Episode 71: Gojira- The Shooting Star

In this engaging conversation, Michael and Sebastian explore themes of aging, reflections on the VMAs, the impact of modern rock icons like Youngblood, and the unique sound of Gojira. They delve into the lyrical depth of Gojira's music, sharing personal connections to the themes of loss and resilience. The discussion wraps up with rapid-fire questions, showcasing their dynamic rapport and insights into music and life.

Takeaways

Aging brings unexpected physical challenges.
The VMAs have evolved from music videos to entertainment shows.
Youngblood represents a new wave of charismatic rock stars.
Gojira's sound is a blend of metal and unique musical choices.
Lyrical depth in music can resonate with personal experiences.
The evolution of a band can reflect changes in their artistic direction.
Music can serve as a powerful medium for expressing emotions.
Popular music often has universal appeal for a reason.
The connection between music and personal stories is profound.
Rapid-fire questions can lead to spontaneous and insightful discussions.

Mandatory Music is proudly hosted and produced by Michael Heide and Sebastian Kwapich

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Thanks for listening and keep on rocking

Transcript

Sebastian (00:00)
start right now. Let's do it. We're just doing it.

Michael (00:00)
Start right now, we're just doing it. We're just talking about

how sometimes, because we're in our late 40s, how it feels to feel much older than what we really are. We all have those, yeah, by the way. ⁓ Absolutely, you know, we all wake up with those days, kind of like I did this morning, I like, man, felt so good yesterday, and today I just, man, it's not feeling it. It's like, what's going on, man?

Sebastian (00:09)
Yeah, by the way, this is mandatory music. Talking about age.

your

one dropped cookie away from pulling back muscles out.

Michael (00:27)
Right? Or a sneeze and it's over for like five days. It's, you know, I'm sure it's happened to you. It's happened to me. I, I went out for my first group run and God, I don't know since June last night. And it was, it was cool. It was fun. It was, it was a conversational. It was easy. was actually a lot. was, it was a lot of fun. So hopefully I can get out more. This life gets busy and blah, blah. Once the kids started swimming again, that's Tuesday nights. My daughter's

Sebastian (00:30)
That's actually happened before the sneeze.

Oof.

Michael (00:54)
Figure skating again, so that's the wife's job to take her to all her stuff. And then I take the young man to the pool and yeah, so that's it. But anyways, yeah, welcome, Mandatory Music, we're here. We're here, live, this is a weird day for us. Is it Wednesday? It's Wednesday, And it's only, it's 3.28, this is weird. Wham, exactly.

Sebastian (00:58)
Nice.

Good, good. Yeah, we're here.

It is Wednesday. It's early too.

Wham bam, thank you man. Then we're gonna go do our stuff that we need to do tonight. I have a soccer

tonight as well, so we have to get this done, but it's fine, we got time.

Michael (01:23)
Yeah. And, and the kid was asking

me if I can take him to the pool tonight and he can do some laps. Actually funny story about that. Me and him went swimming together because he's a good swimmer. I'm, I'm an old guy that gets in the water.

Sebastian (01:29)
Nice.

You can not sync.

Michael (01:38)
Well, I

think that's almost, it's not a guarantee with my swimming abilities. So he's like, let's go swim some laps. like, let's, I need to swim. Swimming is good for athletes and especially, know, grownups that might have some aches and pains. So I'm like, yeah, let's do that. So I'd swim 50 meters. I would be just gassed. Like absolutely what.

Sebastian (01:58)
I can't make it the way back. Like I can go 50 meters one way and then I'm like, I need a break. can't just turn around and go back to 50 meters. Like I actually need to take a break.

Michael (02:01)
I can't.

Yeah. So, so I had to take a few minute break to catch my breath.

And, and honestly, I can run, I can run far and I'm good at monitoring my breath, but in the water I can't. So he's like, so he goes and does, I don't know, like a couple of hundred just to warm up. And he stops. He's like, how was that? And I'm like, I think I'm done. He's like, you're not done. So like, so I ended up doing 200 total meters. And then I'm like, I'm getting out and I'm going into the sauna. Cause I love my sauna. Right.

Sebastian (02:33)
That's good. Sauna

is good. Sauna.

Michael (02:35)
And so he's okay,

I'm gonna swim 600 meters. So he swam 600 in, I don't know, six minutes, six and change. So I came out after like, cause I figured he'd be done. And I came out and he's just still going. And I'm like just sitting on the side of the pool, flipping turned his go and he stops. He's like, man, that was good. And he wasn't even out of breath. And I'm like, what the hell's wrong with you? Like you just, some kids, some people.

