The Russian White, in full

0:19Heat. Hey, hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Hi friends. Um we are uh actually uh on a Thursday instead of a Sunday doing Unwritten Rules of the Road. Um and we're joined this evening by the incredible Tom Rhymer of the Russian White. Tom, thank you so much for joining us. Hi. How's it going over there? Uh it's warm. It's warm. Yeah, warm and allergies. All the tree pollen. Gotcha. Yeah, that's kind of how it's going over here. Except we're going through June gloom in LA. So, yeah, the not the warm part, but the the pollen stuff. So, yes. Yes. Actually, I'm just going to jump right

3:39into it. So, um when you are on the road and dealing with different climates, do you have any particular approaches to treating ailments? Um lots of tea. Um, you know, as a vocalist, you got to, you know, keep the vocal cords good and tea, water, um, you know, plenty of sleep, proper diet helps. Um, Zerek. Yes. Yes. Definitely helpful. For sure. You know, um, try not to use that stuff too much, but, uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, those things are, you know, helpful. So yeah, I like doing the the saline water as well for for the nasal rinse. That helps. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the biggest thing for

4:32me is like I said like uh you know water, tea, those things help you know keep keep everything nice and moist and hydrated as much as possible. Yeah. Do you have any particular go-tos for your tees? Um so for the longest time I used this company. It was called box and they were from the UK. Um, but I think they've recently I don't think they are existing currently. Um, so I've just been kind of going to um just like generic just regular green tea and Yeah, I like doing like um if you have it like lemon lemon definitely helps especially if you have some flem. Yeah.

5:14So yes, but lots of honey that is very helpful for sure. So, um, when you are on the road again, like when when is the next time you'll be on tour? Do you know yet? Um, I'm not sure at the moment. Like, we've been kind of game planning. Um, kind of seeing like what options we have. Um, we've talked about maybe doing some small runs here and there. Um, some one-off shows. Uh, but as far as like big extended tours, um, we don't have anything like on the books at the moment. Um we just finished up like our our second kind of like bigger US tour

5:53um this past fall. We were out from um September to and yeah they uh trying to think I think it was like three weeks, three and a half weeks. Um we went like all over the Midwest um down south east coast. Um, and then the year before, um, we were out for, it was kind of broken up into two parts. We had a West Coast run, we had a little tiny break in the middle, and then we had an East Coast run, and I think it was like alltogether like five, six weeks. Um, something like that. But it was I think it it was like we've played in like 40

6:34states now, and like it's been pretty wild to, you know, play that much like all over the country. So, it's like time traveling. It really is. I feel like it's like there's a lot of a lot of different cultures um you know even domestically here um as you go from city to city and you're going through different time zones and different you know gosh like environments even from the desert to sometimes like south it's very very humid as well. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I particularly I don't do well with um mountains. Um, so I actually get some like bad like um like ear issues where my ears don't pop with

7:18the elevation changes. Oh wow. Okay. And it just like constant like pressure like we'll just hold for like hours. Um I remember like we were driving through I think it was from like Reno to like Northern California and my ears wouldn't adjust the altitude changes um for like three hours and it was terrible. O. Oh, but yeah. Yeah, that's a lot. Mike Mike says F mountains. They're also quite a lot to navigate just driving wise as well. So, yeah. Um, for for the audience who is unfamiliar with you, um, something in particular that I thought was amazing was the way that y'all modified your van. if you could share that um with us

8:10to to share what your tour vehicle was Yeah. So um I guess it was right before our US tour that we did with Ayatoya and Comrades and Solemn Shapes. Um I bought a I think it was 2011 or 2012 like Chevy Express van. Um we took the back seats out. Um me and my dad custom built a bunk in the back and underneath the bunk is like storage. So like you know it sits like up a little bit and then we have like um storage for like our gear and merch like underneath the bunk. And then on top of the bunk we bought a Japanese floor mattress to help

8:53save space. And the thing is only like maybe four, you know, four and a half inches or so. And um but it helps save like on the space like to like the roof. So there's like um yeah, there's like more room in the van, but it actually feels like a regular fullsize like mattress. Um it's very comfortable. Um then we actually we kept one of the bench seats in. Um but yeah, I mean at one point I we had four people in the van. Um Mike, my bandmate, um his wife Valerie, uh she goes on tour with us sometimes and you know, she helps run

9:31merch, but um she um handmade like all the blackout curtains that go around and we uh came up with this cool idea. Um I think she actually got it from like her parents. Um but we use tent poles inside of the van to make like a rigging for the blackout curtains. Um, so we have blackout curtains that wrap around the entire inside. Uh, we got USB like rechargeable fans that you can charge them up like, you know, during the day or while you're sitting around like sound checks and stuff and then, you know, at night, I mean, they run all night long and we just clip them to the

10:10um, like the the temp poles and it's actually fairly comfortable. Um but yeah, I mean it just helped us save like a ton of money um from not having to get hotels every night. And you know, we were out on the road for, you know, like six, seven weeks. And um I think we only got like three hotels that entire time. And then our our last tour that we did um it was a little colder in some states like when we were out in like I think like Iowa um some of those other um but yeah like uh I think we only got like four hotels

10:48time. Um but yeah, I mean it's still not too bad, you know. So only if it's like really super hot, you know, really super cold, you know, we'll we'll splurge for the hotel. Um, but that helped us save so much money, you know, not having to spend like, you know, 100 to 200 bucks a night. Um, yeah. And then like with hotels too, they're always so weird about check-in and checkout times. Um, and I mean, you obviously know, you know, from road life, you know, you're getting into a city, you know, five, six o'clock, scrging for food or a bathroom, you know, doing soundcheck, playing the show by the time

11:25you like load out like merch and everything. and you know take pictures with people and you know next thing you know you're not getting back to the hotel room till 2 3:00 and you know you still have to drive to the next city and you know a lot of times you have to be out of the hotel you know at not the most convenient hour um and so you end up only spending like five hours in the hotel room and I'm just like we're paying all this money you know to sit in this hotel room for maybe five hours after a gig No, it's not it's not bad if you have a

11:59day off, you know, the following day, but um you know, for us, we don't like days off on tour because, you know, like when we have days off on tour, um we're not playing any shows, people aren't seeing our music, we're not selling any merch, we're not making any money, and you know, we're not getting to meet anybody, and it's just like it's just we're like having dream money on days off like on tour. So even like you know sometimes like if it's on the way sometimes we'll play like those weird shows you know to connect you know on the tour. Um sometimes we end up playing

12:33some places that we normally wouldn't play but you know logistically it makes sense and you know like we'd rather play a show than not play a show. So Yep. Absolutely. Now do you do your own booking or do you work with a booking agent? Um, so we've been working the last like couple tours uh with our good friend um Zach Bernett who sings and runs Comrades. Um, dude's a touring machine. Um, he's really rad, you know? I love that kid. Um, me and him are like best buddy road dogs for life. Um, but we do some of like our own booking, but I mean Zach helps out a lot too. Um, you

13:14know, we both have our ears to the ground and, you know, we have like a lot of connections, you know, from just doing this for so long. Um, so we usually get into some pretty solid situations. Um, we don't really get into too many sketchy situations every anymore. Like once in a while we'll have something that's kind of weird, but um, that usually doesn't happen too much these days. Um, but yeah, I mean, since Zach's been helping his book, um, I mean, we've played just a ton of shows over the past few years. Yeah. Well, it definitely helps when you have like people that can help um like

13:47guide you in the right direction and you know, especially has a real sense for like the music and you know, that sort of thing. So, teaming up with Zach is is an amazing situation for sure. Yeah, I mean that's one thing like we've definitely spent like the last um I'd say probably five years like really building our team. Um, Zach also helps, you know, like program like our lights, you know, helps with booking. Obviously, we play like a lot of shows together. Um, like I said, Mike's wife, Val, um, she helps run merch like when we're on the road. Um, you know, we teamed up

14:23with Jim and Distortion. Um, so that's been pretty rad. Um, you know, actually have like label support. Yeah, it it makes a huge difference. I mean sometimes it can take some time to find I think the people that you know that you were like okay this feels like a good fit but once you find it it is really magic for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I mean it's just kind of helped taken everything to like the next level. Um because I mean we've we've actually been a band like we I started this in 2011. Um and we started playing shows in 2015. So we've been like actively

15:00touring for like the past 10 years. Um, and I I feel like the first couple years, like I don't know. I guess that's like this with probably like every new project, like everybody's just kind of like on the sidelines. They don't really know what to make of you and they're like kind of hesitant and like, oh, you know, are they kind of worthy or not? And um, and I don't know, I just I I just been determined, you know, like I wouldn't take no for an answer. I wouldn't let, you know, anything discourage us. And you know, I always say like we're kind of like uh we're

15:31kind of like the oddball in the the goth industrial scene. We definitely don't fit into the traditional molds. That's for sure. I think we can relate to that for sure. Um well, I mean, out of curiosity, had you did you have any projects before the Russian White or was this your first project um musically where you were playing live? Um, so I've actually been playing in live band since 99. Yeah. So I mean I got 26 years playing live shows. I mean I I probably played over a thousand shows at this point. Um I used to be in some like hardcore metal bands back in the day. Um and then I was

