Welcome one and all to a special edition of signals from Mars.
I'm your host Victor and for this episode we start a new trend which is ask the host
but with a little twist.
It's ask the host with one of my patrons this time around Jeremy Weltman asking me a few
questions and it's a good one.
You guys will enjoy this one next.
So if you guys are on Patreon you already know this.
I will be away this summer working on various different things from basketball tournaments,
basketball camps to visiting family and friends in New Jersey.
Long time coming on the last part there.
Anyway, so what I've done in the meantime is that I've recorded a bunch of content that's
going to come out throughout the summer.
This is one of those episodes.
It is the first of the series and I've kind of changed the order up to try to make it
so that you have different co-hosts or in this case different hosts.
Doesn't always work out that way but I think the order that I've selected will work the
best to fill things out.
I'm going to try to do three episodes a month for July and August and going back to doing
the live shows in September.
In the meantime if I can add more content to those last two weeks then I'll do that.
But for now I'm happy with giving you guys three weeks of content out of four.
So I hope you guys enjoy what I have in store for you guys.
Some episodes are just like this.
Just me and one other host.
There are others with multiple people.
There are others with interviews.
So you guys let me know what you enjoy the best.
And speaking of Patreon, speaking of the website, speaking of everything you can do to support
the site, look there's the Patreon, there are PayPal donations, there is also merch
you can pick up.
Any one of those put some money in my pocket.
You can also use our Amazon links as well.
You go to the website and go to either merch or go to follow us.
Follow us.
I don't even know what's on my own website and I designed it for God's sakes.
Actually if you just go to where it says follow or support the site, Patreon or merch, any
one of those you can help us out greatly.
Follow us on different social media platforms and letting your friends know about the show.
You can also follow on various podcasting 2.0 episodes and donate.
It's Bitcoin at the end.
It's cryptocurrency that you're donating there.
That some people do that.
I honestly don't know how to work it at all.
Something I will eventually get to.
If you go to support the site, you'll have links to Amazon and buy me a pizza and a few
other things that you can do.
You can do Patreon for as little as two bucks a month and finally you can pick up merch
with some pretty cool t-shirts and sweatshirts as well as caps and other things.
Just go to Mars.
Yeah, go to Mars Tech.
Go to signals from Mars.com.
So used to saying the other.
Go to signals from Mars.com to find out more and follow support through all that great
stuff.
Do want to send a shout out to my patrons.
If you want to be a cohost in the future, it's easy.
Two bucks a month gets you there.
Just like Jeremy, who does a lot of different things with me on the show.
Hope you guys enjoy this.
There's another one similar to this coming in a few weeks and maybe a few others down
the road.
We'll see.
We'll see how it all works out.
In any event, I do want to thank you for listening to this episode.
A lot of big time shows are saying this, but I've been saying this for a long time.
I do want to say thank you.
I do want to say I love you.
And at the same time, I do know that you could be listening to or watching a million other
things, but to choose to be here on signals from Mars.
And I thank you for that.
In any event, let's get on with the show.
Welcome one and all to this episode of signals from Mars.
I'm your host, Victor.
Well, I'm not the host today.
Today the host is the person next to me over there.
Mr. Jeremy Wellman came up with this interesting idea.
He said, let's do ask the host.
Let me be the host.
So we're handing the reins over to Mr. Wellman tonight.
He's got a bunch of questions for me.
I don't know any of the questions, but we shall see what he has prepared for us.
Without further ado, let's give Mr. Wellman a round of applause.
Enough of that.
Let's get on with the show here.
All right, Jeremy.
Okay.
Thanks, Victor.
Yeah, it's very unusual to be in the hot seat and asking you the questions this time.
But here we go.
There may be a little bit of overlap as well with one or two that we've had in the past,
but I think it's been quite a while since we've had one of these shows.
So we can go over some of that old ground again, because it'd be interesting for not
only for me, but for all the patrons and other people listening in.
So I'm really asking questions on their behalf.
So first of all, just tell me a little bit about when and why you started Signals from
Mars and how long has it been actually going now?
Okay.
So back in 2009, I was on the Talking Metal forums and I started becoming active on the
forums.
For the longest time, I was there kind of sort of lurking, but didn't really participate
just because I just had a kind of a dumb attitude and thought, oh, what do these guys know about
music?
You know, what do they know better than this person or that person?
They're trying to be like Eddie Trunk or, you know, whatever.
It was just stupid on my behalf.
And like a few months later, I realized I'm like, hey, you know, this is pretty cool.
This is somebody else doing their spin on classic music discussions and interviews and
stuff like that.
