Images of Eden

Participant #1:
Hi, I'm Steve from Images of Eden, and you're listening to how concerts made us

Participant #1:
welcome to the podcast Conscious that made us interviews and stories. Tales from the bus. We love taking you back when it all went down. The greatest live show than the cheering crowd sound. It's Compton. Compton. That made us compositemade us.com

Participant #1:
on this episode. I'm chatting with Steve from Images of Eden. We chat about their latest release, Weathered and Torn, the music video for Count to Zero, which he directed, the upcoming tour with Michael Schenker and much, much more, and you're gonna hear all about it. So without further ado, let's get on with the show.

Participant #1:
Thank you.

Participant #1:
Oh, my God,

Participant #1:
steve, you're very welcome to concert Statmeredis. Thank you very much for having me. That's great to have you now. I'm looking forward to chatting with you now. So we opened the show with Coexistence off your latest release, Weathered and Torn, which was released on September 16. Would you like to tell us a bit about it? Sure. Well, we went on tour with Ying Bay Malmstein just last fall, and as soon as we got back, right before Christmas time, we wanted to really go for our next step on what we're going to do. And we were going to go out and tour some more with Angelborn, but we kind of had an idea, let's just take a time out a little bit. Let's do an EP. Let's get heavier because we all have that in our roots and for what we've all been through the last couple of years here in the whole world, I mean, everybody is kind of angry and upset, and we wanted to kind of put out a real organic reaction to all that. And so what we wanted to do is do this EP show a heavier side of ourselves, a true organic reaction to the last couple of years we've all had. And so we went with that. And so we started immediately working on that. We wanted to put it out right away because we just signed on with the tour with Michael Schinker for his 50th anniversary world tour, just to do the US. Leg of all that. And so to make the perfect store. And we've had to have our EP recorded and turned in on a certain date in order to have a release date before our tour started. So with all that being said, there was a music video thrown right in the top of all that that we had to do as well. So we just went to work. We had a lot of the ideas in our heads circling. We just had to kind of get them laid out. Gordon, who's our main songwriter, kind of puts these shells together and then we all kind of take off with it, each individual instrument. And the funny thing is, we live apart. We don't live at all in one state or city or whatnot we all live all over the whole country. So in essence, it's kind of like an assembly line over the internet. We put the shells together, get the drums done, send it out the base, it gets done, leads are going on, rhythms, vocals, all that. But anyway, to make a long story short, we were able to get it written, get it recorded and get it turned in in time. And thus, September 16, we've got the weather than Torn Et release. Jeez, this sounds like a lot of pressure and a lot of kind of rushing to meet the deadline, almost. Yeah, we felt rushed, but we weren't rushed, we just stayed on task. We didn't want to rush it. That's one thing you just don't want to do is just kind of settle for something, put it together and put it out. We don't do that. So we did rush in a sense where we just kept very on top of the ball all the time and getting all of our goals done to meet that date. So it all worked out. Yeah. And you mentioned it's heavier. You can definitely tell it's heavier than your previous work. What was the thought process like behind that? Is it a kind of a scary prospect for a band to go heavier? Yeah, I mean, it was sort of something that we wanted to try. We've always got the heavy tones in our music, but we're very melodic and it's a lot of heartfelt metal, you know what I mean? But we wanted to really get in someone's face this time. I mean, this was the last couple of years and we talked to our record label about it and we've been trying to break over into Europe and other countries other than the United States, which we felt we needed to go heavier to get that key, to unlock that doorway force, so to speak. Now, that's not the only reason we did it that way. Like I told you before, we were all had a reaction to the last couple of years. Just the governmental things, all the things that got put on us as humans across the globe shut us down. We couldn't go play music. We can't do this, you can't go to work, you can't do that. Wow. And the craziness still hasn't ended in the whole world. It's still going strong. So it's like we're a band that puts out a good message in our music with hope and inspiration and never give up and always try to be the best you can be. But we roll that up in metal music. We just wanted to get heavier on this one because it was organic for us, for one, and yeah, we wanted to try a little something different. We just didn't want to stay status quo. We wanted to give you another reflection of what images of being looks like. And we cover a wide spectrum of music. A lot of the heaviness we have it all in our backgrounds from previous bands and growing up or whatever. We just images of Eden. We're pretty mature group of guys. So we're putting these songs together that you may have heard from the past. Our angelborn record slow rise. Yeah, they have heavy tones to them, but they're very melodic and they're heartfelt and they speak to you. And this time we just wanted to get really ultra heavy and give a delivery like that. Yeah. Just let loose, so to speak. And you mentioned us. You're kind of looking to break into Europe. I always find us interesting with American Bands because over here in Europe, every band is