Welcome one and all to episode 418 of Signals
from Mars. I'm your host Victor and for this
episode I welcome Matt and Tanner from the documentary
Lifers. I was lucky enough to check this documentary
out a few weeks back and I just had to reach
out to them to discuss the movie with them and
help promote it in any way that I could. So this
is the episode. I'm ready. Matt's been on the
show several times in the past, and I've known
of Tanner because of his show on the CMS. And
listen, anytime that I've reached out to Matt,
he's always been great to me. He's always been
a help. So anytime that somebody is good to me,
has a project to promote, I'm more than happy
to do it. And this is one of the funnest interviews
that I've ever done. There are people that are
on me to interview more and reach out to this
person, reach out to that person. But when I
watched this documentary, I knew that I needed
to speak to them because it's something that
I really enjoyed watching. It's a long movie.
I'm not going to lie to you. But it's really
cool. It's really in -depth and lifers. It's
about music lifers. Shit, they could do one on
podcasters. The lifers in the podcast industry.
Been doing this since since 09. So it's we're
what? We're four years away from. Yeah, from
20 years. I'm almost that. Actually, no. First
podcast that I started was 16 years ago. And
then this podcast, the Mars Attacks podcast.
came about in September of 2009. So I've been
podcasting since 2009. I've done over, at this
point, well over 1 ,100 episodes between my original
podcast, Fusion Sonica, Mars Attack Signals from
Mars, Talking Metal, The Mark Striegel Show,
The Mark Striegel Recap Show. my Victor M. Ruiz
podcast on Patreon, and guesting on other shows.
Yes, I'm not up there like other shows that are
up in the thousands or up, have twice as many
episodes as I do. Fortunately or unfortunately
for me, due to health issues over the years,
I just couldn't keep up. And due to having kids.
and taking care of my family and other life priorities.
I just haven't been able to keep up and I'm fine
in 2025 to be where I'm at. Listen, I wish it
was the good old days of the wild west where
I was pulling in 10 ,000 views per episode or
10 ,000 listens per episode. I see other shows
coming along. And getting more subscribers on
YouTube and on Facebook and Instagram and all
that. And that's awesome. And I applaud them.
And there's a lot of people that I've talked
to behind the scenes over the years. And I'm
proud that they've been able to do that. It just
hasn't worked out the same way for me. And I
also don't have the time to sit there and pound
the pavement on social media like others do.
I don't like social media. I use it because of
the podcast and little else. I'm not ashamed
to admit that. If it wasn't for that, you probably
wouldn't find me on there at all. Anyway, rant
off here. Lifers, check the documentary out.
All the information regarding it is coming up
with this interview with Matt and with Tanner.
At the moment, as I'm recording this, And there's
still physical copies available. So if you're
a collector, go to their band camp and check
it out. So it's really worth it. All right. Thank
you so much for listening to this episode. And
thank you so much for supporting the show. Let's
get on with things. Welcome one and all to the
latest episode of Signals from Mars. I'm your
host, Victor, and joining me today are Matt Hartnett
and Tanner Poppin from the documentary Lifers.
How are you guys doing? Doing great, Victor.
Thanks for having us on, man. Really appreciate
it, dude. Doing awesome, man. How you doing?
Good, good. I'm honored to have you guys on.
Matt, this is, I think, your second or third
time on? I think third time on, yeah. Tanner,
this is your first, so I appreciate you guys
jumping on here to talk about the movie, the
documentary. I was mentioning this to Tanner
off air. I wanted to make sure that I could sit
down and watch this in one sitting. I knew beforehand
how long the movie was going to be. So it took
me a while to see it, but not because I didn't
want to see it. It's just that I wanted to carve
out time just to watch the whole thing in one
sitting and absorb it all in one sitting. The
movie is lifers. The documentary is lifers. I
keep saying movie. I want to say film. I want
to say documentary. Does movie bother you? I
mean, there are some people that... No. I mean,
I mean, you know, movie, film, like you said,
documentary, it's all kind of rock doc, whatever.
It's all same. It's all relevant, relevant, right?
I mean, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. What was the catalyst
for you guys to start working on lifers? Well,
you know, just an idea came to me a couple of
years ago, you know, just doing a lot of the,
you know, obviously doing the podcast myself
and talking to a lot of these artists, you know,
a lot of them, obviously, as you do too, Victor,
a lot of these artists are. Middle -aged guys,
right? A lot of them too might not have had much,
you know, I would say commercial or mainstream
success. Maybe they've had some, you know, been
on some good labels and had to, you know, put
out a couple of records on some of those labels,
good independent labels, but they never really
hit it big to where they could do this full time
and make a living off it. And so I just, it just,
I just thought to myself, you know, I wonder
how these guys do it. I mean, how do they balance
it around their work, their family? And what
really keeps them driven and motivated to go
out there and keep putting out records, to keep
touring. And even if they're playing in front
of you on a Wednesday night in front of 20, 30
people, traveling that far and obviously not
making really any money off it. I mean, they
come back, maybe they break even or they make
a little bit. But really just to kind of delve
into the question we asked all of them is, why
do you still do it? you know, as it's in the
film at the end there. And that's what we want
to really get the answer to. Why do you still
do it? What is, you know, what drives you, motivates
you, and how do you balance it around basically
the rest of your life? And so, you know, that
kind of came to my mind. I was talking to Tanner
about it one day. I said, yeah, I got this really
idea of a film I think I want to do. And when
he heard the idea, he was like, hey, man, you
know, I'm on board. Let's do it. And so we decided
to kind of, you know, just put together five.
musicians, artists that we thought were, you
know, had, had, you know, some pretty interesting
careers and I've had some success, maybe not,
like I said, mainstream or commercial success,
but did some things and are out there still doing
it. And this, like, like the movie says, their
life is right. There's something that they just
can't stop doing. And just kind of wanted to,
yeah, give just people a sort of a, a glimpse
or a synopsis of what these guys do to make all
that happen. Yeah. And with my background, I've
done a couple of films. So I was, my main focus
was kind of just to like capture that vision
that Matt particularly came up with. So I thought
it was a cool idea and like how I was going to
play my part was just like, just do the best
job of capturing it and giving them the materials
to put a film together. Cause it's not really
easy to put a film together when you don't have
the pieces to in place to do that. So that was
a great idea. And it's, it's, You know, here
we are today talking about it. So it's been awesome.
Cool. And were there other ideas you were kicking
around or was it immediately lifers? This is
what, you know, because I know you're a creative
person with podcasting. You know, there are so
many ideas being thrown around and different
things that you have to sort through and figure
out exactly in what direction you want to go
in. So were there other things you were contemplating
or was it this right off the bat? Yeah, this
was kind of it off the bat. I mean, obviously,
the way the film came out, there were some things
that maybe were in it that I didn't think of
maybe at the time until we did the filming. And
of course, there were some things we wanted to
get. We were thinking of getting that we didn't
maybe get maybe because, you know, a lot of it
to some, you know, I mean, obviously, since this
is our first film together doing this, we didn't
have anything to show some of these guys. Right.
Right. Like a reference. They say like, look,
it's going to kind of be like a room like this.
So I think a lot of them didn't really like know
what we wanted to do. And we kind of explained
it to them, but it was also like, okay, you know,
it's one of those things where it's hard to really
understand what our vision was until it's out.
So, you know, that was one of the things too,
is you sure we wanted to obviously get, you know,
and then the guys in the film ball, I'll tell
you that, you know, I was asking them for some
stuff. Tanner was asking them for some stuff.
And, you know, I think either they didn't feel
comfortable giving it to us because of not having
any background in this yet. Or maybe there's
just certain personal things they didn't want
to put out there, which we totally understand.
So, yeah, there is a couple of things in the
film that, yes, that weren't planned, that just
kind of came up as we were filming, that were
like, oh, you know what? We could put this in
there and so forth. But in terms of the overall
general idea, this was really the main idea.
But obviously, everything in the film, it wasn't
like that's what we wanted to get originally.
It just kind of came up. So we said, hey, this
is a good piece that we can include in it. I
think the biggest obstacle was trying to find
a name to fit the movie. Totally. Were there
other names you guys were throwing around? Yeah,
but nothing really serious. There was a name
or two I threw to Tanner. I said, you know, we
had like a temporary name in the beginning. And,
you know, after thinking about it for a day or
so, I was like, no, we could do better than that.
