Striker just wanna have fun

ep35 – Striker just wanna have fun

[00:00:00] I was 15 years old at church camp when my good friend Jeff pulled out a cassette of Soldiers under Command by the Christian Glam Metal Band Stryper. That’s Stryper with a Y and a P for the AI transcribing this intro. That sentence is so full of everything you needed to know about my world at age 15.

It’s not even funny. Things like church camp were about as wild as things got for me in the Canadian prairies, a ridiculously low number of responsible adults and a lot of free time, but the introduction of the forbidden pied pipers and Stryper via cassette was next level. I knew my parents would not approve yellow and black shredded spandex holding machine guns.

The album cover made me feel things. It was my gateway drug into metal, eighties metal. I was about a year away from Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet mega record, [00:01:00] a year and a half from Poisons Talk Dirty To Me on Much Music, and still two full years away from GN R’s. Appetite for Destruction, destroying every headbanger on the west side of Regina, Saskatchewan.

ACDC’s Who Made Who and Shook Me All Night Long became the soundtrack of the boys’ locker room. I was fully immersed. It was the sound of rebellion I had to tapdance, around it a lot. My conservative Christian parents justify whether Stryper with a Y and a P could truly be Christians. I eventually bought and sold Van Halen’s 51 50 record three times out of Christian guilt.

Rebellion resonated with me. We were all looking for identity. Punk hadn’t really swept the Canadian prairies though. SNFU was making regular stops that made the top of the buzz on the following Monday mornings. While punk had the perception of reckless abandon right down to its playing [00:02:00] metal had an integrity housed in its angst, birthing dozens of periodicals like Guitar Player Magazine to enshrine its champions.

The guitar hopeful in me was totally baited Striker with an I and a K is an Edmonton based metal band formed in 2007, which Wikipedia has indulgent labeled everything from thrash to speed to power, to the classic heavy. Those are all in air quotes by the way. They have toured the globe releasing seven full length albums, winning Canada’s top prize of Juno in 2020 for Heavy Metal album of the year.

They have professed that they have traditionally had more in common with the style of Legends, iron Maiden for most of their career until shedding expectations With the latest release Ultra Power and putting a little more late eighties straight [00:03:00] ahead, glam into the mix and taking this former head banger back to his Regina roots.

My name is Glen Erickson. This is Almost Famous Enough. Thanks for spending your time with us. This is Striker.

 

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Got,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Welcome, Dan. Dan Cleary, Tim Brown of the band Striker, Edmonton Bass, Canadian Metal Band, striker, which is like coming up on 20 years. I just realized because I’m always surprised that we just rolled, turn the page for 2 20, 20 26 here, which means you’re a year away from official, what you would call official 20 years.

Do you call 2007 your official start, like Wikipedia and every other website?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, it’s kind of like, uh, that’s like the, the first inception of the band, [00:04:00] right? Like when we, that was like right outta high school. So it w we didn’t, we weren’t really doing anything in, in, uh, 2007. It was more just like, that’s when we decided to be a band. So the first thing we ever really put out was, it wasn’t until like 2010, I guess.

So we, we just screwed around for like three years and then finally did something.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Which isn’t terribly different than the history of most bands star starting out, right? Like, can I assume, was that like high school age? Like where were you at in life when, when that was happening? Dan, you, you, Dan, I should also say you’re the og, right? Like you’re the

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, yeah,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: the one OG member, right? So yeah.

Where, so where in in life was that happening for you? Was that that typical high school? Let’s do this.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah. That was, that was, so we graduated in 2006, 2007 when the band formed. That was just like right after high school. And we had had a band, uh, in high school. Just a few, a few [00:05:00] different members and like, yeah, so we just, this was like the new band that we formed after that other band had kind of disbanded and, yeah, it was, uh, just high school friends, typical kind of band start.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I mean, 2007, it’s funny right, because like you said, like, yeah, we just screwed around for a while. Probably we’re doing the typical thing, just trying to a, get good, good enough to feel proud enough to go out, and then you’re trying to get gigs and finding out where can we actually play and we’ll, you know, and all of that.

Like, that can get spread out over a couple of few years pretty quick for a band starting up. But I mean, almost 20 years is a long time. Like, so you guys have played obviously all around the world, spent a lot of time in Europe and, and you know, and crossed over in, through a lot of different scenes in a lot of different places, I assume is longevity.

A [00:06:00] hallmark of metal bands? Or is it the opposite? Or is it just sort of somewhere in between? Like a lot of genres or do, where does longevity sit in the, in the metal spectrum?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I mean, I think it’s pretty, pretty common. I think like you see a lot of bands in metal who just like, I mean, uh, like Anvil is a good example. Just go forever, right? Like, so, I don’t know. I think it’s, it’s, it’s interesting because when I, when I think about like 20 years, doing it for 20 years seems insane

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: There’s a lot of, yeah, there’s a lot of bands that are doing like 40 and 50th anniversary tours. I mean, isn’t Scorpions doing 50 or something and Jewish Priest is I think doing a 50th or something.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: That’s a. A long time. I mean, even if you look at the show that Metallica just put on the last time they come around for the amount of years they’ve been doing it, that’s a pretty, you know, pretty intense thing to still be doing at that level for as long. I mean, I think [00:07:00] all of us would believe that like Lemmy would still be playing if he was alive.

It’s right. So, um, he, he probably wouldn’t have quit either. What about like, so you guys have been able to see a lot of the more, I mean, I think this is interesting and I’m gonna want to get your take on it. Like, I would call it just the indie metal scene, but I think, I think, and I’m guessing the indie and what you would call Indie in Metal is very different than some of the other adjacent genres around it.

And, um, there seems to be a, a pretty large, what I call middle with independent. Like there’s a lot of pretty major independent labels in metal, right? That, you know, is that an accurate take? For, for the metal genre that there’s like some pretty prominent labels that in the mainstream still get classified probably as major independent, still not sort of part of the the big major label scene.

Is that an accurate assumption or is that not an accurate [00:08:00] assumption at all?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I mean, yeah, I’d say so. I, I think there’s a lot of like, like well intentioned people who start record labels because they’re like super into it, right? Like, they’re into the music, they wanna be involved. Maybe they’re not in a band, but they’re, you know, they wanna be a part of it in some ways. Uh, I think there’s a lot of, like, especially in Europe, there’s a ton of like smaller record labels that do, uh.

You know, the like, traditional, especially like in traditional metal that has like a pretty hardcore following that, you know, without those sort of indie labels, no bands would ever press CDs. Right. You know, because it’s like, you know, it’d be kind of like niche sounding bands that, you know, probably never will have like mass appeal necessarily, but they do have appeal to like this specific niche of, you know, traditional heavy metal or something like that.

So, I mean, there’s definitely a lot of those out there for sure. I[00:09:00]

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Okay, well, I mean this is something I like to do usually anyhow, is I like to kind of go back, I kind of started by asking you, you know, about, you know, coming up on 20 years. Obviously that’s a long time, so I kind of like to go back, help me kind of get to know how all of this developed to get you to who you are right now, and as well as, obviously for the listeners, and this is fun for me because obviously my normal, uh, I mean the path that I’ve gone through in my career kind of lends me to a lot of people to bring on the podcasts that are pretty adjacent to the genres and the, and the social circles and all of, in the, in the music industry and all that and, and metal’s been outside of that for me.

So this is great. This is fantastic and it, that’s why I really appreciate you guys coming on to do this. And, but my, but my past ’cause I’m, I’m an older gentleman who. Grew up in the eighties listening to eighties metal, like heavily, heavily influenced. So it’s kind of [00:10:00] fun for me ’cause it just taps back into a part that was just such a huge part of, my teenage development years.

And, uh, so it, it’s, you know, it’s always present. It’s always there. Um, anyhow, and, and there’s been a resurgence on TikTok of a bunch of some of these things, uh, which has been kind of fun lately too. But I, I think we’ll. Touch on that a little bit. ’cause like the, the last album in 2024, obviously the press gives it a lot of references and I’d like to find out sort of your take on what your approach was on that too, but going all the way back, that’s what you said, 2007 you form outta high school.

You’ve been kind of messing around, probably doing, like you said, the typical things a band does. Just trying to get good and good enough to get shows and then get people out to shows and then sort of do the typical, how do we build, you know, you know, whether your aspirations are actually a big career or just the next show or legitimacy or something, whatever that like first [00:11:00] few objectives are when you’re a band, can I even get a show outside of my hometown?

You know, when does that happen? Um, all of those things. so. There’s a few different things on the internet. Uh, you guys probably are well aware of this about what your actual quote unquote first release was. Um, uh, sort of most of them point towards 2010 or eyes in the Night. Is that what you, is that like your first official release?

Was that self-released? Was that with the, what was the thing? I know that I read about you, you made contact with a guy in Germany, German label stuff. How did, how did it sort of develop where you got to that step of when you’re making that record, first releases and kind of get that ball rolling? How did that sort of come together for you guys?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, it was, uh, it was kind of funny. So like we, the first, uh, EP that we put out was, uh, road Warrior was the title, um, after the, after the movie. [00:12:00] And, uh, so we recorded that, like a demo version of it, uh, just like at home on our own. And just ’cause, I mean, it’s just sort of like, you know, the DIY studio stuff was getting a little bit more accessible around that time, so we were just like, well, we’ll just do it ourselves, you know?

We’ll, we’ll record a demo and just

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: That’s like 2009 ish where you were doing this.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: So what was the equipment, what was the DIO? I’m sorry. Sidebar.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Uh,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: what you were recording on.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, we, I mean we used like, uh, I can’t remember. I had some sort of, I bought like a mixing desk thing, and it were, it was like a pro tools like Mario thing. And, uh, so like, and, and we recorded the drums, but I remember that thing was so bad. Like it would clip like, I don’t know, it wasn’t supposed to be for drums or something like that.

It would clip everything clipped on it. It was just like, I don’t know. It wasn’t great. But anyways, we, we managed to figure it out

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: recorded a, a, a demo. And, uh, we had a [00:13:00] friend of ours who was like big on the traditional metal. Uh, our buddy Clayton who, and he would go to Europe all the time for the, for like the metal festivals there, like, you know, go to V and stuff like that.

And, uh. I gave him the, like the MP three files, and I remember he had like this old school MP three player and uh, he ended up taking it with him. I think it was either, uh, 2008 or 2009, took that demo with him and, you know, he was just excited to have like a band from his hometown doing that type of music.

