February 4, 2024 • 49 mins
Ever wondered what thrashes through the heart of metal or what secrets lie in the depths of alternative rock's soul? Strap in for a sonic journey as we explore Power Trip's raw power and political gusto and the hauntingly poignant melodies of Sparklehorse. We kick things off with a tribute to Power Trip's late frontman, Riley Gale, whose authenticity and politically charged lyrics shook the metal community to its core. Their Grammy nod is a testament to their influence, and we dissect just what makes their brand of thrash a badge of honor for fans everywhere.
Switching gears, we reflect on the life of Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, an artist who walked through darkness to bring us light. From his collaborations with legends like PJ Harvey to his intimate struggle with personal demons, his story is a tapestry of perseverance, challenging the norms of commercial music with an undying commitment to authenticity. We also ponder the potential for new music from Power Trip, imagining the future of a band charged with continuing a legacy left by a titan of the metal genre.
As we conclude, we consider the broader picture: the magnetic pull of inspiration in the creative world. We discuss how artistic muses and visionary figures can ignite a spark within us, transforming the mundane into the extraordinary. Join us as we reflect on the stirring tales of Power Trip's thrash dominion and Sparklehorse's soul-stirring artistry, reminding you to seek out those who stoke the flames of your passion. Until next time, keep rocking and keep reflecting.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andrew Rothmund (00:17):
Alright, welcome back to Sound Saga.
We are here to talk about PowerTrip and Sparkle Horse.
Will Bristol (00:33):
We are going to find the similarities and
differences.
They are both relevant, againfor different reasons.
Andrew Rothmund (00:42):
Like relevant today, like recent news,
absolutely, and I think we aregoing to tie it into the whole
Saga part of Sound Saga.
We are going to tell a storyabout our experiences with this
music and then our stories, Ithink, will line up.
This is kind of how we aregoing to plug these two bands
together.
Yeah, it will be a cool deepdive on both of them, absolutely
(01:03):
.
But to start, I think you wantedto start with Power Trip and I
like that.
It is a very power trip move.
We are going to start there.
Yeah, when we talked aboutBellwitch and Rilo Kiley, one of
the things I said aboutBellwitch and our last deep dive
was, if you don't listen toheavy metal or not as tuned in
(01:27):
with that space, there is a fewbands that I think truly
represent their sub genre, theirsub space within metal, but who
also are so easily accessiblefrom people outside of that
space in a way that that bandcan still translate some of the
intricacies of what that styleis.
(01:47):
They are not so generic or sowatered down that they are easy
to digest but don't really havemany nutrients in them so to
speak.
Will Bristol (02:00):
as far as metal goes, they define a particular
space.
Andrew Rothmund (02:03):
you say Exactly Power Trip is like.
They showcase thrash metal, butthey also represent like an
evolution of it or acontinuation of it from its
early days.
Will Bristol (02:16):
Would you consider the locust thrash metal?
Andrew Rothmund (02:18):
The locust?
I am actually not aware whothat is.
Will Bristol (02:22):
That was like the only thrash metal band that came
to mind when you said that.
Andrew Rothmund (02:27):
I am thinking of like continuations on, like
even as popular as Metallicathrash, but like in that vein of
thrashy.
But they also had a punk sideto them, like without a doubt
there is like that punkinfluence.
So they are not like they arenot distilled 100% thrash metal,
(02:48):
which is actually, I think,good for them being a gateway
band, because they are hard topin down and pinning it down is
not really as important as likereally like A, how popular they
got and B, why they got as muchrecognition as they did.
Will Bristol (03:05):
About when was the ?
Andrew Rothmund (03:06):
peak popularity and like why did that happen?
So like 2010s till Riley'sdeath in 2020.
2021, actually, I think so.
Will Bristol (03:16):
they were peaking at it whole time.
Andrew Rothmund (03:18):
Yeah, I think they were trajectory, like
straight out, like stratospheric.
They were already you know theygot nominated for a Grammy and
if you look at all the Grammynominated metal bands, it is all
like Ozzy, gojira, macedon,lamb of God, all the you know,
all the they are not metal bands, but the names that like even
(03:38):
my parents are like Like verypopular bands?
Yeah, exactly they exist in aspace that I think you know is
more of a cloud or more of a toplayer to what is really
underneath.
Bands like Power Trip.
They came from like deep downand not that slipknot didn't
like.
The slipknot started, you know,very small and so did corn Like
(04:02):
all these bands started likevery small and got very, very,
very big.
Would Power Trip have becomelike that mega big?
Well, maybe their Grammynomination indicates that yeah,
they did.
But there's something specialabout A aesthetically like the
style of thrash and the way theysounded.
B also Riley's call foractivism and like and social
(04:24):
justice and some of his lyricsLike everything was so timely
about that band and maybe even alittle ahead of their time.
Will Bristol (04:32):
Yeah, that was a while ago.
Andrew Rothmund (04:34):
Things were different, right, I mean COVID
changed a lot and like it doesseem like a different world
looking that far back.
And so, to look that far backfor Power Trip, I think you see
an evolution of a thrash band,like from the early 2010s, like
to the later to the later 2010s.
Yeah, if there's one thinganyone in any space of music can
(04:55):
pull, at least from punk oreven hardcore or even thrash
metal, is like the mindset oflike, no matter how hard it is,
no matter who tries to stop, you, just do it anyway.
Right, yeah, and just speakyour mind, yeah.
Will Bristol (05:11):
Like I mean, punk's roots are just, are just
about anti-authority,anti-establishment, yeah yeah.
That is the mentality andadding that to your flavor of
you know or genre, Right, it'svery much more personal.
Andrew Rothmund (05:25):
Yeah, it's very much.
I may, I may flawed, but wholeperson, but there's nothing that
I will let outside world takefrom me, take from that whole
person, right, right.
And I think, riley, you know,having suffered with drug
addiction and depression andthis was people knew this um,
you know, I think he wore hisflaws like, like, authentically,
(05:49):
like that.
He didn't.
I don't think he ever made anyqualms or any like any weirdness
about, like who he was or theproblems he had.
Will Bristol (06:00):
Yeah, he shows that in common.
I mean.
Andrew Rothmund (06:02):
I'm not tied in with, like I don't know him
personally and I don't I don'thave mutuals anywhere close,
Like Right, but you could justsee it in his performance he's
kind of the reed of it from,from the talk of the town, from
the things and from theperformances that that the kid
was punk through and through.
Man, he was the fucking thrashlike, like superstar through and
through.
And I think, and what whatattracts me to power trip
(06:26):
specifically, but to this spacein general, is like the ones who
become these like superstarsare usually the, usually the
ones you think deserve it Right,like it feels, right Like.
I feel, like he deservedwhatever sort of positivity or
show or any sort of what he drewout of that.
Hopefully it was positive.
(06:47):
Uh, power trips rise and surgein popularity.
A lot of the, a lot of thrashmetal can get kind of same Z.
I mean, this is now we'recalling my opinion, but they can
get like it.
Can you just get old schoolright?
Yeah, he just stood out.
It's just always old school andyou can like.
But I think power trip, youknow they had some old school
flare, but like there wassomething cutting edge and
(07:08):
modern about them too.
So I mean, to their to theirbenefit, I think um and when
bands do that, I think it'simportant, Like not that they do
that on purpose, but wheneverit works out such that something
sounds modern and vintage atthe same time, it's like the
best of both worlds.
Yeah, Totally.
Will Bristol (07:29):
This happens with guitar gear, like an amp that an
amp that like vintage callbacksand all that stuff Like yeah,
that's always popular to do now.
Andrew Rothmund (07:38):
Yeah, you want the.
You want the aesthetic or thetone or the, even the smell or
flavor of what was older or whatwas what's now considered like
good, but you also want likesomething new that no one else
has.
Yeah, and there are playerslike that too.
Will Bristol (07:53):
Like like Jared James Nichols, he's like a
Gibson partner now but he playslike what is essentially
Southern Blues Rock.
Um, like you could probably puthim in an almond brother's band
band, cover band, and it wouldsound better.
Um, but he's the same way.
He just plays because he lovesplaying, and that's the music he
knows, so that's the music he'smaking.
Andrew Rothmund (08:14):
Exactly that was.
That's definitely theauthenticity, that the level of
authenticity you would speakabout when speaking about power
trip.
Will Bristol (08:21):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (08:21):
And you can't, you can't, you can't say the
same for every band, and that'sfine, like.
But for power trip to be thatband that felt so real and then
to be as popular as they wereand as like, get as much drawn
cred as they did, I mean thatthat just sends a good vibe, a
good message that, like we arechampioning, championing the
(08:43):
right bands, the right people,you know, at least some of the
time, at least some of the time,we have the right, we're
elevating the right people who adeserve it and be can have a
message of, of like elevatingothers around them, and that's
huge Like.
It goes beyond bands just doinglike collaborations with
smaller bands.
(09:03):
It goes beyond, like you know,like goes beyond like the
helping hand.
It's like it's about likesetting the whole tone or the
whole message of your, of yourband and performance, about,
like, about get up off your feetand, and you know, fight for
yourself and make it happen.
Now, power trip is not for allthe time, unless, you were
(09:24):
always like on, some people arealways on.
Will Bristol (09:28):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (09:29):
But power trip is a will either get you flipped
on if you're off, like you know.
Songs like, if not us, then whoyou know like, like last
measure, songs Like this is thethis is the final statement is
sort of feeling songs, right,like these are, these are like
ultimate, you know, likeultimate, like if you don't do
(09:51):
this now and you don't make ithappen in your life, it will
never happen and then there willbe no time left and that'll be
it, which, again, again, is likea sad but true and real analog
for Riley's life and death,especially in the later year of
like, reaching so high, gainingso much, and then the fentanyl,
(10:14):
you know, took hold.
Yeah, and it's not because ofweakness, I don't think, of
course, or like, or ill will,it's, it's, it's just of it's of
a, it's of a poison society,it's, you know, yeah.
I mean I'm just, yeah, alwaysspeeding up, I feel like never
slowing down, in an ideal sortof situation, like someone could
(10:39):
have helped him maybe orsomething else could have been
done.
But like I never blame you,can't blame the person when that
shit takes over, because thebrain, the human mind, is like
strong but also weak in someways, right?
Will Bristol (10:55):
Yeah, and I mean there's certain power.
There's a certain power, yeah,and you probably I mean I don't
know his whole story, no, meneither.
He probably just has a kind ofpersonality where he's like
going hard all the time too, solike if any kind of relief too
is nice.
Yeah, that's also true, andpeople don't deserve to Punish
for that.
Andrew Rothmund (11:14):
We don't know if that was Riley specifically,
but that's very true of likepeople who go very hard and look
for that relief and then theyend up that relief punishes them
.
Will Bristol (11:22):
Yeah, right.
Andrew Rothmund (11:25):
I know it's, it's, so it's, it's, I think
it's, I don't.
It's hard to say that it'sartistic, that you know power
trip being about selfempowerment, social right,
justice and then the sort ofinjustice of his death, you know
(11:47):
.
But I mean there's.
It's not beautiful but it's,but I think it, I think it
solidifies.
Power trip is like one of themost important metal bands of
like.
The last 15, 20, 30 years islike that.
They became so so like, sofuriously and like enraged and
(12:08):
like full of energy and fire,and then, you know, it was
immediately extinguished.