You know, I love this stuff.
Why did I shy away from it at first?
And I started getting more involved on their forums.
And there was an episode where I was remember this, they started naming the Red Hot Chili
Peppers and their guitars and they named the order of the guitars when they were in the
band out of order.
So me being the music nerd that I am and sometimes the anal retentive music fan and the music
nerd, very Larry Davidish at times.
No, well, it's not that order.
It is this.
So I fired off an email to Mark Striegel and I said, no, you've got that wrong because
Dave Navarro came between this guitarist and that guitarist and this and that.
And One Hot Minute is my favorite album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
And Dave Navarro has a lot to do with that because I like Jane's Addiction a lot and
blah, blah, blah.
And so Mark responded with you seem to know what you're talking about.
Why don't you do your own show?
And I responded back.
I said, are you saying this as you know, leave us alone, just do your own thing and leave
us alone?
Or yeah, I think you'd really be good at this.
Do it.
And it was the latter of the two where he responded and said, no, no, you seem to know
a lot of music trivia.
You seem to know a lot of cool stuff.
You should try this.
And he's you know, I will always credit him as giving me the proverbial kick in the ass
to try podcasting out, you know, Talking Metal and Mark Striegel specifically.
Right.
Yeah, and maybe we'll just mention what Mark's doing now or who Mark actually is.
I mean, you were saying he did Talking Metal and he's now on the radio, is that right?
Yeah.
So Mark, for those that don't know, I came across him on Talking Metal.
They had a show on a network in the US called Fuse.
They also appeared on Headbanger's Ball, him and John Astronomy.
And Mark has done a lot of music related things over the years and just things within the
entertainment industry.
So Mark was, and I'm not sure if he still does this or not, we're not as close as we
once were.
He would produce commercials for different networks.
And he's got reels and different things up there on the net for people to check out of
commercials that he's worked on or different things.
So he's worked a lot in the entertainment industry, behind the scenes.
He had been looking to work with XM, which is satellite radio, Sirius XM.
For some time, and for a few years before he actually got that gig, Mark and I have
worked together for a long time behind the scenes.
Talking Metal was him and John Astronomy.
John stepped away for a little bit and it was around the time that Mark's first son
was born, if I'm not mistaken.
He wasn't sure if he was going to continue podcasting or not.
And it was an opportunity for me where we started doing a Friday night show live where
I was up at 2 a.m.
I would do a leading show at 12 midnight, 12 to 1, or from 1 to 2, I forget.
And then Talking Metal would come on.
And we would interview people or we would just talk about music.
And it was like that for a year and a half.
And there were other circumstances that took place that kind of took Mark away from wanting
to do it that way.
Mark and I have worked several times over the years.
A lot of what I've done is behind the scenes.
I'm not the same person that I was when I was working with him, so I know that there
was a lot of bitterness on my end with how certain things worked out.
I think in 2024, looking back, I was very lucky to work with him.
Just given who he is and what he's done.
And there's quite a few people that I know from the podcasting world or that I've interviewed
from bands where I have no business knowing who they are or having their numbers or whatnot.
So yeah, even though that at the time, maybe there were things that didn't work out and
that I was bothered by certain things, I think now I'm in a different place and I see things
differently.
Mark and I worked, like I said, he had two different online radio stations that...
I helped program.
He had a website called...
It wasn't Talking Rock.
It was something else.
Talking Rock was another show.
I don't remember.
I could look it up.
But anyway, I ran that site for him for the years that that was going on.
I did reviews for him and what we ended up doing, me and you with the new releases.
I did a new releases post every Friday for him.
And then he started on Patreon and we started doing a show, which was the Mark Striegel
show and it was the two of us.
And then he asked me to do the recap show, which is essentially me recapping the last
month of Talking Metal and just pulling out interesting points and throwing in my opinion
on them.
And those were exclusive to his Patreon.
They were cool.
When he wanted to cut back on his Patreon, when he didn't like the direction that I was
taking his Patreon in, I started my own.
Mostly because I believe in spreading the word of new music, newer bands, older bands
releasing stuff.
Everything that me and you do on a monthly basis and what I do on Patreon all the time.
There are so many bands that just don't get exposure in different places.
And I think that over the years, there have been a few households where I've caused issues
with people forking over money for new vinyl or CDs or whatnot because they've discovered
stuff that I've posted.
So yeah, so I mean, all of it is kind of come from what I did with Mark.
And at the end of that gig with what I was doing with him on Patreon, he finally got
the green light that SiriusXM wanted him as an online DJ.
