Hopefully I can do it all in one take.
I don't know if you've done podcasts before, but I do edit pretty much barely edit.
But like if you fuck up a sentence or a word, just be like, ah, let me do that again and
just stop and then repeat yourself.
Like no big deal.
Right?
Okay.
Yeah.
Love that.
Yeah.
I try to keep it pretty live show.
I don't know if you've heard it.
I don't know if you've heard it, but I'm not going to keep you on there if you fuck up
something, right?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Appreciate that.
Of course.
No worries.
Yeah.
Also, I want to apologize in advance.
We all got bronchitis at the end of tour, so I'm like still kind of hacking up a little
bit, even though it's been like a week and a half, but that sucks.
Yeah.
Bell's probably half awake.
I have a raging migraine.
You got bronchitis.
We're all in top shape.
Perfect.
Everyone brought their fucking A game to the mic tonight.
Today, not tonight.
Oh, it's a good thing I know what time it is.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, trans and non-binary punks of all ages and denominations, welcome
back to another episode of Not Just a Phase.
Thanks for joining us and thanks for being here on this ridiculous planet that we call
Earth.
Let's do our plugs real quick.
As you should know, we're online at notjustaphase.net.
We're on Instagram at notjustaphaseworldwide.
And Elias and myself argue over terrible music opinions and other dumb shit on Twitter at
njapworldwide.
Now, before we get into the episode, I want to say I am hyped that Bell is back on the
mic.
She's co-hosting with me today for a band we're very excited to be speaking with, and
she's going to introduce them for us.
Today, we're chatting with Liz Selfish, vocalist for New Orleans metal band, Brat, with an
audible range of genre influences and a lot of pink.
We're excited to dive into their aesthetics and inspirations.
Hi, this is Liz from Brat, and you're listening to Human Offense on Not Just a Face.
So they know we're here.
Enjoy.
Stuck with the endless
Human attempts now taste like figures
Only agencies time must never last
To live on the edge, worse than by all else
Tell me what it is
Shift back inside, or deviate
The positive states, like to slink
The heart of man, like to hurt, hurt, try to hold on to what we want
Enter the
Awesome. Thank you. One take perfection. Absolutely flawless. Have you done a podcast before?
Cause like that was just like a radio voice too. It's perfect. Wow. Thank you. I I've
done like maybe one or two like with the band, but it's, it's crazy when you guys hit us
up, we had like three podcasts reach out at once. So there, it was funny. It just, the
flood gates open. So we'll be doing some more, but yeah, I used to do pageants. So I feel
like that's probably where that comes from more so than like the podcast voice necessarily
pageants. Didn't expect that one. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I feel like that's like a pretty Southern
thing. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I only did them like as an adult and in New Orleans, if I
had done them in Texas, I would have just been like obliterated because it's like so
competitive there, but oh, it's huge. Yeah. It's like huge in Texas. Like sorry, say that
again. Like beauty pageants, I assume. Cause like, I know there's other types of pageants.
I'm not, I'm not well versed in this world as you can obviously tell. Yeah. Nobody is.
Yeah. Like miss USA style stuff. Like pageants. Cool. Was it a good time? Yeah. No, I, I thought
it was fun. I mean, you know, it's, it's ridiculous for sure, but I did it for like a few years
and then I just got like too old. I was like 28 and there it's like, all right, you're
like 80 and pageant years now. So you gotta go. But it was fun. Yeah. Cool. Did you have
to do like dances or like a special talent? Did you get up there and be like, I can sing.
So there's like different pageant systems. So when you think of talent, that's usually
like miss America, they have to do an onstage talent. Miss USA doesn't, it's more of like
a modeling thing. And then there's a lot of other like smaller pageant systems too. So
it just kind of like depends on the system. I did not do any that had an onstage talent
portion because I have none other than this and that. And I don't think that would probably
go over well, but yeah, so not for me. Okay, cool. Well, they say you learn something new
every day. I don't think I often do, but today I did. There you go. So that's cool. Before
we get too into it, I guess for the listeners who might not know, would you just want to
please state your name and what role it is you play in the band? Sure. I'm Liz Selfish
and I do locals for brat. So as I said, you got this podcast voice. Do you, you listen
to any podcasts in your free time? I actually don't listen to a lot of podcasts. One that
I do is called tooth and claw. It's actually an animal attack podcast that Brenner and
I love to listen to. And we're like on the road on tour, just like taking a road trip.
