New Jersey’s red hot heavy rock/metal band WHO ON EARTH Chats with PipemanRadio

0:04 Hy you have done to the censure? Wow for you? Your listen is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm excited about our next guest because I'm a Jersey boy and they're a Jersey band, so they automatally get on my show.

0:47 Yes, But who on Earth are you? Anyway? There? It is like that. I think that's a brilliant band name. Like I never talked about band names, but that's a brilliant band name because it just gets people talking. It's kind of like the guess who you know? Everybody was always like or to who is who? Who? Yeah? The who? Now we just need to write a song like that. But who are hitting the song? Right? There? You go? And you know, like you could you could do like who are you? Version? But who on earth?

1:31 Who on earth are you? So? What part of Jersey are each of you from? What exit? All right? I'm Exit eight A off the turnpike, Okay, dead central Jersey, not far from East Brunswick Old Bridge. Yep, yep. The other guys, we got a guy who's over in I think Tinton Falls or Eaton Town area. And then Johnny is over in Piscataway. Jimmy is up in Scotch Plains, and then couchhe is. South Exit one.

2:14 Coushe is a Canadian who lives in Florida, but we met in New Jersey because he worked on boats for years in a marina in Staten Island, New York. So there's so many other connections here now because like I used to be manager of the harrows on Route nine in Old Bridge, I used to live in Ocean Township right by Tinton Falls and Eaton Town. I lived in South Plainfield, right next to Scotch Plains. And I grew up in North Jersey, Little Falls, Montclair, in roseland right near Piscataway. So there you go. We might you know how many times we passed each other on the road and didn't know it?

2:56 I know, how wild is that? Like, it is funny when I go to towns that I lived in while I was a kid, I'm like, man, it's so weird. I wonder if I'm walking by people that I went. To school with and you don't even know it. Oh man, So what started this whole venture of who on Earth? Well? What what happened to bring this about? Well? I think a lot of it. Brought it around because we weren't hearing any new music that we really liked, and we had played the cover songs long enough that we had become numb to them.

3:36 And uh, he was the. First to say he didn't want to do it anymore playing the covers. And it wasn't like that. He was, I don't want to do this anymore. I thought, it's like the band. He's quit the band. And I'm like what He's like. No, I want to do originals. I was like, count me, and this is happening now. I was I would love to do it, and uh, you know, we were both saying, you know, we're doing to get We're like, you know, at some point there's just going to be one person standing up here instead of five of us, and they're going to have a little board that they just press a button on and then they entertained you, and we're supposed to all be happy about that. You know. I said, we need to really dig down. And you know, musicians like that that are in our bands, I can't imagine how few and far between that they we believe that they would be in twenty years, you know. Yeah, I mean, look, we don't have any more do wop bands or barbershop quartets or anything.

4:34 Those things just go off the way. But we're here to show the younger kids that get out there and learn how to play stuff, learn how to make your own music, and stop depending on whatever it's out there to make it easy for you. You got to feel it inside of you to do it. No doubt. And I have two points to what you say, because I agreed with all that. Like, first of all, you know, I live in South to now and I feel bad for all my friends earned bands down here because it's like they have to play the covers to get the gigs. You know, that's what the bars down here pay for. They pay for the covers. And like, I think a musician's gonna want to do originals and like, yeah, you do covers for a while, but then it's going to be getting old when you're singing and playing stuff that didn't come from your inside. You know, it came from somebody else's and maybe relate, but sometimes you need to get that what your artistic ability out And it's it's like this, I don't think people realize the line you have to tread between you know, should I do originals?

5:44 Should I do covers? You know, when you're you know, not the icons that are basically playing covers of their own songs, and when you're not at the bottom either, Like it's that middle road that I think it's so hard, like we're you're not here, but you're not there. Yeah, that's the road we're on exactly. We know that road very well. And you know to your point, I mean, Coup framed it perfectly what we're doing covers, and we're like, we don't even listen to these songs, Like these songs are even on our iTunes. We don't really need the money. What do we making one hundred bucks a night? And after a couple of beers and a hamburger, what are we walking out with? And it's like, but the real important thing was at the time, which is I guess around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, right before COVID, We're like, none of the music that was coming out had the kind of characteristics of what we grew up with, Yeah, which was decades and decades of great metal rock, classic rock, hair metal, grunge, you name it, to sing along choruses, the great guitar solos, you know that that attitude, you know, and we're like, you know, maybe bands like Clutch and Rival Sons and ball Beat, some of the bands we still love. They were putting out some good stuff, maybe masted on, but over for the most part nothing and we're like, screw it, let's let's just give it a shot.

7:01 We felt like like the playing field was wide open because nobody was really put anything out. Yeah, and so we did it. And you know, the Who on Earth name which you referred to before, I can't believe that name wasn't taken. We looked at hundreds of names, and you you cannot find a band name that is not taken anymore. I know. I always see that. I say that to other bands because they have to like put a symbol or put a letter backwards, or because it's like, wow, you can't even come up with a band name nowadays. Right right, right? But Who on Earth was not taken? And we were like, holy shit. And for us, it was just, like you said, like an open ended question, who on Earth is going to bring back that stuff we grew up with? We want to be we love.