And he was working two full-time jobs at the same time, SiriusXM and another gig.
And then I honestly, again, I don't talk to him as much as I would like to.
The time difference probably has a lot to do with that.
But yeah, I mean, talking metal and Mark have just the name, just the magnitude of what
that carries.
It's helped open a lot of doors over the years.
He's always wanted that job at SiriusXM.
So I'm happy that he's happy with that, that he's in a good place now and that it's opened
up a ton of doors for him as well.
So yeah, so for those that don't know, he is a DJ on several satellite radio stations
in the US.
It's like there's in the UK, is it called TDT as well or is that just what it's called
here?
The digital satellite TV?
Not really.
No, we wouldn't describe it like that.
So just like you would subscribe to whatever TV provider you have in the US, you can do
that with radio.
And you can subscribe on a monthly basis and have satellite radio, which I think it's like
200 channels with different things.
And Mark is on several of those stations and now he's even able to interview people.
Okay, okay.
Well coming back to your stuff, your signals from Mars, I mean, you've interviewed, as
you kind of pointed to them, many sort of up and coming rockers, some established acts.
You've introduced us to a lot of music, as you clearly mentioned just then.
Can you recall maybe one or two of your favorite interviews, you know, the really fun ones
that you've done over the years?
There's, okay, so there's a few.
Instantly, I mean, patrons have heard my very first interview ever with Dee Snider, which
was when I was 19 and at college radio.
And I sound a lot more like Mickey Mouse than anything else.
And he was in Twisted Sister at the time, was he?
No, he was starting out with Widowmaker.
Oh, right.
Okay.
And the way that I finagled my way into that interview was that the usual interviewer of
the station was not there that day.
She was out sick.
So someone else was going to interview him.
And I said, well, how much Twisted Sister stuff do you actually know to ask him?
And they said, oh, well, I don't know that much, but you know, I've interviewed a few
people.
I said, well, I think you really want to have somebody who really knows the band, likes
the band, you know, because it gives an extra kind of, you know, it takes the interview
to another level.
And I said, did you know that they played, you know, in New Jersey before that they were
big?
And did you know this?
And did you know that?
And, oh, no, obviously, you should do this interview.
And I lied with a lot of the stuff because I just wanted the opportunity.
I wasn't the hugest Twisted Sister fan, but I knew the magnitude of what it was to speak
to a Dee Snider.
There's still a magnitude behind it.
I've never interviewed him again.
I'd love to do it again.
But and it was funny because when we were done with the interview, Dee Snider says to
me, do you have a do you have a show on the station?
I said, no, I just sort albums and put them back on the on the shelves for now.
And he says, you will now.
And the next day I was given my own show.
So obviously, that's memorable signals from Mars.
I didn't answer your previous question.
I've been doing this.
It started out as Mars attacks in September of 2009.
And favorite interviews, John Bush is beyond the great.
He's probably my favorite person to talk to.
Joe Rivera from Armored Saint as well, a close second.
Bob now banding was always great to me, always had great stories.
Sadly, he's passed away.
Eric Kluber has always been a great interview is him and John Bush have been the two people
that I've interviewed the most over the years.
Trying to think of others that, you know, being able to speak to Charlie Bonante was
great for me.
Speaking to Gene Hoagland from six hours was beyond ridiculously good.
Speaking to Blitz from overkill.
There's a lot.
There's others where people, I mean, they're not as big names, but I mentioned Eric, for
example, a drew Fortier is another one.
Dan Lorenzo is another one where they're not the biggest names in the world, but there's
a certain vibe.
There's a certain rapport that I have with them that I can I can I can make chicken
salad out of chicken shit with them.
And they're they're good conversationalist as is.
Or even if I go into the interview without any questions whatsoever, I'll get a decent
conversation out of them.
And you know, I'll hope for 20 minutes maybe.
And most of them are closer to 50 than they are 20.
So and I love speaking to you guys.
I love speaking to the patrons because it's one of the appeals of doing it.
And it's funny because I haven't interviewed anyone this year this year.
And we're almost at the halfway point of 2024.
I can't even remember the last person I interviewed, but I don't feel the need to do it.
I want to do it, but it isn't one of these things where like, damn, I need to do it.
No, because a lot of times I speak to you guys.
And to me, it's therapeutic.
It's speaking to friends.
It's talking about things that are on our mind about music.
And it's one of one of the most important parts of listening to music is sharing it
with other people, sharing what works, what doesn't work, what band is clearly out of
their mind and saying that, you know, this album is by far our best because it sold the
most when you're saying, for God sakes, there's no way the only person I could think
that is the person that co-wrote that album and not the people that were in the band before
you joined the band.
