Art, Algorithms, And Authenticity In Modern Punk: Goldstate Interview

British punk bite, modern pop-punk shine, and a whole lot of heart—Gold State drop in to talk craft, culture, and the chaos of building a band that actually stands out. We kick off with their UK DNA—Sex Pistols attitude, Blur-era swagger—and how that merges with American-leaning tones to create a mid-forward wall of guitars that still leaves space for sky-high vocals. Ben walks us through a collaborative writing process powered by co-writer Danny: Deep End arrived nearly in his voice, Love Bomb came to life as a cheeky “breaking news” concept, and Bad Blood found its chorus under studio fire, escalated by Bronny’s feature and big gang vocals. Nothing To Lose embraces a modern edge with a monologue captured on an iPhone and lyrical brush-ups done alongside Bowling For Soup’s Jarrett Reddick.

If you’ve ever wondered whether music videos still matter, their answer is a firm yes. The band treats every video as a live-show invitation, proving story beats budget when the concept is tight and the energy is real. We get practical about phones, compact cameras, and getting over yourself on camera, then explore how social media flips the old playbook: build an audience first, tour smarter later. There’s a candid reckoning with trends vs originality, the rise of personality-driven fandom, and why authenticity outlasts gimmicks.

Gearheads and nostalgics get fed too. James breaks down the blend of Mesa and Soldano tones, hard-panned and EQ’d for bite, and gives love to Gordon Smith guitars for pro quality without the price gouge. We trade Blink-182 takes—California stans welcome—reflect on Box Car Racer and Angels & Airwaves, and spotlight how vocal range and arrangement make choruses hit. We even veer into haunted dolls, skeptics vs believers, and why a good story still rules the algorithm.

Hit play for candid lessons on songwriting, branding, DIY visuals, and building momentum without losing your voice. If you vibe with British punk charisma and clean, modern hooks, you’ll leave with new tracks to queue and tactics to steal. Enjoyed the hang? Subscribe, share with a friend, and drop a review with your favorite Gold State song—we’ll read the best ones on a future show.

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Transcript

Meet Gold State & BSB TV

SPEAKER_02 0:54

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to the show. I am your host, Harley, joined by my co-host today, Chris, and some very, very special guests. Um, I do apologize, I only know one of you, so I'm gonna let you introduce yourselves. Um, but the band is gold state, everybody. Hey, uh, I'm Ben and I'm Jay.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

That was that was your cue to come in. I was I was like expecting more, you know. I was expecting you to pick yourself up. Mr. Q. Mr. Q. Sorry, I apologize.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Should we do it again? Should we go again? I'm Ben, I'm the vocalist. Boom, now you James.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Uh you play guitar?

SPEAKER_04 1:43

I do, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

How long have you been playing guitar?

SPEAKER_06 1:47

Uh on and off since I was a kid. You know, I uh I tried it as a kid as an acoustic, got really bored because I wasn't into punk rock at the time. Skate, you know, quit and then discovered punk rock through the likes of Tony Hawke's Pro Skater. And uh of course wanted electric instantly at that point, and then it all uh exploded from there.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Now, Ben, do you also play guitar?

Origins, Influences, And UK Identity

SPEAKER_04 2:15

No, I am the most uh untalented person on the planet. I do vocals, and that's it. That's it, that's all I can do. Cannot play any. I can play the recorder. I did recorder at school.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

So well, first of all, you can't be the most untalented person because you run one of the most successful alternative music uh TV programs going on right now. Nobody's doing what you're doing, so that takes talent in itself, man. Um I know we're not here to talk about it, but give us a quick rundown of BSB.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Yeah, so I am the co-founder and co-host of BSB TV. So every week we put anybody that is an up-and-coming artist in front of the celebrities, and I put that, I always do that when I say it because I always feel like it's really weird, you know what I mean? Um, but like the people in the music industry that like make a difference. Um, if this show is going out after the 27th of February, I can say something really cool. Yes, yes, it is. So on the 27th of February, we are announcing, which will have been announced by then, that we've got four bands, uh, three bands, sorry, free bands, uh playing Vans Warp Tour 2026 that were discovered off our show. Um, literally this week we've just uh announced that two bands were discovered by Summerfest on our show, and I am super jealous. One of the bands are on a stage at Summerfest this year with Hot Belly, State Champs, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and it was all from them being on our show, and the uh the the talent buyer heard them and was like, these guys, I want them on my lineup.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

So um, are any of them Manicat alumni?

SPEAKER_04 4:07

They're not, no, but one of them I'm pushing the I'm like uh Manicat want them, right? Manicat, I I spoke to to Pete today actually. Manicat want them. I'm gonna try and see if I can get them over the line um to join Manicat because I think that they it'd be a natural fit. Um, but yeah, it's uh yeah. I mean Manicat's doing bits though.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. James, James is killing it over there, man. I yeah, I don't I don't know what has happened the past couple of years, but his development over there at Manicat is incredible. Yeah, um what does one have to do to become one of these celebrities? Like at what points in status am I a BSB a celebrity?

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Dude, you can come well, we you can come on our show anytime. Like we do so basically we do like a track of the month thing every month where it's just me and Danny, and it's so weird, like we get record numbers every time we do track of the month, and basically what it is is all the bands that have won track of the week or an industry pick where our guest has selected them as an industry pick. We put them all together and we make them fight it out for track of the month, but it's only ever me and Danny that do it. So we said that in 2026 we want to get like other podcasts on with us, uh, other people that would like have been really big supporters of the platform and get them to host it with us. So there is there is an opportunity, Harley, for you to come on and do that.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

I'm in, man. I am 100% in. Um another big thing happens next week. I noticed the Pikachu and Charmander there. Um, Pokemon Day is the 27th. Uh are you excited for the 30th anniversary?

Deep End, Love Bomb, And Video Concepts

SPEAKER_04 5:46

I can't, no, I'm not. Because how the how the heck is it 30 years? I remember so in the UK we had a store called Woolworths, which James, this will bring back memories for you. Um, and I remember every week my dad, my dad, my dad is literally the most like uh regimented person I've ever met. So he will like every even now, every weekend, he goes to his local town, they they you know, rooch around the shops, do all of that. And I remember as a kid, we'd go into Warworth every Saturday, and I would go up to the Game Boy section and look at all the Pokemon, like red and blue, when it first came out. When yellow came out, and I had the chance to catch all free starters, the game changer, but you know, and I remember I'd sit there for weeks and I'd save up my pocket money, and then I'd buy the game, and I uh yeah. So, yes, very excited that it's been going strong for 30 years, also very depressed that it's been 30 years. Um, I still haven't got a proper open world Pokemon game yet, in my opinion. None of them have scratched that surface yet, but I think the Switch 2 does give it the opportunity to do it. So come on, Nintendo. We'll watch this.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

High hopes, man. High hopes for one. We're all waiting. Um, so let's talk a little bit about uh the new single here. Um well, first off, who's the primary lyrist of the band?

SPEAKER_04 7:11

So this is a good one because Danny, who is my co-host on BSP, bear with me one second, I've got background noise and I'm just checking what it is. Sure. Sorry, I had it just came through in my ear. Um, so I apologize. Um, so Danny um does a lot of writing, and what what normally happens is so Danny was originally a guitarist for us, and he was like, yo, I don't want to perform anymore, I just love writing you know songs. So Danny will send me the shell of a song, and I will then go and kind of just add a bit of flair, add a little bit of my personality on it. We kind of discuss the ideas of the songs beforehand. Um, we'll throw them to James as well. James will then make me sit here and do the most incredibly dull versions of the tracks in my microphone like this, um, so we can get demos together. But yeah, it all kind of really does, you know, credit where credit's due, start with Danny. So he'll say, Hey yo, I've got this idea for a song. Um, there's a track on the on the new album that we're gonna be doing this year uh called Flavor that is completely me, and I'm absolutely ecstatic about it's about my partner, um but it's about how and I I love her, I love her so much, but she has so many different personalities, which keeps everything really fresh. But it's like you don't know what flavor you're gonna get today, but you love every different, every different flavor. So um very excited about that. But yeah, Danny, Danny starts a lot of it. How how did uh deep end come about? That was a deep end was I'm awful. Deep end was the one that I had the least contribution to because when Danny sent it to me, I was like, this is exactly what I would put in a lyric, and how and even the vocal flows and everything that he did was so like it was like he channeled what I normally do. So I was like, I I absolutely love this. So what I really enjoyed about this one is I connected so much with what he he'd already written, um, that when I went into the studio to do it, it almost in a way felt like I was belting out a cover and I wanted to do it justice because I felt like Danny's baby, you know, and I wanted to make sure that I did, yeah. So, but you know, lyrically it's it's one of my favorite because it goes quite dark, but in a fun way at the same time. Um and I think that sometimes that that gets lost, you know. Some people write really emotional songs, but they're not having fun with it. And we just want to everything we do, we just want to have fun, and you know, I think it's kind of got to the point where it's whole Ben's balls to see how high you can sing. Um, and deep end is definitely the uh on that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, and you guys you guys have a major, major British punk influence, right? Like you guys are heavily, heavily influenced. It seems to me like um by like the Sex Pistols, I would say is like a huge influence or even blur. Um is that kind of accurate to say?

