HardLore is joined by our 2024 Album of the Year Award Winners for a very special in-person episode! Vocalist and Mike Ryan and drummer Paul Dove sat with us at FYA fest and told us all about their personal paths to finding hardcore music, meeting each other, touring and playing in other bands, and eventually starting Missing Link many years later, We go in depth about the making of their incredible debut album “Watch Me Bleed” and get into the inner minds of one of the best hardcore bands going today, and finally get to the bottom of who was peeking in his window. Join the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes: https://patreon.com/hardlorepod - Join the HARDLORE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/jA9rppggef Cool links: HardLore Official Website/HardLore Records store: https://hardlorepod.com Try AG1 at DrinkAG1.com/HARDLORE to receive a free 1-year supply of vitamin D and 5 travel packs of AG1. Get 15% off MAD...
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Mike Ryan
But they cannot change Running on our back for personal gain. Have you heard the story of New York Minute? Peeking in my window. I'm like, someone is in my garage. Like, I can hear them in my garage. I'm just clearing my house and I walk and I just stand still. Like, if you walk in my front door, it's basically the center of the entire house. And I just stand there for like two minutes and I hear it and I'm like, they think I'm in bed. And I'm like, all right, that's it. And I just open the door and it's my screen door.
Bo
So you're telling me, yup. The screen door was peeking in your window?
Paul
Oh, yeah.
Bo
Hello, welcome. It's Hard Lord Time. How are you, Bo?
Chris
I'm feeling great.
Bo
Me too. We've got a very special in person episode. We don't get to do many of these. We. We hand select a special few today. We've got Paul and Mike from Missing Link. Before we get started, guys, we just recorded the Hard Lower Awards.
Chris
We got. We got some news for you.
Bo
Got some news for you. Watch me Bleed Album of the Year.
Mike Ryan
We knew it.
Bo
I kind of clued Paul and I was like, hey, you might want to stand by for the awards because you're gonna have to say something. So watch me. Blue Album of the Year. If you guys want to accept the award formally.
Paul
We did it, Mom.
Bo
I did it, Mom. Paul did it.
Paul
I did it.
Chris
I said in the episode that when you sent it to me, I immediately was like, this might be next. This might be this year. And it was. I think you sent it to me in maybe 2023. Was it done in 2023?
Mike Ryan
No, no.
Paul
It was raining.
Mike Ryan
We finished it right then.
Chris
That makes sense.
Bo
I remember that weekend being like, guys, you got something here. Well, let's go back in time.
Chris
Yeah, yeah.
Bo
We don't want to. We don't. We're not there.
Chris
We'll get there.
Bo
Tell me about you two individually finding hardcore.
Paul
I was 10 years old.
Chris
10.
Bo
Good age.
Paul
I was 10 years old riding the bus and I was into skateboarding and my friend Jason Lapointe, who. He would never watch this but shout out Jason. He had his older cousin's Earth Crisis Gomar Season Ends cd. And I only knew the CD had wrenches on it. And I listened to it and I was like, this is insane. And the only thing I had before that was. I think it was a Huey Lewis in the news.
Mike Ryan
Sports.
Paul
No, it was a. It was a. My aunt had made it for me, it was just a bunch of bands. It was a cassette.
Chris
Cassette.
Bo
Best of Huey is Ours.
Paul
And it was.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And it was. It was awesome. But then I heard that and I was. Is insane. And then there was a place called Red. Red's Underground. And I went and bought a.
Chris
Where's that?
Paul
It was in Glens Falls, New York.
Bo
So you had only heard Best of Huey Lewis?
Paul
I heard other music.
Bo
So you were like getting kind of Huey Lewis vibes from.
Paul
No, I just heard it and I was like, this sounds crazy. And I had like heard music and skate videos and stuff. And I think it was fourth grade and we go to the UCD store and it's like as far as the eye could see, just CDs. And I went to one table and I went, bup, bup, bup. And I pulled the Earth Crisis CD out.
Chris
You found it?
Paul
Found it. It's $3. And then I pulled out Pantera Farbie on Driven. And that was like my intro to music. Everything after that was like. I was like, I like this. And then I think later that year my brother had an older friend whose mom was kind of irresponsible and brought us to a show.
Bo
Your.
Paul
My brother Tim.
Bo
Shout out to the masses of all musicians.
Mike Ryan
We'll go there the man.
Chris
We'll get up.
Paul
Yeah. So as we did probably all did when we were 16, my brother's friend's mother worked at a grocery store with this 16 year old kid who was like flyering.
Chris
Yeah, yeah.
Paul
And was like, I'll bring my son and his friends to this. And it was like a metalcore show in I'm old. So 98 or 99 and that was it. Literally every weekend they had Sunday Matt and Nature.
Bo
Straight up old head knives.
Paul
And the first like show show I remember was a Canderia show that I went to. Dude, Canderia and The World Indecision Fahrenheit 451.
Bo
Beautiful gig.
Chris
That is New York.
Bo
Yeah. What about you, Mike?
Mike Ryan
My. I was in sixth grade, so like 11.
Bo
Good age.
Paul
Young guys. It's crazy.
Mike Ryan
Am I.
Bo
What was your. What were your other favorite things? When. When you were in fourth and sixth grade.
Chris
Yeah, when you were 11, like discovering hardcore hockey.
Bo
Skateboarding. Skateboarding.
Mike Ryan
Skateboarding and hockey.
Bo
That's advanced.
Chris
Yeah, that makes sense.
Paul
We didn't have. I didn't have a sports family. They didn't care. Yeah.
Chris
Same.
Bo
Skateboarding was.
Mike Ryan
That was old hippie parents.
Paul
But like just skateboarding. Yeah.
Bo
Beautiful.
Paul
And where did.
Chris
Where were you growing up?
Mike Ryan
Auburn, New York. So 30 minutes from Syracuse.
Chris
Okay.
Mike Ryan
30 miles.
Bo
So you're both up there?
Paul
Yeah, yeah, upstate, baby.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
51 8.
Mike Ryan
My neighborhood was like, me, Shane Woodman from Bitter End, of course, and my older cousin Dustin, and then our buddy Sean. We all lived in this, like, three block neighborhood, and they were, like, a couple years older, and we're, like, already into hardcore. And I started hanging out with them and started going to shows. First show, April 20th or 2003.
Bo
You got a month, too.
Mike Ryan
I have a demo from then. That's why.
Chris
Would you remember what the show was?
Mike Ryan
If Hope Dies, which was an awesome band. They're from my hometown. It was them, this band, Eyes Averted, this band, the Devil's Discipline.
Bo
And I thought the Devil's was going somewhere else. I was like.
Mike Ryan
And then probably someone else, but I don't remember. It was at a Salvation army in the gym. The salvo. Yeah, it was. It was awesome. Like, my second show was like, it dies today in that gym.
Bo
So, yeah, what were some formative tours and shows. You guys saw that, so you can find an Earth Crisis CD all day.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
But we all know the live experiences where it's like, okay, this is I. My thing.
Chris
Yeah. After your Kadiria show and after that show, you're just talking about, like, when. What was the big tour that came through?
Bo
What made you go, okay, I'll go to another one?
Mike Ryan
We. Mine was the first one.
Paul
Yeah, mine was the first one. It was like, this is because there were shows at this place called Luna's Underground, which is just a bar that was, like, in a basement. And the room was probably as big as this, but there were, like, rafters you could, like, hang from and stuff.
Chris
So I'm 10, it's rowdy.
Paul
And I'm like, this is what I do. You could smoke inside and stuff. And I was just like, yo, that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. And then Candira show was like, that same month.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
So me and my brother and a couple people went to that, and I was like, well, this is. This is it. And pretty much from then in Glens Falls, they would do Sunday matinee shows. So any band, like, going through Albany would be like, oh, we'll go 45 minutes north and play there. So I saw, like, OG, like, embrace today. Unearth, like, skinless. And then skinless is, like, from where I'm from. So it's like.
Bo
So 45 minutes and it's still 518.
Paul
Oh, yeah, baby. It's. It's 518 up.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, the area codes are huge.
Chris
Yeah, that's big.
Paul
518 stretches from, like, south of Albany up to Canada.
Bo
Unity. It's really unifying a lot of zip codes. So, Paul, could you tell me where exactly is Viper City?
Paul
Exit 3, off the north way.
Bo
Okay, so the north way. Well, actually, yeah.
Paul
Okay, the bit is ruined with that, because 87 runs from New York City up to Albany, and it's a toll. Highway, freeway, whatever. When you hit Albany, 87 goes up to Canada, and it's. There's no tolls. It's not like a whatever. So they call that the north way. And there was no exit 3. For some reason, it went 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 to whatever. Damn. So when people would ask creepy. I would go. We would all say exit three off the north way. And then go, oh, sure. And we would get messages all the time, like, yo, I was in Albany. I found where, what, the north way is, and there's no exit three. We'd be like, that's crazy.
Chris
These fucking snakes.
Mike Ryan
Ninth green at nine. Trick.
Bo
Devast. Entertaining.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
This day breaks my heart. Heartbreaking. Paul, you've been a barber for some time, right?
Paul
Yeah.
Bo
That's awesome.
Paul
Like, 12 years.
Bo
Can you tell me about in barber school throwing a Yoo Hoo at a guy's head?
Mike Ryan
Damn, dude.
Chris
Right before he went to get you guys, he said, I don't have any Nard War.
Paul
Tristan probably told me that.
Bo
Who.
Paul
So barber school is kind of like county lockup. Um, it's at least in San Diego, because I went in San Diego and it was right next to Balboa park, where a lot of homeless people lived. But on people's lunches, they would go get drunk down the street.
Chris
Jesus.
Paul
So. And come back to barber school.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And we were chilling, and this dude who was in barber school was, like, at the time, 45 years old, 50 years old, something. And he was a student. And the long story is I unplugged his phone to plug my phone in my buddy's charger.
Mike Ryan
That is dirty, dude.
Chris
That's dirty. No, no, no.
Paul
It was. So it was my buddy's charger. Friend of this day, my buddy Chris. And I was like, hey, can I use your charger? He goes, yeah, I don't know whose phone is connected to it. He goes, but you can use it.
Bo
So he threw the first stone.
Chris
Oh.
Paul
So I said, this dude comes back drunk, and he's like, who unplugged my phone? I was like, oh, I did. And. And he's like. He's like, why? It's like my phone, whatever. He's yelling, and I'm like, well, it's Chris's charger or whatever.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And he said some shit. And I went to like, kind of stand up and he. You know, if you're like here and someone kind of taps you, I just went, all right. And I had just cracked a crispy can. It was a can.
Bo
Oh, bottle would have killed the man, Chris.
Paul
Oh, yeah, Glass bottle would kill. Yeah, crispy can. But it was open, so. And I. I was like, all right, do I smoke this dude or. So I. From like two feet away, just threw a full can of Yoohoo at his face. And it hit him in the face.
Bo
No, Tristan described. My source described it as insane. Accuracy.
Paul
Yeah. And I felt really bad because there was a guy getting his haircut like two feet down, and he got some Yoo Hoo on him. But then it. Dude, it was like, cuz. You know how it is.
Bo
Was it not a free cut to begin with?
Paul
No, it's five bucks.
Chris
No.
Bo
Yeah, but that's still bargain.
Paul
You know, like, we're used to the.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
You know, popping off barber school is not. But my buddy Chris is kind of like from the. From the. From the streets or whatever. So it was like me, Tristan, and Chris, like, ready to go. And everyone's like, yo, these guys are really chill up until right now.
Bo
And the guy robe just like. Yeah.
Paul
And then.
Bo
And you're never more vulnerable than when you got the motherfucking robe. What.
Chris
What color shirt was the guy who you got?
Paul
I actually remember baby blue.
Chris
Yeah, that's. That's gonna ruin.
Paul
He got suspended. We got sent home. Not me. Well, because. Whoa, they loved us. Yeah, they loved us in barber school. And he got sent home for a couple weeks, and then when he came back, he, like, me and Tristan and. And Chris, he came up to like, be like, hey, blah, blah. We just like, big dicked him. We're like, no.
Bo
Go get me.
Paul
Yeah, I should have put a you on it.
Bo
You should have. I love you, dude. It's a chocolate drink. What do they call it? Chocolate beverage.
Chris
It's water and chocolate. Yeah, I don't like it either. I got a. I got like a chunky one.
Bo
I'll drink it.
Chris
And that ruined it.
Bo
Now, Mike, I. I want you to know I got nothing for you.
Mike Ryan
That's okay.
Bo
And it shows what a mystery inside of an enigma you are.
Paul
Or.
Chris
Yeah, that's kind of just boring.
Paul
He's boring.
Bo
But I've heard you have kind of A crazy life. Could you tell me about it?
Mike Ryan
In what? I don't know.
Bo
That's all I know is somebody.
Chris
It's just us here, no one else.
Bo
Yeah. Nobody's watching this. It's just around the world.
Chris
Don't worry about it.
Bo
Somebody has said, you should talk to my man. His life's insane.
Paul
Well, why insane? Because he's so normal.
Mike Ryan
I think maybe you look super normal.
Bo
Take that hat off and show him how normal you are. Oh my God.
Chris
Wow, that's a beautiful hat.
Bo
He really is the missing link.
Paul
Put it back on.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, I'm going to put it back on. I don't know, I think Pete, like, I think maybe like I've definitely had some crazy events happen, but I think like, it's not like to me it's just been part of my life. So I don't really view it as if it happens to you. It's like, that was crazy.
Bo
Could you tell me about one? Oh, like I got statue.
Mike Ryan
That's not great.
Chris
In the face.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. Like you can't see it because the surgeon, I don't know what his name was. Shout out to that guy. I basically got stabbed like in the corner of my mouth. And it's like under. There's like a. You can probably see a scar inside.
Bo
Great work. Worse, you gotta get his name.
Mike Ryan
I know he was really mad at me because it was at like 3:30 in the morning. They'd like call him in.
Paul
Yeah, I remember that.
Mike Ryan
Traumatic.
Bo
He had to leave his palatial estate. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
He was on other hospital. He had to drive like a mile.
Chris
Dude.
Paul
I don't know mad who texted me about that. I was like, yo, Mike got stabbed in the face tonight. And I was like, is he alive? I was like, yeah.
Mike Ryan
I was like in the hospital.
Paul
It was like, yeah, he's good, but it's kind of gnarly. And I just went dope.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. It was not.
Bo
It's like just adds to the.
Mike Ryan
I'll show you. I'll show you a picture of the wound.
Bo
Here's.
