Facing personal trials with strength and a dash of humor, Chris Whited of Bodysnatcher joins me to discuss his music and much more!
Chris doesn't hold back as we explore the haunting inspirations behind Bodysnatcher's name and dive into the band's roots. Yet, amid this darkness, the light of heartfelt tributes shines through in their latest single, "Dead Rabbit," reminding us of the power of music to heal and honor those we've lost. Our talk on band dynamics and the sheer logistics of touring exposes the underworld of tour management, from the evolution of a merch guy into a tour manager to the intricacies of coordinating merchandise logistics on the road.
As we wrap up, there's a palpable sense of excitement for what's on the horizon for Bodysnatcher. With tours planned out till March of 2025, the anticipation for unannounced projects adds an electric charge to the conversation. If you're a musician seeking to collaborate, Chris's invitation through 1776 Recordings is a call to action. Join us for an episode that's a compelling mix of life lessons, laughter, and the relentless drive of rock, all wrapped up in the candid stories of Chris Whited.
Music Production: https://www.1776recordings.com/
The Backstage Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@thebackstage_podcast
Social Channels:
Bodysnatcher's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodysnatcherfl/
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheyoflifepodcast/
Gus' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gussholland/
Facing personal trials with strength and a dash of humor, Chris Whited of Bodysnatcher joins me to discuss his music and much more!
Chris doesn't hold back as we explore the haunting inspirations behind Bodysnatcher's name and dive into the band's roots. Yet, amid this darkness, the light of heartfelt tributes shines through in their latest single, "Dead Rabbit," reminding us of the power of music to heal and honor those we've lost. Our talk on band dynamics and the sheer logistics of touring exposes the underworld of tour management, from the evolution of a merch guy into a tour manager to the intricacies of coordinating merchandise logistics on the road.
As we wrap up, there's a palpable sense of excitement for what's on the horizon for Bodysnatcher. With tours planned out till March of 2025, the anticipation for unannounced projects adds an electric charge to the conversation. If you're a musician seeking to collaborate, Chris's invitation through 1776 Recordings is a call to action. Join us for an episode that's a compelling mix of life lessons, laughter, and the relentless drive of rock, all wrapped up in the candid stories of Chris Whited.
Music Production: https://www.1776recordings.com/
The Backstage Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@thebackstage_podcast
Social Channels:
Bodysnatcher's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodysnatcherfl/
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheyoflifepodcast/
Gus' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gussholland/
Hey everybody and welcome to a new episode of Way of Life. I'm your host, gus Holland. Today, I was really fortunate to be able to sit down with Chris Whited. He's the drummer for Body Snatcher and the owner of 1776 Recordings. He also co-hosts the Backstage Podcast, which can be found on YouTube, and the link will be in the description below. I don't want to drag this intro out any longer, I just want to get to the podcast, so, without further ado, here is the episode. How have you been today, basically?
Speaker 2:Been good dude. Okay, sweet, can't complain. Actually, yeah, I can't complain a lot, but I'm still trying to be in a good mood.
Speaker 1:Oh I, got you yeah. Yeah, is it music related stuff, or just like?
Speaker 2:life, no, just life related stuff. I live in a shitty fucking condo right now and it's just a whole situation of horribleness. Like we I should be grateful. Like me and my wife own a house, but we started renting that house out because we were like, oh we could, since we're getting income from that house, we could buy another house. And that was last June. So we've been staying in this little condo it's a one bathroom condo since June last year.
Speaker 2:Oh shoot, she is a general manager for a bar, like a sports bar restaurant type place, so you know she doesn't get home a lot of nights until like 3am or so because the bar is open until 2am every night and she's manager. But she while we were recording our EP that's about to start coming out soon. We're in New Jersey and I get a phone call from her and a dude's axle on the bottom of a semi fell off and she towed with her car along with like seven other cars. Damn, and her job, super cool bought her a car. They, it's a company car. So anyways, she towed with her car. She's been going through rehab and physical therapy since October and her work wrapped the car and our condo will not let us have a wrapped car with any type of phone numbers or business logos on it parked there. So now we just get back.
