Jeremy Aitken

Welcome to Punk Love and Compassion.

Tonight I have Jeremy joining me.

Jeremy is from Birmingham, Alabama.

He is a very talented man who wears.

Wears many hats.

He is a musician.

He is the band Spirit Guardian.

He's played in many other bands.

Photographer, He's a dad, great all around dude.

I am very thankful that he has agreed to come on and chat with me tonight or today, whatever it is.

Jeremy, did I.

Did I miss anything you would like to add?

The only other thing is the Iron City Sludge is you know what I run and book my shows under and so all my photos and all my show running and I also run sound for those shows too.

So that's one of the hats that.

That's one of the many hats.

And you do reviews under that?

Yeah, as well.

So you do like show reviews and other stuff?

Yes, sorry, I forgot that.

All good?

Yeah.

Cool.

So with that, for those who view, I know this is a new podcast.

Couple things get out of the way.

First thing, main thing is I am not a professional.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I am embracing the punk rock DIY ethos and figuring this out as I go along.

So there are going to be things that aren't perfect and that's okay because we are not perfect creatures.

Hopefully they will get better as this goes on.

The main thing I'm struggling with and learning right now is how to edit correctly.

So please, as you're listening to this, don't be like, wow, this dude sucks at and well, I mean you can, but I do.

It's true.

Like it's not going to hurt my feelings because I do.

It sucks.

I'm not good at it.

I'll get better eventually.

So please just stick with us.

Yeah.

And like I said, I'm not a professional.

I'm not a professional podcaster, I'm not a professional journalist.

This was just an idea I had that I didn't see out there.

Talked to a couple people about this idea and through thoughts and plans just decided to just go ahead and do it and figure it out as it goes along.

Because I think that people being honest about their struggles and their hopes, especially within the greater punk rock community, is something that is needed.

But hopefully you stick with us and get something out of this.

So with that, Jeremy, thank you again for coming on.

First.

First question for you.

One of the things that really interests me about people is.

And I realize I just said first question.

Now I'm going into an explanation of the question.

Like I said, not professional.

One thing that really interests Me about people is like their entry point, like at what point in time?

And this is going to be a two part question, but you know, at what point in time did one, they become aware that that sort of punk was a thing and two, at what point in time they decide, hey, like, this is what I am.

And my punk umbrella is very large and very encompassing.

So I don't care really how you like identify.

If you're like, oh, I'm, you know, hardcore kid or I'm a.

We all sort of fall under this greater, in my opinion.

You can debate me, whatever you're.

I won't agree with you.

But this greater punk rock umbrella and the community that that has supplied for many of us.

Now that I'm done describing my question number one, do you remember the first punk song you've ever heard?

Oh my goodness.

Well, first of all, thanks for having me.

I hope that, you know, this is interesting for, for folks.

I always worry about that.

But yeah, when it comes to music, my journey to punk is very unusual, I think because I grew up in a household where my dad was a huge Chicago fan.

So I grew up here in a lot of like classic rock and big horns and stuff.

I, I would say probably, you know, being.

Being born in 89, coming of age in the late 90s, early 2000s, definitely would have been, you know, hearing some like pop punk on the radio would have been like my very first thing.

But as far as things that I really kind of identified with that I think are within the punk umbrella, although there's different elements is my older brother picked up Rage against the Machine's battle for Los Angeles record.

And that was the first time I think I really understood some of the attitude and some of the higher thoughts behind what punk could be.

So that was kind of my first introduction into that world, so to speak.

I don't remember what song it was necessarily because it was a whole album.

But you know, songs like Gorilla Radio and Sleep now on the Fire are a couple that like still to this day still just are really important to me and definitely were integral on me finding heavier music in general.

Yeah, I consider that the punk rock umbrella, like all those dudes, had roots in punk rock, you know, Like Zach Zillaro's first band was Inside out on Revelation Records.

If you haven't heard them, I highly recommend checking out Inside Out.

Just great stuff.

But yeah, definitely, definitely under.

They fall under the.

The umbrella.

Cool.

So, so then at what point in time, like from becoming aware of that, were you like, okay, cool, this Is like, this is my jam.

I want to become part of this greater thing that I don't fully understand yet, but somehow it's gotten into my blood.

Yeah, really, that's tough to think about because that record was late 90s, so I was pretty young when it.

When I first heard it.

But I want to say I didn't hear it until early.

Probably 2001 or early 2000.

Probably is when I first heard it.

But really when I started diving more into that is once I started picking up guitar, which I started playing guitar around the time I was 11, going on 12.

And initially it started with kind of acoustic stuff, because that's what I got was initially an acoustic.

And then after about two years of playing, you know, I just started finding more challenging things to play outside of acoustic things.

Classic rock, punk stuff.

I have a huge.

I was obsessed with early ACDC when I was younger and whether.

Whether people want to believe it or not, a lot of that early ACDC definitely has some of that punk spirit about it.

The snottiness, the.

The imagery, the using things that were kind of counterculture at the time.

So that was an influence for me too.

You know, it's really tough because, like, I don't really know.

I don't really know what I am.

And I am.

At this point, I'm still figuring it out every day, trying to figure out who I am and.

And what I.

What I do.

But, yeah, once I started playing guitar, it was over, man.

It was just obsessed with music.

Just absorbing anything I could and learning everything I could.

And, you know, once again, being a child of the 90s, one of the real early punk band memories I had, of course, is going to be Green Day, because that was everywhere.

So, you know, learning songs off of Dookie definitely kind of helps sharpen up some of those chops, so to speak.

And then I got into.

I also got into metal and all kinds of different stuff.

But, yeah, probably when I started playing guitar, honestly, that's really when I just was like, yeah, this is.

This is it.

This is.

This is who I am.

Started dressing differently.

I went to a tiny school where, you know, there was.

There was 300 folks.

It was really rural, very kind of redneck population.

I very much am not that.

So I was one of the odd men out in that scenario.

And once I found the music and kind of found the artist, that truly resonated with me.

I just really didn't care about what other people thought.

And, you know, I guess you could say that's a little A little punk, but I really didn't care what others thought.

I got in trouble at school because I was wearing.

At the time, I was straight edged.

I was wearing Straight edge gloves.

And I got in trouble because they thought it was some sort of gang crap.

I'm like, no, I just don't.

I don't do drugs and I don't drink.

Like all of these other people are here and go to church every Sunday and then treat me like shit all the time.

Like, I'm gonna still try to be a good person even though I'm getting treated crappy by these people and just be myself and, and really dive and live in that music.

And I knew once I found music, like that's.

That's who I am at my core is just a musician.

All ultimately.

Yeah.

And this is just out of my own curiosity.

Were you wearing like the straight edge, like gardening gloves with the X on them?

I did.

It was fingerless.

Fingerless gloves, man.

It was with the X's on them.

Yeah, yeah, it was.

I was, it was so funny because I was wearing, you know, like, I was in the slipknot.

I was wearing slipknot shirts and just baggy jeans and everybody, of course, and.

And being in a very rural area, that got me labeled as goth, which is not even remotely close.

And I'm pretty sure they thought I was like a devil worshiper or something too, which is also not close.

Not at all.

But that helped me find music overall.

Once I found that it was kind of unshakable at that point, I was like, this is who I am.

The music is part of me.

I am a musician.

Screw it.

All this other crap is.

This is who I am.

I'm confident in this.

I'm gonna stand on this because this is what I love.

And I was obsessed.

I mean, I literally would stand if I would get home from school, pick up my guitar, and I would play from 4 o' clock until it's time to go to bed.

And I was very fortunate that I had supportive parents that were okay with that, you know.

But yeah, music and being a musician and kind of having that, you know, you don't do what you tell me kind of attitude.

Yeah.

So to speak.

That, that, that all came from learning guitar, really.

Like, I was never a musician.

Like, I've.

I've been a vocalist in many bands, but, like, being actually able to play an instrument, I've never been able to do.

So I've, you know, participated in music otherwise.

But yeah, like, once I once like music hooked Me, it was over.

Yeah.