That's really like the only one that I listen to like pretty religiously. Yeah. I haven't
really like delved into podcasts that much. I feel like I need to cause there's just so
much out there, but it's like overwhelming to try to, to find stuff. Yeah. Podcast on
animal attacks. Yeah. Yeah. It's like from like a, a, a bear biologist like viewpoint
and he like goes through the attacks and likes talks about what people should have done differently.
And it's like, it's like educational, but it's also entertaining. So it's a good one.
If you haven't checked that out and you're interested, are you worried that you're going
to be a victim of a bear attack in your area? Is that the God I hope not. Um, rock climb
a lot. So, okay. Do go to areas where, you know, that's more prevalent, but definitely
not in New Orleans. Do you have a favorite bear? Like a favorite type? I don't know.
I guess probably a grizzly cause they're like the most insane, but I would never want to
come in contact with one. Bears are bears are fucking cute, but they are, they are,
they'll get your ass. So outside of bear attacks, what, what other, what other hobbies and passions
are, are occupying your free time outside of, you know, the band and music.
Um, I've been a runner my whole life. So that's kind of like been my main thing. I did track
and cross country all through like my childhood into college. Um, and I still run every day
and work out every day. And same with Brenner. Um, I would say maybe like four years ago,
we went to a rock climbing gym in New Orleans and he just like became obsessed with it.
So we do a lot of rock climbing now, which is kind of funny cause there's literally no
rocks in New Orleans, but, um, we'll drive to like Alabama or Tennessee or something
and go rock climbing. Um, and then we have like a small bouldering gym here that we go
to pretty often. So that's kind of like our main thing outside of just music and what
we do with Brad. So you do like legit rock climbing, like actually like out in the wilderness
rock climbing, not just like at the practice places. Yeah. I mean, you can't in New Orleans
cause there's no real rock here, but we'll take like trips to go drive to real rock and
climb outside. How high up have you gone? Um, probably like a hundred feet. Um, that's
like the highest, it's like the highest you can do for what's called like single pitch.
Riding pretty much over that point is usually like multi-pitch. Um, but yeah, it's, it's
scary for sure. It can be. I assume you tie off and all that good stuff. Right. Yeah.
So we, we tie in and have the whole, the whole setup. So it's very safe. 100 feet. What is,
what is that in stories? Nine stories. Fuck that. Fuck that. Nine stories. No, no, no,
I've, I've roofed like three story tall shit and I got, I got nerby on that nine stories
up. Fuck that. I just had to do the conversion. I never knew that that's how many like floors
that was. So that's interesting. Yeah. A hundred feet is about nine stories. That's fucked.
Yeah. Okay. So you're completely insane. Good to know. Yeah. It's funny cause I'm like not
much of a thrill seeker at all really. And like my normal life, but like climbing I can
get down with for some reason. Wild. Yeah. Climbing's actually Rob, you should try it.
I feel like you would actually have, have a little bit of fun. I just said at three
stories, I get a little nerby now. I'm in my old age. I'm not the, I've been above three
stories. I've been above three stories, but now at three stories I'm shaky. But you could
even do like, yeah. Bouldering is like where you're doing like more intense climbing, but
it's much shorter. So it's usually like 15 feet, but the moves are harder. So like something
like that is like more approachable for people who aren't into heights. Huh? Yeah. I've always
wanted to give it a whirl. I've never been to the, um, rock climbing like places where
you can go and like practice and tie off all safe and everything. Yeah. I bet in Canada
there's probably like great rock climbing. I assume. Yeah. No, I'm not. I'm not unhinged
by the local climbing nature in my free time. I'm not that crazy. Yeah. That's wild. Very
cool. Very cool. I'm glad I asked that. Yeah. So you guys took off during the pandemic and
couldn't play your first few shows until after the lockdown. If I'm right. What was it like?
Am I right? Yeah. I mean, we actually started the band during the pandemic. So we didn't
have to take an off period. We were like creating the band during COVID. Cool. What was it like
building a listener base without playing live and starting things up at such an interesting
time? Yeah, it was, it was weird because we put this project together during the pandemic.
And so for a while we were just kind of sitting on it because we didn't want to like announce
that we were a band or like put anything out before we could like play live or actually
do anything with it. So July of 2021 was when we were able to book our first show. And at
that point we're like, okay, we're going to like put out a song and that's how we're going
to like announce that we're a band. So it was definitely weird because we're, we're
just in like this waiting period of like, okay, when is it like safe for us to play
a show again? And then there was just so much like back and forth after that of like, of
like going back into like a quarantine and coming out and like things were kind of like
in flux for a while, which was, was weird to deal with as a band.