7:43 Somebody gave us the term torch bearers, you know, and you can see it behind you, and we put it on the album cover. You know, the torch bearers of just you know, it's not just could try tested in true rock and metal like that. We're not you know, we're not trying to do anything different. It's all been done. But you know, somebody keep doing it. There is one difference though, Okay, because I agree with you, and that was the other point I was going to go, Like, I go on tour and I do coverage of music festivals all over the US, UK, Europe, so I get to hear a lot of new bands. And I hate to say it. When I was a teenager and people were saying to me about metal bands, Oh, they all sound the same, I'm like, no, they don't. They do now, Like I always say, it's like it's like they're doing an algebraic equation to make metal, you know, like it's this formula. Whereas you take the bands back in the day, like they weren't trying to make anything. They were experimenting being true musicians, you know, and trying to figure out what sounds they could make instead of making the sounds that everybody's already made.

8:54 Great, great point. I mean, look, it's octane radio, right, look at it. Every it's almost like you have to fit a formula or a template, you know. Okay, we're gonna start off with a screaming, crazy in your face verse, and then we're gonna go to a nice chorus, you know, and I'm gonna come back and rip your head off again. And then yeah, we're gonna tune really down and put this background noise in this industrial sound is I don't know what you call it, right, who should we talking about that? Like, there's just this this presence of another track in the background. And yeah, these bands go when they play with a stack of computers, drives and stuff. Like have you seen the meme? Okay, there's this meme. It's funny as shit. It's two pictures. On top is rock star in the eighties who's lying on the ground passed out with guitar in one hand and Jack Daniels in the other hand, and then the rock star of now and it's some dude sitting and compare with the guitar on his lap while he's typing on the.

9:57 Yeah. Yeah, it's not even like he's playing. It's it's not a lap slide. He's not playing it it's just there for decoration. I think it's funny because it's true. Right, you know, it's not so funny. No, And there is something missing when it comes to that, in my opinion, because there I think you need the heart and that's what's missing. That's what AI doesn't have either. AI doesn't have the heart, you know. And and it's not even the talent, Like if you really listen to the AI music, you can tell it's a computer. It's not talented, you know, it's just a bunch of algorithms put together.

10:40 Yeah, yeah, yeah, well that we're trying. We're not trying to write something that people want. We hope they like it, but not everybody's gonna like it. Right. People don't like the Beatles, right, Okay, people don't like the Rolling Stone. So we get that. So we you know, but we've just like we would like it for them to like what we wrote, you know. And you gotta like what you're writing, you know, like when you're a music a true musician, you play for yourself, not for who's gonna like it, and then your tribe comes. Yeah, yeah, we find that, you know, with our music, you're either gonna love it or you're gonna hate it, and the people that hate it you're gonna grow to love it.

11:23 That that that does happen with good metal or good hard rock, because like I'll say one example for me that probably be let people be like what I and that is the first time I heard Back in Black, I hated it and because at that time, like I would never maybe listen to him ever again if we were in today's time, because it's track track track mentality bullshit. But in that time, I spent a lot of money on that album and I was gonna listen to it over and over again to get my money's worth, and then it's like one of my favorite albums ever, you know. And that's kind of way it was with I think a lot of music back then. There's so many bands that I didn't like when I first heard them, and then they just grew on me. And nowadays bands don't get that chance because people don't even listen like five seconds or like I was speaking to somebody. And even songwriting has changed as far as what the model is.

12:27 I remember learning songwriting in college and you know, you had the intro, the first verse, chorus, second verse, bridge, solo, third verse, chorus. Now it's like, okay, get rid of the intro, get rid of the break, get rid of the solo. Yeah, only two verses and you know, get to the point and be done with it. And some of my favorite all time member songs, I had to get through the first ten seconds to the meat and potatoes of the song. Yeah. Yeah, oh my god, a five minute song. Now people look at that like it's like they got to read the Bible, right, I mean, you know, I will say I think Tool's last album, who I love Tool?

13:12 They have it. They came out with an album and every song was over ten minutes. I was like, right, this is great and it went to number one. Well, the last Metallica album, they wrote the longest song they ever did in their whole career. And I'm like, cool, I don't. Even care if I like it now, just because you did that, you know, yeah, because those songs took you on journeys. Can you imagine not liking danced and confused because it was too long? Like you know, it just it amazes me because these things took us on journeys and it was the best therapy there was for sure. Yeah. How about the Rush Rush with their amazingly long songs.

