PipemanRadio Interviews Brendon Small about METALOCALYPSE & DETHKLOK

0:04 Hey, you love them too, sus sure, I'm from four See why you wake up America. It's time for the Adventures, So White Man on W four cy dot com West Pong Beaches, number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. Fear Nathan, get engulfs legged by your nightmarish memories. Unless you are vigilant, you will drown here. The end of days are not The metal aclist is upon us. Hi, what the dooms star? It creeps closer to our atmosphere every day, threatening cataclysmic destruction Selasia. Only he knows what vile evils are in store. We must journey out to find the song of salvation? What is the song of salvation?

1:19 Already nows? Well? Do we at least no good running time? Rocking? Already nows? Does we at the least knows what keys? It comes in? Now? What happens? If we do it wrong? The world? We'll be bathed in bloody the earth, We'll be a house stand all that is good, We'll be dead. You to choose, will you be exists? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four CY Radio. And I'm very excited because, as you guys, know, I just got back from doing Bloodstock in the UK. I actually have my voice back because I lost it after forty four interviews, and now I have my first interview back, which I'm very excited about because it's really really cool. So I want to welcome to the show, Brendan Small. How are you. How's it going? Thanks for having me. I'm doing great.

2:31 So yeah, what I really dig about that I'm talking to you right now is this is not just a music interview, but this is about the whole thing of art. In my opinion, I think it all goes together. So we're going to talk about your full length animated movie and your new music and it's all packed into one. And man, I don't even know how you do it because I was checking out the movie trailer and it was pretty badass. And you know, to do music is a work enough, but to do a movie that's a whole other level. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a lot of it's a lot of work, but it's it's the coolest work you can do. Basically. I mean, I think the movie doing. I've made a few records, and you know, I always have something to learn from project to project, but making a movie is the ultimate brain puzzle, and it's like a ticking time bomb. How do you solve all these problems and how do you? How do you? How do you deliver? So deliver something in a project that is bigger and better and more exciting than anything else you've done. So that's the challenge. And also it's been a while since we've done something, so I feel like we owed the audience something a little bit more spectacular than what we've done before. And and that's that was the trick of Metal Ecalypse. It's trying to outdo ourselves from season to season visually, thematically, etc. Yeah, and I mean tell us a little bit of background for the listeners that don't know that led to this point, because you know, it's not just you decide to put a

4:02 movie out. It's like, this was a series, you know, pretty a really cool series, and so this is just another extension of that. Yeah, it's all. I mean, we've kind of like genre Hopton shape shape shifted, but keeping our DNA the same way, you know, kind of mutiating it, but with the same DNA from from the TV show, which is you know, started out as quarter hours and I went into a half hours. Then we went into a kind of a final kind of steam roll of quarter hours, which led us into an hour long rock opera special with a fifty piece orchestra. So that was another crazy challenge to have every single piece of dialogue sung and be part of a musical scheme. So uh, to to to a feature movie where we are trying to just again get more cinematic. To me, I think of Star Trek the series, which I love, but it's a little bit more plucky, you know, primary colors and and but you know, brilliantly thought out. So start check the series to Star Trek. The motion pictures wrap upon there they're kind of film cycles as they did, and I think this is kind of more of the elevation to the bigger kind of Star Trek. The motion picture for Metal off with and you see that in the trail. You see like bigger, more expansive, bombastic sequences and arts. That's uh that we're so it was a big challenge for the whole team to try to upgrade and from the instagram of being out of production. That's that was kind of what I was trying to do, is build the palace bigger, get more cinematic and you know,

5:32 have a bigger grab bag for the old for production and everything and just kind of intensify the whole project. Well, I gotta tell you too. If and people got to check out the trailer both the trailer is any indication of the movie, I can't wait because I know I'm gonna have a version coming in my mailbox if it and if it has an array, because I just like literally got off the plane that come here and uh yeah, man, I can't wait to watch it. I can't always say that nowadays for a lot of things that come out, because there's just so much content out there. And yeah, that's true. You know, some of it's okay, you know, and like, yeah, but with so much you don't want to spend your time on okay, you want to spend your time on bad.