Will Bristol (12:14):
Right.
Andrew Rothmund (12:14):
You know, like that, and I think, for a lot of
people who even more so thandefinitely more so than me,
because I'm not yeah, people whothe real thrash heads, the real
fucking people who, like, wentto every power trip show, you
know the people who were reallytuned into it, that loss was
like monumental.
Will Bristol (12:35):
Yeah, I'm sure.
I mean he seems like he'd be animportant figure.
Yeah, absolutely, a lot ofpeople's lives.
Andrew Rothmund (12:39):
Yeah, I mean, just again, the way he
interacted with, with fans, andhis mannerisms and his and his
good naturedness, as reported byso many people, left an impact
that I think is like trulypositive and that, like I said,
retroactive, like it likesolidifies that music as like
(13:01):
unbreakably important.
You know, it's like it's it'snow legend, it's like now
history.
You know, like the good history, like sad story and terrible
ending and injustice that hepassed, but but I think what
he'll I mean he'll never knowwhat he left, like you know the
(13:23):
the true measure and scale ofthe impact that he made, right,
you know, I think that's that'swhat makes this band like bigger
than metal.
You know it's like a story, youknow it's like a fucking.
You know you can make like a 60minutes on this.
You know, like like you couldreally tell this story and make
it compelling, and it doesn'tmatter if it's metal or this or
(13:43):
that, but it's like a reallygood human story.
Yeah, about people likeconnecting over an art form that
brings them together andempowers them to, you know, live
the lives that they want andlike, if there was anything that
I shared about metal or myexperiences with it, it's that
you know the intensity of it isvery, can be very compelling for
(14:07):
whatever you might want to dowith yourself and anything from
getting pissed off and, you know, relieving some stress to, you
know, getting that mental boostthat you need to like get over a
hump.
You might need someone toscream at you, but sort of
scream with you, and I guess,for for Power Trip, it always
(14:29):
felt like he was screaming withyou, right?
Yeah, instead of at you.
Will Bristol (14:32):
Yeah, it definitely seems like more of a
kind of way of life than a genre, absolutely Someone who really
understood what he was trying todo.
Andrew Rothmund (14:41):
Yeah, that's probably the you said in like
one sentence, what it took melike an hour to say yeah,
Absolutely.
Will Bristol (14:47):
That Power Trip is a way of life.
Band.
Andrew Rothmund (14:49):
Power Trip is a way of life band.
They're like yeah, and what I?
What I love about the, aboutthe community and the culture,
is like you can wear the biggestPower Trip sticker and like or
patch.
You can have Power Tripstickers on your car, you can do
whatever and like you'll neverlook like a dope, you'll never
look like a dork for Power Tripand because that band, you point
(15:12):
you point that's legit manalways Like total cred, like
aced it as far as, like gettingto that level.
But it's hard to get that muchrespect without selling out
right Mm-hmm.
Like we all know and loveMetallica for their great works,
but they're millionaires Likeyeah, yeah, it's different, it's
just different.
Will Bristol (15:32):
It's just different, different life.
Andrew Rothmund (15:34):
It's just different and that's fine.
But but that's what I likeabout, that's what I, that's
what I think the big thing toshare about Power Trip is the
story of them.
Now, my personal interact, likemy my personal experiences with
them and it was my closest wasbeing unable to see that show
but being very close to itphysically was disappointing but
(15:58):
but I knew it was good.
And also when their first albumcame out, that was like because
I'd started listening to a lotof thrash like back in my teens
but fell out of it and I hadsort of fallen into the trap of
being like, oh yeah, thrashmetal it's all just like
drinking cheap beer and kind ofjust throwing around.
It's kind of stupid.
(16:20):
And fuck, was I wrong when Ifirst heard that first Power
Trip album?
Because I was like, wow, thisis like this is really on point.
That's really makes me feelgood and it's really, like you
know, different than I expectedkind of thrash metal to be wrong
on me.
So immediately, my firstexperience of this band is like
a learning one.
Yeah, like they're aroundexactly.
Will Bristol (16:42):
Do you think it was the same stuff that you were
saying about Riley that turnedyou on to them so fast, or Was
it just they were tightmusicians and really drew you in
.
Andrew Rothmund (16:51):
I think the music caught me first and that's
part of I mean, this is whyreggie has some.
She was so Impactful is notjust because of Zach's you know,
like hyper compelling lyrics,but because that damn music was
so catchy too.
Yeah, so good.
Same thing with power trip likeit's.
It's, it's sticky stuff, likeit, it's earworm.
(17:12):
Like I said, it gets with youand it gets you going and it
gets your body moving and thenyou're immediately like more
into it than you would be if itwas just flat, right, mm-hmm.
Then you start paying attentionto the lyrics and you start
getting involved with the music.
They they made no qualms aboutusing that hook to grab you
right, no, that's what's work.
That's, that's the good stuff,that's the juice that people
(17:34):
want to drink is like that, that, that spiked shit, right, yeah,
definitely that's what it is,and I don't think there's.
There's few things that arelike more heavy metal than that.
You know Mm-hmm and somethinglike yeah, this is the first
time I've thought about them incomparison to read against the
(17:55):
machine.
Will Bristol (17:56):
You know definitely different bands and
that definitely paints a picturefor me, though, cuz it's like
you listen to rage and youinstantly know it's rage, yeah,
and you know.
Andrew Rothmund (18:05):
I call it when I'm, when I'm, when I'm stoned
and a little drunk and jokingaround.
I call it I'm not doing myhomework, music.
Will Bristol (18:11):
It's very much like I ain't doing my fucking
homework.
Andrew Rothmund (18:14):
Yeah, music when we were in high school yeah
except that it's not abouthomework, it's about life and
death.
Will Bristol (18:18):
Yeah, it's about literally life.
Andrew Rothmund (18:20):
Yeah, it's like about actual things that really
matter, yeah, but the world'scrumbling, you know, society
turning a blind eye pretty muchbut Exactly it has.
If you were, if you were eightyears old and you heard this,
you'd be like I'm not doing myhomework anymore.
It's dangerous stuff.
So, yeah, the real, a realtonic, real fucking potion from
(18:44):
from another.
Feels like it, feels like theypulled that music out of, like
the future and when.
I heard it not in the sense thatit sounded futuristic, but in
the sense that, like a I mean wethink about the future, would
be it just.
I think they, I think theybrought a mindset and like a
Mood and attention and anattitude that Was like five or
(19:08):
six years too early.
Will Bristol (19:10):
Hmm.
I was gonna say maybe it had atimeless quality.
Andrew Rothmund (19:12):
Be your saying it was just like in a very in a
very condensed span, likeusually You'd expect this
timelessness to spread out overdecades, but like I think
they're already timeless, but inthe sense that, like Sometimes
it feels like when I listen tothat music that he knew bad
things were coming somehow Notthat he metaphysically sense
(19:36):
them or not, that there's anysort of fucking voodoo magic or
anything.
Will Bristol (19:40):
No, no, but but that something was on the
horizon, tense, and that I mean,I think someone Not to like
take away from that, but I thinkThinking that is more wise than
yeah not thinking that thingsare gonna be peachy keen.
Andrew Rothmund (19:57):
Yeah, you definitely know.
You never want to be, you know,fully convinced either way.
Yeah, yeah.
Will Bristol (20:02):
But I could definitely see that that was
some of the things gonna get badI.
Andrew Rothmund (20:07):
Think yeah, and I don't I'm not saying that
Riley or power trip or any ofthese people like specifically
thought that you know it was, itwas going to be bad or that
COVID was going to have like noone predicted that, but but I
think the message and the feeland the emotion that he evokes
(20:29):
and brings out, especially withthe live performance, would be
so valued today.
And that's the news is that theband, since Riley's passing,
has recently done a, I think,surprise performance At the end
of a end of a concert anotherband's concert said they came
out and performed power trip didthis just happened, I think,
(20:52):
last night.
I still have to read the full.
Oh, wow news, yeah, yeah,literally like right before we
recorded this or maybe two daysago.
But I gotta read, I gottafigure out.
I got a stuff to read what bandit was and and what songs they
played and stuff and how it went, but I just saw the headline.
You know this morning yeah,that's like power trip, like
(21:13):
reunited.
I don't know if they havesomeone doing vocals or they did
it without vocal, I'm not sure.
Hmm, I'm not sure.
So, but they, I know after hispassing they they agreed to
continue on in some capacity.
Yeah with the band as namedpower trip as them.
I don't know more.
(21:33):
I don't know if they were goingto select new vocalist winner
where or how that any of thatwas gonna work.
Will Bristol (21:40):
Hmm.
Andrew Rothmund (21:40):
I haven't kept up so well.
I mean that'll be good.
Yeah, homework to revisit.
Yeah, nightmare logic was theirlast full-length 2017.
I think, like I said,commercial success.
If anyone's interested inchecking power, trip out and
getting a little kick in the assand some it's like caffeine,
it's good mood juice.
(22:01):
Check out the album nightmarelogic.
I think it came out on SouthernLord.
Damn, doing bad in memory today.
Will Bristol (22:11):
Well, I'm a logic point.
Yeah, that's good.
Andrew Rothmund (22:13):
Yep, and you can check them out.
On streaming services and everywobbly Down below and yeah,
wherever you click this, clickthis.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, stream.
You know?
I think track two, it's like Idon't know, just started from
this.
It's one of those albums likestarted from the start it is
(22:35):
you're not gonna be like, it'snot gonna change halfway through
the album.
If you don't like the firstsong, you're not gonna like the
rest of it, right, but if you'reinto it yet, it's a really like
, it's a really involved listen.
It just gets you get your bloodpumping, and sometimes it's a
good thing.
Will Bristol (22:53):
So oh yeah, for sure Highest recommendations in
that?
Andrew Rothmund (22:55):
Yeah cool.
Now let's get.
Let's get the blood pumping ina different way.
Will Bristol (23:01):
Yeah, I was gonna say I don't have a clutter segue
.
Andrew Rothmund (23:05):
Yeah, how do you a lot of, yeah, how do you
sing about Riley's kind ofmentality?
Will Bristol (23:10):
Mark link is a sparkle horse shares or shared
shares in certain qualities.
Like he Was it just consummatemusician.
Born in Virginia, had a kind ofNot rough earlier life but was
(23:31):
kind of a troublemaker.
So like he was moved around alittle bit, was into motorcycles
, hung out with some guys in thepagans for a while.
The motorcycle gang Decided hewanted, wanted to be a musician
and went to New York and LasVegas or Los Angeles and got to
(23:55):
know some guys and bands inthose areas.
Had a few bands before hisactual spark horse project which
were all kind of Verging onsuccess.
You know they would tour and doshows and stuff but nothing
really took off Until he starteddoing sparkle horse where like
he kind of instantly or notinstantly but got the attention
(24:19):
of a lot of important people andhis circles and others.
So Ended up putting out thefirst record Viva Dixie,
submarine transmission I thinkthat's the full name, but it's
it's a.
It has like 20 some songs on it.
(24:39):
Rainmaker was one of the singlesI believe there just are like
they're kind of hit after hit,but there's like a lot, a lot of
Really good tracks on therethat were licensed for music and
or licensed for shows andmovies.
Okay, and that album got theattention of Radiohead too.