I'm sure you know who I'm leading to.
Yeah, I mean, that kind of leads into my next question, really.
I mean, I sort of wanted to know a little bit more about what have been the nightmare
interviews, the really worst ones that you've done.
Yeah.
OK.
I've had a few Robert Fleishman, former lead singer of Journey and Vinnie Vincent Invasion,
interviewed him the first person that I knew of at the time in kind of the circles of between
Decibel Geek and other shows that I was familiar or friendly with at the time that had convinced
Robert to do an interview.
And I had 13 questions ready.
Seven were Vinnie Vincent Invasion questions.
I'm a huge fan of those first few Vinnie albums.
And it turns out that as I'm asking the questions, he says, I asked one and he says something
to the extent of.
Yeah, I had a great experience and that's all I'm going to talk to you about Vinnie
Vincent Invasion.
I'm like, 10 minutes in, there's really nothing else to talk about with you.
He had a new band that really never took off.
It was a cool band, but it kind of never didn't go anywhere.
And as we're wrapping things up, he says, well, I wrote the the end theme song to SpongeBob
SquarePants.
It's really not metal, but it's brought me a lot of money.
Like, oh, wow, that's pretty cool.
Every time that I watch out with my kids now, I can say, hey, I interviewed the guy that
wrote this.
So yeah.
And then like a month later, Chris from Despogeek interviews him and he was completely pissed
off at Vinnie and it was a 180.
He gave them everything that I would have loved to have.
Who else?
I mentioned some of these rich ward from Stuck Mojo and Fozzie spent twelve dollars, twelve
euros, which is closer to thirteen, fourteen dollars, leaving him voice messages and having
the PR person at his label who was pretty much the person in charge of a magazine that
I was writing for at the time.
Essentially said, oh, it's your fault for not leaving him messages.
And I said, I've called him eight times.
I've left messages six times.
If he's not picking up by now, nothing I'm doing.
Oh, well, you're going to have to keep calling.
I said, no, I'm not going to keep calling because proper business etiquette.
If you're screening your calls or whatever, you know, somebody's scheduled to call, call
the person back, send them a message, do whatever.
But no, never ended up happening.
Spoke to Mark Tramonte.
Recording software did not work.
Wolf Hoffman, same thing.
Mark Tramonte was was even worse because there was somebody from the label listening in on
the conversation, which sometimes happens with bigger name artists.
And the entire time I kept hearing, this is Maria from Roadrunner.
Are you ready for your interview with Mark?
He's going to be calling you in 10 minutes.
Hi, this is Maria from Roadrunner.
And I kept telling him, like, Mark, there's some lady called Maria that keeps coming in,
keeps cutting in and out.
He's like, man, I wish there were somebody here, but there's nobody here.
This is boring as shit.
You know, whatever.
And I had a really cool I had a cool conversation with him and with Wolf.
It just didn't work.
Michael upon from Symphony X.
My computer crashed.
And it was an older computer, so it took forever to reboot.
I called him with a few minutes left in our interview schedule.
And I told him, I said, look, I this is what happened.
I'm sorry.
I'm calling you late because of this.
Can we reschedule?
No, let's just do the interview.
I'm like, I have five minutes left.
Yeah, no problem.
Let's just do it in five minutes.
Are you serious?
Okay, let's see what we can do.
Richard Christie, best known now for the Howard Stern show, calling him at two a.m.
That was one a.m.
He picks up ten minutes late because he was doing another another interview.
Ten minutes in.
He says, oh, I got to go.
I got somebody calling me from the UK.
It's important.
I said, dude, I'm calling you from Spain.
I'm an hour ahead of the UK, so I'm six hours ahead of you.
It is whatever one a.m. or whatever time it was.
Yeah, no, I got to go.
Like Stephen Pierce.
He was a nightmare.
Was he a rat?
Yes, Stephen Pierce, a rat.
Was he a rat?
Well, I finally got him to do the interview, but I had to call him like four times.
He was on pain medication.
And then Rex Brown.
Both Stephen and Rex are known for being dicks to people.
And I found out firsthand.
Those are those are the more nightmarish ones, you know, where people are just jerks.
It sucks.
Most people aren't most.
Most people are cordial and nice.
But the technical issues suck.
You know, when you've got something ready and then it doesn't record right.
I've done a few over the years where again, where it doesn't record right or the video
doesn't record.
I can only can only do audio and now when I'm used to doing both, it sucks and you don't
have the video component.
