
HardLore is joined by Jem, Dennis and Josh from SPEED for a full day in Los Angeles, where we hear the story of the band while visiting multiple small businesses owned by people associated with the hardcore community. Modu Coffee, Mills Vintage/Varsity, Little Fish and Going Underground Records are the backdrop to this incredible day where we document SPEED's journey from the beginning, detailing all of the steps of their evolution from local band in Sydney to ultimately representing their group of friends and their home on a global scale. THE HARDLORE SPEED MOVIE HAS ARRIVED. 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 Get 15% off MADD VINTAGE with code HARDLORE15! https://maddvintage.com/ Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping wi...
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Jim
Being able to take a massive. To take a win and be on a journey with your friends and have accomplishments that you share together is worth more than any kind of big ass paycheck. Or not like clout nod from some label or being on a certain roster or anything else. Like being. Even if it means that we don't get to be on nightliners for the rest of our life and be this crazy big sensation. It's never even been the goal, but if we even got like two steps that way, but it was all. Without compromising any of our values and bringing our friends with us and being able to share it together like that is the most fulfilling experience. You know what I'm saying? Like being able to share it with your family that you've known. So.
Bo
So I says to Mabel, I says, I'm back. You're back in la. That's awesome. Hey. Oh, it's.
Jim
Hey.
Bo
Hello. Welcome. Oh, it's hard Lore time. How you doing, Bo?
Dennis
I'm doing so well in sunny California.
Bo
It's not very sunny today. Kind of reminds me of Australia. We wanted to do something fun today. We wanted to go around to a couple small businesses in LA that are associated with hardcore punk in some way and, you know, just have a nice day all around the city, checking out some cool local businesses. We're going to start here at Modu Coffee. If only there was a. Some kind of like, unbelievable, breakout international band here for us to bring with us. That would be the icing on the cake.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
Who would that be?
Bo
Oh, my God.
Josh
Oh, my God.
Nikki
It's Speed.
Josh
It's good to see you guys.
Bo
Speed is here and they're mic'd up.
Dennis
Miked up and ready to go.
Bo
Look at this. This is incred. The odds are high. We have, we have Jim, Dennis and Josh from Speed, and we're going to take them all around LA today, get to know them a little more, eat some yummy stuff, drink some yummy stuff.
Dennis
Chop some yummy stuff.
Bo
Yeah, just have a nice day. You guys want some coffee?
Jim
I would love to have.
Bo
I know you love Monster. Do you like coffee?
Jim
I'll have a coffee today.
Bo
Okay, there we go.
Josh
You can take it. One day off, one stretch.
Bo
Let's go in. Stephen.
Jim
Ms. Jib.
Bo
She's a legend. She's the owner, compriser, chef, owner, roastmaster. Who's the roast master? She doesn't. She's not the roastmaster, but she. She does the rest. What's. What's your favorite thing?
Jim
Yeah, depends. I like all the tonics.
Bo
I'll take an espresso tonic. Are you familiar with espresso tonic? They got that? Yeah, yeah, we.
Josh
We get them every now and then.
Jim
Down under. They got I love as best as harmony.
Josh
Australia doesn't play when it comes to film.
Bo
Really?
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
They got families.
Jim
They got me popping better than Europe.
Bo
Well, that's a good one. So, boys, you're in town for Coach Hilla right now?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
That's crazy to say. And we were talking outside earlier off camera about how that was just not even a goal of yours. Absolutely. How was that experience? How does that compare to something like sound and fury that you've played a few times now?
Jim
It was hard work. Yeah, it was harder work than I thought it was going to be.
Dennis
How so?
Jim
Well, you have a fucking tent full of normies who are down and engaged, but they don't know how to engage.
Dennis
Yeah, right.
Jim
And you want to come and we're trying to do the thing the same way. I mean, you want to have the same experience. Stand up, stand on your own two feet and just bring the vibe that we normally bring.
Bo
But you did achieve it. I've seen the whole sets out there for people to watch. You got people in Birkenstocks diving, you.
Jim
Know.
Bo
They'Re spin kicking in fucking red bottoms, you know, you don't think that's even possible. How did you do that?
Josh
Well, there was also like a bunch of hardcore people they were representing the entire time, which was cool.
