Seaside Massacre on Building Real Community in Music

In a very instant, digital heavy world, it can be difficult to build true bonds and community. It's not so difficult for Seaside Massacre thanks to their "boots on the ground" method.

Val chats with vocalist Don about why showing up is already a great head start toward to building a fanbase, how to incorporate nostalgia into your promotion, and staying mentally healthy through it all.

Get more Seaside Massacre: https://www.instagram.com/seasidemassacre/

Get more Val at https://valkleinhans.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Admittedly, we had that mentality of like we want people to come to our shows, but we weren't taking the time to go out and support other bands. And it wasn't from a place of ego or anything like that. We just quite simply didn't understand that that's how it works. You know, we were very young, misguided, ignorant. But the more I kind of started going out to shows out in Sacramento or even here in Upa City in our hometown, it just kind of made more sense. And I saw the community. And, you know, I would make it a point to go out to as many shows as I could just to support, you know, just to make sure that my friends saw the bodies in the room. And then I'd bring the other guys from the band, and then I'd be bringing people that aren't even in bands just to come hang out. Like I used to work at Dutch Bros. And uh that is uh that is not the type, that is not the demographic of people that usually go to you know heavy metal shows, but I would bring all of them out, 10, 15 deep, you know, and we're all just out there and they're like, I've never been in a mosh pit. And I'm like, now's your time.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

We're gonna go into the idea that we shouldn't be living life, we should be living life vigorously.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Welcome to another edition of Vigorously with me, Val Climb hands. We're having a lot of fun with a variety of bands lately, and this one is no exception. Please welcome Don from Seaside Massacre in the building today. How are you, sir? Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

I'm very good, Val. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I'm great. I I want to talk about the Bobby Liebling meme that we resurrected. I want to commend you on bringing that back because that's one of my favorites. It's it's iconic, like just looking off into space, not knowing what the hell is going on. I mean, you guys make great use of your social media, that's what we're learning. So thank you. When starting Seaside Massacre, did you anticipate how heavily active you would have to be online? Because it's almost a staple for bands now.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

You literally have to. It's part of the game nowadays, but no, when we first started it, we had no idea that you had to basically be like a visual entertainer as well as you know, like a musical audio entertainer, I guess. I mean, beyond the live element of shows. I had no idea beyond TikTok doing like little dances and stuff to our songs just to try to grab the algorithm. But here we are in the big 26 and we're making it happen every day.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Well, so how does that work when it comes to what you do? Are we literally carving out time just as a band, as a group, to do this because it is that important? Just to make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

It sounds a little bit silly, but I mean, we're all either 30 or close to 30 right now. So we all have kids, we have bills to pay. So we literally have to like set aside a certain day to we can all get together. And instead of like normally when we get together, it's to write music or record or whatever, but it's like, no, today we are doing a skit, and we all write it down in our calendars, like, oh yeah, today's skit day. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Today is content day. So okay, you and I are close in age, so we know a world before all of this was necessary. Absolutely. We get nostalgic for it sometimes. I think nostalgia is definitely one thing that you guys do really, really well, whether it's the VHS callbacks, the ta the cassette callbacks, all of that aesthetic. What do you think it is about nostalgia that uh people latch on to?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I think it's I think it's just yearning back to a simpler time, to be honest with you. Before, I mean, as cliche as it is, before social media, before phones were really super prevalent. You know, I think that we're probably the last generation to really truly experience that. That's both beautiful and sad, but it's kind of in a way, it feels like our duty to kind of commemorate the old school style to, you know, with the like you said, the VHSs, cassettes, anything that's kind of old school. We kind of have this almost like uh like I said, almost almost like a duty to really preserve that so the next generation could kind of understand. Because I mean, there's a lot of stuff from like my childhood that I didn't really get. Like, what what the hell's an eight-track?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, that was a little bit before us, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

But we do know what it means to go find that orange videotape of Keenan and Kel, or like you're gonna say Rugrats, or Rugrats, or Rugrats, whatever. Like Keenan and Kel movie Rugrats in Paris, like all of it. Like we were that was that was essential Friday night viewing. We know what it means to plan a Friday night around a blockbuster visit.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Absolutely, absolutely. That's that's a cherished feeling, too. So if you can kind of encapsulate that and kind of give it to give it to a newer generation, I think that's kind of a cool thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Yeah. Are those some of the reasons why you think that it's incor it's important to incorporate it in your marketing for lack of a better term, in your promo?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Absolutely. And it's always, you know, you always want to kind of try to find a little bit of a niche too. You always want to find your thing. And like I said, all of us are close to 30, so we all experience that. So it's kind of something that we all bond over, you know, like, oh, I wish we were 2008 sometimes. Like uh, like me and Jake are super into WWE, and uh we'll talk we'll talk about like really old wrestling matches and stuff back from you know when we were little kids. Like, man, it was a cooler time back then, and blah blah blah. So, you know, going through the uh whole cycle for horror, the single we just dropped, we were like, why don't we do kind of like a throwback, kind of almost like part found footage-esque stuff, yes, and then part you know, throwback VHS stuff. And uh we we tried our best. Hopefully, it uh I'm glad that it kind of came through. I'm glad you saw the vision.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I picked up no, I picked up the messaging immediately, especially the found footage stuff because we all saw Blair Witch. We all remember the impact that it had. There is no paranormal activity without Blair Witch. Let's come correct on this. That's that's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah, that is that is my top three favorite movies of all time. It's second to force gun. But uh, but yeah, exactly. That kind of when that dropped, I remember being a little kid and being scared as hell of that movie. Like, I am not watching that, I am cool. And then uh one of my uh good one of my good friends, we were just cutting it up one day and we're talking about our favorite movies. And I was like, I want to tell you some of mine, but I don't want you to judge me. And he's like, Oh, well, what is it? I was like, Well, Blair Witch is up there. He's like, No, wait, that's one of mine too. And I'm like, Why would that be yeah, why would that be judged?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

