[AH] My name is Alex Haalck, I play guitar in The Third Degree. I’m 21. 

 

[E] I’m Evan Beane, I’m 20 and I play guitar. 

 

[L] I’m Leif Owen I’m 19 and I play bass and keyboards. 

 

[AB] I’m Abbey Byrne and I’m 19 and I’m the lead singer. 

 

[G] I’m Garrett Bice I’m 21 and I’m the drummer. 

 

Where are you guys from?

 

[AH] Most of us are from Petoskey.

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[AB] I’m going to Eastern Michigan University and I’m studying music therapy. 

 

[E] And I’m in Ann Arbor at U of M. 

 

What are you studying?

[E] Film production. 

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[G] The band was started between me and a guy named Matt Cooper, I just went to one of his concerts one day and Abbey happened to be singing with one of those bands and so we started a band with Abbey. We went through some lineup changes. I think Abbey already knew Evan and stuff from a different band.

 

[AB] We were part of an after school program in high school called the Crooked Underground out of the local art center.

 

[E] Alex and Garrett just adopted us over time. 

 

[AH] Lost a couple bass players. 

 

[E] Rest In Peace. 

 

[AH] Ian and Aca. 

 

[AB] But now Ian’s back so

 

[AH] He’ll be playing keys for us this summer, or bass. Then Garrett and I just know each other from kindergarten so. 

 

I'm going to ask a little bit about your previous band backgrounds. 

 

[AH] Before The Third Degree really it was just Garrett, Ian and I as a trio called The Animal Cult throughout middle school and we played a few shows, but that was really about it. We did the talent show once. 

 

[G] We did battle of the bands throughout high school with the three of us and also Matt Cooper, but for the most part we weren’t really serious til we found Abbey. 

 

Was that like a cover band or did you do originals?

 

[AH] We would jam and stuff but we never really actually, I mean we had a couple songs, like the Lizard song or whatever. Wait no, we had a whole album. 

 

[G] We had an EP as the Animal Cult which had four or five songs on it. I had to do it as a class project.

 

What about you guys, any other notable projects you were apart of?
 

[L] Coming out of the Crooked Underground, the three of us had another group called The Hype that was pretty much the same members of The Crooked Underground but just like away from the art center out gigging and stuff. I also play, my dad is a jazz musician up north and I play bass in his trio. 

 

[AB] Growing up I did an after school program called School of Rock, since I was like 12, and we would gig out a lot and there was kind of like variations within the kids we would make our own bands but it would last like a week. I moved up here and The Hype, Crooked Underground, The Third Degree were like my first serious groups I’d say. 

 

How’d you end up here, and less vague, stumble on the Kalamazoo music scene?

 

[G] So I’m a Western student, I graduated a few months ago but I started down here and then Covid happened. And then when I wanted to come back down at first I lived with my brother I didn’t like that, and me and Alex were talking about living together and so we got a house. That was really cool and Alex and I loved it you know we went to house shows and stuff. 

 

[AH] You recruited Fred for a school project and that’s how we met Fred and that’s how we met all you guys. 

 

You played a show here last night, how do you feel about it?

 

[AH] I thought it went pretty great we were all pretty familiar with the songs and stuff I think the sound was also pretty good. 

 

Have you guys played house shows before?

 

[AH] Not a legit one no. 

 

[G] I just got some new equipment and stuff I was really hyped to test it out. The house shows I’ve been to, they always sound good but it’s always loud and it’s always just a little hard to hear the vocals. I was hoping that we would cut through and I think it turned out pretty well. 

 

[E] Bar’s pretty hard now, having Witches Wedding and Dres and Friends, playing with them. 

[G] You guys were awesome by the way. 

 

We constructed this bill we were like we got to make a bill of all of our friends bands and it’s going to be epic.How does it differ, like the show scene down here from what you can tell so far, differ from what you guys are used to playing together?

 

[AB] It’s pretty different. Up north there’s like no house shows so usually we’re playing for families or at a bar. 

 

[AH] Mostly up there its a bunch of outside downtown events and stuff that we end up doing, we end up playing for a lot of older tourists that love the classic 70s covers that we end up doing so that’s typically what our crowd is, so it was really nice to play to people our age. 

 

[E] Because there just aren’t a lot of outlets for a lot bands to play creatively, specifically creative expression in just like an area where like younger groups can kind of get together. 

 

[AB] Which is something we want to change. We really want to have a house party this summer and just invite all of our friends. 

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[AB] There is a great community up north but for young people it’s just not-

 

[E] The young people don’t know how to rock, we got to teach em. 

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Yeah you move a lot when you’re playing.

 

[E] I started doing it to cover up my bad guitar playing but it helps me enjoy the show more. I feel like it also helps the audience enjoy it as well. If they’re not energetic, I’m going to try and make them feel energetic. 

 

[AH] That’s the thing with Evan too is before Evan we were all just kinda standing around doing our thing but Evan kind of brings a whole new life into the band, jumping around and I see him bouncing around in the front and I start rocking into it too, it’s just such a contagious energy. 

 

How’d you pick the name The Third Degree?

 

[AH] We have a few relations to fire. 