SPEAKER_04 10:05

100%. Like we don't like, like we're a pot punk band, but we're from the UK, we listened to a lot of British bands. We grew up. I mean, Sex Pistols were one of the first bands I think any of us really kind of knew who they were because our parents listened to them, and you know, we had I mean my uncle was listening to bands like that, so I kind of got into that, you know. Um, and it was a big start for us. Blur, like, I mean, you couldn't go anywhere in the late 90s, early 2000s without hearing blur, you know, they were just everywhere. Um, so it's really nice that you picked up on that as well because one of the things that we've always done, and I've said from day one, I am British. I don't want to be, but I am. Um so I'm gonna utilize my accent to the best of my ability. Like when I listen to people fake an American accent, it makes me kind of cringe a little bit because I'm like, yo, we're we're British, sound British, and you know, there's a USP for you. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Yeah, I mean, it definitely the especially the um the Sex Pistols influence on specifically deep end, like it's it's so noticeably there. Um, but Love Bomb is the one that reminded me far more of Blur, um, especially like the artistic route for the music video. Who's directing these music videos?

SPEAKER_04 11:27

That was uh my idea, the music video. Along with Charlie, yeah, along with Charlie Smith from Mind Art Visual, shout out Charlie. Um, I kind of gave him the idea that this is what I wanted to do. And he's like, yo, I know where we can use a green screen, I know how we can make this work. Um, let's go do it. So yeah, I was like, how would we kind of like incorporate the lyrics? He was like, Well, what if love bomb was like a disease that was taking over the world? We kind of like, you know, you're reporting it on the news and it's kind of taking effect as time goes on, but we'll keep it real subtle. Um, so that's what we did. And it was probably, I mean, I've shot so many music videos, but that was my favorite one to date because I felt really like I was in my element having fun, you know, um, with my bright pink hair that I was convinced to get done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Um, it it reminded me a lot of. Do you guys remember when the Chili Peppers uh brought John Frashante back? And did like this random like six months of them pretending to be news anchors to promote the release of the new album? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It reminded me just like that. It was like 20, like either 2020 or 2021, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was new. Um, yeah, that's funny. Yeah, think of that, but that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

It was very much like their like artistic vision, you know what I mean? It it also reminded me of like um like Beastie Boys back in the day, yeah, like their music videos. It's like this very fun, kind of like uh uh cosplay, you know, putting on the the wig and the fake mustache and stuff. Like it's very like cheesy, you know, naked gun type stuff.

Are Music Videos Dying Or Evolving

SPEAKER_04 13:06

Thing is, I talk about music videos for a living and on PSP. And it was like when we went and did that video, it was like kind of gotta do everything I've told ever other bands to do, which is like lose your inhibitions, just have fun, really go for it. Because ultimately, your music video is an advertisement. If someone's watching a video and you're static and you're not enjoying it, they're not gonna come and see you live, right? And if you're having fun and partying and just having a good time, people would be like, These guys, these guys rock, I want to go see them live.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Yeah, lose your inhibitions, feel the rain on your head, and anything else she said in that song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Energy up, energy up.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Um, so speaking of uh being so heavily involved in in music videos, um, do you think music videos are a dying art? No.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

No, and I know I know this gets said a lot, and I know it does. Um I think that music videos are underutilized, is how I want to put it, because I think everybody's got this mindset that we we've all we've all had this mindset because we've all grown up watching MTV. In the UK, we had Kerrang and SCUS and other channels of that ilk where every music video was like it looked a million bucks, you know, it looked like it was it was made with a big, big, big budget. And I think people have forgotten that like I just said earlier, it's an advertisement. Um, so even if it's you, I mean, we watched a video the other day, and I'd love to shout this band out, but I can't remember who it was. And their music video was them in the car, driving around their state in America, ordering every fast food place they could, and in between they were singing along to their lyrics in the car. And it was, you know, and this was about a month or two ago. Um, and I still remember every little bit of it now because they were having fun, and I think that that makes me really connect with the band. It's I mean, I'm sad and I really miss the whole thing. Do you remember when A Day to Remember used to do the studio diaries and stuff like that? And they were great fun to watch. I miss all of that because I think you're connecting with people, you know. Um, that was music's version of reality TV, and I felt like it had a really strong place. So yeah, I mean, James, do you what do you think?

SPEAKER_06 16:10

Yeah, I mean, it's never been it's never been more accessible to make your own video if you know if you can't if you haven't got the budget to to get someone in, it's never been easier and more accessible to to make a high quality video. Now you can have a on the new phones or the DJI Pocket 3, anything like that, you can make a really nice video for not a lot of money. So yeah, I I'm with Ben on this. I think it's under underutilized, underrated still. Um you know, you can you can really project your energy, uh project the energy of your song for for a very small budget now, and you know, have it look really polished.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Do you think that um that music videos as far as uh the result, the resolve per se? Um do you think that music videos today compared to music videos, let's say, of the 80s, like late 80s, early 90s, um do you think that they have the same result?

SPEAKER_04 17:12

Um, yeah, they are a lot less story-based now. Bring back story-based music videos. I want to know, like, I want to bring back story-based music. Yeah, do that. Like some of my favorite albums are concept albums. Anything like Deer Hunter. Oh my god. Uh, I don't know if you remember Forgive Durden. Oh, yeah. Their second album, which is literally a musical, is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

I mean, Pink Floyd's the Wall, man. Oh, exactly, exactly.

Social Media First, Touring Second

SPEAKER_04 17:41

Come on. Um, but yeah, no, I think that I'd imagine music videos today get watched more than they did in the 80s purely because they're more accessible. We've got YouTube, we've got loads of different like outlets to view them on. Whether or not they have the stay in power in a world of TikTok and short form content is another thing. But again, that's why you know I I say this a lot like beeps, hang on, that background music's just coming again. What is it? Sorry. God, honestly. Um, but yeah, no, it's I think I've just fixed it. Hang on. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna punch it in a minute. Go away. Go on. Um, but yeah, I think that um instead, I think what people have to do is be really creative. And I say this a lot that people follow trends way too much. So they see like, you know, like say that it becomes a TikTok trend to eat an apple in like, you know, without opening your mouth or something, I don't know, like just a random trend that becomes viral. Every band starts to do the same thing. And I remember when uh Shout Out Bagnolia Park, they really smashed it when they were like, We're gonna put our music video out there until Blink182 see it, and they did it every day, every day. But then every band started doing it, so the potency of that idea just went womb, you know? Right. And I think that you've just got to be creative, think of something really, you know, strong and unique, really, to make it stand out.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