So anyway.
Yeah, yeah, you can understand that.
I mean, if if everybody was cordial and nice and you could interview absolutely anyone
in the world of rock and metal, who would it be?
I mean, one or two.
Yeah, Lars Ulrich.
And I'll tell you why.
Because it's a recurring dream and it isn't and it isn't because, you know, he's my absolute
favorite.
I have to you know, I have to absolutely talk to him.
No, I'm a few years back every every now and then I have an interview where I'm sitting
in a bar in a park in a car just talking to Lars Ulrich about music.
Because if we were old friends, just yeah, man, did you check out the new album by so
and so and you know, stuff like that.
So it would have to be Lars.
I mean, that's my number one.
Are there other people?
Yeah, of course.
But you end up I think you end up interviewing certain people.
Like I said, like a Stephen Piercey and you end up kind of doing the whole, you know,
careful what you wish for, don't talk to your heroes type thing, where I think that there
are some people that I would talk to and I think they'd end up being.
Other cretins and it would be like, you know, that's a letdown.
You know, that happens to me a lot.
A lot of times, not because the artists, but because, you know, some of my questions, I
realize some of my questions are long.
And I've had times where people have said, no, can you ask me that question again?
Can you rephrase it because they don't understand it?
And they'll say, oh, no, OK, so yeah, I still don't understand it, but whatever.
So I've had that happen a few times.
Yeah.
Well, I suppose one of the artists you don't want to interview might be Michael Schenker
because you'll only ever ask him one question and then he'll talk for an exact hour.
All I have to say is, so how's your brother Rudolph?
And then done, we've got an hour's worth of material.
That's it.
Yeah.
I mean, this sort of leads in a little bit to your favorite bands and solo artists.
I mean, obviously you mentioned Lars and I know you like Metallica, but can you just
sort of name a few of your real favorites, why you like them and what sort of got you
into them from the start?
I mean, my top five bands of all time, and this has fluctuated over the years, but I
mean, Kiss has steadily been up there.
First band that I listened to when I was four years old.
I have Creatures of the Night over my shoulder here.
Huge album for me because it came out.
I always talk to you guys about the emotional connections you have with music.
The album came out the same month that my grandfather passed away.
So it was the first time that I had to deal with death and my family.
My grandmother had to come live with us and she bought it for me for my birthday.
This was all in October of 82.
So Kiss has always been there for me.
Iron Maiden, if Kiss is my, I always say this, Kiss is my 1A, Iron Maiden is my 1B.
With the last few albums, we may be getting a clear number two now, but I love Maiden.
Maiden first came to me because of, I've referenced over the years a compilation called Masters
of Metal, which had Run to the Hills on it.
I remember coming overseas to Spain for one of the summers that I spent over here.
And I got on a bus, was going off to a hiking trip.
And this kid came up to me and said, I love Iron Maiden.
My friend copied this live album for me.
Can you tell me what Bruce Dickinson is saying?
And one of the things he says is this.
And the moral of this story is this is what not to do if your bird shits on you.
So I had to explain to him in Spanish exactly what he's saying or before Revelations where
he says, this is about washing a pair of curtains.
No it's not.
It's really Revelations this one.
Or whatever, I'm maybe butchering that.
What he's saying in the middle of running free, stuff like that.
He had live after death.
And the first thing that I did, we went on that hike the day after I got off the plane.
The day after I got off of that hike, I got on a train, went to the quote unquote city
and bought live after death in peace of mind and I've never looked back with Iron Maiden.
Number three, which is probably the latest edition in my top five, Anthrax.
Just love the band.
There are just so many things about it.
And I obviously I mentioned how much I enjoy speaking to John Bush.
Obviously the Bush years speak to me more than the Joe years, but I love the Joe years
as well.
My four and five are not metal bands.
My four is the Pesh Mode who I just recently got to see in concert for the first time.
And my five is the only one out of my top five that I've never seen before.
But also is a band much the way Queen used to be in my top five Ramones for a long time
were in my top five.
U2 is my five of five, but their last few albums have been utter crap.
I've lost a lot of faith in the band because they've decided to just put out pop shit.
Basically, they've for me after a certain point, they've kind of altered good album,
crap album, good album, crap album.
And now it's been a few consecutive crap albums.
So anyway, that would be my five love Metallica love Megadeth love Black Sabbath love Ramones
Fear Factory Nine Inch Nails Judas Priest Ozzy I've Allison Chains behind me Life of
Agony is behind me.
What else Eddie Van Halen is there?
Van Halen I love a lot of thrash.