Sebastian (02:43)
37 seconds.

This kid's a machine.

You could have done that

at that age too, probably. Okay, maybe not.

Michael (03:01)
No, couldn't, I've never, no, I don't

have the technique to do it. just, just, swimming's so hard. That's all it is, yeah.

Sebastian (03:05)
Well, that's all it is, is technique. Once

you develop that deep muscle connection technique, then you can do it, right?

Michael (03:13)
So I think

I have, I'm starting to think I have some anxiety in the water. Like I'm not afraid of the water, but when I'm swimming, I'm so paranoid of my body, like sort of going on an angle and like to sort of not being level and just, cause I just, suck. just, just way goes anyways. So yeah, it's so stupid. Anyways, practice make.

Sebastian (03:28)
Yeah, I feel that. I totally feel that that same thing.

Yeah,

when I swim laps, I'm just trying not to drown. the only, I'm just trying to get to that one side. I'm just like, I look like I'm, yeah.

Michael (03:38)
Yeah.

Like I'm good going to the first wall. I'm not really out of

breath techniques good. And then I just, turn and go back and then I'm halfway and I'm like, and it's like, you know, in those like movies, you see where like everything kind of just gets longer. All of a sudden you're like, how does that seem so far? It's like 30 feet away and it feels like it's four miles. just, I don't get it. Anyways, we're not here to talk about my failures in the water. So the VMAs happened. What the hell? Like what, what is this the first time they've been back since?

Sebastian (03:53)
Yep.

Yep.

I guess...

Michael (04:11)
Cause

they have, well, it's, found it ironic because, well, AA was on CBS, which was weird. And they're celebrating music videos. And to my knowledge, we don't have MTV here in Canada. have much music, which I don't even know if that's still a thing, but MTV hasn't played music videos in, man, a long time. Like I think since probably the maybe early 2000s or, you know, we're going back 20 years, 25 years.

Sebastian (04:30)
a long time.

Yeah, they, they've definitely stopped being an all music video channel and they do a lot of things. Like I think one of the best things MTV has ever been known for is bringing us Jackass. Like honestly, I think that that was a huge thing that, and Jersey Shore I believe was also on MTV when that first came up, came out. Right. So they do these like younger adults, risque TV shows that may or may not work.

Michael (04:50)
Yeah.

Sebastian (05:05)
Right? Like Jackass wasn't guaranteed to work peak, but they, they, they do that for that level of entertainment, I guess. So, yeah, like musically music videos, like who even like, nobody does really, you mean you do them, you release them on tick tock or YouTube, but that's usually where most people watch music videos is YouTube. think at this point. Yeah. Same.

Michael (05:08)
No, God.

Yeah.

That's where I would go to watch a video is

yeah, because YouTube is such a great resource. But so, like the wife and I just decided, you want to watch the VMAs? I'm like, okay. So we did and aside from LL Coolidge, which I, he's not a very good host.

Sebastian (05:41)
Did you watch the whole thing, the VMAs?

Michael (05:43)
It was kind of like on, it was on during dinner and then we just were cleaning up and it was still on and then, you know, I'd run to the TV when Ariana Grande would be on TV because I just, she fascinates me and cause why not? I didn't watch all the performances because obviously some of the, lot of the music wasn't really my forte, but it, kind of felt old watching it like, cause everybody's so young and it's just like, man, these like,

Sebastian (05:55)
us why not.

but we are

almost 50, Michael. Can you turn that down?

Michael (06:11)
I know, and it's like some of these seem,

some of these people on there aren't much older than my 16 year old kid. And it's like, okay. I guess there is that, but it was weird to see people excited about that Moon Man statue. Because I have, like I said a few minutes ago, I'm like, I haven't seen the Moon Man since like the 90s, right? But whatever, they were on.

Sebastian (06:35)
Well, Nuno's

58, so keep that in mind. And he was performing with Youngblood. So he's almost 60, Nuno.

Michael (06:40)
Okay. 58. He's a...

Well, you'd never know by looking at the guy. Yeah. Wow. 58.

Sebastian (06:45)
No, he looks great. But yeah, if

you're to watch anything, watch the tribute to Ozzy Osbourne on the VMAs with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Youngblood and Nuno Bentoncourt. Amazing.

