EmbracerStormcom. And so today I’ve got an exciting episode for you. I’m speaking with Frank Polangi, and he is a rock guitar artist. He’s a soloist, and so, Frank, thanks for coming on tonight.
0:00:36 – Speaker 2
Thanks, man, what’s going on?
0:00:38 – Speaker 1
Not too much. Everything’s going pretty well over here. So, Frank, before we get too far into it, I did mention that you’re a rock guitarist. So, Frank, before we get too far into it, I did mention that you’re a rock guitarist, but you are also into film. So if you wouldn’t mind telling the audience, maybe? Like, how did you get introduced into wanting to create all this crazy stuff?
0:00:56 – Speaker 2
When I was really young there was a movie called the Crow that came out and he played guitar and a couple of scenes on a rooftop and I was like that’s really cool, I go go, I gotta get me one of those. What is that, you know? And I love the music that was in that movie, anyways. And um, that movie started everything, man Brandon Lee that’s really funny.
0:01:18 – Speaker 1
So was it that movie that made you want to make films but also play like guitar?
0:01:24 – Speaker 2
yeah, I mean I was influenced from halloween and terminator and a few other films, or I was like I, I would love to make something like that someday. And then that kind of was just like, all right, all right, we could, because I have made a crow fan film. And I was like, well, you know, we can. Uh, you know, we can start from there and see where it goes.
0:01:45 – Speaker 1
That’s cool and I was saying to you before I was like it’s so interesting to hear you be influenced by film to play a musical instrument. It was like that You’re the first person I’ve come across that where the story has been like that. So that’s so cool to kind of hear how you know people are affected by different things in different ways.
0:02:04 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I’ve, it’s funny and I’ve never thought of that until you mentioned it. Or somebody was influenced from a movie to pick up a guitar. That wasn’t necessarily like a music movie, you know yeah, right, exactly like I could see.
0:02:16 – Speaker 1
Maybe the movie was about some guitarist or whatever, but that wasn’t the case with this, which I guess, again, is why it’s even more interesting, because it just stuck out to you like that moment in time with that particular person. I guess the Crow was your James Hetfield or something. You know what I mean?
0:02:32 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah definitely, I think, the Crow, the movie Trick or Treat, which Ozzie and Gene Simmons had a cameo in, from the 80s. That character played guitar and was a metal singer and stuff. And then, um, uh, that show on Netflix there where the guy plays master puppets ends up getting killed yeah. I’m sure that is maybe the same thing. It was probably a kid out there that watched that. I have to play guitar now.
0:02:59 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, that’s true, dude, that’s very true, that’s it, that’s so interesting. So then did you end up like uh, cause we were talking before, and so did you end up getting into films first or music first, like how did, how did that unfold for you?
0:03:18 – Speaker 2
It was always movies first I started off with, like the VHS cameras.
0:03:22 – Speaker 1
I remember those dude my mom had. Oh yeah.
0:03:24 – Speaker 2
There were there like the vhs cameras I remember those dude, my mom, oh yeah, they were huge too, but they had like an overdub button, yeah. So I was like, okay, I could take. So I took a cd player, like a boot box there and I was like all right, I am gonna press record and record over my audio and I’ll do the sound effects and I’ll do all the voice stuff. Funny man that.
0:03:41 – Speaker 1
So funny man. That is so funny because I have to interject this, because I thought I was a genius back in the day when I was like 12 or 13 or whatever, but what you did is just as hilarious. So, like my mom had you know that old VHS cam recorder thing, right?
0:04:01 – Speaker 2
Yep.
0:04:02 – Speaker 1
So this one was from the 80s. So on this one it had like this, you know little styrofoam microphone that extended kind of out above the lens right that would get the audio.
So what I did is I took a walkman that had like the, the, like really cheap, like plastic headphones right, and I busted off the ear things on each side of the headphones and I took scotch tape and I taped the headphones around the microphone and then I, and then I took my walkman and I put in like beastie boys, check your head. And then I recorded everyone at this skating park, you know, doing all kinds of tricks and stuff. I thought I was a genius but dude, you did like that very same thing.
0:04:47 – Speaker 2
Like that’s awesome pretty much I could picture that in my head.
0:04:52 – Speaker 1
That’s cool no, dude, totally like yeah, like that is so awesome, like just to even um tell you about like the uh my uncle had, like this had to be like the first like vhs camera recorder because it had this separate and basically it had almost like a small vcr like it. Like you had to put the vcr, the vhs tape and that thing oh, it was like this separate unit.
So he had to put that on a strap around his shoulder and then the camera was attached to that through a wire yeah, yeah, I know what that is, yep so that that was like a wicked old school setup my uncle had like the early 80s or whatever.
But um, yeah, like, uh. So like how did like what was your first kind of like film, that film that you did as a? How old were you? And like, did you write up the screenplay and all kinds of stuff? Or did you just kind of hit record and be like, yeah, let’s do this?
0:05:52 – Speaker 2
I reenacted the whole Crow movie myself in front of the camera and I like fell down the stairs and flew out the window and that kind of stuff.
0:05:59 – Speaker 1
No kidding, no kidding.
0:06:01 – Speaker 2
I got my cousin to do Terminator 1, a couple scenes from that and I think where he walks in and he steals the gun, he ends up. I can’t remember something. The guy that was I think it was. He was in a bunch of movies in like a thousand movies. This guy that was in that Terminator scene, but yeah, it was that and Halloweeneen.
0:06:25 – Speaker 1
You know, halloween friday 13th man, so did you. You don’t have any of those by any chance to you.
0:06:32 – Speaker 2
That’d be awesome if you did I do um some of them some of them have been converted to digital files. We had um. We had a house fire like two years ago, so I I lost a lot of stuff, but I still have the majority of maybe a few of those, and then the ones that we made on um.
They were like mini dvd discs oh, I remember those those are the ones we started doing for youtube, which so I was like one of the um godfather fan filmmakers, because there was only maybe 10-15 of us when YouTube came out that were doing these fan films and I was like let’s make these and upload them so people can watch them.
0:07:17 – Speaker 1
You’re pretty young when that happened, because you’re 10 years younger than me. You’re pretty forward thinking. How did you even stumble into youtube and what made you like that’s interesting I don’t remember, to be honest, I have no idea.
0:07:32 – Speaker 2
I remember had an editing program and I was like we should do this. I go, I can put in the music, uh, edit it in the computer, you know, so we can get our audio and we can do some sound effects and whatever. And it was still still very basic, but it, um, they’re still on YouTube if you go, like some of the early ones they’re not that good, but no, no, but I mean that’s pretty cool.
0:07:55 – Speaker 1
Like I said, that’s your, that’s ahead of your time, man, Like that’s pretty impressive.