Speaker 2:We just got married February 24th and we get back from our honeymoon and since we've been back, she has to park her car two miles away from our house. So every night at 4am I have to go drive to the grocery store where she's parking her car unlawfully and pick her up, and then I also have to drive her back to her car the next day because we're charging us $100 a day. Even if they just see the car in the parking lot, it doesn't even have to be parked. If they see it, they're charging us $100 a day. Wow, so that's where we're at right now. So it's just fucking pisses me off, but whatever, yeah, but yeah, doing fairly well though, considering.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, congrats on the marriage and the honeymoon.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you've been together a while, or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, me and Harry have been together since, actually since the month before I did my first tour with Body Snatcher, so it was like 2018, I think Okay, and but we were friends for like seven years before that, so oh, okay, yeah. So yeah, we've been together for six years and we were friends for like six or seven years before that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, so yeah, well, yeah, sorry about that, but I mean, yeah, I guess it's like positive and negative, because you got the, you know the, she got the hook up with the car from the company.
Speaker 2:But yeah, there's some, yeah, some bullshit going on. Yeah, there's always some some fucking things.
Speaker 1:So when did you get back from your honeymoon? That had to be like not too long ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Last week actually, I've been home for actually, let's say, Thursday. Yeah, I've been home for exactly a week. Got home, that's Thursday. Okay, we did like a. We did a long cruise and went to like all the Southern Caribbean type places like St Martin and St Lucia, Barbados yeah, it was. It was like it was like a 10, 10 day cruise. It was a. We were like 40 years younger than every person on the boat. Yeah, that's cool. I was like. I was like how she's? Like, why are there so many old people? Because they're all like I'm not kidding Like most people on the boat were like walkers. They're probably, you know, 85 to 90 years old. And I was like who else that works a job, can take off 10 days to go on a cruise. And Jane, in February.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's true, that's um, yeah, you hit, you hit some waves and you just see like a bunch of tennis ball, like Walker's slide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, it's so funny and the amount of like I don't know the older generation like thinks the younger generation is like so rude. But I feel like I'm so polite and so are all my friends and I've never heard so many rude things be said to people in my life and just like I don't know it was it was, it was comical, it was very funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean that's the um, similar situation like with the area that that me and my wife well, so we have two kids and um and I'm about to be 32, but when they first started elementary and and everything, we just like you know, I just like hustled, I was like I'm going to, you know, get get us a house, basically, and it was like perfect timing. Before you know, all the interest rates got crazy and everything yeah.
Speaker 2:And the house that we bought are the house that we, that we're renting out. We bought it in 2019. So it was like perfect time, yeah, but now it's like it's in Florida as impossible. Where are you from?
Speaker 1:Texas like uh, yeah, in between uh Austin and Houston, okay.
Speaker 2:So Texas is pretty good like price wise housing market right now. I mean, interest rates are still fucked, but the prices are crazy. Like you get like a 1,100 square foot two bedroom, one bath house here and it's like $400,000. Oh my God yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Fucking sucks. We got we lucked out, though, right before COVID hit the house that we bought. It's like 1700 square feet, three, three bed with a den, two bathrooms on like a half acre, and we got it for 205. Oh, wow, and it was a brand new build. Is that it was for where the first people don't live in it? Yeah, um, we got lucky on that. And then, but yeah, now, now it's impossible, sucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, but um, we, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we we moved to this area, though, and like from the, from the get go, like when, whether it was like shopping for groceries, or I mean like we're older now, you know but this was like seven years ago or whatever and uh, and I didn't have a beard and everything but I I still had like quite a bit of tattoos and stuff and like all the time, like me and my wife, we would like grocery store dropping them off for school, whatever they're like. Oh, are you the babysitter or are you the older brother?
Speaker 2:Are you like you know all this shit.
Speaker 1:And and then, like we would go to the, uh like they'd have, like a parent teacher or not, a parent teacher thing, but like uh, right before school started they'd have like a thing where where you could take the tour of the school and meet all the teachers and everything, like everybody's like 20 to 30 years older than us, like the parents and uh, and they're all just like looking at us like that's what's going to happen to me. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I know my brother has. He has a. He passed a couple of years, two years ago, but his uh, my nieces are now they're 20 and 15, but you know, when they were like in the oldest one was in high school and and the other one was like middle and elementary and stuff, and my brother has like had both their names tattooed across his eyebrows.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like he was like fully covered in tattoos, like he just looked like a, looked like a maniac Nicest person in the world. But yeah people. The way he got looked at was hello.