Michael (06:56)
which

honestly, Joe Perry did need to be there because all he did was just play like the harmony note to what Nuno was playing. But it was there for Steven Tyler. Probably. Well, and that's it. And they performed a little bit of Mom I'm Coming Home, which is a good song for Steven Tyler to perform because it's sort of like in his wheelhouse of. Yes, it is.

Sebastian (07:04)
He was there for Steven Tyler. Steven Tyler's probably like, need you there, man. I'm going up against Youngblood. I need you there. It's comfort, right?

Yes.

It's very Aerosmith-y. Like,

you could see them writing that song. Yeah. Yes.

Michael (07:22)
Like, especially like 90s Aerosmith is very 90s Aerosmith. And

I thought he was, it was good. Like obviously he's, you know, he's old. He's like, he's 78.

Sebastian (07:30)
78 I believe. Man, for a

man at 78 to be out there singing the way he does still, it's impressive.

Michael (07:35)
Right?

Did you see the, the photos of him? Apparently how he cut his hair. That was rumor that he cut his hair off and had like short hair. yeah. There was like all these pictures online. Steven Tyler just cut his hair and blah, blah, blah. He looked like 15 years younger, but of course it was all fake and not real.

Sebastian (07:42)
No, I didn't see that.

Somebody

once said this about Steven Tyler and I can't not unsee it or unhear it for the rest of my life. It's like, Steven Tyler looks like that's your friend's 70 year old aunt that buys you liquor. Like if you're underage, they'll buy you a liquor. Don't tell your parents. And they all look like Steven Tyler.

Michael (07:56)
Dude looks like a lady.

You know, I think when, like when we were young, I think everybody knew somebody that had somebody like that. And you know what, my God. And

you can't, now I can't unsee that. Now Steven Tyler is that person. Is that the old lady that would buy you liquor when you're 17 years old? That's funny.

Sebastian (08:21)
Ha ha ha ha.

Yeah. I will say

this about the performance though. I think the fact that they played changes so quickly after that, like, I mean, it's amazing, but like, I think that they have to play it at this point because of the reaction, the global reaction that he got at the tribute concert, cause that was one of the highlights of the tribute con or the Ozzy Osbourne concert.

Michael (08:32)
Yeah, safe.

Yes. Yeah.

well, without a doubt it

was. Do you think there might be a chance that Youngblood could get pigeonholed into just being, hey, that's the guy that's saying changes or do think he's already it's over and he doesn't care? Yeah.

Sebastian (08:56)
No, no, he's too versatile and

he's too established already with rock insiders. Like he's more global now and the people that are outside of the British hard rock genre are now hearing about Youngblood. But I don't, he's too renegade to allow that to happen. Right? Don't you get that vibe from him? Renegade is the wrong word to use, but he's a bit of like a, yeah.

Michael (09:04)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, he's like the last.

He's a rebel. He's like the last of the

rock stars. He's the last of the old school, even though he's like 28 or however old he is. ⁓

Sebastian (09:28)
I mean,

there's a guy that wasn't really in our wheelhouse when we were growing up, but if I'm going to compare him to a rock icon, he reminds me a lot of like Billy Idol.

Michael (09:39)
Yeah, there's some Billy Idol. I've even, there's a little bit of Jim Morrison in him too, of just the, the utter, like the sort of just the rebellion and not giving a crap, would anybody obviously without the antics that Morrison put everybody through back in the sixties. But yeah, Billy Idol is a good one because he just got that, that punk rock. don't care. Like I'm going to put out what I do. Yeah.

Sebastian (09:43)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm gonna do the music I wanna do. Those

sort of feels right to me, so I'm gonna do it. Which is respectable, I think, right? Yeah, obviously, as a musician, you wanna sell records, you want to entertain, you wanna have fans at your show, because like, you know, I don't have a problem with pop or popularity at all, like some other...

Michael (10:04)
I think so.

Sebastian (10:20)
people that listen to music are very against popular music because they feel like everyone likes them. So I shouldn't like them, which to me is insane way of thinking, right? If the entire planet likes the song, why don't we look at the song? Like that song is good for a reason, right? You know, I don't think you'll find a single person that will say, oh, I hate Sarah Way to Heaven or I hate Hotel California or I hate November rain, you know? And I think those are three of the best songs that have ever been written in the hard rock metal space, honestly, right? So,

Michael (10:34)
Yeah.