Was it weird having like a lot of first impressions come through online instead of having kind
of the live experience and kind of easing into the scene with the music?
It was kind of like both at once because we were like immediately like the first thing
we did as a band was we dropped a single and that's how we were like, hey, we're a band.
Here's our first song and here's our show in two weeks. So it was all kind of like just
at once. So yeah, we're able to like listen to a single first and then, but we had our
first show like immediately after putting that out there.
How did you get into making heavy music and what initially sparked the interest in general?
So we've all been like going to shows and into like in the scene, I guess, since we
were like kids. So this is my first band personally, but Brenner, Hennessy and Dustin have all
been playing in bands for like 15 years. But so we've all been like around this and involved
in this in different ways for a long time. So it was, it felt like pretty comfortable
for everyone.
How would you describe what bimbo violent is to someone and kind of what you built your
own idea of heavy music into?
Yeah, I just like came up with that term because I thought it was funny. I mean, it's obviously
like supposed to be a play on power violence. I just thought it sounded like stupid and
funny and then all of a sudden it became like our whole thing. But yeah, I don't know. I
guess it's just, it's kind of cool because it's like we created our own term for our
genre which is kind of like a myriad of a lot of different things. But like we definitely
take a lot of like hardcore and power violence influence like grind, death metal and thrash
and kind of like put it all together.
Excuse me.
It's kind of cool learning that you did pageants and kind of how it plays into the whole kind
of image you guys have going. Do you feel as if the heavy aspect of your sound itself
and the soft kind of feminine imagery is just a matter of inventive and artistic contrast
that keeps people interested? Or do you think the two have more in common and go more in
hand than people initially think?
I think it's like we definitely like play on the juxtaposition of like the two being
kind of polar opposites. I don't know how much they would necessarily have in common.
It's just kind of like something that we thought was like fun and funny and we just try to
keep the band and everything like pretty lighthearted.
Yeah, so it's more of like leaning into the contrast sort of thing.
Right, right.
What sort of writing dynamic is there in the band? Does it kind of come about naturally
or does everyone assume certain roles in the room?
So Brenner writes about 90% of the music. I would say he'll like, you know, come up
with all the riffs and kind of map out drums and then pass those really rough demos to
Dustin and then Dustin will make adjustments with drums if he feels like, you know, things
need to be changed. So it's mostly Brenner but Dustin as well. My role is basically just
there to critique everything. I'm like, I don't like this riff, take it out. I don't
really contribute that much. And then Hennessy, our bass player, has also like kind of joined
in a little bit more recently as far as like contributing some riffs. So it's becoming
a little bit more like collaborative. But I'd say it's still like primarily Brenner
doing most of the writing.
For sure. Is there a certain sound or musical concept that keeps in mind when writing or
is there any elements you keep inspiration from or know and purposely try to include
in the music?
I wouldn't say that there's like anything specifically that we try to include or try
to like keep like as a theme. But I will say with some of the writing, like with Brenner,
he'll like play me what he has and I'll be like, oh, I don't think this sounds like us
necessarily. So we'll like make adjustments based on that if something sounds like kind
of off course of what our general sound is, we just try to keep it a little bit more like
cohesive in that way.
How would you describe your sort of general sound just using maybe two words?
Two words, it's hard. I'm going to like cheat this and use the first one as a hybrid, but
I'm going to say death brine hardcore. Or you could do dumb heavy. That works too.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Love that. Yeah.
I thought you were going to say bimbo violence.
Oh, wow.
Smartass about it.
A missed opportunity there.
Is the pink Britney Spears sort of sparkly element of things something that you've been
into since you were little or did it just come in for the music and the concept?
When I was growing up like little, little, I was pretty much a tomboy. And then in high
school, I started like I said, I grew up in Dallas, so I became a lot more feminine in
high school and really bought into the pink glitter traditional kind of like feminine
imagery. So since high school, which has been a long time for me at this point, that's been
like something that I've really enjoyed and and I really like. And so that's kind of how
that became part of our whole aesthetic with Brad.
Did you guys sort of get together with that sort of contrast of ideas coming together
in mind or did you guys sort of start writing music and it just kind of came up?
