Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast Hey everybody, it's Ray the roadie and this is Hollywood Mike, how's it going Ray real good? I found my guitar. You found your guitar, right? It was right where I left it Which was where on the floor? Oh, okay.

I thought it was on your lawn. No, it wasn't my lawn No, those are the kids. I'm I keep chasing the kids off my lawn.

Yeah, but I find I found my guitar Well, okay. So now we've got a couple of things to talk about. You have a guitar.

Mm-hmm that you lay on the floor Yes, you've never been to Nashville. No, we've got a remedy all of that stuff. Yes And what was the last one that we came up with? Oh, I see.

That's how old we are. We got what it was Yeah, I sometimes I forget why I'm here. I don't know.

I don't know. You know what I did today. What'd you do? I replaced my entire furnace and HVAC system today yourself You're very talented.

Oh, I didn't do it completely by myself But I was at home all day trying to work in the whole bit and we replaced it and When you do something like that You should never put it out on Facebook because all of a sudden I had about 500 people come to me and say well how much? You pay whatever it was you got robbed and I'm like, you know kiss my ass, you know You've never done it before so just leave me alone. I'm happy with it It's like the top of the line like like we just talked about the allergies in the home Yeah, I spent a little more money for it so I can breathe. That's right.

That's right Don't give me your crap about y'all you spend too much money for it. You don't know. Yeah Well now you can relax.

Yeah, it's a studio. Yes, and joining us tonight for tonight's show is blockchain coalition So once you Pretend we're in third grade and it's your first day of class. Let us know who you are Tony Ingle lead vocals Matt Rhodes on guitar Lou Pasquale design keys Ron Thomas drums background vocals No, seriously, where did that name come from block chain coalition? Cuz when I cuz I know what a block chain is like if you go to a jewelry store and I was thinking oh We got a rap group or somebody coming in.

They're all gonna come in with all kinds of chains and stuff Wait to hear that CD man I left my clock in the Carmen So Ron and I had been in a In Vail side for the last 15 years and our bass player had passed away the label that we were working with Called me up and said hey Do you guys want to do some sync licensing writing for us and I said sure and they're like we'll pay you I'm like well, definitely so We started writing Songs for film and television doing some weird covers different different type of stuff, you know, yeah, and then The coalition portion was we were gonna be bringing in other musicians because we were supposed to be retired And We just kept bringing the same guys in and we're we got real happy with the with the guys that we settled with you know working with and Basically started writing our own shit right next to the stuff we were doing for them So we could record the album for free and we locked it locked it in and we're like, well, let's keep let's keep these same guys Why keep farming it out farming it out, right? And then I just blocking was kind of popular thing going on and hey, we're a coalition You know, it's popular in the crypto area and then like you said, you know So, you know, we're like whatever, you know, it's something catchy something nichey. Yeah, why not? Yeah, it works different Yes, you said you guys were writing for television film and television. Yeah, what kind of stuff? so we did a song for HBO and they did a They did a series called America under fire.

Yeah, so we did a song called thoughts and prayers for them We've also written for political campaigns we've written for Well, we covered a song for political campaign. We do we're working with a what's called a film brokerage company Okay, so it's a pitch film. So if you and I come up with an idea for a movie, you know, they'll tell us Hey, you know for 2,500 bucks, we'll pitch it to seven different studios and they'll basically put it together on like a PowerPoint type presentation thing So they don't want Aerosmith doing, you know this song because it's gonna cost them $30,000 just the rights So they kind of take an A or B go down the line.

We're like we'll do it Half that So, yeah, we got a couple movies and stuff so, you know, it's It's long-term. They shelve a lot of this stuff and you know, but it pays So, you know, that's the if you go on to social media, especially Facebook right now. That's kind of a hot thing right now There's whenever I go to my home page.

I see a lot of things like hey, let me book you for public speaking engagements Let me get you, you know a music gig, you know working on a movie or something like that Yeah, and a lot of that stuff. I mean I look at it and I'm thinking okay This is some kind of a pyramid scheme because this person's gonna this person's gonna book you But then this person's paying something to the person that booked to them and so on and so most of those clickable ones are Usually that yeah, there's a lot of scam stuff. This came directly from the label We were working with so cuz we got you original band Veilside.

