Raf Soto & Tim Woos - Evil Bong Band, Lungbuster & OnlyBands Records

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Welcome to Vermont Talks. It's episode 50. I am here with Raph and Tim from EvilBong. Not here today is Steven, who's a vocalist, and Toby, who's on drums for EvilBong. They're both also in Lungbuster with Rick, who's not here. What's Rick do? He plays guitar. He plays guitar. Cool. He shreds the six string. Nice. We actually play totally different instruments in Lungbuster than we do in EvilBong. What do you play? Hold on. Let me finish. Also, both Raph and Tim are involved in Only Bands Records, which is new? Correct. Yeah. First release was the sudden unknown signal album Missy, and that was October 2023. So a little over a year ago. Cool. Okay. All right. Awesome. Let's get into EvilBong. What do you both do in EvilBong? So I play the bass, and I also do vocals with Steven, right? Because he does more like the clean vocals, and then I'll do what's called like the harsh vocals, like dirt, you know, yelling into the mic. And then Tim plays guitar. Yep. And is the primary songwriter for the project. Probably write the instrumental stuff, mostly at least. Well, that's still writing. It still counts. And I meant to mention EvilBong is listed as stoner metal about wizards and weed. Would you like to elaborate on the sound or the genre of the band? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, a lot of people think heavy metal, they think really fast, aggressive music. And we do some stuff that's pretty fast, but for the most part, we like to keep it real slow, laid back. We tune our instruments way down, and we just play riffs, you know. Definitely following in the vein of Black Sabbath, you know, going way back. Yeah, and you know, I mean, there's been so many great bands since then that have really, you know, developed and defined the genre. And I think, you know, I think right now the scene is like stronger than ever in terms of the music that's being made. And I've, you know, since we've started this project, I've had just such an amazing time. It's very, I don't know what to call it exactly if guttural is the right word. It's very low, like really low metal. Yeah, absolutely. It's very good. I very much dig the vibe. I love metal myself, but it's different than a lot of stuff you hear around town. And everyone has such specific lines that they draw around metal that you don't want to call the wrong band metal band down. Because they will not like that. They're like hardcore band or something like that. And I, I, I miss the lines exactly. So it makes me happy that you're just like, yeah, it's metal. Yeah, yeah. Because I feel like it could almost fall under not black metal, but there's another genre. Doom metal. Doom. Doom metal. Yes, very, very low, very, very low. Yeah, Stoner Doom, Stoner Sludge. Well, it's 100% the vein. Yeah. Yeah. 100% the vein that we're in. It's very cool. So when did the actual band start Evil Bone? I know you guys have played together and probably jammed for a long time, but this project, when did this one start? I feel like Tim had the idea about maybe two or three years ago. Yeah. And did a lot of it, like conceptualizing on his own, you know, and then during that time was kind of sending out feelers and stuff. This was before he really had like a name and everything just kind of riffs and little ideas. Yep. And then, you know, I'll let him talk about it, but I guess somehow he was talking to Stephen about like the Wizard and the Evil Bone stuff. And Stephen was like, you know about the movies, right? And then that sort of just like sparked the whole thing because like, you know, there's like the crappy B movies, Evil Bone, they made like 10 or something. I just discovered this. Well, like, you know, whatever you call it, the cult classics. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Right. And then, you know, that just kind of sent it in the overdrive. And then at that time, him, Stephen and Toby were in another band. So that became the basically the bones for it. And then, you know, Tim knew that that was kind of right up my alley with the stoner doom thing because we started playing in that project first before I invited him to be a longbuster. Because aside from, you know, that he he runs like a recording studio as a business. So, you know, in the process of recording our songs, we just kind of decided that like, hey, why don't you go play in one buster too? You know what I mean? So it's just kind of like, when you're there in the moment, this is the melting pot of a lot of different things. But, you know, between the movies and like what we were already doing, you know what I'm saying? And then ripping a lot of bongs, of course. It all just formulated into a sonic stew of like heavy proportions, you know. Right. And these guys are heavy into the like Dungeons and Dragons sort of thing. So they got the whole fantasy aspect as far as like the lyrical content and just the lore, so to say, of the band and the fictional story. It goes so well with the Yvonne concept. See, I didn't know the movies existed until today when I was looking for your band. And I'm like, oh my God, I need to watch the movie. Yeah, no, they put me on too. I didn't know before either. Yeah, I mean, I didn't know until right, we had already been playing for a little bit and didn't really have a name for the project. And then I started writing this song about the evil wizard's bong. Nice. And that later that day, Stephen came by the studio and I was telling him about it and I had this whole story and stuff. And he was like, well, you know about evil bong, right? I was like, no. And I, you know, went online and I read a synopsis of the plot and I was like, dude. Somehow this other guy like came up with the same idea for evil bong like 20 years before I did. Weird. You know, like, that's some, you know, and I was like, I mean, evil bong is the greatest band name I've ever heard. If I saw evil bong on a flyer, I'd be like, yeah, I'm going to that. It sells itself. It sells itself. So have you done any live shows yet? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I saw there was a YouTube video in New York. New Hampshire probably. Yeah, that's another friend brewing. Yeah, that that was a really fun show. Cool. Yeah, we, we did a like week long New England tour last summer and we've played a whole lot. Well, I don't know a whole lot, but a good number of times locally. You know, Despacito, we played metronome. We played drink. You know, pretty much anywhere that books metal these days. Yeah, kind of slimming down. So a lot of times it brings us out of town. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, especially recently, you know, with the monkey house not booking heavy music anymore. That was a real hit. Yeah. To us. So, you know, we, the heavy scene in general. Yeah, definitely. Yep. Yep. So, you know, we're playing shows basically everywhere we can. Right. But if you, you know, the more you spread out of Vermont, though, especially in the Northeast, there is an audience for what we're doing. Oh, yeah. You know, people show up sometimes even more than locally and, you know, they're hungry for it. So we love hitting the road as much as possible. Yeah. Now there's a strong metal scene in the whole Northeast area. Boston's got, Boston's kind of got one of those weirdly legendary, I heard about it when I was a kid kind of music scene. They're very much respects the metal. 