Yeah, we didn't initially think about doing that at all. It was kind of just like we knew
when we were writing the music, we're like it would be really fun if we put pop samples
like in our live set in between songs. And then we struggled for a really long time to
come up with a band name. And our working title for a while was actually Scuzz, which
is funny because we toured with this band that we're friends with Schmuck, just a grind
band from the Northeast. And one of the members actually has another band called Scuzz. So
if we had picked that, we would have had the same name as an existing band that we would
end up touring with their other band. But we finally landed on Brad and just kind of
like the combination of Brad with like pop samples kind of helped just like put it all
together and like create this whole vibe that we ended up sticking with.
Yeah, for sure. Have you encountered people in the music scene that sort of reject that
aesthetic? And is there a big contrast between any criticism you receive online versus in
person?
Yeah, definitely. People are always like way harsher online than they are in person, just
kind of like the nature of the internet, I guess. The only thing we've really experienced
in person, we did a tour with I Hate God last fall. And we were kind of like, oh, I don't
know how how this is gonna go, you know, it's like our whole aesthetic and our whole set
with just a bunch of old heads that come out see I Hate God. Yeah. And it was it was definitely
very well received. But we did get heckled at one show by like, just some some old dude
in the crowd. It was like, you guys stuck, blah, blah, blah. So but other than that,
like the response has been pretty positive. But there's definitely people that are like,
you know, is dumb or whatever. But it's the nature of the beast.
Yo, shout out that guy. Fuck that guy.
Yeah, fuck that guy. It was actually kind of nice because we had someone come to the
merch table and be like, I liked you guys. But then I liked you even more after that
guy was heckling you. I was like, I gotta buy some merch. So worked out for us.
In your experience, do you think sexism still has a strong presence in the music scenes
brought performs in?
It definitely has a presence still. When I was going to shows in like high school, it
was way more prevalent than it is now. I feel like things now are a little bit more like,
I don't know how to put this like on a smaller, more subtle level than they were at that time.
Like, I remember like 15 years ago, going to a show with my friend in high school. And
it was a band that was all dudes, of course. And on the mic, they like called this girl
in the crowd a slut. And I'm like, just like that kind of thing could never happen these
days, which is amazing. So it's like, there's definitely a lot of progress that has been
made. But it definitely still exists. I mean, you'll see that in like internet comments
a lot. But also, like, we've had talks of like touring with bands that people are like,
oh, you, you can't tour with that band, because, you know, the singer can't tour with like
a younger woman or something like that. So kind of in smaller ways, and less like in
your face ways, it's definitely still present. Yeah, for sure. What do you mean can't tour
with? I'm curious on that. What do you mean can't tour with? Just like because they'll
be inappropriate, either make inappropriate comments or, you know, like,
Okay, so you got warned that they're basically just like creepy douchebags. Right, right.
Yeah, making their own problem other people's problems. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Do you
feel as if you have the same experience and obstacles as a male musician with how, you
know, more progressive the scene has gotten? Or do you think, well, like, even with instances,
instances like that, bands that are just male musicians don't have to deal with that. So
right. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely obstacles that still exist that only bands that have
women in it are going to face like, you know, obviously, that scenario is not going to happen
with a band that's just all men. Yeah. So there's definitely still obstacles that exist.
It's just again, in kind of like a different way, I feel than it used to be. Yeah. But
at the same time, do you think having a feminine perspective gives you an advantage to your
music? I don't see an advantage necessarily, but definitely like a distinction. Definitely
kind of like a different perspective than men would have for sure. Yeah. Did you feel
discouraged before starting due to the lack of feminine representation? Or do you feel
a certain pressure due to being one of the few in the spotlight at all? I don't say I'd
feel like a lot of pressure due to that necessarily. And I mean, even now with just how, how things
are like growing and progressing, there's just more and more bands that have women and
then popping up every day, which is awesome. So it's, it's definitely, you know, changing
and shifting as time goes on. So, so yeah, I think there's definitely going to be a lot
more like examples for people to kind of look up to than certainly when I was younger. Just
kind of from that aspect. Yeah, for sure. Back to the music. What are some of Bratz's
biggest influences when it comes to sound in general outside of the inclusion of pop
samples and so on? Definitely like a lot of different things, a lot of hardcore, a lot
of grind, a lot of death metal. We have some thrash riffs, a human offense, which is the
single that we put out most recently has a lot of influence, I feel like from just us
listening to like Power Trip. And then kind of initially when we were writing, we're listening
to a lot of like Mammoth Grinder or Mind Eraser or I should say Brenner, I guess, because
he's the one that's primarily writing. But that's kind of where a lot of the influences
come from. Yeah, I don't hear enough about Mammoth Grinder. I feel like nobody talks
about them. So that's kind of cool. I feel like I haven't heard anything about them in
a long time, which is, yeah, like, I don't know if they're, yeah, what are they doing?