Chris
Yeah, here it is.
Bo
Mike's stab face.
Mike Ryan
Yep.
Chris
What did that feel like?
Mike Ryan
To be honest, it didn't feel like anything.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And then I walked to my now wife. We weren't together at the time. I like turn around and she was standing there. It was basically like, do you want to ride to the hospital? And I just was like, no, I'm going to walk. I just like started walking like a. Cool. I know, yeah.
Bo
Meet cute.
Mike Ryan
No, before that. I hollered at her like, Hard.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
First time I ever met her. And I'm like, anyways, yeah, you'd think she sees me get stabbed and just, you know, whatever. But she, like, you know, she had my number.
Chris
She's a real one.
Mike Ryan
And I walked in, a buddy actually picked me up and brought me, like. He's like, you're not walking to do. Bleeding everywhere. And the hospital's like, half a mile away. So I get there, whatever. I'm sitting there. They bring me in the back, and they're like, don't open your mouth because it's holding on by, like, a thread.
Bo
Oh, yes, sir.
Chris
And he went.
Mike Ryan
I was like, all right. And then they. The guy brings me in and he's like, all right, I gotta look at it. I'm like, okay. And he's like, don't open your mouth unless, you know, whatever. And the first thing he does is tips my head back, opens my mouth and just takes two fingers and is like. And, like, it didn't split. But I was like, ah. And he just takes a needle and starts injecting me with.
Chris
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And so, like, actually getting stabbed was fine. The surgery sucked.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And then the next day was Thanksgiving, and my face from the surgery was, like, sweat. Like, I swollen shut. And I have to call my mom.
Bo
No fixings.
Mike Ryan
Well, actually, first I called my dad.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And they're. They're not together, but, like, they're cool.
Chris
Sure.
Mike Ryan
My dad's, like, kind of a street guy, so my. Hey, some crazy stuff happened last night. Whatever. He's like, what happened? I was like, oh, I got stabbed. He's like, you did?
Paul
Finally.
Mike Ryan
You know, I. Wait. I didn't tell my mom. I'm just not coming, you know, for Thanksgiving because they. I don't. They live in Auburn still. I live in Rochester. And, yeah. Healing was, like, brutal. Really bad.
Bo
How long?
Mike Ryan
Only a couple weeks. But, like, it was. It was. You have to, like, drink this nasty shit. And, like, they treat stab wounds, like, very serious.
Bo
Was the hardest part, emotionally missing Thanksgiving dinner.
Mike Ryan
It wasn't. I don't like Thanksgiving.
Chris
Hold on.
Mike Ryan
The.
Bo
You know, like, eating eight pounds at 3:00pm the interesting.
Mike Ryan
Not really interesting, but, like, I started getting, like, hit up by people that were like, yo, I heard you got stabbed. That's so hard. And I'm like, no, it's not. First of all, I lost, apparently.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I didn't know I was in the fight, but I lost. And it's not hard to, like, have someone do something. Like, it would have been hard if the guy stabbed me and then I like tombstone pile drop. So I just was like, we can fix.
Bo
Change the story. Okay.
Mike Ryan
I just like stuff like that has happened to me.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And not just specifically to me, but, like, to people that I grew up with. Like, crazy stuff. But when it's part of your life, I don't view it as crazy. I. I view it as tiring.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
That's how I. I'm like. I don't want to deal with.
Bo
So I'm gonna ask you something that maybe a lot of people in your life don't ask you. You okay?
Mike Ryan
I'm great.
Bo
Okay.
Mike Ryan
I'm awesome.
Bo
You let me know. I'll be right here.
Paul
Don't let it. Don't put him in the blender.
Bo
No.
Paul
On car.
Bo
Dude, I would never get tilted.
Paul
He'll fall apart. Okay, real quick.
Bo
You see?
Paul
He'll fall apart real quick.
Bo
It's your. Your call of duty squad is. Who has told me that your life is insane?
Chris
Oh, is it the. The gridiron dudes?
Bo
It's. It's some grid. Little.
Mike Ryan
Oh, Will.
Bo
Little Brody. You know, they've heard some things.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. But it. It's. I don't know. To me, it's just normal.
Chris
It's probably the same as, like, Brody telling stories that are just wrestling.
Mike Ryan
Sure.
Chris
And you're like, what. Like.
Mike Ryan
What do you mean?
Chris
You broke your jaw.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. I. I think that that's when it's part of your life. It just is what it is. And then the only thing that has really happened to me from that is, like, I just want to avoid that stuff.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So maybe I was just too stupid to avoid it.
Chris
Is it. Is. Is it silver lining that you met your now wife? You said.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Bo
So, like, you had your second meet.
Paul
Cute.
Chris
Yeah. But then your meat ugly did that brought you together.
Mike Ryan
Oh, like me getting stabbed? Is that what brought us together? No, I was, like, dating another girl, and I was like. Honestly, part of it was like, I can't take a ride from her because my now girlfriend already thinks that I like her, which did.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
Now you're married. So kid. And.
Mike Ryan
And, like, together for, like, eight years. So.
Bo
So the moral is get stabbed.
Paul
Here's the thing.
Bo
The first lady that sees you after.
Paul
The stab, you lost the fight, though.
Bo
You did.
Mike Ryan
I didn't. But you be honest. I made the golden rule mistake, which is don't try to help.
Paul
So, like, oh, yeah.
Mike Ryan
All these people are fighting, and I just, like, this guy's, like, gonna die.
Bo
Oh.
Mike Ryan
So I pick him up. I'm like, I got him. I pick him up and I, like, carry him over to this, like, little kind of like, alleyway park thing. And as I stand up from putting him down, his buddy, like, ran up behind, stab me from behind, which is cowardly back to back, though, didn't I?
Bo
Now you're talking.
Chris
So it was like, what I was gonna say. It was over, like, 10 years ago.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Chris
Way longer.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
Tell me about your first bands.
Chris
I was gonna. Yeah. When did music come around? Now, who's older, you or your brother?
Paul
My brother. He's a year older.
Chris
He's a year older. Was he already into music?
Paul
No. My two uncles on my mom's side, they played in, like, bar band their entire life. So it was like, he's got tattoos. He's the coolest guy ever. He plays guitar. And so my brother was like, I'm gonna play guitar, and I have to. I can't play guitar as well. So I was like, I'll play drums because my other uncle plays drums with the cursed role. And it was like. We went. I think I joined the school band for drums in fourth grade.
Bo
What did you do on drums in the school band? You hit the big symbol.
Paul
I played whatever. Oh, it was kind of fucked up. I think about this. Like, the way they would let you do percussion was you had to hit, like, the big bass drum.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And then useless. And you would. You would keep time. And then the band instructor would play, like, a little rudiment thing.
Bo
He would do the dope shit.
Paul
And if you could keep time, you were allowed to do percussion. And I was like, yo, what if I fucked up?
Bo
Yeah. And you almost have on and you don't even know.
Chris
Yeah, right.
Paul
And like. But really, it was like me and my. My brother was there for everything. Like, my. All of our. Like, his first show was my first show too. So it was like. It was that. And then it was like, well, these guys are in a band. We could do a band. So we started a band called. It was my brother's favorite band in Splink 182. And the singer of the band's favorite band was Nirvana. So it was, I think Blink. It was Narink.
Chris
Oh. Oh.
Mike Ryan
I've never even heard this one.
Paul
And that turned into bliss. Bliss. It was bliss for a while. And we. Dude, we played a. We played just straight up hardcore shows. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Mike Ryan
We were.
Paul
We were playing. We played our first show. I was out of sixth grade. We just played a show. That's cool.
Bo
That's. What's.
Chris
That's awesome.
Paul
Yeah.
Bo
Mike, what was your first band?
Mike Ryan
I did a bunch of like, kind of jamming with people that like. But never did anything. Never really like played.
Bo
You're always the front man.
Mike Ryan
No drummer.
Chris
Oh really?
Mike Ryan
But like, like horrible one.
Bo
Let me see a blast beat.
Mike Ryan
Can't do it, man.
Bo
It's a shame. That's pretty good. I believe you.
Chris
Yeah, Yeah. I believe. You know. Yeah. Right. But.
Mike Ryan
I.
Bo
You better fucking watch.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. I ended up joining a band that was already like going because our buddy in my hometown got into a motorcycle accident playing drums. Sacred Pledge.
Chris
Vegan.
Paul
Straight up.
Chris
Shit.
Bo
Xvx.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
To this day.
Mike Ryan
No.
Chris
That'S the one that matters.
Paul
When you weren't vegan anymore. He used to have a tattoo that said Vegan power. But he was respectful and he was like, well, I'm not vegan anymore. I gotta get it blacked out.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
But he for a while just had vegan blacked out. So it just said power. And I was like, not a great look.
Bo
A little sussy bud. You know. And that would be fine in a normal circle circumstances. But you look like you.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Paul
He didn't have long hair then.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And I was like, shave head and.
Bo
That hair looks like what? Can you remind me one more time? Absolutely gorgeous. And is. Is the next Home Alone shooting?
Mike Ryan
Yes. That'd be cool. Wouldn't it be awesome?
Bo
Young Marv.
Mike Ryan
But yeah, I did that. And it was honestly very short lived because the guys in the band just didn't get along and. And we did a couple tours, but it was. Did you point at me?
Chris
No, my bad. I interrupted you. I apologize.
Mike Ryan
No, you're good.
Chris
Why? Didn't you do any tours or anything?
Mike Ryan
No, we did some tours.
Chris
You did some beefs.
Mike Ryan
But we were young. I got along with everybody.
Bo
Right.
Mike Ryan
But Reggie, who you guys probably know Reggie McCafferty. Yeah.
Chris
Oh.
Mike Ryan
He played bass. So his first band.
Bo
Reggie xvx.
Mike Ryan
Yes.
Bo
Unbelievable. Reggie was in Backtrack and he was vegan.
Mike Ryan
If you're straight up with Reggie. And our singer Shane did not see eye to eye.
Chris
Gotcha.
Mike Ryan
Like literally at all. And they're. We were crazy kids.
Bo
Sure.
Mike Ryan
So like I dropped out of school to tour with Sacred Pledge, which is like hilarious.
Bo
Mom, Sacred Pledge is popping off. I can't do this anymore.
Mike Ryan
I was already like skipping school. Whatever. But I like, I literally remember the day that I left. I left it like a garbage bag full of clothes. Like, didn't even own a bag. And my mom was like, where are you going? I was like, I don't know. Yeah. Every day I would call her. She'd be like, I'll. I'll come pick you up, wherever you are.
Bo
That's a good one.
Chris
That's a good mom.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. Okay. I don't even know where I am. But it was, like, short runs. Like.
Bo
Sure.
Mike Ryan
A week or maybe two weeks. But it was fun. I loved it.
Chris
When did you two meet?
Mike Ryan
During, like, that time we play.
Paul
I. My old band played with Sacred Pledge. Yes.
Bo
Say it.
Paul
Recon. Yeah, we played with Sacred Pleasure.
Mike Ryan
Drum Fill.
Paul
Enter a few times. Played it tonight. And then we really met. I lived in Buffalo for a couple years.
Bo
You've been all over the place, man.
Paul
I know.
Mike Ryan
And I moved to Buffalo.
Paul
He lived in Buffalo. And then we ended up working at the most insane, scary nightclub ever.
Bo
Yeah, that was just.
Paul
I worked there for a while, and, like, the last month, I lived in Buffalo. We worked together there, and it was like. It was like fight school every day.
Chris
Yeah, exactly.
Paul
It was. It was like roadhouse, but with, like, gang members. It was crazy.
Mike Ryan
Pretty cool.
Paul
But. But then we. We connected because I was filling in. He was filling in for CDC on tour, and we did.
Bo
You did one of those.
Paul
We did a world of drums.
Bo
You served your time in cdc?
Chris
You played drums?
Mike Ryan
Loved. No, sang.
Chris
You sang.
Mike Ryan
So the first tour I ever did, CDC took Sacred Pledge out and.
Bo
And then Sacred Pledge became cdc.
Mike Ryan
Kaylin left the tour, like, unannounced, halfway through to go to Disney World with his mom. So John was like, yo, can somebody fill in? And I was like, I could rap. I could. I could fill in. And I did. And then years later, he literally just called me out of the blue. I hadn't talked to him in, like, two years or something. Like, we always stayed in contact. I was like, hey, we got to do this Europe tour. And whoever's, you know, not gonna do it. Do you want to do it? And all I wanted to do was go to Europe, of course. I was like a loser from upstate New York. Like, yeah, I wanna go to Europe. We did that.
Paul
Was it just us two?
Mike Ryan
Surge of Fury? Oh, that was a different tour.
Bo
Oh, yeah.
Paul
It was World of.
Mike Ryan
No, it was us three. They played some shows with us.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Awesome band, Surgery Fury.
Bo
I went back through your entire Instagram, just so you know, and the early posts. Are you talking about Sergeant Fury? Yeah, it's a. Some handsome selfies with no captions that are kind of pixelated and beautiful pictures of your dog.
Mike Ryan
Yes, my.
Bo
So that's cool.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, my old dog, Rip, still with us. I cure. So. So I did have this thing where I was just like, I have too many pictures on here. And some of them I'm like, yeah, in 2014, this was okay to post.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
But I don't want my, like, my friend, like, doing something weird on here or whatever. So I just deleted a lot of stuff.
Chris
Sure.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
No, that's good. You left some good stuff.
Mike Ryan
Some quality.
Bo
I liked what I saw.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Paul
I got nothing.
Bo
I found out you were in CDC from that, though.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, dude, I, like, I'm surprised you left that. That I left. I was just kidding, dude. I love.
Paul
We can't dog cdc.
Mike Ryan
No, I love John Bose. The. The core. Like, the real guys. Since I was a kid. Like, they took my band on tour. We were like 16.
Bo
John is one of the most supportive people I think, like, historically I've ever met.
Paul
He's not. He's a bully.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, he is a bully. Piece of sh.
Paul
I met John Bose when I was 12. He had an old band called Ellipsis and they came. This was the vibe of the town I grew up in. This band came called Ellipsis to play a matinee show and they're giving out burn CDs.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
So as 12, 13 years old, we were like, we're going to listen to this in the car and learn the words.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And like, surprise them. Whatever. Because. Because it was. Because they had this song that had this big sing along into some pit or whatever. And I remember John, we learned it and it was probably like 20 of us, like piling on. Sing to this band that's never played Glens Falls, New York, ever. I remember after the show, John was like, how the.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
Did you guys know? He was like, oh, we learned in the choreography.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
We all banded together.
