PipemanRadio Interviews Mike's Dead at Welcome to Rockville 2024

0:04 Hey, you have unto Yes, that's true. I'm tumble for see wow for you young ro Why Up America, It's time for the Adventures of White Man on W four C why dot com West Pompis is number one internet radio station. Here's your host of the White Man. I've been feeling in pain and same with self destruction. I've been feeding for sas see why to function?

0:55 Baby, you don't want to bring me down to my knees. Maybe you can. I can set that something is different. Now something's shanged. Here. It is Pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here with mister Mike's dead. How's it going? Oh, it's going great because you just performed here. Welcome to Rockville. Like it. I can go home now. Yeah, it's all you needed to see. Yeah, I don't need to see anybody else. How is it out there? Man? It was good. We were just talking about this. But you know, it's it's hot, it's humid, it's Florida. Yeah, it's great, though it's it's a little bit tough, I think, to perform under those conditions we're so used to being. Like right now, we're on tour in this moment, we're doing like you know, theaters and stuff like that. You get used to playing inside and all of a sudden, they're like, oh shit, okay, it's hot, it's humid' I might pass out. See. I never thought of that perspective.

1:47 I think of the festivals and I always think, like we were talking before, how hard it is on artists to play in this weather. But then I didn't think about what you just said. And that makes a lot of sense. If you're on tour doing like clubs and inside venue and then you come to this, yeah, you're not it's an ultra shock. You're not prepped for it. I mean, we just did a couple we did three outside shows in Texas last week. It was with Motionless, and in this moment, like all like big amphitheaters and we all did. There's three days back to back to back, all outside, and I was like, dude, one of these days I'm gonna die right in these days, I'm gonna pass out exactly, And like it's I think people don't realize you put it all out on stage and people don't notice because you don't let them because you're out there entertained. And then you get off stage and you give yourself permission to die. Yeah, immediately, immediately. My guitarist is the same way.

2:38 He's like, if I don't feel like I'm gonna pass out at least three times in the set, I'm not going hard enough. Right. Yeah, I love that. That's a true artist, right, You have to you have to go hard. If not, the set's really boring. Yeah. So were you amazed? I mean you've done other Damni Wimmer festivals, so maybe not. But were you amazed at how many people were out there as early as this? And yeah, people are outside. I mean granted today, what's today Friday? Yeah, I think I see you see a little bit more of that early crowd on Saturday Sunday, just because it's the weekend, right, there's a fair amount of people here, right, and it'll keep just filling up all day. I'm gonna tell you right now, from what I saw yesterday, it's gonna be the highest attended Danny Wimmer festival ever. Really. Yeah, it was. It was insane yesterday, jeez.

3:23 And that was the Thursday. Yeah, it was just I couldn't believe it. I went to ICP on the garage stage, so that stage is on the other side. It was the smallest stage. Yeah, and I had to get to the stage, you know for doing coverage and stuff. I had the hardest freaking time getting to the stage. And I never have a hard time, like I'm an old school thrasher, like I can get through the crowd. Yeah, it was tough. There was wall to wall people. You thought it was the main stage. It was so deep. I mean ICP does also have like a cult fan base. Yeah. I don't even know why they were on that stage. That is kind of weird. I mean they do have like, for example, like Slaughter to Prevail.

4:04 Today they're on the fourth stage right, and I'm like, they could easily be a main stage band exactly. Seeing like where people land is very interesting to me, Like how do I don't know how they make those decisions? Right? And then yesterday what I found when there were bands this usually doesn't happen that I wanted to see two or three bands that were playing at the same time. Yeah, I mean, I will say with them expanding the lineup, because if you look at we've played two years ago, we've played last year, we've played you know, a couple of we played basically all of them. Now, the lineup was usually four stages and it was a little bit less heavy. Now it's like stacked to the brim and a fifth stage. So you have all these new bands, like you're we're getting to the point where you're gonna have to overlap. Yeah, well that's the point. I know. Like during our set, like Powerman five thousand was playing and then right when they were done, Sleep Theory was playing, and those are homies, and so it's like everyone's kind of three way crossing over a little bit again. You know what happened to me because of it?

