ATX Metal Podcast

ATX Metal Podcast (00:01.64)
Mrow. What's up everybody. Ryan ATX metal podcast back again with another episode. And I, today I have Aaron from the band band and I just want to go on the record and say that it is 12 40 on a Sunday. And we were scheduled to do this at 12 o'clock and par par the course we have had to, I, I have had technical. All right.

Aaron (00:02.743)
Yeah.

Aaron (00:23.477)
Yeah.

Aaron (00:27.607)
Right, I hate... Me too, me too. I'll take the blame too.

ATX Metal Podcast (00:31.922)
Okay, we'll share this load together. so anyway, please introduce yourself, where you're from, what you do in the band. And then just a, you know, a brief little, brief little rundown, because for, and I was very upfront with Aaron earlier. I don't know anything about you guys, but, I do know that I got an email. I liked what I heard and saw and just, you know, decided to set this up.

Aaron (00:34.537)
Absolutely.

ATX Metal Podcast (00:59.574)
And so first off, Aaron, thank you for being so patient, Man, that lets me know that you're a homie. So anyway, take it away, bud.

Aaron (01:03.304)
yeah dude, you're good.

Aaron (01:08.717)
Okay.

Yeah, my name is Aaron. I am the I guess singer and rhythm guitar player of Man we we might be changing it to we are man I don't know we might be might be kind of getting a little brand into that but right now we're man We started in Austin, Texas we now live apart so we have

Our 2 guitar players live in Austin and then me and the drummer and the bass player live up in Pampa, Texas, which is where we grew where me and the drummer Mason grew up. So we grew up in Pampa, Texas and moved to Austin together. And we moved back. So we moved back and it's a cheaper cost of living. And we also took over a radio station. So we both work at a radio station here.

the me and the drummer and kind of just started building that. So it's kind of just a whole mixture of things that we're trying to do with the band and the music and stuff like that.

ATX Metal Podcast (02:19.794)
God right that all of that's amazing. All of that is amazing. I'm over here. Just this fucking thing get out of here. Just get out of here Anyway, so Pampa let's start there where in the where in the planet of Texas is Pampa

Aaron (02:22.909)
haha

Aaron (02:26.944)
You ready? Yeah.

Aaron (02:35.671)
Yeah.

It's it's pampered. Yeah, so Pampa Texas is by Amarillo, TX so it's in the panhandle. The little square that nobody really knows about that's us up there. So we're actually the real the real North is what I always say because they call Dallas North, but like we're way northern, you know, we're way we're we're northern Dallas, but it makes sense because they are technically the North part of the middle of Texas. So we're more of like the off.

ATX Metal Podcast (02:58.837)
Yeah.

Aaron (03:09.101)
off skirts over there. We're close to Colorado and New Mexico and Oklahoma and closer there than we are technically to most of the rest of Texas. So we are up there.

ATX Metal Podcast (03:24.47)
Yeah, you never, and then like you said, like you're close to Colorado. I Colorado is like, you're flipping neighbor.

Aaron (03:32.789)
Yeah, yeah, I mean 8 hours to Denver, which is 8 hours to Austin, so it's the same. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (03:37.462)
Yeah, just, you know, whichever direction you want to roll. man, so, okay. I'll just, I'll just keep going with the, with the community. Like what's, what is there to do in, Pampa besides, run a radio station.

Aaron (03:51.661)
There's not a whole lot. we're, yeah, we're, it's about 17,000 people, you know, we're a small town, but we did, you know, we had a lot we were doing in Austin. Me personally, I've been tour managing and managing bands for a while. So I just kind of like, just now got into the music scene. we're,

ATX Metal Podcast (03:54.36)
Ha

ATX Metal Podcast (04:00.265)
Okay.

Aaron (04:19.084)
or like being in the band, I guess. And so we started the band and we've decided to make it more of an internet band and play a little bit less live, like play certain shows, make them a reason to play, not just to play, I guess. we've been, because I did that, we did that, I that's how me and Mason, the drummer, actually met. We were...

ATX Metal Podcast (04:38.623)
Right.

Aaron (04:49.38)
I was the manager of Oddfellas and Mason was the drummer. So that was the connection with Oddfellas. And so we kind of, we toured a lot during that timeframe. And we know we just played all over the place every weekend and we did the whole play all the time, play everywhere thing. And we realized that, you know, it burns you out real fast when there's nothing that...

not all of them, but it's like if your goal is to make money with it or to build something out of it, just going to play to play is kind of, it doesn't really help us at all or to make it a business. So we've decided to really just focus online and live cheaper essentially. So that's why we moved back was to.

ATX Metal Podcast (05:30.591)
Right.

Aaron (05:41.063)
live is cheaper than Austin because right now I have a 2 bedroom house for the same price I was paying for a third of my rent and place in Austin. you know, I, it helps me free up because I also work a remote job and it helps me free up some time to like, not have to sit in three hours of traffic and also, while they're double deck, double decking I 35, you know, I, I know.

ATX Metal Podcast (06:07.219)
Yeah, man. Got to make room. Come on in.

Aaron (06:10.653)
Yeah, I love that city, but yes, right now we moved pretty much to kind of just get more time and more money because it's expensive and the cost of living is lower. So helps us kind put more, I'm trying to get a van or either that, an RV of some sort to where we can start.

Actually, you we can we can do a run of shows and things like that and actually plan things with Proper stuff we had all that before but yes, it's just kind of we're trying to trying to rebuild something different, you know with it also Yeah, I mean that's like the there's not a whole lot to do other than to work to answer questions so so it's literally yeah, you just work all the time so that's maybe that's where we can like

ATX Metal Podcast (06:57.519)
just just to do.

Aaron (07:04.489)
you know, grow as much as we can because all you do is work. I don't know.

ATX Metal Podcast (07:10.421)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's the sentiment I have at the end of my work week just Man I Speaking of kitties. We'll take a little sidebar here. We we recently got another cat and We rescue them from from the shelters Kiddo and I will go down to the shelter and just hang out with the cats just to hang out with the cats

Aaron (07:19.462)
Yeah, yeah, he understands.

Aaron (07:27.592)
Yeah.

Aaron (07:42.932)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (07:42.998)
we'll, we'll go occasionally. We'll visit the dogs. I am a dog person. And, now that I'm back into running, I would actually love to get a dog to go. Anyway. yeah. So my wife, my daughter texts me or sent me a message the other day or not about a month ago. She said, I have a secret to tell you. I'm like, what's, what's the secret? She's like, we're getting a cat. I was like, no way.

Your mom, your mom says that, you know, we can't, you know, she wasn't ready for one. And this, what turns out is that she just wasn't ready until she found the right one. And I've been protesting to get a cat for like over six months. And, anyway, long story short, we got a new cat, her name, her name's Anya and she looks like some weird fucking thing, but they just call it a rag doll. I the rag doll cat. I just like, that's a cool, fluffy cat.

Aaron (08:18.911)
Yeah.

Aaron (08:29.396)
Yeah.

Aaron (08:37.642)
Yeah. Yeah, love cats around here. I've got him off the internet, kind of. a free find. He's pretty crazy. name's Goose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got cats.

ATX Metal Podcast (08:39.113)
We'll call it cool fluffy cat.

ATX Metal Podcast (08:50.409)
Goose solid man. See everybody. We're just normal people. Right. We got, we got cats and dogs and we have to deal with, we have to deal with rent and cost of living and you know, like

Aaron (09:02.794)
Yeah, and then to pay for a band. Or a product. Yeah, yeah. And then you gotta, well, you add just more expenses that's considered a hobby or fun, you know? Until it's making money, yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (09:07.465)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look, we're all, we're all the same here.

ATX Metal Podcast (09:19.263)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is, is, yeah, it's just a hobby until it's, yeah, until it's profitable. But, but yeah, well, cool, man. So, so we got Pampin, the 2 guitarists are down here. So how does, how does practice go for you guys?

Aaron (09:26.718)
Yeah, pretty much.

Aaron (09:35.122)
Amen.

Aaron (09:38.826)
So we actually practice to a drummer built a like click track with the drum track and then like call outs essentially. So we practice to that, we pretty much practice individually and then we practice as the rhythm section Wednesday. It's essentially since they're both kind of lead, it's like, you know, they can.

They, as long as they're on the same page and we're on the same page, we can kind of like, you know, make it, make it work. Like we have a show next Saturday actually here in Pampas. It's our first show here and we're, uh, they're all, they're flying in on Friday. So we're going to rehearse, you know, all Friday night and probably some in some Saturday morning. then. Yeah, they're going to fly in. Yeah. It's, it's just, it's, it's cheaper. It's honestly cheaper because like,

ATX Metal Podcast (10:23.637)
You said they're on a fly up?

Man, okay.

Aaron (10:32.947)
They have direct flights and we bought them so far out. mean, it was like round trip is like 250 bucks. I mean, they probably could have drove, but we bought them so far out and they have direct flights from Austin to Amarillo. So it's like, you know.

ATX Metal Podcast (10:45.195)
well, there you go. Yeah. mean, and plus, and plus you're not, you're not locked in a car for a minimum of 16 hours plus stops or construction. Cause we know how great Texas road construction is. Holy crap, dude. Yeah. I can't, I can't wait to see that. So you mentioned it earlier, like double deck in Austin. So, for those that don't know, there is this massive project that's going on.

Aaron (10:47.293)
Yeah, they're

Aaron (10:52.722)
Yeah, yeah.