Paul
Yeah. And he was like, oh. And I've been. He's been my dog.
Chris
That would make me love whoever.
Paul
And we've done. I mean, I played Recon cdc. Swear to God. Weekends were. And Pale Horse was like, John.
Bo
John Bose of CDC and Cold Cuts Merch, original drummer of Daylight, now known as Super Heaven, AKA Number One trending Song.
Mike Ryan
I love to tell people my friend was in that band. Like. Like. Because kind of normies come into my barbershop and they're like talking about, like, oh, you play in a band. Have you ever heard this band? And I'm like, I love Super Heaven.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And. And I'm like, you know my friend, no big deal. But I used to tour with the guy who played drums for them.
Chris
Did you do anything with CDC out Chicago Way I did.
Mike Ryan
I don't think I did. We did play a show together in Europe.
Chris
Really?
Mike Ryan
That was like the worst show. I think it was in Munich.
Chris
You don't say. Do you remember what year?
Mike Ryan
Dude, it was a long time ago.
Paul
You guys hate Europe.
Mike Ryan
But it was a weird, like corner stage. Really like six foot tall stage.
Chris
Munich.
Mike Ryan
In Munich, Yeah.
Chris
Did they play.
Mike Ryan
I don't know.
Chris
Yo.
Bo
No, they had the other guy with him because I remember he had a booger.
Mike Ryan
Travis Bennington.
Bo
No, no, I love Travis.
Chris
We love.
Bo
There's another guy.
Mike Ryan
There's a famous picture of him with a booger during seats.
Bo
There wasn't him. It was another guy. It was another guy saying, who had a booger? I just remember thinking like, I got to walk away this guy. And I'm not telling.
Chris
Do you remember we played Munich in the corner Stage and I. CDC did.
Bo
Play one of the shows, 2013 and the singer had a.
Mike Ryan
That would make sense.
Bo
Had a massive.
Mike Ryan
Couldn't have been me.
Bo
No, it was not you. I remember his face forever. Because of the book.
Chris
There was a. CDC played that heist of the. The videos I've sent you recently where like Chris is moshing and there's. My friends found me moshing to cdc so.
Paul
Have you ever talked about CDC this much on your head?
Mike Ryan
This is getting edited out.
Bo
Steven.
Chris
He's right there.
Bo
Tell me about World of Pain, Paul. I know all about it, but tell them about it.
Paul
World of Pain was banned from San Diego. I moved to San Diego in 2011, 2012. And their drummer Ryan, who now plays drums in Mongrel, is a brewer for beer or whatever and was like very popular.
Bo
Well, Noah was drummer first.
Paul
Well, Noah was the first drummer.
Bo
Connor.
Paul
Connor, the singer for Mongrel. He exited the band. Noah being Noah, wanted to sing for the band. So he started doing that. And I love Noah, but I also don't. And. And so they had a couple different drummers, I think. And then Ryan played drums for them and then he just like couldn't. He's got kids and stuff.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
And then I moved to San Diego and I helped them write a song and they were like, you play drums how we want the drummer to play and so you just do it. So then I recorded with Taylor.
Bo
Was that the lp?
Paul
No, that was before that. The episode. Improvise. Okay, improvise. And then. Yeah, and then I just did the band from then on.
Bo
That's how I did everything.
Paul
Yeah, it was fun. I was like at Taylor's. I don't remember. I don't recall the story he was telling about some upstate band. And I was like, you're telling it wrong. That's not how that happened. That's awesome. And he was like, not in a way, like, no, shade. I was like. I was like, no. I was like, actually, it was this. And then this happened. And this happened. He's like, really? I was like, well, I was there, so that's exactly how it happened. And he's like, oh, okay, cool. He's like, where are you from? And I was like, upstate New York. And he's just like, really?
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
I'm from, like, a little bit from Viper City. From Viper City. The thing is, my dad was a professor at RPI in Troy, so me and my brother went to shows in Troy. From babyhood to.
Bo
That's something that you and I have bonded over, I feel like.
Paul
I mean, come on.
Bo
In these many years, you want to.
Chris
Talk about how you and I met.
Paul
In San Diego, you almost caught it bad. I was. I was upset.
Chris
You have a right to be upset.
Paul
I was. I don't buy.
Chris
It's just so unlike before we get into it. The funny thing about it is our listeners know that this is like a pattern.
Bo
This.
Chris
Apparently, I have very bad first impressions. I'm aware of it.
Mike Ryan
Also, this story has been told on the podcast before because I heard it from, but not.
Bo
I want to hear from the horses from.
Paul
This is exactly what happened. I don't know. I think it was. Were you on tour down. Nothing.
Chris
No, it was a life and death tour.
Paul
That's what it was.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
The tour was sold out. It was in Chula Vista.
Chris
Yeah. Weird venue.
Paul
Weird venue. I'd never been there, so I didn't.
Bo
Wide one.
Paul
I. It was the only show I ever went to there.
Chris
Same.
Paul
So I didn't know the staff. I didn't know who booked it. And it was like, if it was a normal show, I could have just gone and figured it out. Figured it out. But I hit my brother up and I was like, hey, do you work with any of these bands? The show sold out. I don't want to bug anybody. Can you just do your thing? And he was like, yeah, sure. I work with Beau. He's cool. This, that, and the third.
Bo
So you get a. You get a text from Tim, probably an email, and you're immediately like, I gotta put this on. It's Tim.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
Mind you, this has happened before. Not with you, but with other people where they have gotten me into a show. And I always try and be as polite as I can. And say thank you for getting me in. I don't want to bug you. Move on.
Bo
You're a great guy.
Paul
And. And I get to the show.
Chris
Do not be over.
Bo
It sounds like you were doing a really nice thing.
Paul
And I'm like, like, who's about to play? And they're like, harm's Way is setting up right now. I was like, oh, Bet I kind of knew what you looked like. Well, I wasn't sure. So I was like, you were.
Chris
But it was either me or Jay, right?
Paul
So it was like you four feet in front of me.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And I was just like, hey, are you Bo? And you're like, yeah. And I go, hey, I'm Tim Dove's brother. You got me in the show. Thank you. And you go, okay. Literal guitar on. And you go, okay. And I just went, all right. At the time.
Chris
At the time.
Paul
Listen. At the time, I'm full psychopath. And so, like, just in my life.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
Like. And I'm literally. When I go, okay. And I walked outside and I text my brother and I go, how bad is this gonna look? And he goes, please, no. I go, I don't know. Someone else was with me who's, like, core adjacent, but also kind of not at all was like, what are we doing? And I'm like, nothing.
Bo
I feel like. I feel like there had to have been a miscommunication.
Chris
They're probably 2004.
Paul
I don't know.
Chris
14 or 16 is one of the two.
Paul
There probably was a miscommunication. He was probably like, okay.
Mike Ryan
And I was anything.
Chris
I, I.
Bo
Or he had earplugs in.
Paul
No, he didn't.
Mike Ryan
Or. Or Paul inspected his ears out.
Chris
Or there was a. Something going on with my band that was a really rough tour where a van died. It didn't die yet, I don't think.
Mike Ryan
But that was a very tumultuous.
Chris
Regardless. Bigger man. Bigger man.
Paul
About a year, I was. I was like, I'm going to fucking smoke this, dude.
Chris
Oh, man, I'm so glad you.
Mike Ryan
And.
Paul
And then I was like, I gotta grow up. That's fine.
Bo
I just think if you'd have asked anyone, they would have been like, I did.
Paul
Listen. Because my.
Bo
Oh, no.
Paul
Good. Good friend John Hollier Legend is very good friends with James.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
And I. And I. And I remember being like, john, what's up with Beau?
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And he was always like, yeah, he's cool. Fine. He's like. He'll be like, I don't really know him super well, but he's Cool. You know, he's always been nice. And I'm like, all right. So then we saw you. Me and John saw you at the casino.
Chris
And where were we?
Paul
In Tampa.
Chris
Two years ago. Two years ago. And that's.
Paul
And.
Chris
And he told me the story, and I was like, nah, that wasn't me.
Paul
And I was like.
Chris
I was straight up. Like, there's no way that was me.
Mike Ryan
I feel like I. I thought this story happened in, like, 2008.
Bo
I know.
Mike Ryan
Like, it feels ancient. I mean, I guess that is 10 years ago.
Chris
Yes, it's a while ago.
Bo
I saw a tweet the other day that just said. Just saw a YouTube video that said. Posted five years ago. That was 2020 and not 2015.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
And that's a disgusting perspective.
Chris
Oh.
Bo
So a couple years later, Missing Link is born. Let's get into it. Finally, two days later, Missing Link. Unbelievable. Band came out of nowhere. Tell me about the creation, the dawn of Missing Link.
Paul
Covid.
Bo
Yeah.
Chris
Oh, cool.
Paul
Our good friend Victor, he start. He. He organized everybody. He sent me some songs, and he said, I recorded this. Let's do it. And I was like, who's gonna be in the band? And he was like, what do you mean? He was like, me, you, Evan, from Separated. Because World of Pain had done a bunch of stuff with Separated and let's get or no. He's like, well, us three, off the rip. And I was like, okay. And then I texted Evan. I was like, can you kind of rework these songs so we could put it out or something? And he's like, yeah, sure. It's like, okay. And then it was, who's gonna sing? And I was like, I toured with Mike Ryan one time, and he's my dog, so we should have him do it. And he was like, okay. And then we're like, we need bass.
Bo
This was a. Paul. Paul. You threw Mike's name in the hat.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I mean, he also convinced me to go to barbering school on that Europe tour.
Paul
Listen to us.
Chris
He's.
Paul
Don't listen to anything. I'm a nice person.
Bo
Sounds like he's a nice guy.
Chris
Sounds like he's a pretty good guy. Asshole.
Paul
When it comes to me telling you how it is, I will, but I'll do anything for anybody. Sure. Not anybody. My friends.
Bo
Right.
Mike Ryan
He even didn't beat up Bo.
Paul
Dude, I was so mad.
Chris
But you had a right to be mad. I would have been mad too.
Paul
No, not really. It wasn't the apping video. I was just really mad bad.
Mike Ryan
So basically it was us and then Nick.
Paul
Nick Killer from Pain of Truth.
Bo
Right.
Mike Ryan
Which, like, at the same time, we're like, record. They're recording their EP and we're just recording, like, a demo.
Paul
Yeah, yeah.
Mike Ryan
Lumpy takes the Pain of Truth. Whatever. We didn't even try to shop the demo. I think we just put it out. Literally. Worst luck ever.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
July 3rd. God's hate release day, wasn't it? God's Hate put out a song or something, maybe like a record that.
Bo
It was April 2021, I think.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
That's March 2021.
Paul
What? I don't remember.
Bo
The same day.
Mike Ryan
I don't remember why.
Paul
Got released, like, the same day.
Mike Ryan
Something. Something we did, you know, was like. I was like, how the does it happen on the same day the whole year? Like now it wasn't me. And now not even, like, a band that's popular. This. It's like the biggest band at the time.
Bo
Okay. Did something. It wasn't me.
Mike Ryan
What do you mean?
Bo
It wasn't me.
Mike Ryan
Okay, July 3rd. Whatever.
Bo
I've never done nothing on July 3rd.
Mike Ryan
Whatever.
Bo
Save it all for the four.
Paul
It's my mom's birthday.
Bo
Is it? Oh, I've only celebrated Paul's mom's birthday. I didn't do nothing.
Mike Ryan
But basically it was just like. Oh. And actually, the demo still did fine.
Paul
But. Yeah. When we put it out, I don't recall what got put up. We got smoked by it.
Mike Ryan
I could swear it was something from God's Hate. I'm like, I'm a fan.
Bo
2021.
Mike Ryan
Was that the year of co. I don't know.
Bo
No, that was 2020. 2021. Our record came out in March. Rape. I don't got nothing in July.
Mike Ryan
I don't know, dude. Look, it wasn't me. I don't know.
Paul
We're blaming. God's Hate.
Mike Ryan
We're blaming.
Bo
So I did it. It was up there.
Mike Ryan
It was brilliant.
Paul
No, it was. So we put that out. We didn't play any shows because we couldn't. And what was it?
Mike Ryan
Oh, our first show was a benefit.
Paul
Was a benefit. Our buddy's wife passed away, and we played a benefit show in Rochester. And then Detroit with Shattered Road was our second show.
Mike Ryan
Somebody just brought us out.
Chris
That's awesome.
Mike Ryan
And Joe was like. Came up to me afterwards, like, yo, you guys blew me away. I want to bring you to Philly.
Bo
Nice.
Mike Ryan
And I was like, well, don't show.
Paul
Yeah, cool.
Mike Ryan
You know, it's awesome.
Bo
That's great.
Mike Ryan
And he did. I kind of didn't think he was gonna.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
He kind of just was like, why would he pick us? Why?
Bo
You know, like, because you're really good at the time. Oh, yeah, that was good. Well, that was good.
Paul
You don't gotta lie.
Bo
I'm not lying.
Mike Ryan
I don't believe that was good. I like a track, but I don't.
Paul
Like it from the start to the finish.
Chris
Really.
Bo
I like.
Paul
Okay, so I don't like anything I've ever recorded as a band, with the exception of our record that we put out that's beautiful. Like, I can't. Any recon stuff. Actually, we have some pre Pro stuff we've never put out that I like and I like that. But Any World of Pain stuff can't listen to.
Bo
Is that out of. Because of your personal performance.
Paul
Everything about it, sonically, and song structure and everything.
Mike Ryan
It's like, I just don't even like this bass.
Paul
I don't.
Bo
I just hate it.
Mike Ryan
I will say, when we recorded the lp, at the end, Paul was like, guys, I just did the first record I've ever liked. Like, I like, like this record. I'm proud of.
Paul
I'll put it on.
Bo
You should know. You should be. I put it on all the time. It's really good. You did a really good job.
Paul
Thanks.
Bo
Open it. Yeah. Let's talk about the record. Let's get into it.
Chris
Recorded in February or January.
Mike Ryan
February. End of January, first week of February.
Paul
At Bricktop with Sandy.
Chris
Yeah, the man. How did you find that experience?
Paul
Amazing. Yeah, he's.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Paul
So we. We. Evan wrote 95% of the record. Sick Killa is in the biggest hardcore band in the world right now. So he. He wrote New York Minute. So actually he. He. Me and him wrote New York Minute and it was very different. And then he tried to steal it for the Painted Truth record and was like, it's too heavy, so we're not gonna use it. And I was like, brother, that's a good song. We need this. We're writing a record right now, so. So we got it. But he wrote that. I think Chris has a couple riffs on the record, but Evan pretty much wrote everything. Programmed the drums so I could, like.