5:06 Yesterday I told this story another interview. So after ICP, Carrie King was going on this is this was his first show at his solo project, and I'm a huge Slayer fan and I know Carrie from way back from the very beginning. I'm like, I have to be at that set. And so I don't know what I wasn't paying attention or whatever. We left ICP, we went to the next stage. I went through the crowd to get to where the Pitt's gonna be right front and center, and when I'm going through, I'm like, this crowd seems too nice to be a Slayer type crowd. Okay, like people were moving out of my way, like this sandwich crowd is moving out my way as I'm breaking through them, you know, and it's like usually it's like you've got assholes that won't let you through or people complaining and you know. And so we finally get there and then they start to show and it's like this red and white lights and stuff, and it could easily been carry King because that's his colors too. And then David Draymond walked out, Oh no way. I'm like, fuck, I'm at the wrong stage. That's funny. Oh and then so then again to the point of how busy Rockville is this year, I was I had to fly to get to the other stage, and still carry King wasn't going on for another ten minutes. So I was like, okay, I can get there.

6:36 Yeah, I was going through the crowd and I turned to the other media person I was with and I'm like, this crowd doesn't end. Like we were literally walking from like near the rail to get out of the crowd for ten minutes and still I couldn't see light. At the end of this was this was disturbed stage. Well that makes sense. They're they're a huge band, but it just blew my mind, like I've never seen a crowd that deep, Like it was deep, you know, and I thought I like waiting a circle or something. Yeah, and then I finally did get to Kerry King, but oh my god, I can't believe I was at the wrong fucking stage. I've never done that ever in my life. But Carry King killed it. It. Oh yeah, it was badass, you know. Yeah, we play we play Slayer Day at Louder than Life this year. Wow, it'll be interesting. But like see, because I mean, you always obviously have time at the end of the day, like I'm most of the rest of my day, I'm gonna watch other bands. It'll be cool to see Slayer Slairry Union. I don't know how long it's been.

7:45 It's been five years. Five years, and last night was the first time Carrie played live at all in five years. Cool. Could you imagine you're an artist you didn't play in five years and you're doing your first gig. It's almost like you get nervous, like the first gig you ever did. Imagine you like completely out of it, being like all right, cool shit, I gotta remember how to do that and how to do this right? Yeah, I kind of like consistency, like with playing at least we're on tour all of March. We've been on tour, We're gonna be on tour all of May, and then we're on tour all of like June to July. Nice and so as tiring and fucking exhausting as it is, it's cool because it's like you don't get worn out right, Like mentally it's a little taxing, but like physically, like my voice, my voice holds up fine. That's played full four or five six shows in a row and be like, oh, I'm cool. But if say we hadn't been touring for months and then we're like all right, cool, we're gonna do this super heavy tour and blah blah blah, and it's like, ah, I do I'm fucked unless I'm hearing that's a killer secret there, because you know, like I sang threshmall w as a teenager, and now once in a while on my show, I'll sing like one song and halfway through the song, my throat's done because I don't fucking do it properly, you know, And I'm like, how do people do that for two hours every single night, Like I don't that. I don't understand. Luckily we're still playing like thirty forty five minute sets two hours. Fuck that. Yeah, especially when you're like, yeah, like there's there, there's something I'm doing wrong, because how I don't know how anybody holds that up. Yeah. I can't imagine

