ZPP. 60 - Jaymz Lennfield of BEATALLICA

Oooo Yeehaaah!!! This week on Zen Perry Project, melt yer blues away and fuel your fire with Jaymz Lennfield, our hero of the day from BEATALLICA - a delightful band that definitively answers “What would it sound like if Metallica covered the Beatles?”. Revolving through topics like what goes into releasing a song in 14 different languages, why gigs at casinos are hard on vocals, and how all you need to sustain a passion is a bit of love - you’d be unforgiven to miss this one \m/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

Got it. I'm in Westlake Ohio. So, we played tonight in Lake Wood. We're in all the lakes. You know we're hitting all the lakes in Ohio apparently.

Speaker 2: 0:38

So how's the how's the weather over there right now?

Speaker 1: 0:42

It's cool, yeah, which is great. It's not, like you know, 97 degrees out and super obnoxious, you know what I mean. So this is a lot better. So I'd rather travel and stuff like this, you know, than anything else.

Speaker 2: 0:57

So yeah, 100 degrees in the van. Yeah, it's a where Michael and I are right now. It's a very, very smoky.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07

It's like smoky inside my house right now. It's crazy.

Speaker 1: 1:09

That's, that's what I had heard, all the wild wildfire stuff and everything like that. I was just with a visiting with a buddy of mine in Winnipeg and he's just like, yeah, he's been traveling around this whole area and stuff. He's just like, yeah, it's all. the air quality is totally terrible And what are you going to do?

Speaker 2: 1:30

We're just, we're living the life you know, doing the best we can. We're into music, We're into talking about art and all that good stuff. Probably do a proper introduction for everybody listening right now. So your name is James and you're in a band called Beat. Talica Is that right.

Speaker 1: 1:47

That is true, that is true.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Yes, how long has the beat Talica been playing together?

Speaker 1: 1:53

Well, we've been touring since 2007. So I guess that's when I could say we really started playing consistently. But the the fledgling notions of what beat Talica is really started in 2001, way back then. Now this is just simple ideas recording MP3s, you know, not being signed, you know I mean things like that, you know. So we've been touring since 2007.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Wow, how, how did that? how did it even start back in the first days, before you even started touring? How did you get the idea to do beat Talica? So beat Talica is a mashup between Beatles and Metallica. Would you guess that? Yeah, happy accident, happy accident.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Yeah, i mean we typically say the band found us. We did not find the band. We never intended to find the band. When myself and our original guitar player we were kind of goofing around with some stuff on on an April Fool's Day for an April Fool's show in Milwaukee and we're like, okay, well, what would this band do with this band, you know, and et cetera, et cetera, we started recording some MP3s just for fun and handed them out on an April Fool's Day show. Now that show is called Spoof Fest, which is something that I book and I do. The hospitality for That festival is now 30 years old next year. So we did this at Spoof Fest, not beat Talica, but we did the works of Metallica doing an April Fool's joke That those MP3s caught fire on the internet, basically.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And about six months later, while I still was not in a band, our former webmaster found me, got ahold of me through Friends of Friends of Friends and said, hey, this is who I am. I started a website and I named your band beat Talica. So we didn't name it, we did not pursue it. It was named for us and put on the internet for us And then from there it started getting all these hits and interests and craziness And he's like you need to make more music. This guy his name is Dave Dixon. He was a physics professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee And he's like you need to make more music because I'm getting messages from Mike Portnoy and people like Living Color writing and the pokes And you need to do more of this. So it kind of grew from there And we don't have a second batch.

Speaker 1: 4:53

What's that?

Speaker 2: 4:54

Like you don't have a choice. This is what you're doing now, because it's pretty much.

Speaker 1: 4:57

I'm just like, yeah, man, i'm not even in a band, dude. You know he's like you are now and it's called beat Talica.

Speaker 2: 5:06

So very rare that somebody tells you to make a band. So yeah, pretty rad. How are these MP3s shared back in the day? Was it just through the website somehow, or was it would be hilarious if it was on that.

Speaker 1: 5:15

We well, no, we didn't even have a website at first. He made a website from BitTorrent stuff, so he did that. So I think our first website may have been a MySpace page, something like that, and then people started writing in and then we got a formal website and then an updated website because that website got shut down, and so then we got another website, but it was really, you know, just started with the BitTorrent stuff, and then file sharing, which we have no control over, and then MySpace, you know, and then people make comments which we have no control over.

Speaker 2: 6:07

Still say nobody does. What were like Mike Portnoy and Living Colour and the Pogues? What were they all saying about Vitalik at the start?

Speaker 1: 6:17

Well, portnoy has been a huge fan and a huge proponent of the band. He's played with us on a couple of occasions and we've done stuff with Dream Theater. One of the other first ones was the webmaster from Hank Williams III back then. Something like I'm shooting milk out of my nose in laughter or something like that onto my keyboard or something like that. It's all in our bio. But I mean, like some other bands were writing in when we started getting shut down, you know, in our defense, you know just basically saying like, hey, this is, this is good stuff, these guys aren't trying to do anything, you know, slanderous or libelous or anything like that. So they were kind of coming to our defense. And then eventually Metallica did as well And that's kind of been a more well-known thing now, you know. So.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Yeah, how did I mean, how did that even just start? How did that? Wow, where do you even start from there? Like a band just made, made for you. but it also just worked out how, let's, let's go back, let's go. When did you first? first start playing music? like, very first start playing music.