So he, uh, showed it to a bunch of people and then a bunch of people were super interested in it. ’cause I think that’s a very, like, you know, it’s fun to like find the underground up and coming bands or whatever and uh, you know, that kind of thing. So, but one of the people he showed was, um, one of the people that ran the label that did our first, uh, ep.

And I mean, at the time I don’t think we were taking it that seriously. We were kind of just like. You know, this is fun. We’re doing it. And I mean, like, [00:14:00] what are the chances that this is gonna be like, you know, something we could do like in any capacity, you know? So we, when they were interested in it, you know, they were gonna like sign us to a, a record deal basically.

And, uh, we released, uh, the first two. So the, the EP and then the first full length, the Eyes in the Night album with them. the LA label was called Iron Codex and like that they’re not around anymore. I mean, uh, they weren’t that great to deal with. They were like, okay. And you know, we, we got the albums out and um, you know, sold a few copies and, they pressed vinyl, which was really cool.

Um, but, uh, yeah, that was sort of like the start. That was sort of the, you know, sort of like the springboard for us to be like, somebody actually wants to, to put this. Music out and we’re like, okay, sure. And then just kind of went from there.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: well I have the [00:15:00] curiosity about that, right? Which is, um, I mean a common thread through, no matter what genre or style or whatever people are developing, especially when they’re late teens, early twenties, is. I so much of, I think it gets built off of what version of validation we get for what we’re doing.

Right? Like little, little pop stars that’s often their like family that’s just, and they maybe have, you see it is common stories that they have big families and so, or they were all church goers and they got to sing in church and they got all that validation, like some version of a thing like made people think like, yeah, maybe we’re actually good at this.

Right. And I don’t know what it was for you guys that you were playing early twenties, you know, very beginning of that age and, and whether you were getting a lot of validation here in Edmonton, um, either from the scene or from just people you knew or what, what was sort of driving you, because the validation of having, you know, a European record label [00:16:00] guy wanna put your music out, that’s gotta feel like a big, a big leak, a big jump.

What kind of things were happening for you guys here in Edmonton that were making you feel like it was legit for you?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, like, uh, we had a pretty good scene going in Edmonton. That was back in the day when there was, uh, the, that old venue, uh, the meat hall and um. Like, so Tim was in a band, Tim wasn’t in the band like in Striker at the time, but he was in Six Gun, which is his band. And we would play with them all the time.

Uh, and we had, there was a quite a few different bands who kind of, right at the same time were all sort of interested in the same style of music, like a bit more of the like eighties influenced to heavy metal stuff. Um, and I mean, the most, like, mostly the scene in Edmonton at the time was like death metal.

And it wasn’t like, like doing a, you know, like a clean vocals metal band that sounds like Iron Maiden wasn’t really like a popular thing at the time. Like, it was like we would play and if, if there was [00:17:00] another band, it would be a death metal band, unless it was Tim’s band, you know. And then, uh. So, yeah, but I mean, as far as like the validation goes, like we, we were all like stoked, uh, and when we had like a little group of, of bands that kind of came together at the same time and we were all kind of the same age.

Um, so just outta high school and then like, you know, it’s fun to go play shows, drink beer, like, uh, you know, everybody kinda like partied together and went to the same parties and stuff like that. And then, um, yeah, like the, definitely getting the, the record label interested was sort of like a, like a legit validating thing for us.

’cause I don’t think we even considered like that as a possibility. Like, we should, we should give this to a record label or something. We were just like doing it for fun. Right. So.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Did it noticeably change how you felt you were being perceived here at home? Like, I’ve often noticed at Edmonton, like when [00:18:00] bands get. Outside recognition. The cred here at home seems to just jump a few levels so quickly. Were you feeling that inside of the scene or was it not as a big a deal inside of the local scene?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Um, that’s a good question for Tim.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Um, I remember, you know, when they, uh, got signed, uh, obviously before I joined the band, um, there was, uh, you know, that was like the hot news in our small little scenes. Everyone was like, whoa, I can’t believe they got signed. Um, so I mean, at least for us, you know, we’re late teens, early twenties, kind of people e everybody that we, there isn’t really, uh, much of a history or like legitimate, um.

Should I say like, professional touring scene from Edmonton for Heavy Metal? I mean, there’s a couple bands that were, you know, [00:19:00] had some level of success in the past before, like, uh, disciples of Power, uh, was a, a good one without, you know, more than a decade before us, or like, uh, um, white Wolf, um, from the eighties with Cam McCloud who, uh, helped Striker record, uh, eyes of the Knight.

So, I mean, there, there wasn’t, uh, too many other bands that come to mind. Um, but I think it’s maybe a little more, there’s more examples of it now, like I’m helping out other bands like with their US touring visas and stuff these days. Um, so I, I think it’s a little bit more common at the time. It was, it was something very unique and special.

So, uh, I think everybody around the scene was a little bit jealous.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Did you, did you feel like we were lording over, uh, you guys, did you, did you ever get that from us?

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, you guys are the kings of the castle.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I mean, part of why I asked that is like, um, like I said before, like I, I had [00:20:00] noticed that in a number of different genres just because I, like I was the chair of the board for Alberta music around that time. I was heavily involved with, you know, the a FA with granting and even with factor with granting and different sort of like contests and award things.

And so you see, you see names from all the genres come across your desk and you, and you try to like tap in and know who’s doing what and, and I honestly was pretty oblivious to where. Metal bands were playing and by metal bands playing, I meant like other touring bands, like other than the big stadium obvious, you know, million Selling album acts.

I’m talking about those middle acts. Like I didn’t know where they were playing and, and I had probably at that point very much prided myself on thinking, I knew our scene in, in Edmonton, like through and through and I realized through getting more involved in some of those organizations and associations that I did not know, like where were the [00:21:00] venues, where were the bands playing and, and other bands coming through is so influential right on a scene.

Developing themselves and seeing what’s possible and believing what’s possible. And, and um, I remember working with like a young hip hop artist who was like, you know, the Canadian, the Canadian history of development was like, you, you, you get on the road and you start playing all these shit clubs, you know, up and down the number one and, and, and around and everywhere you can, you go back and forth over and over and over and over and over and again.

And, and it kind of got glorified in the country is the way, but that’s like a band development, right? And like a hip hop artist had nowhere to go. They would often tell me, it’s like I can’t just go out and play a whole bunch of shows. Like I have to sing national anthems and I have to play in the mall, you know, with a bunch of kids and, and all this other crappy shit.

And, and I wondered like how good the scenes were for getting out of your own town. And knowing places to be able to [00:22:00] go and play and grow and develop. And so you guys signed with a, a German label. Was it a quick thing? Did you, did you move into the, trying to find places and play and make mini tours back and forth across Canada?

Was that the next step for you right then, or were, was it a jump to trying to get to play overseas pretty quick, or did that come a little later?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I, I, we, we did get like the opportunity to go over there like pretty quickly. I, I think it’s because there is that like sort of. Matured scene over there for that type of music, especially like the, the eighties flavored heavy metals. It’s like there’s such a diehard group of fans over there that like, um, they have whole festivals sort of based around that.

And then, um, even, uh, there, there was this, uh, festival in Spain where they sort of took like, you like membership fees from a bunch of people. So it’s like you could be part of this. It was called the [00:23:00] Pounding Metal Union. And they would, they would, if you join it, you have to pay fees and the fees go towards booking bands to come play the festival every year.

So they have this sort of like, collective of like hardcore fans who are sort of helping subsidize. Uh, this festival that they put on, which we ended up, that was the first, uh, show we ever played in Europe, was in Spain for the pounding metal festival. And that, that’s how we got over there was like, they have these people who are kind of like hardcore fans who are paying money to like, more than just the ticket price.

Right? Like

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: union dues basically.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: union dues to have access and, and have a good product to also enjoy like a fancy co-op of some sort. I mean, I touched on it before having heard your name around that time, through a couple of different ways. I’m always so interested in like local legend kind of stuff. You guys kind of joked [00:24:00] between each other about perceptions about what was going on, ’cause Tim wasn’t in the band yet and what other bands thought.

But, so from an outside of the, of the metal scene perspective, like over the course I would say of probably 2012 through 20 15, 16, I guess you guys put out around three records over that span. Um, you guys kind of had a little legendary status I feel around Edmonton and Alberta. Particularly for playing so many festivals and just this concept of like, they’re huge in Europe and I know it can feel like a little pejorative like a little later on in your career, you know, of like that someone would boil down everything to like, if the name Striker came up and I’ve conversation, people were like, oh yeah, they’re huge in Europe, as if that’s just where the conversation ends.

Um, but there is a fact that it, it built a pretty, you know, in a scene and I’m talking not just the metal scene, the Edmonton music scene, pretty [00:25:00] legendary status for a band to have, uh, achieved a lot of success over those years. Um. I’m just curious how it felt to you on the inside. Right? So I’m talking about how an Edmonton Scenesters perspective was.

I know Tim, you joined the band just shortly after that, I’m guessing. Uh, well, you put out an album 2012, how soon after that? I’m not sure that you joined the band, Tim, but I’m just sort of wondering what your guys’ perspective over that next few albums, I know you got signed to, to Napalm and, and sort of a bigger deal then, and the opportunities kept flowing.

What was it like on the inside of, of sort of all of that happening and growing? Did it feel fast? Did it feel, you know, a lot bigger than Edmonton? Like, was there the consideration that you needed to leave Edmonton? I’m curious about all of those things in such a big period of growth.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. I don’t think I ever. I don’t think we ever really thought [00:26:00] it would be practical to leave Edmonton. I mean, I think like, you know, it wasn’t like we were making like, crazy amounts of money or anything, you know, like it’s, uh, I mean, even, even today it’s like the, the band feels more like a passion project than anything, right?

Like it’s, I mean, we sort of do it to, you know, because we, we like doing it. and like it’s definitely like, um, a bit of like a drug, right? Of playing shows and, and that kind of thing. It’s like really, like going on tour is crazy exciting and it’s like, you definitely, when you come back home, it, it feels weird to be like, you’re like, oh, okay, you know, tour, bus tour in Europe and then you come home and you’re just like, okay, time to like shovel the driveway or whatever, you know?

So it feels

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: takes a little while, right? To adjust back you, like you feel like out of body for sometimes a

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: it’s weird and like. I know like a lot of people talk about like, there’s like a post tour depression type of thing that hits where you’re like, ’cause you get, you do like a month on tour and [00:27:00] you have like this really solid routine of just like, and, and you’re rewarded every night with like a, a cool experience, right?