 

[G] So Abbey’s last name is Byrne so we like that theme of fire. It was just me and Alex at bliss fest, probably smoking just having a good time out there and we were just going through names and I’m pretty sure Alex came up with The Third Degree. 

 

[AH] Yeah The Third Degree Burn because you wanted to just do Burn and I was like what if we just do The Third Degree. 

 

How do you guys describe your sound?

 

[AH] Our first album was very blues based, very inspired from what I was learning at the time, a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff kind of just ripping stuff off, but our newer stuff is definitely expanding more, less bluesy, it’s kind of hard to really describe it. 

 

[AB] We are a new rock with a classic sound. A lot of us started out with that blues, so it’s always going to stay in our style but we all have different music we listen to, and different styles so I feel like with our newer stuff it’s kind of more progressive in a way. 

 

[E] And the more we play the old songs as well, we tend to change it up a lot more to fit our current interests. 

 

[AH] All our sounds keep evolving as well, personally better gear. 

 

[E] My new guitar and now I’m good. 

 

[G] I’d say a lot of it revolves around Alex too just because he tends to be our primary song writer

 

[E] riff master. 

 

[G] He always comes up with the riffs and if there’s one thing I notice it’s whatever band he’s listening to at the time, that’s what his riffs sound like. So right now his favorite band is Tool so he’s got some pretty wacky riffs. 

 

I wouldn’t mind hearing a little bit more of your guys’ personal influences. 

 

[G] I mean at first it was like Led Zeppelin, Heart especially and when Abbey joined the band too, since I do most the mixing and mastering, I wanted to start listening to more bands with a female lead just to see like how do they do it how do they mix it and stuff so I really got into Heart and stuff and then that led to me getting into a bunch of 90s bands, one of them I really like is Edna Swap, L7, The Breeders. 

 

[AH] Sonic Youth is pretty cool. 

 

[G] Evan’s showed me a ton of 90s bands that I fall in love with but yeah, like 90s grunge that’s my main influence right now. 

 

[AB] Since I was 9 years old I’ve just been in love with Freddie Mercury’s voice so that’s been the overarching influence but I also grew up listening to a lot of Motown and also 70s rock so there’s just a lot of soul that I draw inspiration from, yeah but going to college I’ve kind of  learned to be a little more technical I guess with my singing.

 

What do you mean by that?

 

[AB] I guess I’ve just learned more about the voice, so having more knowledge of what’s healthy and what’s not really helps me know what I’m doing instead of just kind of putting it all out there and there’s a balance between those two things I think. 

 

When you say healthy are you talking about making sure you’re not straining you vocals?

 

[AB] Yes, yes, and there’s a way, like straining especially with rock and music it’s not bad but if you do it too often for too long it can be.

 

[L] Cool. I’m sort of like an odd one out here because when I first joined the group I’d say it was like super jazz fusion and then like even just like funk stuff like Parliament, Bootsy Collins baselines and nowadays I’m listening to a lot of RnB and Hip Hop. That’s definitely influenced my bass playing like I totally approach everything from like a pocket perspective, doing a bunch of syncopated stuff but keeping that groove going just trying to be really tasteful with everything because of that funk background. 

 

[E] Time to drop Leif's other side project Water Baby Brass Band. 

 

[L] No, we’re taking the summer off. Greg’s in Czchek republic studying math this summer. 

 

[E] I grew up listening to a lot of garage rock, like my dad had a lot of White Stripes and also a lot of like Nirvana and a lot of 70s and 80s new wave and alternative stuff, so a lot of the stuff I listen to is pretty grounded in that. I’m really into garage rock like Ty Seagull, I like Twin Peaks, like the super DIY noisy sound which kind of shows how I play guitar because I play really simple power chords most of the time. 

 

[AH] For me I kind of grew up listening to more because of my parents of a mainstream kind of rock like Aerosmith and other bands like that, and I kind of really delved into the weirder side of stuff where it’s the weird stuff where you’re like what are they doing, what’s going on? I can’t count this, I can’t headband to this, but it kind of went from the mainstream stuff into the more 90s grunge and then I went back to the 70s and then recently I went back to the 90s and discovered a bunch of new bands and then now I’ve kind of gone to more recent bands like garret mentioned TOOL which had been another huge influence on my playing. It’s cool taking pieces from each one of those decades and combining them all together into I guess our sound. 

When you say the weird stuff that you can't headband to, can you give an example of an artist like that?

 

[AH] I don’t know I can headband pretty hard to TOOL. I’m trying to think of some weird bands, maybe like some Primus. They’re pretty headbang-able too, maybe not head banging was a good word to use but it’s more just very controlled chaos, there’s a lot of structure going on with it and they all kind form together to create a really cool soundscape. I just really appreciate insane musicianship really where it just blows your mind. 

 

[G] Big Frank Zappa fan. 

 

[AH] I do love Frank Zappa as well. 

Doesn’t Frank Zappa have like the most releases out of anybody?

 

[AH] King Gizz might have them beat here. 

 

When you’re pulling from your influences, what kind of shows through in the music that you guys make together?

 

[AH] Leif kind of takes it to a whole other level, because Evan and I are just kind of rocky like the loud guitars and distortion and Leaf kind of adds a lot of harmony and a lot of cool notes to it and rhythms that you wouldn’t really expect, everybody kind of adds a great piece to the band. 

