Taken by Tides at Welcome to Rockville 2026 - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love done to the censure Wow for you young. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm very excited because the pipe Man Radio Tour is starting again today. We've been off for about a month. I got a little seclusion and from the world for a month and now we're ready to rock and roll again. And our second stop like tonight, we're going I'm going to Alice Cooper on the other side of the state. But then tomorrow is Welcome to Rockville, one of my favorite Danny Wimmer festivals. And this will be the first interview of the FDA festival for a band that is playing tomorrow and man they are killer. So let's welcome to the show.

1:19 Omar from Taking by Tides. How are you? What's up doing great? You know we're out here driving currently on the way to Florida. All it's about an eighteen hour drive, twenty with stops, you know, speed limit like with an RV you can't drive seventy five. We gotta do a like sixty five. So you know, we're we've been driving. It'll be a total like two days like driving and taking it at our time, you know, we're not trying to, you know, drive sleeper pride, you know, trying to take your time. Yeah, no doubt and listen. Unlucky for you that the two states you got to go in are like the two hardest states to drive through. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's like, what's you get outside of Texas? Those little states?

2:02 You're like, Oh, that's easy. That's why I like about that road trip. Once you get out of Lake Texas, then it's like, oh, it's only a few hours to get out of state. That's cool, you know. Yeah. And Texas is brutal to drive through too, because there's so many different geographics. Florida is a little different. It looks exactly the same, it's flat and the whole thing. But I remember the stupidest thing I ever did was I was driving to get to La through Texas and I I should have stopped at El Paso. It was getting dark and I was over driving through Texas, so I'm like, fuck it, I'm gonna keep going. And I drove from that in the dark, from El Paso to San Antonio. That is like one of the most brutal drives.

2:52 I couldn't even imagine doing an RV by the way because I was doing it in a car and like those crosswinds were brutal. Like I remember my car like moved over like a lane and I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna go off the cliff. My god, because the wind was so strong. I couldn't even imagine driving RV under those conditions. Yeah, you gotta you gotta drive, I believe it. It's slower, Like when we're trying back to Chicago, there was like a high wind warning. It's just gotta be like careful. You don't really try to pass anyone. We try to keep on space. But yeah, it is, it is. It can't be scary. I think our scariest drive lately was h we just did a torn march and we were driving, I believe, from Phoenix to San Diego and there was a.

3:39 Lot of oh yeah. Up and down and on an RV, you know, they're going up your transmission. It's just you know, it's pushing and super loud and you're going like barely fifty, you know. But yeah, it was kind of wild. You'd see like down the side of the window and it's like steep, steep. Cliff, right, And I love talking about this because I think the listeners don't really get all you have to go through as a band just to get to a gig like this drive we're talking about. Your ticket is for one gig so far, you know, it doesn't count the rest of your tour. That's just one stop on the tour. And I don't think people even imagine, like, and then you go perform and sometimes you may not have had rest, Like you got there just in time, whatever the reason, traffic, weather, and then you're loading in and playing, and I think people in the audience like they can't even go seek of that, you know.

4:44 Yeah, they don't see it. Sometimes you're on stage and you might have just barely had a chance to like take a breath, you know, right, maybe you've got to the venuelate and you're loading in all day and you're pushing cases that you're barely have time to get ready. You're probably sweaty, you know, you're not warmed up. I've had those shows sometimes where like I have to walk on stage without warming up. I feel not ready, but it's like it's rocking and road. You got to get up there and do it, you know. But then you get in the zone once you're on stage and it's time to perform, Like you get in the zone and then it's almost like I know, way I am. I don't even give my self permission to feel like shit until abe until after you know, then I could die, okay. But you get in this zone like you don't even notice, and you're like it's almost like an add of body experience, right.

5:39 Yeah, yeah, I mean absolutely, And when you're on stage, like everything just goes blank, like I don't know. It's like you go into this second I don't know a state of mine or something, and I just I hardly. Remember what goes on on stage. I feel like something else takes over and I just black out most of the time, you know, I try to come back and realize what's going on, but usually you black out. Like those thirty forty minutes feel like five ten. Sometimes it feel longer. If the show's like, you know, dragging those shows, you're like, God, let it end already, Like if you're not having a good show, like if my voice is gone, like oh god, I'm out here sucking, you know, But you know I don't.

