PipemanRadio Interviews Escape The Fate at Louder Than Life 2025

0:04 Hey, you lunto here, that's sure. See wow, crazy you. This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here. With Escape to Fate. I'm Robert Ortiz, I'm. Craig Mabbott, I'm Maddy Hoffman, and I'm here Jensen. Nice here at Louder than Life. And you guys got to play after that code red shit. I thought we were gonna get through this without code red, but thank god you weren't cut. Luckily we got to play. Robert was ready to go back to bed.

0:46 I was still in my pajamas and they yelled at me, said. We're going on now, get your shoes on. Fuck all right, and we managed to do it. It was It was honestly, like really stressful because you do build your whole month around like daylight today, right, and for it's just it's so disappointing, man. And then they're like, no, you're doing it. Let's fucking go nice. And with the code read and then you guys like ended up performing first. There was still a badass crowd out there, wasn't it. Oh yeah, yeah, they definitely trickled in, especially by the end of the set. It was pretty damn full, so that was fine, and everybody seemed like they were having a great time, which is what it's all about.

1:28 And that's the cool thing about the Danny Wimmer festivals because I never in all the festivals I do, except any Wimmer, I never see like in the beginning day, especially Sundays last day, Like you said, people even at bed like they were partying last night, and they still show up for the first freaking band, So that's bad ass. Well, actually think it helped us in a way because it gave us an extra thirty minutes. So we had been on at twelve thirty. We were on at one, so people a chance to get up and come like, oh, it's still starting, and then they're phones are going off, so now they're really wait, well. Because the show's gonna happen. They're all freaked out, like it's happening, all right, let's go. So maybe I think you're right. Whatever happened worked because there was a lot of people out there, and so hopefully we made some new fans.

2:12 I think you did. Have you guys ever played Louder before? I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so either. No, I don't think so. Now. Yeah, so what other Wimmer festivals have you played? I don't even remember. Much all the other ones except this, I'm pretty sure. Right, do you know that the other day this was now announced as the biggest rock festival in the whole country, now this one especially. But Sleep tooken last night, right, Yeah? Well you had Sleep, you had Slayer? Who Slayer? Last year we had a tornado. Literally, I was sitting in my car in the parking lot till like eight o'clock waiting for them to reopen. Because I did want this fucking Slayer and we it got cut. So I'm like, oh fuck. And they were here this year.

2:56 So you got Slayer, you got Sleeptoken, you got bring me you guys. More importantly, though, everybody came to see Escape the Fate. Everybody like, yeah, everything after us was an after party exactly now. But Slayer, dude, I don't know if they know about your vests that you have, but dude, this thing is from the eighties. This was at the first Slayer show ever. They didn't even have their logo yet, Merciful Fate. I didn't even see that, sick dude. So this vest has been around since the eighties, and I love Slayer and Eric has a Slayer tattoo. Let me see. I want to see the Slayer tattoos. Literally, don't think I'm gonna be real. These pants aren't going up all right?

3:40 Fuck it? Tell us about which one do you have? Like? What if it? It is just the classic eagle logo? Nice? Nice? So my best bro he passed away two years ago, but we went to all the gigs there. We went to the first Slayer show ever, first Metallica show ever. In his room, one of our friends painted the Slayer Beast on his wall, like without telling his parents. Gee said, I would have gone along with him. Right exactly. So if you were to look at this, what band that you haven't toured with? Would you want to tour with? That's on this? Still Metallica? Still Metallica? Right?

4:21 Oh? Fuck Metallica? Download what was it? Two years ago? They have this system where no matter where you are in the festival, that it's like you're up front fifteen miles away. There were complaints that the music was too loud. Yeah, and that's never too loud, right, I'd be. Like fucking excited I'm fifteen miles away like, holy shit, Metallica's lain I'm getting outside and listening pulp a chair I tried. I met James at the Sonic Temple in May and I was like crying. It was crazy. I just I held I just looked at my hand because I went up to him. I was like, James, gonna get a picture.