We we got offered a record deal We were all like gonna be 50 at that point in time. We're like that, you know, we don't want to go tour Families were all making more probably than you're gonna pay us and the idea of making up $250,000 at four and a half percent interest at the time Selling what ten CDs a night? Man, it was gonna be grueling. So he's like if you guys ever quit do me a favor come work for me Write some songs.

He liked our writing, you know, so Wow school. Yeah, we took him up on it, you know Yeah, absolutely. No, that's pretty cool.

So the two of you were in Veilside, correct? Yeah, how long was that? Well Veilside started in 2003. Okay, we had two singers prior to Tony and Tony came in about 2006 issue Right right on there, too. And yeah, so good 18 years or so Wow, and is that still going on or is that completely what once Bob passed? We decided to fold that like I said, we were gonna we thought we were retired.

Yeah, I actually did a It during the pandemic hit I did a metal record with David Schenkel who was in man of war yeah, we did that under the name grave rain and then Like I said, I kind of pulled Ron out of his slumber I was like dude, they were they're really giving us work get over here get in the studio. Right, right, right So Wow, man, that was it was a long long history with that band We used to weekend warrior stuff what we toured who flew around in a bunch of stuff We got to play with just about everybody. We had posters up on the wall Right now.

I'm really pissed. You didn't bring guitars with you Man Okay. So when did you guys come along or when you find these guys? Well, so Matt's been Matt's been in a bunch of the tribute scene.

Okay, quite some time. You want you tell them where you're from? Yeah, you you look familiar to me. Well, I'm from Mars Awesome No, I've been on the cover band scene for Probably about the last almost 20 years at this point I've done basically just one other Like the kind of two one and a half original type bands one was called ether which were kind of still around kind of like a height on hiatus, but my first band we Wrote some original stuff but to kind of break into the scene.

We were a cover band and then we would just kind of Put in our original songs here and there sneak him in without saying anything. Yep. Yeah Yeah, I know how that goes and you're good.

You're the guitar player. It's our player. Yes.

Yes Are we missing any members or is it? Yeah our bass player Bob Bob Berg along with Lou Kind of the first two guys ever jam with my life when I was like 15 So I'll go back way back in high school And uh, yeah 35 years man And uh, my bass player was in my first band whale band back in the day called onyx, you know Played around in a bunch of original stuff, but Lou he's he's done way more than that I'm the actual, you know, the unknown of the group. I've been in I was in an original band early 90s, but then I just Got into the studio work. I started writing my own stuff still unknown and then I just cover bands and Wedding bands just put you know, hey, I need a keyboard.

Yeah, okay fine Yeah, yeah, okay, so I mean back in the 80s, you know when everybody was Doing their own stuff here house music and dance music. I wrote it. I wrote a track put it out It was somewhat successful still kind of popular.

It's kind of cool to see you're 12 inch still, you know being sold for like $300 like this logs or something like that But what do we have to do torture you to get the name of it out of here? What? All right, it's called crying from a broken heart by bon-tan no kidding. Okay. All right back in the day back I was uh, I mean, you know to pay for all the gear that you know that I had, you know as a musician I I had a little DJ in business on the side I still have like six crates of 12-inch dance singles in the whole bit man, you know as crazy as that was I loved them.

I loved that music back then and now I hear it and I almost feel embarrassed. But yeah, it was still good It's great music I mean because I mean you had bands you had bands back then like um, I loved remember jam silk James Oh, I mean this band actually wrote music played instruments There are the way the record that the 12-inch was recorded at James look studio. No kidding Oh, wow, it's great in the on Lake Street and I think about me.

Yeah something like that. Oh, that's great. That's great No kidding.

No kidding. So then after that, oh, excuse me my ice cream So and then basically I'm on vacation one evening and I get a phone call from Ron and he's like, hey You know, we wrote a song and it needs keyboards. You interested like yeah, let's do it and You know, that was the first track and from there on Ron and Tony alike Interested.

I'm like, yeah, absolutely. It's been a long time I mean, I haven't done anything for a long time on the band side, you know stage So it's it's a it's an excellent feeling great feeling to go in the studio, right? Right originals, you know, you guys go are you guys all pretty much doing original shows or we've had one show Original show We've got a second show coming up so, you know Not now you see where the fallout if you know with there's any fallout because there was a lot of curiosity on that first one Right, right people were like, oh man. What are the guys from Pale Side doing? And then, you know the the comments after the show were fantastic.