Like a big show or whatever. Super exciting. And then you kind of come back home and you’re like, now what do I do? You know, it’s pretty common to be

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Dopamine addicts like me had a really hard time with it because you’re right, like every night you’re getting social interaction, social validation, people loving, commenting what you did, plus some terrible lows, like people not showing up at all for gigs and. But at the end of it, you go through this whole thing with a group of people, really close proximity, and then you come back and all of a sudden you’re not seeing those people every day.

All of that stuff’s gone. You know, you’re not being told you’re great. You’re being told, like you said, please go shovel the driveway, so you gotta take care of your cat

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: like that. well you, you kind of touched on a thing there too, I think, which is interesting to talk about, right? Which is that this [00:28:00] perception of success, right?

This perception that we’re doing really, really well, we’re doing really great. We signed with a German label and then we’ve signed with, you know, napalm who are really well known and, and you’re putting out albums and you’re regularly going back and, and playing some pretty big festivals in the scene in Germany and Europe and the, and the perception at home, whether it be Edmonton or Alberta or Canada even.

and then, you know. On the inside, you know, you know, you, I don’t know if it’s, you call, call it imposter syndrome that maybe you’ve gone through the whole, like you said, you alluded to like, yeah, we’re not making a shit ton of money here guys. We’re still like pouring our lives into a thing and just hoping that it’s enough to get us to the next one, maybe.

Or, stuff like that. Was that, was that a big thing for either of you to have gone through like some version of the imposter syndrome of being in a band that looks like it’s doing really well and maybe you don’t feel like it’s as lucrative as everybody [00:29:00] else feels, but you are in this game of attention and, and perception, you know, and it’s so important.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I don’t think we really had any imposter syndrome necessarily. Like we just do it because it’s fun. And that’s sort of really the only reason that we’ve always done it. I mean, I think if we could wave a magic wand, you know, we of course would want to have this be our full-time career and, you know, be huge like Metallica and headline stadiums every night, you know, which we’ve.

You know, at the end of the day, that’s where we point our, business ship to, to, to try and do that. But I mean, I don’t think we’ve ever really had any imposter syndrome. It was just like, Hey, that was fun. I did what I do. Everybody just does what they do. You know, I think we realized early on, like, I certainly remember when I was, for example, at high school learning how to play guitar.

You know, I’d, uh, look at these, you know, I’d learn the songs from Metallica, iron Maiden, be like, [00:30:00] that was easy. I could play guitar better than these nerds or whatever. And these huge bands. And then, you know, as I got a little older, it’s like, wait, it doesn’t matter. You know, the technical skill. These people were the ones that created this and they did it, you know, 20 years ago when there wasn’t, they didn’t have the prototypes to do it.

And that’s where the real, that’s where the real magic is. And then, so I think maybe we’ve. At some point we, we matured despite remaining hilariously immature and staying in a band that we just kind of all sort of ended up having the same, a similar mindset at least, where I don’t think that an imposter syndrome really even came up for us.

Like, like you mentioned there. And we mentioned there, there had, there’s not a lot of, at least when we were, you know, before in the pre COVID times there was, there, there weren’t a lot of touring metal acts in. Alberta especially, but in Canada overall, I mean, there wasn’t very, we didn’t [00:31:00] really have many peers.

Not saying that we were the, the best ever, but, uh, you know, there weren’t a lot of people where we could compare ourselves to. I mean, skull, fist from Toronto who we played a lot of shows with and were, you know, pals with, they’re, they’re a good, uh, example of another band that’s sort of similar to us, um, that we, we can say, Hey, you know, we’re peers with that band.

But I mean, cauldron, that was another one. but I mean, there, there weren’t too many. It’s like, okay, we can name like two and they’re both from Toronto. There’s a couple others, but I mean. Unleash the arches, I guess. What is another one that’s still doing really well? I mean, they, they’re, they’re living the real life. They’re, they’re like a real band, you know, we, we did, uh, they were the headliner for a tour we did in Europe last year, and it’s like, you know, they’re headlining a thousand camp venues and they’re sold out every night over in Europe. So, I mean, maybe that’s a, a better question for them. ’cause they’re, they’re the ones who are actually out there doing it.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: [00:32:00] Well, I think that, that, like, one of the things that can be difficult is like other people’s perception versus like your reality and then that, that sort of like the in-between of like, you know, it’s, it’s not so much that we feel like imposters or whatever, it’s more that, like how do you explain you know, the difference in like, the reality of things to someone who is like, oh, you’re, oh, you’re in this band so you must be like, famous or whatever, you know, that happens, like occasionally, you know, you’ll talk to someone like, you know, at the, at the day job, you know, the new guy says, oh, so you must be like famous or whatever, and I, and you, what do you say to that?

You’re like, uh,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah,

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: dude. Not really, but like, more famous than you, but not by much.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: you’re, explain it.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Truck stops,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: You’re not explaining it just once, right? Like you’re, you’re having to explain it and you’re, but you’re taking in the context of who you’re talking to every time, which somehow [00:33:00] makes the answer shift and move. Um, so there’s not just like what you’re alluding to, Dan, is, there’s not one singular answer to any of these.

And that’s kind of a silly question, right? Like, to get like, oh, you must be famous. Like, you’re right. Like you’re like, how do I, how do I even answer that, right? Or I’ve had the same thing, right? Where I’ve gone to the day job, I’m like 20 years removed from doing this kind of stuff. And then somebody finds out, used to play in a band that toured across the country and put out records and get on the radio and all that.

And then. Their mind immediately opens up to whatever version that means for them. Right. And all of a sudden they’re trying to fit you into that and you’re, sometimes it can feel very uncomfortable trying to

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Oh yeah. I don’t

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: what are they fitting me into? Yeah.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: It’s such a strange experience to like, yeah, to talk and like, I mean, I don’t know. I think like. we’re pretty, I guess, humble about it. Like we’re, I’m not volunteering that information up. Like, maybe that’s [00:34:00] my problem. I should be more of like a rockstar like that. Maybe that’d be better.

But you know, like, um, I think we’re, we’re pretty like just regular guys, so it, it feels super weird to like, brag about anything to anyone really, you know.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of, uh, people, uh, have the, like you say you’re in a touring metal band and they think, oh wow, they must be like Motley Crue, you know? There must be groupies every night. And it’s so funny. It’s the complete opposite. I mean, just like, oh yeah, there must be so many girls at your show.

It’s like, well, no, there, there maybe was one and 99% of the other people are like fat old dudes,

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: No offense to our fans.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. No offense to our offense, but I mean, it’s come, it’s not what you think it is. It’s like, oh wow. You must be like doing drugs and destroying hotel rooms. And it’s like, well, no. We stepped in a truck stop after driving eight hours to get to the next venue.

And it’s like, and then the next night it’s like, oh yeah, we, you know, just slept in the [00:35:00] van. It’s, it’s,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: it’s not what you think it’s, we’re basically homeless on the road.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: The thing is, it’s fun though. That’s the thing. It’s like we we’re still having fun and like it, it’s still so worth it for us, but like that maybe isn’t like the most glamorous thing for someone else to like, you know, if their expectation is like, whoa, this must be such a crazy lifestyle. It’s like, it is a crazy, crazy lifestyle, but not in the way you’re thinking It’s.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah. That’s the thing, as I always, uh, it sounds like you would relate to, the thing that usually makes me the most uncomfortable is when somebody’s like, give me a crazy story from the road. And I’m like, oh, shit, man. Like, I don’t, I can’t even think of, you know what I mean? I can maybe, like, maybe I’ve recycled it down to maybe two that may legitimately land in any audience, but everyone’s expecting exactly what you just described.

They’re expecting that. Just off the cuff, I can be like, well, just last week, blah, blah, blah, you know, this crazy thing [00:36:00] happened as if we’re Yeah. Part of those rocky Aries that that kind of glorify, especially. That. And, and this is another thing you guys can qualify for me, that perception of the lifestyle, which seemed mostly glorified literally in the eighties and maybe like a 10 to 15 year span of metal, right.

Has sort of locked in, you know, to a lot of metal bands, sort of through a number of the adjacent sub genres. Is that an accurate perception of that, that people have sort of locked a lot of assumptions, uh, uh, about metal and metal, what it’s like to be in a metal band, from that kind of era that’s sort of still flaunted.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I, I think so. And I mean, like, we’ve had a lot of crazy stories. Like we’ve done a lot of crazy stuff and like, you know, ’cause it’s like a heavy metal band is still like, um, you know, a bunch of dudes who like to drink beer and party and stuff like that. So like, I mean, we got a lot of funny, like, things that have happened, but it’s never [00:37:00] like, like that, that Motley Crue book The Dirt.

I think that might’ve been the thing that like, you know, so many people read that book and then half of it’s lies. It’s just like, you know, they just, or maybe it’s like part of the story happened and then just like made it like, it, it became a legend and it just like things get added to it or whatever.

But, uh,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Was anybody sober enough to have actually recounted it properly

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, it’s, nobody knows, I mean the, I mean it makes for a great book, but it’s uh, you know how much of it’s really true. I’m sure they did a lot of crazy stuff, but, yeah, like. I don’t know. Yeah. But I, you’re definitely right though. I think that’s people’s perception is just like, oh, you did like this rockstar lifestyle, and it was like so crazy and it’s like, man, it’s a lot of waiting around literally.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: that’s, you know, how many times that’s come up from like all different types of artists that I’ve talked to, that that is literally the statement that comes up, that you don’t understand what the road is like, is basically driving and waiting and like, [00:38:00] and then people put their entire perception on this, like 45 to 60 minutes that they see you and, uh, and the rest of it is all that other waiting and driving stuff.

that becomes the life, right? So it really becomes, it really becomes like who you guys are together, right? Not, uh, not all the other perception stuff of what you’re trying to create or who you’re on stage. It really becomes, for you guys, all of that time that you have to spend. Together, driving and waiting and planning and building and practicing and recording all the things that you’re investing this crazy amount of time in.

So number one, as I found it really cool and amazing, just for you to say, Dan, like we’re still having a lot of fun. That’s why we’re still doing this. ’cause like again, almost 20 years in, most people are starting to say, I’m too old for this shit. Like, you guys start the band outta high school, quick math tells me you guys are starting to stare down [00:39:00] 40.

Probably a number of you right? That phase of life where a lot of people are starting to say, I’m too old for this shit. So if you’re still having fun and, and doing the things that are fun about it and makes me think of some of the guys I play hockey with every week who I think they’re there just because the time in the locker room makes ’em feel like when they were 17 again with a bunch of boys.