Bo
That's crazy. Yeah, that doesn't happen, you know, like. Like Hans Zimmer couldn't even get me.
Josh
There, you know, I mean, dude, those guys saved our life. Those people, like, showed the rest of the audience, like, how to do this, which was. Which was very nice. I think without that, like, it would have been even harder. But I mean, it was. It was a fucking sick experience. Right. Like, I think we all are on the same page that we loved it and it was a huge opportunity. But like you say, how does it compare to something like sound and fury? I don't think it does, like, yeah, Sound of Fury is the sickest thing we've ever played.
Bo
That was really kind of like the new beginning of Speed was that Sound and fury where we talked to you guys that did that little mini interview, was that, like, who would have thought that day would be where things really kind of launched?
Jim
That was the life changing moment.
Dennis
Well, it's rare to, at this stage in our lives, having doing this for so long, to watch a band set and go, holy shit, they did it like That's a moment. You know what I mean? And that was a certifiable like, oh, they just, like, became a thing. You know what I mean?
Jim
It is, right? We.
Josh
That was our 15th show, you know what I mean? Like, because of COVID like, we had to. You know, we took a two year break or whatever, and then we came out of COVID and we had never, ever had any. I mean, like, we loved the idea of potentially maybe going overseas one day with the band, but we didn't expect it.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Was that the goal?
Josh
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, we were like, look, if we get the opportunity to go play in the US that'd be a. That'd be like, job done. You know what I mean? Like, we've ticked every box we could possibly want to tick. So we did that, and it was our 15th show, and we were like, oh, okay. Well, every. Every criteria for the band is satisfied now, so everything beyond this is untickable boxes. Right? So that's why it just kind of. It kind of just like, restarted the band for us. It, like, gave us a new. A whole new, like, motive.
Jim
Completely changed. It completely shifted the potential for anything that we, as Australia go back would ever achieve. Yes. Playing sound theory, like, 50 lines did it. No apologies. Did it? Anyone else?
Bo
No, no apologies. Was early too, but they kind of.
Jim
In, like, 2007 or something. But they kind of like, you know, that was already legendary to us, even just playing early in the day and just being on American soil, soccer thing. But my girlfriend was asking me, like, last night. She's like, like, okay, so how you feel? Like, how do you feel about the shirt? Like, how do you feel about Coachella? Because we always decompress, like, in the days after. She said, you don't seem too, like, overwhelmed or, like, nothing like that. And I was like, it was. It didn't. It wasn't mind blowing. Like, it wasn't a mind blowing experience because it was like you had to work for it. You know what I'm saying?
Josh
I got up there and I was.
Jim
Just like, what the. You know what I'm saying? It was literally felt like I was in. In, like, hellfest in the 90s when there's, like, dust balls going crazy. It felt like Woodstock or some crazy. But I was playing. You know what I mean? Coachella was like, just a.
Josh
Not. Not to say that we expected it or anything or, like, it was something that we take for granted at all. It was a incredible opportunity. And, like, when we got the offer, like, we were stoked to do it. But yeah, like, I guess to. To bring it back to sound of your. It's like you do that with no expectation. Everything beyond that kind of just feels like bonus.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
Stuff. It's all great at this point, you know, like the last. It's weird to say, like the last like three years of our lives since.
Bo
Kind of like you're in the free spins, bro. Yeah, you're re triggering every day.
Dennis
How was the vibe otherwise for. I've never been to Coachella. Never been there. Was. Did it feel like a. An industry kind of corporate thing?
Josh
Oh, 100%. Yeah. It's. I mean, firstly, I would say it's probably the biggest, like, event that any of us have been to before. Like, I think it's the biggest event.
Bo
You can go to.
Josh
Right. Yeah. There is like, you think you've seen like a big crowd of people and then it's like 100 times bigger than that. Like, it's. It was quite overwhelming in that sense. Just being around that many people.
Bo
You bump any elbows with anybody Cool.
Josh
My wife met Paris Hilton the other night. That was like star was blind banger. Yeah. That was a nice moment.
Bo
Yeah. Like, is Doichi skanking side stage while you're playing or what?
Josh
I mean, some of our friends in the. Hanging with or around Charlie XCX for a little bit. Like, you see a lot of. A lot of these kind of people, like, pretty cool around, but also like, they're like artist compound. Is every man and his dog there. It's a festival of itself.
