 Welcome to the Metal Voice. First time on the show, Alan. Who do we got? Hey, we got the welcome to the club, everybody. We got the rock and roll dog himself, Larry Gilstrom from Kick Axe here with us first time. Look forward to this. Huge fans, huge fans, got everything you've recorded, even number four, which I would imagine is hard to find. So yes, it is a little hard to find. Some good news. There was a single that was released, I would say a few weeks ago now, right, Larry? Yes, it's been out for almost four weeks now. Blackout crazy. Yeah. So who's in the band? I see some familiar faces there, but... The band is still the classic lineup that did three albums in the 80s. With the exception of the vocalist now is Daniel Sean, who's been singing with the band for 15 years now. So longer than anyone else. The new guy. He's not really the new guy. He's been singing for a while. But, you know, we've been putting it off for various reasons. We were touring and other reasons, but we've been writing the material and wanting to do it for a long time. And Daniel actually and myself, we really worked hard over sort of the COVID period to come up with the material because we weren't playing anywhere at that time. And so we had the time to do that. So we've recorded about six songs. You know, we wrote a dozen songs, but we've recorded six of them. And most of them are getting close to being ready. There's still some tweaking and working to do, but we have two that are ready. We have Blackout Crazy, which we just slowly released to test the water and just kind of feel things out. Because we haven't released anything in a while and we want to just get used to the process, basically, of doing this. We're doing it as, you know, independently. And so we need to feel our way through that. It's one of our favorite songs to play live right now. It's, you know, it's three minutes of Bashkran mayhem. And so it's a lot of fun. The video is mostly just fast edits of all the live material, live performance we've been doing over the last four or five years. And so I think it captures the the energy that the band still has. And we thought that's the best one to lead with. Show people that we have not mellowed out, that we are still Blackout Crazy. And we're those same people who are partying hard in the 80s. And we're still partying hard now. So the acoustic guitars remain in the closet. That's true. There's the acoustic guitar on some of the new material, but it's very, very rare. So, okay, let's get this straight here. So a single came out. And are we, what do you look in terms of timeline? Is like the next year, is it going to be released or before, you know, before the year is over? Is that what we're looking at? Before the year is over is our intention. You know, we can never tell what what will happen. But I'm working on the video for the second song right now. The second song is in the can, ready to go. Just trying to set a release date, timing for the video and everything. It's going to be a fun video. I'm using a little bit of AI generated characters in it. And so it should be fun. So that should be coming out in about three weeks. And then somewhere around November, we expect to have a five or six song EP with when we will produce some hard tangible product like CDs, vinyls and stuff like that to go with it. And all of this is in preparation for our 2024 tour celebrating for 40 years of vices since vices was released. And we're all still, you know, into it. And actually, we're more into it than we've ever been to as a band. We're really like a band of brothers and having a lot of fun doing it. So this may be, you know, the last and final big tour that Kick Hacks does, we'll have to see. Are we looking at East Coast here? Are we all across Canada or just digging to the West? No, we definitely haven't been to the East Coast in a long time. A lot of our big, you know, really good friends, you know, from the 80s and on. We've been friends with a lot of bands in Canada. And they're all still touring. And a lot of them are touring in the East and they've been sort of touching base with us back and forth over the last year or so about putting something together down East. We've been talking with Helix, Killer Dwarfs, Sven Gali, several acts all want to do this sort of thing. And we want to just kind of get together and have a, you know, a war strategy for how we're going to put together these things. But we're all into it and we're all committed. So you'll probably see these sort of larger scale, you know, two to three, four group things going on in 2024 with some of the bands that I've mentioned and others. Yeah. You know, Coney Hatch might fit that bill too, right? Yeah, absolutely. Is there a name for the vice's guy there that the little guy, Alan, Alan, do you have the first album with you there? I mean, okay, there's like an Eddie, you know, for Iron Maiden. Do you have a name for this guy? It's just a vice. Just a vice. The vice. We revived them in the video for Blackout. Okay, let's go back in time. All right, we heard the new stuff, but you know, there's so many questions we want to ask you because we've been