Honoring Tyson and Embracing Change: Scary Kids Scaring Kids at Louder Than Life

0:04 Hey, you're listening to The Adventure of Spider-Man. On W4CY Radio. This is Spider-Man here on The Adventure of Spider-Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Scary Kids Scaring Kids. Nice. Yeah. I have to tell you, I've always loved the name of your band. That's awesome. I don't even give a shit what it means. I just love the sound of it. Yeah. It's cool as hell. Thanks, man. And I love the shirt you're wearing. Thanks, brother. To write love on our arms. Yes, sir.

0:44 What a great organization. I'm big about them. Yeah, we love those dudes. We brought them out on the road when we did our first reunion tour. Nice. We've had a relationship. With him since back in the day and just love what they're all about. Great, great people too. Yeah, the guy that runs it, he's like a sweetheart. Chad. Yeah, yeah. He's the coolest dude. I love him. It's great to have people like him that are changing the world and people like you guys are supporting it. For sure. Absolutely. So how does it feel here at Hotter Than Life? Oh, you said, how does it feel? Hotter than life. Hotter than life. Oh, it is hotter than life. That's my new name for this festival, Louder Than Life. It's now hotter than life.

1:25 I thought it was supposed to be cool. And I got here and I was like, this is really fucking hot. What the hell? I know, right? It's like a swamp heat. And we're like from Arizona. So we're used to the super dry heat. So it's like a wet heat. It's like a new beast. I live in South Florida, and I can't wait to get home to cool off. And nobody says that. That's wild. Because we have to swampy. Okay? But this is a whole other level. It's like wild, man. Every festival I've done this whole summer has been just like this. Like, no matter where I was, I was at fucking, fucking hot as this. Italy, hot as this. Bloodstock in the UK, hot as this. Rock, Oklahoma a couple weeks ago. Ohio's...

2:11 But it's not really having any global climate change at all when Florida is the coldest place I've been in the past six months. That's crazy. Right? That is crazy. It's just, like, unbelievable. But I have mad respect for you guys to perform in this shit because, oh, my God, it is like putting everything you have into your one set Times 20. Correct. You know? Yes. And I always like to mention it when it's like this because I don't think the people even in the audience realize how much harder it is on you guys.

2:52 Because you're right. Like, they're standing there and they're hot as hell. Okay? And respect for them being at your set under that. But you're sitting there with the sun being on you hot as hell and running around. Yep, and singing and playing instruments. Right, exactly. But I also know what happens, but most of the listeners don't know. It's like you kind of give yourself permission to feel it. You go and it's like out-of-body experience, you know? And then when you get off stage, then you die. Yes, correct. Correct, yeah. Yeah, it's like CrossFit.

3:34 Times 20. You just pretend you're not there, and then when you get off stage, you just go die, yeah. Yeah, I died like four times after our set today. I'm good now, though. I am okay. Well, that's good. You don't look okay. I'm well. Thanks. And, like, even the other thing. Like, I can be out there, and I can have shorts on, a t-shirt. Like, I'm looking at you, and I'm fucking hot looking at you. Okay? Yeah. I was also told it was going to be cold. Or, like, rain. I was told it was going to be, like, rainy. Yeah, we were told it was going to be rainy. It was rainy. Yesterday, yeah. But it was still hot as hell. The best part about the rain yesterday is it's the first time ever... that I was happy to get evacuated. Because then I went in that building and sat in the air conditioning after boiling out here all day. So I was like, okay, it's cool. Yeah, I got an interview canceled, but fuck it. I'm getting cool off.

4:28 AC. Right? It's amazing. I know. Alexander Graham Bell invented AC. What? I love it. Franklin. Yeah, I'm a big fan. So.... Tell our listeners what you guys are all about now and what you got going on after Louder Than Life. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Albert, you can speak to it, too, if you want. The past couple albums, after our vocalist passed away, we didn't really feel right replacing him. Yeah, it's a bummer, man. Thanks. And so the past couple albums, what we've done is we've just brought in people who had a personal connection with him, personal connection with the band, or musicians that we just admired. in the scene and it felt right to do co-writes. We've had Albert out with us for now three years as our live permanent vocalist and we've recently written a lot of songs together and they're a lot more aggressive. That's just kind of how it's been coming together and we're really excited. We're excited to start sharing some of that and Friday is the first day we're going to release one of those.

5:41 Nice. Yeah. And You said it's a lot more aggressive, right? For sure. See, what I like about that is when you have a situation like yours, I like that a band kind of evolves from that instead of trying to keep it exactly the same. Because you're not going to. You know, you can't replace that person that's gone. You can only honor that person that's gone. So I love the evolving of the music. That's right. I mean, you know, anytime we do a live show, there's inevitably going to be one comment that says, you'll never be Tyson to Albert. And the truth is, no one will. Like, 100%. Like, we get that.

6:25 But we will never try to replace Tyson either. This is something completely different. And we acknowledge that. And we hope that this music still resonates. We get to honor Tyson by playing those songs. And hopefully we continue to make music that resonates and other people have too. But to say that it could be or should be or we should attempt to do that, I'm not buying it. Exactly. It's kind of like what happened with Linkin Park in the beginning with Em. Like, you're not going to replace Chester. Why are people thinking there should be somebody more like Chester? And I actually, unpopular opinion, think it was smart of them to pick somebody that was not like Chester. Just like, I love Chester. But when he sang for Stone Temple Pilots, I didn't like it. Why?