Sebastian (10:50)
There's a reason why popular bands are popular, like Taylor Swift, example. She's so insanely relatable, right?

Michael (10:54)
Well, yeah. It's funny you say that because

I was sort of pontificating about the past and how like when Nirvana, because you just, led me right into the way I used to be when, like when Nirvana was big, I was like an anti-grunge guy. Like everybody liked grunge and I'm like, well, no, I'm, I don't care how good it is. I'm just not liking it out. Yeah. Yes.

Sebastian (11:01)
Yeah.

Well, we kind of were a little resistant to the movement of grunge a little bit, you and I, because

we were holding on to that metal space, right? I yes, I personally love Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, but they had more of a metal rock feel than like an Alice in Chains or a... Yeah, so Soundgarden was like a metal band for the first two albums, really. Exactly.

Michael (11:22)
We were.

Yeah.

course, especially Soundgarden. Yeah.

Well, they won best metal performance, I think, like whatever,

for Bad Motorfinger. It's like, okay, I think they're metal. And if you listen to Bad Motorfinger, I know we're leaving topics here, but it's a metal record. It gets through and through. It's like, that's heavy metal, man.

Sebastian (11:43)
Yeah.

This is a variety stream today. We're just going to talk about a bunch of things.

Michael (11:50)
Yeah, this, we're just going to talk things. It's just

a variety. It's a variety show. Now we're just, there's no topics. just talk, but, but no young blood I think is, cause there's, if you think about it, who else is out there with that sort of front man image and bravado and presence. And even like my wife gets caught up. We're like watching. She's like, Holy crap, that guy, he's good. Like he's just like, I'm sure he, she thinks he's nice to look at, but,

Sebastian (11:56)
Yeah.

bravado, that frontman bravado. Yeah.

Michael (12:17)
You know, dude's got abs for days, makes us old people jealous. Yeah. Is that his real name is Dominic? Nice. Yeah, she looks like a Dominic actually. Little bit, you know, especially with, with his accent. He's just so much fun to listen to talk. I just like listening to him talk. It's just fun. Yeah.

Sebastian (12:19)
It's got a crush on Dominic. Little old Dominic Youngblood. Dominic, yeah.

Kinda, doesn't he?

I love his energy. I love everything that he

brings to the rock space. He's just a pure rock and roll guy. You he loves what he does. He's definitely found a calling in life, obviously. You know, he's a musician that owns that space that he has on stage. He's an incredibly charismatic front man. Like he's a magnetic to watch. Like you just can't stop watching him, or at least I can't anyways. Like I think he's just, he fits.

Michael (12:58)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian (13:01)
such a perfect mold of what you want a front man and a rock band to be.

Michael (13:05)
Yeah, he's kind of like,

you know, like the non-drugged up Ozzy Osbourne back in the 70s and 80s, right? That's just sort of...

Sebastian (13:10)
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's the seventies,

man. What can you do?

Michael (13:14)
It's right. Same with the eighties. That's stuff was everywhere. Yeah. So anything else on the VMAs that you got? I know.

Sebastian (13:15)
Yep.

That's

literally the only thing I watched from the VMAs was just the Youngblood performance. I'm so sorry.

Michael (13:25)
I did

Ariana Grande's speeches were amusing because she just talked and talked and talked and talked and talked.

Sebastian (13:31)
You do you understand how

great of an impression impressionist she is? Like she's done like she yes, you can do any. She's done Jennifer Cooley, she did Shakira, like she does Britney, like she does a whole bunch of. She's and she's a tiny little person. I have not yet know. Or it's pretty good, actually. Was it was that for a best picture, wasn't it? Yeah.

Michael (13:37)
she's amazing. You see that stuff on like Jimmy Fallon, she can do anything. She can, she can sing anything. She can make it sound like, yep. That woman is talented. Like, have you seen wicked? yeah. Have you seen wicked? Me either. My daughter has, she loved it. She thought it was fat. That's what I heard. I believe it was. ⁓

but I, yeah, it's not my cup of tea. So I don't think I'll be watching that. It's coming out in.

Sebastian (14:04)
They're making a sequel to that, think, Wicked 2.

Michael (14:06)
November, I think it's called, I don't remember what it's Still wicked or that'd be amazing. No, I don't wicked for good. And there we go. I like, I like still wicked. think it's just gone with that. You know, like a load and reload. Let's just go, you know, let's just add a, add something to the wicked. Yeah. Unwicked.