Speaker 1:I guess, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry about your brother, but that is how you know how we're all, I guess, young, young and tattooed. You know we're all received, but, dude, I'm about to be 36. Really Okay, I'm in 10. So today's the 14th that we're recording this, but, like 10 days from now, I'll be 32.
Speaker 2:Oh damn dude, I'm April 1st.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, damn that's cool, pretty close.
Speaker 2:Happy early birthday, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but okay, so just to get into the music before we get to sidetracked or anything, so for body snatcher. So just to clarify, like I'm literally just a fan, I've got this podcast that you know, and we do different playlists just to kind of like provide playlists to the listeners for gym purposes, basically yeah, yeah, and so the most I know about the band and even you is like your name, the name of the band, the songs I like, stuff like that. So just to preface it, because I'm going to probably ask you some oh no, I'm all for it.
Speaker 2:Dude, ask me anything.
Speaker 1:Some dumbass questions. But so I know you're the drummer, are you the? Is that the only like project that you work on? Do you have solo things outside of body snatcher or anything?
Speaker 2:like that. So I've run a recording studio as well and that's actually how I joined body snatcher was. I was in a band you know I'm a little bit older than everybody else in the band and I was in a band like from like 2006 to 2013 that toured a lot that's like in the same genre that body snatchers in now and, like you know, like the deathcore, hardcore metal genre, and then I started recording bands full time and I recorded the first record that body snatcher did that they ended up getting signed off of and that was like we recorded that in like 2015 or 2016 or something, okay. And then they the band got signed and I was doing like other projects at that time to like I did vocals in a band called Lost Fortune and then I also before that, the band that I was in that was like had notoriety was a band called King Conker and we toured all over the place and did Europe a couple of times and stuff like that. But yeah, so I recorded that first body snatcher record they did. They did like some tours and stuff and the like the tour that they did, like the album release tour that they did and 2017, I think it was all the, all the members of the band kind of quit after that, except for the lead singer.
Speaker 2:And so I was like yo play drums, I like, I like the band. I worked on the record, like it's, it's the style of music that I like, like I'll, I'll start touring again. And I was like I was 29 at the time. I was about to be 30. And I was like yo, if I do this, I'm fucking like, not fucking the shit up and I'm going full force. You know what I mean. And so, yeah, then we everyone that's in the band now joined the band. When I joined the band, so well, me and the singer found our bass player and which he was also in another, like bigger deathcore band in like the 2010 era that I had toured with in the past, and so we got him. And then we got one of my good friends that lives here in Florida, kyle Carter, to play guitar, and it's been the full or the since then.
Speaker 1:Okay, so if you, if you don't mind me asking, and if you don't want to answer, that's, that's fine too. But how? Why did most everybody except the singer quit back in 2017?
Speaker 2:It was just I mean mainly just when you go on a really long tour, a lot of people don't realize how hard it is. You know, it's like when you're gone for six weeks and at, you know, and especially when you're a new band and you're not making any money, you're you're barely making enough money to get gas or food or any of that stuff it's like you definitely it gets to your head. You know it is very, very, very hard to be successful in this world, you know. So I think that's that's most likely what it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just, and we're still friends, we're still friends with with a lot of those guys. Actually, the the good, the old guitar player he is, he's playing full time. He's actually placed bass in a band called spite now. Oh, okay, okay, yeah, so it's another band yeah, the, we're doing a couple tours with them. They're our next two tours are with them, so that's cool. And he lives in Florida, we're also friends with him and stuff, so that's cool, okay, sweet.
Speaker 1:So as far as the name body snatcher for the band is, how did that come about?
Speaker 2:like that was a when, when they first started the band, they they just wanted to be, like you know, a breakdown Mosh band. They weren't planning on like taking it super far. There's a, so I wanted to play some local shows and be a heavy band. But, yeah, they wanted it. They wanted to like name the band after a serial killer, just just because you know what I mean, just like you know everyone's 1718 at the time and they're, you know, thought it was cool. And the the guy Ed Gein, his, his nickname was the body snatcher.
Speaker 1:But Ed.