My god, that's a classic.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

I have found so many people that dislike that movie, it's insane. Like, there's there's some real haters in this world. That's all I got to say.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

We really do. Okay, so so all of you got together and said, We need to let these house know. We need to let them know. And we need to do, and when it comes to promoting what we're doing, the new singles, all of that, we need to do some callbacks to some of those things that we found memorable.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Exactly. And it's cool because it's like this that's just the first piece in a little series that we're doing. Obviously, none of the rest of it's out yet. You'll see that soon. Hopefully, I'm not sure when this is dropping, but maybe the next one will be out. Who knows? But uh, yeah, we we definitely have we're planting little seeds right now. And if people are catching on to it early, they'll get to see the whole experience all the way through. And then, like, let's say if they get on to the next one, they can kind of go back and be like, Oh, they've been building this for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yes, and definitely with horror themes and just all of the stuff. But but what okay, so let's back up a little bit because we got so excited about the horror the horror, like horror is the reason that we're seeing any of this imagery at all. That that is the promo surrounding the single right now. But at this point, at the time we're talking, it has been out as a single just for a minute. So, reflecting, how are we feeling about its release?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Honestly, great. You know, it's kind of funny that we kind of pivoted last minute because we didn't really want to, we didn't know what we wanted to do with the whole release cycle and kind of how to grab eyes and what felt authentic to us. So it was a very last-minute thing for us to really lock in this concept and idea, probably like a week and a half before it dropped. I we started filming these promos and everything. But you know, the response has been great. A lot of people have been really liking the song. Um, it's one of our we like we have one older song that has clean singing, but this is the I would say the softest song we've ever put out, even though there's like two breakdowns in it.

unknown 7:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

And uh, I think a lot of people have been really digging that, at least from what I've seen. So I'm really stoked on that.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

For you as a vocalist, is that a relief?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Dawn. Oh, you have no idea, Val. I was in the studio tripping because we uh we record with Nick Miller from A Skylit Drive. And when we went into the studio, there was one clean singing part, and it was Jake, who uh our guitarist who usually does most of the clean singing. And I was like, All right, you know, business as usual, gonna scream through the whole song. And Nick was like, dude, I just feel like you could do this, Dawn. I feel like you could, you know, sing a little bit on the chorus, do this. And I was like, I don't know, dude. I've never sang in my life. And he's like, You got this, you got this. So, you know, we're in the booth, and he's like, just you know, just lay this down, just give it a try, and just kind of belted it out. And he's like, I knew you could do it, man. I knew it. There it is. Yeah, exactly. So we left it in, and I was nervous because like people are gonna love this or they are going to fucking hate this.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So, what did you think though? When you first heard it, did it did it feel like, oh man, I'm a dumbass. I should really should have been doing this the whole time, or was it like I don't know what to make of this? I needed time to process.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

It was sick. I was actually really proud of myself, which is kind of a few and far between feeling sometimes when you're a vocalist because we're our own biggest critics, you know. Yeah, um, but I was like, holy crap, that's me. I was stoked on it. It made me want to do it more. And uh, some of the next couple singles may or may not have some of that. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Okay, okay, a little bit of a clue. I love it. I don't know what it is about creatives, but that is a running theme. Whatever it is that you're creating, whatever type of artist you are, even if you're creating content, even if you're creating you know using the art of broadcast, you're making music, you're painting, whatever it is, whatever variation, there's something about creatives where we all overanalyze everything.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah, absolutely. We're our own biggest critics. It's at the end of the day, it's you know, a lot of us are perfectionists, I feel too, and we always want to put out the most perfect product that we can. And there's really just no such thing as perfection, it's it doesn't exist, and that's something I have to remind myself of a lot, you know, especially with recording. You know, a live show is one thing, you kind of get what you get with that. You know, there's all these different elements at play, but recordings are so analyzed, so under a microscope, that I'm always constantly like, oh, was that perfect? And it's just like, no, nothing's ever gonna be perfect. As long as you put your soul into it, that's really all you can do.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Yeah. In those moments when you can, when you know you're getting amped, you know you're starting to feel a little bit anxious about whatever it is that's going on. Are you able to like check yourself and say, okay, let's regulate for a moment, or are other people kind of helping you saying it's good, it's okay, they're offering reinsurance.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

