PipemanRadio Interviews Taproot at Aftershock 2024

0:04 Hey, you have done too. That's true for se Wow crazy young, Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of White Man. I'll tell you four c why dot com wis pomp Beats is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. Hey, no time, nothing to prove, claiming thing, claiming that? Just what true? Frame my crown content?

0:48 No matter, you. Know. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man w four CY Radio. And I'm here with. Yeah you're here. Yeah? Is Phill the bass player for Taproo and sure the drummer of Tapru. Nice here after Shock? How many times have you played After Shock? Ever? This our first? Yeah, we we took a long hiatus. I'm not sure when after Shock started, but when we took our hiatus about twenty thirteen, that's sort of like our cut type music. It wasn't like exactly the height of it, right tail end of what that what we were doing. And then we took a long break and now it's kind of on this upswing again. So yeah, we'll be able to do it like before the Danny Wimmer festivals this year Nice, which has been awesome.

1:36 Yeah, it's been so cool. We did Rockville, So Sonic Temple, Louder than Life and After Shock and this is so this is the. Last one of the year that we're doing. Which one do you like best? Dude? They were all great, right, They're all run fantastically, but they all have their own little bit of personality. And and I like to hear that part because I always ask the artists about how they're treated at festival because some festivals are shit shows, yes, and then there's a Danny Wimmer festival. Yeah, And all I ever hear is how they treat the artists like, you know, great and it makes it easy because it's really tough to come into a festival load in, try to get the sound right and everything, and if you have all these tech issues, like you don't need that stress before your performing from why hear you don't have that with a Danny Wimmer festivalea.

2:17 I mean, it's as good as you can get with as many bands as they bring in and with many people and limited parking, Like we did a Louted Than Life recently and it you know, they had a crazy storm they had to cancel Friday. I was there, yeah, right, we played Sunday and the weather was fine on our day, but there's still a lot of money spots, not a lot of parking. And they still made it work. You know, we're still able to get in. We loaded in. They treat us great. Even though it was a bit. Stressful because we were on a pretty short time crunch. We made it work. It's fantastic. I love it. Yeah. So I left Florida to avoid that hurricane and it hit Louisville. Would figure, right, it would figure like I'm going to Louisville and I got hit by a hurricane and miss Slayer. Yeah, right, that's right, that's right. So heard they killed it last night though.

2:59 Oh yeah, I saw them at riot Fest two because I covered that one. But yeah, they killed it like Tom was having so much fun. That's the key. Like, Okay, So the way I look at it is he was burnt and that five years of doing nothing, he's now got the passion again. And I think you guys been on a long hias. Do you think that happened with you. It's like after a while, you like you get this resurgence of creativity. Well it's yeah, I mean, you get away from it so long when you're doing it again as long as it's been, and just being away from it and then with this renewed appreciation for what we did, it's just been it's been awesome. I didn't expect it. I didn't know how was going on.

3:39 Our manager Tom was talking me about it and he was like, dude, this is the time you guys had. You guys are timing this perfectly, and it just happened to work out when Steve was doing with his new record Scissors, so it just worked out great. But it's been awesome. Yeah, it's been fun too. We have a relatively new guitar player who joined us last year when we kind of reunited and started doing a lot of these things, and he brings a whole new level of energy to it. He was somebody that grew up with a lot of our music, so he was kind of a fan and he was in another band that we all really respected, and so to kind of have him join us, it really gives us renew energy and plus the fact that you've been doing this now after starting twenty five years ago. For me, I always tell people it feels like I'm going back in a time capsule when I'm playing these songs that we were first playing twenty five years ago. It reminds me of those videos that you see if people when they're saying a nursing home or something, or maybe they're have Alzheimer's and there they sit there and they're pretty silent, but then you play a piece of music from their childhood or certain and they kind of light up and they get this new energy. Like there's something about when you hear those songs when you first were attracted to music, Like it seems like for most people to around eighth or ninth grade, Like, yeah, a lot of that whatever music you heard at that time probably is some of your favorite bands or some of your favorite music.