We'll we'll see if they show up to the next one Where was the show? The show we played our first show in Bolingbroke, okay, it's called tailgate tailgate. Yeah, I've been there play there many times. Yeah, always great to original bands, you know Bobby Z is awesome.

He is the best man, you know, one of the best club owners there isn't around in the scene So yeah, yeah, you're listening Bobby Z. We are looking we're looking for sponsorships Hey Bobby Z, you know me cuz you know, I'm Cadillac groove and we kind of plaque packed the house there for y'all We tell you a funny story about Bobby Z and I'm wondering if you've got if you've ever had something similar to this We opened for striper one night. Yeah tailgaters and Places sold out right Bob's not happy and I go why are you upset dude? You place is packed like turning people away. He goes Tony the average drink ticket tonight is 11 bucks I'm like, I don't know.

So I don't I'm not in the bar business. I'm like, yeah, that good Is that bad he goes when it's just you guys it's $38 You know that makes total sense because you know stripers got a Christian Yeah, yeah, I totally get that no I mean, you know as I you know I do a lot in clubs and a little bit and I get to know a lot of these, you know Bar owners and everything and they love it when it's packed. But at the end of the night, it's it's about the till What is the till bring comes down to yeah, that's what it comes down to yeah, I don't care how good you are You got to put asses on my barstools.

That's right. You know, that's what it comes down to. All right.

Oh, wow You know, I didn't even a striper at tailgaters. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah We played with Jeff Tate there.

We opened for Nelson lead a Ford We did the has-been tour, man You know the crazy thing is then I I know I've seen you guys because I think I've been I was at every single Jeff Tate show at We were the opening act. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, I'm definitely drunk by the opening act Yeah, so so at tailgaters, so where's the next show gonna be then we're at Sundance saloon in Mundelein, okay May 20th. Yeah. Have you guys ever played there before? What the other bail sign yeah, all right, it's it's it's changed a little bit Yeah, I mean they've got they've got the outdoor area the you know, the inside looks like it always has but the the outdoor areas A little really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah great food to Barbecue there will be indoors fat.

I'm the Bobby's he's open the patio yet. So yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Okay There's a you know, the cool thing about Sundance is if you when you go into the bathroom There is an old Laurie Morgan poster on the wall. There is There is yeah So I was in a band at the time actually I wasn't in a band I was asked to play acoustic guitar with a country band at the time and they said hey We're playing the old Sundance saloon and I went there and we opened up to Laurie Morgan there and that was the poster Bobby Carlson, if you're listening, these gentlemen need some sponsorship Are you guys from up around that area then there's actually from Plainfield, so oh no kidding I live in Walker's Grove area right off of 135th and 30.

Gotcha. Okay in your head just don't I mean, we're practically neighbors. I'm on the other side of Turtle Lake in the Renwick Reserve.

Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah All my life Chicago dude who moved out to this to the burbs just about a couple years ago So yeah, cuz you thought you were gonna retire. Yeah Area and you know, so yeah too far, you know, right lose lose not too far from me Matt's down the street from me. So, okay.

All right. So, um, who's the main songwriter? Who's where's your inspiration coming from? Yeah, honestly, it's a collaborative effort. Yeah Yeah, like we started as the first couple songs on the disc There's like two songs on the disc that me and Tony wrote are on our own But even at that point when it was a finished song, we kind of gave it to these guys and these guys went All right.

We gave him free reign. We're like hey Whatever you could do with this to make it sound any better great and The reason they're sitting right here today is that reason because they just took a great song and made it better You know, what's the what's the favorite cut? Mine is gonna be caught in the undertow because that was my baby. Okay.

All right. What's it about? It's Going through a breakup and just not coping Okay Sinking Yeah, isn't it amazing how a lot of songs are about breakups well, that's like three-quarters of the album And the ironic part is a lot of my lyrics about breakups and I've been with my wife for 34 years I've been with my wife for seven 17 right now. So I was like we read all these like you what if type? Yeah, like what if that happened? You know cuz it's in your head and like one of my favorites on there's walk this road for one.

I wrote it Probably 30 years ago, you know, it always been in back of my head Right tried to throw it out with Vail said a couple times just didn't fit the meld, you know, we're a little lighter We didn't you know kind of a heavier rock modern more modern rock with Vail side tuned down type, you know We're not yelling, but we're like the whole idea of blockade chain coalition was gonna be like if we want to do a light tune we're gonna do a Light one do something. That sounds like country. We're gonna do it metal rock, but we didn't care, you know, so yeah Yeah, I can't wait to give it a listen for sure This is gonna be great and I hope we're gonna we're gonna get Polly to take these songs They're mentioning and for sure lice them in sure.