You know, just consuming as much as I could, you know, and sometimes it would be just going to a record store and just.

And just, you know, with no money, but just like, okay, let me, Let me flip through all the records, all the CDs, all, you know, whatever, and just try to find something that.

Just looking at, you know, album covers, like, let me find something that just hits me.

Yeah.

And makes me feel something.

And then, you know, I'll go from there and I'll figure it out.

Like, I'll figure out how to get it or listen to it or whatever.

And for me, obviously, that was all like sort of pre Internet.

Yes.

The 1940s.

Pretty close.

Pretty close.

But yeah.

And then the other, the other thing that you said that sort of struck me interesting, going back to the straight edge thing, is that, you know, in high school I was straight edge, and I'm.

I'm still straight edge.

And for me, straight edge was.

Has always been a very personal choice.

Like, it's a decision I made for myself.

It's not a decision I made for everybody else.

Right.

And I know, you know, different people feel different ways about it, but, you know, that's how I feel about it.

I don't care what you are, how you identify what, whatever, it doesn't matter to me.

But when I was in high school, you know, I was xed up.

I had straight ed shirts, I had whatever.

And I went to a pretty big high school right outside of Washington, D.C. and so.

And my high school was really diverse.

So I had like all of the major gangs represented, but I also had, like, represent representatives and senators, kids going to school with me at the same time, you know, so I had, you know, I had the class spectrum.

Yeah.

At my school, drug dogs would come in and, you know, and sniff the school down.

And, you know, it was, it was an interesting place, but, you know, and I, I would wear a band shirt every single day.

And the only time I ever got flack was when I wore a straight edge shirt.

And, and, you know, teachers were like, hey, you need to turn that inside out.

And there's one in particular.

And, you know, on the front it said straight Edge.

On the back it was a picture of somebody drinking.

It said, drinking sucks.

I mean, very.

What a terrible message.

Right?

And teacher like, hey, you need to turn that inside out.

And I'd always like, no, like, make me.

You know, there are kids walking down the hallways with pot leaves on their shirt and you're not saying anything to them.

But me who's like saying, hey, guess what?

You shouldn't drink, you shouldn't do drugs.

Like, I'm the one you want to.

You want to.

Silence.

And again, everyone's like, it's gag related.

Yeah.

You know, what are all these X's for?

Straight edges.

Gang and protein.

Gangs.

No, I'm not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So same experience.

Exact same experience.

Yeah.

In a very different part of the country.

We're going to get off track a couple times.

Oh, I'm sure.

Be prepared.

Yeah, man.

With that, you know.

Music, right?

Playing music.

At what point in time did you become aware of, like, that there was a greater community?

So that would probably be.

I started working at Guitar center about a month after I turned 18 in Montgomery.

And honestly, man, the.

The crew that I started with there, I'm still friends with most of the.

Those people to this day.

Those guys are honestly, truly, really responsible for introducing me to some of my favorite bands.

And it was all started there.

So when I started at Guitar Center, I worked in the operations side, which is warehouse, back of house.

But for those who remember, we used to stamp receipts at the front door.

I was.

That's where I first started.

But once, you know, I've been there for a little bit, I started working in the warehouse.

There was two dudes, Will from the Abusements, who.

Who, you know, and Chris.

Chris Eccles, who was previously in Amusements.

He played in.

Gosh, he's played in a couple other bands as well.

I don't.

That are not playing right now, but.

But he's been in some different punk bands over the years.

And those two guys.

Will is.

I think I want to say Will's about 10 to 15 years older than I am, if I'm not mistaken.

So he was playing, you know, no effects and.

And just classic.

Like there was Clash and stuff like that.

So much no Effects, man.

I can't.

So much no Effects going on in the warehouse.

And then Chris Eccles, his side was a little different.

He had stuff like.

I feel like there was some Fugazi, some Mondo Generator, Queens of Stone Age, Caius Clutch, like all this different amalgamation of stuff.

So those guys really introduced me into a broader world that I knew.

And then through them I started.

There was a really small DIY space, and this is in Montgomery, Alabama, that was run by my buddy Jason, who's now in the band Towering Above Is there out of Montgomery.

But Jason ran a DIY venue called the Rabid Goat was the name of the venue.

It was literally a storage shed.

It was A double.

A double unit that they had converted to a DIY space.

And I went with Gloria, who my wife.

And we were dating at the time, so she was still in high school.

And we went to a punk show at this place, Rabid Goat.

And we walk in and, like, I saw Will there and I saw Echols there, and there were bands playing.

Snow Grove was in a band at the time called Flip the Switch.

There's a band called Ball Swag that was just like, snotty punk.

I can't remember who else played that show, but I think that's really.

That.

That kind of started crystallizing everything for me at that point and seeing the connection and all these people.

And so through Guitar center, that's how I got connected to it.

There was a great venue in Montgomery that was also kind of a DIY space called Head on the Door.

I don't know if you ever got down the Head on the Door when it was there, but I actually played it.

Head on the Door.

Oh, snap.

I didn't realize.

Right on, man.

Yeah.

What band was that?

What band were you in at the time?

What band was I in at the time?

Social Treason.

Social Treason.

I don't think I ever saw the

name of the band.

Yeah, that's pretty.

Yeah.

No reason.

No reason to go any further.

Yeah, well, so it was really interesting.

That was a no.

So Rabid Goat didn't last very long, I think, you know, they got in trouble for running shows, and it was a BYO whatever space, you know.

So you had kids, you had underage kids, you had adults in there.

And I think they just ended up having to shut it down.

But Head on the Door definitely became more of a place once I got into.

I started.

I joined a band.

Now, it was not a punk band even remotely.

It was basically just kind of a rock band.

But one thing that I really loved about being in that band, and this band was called Easy Kiddo.

Easy Kiddo was just a rock band, but we play shows with punk bands, with metal bands, with all kinds of different bands, because we were all just part of the same DIY scene.

You know, it's all just local.

We're trying to get out.

We're trying to just create original music, something we care about.

And it didn't matter what genre you were playing, you would still be supporting each other because it was big part of that DIY community.

So Easy Kiddo ran for about two or three years.

I was in that band.

We played shows.

Montgomery, Birmingham, all the way down, like, Panama City.

I don't know if we ever went north.

I think we played Atlanta a couple times.

We played a show or two with random conflict way back in the day.

So Bill was, Bill was super scary to me at the time though, because he was like this legend of the scene.

And now I've gotten to know Bill and, and he's not scary at all.

So Bill was in social treason.

Oh, no way.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, so.

So when I first moved down here, there was a record store in town called Sunburst, Sunburst Records.

And I went, went in one day and there was this hand written note on the, on the wall.

And it was, it was on like a piece of paper that was torn in half, just handwritten on the wall.

And it said, band looking for singer Interests must include, you know, seven Seconds, TSOL Vandals, Black Flag, Minor Threat attracts.

If interested, please call.

And that was like, there was no name.

Like that's.

It said, looking for a vocalist must be interested in this list of bands and a phone number.

You know, I, you know, took the number down and it took me a couple weeks to call because in my head it's like, I'm going to call this number, it's going to be a bunch of like 14 year olds.

Right?

Right.

So I called the number and it was definitely not a 14 year old that answered.

And I was like, okay, this was somebody's home phone number when people still had those.

And I'm talking to this kid's dad and he's going to wonder why a grown ass man is calling his child.

Right?

Yeah, that's, that's a sticky situation for sure.

Right?

And so, so, you know, so I said, hi, you know, my name is Bo.

I hope I have the right person.

I saw this ad up at Starburst Records for a band looking for a singer.

And so I'm calling.

And he was like, cool, cool.

What's your name again?

Bo.

Okay, so you like list, like yeah, yeah, I listened to all of those bands.

He's like, where do you live?

I was like, I live in Huntsville.

And he's like, okay, we practice at the storage unit.

Can you be there in like two nights, two days?

Sure.

He said, and have lyrics with you.

I was like, great, I will have lyrics with me.

I hadn't heard them play nothing.

And so, so.

And the band was already set up.

So it was Bill, a guy named Drew.

