Brandon of Atreyu on Who Created Metalcore, 27 Years as a Band, Fashioncore Roots & More

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0:43And without fans like you, there'd be no cinema magic, no shared moments. So head to Fandango.com to get tickets, stream, or rent or buy top movies and series. Fandango loves fans. no jumper coolest podcast in the world and today i'm bringing you probably if you're interested in heavy music probably one of the most unexpected interviews in the history of this podcast but today brandon of atreyu is in the building how you doing man how you doing i thought the same thing yeah yeah i got a random email that was like do you want to interview atreyu i was like yes definitely that sounds amazing yeah i was the same it was like you want to do no jumper i was like are you sure?

1:23He's like yeah it's tight but I love it. Over the years I actually have like a weirdly decent number of metal and hardcore interviews. Freddy Madball it's just the one that pops into my mind right now. If I were to pick one that does though I would think match the show energy it's probably Freddy Madball. Yeah it was good but I mean he's calmed down a lot over the years. It's not like the version of him from the 80s or whatever which that would have been the one. Oh man. That's crazy. um but okay so um where are you you're from your belinda yeah we're originally from orange county we all kind of lived uh in orange county for most of our life we a bit spread out now but okay like orange county la san diego nashville germany our best friend lives in germany so nice and what was like the scene that you guys originally came up in i mean it started i mean orange county hardcore scene was like you know it was spread out there was like bands from the beat like Huntington Beach um there's kind of bands from like Inland Empire and then everyone sort of played the same you know four venues um like LA was far away for us just another universe another world um but there was a hardcore scene in LA as well that you guys were like aware of for sure yeah there definitely was and we you know we play shows in LA every now and then but like um Orange County was like definitely crazy like it was one of those things where I wanted to start being in a band because the Orange County shows were so crazy like growing up as a kid yeah um um but you had like you know throwdown adamantium death by stereo like um you know i guess terror was more la but um yeah but like yeah so many bands that were just like absolute chaos at shows and shit so definitely yeah and you guys formed organically just as like a bunch of friends or was there any kind of like was there anyone were you like spearheading the whole thing or who was kind of at the head of it i mean we all just like went to school together you know like the three Three of us were in like a punk band together.

3:17Did like the punk scene thing for a while. But like one, we were teenage kids and from Yorba Linda, which is like, you know, like upper middle class city. So like not exactly accepted to punk rockers. Right. So started like more of a hardcore band. But yeah, it was just all like we all went to school together. Definitely. And what year are we talking? This is 99 we started. Okay. So you guys were doing your thing for a long time before you got signed to Victory. and when you got signed to Victory, that was the first real album? Yeah, it was probably about three or four years. Well, a few years, and we had sort of done a demo CD on our own, sent it out to labels.

3:56No one gave a f***. Did an EP. One random label in North Carolina wanted to put it out, so they kind of cared. And then within a few days of that being out, we got the call from Victory. They came out and saw a show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim and then signed within a month. made the record like the next month and then just started because uh the the first one was the one that i was definitely listening to when i was younger like that i was fully into it was it suicide notes and butterfly kisses or something that's what it is okay yeah and that it's crazy because like looking back on it it's funny to think about what like a weird uh like heavy music uh identity crisis i was kind of in at that time because us too okay i was like real into like Like scene wise, I was real into like tough guy, metalcore, hardcore, whatever.

4:48And then I get turned on to you guys' music. But it's got all these like clean vocal parts and like the melodic stuff and everything. And I'm kind of like seeing the videos and you guys got eyeliner and the super tight pants and stuff. And I remember feeling like very conflicted in the sense of like, is it okay for me to like this? Which I don't know how much kids like really wrestle with that sort of thing anymore. For sure. Yeah, I mean, not anymore. back then i feel like like all that shit is erased like the the genre lines are fucking gone now like yeah people have no problem with being like yeah i love fucking you know dying wish and i also like uh bruno mars right people don't care yeah like it's it's it's like but back then like you you we got shit on for looking any sort of way or sounding any sort of way do you think it's because heavy music has been kind of marginalized in general because you know electronic music pop music rap music have kind of like really come to the forefront so it's kind of like if you like guitar oriented music then you can't necessarily like like you can like all of it people who are into that feel like it's kind of us against the rest of society so we we can't really afford to be super picky about 100 who's part of our tribe for sure and i think too though like as as time goes on like i we have this conversation of like the new extremes it happens in hip-hop it happens in everywhere like you know we're like when we came out we were like wow like that band's crazy they're screaming and like holy shit what is this but now like we sound like tons of the bands that are out slaughter prevail and knock loose and shit i interviewed them too by the way that was crazy yeah but like it that's the new extreme where it's like when you have that come out it makes the rest of our genre kind of like it's just more acceptable like we're like the easy listening of metalcore you know what i mean at this day at this point right so it's like back you know i think it's all just sort of more accepted and it's weird because as bands like that get bigger the whole the whole genre rises and then you start seeing like influence in like in hip-hop and and like even edm and all this shit like so many like most of the the djs that i know that do edm or dubstep never came from hardcore bands or came from our our scene like it was like back in the day like what this is 15 something years ago where it was like all hip-hop was like rock influence it was like a party like a rock star and like everything was like it looked like rock shit you know what i mean i feel like it's gonna do the same thing with like an even more small subculture right definitely so who are you guys influenced that kind of helped create your sound and were you like super conscious of the fact that you wanted to have a band that was going to you know make music that would be palatable to a larger audience like you know coming from the punk scene and stuff like that a lot of punk is just like not really going anywhere on a larger level you know yeah i feel like i feel like when we started it wasn't like we weren't necessarily like shifting to something that had a higher ceiling but when you start over and you're especially when you're teenagers in a band and you're like oh we all want to put what we like into this band if this is going to be the band we're going to do so it was like you have you know some of us that were into like you know hardcore like but i was mostly in like hardcore music and then like some of us were into metal it was like in flames and and hate breed and and soil work and shit like that but then like one of our guitar players in like iron maiden and like 80s getting hair bands and shit so it was just like everything thrown into one melody was a big part of that like at the same time atre you started me and our guitar player were in like a pop punk band so it was like like at the time it was weird for us we're like dude should we sing too like should we put like choruses in these songs like no one's really doing that so it was just kind of by chance uh but it just dumping everything that we liked into a band right because i feel like a lot of metal bands hardcore bands like end up going in the direction of cleaner vocals and more melody and stuff like that but you guys kind of started from that place yeah for sure yeah sure like i was a big cave-in fan and then all of a sudden they put out an album that's like nothing like their original stuff and it's kind of like really jarring for hardcore fans at the time that was literally a point of reference for us because like we're the same thing huge caving fans yeah and like beyond hypothermia until your heart stops are like still crazy good records yeah and then they put out right like it essentially became like an alt rock band we had an album like called let sales and like it was more rock but like for us we didn't think it was that different we're like what about like we didn't we didn't pull a cave in like it it was like that was under our point of reference like we didn't do that like why is it so shocking yeah but yeah that band just their give button has been broken they just do whatever they want yeah even still you know what i mean were the like aesthetic components you guys like kind of like were you already like dressing like that was there any intention of like telling other people in the band like hey this is the vibe that we're going with here i don't know how intentional that stuff ever is it wasn't that like thought out like we just thought that like bands like alkaline trio and like Ink and Dagger were cool.