Speaker 1: 7:34

I was for. my first gig was at a Lutheran church in a suburb of Milwaukee. I sang my first song in public in German, So my first gig wasn't in my own native language. So I was for and started learning basic piano from there. My grandma was teaching me you know, German. I know a tiny bit of some conversational German. I basically just by memory learned the words to Silent Night was so still a knock, highly genoc. I'll just slave to Einstein some box. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 8:22

Yeah, yeah. And then the whole stuff from your grandma or just the yeah, i.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Then I took some some German in high school. But our German teacher was so cool. All he wanted to do is talk about hockey, which I'm. I was like that's great. So so did that. I ended up taking some Spanish then, but then I was also a foreign exchange student to Bogota, columbia, when I was in high school, so I started learning conversational and street Spanish and can get myself across the city And then it worked. After that worked in an inner city of the south side of Milwaukee as a big Hispanic community and everything, so I started learning it there.

Speaker 2: 8:59

Awesome, so go see all the.

Speaker 1: 9:01

All you need is blood EP, which we can talk about later, which is done in different languages and everything.

Speaker 2: 9:08

So all right, we'll definitely talk about that. What was, what was like, your first band? What were you doing after that point?

Speaker 1: 9:13

Like I mean my first, my first band, not including air bands and dressing up like ace, really, when I was six years old because of my same grandma, i'm going to play frisbee in the park as ace, really, in moon boots. My first band I was 18. It was a band called necromancy And I was picking my sister up from high school And these guys, they knock on the window of the car and they're just like Hey man, you're right, because my nickname is Tinker. And he goes, you're Tinker, right. And it's like yeah, it's like you like metal, right. And it's like, yeah, like you want to be in a band? Yeah, so good, because we're getting rid of our singer. come down here, learn these songs. I'm like great. So that's how I joined my first band, literally by someone knocking on my car window and saying Hey man, you want to be in a band.

Speaker 2: 10:22

There you go And I just sang.

Speaker 1: 10:25

I just sang in that band. It was a crossover metal punk band.

Speaker 2: 10:29

What, uh, what were your first shows? like, what were you doing?

Speaker 1: 10:34

My first gig and that was with this band. You know who Blind Illusion are, but do not Okay. Blind Illusion San Francisco. We played at this place called the Odd Rock Cafe in Milwaukee. It's no longer there, but the guy who owned the Odd Rock started the Milwaukee Metal Fest. For those of you who know some of the bigger festivals, he started the Milwaukee Metal Fest. So we get in there.

Speaker 1: 11:03

And Blind Illusion at that time was made up of two famous folks. now That would be Larry Lalonde and Les Claypool. So my first gig was Larry Lalonde and Les Claypool. And Larry Lalonde was like skating down the street with this. I just remember seeing this city bus like 10 feet behind Larry Lalonde, honking, wailing on his horn. He's just like looking up at this bus and it's like totally just taking over the street. Les Claypool ended up having a little bit of a night with someone who was helping us out. Comes on the stage wearing a University of Wisconsin whitewater half shirt, mesh shirt, and I was like, see, you met Betty. So, and it was there was there's singer, chuck Bidemann's. It was his birthday. So that was my first show. So that was. That was a pretty good indoctrination into, into doing everything you know.

Speaker 2: 12:04

So that's rad. What, what's? what's your, what's your parents, what's your family and what? what did anybody think about when you were first starting to play music kind of growing up? Um?

Speaker 1: 12:17

well, at first they thought it was, you know, not something that they were really into sonically speaking, because we probably were very good, you know. But we rehearsed in my folks basement. I remember the first time, though, i went out on a solo tour because I do solo acoustic stuff to, you know, bokey stuff. Now it was in my early 20s and I did, i booked a zone tour on my own from the Midwest or whatever, and I remember telling my mom dad I was like look, there might be some things that aren't on the up and up or whatever. You just got to trust me, i'm going to be okay and I'm not going to do anything stupid. Um, and I came home a couple of weeks later. We had a dinner together and like, okay, so how were things right? And I told them about an hour worth of stories that that just stuff, that just happened. You know, my mom is just just looking at it, yeah, and my dad's like, did you do anything stupid? I'm like no man, i'm okay. He's like okay. So kind of went on from there And now to the this day.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Uh, my parents, who have a whole closet full of Metallica swag they come all to be Talica gigs religiously under the first ones there. My 82 year old dad has a Metallica shirt that says when I punch you, i feel happy inside. You know he's. You know they're great and they're totally supportive and they're, they're into it and they're often at Adam and having having beers with folks and stuff like that And they're they're a good time, you know so. So I got great parents like that and my whole family is like that, and uncle's sister. They all come out to gigs, you know, and they've always been super great about that. So, which is which is pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 14:15

And do you remember any of those stories that you first told them about your first kind of touring days? Uh, they kind of like piqued their interest or scared the hell out of them.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Yeah, Um, let's see, I was in, I was in, uh, Kalamazoo, Michigan, stayed at the promoter's house who lived in the house, you know the like, the homes that are in the cemeteries, you know, like basically the, you know their, their cemetery caretakers, or whatever. Um, then I know there was some illegal substance activity going on there and one of their roommates was on it and they had this parrot, this parrot that kept me up all night And it's like I'm trying to go to sleep. So I have this blanket over my head but I'm not asleep, you know, and I can feel the hovering of this chick lady woman, something just like literally hovering over me, Feel like about this close, either to see if I'm alive or conscious, or willing, or all three of those you know, to get into whatever. Um, that was one of them. Uh, do you know who Pat McDonald is?