9:16 like Knock Loose playing for an hour and a half, right, Brian's voice just getting absolutely warn the fuck out every night. It's gotta yeah, I mean I would not have a voice for the next night, for sure. I thought it was smart. I saw Motionless, not not the shows that we just did with them, but last year when they were when they had Knock Looses direct, it was really smart. Chris. I think the Motionless set was like an hour and thirty or hour forty, like a long set, right, And he would like systematically bring out the frontmen from the other bands. So he'd bring out like Brian from Knocked Loose, he brought out the frontmen from Alfa Wolf, the guy from After the Burial to do a lot of like the heavy screaming parts. Wow that long, So it's like all right, that way, it can kind of prolong my vocals a little bit instead of me having to do everything. Yeah, and every you know, the crowd gets excited. It's like, oh cool, I just brought this guy on stage, and it's a way to keep the crowd happy, but also like rest your voice a little bit. Yeah. Actually, I think that's a great idea and nobody would ever know. No, no, I just I noticed it immediately because I was like, oh, that's kind of smart, right, Like, if I didn't to be screaming, is not that taxing. It's just when you overpush it, when you start like going from a scream to more of a yell, then it's like oh shit, Yeah, well that's the thing. That's why I said, because I don't know what I'm doing, because you know, I'm using my throat way more than I should be, and that's why it's taxing. Yeah, you know, and if you're trained properly, you wouldn't do that. Yeah, it's all in your like palette, like soft pallett up at the top of your mouth. Yeah I don't. I've made that mistake plenty of times for

10:50 sure. Right. Yeah. So, speaking of which, when when is that first moment in your life that he thought man, I want to get up there and do this shit. It when I was a kid, for sure, But I never really had a a set standard or a set goal with like what I wanted to do because I got into music when I was really young, but then I grew up in like a very standard conservative family type of situation, where I want to be a musician was highly frowned upon them. Yeah, not supported whatsoever. So I don't know. I mean, I started when I was like twenty. I used to DJ clubs. I DJed for a couple of years. Maybe my drummer, actually, my current drummer used to DJ for a couple of years and we were playing like two thousand cap clubs in DC. Wow. We were playing like four or five shows a week when I was going to college in Maryland. And so I've always had that standard of being like, I want to do this, but I don't know in what facet right, And over time it changed.

11:45 There was a period of my life where I was just simply producing for people for like two three years, removing myself from that, you know that light, and I think that gives me a lot more tools now because it's like I still write and produce everything myself for the project for Mistaid. So it's like, all right, cool, now I have the capability and to really do exactly what I want. And if you need to bring in another producer who has a different toolkit, let's do it and then me and him can work on some cool shit. We've done that, you know, time and time again now. But I don't know, I've always had this like I want to do something with it. I'm not a very like, look at me type of person, so it's never it's not it's never been like, oh my god, I need all the fame and I need all the people.

12:26 Those real musicians aren't the ones that don't last, that are that do it for the fame and the money, and they're idiots because if you're doing for the money in twenty twenty, you're not gonna make shit. And I've been learning that like more and more, and it's very disheartening for sure, because it's like you start to see like everybody wants a piece of everything. Your business slowly starts to dwindle because you're paying so many people out, especially with touring. Like touring it's so funny, Oh, people don't realize how expensive it's ridiculous, like we still were still in a van and it call me like twenty five to thirty grand per tour and that's before we make any money. Yeah, so you have to make thirty K to even remotely break even. If not, I'm taking a loss, right, and you gotta eat. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Well, I factor that into that thirty but like we we don't eat. Great, we're eating at Cracker Barrel every day and shit, right, you know what I mean. We're not We're not hey, wait, let's just say third this warning listening.

13:20 Cracker Barrel is like my favorite place. Oh it is such a cool fucking place. And every time I have to shop the store, oh, every time I ever do it, I like, not necessarily they will buy anything, but I like saying the old school candy dude, They've got everything there, like they got ship you can't get anywhere. I really want to reach out to them and see if we can get like a prepaid Cracker Barrel card. Well you know what, you can still shout outs whenever I whenever I can, because I finally love that set up a Cracker Barrel tour, Like, has anybody ever done that? No? Because with my type of music, they'd be like, get the fuck out of here. Yeah, that's the problem, is like, especially with brands in twenty twenty four. Yeah, I guess it really like bluegrass and rocking chairs, playing the Cracker borrow to everybody wants PG nowadays, which sucks making heavy, in your face aggressive music. It's you know, well, you know it's funny too that you mentioned that, because I've even changed my radio show from years ago because there's stuff that, like I was said years ago that yeah, I can't really say. It's just part of how things are going right now, and I think that it has a purpose. But at the same time, it's gotten way too much. People can't really express any opinion anymore without people feeling the need to say that, oh that's wrong. It's like, I dude, it's part of everyone has. Everyone is entitled to opinions, like I don't care. Yeah, I have friends that I'm like, dude, I can't agree with you on that, but it's your opinion. I'm not going to try to. Yeah, I think everybody has to right as long as they're

