When Pop Punk Gets Personal: Interview With July Crowd

A lot of music interviews stay on the surface. We didn’t. Dom from July Crowd joins us for a conversation that starts with everyday life in Calgary and ends in the kind of honesty that makes you sit still for a second. We talk about growing up on pop punk, how marriage changes your priorities, and why the older you get, the more you notice which songs still feel true when the lights are off. 

Dom breaks down the story and meaning behind “The Same Way,” July Crowd’s acoustic ballad about closeness, distance, and learning to accept what won’t happen while still honoring the love that was there. We get into the songwriting moment that sparked it, plus the craft behind the recording: stacked vocal harmonies, intentional space, and production choices that make an acoustic track hit with real weight. If you’re into pop punk songwriting, emo lyrics, and music production details, there’s a lot to steal here in the best way. 

Then the conversation turns toward grief and “Like Home,” a song shaped by losing Dom’s dad and the complicated emotions that come with it: love, anger, betrayal, memory, and the weird emptiness of a home that no longer feels the same. We also hit influences (Weezer, Blink-182, Green Day, Sum 41), collaboration dreams, and we end with our Mixtape game for a lighter landing. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:55

Welcome back, guys, to the show. I am your host, Harley, joined by my co-host and little sister Taylor, and an extremely special guest today. Um, we have Dom from the band July Crowd, guys. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Let's go.

SPEAKER_06 1:16

So, Dom, what's the weather like where you're at? Because it's getting warm over here in Virginia.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

It's uh it's about time. So, like I'm not a winter person anymore. I used to be when I was a kid. I like snowboarded. I live in Canada, I live in Calgary. Um, we get really cold winters and really warm summers. It's like one of the most extreme cities for weather uh differential. Um but uh right now it's finally getting warm, like as of this week, like walking outside in a t-shirt, not a winter coat. So I'm having a great time. I'm having a time of my life right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

I'm good. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:51

I personally love Canada, I just want you to know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Big fan of the Maple Storm.

SPEAKER_06 1:57

Let's go. Um, I I have snuck over there twice, so you know, I don't know what that says about me, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Well, what do you bring back? It just kind of depends what you bring back.

SPEAKER_06 2:09

Nothing.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:13

Uh actually, so we were we played a show in a band that I was in right out of high school. Um, I don't even remember what city it was, it was right over the border in Michigan. So it was like just barely, like we were like just the tip, it was a little bar up there. Um, but the second time I went, I brought a buddy, and we were just like, can we do it? So and we could, and that's crazy. So it can they don't tell you that like a lot of the border is kind of just woods. Like you can you can really just park your car in some spots and walk around.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

If you watch criminal minds, you wouldn't know. They have a whole episode on it.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, there's also lakes you can just swim.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

There's really big lakes, but if you have endless endurance, you can just swim.

SPEAKER_04 3:05

Harley can't swim.

SPEAKER_06 3:06

So that's true. That is true. And that's my my stature doesn't scream swimmer, much more sitter than swimmer.

Video Games And Growing Up

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_06 3:15

Uh are you a video game guy?

Marriage And New Priorities

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Uh yes, not like Twitch streaming. I uh I I am a video gaming on my own time guy. Yeah. What uh what do you play? Uh well, it's changed over the years. Like when I was a teenager, multiplayer stuff, I was playing with everybody. Like I grew up with I'm on Xbox side, I grew up on Xbox, so I was playing Halo. Yeah and you know, Call of Duty and all that stuff. But now uh now that I'm like almost 30, I'm just playing like story games. Yeah, yeah. Like stuff like Resident Evil or like any other, like, you know, I like I played all the uncharted stuff. I'm I'm not super deep into like a lot of the different game lores anymore. It's just like I don't know. I don't spend enough time doing it. I play some Nintendo stuff too. So like every once in a while I'll loop back and play Pokemon or like do something like that. But uh yeah, anything that's like story driven single player, I'm into sometimes sports games. If I just need to like blow off Steam after the flames lose or our calculating flames lose, then I need to like go blow off Steam on rookie mode or something. But other than that, uh yeah, I I don't get a lot of time for video games anymore. It just feels like my time my day's done and whatever, then I'm just like I'm burnt out of everything. I don't even want to do that. So I just look at my phone instead when I have way more fun playing games. Um, I I noticed the uh the wedding ring. You married? Yeah, uh, I got married uh this past year, uh this past summer. Congratulations, man. That's awesome. Congratulations, it's a huge life change, all for the better, but uh it's a huge life change for me. Like there's priorities outside of myself now. Yeah. You know, like I'm I'm kind of responsible for uh for the other person in our house and making sure that like their life is good too, you know? Yeah, yeah. And uh and she does the same for me and and things are good. The biggest thing is like she's a huge, huge supporter of what I do in terms of like building a music career, and I work in like a lot of different music adjacent stuff. Like I work as an audio video tech um in like freelance capacity. So I do you know, I work on concerts on the back end and stuff like that. And she's like a very big supporter of a genre music that like she didn't grow up with, she doesn't really necessarily like, but I don't know. She comes to the shows with me now, and now she now she likes all this stuff. She's like, Oh, I love you know pop punk bands now, and she like knows all the songs. It's just it's uh it's hilarious, but super big supporter. Um, I couldn't like be pushing as much as I am if it wasn't for her having my back.

SPEAKER_06 5:47

I love that, man. I love that. I am coming up on five years uh in October. Shout out Lindsay. Hello, Lindsay. I know you don't listen to the show, but she's in the other room hanging out with our little boy. So we had uh a son. Today is uh his 18 month birthday.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

Happy birthday, Adam.

The Story Behind The Same Way

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Happy birthday, let's go, dude. Absolutely. And that's I mean, we don't have kids, but that's just as important. Like if if you have a partner that is like you know willing to support what you're doing and helps look after the kids when you don't have that opportunity, and then vice versa. Like, yeah, oh yeah, it's green, man. I don't know. I'm I'm happy, I'm over the moon lately. I'm good. That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_06 6:27

Um that brings me to my first like music-based question. Uh, with all of these changes in your life recently. Um, this song came out two years ago. Uh, I'd like to talk to you about the same way.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:46

So tell me a little bit about the let's start with the message in the song. Obviously, with everything going on in your life now, I think it's safe to say that the song was different then compared to now. It has a different uh uh feeling, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

It's it's changed a bit. I mean, the that's a cool song that you mentioned because I think that's a bit more of like a um it was like hidden in the middle of an EP kind of it was a bit more it wasn't pushed super, super hard like maybe some of the other singles or something. So it's cool that you pick up on that one. Um and I to date it's our only released uh like full acoustic ballad. Um but uh a lot of the lyrical messaging in that song, like I I used to live in a smaller town. Um that's where my wife and I met. Um this song talks about like my relationship with her before we were like properly together. Um addresses like some of the times we were able to um actually spend some time together and maybe like you know, we were going down different paths, or with um, you know, maybe we were like in different relationships or whatever was going on. It kind of addresses some of that journey a little bit and just you know, some of the different like melancholy associated with that. Um at the ri at the risk of sounding like overly corny here, it's it dives into um just how I felt in a lot of those moments where you know I was I was wanting some of that experience and I was like close to this person, but uh you know, it just it just wasn't able to materialize. And so being okay and like finding a way to be okay with like letting go of that and still celebrating, you know, what's there um and like the type of love that's there, maybe. Um, there's a lot of that kind of theme going on in that song of just like finding ways to accept that like maybe that's not gonna work, but you still like have uh love and a place for this person. Um and it it attaches to like I found myself when I was writing that song, like attaching that same sort of feeling to just other like similar ways of feeling in my life, you know, like my relationship with my grandparents when I was kind of losing my grandparents and like things like that. I'm just the the feeling is very similar of uh that type of that type of distance and you know potential loss and stuff like that. That's kind of where the song came from. Um that's that's my ramble on kind of where the song came from.