Speaker 2: 15:35

Pat McDonald.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Timbuck three.

Speaker 2: 15:39

Good question. No, the future is so bright I got to wear shades, yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Okay. Okay, So I'm doing this show with Pat McDonald somewhere in Michigan or whatever, And, uh, nice enough guy, He couldn't remember anything. From like three minutes to the next three minutes I think he asked me do I smoke? can I have a cigarette? Where are you from? Like seven times in a half hour, Like literally didn't know, And my mom's like, well, who are you hanging out with? Who is this person? He was like, why is he asking you these? Why does he remember? It's like I don't know about. I just I'm just letting you know. These are the people that I'm kind of hanging with. Yeah, I'm going to be okay, You know, and there are other things too. I mean just other weirder Substancy, um, hook up things that happen, you know. Yeah, you know, they just got to trust me that I'm okay, you know, and I mean I'm not going to do anything dumb, Right As long as you can outsmart a guy that uh can't remember anything about you.

Speaker 2: 16:55

That's the.

Speaker 1: 16:56

You're probably, probably in general, I can get yeah, I can get down the steps faster than them. So he's still out there playing, though He does a lot of stuff for um, there's this festival in Wisconsin called the steel bridge festival that was going on. It's helping this place called surgeon Bay, North of Green Bay, um, you know, and it became this big music festival And they had, like, Jackson Brown has been known to show up and folks like that or whatever. He was a big part of that. you know what I mean. So so good on Pat McDonald. you know what I mean. So maybe it was just a rough night. We've all been there, Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:28

We've all been there. You know, nobody's better than anybody else. That's, uh, you get that the truth. Uh, so you're, you're back. Uh, you're back to touring. It looks like you played a few shows in 2021, but your last big tour is back in 2017. Is that right? So, uh, what? what kind of brought you back?

Speaker 1: 17:49

Well, um, yeah, we did the bigger one in 2017. Um, what brought us back was that COVID ended. Yeah, You know, like everybody else, COVID ended. We were supposed to do some other shows last fall. We actually ended up moving them to the spring now because the market was getting so flooded with touring bands you know um, so we waited, Um, so that's where we are now.

Speaker 1: 18:15

So tonight is the first night of us playing, not well, not the first night. We've already done Milwaukee, chicago, stuff closer to home, um, and then we did it Some dates last year, you know, uh, chicago, akron, uh, we did a few as COVID was kind starting to subside, you know what I mean. Um, so we did some of that, you know. So now this is a more formal sort of thing, you know, um, with other dates getting thought about and planned and et cetera.

Speaker 2: 18:51

How does it feel to be back?

Speaker 1: 18:53

Good, i feel healthy. you know I'm ready to go. So, um, we have new merch. Um, you know it'll be good to play stuff off the Devalver album because that's the latest record you know, which came out essentially during COVID Um, so it'll be good to do that. We're also working on where I have worked up a song. uh, that is a mash from the new Metallica album 72 seasons which is a great album, by the way.

Speaker 2: 19:27

What do you think about?

Speaker 1: 19:28

it. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. I think all their, their last three efforts have been totally solid. You know they all sound good, Yeah, But but that's why we wanted to use something off the record. So now I can't tell you what it is You got to come out to a gig but I can say that it means that this song is not recorded and wherever we play it live, it'll be the first times that people are hearing it. The only people that have heard the song are us. So it's a brand, brand new song, Okay, So so we're going to. We asked, so we'll run through a little bit of it tonight during sound check and there you go.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Well, we're planning on seeing you at the Brooklyn Bowl, So oh yeah, okay, june 17th. Oh, my God, i have to ask if you had to rate your favorite Metallica album and your least favorite. Could you do that on the spot?

Speaker 1: 20:19

Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to ask for that. I think it was like a year and a half ago or whatever, and at that time because I know things change but at that time I said I was ride the lightning and the reasons were because I have a great ride the lightning story for when Metallica, wasp and Harvard St hit Milwaukee on that tour. But just hearing fight fire with fire for the first time, how that was kind of a game changer. You know, sitting in my friend's basement hearing that And I liked the album better than Killemall because it was darker. It sounded darker to me And when it comes down to metal music in general at least as far as like the guys in Metallica go I listened to darker stuff. You know black metal, death metal, folk metal, just darker types of stuff. So I think maybe that kind of drew me that way. You know psychedelic metal and things like that.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Well, at least favorite album.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Oh, let's see.

Speaker 2: 21:54

Pondering The least favorite.

Speaker 1: 21:57

I'll say either saying anger or reload as least favorites, but I'm trying to think which one and why. that would be because we've done compositions from both. You know, I mean, that's the thing about Metallica. It's like nothing gets forgotten, you know, from either of our parent bands. You know what I mean It's like. So I can't say that any of the albums by Metallica aren't good or welcome. Maybe just we just haven't harvested as much material from those albums Yeah, Lots of those being the two that I mentioned.