So there's a lot of stuff that isn't hard rock or metal that I'm into as well.
There's a lot of there's other stuff that kind of takes their cues from the Pesh mode
and Nine Inch Nails and stuff like that, that I'm really into as well.
There's stuff that I post on Patreon where I'm like, yeah, this sounds really cool, but
everyone's going to hate it.
So I still throw it out there just in case.
I mean, more generally, you know, there's quite a few sort of well established rock
and metal scenes in the US, the UK and sort of other parts of Europe, Germany and Sweden
I'm thinking about.
But I'd be interested to know and I think everybody else really what Spain is like for
metal music in sort of terms of the bands, the venues and the sort of perceived popularity
as you see it, you know, in the country.
We should just mention for anyone who's never tuned in that you are actually based in Spain.
Okay, so I can sum it up in two sounds.
One is this.
Those are crickets.
Spain is not a rock based music country.
That's not to say that there aren't passionate fans here.
It's just that the general public just doesn't listen to it.
There's so many shows that I've gone to in my area that are dead with like 10 people
where I'm watching a band and I'm thinking this band in any other country would be playing
to 200 people at least where the pub or small theater they're playing at should be packed
to the rafters.
But unfortunately, the products of their environment, they were born here in Spain.
They will die here in Spain.
And because of the audience or the lack of intelligent music listeners, no one knows
who they are.
Angelisa Petrata, for example, have registered a number one album in Spain, several top 10
albums, but that's few and far between.
Like I said, it's not a rock music country.
And you can see it with the Eurovision entries.
You see how many countries now are starting to incorporate more rock based acts where
we see it on Patreon, we're all post stuff.
And Anthony Mackie a lot of times will say, oh, this is a Eurovision band because they've
got a certain poppy type feel to them and they just don't get it here.
They just keep pumping out Eurovision songs that are of some flamenco guitar from type
of dancey beat.
And it ended up dead last last year.
It will continue to be dead last because they just don't fucking get it that out of this
country outside of this country, hardly anyone listens to that garbage.
And I like all types of music, but the shit they present to Eurovision is garbage.
And like I said, Bill Bow, for example, which is about 45 minutes away, it's a stronghold
for rock music, for metal music, all of the best country for the most part.
But we're 45 minutes away.
We're not.
We're definitely not.
And bands like Soulfly and Sepultura and Brutal Truth and others of that ilk play here, Y&T
play here.
And the places will be nowhere near being full.
And you think, why is this happening?
They bring these bands here.
There's a lot of different things.
The culture isn't there.
The music related culture and the promoters just do a shit job of promoting a lot of these
shows.
It isn't field of dream just because you build it, it doesn't necessarily mean that they
will come.
So.
Okay.
You mentioned just a minute ago about the videos that get posted up and obviously they
get shown in your Patreon group and you put up a few each week or each day or even for
us to watch.
So there seems to be a lot of new music out as we know, a lot from the older, more established
acts but also from all the newer bands as well.
So I just really wanted to get a small impression from you really of what you think of the music
scene generally in our world, the rock and metal world now in comparison to when you
maybe started Signals from Mars, any sort of changes you've noticed over that time?
Yeah, I mean, there have been fads that have come and gone, some things that have become
more regular.
There are sites that have come and gone.
That's probably the biggest hit with regards to that.
There's a lot of stuff that's come back around as well, where I think there have always been
bands doing like retro thrash and retro heavy metal.
We've always had Scandinavian bands still doing 80s style hard rock.
So there's always been certain styles that have always been there, even though things
have maybe shifted back and forth.
I think we're at a point now where a lot of things are more accepted than they were in
2009, where maybe there were things that were shown.
The new metal is one of those things where in 2009, people were still trying to get over
the beginning of turn of the century, so people wanted nothing to do with new metal at that
time.
15 years later, I think people have changed that outlook.
I think people are realizing that it's okay to like whatever you like.
That's how I look at it.
I'm taking my 11 year old to go see Limp Bizkit in a few weeks.
He likes it.
It's rock based music and I've got no problem with it.
Is it my favorite thing?
No.
Are there songs that I like?
Yeah, absolutely.
I turned him on to that band.
I think that would probably be the biggest thing.
I think we're at a point in time where are there sites and different people that talk
about being too cool for school at times?
Yeah.
Is it as much as it was back in 2009?
I think there's probably less gatekeeping now than there was then.
Just finally, and I will get on to just a few quickfire questions as well at the end
of May, but just finally I wanted to know what your plans are for Signals from Mars.