Aaron (10:57.16)
It's all over the place. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron (11:08.691)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (11:14.069)
Uh, down the downtown I 35, they are basically capping. They're putting a roof on the first they're taking down the upper deck. They're going to, those are gone. And then they're going to put like caps in for green space and parks. And it'll be like, it's, it is a wild vision. I, I, you know, there's yeah. And, and.

Aaron (11:27.4)
Yeah.

Aaron (11:35.944)
I'm here for it.

ATX Metal Podcast (11:39.581)
And, know, but there are cons to it because there's some, businesses along the interstate that are being like,

I don't want to say imminently domain because I just don't want to say that like, the goddamn the government's taking our stuff. But I do know that they offered, you know, businesses money to, move, so they can buy the property so they can do, you know, this, this vision. it's, it's, it's a cool thing. I hope I just, you know, when, when you talk in construction on I 35 downtown Austin, Texas, like that gives people.

Aaron (11:51.624)
Yeah.

Aaron (12:12.967)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (12:16.403)
like anxiety and nightmares and PTSD.

Aaron (12:16.996)
Nightmares. Well, I think it got bad whenever I was like, because we just left like in May. So it's been pretty recent, you know, we were living there. And it was like when when I was, I guess it really started frustrating me the most was like, no matter what time of day there was traffic. It was like

It was like, it used to be just, you know, morning rush hour and then you could kind of scoot around downtown, know, especially about nine or 10 o'clock. But then it turned into where there was traffic literally at 10, 11, 12, 1 a.m., like all hours of the day. So I'm just like, okay, well now we've got a problem. He's sneaking in like, oh.

ATX Metal Podcast (12:42.504)
Right?

ATX Metal Podcast (12:47.753)
Mm-hmm.

ATX Metal Podcast (13:02.185)
Yeah. It's I so, hello. That's fine. That's fine. We're here for it. We're we're was it Peter approved? I forget their name, but no, yeah, I drive. So I I'm a pool technician trainer. job I never thought I would say I was doing, but.

Aaron (13:06.373)
Yeah, he snuck in.

Aaron (13:12.164)
Yeah. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (13:29.717)
Uh, yeah, I teach, teach people how to not mess pools up. So that means I gotta go show them how to, you know, put them on the pool. And so I'm, so I dry, I literally drive around from seven 30 in the morning till as late as usual times like three, four, but I know for a fact, if I'm not on Mopac heading North by three ish PM, um, it's over. You're there.

Aaron (13:36.449)
Yeah, that's fair.

Aaron (13:51.983)
Yeah

Aaron (13:58.917)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (13:59.607)
You're locked in. It's same for same for one 83 going north. Oh my God. Let's, let's, let's stop talking about depressing stuff and talk about good music. Um, so when you guys decided to, uh, separate, I guess, tell what let's do this. What, what year did man start? If you said it before, I've since forgot it and I apologize.

Aaron (14:05.08)
Yeah, grid locked.

Aaron (14:10.096)
Yeah

Aaron (14:25.383)
No, no, so we started 2 years ago. So I was working at Guitar Center. I guess South Austin location. I was working at Guitar Center. Well, I was tour managing for a band called, I was tour managing for Post-Profit. I know if you know Post-Profit. Yeah, so I was tour managing for Post-Profit, working with them. And then I was tour managing for a band called Evlimbo.

ATX Metal Podcast (14:28.255)
Okay.

Shout out Guitar Center for supporting local music.

ATX Metal Podcast (14:44.638)
yeah, I've heard that band's name before.

Aaron (14:53.383)
And we were just, did a lot of touring and then it just kind of turned out to I was putting a lot into bands personally. It felt like that, you know, they didn't, I don't know, it didn't always pan out, right? So I was like, I was like, well, I was putting, you know, so much into this. And so, know, Oddfellas, COVID kind of killed Oddfellas. was the, cause we had a lot going on right before COVID and then...

You know, bands all about momentum and then when you lose your momentum like that, it's real hard to get it back. So that's kind of what happened with them. know, so we're all, friends now still. We all hang out like we all live here. So except for the bass player. So yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (15:32.663)
May I interject real quick? For those that don't know, Oddfellas was a really fucking cool, really, really was a cool band. The sound, golly, I forget dude with the glasses vocalist, I forget his name. Drake, yeah, Drake. he's got, last time I saw him, I think he's got tattoos on his face. Okay. Okay. I got the right guy.

Aaron (15:42.5)
Yes, they were.

Aaron (15:51.59)
Drink.

Aaron (15:58.469)
Yeah, he does.

Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (16:02.798)
no, it just, it had like this kind of like, I don't know, soulfulness. just like you, if you liked it, you liked it, you know, like there was, there was just, there was this good connection. So I just wanted to say, that I'm, I'm happy that you guys have, you know, just put that to bed and now this is the new, cause it's hard to transition out of, you know, project to project.

Aaron (16:12.773)
Yeah.

Aaron (16:28.197)
Yeah, it is. is. Me and Mason, we definitely struggled. I we all struggled. would say we all were... We had our time where everyone's kind of standoffish, know, it's a little short, but it's like, the thing is, before it all, were like, were doing it all, we really became really good friends, you know? So it's like, at the end of the day, we were always friends first. So it was like...

ATX Metal Podcast (16:56.214)
That's good. That's good, man.

Aaron (16:57.316)
You know, that's what made it, you know, now did we let things get in our way? Yeah, I mean, I feel like everybody does, you got to process certain motions, but you know, the goal I think we've always been, has always been that we've never really mad at each other, you know, it just didn't work out, it was frustrating, you know, a lot of stuff you put into it, a lot of energy goes into a band, especially what we were doing, like we were playing every weekend, you know, touring, like...

ATX Metal Podcast (17:26.582)
Yeah, y'all were hustlin'.

Aaron (17:27.32)
All across. Yeah, it was. It was a lot and all for no money, you know, so we were we were working Monday through Friday. Like we were working through through Friday, Monday through Friday and then we were we were playing Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then we come back and you know drive all day Sunday come back to it again. You know all because where we lived, which was Pampa, you couldn't.

ATX Metal Podcast (17:32.203)
Yeah.

Aaron (17:50.477)
You have to drive everywhere. There's not, there wasn't a scene to play, you know, and what's crazy and this is something that I talked about like scenes wise is, you know, we have like 15 bands in this area, like total, right? You know, so it's like, yeah, so it's like, I know, I know, I know. And so, so it's like, we can, we're gonna, we're gonna try to work on, you know, up here and that's something that really helped, I feel like was that you had to, you had to go and play.

ATX Metal Podcast (17:51.936)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (18:03.562)
That's it. There's probably 15 in my subdivision.

Aaron (18:20.601)
You you had to like, had to go out and get on the road and play somewhere because that was the only way you could play. But it was just, you know, we did it for a few years. It's a lot of energy and then COVID kind of, knocked it down just like everything else. And, we just didn't really recover. Me and Mason, the drummer ended up moving to Austin. I ended up, touring with some other bands there for a while. And, I just, you know, did odd, odd jobs.

sales jobs, know, just try to go door to a lot of door to door solar, did a lot of like, you know, just odds and ends.

ATX Metal Podcast (18:57.334)
Wait, wait, hit the brakes. Did you just say you were a door-to-door solar bro?

Aaron (19:02.661)
I was for a minute, yeah, but then I went to Guitar Center, so yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (19:07.894)
Can I just ask, does that job suck as bad as it looks like it does?

Aaron (19:13.668)
Honestly, I enjoyed it. The companies I worked for, they weren't like, or least the one that I really started with, just the logistics weren't really there yet. it was already an expensive city to live in. personally, it just wasn't my fit. I needed something more stable. So ended up going to guitar center and they had tour leave, which I was appreciative of. So I could go on tour.

ATX Metal Podcast (19:16.459)
Okay.

ATX Metal Podcast (19:42.624)
Wait, hold up, hold on. Did you say tour leave? like,

Aaron (19:46.807)
Yeah, Guitar Center, they have tour leave.

So you could.

ATX Metal Podcast (19:52.799)
Of course, of course it's like paternity leave or just regular PTO, but it's labeled tour.

Aaron (19:55.65)
Yeah. Yeah, for tour. Yeah, but it's it's so essentially it's designed to where like they can't they can't get rid of your they can't fire you like you have 90 days essentially that you could go on a tour. And they and they would. Yeah, it's just not paid. It's just you just can't like like you'll have a job when you come back pretty much type thing.

ATX Metal Podcast (20:03.35)
does that know that?

ATX Metal Podcast (20:10.172)
What? They give three months?

ATX Metal Podcast (20:15.346)
so, that's almost a form of, the FMLA family emergency medical leave act. So they like, if you go on FMLA, here's another little note to put in everybody's cap. If you have an emergency, a family emergency, not just medical, I actually learned this not too long ago because I could have in fact used FMLA for, my grandpa's. You know, anyway, they got to hold your job and they're, and that's talking like,

Aaron (20:22.649)
Get you.

Aaron (20:27.36)
Yeah

Aaron (20:32.184)
You

ATX Metal Podcast (20:45.568)
an immediate, like an adoption, like if some shit happens in a family, you gotta go take care of a family member. It's not just you have an emergency, personally. yeah. Yeah. For, for knowledge is power. Everybody go look up the FMLA act. Hell, I'll put it in the show notes that way. It's right there. It's a very good, it's a very good federal law.

Aaron (20:56.056)
It's like for if OK, that's cool like family.

Aaron (21:05.783)
Yes.

ATX Metal Podcast (21:11.766)
that allows you to take time away from your work in under certain circumstances and they can and they cannot fire you. Yeah, this shouldn't be a law. This should just be common sense, you know? But anyway, so anyway, the more you know, right? To her leave.