16:13in um I was in my first sign band. It was called uh Bodies in the Lake. And we were like this weird spazzy metal band. And it was kind of like Dillinger, Every Time I Die. Um, just kind of like weird [ __ ] And then, um, Mike, my keyboard player, um, he was also in a signed band called Throttle and Dear Lucid. And, um, we had the same management. Um, and that's kind of how our path cross. Um, so we had the same management back in the day. Um, so we ended up playing like a lot of shows together. And, you know, like I always joked around. I was like, "Hey, you

16:49know, you should get together and jam sometime." because it was to find two like synth keyboard players and like metal bands like in this area that we live is like it's like basically like two unicorns you know so and uh you know we had a lot of similar influences you know like deaf tone signage nails um you know things like that and you know so those are like some common ground that like we really clicked on so I think that's amazing like um because it's like I feel like coming from different backgrounds um and then bringing you know electronics you know with your own take um I think it's

17:29probably a big part of what has made your music so unique well we're fabulous you know no but um no but that's awesome Mike tried to steal my keyboard at a show he was like yo I'm taking that keyboard and I and I wouldn't let him take it but he was insisting on it but he he's slowly weasled away for me. So, he play He still plays a keyboard live at shows, but uh it's I I own it, but he plays it. Just so we know. Yes. Yeah. He he might say he might say differently, but but yeah, I mean, I don't know. We've always been cool with each other.

18:10Um you know, like um I mean, we're pretty much like family like now. Um we've been playing together so long, you know, like I have dinner with him and his wife and his kids and stuff. Um, you know, so it's it's it's been a lot of fun. Um, especially like being in a band with somebody where it's like it's just easy, you know, it's like very little drama. Um, we're both on the same page, you know, we don't really fight about things, you know, we both have like, you know, like a firm handle. Um, you know, just like where we're at and where things going.

18:44But and and that's kind of like something like um I don't think it's talked about enough is just like um you know just kind of being humble, you know, and just being like down to earth about stuff. And it's weird because uh you know in in this scene there's so much ego you know there's so many people like you know just like walking around like you know like acting like rock stars and acting like they're hot [ __ ] and then just like you know like I don't know that stuff's corny you know and it's like they got that oh don't you know who I am kind of

19:15attitude you know and then like you know we we find out we play some of the same venues you know we have some of the same size of crowds and it's just like come Come on, man. Like, chill out, you know? Like, put the ego in check, you know? Like, when you walk on stage, like when you walk on stage, like that's when you can let the ego out, you know, like that's when you can, you know, really own it. That's your time to be a rock star, like when you walk on that stage. But, I don't know, especially with like some of our peers, you know, some of our

19:43peers, you know, it's like, okay, you just played for 80 people and it's like, well, I just played for 75 people, you know, like what's what's the difference, you know? And yeah. Um, I don't know. It's just it it's weird to me, you know, and I've encountered that a lot over the years. And, um, it's it's one of the things that I take to heart is like I always try to be humble, you know, like I always try to be like down to earth with people. I'll sign every autograph. I'll take every picture. Um, sign any poster. Um, and that's probably like one of the biggest compliments that I get is

20:14like, you know, just my attitude towards just like fellow bands, um, bands we share the bill with, um, the crowds, you know, the fans, um, just our friends, you know, just having that like chill, down to earth attitude. Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, it really does come down to like your why, right? like why why you are doing music, why you choose to like go out and share that live as well. Um you know and if it is ultimately just to be able to connect with people like that's really the heart of it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I've had a few

20:52instances like um like over the years where you know, people have come up to me in like different states and stuff and you know, they've wanted to meet me for so long and they take a picture and they're like, "Oh, you know, your music helped save me or changed my life and it's just like, you know, that's what it's really about, you know, like that's why we do it." Um, you know, it's definitely not for the money. you know, people people I think they get into it for, you know, money or fame or um, you know, to name drop or like, "Oh, I can get girls or whatever." Like, I don't

21:27know, they're just in it for like the wrong reasons in the long run. And and usually those acts fade out, you know, like they might be big for a split second, um, you know, like a year or two, but then they disappear, you know, and they kind of fall off the radar and they and people figure out like what their real intentions are. you know, but then we're we're over here and like we've been carving out a career for the last 10 years and, you know, we're still able to do it. Um, you know, we generally make money or we're in the green or, you

21:59know, break even at worst case, you know, so there's not too many bands that can say that in 2025. So, absolutely. Well, um, you know, going back to the why, um, like what initially got you into music? Um, I think it was, um, I think like a lot of people that get into music, it's like you didn't you you're kind of like the weird kid or you're like awkward or you don't really have, you know, the self-confidence. Um, so you're kind of like searching for your place, you know, like you kind of like bounce around to like, you know, different things and it's like I was

22:46always one of those kids like I could kind of fit in with any crowd. Um, but at the same time like I never f felt like I belonged anywhere, you know. So, um, you know, like I had a friend, he let me listen to Nirvana, uh, you know, and I was like, well, this is really different, you know, and not that I'm a huge Nirvana fan, but at the time I was just like, wow, this is kind of different. It's kind of unique. Um, and I really never heard a lot of music that I really liked. Um, you know, outside of like Madonna and Flock of Seagulls, you

23:19know, I thought that stuff was all right. And um so I slowly started dabbling into just trying to make music that I was happy with. So I went through I went through like a long time of just like experimenting and you know trying to find like that niche um you know like where I where I kind of felt like okay these are my people you know like this is where I should be. And I think I started like when I was around like 14 or 15. Um, and I was terrible. I was playing in just crappy high school bands and but I mean that's where you

23:54cut your teeth, you know? That's where you learn. Um, and you know, here it is like I don't know, 25 years later, you know, I'm still still doing it. So, yeah. And like I know for Mike, um, Mike was classically trained in piano. Um he I think he started when he was like five or six years old and he used to go to like different competitions and stuff and uh you know so he he definitely has like that background and then uh you know like obviously like you know most of us you know we started hitting those teenage years and you know he started getting

24:31into like you know 9inish nails and depth tones and um kind of developing like his own style. Um, I know he loves Prince too. Like Prince is awesome and you know Michael Jackson and um, you know, some of that like classic like more 80s kind of stuff. Like I loved like the pesh mode. Um you know some of those new order you know actually it's funny because like I told Tim uh from the lonely death um I told him like when we were doing like our newest record funeral art I was like I want to make a record that sounds like New Order but with like a metal singer

25:10you know. So, like we really dialed in like some of those like um you know, like those kind of 80s sounds and melodies um with like some pop sensibility, you know, worked in there, but like also some of that like harder edge. Like I wanted to like marry the like those two ideas of like what if like we could kind of like go back in time and have like new order the band but then like put me in there as like a metal singer you know with that kind of like you know uh influence and um I got to say like uh he killed it as a

25:44producer um like on this album. I know me and Mike are super proud of that album. Um, it's been an album that we've wanted to make for a long time. You know, nothing against our older material, but um, I think it's for like the first time it felt like a true like Russian white album. That's awesome. Especially like like you were saying, if you set the intention where you're like, "Okay, this is kind of what we're going for." And you actually accomplish it, that's that's an accomplishment for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean and and like do you feel like you have after having accomplished that like any kind

26:22of inspiration for the thing next thing to come or are you like we went kind of just want to settle into being in this album for now before you dive in? I do have some ideas um there. So we'll back up in time a little bit. Um, so when I first started this project in 2011, um, I had my best friend from high school, um, Jesse Quinter, who was a guitar player. Um, he's actually who I started the project with, and, um, he had recently passed away a couple years ago. Um, so we we never um, we never kind of got a chance to make that Witch House album, you

27:04know. We wanted we wanted to have some of that like kind of like you know like 8bit crushed kind of sound you know like upbeat you know higher tempos like 160 to like 180 um you know kind of high energy booty shaking songs you know like um so I I have some ideas um for like the next album to kind of dive into that a little bit but also still kind of like hold on to like all the good things that we just did on this this album as well. Yeah. Um but yes, there might be some sprinkle witch house ideas and we always kind of do like we always kind of

27:43sprinkle some of that stuff in there, but um I think we might like kind of dive into that a little bit more um on the next album. Um you know, some like crazy like arpeggiated stuff, some like higher tempos. Um because I I say most of our songs kind of sit in that like you know like anywhere from like 100 to like like 136 kind of BPM you know mid-tempoish maybe a little higher. Um but I mean but it's like it's not a I mean it's just kind of like what feels right and natural to us. Like we don't really like overthink it too much.

28:19Like we just kind of like oh okay well this kind of sounds cool like you know this is kind of like a comfortable thing. But, um, I think we might push the envelope a little bit on the next one. So, that's awesome. I I It's always like I I don't know. It's kind of fun when you start like feeling the seeds when you're like, "Okay, I feel like something's is going in this direction." Um, and it kind of guides you. Though midstream it obviously can change, so you never know. But it's always interesting to know like, "Okay, here's some inspiration. Here's a direction, you know." Yeah.

