PipemanRadio Interviews Convictions at Inkcarceration 2025

0:04 Hi, you have done too, Yes, that's true. Wow, crazy Young Incarceration America's rock, metal and tattoo festival. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here. With Michael from Convictions. Nice here at Incarceration. Is your family mad at you for going to prison? No, they're all here nice. Yeah, so they're all in prison with you or day here visiting you. No prisoners in my family, but they're all here nice. Seriously though, how wild is it to perform at sewn Shank Prison?

0:47 Unral. I've actually gotten to do the tour here as a tourist a few times. I've gone twice now, so this is my first Incarceration appearance and we're playing so. This is like a whole new experience as way cool. It's like one of my favorite festivals. I do a whole load of them, but this one's just I love the movie, so it just hits difference. Like yeah, Andy duframe, Oh yeah, the. First time I did this, Like my youngest store she's always like, so you excited to do this festival? And I mean this one's just in general, I'm like, well, I love it. It's great. I don't know if exciting is the word when you do it every week. And then when I did this one for the first time, I called her up. I'm like, I'm calling you from the prison yard of Shawshank. Now I'm excited.

1:29 Yeah, it's unreal, right. Yeah, So have you done other Danny Wimmer festivals? Yeah? We were lucky enough to do Aftershock last year. Oh I think I saw you at that one. Okay, yeah, yeah, that was the first Danny Wimmer. Presents appearance for us. And then since then I've gotten to go to Sonic Temple and Welcome to Rockville. Nice. So it's yeah, we're doing the whole Danny Wimmer tourism slash performing trip. I know. Now you guys just play every Danny Wimmer festival. Yeah, oh yeah, we want it. So I'm gonna ask you. I ask every artist, how does Danny Wimmer treat you as an artist? Next level? They have everything covered as far as the accommodations to the staff, top tier.

2:13 This is like the gold standard. And that's why I asked that question because I love that I've been doing this festivals for fifteen years and I have yet to find an artist to say even one negative thing about it. Only negative thing I could think of is we want more. Exactly exactly, and he treats every artist the same. That's why I keep hearing it's like, yeah, it doesn't matter if you're first on the list or headline, you get the same AP plus treatment. One hundred percent. Yeah, it's incredible. So what was that first moment in your life that you decided this is what you want to do. Well, I've been doing it for twenty years, So I started when I was a fifteen year old, right, which is it's kind of cool you're asking me that because I I remember playing my first show two thousand and five my parents, and then here we are twenty years later in front of my parents doing it all over again.

3:04 So I think for me it's it's just really empowering, and you. Know, being bullied or feeling like an outsider, being interested in alternative culture, being able to play music that's this powerful. There's nothing that can compare to it, really, And what you have. To say to people that might say rock music, metal music can't be Christian. Well, if you read the Bible, it's pretty metal, right, A lot of good content in there. No, I mean I can't judge people for you know, how they view music. But I think what's important for us is being inclusive and open minded and respectful. And I feel like being transparent and open with. Our faith and our message has brought us a lot of new listeners and widen our audience.

3:47 So that's the best thing we can hope for. And me myself, if I think about it, I think what better way to bring kids to God? But this type of music opposed to ones that they wouldn't be in interested in. I agree, Yeah, I think Christianity is like the top counterculture. Right and you know, lock, why not send that message out like, yes, you can rock out here and enjoy yourself, but get a positive message at the same time. Yeah. Absolutely, that's important to us. So where do you think that influence came to you to do like Christian metalcore or however you would want to call it. That's what they call you. I don't know if that's how us and artists call you, but what influences in your life went in that direction?

4:35 It's a great question. Talk to you all day about that. I've been Christian since twenty nineteen. I was doing secular music long before that. For me with my faith. It's the lens that I see the world through, so it's going to naturally show up in the music regardless. So when I was approached by Convictions and they said, hey, would you like to show this Christian band, Initially I was really excited. I'm like, oh, like talking to my dad, like, Dad, I'm gonna be in a Christian band, And he was actually like pretty against it because he was like, well, if you're gonna do it, you need to like full send it. So for me, it's important to be transparent. I think this is the way I see the world and I want to share that with my art. So I honestly think it's the counterculture. Like I mentioned, I was hard into skateboarding turn of music growing up, and it was just kind of a funny moment when I was like a teenager I was thinking about Christian metal.