like, oh, we have to break into the States. Once we break into the States, we're world famous. What's that like from an American band's point of view? Well, I'll tell you from our side. When we see Europe, we see all the great metal festivals happening in certain times of year whether it be the fall or the spring or what not, into summer. And then we see our friends, like, flotsam and jetsam and stuff and go on playing for seas of people. And then they come back here and play for normal venuesized, places. So it's just like we're always like I think the metal music and the heavier aspect of metal music is more accepted and more wanted over there than maybe more so here. Like I said, you know, you can play a general venue of 1000 people but you can go over there with the same kind of stage presentation and you'll have a sea of people when you play a festival. But that's what catches our eye. We want to get over there. We want to play. I think everyone would like us. I think we're worthy of a big stage like that at this point in time that we built all this up to this point. So, yeah, I hope it happens. And that is one of the reasons why we went heavier on this record to show everyone we can do that. We can go there. And if that's the delivery you guys kind of like, then let me give you a little taste of it. Well, after listening to DP, I'm fully convinced that you guys would be absolutely eaten alive in Europe. You'd be loved. There'd be just cues of people don't see it. Well, that would be great. Yeah. Hopefully that day will happen one day. So we'll see. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Now, as well as being a drummer, you're also a director and producer. You've done the video for Count to Zero, which is awesome, by the way. But what was the process like? So all the videos that the Images have eaten has done. I produced and directed them. Every single one of them. And that's a whole another story, how I got involved with that business. But it comes from my son kind of being in the film business and I kind of met a lot of people and I just wanted to start trying to do some music videos because I had that thought in my head, matching scene work with actually music and kind of trying to make sense of it. So I've always had that fascination with that. But so when I got the opportunity to start creating these, producing, writing, directing these for images and it was just been a blast. So I don't even know, this is like our 7th or 8th music video or something like that right now. I don't know. But this particular video and how I kind of do it on all of our videos is gordon, our main songwriter is a great lyricist. So his lyrics are really outstanding. And I try to follow those and when I'm thinking and kind of dreaming up some storylines, whatever the case may be. So really, I take off on his lyrical content first and that kind of sparks ideas of visuals, which sparks ideas for locations and how we're going to accomplish that. So for this particular video, Count to Zero is kind of interesting because the whole song Counting to Zero, the clock's kind of ticking back on us. You're running out of time you got to be your best today pull yourself up out of the ditch if you're there right now and stand up because you have a backing of support, you just don't know it. And so we're always trying to be lifting. So with that, I had clocks in my mind why I was thinking of this. This is a clock timing type of thing. We're all living by the clock we're late for work, we're late for this we got to hurry up where we can have enough time everybody's driven by the clock. Okay, so I had that in my head and clock time clicking down on you and you're running out of time. It was just the kind of appropriate kind of visualization I wanted to give to go along with the song. So once I had that in my head, I was trying to figure out, okay, now I want us to soar inside of the clock and I want you to see the band inside the clock playing with all the gears, turning everything. So I had to pull some big timers out of Hollywood, which I happen to know, and they were able to do CGI and some green screen work and VFX work along with my really talented digital photographer, director of photography rather, Chris Sheffield, who helped edit this and shot this. So it was a team of experts with a guy's crazy idea that we try to make it work and I just try to direct it and make the storyline work appropriately. So a lot of work goes into it, let me tell you. It was like 90 days of pre production just planning it out, getting locations, creating the acting, scenes, camera work, props, you name it. There's so many things to cover and then bringing everybody in, flying them in from all over, having a schedule that one weekend to shoot all the scenes, put it together, then go to editing and post and then try to get all that done before the album is going to be released. I was doing both, so thankfully I was done with my drum tracks. And then I said, Here you go, guys, I'm working on the video now. So it all worked out pretty good. But I love making videos for us because I love the special message that we put inside every one of our videos. There's a different kind of but maybe sort of the same message, common theme in all of our videos. So it's powerful, it's life changing. I mean, we've had these testimonials from people who are struggling out there. We all used to struggle. We're older now, we learned our lessons, we're all good. We're paying it forward, we're helping the people who need it. And there's not many people who have the guts to stand up and metal music and say, I'm here to help you, because some say it would be career suicide. Why would you do something like that? Well, that's who we are. We don't care. I'm not here to be a rock star. I love to play on big stages for a lot of people. I'd love to make good money at doing all