0:07:59 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I, I had watched. Uh, there was a guy Blinky productions and I watched his fan film of he had like everybody in it. He had Pinhead, freddy, I think, leatherface and Michael in one fan film. I was like that looks good, like I want to be inspired to make something like that. That looks good. So I was always for me. I felt like I was behind the ball so I was like all right, let’s keep making stuff, maybe I’ll get a better camera someday. And then I could actually look like this and feel, you know, official so okay.
0:08:32 – Speaker 1
So while you’re doing this stuff, were you practicing like an instrument at the same time?
0:08:37 – Speaker 2
oh yeah, I’d come home from school and play three hours a day that’s so interesting.
0:08:44 – Speaker 1
So like what was your first guitar then?
0:08:48 – Speaker 2
um, it was a jackson. Well, actually it was an ames acoustic guitar and my mom was like, well, if you like that, we’ll, we’ll get you something else. And I, I bought in a black, of course, a black, uh, jackson guitar nice.
0:09:03 – Speaker 1
So. So then, what, like what were some of the bands that you got that you were into that made you want to start playing guitar?
0:09:09 – Speaker 2
you know it was. It was blink 182. Good, charlotte, it was like punk rock stuff, green day, okay, um, I didn’t really listen to that stuff a lot. Just, some of the kids in school were like you got to learn, you know this style of music and you know it’s hip and whatever. And I was like all right, I learned it. I was like you know this style of music and you know it’s hip and whatever, and I was like, all right, I learned it. I was like you know, this is all just power chords and then yeah, exactly somebody came up to me and goes, try this.
It was a burn cd of enter sandman, the black album, and then ozzy’s like blizzard of oz. I listen to that. I go. This is guitar playing. I don’t know what this is, man, but this is it right here. This is what playing. I go. I don’t know what this is, man, but this is it right here.
0:09:47 – Speaker 1
This is what you got to learn.
0:09:48 – Speaker 2
So that’s where James Hatfield Metallica came from.
0:09:53 – Speaker 1
That’s, that’s pretty funny. So would you say you, you lean towards metal playing.
0:10:01 – Speaker 2
Now then, oh yeah, Always. I I’ve you know, strayed away from it a little bit, but not much you know what I struggled with.
0:10:08 – Speaker 1
Uh, like I said, I’m a little bit older than you but when I was I was getting older. I was, like you know, like I do, I I think I need to like round out my like guitar player or whatever. Like you know, I can’t just be a like metal guitarist or what you know and like I tried.
I mean I have you know I can kind of play other stuff other than metal myself, but at the end of the day I’m like you know what, I’m a metal guitarist man. I just need to like get over it well, it’s good to play other genres.
0:10:40 – Speaker 2
You know you because I teach guitar too and you learn different techniques and you take those techniques and you make them into metal.
0:10:47 – Speaker 1
Totally.
0:11:00 – Speaker 2
Yeah it’s, it’s rock. It’s not necessarily metal right but some of those techniques and stuff definitely helped me, um within the last couple years, kind of rethink how to play guitar, in a way no, I get that.
0:11:14 – Speaker 1
I mean speaking of speaking of, like rethinking of how to play guitar. What do you think of tim henson and how he plays?
0:11:21 – Speaker 2
who’s that?
0:11:22 – Speaker 1
okay, yeah, you gotta check out this guy. The band is called polyphia. It’s like p-h-o-l. No, it’s like p-o-l-i-p-h-i-a okay his name is tim henson. He’s not a metal guitar player, but I mean other people are starting to play like he does, but I think this guy is like the originator of like he’s just got this interesting technique and like, like I said, I wouldn’t call it metal, but it’s like ridiculous technical playing okay, yeah, prague-ish sort of kind of yeah, but he, he can.
But yeah, with like interesting time signatures and stuff. But like he could have it sound a lot almost like an r&b song, though sometimes like just like a fat boom and bass with just like okay r&b kind of drum beat, but he like shreds, that’s you know it’s interesting, like I I’m not really doing him uh any good service, but he definitely. I’m a little surprised I’ve heard of him so yeah, I haven’t yet.
0:12:23 – Speaker 2
No, I could definitely check them out. Maybe I’ll interview him someday. Yeah, no, he’s, he’s.
0:12:28 – Speaker 1
He’s so interesting like he’s. And I know the interesting guitar player is um winnie. Are you familiar with him at all? It’s like winnie l p l I n n I or p l I n I okay and he’s, uh, he’s from australia and he he never had guitar lessons ever but he’s like this ridiculous guitar player. But because he never like took lessons or understood how notes like worked, he’s got just another interesting approach to playing guitar yeah, I could imagine yeah, do you are, you must. Are you familiar with toast and Abasi?
0:13:04 – Speaker 2
no, are these?
0:13:05 – Speaker 1
all new people what’s?
0:13:07 – Speaker 2
that are these all newbies.
0:13:10 – Speaker 1
I mean. Tosin’s been around since the early 2000s at least. He strictly plays like 8 string guitars. He’s ridiculous. He’s like a metal musician. His band animals as leaders.
0:13:26 – Speaker 2
It’s all like instrumental stuff, but they do like very interesting you know signatures and stuff like that too it’s funny because I’ve always been into bands but I’m not like um, I’m not a guitarist guy. Like I don’t talk about guitarists and like, oh, this guy’s great and this, this guy was like a legend and all that. I’m more of like um, yeah, I listen to like metallica and then you talk about guitarists and like, oh, this guy’s great and this guy was like a legend and all that. I’m more of like. Yeah, I listen to like Metallica and then you talk about the way they play and I’ll follow the bands.
I like I’ll follow everything that they’ve released too, and I kind of stick with a smaller group of stuff that has influenced me. But then, you know, like my radio show, there’s a lot of newer bands coming up that I would have never heard, and so I’m starting to listen to their stuff a little bit more too. I haven’t learned any of it on guitar, but it’s. It’s interesting, cause I was like, well, you know, you got a like a Slipknot style and I, I can, got a like a slipknot style and I, I can, and I instantly say these things and he’s like dude, you know, that’s, that’s 100. You know what I mean? It’s, that’s, that’s our background.
0:14:30 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, no, uh, that must be cool. Speaking of your radio show, like how long you’ve been doing that and like where, where could people find you at that? And like how’d you kind of get get dive into that? Because honestly, that’s like another kind of part of like. You know, people can get into music without like having to play an instrument.
Oh yeah, there’s so many different things you can do, like kind of doing your own radio. You know, dj show is certainly one of them. So like how did you kind of, you know, get started with that?
0:15:02 – Speaker 2
There’s a network called Radio Wigwam. They’re over in the uk and I had one 2018 artist of the year award and they sent me like this you know, almost like emmy looking plaque thing which is which is awesome, and a couple years later they just contact me and they go. You know, our rock dj actually passed away and we have an opening and we think you’d be great for it, because I was interviewing people for NYS music here in New York. Just video stuff.
