Episode 13 – Reflections – Matt Flood of Caskets

0:00 Speaker 1 Guests of the AltWire podcast are recorded remotely. Due to the nature of remote recording, certain issues such as reverb or background noise may exist in some of these interviews. Although we will always try our best to clean up the audio in post, please be advised that certain issues may still remain. We appreciate your understanding, and we hope you enjoy the show.

0:32 Speaker 2 You are listening to the AltWire podcast, where we feature candid interviews with some of the hottest names in the entertainment industry. Get ready for your host, Derek Oswald.

0:46 Derek Oswald Hello, everyone. Thank you for listening to the AltWire podcast. I'm your host, Derek Oswald. Today, I'm pleased to be joined by our special guest, Matt Flood of the English rock group, Caskets. Let's get started. Thank you so much for joining us today, Matt. How are doing? I'm very good. Thank you. How are you? I'm doing excellent. Thank you for asking. After the tremendous success of your debut album, Lost Souls, how does it feel to release your second album, Reflections? What are your expectations, and how did the time you spent on the road shape its creation?

1:20 Matt Flood I try not to expect anything when it comes to releasing music just so I don't put any added pressure on myself. You know I mean? I'm… I already worry about everything anyway. So I I hope for the best, expect the worst. That's what I like to tell people when it comes to releasing music. Because if it doesn't go very well, then at least, you know, you're expected to not feel amazing if you get where I'm queued from. To be fair, being on the road really did shape this album because it gave us less time to be able to get demos done and get into the studio and stuff like that. So the time frame was a lot shorter, so it meant it meant we had to work twice as quick and twice as hard. But I feel like we've come out with a very different album to the first one in respect to we've added a lot more layers into the music. We didn't want it to just be another Lost Souls album. So we wanted to add either more poppy elements, more synthwave elements, just layer it up more, and try and give our listeners a different side to our sound that no one's really heard yet. Do know what mean? Because a lot of the people in the band are really, really into synthwave, a ts, acoustic music, stuff like that. So we try and join all all of our… All of the stuff we love together. And we found in more on that on this album than we did the first one. Lost Souls was mainly driven by your own personal experiences.

2:42 Derek Oswald With Reflections, what made you decide to expand the narrative

2:46 Matt Flood and incorporate the perspectives of all the band members? How did this contribute to the album's overall feel and sound? I feel like just because I'm the singer and and I write the the words and stuff like that, I didn't feel it was a true representation of the whole band. Like you said, like a lot of the a lot of the meanings and lyrics and stuff in the first album were more about my background and what I've been through. So we wanted we wanted obviously the rest of the band to have a say. So the reason why we called it Reflections is because each song is a reflection upon an event or a time in one of our lives in the band. So it's not just about me and what I've been through and stuff like that. The band isn't just me. Do know what I mean? It's not just my message. There's five of us, so there's five different messages that we wanna get out. We really tried to do that in this album and tried to give everyone their own little bit to shine. Do you know do know what I mean? Like, even James, like, Jericho comes to me with lyrics now, which I didn't think he would have felt… I don't think he felt he could have done when we was doing the first album. Do you what mean? Because we didn't know each other as well. You Do know I mean? We've had the chance to live with each other basically now, and we know each other in and out. We know how to grind each other's gears and and how to how to sort sort each other out if we're going through bad times and stuff like that. So we wanted it to be a representation of all of us and and not and not just me.

4:04 Derek Oswald Reflecting on the differences and challenges that you faced while creating this album, how has this process helped you grow as a band? Has embracing these challenges and maintaining your collaborative environment pushed your music beyond its previous boundaries?

