ATX Metal Podcast

Ryan Rayle (00:01.693)
What is up everybody? Ryan ATX Metal Podcast back with these hooligans. You might know them as lift the curse. Introduce yourself, what you guys do in the band, where you're from. And we'll just, we'll go ahead and get to this one.

Jon Yadon Jr. (00:13.366)
Let's go John Yadon play guitar and some other things but primarily get fiddle and lift the curse.

Ryan Hegefeld (00:20.257)
And I'm Ryan Hegefeld. sing and play guitar in Lift the Curse.

Ryan Rayle (00:26.389)
Well, gentlemen, thank you very much for showing up again. You guys are repeat customers, as they say. It wasn't it wasn't just too long ago that we just did kind of a casual interview to introduce you guys to more people and to kind of spread the word about lift the curse. For those that haven't caught the last episode, just give a quick, quick little intro and then we'll really start having fun once these Bloody Marys start going down.

Ryan Hegefeld (00:33.005)
We appreciate it.

Jon Yadon Jr. (00:34.444)
Yeah, we love it.

Jon Yadon Jr. (00:55.518)
dude. Hell yeah. Go for it, Ray.

Ryan Hegefeld (00:55.979)
Nice

Ryan Hegefeld (01:01.209)
Yeah, so Lift the Cards, we're technically a duo and John and I have been friends for over a decade now, which is pretty rad. yeah, we've had musical experiences in the past, but we found that we work really well together, which is why we decided to keep this thing a duo. And we love to write, record, release, and then repeat that process.

Ryan Rayle (01:27.615)
Right cord, dude, that's the name of the episode. Write record release. Fuck yes. It's so good. Fuck. I'm putting that on. I'm putting that on a fucking T-shirt. Damn it.

Ryan Hegefeld (01:31.417)
Hahaha

Jon Yadon Jr. (01:32.738)
yes, I love that. Where's the live by? That's our next tattoo. Ryan and are getting matching tattoos. Okay, sweet. Tramp stamps. Right, record, release. Right above the crack.

Ryan Hegefeld (01:34.169)
Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (01:43.36)
Yeah!

Ryan Rayle (01:46.505)
I'll join you. I will fucking join you. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (01:46.763)
Yeah. Trab stamps. Trab stamps.

Hahaha.

Ryan Rayle (01:56.981)
I already, I already have one, so we'll just have to put on top of mine, but that's it, man. It's called a lower back tat for the guys in case you're curious. But, yeah. So like I said, we've, we can, I don't want to deep dive on this one because we already have in the past. this is for promotional sake for the upcoming 10 year anniversary showcase for the podcast on December 7th at.

Ryan Hegefeld (01:58.553)
There you go.

Jon Yadon Jr. (01:59.49)
A tramp, tramp, tramp stack.

that's amazing.

Jon Yadon Jr. (02:17.303)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (02:26.431)
Come and take it live. We've got 10 bands of just amazing talent. And I wanted to bring on Lift the Curse primarily for that kind of that hard rock, alternative rock, just shreds solo tastic vibe. mean, you guys have so much going on in your music. John, what do you what? What? Fuck, the sentence just left my head.

Ryan Hegefeld (02:56.473)
This is a Betty Mary.

Ryan Rayle (02:56.789)
Golly, I was curious, John, you write all the solos, right? You write all the guitar parts? wow.

Jon Yadon Jr. (03:06.538)
No, not at all, actually. Not at all, but no, Ryan and I are very split. I would say out of our 50 songs out, we're about 50-50 on who writes and kind of start each song. And usually, most of our songs, except for a couple, start with guitar riffs of some kind. But terms of actual solos, I have been encouraging Ryan to solo more and more and more over the last couple of years. So yeah, there's a lot of dual solos sprinkled in there now. Yeah, so.

Ryan Rayle (03:27.893)
Yes. Yes.

Ryan Hegefeld (03:29.421)
he has.

Ryan Rayle (03:32.607)
Cool, cool. feel like, I don't know, you know when guitarists, I guess as a guitarist, you know like, I know that person's sound, right? Their tone, their guitar, that'll, is there new sprinkled solo magic from Ryan in the new song that's out?

Jon Yadon Jr. (03:44.652)
Yeah

Jon Yadon Jr. (03:53.826)
Actually direct hit the brand brand new one no and actually funny story about that song do we actually recorded her parts of that song back in 2021 Yeah, so that one's been sitting for a while so Yeah, but no right correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they're you didn't have any lead stuff in that one, right?

Ryan Hegefeld (03:56.409)
Mm-mm.

Ryan Rayle (03:56.415)
Okay.

Ryan Rayle (04:02.441)
Holy cow.

Ryan Hegefeld (04:14.29)
No, no, there's that's all that's all John boy. Yeah, I usually stick to rhythm. He does encourage me, especially here like the past year. He's like, Hey, I left a spot for you to solo. And I'm like, damn it. And I like to I like to go first, because I'm I'm not technical. I'm like that. Like, I like those. like writing a solo that I can first of all play. But

Ryan Rayle (04:27.071)
Ha ha ha!

Jon Yadon Jr. (04:38.466)
You

Ryan Hegefeld (04:38.765)
but I try to do some melodic type stuff and then I let him be the barn burner.

Ryan Rayle (04:45.983)
Dude, speaking of barn burner, you guys are literally just going through Spotify singles like crazy. And on top of that, every dude, every single album, every single cover is just it's fucking amazing. I like you guys are like one of us like central Texas is best kept secret that should not be right.

Jon Yadon Jr. (04:48.8)
haha

Jon Yadon Jr. (04:55.393)
Yeah

Ryan Hegefeld (04:56.505)
Ha

Jon Yadon Jr. (04:58.294)
We told you man, we weren't kidding last time.

Jon Yadon Jr. (05:07.712)
Ryan Rayle (05:15.283)
You should not be a secret at all. I mean, dude, the album cover for like suffer and survive overtake, like I'm looking at the Spotify stuff right now on the seed discography.

Jon Yadon Jr. (05:15.33)
Thank you, dude.

Ryan Hegefeld (05:17.079)
Thank you.

Jon Yadon Jr. (05:29.012)
Ryan, you'll love this. It's the Suffer and Survive, actually both those, Suffer and Survive and Overtake. Johnny, the singer from The Browning, he did the art for both of those for us. I figured he'd like that. Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (05:37.141)
But see that makes a lot of sense because I was staring at it. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, this definitely has Browning vibes for sure.

Ryan Hegefeld (05:39.502)
real.

Jon Yadon Jr. (05:44.072)
Yeah, yeah, he's done a lot of stuff. Yeah, he's just a he's a homie. He's a really good friend. But yeah, he's done quite a bit of art for us over the years. But those two album covers he's done.

Ryan Rayle (05:53.535)
Well, man, you guys are absolutely crushing it. I'm really fortunate to have you guys on the showcase on December 7th. And the fact that you guys are still continuing to write new music all the way up into it. Do you have anything that's going to release before December 7th? Because you guys are just, it feels like every week it's like, new lift occurs, new lift occurs.

Jon Yadon Jr. (06:10.026)
Yeah. No, we haven't. Yes, we love that you recognize that first off. and dude, thank you for having us on the show. I was going to be at the show regardless, but when I got that text, I was so fucking stoked. So we sincerely appreciate it and are honored to help honor what you've been doing for the last 10 years. So.

Ryan Hegefeld (06:12.889)
We love that.

Ryan Hegefeld (06:17.795)
No.

Ryan Rayle (06:30.971)
Yeah, and that's, and that's kind of the reason. Another reason why, I wanted you guys to be on the show is that whenever we spoke, the first time and then just through just talking to each other, the fact that you guys have known each other and been playing together for 10 years or, you know, and more like that's another reason why I wanted you guys on the show is because we've both been doing, you know, passion projects and things that we love for a decade plus.