6:21 Yes, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah. So what we try to do with with this movie Army of the Doom Star is to deliver that to you. And also not only that, I mean, this isn't just a movie. This is the culmination of a series. Yeah, and it's kind of it's it's it's and and part of the trick is, you know, completing this completing the arc that started out with the very very first episode of the show, uh you know, episode one of medal Akwitt's Cursive death Clock. And there's a lot of information in there and a lot of a big roadmap that leads us all the way to the very end, from introducing characters to introducing lets and just the kind of general ideology of the show.

7:03 So so yeah, this is a culmination of everything, and it gets a character driven much more character driven than it has been before, and much more kind of much more bombastic and big sequences. And there's a lot of stuff we left outside of the trailer because we wanted you to see it in the movie. You know, sometimes you see a trailer and they give away all the all the jokes, all the cool set pieces, and they just want people to see and then you go to the movie and go, I think I saw this all on the trailer, and I think, in you this was all going to happen. But we left a lot of meat on the bone and kept a lot of the stuff out just because you know, that's that's one really great gift of being in the seat that I'm in and this to be the director. I get to kind of influence the marketing campaign and the trailer. I mean, the trailer was born out of a team from Adult Swim who had it together, but that was all kind of built out, like from the dialogue of the movie and I and I was kind of constructing the trailer in my head as we were making the movie. I was thinking, this, this is how we this is how we set it up.

8:03 And man, you got a lot of cool stars in this. And I'm going to say right off the bat that it must be a good movie if King Diamond puts his stamp on it. Yeah, King Diamond, he's the coolest. It's so, you know, he is the coolest guy. I had no idea. I mean, I love King Diamond since I was, you know, fourteen years old listening to them, you know, with my buddy at his house, reading along with the lyrics and you know, having a big story told to me. It gave me the It gave me the chills, that creeps me out, that scared me. I loved them and to know that, like, you know, some some decades later, I would be like collaborating with him on this is the coolest gift in the world, and what a cool guy who was just like, he's a real artist. You know, it's so funny, you know, listening to him speak talking to him about his you know, everything from him preparing for a tour Merciful Fay to just like how he approached his art and how he approaches his whole kind of mystical dark Ubra is pretty fascinating. He is just one of the great one of the great heavy metal legends, no doubt about it.

9:11 And yet you have a bunch of legends in here, which is like, what I kind of want to know is when you approach these people to be a part of a movie, what was the reaction? You know, everyone that's in the movie was excited to be a part of it. So at this point, you know, the cast that we went out to from ThunderCats to Scotty into Larray Newman has been part of the show to you know, the heavy metal legends, so they've all got an awareness of the show. But it all came from the very first episode where we somehow got Metallica for Cammet and James Hetfield to be a part of episode one. And that was an important thing because here we have this animated comedy about heavy metal and if an heavy metal audience is anything like me and I think they are, They're gonna they're gonna like scrutinize it, and they're gonna say, what are you doing? What is this? You're not allowed in this world. I don't think so, man, I don't think so. So I think I think that's the kind of like that's the voice in my head all the time, is like, Okay, let me think about this audience, Elliston, let me think about Let me think about me when I'm fourteen, fifteen years old discovering guitar, discovering heavy metal, and let me think about that person's attitude. And I gotta do it for that kid, for me when I'm a kid, you know. And and again that's what led up to getting Metallica in the first episode to show the world that and then you know, bringing in like George Corpse Grinder and and uh, bringing in you know, members of Enclaves and Isan and all these cool you know, from European metal

10:46 to American death metal to power metal to you know classics or ashen and to the originators from scott Ian to Metallica to King Diamond to et cetera. So so that was an important part. So so throughout the show, we were trying to always kind of give comedy cameos to people who were part of the world. It's so cool. I love it. And yeah, if if Papa Hat is in it, you know, then you kind of get rid of some of the gatekeepers, because I'm one of those gatekeepers from way back in the beginning, so like for somebody like me from the eighties and from like the beginning of the talk, I'm like, oh, well, if Papa Hat's in there, then it must it must be decent. If I even seeing everything, well, yeah, I mean it's it's I mean, it's that's nice for you to say, But the truth is, you know, hopefully that you know, at some point you don't know who's saying what line, and you're just one years either experiencing the show or not, and later on, later on, this is what I would hope Because there was a time, and this is me trying to like outsmart the system, there was a time where I was thinking, people can watch the show online, when Adult Swiman was kind of first out and we're doing the show, people can watch the show online. I'm gonna make it so we can let understand everything everyone's saying, so they have to rewatch it. A and B.