I I heard something today that scares me for the industry as a whole. I had somebody today tell me about a country artist, and their exact words were, you have to check him out, he's great. So I proceeded to Google said country artist, and I said, What song should I start with? And he said, I don't know any of his music, I just think he's cool. I see his videos online all the time. I like what he does online. And he proceeded to show me a lot of videos that were vlog style videos, but he didn't know a single song, but already was completely invested in an artist. I I think that might be moving towards the equivalency of how we viewed music videos in the 80s and 90s because there are music videos that I may not have liked the song, but I recognize the video so well that I like the song, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's funny because I see it as I mean, there's there's a lot of bands that I see that get they they sign really cool deals and stuff, and it's not off the back of them having good music, not that their music's bad, but it's because they're social numbers. So everyone's trying to get the social game on point, and you'll find in more and more bands won't play live shows until they've got a social follow-in. Um, and I've seen that I've I've been in my my other project, we did the same thing. Like we were like, hey, let's just not play any live shows, let's release a load of music, let's get it out there, let's see if we can get people to pick it up, and then let's play some shows. And it worked, but you know, for that first sort of like 18 months of being a band, we didn't do anything that your traditional band would do, which is like play shows and you know, and all of that. And I think that's kind of where we've gone now. Um, there's a lot of TikTok artists out there that make it on TikTok before they even play a show, you know. Right. Like, look at like Swaco. Swaco got such a big following on TikTok before he started touring and stuff. Um, and I was obsessed, you know. I'd had Swaco on TikTok and then went, Oh, I've got Spotify, this guy, like he sounds amazing. Um and then yeah, and it the the rest kind of followed afterwards, which feels a bit of a reversal from traditional, if that makes sense.

Guitar Tone, Gear, And British Sound

SPEAKER_06 21:27

I've just literally got back from seeing a band that got big on TikTok, you know. Yeah. And now they're touring in and selling out, you know, really big, big, big venues and uh doing great. So it's uh it's playing tonight. The uh you know the un my local university, yeah. So big, big venue, yeah. But yeah, so it's it's totally different because I'm from the era of 200 shows a year in a van, more than nothing, you know. But yeah, it's nice to see it come around a little bit. Um it's a lot easier on the body to do it, to do it this new way, Rand. Um, it's a lot easier on uh on everybody's uh you know, health and mentally and physically.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

So can I just pick James up for a second, by the way, guys? Because James has like the coolest side gigs ever. Oh yeah? What do you do, James?

SPEAKER_06 22:17

Uh I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

James is the in Europe, James is the guitar tech for Lesson Jake.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Oh, that's cool as hell, man.

SPEAKER_06 22:27

Yeah, yeah, heading out with them next week, actually, next Tuesday. Yeah, so he does less than Jake.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

You've done a tray you as well.

SPEAKER_06 22:35

Yeah, yeah, filled in for a tray you. They're brilliant, they're brilliant guys. And this year I've added A to my roster of clients.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

I didn't even know that. You didn't even tell me that. That's cool. That's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

That's cool. So speaking of the guitar player here, as a fellow guitar player, um how do you achieve that genuine like British sound? Because your playing style overseas comparative to American style, vastly different. So, how do you achieve the tonalities on your rig for like a traditional punk? British punk.

SPEAKER_06 23:15

Um well you're funny you say that because I use what would be traditionally American sounds, um, but blended in a way that it it kind of keeps our I guess uh mid forward kind of sound. Um so it's actually I use a lot of Mesa tones um Soldano, so it's you know it's quintessentially American sounds, but just just EQ'd in a way and blended. Um so I usually combine a Mesa and a Soldano in the studio and just pan hard left and right, and it sounds absolutely killer.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Um don't you have a uh a pedal that's got a picture of a cup of tea on as well that you perhaps?

SPEAKER_06 23:57

Well, of course, I mean I'm English, right? So uh I have a tea dispenser on on the pedal board. You got to but yeah, so my my my main influences tonally wise were were your blink 182s, your gold fingers, that kind of thing. So my my tonal palette it is is quite American, you know. Um but I guess I guess with the the the amps that we have over here and the and the sounds that we uh associate with this side of the pond, the tones, it kind of blends as well. And you can make those tones from from American amps.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

So it's see see I find that our sound over here is more um more treble heavy. We s we tend to turn the the mids down treble high, bass high. Um I when I think of like the American punk tonality, I think of like I I hate to say it, but like Green Day, Arctic monkeys, um, the black keys, uh very bass-centric guitars.

SPEAKER_06 25:00

But interestingly, they're British M's, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

So right, right, right, right. We're just trying to do what you guys do, and you're trying to do what we do.

SPEAKER_06 25:08

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, borrowing each other's gear to do it.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_06 25:14

Love it.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Uh, what kind of guitar do you play typically?

SPEAKER_06 25:17

I am a Gordon Smith's artist, so they are a manufacturer based here in the UK, make absolutely incredible guitars for ridiculously low prices. So more of like a like a strat style? They could they do traditional strats, uh tellybodies, very, very similar to to what you'd expect from a you know a classic T or an S. Um, everything through to their actual origin is like more of a Les Paul Jr. kind of style, single pickups. Um, that's how they started in the 70s, very much synonymous with the punk scene over here, that brand, and they've they've were bought out recently and they've expanded, and they're now doing you know, all your typical guitar shapes that they can't call the real thing, but we know what they are. But incredibly made guitars, super, super high quality, great, great team of people, and uh grateful for their support on the road as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

So you say um Blink182 was a big influence on your sound. Um would you say Angels and Airwaves also had uh influence? Were you more of a Tom DeLong or was it more of a Mark Hoppice situation, boxcar?

SPEAKER_06 26:30

I was more of a Tom DeLong, but take off your pants and jacket era. Um he lost me a little bit in Angels. Um as I've grown older, you know, I'm I've come in back around to that, and that's now more appealing to me. Whereas at that, you know, growing up it was balls out, take off your pants and jacket, triple rectone was was my thing. But um, yeah, I'm I'm now much more appreciative of angels.

Blink-182 Eras, Box Car, Angels

SPEAKER_04 26:57

Did you get into boxcar racers album? Because obviously, like being a huge Blink fan, like when they did the Boxcar Racer, I mean I was still a kid, but I went and did Boxcar Racer, I got well into that album, which I felt was my gateway into Angels and Airways because I feel like Tom really like kind of yeah, he kind of went boxcar racer. I was like, okay, it's a bit bit serious, had I um, and then they came back and did the self-titled record, and I was like, Blink's got a little bit serious now, and then Angels and Airways came and I actually went to their first show in the UK, like which I think was their first ever show, or one of their first ever shows. And I I'll I'll never forget it, not for them, they were brilliant, but like there was like a 40-year-old man who grabbed, I was only about like 15, grabs me, crying his eyes out, going, He's back, he's back, and I just never forget like how emotional Tom DeLong had made somebody who was like you know, nearly triple my age.

SPEAKER_06 27:51

Um, and then did it again recently for coming up.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

Yeah, yeah. They came back to Blink and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

I mean, that guy was probably for like five years just going, Where are you?

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Oh, so controversial Blink opinion. Um, my favorite Blink 182 album is California. Is that a crazy opinion to have?

SPEAKER_04 28:15

I love that. I tell you why as well. My little boy was born just after that album came out. So um my my my ex-partner when uh when we had him, um she was she had to stay in hospital for two weeks, and I wasn't allowed to stay in. So every day I would leave the hospital, leave my little boy and leave her and go home. And I would listen to California every day, like bare and back. So it holds a massive candle to my heart, and uh, I agree, it's a fantastic album. Yeah, um, I actually feel Feldy all over it, you know. The king of you can hear Tom DeLong on it, like it's yeah, it's very Tom DeLong without him being there, but like old school Blink. So yeah, I massive. I also really like neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah, I thought neighborhoods was great, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

So it's I don't think they've done a bad album, I really don't, and I really I love the new one. Um I yeah, I'm very ready for a new Blink album, I think, already. Um, but yeah, no, I think that every album they've done has been great, and Skeebs did such a wonderful job when he came out. Absolutely, what a guy. One of one of my favorite Blink shows was seeing them with Matt Skeeber, and I just thought it was great, like the way that they had the energy, they had the front bottom supporting them. So I was like well in my element, and it it was amazing. So yeah. Epic band name, by the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

I I just feel like it was it was it was such a tonal shift for them to like go from this traditional what I would view as American punk to this almost uh like I mean, obviously, because of who the producer was, like a five seconds of summer type sound, um, which was very popular in 2016. But it it was it was that sound, that boy band sound with the the hype of a of a punk band. So you have these incredible instruments, this great melody, uh really punchy, catchy choruses with the the depth of Blink, you know, and and like the the funniness to their lyrics mixed in with the seriousness that they could pull off. Um yeah, man, it's such a it's such a fantastic album. Bor to death is is uh definitely like a top 10 song for me.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Yeah. Pin the grenade of nine is one for me. Yeah, pin the grenade of nine is I don't know why, that literally scratches such an itch in my brain.

