Music with Meaning: Of Mice and Men’s Secrets to Longevity and Fan Connection

0:04 Hey, you're listening to The Adventure of Pumlin on W4CY. For you. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W4CY radio, and I'm here with... Valentino. And Aaron. From Of Mice and Men. Yes. Here at Warped Tour Montreal. Wow. We made it. It's pretty cool that we're meeting up here, because we're usually meeting at the Wimmer Festivals. Yep. I just got back from Wacken and Bloodstock, and now I'm here at Warped Tour, and man, isn't this fucking amazing to have Warped Tour back?

0:45 Man, it absolutely is. Big shout out to Kevin Lyman and the Insomniac team and everybody here. We just ran into so many friends coming in the gates and it just really feels like family. We've been so fortunate to do so many years on this tour. Now with these massive festival dates, it's just incredible that of Mice and Men is still a part of this and we're just so happy to be here. Well, we're happy to have you here. And I have another, like we have more stuff coming back. So I have a question is if, MySpace is going to be on MySpace since MySpace is coming back. Oh, yeah. We have to do a MySpace-ception. It has to be some sort of MySpace-ception with that.

1:25 But I did see that MySpace is coming. Back, which is a trip. That's pretty wild, right? Yeah, time is just a flat circle. I just wonder if Tom's still my friend. I know, right? Personally, I'm excited for yet another social media platform to happen right now. Oh, I know, right? Yay! Listen, I don't think people realize how hard it is on artists nowadays with all this social media stuff. Because back in the day, you know, you plastered your flyers on telephone poles, tape trading. But this is a lot of work. Like, how do you even have time to make music or play live shows if you're doing social media? Yeah. Well, something we've learned in trying to do this and trying to keep up with these new social media platforms is we have to, it comes with the territory now.

2:11 The territory used to be getting in the van, going on tour, playing for as many people as possible, flyering every show you can, and now you can do this stuff from the comfort of your home. So for a band like us, when we're working at home, we're trying to document what we're doing. We're trying to document the process a little bit, try and remember that we have an outlet to be able to access our fans now easier than ever, you know? So there's, it's a bit of a gift and a curse and we're older dudes too, man. We've been a band for 17 years. We're on our, we've released our ninth album. We're working on our 10th album. Does that blow your mind? Oh man, it's absolutely unreal. These are not things that we thought about, let alone all the different social media stuff.

2:53 But it is important these days. And so we just do our best to try and remember that fans are on there and that they want to see what's going on with the band. So I think, yeah, it is a bit difficult to keep up, but it's something that is also important for music because ultimately we want as many people listening to Of Mice and Men as and to our music, or any band's music for that matter, as much as possible. And now these are tools, and so we are learning and trying to use them as much as possible. I think the fans appreciate it too, because like you said, it's easier for them to connect with you. And so then they become like super fans because they feel like they're part of something. And I think that's what's the cool part about it.

3:37 Absolutely, yeah. Oh, definitely. And see, and then it's a double-edged sword. See, my feelings about it is it's how you promote your music, but ultimately that 30 seconds of content takes away somebody's 30 seconds that they could be listening to your music. So it's almost like if your content is so good that people are engaged with it, they're not taking that time to even listen to your music. So that's the weird thing is it used to be like flyers and magazines and things like that. Or like you could send physical things to your fan club so they could look at it while they're listening to your music. But now it's like, well, you can either watch the TikTok of us dancing or you can spend that time listening to a song and you only have one or the other because you're not going to be listening to the song while watching the TikTok videos. Unless maybe you do. You have two phones or something. So it's a weird double-edged sword where it's like, I saw somebody say, do you think Fleetwood Mac would have written rumors if they would have been filming TikToks? And it's like.

4:32 I don't know. Maybe not. It's interesting, though. Maybe not, because songwriting now has changed because of the attention span. Totally. So it's like some of my most favorite songs in my life. nobody would even listen to because it took like 10 to 30 seconds to get to the part that they would want to listen to. Yeah. You know? So, yeah, there's good and bad and everything, totally. But you made a point I never even thought of, too. Because, like, I remember immersing myself in an album. Like, you had to buy the album, so you weren't going to waste your money. There are bands that I had to listen to the album like four or five times, and then I liked it. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and you invested your time in, and it was just a total immersive thing. Like, I'd put the headphones on, look at all the artwork, read the lyrics. My kids, when we're in the car, they're like, Dad, how do you know the lyrics of every song? That's how, you know?

5:26 It is definitely a lost art, but it's something that I feel like now that we're seeing more physical media being consumed, people are buying albums again, they're collecting vinyl and they're wanting to support their favorite artists. And I think with that comes a want for something deeper. You know, a lot of the things that they see online is very surface level and it's made to be that way. Yeah. But I think Real fans, real music lovers will find the depth in the music. And that's why our band specifically, we write music that has, it's multifaceted, it's layered. Yes, we do some of the TikToks. Yes, we make the social media. But our lyrics and our music and the content that we make with our music and our craft is something that is meticulously created to have depth. And I think nowadays fans, they crave that and they want that.

6:19 And so with, you know, going back to with MySpace and stuff like that, all these things are tools for people to hopefully find that music and have it resonate. And I think there's a big thing with a lot of these bands that are having these massive resurgences. You have your Deftones, you have your Seven Dust. These songs were incredible at the time. They were deep. They were meaningful. There was a meaning in it. And I think even our band has had some of our old songs come up and go semi-TikTok viral or whatever and it's because the music is meaningful and with that meaningful music I think there will always be an audience for that and now more than ever we have these festivals with tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people coming out and they're appreciating it too so it always has the right audience for the time and I think as it grows more music like this can be made and now it's cool to be in a garage band again that shit's going viral people grabbing guitars and drums and pissing off the neighbors and getting the cops called those videos are going viral I'm seeing them and I'm like yes it's cool to be in a punk rock band again and that's how we all got our start so something's working here I can't knock it you know we might be getting older but you know the youth is still there and they're still making loud music and that's what all this shit's.

7:37 About And one thing that you said I want to focus in on is the fact that, you know, the depth of your music, that's why you're here for 17 years. We were talking about this in another interview where the artist was saying, yeah, listen, these TikTok artists, they blow up and then they're gone just as quick as they blew up. But musicians like you guys and creating music that does have depth to it is what keeps you around and has you here at Warped Tour in 2026 in Montreal. Totally. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for saying that, man. My pleasure, because you guys are badass. Thank you, man. Thank you. I'm very happy to have you here. I'll be very happy to be out there fucking at your set while you kill it. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pint Man.

8:26 And thanks for always taking the time to talk to us, too. Always. I always enjoy seeing you. Anytime. Is there any other final words you want to tell the listeners that we haven't covered of anything they need to look out for? We have some headlining California shows in November. We're working on some new music. And that's kind of basically all for now. Another Miracle's out. It's our ninth record, and we're working on number ten now. I love it. I love it. See, that's old school to me, too, like putting one record out after another. I love it. I love you guys. And have fun here at Warped Tour. And we love you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for listening, everyone. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.