5:02 He's like no, Like oh man, it's like, but I'll shake your hand. And he shook my hand and I just looked at it for the next four days. It's like, that's the greatest riff writer of all time. Shook my hand. He wrote those risks with that hand. Holy fuck. And it was amazing. And to be able to be backstage with them is a whole different experience because you see the bands go on stage and some people they got pyro and stuff, so you can maybe you can't get near, and it's like all right, I'll just go watch out front. But with them, everything's close. They are like secure, they have so much like production, so much everything that they're they're the band. They're the biggest band of our genre, of any hard rock music, heavy metal, and it was amazing to be that close to it and play on the same bill as them.

5:49 Right, I believe it. I was a dream come true, So. I bet it is. It would still be for me and I used to hang with them back in the day. Like the first show I went to, he gets off stage, I think I was like thirteen, comes up to me, starts talking to me. He hands me his business card. There was no such thing as thrash yet Metallica Power Metal Dave Mustaine. Oh my god, I wish man. I was like a teacher, like, oh, I need this business card for you know. And then he's like, Hey, we're having a party after the show at the house. Come by, and like you go to the fucking their house and party all night long. Like I'd pick my friends up in the bushes in the morning, and shit, it was serious, Like I'm so jealous, right, even for me, I'm like I can't believe. Like I was there with like twenty four other people watching them, like nobody knew who they were.

6:48 And then the fuckers went up to. The Bay Area because we had shit in LA and me and my bro would hitchhike up to the Bay Area and that's where I discovered Exodus and Darkening and Possessed and the real fucking metal up there. Nice, So it was like, was it the story true of It was more of the sort of hair metal genre and the vibe and. It was all fresh, like when Slayer went up there, okay, ready for this. Slayer followed Metallica afterwards. I actually saw like Striper open for Slayer, Like that's how ridiculous that shit is. So for people that don't know, Stripper is a Christian hair metal band. Yeah, opening for Slayer, right, Because I had crosses turning upside down and catching fire the other night.

7:35 Yeah, so you know what I did. I went up to guitarist as Striper. I was like at the rail and his cross was dangling in my face and I flipped it upside down and he just looked at me and smiled. Geez. But they couldn't play with anybody like it was all that And not all those hair metal bands were hair metal. It was the fucking record labels. I turned them into that bullshit. But like I saw it. My first up show ever was at the Roxy and its Motley Crue before they had an album, and they were like horror punk. They were lighting the whole Roxy on fire to try to bring Satan in. Oh my gosh, I was like, I'm never going to a. Real concert ever again, you know, like, and that started my whole LA scene metal scene like it, and I wish every kid out there could experience that because it was a trip. But then going to the Bay Area that was a whole nother level. That was when Slayer went up there. They used to have like the dark eyeliner because that was evil And I think it was the dude's from Exodus that said to him like, yeah, that shit don't fly up here, and they're like, well, it's because it's no.

8:44 You don't wear fucking makeup up here in the Bay Area. That's crazy right for us, obviously, we're friends in Peers with a lot of bands that have grown to different levels. Some of them started off playing the same crappy bars as us and have they graduate into huge acts. And for me, Avenge seven four, who headlined yesterday, Yes, I saw them as a hardcore band at a skate park, an indoor skate park, playing between a halfpipe, and it's still like doesn't register with me just how much ingrained in rock music they are and how massively just they're just known. They're just a household name. Yeah, it's weird to me, like I don't see them that way, but see, no, I love I'm happy I saw that happening back then.

9:33 I'm like, yeah, this band's they're it. Everybody saw it with Metallica, Like I'm friends with dudes from Anfracs. I was friends with Slayer and all the Big four. They knew there was something special about Metallica and that was the band that was going to take off. Like they just knew it. It's kind of wild funny. Another funny story recently, as I was interviewing car minea piece and that interview. Is amazing went viral, but not for good reasons. So on the interview he says, is before Ozzie passed, so maybe he wouldn't have said this after. But he was like, I don't think Black Sabbath was the first metal band. Metallica was the first metal band, and like nobody liked that coming.