 

[G] Just in general with any drummer, with every new drummer I listen to I’m like oh they do this really cool thing and so I borrow that and so my style becomes a huge conglomeration of a thousand tiny little things from each drummer and I put all that together and then sometimes I’ll make up my own stuff too but that’s definitely where my influence is just the beats themselves and how they come together is just a conglomeration of a lot of influences that I had. 

 

What drummers are you most inspired by?

[G] Definitely John Bottom, at first, that one stands out a ton. I was really into Larnell Louis he played with Snarky Puppy, some jazz fusion stuff. I really got into more technical playing and I try to use my chops a lot I noticed some of these drummers around here, who was the band after yours?

 

[E] Violet’s Heart Club. 

 

[G] He was going crazy with his 30 seconds on the kick drum on the toms all over and I’m trying to get to that level. I was always blocking myself because I always thought that would be considered over playing, but now when I’m hear it and these bands are doing it and how well it fits like man I wanna try and get to that level now.  

 

[AH] Another thing between Garrett and I too is we always been jamming for so long so for us, my guitar parts and his drum parts are very connected and so it’s cool to have other people play on top of that too, and kind of break away from that but also always have that as kind of like the basis of what most our songs have stem from. Garrett and I, like style is also a result of that. 

 

[L] Going off of that, like playing together, because now I guess this is will be my second year fully in the band like I’m starting to get like certain parts in the song Garret will always do this certain fill and I can match him on bass and bass and stuff so its cool getting that from playing together longer. 

 

So when you’re making a song, who adds what when?

[G] Definitely for the first album, it was a lot of just me and Alex we were in the same room, he’d come with a riff, I’d add a beat and we’d try to build off of it. He wrote most of the lyrics too, Abbey wrote some for the first album but it was definitely just a lot of us jamming and since we’ve written them we’ve played them out so many times that they kind of have just kind of naturally evolved to be a little different because we’ve all added our own influence. And so that’s kind of where we’re at now, we’re trying to all get involved and all write our own stuff and have it be unique so that we’re not playing each others parts we’re playing our own parts. 

 

[E] I’ve been joining the jam sessions with Garret and Alex a lot more now and I think it helps because we can bounce riffs each other more now and kind of bridge the gap between garage punk and whatever.

 

How big of a part do lyrics play in your music?

 

[AH] There is a few songs where its more like with Jean Jacket it’s a lot of random stuff but it works. With a lot of the other songs it’s all sort of like a personal thing I went through or experienced or something, like I Gotta You Gotta was me like smoking for the first time. I was like nobody can hold me back now. I can do whatever and I don’t want to come back down from this cloud or whatever. A lot of the other stuff I’ve been writing is just kind of personal experiences but I try to make it broader thing that everybody could kind of relate to or maybe interpret in a different way. 

 

I know there was something that you sent me before, a voice memo and lyrics and I asked you about it and you said it was an interaction you had with some guy coming into your work?

 

[AH] Graced Out, yeah. 

 

Graced Out that’s right. 

 

[AH] Yeah. That was a personal experience I had where a guy who was claiming he was a prophet told me he was seeing visions from God about me and stuff and saying how I was a square peg in a round hole and that was just kind of an odd experience I just kind of wanted to write down and I feel like you told me that you kind of had a similar experience with that, and so yeah I like to incorporate whatever I experienced I guess. 

 

[AB] I think I’m a lot more obvious with my lyrics. Like, It Plays, Time to Go. It plays is literally I was just listening to a record and then I went to Rhyme Zone and I was like I don’t know what should I write about. Run the Show definitely came from like, I was like an angsty 15 year old and mad at some friends that I had so that one’s kind of wordy. I always struggle to write lyrics, it’s kind of like a mental block I’ve had, but usually Alex will send me some lyrics and I’ll come up with like a melody. Or I’ll like mix it around so that it fits. 

 

[AH] Abbey and I typically work together and I’ll write the lyrics and typically what I always do is I’ll end up following the guitar melody for the lyrics and it will become way too crowded with way too many words and Abbey will be like yeah might have to take some of these words out here, but she always comes up with a great melody and whenever we hear what she sends in we’re like aw damn like that really fits with the song, like with Ocify that song was about like not living up to your dreams, or like laying around and not really doing anything about it either but when we sent that to Abbey we got it back and we were like wow, finds a great way to fit within the song. We have a good relationship for writing lyrics and melodies, because I struggle with the melodies. 

 

[AB] And I struggle with the lyrics so. 

 

I’m in that same boat of being too wordy. I don’t have someone else but I need someone else to be like cut this, cut this, this a chorus, make that a chorus, it’s like a long poem vs a song. 

 

[AH] There’s so much stuff that one person can’t come up with so it’s so much more creative to have so many views or takes on what you’re writing. 

 

So do you guys record your own music or have you gone to studios to record?

 

[G] We record our own music, I study multimedia arts at Western and it was when me and Alex were writing the songs and we were like we got to figure out a way to record them now and so I bought a Focusrite and we got Ableton Lite, which is funny because our entire first album was through Ableton Lite meaning we could only have 8 tracks, so I was trying to mix a full band with only 8 tracks. It was a wacky experience, but yeah that was just me trying to learn how to do it and looking back on it now the first album is like man I could have made it sound so much better but it was tough but I’m glad to have had that starting point and to see where I’ve come now it’s really cool and all the stuff since then. 