fans. Last time I saw you guys play live was 1984 with the Scorpions. You guys opened up for them in Montreal. I don't know if you were there or not, Alan. It was a good ticket sold out. All right, couldn't it was sold out right now? That was that is probably the best show we've ever played. And I'll get to that in a second, but let's go back to the sort of beginning of the band, like how you guys got together, how you started and sort of got that record deal. Okay, that's a long story, but we'll shorten it. Just give us a short version. I told you, we've got five hours. So the band formed in Regina. Victor and I started the band. It wasn't called Kick X at the time. It was many names. Then it became a band called Hobbit for a long period of time. It was actually a six piece band. We condensed it down to three piece at one point, just Victor and I and Victor's brother, Gary playing drums and singing. And then we added a fourth member and we always kind of kept it with a fourth member for a long time. Then Gary left and we brought in a singer and my brother on drums and we got to the top of the Vancouver club circuit, but you know, we were just doing cover material and we didn't like that. And so that was kind of a dead end. So we got George from Milwaukee. He replaced Charlie and we went all original and changed our image a little bit at that time to what we really were and what we really felt. And we're just more honest about what we wanted to do with music. And within a year, we had a record deal with Pasha. It's just making that decision to be honest and be real and really go for it. That's what makes it happen for you, I believe. Hey, were you always located in Vancouver throughout those years? You had to go to the States? No. We've always been located in Vancouver since we had the record deal with Pasha anyway. How did you get the connection with Spencer Proffer from Pasha? Because okay, he had success with mental health, quite right. But where did you guys fit in? How did you get that connection? Well, we had a lot going on. Just in the sort of the A club circuit, we were the only band that was getting away with playing almost all our own material and selling out every night all week. So there was a lot of buzz. And then Gary Stratichuk, who was out of Winnipeg at the time, started managing us. And he had done an album with Spencer and Streetheart. And so he knew Spencer and they were talking and Spencer flew to Edmonton to see us. It was an interesting show. It was a big barroom brawl. Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden was there. I think he was in the brawl. Really? Yeah. So it was a really odd night. Why was Bruce Dickinson there? Iron Maiden was playing in Edmonton that night. So in other words, after their gig, they kind of went to your gig, right? We were kind of the go-to band for the other bands to go see in a club at that time. And so that was the same thing with Rob Halford coming and seeing us all the time when we were playing in clubs. It was always a pleasure to see those guys in the audience, that's for sure. It meant you were doing something right? We met Spencer and that's how we kind of got together with Spencer and then he made a decision to go with us. Then of course you started working on Vices. Was that material already sort of written prior to recording in the studio or did you piece that together in the studio? All of it was written except for two songs that we worked with Spencer on just passing through and Vices, the actual song Vices. We went to Spencer's house and put those two songs together. Everything else was already written before we went into the studio. And I remember reading about how Spencer Proffer just grabbed everybody's publishing and everyone always had a raw deal when it came to, especially the quiet ride guys. I mean, how much truth was there to that? In other words, did he own your songs or did you guys have a piece of that or what was going on? That you can talk about. That you can talk about. I don't want to get you in trouble. I don't want to get you in trouble. I'd say there's definitely a Jekyll and Hyde situation with Spencer Proffer. Really nice guy. A lot of fun to party with. Really nice to me personally all the time behind the scenes. Not so sure. There's a lot of things that are questionable that he did. But if I saw him today, I'd go have a beer with them and laugh. So I don't hold any grudge against them or anything, but I can give you an example where we while we were doing Vices, we got the keys to the studio to go in and record some songs that were supposed to go to Black Sabbath with Ian Gillen singing. That was kind of what was going on at the time and Spencer was going to be involved with that and he needed some songs and he asked us to try to write some. So we went into the studio with Hans, who is the second engineer on our Vices album, and we were just on our own and we put together four songs and two of them were songs we wanted to actually do on our second album if they didn't get picked up by Black Sabbath. And they didn't get picked up because the whole Ian Gillen Black Sabbath thing kind of didn't work