10:19 But he's objectively wrong, right, and he's amazing. I'm a fan and everything, but he's objectively wrong. On that, Oh, no doubt. Like all you had to see is the respect of every metal band for Sabbath. Yeah, Like, and that sound that Iomi did from an unfortunate accident is why we're all sitting. Here today, absolutely pal muting and riffs right right? Yeah? So what was the band for all of you that made you realize this is what you want to do? Oh man? All right, this is Craig. I always have this memory being a kid at a peace to shop playing an Aerosmith Arcade video game, and that was like my first introduction to his guitar work and rock and roll, and that kind of opened up the doors because I loved the music in that game. And then I would go home and my dad had this CD collection that had there was Ram in there, Motley Crue, def Leppard, Journey, and that just kind of blew the lid open for me when I was really young. But I gotta say Aerosmith because that's my earliest memory of it was because of that video game.

11:33 Nice and I remember when my son came home and goes, Dad, you gotta check out this new band, and that's when Pink came out. They're called Aerosmith. I'm like, yeah, they were a new band when I was a kid too. You probably gave your story or ray or do you have. A A little bit was threefold? But I used to play that game too at Chigostacos in al Paso. Yeah. Nice, it's awesome, but it's kind of threefold. Like for my version of a Craig Is saying with Arrosmith was guns n' Roses. Watching Slash step on the piano at the end of November Rain, I was like, I'm a rocker, that's it. And then Metallica was like Lars the reason I started playing drums, and my dad's friend. When it actually became personal, I was like, all right, I'm going to be in a band. My dad's friend had a thrash metal band. They were so sick and they needed a place to practice, and my dad's like, I got a garage come over and watching him sweat, watching his feet go so fast, I was like, I gotta play drums.

12:33 And so that was like the actual personal connection. And then once I started trying to be in bands and all that, watching a Venge Steven Fold do It, watching it go from a van in a skate park to headlining the small clubs to headlining the festivals to having trucks and being on MTV's trol right, that was like, Okay, it's possible. I gotta go pursue it. So that was a band that made me really want to do it. I love it. For me, I was hearing a crazy train, the riffs and solos Randy Rhoades Aussie. It's like, all right, that's all I want to do with my life right when I heard it nice. Yeah, I saw Randy live too, man, Oh my god, I was right before he died too. Man. Yeah, he's the reason I wanted to play guitar.

13:15 Oh. I looked at them. I was like, oh my god, he's the best guitars ever. Hell yeah, yeah, Eric here. Yeah. The first time I saw a live video of Children about him is what did it for me. I was like, holy shit, that guy is shredding, he's screaming, hair's a flowing. I was like, that's what I fucking want to do with my life. And well, now here we are yelling into a microphone, back in the band up and playing guitar. Yeah, Alexi, Leo and Children is what got me into wanting to do all this. And here you are all at Louder than Life. Man, could you ever imagine that like that, you'd be in front of this guy crowd, this kind of festival. Like no, I mean I imagined it being right ager, but never thought I'd be here.

13:56 No doubt. I didn't even think i'd be alive at this point. Like it was back in the eighties. I'm like me and my brother would be like, fuck it, the world's gonna blow up anyway, just do it. We're not gonna be live past thirty. So hoes. Danny Wimmer treat you guys as an artist. To me, that's an important one. The only thing I like more than Wimmer festivals is Wimmer the man himself. Nice love that guy. He's so smart, and he's so respectful to any artist that he wants to work with or to be on his festivals. And there was a moment in time where he even manage the band for a little bit, and I just always appreciated his attitude and his approach, and I love that guy. Yeah.

14:37 The two things I love about Wimmer is one how he treats artists, no matter what you are. On the bill, number one, number two. You know the band siwek Goose Right. Have you heard of them? Yeah? I've never listened to them though. So here's what happened incarceration. They did the old school punk thing, and they showed up to incarceration in the parking lot with trailer and start playing and Wimmer was out there watching and didn't say anything, just let him play and watch. Next day they were on the real stage and they've been playing the festivals in clean louder than wife ever since. See that's what's cool about Wimmer because he takes, like you. Say, marriage. There's so many of the bands that play on these festivals that he like discovered and brought to this level.

15:24 And I love that. Yep. So, like Craig was saying, he did manage us for a moment, I think he found his passion of these festivals are even he had like two and they were big, and it's a whole different level. This was over ten years ago. Now. He told me this one story. He was in A and R I'm not sure which label, and he talked about when he signed a Puddle of Mud and he said he went to his house and they went in their basement. Now he's this big time A and OUR guy, so I'm sure for them it was like, this is fucking crazy, right. And he said he saw a certain and a certain energy the voice. He described that as he was singing, he had such like conviction in it, and he could see the vessels in his neck like throbbing and protruding it. He's just like, holy shit, so what that's how he was. He's a real fan, like he gets it. He captures moments like that, like you just said, seeing Silly Goose in a parking lot.