Bo
Get one of those.
Paul
He's a wizard.
Mike Ryan
He's amazing.
Bo
Does he ever program something that pisses you off?
Paul
Always.
Bo
Okay.
Chris
Is he. Is he a drummer?
Mike Ryan
A drummer wouldn't play.
Paul
No, he doesn't.
Chris
He's a guitar player.
Paul
We were just talking about that snare kick Tom at the same time.
Mike Ryan
Awesome. Yeah, if you could pull it off, that'd be pretty cool.
Paul
But, yeah, he basically we went back and forth a lot, just him sending it, being like, what if you did this? And same with Mike. And I think I went to Long island one time to run through some, and then we went to the studio and then he's like, you've recorded with Andy?
Chris
Yeah, many times.
Paul
Was like, hey, you want to get some breakfast? And kind of like, just chop it up a little bit. And we're like, yeah. So we sit down. I ordered my mozzarella sticks at 7:30 in the morning.
Mike Ryan
Normal.
Chris
And did he take you to White.
Paul
Palace, the place right around the corner?
Chris
Yeah, White Palace.
Mike Ryan
We were there.
Chris
Triple D went there.
Bo
Oh, what did he get?
Chris
Couldn't tell you.
Paul
We went there every day.
Chris
But it's open 24 hours and was through Covid.
Paul
So Andy was like. He's like, so how you. He goes, how you feeling about the record? And I mean, you guys have talked to me before. I go, I've never played the songs. And he goes, huh? And I go, no, seriously. I was like, I've never played all of this. I was like, I played four of them. And he was like, really? And I was like, yeah. And he was like. He. His face was scared.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
It was like, how are we gonna get this done?
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And then I tracked all the drums in a day.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I went somewhere. I was like, I gotta go to the gym. I'm, like, stressed out because we had never done any of this stuff. I'm writing everything. And then like, songs are. I'm not kidding. They didn't send me new demo versions of songs that are now different. So I can't record because I don't know what the I'm doing.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
And you don't need singer nitpicking drums. You know, on recording day, I would do that.
Mike Ryan
I. I wouldn't.
Paul
No, it wasn't that. It was like, hey, remember how you wrote lyrics for this song that's like two minutes long? We added 35 seconds to this.
Mike Ryan
I'm. I feel like I'm pretty wordy.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And it's in, like, in my mind. The song has to make sense.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So like, oh, you can't just delete 30 seconds. Dude. What do I do now?
Paul
Yeah.
Bo
Stories change.
Mike Ryan
So every day. Literally. So every day. I was like, going to the gym. Quads. Oh, amazing. Gym.
Chris
Damn. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Chugging a Gorilla Mind energy drink, kind of lifting. But mostly writing to like, I was done now.
Bo
Sure.
Mike Ryan
You know, and then go, I think I got two songs done, you know? And then like. So I'm like, I Had a ton of stuff written, but piecing stuff together and, like, to the new versions of songs that I've, like, literally never heard.
Bo
Right.
Chris
Did you do vocals in the little guitar sliding gas glass room or in the big room? Big room, yeah. I love that studio.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. It was. He.
Paul
He. I didn't understand. I didn't know he played a nachos.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And I love that band. And, like, I. I kept hearing all of these recordings coming out of the studio, and I'm like, one. Why does all the heavy parts sound to whatever band sound insane? The drum production is so cool. Like, this is sick. And then I was like, oh, he plays guitar and we get nachos. And I was like, oh, he gets heavy music. Okay. And then his, like, repertoire of who he's recorded is insane.
Mike Ryan
I sat down with him, like, the first day after they tracked drums, and he was, like, talking about some band, and I was like, oh, have you ever heard this band? He's like, oh, I recorded that record. And that happened like 50. Like.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
There's a band from Chicago called Lord Mantis that I love.
Chris
We love Lord Mantis.
Bo
We asked him to do the disharmon tour. We couldn't afford.
Chris
Yeah. Yeah, we. We.
Mike Ryan
That is the level of like.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Now you see where I'm coming from. That I.
Bo
With that's.
Chris
And the record he did Rock.
Bo
Dude.
Mike Ryan
Dude.
Bo
Did he do Death Mask? He did.
Mike Ryan
He did the one after.
Chris
After.
Bo
But to Death Mask part is one of the hardest parts.
Paul
He turned me on to Lord man years ago, and I was like, I.
Mike Ryan
Have to, like, I'll be driving, like, six hours, and I'm like, scrolling through what those to it. I'm like, we're not going here tonight. This is going to get way too dark.
Bo
That's not a band I talk about because I plan on stealing that part someday. I don't want.
Paul
We've already stole it, dude.
Chris
They practice in our practice space. They're in the same building. The first.
Paul
Never just sit outside and you're like, no, dude, they're.
Chris
That's. The other thing is they're just like phantoms. They're rare. I've barely seen.
Bo
Same guy, Same.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, dude.
Bo
That guy's a sick, controversial guy. I don't know anything about him. I just want sounds up.
Chris
Harm's Way has done six records with Andy or six recordings.
Paul
I'm jealous.
Chris
Like, all the. All the. The earlier ones. Did he ever take you to Jim's Original Pork chop Sandwiches?
Mike Ryan
He wanted to, I think, but there.
Paul
Was like, we we broke his, like, his cardinal rule of don't play a show. Oh.
Mike Ryan
That weekend.
Paul
And we played two in one day, so really on Saturday.
Mike Ryan
But we were done.
Paul
But we were done, so.
Mike Ryan
But we didn't know we were. We. We fucked up and. So sorry, Andy. We thought we were supposed to be done completely by Saturday, but Andy, we just fucked the dates up. And it was actually like, the end of Sunday, so we booked this show in Chicago and it sold out in, like, an hour in this really tiny room. Then I just like, let's do another bigger one same night. So, like, you think he's like, yeah. And then that one sold out. So it was awesome.
Chris
Fuck, yeah.
Mike Ryan
And he. You know, he's like, you know, he wasn't mad at us. He was like, you know, it's like, but I need you guys to come.
Paul
He was mad until the drums were done, when he. When he got well, because Evan used to own a studio in Long. On Long Island.
Chris
Very good.
Bo
Well done.
Paul
He used to, honestly. So he is a recording pro. And it was just me, Evan and Mike until the first three days, Thursday. So it was like, when the drums were done and Evan was just like a take machine. I think Andy was like, it's cool, you guys.
Chris
Yeah. Yeah, cool.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, it was. It was. We were ahead of schedule, I think even me, like, I was really worried my voice wasn't going to hold up. And, you know, it. It was like. I think I did three songs the first day, and then from there was like two or three every day.
Paul
The way he splits it up is cool.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, he. He did it like, I was really out because I feel like I've done demos before where I was like, my voice just blown in, like, 10 seconds.
Chris
Sure.
Mike Ryan
But recording with him is such a. Everything was right. And I kind of made sure I did everything that I could to, you know.
Bo
And how hands on was he with the record? Because you said it was very thoroughly demoed. You had played the songs once as far as, like, nuns for some of them. Yeah. In terms of, like, song structures or how they turned out, really.
Mike Ryan
Song structure, like, almost at all. I. There was a couple things that I came in. I was like, yo, guys, we're playing this for, like, two minutes. Like, no. And he. And he could literally sit there and in, like, one second, like, I deleted the whole thing. I'm like, what? I thought we had to retrack everything. Nope.
Chris
You recorded to a click.
Paul
No, really.
Bo
I asked him.
Paul
So that's.
Chris
But to be able to delete something so clean Is great.
Paul
I asked him and I said, hey, I'll record to a click or I won't record real click. I prefer without because I think it sucks the vibe out of it.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And he was like, we can do whatever. And I go, cool. No click. But then we Re recorded 2 cent, which was recorded to a click. And we reused Brody's guest spot from the old one.
Bo
Do you have to morph it a little?
Mike Ryan
No, no, it's perfect.
Paul
I asked Andy and I go, hey, did you have to massage that in? He goes, not at all. And I was like, I'm the man, dude.
Bo
Like Metro.
Mike Ryan
I sent. You know, I texted Brody and I'm like, hey, would you be down to this? He's like, of course. But I'm this busy, you know. We're like really trying to get the record out. And I said, well, hey, we have this still. Like, we found the stems. I think Taylor had the stems and.
Paul
No. Yeah, no, cuz he. Taylor didn't record him.
Mike Ryan
Didn't he mix it?
Paul
No, he did mix it. The studio in Georgia or something. Detroit, where he recorded it. Some random studio I found on the Internet. He was like, I have time before my whatever. He's like, I'll go do it.
Bo
That's awesome.
Chris
Before the death.
Mike Ryan
And he was like, I will re record it. And I was like, well, we have this. Let's just see what it sounds like. He's like, I think I'm gonna prefer to re record it, but whatever. And then I sent it to him. He's like, oh, it's perfect.
Chris
Never mind Andy. Which I don't think he'll mind me sharing this. Now quit smoking Clean turkey. Which is crazy because he's like cold turkey. Because he's clean now. Cold turkey.
Paul
I like clean turkey a little better during.
Chris
During recording. It would be like a couple tracks. Chimney inside a couple tracks.
Paul
He was on the Jewel, but he quit. He quit the Jewel too.
Chris
He quit everything. It's really impressive. I'm very proud.
Bo
Good for you, Andy.
Chris
Very proud.
Mike Ryan
He's the coolest guy any band that's.
Paul
Like, we're going to record at Bricktop. I'm like, I'm so jealous, dude. I'm like, I just want to go. I want to go hang out in the loft.
Bo
I don't think I've ever met him.
Chris
Really?
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
He.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Nicest guy ever.
Bo
Beautiful. So the recording experience was great. Watch Me Bleed is the album of the year on the most prestigious award show. We did it online.
Chris
Tell.
Bo
What else can you tell me about putting the record together. What else can you tell me about the tours that Missing Link has done since the record has been out?
Mike Ryan
We did.
Paul
We did one tour ever nice in Europe.
Chris
Hell yeah.
Bo
Was that the Triple Beach Super Tour.
Mike Ryan
Gridiron US Never ending game Scarab Magnitude. Best tour ever Big.
Chris
That was the summer.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, this summer. Right. So our. We were really trying to rush to get the record out so we could. When we toured it was in support of it.
Chris
Right.
Mike Ryan
And it worked because we. We put it out like a month to the day before we left I.
Chris
Think and we played Eeper together. But I was.
Mike Ryan
But you were not there.
Chris
I was with you.
Bo
He was in there.
Mike Ryan
And it was cool because we. We. The first day of tour was Outbreak or the second. Second day of tour was Outbreak Fest and our set was in like people sent like Missing Link was not a sing along band really at all prior to. Yeah this record. Like you know you'd get a couple kids. But it's like for me that's what I always want the most of like of course Moshing school. But it's like I like the pylons lyric, man. A. Yeah. Especially for like a heavy band because that's kind of rare.
Bo
Yeah. No, 100%.
Mike Ryan
And so it's like to me that's cool because I'm like, oh, people get both halves.
Paul
I mean also too it's. There's a. That tour was cool because we've all done a million tours and there's always like, oh man, like this dude's acting kind of funny today. Like he's in a bad mood or whatever. Everyone on that tour vibes were awesome. Skyrocketing every single day.
Mike Ryan
Like everyone.
Paul
Which was amazing.
Mike Ryan
And you. And you guys hate touring Europe.
Bo
Well, I've never done it in a certain.
Chris
And you guys did it on a bus, right?
Mike Ryan
We did it on a bus.
Bo
Which makes a lot of experience I've never had.
Mike Ryan
Shows were great and everybody was like. It was a lot of the guys first time in Europe so. So the energy and they were super. Everybody was just grateful to be there. Even like that was my third time in Europe and I was like, this is so cool.
Bo
I think I would feel that way if I went.
Paul
I went full. I've gone. I don't want to say full circle but like I've been there a bunch and now at my old age. I will not say how old I am. I'm like there and I'm like, we're in. We're Luzern Switzerland right now.
Bo
I did not appreciate it when I was.
Paul
And that was the thing. When I was, was 18, 19 going there I was like, man, it's crazy. I'm here, let me see if I could steal from this place. And like that was like the highlight.
Chris
I got email my girlfriend.
Bo
Where's the email?
Mike Ryan
We just had a group of guys that were committed to doing fun outside of the show too. So it's like wake up in the morning, hop on a scooter, go get a good coffee and that's the best. And it's like when you're committed to the adventure. Yeah, it's way more fun.
Chris
We're going back in a couple of months with Knock Loose or Dear Friends on a Bus. So I'm looking very much like awesome. That's going to be.
Mike Ryan
Cuz it's like dude, you wake up to like it's 8:00am you're wherever. Yeah, you got by four or five.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So you can go have fun.
Chris
Got the whole day.
Mike Ryan
And then. And also being an adult and you have money like where you can like.
Bo
Go like I had negative 43.
Mike Ryan
We also mean if you go as, as like an adult, where you go, I don't care about spending 100 bucks today to do whatever I want.
Bo
Yeah, I have positive 43.
Paul
This was the, this was the vibe of the tour. We would wake up in the morning, go do fun shit all day, play a show.
Bo
Do you have a favorite fun thing you did?
Chris
I mean scooters are unbelievable.
Mike Ryan
Swimming in that river.
Paul
Swimming in Luzern Switzerland with the mountains, snow covered mountains. What was like nice and hot and it was like a good cool off. I was like.
Mike Ryan
Carl just shirtless. We get to taking it in.
Paul
We would like get to the show and everyone would be like, I don't care if the show sucks.
Chris
Yeah, totally.
Paul
And then the show would be badass and we'd be like man. And then we'd get back on the bus and sing karaoke in the thing until like three in the morning and.
Mike Ryan
Be like, like screen everyone. Every seat taken. Oh, blaring Phosphate Creed going in. And the bus driver just hating him. But he was cool. Hungarian German.
Bo
That's C German.
Paul
I forgot his name. We all called him Peepee man because on the first Triple B bus tour I was also on that for a bit. He was not very cool. I think he just hated Michael from. From Pain Truth. I think because Mike gets on his little demon time, you know and I think he just hated him and just.
Mike Ryan
Like he was great with us.
Bo
He was.
Paul
And he was pretty Cool.
Mike Ryan
He's very German. Yeah, like blunt.