SPEAKER_06 9:24

No, I that's exactly kind of where I was picking up was like the uh the idea. See, I didn't think of it as um as a melancholy as much as like uh uh reminiscence of good times had with the intent of not having that person in your life moving forward. So it felt much more like that grandparent type thing, much more of like the reminiscent of we had all these great times, but I know that I'm gonna lose you soon.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Is kind of the yeah. That's that's the space it's written from. I mean, um kind of cool, but like the I had like rode out, I took a I took my longboard out and I like went out to the park and I just like went out with my acoustic guitar at 1 a.m. I think this is the only time I ever did this, like, and it became a song, but I like went out to like the public park. You're not supposed to be there after 11, but I'm there within a guitar, I don't think I'm hurting anybody.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Right.

Building Harmonies In The Studio

SPEAKER_01 10:16

And I like sat down. They have like a stage, um, yeah, like an outdoor stage kind of thing. And I just like sat on the edge of it with my acoustic guitar. I couldn't sleep at like 12:31 in the morning, and I was just playing some chords and I was thinking of those things, and I was very much like writing the song just in that moment, which is unlike so many other songs that I've done. Usually it's takes a little longer. You're like working at it piece by piece and injecting parts and things, but on that one, it kind of came together. A lot of it came together in that moment. So I was definitely like feeling all of the things at the same time that I was writing them instead of looking on them uh from like a later perspective or or something like that. Um, but yeah, it like it's definitely about that that thing and that feeling. And uh, you know, I may have like teared a little bit while I was writing it, and that's that's all good and it's cool. When I listen to it now, I almost relate it like when I hear it back now, I relate it more to um to like I said, like my grandparents and other people in where like I kind of know I'm gonna I'm gonna lose that connection or something, but I still hold the the love in the place for them and still celebrate the fact that I got to know them at all. That's really like I guess like the core theme um with what I wrote it about is just like I'm I'm glad I got to know you at all and I want to celebrate that with you. Um, even if this means that this is the end of it, like I'm glad that it happened at all.

SPEAKER_06 12:25

And uh so from a music standpoint, the the reason that this song stuck out to me so much was aside from it being the acoustic song, right? Like obviously when when we have you know somebody invested in rock or pop punk or anything kind of rock adjacent when there's an acoustic song that always sticks out a little more because you're like ah, this is different from everything else. Um but the um uh uh the the three of you harmonizing, the harmonies in that song are like perfect for what you're doing. Like um, who was kind of responsible for developing those harmonies? Is it is it just like a layered like you're singing the melody, somebody's singing like a fifth above, and somebody's singing uh the third below?

Influences From Weezer To Blink

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Um, there's a bit of that. Um I gotta I gotta give like credit to um you know the helper and bandmates on it, because I mean I I kind of started like the core thing, and then I bring it to everybody else and we you know find ways to build on it. But uh we had we had an engineer working with us at the time on that whole um that whole EP. Uh his name is Connor uh Pritchard, and he was like absolutely fantastic. He's a really um he's a really big like harmony guy um in general. Like he really nails it with a lot of his kind of productions. He was the right person to have probably on that song for that reason. Um, where it like the song is really bare bones in the sense that there's not, you know, there's no drums and there's no there, there's a lot of space to be had, but you also want to use it on purpose and and do stuff that makes certain sections feel really impactful or or really uh intentional. Um and I I think we got there. He helped, like him and I sat down and spent a lot of time like shaping different harmony options. And we probably, we probably tried. I'm I'm kind of going back in time right now too, like being in the room working on it uh with him. And we spent like hours and hours just going over different harmony options and layers, and like, you know, all right, Dom, get back in there try something else, and then like bring the other guys in, and then like we'll all do some group ones or we'll do some different things. So there's some significant layers. There's also like some 12-string guitar in there that isn't it's there, it's probably not super obvious, but it it is there and it kind of helps like it does like uh the goo-goo doll's iris thing, yep, a little bit where it kind of like does like the we need the poo floating above his bed thing. Or that's how I envisioned it, anyways. Yeah, um, but we just like you know, there's a little bit of like some uh like percussion stuff. There's like some small shaker blended in just all these things that like if it made it better, we did it. And if it didn't make it better, then we just I was like, well, you know, we talked about finding some ways of adding drums or adding snare or something, and it's like, well, it's it's fine, but it didn't make it better, so then we didn't use it.

SPEAKER_06 15:08

It's so funny that you brought up the goo goo dolls. Uh you you beat me to this this part of the interview. Um, so when I showed your band to my wife, we sat down and uh ran through a handful of songs that I liked, and um, we're sitting there watching it on the on the TV, watching music videos and stuff. And I was like, you know, I always try and ask her, like, what kind of sounds are you getting? Like, this is what I'm hearing, this is who I would compare them to. How do you feel? And she actually compared you guys to a mixture of the Google dolls and Weezer. So that's that's crazy. Uh, are those two bands that are a big influence on you?

Party Pop Punk Writing Choices

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Um, I I can't say they're not. Like, I I grew up in the generation, like uh, I was born in the 90s, so I grew up in the generation where like those are prime bands that are like on radio, they're like playing on TV, like iris is everywhere, you know. I I didn't listen to the Google Dolls that much, so I can't really accredit them, but obviously, like there's a couple songs that are everywhere, and it's like it's on the mixtapes. Like, I'm sure there's like one or two songs that are like on like some burnt mixtapes that I would have had as a kid. Um Weezer a ton, just like more by proxy. I don't think I ever like intentionally went and like, oh, this is a band that I like I'm obsessed with them. I think they just like always played in whatever like mixtape rotations I had and and stuff. And um, I've never seen them live though. I I try to see like as many live bands as as possible just because the experience is is always great, but uh um yeah, like you know, blue album being being the big one, but I also loved the red album a lot. Like now that I'm older, I go back to that one a lot of the time. I think there's like interesting. It's like no one's favorite, I think. Yeah, if it's someone's favorite, like send me a message and say what's up because that's awesome. But um the I don't know, like pork and beans in some of those, like they just feel like super raw in a different way than how like blue album is where it's feels like um not I don't say like super produced in a bad way, I just mean like very polished, I guess. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. And then even some of the later Weezer stuff is like really cool, like the white album where they love the white album. All kinds of other stuff. Like that was the black album was also so good. Yeah, dude, absolutely. They just dabble in all kinds of like fun stuff and kind of do what they want, and they they push themselves musically too. Like they're a they're a better band than I think they maybe want people to think they are, or something. I don't know, I don't know how to phrase that right, but um, I think they're just a better band than um than maybe people like remember them for being or something in terms of like musicianship and and creativity and being willing to try a new thing every time they get back into writing songs. They're not just kind of like, oh, we've got a formula, let's rinse this over and over until everyone's tired of it. So I always appreciate bands for that. Like I grew up on a lot of Green Day and Blink 182, and though those being the big ones, Sum 41, um, all the Canadian ones too, like Simple Plan and uh and Avril, and like you know, everything like from there down. And uh all those acts for me, like we're willing to kind of try new things every record and not just like you know, Green Day is like, oh, we've got Dookie, we've got the thing, we're just gonna do that forever. They like, you know, they they have the thing that they they like, and then they would explore and see like where they could push themselves, or like can we make better music, or can we be influenced by something else and still sound like ourselves? And and some people don't like that, but I love it. Like, if I want to listen to Dookie again, or if I want to listen to like you know, blue album again, I'm just gonna go listen to that. And then if they make something new, I want it to be like a new experience for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, so though, yeah, I mean, there are definitely some influences, but like I'm a hodgepodge of like all kinds of like emo pop punk stuff, um poppier stuff. Like I grew up with like country everywhere. I live in like Canada, there's just country music everywhere. You you grow up like having to like it, otherwise you just end up hating everything because of the whole time. So you might as well just like it.