Bo
A lot of non artists sound like.
Dennis
A lot of probably are these people.
Bo
What are your thoughts that I got to get inside your mind? It was cool.
Jim
I don't know.
Josh
Well, I got in.
Jim
I didn't. Like, I just went in there and.
Bo
It'S like you did your thing another day for me.
Josh
You know, we had a good time.
Jim
But it was good. It was.
Bo
It was really good time. But, you know, got to experience it.
Dennis
With like, a lot of people that there was no. I'm sorry to interrupt you. There was no moment during the set that I watched that was not like 100% speed, which I appreciated. Like, you guys didn't. You didn't do anything. There was no, like, gimmick. Like, that was the. The set you would play.
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Dennis
It's funny, the last. I didn't. I wasn't there at Coachella, obviously. But the last two times I've seen speed, one was Hellfest.
Josh
Yeah. Yeah.
Dennis
And then Coachella. So I've only. Recently. I've only Seen you at the first Sound and Fury, Hell Fest and Coachella, which are just giant crowds and. But obviously I've seen other videos and sets online. I love that. The consistency of the energy, the consistency of, like, what you guys are doing. And I think that's really important because if you. Obviously, if you went on stage at Coachella and you did like some new bullshit, I mean, it just wouldn't happen.
Josh
We kind of didn't have time to do anything like that anyway.
Dennis
Was it, like, rushed?
Josh
Well, I mean, just the year has been. We've done like a tour in Australia, which is just like a regional tour, essentially playing, like small venues all over Australia. Then we went to Europe with Mad Ball, and then the next thing was Coachella. We haven't stopped touring, which didn't change anything.
Jim
We haven't stopped touring since April last year. Yeah, like, we had two weeks off over Christmas.
Bo
How do you feel about that? Physically?
Jim
Is this way better than I thought, than I anticipated? I thought that at this point, bro, I would be like. I would have. Be. I've lost all my muscle mass. I'd just be like, fully. You know what I'm saying?
Bo
Like, still Jack, we have.
Jim
We have some methods. We have some. We have some Asian DNA.
Bo
Okay, that's good. You need that.
Jim
You want that. But we have some hacks that we're born with. But no, I. I feel amazing considering it all. Obviously, like, we're doing the best, like the most incredible of our lives now.
Dennis
Speaking of consistency, though, I have to ask you something, because one of the funniest things I've seen in recent memory was during the flute part at Coachella. You didn't do the second one. And a dude air fluted.
Bo
I didn't notice this. Right.
Josh
And he's like.
Dennis
He walks, he's like. He's like going by the stage. Dive past Jim and he's going like. And then you just didn't do it, did you?
Bo
Was that you were inviting him.
Dennis
I have to know for his sake. If you're watching, sir, this is the.
Jim
This was the first time I ever forgot to do it.
Bo
Oh, you forgot?
Jim
I fully just forgot because I. I think this is. It is. That was like. I was. I didn't anticipate.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
Every set that we. That we play, I feel like I am a personal trainer and I'm there and some. And. And I. Sometimes you've got someone who wants to be a bodybuilder, who wants to compete, and sometimes you've got the person that's just dragged in there and they don't even want to be there. So depending on the type of crowd you play into, you know what I'm saying? This show to me felt like I was like a commando, like at a fucking boot camp, like trying to like whip these people like like crazy, you know what I'm saying? It was like hard work.
Bo
So there's no time for flute.
Jim
I think at the end of it, I think I was just so in my head and I saw Aaron playing the bass part and I was like, oh, that's meant to be me. Oh, I just didn't do it. But I didn't notice until I watched the live stream back that this dude's just going doing it for me anyway.
Bo
So that you did a good job commanding. He knew what to do. He had never even heard that song and he had a flute.
Dennis
That has to be the first time ever anyone was mid stage. Dive and air flute, air fluting to no flute. Surely that's never happened before, ever.
Bo
It's a miracle. So you got a beautiful thing is that you got to dedicate the biggest set of your lives to two of your friends that had just passed. And like you guys, as the same core group of people has been in this band since the inception, the same core group of people, like lifted this band from local Sydney band to worldwide phenomenon. How is that getting to dedicate this beautiful moment to your friends?