100%. Connecticut. Nowadays too with the whole pot thing. I mean, the stoner metal is very strong in Boston specifically. You know, there's a huge stoner metal scene out there very well received every time we play out there. So that's definitely one of our favorite places to go. And like you mentioned, Connecticut too, always well received in Connecticut. So we love to go there too. Plattsburg as well. We've played in Plattsburg. Plattsburg never disappoints. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever been to any of those bars out there, but they never disappoint for the metal shows. I have really not. I know the monopole is very well loved. Sure. P-Bodies. Yep, P-Bodies. Cool. Some good stuff, man. So yeah, man. And then it definitely helps to have like a solid concept so that we can just show up and completely immerse people in the vibe, like in the atmosphere of the story. The concept is really cool because it immediately evokes like guare or like some theatrical something. For sure. It's very theatrical. Yeah, right. We're trying to figure out how to. Oh, you. You know, someone's got to dress as a wizard. Right. Like, obvious. Like, come on. Sometimes Stephen does. And a really big bong. Cypress Hill style. I did bring a regular sized bong. Raph plays the bass with a bong. Sometimes. Nice. Like a slide. Full disclosure, there's no water in it. It's just an empty, you know, bong, but it's for visual aspect. It looks cool. Hey, it smells better. It does. It does. Yeah. And then sometimes Stephen has this cool robe with a hood on it that he wears for local gigs. But yeah, we're trying to get the stage antics to get it. You know, so. I could see it. I could definitely see it. You could do all sorts of things. Oh, yeah. Someone needs a staff, the crystal ball, you know, I like your staff. Yes. Yeah, I can. I might have to get you in on some of the process. The brain is storming. You know, so cool. So do you have any upcoming shows for you? A long planned or are you working on recording like anything cool going on? We got a lot of cool going on. So in February over at Despacito, like what we were mentioning, our good buddy Scott Gray is hosting a show. And you know, honestly, if it wasn't for Scott Gray, I don't think a lot of the heavy music around here would be going on. It's true. You know what I mean? But February 22nd, it's a Saturday and we're playing with this band, Sons of Arrakis. From Canada. I love the name. Yeah. No, they're dope. They're a bunch of dune freaks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're dune freaks and they play this fuzzed out sci-fi rock and roll and we're the opening act. Awesome. So we're stoked to play on that. Good pair up. You know, that's right now the only gig that's confirmed because we're also working on recording our next release, right? Because we have the one song out on Spotify and all that other stuff, but we have another song in the works that we're going to be recording soon. And so, you know, between the recording process and that one show, that's kind of what we got on the plate right now, just because we don't want to bite off more than we can chew. We want to make sure that the quality is there more than anything. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, that first record, that's why I was a little shocked that I hadn't seen the YouTube video. I literally found it just before I drove here. So I haven't watched you guys play live yet, but I was kind of like, whoa, this is like really high quality for like the first single to drop. So I was excited to come talk to you guys. We're lucky to have linked up with this guy because he is an audio wizard. He's got a lot of experience. You know, he's got the good tools and knows how to use them. And that is definitely to our advantage because, you know, sometimes in Doom Metal, not a lot of like high quality sound and stuff. Right. You can get away with it, but definitely helps set you apart, especially for your first release. And I got to give a shout out to Eric New Hampshire. Is a A-R-R-I-C-K New Hampshire. He has a YouTube page where he posts like all these live sets of bands. You know, he has a camera that has a YouTube camera. I think that's exactly the link I'm going to include on your show notes page. Yeah, I got to give him a love. Because I thought that was pretty evil. Oh, yeah. Definitely can shout out to him. Oh, yeah, man. Because he shared Lungbuster as well when we played at the Stone Church. So, you know, we got a lot of love for our YouTube guys. He's got a bunch of just great video. Like I watch his channel, you know, he's got some big bands on there. So to be included in that is pretty sick. Yeah, definitely. Definitely solid, very solid. I can feel the DND vibes. Yeah. Well, and Stephen is really he's the dungeon master, you know, he's got a brain that just fires off. Like if you if he gets stowed at an idea, it just like for it is almost like a chat GPT or something. He's just like the idea just expands huge and he's got all these crazy things going on. So the Lord just creates itself right in front of you. It's like it's cool. Oh, yeah. It's very creative and hilarious. He's a goofball. Oh, yeah. Right. He's a goofball. I feel what you're saying about the like theme and message. It gives you so much to play with without having to like, I don't know, so many bands are like, I'm pulling from my own life and my heartbreak. Yeah, it's the same rock song. Yeah. That is a lot of that already. These guys are wicked into video games too. So it kind of lends itself to that sort of thing. We're pulling from a lot of different inspirations, right? Like you could even call it unconventional, I guess, because just different stuff. Like we're pulling from our lives, but different aspects of our lives. Like these guys are wicked into video games and fantasy and DND and stuff. I'm wicked into stoner metal. Like not that they aren't, but you know, I'm wicked into stoner metal and ripping bongs and this and that and like yelling into a mic like I just gargled some bong water. You know what I'm saying? So I love doing that. And basically, you know, like this guy, for instance, he has a lot of influences from electronic music. You wouldn't even think, right? You know what I'm saying? But the electronic music influence definitely is present there and we apply it in a creative way that translates into like the doom. You know what I'm saying? There's like some jazz influence in there and some hip hop. Like for instance, our drummer Toby, he's a hip hop like beat producer. And so when he's looking at rhythms and stuff like that, like he's coming at it from a different perspective and it translates into the music very well. You know what I'm saying? So it's just a culmination of a bunch of different aspects that maybe you wouldn't necessarily expect, but they really come together in a dope way. And that's what makes it fun. It makes it fresh. And like you said, the material writes itself because it's not derivative or boring. You know what I'm saying? And the world is our oyster really. Yeah. Right. I love this idea. I love theatrical bands. It's pretty cool. I think this is really cool. I think you've got a great sound already starting. Thanks. I appreciate that. You know, I'm coming from, you know, I grew up in the classical music world. And I'm writing, you know, a lot of chamber music, orchestra music, vocal music, you know, all that stuff. And I went to school for that. And at a certain point I was kind of done with like serious music. And I felt like there was too, too much of it. And it was