Aaron (21:17.805)
which we shouldn't, we should be able to.

Yeah, Guitar Center, Tour Lead and FMLA Lead. Like, yeah, no, that's the one good thing about Guitar Center. I enjoyed that and the discounts, you know? So I, the job was cool. I liked working with people up there. You know, I was, we had a good little group of friends and this is kind of where it all, the band started was because I was doing the touring in and out. And then they're like, one of my friends there's named Austin. He's in a band called Mock.

there in Austin and he's a he was funny he Was like you don't know how to play guitar and you work guitar center and I was like no I don't And he was like he was like well you need to like you need to learn and I was okay So so we got the guitar and he was like just try drop D. I was alright, so I just started playing drop D and Yeah, then we start right like I started writing songs and we started I started a band

pretty much formed that and that was about 20, what was it, 2022, what year are we in, 2025, 2023 probably, about 2 years. And they were, like my band members were, my bass player worked at Guitar Center with me as our guitar tech and then he was kind of the one that started jamming with me at first.

ATX Metal Podcast (22:37.686)
Okay.

Aaron (22:56.131)
And then Post-Profit actually helped me. They helped me write or they helped me. So I recorded Hey Man, our first song. I recorded Hey Man at home and then I sent them the tracks and I used like Austin and his roommate was named Dom. They had a little house studio. So we kind of structured that song out a little bit. And then I sent it to Post-Profit guys. They helped me form it to make it more of a cohesive song. And then we created the song and then

after that, with that song, I was able to essentially establish a band. Cause I was like, Hey, here's, here's the product to have like, let's create off of this. so I got, bass player locked in and then, guitar player locked in. met him at guitar center as well. He was just playing guitar and I was like, I liked his band shirt. He was wearing a tiger. He's a tiger cub or dead poet society. I always forget. Cause this is the 2 that he wears the most, but it was, I think it was, I think it was,

ATX Metal Podcast (23:50.986)
Ooh.

Aaron (23:53.782)
tiger cuban we were and i was like a you know i like that band we start talking music and then he was playing guitar and then is that you want to jam later and then is up there's a guitar player

ATX Metal Podcast (24:02.208)
Wait, wait. Okay. So I keep, I keep hearing all these cool stories in this one story. And so your guitarist was literally just playing guitar at the guitar center you worked at and was wearing a shirt either, either of which are awesome. And yeah. So, so then you just like approached him and like, like the shirt.

Aaron (24:10.199)
Yeah.

Aaron (24:18.058)
Yeah, I was.

Aaron (24:25.154)
Yeah, Tiger Cobra Dead Poets Society,

ATX Metal Podcast (24:32.02)
Music, you know, music ideas. Hey, want to jam later? And now he's in the band.

Aaron (24:36.674)
Yeah, we literally like that night, that night I went to his house and we jammed and we played, we played Hey Man over and over and over, started learning that song that we had. then, and then, yeah, then after that, he joined the band and we, turned, he's the young, he's the younger guy. He turned 21 like the week later or something. we, yeah, 20, 20, yeah, 22, 23. Oh yeah, 23. And so he,

ATX Metal Podcast (24:57.109)
wow, so he's 23 now? 24?

Aaron (25:05.781)
Yeah, it was a fun time. Yeah, he was cool. It's interesting how that just worked out. Because Liam, which he worked at Guitar Center, and he's going crazy back there, he worked at Guitar Center before at that Guitar Center. So he knew everybody, kind of, but I never knew him. I didn't know who he was. I didn't even know he worked there. And so he worked there before I worked there. So he just came in a lot. And that's kind of how it came.

ATX Metal Podcast (25:16.523)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (25:22.966)
Interesting.

Aaron (25:35.314)
you know with them and then Mason my drummer he'll still he'll still swear up and down that all he's doing is just helping me but he still still plays you know and he's like right now he's helping me write songs and and and build build it out and he's he's the drummer but he won't accept that he's the drummer and so but it's but yeah

ATX Metal Podcast (25:58.389)
like drummer acceptance syndrome.

Aaron (26:02.593)
He's a funny guy. But yeah, but we both work at the radio station now. Which we went to high school together, so I've known him a little bit longer. We weren't really friends in high school, but I knew who he was. So we've got a little bit of a... I've known him for a long time and it was kind of like, I was managing on fellows. He was not really in a band anymore. They were just living down there. We ended up living together for a little while.

ATX Metal Podcast (26:10.14)
okay.

Aaron (26:33.665)
Um, uh, Hey, put it down. And, then we, yeah, no, he's about to knock my stuff off. He's like literally intentionally because I'm not giving him any freaking attention. Um, but, uh, yeah, yeah, get over here. they don't even like pets. Uh, but yeah, it's, it was interesting though, how it all came apart and, and we were able to work songs together.

ATX Metal Podcast (26:38.198)
Troublemaker.

ATX Metal Podcast (26:47.36)
He's like, he's like, Aaron, just fucking give me a hug.

ATX Metal Podcast (26:54.006)
Just...

Aaron (27:01.12)
And then we wrote 2 more songs based off of Hey Man. So the little EP we put out was called The Hey Man Project. that one was the songs were Hey Man, The Plan Is You. So those three songs were like kind of transition. I don't know, they're all a story. So essentially trying to write like a concept.

There's a concept behind what we're

ATX Metal Podcast (27:31.357)
shit. Okay. Yeah, let's get into that. Cause my, my buddy will tell me he's like the best concept band is coheed and Cambria and, and I, for the life of me, I want to invest the time to, to, you know, under, yeah. Like, and like I, cause I've, you know, I do this with my daughter, you know, she's into anime, which I just, I never, I never had like on

Aaron (27:41.087)
Yeah.

Aaron (27:49.574)
Understand the Lord.

ATX Metal Podcast (28:00.427)
the radar for things that she would be into when she was younger. Cause because I don't know anything about the anime world. But we'll go to Comic Con and you know, she'll be telling me this and this and this and and I'm trying to understand and it's just like, I really doesn't like appeal to me, but like coheed and Cambria it's like, okay, but that's that's about like

space and starships, not starships. see, I'm, I'm sorry, Kohi fans. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. But, wait, hold on a second. We're hit pause real quick. It says Aaron's recording has stopped. Aaron's recording has stopped due to an incoming call.

ATX Metal Podcast (28:50.806)
hold on one second.

ATX Metal Podcast (29:32.886)
Here comes.

Aaron (29:36.282)
Can you hear me?

ATX Metal Podcast (29:37.034)
Hey, there you are. said, it said that we lost you because you had an incoming call.

Aaron (29:42.961)
Dang it, I have do not disturb on. Interesting.

ATX Metal Podcast (29:45.322)
Yeah, that's what.

Aaron (29:48.912)
Sorry about that.

ATX Metal Podcast (29:49.856)
No, no, no, you're good, you're good.

Aaron (29:54.353)
But you said Comic-Con. Sorry, I heard Comic-Con. You know, guys, you and your daughter go to Comic-Con and after that...

ATX Metal Podcast (29:59.884)
Sorry, yeah, was trying to make it make sense and then all of sudden that happened and I was like, okay, so goddamn. Bum bum bum bum bum, comic con. So getting into the lore in anime is like hard for me to like get there. Same with the Kohi gang. Like I would love to understand it because then I could talk.

Aaron (30:04.41)
Dead. Dead.

ATX Metal Podcast (30:26.613)
intelligently of it or at least have a conversation about it and be in the conversation versus standing out on the edge like I know the band's name but anyway I don't even know where we were at but

Aaron (30:40.66)
Yeah, no, we're talking about concepts. talking about how we were writing some concepts.

ATX Metal Podcast (30:44.803)
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So please, what is the concept that we are trying to put out there?

Aaron (30:51.238)
Uh, so, um, it's interesting, but I would say it's like that we're, we're a man, like we're mankind, right? We're one, we're, uh, it's like a, more of a, uh, a peaceful, try to peaceful thing. You know, we, we're, we're not going to shy away that I would say that we do right. Cause our song, think everyone or ask me, you know, if it was about politics and it's not necessarily a hundred percent about politics.

ATX Metal Podcast (30:59.07)
okay.

Aaron (31:18.31)
You know, we say left and right a lot, the reason that actually came about was because our friend that helped write it was going to the Air Force. And so we were like, he was about to go to boot camp and we were hanging out and whatnot. And we were writing that song and then, you know, we would actually, it was like a chanty thing. We started saying left, right, left, right. And then it ended up being a...

a thing, it was the middle of the election. honestly, you know, it probably has something to do with that as well. So, but, you know, we're, we're trying to be, you know, like we have a new, we have a song called people that's kind of like about how we're all the same and like we are all dealing with, we're really, we're, we're kind of dealing with the same problems, but getting,

you know, getting messages from different directions and it's just, it's like, you know, separate messages for people and, and, you know, it's just a, it's just a what's going on in the world type thing, I guess. And, you know, I,

You're being crazy cat dude. Really? My lord.

ATX Metal Podcast (32:27.863)
For those that are for those listening to this Aaron's cat is is being off the charts zoomies right now But but we'll allow it. there he is getting him love bites Yeah

Aaron (32:34.125)
is being wild.

Yeah, he's a little kitten. There we go. There we go. But yeah, he... So essentially the music is kind of... We've written about an album at this point and they all... Every song, they're cohesive. They all go together. There's a story. That's kind of the idea. I don't know when that's gonna come out. We're in this phase of like...