Do you have any tricks for sound quality now, when you’re recording, now that you have more experience?

 

[G] I mean it’s not like they’re secrets or anything, but definitely my favorite trick by far has been the Hoss effect, which it’s a type of panning where instead of solid panning where you’re just putting the track all the way left or right, you take a delay unit and you delay it a short amount of time on one side and then you delay it a longer time on the other side. So if I have two guitar tracks and I do that for each side it just makes this really full huge sound I love so that’s definitely my staple go to for all of our songs.  I like to record live drums for sure, I like to do everything live I don't like to do midi stuff too much, mostly because I'm not too good at it but I think live instruments have a cooler quality to them too. 

 

[AH] We do a little bit of amp trickery as well for the bass tracks. We’ll run the bass through a normal amp and then also run it through a little fender guitar amp and it adds a really bright sound to it while still having the bass sound.

 

What about your guys’ set up, your gear and your preferences for performing?

 

[AH] I always like to be on a certain side of Garrett. 

 

[G] When we started out, we didn’t have much. We bought a PA system from my old boss he was a DJ so he just had some old music equipment lying around and gave us a good price for it. It gave us a lot of trouble at first because she sings very very loudly and sometimes the speakers would just give out on us. We’ve upgraded since then and her dad got a really sweet deal on some very nice PV speakers that can handle all the sound we have and I recently just got this digital mixer thing. It solves all the problems we were having. We mic guitars, we’re probably going to run the bass through the PA, I mic my kick always now and I’ll probably start mic-ing my snare too. Having those microphones all over the place has really helped give us a fuller sound. 

 

[E] Especially too since northern Michigan places like it’s very rare that they’ll ever have any sort of PA system so it’s important that we bring all this quality gear so we can have a good sound and be able to have people enjoy the experience more. 

 

[AB] And it’s more controlled too, and then we play a lot outside too in the summer so having it be controlled outside is good. Also monitors are life changing, I can hear myself. 

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What guitars do you guys play?

 

[E] I play a fender Strat. Jimi Hendrix style. 

 

[AH] Recently got that Flying V. 

 

[E] That still has to be introduced into the world. 

[AH] I used to be a big name brand guy and be like oh I want a Fender or I have to get a Gibson and a Marshall and stuff like that because that’s like what all my heroes played and stuff, but I recently got a Sterling Stingray guitar and it has a really nice sound and it has stayed in tune way more than all my Gibson Guitars so I’ve been really digging it. 

 

[E] Wouldn’t have that problem if you had a Fender Strat. 

 

What about pedals?

 

[AH] Before Evan was in the band, I was just all distortion and big drive, but he really got me wanting fuzz pedals and stuff. Evan always does these crazy screechy universal screams. I was like I want my guitar to sound like that. Evan's definitely influenced me to get some more cool pedals.

 

[E] I have a lot of pedals on my board but I only use like three most of the time. I love the Blues Driver and I love the Big Muff Pie. Can’t go wrong with either of those. 

 

[AH] I recently got a Tri-Muff which is a combination of three big muffs put together, I used that for one song last night. It sounds like a buzzsaw, it’s pretty awesome. 

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Do any of you guys want to talk about the gear that you use? What's your kit?

 

[G] My kit was my dads which he bought early 90s it’s a very old drum set, somehow I’ve just always managed to get a good sound out of it. Another funny thing is my ride cymbal too because that’s even older, but it’s so dirty now and it’s almost dead, but I’m afraid to clean it now because that would brighten it up a ton and everybody says it sound super good right now. So I just leave it super dirty. 

 

Are you a nylon or a wood tip guy?

 

[G] I used to be nylon because I like to making the cymbals sound pretty but now I’m wood tip and it’s only because there’s this really dumb trick where if you take a stick and you put it perpendicular to the cymbal you kind of move it around the cymbal it makes this really screechy horror movie sound, and you can't do that with nulon tops so that’s my main reason for going wood. 

 

What are some of your backgrounds in terms of music theory?

 

[E] I don’t know any music theory, 

 

[AH] I’m very basic. Intervals,  arpeggios, triads. I didn’t really know about triads til maybe two or three years ago. I just was kind of self taught for everything and I took some online lessons from a teacher at Berkley, not like privately but just his guitar course and stuff and he was all about triads so that really has been helping out. 

 

[L] I know a bit of theory. You’ve probably taken more theory classes than I have. 

 

[AB] You’re probably better at it than I am.

 

[L] It’s that jazz background again, you got to know that to like improvise well and stuff, so I know that kind of functional theory. I don’t know any classical theory at all though. That might be where you have me beat.

 

[AB] Yeah it’s not fun. I have to take four semesters of theory for my program for some reason, but yeah when its taught in school though it’s very era based. It’s definitely introduced me to more technical different things to try especially when it’s like I’m just adlibbing in a song or something and I know what I’m doing now a little bit at least. Leif still got me beat because jazz theory is something else. 

 

I don’t know if you can put that into words but what’s different between jazz theory and classical theory?