Speaker 2:Gein was Ed Gein's already, was already a band. So when they, when they saw the name body snatcher, they're like, oh, that's cool, you know, I mean. It doesn't even have to like, like mean the serial killer. They just ended up finding that name by accident by looking at serial killers. You know I got you yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:I had just like context clues. I had figured, you know, because there's like the term like, oh, catch a body or whatever, yeah, yeah. So I was like, okay, there's probably something like that, you know so. But, okay, sweet, so correct me if I'm wrong, but y'all released your your last album like mid 2022. And then you've got you just had a single like at the end of February right Of this year, or I mean of last year 2023.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dead rabbit.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, yeah, so, yeah and then. So I was going to ask you about dropping new music and everything, but you had mentioned already that you all have EP coming out. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we actually just announced today when the the first singles coming out, so the first singles drop in on the 26th of this month. Oh shit, okay, that's cool. Yeah, so really soon, couple weeks, okay, sweet yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this episode dead rabbit is not, is not part of it. So dead rabbit is just like. That was my brother's nickname and I wrote that song, like you know, right after he passed, and we're just like fuck it, let's just put out a single song, you know what I mean. Just like, just for, just for something, you know. And then, right after we released that song, a couple months later, my sister died from the same thing, and then, oh shit, yeah, so sorry, so, thank you, it's, it's. You know, life, life definitely happens.
Speaker 2:But it happens, you know, but fuck the pharmaceutical industry. That's all. That's all I have to say. Yeah, yeah, because they both overdosed on fentanyl.
Speaker 1:Okay that's what I was. I was figuring something like that.
Speaker 2:Or my brother my brother's was kind of like a he. He had MS, so he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 16 is like one of the youngest in the country at the time and that's a disease that doesn't go away. You know what I mean. It just it gets progressively worse over your lifetime and by the time he was 18, his doctors had him on oxy 120s, which if I took that it would kill me, you know. Yeah, so he was, you know, made into a drug addict from the pharmaceutical industry, you know. So I mean, his body was reliant on it and you know he definitely started to abuse it after years and, you know, would run out and would find his own drugs because he couldn't get a script filled and stuff like that, you know, and stuff. You know it sucks.
Speaker 2:But my sister was she actually. She got involved with some really fucked up people and you know she became a heroin addict and got clean for a while, got clean, she had a kid, got got clean for three years and then, yeah, had a slip up and that slip up was the last, the last thing, you know. So now my mom, my brother, had two kids, my sister was single, and so my mom's got her three year old now. So, yeah, it's been a crazy past two years, yeah.
Speaker 1:I understand. I'm sorry about that. I'd come from a fan. I've never said this out loud so I don't know how to word it but I come from a family that there's a lot of drug and alcohol abuse and luckily, a lot of them I'd say like 90% or something you know off the top of my head have recovered or in some sort of program or something like that. But yeah, that's horrible, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, it's okay. Yeah, I think addiction is a. It's a crazy thing because some people are just, some people don't, their brain doesn't get addicted to things you know what I mean Like. And then some people, it's like drugs affect them in a way that they like me, I would never understand it. You know what I mean. Like I don't know, I don't know how I got skipped with it, but like I mean I've done. I mean I don't really care, I've done pretty much every drug that you could think of.
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean. At some point in time I've tried it. You know what I mean, but I've never woken up the next day and been like, oh, I need to do a whole bunch of that again. You know what I mean. Like I've never had like a weak bender fucking doing something fucked up. You know what I mean? Yeah, like some people, it's like they try something once and they're just like I need that all the time, you know, but like I don't know, my brain just doesn't comprehend it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I'm the same way Like and it maybe. Maybe it's because I was raised around so many people that like examples of what not to do, type thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I could probably attest to that as well, because you know I have had I mean almost every childhood friend that I've had is gone because of because of opiates you know what I mean Like Oxycontin, percocet and Bednell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, that's horrible.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad you're not Especially Florida.
Speaker 1:Florida. It's crazy. Yeah, florida is from what I've. I mean, I've only been a couple of times with. I've known people from Florida and stuff like that. I've always heard that it's pretty heavy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just the like when Oxycontin started getting prescribed to people, like in the 2000s, it was like that was all you heard about. It was fucking crazy. Yeah, but yeah. So I think that's probably a huge reason why I've never fell down that path, because I always, like, saw the way people started acting and I was like I do not want anything to do with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's. That's crazy. Well, I'm glad you're not. But, back to back to music being released. I mean, I don't, I don't care. Like I said, it's it's conversational and like obviously I don't want to upset you, but I'm down to talk to about whatever you know.