4:18 Matt Flood It massively changed. I mean, like like I said, after we did the first album, we went we went on some long tours. So it so it was the longest amount of time we'd spent with each other. So we learned a lot about each other. We learned, like, what people like, what people don't like. And like I said, it was a lot easier to sit down in a studio and us all be open with each other about what we wanted out out of the album and where we wanted it to go and what each member wanted their part to be, what they wanted to say. And in the first album, I don't think it was it was like that. Like I said, it was more based upon my previous experiences and what I've been through and stuff like that. So I think having all these little, you know, every band has their little niggles and stuff like that, disagreements and stuff. And on one hand, that can ruin a band's future if people don't talk to each other right and with respect and stuff like that. So we just learn how to be a group and how to stay humble with each other. And know, again, know know what each each other likes, what each others don't like. It's like like I hate being woken up in the morning really, like, drastically. Do you know what I mean? Like, I hate that. And And it happened to me once on tour, and I absolutely flipped my lid because I could be quite Mardy, mate, when I'm just cut up. So that happened, and then… And now they know not to wake me up drastically, arse, I'll be alright. Mardy, get with him for the next three hours. So just little stuff like that adds up to our bond being a lot tighter, us being a lot closer as a as a band, and I think that reflection in this new album. Now, I mean, what if the bus is on fire? Would you wanna be woken up then? Or? Oh, shit. It's probably me setting the bus on fire, dude, to be fair. I'm not gonna lie. I'm a nightmare, dude. Honestly, I'm a nightmare. But, yeah, I definitely want them to drag me out of that bus if anything was on fire. So don't let you around the matches or the gasoline then is what you're telling me? Yeah. Don't leave me near any lighters or any matches or anything like that. I'll not come out I'll not come out of the gas stations. I'll just stay in I'll just stay in my room.

6:22 Derek Oswald Now I wanted to talk about the early days. How did you all meet and decide to create music together?

6:27 Matt Flood Yeah. Sure. So Chris and Benjie were in a band beforehand called Fault Lines. That had just kicked off, it was doing really well. And then all of a sudden, their singer decided that he was leaving. And Chris and Benjie had actually came to see me perform with my old band beforehand, so that's how we kinda met each other. And then probably like a year, two years down the line, that that band fizzled out into nothing. And then I just got a random message one day asking if I wanted to try out for the band. Did that. Probably one of the scariest days of my life. But, yeah, it went well. And then… So we decided to… So we just… I decided to join the band, but we decided to start afresh. So, obviously, we changed the name to captives. We've had a few a few member changes over the years, which is a… Not a good thing, but we've got Craig in the band out from it, which which has changed our sound for the better as well. So, yeah, we just start we just started as a band, man. We we were… I repeat, we got Connor, our manager, on board, and it's just been just going up and up and up since it's been crazy, man. I mean, Lee, our bass player, left due to, like, personal issues and stuff like that, so we knew that we wanted Craig in the band because his guitar playing is absolutely phenomenal. But we'd already had two guitarists, so Chris Blessed was like, alright. I'll jump on bass, and we could have this insane guitarist, which obviously… Craig's really into, like, his eighties rock and stuff like that. It's the reason why we have guitar solos in our music and stuff like that now, which is obviously

7:54 Derek Oswald put our music to another level, I think. Now I understand that the whole reason why you guys went from captives to caskets because of a legal dispute.

8:02 Matt Flood Do you ever find yourself missing your old name, or are you pretty fond of the new name? It was it was strange to to begin with. At quite a few times on stage, I said that we were captives and and not Caskets. I got worried about that. Would not say I've come out that, thankfully. It was a crazy time, dude. Like, we we had… We was getting… You know, we we got a cease and desist on the music video shoot of Lost in Echoes. So in this massive warehouse, freezing cold, and then awesome news, you get ensued, boys. So, yeah, that that was crazy, dude, but it felt weird at the start changing the name to Caskets, but Caskets was in the list of names from when we first started the band. So we knew we wanted to keep the logo. We knew we wanted it to be like a one word band name. We just fell out to Caskets, it stuck with that. But, yeah, when we started, dude, it it was very, very, very weird. And we was really worried because the longer that went on, like, we lost our Instagram or Spotify went down. Just about everything went down. I thought it was duh, to be fair. But, thankfully, because we've got absolutely awesome fans like, they they stuck with us. And as time's gone on, like, I'm really, really used to Caskets now. Someone… My fan said to me the other day, like, you should have outed his Caskets from the start. He sounds way better than Captives. And I was like, I don't know. It's just the names. You know what I mean? Like, that's how I try and see it. It's just the name of a band. It doesn't doesn't affect obviously how we play, what we play, or why we play, or why we perform. But, yeah, man, it was a very weird and scary situation at the time.