SPEAKER_06 19:08

That's our experience here in America too.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Dude, absolutely. It's everything. So I just like I pull from all those places, not on purpose, but I'm sure it happens, and like those two specific bands, I'm sure I pull like things from not necessarily like one-to-one things, but just certain kinds of vibe or like willingness to like try different ways of um approaching the writing or not being like, oh, this is like exactly how it has to be in this section, because that's the the cut and paste template, like right. Just if the writing feels good, then you're probably in the right direction, then you just keep tweaking it from there.

SPEAKER_06 19:45

Um, so speaking of Blink 182, um, this is uh even older song of yours. Uh this is what I would say um is how would I describe this? Um oh I'm sorry, it's not older. My bad. Um the song Happy Ever Afterthought that is about as blink as it gets, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Dude, I'll take I'll I'll take that comparison any day, but um I I like that song more than I think anyone else did. I don't like in terms of like the band or something. Um it it felt like it felt poppier at the time than than anything else we've done. Not not that everything didn't have like a pop over tone to it, like it obviously does, but uh uh it felt more like clean and and crisp in a way, like it didn't have like the the really sort of like rough, scraggly kind of tone of like the very first EP or something. It felt like it had a little more polish or something. Um, but I don't know. I I like that song a lot still. Like that one holds up for me. Me too.

SPEAKER_06 20:49

Honestly, like that is to me, that's your party song. Like I listen to that and I'm like, this is this is classic Blink, classic Sum 41, classic simple plan, like classic Fallout Boy. You kind of fit right in with all of the songs that when I'm hanging out with my friends having beers, this is what I want to throw on. Um and lyrically, I would say it's it's uh uh song that kind of goes outside of the depth and more of the surface level of like it's a pretty straightforward. This is the song. Um tell me about the writing style for you from comparing that to let's say uh your newest song, um like home, like that, those are two very, very different, astronomically different writing styles.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, I mean, I think like our band is a few years in now. I mean, we were definitely like trying out different things, not necessarily like on purpose. We're gonna try something totally different. It just kind of happens because we're still figuring out how to get like a really comfortable writing songs and like what really feels um like what we feel the most connected to, maybe. Um, but with with Happy Ever, um that one ended up being like very like straight up, like super party pop punk kind of vibe. We tried to capture that when we did like the music video too. Um we uh we ended up like uh going to our we our buddies' place set up. We had like a venue lined up or something that we were gonna shoot this at. And then they like dropped out that week. Um like, oh no, we had like a couple of friends. We had a grant to do the video, so it helped financially a little bit. So we're like, oh, you can you know binge a little bit more and and and uh and spend some money. Um and then like the venue couldn't do it anymore or whatever. We were supposed to have like a, I don't know, I think there's like a backyard with a pool and all this stuff. It didn't work, so I like called my friend and I was like, dude, can we please like just use your backyard and like just well, we're just gonna like make it work. Um and it ended up being super fun. We just like set up instruments outside, neighbors were not happy, doesn't matter. Um, but we we like captured the vibe of what that song was kind of in the video too. Um, but that that was it. Like the I had the lyrical theme for it, the the happy ever. I kind of had that like tagline sort of happy ever after. Like you hear happy ever after in like so many pop punks. And and emo songs, like that's such a sort of like a cliche. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Whatever. You left me, and I'll never have my happy ever after is like such a common thing. Um, and I kind of wanted to play on that and like just sort of twist it a bit um with this like happy ever after thought, where like it's pretty self-explanatory. Like I thought this relationship was gonna go somewhere very different than what ended up happening to me. And uh I, you know, decided that I probably need to not be there anymore. And uh it but it's like it's so surface level compared to um writing, but it's still real, like it still comes from a very real place, and it's pretty like bar for bar what like how my actual experience was. But uh I feel like it has a way of being still relatable where I think like everyone's had a turn on that carousel, you know, like every everyone's had like their own episode of that happening, and so it's very um, you know, non-unique in that sense, at least the way it's worded. The verses, I tried to keep them just like super um like bouncy and and moving forward. And I had to like find a way to like write lyrics that weren't too um you know, too personal about it, because then I thought it might lose in this context its relatability. Uh especially when I compare that to like the newer music like like home, which I'm sure we're gonna get into a bunch anyway, but um that song is like almost very directly like uh not personal, but well, personal and uh less rudimentary, I guess. Like it kind of really goes into like the nitty-gritty of like how I felt or whatever. Whereas with happy ever, I'm kind of just like skimming over like you know, this one happened. There's so much that's left where it's like you don't have to say it because you can piece together exactly how the thing went because everyone's seen it or felt it at some point. So I feel like I didn't need to go into it as much.

SPEAKER_06 25:11

Well, and and the idea of being somebody's afterthought is such a better way, um, in today's day and age, if you ask me. Like, because it's not just it's not just about being an afterthought of like where you thought a relationship was going to go, but uh it happens in all forms of relationships. Uh your your relationship at your work, your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with anybody can you can always be an afterthought with your friends, especially. Like being an afterthought for a friend is almost just as hurtful as as being in a relationship because you're like you're supposed to be the the person I turn to in these times of need, you know. Um so like I I loved that kind of concept of like not necessarily pinpointing a a relationship, but more of just being somebody's like second choice is like hugely relatable.

Complicated And Creative Guitar Ideas

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, when I say the word relationship, I don't necessarily mean like partnership relationship. Right, right, right. There like some of my songs, that's kind of where it comes from, but then there's others that maybe like lyrically match that motif, and that's not you know where it came from at all. It's more of like a brotherhood thing or like uh um, you know, it comes from a different kind of um a song that came out that same year, 2024, um, complicated kind of talks about some like you know, relationship vibey stuff, but it's not actually like a like an intimacy relationship thing. It's um more like another musician uh friend thing that like where that's okay, okay. But then it kind of still comes out in that same sort of um way where like we've all felt stuff like that. So it it we end up just relating it to, you know, whatever experience we're in at the time or something, um, or felt that's like, yeah, I felt like that exact thing, but it was with my boss or it was with my partner or it was with my mom or whatever. Um I kind of am willing to let people decide like what the song means to them instead of telling them like, no, you're wrong. This is about uh a relationship. And it can only be that's the way we feel and the way we like emotionally connect with all these things is the same often, regardless of if it's a partner or a family member or a friend that you thought was a friend and actually isn't, you know, they're uh a fake or whatever. So um yeah, I think that's like that's where that came from, man. And then the lyrics just tried to keep it uh fun and poppy. I want it to be like sing-alongy in a sense, where um like where it's not so unpredictable, like you do kind of know what I'm gonna say next, and I'm kind of just like just grabbing the overall vibe of it. I haven't done all my songs that way, but that one it just felt right to do it that way, and I just committed to writing that way.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

Um, speaking of complicated, um, the guitar work in that song is phenomenal. Like the the um the riff right before the chorus is I I dude, I love I love what you did like guitar-wise in that song.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Oh, cool. Okay, I'm uh I'm stoked.

unknown 28:17

Thank you.