28:54Yeah. And like one of the cool things about like our band too is um we have like a couple core elements like that we kind of latch on to. Um but we don't really tend to box ourselves in. Um like with like our sound like we always try to like work in some like cinematic um kind of soundsscapes, you know? Um definitely like those 80s kind of like melodies and then you know mixed with like some some harder edge like kind of metal influences you know and that that's a broad palette right there in itself. Yeah. Um that gives you a lot of room to

29:31experiment. Um, you know, and and I feel like with anything like that we've done, like, you know, if we're if we're dipping our toes into certain things, um, experimenting with certain things, but also like not losing, um, not losing the things that kind of got us to this point, you know? So that definitely gives uh that that definitely gives us like a lot of room um to kind of like see how we can kind of like surprise people a little bit. Um yeah, so it'll it'll it'll be interesting to see uh the next batch of songs, but I mean I kind of have like a concept in

30:12mind. I have some ideas. Um well something that you mentioned um I wanted to bring up is um you mentioned the cinema and I know that you have just finished um uh a movie um and uh I I mean first of all congratulations that's quite a feat um yes how how long did it take you to put together if you could chat about that. Um yeah, so I actually just finished um filming and well directing um my first horror movie. Um it's called The Field. Uh it's the_field_mov on Instagram and uh I started to script about five years ago. Um you know, just kind of outlining some ideas um because

31:03that's what I originally went to school for. I really, you know, wanted to try and get into film. When I got out of school, it was like, all right, well, you really have to network and kind of know people to make things happen. And I wasn't really into like just doing corporate work, you know, behind the scenes stuff, like just, you know, TV shows or, you know, regular network things. Um, yeah, you know, I I basically wanted to write and direct. And, you know, the best way to kind of do those things is just do it yourself. you know, do it on your own terms. And

31:35uh so I had a bunch of scripts I had left over from college um that I really didn't do anything with. But you know, the one day I had this idea um you know, I started tinkering with this idea of like, you know, these four friends, they kind of go on like a weekend getaway and bunch of crazy stuff happens, but not in like a traditional horror way, like horror movie kind of way. And um I showed my rough outline to a friend Brian from Jersey and um he does a lot of stuff for like Netflix. He's been on like Amazon Prime, uh some stuff on like Tuby and um

32:18yeah. So and oh he's done some stuff for HBO as well. Um he's done a lot of extra work, a lot of crew work. Um he was on like Marav Town, he was on 50 Cents Power. He was in um Hustle with like Adam Sandler. Um so he had like some solid connections for things and I showed him the outline for my script and he was like dude this seems like a cool idea. He's like you should really finish writing the script. Um so I spent a couple weeks and like you know I you know hacked out like a first rough draft and he was like dude this is killer you

32:51know. So then I spent a couple more weeks and I like I revised it. I went through a couple revisions um you know and tinkered with you know some things and um you know next I know I had a full script you know. So then we got into casting last year and um you know he kind of introduced me some to some people that he's worked with before and like we had some open casting calls and then um I think it was last August we went and shot the trailer um over the weekend. We just did like a concept trailer. Um, so we got together with

33:21like some of the main cast and crew, took like two, three days, shot a concept trailer. Um, and then we launched an Indiegogo. Um, I think it was back around January. Between like the Indiegogo and like, you know, personal funding and, you know, like some outside producers, um, we raised almost $15,000. And then um and then we like I said so we took uh two weeks in May and um we shot a featurelength movie in 11 days for 15 grand. So wow that's quite a feat. Yeah. I mean realistically it probably should have taken us about 30 days and about $50,000 to shoot but you

34:03know on on an indie level and like we had people flying in and like we had multiple locations and um you know we had like film permits and everything. It was just it was a lot to coordinate. Um but you know I spent weeks and weeks planning um meticulously planning and you know much like music and touring it's about logistics and planning. Um so that translated very easily over to like the the movie realm of like coordinating like our shoot schedules and logistics and everything and who's going to be where and when and um we had one day rained out. Um, other than that, like we

34:40pretty much ran on schedule. Um, we had two flex days built into the schedule in case there was things that we didn't get to. Um, and we used both those flex days. And, um, yeah, I mean, everything went pretty much according to plan besides the one day where we had a rain out. And then that was kind of cool, too, because like on the rain out day um, we had um, we had stunt rehearsals. So we did like stunt coordination and we did like shot planning and stuff for like all the stunt scenes and um so we were able to do that on the off day and

35:11then um Mike even um hold on a second here. But um yeah, we we even had um we even had Mike and Val come out on set and they were like helping out with like the cooking and hanging out with us. Um, and then obviously me and Michael will be doing like a lot of the score work, you know, like a lot of the um, you know, like soundscapes and things like that, like because we wrote the sound, we wrote the soundtrack parts for um, uh, for the movie trailer, for the but yeah, I don't know. I think it was um I mean all things considered I think

35:57what we pulled off was was pretty amazing and um you know just looking back at the dailies like you know like at 2 o'clock in the morning after we just spent like 10 or 14 hours you know filming all day um and seeing some of the scenes that we got. I I think it's going to be really cool. Um I think it's going to be I think it's going to be kind of different. Um, I think if you're just looking for like the run-of-the-mill slasher movie or horror movie, you're probably going to be disappointed. Um, but if you're looking for something like very like honest and

36:28unique and kind of different, um, I think I think it's going to open a lot of eyes and ears when people finally see it. Um, because I I I didn't really have my heart super set on making a horror movie as my first movie. Um, I wanted to do something kind of like more experimental and weird, but I felt like doing a horror movie, um, was probably the easiest to pull off and get people to actually pay attention to it. And then, you know, hopefully this will kind of open more doors and, you know, I can do other horror movies or I can do like

37:02other kind of experimental kind of movies and then, you know, like hopefully get like other producers involved. um so I can kind of do some of those like other projects um that I had started writing like back in college. Well, it's something that you said earlier um it was like you were talking about how when you were first starting out with the Russian white like you were, you know, you were Oh, the field. That is such a beautiful poster by the way. That is so beautiful. Yeah. So, my uh my buddy Zach um he did the he did the poster art for us, but he also did

37:37the album art for funeral art as well. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's our graphic. The small world. I love I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I I I I I I think it's always um amazing when you find like we were talking about your people that you can create with and then it branches off and then it becomes kind of a multi-dimensional, you know, project, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's um it's interesting because you brought up like um like how you when you were first starting to to tour with the Russian white like you know you were figuring you know figuring out like where do we fit in this world and same

38:19thing with the field where you're like okay this is a way for us to like get started in the film world um and then you can branch off from there because I'm sure you're learning a lot um from this particular experience too. Yeah, I've already um we've already gotten asked to do score work um for two possibly three other projects already. Nice. You know, um and you know, we haven't even finished this. It's not even like complete and people are already like asking us to like do score work for other films. Like it's pretty wild. That's awesome. Well, I mean, if especially if you feel like really

38:58inspired by um storytelling and like the cinematic journey, I mean, it makes a lot of sense that you know it lead to more and more score work for sure. Um it's funny because like you talk about like storytelling and um so when we did our music videos for funeral art, um we actually did it in uh like a three episode kind of format. Um, so we had Fenal Art was like part one. Um, we disappear was part two and then Milo was part three. Um, so there were our three main music videos uh for Fenal Art. And we basic we basically did it like um

39:37like a short film almost. So they like continued off of each other. Yeah. Did you have that in mind when you stepped into it or did it just happen organically? Um, well, I didn't have it in mind like when we were writing the music. Um, we kind of just like write songs to write songs and like kind of what whatever comes out comes out. Um, but then like when we were kind of doing like the concept of um the music videos, like I think when we were originally like writing the songs, like we were thinking of doing like a like collection of um like three

40:15EPs with like five songs on each one and each one could kind of be like their own thing. Um, but then but then that really didn't kind of come about like it did, you know, like you can have ideas, but sometimes you just know like something's not going that direction or going to work that way. Um, so we kind of took that idea and we just translated it to like, well, instead of like doing like three, five song EPs, we're just going to do one album, but like we'll have like these three songs kind of like tell a story. So that's why we did like a three-part

40:46like almost like mini kind of movie um between the three music videos of like where you know they kind of just flowed right together like as a a cohesive kind of story line. That's really cool. I I love that. I mean, it feels like um you're already in that direction, but I feel like maybe, you know, after having created the field um and then stepping into the next album, I'm just curious if you'll end up, you know, bringing more of like integrating your albums and your music videos and more movies like al together. So, that's that's kind of an exciting prospect, I think. Yeah. um the

41:24guy uh Jeremy Summerall who directed our music videos um and I kind of like you know we kind of tag teamamed the concepts to a degree um but he was telling me about like one of the projects that he's working on and um he actually he I think he wrote a part in like one of the scripts and I think he's going to have us do like a cameo um in like one of the videos there's like probably going to be like some kind of bar scene or like rave scene or something and he's going to have us as like the band on stage like during like