You know what I mean? We could think of something
better. So Lifer's just kind of. And I don't
know how exactly it came to me. And I remember
I ran it by Tanner. I said, what do you think
of lifers? He was like, hey, perfect, man. That
actually fits with everything we're trying to
do. And so, and, you know, and everyone else
was happy with the name too. But yeah, obviously
the name is always kind of a, always the, probably
one of the most challenging things to do, right?
Since it's your branding and you want to make
sure you nail it and don't come up with something
kind of silly or stupid or something that doesn't
stick. So we thought just one word lifers and
it fit really kind of what it was about. You
know, these guys are lifers, right? They're doing
this for life and there's, you know, there's
no stopping them. So we thought it was a pretty
ideal and fitting name for it. Yeah. Okay. And
you kind of alluded to this a moment ago. What
was something that an artist gave you that you
weren't expecting? And what was something that
maybe you thought they were going to give you
and they didn't give you? Well, that one we can
answer pretty easily. One of the things we wanted
to get in the beginning was obviously, and we
completely understand why it didn't happen. Again,
we were new at this and we were obviously hoping
to get at least a cameo appearance by Bill Church
himself. And obviously, you know, we asked Trevor
at first, he seemed open to it. And then, you
know, I think the more we... We went to Fresno.
We asked about it. And I think he had been sick
for a little bit. So he's like, yeah, you know
what? My dad's not really, you know, feeling
good. Maybe it's not like the best time to do
it. So we had to go back to Fresno and do some
more filming. And I guess the same thing. He
wasn't really feeling too good. So I think in
the end, maybe, and he'd have to answer himself.
But I think a lot of it was like, you know, who
are these guys? They haven't done any films yet.
You know, he knows. We've interviewed, obviously,
Trevor Beach, both of us, multiple times for
our podcast. uh again you know it's a music business
right i mean and and he's very protective of
his dad's legacy and very understandably so you
know and so uh you know and he had just put out
a book too uh bill church martin popoff did a
book on bill and um really good book too uh i
suggest everyone out there if you know you saw
what you liked with bill in the movie and his
past really really great book that uh trevor
did with martin popoff to put that out and so
You know, I think it's just one of those, like,
you know, it's a music business, right? Everyone's
trying to get their hands in the cookie jar and
it's a very, you know, shady and not trustworthy
business. So I don't think we had built up yet
that relationship with him where it was like,
okay, yeah, here's my dad and here's whatever.
He's very protective. So we totally understood
why at the end he didn't really, maybe he kind
of backed out of doing that. In terms of what
was in the film that we didn't expect to be in
there. I guess there's a few things, you know,
I guess one of the things that sticks out to
me was when we started and we had originally
got Eric into the film. Shortly after we agreed
to do it, I noticed he had put out that he was
actually going to go do a reunion show with the
band Overloaded, one of his bands in Detroit
that he was in. And so when I found out about
that, I said, hey, this would be a great thing.
Me and Tanner talked, we both decided, yeah,
this is a good thing we can include in the film.
So we had asked him, you know, obviously while
he was there to get us some footage and everything
and to get that portion. And I thought that piece
was really good, you know, to kind of come full
circle with his Detroit roots and how they did
this reunion. I think since then they did another
show as well. I think about a month or two ago
they did a show back there again. So that was
something that in the original planning wasn't
in, but once. I saw he was doing, I said, we've
got to take advantage of this. And so me and
Tanner, you know, both hit him up and said, Hey,
let's, let's get this in there. So we did, that
was something that wasn't planned that yeah.
Eventually made it in there. Well, and we had
pretty much given like a list to all these guys
and Eric literally checked off every single like
item on that list that we sent out. So that was
really like refreshing for me just in it, it
made in my particular opinion, His parts seem
there was more to it with his parts just because
we got a lot out of of Eric per se. Now, again,
if I had done a few films beforehand. So this
wasn't my first, but it was our first just as
a collective. So I completely understand with
Matt as to, you know, maybe some people were
hesitant to give us some some things that could
have made the film even even better than what
I, you know, I mean, I'm. particularly proud
of it i know matt is as well and um it could
have definitely made the film um that much better
that much cooler but um i i think eric was the
biggest surprise for me personally yeah he got
us eric got us everything plus times 10 that
we asked him to get he was he was great to work
with and really easy um in terms of really you
know but at the same time you know we've had
a i know you've you know you you know eric i
know victor i know he's been on the show And
we've all had a relationship with him for some
time. So there was that sort of relationship
already built where he trusted us. And, you know,
he knew we were going to do well by him and everything.
And so, as we know, it's all about the relationships
in this field. And so, you know, I think that's
why we were able to get more from him than some
of the others, just because there was already
that relationship. But in the end, we were grateful
to all of them for getting us what they did get.
Of course, we wanted more and more. And, you
know, we just want, want, want. I'm just grateful
in general that they all agreed to do it and
they got us what they did so that, you know,
the film came out the way it did. Yeah. Eric's
funny like that. You, you send something his
way saying, Hey, you know, I'm looking to talk
about this topic. You want to chime in or you
want to, you know, I'll, I'll ask, well, we're
voting on this on the show. Do you want to, I
don't know if I can, you know, say anything about
that or I don't know if I really have an opinion
and like five minutes later. Okay. Well, what's
made me think about it here. Yeah. Great. Like
that. Yeah, he is. No, he's, he's, he's, he's
always been easy to work with and always very
open and forthcoming with everything, you know,
and he's quick. He got it to us. Very quick.
Like super quick. Very real professional, man.
He really is the consummate pro. He really is.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Outside of bill,
is there anyone else that you guys approach that
you wanted to include that? ended up not wanting
to be part of the movie yeah well you know obviously
the two you know the the two biggest names in
the film obviously were were trevor and ruben
you know ruben obviously being um being a part
of the original uh fu manchu lineup on those
original albums that were huge uh same with nebula
um so of course yeah i wanted to you know dig
a little into you know um I tried to get somebody
who was in both of those bands, obviously. But
I think it's the same kind of thing. I think
a lot of it was most of the guys, we explained
to them what the idea was about. But obviously,
like I said, we had nothing to reference it and
say, hey, it's going to kind of be like this.
And because we didn't have already, like I said,
too much. I mean, like I said, Tanner said he
has a couple of films. in terms of us working
together and just something out there that a
lot of people know about. We didn't have anything.
So I think it was, well, what's this going to
be? If I'm going to go reach out and ask this
guy to be in it, I mean, first of all, as we
know, a lot of times when people come up with
these ideas, they start filming, they put out
trailers. These films don't get finished. And
so I think that was the other thing was just
like, well, is this going to even go through,
right? I mean, because we're just two, you know,
as I say, two clowns with a camera. you know,
going and filming these guys. So they're just
like, they don't know how professionals can look.
Cause we just got a camera. We're asking them,
you know, we're interviewing, we're doing things.
So they just didn't really, we've got most of
them had come out and said, you know, this was
much better than they thought it was going to
be. And so I think that kind of gives, gives
us an idea is okay. They just didn't know. And
they were like, there's just two dudes. It's
not like a big, you know, production thing here.
So I think they were just hesitant to get anybody
else involved. and reach out and then this thing
either not happening or it not really being that
professional not looking that great so again
yeah i mean we try you know which i tried to
get you know an expo manchu you know nebula member
um but i think because of that you know or either
you know this and i don't know what the relationships
obviously these guys have with their old bandmates
um there might not be you know in the case of
the guy who's trying to get he used to be a nebula
Nebula had two of their bases die within one
year. So it was a real, do you want to really
go there? So again, I think just a lot of them
were hesitant for that reason. So obviously,
like Tanner said, we definitely had more that
we wanted to get. But I think considering we
had no background together and had no other product
together, I think what they gave us, we're very
just grateful they did. And at least we put out
a quality film. and i and i also want to add
too i i also appreciated all like the secondary
uh players in this like i love the fact that
we got cat from old blood she was like super
supportive and like super um just like ready
to go literally got off the stage and did like
a 15 quick 15 minute interview that that um we
absolutely love to that that was included so
like i think it's kind of those little moments
for me that really like are my favorites of the
film itself Yeah, that's it's funny looking at
Kat because she usually only has half of her
makeup on. But in the interview, she's got like
a quarter on. As soon as I saw her, I'm like,
wow, this is fresh from her getting getting off
the stage and half of that. And that's cool,
too, because, you know, I follow her on social
media and follow the band and whatnot. So to
put a voice. With the image and, you know, it's
not the same as hearing her sing, just getting
her opinion and her feedback, because obviously
she's there and she's living through a lot of
these different things. So it's cool to get that
type of feedback that also isn't somebody that's
going to be bullshitting you either. You know,
I think what you're saying as well is that there's
just so much shit that happens with the music
industry that, of course, these guys have. you
know, a shield up and they're weary about who
to talk to, what to say, you know, who they're
going to actually spend their time with. So,
I mean, it makes sense. Everything you guys are
saying makes sense. Yeah, no, it is. And like
I said, you know, we completely. understand it.
