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Jan. 9, 2023
Episode 02 - The Dudes From St Louis - Ryan Phillips of Story of The Year
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Get ready for an exciting episode of the AltWire podcast featuring the co-founder and lead guitarist of Story of The Year, Ryan Phillips! Join us as he takes us through his incredible journey in music - from the stories behind their hit songs to the creative process that made them one of the most popular bands of the early 2000s. We'll also discuss the evolution from their genesis in St Louis up through now, exploring the inspirations behind their new album Tear Me To Pieces and some fun anecdotes around their most epic moments.
Transcript
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You are listening to the Altwire podcast where we feature candid interviews with some of
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the hottest names in the entertainment industry.
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Get ready for your host, Derek Oswald.
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Thank you for tuning into the Altwire podcast.
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My name is Derek Oswalt, and in today's episode, we are joined by Ryan Phillips, lead guitarist
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of the rock band Story of The Year.
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Ryan has been a part of the band since its inception in 1995.
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And in this episode, we'll be hearing Ryan's story behind the band's journey to music stardom,
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details on their sixth studio album, Tear Me to Pieces, and a whole lot more.
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So sit back, relax, and get ready for another great episode.
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The Altwire podcast starts now.
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Thank you for joining us today, Ryan.
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How are you doing?
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I'm doing spectacular.
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How are you?
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I'm doing pretty good.
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Thank you so much.
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Story of The Year has been around for nearly 30 years, with Page Avenue released almost
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20 years ago.
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What is it like to reflect back on nearly 30 years with the band and the 20th anniversary
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of Page Avenue?
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Are there any plans for the 20th anniversary?
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Oh, wow.
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Okay.
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Great question.
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So when I was a teenager, I actually started playing music with our lead singer when he
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was 15.
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Actually, he was 14, I think, and we're all 40-year-old dudes now.
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So it's been a minute we've been playing together.
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And honestly, all I ever cared about was playing the Warped Tour.
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That was our dreams.
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That was as far as our aspirations went.
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It's like, man, if we can just get on the Warped Tour, get in a van, go on tour.
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I never thought about being on the radio.
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I never thought about a platinum record.
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I never thought about any of that shit.
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So the fact that I'm talking to you 20 years after the release of our first record, even
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if the band broke up today, I got more than I ever could have wished for.
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So I feel like, pretty much as cliché as it sounds, like the luckiest dude, I won the
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Cosmic Lottery. I'm in a band with my best friends and I still get to do this shit.
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And it's kind of crazy.
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So that's what I feel, to answer your question directly, is just gratitude.
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Now going back to the very beginning, how did you and Dan end up jamming together and
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who were the artists that inspired you to take up guitar?
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Okay.
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Well, we grew up in St. Louis, Missouri in a little town called Overland.
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You know, it's kind of a suburb outside the city.
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And I just got really into the guitar.
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Like literally it was just like one day, my sister, my mom bought my sister an electric
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guitar and this little amp, and she never played it.
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And one day, I just plugged it in, and I just hit the low E string, and it was just like
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the heaviest sound I'd ever heard in my life.
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You know?
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I spent like literally weeks just hitting that one string and, you know, eventually
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just like starting to work my way up the fretboard and just, it blew my mind that I could make
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these black Sabbath sounding dark, ominous, super heavy metal sounds out of this fucking
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guitar, you know, just by hitting this low E string.
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So I quit sports.
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Sorry for any kids listening.
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I just totally didn't give a shit about school anymore.
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Everything was music.
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It was just like music, you know?
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And there wasn't that many kids in my neighborhood that played music.
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And I heard about this kid, Dan, who was really great at songwriting.
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He was young and already writing songs, and we kind of bonded over music, and we started
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playing, we started jamming together by playing Nirvana songs and Green Day songs.
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So that was kind of our earliest inspiration.
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And we started writing our own songs, like even as teenagers, like the first concert
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Dan ever went to was his own concert he played at, you know?
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So yeah.
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Now you guys played as 67 North and later Big Blue Monkey for a number of years, close
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to seven, I believe.
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What did those formative years look like for you guys?
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It was us skipping school to have band practice, playing at this venue in St. Louis called
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Bernard's Pub.
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They would let underage kids have concerts there, and it was a bar.
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So we started playing shows there, all original music.
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We never played covers or anything, it was all stuff we wrote.
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And I don't know, it just kind of solidified this kind of unified front in this pack that
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we all had.
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It's like, all right, we're going to dedicate our lives to playing music and skateboarding
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and just hanging out.
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And like we kind of held to that same ethos, and we've never really looked back, you know?
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Yeah.
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Now John Feldmann was a savant in finding incredible bands in that era, yourselves
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included.
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What was it like working with John, and how did he help you hone your craft?
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Dude, it was wild.
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So we would go see Goldfinger, you know, when they would come through town, they played
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a radio festival called Point Fest, like the big radio festival here in St. Louis.
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And watching Goldfinger and then that very next year, like being in a room making music
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with the singer Goldfinger was like, dude, that doesn't happen where I'm from.
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It might happen in LA, it might happen in New York, whatever, but if you're from Overland,
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Missouri, like that just doesn't happen, you know?
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So it was a mind trip, man.
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We were all massive Goldfinger fans, and it was pretty surreal.
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And he is a huge part of the reason that I'm even talking to you right now.
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Like that first record, if it wasn't for him and the way that all rolled out, like, I don't
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know, I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now.
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I don't know what would have happened.
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He played a huge role, all of our songs, he just ripped them apart and made them 20 times
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better.
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I know that's a producer's job, but to the extent that he did it was pretty profound.
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So especially that first record, you're hearing Story of the Year, but you're also hearing
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to a large degree, the genius of his songwriting and production abilities.
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The guy is a mad genius when it comes to like rock and like pop rock and pop production
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and just making shit really, really listenable and really catchy.
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And he has just as much to do with as anything as it relates to the success of this band,
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you know?
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After years of grinding under, you know, multiple different band names to get to that point,
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how did it feel to finally have your music recognized around the world?
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Dude, it was incredible.
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Like I said, all we wanted to do was be on the war tour, and I remember being at my mom's
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house and seeing our video on MTV.
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I remember hearing my band on the radio for the first time.
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I remember being in like New Jersey or Connecticut or like Kansas City, and for the first time,
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like they're being a line at the door.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Like being on main stage of Warped Tour instead of one of the small side stages, like that
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all happened really fast, but it's like most "quote-unquote" overnight success stories.
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You don't really hear about, or you're not aware of the 10 years of grinding before that.
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You know what I'm saying?
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So when we've been playing together since middle school, since all through high school,
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you know, and we'd been a band for years, like grinding, and I mean grinding before
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the success of Page Avenue, you know?
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But once it took off, it happened really fast, and I don't know, it's like, dude, teenage
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Ryan, all he wanted to do was play the guitar and make songs.
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And we put out this record, and all of a sudden, I'm with my best friends in the world, playing
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sold-out shows, just partying.
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Like it was just, it's like, a genie came and said, Hey, all your wildest dreams.
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Like, I'm going to times that by ten and just like make them all come true.
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And that's how it was, man.
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Like, I know that sounds kind of dorky and you know, maybe even like approaching cliche,
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but it's like, dude, I got to live out my fucking wildest dreams, you know?