So he was asked to open ontheir tour in like 99 to 98 and
(25:05):
he'd been kind of also like didwhatever he wanted to really and
like was creatively kind of outthere into drugs.
But on that tour he kind ofMixed up the wrong combination
of some things, ended up in thehospital because he cut off the
circulation to his legs for like24 hours so I'd have extensive
(25:29):
legs surgery in the UK.
On that radiohead tour and thatkind of like Messed him up.
Andrew Rothmund (25:37):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (25:37):
I think it would anyone.
Yeah and but physically andmentally.
His next record was kind of alot longer reflection on that
and Went on to kind of do a morecollaboration with people.
So like he would again like hejust was, people just loved what
he was doing and like, lovedhis creative energy and like
(25:59):
where he was coming from.
He worked with, you know, otherthan some of those earlier
people who were also names, butI just can't think of all of
them right now but at that pointhe was already working with
like PJ Harpy and David Lynch,danger mouse, tom weights I mean
just anyone.
Andrew Rothmund (26:18):
Yeah, basically like the only one he asked.
Will Bristol (26:21):
Would be on a record and anyone he wanted to
work with that might be.
These are the kind of peoplecoming to him.
So he had that second one underhis belt, was working on this
third one he did.
There was a specificcollaboration he did with danger
mouse and David Lynch whichended up it was super-duper
creative thing, super cool.
(26:42):
The marketing was weird on it.
There also were agreements withdistribution that weren't Like
they got tied up.
So it kind of ended up being afailure even though it was a
really cool, really positiveexperience for all of them.
So that one kind of teeteredand then he had Kind of a couple
(27:03):
records up to that.
Only look at that, for a past.
Andrew Rothmund (27:06):
Yeah, look at him with this guy.
Yeah, he sounds like.
He sounds like he came this far, or like to that point, just
through the, through the talentof his, of his performance, and
like, yeah, I mean, he just wasa huge yeah.
Will Bristol (27:19):
creative Energy and like.
Andrew Rothmund (27:22):
So the first person was Viva Dixie submarine
transmission plot.
Will Bristol (27:26):
Good morning spider was the one he wrote kind
of in the midst of all of histroubles.
It's a wonderful life Was theone after that, and Drimped for
light years in the belly of amountain was his last
full-length one, yeah yeah.
The other collaboration oneswere Dark Knight of the soul,
(27:48):
danger mouse and David Lynch.
And then he had some a ton ofcompilations and singles and
there he worked with Christianfinnaz for EP, but also back in
the news lately too because heLeft behind a bunch of stuff
After he took his own life, youknow, due to drug problems, to
(28:08):
do all this All that stuff andthis was early 2010s right.
Andrew Rothmund (28:14):
It was in 2010.
Will Bristol (28:15):
Yeah, yeah, just kind of, you know, walked around
back and shot himself, yeah,but he left behind almost
complete record which came outthis year Called burden machine.
It's up there in the wall, buthis brother put that together
for him or one of his oldbandmates, and it was like I
(28:37):
said, it was pretty much almostthere and he left behind a huge
bank of things like kind of likeElliott Smith, like he just was
always making little things,all of us all the time.
Andrew Rothmund (28:45):
It's crazy how, like 10 years has passed.
Will Bristol (28:48):
Yeah, and it's like, maybe that's, maybe that
time is Was needed or maybe it'sgood it probably took them that
long just to sift through allthe stuff, because he had, yeah,
just tons of all you'rerecording.
And his house was basicallyrecording studio, yeah, the end
of his life too.
So he was spending all thistime recording and I think his
(29:08):
marriage wasn't doing welleither, so probably even more of
a time recording, yeah.
But just all the songs he didwere just all over the place too
.
Like there are punk songs inthere, they're like ballads
there, like singer-songwriter IIstuff, all these Effectations
he put on the music, kind oflike Tom weights does, where
(29:29):
he'll change up how the guitarssound by using certain effects,
or right, he has.
He used to sing throughsomething called like a Whisper
2000, which is like a thing tomake your voice less heard.
That like was like a spy toy orsomething.
But still kinds of stuff likethat.
What?
Andrew Rothmund (29:46):
you're saying is that, like this guy was just
so like so profusely musical,yeah, like everything, his out
way of saying his output was solike varied, that I mean it was
just impressive how musical hewas then I think he just used
creativity exactly and likepeople, were attracted to that
right just in every sense.
(30:06):
You know, like everyone wantedto work with him.
Will Bristol (30:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think Again, not to put words in
anyone's mouth, but like Fromhis perspective, I think he was
just desperately trying to dohis thing.
Mm-hmm and like trying to stayahead of all the darkness.
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (30:23):
Which I get that like pursuing, pursuing art
which is pure and true and it'sactually like a good thing in
life.
Will Bristol (30:30):
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Rothmund (30:30):
You know it's one of the few things that's
very, you know, good to have.
Will Bristol (30:36):
Yeah all the time it gives you purpose.
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (30:39):
The pursuit of that can help you escape the
darkness, but unfortunatelysometimes it catches up.
Yeah and he or it's not the wayout.
Will Bristol (30:46):
Yeah and he had a lot of, like I said, other
things going on in his life.
So you know, it's just, it'sunfortunate that it happened the
way it happened, but on theother side, you know, he did,
too, a lot of pretty amazingthings for someone both in his
position being like a kid fromVirginia who just had some
(31:09):
motorcycle gang friends and aguitar to being, like you know,
opening for Radiohead.
Andrew Rothmund (31:15):
That's pretty nice.
Will Bristol (31:16):
Yeah, yeah, because they asked him too,
which is amazing.
Yeah, I think he actually coldcalled Tom Waits and then Tom
Waits was like oh, I know yourstuff, like we should do
something.
Andrew Rothmund (31:29):
If you, if Tom Waits says, I know your stuff,
then you were already on a level.
That's like yeah, and he wasalready there.
But it's like I think even him.
Will Bristol (31:38):
he was just like can I do this?
Andrew Rothmund (31:39):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (31:40):
But he would just always take a leap, you know,
for whatever the project youknow, felt he needed to add to
it.
Andrew Rothmund (31:48):
It sounds like he had an unlimited capacity for
more.
But not in this, not in likethe economic sense that some
bands gather were like we wantbigger shows, we want more money
, we want more merch sales.
Oh yeah, I think it sounds likethis guy.
You know, he just wanted moreart, he just wanted to make more
.
Will Bristol (32:07):
I mean, that was totally it.
Yeah, and there are even partsof his career where I like.
Andrew Rothmund (32:11):
Yeah, true, creative yeah.
Will Bristol (32:12):
Yeah, where he would tell the label that the
master tapes for something hadbeen lost in a fire, just
because he wanted to, like,recreate them and make them
shittier sounding like.
He wanted them to sounddifferent.
Andrew Rothmund (32:25):
He wanted probably want to sound real.
Yeah, yeah.
Will Bristol (32:28):
But but things like that like right he would do
just because, like he never, Idon't.
I don't know how he felt aboutthe money.
I'm sure he would have likedmore of it.
Right, he certainly didn't likestrive to like make it a
business.
You know, he made enough moneyoff that record to basically
live comfortably with his wifefor a while.
(32:49):
And then the proximal records,or proximal the next few, didn't
do so hot, okay, and I meanthey still sold copies, and I
mean maybe, though, there's beena resurgence since then.
Andrew Rothmund (33:03):
But are they good or they just do they?
Yeah, they're all solid records.
Will Bristol (33:08):
A lot of them.
It is kind of like there islike a lot in there.
Andrew Rothmund (33:12):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (33:12):
So maybe they would have been better
commercial releases if they'dbeen more kind of project
managed.
Andrew Rothmund (33:17):
I guess he wasn't.
He doesn't sound like hisintention was anything
commercial.
Will Bristol (33:22):
No, I think yeah, he made the things he wanted to
make.
Andrew Rothmund (33:24):
Yeah, so one of the things you have to accept
when you're into artists who arethat true to self is that you
can't expect every single songto be the greatest thing of all
time.
You got to understand them aspeople like, and this is their
output Right.
You got to search and find thethings that speak the loudest.
Will Bristol (33:43):
Well, I think the case for a lot of his songs, if
you look at it that way, is thatto someone that is their
favorite song, but it's notgoing to be the what everyone
likes, right, and everyone'severyone's not going to like
most of it, right.
Andrew Rothmund (33:56):
A lot of some very specific people are going
to like individual songs, right,but they're going to like it
very, very much.
Yeah, but they're going to loveit, yeah.
I feel that, yeah, it's.
It's interesting to hear about,hear about Sparkle Horse, and
think about Power Trip at thesame time, because a lot of this
like a lot of this true to selfdynamic comes out Right.
(34:19):
A lot of this like it doesn'teven like.
I think Power Trip is much morefuck you Right, much more like
middle finger to the system.
Will Bristol (34:29):
But I think, mark, Lankas as a person was as much
grow.
This is where I'm getting.
Yeah, I kind of wanted to findout.
Yeah, so like I think if theyhad met, they may have tried to
do a song together yeah.
Whether the song was good ornot.
Yeah, it kind of falls in thatsame camp of like some people
are going to love this, yeah,and a lot of people are not
going to understand it.
Right, right, right.
Because Mark also learned allthat hair, metal and metal
(34:51):
guitar.
Starting out, you know he wasbiker guy, like.
He wasn't like.
Yeah, he was considered asoftie by anyone.
Yeah, yeah, he was.
Andrew Rothmund (34:58):
He was listening to the like the music
that people listened to, yeah,yeah, but not just that.
Will Bristol (35:03):
Like the music he made is like a lot of it's
softer, but they're cuttinglyrics.
I mean it's like they're.
They're not about soft things.
Yeah, but I think he could.
He could pull out both sides,you know, and I think he just
ended up with that side moretimes than not.
Now I got you.
Andrew Rothmund (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's, they're definitely.
They definitely sound like twopeople who, like, even though
the worst thing happened, theyfeels like they didn't waste a
moment, trying as hard as theycould.
Will Bristol (35:37):
Yeah, I think that's true, yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (35:39):
And if that sends any sort of message, it's
that, like, I mean, noteveryone's going to achieve
their top number one dream, butneither of these people will.
Maybe they're.
Do you think his dream was tobecome some sort of like star or
some sort of I mean?
Will Bristol (35:58):
I mean I think he did want to be famous, yeah, but
not in like the weird waythough, but I'm like I'm not.
I mean, I'm not sure, I'm notsure he really knew, like there
was also a documentary that cameout about him, okay, last year,
the year before, if you look upsparkle horse documentary
you'll find it but I think, yeah, his intention was always to
(36:21):
like be able to be famous and domusic, whether that meant like
maybe he just means access tothe right people.
We can mean that much, yeah, butI mean, but he already kind of
had that access to.
So it's like I don't reallyknow what he wanted.
I don't know if he knew what hewanted all the way.
You know, maybe he was justchasing something that he didn't
have a clear side on yet.
Andrew Rothmund (36:41):
Yeah, maybe he's chasing it because it felt
it has a draw.
Maybe it felt right, feltforward.
