Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - Sunday Uncensored: Tommy Vext Members Only Podcast

00:00:00.000 Welcome to our special weekend show, Sunday Uncensored.

00:00:04.000 Every week we produce four uncensored episodes of the TimCast IRL podcast exclusively at TimCast.com, and we're going to bring you the most important for our weekend show.

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00:00:20.000 Now, enjoy the show.

00:00:30.000 I mean, we typically hang out with Phil anyway, though, so we're usually graced by the presence of rock stars.

00:00:34.000 He still has his job.

00:00:37.000 I don't have mine anymore.

00:00:38.000 You lost your job.

00:00:39.000 There's multiple platinum and gold records between the two of us.

00:00:42.000 That's a lot of platinum and gold.

00:00:43.000 You want to grab your mic, brother?

00:00:46.000 Sorry, congratulations on going platinum, by the way, in real life.

00:00:50.000 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:00:51.000 So let's talk about those lockdowns, because we were mentioning just at the end of the show, you mentioned Pete Parata, and I've mentioned it a million and one times.

00:00:58.000 He's actually coming out here.

00:01:00.000 I don't know if I'm supposed to say that or not, but he'll be here on Friday.

00:01:02.000 Oh, just missed him.

00:01:04.000 Yeah, you just missed him.

00:01:05.000 Should just stay, hang out, man.

00:01:06.000 Yeah, just stay and hang out.

00:01:07.000 Yeah, just me at the, what's the name of the diner?

00:01:11.000 I'm just going to hang out at Penny's for a week.

00:01:13.000 You can hang out here, you know.

00:01:15.000 You can hang out with Phil.

00:01:17.000 But yeah, we're actually filming a music video.

00:01:20.000 Oh, really?

00:01:20.000 Yeah, for a song we've been sitting on for a while.

00:01:23.000 Have you released a song?

00:01:24.000 Do I know it?

00:01:25.000 We've released three.

00:01:26.000 No, no, I know.

00:01:27.000 This one's not out yet.

00:01:29.000 I saw the video, the first video that he posted that got like 1.9 million views, which is...

00:01:34.000 Which is actually very impressive for a new artist, because people don't realize the YouTube game, without having the labels and all the other stuff, how hard it is to get people's eyes on your music.

00:01:43.000 But without the big challenge, I think this is probably good information for people who are trying to get into the industry, I would say, from my perspective, unless you have the streaming playlists, unless they put you in rotation, After you hit your marketing, that's it.

00:01:59.000 We get a certain number of plays in the videos, but it's very similar to how it works for YouTube.

00:02:04.000 I put up a video, it gets a couple hundred thousand hits, and then disappears and ceases to exist.

00:02:08.000 And that's very similar for what happens with the music we put out.

00:02:12.000 It gets a big blast, gets tons of traffic, and then slowly starts dropping because people have to manually choose to put it in their playlists because it's not going to appear on rotation anywhere.

00:02:20.000 I have a guy that can help you with that.

00:02:22.000 All right, well, let's talk.

00:02:23.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:02:23.000 But there is also other ways of doing this, which I kind of configured if you want to talk about industry stuff, because I went from being on a major label, you know, and having like five or six number one radio hits and globally and whatever, whatever, to being completely excommunicated.

00:02:40.000 So I can I can say we put out three songs and all three have charted on Billboard in some capacity.

00:02:46.000 Yeah. 0.98

00:02:47.000 So like the first one charted two years after we released it, because you know the fuck we were doing. 0.97

00:02:50.000 But that happened to me too.

00:02:52.000 I had like a 15 second clip of a cover of Take Me to Church on TikTok, and it went viral, and then I made it available two days later, and I made like $50,000. 0.95

00:03:01.000 Holy shit, we didn't make any money.

00:03:04.000 That's cool. 0.98

00:03:04.000 I charted at number four on Billboard overall in rock, and I charted at 17 in alternative, which alternative, you have to have like 10 or 20 times the amount. 0.98

00:03:14.000 It's higher, right?

00:03:15.000 Much much higher it goes up as the genre changes.

00:03:19.000 So metal is like for me Do you guys still even bother to register as metal?

00:03:26.000 Yes, like metal so small it's like to be number one at metal like, you know, it's like nothing some people do it for posterity like five-finger will still release in both genres just to piss off the metal heads because Not really metal.

00:03:39.000 Oh God, we get that so much.

00:03:43.000 There's melodic singing.

00:03:44.000 Oh, you covered a Garth Brooks song.

00:03:46.000 Melodic singing.

00:03:47.000 Yeah, they're like, it's so mad.

00:03:48.000 Why are you singing?

00:03:49.000 Well, apparently, I was reading, you know Poppy?

00:03:52.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0.82

00:03:53.000 She's like the first female metal award winner in some category or some shit.

00:03:56.000 Well, she also wasn't a metal artist and then signed with Samarian and then did a metal record.

00:04:02.000 Her whole thing came out and she was just making Kind of strange.

00:04:06.000 It was like bubblegum.

00:04:07.000 It was like bubblegum, K-pop, Japanese pop music.

00:04:13.000 It's like Babymetal but an American version.

00:04:15.000 But that's what they did.

00:04:16.000 They basically replicated Babymetal because it wasn't really taking off, you know?

00:04:22.000 I mean, her weird bubblegum stuff, I think, is not a fan of, but her metal stuff, or ish, or whatever you want to call it, I actually really like.

00:04:28.000 Well, because the musicianship is done by guys who are our age shedding, woodshedding in a basement, you know what I mean?

00:04:33.000 Like playing djent, like... If you take all the music away and you put a different singer, you'd still like it.

00:04:40.000 The dude that filled in for our... We just did a tour last year in March and April and May, and our drummer couldn't, Jason couldn't Handle it he had to go home.

00:04:51.000 So we had someone come out the guy that came out I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say this but he plays for one of those bands drums and he is Nasty, yeah, you know.