And Drew used to run a venue in Birmingham.

I forget what it was called.

Was pretty big.

He ran a venue in Birmingham and It was a.

And our drummer's name was Kenny.

You know, all these guys were, you know, Bill's age, but this was almost 20 years ago, so Bill minus 20 years.

So there's still, like, 59 or whatever.

And so I walk in.

So.

So they're there, and they.

They all had another band.

Two bigger.

And so then all those kids were there, and they were all younger than me.

And so I walk in, there's a crowd to watch us, and these three guys, and they're like, hey, we're gonna play a song.

Sing along.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then we were a band for, like, two or three years.

Yeah.

That's how I met.

That's how I met Bill.

Wow.

That's crazy, man.

Trial by fire.

Yeah.

And now he and I are in a band together again.

But so with that community piece.

What?

Because obviously you came back to another show, right?

Yeah.

Like, that wasn't like.

You're just like, hey, this is.

This is cool, but never again.

Yeah.

So.

So what about that community piece, like, kept you coming back?

Dude, is.

I was just welcomed immediately.

Like, everyone was open, everyone was funny, everyone was engaging.

There were, you know, there's these characters, these people that were larger than life, and it was kind of intoxicating in a way to.

To be around that, coming from, you know, I don't want to say like, really sheltered, but coming from very up, from the school I went to, obviously not seeing a whole lot of people like that, and then coming into the space where it's like, oh, like, everybody's got long hair, everybody's got tattoos, everybody, you know, like, some of the same bands, and everybody's just like.

Nobody's looking at me like I'm, you know, the black sheep or whatever.

It was like, just.

Come on.

Everybody was just accepting of me.

And that acceptance, you know, was.

Was the key right there.

And something I tried to carry forward for whoever, you know, any show.

I. I just.

I love music so much that it was so great to be around other people who felt the same way, you know, it felt like kind of a kindred spirit.

Spirits, in a way.

Yeah, definitely.

I think that's.

But I think that's something, you know, really unique to the punk scene is that.

That welcoming acceptance.

And that's something that really drew me in pretty, pretty quick, was like, you know, we don't.

We don't care how you look.

We don't care, you know, if you listen to the same brand as of punk that we do, you know, are you a cool person?

Yes.

Or no.

Yeah, that was.

At the end of the day, that's all that mattered.

You know, if you weren't a.

If you weren't a.

Then you're good, you know?

Exactly, exactly.

You know, even have their, like, little.

Little click in the punk world.

Sure, you know, they do, but.

Yeah, but.

But mostly.

But mostly it's like, yeah, you know, as long as you're not a dick.

Like, yeah, come on, like, hang out.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Yeah.

And to me, that's a really special thing.

And for me, I think that's what's really, you know, kept me around, you know, however many years I am into this.

You know, I think I went to my first show when I was 11.

Oh, snap.

I turned 47 in two weeks.

So.

36 years.

Yeah, 36 years, give or take.

Yeah.

And.

But still, you know, 36 years later, it's definitely the community.

And I've, you know, I have friends definitely all over the country and, you know, all over the world because of.

Of, you know, just meeting at shows or, you know, playing together, you know, whatever.

Yeah, that's.

That's some of my favorite stuff, you know, is like the people, those bands that you maybe see once or twice or three times a year that you're friends with, and it's like, as soon as you see them, it's like nothing.

There was no missed beats.

You're just immediately happy.

You want, you know, hanging out and it's just that camaraderie.

And, you know, I can think of so many bands, like one of my favorite bands, and I think you, you know, them are Triangle Fire.

And they're based out of.

They're based out of Athens, which.

I'm another Athens fan.

I got my.

My beat up shirt on there.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Yeah, man, those.

Nick and Tandy from Triangle Fire are some of the.

The warmest, like, most welcoming people I've ever met.

And I've seen them, you know, in Birmingham, I've seen them in Montgomery.

I've seen them in Nashville, which was really cool.

They played my daughter's birthday a few years ago, which is really awesome.

So, yeah, just.

That's the cool thing about playing music and being part of the scene is you make those connections all over.

And, you know, even if you don't see each other in person all the time, once you do, it's just.

It's just immediate acceptance and welcome and, you know, it's just all that stress and all that anxiety of being in a new place or whatever just melts away because you've got.

You got your friend there.

And I don't feel like it's.

I don't feel like they are performative relationships.

Right.

Like this.

The stoke and the excitement when we see each other after however long, you know, I feel is genuine.

Yeah, for sure.

Again, I just think that's rare in this world where there are just so many, you know, especially with social media and, you know, whatever.

Just so much performative interaction.

I agree.

Yeah.

And, like, I mean, I have friends, you know, I lived in Wyoming for a while.

I was involved out there, and, you know, I have friends in Wyoming, and we ran, like, every couple years.

We randomly happened to be in the same place together.

Right.

Five or six years ago, I was in Vegas for a conference, and they were down there, like, celebrating their anniversary, and.

And we just, like, ran into each other and then hung out for an entire day.

Like, I blew off the conference.

We're like, wow, you know, this is awesome.

You know, And I've run into him in other places, too.

Yeah.

Just the honest, genuine emotion and relationships.

And you don't really have to for most people, obviously, there's always exceptions to rules, but I don't feel like with most people, you have to question their intent with the relationship.

I agree.

Yeah.

100%.

So with that, I'm gonna ask some questions, and if you.

If you don't want to answer, you can just tell me.

Hey, I don't want to answer.

Not a big deal.

Just going with that.

That interaction with people.

Right.

Is one of the things I don't feel like we.

We talk about as much as we should is our struggles.

And when we see each other, like, the stoke is real.

Right.

Like, we're stoked to see each other.

We're amped to see each other, but I don't feel like we are necessarily always honest in expressing, like, what we may need in that moment or what we may be feeling at that moment.

Yeah, everything's fine.

Everything's good.

Everything's been good.

Everything's good.

Right, Right.

And I think for a lot of us, not all the time, but some of the time it's not.

Yeah, right.

Like, it's not all good.

It's not.

Okay.

It's not.

And so part of my exploration with this is, is why, like, why do we.

If we value those honest interactions with people, And I promise I didn't, like, set this up.

Like, this has just been sort of natural conversation.

But if we.

If we.

If we.

If we honest or if we.

If we value that, that honest interaction with people, then what prevents us from being honest about ourselves?

Does that make sense?

Yeah, you know, I, I think there's probably a couple things.

You know, the one is that if you haven't seen, maybe if you haven't seen a person in a while, you don't want to just immediately trauma dump, like, hey, good to see you, by the way, here's my whole ship.

Because that doesn't feel, doesn't feel great either.

So I think that's part of it.

But I, I do think, you know, there's a, there's a piece where, when we see these people that mean something to us in the scene and in the community, there is at least for a brief moment of time, none of that other stuff is at the forefront.

You know, we are genuinely in that moment, excited to see this person, genuinely filled with that joy and excitement, excitement of being around them.

So.

But I think for a lot of people it's really, it can be really hard to talk about when you are struggling because you don't want to present maybe weakness or perceived weakness from others.

Maybe you don't want to be a burden to others.

All of these things, you know, are probably running through our brain.

There's probably some self doubt.

Are, you know, like if I, if I tell them this, are they going to think of me differently?

There's a lot of different things that could motivate that.

And.

But at the end of the day, you know, most of these people, if you, let's say, you know, when we were talking earlier, you mentioned, you know, losing a friend in the past year.

And I think we've all lost friends to self harm or accidental things or whatever over the years.

And there's too many, too many.

And we always say, if you need someone to talk to, come to me.

Like, I would rather talk to you about that.

But we hardly take up that offer.

I see most of the time.

So that is really kind of an interesting dichotomy.

And I wish I had the perfect answer for it.

But I would say that, you know, we understand that everybody has struggles.

Everyone.

I think that's something.

The punk scene as a whole, if you take a step back, there's lots of bruises, there's lots of things that have happened.

There's lots of.

You can see these people are not perfect people.

These people have been through addiction struggles, these people have been through depressive struggles, they've been through financial struggles, they've been through it, but yet they're still able to give you positivity.