Speaker 2: 22:53

And. I'm sure it's fun to do, like a very B side song from either band and somebody will recognize it, or what most people would consider like a B side of them And they'd be like I fucking love that song.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Yeah, well, i mean it's like when Metallica, when we put out Abby Loade okay. So already going back to the load thing, part of the Abby Loade medley used a dirty window. You know, and I would say if you go see a Metallica show they're probably not playing dirty window. You know what I mean. So it's not like we're not using these songs, you know, or we're not interested in using the songs. It all depends on what we're looking to create. You know, i mean there's one of my favorite Metallica songs and one of my favorite Beatles songs have never been used in a Metallica composition, that being disposable heroes and in my life, Why do you think that is?

Speaker 1: 23:57

It's just because we may have started to work with Elmer. It's like it's just not working. You know it's not flowing. It doesn't sound right to us. You know it doesn't sound seamless to us. We're not getting the combination. You know we're not cracking the case. You know cracking the code, whatever you want to say.

Speaker 2: 24:21

So it's not like I don't love those songs you know What is your process. Do you usually come before you get into a jam space or wherever you're playing with the idea, or do you just get like you just do, you know, get really high and just figure it out Like, what do you do, how do you make this stuff happen?

Speaker 1: 24:39

I would generally say that it's going to start with me and then I'll bring it to the band in a rehearsal studio and then we modify it from there. I'll say here's the structure, here's what I got, where we going from here?

Speaker 1: 24:59

Because all those guys song write not only metal but different sorts of music which is great because the Beatles are not a metal band and they use tons of different influences, you know. So it lends itself to doing this sort of project. You know, so if I bring something in, nothing's off limits to get changed. But even off the Devolver album, dr Roberts and Gerard Hammonson they brought in some material that they had written way back in the day because they've known each other literally since they've been kids, and like, look, we have this riff, we want to use this riff here, you know. Or Dr Rob said okay, james, we're working on this section here. What if we use this riff that I have here?

Speaker 1: 25:53

So now the members of Metallica are inserting their own riffs into composition. It's Metallica, beatles, metallica riffs, lyrics and influences and modifications and all these other things going into things, you know. So it's like if you look at the material off the Devolver album, you're going to be like, okay, i hear the styling of this, like how Cheap Trick or Smashing Pumpkins or Kings X uses vocal stylings, chord progressions, you know, are you playing a fifth chord? Are you playing a sixth chord? How are you going about these little runs here, you know, and making chordal patterns within a song? That's what we're doing with composition, so people might hear it, but then they're like I don't hear it. Wait, i do hear it, but from where? And they're trying to figure it out, you know, and the wheels start turning. That's part of the fun and the puzzle of the band. You know, you hear it, but the more you know about both of the bands, you're going to have greater success in knowing where you're hearing it from or how you're hearing it.

Speaker 2: 27:27

Yeah, And then you put a thin little blanket about adding some special riffs in there or something like that. How did man? it probably wouldn't work as well to do like two folk bands or two folk metal bands, Like it seems like that contrast is exactly what kind of makes the band so special.

Speaker 1: 27:46

I guess you know I mean they're called Reese's Peanut Butter Cups because they had peanut butter in it, not another type of chocolate, right? Yeah, Yeah it does need that contrast right there.

Speaker 2: 28:00

Speaking of which, what other band mashups do you kind of think would be an interesting thing to hear? Yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:08

I don't know if they. I don't think they even would be interested. I didn't think that beatelica was going to be interesting to hear, yeah, but we always joke around as, like, you know, what would we do, you know, because people will say, hey, you should mash up Pink Floyd and Slayer and make a band on it. I'm like, okay, well, what would you call it? I don't know. You know, like the names got to be there, right. So it's like we would come up with things like Barry Manowar, barry Manilow and Manowar Barry Manowar, you know, and just like other, you know, huey Lewis and the Nuge and Huey Lewis and Ted Nugent That's my latest one, huey Lewis and the Nuge. So just like stuff like that. You know, would we ever do it? Oh, fuck, no, no, we're not doing this. I never thought I'd be in this. No, i'm in three other bands, man. Now you know what I mean. And those bands all do road work, you know, it's like, it's like no, this is what it is.

Speaker 2: 29:22

So there's a lot too, and I think even you know just a more traditional band, i think, thinking of the branding. I mean, you don't want to get too lost in the weeds and be like we need to make exactly this or whatever, and having a good concept of being like okay, here's the overarching theme of something It sounds good, it feels good And it gives like a clear direction of where we're trying to go. Yeah, i feel like there's very few genres that kind of don't do that, where you're like oh, a band sounds like this, and then they heard the band name is this, but they sound completely fucking different than that, I think that's yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:54

I was just reading an article last night on the latest of Ben sevenfold album. Okay, and how they're catching slack. At least that's what it said in this article. You know they're catching slack because, oh, they're starting to get into this and starting to get into that and starting to get into that, you know. But it's like, look man, it's just like if you listened to the Beatles in 1964, you never would have thought they'd be doing what they're doing in 1966, let alone 68, 69 and on. And then personality wise and stuff.