all, as one of my teachers said, it was all doom and gloom, which is funny, because now I'm in a doom metal band, but it's, it's. It's silly though. It's like, yeah, it's, yeah, it's campy, very lighthearted. I always loved like, you know, super violent old, you know, B horror movies, just super over the top and, and, you know, super tongue-in-cheek kind of. And I always, I always love, yeah, exactly. I always love that side of metal that was like, like very kind of over the top. I mean, like glam, you know, sort of like, like, but self-aware, you know, and kind of laughing at itself and not taking itself seriously. Right, intentional, like Evil Dead. Yeah, exactly. The second one. Oh yeah. The first one, they tried to make it serious. The second one, they were like, nah. Nah, they knew. This is more fun. Well, and you get all of Evil Dead 1 in the first 15 minutes of Evil Dead 2, and then you just have the best movie ever. Everybody always talks about Army of Darkness and like, no hate to Army of Darkness. It's great. Right. But like, Evil Dead 2 is maybe the greatest horror movie of all time. It's so beautiful. I have a lot of love for this camera. It's one of those classics that's just cemented in the books. It's right up there with Evil Bong 3. Yeah, Evil Bong 3 is a pretty good one. Well, that's what it is. I, watching what I think of Evil Dead, I could feel like a back metal like track to it that's not there. Like, and I, when you're talking about the Campy Metal, it's like, ah, that's what that movie is missing. Oh, totally. Like that vibe combined with the music. Yeah. It's a thing. It's a real thing. Absolutely. I wish there was more examples of it because I'm trying to think of examples because Guar is not the right example. Guar is very theatrical, but I don't love their music. Like, I can't Guar without being at Guar. I really love going to a Guar show, but I'm not like, I'm going to listen to the next Guar single. Sure, yeah. I guess so. They're okay, but they're more fun to watch than anything. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm definitely, Castle Rat is kind of holding the torch right now for theatrical doom bands. They have like a whole show that involves props and costumes and monologues and stuff, but then they also have some doom and riffage too. So it's kind of like, yeah, Castle Rat, I think is the main non-Guar band doing that right now that I can think of. Yeah, definitely. I would say Uncle Ashton, the Dead Beats. Yeah, Uncle Ashton is like, you know, less so, but like they got, I mean, they're incredible. Yeah, they got some costumes and stuff. And if not costumes, some like cool outfits or whatever. Right. But Castle Rat, you're right. Yeah, they have huge projections. Cool. Projections I think are a great element. We've tried to incorporate that. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, now you can not, well, that's the thing, everything costs money, right? But now with those little portable rechargeable projectors, I feel like I wish bands could start doing that more. That's it. I can't tell the bands to be like, go spend 200 bucks on this thing that doesn't even make music. Yeah, well, we got to start getting paid for. But the vibe is important, right? The visual aspect goes a long way. That's it. People will come out to the shows and not to call it a gimmick, but just something a little extra, right? Sure. How'd you stand out? Exactly, exactly. There's nothing wrong with a gimmick as long as, you know, the gimmick isn't your whole thing. Right, it's like your crutch. Right. If you get solid music with something fun to watch, that's bread and butter, right? Like they just have a lot of people wanting to come to your shows. It's interesting. This is interesting. I have all these ideas and dreams now. I've always had this concept. This is very random. Combine the studio. We'll shoot the shit. The rain start. Yeah, seriously. It'd be fine. I've always had this funny concept of just like metal bands doing over the top shit. There was always this stupid thing I wanted to do with like dark angel wings. Yeah. I found that. Right, it just sounds funny. And I've been thinking about that for like 10 years. I could see Steven Rockinson's wings. Oh, for sure. Like you could do, and I love the evil bong idea because you guys, for an entire album, you could do some theme for that whole thing and play the entire thing live. Right. It's coming. Right. Really cool. All of our songs are part of one big overarching story. Nice. And so yeah, the next song that we're recording is coming up on, you know, 25, 30 minutes long. Oh, guys. It's kind of also one. Right. The whole story. Yeah, kind of, you know, I'm coming from the classical world and a lot of it is about kind of taking small ideas and looking at them from every different angle possible. And so as I, you know, live with these ideas, some of them for, you know, two, three years at this point, you see them from more angles. And so what are you going to write something else that's looking at the same thing from another angle? And so and it's about picking which of those angles are special. Yeah. You don't know how to tell you now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you're going to mess around with an experiment to really figure out what actually works. Yeah. You can't assume it's going to work. Yeah. It might not work. I was going to say also with the theatrical element, shout out to Hobo Wizard and for those guys put on a great show. One of my absolute favorite live shows. They're on our label as well. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to be doing a record sometime in the next six weeks. Very cool. So yeah, I'm really excited for that. But they play with a big trash can on stage with a fog machine in it and lights. Like an old school like steel circle. Right. Like with the hobo fires. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's great. He like throws his guitar in it and shit. Yeah. They have a smoke machine that like emits smoke from it and like little glowing shit to make it look like there's a fire in there. Well, hey, hobos got to stay warm. Right. Yeah. They have cool shit that they drape over their equipment. Sometimes they even put their merch as a part of their equipment. So it's like visually cool and an efficient way to put the merch out there. Sometimes they'll play these like old timey bum country songs like while they're tearing down or setting up. It's like they got the vibe. Oh, yeah. The nicest dudes. They're funny on stage. Like it's perfect. Cool. And the riffs are slamming. And their brothers to boo. Their actual biological brothers. Actual brothers. Nice. Very cool. So we should talk a little bit about Lung Buster. Yeah. Or I will keep talking about theatrical metal ideas this entire time. So Lung Buster with Rick, who is not here. Tell me about this one. When did this one start? What's it sound like? Okay. So this one is a little more like, I guess you could call sludge. It's like a little heavier, thicker, darker. Yep. Not as campy. You know, it's a little more gritty. And the whole thing is a idea that I've been developing from quite some time because it really started as Lung Buster in like 2019. That's a long time ago now. That's impressive. But it stems from the ashes of a band that it was prior to that smokestack lightning, which started in 2014. So really it's been cooking for a long time. But you know, basically in about 2000, like the winter of 2018 when my band kind of like fizzled out, you know, and it