Mikey Chapman Returns: Mallory Knox’s New Era, Afterglow, and Finding Creative Purpose

0:19 This is the pipe man here on the adventures of pipe man, W4CY radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest. I just got back from the UK and now I get to visit the UK again, virtually, uh, So let's welcome to the show Mikey from Mallory Knox. How are you? What's up, dude? Yeah, doing good. Thank you, man. Very good. All the better for speaking to you. Well, thank you. All the better on my end, though. How was your trip to the UK? Oh, well, I always loved coming to the UK, except for the bipolar weather, which this year wasn't so bipolar. Well, not now. In June it was, but now with the drought, oh my God. I'm happy to be back in South Florida so I can cool down because it was so hot there.

1:04 I never expect that at all. No, I don't think anyone did, to be fair, hence the state of the place. But I can't say no to some perpetual sunshine, at least for a little while. Well, I definitely can't for sure, but I wasn't used to it. I'm used to having to pack for all four seasons for one hour. Absolutely. Yeah, I usually just don't go outside. I just cut out the middleman, you know, just stay indoors. Yeah, and I made a big mistake because normally, like, first day, I won't jump into a mosh pit because I still have a lot of interviews to do and, you know, the festival dust. I didn't realize how bad the festival dust was because you guys haven't had rain in so long. So I didn't like, I was like, ah, it's the UK.

1:54 I don't have to worry as much. And I did jump into a pit with a bunch of dinosaurs at bloodstock. So I think that was a first for me. Awesome. The dust is I'm usually expecting dust in America. You know, um, when we did walk tour like years ago, it was, it was quite, uh, yeah, it was quite, um, frequent, I guess, across most of the shows. So I had like a little dust mask thing on, but, um, yeah, like download was a bit, it was pretty dusty this year. Um, yeah. Yeah, not the usual over here. Exactly, and you're right about the U.S. I do all the U.S. Festivals, and I always have festival flu after every festival.

2:37 But then Bloodstock, I didn't have such a bad time at Download as I did Bloodstock. After the first day, I was every morning pumping myself with that vocal zone, which we don't have here in the States. Oh, for real? Yeah, so I collect it every time I'm there because that stuff works wonders. I gave it to somebody that runs media at one of the festivals here and she tastes it and she's like, oh my God, what are you giving me, Dean? That's disgusting. And then like an hour later, she's recommending it to everybody. Like, it's gross, but it really does work, you know? They're missing a trick. If they ain't got it in the States, that's for sure. I was living off of those and tea and honey to get through my interviews.

3:20 Sounds like me on tour, to be honest, dude. I don't even know how you do it as a singer, to be honest. Like, you know, I think about that and the festival does and you're singing in it. Like, that's brutal. Yeah, man. Some people are just hardcore. Like, you know, some people are just like, they're built different, I swear. But for me, it makes festivals sometimes pretty unsociable, which sucks. You know, I like to go to festivals as a punter for that exact reason. You know, I can have a drink. I get a bit dusty. I can do it as everybody else does. But otherwise, it is always in the back of your mind when you've got a set to play that day.

4:01 And if you're on tour, it's even worse because it's not even like you have time to recover. So let's talk about this new music. It's very exciting. And tell the listeners the story of how this all came about. and the story about Afterglow because it kind of tells the whole story. Yeah, dude. I think it's kind of the perfect song for us to be releasing at this time. For some context, I suppose, for those people who don't know me and Mallory, we had a good run of things in 2010 on for about seven, eight, nine years. I had the best of times, but it kind of got the better of me, I'm not going to lie. And I took some time away from it, have been away from Mallory for quite some years since then.

4:58 And in that time, there was a lot of soul searching to be done. You know, I don't think at a few points, I didn't really think I was going to make music, write music again. And the journey. Between then until now is kind of what this new song afterglow is all about. I suppose it's. About that journey of reigniting and, and, and finding new ways to, to see your future, to visualize things, to, to, um, to understand that, I guess that there's, uh, there's life after the, uh, the catastrophe, you know, um, it's, it's kind of deep, but surface level, you know, I, I think the song really embodies a lot of the energy that we have, have sort of rediscovered within ourselves, uh, within our writing and, and has given us a sort of, yeah, given us this sort of first moment out of the gate to really kind of establish what we want to be doing from now till goodness knows when, you know?