Paul
We just. I don't know. His name is Pierre. Oh, Pierre. But Pierce, shout out Pierre. You're never gonna see this. But yeah, he's like.
Mike Ryan
I heard they call me.
Paul
He knows we will call him PP man. To his face.
Mike Ryan
He'd be like, who be like, that.
Chris
Is those peepee man.
Paul
But that was.
Mike Ryan
That's the only tour we did that. And then we've done weekends. Like that's kind of our thing is fly.
Bo
Making it.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Doing stuff.
Paul
I can do whatever.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Chris
But everybody got jobs.
Paul
I own a barber shop. He owns a barber shop. But he has a child.
Mike Ryan
I got a five year old.
Chris
I'll do it.
Mike Ryan
Hi.
Bo
Owen. Oh, Owen.
Paul
Good name.
Bo
Look at your dad's hair. It's unbelievable.
Mike Ryan
Pinos, it looks like.
Paul
Basically depending Domesticated.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Paul
Chris.
Mike Ryan
Everyone's busy.
Paul
Manages amh. Internal bleeding. Yeah, precisely.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
And yeah.
Mike Ryan
So everyone's doing. So we make it work.
Bo
Yeah. What a band.
Paul
And we got some stuff coming up this summer. Yeah, got some stuff coming up this fall.
Chris
Talk to me about the greatest collaboration track in possibly ever.
Bo
Numbers on the board.
Chris
The gridiron. The grid link Collaboration.
Paul
Okay, you guys, I'm not a big video game guy, but I did have Mega Man X.
Mike Ryan
We literally play video games together. By the way.
Chris
I play Call of Duty.
Paul
I play Call of Duty. I don't play any. I'm not interested in any other video.
Bo
Games you should try.
Mike Ryan
Okay. Dude, that's like, you know that's catchphrases on Call of Duty.
Bo
That's you getting killed.
Mike Ryan
Okay.
Chris
Okay.
Paul
Dude, my. My Call of Duty career is. I'm either getting like 8, 9 kills having a pretty good game, or 0.
Mike Ryan
0 kills, 0 damage. How did that happen?
Bo
I'm with you.
Paul
That has never happened.
Bo
You're worth.
Mike Ryan
All right, so. So back to the tr.
Paul
So you played Mega Man X.
Bo
Sure.
Paul
For Super Nintendo.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
Okay. That was one game we, me and my brother had when we were kids.
Mike Ryan
And I have no idea how this ties in.
Bo
Listen, I'm interested.
Paul
So in that game, you would beat like a boss and then it'd be like, surprise, there's another boss. So Evan wrote this song that just had like four different changes. And I was like, it's like, you think the song is done the June. And then the next boss comes out is like, surprise. So I go, that's the vibe of the song. And then it was like, instead of having one guest spot, let's have. I mean, Molly has a great voice. Lennon wouldn't be on it because he's a hater.
Bo
Everyone has six voices of singer.
Paul
Right.
Mike Ryan
Who has awesome.
Bo
Yes.
Paul
But he refused to do it because he's a jerk.
Mike Ryan
Unreal.
Paul
And I was like, let's have the whole band on it and not just one. Not just Matt.
Bo
It's genius.
Mike Ryan
And it's like. It's kind of funny because I think it might be our longest song. It feels pretty long.
Bo
It goes pit to pit to pit to pit.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Well, it's got four verses. That's, like, insane.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
That's like. That's rap.
Bo
You don't need three.
Chris
Yeah, right.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, right. But we need them all. We. There's a couple tracks on the record where I was like, I don't really need, like. Not every song needs to be sure. There can just be, like, sometimes that.
Bo
Third verse to help you. Like, Like. And here's why I said all that.
Mike Ryan
A lot of the tracks that I write are, like, deep in some way.
Chris
Sure.
Mike Ryan
Even if they're whatever. You know, Whatever. So this one, like, like, glory or Death. I was like, I just want to write a song where I go back and forth with Chris. That one was no lyrics written by, like, they gave me the song. I wrote it.
Paul
Side note, sorry to cut you off. Chris McCarthy, vocally, one take.
Mike Ryan
Everything.
Paul
Everything is one take.
Mike Ryan
Not like one take a line. Whole song.
Paul
Whoa.
Mike Ryan
Whole song.
Paul
He's an warrior.
Mike Ryan
Death. Whole song. Front to back, outstand.
Paul
He gets to.
Mike Ryan
He just goes, I got this.
Paul
He gets to the end of the song. Me and Andy are just looking at each other, and we're like, that was it.
Mike Ryan
And then. And then we go. And he plays it back, and it's perfect.
Bo
Back to you. How do I do, guys?
Mike Ryan
So, yeah. He's like, no. He goes, yeah.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So we.
Bo
That's awesome.
Mike Ryan
So I'm like, all right. We want to write this song. And, like, everybody in Gridiron agrees to do it, which is besides Lennon.
Bo
Except for Lennon.
Mike Ryan
So, yeah, we're, like, ready? I'm like. I just kind of want it to be like a. A rap song, but a hard rap song.
Bo
Sure.
Mike Ryan
And it works. Yeah. My part is not exactly, like, rapping. I feel like I rap more on other songs really, than that one, even if there's, like, a rap cadence. But then when Carl sent his stuff over, and it's like, two. Just rap. I was like, there's four verses. Like, there's so many lyrics in that song and that song. It's actually insane. But it all seems to work.
Bo
Does it Suck when you have to do it. No.
Mike Ryan
Nobody lyrics a little bit.
Chris
Oh, that's cool.
Bo
So you know, cuz that's his story, you know, that's car. You're not.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, most of it is the same, but it's like. I'm not gonna say I'm from Bowyertown.
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bo
You can't do that.
Chris
When. Very rarely will I listen to a record, particularly a heavy record, and rewind to hear what they said. And when you sent it to me, it was like, it's a good sign. I didn't even know. Like, I just kept doing it.
Paul
Matt said until like maybe a month ago. I was like, what did he say? And he's listing off like a gun.
Mike Ryan
We had an idea. We were going to do a shirt because we wanted to do a gridlink collab shirt. And he was like, we could do Ruger and Taurus and Clock and Smith and Sick grid link. Like you know the. And shirts. And we're like, it'd be hilarious. But none will sell.
Bo
That to the worst ten guys.
Chris
Me, Alec.
Bo
That's awesome.
Mike Ryan
But yeah, I mean it was just, it was honestly just a song.
Paul
What was the last one? One to put his little spice on it. And he can hear his from a.
Bo
Mile away all day I had.
Paul
He was like, you really want me on this? I was like. I sent him a voicemail. I was like, I need you on this song. And he was like, all right.
Mike Ryan
His voice makes songs.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Like it's such a good touch. And like if you listen close, there's an ad lib where he goes, all right. Like in the background. That's like now when you hear it, you're never gonna be like, I have a sound code of it on Discord. So I could just spam it.
Bo
All right.
Mike Ryan
Like it's so good.
Bo
Beautiful. Well, that's. Watch me bleed. It's an incredible record. Album of the year. Most prestigious award in history. Paul's mom, July 4th. He did it. Pardon this interruption, please. But trust me, it's so important because your life is falling apart, your body's falling apart, and AG1 is the only thing that can help you at this point.
Chris
Do you just come up with that, like off the top of your head?
Bo
Yeah. If I. If I stop now, it's going to leave forever.
Paul
So go for it.
Bo
You know what else will leave forever is your health if you don't take care of your body. But why don't you start every morning with a scoop of this nice little green powder? 16 ounces 12 even 12 is fine. Cold water. You shake it up, you suck it down. You know you're going to have a better day. You're going to may feel more energized than if you had a cup of coffee.
Chris
Let me ask you, can you do that on an empty stomach? Colin?
Bo
100%. You should.
Chris
Really?
Bo
Yeah, man. It's the best way to start our day. We do it every day. We feel that it is providing us the proper nutrients that we've been missing our entire lives as touring musicians, as traveling guys.
Chris
And let me ask you, where can I order this?
Bo
You can go to drinkag1.com hardlore that's right. New year, new URL. And try it now, please, God.
Chris
What do I get if I use that link in particular?
Bo
You get five free travel packs, a year's supply of vitamin D and K, and you're gonna have to check for yourself. Cause I'm hearing there's some new goodies for you on there.
Mike Ryan
Wow.
Bo
So please go to drinkag1.com hardlore we love working with them. We love drinking what they got. Our bodies are green on the inside. It's beautiful. Metaphorically speaking. Don't sue us. This episode is also brought to you by Manscaped.
Chris
Manscaped, baby.
Bo
Two years running. This is a Manscape show, straight up. We smell so good. Even right now, we're in the private privacy of our own homes. Balls are emanating. Floral goodness. Floral balls is what it's all about.
Chris
Don't know how to respond to that. There's a myriad of manscaped products that I use every single day from the Body Scrubber, which is, I decided, is my actual favorite. Exfoliates. Feels good. Makes me feel clean. Made out of silicone.
Bo
And you pair that with the body wash. You pair that with the crop cleanser. You're clean in ways never before imaginable. Imagine going back time and giving Ben Franklin's nasty ass the manscaped box.
Chris
You know, watch out for the syphilis. Hook him up with a lawnmower.
Bo
Wash your balls. He would have lived forever. And who. Who knows how many more presidential terms.
Chris
He would have lived to serve.
Bo
You know, it's unbelievable. And you could, too. Could be just like Ben Franklin if we went back. If you go to manscape.com/shirtscaped.com and use CO Hardlore, you're gonna get 20% off and free shipping.
Mike Ryan
Men.
Paul
Franklin.
Chris
Dude.
Bo
More like Manscaped Frank, straight up. This episode is also brought to you by Mad Vintage.
Chris
You guys, listen, this is fucking serious. Colin and I don't have room. You have to go to Mad Vintage and start buying your shit.
Bo
And we're going to work with him as long as he wants to. And God willing, we've got one closet each.
Chris
We're sick in the heads. Mutually. And listen, I know you don't have room in your place either. You know what he's doing? He's buying stuff. Get in contact with Mad Vintage, Maddie Vintage on Instagram.
Bo
He's going to give you a fair price for that old shirt you don't want anymore. And then I'm going to buy it from him. Bo's going to buy, et cetera. It's gonna be great. If you watch the show regularly, you know what we're all about, you know what we listen to. He's got it for you.
Chris
Straight up.
Bo
Okay.
Chris
Yep. 100% hardcore.
Bo
Metal, punk, movies, hip hop, everything in between. Check it out. You're gonna see something you've been looking for your entire life on there. And you're gonna want 15% off, trust me. Cause it's probably expensive. So use code HARDLORE15 right now. I'll wait. Back to the episode. Let me ask you guys a crazy question. You can take your time.
Mike Ryan
Okay.
Bo
Many, many people need time. Could you tell me your top four hardcore records of all time?
Mike Ryan
We're both going to say 100 demons in the eyes of the Lord.
Chris
Great answer.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, for sure. It's going to differ greatly here, but.
Bo
That'S a great start.
Paul
Well, yeah. In the eyes of the Lord. Satisfaction.
Bo
Stay in Connecticut, baby. I'm loving it. I'm loving it.
Mike Ryan
4.
Paul
I'm gonna say just because it. I have to. I have multiple Earth crisis tattoos. So Gamara season ends.
Bo
So you go Gamara number one.
Paul
Well, they were. Now that I think about it, I.
Mike Ryan
Would probably say Breed the Killers, dude.
Bo
Really?
Paul
I wouldn't say Breed the Killers.
Bo
Strip machine.
Paul
I would say all out War.
Bo
Respect.
Paul
Even though it's not a whole record.
Mike Ryan
So good.
Paul
Yeah, respect.
Chris
His voice sounds insane.
Mike Ryan
Probably ultra military.
Bo
It sounds unbelievable. It sounds the best. It's the best.
Paul
The discography of Judge.
Mike Ryan
The whole thing.
Paul
Yeah, including.
Mike Ryan
So that's your. That's four.
Chris
Including that last seven inch.
Paul
No, but. But, yeah.
Chris
Good answer.
Bo
That's four.
Paul
Great.
Mike Ryan
I'm gonna go in the eyes of the Lord. If you could pick a whole discography, I think I'd put the whole Trap on Rice discography.
Chris
Dude, That's a good one.
Bo
But.
Paul
That's a good one.
Bo
But I'm throwing it these Aren't records. But I really like.
Mike Ryan
I'm gonna say literally any of them, but I'll just say stay cold. Yeah, it changes.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
But I'm gonna say stay cold.
Bo
I love it.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. From there. Oh, Blood for blood. Spit my last breath.
Bo
Great answer, Mike.
Mike Ryan
I could say blood for blood, Revenge on society, but I won't because I already said blood for blood. Now it gets difficult because there's so many.
Bo
But you can only have one take all your time.
Mike Ryan
Biohazard. Urban Discipline.
Bo
Urban discipline, man.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. One time I sent in the band group chat. Like, guys, has there ever been four tracks in a row better than the four opening tracks on Urban Discipline? And one of the guys in the band just sent the meme that's like, let's get you back to bed. I'm like, do you guys not get it?
Bo
I think the better four track run is first four on say the World Address.
Mike Ryan
Frankly, dude, I love them both.
Chris
I do get.
Mike Ryan
I love them both. But I like Chamber Spins three.
Bo
Yeah. But in the Independence, because tomorrow I.
Mike Ryan
Would pick a total, like I said, security and be like, that's also the best record ever.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
You know, in my top four, in the eyes of the Lord will always be there. And then it's like, maybe it'll just change.
Chris
And that's.
Bo
We're locking them in.
Mike Ryan
All right, I'm gonna go Stay Cold and Secrets of the World.
Bo
Okay.
Mike Ryan
And I'm gonna get rid of Biohazard, I think. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Chris
I don't think we've ever had someone choose two of the same band.
Mike Ryan
But here's the thing. Do demo, stay cold, big kiss, goodnight, Secrets of the World in a row. And be like, I'm fine. I could never listen anything else.
Bo
I really respect that.
Mike Ryan
Like, I really. In the Eyes of the Lord is. But I just think for me, the time I grew up in, I don't think there was ever a more prolific. No, like.
Paul
No.
Bo
They defined.
Mike Ryan
There's a demo and stickball came out.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
People changed how they dressed.
Chris
Yep.
Mike Ryan
They changed how they. Everything was different.
Bo
It killed melodic hardcore once. Overall.
Paul
Thank God.
Bo
Deuces hate it. Let me ask you guys something really, really important. Do you in upstate. You know, scary place.