this. Do I do that right now? No, I don't get to do that all the time. But it's a blessing every time we get to go do this. And we're one of a kind and that's what I really feel, that way. So when you come to one of our shows, there's people lined up at our merch table saying, wow, you guys have the guts to say that live. And it hit me. And then they contact us months later, how they've grown and changed and how their problems have been turned around just because they paid attention to one of our songs. It's all good. So that's the kind of the goal that you get out of this music. I love us, especially nowadays. I think times have kind of shifted and like 10, 20, 30 years ago, if you were a metal band, you kind of had to suit the image of all we're me guys and Satanic and all that stuff. I love that nowadays, you know, that you can actually come out and say, we are here to help people through our music. That's what we want to do. Exactly. Now, some people may want to put you're a Christian band. No, we're not. We're not. Are we Christian? Yeah, sure, we believe in God. We're trying to put a good message out there, but we're not a Christian band. Beating you overhead with the Bible, telling you what you should do, what you shouldn't do. Be more like me and not like you. We're not like that. We're like, hey, we're just like you. We got problems. Here's how we work through them. So I'm not going to sing about a problem and leave you hanging. I'm going to sing about a problem and give you a solution. That's the difference. Okay? So it'll be interesting to see how many other bands start doing that. I feel a lot of newer metal bands would kind of follow that. But back to the music video, you're definitely not afraid of work. The drama wasn't enough. You had to bring all this other work on to yourself. I know. I always say, Why do I do this to myself? Oh, my gosh. Sounds crazy. Sounds crazy. But something I was dying to ask you is what factors go into making an engaging music video? Well, it really comes down to the treatment that you write for it, the storyline. I mean, for one, you got to pick the right song. Of course. It's got to have a catchy chorus. It's got to have a powerful meaning. And then from there, you just build visualizations on top of that. And I'm very stickler by not making it cheesy or anything like that. I want it to be a real sort of feel that you'll get so it doesn't feel fake or just acted out. So as you notice now, like, Gordon was our actor or singer. Gordon was our actor in this video because we talked about it. Let's hire an actor and tell them what to do and whatnot well, Gordon, you've been through some of these struggles and tribulations in your past. I mean, there's no better actor than somebody who's done it before and overcame it. And so I volunteered him. It's kind of funny where volunteers? He's going to be the actor for this. And he just did a great job. I just stayed behind camera, and I coached him through with verbals. Here's how you're feeling. This is what's coming up. And let's let his face and his actions do the rest. He did a great job. Gordon did a great job with the acting work on there, but so there's a lot of intangibles. It's the song, it's the message, it's the visualization, and then it's how you build all that to make an impact kind of a climax point in the song and then ramp it down with a good bring it at home message. You know what I mean? So every director has their own preference, how they would like to deliver start and end it. But that's just how I like to do it. Jeez, you definitely have a talent for it. Anyway, it's fantastic, as I said. Well, thank you. You know, for younger bands there are newer bands. Do you need a massive budget to make a good music video, in your opinion? Well, I wouldn't say massive, but you need a budget. I mean, you'll see the difference in the outcome, and we're just blessed to be able to do what we do. And of course we sink some money into it, don't get me wrong, because we want to put out quality stuff and if that means us sinking some cash into it to make it the way we like it, that's the way it's going to be. So we don't have a problem with that. Of course it'd be nice if somebody pays for it. But listen, in this business, someone pays for your work, they're going to be knocking on your door in a couple of years, suing you for the money. There's a message to the young bands also. If you can keep your expenses in house without getting investors and people coming in and manipulating you later and whatnot, that really helps in your build for your band. But it doesn't take a massive budget. But you do need a budget and it just depends on what you want to do. And locations are the things that cost the most. Normally it's finding the right location. It's just like buying a house. The location is like everything. So your backdrop, how you're going to do that, but you can do a good budget and put a lot of heart and effort in doing a lot of the footwork and help bringing that cost down. Luckily I'm directing it and producing it so we don't have to hire that. Outside of Iowa, that's where it just starts really getting billy. What do you guys want to do? I already know the story. So if you can think for yourself and you go to work for yourself and then bring the pros in to help you accomplish it, that's your best route. Some great advice there. And at this point in the interview, I love diving back into my guests history to find out how you got to where you are and what kind of inspired you. So if you can now, can you remember your very first musical memory? Yeah, I think it goes back to when I was a young kid. I could have been five, six, seven. I had some family members, some cousins actually, that played in a band and they did like top 40 cover stuff and they traveled the country playing just little places, hotels or whatever. My mom and