5:59 Right. And, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but Like I think sometimes no matter what you do, but especially in music, especially with everything that goes along with it, because everybody looks at an artist and they're like, oh, they're living the dream life. And part of that's true, but then they don't see the other part that is everything else, you know? And that's why maybe they can't understand when an artist needs to step away for a bit. But I think sometimes you have to step off that hamster wheel to recharge. And like you said, the soul searching, even to find out, what kind of music you want to do. Cause like I said that about COVID, if you're going to take a positive thing about COVID that any artists that was on that hamster wheel, like they got a chance to discover really where they wanted their music to go.

6:46 Cause when you're on that thing, it's like, you just got to keep going, doing the same thing. And you never have a chance to really sit there and go, Hmm, is this really how I want it to sound? And so I'm probably thinking that, you know, after glow and anything else coming, like, I think it's probably going to be the best music you guys ever do, because you, I think you're at a point in life now when you decided to return that, you know, exactly what you want, what you don't want and how you want your art to be. I think you've, you've, you've touched on a lot of very accurate points there. And I think, you know, they're very true for musicians and, for people in music in general, I think, but also kind of the wider idea of things, right?

7:33 We're all so close to what we're doing now. It's always hustle, hustle, grind, grind, the next thing. You don't get a moment, firstly, to celebrate, to understand what you've done, to take those little wins and solidify your relationships with people and the hard work that's gone into the thing you've done before. It's always on to the next thing. And also, like with anything creative or iterative, you know, like the different stages to creating something better and better, you have to, as part of that process, have time to stop, evaluate, and then grow and progress from that point. That is part of the journey. You can try and remove it to try and speed things up. But in my opinion and my experience, that only causes burnout.

8:15 It only causes.. You know, this kind of detachment from the reality of the things that you're trying to achieve. And especially as a group, that's extra hard because all it takes is a couple of you to start feeling that a little harder than the rest. And it all just starts on a kind of negative trajectory. So yeah, like I love that you've touched on it in that kind of way, because honestly, for me, this is as much of like a declaration about how we want to proceed as human beings, as much as it is about, you know, new music and everything like that it's it's kind of a it's a promise to ourselves and and i guess hopefully like a a rallying call for those people who feel something similar whether it be in music or not to to sort of embrace the same you know that like find the reason why you're doing that stuff and and and create the system by which you can do that to the best you possibly can even if that means only doing it half the time that you used to do it, you know, or to do it, you know, to do it in a way that doesn't necessarily please everybody you're trying to please. I know it's very generic, but yeah, it's quite a meaningful thing for us, I think.

9:29 So it's great you touched on that. Well, and I think you touched on points that are true too, because like, first of all, if you're not having fun creating or playing the music, there's nothing else that's fun in the industry. So like at that point, you're doing yourself a disservice and the audience. And I think even when you have like such a long break as you've had, it also allows. You to kind. Of create who you are because a lot of times the fans won't let you, you know, you know, and we're all guilty of it at times, you know, and it's like, sometimes you just want to evolve as a musician.

10:14 You don't want to do the same thing. Say, sing the same things, write the same things, you know, like everybody gave Ali a lot of crap when, when changing the whole sound to bring me to rise in an interview, he said, why do I want to write the same song over and over again? Okay. I already did that, you know, type of thing. And I'm so down with that because like a lot of us self included, we're nostalgic about that garage band that we saw in some little club, you know, when the band didn't even know what they were doing, you know? And so now that they're better musicians, better human beings have more, you know, knowing of what they want.

11:00 The nostalgia people don't want that, but they come back later. And that allows you to bring the new people into and have, you know, I think the best experience possible for everybody. Absolutely. You know, the, it, stagnation isn't a good place that anyone wants to be in at any time, especially when that stagnation is reinforced by things people liked and want to hold on to. You know, there's like a particular, I don't know, universal truth of life, isn't there, where we want to hold on to the good old days, you want to hold on to these kind of elements of nostalgia. And as much as I love you know, my nostalgic playlist as much as the next person.

11:46 Like, it's the artist's responsibility, really, to. Sort of realize they have to be above that and to try and weave nostalgia into the mix, but at the same time, constantly be looking for the new. Because ultimately, if I think the artist or the. Creative isn't feeling inspired, isn't feeling like they're absorbing something new, they're not creating anything that gives them purpose. And meaning anymore, you know. And Oli is a perfect example of that. He's been through phases of where he could have just hit the brakes. Well, the whole band could have hit the brakes and just been like, this is where we sit. And we're going to make a buttload of money off of it. We're going to have all the cred and all of the opportunity.

