We are Petrified Giant, a metal band featuring Lyle Rath (Wrath Club, Oneyplays), Dave McElfatrick (Cyanide & Happiness), and Mardy Leith (DRAGONCORPSE). We've just released a 3 song EP. AMA!

Lyle do you still consider yourself to be a master of guitar 7x over?

Lyle: Fun fact the "master" in my old username was for "Master of Puppets." I hastily created the account because OG youtube had porn on it but you had to log in to see it and that was the most impressive song I could play on guitar at the time.

What were the first instruments you learned to play? Also as a bonus question, name some favorite bands from the early 2000's!

Lyle: I was actually forced to take piano lessons for like 7 years when I was a kid and pretty much forgot everything I knew about it purely out of spite because I hated it. I really wish I woulda actually retained some of that but maybe it's in there subconsciously!

Dave: The VERY first instrument I ever played was a tiny Bontempi keyboard for kids. I remember figuring out the melody to the Van Der Valk theme when I was about 6 or 7. I played violin for a little while in school where they taught us to pluck twinkle twinkle little star, then for some reason threw us into the orchestra like we knew what we were doing and knew sheet music! I remember bluffing it the whole way, terrified, hoping noone would notice but one girl was not pleased and spoke to the teacher, and thus my violin career ended.

I eventually picked up a guitar at the age of 14. I wanted to be Brian May. Punk was the prevalent culture too and I couldn't skate, so I figured I could contribute in some other way. My parents got me a 30 quid nylon accoustic to see if I'd stick with it. It wasn't a phase, so I ended up getting a Vintage Strat copy soon after!

Favourite bands from the early 2000s: Not sure about bands that started in the 2000s, unless you wanna hear about my little midwest emo side. I really like Elliott- False Cathedrals, Jimmy Eat World, and really liked stuff like The Appleseed Cast and early Mew. Honestly, probably tons of other stuff but nothing's coming to my mind straight away.

Mardy: I started with vocals, then guitar shortly after.

I was in my emo phase during the early 2000's, so My Chemical Romance, The Used, Senses Fail, all that typical stuff

Lyle will you make amends with the Rat Community™️ by releasing an ode to the countless rat lives you've taken?

Lyle: I think when you've killed enough of something you better at least get some heavy metal lyrics out of it.

What's your favourite anime?

Lyle: Samurai Champloo for me. The OG Berserk has a pretty special place in my heart too.

Mardy: Neon Genesis Evangelion. Can I get F's in the chat for some good ol' fashioned childhood trauma from End of Evangelion?

Also, I'm definitely more of a manga guy over animoo.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Can I get F's in the chat for some good ol' fashioned childhood trauma from End of Evangelion?

From me you'll get an A....... T. Field.

And while I am not a professional writer, I know that the pen^pen is mightier than the sword^sword .

Amazing 😂

Dave: Uhhh, I'm an anime casual I guess. My Hero Academia. Although my favourite anime movie is probably When Marnie Was There. I don't think I've watched the movie once without weeping at the end, during Hisako's story.

The marsh house is my wallpaper on my PC! The art and music in that movie are absolutely incredible.

Dave: I have the soundtrack on occasionally when I'm doing work. It's an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack and extremely moving.

Any chance that in the future we could see a PG tour?

Also I put the ep on my iPod. It kicks so much ass, and I’ve been listening to it almost non stop. Amazing job on it, fellas.

Dave: I'm nervous about touring! Being on stage is a lot of fun for me and I don't have stage fright but I've never played such complex stuff on a stage before- in the past it was all punk tunes. So it's a new challenge for sure.

I think funny touring experiences would give you some awesome material for C&H, which I’m a HUGE fan of.

Dave: We'd have to get up to some seriously heinous shit to make it worthy of a C&H comic.

Lyle: Thanks! I think it kind of depends on the level of success the band gets to, but playing this stuff live is definitely on the bucket list for me, whether its a tour or a festival or a oneoff show or something. I will say the state of touring is in a rough place right now meaning its A) really fucking pricey to tour and B) people are desperate for bands to tour because nobody wants to do it. We got an offer to tour even before we had any music out, so I'm sure we can make something happen eventually.