4:52 Right for me, it was Metallic. I heard Injustice for All and eighty eighty nine, and so that's still one of my favorite bands. So like when you get transported back, that's kind of like you feel like a kid again. Yeah, which is really fun. So that's part of what at least I'm feeling, and I think we're all feeling to some degree too. See that's freaking great. I love that because when you're young doing it, you have all this like you're excited about it and like you have all this passion and then after a while, the business can get to you if you let it, you know. And then when you get this resurgence, I think you have a different attitude about it too, Like basically you're more about having fun than chasing the dream, so to speak.

5:32 Exactly, Like we're not doing it you most of us have jobs. I've got kids. I don't want to be touring, but I love doing this weekend warrior stuff here and there, being able to do it and kind of live that side of it but still. Having my home life. Yeah, I can never imagine. When we stopped, I didn't expect to ever be back. I told Steve to find a new basis if you ever go out, I was kind of done. And then with enough time and then coming back out and then seeing how you know, a lot of same bases plus new faces, it's really renewed. My passion for it and my appreciation for what we do. And again it's I'm not out there trying to make you know, trying to make it real big. You know. I don't want to be in a giant band anyway, you know. I like what I've got. I like the crowds we play too, and it's a lot less pressure We just go out there and play.

6:18 It's not critical for my livelihood. That's the other piece, you know, when at the tail end of our you know, our first big run of like you know, fifteen years, that's the only thing I did. So when we weren't making money, I could barely make ends meet. Yeah, you know, we've living on couches for a while, that kind of thing. So now it's just extra fun, extra money. It's fine, and it's really not about the money. It's helpful. We got to make money to make it work. I don't want to lose money doing this. But thankfully with the music industry is at a point where we're able to make it work. And you know, we we play it smart. You know, we drive our own vehicles around home. We're doing some big old bus. We're not spending a lot of money, but we make it work. It's awesome. I love it because, like, to me, that's the dream life, right, They're what you're describing, because what people think is the dream life and sometimes like a fucking nightmare, Like and you know you've lived it, and it's like people look at you and they all they see is what they see.

7:13 They don't see all the other bull that goes around it. So when you're just having fun and doing it because of the passion of music, not only do you feel better, but we can tell in the audience. I can look up at bands and I can tell like, yeah, they're not into. This right now, you know, or it's like wow. Like while I was looking at Tom, I'm like, Wow, he's having the fucking best time. Like he's a kid again, you know. So I've talked to fans and they've said that about us, like, you guys look like you're having fun up there. You guys look like you're having a really good time. I love having Jared back in the band, because Jared hasn't been in the band since two thousand and eight. Wow, So he came back out for this. We played a show here and there, you know, some hometown stuff. But for him to be playing consistent with us again, it's such a different such a good energy that we had at the beginning. And our other drummers were great too, but there's just something about Jared. He's the original member, you know, something about.

8:03 That with him, and he's smiling the whole time down the interview, so that says a lot, you know, because I mean, if you're smiling during the interview, you're having fun. And you know what's funny. There's something about I had. I was talking about original members and why that is something to some people I had somebody was saying, oh, that's great to have you back or whatever. I said, well, yeah, but you know the other drummers were great too, So what is it? And they said, okay, well, who are some of your favorite drummers? And I said, oh, Neil Pierre from Rush and Carter Beaufort from Dave Matthew's band. And they said okay. So and they know I'm a big Deftones fan. So they said, if you were going to go watch the Deftones is there, would you want to see any of those drummers play the drums other than Abe Cunningham, the original drummer. And I said, no, I wouldn't.

8:45 I'd want to see Abe. So that's what it is. And there's I can't put my finger on why we want to see the original members, but I think part of it is we, you know, music is such an important part of our lives, that part of we we liked the idea that, oh cool like those people, you know, Phil and I were friends first. We met an orientation at college nice and there's something about that energy that's there, right, Like when you see a man that you love on stage having a good time together, it makes. You feel good. And I don't know what that is. Maybe it's just because we humans like to see, like, oh cool, after all these years, there's humans that are interfacing and. Liking what they do, and that makes me feel good. And it's familiar, right as familiar and nostalgic. Like you were talking about Metallica, we had Slayer here. I went to their first shows ever. So to me, if Dave Lombardo's not drumming, is it Slayer, that it's and that might not go over well over the air, but I mean that's my nostalgia hanging out with them outside the country club, the Whiskey, the Troubadour and it was Jeff, Carrie, Tom and Dave. That to me was Slay for the same reason you're saying, not that Boss Staff's not a great drummer. Yeah, it's just even me Maiden's gonna be playing.

