hear like basically form our favorite band. That's what that's what the goal was to like make something that we wish other people were making. So there wasn't necessarily like, and I do love nine inch nails and ministry and tons of other bands. You know, I, we both have a lot of deep influences, I think, but there wasn't anything in particular where like, we were like, okay, I want to be kind of a heavy band that sounds like this. It was just, we just started kind of playing and not holding back whatever was coming out. So like at the beginning, it was really kind of more electronic. I was playing drums and Sarah was playing bass and we even played a few shows like that. But I'm just more of a guitar player. So I started writing more guitar stuff and eventually it just made sense to get a drummer and we ended up forming kind of what it is now. But for, for all of the records and even especially now, like the new record, we've, we've never gone into, we've actually gone into it trying not to have a specific influence, you know, trying not to be like, you know, we've been listening to so and so a lot, which I'm not a big music listener. Like I'm kind of, maybe it's because I'm working on music a lot or whatever, but I've just, I'm not caught up on like what's happening new or anything like that. I basically listen to the same bands I've been listening to for, since I was like 15. Who are those bands? I mean, it, you know, it varies, but a huge, I grew up basically listening to like the cure to Pesh mode, new order, things like that to begin with. Joy Division. Not, not too much Joy Division really, but yeah, kind of a weird mix. So I had two older sisters and they had super diverse tastes as well. And I would just raid their tape collections and record collections. So it was a mix of that. And then, you know, when I was about 12 or 13 starting to get into, I was skateboarding and so like I started getting into punk rock. So bands like Bad Brains and Fugazi and a little later, you know, more like post hard rock stuff, like, like helmet, quicksand bands like that. All mixed in with more like older new wave stuff. I think that was kind of like my molding when I was young. And it's still, it's still there. Bands like Jane's Addiction, like early Jane's Addiction was a huge one for me, XC's. Yeah. That's like me. I mean, you know, when you're growing up in the 70s and 80s, it's kind of like you're just into all kinds of stuff, you know, one of my favorites, of course, is Devo and Gary Newman. And I've been both on the show. And these people were just mind boggling and craft work. I'd play them at the same time I would play AC DC. You know, there were no rules. So yeah, I get it, man. It's just a, it was a plethora of just incredible music that was all over the board. Yep. Yeah. And I mean, especially once Lollapalooza hits, you know, oh hell yeah. Yeah. Like first law of Palooza. I didn't get to go to the first one. I went to the second one, but I mean that lineup for the first one was, was amazing. You know, but the second one was insane. Second one was good too. Ministry was there. Ice Cube. It was like Ice Cube, Soundguard and Gordjam. Ridiculous. Yeah. But yeah, you know, I mean, it's, it's like we do love music. We're just not, we're not, we're like a weird kind, at least I'm like a weird type of music fan. You know, I'm not, I don't really go searching out new bands or anything. Friends send me stuff all the time and sometimes I dig it. Even if I really dig it, it's hard for me to kind of become like a, a new fan of, of something unless it really just blows my mind somehow, you know, if it has, has to have something real specific to like, drop me in. So yeah, I don't, I don't really, there wasn't any specifics influences that, that really made this band what it is that I, you know, I'm, of course there is like, I think everything around us influences us all the time. It's just, it's hard to pinpoint something down. Man, I'm, I'm telling you, I do this show and in one week I heard this band, The Machine and then you guys and weekly it seems like this happens to me. I'm like, holy shit, this is great. I mean, I can't even, I just heard this group uh, was uh, Eve's tumor. They got five records out, never even heard of them, unreal. You know, so amount of great music out there is so mind boggling to me. And, and people say it's hard to keep up. It is, but I just keep notes in my iTunes or my Amazon music and I still make sure that I go and listen to these again and not just listen to them one week and never hear them again. You know, right? So the amount of great music out there is just insane. It is. It's crazy, man. It's a, I think it's awesome. You know, I, you know, streaming and all that shit gets a bad rap and there's a reason for it, of course, but I've just, especially for bands like us who it's a struggle to, you know, I don't know, we're just a small band and it takes a lot of work for us to like build little bits of a fan base little by little year after year and touring our asses off to like get to a place where it's sustainable. Um, but it's just, it's awesome for everybody to have the platform now. You know, that didn't exist before. No. Yeah. When I was streaming, you know, and sound and band camp and I mean, dude, it's, it's, it also makes it hard