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I kind of know who you were.
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Who are you now making this music? Like who am I now?
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I'm the same person, bro. I'm the same person.
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The music is at its very core a a conversation.
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It is at its very core you know, a debate.
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Something that that is there to stir up a conversation, stir up a thought. Music is there. It's kind of like Wi-Fi. It's It's all there.
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If you have the Wi-Fi receiver, you can receive it.
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And and if you're good presenter, then you can actually become a hub and present that Wi-Fi to others.
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I love It's literally that. Yeah.
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It's literally that, you know?
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We don't create the Wi-Fi.
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We I didn't create the internet. Al Gore did. No, I'm just kidding.
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Um you know, um it it is that. I mean, it's there.
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And and and at best we're skilled presenters.
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I've always thought that.
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What inspired you to come back in this in this in this frame?
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With the idea of of a of a of a visual as well as music and cuz you could have done either or.
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You could have done either or.
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You decided to really invest in all of it.
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So, these songs I've had with me for 5 6 years.
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And when when I first when they first came to me, I should say in the in the format that they did it they were it was a very punk rock ethos.
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And that made me really feel like they would work with Systems attitude and kind of a repertoire.
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And you know, and we tried to make it work.
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And the guys actually liked the songs, a majority of them.
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And you know, we but we had a philosophical difference in terms of moving forward in terms of how we see the future of the band.
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So, we we weren't able to actually make a record, obviously, needless to say.
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And therefore, these songs were sitting there.
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And I thought, you know what?
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I'm going to finish them the way that I intended that that I envisioned and put them out.
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Can we talk about the song Your Mom? Mom. Your Mom.
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Can we talk about this song? Your Mom.
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I just was trying to say Your The song isn't about your mom, mate.
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It's cuz I just spoke to my mom. So, that's sorry.
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If you called me if you called me yesterday, I'd have been like talking about your mom.
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But uh I'd have adapted and adopted.
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But as it stands right now, I've just regressed.
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So, can we just talk about no, no. It's not regression. It's progression, bro. It's progression.
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So, I want to talk about this song, but I will be I will be phonetically correct with it. Your Mom.
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I want to talk about this particular song cuz I really love it and I would love a story about it.
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First and foremost, the idea of calling a song Your Mom, I think is really funny. It's really funny.
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Anytime anytime anyone's going to refer to it, they're going to say, "Hey, I want to talk about your mom."
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And I'll be like, "Say what?" Right?
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Like So, have you heard of have you heard Your Mom?
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What What did you say about my mom? Have you heard Your Mom?
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What did you say about my mom?
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Especially in cultures that are very defensive. Your Mom. Your Mom. Your Mom rocks. Yeah, really?
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What What did you say about my mom?
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You'll be a couple of people here in this I had to break it to you that will say, "Your Mom sucks."
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It could go really badly So, have you heard have you heard Your Mom?
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What What did you say about my mom? Have you heard Your Mom?
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What did you hear What What did you say about my mom?
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Especially in cultures that are very defensive. Your Mom. Your Mom. Your Mom rocks. Your Mom rocks. Yeah, really?
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What What What did you say about You'll be a couple of people here in this I had to break it to you that will say, "Your Mom sucks."
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It could go really badly as well.
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So, the song originally was a very specific uh kind of dissertation on a very specific terrorist network around the world.
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And it was way so it was so specific that 5 years later uh circumstances change.
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And you look at it and you're like, "Well, that's not actually, you know, uh exactly what it used to be."
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And that kind of a thing.
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And there's also the danger of being one song about a specific terrorist organization to the author.
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The combination of both those ideas made me go, "Maybe there's another approach I can have to this song."
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Bring in like this hybrid kind of approach.
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And the hybrid approach became um it's about a terrorist organization and it's about your mom.
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Your mom is like the hero in her like nighties and slippers and she kicks.
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So, the whole thing became a surreal kind of hodgepodge of of two different ideas.
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And it's it's a little unruly.
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But I tell you who I am still listening to is Tool.
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And I think about their progression and I think about how they have survived and done it their way.
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And you know, I I and you know, you I've played Go ahead.
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I've played Tool to people that don't listen to modern music, you know?
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Um and of of different cultures.
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And they they're like to a number of amazing musicians from different cultures and who had never heard Tool and not big rock listeners.