dad are huge fans. They love live music and they love to go watch and play though. They would bring me in as a little kid because they couldn't find a babysitter or whatever the case. So they tagged me along and I had to sit in the back and don't say a word and be quiet and just sit right there. And I just watched and I remembered I just watched and I said, I want to do that. I was just drawn to it like a magnet. I want to do that. And I didn't really fee go after it after that. I just kind of grew up and just kind of wanted to play drums. I wanted to sing. I chose drums over singing. I don't know if that was good or bad, I don't know. But I started going to concerts, my favorite bands, iron Maid and a Wasp and all that stuff growing up. And that just kind of fueled the fire. And then I remember at 14, I just begged my dad I wanted a drum set so bad. In my mind, I knew how to play drums. I just didn't have a drum set. He finally broke down and we drove down and got a drum set. And then I got it home and set it up, and I was terrible. I thought I knew how to play. I thought I knew. But I just practiced because it was a real love of mine. My parents were splitting up around that time. I was kind of a kid. I was alone. I didn't really have an outlet. I was into sports a lot, but I really love music because music was soothing me and helping me through my hard times. And so I hung on that and, you know, your parents never liked that. Why are you doing why are you doing that? Come on, do something right. Like, this is what I love to do. And so I just pursued it really heavily. As I got up to my senior in high school, I was already moved out of my house with my parents, lived about four or 5 hours away from where my really hometown was, and I played in a band, and I went to high school and did my senior year alone and did it all on my own. So that's what I wanted to do. After that, I moved to the big city in Phoenix, Arizona, out here in the States, and I just started building it. And from there I was just in a couple of bands and then this one in between all that, I retired for about ten years because I got married and had a kid, and I didn't want to be the dad that was never there. And then ten years later, he started growing up and music found me again and, you know, and here we go. Then I met Gordon all of a sudden, and then he said, I got this Images of Eden thing. I'm like, I don't know, man. I don't know if I have time to do any of that. Then we hooked up, and then all of a sudden something hit me, like, I'm all in. Let's go get my hair out. Bought a new drum set. Let's go. And now we kind of joke about it. We went from couch to sold out theaters in less than five years. It's crazy. And your proof that you can actually have the family and still be the rock star, you can you got to have your priorities straight, and a lot of people do it and just make sure you're taking care of your business at home and squeak out for a little bit and come home and get back on it again. So, yeah, it's a juggling act and you got to be on your game, but it can be done. It's like you have the best of both worlds when you get it right. Oh, yeah. And Images of Eden formed 20 years ago, but you rebranded five years ago. What led to the rebranding? Well, Gordon was kind of like almost like a one man band with the Images of Eden. He would have a lot of members that come and help them, and they would do a studio recording and then something would happen and they would leave and you have to get somebody else. Gordon's always been the main rider and the main message giver behind all this and whatnot. So it's always rolled with him as a center point and it's just evolved over those 1st 15 years was just kind of a revolving door then, doing studio records and not being on a record label and just kind of doing them on your own, and it was like that. Then when Gordon and I met, he kind of presented it all to me and I just got a business marketing mind. He's very talented, I've got talents. We put them together and let's rebrand this. Let's get the right members in it, let's get the logo right, let's get our music message correct. How we're going to bounce this up into a next level from what he's already done and work it. Let's see what happens. Let's shop it with some labels and let's see what happens. So we put it all together and it took us about a year or two to kind of put it together with the members and the music and the recording. It was kind of coming off the couch, trying to all of a sudden put all this together again. So it took a little time to get started, but then we got signed to Pay Entertainment. Bill McCoy produced our records. The last two. Gordon and I produced this last one. We did it on our own, but yeah, we just built it from there. So as soon as we got signed, we had the avenues to go out and represent images of you in the marketing and promo avenues. We got tours and went out with Metal Church and Doro and got to go on a couple of tours with the Eng, and now we're going out with Michael Schenker and Eric Martin. So those kind of things, when you're with a label representing like that, it really helps you get to where you need to be. Yeah, I think we did a good job rebranding. We're not done yet. I mean, we're getting this thing pushed to where it needs to be right now. We're branded it, we're there, we know where we're at, we just got to turn the corner with it. All right, now, I think this tour is our turning point. I feel that must be very exciting, though, to know that you're at that exact moment where it's the turning point. I'm bigger kings lay ahead. Yes. It's just something that you got a feel for. And I mean, I've had to do this for so long, and being in business, period, you just kind of have a feel when you're starting a business, you're marketing it, you put some investments in it, you're polishing it, you're