00:05:00.000 Yeah as in very good.

00:05:02.000 Yeah the musicianship that that the bands like that require are I mean, I And is her band publicly known, or is it just a backing band?

00:05:12.000 Probably just backing band.

00:05:13.000 Because when they play the videos, they're wearing masks and stuff like that, or they're not visible.

00:05:17.000 In This Moment does that too.

00:05:18.000 That was the final iteration of In This Moment's evolution, is to just put everyone in masks.

00:05:23.000 Ghost does that as well?

00:05:25.000 Yeah.

00:05:26.000 Because that way, if you have a singer or an artist that is kind of the focus, and you get the rest of the band as faceless, nameless people, then you can just hire people that are available.

00:05:35.000 Or if you're like me and you don't get along with people and you fire them constantly, no one will notice that you're getting rid of your band members.

00:05:42.000 Is Levine still with you?

00:05:43.000 No.

00:05:43.000 The look he just gave you, man.

00:05:47.000 So Levine used to be... So I took him in, literally.

00:05:52.000 He lived in my apartment in LA.

00:05:53.000 Oh, did you?

00:05:54.000 Yeah, yeah, and he's a great guy.

00:05:57.000 He's a very nice guy, very good person, amazing videographer, not the strongest drummer, and I replaced him for Tim Young, who's one of the fastest drummers in the world, and a guy who I've been playing with for 17 years, right?

00:06:10.000 And we reconnected, and then Levine proceeded to steal my laptop.

00:06:18.000 He stole my laptop, he changed all the locks on my lockout space in LA and then was like, I'm not letting you in your storage facility because he was keeping his drums in my storage and then changed my locks until he could get his drums.

00:06:33.000 So these are the things that, this is why.

00:06:37.000 Crazy people. 0.98

00:06:38.000 She had members behave like chicks. 1.00

00:06:42.000 Oh my God. 0.99

00:06:44.000 You know, and then it was like, well, I hate you anyway.

00:06:46.000 And I'm like, I'm like, Hey man, like.

00:06:49.000 All I said was, hey dude, rehearsal was real rough.

00:06:53.000 I had a vocal cord injury so I postponed my tour.

00:06:58.000 And I was like, I have two music videos to shoot.

00:07:00.000 I'm going to have Tim come down and play in the video because the songs are too fast for you to perform.

00:07:08.000 Wow.

00:07:09.000 Right?

00:07:09.000 And it wasn't, there was no beef.

00:07:11.000 And it just exploded into that.

00:07:11.000 Yeah.

00:07:14.000 He was offended, I guess.

00:07:15.000 Beef.

00:07:16.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:07:17.000 So we were talking at the end of the show about Pete and the one thing I always want to mention that I think is really important.

00:07:24.000 It's one thing to fire somebody because mandates and make an excuse like, look, they wouldn't let us play.

00:07:28.000 Sure.

00:07:29.000 It's another thing.

00:07:29.000 I mean, and that's bad.

00:07:31.000 It's another thing not to rehire him once the mandates are gone.

00:07:34.000 He never said anything bad about him.

00:07:36.000 They could've just been like, bro, Band-Aids are done, like, come back and jam with us. 1.00

00:07:38.000 They said, fuck you, and kicked him out after 14 years. 0.99

00:07:41.000 That really does blow my mind that, like, they're just- 14 years? 1.00

00:07:43.000 Yeah, he's been in the band for that long, and they're just like, see ya because of...

00:07:46.000 Yeah, but this is the problem with the liberal mentality, right?

00:07:53.000 People won't understand this, but when I left Bad Wolves, I walked away from one of my best friends of 20 years.

00:07:59.000 Doc Hoyle and I have been thick as thieves for 20 years, right?

00:08:05.000 His band and my band used to play shows together in the late 90s.

00:08:10.000 When he moved to LA, he was borderline homeless.

00:08:12.000 I hired him.

00:08:13.000 I gave him a job.

00:08:14.000 I trained him.

00:08:15.000 I gave him a place to live.

00:08:17.000 I put him in the band, this, that, the other.

00:08:19.000 And because I wasn't on the BLM tip, I wasn't in the BLM cult.

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00:09:25.000 He completely turned his back on me.

00:09:28.000 That's a cult.

00:09:29.000 To the point where he told the band, he was like, it's either him or me.

00:09:32.000 And the guy didn't play on the records.

00:09:34.000 He didn't play on the records at all.

00:09:37.000 He was my hired guitar player.

00:09:39.000 And this band still exists?

00:09:41.000 Yeah, they have another singer. 0.98

00:09:42.000 How does that even make sense?

00:09:46.000 Because, listen, this is the way that the left goes.

00:09:50.000 They're holding on to basically, they're basically just holding on for deal life to what I created and trying to move past all this and, you know, whatever.

00:10:01.000 I prayed for these dudes.

00:10:02.000 I'm not mad at them.

00:10:03.000 Chris quit the band.

00:10:05.000 He called me.

00:10:06.000 He made amends to me.

00:10:07.000 I flew to LA.

00:10:09.000 We met at my hotel.

00:10:10.000 We hung out for five hours.

00:10:11.000 Hugged it out.

00:10:12.000 It's all good. 0.99

00:10:13.000 I imagine at some point and someday all of us will be like, wow, that was really dumb. 0.96

00:10:18.000 You know what I mean? 0.80

00:10:19.000 And I also, I mean, I still, like everyone knows, I still love those guys in the band.

00:10:23.000 So I hope that it does because I, you know, I don't want to see you guys.

00:10:26.000 I don't think anything's worth, I don't think anything's worth being in hatred towards each other for that long.

00:10:26.000 No, no.

00:10:33.000 Like you have to just accept it.

00:10:36.000 And like, that's it.

00:10:37.000 My friend, did they, did you ask them if they understood the lyrics to the song Zombie?

