The Back Lounge Podcast

Unleash The Archers vocalist Brittney Slayes joins me for Episode 28 of the Back Lounge Podcast! The powerhouse singer talks with me about becoming a Mom, balancing parenting with the band, the new album, upcoming tours, and the drama that recently surround them (and other bands) for utilizing A.I. with their art, which leads to a bigger topic of how people treat each other on the internet.

Jaxon Hibler, a longtime cast member on the REACT Channel on YouTube, joins us for the latest podcast episode for a very open talk about how he joined the channel, how it operates, how it's effected his life, how he and other cast members deal with negativity on the internet, and even how he got kicked out of high school!

Sevendust vocalist Lajon Witherspoon joins us for Episode 26 of the podcast to discuss the upcoming Sevendust record "Truth Killer", current and upcoming tours, how to keep chemistry with a band for 25 years, being a dad, growing up in Nashville, and more!

Vocalist Melissa Bonny and guitarist Hans Platz of The Dark Side of the Moon join in for Episode 25 of The Back Lounge Podcast. We discussed the release of their first studio album with the band, how they divide time between this project, Feuerschwanz, and Ad Infinitum, playing their first live show as a band, the current state of the music industry, and a whole lot more!

One of my all time favorite guitarists, Rob Arnold, joins us for Episode 24 of The Back Lounge Podcast! Rob is a guitarist, producer, and audio engineer most known for being the long time guitarist for the Cleveland, Ohio, US based band Chimaira, and during this episode I got to nerd out with him over some old Chimaira nostalgia, talk to him about his recent solo album, what he thinks about the current state of the music industry and how it's changed over the years, digital vs tube amps, and a whole lot more!

Vocalist Kyle Anderson and Guitarist/Producer Leo Valeri of the Canadian Deathcore band Brand of Sacrifice join me for Episode 23 of the podcast. Our conversation took place right before they headed out on the second leg of Lorna Shore's Pain Remains tour, and we got to talk about their upcoming touring, trying new things with their music, their clothing line Shibori Threads, and what the metal community is currently missing with its culture.

Vocalist/Producer Chris Harms from Lord of the Lost returns to the podcast for a second time fresh off of a #1 album in Germany, and while preparing the band for the German preliminary show for Eurovision. We spent some time catching up and just talking about random things like learning languages, going to shows, growing up with older technology and being nostalgic about music and TV shows, He also shared the band's experience touring with Iron Maiden and how they look forward to doing it again, talked about the unique marketing for their album "Blood and Glitter", and walked me through the process of how they will compete for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Vocalist Anders Fridén of the legendary Swedish melodeath band In Flames joins us for Episode 21 of the podcast! In Flames is one of the most important bands in the history of the Swedish metal scene, and are known as one of the pioneers of the Gothenburg sound. To celebrate the release of their 14th studio album, "Foregone", Anders joined me to talk about the new album, working with Howard Benson to develop their modern sound, how they found their newest band members, taking vocal lessons, up and coming bands in the Swedish metal scene, attending shows, reminiscing about music that we grew up with, and so much more!

If any of these episodes get me into trouble, this will be the one... Stage Manager, Lighting Tech, friend, and all around awesome dude Andy Shaw joins us for Episode 20 of The Back Lounge Podcast. Shaw and I toured together for quite a few years, and on this episode we sit and recount some of the hilarious tour stories that we remember from our time on the road together.

Guitarist Ville Friman from Finnish melodeath legends Insomnium joins us for Episode 19 of the podcast to discuss their upcoming album "Anno 1696", touring, living in the UK while being in a band from Finland, working with a PhD at the University of York, finding escape and quiet time in Saunas, and much more!

Lighting Director Carrie Heisler joins us for Episode 18 of the podcast to give us a behind the scenes of what it's like to be lighting up the Detroit Redwings and Detroit Pistons on a nightly basis. Carrie recently went viral in the metal community for programming lighting entrances for the Redwings with a lot of popular deathcore, death metal, and grind bands, which is something that has never happened in the sporting world.

Vocalist Kevin Ratajczak from the German metalcore band Electric Callboy joins us for Episode 17 of the Podcast. The band is already back in the studio, and Kevin took some time away from recording to talk with us about upcoming tour dates, the success of their latest album, keeping yourself grounded on tour, what music our kids like to listen to, ancestry, and so much more.

Suicide Silence guitarist and founder Chris Garza joins us for Episode 16 of The Back Lounge Podcast, in one of the most authentic, real, and brutality honest conversations I've ever had with someone in the music industry. We talk about the beginnings of Suicide Silence and how they helped create an entirely new genre, their successes and failures, how they've had to get uncomfortable as a band and work on themselves, their future touring, their upcoming record, and how they refuse to let any band deliver a better show than they will.

