PipemanRadio Interviews Mike Mangini and Motley of Monolith

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure. Wow, cra you young ro. Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beach is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. She says. With cherry shoot like cres. Beyond you mode the name.

0:54 This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next. Guess because they're a badass. So let's welcome to the show, Monolith. How are you? And I did? I did pronounce it right? Right? Like that's my biggest fear. Is pronouncing band names wrong. And if it's something I'm not sure of, I'll ask ahead of time. But this one I was pretty sure of. But then after I say it, I'm like, oh, let me make sure because you never know nowadays. Yeah, we know. What we did is we picked a band name that like twenty other bands had so that everyone would know how to say it. Yeah, there you go, that's a perfect idea. It does seem like that nowadays. How do you how do you do band names nowadays? Like that's why people are using symbols and letters upside down because it's like every band name is taken, I know, and you know.

1:50 If you know Prince owns the symbol thing that that's done right, So we don't know, we just I don't even know how we did it. We just threw a whole bunch of them in the hat. We talked about the sound of the band, us, all of it. It's just then it showed up. See if I started a band now, I think, just to be funny, I would just have like no name. It's like instead of a symbol, it's just a blank space. That that is. But that is partially funny. I also I also think it was as interesting and you know, in life, I grew up where pets pets had pet names, but then I started to you know, spread out and meet people from the South who named their pets like actual.

2:44 Names, Like oh, I hate that, Like I know people that their dog is named. Bob Robert, right, and when they use they. Use human names, but they're not even like like unique names are like the common most common human names there are, and it's just weird, right. So so so we consider naming the band Andrew or Billy or. You know, something that's like actually good idea too. Man, that would be great. It'd be like just uh, you know, and it's nobody's name in the band. You gotta do it where it's nobody's name in the band, because that's what they're going to assume. Okay, you're the lead singer, that's probably your name or you know whatever.

3:36 Yes, in Pink Floyd, which one's pink? That was the question? Oh yeah, I love that one. That is funny. Uh. And I love when there's people that have these fake names but people think it is really their real name. That happens to me all the time with Modeley. Right. See, you know, and I'm sure, uh you know Blowthar you know that's his real name. Right. I got a funny story about Blowthar. Okay, I'm doing this interview with him over at Download and they there, they're costumes didn't come. So the tour manager comes out to me and says, hey, Blowthar is gonna come out here, but he doesn't.

4:28 I ain't costume on. So like like, don't let anybody know. But then blow Thar was fucking with people, Like there was a photographer right across from me during the interview who had like some gummy bears and he go and he goes to dude, He's. Like, hey, hey, hey, let me have And you could totally tell it was the blow thar voice, you know, and gar was playing there still no clue whatsoever. It was funny as hell. So tell there our listeners a little bit about your band, you know, for the people that have never heard you, don't know what you're about, how would you the artists, describe your band?

5:09 Go ahead, Motley, Oh you're gonna give me that one? All right? How about I'll start that. You kick in if you want so. Our band has a rock metal sound as a genre, so that's the box that it goes in. But it is different in that it is the rhythms are very Latin based, and it's not a general just a general word Latin that breaks up into many very specific types of rhythms and they're all intertwined here. That is all in our background somehow musically, and so if you combine that, you kind of put it into the rock metal Latin music has a real great groove to it, and there are so many of them. Now you add that all of the songs have to do, they're all connected into a big story. You have a very focused thing over with with with genre, with with whatever it does, with the lyrics and with the sound.

6:12 See I love that because if you look at my shirt, it's a Costa Rican shirt. I go to Costa Rica all the time and I've literally I've talked to, you know, some of the media people that run like the other festivals and media at the other festival, and I'm like, man, I think we should do a festival in Costa Rica because nobody does a rock one there. You know, you have that Envision one there and you know, but you know, and there are a lot of metal heads there and people don't even realize. And then now, so if I do that, then you guys are definitely on the ticket because you would match absolutely. And I have played there that that crowd is one of is absolutely top five for glassiness. I mean like movement bodies. It's a sea of people having an absolute blast.