It's definitely it starts with an internal thing. You know, uh, you know, we'll use a live show as an example. You know, you get up there in front of however many people and you're screaming and you don't know how they're gonna take it. You know, there's certain people in the audience that have probably heard your band before, but then there's gonna be a good majority that have never heard. There's even probably a minority of people in the building that don't even like your kind of music in our case, because it's very heavy and there's a lot of screaming. There's definitely a uh there's definitely a portion of people that are like, oh, I don't like that screaming music. So you always have that kind of spinning around in your head. And it for me, it always starts internally, like, you know, these people are here for me, and I'm here for them. Let's have a good time, let's give them what they want. You know what I mean? I want to have a good time, they do too. Let's just send it. Yeah, and then you know, and then it does start externally. You know, you get out there on stage and you maybe your first song's second song hits, and you see the people really starting to get into it. You see the mosh pit igniting, and you're like, Yep, yep, I think uh I think we're doing it.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

That's okay. And that one voice is maybe off at the bar, not even paying attention. So it's like exactly so you kind of almost have to reframe it in a way. Like, look, this is one person out of how many other people or how many other streams, whatever it is, however, you're you know quantifying it. This is one person out of how many. Like it's one voice of how many for the most part. We're doing fine.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Exactly. Not everybody's gonna like everything you do. Again, drawing back to perfection. There's no perfect sound for everybody. Like, there's people out there that don't like the kind of music I like, and vice versa. I mean, I like most music, but the point is though, there's always gonna be that one hater, there's always gonna be the people that say you're not doing it right, and you know your product is not for them, and that's really all it is at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Is there anything you won't listen to?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Honestly, the only kind of music I'm not into is like EDM. Um which is kind of crazy because I like some house music, like I'm a big Swedish house mafia fan, but like certain, I don't know, that's pretty much the only one that I really can't get into. But I like country music, I like hip hop. Like my favorite artist of all time is the weekend. And a lot of people, a lot of people don't expect that from you know, a big metal singy guy. But yeah. Yeah, so I like it all though.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Right. So something resonates. Is it is it the lyrics? Is it the vibe? Is it the conglomeration of it all?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

It's all of it. It's it's such a departure from the what I've known because I grew up with you know, basically only heavy metal and rock music. That's all I cared about until I was probably 18 or 19. If it didn't have guitars and riffs and singing or screaming, I was not about it. But yeah, I don't know, something flipped one day. I actually heard the uh song Sidewalks by the weekends, got Kendrick Lamar in it, and I was like, this is sick. I was like, what the hell? Like, I've been missing out, and that just like opened my mind to all these different artists that I would have just never considered before that. And it was honestly like a it was like a coming of age moment, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Well, okay, Kendrick is the buy-in there for me. I'm I'm sitting over here thinking, okay, maybe I need to add this to my playlist. Maybe I need to need to do a little bit more of a deeper dive on the weekend. And did I miss something?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I'm just saying. That's my guy.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

It's it's so funny how sometimes we could stay, and sometimes most of the time we do stay in our own like musical bubble, and then once in a while you enter a new environment, you meet a new friend or whatever, whatever, and you're exposed to something different in that it's okay. I love this. Yeah, cool. Maybe for you as a musician, you're sitting there thinking, I want to incorporate that. Has that happened?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot of flows that I'll do in songs that are kind of hip-hop based. I mean, obviously, I'm screaming and we got breakdowns going on in the background, but if you're if you're a fan of like hip-hop like I am, you can kind of pick up on that. Like, oh, that's a flow from like some Memphis trap song, you know what I mean? Just something just something obscure like that. But yeah, absolutely. I feel like the more open you are to music, the the better of a product you can put out for people. Because a lot of the bands that are, you know, the like the older, even the older bands like Metallica, they were listening to like you know, all kinds of like 60s and 70s music, and they're they didn't have metal bands really before them, except for like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. They didn't have bands before them, though, to really draw inspiration off of. So they had to create their own little their own niche, basically, and that obviously exploded into what it is today. That's insane. Yeah, the more ingredients you can put into it, the better. Is that's that's our philosophy, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

And that is why exposure is so important. And when you do a deep dive into these artists, I mean, I'm thinking Black Sabbath, I'm thinking typo negative, and you start to understand that the Beatles are a core part of their story. Absolutely. I can go, okay. Well, now that I know this, two plus two does equal four. It does equal, it does equal.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Absolutely, and think about this too. You know, you had the Beatles back in the day. Imagine how many people back in the day were like, that's devil music. You can't be listening to that's too heavy. Same thing as today, you know, they're always gonna have the haters, but look what the Beatles did.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