Sure You know the the whole thing about most of this album being about a breakup. I heard Something I was inspired by something a couple weeks ago, and I'm trying to write a song about it And it's actually kind of hard to write a song about this because it can go absolutely everywhere But I heard I actually heard somebody say that you know to maintain a relationship What do you say for 34 years and I've been I've been with my wife for almost 34 years as well You know to maintain a relationship that long you have to be willing to go through a hundred Breakups of the person that they used to be. Yeah, and I was like, wow, that's you know, that's fucking deep Yeah, isn't it? Really? So I'm thinking man.

How do you go home and cry? How do you turn that into us? How do you turn that into a song? You know, the thing is, you know, Lionel Richie would have that written into 30 seconds, right? So I'm happily married so I can't write lyrics. So yeah He doesn't want his wife to hear him Mine I could just say I was just thinking of stuff, you know As guys we think of the most macabre shit all the time, you know, we're because especially because no offense ladies You drive us crazy. We are supposed to guess what you're thinking all the time and you know And a lot of times we think the worst so it's easy to put that to paper It really is and matter of fact, you know Why it's so easy to write a bunch of breakup songs because I'm not broken up, right? If I was broken up, I'd probably just sit there and start crying and be a bitch Okay, everybody that's confused out there and listener land.

This is not the counseling podcast Right, it is the rock and roll Chicago podcast my problem to listen my problems I think it's Sundance all dudes are gonna show up now that you said that Why is it like a dream theater concert Feel you brother What you need to do is just bring along, you know, like a burlap sack full of extra drums and stuff So you guys can just chant walk around a circle The coalition just got bigger we knew we put that at the end of the name for summaries He's bleeding the fifth over here, yeah, but he knows he stood back and said that cuz he doesn't even want his wife to know He's here Oh Yeah, but like like the tunes on the album man, it's like The other thing is this is me and Tony six this together, you know, I put five out with Vail said so a lot of first albums are Everything in your head that you've been thinking of for years and you finally put it out and here's these killer bomb songs or maybe You know, but this isn't this is a year years work, you know It's not everything we've done for the whole existence of life till that day You put your first album up, right? So the cool thing about having a first album with another band is hey, man, here it is This is new stuff. You know, it's not really like you say I wrote a song. There's a song song I wrote the shell of 30 years ago, but with everything that came into it I think it's a pretty damn good disc for being a disc that took a year to write If that right, do you feel like maybe I mean again, this is deep, but do you feel because I think you mentioned earlier like the idea is if we want to do a mellow tune We'll do a mellow tune if I didn't do something that that sounds like country right that as well.

So Was it almost kind of like a liberating feeling to say Yeah, hell yeah So I'm gonna write what I want to write now and and not what people are expecting us to write because you know Agreed expecting a certain sound from you got you got no there's no rules, you know There's no four walls around you anymore, right? I like Vail side it you know, we almost right in the beginning our guitars Johnny. He's like I'm gonna write a hit You know I'm gonna write something that everybody could sing along to and we wrote that you know And and it was it was ones that everybody learned the lyrics to in the crowd and sang along with Now we're like I'm writing this song that I like That I like if somebody likes it good, right? They don't One Of the challenges of putting together that kind of album though is just me is keeping the Homogeneous, you know to make an album, right? What and that's where our our engineer and producer came in huge Joe to be ready from Apothica Studios Dudes, you know, they basically the unnamed fifth sixth seventh member Does everybody clean it takes a claim somewhere? Yeah, Joe's amazing. I mean just In terms of shaping it so that you you know, cuz that is a captured point in time, right and then the You know our art the guy who did the artwork on it our Mike He always says, you know art is never finished.

It's simply abandoned, right? Right and and so Joe manages to capture that art once we've abandoned it and basically make it sound like the new art Yeah Package it so that it's so that it's so that it's saleable, right? So pick the two songs on the album that are kind of like polar opposites. Oh shit, um What would you say? I Think under toes on one side which are sure you want to pick and which would be what? Yes, very good, that's dirty little liar is probably Taking it on the other side of it dirty little liar is very cheap to me and caught in the undertow is very dark Yeah, okay, I get that so a little more a little more keyboard rocks than dirt and undertow and then dirty little liar It's got that this pop undertone to it. That's just got you the great song Make me old again Dirty little liar was written purposely for that is Originally our intention was a film project and like they're like we need a campy love song I'm like our bottle about a lie somebody who always lie.