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And it was never like about like chicks or drugs, or it's like, for me, it was all about
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music just to be able to do that with your best bros and not have to worry about money
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and going through a job.
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And just, I don't know, I just feel so grateful.
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That's all I, you know, just immense amounts of gratitude, you know?
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In 2004, Linkin Park asked you to join them for their arena tour in what is one of your
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biggest tours to date.
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What are some of your fondest memories from that time?
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Jesus Christ, almost every memory from that time is a fond memory, you know?
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Like that Linkin Park tour, the thing I remember most is just what first-class human beings
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Linkin Park were, you know?
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We're just these dipshits from St. Louis that ride skateboards and like to throw up
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on each other, and you know, they're this world-class gigantic rock fan, and the first day of tour,
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they walk into the dressing room, and they're like, hey, we're happy to have you on tour.
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Anything you guys need, come to us, you know, they were just so, such first-class human
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beings and such a class act and just great people.
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And that really was a monumental moment for all of us because not only was the tour amazing,
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but it was like Linkin Park single-handedly taught us how to treat people.
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It's like, oh yeah, yeah.
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Like you treat everyone with respect because all these people you meet on the way up, you're
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probably going to meet them all again on the way down.
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I remember talking to Chester about that, you know?
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And we've always taken pride in the fact that we treat everyone with respect.
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We're good to everybody.
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We've never been dicks to people.
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We've never had drama and stupid shit like that with like any other stuff.
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And that all comes from our experience at Linkin Park.
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That was a huge lesson that's like to this day, is kind of paramount to us.
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You know, it's a really important thing that we take a lot of pride in is how we treat
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everyone from like the people sweeping the floor to the promoters, to our managers, to
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booking agents, to fans, to everybody.
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Just like number one is respect.
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You know, we learned that from Linkin Park.
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I give them a lot of credit.
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They had the world at their fingertips, the biggest band in the world at that time, you know,
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and they could have treated anyone how they wanted to.
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And that's how they chose to treat people.
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And I think that's beautiful.
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I hear that a lot about Linkin Park, you know, especially in the wake of Chester's
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unfortunate passing, a lot of people, when they were paying tributes, all said the same
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thing about how they were just stand-up people.
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And I love that that's the experience that you had as well.
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You did work with Joe Hahn on your video for Anthem of Our Dying Day after seeing his work
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with Linkin Park music videos.
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Do you and him still talk from time to time?
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No, we've kind of fallen out of touch with him.
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I mean, I'm sorry, not we.
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I have, just because I'm not like it's weird.
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I talk to my band every single day.
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As weird as that sounds for, like grown men have been around each other for, you know,
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20, 30 years.
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I still talk to those at least one person from my band every single day.
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I don't know, man.
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It's weird though.
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The older I've gotten, the more like kind of introverted I've become.
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I'm just kind of focused on my kids.
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And, like when I'm home, I'm in like full dad mode and full write mode.
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You know, I write a lot.
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I try to stay creative.
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But then when I'm not doing that, it's like family, you know, so I don't like, you know,
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I still live in Missouri.
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I also live in St. Louis and stuff.
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So I've been like notoriously shitty about keeping in contact with people, even some
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of my favorite people in the world.
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I'm just like so guilty of like not picking up the phone from time to time.
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But I think Adam, our bass player, has talked to him recently, but I wish my answer was,
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yeah, we're we keep in touch.
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But unfortunately, I haven't kept in touch with him.
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And that's, that's, that's on me.
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You know, one crazy story that I remember reading from around that time was the backstage
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fight with Godsmack's roadies.
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What happened there, and what was the backstory on that?
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It wasn't the band.
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A lot of that got misinterpreted, and it's probably our fault as much as anyone else's
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just being young, passionate, dipshits, but it wasn't the band.
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So long story super short, we've played at a radio festival, and our singer asked everyone
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in the crowd to like come to the front of the stage.
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If you can imagine an amphitheater, there's usually a lawn section, and so he was asking
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everyone from the lawn.
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It's like; it was pretty immature and pretty like punk rock, I guess.
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I mean, the goal I guess, was to be punk rock.
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He's like, fuck the gates, fuck security.
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Everyone come to front of the stage, and it was pretty reckless and whatnot.
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With time and perspective, I can see that like definitely kind of an irresponsible thing
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to do.
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But either way, it wasn't Godsmack's show.
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It was a radio festival, but for some reason, the crew took it upon themselves to, I don't
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know, I guess, try to like discipline us or try to like whatever, you know, which was
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always odd because it wasn't their show.
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It was not a Godsmack show.
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If it was a Godsmack show, and we pulled some bullshit.
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It's like; you're well within your rights to kick us off the tour, not pay us, whatever,
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blah, blah, blah.
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But it was a radio show full of a lineup of all different bands.
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It was not a Godsmack show.
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Either way, we kind of got into a scuffle with the crew, and punches were thrown and
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some noses were bloodied, and some eyes were blackened and all that.
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And so yeah, it was a mess, but we were really young and really full of passion and kind
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of idiots, and they were just a little overzealous, and I don't know, maybe too much adrenaline
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and I don't know.
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The whole thing was a shit show, and it was stupid.
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It was stupid and regrettable, but I got over that shit ten years ago, 15 years ago.
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I don't care.
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Now it's just kind of funny.
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I'm just glad no one was hurt.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Exactly.
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Moving more into the present, you all recently got to play at the When We Were Young festival.
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What was it like to be part of such a nostalgic lineup?
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Dude, it was insane.
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So I had 85% excitement kind of going through my body and about 15% of worry.
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I was like, man, is this like, I know this is going to sound shitty, but like there was
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a little part of me, it's like, is this kind of sad?
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Is this like, you know, the name is When We Were Young.
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Is this just like a bunch of 40-year-old dudes like trying to capitalize on a scene that
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was popular 20 years ago?
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Is there an element to this that's kind of desperate and sad?
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Got to the show, got on stage, and six seconds in, I was like, nope, this rules.
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There's nothing sad about this.
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This is fucking amazing.
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Everyone was happy to be there.
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Every friend we've made over the last 20 years, everyone from the years to Amberlin to insert
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ABC, D, E, and F, it's literally every band we've toured with for the last 20 years all
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together in one place.
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And it was just like, you couldn't walk backstage, you couldn't walk 10 feet without bumping
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into an old friend, you know, in that capacity, it was just such an incredible experience
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and the show, you could just tell the fans were all very like happy, and I don't know
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if that sounds so dumb to say that they're really happy, but like everyone seems stoked.
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Like everyone just seemed like grateful and stoked, and it was an amazing experience and
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all my concerns about any like sadness of, you know, of the nostalgia, any of that shit
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was alleviated immediately because it was just awesome.
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Yeah, I mean that had to be one of the most crazy lineups I've ever seen for a festival.
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I remember for the first maybe 30 minutes that that was out, there were some people
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thinking that it was just some overzealous scene music fan that Photoshopped something
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together and made this amazing lineup that is every emo kid's dream because it just seems
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so improbable.
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And then when the news outlets start picking it up and realize that this is real, you know,
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I feel really bad for Live Nation in retrospect.