9:36 Derek Oswald I do think Caskets is a really good name for you guys because it's one of those things where you see the band name and you think that you guys are gonna be some kinda, like, dark metal Yeah. Like, kinda gothic type band, and then you actually listen to the music, and it's completely different. So I love band names like that when you expect one thing and it turns out to be something completely different. So I actually think it benefits you. In fact, Lost in Echoes was the first song that I heard from you guys. I had Spotify shuffle on, and Los Necos comes on. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, oh, I like the guitar riff in this. I keep listening to it, and it was such a good song that I ended up listening to your whole first album after that. And I've been trying for months to get you guys on the podcast, so I'm glad we were able to finally get this scheduled. Yeah, man. It was

10:23 Matt Flood was a crazy time doing the first album, obviously, like, because it it was through lockdown, so we only had the opportunity to be with each other in one place once lockdown had been lifted. So we got locked down, and then there was like… We had like a two week gap or something like that, wasn't it, where we could go out and do things. And then we got locked down again, and then it just kept… That same thing kept happening. So in those like two weeks gaps, we were just all getting together in Chris's shed in his back garden, and that's that's where we did the album. So, yeah, it was crazy times, man. So it's been it's been really nice being able to be in this actual studio with the boys and actually write an album where it should be written and without having to worry about lockdown and COVID and stuff like that. It's pretty incredible when you listen to the album, the first album,

11:04 Derek Oswald back that it was recorded in the shed because it sounds professionally recorded. What would you say was, like, the biggest differences between recording in your shed versus recording in a professional studio?

11:16 Matt Flood The space for one, it wasn't a very big shed. I mean, we had everything in it to be able to write an album. Do know what I mean? But the space wasn't great, but it's all we could work with at the time. If we did not have that space, I don't… Yeah. The album would have been delayed for for a long time, I reckon. But just like the… I've never I've never had the opportunity ever to be able to go into a real studio and do music for myself. So just the experience alone was was crazy was crazy for me. The availability of of all these different instruments and and plugins and stuff like that. So I spent a lot of my time in the studio if I wasn't singing just like asking questions like, you know, about plugins that I didn't know anything about, what they did, and how to work them and stuff like that, or I just I could just get up and walk to the piano and just play the piano if I wanted to. Like, just little things like that make a massive difference to me. And obviously, it really helped my it really helped my my mental health as well during this latest album. Because in the first one, it was all like go together in a shed, and then it's like, alright. Got to travel two hours home, and then I've got to travel two hours back every day, that sort of thing. So it was just nice to not have those worries, and it was just an… A nice relaxed environment to be able to do it. Yeah.

12:34 Derek Oswald So besides getting served a cease and desist on your video shoot, given that you're still a relatively newer band and you're rising within the industry, what are some of the biggest roadblocks and biggest bumps in the road that you've experienced so far? As a musician, personally, I really struggled when we started with the band because I'd never really done