I got caught in a lie or something I'm like, all right, so I went I literally Tony called me 15 20 minutes later I sent them those demos on the phone were like literally like 12 minutes apart So I like you look at the text and it's like you wrote it already The whole lyrics the course everything and it's can't be as all hell and that's exactly what they wanted and If they all said I would have never put that on the disc if that was a song me and Tony would have been no That's not going on there. I don't care if you don't like it It wasn't for the it wasn't for the the Netflix show that's called dirty little lies no You know, but at this point in time, we don't know what it was for because it's some of them They go. Hey, we're pitching a film to Netflix or pitching.

It's a whatever Hulu Yeah, they don't always and they don't tell you what they want but they only when it gets caught like there's another one on there that started out as being Never really meant to say goodbye. Another can't be tuned on the album. Yeah, another one that Then that got picked up by a major film company.

So, okay, probably come in 2024, you know, it's coming and they actually changed the name of the movie to the song after they heard the song Wow Which is really cool. I wrote the tune. I'm like Can you talk about it or you can't really say anything about it, right? We don't know a lot about it So they can't they kind of keep it, you know, cuz we're who are we were the guys who wrote one song for the album? Yeah, right, but when they got it and they hit the pitch film it got picked up by a small distribution company okay, they gave him a little budget, but after the next person seemed experts seen in some execs seen it and they Picked it up for a major film company, right? And then they give us a phone call back and said they actually changed the name of the movie into your song title I'm like, oh, yeah That's pretty cool time to renegotiate that contract We also licensed two covers on the new disc, okay, the first one we did was actually from Suggested by the label He was like, hey I'm so convinced you guys will do a great job on this song that you'll put it on your record And if you don't I own a one-of-one and you know, I'll sit on this.

Yeah, he literally bought it Yeah, he bought the song paid us to do it. We did into the mystic by Van Morrison a 1970s tune right, right. Yeah, and one of my favorite Van Morrison songs.

Well, you're gonna enjoy Kind of and then we twisted wrapped around your finger by the police So kid we but we did it as if Pink Floyd we're gonna do that song So it's very ethereal very spacey very I mean like a really weird vibe to it And I sent you guys the video linked it to that as well. So awesome Yeah, and you know it we do with covers. We're kind of taking a little bit of what we did with Veilside We weren't a cover band.

We're original band But when you're playing clubs as you know from playing clubs, you catch him with covers, man Right, and right so we twist them like backward Veil said we did dust in the wind But we did it as if Iron Maiden did dust dust in the wind And that was our big it like we didn't play it at a show. We got sick of playing it after 15 years We didn't play it. We get we get emails inbox.

Yeah, we get Paid I shelled out shekels to see And then you know so ironically we did Iron Maiden the trooper as if Dustin as if Kansas did it we did it a slow ballad We twist covers so we kind of that's the only thing we stole from the other you know from our prior band We don't we don't like to you know We're not a good cover band So we just rewrite the damn thing to fit us only that Covers not a covers only a cover if I hear somebody go out go out and hear a cover It's a jukebox if I hear it exactly the way it is. I'm all good with it I'm here this background noise somebody takes it and makes it their own. I'm impressed right That's where it's cool.

Yeah, absolutely absolutely So we kind of we kind of jumped right over where I was going with this when you take the two songs that you consider To be polar opposites right and we were going back to how yet is producer that was trying to help with the continuity So how do you do that? How do you take two songs that you think are polar opposites and still make them sound like blockchain? Well not not to get too much into the weeds Joe put together a pretty solid template okay in terms of the recording So so they know the bass had a homogenous sound across the whole disc the drums having a homogenous sound across the whole disc Minus a few tweaks if Ron wanted a specific song hey make that snare a little more poppy or make it a little more deeper Yeah, but we really had a strong template that Joe put together and that really did bring the whole thing together So every song sounds like a blockchain song And it doesn't sound like a hodgepodge almost like almost like a jukebox play where every song is different So it really did we did put together a pretty solid record in that front That's the technical side of recording it. I think Joe did a fabulous job for us But as a band I think when you take our polar the polar opposites of what we would consider the songs I think we filled in all the blanks as far as writing songs in between that oh Yeah to say hey this this is this is this isn't us because we've got a lot more that we can offer But for right now This is what we got to offer and then from here to there everything in between and you know coming forward You know as we're starting to write our next one. I was gonna say the new tune We're working on it doesn't sound like any of those yeah, so It's a you can maybe call it.