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Everybody thought it was going to be another Fyre Fest, and it wasn't.
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The very fact that they had that many bands and were able to make that go off without
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a hitch, you know, they can't control the weather.
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Day one wasn't their fault, but everything else went off about a hitch, and it was just
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incredible.
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I do think there's a reason why the 2023 version of it is a lot more stripped down in terms
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of how many bands there are just because they probably learned it was logistically a bit
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of a nightmare, but I was unable to secure tickets in time, and I wish I did because that
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was one amazing lineup.
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Dude, I'll tell you this for whatever it's worth.
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From my perspective, it felt like one of the most organized festivals I've ever been to
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in the United States.
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Like it felt European.
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Like some of those big festivals over there, like in Europe, they just, they have it dialed in
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and they know exactly, they know how to do a festival.
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This ran so perfect and smooth.
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I mean, maybe there's shit that I don't know about, but like, I can't imagine it being
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any better.
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Like they did it right.
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It was good.
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COVID certainly impacted every band in different ways.
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How did it impact your band, and how did the development of the new album differ from the
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previous ones because of it?
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Yeah, COVID was, man, so right before COVID, I mean, like right before we had
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shows booked.
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We had studio time booked.
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We just got new management.
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We just got a new booking agent.
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You know, we kind of were poised to completely like relaunch the band because I will, I mean,
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for lack of a better word, we've only been, we've been like a part-time band for the last
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Ten years.
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We haven't been a full-time band, you know?
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2020 was going to be like the rebirth of Story of the Year as a full-time band.
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We had tours booked.
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You know, like I said, we just kind of like cleaned house and started from scratch.
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It was like a really, really exciting time.
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And then literally in like 48 hours, like, nope, you're not touring.
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Nope, you're not going to the studio.
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Nope, everything's just put on pause.
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So now it's kind of a blessing in disguise because we were going to work with a different
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producer, and we wound up working with Colin because, you know, we couldn't do anything
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for months on end.
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So that went away, and we decided to work with Colin instead, which wound up being the most
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incredible fucking dose of serendipity ever because it wound up being the best decision
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we've ever made.
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So we started doing a podcast.
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That was kind of a net positive, a good way to stay busy.
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And I just wrote.
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It's weird.
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Like I don't know what this says about my personality, but the first couple weeks of
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quarantine, I loved it.
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I was like; I'm just going to stay home.
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I don't know this like weird, like protective, like lion part of my fucking animal brain
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kicked in.
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I was like; I'm in protective mode.
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I'm going to like hole up in my house and protect my family.
329
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And it was like game night, movie night every night.
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We just like went on hikes all the time and just like really just isolated ourselves,
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you know, from the world.
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It was like just a super hyper-focused family time and just like a reevaluation of priorities
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and like what really matters.
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And I just did that.
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And then I just wrote music, and it was like, it was kind of awesome.
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A couple months of that, I was just like, oh my God, I need to get in the studio.
337
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We need to go on tour about a while.
338
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That only lasted for a little bit.
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Then, then it was just like, Jesus, we got to get going here.
340
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But yeah, I wrote like shit and songs over quarantine.
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And I guess that's the other kind of upside to it is like, I refuse to like be one of
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those people that's going to like complain and blame shit on the state of the world.
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I was like; I want to look back at quarantine and go like, I made the best of it, you know,
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like I made the best of it with what I could do.
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And my version of that was writing music.
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So it's like, when I look back at this, I'm going to have a shit ton of music that I wrote,
347
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enough music to make four albums, you know, and you know, I started this YouTube channel.
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I did a bunch of cool like stuff with my photography.
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I did a bunch of really cool personal projects.
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I made a bunch of really cool shit that I don't have time to talk about now, but like,
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it wound up being a positive for our band.
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So it definitely affected the record.
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It definitely worked to our benefit of, like, instead of just rush out the gate, like
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ah, shows, record blah, blah, blah.
355
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Like, it forced us to slow down and really be methodical and strategic about like the
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chess pieces we were moving, you know.
357
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaking of projects, I want to expand on your thoughts of the music industry's current
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state.
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A few years ago, you and Adam Russell filmed a Kickstarter-backed movie about the music
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industry titled Who Killed or Saved the Music Industry.
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What was your experience like with launching that project on Kickstarter, and what lessons
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did you learn that you'd consider or advise someone else to consider before launching
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their own project?
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00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:28,560
Oh, okay.
365
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:32,840
So I hope this answers your question.
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The thing I learned most, and I don't care about making myself look like an ass, it's
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fine, is that however much I thought I knew about the music industry, I just didn't.
368
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So the whole project was like film school, a crash course in music industry, 101.
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My interest in making that film was the human element.
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Like how, you know, the rise of social media and digital music and yada, yada, yada, yada,
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yada, yada, yada, how that affected people on a personal level.
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I didn't give a fuck about algorithms and data and numbers and this and that.
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It's like, I only cared about the human element, which made me perhaps not the best person
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to present myself in a position of authority or some kind of an authoritative voice for
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like analytics and music industry data and predictions and yada, yada, yada.
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I truly just cared about, I was having all these conversations with my friends.
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We'd be in Australia hanging out with Yellowcard, and we were talking about how, you know, how
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it affected them and this person, like all these conversations we were having.
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00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:48,440
And I was like, damn man, if somebody just could hear the effect that these changes had
380
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on and not just negative, lots of positives too.
381
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:53,760
That'd be such an interesting film.
382
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:58,520
Adam is a lot more, you know, he's a lot more data-driven.
383
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:03,440
His brain is a lot more wired for like numbers and infrastructure and stuff.
384
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,240
My brain's like, I want to see a painting.
385
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:08,880
Like I want the world explained to me through a beautiful piece of art.
386
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,360
Adam is the kind of brain that was the world explained through him through like a user's
387
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,200
manual and data and numbers.
388
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,760
And I'm just not wired like that.
389
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,840
I discovered a lot about myself in that project.
390
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,080
So you know, that was the upside to that.
391
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:30,800
And yeah, I mean, the crowdfunding thing is tricky because, you know, we way over-promised
392
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:35,000
like in terms of like how fast we get the film done.
393
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And we just really, really overestimated like our capabilities and overestimated like mostly
394
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just how much work it would be.
395
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:46,400
And we thought we'd get it done in X amount of time.
396
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:50,240
And it took like 15 times, like literally took years to do this project.
397
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,080
And we completely underestimated how much work it would be.
398
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:59,080
It turned into a complete and total full-time job, not just a passion project, you know?
399
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:00,080
So learned a lot.
400
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:01,080
It was film school.
401
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:05,800
But one of the things I learned was like, I just, I care about making art, and I'm not
402
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:12,400
the person when it comes to like predictions about business models and algorithms that there's
403
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:16,560
so many more people that are well, much more knowledgeable than me about that.
404
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:17,560
You know?
405
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:22,200
So that was one of the main things I discovered that my ego doesn't like to admit, but I will.
406
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,840
I'm happy to admit it.
407
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,820
Now speaking of making art, you are on the cusp of releasing your new album, Tear Me
408
00:24:28,820 --> 00:24:29,820
to Pieces.
409
00:24:29,820 --> 00:24:34,200
You've stated that the title track is the perfect representation of what Story of The
410
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,080
Year is all about.