because there's so much out there that people are like, uh, you open up like SoundCloud and you're like, oh, I don't even know where to start. But I think, and I truly believe in this and I've said it over and over the power of word of mouth is, um, it's, uh, it's stronger than anything and it's underrated. I mean, you know, people tell me about something and I trust that person's music taste and I listen to it and go, tan, dude, that shit's great. Or I tell people about music on the show and they go, wow, that was great. You know, or they don't like it or whatever, but the power of word of mouth still needs to be out there for these, all these new bands in order for it to work because don't you see, I know you see it and I see it. I've been a comedian now on my 14th year. It's real slow. The, um, the, uh, each year you're like, okay, I've got like, you know, a couple hundred more people at an event or whatever. It's mind boggling, but it could just take one thing. And as corny as it sounds, a viral video or Chino Marino or Patton championing you, you know, with me as Bill Burr, people going, you know, him going, Hey, go see this guy or touring with him. And that is the shit that starts to spread and, uh, and keep you going too. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it keeps, you know, it's, it's inspiring and like it gives you the confidence to be like, all right, well, maybe I do have something and, and keeps you going. And, you know, I think, and you probably know this just as well, like having those opportunities to open for these amazing people and these amazing bands, it's, it's such a, it's such a cool thing. It's a huge, like one of those like bucket list things. So like that for me is really what I've gotten out of those things. And then after it's over, you have to fucking work. Like that's when you have to work, you know? Cause, cause yeah, you've been on a tour playing state or not stadiums, but like, let's say arenas or, uh, theaters, whatever it is. And then you come home and you're like, all right, now let's, let's go on a headline tour. And it's like, okay, now there's 10 people here again. So you really have to just use. It's amazing. You say that dude, because I was just talking to somebody about this cause they're always like, Hey man, how come you're not here or there, you know? And as I did this arena tour with Bill all last year, um, you know, we got, we got 12 to 15,000 people in the room. We're still fighting against ADD. Cause people will go, I love this guy or this band. And the next day they don't even remember. So it almost takes a next level type of fan that goes, hold on, let me follow these guys on Instagram and let me go to their website and see where they're playing next. And let me buy a shirt. It totally takes the, you know, Mike Patton and Chino and these guys can open the door for you and you can kill it, but it's still a responsibility of the non ADD fan to go, let me write this down real quick before I forget. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's basically they open the door to a hallway and you have to keep walking through that thing until, you know, I don't think there really is an end, but like that's what a lot of people don't, don't seem to get. Like we, you know, we're, we're a really small, small band. And I'm a real small comedian in the, in the spectrum right in the scheme of the whole thing. It's like, just because we have those opportunities doesn't mean like all of a sudden we're raking it in and killing it at shows and, you know, we're doing better for sure. But it's been, you know, we toured with death tones in 2016. So it's been what, eight years now almost. And we're still just like barely, you know, selling out like a hundred cap room. Dude, I could relate so hard. I never thought it would happen to me. So like, that's fucking awesome. And I take everything we've got to do to like 10 people show up and they're into it and they're real fans. That's what's important to me. You know, we've also like avoided, not avoided, but I guess we're just not those people. Like I think some bands and artists or whatever can, can have sort of like a stick that hits and works and they capitalize on that real quick. And you see a lot of those things go up fast. You know, they get a million followers all of a sudden they hit this big kind of moment, but then it just kind of like fades away. We're like, my hope is to keep, keep building those 10 true real fans over and over and over again until, you know, until whatever, like there's not really a goal for it. It's just, I, what's important is that the people that are there are, are actually there for you, not because it's the cool thing to do, you know, right? Right. It's that old saying of watch out where you get famous for also because some people will jump on to some kind of coat tails type of sound. Right. And it's really not even what they're into or they don't even know what they're into. And then at the end of the day, they get famous or big or something, but then they crash and it was all on something they're not even even into. Yep. And then they try something later on and people are like, ah, man, you suck now. You're whatever. So yeah, it is a, it is a grind and I've never seen more of a grind than a small band or a comedian starting out and trying to keep it going. And I think to most people, they think it's all about monetary rewards. But like you said, when I show up at a club and there's 50 people there to see me, I'm fucking excited, man. Cause those people I don't know. And I flew somewhere and was like, wow, these guys paid to come see me. This is cool. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. I mean, you know, we know how hard it is to get out of the house and like, like you said, like keep, keep tabs on things and be interested in something enough to like be a fan, to be a real fan. So each one means so much, man. I can't even imagine in comedy. Like you guys, I don't know, but it's, it has to be harder than being a musician. Well, it's easier because you don't deal with band members. That, well, that's true. That's true. And you don't have sound checks. So it's definitely easier that way, but it's way harder as a performer because you don't have any next year. Like, you know, hey, play a solo. You know, or even like an instrument to like, you know, hide behind or whatever. Like some people do, I guess, but like, yeah, it's, I admire it so much, man. It's, it's insane. I also had no idea. I, I did, I looked you up just before this actually just to check it out. I need interviews or whatever. And you have some fucking pipes, man. I heard you singing on stage and Bill Burr playing drums, which I had no idea was a thing. Yeah. Yeah. I played music 25 years and it was my life, you know? Yeah. That's awesome. And now I do comedy and it's, I always say I took the long way around to get to comedy because comedy is what I should have been doing my whole life. And I love music and I love everything about it. But now that I'm out of music, I like it even more, you know, because I can sit back and not think about something like, well, who signed them or what producer did that record or listen to these tones or this song? To me, it's just songs, you know? Yeah. You have like an outside, a more like objective view on everything. I think that's what makes it, that makes it tough for me to like get into new bands too. Like I was saying earlier, I think I'm just kind of also being an engineer and a mixer. Every time I hear a band, the first thing, I don't do it on purpose, but my ear just starts picking things apart, not necessarily in a judgmental way, but that's just, that's what I start to pay attention to, you know? So if it's got like a weird snare drum, I have a hard time liking the record. Oh, things like that. It's not like part of those St. Anger Metallica. Oh, Jesus Christ. Man, that Laura snare. I'm like, with me, I'm like, I don't, I'm not even listening to the snare and I played it all my life. What are you? I'm listening to the song, man. It's so crazy. Dude, I can't believe it's guitar time. Like, who gives a fuck? Yeah. And then you're right. Who gives a fuck? It doesn't matter. Like, listen, it's the Fugazi stuff, man. It's just like, you know, just all distorted and random. Yeah, super raw. And, you know, now, now it's funny because you get people who are like, we want it to sound like that. And it's like, well, all right, just don't try too hard and you'll have any money. Be a great band and don't have money. Yeah. Let me ask, are you a comedy fan? Yeah, huge comedy fan. That's cool. And that's cool. Do you go see a stand up at all? Not as much as I'd like to. We recently, there's a, do you know that it's, it's like, I found it on Instagram, but it's don't tell comedy. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we went to one of their shows here in Pittsburgh recently and it was awesome. But yeah, I just, like, I'm a terrible comedy fan really because we haven't, we haven't made it to as many shows as we'd like to, but both Sarah and I love it. And we, you know, constantly looking for like specials on Netflix or wherever they are or even on Instagram. Most of my Instagram is just like either like recording stuff or comedy stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Which is something that I think is really cool. I don't know if it's good for you guys or not, but it's the exposure to, it's like Spotify, same thing. Like I've never seen so many comics in my life until like the last couple of years. It seems like there's just like, or maybe I just caught onto it recently, but there's so many, so many people who are hilarious on Instagram and you know, I keep finding every day it's like somebody knew that I like. So maybe it's not music for me, but it's comedy. So it's like the opposite, you know. Yeah. I think that, like I said, social media being a double-edged sword, a total demon and also a necessary and good tool. I also think about the slippery slope of where I saw the music business go, where, you know, you're giving away your stuff and hoping that people come to the live shows. And you got to really watch out for that. You know, like, here's my special for free. And, you know, 2000 views on something that you worked your ass off. And it's not necessarily it's, it's not a bad special, but it didn't hit the algorithm, you know. So maybe they're like, there's no bigger demon than that. And that can really set someone down, especially when the industry is looking at numbers and they're like, well, his special and we got 2000 views. And it's