I don't know. I haven't heard anything. Yeah. What do you think Bratz represents to an audience
or what would you like to represent just with your music and? Girl power, baby. No, I don't
know. Yeah, I mean, I feel like our whole thing is just kind of about having a good
time and like not taking things so serious. Like, I feel like there's just there's a lot
of bands that that just take things too seriously. And it's like, you know, people are here,
people are coming to a live show to just have fun and like, have a good time. Or at least
that's always been my philosophy. Yeah, there's definitely an avant garde side of grind and
that sort of genre. Yeah, which can be fun. But it can be but it can also be pretentious
at times and it's like no one wants to deal with that. Oh, quicker. Yeah.
Oh.
Disappear!
This is the end!
This is fear, this is pain, this is all you hate
For the moment that you're pushed out, this is your fate
We have brought time down
This is something that you can't deny
Realize that we are total
It's not something that I can take
Something to appreciate
Rumble on, all of us
Follow right now
It's always fun after talking to people
Especially if it's someone's first show
Just being out there meeting new people
That's definitely one of the highlights for me
Is it me?
Yep
Excuse me
Excuse me.
Yeesh, I'm going to edit that out.
That just sounds awful.
Yeah, it's it's rough.
Yeah, I was.
Yeah, I feel awful hearing that.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
Thank you, though.
So what's what's so far been your favorite show, favorite show or tour memory as a band
now that you guys are actually able to play shows again?
This past tour has definitely been my favorite tour that we've done.
Just one, because we've done four tours at this point.
We've been a band for it'll be like two years in July.
And I feel like I'm finally kind of getting the hang of touring a little bit more like
my voice is strong enough to be able to go.
We did this past tour of 23, 24 shows with no days off.
And so I feel like because of that, I'm able to enjoy it a lot more.
And then, of course, just the lineup being pro mags, Ringworm and No Mas.
It was just an insane lineup to begin with.
And the shows were all amazing.
I definitely had I feel like the most memorable time for me in Tampa, which was kind of funny
because it wasn't like a particularly like banging show.
But I was able to watch everybody set that night.
And I was just like really emotional at that show, like just kind of like, holy shit, like
I'm on tour with Cro-Mags.
And so that was like probably the best memory for me from touring and just from shows that
we've played.
Yeah, I was going to say you've had some pretty cool live recordings and have been on some
amazing lineups.
So what have been some of your live show or lineup highlights so far?
Definitely getting a Hate 5 6 video was really cool for us.
That was just kind of like a bucket list thing that we'd always wanted.
Yeah, congrats on that.
Thank you.
It was a very rough show for me.
I actually like cried in the van after it because I thought it went so bad.
But watching it back, it's not like terrible, but it definitely was not my strongest set.
I actually play every show with earplugs in.
So I kind of learned to do vocals that way.
Like I listen to my head voice more so than like the monitors, which is kind of nice because
it doesn't really matter what's happening with the monitors because I can always just
listen to my head voice.
But I could not find my earplugs before that set.
And I was like frantically looking for them in the van and Brenner was like, it doesn't
matter.
Like you got to go.
Everybody's waiting.
And so I used Brenner's like weird, they're like whatever musician specific, like earplugs
that just did not work and they were not staying in.
And it was just like so like from the jump, it was just stressful.
And my voice just wasn't wasn't doing it.
But still just like having that opportunity and having that was amazing.
I wish it had been a little bit of a better show, but I'm sure we'll have more at some
point.
So I thought it sounded great.
But pro tip, Kleenex, if you just ball up Kleenex and shove it in your ear, if you
can find your plugs at the venue, it works super well.
I have not heard that or tried that.
That's something good to know.
Yeah, it does a job just as effective as your plugs.
I find crazy if you're in a pinch.
Yeah, someone's got some cleaners.
I'm definitely more prepared now.
Like I bought this like massive thing of earplugs so that that hopefully does not happen again.