Mardy: As long as my Australian-Ass can be imported, I would be super keen!

I've only learnt ye existed from Dave tweeting, sorry 😅

How did you all meet?

Dave: Don't really remember how Lyle and I 'met', I think I just reached out to him on Twitter and showed him the music I have. As for Mardy, we found him singing for pennies outside the Sydney opera house. Lyle ripped his sunglasses off, pointed at Mardy and said "STAR!" and the rest is history.

Mardy: It's true, for clarification, though, Lyle ripped MY sunglasses off and then ran off with them.

So, just off the top of my head, how was your disgusting collaboration birthed? What is your songwriting process? What are your influences/what inspires you? What sandwiches do you like? Credit card details?

Lyle: Originally Dave just wanted me to do a guest solo for his previous project We've Got Hostiles and he liked it so much it kinda turned into like "do you just wanna make this a band?" kinda deal.

Songwriting process is interesting. The 3 you've heard already started as rough ideas from Dave, and I just kinda went "nah its too busy, put that riff back in the box" or "this would work good here" and sent "cool riff.wav" until we had a song. I really have the most fun job here. It's basically spitball tasty riffs, shred a solo, and criticize. "Rhythm guitar" is a much less glamourous credit but Dave's really been the beating heart of the band so far.

For unreleased ones, we have some I'm arranging, some where I just laid down a solo (that first song I mentioned is still gonna be on the album) and some we haven't written yet! I'm stoked to see what Mardy adds creatively too, since we already had these songs written when he joined.

Dave: Lyle's job is to hold me back from overwriting. I have such a short attention span that I need the song to change and surprise constantly. We've got a couple of 8 minute epics in the works, and they're frankly, colossal sounding. Lyle's cooking one of them and it is a BEAST! We're still working on some of the ideas I've brought to the band alongside some that Lyle's bringing in, as well as a few that we're growing more organically as a collaboration. The latter is the goal with most of our stuff eventually. I think you'll def be able to go "oh, that's a Dave or a Lyle or a Mardy song" immediately.

For me, a lot of band's output sounds exactly the same and it's hard to tell where you're at in an album, particularly with more extreme music. There's SO MUCH to learn from pop here. One of my favourite pop bands is The 1975, and the great thing about them alongside acts such as Queen is you know which song you're listening to within 1-2 seconds of it starting. That's our goal. You instantly go "oh it's that one!"

Mardy: I joined after a much more talented vocalist couldn't do it, my songwriting process is "if it sounds good, it's good", my influences are a lot of prog/hair/groove metal, I like Fairy Bread, 8008135420 expiry 6/69 pin 1337

What got you into metal?

Lyle: I thought it would get me laid lmao

Dave: Queen in the 70s were one of the forefathers of metal. Check out their first album. From there it was a little Sabbath, a little Linkin Park, then on to the thrash bands. The Black Album and S&M were big eye openers for me.

Like Lyle, I thought guitar would get me laid. Who needs to do shadow work when you're ripping on guitar, right?

Mardy: Slight alteration to my esteemed peers. I thought being in bands would make me more attractive, where-as it turns out that just growing long hair and listening to people is really all it takes to be popular. Life lesson for y'all, fellas.

Lordi got me into metal after watch Eurovision as a youngin' lmao

Hypothetically, which tragic accident do you want to be the event that strikes at the peak of your band's success?

Mardy: I envision we are walking down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, whereupon we see a Mime hosting impromptu Dance-Off's with random passers-bys. Lyle stops us and says "don't worry fellas, I've got this" and proceed to JoJo walk towards the mime.

The mime, upon being challenged, arrays a series of tracks that start increasing in speed, making Lyle WORK for that W, which also causes a sizeable crowd to form due to all of the commotion.

Unfortunately, due to the intensity of the dancing, Lyle will make a misstep and twist his ankle, but only enough that it makes him unable to dance on it, but not require medical attention.

At which point, the mime will hit the griddy as Lyle limps back to us, defeated... Dave is fighting back tears, I'm yelling at the onlookers to stop laughing in-between my sobs.

People start talking about the guys that looked like absolute jokes in front of some random mime, we all get doxxed, people clown on our band, but then the huge influx of streams causes our numbers to eclipse even the largest bands, and then we get booked to tour with Metallica.

