Phil Sandoval of Armored Saint and Emotion Factory Reset- PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love done to the censure. I'm w for se Wow for you young to gets in the cream of the clop because you want to take from moll. Dude. It's the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about my next guest because we go way way, way, way, way way back, and uh so I want to welcome to the show Phil Sandoval from Armored Saint.

0:49 Hello, how's everyone doing? Thank you for having me? Oh my pleasure. And I gotta tell you it's pretty cool. You got this new album out and I told relate to Emotion Factory Reset and I read what you kind of said about it, and I loved it because I'm also a motivational speaker and I'm a big believer of it's not what happens to you, it's what your attitude is towards it. Sure it, sure is. You know. I listened to a lot of stoic wisdom Marcus Sirelius Seneca, you know, epatitis. Uh, but it's helped me a lot actually this year, and I think, uh, you know, choosing uh positive, choosing peace over chaos is really important and stuff and happiness is something that you choose to have in your life. It's not something you just find, you know, in a person or anything else. It's like you kind of have to work at it. Yeah, you know what I mean totally. Yeah, And as as we get older, I think it's important to live a fulfilling life, you know, because the past has gone. In the future, you know, you know, I have no idea what's going to happen, you know exactly the way in motion factory reset. It's kind of like the world kind of needs a factory reset totally, like with all everything that's going on in the world, and that's kind of like what the meaning of that is for me, you know. So that's what we're giving the world,

2:21 is this plate of amazing music and hopefully that can reset your mind to something more positive. I love it and it's so true too. You know. Sometimes it's funny because like I play video games, and I've often thought a lot of times too, Man, it would be nice if life sometimes was like a video game and you just hit the reset button when you screwed up on a level, and you could just go start over. And that's what we are able to do if we put our mind to it, and you know, it's our attitude towards it. It totally is. Every every day that you wake up in the morning, you know, it's grateful because somebody else in the world did not wake up that day that you're waking up. They're dead, They're gone, you know, and that's going to happen to all of us one day.

3:12 And so but in the meantime, you might as well live a fulfilling life, you. Know, absolutely, So tell us for this new album, what's your favorite party album besides that message? What's your favorite part musically of the album? Believe it or not, it's it's the solo that I did in Not On Your Life because I was I got this. I learned this lick from Guthrie gove On and I would play it. Man, it would be great if I could put this lick into one of the solos, you know what I mean. And I was able to do that, and I kind of felt like I kind of like achieved something that I wanted to do with that piece of music. So that's one of the favorite parts of that. Of course, the two songs that I was able to get in there were throw Caution to the Wind and Sladders and Slides, where my brother and I worked on. But also one of my favorite parts is that I got some lyrics in there on the song Moonshot, close to the Bone, Not on Your Life and buzz Kill because we were on tour with Queen's Like and I think I gave like John and Joey like fifty or sixty album titles, you know, and out of those they picked one, which was buzz Killed. But in there John told me, you know, Phil, I'm open

4:43 to getting some lyrics as well, and I went, oh, really that He's never said that before. Wow. So yeah, so I was able. He liked some of my lyrics and he actually used them on the album, and he usually doesn't do that. Wow. Yeah, he usually does not do that. But he was open to it, and I took the challenge and I gave him some ideas and and and they made it to those those four songs Moonshot, close to the Boat and Not on Your Life in Buzzkill, and and one of the lyrics was emotion Factory Reset and that ended up being the name of the album. So there's another thing that I'm nice. So there's a lot for me in there.

5:31 See. That's cool how that worked out, and like it must feel great after like all these decades to be contributing in ways that you probably didn't contribute to before. Right right, you know, because our first album was all, you know, all of us together, David Pritchard rest in Peace and yeah, all of us five and stuff, doing it the old fashioned way, but all the lyrics were were from John, you know. But come to six, some of the lyrics and those songs are come from my ideas and stuff. And it's not an ego thing or nothing like that. It's just what is present of mind right now and what happened. And I'm very much appreciative of that.

6:18 You know, I love it, and it is something you should be proud of because I think as a musician you do want to evolve and you do want to experiment and do different things, especially when you've been doing it as long as you have. Yeah, yeah, and that's something different. I mean, you know, so I feel, you know, good as a musician and as a guitar player and stuff that I was able to contribute more than just this good solo rhythm part and stuff, and it actually went above that, you know what I mean. Nice, you know, and you mentioned Dave. Yeah, rest in peace. One of my favorite memories of him was was that one of your shows, and like I always used to hang out, you know, we guys backstage, and then the security wouldn't let me through and he came running through the security, grabbed my arm and just like pulled me through the security card. He was.

7:19 That is Dave right there in a nutshell. He broke barriers, he broke rules, you know what I mean. It's like an incredible musician artist he drew. He was very creative. He could play eruption on the piano, which was find amazing. You know, everybody's playing it on the guitar, but check this out. I went to it one time and he goes, check this out. He could starts playing eruption on the piano. I'm like, he's wild. That's wild. In twenty twenty six, I just started playing the piano. I actually picked it up and really just barely. I'm just barely like learning the notes and everything, just because it's different than the guitar.

