Nest Sessions: Chat Pile

Summary

Flightless Bird — "Nest Sessions: Chat Pile"

Host: David Farrier
Guests: Stin (bass) & Ray Gun Bush (vocals), of Chat Pile
Date: January 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special "Nest Sessions" edition of Flightless Bird, David Farrier sits down with Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile — bassist Stin and vocalist Ray Gun Bush — to talk about the band's unique origins, their Oklahoma roots, the bizarre and toxic history behind their name, nostalgic dispatches from growing up in the Midwest, and the quirks of life on the road as an American noise rock band. The episode features a warm, wry exploration of Americana through the lens of dark music, awkward church camps, and crunchy snacks, culminating with an exclusive live, stripped-down performance in the studio.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of "Chat Pile"

• What’s a chat pile?

  • Stin explains: In Pitcher, OK, “giant mountains of toxic waste called chat piles” are byproducts of WWI-era lead mining. The piles became infamous for poisoning the local town, which “sort of became a ghost town over time.” (01:00–01:54)
  • A tornado scattered the already toxic chat piles further, compounding the area’s environmental devastation.
  • Not everyone in Oklahoma knows what a chat pile is — “really regional,” says Stin. Even local relatives are often in the dark. (02:10, 02:24)

• The Name’s Significance

  • The band’s name is intentionally evocative and local: “It has this kind of darkness to it without being, like, super obvious.” (03:42)
  • “So many people are like, 'the name is stupid, what's a chat pile?' And then they'll look it up. It's like, actually, the name's pretty cool.” (03:54, Ray Gun Bush)

2. Growing Up in Oklahoma: Weird Histories & Land Runs

• Oklahoma in the 90s:
  • The band members recall oil-boom prosperity, but also acknowledge troubling settler-colonial history — “one of the most famous land run[s] happened,” forcibly displacing Native people. (05:47–06:08)
  • Schoolchildren reenacted land runs as part of the curriculum: “They would literally shoot a gun...and then we ran and stick to clown.” (06:45–07:13, Ray Gun Bush)
  • “You get one side of the story.” (07:07, Stin, on the biased narrative in schools)

3. The Christian Camp Experience

• Denominational Divide:

  • Stin (Baptist) attended the infamous Falls Creek camp: “That’s where you go to get laid and stuff”—though, as he clarifies, “that never happened for me.” (08:12–08:16)
  • Ray Gun Bush (Disciples Christ): “Way more chill...Protestantism,” less strict.

• Camp Life:

  • Days regimented with Bible study, “but then they let all the kids loose on this wider campus,” leading to the legend of camp hookups. (09:13–09:39)
  • Attendees secretly resented the required services: “I was always like, this sucks. I hate the church aspect of this so much.” (09:58, Ray Gun Bush)
  • Stin describes “three hour church service every single night for a week.” (10:23)

• Interpersonal Impact:

  • The camps served as “an excuse to actually meet kids your own age that, like, you don't really have access to.” (11:28, Stin)
  • Ray’s fondest memory: Learning the plot of Apollo 13 over lunch.

4. Broad Strokes of Growing Up Christian in Oklahoma

• “80% of people I know have been to Falls Creek or something similar.” (12:53, Stin)
• The band’s drummer, Luther Manhole, grew up entirely secular — “unheard of” in Oklahoma. (13:08, Ray Gun Bush & Stin)
• On family and faith: Ray Gun Bush’s late father was a minister. “I think he’d appreciate it, honestly. I think he would be proud of me doing something with my life at all, you know?” (13:26–13:48)

5. On Touring America: The Myth vs. Reality

• “What I’m learning is just kind of how homogenous America is in a lot of ways...you guys just have all the same chain restaurants that we do.” (18:08, Stin)
• “The difference is your parents didn't force you to go to church camp and mine did. You know, like, that's pretty much it." (18:24, Stin)
• There's a running joke about the supposed “coolness” of cities like Minneapolis: “One of the craziest lies I’ve heard my whole life is Minneapolis is a super cool place.” (18:29, Ray Gun Bush)
• Some genuine favorites: “Chicago...this is actually, like, different and good and awesome. I like New York, too. I like LA.” (18:59, Ray Gun Bush)
• LA as a favorite: “It just feels comfortable to me. And there’s, like, beautiful succulents growing everywhere.” (19:09, Stin)