7:06 It's I love it. Yeah, it's because they don't really have many so it's not like, you know, they can go to one every weekend. I also heard like I was thinking of covering Banger's open air this weekend, which is in Brazil, and I heard Brazil they're like that, like big time, like rock and rio is like every band I talked to that's played there say it's the most insane festival they've ever played because of the audience. Yeah. Again, I have done it and it's the same thing. And I can't wait for us to be introduced to that entire area of the world because they're gonna know that their rhythms are in this and it's gonna work.

7:48 So really, Yeah, which Latin countries would you say your rhythms like are most assimilated to well. Martel Hugo, because you know, Andy wrote a bunch and then I you know some and you put some, so go ahead. Uh, basically, all the all the all the countries from the Caribbean will see some of their traditional rhythms in the songs. Uh. Still of course with all the Afro A influences that they have, they're gonna see some stuff over there. And you know for the male part, chileing Orina, they're gonna love it. So we we we have. Very big, big thing, nice people in South America with all the products.

8:34 And you know, it's it's it's inherent in the music. Is when I got it, when I received the first chunk, I absolutely heard distinct Brazilian rhythms in the guitar and bassed distinct Caribbean, distinct Afro Cuban because Afro Cuban is Klavi. It's just just like bop, Like every rock beat is kind of like that boom yeah, boom boom bah. I mean, so this is already part of it. But you know, we don't know that. We know, people didn't tell us that you're growing up listen to rock music. I know, no one ever pulled me aside and said, you realize what that actually is? So wow. So when I recognized it in the parts, especially like you know, rock beats and metal very heavy on what's called the down beats. So you have a big heavy beat, you know, a rock booge bats, boozoo bah, you got bonhom you got all the heavy stuff. But these guys, their instruments were not hitting one off, but they were off.

9:39 They were moved. And the thing is, if you play Latin music with the drums moved off of the main beat, it's hard to know where the beat is. So I have to engineer it to play rock metal but also hit what they were doing. And I was in absolute heaven. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was like, this is just exactly what I need to do. I love that because. Okay, so it's Friday. I live in South Florida and right up the road from me, there's this place, Avocado Cantina that they have a live Latin band every Friday night, and I go because they are bad ass, okay, and I do love like the different drum beats of Latin bands and.

10:22 Stuff like that. I have a trivia question for you, though, since we brought this up about drum beats, do you know what kind of drum beat Dave Grohl used in Nirvana? The name of it, the genre? To me, I don't know. Look at I could tell you who got the most rushing touchdowns in the NFL. I can tell you. But music, it just sounds like it's a it's like a black black kind of I don't know what you would call it, but like a punk, punk, poka kind of.

11:08 He used elements from disco for what I understand. He's got it. He's got it. Yeah, he admitted Dave grow and made himself. He stole it all from disco, which is so funny. That's a fun interview that I saw. But he's funny because one of the albums he was using this rhythm and he was super proud of the rhythm. And when he presented to to I think. The record label, the guy from the record level and was like, Yeah, that's reggaeton. What are you talking about? That's reggaeton. They put some some songs and. He was like, oh, come on, I love it. I didn't know that, but you know, he can get away with making a sound however the heck he wants.

11:48 It's just unbelievable, unbelievable. I would have never known that, and unless I saw him say it himself, because it just never even occurred to me. I might not have liked Nirvana if I knew that ahead of time. Time I think. Track is coming from from from a disco song. So let's tell the listeners a little bit about what you got going on, because you got new stuff going on right now. Let's talk about it. Mart. We describe you take the video things you just due did. This guy put the stuff together on paper like every second, like every minute of the day. As as soon as I landed, everything was accounted for. Every second of the video the concept. Go ahead, Mart, We'll give it to him.

12:35 So yeah. For for the new listeners, we have we have the band Monolith. We have two singles already out with the videos. Uh. The videos are gorgeous. Everything is connected. So the story is basically you're receiving a chapter by chapter of a story very soon. It's coming the third single, uh. And the first of all is it's about people in power and all this that they do. The second single is about one of our main characters, which is the mother of the star child, which is the main character of the whole story of the album. The sacrifices that you have to do to keep his song, you know going.