8:00 And I kind of want to see how all this like comes together. You know, I'm not saying that there's gonna be piano in the next time saying album. But I'm that I'm just doing it so I could grow as a musician. Yeah, totally. And I think it probably would make you a better guitar player too on top of it, because it's just a different part to add to it, you know. Yeah, And I think Eddie van Halen, I know that he goes, Oh, I never, I mean I never like learned how to read music and stuff. But I mean he sure played piano first, and then he won competitions, the Long Beach Piano competition he won that, So I don't know, if you know, how could you win that and not learn how to play read music. But the thing that I think that his fingers and his ability to play piano, it helped him in his guitar. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just hoping that that helps me too.

9:00 And the most important part is that you have fun doing it, because right like being a musician, that's the part, like everything else is probably not so much fun, the playing and doing that, that's the fun part. Yeah, that's the fun part. That is the aspect of just doing that is the judge the joy, you know, and creating and stuff like that, that's the joy, you know what I mean. Totally totally. And so one story good or bad in your whole career in music, what would you say it would be? Would be like when we opened up for the Scorpions in ninety one and they had that hit with the whistling and being in the stadium full of twenty thousand people whistling that and me like looking up and they were whistling so so much that there was air are coming towards us, you know, wow, all like looking and that moment, it was all dark and they all had their lighters on and they were whistling that part, and the Scorpions treated us like teens. You know. Winds of winds of change, winds have changed. That moment right there was where I felt just completely like out of spirit, like you know, and and I kind of got me

10:31 a little emotional because it was like a beautiful moment that I'll never forget. See. That's what I love to hear stuff like that, because that's what makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it. Yeah? Yeah, So tell tell us a little bit about what got you started in music, period, like what and who started first? You are gonzo like who started or you do it at the same time when you were little kids. I think Gonzo did first. Gonzo was friends with John and Joey, but what started me was Jimmy Page and as freely. I remember in junior high school, Joey was playing the guitar. David Avulo rest in Peace was the local guitar hero, and John sang and Gonzo played drums, and they did this thing in junior high school and I was sitting there and I'm going, Man, that's fucking cool.

11:31 I want to be part of this, you know, And so I started kind of taking the guitar a little bit more serious. I think I was like fifteen. And then in high school. We we came up with the band Royal Decree and we played covers and stuff like that, and it was me, Gonzo, Joey and John and then and then when we we left high school, we disbanded, but actually John moved to South Pasadena High School and Gonzo followed, and that's when Gonzol met David Pritchard, and then David Pritchard, me and Gonzo started playing together, and that came to be Armored Saint because then John Bush joined and then Joey Vera joined and then that's.

12:24 That's kind of like the the Citadel of Armored Saint, the heart of it. That's how it started. And here we are, twenty twenty six, brand new album that like, I listened to the whole album, and man it is is not only really really good twenty twenty six medal, but it also brings me back to the eighties medal. It's like a combination of both. It's like if you took eighties Armored Saint and modernized it to two thousand twenty six, that's this album. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

13:06 And like I have in the background here, there's a bunch of vinyls, so I love all the colors. So you got a bunch of cool packages that people can get for the new album when it drops. Yeah. Uh, it drops on May twenty second and through Metal Blade Records. So funny because it's how I got to your first show, because like it's funny. I said something Brian a few years ago about this about how he was like that. I said he was a brilliant marketer, and he's like, I was just a record store clerk because me and my friends used to go to OZ Records and he would go here, check this out, and then he he showed us the you know, the promo flyer for that Halloween show with Wasp and you guys and Headshaker, and we just looked at it like, oh, we gotta go to that show, and you know, there it is. The rest is history, I know.

14:06 And and it's incredible how Brian Slago was keen to tap into the Metallica, the Armored Saint, the Brad Marty Friedman was even in in there. Yeah, and also a lot of these bands that he he kind of like helped get on record first, yeah, became something and one of them became the biggest heavy metal band of all times, Metallica. Right and I was at their first show ever because of Brian Slago. Wow. So now Brian Deslago deserves uh you know, some kind of mentioned in the Metal Hall of Fame somewhere, and.

14:53 No doubt I would. We wouldn't be talking right now, I think if it weren't for Brian Slago, because I probably wouldn' be here and who knows where metal would be. I know, look at that he's still helping us, although uh, Joey, he's married to the president now, which is Tracy Vera. Yeah, and look at what happened with that. I mean, it's incredible, you know what Brian slegl has done, and kudos to him in the tip of the hat to Brian Sligo totally. And speaking of Joey, I love too that he just keeps producing your albums because he's pretty bad ass at that. And you can tell when you hear the final you know, songs, of the production quality it sure is.

15:38 It's incredible the amount of awesomeness that is Joey Vera. And we loved him and I appreciate him very much as as a person, as a bandmate, you know, and as a business partner and everything else. Really, you know what I mean totally on top of it's an awesome bass player. Right right, Like I remember that first show, I was like, man, he sounds like Steve Harris. Swear to god, That's what I thought back then, you know, and still holds true. So thanks for giving us new music here in twenty twenty six. It's badass. Everybody has to the record drops May twenty second. You gotta get emotion factory reset. Man, it is killer, I'm telling you, And we appreciate you, guys, You and everybody in Armored Saint and thank you for giving us this great music and positive attitude for all these years.

16:37 Thank you the Pipe Man, Thank you and get your emotion factory reset and get yourself reset. Yesetivity. Hello, this is Philip Saneva from Armored Saint and you're listening to the Pipe Man on W four cee y Radio. Yeah, thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipement on W for CUI Radio.