411
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,700
Could you tell us about some other special moments on the album that you're excited for
412
00:24:39,700 --> 00:24:41,600
fans to hear?
413
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:42,600
Yeah.
414
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,000
So, okay.
415
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,200
The first song Tear Me to Pieces, I do feel like it's like the perfect representation
416
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,480
because it's got like upbeat punk vibes.
417
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,600
It's got like some of the heaviest riffage that we've ever had.
418
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,920
The beginning starts with an acoustic, like really like energetic drumming, blah, blah.
419
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:02,520
So it's a very dynamic song that kind of represents all the extremes we went to.
420
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:07,880
I think this record, more than anything, more than any record we've ever done, the focus
421
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,360
has been on songwriting.
422
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:13,800
I know it's like a weird thing to say, but like there's been other records where it's
423
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,400
like personally me, I don't really care what Dan's singing about.
424
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,620
I just want to have cool guitar riffs and music that kind of makes your head move and
425
00:25:20,620 --> 00:25:22,640
makes your body move and whatever.
426
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:24,240
It's like, I really don't care what you're singing about.
427
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:30,760
Like to me, I was just like, I want awesome compositions of music, you know?
428
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:35,520
But this record is kind of, you know, we had some other records where we got a little political
429
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:42,320
and a little on the nose in terms of, like, we feel this, we believe this, blah, blah,
430
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:43,320
blah.
431
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:49,560
This record was kind of like a return to basics, a return to the way we, you know, like our
432
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,760
first record is just full of metaphors.
433
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:57,360
It's full of kind of ambiguous meanings that people can kind of interpret any way they
434
00:25:57,360 --> 00:25:58,360
want to.
435
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,480
And what those lyrics mean to one person might mean a completely different thing to other
436
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:03,480
people.
437
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,320
It wasn't so on the nose and obvious.
438
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:10,920
So this was kind of a return to that, you know, like with a focus on lyrics and a focus
439
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:18,400
on the song structures and, you know, all notions of like satisfying my ego to like
440
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:19,800
show off on the guitar.
441
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,080
Like I way outgrew that stuff.
442
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:26,840
We outgrew, you know, it was just like, if it doesn't serve the song, it's not going
443
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,040
to be in the song, you know?
444
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:34,200
And when you strip everything down to its most basic form, is this a good song?
445
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,200
Yes or no.
446
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:36,360
If it is, let's make it great.
447
00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:38,240
If it's not onto the next.
448
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:44,640
So that was like the litmus test for everything that when there's like 40, 50 songs and it
449
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,840
was like some of my favorite guitar moments, some of them probably the best shit that I'll
450
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:54,040
ever do ever didn't make the album because the song wasn't great, you know?
451
00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:00,200
And for me personally, just being able to look past my instrument and look at the whole
452
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,800
and how will this song emotionally resonate with another human being as opposed to just
453
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:10,360
like, you know, my, my taste or my ego or my, or whatever.
454
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,980
That's how all of our early songs were written.
455
00:27:12,980 --> 00:27:17,380
You know, it was just about the song, and it's a return to that.
456
00:27:17,380 --> 00:27:22,120
And I think that just makes for a record that's start to finish fun to listen to, you know?
457
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:23,120
Yeah.
458
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:27,400
And now I noticed that the cover art for Tear Me to Pieces shares the same falling man motif
459
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,400
as Page Avenue.
460
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,800
Do you consider these two albums to be connected?
461
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,520
And additionally, what was the inspiration behind that design back in 2003?
462
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:37,520
Yeah.
463
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:46,960
So, I mean, just like what I said just now about it being kind of a return to just writing,
464
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,740
the way we wrote Page Avenue, like even though this record doesn't sound like Page Avenue,
465
00:27:51,740 --> 00:27:54,440
it was very much written in the spirit of Page Avenue.
466
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,020
We didn't realize that until we were done.
467
00:27:57,020 --> 00:28:00,960
It was like, holy shit, like this, this is crazy.
468
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:06,460
The mindset we were in, you know, with, with the way these songs were written and the way
469
00:28:06,460 --> 00:28:11,100
we like built the foundation, like this is exactly how we did Page Avenue.
470
00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:12,460
We didn't know it in the moment, you know?
471
00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:17,880
So after it was done, we kind of realized like, wow, this is like, this really was a
472
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,800
return to the basics for us, you know?
473
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:26,320
Like these are just the dudes in the basement, like just making fucking cool songs.
474
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:27,320
And that's what this was.
475
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:28,520
We didn't overthink stuff.
476
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:33,480
We didn't like think about, oh, we have to have this like really important message or
477
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,280
it was just like, no, let's just make rad shit, you know?
478
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:42,680
And that's all we've ever tried to do is just like make shit that feels rad to us, that
479
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,240
moves us and hopefully, it'll move other people, you know?
480
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:52,040
And that whole mindset and that whole like operating process really, really felt like
481
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:57,680
everything felt really new and fresh and exciting in a way that it hadn't in a really, really,
482
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:58,680
really long time.
483
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:03,960
So it felt appropriate to kind of bring that logo back because everything about this record
484
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,560
felt like making a first record again, as weird as that might sound after 20 years,
485
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:09,560
you know?
486
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:11,100
So that felt right.
487
00:29:11,100 --> 00:29:15,560
And that Falling Guy logo, we never really, we always change logos every record.
488
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,280
We never had a consistent logo.
489
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,880
And you know, in the spirit of kind of going back to the basic, we thought it was cool
490
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:28,080
to bring that one back, to just kind of make an updated, more modern twist on it, you know?
491
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,080
Definitely.
492
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,040
Well, before we wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to mention to the fans?
493
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,400
Anything else you'd like to say?
494
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:41,600
Yes, we will be touring like we haven't toured in 10-plus years.
495
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,220
I think the last record we put, we put out a self-released album called Wolves.
496
00:29:45,220 --> 00:29:50,320
We did an LA show, St. Louis show, New York, like a couple of big cities, Japan and Australia,
497
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:51,320
and that was it.
498
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,800
And it was like, yeah, we're good.
499
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,120
You know, we were a part-time band.
500
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,400
Now we are transitioning back to being a full-time band.
501
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,800
This spring we'll be doing a full US tour.
502
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,680
We're going to be doing a bunch of overseas stuff, a bunch of flyout stuff.
503
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,920
None of this shit, like seven years between records, five years between records.
504
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:11,960
I'm already writing another one now.
505
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:16,540
So the new record comes out March 10th, and probably by March 10th, I'll have a whole
506
00:30:16,540 --> 00:30:18,760
another record already written.
507
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:19,760
Excellent.
508
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:21,800
Well, I want to thank you for joining us today.
509
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,680
It's been a pleasure speaking with you, and I'm looking forward to catching you on tour
510
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,120
when you come through my area in the future.
511
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,440
But I'm so thankful you joined us today, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
512
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:33,440
Awesome dude.
513
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:34,440
Yeah.
514
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:35,640
And sorry, I had like nine cups of coffee.
515
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,080
So if I'm super high energy, that's why.
516
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,040
I'm high energy as well.
517
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:44,640
That brings us to the end of this episode.