the way Spencer wanted it to work. Can I just say something? I spoke to Ron Keele and Spencer was trying to get him into Black Sabbath right after Ian Gillen. Was that Ron Keele that you're writing the songs for where there was supposed to be Ian Gillen as a continuation of that Born Again era? It wasn't that clear to us. At the time, we were told it was Ian Gillen at the time. So we wrote the song Hunger, Piece of the Rock and two other songs running wild in the streets and another song that really wasn't worth mentioning. But those three songs are all recorded and all released. We did eventually release Hunger and Nothing's Gonna Stand in Our Way, which is a song we recorded with Randy Bishop's. But Hunger and Piece of the Rock, we thought they would be on our second album. But when I went to LA and talked to Spencer, he said, no, they're already on King Cobra's album. So we said, what? And who got the writing credit? Well, we got the writing credits for that. Oh, okay. Good. Good. Good. Good. And wild in the streets was on Wasp's last command, correct? Exactly. But Blackie Lawless took that one. Good writing credits. They just pulled it out. And it says Spencer Crawford and Blackie Lawless. Yeah. It's not something I can talk about. But let's just put it this way. I had a conversation with Blackie in the Rainbow Bar and Grill. And he said, your version is better than mine. So there was a version of ours. It's all I could say. So you said his version is better than yours or he said your version was better than his. He said our version was better than his. Okay, there you go. I tend to agree. No one has ever heard our version because we can't really say. So what was it like a Faustian bargain with these guys? You know, you got some success. You got the big name producer, but in the long run, it cost you more than maybe worthwhile. Yeah, it's hard to say. You never know which is the right decision at what time. You've got a bunch of kids that came from Regina, Saskatchewan that are all of a sudden in Hollywood immersed into a very crazy scenario. Just the whole environment was not something we had ever been in before. And that's just the way it played out. What do I do it different? I don't know. I don't have any regrets about any of it. That's for sure. Well, on the bright side of things, as you mentioned before, you played Montreal, opening up for the Scorpions. And I have to say, after that presentation of you guys and you confirmed it, you know, that was one of your best shows, you guys just, you stole the show. Well, okay, let's it's a scorpions love it first thing, but I'm just saying you guys proved yourself that night as a band. You know, I'll tell you what it was about that show. The songs are great. And the back vocals, you know, today, how you have all these backing tracks, you guys were singing the harmonies, at least I think you were back then, right? Absolutely. Right. And it was, it was just we don't use backing tracks to this day. And we have four part harmony. You know, it's just if you can do it, do it. You won the Montreal Forum over that night. Hands down, hands down it. Whoever didn't know you wanted to know you. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. I mean, we love the scorpions. We were so happy to be doing those. We did four dates with them. And that one was definitely the best date. We got a great encore from the people that the vibe and the sound of the crowd was just amazing. And then we got to watch the scorpions from the Montreal Canadians bench after that, you know, and so the whole thing was just, you know, really special. And it's in everyone's memory. It's definitely burned in as one of those peak moments in time. I ran out and I bought VICE as if Alan, if that's what you're holding right there. I don't have it on me right here, but I ran out. I remember the movie Up the Creek and there was a big splash kickaxes song was on there on the soundtrack. Yeah, that's that's one that a lot of people don't really know about, but you know, 30 Days in the Hole. Yeah, the movie wasn't very good. I saw it in the theater. Didn't really make a big splash. A lot of bands played on that soundtrack, but most people won't recall any of the songs that any of them did. And then the Pearl, you know, my favorite, I mean, everything from the background vocals that you were saying, the harmony, just the sound of that album. I noticed it was some part of it was recorded at the metalworks even and all of it was just what a fantastic album. It's still one of my favorites to this day. So yeah, welcome to the club. The song is still one of I think everyone in the band, it's one of their favorite songs to play. It just has a lot of a lot of components to it that allow various people in the band to shine. And we usually use that for a sound check because we just feel so comfortable playing it. It's yeah, I think it's almost always our first song for a sound check. Alan, hold up the album again, please. Okay, what does this mean? What does this album cover mean? I mean, okay, I see fans, fans of club, fan club, but I see a little girl there in the doorway. And what does this all mean? I'm