Jim
We always like to say that we're just the product of a larger friendship group back at home. Like everything that I know, that we know, our values, the way that we see the world is all informed by just these friendships that we met. I don't like, I know that might sound corny to some people or like whatever. It's. When you go to shows when you're like 12 years old and you from a small place like Australia and Sydney especially, like, you're just. And there's not that many people like in the scene. Like you get to know each other so well over these years and anyways, I feel without going on like a crazy spiel, like, I feel like so grateful in my life that we found this thing called hardcore. Because I see so many other people, bro, that like, they don't get the same kind of excitement or they don't get the same kind of meaning out of the things that they're involved in in their lives. Because for hardcore, like, it's. We have power chords, it's spin kicks.
Bo
Amen.
Jim
It's so rudimentary. It's, it's, it's the Most primitive, simple, basic shit ever.
Bo
And every song's kind of about friendship at the end of the day, and people hear that and laugh peripherally. But we, we mean that shit literally.
Dennis
If, if you think that's corny in any way, you, you don't get it. You don't deserve to get it.
Jim
I get it more than ever when our best friends who we've met through this shit have passed away and have left us and have left the world with nothing but the memories and the experiences that we made together, which was so powerful, you know what I'm saying? Like, we're here in, in America doing this together, hanging out, doing all these amazing things because we just played in this, this kind of music that we thought as kids was, Would never amount to anything beyond a gig on the weekend. You know what I'm saying?
Dennis
Demo. Yeah.
Jim
And having Tommit up with us, Alex Arthur with us and RJ with us, like, these are some of our best friends that would, that we met through this shit, who were on stage with us at all the best moments of our lives. Like, Tahmid was with us and all the biggest shows we've ever played in Australia. And if he could have left Australia, he would have traveled with us too. RJ was with us when we played have Heart last year in Boston. He was only one release show in, like, la. Like, Alex Arthur was at the very first Sound and Fury with us. And the second one, you know what I'm saying? Like, these are guys that. You know what it's like when you have your homies behind you on stage, just there with you.
Dennis
Like, moshing on stage should be pointed.
Jim
Out, but just that feeling of like.
Bo
Oh, I'm good, they're here.
Jim
Yeah.
Dennis
Yeah.
Jim
And I don't know, I feel like the only way that we can respond to, like, the. I'm trying to get heavy on this shit. But, like, it was. It's been devastating to lose these people. The only way to respond that is just to continue, like, pushing their legacy.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
Because I feel so lucky that we were the ones that got to know, like, RJ and Tahmid and Alex and, And also selfishly, just having their banners up there with us.
Dennis
Oh, no, that was like.
Bo
Oh, that fuels you.
Jim
But it's like, it's like it felt like they were there. Like, R would have, they would have been so fucking stoked knowing that we were playing this, like, and just even more so than I, like, I, I, I. Yeah, I don't know. It's. That's just. Yeah, yeah.
Dennis
It's perfect.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Beautiful.
Jim
It's awesome.
Bo
I'm gonna check on our stuff before we transition into something else. Pardon this first ever interruption on the all new Hard Lore Channel. There's just something really cool we gotta talk to you about real quick.
Dennis
I've been dying to talk to you.
Bo
Guys about this every single week now. We've been telling you about the Sight for Sound program by Nevin Eyewear. You can see in the episode already. Beau and I both have our Nevin glasses on. And that's because we're in touring bands, we make music, we contribute to this industry. And if you do too, you go to siphersound.com you're going to get free prescription glasses and sunglasses.
Dennis
That's absolutely right. Let me read some of the fine print here. Quite literally. Guys. Do you drive? Do you do merch? Do you tech? Do you front of house? Do you do monitors? Do you play in the band? What do you do? You go to this site, you fill out the questionnaire you're in.
Bo
You're getting glasses within a few weeks. So just go get your eyes checked at a local eye physician. Optometrist.
Dennis
That's the one.