On the other side of that, that.

Because they have the empathy for it.

So I think we worry maybe that we might overload them.

You know, they might be dealing with their own stuff and we don't want to, we don't want to add to their load if they're already struggling, you know.

So I think that's probably a little bit of it.

But yeah, I mean, it's tough, dude.

Like, everybody's got something.

Everybody's got something.

You know, I have kids and a wife and rent and bills and, you know, in the past two years I've been laid off twice, which is as the main source of income for our family.

It was very challenging.

And I will say in those two times, the community that I met through music have come through so huge for me.

They've been there, they've been there to offer support, support in those moments and, and help me out and people, people I maybe interacted with once or twice even would reach out and offer or do this or do that.

So, you know, I do think there's a lot of genuinely good people out there.

I think we just have a hard time broaching these, some, these topics because they're uncomfortable.

Ultimately.

No, I agree with you.

And, and I don't think there is a perfect answer.

I think it's a combination of everything you said and then some.

And also I think within certain, you know, sub genres of the greater scene, it's also, it's stigmatized.

Right.

So let's look at hardcore, right?

And that scene and historically it's been very, you know, male dominated, macho.

And I love Heart.

Sure, man.

I mean, I mean, I love it.

You can love something and still criticize it.

You can love something and still see, see what's wrong with it.

I, I think that's something that overall, as human beings, it feels like it's been gone for years now.

It's like you can love something and criticize it.

And I think if you love something enough, then you're going to be more critical of it because, you know, it can be better.

You know, it can be this, you know, it can be that.

So that's all that was my point on that.

No, no, definitely, I agree with you 100.

Thank you for making that point.

Like, I grew up in the D.C. hardcore, so seen.

I mean, I was going to punk shows and everything too, but you know, like, it was hard to go to a show and not see somebody talk about something.

I saw Earth Crisis very early in their career, you know, talking about like their, their Passion for, for straight edge and veganism.

You know, like, like when I first started going to, to shows in D.C. like Krishna was very, still very big within the scene.

So it was, it was not uncommon.

Uncommon to have like, you know, Krishna set up at the show and have a table or you know, stuff like that.

Or people talk about politics, you know.

You know, like we're in D.C. you know, how can you not talk about politics?

You know, food, not bombs and all like, you know, so people were talking about everything across, across the spectrum.

There's a band from Boston that used to play DC quite a bit called Tree.

Like very like environmental but like looking back on it, very like nobody was talking about mental health issues.

The only band that I really remember talking about mental health issues was band called Boy Sets Fire.

Oh yeah, I've heard of them.

Yeah, so they're out of Newark, Delaware.

And the first time I saw them, you know, their singer, like he talked between every song and I loved it.

And he would get heckled.

You know, people like, you know, let's talk more rock.

You know, and he'd like, you know, you like, I'm up here.

This is my band, these are my songs.

If you want to get up here and play music, get up here and play music.

But you're not, you know.

You know, and I just, I just thought it was amazing.

And she is in a new band now called the Iron Roses who are fantastic.

Check them out.

But at the time that, and even, even up till recently, you know, that is really the only band who I ever saw talk about, like I said, mental health issues.

Not just sort of the mental health umbrella, but some personal issues.

Right.

Some personal things that we're dealing with.

And yeah, I just think it's, you know, and then you have like the, you know, the self, self destructive like arm of fun, like the Gigi Allen.

Right.

Stuff which I never got into myself.

I don't care if other people are just.

It never just rang for me.

I think we all give a lot of lip service to.

Hey, if you ever need anything, reach out.

Like, I will pick up the phone, I will be there.

Tell me what you need and I will do whatever I can to get it to you.

And I believe we are all a hundred percent honest in, in saying that.

But when it gets flipped to us, like us asking for that help, it becomes real hard and, and real difficult.

Yeah, being vulnerable is hard.

Yeah.

You know, and, and, and God, it is scary and it's, and it's weird to me because you know, like you said, you know, we all struggle, you know, and your struggle and my struggle may not be the same, but it might be the same as a kid in Fargo, North Dakota, you know, it might be the same as somebody in San Diego.

You know, it's like we are not, you know, 100 unique creatures.

Like, all of our struggles will somehow resonate with somebody else somewhere.

But.

Yeah, but.

But talking about them and speaking about them is.

Is challenging and actually.

And actually extending, you know, that hand out for help.

And part of it, for me, part of it, like, I blame.

I blame punk for not.

Not necessarily in a bad way, but, you know, for me, I very much dug into that DIY ethos.

And for me, it's like, I can do this myself.

I don't need help.

Like, I've done all these things my entire life myself.

Sure, I grew up rough, but I never really struggled with depression or anything.

Just until the last couple years.

Like, I bought into, you know, the PMA mindset and positive mental attitude.

You know.

You know, just think positively and, you know, I had my times where I.

Or I would struggle, but it would never, never last really long.

Yeah.

But then, you know, a couple years ago, I did fall into this bout of depression.

And like, once I realized I was depressed, which took a while, you know, just made this sort of conscious effort of.

Of.

And conscious decision of.

Okay.

Like, I need to somehow be honest with this.

Yeah.

You know, and let people know that this, like, this is a thing and it's okay.

I mean, it sucks, but.

Right.

You know, it's okay to talk about it.

It's okay to let people know about it, you know, because again, you don't want to be burdened because again, we're all dealing with something.

Yeah.

You know, so it's like, you know, you're dealing with, you know, everything you're dealing with.

I don't want to.

I don't want to put my problems on you, or it's feeling like, hey, no, like.

Like nobody's dealt with this the way I'm dealing with it.

So nobody's going to really understand how I feel.

Because.

Because this is my unique struggle.

And so nobody's going to understand how.

What my unique struggle is or also, you know, again, just the stigma attached to it.

Right.

Like, because as much as it has become more of the norm, you know, there's still very much a stigma attached to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

To.

Is.

It's tough because like you said, there's this part of us that's like, I can Handle this.

I can do this on my own.

I got this because that's what you're doing.

Used to doing, you know, and while my, My upbringing was.

I don't want to say it was rough.

I mean, I grew up poor.

I grew up in a trailer and with half the floors missing and we had wild animals in our house half the time.

But we always had food, we always had clothes.

You know, I was never homeless or anything and.

But I got out of that and then just started trying to.

To work hard.

But that was really tough because that was isolating and away from me at a young age because, you know, couldn't have folks over, couldn't have friends, and that made that kind of challenging.

So I dealt with some depressive thoughts, I think, pretty early on in my teens of that isolation and feeling, especially in my situation where I luckily did have a couple friends that were.

Were similar, I will say, as far as interests, but in a very small pond.

You know, I was.

I was one of the very odd ones out and it felt very isolating at times.

But the music, the community I found through music and all of that just really helped.

And, you know, I could talk to some people about it, but there's.

I think we worry.

I do think there's this part of us that especially as guys, especially, I think it's probably more prevalent that we are afraid by sharing this that we are going to think that people think we're less or weaker or whatever.

And that's what.

That's kind of your ego in your brain, you know, if you, if you're into like that stuff at all, that's something in your brain like, oh, no, you don't need this.

You got this yourself.

And sometimes you do need help.

You just do.

And you need an outside perspective.

And sometimes, dude, even just venting and just saying just verbal diarrhea of all the shit that's going on in your life can lighten the load.

I'm very fortunate in that I have, you know, my wife Gloria, my partner.

We've been together almost 20 years.

So that's a really freaking long time.

And we've grown up together and we've been through a lot together.

And the things that we've tackled together, I couldn't imagine doing with anyone else.

You know, I'm very fortunate to, to have that.

So I do have an outlet there.

And I have some other friends that I've known for, you know, 20 plus years that it's mostly like, you know, just kind of.

We just BS with each other and chats.

But every now and then it's like when real happens, you know, we can do it and we can kind of talk about it and express it and give each other that space.

So I guess my point there is I would encourage people to not be afraid to go to someone because I think more people are open and receptive than you think.

And I think more people are going to be willing to be there for you.