still trying to figure this out. He wants to know what this little girl looks like. Little satanic kid there. I don't know. What does that mean? What does it all mean? I wish I could tell you, but I can tell you this much. That's a little boy. It's not a little boy. Okay, there you go. There you go. There we go. And that's the same one whose face is on the back of the album cover. Oh, flipping around there, okay, Jim. Yeah, sure, please. Okay. And he's the son of the artist who did the album cover. Let's just say he's trying to get his kid into the public view. The only reason I can think of why that kid is in the shoot. Otherwise, it's the guy who did the cover. He had done a lot of Rush album covers. And it's considered to be very artistic and could listen to the album and then try to put things together and make a cover. So I can't tell you what was going on in his mind when he put that together, but that's what he came up with. What did you think? We first saw it. What did you say? That's strange. That's weird. That's cool. Yeah, about what you just said. It's different. That's for sure. It's abstract, I guess. I don't know if it was suitable for us. It's hard to say. The best album cover for us was the first one. The worst was the original Rock the World one. We had submitted one. They turned that down. They said they had another guy who was going to do it in Vancouver. We didn't even get to see it until it was actually produced. And then we said, we don't like it. Then they said, too bad. We've already made $10,000. That was my question. It just seemed they didn't get the backing. Like you said, you produced this album. Now you're recording in British Columbia. It's a four piece now. Like you said, the artwork here, it's a far drop down from the other ones. The record company says, okay, guys. Flintstone writing of Rock the World. It's the incorrect angle of the bass going through the world. It doesn't even make sense. I kind of like it. I don't know. I'm just weird like that. I don't know. It's been around for a while. So it's kind of gotten its own personality. But is this where you've got the feeling, guys, we might be in trouble here. We're not getting the backing that we kind of desire. Well, I remember the record company rep when he got it, when he came to our hotel and he just put it outside the door, knocked on the door and ran away because he knew we were going to be very angry. What a good sign. Just doing like a spinal tap or something, just a black cover. Like what happens? Okay. Like the first time you guys had such great momentum. The second album, it's not bad, right? I remember the video, a little help for my friends. You know, you have like Lear and you have who else was there in that video? Zappacosta. I don't know if Rick Emmett was actually in that video, but he was on the song. He performed, but then his record label wouldn't let us use the footage from him. Andy Curran was in it. Andy Curran. Yeah. I was so high. I don't remember everybody who was there, but I know there was a lot of people. I know we left Metalworks just in a total state of destruction and then Triumph, we're sharing it with Triumph. They were recording in a day and we were recording at night and we did that party and Rick was there, but he left before all the mayhem and then you know, he came back the next day to record and the engineer was passed out on the board and he was not happy. They weren't happy about that. We said, you know, this is what happens when you gather a bunch of people together and it was a party. Blackout Crazy. Yeah, it was. In Blackout Crazy, the intro to the video, there's a picture of Brian and he's holding a door and that's a real picture from a real scenario at the, at what was called Frankie and Johnny's in the beacon in Calgary, which is the key that we show in the video. The key is to the annex, where we would party after playing in that place and he actually did tear the door off the bathroom and that's, that's a real picture of holding a real door that he tore off the bathroom and he was after seeing the Rock the World cover. That's about the way he reacted, but we just wanted to sort of try to capture, you know, the spirit from back in the day there and that, you know, that spirit is still within the band and so we want to let people know that. I think the thing that stood out most for me about kickaxe was always, and we said this before, the back vocals and the vocals, they were always strong. Like in terms of the guitar work too, the drums, everything. Not to say that, but I mean it really like doing like the four-part harmonies that the vocals, like everybody contributed to the melody. That's what I'm trying to say. That's right. We always wanted to be that way. We were influenced, you know, a little bit by bands like Sticks that had that same sort of ability journey where they would have multiple people who could really sing well in the band. And I always marveled at that when bands could do that, then they could go live and they could do those harmonies live. We really, there was always a sort of a pre-work visit to being in the band is you had to be able to at