6. Banter, Movie Obsessions, and On-Stage Trivia

• Farrier notes the band's “banter in between” sets — “You're obviously like a big movie guy.” (19:37)
• Ray Gun Bush blends research and encyclopedic memory for film facts, often incorporating local movie trivia into shows. (19:58–20:29)
• The perennial LA deep-cut: Teen Witch (“pure entertainment...a movie I’ve loved since I was a kid, though, for real” — 21:47, Ray Gun Bush)
• The value of “bad” movies: “There are movies that are maybe, like, incompetently made that are some of my favorites ever because they are truly the most entertaining movies ever made.” (22:10, Stin)
• Farrier recounts helping Tommy Wiseau look for his lost car on his first LA trip. (22:18–22:43)

7. "Snack That Personifies America:" The Corn Nut Segment

• Chat Pile brought corn nuts as their American snack of choice: “We couldn't find my favorite flavor barbecue, unfortunately. But I have regular corn nuts.” (23:08, Ray Gun Bush)
• Farrier compares them to popcorn; the band reflects that corn nuts are a “baseball snack...or road trip a lot.” (24:07, Ray Gun Bush)
• Trying new flavors sparks discussion: “The lime. The lime. That is overtaking snacks in the last ten years. I can't handle lime.” (25:14, Ray Gun Bush)

8. On the Music: Exclusive Performance and New Releases

• Chat Pile performs stripped-down versions of “Tin Killer” and “King.”

  • “Tin Killer” is from an indie film of the same name: “I was trying to sort of write from the perspective of a character, but maybe none of that stuff is actually in the movie whatsoever...” (26:02, Ray Gun Bush)
  • “King” touches on “addiction and Stephen King,” particularly King's reputation as the “addict author,” and the repeated motif in his work of protagonists battling addiction. (26:43–27:29)

• Transitioning to an acoustic, podcast-friendly setting was a first for the band.

  • “We’ve never done it before...we really had to adjust the way we approach it.” (27:41, Stin)
  • “When I'm more sing songy with the quieter shit, it sounds great.” (28:17, Ray Gun Bush)

• Where to start with Chat Pile’s music:

  • “We just put out an album on Halloween with an artist named Hayden Pedigo...but it's a little bit different than what we normally do. So if you hear these songs and you like them, you might check out the album before that called Cool World, which came out in 2024.” (28:40, Stin)
  • “We have pretty good SEO, you know.” (29:11, Stin)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's perfect though, because it does get people to look it up.” — Ray Gun Bush on the band name (03:34)
• “You kind of have to, like, scratch the surface a little bit.” — Stin on the meaning of “Chat Pile” (03:42)
• “We call our fans Chat Rats, but that name is Stolen Valor, because Chat Rats are the townies that play on the chat piles...” — Stin (02:24)
• “I was always like, this sucks. I hate the church aspect of this so much.” — Ray Gun Bush (09:58)
• “My top memory [from church camp] is...this kid was describing to me what happens in Apollo 13.” — Ray Gun Bush (11:59)
• “What I’m learning is just kind of how homogenous America is in a lot of ways.” — Stin, on touring (18:08)
• “Chicago is one of the ones that I'm like...actually, like, different and good and awesome.” — Ray Gun Bush (18:59)
• “Some movies just have the juice, you know? Like, that one just is pure entertainment.” — Ray Gun Bush on Teen Witch (21:47)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Band & Name Introduction: 00:22–04:01
• Oklahoma, Land Runs, and Local History: 04:53–07:17
• Christian Camp Stories: 07:31–13:16
• Parenting, Band Family Dynamics: 13:18–13:48
• Touring America - Myth vs. Fact: 18:08–19:24
• Movie Banter & Bad Movies as Art: 19:37–22:18
• Snack Segment - Corn Nuts: 23:08–25:39
• Studio Performance Backstory: 26:01–27:57
• Where To Find Chat Pile’s Music: 28:40–29:11
• Live Acoustic Performance: 30:17–39:07 (song lyrics, not summarized)

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Closing Notes

This episode merges a fascination for oddball Americana with Chat Pile's grounded, humorous, and gently disaffected perspective. The conversation ranges from environmental disaster lore to adolescent awkwardness, generational change, and the shared cultural memories (and snacks) that glue together the American experience—especially in its overlooked corners.