And he goes, I think you’d be great for it. He goes, you know, it’s once a week and yada, yada. And so I was like, oh, you know. So we just had the house fire and literally, you know, I was doing the Berklee rock guitar stuff, but I had nothing, nothing to do. So I was like, literally, you know, I was doing the berkeley rock guitar stuff, but I had nothing, nothing to do. So I was like you know, why not I go? I can still be involved and talk to people and maybe I can start to interview people that I, you know, know or aspire to. You know, you know, get better in my playing and whatever and and that. And that’s basically what I started. So it’s on radio wigwams plungy studio of rock. It’s every Tuesday night, uh, 9 PM Eastern time, and about two years I’ve been doing that.
And then um, earlier I don’t know what day this is, folks, that you’re going to be listening to it, but earlier today, currently I I hosted Ozzy’s Boneyard on SiriusXM for the Ultimate Sinner show, so that was really fun, that’s pretty cool, so how did you fall into that? Just blind luck man, no kidding, yeah, just shot in the dark Literally like the song. It was cool, so what did you?
0:16:42 – Speaker 1
do? Did you email him being like, hey, do you need a DJ or whatever?
0:16:47 – Speaker 2
I just, yeah, yeah, I emailed them. I actually did the show the way I would do it and I just kind of emailed them that and if they liked it, I figured you know they would have me on. Of course I would need to do it live and redo it, but right. I just approached it that way, like this is the gig, I’m gonna do it as if this is the gig, you know that’s cool.
0:17:11 – Speaker 1
So, yeah, that’s actually really cool and funny because, like, I’ve interviewed quite a few like kind of like interesting people I’ve been doing podcasts since 2009 and like people would be like, how’d you even get them to do an interview and be like I emailed them I’d ask them yeah, that’s right.
0:17:29 – Speaker 2
Sometimes it’s that easy yeah, it is sometimes, and they’re like well, some people too, you catch them on the right time, you know yeah, no, totally he never does interviews well, maybe he’s bored that week like so are you hoping like you don’t know if you have this permanent gig that right now do you? Oh no, it’s just a one-off guest thing.
0:17:53 – Speaker 1
Oh, okay, that’s still freaking awesome though.
0:17:56 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I was like this is like a bucket list thing. This is awesome. You know, I don’t know. I would love to come back yeah, I don’t know, even if it’s once a year to do that and see what else is going on. But that’s.
0:18:07 – Speaker 1
That’s pretty cool. So, with, with. Uh, what what kind of stuff do you play in your current radio show that you do?
0:18:15 – Speaker 2
Anything from rock to metal. Yeah, it ranges, and it could be like seventies to now.
0:18:20 – Speaker 1
Okay, yep, okay, yep.
0:18:27 – Speaker 2
That’s like calling, like requests and stuff, or do you just set up the whole show? Yeah, I just do it usually.
Yeah, my show is pre-recorded, so I I easily just sometimes I play a full record too, because nobody listens to a full record top to bottom anymore and I’ll do that once in a while because that’s how, that’s still how I listen to music and uh, yeah, it just depends, every week something different, or I have interviews and I’ll just play like two of their songs so when, um, I just had a question I was wanting to ask you and I, of course, I lost it.
0:19:00 – Speaker 1
Um, oh, have you put out like anything recently, like for like, like, musically like? What yeah, you’ve released. Musically has it always been like like metal stuff hard rock pretty much.
0:19:16 – Speaker 2
There’s some soundtrack stuff like I redid, the halloween movie theme, uh, escape from new york and termin, which goes back to my film background. The Halloween one has been used in a couple fan films out there, that’s cool. I have five EPs plus a couple side singles, so over the course from 2011 to now, that’s what I had out and the last single was called Dynamite.
It came out in October and that was the first one we did. It came out in October. That was the first one we did. The secondary FM rock charts I had all those years. I don’t know if I can say it, but I just never done it. Let’s say for continuity’s sake, I’ve been on internet radio, I’ve been on, I have been on fm radio and local stations and and stuff in other states. But this is different. This is trying to to chart so curtain call records. I talked to them and um most added we debuted at number six for the first week and then there was like greatest gainers, which I was, I think, 10 out of 10. It was like me and um daughtry’s artificial song going back and forth.
You know it’s not the mainstream fm charts, there’s like a secondary chart okay you know, I was like that’s, I don’t care, that’s good enough for me, you, that sort of thing. So we lasted like five weeks on that and I was just like I just need something like that for credit finally for my songs and just to get them out there a little bit more and see, because he goes. This was kind of a gamble. He goes because these songs, your song, is not mixed like other songs of today and it’s not really in the same, I guess, metal genre, because there’s no, there’s no, it doesn’t sound like a pop song, basically because there’s so many rock bands that are going like pop, metal and stuff and they’re putting those dubstep beats in the verses. And so I didn’t do, I don’t do any of that. So he’s like it’s kind of like a sink or swim thing. So, frankly, it worked out that’s cool.
0:21:29 – Speaker 1
Have you ever heard of the band killgore smudge? Or just they go by?
well, not, not a band anymore, but they went by killgore by the end okay but you know, you never heard of them no okay, because I haven’t listened to any of your uh, your stuff yet, but I have a feeling it falls under kind of like the same genre as this band and in this band Killgore Smudge is like that’s like my favorite band in the world and then I would calling them the heavy metal band. Is it’s not a stretch? I mean they’re, they’re a heavy metal band, but it’s like they tour the. They toured before they broke up.
they they opened up for fear factory and fear factory and slam, oh yeah yeah and like they didn’t really belong on the bill but like yeah, you know what I mean, but like, I’ve done.
0:22:20 – Speaker 2
That too, I’ve done. I’ve opened acoustic for I Power man one time if you can imagine that.
0:22:30 – Speaker 1
That’s funny.
0:22:31 – Speaker 2
That’s funny.
0:22:31 – Speaker 1
So you’re a heavy metal dude, but you’ll play Acoustic.
0:22:34 – Speaker 2
Yeah, whatever works, because originally a few of the gigs we had booked and it was a band gig, but then all of a sudden I lost my drummer or something and I go, I still got to play it. So what the heck am I going to do? So I just made it the heaviest acoustic set I could do.
0:22:51 – Speaker 1
That’s funny. That’s really funny, so a question I thought of asking is like, while you’re making these films, when you’re kind of younger 16, 18, 20, 24 or whatever you’re playing guitar and stuff, you’re in bands and all that, what’s kind of like the driving force that makes you keep going.
0:23:08 – Speaker 2
I was never completely satisfied, I think, and it was always where I haven’t gotten here yet I haven’t reached it, I haven’t reached it. I still haven’t reached it in my mind of where I would either see my music or my films or anything like that, like I love, like I’ve acted as an extra in a few, like theatrical films. I’ve been into some new york commercials and stuff.
I was this year I was actually in a super bowl commercial for an insurance company that’s cool at the end and you know that that stuff’s good, you know it’s fine and all and all that. But you have more of an artistic vision for you know the other things, you know the put it this way like movies. I’ve made fan films for, let’s say, 20 years. I made maybe a few little shorts of original stuff, but for me, after I guess 30 years it’s, it’s my first shot of original material.