7:17 Because he tried to be Scott Weiland. Just be Chester. You know? And that's the key. And I think, like, you need to be you. and the band needs to be who the band is now with you, there's nothing you can do to change what happened. Yeah, because as Pujol was saying, there's always comments of people like they should just find someone else that sounds like Tyson, or they should try to sound more like the original singer. But my intention isn't not to replace him or not to replicate him. He is a whole... thing of his own. He has his whole era. He has his whole thing. He made tons of people so happy and involved with Scary Kids.

7:58 Scary Kids along with you guys back in the day. Mind Tension isn't here to come here to replicate it or replace or diminish what he was. It's here to celebrate it and continue on what he created. And hopefully the fans will see that. And I would think people would think you wouldn't want to replicate it because It's kind of like the same as plagiarizing. It's like, why are you... Listen, people would bitch no matter what. You'd bring somebody on just like them and they're like, well, why are you doing that? You're ruining... That was him and you're stealing from him. So my viewpoint is make yourselves happy and you'll have your tribe. Because if you try to make anybody else happy, you'll never make everybody happy.

8:45 Exactly. I agree with that. Yep. Yep. What's your feelings? Yeah, I think it is obviously hard having, you know, when the vocalist is a very big part of a group's identity, it's hard to kind of have a new one. But I don't know. I'm just really proud of Albert and everything he's done to drive our band and kind of form this identity that we have now. We're all very good friends and I think we're all really proud of this moment that we have together. I feel like every album that you release as an artist is kind of like a bookmark of where you are at that time. So when we play the old songs, we're kind of celebrating those moments.

9:33 And when we play this new stuff, we're celebrating these new moments. And yeah, it's just cool when we get to play all these sets and kind of mix them all together. And yeah, it's been fun. And the way I look at it, what I was thinking of is, after time, all that chatter will go away. Because I think about the other night, and I think about Iron Maiden playing, and they start to set off with Rothschild, which was Baldy. And Bruce has never tried to sing Rothschild like Baldiano. And self-included, original Iron Maiden fan that was from Baldiano days, when Bruce took over, at first... Like, I liked it, but I didn't want to like it. And it was like, you know, I didn't want it to be replacing Deano. And even though it's a different scenario, he didn't pass away. But still, everybody hated that they made the change just like any other band. But now Bruce, over all the years, made it his own. And Iron Man became bigger than ever.

10:46 So. Maybe that's what you guys will do, but while I'm honoring Tyson. So that you're making it bigger not because Tyson is gone and you want to make it better, but because you want to honor when he was here and while he's gone. I love that take. That's awesome. And yeah, I think that's it. I think bands create the music. And have their own idea of identity of what that music is. Yeah. The fans have a completely different sense of that. People who hear the music, myself included, I have an idea of what I want that band to be from now on because I know what made me connect to them in the time that I listened to them. I have that relationship with Radiohead. I think everyone has a different favorite Radiohead album, right?

11:37 Right, right. It's the one usually that they discovered first. But I feel like about the hate that transfers, people didn't like our second full-length album because it didn't sound like the first full-length album, the self-titled album. And now it's got more plays on it than the first one. And it's like you can't make music for other people or listen to too much of that. And I've said this a lot. It's like because then you're going to make yourself unhappy no matter whether they love it or they hate it. And the worst-case scenario is it's like a double negative. You hate it, they hate it, or you're just not connecting with it. And they hate it, not saying you're going to write something that you hate. But what if they love it and you've got to play this music that you always knew was contrived or you always knew was you were writing for someone else. But I think more importantly than that, I don't think it's possible. I don't think it's really possible to write really great music if you are not connecting with it in the writing room.

12:37 Absolutely. 100%. And we know it. We can tell. Like I always say, music's a transfer of emotion. So if you're not putting your own emotion into it, how are we going to attach to it? That's why you can't write music that doesn't come from inside. I agree with that wholeheartedly, yeah. You can always tell when someone's on stage faking it or when they just telephoned it in on an album. You can always tell, yeah. A hundred percent. It feels like Broadway at that point. Right? Yeah, there you go. Embodying something else or someone else. It doesn't feel raw. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, so I just say always, you be the artist you want to be and you'll attract your tribe. And whoever doesn't like it won't be part of the tribe. That's all. 100%.

13:27 Yeah. You just got to be yourself at the end of the day in all aspects of life. Exactly. Otherwise, what is the point of life? No doubt. Yeah. So is there anything else you want to touch on or let the listeners know that we haven't covered already? I don't think so. No. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We talked about it. We're going to we're going to release that some of we're going to release some of that heavier stuff next week. We're hopefully I think hopefully the people that like it love it. You know, those people who connect with it, we hope they connect with it as deeply as we connect with it. And because you deeply connect with it, I think that definitely will happen for sure. Yeah, they better. Damn it.

14:10 You heard me. You better like that music or you can't listen to my show. Exactly. Well, thanks a lot for being here at Louder Than Life. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Yes, thank you for having us. Appreciate it, brother. My pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.