Paul
The scariest.
Bo
Do you believe in ghosts?
Paul
I used to go ghost hunting with my brother.
Bo
Now you're cooking. Paul, did you find any?
Paul
Yeah, I think. Okay. There's. We called it Pinewood Cemetery in Troy, but it's. It's not called Pinewood Cemetery. I don't know what it's called. We all called it that and I thought it was Pinewood. Scary cemetery in the area would be like Pinewood Cemetery. They'd be like, yeah, Troy. To get in, it's closed. It's a closed cemetery. They decommissioned it or whatever.
Bo
Which is bad sign next to.
Paul
It's a golf course. So to get in you have to drive in the golf course.
Mike Ryan
Definitely haunted.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Golf courses.
Bo
Golf courses are.
Paul
We would go ghost hunting and we were in high school, but we could drive. So we're sitting on golf court, a golf cart track.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
You have to drive your car down them and then like get in.
Bo
It's very scary.
Paul
Mind you, this is a golf course that's very open. Lights were on, but very open. Just, you know, rolling, whatever. There is a car sized cloud coming down the. The. The pathway from like very far away. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, does everybody else see this? And my brother is like, the fuck is that? Everyone in the car starts freaking out. And it's getting super, super close to us. It stops in front of one of the car that was ahead of us, maybe like 20ft off of it. And then we all scream and back our. Back our cars up and fucking leave. But like, this isn't a.
Mike Ryan
It stayed freaked out.
Paul
It stayed on the thing and stopped.
Bo
And I've never heard of a spectral automobile.
Paul
Everyone saw it. Everyone was like, what the was that? And then we all like were really quiet and freaked out and went home. And then there was another time I was.
Bo
So you guys just didn't talk about it?
Paul
We did. We were like, what the was that? And I was like, I don't know what that was. No one was tired, Bo.
Mike Ryan
Wait, no one was. Are you. Are you a ghost believer or not? Okay.
Chris
And you're.
Mike Ryan
You're totally like, no, I don't.
Chris
I do believe that people have experienced things that we don't know how to explain yet. Which I know is kind of a cop.
Bo
You don't believe.
Chris
I do believe in aliens, but I don't think it's like Casper. I don't think it's a ghost.
Mike Ryan
So.
Bo
Terrible movie.
Paul
There is. There is a hotel I stayed at north of Salt Lake City that is already haunted. Known to be a haunted hotel. Yeah, there's. There's an elevator there that they'll be like, yeah, this age old story. This lady like killed herself on the whatever floor, blah, blah, blah. Like the elevator goes up to that floor. Waits, doors open, doors close. And it goes down to the lobby and it just keeps going and there's like elevator union people. That was like. We don't know. They're like, bunny elevator does it. We're on holiday. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
But we're gonna need triple time up.
Paul
Because you can go up to like the door and everything. And it's just bad vibes. We. Yeah, I went there.
Mike Ryan
You guys should do. You should do a ghost hunting expedition where you convince Bo by buddy.
Bo
I've tried.
Mike Ryan
Okay.
Chris
How many have you tried? We have like five haunt Lors.
Paul
What if he was scared the out of them so bad?
Chris
So do you know the story about. About Furnace Fest?
Bo
No. There's no way he knows.
Chris
Do a quick retelling.
Bo
Sure.
Chris
We stayed at a hotel. We grabbed a book when we were at Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Alabama, that was called Haunted Alabama. And on the front was the sl.
Mike Ryan
Fur was.
Paul
Furnace Fest was the.
Chris
Yeah, it was. The furnace was on the front and then the back was hotel wherever we.
Paul
Oh, and you were elated.
Bo
I was like, yeah, it's completely random.
Chris
Totally random.
Bo
You didn't.
Mike Ryan
I don't know.
Chris
It was at Walgreens. And then in the. On the chapter on the hotel, it said if the fourth floor, certain rooms, there's like a knocking night. We were on the fourth floor.
Mike Ryan
Oh, my God, this is true. I would have already been sick.
Chris
Now the thing that's fucked up is.
Paul
This the knocking thing.
Chris
It's the knocking thing. I got out of the shower and I heard.
Paul
And it's 2am Just Kevin Discord and.
Chris
I straight up in a towel. I like, open the door and there's like a hallway. And I think he's gonna be like. Like, you know, hiding and waiting. I waited five minutes with the door open, just waiting because I knew he would have to go back to his room. I got dressed, went to his room. I could hear him listening to YouTube or something.
Bo
You know, I'm always listening to YouTube.
Chris
So it was either him. And he's still not admitted.
Bo
No, no. So you gotta remember this. You were in my room all day, all night. I didn't know what your room number was ever.
Chris
That's not.
Mike Ryan
We.
Chris
We had mentioned it.
Bo
We never discussed.
Chris
Also he could be like, hey, what's the room number for the guy?
Bo
They would never show me that.
Chris
This guy. But we also had a cameraman with us who.
Bo
He was shy.
Chris
He's a little shy.
Mike Ryan
So you think you might have gotten.
Bo
Because. Well, I think it was. Was a specter.
Chris
You got knocked on too, right?
Bo
Yeah. But that was you.
Mike Ryan
That. Do you.
Paul
Dude. I mean, I lived in Florida for a little over a year.
Chris
Haunted, scary place. That's the only place that's actually in.
Paul
This little town called Micanope, which is the oldest scary town, one of the oldest towns in Florida.
Bo
Oh, and I thought you say in the world.
Paul
No. And I. And I lived in, like, this back cottage, and one night I'm. There was an upstairs where the bedroom was upstairs and down is very small place. I'm like, yo, someone is. Has opened my. The door had a distinct open noise and all this other. And it was a. It was a very silent house. And I was like, someone is in my house right now. So I cleared the house and I was like. I like. I was like, someone's at my house right now. And I text. I think I text John or someone. And I was like, yo, are you screaming? No, I was like, are you at the house right now? Because. Because I believe he owns the property. I'm not sure, but at any rate. And he was like, no. I texted a couple people because I kept hearing.
Chris
Oh.
Paul
I was like, there are people in my house downstairs before I went downstairs. And everyone's like, I'm home. I'm here. I'm this. I'm like, all right. So I, like, literally cleared my house with. I had my flashlight on my phone as a flashlight, but I recorded the whole thing by accident.
Chris
Oh.
Paul
So it's just me clearing my house and I don't. I might have it on my. On an old. I don't have the old phone anymore.
Bo
Were you saying.
Paul
No, I was silent. I was silent.
Bo
But, you know, it would be.
Paul
Maybe I have it on.
Mike Ryan
Have you heard the story of New York Manette? No, it's like a good. This is like a great segue into.
Chris
Please.
Bo
Unbelievable.
Mike Ryan
So basically, my wife.
Paul
You're just a freak.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, but I'm also like. I'm like, I don't believe in ghosts. And then I'm like, I'm not going in the basement by myself.
Chris
Yeah, same. I mean, same. That's just sense.
Mike Ryan
I kind of believe in energy.
Chris
I'm with you. See?
Mike Ryan
So. All right, so me and my wife, we buy this house, move into the neighborhood, whatever, and in the middle of the night, I'm literally, like, laying in bed, and I sleep naked. And I'm like, full on. Full on naked.
Paul
The basement of his house is a.
Mike Ryan
Little spooky, but I literally hear, like, something that sounds like my garage. The wall behind my bed is, like, the garage.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And I hear something.
Bo
I'm like, and what's your address?
Mike Ryan
I'M like, someone is in my garage. Like, I can hear them in my garage.
Chris
Like, someone's stealing my car or something, so.
Mike Ryan
Well, we don't park in there. But someone's crazy enough that if you're in my house in any capacity, like, I have a kid, you're going to the cemetery.
Paul
It's also Rochester, which is a terrible place.
Chris
Okay.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. Where I live is very chill, but it's. Yeah, it's not great. And I'm paranoid. So I wake up, and I'm like, what the hell's going on? And I like. And I get up, and you can't really see out. Cause it's dark, and there's lights in the house. Whatever. So I'm like, all right, fuck this. I walked in my closet, get my gun. And I'm just clearing my house. And I'm like, okay, that's weird. There's no one. Like, I open the garage, like, yeah, it's happening. Yeah.
Chris
Are you still naked?
Mike Ryan
Oh, I'm naked.
Bo
Yeah. That was horrifying.
Chris
That's the only way.
Bo
Because in my mind, as an assailant.
Mike Ryan
Seeing you naked, I'm like, well, here's the thing. It's like, I'm not gonna take the time to get dressed. I think someone's here.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
So I go to the garage, and there's like, no one. So I'm like, okay. I peek out the back door. I'm like, all right, whatever. I go to bed. I'm like, I'm just being crazy again. I go back to bed, put the gun back, you know, get in bed, lay back down. And, like, I start to fall asleep. And I hear it again, and it's louder. I'm like, oh, someone is in my house. And now they've seen me.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And they were hiding, and I didn't see them. So I'm like, fuck. So I get out of bed, get the gun. And I'm like, now. I'm like, okay, Is your wife awake now? She has woken up. She's like, what are you doing?
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And I'm like, go to bed. I was like, someone's gonna fucking. So I'm like, all right.
Chris
My.
Mike Ryan
My son's door's closed. I'm good. And I make it around. And whatever. And again. No one in the garage. Whatever. And I walk. And I'm just. I just stand still. Like, if you walk in my front door, it's basically the center of the entire house. And I just stand there for, like, two minutes. And I hear it, and I'm like, they think I'm in bed. And I wait and I wait, and it happens again. And I'm like, all right, that's it. And I just open the door, and it's my fucking screen door. Like, because it's a house I haven't lived in long.
Bo
So you're telling me.
Mike Ryan
Yep.
Bo
The screen door was peeking in your window?
Paul
Oh, yeah.
Bo
This is an ancient riddle, but this is like a.
Chris
Cut that.
Mike Ryan
With me. This is like a repetitive. Like, this is like, oh, I heard something.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Gotta. Gotta go waltz around naked with the gun again.
Chris
I lived.
Paul
When I moved to Massachusetts, I bought an 1880, 85 Queen Anne Victorian.
Bo
Oh, Lord.
Mike Ryan
So it had 10 ceilings.
Paul
So back in the day. Back in the day, they would. When you would die, they would have the funeral.
Chris
Yeah. In the parlor. Yeah.
Paul
So I was like, yo, this place.
Mike Ryan
Is gonna be haunted.
Paul
And it just wasn't. It was spooky, but it was not haunted. Nothing cool. Nothing. Nothing cool happened at all.
Bo
You got me there. I was on the edge of my.
Mike Ryan
Seat with the screen door.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
Good build.
Chris
Well, we're going to talk about you.
Bo
Oh, you guys eating good?
Chris
Are you eating?
Paul
I don't eat.
Mike Ryan
I'm not kidding. I have not eaten today.
Paul
You ate today.
Mike Ryan
You ate some of my leftover Someone else leftover Chinese that they gave to Paul.
Chris
Yeah, that's not.
Mike Ryan
That's.
Chris
That's not real calories. Those are fake calories.
Mike Ryan
For $10, they gave me six of them.
Bo
That's crying. Stephen got the same ones. He's pissed off about it.
Mike Ryan
I was like, dude, this is. I'm not even like a. Like, I don't care about the money. Like, this is crazy.
Paul
Leading back to me being your nicest friend. I gave you the food.
Mike Ryan
Whatever, dude.
Bo
He gave you.
Mike Ryan
He gave me some Chinese food.
Bo
And he offered you the singer of the band.
Paul
Yeah.
Bo
You're welcome. There's. I'm sensing a pattern.
Paul
You're welcome. And I got him to go to barber school.
Mike Ryan
What were you.
Chris
What was. What was missing Link eating in Europe? Oh, everything. Everything.
Paul
I'm not a very adventurous eater.
Mike Ryan
Mozzarella sticks now.
Paul
Mozzarella sticks, brother.
Mike Ryan
I don't really remember eating anything crazy. Except for in Italy. Yeah, in Italy, we went to, like, a nice spot.
Bo
How was that?
Paul
It was July 4th. It was my mom's birthday when we were.
Bo
Now, Paul. What's your mom's name?
Paul
Noreen.
Bo
Noreen.
Chris
That was my grandma's name. Noreen Loved her. Have you had the mozzarella sticks from Chili's? The Big guys. Dude.
Bo
Dude. They put me down in ways I've never been down.
Chris
Those things are.
Bo
I was beyond horizontal.
Paul
I think.
Bo
I never thought it possible.
Paul
I think one or two of them.
Bo
Oh, I ate all six.
Paul
That's it though.
Bo
I did two out of two out of three of my triple dips were.
Paul
I'm saying in my.
Mike Ryan
Nice.
Chris
I didn't do that.
Bo
Criminal.
Paul
I'll eat one and then get full.
Mike Ryan
Oh, that sounds crazy good right now.
Bo
Yeah. You're looking on a journey.
Paul
It's the. It's the anxiety and depression that really makes the.
Chris
How long have you been dieting?
Paul
I'm just taking the shot.
Chris
How much. Do you mind sharing how much you've lost?
Paul
I lost 70.
Mike Ryan
So much.
Paul
Two pounds in five months.
Bo
Miracle, that dude.
Mike Ryan
We went from like, I saw him and then two weeks later we played a show and I was like, you're visibly 20 pounds lighter. He's like, pretty cool.
Paul
I have medical stuff that basically makes it so I don't have a machine metabolism at all that I found out maybe three or four years. Three years ago. So I've always been a big guy and I've always like my like diet to. To lose weight is like extreme. In the gym, like cardio, like ever. And then eating the very cleanest you could possibly eat. Like doing everything that I'm like told nutritional wise to do. And I'll lose like a pound.
Chris
Oh, no.
Paul
So I don't know. Whatever this shit is I'm taking, it gives me cancer. I've already.
Bo
No, there's.
Mike Ryan
That.
Bo
Ozempic is like this thing that's gonna be found to be dangerous years later. It's been so heavily studied. Yeah. It's like completely FDA approved.
Chris
Any of the side effects are the ones that.
Paul
The side effects are an upset tummy.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
Stomach ache and not hungry.
Chris
I don't know.
Paul
It works. I lost a bunch of weight. I feel great. All my nice clothes fit me again.
Bo
Congratulations, dude. Fitting and stuff is. As a guy, I fluctuate. I have about five bodies a year.
Paul
Oh, yeah.
Bo
I'm in. I'm in number two.
Paul
You're looking trim right now.