I mean, I don't think this was a growth record because we had Establishment record establishment you're exactly so it sounds to me like you're already thinking about the second one. We're already started Literally like before the album was out. We're in the studio recording the next album Wow So it's you know it's a benefit of being able to do that with the project with the sync licensing project We got we kind of like slip a tune in and go hey, man this studio times paid for let's take an hour To our own song so we're probably about maybe One and a half songs into it.

Maybe you know shallow wise you know yeah We could easily have another album by fall, but we won't put it out this year Hey, and if at this at this rate every single show you can do can be an album release part Tony write that down Honestly remember we were talking about getting the themes for the show. It's a CD release one show One show every six months. It's just a new CD Like the Adam Sandler movies.

There's always an electronic store. That's the name of the electronic store is going out of business No, that's interesting that's interesting wow I can't wait to put this in the car and give this a listen This is gonna be very literally. It's fun stuff.

There's something for everybody on that disc man There's something for your kids alike. There's something your grandmother like It's interesting metal metal heads were like a tune light rock people you know people who listen to yacht rock go go That's a great song It's cool, I think when you guys were like with Veilside when the stuff you're writing done You're basically writing for your fans you Like you said you're writing for yourselves now. This is I also think we wrote for ourselves a bit in Veilside because But you honestly had you were kind of we were locked into a sound so now it's how many how many different ways can? I break that sound without Leaving the stratosphere.

We've built right you know to you know without being too divergent, so But Yeah, I mean like now. It's more like now. There's no shackles because you're just like dude check this out.

Oh, that's cool I mean the song that we worked on on Monday at the rehearsal studio Lou was like dude. It sounds like jazz Which is cool I mean if we can take it and give it jazz elements and still make it sound like a blockchain song Then you know then that's exactly that's a that's a W as far as I'm concerned And you know the last group of people that we that we spoke to it's The time is right for something like that because listen to all the music that's on the radio right now where somebody is just taking like three or four chords right and They write a song that sounds like a southern rock song or they write a song all this could be blues but then actually this could be like a rock ballad you know here, and it's and It's one person, but they sound like themselves playing an array of different styles of music all on one album Oh, yeah, you know Chris Stapleton is a prime example. Yeah You don't know what he's gonna bring you a show is he gonna be blues He's gonna be country is gonna be rock and roll and he seems to do it all with two and three chord songs Which is the thing that's amazing you know the song sounds different There are some songs that he writes where you swear.

There's a bridge in that song, but there isn't He can just make it sound that way from the way he records it the way he sings it It's amazing that comes to the to the old adage of it's not the instrument It's the person behind it right you know I mean, it's like you could take the three chords that are in every Britney Spears down to Taylor Swift down to The Beastie Boys believe it or not three chords in a beastie boy sign Oh, yeah, it can those three chords can be you know look at look at a what they call quote-unquote bro country today You know pop country right right? That's hair metal man. That is hair metal what a country dude singing on it Yes, it's 87 88 89 rat docking you know white snake if I could sing with a drawl. We'd be doing that Because it pays like crazy, and we already know all that white snake stuff.

I know I know a great dialect coach We can have you sing Yeah, no, there's if you remember back in the country scene back in the the early to mid 90s There were all kinds of bands that came out like the one that the band that always comes to mind to me is a Was a band called Little, Texas, and when you see the music video I'm like no way man that looks like that looks like Doc and playing acoustic guitars right there I mean they got they had the big hair They're hanging out by swimming pools all the chicks with the shorts and bikinis. Yeah What happened to all the metal guys from the late 80s and stuff all they decided to go they moved they moved to Nashville Yeah, literally Alan Jackson wrote a song gone country. Yeah, you know Let's let's jump on the rascal flats was basically just hair metal harmonies In layered If you took life as a highway, and you put like you know Don Doc and singing that well when he could You'd be like that's a great I was listening to a country channel a couple weeks ago, and I'm driving along also.