9:42So like Ink and Dagger was this band from Philly that were like vampire, like hardcore band. And they would like have like fucking corpse paint on Spit Blood when they played. Yeah. Like then you saw like Alcline Trio would have like, you know, they'd all be in black with like red ties and like, you know what I mean? It was like, it just looked cool. Yeah. And also back then for, especially in the hardcore scene, there was no one doing like sort of a uniform type aesthetics. Right. So we just kind of like fell into that to try and like set ourselves apart. You know, I'm just like getting this flashback of the fact that, okay, like California music to us on the east coast like because i grew up like we're outside boston was like so foreign we're like constantly trying to understand what the california is about and like we all like throw down we thought 18 visions was super gay and then we kind of figured because it's like a bunch of the same dudes right yeah and then we figured that out and it's like oh fuck they're in that band too what even what even is our belief system you know and we're like hearing like weird rumors about like 18 visions and like you know where they like i don't know i don't even remember what the rumors were or whatever but at that time really confusing and then i remember like fsu dudes coming to shows in boston wearing huge white tees which we had no frame of reference for yeah at all because everybody in the hardcore scene in boston was kind of wearing like tight jeans tight black shirts and these dudes are kind of like gang influence cholo influence or whatever and they got the big white tees which kind of like went on to become super normal in like new york and shit but like i don't know that was just it was so hard for us to like figure out what the world was at that time yeah it's funny because like back in the day like i think 18 visions got it bad because they were you know wearing makeup they can label this fashion core yeah fashion core was a great term yeah but it's funny because like they would be like looking like they do but then james would just straight up just be like beating people up yeah like back in the day he used to fight everybody so it's like one of those things where it was funny to like talk shit on 18 visions until you got punched in the face by their singer for sure but so okay you guys was did you have any trepidational signing a victory or was this like your ship just came in at the time it was like holy shit yeah like you know some of our heroes have been on victory it was like hate breed was on victory yeah and like at the time you had like taking back sunday and thursday and bands were like blowing up and we're like this is like this is a big ass label right it wasn't even on our radar you know what i mean like we were looking at like smaller labels and um so at the time it seemed like fucking golden ticket right and they did great things with us that dude is i mean he's doesn't have a company anymore but tony tony from victory is not around anymore i mean he's alive but okay he's a fucking crook so his company is really there was always like so many allegations and rumors of him being weird or whatever he robs bands blind really that That was all real.

12:25Mm-hmm. Okay. Absolutely. But, like, you don't know that until you're, you know, when you're, we're fucking, I was 17 years old when we signed to Victory. So, it's like, you sign your fucking life away. I think our first contract was for, like, five grand. Really? We're like, oh, let me buy your publishing for another five grand. And we're like, what's publishing? Yeah. I mean, like, fucked us hard. But did well blowing the band up. But it's like, you know, like, that dude has made so much money off all of his bands. But eventually, it took him under. Wow. But he sold Victory or just kind of went under?

12:55No, Dater a member sued him finally. And I think he probably fucked them the worst and sued them and they won. And I think it just buried him. Damn. And I think they just sold the company to Concord. So Concord runs Victory now. So when you guys signed to Victory, does he allow you to just keep doing your thing as you were? Or is he like getting involved with the marketing and everything like that? Because it always felt like when Bance signed to Victory, that was like when they went mainstream. For sure. I mean, it was his doing. he didn't have any say so in like what we were doing but he was great at like like how you know with like the victory style cds and shit and like how he would market like certain records like i remember back in the day i don't think a lot of people know this but like uh taking back sunday put out a new record and hawthorne heights is putting on a new record too and he somehow weaseled it or taking back sunday was fucking huge already and hawthorne heights was an unknown band where if you bought the taking back sunday cd you got the hawthorne heights cd yeah with it for free but he priced it in a way where both would count as a scan oh wow so off the jump hawthorne got like shit loads of scans and tons of exposure from people buying taking back sunday cds wow now obviously they're a good band so it worked yeah i mean but like um he would pull shit like that you know and he was really good at just like i'm gonna throw 10 pieces of shit at the wall and the three that stick i'm going hard on them and like he would just go in and and spend money but he also never cared about spending money because he knew on the back end he was just fucking stealing from bands like dude would do like like oh we're doing a limited vinyl pressing that you know a thousand copies and then you go in and you see these like other vinyls that were like the covers were like straight up like photocopies and it would just the number the numbers on the back would just be like new random numbers we're like what is this what is this one you know like he would print merch in-house so it was like oh yeah we made this much merch and sold it for you guys but he would just keep running shit and damn yeah so did you guys have a big falling out at some point or no oh yeah it wasn't good like we what year this is 2008 maybe okay and you guys put out that first album in what year uh 2001 i think okay yeah nice um but uh yeah i mean it wasn't good i mean i think like one of the shows from in chicago we blacklisted him and he got like removed from the venue like with his head oh wow uh and like i think you know we it was bad like we ended with essentially like an audit like lawsuit separation kind of thing damn okay um but yeah i mean he you can't over everyone and not getting caught eventually for sure what uh like okay you get does he just like put you guys on the road were you touring consistently around that time or yeah i mean we kind of already had an agent and um we had started touring but i don't think he had much to do with on the touring front honestly i think we just got lucky like we were on tour put out suicide notes and like it started selling and doing well so it was easy for us to just like keep getting tours because we were kind of like that new band that was you know buzzing right um but it was like non-stop like we just once we started touring we did like just was getting we were out 300 days a year yeah yeah was that the dream to just be on the road constantly because you guys are pretty young at that time or how old were you i mean the oldest dude in the band at the beginning was was 21 okay so we're all between 17 and 21 that was the goal is just crisscross the country over and over and over just playing as many shows as possible 100 were you guys making any money at that time or was it pretty tough i mean yeah i mean we are also touring like you know as lean as can be we're in a van and trailer five of us with like my brother selling merch that was it yeah no crew no nothing um so and it for the first like couple years we literally come home from tour like meet up a few hours after we got home and like each get handed a fucking rubber band of cash you know but at the time when you're 17 18 you're going to over a couple months and you know get thrown eight thousand dollars or something you're like yeah this is sick yeah like uh so i mean we we did pretty well from the from the jump like it wasn't i mean it was struggle as far as like comfort yeah but we always made sure we made money were you guys just like sleeping on fans floors and stuff like that okay no hotel rooms yet at that point i mean if we had to we'd get a hotel room okay and like three dudes asleep in it the rest will sleep in the van definitely but just like gross floors and yeah what were the most like memorable bands that you toured with and were playing with at that time?

17:09I mean, the beginning, it was like, you know, very early on, like the first, like, I would say big tour did was with Snapcase and Voice It's Fire. And that was like, again, like legend status bands to us. And in that scene, we did like a tour in Europe with, it was half with Voice It's Fire, half with Sepultura. So it was like, we were kind of getting these opportunities where we're like, oh, we're getting run with some, some like legends immediately. yeah um and then sort of like the phase two when the curse came out i mean we're doing like it was weird because we were doing like a tour with like lamb of god and then we'd go on tour with like taking back sunday or the used right or we do like warp tour the next summer we do oz fest who'd you fit in with best because like you're talking about being with snap case i just feel like that's like a such a different fan base at that time for sure i don't know it worked i mean i don't know like it was weird we always like i think because we sort of like our touring was modeled that way from the beginning we had this weird foot in both and like was strangely accepted in both luckily yeah um which i mean that obviously helps your growth if you're like literally touring in two completely different markets yeah nowadays it's more you know one big thing but it wasn't back then for sure so you never had any like weird instances of people being mean to you or anything like that i mean it wasn't bad i mean like you know like when we were taking back sunday there was definitely like those girls in the front row that were just like scared yeah i mean like i have no clue what's going on right now taking back sunday was the first band where i was like 19 and went to one of their shows at the palladium in worcester and my sister who was by 16 was also at the show and i just passed by her yeah at the venue and it was just like insane moment of like oh we both like the same band like what the no it was just so jarring because it's like i don't know i just couldn't have ever fathomed that we would just end up at the same venue yeah for sure i I mean, that was definitely scared a lot of your sisters.