Writing Real Lyrics Through Loss

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Um I love deep diving into the songs because like I don't really do that on a daily basis. So it's kind of fun to uh to just like talk about where they came from a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. It's like you know, through the music, there isn't necessarily usually an outlet other than like this kind of discussion where we get to talk about um you know where they came from and and hopefully it's interesting to people. Um but complicated, yeah. Complicated came from a place of like I I had a friendship that I like thought was gonna be, you know, blossom into like a friendship, and then it turned into like knife in back, you know, not really. Yeah, you know, they it it kind of played me, and I was not, you know, I was so mad about it, I went and like pen to papered it immediately, you know. So welcome to the music industry. Yeah, I was so um yeah, I found myself like writing it kind of depends. I'm not always writing lyric first, but I'm always like putting down ideas or like if I'm feeling something emotionally, I almost try to like disconnect myself from it at times and then just like put some notes down on paper, even if it's not rhymes. Like I love writing poetry now and like doing that kind of stuff it just on my own time. It's not a shared thing, but um, I will take like you know, I'll poach just lines of ideas from whatever I wrote down, whether it's poetic or just like I can't believe this guy did blah blah blah, you know, almost like a journal entry, and then I'll take that journal entry and then like uh a few weeks later or something and go, Hey, oh yeah, I remember feeling you know that angry about it. I'm kind of moved past it now, but I'd love to write a song about it and just like really stick it to him. Right. That's kind of where um the person has a song about it, they have no idea, and that's fine, it's just gonna stay that way.

SPEAKER_06 29:54

Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sure they're not even watching anyway, so dumb that um so speaking speaking of being a songwriter, um as uh somebody that writes as well, do you find it difficult to kind of because of the genre that you tend to write towards, leans more heavy into darker themes and uh places of sadness and and anger? You know, it's it not always the happiest, right? There are happy emo pop punk songs, but like it's it tends to lean more on the heavier side. Do you find it difficult to kind of pull yourself out of that writing and and write something a little more cheerful?

Like Home And The Shape Of Grief

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Um you know what? Yes, but uh kind of now I found like uh the new song being like home is like a pretty emotional, kind of like pretty heavy theme thing. Um, and a lot of the new writing that's been coming out of us lately is in that world, like more the the emo influence stuff of of pop pong, like the emotional influence stuff. Um early on, uh I I always commit to writing about real things. Like I don't want to make something up and then like try to sell it as convincing because I just don't think I can. I'm sure there's like there's other songwriters that can do that really well and tell a story, um, and it's still a great story and a great delivery. Um, I find I can't. I I think I have to pull it from real things. Otherwise, like I've tried and then it just comes out like this is fake as hell. Like it's just not even believable at all. And I guess I have to believe it to then also like provide a vocal delivery that you know makes the lyrics believable too. Um early on, like I could write about anything. I do happier songs and like more melancholic songs. I think I felt I always had to like give it some kind of spin that had to be at least resolving or like you know, melancholic, or it couldn't just be pure like sadness. It had to like have some kind of don't worry, maybe it's gonna get better twist to it. Um I don't think I did it on purpose, but I think it was just always happening. Um, and then after the 2024 songs, um, I had uh I had lost my dad that summer and yeah, like he died pretty young, and like that hit me like a freight train. And obviously that immediately like you know, that changed a lot of like what's going on in my personal life and how I felt and all that. And then when it came to like writing songs and lyrics, which I still have to do, um so much of the themes like tied back to that event, or like I just couldn't find myself willing to write songs that were like, oh, I'm gonna write like a poppy fun one like happy ever or something when I'm just not feeling that. Like I don't feel that way right now. And it would be disingenuous for me to write something that isn't like conductive of what I'm going through uh or what I've just gone through or like what I'm you know, what I'm feeling in my heart right now. Um I I couldn't like I couldn't sell myself out that way and and say something that would be disingenuous when like I'm going through, you know, I'm going through a hard time. So I have to, you know, I have to tell the truth about that. And the songwriting becomes more natural and more easy and just more real because of that. I don't want to write like only sad songs forever. I just want to write about like how I am, you know, experiencing the world around me in that time. And if it's not good, like I'm not going to lie in my songs and pretend that it is and try to convince everybody that is the case when I don't expect my listeners to do that either. Like if my listeners are going through a hard time or something or dealing with loss and and or difficult times or trauma or whatever, like I don't want them to feel like they have to pretend that everything's okay when it's not either. They can feel the emotions and be real and work towards getting better. Um, and when you are like when things are easy and they're happy, then uh listen to happy ever and I'll have a great time. And when they're not, I'm gonna listen to the songs that uh that are more conducive of how I'm feeling now and um and uh and help me work through whatever I'm going through. Songwriting has always helped me work through whatever I'm dealing with at the time. When I you know first started writing a lot of that, like I was still in college, just finishing college and stuff like that. So a lot of songs are about what I was going through then. And then, you know, a couple years later, it's different relationships and and challenges and things, and the songs are either good or bad about that. And then now with with like home, um, a lot of like unburied stuff or a lot of buried stuff started to unbury itself and and come back, you know, into my heart and my mind. And um, you know, it'd be it would be like illegal of me to not write about it.

SPEAKER_06 34:36

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of the the loss and the song like home, uh I hate to I hate to say this question, but like go that song is heart-wrenching in the most beautiful way. Um it tackles a lot of what like loss feels like, and uh that's it, dude. I it's hard, it's a hard it's a hard listen in the right way. So uh Taylor Taylor hasn't heard it. I didn't tell her about it because we just lost our grandmother recently. Um so yeah, it is like you really, really helped out. Um tell me a little bit about what that song is for you.