Bo
I guess that would be the title. And then in a few weeks, you're gonna have free glasses and sunglasses. So please just do it. We're so honored to bring you this message. You got Earth Crisis hitting us up saying, thanks guys. Just got my glasses. Every day I'm seeing somebody cool. It can be you as well. And Speed, they need glasses too. As we can. As we've heard, of course, everybody needs glasses, including you. Get on it. Cyphersound.com Back to this incredible first episode on the brand new Hard Lore Channel. Enjoy.
Jim
I know that this is going to be fire no matter what because I can smell it. And. But just look at this cup. You can serve anything in this cup and charge whatever the you want and it's gonna. You know it's gonna smack.
Josh
Give me that.
Jim
All right.
Josh
Ready?
Dennis
Milk, Cream bun.
Jim
But yeah. So since then. And I just have kept the same membership since then.
Dennis
When was that?
Jim
2013.
Dennis
Okay.
Bo
Crushing. Dude. You used to have really long hair.
Jim
I did.
Bo
I think you look better. I think this is you, man. You know what I'm saying?
Josh
I think so.
Dennis
For sure.
Bo
I think you figured it out.
Jim
I think you both figured it out too.
Bo
This ain't about us. 2019. Speed starts. Tell me about putting the demo together. Who's primarily writing this stuff? How does this five group of guys get assembled? The Australian Avengers. Some would Some would say.
Josh
I would too.
Jim
I want to sing in the band. I want to do it back with my brother.
Bo
Thank you.
Jim
Brother didn't play anything.
Bo
He's so silly, your brother.
Jim
He's silly.
Bo
He comes up and you're like. He comes up, he's smiling and you're like, there he is.
Jim
You know, quote him when he's smiling. That's a good dick.
Bo
Oh, he. That's a. He's got an infectious smile.
Josh
He can get a silly weeding. He's a fucking bastard, to be honest.
Bo
Really?
Josh
Yeah, my brother's a bastard.
Bo
That's a standard brother mentality.
Josh
He's an evil little guy.
Bo
Ye.
Josh
He's seriously. He's just a cheeky little.
Bo
That's a silly thing to be, though, isn't evil. So, you know, whatever impression you have.
Jim
Of my little brother from Spade, fuck that.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
He's a boss.
Bo
He's evil bastard.
Josh
He's a sick guy.
Jim
No, he's the best. I love him.
Bo
So who's writing this demo? Yeah. What's the vibe? What's the intention coming into it?
Jim
There's one of the. Right.
Josh
Just wanted to write.
Jim
Just wanted to write the hardwood that I wanted to hear. And I remember that the references back then, that was like. I wanted to sound like something like Minus meets Minus nine.
Bo
Minus is an influence for Speed.
Jim
Because also when I'm thinking about my best, especially then going into it, like, my favorite records that I was referencing were mostly like 7 inches and stuff, like. And I was going back to the. That I was listening to when we were in, like later high school, you know, coming out of high school. And it was like that Soul Search EP, King 9, Criminal Instinct, that kind of stuff. And so anyways, Minus.
Dennis
It's crazy.
Bo
I think I went to every Minus show.
Jim
It's just because. Because it's just tough. Yeah, it's just tough without trying to be overly gimmickly hard or like how a lot of stuff is now. And like, it's. It's literally just fucking tough. Hard, hard music, you know?
Bo
Hear that, Travis? You did great.
Jim
But anyways, put that.
Bo
Travis from Minus owns a pizza place called Back Bench in Ventura now. Check it out.
Dennis
Very, very in theme with today's episode.
Bo
Very good.
Dennis
Who's. Who's riffing? Who's coming up with riffs?
Josh
Really running everything, essentially.
Dennis
Really?
Jim
Wow. And then it was just. The only. The only criteria for starting a band, in my opinion, is with your homies. Yeah. And it was a Harkle band. Moshes.
Bo
Yeah. So that's kind of the best Marshes.
Josh
Make the best bands.
Bo
That's the rules. Dennis.
Jim
That was it.
Bo
That's how I know. Dennis, I feel like.
Jim
Is. Which pit.
Bo
Which pit?
Jim
Are you talking about this. Are you talking about the fullback situation or.
Bo
No, no, no, no.
Dennis
This is.
Bo
I mean, I think we. I don't know if we probably met. You came to America before I went to Australia.
Jim
Yes.
Bo
Right.
Jim
And we met at your.
Bo
At the pit. The OG pit.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
It's pretty cool.