13:54 I mean, look at Zanadu, I mean it just it feels like a four minute song, but it's it's like, you know, eleven minutes a song, but it's like you said it, it's a journey. Yeah, and you listen to a whole album because it didn't make sense, Like it doesn't make sense listen not listening to the whole Dark Side of the Moon, like or or you could even go back to like albums by Yes you know, or or anything like that. You know, you would never just listen to one song, you know. Yeah, yeah, look it up. So we're worried about that. We let out a six minute song called Yesterday's Future with no repeating verse, no repeating chorus, story.

14:34 From you know, beginning to end. And these guys, you know, back in the day, they were releasing ten to fifteen minute long songs. I love it, and and they cooked and they loved it exactly. You know, it's musicianship. Like I don't get why people hate on. Solos, Like to me, I always loved solos, and like there's a big thing now against no solos in a live show, Like that's the reason, And go to a live show. In my opinion, you can listen to the album. The live show is about the experience, like that's where of the Grateful Dead did it right? Like every show is different, a different experience.

15:16 Yeah. Well, I mean, I know you probably to view a lot of artists, and obviously you got, being in your position and your age similar to us, you got your finger on kind of the pulse of what's going on. We've just pointed out a whole bunch of things that kind of suck and changes that we don't. But i will say I'm optimistic that the good, true nature of what we're talking about and the songs in the decades of what we grew up with, it's coming back because they want they don't want digit Everything was digital, right, even shit like that, even now currency everything digital digital, digital, fake digital, tickets digital. But people want to touch things again, they want to see things again, they want to look at the artwork they want to and they want to buy stuff. They want tangible because they realize if it's not tangible, it's really not real. And we're starting to see that. So I'm hopeful. Maybe you know, we're talking our own game here, but like we see the shows where the dad's outrage are there and their kids are with them. Yeah, come up to the merch Danter, Hey, my son really liked your bands. Can you get a picture where you were like fuck? Yeah, of course, you know, like and we ended up giving them shirts and stickers because we just love seeing the young kids there.

16:23 And that's how you hook them, that's how you hook them, get them involved in it. Yeah, yeah, so I have, but I have my kids and grandkids come with me, and like, to your point, my grandkids recently had birthdays and two of them wanted albums. Of course, I was in shock when I went to buy the albums because they were like forty bucks. The final album. I'm like, how would I have afforded that. I still have some albums at my house with price tags on it that said like two ninety nine. Those big circle stickers. Yeah yeah, yeah.

17:03 Album right right, But it is I think, yeah, I think they're getting sick of it. You know, it's like they're getting sick of it's just nothing being real anymore. And if any positive comes from this AI explosion, I think that is the positive, because I think that's creating it even more, you know. And and then the resurgence of bands like you like you mentioned a few bands, and that the musicianship the good old rock and roll of the seventies and the sixties is coming back, like bands like rival Sons and you know, I mean and like Dirty Honey another example, you know, and these bands are actually playing music like it used to be, and you engage in a live show post to I can't do my show because I didn't bring my laptops.

18:06 I lost my charger for my laptop. What are we gonna do? Right? Oh? No, So tell everybody how they can reach out to you guys. Check out the new album, check out everything got going on, and most importantly, check out your merch, because if they don't buy your merch, they can't be and listen to my show anymore. Great, Well, we've got a website, Who on earththeband dot com. We've got everything on there. It's got, you know, news articles, links to our videos, links to our songs, all our tour dates are on their merch. Everything's there. We're all over social media, and we do the social media thing with some cool behind the scenes stuff. We try to keep that interesting. So we're literally everywhere. We're trying to cover it all so that any and we have a band camp account. Also, our merch is definitely, you know, nicely economically priced because we were of the view we'd rather see it on somebody's back than just sitting in a sitting in a box in our house, you know.

19:11 So so yeah, I mean we're we're all over the place. We're easy to find, and yeah, we're going to be hitting the road too. So a lot of good stuff happen nice. I love it. Is there anything else you guys want to let the listeners know that we haven't covered already that they need to know that's coming up. It takes the Village. Our next album will be out on May eighth. It's also the same day that we start our tour with Fozzy and uh we'll be uh all over the country this year, so look out for us. And uh if you do come to a show, please come and say hello and give us a bro huge. Yeah. What a fun what a fun tour too with Fozzy, that's.

19:52 A great time. We can't wait is going to challenge them to an arm wrestler, So. I I you need a video that and put it on TikTok. Actually a little fun fact about me and I'm not big, Okay, I'm small. No one has ever beat me in arm wrestling ever. Now that doesn't mean I've won every time, but nobody's ever pinned me down. I lock my wrist and they can't do it. Wow, at least still to you know, another ten years, who knows. But it's been a blast. I love what you guys are doing. Everybody's got to check out the new album.

20:38 And it does take the village, you know. And I live in South Florida, so I don't know if that's a positive, if it takes the villages, but yeah, no, it does, especially nowadays. We need to be a village, and that village is music. So thanks a lot for making us great music. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Pleasure. Thank you, Thank you for having us buddy. We really appreciate. It, my pleasure. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.