Liu Kang & Andrew Sandoz

[Music] Okay. [Music] [Applause] [Music] How's it going everybody and welcome to Ready VIP. I'm your host Emanuel Class, also known as Bbop for some of those out there. And I'm happy to introduce our special guest musician host today. Here with me is Mike aka Liu Kang. How's it going? Hey, it's going good. Um, hi everyone and thanks for having me. Honestly, um I'm just really privileged to be here. Um my first name is Michael. Uh you can call me Mike. And I've been doing music since I was four years old. So around like 20 years now in terms of piano and stuff. Um something you may not know about me is as much as I love dubstep, I'm also a huge techno and hard style head. So I'm really into hard style actually recently. And that's uh that's really all about me. And I like orange. Awesome. Super dope. Your orange phantom matching my Cyclops Desert uh swag here today. I'm dressed like an orange Fanta. Um so I I appreciate the introduction. It's great to hear about you right away putting out that you like hard style right off the bat. We're definitely going to jump into that a little bit later. And for anybody who listens to Ready VIP, you know exactly what I mean. Get your pencil and paper out. So um I brought Mike on today for a couple different reasons. First off, you're an incredible incredible musician. like thank you. You are exceptionally talented. I spent a lot of time uh around musicians and listening to music and I can immediately see it. And um my wife Claire sent me the video of you playing Subtronics and on piano and I was like, "Holy crap. Yes, this is exactly what I'm always talking about. This is amazing. This is incredible." And this was right before I went to Cyclops Desert and got all this orange Fanta gear. And so while I was there, and I'm going to uh play the clip a little bit uh after this, I got to hear your piano music played live by Subtronics at Cyclops Desert. And immediately I was like, "Bye. I gotta get a I gotta get a video of it." Um, so I'm so happy to have you here to talk music because you yourself are also a DJ. You just had a song drop, so there's so much to talk about. Yeah, 100%. Uh, my song Waffles and Pancakes just came out on March 14th. It was honestly it was kind of like an impulsive uh release. Uh, to be real, like I wasn't I was like waiting for labels here and there and there were some labels that were like, "Oh, I want to sign it and stuff like that." But then the whole Sronics thing happened and I was like, "Well, I need to put something out to show everyone that I can also produce because people probably hopefully will be checking out my stuff." So, I just wanted to put a song out and I really like it and it was really like heavy, a really heavy song and it's just something I found really cool. So, uh just experimenting around that's kind of most of my music just playing around stuff like that. I love it. There's definitely it's somewhere between like that dubstep experimental bass, you know, craziness that Subtronics does. And I really like it. Like I we're going to feature it um after your interview and our own music video. And it's got a lot of composition. It's very well put together. Um, you and I in our kind of green room behind the scenes, we talked about phrasing and how important it is to know that as you're going in to build a song and what that means for, you know, being able to put out music. And so for you as an artist, you know, that also puts a lot of uh responsibility on you to have to put that much work into all your music. Yeah, 100%. So, like when it comes to making dubstep, I like I started making it after Lost Lands 2023 and I went it was my first rave ever. Actually, my first first rave ever was Lost Lands. Well, it blow your mind. It was my first EDM um show ever. Show I guess if you want to call it that. But honestly, like I was so inspired. I just I saw everyone there, how nice everyone was and just like how you're so separated from the stresses of society and the stresses of people outside. And honestly, thinking about it, I went home and obviously life kind of hits again. And honestly, I was like, well, these artists are making the music. They're the ones that are setting these things up. Uh, and obviously their team and helping put these shows together that helps us escape from the stresses of reality. And I was just extremely inspired to want to be a part of that. I wanted to help others um forget about their problems and just focus on the music. And it was something it was definitely something I wanted to tackle. Um and so I got home, I opened up my dog because I was making beats here and there and doing some techno stuff before, but dubstep was always kind of like a monster that I was too scared to tackle. and I just started sitting there and teaching myself and watching Virtual Riot videos actually. So, big shout out to Virtual Riot. Big shout out. And um talking about phrasing, uh going back to the original point, um it was something I learned where I first started with sound design, sound design and mixing. And after I got kind of the sound design and mixing down where I just I just kind of throw stuff at the wall. I still do. And um after getting the sound design down, I'm like, "Okay, what makes these songs like catchy?" And what makes it so that like I want to move, I want to headbang. And it's like, well, this phrasing like every the reason why people love dubstep so much, or at least in my opinion, why I love dubstep so much is it feels like the music is talking to you. Oh yeah. And every growl, every like whatever, every stab, it's saying something to you, and there's always going to be a response to that. It's like a conversation in music. And I think that's genuinely like the coolest thing of all time. And I mean I could talk all day about it, but like I just that's why we brought we literally brought you here to talk all day about it. So just be passionate. There's nothing wrong with that. Enjoy it. Share your passion with the world. That's one of the great things about our community is we have a lot of passionate individuals who also want to share their passion with you and they want to share in your passion. They want to share in the excitement of your art and what you're making. Yeah, 100%. And one of the biggest things that I think in terms of like the community, what it brought out of me is just not caring about acting cool. Like I I stopped caring about acting cool and I just want to be myself now. Like you see me, I'm talking really fast. That's just me as a person. And obviously I'm going to say it right now. I'm pretty nervous. It's my first podcast of all time. But it's not like I'm not going to try to put on like a persona or something because in reality like people want to connect with you and I want to connect with others like the real you. You know what I mean? And I think that's something that rave culture in the community has really brought out. Definitely. I'll let you know a secret. You're doing great. Thank you. Um so I think that's one of the great hallmarks of any artist is whenever you ask about them, their first response is how can I inspire the community? How can I bring people together? How can I touch lives? How can I learn about other people's lives? How can I see it through their perspective? And that is just one of the really powerful things about music. So, you've given you gave us a little perspective on your origin story, right? That was your Marvel your Marvel comeup. But how did you go from that to playing piano EDM dubstep bars? Yeah, 100%. I So, I Last year was a really rough year for me. I um I had just gone through a breakup and it was a really tough breakup and also a month after I lost my job like I I straight up got fired and yeah so I was sitting there and the job was extremely hard. It was I was working 14 hours a day at times and I would get home and immediately start so I would probably work from like 7 in the morning till like 900 p.m. get home and immediately hop in my DAW and start working on music until like 2 3 in the morning and then wake up the next morning and do it again. That's something I actually never even Yeah. I mean and not a lot of people know about that but I I just really wanted it like really bad. I um and so after I got fired, I was looking for other opportunities. And in between that time, it was like a month or two, I decided to go back to my hometown in Maryland because I just wanted to reconnect with some of my childhood friends and chat with them a bit. And one of them was talking about how like one of them really likes how I'm DJing and producing. His name is Ty actually. Shout out Ty. Shout out to Ty. Shout out to Ty. Yeah, Tai Cow. He's super cool and a super dope guy. I think he does like tech and stuff. Uh but I uh I drove there and for he owns a company and it's a tech company. It's called Mrasp. There's a little plug, but um Minecraft like does social media media a lot. Uh essentially it's a education company uh that you AI and helps you study and stuff, but they do a lot of social media marketing to help push their product and stuff like that. And he was like, "Hey, I want to help you out with your DJ thing." He said, "It's like your dream, right?" And I'm like, "Yeah, this is definitely like what I want to do. It's literally why I'm grinding so hard every single day." And he's like, "Well, like I heard you played piano." And honestly, it was great. And to me, honestly, since I've been playing piano for so long, it was always something like I never thought it was that big of a deal, to be honest. M I I didn't really I just like it just kind of seemed like a cool party trick at times, you know, and I was like, you know, I I like playing in my spare time and it's something I genuinely enjoy doing. And he was like, we have to get that on social media. And my initial thought was like, well, sure, why not? Like, it couldn't hurt. And so, um, we went out one night and I think it was actually the night of Level Up. Level Up played in in, uh, Maryland, I think. And I forget which venue. Sorry. I think it was soundcheck. It was soundcheck. Level up. Played at soundcheck. Um, and I think when I got back, I was sitting there. Wait, the timelines might not match up. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it was before Level Up or after Level Up. It's just had something. It was around fact check, brother. You're good. Either way, it was around the time Level Up played at Soundcheck. And um, I was kind of thinking about like EDM, dubstep. My friend had a piano. I'm sitting there just playing. I was very, very sad and not really in the best mood. Obviously, just stressing about finding a new job and getting my life together in that sense. And my friend just recorded me and he's like, "This is exactly what I'm talking about. Like, this is exactly what we need to post on your TikTok." And I'm like, "What do you mean?" And he's like I'm like, "It's it's a crappy video. You're just like filming me. Like it's not even like I'm I'm playing like into pieces and nothing like too crazy like on the pianos and stuff. Great song though. Yeah. I mean I love that song so much, right? That's what it's like my go-to song when I'm like sad or something and I want to just kind of reminisce and think and so but he he convinced me and I posted it and what happened was it was like picking up some likes more than my usual Tik Toks, you know, more than the usual like promoting my song going like ba ba ba and stuff like that. Um, and so I was like, "Cool." I go to bed and I think I wake up like the next morning and I see that or it might have been No, it was the next morning. I'm not too sure. I don't remember too well. Wibbly wobbly timy wy stuff. Time moves so fast. It all moved so quick, but uh I woke up and Alleycat commented and said something very true where like people who don't understand EDM or dubstep, they're just like, "Oh, it just sounds stupid." But she's like she said she commented something really um relatable to me which is like no anything can be played out like such a memorable melody can it's it's literally an art form. It's not just sounds that a lot of haters say. No man you couldn't be more right. Yeah. Literally. And like with piano and everything like I've been playing piano all my life. Like I I hear dubstep. It's so melodic. It's so beautiful. There's so many different elements to it. It's I call it smart people music. Definitely. But um it's very complex. Yeah, it's definitely very complex. And Alcat reposted it and I think that's what it got to the algorithm for uh Subronics to see it. And Subronics commented too. And I was like, "This is so sick." Like I'm getting the attention of like people I look up to like this whole time. Like everyone I looked up to. And I instantly just thought back to Lost Lands 2023 and seeing Subtronics play there and I'm like, "Wow, this is this is crazy." And um immediately after that, he I think tabbed Grabbits or something and it was it was that right. It could have easily ended there. It was almost like it could have been like a meme or something, you know? But because I think the original video was like, "Yeah, my roommate like was playing this all night or something like that." So, he didn't probably didn't even know it was me. So, I immediately responded to his comment. I'm like, "Hey, it's me and I play. I can play other stuff." So, I just thought about like a song that Yeah. Because like Alicat commented about how dubstep is like people think it's just noise, right? So, I thought about a song that people like may not really associate with piano and it was Gastub VIP. Yeah. And so, I responded to Subronics's comment. I played Gast VIP on the piano. Nice. And um I think that's what really um got him to be like, "Oh, like he can play piano. Not like it's not like he like memorized uh the song or something." I mean, not that there's anything wrong with like memorizing a song and practicing it because I practice all the time actually. But when it comes to um I don't know, piano and stuff like that, I like hearing things and analyzing it that way and then playing it on the piano and definitely. And then Sullivan King commented. I replied to his comment as well. And that's that. I just started replying to all these comments and you just dropped a video like today, didn't you? Oh, yeah. No, it was yesterday actually. So, Monster Cat actually commented on Monster Cat was like, "Do me next." Yeah. They're like, "Do me next." I'm like, I kind of already did with that Sullivan King song, but I was like, well, Monster Cat has honestly always been like a dream label of mine. Obviously, their standards are extremely high when it comes to music and stuff like that. So, I'm I'm preparing some projects and that I could hopefully send to them and see what they think. But um Monster Shout out Monster Cat. I love Monster Cat, but they asked for one and I'm like, why not do a medley? So, yes, I like it like bow boom. Yeah, 100%. And it's like I can play by ear every time I hear it. But the thing is it's like when you get you want to get the perfect take and I really want to try to get the perfect take like any wrong note and I I I kind of watch myself over again sometimes just to see how like it sounds and if I hear a wrong note I just kind of like eek you know like I just get irked. Um, and so like all usually my stuff takes like probably like 5 10 minutes to film, but this one took a solid like hour and mainly it was because one I had to think of what songs I wanted to play out for the medley and two I wanted to figure out how it all transitions into each other and plan that out. And then after that, I mean, hypnosis was literally like the second song I played in that video was literally a color-based song. And so like my hands were cramping up so bad because I had to stretch like be like three notes beyond an octave. And like Yes. And like but also I had to like split my middle finger and my like fourth finger to like hit some of the notes that like they were playing in those like you know color based stabs. And I love that song. That song was really it's I listened to that on repeat so many times and and now it's like yeah my hands were cramping up in the middle of it. I was just kind of like my hands were cramping up just hearing you talk about it. Like I watched that video and I was just like my god that's incredible. As someone who's I played piano for a long time, right? And like it's never happened to me before where my hand stiffs up and I like I can't move it and I'm like I must be out of practice or something. But uh yeah. gota you got to build up those those muscles. So I go to Cyclops Desert, right? And they play your your song. I'm going to actually we're going to cut away in just a second here so that everybody else can hear Subtronics play your music. It was a moment, man. So, like he gets up on top of the stacks and he lights a cigarette and he sits down and he just has this moment with the audience where he's we're all listening to piano and he's smoking and they put him up on the big screen so everybody all 150,000 people or whatever can see him. Yeah. And there's just a chill hush over the entire audience, right? And we're all kind of in awe. And then after because it it goes from your piano into the song and he gives you the shout out and the whole crowd just explodes. And I've been to a lot of events. One of the hardest things about being a headliner, especially with so many great openers like that where it's like immersive and headaches opening for you on day one, like the crowd is smoked. They're exhausted, right? and he gave them this this very quiet moment to just calm down for a second and then exploded back open and the whole crowd had energy again and they were all moving and I was like not only is this just a true master craftsman on at work but we're seeing the integration of classical piano into the EDM scene and it being embraced with open arms right like this is a posashi this is the future like this is like the bleeding edge of music right now is is taking something that is uh I think it touches all of us in different ways and bringing it all together. So, we're going to play that real now right now with some a little bit of movie magic. [Music] Hello. Hello. [Music] So watch me places pretty Christmas. [Music] Wow, man. I know it was a short little video. I sent it to you on Instagram. I was like, "Dude, you got to check this out." And it still gives me chills. Yeah. I mean, in terms of like playing that out loud, first off, like Jesse is absolutely the most humble person of all time for that. I can't believe like I think like he he's the type of person I think that would if he were to like not even be successful in dubstep, he's still be making music every single day. Oh, for sure. Like I'm convinced. like he genuinely just appreciates it for the art. At least from my online interactions with him and it's like I couldn't have been more like I guess felt more honored that he actually appreciates the work that I'm doing because as I stated before like in terms of piano like it didn't really feel like that big of a deal for me. Um and I didn't think people would like it that much but I I'm really grateful for that. Um and I think the first time he played it out was at the armory. Yes. And I was in the middle of like moving from Madison, Wisconsin, which is where I was originally working to uh now I'm in Nevada, like Reno, Nevada. I'll dox myself. Why not? But yeah, Reno friends, if you ever want to jam out or something, just let me know. Shout out Reno. But uh shout out Reno. Yeah, I love this place by the way. The mountains and everything, it's just so beautiful. But um I was in the middle of a move. So like I was just in like some hotel room because I got a new job and I had to move for my job. So they were helping comp with like the hotel hotel room. I was sitting there just like and before that happened like I mean I had already made like a a cover a full cover of Into Pieces and I sent it to uh Subronics and um I was like oh like cool like maybe he'll do something with it sometime in the future or something and I'm like about to fall asleep. I this is like two in the morning at that time I think or it was like 1 in the morning two in the morning I don't know but he ended his day one I think with that with his like chills. So yeah so it was like I think it was like two in the morning and I was sitting there like right about to fall asleep. someone calls me on Facebook Messenger and I don't use Facebook ever. So like that notification is never on but for some reason I guess like it popped up like you missed a call or something and I called them back and then they were like they didn't answer and I'm like what's going on like and then like a couple minutes later it was one of my friends um uh Soxious I think she's also a DJ and she's like from the Madison scene and she's absolutely very talented plays some like wubby stuff. Um, but she text me. She's like, "Yeah, um, Subronics just played out you're into pieces cover at the Armory." I'm like, "What?" And I'm like, "Give me a video. Give me a video." And like the funny thing is like I the video was like too long and like we're trying to figure out how like to get it sent and stuff like that. I'm like trying to download it, but like the signal wasn't good. And I'm trying to send and once I finally got it, I like look at it and I'm like, "Whoa." Like I think I was like I teared up a little bit for sure. I was like, "Wow, I never first off like I think it was only like a day or two ago or it might have been like like it was in the span of like around like a week or less than a week that I had sent like Subronics and stuff, which is I'm like, "Oh, it's probably going to be like a couple months down the line or whatever." And I did not expect him to be so fast with it. Like that man is talent. He's like he he just goes to work, gets inspired by something. And I honestly really appreciate people in the industry who are like that, like DJs in the industry, big or small, who just they just love the art itself where they they see something like I think he sees something that excites him and he's like, "Oh, this is cool." And then he just, you know, like he's like, "This is cool. This is cool." It's not like, "Oh, how many followers does he have?" Oh, like, "Oh, he only has this many streams. I can't work with him or it's like oh like um you know stuff like that like he doesn't care about that superficial stuff which is something that I really really appreciate. Um and yeah honestly that's just really cool and I try to do the same thing where I'm um right now like I think I have like a collab with one of my very good friends. His