00:10:42.000 No.

00:10:43.000 I think that's the, when they're also going down to be like, Mike, my guy.

00:10:46.000 Yeah, but there's also songs on Disobey called The Conversation, right?

00:10:50.000 If you read the lyrics to No Masters, if you read the lyrics to Officer Down, I have never shied away from discussing the important topics that are going on socially or personally.

00:11:02.000 Our biggest hit songs are about me hitting rock bottom and finding sobriety.

00:11:08.000 Not just sobriety for me, but what that does to the family afterwards, right?

00:11:13.000 My brother tried to murder me in 2010.

00:11:14.000 There's a song called Remember When, that's all about that. 1.00

00:11:17.000 Damn. 0.99

00:11:17.000 Then on top of that, I was in the witness protection program for 10 months because he hired a hitman to kill me. 0.99

00:11:22.000 There's a song called Foe, a friend on that.

00:11:25.000 And the actual phone conversation, the phone call he called And left on my voice message is on the record of him threatening to murder me again.

00:11:33.000 Why did he want to kill you? 0.99

00:11:35.000 Because he's a drug addict and he's a gangster. 1.00

00:11:38.000 And that's where we come from. 0.99

00:11:39.000 You know what I mean?

00:11:40.000 And so he got caught breaking in, tuned me up, didn't like that I lived, and definitely didn't like that I cooperated with law enforcement.

00:11:48.000 Wow.

00:11:49.000 But I was a different guy then, right?

00:11:49.000 Right?

00:11:51.000 If it was five years before, it would have been the coat of the street.

00:11:54.000 But I went through the process of recovery and I found God and it's not my place to take somebody else's life and revenge belongs to the Creator, right?

00:12:03.000 Like in the departed, how they say.

00:12:04.000 And so, you know, these things all led to that, right?

00:12:08.000 And so, you know, I forgave my brother.

00:12:11.000 I forgave my band members, like my ex-band members.

00:12:14.000 It is what it is.

00:12:16.000 Do you think your ability to forgive comes from your experience getting sober?

00:12:19.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:12:21.000 I think, look, there's a...

00:12:24.000 There's a selfishness to it too, right?

00:12:26.000 Because the longer we hold on to resentments, it's corrosive, right?

00:12:32.000 I can't be okay if I'm still mad.

00:12:34.000 And I went through a whole period for a year, I was pissed off at them.

00:12:38.000 And we trashed each other online and I overly exposed them.

00:12:43.000 They were not ready to go to war with somebody like me and all my resources.

00:12:47.000 And so a lot of people had done things in their past that got exposed.

00:12:51.000 They weren't good guys.

00:12:54.000 I was hurt, and I didn't act, I didn't respond spiritually.

00:12:58.000 So, in essence, everyone, you know, when the war's over, it's all spare and love and war, and the, you know, the war's over, and it's just like, I, you know.

00:13:09.000 It reminds me of, I think it's a Buddhist saying, like, holding onto anger is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die, like at a certain point.

00:13:16.000 Or holding onto a hot stone waiting for the other person to throw it at them.

00:13:20.000 You only burn a hole in your hand, you know?

00:13:22.000 And I think that, listen, I think that there's a period of time for everybody where there is self-righteous indignation.

00:13:29.000 You should feel feelings of anger.

00:13:32.000 We shouldn't be passive-aggressive.

00:13:34.000 I believe, you know, I believe that If you trespass against me, there will be a consequence.

00:13:39.000 I will create a consequence for you so you learn, you know?

00:13:42.000 But I'd rather be like a porcupine than like a leopard, right? 0.98

00:13:46.000 A porcupine is just minding his own business, and if you snatch me up and try to kill me, you might get killed, right? 1.00

00:13:53.000 If you fuck with me, you're gonna get fucked up. 1.00

00:13:55.000 And that's how I try to live my life, you know? 1.00

00:13:57.000 And then once the whole interaction's over with, I don't wanna sit here and feel Negative feelings about it.

00:14:07.000 You know what I mean?

00:14:08.000 Feelings are a choice.

00:14:10.000 There is a certain amount of feelings can surprise you and grab a hold of you.

00:14:16.000 But you really do have the ability And it takes some practice, I understand that, but you really do have the ability to look, take a step outside of yourself and look at the fact that you are overcome with feelings.

00:14:28.000 And that's one of the things Tommy was talking about earlier with meditation and stuff like that.

00:14:30.000 And I meditate, I don't do it as much as I'd like to, but it's something that has really taught me that my emotions don't have to control me.

00:14:38.000 Even though they do every time I get in the car, right?

00:14:42.000 Like I rage about traffic.

00:14:44.000 I'm not saying that I'm in control, but I do know in the back of my mind that it's always an option to let whatever I'm feeling go and let it go away and not have to live in that emotion.

00:14:56.000 And that kind of thing is something that's very valuable to have that perspective, I think.

00:15:00.000 Well, I think that's not taught either, right?

00:15:02.000 I think this is something that men who don't talk about anger and how to deal with it, right?

00:15:09.000 We spent our careers putting our frustration and our feelings into music as a creative

00:15:14.000 force but there are also, that's the tip of the iceberg where I think when I was younger

00:15:19.000 I thought that was the end all be all, right?

00:15:21.000 You like use it as fuel.

00:15:23.000 But you know at some point you have to take, you know, it also impedes your creativity.

00:15:30.000 If you're only painting with black and gray, you're only going to get black and gray.

00:15:34.000 If you, once you release yourself of such heaviness, you have access to more different

00:15:43.000 colors, you can tell stories better, you can create, you know, you become limitless in

00:15:51.000 Like, you know, I believe God shines light through all of us.

00:15:55.000 And that it's our job to upkeep the prism and keep it clean so that we can refract different shades and colors that make life worth living.

00:16:04.000 Yeah.