Jon Yadon Jr. (06:48.353)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (06:59.591)
And we're still here trying to support those things by helping out other other members of the scene and and you know, doing shows like this. What do you think? What do you think has changed the most personally for each of you over the last decade? And then what do you guys think has changed for? We'll just say the music industry or scene as a whole.

Jon Yadon Jr. (07:03.84)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (07:23.308)
Ooh, I know one of Ryan's answers, but real quick, Ryan, I'm the best at deflecting and then not answering your questions. We do have a song coming out before that show. We shot a video with Clayton King two days ago.

Ryan Rayle (07:26.057)
Hahaha.

Ryan Rayle (07:34.665)
Dude, yeah, I do. Me and him have been going back and forth, have been going back and forth, trying to get a hold of each other, trying to sit down because Clayton is just that dude's on another level, man. Another level. If you don't.

Ryan Hegefeld (07:34.755)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (07:42.658)
Mm. He's a maniac. We, we, we, we love Clayton so much. He's such a good person and good friend and just so pumped on, like he just did a two week thing. He just shot. I don't even know if I'm supposed to say, but he did some, he does tons of filming for tons of bands. We're just lucky to be friends with him. So we get a little time on his calendar. But in one week he drove to all these places like Nevada, California. He shot Testament, Animals as Leaders. Who else?

Ryan Hegefeld (07:47.668)
Yeah, super pro.

Jon Yadon Jr. (08:11.842)
There's somebody else crazy in there. He's just, the people he's connected with is fucking stupid. Like it shouldn't be real, but it is. It's pretty awesome. And he's so humble.

Ryan Rayle (08:17.557)
Wow.

Ryan Hegefeld (08:19.022)
it out.

Ryan Rayle (08:22.133)
Do you think that...

Jon Yadon Jr. (08:23.286)
Five Finger Death Punch, sorry, that was the other one. I was like, I'm forgetting a huge one. Yeah, dude, his stories are incredible.

Ryan Hegefeld (08:26.654)
That's the one you forgot. That's the one you forgot.

God.

Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (08:35.273)
man. So what was it like to work with him? Like how have you guys fostered that relationship and kind of got him to...

Jon Yadon Jr. (08:38.758)
Yeah, Ryan, please try and describe a video shoot. It's so fun.

Ryan Hegefeld (08:40.192)
dude it's the best

Ryan Hegefeld (08:45.305)
man it's it's the absolute best we we've been doing you know like diy videos and videos with other guys over the years love working with Clayton because he's like our he's like our hype guy man like little like while while shooting he'll just be like yeah yeah get it let's go you know and it's it's like a it's like a like a gym instructor but during a music video and it's just

It's just super positive. He's always wanted to go the extra mile to get something. So all the success he's had is obviously well deserved. He gets to do that for a living now and I think it's freaking awesome.

Jon Yadon Jr. (09:16.034)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (09:29.098)
Yeah, Ryan, tell them what your favorite part from the other day. He had one line that he said that Ryan freaking freaked out. It was so funny.

Ryan Hegefeld (09:31.827)
yeah, we've shot what like four or five music videos with him now, but he whipped out a new hype man tagline the other day. John was doing, it was about to be his solo in the middle of the song and he goes, Clayton goes, all right, here we go.

Jon Yadon Jr. (09:52.322)
It's like we're about to get to like the big splash of like a water ride or something or like here's the last loop on a roller coaster.

Ryan Hegefeld (09:54.105)
you

Ryan Rayle (09:58.517)
Just here we go.

Ryan Hegefeld (10:00.153)
I felt like an NFL team in a tunnel right before you go out and the hype music's going and suddenly, here we go. It was freaking awesome. But yeah, great guy, super pro. Yeah, love working with that guy.

Jon Yadon Jr. (10:05.474)
You

Ryan Rayle (10:08.137)
Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Jon Yadon Jr. (10:09.164)
Yeah

Jon Yadon Jr. (10:16.954)
Phenomenal human.

Ryan Hegefeld (10:18.286)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (10:18.293)
That's the, and that's the type of energy that, that I hope, I hope that we deliver on December 7th and not, not hope. know like I, it's going to be there. And I really am trying to, you know, I, and I've been saying it probably for the better part of this year that I feel like there's just something missing. Like we're on the verge of kind of getting back to our actual normal.

Jon Yadon Jr. (10:25.59)
Yeah. Yeah. yeah. Yes.

Ryan Hegefeld (10:25.783)
Hell yeah.

Ryan Rayle (10:46.735)
in the scene where, where there is this, there's like this buzz. I can't, it's just one of those feelings that, that is personal to me. You can try to describe it with as many adjectives as you can, but there's just like this, there's like this, like, fuck, like this frequency, right? Like it's here and it's buzzing and you, and like, can feel it I, and you know, typically the old adages, the energy around you, whatever you put out,

Ryan Hegefeld (10:46.924)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (11:06.393)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (11:15.721)
You get in, get in, put out that whole thing. And so I feel like if I just continue, we, if we just continue to keep just like hitting, hitting that frequency soon, it'll, it'll break through and we'll get back to, back to just the, don't know. There was just something like between the years of 2015 and 2018 that I just, I was fucking hook line and sinker for the metal scene. And, and, and I feel like with COVID, you know,

Jon Yadon Jr. (11:16.778)
Mmm, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (11:17.23)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (11:32.577)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (11:41.986)
Yep, same.

Ryan Hegefeld (11:42.039)
Hello.

Ryan Rayle (11:45.679)
easy three years were taken from us. As long as among other things as venues were also taken from us. So it's like we got kicked in the dick. know, now multiple times. Or, you know, it's like you're it's like you're going to play a set and nothing works. Everything's just trash. But I feel like we are right there. And I'm so happy that

Jon Yadon Jr. (11:58.082)
multiple times.

Jon Yadon Jr. (12:05.858)
Yup, yup.

Ryan Hegefeld (12:06.979)
God, yep.

Ryan Rayle (12:14.803)
I've been able to continue to support people like yourself for 10 years and that, you know, guys like you are still constantly cranking out music that is just, it's just fucking good. Right. Like, and, and, and for that, I started, I started my run today. and just, I started with, I'm doing this thing where I start with a local band, whether it's someone I'm going to talk to or someone that I have talked to. And then I just.

Jon Yadon Jr. (12:28.162)
Thank you.

Ryan Hegefeld (12:30.585)
Thank you.

Ryan Rayle (12:43.967)
create a radio station based off that song and artist. And so I started with your guys newest one, Direct Hit and based it off of that. And dude, that playlist was wild. was so much, it was full of just, it was like, where did the gent come from? And then it just switched back over to, you know, cause every few songs, you know, they'll play one of your songs again. And so I started with Direct Hit and

Jon Yadon Jr. (12:47.686)
cool.

Ryan Hegefeld (12:47.704)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:03.425)
Hahaha

Ryan Hegefeld (13:09.561)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (13:12.871)
And oddly enough, I finished with Shadow and the range of music that I was privy to in between was just wild. When you guys go get into the studio, know like you guys, like you said, you guys just write and write and write and write. You got like so many songs on the back burner. When you come up with a new one, are you like sad because now you can't go mess with this one over here?

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:16.534)
sweet.

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:22.583)
Love that.

Ryan Hegefeld (13:34.713)
Thank

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:37.942)
Haha.

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:41.801)
Well, y-

Ryan Rayle (13:41.811)
Like, God, got another riff. Damn it.

Jon Yadon Jr. (13:44.546)
Son of a bitch. Dude, actually you hit on something that's direct hit is the perfect example of that. That song, the reason we didn't release it forever was like, don't, it sounds weird, but we don't need that song yet. Like it was, to be fair, it was going to be like Ryan wrote that entire thing. Like as you hear it today, like we, we, you know, sprinkled some stuff in there, but like the bones of it was exactly how Ryan had it initially back in 2021. So, and it was going to be a song for our last band, actually. That's kind of why we.

Ryan Rayle (13:46.611)
Yeah!