41:52whatever where those shots are. And um so I thought that was pretty cool. Um he didn't tell me what projects it was for. It was just something just like that we were talking about. Um yeah, but he was just like, "Yeah." He's like, "I think I'm going to have the Russian white in like one of the one of the scripts and he was kind of telling me a little bit about it. I won't give it all away, but uh he was uh he seemed pretty excited about it." So, and uh yeah, and that that's you know, that's what it's about. It's about networking. It's about

42:19helping, you know, different people out. and um you know kind of just like growing your networks and you know seeing like what comes about. Yeah, absolutely. I think you know being in bands first of all it's it's just like a seed of collaboration and getting to collaborate and create I think is really the crux of it. It's like it's it's really the true joy I think is that Yeah. And you know, and I think that's one thing, um, especially in our scene, um, people get very protective of their project. They're just like, "No, this is my little thing. Like, nobody's going to touch it or mess with it." And it's like

43:00it's a very much like a control thing. Um, and like I get that to a degree. Um, but I've also felt like to the best work and most interesting work comes out of Um, and I feel like maybe it's a little bit more accepted now. Um, you know, I mean, you look at a band like Health, um, Health collaborates with all kinds of different artists like all the time. Um, and they come up with some really great stuff. Um, you know, and I think I think also like, you know, even with us, you know, like being able to work with Comrades, like um me and him have a collab track

43:41um that we've been working on. Um, us and Solemn Shapes um are our label mates. We have a track um that they wrote, but that I'm going to sing the vocals for. Um, you know, and obviously like Tim with like The Lonely Death, um, you know, he's been helping produce, you know, our stuff and, um, I actually did guest vocals for his electronic saviors, um, track. Um, so I did some vocals on his his his track for the the compilation. Um, you know, and those are those are cool like little things that can happen. Um, you know, and then, you know, hopefully at some point we get the

44:19co coll co coll co coll co coll co coll co collap on a track you know so um and then uh you know I was just working with the guys from Frontal Boundary you know they're going to have a track on our on our soundtrack for the movie. Um, so it's, you know, it's it's those cool little things that can kind of happen. Um, where, you know, if you're open-minded to it and, um, you know, I think if everybody's like mindsets like in the right place and people kind of just put their egos aside for a minute and, uh, you know, some really cool like

44:52magical things can kind of happen. Oh, absolutely. I saw it was Okay, it's a tangent, but it relates. Um, I saw this really interesting animation that was a collaboration between Salvador Dolly and Walt Disney and it blew my mind and I was like like I think you wouldn't know like oh these two could collaborate and it was beautiful like really beautiful work. Um, so like you're saying it's like you keep an open mind you just never know what magic can come out of it you know. Yeah. I mean, not that it's my favorite thing in the world, but the um the Chelsea Wolf and Converge um collab that

45:32came out a few years ago. Um that was kind of something different that I didn't expect. Um some of it I thought was cool, you know, so I was just like it's it's always interesting when you get those people together and they're just like we're just going to do something wild and unexpected. Absolutely. Um I actually had a question. Uh, what is are what are the similarities between creating a film versus creating an album? Oh, that's a good uh put me on the spot. Take your time or we can come back to it, too. I I think um I think it kind of comes down to like

46:17like what do you want to say, you know, like what what message do you want to send? Um and there's all kinds of different messages, you know, it could be one of like, hey, this is entertainment, you know, this is just something that there's not really a ton of meaning behind. but there are some things too like I know for me like um a lot of our songs have like you know kind of cryptic meanings or like you know things they might mean to me personally. Um but I kind of let people pull what they want from them. You know I don't really like to come out and say like hey this is

46:58what this song's about. Once in a while I I will um you know if it's something like more personal um like we have this track it's called burial um on funeral art and you know it's about Jesse it's about the guy you know I started the band with and my best friend from high school um you know and that's a very personal track you know it's not a track that will probably ever play live um but I don't have a problem talking about that track because that's a very specific thing um But for a lot of the other songs, you know, they have kind of loose meanings to me personally,

47:34but I always let, you know, the audience um pull their own personal thing out of that because like once it's released into the world, it's like it's no longer um you know, it's no longer yours at that point. You know, it's kind of like your gift to everybody. Like, hey, here's this, you know, um you know, hopefully you can take something from it or, you know, help you work through something, you know. Um, I know a lot of times like um, you know, the music in our scene kind of like darker and um, but it can be therapeutic for some people, you know. Um, and then

48:09there's other tracks too like hey, you know, like you're out there on the dance floor for 45 minutes. You're not thinking about work. You're not thinking about your shitty boyfriend or girlfriend or drama or parents, you know? It's like, hey, you're there to have a good time. You know, we're going to make you shake your ass, you know. So like that's that's kind of like what we do and it's like whether it's you know something deeper or personal that you get out of it or if you know if you're just hey we're providing the soundtrack for a good night out. Um both those things are okay and you know like I feel

48:43like the same thing with like a movie too like um you know a movie is a form of um uh escapism. you get to escape for an hour and a half, two hours and you kind of go to this different world and you meet these characters and you know maybe you see something of yourself in the character um you know maybe they're going through a challenge or something that you're going through you know so there's they're kind of some similarities but they're they're very Um making a movie is a lot harder than making an album. Um, I feel like if I didn't have to go

49:24to my day job, I could probably knock out an album in about three months. Um, I don't feel like that with a movie. I feel like a movie would still probably take me a couple years um to really kind of develop and do the do it the way I wanted to do it. Uh, because I I feel like the best movies, they they have attention to detail. Um, they don't feel rushed. They feel very like uh I don't know what the word is. Um they feel very purposeful, you know, like a good movie. Um they feel like it's very intentional. Um now obviously there's like a lot of movies that are,

50:03you know, they're they're popcorn movies. They're not, you know, thinking deep deep things with these kind of movies. You know, you're just kind of there and having a good time. And um but some of my favorite movies is like they kind of make you think a little bit. You know, they dive into some things. There's you know definitely a lot of like u you know definitely like a lot of imagery. Um there can be some subtle you know behind the scenes kind of meanings. Um I love David Lynch. Um big Twin Peaks guy and you know he was he was all about that stuff. Um you know same thing with

50:37Darren Areronowski. Um I love the movie The Fountain. It's one of my favorite movies. Yeah, same. Which is kind of a wild ride and not many people know about that movie. Um so, you know, those are those are kind of some examples of, you know, like where, you know, um directors kind of do things and they might have a meaning to them, they might not, you know, and um you can kind of let people pull from it what they want to pull from it. And then it's up to you if you want to tell them like no that's what it's really about or kind of just let like

51:12hey you think what you want about it you know it's art you know it's it's open for interpretation. Absolutely. Um just wanted to take a quick pause. Uh Pete Russo said um well several things. Thank you so much for joining us Pete. Um uh Michael Stip said that he likes when their album comes out because it stops being ours and starts being everyone's. That's that's a beautiful quote. Um, also when the score is good, it is like another character in the story and it cannot be undersold. 100% on that. Um, Pete was asking um, do you feel you would need to be more specific with intent when making a movie

51:51as opposed to an album which had the luxury of more broad interpretation? Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have to be a little bit more purposeful. Yeah. Um, yeah. especially with like making a movie because I mean yeah it is my vision ultimately um but at the same time like um there's got to be a goal in mind you know like when you're making a movie especially even on an indie level but you know like we have producers like we have people that are financially supporting it um and ultimately you want the movie to have some kind of success you know so you have to kind of go into with like an end

52:30goal of like you can't just be like oh well I made a movie, you know, it's like, well, cool. I mean, lots of people have just made movies, but like, you know, so like what's your goal with the movie, you know? So, like our goal right now is um, you know, we're, like I said, we're in post-production right now. Um, but then once we have, you know, like a final edit, like we'll start doing a film festival circuit. We'll start doing like some horror conventions and then, um, you know, hopefully through that we get some traction. you know, maybe we get some people kind of talking about it and then

53:04hopefully we can get like some kind of distribution deal or, you know, get the movie um picked up by like, you know, like a bigger uh, you know, studio or somebody that wants to like put it out in like a theaters and uh, you know, get like a broader release and, you know, like I've been working on, you know, finding some connections in that kind of world and, um, you know, I have some I have some contacts that uh, you know, that I'll be trying to um leverage um you know when the movie is finally you know finished editing and then um you know seeing like what doors it opens.