Fin.

Dave: this is brilliant

Dave: That I die in a questionable accident involving a bathtub and 400 cans of Heinz beans.

For Lyle Rath, what got you into playing guitar? Also what got you into editing and content making? I also just wanna say I’m a big fan of yours, I love your comedy style! “Mustang Dong” is one of my favorite songs! I’ve also been obsessed with Oneyplays for over a year now, like any time I get the chance I listen to the videos. I kind of have a problem. I wanna know how you met Chris O’Neill and the other Oneyplays cast. I know this is a long read, but I’m just a big fan of yours and love what you do! Thank you for reading this! :)

Lyle: I went through like the whole first 12 or so years of my life thinking I didn't like music just because of what was on the radio typically at the time. I still would take absolute silence over music I dislike, I don't know if that's normal.

I'd occasionally hear little snippets of cool guitar stuff, like fuckin diddy kong ripping a solo when he'd beat a level in Donkey Kong Country 2 and I'd be like, "THAT I WANT THAT" and then I'd ask my parent's about rock and roll and they'd be put on Cat Stevens or something like that and I'd go "nahh that's not it" (moon shadow kinda lowkey fucks though.)

So when I finally discovered rock and metal I got fucking OBSESSED with it. I think the first two albums I owned were AC/DC's Back in Black, and Metallica's "And Justice For All," from there it opened up into like Slayer, Megadeth, In Flames, Children of Bodom, Judas Priest etc. and it was just kind of a "I want to do that."

As for the other stuff, started making videos to make my friends laugh and then had one of my really early things go viral and it sorta happened right as I was at the age where I had to figure out what I wanted to do as a career so it just sorta fell into my lap.

I've known Chris and Zach and Cory since like the oldschool newgrounds days!

Dave: Man, DKC2 had some rippers too. Maybe we should cover "Stickerbrush Symphony" but there's so many others to choose from.

What movies do you guys enjoy seeing in your free time?

Dave: I LOVE horror. I'll digest any kind- great horror and 'its so bad it's good' horror. I love Ari Aster's works. I'm also going through a Scorsese kick and it's a toss up between Goodfellas and Casino for my favourite movie by him. My comfort movie? Aliens! My trifecta of perfect movies is Ghostbusters, Aliens and T2. I'm a simple man.

Mardy: I watch Drive and Blade Runner 2049 on repeat, 24/7.

Can you buy me some soup?

Dave: what kind?

French onion, or if you have like a really good chicken noodle in mind.

Chicken noodle's a better bet than French onion if we're talking canned soup here.

I've been playing for about ten years and haven't had a guitar in about two, what's a good cheap end electric for me to get back into it? I play a lot of alt rock like Foo Fighters and etc, thanks guys! Love the work!

Dave: Whats your darn budget? We can help! If you're just playing ballsy power chords nothing a Squier or an Epiphone Les Paul can't handle.

Lyle: Honestly in the last 5-10 years the machines that make guitars have gotten a lot better so you kinda can't go too wrong. I'd look at what kinds of guitars they play in bands you like and get a budget version of that, or something with the same pickup config at least. That's my answer until I have my own signature model.

Where/how do you guys record your music?

Dave: I record and mix everything myself in my home office! I use Ableton, which most people would scoff at but it works! Lyle will send me his solo tracks and Mardy will send me his stuff, and it's all up to me to get them in the mix.

Lyle: It's all home studio DIs. Modern recording is a miracle.

Mardy: I have a makeshift studio in my backyard that is lovingly called "The Crack Den", whereupon I annoy my neighbours by going AAAAAAAAA at all times of day/night.

My vocal chain is also pretty ridiculous, total overkill for someone as unknown as me lmao

Who in the band can do a cartwheel?

Dave: Not me, though I haven't tried in forever.

What do you think are some good entries into Metal for a noob who has never gone into it deeper other than the occasional stuff here and there?

Lyle: That's actually one of the goals of Petrified Giant! But it's hard to say without knowing your taste. I'd kind of recommend different stuff to everyone.

It's tempting to recommend the classics, oldschool Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest.