Jim
What year? 2013. What tour were you on?
Josh
I was riding out.
Jim
Take offense.
Bo
Minus, you know, likeness call comes back to minus. So crazy. Yeah. So what. What's the state of Australian hardcore in 2019? Like, what's. What's going on that you're. That you're. You're going thinking, we need this. I need. We need this.
Jim
Now, this is a really good question because, like, speed was really intentional when we started. It was. We. Sometimes I think maybe the narrative about speed is that, like, oh, it just came out of nowhere. But, like, we really specifically started this with the mission in mind because hardcore was so insane during the mid-2000s, when we all fell into it because of Parkway Drive. It was massive.
Bo
Right.
Jim
But then from the, like, 2014s onwards into Covid, it dwindled, bro.
Bo
Like, it was so funny because I came in 2014.
Jim
That was the.
Josh
I mean, that was probably the tail end of a good era. And then from there, it kind of.
Bo
That Break the Ice was incredible set.
Jim
Like, it was.
Bo
That was also cool.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
2012. And it was good.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
2015. And it was different.
Josh
Yeah, for sure.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
I feel like when Harm's Way came the second time, it was a little bit of an anomaly because Australia does reward bands that come back, definitely. Do you know what I mean? And I feel like, like, you guys are a great example of that. I feel like every time Harm's Way comes to Australia, it's gets bigger and better every time.
Dennis
Absolutely.
Josh
But for the most part, yeah, from about 2015 onwards, the amount of bands coming to Australia reduced pretty drastically.
Bo
Those are the dark times.
Josh
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think, like, people say it was kind of similar over here as well, but, like, with Australia being so remote, you, like, you really felt the difference from, like, when we were growing up, getting into it, to then being in our late 20s and, like, barely being able to go to a show with, like, 50 people at it, you know what I mean? And maybe one or two bands coming from overseas every year. And, like, even then, like, it was only, like, the biggest Ones Terror's Coming. What? Right. Yeah, yeah.
Dennis
What Australian band during that time, during the dark time, who was bearing the load?
Josh
I would say probably. I mean, Primitive Blast was super active. That's when they were doing all that. Iron Mind. Yeah.
Dennis
Iron Mind did a Life and Death tour that we did. Yeah, yeah. They opened and they were like consummate professionals.
Josh
Oh, yeah.
Bo
New record coming soon.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Mixed by my brother.
Dennis
Oh, very sick.
Josh
Yeah. But when. I mean, they kind of wound up and then were like. From the moment that they stopped, like, you kind of tell that things were slowing down as well.
Bo
But.
Josh
Yeah, yeah. Like Primitive Blast, I think Ill Natured were doing a lot of stuff around that time.
Dennis
If you guys have heard them after getting back. It was kind of my mission because I've done a bunch of tours, a lot of overseas tours, and rarely am I, like, impressed by what's going on Australia right now. I've never seen such a plethora of bands where all of us in. In the band afterwards, like, did you see. They were good. And this was happening every show because we. There were.
Bo
He couldn't wait to report to me.
Dennis
That I could not.
Josh
That's awesome.
Bo
What are. Give me some of them.
Dennis
The chain.
Jim
Yep, yep.
Dennis
Implode, who are like young kids. They didn't even have a. They didn't even have a.
Josh
We just played with them in Melbourne.
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
Young man.
Dennis
Yeah, Melbourne. We played with them at that Revs bar with the cages.
Jim
Right.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
And Blood Mouth recovered. Blood Mouth is incredible.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
Blood Mouth is. I can't believe I may go vegan. He sent me the new record last night. I'll send it to you. But Implode, like Covered Breakdown. It sounded like Breakdown. And they're like 19, you know, they're young. Jailed.
Bo
Oh, yeah.
Dennis
Timepiece, obviously. Friend of the show. Robin singing in Timepiece.
Bo
Legend.
Dennis
But yeah, there's just like a plethora of bands going on right now. And I want to know. You have to know that in part that's because of you guys.
Josh
I mean, we would never agree. Yeah. I mean, I think. I don't think we would ever take any credit for it, but, like, we were talking about it the other day, and I think the. The big shift in Australia in the last few years as well. That kind of sets it apart from that. Like, pre Covered Era is, for the first time, there's a new generation.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
And there just hasn't been one for so long. Like, we were pushing 30 and we were still the young people.