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00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:49,180
Tear Me to Pieces will release on March 10th, 2023, and the title track is now available
519
00:30:49,180 --> 00:30:51,520
for streaming on your DSP of choice.
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I want to thank Ryan for joining us today and for being such an incredible guest.
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My name is Derek Oswald, and this has been another episode of the Altwire Podcast.
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Thanks for listening.
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You are listening to the Altwire podcast where we feature candid interviews with some of
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the hottest names in the entertainment industry.
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Get ready for your host, Derek Oswald.
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Thank you for tuning into the Altwire podcast.
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My name is Derek Oswalt, and in today's episode, we are joined by Ryan Phillips, lead guitarist
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of the rock band Story of The Year.
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Ryan has been a part of the band since its inception in 1995.
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And in this episode, we'll be hearing Ryan's story behind the band's journey to music stardom,
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details on their sixth studio album, Tear Me to Pieces, and a whole lot more.
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So sit back, relax, and get ready for another great episode.
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The Altwire podcast starts now.
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Thank you for joining us today, Ryan.
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How are you doing?
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I'm doing spectacular.
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How are you?
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I'm doing pretty good.
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Thank you so much.
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Story of The Year has been around for nearly 30 years, with Page Avenue released almost
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20 years ago.
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What is it like to reflect back on nearly 30 years with the band and the 20th anniversary
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of Page Avenue?
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Are there any plans for the 20th anniversary?
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Oh, wow.
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Okay.
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Great question.
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So when I was a teenager, I actually started playing music with our lead singer when he
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was 15.
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Actually, he was 14, I think, and we're all 40-year-old dudes now.
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So it's been a minute we've been playing together.
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And honestly, all I ever cared about was playing the Warped Tour.
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That was our dreams.
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That was as far as our aspirations went.
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It's like, man, if we can just get on the Warped Tour, get in a van, go on tour.
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I never thought about being on the radio.
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I never thought about a platinum record.
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I never thought about any of that shit.
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So the fact that I'm talking to you 20 years after the release of our first record, even
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if the band broke up today, I got more than I ever could have wished for.
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So I feel like, pretty much as cliché as it sounds, like the luckiest dude, I won the
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Cosmic Lottery. I'm in a band with my best friends and I still get to do this shit.
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And it's kind of crazy.
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So that's what I feel, to answer your question directly, is just gratitude.
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Now going back to the very beginning, how did you and Dan end up jamming together and
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who were the artists that inspired you to take up guitar?
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Okay.
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Well, we grew up in St. Louis, Missouri in a little town called Overland.
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You know, it's kind of a suburb outside the city.
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And I just got really into the guitar.
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Like literally it was just like one day, my sister, my mom bought my sister an electric
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guitar and this little amp, and she never played it.
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And one day, I just plugged it in, and I just hit the low E string, and it was just like
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the heaviest sound I'd ever heard in my life.
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You know?
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I spent like literally weeks just hitting that one string and, you know, eventually
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just like starting to work my way up the fretboard and just, it blew my mind that I could make
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these black Sabbath sounding dark, ominous, super heavy metal sounds out of this fucking
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guitar, you know, just by hitting this low E string.
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So I quit sports.
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Sorry for any kids listening.
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I just totally didn't give a shit about school anymore.
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Everything was music.
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It was just like music, you know?
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And there wasn't that many kids in my neighborhood that played music.
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And I heard about this kid, Dan, who was really great at songwriting.
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He was young and already writing songs, and we kind of bonded over music, and we started
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playing, we started jamming together by playing Nirvana songs and Green Day songs.
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So that was kind of our earliest inspiration.
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And we started writing our own songs, like even as teenagers, like the first concert
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Dan ever went to was his own concert he played at, you know?
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So yeah.
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Now you guys played as 67 North and later Big Blue Monkey for a number of years, close
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to seven, I believe.
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What did those formative years look like for you guys?
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It was us skipping school to have band practice, playing at this venue in St. Louis called
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Bernard's Pub.
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They would let underage kids have concerts there, and it was a bar.
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So we started playing shows there, all original music.
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We never played covers or anything, it was all stuff we wrote.
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And I don't know, it just kind of solidified this kind of unified front in this pack that
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we all had.
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It's like, all right, we're going to dedicate our lives to playing music and skateboarding
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and just hanging out.
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And like we kind of held to that same ethos, and we've never really looked back, you know?
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Yeah.
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Now John Feldmann was a savant in finding incredible bands in that era, yourselves
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included.
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What was it like working with John, and how did he help you hone your craft?
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Dude, it was wild.
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So we would go see Goldfinger, you know, when they would come through town, they played
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a radio festival called Point Fest, like the big radio festival here in St. Louis.
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And watching Goldfinger and then that very next year, like being in a room making music
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with the singer Goldfinger was like, dude, that doesn't happen where I'm from.
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It might happen in LA, it might happen in New York, whatever, but if you're from Overland,
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Missouri, like that just doesn't happen, you know?
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So it was a mind trip, man.
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We were all massive Goldfinger fans, and it was pretty surreal.
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And he is a huge part of the reason that I'm even talking to you right now.
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Like that first record, if it wasn't for him and the way that all rolled out, like, I don't
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know, I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now.
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I don't know what would have happened.
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He played a huge role, all of our songs, he just ripped them apart and made them 20 times
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better.
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I know that's a producer's job, but to the extent that he did it was pretty profound.
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So especially that first record, you're hearing Story of the Year, but you're also hearing
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to a large degree, the genius of his songwriting and production abilities.
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The guy is a mad genius when it comes to like rock and like pop rock and pop production
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and just making shit really, really listenable and really catchy.
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And he has just as much to do with as anything as it relates to the success of this band,
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you know?
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After years of grinding under, you know, multiple different band names to get to that point,
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how did it feel to finally have your music recognized around the world?
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Dude, it was incredible.
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Like I said, all we wanted to do was be on the war tour, and I remember being at my mom's
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house and seeing our video on MTV.
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I remember hearing my band on the radio for the first time.
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I remember being in like New Jersey or Connecticut or like Kansas City, and for the first time,
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like they're being a line at the door.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Like being on main stage of Warped Tour instead of one of the small side stages, like that
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all happened really fast, but it's like most "quote-unquote" overnight success stories.
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You don't really hear about, or you're not aware of the 10 years of grinding before that.
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You know what I'm saying?
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So when we've been playing together since middle school, since all through high school,
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you know, and we'd been a band for years, like grinding, and I mean grinding before
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the success of Page Avenue, you know?
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But once it took off, it happened really fast, and I don't know, it's like, dude, teenage
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Ryan, all he wanted to do was play the guitar and make songs.
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And we put out this record, and all of a sudden, I'm with my best friends in the world, playing
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sold-out shows, just partying.
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Like it was just, it's like, a genie came and said, Hey, all your wildest dreams.
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Like, I'm going to times that by ten and just like make them all come true.
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And that's how it was, man.
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Like, I know that sounds kind of dorky and you know, maybe even like approaching cliche,
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but it's like, dude, I got to live out my fucking wildest dreams, you know?
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And it was never like about like chicks or drugs, or it's like, for me, it was all about
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music just to be able to do that with your best bros and not have to worry about money
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and going through a job.