I actually like to show people melodic death metal, like Children of Bodom or Dethklok. Because it makes you feel like you're in the deep end of the pool and helps you wrap your head around "oh the vocals are supposed to be a drum, not a piano."

Power metal is also very listenable to newcomers I think. Spin some Beast in Black or Avantasia!

Good entry level metal hmm? Well there's always Metallica's Black album. Like any great album, each song stands on their own (apart from Don't Tread On Me *shudder*) and it's got enough hooks to entertain a more casual listener who wants to dabble into heavy sounds. I also recommend S&M by the same band. Hugely melodic and beautiful. The orchestra is a good crutch for the ear if you don't think you can enjoy the metal by itself just yet.

I also think Anthrax- Among The Living is an insanely fun album. The riffs are heavy but the lyrical fare is lighter, and they're a great party band. They've eventually become my fav 'big four' band but that could just be exhaustion from the other bands.

Edit: Oh, and of course, PAINKILLER!

Once you've got a feeling for it check out Pantera- Cowboys From Hell, Death- Symbolic, Exodus- Tempo Of The Damned. There's a good starting point and you don't have to like everything all at once. Find one you like and spin that shit until you start expanding to the songs before and after it. That's how I find my footing with new music.

Mardy: Ghost, Arch Enemy, Megadeth, Mercyful fate/King Diamond, Later-era Mastodon, Trivium, TestamenT, DIO, classic Sabbath

Who in the band would win in a freestyle rap/poetry competition?

Lyle: Mardy, I would hope

Mardy: I honesty reckon it would be Dave.

If you're interested I did a sort of "prose" thing for an older song of mine. You can find it here:

https://wevegothostiles.bandcamp.com/track/dunkirk-spirit

What artists influenced your sound/music style?

Dave: For me- Cro-Mags, Death, Power Trip, High Command, Prong, a bunch of different thrash bands (Exodus, Slayer, Forced Entry, Testament, Overkill). Lots more and I'll type em up as I think of them.

How was this collaboration formed?

Dave: I've been writing music for as long as I can remember, and one of my Covid projects was an album that I wrote, played and recorded entirely by myself under the name We've Got Hostiles, you can still find that on Spotify if you like.

For the second album I had a few songs but I didn't want to write leads, and so I showed Lyle the Hostiles stuff hoping he'd come on board to write and play some solos. Dude said yes!

Once we started collaborating Lyle started suggesting good structural changes for the songs already there, and bringing in riffs that worked better in some areas. So it kinda became more of a proper collaboration thing in terms of writing and we decided to change the name to something new. We've been sitting on some of this stuff for a year as we've had a hard time finding a vocalist that was passionate about what we do. We talked to the brilliant David Benites for a while, and he was all in until his career really took off, so he couldn't work in the timeframe we wanted anymore. He recommended Mardy Leith, who is an absolutely sick Australian singer. He's right in our goldilocks zone of "get him now before Journey ask him to come sing with them or something", so we're very lucky. Dude's an absolute sweetheart. And here we are now, writing songs for you guys and striving to get better! Petrified Giant! *does horns*

Is your band PG?

Dave: I think we're pretty PG. I don't imagine you'll see any Parental Advisory stickers on our CDs/vinyl, whenever we get around to those.

Mardy: Our band is Pretty Good, yes.

More of a request, please do 'making of/in studio' videos. Metal bands used to do them a lot and they were some of my favorite things would you guys enjoy doing that?

Dave: Noted! We can definitely do insights, I've started recording myself playing a few of the passages from the songs to give people a feel. I wanna encourage people to do covers of our songs!

How did you come up with the name Petrified Giant? What does it mean? Also will you guys drop lyrics to the songs?

Lyle: I think on bandcamp we have the lyrics. I actually don't remember where the name came from but it was definitely after a long night of "Does this band already exist? Fuck!"

Petrified Giant was basically the biggest, heaviest, most collossal thing we could think of. A giantic, aged, collussus that's unstoppable. We think it reps the music quite well.