So I kind of get where that comes from in a lot of ways. I guess, I guess where I wanna ask you about, there’s two places I wanna go and I’m afraid I’ll forget one if I rabbit hole the other one. But, just to put a pin on the whole perception thing, like you guys did this run through your whole, you recorded a bunch of albums all the way from your self-titled Striker to Play to Win 2018.

then you get a, then you get the junior award, the, the, the Canadian Grammy for, for Best Metal Band. Um, what was that experience like? Did you go I don’t, I didn’t look it up. Did you actually go down and [00:40:00] attend? I don’t know where the Junos were

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: No, no, that was during, it was during COVID, so it was like a video call basically.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah,

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: we were.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: right after COVID broke

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, we were, we were packing it ’cause we were supposed to play at the Junos and, and perform at Juno Fest where

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Oh man.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: had like a TV appearance on like a news channel and all this other shit. And it was in Saskatoon, I think, or China anyways, so we’re like literally packing up our trailer. To get ready to leave.

And then we start seeing the like texts and the tweets coming in where it’s like, oh no, the Junos are canceled. This just stand. Everybody from Universal Music has canceled their flights. No one from Universal’s coming. Then you see another tweet, everyone from Sony’s canceling. It’s like, oh shit. You just see all these cancellations.

And then like later, I think the next day was like the federal lockdown and like, uh, our publicist, John Asher, he’s from Montreal. And so he’s flying in. So we, we wake up to a text from him saying, Hey guys, I’m [00:41:00] getting on the plane. I’m flying in. We’re like, okay, have a good flight. Worked at, we’re just packing up.

Uh, talk to you. You know, see you later tonight basically. And then we’re packing up, packing up. He’s in the air. This is before they had free texts on planes. He lands, the Junos are canceled, and basically the whole country’s locked down. We get a text. He’s like, man, I just landed. What the fuck happened?

The Junos are

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, he landed in Calgary too. Like he had to fly to Calgary to, and then connect back. So like,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: man.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: they sent ’em back. And I mean, for us, we were just packing our trailers, so we just unpacked everything and it was like, okay, well see you guys, see you guys after lockdown. So, uh, that was a very underwhelming Juno experience.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, it, and it probably like, sadly, kind of sucks some of the life out of the wind, right? Like,

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: it’s a, a big thing, but all these other things that you were expecting to be able to do as a part of it, which probably would’ve made that really, really special, got taken out of [00:42:00] it. does that, like, does the Junos win on the, on the resume for metal band in Canada, move the needle anywhere with anything?

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: not really. We, we were, uh, we mostly used it to make fun of unleash the archers, uh, and then they won. So we can’t lord

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: but we won. We won first.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: We went first. We also got nominated for a third time when we were on tour. Right before the tour started, the Juno announcements came out and I remember we were driving over to the hotel to meet them where the bus is, and we’re just like waiting, waiting, waiting.

And then it’s like, oh, the updates are out. And we had a list of like, we had internal bets in the band of what the nominees list was gonna be. Everybody thought Unleash the archers were gonna get nominated, and then they weren’t. And we’re just like, oh shit. Walking into the hotel, just start roasting them immediately.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: just a little friendly competition.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Nothing wrong with that.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: fun. Yeah.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t trying to be disparaging of it, but I [00:43:00] just know that for a lot of people, like it’s a, it’s an honor to get recognized always. That’s like our country’s, you know, awards and the category being recognized. I also know that there’s, you know, you have to hold on one hand, you know.

It is an honor that, that we’re being thought of in these ways. And then on the other hand, knowing how much does that actually move the needle and the reality of that, sometimes they don’t line up, they’re not always aligned. So it can feel a little bit weird for some artists. So, so you ran your way all the way to that, and I feel like this is where I’m curious, and my question is, did it feel like you were on a straight run trajectory for the most part?

Besides the normal up and downs, you’re in a sort of regular album release cycle, the way sort of that happens and you’re in publicity cycles with your albums and right up to the pandemic that happens, you guys don’t put out another record right until 2024 with Ultra Power. [00:44:00] So it looks on the outside, like the pandemic basically like almost killed things.

You know, with that kind of a, a six year gap, I’m wondering what. What actually was happening for you guys? Was there just a waiting it out? Was there always the plan, were you always writing and getting ultra power together or, or what was happening for you in that, that big gap?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, we, uh, so like the, the har probably the hardest part about the COVID stuff was like, we had stuff booked, like a tour with Unleashed, the archers was booked, then it got postponed. So it’d be like, okay, it was gonna be in the spring, now it’s gonna be in the fall. So you’re like, okay, well we’re not gonna do, you know, maybe we didn’t have time or we didn’t quite have our, everything ready to go to do a new album.

So it was like, okay, well we, we’ll wait until that tour and then that tour comes and it’s postponed again ’cause of COVID, you know, it’s like, so it’s like a whole, like extra year of time just because all the touring [00:45:00] stuff is planned so far in advance. And then it, if it gets. at all. It’s like a whole other, you know, six months, three to six months of planning to like reschedule it.

Um, and that’s like also during like pretty uncertain times for venues too. So it was like, what, what does a tour look like right now? And, uh, with, you know, are these venues gonna be even open at the time when, when we actually go for the tour? And, uh, so yeah. And then on top of that, like, so that waiting and rescheduling and everybody kind of just like puts their life on hold to be like, okay, well we’re not gonna do this other thing, uh, because we’re gonna go on tour in three months.

And then that gets, you know, pushed back. That sort of stressed the band quite a bit. just in terms of like, you know, everybody wants to like live their life and. were, we, everybody was kind of just like waiting, like, like we said before, it’s more waiting. [00:46:00] So, um, but during, yeah, during COVID, like we, the band almost broke up or like, pretty much did, but then it kind of was like, you know, there’s a lot of factors.

But, um, eventually we sort of circled back to it and we’re just like, oh, like do we wanna do it? Like, yes. You know?

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Um, and especially ’cause it’s like you, once you could actually see like the light at the end of the tunnel from the pandemic stuff, it was sort of like, you know, you, you kind of look at it and say like, okay, so presumably things are gonna get back to normal.

Do we want to keep going? And then everybody’s was sort of on the same page at by that point.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: When you say like, the band almost broke up, I, I just recognize that the question for me is like, was that through actual, like we talked about it because some bands, they don’t even talk about it. Maybe two or three members are talking together about whether they’re still in it or not, and sometimes it’s just a long gap of time that nothing’s happening, that sort of bans just drift and drift apart and which is [00:47:00] different than a real, like, formal conversation.

Like, what do you guys think? Like, what’s next? Do you think we’re really gonna do? Do that. What version of that, because it’s the added uniqueness of the reason and, and all the uncertainty around the pandemic, was, was it actual conversations happening between you guys about whether you think this thing keeps going or not?

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I mean, I think we fully, we fully bailed on it, didn’t we? We, for like a month or two, I

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah. I think we, we did kind of like all of the above. ’cause I mean, in, in the, in the depths of COVID, I mean, you hear so many stories of people in the industry in general, the music industry, just leaving the industry. ’cause I mean, the music industry is basically being a sinking ship for the last, uh, 20, 30 years.

So, I mean, it’s, it’s hard if you want to have any sort of career advancement or whatever, you know, uh, get on with your life. If you’re a booking agent or you work at a label or whatever, you know, it’s been hard, um, for all kinds of people in the [00:48:00] industry. Not just the artist, but especially the artists.

And, uh. You know, so many people are just like, well, I’m gonna be a welder or something, you know? not that anyone became a welder over COVID, but um, yeah, it was just kind of like other priorities kind of creep in your life. ’cause it’s like you can’t do music in the same way anymore and

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: everything’s canceled and you’re like, well, what am I supposed to do?

So we just kinda, I don’t know. I think, I think COVID was hard for everybody and it, um, especially us included, in that context. And it’s just kinda like, well, you know, if this is the future of live music, do we still wanna do it? You know? And for us, we’ve been independent for so long, so that means we have to do everything.

So for us, when there’s a canceled tour, that means, you know, collectively between us, uh, that’s, you know, a couple hundred hours worth of work, just flushed down the toilet for nothing. Whether it’s work visas, grant [00:49:00] writing, you know, promo planning, writing, business plans, advertising, writing up copy, and doing all this other stuff.

cause a lot of times we get ads and whatever, all locked and loaded and then you get your freely schedule and you put it up, you know, you schedule everything. It’s like, oh, tour’s canceled. Pull all that stuff down, cancel all the ads. It’s like, okay, well there goes a ton of work. You know, you take promo videos, photos, all this other stuff and it’s like, okay, well shit. So it’s just a lot of work with no payoff, especially at that point, which I think everybody found really disheartening.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I mean that’s um. I mean, obviously it’s a common story, and I’m not even sure how much kind of the regular public has even heard the depths to which the reality of that is for literally everybody involved that, you know, all of your work and efforts and hours were literally just discarded in a, in an instant or a moment, or the number of pillars of the industry that really, in essence is built around [00:50:00] bringing people together.

Uh, and then we’re in a world where people aren’t allowed to be together. nobody can book a show. ’cause shows are about bringing people together and, and, um, yeah, so everybody’s jobs are being affected and everybody’s, uh, life was being put on hold with absolute uncertainty. And our, you know, venues were closing, left, right, and center, obviously, which would really affect people’s ability to make plans even for the future.

And, and probably the biggest, you know, mind fuck of the whole thing. For lack of a better term was the way things kept opening slash closing in air quotes, um, throughout that whole time and giving false hope and then people starting and stopping and having things shut down partway through, starting again.

Um, definitely took the wind outta sails for a lot of people. So you released your latest album that’s out and you released that in 2024. Is that a, was that, was that music? Like, were you writing the songs for Alter power closer to [00:51:00] 2024 or? Were you had the things on that, had you started it, was that sort of the things you were planning all the way back to coming outta the last album in 2018 and going through that cycle and then planning for the next one?

Did you just carry that through or is that sort of a new batch? ’cause it feels like a bit of a departure, not a huge departure, but it, it’s a fresh approach with some changes that I think were distinct for Striker, if I’m not wrong on that album. Stylistically, musically. So I’m curious whether it was like a fresh start coming outta the pandemic or whether that was the direction you had been planning to go all along.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, it, it kind of felt like a new it. It’s almost like, you know how, like they say, you know, your first album, you have all this time to write it and then, then the follow-up’s always harder because you don’t have like, all this time to do stuff. And it’s like, well, we had all this time to mess around and try different stuff.