14:52 not hurting anybody purposely to have their own opinion their thoughts, even if they're stupid thought processes. I even feel like, like I'm a Jew, I feel like somebody that doesn't like Jews has the right to not like Jews. I may not like that they don't, but I'd rather talk to them and find out why they feel that way, because usually it's because they have some something that happened, or some somebody that puts shit in their head or whatever. I remember once I was sitting down literally with neo Nazi and I'm asking them, I'm like, why do you feel the way you do against Jews? What do you And he started saying certain things. I'm like, you know that's not true, right, Like we mean like no, we don't have horns in our head because like it's like sometimes they're taught shit like that, like we have these horns built into our I feel like a lot of that comes from like a systematic like family tree almost like not not you know what I mean, Like it's all it's like nature versus nurture argument, Like a lot of it is how you're raised and who you're and that I'm not just for those like extremist type of views, but like all types of views and how people like go about their lives. They learn a lot of their shit from their parents, who might not be the healthiest of people, and then especially different generations, like I think about it, Like my dad comes from the time of like Archie Bunker, So that's what is normal. And what I mean by that is like the racist comments that weren't meant to be racist, but they were racist type of things. And like, I think

16:26 you also have to look at all the variable somebody has in their life, Like I have a family member that if you don't agree or you have a different opinion, you're uneducated and uninformed. And my answer always is no, maybe they just have a different education, and maybe they grew up in different household with different family members, with different friend influences, geographic locations. I mean that the list is endless of what forms your opinions. Yeah, I mean, and that's the problem I think right now is you have especially with like cancel culture and like the woke shit. I mean, like part of that I think is correct, part of it, a very small fragment of it, Like it's I think it started with the right intentions, right, it's like extreme, Yeah, you're outing people that are fucking terrible, people like I remember like Bill Cosby was one of the first people that fucking makes sense. Dudes, it's dude's not I don't know if I'm allowed to cuss, but you can say whatever you want, dude. Dude's not a great guy. But then it started spurring into being like, oh, I can just say whatever I want and cancel anyone do this, that, and the third because they don't agree with me. And you see that time and time again. Now I think I think the rhetoric is changing. In the last year during COVID, it was really bad. Yeah, everybody was bored at home and angry and online and just out their ass, to be honest, and now it's like people are fragmented and people are realizing it's gotten out, like it's gotten out of hand. A lot of people are just not getting involved or leaving as social media stuff alone, because you get people that will just sit there for hours and argue in comments and I don't I can't even

17:59 handle it, get it. Sometimes I'll comment on something somebody will just keep going like shut up, dude. People are bored and lonely. I think it's what it comes down to and angry. Yeah, and like I always say, social media is the most unsocial thing there is, like it is it is. We have more ways to communicate than ever before, and our communication is the absolute worst. Yeah, I mean I remember seeing a study that like loneliness is at like an all time high right now, even though social media is like one of the most active, downloaded used things possible, because there's nothing social about it, it's very like I feel like it pushes people away in the in the realm of like you're just sitting there watching someone live their life and you're not involved in it, and nobody leaves the house.