SPEAKER_06 30:41

Rafelde pushed Skeaber into a such a high range that it just opened up his voice, you know. If you if you compare it to Trio, he's a lot higher, higher in blink, and that really works on the recording uh anyway.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

But um, and then Tom comes back and crushes it in the last album. Like yeah, they just really just elevated from there. They were on fire, yeah. Yeah. Um, well, I want to talk about a couple more songs here. Um, let's talk about bad blood.

SPEAKER_04 31:15

The person who that's about will know that that's about them. And that is as much on a recording that I'm willing to say. I'll give you a hint though, it's nothing to do with a relationship.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

You know, I didn't think it was. I'm gonna be honest with you. Um, I was a little disappointed when I clicked on it and it wasn't a cover of a Taylor Swift song.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Yeah, yeah. Well, no, Taylor Swift is a cover of ours, all right? You know, there's a paradox here. Come on. Um we'll do anything to get sued by Swifty, you know. That's what it was. Um, no, but yeah, it's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:51

I love that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

I got a lot of a lot of feeling out on that one, big time. And interestingly, we went to the studio and we had the chorus, and my producer like turned round and was like, I really like the chorus, but you can do so much better. And he just deleted everything and said, Let's start again. And it was like, okay. Um, and we came up with the chorus that is the chorus now within about 45 minutes, just sitting, jamming a few things, working a few things out, and yeah, I'm so grateful that we did it. Um, I love the the gang vocals in it, I love the instrumental behind it, I love Bronny's feature. I think she absolutely killed it as well. And you know, she knows who it was about and what the story is about, and she couldn't wait to get involved, so which was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

So for me, when I listened to it, I thought it was a friendship. I and nothing on it said relationship to me. It felt more like a like a falling out with a close friend.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

You're on the right page, you're on the right track. Yeah, you're on the right track.

Song Stories: Bad Blood & Nothing To Lose

SPEAKER_02 32:49

And then nothing to lose. So I would I would say that that one to me is your your serious song. Yeah. Um, you know, uh, I felt like deep end, it's it's a little harder, um, more punk driven. Uh I felt Love Bomb was like a like I said, a very fun song. Um Bad Blood felt very personal. And then this one I think is kind of like your your lyrical comparison to uh let's say trying to think of somebody in the punk scene here. Um oh here's a good one. Uh we'll say like Mayday Parade, right? Yeah. That that's kind of how I felt about nothing to lose. Am I on track with that one?

SPEAKER_04 33:30

I'd say so. Yeah, we definitely channeled a lot more modern bands with Nothing to Lose. It was like so with Gold State, what we're doing moving forward and what we have always kind of like strived to do, but we've built into it was kind of really mixed the nostalgia of like your blinks, your green days, and bands like that. But with that really modern MGK, modsun, black bear style, and take a little bit of like you know, Mayday Parade, all-time low and stuff like that in the middle as well. Because you know, there's a reason why those bands are still going strong today. Um, so yeah, that's a massive I take that as a huge compliment. So yeah, I um I definitely feel we really did. I feel we got that one a hundred percent right. There's nothing about it I changed. There's there's one bit when we went to the studio where I go, ah, where did I go wrong? And I was like, I fucking hate that with a passion. And now that it's done and it's out, I absolutely love it. And it's like, you know, sometimes again lose your ambitions, but um, yeah, it's it's my favorite out of all the songs, it's my favorite one that we've done.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

So hell yeah. Um lyrically, what was your involvement on that one?

SPEAKER_04 34:32

Quite a lot. So with nothing to lose, uh, again, Danny kind of started with something. Um, it went one way. It was like I brought it back middle, kind of made some of the rhymes feel a little bit less like nursery rhyme-esque, because that's like a lot of what how Danny writes it, which I love because the same way like Blink Write and stuff like that. But I kind of wanted to mix it up a little bit. Um, we obviously gave the lyrics to Jarrett from Bowling for Soup. He then went and did his bits, and um, we gave Thomas the the actual monologue that Thomas Nicholas from uh Kevin from American Pie does is actually uh a voice note that Danny's um uncle gave him after Danny's cousin or uncle uh but gave him and it was like a you know, pick yourself up, you need to dust yourself up after after a breakup. And uh Thomas Nicholas like recorded it and literally did it on an iPhone backstage at a gig that we were hanging out at. Um and yeah, and we we stuck it in the song, and it yeah, it was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Yeah. Um how did uh how did the collab with uh Jarrett Reddick come about?

SPEAKER_04 35:36

So Jarrett was a co-host on BSB for a little while. Um until he did. Did you not? Yeah, he did our track, he used to do our track of the month with us. Um so like every month he would join us, and he would also get us a guest for track of the month from from his um his little black book, I guess. Um, and you know, we would have a you know, Jarrett and a guest on, and it went really, really well. And Danny's known Jarrett for years. They actually hosted a podcast together uh called Music Network in 101. So it just kind of came about naturally.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

I I did know, I knew that.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Yeah, yeah. So it kind of fell together naturally. We asked him to do it, he said, yeah, I'll do it. And he sat and sat down one day, did it, sent it across, and we were like, yo, this is this is perfect for what we want. So it was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Um, shout out to him. We we uh we did a fantastic interview with him a few years back. Uh he yelled at me for calling him a rat and not a mouse. So that's that's one of like the biggest things in our career so far is is him yelling at me about calling him a rat. Uh but no, it was such an awesome interview, dream come true. He's such a cool guy, and he's so helpful, man, with everybody in the industry, truly. Like he'll drop whatever he's got going on to be like, Yeah, let me let me lend you a hand to lift you up to the next level. Um so speaking of that, what advice would you give to an artist in the industry coming out? Um, because obviously you guys fairly new, right? 2025. Yeah, um, but you've been involved in the industry for years. So, what kind of an advice would you give to somebody that's just kind of starting out their career?

Collaborations With Jarrett And Guests

SPEAKER_04 37:14

It's a business. Yeah, that's my my first advice to any band is you're you're not a band, you're a brand. And I think that we can't stress that enough. Like when you decide that you want to write music, if you want like there's two ways you can go about it. You can do it as a hobby, you can do it as a career. And unfortunately, the latter of that is very, very difficult. But one of the fundamental things to get right is to remember that everything you do has a footprint and it's a brand. So get a logo, make sure it's clean, do artwork, make sure that you're doing it correctly. There is some phenomenal artists out there that will do work for you for very, very good prices as well. Don't use AI because otherwise you'll get a slap. You know, please don't use AI. Um, when you go and write, make sure you find a studio that knows you. Um, and ultimately just have fun with it. Like honestly, I know it sounds really serious being a brand of a business, but you still got to enjoy it at the same time. Um and if you get that right, you might get the recipe to be successful. Um, it's difficult, you know. A handful of bands get to do it and and and blow up, you know, that's just how it is. Um, but if you do everything right, then you can walk away saying, I gave it all I've got.