I'm listening. It sounds like hip-hop or Like did I change the channel or something? No, that's the new trend man Country keeps evolving and yeah to be honest with you. It's cool in the sense because Man, I don't want to hear friends in low places 30 years from now right you know I and I'm no knock mr. Brooks you're badass, but the the point I'm getting at is that the fact that it keeps evolving is actually a positive to me and at some point You're just gonna get you know I told Ron this when the pandemic hit and everybody went home You used to see some cool videos on Facebook you know some guy would be playing from one band and Lockdown videos yeah, some dude will be playing from another band, and they do a tune together, and I told Ron I'm like man when this thing's over.

We're gonna get new music that you've never heard X-men all these big bands are like you should have pocketed albums when you're sitting at home in the studio, and Crazy man the creativity should have been running wild at that point Yeah, well did what else is the product of what's in front of you, right? Well I was hoping that you'd see a lot more fusion You know like man that this country hip-hop act is just badass and you know But we didn't get any you know like national disasters and national events Really created styles of music we believe in sure depression created the blues you know Yeah, or jazz in the beginning everything that happens in life. We thought for sure 9-eleven brought Patriotic may you know a new version of country which kind of where it all started that whole country conversion Yeah, we thought yeah pandemic. That's another something's gonna come out of this a new style of music Nah, just people reaction.

I was hoping to see somebody fused like tool with a hip-hop I think I think tool would I think to a freak out over something Every musical genre kind of was treated that way I think some of it had to do with the fact that you know these these record companies were kind of losing a grip a little bit on Record sales yeah right all because of the streaming services in the hope it's a how do you do it right you have to keep? Every genre of music you have to keep every artist working closely with you so you can make money off of them So you know back in the early 90s all of a sudden you had them you had metal rap you had Limp Bizkit Yeah, you had metal rap right then as you're going into 2000s They replaced the lead guitar solo with the guest rap artist Yeah, right, and then they started fusing the pop with the rap you started to have you know things like Britney Spears with Coolio We're gonna replace Matt with a rap artist, but Matt was like screw that tone. I'll just wrap myself Yeah, you know and there I think they're kind of doing the same thing with country nowadays But only they've taken a different approach with it because you're not Hearing a lot of the the country hip-hop or the country rap there's a few artists that are out there sure what I've noticed more with them is man, I can't remember a You know a CMA or country any country music award show over the course of the last five years where they weren't doing these Mashup kind of acts yeah for the past five years. It's all been that way so they're they're going after it that way through The live performance sure, but I think the good side of that is when we come out at a back end of it Then we're gonna start having people Getting tired of the dubstep Right and that's when you're gonna have people falling back again, and people are gonna start writing songs again People are gonna start playing instruments.

It's an influence. Yeah, if we're still playing and we're 85 years old we might get ahead Well Well it doesn't sound to me, I mean it sounds to me like retirement is off the table now Yeah, and just it's like work. We can't retire at work.

Why should we retire at play? No absolutely absolutely you know do musicians really ever retire though. I mean, that's not really well I mean yes, and no you just start writing for yourself, but Honestly, I've been in the studio with these guys now for the past year plus And every every single week. I mean because we're in there.

We have deadlines that the label gives us and I Actually enjoy going to work. I love seeing the guys. I like creating so we don't piss each other off much like right I like seeing them a little bit, but I mean Just to be official Lou's wife is okay So we haven't heard very much from you tonight Sign off with or pieces of advice wisdom.

I'm still wondering about those tacos, man. What's going on with that? Since you said that I'm like wait a second I Remember any tacos And that's that's the reason the same idiots are together all the time It's just having fun cuz cuz if you can't have fun, and you can't have laughs you can't you can't make music Absolutely absolutely so how can people find you after after they see this? I know we're gonna have people want to want to at least find you more of your music The website you're looking at a blockchain coalition, so BCC band Chicago Calm okay, that's that's how you get to the website, and we are also on Facebook We're on all those things Facebook book tick-tock just type in blockchain coalition on Facebook And you'll find us in YouTube. We put a video out for the Raptor on your finger cover so oh excellent the channel there is blockchain coalition, so where can people find your CD? On our website yeah, so BCC band Chicago calm and they could order it right there We're not doing pretty soon It'd probably go to Spotify and all that but we're trying to get some sales We're gonna recoup some money before that right, and you know we sell the download card So that you know what you have in front of you Which is download card on the website you kind of basically just throw it right to the phone it downloads it right to your phone Or any device any computer? Oh wow ten you got like 20 minutes to download it, and then it expires it blows up actually so keep it away from electronics Hardball now self-destruct sounds like our old asses are getting modern and sometimes well Yeah, so yeah, so we're selling it basically on the site in shows so you come out to the show you get you could catch Deals we got shirts merch the whole thing an original band has to do they survive right right man.