Jon Yadon Jr. (14:14.26)
haven't released it yet as Lift the Curse. just finally was kind of time, but we just kept writing new ones. We're like, eh, fuck it. We'll release this one first. We'll just keep kicking direct hit down the road. And we did that for almost three years. So yes, that does happen. And sometimes we'll write something and we're like, we really feel strongly about this one. So it'll, it'll jump the line if you will. Yeah, just depends.

Ryan Hegefeld (14:23.992)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (14:34.421)
Okay, yeah, could see, sometimes you just riff to riff just to get it out and then you're like, we'll come back to this. Hmm, okay.

Jon Yadon Jr. (14:39.316)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, right. What would you say about that? I feel like that's pretty common where we'll also we'll know what type of song we've released. Like, since we released so much, sometimes we're like, OK, we need one of these types of songs next. So sometimes it'll be something like that.

Ryan Hegefeld (14:52.921)
I think we gauge it by what we're the most excited about in the moment, And actually, here, I mean, we've done a pretty good job of this, too. Sometimes we have two in the oven. And so John will be working on, hey, I'm going to work on this one over the next couple of days. I'll be like, OK, I'm going go work on this one over the next couple of days. And then we flip-flop. so it's just really efficient. I know, I don't know.

Jon Yadon Jr. (15:15.798)
Yep, trade.

Ryan Hegefeld (15:21.825)
I know on the last show that we did with you, we talked about our process. since we can do this mobile and we can just send files back and forth, makes it doable and easy. But yeah, usually it's whatever we're excited about moves to the front of the line for sure.

Jon Yadon Jr. (15:34.454)
Yep.

Jon Yadon Jr. (15:39.008)
Yeah, like Ryan, we're in our studios right now. Like my computer's back there that I use and Ryan's right in front of his. So this is how we do it. Yeah, you're cooking.

Ryan Hegefeld (15:42.521)
We are here.

Ryan Rayle (15:43.571)
Me, me, me as well. Like I'm in, I'm in the oven. All right. I'm over here. I'm in the kitchen. I'm cooking. I, I, dude, I honestly can't wait till I can, I can fully to where instead of us doing it via, you know, virtual studio, like you'll be here. You'll be here. I can't, I can't wait, man. Now this is where the conversation is going to just move to a little personal note.

Ryan Hegefeld (15:46.968)
I'm not like that.

I'm sorry.

Ryan Hegefeld (16:03.449)
That'd be fun. That'd be really fun.

Jon Yadon Jr. (16:04.52)
that'd be so fun. That'd be so fun.

Ryan Rayle (16:13.213)
So there's a couch just behind this camera through the hallway that I want in the studio because it's perfect. Perfect shape, size, color, looks great. Hasn't really been used that much. It's just more of like, you know, when you build a house and you just have like a spare room or like a loft or whatever. So it just stays up there. Doesn't get much use. So I want to bring it in here.

Ryan Hegefeld (16:23.897)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (16:33.04)
yeah.

Ryan Rayle (16:37.805)
And then, you know, kind of take this whole setup and move it around a little bit and just, you know, make it comfy and cozy where we can have a good multi-camera interview at the house. And a part of that, it kind of ties in with what I was saying earlier about, you know, there was like, there's this buzz, there's this, there was the thing. Part of that is, you know, doing these things in person. Like, you know, you can watch, I don't know how many fucking podcasts these days. I mean,

Jon Yadon Jr. (17:05.3)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (17:06.628)
I, when we started this podcast 10 years ago, I honestly said the words, what's a podcast? Like I didn't even know what one was. And, you know, here we are 10 years later and, you know, still doing it and loving it. so there's an issue with my couch because my wife will not release it from her grips because she doesn't have a futon yet.

Jon Yadon Jr. (17:12.098)
Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (17:13.881)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (17:20.025)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (17:20.417)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (17:30.853)
no.

Ryan Rayle (17:32.883)
And I'm like, okay, okay. So you're telling me that I can't have the couch that doesn't get sat on, but maybe twice, three times a month.

Ryan Hegefeld (17:43.822)
haha

Ryan Rayle (17:45.513)
because you don't have a futon to replace it that's also going to see the same action? Well, Ryan, anyway.

Ryan Hegefeld (17:53.593)
Sounds like we need to go couch shopping, man. We need to go like, you know, we need to go to Ashley or something.

Ryan Rayle (17:55.777)
I'm going count. Yeah. I just I've. Yeah, just I'm a Facebook marketplace these days. She it. But but yeah, I I would love I would love to get you guys and any other artists and guests over here to have just to have that that camaraderie. But you know, whenever but because you guys do things, you know, over back and forth, Google Drive and all that jazz.

Jon Yadon Jr. (17:59.414)
That's it, easy solution.

Ryan Hegefeld (18:05.133)
Heck yeah. Yep. Yep.

Jon Yadon Jr. (18:05.725)
Yeah, yeah,

Ryan Hegefeld (18:14.702)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (18:24.479)
When you guys get together, like, how does, I mean, you guys have been together for 10 years, so you automatically have like this dynamic in the room. But I mean, does it, does it ever get old? Do you ever get into the studio and you're like, Hey man, what's up? Does it like, does it feel more chore-y sometimes?

Jon Yadon Jr. (18:42.292)
No. Not for me. No, it, yeah. Well, fuck you, Ryan. Hegefeld, Hegefeld, not real. Fuck you, Hegefeld. No, not at all, man. think, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (18:42.347)
Hmm, I don't think so

Ryan Rayle (18:43.733)
Ha

Hmm

That's going to be a sound bite.

Ryan Hegefeld (18:52.993)
Yeah.

Ha

Ryan Rayle (19:01.013)
Because before you, because I'll say, sometimes this does feel chore-y, right? Like I have to set aside time to do this for, you know, for others. Yes, it's for my benefit, but I feel like it is obviously for others' benefit. And some days I'm just like, but when I logged in today and I've had the morning that I've had, when John clicked in, I was already, I was, here, I'll tell you what I was doing.

Jon Yadon Jr. (19:05.463)
Mm-mm.

Ryan Hegefeld (19:15.512)
Right.

Jon Yadon Jr. (19:23.318)
He started talking to himself.

Ryan Hegefeld (19:25.177)
Hahaha!

Ryan Rayle (19:27.291)
I was pretending to be the voiceover guy for your SoundCloud or for your Spotify bio. That's what I was doing. But in the vein of almost, God, not like scary movie overdub guy, but here, I'll just read the first line. This is how I was saying it before. Before, was like.

Jon Yadon Jr. (19:32.098)
dude. Your voice is made for that shit, man. Seriously.

Ryan Hegefeld (19:32.925)
my god, yes. That's awesome.

Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (19:51.138)
I'm excited.

Ryan Rayle (19:53.317)
Lift the Curse is an American rock duo hailing from Texas. Lift the Curse is the culmination of 10 years of collaboration between two best friends, Ryan Hegefeld and John Yadon Jr. Like, man. Anyway, anyway, so back to what I saying is like,

Ryan Hegefeld (19:57.997)
You

Ryan Hegefeld (20:07.383)
That's lovely. That's fucking lovely.

Jon Yadon Jr. (20:08.514)
That is incredible. We'll pay you to read that shit, that'd so cool.

Ryan Rayle (20:18.049)
Sometimes it does feel chore-y, but then you get in days like this where you're in fucking go mode and you can write all the riffs. Like, what is your guy's dynamic 10 years later?

Ryan Hegefeld (20:23.457)
Right.

Jon Yadon Jr. (20:28.706)
yeah. Yeah, yeah. And sorry again, I glazed right past that question, the 10 year thing. I think we've just really ironed our process out. Like we had the chemistry from the start. Again, we were in, we've been in a few different bands together, but I think I can speak for myself. I have different, like, there's a lot of things I couldn't do back then, like playing to a click track, metronome, was super, super hard for me. It was a very fresh. Yeah. It was a really frustrating moment for me in like the first band we were in. So I couldn't record. Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (20:51.295)
Wow, really?