And like I said, the good thing is, is, you know,
and we'll talk a little bit late, but we, we
are going to, you know, be doing a second one
of these. Okay. And so, and so the good thing
is, is now that we've got this, we've got something
we can reference to. I don't think we'll have
too much of a problem in that area going forward.
Hopefully. Yeah. And I also think because Matt
and I are fellow musicians, so we do understand,
you know, the trepidations that musicians would
have for, you know, some new. quote unquote new
people um coming in and kind of trying to put
um a spotlight on their careers or do something
nice um for the bands and whatnot like we understand
that the the trepidations when it comes to that
just being musicians ourselves so i just want
to throw that out there absolutely yeah okay
and why did you guys decide to do a long form
documentary as opposed to doing a, you know,
a, a series, a, you know, you had the five different
interviews. You could have focused on one guy
for, for each part, but you guys decided to do
the, the long form instead. Yeah. You know, it's,
we, we obviously had some discussions on, you
know, how to go about doing that. I think, well,
originally when we started this, there was going
to be four and not five. The fourth, you know,
originally we had, you know, Ruben and Eric,
you know, locked in from the get -go. Ruben was
the first one I'd asked to do it when I saw his
band, The Freaks, play up here. And I'd interviewed
him before and so forth. But we had another person
I was going to approach. Actually, it's kind
of funny. When we got Kip and Nacho is actually
where we kind of started. We already had the
idea of Ian Tanner. We went to the SoCal Heavy
Jam that's featured in the film. And we had talked
previously about doing the film. So when we were
down there, I said, hey, there's somebody who's
going to be playing here that I'm going to approach
and I wanted to ask to be in it. And what happened
was when we got down there and we saw how the
festival was run, I had known, I'd interviewed
and kind of knew a little bit of Kip and Nacho
beforehand. But when we saw... just how great
the festival was, how it was run. These guys,
how genuine they are, how, how just of a community
feel that that festival is. They bought, you
know, they bring in food for everybody. I mean,
it's just really something you don't see anymore.
And we were just both kind of blown away. And
we both just kind of sat there and I was like,
you know, this is, we both just talked about
it and said, you know, we should really have
these guys part of this, you know? And so the
person I was going to ask at the time. I decided,
you know, we're going to ask these two. You know,
this is, I think, a better fit for what we wanted
to do. And then the last person we got in was
Trevor. So we kind of had them in sort of as
a package kind of thing because they work together
with the festival. Their bands obviously haven't
been around as long. They haven't had the history
as the other three have. So we were going to
kind of combine them, which we kind of did. But
after, you know, doing all the filming and after,
you know, I was editing everything and kind of
cutting it up and we got it down to about the
two hours and 40 minutes that the film is, I
was going to then, you know, maybe cut some more
of it. But I said, you know what? Like, it was
really hard to do that. I wanted to have everyone
give their story. And when I went through it
all, I said, I don't really see how I could take
any of this out without it. Now, you know, it's
all relevant to their story. So we just decided,
you know, in the end, instead of, you know, cutting
out of one scene or, you know, you know using
that maybe as bonus footage or you know just
trimming it down it's just like you know what
this is the story let's it's a little unconventional
I know it's a little longer but I wanted to make
sure they all had their story in there as full
and so it was definitely a decision we definitely
kind of wrestled with a bit you know should we
shorten it should we keep it but in the end we
decided let's just keep it as it is you know
going forward yes I think having the five was
a bit much I think four with the timing that's
the only complaint we've gotten obviously if
anything was just that you know it's it's a little
long which we understand yeah it's not something
that you know maybe someone can watch within
an hour and a half one setting as i when i you
know when i sent it to you as i said you know
you might take it might take multiple settings
to finish this up you know but some people have
said i watched it right through it was great
so it's all in the night you know the eye of
the beholder as they say right so um but yeah
definitely that was the one thing we had that
we wrestled with was definitely the length and
i think it's because Yeah, having five might
have been a lot to, you know, for a lot of people
to digest. But in the end, it was just like,
you know what, instead of cutting, we wanted
everyone to give their story. So we just decided
to leave it in there. Yeah. And, you know, Matt
and I really, we really got lucky with this because
the SoCo heavy jam that Matt's referring to is,
I think, from 2023. And it just so happened that
Kip was playing with Formula 400 at the time.
Now, we didn't know anything that was going to
happen, obviously, the next year. And we had
already kind of planned on like kind of wrapping
it up with like the 2024 SoCo Heavy Jam. Now,
we didn't know that Kip was going to be retiring
from the band. So that kind of threw a whole
wrench in and kind of made it even more extra
fun to try and come up with an idea of like,
how are we going to put this in the film? So
like we really got lucky on a few key moments.
of the film, in my opinion as well. I don't know
if Matt wants to, if you want to discuss any
of that or. Yeah, no, I agree with you. Like,
yeah, the Kip thing, that was a thing too. You
know, I mean, obviously with him leaving, that
opened up this, when it first happened, I was
like, oh my God, well, what are we going to do
now? You know, the movie's called Lifers and
Kip's no longer alive, you know, he's retiring.
So, but we thought actually that's a good thing
to feature as him. You know, having to leave
the band because, you know, of his age and his
and, you know, it's the pain. He's got shoulder
issues. He's got a lot of physical problems.
And just just obviously just getting to a point
where you go, OK, you know, maybe I guess I am
done. So in the end, it was like, actually, you
know what? This is actually a good thing. This
will make the give a little twist to the film.
And so, I mean, of course, I wish he was still
with the band because, you know, he's good at
his instrument. He's really the guy behind the
band that really has gotten them to where they
are in terms of being out there on social media
and promoting the band. He was really the face.
He's the guy on social media pumping them. Without
him, I mean, not a lot of people would have discovered,
you know, Formula 400. Yeah. So, and of course
we had to then include that part as well. So
it did open it up to be a little bit longer because
of that as well. And, um, you know, but obviously
that is the, the one thing is the length that's
usually done, but usually what docs are usually
an hour and a half to two hours, you know, but
we thought, you know, this is a different type
of documentary anyway. Why not just give them,
let them all have their stories and we just won't
really focus too much on the, the time itself,
you know? So, um, yeah, that's why it's as long
as it, you know, as it is, we just didn't want
to. take anything out. We always, we thought
everything that was in there, it was relevant
and needed to be kind of said. So we just left
it in. Yeah. Yeah. The other cool thing is, is
that he also does say that he's going to continue
to help work with the festival moving forward.
So at least in that sense, he still is a lifer
in the sense that he's leaving formula, but he's
still going to be involved with the scene and
promoting things as well. So. Yep. And. Yeah.
And he says in the film too, about how they,
you know, they might do like an all -star kind
of jam thing and they are going to do that. And
that's all scheduled for this year's heavy jam.
So that is. Yeah. So exactly. You're right. He's
still a lifer. Absolutely. Yeah. I will be filming
that. Maybe we could do some bonus material with
it. We never know. So. How much did the late
great Bob now bandians influence play into this
documentary? Well, obviously, well, to be honest
with you, you know, when I had the idea and I
approached Tanner to do, you know, for us to
do it together, you know, at first, you know,
I wasn't sure, you know, in terms of like, this
is a big, you know, it's a big undertaking to
do a documentary. I was, you know, very blessed,
you know, to have, you know, to work with Bob
on the Bay Area Godfathers to do some work right
here in the studio with him on that film. So
I got to see Bob, you know, obviously in action.