Yeah, or just motivated, yeah, Imean we can speculate, but
we'll never know, like, yeah andI speculate often about Riley,
because I find I find that wayof living, or at least that the
ability to espouse thatmentality at least so strongly,
(37:05):
like we can all do it a bitsometimes like get to that level
and be truly that have for thatkind of righteous anger or that
righteous sort of like moralhigh ground, but for it to be
like that all the time, to writeall that music, to go that hard
(37:26):
and like produce a body of workthat represents that music or
represents that attitude or thatfeeling but that other people
can access and then get thatfeeling, like that takes another
level.
And it sounds like somethingspecial he was able to write
that into the music and a lot ofit.
He was, yeah.
Will Bristol (37:43):
Actually, that made me think of one of the
differences.
Mark pretty much already killedhimself, like he was in a coma
for two weeks after that firstincident, after the after he
lost the legs.
Andrew Rothmund (37:54):
Yeah, the feeling in his legs.
Will Bristol (37:55):
Yeah, so for and I remember this being a quote by
him for a number of years, likefive or six.
After that, all people wantedto talk to him.
That was like him killinghimself or like almost dying.
And he said like I think it waslike to another journalist who
was like you're the firstjournalist who hasn't really
asked about that Interesting.
(38:16):
So I think he was also justchasing something having to do
with death for all that time too.
Andrew Rothmund (38:24):
Yeah, I didn't realize that he was alive for so
long after that incident.
Will Bristol (38:30):
Yeah, okay, I mean that was 20, 22 years afterward
that he killed himself.
Andrew Rothmund (38:37):
Okay, yeah.
Will Bristol (38:39):
So I mean he had pain and he's a cane and yeah
imagine, I don't know it changesyour life yeah.
I think he could still rideyeah.
I don't know if he could do allthe things he wanted to do
Right.
Andrew Rothmund (38:48):
Right, but he continued to make music and,
yeah, part of things, yeah.
Will Bristol (38:55):
I mean, that was after his first record, so most
of his career was after that.
Andrew Rothmund (38:58):
Okay Gotcha.
Yeah, I had the timescale alittle little off kilter in my
brain, yeah.
Will Bristol (39:03):
But no, it is wild to think about like because,
yeah, I mean he already had acouple of monkeys on his back.
Yeah, just from that.
Andrew Rothmund (39:09):
Yeah, no, it's like I have to like stand and
just be impressed that that theability of people to endure
levels of suffering that I'm noteven familiar with but also
like artistically encode thatmessage into something we can
access right as separate peoplelike to do both.
(39:32):
Is this like I can't even Caneven fathom what it takes?
Will Bristol (39:38):
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, to go throughthat and come out Producing
anything like to me is a victory.
Like yeah, because I mean wecould speculate all day.
But like I think the one themarket wanted to be famous was
the one before that happened,gotcha, so it may have changed
this track and that thinking toyeah, but the music is good,
(40:00):
that's yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (40:01):
I mean we wouldn't talk about any of these
bands if the music wasn't good,like because there's, there are
artists out there, you know who, who, who have the right
message and who can Tell us allabout Deep things and stuff, but
if the music is not good, veryfew people will listen well,
that's me.
Will Bristol (40:20):
Yeah, you didn't even finish and it's still good,
these guys, that's.
That's the crazy thing, yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (40:27):
I think that's also impressive.
Yeah, it's like it's good, notbecause of the message.
I'm it's good, because it'sjust like it's good, unlike a,
like a, like a gorilla brainlevel, right, like it gets to
you in.
Like it's, it speaks thelanguage of music, not the
language of words, right, yeah,some some music, I feel like
(40:48):
speaks only words and like I getthe same sort of Nutrients out
of that as I might get out ofreading a magazine or a book.
Will Bristol (40:55):
Yeah, I was gonna say reading.
Yeah, it's nice to not have tothink about all the words all
the time and still get a goodfeeling or the right feeling
from it.
Andrew Rothmund (41:02):
Yeah, I like, I Respect the people who have,
who discover they have the powerto write music and write
compelling music, and then theythey're able to Not just.
And then you have the otherside of what I was saying, where
it's like great music, butthere's it's no content like
right.
I could say a lot about a lotof heavy metal that I like a lot
(41:24):
, I like the music, but there'sno, there's no lyrical content.
Will Bristol (41:29):
Yeah, there's nothing deep, I mean no.
Andrew Rothmund (41:30):
I mean, there are words in the lyrics, but you
don't want to read any of them,right, and you can't understand
them anyway.
So, yeah, I really there.
But it sounds like here, andespecially with power trip, to
Stand out in heavy metal,especially in thrash, is like
the lyrics Really good.
Yeah, I assume here aresparklers.
(41:52):
Yeah, and you can tell theyspent time writing them, you
know right.
Will Bristol (41:56):
It wasn't just something where they added them
after the belt.
Andrew Rothmund (41:58):
No, he was.
There was like it's almost.
Maybe the songs were builtaround them even yeah, yeah, I
Feel like I don't know anythingabout power trips, writing
process or anything, but as muchas I want to think that that
the music came first and thenthey put the lyrics on top, I
Feel like some of these songshad to have been lyrically
driven, like I mean, I thinkMark did both because he was
(42:19):
equally interested in likemaking crazy guitar sounds too,
or making instruments sound likethey shouldn't, you know, like
the Tom Waits stuff.
Yeah, I guess yeah.
Will Bristol (42:27):
So he would probably spend equal parts on
both.
But yeah, they're definitelylyric heavy songs or noise heavy
songs as well.
Andrew Rothmund (42:36):
Yeah, it's that a sound, so I guess pro tip or
top tip.
But you know, if you'resongwriting like try, try
writing the lyrics first andthen thinking of songs, riffs,
styles, whatever around them.
Will Bristol (42:48):
Yeah, I think that's something to try, sure I
think most people start with themusic right.
I don't know.
I think people do both ways, dothey?
Andrew Rothmund (42:54):
yeah, you think it's 50, 50 Getting the
comments?
Will Bristol (42:58):
Yeah, let's see, I'm curious.
Andrew Rothmund (43:00):
I think most people like are Tens on you,
right?
If you're a guitarist, you'reobviously writing riffs first,
maybe not, I don't know.
I've done both, done both, yeah.
Start with the words and thenkind of use that.
Will Bristol (43:11):
Sometimes the words just come first, and then
you can imagine what, what we'llplay with it.
Yeah yeah, but I know somepeople also have a hard time
Imagining stuff like that, likeI know on tiktok it's popular
right now people who Don't havean inner model log.
Andrew Rothmund (43:28):
I know about this yeah you know.
Will Bristol (43:30):
So there's probably something similar music
where it's like you.
Probably there's some, probablysome people who can't Imagine a
melody with lyrics or theycan't write lyrics unless
there's an Un-un, a musicalbackground to it.
Andrew Rothmund (43:43):
I can't see faces.
Yeah, like I'm dead serious,like I Can kind of see my
family's faces and I candescribe what my mom's, my mom
looks like, but I can't I can'tclose my eyes.
And like I can close my eyesand see an apple, but I can't
close my eyes and make.
I mean, you can make out ageneral human face, but I can't.
How do you describe it?
(44:04):
Look in my head and look aheadand see, you can't remember like
I I, you're my stone-memberfeatures, or just don't see them
.
No, okay, I forget Pete.
I forget new people a lot andit's because, like I don't have
the imprint, the spot, thatwhere the stamp goes down in my
(44:25):
normal person's brain, right,yeah, I've that face of that
experience.
Those things don't sticksometimes, especially faces.
It's hard with faces, but whyare we talking about that?
I can't remember.
Will Bristol (44:38):
Because of the like no inner monologue thing.
Oh, yeah, yeah musicalequivalent to that.
Andrew Rothmund (44:43):
There is gotta be.
Yeah, it's interesting, though,like these people that don't
have inner monologues.
They they talk and say thingsas if sometimes, like you know,
we're not so different.
It sounds like unbelievable.
Just people who have innermonologue.
Yeah, I don't, I don't get thattick on it.
Will Bristol (45:03):
Yeah, I mean, of course you know like I feel,
like of course there are peoplethat don't have that, but I mean
I feel like that, mine's likehalfway developed.
I'm like it's the same.
Sometimes I can do it andsometimes I can't.
Andrew Rothmund (45:13):
Someone with an incessant inner monologue, I
Just it blows my mind that itcould not be there.
I guess I just tune mine outsometimes.
Will Bristol (45:22):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (45:22):
I'm like I wish I could make mine, not there.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd wishit back.
I had one of my friends who Iwork with.
We were talking about this too.
Yeah, what's up?
Oh, do you want me to?
We're doing a podcast thing.
(45:45):
You just want to take yourverse on?
You take a bus.
Will Bristol (45:51):
All right, you could break and pick her up if
you want to.
We're just about the end ofthis one.
Andrew Rothmund (46:01):
Yeah, how about a rant?
Oh yeah, we've done about 20minutes in.
Do you want to add anythingabout?
Will Bristol (46:11):
I mean, I can try to sum up here.
Andrew Rothmund (46:12):
Yeah, let's think of where we could, where
we can plug it into before,because we were talking about
when do we, where do we leaveoff on Sparkle Wars?
Will Bristol (46:24):
I mean mainly he just had a lot to say and Tried
to squeeze it all in.
Seemed like, I mean, we werekind of on that tangent of like
overworking.
Andrew Rothmund (46:35):
But yeah, I don't know we were talking about
also the music, and one of it I.
Will Bristol (46:48):
Can break.
I'll just we can start now, gogo ahead.
So to bring it back to both ofthem, any clear differences and
similarities, but both likeconsummate musicians, super
opinionated and strong willedcreatives.
Andrew Rothmund (47:11):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (47:11):
I Don't know and gone too soon, that's.
Andrew Rothmund (47:17):
I know it is the tragic stories and we are.
We have less without them.
Yeah, but it's not their fault.
Grateful for what we got, yeah,from them.
She cherished that shit becauseI mean, there's so few else,
there's so few things else inlife that are so pure and good
(47:37):
and valuable.
Will Bristol (47:38):
Yeah, and people trying to carry on what they did
exactly you know power trip,reuniting Yep, then going
through, mark mark links his oldstudio and finding song.
I mean like yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (47:48):
We there's, there's so much value and like
looking to the past and keepingthat stuff alive.
Yeah, as much as we love tolook to the future and focus on
the present, yeah, look at thepast, sometimes, be like, yeah,
so I Know, yeah, it's kind ofthis kind of a low note on the
piano, right.
Will Bristol (48:07):
Yeah, but.
Andrew Rothmund (48:07):
I think.
But it's a good, it's good totell and talk about yeah, and
they'll, and they'll keep livingon through those things.
Absolutely.
Oh yeah, like legend, yeah.
Will Bristol (48:15):
so Cool, well doing low note.
Andrew Rothmund (48:20):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (48:20):
I can subscribe like a subscribe.
Andrew Rothmund (48:23):
You know, check out the bands.
I think, I Think we got bothmoods covered.
You know if yeah you know, youget a sense for what these bands
if you've never heard them.
What, what these artists soundlike.
But we definitely recommendchecking them out.
In fact, it would beinteresting if you check them
both out, one after the other.
That would be ideal.
(48:45):
Yeah, interesting contrast.
But I think I think if youthink about it in context of,
like the, I think the DIYattitude and the punk aesthetic
and all the, all the elementsthat combine to make these two
very different people kind oftell this you know a very
similar sort of Story or play asimilar role for their
(49:05):
respective musical spaces.