Ryan Rayle (20:55.701)
I'm gonna put a pin in that. I wanna hear more about that.

Jon Yadon Jr. (20:58.188)
For sure. But no, there's just things I've just personally put a lot of work into since. I've definitely, I think, I'm way more aware of my strengths than my weaknesses now than I was back then. just for me personally, get just honing in on those. And then like we're talking about with the guitar solo stuff, especially in Lift the Curse, we've really encouraged each other to improve on those things. And Ryan, he sells himself so short. He's such a fucking good lead guitar player. Like the parts he writes are so catchy. Like there's a reason I keep encouraging him to do it because he's really good at it.

Ryan Rayle (21:09.631)
Gotcha.

Jon Yadon Jr. (21:27.682)
For me, I've always enjoyed singing. It's very difficult for me, but like in all of her songs, I sing harmony in them, which in our previous bands, I never got the opportunity to do that. But Ryan's been very encouraging for me to do that. So it's just been a lot, a lot of that. It's so fucking healthy, man. Like this band is like the healthiest thing on the planet, at least from my perspective. So healthy. Sold at a premium. Yeah, I don't know.

Ryan Rayle (21:39.689)
Okay.

Ryan Rayle (21:45.653)
So healthy it's sold at Whole Foods.

Ryan Hegefeld (21:47.491)
Yeah.

It's always in the gym, it's always eating the salads.

Ryan Rayle (21:55.626)
Yeah, it's always at Sprouts getting the most premium produce.

Jon Yadon Jr. (21:57.888)
Yeah. That was great. That was awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (22:00.579)
damn right. Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (22:04.125)
Lift the curses everywhere! my god.

Ryan Hegefeld (22:09.059)
Hahaha

Ryan Rayle (22:09.481)
So good. So good. I'll tell you what, this is definitely not a chore. Okay. This is not a chore. This is not short. Ryan, what about you, man? What have, what have you, man, I'm crying a little bit. What have, what have you, what have you noticed or improved on in the, in the 10 years of being not only a better artist, but a better, teammate?

Jon Yadon Jr. (22:21.11)
Yeah

Ryan Hegefeld (22:21.337)
you

Ryan Hegefeld (22:30.751)
Yeah, so, and it's great question. I feel like, I feel like kind of like what you were saying about before with, you know, what COVID kind of took from the scene and everything like that. I think it's, it's the vibe that you go in with, you know, if you go in with a like, just open mind, open heart, you know, ready for anything kind of personality and mood.

It just sets you up for like nothing but success. then, you know, like the, like we haven't had like any bad days. There's never been like a bad day or like, like we're stuck on this. You know, I've had, I've had moments where, you know, I write a lot of lyrics cause we write a lot of songs. And I've had moments where I'm like, man, I'm writing, I'm writing about fire again, or I'm writing about this again, you know, but yeah.

Ryan Rayle (23:14.975)
Yeah you do.

Jon Yadon Jr. (23:20.13)
Big element guy. Big element guy. He is.

Ryan Hegefeld (23:26.809)
But I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Like I think, you it's, you can't reinvent the wheel, but what you can do is just kind of challenge yourself for like, just getting excited about the next song. Yes, John is, he's pumped me up with the whole lead stuff and trying to get me to do more of that. But also I've tried to become a better vocalist and I've definitely tried to.

Lyrically, I've tried to think outside of my own head sometimes and maybe write from other people's perspectives and things like that. Because writing lyrics can be a pretty, not a selfish thing, but it's a very internal thing. You're writing a song, you're writing lyrics from your brain and your standpoint. So I've tried to do stuff like that over the past decade.

Ryan Rayle (24:05.43)
Okay

Ryan Rayle (24:21.257)
Yeah, I think as the main lyricist of any project, there has to be buy-in from the other members, knowing that the person putting words on paper, or on, you know what I mean, putting pen to paper, that they fully support whatever is getting ready to be exchanged from audibly and musically to verbally.

Ryan Hegefeld (24:31.918)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (24:37.846)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Ryan Rayle (24:50.963)
And then that, and then that harmony together is, like a product that you're like, yep, I'm good with that. So I think, I think that people, the people that do, you know, write the lyrics, you know, have, have this kind of, this kind of like weight on their shoulders, cause they're representative of, of the, of the, the project as a whole. when it, when it comes, when it comes to, I guess, like making changes and stuff, John, do you ever.

Ryan Hegefeld (24:51.033)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (25:13.582)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (25:19.763)
make edits like, maybe use this word or flip this around. Do you ever have any input on the lyrics?

Jon Yadon Jr. (25:22.946)
Mmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (25:27.042)
I always can, like Ryan's absolutely 100,000 % open to it, but I don't really have many, like again, I love Ryan's lyrical content and he's just so talented naturally just with the phrasing and stuff. it's usually just, honestly sometimes he'll have different versions of a chorus and I'm like, yeah, B is the better one. And we'll usually, well like 99 % agree like that A wasn't shit, but like B is just the one, you know? So I would say it's more like that.

Ryan Hegefeld (25:30.713)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (25:45.117)
Hahaha!

Ryan Hegefeld (25:46.115)
them.

Ryan Rayle (25:50.687)
I got you.

Jon Yadon Jr. (25:52.918)
Ryan, have I ever changed lyrics? I don't think I really have. I've inspired what songs are called because I gave it a funny title and we're like, that is kind of cool. But that's about the extent of it. That's about the extent of it. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (25:55.449)
No.

Ryan Hegefeld (26:00.129)
Yes, that's very true. That is

Ryan Rayle (26:05.077)
Okay, now I gotta know. What's the, what's, pick one.

Jon Yadon Jr. (26:07.744)
Which, yeah, right, what's one that has stuck? We've had some that I can tell you something that for sure changed. there's a song right now that we shot the video for with Clayton called, it's going to be called Wishing Well, but for the longest time it was called Scorpion King. Just because when I was writing the rest, I'm like, yeah, I feel like a fucking Scorpion King. This is sick. But like in files back and forth, probably five files back and forth, it was still called Scorpion King. Just so dumb.

Ryan Hegefeld (26:22.201)
Hahaha!

Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (26:33.4)
Yep.

Ryan Rayle (26:35.797)
I was like, would there ever be a scorpion king from Lift the Curve? I mean, now I'm just trying to think about what I'm trying to think of like rock, you know, the rock as the scorpion king just like shredding. I'm like, what would that sound like?

Jon Yadon Jr. (26:41.33)
I mean maybe. Yeah. Well, that'd be cool. Yeah. Raya, what's one that you think of?

Ryan Hegefeld (26:53.153)
man, I'm was sitting here trying to think of one. I can't think of one right now, but there's, yeah, there has been multiple times where he'll, he'll label it something like one of his ideas. And then it puts me in this mindset and I'm like, yep, I'm going to roll with that right there. yeah. So.

Jon Yadon Jr. (27:07.52)
Yeah. Yeah, it has happened definitely multiple times. Hegefeld, before we move to a different topic, talk about your humongous lyrical songwriting break that we took a few months ago. Remember how long that lasted?

Ryan Rayle (27:07.539)
I gotcha.

Ryan Hegefeld (27:17.561)
my gosh. I told John, I basically just told him one day when we were on the phone, like, I think maybe after this song, whatever we working on at the time, I think after this one, maybe I could take a couple months off not writing lyrics. Maybe we'll do a cover or something like that to release to keep the content flowing. Because I was just, I was having this

Ryan Rayle (27:20.991)
Would you?

Ryan Rayle (27:40.49)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (27:43.148)
Great idea. Great idea.

Ryan Hegefeld (27:45.273)
Yeah, I had this thing in my head where like, man, you're running out of things to write. And then I forget which song it was, but it was instantly like, yeah, we're not taking a break. it. And I like, I write stuff, I get ideas and I write stuff down on my phone. And I just like, I think I called John back and I was like, Hey, I got an idea. And the drought is over.