Bo
I'm in number two. I was a few weeks ago. Oh, yeah. But you know, I get it.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
So enjoy it. Enjoy your clothes that fit. It's the best.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
I kept my big ones. When I get back up there.
Mike Ryan
You got it.
Bo
A couple jackets.
Chris
I'm having the opposite where I'm trying to actively get bigger. And now bigger clothes fit better. And it feels so good.
Mike Ryan
Oh, yeah.
Chris
But that's. It's.
Bo
Now I know you're eating. I can see it in your body.
Paul
He thinks He's a 3x and he's not.
Bo
You're not a 3x.
Mike Ryan
What?
Bo
Sure.
Chris
What size is that right there?
Mike Ryan
3X.
Chris
He's a 3a.
Bo
That's a choice though. You make the choice.
Mike Ryan
Like, here's the thing. Okay. You gotta have style.
Bo
Sure.
Paul
Get in style, baby.
Mike Ryan
Like, I've been way. I was big for a minute where I definitely was not filling out a 3X but was, you know.
Paul
Yeah. But when I met you, when you.
Mike Ryan
Oh, I was a twig.
Paul
When you were in Sacred Pledge, you had braces.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, probably.
Paul
And sweatpants on and were like, dude. Very sweaty, skinny. At the Utica Skate.
Mike Ryan
Skate Rink, dude, Mikey Hood one time gave me a 3XL West coast worldwide. West Coast Worldwide shirt and it was like neon blue. And he's like, yo, put that on. You ain't wearing no large. And that.
Bo
That made you.
Mike Ryan
He made me.
Paul
Mikey Hood basically told him one time he's a 3x and he still is.
Mike Ryan
To the 3x. Cuz the.
Bo
The. The.
Mike Ryan
I like them to be long.
Bo
That was Lucious Fox making you the bad suit.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, but my wife, like, hate my wife, like, makes fun of me.
Chris
All comes in black.
Bo
Yeah. Wow, that's beautiful.
Paul
Do you guys eat, though?
Bo
Oh, we eat.
Mike Ryan
Oh, we eat.
Bo
Last night we went to. We had.
Chris
We had a. We and. No, we had a taste of my homeland.
Bo
No, no, we had jets first.
Chris
Oh, yeah, we had Jets. We each ate.
Paul
Yeah, they have a Jets here.
Chris
They have a Jets here. It was wonderful.
Bo
I missed the one in Brandon, Florida. I'll be. I'll be honest with you. Let's go. Brandon, Florida, Jets. It's incredible. But the one in Orlando is pretty good too.
Chris
So we had jets, then we hit the gym, then we had Portillo.
Bo
This is a two hour span.
Chris
It was.
Mike Ryan
I had never had Portillo's before. We recorded the record and on our way out, we went to the air one near the airport.
Bo
Yeah, that's a good one.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Chris. Dude, you guys should really talk to Chris about food because he will blow your mind.
Bo
He's a burger aficionados.
Paul
He talks to his food.
Mike Ryan
He talks to his food.
Bo
He's so. Can you show me?
Chris
What does he do?
Mike Ryan
Dude, I swear we were. And he had like a baked good and he's like. We were in Milan and he was sitting on like this kind of stoop thing. We're all just hanging out, waiting like outside of this cathedral. And I literally watch him, like, take a bite. And he goes, that was a good bite.
Paul
No, that was. That was a different time.
Chris
That.
Paul
That was a good bite was.
Mike Ryan
Me and him were eating a burger.
Paul
A burger.
Mike Ryan
Burger did this.
Paul
Okay.
Bo
He's unreal.
Paul
He took a bite of a burger. We went. I think we were in Buffalo. We went and ate somewhere, and he took a bite of a board, a borger. A burger, and he goes, oh, that was a good bite.
Bo
So the unreal.
Mike Ryan
I had never been. And I, like. I had to, like, go piss or something, and he's waiting in line, and I swear to God, I walk up behind him and he's like, like, smiling. Like, not.
Chris
Oh, yeah. Just, like, vibrating.
Mike Ryan
Yo, are you okay? He's like, I'm so fucking excited.
Chris
The kid did it.
Mike Ryan
So I'm like. I'm like, you know, tell me what to get. What do you get? So he gets. And it was like, good. And he just sits down. Whatever. He got a ton of stuff. He sits down. He just takes a bite. And he's like, it's the best. He's like. He's like, I'm so happy. And I. And it was, like, really good.
Bo
So.
Mike Ryan
Dude, this is awesome. He's, like, amazing. It's amazing.
Bo
You guys transform into him when you do.
Paul
He's really.
Bo
It's really funny.
Paul
The best person I've. He's in the band because Nick is always gone.
Bo
Yeah.
Paul
Evan is normal and can't play all the shows. Chris was like, I'll do it. I'll fill in. And then he just played more shows than everyone else. I was like, you're just in the band now.
Mike Ryan
Crazy stage presence.
Bo
Oh, yeah.
Mike Ryan
Brings a lot.
Bo
He's technical ability.
Mike Ryan
I was like, come on.
Paul
He's the best person to be in a band with. Because if you. If I go, hey, Mike, we're gonna go play this show. It's 11 hours away and we have to drive a Toyota Tercel there. You would say, no. Chris will just go.
Mike Ryan
I'm not leaving my house.
Paul
Chris will go.
Mike Ryan
It's gonna suck, but all right, let's do it.
Paul
Fuck it, let's do it.
Mike Ryan
And then he's happy the whole time.
Paul
It's amazing.
Mike Ryan
He never has a moment. Even if we're, like, eating shit.
Bo
Okay, I need to do something, then. Chris. This is a video of Chris eating a burger. He's gonna send me one for this.
Mike Ryan
That was a good bite. Oh, it's gonna. This is gonna be awesome.
Paul
I have the fun.
Mike Ryan
The dude we have A really good picture.
Paul
We're not. We're not. We can't. The story leading up to this will not say, but we were on a plane flying back from Europe, and he was feeling good, and he's sitting next to me. And on. I have a picture of this I'll show in a minute. It's just him, like, looking at a burger.
Mike Ryan
Picture of a burger.
Bo
He's unbelievable.
Chris
Incredible, dude.
Mike Ryan
And then this. I think it was the other way. He was sitting, watching a movie. No headphone, no blaring Metallica, but watching the movie. Watching a movie just like this. Six hours.
Chris
What movie?
Mike Ryan
I don't even know.
Bo
Probably the menu.
Chris
If it was like, Lord of the.
Mike Ryan
Rings, I will lose my mind. No, it was like a comedy movie.
Paul
He.
Mike Ryan
And he's just, like, smiling like.
Paul
He's the guy. We played a show in San Jose, and they had this big video wall that was just playing YouTube videos, and it was playing a live Metallica set from wherever. He loves Metallica, his favorite band. And he. But. But here's the thing. If Metallica was playing out a show, you'd be like, yeah. He's like. He's like, this is pumping me up right now.
Mike Ryan
And I'm like, there's no sound volume on the plane that he was listening. Like, I didn't know we were landing. It was so over the landing, dude. It was crazy. And I. I love Metallica. This dude. Then we went to. We went to.
Paul
I'm a Pantera Man.
Mike Ryan
Well, we went. I was gonna say we went to Dimebags Grave. And he was like. I was like, cry? Cool.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
He was standing there like. I was like, are you okay? He's like, this is just really. This is heavy for me, dude.
Paul
I don't think.
Mike Ryan
And I was like, really?
Chris
I don't want to end the episode on something so sad, but I don't think people realize like, how scary that really is. Like, the way in which he dies. None of us are really ever that far from that. And that's really scary.
Mike Ryan
I had a guy say, hi.
Chris
Well, not here. It's locked up tight out there. I'll tell you what.
Mike Ryan
I was. I was taking a piss at a urinal.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And a dude came up to the URL next to me and just was like, mike Ryan? And I was like, he. Did I do something? And he was like, oh, I love you guys. I'm going to see you right now. Like, he was driving there, too. And I was like, dude, I can't imagine how people like it. I mean, I'm just a normal guy.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Actually famous. It must drive you, like, because I was like, whoa.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I'm, like, accessible to people that in my head, I'm something that I'm not if they're had. I'm something I'm not sure.
Paul
Also, too. Outside of hardcore, we've both. There's been many situations that have gone very bad.
Mike Ryan
Sure.
Paul
And it was just like, all right, well, imagine I'm where I think I'm good, and someone's like, hey, bud, you're not good.
Mike Ryan
You know? Yes, it is. It is. But, yeah. Anyways, I have an awesome picture of him smoking a joint at Dimebag's grave.
Paul
Green Jelly was there with you?
Bo
Really?
Mike Ryan
Dude, they just showed up and they were like, yo, what's up? You guys in a band? We're like, yeah. They're like, you want to take a picture?
Bo
That's like, yo, Dumb and Soundtrack. One of the greatest ever.
Mike Ryan
I had no idea who they were.
Chris
Yeah.
Bo
Oh, you never heard.
Mike Ryan
And then they said the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack thing. I was like, oh, now I get it.
Bo
Wait, who's. They did?
Mike Ryan
No, like, the guys in the band.
Bo
Green Jelly was like, who? Green Jelly. We're from the D soundtrack.
Mike Ryan
I'd be like, that's so cool, dude.
Bo
It is cool. The song is good.
Chris
The power went over the mountain.
Bo
It's a banger. We've got some questions from our Discord people to end the episode. Most of them are absolute ass.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
Ask all the bad ones.
Bo
No, they're terrible. Somebody said, who is that peeking in your window? And we know that now. It's the screen screen that is gonna.
Mike Ryan
Follow me like the rest.
Bo
100.
Paul
That's what Bruce said.
Bo
You did that?
Paul
Bruce said. He goes. You know, he's like. People still come up to me and go, you know who I love? And I was like, yeah. And he goes, you know, Mike, in 15 years, someone's gonna go, who's peeking in my window?
Bo
Somebody. Somebody asked your favorite breakdown of all time.
Mike Ryan
That's a good one. Oh, one popped into my head immediately.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
I don't know if it's because it's not.
Paul
So there's two of me that pop into my head. I. I don't. I'm really bad with song names, but it's on Broken Wings song.
Bo
Is it? Damn.
Paul
It's not that one. It's. It's the one with the.
Bo
Strumming talk.
Chris
Yeah, but send it to me.
Bo
Yeah, send it to me.
Paul
It's that or House of Fists Blood has Been shed.
Bo
Nice.
Paul
Will shoot someone to that.
Mike Ryan
There's a lot. Because I'm. I'm into the breakdowns.
Bo
Sure. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Immediately I thought of maybe because we're in Florida. Implosive discordance. Confined to torment. Wow. I've never heard. Truly one of the craziest slams ever.
Bo
First ever implosive you ever have you ever heard of. No.
Paul
Really?
Bo
No. No.
Mike Ryan
Dude, you're about to be up.
Bo
I love it.
Chris
Or that.
Paul
That one in that corpse song.
Mike Ryan
Oh, Corpse with a K. The Devil's Devil's Breath.
Bo
I've heard that one.
Chris
What's yours? What comes to mind?
Bo
Favorite breakdown ever? It's. There's two. It's. Crowbar to carry the load.
Mike Ryan
Oh, yeah.
Bo
Suffocation. What about Drones of blood?
Chris
Mine would be Marauder Tenants, but cool.
Mike Ryan
The.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
What about Breakdown? That would. What makes you want to commit felony assault? That's how I perceive that question. Not favorite break. Suffocation.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, like, good ones. Really good ones are hard to come by.
Bo
You know, there's not many original ones.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Chris
You know the scene in Goodfellas when Ray Liotti walks back across and beats the dude. What's the song that you would have playing? You know, it's like what Suffocation Thrones is.
Paul
Yeah. House of Fist for sure.
Bo
Beautiful.
Chris
We used to always joke that it was Earth Crisis.
Mike Ryan
I can't wait for you to text me. Like, dude, this implosive discord text the out of you.
Bo
Somebody asked, speaking of the missing link, what's your favorite Cryptid?
Chris
Oh, that's awesome.
Mike Ryan
Wow.
Paul
Cryptid.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, like a. Like a.
Bo
Come on, Ghost hunter.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Bo
Like, mine is the Chupacabra, obviously.
Chris
Obviously. Obviously, you're. You're loyal to your whole thing.
Mike Ryan
I don't know if I have a favorite. Mothman is.
Chris
Is cool.
Mike Ryan
Chill as Mothman's cool because. Yeah, that one.
Chris
It's creepy.
Mike Ryan
That one is creepy.
Paul
It's got to be like, oh, hat man.
Chris
Dude, that counts.
Bo
That's not a Cryptid.
Mike Ryan
He's real. I don't like it because so many people.
Bo
Yeah, I know him very well.
Paul
I think skinwalkers are real, so it's got to be.
Bo
Yeah, I believe that. Dude, Great answer.
Chris
We've mentioned it. Yeah, that's. That's a good one. We've mentioned it before, but I have been. I've played shows.
Mike Ryan
I've been visited by that man.
Chris
I've played shows in Reno and asked the locals, like, oh, and they straight.
Paul
Up, they're like, I've spent a lot of time not Going to talk about it.
Chris
Like, they don't.
Mike Ryan
That's awesome.
Bo
It's the biggest little city.
Paul
Played in a bunch of bands.
Bo
I like it there.
Chris
I like it there quite a bit.
Bo
I love Reno on Hard Lore. My wife's from there. So what is, in your opinion, the most meaningful song you've ever written?
Paul
I didn't write it so nice. I played drums.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, it's for the band. Like, depends on what you mean by meaningful.
Bo
Like, it means a lot to you. It's full of meaning.
Paul
My brother wrote a song for my grandfather that I will just say, when I heard it, I cried, which is probably the first time I cried in, like, 15 years.
Mike Ryan
That's really nice. It's good. It probably got to be something on the B side of the record.
Bo
You gotta. You gotta bury those a little. They can't. Let's cross.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Oh, another cross to go. Another cross or pillory, maybe. That one's kind of, like, about my kid.
Paul
I don't write it, but we finally got Bruce on a song that's, like, meaning. That means a lot to me because.
Chris
Right.
Bo
It's her.
Paul
He's my guy, so.
Mike Ryan
So cool. Also, he recorded that and sent it back in, like, 12 hours.
Bo
Yeah, that makes sense. Like, one single track. No, no second take. No double, no nothing.
Mike Ryan
Dude. So cool.
Bo
He's the best.
Mike Ryan
And, like, so, like, for me, the guy that wrote my. And then for him to be, like, texting me, like, you're an amazing lyricist. Like, yeah, I wish I could have written this. You know, it's like.