So I have to start to get better. You know I have to start to work on my stuff, so it’s um, and you know, these movies, they, they. There’s no budget. You know what I mean. So I’m like, well, maybe the next one I’ll have a budget and we can, because budgets do matter. They, they enable you to do so much more.
You know, you figure locations, you got costumes and props and just the gas to be like oh, you know, I want to drive two hours away and film at this awesome location and stuff, but you know, so you know, hopefully it just pays for gas. Yeah, yeah.
0:24:44 – Speaker 1
Yeah, you know what, honestly, I ran a film festival for a few years and I’ve done a lot of podcast interviews with filmmakers and yeah, there’s a lot of things like that that people you know maybe the average person has taken into consideration, like all the work that goes into making a film. I’ve said this before Film people are a special kind of crazy.
0:25:09 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:25:10 – Speaker 1
Like you’ve got to be a special kind of crazy in order to like get a film made and produced and done.
0:25:16 – Speaker 2
You’ve got to be driven, you’ve got to be kind of fast, you have to be a little bit pushy in a nice way, and you, I’m a one-man show a lot of times. So it’s. You know, some of the same friends that have been making fan films with me for like 20 years helped me out, and you know, I don’t really have a set crew, I don’t really have people that, um really, you know, are crafted in lighting or that sort of thing.
0:25:42 – Speaker 1
Yeah.
0:25:43 – Speaker 2
So I’m like I know all of it because of all the experience that I’ve had. I’m like I know I can get better at it and I know I can’t do everything, but it is all up to me as of right now. So you know I’m directing and I’m handling the script and I’m handling the lighting, I’m playing the character, I’m playing the killer in it. You know you’re doing all this editing the music. But it comes in handy because as I shoot it I could say you know what in post, you know that will work or that doesn’t work, or I can shoot this and then go back see, edit it, see how it is, and we could go back and shoot a pickup shot for that or so you know. It definitely helps because if you have somebody like an editor that’s like well, I’m just going to edit the footage together and it’s and it’s based off the script, it is what it is right. Where I edit as I go along and the movie changes, I let it develop into whatever it wants to be.
0:26:41 – Speaker 1
That’s interesting. So it’s like you you do. You develop your own little processing process over the years. You’ve ever been a one-man show where you know like, normally, yeah, you might have a guy do this for you or you know whatever, but it’s like I’m doing all this myself. So I need to figure out what’s the best workflow for me.
0:27:01 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, and it’s like sometimes you don’t really even know how the movie is gonna end or turn out or or thing. What you wrote just changes. You know, I’m I’ve realized that you never get really stuck on a certain thing and have to make it work.
It’s like there’s always something alternative or better, or it just doesn’t work out that way, like you’re saying, if your original sort of thought doesn’t work out, you’re saying yeah, because you might have a location go down, you might have an actor that’s sick or backs out or just can’t do it on the day, because this is all based off our free time too right, and like right now I’m a little bit of a crunch to to get, um, some of the filming done for the third movie and I’ve got mostly everything, but you know, time ticks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:27:54 – Speaker 1
You were saying before, you do have some films kind of on various platforms, right?
0:27:59 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, they’re on Tubi and Troma TV. I think you can rent it on Amazon and. I think, one of them’s on Apple TV. One of them’s free on YouTube. Lost Chronicles is free on YouTube If you watch the whole movie.
0:28:12 – Speaker 1
Okay.
0:28:14 – Speaker 2
The second one. So they’re anthology movies, because that’s the only way I could do it when? So the first one was like seven different stories in it, cause I’m like, well, I can film one day with this person and get everything done, use that as a story, yeah, move on and film with somebody else. And so that’s how I did those two movies.
0:28:35 – Speaker 1
That’s really cool. Again, you kind of used you know what people would think as a negative thing or a hindrance and you kind of leveraged it and turned it into, you know, a good thing. That’s actually pretty cool.
0:28:47 – Speaker 2
Yeah, the only thing is now the studio wants full movies. They don’t want to do the anthologies as much. We tried them because I don’t really know if they had worked, because other people that were making movies for him tried it too. And he’s like we like the one idea type thing.
So, I’m trying to make this one into one movie, but what it is is, this character has these nightmares and stuff of him or his friends and stuff. So in a way, right, there is one storyline, but in a way a nightmare can be anything so I could have a little mini movie in that nightmare. That has really nothing to do with the movie you know, you’re totally right.
0:29:30 – Speaker 1
I like that idea. That’s actually interesting yeah, it’s um, I mean it’s a little inspired by, like, maybe, nightmare on elm street, but um, it’s a way you’re gonna say you’re gonna break up and, like you know, have like seven or eight like kind of just different nightmares in the sense of like a nightmare, right. But when you started saying, hey, nightmare could be anything, and then I was like, oh, now I see where you’re going, like that’s really interesting.
So like yeah, you could be like 10 minutes into the movie and forget like sort of how it started or where you are, what’s going on, but then like get sucked back in like oh yeah, oh yeah, that’s right, we’re here yeah, like, uh it’s.
0:30:09 – Speaker 2
It’s basically a cult of witches that um are doing these experiments and tests and like curse stuff on on me and and supposedly a few other people too, to gain power and live forever or whatever. They’re. You know, whatever they want to do, so they’re they’re causing me to suffer, to have these um nightmares and stuff. So some of them are like you know, some of them could be planted in my brain. Some of them like um. I have a friend character who he’s my friend in real life quote unquote but in the nightmares he’s trying to kill me. So we went to um, an old. It was a tb center and I think like a mental institution place after that and was completely run down, abandoned.
It looks like walking dead um so we did a thing where he’s chasing after me, trying to kill me for a nightmare in that location. So you could have a nightmare like that and then the next nightmare could be, you know, flashes of him as some creature or you know the sky’s the limit.
0:31:20 – Speaker 1
You know what I mean yeah, or it could be you on the beach like nightmare l street, and then freddy’s glove came out like a shark yeah, exactly, I was actually thinking of adding a scene of um establishing the friendship, like what would happen before the movie.
0:31:37 – Speaker 2
you know, it’s like we were friends before the movie, but then it ends with something like that, where it’s everything’s nice but at the end, you know he pulls out a knife or something that’s cool, that’s really you know what I’ll throw? I’ll throw.
0:32:03 – Speaker 1
I was going to save a conversation for maybe after the podcast, but I’ll throw it in here now just to see, like what, what you, what you kind of think, because I thought of this a few years ago and I don’t I don’t have the, the, whatever it takes to execute this idea. But hear this out take a 360 camera and you’re going to record a movie with that in mind. Because what’s going to happen is, when you’re recording the, the film, that with the 360 camera, you’re obviously capturing everything all around. So the idea is, while you have certain things going on in the movie in one part of the 360, have something else going on in the opposite direction, because when the person’s watching back the film in 360, they’re only going to see the direction they’re looking in when they’re watching the film yeah so you could be like you could make people have to watch a film like 50 times to be like what the hell did I just miss?
like how did that? How do you get that? Like where did that come from?