Do you visage interviews coming back a little bit because you mentioned you've not done
any this year and where can everyone catch everything that you do?
We're obviously familiar with this now.
They're watching this or they're hearing it as you've posted it out, but anything
else, a website, other things that you might be doing?
Yeah.
Okay.
So the best place is signalsfrommars.com.
Unfortunately due to Meta's new changes, it's a royal pain in the ass to post videos to
Facebook now to have them go out live.
If you strictly want to just follow the videos, I would say go to YouTube or Twitch or even
Twitter or X because Facebook has all of a sudden become unfriendly with third party
apps.
That's a whole other discussion, but if you go to signalsfrommars.com, you've got links
to everywhere where you can follow the show.
You've got links to merch similar to what Jeremy and I are wearing today.
Got the signals from Mars hoodie on and he's got the baseball cap.
Yeah.
Signals from Mars.com is the easiest place to stay connected and find out what's going
on.
Interviews.
I want to do more.
I keep saying this.
This is a transitional year.
I'm trying to figure things out, but I feel like I've been doing that for two years now.
For those that follow me on Patreon know that basketball has become a big part of my life.
So trying to squeeze things in and trying to keep everyone happy is a priority.
It doesn't always work out the way that I want it to, unfortunately.
And I do thank everyone for their patience with regards to that.
I do want to do more interviews.
I will be in the States in a few weeks and I'm trying to line up some in-person interviews.
I'm trying to figure out what that's going to look like, how I'm going to record those.
Will they just be audio?
Will they be audio and video?
I could be... it's possible that I might be getting a tattoo and interview the tattoo
artist as he's working on me with regards to music.
So we'll see.
That's one of the ideas that's out there.
Kind of a happy coincidence is that I was speaking to a few different people about getting
some work done.
And one of the persons that I spoke to, Chris Vaglio, who I used to do Galaxy of Geeks with
and other podcasts, he has a whole sleeve that's dedicated to Star Wars.
So I asked him where he got it done and he said, oh, well, you should speak to John Cosco.
And he works out of Purink Tattoo Studios, which is close to where I'm going to be staying,
where my folks live.
And so I asked again, Dan Lorenzo, who I've had on the show several times because he works...
he's not an artist, but he works in tattooing supplies.
And I said, hey, who do you recommend in North Jersey?
And he mentioned two places that are fairly close.
I said, oh, because my friend recommended John Cosco.
He goes, oh, you mean John Cosco, who's on the last two patriarchs of Black albums.
So that's a possibility that I'll be interviewing him and talking about.
My idea there is to talk about tattoo culture and music, how the two tie together, because
I think that there's definitely an overlap there and would be neat to speak to someone
about it.
So we'll see.
And yeah, my intention is always to do more, but unfortunately, 24 hours a day, there's...
sometimes I get to the end of the day and say, shit, I wanted to do this and I just
didn't have the time to do it.
No, you're not the only one.
We're first here, folks.
So that's good.
Thanks a lot for letting me ask you questions tonight for the first time.
I really enjoyed it.
But before we go, I've just got a few quickfire questions so you can just answer them very,
very quickly.
Get the listeners to get to know you just a little bit more.
Okay.
First one, Anthrax or Metallica?
Anthrax.
Depeche Mode or Def Leppard?
2024 Depeche Mode.
Okay.
Small gigs or festivals?
They offer such different experiences.
I've talked about this recently, Mark Ramon saw them at a small place, small theater,
was amazing.
I'm going to be seeing Limp Bizkit at the Loserville Festival.
I want to see Limp Bizkit.
I don't want to see the other three acts, but I'll see them.
I've been to some amazing festivals.
I've been to some shit festivals.
I've been to some shit gigs and some amazing small gigs.
Based on my last experience, I'll say small gigs this time around.
That could change though.
CDs or vinyl?
Oh.
CD and vinyl.
Okay.
We'll accept it.
Why not?
People collect both as you have there, so that's fine.
Guitar or drums?
I love both.
I know that I'm a better drummer than I am a guitarist.
It's not even close.
They're still fun to play both.
They're both very relaxing.
They're both things that I need to do more of.
Okay.
A souvenir ticket stub or a souvenir lanyard?
I've both.
This is a both again.
Yeah.
It's funny because where I work out, I have ticket stubs and I have lanyards from shows
that I've gone to interview people.
I don't have all the ticket stubs that I wish I had because I didn't become the dopey collector
that I am until I moved away from home.
Anyway, I'll go with lanyards because I have all my lanyards.
I don't have all my ticket stubs.
Okay.
New Jersey or New York?