For listeners new to Chat Pile, check out "Cool World" (2024) or their 2025 collaboration with Hayden Pedigo, both available on streaming platforms and Bandcamp.

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Transcript

[A]

Okay, we're going to start with a very simple question. I'd love you to just both introduce yourselves and where you're from and. And what you do.

[B]

My name is Stin. I am from Oklahoma City and I play bass in Chat Pile.

[C]

My name is Ray Gun Bush and I sing in Chat Pile. I'm also from Oklahoma City.

[A]

Full disclosure, I love Chat Pile, which is why I'm very excited that you're here. I've seen you a couple of times. One of the first things. So you absorbed the music. Loved what I heard and I was like, what the fuck is a chat pile? What is chat pile? Googled it, found out it's a local thing to Oklahoma. Could you just explain what a chat pile is and sort of like what it represents to you?

[B]

Yeah. So in the town of Pitcher, Oklahoma, there are these like giant mountains of toxic waste called chat piles. And I think that's like a local term. I don't believe this is like a wider thing or like it started locally and then it moved on to, you know, to the greater culture or whatever. But the story behind it is In World War I, it was a lead mining town and. And they were mining lead for the ammunition in World War I. And then the byproduct of this, like, mining operation is this like toxic waste that I guess is in granular rock form that they can pile up. And then, you know, they discovered years later that it was poisoning everybody in the town and it sort of became a ghost town over time. But I think the final straw was a tornado hit it like maybe 10 years ago and scattered all the Chat Pile debris everywhere.

[A]

Oh, God.

[C]

Shrapnel flying everywhere.

[B]

Yeah, well. And just spreading like, you know, what was already like a horrible, you know, contained. Yeah.

[A]

And suddenly you've all got it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Do people in Oklahoma all know what a chat pile is or is it kind of specific knowledge?

[C]

To be honest, I didn't know what it was until they presented me with the band name and I was like.

[A]

Here'S a list of names of what we can be called.

[C]

I truly was like, I don't know. That sounds bad. My cousin lives in Oklahoma and he has no idea what a chat pile was.

[B]

I think it's really regional because it's like in far, kind of like northeast part of the state. So if you grew up around there, you know what it is. In fact, like, we call our fans Chat Rats, but that name is Stolen Valor, because chat rats are the townies that play on the. The chat piles and they do like, they climb on.

[A]

Play on the chat piles. They drive ATVs on them. They slid down the.

[B]

The toxic piles.

[A]

Yeah. God, yeah. And does, like.

[B]

Does.

[A]

I don't want to spend too long on this, but does the town. Are they doing anything to try and mitigate this? Are they. Are the payouts. Are they trying to get rid of the chat piles, or are they just kind of there?

[C]

I don't think you can do anything with it.

[A]

Yeah, I think they're just there too big.

[B]

But the. The way they mitigate it is they're just like, everyone has to get out of here.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I also don't want this to become a. Why are you named what you're named? But, like, why did you settle on that name? You probably had some other names that were also good contenders. Chat pile is so specific.

[C]

I was never presented with options. You guys were just like, we're gonna call the Ben Chet Paul.

[B]

I was like, okay, we had a list, but it was all, like, like, metal. You know, I can't even remember any of them, to be honest. But it was like, more like stereotypical metal names.

[C]

It's perfect, though, because it does get people to look it up. I mean, I like.

[A]

First thing I did, I like having.

[C]

The environmentally conscious element.

[B]

Well, that's why we settled on it is because it's, like. It's local to us, which, you know, was a part of sort of what we were doing anyway. And then it's. It has this kind of darkness to it without being, like, super obvious. You kind of have to, like, scratch the surface a little bit.

[C]

So many people are like, the name is stupid. What's a chat pile? And then they'll look it up. It's like, actually, the name's pretty cool.

[A]

It's, like, one of the most intense things you could kind of think of.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

It is one of those, like, things where, like, people find out, like, I'm in a band, and they're like, oh, what's the band name? And you have to be like, chat pile. And they're very confused.

[A]

Yeah, you've got to, like, enunciate every syllable.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

What?