I'm trying to make our music last as long as possible type thing because you have to keep up with the release of people's attention spans when it comes to new songs that are very low. You like it for a week or 2 and then you're onto something different usually. That's where feel like marketing is so important. We're trying to market.

ATX Metal Podcast (33:11.606)
Right.

ATX Metal Podcast (33:25.793)
Yeah.

Aaron (33:36.516)
the band as much as possible. It's a little less than it was there for a minute, but we have a song coming out Friday. We recorded like a year and a half ago and we're finally putting it out. We did it with a feature artist of a, his name's Profit Drama.

ATX Metal Podcast (33:52.023)
Man.

Aaron (34:04.644)
He's a friend that we've been, I've been friends with in music for a long time. so it's a cover song of Hello Good by No Doubt. it's a cool little rock, dancey, heavy, we kind of put some heavy guitars on it and it's a fun time. So that one comes out on Friday, which it's kind of how our release schedule has been. It's like every, we put a song out every three to...

probably every six months right now. And so, yeah, yeah. And that kind of keeps it to where we're, we still can, we still have a backlog of songs. We're not completely out, but we're just trying to keep a steady pace of releasing to where we can maintain an audience, to where you can find the funding. Like, I've been talking to...

ATX Metal Podcast (34:37.749)
Nothing wrong with that pace.

Aaron (35:00.579)
a funding manager. She said she's like a funding manager in Nashville. I don't know if it's interesting, but we'll see if it turns into something. Hopefully, that's a connection to help us get maybe some more funding because there's grants and stuff that you can get. That's what she was talking about getting. Hopefully, that turns into something and we can really start funding because really it's like

I think we have the music to be able to at least get a solid regional base, we just need the budget, just like everybody, right? Every band, you gotta have a budget of marketing or you play the shows or you do whatever you gotta do to get in front of the people. And I think that's kind of what we've been trying to do a little bit with the radio station as well. So they're letting us play our music on the station.

We're building a fan base around it because we're like live DJs on the station. So it kind of helps grow a little bit. And then, you know, we've been, we've been just trying to find different ways to build a.

market that we can sell some tickets and because we were doing pretty good in Austin selling tickets but the only problem is everywhere we played it was only a dollar a ticket and at that point it's like what do we... and I'm not saying we brought tons of people we brought like we'd usually be able to get like 30 or 40 people in the room but at a dollar a ticket I that's 40 bucks.

ATX Metal Podcast (36:30.135)
Damn.

ATX Metal Podcast (36:44.993)
So you're saying the places that you were playing in Austin were only paying you a dollar per ticket sold.

Aaron (36:48.353)
Yeah.

Aaron (36:53.25)
Pretty much, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and yeah, no, that's okay. That's that's a, that's the way the world man. That's how it's been for a long time. But yeah, we were, we, you know, we were playing, you know, we can play up here. Our fourth show, our third show was up here. We opened for Hinder. And they, the, you know, we had probably 100 people there just for ourselves. And you know, we made

ATX Metal Podcast (36:59.541)
that. I am, I'm sorry.

That's... Man.

Aaron (37:27.683)
1500 bucks and it was like it but then but then we play in Austin where we're supposedly have like all this opportunity and You know, it's like we play but you don't really sell merch and then on top of that we weren't getting any You know, we weren't really getting any type of pay for for the tickets we were selling, know, it's it's um, it's not the venue's fault. It's usually like whoever's you know, I felt like it's the promotion like other promoters, but

ATX Metal Podcast (37:29.985)
Dude, hell yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (37:55.446)
motor.

Aaron (37:57.186)
And at the end of the day, I also understand it because it's like, you know, there are dues that you have to kind of pay, but I don't. But I feel like, you know, it's a dollar is pretty rough because it's like playing playing playing downtown. costs $40 to park. So it's like, you know, it's like.

ATX Metal Podcast (38:10.199)
Brother, a dollar.

ATX Metal Podcast (38:15.403)
Yeah, like that's, mean, okay. So here, here's a public service announcement. I'm look right into this camera right here. Like the wristband says support local music. And that means if, know, like he said, you, you know, they sold tickets. It's just that whoever was on the receiving end of the rest of that ticket value.

Aaron (38:24.053)
Yeah.

Aaron (38:30.017)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (38:44.811)
just decided that's what that ticket was worth. I, I throw one show a year and my goal is to get to where I can pay at a minimum. Everybody, I'm at a hundred now, my minimum payout is a hundred bucks. And I know that, and even as I say that, I feel

Aaron (38:49.984)
Yeah.

Aaron (39:11.03)
Hey!

ATX Metal Podcast (39:12.829)
I feel that I can do better. like that's what I'm getting to is like my goal is to be able to pay every band $250 for a set. And that's just, like you said that, cause I am a promoter of local music whenever I do throw that show. I have to, you know, yeah, we're going to charge probably 20, $25 a ticket.

You know, you get a hundred people in there as $2,000 split that that's eight bands. Boom. Done. That's easy math. A hundred people at 2 at $20 is $2,000. Follow the bouncing ball here. Everybody $2,000 with eight bands. That's $2,500 or $250 each band. That's pure, pure hunt. That's nothing to the venue. That doesn't account for bar sales. That doesn't account for merch.

Aaron (39:45.579)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (40:08.981)
That's how easy it is. A hundred people come up like a hundred people, 20 bucks. I've done worse things with more money and I will, I will gladly pay $20 to go see eight fucking bands. Are you crazy? I'll pay, I'll pay 20 to go see one. I mean, it's gotta be the right one, but, but man, God, if, if you work at a music venue or our promoter fucking do better.

Aaron (40:18.017)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (40:38.199)
than $1.

Aaron (40:38.507)
Yeah, yeah, it's just I mean, like I said, I

ATX Metal Podcast (40:42.459)
There's the name of the episode, one dollar ticket with dollar a ticket. Hell make that, make that the next fucking single. My God. Dollar ticket.

Aaron (40:45.054)
Yeah, a dollar per ticket. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it was as crazy because, know, and specifically some of those shows, you know, it was like, you know, we were the local, you know, we were the local band, right? So you bring you bring the people and I understand the fact of the regional the regional touring scene. Like, understand why local solid locals are important. But wouldn't you think that that you would like take care of the solid locals at that point because you like want them to always want to play your shows?

ATX Metal Podcast (41:05.729)
Bring the people.

ATX Metal Podcast (41:18.721)
Yes.

Aaron (41:20.16)
You know, so it's like, that's the, you know, it's interesting. So I'm not saying like we've like, you know, 30, honestly 30, 40 tickets is it's not a ton, but it's something that you can, yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (41:32.606)
No, that's solid numbers for a low. I personally think if you can get our our our ask whenever I throw a show is bring 25 because if you can bring 25 people, I pay. That's why we kind of land on like paint, like how much do you actually give the band? Right. What what what is that payment? You know, people are like, we won't pay for.

Aaron (41:45.258)
Yeah.

Aaron (41:57.269)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (42:01.1)
or we won't play for anything less than 2 50 or we want a thousand dollars. Cause everybody sets the value of their, they are not the value. They set their, their price, right? But like you said earlier, there's dues that do have to be paid and you get out there and you grind and you play for the dollar tickets and the, and the beer and the pizza and the, you know, this and that. And it's a fuck man. It's a, it's a wild game to like watch.

Aaron (42:12.157)
Yeah.

Aaron (42:29.802)
Yeah. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (42:30.583)
It's like, you like, yeah, there's this really shitty, shitty, shitty aspect of it. But if you really, really, really, really want to do it, like you said earlier, you know, um, just, you know, committing and just investing not only in your real, you know, real world, but then in your hobby world that you're trying to take hobby world and turn it into real world. So it's a, it's a fine.

Aaron (42:51.251)
Yeah. Yeah.

Into real world. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (42:59.351)
It's a fine line and a hard one. And I applaud musicians and artists and bands like yourself because I am not one. But I do understand that that grind does exist and it's not lost on me. whenever I throw shows and I wanna pay it forward, poof, brother, we're trying.

Aaron (43:19.411)
Well, yeah, yeah, well, I agree with that. Yeah. And that's a, well, you know, I've known like you and like Anthony Stevenson, you know, he's always been, he's always taken care of us. Um, like even, even during Oddfellas, like it was funny, I ran out, like even after Oddfellas, I ran into him and the, like on the road, I think it was 2 times, like it was like one festival, I just ran in the back of him and like back, you know, and then it is, it's, and he always treated me like, you know,

ATX Metal Podcast (43:30.107)
yeah.

Aaron (43:45.448)
Like he knew me, you know, friendly, like he was the friendly guy. did exactly how he was in real life. So, so like those, those promoters, like, like he's like, he's a great promoter and I've always counted our, least venue owner, like, you know, those guys. And I know that's, that's how we know you like is through come and take it. you know, it's like that, that scene right there is a good scene to be a part of. but there are some scenes definitely, and, and it's, it's frustrating cause, it's, you know,

when it comes to music and especially in a city like Austin, like the music city, because they're all very similar, know, LA is similar, Nashville is similar, and Austin, but it's like they all have, you know, they have a whole working class musician that like actually plays every single night. They get paid, they're in the, you know, but then there's the scene, there's the scene that's also like the building a band scene where it's like,

So that's a whole different, you know what I mean? It's like a whole different segment of, yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (44:46.305)
Dude, you're not wrong. That's something that I was not aware of. That's, I mean, a long time ago, I was, when we first started this, I didn't know anything about the local music scene here. Like I just, my buddy that I started it with, he just said, look, you're good at talking to people and you're easy on the eyes. So I got the rest. was like, okay, thanks for the compliment.