I love this This is this is great. I love the the cover physical copies. You know normal.

Yeah, the new normal, and it kind of looks like The world's blown up yeah, but I'm fire But if you look but if you look at it from far away when when I first saw it I looked at it. Why do they have a picture of the Cove it? Oh, no, that's North America You know we are titles we like to leave to the open imagination to you know hey the new normal What is it? Okay? Well right the new it's a new one more for me and Tony is this band you know The new no more for these guys are there now have to come out every damn week and play with us and go out Yeah, so it's the new normal now is it the new normal that what we've been through I mean, that's your interpretation of that you know This is what it is now, but on the back You could see a great resurgence, and you know that if you open the CD it kind of goes from darkness to light again Okay, yeah, yeah, no, that's great. Yeah.

Yeah, so you know and physical copies of CDs I just seen an article today man that CD sales are up and guess what's gonna happen people gonna get tired of flipping vinyl when Gatefold three vinyls I got to flip this album six times to hear an album And it's coming back to a good version of good old CDs, man We're you know it lasts forever You get to listen to the whole album all the way through and get the meaning of what the artist did it for Unless you're an old guy like me because when I do flip the vinyl over like that. You know I almost hear angels singing I have over 5,000 you know vinyl and sitting in my house, but It's and I don't think CD is quick. Just yeah, I mean, it's quick.

It's easy. It's for modern music I think nothing sounds better for the like if you're listening to a Beatles album or Pink Floyd or Zeppelin put that on vinyl Yeah, yeah, and you know Spotify that in the article actually said that People are getting bored with just listening to one song and having to switch and it bored that it switches on its own here You go physical copy man 13 songs put it in you listen to it start to finish where you clean the house Especially especially if the album tells a story 100% and there's a there's a reason Artist some may just throw them on there But there's a reason artists go 1 to 13 and they sit for two days and go all right What order this goes to here, and then there's transitions. You know we actually put musical transitions between some of the songs Oh, that's great.

That's good. Yeah, I can't wait to hear it a lot of thought went into this Yeah, yeah, really like when it really boils down to it It did you know there's not a whole lot of there's there's a whole lot of original bands in the scene right now Not not you know No, but nobody putting product out. Let's put it that way right you know nobody's wants to go and physically put a product out But well nowadays most bands are putting out like one song at a time.

Yeah, they record it Yeah, they record it. They send it off to Spotify and musicians are notoriously broke, so Like you said we were we were in an advantageous position where we got our our Studio time reimbursed because of the start of the work that we're doing so it really helped it It'll really allowed us to just keep cranking through tunes. Well.

Thanks a lot for coming out guys appreciate it man Yeah Thanks for having us man is really great great place you got here, man. Can't wait for your second show for the second CD release We're gonna rename it that's somewhat new normal I'm maybe not so normal just put a sticker on the front so it looks like a different city All righty, thanks a lot guys There you have it blockchain coalition block chain coalition blockchain Once again, I like them with great conversation. Oh my god doing some pretty cool stuff man writing for Movies and TV shows yes, and that's crazy.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to pay attention to that and everybody out there Pay attention to it as well. There's all kinds of things you can do with your little hobby here. That's right That's right, and they got a new album out.

It's called the new normal new normal 13 songs, man It's a lot of songs yeah, and apparently I think you go to their website, and there's some deal with these Download cards yeah that they have so you can buy a download card and download the album or you can actually buy the CD From their website. Yeah, this is gonna be good I want to hear their original music, and I want to hear how they're making some of these cover tunes on here You know interesting. I can't wait to listen to it.

Yeah, absolutely so thanks for joining us again everybody yes Yes, another fine Tuesday We'll see you next Tuesday. We'll see you next Tuesday Thanks for listening the rock and roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin theme song courtesy of M&R Rush the rock and roll Chicago Podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show the music is used to promote the guests that are featured