Speaker 2:No, that's, it doesn't upset me, it's all stuff that I would I would prefer actually talking about, just to you know, have people hear, hear that stuff, you know, yeah, but yeah, we're about to release a new song in a couple of weeks and stuff is going to start start rolling out by the by the month, throughout this whole year, and we got a lot of, a lot of cool stuff. Like we have tour that we leave, a Europe tour that we leave for on April 3rd and then, and then we come home from the April tour and five days after we get home we do six weeks US tour with spite and a band called thrown and a band called Psycho frame, been called sell sales, actually from Texas, and then a band called noses. So thrown is from Europe and noses is from Japan, and so, yeah, so should be, should be a cool tour. That's that, that's all in the States in May and June.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, that sounds sick. I've I actually. I listened to thrown as well, so that's, that's awesome, yeah.
Speaker 2:There. There are another band that's on like a lot of like the extreme metal workout play lists and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, yeah, so as far as. So you are going to do that tour, you said. You said April and May, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yep, so April's Europe, and then May June is the States.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, sweet have y'all. Is that y'all's first time doing Europe, or?
Speaker 2:have y'all. No that'll. This'll be our third time.
Speaker 1:Oh damn, okay, Sweet yeah, okay, do you have? You have a favorite place over there, like not necessarily to tour, but like spot.
Speaker 2:I, I really like, I like the UK a lot. Uk is fucking really sick. It's all really cool. Last time we were over there we had a day off in Paris and we like walked like the catacombs and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. That shit was fucking awesome, yeah. But yeah, it's all really cool over there. People are cool, it's just. It's just great. Uk is just I don't know. It's really, it's really dope and they're. They have a ton of Indian food there and I love Indian food, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how. So let's see Basically like a right around Thanksgiving of last year, 2023. We, like, as a family, went to Scotland.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome, yeah, and that was all I love Glasgow, glasgow is fucking sick Dude.
Speaker 1:that's the one place we didn't go and everybody was like you should have went, you know it's so like just there's so much shit happening.
Speaker 2:It's so awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we we stayed in Edinburgh and then we like traveled all like we did the high, like went to the Highlands, we went to Loch Ness and like I don't even know like 20 different cities. We were there for like two weeks and so.
Speaker 2:Damn, that's so awesome. Yeah, that's the one thing. That's like you know you go on tour and you see all these places, but you don't have time to like really see the places. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, when we're places we get, we get there at noon, we load in, we sound check doors open, we play the show and then we leave. You know what I mean. Like we never like have a day off to really see much. Yeah, like like we're over there for three weeks coming up and we have two days off for like during the whole time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, that's not. Yeah, that that sucks. I've I listened to a bunch of podcasts and a lot of them are like comedians and you know they do work as well and they say the same same thing. That it sucks. Like you go all over the world and then you're like, well, I had like a few days off here and there or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you go all over the world but you don't get to really experience it. I mean, you do, but it's just in a different form than what most people are expecting to hear. You know, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So as far, so sorry I might hit my head still on the addiction thing and everything. So it kind of bothered me a little bit.
Speaker 2:That's okay.
Speaker 1:As far as. So, once y'all are done with the tour, do y'all have like, are y'all planned and have anything planned further out as far?
Speaker 2:as oh yeah, yeah, we have our entire like tours, music coming out, stuff like that. Like we are, we are a completely booked solid until March of 2025. Oh shit, okay, that's just, but it's all stuff that it's not announced yet. That you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I can't say who it's with or what it is. But yeah, we are booked solid till March next year. Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that's sick. So congrats on that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's fucking so dope. Yeah, I'm. There's a couple of things that I'm. I just can't wait for it to happen, just so I can be like yo, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'll definitely keep an eye out as well as everybody else. But so booked, so I mean, as far as so Body Snatcher obviously is doing very well, is that is, I guess, like health of the band as a whole Would you say that that's doing pretty well as well, like everybody's getting along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, definitely, the group that we have, like we've been this same unit for, you know, for six years and like that's that's all the way down to like our tour manager has been with us that long, okay, and he also is. He also is our merch manager, like for while we're on the road, and then our sound guy he goes on every tour with us and he's like they're both part of the band. So there's there's six of us and six of us that are always on tour together for every single tour, same six people. And yeah, we all get along extremely well.