Aaron (45:11.144)
Yeah

Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (45:15.635)
But, but no, it's, and it really showed up, in ACL. and then I'm sorry, not ACL South by South by Southwest went like pre tech bro Bitcoin fucking just techie when it, when the music side was like the thing to go do, like I'm going to pay $1,500 for this laminate that gets me an

Aaron (45:28.796)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (45:44.896)
literally everywhere so I can go see all the different types and styles of music. Now it's, don't even know how much it is, you know, next year, but it's going to be actually they're shortening it. They, I, yeah, now it's like movies, tech, AI, but they actually are getting rid of 2 days of this coming South by, which is sad, but now you have to condense. Cause I forget what they're getting rid of. They're kind of

Aaron (45:50.237)
Yeah.

Aaron (45:57.618)
It's mostly movies,

Aaron (46:09.575)
near.

ATX Metal Podcast (46:13.887)
not focusing on this and, I'll have to, I'll have to do some more homework because that's like, not only during like big events like that here in Austin, but just like you said, middle-class blue collar date, they're, they're a server. They're your server at the restaurant you're going to downtown or hell at the, the, the ramen spot or the food truck. mean, you know, they're, they're doing all nine to five, but some of them have, you know, just like regular jobs, but.

Aaron (46:42.658)
Yeah. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (46:43.383)
But they go downtown and they play every night or five nights a week. have almost like residencies, uh, like the continental club on Congress love that place. Um, just all these cool little places where like that's what they want to do as a profession is just gig at night, maybe a couple tours here and there and also have a day job here and there. like, like you said, then there's this whole other, this is a whole other segment.

Aaron (46:49.575)
Yeah.

Aaron (47:10.439)
segment of like if you're trying to build, yeah, because if you're trying to build a project, that's like a whole different, it's a whole different job, you know, that's like starting a business, you know, and then you have to like, yeah, exactly. And so it's, you know, it's definitely interesting. That scene is always, it took me a while to understand it, but yeah, I...

ATX Metal Podcast (47:15.84)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (47:20.183)
It's a city in a city.

Aaron (47:36.221)
It's a, yeah, it's like, cause then you got your hired guns, know, which is a whole different section of music. then, you know, it's a, yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird world. It's a lot of moving parts, a lot of, and it's rather small. Like I feel like too, you know, it's like, it's big, but it's small. So it's like, you really, you start running into, you start running into people and then that person knows that person. And you know, it's like, it's always a...

ATX Metal Podcast (47:41.878)
Yup.

Aaron (48:05.021)
It's like a interesting, you know, snowball effect of how things can turn out in music too. So I've really enjoyed the grind. I'm ready for stuff to start working out. I'm about eight years in. yeah, we can just make it.

ATX Metal Podcast (48:18.263)
You're like, it's like, it's like you're in a bad relationship, but you're like, if we can just have one more good day, you're just like,

Aaron (48:34.982)
We're about to, I mean, and not to say that it hasn't worked out. Like I've got some, I've had some crazy experiences that I personally enjoy, but I'm like, I'm, you know, I would love, I would love for the, for if this is going to work, if we can pick it up, you know, it's like,

ATX Metal Podcast (48:41.451)
No, I've.

ATX Metal Podcast (48:55.329)
So let me, let me ask you this and, and, and I'll just, we'll just, we'll just end on that. We'll end on this because I think it's going to be a good one. Like what, what does success look like for you as just, I guess I'll phrase it. You is, cause I feel like you have a lot invested. Do you have the most in that? Okay. Two questions. What does success look like for you?

Aaron (49:20.442)
Mm-hmm.

ATX Metal Podcast (49:22.527)
And who has the biggest investment in the band? And I don't want that to be like a dick measuring contest. Like, you know, wow, I got this. But I mean, like how much, how much buy-in do you have? mean, cause I feel like you got the most.

Aaron (49:33.002)
Yeah, yeah, it's the the first question one more time. First question.

ATX Metal Podcast (49:40.375)
We'll switch them go with the by like how much by how much are you invested in the band? no. No. Yeah, I don't need like a dollar figure I just

Aaron (49:44.391)
Okay. So financially, a bit. but okay, yeah, well, I'd say, you know, well, the thing is, though, it's important, like, I feel like if you want to start a band, you have to put money into it. There's no way to do it without money. And so you have to like, have, like, you know, either either somebody gives you the money and you sign a contract, or you

at yourself and hopefully you get an investment or like return. So you have to kind of build. I think we all have our equal. I learned a long time ago when you have band members and this is I think from tour managing too mostly it's like every band member has a role and a lot of the times each band member

ATX Metal Podcast (50:34.145)
Right.

Aaron (50:36.705)
isn't good at certain roles and there's no reason to ask like there's no reason to ask them to do the you know it's like everybody just do their own thing right and so as long as they should like my thing is like as long as we show up everybody knows the music and plays like i i try to handle everything else so it's like the the the writing is is is mainly done like between me and the drummer everybody everybody writes but the structure and like the the

like, so guitar player will send a riff drummer built drum track to the riff helps kind of structure out. both structure it out. same thing with me. It's like, have, I have a rhythm part and some lyrics that I'm kind of singing. I sent it to him. We, build it out and we demo it out and start recording it. And then, and that's kind of how we've, we've written songs. And so we can send back and forth to each other.

You know, guitar player can track some clay. He can track guitar on it, send it back to us, you know, see if the idea works, doesn't work type thing. You know, so that's, we're all, I would say we all have a pretty equal investment when it comes to like our roles. Everybody performs their roles, what they need to do. There's not, you know, I'm not, I never have to worry about people's.

not showing up. all like every like it's you know everybody's at every rehearsal everybody's at every you know everyone takes it very serious. It's like I don't know we've all committed to it I guess if that makes sense so it's like now we're just trying to make it make work you know I think that's another thing people don't talk about either is like it's really hard.

ATX Metal Podcast (52:19.159)
Yeah.

Aaron (52:26.842)
Like we have a hired gun in our band and he's helping a lot in other ways too. You probably know his name is Mark Sean from Black Heart Saints. He just started a new project there called Penwheel. They're pretty cool. You should check them out. yeah, he'll be here for the show. He's kind of like a hired gun also, like has experience because

ATX Metal Podcast (52:33.783)
Mark Sean. my. Yeah. I've I'm familiar with the name. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (52:47.104)
Okay.

Aaron (52:55.291)
This is my first band ever play in my first band ever like first time ever learning to play and sing. So it's been it's been a struggle anyway. The guitar player and the bass player have never been in band before at all, you know, so Mason Mason, my drummer has been in band since he's 15. So he's got a lot of a lot of a lot of structure in there at this point. And then Mark has a lot of experience as well, which

ATX Metal Podcast (53:10.635)
Aaron (53:22.746)
I have a lot of experience in the touring side, but not playing. like, so I can, I can definitely run a show and make sure we're on track and we get everything going. But, but when it comes to playing, I don't, I don't know how to EQ things properly, like still like, I'm, you know, still learning those things. I, but we have people that know how to like, you know, everybody has the role, right? So, um, you know, uh, our bass player is a guitar tech. was a guitar tech at, at, uh,

at Guitar Center. you know, he makes sure all our guitars are set up. He takes care of all of the, you know, like the string changes and the cleanings. Like, he sets them up for every show, you know, and then we've got guitar player Clay. He helps me, you know, financially on some stuff. He helps invest. And then he also, you know, he writes a lot. got a lot of, you know, he brings in the gear. He brings his, does his job. does, you know, and he's committed, you know, so.

It's a, it's a, buy-in I would say is a good, like we're all here, like we want this to work. And, you know, I think we all have the vision that it could. So it's just, it has to have the right, you know, obviously the right, the right moving parts is always everything, but, you know, the, it's a, it is a struggle, you know, it's like we've, we recorded 2 music videos, you know, I'm completely funding in ourselves.

you know, it's like we're, our, the music videos are not cheap either. You know, it's like we hired a guy's name is Joshua Schultz, at a Ville. Well, he was in Florida now, but he's, was in LA. did videos for like Incubus and, like, you know, the, a lot of the nineties bands and 2 thousands bands that were like, you know, the early, which is kind of the, kind of the world we're kind of in the post-crunch type vibes anyway. And so he,

He's been a big help, it's expensive to bring somebody out like that. so we're having good, high quality professional content. But then there's also the arguments like, you think music videos are really worth the investment anymore? Because it's like, long? Yeah, and so it's like, which I personally, I do, I think for an extent, like,

ATX Metal Podcast (55:21.633)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (55:34.369)
Oof. There's a conversation right there.

Aaron (55:44.373)
For long form content on YouTube, it's very important. think you could have a whole thing. think there's a band called Starset and they have a concept type album band, but they're more concept content. all their content is just this whole story around all their music. they have tons of content on YouTube that's long form that people watch. So it just depends on what it is.

The music videos are important to establish that you're like a real band. Like literally we even had those comments from here in town. was funny because everybody around here is like it's this old band thing. Like because it's never even a idea. Like there's not even a thought that a band from our town would like would make it and cross their mind. Right. It doesn't even like doesn't even exist. You know, so it's like so you think it's like when they call it the old band thing.

And they're all like, you still doing the old band thing? And I'm like, yeah, still doing the band thing. so, but we send, like, it was funny because we put out this music video for Think. I think I sent it to you. If not, I'll send it to you after this. So we put that music video out and they're like, oh, you make like real, real videos. I'm like, yeah. Yeah, we make real music videos. Yes, yes.