 

[AB] It’s like taking all the rules and throwing them out the window. Classical is definitely like you’re adding rules on rules and rules, but jazz I think it’s like you bend em a little bit?

 

[L] I feel like jazz theory is more about like chords and which chords work and like which extensions work in which chords that you have where classical has weird stuff like finger-based. 

 

[AB] Yeah figure-based. There was like no-nos for each era especially with like dissonance and stuff like perfect fourths were like non-existent for years because every one was like, that is the devil. Can’t use that. 

 

Do you think there is a vital part of achieving your guys’ sound?

 

[L] I think Abby more than anything gives us our sound just cause if you don’t know anything about how to really listen to music which you know the average listener in Northern Michigan won’t, they’ll notice powerful vocals right up front.

 

[AB] I think we’re all, it kind of started with these two since they’ve been friends so long, they have a connection so they know what they’re going to do, they just get each other when they play music. It took us all a minute to kind of fit into that but like especially now like even when we rehearse, it’s been months since we played together, we just play it and you wouldn’t notice that it’s been four, five months since we played.

 

[AH] We’re excited to start trying to really discover our own sound because before it was really just me writing songs and so we had a conversation where we were like yeah I don’t want to just write guitar parts I want a lot more dynamics where maybe there’s no guitar at all it’s just bass and drums and that really never happened before because I would just write the whole song by myself and not really consider the other instruments. 

 

Is there a place or space you feel most creative in? 

 

[AH] Basements.

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[G] I say the most creativity probably happens in  Alex's basement.

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[E] Or your basement, there's a lot of good jams that go on there.

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[AH] We practice a lot at my house and we do a lot more of creative jams at yours. [motions to Garrett]

 

I wanna hear about you first time performing as The Third Degree.

 

[AH] That was at my moms Christmas party. It went pretty alright. We were doing some Christmas songs.

 

[G] We were still experimenting with our song at the time and we found ou very quickly that there was just some songs were not going to work for us. One that stands out is Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones, that one just did not work out. 

 

[AH] I kind of forgot there was multiple guitar parts to that one, I did the same riff the whole song

 

[AB] Yeah I tried my best to sound like McJagger and it just didn’t happen. That was fun. We did all I want for Christmas is you. and stuff like that

 

[AH] We did the Eagles song too, Please Come Home for Christmas. 

 

[AB] I played a kazoo for one song. It was Bruce Springsteen’s 

 

[E] Merry Christmas baby!

 

Replacing a saxophone with kazoo is pretty badass. What are some of your favorite show memories?

[AH] We did an album release party at a local bowling alley where that was the first time that we had only played just originals. That was the only time we ever done that. 

 

[G] Probably most memorable for me was the Bliss Fest. It’s a festival we all had been going to for a while and we didn’t know we were going to play it until like two weeks before, she kind of got us in, pretty clutch. That was pretty awesome was getting to play this festival of like  really cool musicians, and getting the artist experience too of staying with other artists and stuff. 

 

[AH] Walking around with the VIP badge. 

 

[E] Camping, not showering. 

 

[AB] Yeah porta-potties. 

 

[AH] Center for the Arts was pretty cool. 

 

[AB] That was one of the first ones too, that was like after that Christmas show. 

 

[G] In Petoskey, there’s this really rich people’s area they call it Bay Harbor and they opened this new multimillion dollar theater and they were doing a talent show and it was so funny because all the other acts were like people playing violin, or quartets of trumpets or something and then we were the last performance, and it was just a bunch of people, old white rich people and we come out there, and we just start playing a song everybody jumped out of their seat adds we were by far way louder than any other band that was there.

 

[E] We also played the Hell Saloon in Hell Michigan, that was probably my favorite memory. We did like a mini tour when we were just in down in Southern Michigan for a couple of days. We played for like four hours straight, and there’s this dude dressed as the Madalorien or something. 

 

[AH] There was like a bridesmaid party going on or something. 

 

[E] All kinds of crazy wacky things. 

 

[AH] We’ve played together a lot. This upcoming season is our most packed, we just keep adding more and more every summer, so it definitely feels like we’re growing. 

 

Do you have any shows coming up that you’re looking forward to playing?

 

[AB] Next month we’re playing on Eastern Michigan’s campus, that's like April 19th. Then April 20th we’re paying in Detroit at Detroit Shipping Company and then the next day we’re playing Metal Frat like a house party in Ann Arbor. 

 

How long have you been playing the instruments you play in the band?

 

[E] I probably started out like middle school. I used to play piano and then I also played clarinet for like one year, then I realized how cool guitar was and I never went back. 

 

[L] I’ve been playing piano since second grade I think, and then I started playing bass in 7th grade. 

 

[AB] I started singing when I was 11 so 8 years. 

 

[G] I started drumming right in middle school, so it would be like 10 years. 

 

[AH] I think the first time I touched a guitar it was in Garretts basement, one of his dads guitar and I just kind f sat around and messed with that, it’s probably about the same time as Garrett but he’s been playing a little longer because I didnt have my own stuff for a little bit so like 9 or 8 years now I guess. 

 

Yeah for you guys was there any friends or family that inspired you to start doing what you’re doing?