53:41So, um do you have like a specific date yet that's um in terms of everything being finished in mind or um ideally the movie will be edited um you know final edit before the end of the year and then so hopefully towards the end of the year you know beginning of next year we start doing the film festival circuit and then hopefully 2026 is like the big year for like the field of you know either the festival circuit are like eventually hopefully getting like picked up by a um before it's you know whether it's it it gets a theater released or like ends up on like streaming services

54:23um ultimately I want it to make money so you know not that that's the the goal but it also is like I I don't want it to lose money you know which I don't think it I don't think it will um you know there was a lot of blood sweat tears and tons of planning and uh a lot of attention to detail um for this. So, but it's just a matter of like not rushing you know. I feel like I feel like sometimes people they spend all this time planning, you know, whether it's an album or a movie or whatever it may be. And because it's so easy for us to just

55:00be like, "Oh, here it is." You know, and it's cool like you get that initial rush, you know, people are like, "Oh, that's that's awesome." you know, like it's up there for the world to see um right away, but I I feel like sometimes with like bigger projects, bigger things, um it's really hard to sit on them and wait for the right moment or right opportunity to kind of come along to release the thing into the world. Um, you know, and that's one of the things like I I definitely plan on doing is like, you know, waiting for that right moment for it to be like, okay,

55:32here it is, you know, it's finally, you um, and that's one of the reasons why like, you know, I talked to some other directors and, you know, they kind of gave me some insights to different like film festivals and like what we could get it into and, you know, possible distributors and then, you know, I've had some conversations even this week um, you know, some other um, contacts and directors, uh, you know, possibly negotiating deals when the time's right. Um, but like anything else, you know, you got to do the film festival thing. People got to kind of see it first on that level. Um,

56:07to be like, okay, you know what? Like, we can trust you with money. It's like, you did this with like next to nothing, you know? So, like, here's an actual budget. Let's see what you can do with an actual budget, you know? So that's that's ultimately like the long-term goal is like you know hopefully this opens some doors for me as a director um or writer and then you know like get you know a producer or has like either you know like a studio connection or they have you know other friends that have stupid money that they don't know what to do with and they're

56:41like okay like you did this really cool thing with like $15,000 you know here's 50 grand or 100 grand like you know like let's see what you do with that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's I think coming from like being independent artists, it's like I feel like you really have to exercise your creativity to be able to resource like what you can do like you were saying in such a small budget in a small time frame and you know and then if you're able to do that it's like okay well when we are more resourced like what is it that you can create from there and that's yeah

57:22yeah and that's and that's the thing like I feel like you know when you come from the DIY touring scene, you got to be creative, you know, you got to be able to figure things out, find ways of making things work when they shouldn't work. Um, and I I feel like that going into like the movie realm, um, was very beneficial. You know, it's like, you know, it's like how do you make something work on a budget that shouldn't work, you know? And uh and then a friend told me, you know, one time and uh you know, they were like, "How uncomfortable are you willing

58:02to be for your art?" You know, I think that was uh I think that was Stephen Archer. I think he said something like that at one point. and you know and it's like hey you know like I've slept on floors you know I've eaten ramen eaten the dollar menu you know I've ate the peanut butter sandwiches in van you know um and you know like like I said like we've been able to work make it work you know for the last 10 years and um you know taking that mindset to like a movie set you know like um you know me and Mike sat down you know before we had

58:41production on the movie and we went through all the different locations and we planned out all our meals and like came up with a budget of like you know what we had to work with and like where we could kind of cut some corners and where we couldn't you know so and you know we were able to pull it off you know and we probably shouldn't have been able to but we did it you know so Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I think it's it's it's also very inspiring for other artists knowing like, hey, it's possible, you know, but like, you know, going back to what you were saying as

59:20well is that like how uncomfortable are you willing to get? Um, yes. So, um, not saying that that's always the case, like, you know, I think I think there that it's entirely possible to to have resources and all of that, but like, you know, just the fact that you were able to like put it together as an independent um is definitely a testament to like your your creativity for sure. Yeah, I mean things are possible. Um it does get uncomfortable at times, but that's where like, you know, not trying to do it all on your own, you know, sitting down with um you know, people like myself,

1:00:04um um you know, people like Jeremy, um people like Mike, um his wife, and it's like, okay, here's this problem, here's this situation, here's what we have to work with, here's what we don't have to work with. Mhm. And then just kind of like troubleshooting things or different scenarios of like how do we figure this out? How do we make this work, you know, and then and then finding a way? And a lot of times like, you know, sometimes it takes a little bit more planning or sometimes it, you know, it takes a little bit more time. Um, but at the same time, like if you put that time

1:00:38in, um, if you take the time to prep, um, then a lot of times it ends up saving you money in the long run. Um, one of the things that um that we were thinking about is like, okay, like, you know, when we're going on tour, you know, five, six, seven weeks, um, food on the road is expensive. Eating out is expensive, you know, so it's like, well, how can we save money and not eat peanut butter sandwiches every day, you know, and stay like healthy, you know? And it's like, so we we um we brought a little camp stove with us, a little mini

1:01:16propane um camp stove and uh we brought a cooler and you know, so like we're going, you know, city to city. Um we'll stop at a grocery store. Um we'll buy enough food for maybe a day or two. Um just so it doesn't go bad in the cooler. Um we cook all our our meals. Um, not all of them, but like a good majority of them. And we'll still stop and get an In-N-Out Burger. Um, because, you know, when they're around, you got to get them. So, we don't have those here on the East Coast. So, Ah, gotcha. But, uh, you know, we did a lot of

1:01:53parking lot tacos, you know, where we pull up to a parking lot and we bust out the little camp stove, we put it on top of our merch table and, um, you know, we start cooking up some some parking lot tacos right there. And uh you know and and and like when you're able to like make a meal um you know or like a couple meals for like a day or two and you know for your whole crew you know not just one person and only spend like $20. Um like that that's pretty amazing because you're saving money but then you're also eating healthy you know. Um, so it's like I

1:02:31mean it's just it's just a benefit, you know, whereas like you know you stop and get like a burger, fries, and a soda and it's like 15 bucks per person, you know, and you get a crew of, you know, four or five people and it's like $60 right there, you know. Oh yeah, it adds up quickly for sure. Yeah. I mean, luckily for us, I mean, it's only me and Mike and, you know, sometimes like we'll have Zach along or we'll have Val along, you know, so two to four people is, you know, not too too bad, but like, you know, some of the bands, you know,

1:03:00obviously have more members and more crew. Um, it definitely gets to be a lot more expensive. Um, but that was like one of the things where like, okay, like, well, you know, if we can spend, you know, 20 bucks a day, you know, we're spending $150 a week on on food, then, you know, like that's that's a huge profit margin where you're where you're saving money. So, yeah. And you know like with inflation and everything getting like more expensive and um and you know also like some of the venues and promoters they're not paying you crazy guarantees um you know so you got to be able to if you really want to make

1:03:43it work there are ways to make it work but it's just like you know like Stephen said it's like how uncomfortable are you willing to be but at the same time it's like you don't have to be super uncomfortable if you plan and you think things out like I said absolutely We pimped out the van, you know, we got the USB fans. We had the blackout curtains. Um, I put reflective things in all the windows to, you know, help keep the light and, you know, the sun like keep the heat out of the van. Um, and, you know, us making our own food. So, like

1:04:13we're not only saving money on food, then we save money on hotels. Um, and then, you know, that's more money for the gas tank, you know, more money for merch going back into our band account. um you know and it's you know 2025 to be able to do US tours and come back at broke even or made money is is great especially you know for bands at our level. Um another thing that we did too is like you know people always talk about like um oh what do you do when the venues don't have shower facilities? Um, we got Planet Fitness blackard. You know, Planet Fitness black

1:04:51card. You can bring a friend. Um, so, you know, we would always, um, you know, hit up the Planet Fitness. I mean, there was very few days that we went, you know, without showers, um, because we were able to find a Planet Fitness on the way of almost every place we went. Um, you know, so I mean, I think the black car was like 25 bucks a month. Um, but to be able to shower almost every day on tour, like that's a luxury, you know? Yeah. Yeah, Mike. Yeah, for sure. Mike said we could share share the shower. I'm not sharing the shower with Uh, see, that's where you draw the line.

1:05:30Yeah, I don't I don't need to save water that bad. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry to burst your bubble there, Mike. Yeah, cooking on the road for sure makes a huge difference. We we bring a slow cooker and rice cooker ourselves and bring like non-p perishables and that you know totally on in the same mind frame of like staying healthy, saving money, all the things and and I like to cook so that helps. So yeah, it's it is always fun to like see um in different regions like you know um things that are really special like you were saying In-N-Out like you know if there's certain things that you don't

1:06:11get like where you're from. So yeah. Yeah. We got the Chicago pizza, we got the In-N-Out, we got the Texas barbecue, you know. So hit all the staples for sure. Absolutely. Oh, and the Oh, yes. Go ahead. The Chicago Italian sandwiches are ridiculous. Next time you're in Chicago, if you haven't had them, the um the Owl's Italian beef sandwiches are mindboggling. If if I don't know if you're vegan or vegetarian, but if you're not, they're um they're amazing. Good to know. I have not tried these. I' I've had the Chicago pizza, but yes, I'll have to put that on the list. That was pretty mind-blowing.