12:53 Matt Flood anything like this before. I'd been in a pop punk band before for a while, but that fizzled out. And then before that, I just did acoustic music mainly. So going from seeing a lot of major happy stuff to having to learn how to write melodies in minor and augmented scales and stuff like that was a big challenge for me, as well as play it performing live. Like, the difference in performing on stage, doing an acoustic show compared to doing one with Caskets is like it's like being on a… In a different universe. So I had to get used to that. I blew my voice out a lot when we first started doing shows because I wasn't… I didn't need to look after my voice and my throat like I do now back back then because it was just easy acoustic music. Do you know what I mean? That took me quite a while to to be able to handle. So like it could be quite daunting when I'm seeing like, oh, man, I've got six shows to go, Ralph. Like, I know I have to, like, rein myself in on the first few shows. But obviously, like, the name change was probably the the biggest hurdle we've had so far. We never expected when we first said, yeah, you've got a cease and desist. Alright. You've got to change your name, this and that. We wanted to fight it at first, you know what I mean? But then we realized we legally had… Didn't have a leg to stand on. So that wasn't a very nice time, dude, to be fair. I'm not gonna lie. Everything was up in the air. We didn't know what was happening. Once all that had settled down and we had a new name and we started gigging again, everything sort of fell into place then because I spent a lot of time before that trying to hone in my technique and so forth, so I knew that I I could play a gig and not wake up the next day and be cool or sort of have no voice at all. But I'm still learning, dude. Like like, I'm still learning how to be a frontman. Every time we go on tour, I'll watch, like, all the other vocalists, what they do, how they move, how they react, how they talk to the crowd, how the crowd react. So I'm always finding obstacles every day to jump over. So, yeah, it never stops, man, and that's part that's part of the fun because you you get yourself through these struggles that you find yourself in, you come out the other end and realize that, yeah, I am strong enough to be able to get through that or to do that, or to then realize I always had it in me to be able to do that. It's just… It's normally in your head. Do know what I mean? So that's mainly the hard… The hardest parts of being in this band so far is getting out of my own head, to be fair.

15:36 Derek Oswald What is the process when you're recording a song that you and the other guys go through to decide what song makes it and what songs get scrapped?

15:47 Matt Flood There's always… Like, we… Like, the last album, we took, like, 17 demos, 18 demos, and five, maybe a bit more into the studio and whittled that down to 10. There's some songs as a band you know you want on the album. Do you know what mean? Like, when we first wrote Guiding Light, even in the demo stage, we got to, like, the end of the second verse or something, Benjie was like, this is definitely the first release of the next album. So there's them, and then there's other songs that might have just have a verse or something like that. And we'll normally sit down in the studio, take all the demos to the studio, we'll sit down with Dan, well, if we did our production, he was an actual god, by the way, we got Dan, And we'll talk through it ourselves. We need to speak… We like to speak to other people that are outside the band to get someone else's point of view. Do you get what I mean? And sometimes we'll have… That will just be like, no. That's not good enough. Even if I I think it's the best one, then I'm like, that's not good enough. I'll take that, and I'll be like, okay. That's fine. Because I trust his a lot more than I trust my own, do you know what I mean, because of the reputation he has. So, yeah, normally, you probably have like three, four finished demos, like full length demos, and then the rest will be like half demos. We'll pick which ones that we want to work with, but not all of them will be… Like, they're definitely not getting used, because we could take something out of one demo that fits into another song, The Okoro phone. So it it can be quite stressful, man, but at the same time, we also get other songwriters in to help with melodies and stuff like that, because it's another… It's more brains thinking different things, different melodies will come out, stuff like that. Do know what I mean? So it's quite… It can be quite intense, dude. And then once that's done, with this album, we did the drums first, I believe. And then we did them at Marshall Studios. And then after that, we just sit down in the studio, track everything, and then we'll just keep going back and back through the songs until, again, get them little, like, nitpicky bits right that that that are annoying, you know, bits that just annoy you, like an… Like one note or, like, one bending note on a guitar or something like that. So we'll just keep going back and back and back over each song until we're all like, I can't find anything else that I'd want to change with this. But we also have a lot of other people from our house that aren't in the band work on work on the songs as well. Like, we have a lot of people from America who work on the the strings and the orchestra and stuff like that. So it's a big job, man. It's a very big job, and and me as me as a singer probably spend the least amount of time on the album as anyone else in the band, do you know what I mean, doing what I do because so much vibrations is put onto the guitars, the guitar licks, and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's it's intense, man, and it's stressful, but it's always worth it when you come to the end product. Like, you listen to it, and I I always think, like, I would go through what I've been through times two to get this same product. So it's all about what you're willing to put in as well. You have to wait your your ass off, dude, but it's well worth it, and it's the most it's the most fun job in the world. And speaking of fun,

18:55 Derek Oswald to go on the flip side, we talked about the challenges. What have been the most rewarding moments so far for you as a band? The fact that we have a fan base for me, dude, is…