That's what I'm saying. So that's obviously what keeps you going. The fact that look, I'm creating and I'm doing this for me because it feels something.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Absolutely, and it's about the community too. Out here in Sacramento, we have such a strong like music scene. It's the bat, it's the artists, the bands, but it's also just the concert goers, the people that aren't in bands. It's like a huge family out here. And over the last three or four years, it's just gotten stronger and stronger. And there's these new bands popping up out here that are blowing my mind, stuff I've never heard before. Just absolutely hungry as hell. Some of these kids are like 18, 19, 20 years old, and they're just crushing it. And I'm like, I love to see that. It makes me so happy.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yes, can we talk about what is happening in the water there? Literally, like dance, Gavin Dance, and don't you dare. I just met them not too long ago. Yeah, core, core, core as a whole, rampant. And I did not realize what once I started talking to them about who knows who in the community and who was exposed to what within the community and where it all comes from, it started and then I started to connect the dots that there is some longevity to core in SAC. Absolutely. Talk to me about being exposed to that and why you I mean, Seaside Massacre kind of chose to go a similar route with core.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I've been in the music scene out in SAC for I don't know, like 12 years. You know, I've been I've been doing that for a long time and I've seen it go through waves, you know, it's it's had highs, it's had really, really lows, really long lows. But like I said, right now is the strongest it's been, and it's because I've I've seen the community coming together, and a lot of the a lot of the people out in SAC are kind of like-minded. We all want to write just super sick heavy music and we want to enjoy it with our friends. And the it's really simple. It really is just that. There's no there's no, you know, uh chess pounding, there's no machoism, there's no my band's better than your band. No, like people buy tickets to our shows all the time that either, you know, they can't even make it out, they just want to support. And I know I do the same, you know, if I'm off at work or whatever, but my boy's playing in Sacramento, I'm gonna buy the tickets, give them out to some homies, you know what I mean? Like we all just support each other. It's it's really a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So it starts with a community, it starts with everybody exposing everybody else to their version of core, how they're doing core. But what is it about SAC that makes core be something that sticks? Like, what is it about the environment that resonates and and makes someone from the area say, Core is the route I want to go musically with this?

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Honestly, I think it's the caliber of the bands out here. You know, we're all doing it slightly differently than each other, but it's there is a lot of overlap. So you'll go you'll go see a band like a moment's notice. Shout out those guys, and they're absolutely crushing it and they're blending these like symphonic moments. They got a little bit of clean singing. Greg's up there crushing it with his vocals, and you're like, dang, I kind of want to, I want to, you know, create my own little version of that. And you got bands like Titan who are doing it more like the traditional metal way, but they still got the breakdowns, there's still a core band. Like these guys are tight, the the riffs are insane, you know. Same with like band, even the bands down in like Central Valley, like Hellheart, the band we're going on tour with this summer. Absolutely just ridiculous guitar work. And it's just inspiring. We all kind of inspire each other, in my opinion. And you know, we we see that oh, these guys are doing something brand new and crushing it. Like, let's let's figure out how we can incorporate that into our sound and make it our own thing, and then give our little piece to a different band. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Yeah, well, yes, it that tells me the scene is not just sustainable, but it's healthy. Absolutely, it's really, really healthy. Because anytime I've heard anybody talk about uh, let's say Bay Area Thrash, for example, or even even hair metal when it first took hold in LA, like that's how it starts. That's how it starts. Everybody encouraging everybody else and taking little bits and pieces. And you could call you could call it one up and one-upping each other, but that doesn't capture the intent if you get what I'm saying. Exactly, yeah. You could call it one-upping each other, but it's it's done in a positive, encouraging way.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Like yeah, it's like it's like one-upping in an uplifting way, exactly. Yeah, we're all just trying to motivate each other to get to the next level. Because uh Rex and our band says this phrase all the time that uh high waters uh lift all ships. I probably said it slightly wrong, but uh and that's kind of the philosophy we have as a band. If we can help elevate our friends' bands, you know, even if they're bigger than us, if we can do something to raise their ship, even like we're all about that. And a lot of bands out here have that same mentality. So when I say it's like a family more than a music scene, that's really what it is, too.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Nice. Your musical journey. I know you're a multi-instrumentalist, vocals, guitar, all that, you know, all the essentials. What came first for you?

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Oh, gets guitar came first for sure. Big James Hetfield guy, the downpicking. I would sit in my room for like four or five hours and just just trying to get half as good as him. Never made it there, but you know what? That was the goal.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

For okay, so some of the early are we latching on to early Metallica or are we coming in like maybe at the black album? What's happening?

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Honestly, all of it. The first thing I heard was ride the lightning. My aunt had the had the cassette in her old Saturn, and we would just spin that on the way to school, me and my cousin. You know what I mean? And then uh, and then when I got a little bit older and got my first uh MP3 player, I didn't have a I didn't have an iPod quite yet, but I remember my cousin, uh my cousin Michael filled it up with these like obscure bands, like crazy stuff that I'd never heard before. It was like black metal, death metal, it was like entombed and stuff like that. And I was like, I don't know about this. And he was like, you know what? Let me put you onto some like easier stuff. And he put on like, you know, kill them all, Metallica, you know, Master of Pup. It's all of the classics. And I was like, dude, this is something I could get into. And then as the journey grew, you know, I got into those death metal bands and you know, cannibal corpse and all of the more mainstream bands and stuff, and just kind of eased myself into the really obscure stuff. And then I just tried to learn everything I could on guitar. Like, if it sounded cool, I would sit here and just try to shred it out. I would look up the tabs and you know, I'd just try to get as good as I could at guitar.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And never stop learning. And there's uh shout out to the ants that are still had the 86 Monte Carlos and they've got the Aerosmith cassettes, and they still smell like the worst amount of cigs in the world.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Shout out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Shout out to those ants that are like still flying those flags, and that's how we're getting introduced to groups like. Metallica groups like Aerosmith. There's something to be said for them.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Absolutely. They're still putting us on in their own way, and it's super sick. That's how I found out who Allison Chains was. She had a cassette of dirt, and I was like, dirt, like, does it sound like dirt? And she's like, nah, no, no. She put she put it on. I was like, Holy shit, this is sick. What am I talking about?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Not dirt at all, iconic.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Not at all. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