Kids Timing And Life Surprises

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Yeah, well, I mean, I'm my condolences. I'm I'm sorry for your loss. I you know, I know how hard it is, and and that's where a song like this comes in. Like it's this is a shared experience that every one of us as like a human, um, enjoying the human condition. Like, we have to go through this at some point with the people that are closest to us, and it's just something we have to deal with. And it would be unfair to not write and talk about it when that's you know the place that I was coming from at the time. This was fresh for me where I had, you know, I'd lost my dad and I uh it it comes from, you know, like the feelings of betrayal in a way when you know they left early and it wasn't, you know, to me it wasn't his time to leave, but that's just what was decided for him, and and uh I have to kind of work through that in the most brutal way. Like there's stages to that kind of grief where like it's you feel like you've been let down, you feel like you've been, you know, betrayed not just by uh by life or by God or or or whatever, but also by them because they they left you by yourself, they left you alone, you know. And I don't want to hate him for leaving, but you can't you can't like skip that part of the grief either because it it's natural and it happens. It you know, it that song is supposed to be as cathartic and like expressive as as it is. I um I wanted to provide, you know, imagery that really detailed the way you know the the words like home really kind of sell it, but like all of the way the verses are written and and the chorus too. Like I'm really trying to drive this sort of home feeling empty without someone that you're used to being there all the time. And it it un it like you know dug up a lot of different kinds of emotional things from when I was young too. Like my parents were great parents and they they cared about each other and they they got along until the end, but like they weren't always, you know, together or they weren't always close. And there was, you know, there was times where it was really, really rough or difficult. And um, a lot of that comes up in that grieving process too, where like, you know, you remember all the great things, but you also remember all the things that, you know, caused you maybe a lot of pain or heartache, like growing up in that kind of broken home or or something. So this song kind of tackles all of that at once because I felt it all at once. So it wouldn't be fair to just single out like just one or two things when I was feeling that whole wave of like weight and emotion and love and sadness and betrayal and um, you know, and like going back 20 years to my relationship with him then and then 10 years and and five years and in the final you know, year or moments too. So it uh hopefully the song is something that people can turn to and just like it helped me work through it, it can help you know someone else work through it because like growing up in a in a home that is tattered is is not unique like you know, a lot of us have. I I was lucky that my you know things were difficult at times, but my parents always loved me and they cared. Um, you know, there's levels to that stuff, but everyone can relate to the loss of it and the way that like you know that losing that person in the hollowness of your home can feel when you don't have that person anymore. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 39:09

Um so you just recently got married. Uh do you guys plan on having kids?

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Uh we're not like anti-kids, but uh like every time we've talked about it, every every time we've talked about it, we're like, yeah, not at the moment. Um it's you know, if if we had a kid, we'll love him or her very, very much. But uh that that's not where we're at in our lives right now. My my wife is like uh, you know, she's she's a professional, she's got her career. I'm uh doing my best to have mine. Um so like it it wouldn't really be a good like a fair time to to bring in a kid and then you know maybe not be giving the time it would deserve or something. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. But like, but if if it happened, then we would love that kid very much and take care of him, blah blah blah. Um we bounced the idea, but I don't think we're there.

A Message For Loved Ones

SPEAKER_06 40:07

So my wife and I had uh a talk about it, and we were like, you know, we're at a place where if it happens, it happens, great. If not, not a big deal, but we're not necessarily trying, right? Yeah. And then I hit us a spot during the show where I was like, hey, you know, things are starting to get good, things are kicking off, we're getting a little traction, I'm getting a lot of new offers that I never thought I would see in my life. Um, I think that I'm getting to a point where I would like to try and do this full time. And then that afternoon, after having that talk with my wife, she hands me a positive pregnancy test. There you go. I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

And Hems is the greatest little guy in the whole world.

SPEAKER_06 40:57

Oh, he's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

He's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

He's the coolest kid I know.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

It's the reason part of it, man. Like that's it's a part of it's a part of life and a part of the story. And if like, you know, if I'm I'm a believer in in like fate, so if it's that like you'll be told when it's time, right when you're ready, or if it's supposed to happen for you or not. And like you do have to take your own initiative and like with anything you do, and that involves kids or something too. Like, um, but it just like I don't know, you're told like your the universe will tell you when it's time, and then you just be like, Yep, there's the stick.

SPEAKER_06 41:35

Now, I I ask you these questions because this is the overarching question that I'd like to ask you. Um there's a good strong chance that your wife will see this. There's a good strong strong chance that a lot of people in your life will see this. What is a message today that you would like to leave your loved ones for the future?

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

Um I I've really become a person that like stands on being real and genuine. I'm so like beyond fake nonsense. There's so much stuff in our world that's like fake BS and propaganda and noise and like social media amplifies all those things. And we love social media, but it also, you know, it it shows us things we don't want to see. So be like I want to continue to live this way, and I hope the people around me like continue to do so as well, but just be like genuine to yourself and the people around you, and don't try to be something that doesn't feel you know genuine and real to you. Like if you're feeling emotions, if you're going through difficult times, like tell the people around you, be open about those things. You don't need to hide and conceal that stuff because if things are hard, people will help you. And if if things are great, then you can be helping others. So I I'm trying to live by those models of being real. I'm trying to do that in the music too. And and just music is such a big part of my life that it becomes the alleyway for me to to feed that message. But um, I think I just have to stand on that, like, you know, yeah. It's more than just choose love over hate because it's that, but also like if you're if you're going through difficult times and and things are hard and challenging, and you, you know, you're you're battling with something to say, like just talk about it. Tell tell the people around you it's scary as shit, and it just is. And then you move past and you just kind of get good at it after a while, and it's okay. Um, so I I hope myself and you know the people around me will maybe like I can have that influence on them where they feel they're allowed to be vulnerable and they feel they're allowed to talk about um what's happening in their life and and what's going on around them.

Dream Collaborations And Co-Writing

SPEAKER_06 43:53

That's a beautiful message. Um Dom, I have two more questions for you, and then we're gonna play this very fun game. Sorry to get so deep on you at the end. It flew naturally into it. I didn't want to uh standbag it at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

So um sorry, it's crazy. Um, it's real, man. It's dude, life life is like easy for a while, and then it's hard for a while, and then it's like kind of easier for a bit, and then it's hard again, and you just like you have to that's the human condition, that's like the gift of what we get to do every day. And we can't appreciate like when things are awesome and you you know you've got like your first kid and you get like all those moments, like those moments are great because you also have moments that suck and you know what like the bottom feels like, so right, you know, you can't really have one without the other, so you have to have both, and like being able to accept and like find you know, not lose yourself and lose your your direction and your morale and and your you know sense of morality in those moments is like what makes us ourselves, right?

SPEAKER_06 44:53

Um if you could collaborate with somebody uh who do you think would fit your band and your sound best?

Taylor’s Live Sketch Surprise

SPEAKER_01 45:05

There's there's so many answers that I'd love to because like I I I grew up without internet, so I was listening to like CDs that I had, you know, like I had Good Charlotte, I had Green Days, like Good Charlotte was my favorite band growing up. Like I can't say they're not now either because they just still are like the the the whole like Madden universe. Like I love all that stuff. So I uh like they're my favorite band. Obviously, like a dream collaboration of some kind, but there's also so many like smaller artists that I listen to now that it does a lot of that doesn't matter to me if it's like it's like oh I don't want to just collaborate with like the biggest artist ever. You know, like it's more, you know, I want to make the kind of music that like I want to create and I want to collaborate and and work with people that share like that sort of genuine vision. Um I think like these days I'm so influenced by bands like uh like Knucklepuck and Real Friends and the story so far and like a lot of the the next wave of of bands. Um probably real friends, like I love everything that they do, I love their band lyrically. Um I uh I got to meet Kyle bass player at one of the shows when they came to Canada last time, which is a while ago now, and they should come back and hang out. But uh um, but like if I could collaborate with that band in some way, whatever that means, whether that's like putting like doing a song together somehow, or like you know, working on writing a real friend song or working on writing a July Card song, or just like I don't know, opening for them at a bar. I don't care. Like some type of collaboration with them would be super fun. Um, I don't know, eat just eat pizza and like hang out and talk about music, sure. Uh anything like that would be fun. But there's also like there's so many good like Canadian bands that are you know a short drive from me. There's bands like there's like Chief State in Vancouver, who's like a super, super good pop punk kind of emo band that like I'd love to do something with them one day. Or there's like Sucker Punch in on uh in like Montreal. They just got on warp tour for the first time this year. Like they, you know, we've known that band for a long time, and like I'd love to do something with them sometime. So it's just it's tough. Like, I just enjoy the process too much, and I'm all like, everything's great. Um, I I just I love the process of of making music and I love co-writing with people. Um, a really, really good friend of mine, Jake from uh Jake Alexandra from the band The Burden, um parcourt band. Um he is a co-writer on Like Home. Oh, really? Yeah, we uh he's been a friend for a long time and we ended up like hanging out for a couple days and we had started that song together. Um, just you know, we're hanging out with like his kid and it was like having a good time, and then we ended up like going to the basement playing some guitars, and then we started working on that song. So um I just loved the spirit of of collaboration and just like trying making music together, so right, yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 47:52