Sebastian (14:10)
Wicked too, isn't it? I think it's still wicked. I think it is, is a wicked for good. That's what it's called. Still wicked.

re-wicked? unwicked? unwicketed

Michael (14:33)
Yeah, if that's, I don't think that's a word, but anyways, yeah, we're gonna talk a little bit of a go-shier, because we're gonna go see them in a couple of dates today, a couple of weeks, three weeks, four weeks, three weeks. First, I believe it's the first, I think.

Sebastian (14:44)
October 2nd, think, first.

Second or first, whatever the Wednesday is, right?

Michael (14:50)
I'm hoping it's the, I'm

hoping it's the first October 1st, corn and Gojira. ⁓ which we were kind of talking before we, we got on of how not very excited we are to see corn. Like it's, you know, like the whole new mental thing we were kind of too old for at the time. Like we just, passes by, like we were like in between generations of music and we were.

Sebastian (14:57)
Okay.

Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with the Nu Metal, but there's a whole bunch of Nu Metal bands I would rather go see than Korn. Like, you know, Slipknot, if you consider them Nu Metal, I'd rather go see Slipknot. I'd rather go see... Dude, I'd even, I know Sleep Token isn't Nu Metal, but they kind of fit that space a little bit. I would go see them over Korn. ⁓

Michael (15:33)
They, they kind of fit the mold, right? Yep.

Limp Bizkit. Where, how does it, where do you land on Limp Bizkit? Would you go see them just because, because it's funny or is it because they're actually good? Well, it might be. West Portland's amazing. Yes. Yeah.

Sebastian (15:41)
What would they be?

I would go see them for their guitarist. He's an incredible guitarist and some

of the riffs that he's come up with is they're amazing. you know, there was a meme, there was a meme that I saw and it was like, it was like the Limp Bizkit band and there was like a bunch of cartoon figures in baseball caps and then Wes Borland on the side panel and he was dressed up like a demon with like black eyes because he doesn't fit the band at all. He just does not fit for that band.

Michael (16:10)
Right. It's like, no.

He's just his stage presence is like Fred ⁓ dresses all kind of old man-ish now, but back then it was like jeans, low cut jeans, t-shirt, hat backwards.

Sebastian (16:18)
He's a very good guitarist though.

Yeah.

Yeah, this

is actually a good segue into Gojira if you think about it because we're talking about interesting rifts and we're doing what we're doing the shooting star, I believe. Yeah. So I listened to that a ton today and

Michael (16:31)
Yeah.

Shooting Star. Yeah, it's, yeah, so good, isn't it?

So good.

Sebastian (16:43)
It's very difficult for me to place Gojira about what type of band they are because yes, they're metal for sure. Undeniably they're metal. They're definitely not thrash metal. Because if you listen to most of their popular songs, they're very slow in terms of the actual beats.

Michael (16:51)
Yes.

Hmm.

I'd almost call them like sludge if in a way, right? Like sludgy kind of.

Sebastian (17:05)
So I read

a comment for this particular song called the Shooting Star and somebody said, I didn't know psychedelic metal was a thing. And I like, that is a very good way for this particular song. But I just wanna talk a little bit about just Gojira and their choices in musically, cause I find them very interesting. So if you notice the opening riff,

Michael (17:13)
Hmm.

Sebastian (17:31)
which is only four notes, is like all dissonance. Like they give you that little dissonant little something's unsettled here before they go into a very simple riff. And it's, they pound you over the head with that one note in that riff. It's just over and over again. It's like, boom, boom, boom. But it creates this like tension and pace in the song. And a lot of Gojira songs are actually in a very slower,

Michael (17:33)
Yep. yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sebastian (17:59)
pace than what most people that listen to metal are accustomed to, right? So they're very grudgy. They're very grudges, like sluggy, sludgy, guess is the best way of putting it, right? But I also really love their tone.

Michael (18:13)
Yeah, there's something to the tone that is, it's like very pleat.

Sebastian (18:17)
It's deep and

distorted, you can hear all the distortion and deepness. It's not just a muffled noise pool.

Michael (18:21)
Yeah. Well, it's like how we were talking

about Megadeth last week where everything just sort of, it's like they, put everything in a blender and hit puree and then Gojira sort of has that, okay, well the guitars are psychotically heavy, tuned down the whole thing. And then the bass and the drums, like Mario's kind of like Lars back in the day, but way more talented. Like, cause his drums kind of like in this song pretty particularly his drums.