So you you've talked about Howard the recent single being one of the more personal songs that you've ever written as a group thus far. So I wanted to learn about what is it that makes it so personal to all of you as a collective, or maybe one more so as an individual. What's what's the lore?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Yeah, so uh all of our songs from the past, like our shells EP, it was a lot of like personal stuff, a lot of like journeys, but for the body of work that we're putting out right now, we just really wanted to dig deeper and go a layer further with every song that we had, you know, musically and uh especially lyrically for myself. I've always kind of prided myself on trying to write, you know, lyrics that weren't just like, oh, I I love all kinds of music, I love hardcore, but there's a lot of bands out there that'll be like, oh, I'll punch you in the face and shit like that. And it's cool. It's a vibe. I'll be lifting all kinds of weight to that kind of music. But I wanted to put something out that kind of made me feel like I'm giving the world a piece of myself, as corny as that might sound. So, you know, I sat down and I really locked in and just tried to figure out what I can write this song about? What does this song make me feel? And uh a lot of the lyrics in horror and some of the other songs too, just super personal experiences that I've been through that I feel like a lot of people can relate to. So it's kind of, you know, my in a way, it's like my gift of like, you're not alone. I see you, I understand what you're going through because I went through this. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

It's it's the music that you wish you had when you were 12, 13.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Absolutely, God. If yeah, if another band wrote horror back then, I would be so geeked.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Tell me about getting comfortable with writing and going that deep because not everybody is. So, how did you do it?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Honestly, I just started one day in like high school. I had a really great English teacher named Miss Harvey, and uh, she really she really pushed my bounds because she would have us writing poetry. And at the time I was like just peak metalhead, I had super long hair, I'd wear the little wristband, you know, the fuzzy ones to to school and just a band shirt every day. I was that kid for sure. And I was like, man, poetry is kind of lame. Like, I don't know, maybe you know, I don't know if I could get into that. And then I was thinking, like, well, you know, these songs, the lyrics are basically poetry, and it kind of clicked. So I started writing like little poems and everything like that, just trying to get comfortable with rhyming and then get comfortable not rhyming. And then, you know, just keeping that process going throughout the years, and then really latching on to a lot of great bands that do have really great deep lyrics, like uh counterparts is one of those bands for me. They uh ironically, I'm wearing the shirt. Uh, they they speak a lot about like mental health and like sacrifice, anguish, all kinds of stuff that you hear other bands talk about, but they don't get as deep into it. So just the way I, you know, Brendan would kind of word his phrases and like holy crap, like you would never even think to think of that. But once it clicks, it's like, holy crap, you know. So just a lot of that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

There's something about this, like the subjects of English and history. Every metal head that I've ever talked to, those were those best like subjects of the school.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Like it's a common denominator for sure. It is not math.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

It's not math, no, not at all. It's not math, but like and and shout out, and I wonder if it's just because like some of it is so cut and dry that you're either interested in it or not, period. Yeah, a lot of metal heads kind of sometimes have that line of thinking. Like there's a very clear distinction between how something is defined. And English teachers, there's something about like just how free that they allow their classroom to be. Like they give you the room to write, they give you the room to experiment, they give you the room to literally play with words and construct them different ways to create the best image that you can.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Absolutely. Yeah, they're you know, my my English teacher was really big on personal expression. She was she was a great woman. She's I think she's still teaching, honestly. Shout out Miss Harvey. Um, but she was just big on personal expression and really like, you know, growing to express yourself. Because when you're a kid that age, you're you're expressing yourself, but it's also there's so many stigmas around it. And you know how high school is, it's very much you gotta put up this big front and do everything perfectly, or you feel like the world's gonna come crashing down. And she kind of peeled those layers back with like, hey, you can be your own kind of person. You don't have to, you don't have to be an everybody's kind of person. Right. And that was always really cool. So, you know, shout out to her. My uh I always inquire as well, Mr. Harris. He uh he was really about that too. He we would sing the songs and he'd be like, Really read these lyrics, like what is this person trying to say, like beyond what the actual words say. And that was something that always stuck with me because you know, there's a ton of different ways you can say the same phrase, basically.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yeah, inflection, cadence, all of it matters. Like, and those are the kind of people that we need. We need the person in the room to say, Let me give you the tools. I know what you want to do. Let me give you the tools and show you what the tools you can use to accomplish that. Let me show you how to put that all together.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it's it's all about putting your personal touch on it too. Just you know, look, like I said, there's a lot of bands that like really, you know, just simple lyrics and that that kind of stuff's sick. There's a ton of really great hardcore bands out there that make me want to put my head through a wall, and they didn't speak on emotions whatsoever. No, it's all about the vibe, though, about the mood of the day.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

All of it matters, all of it matters. So I did catch your episode of Make Your Mark 2, and I appreciated how candid you were uh about the industry. I mean, just in general, like one thing that you shared was that you felt it was essential for an up-and-coming band to build a fan base within their hometown first, and then work toward bringing everybody else in. So Seaside Massacre and that journey specifically, what did you do to build the fan base and encourage everybody in SAC to come and see you?