19:02Yeah. Definitely. On that tour. So, okay. How many? So, okay. The first album was in 2001. And then you guys are just going hard for like, because you took like a break at some point, right? But like what kind of ushered that in? I think it was just like Burnt, you know? Yeah. I think All of Us was Burnt. It was kind of like the rinse and repeat of being in a band for, you know, at that point it was four albums. Yeah. Um, and just kind of fried and like had that conversation where it was like, do you think the world would mind if a trade didn't exist for a few years? You know, like, would we not care?

19:37Um, so in my head, I legitimately thought we were breaking up. I thought it was like, we're done. Like, this is what we're saying, but I don't think it's going to come back. Um, and, uh, we kind of went away for, it was like 2011 to 2014, really. Um, I guess maybe almost 15, but, um, yeah, just kind of like did our own things. you know like wanted to know what life was not in a trey you i started another band started doing like writing more right on the writing side you couldn't see yourself doing anything besides music at that point yeah i was just like what else am i gonna do what am i gonna start because i was weirdly enough i was already i had started doing like sort of a solo project before the band had split um so it was like oh i guess i'm just gonna do this full time now right um but yeah i mean it was cool it was beneficial i don't know that the band would exist currently if we didn't do that but at the same time it was like we stopped and everyone else in our in the genre kept going yeah so like we got leapfrogged by a handful of bands like a handful of our peers that were like oh shit that band's bigger than us now yeah like it's because we stopped for four years but when you're starting out it's like the idea of just going on tour is the coolest thing in the world and i can only imagine after 10 years of that it's like you know there's a point where like going to milwaukee is exciting and then all of a sudden you're there for your 40th time And it just means nothing to you anymore.

20:54Right. Yeah. And I think that like, there's certain places we would always get stoic. Some of us would be stoked on like, you know, these are always stoked to go to Europe or like Japan or Australia and shit. But like, you know, it gets a little daunting. Obviously I think we kind of have like more of a new lease on it now or we appreciate it more. And like, as adults, you like have adult shit you want to do in every city. Like our guitar player, every time we go on tour is like, here's the tour book. Here's the list of speakeasies and good restaurants that we can go to in all these towns. You know what I mean?

21:19It's like, like, like, we're adults we want to like do adult things now i got kids and shit so like now it's like i'm gonna go show my kids europe you know i'm gonna take my kids to paris touring has got to like like you get used to it doing the rock star thing but then like once once you're 40 it's like well now this is now you're comparing it to doing construction for a living or like you know working at home depot or whatever yeah well it's like you can't realistically like be a fucking animal for that long and not either die or just have health problems or yeah have any sort of like good home life you know what i mean like you know like it's just you know life life comes back around i look at like comics who have podcasts and stuff and just sort of realize like wow these dudes are kind of making a lot of money by going off and doing these shows and stuff but also their lives are really hellish when you've got like four days of having to hit the road like every weekend and you don't really get that consistent flow of being around your kids and shit you know sure for sure yeah it can definitely be be daunting but i mean we like i said like our whole band is pretty much integrated like very family style yeah i have kids our drummer has kids like everyone's married so it's like people want to come out and visit they come out and visit and do the thing and it's like it's a it's like an open thing but that's that's crazy because i can imagine that early on you guys were living a pretty hard partying lifestyle or not so much yeah like half the band was like you know like our um our singer early days was was he he went hard the dude who left a couple years ago yeah okay um and then our guitar player went as pretty hard long for a long time our guitar players been sober for almost 15 years but he was pretty bad back in the day um but like there was like times you know when the career was you know kind of at our height where like we were doing stupid things where it was like oh we're getting two buses on this tour not because we have too many people but because me and our bass player at the time don't really party and they do so we want like a mellow bus just like throwing money down the toilet but yeah I mean we've all gone through phases and it's not to say we don't still have a good time it's just like it's a different situation yeah I mean like a lot of people like especially at that era like I was always straight edge and shit when I was like hanging out with bands and stuff to be honest I didn't really get into drink until later but like it was just even with that not being a part of it it was like the lifestyle was like we're gonna stay up as late as possible we're gonna hang out with the most random girls that we could possibly hang out with we're gonna like get into fights and can love it think it's the coolest thing in the world if somebody gets beat up or whatever that's cool when you're young yeah you know what i mean yeah that's what's so insane to me about you being in the band that long is that you like were able to transition from that sort of lifestyle to being you know a dad and wanting to bring your kids on tour and that it's still the same band a lot of the same songs and shit but like just to to do all that under one entity is pretty wild for sure the cool thing is we started when we were so young yeah like at first i used to have people that would be like man i listened to you guys in high school and i'm like oh how old am i but then i remember i'm like oh when you were in high school i had graduated high school the year before right i mean i was like so like we have so many of our fans that we like literally grew up with so like now they're it's like we're the band that makes sense with them in their age bracket now like they're like oh yeah you like when i was partying you guys were partying and now like you have kids and you're mellow but you still put on like a good show and you're in a band it's like me too you know like it kind of fits like obviously there's younger generation and all that shit but like you know i feel like so much the younger generation too is so much more mellow than than it was yeah oh yeah now especially you read about how kids just don't really drink like they used to yeah yeah it's it's it's much different yeah it's definitely definitely like just so much more knowledge out there for people like want to understand because like even i'm watching that uh red hot chili peppers documentary on netflix right now and like the way they're talking about it is that like they're doing heroin and they don't really even like get what sobriety is no it's not even an option yeah they just think like this is what you do you get rich and famous and you start doing a hell of drugs yeah yeah i mean because it's available so you're like if you if you want to you can yeah but i mean there's been lots of bands that we've been friends with you know what i mean that were way gnarlier than we were you know even us like we've always been mellow i guess comparatively but it's like right how do you do that and play a show tomorrow right you know that's one thing i'm always in awe with bands too is just like how the do you get along with the same group of dudes for 10 or 20 years like it just seems so difficult but like like how do you weather that is it just because you guys just happen to be agreeable people that are easy to get along with or yeah i think i mean obviously you start like I said started as friends yeah when you're in a band it's like being in a marriage you're obviously gonna have disagreements and you know twists and turns but it's like at this point in our band like we all have the same like the same goals we have the same point of view like we want the band to be the same thing and it just kind of makes it easy you know I think we genuinely like each other which is strangely pretty rare in a band where like dudes just like hanging out you know like we don't live on top of each other when we're at home so like when we do tour it's like oh i haven't seen you in two months you know like so um but you know like it's you know like with our previous singer you know he's not in the band anymore because it was it was that was one person that maybe didn't agree with everything and you know wasn't on the same page um you know didn't enjoy things like we enjoyed it so um it's like but now it's great i mean if you're doing the same thing for like 20 years like i mean that okay that's a quote i heard one time from henry rollins where he's like you know i'm one type of dude mick jagger is another type of dude like mick jagger loves being a rock star and playing these songs and he's gonna do it until he's in the dirt and henry rollins was kind of like i liked that part of my life like i loved being in a band but ultimately i'm the kind of person who wants to take on new challenges and and try new things and so ultimately i just wasn't going to be able to keep doing black flag forever because i wanted to get bored of it almost do other shit yeah like i'd like which one do you identify or or is there some middle ground i think there's middle ground i think that like i personally like in some of the dudes in the band too like we love being in the band we love atreyu and we there's things we still want to accomplish in atreyu but a lot of us do other shit yeah you know i mean like our guitar player owns like a merch company like our our bass player owns like a design firm with his friend like i'm a writer on the side so it's like for the last couple years we've been managing the band ourselves so it's like getting into that role more so and like there's like always new shit to like conquer a new thing but i think the heart of it you still want to be in the band like if you're touring in a traveling band are you able to like actually have a career that you're doing remotely like on your computer and stuff or is that very difficult to like manage doing the at the same time i think it's fine i mean the reality of touring is you're fucking doing nothing for a huge percentage of it yeah the travel part the sitting in the back of the venue waiting for the show to start for sure like we go to the gym every day on tour one to stay in shape but it's like also that takes two hours of the day up yeah you know what i mean where we would just be sitting around and doom scrolling on the on the bus yeah so it's like there's definitely time um on the writing front obviously if i was home all the time i'd be able to write way more songs with people because i don't really like writing remote it just doesn't work that well yeah um but i mean aside from that you can do everything from your phone yeah you know how much has like technology changed the whole experience of going on tour because i i just have all these memories of going to hardcore shows in the you know late 90s and you like we were lucky because we had map quest i guess and you would print that shit out off direction map quest and then you get lost and you have to stop at a random gas station and like pray that you're going to be able to understand what the indian guy working at the counter is talking about when he's telling you how to get back on the highway like is it does it feel unbelievably turnkey to you guys now at this point yeah it's fucking easy man like everything is digital everything you need to know is on your phone like as far as communication like i could i could see my kids faces 10 times a day if i want talk to my wife as many times as i want yeah text as much as i want like my family same thing so it's like a lot of the shit that was real hard back then is doesn't even exist i mean like i said the first few years we toured i don't even think i had a cell phone i'd be calling from pay phones yeah or like when i did get a phone it was like i could text and talk that's it yeah but like going to europe i'd be buying phone cards and like going to find a pay phone at 1 a.m yeah hoping i don't get like can beat up by drunk british dudes you know what i mean it's like which like what happened often yeah um but that's way different now just so much chaos yeah back in the day like that yeah did you guys have a time period where during your initial rise was it part of your goal to like break into the the real real mainstream or was that always something that seemed a little outside of the scope of the music you were making i think we kind of like had tastes of it where we had like when we started doing like getting a little bit of like radio play um we weren't like a full-on radio band but like some stations were taking a chance and we started doing you know like random radio festival shows and something and it'd be like you know with like fucking corn or like chevelle or like you know these bands that were like in in the bubble but not in our genre and it was like oh those are like big bands you know like uh it was like i think we can actually get there you know like and i think you know our lead sales record was sort of us like trying to one like finally learning how to write songs correctly and then two just like okay what happens if we just like no breaks and go for the like swing for the fences um and it worked you know and so like i think that now it's easier to do that like you could be like i said earlier like you have bands like knock loose or not played on a single radio station but sell fucking 6 ,000 tickets a night 8 ,000 tickets a night yeah same with slaughter to prevail like so like you don't even need that now but but that's so insane because like slaughter prevail are like you know if i'm talking to like a random person that doesn't know anything about heavy music and i play them i'm playing them to like say like listen to how extreme metal can get and the fact that they're able to have that big of a fan base making music that to me sounds like completely not compromised there's absolutely nothing about this that would suggest that such a big audience would be able to get it it's just unbelievable i always joke to like like you go into a coffee shop and see a dude like with his latte with like a patagonia on him and like he's definitely going to the knock loose show like it's but it's weird you're like why yeah like how did that like why are some bands they just broke the mold like turnstiles another one where they're like way more accessible commercially but like yeah at their roots a hardcore band yeah like live they're a hardcore band still so it's like it just blew up you know like open the door for the heavier shit to get bigger too but yeah um it definitely wasn't like that for sure back then you had to like kind of make the radio song or sort of like adapt a little bit but the reality was we wanted to do that yeah So it was like, we're just doing what we wanted to.