You see that crossover.
I think it's really cool.
Will Bristol (49:10):
Yes, and they're huge people to take inspiration
from.
To absolutely.
Yeah.
So if you're looking to beinspired to do something a
little bit outside the box,that's absolutely yeah.
If you need source.
Andrew Rothmund (49:21):
I guess I've been you.
If you need a little extrajuice in your life, it's nice to
do some inspirational seekingand find the right thing,
especially music, hmm.
So alright, peace out, catchyou around.
See you later.
Like, subscribe, do the things.
Bye.
Alright, welcome back to Sound Saga.
We are here to talk about PowerTrip and Sparkle Horse.
Will Bristol (00:33):
We are going to find the similarities and
differences.
They are both relevant, againfor different reasons.
Andrew Rothmund (00:42):
Like relevant today, like recent news,
absolutely, and I think we aregoing to tie it into the whole
Saga part of Sound Saga.
We are going to tell a storyabout our experiences with this
music and then our stories, Ithink, will line up.
This is kind of how we aregoing to plug these two bands
together.
Yeah, it will be a cool deepdive on both of them, absolutely
(01:03):
.
But to start, I think you wantedto start with Power Trip and I
like that.
It is a very power trip move.
We are going to start there.
Yeah, when we talked aboutBellwitch and Rilo Kiley, one of
the things I said aboutBellwitch and our last deep dive
was, if you don't listen toheavy metal or not as tuned in
(01:27):
with that space, there is a fewbands that I think truly
represent their sub genre, theirsub space within metal, but who
also are so easily accessiblefrom people outside of that
space in a way that that bandcan still translate some of the
intricacies of what that styleis.
(01:47):
They are not so generic or sowatered down that they are easy
to digest but don't really havemany nutrients in them so to
speak.
Will Bristol (02:00):
as far as metal goes, they define a particular
space.
Andrew Rothmund (02:03):
you say Exactly Power Trip is like.
They showcase thrash metal, butthey also represent like an
evolution of it or acontinuation of it from its
early days.
Will Bristol (02:16):
Would you consider the locust thrash metal?
Andrew Rothmund (02:18):
The locust?
I am actually not aware whothat is.
Will Bristol (02:22):
That was like the only thrash metal band that came
to mind when you said that.
Andrew Rothmund (02:27):
I am thinking of like continuations on, like
even as popular as Metallicathrash, but like in that vein of
thrashy.
But they also had a punk sideto them, like without a doubt
there is like that punkinfluence.
So they are not like they arenot distilled 100% thrash metal,
(02:48):
which is actually, I think,good for them being a gateway
band, because they are hard topin down and pinning it down is
not really as important as likereally like A, how popular they
got and B, why they got as muchrecognition as they did.
Will Bristol (03:05):
About when was the ?
Andrew Rothmund (03:06):
peak popularity and like why did that happen?
So like 2010s till Riley'sdeath in 2020.
2021, actually, I think so.
Will Bristol (03:16):
they were peaking at it whole time.
Andrew Rothmund (03:18):
Yeah, I think they were trajectory, like
straight out, like stratospheric.
They were already you know theygot nominated for a Grammy and
if you look at all the Grammynominated metal bands, it is all
like Ozzy, gojira, macedon,lamb of God, all the you know,
all the they are not metal bands, but the names that like even
(03:38):
my parents are like Like verypopular bands?
Yeah, exactly they exist in aspace that I think you know is
more of a cloud or more of a toplayer to what is really
underneath.
Bands like Power Trip.
They came from like deep downand not that slipknot didn't
like.
The slipknot started, you know,very small and so did corn Like
(04:02):
all these bands started likevery small and got very, very,
very big.
Would Power Trip have becomelike that mega big?
Well, maybe their Grammynomination indicates that yeah,
they did.
But there's something specialabout A aesthetically like the
style of thrash and the way theysounded.
B also Riley's call foractivism and like and social
(04:24):
justice and some of his lyricsLike everything was so timely
about that band and maybe even alittle ahead of their time.
Will Bristol (04:32):
Yeah, that was a while ago.
Andrew Rothmund (04:34):
Things were different, right, I mean COVID
changed a lot and like it doesseem like a different world
looking that far back.
And so, to look that far backfor Power Trip, I think you see
an evolution of a thrash band,like from the early 2010s, like
to the later to the later 2010s.
Yeah, if there's one thinganyone in any space of music can
(04:55):
pull, at least from punk oreven hardcore or even thrash
metal, is like the mindset oflike, no matter how hard it is,
no matter who tries to stop, you, just do it anyway.
Right, yeah, and just speakyour mind, yeah.
Will Bristol (05:11):
Like I mean, punk's roots are just, are just
about anti-authority,anti-establishment, yeah yeah.
That is the mentality andadding that to your flavor of
you know or genre, Right, it'svery much more personal.
Andrew Rothmund (05:25):
Yeah, it's very much.
I may, I may flawed, but wholeperson, but there's nothing that
I will let outside world takefrom me, take from that whole
person, right, right.
And I think, riley, you know,having suffered with drug
addiction and depression andthis was people knew this um,
you know, I think he wore hisflaws like, like, authentically,
(05:49):
like that.
He didn't.
I don't think he ever made anyqualms or any like any weirdness
about, like who he was or theproblems he had.
Will Bristol (06:00):
Yeah, he shows that in common.
I mean.
Andrew Rothmund (06:02):
I'm not tied in with, like I don't know him
personally and I don't I don'thave mutuals anywhere close,
Like Right, but you could justsee it in his performance he's
kind of the reed of it from,from the talk of the town, from
the things and from theperformances that that the kid
was punk through and through.
Man, he was the fucking thrashlike, like superstar through and
through.
And I think, and what whatattracts me to power trip
(06:26):
specifically, but to this spacein general, is like the ones who
become these like superstarsare usually the, usually the
ones you think deserve it Right,like it feels, right Like.
I feel, like he deservedwhatever sort of positivity or
show or any sort of what he drewout of that.
Hopefully it was positive.
(06:47):
Uh, power trips rise and surgein popularity.
A lot of the, a lot of thrashmetal can get kind of same Z.
I mean, this is now we'recalling my opinion, but they can
get like it.
Can you just get old schoolright?
Yeah, he just stood out.
It's just always old school andyou can like.
But I think power trip, youknow they had some old school
flare, but like there wassomething cutting edge and
(07:08):
modern about them too.
So I mean, to their to theirbenefit, I think um and when
bands do that, I think it'simportant, Like not that they do
that on purpose, but wheneverit works out such that something
sounds modern and vintage atthe same time, it's like the
best of both worlds.
Yeah, Totally.
Will Bristol (07:29):
This happens with guitar gear, like an amp that an
amp that like vintage callbacksand all that stuff Like yeah,
that's always popular to do now.
Andrew Rothmund (07:38):
Yeah, you want the.
You want the aesthetic or thetone or the, even the smell or
flavor of what was older or whatwas what's now considered like
good, but you also want likesomething new that no one else
has.
Yeah, and there are playerslike that too.
Will Bristol (07:53):
Like like Jared James Nichols, he's like a
Gibson partner now but he playslike what is essentially
Southern Blues Rock.
Um, like you could probably puthim in an almond brother's band
band, cover band, and it wouldsound better.
Um, but he's the same way.
He just plays because he lovesplaying, and that's the music he
knows, so that's the music he'smaking.
Andrew Rothmund (08:14):
Exactly that was.
That's definitely theauthenticity, that the level of
authenticity you would speakabout when speaking about power
trip.
Will Bristol (08:21):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (08:21):
And you can't, you can't, you can't say the
same for every band, and that'sfine, like.
But for power trip to be thatband that felt so real and then
to be as popular as they wereand as like, get as much drawn
cred as they did, I mean thatthat just sends a good vibe, a
good message that, like we arechampioning, championing the
(08:43):
right bands, the right people,you know, at least some of the
time, at least some of the time,we have the right, we're
elevating the right people who adeserve it and be can have a
message of, of like elevatingothers around them, and that's
huge Like.
It goes beyond bands just doinglike collaborations with
smaller bands.
(09:03):
It goes beyond, like you know,like goes beyond like the
helping hand.
It's like it's about likesetting the whole tone or the
whole message of your, of yourband and performance, about,
like, about get up off your feetand, and you know, fight for
yourself and make it happen.
Now, power trip is not for allthe time, unless, you were
(09:24):
always like on, some people arealways on.
Will Bristol (09:28):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (09:29):
But power trip is a will either get you flipped
on if you're off, like you know.
Songs like, if not us, then whoyou know like, like last
measure, songs Like this is thethis is the final statement is
sort of feeling songs, right,like these are, these are like
ultimate, you know, likeultimate, like if you don't do
(09:51):
this now and you don't make ithappen in your life, it will
never happen and then there willbe no time left and that'll be
it, which, again, again, is likea sad but true and real analog
for Riley's life and death,especially in the later year of
like, reaching so high, gainingso much, and then the fentanyl,
(10:14):
you know, took hold.
Yeah, and it's not because ofweakness, I don't think, of
course, or like, or ill will,it's, it's, it's just of it's of
a, it's of a poison society,it's, you know, yeah.
I mean I'm just, yeah, alwaysspeeding up, I feel like never
slowing down, in an ideal sortof situation, like someone could
(10:39):
have helped him maybe orsomething else could have been
done.
But like I never blame you,can't blame the person when that
shit takes over, because thebrain, the human mind, is like
strong but also weak in someways, right?
Will Bristol (10:55):
Yeah, and I mean there's certain power.
There's a certain power, yeah,and you probably I mean I don't
know his whole story, no, meneither.
He probably just has a kind ofpersonality where he's like
going hard all the time too, solike if any kind of relief too
is nice.
Yeah, that's also true, andpeople don't deserve to Punish
for that.
Andrew Rothmund (11:14):
We don't know if that was Riley specifically,
but that's very true of likepeople who go very hard and look
for that relief and then theyend up that relief punishes them
.
Will Bristol (11:22):
Yeah, right.
Andrew Rothmund (11:25):
I know it's, it's, so it's, it's, I think
it's, I don't.
It's hard to say that it'sartistic, that you know power
trip being about selfempowerment, social right,
justice and then the sort ofinjustice of his death, you know
(11:47):
.
But I mean there's.
It's not beautiful but it's,but I think it, I think it
solidifies.
Power trip is like one of themost important metal bands of
like.
The last 15, 20, 30 years islike that.
They became so so like, sofuriously and like enraged and
(12:08):
like full of energy and fire,and then, you know, it was
immediately extinguished.
Will Bristol (12:14):
Right.
Andrew Rothmund (12:14):
You know, like that, and I think, for a lot of
people who even more so thandefinitely more so than me,
because I'm not yeah, people whothe real thrash heads, the real
fucking people who, like, wentto every power trip show, you
know the people who were reallytuned into it, that loss was
like monumental.
Will Bristol (12:35):
Yeah, I'm sure.
I mean he seems like he'd be animportant figure.
Yeah, absolutely, a lot ofpeople's lives.
Andrew Rothmund (12:39):
Yeah, I mean, just again, the way he
interacted with, with fans, andhis mannerisms and his and his
good naturedness, as reported byso many people, left an impact
that I think is like trulypositive and that, like I said,
retroactive, like it likesolidifies that music as like
(13:01):
unbreakably important.