12:09 I want you to see the credits and realize that King Diamond's in this, and I want you to go back and watch it a second time to figure out which voice he did, because we didn't tell anybody which voice the people the artist did you know from. So so it was it was me trying to get more viewing out of the show, to get the audience engaged, because I think when I think of a TV show, I think there's this kind of there's this friendship kind of like, uh, sir, get that's happening, because you know, a TV show is kind of your friends. Like Seinfeld was my friend. You know. I used to like watching Seinfeld because I knew George, and I knew Elaine, and I knew Kramer, and I knew Seinfeld really well. So every week I'd watch him and I would have this kind of illusionary kind of relationship with the show, and it's it's really fun, and that's that's a that's kind of the place I'm trying to have happened with this show. And and it's also a date. I think a TV shows a date where I'm trying to get you to think about me after our date for the rest of the week until our next day.

13:09 So all those things are kind of coming in to play. And part of putting these artists in there is part of that date, part of me trying to ensnare you know, totally and you know, it's so funny you should put it that way. It's a date because it's so right, you know, and like, what's what brilliance there? Because I like the idea of you know, going back and try and figure out whose voice. It's almost like a game too, like it could be fun. Yeah, Well, what you're trying to do is start a conversation where the audience kind of completes it, you know, yeah, you know, instead of like, you know, the more the more i'm the more I I write, the more I I kind of try to become a better writer from from moment to moment, you know, from year to year and all that stuff. The more I kind of realize asking questions is more interesting than giving answers. Yeah, and some of that's in the movie too. We ask a lot of questions in this movie, and we want you to think about us forever after first I love it and so also, first time in ten years new music for death Clock. Yeah wow yeah, yeah, yeah it's and this is this is kind of like this so yeah, so so what do you do with that? Right? So for from my point of view, again I always I said this before, but I think death Clock makes the music and I they tell me what to do and I try not to screw it up.

14:35 So these voices in my head are kind of guiding me. And one thing they said to me on this, on this particular and final outing, was if you're going to come back to the heavy metal world, you've got to come back just a little bit heavier and a little bit more aggressives, a little bit more intense, a little bit bigger, a little bit more mystical, and a little bit deeper. So I felt that that was kind of owed or death Clock felt that that was owed to the audience. And so this record is heavier and more aggressive and more intense, and it's more adrenaline than anything I think we've done. And and it's kind of a dare. It's more of a heavy metal dare. Yeah, can you can you? Can you dig this repugnance? Right? Yeah? Seriously? Because there are songs where I I wrote, all right, let's say death Clock wrote and and and there are times where I was like, you know, death Clock seems to want the most repugnant song that's available. I'm going to see if I can help them, and uh, and then and then there are big power metal metal moments, so that this record is kind of divided into, you know, to two sides, like every album, but with two different kind of ideals underneath them. Side A is aggressive, intense songs to get in a fight too. Side D is more expansive, more kind of mystical, more kind of like otherworldly, more epic, And they're kind of two ideologies that are also kind of showcased in the movie. There's a there's a big kind of two polar opposite's kind of good between good and evil, you

16:10 know, inside of this movie the Fifth in the Hand, and and so that's kind of what showcase in this So it's kind of a big metaphor. And these records, these Death Clock records are bulls, you know, use this comedy and also used as kind of epic world building fodder as well. And we're just trying to make this world a little bit big, a little bit bigger, try to get into your unconscious a little bit more and and puts you in that state and hypnotize you with it. Well, I think you did all that. It's badass. Everybody's gonna have to check it all out. So August twenty two, the movies available digitally and on Blu Ray, which is pretty cool. I recommend everybody get the Blue Ray for sure.

16:53 And then oh, I agree, yeah, and I'll see why the Blue Ray. I'm a physical media person, you know, I collect movies, big cinephile, and I really get excited about Blue Race because the sound is better. You really get that five one and this is really mixed to be like a cinematic experience in your home. So if you have a five one and check out the Blue ray because it really will make it a little bit more intense. Love it. And then of course they can get the Death Clock the new music. You can pre save it. You can pre save Death Album four, which includes all new original songs and releases also on August twenty second, and then you have the second album release two for that's basically the soundtrack for the movie, and that will include additional songs plus a totalway original movie score, and that will be released from twenty fifth of August.