Sebastian (18:26)
It's the opposite of that. Yeah.

He bangs

the crap out of those drums,

Michael (18:50)
yeah, his drums lead

this song. His drums are the song. Like the guitar is so droney something. Cause if he just played like a standard beat behind that song, it would be boring as hell. But he injects.

Sebastian (18:54)
Yep.

They do use a lot

of like half tone switches or sorry, yeah, half tone switches where they'll be like, and then go, we'll just like bend it up a half a tone and then bend it back. And they're very, I've listened to a bunch of Gojira in the last couple of weeks and that's a very particular pattern that they repeat in a lot of their songs with having this drone quality about this is the key that the riff is in and the song is in. And we're gonna just double down on that.

Michael (19:09)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sebastian (19:29)
drone note or drone keynote and then just shift around just going slightly into dissonance and then back. And this song is no different than that, you know.

Michael (19:36)
Cause even like

before it goes into the verse, it's got that sort of war pigs kind of soundy thing, like where you're playing like the E and the A string, like stuff like that. it's, I could have learned the song and my guitar is horribly out of tune, but whatever, I won't play it anymore. ⁓ and that, yeah, it just, it just comes out and it just literally just beats you over the head for five minutes. And it's, and I prefer those types of Gojira songs to the ones that are

Sebastian (19:41)
Yes.

Mrow. Yeah.

That's fine.

Yes.

Michael (20:07)
Especially their older stuff, that's so incredibly fast. And I'm just like, I can't, my brain cannot process what is going on.

Sebastian (20:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, there's a fascinating shift with Gojira throughout their albums and you can definitely highlight that or come to understand that as you chronologically listen to a lot of their albums. So early on in their career, they're very death medley. Like they were very fast and very like thrashy and you know, they wanted to be that band. And then as they release album after album after album, because they have a whole bunch of albums now, they started slowing down their pace a lot.

Michael (20:23)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Sebastian (20:41)
And

a lot of their most famous songs live in a way slower pace as we just talked about, Stranded Flying Whales, yeah.

Michael (20:46)
Well, like, like this one, like, like, yeah, four, even fortitude off the, off the newest record

and even the chant, which is we, you know, that's a whole other thing. Yep. Lowlands, like the whole thing. then lyrically, we're only gonna spend a ton of time on this song, but lyrically, this song resonates with me because the song's about their mother passing away. And so back in 20, I this came on 18, I think she passed away.

Sebastian (20:54)
Magma is also a great song if you haven't heard that one. That's phenomenal. Yeah

Yes.

Michael (21:12)
was she was really sick and was on the verge of, leaving the earth around then. And then, you know, I unfortunately lost my father in 2019. So this song kind of really resonates like even just the title of the song, the shooting star is you can put that as, shooting star. That's is that, you know, a loved one that you've lost and this, yeah, it's just a whole, a whole thing. And these lyrics are, they're cool. Like they're just draped in metaphor. I know. I love it. It's

Sebastian (21:39)
Yeah, I didn't realize that the vocalist and the drummer were brothers. Yeah, Joe and Mario. It's true, does.

Michael (21:43)
Yes, sir. Yep. And then Mario looks like Ringo Starr when Ringo was young.

He really does. But, but this song, it's, it's probably if I had a, in my top pantheon of Gojira songs, this would be right up there with Flying Whales because Flying Whales is also awesome.

Sebastian (22:00)
Yeah, it is very melancholy, song. Like it's very... And when you present us with the... was written about their mother passing. It makes a lot of sense when you listen to it musically. Because, you know, for me, I hear that riff, that droney riff, and it's just... like... It's that feeling of loss that won't go away. You know, that down... It's just pounding on you, pounding on you, pounding on you.

Michael (22:03)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. yeah.

Yeah, or it's like the the impending loss that's coming. Yeah, it is and it's just yeah

Sebastian (22:29)
and you can't get away from it. So it makes a lot of musical sense to me based on the riff that they chose for this song and the lyrics and everything that comes together as a package.

Michael (22:37)
Like when you're like, when you're

waiting for the phone call that you never want to come. Cause that's, that's the shittiest thing ever is waiting for that phone call. And, ⁓ yeah, but we won't, we won't dwell on that, but the song is songs of banger. They play it. It's a live staple. think I don't know what they're playing on this tour that we're going to go see him on. Cause I'm not looking and I don't want to know. No, seriously. I I'm honestly, I'm good. don't.