[A]

Yeah, I feel like that when I say tickle them. Like, I made Tickled the documentary. I have to do the same thing. Tickled. Because when I say in my accent, people are tickling. I'm like, no, tickles. And like, what? And it's. You've got to be very specific. Okay. Oklahoma. Besides the chat piles, I've been there once when we did a tornado Chasing episode a couple of years ago now. So when I think of Oklahoma, I think tornadoes and chat piles, thanks to you. What does it represent to you besides those things? Cause I imagine it's a beautiful place. And you like growing up there?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, maybe not.

[C]

No, I mean, yeah, it could be worse. It could be way worse. You know, and we grew up in the 90s, too, which was, like, different than growing up now. I wouldn't want to raise a kid in the town that I grew up in in 2025. But when in the 90s, when everybody was just rich with oil money and stuff, living in Ponca City is where I'm from was. Was, like, kind of nice, you know, Poca City, Ponca City.

[D]

Ponca.

[A]

Yeah. Okay.

[D]

Every.

[C]

Every town and everywhere in Oklahoma is named after tribes and stuff, like, indigenous.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Park is famously like Killers of the Flower Moon, like that. That book movie or whatever right by there.

[C]

And Augustus Edge county is also that same region.

[A]

Right. And I'm guessing the original inhabitants aren' particularly well in that particular spot.

[C]

No.

[A]

As is all of America.

[C]

Yeah, no, I mean, Ponca City is where one of the famous. The most. Perhaps the most famous land run happened. Cherokee Strip, where they, you know, because we, America, moved all the indigenous people from the coast, like, into Oklahoma, which is no man's land. It's one of the last states that we made. And then they were like, actually, we want this too.

[B]

And then, yeah, no man's Land. But now actually it's oil and gas and stuff here.

[C]

So we're going to. And so, yeah, they did a land run. And then far and away. Is that about the Cherokee Strip land run or is that just about a land run?

[B]

I think it might be just a land run. I don't know.

[C]

Tom Cruise.

[A]

I know the film. I just. I don't remember what we're talking about. Do you remember that film? Yeah, yeah, I know the title. That's about it.

[B]

It's pretty good, actually. I think I watched it fairly recently.

[C]

I haven't seen it in a long time, since I was a kid. But we watch in school. Like, we do mock land runs in school. Like growing up, we would.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What do you mean you do a mock.

[C]

And shot a gun in the air and then we ran and stick to clown.

[B]

Take a claim, like in the playground or whatever.

[C]

Argue with each other and whatever.

[A]

What do you mean? As, like, kids at lunchtime or as part of school?

[C]

No, part of school.

[A]

What the.

[B]

Yeah, it's part of the curriculum. Like, you learn about Oklahoma history Through reenacting the land run, which I guess is maybe admirable.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

All you learn, you get one side of the story.

[A]

No, but like, very interactive. Yeah. Like you're doing it, basically.

[C]

Yeah, I guess.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

They would literally like shoot a gun. I mean, this is the 90s.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, it's changed now. There's probably more guns now. So when. When we were emailing about you taking part in the segment, we're sort of talking about what you want to talk about and you were like, we can't talk about chat piles for the whole time because it's just going to get incredibly depressing.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And you noted that we'd done quite a few kind of Christian adjacent episodes. And what you sort of came forth with was, why don't we talk about Christian camps which you or both of you were involved in maybe.

[B]

Yeah, we both went to one.

[A]

What did that look like?

[C]

These are different. You're Baptist, right? Or you were raised.

[A]

That was me.

[B]

Okay. All the way.

[C]

And I was raised Disciples of Christ, which is like a way more chill version, more relaxed Protestantism. So my camp that I went to was like. We were all like, there's a Baptist camp, a famous Baptist camp called Falls Creek, where everybody be like, man, like, that's where you go to get laid and stuff.

[B]

This is the camp that I went to. And I can tell you that never happened for me.

[A]

That was so. In New Zealand, that was the Parachute Music festival, which was the Christian music festival. And I also wasn't part of that. I never got laid there. But that is apparently what people went there for. Except for me.

[B]

I feel like the legend was bigger than the actual.

[A]

That's what we tell ourselves.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

But people did in my camp were like, falls Creek. The pregnancy rate is so high there, bro. The girls are wild at False Creek. Yeah.

[A]

Wait, so what time of the year would you go? Was this like a summer Summer?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So your holiday. You have your holidays from school and your parents send you to this camp just to give you something to do.

[B]

It's more like the church that you go to sends you to the camp and they really hype it up as this, like, really fun event. And to be honest, it kind of is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's sort of how they get you.