19:07 Matt Flood We're, like, nearly five years into this band, and I'm still not… I've still, like, not come to terms with how well we're doing. I don't know if it's impostor syndrome or something like that, but the fact I've talked to fans and they've traveled, like, from different countries to come and see us play. And to me, that is absolutely mind blowing. Do you know what I mean? Like crazy. Because when I was a kid, I would listen to bands and blink and stuff like that, but I never imagined going to a different country to go and see them play. So the fact that people do that for us, but we're not we're not bleak when it too, man. Do know what I mean? Like, we're still a new band. The fact people do that for us is like mind blowing, dude. Absolutely mind blowing. And it's it's namely that that make that makes it all worth it, the stressy days, the long drives, the long hours, just to see what you've made, the music you've made, to see how it makes other people feel is one of the main reasons why why I want to be in the music industry for the rest of my life. Do you know what I mean? I want to make them feel with my music how I felt with the music I was listening to when I was growing up. So that's the most rewarding thing, dude. Also, to be able to travel the world to sing songs. Do you know what I mean? We've traveled to sing songs. I travel somewhere else to sing songs. It's absolute madness, dude. It's madness. And the fact that we're here doing it now, and have been for quite a few years, I always have to take a step back and try and look at the whole picture and see how far we've come because it's easy to it's easy to forget. You know what I mean? The fact that you're being noticed over in America, and you're about to actually go on a big American tour too. I mean, how do you feel about that? Imposter syndrome again. That is a completely new kettle of fish, this tour. And when I heard we got it, like, I thought our manager Connor was taking the bait. He's like, put you here for a big tour. And he's like, it's for the Bless the Fall Anniversary Tour. I'm like, sure, oh, man. Come on. We're never gonna get on that. We're never gonna get on that. And then we got main support for Bless the Fall, a band I've been listening to since I since I was a kid. Do you know what I mean? So it's nuts, dude. It's nuts to know that I'm gonna get to spend time with with a band that I genuinely love, as well as getting to meet other bands that we're toying with that are doing so well as well and awesomely talented. But I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world. I mean, there's millions and millions of people that would want to be where I am right now. I always try to not forget that. Obviously, never wanna take it for granted or anything like that. So I just try to be as holy as I can. I'm like, well, bless the fall. Come on. Exactly.

21:46 Derek Oswald Nuts. It's nuts. It's absolutely nuts. And you guys should be very proud of yourselves because that is a really big opportunity. It's not just performing with a band that you listen to growing up. You're going to a tour, which is an anniversary tour for them, and that's a whole other beast. Yeah. You know, when a band does an anniversary tour, that's a big deal. That means they're celebrating something that made them big, and