like, yeah, but is it good? Do you get is it funny? Then figure out how to get them to the another level. You know, the same thing with music out there, you know, the algorithm is just fucking crazy. It is, man. It's the worst. It's the worst part of it. You know, and not even the algorithm itself, but how it fucks people up, like you said, like, you know, we're so concerned about the numbers and the perception and the image of like, you're not even people don't even worry about the product anymore. They're like, well, is it numbers or, you know, like, but I do think there's a level at there's kind of a fine line to ride there. And again, we've kind of tried, I really just don't give a shit about that. So like we've, we've kind of made sure that like everybody who likes that page is somebody who actually liked that page and really is like into the music and, and it's crazy. Like it's been so organic. I think because of that, and we haven't like, you know, started a tick tock and done the shit that you're supposed to do. And the, you know, like if we had a social media manager, they would have us doing all kinds of other shit that we, we wouldn't want to do. Right. Because I'm not just shooting for numbers. Like I would rather have 500 followers on Instagram and have all those 500 people show up at shows, then have, you know, which I've seen it happen. I mean, we've, we've toured with bands where I've seen this happen where like they'll have 100 plus thousand followers on Instagram and nobody's coming to the shows. Yeah. Well, perfect example. I've got 70,000 Instagram fans and I'll put a video up and I'll have about, you know, 2000 likes. So the numbers don't mean shit. I tell people that all the time. Do you like the record? Do you like the comedy? And that's what means the most to me is like I'm doing this for me. And if somebody else digs it, then fucking cool, but I'm not going to stop because I didn't get a million views on YouTube. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I've been doing this show for 11 years and, you know, almost 700 episodes and it's a, it's a personal like fulfillment of pleasure to me of like talking to people like you or the biggest star ever that I loved growing up. Say, being, you know, ACDC or Josh Hamey from Queens of the Stone Age or, or, you know, fucking Gene Simmons, whatever it is. I started this in a, in a studio apartment and it's been going 11 years and you know, people from around the world hit me up daily. Love this show. It is fucking wild. Like that's what's, I feel like that's what's more important when you get those messages from people, you know, like real fans where they're like, man, like I love your, I love what you do and it's real and genuine. It doesn't matter how many it's like the fact that that person took time to do that is, is huge. Especially you could be having a bad day and then the fan does not even understand how much that fueled your fucking tank that day. You get up, you're like, God man. And then you get an email, dude, I had a hard time during COVID, but your music got me through it. I just wanted to let you know, I wanted to take the time to let you know. And you're like, whoa, I got enough gas to go through this day now, you know. Yeah man. Hell yeah. It's amazing. I love it. It's like, that's, that's really what makes it worth it. You know, I have no like aspirations to be some fucking rich, famous rock star. All I, all we want as a band, even just to like, we just want to be able to break even and pay our bills and, and you know, not, not struggle a little bit less. Yeah, that's like me. All I want to do is work. Yeah. I love doing this. Like we'll do it, whether we're getting paid or not, but it's, it's, if we're putting this much effort into it, you kind of unfortunately have to make a little money. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I know. You fucking guys sold out, man. Yeah. Oh yeah. I sold out. I was able to get some gas and right in an outburger today. Seriously, dude. I know how does a Chino find it? Does he hear you or does it see you live somewhere? How did that happen? So that was insane, man. That was, I mean, we were barely a band. That was our, we had just put out our first single on a tiny little label. Like, basically we were splitting everything with the label and, and we put out our first single. It was, it's streamed on Brooklyn vegan and it just seemed like people were into it. It was doing pretty good. And our friend, Aaron Harris, again, who ended up producing our second record seismic, he, he was Abe's drum tech. So Abe from the drummer from Deftones, his drum tech. Aaron has done a lot for us, man. Just he's, he's a super good friend and he's always kind of trying to spread the word. But this was, again, we barely existed as a band. He wrote me when, when he heard the song and was like, dude, this is awesome. Didn't say anything else was just like stoked on it. And I sent him the rest of the record so he could hear it. And the next day we got an email from an agent like we didn't even know. I almost, I almost deleted it because it looked like spam. It was like, you know, so and so whatever agency and then it said, Hey, I represent a large rock band. They want to know if you're available to tour next summer. Wow. And I was like, this is like