name is Mashima and he's also from the Madison Wisconsin scene. He's like 19 years old. extremely talented producer and I mean like I don't care how many followers he has like obviously obviously is doesn't have a crazy amount of followers but I didn't care about that because I'm like this guy like he can produce and I really respect the work he does and it's just what I want to work on with him. So that's honestly what really yeah I I try to keep that same humbleness and mindset and honestly the more attention and eyes get brought to me like it's just like the more like I'm like ah like I'm just like the less the I guess it's a bit of imposttor syndrome in a bit but like for a little bit but it's also just like I'm just so grateful and so humble for everyone that supports me like seriously. Yeah. And that makes me think of our last episode guest. If you haven't watched our last episode, go back and watch it. Shout out to JMA 5. Um, I asked him in our special fun question segment. If he could give advice to himself at 14, at 24, and then just a few months prior to him, because he's an old head DJ, what advice would he give himself? And he said, you know, I would go back in time and tell myself just to keep going, that you have the right ideas, that you're you got this, you're fine, right? And as an artist, that's the hardest thing to tell yourself is that, you know, I I am validating myself. My art is great and everything is wonderful and I'm going to keep producing because we don't do that as humans. It's the hardest thing to do. We don't just like, you're doing good, buddy. I love my painting. That's but it's that torture. It's the pain. It is the experience that pushes us through to make some of the best art. And that's, you know, just kind of the nature of the artist. But hearing it from your friends, from your peers, from uh complete strangers sometimes it it does shift your perspective on your own art. And so you have to tell yourself, how do you take that experience and grow from it? How do I how do I take their feedback, their perspective, but also maintain myself to be true to myself, my own identity, and what my vision is? And you're going to wrestle with that forever, friend. So good luck. I mean, most of the stuff I do is just sitting there. I'm like, I hate this. Yeah. Next. I hate this. Next. I'm just like sitting there with all my own projects. I'm just like, I this sucks. This sucks. This sucks. And honestly, this actually kind of like for example, right? Like I uh I have like a collab right now that's um going to be coming out soon and I think I just finished it. I think it's it's like almost done. Uh it's with uh Hostage Situation actually. Um I think I'm allowed to say that. Um but essentially like I had to travel for work and I went to Denver for work and um they were just they just happened to be town in town at that time and um so I was able to uh go to their place and you know make some music with them and everything like that. And the first thing was like I was so nervous and I was sitting there. I'm like I was like scared to put input at first because like I'm just like these are these people like they're they're touring and like they're like doing all these things but they immediately made me feel extremely comfortable and I think it's like I was it surprised me a big like a ton like a lot actually when like I would bring up an idea and then they would listen to me like I'm like oh okay like this is cool like they even though I've been producing music a lot too it's like I always think I'm like, "Oh, like this this is terrible, blah, blah, blah blah." But like that really helped build like my confidence. Um, just the way like how nice they were and how open to my ideas they were and like it really became collaborative. Like at first I thought it was like, oh no, like they probably know everything and I know nothing. But it was all the best artists are collaborating at the top, man. And the spirit of collaboration is really what defines the best artist is who can like combine genius with others. So it's it's great to hear. And you have uh some genius that you're going to share with us. So we have one of your finished songs that we're going to play in uh the in between this segment and next. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Uh Waffles and Pancakes. Uh waffles and pancakes. Yeah. I mean, I that song I uh I wanted to come up with something that like I'm like I was like what out of rave like what makes me want to headbang? It's like a sick pre-drop, you know? I love it when they tease like Yeah. the heavy sections and stuff like that. And so originally that song was called like King of the Frogs or something because I made like this I was like experimenting with some like like sounds and it started sounding a bit like Muerteish kind of sounds like and I love Muerte by the way. Nice. Absolute genius. I would love to work with him one of these days actually because he also incorporates like classical music into his songs. And if you listen to the song, it kind of sound like I couldn't make up my mind of what I wanted it to be. Um, originally like I was like, I'm gonna make this into like a beat kind of like like kind of a song like experimentalish kind of thing because I was like I was like so tired of I was doing sound design all day essentially the previous day and I was like I'm so tired of hearing stabs so I'm just going to do drums. So in the beginning of the song like I'm like well Liu Kang I want to feel like we're going into battle riding into battle. I get all the strings and horns in there and I'm like, "Oh, what if it just goes into a beat?" And then so I started just sitting there and like making the drums and everything with music for me like I'm perfectly fine with like sampling, but me personally when I make music like I like making my own loops and stuff like that. And like just for drums I always use samples, but like for other sounds like most of my music is just me sitting there playing around with sound design until I hear something I'm like, "Oh, that's you know." And like that's usually how all songs all my songs are made. I just make a sound. I'm like, "Oh, it's all based on the sound." But I was sitting there making drums and then I was like, "Oh, well, I had enough of that. I want to make something heavy now." And then I tried experimenting with some like froggy sound. It sounded like a frog, King of the Frogs. And I sent it in like this DJ group chat that I'm a part of with some of my boys. And after that, like they were like, "Oh, it's fire." I'm like, "Cool." And then I fall asleep, wake up the next morning, listen to This is trash. This is garbage. So, I deleted everything. And then I uh and then I was like, okay, and this is the phrasing part. The sounds were fine, but I'm just like the phrasing is just so repetitive. Didn't make sense. It just kept repeating. I'm like, "All right, well, let's go back to square one. Let's plan out this like what's going on here?" And phrasing, right? Always goes back to phrasing. It's something I love to say when it comes to producing. It's like we need a a section, we need a B section. Mhm. It's going to call and respond um so that the audience doesn't get bored. And in between we always have fills and stuff like that. And then it's like, "Okay, cool. We have the drop. What's before the drop?" Well, a pre-drop, you know? And I'm like, and then so I'm like, "Okay, well, now we need a pre-drop vocal." And I don't have good mics or anything, so I just use my MacBook mic. And I was just like, "This is a fake out." Nice. That was So that was your voice. That was me. Yeah, that was me. Like I and like the Liu Kangh like all that stuff. I like I like do my own I like doing my own vocals because like So what's what's the sample from? The Waffles and Pancake sample from I just found it on YouTube. Um I didn't know what to name the song and I posted like some I think I posted like a clip of it and I was like what should I name this song? And one of my friends like childhood friends actually commented and he's like name it waffles and pancakes. I'm like sure why not. And then Zimon was like, "All right, well, I need to think of waffles and pancakes and stuff." And I found that funny argument. I think it's between three dudes like just arguing about which one's better. And I'm like, "Got to throw that in there." And then originally the last drop of that song was supposed to be like this weird like dark like kick heavy like um experimental kind of thing like with like a little bit like a hamdi bass on top. But um I deleted all that too. The music you'll never hear, audience. No, no, actually, I I'm saving that for another song that I I made something cool. It just didn't fit. And I was like, well, I was in a meme mood and I'm like, I'm just going to try to throw as many memes as possible in my in the last drop of the song. So, that's that's what I did. And I'll wake up tomorrow, there'll still be waffles, there'll still be pancakes. There'll be French toast. There'll be French toast. It's like It's like, yeah, there will be. It doesn't really matter. It's a cute message. It is a cute message. It's not that deep. Like drama, why, you know, why do people have beef? I don't know. Just love each other and just live life. No, like I mean visuals is something that I always respect so much. And it's literally because like when I was a kid, like I like to draw, but I sucked at it. Um, and like my first I remember seeing like like this documentary that like my school was showing me I think in elementary school and was some guy like drawing a Mickey Mouse and then flipping through and then like it was like moving and I was like this is super cool but it's like you had to draw every single one of those like seriously that's crazy. And then it was just always something that I just never got. I don't think I have like a good eye for things like colors and I mean my favorite color is purple but that's really it. But yeah, of course. But it's like knowing what goes well together and what looks good and what doesn't. I It's just like I don't think I have too crazy of an eye for that. I It all piano practice. It's, you know, it took me a decade of doing visuals to get good at it. It took me a lifetime of art to understand composition. So, it doesn't come automatically. Visuals are great, and we're going to get to that video here in just a minute. But before we do, as promised, I always like to have some fun, silly questions uh that we ask. And I never tell the guests what they are beforehand because I want to keep you on your toes. I wanted to be genuine answers. Look, out there in a world full of AI and, you know, fake accounts and fake news and fake everything, right? We are 100% real, genuine here on Ready VIP. All the artists are real. All the music is real. all the art you see is it's all real. So, bringing you on here, we got to talk about your music. We got to talk about um some of the crossover that you've done and you have a lot of awesome things on the horizon. But if you could collab with any five artists, what would your top five collabs be? Obvious. That's why I give you five just so you can This is hard, man. Three. Yeah, I don't even know that I could do a three without offending somebody. That's crazy. I mean, obviously Subronics one woolly definitely bing grabbits. I