You know, it's like it's it'snow legend, it's like now
history.
You know, like the good history, like sad story and terrible
ending and injustice that hepassed, but but I think what
he'll I mean he'll never knowwhat he left, like you know the
(13:23):
the true measure and scale ofthe impact that he made, right,
you know, I think that's that'swhat makes this band like bigger
than metal.
You know it's like a story, youknow it's like a fucking.
You know you can make like a 60minutes on this.
You know, like like you couldreally tell this story and make
it compelling, and it doesn'tmatter if it's metal or this or
(13:43):
that, but it's like a reallygood human story.
Yeah, about people likeconnecting over an art form that
brings them together andempowers them to, you know, live
the lives that they want andlike, if there was anything that
I shared about metal or myexperiences with it, it's that
you know the intensity of it isvery, can be very compelling for
(14:07):
whatever you might want to dowith yourself and anything from
getting pissed off and, you know, relieving some stress to, you
know, getting that mental boostthat you need to like get over a
hump.
You might need someone toscream at you, but sort of
scream with you, and I guess,for for Power Trip, it always
(14:29):
felt like he was screaming withyou, right?
Yeah, instead of at you.
Will Bristol (14:32):
Yeah, it definitely seems like more of a
kind of way of life than a genre, absolutely Someone who really
understood what he was trying todo.
Andrew Rothmund (14:41):
Yeah, that's probably the you said in like
one sentence, what it took melike an hour to say yeah,
Absolutely.
Will Bristol (14:47):
That Power Trip is a way of life.
Band.
Andrew Rothmund (14:49):
Power Trip is a way of life band.
They're like yeah, and what I?
What I love about the, aboutthe community and the culture,
is like you can wear the biggestPower Trip sticker and like or
patch.
You can have Power Tripstickers on your car, you can do
whatever and like you'll neverlook like a dope, you'll never
look like a dork for Power Tripand because that band, you point
(15:12):
you point that's legit manalways Like total cred, like
aced it as far as, like gettingto that level.
But it's hard to get that muchrespect without selling out
right Mm-hmm.
Like we all know and loveMetallica for their great works,
but they're millionaires Likeyeah, yeah, it's different, it's
just different.
Will Bristol (15:32):
It's just different, different life.
Andrew Rothmund (15:34):
It's just different and that's fine.
But but that's what I likeabout, that's what I, that's
what I think the big thing toshare about Power Trip is the
story of them.
Now, my personal interact, likemy my personal experiences with
them and it was my closest wasbeing unable to see that show
but being very close to itphysically was disappointing but
(15:58):
but I knew it was good.
And also when their first albumcame out, that was like because
I'd started listening to a lotof thrash like back in my teens
but fell out of it and I hadsort of fallen into the trap of
being like, oh yeah, thrashmetal it's all just like
drinking cheap beer and kind ofjust throwing around.
It's kind of stupid.
(16:20):
And fuck, was I wrong when Ifirst heard that first Power
Trip album?
Because I was like, wow, thisis like this is really on point.
That's really makes me feelgood and it's really, like you
know, different than I expectedkind of thrash metal to be wrong
on me.
So immediately, my firstexperience of this band is like
a learning one.
Yeah, like they're aroundexactly.
Will Bristol (16:42):
Do you think it was the same stuff that you were
saying about Riley that turnedyou on to them so fast, or Was
it just they were tightmusicians and really drew you in
.
Andrew Rothmund (16:51):
I think the music caught me first and that's
part of I mean, this is whyreggie has some.
She was so Impactful is notjust because of Zach's you know,
like hyper compelling lyrics,but because that damn music was
so catchy too.
Yeah, so good.
Same thing with power trip likeit's.
It's, it's sticky stuff, likeit, it's earworm.
(17:12):
Like I said, it gets with youand it gets you going and it
gets your body moving and thenyou're immediately like more
into it than you would be if itwas just flat, right, mm-hmm.
Then you start paying attentionto the lyrics and you start
getting involved with the music.
They they made no qualms aboutusing that hook to grab you
right, no, that's what's work.
That's, that's the good stuff,that's the juice that people
(17:34):
want to drink is like that, that, that spiked shit, right, yeah,
definitely that's what it is,and I don't think there's.
There's few things that arelike more heavy metal than that.
You know Mm-hmm and somethinglike yeah, this is the first
time I've thought about them incomparison to read against the
(17:55):
machine.
Will Bristol (17:56):
You know definitely different bands and
that definitely paints a picturefor me, though, cuz it's like
you listen to rage and youinstantly know it's rage, yeah,
and you know.
Andrew Rothmund (18:05):
I call it when I'm, when I'm, when I'm stoned
and a little drunk and jokingaround.
I call it I'm not doing myhomework, music.
Will Bristol (18:11):
It's very much like I ain't doing my fucking
homework.
Andrew Rothmund (18:14):
Yeah, music when we were in high school yeah
except that it's not abouthomework, it's about life and
death.
Will Bristol (18:18):
Yeah, it's about literally life.
Andrew Rothmund (18:20):
Yeah, it's like about actual things that really
matter, yeah, but the world'scrumbling, you know, society
turning a blind eye pretty muchbut Exactly it has.
If you were, if you were eightyears old and you heard this,
you'd be like I'm not doing myhomework anymore.
It's dangerous stuff.
So, yeah, the real, a realtonic, real fucking potion from
(18:44):
from another.
Feels like it, feels like theypulled that music out of, like
the future and when.
I heard it not in the sense thatit sounded futuristic, but in
the sense that, like a I mean wethink about the future, would
be it just.
I think they, I think theybrought a mindset and like a
Mood and attention and anattitude that Was like five or
(19:08):
six years too early.
Will Bristol (19:10):
Hmm.
I was gonna say maybe it had atimeless quality.
Andrew Rothmund (19:12):
Be your saying it was just like in a very in a
very condensed span, likeusually You'd expect this
timelessness to spread out overdecades, but like I think
they're already timeless, but inthe sense that, like Sometimes
it feels like when I listen tothat music that he knew bad
things were coming somehow Notthat he metaphysically sense
(19:36):
them or not, that there's anysort of fucking voodoo magic or
anything.
Will Bristol (19:40):
No, no, but but that something was on the
horizon, tense, and that I mean,I think someone Not to like
take away from that, but I thinkThinking that is more wise than
yeah not thinking that thingsare gonna be peachy keen.
Andrew Rothmund (19:57):
Yeah, you definitely know.
You never want to be, you know,fully convinced either way.
Yeah, yeah.
Will Bristol (20:02):
But I could definitely see that that was
some of the things gonna get badI.
Andrew Rothmund (20:07):
Think yeah, and I don't I'm not saying that
Riley or power trip or any ofthese people like specifically
thought that you know it was, itwas going to be bad or that
COVID was going to have like noone predicted that, but but I
think the message and the feeland the emotion that he evokes
(20:29):
and brings out, especially withthe live performance, would be
so valued today.
And that's the news is that theband, since Riley's passing,
has recently done a, I think,surprise performance At the end
of a end of a concert anotherband's concert said they came
out and performed power trip didthis just happened, I think,
(20:52):
last night.
I still have to read the full.
Oh, wow news, yeah, yeah,literally like right before we
recorded this or maybe two daysago.
But I gotta read, I gottafigure out.
I got a stuff to read what bandit was and and what songs they
played and stuff and how it went, but I just saw the headline.
You know this morning yeah,that's like power trip, like
(21:13):
reunited.
I don't know if they havesomeone doing vocals or they did
it without vocal, I'm not sure.
Hmm, I'm not sure.
So, but they, I know after hispassing they they agreed to
continue on in some capacity.
Yeah with the band as namedpower trip as them.
I don't know more.
(21:33):
I don't know if they were goingto select new vocalist winner
where or how that any of thatwas gonna work.
Will Bristol (21:40):
Hmm.
Andrew Rothmund (21:40):
I haven't kept up so well.
I mean that'll be good.
Yeah, homework to revisit.
Yeah, nightmare logic was theirlast full-length 2017.
I think, like I said,commercial success.
If anyone's interested inchecking power, trip out and
getting a little kick in the assand some it's like caffeine,
it's good mood juice.
(22:01):
Check out the album nightmarelogic.
I think it came out on SouthernLord.
Damn, doing bad in memory today.
Will Bristol (22:11):
Well, I'm a logic point.
Yeah, that's good.
Andrew Rothmund (22:13):
Yep, and you can check them out.
On streaming services and everywobbly Down below and yeah,
wherever you click this, clickthis.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, stream.
You know?
I think track two, it's like Idon't know, just started from
this.
It's one of those albums likestarted from the start it is
(22:35):
you're not gonna be like, it'snot gonna change halfway through
the album.
If you don't like the firstsong, you're not gonna like the
rest of it, right, but if you'reinto it yet, it's a really like
, it's a really involved listen.
It just gets you get your bloodpumping, and sometimes it's a
good thing.
Will Bristol (22:53):
So oh yeah, for sure Highest recommendations in
that?
Andrew Rothmund (22:55):
Yeah cool.
Now let's get.
Let's get the blood pumping ina different way.
Will Bristol (23:01):
Yeah, I was gonna say I don't have a clutter segue
.
Andrew Rothmund (23:05):
Yeah, how do you a lot of, yeah, how do you
sing about Riley's kind ofmentality?
Will Bristol (23:10):
Mark link is a sparkle horse shares or shared
shares in certain qualities.
Like he Was it just consummatemusician.
Born in Virginia, had a kind ofNot rough earlier life but was
(23:31):
kind of a troublemaker.
So like he was moved around alittle bit, was into motorcycles
, hung out with some guys in thepagans for a while.
The motorcycle gang Decided hewanted, wanted to be a musician
and went to New York and LasVegas or Los Angeles and got to
(23:55):
know some guys and bands inthose areas.
Had a few bands before hisactual spark horse project which
were all kind of Verging onsuccess.
You know they would tour and doshows and stuff but nothing
really took off Until he starteddoing sparkle horse where like
he kind of instantly or notinstantly but got the attention
(24:19):
of a lot of important people andhis circles and others.
So Ended up putting out thefirst record Viva Dixie,
submarine transmission I thinkthat's the full name, but it's
it's a.
It has like 20 some songs on it.
(24:39):
Rainmaker was one of the singlesI believe there just are like
they're kind of hit after hit,but there's like a lot, a lot of
Really good tracks on therethat were licensed for music and
or licensed for shows andmovies.
Okay, and that album got theattention of Radiohead too.
So he was asked to open ontheir tour in like 99 to 98 and
(25:05):
he'd been kind of also like didwhatever he wanted to really and
like was creatively kind of outthere into drugs.
But on that tour he kind ofMixed up the wrong combination
of some things, ended up in thehospital because he cut off the
circulation to his legs for like24 hours so I'd have extensive
(25:29):
legs surgery in the UK.
On that radiohead tour and thatkind of like Messed him up.
Andrew Rothmund (25:37):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (25:37):
I think it would anyone.
Yeah and but physically andmentally.
His next record was kind of alot longer reflection on that
and Went on to kind of do a morecollaboration with people.