00:16:04.000 If that makes sense.

00:16:05.000 And that's something you developed after becoming sober?

00:16:08.000 Did you always feel this way?

00:16:09.000 No, this is something that I developed through maturity.

00:16:13.000 I've been sober for 14 years, so these are things.

00:16:16.000 Things had to happen that caused so much discord and resentment, especially with my brother.

00:16:24.000 I used to be a public speaker, and I talked a lot.

00:16:29.000 I've told this story hundreds and hundreds of times, and people are like, I'm so sorry.

00:16:33.000 Your brother would do that to you.

00:16:35.000 And I was like, he didn't do anything.

00:16:36.000 He didn't do that to me.

00:16:38.000 He did it for me.

00:16:39.000 Right?

00:16:40.000 Because he gave me an experience where now I don't have, I don't fear life.

00:16:46.000 I'm not afraid of dying.

00:16:48.000 Right?

00:16:48.000 I'm not, I'm not afraid.

00:16:50.000 I can't like, it's like, I can't be threatened.

00:16:52.000 I, you know, before I got canceled, there was every kind of like, you know, there was every kind of threat you could imagine came my way.

00:16:58.000 Like, If you don't do this, we're gonna do that.

00:17:00.000 And I'm like, yeah, okay.

00:17:01.000 But I'm like, I got cancer from being alive.

00:17:04.000 You know, so it's like, you know, sometimes courage is the absence of fear.

00:17:09.000 It's a judgment that something else is more important.

00:17:12.000 And so, you know, having the worst possible thing happen to me from the closest possible person in my life happen, what else are you gonna do to me?

00:17:21.000 What's your family dynamic like now?

00:17:23.000 You take care of your mom, you said, your brother's incarcerated.

00:17:25.000 Yeah, my father lives in Florida with his wife.

00:17:30.000 We don't really talk that much.

00:17:31.000 My father was an alcoholic.

00:17:32.000 He's sober a couple years now.

00:17:33.000 My mother is like, you know, I take care of her.

00:17:38.000 I just took her to Europe.

00:17:39.000 My mom is my adopted mother.

00:17:44.000 She's first-generation American.

00:17:47.000 Her parents are from Denmark, and my grandfather was a New York City undercover detective after he fought in World War II, and she's never been to Denmark.

00:17:56.000 We come from a very poor family, so I flew.

00:17:59.000 I went to Sweden.

00:18:01.000 I just went to Europe on vacation.

00:18:03.000 And I flew to Denmark and we hung out for like 10 days and, you know, when she turned 70, I sent her to Italy and Paris for 24-25 days.

00:18:15.000 With my sister.

00:18:15.000 That's amazing.

00:18:16.000 Yeah, and my sister and my mom are best friends.

00:18:19.000 Yeah, it's just we make it work.

00:18:22.000 My mom had to go to Al-Anon after my brother tried to kill me because she actually borrowed money from me and gave him some of it.

00:18:30.000 And I found out about it and I was like, you have to get help.

00:18:33.000 But that's a family disease of alcoholism.

00:18:36.000 A lot of people think that if they have a child or a relative that is The best thing they can do is keep giving them and they're eventually going to come out of it, but the disease is a rapacious creditor and it does not allow the person who's suffering to, you know, take credence.

00:18:51.000 We have to hit rock bottom often, very, very low rock bottoms in order to have a come to Jesus moment, so to speak.

00:18:59.000 Have you guys experienced this as you're getting bigger?

00:19:04.000 I'm asking you this because it feels like you did, but the harsh betrayal of people you thought were your best friends.

00:19:09.000 Oh God, yes.

00:19:10.000 You said that already, but for both of you guys.

00:19:12.000 Oh God, so back in 2009 This band was on tour and

00:19:19.000 my ex ex-wife now at the time went to this show and She was going there thinking like oh, I'm gonna go hang out

00:19:28.000 with people that I know that I'm friendly with And I told her, I was like, I really don't like the idea of you going to a show without me because people get that the wrong idea, you know, chicks from shows, you know?

00:19:38.000 Um, but she, she's like, no, it'll be fine.

00:19:40.000 You know, you know, all the guys that are there cause it was, it was shadows fall and five finger death punch.

00:19:44.000 And I'm like, no big deal.

00:19:45.000 OK, fine.

00:19:46.000 So she goes and the singer from from Shadows Fall is gets completely hammered.

00:19:52.000 And then he's like basically chasing her around the place.

00:19:56.000 And then he follows like she goes into the ladies room and he follows her into the ladies room. 0.93

00:20:01.000 He climbs up on the toilet and he's looking over.

00:20:03.000 And Ivan from Five Finger Death Punch comes in and grabs Brian by the hair and throws him on the ground because he's like, yo, that's Phil's, you know, that's at times my girlfriend.

00:20:11.000 He's like, yo, that's Phil's girlfriend, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:13.000 I used to be in Shadows Fall.

00:20:15.000 So the fact that it was Ivan, the guy that I wasn't ever in a band with, I'd been friends with him for a lot of years, but You know, I wasn't in a band with him.

00:20:23.000 He's the guy that goes and steps in and says, hey, and my friends that I used to be in Shadows Fall with, and I had never spoken a bad word about this band.

00:20:30.000 They kicked me out and they wanted to get another guy.

00:20:33.000 I was like, OK, cool.

00:20:35.000 Nice guy.

00:20:35.000 Biggest, you know, cheering him on from 2000 or from 1999 or 98 when they kicked me out until 2008.

00:20:42.000 Ten years of being the biggest fan.

00:20:44.000 We're friends, blah, blah, blah. 1.00

00:20:45.000 And no one in that band can go and say, hey, don't try to fuck Phil's girlfriend. 1.00

00:20:50.000 When did they kick you out? 1.00

00:20:51.000 What year?

00:20:52.000 1998, because that's the year that I started All That Remains.