 

[AB] My cousin he’s three years older than me, he did the School of Rock thing too and I would grow up going to his shows and one day I was like, I want to do that. So just kind of watching him grow into the musician he became I was like that’s really cool and I don’t like sports. 

 

[L] Both my parents are musicians, so it was all around me growing up. My dad plays jazz guitar also a bit of jazz piano, and then my mom does more classical piano and she is a jazz vocalist so they would be playing jazz in our living room when I was a baby. 

 

That’s nice. 

 

[L] Yeah they encouraged it. 

 

[E] Both of my parents are super into rock music, so when I wanted to play guitar they were super supportive of it. Now, my dad is obsessed with gear and my same bands and stuff so I like take him to punk shows and all that. It was hard for a while to find a lot people to play with because I’m from a different town from these guys that was a little smaller, so for a while I was just kind of doing it on my own, so I was fortunate to run into some other musical people. 

 

[AH] For me I would probably say it started off as going to Garrett's house as a kid and seeing all this gear just laying I just had a natural interest in messing around with it. It’s stemmed with Garrett and into our buddy Ian because he was such a music head and he was such a wizard to me and I was always looking up to Ian, his skills and his knowledge of music. 

 

[G] My dad is a huge guitar player and he’s had that drum set in our basement for years. There’s pictures of me playing it when I was like 4 or something, so when I went to middle school and chose to play percussion it kind of naturally grew trying to learn the drums and stuff. 

 

I always think it’s interesting for drummers specifically, like if you start playing in school and then you find like the rock bands that you like after that and then the merging of those two things. 

 

[G] Definitely because it’s so different playing  in middle school they’d have us play practice pads because they don’t have twenty drum sets to teach every kid, but there was one drum set. I just happened to be messing around on the drum set I had no clue what I was doing at the time, that morning and our teacher came into the room and I felt like I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to and I kind of started walking away and he was like no go back! Then I started to realize I should probably practice this now. 

 

How far have you traveled to play?

 

[AB] I think the farthest is Hell Michigan? Canton so this season of gigs is definitely our most traveled. 

 

[E] This one was pretty far too, for Alex and Garrett.

 

[AH] Just picking everyone up was definitely the most driving we had to do for that. 

 

Do you guys still get stage fright? 

 

[AH] Yeah. 

 

[L] I don’t.

 

[AB] Depends I guess

 

[E] I usually just get nervous before I play but when I get on stage I just try to be wild and just forget about it. 

 

[AH] It’s less of stage fright and more of guitar fright for me. I’m just more in my own head about it and I have to really focus on the music and be melodic or else I'm just going to be worried that I’m not going to play good and just end up playing scales and just trying to be fast and that’s when it doesn’t really work out too well. 

 

[G] It does depend on the show, but I’m sure Leif can relate with the high school band we were in we just had so many performances throughout our entire career that it’s just playing instruments in front of people now. 

 

[E] A lot of times that we play too, we’re usually of like the background music. There isn’t like a dedicated crowd that’s looking at us the whole time so a lot of the stakes are pretty low like you can play and nobody claps that’s like oh, whatever they’re not even paying attention. 

 

[AB] Although that only happened once at a motorcycle bar so. 

 

[L] It depends on the venue and the crowd I guess, around here and around northern Michigan I don’t really get scared at all but this last fall I did a semester out of Berkley college of music and that definitely got in my head playing there because like everyone listening to you is a musician and you got to impress them and stuff.

 

A lot of people there’s some dissonance between playing shows at bars and venues vs playing house shows, like I’ve heard people say they get more anxious at house shows or playing other shows. I didn’t know if any of you guys experienced some of that last night. 

 

[E] I was pretty anxious playing a house show just because I knew there was gonna be a crowd listening and I know since the Kalamazoo scene there’s so many musicians that there’s kind of like a pressure. 

 

I know you were saying that people are there to watch. 

 

[E] Yeah they are right in front of your face. 

 

Especially in our basement. 

 

[AH] I ws pretty excited last night. I was more so worried about technical difficulties and things like that but other than that I was pretty excited to bring some rock to the zoo.

 

What’s the best aspect of performing for you guys?

 

[AH] Maybe toward the third quarter of a song when we all kind of bloom and hit the sweet spot and it’s kind of like a zen moment where Abbey's letting out a killer vocal, you can feel it in your skull. I’m just doing some cool guitar stuff, and Evan’s rocking over there bouncing around and Garrett's in the back doing his thing and Leif is doing some crazy rhythm stuff on the bass. It’s kind of when the point in the song when everything comes full circle, and it’s just you’re like this is cool.

 

[AB] It’s really therapeutic, yeah singing has just always been the outlet for me. So kind of just putting it all out there, that moment just feels very good. 

 

[E] It’s a good way for creative expression for me because usually I’m pretty quiet so being able to play loud really kind of throws a lot people off or just like being energetic and stuff. 

[AB] We would get that a lot as a kid people would be like, how do you make these noises when you’re so quiet.

 

What tunings do you often play in?

 

[AH] We do standard for most of our stuff but we have a couple drop d songs. A decent amount of the riffs on our next album, since TOOl is in drop d I’ve been really digging the full sound of it. 