Um so that concludes the interview side. Dom, thank you so much for being on the show today. Uh Taylor, what have we been working on this episode?

SPEAKER_03 48:04

So I I want to I want to explain Harley and I came up with this idea. Well, kind of.

SPEAKER_04 48:13

You know how at weddings you can have people that paint, you know, like the the bride and the groom, the first dance, that whole situation.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

I like to think of myself as an artiste. So during the show, I promise I was listening and I was drawing your ideas and your stories as you were telling them, but I would like to share. This is the very first one ever.

SPEAKER_06 48:40

This is the first time we've done this on the show.

SPEAKER_04 48:43

Let's go. And I'm very excited, okay? So here's my drawing.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Oh, it looks just like me. I knew you were doing something the whole time because I kind of saw you like I thought you had a penny, and so I thought you're scribbling something.

SPEAKER_04 49:02

And it works great. It like it's very nice for my brain to be doing something else while I'm listening. Um, but we have your blink 182 here. You're married, you're from Canada. This is you on the stage writing in the park.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

That actually looks alarmingly like it. The stage thing is surprisingly similar because it's just got like a tree line around it and there's like a little ambient.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

Yeah, I assume thank you. I assume all stages and parks look like that.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Nailed it. Well, I don't know. Not all parks have trees, so I don't know. Um, the blue and purple is like self-titled blink era colors. I I recognize that color scheme anyway.

SPEAKER_04 49:40

What's crazy is before you even started talking about blink, I was like, I'm feeling blue and pink, blue and purple. And then I was like, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

It's because I was here.

SPEAKER_04 49:50

Right, you were just giving the vibes.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

I love this. That's great. Thank you. Um, do I get like a like do I get like a copy of it mailed to me?

Mixtape Game Rapid Fire Picks

SPEAKER_06 49:58

We are going to send that to you. That is yours, sir. We're gonna we're gonna sign it and send it to you. A little memory from your time here on the Hook and Bridge podcast.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

I've got uh we just like we moved into a new place recently, and as you can see, the wall behind well, it's kind of blurred, but like this white, there's so much room for just more posters. This way, it's all like band posters and like different memorabilia from some of our own shows and then like also going to shows over the years. Yeah, um, there's some up here too, just like happens to not be behind the camera. So you're right. Um I need to have on that side too. So, yes, please, absolutely. I want this.

SPEAKER_04 50:35

Hell yeah, it's yours. It's yours, love it.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 50:38

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_06 50:39

No, thank thank you for being on the show, man. Um, so now we're gonna jump into something a little more upbeat. Uh, this is a game called Mixtape. Basically, are you familiar with a little game called Cards Against Humanity? Yes. So, this is the music version of that. I'm gonna ask you a series of 10 questions. Your responses are going to be the title of a song. Um, you can choose to be funny or you can choose to be serious, totally up to you. And then we'll kind of ask why you pick the answers that you pick, unless it's like quite obviously that it's like the funniest answer. Like Genuine's pony being your high school dance song. That's quite obviously funny. Um, so I'm just gonna randomly pick 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

Oh man, I don't know if I'm that quick. I'm gonna do my best to be quick on this, but I like I always like to use Spotify. Yes, you can use you can use your tools. Okay, I've got Spotify on deck here, but like at Cards Against Humanity, I'm like, I'm the last person putting a card in, and I'm like, oh, I hope so. I don't like sometimes, but I'm just like it just takes me longer. I don't know. I'm gonna do my best to be rapid fire with it, though. I'm gonna try my best.

SPEAKER_06 51:54

This is this first one's perfect for you because you just got married. Let's go. What is the best wedding song? So obviously, you have to tell us your wedding song.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

Yeah, uh, the best wedding song. Um I know the worst wedding song, which is uh I've got a feeling because it plays at every wedding I've ever gone to. Oh yeah, the dance floor, worst dance floor anthem of all time. Um we did a lot of 40s music at our wedding. 40s music, yeah. Like doo-wop, like uh like big band. Uh a little bit of that stuff, and then a lot of like uh like a lot of like the wartime. Really? Kind of like the early 40s stuff. Um, so like uh a lot of our wedding themed, like dinner and and dance and stuff like that. We we went into that world and had like just the most wonderful time. Everyone I think dressed up real real snazzy. We were dressed in full. It was awesome. Like like Great Gadsby style, yeah, totally. Yeah, okay, all right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:59

That's sick.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

It was uh it was it was different than like any wedding we went to, and like both my wife and I like a lot of that stuff. Um, so it was it was just so like naturally obvious. So I don't know, like uh like uh cheek to cheek or something from uh Ella Fitzgerald. Right, okay, okay. We're going way, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:20

Gotcha. I get that's the that's a first on the show. No one has ever brought up anything prior to the 60s on this show. Let's go. I we love that stuff, and I don't necessarily know why, we just we just both love it.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

Um that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 53:35

Uh mine was uh Future Days by Pearl JM.

SPEAKER_05 53:39

Oh, yeah, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Um you'd think because like we're like pop punk, we'd have to do like a pop punk one, like it would have to be like a um, I don't know, like I miss here, like a blink thinger or something, but like yeah, we we went a completely different direction.

SPEAKER_06 53:53

I I immediately for some reason went to Brendan Uri, but I was like, you can't play that at a wedding.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

You can do it. The thing is with your wedding is you can do whatever you want. So yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_06 54:06

It is true. It would be crazy though if somebody was like, I chime in with haven't you people ever heard of like at a wedding?

SPEAKER_01 54:14

That's uh that's that's a real or like what's the other lying is the most fun a girl can have.

SPEAKER_06 54:19

Yeah, I saw a video once. This has probably been 10 years ago, of um of somebody playing the song Crazy Bitch by Buck Cherry at their wedding.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

That's fantastic, dude. That one was going on the playlist.

SPEAKER_06 54:39

That was like I think the trashiest wedding I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

I'm guessing uh what's the theory of a dead man one? Bad girlfriend oh bad girlfriend, that definitely played. That definitely played. Those have always gone on the exact same mixtape or now playlist.