00:20:56.000 Wow.

00:20:56.000 1998, and that happened in 2009, so 11 years of me being their cheerleader.

00:21:02.000 Man, we're friends, we're all from the same area, and All That Remains hadn't hit yet.

00:21:05.000 yet, like from 2000, you know, 1990, 1999 until

00:21:09.000 2006 is when the record that put it really put us on the map

00:21:13.000 came out.

00:21:14.000 So like we I've been, you know, talking them up and being

00:21:17.000 the guy and, you know, it's not like all that remains had the mojo where

00:21:21.000 like I could be like, you know, oh, screw them or whatever, you know, 1.00

00:21:24.000 never never said a crossword or bad And then, you know, none of them can step in, step in and say, hey, don't fuck Phil's girlfriend. 0.99

00:21:32.000 Just just hearing your story about, you know, this guy that you worked with, who turns on you, it's either him or me, Doc Coyle. 0.99

00:21:39.000 I'm just like, you know, I've had my experience with that, too.

00:21:42.000 And it's just, I gotta say, man, it really strips your faith in humanity.

00:21:46.000 I don't know how you guys feel about it.

00:21:47.000 Well, the way that I look at what, look, I think that in my Like I said, I actually really did like I prayed for all these dudes for like months every day Like I literally put my phone under my bed So I couldn't answer my phone till I hit my knees in the morning and force myself begrudgingly and then I got peace over it And then the day I stopped praying the guitar player who quit called me to apologize So it's like one of those weird things, but I think in in understanding How what motivates people I think to Doc's credit

00:22:25.000 His mom died, right?

00:22:27.000 On the record I was supposed to be on, we wrote a song for his mother who passed away, and then his dad died, completely unexpectedly.

00:22:37.000 And I think that when somebody is using substances, and they're dealing with loss, and they're dealing with that, you start to feel like everything's being pulled away from you, and I think that The band was seeing, in real time, because I had taken a political stance, my star started rising exponentially, where I was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of new followers on every single platform.

00:23:04.000 Sales were going up.

00:23:05.000 So you would think, from a business standpoint, it would be not beneficial for the label to want to remove me, but the liberal blinders, blindside of them, they couldn't understand that There's a place for everybody and I should be allowed to have freedom of speech.

00:23:24.000 And so I think he felt like he was losing control over everything in his life and so this was the only thing he could try to do.

00:23:31.000 You started the band?

00:23:36.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:23:37.000 Well, the drummer had a bunch of demos called Eye of Tongues, and he asked me to sing on it.

00:23:44.000 And I did.

00:23:45.000 I sang one song called Learn to Live and crushed it.

00:23:49.000 And then he was like, oh, I got all these demos.

00:23:52.000 And so I just went in and he had no money and I finished paying for the rest of the album to be made.

00:23:57.000 And I just financed the rest of it.

00:23:59.000 And then I got called for Five Finger.

00:24:02.000 I think the only reason why I got called to fill in for Five Finger is because he was busy.

00:24:08.000 Because he had already had a really successful run for them.

00:24:11.000 And then you know Ivan who he mentioned was having a really bad time staying sober and so ultimately they thought me being there because I had known him for just as long would help and it had the opposite effect where he was like became defiant and resentful of me that I was there and I couldn't really reach him and then finally He had to be he had to go take care of himself and so they asked me to sing instead of sober coach which was terrifying but You know, it all led to me getting signed to the label.

00:24:41.000 So, Bad Wolves was not signed.

00:24:43.000 I was.

00:24:43.000 Right.

00:24:44.000 And John had these songs, and the other band that I was in wasn't really doing well, and then they wanted to replace me because they thought I was going to be the new singer of Five Finger.

00:24:53.000 So, basically, Bad Wolves got signed by default.

00:24:57.000 So, I changed the name and then added a bunch of songs to the album.

00:25:02.000 Sounds similar to the mistake that Hayley Williams' family made, or she made, with Paramore.

00:25:07.000 Yeah, I don't know too much about the backstory.

00:25:09.000 It was the guitar player?

00:25:11.000 I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about this story either, but just for my understanding, because I think I've talked about it with people before, that she got signed, but she was like, I want to have this, I like this band.

00:25:23.000 I think it was because she was romantic, like she was a teenager interested in this guitar player.

00:25:26.000 Well, I think they were together for quite a while.

00:25:28.000 I mean, like every song she wrote was about him.

00:25:31.000 No doubt, same thing.

00:25:32.000 Bass player.

00:25:33.000 But she gets signed and then brings them in. 0.93

00:25:36.000 Then when they start turning on her, she's like, yo, it's me.

00:25:38.000 Then later on, I think it was the bass player who said, I have rights to this music.

00:25:42.000 And she's like, no, it's me.

00:25:44.000 And so basically, like.

00:25:46.000 That's the this is the mistake when people are You know, I'll put it this way.

00:25:50.000 I've gotten I got a stern warning from a good friend of mine who's also Famous who said that The mistake a lot of these people make is two things, like you're rising, you're a rising star, and then you think that your friends are also capable of handling what you're handling, and you bring them with you, and now you've taken someone who doesn't know how to handle it and put them next to the brightest star in the sky.

00:26:18.000 When I got back to doing All That Remains stuff after doing the Five Finger Death Punch tours, the shows, Jason Costa, our drummer, asked me, he's like, hey, do you think that we can get to where they are?

00:26:30.000 And I just looked at him, I said, no, because there are people in the band that will not do what the people in Five Finger Death Punch have done.

00:26:37.000 Yeah.

00:26:38.000 I know you guys won't do it.

00:26:39.000 I know that you know this person won't do this, this person won't do this, and it doesn't happen without all the people involved saying whatever needs to happen to reach the next level we'll do.

00:26:48.000 Whatever it takes.

00:26:49.000 Yep.