Chris
I mean, you guys both listed his.
Mike Ryan
Record in your, like, pretty obviously influenced.
Bo
For sure.
Mike Ryan
You know, I think you maybe, like, connect with certain records and. And in the Eyes of the Lord has, like, a lot of religious themes, and our record has a lot of religious themes. Not really necessarily in the same way. Maybe kind of in the same way, but, you know.
Bo
Are you a religious guy?
Mike Ryan
I'm not. I'm like. My wife would tell you I'm, like, the weirdest religious guy of all time. I'm, like, spiritual.
Paul
This is news to me.
Mike Ryan
I'm like. I think I, like, find, like, symbols and characters and stuff that I really cling to.
Bo
And so you're not, like, thinking that the Bible is, like, historical fact?
Mike Ryan
I don't know.
Bo
Interesting.
Mike Ryan
I don't.
Paul
I was like, not again. I can't do this in another band.
Mike Ryan
No, not. Definitely not in a way where, like, he gets it. It's. It's hard to explain. I view the stories as, like, incredibly important.
Bo
Like amazing works of fiction.
Chris
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
But in a way that it's like. It is real in the set to me, in the. In the sense of, like, the. The metaphor.
Bo
The meaning is.
Mike Ryan
Meaning is so real.
Bo
My dad is the same way that.
Mike Ryan
I'm like, blown away by how many layers of meaning there are. But I don't view it as like this for sure happened.
Bo
It's more of, like, a system to live by. Like.
Chris
Right.
Mike Ryan
And just interesting. I'm very. I'm like, very intrigued by it.
Chris
It is the most interesting thing.
Bo
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
And not even just the Bible and so. But there's others too. Like, from other religions that I really cling to. So. Yeah. Like I said, my wife would tell you, I'm like, the weirdest spiritual ever.
Bo
Paul. Never knew that about you. We love to learn on this show. That's. That's my Nardoire. Today is that I've exposed the world that Mike is the weirdest.
Paul
Mike's a Christian. That's crazy.
Bo
Insane. Let's see. What do we got? Best bagel in the state of New York.
Paul
Yeah. There's a spot killer always takes me to. That's in Babylon. I don't know the name of it. Okay. Delicious. Delicious.
Mike Ryan
It's so good.
Bo
You gotta keep the gate a little bit.
Paul
But I will say, I will attest to Long island has the best bagels.
Mike Ryan
I agree.
Paul
Out of the whole state and. But everyone from Long island has their spot.
Chris
Yeah, of course.
Mike Ryan
Because there's a million bagel.
Bo
Boss Bagel Chalet.
Mike Ryan
But, like, upstate bagels don't count compared to Long Island.
Paul
Actually, there is this place.
Mike Ryan
There's good ones.
Bo
Connecticut has the best ones.
Paul
This place. That's wrong. There's a place called Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga and in Albany, they have phenomenal bagels. And they make themselves. Really.
Mike Ryan
Yes. A bagel a day, I think. Yes. Without fail.
Paul
I haven't had a bagel.
Bo
I got it.
Mike Ryan
I love bagels.
Chris
I think per square mile, Long island might have some of the best food. In general.
Mike Ryan
That's all they've got.
Paul
I'm a fan of Long Island.
Chris
They got traffic.
Paul
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
It's. It's. It's.
Bo
You can't get in or out of this.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
Once you're there, it's close to being a Long Island.
Mike Ryan
My beef with Long island is that they're all. It's always a birthday party.
Paul
Yeah. Smithtown.
Chris
Somehow on the other side, every guy.
Mike Ryan
I know that we know from Long Island. Evan, can you play the show? Oh, I can. It's a birthday party that weekend. And he's like, dead ass. Serious.
Bo
I'm like, so you don't think that they really. They respect the sanctity of birthday parties?
Mike Ryan
They love birthday parties. I don't, because I'm like, you're. You're not eight.
Paul
I hate getting older.
Bo
I love birthday parties.
Mike Ryan
Well, you fit right in.
Bo
Me, Long island, big fan. It's kind of like the Valley, so it makes a lot of sense that. Actually, let me ask you something. This one can maybe be the last question. I like this one. What do you individually think you can beat anybody at?
Chris
Oh, great.
Bo
Eating nuggets. Mario Kart. Me as well. What's the thing you're good at?
Mike Ryan
Anyone at?
Bo
Yeah.
Chris
Trivia.
Bo
Trivia. You're good at trivia. No, no. I've beaten trivia a couple times. What. What do you think you can be? Anyone. Not historical anyone.
Paul
Knowledge.
Mike Ryan
You gotta think of, like, the best of the best of things.
Bo
So I'm like, what's the one thing you are? Weird religion.
Mike Ryan
No. Not even.
Bo
I've heard. You're the most.
Mike Ryan
The weirdest.
Bo
The weirdest.
Chris
Tony Hawk. Give me two minutes. And Tony Hawk.
Bo
You don't fuck anybody up.
Mike Ryan
Wow.
Chris
The first time you could start manualing and, like, reverting so you can really build stuff underground.
Mike Ryan
Come on.
Chris
But probably, like, three, I think, is where it really started.
Paul
I'm gonna say two things. One is just knowledge of Harley Davidson Dinos from 06 to 2017. Damn, I'll smoke anybody.
Mike Ryan
Believe it's true.
Paul
Or bowling.
Mike Ryan
You're a good bowler, dude.
Paul
Phenomenal bowler.
Bo
Respect. I've gotten a gutterball with bumpers.
Mike Ryan
You're the best at being the.
Bo
I'm the best at being the world. I'm the best.
Chris
I'm terrible at the ball.
Paul
Me and my buddy Ryan. Little, tiny baby, tiny, little, short, weak Ryan. We would go. We would go bowling. He'll get it. We would go bowling. And he is so competitive. Anytime anyone would beat him, he would get really mad. So it was just. The goal was to beat him, and we just became really good bowlers. I was already pretty good at it.
Chris
Yeah.
Paul
And then in that time, I'm. I'm pretty good at bowling.
Bo
Missing Link bowling shirt.
Mike Ryan
You're gonna be billionaires.
Paul
Evan Duckett.
Bo
Oh, yes.
Mike Ryan
I'll make the idea, and then I'll text Evan.
Bo
And you know that Evan texted me before we recorded the awards saying, guys, like, I really think Missing Link should win that.
Mike Ryan
Oh, he sent me a screenshot.
Bo
Okay.
Mike Ryan
It was a more violent text.
Bo
Yeah, but it was like. It was like. Evan. What? We've never talked about this ever. What do you mean?
Mike Ryan
Yeah, he was, like, texting me just about basically that. And I. And he was like, watch this. And then, like, two minutes later, sends me this screenshot. And like, dude, like, they already want aggressive. There's a.
Chris
There's a pun in, like, missing lanes for your bowling shirt. There's something there. There's something in there.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, I'll figure it out. There's something that's.
Bo
I'm going to say.
Mike Ryan
That's the thing that I'm best at is figuring I can, like, correlate things that people aren't thinking about. And then they go, of course. And then they buy the shirt.
Chris
Perfect.
Mike Ryan
That's what I.
Bo
Looks good.
Paul
Looks good, man.
Mike Ryan
And, like, gonna. Just because we won Hard Lore album of the year, I'm just gonna say I'm the best at writing my lyrics.
Paul
Dude, we should make a shirt.
Chris
Dude. Oh, Hard Lore album winner.
Mike Ryan
Is there a physical award?
Bo
Like, what is the deal I can make you.
Chris
We're working on it.
Mike Ryan
Why haven't you made it like, a plaque or a trophy?
Bo
The plant we were doing I do a live one last year, and then Kale died. And Kale was gonna paint the awards.
Mike Ryan
Okay.
Chris
He was gonna actually.
Mike Ryan
Because I come back and paint these. What would it be?
Chris
What would.
Mike Ryan
A spin kicker.
Bo
That's. That has been the. The concept.
Chris
So a karate guy.
Bo
Yeah, they have karate.
Paul
Made a shirt, though.
Mike Ryan
We won the.
Bo
You're the second.
Chris
By all means.
Bo
Pain of Truth and Missing Link.
Mike Ryan
That's Pain of Tr. Oh, they beat us. They did it first. They.
Bo
They did it again, dude. I know. But, you know, recent is what counts.
Mike Ryan
We are. We are in the eternal shadow of Pain of Truth.
Bo
Well, you got. It's a race to the second lp Now.
Mike Ryan
I would start to do, like, a Treehouse of Horrors. Evil twin split. This was like, an idea a couple years ago where, like, they're the good twin, obviously, we're the evil one.
Bo
The twist is that.
Paul
And then Nick is just confused.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. Oh, it's a clone. The clone is like, Nick.
Chris
That's good.
Bo
There it is. Well, Missing Link album of the year, as we've said.
Chris
Congratulations.
Bo
We did Paul. Thank Mom.
Paul
Mom.
Bo
Noreen Dove. She's July 4th. Happy birthday.
Mike Ryan
Shout out. My mom, too. Lisa.
Bo
Lisa.
Chris
Lisa.
Bo
Ryan. Lisa, Ryan. Outstanding birthday. What's your birthday?
Mike Ryan
July 15th. Wow.
Bo
Dude. I'm bringing you guys closer.
Paul
Liam.
Chris
Would they be Leos? I don't know.
Paul
I don't know.
Mike Ryan
No, I'M a Leo and I'm August.
Chris
I have an American whatever's.
Mike Ryan
Me and James Hetfield have the same birthday. Huge, big revelation.
Paul
June 14th, Flag Day.
Mike Ryan
Wow.
Paul
Very American.
Bo
Wow.
Mike Ryan
Oh, wait, I knew that.
Paul
Yeah.
Bo
Well, we're starving here, so we're gonna. We're gonna wrap this up so we can go eat. Guys, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for writing a great record.
Chris
Yeah, good job today.
Bo
Take your time. You know, I know it's hard. Following up is very tough. The second album is. Is make or Break.
Paul
We're. We're cooking.
Bo
I know, I know.
Mike Ryan
We're starting to cook.
Bo
Can't wait to hear it.
Paul
Things are cooking.
Bo
Take your time in the kitchen. People are going to love it. Album of the year. Watch me bleed. Thanks for watching. Bye.
HardLore: Stories from Tour – Episode Summary: "MISSING LINK" (Mike Ryan & Paul Dove)
Released on January 30, 2025
In this compelling episode of HardLore: Stories from Tour, hosts Colin Young and Bo Lueders welcome special guests Mike Ryan and Paul Dove from the band Missing Link. The episode delves deep into the chaotic and exhilarating world of touring within the hardcore, punk, and metal scenes. From early musical inspirations to harrowing tour tales, Mike and Paul share personal anecdotes that paint a vivid picture of life on the road.
Paul Dove reminisces about his introduction to hardcore music at a tender age. At 00:30, he shares:
"I was 10 years old riding the bus and I was into skateboarding... I listened to Earth Crisis and Pantera for the first time, and everything after that was like, I liked this."
(00:30)
Mike Ryan adds his own early experiences, highlighting the parallel paths both took in discovering their passion for hardcore music.
The conversation shifts to their first live shows and the impact these experiences had on their commitment to music. Paul recounts attending his first Canderia show:
"The first show I remember was a Canderia show at a Salvation Army gym. It was awesome."
(06:02)
Mike echoes similar sentiments, detailing his first tour with If Hope Dies and the intensity of those early performances.
Outside of music, both Mike and Paul are barbers, a fact that leads to some unforgettable stories. Paul narrates a particularly wild incident from barber school:
"I threw a full can of Yoohoo at a drunk student's face because he was yelling about his unplugged phone."
(10:34)
This act of defiance not only landed Paul and his friends in trouble but also became a legendary story among their peers.
One of the most gripping segments is Mike Ryan's recounting of being stabbed during a tumultuous tour. At 13:29, he shares:
"I was in the hospital after getting stabbed in the face. The surgery sucked, but thankfully I recovered."
(13:29)
Mike details the emotional and physical toll of the incident, emphasizing resilience and the unexpected silver lining of meeting his now-wife during his recovery.
Transitioning to their musical journey, Paul and Mike discuss the origins of Missing Link amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul explains how their collaboration came together:
"Victor organized everyone, sent me songs, and that's how Missing Link was born."
(37:07)
The duo delves into the recording process of their album "Watch Me Bleed," highlighting the challenges and creative breakthroughs they experienced in the studio.
The episode explores various touring adventures, including their European tours. Mike reflects on the camaraderie and unique experiences they encountered:
"Touring Europe was unlike anything else. The energy was supercharged, and everyone was grateful to be there."
(52:17)
Paul adds anecdotes about touring relationships and the support they received from fellow band members, fostering a sense of unity on the road.
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on their collaborative efforts with other musicians and producers. They highlight working with Andy from Harm's Way, whose expertise greatly influenced their sound:
"Andy was a recording pro. He helped us shape the album, even letting us make last-minute changes to the song structures."
(43:11)
The band emphasizes the importance of collaboration in achieving their desired musical direction.
As the episode draws to a close, Mike and Paul reflect on their personal growth and the future of Missing Link. They share aspirations for upcoming tours and the continued evolution of their music, maintaining their dedication despite the challenges faced.
This episode of HardLore: Stories from Tour offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of Mike Ryan and Paul Dove, showcasing the trials and triumphs that define their journey in the hardcore music scene. Through engaging storytelling and heartfelt reflections, listeners gain a deeper appreciation for the passion and perseverance required to thrive on the road.
Paul Dove on Discovering Hardcore Music:
"I was 10 years old riding the bus and I was into skateboarding... I listened to Earth Crisis and Pantera for the first time, and everything after that was like, I liked this."
(00:30)
Paul Dove on the Yoohoo Incident:
"I threw a full can of Yoohoo at a drunk student's face because he was yelling about his unplugged phone."
(10:34)
Mike Ryan on Being Stabbed:
"I was in the hospital after getting stabbed in the face. The surgery sucked, but thankfully I recovered."
(13:29)
Paul Dove on Missing Link's Formation:
"Victor organized everyone, sent me songs, and that's how Missing Link was born."
(37:07)
Mike Ryan on Touring Europe:
"Touring Europe was unlike anything else. The energy was supercharged, and everyone was grateful to be there."
(52:17)
This summary encapsulates the essence of the "MISSING LINK" episode, highlighting the pivotal moments and personal stories that make this HardLore episode a must-listen for enthusiasts of the hardcore and metal touring lifestyle.