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And just, I don't know, I just feel so grateful.
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That's all I, you know, just immense amounts of gratitude, you know?
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In 2004, Linkin Park asked you to join them for their arena tour in what is one of your
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biggest tours to date.
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What are some of your fondest memories from that time?
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Jesus Christ, almost every memory from that time is a fond memory, you know?
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Like that Linkin Park tour, the thing I remember most is just what first-class human beings
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Linkin Park were, you know?
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We're just these dipshits from St. Louis that ride skateboards and like to throw up
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on each other, and you know, they're this world-class gigantic rock fan, and the first day of tour,
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they walk into the dressing room, and they're like, hey, we're happy to have you on tour.
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Anything you guys need, come to us, you know, they were just so, such first-class human
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beings and such a class act and just great people.
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And that really was a monumental moment for all of us because not only was the tour amazing,
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but it was like Linkin Park single-handedly taught us how to treat people.
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It's like, oh yeah, yeah.
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Like you treat everyone with respect because all these people you meet on the way up, you're
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probably going to meet them all again on the way down.
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I remember talking to Chester about that, you know?
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And we've always taken pride in the fact that we treat everyone with respect.
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We're good to everybody.
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We've never been dicks to people.
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We've never had drama and stupid shit like that with like any other stuff.
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And that all comes from our experience at Linkin Park.
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That was a huge lesson that's like to this day, is kind of paramount to us.
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You know, it's a really important thing that we take a lot of pride in is how we treat
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everyone from like the people sweeping the floor to the promoters, to our managers, to
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booking agents, to fans, to everybody.
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Just like number one is respect.
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You know, we learned that from Linkin Park.
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I give them a lot of credit.
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They had the world at their fingertips, the biggest band in the world at that time, you know,
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and they could have treated anyone how they wanted to.
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And that's how they chose to treat people.
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And I think that's beautiful.
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I hear that a lot about Linkin Park, you know, especially in the wake of Chester's
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unfortunate passing, a lot of people, when they were paying tributes, all said the same
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thing about how they were just stand-up people.
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And I love that that's the experience that you had as well.
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You did work with Joe Hahn on your video for Anthem of Our Dying Day after seeing his work
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with Linkin Park music videos.
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Do you and him still talk from time to time?
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No, we've kind of fallen out of touch with him.
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I mean, I'm sorry, not we.
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I have, just because I'm not like it's weird.
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I talk to my band every single day.
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As weird as that sounds for, like grown men have been around each other for, you know,
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20, 30 years.
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I still talk to those at least one person from my band every single day.
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I don't know, man.
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It's weird though.
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The older I've gotten, the more like kind of introverted I've become.
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I'm just kind of focused on my kids.
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And, like when I'm home, I'm in like full dad mode and full write mode.
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You know, I write a lot.
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I try to stay creative.
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But then when I'm not doing that, it's like family, you know, so I don't like, you know,
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I still live in Missouri.
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I also live in St. Louis and stuff.
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So I've been like notoriously shitty about keeping in contact with people, even some
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of my favorite people in the world.
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I'm just like so guilty of like not picking up the phone from time to time.
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But I think Adam, our bass player, has talked to him recently, but I wish my answer was,
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yeah, we're we keep in touch.
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But unfortunately, I haven't kept in touch with him.
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And that's, that's, that's on me.
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You know, one crazy story that I remember reading from around that time was the backstage
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fight with Godsmack's roadies.
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What happened there, and what was the backstory on that?
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It wasn't the band.
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A lot of that got misinterpreted, and it's probably our fault as much as anyone else's
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just being young, passionate, dipshits, but it wasn't the band.
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So long story super short, we've played at a radio festival, and our singer asked everyone
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in the crowd to like come to the front of the stage.
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If you can imagine an amphitheater, there's usually a lawn section, and so he was asking
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everyone from the lawn.
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It's like; it was pretty immature and pretty like punk rock, I guess.
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I mean, the goal I guess, was to be punk rock.
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He's like, fuck the gates, fuck security.
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Everyone come to front of the stage, and it was pretty reckless and whatnot.
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With time and perspective, I can see that like definitely kind of an irresponsible thing
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to do.
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But either way, it wasn't Godsmack's show.
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It was a radio festival, but for some reason, the crew took it upon themselves to, I don't
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know, I guess, try to like discipline us or try to like whatever, you know, which was
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always odd because it wasn't their show.
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It was not a Godsmack show.
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If it was a Godsmack show, and we pulled some bullshit.
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It's like; you're well within your rights to kick us off the tour, not pay us, whatever,
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blah, blah, blah.
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But it was a radio show full of a lineup of all different bands.
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It was not a Godsmack show.
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Either way, we kind of got into a scuffle with the crew, and punches were thrown and
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some noses were bloodied, and some eyes were blackened and all that.
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And so yeah, it was a mess, but we were really young and really full of passion and kind
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of idiots, and they were just a little overzealous, and I don't know, maybe too much adrenaline
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and I don't know.
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The whole thing was a shit show, and it was stupid.
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It was stupid and regrettable, but I got over that shit ten years ago, 15 years ago.
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I don't care.
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Now it's just kind of funny.
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I'm just glad no one was hurt.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Exactly.
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Moving more into the present, you all recently got to play at the When We Were Young festival.
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What was it like to be part of such a nostalgic lineup?
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Dude, it was insane.
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So I had 85% excitement kind of going through my body and about 15% of worry.
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I was like, man, is this like, I know this is going to sound shitty, but like there was
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a little part of me, it's like, is this kind of sad?
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Is this like, you know, the name is When We Were Young.
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Is this just like a bunch of 40-year-old dudes like trying to capitalize on a scene that
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was popular 20 years ago?
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Is there an element to this that's kind of desperate and sad?
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Got to the show, got on stage, and six seconds in, I was like, nope, this rules.
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There's nothing sad about this.
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This is fucking amazing.
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Everyone was happy to be there.
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Every friend we've made over the last 20 years, everyone from the years to Amberlin to insert
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ABC, D, E, and F, it's literally every band we've toured with for the last 20 years all
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together in one place.
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And it was just like, you couldn't walk backstage, you couldn't walk 10 feet without bumping
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into an old friend, you know, in that capacity, it was just such an incredible experience
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and the show, you could just tell the fans were all very like happy, and I don't know
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if that sounds so dumb to say that they're really happy, but like everyone seems stoked.
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Like everyone just seemed like grateful and stoked, and it was an amazing experience and
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all my concerns about any like sadness of, you know, of the nostalgia, any of that shit
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was alleviated immediately because it was just awesome.
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Yeah, I mean that had to be one of the most crazy lineups I've ever seen for a festival.
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I remember for the first maybe 30 minutes that that was out, there were some people
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thinking that it was just some overzealous scene music fan that Photoshopped something
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together and made this amazing lineup that is every emo kid's dream because it just seems
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so improbable.
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And then when the news outlets start picking it up and realize that this is real, you know,
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I feel really bad for Live Nation in retrospect.
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Everybody thought it was going to be another Fyre Fest, and it wasn't.
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The very fact that they had that many bands and were able to make that go off without
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a hitch, you know, they can't control the weather.
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Day one wasn't their fault, but everything else went off about a hitch, and it was just
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incredible.