[A]

We runs.

[B]

Yeah. Apparently that's the promise, anyway.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

For you, I didn't get anything either.

[A]

So what do you. What do you do? You arrive at camp and what's like, what does it look like? You're kayaking, you're praying.

[B]

I mean, You're, I don't know, your experience might be different, but the way Falls Creek would work is like they would have this like every little church would have kind of its own, like barracks, so to speak. And you would be like, you'd be in this room with like bunk beds and your day was regimented to where like you start the day with some type of Bible study thing. But then they let all the kids loose in on this like wider campus and everybody just mingles.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And so maybe that's where some of the like the notoriety comes from. But again, it's very innocent. It's really just a lot of small town kids, like connecting and talking with.

[A]

And just rewind. You start your day with, with prayer. Like, are you all into that? Is it kind of like funny and a joke? Are you all on board? What does that look like?

[C]

I mean, I was always like, this sucks. I hate the church aspect of this so much.

[B]

I couldn't get over it fast enough.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. So that's just something you had to put up with.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[C]

I could be like at night now for vespers, it's like, no, what? You like have to go listen to somebody sermonize, you know, for like an hour or whatever. And it's not like somebody that's good at it even. It's like a 20 year old typically, you know, like at my camp it.

[B]

Was all streets a little different. It's like big production value. So they do have like kind of the cream of the crop there, but it doesn't make it any more entertaining. Like you're just stuck in this giant tabernacle and you are at like a three hour church service every single night for a week. And then after that they take you back to the little like barracks thing that you sleep in and they do a whole nother like, like Bible lesson or whatever.

[C]

That's where the hardcore version hit. We didn't have. My camp was also more rustic than this.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

But we would just get there and they'd throw us in by age group. Boys in one cabin, girls in one cabin. There was like, I don't know, 10 cabins or something like that, you know, and we'd all meet at the mess hall and like play games and crap like that. But like, I mean there was just like, the Disciples of Christ is just simply more chill than Baptist. It just is.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You had a bit of time.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't though. I actually hated every minute of it.

[A]

Was there something fun? Like it's a camp, surely like, you do, I don't know, rock climbing or, like, some sort of guns something.

[B]

The fun part of it, at least for, like, a kid like me. I grew up in a very, like, rural town in Oklahoma. And so, you know, there was, like, 10 people in my graduating class. So these excursions would be, like, an excuse to actually meet kids your own age that, like, you don't really have access to. And, you know, this is like in the middle of the 90s. So I was always blown away because, like, people would come in, actually, they'd have, like, hair like yours and, like, Jean Co's and stuff. And it blew my mind.

[A]

Crazy.

[B]

I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe there's, like, alternative people here or whatever.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, this kind of will exemplify how I felt about church camp. My top memory is in the mess hall at launch. This kid was describing to me what happens in Apollo 13. And I was like, I cannot wait to see this movie. And I did, like, right when I got out of camp. And I love it.

[A]

But, yeah, that was the most exciting point. Was someone, like, recounting a plot for a film.

[C]

Yeah, it was in theater. It was so new, you know, and it was like, oh, you've seen it already? Yeah, man. They slingshot around the moon, like, explaining the physics to me, and I was like, oh, my God. God sounds so good. That's like, truly what I. My. My best memory of church camp is just this kid telling me about Apollo 13.

[A]

And obviously both of you went on church camp. Was this a common thing with all your friends, or is it just luck that you're in this band now and you both happen to go to church camp? Or was it pretty common being a kid then?

[B]

I would say 80% of the people I know have been to False Creek or something similar to.

[C]

And yeah, most people are just raised in church and stuff. Luther Manhole is a true rarity in our band.

[A]

He.

[C]

And in Oklahoma in general. He grew up in a house that was secular completely. No church whatsoever. It's truly insane.

[B]

It's unheard of. It's just not how things go.

[A]

Oklahoma was a pretty Christian town. Your dad was a minister. Yeah, you're right. What does he make of the band? Is he into it?

[C]

He's long dead, okay?

[A]

Long gone. What would he make of it if he was still with it?

[C]

I think he. I think he'd appreciate it, honestly. I think he would be proud of me doing something with my life at all, you know? Yeah, I think he would appreciate, like, why? You know, there's, like, we have some songs that I could. I think I could intellectualize into being like, this is kind of like what you believe. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

No.