22:10 Matt Flood they're bringing you along on that. That's pretty fucking awesome. Yeah, man. For us to be a part of it is crazy. Like, I don't… I feel like we should be the first band on. I'm not gonna lie Because Kingdom of Giants and Drag Dundra are two awesome bands awesome bands. And I just feel… I guess I just feel like… Because I dreamt of this for so long when I was a kid. And then from like 20 till '25, '26, I just… I completely stopped doing music completely. So I never… So I I come to terms with the fact that it would never happen. Do know what I mean? And now I've just turned… I'm just turned 31, and it's starting to happen. It's still hard to believe it's real. I'm not gonna lie. We've already done a seven week tour in America last year with Dayseeker, which was insane. And now we get to go back a year later on a Bless the Fall Anniversary Tour. Yeah. I just I just don't feel like it's real, dude, to be fair. I'm not gonna lie. Let's talk about your new single, More Than Misery. How did this collaboration come about, and what impact did it have on the song? Me and Tel have talked to each other for quite a while through Twitter now. That's how we we know each other, I guess. We've never met in person actually yet. Not yet. And, yeah, we knew that there was… We actually wanted to get some features on a few of… A few songs on the album, but after going through it, we didn't feel any of the other ones warranted a feature. And I knew I knew that I wanted… I knew that we needed a screamer, but I didn't want to get, like, some proper death call screamer or anything like that. I wanted someone with one of those nice shout shouty screams, I call it. The fact that Tally doesn't really do a lot of screaming anymore, well, hasn't for a while, I thought it'd be an awesome opportunity. So we just hit him up and asked him. I was like, yeah, we want… We've got this feature that we want you on, but we want you to do mainly screaming and stuff like that, and he took it. He was like, 100% definitely. We got the stems back from the part of his feature, like, so quick. The guy's an animal. I knew, like, what type of scream I wanted I wanted there. I mean, Benjie knew what we wanted, and he… The first the first thing we heard, he'd out with it, and it was, like, exactly what we wanted. And I I loved it more for the fact that, like, this guy does… Not not many people have have had this guy scream loads, like, for quite a long time. So I thought people would love that, and and they have. But, also, us collabing obviously opens us up to new fans, it opens up to new fans. Wall of yours, obviously. So that… That's a cool aspect to it. But the fact that, again, we got Tel Smith from the word alive on one of our songs on our new album is mind boggling, absolutely mind boggling. So we've definitely decided that when we come to America, we're gonna we're gonna get him out to some shows and get him up to do the song with us. What is a song that hasn't been released yet that you would love to talk about and that you would love for the fans to hear? So it it… It's got to be Silhouettes, and that song's the song we spent the most time on, I think, which is weird because it's it's the it's the slow song of the album. But… Yeah. So Craig basically wrote a demo, and it was just like like midi beats or… We like Southern Met atmospheric chords and atmospheric fills in it and stuff like that. And it's turned into, like, what it is. So so it was like a minute of just the same thing over and over again. And I, like, dissected it into, like, four or five verses, but with four or five completely different melodies to to to each verse. So there was no, like, structure to it or anything like that. It was just verse, verse, verse, verse, verse. And Dan, like the goddess, had the potential in it. And we just worked around it, man. Like, we took the beats out and changed it for real drums, put some piano in there, some large guitar. And it's turned into the best track on the album, in my opinion. But it's just mad how much how much that song changed from its demo period to the finish period, because one of those verses actually is is made it as the chorus. When I was writing the vocals and all that, I didn't hear any of them as a chorus. So I was so surprised when we tried it, and it worked so well. And, yeah, it was just weird also because Craig's not normally the guy that comes out with the MIDI beat demos, so it was a massive shock. And from, like I said, from it being just sort of random chords and and a beat to what it is now, it's just insane how much it's changed, but how much how much it's been improved. So yeah, we spent a lot of time on that track making sure it was right, because it's so it's a nice open slow song, so there's so much space to to utilize and and stuff like that, and then we was again going back to it, changing things, going back to it, changing things. So yeah, and I think that song is probably the most… One of the top two most like emotional tracks on the album, And I think I like… I'm… You know, I used to love acoustic music so far. I love really emotional music, piano music, acoustic, whatever. So I hope it's not decided yet, but I hope it gets released as a single, but we'll have to see. I really hope that after the album's out, you guys

27:34 Derek Oswald release the demo because one of my favorite things, especially like you're saying, is when a band releases a demo of a song and the fan base is completely used to it sounding one way, And then the demo comes out, and it's completely

27:49 Matt Flood different than what it actually ended up being. I've got a few ideas. Like, I wanna… After the album's out, I wanna, like, do a… Not an unplugged album, but, like, a stripped back version of probably, like, eight songs, but four album one, four half album two kind of thing. I think that'd be a cool thing to do. But, yeah, I think that'd be cool as well to, like, do a, like, an EP of of demos from what they were to what they are, that's gonna need a lot of audition putting on their money.