And I think those really hard and challenging times as a human being that we all have, all of us, every single one of us.

I don't know, there might be some of us out there that I don't think feel any sort of empathy, fear, emotion at this point, just based on what I see in the news and.

But yeah, for the most part, we all, especially I should say in music, I think musicians naturally are.

And creators are more empathetic, more open, more dialed into the emotional side of things and understanding that.

So I would encourage everyone, don't be afraid.

Go to someone.

Go to me.

Go to.

To bo.

Go to whoever.

We.

I promise you, like I'm.

I'm always down to listen.

I don't have all the answers.

I have maybe some of the answers, maybe.

Probably none of them.

But I would much rather listen.

And I do mean that.

And I guess that's my PSA right there is like, don't be afraid.

We, we should be okay talking with each other because life is really hard.

Life is weird.

Yeah.

Life is crazy.

You're.

You never know what's gonna happen.

And it, it, you know, it doesn't stop for, for anyone really.

So we're all going through this.

We're all on the same little blue marble spinning around.

You know, we're all human.

We're all human beings.

Even if you know somebody, you know, another country is looking at this and maybe they don't even speak English, they still feel the same emotions.

But do.

To your point earlier, everyone, that's a, That's a human thing.

We all share these emotions.

No matter what language you speak, no matter where you come from, no matter your background, we all have this.

So don't be afraid.

You're.

It's going to be scary as.

Because you have all this doubt.

But I promise that sharing with someone does lighten the load.

Even if they don't have anything else to offer you other than a listening ear.

Like it'll.

You will feel better.

And sometimes just saying the thing out loud, you hear it differently because you've been internalizing it in your brain.

Saying the Words out loud for me a lot of times helps me go, oh, okay.

Like, I see this differently now that I've actually said it.

I've actually wrote verbalize these thoughts and it, it puts me, it gives me a different perception of it, I guess.

Long, long rant over.

Well, I think you hit on a couple good things.

Is one just sharing.

That's one of the things I did and do.

Because sometimes I don't want feedback.

Like, I just, I just need to get what's in out.

And so I'll, you know, I'll get with somebody.

I'm like, look, I just need to talk and I don't want any feedback.

Like, I, and I know you're going to want to help me problem solve this.

I don't want to problem solve right now.

I just need to get everything that's in out, you know, and that's, that's been very helpful for me.

And then, and just depending on the person, like, you know, they'll let me get everything out.

And then, you know, some will say, okay, well do you want feedback now

or do you want to talk about it?

Right, right.

You know, sometimes I'll like, yeah, yeah, now I'm ready for feedback.

I wasn't ready then, I'm ready now.

And sometimes it's just like, you know what?

No, like I just needed to get it out.

It's out and I'm good.

Thank you for listening.

Yeah.

And I think people need to realize that there are so many people who are just willing to listen.

Yes.

You know, and it is.

And it is important to get it out.

And also for me, like, music is, is a huge release for me.

Yes.

100, 100, 100.

It's such an outlet for so many different emotions or whatever you're going through.

I can't tell you how many days have been like, shit days.

And I can pick up a guitar or sit at a keyboard or pick up the banjo or whatever and just pluck around and I start to feel that stuff melt away.

You know, it's just, it, it kind of resets something to, to do that.

And whether it's lyrics or, or whatever, like expressing yourself in some form or fashion, I think it's just beneficial for everyone.

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

On one of the, one of the other people I interviewed, again, just talking about sort of depression and being overwhelmed and all that stuff, we were talking about tools that we use to help.

Help us work through it.

And so, so she and I, she's from Colorado, she named Sarah.

She and I, we We crafted during, during this interview and we made.

She called them cootie catchers.

I grew up calling them fortune tellers.

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, the little four.

Yeah.

Right, right.

Yeah.

So, so we crafted those during our conversation interview, whatever.

And what she uses them for is like, under each, like, flap you would open, she divides it in half.

So, so half of the flaps are tasks that need to be completed and broken down into like 10 minute sections.

So, so if the entire kitchen needs to be cleaned, but that's overwhelming for you, it's like, okay, like, clean the counters, clean the dishes, you know, sweep, you know, just broken down into really small tasks.

And then the other half of the flaps are like fun, fun rewards again, you know, broken down into like, you know, 10, 15 minute chunks.

And you never know what you're going to get.

So it could be, okay, I have to do a task.

Now I have a fun thing to do.

Or it's like, oh, task, oh, another task.

Oh, another task.

Oh, now I get a fun thing.

Right.

But it breaks it down into more manageable.

Yeah, digestive, Digestible bites is what I call that.

Right.

But, but even doing that, you know, going back to sort of what we talked about, about music.

Right.

That is still being, is being creat dysfunction.

Yes.

Oh, I don't have it sitting here.

Oh, yeah, it's right here.

Right.

So.

Oh, nice.

Right.

So you know, and we color them and, or she, we colored it, you know, put like designs on it.

So again, it's not just folding this thing.

It's, it's being creative as well.

So it's still, even if it's just creating something for yourself to enjoy or for yourself to cope.

And I think, I think that's the other piece of it too, is figuring out and being aware of, like, what gets you out of bed in the morning, you know, and, and, and what gives you hope?

Because I think when we are sort of at our most, whatever, it's, it's

hard to, to see that, to see that light.

It's very, very hard to see that light.

And I, I strongly believe that light's always there, even if we, even if we can't always see it.

I, I firmly believe that black light is always there.

It's just, you know, and for some of us, it's a lot harder to see it or even to believe it exists than for others.

I want to share something, please.

And this is, I, I know it's ridiculous because it's, it just is.

But I, I, it's relative about 20, 2017 or maybe it was 2018, I can't remember.

You've.

You've heard of Andrew W.K.

the musician?

I'm sure everybody knows Andrew W.K.

for, you know, the party songs.

Right.

And all that stuff.

Right.

So some fun.

But he's also a really awesome.

From what I've heard.

Yes.

I've never had a chance to meet him, but he also, he also did motivational speaking tours as well.

Well, that was part of something that he did because he just has this zest for life.

And maybe when he was younger the party thing was like the thing.

But as he got older, the word party became interchangeable with just like enjoying life, living life, not necessarily like going out and getting blasted.

So the party thing was almost like this.

Anyways, he released an album called you're not alone.

And like 20, 2016, 2017, 2018, something like that.

It's definitely got some cornball stuff on it.

But some of those messages on there, I found them at a time, one of the probably the darkest times of my life where I was, I was working almost.

I mean I worked a day, every day for a month straight with no breaks.

I was a store manager at a guitar center in Florida at the Point.

And I was working my ass off.

Things at work weren't going good, things at home weren't going super great.

I was not being the best that I could be.

My daughter was very young at the time.

So you know, having a young child, I know you, you know what that's like with those early years.

It's.

It's really.

Can be really tricky sometimes.

You kind of lose yourself sometimes and have a hard time fighting base.

But I just remember, remember towards, I guess sort of 2018 ish, but.

Or 2017, it doesn't matter.

But I tuned into a late night show.

Andrew W.K.

was on it, performing one of his new songs off of the album you're not alone, you're not along the tight.

The.

The single off of that one that was kind of his hit from that one was music is worth living for.

Now the message of that song is very simple, is that music is what's living.

Living is worth living for.

Like if there's nothing else, music is worth living for.

And that resonated with me.

But what really resonated with me was sitting in my living room watching this performance on tv.

The energy that was being put out, I felt through the TV like I felt invigorated when I heard this message.

And it was like I said, that was some of that light in that dark time for me.

And on that album, there are spoken word pieces that he does.

And one of those pieces, he says something about the light and the shadows that we have to.

As human beings, both of those things are part of our life, and we have to live with both of them.

We have to live with the dark.

We have to live with the light.

And what is.

What is.

What are shadows but just.

Or no, what is darkness but just the shadows or just the light casting shadows?

Basically, it's like that light is still there even if you can't see it.

Right now.

It's just casting a shadow at the moment.

There's something that's blocking that light from you.

It's not going to be there forever.