SPEAKER_06 54:54

Yeah, let's just say there was definitely a lot of tattoos involved at this wedding. A lot of tattoos.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

Yeah, and anyone who didn't have them had to wear like the fake, like the sleeves, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 55:07

Yeah, and the ones that did have them, they were very faded. These are these are not fresh tattoos, those were a while ago.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_06 55:16

All right, the next one is uh your vintage bottle of ooh, a fancy wine that I can't pronounce. Um, what song would you pop a very fancy bottle of wine to?

SPEAKER_01 55:31

Well, I pop I pop bottles too. I don't know, fat lip. I always like I went crazy at fat lip. We we used to like when I was a kid, we like party. Like that song was always playing at like parties and stuff. And dude, I love some 41 so much. That was my like I'm not old enough to drink anthem, and then would you know do the thing anyway? Like I don't drink anymore now, so that's what's kind of funny about it. Like all my drinking experiences from being like a young adult or like a teenager when I wasn't supposed to yet. Yep. So yeah. Did you listen to their new album? Like the the latest, like last one, the like double album, the heaven and hell. What did you think? Um I enjoy it. Like, that's a can do no wrong band for me now. You know, they've they've earned the right for me to just like put out whatever, like if they wanted to put out slop, they could, and I would just tolerate it, but um, but they didn't. I thought it was really good. Um, I I like both. Some41 kind of has the like two styles that they've always bounced between. So this album being very like you know, conclusive of that made sense. Um, I always leaned more on the pop punk side, whereas like our drummer Nick or something, like he always liked the heavier side, right? So it's uh I don't know, it made everyone happy in terms of like our band dynamics or something. Like our guitar player, he's like a huge the pop side of Sum41 fan, but he you know he could probably play every single song like on demand if you asked him to on guitar. Um, but uh yeah, I I loved the album because well, I don't know. Um, what was the the lead single they did? I remember hearing it because it got radio play and stuff, and I remember hearing it right away. Um oh my goodness, uh I can't remember the name of it now, but um it was just at first I was like, ugh, I don't know. Like it to me at first, like definitely grew it grew on for sure. Well, I just remember being like almost disappointed at first, and I I feel bad for saying that because I I love the band, and I was like, I don't know. And then my you know, my wife who was my girlfriend at the time, like she was immediately all over uh dopamine, that's what it's called. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and the verses were very like very kind of straight, uh drums and like it didn't really like move a lot, it was very much like this section, this section. Um, but she was listening to it all the time, and like she'd listen to like Alt Nation or whatever in the in the vehicle, and that song would come on. And then I just eventually I'm like, oh, it's kind of earwormy though. I don't know, like yeah, you know, it's it's like and then it's like okay, oh you got me. And then the rest of the albums home run for me.

SPEAKER_06 57:59

Yeah, I thought that I thought it was a nice like final album for the band. It released, I think, at the wrong time. I think that it should have released a year earlier, but Blink 182 put out their album that year, so they pushed it to the next year, I think. And um, I think that's kind of what crushed the momentum of the album. But I thought it was a fantastic farewell of the band. Like you listen to it and you're like, Yeah, this is it. Like they're they're done. And and I think that's good to give closure because a lot of bands don't, they just kind of leave you with like the well, we might get back together someday, and then you have KISS fans for 50 years being like, Well, they're coming back, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

Yeah, or like the band keeps like reinventing, or like, yeah, there's new members, like I don't know, um, what is it, like black flag comes to mind or something? Yes, if not, it's a great example, yeah. And then people get pretty divisive about it and stuff like that. So I think Sum 41 like went out before people could get divisive about you know, should they still be doing like classic rock festivals? Kind of isn't it time to retire, fellas? Like they didn't they didn't get to that thing, they uh they went out like on you know on their terms or something. Yeah, um, I think I think it worked out great. Uh, I liked the uh the opening track Waiting on Swiss Fate. I love just the pace of it and the kind of like unpredictability of like where the song went next. I just I enjoyed that a lot.

SPEAKER_06 59:28

So right. That was my banger. Um next question best relationship makeup song. What's your go-to? You've you've pissed somebody off, you got flowers, you're trying to make right song. Uh you didn't do that load of laundry that you were supposed to. Oh the dishes are not on.

SPEAKER_05 59:57

Um absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

Um maybe uh uh Don't Let Her Pull You Down by Newfound Glory. Okay. I don't know, like it's uh the the like partnership relationships or like you know, and now marriage, like that stuff is uh is not easy. And like sometimes I'm in a bad mood and I don't want to like you know bring her down something, or sometimes like maybe she's not feeling herself, and then I let that like sink all over me. So if I make a mistake or something, I don't know, I'm gonna rock out to something like that, get myself back on track, and then and then I'll go back with flash and be like, I'm sorry, I'm you know what? I'm just gonna bite it on this one. Like it didn't matter, the argument didn't matter, or like whatever it was. Yeah, you know, I'm just going to it's totally like it's just not that important. Like if you have love and everything else like it, it's just not that important. So right I bring it back to anthem to go.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:01

Yeah, there you go. I I gotta bring it back to Buck Cherry. I would go with sorry by Buck Cherry. Oh, let's go. I read sorry of that. Sorry. Yeah, okay. Just full on blame myself. You got do you got one, Taylor? What's your what's your makeup song? Oh you've you've interrupted Dylan's basketball game. He's watching the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

It's ruining my life. Uh one comes to mind, but I at the moment can't remember the name of it. Um with my clothes on.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I respond like a golden retriever to that. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, I'm yeah, I'm ready to go when I hear that song, man. I love, I loved that album, that whole album so much. Like I have the vinyl record of it. Like I will I will loop that endlessly. I will defend that endlessly. I saw Lit um at uh when uh which when we were young. Um I think it's 2023 was the year that they were there. I'm pretty sure it was Green Day, it was the Green Day Blink one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two main stages and then Green Day and Blink like on the same night. Um and Lit played at the same time as Green Day, and they were on like stage three or whatever. So like it was it was brutal because like they're they're a you know legend band. Um, but everyone was at Green Day, so there's only like maybe a couple hundred people like going to see one of the biggest like emo pop punk festivals. Um, and then I got to be one of those people, and so like you know, you're just like a couple of feet from the stage, you could just run over there and then be there in the pit with them immediately. That's incredible. Yeah, and and they they gave it like a hundred percent. They did not phone it in just because like the audience was small for that festival or something. Like they brought like all their classic songs, they uh like delivered really well, they didn't like phone in the performance or something, like they were discourse or something. They yeah, they were there to be there for the fans that came to see them and they knew their fate if they're on the same time as Greendale.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:11

Yeah, um that is my like same thing party song. Like, if I hear that song, I'm like, oh, I can taste the beer right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

Those uh to to have been like in the pit at those like 2000 library, um, like the televised MTV owner, what it was like the 2001. Yep, yep, yeah. Like to be there and you know, I would have been like five or something, so it wouldn't work. But if I was like my age now and there, I don't know, all my problems would have just gone away. I'd never have a problem again in my life.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:47

All right, we got one more here. What is the song that goes with your most memorable childhood music video? So, what song from your childhood is like the most memorable music video song?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:05