was time to start, you know, fresh. I saw all these ideas and something like, you know, I wanted to continue making Dune, but I didn't want to like use the same name and piss people off because it's like, oh, you know, I'm doing this without you type thing. Right. So then I switched it from smokestack lightning to Lung Buster. And then I sat on these risks for a while. Didn't really know what to do with them. Fast forward to when I was living with my buddy Adam Dean, who was a prominent band made of mine for a long time. And when we lived together, that's when the reality came together. It was more than just my song ideas, you know, the history of my bands have always included like changing lineups. I've always had people coming in and out, changing lineups, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, in and out, blah, blah, this and that and the other, but we do Lung Buster. That's how bands go. You know, right? So during COVID, we got some raw demos together and this and that and the other started doing shows, blah, blah, blah. But I've always had a vision. I've always been a very like driven type of person. So I like to see it through even if it takes years. Yep. And so the more I developed, the more this and that and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, hey, I want to record something else. That's not a jam band. You know, I'll record you for free. Like come through and Adam, you know, I got to give props to Adam because I didn't even see Tim put this out. And even if I did see Tim put that out, I probably would have been like, ah, he's probably not looking for it because I already knew Tim was in an indie band. I was like, he's probably not looking for heavy shit like that. Like, you know, we do some real heavy shit. Not really the common thing. Well, I would have just not even given it a 10. And I didn't even see it, but Adam was just kind of like free recording. Let's go. You know, and so he did it. And you know, this is why you don't assume because Tim ended up being way bigger fan of doom and heavy metal and hardcore. Way bigger fan than I ever thought and would have imagined. So I was definitely wrong about that. And he had a great time recording our album, which we were in a different band called Komodo at the same time. We always do. Yeah, I remember. Always doing different shit all at the same time. You know, saying it's like, oh, this is my songwriting. This is a songwriting. So we're recording Adam's record for Komodo and that's how we got involved with Tim's studio, you know, and then, you know, as we're in the studio often and, you know, we just this and that, blah, blah, blah. He ends up learning the songs for the projects and stuff, blah, blah, blah. And then that's how Tim got involved with Lungbuster because it was just, we were there, you know. Yeah. And he expressed interest in it. You know, I think that's that's an important thing to talk about is like a big part of about like for people who want to like start a band or like join a band or whatever. It's like, you don't have to like start your, your ultimate fantasy project. You know what I mean? Just like find some friends who are doing it and start doing it. You know, all you got to do is do it. All you got to do is be there really. It's a punk rock. All you got to do is be there and that goes for shows too. Just do it. Even if you suck. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like, I don't know. I feel like, I mean, honestly, every show in Brela, you look out in the audience and they're half musicians. Yeah. Well, you got to go to each other's show. Oh yeah. Absolutely. You just, it's got to go to each other's show or else you don't have a music scene. Yeah. So like if you're trying to like meet people in the scene and stuff and like, you know, like you want to like become part of like a group and a community, like they're out there, you know, 100% man. You just got to be asked and be there. Yeah. Exactly man. Yeah. Shout out to all the people who show up to the shows. Yeah. That's it. Every now and then I'll be at a show with like four other people. Like we're here. You guys make it happen. You guys make it happen because, you know, it doesn't matter if you're playing for four people or 400, you should put your all into it. You know what I'm saying? I will say there's those people came out and they're supporting you. Yeah. So give them a show. Even if there's not a lot of people, you don't have to be bummed about that. Give those people something to fucking be stoked on. Yep. The difference between one and 100 people at your show is much less than the difference between zero and one person at your show. I play for zero people all day and I'll still play the same as if I'm playing for 100 people, you know, it's just another practice for the next one. Right. Exactly. That's it. When you love playing music, who cares? Yeah. We're just doing what we do, you know. Always grateful for people, even if it's one, two, three, four people, whatever, we're stoked that people come out. Right. Right. Definitely. But yeah, man, being a musician in the scene, gotta go to other people's shows. It's such a cool world. This little community is insane because I should add up how many bands have actually talked to you and different musicians because everybody plays such different music. Totally. But it's like such a weirdly healthy scene in all aspects. I've not really met anyone who's like, I can't find anyone who likes X-Men. I don't want to get into that kind of music. You'd be hard pressed in Burlington. Yeah, exactly. Because like I know there's so many DJs, there's so many like EDM people there's a lot of like hip hop stuff. I need to get some hip hop people on my show. I need to wedge myself into that scene in Burlington. We could have the Outfit. We could have the Outfit. We could have the Outfit. Yeah, start with Tobi. Right. No, there's some great producers and MCs in town. Havi. Yeah. Cool. Shout out to Havi. Great engineers as well. Yup. There's so many cool little audio studio places. around town. I'm always a little like. There's a lot of studios around here. I'm so shocked. Because every every time they'll just be like, this is a different one that I've never heard of and they've existed for 12 years. Okay, they're pretty low key about it. They really are, but they survive. Like that blows my mind, but not really because that's it. The music scene is just so thriving. Right. There's a lot of private studios for sure. It's impressive. There are a surprising number operating commercially as well. Yeah. It's impressive, man. Yeah. So speaking of only bands, records, which is the funniest name when I saw the evil folks, because I think you shared the single like while back. And I was like, okay, well, when the podcast is like a thing again, I took a hiatus like I like to do. Oh, okay. We needed to reach out to each other, but only bands was like, ha, ha, ha. Okay. Like this. This is funny. So tell me about this. When did when officially did it start and obviously this has been in the making for a long time. So share what you will of the back story. So I basically I, I, I worked as a recording engineer for about a decade. And I most of my clients were jam bands or singer songwriters. And like, there was some amazing stuff that I recorded. You know, shout out to the swimmer guys. I got to work with a bank called Moon Hooch. You know, a lot of really fun stuff. I did some bluegrass with with your boy, Brent, Ben Slotnick. You know, all sorts of stuff, but really what like the music that I love is heavy music. Kind of always has been, you know, I got really into, you know, sludge and doom and stoner stuff in high school. Really. Never really thought, so I was mostly a keyboard player. I played in keyboards in a band called Nome Dad for a while, local band. And I played guitar since I was like 12 maybe. But I just like, you know, when I was in high school, I tried to tune my guitar down and stuff. And I was like, ah, now please like shit. And like, you know, it doesn't sound any good through my like my fender amp, you know what I mean? And like, I just thought like I don't even know where to start, you know? Right. And then, you know, a few years back, I was in between projects and I was like, you know, I'm gonna like, I've always wanted to like get good at guitar, you know? And like, I was like, you know what? I'm setting my guitar up and be standard. Well, actually, I set it up in C standard first and then I wanted to drop it a little more. Right. So I did. You gotta get used to the floppy strings. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I don't know where I was going with that one. Well, so yeah, so it goes back. Oh, only bands. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about putting out the putting out the the bands wanted thing, right? Basically, like, I don't know if Tim mentioned this, but, you know, the main people that have the budget for this sort of thing are jam bands, right? So he wanted to get something else that maybe they couldn't afford the recording session. But that's, you know, he felt that that's no reason for the art to go unnoticed and to just get buried in the history books. So he's looking at it more of like a chronicling situation. Exactly. There's a word recordist, right, is someone who records. Right. We say a lot of the time now recording engineer, but the kind of more, I guess, archaic word is recordist. And I always think about the word record, right? We're making a record of something. We're making a record of a sound that's happening, right? Music is kind of a unique art form in that way. Right. At that moment. Exactly. Exactly. This is what's happening in this place right now. Right. And that's what we're capturing. So I always, right, I like to record the I always, you know, even if amps are in ISO or whatever, depending on the project, like I record the whole band playing together. Yeah. Always, you know, chemistry. Yeah. Because I'm trying to capture that the sound of what's happening. Right. What they actually sound like because it's God awful when you go to a band that you heard on the radio and they sound like crap. Right. Because they clearly were all recorded against a click track or something. So it just sounds like incredibly perfect, but they are not perfectly played together. Yeah. Oh, it's a downer. I had to share this little quote about art. Like you're all good. Art decorates space. Yes. Music decorates time. That's a great quote. Right. And I don't remember who the heck said it originally, but that's exactly why I was there. I like the term recordist. I'm a recordist as well. I like that term. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Tim felt that the music scene had more to offer than that. And he wanted to basically, his visionary in that aspect, because he wanted Burlington to be recognized for more than what it was because there's more than just that. And, you know, he wanted the world to see that Burlington has a lot more to offer than what they thought. And he basically took down the paywall for that. You know, I mean, obviously as a record label, because we started it as a legitimate business, there are aspects where the money is going to come in different ways, whatever, but breaking down the wall for the recording thing, you know, it was a big thing for a lot of heavy bands that don't have the budget to do that sort of thing. And they get a high quality recording out of that. And so naturally, starting this thing became a good wheelhouse for our bands that we were already doing. You know what I mean? Because it's like, why not? Man, as well. So it's a good house for our stuff. Since we're already involved in so many projects, it's good marketing, this and that and the other. But that's a good way for us to sound good. But then also opens the door for other bands too. You know, and then the name only bands sort of just kind of like a funny gimmick for publicity. And it's kind of like, you know, I like Tim's philosophy. Maybe should we say what I guess we don't even have to say. Everyone knows. I think Tim's ready for what could happen. He's ready for what could happen. So he's not worried too much about it, but it's it's definitely a joke. But it's it's like, because it's like campy. Right? It's people's attention. It's legit, though. Right. You want people to know that only bands 10 years ago. Nothing to do with only fans. You know, it's not grabs people's attention. This can't be, you know, so it's like it's legit, but it's also done take us out too seriously. So we want people to know that it's like, more than just a joke, but also not too much of a because you try to name something that's like you try to take it seriously. And sometimes it flops or like, we also it's also not 100% a joke either. So it's just kind of like it's kind of like evil bongus. It's like half funny, but also serious and like quality, you know, right? Oh, no, it's very legit. So so that's the only band story. Where is it? Is it in Burlington? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Well, so actually, so I had a studio on Main Street that I had for four years. I moved out of there and at the end of August. So now I am working out of the tank recording studio, which is here in the north end, run by Ben Collette, who's great. Such a dope studio, man. Yeah, it's a really incredible space. Great people over there. So yeah, I'm working out of there now. Okay, so I have interviewed different people in the recording space. And I honestly get a little confused on where we draw lines in these things. So my friend, Tristan, who is in Valerie Falls, he records, but he is not an audio engineer. He does not do the finishing whatever, the mastering. Yeah, he doesn't do the end, but he only does the beginning bit. Right. That's perfectly cool. And he's producing, but I don't understand like when, when is the line drawn where you just do everything? Is there a magical umbrella term that I need to learn? There are kind of questions. There are three steps to the, I typically think, three steps to the record making process. There are different roles that need to be filled in each step. The first one is the recording. The second one is the mixing. And finally, you have the mastering. So the recording, pretty self-explanatory. That's when you record all the individual instruments, right? And you multi-track. So I might have, right, I might have up to even 20 mics on a drum kit, right? Depending on the size of the drum kit, maybe more, but you know, and I'll have each one of those recorded individually, right? So that's the recording engineer's job. And that's a lot about working with a producer whose job it is to listen to the quality of the take that's being done, right? The engineer, the recording engineer is there to listen to the quality of the sound being recorded. The producer is there to listen to the quality of the music being recorded. All right. And I, I know it's a little lofty. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. See, I know the full pieces of this, but I've been out of it for 20 minutes or whatever, or the specifics. That's helpful. Yeah. Okay. So then, yeah, the mixing, you take all of those individual tracks and you mix them all together down to what we call a two track or a left-right, which is just a single audio file, right? Like you would play on your speakers rather than having individual audio files. Then that goes to mastering. And in mastering, you're, you're really just putting a final polish on it and getting levels ready for release. Tracks. That's okay. I think that's the thing that I've been like, where is the line? But well, oftentimes something that people can do as well as take the recording on their own, like say they have their own mics and their own way to take their sound, they can then take those tracks and send them off somewhere. So let's say Tristan, for instance, records himself, he can email that to Tim and then Tim can take over and do the other stuff. That's, that's half the time how it goes down to like, if it's someone that's not doing everything themselves, you know, oftentimes to save money, they can record it, send it off, and then the people will finish it and then send it back. Right. Right. So Tristan does the first two steps. I think he breaks it down to the single audio left-right track. I should give him a shout out, Sky Audio in Richmond. Yeah, yeah, Valerie Falls is great. Yeah. And he records, he's been recording a lot of people in his basement studio. That's awesome. He sends it off. Right. And he sends it off. And that's it. That's where the line, I've been like, what's the difference? Because he's been sending some of his tracks. I won't speak for him. I don't know all of his tracks. But a lot of the musicians have been sending the tracks to Robot Dog for the final master. Very common thing. Shout out to Ryan Cohen. Right. Right. And I just was in the studio right now. Yeah. Yes. Ryan's great. I've been watching his bathroom remodel video. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Wasn't that just like something off of like the home network? Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, Ryan has done such great things for this community. Yeah. It's a very common thing for people to send Ryan. They're already recorded stuff and then he juices them up and then sends them back. And there you go. You're ready for release. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's very helpful. Because that's it. There's a lot of steps to this. And like, you can be just a producer. You can just do the recording. You can just do the mastering. You can do... People make living off of you. Right. It's very complicated and shifting. And that's it. It's not what it used to be. Because... Oh, definitely. Always a ballpoint. The win. It was just, oh, they do everything. And then it became, oh, the producer goes with them. And then it became... And I just... It gets a little confusing. It's nice to hear the explanation. Yeah. Have it recorded for people. Yeah. Well, and any more, you know, like I am pretty much always the engineer and the producer for a recording session. And that can be really tricky, especially if things are in ISO. If I'm in the room with the band, I can kind of force myself to be producer by just, I take my headphones off. I'm not listening to the sound on the mics at all. If something goes wrong on the mics, I don't hear it. That's not so good. But at least I'm now forced to listen to the quality of the take so we don't get to the end of a song. And they say, so how was that? I say, well, it sounded really good. Right. But I don't know how you played, you know. Right. Yeah, that's an interesting different. Yeah. It's very true though. Because I'd say you can get a beautiful recording of a horrible song. Like they could have played terribly. Yeah. Like really awkward or stiff or whatever. And they all go, oh, that felt horrible. But did it... Yeah. So I mean, I would say, you know, a piece of advice to bands that are going into the studio to work with an engineer without a producer is like, find a friend. They don't have to be a musician, but find somebody who you think as like, you know, after you play a good show, they're like, hey, that was a really good one. You know, like, find that friend and say, hey, you want to just come and produce and just sit there with the headphones on and say, yeah, that was a really good one. You know, that's a huge weight off your engineer, you know, because so much of the time we have to fill both those roles and it's really challenging. Right. Because you don't know what they said. Like that's really interesting to think about. And it doesn't have to be too over the top. I think the term producer scares people. It kind of scares me. I immediately think of a douchebag in a business suit. Yeah, absolutely. I'm the producer. I'm the yeah. Yeah. It's not so much of a big record industry now. You know, it's not like CBS executives and you know, so like that. But like, definitely one point in time that could have been a scary thing. I could see, but it's not like that anymore. We're living post Rick Rubin. Yeah. Exactly. That's really, really cool. I'm very excited for you guys. So tell me again, you had mentioned a couple of the bands that you're also involved in only bands records. So the bands that we are in are evil bong and lung buster, right? They were in a band sudden unknown signal, but that's kind of on like one of those pauses right now, you know, hypercation. Open the air where our sound is changing a little bit more. We're figuring some stuff out in the studio, especially over the right. But in terms of starting the label with the bands we were in, that's so that, you know, you can include evil bong, lung buster, and we'll call that sus. Those are the bands that we're like performing in. Now we've brought in our friends to be involved in it, which we're not in, but that would be hobo wizard. We're recording chart arm. Yep, this weekend. So that's coming up as well. Finishing the record. Yep. And then we've also got, you know, next year, slug weed is going to do a record with us as well. Is that also the second band chart chart? Chart arm chart. Are you local? Yep. Addison County. Yeah. Really good. You know, one of those bands, hard to kind of put in a genre, but I would say, you know, kind of heaviest book. Yeah. Technical stoner sludge stuff. They could do a little bit of death. They can do a little bit of sludge, a little bit of doom, you know, a little bit melodic, a little bit of chug. You know, they can kind of shape shift to what the show calls for, who they're playing with, you know, they're like a death sludge band. Yeah, they're cool. That sludge mold band. Black mold is what their name means. Black mold. I guess that's kind of what they sound like. Great, great genre. They're so good. Yeah, they're nice guys. Oh yeah. And you know, the first session we did with them at the other studio went very well. So we're looking forward to this next session here at the tank. Cool. We also had Erica from Coma Hole. Oh, that's right. Oh, we have a long buster single. She came in and featured in on that song. Coma Hole is blowing up right now. So we're stoked to have them with the feature on that. That was fun. White butterflies, the name of that song that she wrote the lyrics for and did the vocals. And it was kind of one of those things like what we said before. It's like, we recorded the instrumentals at the studio and then we sent it to her and she remotely recorded her vocals, which she then sent back to