I thought this would be an easy one.
No.
There's so many emotions involved with both.
My sports teams are all from New York.
I love New Jersey, man.
When people talk about an inferiority complex, I've never felt it.
I've never really cared.
I don't know that I've spoken about this at length on the show, but I've gotten several
tattoos in the last few months.
One of them is a New Jersey based tattoo.
It has the year I was born.
It has a varsity letter D to represent Dover, the town that I was born and grew up in.
And under that, it has the zip code.
I am so proud of the town that I grew up in.
I know that a lot of people look at it in negative ways.
I've grown up with that around me, but I'm very thankful that I grew up in an environment
which was Americana, a melting pot of different nations of different cultures.
It's helped me become an accepting person, I think.
I'm so proud of the town.
If I have to go either one, I have to go with New Jersey because it's where I've spent much
more time.
Okay.
Last few.
Basketball or soccer?
Basketball in 2024.
Qatar World Cup ruined football for me.
Seeing how that World Cup was gifted to Leo Messi, to the owner of PSG to make sure that
Messi and Mbappe were both in the finals.
I said it for years that football or soccer is the most manipulated sport in the world.
We used to talk about boxing being that way as a kid.
I think the World Cup last year made it so apparent that it's football or soccer, and
it's ruined it for me.
Not to say that we can talk about our Mike Jones who's celebrating a birthday today on
the day that we're recording this.
He turned me on to a podcast that's about referees fixing basketball games.
Messi screws up a lot of things, but at this point in time, because I work with basketball
on such a basic and lower level, and I focus more on the local game than I do pro game,
I would say basketball.
Penultimate one, death metal or black metal?
Black metal.
There's black metal.
There are bands like Satiricon that I really like.
There's some Cradle of Filth stuff that I really like as well.
There are some death metal bands that I do enjoy, but a great Satiricon song gets stuck
in my head and it'll be in a playlist and being played continuously for a very long
time.
Okay, and finally, this one kind of explains all the others, and I'll give you just a few
seconds afterwards just to explain this last one yourself, because you'll know what I mean.
A burger or a pizza?
One I can currently eat and one I can't.
Or is it a question where you don't have to choose?
You flipped my theory on me.
Again, I'm at a place right now where I'm looking forward to my pending trip and I'm
looking at having some pizza for the first time in 14 years.
So that's what came to mind.
As a big mouth podcast host has always said, why do you have to choose?
You can always have both.
You can like both equally.
So there you go.
How many of my answers have been both anyway?
So I mean, look at that.
Absolutely.
Well, that's it.
That's it for me.
Oh, well, there's one that you missed.
Did I?
You did.
And I'm going to throw it back at you.
Okay.
It is currently, as we're recording this, this will be released later on, but we're
recording this on June 12, 2024.
It is 1139 local time for me.
It is one hour less for Jeremy.
Where is John Sykes?
I couldn't ask the question because there's no answer.
There's no answer.
There you go.
No answer.
Is he omnipresent and he's everywhere?
I think.
No, I don't think anything really.
I mean, we've tried to find out where he is.
We've tried to tease it out.
We'd love to know if somebody could just tell us, give us a little bit of information.
I think once I did ask Mark Stanway, former keyboardist with Magnum, because I'm actually
linked up with him on Facebook, and I'm sure I actually did ask him the question.
And I think he answered back to say that he was doing some music, but he wasn't quite
sure.
Okay.
And that was some time ago.
Who do we get new music from first, John Sykes or Vinnie Vinson?
Gosh.
That's a really good question, isn't it?
I'd have to say Vinnie Vinson.
I'm putting my money on that one.
Even if it's just a song, just a single song, I think we're going to get it from that side
rather than John.
I think John did release a couple of songs, didn't he?
And he was going to rerecord them or something.
And then it never came out.
That was pre-COVID.
Yeah, we got some snippets and we never got anything else after.
But I could have posed that different ways.
Do we get new Oasis music before we get John Sykes?
Do we get, you know, there's a few there.
But anyway, Jeremy, I thoroughly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do
this.
This was a lot of fun.
I can talk for hours if those of you listening or watching don't know.
Jeremy's just made my job very easy.
And if you want to do this type of show, this is something that I'm going to offer up to
the patrons and hopefully this is kind of the catalyst for others to wanting to do a
similar style show.
So on that note, again, thank you, Jeremy.
And we're going to be calling it a night here.
Hopefully you guys enjoy this and you'll come back and watch other episodes of Signals from
Mars.
On that note, we will see you next time.
You're on Signals from Mars.
See you folks.