1:06:57Um, somebody told me about it and I was like, "Yeah." I was like, "Well, we're playing out there." I was like, "We'll stop and check it out." Um, but yeah, it was that was pretty wild. So, that's awesome. I I think um you know, like I think back it's like part of part of the fun of touring is getting to like explore like the different food places where people are like, "Okay, you've got to try this one thing, you know?" Yeah. Yeah. It's always like some crazy hole in the wall place that's been there for like 80 years. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. But that's fun. Um especially it's

1:07:34fun for Mike because Mike's Mike's our like tour cook. Um and he's an amazing chef. Like he's always in the kitchen experimenting with like different spices and stuff. And um yeah, so we we eat pretty well on tour. I I have no I I I drive the van. Val handles the merch. Mike cooks the food. So, we all have our little our little four jobs. I think that's important. I mean, I feel like everybody kind of finds finds the things that they're naturally like attuned to and then it kind of fits together like a puzzle. Yeah. You kind of need that clockwork because there are a lot of moving parts, you

1:08:18know, when you're when you're out and about on the road. And so like having different people, you know, going like, "Hey, I'm the person that knows how to fit all the things into the van somehow magically." Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like especially now, like we're such a welloiled machine now, you know, like we kind of do it in our sleep, like we don't really think about Um, Dusty Chalk is asking, "What is your favorite cheese? Favorite cheese? Yes. Do you have a favorite cheese? Um, probably have to be either mozzarella or prevalent. They're probably my two Yeah. I I love mozzarella sticks. But you really can't go wrong with

1:09:15mozzarella sticks. No. Yeah. Mozzarella sticks on anything is pretty pretty banging. So, yes. Yeah. And mozzarella is what makes uh pizza. So, I mean, not all pizza. There's there's other special fancy pizzas, but yes. Mike Mike likes Cooper American. Oh, I don't think I've tried that cheese. So, um, actually I'm curious like you mentioned tacos in terms of like road meals. What other things do you guys like to cook on the road? Um, we did some I think we did some rice bowls before. Yeah. Um, what else we do? Well, we did breakfast burritos. Breakfast burritos are a big I mean, they're also just like easy

1:10:12because it's like you can just put everything up in a pan and just put it in our tortilla and you just throw like some hot sauce or sour cream on it. Um, we do a lot of rice. Um, what we do is we we get the um we get the 90 second and then we'll put like a little oil, a little water in the pan. Uh we'll throw that 90 second rice in there um with like some uh some like onions and peppers and stuff and then like we kind of mix it up and then uh you know sometimes we'll put cheese on it, sometimes we'll put some hot sauce on it

1:10:47um different variations of like rice, you know, rice and tacos and burrito kind of things. Um just because they're like they're relatively healthy, they're relatively simple. Um they're not too bad like cleaning up wise. They don't get like too crazy messy. Um or we do some like rice bowls with like veggies, you know, put different sauces on them, you know, different vegetables in them or whatever. Um those things are pretty easy as well. And they're also like they're always good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, veggies are usually not too expensive if you go to, you know, a half decent grocery store. Um, rice is

1:11:28relatively affordable. Um, you know, and then, you know, obviously like we'll do um it's basically just the same foods, but like we'll do different spices or different flavors or different sauces, you know, but just like different variations of it. You kind of find like those staple things and it's just like, okay, well, how can I make these couple things but then just make them different, you know? Um, but yeah, I mean it keeps it keeps things like relatively simple, but then also it keeps it from getting boring as well. Yes. So, you must have the spices and the hot sauce, I say. Do you have any favorite

1:12:11hot sauces? Um, I like the hot sauces that Mike makes. Mike has his own pepper garden and he makes his own like homemade hot sauces and he has this apple habanero hot sauce. I could literally I could literally drink it like right out of the jar like but it's a little too spicy to do that. Um but that is probably one of my favorites. Um uh I don't know. There's so many. Um yeah, we I mean we usually have like three or four different ones. Um I really like the the hot ones, garlic Fresno. Um that is one of my my favorites and it is amazing on uh steak

1:12:58tacos with sour cream. I don't know what it is about the combination of those three things, but it's just it's uh I don't know. It's it's it's straight from the devil is what it is. thing things should not taste that good. um yeah, I don't Mike made fajitas one time. Um Mike says tapato. Tapato is awesome. Yeah, we we usually have a jar of that on the road with us. Um but yeah, he was making like fajitas one time or something. And it was like steak and veggies and sour cream and I put that garlic Fresno on it and I was just like, man, like this is like

1:13:41Like, so that that's that's definitely a Yes. See, that does not that sounds pretty awesome. Like I've been trying to I've been trying to talk Mike into like us making our own Russian white hot sauce. Um we have one. I highly recommend it. Oh yeah. Mhm. It's called Bottle Truth and it's made from blackberries. Oh, nice. Did you guys make it yourself or did you like collab with somebody? Our friend Steven Baker. He's an amazing chef. Um and a and a wonderful friend. Um and he was inspired to make it. Um and yeah, uh so we we use a lot of red and black um you know in

1:14:22our uh colors. Um and so he was like, "What if I used like red and black?" So, he thought blackberries. Um, I'm half Thai, so he used Thai chilis um as well. And it's very flavorful, if I do say so myself. I am a big fan of it. So, yeah, that's one of one of our offerings. Oh, it's pretty sweet. Yeah. Yes. So, highly recommend. Um especially if Mike knows how to make hot Yeah, that'll probably be something we do for um for the next tour, like whenever we go on our next tour. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, again, like that's that's one thing it's like, you know,

1:15:06and maybe you can provide like a little I guess like insight maybe, but it's like I know you guys also do a lot of touring. Um but you know, it's like once you've kind of got your stripes, so to say, like um I think we've done like nine tours, like 200 shows. I think we've played like 40 different states and you know we've done everything from DIY things to like opening up for national acts you know it's just kind of like you get to a point it's just like okay like what's the next step kind of thing you know it's kind of like where do you go from here you know so that's

1:15:38kind of like you know kind of like where we are at at the moment you know and um it was also kind of like a good timing kind of thing with like the movie you know because I had to we just finished a tour in the fall and like we just had a new album come out and um so like we finished up the tour and like you know we were doing a movie and now it's like we've been kind of thinking it's like okay like what's the next step kind of deal like what what should we do? Yeah. So, we just been kind of surveying our

1:16:06options and, you know, not trying to rush into a situation and, you know, just kind of seeing like um, you know, like I guess like what opportunities kind of come along like uh, you know, we did have some some offers come through of, you know, a couple possibilities, but they didn't really seem like the right uh the right situation for us. Um, you know, and that's the thing too has been like you, you know, it's it's a minefield, you know, like couple bad moves and it can really sidetrack your career. So, yeah. And I'm sure you I'm sure you guys deal with that and Alice, you know,

1:16:47you're thinking about kind of like what do we do and what do we do, what don't we do kind of thing. Well, it's kind of funny because I feel like honestly um we set the intention last year of just focusing on the album and then we got offered like a bunch of different festivals to play in. Um and it was like we absolutely cannot turn that down. Um it's just a beautiful opportunity to be able to first of all get to play with friends because like a lot of the festivals are people that are are wonderful dear friends so it's like a reunion. Um, and so like we set that

1:17:23intention of like, okay, we're not going to play any shows. Okay, we have to play the show. Um, but to get to the festival, like we had to like make tours to get us there and back cuz most of the times festivals don't pay you enough because we have six members in our band. Seven if we have somebody along to help out. And so, yeah, it's like flying six or seven people into a city is a a little a little spendy. Um, so we have to do tours to get us there and back. So that takes time. Um, and I'm the one that does all the booking. Um, so, um,

1:17:56yeah, and I'm in, you know, we're in the middle, we're playing Absolution Fest in Tampa in the fall, so I'm in the middle of putting that tour together to get us there and back. Um, so yeah, things have just kind of come into the flow of of what we're creating. Um, and as we're doing it, we're like, "Okay, so we we can't make the album as quickly as we thought we would, but I feel like we're getting a lot of inspiration and a lot of information about the music that we want to make along the way, if that makes sense." Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So,

1:18:27um, but yeah, we're going to be finishing the album and then Yeah. I don't know. I feel like we're we're kind of taking a different approach where we're like we're just kind of letting things happen as they do because that's just kind of what's been happening for the past few years. So yeah. Yeah. Uh and in the meantime just being as creative as possible. So, you know, we're um I'm finishing up a a graphic novel um that's going to be coming out in the fall and the album's coming out in the fall and I'm in the middle of an opera. So it's like we have a we have a

1:19:00lot on our hands. So yeah, but I do feel like it's like it's I think you know as opportunities come along it's like you were saying like whether or not you decide to pursue it um because there's things that come into our field where we're like you know it it would take too much um to be able to make that happen. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's like I said it's kind of like a similar kind of thing, you know? It's like you get like opportunities and it's like well it's cool you're getting opportunities you're in the conversation but you know is it the right place right time kind of thing

1:19:33you know does it make make sense to do um you know like things like that. So, um, we kind of did we kind of did a similar thing like back in the fall because we played, um, we played Dark City Fest in, uh, New Orleans and so we kind of based the tour around like getting there and back home and so similar to what you were doing with, um, the Absolution Fest. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, you have to like take those things into mind. But I mean, I think for like I don't know, probably the first time in like the last like 10 years, like I feel