13:24 Uh. The third the third song that is coming out very soon. I don't want to get too much into but it's it's more about situationals, things that are happening, and little but little, we're gonna be released. More and more and more and more n time. We're collecting data about the whole situation and and trying to make sure that we do the right thing for the fan base that we are creating with all. This nice and there is a lot to talk about in songs nowadays. It's for sure, we trying. To We're trying to do the best we can and not leave holes open in any of the different aspects of the of the production of the song musically, lyrically, uh, video wise, uh, production wise everything you know, instrumentally everything.

14:20 So it's it takes it takes time. It's an effort, Thanks God. You know. The all the team is super professional, Like I mean, we have the best freaking drummer on the planet. The guitar player is a producer for years, like for libraries, So the guy knows to do every single rhythm that you can imagine, because the background of the guys is unbelievable. He had been working with a lot of people from from the Caribbean, like from Haiti, from Cuba, poor Ricos. So the guy is a library for real of rhythms. Uh. An amazing bassed player too and vocalist. So when you. Add all that with Mike and the production team that we have, the management team.

15:03 To the people is like the top notch that we can you can gain right now. I love it. That's great, you know, and you're right, it does take time, you know. I think that's one of the benefits that happened from covid from the Lockdown is that musicians finally, you know, remembered what it was like to actually create instead of being on a hamster wheel, you know, and just let's put this record out real quick and blah blah blah blah blah. And then you put it out as an artist and you're like, well, that's not really what I would want to finish product. But you know, and now I think artists have the ability to take that time and and realize that they need to take that time to create the best music.

15:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah, because because it is about that, and another aspect of the monolith music. Is we we we we really reevaluate it, uh and ensure that it's it's digestible and we have to go. Through some changes because so to write and write that, I learned the hard way, noting if I work with themducing my own music whole album. I realized it was a difference writing somebody singing it and not only someone singing it, but somebody actually listening to it. It's a whole different thing. And you gotta so we reevaluate. It's like, what is the name of this song? Do you hear? It? Is?

16:40 As people are people going to say this word? Are they going to sing this? You know, and you have to go and maybe tweak some things to make sure that the message just hits. What's the message? How about this? What? What? A song like do Do Do Do Do Do? Doesn't mean anything, right, but you sing it? You know? She loves me? Yeah? Yeah, yeah? You know the the Beatles. How about with the Beatles? How about Revolution number nine? Like I can't believe I used to listen to that over and over again, and that's all there's day, all day. That's true.

17:21 So it's as so so we have to balance it because we have to keep the integrity of of of of Monolith, which means the story, the sound, and the presentation these really really high end videos that that we've been giving to people. So I love it. It's the whole thing because to me, music is multiple things. It's not just the song. I think it's all of it, like you're talking about, it's the videos, it's the production, it's the live it's you know, it has to be something that hits all senses, is what I think.

18:05 It does. And it has to, but it has it has to be delivered that way though, you know, you can't if a musician just plays a part, that's not the same as if his soul isn't it none. What I what I found was very, very very interesting for me, is when I am in music with people, I'm inside of all of them. Like with the soul, I could really connect it to everybody. And when you've got a group of people that's like minded like that, the whole thing is just powerful. Yeah, one hundred percent. And you know, to your point before you know, you can tell if a band is going through emotions or if they really have their heart and soul in it. And I was talking about this in an interview yesterday, and there's one band that I actually love at all. It's I Go, and I do all these coverage at all these festivals, and it's the ongoing joke backstage between all the media people that this is like the most boring band live ever, and you know, because they just look like they're just up there like working, you know, and they're just they just play and who oh.

19:24 I won't do that. Oh. I didn't say who. Oh, I didn't say who. I just said, there's this one band I really love, but I. Won't say who. You know. But but I don't love them live. You know, it's like I'll just go listen in my car, and you know, it's an ongoing joke backstage because everybody loves the band, but it's like they have been voted like the worst band live ever. But then you take other bands that maybe aren't that talent talented musically, but if they do a great production and a great show and great videos, they people love them.