Speaker 2:And it's like, you know, no matter what, whenever you live with somebody and you know living with somebody in a house is one thing, living with somebody in a van or a bus is a completely different thing. You know what I mean. So I mean I'm not going to say that there's never arguments, but if there is an argument, it is so minor that I mean whenever I see how other bands act, I'm like, holy shit, I fucking love our band dude, but yeah, we all get along so well. If there is any type of disagreement, it's always so small and everybody is very good at at just talk, talking you know what I mean Like we're all very, very level headed and we're all we're all really good at just having conversations with each other to resolve whatever it was. Which I mean I would say, maybe we have a conversation that has to resolve an issue once to two times a year maybe. So you know what I mean. So it's very, very rare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's, that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we got. We have a great manager who is, like the band's manager, a great booking agent, and they've been with us same amount of time. It's just like we have. We have a really good, really good team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's, that's sick. And speaking of merch, y'all's vinyls are sick, by the way, like just the like. I don't know, I've always some people just like the black vinyls or whatever, but like y'all have all the like mixed colors and shit and yeah, different color yeah that's.
Speaker 2:I know that there's a stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The new one that we, that we just that we just announced is just straight black. But there's going to be more later on down the road I can't say when, but they're all going to have crazy colors and shit. Okay, sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was looking at the, the newest one, or you know, the, the album the bleed abide, bleed, yes, yes, yes and and yeah. What I saw was like it was kind of like maroon and white or whatever kind of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like maroon and like a bone color kind of yes, yeah, yeah. There's one that came out with that one that's I think it was called like the lemonade variant or something, but it was like a yellow and like sky blue looking one and it looked so sick. And a lot of those we don't. We don't have a lot of those. We don't even see them in person. You know what I mean? It's like all stuff that's like on the online store that's not ran by us.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it's just like shipped straight out and stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like we there was one. We were playing a show in Pittsburgh and there was a record store connected to it and we went down in there and they had that one. We all bought our own. Really, even though it's our own, babe, we all bought it because we're like, damn, that one looks so sick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's that's sick, that's that's kind of how. So just for E, because, like I don't do this full time, obviously, but I have like a job and like a side job basically besides this. So it's for ease of of merch and everything, I just have it like similar to that, like kind of like third party source and it just shipped straight out from there. So then I was like man, I was like before you know, I was like I got to buy like at least one of everything, just to like get samples and have my own shit. Like like you know, like I've got for a little bit. I had fans that were like dude, this, you know, the shirts are sick and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. I'm like cool, I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know, like I would know. You know people, people said like we'll be like oh, you guys, you guys sent me a small instead of a large. I'm like no, we didn't yeah. We, you know, we're like you know, we'll see people wearing stuff at shows and we're like damn, I never seen that one. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like can you sign my shirt? And then you're like hold on, let me look at it first yeah, it happens all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, damn that one came out so sick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's cool. So are you? Are y'all all based out of Florida?
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm assuming so, since y'all yeah, our bass player was in New Jersey, okay, and for like the first four years he was in the band. He just moved down to Florida, like a year and a half ago and yeah, so now everybody lives in Florida, but we're all really far away from each other and Florida, like me and my guitar player, are like an hour to an hour and a half away, and then our bass player and our singer live on the other coast, so they are like three hours away. Okay, okay, yeah, so anytime that we like we don't practice, like if we're going on tour, we'll meet up the day before and then we'll practice the day before for a day and then we go on tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's crazy. And that's some of the bands I've talked to. They're like I mean that's more often the case than not, at least from my experience is that like, even if they're in the same state, they're kind of like having to meet up and do things to get work, you know, but that's this. Like Florida I mean there's several states like that, but like Florida and Texas, I mean people don't really get that. That like if you overlap, like Texas on top of the UK, it's like all of the UK, you know.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, yeah, it takes me if I want to get out of Florida, just to get into Georgia. It's like a seven and a half hour drive. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like that's how, like from, from where I am like, if I want to go to New Orleans, louisiana, it's like the state over, right, yeah, it's like nine or 10, it's nine hours. If you're like hauling ass, you know, yeah, but it's like the same. Like you got to El Paso, I think. It's like nine hours for me too.