SPEAKER_06 38:25

Yeah. And there's always this phrase that they say that if you want to stop being a local band, you know, stop acting like a local band, you know, treat it like a business, you know, take the next steps in production and you know, in your marketing. And so it's very true. You know, it's a it's a it's a relatively blunt statement, but it's it's totally true.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Right. Um, my my last question for you guys being involved in the industry for so long, um, and with all of the connections you've made over the years, who would be your dream collaboration for a track in the future? Um, now when I say this, I want to press it, preface that I'm not talking about like somebody that you admire in the industry, I'm talking about somebody that fits your sound. So I I if you're if you're like oh Jason Aldean, I'd be like, no, that's a terrible choice.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Garth Brooks.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

I've got two. Garth Brooks, yeah. Oh, Zach Bryan, go on country meets pot punker. Um, I've got two. Mine's always been Dan Campbell from the Wonder Years. I agree. You know, Dan, um, he's a fantastic vocalist, someone I've really inspired, uh, you know, looked up to, and because of that, I I've quite often wrote songs and thought he'd sound really cool on this. Um, and then recently I can't get out of my head that I really want Austin Knight from Waterparks on a song. Oh, yeah. Just because I love the way he does his kind of raspy rap singing. I love the flows that he's got. Like he's waterparks are one of the funnest bands to like warm your vocals up to because he doesn't breathe, I swear. Like, and it's so you really have to work at it, and it's it's cool. So, yeah, they'd be my two 100%. And I think that they bring a lot to Gold State and bring the sound out in a really massive way.

SPEAKER_06 40:12

Hell yeah. What about you, James? That's a really, really tough question. Really tough question. I'd love it to be someone with a really high singing voice to really blend nicely with Ben's lower register, but a name is just escaping me completely. I could have said the easy answer, Tom DeLong, you know, but um Justin Hawkins from the darkness. Well, no, I mean that would be pretty cool. Yeah, that would be cool.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

Beyond the high voice, I wouldn't be doing would not be doing his vocals live.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

No, that's a great answer. I think that would I think that would blend nice. Yeah. Um, trying to think of like a like a super high vocalist. Um, there was somebody that like ghosts uh collaborated with Chris. You you definitely know Kellen Quinn.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Kellen Quinn.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

And Kellen Quinn does collabs. We Kellen Quinn is the most played artist on BSB. Yeah, really, interesting fact. Because he's collabed with so many bands and they've had their videos on be on BSB. And that's awesome. We make so many jokes like we're gonna have to have Kellen on. And I've said when we do get Kellen on, it will just be we're just gonna play all the collabs that we've played for Kellen. That's what we'll do. We'll just do an episode of Kellyn, and it's on I know this song. Um, yeah, no, it's uh yeah, he would he'd be great, or like Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Yes, yeah, someone like that, you know, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:33

Yeah, yeah. I've got loads of it.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Or you could go, or you could go the opposite with like um like an As I Lay Dying or um or Of Mice and Men.

Industry Advice: Band As Brand

SPEAKER_04 41:44

Go real heavy, yeah, yeah. Get chugs, chugs going on the uh on the guitar, get right beefy breakdown, James. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Oh man. Um so before we move on to the game, I just want to say uh Danny Otto, good friend of mine from Just Happy to Be Here, has been on BSB a ton. Uh everybody go check out just happy to be here along with Gold State because Gold State, fucking awesome. You guys are awesome. I love the British influence. Um, I'll be honest with you, you're the first British-based band that I've ever downloaded music for. So there's that. Um love that. And then uh just happy to be here. I I really think that like you guys give them so much love on your show. He's always sending me stuff that uh that he's on there for you. So I think that uh that's one of those bands that I would like to see get more love from the industry.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

So just quick shout-out to just happy to be here, right? Hi. Um, I have struggled in the last two weeks to get Autumn's over out of my head when I wake up in the morning. I finally have not woken up the last two or three days without it in my head. It's gonna be back in there tomorrow. Um, I fucking love that band, I love that song, and I genuinely see them going places absolutely. Danny is honestly, and if he watches his back, when I watch Danny on music videos, he's he's inspiration, he's goals as a vocalist because his energy is unbelievable. So, yeah, shout out to just happy to be here.

Dream Features And Vocal Pairings

SPEAKER_02 43:14

He he is the golden retriever of the music industry. He is literally just happy. He embodies the phrase just happy to be here. Yeah, um, yeah, we're doing this uh this true crime podcast together, and when he comes on, his energy is way, way up through the top. And I'm like, man, we're about to talk about some horrific shit, dude. So I can imagine that as well. That's amazing. Yeah, right. I think all right, let's do it. Uh so I got two game choices for you today. Okay, one of them we've never done before, so feel free to say no. One of them we love to do here, especially for new artists. It's called Mixtape. Uh, it is sort of like Cards Against Humanity. We read off some prompts, you respond with the title of a song. You can go the funny route, the serious route, your choice, dealer's choice. The other one, my wife bought me some music jokes for a holiday recently. Would you guys like to do a try not to laugh challenge with I kid you not, some of the worst jokes about music I've ever read in my life?

SPEAKER_04 44:24

Uh I'm down for that. I mean, James, it's up to you.

SPEAKER_06 44:27

Yeah, I'm down. I'll I'll suck at it, I'll be honest from the start.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

But yeah, you're so dry, you won't laugh. I'll be out before, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:35

I kid you not, these are just freeze the screen and cheat.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

These are these are so bad.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

All right, all right. So Chris James, um hold up one second. I knew that. I knew that you got this, you got this.

SPEAKER_04 44:53

Dude, you interview so many people, it's fine. You could just call me whatever.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Like, well, fun fact did we do a zoom call together? We did, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:02

I thought so.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

You didn't have the beard then, right?

SPEAKER_04 45:05

Yeah, but it was probably I probably shaved like okay for a phase of either like just shaving and then like leaving the whole time I was watching the music.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Videos, I was like, I fucking know that guy from somewhere. I love it when that happens. I know. Anyways, um, first question or first joke. What do you call a crazy band competition? Bandemonium. James, do you get it? Great, that's great. Yeah. That's good. What did the DJ say at the dinner party? Let us turn up the beat. Like turnips. You know what I mean? Oh god. It makes it funnier when I explain the joke.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

You can't do that. That doesn't count, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:56

What is a cat's favorite song? Three blind mice. Because cats chase mice. That was good. Around the house. Yeah. Yeah. Why did the pianist keep banging his head against the keys? Oh, this one's good. This one's actually good. He was playing by ear.

SPEAKER_04 46:15

You know, that's very clever. No, I'm not gonna go. I'm not gonna go. Also, when you said pianist, I definitely misheard you. Say it, saying I nearly broke then. I nearly broke that.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Four guy, four adult men laughing at a joke about penis. I come on, man. We're blink fans, right?

SPEAKER_06 46:33

We're blink fans, yeah. Come on. We're 90s kids and we're blink fans, so it's a dangerous combo.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

If I was on a desert island, the record that I would most like to have is for long distance swimming. I mean, yeah, instead of the music. You guys are killing this. What rock band consists of four guys that don't sing? Mount Rushmore, like the mountain. Yeah, Chris, you get it? There you go. Why couldn't the student finish their music homework because they forgot their notebook?

SPEAKER_04 47:11

You've gone so bad, dude.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Uh have you heard about the new marching band? I hear they're making great strides, you know, like the mod like walking, like on a field.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Harley. Yeah, in this moment. I hate you.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Why do rap artists love Christmas so much? Because of all the rapping.

SPEAKER_04 47:41

I should I've got my button here. I don't know if it will play. Did you guys hear it?

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Nah.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

Disarmed from your sound effects. You know what though? I think I also have a button. Oh, it's not gonna play now. No, it's telling me it won't play. Hang on.

SPEAKER_05 48:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

All right, all right, all right, all right. There's a great new band called The Blank Checks. They're still unsigned. That one's that one's for you, Ben.

SPEAKER_04 48:13

That's good. That's clever. I feel like I'd laugh so much more if I couldn't laugh, but like half of the this game, I've sat there like this. Because I knew I couldn't laugh.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

What do you get when you cross a sweet potato with a jazz musician? It's a yam session, you know, when you get with your boys and you yam out.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Isn't there like an innuendo in there somewhere? Yaming out with your boys. That's that's a circle jerk, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Something like that.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Why was the composer busy? Because they had several scores to settle. We need that cricket sound, that's what we need.

SPEAKER_04 49:00

We're doing good. We we yeah, I'm proud of us, James. We're the boring. Another one.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Just nodding the game. What do you call notes added to the end of a song to make it last longer? This one's for you, Chris. Extension chords. Extension chords. This was the best three dollars she's ever spent. Oh my god. What has 30 feet and sings? Christmas carolers. Because they come to your door and packs. I think if it wasn't 1 a.m., it'd be a lot harder. Oh, what do a sword and a piano have in common? They can both be sharp. These are these are Christmas cracker.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

Like all right, all right.

