PipemanRadio Interviews Mike D from Killswitch Engage at Bloodstock 2023

0:00 Hey, you love them too, sus Sure, I'm coming from see why roll Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures. So pipe Man on W for cydi com West pom Beats his number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man, Les go down first round day look like Lord Day song Rongdaga so for war a war of God God one. So it's the pipe Man here on the Adventures. Pipe Man W for c Y Radio and I'm here with Mike Deep Kill Switch Engage Nice here at Bloodstock.

1:03 I am so pumped that I won't have any interviews that I can actually go out and enjoy your set. Yeah, we're playing in nine tenths, so hopefully you'll be done talking by then. I think. So I've all I have a voice left, but otherwise would be a long day for you. I know, right. But I want to say what I started the day doing. I want to tell you what my research for this interview was. Walking in that gallery over there. That was my research. That was all my research. That's really all I needed because I was I didn't even imagine. Okay, so I knew you did art, and then I walked in there, I'm like, holy fucking shit. This is some good Like your art was amazing and well I loved about it is it didn't all look the same. You know that it's different each one, Like you see a lot of artists and you can tell every single one is like the same thing, just a little different yours at all. Well, thank you definitely. You know, I'm the type of person that just kind of creates and moves on and looks forward. You know, artists, they are always looking for their next meal, you know, next project to do, so I never really have a chance to look back at what I've done, and I've a crewed of a lot of stuff because I've been I've had my graphic design business since nineteen ninety two. So when they when Rams Gallery asked me to do a gallery here, I was really excited and also a little nervous just to go through years, like almost thirty years of material. But it was really fun

2:37 to pick out stuff, like you said, that was different and that you could flow from one to the other and uh that people could visually see big. I really wanted to make sure that my pieces were huge so that people could see all the intricacies and all the little stuff that I see on my computer screen that sometimes you might miss on a on a little CD cover or something like that. Bunch of vinyl gatefolds in there that are spread out. You'll see the front, the back, and then flipped inside version. And I wanted to make it so that you would see exactly what I see on a computer screen while I'm designing nice and you know, when you're saying that, I was thinking about one of them that you had in there that try and remember which one it was, but had all the little pictures down below like it was all the history of kill Switch Live. Are just breathing.

3:28 Fifteen year anniversary vinyl that was it. Yeah, and that was a lot of fun, but I don't think you'd see a lot of that if it wasn't big. It was cool to be able to show people exactly what it so I would say there's probably upwards of three hundred photos in there that I meticulously crafted and made look like they should go together as it's an undertaking, but a lot of really cool memories and a lot of memories from over here. We haven't been here. It's been about war to five years since pre pandemic, so it's really exciting to come back and see all these great faces again and and a lot of the photos that are on that remind me of this place right and you know it as wild because I got friendly with the person working in the gallery, so I went up to him. I'm like, hey, show me it's art working there. I'm expecting to see because like at all the festivals I do in the United States, like it's like one or two pieces by each musician that does it. And I'm like, he just keeps showing me. I'm like, does he have like the whole gallery or something? And you do? You have two big walls. And I'll tell you what I'm gonna do later too, because the first one that caught my attention is tell you a little story. I've been friends with Arbourn Saints since the beginning. Okay, Joey will tell you. I'm their first merch dude, and I was fifteen years old. They had no merch they

4:59 had, and me and my buddy we went up to him like, hey, do you mind if we make up shirts and pins and sell them at your shows? We'll give you fifty percent And They're like shut And then you know it's funny. Joey and I were talking one time in interview and he said, he says, I'm gonna tell you some team probably never knew. He goes, you know that shirt of yours, you know that picture of Lars with the guitar with the Armored Saints shirt on, and he's like, that's your shirt. I'm like, you're fucking he still has him. I'm like, I don't even have any anymore. He goes, I don't either, but what I'm gonna do later, So like I took pictures of like I'm like, look look at what he did for your logo and everything, and send it over to him on Instagram. Well, interestingly enough, we toured with Anthrax way back and I think two thousand and three. It was our first time. They took us over to Japan and Australia for the first time being in kill Switch and Joey Vira and John Bush were in the band at the time while Joey was filling in for the base and so I met those guys, got really good friends of them, and Joey, being a graphic designer, got in touch with me about the live record. Carpett det anyways got in touch with me two do the design work. For that cover and he said, I'm a graphic designer and I don't trust anybody, and I trust you. And I was like, Okay, that's a lot of