16:23 He admires that. I don't know what it is he gets about. Us, and he's probably frustrated, like why aren't these guys headlining this thing right now? Because he believes in us, so he keeps including us, and he understands for a fan what things mean, like having certain artists together because they're probably more fans of these bands on this day than maybe the Thrash fans on day one, right, and he understands like this band has just reunited with this member and it's going to mean this to fans. Like he understands moments and he gets it. He gets it. Now the business side of it, how is he able to do all this? And that's a genius level that I'll never understand. But he from the musical side, he absolutely gets it.

17:06 I'll tell you one of the really smart things he did, like I cover Hellfest too, which is a fucking amazing festival. We played it amazing. He literally went to Hellfest and that's how this stuff got created. I can sense it because I'm like, dude, finally the festival's state side are starting to seem like some of these insane awesome festivals overseas, because I remember the first time we went overseas to do like download, and we'd already done a bunch of festival state side at this point, and this was like what Robert like sixteen years ago something like that, and I'm like, oh my god, festivals can be like this, right, you know. And it's like Whimmer's making it like this over here, and it's a beautiful thing to see.

17:54 Yeah, totally, because it's the same for me, Like I do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe. But before I went to ume Europe, all I knew was this. I've been doing wimmers for like sixteen years. And then I went over there and to Download and Bloodstock and Hellfest and Grasspop. I'm like, holy fuck, And now we have it here, and that's. To be a fun thing about it. We have it here, right, you know what I mean, It's. That's what I'm saying it's crazy. What else do you want to tell the listeners about that we haven't covered a ray? I know you have some new music recently. What else do you have coming on to rise? And yeah, that's been the focus for us, and it has been working on a new album. So all the tours are in the works right now for next year and we got some really cool stuff coming up.

18:39 But this new album, we've taken our time. Every single bit of it has been like scrutinized and like just gone over and just making sure every song has personality. And I think that's something we've probably lacked, where we might have songs that are catch you or have a certain energy and they're missing that thing. And what that thing is us. It's our song. It's us taking our time and just feeling it out. And like, maybe the word isn't quite right, so mess with the lyrics a little, Maybe the vocal take isn't the right one for the character. Do it this way, and maybe this drum beat could be a little bit cooler and more interesting, and maybe Maddie you can fucking shred and Eric can fucking shred. And it's just like, let's make a sick fucking album. No, that'shing that works right now.

19:26 See. I love what you said though, because I think a lot of artists nowadays you're on this hamster wheel and you don't have the time to make the album the way you want to make it, Like you got you're on the tour, do an album, you got a deadline, yeah, all that shit. You can't have at least one extra day to make sure you like it. It's not in the budget, right. So that's why I love about what you were saying. It's like, because you're finally gonna make the music you want to make is the way I see it. I think that's the difference. So, like these guys will tell you me as the drummer, like anytime we got new stuff coming out, I'm like, yeah, it sucks. Its like that song. If we get like three or four songs, oh, that means the album's good. But this time around, I'm like, guys, we've got some good stuff here.

20:13 Everything's coming together. And that's why, because our personalities are they're just injected into the music. And not everything has to take a long time to be good. Sometimes it's you just you do it that day, start to finish and it's a great song, and maybe that's the hit, but in this instance, like that, passion grows for it and you get excited to market the band, You get excited to tour, and I just think kids will like get excited to like play the instrument because they heard something cool that they haven't heard anywhere else. Yeah where. It's like. It doesn't mean it's like the best feel, the best guitar, lead or rhythm or whatever, but it's unique and that's what matters.

20:53 Those are the biggest words for me. Excitement and unique and passion. Like everything else doesn't matter. If you have those three things, you're a great fucking artist in my opinion, and you guys are definitely great artists and great musicians. Thank you so happy you're here at Louder and got to play, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thanks thanks for the stories. Man. I'll sick anytime. I love it. Hey, this is great from Escape to Fat and you're listening to the Pipe Man on w or C WHY Radio.

21:36 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.