Ryan Rayle (27:55.671)
Hahaha!

Jon Yadon Jr. (28:07.531)
You

Ryan Rayle (28:07.605)
Hahaha!

Jon Yadon Jr. (28:10.914)
Yeah, it was not a very long drought. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was a good time. It was a good time.

Ryan Rayle (28:11.189)
All of two weeks darn man, where's the rain? Man, that's great. I want to circle back to that. John, you said you had issues with the metronome.

Ryan Hegefeld (28:13.977)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (28:24.47)
Yeah. yeah, it's, yeah, Ryan, it's one of my least favorite musical moments ever. It's, it's, it's double-sided because it's like, I hate the memory, but it was a huge inspirational like catalyst for me. So I'm thankful for it too.

Ryan Rayle (28:35.029)
Yeah, because I just, I just, I've, I would have never thought a metronome would have been the enemy of a guitarist that, know, just or something, someone to keep rhythm, right? So.

Jon Yadon Jr. (28:43.074)
It shouldn't have been Yeah, yeah, so it's funny all of my like best guitar player friends for whatever reason were drummers first Ryan's an example But I know a lot of others where they were like drummers first or had some kind of upbringing And they're really good at rhythm For leads whatever just in general. I never did I was the exact opposite So I just started playing and want to start playing fast when I was like 13 and so I just kept like

Ryan Rayle (28:55.379)
Jon Yadon Jr. (29:11.698)
running away and it was so bad at time for a long time and so I've had to backtrack over the years to get better at rhythm still work on it every day but so it was our first band we were in it was called Pilot then it was called Alien but we went to Orb Studios South Austin I think it's Dripping Springs or South it's a really nice studio it was like the first real studio I've ever been in at that band fun fact Ryan played drums in that band I was one

Ryan Rayle (29:26.76)
yeah!

Ryan Hegefeld (29:29.228)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (29:35.033)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (29:35.093)
That's the guy that played for Blue October? Yeah. Matt Devesky. Yeah. I've got an email somewhere in my archive that probably has not been responded to from him. Hey, Matt.

Jon Yadon Jr. (29:37.632)
Yeah, yeah, Matt Novitski. Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Jon Yadon Jr. (29:50.85)
Really? That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing. anyways, this is literally back in 20, Probably a year after I moved here. So 2016-ish, I think. no, no, no, sorry, 2013. Sorry, 2013, 2014. But anyways, went to this really nice studio. And yeah, I went to record some guitars and I just...

Ryan Hegefeld (29:51.801)
you

Ryan Rayle (29:53.321)
Let's let's chat.

Ryan Hegefeld (29:54.521)
Call him out! Call him out! That's funny.

Ryan Rayle (29:56.277)
calling you out. No, I'm pretty sure he's like mad busy and he's like, fuck this guy. out of here. No, anyway, but yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (30:02.009)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (30:19.234)
couldn't play to a click. It was just super embarrassing for me. I was like, this fucking sucks. Like, this is a cool opportunity. I'm shit. I need to learn how to do this. And we had a good buddy, Dusty Saxton. He played for Granger Smith for a long time, drummer. Good friend. Like, we still know him to this day, but he was really good friends with Deuce Swanier, who was our third member of our last band. A lot of history. But yeah, Dusty was there. Other friends were there. It was just so fucking embarrassing. And I was like, I will never let this happen again. So left there and yeah, just like always look back at that.

Ryan Rayle (30:22.997)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (30:47.81)
I've been to another studio since, actually more recently, and the experience is way better. But no, in that moment I was like, I will never let this happen again. And I have a picture, I'll share it with you, that have a picture from that exact moment that I'll never forget. And every time I see it I'm like, that motherfucker.

Ryan Rayle (30:52.063)
Hahaha

Ryan Hegefeld (31:02.431)
Hahaha

Ryan Rayle (31:02.579)
So, but you can, you can play to a metronome now, right?

Jon Yadon Jr. (31:06.112)
Yeah, like live we play Metro. Like I love Metro now. Metro is my best friend besides Ryan. Yeah, no, Absolutely love it. But it's just, yeah, that was like the moment where I'm like, gotta fix this. So yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:06.42)
yeah.

Ryan Rayle (31:09.221)
Yeah. Beep beep boop boop, beep boop boop boop. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:11.191)
Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Rayle (31:15.573)
He

Ryan Rayle (31:19.861)
That's crazy. Just have like one of those like shit your pants moments. You're like, fuck.

Jon Yadon Jr. (31:24.14)
Pretty much, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just super defeating. I remember that drive home, I was like, this sucks. But it was a good kick in the ass for sure.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:24.835)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (31:31.965)
Yeah, man. Everybody needs, everybody needs to catch an L every now and again, just to, you know, stay humble and realize, you know, well, I need to improve here or it may prove out. Like maybe this isn't for me, right? You know, doesn't, doesn't matter how the L is caught. what you do with it. Yeah. man. Such a good time. Such a good time. So, again, I, I'm so happy that you guys.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:36.769)
I agree.

Jon Yadon Jr. (31:38.156)
Totally.

Jon Yadon Jr. (31:45.664)
Yeah, 100%.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:46.201)
Hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (31:49.618)
Yeah, that's it's responded to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:50.253)
this right.

Ryan Hegefeld (31:55.01)
you

Ryan Rayle (32:01.455)
are gonna, are gonna be on the show on December 7th. Come take it live with like literally all homies. Like it's so crazy whenever there's a locals only show. I really do enjoy seeing other locals show up that aren't even playing. They're just, you know, just there. do you guys, I feel like I, I, I'll have to admit I haven't been to a show and like maybe like a couple months. but I've just been just dead set on

Jon Yadon Jr. (32:17.002)
yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (32:17.635)
Yes.

Ryan Rayle (32:30.025)
you know, promoting the shit out of this thing. Because if you want a good laugh, you can go back to the last episode of for Lift the Curse, where I had asked a simple question, what does the locals expect from, you know, their local promoter? And John was like, nothing.

Jon Yadon Jr. (32:48.384)
I thought that was a trick question.

Ryan Rayle (32:51.409)
No, no, it was it was honest. you know, since then, I've just I've always tried to do my best in promoting local shows and helping out. Like I've even got offers from members that work at Empire to try and help promote some of their shows to do like a collaboration or a ticket giveaway just to get more eyes on. we, know, and then now that the collaborate feature is on their view, their fans and followers see my stuff and then vice versa. So I really think that

Jon Yadon Jr. (33:06.946)
cool cool

Jon Yadon Jr. (33:11.778)
That's rad.

Jon Yadon Jr. (33:16.841)
Mmm, mhm.

Ryan Rayle (33:20.693)
you know, if you take advantage of the collaborate, which I practically do all the time, because it's just why not, right? It's a fee. It's a free. It's a free feature to get more eyes on stuff like that's the that's the yeah. And it's also and it's also like the bane of our existence is that we have to do these things to like check these boxes and and and just hope hope that we can get 200 300 people to a

Jon Yadon Jr. (33:27.938)
It's so easy. Yep. Yep. It's a win-win for both, you know?

Ryan Rayle (33:50.227)
locals only show, right? Like it's just out of a, out as big as Austin is, I feel like every local show should be minimum 150, 200 deep on every, on any given night at any given venue. That's what I mean, as long as you know, capacity with stands. I mean, you can't, there's, some rooms you can't fit that many people in, but that's also cool. Like if you can fill out a 50 cap, like do it fucking do it, you know, and you don't have to play

Jon Yadon Jr. (34:09.002)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (34:15.127)
yeah! Yep.

Ryan Rayle (34:18.793)
You don't have to play it, come and take it all the time. We've got Valhalla we've got ballroom, we've got Mohawk if you can get in. I really wish like Stubbs would now I might get some backlash, but you know, that's for the bigger venues. But I just I'm I really am missing the mark or I feel like the bigger venues are missing the mark when they don't have a local open up. You know what I mean? I mean, dude, even like I'm going to.