love what he's doing with his rock and stuff like that. Um, I'm not going to lie though, in terms of like something I've always dreamed of, someone I've always dreamed of collabing, Subzero Project. Oh, look at you with the name. Okay, they are like a a hard style like duo and they like hard style is all like beautiful melodies and they just have some of the most beautiful melodies of all time. Subzero, it's actually something I daydream about. It's like if I'm on stage and I could bring them out or something or like play with them or they bring me out or something eventually. I don't know. It would just be insane. I I love them to death. And um Maddox, I think I say Maddox. Yeah, heck yeah. That is absolutely insane. I'm here with it. That was a good top five. Yeah. I mean, Ace Aura is another sick. Number six. Number six. You're like seven, eight, nine. No, it's too long. The list is too long. Like Ace Orura like his his color base is so beautiful. It's beautiful. Like definitely, man. If I I would say like um if I were going to pick and obviously like Subronics is a given. I mean, obviously I could just we'll put that as like a a zero, right? It's above one. Like it's we were we just agree that Zeptronics is goat, right? Just below that for me I think would be Enzo. I would love to do just some like conscious vibes make you wonder about the universe kind of music. Um, and then Ganja White Knight, man, their style, their musicality, their last album sprouted, the the range that they have just incredible. Uh, and their showmanship is just unmatched. But they're 100%. Yeah. Um, I mean they're all so talented with like just I I think it's just like like music is a way for people to express who they are. I guess like the personality and your personality really comes out just through how your stuff sound and I think it's just so crazy how like everyone's sound is so different, right? And it's like I don't know. I just I just think like obviously there's like so many smaller artists out there that are like so great at producing and so good. They have such like crazy sounds and stuff like that. And obviously it's like they they want to express themselves and I just respect everyone so much like for just being able to express themselves no matter like what if they're big or small and I think all these big artists even if they weren't successful they were to lose all tomorrow like they would still be producing music. Yeah. Because that's just what they like to do. Yeah. I couldn't agree more and that's really the commonality here. It's why a lot of this exists is because we all feel community to it. Um, music gives us the vocabulary to speak a language that we don't know how to express. It it lets us say things that we don't have words for 100%. It's to get energy out or something like must die. Oh, must die has to be up there. I'm sorry. I got I got to put must die up must die like what he's doing with this hard style stuff. It's like yeah angry music. The world's effed up today. Like just want to get your passion out somehow and I I respect that so much. Well, speaking of getting your passion out, we're about to play your song with some visuals here for our audience. So, they're going to get to listen to uh pancakes and waffles. Waffles and pancakes. Waffles and pancakes. Waffles and pancakes. Yeah. I'm team pancake, by the way. You're team pancake. Pancake all the way. It soaks up all the syrup. Like, this makes a perfect perfect like breakfast. When you dropped the song, I shared that in my Insta stories and I gave people the option pancakes, waffles, or French toast. And I'll let you know, pancakes was by far the number one choice. It was like exactly a windmill slam. Most people chose pancakes. I think it's because I said I'm team pancakes that so many people are saying I'm team waffle. They're just trying to they're trying to be controversial. We got we got one team waffle on my my vote. We only had one team waffle. The lonely waffler. Um but don't count out French toast. So French toast came in a pretty close second. Elevated, right? It's elevated. I can't do French toast. Like isn't French toast where you put it in eggs and then you cook it? What? You put it Yeah. And milk. Yeah. Like I'm not a French toast guy. Definitely not. I I tried it. I didn't didn't like it. I remember it was freshman year of college. I did not like it. The secret is bio bread, man. I'm telling you, my wife put me onto this recently. I was doing French bread for a long time. Too much air, too many pockets. And we're gonna leave your mouth watering with the thought of some delicious pancakes, waffles, and French toast. As you say, would you like to roll the music? Yeah, roll the music. Let's roll the music. Nailed it. [Laughter] I'm so bad at this stuff. I have so much anxiety. I'm sorry. Like, no, it's okay. We're still rolling. I'm actually I think that was like like a pseudo in outro. Like you get halfway, you get up to the ledge, you're ready to jump. You get in, you go to dive and stop yourself. You're like, "The water looks cold." It's okay. We're going to do this again. We're going to shake it off. Audience, waffles, pancakes, French toast. Channel it with us. Go on Insta. Go on Twitter where they can find you. They can find us. They can find us on Tik Tok. And tell us what your favorite is after this song. Would you like to say? Let's roll the music. Boom. [Music] Heat. Heat. I careful. You just went on a [ __ ] 3minut tangent about how much you care. Tomorrow we'll wake up. There'll still be waffles. There'll still be pancakes. There'll still be French. And I care too. [Applause] [Music] Don't [Music] do Listen, in this given moment, I have not had fresh enough to put All [Music] [Music] right. Okay. [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay, let the [ __ ] begin. Is that [Music] ready for trouble? Nope. [Music] How's it going everybody and welcome back. In this segment, I have a very special guest and honestly special to the entire Rave Daddy crew for a number of reasons. And so we're so excited to have him on. The one, the only Drew, aka Drew Baka. How you doing today, Drew? I'm good, boss. How are you, man? I'm good. And it would have been totally fine for you to answer with the I like that. You know what? That's how I'm going to respond. It's in my name. Now, if you if at any point during this interview you don't know the answer to the question, you just sound off with a nice loud Drew Baka and we'll know. know exactly what's going on. Nailed it. Um, so I'm glad to have you on. For anybody who doesn't necessarily know who Drew Baka is, um, he's a legend, but he's also super awesome. He is the guy who made our Rave Daddy Pearlers. He's a personal friend of our Wook and I don't know, I don't want to call him mascot, but superstar Jeremy. And um, so they suggested to have you on, and I couldn't wait to talk to you. And the moment I got you in the green room and we're hanging out behind the scenes and talking, you got the flow star going. It's like a little mini raven here. We're celebrating. Grizz is back and I was like instant energy. This is this turn the camera on. Let's go. Let's go. I'm always down for like good vibes and just having a good time. I mean, I wish I can set my place up like a little wook room, but you know, little wook room. That honestly sounds like a great song name. Yeah. Oh, dude. We We definitely need to collab on that. I'm down 100%. Let's go. Um, so we wanted to talk community. We wanted to talk flow. We wanted to talk candy, but also we both just got to go and experience Cyclops Desert here in Chandler, Arizona. And boy, it was incredible. I can definitely agree with that. It definitely was incredible. From day one was amazing. I was in the crowd having a good time. Um, you know, for me the vibes were kind of like 8020, like 80% good, 20% bad. So, I was kind of move around a lot just because I was kind of feeling the vibes just weren't really there. And basically once um Merc went on, I was basically locked in. And once Subtronics came on on day one, he played all the songs I wanted to hear and it was amazing. Especially the pyro. Just adding the cold in that pyro was just wow. Oh man, every time the fireworks went off and shot up the big X, I was like, "Yes, this is amazing." What an entertainment. That was so good. And um after we left the event uh my uh I was talking to my friend and I was asking her, I don't know how the product is going to top day one. And when day two came around, we we tried to maybe try to grab some merch. I was hoping and praying that they were going to have the pins again because they sold out so quickly, but it was only for day one. So, I was a little sad about that, but I wasn't going to let it ruin my night. And on day two, I basically I stayed with the flowing the whole night. I was just in the bag, having a good time, met some amazing people, vibed out, flowed, learned some new tricks or whatever if I took that I was trying to learn. And basically just from the beginning to the end of day two, I was in feral mode. I mean, Alex, Enzo hit me in my soul. Yes. And then Subronics came on and when I said earlier how he was going to top it, he shot the roof off with a and just went, you know, it was amazing. It was great. I barely recorded anything just because how fun I was having on stage. I feel that. I'm 100% there with you. Um, there are very few things like a Subtronic show where it is all just Subtronics and Guy puts on an incredible ensemble of artists for you to enjoy the entire time. Um, day one is always hard because, you know, it being on a Friday means, you know, you got to get off work and then everybody's got to get ready and you got to get to the spot and it rained. You know, the weather wasn't necessarily favorable all day. People were like, "Is it going to cancel? Is it going indoors?" And us, you know, veteran ravers, right? We were like, "I will brave the mud. I will fight the crowds. I will show up." So, we'll be there kneedeep. It doesn't matter. But I totally understand not wanting to show up in a rape fairy outfit and white Hello Kitty boots and being like, "I'm going to get this [ __ ] dirty." Like, it might not be worth the cost of the ticket because the cost of the outfit was more. And so, go ahead. Well, I'm just going to say that like we we we both managed to make it. We braved. And how was the mud for you? Um, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I mean, like what you were saying, a lot of people were like, "Oh my god, are they going to cancel? Are they going to cancel?" It was raining and not thundering, which is always a good sign. And honestly, I was manifesting that it would rain because I wanted glitter. And I know that. So, but it was great. I mean just everything the grass was and ironically it was so cool. It was kind of funny because the grass was soft enough that on day when I was doing my barrel activities I right when the what was I forgot which which part it was but the beat dropped so hard I basically just falcon punch the ground so hard and put a dent in the ground but it didn't hurt my hand. Amazing. when when you when the bass drops and you superhero pose immediately. I basically almost I did the superhero lady pose. Nice. Yeah. Um so I know there are you have to have various like old shoes kicking around to go to raves, right? Like I have several