And uh, and I think we were, uh, definitely a little, just looser with [00:52:00] like, what we, like, you know, in the past we’ve been like worried about how people will perceive what we’re doing, right? Like, ’cause it’s in, specifically in metal, it’s like how you, how you look and how you sound are very specific. And if it, if it’s not this, you know, if it’s not power metal and it’s, it’s thrash metal or it’s, it’s classic heavy metal, or it’s like there’s these, you know, genre sort of like sub genres that.

kind of have their own fan base and they’re, and they’re not always overlapping as as much as they should probably, you know, it’s like. The, the difference between the power metal, uh, song about dragons and the thrash metal song about the, you know, whatever, or is like, literally just the topic of the song is different and the music’s pretty similar, but it’s like, those are two completely different fan bases, you know?

So it’s like, we were for a long time pretty just concerned about like, you know, this is the type of music we’re kind [00:53:00] of doing and we’re trying to fit in this kind of thing. And then after the pandemic and stuff we were just like, whatever, just do whatever. What do we wanna do? Like, you know, uh, it’s, it is funny to see, like, we were like, we’re gonna, we’re gonna dress, uh, with more colors, you know, it’s like we’re gonna be more colorful.

And man, some of the, the expected backlash on it is like hilarious. ’cause it’s like, you can clearly see that metal dudes are like, whoa, these guys are wearing a colorful shirt. That’s too much. You know, it’s

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Well, that was a question I was gonna ask you guys. Um, yeah, I definitely was gonna get to this. I mean, I would love to get some of your take on some of this stuff, but you just affirmed one of my questions that I was gonna ask, which is, like I grew up, like I told you before, I grew up in the eighties right.

And, you know, so. Somebody’s mom might make the horrible mistake and buy an Iron Maiden fan, like the newest poison record. [00:54:00] And, and that guy would be like, mom, what the fuck? You know? Um, ’cause in there, you know, in public perception like metal was just metal, right? And, and didn’t understand just how religiously those lines were kept in, in the fan base.

And I think my curiosity always growing up was, you know, just how much the artists and the music creators were religiously keeping those lines themselves. Or whether it was just the fans who can be, you know, pretty crazy sometimes about, you know, like, like what you said, like the, the perceptions thing we’ve already talked about.

But, um, metals ha has so many sub genres. To me, like so many distinct sub genres that at best we can call them, it feels like adjacent. But you just sort of said like, people like to keep these lines between them, even if they’re what we would consider right next to each other and, and hold so many similarities.

I got to, I got to host, back in the fall [00:55:00] there was a thing called Music Day in Canada that was an initiative that’s happening, uh, to promote, uh, live music events and kind of make it a whole feel like a Canadian experience across cities. The one here in Edmonton was a metal show, and I hadn’t been exposed to the scene, like I said, since I knew about you guys back in, you know, 20 12, 20 13, 14.

And so I’m meeting these bands and talking to them and finding out and watching who the kind of people who were coming. And they were like some pretty distinct styles between the bands that were being chosen. And it sort of brought that thinking back up for me. So I’m wondering if you could tell me a little bit like, because it seems to me like you had like an Iron Maiden kind of North Star in your early days.

Uh, and there’s probably a lot more other bands, um, that you would list off in that way. But both the visuals, both your visual style and even your album cover art kinda had that kind of throwback, um, to this, you know, the, the Dominant [00:56:00] Eddie album cover art of the eighties, that was like. I grew up like here, you guys gotta know this.

Like, I grew up in like what was called like the head banger school in Regina, Saskatchewan. So there was like the preppy school where my now wife went to, uh, and my end of town, it was all, you know the shirts that you’re wearing right now, Tim, but back then it was all the black shirts with the white two third, three quarter sleeve, you know

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: And it was all Quiet Riot, and it was all made in with, you know, just the, the incredible Eddie art on it. And you know, and then the glam metal started to come in, in the later part of the eighties. And, and then you saw, you know, people start using the word sellout in, in that whole area and stuff. But, and so I grew up with like GNR just blowing up and I, I was in a guitar music class and I was literally the only one who didn’t wear those shirts.

And the rest of ’em was all just the guys with the huge, I had pretty big hair too, but no. I was a poser compared to these [00:57:00] guys, and they were all classical, like it was all classical nylon string guitars in our guitar class, and all of them were just fully carved with slayer logos and, and um, and stuff.

It was pretty funny and pretty awesome. But, but back then I knew like, you don’t cross these lines now. It just feels like there’s so many more genres since that period of time to now, obviously. So I’m wondering if you can just sort of quickly, like, I had to look up last night, what was it called? The, um, N-W-O-B-H-M, you know,

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Oh yeah. New wave of British heavy

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

And I’m like, and as soon as I read it, oh, okay, I get it. Right. Like what came out of, you know, the, the predominant like zeppelins sounds and then that in-between phase that became Iron Maiden or Venom or Motorhead, of course. And, and um, so as soon as I read it, I’m like, oh, that makes sense, but I never heard this term.

I wonder if you could just tell me a little bit, sort of like where you guys feel like you had fit, what were sort of the other [00:58:00] adjacent sub-genres around you, and maybe how that’s changed over the last, you know, 15 years or so.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, we, uh, so I mean, like for, for the most part, we were sort of, lumped into the, there’s the new wave of traditional heavy metal, which became like a, a little sub genre with a bunch of different bands sort of doing the same kind of thing, sort of recreating that style of, of the new wave of British heavy metals.

So it’s like they made like this sim similar, uh, uh, label for it and everything. Um, but I mean, like as far as. Our band goes, like, our influences were, um, obviously we, we were into like thrash metal, like Metallica, mega death testament, that kind of thing. And then we were also into like the traditional heavy metal stuff like Iron Maiden, Jewish priest, Saxon, whoever.

Also we were into hair metal, like rat and uh, that kind of thing too. So it was like, I mean, we, we were into all of that. So, ’cause I mean, we didn’t have a reason to be [00:59:00] like, there was no like, scene at school or anything like that. Like, it wasn’t like, oh, there’s all the dudes who like, uh, hair metal and there’s all the thrash guys.

It’s just like, there’s a few people who are really into metal and that’s it. And it didn’t matter what type of metal it was. Like those are the guys with long hair and there’s like 10 of them tops or whatever, you know. Um, so like for us, we, we weren’t really worried about, um, it was like we just liked eighties metal.

I guess it didn’t really matter like what style it was. But then once you, once you start sort of thinking, wow, we gotta dress this. Like, how are we gonna dress on stage or whatever. And, you know, and, and I’m, we were kind of all over the place in the, in the early days, like you, you know, Tim was wearing spandex for a long time. And, and I mean like, but

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Nice. Nice.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: that’s on the other side of the fence from the thrash guys. But our music sounded more thrash than it did, like hair metal or something. So it’s like, but then visually we would just do whatever. [01:00:00] And, uh, it was just like a, a mix, mix mashup of like all that sort of eighties stuff in general.

And then I do think that there’s some bands, uh, in our sort of scene that are way more compliant with the, like, the rules of how to look. And they, and that’s part of what makes their band, their band is like, we’re the guys who dressed this exact way, like we’re the, you know, the glam metal band, or they’re like the. Thrash band, that type of thing. So, um,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. I mean, some other, some other people in other genres might wanna argue with me on this, but I have always really strongly felt like in metal how you looked was so tightly perceived with how you were gonna sound right. That, so that you’re right, that. If the guys, if I saw a picture of the band and the guys on stage were wearing spandex, I immediately made assumptions about maybe what they were, but especially what they weren’t.[01:01:00]

Right. Which is why maybe people would get uptight. So yeah. You, you coming out wearing what looks like the bright colored motocross gear outfits, you know, in, in the new album, caused a bit of a stir, just in general in the public or even with who you felt was your fan base.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, like a great example is we played a festival in Chicago and uh, we read a review of the show. Someone posted, he, the guy didn’t say a single thing about how we played or what we sounded like. He was just like, they looked gay, you know? That’s what it was like. That’s what he said. And we’re just like, what is this?

You know? It’s like, uh, it was just so funny to see that, like someone was just so lasered in on that, like, didn’t even talk about the set we played, you know, and we played pretty good at that one. Like, Nothing negative to say other than he was just like, I didn’t like the way they looked, and it was like, [01:02:00] geez, give us a break.

We’re just having fun, dude.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Full stop. I mean, part of that perception too was about the having fun, which you had talked about a couple times about why you’re still going and why you still do this, and the whole, the whole like, uh. The look and feel of the ultra power record. And, and everything since then has looked very fun and light.

which I think is a cool part of metal that maybe I’m seeing a little more of these days, which is really fun. And so, is that, was that a real important thing, like you said, coming outta the pandemic as well, to sort of inject that into what you needed to do and you were just gonna bite off the whole thing.

Let’s just make the whole thing a whole bunch of fun. ’cause even your videos, like for shit’s sakes, like are super fun videos always to watch, especially the last bunch. And um, so was that just all part of the mix? Like when you were saying, we’re gonna, let’s, let’s do this, let’s come back together and let’s change [01:03:00] this whole thing and be willing to, to do whatever we want.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I think so. I think especially before COVID, we had three albums that came out in three years, and that, that run was a lot of work. It, uh, I mean it was fun, but it, it comes down to a lot of work. not fun work. That’s no fun. It’s negative fun. And so it’s like to see it all, sort of get flushed down the toilet with COVID and then you’re like, okay, well.

you know, putting that much work into it in the same way, you know, people just, I don’t wanna do it anymore. You know, it’s just kind of like, it, especially sort of coming out of COVID, it was, there’s still a lot of uncertainty. I, I think for the most part, it’s kind of, gone away now, but, I mean, who knows?

Now there’s other things to be worried about, you know, maybe World War II starts or whatever. But, uh, for the most part we’re just like, okay, well, you know, at some point you just don’t want to add all that extra stress on in your life. And you’re like, okay, [01:04:00] we’re, we’re gonna come back and it’s gonna be fun.

That’s the number one thing that we’re gonna focus on. So we’re just like, you know, we want fun music, we wanna look fun. I mean, dressing up. Uh, in the, you know, way we do. It’s, it’s fun, it’s silly. Um, the thing about metal these days is the only bands that make any kind of splash, they’re like, the only bands that really get any notoriety or recognizability are all bands that are dressed up through either clowns.

They’re all wearing some kind of weird corpse paint. Uh, you have bands, uh, like Electric Cowboy who all of their videos, they’re dressed up, you know, they have a different theme, but they’re completely different. They’re, you know, uh, doing like parodies of eighties hair metal or whatever, or, or like Steel Panther for example.