18:41 They just go on there. They get addicted to that and they think it's real life and people are not who they really are on there, but you think they are, or you ride on something or it's like it's just ridiculous. When we add zero internet, zero cell phones, and zero social media, I think people communicated way better and were a lot less angry. I think people treated people better a little bit, like as far as like in person, because you don't need to know everything about somebody either, you know, like people weren't so vocal about their bullshit to other people. Yeah, you know, it's like you keep it to yourself. What did I grow up on? Don't talk religion politics. Yeah, it's a pretty good rule exactly because it, I mean, that's a super sensitive topic and you're not going to convert somebody by no yelling at them and be like, if you want somebody to change them, listen to them too. You want people to change any type of view, you gotta sit down, take a bunch of mushrooms, and there you have a pow wow for a little bit.

19:45 And I love it. Softly explain your point of view and then they might understand it. I love I love that. I remember like when it was like I hate politics. I fucking hate politics. I'm an anarchist too, And thick stream being said when Trump and Biden were first running that first presidential race with them, and that's when politics were just fucking insane. Everybody was choosing sides and it was very strong. It was hard to have conversations with people if you're like, yeah, like, hey, that's cool, I just I see what you mean. I just don't agree, and I that's fine because a lot of people wouldn't be like they wouldn't just let you disagree and then walk away. It was like, no, I'm right and I have to explain why I'm right I thought, and I'm like, dude, I don't care. I just like I'm not involved. I'll tell you a perfect example of that. Okay. I've been in Costa Rica for three months.

20:33 Oh wait, wait, wait, hold on. I love Costa Rica. I was all over because I love Costa Rica. I was in Tamarindo in Nosara most of the time. I loved Nosara, and that's my favorite place, Nosaura, no Sara. Okay, I was actually I'm planning on going there in a few weeks again, right in this moment tour. Last time, I went to Marbella. Okay, yeah, I was. That's close to Tamarindo. That's what I thought, because I'm pretty sure I drove through Tamarindo to get there. Yeah. Yeah, dude, Costa Rica's like a hidden gem of traveling. It's fucking fucking love not anymore, you're gonna be oh my god. I've been looking at fights and ship the last week. That is, wait till you get there, though. I bought a bag of grapes for twenty bucks. Huh, like everything, like I go every year, All the food at the restaurants from last year, is double.

21:19 Oh wow, why because we have all the shit we do and then we and they have to import. Yeah, so yeah, it's yeah. When we I went maybe a year and a half, two years ago, we stayed at Marbella, and it's just it's fucking beautiful. Like I have videos on my phone that's like unedited, no filters, and it's like, huh, this is real, this's happened exactly. You guys explore all over the country because there's like all these different vibes. But here's the one common thing that I love about Costa Rica. Yeah, here's what's supposedly a third world country. It is, but you know, calling that and people poor as shit poor. They're poor. Our poor is rich compared to their poor, you know, and they have nothing, and they're the most gracious, happy, awesome, friendly, nicest people. That's what we need to learn.

22:12 Like what and you know what you're saying about with Biden and Trump and politics, Listen, as far as I'm concerned, they're all on the same team. And it ain't mine. All the politicians, Like it's the biggest bullshit, like divide and conquers the oldest thing in the book. So yeah, I mean yeah, when we have you Have you been down to Marbella, Have you like driven through it. It's like a hundred person town, right, It's very fucking small. There's like two restaurants, one grocery store, like two bars. There's not a lot of options. But I remember we were going into the town to get groceries on like a Thursday night or something, and the whole town was like bustling with people. Like everyone was talking and like having fun, and kids were out and people were playing soccer and shit, and I'm like, yeah, I feel I remember this when I was a kid. Right, That's what America used to kind of look like, where it's like everyone went outside, like you knew all your neighbors, you hung out with each other. You kind of Now it's like if someone rings my doorbell, I'm like, who the fuck is that? Right?