0:33:10 – Speaker 2
yeah I need to like play this back and like look around and like, you know what I’m saying, like it like that would be an interesting way to make people watch something like over and over again if you built a set right and say one side, look like nightmare on elm street where it’s got the bedroom set and you have a nightmare going on. But, like you said, exactly across the other side, in the back of you could be a uh, I don’t know a dinner set at a restaurant and that could be another movie going on that way, dude honestly, yeah well, I don’t know how you mess with I.
0:33:46 – Speaker 1
The only thing I don’t know, how you’d mess with the only thing I don’t know that pops into my head. I’m sure it would handle this, but the audio. Maybe it only would play the audio. When you’re looking at that scene, you know what I’m saying. You’d?
0:33:56 – Speaker 2
have to do isolated surround sound. So yeah, if you’re panned center, you hear the first movie, and if you turn all the way, around the audio’s in the back right and if you turn all the way around, the audio is in the back right and so you hear it through, like the uh, the surround speakers of that scene in that movie. That would be wild. Some people probably couldn’t watch it because they don’t have surround.
0:34:18 – Speaker 1
But yeah, yeah, but I figured that that’s an interesting concept, though. Just to like, like I said, because how do you get someone to watch a movie over and over again, like in a different way, like not? Not because they’re just like. That was a great movie. You know what I mean. Like yeah, because it’s like a game mechanic, like people design games with that in mind all the time like what are we going to do to get someone to make them to do this thing over and over again?
0:34:40 – Speaker 2
yeah, I think, well, one of the things too, like the film company mentioned, um, you turn a movie into a tv show too, because that’s kind of what they do. Now he goes, you have the main movie but maybe shoot, uh, an extra hour or two, and then that’s kind of like the tv quote-unquote tv series version, but there’s other scenes that aren’t in the movie there. So if they like the movie and they watch the tv show and they maybe they learn more about one character that wasn’t in the movie, you, you know what I mean. You take, like, a character that was in, like in a scene and all of a sudden he has a whole episode, you know.
0:35:13 – Speaker 1
I hear you, huh, like. Yeah, it’s an interesting. I also another interesting way too of like, like when people, if they like the movie and they want to, you know, like you say, turn, turn into a tv, uh, a tv show. Another, another interesting way that I’ve been telling, like script writers anyways like the way to get your, your script into someone’s hand and you want them to make your film. It’s not, it’s not that very thing anymore. What you need to do is write your script into a book and you get people to read your book and your story exactly that’s what turns into a film.
Because if you look on netflix now, every other show is like oh, based off the book, this series, based off that book, based off this book. It’s like everything’s found through a book. Now it’s like does anyone even like get scripts anymore?
you know what I mean yeah, yep, yeah, that’s a good idea like, because you can also make like podcasts and episodic, like audio versions of your story. I don’t know. There’s a lot of interesting things you can do these days. You know what I mean Like. But with like, there’s so many different mediums to get a story out there. It doesn’t need to be just film, you know.
0:36:22 – Speaker 2
Yeah, like some movies are based off of songs Exactly, which is kind of cool.
0:36:31 – Speaker 1
Yeah, some movies are based off of songs exactly, which is kind of cool. Yeah, no, exactly like I don’t know. It’s pretty, it’s cool that the, the company gives you like ideas and at least they give you feedback of like.
0:36:36 – Speaker 2
Oh hey, we think the public’s kind of like looking for something like this or whatever yeah, there’s all sorts of things, too, that you can, you can do and you can’t do, sort of, because these streaming platforms flag a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, so this one, they’re finally co-producing it. Yeah, like you said, they give you advice and things to stay away from. But technically sound the technical requirements Like the first two. I honestly just made them the way I usually do and I’m like well, here’s the movie and everything’s mixed and done, but there’s these odd technical requirements that I’m.
I’m like, okay, like uh yeah, I actually wanted certain bit rates, and they want the coloring done a certain way or they want them yeah and I go I can’t do that because I just molded everything into one file and um, so I have to do it on this movie while it’s in pieces so do you mostly do horror stuff when you do films yeah, we’ve done.
I mean I’ve done like um a superman, kind of fan film or batman, um so superhero stuff, kind of punisher, kind of dark kind of stuff too how many films have you done? I don’t know we’ve made, you guys I mean they’re not on youtube, but probably a thousand on youtube I think we’ve made probably at least 100 fan films between me and my friend.
0:38:02 – Speaker 1
That’s insane, and you weren’t part of all of those.
0:38:06 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I think I’m in all of them. That’s freaking insane. Yeah, because he had gone off and made a few on his own. My friend, Aaron Lambert, and he just released a Batman fan film, and then I’ll either help him out with it, or maybe I’ll have a role, or maybe I won’t, but between the both of us, yeah, we’ve done. We’ve done a lot of um so like?
0:38:32 – Speaker 1
have you done any recently? Any fan film, films or?
0:38:36 – Speaker 2
my last one, I think, was like uh, I had done like what if there was an extra scene or something happened in every original halloween film. So they’re like six minutes, a piece of kind of like a what-if type thing. I did that for every single Halloween up to Resurrection. And then we did a Friday the 13th, part 5, kind of short sequel-ish part. We had shot some John Connor stuff, some Terminator stuff, and I only made a trailer out of it and there might be one scene that I do as like a kind of like an actor’s reel or something I could throw out there. I had the scar on my face and all that. This is cool. But no, I had a Jeepers Creepers idea Cause I’m not sure if anybody has done Jeepers Creepers and I had this mold from Canada. This guy made me and it looks a lot like the movie, and I was like I would love to do a short Jeepers Creepers fan film.
0:39:36 – Speaker 1
That’s cool. But, the original movies.
0:39:39 – Speaker 2
Take present first. You said, you were grandfathered in.
0:39:42 – Speaker 1
So could you still upload a fan film.
0:39:44 – Speaker 2
Oh yeah.
0:39:45 – Speaker 1
No kidding. Yeah, my account’s grandfathered from I don’t know 2002 or something. Dude, that is freaking rip.
0:39:55 – Speaker 2
You know what that account must be worth youtube, though I tell you so back then 2002 to 2007,. Right, you upload one of those films, you’ll get 10,000 to 40,000 views, you know, or whatever. Yeah, that’s naturally Nowadays a couple hundred. You know what I mean. Yeah, there’s so much stuff and everybody’s doing a fan film, so does it?
0:40:25 – Speaker 1
pull down fan fan films from other people though because I was saying like they don’t they? I mean they go crazy on like music and stuff, but they don’t. Is there like a, like a? What’s the word? I’m looking for? Like a, a level of artists, you know, creativity or whatever you can take with the film.
0:40:46 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean they’re actually getting real actors from like the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and stuff to be in these fan films. Yeah, friday the 13th, the same thing, and they look like real movies, or at least pretty close. You know what I mean as professional as they can get them.