00:26:50.000 But you force someone Who has no experience with, so actually I'll put it this way, I was talking to somebody about what we're doing with Rotational Coast and stuff, and they were like, whatever you do, just make sure the people who go on the show have experience with the press. 0.97

00:27:07.000 Because if you get somebody who doesn't, who hasn't dealt with it, who doesn't know what they're gonna do, those people are gonna fucking lose their minds.

00:27:13.000 And so I'm like, I think all of us have experience with the press. 0.97

00:27:17.000 Oh, yes.

00:27:19.000 At least knows what it is and what it means to sit in a chair.

00:27:23.000 And so I just, this is like a warning I got a while ago, like, yeah, man, there is, you know, you bring people, like, someone comes to you, and I'm just saying it's kind of what it's not, like, this is what it reminded me of when I was reading about the Paramore stuff.

00:27:37.000 She's the talent.

00:27:38.000 She says, I like these people.

00:27:40.000 Let's bring them on board. 0.99

00:27:42.000 They can't handle it.

00:27:42.000 They lose it.

00:27:43.000 They get angry.

00:27:44.000 They're entitled.

00:27:44.000 They're deserving.

00:27:45.000 I guess her bass player sued her saying he owned ownership of a bunch of the music, and she was like, you're an employee of a corporation.

00:27:52.000 It is my company.

00:27:53.000 I'm signed.

00:27:54.000 You play bass for me.

00:27:55.000 They don't understand that.

00:27:57.000 They don't understand that, right?

00:27:59.000 And in our case, the drummer and I were co-owners, but he was also, you know, he was I don't know where the source of John's resentment toward me started, because he's apolitical, but things were happening where we would go places and people would recognize me and hand him their phone, and I'd be like, that's the guy, he's the drummer, and they're like, oh cool, can you take a picture of us?

00:28:26.000 That's the drummer's curse, though.

00:28:28.000 The drummer's curse.

00:28:29.000 Drummers and bass players, man.

00:28:30.000 But here's the thing, though, there's plenty of drummers and bass players who are celebrities, right?

00:28:34.000 Like Five Finger Death Punch.

00:28:36.000 Chris Cale is a celebrity.

00:28:37.000 Jeremy Spencer was a celebrity.

00:28:40.000 Who was Zeppelin's drummer?

00:28:42.000 John Bonham.

00:28:43.000 Everybody knows John Bonham.

00:28:46.000 Tommy Lee is the most famous guy in Motley Crue by far.

00:28:50.000 But it's about if you don't do press, if you let yourself go, if you are awkward, if you are fat, if you don't want to be around people, if you are Under the influence.

00:29:04.000 There's many things that go into why you're not being present or in the public eye.

00:29:10.000 Or if you just reject that and don't want anything to do with it, you can't be mad at the other people who have to pick up the slack.

00:29:15.000 I had to do almost 100 interviews a year for two years, to almost three years, because no one else could do press.

00:29:25.000 And then people would be mad at me.

00:29:26.000 And I'm like, well you do it.

00:29:30.000 They're like, well what do I talk about?

00:29:33.000 I don't know.

00:29:33.000 You ever see Almost Famous?

00:29:38.000 Yeah, of course.

00:29:39.000 It's like the scene where the t-shirts come in and it's like he's in the front.

00:29:42.000 Yeah, the guitar player with Mystique.

00:29:44.000 Yeah, everyone's kind of blurry and faded in the background.

00:29:46.000 They're like, what is this?

00:29:46.000 Like, guys, I didn't do this.

00:29:47.000 And they'll get mad at him.

00:29:48.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:29:49.000 He's like, I didn't make this.

00:29:51.000 Like, I'm not trying to be in front of you guys.

00:29:53.000 People talk about this thing called LSD, lead singer disease.

00:29:56.000 And it is true. 0.71

00:29:58.000 It's a thing.

00:29:58.000 It is true and it is real.

00:30:01.000 That doesn't change the fact that when people go to see a band, they're associating the front person as the band.

00:30:09.000 There are very few bands where the singer is not the front guy.

00:30:14.000 This band called Kill Switch Engage comes to mind.

00:30:16.000 The guitar player Adam, he is the front guy.

00:30:18.000 Doesn't matter who their singer is, Adam can hold it down.

00:30:22.000 Most bands can't.

00:30:23.000 But he has a thing.

00:30:24.000 He does!

00:30:25.000 I call him the Andy Kaufman of metal. 0.99

00:30:28.000 Yeah, he's ridiculous. 0.79

00:30:31.000 Not only can he just literally write an entire album, everything, the whole thing by himself, he's like a mastermind. 0.98

00:30:38.000 On stage he's like... 0.98

00:30:40.000 He's like a, you're like, what the fuck is going on? 0.99

00:30:43.000 He's got a cape on. 1.00

00:30:44.000 He's a clown. 0.95

00:30:44.000 And Daisy Dukes, and he's like super serious, but then he's not, and you're like. 0.95

00:30:49.000 And he executes flawlessly.

00:30:50.000 Yeah.

00:30:51.000 With a fallout boy. 0.71

00:30:53.000 Pete Wentz was the bass player.

00:30:54.000 Yeah.

00:30:54.000 He was the front man.

00:30:55.000 Yeah.

00:30:55.000 Well, he was a heartthrob, yeah.

00:30:56.000 Marketable.

00:30:57.000 Yeah, they were like, he's the guy to go for and then there was I don't know if you guys ever heard of the band jellyfish early 90s and The drummer was the lead singer.

00:31:06.000 Oh, yeah, and it was just I'm sorry, dude.

00:31:08.000 It's weird.

00:31:09.000 This is bad idea Yeah, because he can just sing you get a drummer and so they tried putting him in on the stage, in the front, with a stand-up drum kit, while he sang and played, and I'm like, just half the guys, I mean, I was a little kid at the time, but watching this stuff as I'm older, I'm like, that's a ridiculous thing to do.