Speaker 1: 30:33

And you can say that about other bands that aren't even associated with Metallica. It's like you listen to Rush, listen to the first Rush album, and then listen to Powerwindows. It's not the same thing. You got to give bands room to expand, no matter what type of band they are. It's just not fair to the band. If you want your band, your favorite band, to be around for 30, 40 years. It's very rare that a band is going to have different sorts of stylings. Even a band like ZZ Top people think they know like ZZ Top has been the same band. They're not. It's just like once they hit Eliminator and everything using synth and all that stuff, iron Maiden said they would never use synth. Then you listen to Somewhere in Time and it's just like in 7th Son and all that stuff like that. Bands have to be allowed to expand and do whatever it is they're going to do.

Speaker 2: 31:41

Kiss same thing. No one ever thought they would do it When they're writing Love Gun?

Speaker 1: 31:46

are they thinking about doing The Elder? No, No, Is Paul Stanley thinking about doing which? I have this on CD. When Paul Stanley, he played the role of the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. So it's like when they're writing Firehouse, is he thinking about, okay, when I'm Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, I'm going to do you know, It's just like, but people have to be allowed to expand their artistic feelings.

Speaker 2: 32:19

Yeah, i know you didn't even expect your beat to Alcatraz to go anywhere. You weren't expecting to make it a band, you weren't expecting a lot of this stuff. But once things started getting going, did you expect the kind of longevity that it has now, like where you guys get to go tour and get to record.

Speaker 1: 32:34

No, No, not at all.

Speaker 2: 32:40

What would you say caused it. What would you say caused it, what would you say is kind of the secret behind why you guys are still doing what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Tenacity, hard work and a lot of help.

Speaker 1: 32:58

Yeah, a lot of help from your friends, yeah, right, a little help from our friends, that's right. That's right, yeah, and they know who they are, that's for sure. It's just like, obviously, you know the Metallica guys in Peter Paterno and we have a good buddy named Michael Harrington. He helped us with some of that stuff and case study thing back in the day. We met him through his work at Belmont University in Nashville and stuff and he was at Harvard and everything like that. So he's great, you know, good friend of ours. So yeah, so that. But I mean, look, man, it's just like I'm not the greatest guitar player and I'm not the greatest singer or whatever, but I will outwork you. Yeah, i can guarantee you that I am the Pete Rose of Heavy Metal. You know he wasn't the fastest, he wasn't the best fielder, but he will out hustle you. You know, that's me There you go.

Speaker 1: 33:59

And if that means that it gives me some length of doing something, then great.

Speaker 2: 34:05

You have a lot of very collegiate friends It sounds like you mentioned a couple at least Like Harvard, and the other one was a person that originally put your music on whatever website they put it on.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Yeah, he's at Cal Poly now.

Speaker 2: 34:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Interesting. He's on the West Coast. He got smart and he moved out the same piece of this phone.

Speaker 2: 34:22

Stages like people all the way.

Speaker 1: 34:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:25

What's it like? Yeah, What's it like running into your fans in general Like what, what do they kind of say about you? They're all super stoked. What is it Always just like? oh, just a super fun time.

Speaker 1: 34:35

Yeah, i mean, you know, i mean you're going to get and this go I guess this goes for every band, you know it's like you're going to get people who who just want to meet you and party and have a beer You know, sometimes that's great, i can totally do that, you know and then you're going to get folks that really want to talk about it, just like band stuff, and you know that are a little more chill. You know what I mean And that's great. And then you're going to get other friends of yours that you see time and time again and stuff like that And it's like Hey, man, you know how's, how's your, your significant other, how's the dog, how's your mind, dad, and everything you know and everything like that. And it's like you know talking smack and stuff online talking about sports and everything like that, blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. You know what I mean. Like that, that's, that's the coolest part. Yeah, you know, it's like weird.

Speaker 1: 35:34

When we were traveling here yesterday I got a message from a friend of ours from Denmark. You know, like Europe, denmark, not Denmark, wisconsin but somehow he's a big Green Bay Packer fan. He grew up a Green Bay Packer fan And then he became a Metallica fan and he found out we were from Wisconsin. So when we played in Denmark in Knox golf Denmark, he's from Knox golf And so he came to the gig and he was so stoked, you know, and so now it's like whenever we get together it's like he's been over here to the stage just to hang and stuff like that, and it's like blah, blah, blah, shoot and shit and everything like that. Yeah, we don't really talk about Metallica, we talk about other stuff. You know that he's a teacher, you know, and yeah, it's, it's, it's all, it's all cool stuff. You know, like how Skinner said you know, if you want to talk fishing, i guess that'll be okay. You know what I mean. So hell, yeah, i'm all good with that.

Speaker 2: 36:29

I mean, you're kind of you're probably seen as the ambassador of both Metallica and the Beatles. You've ever been like kind of shown a piece of knowledge from one of those bands, from some fan of your guys. is that you're like I had no idea about that?

Speaker 1: 36:42

Oh yeah, yeah, sure. And it's like, yeah, i mean our bandmates will, will do that with each other. Sure, yeah, oh yeah, you know. It's like, oh, yeah, and blah, blah, blah. When this happens it's like, oh really, i never knew that. So it's like, okay, yeah, cool. It's like this guy said yeah, this is how, maybe in regard to like um Gerg Hamitson and Dr Rob Suhio, that on guitar and bass they're they're like the gear heads of this band, you know, and Gerg is an audio engineer.