0:41:03 – Speaker 1
Do a lot of independent film. People still like use YouTube as a way of delivery, like a delivery mechanism.
0:41:09 – Speaker 2
Yeah, they’re all on there. They do the crowdfundings and stuff too, and then they upload it to YouTube eventually.
0:41:17 – Speaker 1
Yeah, I did marketing for crowdfunding for quite a few years and I worked with quite a few films, helped them raise some money doing that for sure.
0:41:24 – Speaker 2
Yeah, these are fan films. Fan films are not really supposed to raise money. You’re not supposed to profit off them. I don’t know how they do it, but they. They do it on like go fund me or something where you don’t have to technically like um oh, I see what you’re saying that’s interesting yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s interesting.
0:41:43 – Speaker 1
I didn’t think of that, huh so I there’s.
0:41:47 – Speaker 2
I guess there’s a little way around it. I just do a fan film I don’t raise money for, I just do it yeah, no, I, I hear you.
0:41:55 – Speaker 1
I so like are you? You said you’re working on your third, like that dream film. Now it’s like the most current thing you’re working on. Are you doing anything musically at all or?
0:42:03 – Speaker 2
musically I teach lessons. I’ve um been doing some music licensing stuff so I make tracks, for I don’t really know what it’s going to be.
0:42:12 – Speaker 1
It could be tv show, could be like yeah, it’s funny you’re mentioning that I was just telling my middle son about.
0:42:19 – Speaker 2
You know, with musicians a lot of money is being made now publishing, so yeah, yep, um, a few companies I’m with have used my songs like that and then they or they just put it in the vault. You know that sort of thing you make. Yeah, you make tracks for that and but there’s certain opportunities come up. Um, there’s one company I’m with that they’re like we need a say, pop, rock, rap track in three days for, um, nike right, something like that right right I don’t have anything.
Uh, I’d have to make it in three days and it’s got to be commercially done but yeah, no, I hear you dude mix mastered works I heard.
0:42:58 – Speaker 1
I heard stevie wonder has like a ton of songs on the go just for that purpose where he’s just like, oh yeah, you need that, boom, here you go 50 grand yeah, yeah it’s.
0:43:09 – Speaker 2
I mean it’s handful. You know, like one company. I kind of give them my ideas that don’t work out because I figured I’m never going to use them anyways. So is it like they released? If you look at my catalog on the side, they released, um it’s, it’s like movie kind of s tracks yeah, yeah, that makes sense you know they aren’t mixed the best or that sort of thing, but they’re they. They just licensed them, you know. And then they tag my name.
0:43:35 – Speaker 1
So so I guess then the um do you do? Do you do guitar lessons like online and stuff too, or does it was it more in person?
0:43:45 – Speaker 2
both yeah, okay yeah, I always say if anybody’s interested, I can teach from anywhere in the world.
0:43:51 – Speaker 1
So yeah, I mean thanks to technology these days, right yeah, I’ve.
0:43:56 – Speaker 2
I’ve taught somebody from like the uk or texas or california or florida so do you still play that jackson guitar?
0:44:03 – Speaker 1
did you have any other metal guitars that you play?
0:44:06 – Speaker 2
I’ve I’ve sold all every guitar that I’ve owned since I was, let’s say, since 2019 oh man I. I swap it around um because my playing style changes and I’m always looking for that’s funny especially guitars that sound, let’s just. I don’t say better, but in a way you know you’re.
0:44:30 – Speaker 1
You’re like you know me or every other musician like you’re looking for. I call it tone chasing. Yeah, you’re just like. I literally have a preset in my amp and it’s called tone demon because you’re literally like tweaking it all the time, because you’re just literally like tweaking it all the time because you’re just like no, it’s, it’s not there yet yep, well, you know it’s.
0:44:55 – Speaker 2
What helps is, through the years I’ve been endorsed by some of these companies and I and I get to try out some of this stuff. So that’s cool having a home recording studio. I’ve been through a lot of rack gear, pedals, guitars, and by now I kind of know what’s crap and what’s better.
0:45:12 – Speaker 1
I hear you. So what’s your current guitar then? If you’re kind of swapping stuff out, did you find the one you’ve been looking for for your current situation?
0:45:21 – Speaker 2
yeah, I use the ESP LTDs, the EC-1000s, but I have the Evertune Bridge ones, so I have those nowvertune Bridge ones.
0:45:29 – Speaker 1
Those things sound like they’re sick. I haven’t played a topic one, but they sound ridiculous.
0:45:35 – Speaker 2
Solid. Then I have a Schecter Reaper, which was kind of a trade and I end up really liking it and I do almost all my recordings on it. It doesn’t have active pickups, it has regular pickups on it.
0:45:48 – Speaker 1
What’s the Reaper body style look like the jackson oh yeah, the jackson cut, yeah, but it’s it’s still kind of a matte finish.
0:45:57 – Speaker 2
The tuners are upside down on it, which at first I had to get used to.
0:46:01 – Speaker 1
They’re under the guitar oh, it’s got a reverse headstock yeah yeah, yeah those are cool and you don’t use fluence pickups, do you?
0:46:11 – Speaker 2
no, they’re.
0:46:12 – Speaker 1
I like amgs or fishmen really yeah, yeah, that’s what the fishman, the fishman on the fluence, pickups. Okay, yeah, yeah, I have one one guitar here with them in.
0:46:21 – Speaker 2
In there, now, I like them that’s cool.
0:46:26 – Speaker 1
What kind of a rig do you play through?
0:46:30 – Speaker 2
it’s changed um uh, was it a supported artist or something from black star? So I have a lot of other stuff yeah, um, but practice amps. I have marshall, I’ve, I have a yamaha one that they came out with. That’s really cool. That’s kind of like a. You can do a lot of things with it. I actually record with that a lot. Then I have a rev head, but when I record um, so I like to talk gear. I record five different sources for my guitar tracks. So if you’re like one guitar part.
0:47:02 – Speaker 1
It’s usually five quote-unquote different amps at once yeah, so you really like layer the different sounds on there, huh yeah, because, like, isn’t that overkill?
0:47:10 – Speaker 2
well, I tell you when the verses come up. I can take a source out, you know, and you want to thin it out a little bit, or you want to give it a different sound because, I’m like well, the rev, so the rev, I record right in the room.
So I do what you’re not supposed to right. I record right in basically the control room here and so the the audio when I mix and it’s actually playing back and you can hear a little bit through the microphone. But that’s just a back source. You know, I have isolation cab for the regular one. I have direct in with, like the tonex, the black star amp too. That’s all completely dry, you know, but I’m like I need, I needed that, um, I don’t know. It’s kind of like the effect that you get when you play a venue.
You know what I mean yeah so and that turns out, I got a um, it’s a 1970s, uh like an sm58, that. Uh, freddie mercury, that brand, that’s the style like chrome one so I have that on on the amp with um some cat audio mics. So I have um a unidel, it’s a, I think it’s a, two or three um 57, and then I’m endorsed by se microphones. So that’s my main like if I play out live or if I primarily record with a microphone SE microphones I really like them and CAD Audio. They go back and forth.