Jim
We came in as the young kids. At the New Jacks that were getting teased and bullied and all that kind of for. And having our own fun and creating our own little groups, you know, as you do when you come in. And then fucking 10 years later we're like looking around being like still the last ones left.
Bo
Yeah, we still the last ones left.
Jim
And I think that was a big reason as well because like people, new kids didn't start coming to shows and also the people that fizzled out, like start talking shit on about hardcore. Like the whole mood about hardcore amongst a lot of people in Australia was like apathetic. Like people were too cool for they're moving on to like other stuff like and whatever. And we were still in it and being like.
Bo
Exactly.
Jim
We also went through our own things, our own journey of it being like. Like maybe is it over? Like I don't know. And, and. But we came to a decision as a group of friends. Like nah, this is the best shit ever.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
It's like I. I love this shit.
Jim
More as I'm getting older. You know what I'm saying?
Bo
I feel the same.
Dennis
Yeah, absolutely.
Bo
Youth Crew lyrics from 1986 have never hit harder than Chili Butt in my mid-30s.
Dennis
But yeah, I mean I'm not trying to make you feel bashful or to un humble you in any way, but surely you have to identify that if that Boom started around 2020 or post Covid.
Jim
I think that we are part of.
Dennis
We are part of the wave.
Jim
Part of a wave that's happening everywhere in the world. We happen to be a band that started at the right time with the right intentions in 2019, going into Covid, when you had lockdown and all that, who would have known what would happen? Sure. Or if you put that on paper, it's everything would have pointed to hardcore Darring. You can't go to shows you disconnected what's gonna happen? You know what I'm saying? And it was the thing that made hardcore the biggest has ever been.
Bo
Like wall and gong is probably lit as right now.
Jim
Yes. Literally.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
And that's unimaginable.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
When we were growing up we were. There would be 15 to 20 day tours, all ages shows in Australia. I know that concept is a bit weird, maybe outside of Australia, but in Australia, like because of the laws we have to have specifically all ages and 18 plus anyways all ages shows died out. But in growing up, like seeing these kind of shows, like long tours all over different parts of Australia with big ass rooms, with. With a thing. Not big ass rooms, but like yeah. Good attendees. Yeah. And that all died. And Speed just did a. We just did a 17 date Australian tours, like regional areas and it was all sold out with local bands, only 100 Australian. And I'm not saying that to Flex like what we've done. I'm saying that because we are literally here being like everything we dreamed about getting back to for the last 12 years. Like it's literally happening. Yeah. And it's a movement and it's on board.
Bo
Better now than it.
Dennis
Yeah, it seemed better for sure.
Josh
Yeah. Not to like. I. I know what you're saying, but like, we're like, we're not. We're not like talking about this to pat ourselves on the back. But also like Jem said, we started this band with a very specific intention because we weren't happy with like the state of things. We were like this thing that we care about so much that we know all of our friends from is dying. And that sucks. So we had this idea of what we wanted hardcore to be and I guess we just kind of manifested and try to put everything that we could into action to bring it to a place where it was something awesome that like everybody could celebrate and, you know, everybody had the right intentions with it and that's honestly kind of what we're living at the moment. Like it's.
Bo
You're about to say it's exactly like Hate Breed.
Dennis
It's exactly like Jostle. That was what he did.
Jim
Yes.
Bo
Did you think the same thing I did? He saw, got kicked out of a fugazi show for moshing and then went home and started Hate Breaking.
Dennis
But so did his friends. Yeah, they got kicked out too. And they're like, well, there's a need. Let's make this. Let's fill a needle for Speed.
Jim
Thank you.
Bo
You guys want to go look at some old and hardcore shirts?
Josh
Yes. That sounds awesome.
Bo
We're here with Speed. We're back. We're at Varsity in Los Angeles where they've got all kinds of crazy vintage denim. They make their own jackets and pants. But in the back tucked is a secret little vintage store with some of the best hardcore shirts of all time. Metal. Everything you need. So we're going to go check it out.
Jim
Let's go check.
Dennis
He really took it away with him.
Jim
That was a good intro. Oh, G. How are you, bro? How are you? Nice to see you. Hey.