As for lyrics, sure! You can find the lyrics to Flesh Born OF Flesh here. Flesh Born Of Flesh deals with my response to my mother's cancer diagnosis. She was always quite blaze and "take it as it comes" in life, and I was worried that she was too tired to fight. The "Headless Carriage at the door" is from an old Irish myth that says old Irish families have banshees appear above their house the night before a death, and then death himself comes on a carriage to take you. My lyrics are about her being too tired to fight death. Unfortunately, she lost that battle and this is one of the songs that deals with that. The lyrics were written before she passed away, so it's an interesting and saddening perspective to look back on now.

Traitorous is a song about those who put their own grandstanding above the needs of others. It is about those with selfish and narcissistic principles- people who would rather remain 'morally pure' in their minds than actually help people suffering if it required them to shake on their principles.

Godless Sky is about those who are ill and refuse treatment, believing a higher power will take them only to discover that there is nothing.

What are y'all's favorite video game soundtracks? Have you played Hades? The music in that game is on another level.

Lyle: Nobuo's Final Fantasy for sure, Harry Gregson Williams work on Metal Gear Solid, Smash Bros is a massive cheat answer but it really does have difinitive versions of a lot of classic gaming music. The Castlevania remixes they did for that game are insane.

Mardy: Original Sound? Morrowind. Most bitchin' soundtrack? Brutal legend.

Also, I absolutely adore Hades and am a massive Roguelike/lite fan. Super keen for Hades 2!

FFVII. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM (2016), though the older Doom music got me into Pantera.

Hell yeah dudes, y’all rock. What other bands have you been a part of in the past?

Dave: In the mid 2000s I was in a band with a couple of long-time friends. We were a goofy punk outfit called The Hammer Brothers before another pal joined us and we got a little more existential. The band's name changed to A Red Letter Day (after the Get Up Kids song) and we started playing sweater emo.

I dunno if this counts but when I loved to the US I started a truly awful band called Hey Banana Na!1 where we'd write songs in 2 mins and perform live at the Cyanide & Happiness Banana Bar Crawls. Check out the link if you wanna listen to some nauseating stuff. We got told to stop playing music by a manager ne time in a bar on McKinney Ave (Dallas).

These days my main musical project is Petrified Giant, and I've also got a fun Sunday side project called Die Wurst where I play silly fun songs with some good boys. We occasionally do shows in the DFW area! Keep an eye out.

Lyle: I have not been part of any bands aside from a few highschool things that met in a garage one time and then immediately dissolved, but I've been sneaking guitar stuff into youtube videos for years and doing guest spots on other people's stuff. It probably congeals into a collective 1 band's worth of experience!

Mardy: I've been in a billion bands tbh, current listing is DRAGONCORPSE, Russian Novel, Path of Victory, Soul Decay, Oligarkii, Sound Theory, Malthusian Crisis, as well as either unreleased or featured tracks for other bands.

Will guys ever come to a UK or Europe festival like Don broco / Enter Shikari

Dave: That'd be pretty cool, I've always loved how nuts the UK and European metal crowd get at concerts.

As musicians, how happy are you with your gear and storing it? Anything on the horizon that you want to add or change?

Lyle: I'm a very non-analogue "amp modelers and software plugins" kinda guy. It's way cheaper and you get a ton of freedom, especially if you just want to get the idea down and figure out the tone later. I always want more guitars though!

Dave: Right now I'm very fortunate to say I own my dream guitar- an ESP MX-250 explorer. It's what I use to record the majority of my parts in our songs and it is a BEAST. I dunno if I'd take it out on tour or play life as it's too precious. Honestly, I want an explorer shape with EMGs and a Floyd for touring. I also really enjoy the Sustaniac pickup, as you can make your guitar squeal for days. If any guitar makers are looking for someone to sponsor, ME MEMEMEME.

For practice, I've got a trusty lil Fender amp that I just plug straight into. As Lyle said, for recording it 's all about digital tones and modelling. You can basically get exactly what you want without a garage's worth of stuff.

What does each member play, and who's the singer?

Dave: I play rhythm and bass in the recordings! I do a lot of the riff writing and arrangements, and I've done a few of the melody leads (like the beginning of Flesh, for example). Lyle also writes riffs and composes the song with me. Mardy shreds it on the vocals.

