Hot Mulligan on Louder Than Life, Tattoos, Touring, and Beyond with Pipeman

0:05 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio and I'm here with. Brandon from Hot Mulligan and Ryan from Hot Mulligan. Nice. Here at Louder Than Life. Is that why it's so freaking hot today? Because you guys are here? That could be it. Right, right? Very well could be. I mean... Sorry. You guys... My hat's off to you performing in this kind of heat. Like, to me... That's a true musician right there to perform in this kind of heat for all these people that, you know, it's just, it's brutal. I don't think people realize how brutal it is to get up there and do what you do when it's like this.

1:02 Hopefully by the time our set comes around, there's a little bit of. I doubt it. A bit of cloud action. I doubt it. I'm just hoping it's behind us. I know. Yeah, I highly doubt it because it was hot at 7 a.m. My bad. But, you know, but listen, have you guys ever played louder than life? No. What do you think so far, and how has Danny Wimmer treated you guys? It's been sweet because I got to see Born of Osiris already today. Not usually a band we get to play with or anything like that. Later I'm going to check out Volumes and Acacia Strain. I didn't hear the second part of your question. How Danny Wimmer and the Wimmer Festivals treat you as an artist?

1:42 Oh, it's been great so far. Yes. That's an important thing to me. I always ask that question because Listen, when you do a festival and you're an artist, it's already stressful. You don't need more stress with problems with load-in, problem with sound check. And everybody I've ever talked to through all the years says, no matter what band you are, you get treated like gold here, and it's very stress-free. Do you agree with that? I'd say so. I mean, we had some good catering, good accommodations. Nice. All smooth. How did this all start for you guys? For each of you, first of all, let's start with what was that one moment where you knew this is what you had to do?

2:25 You want to go first? Sure. I wouldn't say there was one defining moment where I was like, being in a band is like what I have to do but like when we started playing together and when I like entered the this space I guess I mean I was me and Chris were both in college and it was just kind of the easy like oh what are you doing this weekend cool there's always like a show to go to or something to play and so it was never really conscious for me it was just like you know the easy thing like that's how I want to spend my time and then uh it just snowballed into being the thing that consumed all of all of our time nice yeah.

3:07 Mine was probably just being in high school and like being really directionless not knowing like what I was interested in but I knew I was interested in music like I'd always have headphones in like ignore my teachers and stuff just like checking out new bands and stuff so that was probably my like this is. Probably what I meant to do moment. There you go And I want to talk about something interesting here. You have two sleeves. You have none. I love that. Okay. He's got some leg stuff going on. Well, there you go. They're hidden right now. But one thing I like, too, is your sleeves. There seems to be a whole order of it. It is artistic. Like sometimes I see people and they just plop things on there.

3:51 It makes no sense. but yours flows and it looks really cool. So tell me a little bit about your tattoos and maybe what you like about them. Um, well, I feel like I have a little, I have a mix. Like I didn't get my stuff overnight, so I do have some stuff that's not as good. And I feel like that's a natural part of getting tattooed. Like you get stuff when you're young and if you're lucky, you didn't, you don't get super visible, like stupid stuff. Yeah. But, uh, But, yeah, this sleeve is done by my friend Josh in Chicago. I love the color in that. Oh, my God. It's, like, it's killer, you know, the color. Like, I think that makes a big difference. Like, some color looks, eh, and then there's other that just jumps out at you, and that jumps out at me.

4:37 Thanks, man, yeah. I feel like artists have come a long way, too. Yeah, absolutely. So what else do you have coming up after Louder Than Life that you want the listeners to know about and look out for? Well, tomorrow we'll be at the Shaky Knees Festival. I've done that one. See, that's cool. Yeah. Because they're two different vibes. Absolutely. So I think it's cool you're going from louder to that. I love that because, you know, we all like different types of music. Yeah, yeah. So as an artist, I imagine you want to play music. with different types of music and not the same thing over and over again i. Think that's like what what he was saying about like why this fest feels cool in particular is like there's never really a reason we should be slotted with like an entire stage of metalcore bands next to us right but it's like something like you know everyone has slightly different tastes and like It's always cool to play with bands that you wouldn't think you'd be next to.

5:39 Sure, we'll do the fest with Iron Maiden. Right? Yeah, okay. We'll make the sacrifice. We'll make the sacrifice. And how do you feel about playing here and then going to Shaky Knees? Well, truth be told, I don't really know what to expect there. But that's cool, too. I like going in blind and being like, all right, this is what this is about. I think what you find out as an artist is no matter where you play, people just love music and love live music. And sometimes it just doesn't even matter what your genre is. Absolutely. I hate that shit, the genre shit. Like, why box in an artist? You're an artist. You should do whatever you want to do, you know?