With the film and I got to, you know, see him
how, you know, pick his brain and how he's putting
everything together. And, you know, with Bob,
that was a little different because he, you know,
basically he had a budget from Cleopatra, you
know, and he was able to hire people to help
him with these things. Whereas with me and Tanner,
this is just, we're doing everything. But in
terms of like, it really started was, you know,
I did a tribute film to Bob where I had like,
you know, Brian Slagle and a bunch of these guys
giving a tribute. And so. That was sort of my
test run to see if I can do a documentary. And
once I did that, I said to myself, yeah, this
could totally happen. Like it's definitely feasible
and attainable to do a documentary. Because at
first, you know, it's like I'm watching Bob with
all these people he's hiring. And I'm like, man,
how does he make all this work? You know, so
for us to do it ourselves was definitely more
of an undertaking to do. But doing that tribute
we did to him and then just also being around
him, picking his brain. you know, just being
a friend of his and just, you know, yeah, I mean,
obviously he's a big influence. I mean, I think
our film is a lot different than Bob's films,
you know, which were more historical, obviously,
and documented, you know, really document documentaries
in terms of really documenting like the history
of, of the scenes and so forth in LA where ours
is a little different, but in terms of just getting
the confidence and, and knowing and having just
a, a good base and, and, you know, I guess. Yeah.
Yeah. Foundation is the word Bob was, was definitely
influential big time for that. Yeah. Okay. I
just saw that you guys are going to be releasing
50 physical copies. Yes. Of the documents. Oh,
wow. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's there.
It's these are promo. Yeah. These are the promo
DVDs that we had to send out to distributors
and so forth. We had a lot of, uh, interest,
you know, it's, it's, the film's going to be
on filmsy .com right now. I mean, we've got it
out there. It's going to, we're hoping obviously
it's, it should be on Amazon within the year
as well on prime video. Um, but obviously we,
we kind of, we, we did a sort of preview presale
thing on a specific site for about a week for
people. If they wanted to check it out, we did
that back in may. And obviously, so we've got
a little bit of buzz and people were like, when's
it coming out? Obviously, all the guys in the
film were getting questions. So they're like,
hey, you know, everybody wants to see this thing.
So we thought, I mean, unfortunately, when it's
on these streaming sites, there is no release
date. It's just they license it. And when it's
up, it's up. So right now we know it's going
to be on filmsy .com. We're just waiting any
day for it to be up. So we just decided for the
people who really are just chomping at the bit,
really don't want to wait. And for the collectors,
too, obviously, who like to collect and everything.
We just decided to some of these we had about,
you know, I forget how many exact, but we had
a bunch of these promo DVDs that we were sending
out to distributors. So we say, you know what,
let's, we'll set a bunch of side. We'll set 50
aside and they're going pretty fast though. We're
surprised at how fast they're going right now.
Yeah. We're almost sold out of them. So it's,
it's going pretty fast and you know, which is
great. We're great to see the interest in it.
So we decided, yeah, let's just take some of
these promo ones. We'll put them up for like
15 bucks for sale. So, yeah, so people can get
them on Bandcamp right now if they're looking
for it, windpalmproductionsbandcamp .com. Okay.
That's cool. How important was it for you guys?
I mean, outside of, you know, being able to provide
distributors with the physical copy, how important
was it for you guys to have some physical copy
available to people? Because as you mentioned,
you know, people our age, people that are into
hard rock and metal. They're still all about
the vinyl, all about CDs and whatnot. So again,
as you mentioned, there's collectors out there
that are looking for this type of stuff still.
Well, as a fellow physical media whore myself,
I am always after like having preserving kind
of our catalog. So I would, I wanted this just
to like be a part of my. portfolio kind of thing
so for me it's hugely important just to have
because you know for me it doesn't really exist
unless it's like you can physically hold it in
your hand so um streaming is all well and good
i mean no majority of people prefer that because
they you know that we tend to have a lot of minimalists
now because we buy so much stuff but for me it's
hugely important just as a fellow physical media
guy Just saying, hey, you know, we did stuff
and here it is. So I can't answer for Matt. But
for me, it was hugely important. Yeah, I agree
with Tanner. You know, I mean, obviously, I'm
a collector myself with vinyl and I got DVDs
and everything. But in terms of just just the
options, you know, I mean, like you said, I mean,
these guys are middle aged musicians. Most people
who are going to be interested in this music
are going to be in that age group, you know,
and a lot of them still. collect and prefer to,
you know, have that physical, you know, media
copies and play DVD. And they don't want, they're
not into the streaming going on their phone and
connected to their TV, you know? So obviously
since we've got our, you know, our target market
here, if you want to call it, you know, since
it's in that age group and that's the buying
behavior and those inside of the, you know, the
viewing behaviors and listening behaviors of
those people, we definitely, it was super important
that, yeah, we definitely have physical copies
and, you know, what we're trying, we're going
to see how, obviously this is sold so far really
well. And what we might do, this is sort of like
a collector's item. I mean, we could press up
more of these, but we want to just make it a
limited edition thing. And then we're looking
into probably sometime over the next year is
doing, you know, more of an extended version
of it and having it like, you know, really done
professionally in terms of getting a booklet
made. uh insert and and having you know um a
lot of bonus footage and so forth we got a ton
of stuff that we can include on it so we're going
to do sort of like a collector's you know sort
of special edition um you know once the film's
out there it's streamed for a while and then
maybe sometime around next year next summer so
we might look into we're seriously looking into
making like a real uh extended version of the
physical copy itself so i mean and obviously
this is like i said i'm sold out so it shows
that yes there's and we've only we haven't even
really gotten a publicist yet for that factor.
This is just through social media. You know what
I mean? So we're going to do, we're going to
do the publicist and everything once it's on
streaming. So I think once we get all out there,
we can get a good idea of how many people are
really interested in, in buying a physical copy
and, you know, maybe like a, like I said, a digit
pack sort of, you know, DVD type of thing. If
people are still interested, which, you know,
I mean here all the time, right. People, musicians
are telling us all the time, people still buy
CDs even. There is still a market out there for
people who want this. So yeah, it's very important
that we have the physical copy. And we didn't
even know how it was going to translate. I mean,
we could have just sat on the 50 copies. We didn't
even know how much interest there would have
been for this physical media. I mean, even like
digitally wise, when Matt released the second
trailer, that caused a huge kind of buzz within
the community as well. And it's always been these
little increments, right? And then we did the
pre -sale digital streaming thing. And then that
went really well. And then now here we are doing
the promos of the DVDs. And then that's doing
really well. So yeah, I think Matt and I were
open to mass distributing this if people want
to have it. And it seems like we're keeping the
momentum going in terms of the... the hype of,
of that this film exists and we want people to
check it out. It's funny the way that you guys
are describing it. It reminds me of, um, way
back when I was in college radio that you would
get these white label cassettes or CDs that didn't
have the actual album booklet or, or whatever
with them. It was just, you know, something that
looked like it was typed up on a typewriter.
And you're like, oh, wow, I've got this copy
before anyone else and no one can get it and
whatnot. So just the way you guys are describing
that, it's bringing that vibe back. Yeah, it
was pretty similar, right, to those, yeah, promo
DVDs, I mean, CDs you'd get from the labels,
you know, just to get on radio, exactly, college
radio and everything. This is just a DVD, you
know, version of it, but it's pretty, exactly,
that's what it is. It's more of a collector's
item. Like you said, first pressing, you know,
so for people who do, enjoy collecting and if
this thing does you know really do well and and
um you know it's for those people that say hey
i got one of the first pressings only 50 of you
so again yeah just you know we all still geek
out over that stuff so there's still plenty of
people love that yeah exactly yeah yeah the other
thing that kept coming to me when as i'm watching
the movie because i know a lot of the bands by
name um obviously i'm not i mean obviously i
know fu manchu i know all of um eric stuff i
know nebula i know a lot of these uh bands because
i have friends that used to run labels and stuff
like that but there are some bands that i'm not
familiar with their work even though i i know
their name so as the movie is going on i'm thinking
we need a soundtrack for this you know um and
then you start and i'm thinking i'm like well
licensing is gonna suck for something like that
you know just just to get everyone's music on
a vinyl, on a CD, whatever. Were there any thoughts
to put a playlist on a band camp or even on a
Spotify or something like that to help? We just,
there's just one that went up today on Spotify.