least sing in some form. And you know, both Victor and Ray could sing quite high. And so we could take those harmonies up quite high. And they had a lot of power. And George had a lot of power. I was probably the weakest singer. I would always sing the low part, but you know, I could still hold it to them. Someone's got to sing the low part. Yeah. But Ray was, Ray could always kill the high end really well. And he still does to this day. Yeah. And then you got the aptly named for, right? So we see the album cover. The guy's knocking the door. He's taking off the record company live. And then, you know, I can't believe this was 2004. It seemed like it was just released a couple of years ago. I can't believe it. But you got a song in here called Rocking Days that kind of explains the end of the first era of kickaxe. You want to explain exactly what happened? Yeah. Well, Rocking Days, I think is the best song of that album. And it's the only one off that album that we play still live. It tells the story of basically what happened when our management wasn't paying the bills. You know, they were taking the money that we were making, but they weren't paying the bills. And then surprisingly, we played in Winnipeg. And we saw all these officers at the sides of the stage while we were playing our show and didn't know what the hell was going on. And as soon as we played the last note, and it was over, they walked onto the stage and started taking our guitars, taking everything. And what's going on? And everything was gone. We had to play the next night in Thunder Bay, a concert. So we drove there. We had no gear waiting for the gear, which never came. So we rented some gear in Thunder Bay, borrowed the opening acts guitars, and that was the last show of that tour because we just said, well, you know, we can't go on. Rocking Days are done at that point. Well, they take out confiscation is like, is everything you have, right? That's insane. This is one of the reasons that there was kind of the hibernation of the band for a while. We got burned like that there. And then a year later, we got burned again, based on the same thing where we just couldn't play anywhere where there was some debt that was owed that we didn't know about. So, you know, we had to live with with what the cards you were dealt at that time. So, you know, from 1990 to 2002, I'd say the band was in complete hibernation for the last part. And then we realized, hey, I think the dust has settled. Maybe the coat is clear. The band can come back out from hibernation and nobody's going to, you know, come up hunting for us. Give me back those guitar strings. Can we play, you know, it's kind of like the bear coming out of something coming out of the cave. And was it? Was it? Yeah, yeah. I think that everything has been forgiven or forgotten. I mean, what was it like, you know, you're kind of like, you got all this momentum. And then where did the momentum sort of like started feeling that things aren't going the way that we wanted it to go? And I'm saying we're talking about probably album two and three somewhere around there, right? Yeah. I mean, it's hard to say because being in the band and constantly touring, you don't know what's the politics that are going on behind the scene. But from what I understood, there's certain large budgets like CBS records and and other people involved in promoting the band, they have to select who they're going to promote and who they're going to go with. And once they decide on someone else, you start losing that machine that's pushing you. Yeah. Apparently that was the band that stole our thunder was Europe. Oh, the final countdown. Yeah. So it was either them or us that was going to get the extra push at the time. I can't say that with 100% certainty because it's second hand news for me. It's second hand information that I get from the people in the business who I was working with at the time. So that's that's my best assessment of where the machine stopped pushing us to the point, you know, like they did in the first album, they kind of stopped on the second album. Yeah. What about your connection with Bon Jovi and Motley crew back in the Vancouver days? You know, when Motley, I guess I would think it's girls, girls, girls are slippery when wet with Bon Jovi. Was there a connection with you guys or brotherhood back in the day? Not with me personally. I was totally removed from that. I was I did run into those guys because while we were in hibernation, I was trying to promote the local scene in Vancouver. So I was running these shows, Metal Monday, Metal Tuesday and all these places and helping out local acts to get exposed and Motley crew and Bon Jovi and other bands that were recording in Vancouver always came to those events. So they were always there hanging out because it was their crowd. And so they could go there and know that they would, you know, be with people who they could resonate with. That was my only connection with them. I know my brother Brian and other people had probably other ties with them or other things that were going on at the time. But for me, that was the only real connection I had with