Fun story, the song that became "Flesh" is def our most overcooked and went through about five iterations. When we presented the final one with vocal demos to a previous singer they said "this simply doesn't work." However, we gave the same demo to Mardy and Mardy damn took the entire thing to a whole new level.

Mardy: Singer here! Also play guitar/bass and otamatone.

Loved you guys before this all came together and it fucking rules to see you all collaborating on some wicked shit. Can't wait to hear more from you.

Can we anticipate merch/physical releases of your music any time soon? I'll throw money at that right away.

Lyle: We actually just got test prints of shirts and stuff! And yes when we finish the full album that will be available physical too!

Dave: I appreciate the love, we can't wait to show you more!

We're talking about CDs and Vinyls, perhaps as limited editions as we don't want to buy huge bulks. However, I just got some cool samples in the mail today...

Mardy, if you could flesh out any of the covers from your youtube channel with your band mates, which song would you pick?

Mardy: For this band, I feel like the most suitable of my covers would be Pantera - Cowboys from hell (minus the backstreet boys), Ghost - Rats, DIO - Caught in the Middle, or Nevermore - The Heart Collector!

For Lyle:

You mentioned that Pregame Discharge was one of the more difficult shows to make but you liked making it despite that. What's the most enjoyable part of making it? Is Spoilers Ahead less enjoyable to make? (Disclaimer: I love Pregame Discharge, I'm grateful you keep making it every month)

By the way, huge fan of everything you make. Clown Room has now dethroned Clown Robbery as my favourite internet clown cartoon.

Lyle: Pregame is fun because it's fast loose and current. It's a very low pressure way to throw 50 jokes at the wall and I don't have time to overthink it and if some of them don't stick it's not a big deal. Spoilers Ahead is the exact same process but its way more time consuming and expensive, and also I have to kinda stare into it for months, and then when it comes out people are like "erm, why are you making a video about a movie that came out 9 months ago instead of something that came out last week." Also Spoilers Ahead is more of a tightrope walk for me personally because I generally am not a fan of online critic/thinkpiece-y content so I'm hypercritical of making sure its abundantly clear that the goal is to wring something for goofs rather than offer abject criticism. Most episodes of spoilers ahead I scrap just as much content as what ends up in the video.

What was everyone's main influences for the direction of the Album?

My guitar ear heard some Smalls and VanHalen influences and Id love to know where everyone went for inspiration.

Alot of metal especially new bands can feel safe and generic but you guys immediately set yourself apart. Very excited to hear more and maybe even see you play live one day.

Lyle: For this project specifically, I'm thinkin a lot about like, Pantera, Exodus, old Metallica, Helloween, Annihilator, that kinda stuff.

But the bands that super influenced me that my playing always is gonna have a twinge of is like, Judas Priest, Children of Bodom, Dethklok, old In Flames, Megadeth, Metallica, and then I also listen to enough prog to where I'd be shocked if that didn't sneak its way in at least a little bit, but that's more shit I enjoy as a listener than a player.

Dave: I think that's a great compliment! For me it's thrash and crossover stuff like Exodus, Prong, Testament alongside stuff like Death's mid 90s era. Love to wander all over the place with our sound, we like to play with synths too to give it that sorta Fear-Factory "slab of metal meets wires and electrical components" kinda vibe. There's also a slight synthwave component so things like Vangelis's Blade Runner soundtrack are the sort of thing I like to pepper songs with.

Florida if touring??

Dave: Sure, just don't eat me plz.

GUN TO LYLE'S HEAD - who is the best guitarist between Dave, Jack (ToxicXEternity), and Jules (FamilyJules)?

Dave: I'm gonna say it's either Jack or Jules lol.

Hey Dave and Lyle, are there any plans of doing an animation collab? That would be so rad 🤘

Lyle: That would be rad wouldn't it...

any plans for a physical release of the EP? It kicks ass 🤘

Lyle: We've been kicking around the idea of doing it either as a limited collectors thing or a reversible cover or something for the full album, since those songs will be on there.

Hey y'all! Congrats on the EP launch! Love music, love you guys. My question is as an aspiring musician: How do you guys handle things on the backend? Like, mixing and such. Real specific and easy question, I know, but like any pointers? Any directions you can point me to learn this stuff?