And hearing that was something that really got me through a really hard time in my life where I just felt like I had no one I could turn to at that time, because I was not being.

I mean, admittedly, a lot of it was on me, but that is.

Gave me some direction.

And I got to go see and see him perform live.

Like two weeks after I saw that.

It was just shot and fruit, I guess.

He came through the other store with his band.

They needed something.

The other store manager had called me because I had told him about this whole thing about how seeing this just really gave me.

Kind of gave me some energy back in my life that I was missing at the time.

And the band came through and he told them the story about how I called him about this.

They gave us tickets to go see them live, and we got to go see them live.

And seeing him live was probably one of the most joyful concert experiences I've ever had.

Everyone was so positive and happy and just having fun and realizing that everything doesn't have to be so serious all the time.

It's maybe okay to be a little goofy, maybe be a little corny and just enjoy our time together while this is happening.

And, man, that was such a fun experience for me.

But hearing him speak about that speak, somebody who's associated with so much like party, party, blah, blah, blah, and being talking about, like, depression and, you know, I get down and I feel really down and all of this stuff, it was like, you know, like, that was.

That was big for me at that time.

And not a lot of people are familiar with that album.

A lot of people know that album.

They just know his early stuff.

But that was a later album.

And like I said, a lot of the passages on there are about being alone, being in darkness, Being depressed and trying to find your way out of it.

So that was something that was.

Was really helpful for me in that time.

So to your point, yes.

There's always light.

Always light.

Darkness is.

Darkness is not present.

Like, light has to be there.

They coexist.

We have to be okay with both of them.

They are part of our lives.

And you just have to keep moving forward, because while today may be a dark day, that sun's gonna come up in the morning.

You know, you got to keep pushing forward.

So that was kind of the overall message of that album that.

That really struck with me.

And just hearing you mention some of the similar themes just kind of reminded me of that.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that.

I don't think that was ridiculous at all.

I think that was very awesome.

Thank you, man.

You know, continuing in this thread of.

Of there is always light, it's just trying to try to see around the shadow.

Yeah.

Well, you know, as a parent, kids are number one.

Of course.

I know you can relate to that.

You being a dad.

One of the most challenging things, probably the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, but also one of the things that I am so happy that I've done, because what's so beautiful about having children, in my experience, is that you get to vicariously revisit the world through their eyes.

Everything is new to them.

Everything is amazing.

Everything is the best.

Everything is fresh, you know?

Know.

And you get it resets your perspective to go, you know what?

The sky is freaking cool.

The moon's awesome.

Grass is awesome.

I like flowers.

Like, all these things are truly incredible.

The things that had to come together to create us as human beings, for us to be here in this time and right now, all those things to align.

For me to have been born, like, my.

My mom's side of the family's from Chicago.

My dad's side of the family's from Alabama.

What if my mom's side never moved down, right?

Like, all these crazy things had to align just perfectly.

So we should be so thankful for every day that we're given.

Because, dude, as crappy as life can be sometimes there's so much amazing things that we can.

We can latch on to.

And having kids was such a great reminder for me of that.

It brought back some of that curiosity, some of that, you know, as adults, we get real serious, I think a lot of the time, and we lose some of that part.

And I think you have to keep some of that, because that keeps me hopeful.

Is I'm going to discover something new tomorrow.

So that's definitely one thing.

You know, I'm instructing.

Mentioned my partner, Gloria.

We've been married for 16 years going into year 17, but 20 years total together.

And a lot of times when I, if I.

If I just can't see the forest of the trees, right?

She helps me.

She gives me something.

She's, you know, reminding me of this, reminding me of that.

She's supporting me.

Music, you know, music.

I.

Man, if I'm feeling down, there's so much music I can go to.

There's so much I could just put on and it can reset my mind.

But sometimes when you're feeling down, sometimes that music is.

You need to listen to someone that's also down.

You need to be able to relate and feel like you're not alone in that moment.

So that gives me hope.

And honestly, man, like, I do struggle.

It's.

It's really funny because a few years ago, a friend of mine asked me, how are you so happy all the time?

And I was like, I'm not.

It's like I'm not happy all the time.

But I'm glad that that's what you perceive.

Like, you know, at that time I was literally struggling financially because work problems, like being out of work, was not feeling my best, was feeling lesser than because I wasn't bringing in any really serious income to support my family.

I feel like I felt like a failure in that moment.

And he was like, how are you so happy all the time?

And that's what's going on in my head.

And I'm like, wow, you know, wow, that's really eye opening.

But I always try.

But in that moment, I was at a show and I was.

I was there with my wife's art.

So I was doing two things I love.

I was enjoying music, enjoying the community of music in a space where I feel like it's home to me.

Why would I not be happy with all.

Even with all this other going on right now, in this moment?

Yeah, dude, I'm happy as hell, even if I'm stressed about all this stuff.

There's great band playing, there's cool people looking at my wife's art.

I'm talking to people about it.

We're sharing stories.

I'm seeing people pick up pieces of art and, like, laugh and smile and interact with it.

So that brings me joy and happiness a lot too is.

Is interacting with people in that way.

And we, you know, obviously I saw you in Nashville for the punk rock Flea up there.

And getting to go to shows and interact with people and once again, that community and just having that community and knowing that I can go to another freaking state.

And one of my favorite bands is there a super cool.

Some friends are there, but I also get to then connect with all these other people.

And even if it's just brief and it's like, hey, man, I really dig your shirt, you know that just little brief interactions like that, those are things that give me hope.

Because I do think genuinely, at the end of the day, there are.

There's more good than there is bad.

Even though I think we get fed a lot of the bad, I think people are genuinely better than we give them credit for.

There are select few that we won't get into at this point.

But overall, man, that brings me joy.

That brings me hope.

I'm just so grateful to be.

I'm cool.

Grateful because I know what it's like to not have this, if that makes sense.

I know what it's like to not have a scene.

Montgomery, Alabama, when I lived there, that scene died when Head on the Door died.

You know, I know what it's like to not have that.

I know what it's like to not have community.

So to have that and to have all of this going.

It may not be forever, but, dude, I'm grateful for it right now because it brings me joy, it brings me light, it brings me hope and invigorates me as a human.

And that's why I love booking shows.

That's why I love photographing bands.

I love capturing those moments because, you know, those.

I think music is sacred.

I truly do.

I believe music is a very sacred thing that we share with each other.

And I think that going on stage is kind of a form of magic.

And performing that, we're creating something from nothing and sharing it with this crowd and we're having this energy, transference, all of those things give me hope, give me joy, give me happiness.

Whenever.

Whenever I'm feeling down.

So there's that real long winded answer for you.

I have a really hard time meeting people because, one, I'm not, like, I'm not good at small talk.

I'm just not.

I'm just not good at it.

Like, and I think part of the reason is because, like, I don't.

I don't care about it.

Like.

Like, if I want to have a conversation with you, I want to have a conversation.

Like, I just don't care about small talk.

Just going back to what we were talking about earlier.

About.

About you Know, performative relationships and honest relationships.

Like, I want to have an honest relationship, and I'm really picky about who I want to have those honest relationships with.

So.

So a lot of times, like, at shows, you know, people come up to me frequently and like, wow, you always look so pissed off at shows and.

And it's tough because I'm pissed off, like, when I'm watching a band, like, I want to feel something.

Right.

And so.

So I'm like, all of my focus is on that band and taking in what's coming at me.

It's watching, you know, watching the vocalist and watching the guitarist and the bass player and the drummer and the, you know, whatever other musicians are up there.

Not just watching them play, but watching them interact with each other and watching them interact with.

With me and the crowd and what's in the music that's coming out and, you know, and just absorbing that and just the way I do.

That does look very closed off.

Looks like I'm pissed off, but I'm not.

Like, I'm really just taking it all.

Like, just doing my best to take it all in and feel every bit of it.

Yeah, you're.

You're.

You're open to what's being presented.

Right, Right.

But when people see it, they think I'm closed off in an.

Which is, you know, whatever.

It's okay, you know, but in that process, like, I.

A lot of bands I listen to, if you're looking at, like, the.