them. So it's good to hear that, you know, we see so many bands that get together, like Jeremy was saying, release one song or just release now with no plans whatsoever. And it's good to see that you've got a business plan and you've got a schedule that you're respecting and an East Coast tour or any kind of tour would be welcome from what I'm reading from the comments from the fans for a well-beloved band like yours. So, yeah, definitely. We are all 100% committed. And, you know, we all have our own lives going on because we're much older. But, you know, when we go out and play shows, we are just, you know, we just come to life and we're a real band of brothers. We always go out for dinner together. We get really hyped for every show. And we really wanted to bring Danny out of just sort of being the cover of earlier material. It was really important to have original material that he worked on that he sang. And so that's one of the prime motivators for us putting out more material because we intend to play until we drop. And so, you know, it's good, it's making him feel better. The second video is going to really feature him. And people will see just, you know, how cool he really is. So that's... I've seen some photos. He looks pretty cool. The Kelly Hansen. He's the Kelly Hansen of a kick-axe. He's written a band longer than the others. He really makes us all comfortable. He's a great front man and we have a lot of faith and confidence in him. Was it an okay parting with George? I mean, he's in the U.S. you guys are in Canada. Was that sort of why there was a divide over the years? No, not at all. When we went into hibernation, everybody had to find some way of doing something else. And George went and worked with... Who was it? Sarah McLaughlin initially. He was just a tour as the guitar tech. And he did that for quite a while. And then he went with... She said, I can't remember who the other one was. She just was on the Walk of Fame in Toronto. Walk of Fame. Lear. Complicated Girl. I can't remember her name. Not Amanda Marshall. No. No. That's got to be so complicated. Oh, yeah. No for Tato. I don't know. It'll come to me. It'll come to me. Anyway, they're all different artists that were with the same record company. And George was with all of those on tour. I think it was also with Daito. And they all really liked having him there. He would do the sound check and all that kind of stuff. And then he went into the film industry and he worked in there for a while. And now he's actually hanging out with Ray and their neighbors. He's listening to the new material we're working on. I don't know for sure, but I think he's actually helping Ray out mixing this second song. So he's definitely involved. I asked Ray, say, I asked George if he'll do a cameo. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. So, but George has a couple of health issues. So, you know, there's some things going on. But we'd welcome him back to sing our song or two anytime he wants to. It's part of the family. That's what you're saying, right? Yeah. The relationship is still very good. Good. Good. It's sad. You know, we spoke to Brian Volmer of Helix and he has horror stories too of how the business end of the music business, you know, you got another example with you guys. And it's it's there's more sad stories, I think, than the other positive stories sometimes. So yeah, I try to focus on the positive side of things. I know Brian quite well. And I know the things he's been through and the trouble he has, even today, things that are going on. And, you know, I love Brian. He's just a great guy. We always have fun touring with Helix, no matter what lineup they put together. It's just always fun. And I always wish him the best. I'm glad you guys have the classic lineup and some consistency with the members. That's that's that's important. Yeah. You know, our agent has said, because sometimes we can't take some of some of the dates to get offered to us because Ray plays in Eagle Eyes, which is a very popular Eagle tribute. He's he's basically the Joe Walsh character in that. And they they could play every night of the year if they wanted to and make a lot of money. So he asks us to, you know, let them know the dates that we want. And he'd much rather do the kickaxe dates, but we have to let them know way ahead of time. And then our agent says to us sometimes, well, can't you just get someone else to fill in for Ray and go, no, I personally think we don't do that. Yeah, it's good. It's good. I kind of love the idea, you know, the vice's tour and getting together with the other, you know, great Canadian hard rock heavy metal bands like and getting together and touring as a group. I mean, you know, you have the US guys doing stuff like that. And that's Canadians, you know, it's it's great to see that. I'm excited for you guys. You know, me and Alan, we're always sort of rooting for you guys, you know, from a distance. And of course, you disappeared for a while, but it's nice that you're back. And and I think more people now know about kickaxe. Well, you know, because, you know, over time, people get to discover the music, right? Yeah. Yeah, I