[A]

Why? That's. That's one of the first track I heard from you guys. Fucking wonderful.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

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And I hear the eggs have thinner shells there.

[A]

If we get to 2000, Rob and I are going to get matching flightless bro tattoos. And 5,000, we're going to create more dark tourists. That's extra spooky.

[C]

But most importantly, support on our Patreon just goes to supporting the show and helping us keep doing weird, strange, fascinating things about this country and all the weird parts of it.

[D]

So.

[A]

Patreon.com Flightless Bird come sign up, join in the community. We will see you there. Patreon.com Flightless Bird. As you tour around the States now, what is you, have you sort of got a different perspective on America than sort of where you grew up? Because obviously you're seeing a lot. I imagine seeing more of it than you have or quicker than you did before. Like you're touring a lot of places.

[B]

Well, no, I think you know What I'm learning is just kind of how homogenous America is in a lot of ways. Like, you know, it's like my whole life I was told about how dreams are made in New York or Los Angeles. And then you go to these places and it's like, you guys just have all the same chain restaurants that we do.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

The difference is your parents didn't force you to go to church camp and mine did. You know, like, that's pretty much it.

[C]

I think one of the craziest lies I've heard my whole life is Minneapolis is a super cool place.

[A]

Is that something you. Is that a thing?

[C]

Chicago?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

We didn't hear that in Chicago. I mean, I love Minneapolis, but I was. You know, we like to give it a hard time there. But it's fun. It's just fun. Like, it's just growing up, people were like, it's actually like. It's kind of the Austin of the north, you know, like, almost like giving you that. That vibe or whatever. It's like, not quite.

[A]

You know, you're not quite there.

[C]

I like Chicago a lot, though. Chicago is one of the ones that I'm like. This is actually, like, different and good and awesome, you know? I like New York, too. I like la.

[B]

Yeah, LA is honestly my favorite American city. I know people would probably get onto me for that, but it just feels comfortable to me. And there's, like, beautiful succulents growing everywhere. And the weather's usually nice, although it seems like almost every time we go, it's raining now, but, yeah, as we.

[A]

Talk, it's stormed for, like, the last week or so. The first thing that struck me about your show, apart from everything else, was your. Your banter in between. You're doing a lot of movie trivia. You're obviously like a big movie guy.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Each city you go to, are you doing, like, a lot of research in advance or is that kind of inbuilt, sort of insane knowledge that you have? Because basically every city you play and you're like, oh, yeah. Around the corner from this. They shot this. And it was. The shoot was this long and this person was directing. Very specific. That's your banter between songs.

[C]

Earlier in the band, I would do research. Especially, like. Like, in New York, I have to do no research. Or here I don't do any research whatsoever. You know, but, like, if we go to, like, Burlington, Vermont or something, I've gotta. I gotta look it up. And of course, there's like, nothing. Only movie, film struggling. What lies beneath the Zemeckis movie was filmed there, actually. I will do some research and stuff. But no, I just. I typically love movies when la. My bit. My bit here is to bring up Teen Witch immediately.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Have you ever seen Teen Witch before?

[A]

Never. It's great. I don't know why. What's the. What is Teenage?

[C]

It's just a great, great teen movie. Okay. Magical realism, basically.

[B]

Yeah. It's one of the best bad movies ever made.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

For sure. It's like it lives in that world of. Of stuff.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Oh, it's the best LA movie period. Okay. Forget Heat.

[A]

Heat is. Some people love referencing Heat.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Who is in Teen Witch? Like, just sell it. Or a listener that has Givens, I.

[C]

Want to say, is the star of it. It's got Zelda Rubenstein from Poltergeist.

[D]

Ah.

[C]

Huge houses. I can't get my voice high like this.

[B]

But are there a name really?

[C]

It's got a. It's got fucking. Jason Miller's son, Joshua John Miller.

[A]

So specific.

[C]

Well, I love him.

[A]

Is this person's son.

[C]

He's in River's Edge, near Dark. He's a little boy in those. And he wrote Final Girls, which is a really good. Pretty good meta horror movie. Anyway.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

He's like the little brother in that movie, and he is so insane. His acting choices are.

[B]

Oh, that's who they are.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

So do you watch it for the. The. The look of it or the story or the characters? Like, why are we watching this film?