Speaker 1: 37:13

He works at Five Third Forum in Milwaukee. He works for the Milwaukee Bucks, you know, and that does live audio and everything like that. He's those. those two are going to be the guys to say, yeah, well, when they use this piece of equipment on this and they're in this studio and they recorded it like this And it's just like yeah no idea.

Speaker 1: 37:31

Great, that's, that's awesome, you know. so those, that's where those guys come from, That's their world. You know, um, where it's like I might know weird goofy, you know shit and stuff like that And and I'm more of the lyricist of of, i am the lyricist of beatality, you know. I mean so when it comes out to lyrical content and word scheme, you know, and like little things, you know things like that. Then I might know more about that than they do, you know so.

Speaker 2: 37:57

Yeah, definitely How. I mean. So how do you sing? How'd you learn to sing like these guys? How'd you learn to sing like James Hepfield? Like how, what is there anything to it? Like what any little tricks you can give somebody if they want to. Like give it a shot.

Speaker 1: 38:11

Yeah, i mean, um, the most important thing, the well, the two most important things that people have to remember is that as you age, your voice changes, right, you know. So I wouldn't have been able to sing like this when I was 14, you know, or 13, when I first saw Metallica. But then, when we started making those MP3s for that April Fool's show, i was saying, you know, we're just, we're just going to go in and do this. I'm like, okay, i'm just going to try stuff. Yeah, you know, and we tried it and it worked somehow. But then as Metallica progressed, the voice progressed, you know, and using, you know. Now I have to figure out, okay, how am I going to get to using the James Hepfield clean voice, like the nothing else matters voice, yeah, that type of thing. But then I get older, you know. So how do I deal with my changing voice to get to where I need to be, you know? and how does your breathing change, your pauses? you know? And I live with my girlfriend and she's a classically trained singer and she's big on breathing, you know.

Speaker 1: 39:42

And last week, before I left, she said, and she came to our Chicago gig recently and she said, she said, man, i got to tell you one of my favorite lines to those two favorite lines of yours that I hear you do and you did them at your last gig Like, consider doing them like this. Because I heard you do this line in a certain way, said try this and attack it this way. You know, because when I recorded those lines originally, that may have been 12, 13 years ago now She's like try it like this. So she's listening to everything that I sing and everything that I do. You know what I mean And she'll give me advice on it, you know. And she said you do what you want, but I love this line, do it like this. You know I'm like okay, great, yeah, i will, you know. Thanks for the thought on that. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 40:50

It's really interesting that you're kind of like shaping your voice over time. I mean, if it makes sense on paper, you don't really just hear about it being said that way, because like, yeah, if you've been singing the same thing the same way the whole time, it doesn't always go well. You can see, like, when musicians who have been around forever come back and do their first tour after like 20 years or whatever and they're like oof Or they change everything and they sound better than they ever did, somehow, some way It's such a while.

Speaker 1: 41:17

Yeah, i remember when the smoking stuff became, you know, got instituted in clubs, you know, in casinos and stuff like that, i'm allergic to smoke, cigarette smoke. So I don't smoke, obviously, you know I don't smoke pot, you know, or anything like that. I don't want to, but I, because I'm a singer, but I can't, i literally physically cannot, it would be bad for me, you know. So it's like when all this stuff was lifted in clubs I thought like man, this is great, how the hell did we ever do this when we were kids And singing and stuff when I was in my 20s and stuff like that. God, this was awful, you know. You know, and some of my worst shows ever have been at casinos before the smoking thing was instituted. So my two worst shows ever were at those gigs and I'm just like God, fuck, man, i'm happy this isn't a thing yet, you know.

Speaker 2: 42:17

Yeah, and I mean I mean it's just great that that's not the case. I think I'm like one of the last generations that actually got to see that. you know, and I, when I was growing up in California, smoking was already illegal indoors. but I went over to visit my family in Michigan. I would go into like a Denny's or whatever, and everybody's smoking in there. You have to smoke. Yeah, this is wild.

Speaker 1: 42:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:39

It's just crazy.

Speaker 2: 42:41

It's just like an eating establishment or especially venues or whatever. Just like the amount of smoke there was.

Speaker 1: 42:47

Yeah, yeah. So those would be the two things you know like dealing with your voice as it ages, thinking about breathing staying hydrated Does she?

Speaker 2: 43:04

have any good breathing techniques. It just like, maybe not even for shows or for singing or anything like that, is there anything cool that your girlfriend does or she tells you to do? that are just kind of interesting things we can do, yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:15

Well, she's big into like meditation and yoga and stretch, and this is an actual fact here. now, people that people who are guys, who are in bands, guys and girls who are in bands we do other things. Okay. So when I don't play music, i'm an occupational therapist. Okay, so I do a lot of like upper body stuff, lung expansion stuff, you know, breathing and just trying to work on even though my you know, sometimes my posture sucks. but working on posture, you know stuff like that. But you got to be doing that stuff, not like the hour before your gig or just the day of your gig, like you got to kind of do it, you know, fairly consistently. you know, at the very least you know, so you can feel the effects of it. And stretching, you know stretching is a good, healthy one. I stretch before every show, head to toe.

Speaker 2: 44:23

Nice.