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And they appreciate the, you know, the, you know, non-traditional time signatures, the way that it carries through the vocals.
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It's like you don't need to be a lover of rock music to like Tool, which is amazing. do not.
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And even the way that Adam amplifies his guitars and is able to make it feel heavy enough for heavy metalers, but emotional and and gentle and vulnerable enough for people who listen to Mills from.
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It's just the most amazing balance between the two. To me, they are.
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And I just think, you know, for you having come up around the same time and continuing to remain a contemporary of theirs, you haven't gone south and neither have they.
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You continue to be as vital as always.
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You know, whether that kind of leaves a very special place in your heart for that band because they've continued to pave their own way as you have. Oh, yeah, man.
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I I remember uh one Ozzfest we were playing. Tool was headlining.
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And when we first met the guys and and started talking and and whatnot.
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But yeah, there's there's a handful of bands, Rage, Tool, that in this in in in our rock world have really really been incredible, how do I say, at least musically.
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I mean, as people as well because I've befriended them over the years. And they're nice guys.
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Yeah, just just incredible creative within the genre, you know?
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Just you know, that that define that define themselves beyond the genre, right? You know? And that's not common. And that's beautiful.
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And the fact that I've known those guys and toured with them.
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And um um you know, it's it's a beautiful life experience, really.
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And And friends with them, too, which is incredible.
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So, the question is like where do you go from here?
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Does this as the world opens up?
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Your timing's not actually that off.
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We're not talking March last year.
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We're talking March this year.
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Who's to say that things can't get back to some degree some normality by the end of the year.
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They're talking about it.
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What are the priorities now, you know?
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This body of work is done.
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What do you want to do next?
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Um I've I've recorded I've finished a lot of music during lockdown.
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Um so, I've got other music that's in the pipeline that I want to put out.
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Um some some uh cinematic music uh basically instrumental cinematic music. And also another EP.
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And I did I got to tell you about this.
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I did a 24-minute If I've told if if I've talked to you about this, just tell me to No.
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But I've done a I've done a 24-minute modern uh piano concerto.
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And And and and it was a challenge.
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It was my quarantine challenge to myself because I had no work.
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Like mostly I'm right now I'm scoring two different things, two two different films, one TV series, one film.
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But but at the time last year, there was not much work to do.
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Everything got shut down.
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Productions got shut down.
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And I had finished this EP even before quarantine.
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And I'm like, "Okay, you know, you hang around the farm for a while, whatever."
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And then I'm like, "What am I doing?"
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So, one night I was on my iPad looking looking through my voice memos, my Apple voice memos.
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When I come up with an idea either a piano, acoustic guitar, vocal, whatever, I just record it on my phone, right? And just keep it there. And it just adds up.
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And I had over a hundred of these ideas.
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So, my challenge became to coalesce all these hundred plus ideas into one piece of music irrespective of how long it might be. But do it in a Wow.
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But do it in a creative way.
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Do it in a creative way that that works and that uses different types of instrumentation.
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So, the patchwork quilt with arms and holes in it that has to fit perfectly. Exactly. Wow.
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So, that's what I created.
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And it and it and it goes from traditional classical instruments to rocking instruments to a lot of synths, analog synths, arpeggiations, crazy stuff happening.
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And and weird vocals, too.
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Like it just it's it's a body of music where you just sit, you put on the headphones, you lay back, and go.
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What happens when you sit down and listen to it in a certain iteration and then you're 19 minutes in and you're like, uh I got to pee.
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I need to change something because it's like it's not like it's not that simple.
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Like everything relates to each other, right?
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Because you've got to listen to it from A to Z and it has to reach it has to flow and the cadence has to be glorious.
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It can't it can't have a break.
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And and and one of the other challenges was no repetition.
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I didn't want to repeat anything throughout.
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So, it was you know, there were very few parts where I had to just to kind of connect the dots.
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But it was mostly non-repetitious.
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So, it starts with this thing and ends with, you know, So, it's it's quite interesting.
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And but you know, you do these things creatively.
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And and you know, who's got 24 minutes to listen to one piece of music? I don't know. it to me. They said it to me.
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You know I'm going to call you up and I'll be like I'll be like, "It was good for 21 minutes."
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The last 3 minutes sucked like your mom. It sucked like your mom.