believe so. We got a lot of positive feedback. And the shows that we play, the audiences are just amazing. I mean, it is so much fun to play these days. Everyone knows the words. Everyone is very, very excited. They might be an older crowd in some ways, but we're surprised we see, you know, quite a quite a range, quite a range of, you know, age in the crowd that comes out to see us. And, you know, we will just keep playing as long as they're willing to come out and see us. And I know Daryl from killer dwarfs is we're talking with him. And, you know, it's definitely going to happen. It's just I'm not sure who all is going to be involved, but it is going to happen. You keep sword in mind. They just came out with their third album after X amount of years. There's another one that's got a good draw here on the East Coast. There's quite a few. And, you know, if we open our minds to it, we might be able to come up with a way that we can consolidate all the fan base and make it worthwhile for everyone to get involved. I always love the logo right in back of you, the kick-axe logo. Just move your head there a little bit there. I love that. That's so cool. You guys, that's your rehearsal room right there. Yeah, this is our rehearsal space. It's in my castle on the Sunshine Coast. There you go. And it's very cool. I always liked the base, you know, that kick-axe base that that that I'm not sure if there's one there, but there it is. I love that Victor. Send the new video. Yeah. I always love that. I love that that sort of style. It looks cool. Yeah, Vic always takes it with him, but sometimes when he comes to rehearse here, he brings a lighter base. But yeah, that's gonna be heavy. It's really heavy. It's basically a boat anchor. Is there anything else you want to say or you want to promote? No, I just, you know, it's good to let people know that, you know, this first single, we're bringing it out slowly, testing the waters, learning how we want to bring things out, not trying to come out with a huge bang to start with, but on the second single, we'll be ramping things up in preparation for the actual release of our, you know, which you could call an EP album, whatever you want to call it, but it will be something that's available on CD and vinyl and stuff like that. And that we want to have ready for when we can get this sort of consolidated tour for 2024. And we're looking forward to seeing us with many of our brother bands out there on the road. Yeah, we're looking forward to, you know, watching you guys and if you need anything else to promote, you know, your new album or, you know, more of the tour, we're always here for you. That's our reason that that's why we exist is that that's promote anything we can for you guys. So that's great. Not just you guys, not just you guys, not solely you guys, just in general. We had Daryl on this show and Russ, of course, with the killer dwarfs and everybody you're mentioning that's what we're about. So yeah, those guys are great. And we just played with them a couple of weeks ago in Manitoba. And as usual, it's always just so much fun. You know, we are so much alike all of these bands. And when we all get together, we we can't believe it, you know, that we are, we're, we've all kind of arrived at the same place in time and history. And no egos and just everybody wants everybody to do well and have fun. So looking for 2022. When you open up for Judas Priest, what tour was that Defenders of the Faith? Uh, yeah. Yeah. Wow. Was it just was it just a Canadian dates? Nope. It was the entire North America. Wow. Not not in Montreal, though. No, we didn't actually get on the great white was in Montreal. Yeah. Then we got on the tour in Carolina. Okay. And Raleigh was the first date we did. And then we went through all the southern states with them through Texas, through played LA and all of that. And then came back up and quite a few dates. I think there was like 30 dates. We did some of the best big tour in Ohio, like playing Dayton and Cincinnati and places like that. Lots of fun. I mean, they're one of my favorite bands. So it was amazing to get to play in front of them every night and then watch them, you know, because I never got tired of watching their show. It's always so good. I think one of the best gigs, maybe the Cow Palace in San Francisco was, you know, pretty big crowd. Dayton, Ohio was really rocking. I can remember some of these ones very clearly. Wow. But those were, they were really good guys. They're really nice to us on the tour. Really, you know, let us have a lot of lights and gave us a soundcheck all the time. I love those guys, you know. All right. So wrapping it all up, the new, the second singles coming out, the second videos coming out, the EPs coming out before 2024, hopefully, right? Yeah. And then the package Canadian metal tour of our favorite Canadian bands, hopefully going to happen in 2024. That's the plan. Larry, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much for jumping on. You know, all these years, me and Alan, we finally got a little piece of kickaxe. That's cool. That's cool. That is really cool. Thanks for having me.