6:22 Bring back mixed tours. Exactly. I mean, Europe does it all the time still, you know? Yeah. And I think we're finally learning that over here, you know, which is really cool. And I thank Danny Wimmer for that because he creates these festivals that aren't all metal. They're not all rock. They're not all anything. It's a mismatch of everything, and people love it. That's awesome. So... What are you guys passionate about outside of music? For me, it's probably video games and wrestling.

7:03 What's your favorite video game? Ever? I've put the most time into World of Warcraft, but I like a lot of different stuff. Hard to pick just one. Okay, so here's a really hard question. Not hard, but Xbox or PlayStation? PlayStation, for sure. Except for what they're doing now with getting rid of discs. I don't vibe with that, but. So, what is it you like about PlayStation better? They just have the better exclusives over time. Like, yeah, Halo is great, but PlayStation's just got, like, so many more bangers. Metal Gear Solid back in the day, and then, like, Bloodborne. Stuff like that.

7:43 I don't know. See, I'm a gamer from the very beginning. I've had pretty much every console. I used to be big PlayStation... I have an Xbox now. Why? Because of all the other things it can do besides the gaming. For sure. But also, I've gotten into later in life all the sports games. Like, I'm a big Madden football freak, you know, because I was always the type that I would figure out shit quick and it would bore me. So in the Madden football, I can trick it to make it harder, you know. I've never used cheat codes. Like, I hate that shit. myself personally, because I want to figure this stuff out. But, like, the sports games are better on the Xbox. I was kind of like, you ever watch that episode of Big Bang Theory with Sheldon? Okay, so Sheldon is in the store trying to pick between the two.

8:37 And I feel that's me. Like, I'm always every year like, Xbox or PlayStation. Pros and cons, for sure. Like, I want to buy both. But then I'm like, oh, well, that That'll be kind of a waste, but it's like, exactly. There is no better finite winner. It's a personal choice. Specifically, PS1, PS2, I think, was the sweet spot. And then, like, the GameCube was awesome, too. I still have my PS2. I got a PS2 also. How about you? What's that? Your passions outside of music. Well, it's a lot of music. I do a lot of music when I'm home, too. But outside of that, this summer, I've been doing a lot of cooking at home, cooking and eating.

9:20 You're the second one today to say that. I'm sorry? You're the second one today to say that, so cool. I think it's an. Art, too. What's your favorite thing to cook? My favorite thing to cook, I make a lot of Filipino food when I'm home. Some family recipes and whatnot. My big project this year was learning how to make pasta because my girlfriend's really into Italian food. Oh, well, you better be making an al dente then. Yeah, I'm doing my best, man. I'm trying. Italian food is one of my, it's low on my tier list, but for those around me, you know, I can learn how. To make pasta. You'll make the sacrifice, right? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, no, I get to cook Italian food. Whatever. So tell us about, since I can't see them, tell us about your tattoos.

10:04 My tattoos? Pretty low key. I do the style you hate where I just kind of have a bunch of stuff that I stick around. But there's no real rhyme or reason aside from one matching tattoo that we all have for a record that we did. See, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. But I kind of just use them as like. I don't know. It's like cheesy, but like a diary of like, okay, I was 19 years old on this tour and I got this tattoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico or something. I don't think it's cheesy. I was going to say they're kind of like bookmarks. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like I have tours or tattoos from like the first tours we ever did or the first tour where we headlined and had a bus or, uh, you know, I don't really, I don't seek out getting tattooed.

10:47 I think it sucks to do. I hate it. Um, And I don't really have dreams of being fully tattooed or anything. I don't even really feel comfortable having visible tattoos. But I still think it's cool and it's an art form and a memory. Exactly, 100%. Anything else you guys want to talk about that we haven't discussed already that people should know about your band and what you have coming up? And tell them how to connect to you on socials and buy your merch because they can't listen to my show unless they buy your merch. Well, you can find us on the internet. Any social media, basically, under Hot Mulligan. Our website's hotmulliganband.com for the merch store. And we're headlining a tour this November.

11:30 So we'll be around. It's a lot of East Coast, Southeast shows, but that's what we got for the. Rest of the year, mostly. Anything else? Thanks for having us. Thanks so much. Thanks for being here, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Absolutely. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.