The Bad Music Joke Challenge

SPEAKER_02 50:01

I like my new guitar instructor. Guitar instructor? Guitar instructor. We struck the right chord from the start. This is really fun because I, I don't know if you guys know, have a bit of a reading handicap. I am really bad at reading. Me and my friends are in a band called Duvet. We're a cover band. You guys got duvets over there? Yeah, is that an across the pond thing?

SPEAKER_04 50:31

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

Is that a French word?

SPEAKER_04 50:35

It's gotta be French, in it. See, one of the things that really surprised me when I because I spent half my life in America, because my partner uh is American, and when I first went over to hers, was that like I was like, do you have like a duvet cover that you put on the duvet? She's like, No, it's just a duvet fro. And I'm like, because we have like covers, you have to like get the duvet, you have to put the cover on it, and then it otherwise, yeah. It's and she doesn't, and I'm like otherwise, it gets all stanky, and then I asked.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

Well, I mean, you're you know you're getting your beds ready for the queen, though. Yeah, we just in case, just in case, just never know. Um I'm gonna be real with you guys. I don't know what the fuck a duvet is. Do you actually not? I know it's yeah, like so basically, right?

SPEAKER_04 51:27

So a duvet blanket. Yeah, so duvet is like it's like it's it's a duvet, like oh fuck, how would it say? It's white, and you would never sleep with it without something over like covering it, right? Because it's really it would irritate you. So you go and buy these duvet covers that have like fun designs on it. Like, I'm trying to source one that's a Ouija board at the moment because I keep seeing it, but it keeps going up in price, and I'm not paying like 80 quid for a duvet cover. So you put that over, and then when it like, you know, you use it for a few nights and then you wash it. So you take the cover off, you wash the cover, and then you put a clean one on on your duvet.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

It's like, yeah, but like when I went to my partner's, like she just has like a throw, like a like you say, a blanket, and I was like, the fuck, where's your fucking duvet? Like, what's going on? Like, and then when she came over here, I was like, I'm gonna teach you to put duvet cover on a duvet, like so so it's different than like so.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

We have our fitted sheets that you put on, yeah. We still have those. And then you have your regular sheet. Is it sort of like the regular sheet?

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Um, would you sleep under your regular sheet? Is that what you're talking about? I mean over your fitted sheet, yeah, and under your your regular sheet. Yeah, basically the same as your regular sheet, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Okay, okay. Well, then that makes sense. That makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Cozy. We we we we live in a cold country, so uh we have to stay home at night. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

So you guys still do the the fitted sheet too, though?

SPEAKER_06 52:57

Yeah, yeah. Gotta have these pockets as well. We need a duvet to protect us from the monsters under the bed. James, do you sleep your feet uncovered or not?

SPEAKER_04 53:07

Just one question. Just one. One in one in one out. And that's me, yeah. Like my I fully like, I don't know if it's an ADHD thing or what, but my leg until I go to sleep is like oh yeah, oh yeah. Like moving until I go to sleep, it rocks me to sleep. So I'm like, and then I'll finally fall asleep, wake up in a completely different position, upside down, you know, all over the place. But yeah, like one foot out, or sometimes two if I get too hot, but one always out, and it also dangles off the side of the bed. Like it's a really weird thing that I do. Are you are you guys back sleepers or side sleepers? Whatever way, like I like you know what I get comfortable in one position and then I'm like, nope, not falling asleep here. So I try another one and I can I can sleep on my back. Such a lad thing. I can sleep on my back if I'm cupping my balls.

SPEAKER_02 53:58

Hey, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 54:00

That's the position, right? If I'm on my back, it's it's I have to, right? But if I'm on my front, I have to bring the duvet up to here, and I'm like boom against my face. So it's yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's that way. Or if I'm on my side, my legs are in that kind of weird position, you know, where they kind of yeah, you know what I mean? Otherwise, I can't like I look like I'm rocking in like the fetal position. That's the only way I can sleep on my side. So yeah, very particular. It's weird, isn't it? Sleeping's weird.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

I sleep in the exact same position every night. My wife has made fun of me for years over it. Imagine a police outline, like on a cartoon, like like a dude, like a dude fell out of a window, and the white like outline. I sleep, so I kid you not, dude. I I I make a number four with my legs. So one of them is like at an angle, one of them straight. That's amazing. And then I sleep with one arm like this, and the other one like this.

SPEAKER_04 54:51

It's almost like you're getting ready to do that Egyptian dance.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

Every my my partner, I always joke that she's uh Morticia Adams because she sleeps, she'll sleep like that. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's terrifying. That's scary. She's she's beautiful, so it kind of works, but it's like I I wake up in the night and I'm like, oh my god, she's a vampire. Like, she's gonna eat me. Like, you know, but yeah, she sleeps very still. She looks really peaceful though.

SPEAKER_06 55:18

You know, night terrors into that mix, you got a pretty scary uh that's that's coffin behavior.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

You know, she's just practicing for years and years and years and years and years to come. Like she's just like, I know what position I'm gonna spend eternity in. So she's already well rehearsed in it. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

And you want to get the Ouija board.

SPEAKER_04 55:38

You you really are uh living a dangerous life over there. I've got have you not seen my haunted doll? I don't know if you could see it. No, should I bring her to the camera? Do you want to see my haunted doll? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

Come on, Lily.

SPEAKER_04 55:55

This is Lily.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 55:59

She's fully haunted, like she's she's possessed.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

I love this. I love this 100%. I love this.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

She moves, and uh it's uh yeah, quite. I mean, I don't get freaked out by I love all of the like paranormal stuff, but she moves, so she quite often she'll move her arms, like so. She'll be sitting, she holds my uh uh uh less than J compoling for soup AAA pass that I've got. Oh nice. Uh there's times where because she she holds it with both her arms, and like there's times where her arms up like that. And I am I mean I live here alone, you know. My kid's not been here all week, and she's moved around and or she's moved slightly and moved the cups, and yeah, she moves quite a bit. Um she's a she's a freaky little thing, but you know.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Great, great question here. Ghosts, you guys believe in ghosts? Obviously, Ben, you believe in ghosts, James? Ghosts.

SPEAKER_06 56:45

Uh I go through phases. I did at one point, but I think these days, no. Um, it's an interesting you know, up and down that you go through. Um, but yeah, there was a time when I did, but nowadays not so much.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

I want ghosts to be real, like truly want to be real.

SPEAKER_06 57:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:06

But I'm in the same camp. I I'm finding it harder to believe.

SPEAKER_06 57:11

I think so much nonsense out there on on the hundred percent fake paranormal programs and things that just kind of lost all credibility, and that's put me off.