32:34And it so happened to be that move, you know? Right. Because, okay, there's the first song that came up, I think, on your Apple top songs was the song Warrior. Oh, okay. Yeah. Was that, that's what it's called, right? Yeah. I'm not tripping. Yeah, yeah. And that just sounded to me like, oh, okay. They went in there and like really tried to make a song that could have like the biggest possible audience, like kind of cleaning up your whole style a bunch of shit. Yeah. I mean, Warrior was on, there was two records that we did. and there was sort of like a moment on each because I started doing a lot of writing in sync, like TV film shit.

33:05And it was like, I would be stupid if I didn't try to apply that to our band. You know what I mean? Like I've seen what that can do. So we had a song called Time Is Now on our record called In Our Wake. And that song was like everywhere. Like literally every sports team, arena or stadium was playing it during games. Like it was on so many commercials for like every sport. And it fucking did. it's our highest streaming song we have ever warrior i think was another one of those things where it's like okay let's try to do that again um but it's funny because like warrior is one of our songs that now we're like sometimes it's like what you feel like it sounds a little corny yeah you're just like i don't know like like we don't play that song all the time okay and it's a big song for us yeah but it's like i fucking care yeah because i mean as you clean up your style or like do songs that could go a little bit more mainstream do you feel like you run the risk of like alienating your sort of core fan base but then it's super weird for you guys because your core fan base was 25 years ago so how many of those dudes are really left around i don't know that's exactly my perspective like one i'm never scared of losing fans because there's always more fans new fans you can make right you know i mean we're not we're not the stones we're not corn we're not limp biscuit everyone doesn't know who atreyu is like there's so many people that we can reach so it's like okay there's gonna be more of them than there is that we're gonna lose right And that's always been the case.

34:25But like, you know, I feel like it's never been like a worry of mine. But I don't know. I never really fucking cared, you know? Yeah. Also, like you said, like our core fans that are like, the fucking sellouts, fuck you. It's like, you haven't been to a fucking Atrey show in 20 years anyways. Why the fuck do I care what you think? You know, like it's not like the people that are like talking shit or like loud on the internet. it's like you haven't even supported our band in decades so like i don't even care what you think you know it's like you don't like anything we've done since the first thing you know like do you have like fans that you see in different cities that you're like oh i remember that guy from 10 20 years ago yeah there's a dude in jersey who come to like new york jersey philly sometimes and he's been coming to our show since we were literally like in like you know vfws like the very beginning he's been to like probably 50 atreye shows yeah um and he still comes yeah you know like it's fucking awesome that's sick it's badass hell yeah one thing i wanted to ask about is there's like a thing that i'm watching you do in some of the early videos and it's like i just don't really even have a frame of reference for like what it's called you're kind of like you put your hand up in the air and you're kind of like stomping one foot it's almost like a elvis type thing do you know what i'm talking about and what is that called because i like remember hardcore bands doing that but i always if it kind of felt like they were making fun of it i feel like it was just dudes trying to like i feel like funny i think early days like hardcore was not a fucking genre where where you had you got chicks you had chick fans yeah like it was not like oh we're in a hardcore band to get girls yeah it's just dudes beating each other up at our shows but that was like i think that's everyone it was like our old singer like you had like even like 18 visions every time i die what all it was like them trying to be like sassy on stage you know like yeah once it started becoming a thing where like girls started coming to those shows it's like i think that's what that was did that like change everything like just the fact that the music was going in a direction that like more women were attracted to it's when you know your band's doing good the second you start seeing girls at your show more girls you're like oh it doesn't matter like what type of girl you start seeing girls at your shows you're doing yeah i remember probably 2008 one of my friends took me to a brand new show and i was just like oh like i've been spending my whole life going to rap and hardcore shows and now i'm here and it's like 70 girls yeah and i just kind of realized like maybe i felt the same way the first time i went to a yoga class yeah i was like oh like maybe being a bunch of chicks maybe i should not have been doing like completely dude centric things my entire life for sure i mean yeah it definitely uh it shifted now yeah but yeah back then it was you did not go to hardcore shows to which it just feels like there's like a way more consistent percentage of women at shows these days especially for certain bands yeah like you go look at some of the like kind of modern bands that are massive like you look at bad omens yeah like bad omens is it's mixed there's so many girls but there's also just like hot girls you would think you would see like a country show right you know I mean, it's like 50-50 or even maybe more swayed towards girls.