20:13 Yeah, everything is a balance. You gotta do well. You gotta try to give your best all the time, every time and every single last thing because in the end, people is paying, you know, and yeah, if you don't, if you don't give your yourself the you know, all all that you can, people people notice it. People feel the energy. People notice it. Oh yeah, they and they feed off of it. Like if you're somebody that's really into it, the the whole crowd is gonna go crazy and they see it. Mm hm. They may I add that sometimes I will tell you touring life is horrible. You're tired all the time, so it's you know, there might be a time where you were into it, but you're so yeah, you can't bring I mean, I've played so many shows in Japan after only arriving for one day to recover, which you do not recover thirty you just don't. So I have been on stage thinking that I was asleep and I don't know how my body. Ever, no matter what the band was in my whole life, and I've been there with all of them, I still to this moment, I have no idea how I did it. And you know, I know at that moment, I'm not going to seem like, you know, throwing the sticks up and I'm all energetic.

21:43 I'm probably gonna be like you, no like this. I love that it's in the OLIGARX video. That's my sister's move. Sister does that. That's so funny. Yeah, let's see. There it is. But but you know what I mean, sometimes you just can't you can't get but you know what, it's still something else that makes us, you know, almost we don't understand really what we are fully as a human person, and there is this other thing. This is this other part of us, and it's it's got to have meaning and their soul all that stuff. It does come out. But I'm just saying that sometimes it's just it's just brutal to even get to a stage and play.

22:42 I I you know, I'm glad you brought that pointing up, because I don't think people understand, you know, they don't understand how grueling it can be. Sometimes even me, Like I'm not a musician, but I go on tour and I do the all these radio all these festivals radio coverage, and like starting next week, okay, I'm at a festival every weekend till October okay. And and now post COVID, the festivals aren't two and three days. There are four days and then a pre party, so it's basically all week. And you know, it's like people co be. Oh, you're living the dream life, going all over the place, and part of that is true, but then they don't see the other part of it, where like I don't sleep for six months or whatever, you're sick or whatever, or the festival dust they like, man, I can't breathe most of the time because of the festival dust, and you lose your voice, and you know, like it's there's certain things about it that are great, and there are others are just grueling. And then you guys as musicians, man, it's even worse. Like I don't even wonder I even wonder how sometimes singers sing at a festival with that festival dust, or like I see some you know, some bands where like they have the costumes on or they have big leather jackets on and it's in Florida and it's eighty million degrees and one hundred percent humidity, and

24:13 that's like torture. I was at Hellfest and it was one hundred and four degrees and I'm like, how do bands even perform in that? I'm pretty sure you. What was that? I'm pretty sure they pass out after the show. There are some and there have been You've seen that, you know, and I'm sure you've seen it firsthand. People like a heat stroke and during the middle of the set and get carded off, you know. So that's the part people don't see like it is. It's a grind, you know, and you really have to love it too. Like my daughter sometimes, my youngest shoulds sometimes come to a festival with me and I have a.

25:00 Day through the first day, She's like, Dad, I don't know how you do this. Every weekend, I'm already. Done talking about show guys. I gotta go my time a mike, I leave you here. Sorry, you rock it's okay, thanks, we love you. You rock all right. You know what's what's what's interesting is I have played it just within the last several years, three shows with food poisoning and two with double double walking pneumonia. I played three with double wow, and I've got to tell you that, I mean, it's impossible to even crawl to the drums, especially if it's a two or three hour show and it's just you just want it to stop.

25:52 But you know, the funny thing is when you get to the point that that I got to this some thing that takes over, and it's just amazing how how the human body can survive this. I mean, I think it's the most unhealthy, god awful thing ever, but you're up there doing it. And the worst is just the fear, especially with food poisoning, is when can I run off the stage and find, you know, a toilet. It's like, I don't even care if that's gross to talk about. It is real. And if you're you know, if you're out there thinking I'm gonna I want to be in a band and go off, but you're really, really well, you try to try to do this because you look at like, okay, fifty seven minutes from now, there's a little keyboard piece, and I am I've got literally a minute and four seconds to get off the stage, do whatever I have to do and make it back. And once uh and it was a show and poll and I did not make it back. You know, I I you could see me jumping on the drums and then I just started playing as if nothing was wrong, because you know, you want to be professional. But what's interesting is that lo and behold this gets pointed out to me by whoever else. It's like, oh, somebody made a YouTube video saying how bad a drummer you are that you forgot where you were. I'm just like, leave me alone.

