A new year is upon us! This is the time to reflect on what you have accomplished in 2017 and this is the time to set your goals for 2018!
*Insert inspiring quote here*
To be honest I didn’t hit all of my goals for this year however I made big strides in my audio career!
From working part time at Broken Crow Studios, losing my job at UPS (which needed to happen in order for me to pursue certain endeavors), started working part time at Manchester Music Hall, making a shit load of friends that are involved in the music scene and I’ve been recording/mixing a full album for The Empty Room!
This year has been quite eventful and I’m excited to take things to the next level. Super Saiyan 4 to be exact
So it’s the end of 2017 and as always people are coming out with their top albums of the year lists. So I decided to record myself, talking to myself, about My Top 5 Albums Of 2017!
With Christmas right around the corner I was able to squeeze one more interview in but unfortunately my laptop decided, “I’m not going to bounce out of Pro Tools for you, fuck you man it’s the holidays.” So I was very close from Office Space’ing my computer. Luckily my homie Drew came to the rescue and bounced out part one for me and you!
THANKGODTHECHRISTMASEXTRAGANZACLUSTERFUCK is over with amiright? No but seriously happy holidays everyone, hopefully Santa brought you some cool gadgets! I got a Fitbit so I guess it’s time to start working out again and no I’m not a “New year new me” gym goer. My gift to all of you though is an two part interview with Andrew Garrett and Nick Watkins of SPECTATOR!
Spectator is a 2 man instrumental band with a very ambient/lo-fi/rock sound so if you are a fan of Pink Floyd, early Deftones, hometown heroes Midnight Channels and Parallel Colors than this is right up your alley!
In the beginning and end of this episode you will hear a sample of a track from their upcoming EP “The Nautilus” which is 20 minutes of jamtastic grooves (Jamtastic Grooves is my future band name, back off!)
WRWpodcast EP23 – SPECTATOR – Part One:
– In part one we talk about the room were setup in, their previous band ApeShit, discussing the art of film, the meanings behind the ApeShit song titles, the recording process of The Nautilus EP, talked about bands we like, and much much more! Check out part one below and be on the look out for part two!
WRWpodcast EP23 – SPECTATOR – Part Two:
– In part two we talk about our love/hate for Korn, why whack rappers are popular, debating if people should buy music or listen for free, and discussing super hero films!
Whats going on everyone!? I should have plenty of podcast episodes coming to you this month, so Merry Christmas! Fun fact I have to do Christmas shopping still, should I even bother at this point? I know I was inactive last month but I promise I will make up for it! Starting off December with a interview with the guys in Era of Machines! A 5 piece prog metal band (Currently a 4 piece) from Louisville, Kythat makes 4/4 standard music listener’s heads explode!
I’m pretty sure I have seen these guys live, well I know for a fact I have seen two of the members play in another local band. If you are a fan of Animals As Leaders or Periphery then they are the band for you! In this episode you will hear a snippet from their recent demo titled, “Echoes”. The song features fast, intricate drum patterns that break the time barrier, and ambient guitar melodies accompanied by crushing bass lines! The song has tremendous potential to be stellar and I hope they find a vocalists that will remain permanent!
PS IF YOU DO VOCALS YOU SHOULD HIT THEM UP TO AUDITION! EVEN IF YOU ARE A SOUND CLOUD RAPPER, JUST DO IT!
In this episode we discuss where the name “Era of Machines” comes from, How the band started, what type of music they are into, trying to stop the government from breaking the internet, shedding a few tears for the music venues that are no longer around, recommended shows to watch on Netflix, and much much more!
Good afternoon everyone! We are 2 days away from celebrating one full year of the Whatcha Recording Willis Podcastand to anyone who has listened to the podcast or that has given me positive feed back thank you so very much! To help make things come full circle here is episode 20 featuring the guys in Flip The Switch!!! Side note in the interview I say “Episode 21” because I have a second round interview with Softspoken that I thought was going to be uploaded before this interview took place. How ever the episodes are flip flopped so sorry for the confusion! EP 21 of WRWpodcast will be Softspoken round two, uploading the 27th!
Flip The Switch is a 5 piece rock/heavy metal/metal-core band based out of Madison Indiana! For fans of, All That Remains, Miss May I, even For The Fallen Dreams. They fuse a lot of elements from early 2006 metal-core with the vocal arrangements and the gnarly breakdowns! But they also offer a modern heavy metal sound with tasty guitar licks, guitar solos and eargasmic drum fills!