Duvet Debates And Sleep Confessions

SPEAKER_04 57:21

The the the the paranormal industry, this is fixed. So I do obviously, and I've had my own experiences, and I but I do not sit here. I there's no point, there's there's no I I don't have any insult by going, oh, you guys are idiots, you don't believe. Like I've seen stuff that cannot be explained, it literally can't be explained, you know. Um, I've seen people behind me in rooms and like clear as day that aren't there, you know, when I'm in a house on my own. And there's a really cool experience in this house where I was on the phone to Danny actually, and um my kid's toy upstairs started going off. So I was like, the fuck is that? So I went upstairs, it was going across his kid, his base's bedroom floor, like just walking across the bedroom floor. I was like, okay, that's weird. So I picked it up, turned it off, made sure it was all off. It you know, but it wasn't one of these toys that really moved on its own. It was like, you know, and it's never done it since. But my kitchen light doesn't work, and it hasn't worked for about two years. And I don't fix it because I quite like the ambience of not having like my bathroom goes into the kitchen, so the light from there and the living room makes a really nice ambient light in the kitchen when you're cooking and stuff. It's quite nice, it's a nice little, you know, it's the right, right brightness. Um, and it's one of those tube lights that I don't know if it's the light that the bulb or the there's a part to it that might be broken. I can't be asked to work it out. So, anyway, it's not worth it for two years. On the phone to Danny, all this happened, and then I was talking about how I've swear I've seen that kitchen light come on before, and it as soon as I said it, just came on, just turned on. And I'm like interesting. So I turn it off, turn it back on, nothing. A few days later, I was telling my partner and her sister about it, and as as I was, and I was I was I smoke at the back door, it's my bad habit in life of smoking. If you're a vocalist, don't smoke, I shouldn't. I wish I didn't. Um, but smoking and I was lent against the wall, and the switch was like literally, you know, it's it's not I'm I'm too low to touch it, but it's like there, and I'm like lent against the wall, and I'm telling them about it, and I heard it like that, just switch on, light comes on. So I'm like, okay, turn it off, it's never come back on since, like never, you know, in the last two years, it's not been on, but it's just crazy, like, but when you experience stuff, it's really easy to be a believer. Um, but if you haven't, I get with the way the paranormal industry is why you wouldn't, because it's full of strange, yeah, strange people, strange stories, creepy pastors, all of that has kind of ruined the paranormal industry. And there's a few that I recommend. I recommend the guys of Project Fear. Um, if you watch Project Fear, I think they are absolutely amazing. And I genuinely have done so much research on them that I would say legit what they find. I mean, they do episodes on YouTube now, and they do episodes where nothing fucking happens for an hour, you know. Like, but at the same time, like they want you to see that sometimes it's not all about you know seeing apparitions and seeing, you know, and hearing things and stuff. So um, but there's a lot of them that I just I just don't believe.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:25

I always think with these programs, like if it was real, you wouldn't have to turn the lights off. Yeah, but no, that the thing is it's in the light, you turn the lights off to make people uneasy, which creates suggestion, and then people think I get that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:39

I get that, but I also think there's more to it than just suggestion. I think there's a lot of like you know, the night vision cameras pick up a lot more because of color, the colour frequencies. Um you know, I I mean I've seen stuff in the light. I mean, as a kid, some of my scariest moments in the house I grew up in, it was like this black figure that just a shadow figure that I used to see all the time. And uh ruined it for 100% for genuine people. Yeah, we had one here in the UK called Most Haunted. It was a joke, yeah. It was, I mean, I I knew someone that worked on production for them, and if the episodes they they didn't fake everything, but if things were quiet on the episode, it was oh you get some marbles and just throw them, you know, do that just to just to make you know scare the presenters and make them think something's happening, right? Right, it makes you really not believe any of it, you know. So I totally understand that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

My my theory has always been that if you've had an experience and you truly like believe in ghosts. Uh me personally, if that happened to me, the rest of my life it's all I would ever bring up to everybody that I ever come in contact with. Because now I'm like, I can now prove the existence of something after this life, which is monumental. We're all seeking, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:56

Yeah, see, I just don't know what it is though, and that's that's the other thing I'm gonna say to you. I'm not sure if it is a lost spirit or something. I don't know what it is. Like there's a lot of stuff, but this is it. I mean, there's so much that it's as we go along in time, we're in a really horrible, like we're in the most bleak, beautiful time in history where technology is coming along so much, but there's also so much crap in the world that I don't think all of us don't want to deal with. And I think that the more we find out about the universe and things like that, and you know, different dimensions and stuff like that, that the more we're gonna understand. But at the moment, I think it's the unknowing. But I couldn't sit there and tell you that there's a soldier that died in World War II walking around my house, and you know, because I don't know if that's what it is, I just don't know. Um, but I just know that I've seen stuff that I cannot explain. I know things have happened that I cannot explain, and for that, it makes me a believer.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

Hey, hearing it from a regular person instead of a TV show does push me a little more towards the belief side, you know what I mean? Hearing hearing those types of stories do tend to push you more towards that way. Um, my other thing is like, why is it always an old ass ghost? Why is there never like a modern day yeah?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:19

There is, and I think that's the other thing, but there is, and that's that that's the other thing. But I do again, a lot of these psych. So I went on a ghost night, right? And this psychic, and it was the worst fucking nightmare. I ended up nearly punching the psychic, right? He didn't see it coming either, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:36

Um you believe me to the joke.

Haunted Doll, Ghosts, And Skepticism

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

God damn. Um, but anyway, so we we went to this place near it. That's it's literally like five minutes away from me now, and it's a an old knitting factory, okay? Now I went there once with my family. We went and did a ghost night. My my stepdad and my mum, they actually taught me to do something called glass moving, which I I can do, and I can make a glass move just by energy. And I don't know what it is, I don't know how it works, but we can get to the point where you can lift all your fingers off and a glass is moving, still yes or no to whoever, and it's it's weird, right? Um, anyway, it's creepy as fucking, but like when I was younger, I was obsessed. But so we went to this factory, and the weirdest thing happened. Me and my stepdad were the only two, we'd only just got there. The first thing we did was a Ouija board. It's spelled out the name of someone, right? They gave they give you breaks during these ghost nights that we you do at this place. So we went outside and I'm smoking a cigarette, and we read a plaque on the wall on the outside, and it said the last master hosier or hosier or whatever that word would be, and it said the guy's name that had just come through on the Ouija board, right? Creepy as fuck. So I got a real big kind of affiliation with this building because I was like, that was cool, and there was a lot of things that happened that night that I then went and researched and could match up. Like there was I could feel the sensation of burning at one point in the child's bedroom, and I found out that there was a fire and the child had died from you know, fire inhalation. But inhalation is that the word anyway. I think so. Um, I went back there a couple of years later with a friend, right? This fucking psychic. Sorry, we allowed to. I did I I've been reading not to swear until the last like five minutes, by the way. Oh, yeah, you can say anything you want. It's way too late. Um, but yeah, so this fucking psychic, right? He's there, we're up in the attic, and he's going, There's a man in here, he's not a very nice man, he's killed people. I was like, it's a fucking knitting museum, like it used to be a knitting factory. What's he doing? Like, you know, grabbing the knitting needles and like killing people. He's like, Yeah, he bullies the women, goes here. And and anyway, we end up doing something called the human pendulum. I don't believe it. I think anything where the human can be the vessel means that it's open and could be interpreted as manipulation. And just so happens, this twat of a psychic is like, I'll be the pendulum. So I'm like, Yeah, of course you fucking will. It's like, right, lean, yes, that way or no that way. So this, you know, are you nice? No. Um, are you trying to kill people? Yes. And I so I was like, screw this, right? I'm not, I'm not having this. So I walk downstairs, I'm in the building all on my own, right in the basement, and I start doing some EVPs, and I caught something as an EVP when I asked the name of whoever it was. It's not recognizable what they say, but somebody definitely responds, and it's really, really cool. That's awesome. The whole night, I'll have to find it, I'll send you it. It's it's the most bizarre thing. But the whole night, this psychic is winding me up, and I'm like, I'm gonna hit him. I'm gonna hit him because he's just what a ludicrous story. Sorry. Um, it's so ludicrous that like you're in a knitting factory and you're telling me that this mass murderer is going around being killing people and hiding the bodies in the attic. Like, come on, you know, Googled it. There's no evidence, no, and the guy that apparently who it was, no one's ever heard of. The guy made him up, and he's oh, it's just it wow me up. But that's why people hate the paranormal sector because there's people like that out there that ruin it for everybody, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Yeah, yeah. I I want to do more like ghost type stuff. Um, one idea that I've had for the show that we haven't been able to line up yet is to do an interview with a band. In a haunted house overnight. Yeah. So like you spend the night and then you sit there and interview the band and tell ghost stories all night. I think that would be so fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:23

Plus, if you did it with us, you could still go to bed at a reasonable time. Perts of us being in the UK. I'd love I love the idea. So I have this idea of doing a ghost night where I don't tell anyone where I'm going at all. So I'm the only one there with a camera and the only person that knows that I'm doing it, they don't know where I am. They just know that if I haven't called them at like we'll say 11 pm, 2 a.m. 4 a.m., that they then need to turn on a tracker or something to say, oh, that's where he is, or they need to ring and we need to figure out that I'm safe. But the whole point is to be as vulnerable as possible in a building that's renowned for being you know haunted and seeing what you capture when you're completely alone and shut off from anyone. And I'd love to do it. So yeah, that's dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