I'm going to go see Under Oath with my wife on November 18th at Stubbs, as a matter of fact. And it's their 20 year, I think it's their only chase and safety tour. And I've got these cool ass vinyls that they shipped. There's like this anime book that's like a, like a lore or I forget what they call it. Manga. Yeah. Manga type thing. But it's like, how cool would it be if a local

Ryan Hegefeld (34:52.377)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (34:59.323)
cool.

Jon Yadon Jr. (35:04.957)
man.

Jon Yadon Jr. (35:09.781)
Okay.

Ryan Rayle (35:15.177)
would open that show up. And even if they started at six o'clock, there's going to be at least, we'll just take Stubbs for example, there would be at least six o'clock on a Saturday, 300 people there. Easy. Easy. That's just, I don't know.

Jon Yadon Jr. (35:17.502)
yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (35:28.504)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (35:28.546)
Dude, I went last week for the first time in a long time. Actually, I couldn't agree more, man. Stubbs, was sold out for, ironically, Ryan, we had a Lift The Curse show. It was a smaller festival called Grim Fest out in San Marcos, which we've done two years in a row. Super fun, so fun. They have this big, Ryan, you would love it. There's a huge stage they have out there that's out there permanently. Like, we could do a big show out there. So we should talk about that. And we know the owner we're pretty good with now. He's really, really cool and wants...

Ryan Rayle (35:42.153)
Yes.

Nice.

Jon Yadon Jr. (35:55.746)
shows out there and they have a smaller bar part too where they have shows. Yeah, it's a really cool spot. yeah, we did that and my girlfriend and had to rush out of there because we had tickets to see Dashboard Confessional at Stubbs and that shit was sold the fuck out. We got there right halfway between Boys Like Girls played too and I hadn't been to Stubbs in a while and it was like back to the porta potties. Like it was nuts. But to your point, if you have a local band open at 530 or something, there's still going to be 100, 200 people there, you know.

Ryan Rayle (35:57.503)
wants to grow.

Ryan Rayle (36:09.855)
Yes.

Ryan Rayle (36:24.563)
Right. just, I just. And now, you know, knowing that venues are almost not practically owned, but the ticket ticketmaster, E-Tix Live nation, C3, all that shit. It's like. That they are they the gatekeepers, right? I mean, why, why can we not petition these companies? I don't sorry, I'm on a Sunday thought process here.

Ryan Hegefeld (36:24.633)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (36:25.332)
So it'd be such a good opportunity.

Jon Yadon Jr. (36:36.906)
huh.

Jon Yadon Jr. (36:52.33)
No, dude,

Ryan Rayle (36:54.749)
I'm over here just like, like, how will we do this? Hmm. Hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (36:57.716)
Yeah, I think I might have brought this venue up last time Ryan, but the hot spot is the only one I can think of. That's the only one I can think of. again, Hegefeld and I know one of the owners there now and he's awesome, awesome people, but they have local openers usually, and it's only like one local before the main act. But that's one of the only venues I can think of, of that size that does that, which I think is really, really rare.

Ryan Rayle (37:01.513)
Hotspot.

Ryan Rayle (37:14.463)
That's it.

Ryan Rayle (37:18.583)
Man, gotta talk to the hotspot.

Jon Yadon Jr. (37:19.478)
So yeah, our guy named Chad Hendricks, he's the man. He's got a shirt company too. We'll hook you up, he's a great guy.

Ryan Rayle (37:23.199)
Plus.

Ryan Hegefeld (37:23.981)
He's awesome.

Ryan Rayle (37:26.111)
Plus getting shows north of 45 would be great. I mean, I wish, but the suburbanites out here, fuck, I've been out here in Leander forever and I've seen this place grow and I know that what happens downtown is not exactly the crowd that would go, there's a few of us out here that make the trek all the way downtown, but like, ugh.

Jon Yadon Jr. (37:33.174)
Yeah. hell yeah. Yes.

Jon Yadon Jr. (37:41.015)
Haha.

Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (37:54.474)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (37:55.197)
I would love to see a local metal show or a heavy rock show, you know, up here at the hotspot or like the field house at the crossover. Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (38:00.79)
Field house. I was just going to ask you what that place was called. Because Ryan, remember we did that in-person interview with me, Dylan, and Brian with you. It was so fucking fun. But that was there, right? Yeah, Hegefeld, is. I've shown you pictures, I think, but it is massive. Like, it would be so fun. Hegefeld, there's a hockey rink there too, right? Isn't there one inside? Yeah. The play facilities, crazy. Massive.

Ryan Rayle (38:06.399)
Yeah, dude, isn't that stage amazing? That's huge.

Ryan Rayle (38:14.387)
I mean...

Ryan Hegefeld (38:14.797)
Let's go!

Ryan Rayle (38:20.275)
Yes. Yeah. There's there's there's two hockey rinks inside of the crossover. Yes. They got an outdoor soccer field. They have two pickleball courts. They have indoor cornhole ping pong, volleyball, massive bar inside outside satellite bar and massive stage. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (38:20.67)
Let's double go.

Ryan Hegefeld (38:26.719)
my gosh.

Jon Yadon Jr. (38:34.262)
Huge bar.

Ryan Hegefeld (38:38.873)
What the hell?

Jon Yadon Jr. (38:40.04)
It's a wild wild place that I did not know existed truthfully.

Ryan Rayle (38:43.133)
It is, it is, I, my wife actually helped open that place up on the field house side, the bar side. And then I used to manage a little bar that's gone through many iterations since I've been there on, on inside, at the sky, at the skate rink. I still go, I, hell I was there like yesterday because they have, they also have like a, they have a indoor e-sports cave. So you just want to drop your kids off and let them play video games. It's all monitored. They hang out.

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:01.442)
Nice, nice.

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:06.212)
cool.

Ryan Rayle (39:09.875)
You know, it's a, it's a cool time. Parents can go down and, you know, catch a drink or whatever, or ice skate or. Fuck man. They do. They've got it. There's a church inside of there now. If you're into that. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. But yeah, that I feel like that stage is woefully underused for, I mean, you could put, I mean, there's these, that place is easily thousand plus. I mean, that's, that's, that's easy. Easily a thousand people could be out there in the front lawn.

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:18.69)
wow. That's got something for everybody, man. That's awesome. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (39:23.193)
It's amazing.

Ryan Hegefeld (39:37.324)
Thank you.

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:37.794)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (39:39.817)
having a good time. anyway, speaking of having a good time, December 7th, come and take it live. There are 10 bands, Lift the Curse is one of them. And my God, I just saw, I just looked over at your shirt, Ryan. Thank you very much. Shout out to Hayley. And it's, no, it's so funny. I saw, I saw a

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:45.162)
Yes.

Jon Yadon Jr. (39:53.698)
I saw that too.

Ryan Hegefeld (39:54.169)
I'm trying to represent

Ryan Rayle (40:05.329)
I saw a picture or a meme or whatever where somebody was complaining about the price of t-shirts these days. They're like, God, $35 for a t-shirt. It's like, well, okay. mean, if you, it's all about what you want to pay, right? Like for me, vinyls, as long as it's between 25 and, you know, $40, I'll buy a vinyl that's possibly pressed on a, on a run. Hell I've paid, I think the most I've ever paid was a 120, but that was for a custom art.

Ryan Hegefeld (40:10.402)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (40:18.262)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (40:26.753)
Me too.

Ryan Hegefeld (40:29.027)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (40:35.093)
Yeah, dude, it's why it's I'll send you a picture. Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (40:35.176)
okay.

But I would too, for the right thing, or if it's the right rare record from the 80s you can't get anywhere else, I would do that too. But 20 to 40 is kind where I'm at too, normally.

Ryan Rayle (40:41.821)
Hmm. Exactly. Yeah, I. I actually I bought it from a band called Steak Sauce Mustache, which is off the game charts off the charts. Our our boy Andy from Koningsor is the drummer. It's it's amazing. And and then we got my God, my dude from Cultburner is in it.