The musical definition of it, like, they really aren't that good, but, like, they make me feel, you know, so even though they aren't the greatest musicians or the greatest songwriters or the greatest whatever, like, they make me feel like I want to feel.

And so I would much rather listen to a very poorly produced album that isn't played well or written well, but, like.

But there's some honest, like, there's emotion behind it and there's feeling behind it rather than this overly produced, you know, widely respected album.

But there's no spirit.

Sure.

There's.

It has no soul.

I agree.

You know.

Yeah.

Because it's.

It's that feeling, and it goes back to that community too.

Right?

Yeah.

No, thank you.

Thank you for.

For sharing all of that.

I appreciate it.

We've been talking for a while, and out of respect for your time, we can start wrapping this up.

But before we do that, just going into that community piece again, please tell share with whoever happens to listen to this how they can find you.

And also go and plug your wife, because your wife is an amazing artist.

I appreciate that.

So plug yourself and how people can find you in all of your various projects and also please share how they can find your wife.

Yeah, we'll do well.

Thanks for having me dude.

And I want to say something.

I am glad that I feel like I am one of the people that you are picky with and that you like to talk to and spend time with because I always enjoy getting to see you at shows and and connect with you.

So I feel honored to be as part of that small group.

I appreciate you man.

But yeah dude.

So as far as what I do, Spirit Guardian is the music.

You can find it.

Spotify, band camp, YouTube.

I have a music video out that I did with my buddy Eric from the band Ember.

That music is instrumental Sci fi metal is what I call it.

I have three albums out.

All the album art is done by my wife Gloria.

So if you want to get an idea, you can check it there.

Iron City Sludge on Facebook is where I post the most when it comes to shows events that I'm doing the Iron City Sludge.

I also have a Patreon that I am sorely behind on updating.

I have a digital zine that I am still working on creating.

I have a couple out already that are on my Patreon.

You can find it through Iron City Sludge.

I'm also on Instagram and the Iron City Sludge.

I have a show so I generally book metal shows is what I book.

But this I do also book punk bands every now and then.

I definitely am going to be hitting you guys up because I have a date.

But.

But yeah, I like to book heavy shows, bands that are giving me something authentic.

To your point that you're making a second ago, authenticity is, I think, you know, as a creative person, if you're authentic, it's going to be received.

So be yourself.

No matter how weird it is, be your authentic self because people are going to receive that better than they do fake stuff.

But you have a Show coming up January 30th with some really killer bands.

You can find all the information on Iron City Sledge on Facebook.

What else?

I also do private photography as well, like portraiture and stuff.

I've done a wedding.

I've done stuff like that.

That's just J. Aiken photos.

And then what else?

Oh yes, Gloria.

So my wife is truly an amazing artist.

I always joke that I am.

I am biased, but she genuinely is is very, very good.

Gloria aiken art.com which is a I T K E N You can find it there.

She's also on Facebook and Instagram.

We typically when we're traveling around, when we went to Nashville, that's what we were there for.

We're there for the art, you know.

But I also got to cover that show, which I'll eventually be posting some more under Iron City sludge from that.

So I got to kind of COVID that slash also work it.

And she's on Facebook, Instagram.

We don't have any events officially booked right now for this year.

We're going to be more selective this year just because chronic health issues with her as well as some things going on with me.

So we're gonna be doing less, fewer shows this year for her art.

But Gloria aikenart.com is always there.

So I think.

I think I flooded everything at that point.

It's a lot.

I stay busy.

Okay, cool.

So last two plan questions.

The first one is what?

Well, we can wrap them into one.

So.

So one question, two parts.

Part A.

What are you currently listening to?

Oh, that's tough.

Okay.

So the band that I'm listening to almost non stop right now is the Viagra Boys.

I just found out about Viagra Boys about a month ago.

And speaking of authenticity, this band is so freaking weird in the best way there.

They list influences like Butthole Surfers and like weird bands like that.

They have four albums out, roughly.

I think the newest one's called by Ag Boys.

They just put the A on the boys.

It's really cool.

But they have an album called Cave World that has some of my favorite songs on it.

It's kind of punk.

It has some electronic stuff in it, has a saxophone and horn player in it sometimes.

It's really weird.

Lyrically, he's all over the place.

He writes things from his dog's point of view.

He has a song called Uno 2 that's about his dog.

It's written from the dog's point of view.

Going to the vet.

It's really weird.

But they're really interesting band.

I also really like.

Chat Pile is another band that is just one of those bands that sounds like nobody else.

They're harsh.

They.

They came.

I think they're from Oklahoma is where they're based.

They've kind of been making some waves over the past couple years, kind of getting better known.

Their last album, Cool World, it was just one of my favorite albums.

It's so bleak.

It's so bleak, though.

So like, if you're maybe.

If you're.

If you're in a dark place, maybe not listen to Chat Pile.

Maybe it's the Viagra Boys.

It's a little lighter.

Those two albums, those two bands are on pretty.

Pretty steady rotation for me right now.

Outside of the.

The random things my girls want to hear in the car that are definitely not that.

As far as what I think people say should be listening to.

Listen, man, I have so many bands that I could recommend, you know, when it comes to smaller artists.

I'm gonna go ahead and shout out no Asylum.

I don't know if you've heard of that band.

Thank you.

One of the things that struck me very from the very first show is I felt like you meant every single word that came out of your mouth.

You.

You were so just lost in the music.

And I was.

I was like, yeah, this guy, like he's feeling everything that he is saying right now.

And so that comes across to me.

Some of my other favorite bands.

I'm trying to think, oh, gosh, I'm gonna blank on it.

Disincentive, as I mentioned earlier, is a great band.

Shoot Shoot Shoot.

Horror Party out of Mississippi.

That's a really cool punk band.

Horror punk vibes.

I'm gonna have them up sometime.

Triangle Fire.

If you don't listen to Triangle Fire, please do.

Their music is like, as a metal dude, primarily as my background, their music is metal.

With punk, it's.

It's.

It's crust punk, I guess technically is what they call it.

But man, they just.

Are.

They just fire on all cylinders.

Seeing them live is such a cool experience.

Billy Bats and the Made Men, another really great, awesome punk band.

These dudes are bonkers.

They do not stop.

They just go from the first note.

I know.

I know you.

Yeah, very.

Oh, my gosh, those guys.

And.

And they're younger dudes.

I've been seeing them now for a few years, but I think for the first time I saw them.

Nub Dub was like.

Their Drummer was like 16 at the time.

And man, he is just an absolute monster on drums.

And they just go the whole time.

Super nice dudes too.

Like I said.

I think.

I think the oldest one of them is maybe 22 at this point, or 21.

Still pretty young, but out there doing the thing.

Another.

I'm gonna go shout out to some of my bands I have coming up.

He rioth they.

It's just H I R A E T H. If you're into bands like, like I Hate God, Crowbar, any of that 90s sledge doom.

This is a band out of the Calera Montevallo area.

That sound and look straight up like they're from that.

These dudes are still in high school.

They absolutely rip.

I've got Palaces coming from Atlanta, and their new stuff is really cool and really different.

They recorded a new album with Mastodon, so definitely check that out, man.

I just could.

I could just go on and on.

Towering about of Pleasant Valley, Crimson Mask.

I'm gonna forget so many bands, but just support local when you can, man.

Because like, all these other bands, there's so many cool bands out there, but there are so many damn good bands in this scene creating original music from Alabama and representing our state or from other states and surrounding areas that are just so good.

And I say get out to a local show.

Because when you get to a local show, you can literally go.

You could stand right next to the band.

You could be so close.

You could touch them.

You can talk to them, you can interact with them.

They are human beings.

And that experience is, to me, one of the absolute best experiences.

And when I started going to shows here in Birmingham in about 20, I guess, 2019, seeing all that, experiencing that, that's what made me feel fall back in love again, because I didn't have a scene before that.

But going to those shows at True Story, which has become kind of my second home, where I run my shows out of man.

Just being able to see it and see all of this energy and all of this authenticity and all this just genuine music being created from whatever genre, whatever style.