So like he would again like hejust was, people just loved what
he was doing and like, lovedhis creative energy and like
(25:59):
where he was coming from.
He worked with, you know, otherthan some of those earlier
people who were also names, butI just can't think of all of
them right now but at that pointhe was already working with
like PJ Harpy and David Lynch,danger mouse, tom weights I mean
just anyone.
Andrew Rothmund (26:18):
Yeah, basically like the only one he asked.
Will Bristol (26:21):
Would be on a record and anyone he wanted to
work with that might be.
These are the kind of peoplecoming to him.
So he had that second one underhis belt, was working on this
third one he did.
There was a specificcollaboration he did with danger
mouse and David Lynch whichended up it was super-duper
creative thing, super cool.
(26:42):
The marketing was weird on it.
There also were agreements withdistribution that weren't Like
they got tied up.
So it kind of ended up being afailure even though it was a
really cool, really positiveexperience for all of them.
So that one kind of teeteredand then he had Kind of a couple
(27:03):
records up to that.
Only look at that, for a past.
Andrew Rothmund (27:06):
Yeah, look at him with this guy.
Yeah, he sounds like.
He sounds like he came this far, or like to that point, just
through the, through the talentof his, of his performance, and
like, yeah, I mean, he just wasa huge yeah.
Will Bristol (27:19):
creative Energy and like.
Andrew Rothmund (27:22):
So the first person was Viva Dixie submarine
transmission plot.
Will Bristol (27:26):
Good morning spider was the one he wrote kind
of in the midst of all of histroubles.
It's a wonderful life Was theone after that, and Drimped for
light years in the belly of amountain was his last
full-length one, yeah yeah.
The other collaboration oneswere Dark Knight of the soul,
(27:48):
danger mouse and David Lynch.
And then he had some a ton ofcompilations and singles and
there he worked with Christianfinnaz for EP, but also back in
the news lately too because heLeft behind a bunch of stuff
After he took his own life, youknow, due to drug problems, to
(28:08):
do all this All that stuff andthis was early 2010s right.
Andrew Rothmund (28:14):
It was in 2010.
Will Bristol (28:15):
Yeah, yeah, just kind of, you know, walked around
back and shot himself, yeah,but he left behind almost
complete record which came outthis year Called burden machine.
It's up there in the wall, buthis brother put that together
for him or one of his oldbandmates, and it was like I
(28:37):
said, it was pretty much almostthere and he left behind a huge
bank of things like kind of likeElliott Smith, like he just was
always making little things,all of us all the time.
Andrew Rothmund (28:45):
It's crazy how, like 10 years has passed.
Will Bristol (28:48):
Yeah, and it's like, maybe that's, maybe that
time is Was needed or maybe it'sgood it probably took them that
long just to sift through allthe stuff, because he had, yeah,
just tons of all you'rerecording.
And his house was basicallyrecording studio, yeah, the end
of his life too.
So he was spending all thistime recording and I think his
(29:08):
marriage wasn't doing welleither, so probably even more of
a time recording, yeah.
But just all the songs he didwere just all over the place too
.
Like there are punk songs inthere, they're like ballads
there, like singer-songwriter IIstuff, all these Effectations
he put on the music, kind oflike Tom weights does, where
(29:29):
he'll change up how the guitarssound by using certain effects,
or right, he has.
He used to sing throughsomething called like a Whisper
2000, which is like a thing tomake your voice less heard.
That like was like a spy toy orsomething.
But still kinds of stuff likethat.
What?
Andrew Rothmund (29:46):
you're saying is that, like this guy was just
so like so profusely musical,yeah, like everything, his out
way of saying his output was solike varied, that I mean it was
just impressive how musical hewas then I think he just used
creativity exactly and likepeople, were attracted to that
right just in every sense.
(30:06):
You know, like everyone wantedto work with him.
Will Bristol (30:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think Again, not to put words in
anyone's mouth, but like Fromhis perspective, I think he was
just desperately trying to dohis thing.
Mm-hmm and like trying to stayahead of all the darkness.
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (30:23):
Which I get that like pursuing, pursuing art
which is pure and true and it'sactually like a good thing in
life.
Will Bristol (30:30):
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Rothmund (30:30):
You know it's one of the few things that's
very, you know, good to have.
Will Bristol (30:36):
Yeah all the time it gives you purpose.
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (30:39):
The pursuit of that can help you escape the
darkness, but unfortunatelysometimes it catches up.
Yeah and he or it's not the wayout.
Will Bristol (30:46):
Yeah and he had a lot of, like I said, other
things going on in his life.
So you know, it's just, it'sunfortunate that it happened the
way it happened, but on theother side, you know, he did,
too, a lot of pretty amazingthings for someone both in his
position being like a kid fromVirginia who just had some
(31:09):
motorcycle gang friends and aguitar to being, like you know,
opening for Radiohead.
Andrew Rothmund (31:15):
That's pretty nice.
Will Bristol (31:16):
Yeah, yeah, because they asked him too,
which is amazing.
Yeah, I think he actually coldcalled Tom Waits and then Tom
Waits was like oh, I know yourstuff, like we should do
something.
Andrew Rothmund (31:29):
If you, if Tom Waits says, I know your stuff,
then you were already on a level.
That's like yeah, and he wasalready there.
But it's like I think even him.
Will Bristol (31:38):
he was just like can I do this?
Andrew Rothmund (31:39):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (31:40):
But he would just always take a leap, you know,
for whatever the project youknow, felt he needed to add to
it.
Andrew Rothmund (31:48):
It sounds like he had an unlimited capacity for
more.
But not in this, not in likethe economic sense that some
bands gather were like we wantbigger shows, we want more money
, we want more merch sales.
Oh yeah, I think it sounds likethis guy.
You know, he just wanted moreart, he just wanted to make more
.
Will Bristol (32:07):
I mean, that was totally it.
Yeah, and there are even partsof his career where I like.
Andrew Rothmund (32:11):
Yeah, true, creative yeah.
Will Bristol (32:12):
Yeah, where he would tell the label that the
master tapes for something hadbeen lost in a fire, just
because he wanted to, like,recreate them and make them
shittier sounding like.
He wanted them to sounddifferent.
Andrew Rothmund (32:25):
He wanted probably want to sound real.
Yeah, yeah.
Will Bristol (32:28):
But but things like that like right he would do
just because, like he never, Idon't.
I don't know how he felt aboutthe money.
I'm sure he would have likedmore of it.
Right, he certainly didn't likestrive to like make it a
business.
You know, he made enough moneyoff that record to basically
live comfortably with his wifefor a while.
(32:49):
And then the proximal records,or proximal the next few, didn't
do so hot, okay, and I meanthey still sold copies, and I
mean maybe, though, there's beena resurgence since then.
Andrew Rothmund (33:03):
But are they good or they just do they?
Yeah, they're all solid records.
Will Bristol (33:08):
A lot of them.
It is kind of like there islike a lot in there.
Andrew Rothmund (33:12):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (33:12):
So maybe they would have been better
commercial releases if they'dbeen more kind of project
managed.
Andrew Rothmund (33:17):
I guess he wasn't.
He doesn't sound like hisintention was anything
commercial.
Will Bristol (33:22):
No, I think yeah, he made the things he wanted to
make.
Andrew Rothmund (33:24):
Yeah, so one of the things you have to accept
when you're into artists who arethat true to self is that you
can't expect every single songto be the greatest thing of all
time.
You got to understand them aspeople like, and this is their
output Right.
You got to search and find thethings that speak the loudest.
Will Bristol (33:43):
Well, I think the case for a lot of his songs, if
you look at it that way, is thatto someone that is their
favorite song, but it's notgoing to be the what everyone
likes, right, and everyone'severyone's not going to like
most of it, right.
Andrew Rothmund (33:56):
A lot of some very specific people are going
to like individual songs, right,but they're going to like it
very, very much.
Yeah, but they're going to loveit, yeah.
I feel that, yeah, it's.
It's interesting to hear about,hear about Sparkle Horse, and
think about Power Trip at thesame time, because a lot of this
like a lot of this true to selfdynamic comes out Right.
(34:19):
A lot of this like it doesn'teven like.
I think Power Trip is much morefuck you Right, much more like
middle finger to the system.
Will Bristol (34:29):
But I think, mark, Lankas as a person was as much
grow.
This is where I'm getting.
Yeah, I kind of wanted to findout.
Yeah, so like I think if theyhad met, they may have tried to
do a song together yeah.
Whether the song was good ornot.
Yeah, it kind of falls in thatsame camp of like some people
are going to love this, yeah,and a lot of people are not
going to understand it.
Right, right, right.
Because Mark also learned allthat hair, metal and metal
(34:51):
guitar.
Starting out, you know he wasbiker guy, like.
He wasn't like.
Yeah, he was considered asoftie by anyone.
Yeah, yeah, he was.
Andrew Rothmund (34:58):
He was listening to the like the music
that people listened to, yeah,yeah, but not just that.
Will Bristol (35:03):
Like the music he made is like a lot of it's
softer, but they're cuttinglyrics.
I mean it's like they're.
They're not about soft things.
Yeah, but I think he could.
He could pull out both sides,you know, and I think he just
ended up with that side moretimes than not.
Now I got you.
Andrew Rothmund (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's, they're definitely.
They definitely sound like twopeople who, like, even though
the worst thing happened, theyfeels like they didn't waste a
moment, trying as hard as theycould.
Will Bristol (35:37):
Yeah, I think that's true, yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (35:39):
And if that sends any sort of message, it's
that, like, I mean, noteveryone's going to achieve
their top number one dream, butneither of these people will.
Maybe they're.
Do you think his dream was tobecome some sort of like star or
some sort of I mean?
Will Bristol (35:58):
I mean I think he did want to be famous, yeah, but
not in like the weird waythough, but I'm like I'm not.
I mean, I'm not sure, I'm notsure he really knew, like there
was also a documentary that cameout about him, okay, last year,
the year before, if you look upsparkle horse documentary
you'll find it but I think, yeah, his intention was always to
(36:21):
like be able to be famous and domusic, whether that meant like
maybe he just means access tothe right people.
We can mean that much, yeah, butI mean, but he already kind of
had that access to.
So it's like I don't reallyknow what he wanted.
I don't know if he knew what hewanted all the way.
You know, maybe he was justchasing something that he didn't
have a clear side on yet.
Andrew Rothmund (36:41):
Yeah, maybe he's chasing it because it felt
it has a draw.
Maybe it felt right, feltforward.
Yeah, or just motivated, yeah, Imean we can speculate, but
we'll never know, like, yeah andI speculate often about Riley,
because I find I find that wayof living, or at least that the
ability to espouse thatmentality at least so strongly,
(37:05):
like we can all do it a bitsometimes like get to that level
and be truly that have for thatkind of righteous anger or that
righteous sort of like moralhigh ground, but for it to be
like that all the time, to writeall that music, to go that hard
(37:26):
and like produce a body of workthat represents that music or
represents that attitude or thatfeeling but that other people
can access and then get thatfeeling, like that takes another
level.
And it sounds like somethingspecial he was able to write
that into the music and a lot ofit.
He was, yeah.
Will Bristol (37:43):
Actually, that made me think of one of the
differences.
Mark pretty much already killedhimself, like he was in a coma
for two weeks after that firstincident, after the after he
lost the legs.