6:22 I'll never show it, you know, I'll never existently say I'll just I'll just try my best delivery. You know. It's just even like like people think that musicians are like the biggest extroverts because they get up on stage and do that. It's like the exact opposite, and you kind of do black out in the sense of, you know, it's easier to like pretend like you're just up there by yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. It's easier to get lost, especially when you have like the music going on. It's it's easier to just feel at home. Yeah, exactly. So tell me, Okay, you're gonna be at Welcome to Rockville, obviously, but tell me about the Back to Hell Tour. I love the name of that tour.

7:10 I think we're living that in real life right now. I think everybody in the world is on the Back to Hell Tour. Yeah, man, we all. Are, especially with the weather and well it hasn't been too bad lately, but it's about to get hot again. Yeah yeah, Back to Hell Tour. I mean, it's just named after one of our songs that came out on our last album back in October. What's it called. We had two legs of it. We had originally just the you know, the run on February and March, and then we got the offer to do Welcome to Rockville, and it was very close to that tour, but just far enough where it's like it's got to be a different lineup anyways. But we were like, okay, well, let's just make it the leg two of uh, you know, the Back to Hell tour. I like the art, I like the you know behind the song, you know, I like the song a lot. So we just saturday make it leg too. And yeah, it's been great shows. It's actually been our biggest shows we've ever played. All the shows have been very successful and you know, every all the bands have been tank care of, all the locals that are playing. The shows were stoked on you know, the draws. All the venues have been stoked in the draws, you know, a lot of it. It was a surprise, you know, we played some of these venues before, and some of these shows, for the longest time, we've played to like less.

8:31 Than twenty people. And it's like, I don't know if fans know that, but it's like if a venue gets twenty people, it's like you probably might not even break even. You're probably losing money on that show. And you know, especially for small upcoming venues, it's like they want to support up andcoming artists, and it's like, you know, for them to give us a shot, some of them multiple times to where it finally clicks. It's like it we're grateful they give us a shot, but yeah, this time finally around, Like all the shows have been great and really no can play. It's just probably been the best tour I've ever done. And then to do it look to it, you know, I just felt right. There you go, and you know, it's funny with your debut album, Ghost Vibrations, I think it would be perfect if you were playing Incarceration another Danny Wimmer festival, because I don't know if you know where what the venue is, but it's the Shawshank Prison, but it's a real prison that's shut down and it is haunted, and they do, like at the festival, they do the haunted tours. But you don't know when you're going on this tour whether it's one of the people working being a character trying to scare you, or if it is a real like oh my god, I remember I was interviewing somebody there, okay, and he was talking about the uh he filmed the video and there was a torture room in that prison and he can't out with scratches all over his body.

10:03 Shot. Oh my god. So like what a perfect place. That would be a perfect place to film the video for one of your songs on Ghost Vibrations. Yeah, right, absolutely, So tell take me back a little bit. What was that first moment in your life that you kind of realized that this is what you wanted to do, that this was your passion. And I've had multiple ones of those, for sure, Like I could probably name a couple handful of them, but I. Think the first one, Man, that's hard. I think. You know, when I was a kid, I just really liked playing guitar hero and I was probably like, you know, six years old, and then by some almost ten, I picked up a guitar. And I think just watching like Michem of a Romance and like Lincoln Park, you know which Mike M's actually playing rock Fields.

10:53 You know, I wish I could be a Sunday, but you know, we got to go play other shows. I'll be I'll be in the pit for you right on. Thank you, So just to be under the same umbrellas, and it's as you know, it's a really big honor. But anyways, Yeah, there's been most of the moments in life where I think I really wanted this. It's probably the first one was like picking up guitar, Like at ten eleven years old. My grandpa was a musician. He was also a singer guitarist, and what's it called. I think summer in my childhood is just kind of click, you know. I picked it up pretty fast. I was in band and when I was in middle school, I only lasted one semester, but I ended up being like first chair playing French hard and I just didn't I wasn't into it. I got a guitar that Christmince.

11:39 I got out and then they were like can you please shoin the band back? Like you're really good. I promise you're really talented, Like you were great at this, you should be in band, and like no, I'm gonna play guitar, and like I just I just kind of knew at like eleven years old that this is what I wanted. So like even like the band directors, no, you should play French really talented, I'm like I get it, but I want to play guitar. So and then you know what I love about that story is Okay, so I'm a metal head all my life and I like people. A lot of people at my age troupe I would talk to and I'm like, well, I used to like metal And my answer to them is, no, you didn't, because nobody that is truly a metal head says I used to like me. It's not like other genres, like once a metal head, always a metal head, no matter when it started. And that's the same example with you.