I'm so in.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:19

It's gonna be fun. James, you in? Oh yeah. Just send we'll just send James on a boat somewhere and be like, you can go on a haunted boat. You'd be fine on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:31

All right, all right. I'm gonna read this one last one and then we're gonna we're gonna finish this up. Which music ensemble has a whale of a time in Orc astra?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:45

As soon as you said orc, I knew what you were where we were going with it. I knew, I knew.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:49

See, shouldn't it be orca?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

Yeah, I wanted to put the emphasis somewhere else, though. It just felt right. Anyways, guys. Those are beautiful. I love that. Gold State is the band. Ben, James, thank you so much for hanging out with us today. This has been one of my favorite episodes, truly. Like this is I could do this for hours, man. Just just hanging out and talking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:17

Harley, you're on BSB at some point. Let's uh ping me an email. Any ping on my email? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

Anytime, literally anytime. Absolutely. Um, BSB is the show, Gold State is the band. Check out everything. Um, do Vay covers, get your duvet covers. That should be March. Uh, so are you guys doing any shows, any upcoming shows? This will be in March.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:43

Yeah, watch this space. Yeah, maybe. There's there's some stuff going on with Manicat Records that we aren't at liberty to discuss publicly right now. But Peter's gonna watch this back, isn't he? Hi, Peter. You're absolutely absolutely Peter, you're sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:56

Uh no, anyway, we're gonna have Peter on the show here soon. So if you guys, yeah, if you have any fun stories, shoot him my way.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:03

Get him a booster seat, all right? So you can see. Um, no, he's Peter is an amazing human being. Absolutely love him. He's become like one of my best friends in this crazy industry. But um, yeah, we're working on some stuff, um, some really cool stuff in the UK. Um, watch this space and that. We've got another song drop in in April. Oh, called Blessing in Disguise. And this is the first place we've publicly said it. So there you go. Oh yeah. Um, that's really, really cool. Um, so yeah, look out for that. That's uh yeah, and there is, as it stands, there is a music video for that, um, which I'm not happy about because I was about Freestone Heavier when we shot it. So uh yeah, not looking forward to that coming out, but it will do um from our friends at Shark Room Productions as well. Shout out to Shark Room. Um, so yeah, look out for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:50

Hell yeah, awesome. Well, hey guys, thanks for hanging out with us today. We really appreciate it. I know it's late on your end, so um, thanks again, man. Really appreciate you guys having us. Hey, same. Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:02

We've had an absolute blast, and we'll come back anytime. Yeah, yeah. Love it. And let us know when you're doing the ghost night show and we'll we'll figure out with the lights on, yeah, with the lights on.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:16

Under the cover. All right, have a great one, man. I'll see you guys later. All right, that was Gold State, everybody. Chris, how do you feel?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:30

Well, obviously, my voice is going out, so I would have said a whole lot more, but uh yeah, no, there's some pretty fun dudes. Enough to uh to sway your your UK opinions, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:46

I could see you lighting up the whole time. I was like, ooh, by the end of this, Chris is gonna be like, you know, the UK is actually pretty cool, pretty cool place. Like everybody's pretty cool over there. Uh no, they're awesome, man. I I didn't realize until I started looking into the band that they were the same guys that I had talked to before about being on their show um and and doing some stuff with them. So that's pretty cool. I didn't realize it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:13

I've never heard of their show, but I will be doing a deep dive.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

Yeah, it's it's really cool. It's like a uh really cool way to open up the industry to new artists. Um no, they they're awesome, dude. I I absolutely love that. That was that was great. That was great. Uh we are still live, so careful. Oh, I know. I see it. I'm waiting. Um, as always, everybody, please go check out the Instagram, give us a follow over there. Uh go to the YouTube page, subscribe. Um, our Patreon. I gotta promote our Patreon now. We've got all kinds of stuff going on over there. Let me take a drink real quick, though. Is it a screwdriver? Coffee. What is it? Um, it's brown. Anyways, anyways, so over on our Patreon, if you sign up for the five dollar a month tier, we call it the music enthusiast tier, you'll get some really cool benefits over there. One of which is you get to pick a list and all of the songs on that list for us to go over on the show. Another one is early access to our guests. So over there, I will put up a post that outlines who's coming on the show, the background of the band, and then you can go on and comment a question that you would like us to ask that band. When we ask that question, we give you a shout-out for asking the question. And it can be anything you want. Whatever you say on there is what I'm gonna ask. The other thing that I want to start doing is uh bonus show. So I would like us to do um something on there. I don't know what yet. If you have suggestions, feel free to reach out. Uh, but more importantly, the the most important aspect of the Patreon is if you want to sign up for the free one, it's developing the community and giving you guys a place, all of the fans a place to talk. So, like we have different fans that'll reach out to me directly, we have fans that'll reach out to Taylor directly. I'm sure Chris has people that listen that reach out to him directly. If you sign up for the Patreon, we all get to converse together as a community, and you can find other like-minded people that listen to this show that maybe enjoy music that you can kind of bounce stuff off of. The other thing is in this community, if you are a musician or interested in music or are an aspiring musician, there are people within the industry in our Patreon. So great way to connect and and build rapport within the industry, if you catch what I'm saying. Was that was that good? Is that a bad promo?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:02

No, it was good. It was good.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

I'm not I'm not good at promoting stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:08

Go go to go to Patreon, check it out. Check it out. Go over car goes real good on Patreon.

Paranormal Stories And Credibility

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Um, you know, all that stuff. Like, subscribe, all the stuff that Taylor usually tells you at the end of the show. Do all that stuff for us. Uh I've been instructed that I shouldn't say to do it because it helps us out. I should instruct people to do it for another reason, but I forget what that reason was. Do it for the starving children in Africa. I'm I'm a bad liar.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:42

It was something along the lines of like you should do it and and tell the audience that like you're doing it because you you love the show and you want more of the show. But realistically, it's just a benefit to help us out. And but the the chatting thing I I hold strongly to. Like, I think that's a good idea, even if you sign up for the free one, like you get access to that chat, and I think it will be good for industry people to talk to industry people.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:13

So or just to get on there and tell me or Harley, we have stupid faces.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:17

That too. That too. Uh, but you'll you'll be able to talk to me over there, you'll be able to talk to Chris over there, you'll be able to talk to Taylor over there. Um, you'll be able to talk to uh Danny over there. Um, that is all of our staff. Uh my wife will not be on there. Um, she might be on there. I don't know. She hasn't said yay or nay yet to signing up, but she might be on there, so you might be able to talk to Lindsay. Um, but you'll also be able to talk to like people who are fans of the individual things that we do and kind of develop that community. So yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:57

That's all I got. Well, what he's getting at is come give us a shout. Come give us a shout.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

What I'm getting at is just come hang out, man. We we just we're just looking for friends. I just I just want a friend. It's not it's a nice thing when people reach out and they're like, love the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:19

Well, my thing is is you know, if you have suggestions, things of that nature, let us know. Oh yeah. It's a it's a pretty fluid setup we have where yeah, yeah. Hey, you know what? We might love it too.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:32

Yeah, this is episode 186. So like 186 times we've we've just kind of done this on our own. That's a lot of ideas, man. That's we're um we're only so many brains. Especially with the lists. Like, I'm at a point with the lists where I'm like, what if we talked about metal pop punk core rap? And for some reason, fucking uh uh uh uh Hannah Montana. Who's Hannah Montana? Um Miley Cyrus. For some reason, that Miley Cyrus song is always on every list. Every time I try to do a list, it's like uh what's that song that she has? Party in the USA.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:16

Yeah, it's on every list, it's a good song. I hate to admit it. It's catching probably on the other list that everybody's talking about right now. Oh shut up. Oh god, I got it. I got it. I do apologize for my voice, everybody. You sound great, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:40

Uh all right. Well, it has been real. It's time for Chris's favorite sign off. Howdly doodly. Peace. Peace. Thanks for listening to the Lokin Bridge Podcast.