ATX Metal Podcast (56:46.461)
man.

ATX Metal Podcast (57:05.367)
You're- are you a real person?

The real that yeah, they are even you can't touch them So like but but they're real they're out there. They're on though. They're on the YouTube's you gotta make sure you say the the YouTube's and plural

Aaron (57:13.77)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

The YouTubes. Yeah, and then that's they're also like you out there smoking that doing them weeds. Yeah, yeah, so it's a it's a but yeah, it's funny that that that was the that's the comments like you make like you guys make a real so that we are considered a real band around here, which is cool. Whatever that means.

ATX Metal Podcast (57:27.691)
We didn't weeds. doing the weeds. man.

ATX Metal Podcast (57:40.649)
It's like, yeah, that's...

Uh, we'll just, we'll just call that Pinocchio. Not, well, not Pinocchio theory. Like I'm a real boy, but, but, uh, anyway, that's man, that's hilarious. Um, man, that's thank you for that. That's, that's, I, I think that was, I think that was very well answered because it's not, it's not, like you said, it's not a monetarily, you know, you can't put a price, you can't put a price on care, right? Like,

Aaron (57:49.848)
Yeah.

Aaron (57:56.15)
It's

Aaron (57:59.447)
Yeah.

Aaron (58:14.759)
No, especially commitment. if if somebody, especially when it comes to like band member, you know, it's like, well, this is a this is a kind of a rule that, you know, and I feel like other people disagree, but or I've definitely had pushback. But like we kind of set a rule at the beginning of the band is like, hey, you know, like we're not going to jump into a bunch of projects like we're going to focus on one project. We're not, you know, you're going to play guitar in three bands and, you know, play bass and like, you know, it just it we can't you can't operate that way.

ATX Metal Podcast (58:15.913)
And yet, or yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (58:21.205)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (58:39.809)
Yeah.

Cause that's here. mean, when I interview people, like, I slipped up long ago, thought I was interviewing a guy for band A and totally started that interview off. was obviously we laughed about it. I was like, shit, right. Sorry, not this band. We're interviewing for this band. And it's interesting, but I think that's great that you guys

Aaron (58:44.105)
Yeah, it is. Yeah, and it's.

Aaron (59:03.959)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (59:11.201)
We're very upfront from the beginning. Basically, you know, you have a, a social contract with each other now to, to, to not only, you know, generate the content, but to create the content, to create the, music and actually, all right, you know, what are the, so that, that leads to the, the second question is, what does success look like? Because I learned through doing this, that some people just want to be

hometown famous, then they, and maybe tour a little bit, you know, maybe go just through Texas or maybe, you know, step out to Louisiana or Oklahoma. But, then others have like that vision where they are. I like we're, we're selling out stadiums that now that's the point 0 0 0 0 0 1 % of people, you know, you're not going to hit, you know, like, dude, I watched, I watched queen play in Brazil. Have you seen this? I mean, it's, it's.

Aaron (59:48.95)
Okay.

Aaron (59:53.889)
the main...

ATX Metal Podcast (01:00:10.815)
They, I forget, I think it might've been for like World AIDS Day or something. It was something huge. And like just watching, you know, Freddie Mercury just absolutely fucking crush it. Or obviously the late and great Ozzy Osbourne, that sellout crowd in the UK. I wasn't really, I missed the,

Aaron (01:00:16.58)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:00:38.379)
being a part of or being really into Ozzy's music. But I mean, without him now, obviously there's somebody that came, that influenced him and so on and so forth. But, know, ye old Prince of darkness, like it doesn't get more, more fucking metal than that. And, and, but like, that's not going to be everybody. So where does, where does man fall in that category?

Aaron (01:00:47.574)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:01:08.183)
Do you think?

Aaron (01:01:10.285)
I'm a dreamer, so personally I want it to be financially successful. Where it covers itself, that's my goal, is to where it covers its costs and it would be nice to where it made enough to where it was worth doing.

like touring, worth playing on the road and going out and where, you know, I definitely feel like the success is a different, it's a hard question because the way that I have always operated is, and this is a saying that I like, is you kind of want a goal that you can't obtain to where you have to like constantly be working towards something, but

ATX Metal Podcast (01:01:55.809)
Mmm.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:01:59.768)
Okay.

Aaron (01:02:01.098)
But at the same time, it's like the micro goals is kind of what you're hitting to. like, you know, I want to our, the goal right now for the band is to sustain its own expenses. That's what I want. So once we hit to that, like then we can say, okay, well, if we're breaking even 100%, obviously you want to make money doing it if you're in it for that, right? If you're putting into a business to make some type of money.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:02:27.212)
Right.

Aaron (01:02:30.282)
To be glorified sales or shirt salesman is pretty much what you are. And that's okay. That's what we are. Yeah, it's weird. We're glorified shirt salesmen. And it was funny because that's a friend of mine, Nick from Post-Profit. Yeah, he used to say that all the time when we were on tour. He's like, we're just glorified shirt salesmen. I'm like, yeah, you're right. That's literally what we're doing. But you know what? Really? It's like the only...

ATX Metal Podcast (01:02:35.063)
There's so much truth in that.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:02:44.567)
Huh.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:02:52.855)
That's great. I make this music just to sell shirts.

I mean, look, I got, there it is. I, I bought this one for fucking $35 or something. Shirts are fucking expand kind of call it kind of full circle. were talking about earlier, just everything's more expensive. It's like, got all, we got this life to live, but we got these shirts to buy and we got this music to make. And we got this podcast to run and it's just.

Aaron (01:03:00.049)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron (01:03:07.039)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they are.

Yeah.

Aaron (01:03:19.943)
Yeah. Yeah. It's you got so much you got to throw in there and so so as exactly as your question, though, I think it's just short to sum it all up. It's an it's a never ending goal to continue. Like I feel like until you until you turn it off and you're like, hey, we're not doing this anymore. The goal is to continuously grow. Like so I don't I don't personally feel like we're at the.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:03:27.479)
Gotta take care of the cats.

Aaron (01:03:47.903)
point or any type of point that any of us are completely turning it off. It has been hard to balance being a distance from half of the band, essentially, so that has been a weird learning curve. But we wanted to come to a place that we could establish a scene, and right now I think that's the goal. So the goal is to get a scene in this area.

of multiple bands that we could all play shows together and sell tickets.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:04:22.145)
Yeah, you can tell what, let's, let's do this. I, and that's kind of why I, you know, I asked the question is, is, you know, being, being a part of being a part of the local community here in Austin, which you obviously got a taste of, and, and it's got, it's got its good flavors and it's bad. So, the fact that you guys made the decision to make a financially smart decision, and now that you.

Aaron (01:04:37.374)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:04:41.939)
Yes.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:04:49.791)
are in a town that really doesn't, doesn't sound like it has much of any scene except for a cracker barrel. man.

Aaron (01:04:54.898)
zero. There's no, not even that. We have a Walmart and a local super store, like a super center. And then we have a Wendy's and a McDonald's and a Taco Bell and a KFC. Yep. And then a Subway. And then we have some local restaurants and other than that, yeah, we don't have a lot.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:05:03.511)
standard.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:05:09.121)
Yup, all the chains.

Aaron (01:05:18.291)
So no, there's no music scene. Amorello has a music scene a little bit. There's three bands, well, four bands from our town, which is us, Stealing Handshakes is a band, it goes to Great County, and a special case. And we're all trying to essentially get a group, like, you know, trying to get all four of us selling tickets to where we could play.

the markets and we get, know, people that people enjoy it because the more that us four take it serious, essentially, which they've been there all there, we're all hustling like they've they've been hustling. Everybody's like structured, you know, been banned for they've been banned for a few years. Like, that's what I feel like is that everybody's really well seasoned, I guess, where it's like they've been a band for a few years. They they've got it. You know, it's not.

We are the newest band technically out of the four. Even though Mason actually started a special case, which is another band. So we're all connected. So that scene, we're really working on trying to build that scene with the radio station. Because we can play whatever we want, which is cool. They let us play whatever bands we want, whatever era we want. It's like...

ATX Metal Podcast (01:06:42.072)
Dude, I'll start sending you all kinds of local music.

Aaron (01:06:44.753)
You should. Yeah. And so like, we're just playing, we're just, yeah, just trying to build a scene around music in the area that has been a missed target for the music scene for a long time. Like they, people don't really tour Amorello, which is the crazy because, you know, I did the math one time and it was like within a three, within a three hour drive, it was like 5 million.

like it reached like five million people, three to five hours, like five million people in this area. That if you just drove, you know, to a center point, could hit, you know, a pretty large portion and everybody's used to driving around here anyway, you have to drive to do anything. drove to, like I drove to Dallas anytime I wanted to see a concert and it was five hour drive, you know, my whole life. So it was the Oracle, Oklahoma City. it's...

ATX Metal Podcast (01:07:15.324)
wow.

Aaron (01:07:38.779)
It's a people drive so it's like you can build a solid little scene. You know, could try to get, we're trying to get Amarillo to at least be a stop on the map again for touring bands because there's, you know, it's a, they have places. It's just, it has a bad, it got a bad rep or something, or it just doesn't have a solid scene where people will come in and you know, then now you got, that's why you got to drive five hours.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:08:07.896)
See, this is where I would love, I would love if, for example, just off the top of my head, because I'm looking at one of the flyers, band Fit For A King, Huge, huge band, Texas band. I don't know, and I'm sure that they've probably wrestled with these thoughts. Just like any band, every band that is huge started somewhere locally, right?