0:48:39 – Speaker 1
What was that? The other one CAD C-A-D.
0:48:42 – Speaker 2
Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, they’re really budget friendly. So how do you feel?
0:48:46 – Speaker 1
about like amp modeling.
0:48:49 – Speaker 2
I like it. Got to be careful, but I like it. They are not all pretty equal.
0:48:55 – Speaker 1
That’s why I was curious about the question. So I was like oh, blackstar, like how do you? Because I don’t think they really mess around with that stuff, right?
0:49:03 – Speaker 2
No, they have a version four out now. I haven’t tried that, but I’ve tried all the other ones. Um, they’re good, they’re good. The amped pedal I like the best, because actually the pedal itself can power a hundred watt, speaker cabinet.
0:49:21 – Speaker 1
So dude, that’s sick.
0:49:22 – Speaker 2
So it’s basically an amp head in a pedal and you can you can actually hook it up to your computer and load in whatever sound that you want. So it’s both, basically that’s pretty freaking sick.
0:49:33 – Speaker 1
Wow the um. I was gonna say crap um ant miling black star. I’m trying to retrace my thighs like damn it um, just because that threw me off about that pedal, like hearing about, I was like oh shit, that sounds pretty badass it’s, it’s cool.
0:49:57 – Speaker 2
So I do want to record. On one side I’ll um, you know, I use all those multiple sources at once, like the chorus would have like all of them in it basically, but like the verses might have that black star pedal and then I might change certain things just in that pedal to affect, let’s say, the bridge. Right, right, so you change, you have five sources, but maybe you change one or two just for the bridge, so sonically you’re like you know it’s, it’s the the same technically, but there’s something a little different.
0:50:33 – Speaker 1
So your ear that’s kind of interesting to hear little tricks like that, because I swear candy you know I’m totally blind so I swear. Sometimes it’s like man. How is that verse kind of coming in like bigger sounding than like?
0:50:46 – Speaker 2
yeah, it’s not always the same amp. That’s just turned up, you know it’s. Probably it could be the same app on a different setting too.
0:50:54 – Speaker 1
Hmm, oh, I know what I was going to say about the black star. I have a um uh overdrive pedal. They make I don’t know if they make more than one, but this overdrive pedal is sick.
0:51:04 – Speaker 2
I love giant pedal is sick I love, I love it, the black one what’s that? Is it black? Yeah yeah, I had the same one too yeah, yeah, that that thing’s pretty sick.
0:51:13 – Speaker 1
I had a bass player friend of mine that was like he also. He more played guitar than bass, but the band we were in he was playing bass. He’s like oh dude, you need to check out this. He’s like he’s like forget the tube, screamer, whatever. It’s like, check this out. I hope to find it, but I was like sold yeah, it’s really good.
0:51:30 – Speaker 2
I think there’s a white version of that too.
0:51:32 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, I can’t remember the model name of it, but yeah, I think it’s pretty sick, so like. So when you gig out, do you bring like a combo amp, do you bring a half stack, like what do you do if you’re playing out?
0:51:45 – Speaker 2
I’ve done, I want to say almost everything. Over the years. I’ve brought just an amp, no pedals. Um, I have played just with pedals.
0:51:55 – Speaker 1
So like, um, literally distortion pedal yeah, and kind of go directly into the board or whatever.
0:52:03 – Speaker 2
Yeah, and I’ve done like a Fos-Tex or Axe-FX kind of thing, and now, because my songs have like wah, they have octave stuff, there’s delays in certain sections. So I have pedals for that. But the way I have it set up now is the Blackstar pedal because if I want to right, if there’s a cab at the venue, you can plug in there. If you want to, or if not, you just um, use the out on that with the tonex into a. Uh, it’s a passive. They call it a mixer, but it’s like a little passive thing has three channels on it, three xl is it like kind of like a direct box sort of?
sort of yeah, it’s not a direct box, but you can anyway. You can put both sources in that pedal and then. So now you have literally two amps that you’re playing and you send that direct. So that sounds like a real amp on stage.
0:52:57 – Speaker 1
Let’s say that’s interesting super late 90s, like in 99 I like had a night I had the idea of like digitizing my band because I was like, yeah, why don’t we just like when we play live? The p8 was gonna act like our home stereo speakers and it’s gonna almost sound like people are kind of like listening to the cd.
So like we triggered my drummer’s drum set, like with early stuff, like an elise’s dm5 or whatever yeah, and like I had a rocktron chameleon preamp so I would just run my xlr out of that right into the board and then the bass player is just going kind of straight to the board. We played a few shows that way. It was pretty interesting. The the the guys uh doing this time were like what the hell are you doing? Because I’d be like what do? You know, don’t mic up my amp dude, just give me the xlr cable. He’s like what?
0:53:59 – Speaker 2
and I was like don’t eq it or nothing what?
0:54:01 – Speaker 1
what’s that? I’m like don’t eq it or anything yeah, no, exactly, just just give me that cable like and let me. And I just shoved into my amp and he was like whoa, okay yeah yeah, like they were.
0:54:11 – Speaker 2
They were a little uh taken back, but yeah, I mean that’s that’s ford thinking back then for all that stuff. You know it’s well, I could just see where I was going.
0:54:23 – Speaker 1
You know what I’m saying. It’s like yeah, you know, I was trying to talk my drummer even just playing an electronic drum set at that time. But they looked so stupid like yeah they were, he wasn’t gonna do it. But I was just like, dude, you’re gonna get this crazy insane sound and like not have to lug your giant drum set around.
0:54:40 – Speaker 2
They’re like it’s a no-brainer yeah, I mean, in certain circumstances, like, um, I would do national anthems for like basketball and like hockey teams and I’m just like what can I bring? I can’t bring anything. You’re not really allowed to set anything anywhere. So I had to go wireless with my guitar and then kind of put my guitar stuff somewhere that wasn’t supposed to. So I just ended up. That’s how I found out. I just ended up, I go, I’m just gonna do it with a pedal. So that that’s how I took, like um, trying to think what I used. It wasn’t the black star one, it was um another one.
I had like settings modulated in it but it had like xlr’s out okay I can’t remember, because I’ve been through like six of them trying to find a better sound source, but it was cool though, and it sounded great because, you figure, I’m using the arena’s pa speakers that is my amp, so that’s why I like that idea so I plugged in in you know pre-show. I played a little Metallica riffs and all that stuff and I’m like I mean, how many times could you sit in a hockey arena and play guitar through their speakers?
0:55:59 – Speaker 1
You know what I mean. I totally would have been playing some Jump in the Fire.
0:56:05 – Speaker 2
Oh yes, I played Four Horsemen. Exactly dude sad, but true yeah, yeah.