It should be noted that certain members of the band can play multiple instruments which not only helps them be more creative during the writing process but it keeps their sound unique and fresh. If you see them live you will see this Chinese Fire Drill theatrics and in no way does this hinder their performance!
Flip The Switch is making tremendous progress for a band that has only been around for a year! They have shared the stage with some big named acts such as Miss May I, Earth Groans, Wage War, Varials, and Gideon. They are set to release their debut EP “Any Last Words” Sunday November 5th at Madison All Ages Show! So mark your calendars because that show is going to be off the chain!
In this episode you will hear a teaser of the new single “Shoot Me Dead”, we talk about where the name Flip The Switch comes from, how the band formed, their writing process, musical influences, their stance on current political issues, favorite songs off the EP, name dropping local bands and we asked some questions from the Swiggity Swooty Club!
Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is here, the rain is over, now take it easy and listen to the latest Whatcha Recording Willis Podcast episode with my good friends from Sun Dogs!
This episode is a little different than the previous episodes. It’s more of a jam session with a few questions but it’s nice being able to mix it up! If I would of known ahead of time that they would be playing a few songs I would of brought a whole arsenal of microphones to help make it sound better. How ever I used my trusty MXL990 mic and surprisingly it doesn’t sound like a potato!
Sun Dogs are a 4 piece rock group based out of Louisville Ky. They are super low key great so get in on the ground floor and invest your money into their band! No just kidding, they have been around for a while now and their sound is for those who crave good ‘ol fashion rock n roll!
I met these guys back in 2016 when a friend of mine, Kelly Scott Franklin (which I hope to have on the podcast soon!) told me he had some buddies in a band called Sun Dogs looking to record a few songs. Its an amazing feeling to have someone recommend you to other people so of course I was excited to record them! I’m not going to lie I was a bit worried about the whole thing since I didn’t have a studio space, I had a feeling not having a “studio” was going to make them look else where.
However Kelly let me use his basement to set up shop and now I’m forever in his debt! We ended up recording three songs and one of the songs aired on the Crescent Hill Radio!
So a year later we decided to set up shop once again, this time in someone else basement for a impromptu jam session and to chit chat about life! In this episode we talk about where the name “Sun Dogs” originated from, what we were doing when we were 19 years old, charities they would play for, The time they played 30 songs at a field party, debating if people who save trees use toilet paper, and much much more!
Good afternoon everyone! Hopefully we survive the aftermath of all these hurricanes so we can continue watching the new season of Rick & Morty! No but in all seriousness I hope Florida doesn’t get wiped off the map. If you have love ones living down south make sure to send them your thoughts & prayers and make sure they are evacuating or at least bunkered down! Not to make your day anymore depressing here is a brand new interview with Sascha Rissling!
So majority of you will have no clue who this guy is or even, “how the hell does Willis know this random guy from Germany!?” Well spoiler alert, the internet!
Sascha and I are apart of the URM Academy AKA Nail The Mix. If you are unfamiliar with Nail The Mix but you are into music production then this online-subscription based education is where it’s at! This is where you get to enter in a monthly mix off competition with multi-track files from bands like, Gojira, Machine Head, Periphery, A Day To Remember and other amazing bands AND you get a bird’s eye view from the actual producer/mixer of the song who walks you through step by step on how the song was mixed. I’ve met many people through the Facebook group, thus leading to Sascha coming on the Whatcha Recording Willis Podcast as a guest!
Sascha is a death metal/black metal guitar player from Germany and fellow podcaster, “Don’t Do This To Your Band Podcast“! On his website he recently wrote an article about his departure from Der Weg Einer Freiheit(The Way of Freedom) which is a rather popular band over there in Germany. The article is a worth while read, especially if you are a touring musician or you have been in a band for a long time. It gives great insight on what the touring musician life style is like and what it can do to your mental state. But not all is lost! Sascha has a new band called, Fuck You and Dieand they slay!
In this episode we talk about his time in Der Weg Einer Freiheit, his other musical projects, our first time asking money for recording/mixing services, his upbringing, the German work culture, how he got into metal, our stories of getting into Slipknot, and much much more!