Future Palace vocalist Maria Lessing joins in for Episode 15 of The Back Lounge Podcast!

Guitarist/Content Creator Nik Nocturnal joins us for Episode 14 of The Back Lounge Podcast for some discussion on his Trap Metal project, his upcoming album with Termina, recently traveling to New York, creating content, and we had a ton of laughs along the way!

Guitarist Lucas Gabb of UK Metal act InVisions joins us for Episode 13 of The Back Lounge Podcast!

In a last minute episode that I honestly didn't think was going to happen, Christopher Bowes, the brains behind Alestorm and Gloryhammer, joins us for Episode 12 of The Back Lounge Podcast! We started off pretty casual, and the more the episode went on we just started getting off the rails and had a ton of laughs talking about stuff like German Gangster Rap, how weird but amazing tour bus drivers are, getting drunk at country concerts, writing songs for dogs, buying a pet giraffe, and how wild it is for Chris to live in the US now.

Elizabeth of The Charismatic Voice joins me for Episode 12 of The Back Lounge Podcast! This was filmed towards the end of her pregnancy before her and her husband had their child, and we spent some time laughing up parenting stuff since I have a young daughter as well. We also talked about all of her vocal education, traveling, how she developed her YouTube channel, and even talked about some of the daily things we go through creating YouTube content.

Legendary Swedish bassist Peter Iwers joins us for Episode 10 of The Back Lounge Podcast to talk The Halo Effect, running a Brewery and a Restaurant, touring, collecting Star Wars stuff, and more!

Ali Richardson, drummer for Scottish metal act Bleed From Within, joins us for Episode 9 of The Back Lounge Podcast! During our conversation we talking about how Brexit has effected UK bands touring Europe, signing to a new label, people being annoying backstage, meeting your heroes on tour, and a ton of other funny moments!

Chris Harms (Lord of the Lost) joins us for Episode 8 of The Back Lounge Podcast, and he is easily one of the most honest, open people I've ever had the pleasure of talking to. We talked about Lord of the Lost's recent releases, their upcoming tour with Iron Maiden, Chris's musical background, staying true to who you are, discovering Slipknot for the first time, and he even gave me some German lessons while we were at it.

Tom Englund (Evergrey, Silent Skies, Redemption) joins us for Episode 7 of The Back Lounge Podcast! While we talked a lot about the new Evergrey album, their touring schedule, and work on music videos, we also spent a ton of time swapping tour stories and had a lot of laughs about people may not know about the music industry.

Episode 6 of The Back Lounge Podcast features vocalist Alex Taylor of the Sheffield, UK based metal band Malevolence! During our conversation we got to talk about the band's new album "Malicious Intent" and how the band is super hands on with all of their stuff, we bonded over German hip-hop, talked about discovering music as kids, donkey kicking holes in the walls at hardcore shows, and much more!

DISCLAIMER: We had some unfortunate audio issues during this episode, and the audio quality will not be up to par with normal episodes. The conversation in this podcast included conversations that I felt like people really needed to hear, so we didn't want to just scrap this and do it again. I've done my best to edit the audio to get it as good as possible, so I hope you enjoy it.In Episode 5 of The Back Lounge Podcast, we welcome Grant Truesdell of Unleash The Archers for some wild conversations about living in a simulation, possibly being in a version of The Truman Show, balancing a schedule between family and band, honing in survival skills on tour, and even had some vulnerable moments talking about sobriety and addiction issues.

For the 4th episode of The Back Lounge Podcast, I had the pleasure of having vocalist Vicky Psarakis of The Agonist & Sicksense back for what will most likely be one of the longest podcasts I ever have. We only spent about 5% of the podcast actually talking about her bands, and the rest was just real, open conversations about a lot of different stuff.

Join me with this episode's special guest, Joakim Brodén, as we discuss forming Sabaton, how they started getting into history, discovering new music, how YouTube musicians are being viewed, how much gear was damaged in their "Race To The Sea" video, and why he decided to get naked on stage in the Netherlands...

In this episode I had the pleasure of talking to Karan Katiyar, the guitarist, flute player, and producer for Indian folk metal band Bloodywood. Karan was one of the most humble, open, and honest artists I've ever had a conversation with, and you don't get many artists that are willing to talk in depth about some of the topics we covered.

In the very first episode of "The Back Lounge Podcast", we welcome special guest Hannes Van Dahl of Sabaton!