But if it does, good to know about Kleenex.
Yeah, you cannot even tell in the video.
It's pretty fucking sick.
But I would lose my earplugs all the time.
So I made them into earrings for me personally.
Oh, wow.
That's so smart.
I couldn't take it anymore.
Yeah.
But who haven't you played with yet that you'd love to share the stage with?
Man, I feel like there's there's so many bands, but I'm crazy just like from like a local
standpoint.
So obviously New Orleans has such a great history with like metal bands.
And we played with like every big New Orleans band, except for crowbar.
We have not played with crowbar yet.
So it would be really cool to play with them.
Another band that I really like is Escuela.
So I think at some point we'll probably be doing a tour or something with them.
But I'm surprised that we haven't played with them yet at this point.
So definitely those two are the ones that just kind of like I can think of off the bat.
Yeah, with the Escuela, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, that'd be super sick to see and hear.
Yeah, yeah.
That'd be cool.
It'll happen at some point.
So fingers crossed.
Very cool.
Well, I got a couple of stupid questions.
Bell's got a bunch of good ones.
It's much better at this than myself.
I like asking questions that I think no one has asked you before.
You said you did like two other podcasts.
Have you done them already?
No, the ones that so when we got the influx at the same time, we have not done those other
two yet.
So we'll be the first ones.
You'll be the first one.
Yeah.
Good.
We've done a podcast before, I think.
It's been a while.
So this is the first one in recently that I can think of.
Awesome.
I just wanted to be an asshole and say fuck with other podcasts.
Yeah, fuck them.
No, that's sick.
Okay, cool.
Well, I'm assuming no one's ever asked you what's the most illegal or dangerous thing
you've ever done in your life.
No one has asked me that, but also I'm like, I don't think I can share that.
I feel like...
Okay, what about dangerous?
Because I know people don't want to do the illegal route, which is fine.
No one wants to implicate themselves.
Right.
Not that I've done anything that's like heinous, but I don't need a trail behind me.
You don't want it on record?
Come on.
Yeah, exactly.
Dangerous.
Like a side of climbing up fucking stories of rock.
I can't really think of anything other than that, to be honest.
And that doesn't...
It's not even a good one because it's actually very safe.
But...
I mean, is it?
Because I don't think that would feel safe.
I don't know.
Yeah.
No, it's definitely safe.
As long as you know what you're doing, then it's very safe.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, hopefully an easier question to ask.
Boldly assuming you're not a pacifist, if there was a hypothetical situation where you
could punch anybody in the face, just one time, as hard as you can, and there's no repercussions,
who would you give a punch to?
Probably no one because I actually have punched someone in the face before...
Gosh, when was this?
Maybe like seven years ago?
I was just hanging out with a friend and somehow we got on the subject that I had never punched
anybody and he was like, oh, just punch me in the face.
I was like, no.
Yeah.
He was like, no, it's not going to hurt me.
It's fine.
So I punched him in the face.
He was totally fine.
I broke my hand and had to get surgery.
Yeah.
So...
How hard did you hit this guy?
What?
How hard did you hit this guy?
If he's fine, you broke your hand?
Okay.
I think the problem is I punched him and then he was like, do it again.
And I punched him twice.
And I also just didn't know what I was doing.
So I was using basically like the outside two fingers of my hand and I just like looked
down and my knuckle is like way too far back.
And I was like, oh no.
Improper form.
Okay.
Yeah, bad form.
So I won't be doing that again.
That's for sure.
So no one's getting a punch.
Okay.
No one's getting a punch.
Yeah.
I'm gonna learn my lesson.
That's awful.
I did not expect that.
Okay.
Yeah.
I wanted to take the heel of broken hand from like a punch.
I've never heard of anyone breaking their hand from a punch.
It's actually called a boxer's fracture, which I think is like ironic because if you're
a boxer, you know what you're doing and you're punching with proper form.
And gloves.
Yeah.
And gloves.
But it wasn't even that I broke it.
It was that I broke it to the point that I had to get surgery on it.
Like it was like a whole thing.
So not to.
Yeah.
Wow.
I feel like I want to punch this guy in the face just because like he fucked up.
Like he fucked up encouraging you.
He's a great guy.
I can't, you know, shout out to my friend Rob that let me punch him in the face.
Oh, his name's Rob.
He's probably a good dude.
Yeah.
He's probably a good dude.
Great dude.