Oh, dudes, like music video that I watched as a yes, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's this is so easy because like I so I didn't have internet when I was a kid, so I couldn't really watch music videos until like I would go to someone's house or something, and then I was like exposed to YouTube for the first time. And uh my buddy showed me uh this song called The Anthem by Good Charlotte, and I uh you know we we all know and love that it's like one of my favorite songs, probably for that reason, because of the early exposure to it. Um, but they're like I that was my idea. That was my first exposure because I was seven or something. So that was my first exposure to like what cool is. Yeah, you know, I was like, okay, riding these like sick BMXs and like just because like in the video, they're just like ribbing BMX around and singing the song, and then there's like I think like a a party that they're playing at as well, and stuff. Yep, yep, yep. That's what I want to be. I want to be like that cool. I don't know how to get there and I'm like seven, but I don't know. Somehow that's where I'm gonna be. And I don't know, I don't write BMX, like I don't know. I longboarded a bit for a while until I hurt myself, but um, I uh that that was my idea of cool. So that would be like the shaping me um music video. Yeah, have to rabble about it because I just like I remember, but I would watch it every time, dude. Like I would go every time I went to my friends, I'd be like, Can we watch the video? And then we sit down and watch the video, put it on the TV or like um or put it on like the computer, like a little home computer at the time. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have like the corner desk, you know, the like the really old packed like thing, the CDs on the CD wrap on one side and like the other thing.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:40

The family desk, man. It would be in the corner of every living room. You had the big old monitor, little 12-inch screen. Oh dude, every every episode, every episode. There you go. Welcome.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:52

So Harley actually doesn't know how to work technology, and I love it.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:55

Yeah, I have this really fancy camera, though.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:58

It's really fancy, it's very, very nice.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:01

So we got a good look at your pores and they look great. So there we go. Um mine would be uh uh either um Avenged Sevenfold's afterlife was like my experience with my friends, but I think that like the most exposure during my childhood was the song. Um it was by the band Rehab. Do you remember Rehab? Only vaguely. Yeah, it was like it was like a bartender, I think is the name of the song. It was like, I really did it this time.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

Um bartenders, it was bartender song or something, yeah. Something like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:44

Yeah, I I watched that music video like hundreds of times in school because it was like the music video that we weren't allowed to watch, so we had like computer class, so we would all pull it up and sit and watch it because it was on CMT, crazily enough. Like we weren't allowed to watch it on YouTube, but we could just go to CMT's website and sit and watch it on repeat. Yeah, yeah. I was fine, dude. I was in like fifth grade.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:13

Sixth grade. Did that also influence you to be like, that's what being cool is? And now I need to shape my whole personality. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely dress like that guy now, that's for sure. Yeah, I'm glad that's a shared experience because like I thought I have to like I have to become that because I nothing else will ever satisfy my need to be cool. Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:35

Taylor, do you have a music video that comes to mind?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:38

Uh Best of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:41

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

I had to have two lives. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Yeah. That means you have to like walk through the halls at school and like you know, just mysteriously like around your headphones in the whole thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:56

Yes. I am the main character in my own life, and that's why.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

Like walk through the hallways in school, like as if you're being filmed for a music video the whole time. Oh yeah. I used to sitting on the bus, like hand on window, raining out looking out like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:16

Face like up against the window looking at it and listening to the saddest.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

Yeah, dude. Uh-huh. Okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one that like went through that moment.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:27

Oh, it was.

Where To Find July Crowd

SPEAKER_06 1:08:28

Oh, dude. It was always it was either it was either like doing that or listening to like the craziest thrash metal I possibly could. Yeah. Like I was listening to either Slipknot or the Goo Goo dolls every morning. Back to back. Actually, one demon. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:48

Uh Dom.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

Mine was a pretty heavy Nemenem phase. Oh, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:54

Yeah. Um, Dom, thank you so much, man, for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it. I'm so glad that we can get this on.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

My friends, thank you for having me. I uh I'm so glad to be here. I love doing this kind of stuff. I love like meeting with new people and just connecting over music and like vibe and culture and all that stuff. So thank you for inviting me. I had an awesome time.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:17

Yay, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:19

Um, what do you got going on? Where can the people find you? It's uh it's all happening right now. We uh we we took like a year off almost last year. So now we have all this stuff ready for everybody. We're kind of rolling. Like we just put out like home a couple weeks ago. If you haven't heard it, please go listen to it. Um, I'm a human person, so you can like send the band a DM or a message or whatever if you want to like you know talk about what you're going through or like just tell me what you think of the song or something. I'd love to hear from people and I'd love to just meet people who are interested in this kind of music. So um you can, you know, you can find us on socials and all that stuff. It's just everything's just like at July crowd, so we're really easy to find. Um, but we have that song out and we have um a EP coming on March 27th. So I'm not sure when this airs now. It'll either be just before or just after, somewhere around the same time. So right before. This will come out on Monday. Let's right before. Okay. So we've got new music coming, March 27th. Um, it's a lot of songs that feel and kind of sound like Lake Home. So go listen to Like Home first. If it's, you know, if it's something that feels real to you, I think you'll love the rest of the stuff too, because it comes from a very similar, uh, very real place. I'm excited to share that with people. Uh, I'm a little nervous to share it with people just because it uh it is so um you know cathartic and so like vulnerable. But uh I hope you know coming out of that, maybe it can help people absolutely do the things that they're working through, just like I had to as well, and and still am. So yeah, um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:54

I'm I'm so excited to listen to it, man. I'm so excited. Um I I love Like Home, I think that song is so beautiful. Um, so if that the rest of the EP is anything like that, I can't wait to listen start to finish. Like, um, yeah, I I can't wait, man. Uh thank you again so much for being on the show. When when not even if when you come to the States, when you guys perform in the States, let me know. I want to be there.

Final Thanks And Subscribe Plug

SPEAKER_01 1:11:24

Let's go. You will have a golden ticket. We will uh we will make sure you're there. If we're like anywhere nearby, we'll make sure you guys know. And uh we will have a total party because the shows are really fun. We love doing the live shows. We haven't done any live shows in a while, but we're going to the next province over British Columbia here in Canada, and we're doing some shows in April. Um, and it's our first time playing shows in a hot minute. So we've brought like better gear, we have like a way better performance. Um, it's uh I know it's exciting, and we're gonna be playing all the new stuff, right? So it's like yeah, it's just exciting to be in like in the room with people again. Um, and I can't wait to bring that to the US as well and share that. Uh share that with you guys. Yeah, heck yeah, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:09

All right. Well, thanks again, man. You have yourself a wonderful night, everybody. Check out July crowd. Absolutely incredible band. I can't say it enough, man. Thank you again. Bless. Thank you guys so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:21

I uh I can't wait to see you again. Absolutely. I'll see ya.

unknown 1:12:25

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:26

And then there were two yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:31

You signed it?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:33

Yeah. We gotta we gotta get that sent over to him. I'll get his uh info from the PR.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:39

I'll send it to you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:41

Cool, cool, cool, cool. Cool, cool. Um, all right.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:44

Well right, everybody. If you like today's episode, go ahead and give it a big thumbs up, subscribe, and don't forget to hit that bell notification so you can be notified every time we post a new video.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:53

And as always, check out the Instagram, check out our merch page, check out the Patreon, check out July Crowd, man. I really do love their music. I'm really, really into it. Yeah. Um, so please check them out. All right, it has been real, guys. I am I am tired and hungry, sleeping hungry. All right, peace, everybody.