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I do think there's a reason why the 2023 version of it is a lot more stripped down in terms
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of how many bands there are just because they probably learned it was logistically a bit
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of a nightmare, but I was unable to secure tickets in time, and I wish I did because that
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was one amazing lineup.
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Dude, I'll tell you this for whatever it's worth.
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From my perspective, it felt like one of the most organized festivals I've ever been to
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in the United States.
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Like it felt European.
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Like some of those big festivals over there, like in Europe, they just, they have it dialed in
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and they know exactly, they know how to do a festival.
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This ran so perfect and smooth.
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I mean, maybe there's shit that I don't know about, but like, I can't imagine it being
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any better.
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Like they did it right.
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It was good.
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COVID certainly impacted every band in different ways.
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How did it impact your band, and how did the development of the new album differ from the
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previous ones because of it?
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Yeah, COVID was, man, so right before COVID, I mean, like right before we had
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shows booked.
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We had studio time booked.
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We just got new management.
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We just got a new booking agent.
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You know, we kind of were poised to completely like relaunch the band because I will, I mean,
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for lack of a better word, we've only been, we've been like a part-time band for the last
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Ten years.
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We haven't been a full-time band, you know?
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2020 was going to be like the rebirth of Story of the Year as a full-time band.
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We had tours booked.
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You know, like I said, we just kind of like cleaned house and started from scratch.
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It was like a really, really exciting time.
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And then literally in like 48 hours, like, nope, you're not touring.
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Nope, you're not going to the studio.
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Nope, everything's just put on pause.
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So now it's kind of a blessing in disguise because we were going to work with a different
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producer, and we wound up working with Colin because, you know, we couldn't do anything
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for months on end.
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So that went away, and we decided to work with Colin instead, which wound up being the most
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incredible fucking dose of serendipity ever because it wound up being the best decision
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we've ever made.
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So we started doing a podcast.
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That was kind of a net positive, a good way to stay busy.
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And I just wrote.
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It's weird.
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Like I don't know what this says about my personality, but the first couple weeks of
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quarantine, I loved it.
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I was like; I'm just going to stay home.
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I don't know this like weird, like protective, like lion part of my fucking animal brain
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kicked in.
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I was like; I'm in protective mode.
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I'm going to like hole up in my house and protect my family.
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And it was like game night, movie night every night.
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We just like went on hikes all the time and just like really just isolated ourselves,
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you know, from the world.
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It was like just a super hyper-focused family time and just like a reevaluation of priorities
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and like what really matters.
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And I just did that.
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And then I just wrote music, and it was like, it was kind of awesome.
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A couple months of that, I was just like, oh my God, I need to get in the studio.
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We need to go on tour about a while.
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That only lasted for a little bit.
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Then, then it was just like, Jesus, we got to get going here.
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But yeah, I wrote like shit and songs over quarantine.
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And I guess that's the other kind of upside to it is like, I refuse to like be one of
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those people that's going to like complain and blame shit on the state of the world.
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I was like; I want to look back at quarantine and go like, I made the best of it, you know,
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like I made the best of it with what I could do.
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And my version of that was writing music.
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So it's like, when I look back at this, I'm going to have a shit ton of music that I wrote,
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enough music to make four albums, you know, and you know, I started this YouTube channel.
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I did a bunch of cool like stuff with my photography.
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I did a bunch of really cool personal projects.
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I made a bunch of really cool shit that I don't have time to talk about now, but like,
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it wound up being a positive for our band.
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So it definitely affected the record.
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It definitely worked to our benefit of, like, instead of just rush out the gate, like
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ah, shows, record blah, blah, blah.
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Like, it forced us to slow down and really be methodical and strategic about like the
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chess pieces we were moving, you know.
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Speaking of projects, I want to expand on your thoughts of the music industry's current
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state.
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A few years ago, you and Adam Russell filmed a Kickstarter-backed movie about the music
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industry titled Who Killed or Saved the Music Industry.
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What was your experience like with launching that project on Kickstarter, and what lessons
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did you learn that you'd consider or advise someone else to consider before launching
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their own project?
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Oh, okay.
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So I hope this answers your question.
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The thing I learned most, and I don't care about making myself look like an ass, it's
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fine, is that however much I thought I knew about the music industry, I just didn't.
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So the whole project was like film school, a crash course in music industry, 101.
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My interest in making that film was the human element.
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Like how, you know, the rise of social media and digital music and yada, yada, yada, yada,
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yada, yada, yada, how that affected people on a personal level.
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I didn't give a fuck about algorithms and data and numbers and this and that.
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It's like, I only cared about the human element, which made me perhaps not the best person
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to present myself in a position of authority or some kind of an authoritative voice for
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like analytics and music industry data and predictions and yada, yada, yada.
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I truly just cared about, I was having all these conversations with my friends.
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We'd be in Australia hanging out with Yellowcard, and we were talking about how, you know, how
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it affected them and this person, like all these conversations we were having.
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And I was like, damn man, if somebody just could hear the effect that these changes had
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on and not just negative, lots of positives too.
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That'd be such an interesting film.
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Adam is a lot more, you know, he's a lot more data-driven.
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His brain is a lot more wired for like numbers and infrastructure and stuff.
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My brain's like, I want to see a painting.
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Like I want the world explained to me through a beautiful piece of art.
386
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,360
Adam is the kind of brain that was the world explained through him through like a user's
387
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,200
manual and data and numbers.
388
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,760
And I'm just not wired like that.
389
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,840
I discovered a lot about myself in that project.
390
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,080
So you know, that was the upside to that.
391
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:30,800
And yeah, I mean, the crowdfunding thing is tricky because, you know, we way over-promised
392
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:35,000
like in terms of like how fast we get the film done.
393
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:41,680
And we just really, really overestimated like our capabilities and overestimated like mostly
394
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:43,360
just how much work it would be.
395
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:46,400
And we thought we'd get it done in X amount of time.
396
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:50,240
And it took like 15 times, like literally took years to do this project.
397
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,080
And we completely underestimated how much work it would be.
398
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:59,080
It turned into a complete and total full-time job, not just a passion project, you know?
399
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:00,080
So learned a lot.
400
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:01,080
It was film school.
401
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:05,800
But one of the things I learned was like, I just, I care about making art, and I'm not
402
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:12,400
the person when it comes to like predictions about business models and algorithms that there's
403
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:16,560
so many more people that are well, much more knowledgeable than me about that.
404
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:17,560
You know?
405
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:22,200
So that was one of the main things I discovered that my ego doesn't like to admit, but I will.
406
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,840
I'm happy to admit it.
407
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,820
Now speaking of making art, you are on the cusp of releasing your new album, Tear Me
408
00:24:28,820 --> 00:24:29,820
to Pieces.
409
00:24:29,820 --> 00:24:34,200
You've stated that the title track is the perfect representation of what Story of The
410
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,080
Year is all about.
411
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,700
Could you tell us about some other special moments on the album that you're excited for
412
00:24:39,700 --> 00:24:41,600
fans to hear?
413
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:42,600
Yeah.
414
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,000
So, okay.
415
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,200
The first song Tear Me to Pieces, I do feel like it's like the perfect representation
416
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,480
because it's got like upbeat punk vibes.