making a sign, you're getting customers or whatnot. It's kind of like that. You just feel like you build over the last five years, and now it's the turning point. And that's kind of what I feel. So we'll see. We'll see if I'm right. Hopefully you will be. You've got a great product anyway. But as you mentioned, you have a long history in music. You're a founding member of Born of Fire as well as being in Images of Eden. Yes. Over the years, how has your approach changed to making music and touring? Well, I never got to tour with Born of Fire, but we made lots of music. It's totally night and day from how I used to do it to how we do it now. Last time was more of we had five guys in one room and everybody's rattling off a bunch of stuff, and we're trying to kind of decipher it and put it together. And it's a little tougher that way, I would say. Yeah, but that's how it was done then. But now with Gordon, he's got more of visioned, ideas that he'll lay out. He plays guitar too, so he'll lay out some ideas. So here's what I'm thinking. Wow, let's maybe tweak this and that, or flip that, or wow, it's great, let's build this. So he kinda provides the shells right now, and so he'll give them to me and I can analyze them for a few weeks, dig into the song, break it apart, figure out what it's about, how my feeling needs to come out on this, and build my drum lines. And then I will record my drum lines in the luxury of my own home here. And when I'm done with that, I send them back to him. If he likes them, boom. It goes out the door onto the assembly line. So with that sense, things are a little tighter, more precise. They can use more analyzation time rather than getting in a room, collaborating, putting this on together. You think it's great, then you're paying for studio time. You got 2 hours, man. Your time is running out. Let's go. And you just get it done. But this time you can record it, you can switch it up, you can change things, really analyze. So this time around, I think it's much better how we do it now for a final product sense. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And you know, it's amazing that nowadays, like, as you mentioned earlier, You can be in different parts of the country, you can be in different parts of the world, and you can still post an album or post a song together. You don't have to be in the same room that isn't that amazing? We wish we could be, but he was like, well, it's just never going to happen, so you might as well just deal with it. But, you know, thank God for technology. And sometimes technology is horrible, but in this sense, as long as we can email files and open them up, we're good. The only thing, though, and maybe a downside, I hear last, is you kind of need to be in the room jamming together and bouncing IDs off each other. How do you feel about that? Well, I still like that, and we still kind of do that, but we do it with, okay, here's what I did. Send it off. What do you guys think? Hey, they'll say, well, let's flip these two parts around and I'm going to do it with you. All right, cool. We'll do that. Send it back. So we do that. But it's like, okay, here's my idea. Give me a reply idea back, and then we finally mend it. Okay, it's on. So maybe a little more process. But normally everybody's so sharp, the show will come out. We'll just highlight all of our parts on there and everybody just builds it. We're also on the same page right now. That's why it's very important to bring the right character guys into your group. You got the right heart, right character guys with the same goal, the same mindset. Things work easy. Things work easy. It's seamless just to jump back into your history of this, the podcast is called Concerts That Made US, as a concert, gore yourself. What concerts do you think have made you rush Grace Under Pressure tour with Gary Moore opening 1984. Oh, man, that was a good one. I could say so. You know, Wasp concert that I went to, judas Priest concert that I went to, 1985. Iron Maiden concert I went to 1986, I think, with Twisted Sister opening up power slave tour. Those are some of the things right there that just put the fork in me. And that's what I want to do. I would stand there like a little kid and just watch. And I wouldn't be a fan just going off like that. I'd be watching, analyzing. I want to know your mindset. I want to know your mindset. I'm watching it all and I'm soaking this in. That's what I do when I go to concerts. I take a piece from everybody. I steal the thumb. Do it to me, too. Anyway, it's all good. But in today's world, drummers Stat Holland, the Metal Church, ex Wasp drummer, a good friend of mine, I toured with him with Metal Church. Super good dude and great drummer. I can never twirl sticks like he does. I'm just never, ever going to give a try. Greg hall. Kelly Smith. Ex Lotson. Drummer These are all fantastic drummers. That charlie Benante. These are all guys that have huge influences on me and my drumming. So you'll hear some classic metal drumming come out of me, but also with kind of a more modern twist on top of it, too, with our delivery. Yeah, I got you. Jeez. Some of them I'm surprised. I remember those dates. I was just going to say they were impactful times in my life, so I remember them. Yeah. I'm hugely jealous over some of them. Lion ups from deities, though. Especially Gary Moore. I never had the chance to see him. And he's one of the most legendary guitarists out there. He was unbelievable. Actually, personally, I got to see Maiden this year for the first time ever and really? That's pretty incredible, huh? Yeah, great show. I didn't know what to expect, but oh, my god. The best stage show ever. All the props and stuff like that. That's unbelievable. It is, yes. Which leads me to my next question. What do you think goes into putting on a good stage show? I mean, I love a theatrical state