Dave: I had a friend show me the ropes, and I just experimented from there. A lot of people tell you that you need to know a ton about mastering, but that's kinda bullshit. You can find a good mastering preset in Ableton and apply that to your master track and voila. I tend to work backwards where I'll apply a mastering preset first so I know what the music's going to sound like as I write it. From there it's finding your favourite tones and learning how to amplify, eq and compress them to your liking. I find the bigger and louder the better, as long as it doesn't cut and you can hear everything!

Lyle: You can watch tutorials and stuff about mixing all day but at the end of it, if it sounds good it sounds good. My strategy personally is to get sounding big and loud and mean, and then stab EQ cuts into it until you can hear everything. (disclaimer I did not do our mix for the EP)

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Mardy: It sure does! We will hit you up in future if we need streaming visualisers!

Is this Dave the very same Dave of Cue Card Dave fame?

Absolutely not.

haven't taken time to listen to the other tracks other than the original single, so maybe my question already has no point, but which subgenres of metal are you interested in tackling? or is there a genre already in mind that you guys want to focus on to define yourselves with? might be a bit far off into the future for that yet, but i figured i'd ask anyway.

that said, the single was great, and i'll definitely make time to listen to the rest of the EP

Lyle: I think the idea originally was that PG would be a thrash band but we have so many non thrash influences we keep getting sidetracked. But I kinda just say we're heavy metal. There's not much that's off the table.

Dave: Sure, great question! I think we want to expand on different sounds early, so people aren't surprised when we try something 'different'. If we're already doing different stuff, then we're already expanding. As for my influences, when I hear our stuff I think a lot of Death (the band), thrash metal, groove metal and some hardcore crossover (Power Trip, High Command, Mindforce and Leeway are my jam, man, not to mention Cro-Mags!). I like to mix the complexity of something like Death's Symbolic with big bruiser riffs that aren't necessarily complicated but force you to move your fucking head.

does the various non-collaboration stuff you guys do effect your process when you're making music and stuff?

Dave: I don't think so, we're very good about treating the band as a priority when it's required. Of course we all have our deadlines and those come first, but we always make time to discuss where we're going with our music and band. We're taking it quite seriously and we wanna bring great music to you.

If you could have any dog, why would it be me?

Mardy: GIVE. ME. A. SHIBE.

Either that or I'd steal Lyle's glorified pile of mashed potato, aptly named Cheese.

Are you planning on releasing more music this year?

Dave: Hopefully! We've got some bangers nearly ready to go.

Have you thought about continuing “The Stockholm’s” by creating a second season or possibly a spinoff?

We’d love to! It’s all a question of budget, But it’s not cause we don’t wanna! We’ve still got plenty of places to pitch it to!

Do you think metal bands with super dark themes (think Dying Fetus) create content with humour in mind?

Lyle: I think it's the same sensibilities as people make horror movies. There's an element of humor in there but it's played straight.

Dave: I think a lot of it is tongue in cheek fun for sure, until you get to some of the Swedish/Norwegian black metal. Most metal is basically badass stuff for nerds to feel awesome about and most metalheads are cuddly bears. You can hear some weird shit about the metal audience but they’re largely sweethearts who just like cool shit.

Is there a height requirement for joining the band?

Dave: I'm 6 feet. I'm usually a taller one in a crowd but Lyle is a goliath ogre man that towers over me. Unsure what height Mardy is. Mardy, are you teeny or tall?

Lyle: Dave you are 3'8" and Mardy is 4'2", one inch taller than you were previous to lying about this question

Dave: Which is weirder, the tiny little guy or the redwood trunk of a man that plays with his merry band of tiny little squat men?

Lyle: Yes! You have to be either freakishly tall or freakishly short. I am 6'8" and dave is 4'1"

Mardy: I'm 5'10, which wasn't revealed until now so I guess I will be replaced by some 6'2 Swedish God within the coming days

Meshuggah, Periphery, or Pantera?

Dave: Hard to say. Meshuggah is cool although all their stuff sounds the same to me after a bit. Periphery are dope, and have been kind enough to let us know they like our music, which is an insane compliment! I'll say Pantera for now but that could change later today.