him and then he did. Oh, sorry. No, you're wrong. Get that to be. He then. Right. You did the trade off. The recording got sent back. She sent him the vocals and then he, you know, made them sound really nice and put them in with the song and then boom, there you go. Cool. There you go. Yeah. So only bands has been fortunate enough to put out a good amount of singles and like a few records already. You know, we've had Komodo too. Oh, yeah. The Komodo record was one of the early ones. You know, we've dipped our toe in the merch game as well. We're going to be doing some more merch. Trying to get some shirts and stuff about that. Is this. Bell's a bug. No, this isn't one of us. That's a great hat though. I appreciate it. Shout out to those guys. Good friends of ours from Poland that we've played with here in the States a couple times when they were on tour. Bell's a bong. Yeah, we're not involved with them on the label, but they're just friends. They're so good. Have cool merch. Yeah, they have very cool merch. They're very cool guys. Their music is very stony. So Bell's a bong. Yeah, I want to give a shout out to those guys. But I appreciate that you like the hat. I can't say that as part of something that we've done. But the merch that we do is all made locally here in Burlington by amalgamated culture works. Okay, I definitely want to recommend that down there in 420 Pine Street. Very appropriate. Yeah, 420 Pine Street. How could you not get your stoner merch done? That's awesome. For 420 Pine Street. And then our stickers get made by VT Heady labels, which make freaking stickers. Yeah, I saw you did a podcast. Yeah, I sure did. Well, you know, it's funny. They make the labels for like weed jars and dub tubes and stuff like that, like the pre-roll tubes. But you know, it's funny. I was making circus with that guy before he went into that. Yeah, because he's friends with Big John from riding high. And this is the guy that started sticky brand, but he sold sticky brand. And he was sticky fam for a little while. So he did my stickers and my drum decals fast forward to where I order from again, but now he's VT Heady labels and he does all the so it's just kind of so funny how it's like the stoner band gets the merch from the freaking weed label makers. And then the shirts come from the 420 Pine Street. Like it's crazy. Very cool. Amalgamated is cool. And then I like when you do when you try and pull local. I know it's cheaper to go through. It's a lot cheaper to go online, but demand shops, but the quality is not good. Oh, amalgamated. These shirts are so soft. Keep the money local. Exactly. Your buddy spends it the same restaurant. You know, like just keep it local. We charge a little bit more per unit, but we do spend a little more to get that higher quality fabric. It's not just freaking the standard gilded and whatever. Right. You spring a little bit for the nicer quality people are going to wear it more often. They're going to be more inclined to, you know, purchase it and wear it a lot. And what they're also going to do is, you know, be let, they're going to be more inclined to spend that money if you tell them that it's locally made. Like, Hey, this is why it costs this much because it's soft and it's made locally in Burlington. You know what I mean? People fuck with that. So that's why I like to support local because it's like you got to keep it local. And it's just like local music to keep it all local. They're dope. And then our artist buddy in Indonesia, Jari Tenduk, he does all of our artwork, all the artwork that you see with the crazy pot leaves in the wizards and dude, Jari is the man. I have found this community online of artists that are kind of similar to the musicians and like the DIY sort of way. Yes. Like these guys are in a similar way. Like they're just honing in on their craft, trying to make a living and it's not like corporate. Yeah, it's the cookie cutter India. Yeah, India. Exactly. These guys are just like stoner fans, stoner enthusiasts, and they make cool stuff and they're trying to get their stuff out there. And their art is like our music and it goes hand in hand. So I've developed the internet. Oh, dude. Oh, it's like wizards in space with goats and pot plants and the guitar ramps. I don't have to tell this guy anything. He just puts art is like, Oh, art for sale. I'm like, there it is. I don't even have to explain it. There it is. Just add your logo. Yeah. You know how I've gone bankrupt getting art from these guys because the way that the exchange rate works is financially beneficial for both of us. So it's not terribly expensive for me. And it goes a long way for excuse me, long way for them. Yeah. So Jari Tenduk, Steven Yoyada and Den Yudi. Definitely my three top guys in the Indonesia art scene. I got to give them a shout out because image is half the battle and without that sick artwork, we would not stand out half as much. Because people see that purple wizard with the fricking evil bong cover. They see that and they are already there hooked. I got to give Jari credit for that. This kid knows how to draw. Right. And that's such a hard thing to just like magically get. You can spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars trying to guess. I look at that and I'm like, I need that. I saw that artwork. I was like, that is evil bong. That has evil bong written all over it. Yeah. And that's so funny that they just make it because they like it. Right. Yeah. Early on in evil bong days, Raph sent me like five, six artists. Maybe it was like, yeah, check out these and see what you connect with. And immediately like Jari, I was like, this is it. He stands out. This is it. This is the look. You know. Yeah. And he's a great dude. We sent him some shirts and he sent us a picture of him with the shirts. Yeah. We sent him out to Indonesia. Yeah. Perfect. And he was stoked. Sure. Well, apparently he's all about this vibe. Oh yeah. His prices are good too. So I got to give him love for that. I always give credit where credit is doing. If we're digging in, we got to dig in right. Yeah. Yeah. Now it is interesting because the corporate world loves to use people in other countries as hard as they possibly can. Right. They want to pay them pennies because they can get away with it. Yeah. Right. It's so funny though you connect with them directly and you're like 50 bucks and they're like, oh yeah. And it totally works. That direct exchange where you cut out the middle man and friends and family and paypal. Yeah. It's so simple. That's how you do it. And that's it. Wouldn't the world be such a healthier economic place if that's how we did everything? Like I need some clothes. Your clothes are dope. I want your clothes. And then the actual exchange would be direct to them. Right. Yeah. Right. They'd probably be happy with a lot less than you're paying whatever freaking Amacral beer or whatever brand you're buying. I think it's one of the great things about the Stoner metal world is like online. Like nobody cares about the Stoner metal. So there's no bots or like anything like we were talking a little bit about this. It's not a test. But before we started recording. But yeah. Yeah. It's like you like I found you can actually it's very rare to find an online community where you can actually make connections like this. You know the doom scene is a very globally evolved thing and everyone is such a dope part of it. Yeah. I always got a good attitude about it. And the healthiest very friendly scene I've ever been a part of. I love being a metalhead. Yeah. You