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The KBEAR dudes interviewing your favorite artists!
The Artist Interrogations podcast. Peaches. Peaches. Peach. Okay.
Exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm sitting down with Jolly from Bad Omens. So great to meet you here in this room. I know, like, you're on, like, the lowest couch possible.
It's nice, though. It is nice. Yeah. It's my first time ever at the union. Is it your first time as well?
At this venue, I do believe so. It's a pretty cool venue from what I've seen so far. Yeah. No. It seems it seems good.
Yeah. I see the stage is, like, a little bit smaller than I would wish, but because we don't use our a rig today, which is we have a few few of them, and the the biggest one is not today. This is like a b or something. I know last night, everyone like, I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I checked my phone and all of a sudden I saw, like, one of our listeners messaged me on Facebook saying, Noah's voice was gone in Denver. Is it gonna be okay in Salt Lake City?
And I was, like, anxious the entire time over here. I was, like, refreshing Bad Omens' Twitter to make sure it was all good. I mean, we'll we'll yeah. We'll see. He did have a rough night and then, we also, but we we suffered through.
I mean, you know, we did what we could and we were going to do the same thing today. Positive positive, vertical thinking. Yeah. You guys are awesome, especially when it comes to, like, the the work ethic and caring about the fans. Like, I even saw a little snippet on TikTok last night of Noah saying, I'm so incredibly sorry.
I don't wanna cancel anything. And No. It's just, like, a feeling you get when, like, here's the truth there that there's thousands of people out there. And then that that's it's the worst case scenario, having to cancel for those people, and it does make you feel bummed and sad and angry at situation or not, but then the truth is that we're all freaking humans. And then especially, you know, when it comes to like Noah and his voice and how delicate it is and then he's obviously more prone to like if some if I get sick it doesn't really matter.
If anyone else in the back have a little cough or have a little hoarse voice or they're sneezing or whatever, feeling a little bit over the weather, that is not a big deal because we can still do our job but it's like, instantly, not if it's no, you know, no what do you call it? When Noah has something, you can instantly hear that. Yeah. He yeah. He's all of a sudden can't use his full register and all that stuff.
So, yeah. But, it's all about just staying healthy and keep keeping quiet and hoping for the best. Especially with the way he seems. It's like so calming at first then he goes into the yelling mode and all that and He needs his full full capacity essentially. So it sucks when when the universe puts him down to whatever percent they they they punish him down.
So so I understand. It's very bad that is like I said, like, bottom line is we're all human and that's just how it goes. Absolutely. And you guys are doing, like, back to back to back stops, like, in Minneapolis and then Denver and then here? Yeah.
Sometimes it's a little bit maybe that's a little bit too many, you know. We have to, like, start thinking in those terms like maybe you should just max out on 3 or 4 or whatever is the best gives the best results essentially. Right. We'll see. Yeah.
I think the last time I don't know if you were there or if somebody else was there back in 2022, Noah and I think it was you stopped by our studio. It probably was 2022 for sure. Yeah, because you guys were on tour with Under Oath and Spirit Box, and it was a little bit after the Death of Peace of Mind came out. And that's how I got introduced to you guys was I was afternoons on the country station and you guys were in the studio and I was walking by kind of creepily like, oh, so we got rock stars in the studio. This is sick.
And then I listened to the first track off of the death of peace of mind, Concrete Jungle, and I just fell in love with it ever since. And you guys have just blown up, really. It is absolutely insane to see, you know, the merch go crazy fast, the ticket sales go crazy fast. Everybody in our audience, especially from, you know, like like myself, they probably drove 3 hours to get here. I think we had one listener show up at 8 in the morning just wait outside to come see you guys.
Oh, that's yeah. There's been a few of those sometimes where they're here before before we are, so to speak. No. It's really cool. It's, I see people seem to enjoy it, and that's that's awesome.
That's a perfect scenario. And then also people seem to leave our shows with a positive feeling like, you know, like, oh, that was awesome. Feeling that that was something different and that's what we're trying to deliver, you know, we're trying to give them a little bit of experience and it's it's nice to hear that it's working. Yeah. Yeah.
It's really it was really funny because, I check our Twitter sometimes and, I see what like what you guys do on stage and I was laughing because I think you had a clip of Peaky Blinders on this. Yeah. Who whose idea was that? That was Noah's. I think it's just like we're like, one of those series that we all watch a lot, and then it's just so funny because sometimes there's just like a little bit too much fighting out there, and I think that had been a thing for a few shows.
We were like, we were like, let's run that before we go on. It's like, you know, fighting. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought it was funny, but I think we just did that a few times and then, I don't hopefully, we won't have to bring it back.
People know how to behave and just Oh, definitely. You know, try to take care of each other out there. And I saw Noah do a speech about how people just learned about the band through TikTok and all that and Just Pretend going viral. And I know Just Pretend just went number 1 in alternative radio, which is pretty crazy. It did.
It did. And that's from having gone number 1 on on active rock before that. So, yeah, hitting 2 charts. Number 1 is awesome. It's really, really cool.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what the same is. Do you ever just, like, go to your parents and be like, listen to my songs on the radio? No.
I don't. I haven't told them really to the explicit or to the content of how much we're being played because they're they're in Sweden. They're they're all listening to our radio. I don't know if they I think they know, oh, they went number 1, but I don't know what that they if they know what that really means. But, I don't know.