17:51 Yeah, and to me, this whole project is like each one of those, you know, each one of this triangle of from the movie Death album four to the Army of the Doomstar soundtrack, they all are one big piece. That's how I think of them, and that's how where they were kind of If you listen, if you just watched the movie, you're only listening to a third or watching a third. If you just get the record, it's only a third. But if you get the cool thing about the score is that it really cuts to the core of of the internal story. And that's what a great film score can do. Not that mine is great, but I really really enjoyed making this and I really had fun, and it makes me want to do film scores for the rest of my life. But I think film scores are kind of tapped into the subtext of the characters and really give a kind of a thematic nature to something that otherwise isn't there.

18:38 I think about my favorite scores in the world, from John Barry who dolls, to James Bond stuff too too, of course, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith who really created a dreamy atmosphere for a movie to take place, because it should feel like a dream. Oh, without a doubt, it should take a journey. And that's what music does too, So I agree with you. I think it should all. I think it all goes together like one big piece, and a lot of that is missing nowadays because we like everybody in the world when it comes to music as add and you know, they cave and listened to a whole song, much less a whole album ends. So when I see stuff like this, I'm really excited about it because for me, while I was younger, probably just like you, you know, it's all just an experience, a journey that you go on, and I couldn't imagine living in a world where you didn't have that. I completely agree. I remember listening to Metallica, and of course it was heavy, was intense, but there was a there was like a again, that journey that was having that kind of mystical forward motion, asymmetrical trapezoid maze of riffs that kept on developing and pushing forward and creating a mood, a real mood. And Metallica is metallic because they bring that mood with yeah everywhere they go, and that's that's why they're in Metallica, That's right. So tell everybody how they can connect on socials, how they can you know, get

20:11 everything, how they can get all of it. You can get it on I mean you can. I mean, I think it's all available. You can probably get it at wherever you like to buy your media. But I again, I'm a physical media person, so I always try to push the physical side because sound quality, visual quality, and no one can take down the streaming thing at any time because you just own it, so I think. But I think, I think metal heads know that metal heads have always been collectors and they want the physical stuff too, so I feel like them, and that's why this is kind of like such a physical That's why I'm pushing it because I think that's the audience. So you can get it anywhere, and you can follow me if you want to. I'm a at Brendan and Small on whatever Twitter whatever it's called now, and on Instagram, and I post every two years or so to kind of check it out if you really want to see me. Yeah, but I'll be posting more as we get closer to this thing. And we're going on tour with Baby Metal by the way. So that's yeah. Things, We're going on tour starting the thirtieth of this month, August, and we are gonna just we bring something to the stage that is pretty fun and exciting, which is a full animated show. And we played a picture and it's Death Talk and it sounds like the record and you get this crazy visual journey that is to me like, you know, the feeling of going to an amusement park like Universal Studios or something and going on to the T two ride or something, or you know, just being enveloped in a world and you're you're there at you know, at you know, at whatever venue, and you're just experiencing this really fun

21:44 thing. You'll leave with a big smile on your face and it's a really fun time. Oh no doubt, it is going to be a fun time. Like I can't even imagine somebody missing your co headlining tour with baby Metal, because like, between the two of you, it's probably gonna be one of the best shows of the year. I'm sure. I listen, I'm a little biased, but I really think it's going to be the show to beat this year. That's right, that's right. Well, man, I'm glad you gave us all this great artistry. You are a badass, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thank you for saying all that night stuff and it's a pleasure, and thanks for being a gatekeeper because the world needs more of them. Nice. I love hearing that because that doesn't happen much nowadays where people say that, so well, you know what it's it's it's you know. It's the same thing that I realize is that for heavy metal you need to kind of join the club, but some member has to initiate you either, and heavy metal isn't in the eyeline of the regular zeite guys. You have to dig for it, or you have to have a friend that shows it to you, or you have to need a gatekeeper, or you have to watch a cartoon that kind of shows you what heavy metal is. And that's what I think our role is as well.

22:57 Whether or not we wanted it to be, it kind of ended up being something that showed people what heavy metal wash. And you certainly did. And man, I can't wait to unwrap that Blu ray and watch the whole thing after seeing the trailer for sure. Awesome, awesome. It's good to hear all right, we'll keep rocking, brother and Man. I love it and thanks again for being on the Adventures of pate Man. Absolutely thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four CUI Radio