It’s everybody’s taking their image and just to the extreme. So I mean, back in 1983, having, you know, a sleeveless t-shirt with a skull and long hair, you know, maybe [01:05:00] that was extreme. Like if you see old photos of Metallica from back in the day, it’s like that was extreme for the time. I think, you know, people were.

They hadn’t really experienced that. Or like, if you wore a pentagram on your shirt, people like, whoa, they’re, you know, there’s that satanic pa uh, satanic panic that swept the United States in like the late eighties with all these bands. And so people, you know, iron Made Number the beast. Well, that’s extreme, but I mean, nobody gives a shit

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, it’s nothing

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: pentagram these days.

So, I mean, if you wanna stand out from the crowd, the reality is you have to have your whole, not just your music, but you have to have your whole brand. And I mean, at a certain point, we’ve been around long enough that, you know, we’ve, we’ve started thinking about our band as a brand, as a business, and all those other things.

And it’s like, okay, well how do we, uh, get everything a little bit more focused to make more of a splash? And it’s like, you know what? Let’s, let’s have fun with everything we’re doing, including how we look, how we brand ourselves, you know, [01:06:00] just ads, you see tour, posters, whatever. Just have fun with it, just.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Well, I mean, again, I’m gonna throw back and, and date myself horribly by saying like, I also grew up in a highly religious home. so I was always walking that fence of the music I listened to, which would’ve associated with am I angry or rebellious, that I wanted to listen to this music and. Yeah, like the whole, like American, like the whole fear of like, everybody was checking the vinyl for backmasking on every rock and roll record and, and trying to like demonize all of it, like you said, you know?

And then when the spandex hit, like, here’s the greatest like, fun part of this to me is like, and it even happened to me last night, so last night, uh, again, I wanted to just, I was gonna look up any other place, maybe you guys had talked to people and just sort of see what other things had said about in the past.

And so I just, I just put in Google. I just put Striker metal band, you know, and after the normal first run of all the hits of [01:07:00] things that were, you know, either your own links or very closely related, it starts doing the suggestion little bits, which were full of the eighties Christian metal band Stryper, which I’m sure you’ve encountered a million times in your life.

But you have to know, like, So what my parents did when they knew I loved metal and stuff, right? And they were like, like super Christian parents was like totally choose to embrace and, and buy me all the Stryper shit, you know, to hope that that would keep me on the straight and narrow. So I had the yellow and black like over the top like, so what you’re describing now is just funny to me ’cause it literally feels so much like what I was inundated with, which also ironically is a band that is so close just in enunciation to your

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: But they were like so well known for the yellow and black spandex outfits and they yellow blacked everything, right? The thematic, like their whole stage. And the drum kits were, Customized for the whole thing. And like they all outbranded so that when they [01:08:00] released their first album, I think it was early, mid nineties, early nineties where they dropped to all of it, it’s, it was like kiss dropping makeup in the Christian metals scene.

Like the impact that for them to not go with the, the crazy outfits and stuff. So it’s really fun for me to see it come all the way back around and see bands that are like, yeah, let’s just fully commit to a thing and it doesn’t have to define us forever, right? Like we can just commit to this thing because this is what we wanna do right now and who we are right now.

Which is what very much sounds like you’re identifying with, but

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. And honestly it feels pretty authentic to us because we just, were like, well, what do we want to do? You know, we kind of just like got together as a band and said like, what do, what do we want to do? You know, why

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: which is very different than saying what’s cool right now and let’s do that. It’s like choosing to do just what you felt was good.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah. It’s like, and it’s all another thing. It’s like, how, how many cd, you know, jackets, are we gonna be [01:09:00] wearing the same thing in?

It’s just like, it’s just, we’re over it, right? Let’s just try something different, have fun with it, and you know,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: that’s the other side benefit of being in it for almost 20 years. Right. And being down the road and, and being a little older and, and, uh, you’ve sort of already alluded to that, like you understand now that a band is a brand and a business and, and all that kind of stuff. So I’m, I’m curious then with where you’re at right now, I’m just curious like what’s next?

Like, I think Ultra Power was a really cool album. I personally, like, I, I watched the video a couple times a ’cause I was a big fan also of wrestling as, as I kind of grew up and, uh, and watched wrestling when I was young. So seeing those videos. Was super fun and like this sucks to suck song. it felt almost like the kickstart my heart era of crew.

And that’s one of the reasons I went reading. I went looking for some album reviews and, and video reviews. ’cause I wanted to see if people were referencing what I was [01:10:00] hearing. ’cause I might be really locked into a much more narrow, uh, set of, uh, reference points in my life. But I don’t know whether, is that a crazy reference point to say, like, songs like that feel kind of like that.

Just like, let’s just, you know, a hundred miles an hour from start to finish of the song, let’s just go and rip it. Kind of really. And it was very tight and very, you know, is that, is that accurate? Am I, am I way

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, that, that song in particular was sort of like the, the, the vibe of it was sort of, um, yeah, like you said, that kind of. Molly Crewe or like, uh, like Guns N Roses, get in the ring. You know, that kind of song where it’s just like, uh, I, I mean like, we don’t even know where it comes from, you know, we just like created that.

So it’s not like we had a plan. Right. You know, it’s

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: started playing.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: it’s just, we, it’s just a song we wrote. Right. So we’re like, um, and I, and, and we knew like in particular, that song is a bit of a departure [01:11:00] stylistically for us. And uh, you know, it’s a bit more like, I don’t even know how you would describe it, but, just not like so traditionally metal that, you know, there’s a little bit more going on in that one.

yeah, we, we thought like, I don’t know how people are gonna respond necessarily to this song, but it also doesn’t matter ’cause it’s like, here it is, you know? And a lot of people love it.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. So like what’s ultimate question Ends up becoming like, what’s next? Like, there’s a couple things you said that I’ve really enjoyed and I thought were interesting. Like, Tim, you talked about, uh, you know, this is ultimately, you know, you said earlier, ultimately we’re always trying to point our ship towards bigger things or, or what we would hope for, you know, to be kind of what the dream situation is.

But then you know how to live and work inside the reality and you run the band like a business so that you can build some sustainability and all those kinds of things into it. So, I’m curious, what, what’s next for you [01:12:00] guys? Do you feel a certain amount of momentum towards another record? Are you, like, you had a really cool tour in 2025.

Is there another thing like that in the works? Another opportunity for something like that coming around the corner is ’cause it sounds like it’s still fun. What, what? What’s coming up?

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: We have, uh, we’re working on new music as we speak, so we’re kind of getting all that our ducks in a row for that. We had, uh, ultra Power was a really good album for us. We had lots of good tours and lots of good opportunities. Um, especially starting again after COVID it, it kind of felt almost like we’re starting fresh to some degree.

Um, so we got new booking agent, new management, all kinds of, you know, stuff like that behind the scenes stuff that, uh, regular people don’t even think about. And so, yeah, it, it almost feels like a new band. So it’s, um, it’s a lot of fun just kind of coming back to it. [01:13:00] Being reinvigorated. So we’re doing new music, we have new tours coming.

I mean, we, we just had one that was, uh, postponed. So, uh, but, uh, hopefully yes, it was supposed to be, eh, long story. But anyways, so we’re, we’re, we’re still actively working and there’s lots of stuff in the pipeline. There’s a lot of big things coming as they

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: What’s, what’s the drummer situation? I, I mean obviously a lot of the publicity stuff shows just four of you and what’s listed, and I know you’ve kind of had a few people go in and out. Is that a, an active search to have a regular, full-time member that way or just hasn’t panned out and you’re, you don’t feel that’s something you have to panic about or,

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Um, yeah, like at the moment we, we have a guy, we’ve got Gord, he’s, uh, he’s our main guy. So, um, I mean, we, we haven’t, necessarily, uh, you know, we’re a little bit slower with like, it’s in the past we’ve been like, pretty quick to [01:14:00] just be like, you’re in, you know, like you’re, you’re fully in the whole thing, you know, whatever.

And, um, uh, we’re just a little more like, wary now to be like, you know, ’cause it’s, uh, the, the thing about being in a band is like, it’s, it, it ends up being a lot of work. It’s also like, you know, the band’s full of, Like big personalities, you know, like, it’s just like, like Pete, our bass player, uh, made his amateur pro wrestling debut the other day.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Really? That’s still awesome.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: yeah. Yeah. And, uh, he’s, he’s wrestling again in February, um, with top talent wrestling here in, uh, they, they do it at, uh, midway,

so,

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, I’ve

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: he is, yeah, so I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s four, you know, kind of interesting guys together. It’s not always, uh, the easiest to find like the perfect fit.

Um, but like at the moment, um, uh, Gord, who’s, uh, from Edmonton also is, uh, he’s, he’s our [01:15:00] guy. So, I guess we’ll see. But he’s a, a working professional who owns a business, so it’s kinda like, you know, he, he wants to do it, but it’s like, can you. How much of it can you commit to where the, you know, the rest of us have sort of organized our lives to be able to be gone for, you know, three months out of the year, which, um, if you own your own business or you work for a company, it’s a hard sell to be like, Hey, by the way, I’m gonna be gone for three months of the year.

Like, you know, um, so yeah,

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I, yeah. I think that’s one thing that, uh, especially as we’re gotten older and more mature, it’s like we really recognize the limitations that being in a band can put on you as an individual. So, I mean, being good at your instrument or whatever. Uh, is great, but there’s so many other things that go into being in a band, and I mean, in, in the past, you know, when we had all cylinders [01:16:00] firing, you know, that that could be three, four month time commitment in a year.

And not everybody has the ability to do that. And so like, when we’re focusing on just keeping it fun and light and fresh, it’s like we’re just trying to keep the um, you know, we don’t want to get too heavy with forcing people to do commitments to, you know, anything too serious. It’s just like, Hey, if you could do the drums, that’s great.

We, we would love it. But, you know, I think we just want to keep everything a little bit more light and focus on the fun part. So it’s like you don’t have to stress if you have other commitments for this tour that came up. You know, I think that’s a little bit of the reason like Gorg was getting married when we did our, our tour.

Last year with Unleashed the Archers, and he just like, oh, I wanna do that tour so bad, but I’m getting married. It’s like, okay, well that, that’s cool. So, you

know,

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: you know, they talk, they talked about it, like even his wife talked about it. They’re like, uh, it’s like, but in the end it’s like, nah, no, no, [01:17:00] no. You gotta, like you. He

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: don’t, don’t push the wedding back for the tour. That’s like suicide.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: for the heavy metal. The heavy metal will always be there. I, yeah. I feel like we take sort of like an Ozzy Osborne approach to people in the band. I mean, I’ve heard some bad things about how he deals with them, but you know, Zach Wild comes and goes sort of. You know, everybody’s kind of like a house cat.