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah, so I mean, when we were a really, really small band just first starting out, we didn't understand that. We very much, you know, guiltily, but we admittedly we had that mentality of like, we want people to come to our shows, but we weren't taking the time to go out and support other bands. And it wasn't from a place of ego or anything like that. We just quite simply didn't understand that that's how it works. You know, we were very young, misguided, ignorant. But the more I kind of started going out to shows out in Sacramento or even here in Upa City in our hometown, it just kind of made more sense. And I saw the community. And, you know, I would make it a point to go out to as many shows as I could just to support, you know, just to make sure that my friends saw the bodies in the room. And then I'd bring the other guys from the band, and then I'd be bringing people that aren't even in bands just to come hang out. Like I used to work at Dutch Bros, and uh that is uh that is not the type, that is not the demographic of people that usually go to, you know, heavy metal shows, but I would bring all of them out, 10, 15 deep, you know, and we're all just out there and they're like, I've never been in a mosh pit. And I'm like, now's your time. And you know, it's just about supporting the friends. And then, you know, I saw that, you know, that love being returned to us too. We never put it out with the intention of getting anything back, but it is really great when you see the the fruit of your labors, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

So it's just a lot of, you know, going out and supporting our friends' bands and then them doing the same, and then just going out there to shows and really networking, talking to the people in the audience, you know, not necessarily to sell them anything or try to, you know, upsell your band, just just talking to them, like, hey, what kind of music are you into? I like your shirt. You know, are are you into this band? Do you like these guys? Like it it does wonders. And I feel like a lot of people are kind of missing that step. You know, it's it's the person-to-person contact, the the human element of all of it that really I feel like boosts bands nowadays. Because we see online there's a million bands out there crushing it, and they have 10 million streams and all that, and it's cool, but like it's the person, the person ability that's always been like a big thing for me. I've always really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, it's saying step into it's like come take a look at my world. This is what I'm doing. What do you think? Let's exactly let's all engage about this, let's all chat about this, whatever version of that you want to put out there.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Absolutely, 100%. And yeah, and it is very important for a young band to really just really drive home that hometown, that crowd. You know, it's for us in Yuba City, there's not a great demand for our kind of music. There's it's definitely there. We got some really cool bands out here, you know. Shout out Trachea, shout out hometown heathens, got some really great bands out here, but for for us, we're a really heavy band, so there's a lot of people that aren't into that. So we went to Sacramento, and that's that's home for us now. You know, as much as we love the 530 Uba City, Sacramento's treated us like one of theirs. And so we really just over the past couple of years, just really focused on making sure that we understand what the people out there want from us and how do we deliver that to them. And as we've seen it just growing and growing, it's it's been a really great thing. And it feels like now is a good point for us to kind of take that what we've built in Sacramento and try to kind of push it outwards a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Does the growth ever scare you? Are you ever like, what did I get into?

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Let me tell you, Val, we're going on our first national this summer, and I am scared shitless. We're going to places that I've never even heard of before. I'm not gonna hold you. I I've done some traveling with uh a previous job that I've had where I was like a traveling installation technician. Oh, but this is like this is triple the any kind of like traveling that I've done in my life. So we're going to all new markets, we're going to these pla like I said, places, towns I've never heard of, and it's sick. It's definitely terrifying, but at the same time, on the inverse of that coin, I'm stoked.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

I love hearing that. That's exciting. In the same episode, uh, one thing that did make me laugh a little bit was the attempt to describe how intense monitoring those like Spotify analytics is, and it is wild. And I understand why those numbers are taken seriously. It's one of the few things that you can even quantify success with anymore. But it's like so much of a band's success in the industry is dependent on how well those numbers look. So, with all the ups and downs, and you can experience as a musician, what is the key to staying mentally healthy through it all?

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Honestly, it's understanding that there are a lot of vanity numbers out there, you know. Uh Spotify follow not followers, but uh monthly, monthly listeners, monthly streams, whatever you want to call it. A lot of that is a vanity number. A lot of people will bot out their listeners, or they'll have all these kinds of funds that are going into it, making their, you know, their number get way bigger and stuff like that. And a lot of bands my size can see that and get super discouraged. Like, why don't we have 50,000 monthly listeners? You know, our music's just as good, or whatever the case is. And it's it's kind of it can be very discouraging at times, but you just got to remember that you know, kind of like close in the bubble a little bit. Like, you know, you can't control what these other bands are doing. You can't control what you know who got this to or or who got whatever. You can only control your own little circle. So if you try to, if if you get ahead of yourself, you will go absolutely insane as a musician in 2026. But it's all about just slowing down and understanding, you know, what real growth looks like and just kind of trying to achieve that uh rather than getting caught up on oh no, our monthly listeners dropped 100. We're we're done, the tour's over. Throw out the records, man. Tell Nick to delete all the songs. Like, no, no, no. It's you just gotta pace yourself and try to try to take it one step at a time.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Savor the moment when things are good. Exactly. Celebrate the wins, however big, however little. A win is a win. A W is a W. Period.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

A win is a win. 100%. It's it's so easy to get caught up on the next step. Like, this is great. What do I gotta do? That's just kind of the life of a musician. You you don't really get a whole lot of time to celebrate your wins, but when you do get the wins, you absolutely have to celebrate them. You know, you gotta you gotta reflect on how far you've come. And uh, you know, that that's such a valuable tool for a lot of musicians of our size.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