10:02 Yeah. I love Bruce, but I'm team Diano because Killers is my favorite fucking album. Okay, I've made it. I get what you're saying because from my point of view, I can totally see it. Even with Metallica, I saw him with Dave Mustaine, So I'm still on the I should have. Kept Dave in the bank for you. Like alcohol I've always said to myself because I was in that whole scene, I'm like alcoholic because that's what we called them. Kicked Dave out because he was an alcoholic. That makes sense, Like how bad of a rager was he to get kicked out of alcoholic for drinking? You know?

10:43 But you know it's like and then when you're young too, you have these experiences like Mustaine came out to me after a show and like starts talking to me. So that's what you remember that fucking LA somewhere to Woodstock or something something like that. Oh yeah, that's right. So funny. I've told this story a lot, but since you brought up like about where it was and what happened, I. Think I was like fifteen they play. I'm like, oh my god, because there was nothing like that at the time. Like the heaviest shit in LA was Motley Crue, to be honest, and you know, so he comes out sits at the bar. I'm sitting there and he just starts talking to me. I'm like wow, and he hands me his business card. It says Metallica power Metal. There wasn't a thrash yet, Dave mustaye and I'm like, fuck, that's cool. But then I threw out the car. I threw it out like a fucking idiot, man, you know. But there's so many iconic memories, is my point, that you have when that band was original members, and I think that's what people associate to it, like those were the good times, you know, so you knowl and it probably feels the same way for you guys too, right, you know, it's like that was the good time to now whatever went on all through the years, those good times are back again, and there's a comfort there.

12:13 It's like nold pair of. Jeans, you know, when you get back together, Like when you guys start doing this, now, was it really hard to get back on the bike, Like was there or did you just get up there and just play? Yeah? It was, it was. It's funny. I got all the old stuff for me, the first three records. I can play almost any song or at any time. Because you've probably played it, like yeah, two million, some. Of the newer even the newer hits from our later albums, I was like, Oh my god, how's this go again? There are songs I hadn't played in twenty some. Years that I could play better than some of the songs I've played more recently. It's funny how it works that way. I don't know. It is a trip, though, it is because like you think about, you take that song, that's your old song, like we don't even have to practice because you probably already played it a million times.

13:04 Yeah, that muscle memory kicks in. And sometimes when I was relearning some of the stuff it went, it clicks. I'd be trying to play it in the wrong spot, like the notes here, but it's not the right place, you know, And then you find them the spot that you play it, and. It's like, oh, yeah, there it is. That's it. There it is, And it'll just come like as I'm playing, I'm playing all of a sudden, it's just like they're singing songs we'd played live a few times. I just never quite felt right. Until I played it in the right you know, the old position position I was playing, Oh yeah, this is right, this is where it goes very cool. Anything else that you guys have coming up that we want to tell the listeners or do you have any more plans for after after Shock? So we had a couple of shows. We're down in Bakersfield and in San Diego this run, and then we got a few weeks off. Like I said, we're only doing kind of weekend warrior stuff. We're a couple of hometown shows. Were ending the year with some shows at the Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan, and then after that we're gonna take a little break. We got some stuff next year, but nothing we can announce yet, and then you know, just gonna add on to next year and mostly take the winner off though enjoy some time off.

14:01 So our listeners, how do they connect with you guys so they can find out what's going to be coming up next year? We have all this, you know, Instagram and Facebook are probably the two main ones we use. We all have our own individual ones, but plus we have we just started a fan vip list thing that you can sign up for that. We haven't done too much with it yet, but I've got We've got a lot of things we're planning for it. We just haven't you know, we've just been so busy with everything, but once we get a break, I'm gonna start focusing on that. So there's some really cool stuff there. Yeah. Cool. Well, I'm glad you guys were here at After Shock, Badass and Louder and welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple, and I hope we see more of you next year at the festivals. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

14:42 Hell yeah, thank you man. We hope so too. Yeah, thanks for having us us one for sure. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.