Just try to keep a low profile, you know. Yeah. No. It's it's it's great to be that way. It's funny just because, like job.
I've been just trying to do our best out here, you know. I mean, I I freaked out. Working. I freaked out when I saw my my name on the radio. It was like afternoons with Brendan Peach or whatever, but I could not imagine being a musician and just hearing, like, your song being played on the air and everything.
And it's kinda it kinda sad saddens me that, like, Just Pretend was, like, the go to for a lot of the rock stations because you guys have so many great songs. And I think oftentimes radio just chooses like a softer song to be on the quote safer side. It could be like that. Yeah. And there's like times where we we play artificial suicide on our station and stuff and That's the other end of the spectrum.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 2 complete yeah. Exactly.
Those are 2 completely different songs. But then we had the death of peace of mind going pretty good on was it alternative or active rock right now? I don't think it hit number 1, but I think it's been up there for a long time now. It has been like a 2 or 3 and, like, been living there. So so, I mean and that's a little bit of a heavier song versus Just Pretend, would you say?
So, I think they're playing, like, a little bit of everything. And then, last year, I think we had a little bit spin of, like, a villain. Oh, yeah. Definitely. That's also like a heavier one.
Right. So but they're all melodic. They'll have courses to help except for, you know, artificial suicide. Maybe it was a little bit on the the heavier spectrum. Yeah.
Even seeing like the the merch sales go the way that they are, I I was trying to, get myself a shirt and I refreshed the page. Everything's sold out. Oh, you mean the drops online? Yeah. No.
That's they tend to do that. It's very hard to keep stock on on that. We do our best and we're definitely just resupplying or making more each time. But, yeah, it's the demand is pretty high. Yeah.
It's great. It's it's a very odd situation to be in, but we're we're trying to do our best to fill that void as as best we can. Yeah. Like one thing I would love to see you guys do is since you guys are so crazy high up there now and even, like, Sleep Token and Dayseeker, I would love to see you I I can only imagine if you 3 bands got together to tour, how fast that would sell out right away. That would probably be a pretty big one.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just because my my boss, Victor, he actually just went to, Boise last night to go watch Sleep Token, the Knitting Factory. And then he drove from Boise to here, and I think he's still on his way over here now to try to, of course, come see this show. But it's like his big weekend of traveling on the road for like I I just it's, it's pretty wild.
I think there's a lot of fans even out there that I saw a post on Reddit that were like, oh, I'm from North Carolina and I flew in and all of that. It's just it's insane and I'm so happy that you guys are just, you know, are killing it out there, really. Yeah. There are a lot of people flying in from different like I said, it makes it even harder or, like, more pressure. There's people flying in from I flew in from Argentina to see you and they have a flag with them, and I was we're just like, oh, we have to like, this is crazy.
Yeah. People fly really, like, from different continents for a few days to see a show because they've been, you know, planning it for a long time or whatnot. So I said, no, it's it's nuts. It's fun though, and I really hope that they leave the with a feeling of fulfillment that it was worth it. How did you and Noah meet?
You said you're from Sweden and that you've been in the band since 2015? I've been in the band since we ever released music. Yes. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, he's the founding member and Nick, he brought in which they've been, you know, friends for forever. And then our 1st bass player who's not in the men anymore, he was my best friend, and we had had contact abroad seas, overseas, whatever. He's actually been over there and touring with my band once.
Well, we needed to fill in. So, no, we were just like we were best friends. We always talked and then it just fell. The my other band that I had at the time, many years ago now, they just fell through. They didn't want to tour anymore and I felt like I really wanted to.
And right at that moment is when my friend said that he was talking to this dude called Noah and about a new project and if I was interested and I contacted WakeMed, you know, going and talked with Noah, and then we started talking, writing some stuff and then he's like, cool. Let's meet. And then literally just kinda spiral from there. It was pretty pretty weird when you look back at it, but it didn't feel weird at the time. It was just like everybody wanted it wanted to do this.
What we're doing right now is was very clear that that's what everybody wanted to do. So, it was just like minded people getting together and just, you know, hustling for for x amount of years. And and right now we're here, and that's very cool. We're very grateful. I can't wait for what's coming next.
You know, I just wanna keep on this journey. Yeah. Feels like it's just started. I know it's very big, but like I said, I try to keep it low profile or keep my head balanced. We're all just very chill people.
Right. Yeah. No. You guys are just like the silent killers, you know, when it comes to like the music scene. I mean Yeah.
Because bad rock and metal is already, elevating popularity. Mhmm. But even more so, like, you guys and Spiritbox, Sleep Token, Dayseeker, Beartooth even, like, all of you guys are just really really getting up there, which is amazing to see. Mhmm. Because it's great to see the younger bands now get a turn because, you know, every rock station out there does Metallica Monday.
And it's and they've been around for so long. My dad went to high school with James Hetfield. It's like Your dad did? Yeah. Oh.
The Downey High School in Downey, California. That is so cool though. Yeah. I wish you would have became better friends with him. Yeah.
They were just like buddies now. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately not. No.
We got bullied by him instead of something. You are right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
The other that sucks. Well, yeah. Thank you so much, Jolley, for joining me today. Thank you. For having me.
Really appreciate it. The artist's interrogations podcast is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information or to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com.