[E] Don’t forget the one drop B song we play. 

 

[AH] Oh yeah we do a couple drop B songs. 

 

What are they?

 

[E] Well we covered Rusty Cage by Sound Garden. 

 

[AB] Never again, I don’t want to do that song. 

 

[E] It was fun but-

 

[AB] Yeah right. 

 

[G] You can see us play it this next summer-

 

I would love to see it. 

 

[AB] I will not be there. 

 

What do you want people to know about the music that you make or what goes into it?

 

[AH] For me I want it to be like maybe you learn something about yourself or you think of something different maybe. It’s a pretty emotional thing.. You almost want to grow as a person, that’s what I’ve been trying to write more lyrics about if I were to write more lyrics almost like a more spiritual kind of thing. 

 

[E] I just want people to have a good time when they hear our music. I want people to feel the same way I do about it and just like be able to get into it and enjoy it. Since I’m such a big garage rock fan a lot of it just comes from just having a good time and forgetting about how bad life can be sometimes, and just enjoying cool music. 

 

[L] Pretty much what Evan said, just I want people to get hyped and have a fun time.

 

[AB] I think our music is really truly all of us, just you can hear all of our personalities in a song and I think its cool when people either relate to it or feel it our get excited because it’s just truly us. 

 

[G] For me it’s almost a feeling of sadness when all of my favorite bands are dead or broken up or gone, and now it's encouraging to see bands like Greta Van Fleet and stuff like that, big rock bands actively making a name for themselves. So for me, I want to keep the rock music going, the music I love and still be out there for people to listen to I think that’s cool.

 

What drives you to create music, why is this medium the art form for you guys?

 

[AB] I’m really bad at visual art. 

 

[AH] I think creating a soundscape is pretty cool, to me music is the closest thing to magic, to real magic. It’s a form of communication between people whether it’s intentional or not you’re still reacting to each other. I think it’s a really human thing. 

 

[E] I’m pretty introverted so having a way where you can just be really out there and be really loud and noisy that was such a cool thing to me when I discovered it more than like other forms of creative expression so it just always stuck with me. 

 

[AB] Like visual art you’re kind of to yourself it's not just putting yourself out there and one of the biggest things in my musical therapy class is that music holds a space for anyone, whether that is with one person or between two people, so when you’re playing in a band you’re not only holding a space for each other but for everyone watching and listening and I think it’s natural human connection. It is magical.

 

[E] I think the music community too is so nice vs. like in my opinion other art communities, you can have such really good bonds between bands and have super deep connections just because-

 

[AB] If you get music you get each other in a way, like it’s just like a natural friendship. 

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[E] Even though I’ve only been playing in a band for a few years, I’ve just met like so many talented and interesting people and especially playing last night just meeting so many like-minded people that have so many original and unique thought processes. 

I feel like having a community is really important because you kind of fuel each other, in supporting other peoples stuff you in turn get their support and it’s like real.

 

Yeah. 

 

What is success to you in terms of this project?

 

[AH] I’ve never been after commercial success. I don’t want to change my sound to sell to make more money. To me success would be writing more music and getting out and meeting people. 

{AB] Just keeping up the energy that we have is really just being able to perform as much as we can and making more music, and just keep holding that space I think. 

 

[AH] Also just staying true to yourself really. 

 

[L] I think to like go one year or five years and look back at what I’m doing right now and think I put as good as an effort as I could into that and that was true to myself and who I was at that time, then that’s successful to me. 

 

[G] Every time someone comes up to us after a show and compliments specifically our originals, that’s successful to me. When people want to hear the music that we write and not just all the covers that we play. 

 

[E] Even making one persons day like that just means so much to me, or being able to connect, even if there’s only two people there but they really enjoyed it and they tell you, that means so much more to me than like making money or having any commercial success out of it.

 

Was music all your guys’ first form of expressing yourself in an artistic way?

 

[AH] I used to draw a lot in elementary school. I was more of a I guess a drawer, I wouldn’t say artist, then I kind of got into music more. 

[E] I used to be obsessed with making movies as a kid I would always make lego stop motions or just like random videos with my friends. Visual media is still something that I really like. 

 

[L] I guess I drew a little bit but pretty early on music took over as the main force of expression. 

 

[AB] I tried a lot of stuff, I did golf for a year and then I did cheerleading and track but I was really bad at running and then I found music and that’s all I’ve done since. 

 

[G] Also just music for me. 

 

Well we got to talk about the animated video for Butthead. That was you right? You made that?

 

[G] Yeah that was for my capstone presentation so that I could graduate with my MAT degree. I wanted to do something with animation because it’s something I really got into throughout college. My professor said when I was giving the presentation and I finished, his comment on my project was I have never been more worried about a project not being finished on time than I have for this one, but I came through in the end. It was mostly because I just had so much trouble coming up with an idea and the Butthead idea came on pretty early on inspired by a house show. I just go the idea and I chose to do a very literal interpretation of what Alex wrote the song about, and I was pretty happy with it. It was really fun to make, it was cool animating all my band members. 

 

[E] I took a train over to Kalamazoo to meet up with Garrett and I wore the motion capture suit with all the little balls on it and I had to like jump around and act like NPC’s in like a GTA video game, with like different levels of excitement just like animated movements. 