6:30 stress, but thank you so much compliment. So I did. I produced the record, that record for those guys, and then this past year they asked me to do their fortieth anniversary T shirt designed that they used when they supported Wasp in this past and that's when I met I met him. It was Halloween and it was Wasp armored Saint and this band Headshaker that doesn't exist anymore, and it was like one of my first club shows in La. Ever was it forty years ago? It was forty years I've been even more than forty years. Like the album came out four years ago. I think it was before that. Slayer's first show Metallica's first show in LA. Like I laugh at people would say, oh, yeah, they're from the Bay Area, Yes, after LA. And then I have my friends in Jersey because I'm originally from Jersey and they're like, oh yeah, they're from Old Bridge. I'm like, yeah, after the Bay Area and after LA, but yeah. And then I took a picture of one because I have to tell you. I want this freaking T shirt that is badass, Like I want the T shirt that was originally produced as a T shirt for the record store Purchase Street Records, And I appreciate that, Thank you very much.

7:51 Those guys do a lot of limited shirts. They'll ask me to do like five or six every like seven or eight months, and then they'll sell out and asked me to do some more. So that was a limited run. I'll tell him to run him again. There you go, it is. I mean, it's a really cool shirt. You know. I have like a thousand T shirts and I looked at that. I'm like, I need that. Well, funny you say that we do have prints for sale, not actual T shirts, but if you go to the gallery, there is a QR code and you can get any of the prints that are on the wall. And I'm glad you brought that up. Kind of bring that up too, because people definitely have to check all this stuff out because like one was better than the next. And you know, you do a lot of festivals. I see some of them. I'm like, well, it's great that those tourists are doing like music artis are doing some art, but stick to the music type. Of things, so thank you. So I didn't have that vibe at all with yours. It's like, holy shit, maybe he should do this and kill switch all the time. That is what I do whenever. You know, being on tour is there's a whole lot of nothing going on for most of the day. When when you don't have interviews and you don't have sound checks, it's your time is your own. So being able to crack open my laptop and do graphic design and get my head out of being away from home and just focus on artwork it really helps just steady me in general. And then when we're not touring, I can just go home and immerse myself in graphic design or play in other bands if I

9:24 need to. But it just helps keep me straight, keep keeps my head on straight. And I will go back to what Joey said because I've known him a long time. He is very particular. So the fact that he picked you that says massive words to me because he's a perfectionist. It's a great guy too. I really like one of the best guys ever. I love him to death and I actually always jokes about that they never were I have their zip code till they came to my house and Agora when they were in Pasadena and or like it was like going to another Country's a honor to work for them. Yeah, I just love it so real quick. Anything you want to talk about coming up for kill Switch that you want the listeners to know, Well, we are headlining the big fest today, Bloodstock.

10:13 We got a lot of really cool surprises tonight, stuff that we haven't done and probably fifteen years on stage. I'm not gonna really disclose what it is. Gotta be it, but everyone's gonna be pretty surprised, and we might be surprised as well. Yeah, wait till you see what we got planned. Other than that, I have another band called Death Ray Vision just put out a record in June on Metal Blade Records. It is called No Mercy from Electric Eyes and you'll see some artwork in there. And really excited to be playing with that band and hopefully we'll get over to Europe at some point. Nice. Well, I have stories about Slay Gold too, because he's how I ended up at the Armored Saint show because he was a wreck store clerk at OZ Records in the Valley and started Metal Blade and we used to go in there like here, listen this band, here, listen to this band, and they were all his bands, brilliant. I told him like a couple of years ago, that was the most ingenious marketing plan ever.

11:15 You know, Well, what a great dude. Brian is a stand up guide. It is an honor to be on his label. He runs it so well, and it's it's more like a family than it is a record label. And that's what we really enjoy. It's always been that way, so real quick, because you gotta go tell everybody how they can reach out to you for your art, for all your music projects, connect on socials, web, whatever you want to tell them. Well, Instagram is usually the best place for me. I just like posting pictures. I don't really like typing or talking too much, so Instagram seems like the best way to get all that stuff out of my blood. Dark icon design on Instagram is the easiest way to go hold me. Uh. The QR code I think is just up at the ram gallery, but I may throw that up on my Instagram so people can check it out. I don't know that's enough.

12:07 So man, I am so looking forward to being in your pit tonight, and I'm gonna have to go in and get that qure code on that piece of art because I think it's gonna have to go up on my wall. I think I'm gonna post it so people can check it out. We just didn't want people to pay, you know, exorbitant amount of shipping if they were gonna order from the US, because it's mainly supposed to be for here. But there you go. There's gonna be another gallery in the US coming up very soon, so stay tuned for that. Well, I'm from there, so good. I love it. Thanks for being here and thanks for being on the adventure as a pipe man. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, what's up. This is Mike D from kill Switch Engage. You're listening to the Pipe Man on W four c Y Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventure of Pateman n W four CUI Radio. M