Speaker 1: 44:24

I stretch, you know, not not just my fingers, not just my arms, not just my neck, but your legs. You know your legs are your power. Don't forget that people you know my dad, who is my baseball coach your legs are your power. Pitchers will tell you that, quarterbacks will tell you that. Anyone who moves will tell you that your legs are your power. So if you're going to go on, do a tour, it's not just what are you using for your guitar, it's your lower, lower extremities too. Man, you know so.

Speaker 2: 44:58

Oh yeah, That just makes me think of a what the guitarist from Macedon, whatever his name is, but how he just always gets in that power stance with his legs all spread apart all wide. Yeah For your ribs solo, That's great Macedon's great Yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:14

Those guys are yeah, those guys are super cool man.

Speaker 2: 45:17

They're super rad. I'm so glad that they are around and still doing amazing stuff.

Speaker 1: 45:24

We did this. We did a gig with with a couple of those guys in New York. It was for a magazine release and we played at the Bowrie Ballroom and it was awesome. And those two guys, they did their their side project called Fiend Without a Face and stuff, and so we were in New York and giving the interviews and the stuff like that. So I walk into, i walk into the, into the room and stuff like that, and Brad looks at me and he goes, hey dude. It's like, how are you doing man? He's like, oh, i can love you guys, man.

Speaker 2: 46:08

Those guys are. I love watching videos and they have. They have some of the funniest like videos on YouTube and just being goofballs, just total fucking goofballs. I love those guys.

Speaker 1: 46:16

Yeah, but but they're another example of a you know cause, you know, with with ties to Atlanta. Some of them have ties to Atlanta, you know, and everything like that. This is when the Atlanta Thrasher's were still a hockey team. Okay, you know, and this is part of the thing how you're talking about before. He's just like, yeah, we can talk about tunes all day if you want, but What's going on with your hockey team man, you know, it's like I'm just talking about other things, you know, that make you to get you outside of that world. You know which is what makes conversation cool, you know relationships cool and everything like that, you know. So that's totally awesome, yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:54

Absolutely. I think that's really important, especially in music, because, especially if you're hanging out with people all day, every day, in a band van, or just when you're about to play a show with some people, you got to find some other stuff to talk about. Because, yeah, i'll talk about Yeah and over and over and over again. Need that, the truth First. We want to talk about all you need is blood. You're first album release in 2008, and it has a bunch of different languages, 14 different versions of the song Yeah, which is how did this come about? How did you get the fans submissions to actually like give you the ideas for it, and how was it recording it?

Speaker 1: 47:34

So there's another piece of the story that goes along with it. I'll try and keep it short. The Vitalica website was taken down by our ISP, and that's when we were going through some stuff And then we got the word that it was going to get reinstituted, and it was in February of you know whatever year that was, you know And we said, hey, you know, as a as a Valentine's Day we love you guys sort of thing, we're going to do this song instead of all you need is love. We're going to do all you need is blood and people who, if you want to be a part of it, we are inviting the Talibaners worldwide to send in translations of the lyrics to the song. I will send them to you in English. You translate them, you send them back to me. Now I said you can take some liberties. If you want to insert a certain name or a certain type of thing here or there, you can do that, but you have to tell me How to phonetically pronounce your phrases and your language, because if you don't, i'm going to take my liberties now, because I don't speak Estonian, you know, or whatever language it was going to be. So some people sent them in and some people did it. So they're just like we just want to hear you just go after this.

Speaker 1: 49:08

So we did. But then to make every song kind of its own thing not lyrically speaking or just lyrically speaking we did a different intro. So we did each country's national anthem before the song. We did a different solo section in the middle And then we did a different very long fade out ending. It's all different with different sorts of weirdness that goes on within it. Yeah, so we ended up doing that in 14 different languages. So some I had a little more help on than others, you know, and then me. But yeah, so that was all good, great fun. You know, I don't know of any band that has attempted to do something like that Matter of War. So just saying, there you go.

Speaker 2: 50:07

Wow, i mean that's cool And it's a great way to get fans involved with your stuff, feeling like it's just not like a cut and drive, this is what we're doing as a band, but it's like, no, we're having fun. That was the whole point of this project And that was from the start, and that's just another way to just keep it going rather than being like OK, here we go Beatles, metallica, over and over again. It's like you're right, you have the horizons of like what you can actually do. That's super rad.

Speaker 1: 50:37

Yeah, and I've done that on this. Another band from Germany that we've done work with called JBO. They're from Nuremberg, germany, and I've appeared on their albums As James Lenfield singing their material and we've done stuff and we toured over there in Germany with them. One time I would come up and do a song with them, completely in German live, and had to learn the song. We did that night after night after night after night, and so every now and then I'd jack something up And I can see these guys just cracking up laughing, because I'm sure I was probably saying something in German, but it wasn't what it was supposed to be, and every night I would screw up something a little bit differently, and so just to see these guys as a loser was super funny man, it was super great. So, yeah. So if you look up JBO, they have a song called Ina Gutsa, talksum Staderman It's a Good Day to Die. And then they have another one called Long Live Metallica. You can look those songs up and I'm the vocalist on it.

Speaker 2: 51:46

So that's rad, yeah, those guys are great I think it's the best way to learn language too, is just be able to like laugh about it, like when I run in this different situation. You have to be able to laugh about it Or else you're not going to learn. People are going to be feeling too uptight to actually give you like real feedback, yeah Well, yeah, i'm really appreciate your time.