1:20:05like at this moment, like we're we're not pushing so hard to find something. Um, you know, we're kind of just like, hey, this big movie thing is happening. Like we got some score projects. We're, you know, working on new tracks. Um, you know, if things come along, you know, like we'll talk about it. Um, you know, kind of thing. But it's not like, you know, it's like you were saying, you're kind of just taking like what comes along and seeing if it's like the right thing to do at the time. So, yeah, for sure. I think that um you know, we've just been very focused on like the

1:20:42creation, I guess. So, you know, that's and that to me it it goes back to the heart of the why. Um we just actually very recently had this beautiful writing session as a band. Um, and everybody had this huge smile on their faces and it just brought so much joy. Um, to me personally, just seeing like like everybody having such a good time just creating. Um, and that's really the crux of for us, you know, why we do what we do is just the sheer joy of the creativity and being able to connect with people through that. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's always

1:21:18wonderful meeting fellow kindred spirits like yourself where I'm like, "Yay, fellow creative people that love to create and and push the envelope. I mean, the fact that you've created a movie is just incredible." Um, you know, I'm I have very high hopes. Um, I can't wait to see it. I'm not I myself um am terrible with horror movies. I'm I get very scared, but I'll still watch it. Yeah. Like I said, it's it's kind of different, you know? It's yeah, it's got some of those traditional elements for like, you know, the traditional Far fan, per se. Um, but it it's also kind of in a different realm like

1:22:00um my my three main inspirations uh for that movie were um Mandy uh with Nicholas Cage. I don't know if you've seen that. Um, Stand by Me, uh, old 80s uh, where they walk along the railroad tracks and, um, a movie by Ty West, House of the Devil. I don't know if you've seen that. Um, I have not, but uh, that was like one of my favorite movies. Um, because he did I think he did it in like I want to say like 2009 or 2010. Um, so it was like shot like modern day, but it's like a throwback to like an 80s style, like

1:22:40almost like VHS like kind of horror movie. And um, I thought that was like really cool and like that's one of like the ideas that I kind of brought like to the field. Um, so we actually did the movie as like a period piece. Um, so like we did the movie um, based in like the late 90s, like early 2000s. Um, so like when we were going to film, like we had to find all old vehicles, you know, like we were trying to find like um locations that weren't like super modern. Um, I mean we had uh we got old uh old flip phones um from

1:23:20like like we got old flip phones like off of like eBay um because back then there was no iPhones, you know, and people had these little flip phones and um I found like old like CD Walkman's, you know, with like the headphones and stuff, so we had those. Um and like we were trying to make sure like as much as possible things were like, you know, like period correct. um like when we were filming. Um which actually made filming a lot more difficult. Um but I mean I still think we did a good job, you know, like for what we for what we had to work

1:23:54with. But it was cool to like be able to like because there was a point in time where I almost thought about like scrapping that idea because I'm like it's so hard to like, you know, find like older vehicles and not have everything like super modern. um you know and have like iPhones everywhere and like things like that. Um but that was like one of the things that like Tai West did with like House of the Devil that I thought was like really cool and I wanted to see if I could like pull it off as well. That's really cool. I mean did that inform like your the way that you did

1:24:26the cinematography? Like did you kind of take an approach with older equipment or Yeah. So we we used anamorphic lenses um which kind of gave that like very like VHS kind of vibe um so like when we get into like you know the post-prouction like editing um that'll definitely help shape you know the final look of like the movie um it was something that like that we definitely considered before like we started of like hey like do we want this to look like it's kind of like shot like like an older movie or could be like one of those like old, you know, video store

1:25:06like VHS kind of movies. Um, or do we want this to look super clean, super modern, you know? So, I think we we found like a good balance of using like modern technology, but like also not making it look like we shot it on like one of those camcorders from, you know, 1998. So, that's awesome. I feel like um like some of the some of the ways that people have approached like period pieces. It's always interesting because I think like I imagine with the soundtrack that also probably inspired you to write music maybe if in that time frame too, right? Uh a little bit. I mean, yeah. Um we're

1:25:52still kind of leaning into like what we normally do. Um you know, like the dark spooky synth kind of stuff. Um, and a lot of that stuff is rooted in the 80s anyway. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, some of that stuff kind of plays into it, but I mean, we also still like um we still have like our own kind of I guess uh atmospheric kind of style like when it comes to like doing like a score like doing songs or like what songs to include and what not to include. Um, and you know, like what would kind of like fit, you know, different scenes. Um, and I I feel like

1:26:31that's like where my experience as like a director for music videos um really plays like a big part. Um, because I can see like how different songs will fit different scenes and like which songs will fit where like when we're doing like the final edit. Um, and I forget who had said it earlier, but um, you know, it's like the songs and like the score can almost act as like additional like character um, for the film and it definitely helps like elevate moods and create moods. Um, one scene um that I I think of all the time is like uh I don't if you ever seen Donnie

1:27:13Darko where like they get off the bus and and and the music is playing and it's just like it's so like absurd, you know, of like just like hearing that music and seeing like everybody like bop around and and just like how everything's kind of playing out. Um, and you know, there's there's been a long history of that of like, you know, like where uh what was that? how um reservoir dogs um when he cuts the guy's ear off and there and like I I never be able to like hear that like stuck in the middle with you song and not see that that part of

1:27:59the movie you know like you know and that's like one of the things of like you know like that's how you can take like a song and like you know certain parts of like movies and you know you can almost make something like super Um, depending on like the scene, how you do the scene and like what song's playing. Um, I don't I don't think I'm going to go quite that far, you know, with the uh the the cutting the ear off with that that kind of song playing, you know, but but it's it's also like it's a good use. It's a good example of like

1:28:33how how you can use music um to make somebody or make an audience like feel something that you want them to feel. Absolutely. I I mean I feel like some some movies that I've seen it's like gosh the soundtrack makes it it really does you know I think some of the Trent Rosner Attakus Ross like soundtracks absolutely really change the whole vibe of the film. So yeah. Yeah. I think that's actually sometimes why I have when I watch horror movies, I actually cover my ears instead of my eyes because it's like it's there's something that can be really really jarring about a soundtrack when it's

1:29:14done well. So, yeah. Yeah. um a re and I I I forget I'm blanking on the name right now, but um whoever did the um the long legs um score uh I'm blanking on the name right now, but um that was a a score that that freaked me out. It was like I've seen that. Yeah, it was just super uncomfortable. Um, and then when I was reading about it, they they purposely put like um like all these like little things like in the under layers of the score like weird like kind of like voice things and like um like reverse kind of things and like other

1:30:04things like different frequencies. I think that uh that helped curate that um um just that underlying level of Yeah. And um I just remember watching that movie and it's not like the movie was like super scary. Um like the but the movie was I I felt like it was more of like a psychological kind of horror than like a straightup horror movie. Um, yeah. But like that soundtrack for that that particular movie um was just like I don't know. It was just like super uncomfortable for me and like just gave me like a lot of anxiety like watching Um Oh, Mike said um The Social Network.

1:30:51Yes. Yes. That was a great um soundtrack. Yeah, I was thinking of I couldn't remember the name, but yeah, definitely amazing soundtrack for sure. Um, but yeah, I mean, um, oh my god, the guy who did, uh, the guy who did the fountain, um, soundtrack, um, Clint, uh, I'm blanking on that guy's last name, Clint something, Marol or something, I don't know. Like, that was a really cool soundtrack for the fountain. Um, yeah, sorry, I'm bad with names. My brain's like spaghetti. Yeah. Save the squishy brain is squishy. Yeah. I know what you're talking about though. Yeah. No, that that was a great that was a great score for the fountain.