Aaron (01:08:23.004)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron (01:08:37.358)
Yeah, exactly,

ATX Metal Podcast (01:08:38.176)
So there, there is there, every band is a local band. It's just that whenever the success, you know, when it goes from hobby to real life and then it sustains itself and now you're being profitable and now, you know what I mean? And then you're starting and then you get management and then you get, know, maybe some label help or whatever, but also you don't really need a label as much as you do as you used to. So anyway, yeah, there's always, there's always a, an upward trajectory. It's just,

Aaron (01:08:54.608)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:09:00.22)
You used to? Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:09:07.756)
that it it's it is formulaic. It is there. There. There isn't as much as a process today as there used to be from what I know and what I've been told as far as like, you know, getting to that level. But. It just anyway, what I would like to see is like bands like Fit for a King or or or Kublia Khan or any other big name band and insert literally big name band insert town city here.

Aaron (01:09:37.787)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:09:38.317)
Go to those pocket cities that have potential and people will come to see you. But then you stack it with five, six locals and people. mean, it's your, you're forcing them to buy the ticket to see the headliner. They're ultimately going to come anyway. So like ex, but like just exposure, right? Show that town what could be offered because money talks. if

Aaron (01:10:00.176)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:10:07.969)
you know, if venues come in, especially if you're kind of, like you said, 2 and a half hours one way, right? Maybe three hours one way just to get somewhere.

Aaron (01:10:15.729)
Yeah, I mean, so it's an hour, it's at least an hour to Amarillo from Pampa. So you gotta drive at least an hour to go there. But yeah, it's like, if you wanna go to a big city, like a bigger city, like Oklahoma City's three hours, Lubbock's three hours, and Lubbock's not even really that big a city, it's just, they got school. Then Dallas is five hours, Albuquerque's five hours, Denver's eight hours. It's like, you can...

ATX Metal Podcast (01:10:22.134)
Okay, so there you go.

Aaron (01:10:45.251)
You can go to all these big cities, but you gotta drive. That's what's crazy is whenever I've tried to get bands to drive to play shows sometimes, I've realized that people do not understand the touring aspect of that. We used to drive with Oddfellas. We had a show in Harlingen, Texas, which was on the border. Harlingen, Texas on a Saturday. And then we had to work on Mondays.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:10:49.09)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:11:14.512)
We drove all the way from Tampa, Texas, which is where we are now. It was 12 hours down to Harlingen, one way. Yeah, yeah. And then 12 hours back, you know, the next day. there was like 10 people there, know. But we had good tacos. They had like really good food. They fed us really well. And then

ATX Metal Podcast (01:11:14.882)
my god. my.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:11:23.29)
One way, and gentlemen, one way.

Aaron (01:11:43.952)
They paid us, which was cool, so that was a guaranteed show, which was, you you always went and played the guaranteed shows.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:11:53.395)
100%. That's man, man. Wow. Yeah. That's man. 12 hours to play to 10 people to turn around.

Aaron (01:11:59.798)
One time with Oddfell's, we drove to Nashville. They had a show on Thursday in Nashville. We left Wednesday night after we got off work. We drove all night long, got there Thursday morning, slept in a parking lot at Lofts or something in the van. And then we went to the show and then drove back home on Friday because we only had the show on Thursday.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:12:28.277)
my god.

Aaron (01:12:29.905)
And I remember we set in traffic in between somewhere outside Nashville for six hours on the way back. It was stopped, completely stopped traffic on the interstate. Somebody like, it was a bad car accident or something, but we had to like turn, it was crazy though. We were like, it's, don't know. Yeah, was like a 30 hour, you know, ordeal just to go play a show. It was at the basement in Nashville. So it was like a famous thing, but you know, it was like,

ATX Metal Podcast (01:12:55.98)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:12:58.392)
There was a decent crowd there on that one, but we do just do it, you know, and that's what it's like. I've got people I'm trying to get to. I've tried to get people to like, you know, bands to come out here and play and they're like, we don't want to drive eight hours. I'm like, well, OK. Well, well, it's not, you know, I don't want to be like that, but it's like because, know, they just don't maybe they just don't understand. But it's like if you're going to if you're going to tour or like if you want to make a band.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:13:13.368)
Like you don't care enough, you ain't committed. You're not committed. But they know, they know.

Aaron (01:13:26.404)
successful that's not just locally, you're going to have to tour. And touring is a whole lot of like, we, I did a bus tour where I followed a tour manage for a party band. Like they partied hard, right? The party metal band essentially. And they partied every night of the tour and we followed the bus. It was with Buck Cherry. We followed Buck Cherry for 30 days and they had a pretty hard route. played, I mean, they play like four on one off.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:13:29.163)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:13:56.154)
four on 2 off like it was pretty pretty pretty you know extensive and so when you're following the bus in a van if you don't have another driver they drive all night long you know they don't stop right yeah yeah yeah

ATX Metal Podcast (01:13:56.5)
Oof. Wow.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:14:07.928)
Yeah, their driver is actually sleeping during the day while everything's being set up. And then that dude wakes up, like his 10 PM is like our 10 AM. He's just third shift, it's third shift.

Aaron (01:14:19.436)
Yeah, it's like, it's his, it's his time to go to work. Yeah, exactly. And so he's, you know, so when you're, when you're trying to follow it, well, when the band is partying and they can't drive and I'm supposed to be the one that drive, but I'm also the tour manager. So I'm up all day during the day and at night, you know, it's like, it was crazy. We had, had, we had from North Dakota. It was crazy. It was a crazy spin, North Dakota all the way down to like, Nebraska, then over to Iowa.

and then down to, it was somewhere in Arkansas, then over to Texarkana, and then Houston. And Houston's loading was like 8 a.m. And I'm like, it was crazy, know? People just don't realize that, when it comes to the touring, that's a whole nother thing. If you're in a band with somebody, and you want to tour with somebody,

ATX Metal Podcast (01:14:56.14)
Lord.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:14:59.809)
UGH

ATX Metal Podcast (01:15:10.36)
It's a whole monster.

Aaron (01:15:16.047)
Or you want to make that band last, like you have to... You need to tour on the road, in a van or a car, whatever it is, you need to be able to see if you can handle being in that room with... Or in that vehicle with that person for long periods of time, because if you can't, then the band's not going to work out. I'm sorry. At least, you know, it's like it's... Like if you're going to tour, you know, if you're going to play locally and you just hang out, that's fine. But if you're wanting to tour, you got to like each other, you know?

So.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:15:45.56)
There, man, I, that's, yeah, I think, yeah, I think, think, I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna, there's gotta, I'm gonna have people, I'm gonna have people like yourself just like record little clips about just tour experience, just little clip, little snippets like that, just be like, hey, how was this last tour? Like just what, what does it look like on the ground? Because as a fan, you don't see that.

Aaron (01:15:49.079)
or hire somebody that's there for the money.

Aaron (01:16:02.252)
Yeah, let's do it.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:16:12.844)
Right. You don't, you don't, you don't, didn't know that they loaded in at 8 AM. They probably you're thinking they maybe they just, yeah, they got a layer a little bit early. Nah, there's a, there was a process. And especially if your touring was like following behind someone like Buck Terry that's been out in the game for fucking 20 plus years. Like, yes, you know, all hell. Yeah. Like I know, you know, that is if they still throw down like they did in the back of the day, if that's just what still happens, that's hard. That's a hard man. That's a hard life.

Aaron (01:16:12.856)
No.

Aaron (01:16:27.736)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:16:41.1)
But for you guys to like do that and that, and then this, and then this, and then this is like, yeah, that there's a lot, there's a lot. So that's why you go pay $20 to go see local. Okay guys, there it is. Pay support local music, pay them their pay, you know, pay them monies so that, you know, they can continue to bring joy to your life and cool shirts and cool music. but yeah, man, that's, that's great. That's, that's, that's the

Aaron (01:16:45.367)
Yeah

Aaron (01:16:50.798)
That's the whole moral of the story.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:17:10.412)
That's it. That's message for today. Support local music.

Aaron (01:17:12.608)
Yeah, we talked way past your hour. I'm sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:17:16.342)
No, no, no, no, dude, when you're rolling, you're rolling. There's no reason to stop. So let's, let's just finish up with, do you have like, what, what, what do we have to look forward? This will be out in about a week. So what, what, can people look forward to in the near future and what are all the ads and, and, and websites that they can get ahold of you.

Aaron (01:17:29.591)
Okay.

Aaron (01:17:42.647)
So you can find us on the old Instagram, on the old interwebs. We were man the band ATX, but now we're man the band Texas, because we don't live in ATX technically anymore. So we're trying to brand more of Texas. But you can find us on Spotify and things like that.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:17:45.656)
on the internets.

Aaron (01:18:07.677)
You have to search a song as well. like if you say if you search Hey Man, which is our song, our main song or has the most streams and then Hey Man and then man dot dot dot like man or man or mankind, whatever you want to think. those are our. Yeah, those are those things. We have a song coming out on Friday the 26th with.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:18:25.612)
Lotta mans.

Aaron (01:18:36.141)
profit drama, it's hella good, or 27th, sorry, 26th, 26th, it's hella good by no doubt, but we did a cover of that, it'll be a good little, we did a cover of Blurry, and we're gonna try to continuously do like, cover every few songs, for every original cover every few, just kinda give us a little more stuff to put out, but.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:19:03.512)
Covers are always, I personally, there's some haters, but I personally love covers because you get to hear it differently. And dude, the best, the best covers of all is when pop goes punk. I will, I will stand flag planted when pop goes punk, the almost, and I mean, in a rare occasion, does the pop out actually do better than the punk?

Aaron (01:19:07.947)
I did choose.

Yeah.

Aaron (01:19:17.515)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:19:32.832)
I'm, we're like talking 99 out of a hundred. I don't know how many albums they have right now, but I have never, I have never heard one of those basically not suck worse than the, cause like pop music, it's, it's like, it has its place and I love it. My daughter loves it. mean, my God, it's like, now you have K-pop that's just like exploded hell dude, demon hunter, a K-pop demon hunter.

Aaron (01:19:37.975)
the life.

Aaron (01:19:56.534)
Yeah.

Yeah, K-Pop,

ATX Metal Podcast (01:20:00.864)
They have three songs that are in the top top 10. Like they're like they are crushing it right now. But they did you know they actually have like school like. Boy band girl band schools over there they send kids like they send their kids to like go be in a band. I guess I think yeah.

Aaron (01:20:18.035)
No, but that doesn't surprise me.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:20:21.26)
Yeah, but it's, but it's, it's, it's formulaic and you, and you know, and I mean, hell it's, I think every genre, every, every style of music, it, there is a formula to like make the music, but that's where, you know, guys like yourself come in and take the formula and shake it up a little bit and spit it back out. And that's why that's why I, that's why I like covers. Cause it just, it just gives you another perspective. Like, damn, that's what it sounds like with guitars.

Aaron (01:20:25.09)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:20:50.274)
Fuck yes. so anyway.

Aaron (01:20:51.086)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'll send you. I'll send you hello good. I'm curious what you think. I'll email you that after this and.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:20:58.414)
yeah. so by that, so for everybody listening and watching, by the time you hear this, it will have already been released. So just go, just go find it. Go listen to it.

Aaron (01:21:04.363)
Okay. Go listen to it. Yeah, it's a good time. you like, no doubts, if you like the original song, it's a fun little remake for sure.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:21:18.006)
I mean, it's hard. I don't know if there's too many Stefani haters out there. I don't-

Aaron (01:21:22.471)
I know, I don't think, I don't really know why, what she would have done.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:21:26.786)
I mean, yeah, like I've never really heard any like shit talking on Gwen. I'm sure it's out there. I'm sure it's out there. There's probably somebody out there that wants her life. Anyway, anyway, we love you. We love you, Gwen. Okay. Well, brother, hey, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for earlier hanging in there and everything in between. It's been great. I've learned so much and I'm glad that we've connected. What I would like to do is maybe

Aaron (01:21:31.731)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:21:38.089)
Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:21:55.918)
let's do a follow-up in like, I don't know, 10 to 12 months and see, and like, I'm genuinely interested in like where your music scene is going to be at. mean, you're at the Helms of the radio station and so, and you're one of four or five bands in town. So it's not, so I like, I don't know, I'm just curious. So we'll just, we'll just, we'll just chat in a year and we'll do another, just a, just a recap, like, but I'm really interested to see if.

Aaron (01:22:11.229)
Yeah

Aaron (01:22:18.891)
Okay.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:22:25.323)
like what that's gonna look like. That'd be cool.

Aaron (01:22:27.756)
Yeah, sounds good to me. I hope it's worth it. You know, it's funny, I had a guy come up to me the other day here in town and he was like, he's I've never, he's like, out of following bands for so many years or something like that, he's like, and bands always do all these crazy things to like make something work, but I've never heard of anybody like starts working, like a band starts working for a radio station and then starts like, you know, stuff like that.

Maybe that story is something that could, maybe it's one of those scenes in life that's like, all right, maybe we're onto something. I'm hoping that's the case. Yeah. Well, and apparently, and it's crazy, speaking of prison, there's a prison out here and apparently they're huge fans of the radio station, because that's what plays. it's like, we have prison rock. So it's a,

ATX Metal Podcast (01:23:08.791)
prisoners running the prison. You know what mean?

Aaron (01:23:27.355)
It's a, we'll take it. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:23:28.223)
What's your genre? Prison Rock. yeah. Yeah, totally. My God. Hey, man, own it, own it. Whatever it takes.

Aaron (01:23:32.523)
Hey, you know, well, yeah, it's like, well, yeah, I appreciate it. Appreciate hanging out with me, hanging out and talking to me on everything. But yeah, well, maybe I can have you come on the radio. We can have you call in for radio.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:23:45.473)
Yeah, bud.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:23:51.607)
man, that would be cry. Yes. yeah, sure. That would be, that'd be great. I don't know how we'd set it up, but I'm, sure with today's tech today's technology. Yeah.

Aaron (01:24:00.533)
We'll figure it out. We might could use something like this. Yeah, we might. We may use something like this and it's dreaming to our board. I think that's possible so.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:24:06.443)
Yeah, I can, I can make this as crispy as possible, you know, pre-production to make it sound even better on the backend. But, yeah, that'd be, that'd be, that'd be fucking cool. well,

Aaron (01:24:12.395)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:24:18.58)
And we pre-record a lot of our radio shows, so we can do that soon.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:24:21.139)
Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm trying to work with, Chuck Lowe, no control radio 97.3 HD 2. If you've got it, or you can catch him on he drops, he drops an episode. does middle metal madness at midnight, every night, five days a week. used to just be one hour once a week on, I think Saturday nights, maybe Friday nights and Saturday nights. Now it's an hour at midnight.

Aaron (01:24:29.448)
Hey there.

Aaron (01:24:41.194)
Mm-hmm.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:24:50.167)
five days a week and my soul is so happy. But yeah, dude, 90, so they play local music. I mean, anybody listening, can submit it at No Control Radio and they will probably, I don't know what the process of getting everything and them to approve it, but I've recommended songs from locals and I've heard it like hell, I've been listening to it and then the local band comes on and I quit my phone out and fucking record it.

Aaron (01:24:52.788)
That's cool.

Aaron (01:25:18.282)
That's fine.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:25:19.775)
and send it and I'm like, dude, you're on the radio. What? So yeah, I would love that. I think that's great. And now that you guys have, know, an additional platform, you know, don't be too selfish with it, but like, don't not promote your own band.

Aaron (01:25:35.42)
exactly. No, we're definitely not going to be like every hour, you know? it's a... Yeah, we spring... We thought about doing a show one time of singing Hey Man, because Hey Man's like three minutes flat. It's like a really short song. And we thought about doing an entire concert of just playing the same song over and over and over in one spot just to see how many people, until somebody gets mad, know?

ATX Metal Podcast (01:25:40.811)
Yeah. Here's, here's another song. Hey man.

Aaron (01:26:04.337)
Like, just keep playing the same song. But, yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:26:07.851)
the first, the first caller to call in, they're like, Hey, I think something's wrong. I keep hearing the same song. I like the song, but 17 times in a row is anybody hello. Are you, are you a real person? Is this a real band? man.

Aaron (01:26:14.491)
Yeah, the same song. Yeah.

Aaron (01:26:22.761)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're we definitely are selective. I didn't actually really want to play the stuff at first, but but but a guy one of the other guys that works there was like, I'll play it then. I'm like, all right, whatever. so so I you know, I didn't want that to be the first thing. It's like, you're playing your music, you know, but but the

ATX Metal Podcast (01:26:35.169)
That's hilarious.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:26:44.524)
But that's good.

Aaron (01:26:49.194)
The goal is to play all the local bands equally, at least once a day is the goal.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:26:56.183)
I mean, that's, honestly, that's what everybody has on these radio stations, especially like some, you know, it's, it's just a bank, right? And then you just, you know, you tell the algorithm to shuffle it up and try, you can even, I actually did a little homework on this. You can even set the parameters to where it says you, this song cannot be played for X amount of hours. So that way it doesn't like filter back in somehow. But yeah, dude, no control radio. 93.7 HD 2 is

Aaron (01:27:03.07)
Yeah.

Aaron (01:27:16.424)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:27:26.291)
a nonstop mixtape of metal. mean, it goes from like Judas Priest to Lamb of God to Kublia Khan to locals to, you know, back to, you know, Spirit Box to Lorna Shore to, you know, fit for an autopsy. mean, it just, it just, I love it. It's better. I personally think it's better than the streaming platforms because those are all like catered to you. The radio station is like this.

Aaron (01:27:52.689)
Yeah.

to broad. Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:27:56.075)
Broad strokes. So that's why I love that's why I love tuning in As should you if you're listening to this everybody Yeah, man, you like you like i'll hear some songs on there like never heard of that band never heard of that and and then it's just like All right, then you go down the rabbit hole of who they are what they do But it's it's it's just exposure and that's that's the that's the thing. So All right, man

Aaron (01:28:02.63)
That's true. Everybody should give it a chance, alright?

Aaron (01:28:20.253)
Yeah.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:28:24.277)
Well, I'm a hit stop. Just hang out for maybe about another couple of minutes. Let it do its thing. And then we'll chat on the backend. But again, thank you very much. And I wish you guys nothing but the best. Sounds like you're you're you've established the things to make the band successful. So now, you know, you just have to, you know, you got to commit. I'm saying. Play to wait. All right, and well, everybody, everybody, thank you very much for joining us again. This is Aaron with the band. Hey, man.

Aaron (01:28:42.758)
And it happened. Play the wait, play the wait game.

ATX Metal Podcast (01:28:54.015)
Or I'm sorry. Hey man is the song. The band is man dot dot dot man, the band. All right. Well, thank you again, everybody for tuning in and we'll see you next week. Later.

Aaron (01:28:56.296)
Yep, we. Yeah, man, the band. Oh man.