Make sure to follow Sacha on all forms of social media: Website – You can read his blog posts, watch videos, and see his podcast! Facebook Itunes Youtube Instagram
Whats up everyone, happy Monday! Never fear Willis is here with a new podcast episode featuring Adam Loellke & Brandon Stuck from Pickwick Commons, a hardcore 4 piece out of Indianapolis Indiana! For fans of: Code Orange, Varials, Knocked Loose, The Ghost Inside, Kublai Khan, and Left Behind! This is a Skype interview so I apologize for the quality, it glitches out from time to time. How ever I’m glad our schedules lined up to do an interview!
I saw them a month ago with Cane Hill and My Enemies & I. I’m not sure why we didn’t talk about this but they opened up their set with a heavy cover of the theme song from That ’70s Show! Immediately upon hearing that cover I knew that they were going to kill it and despite a crowd of 20 people Pickwick Commons was pretty dam impressive! They have a similar vocal style to one of my favorite hardcore bands Code Orange. Not tone wise per say but similar to Code Orange they utilize other members of the band to hit certain vocal ranges/notes. Colin Fedorchak (guitar player) adds extra fry vocals that will make your hair stick up and Wes Holland (bass player) has a low growl that will make you feel less of a man, it’s super low and gnarly!
Another thing that impressed me was the songs themselves. Yes they were immensely heavy with a lot of swing & grove but they also had some melodic parts that most hardcore bands wouldn’t think of trying. I definitely recommend that you see these guys live because they are well rehearsed and have an amazing stage presence!
In this episode we talked about how Pickwick Commons started, playing at a run down venue in Cleveland, the split EP they did with Old Poet, utilizing Colin & Wes on vocals, playing Warp Tour, their cool day jobs (jelly), the hardships of booking shows, who they would like to play, and much much more!
Hopefully your still able to see after looking at the eclipse today because here is a brand new podcast episode featuring Ryan Matthews of Quick Runner!!! Quick Runner is a 4 piece rock band from southern Indiana and if you are a fan of Concealer these guys will be your new jam!
This has been in the works for a long time! Ryan and I have been fan boying each other back and forth ever since a show at Taproom. The convo went something like this:
Me: “Your band is dope dude!”
Ryan: “Your podcast is tight!”
Me & Ryan: “COLLAB BRO?”
No but seriously his band is amazing and they write some catchy tunes! I like to say they are one of those bands that no matter how much of a genre snob you are you will find them enjoyable to listen to. You can check them out this Sunday (8/27/17) at Zanzabar with Darlington Paris and Midnight Channels!!! Click here for show details
Several months later our schedules finally aligned to chillax with some beers, talk about how Quick Runner came to be, what we’ve been jamming to lately, what local bands we would like to see play with each other, what Ryan goes through working at a liquor store and much much more!
Happy Thursday everyone! Sorry for the upload delay last week! I was on vacation but now I’m back bringing you more podcasts to listen to and I’m contemplating on why the hell I came back haha. This weeks episode features two of my good friends Xavi & Nov who are bring some fire to the Louisville’s rap scene!
I’ve known these two since middle school and high school, RIP Myers Middle School. I always knew Xavi to be the “rapper” but Nov got inspired and hopped on the mic. We grew up playing YMCA basketball but they picked up the mic and now they run an outfit called La Familia! So it only makes since to throw on the “LF” hats and talk about what they got going on!
This podcast is split into two parts. Part one features Xavi’s song “Audible Drugs” which you download off his latest mixtape: HERE!!! In this episode we talked about Xavi possibly switching his rap name to “Twenty8oh5”, turning me into the next Lil Yachty (YAH YAH YAH), musical influences, what inspired them to pursue rap/hip-hop, the story of Audible Drugs being played in Russia, and much much more!
Happy Friday everyone! Once again stay inside and binge listen to podcasts all day! Here is a brand new episode with our good friend Sean Smith! Sean is a fellow podcaster with an wicked amazing radio personality. Sean has been kicking ass and taking names over at Sean Vs Wild! 31 episodes into the podcast with no plans of stopping, he’s talking with local musician/bands, touring musicians, people who work in the music industry, and even cosplayers! He was also nice enough to hook us up with some shirts, seriously they are super duper comfy!
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We invited Sean over to discuss why he started his own podcast, his upbringing with music, tour life with Uh Huh Baby Yeah, discuss some of our favorite movies and much much more! We honestly could of talked forever but for the sake of getting some sleep we had to call it quits. This will be a two part episode so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the conclusion of Sean Smith VS Willis&Jordan.
PART ONE:
PART TWO:
Make sure to follow Sean and his podcast on all social media outlets/podcast apps!