27:25 I know, people just say shit man, Like it just blows my mind that people just say how much hate people put out there? Like I remember what was it? Last year? Corey Taylor came out on Instagram and all socials and said he needed to cancel some of his shows that slipknot shows his shows in North America for his physical health and mental health. And the hate he got for that crap blew my mind because it's like, come on, he was honest with you and he's telling you like this is not good for his health. It's just a show. Okay, there'll be another one. Why do you want these people to risk their health like that?

28:08 And that's why you have situations like a Chester or Chris Cornell because they never have a chance to get you know, right. It is. It is an interesting existence to to be. I guess people want a piece of you and they feel very very connected and everything. But it's very odd because when it's you, when it's you, that's that's the person, and you really perceive this and the way people feel around you or the things that they say about you and all of that stuff. It there is no way to conclude that this is okay, this is I get it.

28:59 It's not okay. You know. It's like you shouldn't be hating on anybody and saying these things. It's like say it. It's like it's like someone won't say something to your face, you know they they won't say it to your face. But yeah, I hate that you got. I want to do it. But you know, this is a this is a part of human nature. Blah blah blah. But like I said, this, this is nothing I've been able to conclude that says if that's okay. I mean I I accept all of it, and I mean I have to and I have to have a sense of humor on top of it, which thankfully I have a drummers sense of humor. We're all a little bit where we have a couple of screws around up here. I think, I don't know, I mean, we're you've got to have a sense of humor, but I can't imagine. I mean, I know how he felt with with with with with with what was said. It must have just made him want to just say, you know what by you know.

29:56 Yeah, funk off, Like come on, man, here's a human being. And it holds true for live artists, you know, and stuff like that, what they go through. That's why I'm pointing it out, because like the audience is sometimes relentless, like they expect you to be superhuman and you know, you're you are just a human being, you know, yep. Yeah, And you know, anybody, anybody that's in that position. It could be an athlete or any kind of athlete, a musician or whatever it is. You have to have a you have to like almost like it's almost like you either have to been raised by really really really strong parents that have just taught you right and wrong like that, don't don't engage, don't do any of this, or you probably have to have been raised by a jackal and you're just going to attack people that you just go right out of them. Because there are people that there are musicians and athletes that will go after.

30:57 They will go right after all these people. You know. For for me, it's just I got a sense of humor whatever. But I'm you gotta the situation like that, with. What people put Corey through. It's hard, but yeah, but you just look at it and go, well, I'm just simply gonna do what I'm gonna do over here, and you go to the next thing. And that's all you can do, no doubt. So tell everybody how they can reach out to you guys on the web, on socials, get get your music, buy your merge, check out tour date, it's all that good stuff. The thing to do is, uh, we are a real Monolith band, because there are other bands that that that that have that name, but uh, it's ours. Surprisingly it was available, so but it's month. So we have we have Instagram of course and Facebook, and you just look up real Monolith band on Instagram or Facebook, and we have a tea and people to look at was stop.

32:03 They just go there and just behind the scenes, you've got you know, we have so much content. We were very very very very cognizant of this before we even got together to film. You know, there's chunk of chunk of videos with this amazing video team, a group of people. So we have like cell phone footage of of let's say, what the camera was seeing, or of us looking at the screen that the camera was projecting too, like you know, it's all oh, you know, it's like, oh, I always wanted to know what that looked like or something, so, you know, and I had a couple of cameras on my drums and I turned over that footage so that it's like, oh, you've got that camera the whole time, and you actually hear the real drums that were being played during the video, which it's not any production or anything.

32:58 It just sounds like drums in a hall way whatever. But just stuff like that. It's real. It's real. That's what I was gonna say. It's real. I'd rather have that than you know, just it's sounding perfectly. And I think that's the thing nowadays too. People don't want perfection and polish, they want real. Yeah, and there's a there's obvious there's a balance. For example, what I learned writing music did two things for me. One thing that it did is that it allowed me to get a feeling for what it was like to actually work with me as a drummer, because when I wrote, when I write music, it's not about the drums, It's about the song. And so when I go to play the drums for a lot of my songs, if you listen to my entire solo album, I'm not under Mike Manginie, It's under Manginie and you can find it. I'm for free if you want, and Spotify whatever your service is.