Sebastian (22:40)
Yeah.

terrible.

That will change next week. They'd be like, Hey, Seb, I looked at the entire set list. I'm like, of course you did. ⁓

Michael (23:01)
I

really, I just wanna be surprised. There's a couple of ones I wanna hear, like obviously Shooting Star, wanna hear Flying Whales. I want to hear, you know, no.

Sebastian (23:09)
There's a, so there's no chorus in this entire song. There's

four verses in an interlude, which is one line long, but I just want to read the last verse because it's, it just, that's what the song ends on. And it's very, very interesting. So when you get to the other side, please send a sign. It will fly through the atmosphere in time. And if you hold the truth within your hands, you won't be sent back through the rain reborn.

Michael (23:17)
Yes, please.

Yikes. That's deep.

Sebastian (23:38)
you won't be sent back to the rain reborn. So it's like you're moving on to a better place, I guess. Yeah.

Michael (23:43)
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. You're just moving on just

to the, the, the better. Yeah. The better place. That's cool. That's see, again, it's very poetic. This whole song, like even to see, I've never read lyrics to a Gojira song, except for this one. Incredible. And as if we were comparing lyrics between the two albums from last week, where one was, you know, one, one was good and one was, you know,

Sebastian (23:51)
He's a poet.

he's an incredible lyric writer. Like, yeah.

yeah, the Megadeth

Michael (24:11)
Something

Sebastian (24:11)
debate.

Michael (24:12)
my 14 year old might write if she was in science fiction and apocalypse. Or something I might write even though I'm 48 and I have no skills at writing lyrics to save my life. would probably, nah, maybe. But yeah, like dude, like that's just amazing. Those are nice words. I like to have him write a book and just, my God, just know, not an biography, just like just whatever's in your head, just let it go.

Sebastian (24:17)
That makes sense.

I bet you do.

Yeah, it'd be very, very interesting.

Yeah, and I guess just to go a little bit further on Gojira, they fit an interesting niche in the metal world because they're kind of like uniquely Gojira, right? So when you hear like a Gojira riff or song, like, yeah, it's Gojira for sure. They're French band, metal band that probably came to fame at last year's Paris Olympics, where they were the first metal band to play.

Michael (24:49)
Yes.

Sebastian (25:02)
at the opening ceremonies of an Olympics ever. And their song ended up winning a Grammy. they're pretty, from what I understand, they're pretty massive in France, obviously. They're huge in Europe and they're only becoming more commonly known to people outside of the metal world in North America based on last year.

Michael (25:04)
Yeah, that was cool.

Yeah.

I think they're just huge. huge in Europe. Yeah.

I'm kind of surprised they're opening

for corn. thought it might've been the other way around. I know. Yeah, they are.

Sebastian (25:24)
Korn's pretty big though. Korn's a pretty big band.

yeah, Gojira, great band. Honestly, if you like slower metal, this might be a band if you've never heard of them.

Michael (25:32)
Great band. Yeah. If you

want slow or obscenely fast. Yeah. Obscenely fast. Yes. Well, I think it's also perseverance because you can't play like the way they used to in the first three records, first few records all the time because you just, they, the singer would blow out his voice and you know.

Sebastian (25:41)
while the early stuff is a point. Yeah, that's interesting how they slow down over the years. They're like, we like this.

to that pace that's not sustainable.

Michael (25:59)
diminishing returns, the drummer is going to start, you know, if he doesn't stay in shape, can't be doing that forever. So you just.

Sebastian (26:05)
Yeah,

imagine like the tab sheets from like the writers of Dream Theater to like the bassist and like, okay, you got to learn this in an hour. What the heck is this?

Michael (26:10)
Yeah. Here's the encyclopedia Britannica.

For all young people out there, encyclopedias were really internet, but in a book. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Here's like the giant tome from like lower the rings or something like, yeah. And when Gandalf's reading the scriptures about a sealdor and that's like, he's just in there, these gigantic books. Anyways, any final thoughts? I had a rapid fire a couple of questions for you.

Sebastian (26:17)
Why are you giving me two books? that's just one song. It's part A and part two. my goodness.

The sealed door.

Okay, I'll answer them.

Michael (26:38)
Okay, because I want to do this every week now. You surprise me next week, I'll surprise you this week. Okay, first question. No, you have no idea what's the last song you listen to.

Sebastian (26:42)
Okay, I like it. Not predetermined answers either, okay.