00:31:24.000 Like Soundgarden, you know, Chris Cornell was the drummer, and then he was like, I have this voice.

00:31:33.000 Nothing more, Johnny Hawkins, amazing singer, he was the drummer.

00:31:40.000 He taught himself how to sing.

00:31:42.000 So, Fall Out Boy's story was, Patrick Stomp, they asked him to play drums, and when he played drums and they were trying out vocalists, he sang and they were like, holy shit, you sing instead, we'll get a different drummer.

00:31:53.000 And the guy, I think the guy's name was Andy something.

00:31:55.000 Andy, yeah.

00:31:57.000 Unfortunately, Andy's extremely left and it's heartbreaking.

00:32:00.000 Oh, really?

00:32:04.000 We did a tour with The Damn Things, which is a band that Andy played drums in, and super nice, like nicest guy ever, but he's extremely antifa and I'm just like, oh, you're getting conned by them.

00:32:17.000 I got a funny story for you guys, just last thing.

00:32:19.000 You ever hear of the band The Hush Sound?

00:32:23.000 I don't know if this is offensive to the band members, but they're not particularly famous, but they do small shows and they sell out.

00:32:30.000 They toured with Fall Out Boy, they were on Decadence, so they were in that sphere and they had three albums that came out through them.

00:32:40.000 When I was in Denver, I was at like a Best Buy or something, and I bought some CDs, and I bought like Death Cab for Cutie, because I was a big fan of theirs, and then I remember seeing on MySpace this band Hush Sound, and then I was like, it was like, I don't know how you describe it, but one chick, Greta, sings and plays piano, and then there's a guitar player and singer, and it was like dual male-female vocals, so I grabbed their new album.

00:33:00.000 I'm driving back from Denver to Chicago, after living there for a little bit, and I have only two CDs, so I'm just spam-blasting these bands.

00:33:07.000 One day I'm at the Metro, You know the metro in Chicago, I imagine.

00:33:11.000 And I'm in the bathroom, washing my hands, and then Bob, the guitar player, walks up to my left, starts washing his hands, and then I dry my hands, and I look over, and I'm like, are you Bob from The Hush Sound?

00:33:21.000 And he's like, yeah.

00:33:22.000 And they were doing big tours, so he's a moderately famous guy at the time, they were doing the Honda Civic Tour and all that stuff.

00:33:29.000 As I'm leaving, I see him outside, so I talk to him for a little bit, and I'm like, yeah, dude, I got your guys' album, Like Vines, it's really good.

00:33:35.000 Every single song, I think it's fantastic. 0.97

00:33:37.000 And then we just shot this shit, me and a couple other people. 0.99

00:33:40.000 That's it, I left, didn't see him, met the guy. 0.99

00:33:42.000 How cool was that?

00:33:42.000 Met a guy in the bathroom.

00:33:44.000 Like a year or two later, when I moved to LA, I'm living in Koreatown.

00:33:48.000 You guys know where Larchmont is?

00:33:51.000 So I'm walking down, it's like right by Paramount or something like that, and everybody drinks coffee, all the rich people. 0.96

00:33:56.000 I'm walking down my street, and motherfucker is walking the exact same direction with his dog, and right when we get to the corner, I stop, and I'm like, Bob? 0.97

00:34:05.000 And he's like, oh, you're Tim! 1.00

00:34:07.000 And I'm like, what the fuck? 1.00

00:34:09.000 And I was like, I met you that one time, he's like, yeah, yeah, at the Metro. 1.00

00:34:12.000 And I was like, you remember who I am?

00:34:13.000 And he's like, yeah.

00:34:14.000 That's cool.

00:34:14.000 It's like, where are you going?

00:34:15.000 I'm going to Larchmont for coffee.

00:34:16.000 So am I. And now I'm friends with the guy.

00:34:18.000 He's cool though.

00:34:19.000 That's awesome.

00:34:20.000 Now he runs like a dog walking thing.

00:34:22.000 But he's not crazy or, you know, he's, he's a chill, normal dude.

00:34:27.000 So I, you know, messaged him recently and he's like, what up dude?

00:34:29.000 Congrats on your music.

00:34:30.000 I'm checking it out.

00:34:31.000 So it's cool to see, you know, he found success.

00:34:34.000 He's happy.

00:34:34.000 He's chill.

00:34:35.000 That's rad.

00:34:35.000 Yeah.

00:34:36.000 But he plays in a band with one, I don't know if he still does, with the guys from One Republic or something like that.

00:34:39.000 Oh, okay.

00:34:40.000 They have like some crazy band.

00:34:41.000 Anyway, that was my story.

00:34:42.000 I thought it was funny.

00:34:43.000 In LA, you never can tell like, I mean, if he still plays music, you never can tell if he's playing with someone and just something hits and next thing you know, he's on some fucking gigantic tour or whatever, you know?

00:34:52.000 You know, I think he's just doing his own thing for the most part, like in playing music.

00:34:57.000 I'm not sure he's really pursuing it.

00:34:58.000 I know that he's got like a dog walking business, but I will say this for Bob.

00:35:04.000 Like his music was so good I for the life of me couldn't understand why it wasn't bigger why they didn't make it because like I Started listening to their music again. 0.54

00:35:11.000 I'm like, it's just so fucking good does it cost money?

00:35:15.000 It costs money to to you the the cost of exposure right like and that's that's the thing like what I you know what I've had to deal with leaving My former band is that, you know, I have a music video on YouTube that has 450 million views alone, right?

00:35:35.000 And it's like billions of streams, all like global.

00:35:38.000 I got more platinum and gold records.

00:35:40.000 I don't even have them.

00:35:42.000 They're literally in my friend's garage in Arizona.

00:35:45.000 And I gotta send for those.

00:35:47.000 No, I got a gold YouTube plaque.