33:57 But what happens is that the songs that of the most singable and powerful have the drums that are the most simple, which at first, when I released it, it aggravated a particular you know, audience that was looking for fireworks and stuff, and I was like, yeah, but I'm gonna ruin the song if I put too much. And so that's one thing, so I got a feeling for what it was like. The other thing is that is that the the actual words and the melodies and the way that things sound hits the brain first, you don't you don't pros like do do? Do you know whatever?

34:40 Or or there's so many songs that the artists will tell you they're just blabbing stuff. You know. It's like it's just it's the sound. You learn that. So with Monoliths, we really cognizant of of these things. So we're just That's all I gotta tell you is everyone's very aware, and we put it out there, we talk about it, we make room for each other. But here's the bottom line that's very important is that if you see a digital file, especially with the string instruments, guitar number one and a piano is still strings, you know, yes, even though it's synthesized now. But if you look at the wave files, they are walls. It's just a wall. If you look at the drums, the drums are very spiky, and so just think, if you think about this for a minute, how is it possible that a spiky thing like drums that are hit not like a drum machine doing it, but a human being doing it, And you're not going to get every hit to go exactly the same how are you supposed to hear that behind the wall of sounds. So what you have to do is find a balance with production so that it's real. You can actually if if anybody had heard my isolated drums, I can hear my pedal actually moving, so nobody can.

36:13 No one's gonna say, oh, that's a fake this and fake drums? Well, what did I make a fake pedal? I know? Right? You can actually hear it going zook, which you can't really do with all the music, But you have to engineer it so that it cuts through that wall. Especially with rock on metal, the guitar is just an absolute wall period, you know, most of the time. So that's a good way of putting it, for sure, because most people they kind of don't understand that concept and the way you put it, like that spot on right there, you know, and it is kind of hard to match them together. It's like matching a square with a with a circle.

37:00 Yeah, it's it's it's it's interesting stuff. And for anybody listening that knows the difference when they hear certain kinds of music that like the bass drum, cannot possibly be real. Fully, it just can't be because every hit is exactly the same, and it is not sound enhanced. It's often just sound replaced, you know. And there are certain kinds of music like that just trigger, like the speed metal stuff. But let me give you an example with Monoliths where a moment where I used my feet a certain way came up and I kind of was taken back because I thought, am I missing a note that I you know, But but the thing is we didn't sound replace the bass drum, and it's dynamics. So some of the moves like this foot hit a little lighter than this the notes there, you know, and there are you know, there are manipulations you could do to just get it so that it's heard, but you know, one has to be very careful with things.

38:04 So the point is that it's it's it's real. You will hear these dynamics. But there's enough production post because I know, because I engineered the drums and submitted the tracks, it was like here they are, and then our other guy Gabo got them and did his little tweaking, and then our mix engineer Dan got it and did what he did with you know, like he made the lasagna. So he made the lasagna so very very well then that's gotta be tough too of a mixed engineer that people are submitting they're not giving you the raw tracks, which you would prefer, because then you can then you can really manipulate the sculpt it. How how how you you hear it? But uh, in our case, it's stems that are given, and it's a little bit more. It's a little bit more difficult, I think, and if I was a mixed engineer, But the bottom line is that it's real that you hear and feel the dynamics, and that with production and a wall of sound. Uh, with monolith andy a guitaris has dynamics, so it's not always it's not always like out there.