Andrew Rothmund (37:54):
Yeah, the feeling in his legs.
Will Bristol (37:55):
Yeah, so for and I remember this being a quote by
him for a number of years, likefive or six.
After that, all people wantedto talk to him.
That was like him killinghimself or like almost dying.
And he said like I think it waslike to another journalist who
was like you're the firstjournalist who hasn't really
asked about that Interesting.
(38:16):
So I think he was also justchasing something having to do
with death for all that time too.
Andrew Rothmund (38:24):
Yeah, I didn't realize that he was alive for so
long after that incident.
Will Bristol (38:30):
Yeah, okay, I mean that was 20, 22 years afterward
that he killed himself.
Andrew Rothmund (38:37):
Okay, yeah.
Will Bristol (38:39):
So I mean he had pain and he's a cane and yeah
imagine, I don't know it changesyour life yeah.
I think he could still rideyeah.
I don't know if he could do allthe things he wanted to do
Right.
Andrew Rothmund (38:48):
Right, but he continued to make music and,
yeah, part of things, yeah.
Will Bristol (38:55):
I mean, that was after his first record, so most
of his career was after that.
Andrew Rothmund (38:58):
Okay Gotcha.
Yeah, I had the timescale alittle little off kilter in my
brain, yeah.
Will Bristol (39:03):
But no, it is wild to think about like because,
yeah, I mean he already had acouple of monkeys on his back.
Yeah, just from that.
Andrew Rothmund (39:09):
Yeah, no, it's like I have to like stand and
just be impressed that that theability of people to endure
levels of suffering that I'm noteven familiar with but also
like artistically encode thatmessage into something we can
access right as separate peoplelike to do both.
(39:32):
Is this like I can't even Caneven fathom what it takes?
Will Bristol (39:38):
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, to go throughthat and come out Producing
anything like to me is a victory.
Like yeah, because I mean wecould speculate all day.
But like I think the one themarket wanted to be famous was
the one before that happened,gotcha, so it may have changed
this track and that thinking toyeah, but the music is good,
(40:00):
that's yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (40:01):
I mean we wouldn't talk about any of these
bands if the music wasn't good,like because there's, there are
artists out there, you know who, who, who have the right
message and who can Tell us allabout Deep things and stuff, but
if the music is not good, veryfew people will listen well,
that's me.
Will Bristol (40:20):
Yeah, you didn't even finish and it's still good,
these guys, that's.
That's the crazy thing, yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (40:27):
I think that's also impressive.
Yeah, it's like it's good, notbecause of the message.
I'm it's good, because it'sjust like it's good, unlike a,
like a, like a gorilla brainlevel, right, like it gets to
you in.
Like it's, it speaks thelanguage of music, not the
language of words, right, yeah,some some music, I feel like
(40:48):
speaks only words and like I getthe same sort of Nutrients out
of that as I might get out ofreading a magazine or a book.
Will Bristol (40:55):
Yeah, I was gonna say reading.
Yeah, it's nice to not have tothink about all the words all
the time and still get a goodfeeling or the right feeling
from it.
Andrew Rothmund (41:02):
Yeah, I like, I Respect the people who have,
who discover they have the powerto write music and write
compelling music, and then theythey're able to Not just.
And then you have the otherside of what I was saying, where
it's like great music, butthere's it's no content like
right.
I could say a lot about a lotof heavy metal that I like a lot
(41:24):
, I like the music, but there'sno, there's no lyrical content.
Will Bristol (41:29):
Yeah, there's nothing deep, I mean no.
Andrew Rothmund (41:30):
I mean, there are words in the lyrics, but you
don't want to read any of them,right, and you can't understand
them anyway.
So, yeah, I really there.
But it sounds like here, andespecially with power trip, to
Stand out in heavy metal,especially in thrash, is like
the lyrics Really good.
Yeah, I assume here aresparklers.
(41:52):
Yeah, and you can tell theyspent time writing them, you
know right.
Will Bristol (41:56):
It wasn't just something where they added them
after the belt.
Andrew Rothmund (41:58):
No, he was.
There was like it's almost.
Maybe the songs were builtaround them even yeah, yeah, I
Feel like I don't know anythingabout power trips, writing
process or anything, but as muchas I want to think that that
the music came first and thenthey put the lyrics on top, I
Feel like some of these songshad to have been lyrically
driven, like I mean, I thinkMark did both because he was
(42:19):
equally interested in likemaking crazy guitar sounds too,
or making instruments sound likethey shouldn't, you know, like
the Tom Waits stuff.
Yeah, I guess yeah.
Will Bristol (42:27):
So he would probably spend equal parts on
both.
But yeah, they're definitelylyric heavy songs or noise heavy
songs as well.
Andrew Rothmund (42:36):
Yeah, it's that a sound, so I guess pro tip or
top tip.
But you know, if you'resongwriting like try, try
writing the lyrics first andthen thinking of songs, riffs,
styles, whatever around them.
Will Bristol (42:48):
Yeah, I think that's something to try, sure I
think most people start with themusic right.
I don't know.
I think people do both ways, dothey?
Andrew Rothmund (42:54):
yeah, you think it's 50, 50 Getting the
comments?
Will Bristol (42:58):
Yeah, let's see, I'm curious.
Andrew Rothmund (43:00):
I think most people like are Tens on you,
right?
If you're a guitarist, you'reobviously writing riffs first,
maybe not, I don't know.
I've done both, done both, yeah.
Start with the words and thenkind of use that.
Will Bristol (43:11):
Sometimes the words just come first, and then
you can imagine what, what we'llplay with it.
Yeah yeah, but I know somepeople also have a hard time
Imagining stuff like that, likeI know on tiktok it's popular
right now people who Don't havean inner model log.
Andrew Rothmund (43:28):
I know about this yeah you know.
Will Bristol (43:30):
So there's probably something similar music
where it's like you.
Probably there's some, probablysome people who can't Imagine a
melody with lyrics or theycan't write lyrics unless
there's an Un-un, a musicalbackground to it.
Andrew Rothmund (43:43):
I can't see faces.
Yeah, like I'm dead serious,like I Can kind of see my
family's faces and I candescribe what my mom's, my mom
looks like, but I can't I can'tclose my eyes.
And like I can close my eyesand see an apple, but I can't
close my eyes and make.
I mean, you can make out ageneral human face, but I can't.
How do you describe it?
(44:04):
Look in my head and look aheadand see, you can't remember like
I I, you're my stone-memberfeatures, or just don't see them
.
No, okay, I forget Pete.
I forget new people a lot andit's because, like I don't have
the imprint, the spot, thatwhere the stamp goes down in my
(44:25):
normal person's brain, right,yeah, I've that face of that
experience.
Those things don't sticksometimes, especially faces.
It's hard with faces, but whyare we talking about that?
I can't remember.
Will Bristol (44:38):
Because of the like no inner monologue thing.
Oh, yeah, yeah musicalequivalent to that.
Andrew Rothmund (44:43):
There is gotta be.
Yeah, it's interesting, though,like these people that don't
have inner monologues.
They they talk and say thingsas if sometimes, like you know,
we're not so different.
It sounds like unbelievable.
Just people who have innermonologue.
Yeah, I don't, I don't get thattick on it.
Will Bristol (45:03):
Yeah, I mean, of course you know like I feel,
like of course there are peoplethat don't have that, but I mean
I feel like that, mine's likehalfway developed.
I'm like it's the same.
Sometimes I can do it andsometimes I can't.
Andrew Rothmund (45:13):
Someone with an incessant inner monologue, I
Just it blows my mind that itcould not be there.
I guess I just tune mine outsometimes.
Will Bristol (45:22):
Yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (45:22):
I'm like I wish I could make mine, not there.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd wishit back.
I had one of my friends who Iwork with.
We were talking about this too.
Yeah, what's up?
Oh, do you want me to?
We're doing a podcast thing.
(45:45):
You just want to take yourverse on?
You take a bus.
Will Bristol (45:51):
All right, you could break and pick her up if
you want to.
We're just about the end ofthis one.
Andrew Rothmund (46:01):
Yeah, how about a rant?
Oh yeah, we've done about 20minutes in.
Do you want to add anythingabout?
Will Bristol (46:11):
I mean, I can try to sum up here.
Andrew Rothmund (46:12):
Yeah, let's think of where we could, where
we can plug it into before,because we were talking about
when do we, where do we leaveoff on Sparkle Wars?
Will Bristol (46:24):
I mean mainly he just had a lot to say and Tried
to squeeze it all in.
Seemed like, I mean, we werekind of on that tangent of like
overworking.
Andrew Rothmund (46:35):
But yeah, I don't know we were talking about
also the music, and one of it I.
Will Bristol (46:48):
Can break.
I'll just we can start now, gogo ahead.
So to bring it back to both ofthem, any clear differences and
similarities, but both likeconsummate musicians, super
opinionated and strong willedcreatives.
Andrew Rothmund (47:11):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (47:11):
I Don't know and gone too soon, that's.
Andrew Rothmund (47:17):
I know it is the tragic stories and we are.
We have less without them.
Yeah, but it's not their fault.
Grateful for what we got, yeah,from them.
She cherished that shit becauseI mean, there's so few else,
there's so few things else inlife that are so pure and good
(47:37):
and valuable.
Will Bristol (47:38):
Yeah, and people trying to carry on what they did
exactly you know power trip,reuniting Yep, then going
through, mark mark links his oldstudio and finding song.
I mean like yeah.
Andrew Rothmund (47:48):
We there's, there's so much value and like
looking to the past and keepingthat stuff alive.
Yeah, as much as we love tolook to the future and focus on
the present, yeah, look at thepast, sometimes, be like, yeah,
so I Know, yeah, it's kind ofthis kind of a low note on the
piano, right.
Will Bristol (48:07):
Yeah, but.
Andrew Rothmund (48:07):
I think.
But it's a good, it's good totell and talk about yeah, and
they'll, and they'll keep livingon through those things.
Absolutely.
Oh yeah, like legend, yeah.
Will Bristol (48:15):
so Cool, well doing low note.
Andrew Rothmund (48:20):
Yeah.
Will Bristol (48:20):
I can subscribe like a subscribe.
Andrew Rothmund (48:23):
You know, check out the bands.
I think, I Think we got bothmoods covered.
You know if yeah you know, youget a sense for what these bands
if you've never heard them.
What, what these artists soundlike.
But we definitely recommendchecking them out.
In fact, it would beinteresting if you check them
both out, one after the other.
That would be ideal.
(48:45):
Yeah, interesting contrast.
But I think I think if youthink about it in context of,
like the, I think the DIYattitude and the punk aesthetic
and all the, all the elementsthat combine to make these two
very different people kind oftell this you know a very
similar sort of Story or play asimilar role for their
(49:05):
respective musical spaces.
You see that crossover.
I think it's really cool.
Will Bristol (49:10):
Yes, and they're huge people to take inspiration
from.
To absolutely.
Yeah.
So if you're looking to beinspired to do something a
little bit outside the box,that's absolutely yeah.
If you need source.
Andrew Rothmund (49:21):
I guess I've been you.
If you need a little extrajuice in your life, it's nice to
do some inspirational seekingand find the right thing,
especially music, hmm.
So alright, peace out, catchyou around.
See you later.
Like, subscribe, do the things.
Bye.
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