show. Just things like Iron Maiden does with the theatrics and the backdrops and I don't know what you saw, but they had that airplane up in the air, it came down. It's like that kind of stuff. That's entertainment. That's a show. It has huge entertainment value. I mean, when people come to see a band live, sure, they're there to see your music and see you on stage going to the motions. But I mean, so much time. He's evolved. There's so many bands out there, you got to put on a show if you have the time. Now we don't have time to put on a show. We got to get up on stage, players set and get off. Michael's coming. I love to do that. I mean, one of the kings of theatrics on stage is like king diamond. I know he can be a little evil and whatnot, but he puts a great stage show on the theatrics and everything that goes into that is like humongous. That's a lot of choreography. Everything that you got to do. It's a whole other stage manager to handle all that stuff and make sure everybody stays safe. But yeah, prop stage show, if you can incorporate something, if it's small something, it really helps you show. Yeah, definitely. I'm always saying those are my favorite type of gigs, you know, when there's something more than the music, you know, something to add to the entertainment factor. Keep the fans engaged. Exactly. And out of gigs that you guys have played as a band, what concerts have made you guys? Well, there was a turning point when we first started Images of Eden. We started playing theater shows immediately. We never hit the bars circuit or anything like that. So one of our shows we opened up for jeff hate, and it was a turning point for us. Another one was we opened up for striper. That was a turning point for us musically, as we felt ourselves getting better on stage. We played with the iron maidens, the old girl iron maiden tribute to they're a huge draw over here in the states. I think they are over in europe area, too. But we played some of those gigs and we just kind of felt ourselves progressing and getting better and better. And I remember at the striper show was kind of our musical turning point where it all kind of came together and we were up here, not down here, you know what I mean? From there on, we just kind of keep rolling. We just keep building and keep climbing the ladder. Is there a highlight from your claim, touring that sticks out in your mind that you constantly go back to and remember fondly? I like to take care of kids out there. So there was this one concert, it was in green bay, wisconsin, last year, the epic event center. Really big venue, really cool place. We got done playing. I see these two little kids up front at the gate by the stage, and they're trying to reach out to get something afterwards, a pick. I could always throw out a couple of sticks to everybody when I'm done, but I saw them out, so I saved them. And it was a pretty far reach from my stage to the gate where they're at like 8ft away. So I was trying to reach I didn't want to throw it because I didn't want it to drop. And somebody else, I'm trying to reach out and give it to him. I'm stretching as far as I can. I'm almost ready to fall off the stage. And someone came behind me and grabbed my belt loops. I think it was eric mulvane. My bass player grabbed my belt loops and extended me out about six more inches, and I was able to put it in the kid's hand and he got it. And his dad came up to me afterwards, it's like, oh, wow, you made a huge impact on him. It's like, man, I can't thank you enough. I wanted to make sure he got that. So I remember that. And then someone took a picture of it from behind and gave it to me of the hand off. And it was kind of an epic picture. All the fans and me trying to stretch out, someone holding my belt loops, handing the kid the stick just to change somebody's day. One word, one gesture changes somebody's life. It happened to me. It'll happen to you, it'll happen to somebody. So, yeah, that's a memory that sticks out from the last tour. Jeez, that's actually a lovely memory. Both not just change someone's day. An act like dash from a musician on stage has the potential to change someone's life. You know, 1520 years time, that kid could be sitting here being interviewed on the podcast and be a member of one of the biggest bands, and that will be a standout memory that got him into music. Something happened to me when I was a little kid, and I took off with it. So music is great. Could you imagine a world without music? We pour everything into that. I mean, if we're not feeling good or we're feeling great or whatever the case may be, little do we know everybody turns to music at some point in time of the day. But yeah, it's great to go out and put a smile on somebody's face and then be able to go up and rip the stage up with some double bass at the same time. It's awesome. Yeah, exactly. Now, not to get negative, but I always switch it around. Now, what's one of the worst experiences you've had on tour, and how did you overcome it? Okay, well, yeah, I'll just be honest with you here. Well, I was on a tour with Gangbay Mountainstein last year, and it's not the easiest of tours when you're an opening band going out with him. Leave it at that. We're very respectful, very humble. We're big fans of his also, but we didn't get always great treatment out there, so I don't even want to get into it too deep. But we went to Detroit one night, and we were supposed to play a gig, and things weren't working well with Yingvay and the sound check and the venue, so they had a lot of delays. Then apparently the agent hired another local band to come in and open for us when there shouldn't have been anybody else on the bill. So therefore, they took all of our stage time up, and then so there was hardly any time for us to play. So before yvette was supposed to go on, because when he's supposed to go