28:18 Derek Oswald I know I'd love it, and I'm sure your fans would love it as well. You said something while talking about silhouettes that I thought was interesting. You said about how it is likely the most emotional song on the album. Yeah. If you had to look over all the songs you've written through your career, whether it's songs on these two albums or even maybe stuff you wrote earlier on, what would you say if you had to think about it is probably the most emotional song you've ever written? It would be…

28:47 Matt Flood It's what… It's one of three. It would either be hopes and dreams because I I wrote hopes and dreams, like, seven years ago, something like that. And I always sat on it because I wasn't in a band or anything or anything like that. I always sat on it. But that's about, you know, someone being there if if everything falls apart around you and stuff like that. So there's that. Either that, the final say, which is about a father and son's relationship, which is quite dark, that one. But there's a demo that didn't make it onto this album, but it's it's simply just me and Tiano. Let me just get it. I can't remember what I called it. But it's just… It's like really monotone, like, lagging almost type of piano music. It would work really well for a feud or something like that. It really would. But I think that's why I didn't make the album because it wouldn't have fit in… Into what the rest of the album holds sound wise. So I'm umming and ahhing what what to do with it at the minute, but, like, the first lines of… The first lines are, is this a dream? Time stood still. Breathing with ease feels like I've killed this whole dew field I I could file… I'm finally free. You levitate away from me. Some some… Something like that. But it's real… It's really sad, man. So I hope everyone gets to hear it one day. One of the things I'd love to ask is, what has been the funniest

30:15 Derek Oswald experience that you've had in the band so far?

30:19 Matt Flood What is the funniest story you can tell me? Oh my god. There's a lot of stories I can't tell you that are very funny. Trying to think. So last year, we we was in America touring in America. We took a bandwagon, but we didn't hire a driver. It was us in holding absence. So a few of the members, like like, took it in turns to drive the bandwagon, but no one had ever driven a vehicle that big before, and it also had a massive trailer on the back. So for the first, like, week, it was an ongoing thing where everyone would just get out of the van and just whoever was driving would just watch them try and reverse this, like, huge truck with a trailer to the tightest parking spaces ever, dude, and it got bad. It got bad. But yeah, man, like, in fact, in fact, I've got something funny to say. When we played Download the other week, one of my old housemates was there and chucked like a beach ball onto the stage. And Benjie picked the ball and fell, like, went to kick it, and absolutely flew right onto his back. He was just like, woah. I like, that's a massive stage playing playing download in front of like 3,000 people or something, and he decked it hard. But also, there's another one on video where he like, he he falls like, he falls out of the stage sideways. It's so funny to see. I don't know why he falls, but he like falls back off stage, and then you see him come shawling on back again. That's got this missing frame mark on his head. I forgot about that.

31:50 Derek Oswald And this is the same guy falling

31:52 Matt Flood both times? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. His feet are useless.

31:55 Derek Oswald I think maybe what he should do for now on is maybe just sit down when he's playing, maybe be in a wheelchair because I agree. It sounds like the way he's going, he's gonna be in a wheelchair anyway.

32:06 Matt Flood Dude, I'm sure I'm sure he wears shoes a size two big for him anyway. Like, just them gripping flippers is gone and loose feet. Falling over all time. Bless him. Bless his heart.

32:18 Derek Oswald But I just wanted to close out by saying definitely really excited to hear your new album. You guys are absolutely awesome. Thank you, Matt. Loved you since I heard you guys on Spotify. I'm so thankful you had the opportunity to speak with me today. Of course, man. And just to close out, is there anything else that you would like to share with your fans who are listening in?

32:38 Matt Flood We have our album coming out August 11. Put it in your put it in your diaries. Put it in your calendar. I am actually going to be doing a few acoustic versions of our songs, so my plan is to to go live on Instagram probably within the few weeks just before we go on tour, because I've not done it in a while. So, yeah, I'm gonna be putting that out on my socials probably within the next few days. I need to get that sorted. And, yeah, hopefully, you can join us either in Australia or at America. AltWire.

33:07 Derek Oswald That'd be cool. Excellent. Well, hey. Thank you again so much for joining us. I do greatly appreciate your time. I appreciate your time too, Matt. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of this episode. I wanna thank you for listening to the AltWire podcast. If you like what you heard, please feel free to give us a review on your DSP of choice, and stay tuned for more episodes as they become available. My name is Derek Oswald, and I thank you for listening to the AltWire podcast.