Ryan Hegefeld (40:44.31)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (40:54.0)
they better be with that kind of name. That name is so sick. hell yeah. That's awesome.

Ryan Hegefeld (40:55.715)
hear him.

Ryan Rayle (41:10.729)
What is your name, Bri? I'll figure it out. I'm gonna cut this part out though. I'll leave it in. But anyway, so it's like, and then the lead singer's like from Oregon or something. So whenever they go on tour, they got to map it out. But I bought a vinyl that they, it was a one-off. There will be no other one past it. And I'll send you a picture of it. It had like a cool insert. But anyway, God.

Jon Yadon Jr. (41:17.723)
That was good.

Ryan Hegefeld (41:18.637)
Leave it in.

Ryan Rayle (41:37.609)
Man, I'm doing this thing again. The shirt that he is wearing, it will be for sale for $10. It is my exact cost on that shirt is $10. So I am literally making no money on it. And I just, want people to have, I mean, it's, it's, I want people to have a good product, right? Like, you know, I bought them for, I don't know when I bought a thousand, was it a thousand? Fuck. How many did I buy?

Jon Yadon Jr. (41:40.439)
haha

Jon Yadon Jr. (41:44.926)
Sweet!

Ryan Hegefeld (41:45.337)
Wow.

Ryan Hegefeld (41:58.989)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (41:59.298)
Hell yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (42:07.586)
Should we have a thousand? That's a lot, that's amazing.

Ryan Rayle (42:07.655)
Anyway, I I bought a lot. I bought a lot of T-shirts and because I knew I was going to at least get 10 percent for marketing, right? Just handouts, you know, just for band members and whatnot. Because that's how we that's how we do business around here.

Ryan Hegefeld (42:11.001)
There's a lot.

Jon Yadon Jr. (42:18.338)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (42:23.426)
Yep, speaking of which, we're going to give you one of these too. Do you want black or gray? And what size are you again? Yeah, we just got these. OK, yeah, yeah. And then we got the gray. The quality is awesome too. But yeah. We'll give you both if you want, but yeah. OK, yeah, yeah. We all have a shit ton of black shirts, right? Duh. OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (42:26.333)
Whoa, that medium. Yes, yes.

Yeah, I got. gray. No, gray, gray. Yes, yes, we all have a ton of black shirts. My closet hates me. But now, man. So, yeah. So those T-shirts will be and I'll have tank tops, too. They will also be ten bucks. And I'm just honestly selling them for cost. I'm not making any money. It's just to give back to the community so you guys can, you know, whoever wants one can have one.

Jon Yadon Jr. (42:52.322)
Sweet, hell yeah.

Ryan Rayle (43:03.145)
Plus, I think I'm raffling away a pair of acoustic panels. And there was something else that we're doing. beer pong. We're going to have beer pong there and some flip cup. Yes. Yes. This is my, we're partying. Like we are. Yeah, dude.

Ryan Hegefeld (43:03.606)
yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (43:06.912)
cool.

Jon Yadon Jr. (43:12.962)
Are you serious? Where?

Ryan Hegefeld (43:16.011)
Let's go!

Jon Yadon Jr. (43:19.286)
actually, Ryan Reel, my parents are gonna be there and two of my parents' friends from California are flying out and the catalyst for that weekend for them coming out is to go to this show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah, yeah. So, very stoked.

Ryan Rayle (43:27.637)
YEEEE

Ryan Hegefeld (43:32.153)
That's awesome.

Ryan Rayle (43:34.207)
This is what I'm talking about. This is what I'm talking about. This type of energy, I know that it can't happen for every, I mean, it can happen for every show because every show has its own vibe, its own story, its own journey, the people that are, the people that put it together. Maybe the same people that put mine together or yours next one or your last one or one from two years ago. it just takes more than a couple clicks and shares on social media to kind of

Ryan Hegefeld (43:46.339)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (44:03.903)
to get a real fucking turnout. You know what I mean? Like there's gotta be hype, there's gotta be buzz. You gotta hit them with the FOMO. And that's what I'm gonna do. Like I'm going on UT, putting up flyers for specific bands because I feel like their demographic shop, shops there, goes to school there. Or, yes, yes, it's true. It's true. But yeah, like I sent,

Ryan Hegefeld (44:07.609)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (44:21.922)
Yeah, that's all both. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true, it's true.

Ryan Hegefeld (44:23.449)
Hey, if you're to school that you're shopping there

Ryan Rayle (44:32.979)
I sent some of your information to a record label executive in Dallas. Just to like, Hey, you guys should come down and check this band out. Also the other nine, but this is more your portfolio. Yeah, dude. I'm just, want it, I want it to be, I want it to be worthwhile. Like if we're celebrating 10 years, let's fucking celebrate, right? Like let's, let's party. So anyway.

Jon Yadon Jr. (44:55.83)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (44:56.652)
Amen.

Jon Yadon Jr. (44:59.714)
Dude, we're stoked man. Thanks again for having us. we're, yeah, again, I was absolutely not blown smoked honored when you texted it. I was like, fuck yeah, we want to support that shit.

Ryan Rayle (45:06.299)
I appreciate it, And I'm equally as honored. I'm equally as honored that the bands that I've that I've thought about putting on the show were are all in. They're all in. Plus, plus we're starting out the show with like the next generation of musical talent with Kate and the Krushers. I am so I've yet to see them play. I've literally just seen this this group on Instagram and that's it. That's it.

Ryan Hegefeld (45:08.557)
Yeah, we are excited.

Jon Yadon Jr. (45:27.18)
Same.

Ryan Hegefeld (45:30.649)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (45:31.498)
Yeah, I think me too.

Ryan Rayle (45:33.977)
Excuse me. And I have been in talks with the band manager, which I believe is the dad of two of the members, which makes sense. So we have a interview scheduled for, I believe, November 24th at their studio. We're going to set up some cameras and do some stuff. I've got an interview set up at Pouch Six Studios, the professional podcast studio on the North Austin location.

Jon Yadon Jr. (45:41.278)
Mm-mm.

Ryan Rayle (46:01.107)
I'm going talk to our boys in Reign So we got that one off the list. The only ones I'm not going to be able to get a hold of, think, are Godhand. But.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:05.068)
Hell yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:09.69)
dude, real quick, Kate and the Krushers I knew that sounded super familiar. Ryan Hegefeld, they played a couple bands before us last year at GrimFest. So, real, what we played last weekend, they played last year. And they were fucking awesome. They did like, I remember them doing a crazy, I don't mean to say crazy, an amazing version of Crazy Train. And they did a bunch of other cool fucking covers. They were really, really good. And I was like, dude, these kids are so talented. So.

Ryan Rayle (46:21.805)
okay.

Ryan Rayle (46:27.573)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (46:34.239)
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to having them on and kicking the show off. if they cut their teeth at 11 and 12 and 13, opening up the shows, by the time they get in their late teens, early 20s, they're somewhere in the bill around third or fourth. We've been opening shows for a decade, guys. Come on.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:37.474)
That's rad.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:44.354)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:52.832)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (46:52.867)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (46:56.983)
Yeah, come on!

Ryan Hegefeld (46:57.465)
Yeah

That's awesome.

Ryan Rayle (47:00.853)
I'm looking forward to talking to them. It's going to be great. But anyway, I'll stop taking up your time. We've been, God damn, almost an hour. It doesn't feel like it. Final shout outs and where everybody can find you and support you online.

Jon Yadon Jr. (47:09.568)
Hey, that's what we do, man. We can keep going. Love this.

Jon Yadon Jr. (47:17.402)
yeah, Lift the Curse everywhere at Lift the Curse Music. Yeah, and Ryan Rayle hit it on the head. We release a lot of music, about new single every month right now. Just released a song called Direct Hit and we probably haven't set the release date, but we'll most likely have a song called Wishing Well come out probably the week before this show, to be honest. So look out, yeah, Lift the Curse everywhere. And Hegefeld, what do you got?