different pair of shoes for in different colors where I'm like, "Oh, now you retire to rave shoes, right?" But then there's a subcategory below rave shoes where you're like, "You're going mudding, right? like you're you're my like we're just going to smash it. I have some Nikes I have taken hiking and all over the place. But they clean up okay for a picture in the dark in the mud. You can't tell. But they're done. That was their last mission. I you know we're we're going to retire you now. Nice. You you did the thing and I'm so proud of you for doing it. Uh they didn't even make it a day too because there was quite a bit of but it was only in certain spots like there were patches and stuff but I waited in line for half of the first day because I wanted to get the jersey and the pageina cuz it this is sweet. It also says Chadler on it apparently. It doesn't say Chandler. There's two A's says Chadler. Chadler. Anybody in the Rave family groups? Dude, that's pretty dope actually. Um I think it's hilarious. Yeah, I wasn't uh fortunate enough to get it. I think I was thinking about getting the jersey and then how much it was for me and just financials and stuff like that. Oh, I totally get it. You know what? I'm just going to rocking my my antifractal jersey and and my Levity fit that I bought. Nice. Because the Alleycat was gonna be there on day two. I figured why not? So I was levity all out and just again just going full wood mode. But you know belly cat levity. Oh my gosh. Oh god. They go together like peanut butter and jelly too. H they're like all of the ocean man. So yeah I ended up waiting in line all the way. I had to sacrifice sea and headaches but I saw him like from the line. You're like okay well at least I have a good view. I can listen to it. Right. And it wasn't it wasn't bad to get you through the line but they should have had more merchants. Man, that was not enough like for that crowd that like half of the crowd is standing in the merch line. That is a lot of the crowd in the merch line. Um and we waited a lot but made it in time for Mercive and Jeremy. Shout out Wook and um Skyl and Faith are like rave family were holding it down at the rail because they straight fail mode right to the rail as soon as they got there. and we had to like dip, duck, dodge, dive, and you know, dodgeball our way through to the front. But when we made it, it was like family reuniting. Everybody's jumping up and down and screaming. We made it to the rail. And just as we did, um I had a Subtronics uh pearller that I had brought to give Jeremy as repayment for the Rave Daddy Plar. And so I was so excited. I had picked it up at um Rave Camp locally. And when we did the level up merge sign up and I I I'll show some pictures here where the pictures just popped in. Um and so I see Jeremy and he I have this little mushroom light, right? And it like it's how we find our family. And so I hold it up. Jeremy sees the light. He calls me and I'm like come through the crowd. And so he's holding the mushroom light and I give him the pearller. we get to knight him and the whole crowd gives us the oh they would have thought we were getting married or something right like when when somebody gives a big cyclops pearler away it just right it was it was a moment u so shout out Jeremy for that for the moment and then Mercive comes on and just instant chills right face plan on the galaxy here I am like I love Merc's music I saw him and Enzo backtoback at Decadence this year and while it was Great. And they do go together like peanut butter and jelly. They were even better apart. Um I think that was I don't mean to correct you, but uh I think that was gold rush. Like oh yes, you're absolutely right. I am man. Has it been that long already? Uh yeah, this coming up on the next gold rush. Oh, we'll get to Grizz's hiatus in a minute. Definitely. No, we will definitely talk about that. But yeah, it um Gold Rush was really good, too. Um, I worked day one and day two. I was very fortunate enough to see um, Enzo Immersive. I really didn't know Immersive that well until I saw the back toback they did and I was digging I was digging what they were cooking and I was just gobbling it all up. Love it. Hell yeah. And, you know, and you know, it's just also it's just like, you know, the whole community and stuff like that. I mean, it's great. I you really can't ask for a better group of people to be around with because I was with a family or a rap family of mine nice during and we were all kind of dealing with um a loss of somebody at that's real and yeah it it's just kind of like a reminder of like anything can happen at the so we definitely were you know being more responsible and with our choices and stuff like that. Like, you know, either not drinking, not doing, you know, party favors or anything like that, but just more of like just being there because we knew in our hearts that he wouldn't want us to just sit there and just miss this day and celebrate his life. Hell yeah. Exactly. Just celebrate life in general. just like you know being in the moment and being in the now and it's definitely just like one of those things that was definitely beautiful because day two of gold rush I was front and center for son Holo and I was ugly crying the whole I've been there man oh yeah recorded [Music] that is 100% me and both endzo every time dude makes me cry I I just I'm a big sobbing mess. Totally get that, man. It's definitely just one of those things like sometimes with music, it definitely just kind of hits you in that right spot. Oh, yeah. Like whether it's on Holo, Tinso, Subtronic, or even Excision or even literally any artist that hits you like that. Even if you wanted, you know, it's definitely one of those things. It's one of those things that you can kind of like cherish and whether you want to record it or just hopefully try to remember it. It's definitely a beautiful thing especially when you have like you know the people around you who are also experiencing that moment and it's it's just it's a beautiful thing. It's very cathartic. I agree and I I think there's something incredible about celebrating life and especially when you're celebrating it on other people's behalf because they're there with you in that moment getting to celebrate too. Um, so shout out to all of those people. You know, we've lost along the way. You're with us now. Um, on a brighter note, um, Chris is back. Oh my god. Sorry, I had to do it. That was it. That was that was that was it. Oh man, it was so unreal to hear that he was back. I could not believe that he posted that video on a random Tuesday. That's so grizz on a Tuesday. And I'm just like, you know what? What's that song with the I going off on a Tuesday. Tuesday going off on a Tuesday. I I was stupid excited, so happy. Emotions were everywhere. I was laughing. I was crying. I was happy. I was screaming. My neighbors even came over and were like, you know, yo, are you okay in there? I'm like, and they just kind of looked at me like, okay, you have a good day. I'm like, you It's okay if you don't understand. It's just it's okay. I just had to let it out, you know. like and just going to work just jamming out to like saxo rhythm and you know airplane mode and just you know listening to his golden hour set again and you know it's just like you you're just driving and you're just like head banging having a good time and someone looked at you just like kind of all weird and concerned and I'm like rolling down the window just like you it's like Chris's back and they're like okay good for you I guess I don't know who that is. I know, man. But people who do, they definitely get it. You know, it didn't really sink in at first. So, like when I saw the announcement, I was like, "That's really cool. I'll finally, you know, get the Secret." And then the Seven Stars announcement came out and I was like, "That's really cool. It's also really far away from Arizona and the tickets sold out like instantaneously." So, you know, Grizz is kind of back. But then Grizz drops a four song EP and I had the same reaction. I I blast some filthy rhythm and stuff on the way to work. 8 a.m. I am just wamping my way to work. And so I was like, "Okay, I played the new Subtronic song cuz it came out the same day, right? What a music Friday that was." Uh and we get to lock in and I was like, "Man, what a great way to start the day." I was like, "Okay, now I'm going to I'm going to spend the Grizz album. I've kind of waited for this. You know when you're like you have something really tasty in the fridge, you're just waiting to eat. You open the package slowly. You even sniff it a little bit. You're like, "Oh my gosh, I can't wait." That the first bite, you know, is going to just like give you that kind of feeling. Right. That was the Grizz album for me. I opened the plastic. I made sure the volume was adjusted perfectly. I tested another song first. I was like, "Is this is this the best volume for Grizz's song? It has to be perfect. And I hit play and I am in awe. I'm in I'm elated. I'm in tears. I am clapping. I am excited. I I park at at work and I had to film it. I literally was like, "Put the camera on. I need to talk to somebody." Literally, no one's It's 8 a.m. No one's going to talk to me but myself. And so camera's on and I'm just like, "Chris is back." And I post and my mom watched it, you You know, she's like, "Are you are you okay? Shall I should I send help?" And I'm like, "I understand. Not everybody's going to understand, but for those who do, we are celebrating across the world in unison together." Grizz is back. It is. And what an episode that just And just like what you were talking about, like, you know, just patiently waiting, you know, just waiting for that moment. It's like whenever I make like white chicken chili at my house, I usually make it then I just put it in the crock pot and just let it cook slowly cook all day while I'm at work and then just being excited to go home and smelling it. Oh yeah. Slowly opening it and just like you said, just taking that bite and you know just like everything's going to be okay. This album is definitely Crock-Pot chicken. Oh my god, it is so delicious. It's probably been one of the best hot [ __ ] tickets I ever had in my life. But what a great year for music, too. Like, we got Sprouted from Ganja White Night just like not even a month ago. And so, my playlist is just like crank it all, spin it all. It is definitely uh what what play kind of thing, right? Oh, yeah. And all the like uh Flex Pavilion Dr. P that has been dropping. They like drop single after single right now and I'm just waiting for the next. Talk about a peanut butter and jelly combo. That's like peanut butter and jelly with the kind of thing going on. It's It's Hey, we could go over all the amazing artists. I you know I could I could go on forever, but there is more coming in the future. So we have uh Phoenix Lights ahead in like just a few weeks. Um are you going are you working? Are you are you flowing? Um, I was hoping to work the event because after this lovely Seven Stars announcement. Yeah, it uh I will admit it definitely kind of put me in a financial bind. So, it kind of sucks. But, you know, I always tell people whenever they're whenever I'm bummed out or they're bummed out about like not going to a show because of whatever reason, it's like there's usually next year. Oh, yeah. Always. There's always another show. So, it's definitely just one of those things. It's like, you know, just being optimistic about, you know, the, you know, whatever situation it may be. I mean, some of my friends who weren't fortunate enough to get the seven star tickets for Grez, you know, they're like like me like like me. Like, oh, I guess we're not friends because you just you got the tickets and I didn't. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Only mostly. It's like just respectfully I hate you. So, no. Live live it vicariously for me. Take lots of pictures. Hug the world. Like just full feral mode, please. I got I got you, man. I got you. I'll be there in spirit. Yeah. Um maybe I'll just even do a totem and like have everyone that is my in my raid group or my friend who weren't able to get a thing. I just have like a little like whiteboard of amazing. So one thing that we do in our little rave fam, shout out to our rave fam, is we always give little um trinkets to them that are like bring it with you every time we rave so we can bring them back together. So, our trinkets are um these little animal totems. And I I'll show a picture. Um and so they're like horses and pigs and um bats and all kinds of stuff. And they pick them at random out of a a felt bag. Um and it's supposed to like, you know, protect them, watch out for them when they're there. But the idea of having an actual like totem totem with all your friends faces on it Mount Rushmore style so that they're all actually there and then you can take a picture with all your friends with Grizz. Oh, definitely. Like, you know, it's I mean, we still got until October. So, definitely it's definitely a work in progress. I even have like a blueprint layout of how my campsite is going to be because I'm doing car camping. So, I have like for the car, the canopy, kids the kitchen, and god forbid a bathroom section, but you know, we'll definitely see how that works out. October, there's time for me to move to North Carolina and get a job at Seven Stars Ranch. And never mind. Sorry. Hey, manifestation, man. Anything you can make happen. So, um I'm definitely going to Phoenix Lights. I'm actually I'm super excited. I've met some new rave fam recently. Like right at the end of Cyclops Desert um was one of the most serendipitous moments. Um we had some new family that we met at the Level Up uh concert recently. Shout out to Steve and Raina and they are super awesome. Candy, you know, see the look on your face, you know, right? That's amazing. The best people, right? The coolest people. And I I wanted to make sure I gave them a shout out. And so we saw we actually parked like 10 feet from them when we got there and we were like, "Oh, it's so good to see you. We'll see you inside because you know they're still getting ready and everything." And we go in and I just don't see him the rest of the time. I'm literally either in the merch or riding the rail, but as we're pulling out, we happen to like walk up and walk right into them. I hear Steve Emmanuel. And I'm like, "Oh, there you are." And um so they had given us a Cyclops pearllor cuff. This is insane. Uh for my wife Claire uh to match the pearl they had given us at level up and like moonwater necklaces and stuff. So in return I have ordered a whole bunch of uh Candy Queenies custom beads, right? And I've got Gengar beads and I've got uh resz beads and I've got um base capital goods has sent me a bunch of keychains. So I'm going to have like res goggle keychains and like tape beat tape monsters for tape B and uh S's dead. And so the there has now become an arms war, right? When you meet somebody whose plur is unmatched, you're like, "Oh, how how high can we take this plur match?" Right? And so they're like, "Oh, allow me to present you with this jewel." And you're like, "Ah, I see your blue eyes, white dragon, and I meet you a glowing crystal bracelet." Right? And so I I love it because it also it gives you things to look forward to. And as an adult, right, we just kind of get to live to be a kid again for a minute and have fun and make friends in the best way. Like what other adult friends are you like, I made a friendship bracelet for them and we became besties, right? It doesn't happen outside of this community usually. And so I love that because there's something about the inner child that when you like live that out, they get to kind of just release a little bit and you get to kind of be a uh happy for a moment. That inner childlike happiness, not the like I'm happy cuz I'm at a concert, not the happy cuz I'm gl one of those like it's like a sense of like childlike wonder, you know? we can and that's definitely one of the things that makes me love about raving so much because people can escape from their 9 toive job and just instead of just like having a mask or a costume on um it's more of like where you can just openly just be yourself and no one in any case is going to judge you and you can go crazy, have fun and also have people just generally just look out for you in that sense. Like for instance at Cyclops Desert 2, I I always have a hydro pack with me. It always has water. It has liquid IVs. It has like my trinkets if I can squeeze it in there. It has like I have valuable stuff and like even my keys, my wallet are in this pack. On day two, I let I barely had it on. I had it in this little spot with strangers of all, you know, and they say you never do that, but I literally looked at these people every time I went to the bathroom. I'm like, "Hey, can you guys watch my stuff?" And they watched it. Like even one of the guys, he was holding on to it for dear life. That's amazing. And you know, I come back and I'm like, "Hey, I'm back." He's like, "Oh, here's your stuff." And I'm like, and like it made me very teary eyed. Oh man, it's definitely a beautiful thing because again it's just people are just looking out for each other and it's definitely a very beautiful thing and you talking about uh Raina and them I they're such amazing people. I love them to death. I mean every time I see them at a show I just got to give them the biggest hug and I might have a cup. I might have a furler to give them and we usually exchange that way. We just kind of vibe out go barrel whenever we can. They're definitely in my opinion like the definition of like great parents in that sense just because not only are they actual parents, but they are looking up everybody. I mean, they always like in every show I'm always kind of looking on the ground while whether I'm working or I'm usually looking around for them because they they're always kind of like in the back a little bit and they always have like little LED strips on the ground that have like a little like, you know, safe space nook area if you're not comfortable with going to the ranger out and they're always there and worst case scenario they'll definitely tell you like, "Hey, this is where the medicine ends or whatever. Or they'll flag one of the rangers now like, "Hey, this person's not okay, you know, Y and Z." But they're they're just they're just amazing people. They're definitely in my opinion the definition of the mo the model of the kind of people you both want to be and meet at Raves. And it there are very few people like I I love meeting people. People are amazing. People are magic. Literally, I think everybody has a little magic inside them. Um, but sometimes you meet people with a little more than a little bit of magic, right? And I had just had the best night uh at Cyclops Desert only to run into them and somehow the night got better, right? Somehow they made the night better than just going to Subtronics. And that's incredible. It when people make the experience, you know you're doing it right. And I can't thank the people enough that we get to be involved with. But both through Brave Daddy and through um Ready VIP and going to these festivals, Arizona has just some of the best culture out there. And there's still people learning. There's still people growing. There's still opportunities for people to um find new pathways. You know, you meet people at different parts of their journey and you're like, "Oh, I remember meeting you. You were an [ __ ] last time." And then they're suddenly like, "Yeah, man." But like two Enzo concerts later and I learned to meditate and suddenly my life changed, right? People will go through a lot and they, you know, between trauma dumping and meeting people and going through like the life experience of letting go uh at these events and it does change you. And one thing I would love to get into is once you get involved in it more, it becomes a community. And then when you get involved in the community and you meet people, right, it becomes a family. And that's really what it it kind of builds into. And there are even smaller communities, right? Like we love our little plur bracelet communities, but the flowies, man, you got you flow is like the embodiment of that mentality is the embodiment of like acceptance and growth and letting go and being in the moment and living for that flow. So Drew Baka, the flow community is so unique. It is in full of incredible people and I see you spinning your flowar now. So, I I would love for you to tell me a little bit more about that community. Um, I mean, for me, it's been I was kind of on and off in the beginning of getting into the flow journey. Um, I thought it was really cool. Um, I even got like boy and stuff like that, but I was too worried and constantly hit my noggin too much. So, I had to find like another one. So, I was going to a show and I always was very fascinated with the Flowar just because like it's fabric. It just looked very fluent, especially the people that I saw on social media doing it. And then just one day I was at a show in Oldtown Scottsdale of all places. It was like a few years back. Kitty, watch it. Anyways, uh and I just walked by and all of a sudden I saw a pizza. I literally stopped dead in my tracks and I was like, I want this and you know, spent the money and started the journey there and AJ, the founder and creator of Slowar, uh sent me like a ton of videos to learn from. Nice. And then I kind of worked on it, but I was just like kind of preoccupied with other things. And probably within the past like six months, I would probably say, is when I went really really heavy into the flow community. And for me, it's definitely it's just like what we were talking about before where going to raves or whatever event, it's just like that moment of like freedom of expression and express yourself in your own way, whether it's, you know, the outfits you wear or the candy you have, you know, and for glowing, it's just another form of that. It's just more physical. And for me, it's definitely one of those things that always kind of find makes me find like my zen. I would probably, you know, it's, you know, people have their own ways to like calm down and relax. For me, definitely usually listening to GZ and just amazing. You know, it's a lot harder than it looks. You make it look so easy. It's um in the beginning it looks tough but once you get the bases down it's relatively easy. I always tell people and or one of my friends told me whenever he got whenever they got me into it was just practice every 10 like every day for like 10 minutes and you know you will start with like kind of spinning it