know I have a punk rock attitude about how I go about things. You know punk at my core and my attitude but metalhead all the way though. You know I'm saying I definitely love being a part of the metalhead global community. Yeah. There's a lot of love in the metal community. It's really weird because people have such weird attitudes about if they don't go to heavier shows. Yeah. They have attitude about it. But I've gone to heavier shows forever and the nicest people the nicest shows are always the metal shows. Yeah. Like those people are so nice. No one's going to frigging elbow you in the neck to get in front of you. No. I have been elbowed in the face at rap shows before by like dude's who are just like nope I'm standing here now. Two people. That's it. It's so funny. Like no one's ever liked that at a metal show but people think oh you're going to get punched in the face at the metal show. It's like no you're more likely to get punched in the face as some dumb hip hop show because the fans are asshole. Sometimes they get a little turnt. Right. Right. But that's it. Metal shows everyone's always been chill. Like get knocked on your ass. Six people will pick you up at the metal show. Damn right. Yeah. I can't say that about every show I've ever been to. There's definitely been some weird vibes in the crowd. I was in like the rave scene back you know late 2000s early 2010s through then down in Philadelphia. And you know a lot of drugs you know a lot of you know not the greatest um male behavior you know. A little problematic. Yeah. And um you know obviously it happens you know across all scenes or whatever but um I will say the metal scene is the friendliest and most safe feeling. 100% man there's a huge community vibe to it. Yeah definitely. Yeah that's really what it is. It really feels like a community. Sure. People look out for each other. In a way that that I haven't really seen before. People look out for each other and Burlington especially does a really good job of making problematic people known. Like hey don't let this guy into the show. Not that we've had to deal with that for a while but if there's been times in the past where they've they've done a good job at like keeping problematic people out of the shows that don't need to be there with justifiable cause. Right. You know what I'm saying. You want to make sure you know what you're dealing with of course and you don't want to just listen to the first thing right but with with justifiable evidence you know certain people aren't allowed in and Burlington is really good about filtering out the assholes and then eventually they just end up fucking off and then you never see them again. Right. And then they move on and try it again somewhere else and then they probably get kicked out of that town. Right. Right. But the community here in Burlington and not just exclusive to the metal music the community and the music scene as a whole is very um you know they're very good about that and they're very good about protecting their own and nourishing new you know another thing that's really good about the Burlington community as far as the music goes people are very open minded you know no matter what the sound is even if the performance wasn't super great or whatever people love nurturing new art be like go for it dude like keep developing your sound try again start a band start a project you know don't box yourself into one sound you don't have to look like this you don't have to identify as that like Burlington is very nurturing to the new up and comers which I think is very important because like you said earlier sometimes you can be pretty intimidating. Yeah. You know you got to you just got to not be afraid to fall down and get back up and try again and Burlington is very encouraging in that way so all ties back into what we were talking about community. Yeah. You know and we love being a part of the metalhead community we love being part of the global doom scene. I got to give a shout out you know to go back on the subject of the YouTubers I've had a lot of support from people like Rob Hammer 666 Mr. Doom they've consistently put out my releases over the years Lungbuster Komodo Evil Bong they'll put out that stuff and that helps widen the audience to a more global way now we're getting hundreds and even thousands of views on our shit and places that we've never been right you know I've got people from Europe hitting me up and this and that and people are buying the stuff on band camp and then they're leaving comments and languages that we don't even know and shit and like that all ties into the community as well so we got a lot of love for the YouTubers that help spread the word and and they're not monetizing so that all the money goes to the bands and shit you know what I mean. Right. So community and music hand in hand baby hand in hand you gotta have it. Yeah and Burlington is a very special place if you want to come make music you just want to come be weird. Yeah yeah they let the free fly fly that's for sure. That's it you don't have to do anything special it doesn't have to be perfect. Yeah they let that free fly fly it's okay to be weird. Well I think I think we've covered pretty much everything we're at an hour and two minutes. That's awesome dude. That's great. So any last things that you guys would like to share before I give my little spiel at the end. If you have any links that you want to. Yeah I'll do the plugs if you want to go ahead. Yeah you do the plugs I'll just say you know for for anybody who who you know has always wanted to go to a metal show or you know even if you've never thought about it but you're like I wonder what that would be like you know come on out it's a friendly group super welcoming new faces you know. Don't feel like you gotta look or act of any kind of way you know. I'm gonna be there and sweat pants and a t-shirt you know. I've met a lot of cool people at shows man. Oh yeah. A lot of cool people made a lot of lasting friendships at shows. Absolutely. You know I will say if you want to check us out feel free to check us out on all the major streaming platforms we're on Spotify Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Bandcamp all you gotta do is type in Evil Bong. You can find us on Facebook under Evil Bong Band as well as Instagram Evil Bong Band right because because of the movies we have to specify that when you're looking for the Evil Bong music be sure to look out for that wizard that's got the purple cloak and the bong and the weed plants that's how you know it's us. We're waiting for that sweet cease and desist from the movie studio but they haven't fucked with us yet so when you're looking for Evil Bong check out that purple wizard check out Lungbuster420 on all the stuff Lungbuster420.bandcamp .com you can also find it on YouTube. Also Mr. Charles Band rather than the cease and desist I'm trying to clap. Oh yes. Oh we would love the collaboration with the movie franchise no doubt. Only Bands you can find us only Bands Rex we're on YouTube we are on Instagram Facebook definitely follow only Bands and yeah I think that's about it Evil Bong Lungbuster only Bands cool look it up check it out. I'm super super excited about all three of these things okay all right so today was is Wednesday the 11th of December in 2024 this is episode 50 this was recorded in Burlington Raf Tam thank you so much for coming on the show this has been very fun I enjoyed talking with both of you. Like to be here thanks. Have a great day everybody and thank you for listening.