12:31 And I also love about Guitar Hero because I'm a gamer, and you know, when I was trying to play guitar, there was no Guitar Hero because video games weren't that good then, and I think that would have helped me be better at guitar, like and make it more fun because you know, I was learning guitar, I had to do scales every single lesson and I'm like, this is boring, you know, So if I was playing like a video game, then it would have excited me more. So I think that's a that's a cool thing. Like some people may give crap about a Guitar Hero, but I think it does teach you really before you even pick up the guitar and you're proof of that.

13:19 Yeah. Absolutely. I mean my right hand got really solid because you know, I just learned rhythm and like I just took that, you know, the left hand, yeah, you know, you're just here, but like your fingers get fast and you get kind of conditioned too, but like your right hand is really where it helps because. You know, you just stay in rhythm. And so yeah, it's crazy how playing lots of guitar hero as a kid really just easily translated to a guitar. Yeah, exactly. Now I have a question because it's hard for me to tell on the screen, but is that necklace your logo? Yes it is. I thought it was, but I couldn't see the details that far, but I was pretty sure it was. That. That is freaking cool. Now do you sell that as merch?

13:59 No, we don't, but we we should figure it out. We have key chains. That's like I saw the key chains. They're cool as hell. Yeah, thank you, But I gotta figure this out. I just don't know what kind of you know necklace that one, you know, but we definitely got to get it sorted. I think the next you know, big headliners where we do we definitely have these out on the road. There you go, that would be cool. You could even just do the charm and then if you find a cool necklace, because it is like it's a cool logo, but it does make a cool necklace. Like I'm looking at you wearing a necklace. I'm like I would wear that, you know. Yeah, it'd be kind of like a Misfits thing.

14:42 I wouldn't even care what your band sounded like. I just want to wear the logo. Thank you man. Yeah, yeah, I'm really proud of it. I think it's great. It's like a hero sympo or some something. You know. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, it makes you look like a superhero, right yeah, all right, So what one story crazy, good or bad? In all the years you've been doing music and doing shows and stuff, what sticks out in your mind the most that you would talk about like years down the road, like any story, like anything that's happened in the musical journey of the band.

15:30 You know, there's there's been multiple Uh, there was like this one time where we flew out our producer to San Antonio because we weren't done with our with the songs you're trying. So we were in Lousll, Kentucky, and then we flew him to San Antonio for like two days because he had a gig in Austin, Texas. He was like working sound some gig and he's not far so we picked him up from Austin about an hour drive. I stay with us a couple of days. We just moved his flight from San Antonio to you know, maybe it's just worked. Anyways, we finished, we wrapped up tracking everything, and. At night we were about to head out.

16:14 Because John, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are breaking up. All right. Mhmm, you guys. Check still breaking up a little bit. I can hear partially and my engineer will edit this part out, so don't worry. Sorry, okay, go.

17:23 So right on. So yeah, this one time we were tracking some songs for a couple of singles back in like I think twenty two, and we were over in Louisville, Kentucky, and Flower producer out to set because we already had our flights going back home. But he had a gig in Austin, so it kind of worked out in our favor. So anyways, we picked him up from Austin. Once he finished his gig, he came for a couple of days and we finished tracking the songs that we needed to finish, and uh so my bassis, Jack and I we're actually are from Little Rado, Texas, which is about two hours and a half south of San Antonio.

18:12 We finished the Antonio h m hm oka like eleven pm. He saw me there. Your coach one. Hello, yeah, I can hear you now you were kind of out Yeah. Heard heard, So yeah. Anyways, we finished the studio session like around eleven pm where we're at Jaden's house and like I said, Jack and I, we have to drive two hours and a half to lard up outside we're sitting.

18:58 We're s. And then we car drives by like the house. They're trying to kind of slow. It's like four dudes in the car and it just kind of feels weird. And and literally they turn around, circle back and like instantly they start speating and like. Twelve shots get fired and oh my, we obviously. Fire or flight mud We just we just run back into the house instantly or like and our producers still inside of the house and he's like, what's up, guys, you're back inside. I was like, did you not hear that? And he's like no, what happened, Like, dude, there's like gunshots that could get. Down, Like what the heck, you know, and and. We just ended up staying inside the house and we ended up going home that night. So that was like one of the scarier stories.