a large rock band really delete, you know, like how much do you need? How much do you want me to pay you for whatever? Like, but we looked into it. We were like, he was with CAA. And then I was like, wait, I feel like I've heard of that. And we look it up and look him up. And he represents like all these big bands that we're fans of. And sure enough, so I write back and like, he writes back, he's like, all right, well, it's opening for deaf tones and refused. Here are the dates. And we're just like, you know, it's one of those moments where you're like, what? Huh? That's so cool. Yeah. And so I hit Aaron up right away. I'm like, dude, what did you have anything to do with this? And he's like, why what happened? And I'm like, we just got offered a tour with deaf tones. And he's, he's like, oh, I didn't, he's like, I showed it to Chino, but I didn't say anything. Or I didn't like ask him to do anything. So he passed that song on to Chino. And then, and then he was like, he found out that they offered us the tour. I mean, this happened like within like three days, it was crazy. So we sent Chino the rest of the record and he was into it. And yeah, we ended up doing the tour. And again, I mean, at that point, like talking about numbers and Instagram bullshit, we had ice, I think we had like 550 followers on Instagram. Wow. When that happened. Wow. You know, it's funny as man, I've chained up for years. I ran into him like a year ago, just walking through, I was going to look at an apartment for rent and just walking through the same neighborhood. I was out and I hadn't seen this guy in 30 years. And he goes, and I was like, whoa, man, don't worry. But the great thing about death tones and tool, of course, is just giant. But these type of bands that were really just a hard core following and can work the rest of their lives. And they constantly put out good music and are constantly, you know, just able to just survive on their art, which is amazing. Oh, it's awesome, man. It's it's an inspiration for sure. And it's really cool when when you get an offer like that, you never know what it's going to be like. Like when you show up and if like we don't, we didn't feel like we belong there yet. We didn't, we were like, what the fuck are we doing here? But first day, they all were just like buddies. They were just like, what's up? You know, that's right away and didn't treat us like anything different. They were just, we felt 100% comfortable right away. And so that first show, all those nerves kind of like melted away and I, it just felt like we were supposed to be here. You know, it took a while to obviously really learn how to like, I mean, it was this was literally our first tour as as spotlights. We had done a little bit of touring before in other bands, but nothing like this, you know, yeah. So it was like kind of like, oh, here you go. And just getting thrown into our first show was in front of like 4,000 people. Yeah. In your forties too. That's what I love. You're like in forties and you're like me, like made in life and you're like, well, and which makes it great because you're like, oh, I'm ready for this now. You know, yeah, I would have fucked that up if I was 22 and that happened. I would have, I would have done something stupid or like got too drunk the first night and gotten kicked off the tour. Exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm fired up. I'm getting ready to see you guys May 11th at the Palladium with Bungal and Melvins. Nice. I've been friends with Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo for years and years. I've been giant fan of Mike Patton. It was funny. Mike Patton. I saw him backstage at the show. I knew he was going to say no, but I had to ask him anyway because I've been a fan of his all my life. So I was like, Hey man, I know you're going to say no, but I'd love to have you on the podcast sometime. I knew it. And that's one of the reasons I love Mike Patton because of this mystique, which is unbelievable. But there is a thing there where you have to ask because if you could actually tap that brain of Mike Patton and just really hear what's ticking in there would be great. But I'm fired up and also I love the Melvins. I've had Buzz and everybody on from the Melvins on the show, all three. And that's going to be a fantastic tour. I'm looking forward to that. And are you guys looking forward to that or what? Oh yeah, dude, we're stoked. I mean, we're not only just excited to get back out on the road because it's been like two years, we've done a couple tours since COVID, but just little like week long things. We're doing two months this time and a solid, I think it's 10 or 11 shows are with Bungal and Melvins. So I mean, it's everything. Like I said, it's not even about the fame we'll do for us. It's like the experience. We've toured with the Melvins before and we played one of the Bungal shows when they played in New York when they did a few one-offs. So like we've met them and we know, but it's still just, it's a little mind blowing and it's just as exciting. Melvins are a huge influence for us, not only musically, but like going back to doing things the right way. Those guys have been doing this for 30 plus years at this point and they could be, they could have two buses if they wanted to on tour, you know, and