Speaker 2:So it's like, yeah, dude, that's always the worst drive is like because, whatever we'll always play, like all the tours, we'll hit, like you know, houston, dallas, fort Worth, san Antonio, and then you go from San Antonio to Albuquerque.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's like a 13 hour drive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, in Albuquerque he's like all the way up in the corner of New Mexico. So it's, you're almost, it's like you're going through like four or almost five.
Speaker 2:Normally if we do an Albuquerque, sometimes we'll go up to Oklahoma City and then across, or, or or play Dallas and then across, or. A lot of times it'll be San Antonio to Phoenix. So you're like kind of just driving the the, the border you know like once you're once you hit El Paso. You're kind of just on the border till you hit Phoenix.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So so right now, as far as like travel goes, are y'all, are you all, going to go to the hotel?
Speaker 2:Like, are y'all in a van, or do y'all have like a tour bus or We've been in a van like a Chevy Express that we kind of had built out that we I mean we built it out ourselves but everybody has their own spot. Nobody goes in each other spots, even when you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So it's like wherever you sleep like.
Speaker 2:That's your spot, you know. But so we have like bunks built in the back, so two sleep underneath, two sleep on top, and then there's two bench seats, so one sleeps in each bench seat and then whoever's driving or wants to ride up front can. But this year will be our first year on buses the entire year. So Europe, we're on a bus, and then we come back to the States. We're on a. We're on like a. There's a company called Bandwagon in the United States and it's like a. It's like a. It's a company made specifically for bands and there's like nine bunks. Everybody has like their own AC control. It's like a lounge area, you know. So we'll have a microwave and a refrigerator and a coffee maker so we can actually keep food. That's not horrible. And there's a shower, so, and we don't have to drive.
Speaker 1:So we'll have a driver. So yeah, I didn't even that's. That's the worst part, in my opinion, is the driving, but yeah.
Speaker 2:People don't. People don't understand. Like you know, some people are like oh, I wish I could go to the show, but it's two hours away. And I'm like, dude, like we get to venues every day at noon and we don't leave until 1am and then we have a six hour drive plus almost every single night. So it's either you know, you don't have enough time to sleep. You know what I mean you don't have enough time to get a full night's sleep. No, you're just don't. Yeah, and that's, you know, six weeks straight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's basically like, because I mean driving to me, I mean it's, it's work as well. You know what I mean. So like somebody's basically working, like 24 seven.
Speaker 2:If you're, and that's me. I drive 24 seven because I have crazy fucking anxiety when other people drive, so I would just rather drive.
Speaker 1:It sucks, but you're the driver. Yeah, okay, I'm really hyped for this year to not have to drive for once Okay, yeah, no, that'd be, that'd be cool, get some, there's some beauty rest. Yeah, yeah, dude, I can't. So I get like a car sickness, like if I'm in the back, so I'm like I'll. Either I either like drive or I'll ride shotgun and we can swap, or whatever you know, but I'll just yeah, it's horrible. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I've never gotten car sickness, but that would fucking suck. Hey, you would hate being on tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, well it's, it's really and it's like random, like like nine times out of 10, I won't have it, you know, but you can see on boats. Um no, no, but I do still take, just as a precaution.
Speaker 2:I mean, or whatever, I mean, or whatever, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, um, because like the same with airplanes, I've like I've been on airplanes a lot, but then there's like one time where I got like a really sick, so I was just like I'm just going to do dramming every time now.
Speaker 2:So yeah, when I was, when I was like really young, I remember I threw up on an airplane like really, really bad ones and I had to use the bag. I think it was like eight years old or something yeah, and then yeah and then, uh, I also like use. I would throw up on boats when I was a kid, but now it's like I don't ever. That never happens to me anymore. It's like flying or or on boats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess that. Yeah, but it's about the same for me, because as a kid it was like every time and then, uh, now it's probably like one out of 10 times or something like that. But like my dad would just be like, look, look out the? Uh, look out the windshield. Quit looking out this, you know, cause you'd be like look at the trees and you get sick, yeah, but anyways, um, yeah, so, as far as, do you all do any type of like prep? Like, if you're going on like a like the upcoming tour you said it's six weeks, is there? I mean, besides music practice, obviously, is there anything special that y'all have to do to like prep for that long of a? You know?