23:11 Why are you at my house? Like the fear that's been instilled in our and everybody else have a ring, Yeah, everyone has a ring. Camera. You don't know exactly who's walking up to your so paranoid about everything, and I'm like, I fucking hate this. And then you fall, you fall victim to it because everyone else does it. Exactly how I do. I'm like, who the fuck just ring the doorbell? Yeah right, versus like back in the day it happened this morning at the hotel room and somebody's knocking at the hotel room door to mate or whatever. We're like, what the fuck's knocking on our door? That's so funny, Like dude, who Yeah, if you don't know who it is, it always freaks you the fuck out, no doubt. So tell me about your latest song, because that's pretty badass. Latest song is called Bistrophemis. It's German for punish Me. My engineer, Jonathan was learning German for a bit he went over for he went to Germany, I think for like a month, and so he was learning German just to kind of freshen up on it. And I was like, dude, German's a sick language, obviously with like Ramstein and that's everything like that. And I came up with the concept for like a song title being like punished Me while I was driving and I was like, dude, what if I like this could be a cool German name, Like what is this? What does this translate to? So in this song I actually purposely mispronounce it like I say it. The correct terminology is Bestrafemich, and I say it Bestrafemische because it rhymes with punish me that, right.

24:33 So I kind of purposely botched it, but it works and people like it. We just played it, you know, a few hours ago. Nice. I like the what separates that one is like, obviously you have all the heavy elements, but you also have like the fucking big eto eights on the verses, and then the pre chorus is like a techno pre chorus. Just cool because I come from like an electronic background, and so working that into my songs is really unique because it separates us from a lot of the other current modern groups. Right. So the song has been great. The music videos fucked, music videos insane. I don't know if you've seen it. I didn't see the video just to song. Now I have to check it out. It's like one of those where you're like, oh, this is undeniably good and everybody else needs to see it. Yeah, And I'll tell you, man, I was listening to it and I'm like, is definitely some of your heavier shit, and it's I dig it, thank you.

25:25 I dig the heavy component of it. And it's just like such a well produced song. Yeah, it like flows, even with the arrangement being very like unique, it still moves from one section to another very seamlessly. Yeah, especially with the writing too. And it's just I don't know, it's it's my favorite song that I've got out. I think it's easy to show someone to that and be like, oh, cool, this is this is what this is you. This is authentic in you nice versus like, oh, it's like that's not formulaic at all. And I feel like, especially with Radio and Octane and all the other ship that's just you hear these time and time again. It's the same formulaic bullshit and I'm I hate that ship. That ship Oh I talk about that comes on and I'm like, yep, turn it off. Yeah, I talk about it all the time.

26:06 It's like when did met Like it happens a lot in metal, when did metal become a formula? I know, like, and everybody sounds the same. I remember being young and all the people that hate metal, so also it's the same. I'm like, no, it doesn't blah blah. I show them how it didn't. Now if they say to me, I'm like, yeah, you're right, dude. Yeah, it's a pain. And that's the thing is I was. I will always try my best to be as unique as I can and stay away from that type of shit. Sorry, uh uh where the tornadoes coming in? It's coming in. Yeah, see lost pair of batteries. But I think that's why you have to kind of just do your own thing right now. Yeah, you got a lot of people like uh, like we're on tour with like Kim Dracula's direct support for in this moment right now, and like Kim's music is so fucking unique. It's so like ADHD neurotic, fucking post jazz, hard hardcore, angry. I don't know how to do. I love it, but it's very unique in what he does, you know, And so I think you have to respect that and build out your own little wave right now. And I think that's what we're kind of paving in the industrial side, but still keeping it unique and keeping it our own. There you go. I love it, and tell everybody how they can reach out to you again. On socials everywhere, get merch a it's Mike's dead on everything pretty much. Merch is Mike's dead. Dot com you can see all of our upcoming tour dates, some music videos, shit like that. But we're at wherever you listen to music, it's just search up Mike's dead. Put on the first song you hear and crank it as loud as you can. There it is.

27:37 I love it. Anything else you want to share with the listeners, we haven't covered yet. I don't have any secrets or anything. We just announced a new tour with Upon a Burning Body in June nice, so we just got some fresh dates up and then you know, we're still on the road within this moment for another two weeks. I love it. I love that you're here to Welcome to Rockville, and thanks for being on the Adventures pipe Man, thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Patement on w for c u I Radio.