37:34Yeah. But, I mean, same with our shows. Like, there's a lot of girls now, you know? Definitely. Like, when I go to, I've been to really only a few hardcore shows over the last, like, five years or whatever. But I'll go and see girls just, like, in the pit so much more than I ever recall. And I'm just like, what the f***? But part of it, too, probably is the fact that I'm in California now. because I feel like in Boston, the pits were so unbelievably violent. Yeah, the East Coast thing was much more violent. If you're a woman and you wanted to be in that environment, you just have to be out of your fucking mind.

38:07You have some problems. If you're going through some things. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, dude, one of the most violent pits I've ever seen in my life was a show in Hawaii. This was a while ago, 15 years ago. Really? Samoans in the pit? It was the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life, and it was like 80 % girls. Really? Just straight up beating the fuck out of everybody. Wow. I was like, this is supposed to be like a calm, beautiful place. Yeah. You know? I, 2003 Metal Fest in Worcester with just Converge's set in particular just stands out to me. I don't think I still have seen that much violence to date.

38:42Oh, yeah. I mean, that was, it was like Orange County shows were for chaos. There was maybe some fights, you know, but it was just chaos. Even from the band's perspective too, East Coast was like, okay, now shit's about to get real. Yeah. Like you'd go and it was just gnarly. Yeah. And there was, I think there was a lot more like, especially Northeast. There was just like more like almost like gang culture involved in like the hardcore scenes with like, you know, I was like DMS and like different shit like that where it was like dudes were, there was just some way realer dudes, you know, coming to shows.

39:12Yeah. But yeah. And East coast was always way more gnarly. Yeah. I remember there was a good hardcore interview I did a long time ago. It was a white trash Rob from blood for blood and Ramallah. and I remember seeing Ramallah play like one of their first ever shows that I believe it was the ICC Church in Alston, which is like part of Boston. And like they starred the first couple notes and it's like the young kids for the most part in the venue and then like the biggest dudes I've ever seen in my life are just moshing with brass knuckles on and just absolutely destroying people. And like the biggest smiles on their face And it's kind of like a wink and a nod between like the band and these dudes that like this is part of it.

39:56Like you are our homies and you are here to make this show as reprehensible as possible. Because that's like that's going to tell the world that we're like a real serious band. But this is also like you would just never see footage of bands. No one had anything to bring a camcorder to shows. You know, no one's doing that. Yeah. But now that's one crazy thing that I see is what's that channel? 856, I think it is. or uh they like people are like really out here like documenting the out of shows yeah and have like giant fan bases from it's wild shit yeah i mean everything now it's like that's the thing that's funny about like people filming at shows people have different opinions of like put your phone away whatever enjoy the show right at the same time it's like some someone puts a random clip of your show up and like it's a dope moment or it's a crazy moment that shit spreads like wildfire and all of a sudden your band's huge because some random kid filmed it yeah You know, like that could change everything for a band.

40:52It's crazy too because it's like realistically 5 % or 10 % of the country are even in a position to really consistently be able to see shows. Like you could have that opinion in LA or New York or whatever, but like, you know, many states in the country, you're just like almost never getting a chance to like see the band you like and then that's even more pronounced when you go over to Europe or Asia or some shit like that. Like if you're a Treyu fan in Europe, you probably only get to see you guys like every couple years or something right sure and then we're still not going everywhere yeah and europe europe and uk are different it's funny like if you live in la and a band you loves playing in san diego you'll probably go yeah you know i mean like it's not that far yeah but like like we used to do that all the time but like if you live in london and the band you loves playing in manchester it's a fucking three-hour train or two-hour train like no one's going yeah like we've played shows in like amsterdam or there's a uh there's in right outside amsterdam there's another fucking city called uh utrecht okay it's like 40 minutes from amsterdam right it's the easiest train you'd ever think yeah no one will ever go to utrecht from amsterdam and vice versa right but you're like this is so close yeah it's like so if you don't play the specific cities it's like most people are not even gonna go see you yeah like my first time in europe was like a weird uh revelatory moment because like me growing up in new hampshire is like we would for sure drive two or three hours to go to providence to see a show or whatever that was nothing that was just like a regular show it didn't even occur to us that we were driving some far distance and then i go to the uk and i realized that these guys can go to ibiza by getting on the plane for two hours yeah and it's like a different world for sure you know now that can you do that it's like you can go to you can go to ibiza for 80 dollars yeah on a flight yeah you know what i mean it's like cheaper than the gas that we were for sure yeah yeah years ago my friend was in uh was in europe going to school he was in germany i think and we played some shows in the uk he's like oh i'm gonna come to uk like i gotta fly it for like 60 bucks yeah cool it's not close at all but you can just pop over yeah you know it's funny though too because like i had a bmx dude that i'm friends with recently telling me like i'm going to sacramento like we should hang out one day and i'm like well that is a seven hour drive for me my friend i don't know about that i have friends in la this week that i'm like yo like i was like yesterday i was in burbank but like my guitar player was in Simi Valley.

43:08It's like, yo, while I'm in Burbank, do you want to hang? But if I go back to Simi, like I'm not coming back here and you're not going to the valley. Right. You know, it's like fucking far. Yeah. No, for sure. Like if I have a friend in Long Beach, it just feels like a fucking zillion hours away. For sure. Yeah. Just not touching it. No, definitely. So, okay. I know you guys have this whole like viral thing, which, you know, where somebody, I don't know if it was you, you said you created metalcore. and that kind of so then i watched like a fin mckenty video about this conversation that was pretty interesting so what are your thoughts on the origin of that genre that was our old singer um being smart we had a record coming out he's doing an interview with somebody and he's like what is you know this is pre-clickbait you know really right it's like every piece of clickbait is unintentional whereas now it's all on purpose yeah and it was like what is what's going to make somebody talk right um it worked there's there's funny i don't think we invented metalcore do i think we were in the like early waves of what metalcore is absolutely i think you had bands on the east coast like kill switch and you know maybe shadows fall uh later was all the remains in florida you had poison the well um on the east on the west coast you had bands like us and even 18 visions didn't do like singing and shit till later right so i think we were definitely on the early early stages there's a lot of like older you know kind of hardcore old heads that are like what about in this band what about this band like fucking you know and i'm and it's like i don't think that that's the same thing you know i mean uh because because that fin mckenty video he's kind of using like integrity and earth crisis as like the starting point which to me i got into hardcore where bands like them and hate breed were just the norm so for me it's like kind of bizarre to be listening in integrity and that this is not just like regular hardcore to me it just sounds like hardcore yeah it just sounds like hardcore and there was those bands that were using like that were in influence by like you know they had like a slayer influence yeah or something like that but with you it's all the metalcore because it's got these elements that harken back to like hair metal yeah metal like fucking european metal but there was also like the melodic side of metalcore yeah like we were the bands were also like kind of having like pop choruses in our songs and like um you know so it's like i think we're definitely you know we're on the the the origins mount rushmore i think but i don't think we were the first ones right you know like that's just a fun thing to say impressed to get people to talk right definitely but i mean do you feel like the fans are even like as obsessed with genres at this point or it doesn't really do that much people don't give a fuck yeah like and it's so funny because like i'll see like younger kids that are like oh yeah i'm mostly like only into death core it's like okay that's because you're fucking 20 yeah like i feel like the majority is just listens to whatever the they want right you know what i mean like like i said before it's like people are like yeah with christina or with uh what's her name carpenter sabrina carpenter sabrina carpenter and and i also listen to fucking you know billy eilish but i with uh try you also right you know i mean it's like yeah people don't care yeah um it's so spread out with not even it's like rock metal metalcore country pop everyone just listens wherever they want yeah which i think is better yeah it's cool yeah definitely i couldn't really imagine being like so cut off along genre lines although there's like certain genres that i don't like doing mostly hip-hop podcast the fact that i admittedly have like almost no interest in r &b is sacrilege to a lot of people but then meanwhile they have absolutely no knowledge of like folk or alternative rock or whatever which to me it's kind of like i feel like what you're getting out of r &b is probably like closer to what i am getting out of like all these alternative rock bands i like it's like the origin of of something you know like r &b was the origin of essentially what led into hip-hop a lot in a lot of the ways so but it's like it's the same shit but that's the weird thing too is that i like r &b but i like like r &b from like the 70s and 80s and then by the time you get to like modern r &b where it just sounds like whispery slow rap that's like that's what i don't really like yeah for sure for sure no i get that like it it's uh people always get mad at if you don't like what you're supposed to like from the beginning yeah you know what i mean like how the do you you know i mean like there's a lot of metal and hardcore bands that i'm like i don't give a shit yeah like how do you not like them they're the it's like i just don't care right never resonated but is a lot of that the fact that you guys have written hundreds of metal songs so you listen to some new metal band that like maybe the new generation is kind of excited by and you're just like like listen like it's gonna take a lot for me to be excited by a new band right absolutely i mean especially these days like there's there's 10 good bands and there's 500 that are just trying to sound like those 10 good bands yeah that shit is boring as yeah you know like it's it's uh like a big basis of our new album was making sure we didn't do that right you know like we didn't let ourselves listen to music that wasn't 10 years old at least so it was like we don't want to be influenced by any of this shit because everyone's just copying 10 bands yeah it's like oh that band's so big we we should do what they did it's like well they did it i remember even being like 21 and just kind of realizing that like all the bands that i liked when i was 17 were no longer straight edge despite their straightest tattoos yeah and that there was like another crop of bands and that they realistically sounded almost exactly the same to me and just kind of realizing like oh this is just a cycle that's just going to take place yeah forever and pretty early on i just felt like pretty jaded by it yeah for sure yeah for sure that the straight edge thing was was always been funny to me i was straight until i was 18 too yeah i didn't get any tattoos but i knew dudes who were 19 or 20 who had gigantic exes tattooed on their hands and they were drinking beers at shows and that was kind of like oh the weirdest thing is when you grow people that are straight edge and you haven't seen them in a long time and then you see them again and you're like having a beer and you're like wait what since since when you know like oh this is cool now we can you know like it's wild but i mean respect to being straight there's nothing make if you wanted to live a healthy life especially i feel like doing it when you're young because maybe you're like mature enough to be able to handle like smoking weed and drinking when you're 25 but for sure you're not at 15 no if you could just use straight up to like not become a degenerate at that point in your life then it has a lot of utility you know i have one friend uh he was the original bass player of a trade named kyle uh that he's the only dude i know that's like i have never had a drink never smoked a cigarette never done a drug he's 43 yeah and he's still just like it's at this point he's like pride myself on this shit yeah like why would i drink a glass of wine now at dinner like i've gone this far this is like a you know badge of honor kind of thing the rigidity of the subculture is like just kind of bizarre i remember like people flipping out about like ray capo drinking a glass of wine at like his daughter's wedding or something yeah and just being like what the and but then like to make hardcore steven was smaller than ray capo did the joe rogan podcast and at no point did joe rogan even seem to like be aware that he was in this band called youth of today exactly which is kind of crazy he's done the last 20 years yeah i watch like the full like three hours and at a certain point i'm like oh so he has no idea and he doesn't give a at all like that's crazy yeah yeah absolutely and it's so long ago yeah you know what i mean yeah most dudes aren't doing the same thing yeah i mean i'm i think we're like i'm a rare rare condition that's like i've been in band for 27 years like yeah i know i see people from high school and shit and they're like you're still doing the band like yeah oh it's crazy it is crazy well okay if you guys perform like in the oc or whatever does your fan base look like really really young like too young to remember you from when you guys were first coming out or like what's the demographic feel like it's mixed i mean now honestly it's like it's a lot of people bringing their kids or like you know what i mean like oh my sister listened to you when she was 16 and i was three and now she's you know in her 40s and I'm in my you know 20s or whatever like late 30s like there's a lot of that yeah a lot of like people we joke around there's a lot of kids at our shows we just call it job security because it's like families are bringing their kids parents are like oh yeah I grew up listening to this band now my kid likes it because I listen to it so we bring them to the show now but yeah it's pretty widespread like I would say there's not tons of like the kind of early 20s you know like sort of like i don't know cool and like you know what i mean right uh because if you're really you know when you're 20 i mean that's like when you're finding bands that are representative of your subculture and your era yeah which is interesting though because metal and hardcore are such genres where a band could just have this like 30 year career and kids are getting into hardcore at 18 and they still find a lot of like you know there's just so much interest in finding out about the greats yeah for sure yeah and that we i mean i think that that the the overlay of that it's like kids will get into like whatever bands are cool right now and then like they'll find us four years later right when they're like oh they start digging a little bit you know yeah yeah because like hip-hop is so different from metal in the sense that like the young generation i'm gonna say like one percent of them are the types of kids that will like go in the crates and listen to all the greatest rap albums of all time and actually take the time to read about them and realize why these albums were important and influential because so many people like their time being into hip-hop is like their teenage years and maybe like a chunk of their early 20s and then they just kind of age out of it or they have the stuff that they liked but it's just like and I think a big part of it too is the fact that like bands are great because of the cohesion that takes years and years and years to build up together whereas rappers like literally just get on stage and play the instrumentals or even the entire song yeah and just rap over it and that's just like the the lot and i tell people that is that like i think a big part of why i have like almost no interest in going to rap shows is because i grew up going to hardcore shows that were the most insane experiences of my whole life yeah and then rap is just like unbelievably lazy live unless you're a huge fucking artist yeah there's definitely examples like i saw drake live for the first time and was like that was unbelievable i can't believe what i just witnessed there's no like new rappers though they're like oh i'm gonna go this is my first tour like yeah i'm gonna do whatever i can to bring like some production and like make it a cool show it's just like it's not part of the i don't think it's part of the culture no no i don't think that you don't have to but then again too i was saying like young kids like you feel like a lot of like younger younger audiences like less into the rapper the more into just like what they look like and like the idea of like what they sell you know what i mean yeah it's definitely the entirety of the whole thing and even like you know seeing uh kanye at rolling loud a couple years ago and just seeing like this army of kids wearing all black waiting in line to see him and but they're young too.

54:35But like, this is representative of where they feel like the culture and fashion and everything is that, and it would be like the same audience that was lining up to see Playboy Cardi, but they see Kanye as like the father of all this sort of like goth rock rap shit that they like now, you know? Absolutely. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah, definitely. As far as your personal listening habits, like what do you actually find yourself listening to? for the most part? I listen to too much of our own band. Okay. Like whenever we have new music, I just like I'm a dude that writes music I want to hear. So I end up listening to it too much.

55:13Same with like shit that I write otherwise for other artists. So I'll be like, this song was cool we did last week. As far as like other shit, like 0936 is an artist I love. He's like a foot in metalcore, one of the craziest rappers I've ever heard. Oh, really? but like really heavy but is an insane rapper also like but saying screams as well um he's definitely on top um sort of in our genre um like wage war is a band that's great love okay um definitely love you know a lot of the classics you know i still can listen to hate breed old like like satisfaction yeah um still listen to was that the peak for you yeah okay because me too perseverance or satisfaction perseverance is like so much cleaner and more well produced and like there's like they have like real anthems on that shit but like i got into it with satisfaction as a desire and it's kind of like everything after after that just kept getting like more cleaned up from what i listened to although realistically i probably never gave it as much of a chance as i should have but hate breed i'll say hate breed is a band that's still like to this day we did a bunch of festivals with them last year in europe and like they're still fucking crush yeah like it's still fucking hate breed yeah you know um but that's like you know like like i reference in flames like in flames colony is a record that i grew up on you could play that record now and and sonically still plays you're like this still sounds great um you know i i still you know definitely kind of roll with a lot of classics it's it's hard we talked about earlier it's really hard for new artists to impress me because it's it's rare that they're doing something that's actually unique and like cool enough to be like well okay i haven't heard this song a million times yeah you know what i mean yeah um like there are a handful of bands that are doing it and doing their own thing that are great like i went and saw bad omens uh last week in nashville and they're as big as you can be and it was like they're doing it right they sound like bad omens and they're doing their own thing it's great um that band president opened the tour okay and they're fucking cool as well it's like a newer band um but uh check out a lot of the bands that you're listing off here that i'm in the dark about for sure but um yeah it's rare there's not like tons like that's why i love a band like knock loose because knock loose is literally the spirit of what i grew up on and somehow it's been put on a platform that's bigger than i would have ever imagined so i think that that's cool wow bad omens is big huh they got a video from seven months ago 16 million views that seems pretty out there they are on their first headlining arena tour right now okay and the whole thing sold out in like three days that's sick like sold out sold out like not scaled arenas like they did Bridgestone in Nashville it was 18 ,000 people they did fucking uh forum last night wow sold out that's crazy like huge huge well uh are you on board with the sleep token thing or not I like it I think it's cool I it's not like my specific like cup of tea yeah i understand why it's big um like the mystique thing and like mask thing is almost like a weird golden ticket if your songs can be kind of good and you wear masks yeah but um i think their their secret weapon is that they've taken the success that they've had and done the appropriate things to like match it right with like their live show like they showed up and it was like they got the opportunity to headline a bunch of you know like to be downloaded big festivals and shit in europe and even some of the festivals here and they showed up with fucking like narnia on stage it's like a waterfall and like rock things and like everything you could imagine where it was like this is a fucking crazy show this is like a a fucking theater yeah you know and uh so like they're doing it right they're taking they're taking the opportunities and like actually stepping up yeah it feels like they're one of the few bands that's really like trying to recreate the mystery that a lot of bands might have had in the 90s or whatever when it was hard to find out information about people and the only way you can do it nowadays is if people don't know who you are yeah president's the same president is like people know who the singer is he's was in a big like band in the uk but they've never said he wears like he looks like uh patrick swayze in point break that's his stage get up right it's like a like a reagan mask or whatever and like the suit yeah and it's like unless people just don't know for sure who you are that's the only way to have mystique yeah everything else is just out in the world yeah you know so it's hard to avoid the fact that like oh this band is just a bunch of guys in a van at a certain point exactly yeah like where did you yeah you don't know where it started you know but um like yeah i mean i was really in a cradle of filth in like you know when i was like 14 15 and i remember seeing them live and being terrified like the scariest shit ever and when i think about that in like the modern context i would have just gone on youtube and like watched an interview with one of the dudes and been like oh he's just like a dude that's really into metal and they wear makeup and they're into a bunch of crazy shit but they're they're not killers yeah we had we played a not best in new mexico cradle of filth and like danny came into our dressing room was like hey man like can you guys like sign something my daughter loves your bags that's my daughter we're just like that's crazy the same thing with like uh like scary bands like back in the day did you ever know ink and dagger uh i never got into them ink and dagger is like a band from philly and they're like a vampire band where like corpse paint spit blood everywhere and they played and it was like like back in the day it was like fucking horrifying yeah and there was so much lore around the band but there was no social media to destroy it yeah you know what i mean even now like they're like they've their singer died like 20 years ago but they've done shows again with uh the singer of thursday and like but it's still the same exact spirit they'll do like a church basement in philly on like halloween and it's still the same like there's like projections all over the room and you feel like you're in hell yeah and they carried the whole band in like in burlap sacks like dead bodies like you know i mean it's still cool yeah uh but that can't doesn't exist anymore yeah it's so hard to hold on to that like i can't even imagine what sleep token being on tour is like yeah like i wonder if like bands that are with them like did to sign ndas like you can't tell anyone who i am yeah because you're not walking around catering with a mask i think i've seen shit online where it was like people on their reddit or whatever like trying to expose their identities and then like but like a big chunk of the fan base is like no like that's not cool like yeah allow them to have this you know yeah there's also the thing too with everything these days like i think people's biggest mistake is responding to anything yeah like if someone was like this is sleep token if sleep token just doesn't say anything about it they're gonna forget and move on yeah you know what i mean it's like as long as they don't say who they are then people will never really know for sure yeah you know definitely yeah you don't have to respond i mean i remember like going to a hardcore show seeing these dudes who on stage just look like absolute monsters to me they're like older than me they're bigger more muscular tons of tattoos whatever and they're playing these songs and people are beating the out of each other in the pit and then we go to denny's and they are at the same denny's it's kind of like oh okay having a moons over my hammy yeah and probably i definitely didn't like have the the nuts to like do anything besides maybe wave at him or whatever but that's you know right there like that could easily kind of destroy some of that aura dude years ago we did hellfest and uh misfits played this is like later misfits where it was kind of just like jerry only and like yeah like the dude from black flag playing guitar or whatever and everyone's at denny's and jerry only walks in to denny's and like still kind of like leftover makeup and like just he's a big motherfucker and he walks in and he goes what do all the rockers eat and everyone just goes denny's like it was like he was still on stage you know what i mean and like that was one of those things you're like this motherfucker's the same dude oh just the fact that he's been doing that shtick for like 40 years yeah forever dude yeah shit's awesome that's crazy i remember like That being a massive shock to my system when I had heard a few old Misfits songs, thought they were sick, went to Newberry Comics, bought a CD, and it was the new Misfits, and having to kind of make sense of that.

1:03:20But then even now I'll say, hey, Alexa, play Misfits. And then they're playing both, but I'm so familiar with those old songs that it's like a different band, but I have a fond feeling for that stuff as well. See, I got it at Misfits backwards. so i'm like the i'm the everyone will hate on this but it's like i got into like you know famous monsters and uh what was the one before that anyways but like the michael graves records yeah and then i kind of went back i knew like you know we are 138 and like skulls yeah but it was like then i went backwards so it's funny i'm always like i fuck with the other misfits more yeah everyone's like you totally um okay i feel like i kind of hit most of the stuff that i wrote down um which literally was like three things but um yeah so i don't know i mean like where do you feel like atreus at at this point like what actually like do you feel like a a catalog act or is there still like real genuine excitement about the new stuff that you're putting out and How do you kind of manage that?

1:04:25That like, you know, a lot of the fans want to hear songs from 20 years ago. And then meanwhile, you want to put focus on the stuff that you're putting out this year. Yeah. I mean, we're strangely and I mean, thankfully able to sort of live in both worlds. You know, like last year we did all the whole thing was doing a curse tour. We're just doing an anniversary tour for their problem, the curse. And the show would go off. But then we do like an encore set of like other hits. And like, that's when the show wouldn't really snap off. and it was like oh okay like it's a weird thing where like it's hard for a band to like settle into being like a legacy thing because then it's like okay well it's over what's the point in like moving forward we just have this catalog right um but i think we've been lucky where you know you look at like our spotify whatever like top 10 and it's like it's three of our new songs one song from our last record and then the rest is like you know the older shit yeah so it's like it's strangely relevant um too but i mean i think there's just there's we've we have so much shit that we haven't done yet so i think for as far as in our minds it's like no we'll just keep going because i also think that we are pretty confident in the fact that like i don't think we're a band that's already done our best shit you know what i mean like i don't think we're a band that's like already written our best shit and it's never gonna go back there again it's like i think we're doing cooler shit now yeah that's reaching more people now the genre is bigger now you know like our music is more accessible now so it feels like metalcore or whatever is bigger in 2026 than it was in 2006 yeah it's funny because like you see everything everything's cyclical you know like you saw you know emo get huge again and like the explosion of emo night and all those bands when we're young festival and all that shit like what what got big after emo was like it was people got into metalcore and like heavier music too you're seeing that sort of like flow into that now where it's like you know like our numbers are better than they've been in a long time so you know just kind of keeps going but yeah I think that we're lucky enough where we're not just resting on history you know which is cool I mean I want to keep making records and keep creating you know definitely you see yourself still touring in 20 years I hope so yeah yeah I mean I think there's no one in our band that's like I mean our oldest dude is 46 but like no one's like a fucking old fogey you know like our guitar player likes to go to bed earlier when he's home but like and i got kids when i'm home i go to sleep 10 o 'clock 11 o 'clock at night yeah but like we're we're healthy you know like we're not broken so yeah i can see it's still going is that a big focus just like staying healthy because i feel like you can't go on the road in your 40s if you don't have a focus on your health at a certain point right for sure you definitely you can you just feel like yeah Like there's a difference if I go on tour and like drink all every night and, you know, don't pay attention.

1:07:19Like I feel like shit. But if I go on tour and eat healthy and go to the gym every day of my band and like, you know, maybe have a couple of drinks on stage and a nightcap, you know, keep it pretty mellow. Like it just feels better for longer. But yeah, I mean, I think as long as we're healthy and able and I think it's not uncomfortable for us to tour. You know what I mean? Like I think if it ever like, God forbid, went backwards and it was like, oh, we can't afford a bus anymore. like can't afford crew honestly i think it would be like guys not worth it yeah but like um that all is very comfortable still i guess we don't know what it's like to be 60 because yeah it does seem like people in their 60s seem to be slowing down a lot so i guess you'll kind of have to cross that bridge when you get there yeah but it's like dude there's people that do it man there's i mean you look at the dudes like in corn is probably in their 50s yeah you know like obviously this is a weird weird alien like inhuman example but can the stones dude yeah dudes are ancient yeah it's still ripping yeah you know it's like it's possible yeah like we're not on stage we probably don't do the same shit we did when we were our 20s like our bass player doesn't do barrel rolls while he's playing bass anymore yeah but like there's it's still active i know i know you're like passionate about it but if you weren't passionate about it would it be worth doing it for the money uh or I mean, yeah, we live good lives, but I wouldn't give a fuck.

1:08:39Okay. Like, I don't. Money is a hard one for me to do. Like, I won't do anything if it's just for a paycheck. Yeah. Like, if I don't care, I don't care. Okay. If I'm uninterested. Like, we very much have modeled our band to sort of only go after shit and approach things that are exciting. Like, even when we make records, we wrote this new album in, like, Tokyo and, like, an island off the coast of Washington just because it was, like, that's fun and that's entertaining to us. That's sick. So I don't think none of us would care. Like I said, we all do shit on the side too. So it's like Atreyu is not really a have to for any of us.

1:09:10Yeah. Because if you were in the Stones, even if you absolutely hated touring, you would probably have to keep touring because the money is good enough at a certain point. I mean, it's better than good enough for sure. I mean, it's funny. I feel like the Stones at this point are like, cool, how many generations behind me am I setting up at this point? If I go for another five years, I can take care of my grandkids, grandkids, grandkids. kids grandkids right you know it's like there's no i would i assume those dudes only do this shit because they still can enjoy it yeah that was my first show honestly when i was like 12 my dad brought me with a bunch of his friends to the bridges to babylon tour and even at that time my dad was old as fuck yeah and like when i look when i think about that and i actually i've seen the stones a couple more times with my dad's over the years but uh yeah it's just kind of like crazy to think about the fact that they're still going yeah it's wild they're machines i don't think they're not human yeah yeah yeah definitely so okay you guys are like going hard pushing uh this new album and everything i listened to the the preview that you guys emailed over like what would you say is where you're at uh musically and what direction this is supposed to be going in at this point it's a bit of like kind of return to form it's like i think more on the metal side and the heavy side than we've done really ever that's what i was thinking it sounded very heavy yeah yeah um which was sort of like you know sitting down for the first time to make a record we always sort of shoot from the hip and we make an album just kind of like get into the studio and what it sounds like is what it sounds like um paying a little bit more attention and kind of like trying to dissect what the the best dna of the band is and like what are the great parts and what are the shitty parts like let's just lean on the good parts yeah um and a lot of that was some shit that maybe is kind of missing like you know guitars weren't front and center for a few albums you know guitar solos like heavy shit riffs you know what i mean um so just trying to take that and elevate it all um but yeah it's like i think it's a a good one for old fans maybe not who knows but who knows what people can like but yeah it's right the right direction for us but i think i mean it's funny you make a record and don't really notice what it is until people are like man this is like this is a return this sounds like nostalgic but like an elevated nostalgic version i mean i would have had no idea i'm like looking at the video you guys put out a month ago and it has like a million views and i'm like wow like a trade in a million views on music video in 2026 like definitely like metal bands just have like really enduring fan bases that just stick around and just really give a shit for sure yeah it's a good thing yeah no i'm not i'm not mad at it definitely um if you do you have any bucket list stuff like surrounding the band that you want to do before it ends up uh closing chapter or what?

1:11:54Yeah, I mean, there's just shit. It's like, I feel like we've done a lot of things. It's like, we play arenas. I'd like to headline arenas. You know what I mean? Like, we play festivals. I'd love to headline festivals. Like, there's countries we've still never been to. You know, we've never been to a lot of, like, you know, Asian countries. And, like, we haven't done all of South America. We went to South America for the first time last year. Yeah. Which is fucking weird for a band that's been around as long as we have. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely tons of bigger mountains to climb. Oh, yeah. For sure.

1:12:19Oh, man. It was dope meeting you. and just to kind of get to like revisit the catalog and shit like that and just uh dig back in for sure very impressive man yeah thank you man yeah thanks so much for sure everybody uh head on over to streaming services uh check out the new atreo album which is out uh april 24th yeah so whenever this comes out okay it'll yeah sick yeah it's either out now or it's coming out whenever you put this out definitely all right uh thanks to everybody who watched this no jumper coolest podcast in the world like comment and subscribe and drop a comment because for sure i will be in there reading them appreciate it man