12:31 But every time, time and time again, they're going into situations and going like, this is going to be different. The visuals are going to be like this. The sound, we're going to scrap the whole thing and go back 10 years. And that's where you get true legendary human beings from, in my opinion. They're kind of throwing the bird to the norms and to what people necessarily want and sort of kind of respectfully dictating what they're going to next be nostalgic about. It's a sign of good, I don't know, it's like leadership in a scene. I think so. That's a good word for it because I look at it as like all the icons out there, they're icons because they write and play the music that pleases them.

13:19 Like when you're a band and you're trying to please the audience, it comes through that that's what you're doing. Like it's not authentic. And listen, if you just do your thing, you're going to be better at it and you're going to attract your tribe, basically. Absolutely. And that's particularly difficult now. You know, you have to recognize that as well. It's not just a human thing at this point. It's an algorithmic thing. It's a social media thing. So it's not just because I can understand the motivation to want to please your fans in a nostalgic way, right? I completely get that because there's faces to those people. There's messages that you get from those people. It reinforces a desire to want to do something right by them. But when you've got like the the sort of stone face, the robotic face of algorithms and sort of social pressure in the way that we have it now, it adds an extra layer of pressure where I think before people have even acknowledged who they are or what sound is true to them, they're already trying to jump through hoops in order to hit algorithm markers and stuff like that. And, you know, in the grand scheme of things, what do I know, right? I'm just one little bit in a much larger machine, but coming back and doing some of these shows with Mallory in the last couple of years. So for context, we came back a couple of years ago to play Slam Dunk Festival, which.

14:42 Is like a big alternative festival here in the UK. And the response, the amount of people that were there, man, like it brought me to tears, honestly. It was the most incredible cathartic moment for me. Like when I was like, why are people going to be around? People are so fickle nowadays. Is it going to be like a thing? And they were there. And it's, you know, that and then when we did Download and then when we've done Trees this year, which is, again, another alternate festival, it's like it's just this recognition from my side of things, which is like these people were solidified as part of our tribe, as you touched on earlier. And they're still here after all this time. And it's just the most humbling and wonderful thing. And I just it frustrates me seeing bands who are sick, like who've just come out. who are trying to create this shallow followership, this responsive kind of thing on TikTok, which is sort of as quick to come as it is to go.

15:40 And to just recenter yourself and realize what is important, which is the actual human beings behind your fan base. Absolutely. I love what you said. And I'm totally bummed because you mentioned Warped Tour, and I'm heading to Montreal Warped Tour tomorrow. but that means I'm not going to be in the UK for the 21st at the lower third and the 22nd, the deaf Institute in Manchester for your shows. So everybody has to go to those shows. Unless you're in Montreal, in which case it works. But yeah, no, I, we're so stoked for these ones this weekend. We set them up a couple of months ago thinking like, you know, Got a pretty quiet summer with, you know, we knew at the time that we were going to start rolling out some new music. So, you know, we wanted to keep things a little bit quiet this summer. But at the same time, it's like, especially when we've got the weather and stuff that we have, there's nothing better than a couple of shows.

16:38 Over a weekend, right? Nice. So, yeah, I thought we'd stick them in early. They sold out within a day. I think they're going to be just like the old school Mallory shows of back in the day, you know, sweaty and, Um, and a lot of fun. So yeah, man, I'm just, I'm sad you can't be here, but you know, we'll do some more in the future. I'm sure. There you go. And see, doesn't it feel good to, to get that confirmation that you made the right decision to come back? Absolutely. Absolutely. There's, there's still some road to go, but you know, every, every little bit of it that we seem to be crossing so far, um, we're doing with hopefully the right heart and, and, and sort of idea in mind. Uh, and yeah, I'm just excited with what the future comes with, what comes with the future now.

17:22 I really am. I just, yeah, it's like a level of kind of hope and like eye on the horizon that I haven't had for a very long time. So yeah. Well, I love it. And I. Implore to my audience, they need to check out the new music cause it's bad-ass. And if they're in the UK right now, they must go to your shows or they can't listen to my show. And thanks a lot for being on The Adventures of Pipe Man. Hey, no worries. It's my pleasure. Lovely to see you, dude. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY Radio.