[C]

I mean, some movies just have the juice, you know? Like, that one just is like pure entertainment. From moment one to the end, it's just like, you're smiling, you're having a good time. It's like goofy. You can't believe some of the things that are happening. It's a movie I've loved since I was a kid, though. For real.

[B]

A movie like that is actually good. It's like, I called it a great bad movie. But, like, bad movies are the ones that are just boring.

[D]

Right?

[B]

But there are movies that are maybe, like, incompetently made that are some of my favorites ever because they are truly the most entertaining movies ever made.

[A]

The first time I ever came to Los Angeles, I was back when I was doing reporting for a news station in New Zealand and I met with Tommy Wiesel from the room. And that was like my. I spent my night helping him find his car because he'd lost it in the parking lot. And that was like my introduction to obviously, like a very Bad film. But that particular character. And I was like, if this is what LA is, I meant, yeah, this is.

[B]

I feel like he embodies a particular spirit of LA for sure.

[A]

So many bouts. Yeah. He had about 10 belts around us.

[B]

So he's kind of doing like a Johnny Depp sort of trying to.

[A]

Trying. I encourage you to bring in a snack that sort of personifies America or your city to you. What. What have you bought?

[C]

We brought corn nuts. We couldn't find my favorite flavor barbecue, unfortunately. But I have regular corn nuts. I don't really know what corn nuts are. It's corn, corn, oil and salt. But, like, do you know these, Rob? Yeah. Are they native to Oklahoma, though? Originate there? Were they supposed to be native?

[D]

No, no, no, no.

[A]

You just said you love these.

[C]

I love corn nuts, too. I still get corn. Corn nuts.

[A]

So it's corn on a cob.

[C]

It's like a little snack as a little. There's no carbon.

[B]

It is corn. It looks like. Like kernels of.

[A]

So I imagine what they've done is, like, they've got the corn off the cob and they've fried it or something and given it to us in a little bag.

[B]

It's a very specific type of snack that I can't eat very often because I'll chew it up and then inhale it down my windpipe chip.

[A]

Oh, you'll start, like, choking. Yeah.

[B]

Corn chips are that way, too. Maybe it's a corn thing for me.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, so is this in the same. You'd have this in the same way that I would have a. A chip. A potato chip. It's the same kind of genre of.

[C]

Snack, like sunflower seeds. It's like a baseball snack.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Or road trip a lot.

[A]

Perfect. Yeah, I see what you're talking about.

[B]

But they come in a bunch of flavors, you know, so I. The plain ones really aren't. I mean, I guess that's a good base.

[A]

What strikes me is this is the same. Same flavor as popcorn, which makes sense because it's all corn, but. I know. But it's, like. Surprises me, like, how similar it is to a piece of popcorn.

[C]

I do love popcorn, too.

[A]

And, like, we don't have this in New Zealand. Like, this is something I've never had before, so.

[D]

All right.

[A]

And the barbecue version is just a bit sort of more kicker flavor.

[C]

It's just like my favorite barbecue flavor of any kind of snack. I don't know. That's like, my number one choice. I think we have another kind if you want to try Them.

[A]

But what is this one?

[B]

Try Mexican.

[C]

This is. They're getting out on a limb here with this one.

[A]

This is Mexican style street corn.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, trying to lean into the corn.

[C]

Nabisco or whoever. The Maxis don't do just barbecue.

[A]

Barbecue only barbecue.

[C]

It's hard to find these days.

[B]

I would assume that's just like lime and chili maybe is what's.

[A]

What's going on with those?

[C]

The lime. The lime. That is overtaking snacks in the last 10 years. I can't handle lime. Lime is too, like.

[A]

Like can't handle it.

[C]

You know, I'll have one of those.

[D]

I mean.

[A]

Try it. Just like see if it's as bad as you remember. Yeah, it's more bitter, isn't it? It's more like I need some of.

[C]

The regular nuts to wash it down, though.

[A]

Okay. To close us out, you're going to play us a couple of songs, which I'm, as a fan of your music, I feel very privileged to be listening to. What are you going to play us and is there anything you want to tell us about? I don't know where the songs come from or a particular sort of thought about what we're about to listen to because some of our listeners will be like, never heard music like this.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What is going on?