It’s like, you know, if you, uh, if you can come in and do the tour and you want to eat your wet food, you could stay in the house and whatever. If you want to go outside and run around and do whatever you want on your own, you could do that too. It’s cool. You know, like I said, we just wanna have fun with it.

And I mean, the, in the past we’ve had some instances, like Simon, our current guitar player, he filled in on bass like a long time ago when our other bass player was gone. he was like on vacation. So we, we’ve had some examples of that. And I mean, for like myself and Dan in particular, we’ve never, we’ve just always been around.

We don’t do anything [01:18:00] else

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: not doing anything else.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: But I mean, I feel like, uh, you know, should the opportunity arise, like our, my brother, our old drummer Adam, he broke his arm, um, during, when we were recording Play to Win. Uh, so we got like a different drummer to do it or in the, um. stand in the Fire album. He was also away touring with a different band called Cobra and The Lotus, and we’re just like, well, we want to do this.

So, uh, we, we really want to record an album, so we’re gonna get hire, uh, another drummer, Randy Black, same guy to come in and do the drums. So I think we’ve just sort of had a little bit more open pol like open policy where it’s like, you can do whatever you want. The, the band might still continue and we might get someone to fill in.

So I think that’s sort of where, where we’ve been at. Just, you know, I, I feel like some bands are like, oh, you can’t do this tour. Well, you’re fired forever and you’re never coming back. And they just kind of instantly burn the bridge. Um, which I don’t think is necessarily, you know, why, why do [01:19:00] that? Just get someone to fill in and whatever.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: a much more loose definition of a band, right. That you kind of evolve into and it helps you keep going to be able to kind of loosen that definition up. Well, I mean, I appreciate you guys have hung on the line here for me for a long time. I’ve had a lot of questions and I appreciate your time and I, I don’t always do this, but I do wanna end, by, I don’t know why.

I just feel like I really want to hear it. Uh, I’m curious what your advice would be. To the new metal band, starting and looking for sort of what’s, you know, what are the important things to focus on? ’cause I think that’s probably changed so much since you started between 2007 and 2010. The whole world has changed.

The music scene is drastically different. I’m wondering, when you get asked a question like this, kinda what is the main thing you land on that you would tell other bands? Like, this is what the world’s like now, this is where [01:20:00] you might wanna put your attention.

Time riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: For me, like when I first started playing music in high school, it was purely for fun. I didn’t give a shit about anything else. It was just fun to play guitar. It was fun to make music. That’s it. And I mean, uh, over the years doing albums for me just kind of went from like, okay, fun. Now there’s some other thanks to focus on work-wise, you know, writing business plans, doing grants, whatever.

And it’s kind of circled back into fun. And I think that’s really the only reason that whatever keep you in music, especially now with ai, like there’s no reason to do it other than having fun. Like Spotify is actively putting AI artists and AI music on their platform to prevent you a real human artist from getting paid.

They, they’re, they’re, you’re people, they’re giving those listens to their own AI bots. So, I mean, like, the idea of ever getting paid for your recorded music, to me it like, that’s, that’s a, that’s a prehistoric idea these days. So, I mean, the only [01:21:00] reason to do it is just have fun. Just focus on having fun.

If you’re having fun, the people who you’re around will also have fun. Your fans, your audience, they’ll have fun too. So that’s my advice. I’m not sure what Dan’s is. You

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: I love it.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: That’s good. That is good advice. I mean, I, I think that’s pretty, uh, like, I mean, well specifically in metal, it’s like, it’s not like. You, you know, the rocket ship to, uh, making millions that it maybe used to be like almost 40 years ago now, right? Like, so, um, yeah, I don’t know what my advice would be.

Probably similar to Tim’s, like just having fun. I mean, it, it was so easy in the early days to take it so serious and be like, you know, like we said about the open kind of policy now we have of just like, you know, what is a band member where you’re just kind of like, you know, it doesn’t need to be that serious.

But, um, I think the other thing would be maybe just like investing in, in yourself as far as being [01:22:00] able to do more. Like, for example, for us, um, like we did all of our videos ourselves. I edited them. We filmed them as a band. Like, you know, if it wasn’t me behind the camera, it was, you know, whoever else was there holding the camera, take, getting the shots and stuff like that.

And it’s like all of these things have, like, the, uh, barrier of entry is a lot lower than it used to be. Right? Like, even recording yourself, like, um, most of our albums in the last like 10 years have been mostly recorded at home. We send them away to get mixed and stuff like that. So it’s like really the success of your band is, is like how much you’re willing to, how much of the work you’re willing to do yourselves and like learning the skills you need to actually be able to do those things.

’cause it’s a lot cheaper to hire yourself for $0 than it is to hire someone else for a lot more. And I mean, you know, we’ve, we’ve had both things. Like our last album we were, went to a studio with a producer and [01:23:00] recorded there and like that was, you know, that costs a lot more than doing it ourselves.

And it has pros and cons for sure. But, uh, I think especially if you’re starting out and you, you don’t have like a budget at all, then the more you can do yourself, the sort of, the better your outcome will be.

G riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Yeah, your yourself is willing to work crazy hours for very little money, it seems so. I mean, that’s great guys. That’s like, I love that. That’s really, I think that’s great advice. I mean, that’s, um, I mean, it is just for guys who have like seen and done as much as you guys have, I think it’s really important to listen and hear sort of what your perspective is at this point in your life.

And especially that I appreciate that you’re not, you know, two jaded older rock stars on the line, you know, who are just, you know, are kind of tired of the, the old tropes and the old shit. And, um, but you guys definitely [01:24:00] carry a fresh perspective and a desire to kind of keep the original spirit in it, which I, I can totally sense.

And I, I totally love that. So I appreciate the time. You guys gave me here. I appreciate the conversation. I look forward to, uh, hearing what’s next. I really, like I said before, I really, really enjoyed like the direction you took on Ultra Power, and I think, uh, it makes me really, really interested to hear what’s next.

So I’m looking forward to seeing all of that and want everybody to check out Striker and pay attention and see what, see what we get this year. Cool, man.

Dan riverside_striker_x almostfamous..: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having us.

 

Alexi: Ready?

Glen: Ah, no, that’s a loud one. I could see all the bars go up.

Alexi: Okay. You want a different one?

Glen: No, I don’t want another mic test.

Alexi: Oh,

Glen: no, we’re totally fine without another mic test. Hi. Good evening.

Alexi: Good evening.

Glen: I don’t know what’s so funny about that.

Alexi: I just,

Glen: are you [01:25:00] cozy?

Alexi: I’m really cozy.

Glen: You look really cozy.

Alexi: Thanks.

Glen: Welcome to post fame

Alexi: on Riverside.

Glen: Well, oh yeah, we’re trying. Well, you didn’t have to like. Well, I guess that’s just going fully behind the scenes. Uh, yeah, whatever. Just, you know,

Alexi: I’m drawing the curtain

Glen: back. I’m trying You’re, you are. We’re just doing some recording on different platform and trying some things out.

So, uh, we could be re-recording this, so I just, you need to prep yourself.

Alexi: I’m locked in. I’m

Glen: ready. So you need to lock it in or something like that. I don’t know if I can be

Alexi: entertaining twice.

Glen: Well, do I make the joke about whether you were the first time?

Alexi: Okay. No.

Glen: Um. Okay, so guess what? This episode’s, guess what?

This episode’s about,

track: this week on the podcast, the Edmonton Masters strike.

Glen: I kind of hate it. I know. It’s just so good. I, [01:26:00] uh, uh, so I went through, uh, I’ve been using AI for, um. Some summarizations and whatnot. Anyhow, it offered to make me a track about, about Striker. This week’s

Alexi: beautiful.

Glen: And I’m a yes man in 2026.

Alexi: Yeah,

Glen: so why not?

Alexi: That’s so funny actually. You’s crazy. You using AI not to make a song that that was an offering that AI just, uh, had for you.

But

Glen: what,

Alexi: like, let me finish.

Glen: Okay.

Alexi: Um, I was gonna say my point that I made. Like what the point that I took away from the podcast, one of the quotes, um, he’s talking about AI and the music world

Glen: Okay.

Alexi: And stuff. And so I think it’s kind of funny that it just happened to be that AI made you a song.

Glen: It just happened to make a song

Alexi: and you

Glen: used it.

Maybe it knew ’cause I fed the transcript, did fed the whole transcript. And it maybe you thought it was being cheeky.

Alexi: It did probably. Look, [01:27:00] I even have screenshots of the transcript today, so I remember what I’m talking about.

Glen: Oh, good for you.

Alexi: Yep.

Glen: I told you about how I was, um, asking it for help in doing some writing.

Alexi: Yes.

Glen: The other day. And then it gave me a style of a, like a blog post. Right. And then I told it, you know, I need to maybe make it a little more like myself ’cause I’m a little more verbose. And then it told me, you’re right, you are verbose. And I was, and I thought,

Alexi: mine’s been coming from my throat.

Glen: And I thought that’s, uh, why are you saying all that to me?

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: Yeah. So the thing I did today at work was, um, I dunno if you saw like they’ve lost, like I. Millions of users chat, GPT over, um, just political stuff right now.

Alexi: Oh, yeah,

Glen: yeah. In the last couple days. And because Claude came up with some really cool stuff that it doesn’t do. So the combination anyhow, so I thought, well, I should, I got a lot of stuff in there.

I wanna at least make sure. But there’s no way to just back it up. [01:28:00] Mm-hmm. So I was following all these instructions on prompts on how you would move all of your chat conversations and

Alexi: over

Glen: and, and GPTs over maybe to Gemini or Clot. And, um, so I had to, I gave it this specific set of prompts basically to inform in a structured context way, Gemini like how to.

Work with me.

Alexi: Oh,

Glen: so it’s basically one AI telling the other ai, it would be like saying like, you know, you moving to a new office. Mm-hmm. And, and, and saying to another like, so this is how to work with Lexi. Lexi,

Alexi: yeah.

Glen: So it was telling it how to work with me.

Alexi: That’s nuts.

Glen: Like telling it like what I. Prefer and favor and my preferences and how, anyhow.

Alexi: Getting read like a book.

Glen: It was really weird. I was like, you don’t know me, but

Alexi: it does.

Glen: Yeah. Um, anyhow, welcome to post fame again. Um, the episode on Striker.

Alexi: Yeah. [01:29:00]

Glen: And heavy metal. So this is, um.