That that's like the line of thinking in corporate America. Forget music, like forget the music industry. That's almost like across the board, whatever industry. Like, let me look at what let me look at what's next. Let me look at what's next. Ba-ba-ba-ba. And it's like can we let this marinate for a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Right. Yeah, that's uh the world's kind of cutthroat like that. It's not really what you've done, it's what you've done recently. And it's like, well, damn, like you know, I'm trying, I'm really out here grinding.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

For real. Well, so we're obviously celebrating tour on the way very soon. Tour bag essentials. What are we taking? What's coming on the bus? Then what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Please, God, if you're listening to this, if any of you guys are touring musicians, please bring a toothbrush. I swear to God. Deodorant, toothbrush. I'm a big cologne guy, so maybe a little cologne, but if if you don't rock with it, I get it. But 100% a toothbrush and deodorant. I'm not saying any of my guys have ever done that, but I've seen people on the road forget just crazy essentials. I'm like, please, please don't forget your toothbrushes. I have a reminder in our band chat. Anytime we take off on like a little weekend run or whatever, bring your toothbrush. You not want to get early whites. You do not want to get up the creek and can't brush your teeth. Like, that's really it.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

No, or you're trying to find a truck, so uh uh truck stop at 2 a.m. praying that there's like some maybe some toothbrush or something, some essential that you need. Maybe it's there.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Something, but beyond that, you gotta make sure you got clean underwear, you got socks. Lieutenant Dan taught me anything, it's that socks are very important, keep your socks dry. Um, yeah, and just like as a vocalist, too. Uh we have kind of a unique position in the band where like our body is our instrument. So if we're not taking care of ourselves, then our instrument is completely messed up. You know, you you can change your guitar strings, you can't change your vocal strings, vocal cords, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:09

And it's not easy to do that on the road. I mean, I've talked to other vocalists before, they talk about different T's, they talk about different herbs that they use, they talk about the uh a mandatory no-talking period. Like some of them, some of them do that. What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 36:25

That's something that's been evolving over the last couple of years and last couple tours. You know, the first tour we did was a four-day run, and I didn't do a damn thing. I had little like throat lozenge lozenges, whatever that word is, the little drops or whatever, the honey ones. And I thought that's like I thought that's all I needed, that I'd be fine. Because normally when you play one show, you have so much time afterwards to recover. But when it's boom, boom, boom like that, you don't have that time. So I was up the creek at the end of the last tour. I sounded like absolute shit that last night. And I was like, I gotta fix this. So a lot of uh what I've incorporated now is making sure I warm up. It is so essential to warm up if you're a singer, especially if you're a screamer, because you're you're doing damage to your vocal cords, whether you're doing it the safest way possible or not. Um warming up is paramount. And uh I'm big on, you know, I have a nebulizer, you know, the uh mist. So I'm really big on those. Um I do I do the green tea. I I do all of it now. I have to. I feel like I'm gonna die. So it's all about that. And then vocal rest is very important, once again, especially if you're a screamer. If your voice has been fatigued from talking to everybody all day, you're gonna get up there and you just can't activate what you need to activate. Um, so vocal rest is important, and then getting actual rest is important. You know, on tour, you want to sometimes you don't you can't grab as much sleep as you'd like or as much rest as you'd like, but you have to grab every second you can because the the more worn out your body is, the more worn out your vocal cords are. So it's it's it's a lot of give and take.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Yeah, like any other body part, it makes complete and total sense. So, how much of that is you exchanging tips with other vocalists or you doing your own research on how to stay vocally healthy?

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Uh, it's mostly talking to other vocalists, you know. I uh once again to keep bringing up Greg, but uh Greg is the one that taught me about uh the uh the vocal mist. I saw him doing it once. I was like, oh, okay, okay. And then just warming up, looking up, you know, YouTube tutorials on actually how to warm up. Um yeah, just trading tips with other vocalists, like what works for you. Like uh Alan from Solyvale, he's the one that taught me about throat coat, the the green tea that you can get. And I didn't know that was a thing. And then we went up there and tried it out, and I was like, oh, I can scream a lot longer. Like it's sick. And it's just it's just kind of picking everybody's brain and people not gatekeeping, that's very important.

unknown 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Do you run into that often though? Because it sounds like you really do have a healthy community of like around you that you can use as a resource. So, how often do you really run into gatekeeping?

SPEAKER_02 38:55

It's not so so much as it used to be. There used to be a lot of gatekeeping, and it was crazy work. And uh, it's still there, of course. You know, we go to other uh, you know, other scenes, other towns, and they're all they're great too, but there's definitely a lot of gatekeeping going on, you know, in the fringes. And it's just you know, we we don't grow that way. We don't there's no point. Like my band is the most transparent band when it comes to that. We won't gatekeep a damn thing. Like we'll we try to we try to lead with the philosophy of like if we have something we can give to somebody else, then we will give it to you. Um, but it's definitely out there and it's a shame, and there's there's just no benefit to gatekeeping, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yeah, it kind of like it convolutes things, it makes it more complicated than it really needs to be, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Yeah, I I understand the mentality too. I know I was when I was younger, I kind of felt that same way of like if I have something, I have to keep it, because if somebody else gets it, then they have it, and then I'm not good enough. And it's all it's all really rooted in insecurities and you know, the feeling of not being good enough. So you got to cling on to the few things that you feel are good enough. But once again, that's just not how a community thrives. We we need to give to each other, and you know, nothing makes me happier than seeing one of my friends grab one of my tips or something that I've helped them with and then just running with it and just blowing up. And that that to me, that's like a pride thing. I'm like, that is sick. You know, I don't even need the credit, just knowing that I helped you with that, that's sick.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