they could be shooting for like bigger rooms and whatever, but they've kept it, like buzz is so smart the way he sets things up. He's like, they're still in a van in a sprinter. Sometimes he even still drives because he just likes to do it. Super minimal crew, no bullshit, no, like, you know, he trimmed all the fat and just do the work, just fucking work and they make us really great living off of being able to do what they've been doing for the last 30-something years. Yeah, man. People like Buzz could, you know, they could write books on business that you would read, you know, like really lay it down of like, here's the pitfalls, here's where you're going to lose money, here's where you're going to make money. Here's some of the, you know, the ins and outs of merch and equipment and tax and sound, what you need, what you don't need. It would be a bible of somebody like Buzz, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's crazy, man. You know, the amount of money that gets thrown around on these tours that, and then people complain about not making money, which drives me crazy. You know, you're like, well, did you really need a lighting person? Like, to just fucking put up a couple, like, you know, especially if you're just a rock band. Right. If you're a DJ, if you're a DJ or something, and that's your show, but like riders, people, you know, you'll be a headline band, putting a bunch of shit on your rider. And then you're like, well, wait, what, you know, Yeah, you're paying for that rider. That's your money, man. Like that's what they always says, like, I don't need somebody to shop for me. Like I can go get my own food. I'm a fucking grown up, you know, give me the cash, give me some water. I can go do the rest. You know, I always say, just have some fresh fruit and some topochikos back there and I'm ready to fucking go. Exactly. That's all I'm going to eat after something. It's crazy sometimes the amount of and not only like that, but the waste, like just picnic tables of fucking food that get thrown right in the trash afterwards. Fucking crazy. Well, look, I'm looking forward to meeting you. I'll see you backstage and let's shoot the shit and hang out the palladium is a prestigious beautiful room. Yeah, I can't wait. Yeah, it's going to knock you out and that bungle Melvin's lineup is right up there with Mastodon Gojira for me, you know, just great lineups this summer coming up. Yeah. Yeah, man. I'm hoping to catch that. And like I said, looking forward to meeting you. The record comes out April 28th. The band is Spotlights. The record is called Alchemy for the Dead and it's fantastic. And I immediately fell in love with the sound and the vibe of the band. I can't wait to see you guys. And thanks for doing the show, man. Thanks for having me on, man. This was a pleasure. Really appreciate it. No Instagram. You got an Instagram? Yeah, we have an Instagram at Spotlights Music and my recording Instagram is audio MQ. Right on. And are you all pro tools? You use all pro tools? Mostly. Yeah. I use Ableton for the live stuff, but for all the recording stuff and mixing usually on pro tools. It's incredible how good pro tools sounds now. I just heard the new Metallica record, you know? Yeah. And it is just like, remember the old days, it was just flat and compressed. Yeah. Like shit, the guitars were all bunk. This shit sounds unreal now. It's crazy. I mean, I think most of it really, what it came down to was people learning to use it, you know what I mean? Because it's just a different medium, like learning, really the digital, the actual software hasn't changed much, like some of the fidelity has, but even when it was at the lowest fidelity, it was still higher fidelity than tape was. It's more just tape, tape did a certain thing. It was like having your own, having a compressor on each track already, but now all of a sudden you don't. So things have to like, they fall in different places. And it took, it took a long time to, for people to learn how to use digital, I think. I was lucky when, when I started recording, when I was like 18, 19, I came from four tracks and I had done a little bit of tape recording like in studios and small studios, but it, it was just, it was right when Pro Tools was starting to happen. So I caught the very beginning of it and the tail end of analog, you know. So I wasn't really stuck in either place. It was a little bit easier for me to start learning, but I mean, nowadays it's, you have no excuse really, which is, you just got to be, you know, you got to put in the work at this point. Well, also you can just go to YouTube and learn from these nerds. And I'm like, oh, okay, you go here and you, and you go, okay, oh, I got this. I want to kill for that. That's, oh God, can you imagine? I mean, I remember recording on ADATS, you know, and just going like, well, I mean it sounds like shit, but it's free. Exactly. It's nuts, man. It's nuts, but can people contact you about mixing their records? Yeah. If you go to audiomq.com is my website. I got all my info there. And, and I think I have a couple of links to spotlights too. So it all kind of goes through there. Great. Great. Great talking to you, man. And thank you so much, Dean. Yeah, man. You as well. Thank you so much for doing the show and I will see you soon, my man.