19:45 Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you brought it up, because bands go through scary crap like that and you don't even realize that what can happen no matter what on the road or what have you. And you know, like I know there's been band members that have been mugged, attacked or carjacked all that, and these are the things that you guys go through to give us some great music. What's insane? Speaking of carjacking, we have a music video for Goal Sebrations. I'm like driving a car in the video. So that car we actually ended up borrowing. We were supposed to use Jaden's car at the time because he had like a he had like a Dodge like a Challenger or a Charger or and like that. He was like a skatpack Dodge, really nice car. Literally, I think the day before the video shoot where we were gonna take the car out, it got stolen off its front like driveway.

20:44 Wow, they just took it. Like his Mom's like, hey, Jade, and I thought you left the store or something, and he's like, no, I'm right here by. What's up. He's like, I heard your cards or nothing. I thought you left. He's like no, and they go outside and they just see a windshield on the floor. Oh crap, this is like. The day before we were supposed to film the music videos. You're like, well, we have no car for the video. Wow. Yeah, so speaking of carjacking, that's also happened. It is amazing, Like, I love hearing stuff like this because I like when the audience finds out what it's really like behind the scenes, because they look at musicians and they think, oh, you got the dream life, and in some ways you do, you know, But there's it's like every person, every person has their trials and tribulations, and musicians are no different. And to me, musicians are the hardest working people there is. So if they want to listen to my show, they need to go to your merch store and buy some merch.

21:49 Oh thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. So tell everybody how they can check you guys out on socials on the web and check out all your merch. Yeah absolutely. I mean you can find us mostly on socials, on Instagram and TikTok that's usually most active, and streaming can stream us. Anywhere they stream. You know, our districtor puts us on the most black rooms as possible, but obviously you know the big big ones. You can find us a Spotify, Apple Music, and yeah, just keep up with us. We always got stuff. And then our merch store you can go to takingmytidespan dot com. That's where we have any exclusive drops or any leftover tour merch that we didn't sell on tour, so in case you missed something or miss the show, you can always grab it there too.

22:33 Nice and you know, it's funny you mentioned Apple Music and I normally, like, before I do interviews, I'll just while I'm like getting ready, I'll just go to Apple Music and turn on the band's music to kind of gain the zone. And Apple Music has a new update now. I don't even know if you know. I just saw it for the first time today and it told me all your tour dates, including welcome to Rockville. Dude, that's awesome. I've not updated my phone in like a year, so because I don't trust it. I don't blame it, cool man. Yeah, I was like, that's really cool for bands because like you go on there and you go to your page and looks similar to normal, but then there's a place at the top to click on for the tour dates.

23:20 So that's so cool. I gotta give kudos to Apple for doing that for you guys. Yeah, you know, Apple's really great. They they pay better than most other streaming platforms, and the quality on there is like some of the best. You know. I'm so glad to hear that they pay you guys better, because I don't use Spotify like I use it for certain things like when I do the festivals, I'll create playlist of all the interviews on Spotify, but not for the music for the podcast. But I hate that they don't pay you guys. So the fact that Apple pays you better, kudos to them, because even in my industry now with streaming and everything else, there's so many of my competitors that like, don't get license, don't pay royalties, and I'll say shit to them because I'm licensed. I pay a lot of money to be licensed. Pay royalties, because you guys deserve to get paid and I'll ask them like about them, like you know, and they'll say, well, they should just want me to play their music, Like, no, do you work for free? You know? Of course, yeah you do want them to play your music. But you know you're doing this for a living, so you need to be able to eat. I'm not talking about buying a ferrari.

24:35 We're talking about your Yeah, you're you're you're not making a lot of money in this business. You're exactly unless you're the top one percent, then you know you're probably a good living. But even like the bands that are massive, selling a thousand tickets to night, they're still just living. You know, you're probably better having off on normal nine to five. In terms of money, no doubt, no doubt. So, And that's why musicians have passion for what they do because you're not doing it for the money. You're certainly not doing to become a rock star because that doesn't even exist anymore. You know, you're doing it because you have a passion for music, and music is the best therapy.

25:16 So I do thank you for making that, you know, and making music and making that sacrifice so that we could all get the therapy. You know, you get it and we get it. And to me, the music's the best therapy and I can't wait to go see my therapist. That welcome to Rockville. Oh yeah, thank you, thank. You for being on the Adventures of pipe Man, and we'll see you soon in Daytona. Absolutely, we'll see you there. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.