on, he starts, if you're on stage, you got to get off. That's kind of the deal. So we just kind of got screwed over a little bit, and it was more than a couple of times, and that one kind of took the cake. I was just really angry that we travel all these miles through Colds and whatever, and we get there, we have to deal with that. So I was angry, but I don't know what we did. We just got through the night. We got to play, like, three or four songs. The sound guy couldn't get his stuff together, so we were getting ready to play, he just couldn't get it together. So I'm like, I'll screw it. Let's just pack up. Let's pack up and go. Ain't going to happen. Everybody's watching. So I start packing up and he goes, oh, I got it working. Okay. Unpack real quick and plug back in. And we didn't get too far in the pack, and then we played three or four songs and we got cut off and had to pack everything upload it and go to your hotel and go to the next city. It's deflating when that stuff happens to you. It's a rolling production. You travel, you want to go, you want to set up, you want to play for everyone and get your kind of your worth out of all that you went through to get there. And sometimes it don't happen the next day. We all had to just group up, say, Guys, some days are bad days and we just need to be blessed that we're here and today will be a better day. And it was. I don't know where we went, but we ended up going somewhere else and we had a sold out show and everybody went nuts. It was fun. So it's just things happen on the road and when you're in the opening band, you're going to feel the brunt of it sometimes. So that's just the way it is. I feel like that's such a tough and a horrible situation to be in because I feel like you have to be respectful and I feel like there wouldn't really be much opportunity to bring that up to make a change with anyone. Oh, I did. Oh, I brought it up crazy. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. So it's all good. You chalk it up like it's the music business, man. It's not a bunch of rainbows and cotton candy, that's for sure. There's a lot of empty promises and all kinds of stuff. You got to be solid when you're out on the road. You got to be solid within your group because it's just when you're solid within your group, there's going to be things that try to come in and derail you. You just got to shrug it off, keep rolling. Know what your purpose is out on the tour and we have a purpose on the tour. It's not just to go out and party in high five and kick a beer can around and say, we played on stage and we got a purpose, man. We got a purpose. We're going out to give some good motivation to a lot of people across America. Yeah, exactly. I just thought something actually a story you'd appreciate. I heard once this band in Ireland, there were newish band, the Gala, in a tour with much larger band, and they were torn, England and Ireland, and the larger band wouldn't let the drummer have a bass drum. What did he use? He just had the snare and the symbols and the tomb. What wouldn't like to have a bass drum? Okay, well, that's a deal killer for me, man. Yes. No two are. In fairness, this band were more kind of more towards pop than rock or metal, so it wasn't very bass. Still, you kind of don't need a bass drum. Yeah, it would help you like telling a good Harris. He can only have three or four strings, I suppose. I'm part Irish, by the way. Really? Really. Have you ever been? No, I haven't. I hope to. You should. It's a beautiful spot over here, especially in the summer. We always say, Why would you go to Spain or the Caribbean when you have a beautiful summer in Ireland? Oh, man. I think I'm half German, half Irish. My skin blonde, blue eyes.

Participant #1:
Yes. And of course, the opposite is true. Then you don't want to come here in the winter. Yes. Or especially this winter. Right. Everybody's getting ready to struggle over there this winter. All right. Yeah. I don't know too much about that, but I know it's kind of a bad deal. It is, yeah. With prices of everything going up, and then we'll be getting bad weather and stuff like that, you have to find the brighter side as well at the same time. Well, hopefully I can come visit in the spring. Maybe that'll be better. Exactly. We'll have to hook up and have a Guinness or something. Oh, for sure. Maybe more than one. Yeah. Before we get into the last couple of questions, one I have for you is when you're much older, you can no longer hold the drumsticks, and you look back at your career. What needs to happen for you to feel fully fulfilled? Well, before I reach that point, there's a certain place I want to reach with this band, and that is playing for Seas of People. I'm kind of making a documentary of our whole story. The story's not completed yet. It's going from we started on the couch, and it's going to end. We're playing for a sea of people, and it's going to tell that story, how we got there. We're right about the story right now. Needs a turn. I wanted to do that, but as I get older, I think about that now as I'm in the game now, will I be proud when I'm done older? I'm working on that right now. Okay. And I'm doing everything I can now while I'm able to. And so when I am older and not able to do this, I can look back and be proud and know I have pieces of recordings in time that will never go away. It's a snapshot in time. Every one of your albums, pictures, or whatever it may be, it's a snapshot in time. It's timeless. So I want to make a mark and know that I left a positive mark on this place before I go. Now, if I can do that, I'm good. I love that answer, the sincerity in it. And as well, what I was thinking was, as hard as you work and as hard as the band works, I'm sure that whatever happens, you'll have achieved great success. That's right. We're living it right now. I mean, success is a