That's funny you say that. Yep. And we did, and
we did talk about, you know, wanting to possibly
do a soundtrack, you know, because the good thing
is, is we did most of the songs you hear in.
on there almost all of them really are um the
masters are owned by the artists themselves okay
you know obviously yeah of course i would have
loved to have gotten some old food man shoe songs
on there that ruben was on you know from the
early albums or even nebulas or uh some of eric's
you know with gypsy hawk that was on metal blade
and so forth obviously yeah that'll be a a bitch
to license pay in the s so most of the songs
you're hearing though are either You know, like
I said, Trevor owns all his stuff. So he's, you
know, most of his stuff, except for the early
Beastmaker stuff. But other than that, he owns
all the Haunt stuff. You know, all the Freak
stuff, Ruben owns. The one Nebula song we did
use, he's in the credits. So, you know, we can
use it. So, yeah, that was the one area we had
to be really particular. And Tanya really did
a great job with that. You know, he was, you
know, mostly did all that with terms of making
sure. that these guys, you know, we, we got the
sign off that we weren't going to get, you know,
hit with any exactly, you know, any labels coming
at us going, you're using our stuff, you know
what I mean? So if we did do a soundtrack, I
don't really, you know, it might not be that
difficult, but it's also like, we had about 40
songs on, you know, that were in the film. So
it's like, you know, how many, how many are we
going to choose to put on? And, and again, it's
like, you know, the Spotify playlist. Yeah. I
mean, we put that on today just so people could
hear the full tracks. And if it's something that
people, you know, do, if this thing takes off
and people do want something like that, you know,
it's something that we could go to one of these,
you know, labels that these guys are on and maybe
just say, hey, you know, I was thinking of, you
know, doing this, but I'm not so sure how much
of a, you know, that'd be something I guess a
label would have to show interest to as well,
you know what I mean? Because, yeah, for us to
print up a bunch of... It's yeah. As you know,
it ain't cheap, you know, and these days it's
really, uh, just the whole manufacturing thing
since COVID has been, you know, even though it's
better now, it's still a little off, you know,
than what it used to be. So it's a, it's a big
undertaking and you know what I mean? But yeah,
we did though, just put the Spotify place so
everyone can go and put it lifers, the movie
playlist, uh, on Spotify and you can go see that
it's up now. Yeah. And if we were to do a, a
soundtrack for it, um, We, it would be like a
box set almost at this point because there's
like 40 to 50 songs on it. So we may have to
do like a top 12 of like the movie, like the
most important picks of it. If we were to do
a single like kind of compilation soundtrack
to it, I don't know about like the full movie
in terms of all the songs. That would be like
a financial headache. Yeah, right now. Right.
Yeah. I mean, I've run a label before. Taz put
out his own stuff. So we understand what goes
into all that. And it's like, it's hard enough
as it is what goes on to doing the film, you
know, let alone now we're going to the music
part of it. And yeah, that's a whole other beast.
That's why if we did do it, we would definitely
probably want to have some backing and some help,
at least assistance from a label or something,
or one of the guys that are in the film or something,
because it is a huge undertaking. Yeah. doing
that. Yeah. And the last thing you want is 900
CDs in your closet. That too. I already got that
going on right now. Tanner's already got that
with his stuff. So, you know, we already got
that with, yeah, so exactly. That's the other
thing is space and just, yeah. The last thing
I need is more CDs sitting there for 10 years.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Cause how would we sell
them? I mean, besides like the internet or whatever,
I would think that the bands would have better
luck selling these than kind of we would. And
it would actually help get them more releases,
which would be a cool thing too. So yeah, that,
but it was discussed between Matt and I, like
it would be really cool to do a soundtrack to
this, but logistically wise, I don't know how
that's possible at this particular moment. Now,
if it blows up to where, you know, it takes over
the world, maybe we can, you know, then that's
a different story. But for now, I think just
having like, a physical pressing of it. It's
going to be on streaming for people it's out
there. So I think that's really the, the main
priority for us at this particular juncture in
the process here. Okay. So what we're doing right
now is the closest thing that I've ever gotten
to interviewing or shooting an interview with,
with someone. I've actually been kicking an idea
around, and this happened last year as I was
in the States getting tattooed and speaking to
the tattoo artist about the combination or the
crossover between music and the tattoo world.
And I told the tattoo artist, I said, you know,
if I were to corral enough people together. to
shoot interviews with tattoo artists and talk
about crossover with music. Would you be interested?
And he said, yeah, of course. And I know people
that I could help you get in touch with so on
and so forth. So as being a giant ignoramus,
when it comes to shooting stuff, like, like what
you guys have done, if someone wants to start
and do a quality documentary, like you guys have
done. What are the basic things that they should
look for? What's the basic gear they need? Because
I'm assuming that having a cell phone and a ring
light is not the way to go if you want it to
be professional. I'll take this, Matt, if you
don't mind. So basically, this was kind of where
I fit in with this whole juncture. Honestly,
should I spoil what we used on it? Is that cool?
Maybe I'll do that right now. So basically we
used a like $600 Canon camera and we just wanted,
we literally used like a $20 lob mic on most
of these guys. So we were actually, our model
really is keep it simple, stupid. So we got a
tripod, we got one, it's a one camera shot. It's
basically just learning the basics of. Even just
putting together an interview. So you could actually
do it with a cell phone and a ring light because
they do have the technology where you can plug
in mics into the phone and have good audio that
way. Now, with documentaries in general, there's
all different kinds, all different qualities.
You know, Matt and I are big fans of films, especially
documentaries. And, you know, a lot of them are
shot on cell phones sometimes. Now, I just think
having good equipment would be your best bet,
not having to break the bank to do this. I mean,
you can probably do it under $1 ,000, I would
say. Would you agree? Yeah, I mean, just, yeah,
for starters, you could, like you said, you just
kind of went through the main things you need.
Obviously, there's lighting, but that's not too
expensive either. And you don't even need that
in all situations either. I, you know, the, the,
the, probably the biggest challenge is really
just the logistics, the traveling, you know,
um, the, the, you know, time. And, and I would
say the biggest challenge is really just getting
the right people. Like I would, like, if you're
going to do tattoo, I mean, there was, it's,
it's kind of a good idea. You have, you know,
with the tattoo and music, I don't know if you
remember back in like 2000 was the whole, the
tattoo of the earth thing. Right. Remember that?
So that guy, his name, Scott, I forget his last
name, but I actually interviewed him a few years
ago because he put out a book on that. And so
just, he told me that working with tattoo artists,
that was very, very interesting. I'll just leave
it at that, man. So just to give you a heads
up, but no, Tana's right. Yeah, I'd say around
a thousand, but it's really the traveling. It's
the time, you know, getting them to, you know,
getting everyone who's going to be a part of
it to, you know, give you the time and to be
patient. You know, one of the things we ran into,
I would say a little bit, was I think, you know,
because we've got the vision, right? They don't
know what your vision is, right? Until it's out
on the film. And sometimes, you know, and Tan
is really good. I think about if we got a vision,
he's going to get in there and get it, going
to get that footage. And you got to be aggressive
doing that. You know, it's one thing I've learned
too, doing this with him is like, you got to
be, if you see something you want, you got to
just say, Hey, we're going to get this. I think
a couple of the guys maybe were a little put
off by that or a little like this is annoying,
you know, kind of thing where we're there and
maybe they're trying to, you know, set something
up or do something. And there we are filming
it. It's like I got this camera in my face or
right next to me. And if they're stressing or,
you know, they're focused on something else and
here's this camera, it could be, I guess, a little
frustrating for them. And we could see through
body language and certain things that were kind
of annoyed. Right. I think it's, you know, I
think, you know, getting, yeah, it's not even
really the equipment. Like you said, the technology
now is so cheap to do some ideas. I mean, we've,
since we've done this film, we've obviously for
our next one, we've got a new, you know, editing
program. We've got another camera, like a couple
of thousand dollar camera now that we're using
on top of the other one. We've got a bunch, we
got now a bunch of different wireless microphones.
We did now invest heavily into our second film
that we're going to be doing. But. Yeah, I wouldn't
even say it's the equipment. And that's the funny
thing is that's why I think a lot of them just
saw us with this equipment going, what are these
guys doing? And when they saw the trailer, they
were like, oh, whoa, this looks pretty professional.
That's like, yeah, you don't, you know, you don't
need a whole, you know, set of people. I mean,
back in, you know, the mid to early 2000s, if
you're going to put together a documentary, right,
you needed a whole, you know, crew of people.
You know, you just need one or two people now
to really get it all done because the technology
is so good. I think that really the challenge
is really. The logistics with the traveling,
getting people to, you know, sit down for the
interview and do a couple of interviews with
you or show up. You know, Tanner was great about
with the freaks. He would go to their rehearsal.
He went, saw them live a few times and shot them.