like that and then once you get to a point where it starts opening and you get a little bit of momentum then you can start spinning it and you have full conversations with people like those and then once you get there you can start learning like the figure eight, the reverse figure eight like or the rollover stuff like that. Awesome. Didn't touch it. It's definitely one of those things that it's definitely one of those things that you know if you put put in the time there will be progress and you will definitely see it. Yeah, I I I couldn't agree more. It's one of those things you'll definitely get better and you'll get more comfortable doing it. Jeremy, shout out Wook, our our our Wookie savior. Um, he brought his over one day. We're kicking it in my backyard and he's like, "I'm going to do this. I got a thing. I just got to start from Ray Circus. Check it out." And I'm like, "This looks easy. I can do it." Boom. Right on the ground. And I'm like, "Let me let me try that again. One more. One more go. One just just one more game." And I pick it up and I'm like, "I'm going to get it going. I'm going to get it." Boom. Right on the ground. And I'm like, "But you were just doing it and I'm good at like everything. That's not fair." Hold on. One more. Just Just one more. I swear I'm gonna get it this time. Boom. On the go. I was like, "Okay." There are some things in life you just you connect to naturally, right? I was a glow stick kid. I I'm going to get out there. I'll do my liquid. I'm gonna feel it, right? I'll dance. But that shit's harder than it looks. You got to practice. Yeah. It's definitely one of those things. It's just the practicing. And it's whe whether it's with the flow star uh the I don't know the proper term for them but it's the ones with the little it's on the string and it has light po and you know they're even clever you know and honestly I always love seeing those people because they just seem like some of the nicest people you have they are just bringing good joy to other people. They just want to have give other people a good time. Oh yeah for sure. I I can feel that even being completely sober. It can be over stimulating for me. I like the lights and I like the glow sticks and everything, but in combination sometimes you're like, man, I am at the rail. The music is beating me to death. There are fireworks. There are pyro. There are lasers over my head. There are 50 million people all around me. And sometimes it is overwhelming every And and it's not just sights. It's smells too. Like all of your senses are fully like engaged all at once. You can taste the air. You're like, "Ah, the snazberries taste like snazberries." And so it it's always good to recognize people's head space. It's a good practice in empathy. If you could be having the greatest time in the world, remember everybody's going through something. You know, maybe they brought it with them and maybe in that moment it came back, right? You know, you met somebody, you had a moment with them and lost it or maybe you had a great time and are remembering that and you're somewhere else. But it's always good to like ask people, you know, hey, can I do a thing for you? Uh I do a lot of rune readings and the I there have been people who have told me no, no, I I I don't feel comfortable with that and I'm okay. Totally cool with that. That's your space. I I respect that. Um but ask that's all. Yeah, it's definitely just one of those things and it's uh consent is king. Yeah. It's just like one of the Rs and Clarence, respect. It's just respecting your surroundings, respect the people around you. I mean, and yes, you were talking about like, you know, some people are in different headspaces. Sometimes, you know, I whenever I do my rager job, people will come in and like I've seen like couples arguing on the way and like my first initial thought is like, dude, you're coming to a raid. Like, why would you want to bring that kind of negativity in here? But at the end of the day, we don't know what's going on. Maybe it's one of those things that's just like look hopefully it gets better for them by the end of this just because you know no one no one likes to be mad. No one likes to be everyone wants to be happy. people come to these things, they sp they spend excess amount of money to come to these events to be had and you know and I you know seeing the those couples and stuff like that or whoever it's just like the best thing to do is just try to make them as comfortable as possible and hopefully by the end of it all they are happy, they're content and they make it home safe. Yeah, that's it. You know, the rave is a safe space. And I I love that you brought up being a ranger because, man, I love what you guys do. It is so important. It is so needed. And I'm I'm one of those people where if I spot you in the crowd cuz you guys are hard to tell sometimes. You just look like every other walk. You're just doing the thing, right? Like you're choo choo training through. Uh which is great. You're camouflage. You're not in intruding any because sometimes people don't want to have the presence of somebody standing over their shoulder while they're trying to have a good time. But definitely want the safety net when [ __ ] falls out and you're like I can't see straight. You want somebody to pull you out of that. Yeah. It's definitely one of those things like you know I always get the question of are you a cop? Are you a security? Yeah. And you know I always say I'm a ranger and sometimes I mean luckily in the Arizona brave community a lot of people especially in the community they know who we are. Yeah. For sure. you know, if anything happens, like you said, they're looking around trying to flag us down. And, you know, ironically, that's how I met uh Wat was was an incident. And it's definitely just one of those things like, you know, for our goal into going into these events, whether it's one day or two days or even three days, it's one of the things like at the end of the day, you know, our job is to make sure that you are safe. you make it home safely. I mean, you know, the amount of times I see people saying like who are completely over the influence of alcohol, like on the verge of getting alcohol poisoning and stuff like that, like we want to make sure that you are safe and you I've had someone saying like, "Oh, I'm just going to drive." I'm like, "The hell you are." you know, just get a lip and worst case scenario, you know, your car will get towed or I mean like or you die. Yeah. Like that's better to get your car out of the toward than spending the tens and thousands of dollars that you will have to pay for for a DUI or worse debt. Yeah. You know, it's definitely just one of those things. And you know, and I will say like probably the only downside with rangering is probably just, you know, we kind of like not kind of, but like you know, sometimes we we get like people at their worst, you know, like, you know, they they like drink too much or they're just rolling too hard and stuff like that. But again, it's one of the things that it's our job to make sure that they're they're safe. Yeah, definitely. And you know, and it and it's definitely very helpful that like a lot of people do know that we are there. We are there to help, you know, because sometimes some people will look at us and be like, "Who are you and why are you talking to my girlfriend that's duking at a trash can?" Yeah. And you know, we we explain to them and usually majority of the times they're like, "Oh, okay." And then I'm like, "You want some water?" And they're like, "Yes." You know, it's like the best feeling ever. Definitely. I think it's it's one of the things that Arizona gets right for the most part. And I I want other places to model it. And in general, as a society, we need to like have these safe spaces because I grew up in a place where the parties were rampant and wild and in warehouses and corn fields and there was no safety net. There was no med tents. There were no rangers. You died. You died. Right. And some people really wanted to go back to that, but like as an adult, I certainly like even if it's not for myself, the safety of others to know that like if something goes down, they're going to be taken care of. And it's not necessarily directly my responsibility to get them there cuz I I have done that plenty of times. You're like, "Oh, that one's going down. I guess I'm throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you out." As a soldier, it's something that I'm equipped to do. But when I know that there's a ranger right there, I'm like, "Hey, bro." and you guys are on it, right? And that takes care of I think the most important part of it is like the humanity, right? We need as a collective a safe space where we can go where there is all of the public safeties that we both pay into and we participate in uh and a community of people who understand why you're there and who want you to have those good uh opportunities and experiences with that safety net and are not going to judge you. Right? I can't tell you how many friends that I've met and then they were like completely wasted and then they end up going to the med tent and then I see them later that night and they have sobered up and they have been taken care of by the rangers in the med tent and they're okay, right? They made it through the night and that's that's huge, right? And you're like, "Oh, hey, you're alive, right? This is wonderful." Um, and I think that's one of the great things about the Rave Daddy app in general is it puts the power into the hands of the community as well when you can participate in it and say, "Oh, hey, um, I'm not big enough to carry this person out of the crowd. SOS, here comes my boyfriend." Or, um, my group is scattered out and I'm not feeling in my safe space right now and I need somebody to help me get to those, uh, glowing lines on the floor. Right? That's when Rave Daddy comes into play. And if we're lucky, if we're fortunate and festivals pick it up, as the community picks it up, if we as a family pick it up and use it, we could be saving people's lives in the crowd. Everybody could be a ranger potentially. And if the rangers then have it, everybody could find the people when exactly when it happens. Not when you happen to walk through the crowd, but the moment it happens and the SOS goes out, rangers are on the way. Yeah. No, that's actually not a bad idea at all. And um I'll definitely have to talk to my supervisor about it and see what she says about it. Maybe, maybe not. I don't want to say yes. I don't want Sure. Um because in those situations, you know, like every second count, every it's very important because god forbid someone's at an event and they're like having a seizure or worst case scenario, they're OD. I mean, luckily there are people out there, not just as Rangers, but just like Raiders in general, veterans. I would carry an Arcan. Yeah, they carry Narcan. I literally have I have always on me at all times. And it's definitely just one of those things. It's like it's like having health insurance. It's good to have and not need not use it, but not have it when you need it. Yeah. I don't personally I mean like it's not for me and it doesn't have to be and people ask me that all the time like why would you aren't you like are you a user is this and it's like hey look it's not about me. Have you