00:35:47.000 Yeah, I'll send you one.

00:35:49.000 We use as a window stopper, just sitting on the ground.

00:35:52.000 Yeah, but it's like, you know, the the reset button of like how you know like I I just I recently had I Spent a lot of money at metaverse talking upwards of tens of thousands of dollars to get my my Instagram profile reinstated

00:36:12.000 So, it was hacked.

00:36:14.000 It was an external hack, and they said that only eight people could have done it, and that it probably cost upwards of $100,000 to have my profile deleted. 0.99

00:36:22.000 Damn! 0.95

00:36:22.000 And I'm like, the only person I know who could afford to do that, and who needs to do that, I know who it is. 0.95

00:36:28.000 And so, it took two weeks.

00:36:31.000 Basically, they acid-washed the metadata from my profile.

00:36:36.000 To make sure that I could never have it again because I had almost 400,000 real fans on there who paid for concert tickets.

00:36:44.000 I sold out my entire tour with no radio promotion, no anything, just from the power of my Instagram.

00:36:52.000 You know, it's the pettiness of like, if I can't have you, no one will.

00:36:57.000 And that's what the slave industry of the music industry is about. 0.99

00:37:01.000 People don't want to talk about this in a way that's productive, but the reality is like, for example, Kanye West said, like, ridiculousness shit, right? 0.99

00:37:12.000 So his whole anti-Semitic thing was ridiculous. 0.99

00:37:16.000 And I have an issue with it, because my stepfather, rest in peace, was a wonderful Jewish man, right? 0.52

00:37:22.000 And I grew up going to school with people who were Jewish, and I have friends who were Jewish, and it's not, just because someone from a record label has a last name, it doesn't represent the whole of a race of people.

00:37:36.000 But what there is a problem is, is that within the music industry, and the entertainment industry, Amongst all races of the, you know, 100 millionaires, the 100 million guys plus up to billionaires.

00:37:50.000 They're all unilaterally on the same tip. 0.99

00:37:55.000 So if you piss one of them off, regardless of whatever their belief system is or their race or whatever, you're fucked. 0.99

00:38:02.000 And then they also control the media and people are like, ooh, who's up? 0.99

00:38:06.000 Because the outlets, No longer can survive off print sales, so they have to pay for it in advertising on their websites.

00:38:15.000 And so who pays for the big dollars to advertise on the websites?

00:38:19.000 Who's paying for the pieces to be written?

00:38:21.000 The labels have the money. 0.98

00:38:23.000 Because how do you think that my band became the most famous fucking band in 2018 from thin air? 0.99

00:38:23.000 How do I know this? 0.99

00:38:30.000 You know, it helped that we had a multi-platinum hit song, but everything else that generates around this is controlled.

00:38:37.000 You know what everybody tells us?

00:38:39.000 With every project we try doing, book, music or otherwise, they're like, oh yeah, we're gonna help you, we're gonna make it all work, here's what we're gonna do, and then the very last thing they say is, now all you gotta do is promote it on your show. 0.96

00:38:50.000 And it's like I get it you think like that's and so this is why we got books that are coming out and then these companies are like yeah yeah we can do all these things for you and then when you promote it on your show we'll get sales and I'm like well then what the fuck do I sign with you for?

00:39:02.000 Well you don't need to that's the whole point you know and it's like I like even even with Even without my Instagram page, right?

00:39:11.000 I'm on my third or fourth page.

00:39:13.000 I got like 185,000 followers, right?

00:39:15.000 Which is nothing.

00:39:18.000 But with TikTok, I never had a TikTok, so there's nothing to go after.

00:39:21.000 One post on TikTok and I got 300,000 followers. 0.98

00:39:24.000 Damn. 0.98

00:39:24.000 Right? 0.98

00:39:25.000 And then also, what people need to understand in our space is how valuable email lists are.

00:39:33.000 Right?

00:39:33.000 So I collect emails.

00:39:35.000 So if I have a tour going out, it's going out to 50,000 people, period, in the emails.

00:39:42.000 And I have a 70% opening rate.

00:39:44.000 And advertisers will pay like crazy for your email list.

00:39:48.000 It's insane how much money you can make off of that.

00:39:50.000 I haven't even sold it because I won't do that to my fans.

00:39:54.000 I literally won't.

00:39:55.000 So if you notice, anybody who follows me knows that you're not going to get any spam from any affiliate.

00:40:01.000 Email lists are such a big deal nowadays.

00:40:05.000 People don't realize how How effective an email list is, especially if you can get emails that people open.

00:40:13.000 You have to circumvent the social media gatekeepers now.

00:40:17.000 Right.

00:40:17.000 So so it's very easy because especially people who like us will be censored in certain places and people are invested and they want to get the information.

00:40:27.000 The email list becomes your whole life.

00:40:30.000 So now you can't be cancelled.

00:40:31.000 So they can delete everything, they can take me down, they can kick me off radio, they can blacklist me.

00:40:36.000 But I email everyone, hey my new album comes out on Friday and then I'm number three on iTunes.

00:40:43.000 So Five Finger is number one, I Proveil is number two, Tommy Becks is number three.

00:40:48.000 That's why we do this.

00:40:49.000 This is our shield from the censorship and all that.

00:40:51.000 This is the members only.

00:40:52.000 Point at the camera.

00:40:54.000 Well, man, we've went a little bit over, but this has been a blast.

00:40:57.000 Thanks for hanging out and talking about all this stuff.

00:40:58.000 It's enlightening.

00:40:59.000 Thanks for having me, man.

00:41:00.000 Absolutely.

00:41:00.000 I appreciate it.

00:41:01.000 And to everybody who is a member, you're keeping us up and running.

00:41:04.000 I mean, this is the principal way we run the show.

Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - February 19, 2023

Sunday Uncensored: Tommy Vext Members Only Podcast

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