So it's really that's the I think the biggest
challenge is getting enough material while. these
guys aren't pissed off and frustrated with you
being around where they want nothing to do with
you after that. So, you know, that I would say
is the challenge, right? I mean, what would you
say to that, Tanner? Well, that and, you know,
editing wise, I mean, we used, I think iMovie
on this. It's a free program that comes with
like a Mac. So if you have a MacBook, obviously
you could, you could do something like this,
but yeah, I agree with Matt in terms of, you
know, you can't build a sandcastle if you don't
have the sand to do it. So like, We needed to
go out there and get that sand so we can build
the coolest castle in all of the land. So I think,
and I think it's also just starting with the
basics, like being able just to take it one step
at a time. Because a lot of, this is very intimidating,
maybe to some people, but to us, it's just really
fun because we took it one step at a time. You
know, yeah, we stumbled and we got back on the
horse. We stumbled, we got back on the horse.
So I think it's also the determination to like
never just. quit kind of thing like process because
a lot matt mentioned it earlier in this in this
interview where it's like how many times you
see a trailer and then the film never comes out
right i mean matt and i have had like hour -long
conversations of all the coolest films that we
saw trailers for that don't even exist right
so i think it's just not being able to not be
intimidated through the doing the process learning
as you go not being afraid to ask questions Just
really not being afraid to put yourself out there
and just see what happens. And I think that's
what kind of tends to hinder a lot of cool movies
from being even filmed. It's just like the whole
headache of having the logistics and just going
through the process. Yeah. And one last thing
is also the time you get it out. And so we started
filming this. We started in November of 2023.
And so my goal was because there's been times
I remember back, you know, when I was living
in New York, there was in the late 90s, there
was this New York hardcore documentary that came
out. And I remember I was so excited for it because
I was at one of the shows that was being filmed.
And the thing didn't come out for four years.
And by the time I think because there was so
much stuff that Hoops had to jump through, this
was obviously the 90s. So it was a lot more difficult
to put out a documentary then. But it took four
years. And by the time that thing came out, some
of those bands were already done, broken up.
Right. You know, and so much had changed. It
wasn't really representing what was really going
on at the time. It was old. And so that was the
thing we had was the goal was to get it out.
Originally, it was to get out anywhere between
15 to 18 months. And we did do that. I didn't
want it being more. We started, like I said,
filming in November 2023. So the goal was really
to get it out around either February or March.
And then it came out in April. But it still fit
within that year and a half. Right. You just
don't want it to be too long. Cause as we saw
Kip want to, you know, leave. And so all these
things could change in that time, but she has
her older. So that was the thing too, is you,
you definitely want to buy our goal in this film
was we didn't want to wait two years. We wanted
to get it out in a year and a half. That was
the goal. And we did that. And, you know, cause
you like Tanner, Tanner has a good thing. He
says, you know, with art is, you know, you never,
you know, it never gets done. It gets abandoned.
Never gets finished. So you have to just know
when you go, okay, you know what? We're good.
Cause we could have sat there for another six
months and tried to get more footage, tried to
edit out, maybe cut it short and do all that.
I think you just got to know when you have enough
and you go, okay, this is, this is good. Let's
just put it out now. And let's not sit on this
thing for two plus years. And then, you know,
no one cares about it anymore. No one, you know,
everything changes. It's not representing really
what's going on anymore. You know? Right. Yeah,
especially when you're doing a contemporary film.
We're not doing like a history lesson in terms
of like talking about a specific era of music.
We're doing it in the now, as Tesla says, so.
Yeah, you don't want to Chinese democracy it
where. Exactly, yeah. All those years later and
it's, you know, it's just the initial wave there.
Yeah, my gear question. through my frustrations
as, as a podcaster, you know, I think I've started
out small and, and, and built on things, but
even with that, you know, I have the same mic
that, um, that Matt has, uh, for example, you
see shows that are rated higher, they're getting
all this, you know, uh, listenership or whatnot.
And you're thinking, man, These fuckers don't
even level their damn audio between them and
their guests and music that comes in. Is it really
worth my time to sit there and edit everything
the way that I do? And it just comes to the point
where it's like, fuck, people have come to expect
a certain quality from me. I can't just half
-ass it now just because someone else is getting
more listens and they're doing whatever. So that's
kind of... where, where I was trying to head
with, with that question as well. You know, I,
it's something that really interests me and it's,
it's something that I really need to, to contemplate
because I think it's, it's a cool idea, but at
the same time, I don't just want to half -ass
it, you know, I don't, and especially seeing
what you guys have done. Um, it really helps
set like a standard, you know, um, And it's cool
to talk about all this stuff with you guys to
see what went on behind this. And it isn't, yeah,
you can't just shove a camera phone in somebody's
face and expect them to go, hey, I'll open up
for you and talk all about this stuff. You know,
there's a process and there's, you know, rapport
that you have to build with them and so that
they open up and they do this stuff. it doesn't
differ that much from what we do in podcasts
but you need to know how to approach it it's
its own kind of animal and and just know what
you need to do without obviously pissing people
off well yeah and you also can't make excuses
for not following through i think that's the
the what i was trying to even say from the get
-go is like a lot of people should just use excuses
like you're mentioning like not going over and
just shoving a camera in people's faces and hoping
for something. I, I kind of, I mean, obviously
I'm not physically shoving it in people's faces
here, but you do have to go out there with a
camera and just like, see what happens. The worst
somebody is going to say is no. That's what Matt
and I have found tremendously is like, yeah,
the worst they could do is say no. And then we
just keep moving forward. You just keep moving
forward until you find those, those gems. And
then, then a film pops out. I don't know. I just
think they're not having, just don't let excuses
hold you back. Yeah. And you know, you were saying
about Bob before, you know, Victor, you know,
one of the other thing that, that I did learn,
you know, through this, and it's something that
Bob, you know, now Bandy had done with his documentaries.
Like you said, is, is that rapport, you know,
obviously, you know, the good thing about, you
know, both Tanner and I doing podcasts ourselves
was we got to kind of vet. A lot of these, like
I said, everybody we had in the film, we had
interviewed before. Either one of us or both
of us had interviewed. And the one thing I noticed
is that, you know, if you notice Bob's films,
he normally had, you know, and even his podcast,
he kind of had his sort of, you know, I don't
say his boys, but, you know, he had his network
of people. And I used to sit there and sometimes
think like, you know, he just kind of sticks
in a lot of times to that. Why doesn't he branch
out more? Well, now I understand it. You know,
because when you're going to put time and money
and resources and all this stuff into something
like this and you're going to dedicate yourself
to it, you definitely want to make sure the people
that you're going to have in it are going to
do the same. You know, and like we said, that
was a good thing about it. For instance, like
we said, Eric, because we had known him for years,
you know, Tanner has played shows with him, with
his band. You know, obviously I've hung out with
them. We both hung out with them before we've
interviewed him. You know, we've had extensive
history with him in terms of that. Because of
that, he already knew his trust list and it was
so easy to get stuff. Like I said, he was giving
us more than we would have been asking for because
of that. And that's the thing that I learned,
you know, with Bob was he, yeah, he had his network
of people that he had featured a lot in his stuff.
And I understand why is because, yeah, if you're
going to, you know, if you're going to dedicate
this time, money and everything into it, the
last thing you need is to, you know, have someone
in it who's not going to really reciprocate that
and respect that. You know, and we were lucky
enough that for the most part, everybody did
do that. But I'll be honest with you, like with,
you know, I had to kind of put out the first
trailer a little, a lot earlier than I wanted
to because I kind of had to light a fire under
some of the guys because I think, yeah, because
they didn't know what it was going to be and
they just saw us come and do an interview and
blah, blah, blah. I understood like, okay, I
don't, I think they're hesitant to give us this
stuff because they don't know what it's going
to be. So let me put out a trailer to show them.
look, this is the real deal. It's really professional.
And once we did get that first trail out last
summer, it did light a little fire in them to
go, oh, okay, this looks cool. All right, just,
yeah, let me get them this stuff, you know, quicker
than they were, you know, kind of doing it. So
that's the thing too, is really, if you don't
already have that rapport, then you have to do
something like that to maybe kind of give them
a push, you know, or a nudge. So that's one thing
I definitely learned and probably going forward
is, you know, is really. you know, making sure
that rapport and that you already have that commitment
from these people, you know, beforehand so that
you're not wasting your time going on, man, this
person doesn't want to do this or give me this
and is making it difficult. Cause that, that
will be, that would be frustrating if you had
to deal with that, you know? Yeah. Definitely
establish the groundwork first before you even
invest your time to want to complete this. So,
yeah. There are two lifers that, didn't appear
all that much in the film and and those are you
guys because you guys have you know through music
through being in the inner in the industry through
different facets podcasting so on and so forth
i'd consider you guys lifers as well um there
are a few scenes where you guys appear there's
a scene where where bob appears as well um Was
that a conscious effort that you guys didn't
want to be that, you know, talking box in front
of everyone? Yeah. The film isn't about us. The
film is about the, the, the, the five individuals
in the film. And I think Matt did a great job
because he, he edited the full thing. And for
me, I thought he did a great job of just like
the focus was on the musicians themselves. You
know, our job was just to cap, to cap, to, what
is it, to capture it. Yeah, like we didn't, obviously
I'm a huge fan of the Sam Dunn movies, you know,
his films. And I liked what he did, you know,
having him in it and doing his journey, his adventure.