Shooting Star. Actually, no, I listened to Stranded after that just to get some context for their thing. So that would have been the last song I listened to in my car. ⁓ So because I was driving home. man, what did I just watch the other day? And I'm getting a brain brain fart here. It wasn't a New York Ninja. Terrible movie. Yeah, don't watch it.

Michael (26:51)
Okay. Okay.

Nice. Last movie I watched.

New York Ninja?

Is that like-

Sebastian (27:09)
Okay, so it was the next movie up on how to get, how did this get made? It's just a podcast that I watch. And the original film was made in 84 and the footage was lost and it was found and remade with all auto dubbing, audio dub, like doubles the voices with, cause they had no audio for the movie. So they dubbed, they made up their own audio basically for the movie. It is so bad.

Michael (27:23)
Ooh.

I think I...

I, my

God, I've seen this. That's so crazy. I've seen this. You told me about this months ago and I think I tried to watch it. I'm like, I can't do this. It's so bad. is, it is, it's God awful. It is absolutely God awful. last sports match of anything that you watched.

Sebastian (27:38)
So it's so bad. It's so bad.

Soccer, yesterday morning, England versus Serbia and Canada versus Wales as well at the same time. Canada won 1-0 and England won 5-0 for qualifying for the World Cup. So that was yesterday morning.

Michael (27:52)
Okay. Yeah. Nice. Who won?

Well,

I should hope England beats Serbia 5-0.

Sebastian (28:06)
Yeah, that's actually really good because Serbia is a lot better than that, but yeah, they should be winning multiple goals to nothing. Friendly, international friendly. Yeah. But they beat Wales one nothing and Wales is similarly ranked to Canada. think they're only like five or six spots apart in the world rankings. So Canada's 28th. It's the highest rank we've ever had in the history of soccer and Wales is like 31 if memory serves. I could be wrong by a couple, but yeah.

Michael (28:09)
Yeah. Yeah. Was the Canada gamma qualifier? Obviously someone qualified because Canada's yeah, Canada's already in, but

Hmm. I thought they would have been higher, but...

Amazing. Yeah.

Did you watch any of the US Open?

Sebastian (28:38)
I tried to have it on.

Michael (28:40)
Tough. Best you do work environment.

Sebastian (28:42)
but

it was week one of the football season. So people are like, can you put the football game on this? I'm like, it's the final of the tennis guys. Can you just leave it on one TV? It's like, who watches tennis? Like, well, a lot of people, it's the US Open final.

Michael (28:45)
You're not watching any tennis.

Yeah. Nope. No. Well, I

do. So there you go. I watched five minutes of the final and that was it. And Alcaraz and Alcaraz looked awesome. Anyway. Yes. He's all he's platinum. He's platinum blonde now. He dyed his hair. Yeah. He his hair yesterday. Yeah. After, yeah. After the final he looks. Yeah. So whatever hair he's got is about the same color as the top of my head. It's pretty weird.

Sebastian (28:59)
Alcaraz one, I'm happy with that actually. Dude, I like his new look. He looks mean, man.

Is he after the really? Because he shaved his head for the tournament.

You should, I didn't know that.

Michael (29:17)
Um, okay. That's rapid fire. Next week you'll have rapid fire. And I don't prepare anything. Just think, I just did this off top of my head, off the cuff, baby. I had other ones in my head earlier today, but I forgot what they were. So I think.

Sebastian (29:20)
Okay, you gotta remind me to prepare something, but I will. It'll be easy. Off the cuff, I love it. That's the way I roll.

This is

the way Mike, okay, we'll close with this. This is the way we operate the two of us. I'm very instinctual. I like to be thrown in the chaos and I will figure a path out of the chaos. Mike likes to over prepare and at the last minute change absolutely everything he just prepared. 30 seconds before we go on air. He's like, I've prepared all of this stuff. We're not doing any of that. We're just gonna...

Michael (29:36)
Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

We're doing this because it sounds better. Cause I thought of it five seconds ago. Oh yeah.

I'm like a dog chasing a squirrel. That's the stupidest thing.

Sebastian (29:59)
So if anybody

asks why he doesn't come more prepared is for this reason, cause it's always swerving off the road at the last minute. ⁓ boy. Yeah. That's it. See ya.

Michael (30:05)
Because a lot of the times, what's the point? Because I'm going to change my mind anyway. Anyways, that's episode, believe 72. Yep. Sayonara.