Alexi: Pretty unique.

Glen: Yeah. I mean, it’s going outside of like

Alexi: what we’ve had,

Glen: where we’ve kind of lived for a long time.

And again, like obviously where we’ve lived for a long time has a lot to do with where my normal reach and access mm-hmm. To some people are to a degree. Um, so there’s a bit of a pocket and I’ve always kind of wanted to get out of it.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: And, uh, I’m really happy that these guys,

Alexi: that’s a nice avenue out.

Glen: I said yes. And they’ve got like, so much, uh, experience and they’ve had so much quote unquote success. Like we kind of talked about it in the episode. Mm-hmm. The truth, the behind the curtain with them too, since we’ll do a little callback, um, umhow. You have a whole bunch of pages of notes. I’m curious.

Sort of,

Alexi: it’s a transcript. See?

Glen: Transcript. What you, yeah, I’m sort of just curious what you had some takeaways ’cause I saw you, you have some yellow highlights.

Alexi: I do, yeah. Because there’s a lot of words [01:30:00] and I’m just one girl. Um, what was I even yi know. Oh, okay. It was that. Um, and I think it’s kind of funny that you.

I think it just ties into the podcast. Well, ’cause we’ve had a lot of conversations both about ai, music, music and ai, and then also like passion projects and like music and stuff. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And like we’ve had a lot of people who, you know, take everything very seriously on the podcast and like, you know, they decided to go all in on music and so they do everything in their power and they’re working all the time.

You know what I mean? We’ve had those people and then sometimes you’d have people who are like. I do this for fun and I’m not too serious about it. You know, we’ve had the whole spectrum. Um, so it’s kind of back on that topic, but, uh, at minute in the minutes makes sense. ’cause I’m, I’m jumping an hour, but around 25, 26, um, Dan was saying, um, he said, uh, even today it’s like the band feels more like a [01:31:00] passion project than anything.

Uh, and he was kind of like, you guys were talking about how it feels like a dopamine addict, you know, like

Glen: Yep.

Alexi: To just enjoy it and then back different conversation. But at an hour 26, so like a full one hour later, um, he, you guys were talking about something different and then sergeant, how like, um, they originated and how it was fun for them and then like kinda their journey.

And then he actually wraps back and says, and it’s kind of circled back into fun. Um, you know, and he said, I think that’s the only reason you keep in music, especially now with ai. Like there’s no reason to do it other than fun when. Spotify and like streaming services who you are like relying on to produce music and have it get out to the world are like themselves making AI music and how we kind of like, that’s just like a very unique perspective.

’cause I’ve just like, I’ve heard so much about AI entering the music scene and it’s just all been like a lot of hate, which is very understandable. Um, and I think I kind of joined that bandwagon, but, um, it was interesting for someone to be like, [01:32:00] yes. But aside from that, like he didn’t even touch on like the Yeah, everyone hates that AI is a music.

He just totally didn’t even touch on that. He just moved to the, like the, you know, we started this for fun and now like, especially with this component. Yeah, it’s, it’s for fun and it’s a passion project and like they take it seriously obviously, but like it’s really nice to like hear an artist be like.

Like, you know, we started this for fun. We’re still doing it for fun.

track: Yeah.

Alexi: Like at all the levels. Like he said, when he first started playing guitar, that was because he enjoyed it. And now like the level he’s at, it’s because he enjoys it. And I’m like, that’s refreshing. Like it’s kind of like the nice both and that we haven’t heard

Glen: Yeah.

Alexi: So much.

Glen: No, you’re right. Um. Well, I mean, speaking of such, like ai, also when it just asked me if it would like to summarize what, uh, Dan and Tim’s tips Yes. For, for up and coming bands from their 20 years of experience would be, and I said, okay, go ahead.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: And the very first one was prioritize fun over [01:33:00] fame.

And it says, with the rise of AI and shrinking streaming payout. So it’s everything you were just talking about.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: If you aren’t enjoying the process, the grind will burn you out.

Alexi: Am I ai?

Glen: Yeah. Uh, the second tip that it pulled from them was master the DIY skillset. Lower the barrier to entry by learning to do all the things.

Record, film, edit content yourself. Hire yourself, basically outsource yourself. Um. So that was, I remember that part of the conversation very well. Invest in your brand was another tip in a crowded market that music isn’t just enough, is a very, that warm, your heart was your big Oh yeah. So much. Yeah. Adopt a quote unquote house cat membership policy.

Don’t burn bridges over scheduling. If a member can’t make a tour due to life, commit, use a fill in, keep things going. Anyhow, uh, that’s an interesting

Alexi: take.

Glen: Uh, sort of like extraction from the conversation. Uh, build your own [01:34:00] infrastructure. Don’t wait for a major label. Striker found success by managing their own grants and visas and business plans and keeping control of their own ship.

Which is very true. I like that one. And then ignore the genre police, which was big for them because especially I wanted to get into it with them about, you know, there’s so many sub genres to metal or hard rock or whatever you wanna like start with at the top.

track: Mm-hmm.

Glen: And what I got into with them is I’m like, it felt to me like compared to other, like.

Other genres that have sub genres. Like it felt like the fans and even the artists themselves at maybe different eras, but maybe all the eras got pretty precious about it.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: And I wanted to know their take on it. And so, you know, they were very much about, don’t be afraid to like mix things up. You know, authenticity is, is your own tastes.

Mixing not strict compliance to rules. So

Alexi: I like that.

Glen: Uh, so I like that. So that [01:35:00] was, um, Striker’s Guide to the Modern Metal Industry. Apparently that’s what, um, Gemini’s calling it. Uh, I think I’m gonna put this out as a social media post for fun.

Alexi: Yeah, you should make a cute little Instagram post.

Glen: Yeah, I think so.

So there was like kind

Alexi: of, and the kind background of it should be that song.

Glen: Yes, it should be that song. I agree. Because you love this song so much. Two decades of shredding, touring the world, earning

track: that Juno gold. What,

Glen: where does he scream the secrets behind their new album? Ultra Power. Yeah. Yeah. That part.

Alexi: That’s what I’m gonna just start describing myself. Two. What is it, two something? Uh,

Glen: what?

Alexi: What did he say? Two. Something of shredding.

Glen: Yeah. I don’t know what he said

Alexi: exactly. What’s 10 years?

Glen: Oh, two decades,

Alexi: two. Yeah. That’s when I start two

Glen: decades of shredding.

Alexi: I’m gonna start describing myself two decades of shredding.

Glen: Yeah. That’s pretty awesome. Uh, I have such respect for these guys and, [01:36:00] um, the difficult market that they had to break through in, um, part of the conversation was about, you know, like different genres have had more access to. You know, the way that you sort of, the, the traditional way for decades in Canada, that rock and roll or bands or whoever made it was just grueling long drives back and forth.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: But that was still like limiting to the kind of bands that were more widely accessible. Right. So the more niche things get, so there would be less venues to play. Yeah. Um. So, you know, being a Western Canadian band, staying from Edmonton out of Edmonton, um, just in some ways, like every band, the part where they get lucky with their connections to Germany and some of the, uh, people over there along with just being really good and then taking advantage of opportunities and working hard, [01:37:00] kind of got them all that success, not easy to do.

So lots of respect for them and especially that they’re still. Still playing. Mm-hmm. Still having fun, still writing music right now even. So yeah, that was a fun episode to do. Also having a couple guys in it, you know, always kind of changes.

Alexi: Yeah, it’s fun.

Glen: The energy. So I want to keep trying to do some of that.

And

Alexi: group sash.

Glen: Group sesh. Uh, speaking of the hard rock and roll, I went to see Silver Sum pickups last night.

Alexi: Is that hard? Rock and roll.

Glen: It kind of is like, it gets pretty, I mean, they’ve been playing for like, I was surprised over 20 years too. Oh, I didn’t realize. Um, so like, you know, you get kind of a wider, you know, they, they experiment with more when a career is that long.

track: Mm-hmm.

Glen: But I mean, I’ve always thought like he’s one of the most unheralded ever talked about guitar players in rock and roll because he plays like such a unique style, [01:38:00] like lots of. Layers and atmospheric stuff along with just super heavy riffs.

Alexi: Mm.

Glen: And he’s so good and he does it all by himself, like he’s a real master of the layering even live.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: Anyhow, so as a guitar player, I’m a total geek and nerd for his music and I’m watching their shows. So, um, that was like really fun last night and reminded me just how much I love. Like their music. Like when you think about it, like maybe you have this like a band that you realize that you really love, but you never talk about.

Like nobody probably would know that you like love this band.

Alexi: Oh.

Glen: But you know that you like absolutely love this band. Like when their songs come on, you always like, are excited. Um, yeah. Anyhow, like.

Alexi: This is them for you?

Glen: Yeah, I just, I just realized like I’ve seen them like three times, maybe four times now.

Yeah, you’ve seen

Alexi: that

Glen: now. [01:39:00] And, um, I don’t miss ’em if I have a chance, uh, to see them. There’s just something really special and unique about them, so, um, I enjoyed that. So I got a little do to go along with this of some good, like, heavy riff reminding me of how I learned to play guitar was cutting my teeth.

I’m pretty. Heavy music.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: So I’ll never forget the first time somebody hooked me up. I had already been playing guitar for a little bit and then my, I went with my oldest sister to visit one of her friends, this guy named Steve, and he had like a. A guitar and amp and he had like the, and it was called like the metal pedal.

It was thing was called metal. It was like this famous boss pedal black. Yeah, it just says metal pedal on it.

track: I like

that.

Glen: And it was just that crunchy buzz sound of a guitar. And he’s just like, play these power chords like this and just, and then kick the pedal and I turn the pedal and all of a sudden I’m making heavy metal [01:40:00] sounds.

And I remember the rush. You was pretty young. Love

Alexi: this.

Glen: I was pretty young and I was, yeah, I was. Pretty much in love with that sound for a long time,

Alexi: so that’s awesome.

Glen: Fun times. Fun times

Alexi: for real,

Glen: for reals. Okay. Thanks for your hot takes.

Alexi: Thanks. I’m excited to see the,

Glen: what Are you excited to see the how I have published the,

Alexi: yeah.

The 20 years of shredding.

Glen: The 20 years of shredding song.

Yeah.

Glen: Yeah. I’m gonna get that. Or I think social media will probably be the best way to. To put that out. Yeah, that’s gonna be fun. Yeah,

Alexi: kill it.

Glen: Okay. Love you. Thank you.

Alexi: Bye.

Glen: Bye.