Speaker 2:um, I mean, yeah, definitely, like we've all been doing it so long now that it's kind of just it doesn't feel like prep really, and we all kind of just know what we need and and and get it done. But merch is a big thing Like. So you know you have to pre-plan out. You know getting merch designs made takes a while, you know. So you have to be like oh, we have a tour, you know that's in, whatever it may. So, and in November you better be thinking about your merch designs and talking to the artists about gay. So you gotta give yourself a couple of months, a lot of times, to make sure you have the designs in time, make sure you know how many of each shirt you're wanting to order, make sure the prank company knows where to ship those orders.
Speaker 2:Cause, like a lot of bands, like you know, you, you, you sell a lot. If, if you're, if you're playing in front of a good amount of people, you're selling a lot of merch, so you can't carry all of you, can't carry enough merch for the whole tour in your trailer. You just can't. Yeah, so, so we'll normally get like a shipment every week. So we'll normally get, you know, like like 20 boxes or something every week. And so you got to plan where they're going to ship the boxes at. You know like what UPS stores close to what venues and which ones like are open on the days you're going to be there, and stuff like that. So all all that is pretty. You know stuff that it's easy to forget about but not, and also very stressful to figure out. But the guy that, the guy that does our merch is pretty good with it all and he just kind of keeps us posted and our tour manager also handles a lot of that stuff for us now. So he's kind of in contact with with the merch guy and getting all the tracking numbers sorted out and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And then you also have to advance the shows that you're going to play. So our tour manager also does that. So if you have, you know, a 30 day tour before that tour starts, you know in like the two to three weeks before it starts, you he will. He has to hit up the promoter for every single show. So it's a different promoter every day because it's a different state every day. So he has to hit those promoters up and get all the info that we need for the day of the show and just basically you know. They tell him where the parking is, you know what Wi-Fi is, if there's showers, if there's laundry, what time everybody's supposed to be there or what time sound checks are, how the how the show's going to run that day, and stuff like that. But you have to do that for every single day of the tour and then you have to put it into an app so that every band member can see it and be prepared by the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it's a lot.
Speaker 2:It's a 24 hour a day job while you're on the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I guess that that's why you have tour managers and merch guys and everything you know like too much?
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause we, we used to. You know a lot of bands do it themselves. You know, like I used to do it myself. And then our tour manager, he came on tour with us to learn how to do merch. So we all kind of showed him how to do merch and like you know what the merch etiquette is and like how you should go about like organizing things in the venue. Like don't bring in more than three boxes Even if you're going to sell more than that. Just if you sell it all, go to the trailer and bring more in. You know what I mean, just so you're not making clutter everywhere. You know little things like that.
Speaker 2:And he picked it up so fast and was like the best merch guy. And then he said he wanted to learn how to tour, manage and advance all the shows. So we taught him that. And now now we pay him, like we pay him a weekly rate and we pay him a hundred percent of all the tips, like that's card tips and cash tips, and he fucking banks like he makes a very fuck ton of money. It's a lot, it's awesome, it's fucking sick, yeah, but um, but I mean he does, he does a ton of work. He does a ton, you know, and it's like it, it. It relieves so much stress off of all of us. It's, it's I would. I would hate to do a tour without him. It would fuck, fucking, suck. No, that's, that's cool, that's good.
Speaker 1:You have like a good, a good team to work with. Yeah, besides the band, you know, yeah, so I pretty much ran out of questions. I just want to thank you so much for doing the podcast and I know you're coming out with great ideas. What new music is there? Anything you want to plug that you're like allowed to plug right now, like as far as their shows, socials go, or anything?
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, yeah, just uh, body snatcher FL on everything. Um, if you're in a band and need something recorded or mixed, hit me up. My website is 1776 recordingscom. I've done every body snatcher record. I've done most every traders record. I've worked with a bunch of a bunch of heavy bands in the genre. Um, and then, yeah, we have a new song coming out on March 26th and a bunch more awesome stuff coming out after that. We'll be on tour in Europe in April and be on tour in the States and May and June.
Speaker 1:Okay, sweet, well, um, once again, thank you so much, and of course, dude. Yeah, man, I'm glad to thank you, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm from, but Bye.