0:56:14 – Speaker 1
No, I’m seriously rumble all the seats with that riff yep yeah, that’s pretty sick where people like hanging out and stuff when you’re jamming just the people working there. They’re just doing their thing.
0:56:28 – Speaker 2
yeah, I think one person did Some people because they’re working, they’re a little annoyed by any noise, yeah, yeah yeah, and I think I upset the cheerleaders at one point because they’re like we need the PA system.
0:56:42 – Speaker 1
They’re like no.
0:56:44 – Speaker 2
Because they practice the dance stuff with the songs. Oh yeah yeah, I remember one time I was like well, I need a sound check.
0:56:51 – Speaker 1
I’m sorry one thing that we totally like brushed over. I mean you did mention the passing. You went to berkeley and like did you actually, did you actually graduate and all that? Not the sound, whatever, but you know just uh, the rock guitar certification.
0:57:06 – Speaker 2
I did the berkeley online yeah okay, okay, okay, that’s cool we had the house fire and I I literally just had a computer, a guitar and an axe effects unit and, you know, webcam and that kind of stuff. So I was like I have all this time on my hands because I was teaching lessons. I go, maybe it helped me pick up a few teaching jobs.
0:57:30 – Speaker 1
That makes sense.
0:57:33 – Speaker 2
Did it work? Yeah, with one company. They hired me, and then it’s just. I think it’s just better for me, when I teach on my own too, to say that I have some sort of instead of just experience. You know, we have some sort of technical knowledge, you know.
0:57:46 – Speaker 1
Yeah, no, I get that. Yeah, no, totally Because.
0:57:49 – Speaker 2
I, you know, we have some sort of technical knowledge. You know, yeah, no, I get that. Yeah, no, totally, because I’m more like you. Got to play with feeling too, because I tell everyone I go, you can learn all these scales, I go, but play that scale, and they play it, I go that’s not musical. I go playing a scale. You know just the notes, that they are like a basic pentatonic. It’s not musical, I go. You have to make it musical. That’s technique, structure, feeling, influence. So that’s why I like to kind of.
0:58:13 – Speaker 1
I know that’s what’s interesting, right, man? But like we’ve we’ve been given these like 12, 13 notes, whatever however you want to count it, and like that’s all we have. And yet we just have this like unlimited music, you know, and it’s all. It’s all about how each person interprets those notes on the instrument they’re playing.
0:58:33 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, somehow we all play it and it feels different and it sounds different. So it’s like and then you add pedals and then you have more variables no, no, totally which is cool. But, um, yeah, I think the last, my last two eps I got more into, you know, layering kind of like backing guitars, of like octaves and like different things, of like almost like a baritone type thing, because I break these down at all yeah, like break these chains is one of the fan favorites.
I worked with brian from Daughtry. I met Daughtry and then I’m like oh, I’m working with this dude. I worked with the drummer, too, on a couple other songs, and he was the one that was kind of like why don’t we do this? I used all of Daughtry’s guitars too, which was sick.
0:59:23 – Speaker 1
That’s cool.
0:59:24 – Speaker 2
Brian’s guitars and he was like we’re going to play the same part, we’re going to play on a baritone electric guitar. I was like I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that. And he goes it’s the same thing, but it sounds like Breaking Benjamin or it sounds cool. I was like, alright, so we did drop C and then we used regular guitar for like lead stuff yeah.
I do like it, but what I do now is um my guitars. I used to tune d standard and then switch guitars and I’m like, well, I don’t want to own eight guitars anymore. So digitech came out with this. Uh whammy pedal that you can drop tune and up tune and it sounds real.
1:00:11 – Speaker 1
It’s the only one that sounds real, that you don’t lose, you can, like legit, have your guitar like regular tuning, you plug it through that digitech pedal and it, if you don’t lose any kind of like total quality, it sounds, it still sounds like the legit thing yep, you lose maybe a tiny bit, but it’s it’s um negligible.
1:00:32 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I’ve used it on all the stuff I recorded so far too interesting, that’s cool and if you tune lower, like if you tune to d standard, your guitar has more bass, and oomph in it anyways, because you just detuned it and say you have like 10 or 11 gauge strings yeah, you know what I mean, yeah and then then go up to e if you want. It’s going to be a thicker e than it is on a e-tuned that’s interesting.
10 gauge guitar yeah, yeah, yeah, here we go saying it gives it, gives the e a lot more oomph to it yeah yeah, that’s pretty interesting um, but I admit right now I, just because I teach, I have all the guitars in e and then I’ll just go from there. I do miss the d, because d you can the the strings are more like flubby.
1:01:20 – Speaker 1
I’m gonna use that exactly. Yeah, yeah, no, I’m doing, I I’m uh, I’m glad you came on today, frank, did the interview. Like you’re uh, very, uh, um, inspiring for sure, and I I imagine someone’s gonna be encouraged by listening to you because, like you’ve had your hands in all kinds of stuff and, uh, like I said, you’re an encouraging guy thanks, man.
1:01:43 – Speaker 2
No, I appreciate it. You have me on because it was kind of like I was like I got a message and I was like who is this? But yeah, no, I love doing anything like this and you know everyone’s like. You know I don’t claim to be an expert, you know, I’m just. I just know what I know and I keep progressing and I love guitar and I love sound. So that’s why I’m into you know mixing and recording and and you get better through it. Honestly, like recording my own stuff gear. I’ve gotten to be a better guitarist through everything yeah, no, I believe that for sure.
1:02:20 – Speaker 1
Like, like, like you know, even the mixing and mastering and stuff like that is as has an effect on your guitar playing for?
1:02:27 – Speaker 2
sure, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I play totally different. It’s so weird Cause I’m like I realized a long time ago you have to play a different way and you have to play tight If you, if you want it to sound a certain way, cause I’m like, how are these records so tight and upfront? It’s the playing too, cause I’ve had to dumb down riffs where I’m like that is awesome. You know, when you play it and you’re like that sounds sick. And I played it and I’m like that sounds just like jumbled garbage. So you just never know yeah, dude.
1:02:58 – Speaker 1
So is there anything that you wanted to mention? Do you have like a website or like Instagram?
1:03:03 – Speaker 2
yeah, you can google my name or go to frankpolangicom. All my songs are on all the streaming platforms. The movies are on um, like tubi, and, and free on youtube and those type places, so you can google my name and find everything basically off my website too. There’s, you know, there’s um. There’s on-demand t-shirts and stuff like that too on my website and there’s a double disc cd, I will say on my website has my whole catalog of all original stuff plus some extra stuff up until these two new singles. So they aren’t on it because I made it before it. But okay, if you don’t have anything, you’ll have it all in two discs if you still play cds out there yeah, dude, that’s a whole nother, but I autographed them, so just collect it for the autograph, I guess, or whatever you want.
1:03:51 – Speaker 1
Yeah, there you go Put your name on it. There you go.
1:03:55 – Speaker 2
Again thanks so much for coming on.
1:03:57 – Speaker 1