It sounds like the community that you have around you, it's almost helping you stay away from those insecurities, it's helping you like not even build them in the first place. Like you're you're encouraging each other and you're staying in a better space mentally to begin with, because you've got a healthy scene around you.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Oh, absolutely. You know, you don't have to really worry about having like snakes, you know what I mean? Like out there. There's once again, there's always going to be that little group of people that are, you know, devious or whatever. But yeah, we have a lot of great people out here that you know, in my band and then in the other bands out in Sacramento and beyond that are just really supportive, and you don't really have to worry about them stabbing you in the back or trying to gatekeep stuff, like it's just a big group, big ol' big old family.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

There we go. So tours on the way very soon. We're stoked for that. But the music itself, I mean, there there have been hints all throughout this that there definitely is more on the way, at least some singles possibly on the way. But is all of this the big, big, big picture? Are we thinking EP? Are we thinking album? What are we looking for?

SPEAKER_02 41:21

So it is going to eventually lead to an EP. Um, I don't want to give away too many dates or anything like that, but uh yeah, we we have a we have a full body of work that is pretty much finished. Uh, it's recorded. We need a few little, you know, bells and whistles to put on it and make it a full package, but we have a full body of work that we're putting out. It was originally gonna be an album. We dialed it back a little bit to make it a long EP, if you will. Um, and that will be out towards the end of the year. We have another really big thing going on that we're gonna do to support that EP. But along the way, you'll see all the little story pieces building up, you'll hear the songs that we'll be dropping in the meantime, music videos. We we have everything pretty much planned out from a thousand-foot view, and we just gotta pray to God that it all works out.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

We have content day scheduled, people.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

It's gonna come out. If you saw my calendar, you'd be like, good lord. Erica at content day, it's all in there.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

All the all the above. Well, and tell me about the choice to not go full-length album, because that's interesting too. Most people they want to do it, they want to, they want to send it uh to the best of their ability, anyway. You're saying, nah, let's maybe take it a step back, let's go the EP route instead. What what was the logic behind that decision?

SPEAKER_02 42:42

To me, it's all about having realistic expectations and you know, kind of playing into a lot of people's attention spans nowadays. Um our way of thinking is kind of, you know, if people were gonna put on a 12-track Seaside Masker album, then our numbers would reflect that a little bit better. Not to say that our numbers aren't cool, like we're stoked on that, but where we're at right now and where we feel like we're projected to be at around the time that the EP's coming out, we feel like a shorter, more condensed body of work that just no filler, nothing but bangers. We feel like that's what people want from us right now, and that's kind of what we want to give to people. So it's kind of like a meeting of minds. Um, we like I said, we got signed to Overshadow, and uh Joe's been great. He's been a champion for us, and you know, I bounce ideas off of him all the time. And we were just kind of talking about it because we originally had the idea of putting out the full length, and you know, between all of us in the band and Joe, and then uh, like I said, Alan, he works with uh the Artery Foundation, he's in the band Solyvale. He he's been a really big mentor for us as well. And you know, he kind of had the same idea, it was a big meeting of minds to just kind of condense it down, just give him a really condensed, like badass version of who we are right now, and then maybe for the next cycle, if if we've grown big enough, we can put out the full length.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Right. Prioritizing impact. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Do you think more bands should make that choice?

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Honestly, yeah, because a lot of bands will come out the gate with just a full length, 12, 14 songs. And there's six songs, but like I just I feel it too. My attention span is definitely being degraded by like TikTok and everything like that. So I understand, you know, you get maybe four or five songs into that, and you're like, all right, this is cool, but there's this little chunk of songs you never really get to. And those might be their best songs, you never know. So I feel like a lot of bands need to really start with, you know, singles and you know, build that sync, build those into, you know, waterfall those into a little EP. You know, it doesn't have to be eight, 10 tracks, it can be four. Like our first EP was only four tracks. And uh yeah, and it's it's it's just it's all about create, like you said, creating that impact. So if the quicker you can get to that impact in today's world, the better, and the more successful you'll be. So yeah, I I think it's all about building up to the album cycle.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Yeah, I think the evidence is gonna be what we see on tour, man. It's gonna be the reaction, it's gonna be how many bodies are in that building. So I really, really wish you the most luck with that. Thank you so much for getting vulnerable and sharing all this with me. I can't wait to see what's next.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

No, absolutely. Thank you for having me, Val. I really appreciate what you got going on with the show. Love your insight on everything. It's an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

In addition to some more music on the way, Seaside Massacre is gearing up for the Hell and High Water Tour. Get your tickets. You can find that at their social links, all the above. I will leave all those goodies in the show notes, and of course, at valclinehands.com. I'm glad Don brought up the importance of community this episode because it's very, very, very easily lost and forgotten in a world where everything is so instant, everything is so digital. Like I get it. And you know, you can turn digital relationships into relationships in real life for sure. I'm not against it, but there is something to be said for actually putting yourself out there and putting in the time. That's what I'm getting at. And I hope that's what you took away from this particular episode. Thanks so much for joining me. We've got another one for you on the way Wednesday. We'll see you then. Bye.