 

[G] I knew it would have been a lot of work to get all of them here and the person who was helping me with motion capture, Kevin Abbot, he told me at most three dancers, so three performers, and so I was gonna go definitely with Evan because there was no way I was going to be able recreate his moves and Alex was going to be there but Covid so it still worked out though. I got a pretty nasty foot injury that day from having to move around so much, and trying to move like these people, I definitely watched a lot of our live performances to try and get them accurately and I think I did okay with it but yeah that was a super fun project to do. 

 

[AH] Really wish I could have imitated myself more. 

 

[E] All the audience members are Garrett and I. 

 

[G] Every single moving character in that video is either me or Evan. 

 

There’s one guy who’s like going the hardest in the beginning.

[G] That was me, that was me. I was the butthead. There’s the real butthead out there, I’ve seen him since I made the video I don’t think he knows though. 

 

[AH] He remains unnamed. 

 

[G] To his credit, he’s not really a butthead I had just never been to a house show before and seeing this very tall man moshing and bumping into my 5’4 friend Jay I was like come on dude, you might hurt somebody, so yeah. 

 

I really like the idea that you’re just in this suit just jumping around. 

 

[AB] There’s a great photo that you took that day, your mirror selfie. 

 

And the ending you have the guitar breaking and the mic being thrown. 

 

[G] Yeah I tried to make the crowd going crazy at the end to I wanted to try and put a positive spin at it that the butthead motivated everybody to also go crazy. 

 

I remember too looking at that video and the lone comment is Alex being damn I look good. 

 

[AH] That is the only comment. 

 

[E] The only comment we need. 

 

Do you have any advice to any aspiring bands or people who want to be in projects like yours?

 

[E] Just like start playing. 

 

[AB] Rehearse. 

 

[E] You just have to play a lot. 

 

[L] Not even just strictly practicing but like mess around on your instrument find your sound, find your voice in that medium 

 

[AB] And then find your voice together.

 

[AH] Don’t give up. You can always find your own way, you don’t have to do one thing a certain way or another you just be yourself  and play loud, if that’s your thing. 

 

[E] It helps if you make music with your friends as well because if you make music with people you don’t like it won’t sound good. I know from many attempts to form bands with different people you don’t vibe with and it doesn’t click as well. 

 

[AH] Don’t go in expecting anything either. 

[AB] Yes I think that’s the biggest thing. Whatever happens naturally is what’s best for what you have. 

 

[AH] Theres always a reason for things to happen that way. 

 

[AB] It might be hard to find but the community is always there, like moving to Northern Michigan I didn’t think that there was a music scene really at all I thought it was just kind of your rockabilly old guy playing at bars, but it was and it’s actually it was really cool.

[E] There’s cool old rockabilly guys.

 

[AB] Yeah, just keep looking for it because it is there no matter where you are.

 

[E] Yeah and the more energy you put out into the desire to make music, you’ll always be able to find people. 

 

[G] One of the bands that helped us out a ton was a band named the Marsupeals they just helped us get gigs and find places to play so definitely looking around your local area and find bands. 

 

[AB] Go to open mics.

 

[E] Just go to everything, I just go to whatever concert that’s happening because you never know who you’re going to meet. 

 

[AB] It’s really how we got our start was playing open mics hosted by musicians because they would talk to us and they would talk to other people and we’d get lists of venues that they’ve played at. 

 

[AH] Gotta help each other out. 

 

[AB] I think that’s the biggest thing is music scenes anywhere and everywhere it's not brutal, because you’re all just supporting each other in the best way. 

 

Is there anything else you want to share or shout out people?

 

[AH] Shout out Dax. 

 

[AB] Random drunk guy we met the other night. Sean Healer, he’s like our manage. He’s in a band called the Real Ingredients and his management company is called Black Cat Management and he’s amazing. 

 

[L] Got us most of our gigs we have this summer. 

 

[AB] He is a current Berkley student and this is like his big project is to be a booking agent for some bands, Marsupeals, Distant Stars Charlie Malort band. 

[AH] We have a fellow psych rock band up there called Levitator as well by Robbie Hoagie. He’s part of the scene up there I’d say, he’s been getting a lot of gigs as well up there. It’s cool to have fellow musicians. 

 

[E] And the band Little Brother, they’re just starting out. I’ve played drums with them occasionally, super good. Also want to shout out Witches Wedding. 

Yeah!

 

[AH] Got us into the KZOO scene. We’d love to come back. It was a lot of fun.  

 

John Young was here last night he was here last night, he runs the Hell Hole. I feel like The Third Degree, Hell Hole that’s just asking for it. Backrooms. 

 

[AH] I think the Runoff would be cool for us as well.

 

Oh yeah, The Runoff is super doable.

 

[E] So many venues here. 

 

[AH] I know. The Vine keeps it alive down here it’s awesome. 

 

I mean The Runoff is outside of The Vine, but just down the road we have Haus House, and then Cat’s Cradle and then Collier who drums for Domain Master is going to start a venue called Punk Hazard and he lives on Locust a couple streets down, so I don’t doubt we can get you guys back here whenever you guys want to come back. 

 

[AH]  Maybe this summer. We’ll have to find some time.