Tyler Burgess of American Monster Talks Band Origins and Festival Debut at Louder Than Life

0:05 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Tyler Burgess of the band American Monster. Nice. First, I just want to say I love your fucking hat. Thanks, dude. And I love at a metal festival where we're all in black that you have a killer pink hat. Well, I am a product of everything late 80s, early 90s.

0:45 And whether it's the songs or the merch or any of that, it feels very nostalgic. I don't know what you've listened to or what you've seen yet, but everything I try to... It lands kind of somewhere between what you'd see on Headbangers Bar or what you'd read about in Fangoria. So all those fun colors and textures and all that kind of stuff. So this is just one of many of the designs that we have. Well, I come from the LA Sunset Strip 80s. Okay. So, yeah. Checks out. Yeah, you get it. And I'll tell you why I also like it, okay? So I just did this festival called Bloodstock in the UK. And the shirt I'm wearing represents one of the foundations there There were these two goth kids that left years ago in London, a gig, and they got attacked, and the girl died just because they were goth.

1:38 That's horrible. So, like, this shirt says on it, Weird Mosher Freak. And what they do is they have a stage. She was Sophie Lancaster was her name. It's the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. And they have a stage named after her. They have a merch booth. They're a very supportive foundation. And on Saturday of the festival, the whole festival, and as you know, it's a very metal festival. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody dresses in pink. I fucking love it. Right? I love it, man. You know? Yeah. And it's like so cool. So when I saw your hat, it made me think of that, but it made me think. You're a cool fucking dude because you're here. You got the black shirt on, but you're rocking the pink. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:23 I got to switch it up, man. Everyone's got black hats. Exactly. Yeah, totally. That's it. So is this your first time at Louder? So this is not my first time at Louder Than Life. This is my first time at Louder Than Life with this band. Ah, okay. Yeah, so this is a brand new band. That's even better. Yeah, so this is our festival debut, and this is only our second show. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We came, we saw, we conquered, we did what we had to do. We played a couple ass beaters, a couple emotional heaters, and called it a day, man. Packed it up. Keyword, heater. Heaters. Oh, yeah. I've been saying the past few days, I have mad respect for all you artists playing in this hell.

3:08 Yeah. Because it is super hot. And I say it because I want the audience to know what bands really do for their fans. Yeah. It's not like you're just standing out there. You're giving it your all. in like the most evil environment to do it, you know, type of thing, you know, because it's like, it's like you're certainly performing in hell. Yeah. In this weather. Yeah. But hey, man, I'll perform anywhere. There you go. So, what better place and louder than life? It was, it was a lot of fun, man. This was, like I said, I played it before. I've played a few different set times. I played at night with Pyro. And today we played, like a little after doors. And, uh, it was just as fun, man. The fans here are awesome.

3:55 Well, I was going to bring that up too. Like how shocked are you with the fans here coming out early in this heat to go to your set? Yeah. Well, we, uh, at our stage, there was a bunch of dudes dressed up like hot dogs. They were dressed up like members of Slipknot, like really thick, stuff going on you know and i mean i commanded them i was like let me see some fucking movement man like you know left to right front to back fucking make it happen and dude and i know i was like it's early in the day and they're still just so committed so just fucking rocking you know it's it was a lot of fun man. I love it and i i can see the smile on your face that's key yeah like because if you're not having fun in this industry you're especially doing a live show, you're in the wrong industry. Yeah. Because that should be the fun part right there. Yeah, it should be.

4:49 It should be. And I, for one, have found so much joy in starting this band. Because the band is very, very new. We only have two singles out at the moment. And, yeah, it's one of the funnest things I've ever done. It's just unapologetically. Me and The only way it should be. Yeah. The music. Yeah, man. It's really cool. So what prompted you to start this band the way you did? And how did this all come about with American Monster? Well, you know what? I feel like as a musician, you have a couple different options as to how you want to pursue the industry. Some people do the hired gun thing. Some people try to start bands. And I've done both. And while I find joy in being a hired gun, there, there's just a lot of things that were left on the table for me artistically. Some guys just want to be really good at drums. Some guys just want to be really good at playing guitar. And then there's some guys who like, they want to build this world and then like invite you to it, you know? So, um, you know, like look at like Rob Zombie, for instance, can you imagine him just like wanting to like sing for, I mean anybody, any band that's of equal caliber, it just wouldn't feel right. He had this vision, and he saw it through, and the world's a better place for it.

6:11 So that's just kind of where I'm at in life, where it's like, I've toured all over the world, I've done a lot of really cool things, but I have this world that I want to invite people to still, and they're finally getting to see it. See, I think that's key, because as an artist, I think you should be able to express yourself. And The way you're doing it, that's the only way you do it, because you know what you want to put out there, and I think that's the reason you have the big smile on your face. Yeah, man. Because not everybody does in this industry, and that's because they're not doing what they want to do, or they're held back, or, you know, you even talk about whatever happened happened, but. You talk about Jason Newsted and he wanted to express himself, you know, and he should. And I think that's why there's a lot of successful bands out there that sometimes the members of the band have side projects so that they can do that. But then when you're doing it all yourself, That's a whole nother world because it is a whole really just now you're doing exactly what you want. Yeah.

7:18 I mean, and, and you know what, there's, there's a lot to be said about that too, because when you're just a hired gun guy, it's like, you need to know when soundcheck is and when lunches, you know, but like, Being the guy, I commend the bands that have the one guy that does it all. Or if there's two or three guys that do it all, it's a completely different beast. Yes. Completely different. And I'm getting a crash course in it, but you know what? It's led me to fucking play louder than life. There you go. Why not? And so what do you love most about doing this project now about being able to express yourself the way you do?

7:59 What I, uh, there's a couple different, there's a couple different things that I enjoy most about it. Most importantly, I feel like. Oh boy, here we go. All right. Just like a lot of festivals. Yeah. We got a coat red people. We'll talk about it later. I guess a coat pink. But give your final words. Final words. Louder Than Life. Fucking amazing. American Monster. Check us out. We're online. We're on YouTube. AmericanMonster.com. Live it. Love it. Learn it. We'll see you at the next show.

8:40 I love that you're here. I love the smile on your face. And thanks for doing what you do. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thanks, brother. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man podcast. On W4CY Radio.