But yeah, but not doing that again.
Awesome.
Okay.
What music do you listen to that could be could be considered a guilty pleasure either
to yourself or others?
I feel like I should have a lot of these, but also like I listen to a ton of pop music
and a ton of dance pop, which I feel like it's not even really like a guilty pleasure
because it's also like kind of built into our whole brand.
So it's like, I don't know.
I can't even be embarrassed about that at that point.
True, true.
I don't know.
Pitbull.
I love Pitbull.
Is that embarrassing?
I think so.
Yeah.
Okay.
There, there you go.
Like Mr. Worldwide Pitbull.
Yeah.
I mean, you mean the king?
Yeah.
That dude is cringy as hell.
Dude, he's amazing.
All right.
We can't all have taste.
It's fine.
He's a sex symbol.
Yeah.
No.
You guys take Pitbull.
I don't know.
You guys take Pitbull's attractive?
Are you fucking serious?
It's a sex symbol for bald men.
No.
Oh, a hundred percent.
All bald men are sus.
I'm throwing that out on record.
Damn.
It's savage.
That's a bold statement.
Oh man.
Pitbull.
Okay.
I feel like you can't just write off all bald people like that, but I will agree.
I will agree that they're either awful or like, chef's kiss.
Yeah.
There's no need.
There's no mid.
Yeah.
So you're like, you can't just stereotype them all like that, but I mostly agree.
That's literally what you just said.
I 50% agree with you.
The other 50% knows that the other half of the bald guys are pretty chill.
I wouldn't agree with that.
For sure.
In my experience, most bald dudes are sus.
I'll go with most or half batting average isn't good.
We'll put it that way.
Fair.
Rob, I feel like you can't give me this next question because your name was so good.
Okay.
All right.
I'll do the question.
Just don't get too fucking excited.
You just make sure you introduce yourself.
You've been around for quite some time here.
You were probably around during the MySpace era.
I assume did you during that time have a cringy MySpace screen name?
I did not.
And that's because I grew up in a household where my mother was very strict about internet
use.
So I kind of missed the whole MySpace phase.
And then in college when it was like way outdated, I tried to like make one just like for fun.
But yeah, I totally missed the whole boat on MySpace.
I joined with like Facebook when I was a teenager.
Oh, so you never had no like cringy scene nickname or anything?
No, never.
Damn.
Have you seen pics or anything like?
Probably pics that are probably on my Facebook for sure.
But yeah, but no, no MySpace for me.
Okay.
Yeah, Rob did not miss out on that era of the internet.
Yeah, you're active, active participant for that.
Bell just wants me to say again on record that I jokingly had the nickname Robbie soft
mosh.
Ooh, sounds bad.
Everyone used to, you know, like, oh, sick mosh, hard mosh and stay brutal and all that
shit.
But like I listen to a lot of emo shit.
So I thought softly moshing was funny and it still is.
I stand by it.
It's a funny name.
Is that a name you coined yourself?
Like you gave that to yourself?
I did.
And that's what makes it even cringy.
That's amazing.
And that's why Bell's Bell's just been ecstatic about that since she learned it.
That's amazing.
So it was like 800 nicknames.
So I don't know what she's talking about.
Hey, I at least I didn't give any of them to myself.
I will say that.
There you go.
It was a different time.
You weren't there.
Okay.
You weren't there for it.
I didn't have to be.
I know.
So what was your album of the year for 2022?
When I was thinking about this, I feel like all of my favorite releases when I like look
back, they're actually from 2021, which is funny.
But I feel like for 20 years.
Yeah.
2021 was like a really good year for music.
But for 22, I'm going to do memory theater, a squalor grind.
Yeah, there was some there was some good grind in 2022.
Was no loss.
Was that last year?
Or was that this year?
Every time I think I'm like, oh, this came out in 22.
I like look it up and it's from 21.
So I'm like, I don't even know.
Every time.
Yeah, I don't know why that's in my brain.
But if you could give the world a gift, what would it be and the why?
Man, this is like such a pageant question.
I feel like I should more ready for this world peace.
I don't know.
I'm going to go world peace.
Yeah.
Let's do that.
I feel like you definitely win with that answer.
Yeah, the classic.
What's the next big goal or accomplishment you want to reach as a band like a big venue
you want to play or festival you've always dreamed of playing any goal or milestone you
want to accomplish for your future?
We've actually got some cool fest lineup for this year that I can't say yet because they
haven't been announced.