417
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,600
It's got like some of the heaviest riffage that we've ever had.
418
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,920
The beginning starts with an acoustic, like really like energetic drumming, blah, blah.
419
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:02,520
So it's a very dynamic song that kind of represents all the extremes we went to.
420
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:07,880
I think this record, more than anything, more than any record we've ever done, the focus
421
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,360
has been on songwriting.
422
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:13,800
I know it's like a weird thing to say, but like there's been other records where it's
423
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,400
like personally me, I don't really care what Dan's singing about.
424
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,620
I just want to have cool guitar riffs and music that kind of makes your head move and
425
00:25:20,620 --> 00:25:22,640
makes your body move and whatever.
426
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:24,240
It's like, I really don't care what you're singing about.
427
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:30,760
Like to me, I was just like, I want awesome compositions of music, you know?
428
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:35,520
But this record is kind of, you know, we had some other records where we got a little political
429
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:42,320
and a little on the nose in terms of, like, we feel this, we believe this, blah, blah,
430
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:43,320
blah.
431
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:49,560
This record was kind of like a return to basics, a return to the way we, you know, like our
432
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,760
first record is just full of metaphors.
433
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:57,360
It's full of kind of ambiguous meanings that people can kind of interpret any way they
434
00:25:57,360 --> 00:25:58,360
want to.
435
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,480
And what those lyrics mean to one person might mean a completely different thing to other
436
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:03,480
people.
437
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,320
It wasn't so on the nose and obvious.
438
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:10,920
So this was kind of a return to that, you know, like with a focus on lyrics and a focus
439
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:18,400
on the song structures and, you know, all notions of like satisfying my ego to like
440
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:19,800
show off on the guitar.
441
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,080
Like I way outgrew that stuff.
442
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:26,840
We outgrew, you know, it was just like, if it doesn't serve the song, it's not going
443
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,040
to be in the song, you know?
444
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:34,200
And when you strip everything down to its most basic form, is this a good song?
445
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,200
Yes or no.
446
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:36,360
If it is, let's make it great.
447
00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:38,240
If it's not onto the next.
448
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:44,640
So that was like the litmus test for everything that when there's like 40, 50 songs and it
449
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,840
was like some of my favorite guitar moments, some of them probably the best shit that I'll
450
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:54,040
ever do ever didn't make the album because the song wasn't great, you know?
451
00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:00,200
And for me personally, just being able to look past my instrument and look at the whole
452
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,800
and how will this song emotionally resonate with another human being as opposed to just
453
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:10,360
like, you know, my, my taste or my ego or my, or whatever.
454
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,980
That's how all of our early songs were written.
455
00:27:12,980 --> 00:27:17,380
You know, it was just about the song, and it's a return to that.
456
00:27:17,380 --> 00:27:22,120
And I think that just makes for a record that's start to finish fun to listen to, you know?
457
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:23,120
Yeah.
458
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:27,400
And now I noticed that the cover art for Tear Me to Pieces shares the same falling man motif
459
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,400
as Page Avenue.
460
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,800
Do you consider these two albums to be connected?
461
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,520
And additionally, what was the inspiration behind that design back in 2003?
462
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:37,520
Yeah.
463
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:46,960
So, I mean, just like what I said just now about it being kind of a return to just writing,
464
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,740
the way we wrote Page Avenue, like even though this record doesn't sound like Page Avenue,
465
00:27:51,740 --> 00:27:54,440
it was very much written in the spirit of Page Avenue.
466
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,020
We didn't realize that until we were done.
467
00:27:57,020 --> 00:28:00,960
It was like, holy shit, like this, this is crazy.
468
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:06,460
The mindset we were in, you know, with, with the way these songs were written and the way
469
00:28:06,460 --> 00:28:11,100
we like built the foundation, like this is exactly how we did Page Avenue.
470
00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:12,460
We didn't know it in the moment, you know?
471
00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:17,880
So after it was done, we kind of realized like, wow, this is like, this really was a
472
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,800
return to the basics for us, you know?
473
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:26,320
Like these are just the dudes in the basement, like just making fucking cool songs.
474
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:27,320
And that's what this was.
475
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:28,520
We didn't overthink stuff.
476
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:33,480
We didn't like think about, oh, we have to have this like really important message or
477
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,280
it was just like, no, let's just make rad shit, you know?
478
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:42,680
And that's all we've ever tried to do is just like make shit that feels rad to us, that
479
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,240
moves us and hopefully, it'll move other people, you know?
480
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:52,040
And that whole mindset and that whole like operating process really, really felt like
481
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:57,680
everything felt really new and fresh and exciting in a way that it hadn't in a really, really,
482
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:58,680
really long time.
483
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:03,960
So it felt appropriate to kind of bring that logo back because everything about this record
484
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,560
felt like making a first record again, as weird as that might sound after 20 years,
485
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:09,560
you know?
486
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:11,100
So that felt right.
487
00:29:11,100 --> 00:29:15,560
And that Falling Guy logo, we never really, we always change logos every record.
488
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,280
We never had a consistent logo.
489
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,880
And you know, in the spirit of kind of going back to the basic, we thought it was cool
490
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:28,080
to bring that one back, to just kind of make an updated, more modern twist on it, you know?
491
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,080
Definitely.
492
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,040
Well, before we wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to mention to the fans?
493
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,400
Anything else you'd like to say?
494
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:41,600
Yes, we will be touring like we haven't toured in 10-plus years.
495
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,220
I think the last record we put, we put out a self-released album called Wolves.
496
00:29:45,220 --> 00:29:50,320
We did an LA show, St. Louis show, New York, like a couple of big cities, Japan and Australia,
497
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:51,320
and that was it.
498
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,800
And it was like, yeah, we're good.
499
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,120
You know, we were a part-time band.
500
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,400
Now we are transitioning back to being a full-time band.
501
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,800
This spring we'll be doing a full US tour.
502
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,680
We're going to be doing a bunch of overseas stuff, a bunch of flyout stuff.
503
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,920
None of this shit, like seven years between records, five years between records.
504
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:11,960
I'm already writing another one now.
505
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:16,540
So the new record comes out March 10th, and probably by March 10th, I'll have a whole
506
00:30:16,540 --> 00:30:18,760
another record already written.
507
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:19,760
Excellent.
508
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:21,800
Well, I want to thank you for joining us today.
509
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,680
It's been a pleasure speaking with you, and I'm looking forward to catching you on tour
510
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,120
when you come through my area in the future.
511
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,440
But I'm so thankful you joined us today, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
512
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:33,440
Awesome dude.
513
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:34,440
Yeah.
514
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:35,640
And sorry, I had like nine cups of coffee.
515
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,080
So if I'm super high energy, that's why.
516
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,040
I'm high energy as well.
517
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:44,640
That brings us to the end of this episode.
518
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:49,180
Tear Me to Pieces will release on March 10th, 2023, and the title track is now available
519
00:30:49,180 --> 00:30:51,520
for streaming on your DSP of choice.
520
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:55,320
I want to thank Ryan for joining us today and for being such an incredible guest.
521
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,880
My name is Derek Oswald, and this has been another episode of the Altwire Podcast.
522
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:09,560
Thanks for listening.
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