Mardy: Periphery. P2 blew my gotdang mind and made me push myself as a vocalist!

I don't know yall but this shreds.

My question: what are your thoughts on pineapple on pizza?

Dave: I'm very pro pineapple on pizza. If the mood takes me, I'm all in. Although the older you get, the more you nod and just stick with good old fashioned pepperoni.

Please I am only here for the safety of the cat. Is the cat ok?

Also coffee as a suppository or as an IV line? You can only pick one.

Cat is fine and not ded. As for coffee, I'll do either. I'm not a big needle guy, how long do I need the IV for?

Hi guys, I don't know what's happening but I see all your questions in the notifications, yet they're not appearing on the AMA. I'll ask a mod real quick what's going on. It keeps saying "that comment is missing".

Outside of music, what are some of your main interests/hobbies?

Dave: I'm really into older arcade machines. I've got a couple I work on and I've built a mini arcade in my office. I like problem solving and getting something cool out of it.

Okay I'll bite. What sandwiches do yall like?

Mardy: Vegemite

Lyle: Italian or Tuna melt. Also hotdog hamburger if that counts.

Dave: What the fuck is a hotdog hamburger?

For Lyle: You’ve joked around with Zach Hadel in the past about using his classic screeching as vocals for a metal track. Any chance of that becoming a reality as an album track? Not to shitpost all over a legit album but even one of those CD style hidden tracks would be cool.

Lyle: Maybe if we go more kvlt

opinion on eggs?

Mardy: I appreciate when short, rotund men offer them to me in trying times.

Dave: I'm an eggy guy. I'll take an egg right now, thank you very much.

Lyle: Eggs make me throw up sometimes is that weird? I'll be in the mood for em sometimes but other times I'm like whoooooaaaa better not give me an egg or I might just throw up

How often does Lyle use his prior experience as a snake charmer in his performance?

Lyle: Any time I do bar chords I use the snakes as a capo

Besides that guitar learning game, how did you all learn your instruments/vocals?

I've dipped my toesy woesies into learning violin, guitar, piano, and vocals and come back with several figurative black eyes.

Lyle: Once you cross that gap of "I can't play guitar" to "I can play guitar badly" progress comes a lot easier. I think its important that people start hitting power chords and goofing off on the instrument ASAP so that when you learn something you actually have something to apply it to, instead of just learning a C major scale and having no idea what to do with it.

Dave: Just sit down and learn all your favourite songs, or what you can of them. The first thing I ever played was the intro to Crazy Little Thing Called Love. From there it moved onto other Queen tunes, to stuff like Green Day, and then onwards to Metallica etc and it grew from there. The first thing that taught me how to solo was Pearl Jam's cover of Leaving Here). There's a little pentatonic doodle in the middle that taught me the scale, and I just started experimenting with it after that. I love playing the blues and I can shred in my own way but Lyle's the technical dude when it comes to solos.

Mardy: I started my vocal journey with Primary School Choir, then went through singing terribly in High School with my Pop Punk and Post Hardcore phase, then actually got some lessons before finding out about Hair/Power Metal during my mid-teens and then trying to replicate that sound, to then finding heavier and heavier music, which forced me to learn how to scream ontop of my clean vocal chops.

For me, the most important steps of singing are Placement, Projection and Stability. Being that you want to explore your vocal range to know WHERE to place a note so that it is in pitch, then project to a reasonable standard without straining your voice, and then maintaining note Stability so that you aren't drifting in and out of pitch.

Does Johnny Sins also endorse this band?

Mardy: I sure hope so, otherwise the Bald Brotherhood will be hearing about this...

2 Qs, one about the band and one just for Lyle lol

For the Band: 1 - Do you guys have a full album in the works? This EP fuckin’ slaps donkey tits (that’s a compliment though I don’t recommend doing that to a donkey) so I’m looking forward to hearing some more at some point, whether that’s more EPs, singles, or a full album.

For Lyle: 2 - Do you still talk to Dex at all after all these years? He recently reuploaded all of Sanity and I was wondering if you were consulted much about that since some edits were made to the episodes.

Lyle: Yes and Yeah, I told him I was cool with it.