But we also really want to play Obscene Extreme in it's like in the Czech Republic.
So we're hoping for that for 2024.
I mean, we have like no no nothing in the works.
It's just like a dream that we're hoping to achieve.
We're definitely going to be doing Europe in 24, but don't know about that fest.
But there's just a lot of really good fest in Europe to that will be amazing and can't
wait to get over there.
That's like a big milestone to just play internationally.
Yeah, that's super cool.
That is sick.
And if I hit pause on the recording, can you tell us what's what's coming up that hasn't
been announced yet?
I don't know.
I feel like I'd have to check with our agent.
Oh, shit.
You guys have an agent?
We just got one.
Yeah.
Oh, congrats.
Fancy.
Big timers.
Big time.
I wouldn't go that far.
But you know, World Tour coming up.
Yeah, World Tour.
Yeah, we just got a an agent for US and for Europe.
So it's so we definitely will be doing Europe.
It's just a matter of putting that in motion.
Is it the same agent or do you have one per country?
Yeah, it's two different agents.
That's pretty sweet.
Yeah, I find that most US agents like there's usually different agents for overseas.
Yeah, it would have been crazy if it was a kind of yeah, one one very vast area to cover.
Right.
All of it.
Yeah.
Sick, though.
Congrats.
Thank you.
So what's new for the band coming up this year?
So we're really hoping to do a West Coast tour more towards the end of the year because
we still have not gone to the West Coast yet.
And then we're working on our first full length right now.
We are hopefully going to be wrapping it up either this month or next.
So that'll be released maybe later this year, maybe early next year.
Just kind of depending.
And then when you get into Canada, you really want to go to Canada.
I don't know yet.
We have you actually most bands don't.
Cool.
We we actually got a possible chance to do Canada, but it was like a week after it would
have been now.
So like right after we got back from this last tour or so.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
Weren't able to do it.
So we so we all got sick at the end of tour and our drummer got really sick.
He's actually been in ICU for over a week.
Holy fuck from bronchitis.
Yeah.
So like he's just been having a really hard time breathing.
So they had to like put him on oxygen.
Holy shit.
It like hit him really hard.
And he's he's a lot better now.
He should be like discharged either today or tomorrow.
Oh, that's good.
But it's been like a ride for him.
So it's really good that we didn't do that because we would have had to like cancel anyway.
Yeah.
You don't want to come here sick.
The weather's not even nice right now.
It's just like you come here sick.
It's like overcast, not helping anything.
Yeah, that's no one wants that.
No shit.
Well, I'm glad I'm glad your drummer's getting out and recovering.
Yeah.
Thank God.
It was scary for a minute.
Damn.
Yeah, that's stressful.
Yeah.
He must have had a hell of a week.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was it was crazy just like coming back and then because we were all sick at
the end.
We didn't know it was like that that dire.
So he like we got back and then the next day he went to the ICU.
Damn, a good drummer is hard to find to like that would be a dark joke.
But like, seriously, it's true.
Like, yeah.
We were very lucky to have him.
So thank God that he's on the mend.
I can't believe you haven't been to the West Coast yet.
I know it's crazy.
Like we keep getting these opportunities on the East Coast.
So we keep doing East Coast tours, but it's like we're like desperate to get out on the
West Coast.
Yeah, that'd be super fun.
Yeah, it'll definitely happen.
Hopefully end of the year.
Well, any.
No, you got to go for it.
Go for it.
I was just going to say any last shout outs and such.
So if you had a question, go for it.
No, I was just going to say, give me a shout when when you do get over to Canada.
Hopefully I can help you guys out, get some shows if you're looking to book and stuff.
Yeah, I definitely say I know I know promoters around here, obviously.
So hell yeah.
We'd be happy to have you if you come to Ontario, which would be nice.
Yeah.
Well, any last shout outs, plugs or causes you want to speak on anything you want to
talk about?
Well, we don't have any new music out at the moment, so I don't really have anything to
plug in that respect.
But we've got our music on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Our Instagram is Brat underscore band.
Think it's the same for TikTok and Twitter.
We're not super active on that, but that's really all the all the plugs I got on my end.
Well, thanks so much for coming on the show.
It's been an absolute pleasure and we hope to have you back on again in the future.
Yeah.
Thank you guys so much.
All right.
Right.
Just die, the war, report
I can't take my time, think again
I can't take this life, think again
Just die