Ryan Hegefeld (47:33.721)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Rayle (47:34.462)
Okay.

Ryan Hegefeld (47:39.371)
I just, Ryan, we love you, man. We're excited for the show in December. Yeah, that's my, that's my shout out. I'm excited to play beer pong. I'm excited. I'm excited to get a shirt.

Jon Yadon Jr. (47:40.482)
We do man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (47:44.192)
hahahaha

Ryan Rayle (47:49.781)
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, man. I I am, I feel like if we just bring the party back then, and I'll just say this before I close. We went to a Halloween party at some random, literally like in the middle of nowhere, 183, like it was, it was out there. And me and my wife were just kind of walking around, didn't really know anybody, kind of said, hey, you know, this, that, and the other.

Jon Yadon Jr. (47:57.877)
man.

Ryan Rayle (48:16.585)
I mean, we knew two people there, but there was at least 50 and we were just kind of sitting down and they started folding out this table and I'm like, my God, they're about to play beer pong as as though I haven't played beer pong ever. Right. Which I feel like I feel like I'm pretty good at it. I'm better at flip cup, though. Flip Cup is my game. But but yeah, I just started watching them play beer pong. And then my wife is like, hey, let's play. And it just felt like this rekindling of spirits just. Yeah. You know what?

Jon Yadon Jr. (48:33.334)
Mmm.

Ryan Hegefeld (48:35.427)
Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (48:45.557)
We're at a Halloween party. We Ubered here. Why are we being adults? Let's get let's fucking party. Let's yeah, let's let's start. Let's start playing beer. And I was like, I wonder if I can play beer pong at coming. hold on. was like, hey, Anthony, can I play beer pong at? He's like, of course you can. I was like, yeah. And then I think upstairs, think upstairs, I think we're going to.

Ryan Hegefeld (48:45.571)
Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (48:49.4)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (48:49.762)
I love that.

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:01.218)
my god. Dude, where's it gonna be? Upstairs or down? Okay, that's where my head went. It's perfect.

Ryan Hegefeld (49:02.387)
Yes! That's awesome!

Ryan Hegefeld (49:08.899)
Please.

Ryan Rayle (49:10.109)
Yeah, I think we're going to keep upstairs. I might try to get a vendor or two up there. I don't know exactly who I should have up there, but I want upstairs to be more of like a bizarre type or not bizarre that but but just like. Maybe you could set your stuff up upstairs and like it's not all about just the show, it's about the whole experience, right? Like.

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:15.631)
cool.

Ryan Hegefeld (49:16.889)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:23.863)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:32.246)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (49:35.463)
You I would love nothing more than to play beer pong in the middle of the floor while there's like a circle pit going on like that. That would be fun. Also dangerous, but then it would add just this other level of like unknowingly like, is he going to make it?

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:41.314)
I also thought of that.

Ryan Hegefeld (49:43.299)
yes

Jon Yadon Jr. (49:50.47)
it gets so slippery. Just think about that. Just like the moss bit just slipping all over the place. Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (49:51.81)
to make it.

Ryan Rayle (49:53.461)
But like, but anyway, so like, that's the thing or like, maybe maybe have a beer chugging competition in between sets. Like, let your mind run wild with with what you think is going to happen. And maybe, you know, like the the the bar is your oyster or whatever the world, the bar, the but yeah, also the bar anyway. Anyway.

Jon Yadon Jr. (50:08.181)
Yeah, yeah,

Jon Yadon Jr. (50:12.608)
Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (50:12.823)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (50:16.608)
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (50:19.929)
We love your passion though, because it's like, yeah, you want to make shows fun. You're there for a good time and good vibes, man. We're excited.

Jon Yadon Jr. (50:23.86)
yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (50:29.737)
Yeah, yeah. and then the other thing, we're still looking in the legality. I put it in the thread, but I would I desperately want to set up a table in on Sixth Street downtown on a Friday or a Saturday night and just promote the show and have my rig set up interviewing like like whoever I don't care. I do care, but.

Jon Yadon Jr. (50:53.09)
That was really cool.

Ryan Hegefeld (50:53.123)
That's cool. That's really cool.

Ryan Rayle (50:55.701)
But yeah, I just feel like it would be this like, I've never seen anybody do that. But then again, I'm not downtown all the time. I'm not actively researching it. But I just thought it'd be a cool little marketing trick to have just a fold out table from fucking Walmart or whatever, couple of chairs, couple of, know, four or five, six people just hanging out and people are naturally gonna be like, what is happening here? What is going on? And I mean,

Ryan Hegefeld (51:03.8)
Yeah.

Ryan Hegefeld (51:18.337)
What's going on? Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (51:19.138)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just...

Ryan Rayle (51:21.845)
And, you know, obviously, you know, podcasting these day, everybody's got a podcast, but I mean, some very notable podcasters are in the Austin area, you know, such as Joe Rogan. I mean, it's, it's, it's not a, it's not a hidden secret, but you know, when people see other people with microphones on downtown in a live setting, they just get naturally curious because everybody wants, everybody wants their little 15 minutes of fame, right? Then they come over and sit down and

Ryan Hegefeld (51:32.249)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (51:32.962)
True, true,

Ryan Hegefeld (51:47.523)
Mm-hmm.

Jon Yadon Jr. (51:47.712)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (51:49.351)
And just really like I thought it would be a cool idea just to have, I mean, I know we're going to have our ass hats and people that are just going to say shit to say shit, but through the editing process, we could make a pretty good episode of just maybe getting some like, Hey, have you, mean, honestly, here's, and here's the scenario. And then I'll end on this. We're all sitting at the table, maybe not all of us, maybe John's down there with me and we got maybe another couple members from the bands and we just see somebody come up and was like, Hey, do you like metal?

Jon Yadon Jr. (51:56.885)
Yeah.

yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (52:14.274)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (52:16.669)
Yes, I do. Do you like rock? Yes, I do. Well, have you heard of this band? And then just play it for him, right? Just here strap on the headphones and hit play.

Jon Yadon Jr. (52:17.921)
Hahaha

Jon Yadon Jr. (52:22.934)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be so fun. Or if they say no, fuck no. Come and listen anyways to see what you think. That might be more fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Rayle (52:27.795)
Yeah

That's right. Cause the algorithm really feeds on like anger and angst. they, they don't want to see like this feel good love session. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. Go to the guy that's really pissed that he, that he had to sit and listen through all that. Like that's who we want to watch. Man. I'm a

Ryan Hegefeld (52:36.557)
Yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (52:47.7)
Yeah, yeah. Dude, I love that idea. think that if the legality stuff, if passes that process, I think that'd be fucking really, really, really cool.

Ryan Hegefeld (52:54.646)
yeah.

Ryan Rayle (52:55.103)
So, so far I'm two for two. People said just do it. And if I needed to look into it, just talk to the city lawyer or someone at city council for a potential permit. Since I'm not selling anything, actually I would be selling tickets to a show. Anyway, questions for later. Not now. Right now we're going to round out this episode with Lift the Curse. Guys, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your music.

Jon Yadon Jr. (52:58.838)
Nice.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:06.486)
Got it, got it.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:14.965)
Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Rayle (53:22.725)
Oddly enough, oddly enough, was it Shadow? Shadow, that is a very good song to run to, very good BPM. Like, yeah. Yeah, it's a pretty, it's a very good pace to run to. So anyway, that's just a little nugget. Love you guys. I will see you December 7th. If we don't chat between then be safe and stick around and let all this stuff do its thing and then we'll get out of here. All right. Bye. Later guys.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:26.656)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:31.707)
hell yeah, cool cool cool.

Ryan Hegefeld (53:33.241)
That's awesome.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:37.278)
love that.

Jon Yadon Jr. (53:47.99)
Hell yeah, sounds good, Ryan. Thank you so much,

Ryan Hegefeld (53:48.727)
Thanks, Ryan.