It doesn't matter.

It was all authentic.

Authentic.

It's coming from an authentic place and just seeing all that in person at a small local show instead of, like a big venue.

Don't be wrong.

Those shows are cool, too.

Sometimes with those small local shows, the energy is almost unmatched.

At any of those shows.

No, I agree.

To me.

So currently, I've been listening to a lot of folk metal.

Nice.

I don't have much experience with at all.

My child has gotten into it.

Nice.

He's 11.

As much as I have worked getting him into punk and hardcore, it hasn't happened.

He likes Weird Al and he likes folk metal.

Okay.

Which.

Whatever.

Like, I don't.

Yeah, like, just like something.

I don't care.

But I have no experience with folk metal, so I've been trying to educate myself on this.

There's.

There's one band.

I think it's.

It's his favorite, like, folk metal band.

And I hope I'm using the right.

The right term.

I think they're called, like, Wind Rose or Wild Rose.

Or I think they're from Italy, but they, they all dress up like they're dwarves from like Tolkien Dwarves.

And their songs are all about like, like the Misty Mountain and, and.

All right.

Got some dwarf metal.

Tolkien.

Yeah, like Tolkien.

Dwarvish.

Yeah, dude.

But I have one really catchy song called like Diggy Diggy Hole.

I gotta check it out.

It is so amazingly catchy.

I mean it's, it's borderline genius how catchy this song is.

But the chorus is like, I.

Or like, we are dwarves and we're digging a hole.

I've heard, I've heard this.

I actually have heard that.

It's spectacular.

So again, I'm trying, I'm doing my best to learn about, about folk metal or dwarven metal or.

Sure, I don't, I don't know the terms and I apologize for that.

But I'm doing my best to learn about that.

A lot of right now, one, one band out of that San Diego, not punk, but I like, I definitely think they have some punk roots and they're definitely, in my opinion, punk adjacent.

They're called the Neighborhood Kids, their hip hop group.

But if you listen to them like you, you can hear the influences and, and there's definitely some, some punk thread influences in there.

But they're very, they're very political, they're very socially minded.

I want to say they're, they're all Hispanic, so you know, they sing a lot about like, you know, immigration issues and stuff.

Right.

And there's, there's two vocalists and I don't know either of their names, but there's a male and female vocalist and one of their songs is called.

I think it's called Kids out of Cages or get the Kids out of the Cages.

Get Kids in the Cages.

I'm googling it so I can listen to it later.

And the vocals come out like, like a machine gun.

It's, it's like they break each word into like the syllables, so each syllable is like.

And it's just, just, just the delivery and, and the way the two, the two vocalists play off of each other.

But then they, they just released another song which is completely different.

It's much more melodic.

It has a good, like, flow, good like groove to it.

It's called, I want to say it's called Life is a Movie or Life is like a Movie or My Life is a Movie.

Something like that.

Very different feel.

So, so it's much more laid back and, and calm and groove and almost, almost more like, like a Bone Thugs groove.

To it.

Yeah.

So like more melodic.

And then one of the other things they're doing right now on, on their social media.

So Instagram is mainly what I follow them on is like each day they're doing like a, like a freestyle of the day.

That's cool.

And a couple, a couple days ago they did, they took the, the musical track from Liquid Swords from the Jizza Old Wu Tanga.

They took that, that, that instrumental track and, and rhymed over it and just.

That's cool.

Freestyled over it and it, and it was great.

So yeah, the neighborhood kids, they also just did.

They did it like a tiny desk concert.

Oh snap.

I love those.

So that's really cool to check out.

And I think.

And I believe they also just within the last month or two wrapped up a tour opening for, for Tom Morello.

Definitely going to check that out, dude.

And to like punk and hip hop and all this stuff, dude, like a lot of those messages come from the same place.

A lot of of it's anti authority.

It's A lot of it does come from the same place.

So I think it's 100% adjacent.

I mean if you hear any interviews with the guys that were coming up in the scene, you know, like in the 80s when metal was breaking big and punk was big and hip hop was breaking, like all those dudes, like they were cool mostly with each other, you know, and it was all the same thing.

And I, I, I have, I have a love for hip hop as well.

I always have.

And one of my favorite bands, I love Run the Jewels.

That's one of my favorite kind of hip hop groups out.

They have a really great song that came out on Run the Jewels four called Walking in the Snow.

And Killer Mike just drops some absolute bombs of verses on it.

Dude.

It's just.

And it's about the kids in cages part is very relevant to that song and the stuff they do.

You know, a lot of their attitude on their early stuff was almost like so aggressive.

It was borderline like metallic because it was just so, so aggressive.

So yeah, I, you know, when you're talking about punk and all of these things, that's just a way to put something inside of a neat little box when reality is, is like we all.

There's elements of all of this and so many different things.

There's punk and country, you know, and some country artists.

You know, like there's.

Oh yeah.

If you look at like, like, like the outlaw country stuff.

Yeah, there's a newer.

I'm gonna label her as like outlaw country.

Her name is Emerson Wolf and Wolf is spelled W, O, O, L, F. Okay.

I think it's.

I think it's Emerson Wolf and the Wishbone.

Okay.

But she's like the newest thread that I've come across in this recent thread of like amazing female outlaw country, Americana esque things.

So with like Nikki Lane, Jenny don't and the spurs, but Emerson.

Emerson Wolf and the Wishbones.

And I don't want to take away from any of these people saying, oh, they're, you know, like.

And lumping them into the.

Into punk category.

But, you know, like you were saying there, there's.

There's definitely like we rub shoulders with, With a bunch of different scenes.

Yes.

And I think influences crossover 100.

I think punk is.

Punk is an ethos.

You know, I think it's kind of a, A belief in a way.

It's.

It's a way you carry yourself and the way you treat others and all that.

So, you know, it's not just three chords in the truth or whatever it is.

It is, it is more complex than that.

So you can have all these influences within with all this.

And we're all.

Some of all of our influences.

At the end of the day, I like to think of our brains like a giant strainer, you know, especially as a creative.

It's like we take in all of this stuff and then there's certain stuff that seeps through that stays and is kind of part of our DNA as creatives, as, as artists, as whatever.

But it's all a sum of all these things we've picked up over life.

Whether it be musical influences, whether it be personal, personal influences, whether it be life experience, we're all just the sum of that.

And we're doing our best to formulate it and, and, and package it in some way.

So, yeah, you're gonna find elements of all kinds of different stuff.

I mean, dude, I literally have.

I have tuba in some of my songs and it's.

That's metal primarily, so.

And that's that Chicago influence from when I was a kid that's coming back around in there.

So.

Yeah, man, I didn't just be yourself, you know, create whatever, even if it's shitty.

Express yourself, be good to others.

Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Go to a local show.

You know, if you see a guy that's looking scary, I bet you he's probably the nicest person there.

So, you know, those are some of my party parting words.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

And with that, we're gonna go ahead and wrap it up again.

Thank you, Jeremy.

I really appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you, man.

To talk with me tonight.

I really appreciate it.

Again, like I said at the beginning, I'm not a professional.

I'm sure you have a lot of criticisms of what you just heard.

Please tell me.

Like, I would love to know what I could do better, and it would be super awesome if you're like, hey, not only can I tell you what you can do better, but I can help you learn how to edit effectively.

Like, that would be great.

I'd appreciate it.

If you want to follow me in places.

Oh, email, Punk, love, compassion, all one word@yahoo.com Facebook is punk love and compassion Instagram is at Punk Love Compassion.

Shoot me a message.

I'd love to hear from you.

If you think you have a great story that you'd like to share, because, one, we all have stories because we all struggle and I think everybody has a voice and everybody's voice should be heard, shoot me an email.

I'd also love to hear your criticisms below.

You know, beyond just like, you suck.

You should give up.

Like, tell me why I suck because I can't get better unless you let me know.

Or if you're like, hey, great job.

I appreciate what you're doing.

I'd love to hear that too.

But yeah, until next time, I'm beau.

Thank you again, Jeremy.

It's Punk, Love, Compassion.

I appreciate you all.