I think that's really cool. But yeah, we definitely
didn't want to, you know, have us, you know,
or be a focus. I mean, even the times you see
us in there, the only reason why we're in there
is because someone said something that was like,
okay, this fits in what we want to put in there.
It wasn't like, oh, let's get our faces in there.
You know what I mean? Not at all. I mean, it
was up to me. I wouldn't have had myself in there
once. You know what I mean? Right. But yeah,
so yeah, I appreciate you saying that. I mean,
yeah, I do, I guess, consider ourselves lifers
too. Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, we're not
really getting much out of it. I mean, you know,
instead of just for the love of the art itself
and just, you know, the love of music and putting
this out, obviously we're not going to, you know,
we're not planning or expecting to make any money
off this at all. We would love to just. break
even, you know, on just the cost it took to travel
and all the lodging and all that stuff would
be great. But yeah, it's just, it's just, obviously
we've been doing a podcast and everything. We're
like, we just, you know, and Tanner said he had
done a couple of films. It was like, well, let's,
let's step it up. Let's take a step it up a notch
and do something different. And like I said,
even though, you know, and the next film we're
doing is going to be even more challenging because
it's not going to be in California. It's going
to be in a different state. It's going to be,
you know, where it's going to take more planning
logistically and so forth. And like I said, we've
had to invest our money into getting new equipment
and everything so we can make it even better
than we did with this one. So, but yeah, I mean,
in terms of like putting us, you know, yeah,
in the film, it wasn't a conscious decision.
It was definitely conscious to not have us in
there and let alone not that didn't get to put
us in there at all. You know what I mean? And
so, I think it was, yeah, it was, it was just,
yeah. You know, with the Formula 400 practice,
like that room was really cramped and there's
like eight people in it. So we could not like
film a rehearsal and then like have one of us
not be in it just because of like where we had
to position ourselves to film to get the footage.
So, yeah, I think it was just happenstance. Yeah.
Yeah. What's the timetable for the second film?
When do you guys start working on that? So we've
got to. It's going to be a little different.
It's going to be, at least for a couple of them,
it's going to be a little more. So, you know,
this obviously the first life issue is really
a bit, you know, really focused on five individuals,
their history and what they're doing today. Right
now, this is going to be kind of like that. But
the people were focused on the next one. We've
got two artists slash bands locked down that
have already agreed to do it. And we're going
to be discussing with them this summer more in
terms of logistically and how we're going to
approach it. it's going to be a little different
where these are bands that are, um, it's not
so much about their history as it is, as their,
their bands that are trying to make a living
in a way doing this now. Okay. Um, where they,
you know, the last one, the only one that we
had in this, uh, in the first lifers here is
Trevor. He's the only one who's doing it full
time, you know, and making a career out of it.
This next one are for guys who are very active.
Um, in this, you know, with, with putting out
records, they're a little bit, a little bit younger,
not super much, you know, younger, but some of
the guys in it are a little bit younger, still
middle age, but not maybe in the, you know, mid
to late fifties and early sixties. Um, but they're
actually active. They're touring more. They're,
they're especially mostly in Europe. Um, and,
um, yeah, it's, it's going to be different in
that regard where it's more focused on the band
and how they're trying and the challenges they're
facing, trying to make it. as a full -time thing
at least a couple of them we're doing with that
and so uh the timeline really we're doing you
know the writing it right now we're in pre -production
we've got a couple like i said on board there's
a couple others uh we only get to focus on four
this time and not five and so we're in the pre
-production the writing phase right now and the
filming the the first filming with b -roll footage
and so forth is going to start in september okay
yeah so we're hoping to get That one we're hoping
to get out probably by, I would say, the new
year of 2027. You know, just a tentative off
the top of my head right now. About two, you
know, two, two and a half years from now, that
one we're hoping to be out by then. But, you
know, we're getting on it, though. We don't want
it to be like, let's wait another two years and
then, you know, start putting out. We want to,
you know, make this a succession. And we're hoping
to even do it, you know, we're just taking one
at a time here. But we want this to be a series
because, you know, we've got a lot of good feedback.
from people that like the concept of this. They
like the idea of talking about, you know, not,
you know, just historical stuff, but really showcasing
now in the moment what everyone's going through
to try to make this, you know, a full -time thing
or to just try to survive within it, you know.
And so it'll be, it's going to be a little bit
different, but, you know, and a different place,
obviously, too. It won't be in California. We
can tell you where it's going to be. It's going
to be out of Texas. So it's going to be Texas.
Yeah. That much we can say. Yeah. Yeah. And definitely
this film will help that film being able to be
like, hey, here we have something like, you know,
would you want to, would you be willing to work
with us? These are the kind of things we need.
So this should kind of help streamline that whole
process. And so we'll have a lot more fun doing
it. And the musicians themselves will kind of
know our background and our history. So it should
help all of us out. Just even like what Matt
said earlier of us having. lifers and then yeah
subsequently the uh is it a sequel or is it i
don't know yeah it's a second it'll be a lifers
too so yeah cool and it still falls within that
15 to 18 months that you uh said with the other
one so that that makes sense same thing exactly
we we don't uh we like i said we have a tentative
plan but yes we gotta the time you know to get
it out is is definitely crucial and um and what's
as good as you know going into this one we had
We had that timeframe, but we were also like,
well, can we get it done by that time? You don't
know. It was the first time doing it. Now we
kind of see what needs to be. It'll take quicker
now because we already had this experience doing
it this time. Now we know, okay, how we're going
to do it, how to work it. You know, this one
was a little different where I, you know, I waited
to get all the pieces to the puzzle first before
putting it together with the editing. The next
one, we can kind of do that as we go, because
now we've kind of hammered all that out and figured
out all the, you know, the. the quirks and everything
and all the hammer out all the kinks, um, from
the last one. So we have a much clearer, you
know, focus and idea of what we're going to do
this time than we did, uh, with, with lifers.
The first one. Yeah. And where did you say people
can check the movie out currently? So we have
right now, um, it's available on our band camp
page. So you can go to, uh, one Palm that's P
a L M one Palm productions .bandcamp .com. It's
up there. Like I said, these are going pretty,
you know, we're selling out pretty quick. We
don't have too many left, but there are some
still, you know, so if they want to go there
and pick one up, they can go ahead and do that.
Like I said, it's been licensed by filmsy .com.
So we're just, it takes, what is it? I think
they said it takes from two to 12 weeks. That
was a couple of weeks ago that it was licensed.
So we're hoping sooner than later, we're hoping
it's not going to take another 10 weeks, you
know, obviously. By the summer, we're hoping
sometime between now and by the end of the summer,
that's going to be available for everyone, as
well as some of the other sites like Prime Video
and so forth. It's finally going to be out there,
though. It's just a waiting game right now with
the streaming. We're really excited for that,
obviously, because that's where most people want
to see it. Once they do, hopefully everyone will
enjoy it. Sometime this summer. And we know if
everyone could go to our social media pages,
we got an Instagram and Facebook lifers, the
movie it's on. And we're, you know, we're updating
stuff daily. We were posting daily just to keep
people updated on what's going on. So, and I,
we were just talking about, there's a Spotify
playlist. So for people that either have seen
a movie or they want to get an idea of what the
band sound like and their music and go to the
Spotify playlist, same thing. Life is the movie
playlist on Spotify. Okay. And your podcasts.
So, yeah. So it's interesting right now. So,
you know, aftershocks that I've been doing, you
know, on and off with, you know, by myself with
Chris Aiken and so forth right now, that's kind
of, you know, on the back burner, you know, just
because we've got this going on, we got a second
one coming, but I am doing, because we're doing
the heavy rock stuff. There is, I did do a podcast
called the heavy galaxy show with John Gist,
who, is a big, you know, fixture in the scene.