5:27 There were so many good bands back then, man long lists of cool Christian metal core bands, but it was like the most counterculture thing I could do, right, you know what I mean. It's easy to be negative and say bad words or talk about dark subjects, which we still do in some ways, but it was just kind of like taking that counterculture to the next level. I love AARNet because people like you. I think I have more of an influence on kids than any other type of industry, like a music artist, and so what greater place to spread that pause empowering message to bring more people closer to the good side A posted dark side?

6:07 Love that? Yeah, I love that. I agree. Yeah, I think it's important just to be authentic. I think that's what people are looking for. Yeah, you know, whether they agree with our message or not, I feel like people are looking for something real and this is what as reel as it gets. This is my real life experience and spiritual experience, and I want to share that. With the art. And I think that it's a true art. It's a true artist shares what's it within them without worrying about the listeners or anybody else, and then people gravitate towards it because you're being authentic. Yeah, I think that's what people are looking for. Yeah, so much, you know, like any media, movies and songs or whatever. You know, I think people are they get that fatigue when they know something's just getting pumped out or it's a trend or whatever. We're very aware there's not a lot of Christian metal bands out there, but we're still gonna do it because that's who we are and I feel like there's an audience for that, and that doesn't mean you have to be to be interested in what we're doing.

7:01 We talk about real life issues too. Well the way I look at like, I'm a Jew and a Christian band. To me, it's still empowering. It's still great music, and it's still a positive message and to me, that's all that matters. Yeah, that's awesome to hear, and I love that you shared that. I think for us too, it's finding those topics that a secular audience can still connect with when it comes like mental health or trials and tribulations throughout life. We're just talking about real things and that's actually the root of our band name. So well, there you go. Go. What do you have going on the rest of the year that you want to tell people about that they should look out for sure? Well, we're working on a lot of new music, so we're hoping to have a new record ready before next year or early next year, I can't quite say yet.

7:47 We're hitting the road this fall with demon Hunter, which is really exciting. We're looking forward to to pull us tour and then yah, keeping our schedule busy. Hopefully we can pick up some more Danny Wimmer festivals. And putting that out there right now so he can hear this can put you on all the Danny Wimber festivals. Let's do it. Let's do it. You gotta be on all of them. Let's go already. So one story good or bad in your whole musical journey, since you're fifteen, what would it be? I can't quite give it to one moment because there's a lot. I mean, we were trying to be a little quiet about this, but I'll just come out and tell you we were hit by a drunk driver just a couple of days ago, and you know, it's quite an event. We're all okay, So I don't want to do if you're mongering or anything like that. We're all good.

8:31 Everything's gonna get taken care of. But what's tough about that is you go through a lot of that. There's a lot of flat tires, accidents. You name it. There's gonna be problems. And it's tough because you see, you see your favorite artists and it's like they're always on cloud nine. There's always something awesome, a cool interview you're doing right now, you know, like it's kind of like all you see, so it's tough. Like there's a lot of moments that really bring you down or make you a question. And I think that's an important because it'll really build your character and kind of thicken your skin a little bit. Yeah, which is kind of silly because we got into a you know, we got into that fender bender. I was hyperventil I didn't have an anxiety crying Like. It was brutal for me, man and emotionally brutal. And you know, my guys are like just jumped right into action, you know, calling the police, calling the tow trucks, getting insurance figured out all that, Just jumping into action, having that resilience.

9:29 I feel like a lot of people don't really get to see that side of what we're doing. Yeah, and yeah, I would really for an advice for a new artist, it's just kind of be okay with the lows and be excited for the highs. See. I love that that's what your answer was because it made me think while you're saying that, I've said it earlier too. People nowadays a look at social media and stuff, and like I get it too because I go and do all these vessels and are like people are like, oh, you're living the dream life, and that is partially true, but nobody, no band, no media person shows the stuff you have to go through in the trials and tribulations and the negative aspects that lead you to that dream life.

10:15 And even while you're having a dream life, you have all those things too. Yeah. Yeah, especially for artists. Yeah yeah, there's a lot of highs, a lot of lows, and you just got. To keep moving. Yeah, no doubt about it. And I like when artists like you are real so people can see like you're just a normal person. It goes through the same thing they're all going through, you know. And it's not just it's a lot hard work too, you know what you do. It's complete dedication, conviction and hard hard work. Absolutely. Yeah. Amen to that. Amen. So anything else you want to tell the listeners about that we haven't covered already.

10:57 Oh sure, Well, like I said, convictions, we're working on new material. We're saying busy this year, we're getting ready to hit the road with Demon Hunter, working on a new album. Appreciate you taking the time to listen and talk to us. OH, I appreciate you being here at incarceration and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. OH pleasures mine. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on w for CUI Radio