1:31:38Yeah. Fountain was just a beautiful beautiful masterpiece. I think I I was watching the the behind the scenes and I think I want to say it took them seven years or something to put that movie together which it's it's so beautiful. I can see the time that they that it was very intentional for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Highly recommend. I'm seeing some some people in the chat saying they haven't seen it. So, yes. Yes. Please put it on your bucket list. It is awesome. Yes, that's what um that's actually like what my tattoo is. It's kind of hard to see, but but like it's got the guy and

1:32:17the the flowers are growing out of his Oh, that is beautiful. And I have the I got the tree over here, too. Oh, the tree. Oh, it's so good. But um Yeah. Yeah. I just love how like the different timelines in that movie kind of like all weave together. Yeah. Yeah. I just I I know. I The story itself, not giving it away, but just the story is it's a beautiful story and the way it all interweavves is um Yeah. Yeah, it takes you on quite the journey. Yeah, there's certain movies I feel like you walk away from it feeling completely shifted and that was

1:32:58definitely one of them. Waking life did that to me too. I did not know what I was stepping into when I saw Waking Life. Um, and afterwards I was like, I feel like I have shifted into a reality. Yeah, I'm a Link Later fan as well. Yeah, there's definitely some movies that um that are like super Um, and like I know for us like I mean movies and like kind of vice versa like um movies definitely like inspire like a lot of our music like we put like a lot of cinematic elements into them um as well. Um we actually had and well this is from like a show but um we had a song

1:33:38like on our previous album the haunted beach and it was actually inspired by the show Ozark. Um, but yeah, I mean it's, you know, there's certain scenes and certain things that can happen in like a TV show or a movie and, you know, it can relate back to like your own personal life or just kind of like make you feel something that, you know, like it can inspire a song. Um, you know, and then like me and Mike spend so much time like writing music, you know, it's hard for us to not think of like, you know, in like a visual sense, you know, like when

1:34:13you're writing something and it makes you feel different emotions, like, you know, like what kind of story are you trying to tell with your music? But then like me as like a writer and a director, you know, like I obviously like I write a lot of lyrics, so I'm like, okay, well, what kind of story do I want to tell in an hour and a half? Mhm. You know, so that's kind of like a way it kind of translates over. Yeah. Yeah. It's uh Well, it's interesting in the chat. Um there's uh some discussion of different um soundtracks. Um Dusty is saying uh I'm not so sure I'm saying I'm saying this

1:34:47correctly. Graeme Rall uh does the uncomfortable soundtracks. Um Graeme Rell and uh Pete is saying, "I have both The Crow and The Craft Scorer by Gravell. one of my favorite contemporary composers. That's awesome. Also, Charlie Clauser doing the score for Saw. That is definitely Yeah. Didn't know that. Very cool. Yeah, the uh Yeah, the first Saw movie was pretty wild. Yeah, I remember being blown away the first by the first Saw movie. I have not I have not seen the Saws. I think I think it goes past Tash's threshold of of horror movies. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I like to read though. I love reading horror books. So,

1:35:37yes. And I will watch my friends who have made horror movies. So, I will I will be watching The Field. Yeah. I'm excited about that. I think I think The Field has a lot of crossover potential. Um, just because it's not like the traditional kind of horror movie. Um, there's not like 50 60 people getting shot up or hacked up in the movie. Um, and I feel like a lot of horror movies that do that, like it's okay for a popcorn movie because some people like those sorts of things. Um, but I also feel like there's usually like a lack of character development or you don't feel like super connected. Um,

1:36:17where I kind of went the other direction, like I I spent a lot of time on like the character development. Like I wanted people to like fall in love with my characters. Um, yeah. So, when I do like messed up stuff to them in the movie, like it's like they really feel something, you know, like hopefully. Um, yeah. you know, and and I think it's like um it's a way of like having you still have humanity like in a movie like you still have that human element like there's still thoughts and feelings involved and I feel like sometimes with the horror genre um sometimes they get

1:36:58away from that a little too much and again like it comes down to personal tastes you know so like there's definitely like a place for it Um, and you know, I feel like that's where like when you're making something, it's like, well, what's your end goal, you know, like you know, and obviously like if you have the backing and you have the producers and um, you know, then you can have more options open to you. Um, but I also know too like me as like a first-time director, it's like I only get one shot, you know, to to make my mark, make my debut, and kind of like

1:37:33this is what I can do. Um, so as much as I thought about those things, like, um, I didn't want it to be like a John Wick horror movie where I killed 150 people, you know. Yeah. So, I was just like, well, I'm gonna make the movie that I can stand behind and feel like, you know, true to. Um, and then hopefully people enjoy it. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I feel like um you know, what you're what you're describing, especially I feel like when I get invested in characters is like really when a story gets under my skin. Um it's like you find that attachment

1:38:12and that relatability and you're like, "Okay." Um yeah, I it's it's something that I really want to see unravel. So, yeah. And really quick, I will shout out some of our main cast. Um, Brian Enright, uh, Audrey Cavar, uh, Katie Lions, and Joseph Scarpino. Um, they all absolutely are most super talented people. They all killed their roles. Um, they were already like good actors before they got on our set. Um, and I felt like after we were done, like the stuff that they pulled off and, um, the lengths that they went to to really do great performances, um, I hope that also opens doors for

1:38:54them, you know, in the long run. Yeah. No, it's awesome. And it's wonderful too that you were able to like, you know, have this ma more massive collaboration because it's it's different like you were saying in film versus music. It's like the world is much more expansive and you have many more moving parts and people. So, um yeah, it's beautiful that you were able to like really um expand that field of creativity for other people like that. Yeah, I I think we had like something like I don't know it was like 23 or 25 people like on set like total like casting crew um throughout the shoot. So, that was

1:39:34that was a lot to coordinate. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Um like going from your normal like around four like you were saying in the Russian white to being like okay five times that. Um yeah it was it was a little bit. Were you a little sad though when you finished filming? Because I feel like I I get a I get a little like post like sadness when after tours and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah. usually like the week after tour where you're kind of like tired but you're like you miss your road family, you know, you miss your road friends and all the people you see

1:40:10in different cities. Um and then you know it was a very similar feeling because um we we rented this house and you know a majority of like the cast and crew like I think there was like 10 of us um like the the main portion um we we all stayed in this house together you know for the like the full 10 11 days. Um, so it was like this kind of like weird movie family thing and like we had like family dinners and stuff together and you know some movie nights and um so you get like that that cool like extended artistic family connection and

1:40:53you know obviously like all the cool like inside jokes and stuff and I'm sure you know when you get all kinds of like little inside jokes like when you're on tours and stuff and all kinds of crazy stories and you know things like that. So, oh yeah, for sure. For sure. Each tour is its own beasty. I think each tour has its own personality. And I love when you get to tour with other people, too. Um because we're going to we're going to have um like different people that we're touring with on the upcoming one. And it's like Yeah, it is like a big family, which is

1:41:25wonderful. Yeah. You have your soundtracks, too, like the songs that start, you know, you get attached to certain tours with certain songs, if you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Um I remember like uh the one tour like we were um we were touring with Zach from Comrades and I think we were driving through like New York or New Jersey and um he played like two hours of like new metal. It was like Disturbed and Corn and like all these bands like we hadn't listened to in so long. But he was just like hit after hit after hit. He was just playing like top songs like not not

1:42:04just like off like a Spotify playlist like he was like handpicking these songs and um it was like the new metal power hour at like 3:00 a.m. like like driving through New York and uh it was just it it was it was just like a great moment, you know. Um, but then there was like another time like we I think we were in like Idaho, like we were driving somewhere like through Idaho and Zach wanted to stop and get like pancakes and he literally took us to this like murder shack like off the highway. And it was like pancakes, but it literally looked like a

1:42:40shack like that like something from like Texas Chainsaw. And I was like, dude, I was like, we're not eating breakfast here. I was like, I don't want to get murdered in [ __ ] Idaho. Like it's No. So Zach did not get his murder pancakes in Idaho. Oh, that's too bad. Yeah. But you still But you live to tell the tale, so Yeah. Yes. It was just like one of those situations like, "No, this is too sketchy." Like this is like dirt road like pancake shack and like no cars parked outside and I was just like, "Yeah, I'm good." Yeah. You probably make good choices here. Yes.

1:43:22Yeah. Well, um I I just wanted to take a moment and to thank everyone for for hanging out with us and for your like really insightful questions and comments. Really appreciate your time. Um Tom, thank you so much for for sharing your time and insight with us as well. Um it's been so inspiring. I I feel like it's like um not only musically but just you know yourself as a storyteller and a filmmaker. It's amazing like all the things that you've accomplished. So congratulations. Yeah. And I definitely appreciate you you having us on and um yeah I mean like I said it's always cool to be able to

1:44:01share things um knowledge, insight, um be able to connect with um you know just like a larger audience and um you know share like our artistic uh mindsets and creativity. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like um you know it's to me I love I you know I love BTS. I love not just like the actual like um you know creation but knowing what goes on behind the scenes and the thought process like because I feel like it's so interesting to to witness an artist in their form because everybody's so unique and so different. So um yeah I really appreciate that that Well everyone is welcome and like I said

1:44:50I'm glad you had us on. Um, yeah, and like I said, like hopefully we'll get a chance to collaborate, you know, like in the future at some point. Um, you know, either like on a show or like a track or remix or something, you know, like uh um I always like I always like working with other cool people, you know? So, um you know, I don't really care about how big or small, you know, somebody's act is. Like, if they're a cool person and their head's in the right place, like that's what I'm all about. Likewise. I I really like love and appreciate getting to connect with under

1:45:24other kindered spirits and um and you like you said like seeing like the the the amazing creativity that can flow out of that. So yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you again and I'm really looking forward to to seeing the movie when it comes out whenever it's ready. Um and all all the future things that are on deck for The Russian White. Well, thanks for having us. Yes, of course. Um well everyone, I hope you have a wonderful night. Thank you so much again. Um and we will see y'all next week. Um we're going to be um joined by uh Rituals. Um an artist from Mexico. Um his tour was recently

1:46:05cancelled. Um and so we wanted to have him on here and uh really looking forward to chatting with him. Uh but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your