journey, and it's never a destination, because if you're there, then what? It's always a journey, it's always a stepping stone. And as long as we're doing something in the right frame of mind of what we do, that journey will just keep going until we just physically can't do it anymore. So, yeah, I'm reminding everybody we're living it right now, guys. I mean, this is something we all dreamed about, doing a record of a video and next week we're heading out on a big tour and doing interviews on the tour. We're doing all this stuff, we're busy and this is what we all wanted, so it's happening now. So I tell everybody, enjoy now, enjoy every minute of it. Enjoy now and tomorrow we don't have nothing to do. We'll figure out something for that, but enjoy now. And that's what we're doing. And I think we're putting high quality time and efforts and outputs on our production. So we'll be proud in the future, no question. All about living in the moment and future plans. As you said. You're heading out with Michael Schenker. Would you like to tell us about us? Sure, we're heading out, actually looking at my calendar, we're leaving on Monday next week to head out to California to start the tour. Tour stops are already selling out. I think we got six sell out so far on the tour and hasn't started yet. Our very first show is sold out and our third show is sold out and our fifth show is sold out and some others, but we're working on more. So it's a blessing to be able to go out with an icon like Michael Shinker to go support him on his tour and also to give everybody a nice presentation of images of Eden. So I think it's going to be really fun going out with these guys. I met Michael a couple times before in the past. Super duper cool guy. It's kind of be a culture shot from our last tour to this tour, so it's going to be cool. And then Eric Martin is going to be opening up, which he was a radio king back in the late eighty s and ninety s and is still doing great stuff. This super good guy, I haven't met him yet, but I hear he's really fun, likes to joke around and have a great time that's dislike odds, so we should have just a blast. So I'm really looking forward to it. I think this is going to be one of our best tours to date, just with the friendliness of everyone, the organization. The tour manager is on, the money on everything and I'm normally the tour manager and we go out so we like perfect. You're doing everything right, Steve. You're doing everything right. Great. So we're all hitting off really well and very excited. So we're just going to get sleep when we can and put on a great show every night. Jeez, you're after getting me excited for it now and I'm, like, thousand miles away. Sounds like it's going to be epic. And is there anything locked in further down the line, europe? Not yet. Like I said, we just put this EP out on Friday. The video just came out, the tour is coming up, so we're kind of, like, going to go run off with all that and let some opportunities kind of funnel in here before the year ends and yeah, it's just, you know, we really want to get to Europe. We just we got to get over there and show everybody what we can do and I hope everybody likes it. That's my goal after the first year, is to get over on that side. So that's what we're looking for. We're going to see how radio charting and reviews and how this album sells and all that, but so far, so good. Brilliant. Brilliant. And when you finally do make it over here, don't forget about Ireland. Remember, you're half Irish, you have to come back by the top of my list.

Participant #1:
Brilliant. Brilliant. So we'll move on to the last couple of questions now. Everybody gets these, so you can't get off the podcast till you answer, I'm afraid. Okay. If there was an artist or performer from history you could see in concert for one night only, who would it be? Okay. Elvis Presley. Really? Well, my parents were a huge fan. I know he was an icon of his time. It still is today and I would just love to go see him perform. He was the ultimate performer. Yeah, I've said it before in the podcast. I'm a massive Elvis fan. When I was eight and nine years of age, I started clicking all his records. I'm massively into him and I'm always kind of shocked when people give that as an answer or I'm shocked when metal guys give that as an answer, but it's good to see he's still in people's thoughts, I suppose, even today the next one. So if you could be locked in a room with any performer or artist from history, living or dead, for 24 hours, who would it be? Let's see. That's a tough one. Neil Perk. Right. What would you hope to learn? Well, I would just try to pick up anything I could. I don't know. I mean, really, his thought process behind riding this drum wrist the way he does. Yeah. Good choice, though. Good choice. And the final one, if there was a song that could appear on the soundtrack to your life, what would it be? Would it be one of my songs? Yeah, any song at all in memory of me on our last album, Angelborn. Right. If you have never heard that before, check it out. It's pretty crazy, right? Perfect choice. So, listen, I've really enjoyed chatting with you for the last hour. It's been really informative and really enjoyable. Thank you. Me as well. Thank you very much.

Participant #1:
Music video.

Participant #1:
Thank you.

Participant #1:
Please give me another day again.

Participant #1:
Hey, guys. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please rate and review us on itunes and Spotify. And if you're interested in signing up the Band Builder Academy, use the link in the show notes below and enter the code concerts and you'll receive 10% off. So until next time, keep rockin.

Participant #1:
Hey. Hey. What are you guys still doing here? The show is over. It's over. You can go home. Go on. We'll see you next time. We'll be here.

Participant #1:
Bye.