39:13 Yeah yeah, And what you said about the pedals makes so much sense because I'm thinking about it. Okay, you're playing double If you play double bass, one foot and one leg is stronger than the other, that's your more dominant So it's kind of hard to have them both do it exactly the same because nothing you do in life is like that, you know, because you have your stronger side. Always and I I you know, I made a career out of flipping the drum kit around and learning to play very strongly with quote my week side. But what I found interesting for six to six years that I learned how to play the opposite way is that as my week side go stronger and stronger and stronger and was able to match the velocity, my strong side got even stronger because my brain was sending a signal to this these limbs that were like I don't know what to do, you know, So my brain's like bang bang bang bang bang. So now this brain gets turned over to the to the strong side that with my right foot in my right hand, except the signal from the brain much more quickly, and like my speed went through the roof from the right side, and I'm like, no matter what, my right's gonna beat up the left is how it's.

40:31 Gonna be, just how it is, you know. Like I also, I surf, I skateboard, and if I try to do the opposite like I'm goofy, you know. And if I try to do normal or regular, I don't even know what I'm doing. My brain can't handle it. It's it's interesting that there's a there's a science to training yourself to be as symmetrical as possible. If you go after the interview and you you take a good look at some of the kits, drum kits that I've used, or you even go to my YouTube channel whatever, and you see not my drum kit from Monolith or from my last dream theater too. But if you go prior to that, you'll see an absolutely symmetrical setup. And I have to be quote even on both sides. But as you're saying, at the end of the day, you know you still have your dominant side.

41:27 Anyway, no doubt. So is there anything else you want to tell the listeners about what's going on with Monolith or anything that we have not covered already. No, we've covered it well except one thing that as far as our plans and things like that, we are adjusting to this new environment that's out there. In other words, well, we're not the first band. It's like, well, you know what, we're not putting out. We're not going to put out some album. It's going to be released in a month and you know, we'll do a little teaser and then bang the album comes up. You will know, wait a minute, we're gonna just collect the data, we're putting songs out, videos, We're just gonna keep doing it and we're gonna go with the flow for this new world that we live in, because it's not what it used to be.

42:18 No, it's not, for sure, and so you're doing the smart thing because he kind of blows my mind. They've even changed how you should write songs nowadays, you know, and because you're. Appealing to this. Low attention span goldfish attention span society we live in. So it's like, some of my favorite metal songs ever have the coolest intros that you would never get through nowadays. Like you take a song like I was playing for my grandson the other day, battery, Okay, most people listen. I had to actually tell him just hold on, wait, you know, wait till you hear it, you know. And it's like, cause, are like, okay, that that doesn't sound good.

43:02 Next, Yeah, I've had to do it too. It's like, well, just just give it a minute. They're like, the song will be in in about a minute, right, the song, it's like, and the music already started. You hit synthesizer, you hear colors, you hear things going on. And in fact, I did it in the class two days ago where I had played the beginning of a particular song and it sounds like a helicopter at the beginning, and I told everyone in the class, said that that's my feet. My feet are on these electronic high pedals, and but it was put through an effect. It's like, which sounds like a helicopter, right, that's cool, and it's like we but I'm like, whoa wait a minute, like I have to make an excuse, going wait till wait till the thing comes in.

43:48 And it gets exciting, right exactly whereas we knew it was gonna get to there, and we love the surprise of it. Like I remember the first time Let's saying fast as a Shark, and it was like I would never nowadays, if I was young nowadays listen to that song, I. Would be like, what the frick is this? And then but then it was like when it happened, it's like, oh my god, that was the best thing ever, you know, and it's stuff like that, you know, that is even the fact of you know, I was talking to somebody about this, Like in songwriting, they're teaching people, now, get rid of the intro, get rid of the solo, get rid of the bridge, don't do three verses or more.

44:36 It's only two verses. And I'm thinking, wow, like you can't even sit through a song. Right, I know you gotta have it in a way. It's as you know, it's all about the song itself and the music and everything behind it. Because two days ago, I just I listened to a bunch of Toto tracks and it's like from the second, from the very second one of those songs starts, it pulls you and the groove. It's just like it's in. There's time that the song does come of it. It's it's usually pretty quick and they get you right there, but it's well done. It's like, you know, as soon as you hear right, as soon as you hear beat It by Michael Jackson, I know that I can't wait for Eddie van Halen's guitar solo.

45:30 And it's like I will wait, I will wait till. I hear that, you know, but you know it was great. You guys are badass, and I thank you for making such great music for us. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. You are welcome and was an adventure. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio