PipemanRadio Interviews Point North at Welcome To Rockville 2023

0:04 Hey, you love them too? Sure? From Woe Why you Wake Up of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four cy dot com West Pompass number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. I know you'll think sure, but it's not. It's not good to talk about. You got me thinking hard. I've been getting right in the same right man here on the Adventures pipe Man w pour c Y Radio, and I'm here with plan do you and John from Point Nor?

1:02 I like how you do that? That's great? Can you do it again? Love it? And I have to comment right off the bat because there's something I see here at this festival that I don't normally see. And it's another part of my personality. I have my metal head personality and then I have my deadhead personality. And you're wearing a Dead show. Absolutely. Yeah. I've got family in Florida, so my Florida roots are coming out today with the classic rock in me. There you go. I used to in the eighties. I would go on a Friday night to a Slayer show and Saturday to a Dead show. Oh wow, Yeah, I can't do it the other way around though. No, you'll be it'll be a different metal experience with Slayer if you're still coming off of a dead show, right exactly I did. It is funny you should say that because my best broad that we used to go shows together all the time, and one Slayer show he was tripping on acid and he and he kept getting up on the stage getting chased by security and getting kicked out of the club. And then he was sneaking around the back and come in through the back and come through the stage agated like ten times. Man was that? Oh yeah, that was totally the acid. So any interesting stories from your shows like that? Um, I can't say. So. We are all U pretty mature men. We

2:37 like our golf. We got some golf stories audience though, Oh oh oh, I don't think so. Not today, at least not today. There was uh no, not not in our crew or anyone we know. We have had our fair share of people crashing backstage and running across the stage midset of not ours. But I didn't remember shows. No, I don't know. You never you never know what is the tell there exactly as you've talked to them. Yeah, but yeah, no, you don't really run into that. Everyone's very on top of safety these days, Yeah, and pretty strict on things. And so the worst we see is what someone gets dropped crowd surfing. Yeah, I mean, I will say that I do see people having the time out of their lives at our show. So maybe that is that is medicine induced, but I'm not sure. I think that's just you know, you guys induced. I would hope so, I think that's what it is for sure, I would hope so or both. Yeah, And there is a tell, by the way, you know what the tell is? What's that when they stage dive because they think there's a whole crowd there, nobody's there. Well, you know, it's funny. You could say they pull a pipe man, and I'll tell you why. So I interviewed this band. I was close friends with beck in the eighty ten talk to them and then like thirty four years. But I ended one of their shows once. I didn't cause the show to and I did something at the end of her show like as the last note was hitting. And basically it's funny because I've told my kids, like I'm infamous in La metal, and

4:12 without confirmation, your kids think you're full of shit. Okay, So when I'm on this air. You first, before I did the interview, I was like, Hey, what's up, Chris. You know you might not remember my name. It's been like thirty four years since we've talked, but I'm the one that you know did the stage dive and knocked out my teeth at your show last time I saw you, And he remembered totally. He's like. And then in the interview he brought it up and he's like, oh my god. I always wondered what happened to you. I felt so bad. It was like somebody got killed at one of our shows. He goes, you were the most tragic, oh, most severe casualty of La metal in the history of La metal. So I played that for my kids.

5:00 I'm like, Sea, I wasn't bullshit. Ah, that's a title, right. Yeah. And then there's one of my best friends who was there that day, who we went to gigs together. He's a band, a few bands. He plays with Conflict, he used playing with Christian Death. He had a band Faith in the Muse, and he also now has Belle went Weather Syndicate. And he wrote me a message when we were talking about interviewing because we were both friends with him. He goes, yeah, you won the most Hardcore award when two weeks after that incident, your nose was all busted up, your face was all taped up, and you came to Venom with us, and it was it was I think Venom Slayer in excellence. I'm like, how can I miss that? Wow? Can't you know stage dive or not, I'm not missing it. I got to see Slayer's final show at the Forum and it was an incredible evening. I was at their first show ever and the second, the last up in Oakland.

5:57 Okay, yeah, sure, sure. So you started it and I ended it. There you go, that's it right. I like that, And I also like that you have the bat signal on your arm. Yes, I'm a huge Batman fan. I'll tell you why. So I'm a huge Batman fan too, but I even like Dark Knight even better. Most people that are Batman fan fans that they understand the difference. Yeah, of course, a definite differ. So Pipeman, which my last name is Piper, so that's where Pipeman comes. But Pipeman also likes to, you know, use a lot of Batman references, like in my intro there's Batman music in it. I call my phone, I could pull it up. It's named on their pipe phone pipe Pewter my my where I live, I call the pipe Cave, and we do on my radio show about the pipe Cave, and so I do all that shit. I love it and it's funny.

6:51 Even my kids call me Pipeman. Now, oh my god, Yeah, I've got I've got Batman here on the front. Oh look at that, and mister Freeze here on the back. Nice. Yeah. This is obviously based off of my generation of Batman, which was the animated series. That's kind of when I was, you know, early watching cartoons and then obviously saw the Michael Keaton ones and the Val Kilmer ones and loved the George Clooney one. Um. So yeah, Batman has been um a constant throughout my life and I wear it with me forever now, nice. And I started with the Batman TV West. Yes, yeah, there you go. Yeah. So that's where I come with the difference between Dark Night and Batman, because I'm not that Batman. And there's a big difference between Christian Bale and Adam West. Let me tell you, you know, I love it.

7:40 So how would you guys, describe your music to listeners not from a genre standpoint, because I hate that crep. You know that that just boxes you in and boxes in your expression artistic expression totally. But I always like to hear out of artists would describe their music. Um, yeah, it's tough. It's an amalgamation of like a lot of influences and genres Off the bat, I think we all kind of in the band grew up in different well pretty much the same like scene of liking the same type of music and albums and stuff, but like we all kind of ventured off into things we liked. The older we got in, the more we listened and became thoughtful of those of those other artists. Um, so, I don't know. It's um, it's like if you threw a bunch of music in a blender with guitars. It's uh, I will I will say like overall, like we're energetic. Um, I don't know, Like, yeah, it's there's a there's a lot going on. I would say to the if someone asked me on the street, like what did you mean? I usually say, it's just like alt rock with like hip hop elements. Uh, it's like you know, Lincoln Park without rapping or something like that. Um, that's a good description, right, Yeah, Lincoln Park without rapping. Yeah, pretty much kind of what kind of what it is. And I love that we're in a society today where you could blend all but yeah music, because I come from the gatekeeper generation, which I fucking thought was stupid as shit.

9:03 Yeah, Like I I was a metal head and a punk, but I couldn't go punk shows because I had long hair. It was stupid. You know, punks can go and metal shows because they were punks. It was you know, and stuff like that, and everybody had to be segregated, even with you. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean I think we we caught the tail end of that where like, you know, we grew up where we were going to a punk show or we were going to a hardcore show, and we were kind of, you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen years old, like learning the difference and that this wasn't just like a hard music concert that our parents really thought it was, but this was broken down into a subculture and the subcultures clashed and um, and so we got to see that, and I think that plays a huge part into now being old enough to be the artist where we get to break that barrier and there are no subcultures anymore. We're creating a culture and a community, one where you can be a fan of so many different things and find something in point North that speaks to you. Well, thank you for that, But I thank you for that answer because nobody's ever said that, And as one hundred percent like learning the difference between the cultures of the punks and the metal heads, Like we're both heavy music, we're both fast music, but very different back then. Yeah, specific for sure, and there's still some old school Like I was dating this singer of a punk band and she always used to give me shit for being a metal head, Like it was that old school punk mentality, you know, And I was like, that was the eighties.

10:37 Well I dated her recently, but that is an eighties mentality, right right, you know. But I dated her like last year, yeah, you know, And it was like that's why I was like, fuck this. Yeah, because I dealt with this in the eighties, I would make to deal with in two thousand and twenty three. It's stupid, I mean, because I mean, obviously we weren't around then, but from you know, the historian that I am of that times. You had Misfits in the ramons going crazy, which had their own set of fans, and you had Metallica blowing up. And it's like if you had if you looked at a Misfits fan and a Metallica fan and a Van Halen fan at that time, those were three different people. Well, what's interesting that you brought and even that you brought Van Halen because I was at the US Festival in nineteen eighty three and Van Halen headline heavy Metal day and I think about it now and like I probably bad then too. Yeah, why are they headline heavy metal right?

11:26 You know? And funny story, So there was this place in Hollywood and Melrose were the best place to get spikes. Was called Posers in Hollywood. But it was a punk place, Okay, So I went with my two punk friends. It was in the eighties. Yeah, And they brought me in there and we were there for niven thirty seconds and my friends walk up to me and they're like, we need to leave, and I was like, I didn't know what was going on at first. I was like, what do you mean. We'll talk to you when we get outside. We need to lead wow. And then outside they told me, yeah, we're friends. They were friends with the owners, so I heard it was okay. Yeah, the owners walked up to them and said, get that long hair of our store. Yeah. That's how it was, man.

12:15 Yeah, And it was stupid because we're it's not like here. You couldn't have had a metal or punk festival at Daytona Speedway, like you're lucky if you could fill the Troubadour okay. And we had small groups in high school. We were both getting our asses beat by the jocks because we were different. Why wouldn't you band together? Yeah, Like that's what I always thought, why not? And then when Suicidal and Dri and bands like that started creating that crossover scene, it was like thank God. And then guys like you now bring it now to this century where we can be one big, happy family. Nobody in any radio interview or any interview ever done as ever compared to us to what Suicidal was doing, and that is like the coolest thing ever. So there you go. Yeah, yeah, well I love here, and they were here too, absolutely, you know, And it is interesting because it's originally I can't go, so I love them. Yeah, those the Sue boys used to mash switchblades. Yeah, and they target you if you're a long Yeah, yeah, you know those were in those were intense crowds, oh hundred percent. You know, I'm lucky I'm still here. Yeah, crowds. Yeah, you know, So how was it here at Rockville? Were you like shocked at the kind of crowds that you had, like here at Rockville, just you know, all because we're this is I mean, we've done a handful of festivals from the same promoter as well too, so you know, we've done a couple now, but every time we play a festival, um, it's always such an amazing experience to

13:48 just see a gathering of people because we're so used to tours and we're so used to little clubs and we're like, Okay, are we gonna have a couple hundred fans here tonight? Like what that's gonna be like? And to look out and see you know, thousands sometimes is is un believable for us. And so I know that's that's something that we're super grateful and definitely makes playing these festivals like really exciting for us. Nice. Yeah, So now let's talk about the new album. Cool, he tell us about it heavy. It is heavy. Yeah. I was listening to it. I was like, damn, they're fucking good. Yeah. You know, we felt a lot of pressure with the sophomore record, um and I think we've just been jones in to do heavier stuff and we said, no better time than now. I think that sort of music has a resurgence right now, which has been really good. I think that fan base is energized. I think our fan base is energized, and we get to kind of bring the two together and it's it's a special record for us for sure. What I love about it too is like listening to songs where you know you're starting it off like very melodic, and that's pretty cool. It's like an alternative feel, and then all of a sudden, Yeah, I was like, that's fucking badass. Yeah, yeah, we um. Andy and I used to be in a band before this band that was more hardcore band where Andy screamed than I played drums, and so this album is the first time in Point North's career at least where Andy's like screaming a lot on a lot of songs on the new album, which is really cool. I think it's cool. Yeah, I'm into that, yeah for sure, but I'm into the mix too, like that was one of the things you mentioned Metallica, Like Metallica was

15:20 always famous for like these songs that had these intros that fooled you, like battles. Yeah, okay, you don't expect what's about to happen in fifteen seconds. You know. It's a journey, right, And I love that's the keyword right there. I think music should be a journey. Yeah, okay, like speaking in a Grateful Day, you know, any of their songs or like a journey. Bing Floyd's like a journey was the biggest journey. Yeah, you know, so I think this should be no different. And it's sometimes it's a shame to me that nowadays kids want to shorten that journey. It's like there's bands are writing songs differently now to appeal to that track track track mentality. So let's let's not do three verses, Let's do two. No intro, no bridge, no solo, just two verses, decors done. It's such, It's such a thing that comes up all the time in my studio. So I like produce music full time back home and I have this band's like goes inside Black phil Brides and Falling in Reverse and UM set it Off and stuff and doing like a ton of records and UM.

16:22 One of the things that I see a lot and some of the projects is exactly that is the anti riding for TikTok um or the getaway from the formulaic structure UM, which is just like yeah, your verse course verse course bridge down course course right or like or something like that. UM, and it's it's it's I feel like the general population or listener is like wising up to it. And it was such a well it works. First of all, right, it's like that that formula like is radio and so like when everyone goes for that, it's like there's a certain um genuineness. I guess that kind of like goes away. There's you instantly pigeonhole yourself. You put this unnecessary pressure on yourself in the writing environment, which never prevails good it results. So it's it's something that comes up a lot. It's funny you just mentioned that. So that's something we like took to heart a little bit.

17:15 We were a little more progressive with our structures on the new album. I think that's something that people are going to start doing more. I think when you say like there's a resurgence in heavy music, I think that also goes in line with the structures of songs, so like things will get more progressive, things will get more aggressive aggressive also, but yeah, it's just I think music has definitely taking that turn for sure. And it's funny to use the word formula because I talk about that old time like, yeah, metal nowadays, a lot of metal bands like they plug in this algebraic equation and that's not ever what metal was about. I think the Big four thrash because I'm a total thrash metal head. Yeah, none of them sound the same. There's like no commonality at all except they're all thrash. But but it's thrash. It's not the fine by do this this way right, this melody, this progression, this tuning, this mix, this formula, this structure. It's yeah, it's it can get That's why the ones that stand out and do something crazy different, I think are the ones that kind of break through the mold. Because at the end of the day, everybody wants to write a hit. Everybody wants to be in the studio and write that next big song, and so everyone thinks that those formulas will like get them there, and sometimes it does, sometimes it works, but there's like such a finite amount of those success stories, you know what I mean? Well, did you did a song with somebody I've talked to a few times that his whole thing is changing how rock is and breaking the mold And that's Jaris Johnson. Yeah, and like I love that, Like why do the same

18:47 stale shit? You know, you have to be innovative then, especially as an artist, like why are you copying something that went on twenty years ago? You know, be an artist, be yourself. Yeah, Jerry is just he's in it for the artistry, you know, He's right, And we gravitate to people that are in it for that reason because often those are the people that you're going to make the best art with. And he just wants to be undeniably him and we love that and it was a pleasure working with him. And Dark Days is one of our favorite songs just as a band. And so yeah, you're absolutely right nice And I have to say to him a little jealous. So I have to ask you how was pennywise?

19:29 Because I was stuffed back here and I wanted to go see Pennywise. Oh man, you know they are. We grew up in the same town as Pennywise. I went to that same high school as them, and you know, I know some of Jim's children and so they they hit close to home to us for sure. So you know, they're some of the first show as I ever went to as a teenager. And now we're playing the same stages as them and had just have gotten to know them over the years, and seeing Pennywise play bro Him in front of ten thousand people will never ever get old. Well, you know, it's fine you should say that, because in thousands upon thousands of shows I've been to in my lifetime, one of the most memorable was the absolute last stop of Warped Tour. There bro Him set, Yeah, and I was on stage for a day, made all of us backstage on stage, and that was so old school.

20:22 Was that was that in New Jersey where it was it was West Palm Beach. That was the fine I never understood that warp Tour always did their final show in West Palm Beach in August. It's like the worst time to do with shows Palm Beach, but yeah, it was iconic. Like I remember seeing videos of that exact performance, and it's like emotional, it was amazing and old school too, because all the punk shows you went to back in the day, barricade come up on the stage, you know, like yeah, so yeah, amazing. Yeah, that's why I'm bummed that and jealous that you guys were there and I was stuck here. Well, you're doing the Lord's work today, yeah, right, So any other thoughts are things you want to share with the listeners that we haven't covered yet? No, I mean, you know, first of all, thank you for having us, and yeah, if you haven't heard of Point North before, just know that you know, we are guys that love this and have been doing this for a long time and are so stoked to be able to kind of have this platform now and put out this art for everyone to kind of gravitate towards.

21:27 And this feels like a really awesome chapter in this band's life. So thank you and thank everyone for listening for checking us out, and you know know that it really resonates with us and we appreciate it nice Well, we appreciate too, We appreciate you giving us great music being here. I welcome to Rockville and our listeners have to appreciate you by connecting to you on social media on the web buying merch because the only way band survives. So they can't listen to my show unless they buy merch, So tell them how they do that. Yeah, you can find us at all of our social which is at Point north Band, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and we also have a website, Point northband dot com. We are on all listening platforms Spotify, Apple Music, Title, Pandora anywhere music has listened to. You can find us there and um yeah, support us and buy merch and all that good stuff. Well, guys, you killed it here a welcome to Rockville. Thank you. You killed it here on the Adventures of pipe Man.

22:25 So thank you awesome, Thank you pipe Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man. I'm W four CUI Radio.