He's a promoter and does a couple of shows as
well, podcasts in the scene of the Dunedin Stone
show. We're restarting that. We're actually doing
our first one tomorrow. Okay. So this is what?
Today's the 18th, so that's tomorrow's the 19th.
We're going to start doing it. It should be out
the following week. So we're starting that one
up again with the podcast. I know Tanner, I think
he's restarted his Puppets Corner, I believe.
You could talk about that, right? Off and on,
but no, I'm mainly... primarily focused on kind
of what we're, what we're doing and I have other
films in the work. So yeah. Okay. Not to get
on a tangent there. Um, and similar deal, uh,
anywhere people can go to keep up with the shows
when they're back up and gone. Yeah, primarily
YouTube and Rumble is where I'm at. So it's Poppets
Corner is the name of the podcast that I'm on.
It's P -O -P -P -I -T -T -S Corner is the name
of the podcast. And with Matt, we try to do a
couple here and there or whatever. We just like
to have fun doing it. And I'm a huge fan of Aftershocks.
I learned a lot from Matt in particular when
it comes to that whole aspect. So yeah, it's...
As far as I'm concerned, that's where you can
find Papa's Corner. Yeah, for Heavy Galaxy, it's
actually heavygalaxy .com. It's through the site.
I have a site up there. I haven't, you know,
I've been working on this for a while. I'm going
to try to get this really honed this summer.
I've got a radio station blog thing called seismicsounds
.com. It's seismic -sounds .com. It's got all
heavy rock, classic metal. uh radio um we're
gonna be you know putting up some podcasts and
shows on that radio station um but it's also
the the home for heavy galaxy .com as well so
everyone can check out the podcasts on there
um and like keep up with lifers as well on there
and everything so seismic sounds .com um yeah
everyone should check it out like i said that's
that's another focus i have with uh, getting
that really to where I want to get it. You know,
I've been wanting to for the last couple of years,
it's been up for a little while, but I haven't
really pushed it too hard. So that's another
little project we're doing. Right. Um, that we're
always doing is just these little extra things.
So yeah, seismics dash shuns .com. Yeah. I have
to say that, uh, listening to aftershocks, uh,
I, I fight back from writing you guys continuously
because I know I'm going to be a pain in the
ass, but, um, just think to, to you guys. on
certain conversations and, and I'm sitting there
screaming at the radio, agreeing with things.
Um, and I couldn't help it. Uh, the other day,
I don't know if you saw, but there's a new, uh,
scars on Broadway. Yes. Did you know that the
legendary Casey chaos came up with that name?
Uh, I didn't know that, but I, but I do know
that him and Derry Malakian were, were tight
because he was on Malakian's, uh, uh, label.
each of music amen was yeah but i didn't know
he came up with that name though um yeah i know
we well we we towards the you know aftershocks
i think that's one of the things too it's very
um it's one of those contentious you know uh
shows where we just kind of shoot off at the
hip me and chris right uh with our opinions is
very strong opinionated you know i think one
of the things is i'm sure you know we we talked
about that with system of a down obviously that
was one of the ones i know last ones we had done
Um, and of course the one about a man with Casey
chaos. Um, you know, we've got, I think the one
we really got a lot of, uh, pushback on are a
lot of people not happy with what we did was
the one with Bobby Liebling. We had a lot of
people who agree with us. Okay. I believe it
from pentagram. Yeah. And we had a lot of hate
on that one. Obviously, you know, we were, we
were not big fans of certain things, but you
know, that's the thing is, you know, I mean,
aftershocks is just one of those things shooting
at the head, but you know, I think it's fun doing
that, but at the same time, I've been doing that.
We've been doing that for a long time with aftershocks.
I think what I want to kind of do now with the
podcast or with the films, whatever, is really
more of a celebratory, you know, I mean, a lot
of times we can get pretty negative on the aftershocks.
So I wanted to really focus on kind of more of
the celebratory upbeat content instead of just,
you know, everything that we don't like about
what's going on. It's more like, let's focus
on the stuff we do like and stuff that's been.
historically good, you know, focus on some classic
records and stuff instead of just being a couple
of, you know, pain in the ass, you know, assholes
just shooting off the hip and our opinions on
stuff. So it's fun, you know, and I'm sure one
day I'll probably go back to doing that once
every, you know, once we see what's going on
with the industry in the next year or two. But,
you know, but I didn't know that. I didn't know
that KCKS came up with that. I mean, what do
you agree? Do you think Legend or not? He, he,
I don't remember if I read it or heard him say
it in an interview, but that he had started the
band with Darren. Yeah, yeah. And that he was
kind of pissed that he had kind of taken the
name and ran with it. Didn't know that. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. So that's kind of what I understood
from that. But I mean, he's still releasing music
under that name. So who knows what the... what
the truth probably is beyond behind that. And,
and probably only the two of them know. And they're
probably the only two that probably care to know
either. I don't see too many people out there
on the internet shaking their fists. Hey, we
need to get down to the bottom of this. No, I
mean, there's not that many people that are listening
to that anyway. You know what I mean? Not to
be, again, I don't want to be negative here,
but yeah, the whole system of a down thing is
just, you know, as a guy who's a huge fan of
them, it's just really, disappointing like we
see with a lot of these bands that you know they
just refuse to to be able to get along so they
can put out new music I mean I can't see them
anymore I can't watch them play the same songs
for the last 20 you know I mean they haven't
put out a record in 20 years so it's yeah that's
just a little pet peeve of mine are bands that
just really ride on the nostalgia and they don't
want to put nothing else out so my opinion I
just stop supporting them then you know that's
just Yeah, I don't get that either. I remember
one of the first times they got back together
again. Actually, the owner of the tattoo parlor
that I go to, we kind of got into an argument.
I'm like, why are you going to see them? They're
just going to play the same shit they've always
played. Seriously, now you're going to pay like
$120 to see them to play the same old, same old?
I'm like, all right. Exactly. If they're playing
like five or six new songs, I get that. Yeah.
And I mean, that's, that's a thing that I try
to do here on the podcast is that we do a, a
monthly like recap of albums that have come out
and stuff that kind of stick out to us. Cause
I mean, I think that this music needs to keep
going and if we're just set on what came out
in 89, you know, what do you expect once all
those bands are dead and gone and some of them
are terrible at this point, Yep. You know, there's
other shit out there that's good. And none of
it, again, I keep telling people, nothing is
going to replace your favorites. Still doesn't
mean that you can't add to that giant playlist
that you got and get enjoyment out of new stuff
that's coming out. Exactly. Yeah. It's got to
be replenished. You can't live off the same thing
year after year after year. And that's one of
the reasons we focused on these bands. Two is
because there is new music and they're active,
you know, with these new bands. And so I want,
you know, we want people to know that there is
still good new music being put out there. Yes,
it's not played everywhere like it used to be.
You got to dig a little bit. But, you know, normally
when I play these bands for some people who were
into a lot of the stuff for the 90s and so forth,
they're like, oh, this stuff's great. I got a
good buddy of mine. We're going to see Full Man
Chew tonight, actually, here in San Francisco.
And a lot of these bands that were in the film,
you know, he didn't know about. And I got him
hooked on all these bands. It's just a lot of
them don't know what's there. Right. A lot of
people just don't know what's there. And so that's
the one thing we want to do, too, with our films
or just everything in general. Like you said,
the podcast is just that people know you don't
have to just keep regurgitating and listen to
the same stuff you've been doing for the last
30 years. There's still tons of really good music
out there. It's just you have to dig a little
or just open your mind a little and search a
little bit and you'll find it. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Awesome. So, yeah, thanks again for having
us on and helping us promote this, man. It means
so much. It's great to meet you finally. I've
heard a lot about you and just, yeah, thanks
for all that you do too, man. Another lifer.
Exactly. Well, I appreciate that. And, you know,
I hope that, you know, that this helps drive
some more people in your direction. And I definitely
want to. you know, as the series continues to
grow and whatnot, I hope that, you know, you
guys come back and continue to tell me and the
listeners of the show, you know, what, uh, what
else you guys have cooking and what's coming
up next. So. Yeah, absolutely. No. Yeah. Thanks
so much for Victor. Really appreciate it, man.
It's always a pleasure talking to you, man. Awesome.
Thanks guys. And on that note, we will be ending
the show now. Thanks again for, um, watching
this or listening to the audio version and we
will see you next time right here on signals
from mars see you folks thank you for listening
to the signals from mars podcast You can subscribe
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