[C]

We're playing stripped down versions of our shit and one song is Tin Killer, which is from a movie we scored in Oklahoma. What film called 10 killer. Yeah, it's an independent film made by some local people and I was trying to sort of write from the perspective of a character, but maybe none of that stuff is actually in the movie whatsoever, you know, I don't know. I love it personally. It's like one of my favorite songs we've done.

[A]

Yeah, but as you were writing it, you were sort of imagining it. Imagining it from the perspective of something in that world, from one of the.

[C]

Characters in the movie.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It's definitely a deeper cut of ours. So is the other one. King is a pretty deep cut.

[C]

Yeah. The other song we're playing, two deep cuts today, King is about, you know, addiction and Stephen King.

[A]

What aspect of Stephen King is it? Addicted Writer.

[C]

Have you read. You've read a lot of Stephen King. We were talking about Running Man.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, he's the addict author, you know, I would say.

[A]

Yeah. No, he went through years of writing some terrible and good books whilst being addicted to a bunch of things.

[C]

Most of his stuff is about a guy who's in his mid-30s trying to overcome some kind of addiction, Even if it's not literally alcohol, like in the Tommyknockers, it's like a crystal ball in wizarding glass or some shit, you know, or something like that.

[A]

So.

[C]

I don't know. I was just reading a lot of King when we did that one, so.

[A]

And was it strange adapting it into a setting that would work in a small podcast studio as opposed to on a big, very loud stage?

[B]

Yeah, more so. Cause we've never done it before. I don't think the song. We picked those two in particular because they kind of lend themselves to being stripped down. But having never done it before, we really had to adjust the way we approach it.

[C]

It's definitely easier to sing. For me, like, when I'm doing the talking thing over the quieter thing, I start to sound like something undesirable to me, you know, like to my ears, you know, sound like artists I do not care for. Maybe I'm not going to name names, but.

[B]

But when you're more sing songy.

[C]

Yeah, but when I'm more sing songy with the. The quieter shit, it sounds great. I thought, you know. Yeah, it will sound good. I mean, not. It did. Right. Good save.

[A]

Good save. Well, thank you for coming in and I'm looking forward to listening performances. Is it. If we can direct our listeners to somewhere in particular, is there an album you would point people towards a place?

[B]

Well, we just put out an album on Halloween with an artist named Hayden Pedigo. We collaborated and put an album out, and so that is kind of the freshest thing, but it's a little bit different than what we normally do. So if you hear these songs and you like them, you might check out the album before that called Cool World, which came out in 2024. Yeah. And then you can find all that at our band camp or just streaming services or wherever. It's. Just type it in. We have pretty good SEO, you know.

[A]

Well, chat pile. A little bit more about chat piles completely. It's either the Wikipedia entry for chat piles or your band.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Yeah, thank you for having us. We really appreciate it.

[D]

They're looking through the most bleary eyes they don't feel like mine don't feel like. This room is cold my face I don't recognize those are my stupid eyes Ch in water. And they were begging for mercy but I don't we're the death in the face of recovery we asked this you kicking dogs in your face and around you the sorrow makes sense you drown it's just my big clumsy touch in the end the best parts are when you come fe the piece of your. Pulling the chair out Misplaced awful touch Makes me jump out of my skin and break my hands. They were begging for mercy but I don't. In the face of recovery we push you down they put my dick in vice and all around you the sorrow.

[C]

Makes you laugh.

[D]

I kill myself all the time in the end the best parts are when you come so fe the beast if you want and we're begging for mercy but I don't we're the angel of death in the face of recovery we push you down kicking dads in the face Sorrow makes you drown it's just one big clumsy touch and the amicus hearts oh and when you come. Sam. You. Sam sa. Promise it's probably where you're thinking it's probably what you're thinking. Cuz I've never been to place like this not even in my dream dreams not even in dreams. It's probably what you're thinking.

[C]

It'S probably.

[D]

What you're thinking honestly so I don't care I don't care I don't care I don't care what makes you alive what makes me alive what for me is what's the meaning of it? What's the meaning of it? What? Don't compare. Sa. Reading books in the afternoon Getting drunk in the afternoon Reading books in the afternoon Getting drunk in the afternoon I don't want you. Know I for you. To know I don't want you to know I don't want you to know I don't want you to know I don't want you to know I don't want you to know I don't want you to know I don't know I will join thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you're thinking it's probably where you think.

[C]

That was good.