Speaker 1: 52:04

I'll have a couple more questions if that's cool with you.

Speaker 2: 52:06

Yeah, yeah, i got a couple minutes here, man, all right. How, what, okay, what actually gives you the most doubt in your work and what you're doing with Metallica? or just in general, like, what's out and how do you overcome it?

Speaker 1: 52:28

Hi, I'm just going to say that I'm going to be able to talk about time, Because we're all in different stuff. You know that we all want to pursue, So I'd say time would be one.

Speaker 2: 52:48

Yeah, that's true. It can only be so much.

Speaker 1: 52:55

Yeah, i think that might be the biggest one. You know I don't have any doubts about that. the guys in the band can play, that's that's not the issue. Yeah, you know and that I don't have any doubts that we all want to play live. You know that's not the issue. But we all play and do stuff that is successful besides Metallica. So Metallica isn't our only life.

Speaker 1: 53:25

You know, that's myself included, you know. So I think it's just time you know, if, if, if this planet had, you know, a 24 month yearly calendar and 12 days a week and 42 hours a day Great, but we don't, so you know. So there's yeah, so I think I'm going to go with that. I'm going to go with that.

Speaker 2: 53:56

I like that. Yeah, i was curious to see what you thought about this because it's a it's such a fun project. I know you do another stuff as well, but it's like time is really the kicker. It's everybody's up against that And you know, might as well just get at it while you can, if you can, yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:15

How do you have to? And that's why, that's why it's like you know, to encourage people to come out to gigs. You know, is the thing you know. And and because another reason if you come out to a Metallica gig, you're going to hear songs that aren't on album, yeah, you know, and that will never be on album because they they're not going to get cleared. The licensors won't permit them, you know. So do yourself a favor and come out to a gig so you can, you can hear some of this stuff, because you're not going to hear it anywhere else.

Speaker 2: 54:46

That's rad. That's rad And also, you know, hopefully. Well, like I said, you can't really record them, even for a live thing. Nevermind, yeah, yeah, we're going to be out for your show. Very last question. We ask everybody this how do you define success for yourself or just general population? What do you, what do you see as success?

Speaker 1: 55:04

Oh, let's see, Maintaining my mental health, maintaining my physical health, um, i, i always want to feel like I've given the most to to a gig or an effort. You know I want to do that. Um, maintaining the relationships with bandmates is a big one, you know. Um, you know, when you're in a band that's that's been around as long as we have, and then you know it's like sometimes it's relationships dissipate and disappear. You know what I mean. So, so, maintaining relationships not only with your bandmates but with, but with people and then venues, you know.

Speaker 2: 56:10

Who are your coworkers?

Speaker 1: 56:10

essentially, Yeah, right, exactly, you know, yeah, absolutely, whether it be. You know whether it be Lars Ulrich or the local promoter, or the merch guy or whatever, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 56:26

Yeah, all right. So, yeah, mental health and that, and you said something in the middle there It was all good. I really like that.

Speaker 1: 56:35

Right on, yeah, if you have any.

Speaker 2: 56:37

you're on tour right now, um, and you're well, we're going to see you at where the? oh, there it is. Uh, we're going to play Bowl right Bowl of June 17th and you're on tour And anything you want to shout out to your fans or anything else you want to promote while we're here.

Speaker 1: 56:55

Yeah, i mean, if people want to check out the website, it's betalecaorg Um. we're also on Facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube pages Betaleca official. If you don't know, um a whole lot about the band and some of the back history. there's a great documentary that's out called the story of Betaleca Um, so you can look that up online. It's done by this guy named Mike King, uh, ruling note music out of Sacramento. Uh, so he did like a like a half hour documentary on the band and it turned out really well. So that that's super cool.

Speaker 1: 57:34

Um, the Betaleca official site will have not only little snippets of stuff, daily life stuff but other formal video stuff, as done by our friend Mike Weber. Uh, he's from the Chicago area and he's been with us forever and he's he's a number one. So, um, let's see. the devolver album is now out. You can go to our website to look up merch stuff. Um, we're touring with tragedy now until the end of June, so we're doing the Midwest and the East coast and we have other stuff that's being tossed around and everything you know. so, debbie, great to see you folks out. you know, and we always want to make believers out of nonbeliefs, so all right that's part of that's part of the fun, for sure.

Speaker 2: 58:30

Very excited to see you. Yeah, james, it's been a pleasure and we have Michael on the call here. If you want to say anything here, michael, there you are. As you can see, i'm obviously, you know, calling from the moon, so that's why I'm getting my camera It looks like all orange.

Speaker 1: 58:46

It's like you got like some giant, like coal furnace or something burning behind you or whatever you know that's the sky right now. It's very, it's very like apocalypse now.

Speaker 2: 58:58

Good Lord, blade Runner.

Speaker 1: 59:00

Blade Runner.

Speaker 2: 59:01

Yeah, a lot of Blade Runner. And then my computer, just over the top was like, let's make it as grainy as possible. It's been super fun talking to you And, yeah, we'll keep in touch. All right, we'll wrap this up. Thank you so much, guys, and I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 1: 59:16

All right man.

Speaker 2: 59:17

Sounds good. Cheers dudes, take care Yeah.