ever had somebody pass out next to you? It's about them and it really is about seconds. It's definitely about just looking out for one another in that sense because we've all been there, you know? I mean, I've been fortunate enough that I haven't I haven't been in like that OD kind of situation, but I've had my fair share of like excessively drinking and drinking too much and it sucks. Yeah. It is I hate it and I don't want anyone to go into that kind of situation and you know it's definitely one of those things of just wanting like like we've talked about just making sure people are safe and they are okay because no one wants to be that way. Everyone wants to have fun and sometimes people do a little bit more than they expect. You know, it's like, you know, someone takes like a half a point of say Molly and they don't feel it and they're like, "Well, I'll just take this whole one." And then all of a sudden, 30, 40 minutes later, boom. Yeah. All at once. And you're like, you know, it's like that real going around. I took the drugs and the drugs are working kind of thing. It's just one of those things of just like, you know, just being aware and just also knowing how your body reacts to that kind of kind of, you know, substance, you know, because I I was working at Supernatural one year and there was like these young kids and, you know, and I just kind of like kind of, you know, just doing my, you know, wellness check, you know, ordinary ranger job and I just asked them like, "Hey guys, you doing okay?" And they just said, "No, we're not okay." So, I literally squatted down with the fan, had my passion. One of them, I'm like, "Talk to me. What's up? Talk to Uncle Drew." And, you know, they just kind of told me what happened. They're like, "Well, this is our first grade and we just took like we took Molly for the first time and we it's just it's a lot." I'm like, "Okay, I see where I see what's going on." And, you know, they they just kind of expressed how they felt. You know, they were just like, "Yeah, we were like in the crowd and like that music and the lasers, it was just way too much." I'm like, "No, I totally understand." And, you know, they were like, "Well, we don't know what to do. We're like kind of worried because, you know, we spent this money for this show. We really don't want to go." I'm like, you know, well, a few suggestions. You can either, you know, kind of sit here a little bit, see how you feel in like 10 minutes or something, but like here's some water for you guys. Just stay hydrated. You know, they're like, "Well, we didn't drink or anything." I'm like, "Yes, but it's always good to stay hydrated. you know, especially if you are doing um said so substance, it's always good to stay hydrated in those kind of situations and they're like, "Yeah, you know, I was talking to them for like a solid 10 minutes and you know, they were still kind of like, uh, you know, I'm like, look, um, I would probably suggest either you guys can chill here. We have the Ranger host that you guys are more than welcome to come to and just kind of relax or you know worst case scenario you guys get a lift and go home and if I may suggest since you guys are new to raving listen to Odessa awesome and the hydration point is not only keep I've explained this to a couple different um kind of I don't want to say baby ravers right that's some people like make that a derogatory term but some new ravers, right? People coming into the community. Um, as I I was a personal trainer for a while. As a personal trainer, even if I just walked somebody on the treadmill for eight hours, do you think they need some water? Right? You'd probably give that person some water. So, if you were going to a festival and you're going to walk for 6 to 8 hours, you might want some water, right? But now you're jumping and you're screaming and you're running and you're being hit by music and maybe you're eating, maybe you're not. And we live here in Arizona, the desert, where you don't have to be super dehydrated to pass out. You don't have to be super over hot to be hit with heat exhaustion. And when you can live in the mountains, you can live at sea level. There are so many different things that the climate itself will induce to you. Just hydrate. Just take care of yourself. Like I know it seems silly. I you you it's almost like going on a hike, right? You need just a little bit of food. You don't have to take a lot. You can get food at the venue, but sometimes having a piece of candy or a little something in there when you're like, man, I'm having that calorie crash. I'm having a sugar crash. My mood is changing because I'm not feeling it. Boom, piece of candy. I feel great. Right? That we're big biomechanical machines and you have to keep the input going. Anybody who lives here in Arizona, if you've ever gone to hike the Grand Canyon, they literally force feed you. They force water down your throat because they're like, "Look, we're going to hike 24 miles and even if you're not hungry, you will run out of calories and you will stop where you're standing." So, they're going to have a timer and they're going to be like, "Eat, eat, eat." That's why it's good to have a rave dad or a rave or Uncle Drew, Uncle T Drew Baka, right? Is because they're the ones with the water. They're the ones with the candy. Find those rave daddies when you go out if you don't have them. Find that rave family because there's always one in every, you know, Wookie uh way that's going to take care of you. and prepare yourself. But if you're not, just look around. You're Look for the guy with the beard and the the the totem necklaces and stuff, the flow stars. That guy's got it, right? He's he's 100% packing candy. And it's so funny because I usually have like this little ritual before every show. Um, in the morning or uh the day before, I usually like to have like spaghetti or pasta, just like high like that. And usually in the morning, I usually make like a breakfast burrito, usually something high and fat, just to make sure I have that energy to go in to the festivals or concerts to make sure like, okay, I'm going to make it through this. And you know, and some some one of my friends that I took, she was like, "Oh, I don't I'm not hungry." I'm like, "Look, just eat this. Trust me, you're going to feel great. You're not going to be like sore." And honestly, that's another thing for usually for veteran ravers is to stretch. Yeah, I I stretch every day. U I stretch in the morning and then even before the shows, I do I get a nice stretch in because again, like you said, you're going to be walking around for many, many hours. you're going to be on your feet and I mean and just staying warm and h making sure like you're drinking you're drinking water or you're getting food in because nothing worse is nothing worse than getting the flu after a show. Oh man, have I been there. Uh I got straight strep throat and freaking um pneumonia after a couple of these things. It's like the Wook flu is real and it will take you down. And so we'll we'll end this kind of as a parting shot here. Uh cuz I think you and I could hang out forever. We could record this might be a whole episode unto itself, just you and I hanging out, right? 24 hours. Um this is and then that's the best part of the community and the culture is just meeting people. And you we literally just met today and we could just talk for hours. Um so some of my favorite tips were actually given to me as a teenager. Um because back in the day a lot of the ravers were doing things very naturally and it was like you were very preventative because there were no safety nets. Like we're not talking about you're going to a cornfield like the closest hospitals like several hours away you dying right? Um so the veteran ravers that brought me in were like all right tip number one bananas C1000s right? You want lots of vitamin C to fight off ever all the germs are going to be around and the potassium is going to help you not be sore. It's going to fill you up. It's going to give you lots of energy. And I literally would see them back when there was like no security. They would take bananas with them in their packs to the raves and they would force feed people bananas who were like rolling on the ground. They're like, "I can't see anymore." And they're like, "Eat a banana." And you're like, "Bro, calm down with the banana." But it it it is literally um just one of the best things you can do if you're going to have a long high energy day. and you don't want to be sore after, eat them bananas. Um, I'm also a big fan of like supplements. I love all the mushroom supplements and fish oils and stuff. If you're going to go and like open your brain to the galaxy and listen to music and have simatics happen to you at a cellular level, why not treat your brain good before you do that? And it might improve your mood. You might have a really good experience. And in general, it's not a bad practice to say, if I'm going to do a thing to my brain, maybe I should be nice to it every once in a while. And so that was those were tips that they gave me as a teenager. Now as an adult, I'm like, it is my turn to pass on the secret knowledge of bananas and fish oil, right? But whatever it is, just make sure you're taking care of yourself. That's all we ask for as a community, as uh rave dads, as rangers, as friends, as family, right? Is just take care of yourself, please. Subronics begs everybody to take care of each other and to you know be nice to each other and here we just ask you to take care of yourself. Yep. Just like you know we're just piggybacking on what he said. That's it. Love each other, take care of yourself, stay hydrated and be and get home safe as well. Like it's just like I'm just like every time he said that I'm just like thank you. I know. I saw my my first experience with Subtronics was seeing them at Decadence 23 as um day one headliner. It was like Steve Aoki, John Summit, um I think Jaws and Subronics for me for decades. first time seeing Tetronics was I think the year prior to that and I think it was the whenever they first started going into the raceway and I nearly broke my ankles trying to get to his stage trying to get to the stage because right when we got through security he was about to go on and I'm like you know telling my my friends like dude get your water fil get your stuff let's go go That end of the night message is awesome. I'm actually I'm gonna play that. I don't know if I have permission to or not, but I'm gonna play that. I have a clip of it from Cyclops Desert. And I would like to ask you and I normally ask our guest if they'd like to say roll the music. Uh but now you can say roll the clip or maybe you have something different for us today. I think I have something. Load the clip, baby. Boom. it like I just want to even if I help one [ __ ] person, you know? Anyway, drink some [ __ ] water, eat some [ __ ] food. Please, for the love of God, be nice to each other. And if you are remotely [ __ ] up, get a sober person to take you home safely. And once you get there, smoke as much weed as you [ __ ] can, please. Arizona, I love you so [ __ ] much. I hope to see you again tomorrow night. Please get home safe. I love you and I'll see you later. Thank you. [Music] I just want to run so fast. Can't believe that. I just want to run so fast. Can't believe that we are. No matter.