Bo
This is Vic. He's the owner and proprietor of Mills Vintage. He's from Russia. Yeah, we had to surprise him. He's from Russia. You may recognize him. There's a picture of him when he was very young. Off padded up dude. They went multi platinum on tub.
Dennis
Oh, that was you?
Bo
Yes. You didn't you know I'm fucking around?
Dennis
I had no idea.
Bo
No. Come on. Come on.
Dennis
Oh, that poster. Steven.
Jim
Stopping him. Vic. Dad. Nice.
Bo
We're back here. We're in mills vintage. I just wanted this beautiful backdrop of old ass expensive shirts to talk about. Let's see what we can find in here. Jim. Pick. Pick me a winner, would you?
Jim
Pick you a winner. All right.
Josh
I mean I already found one. Over here.
Dennis
Everybody have a look.
Jim
Get on.
Josh
The fury of 5t is crazy.
Bo
There you go.
Josh
What kind of print is. I mean, ink. Yeah, it just. It takes on a different quality after a while.
Bo
Absolutely. Let's see. They call that discharge.
Josh
That's a lot of colors.
Bo
It is. That's too many.
Josh
That didn't print that.
Bo
This had to have been expensive in 1980, you know. Beautiful.
Josh
I haven' 90 baseball tee, riding breakdowns, pinch harmonics.
Bo
Is that true, bro?
Jim
When you look at the demo cover and you look at the whole layout of it. Is Mad Ball.
Bo
Is Mad Ball.
Jim
Yes. We toured with Mad Ball last month in Europe. And I was on stage literally being like, just fucking look at the demo. Look at the Speed logo. Like you could.
Bo
Who designed the Speed logo?
Jim
Pat Galvin.
Bo
You know Pat?
Jim
Oh, I know Pat Galvin from Canberra in Australia.
Josh
Known.
Bo
Well, he did the Gods Hate logo. He was one of my mortal enemy for about a month. And then my great friend for many.
Jim
Years, this Parkway Drive logo legend. He's a beast.
Dennis
About Patty Bean.
Bo
I told it in another episode. But when we toured with I Exist, which is how we met Aaron. Before the tour, I found a tweet online from an account named Attrickgalvin.
Jim
Okay.
Bo
He was anonymous on there, but the tweet was. Oh, my God. Twitching tongues. Sucks so fucking bad. I can't believe I have to tour with this fan. Oh. So I'm going into the tour like, I gotta find this Patrick Galvin guy. Day one, I find a passport in the urinal. Patrick Galvin in the urinal, in the urinal. Pissed out. What the fuck was I doing there? And I. I brave it. I pick up, find it. And then me and Patty are boys. Day 2. Have a great time.
Josh
Thank God.
Bo
Yeah. Hatchet Way Buried. And then he designed multiple albums for me. It is what it is.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
So what do we got here? The visual aspects of Speed, I think, are so integral to the band. Like the demo has the logo is borderline the same as it is now. You figured it out very early. So how intense. We know now the band itself was very intentional. How intentional are all the visual aspects of the band who's doing that?
Jim
There's no. There's no, like, curated or, like, orchestrated kind of formula with what we do. It's for the demo, for example. You go back to it. One train of thought that we had was that people probably hear this and they might just think that we're an Australian band.
Bo
Cool.
Jim
I'm sorry. They might just think we're an American band. Sorry. Yeah. So it was really important that we put our. A photo of ourselves on it so people could see what we look like totally behind the music. And that was an intentional part about, like, promoting Australian hardcore culture is that you can see what the people of Alcine kind of look like. And I guess that's just kind of been the. The running theme. It's just that, like, we're just championing, like, who we are as individuals. Just putting that in the front, you know, that's why the album is like a photo.
Bo
I love that album cover.
Jim
Thank you. Love it.
Dennis
And you say that that's not, like, curated or intent, but that's so, like.
Bo
You just described it.
Dennis
You described full intent in a beautiful way. Because it's authentic, I guess.
Jim
I mean, this visually, though, it's not like we're, hey, you wear this and we wear this.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
Or like we're gonna, like, do that. Like, it's just when we did the we see you video, the first video that we did, it was referencing down by Law.
Bo
First movie.
Jim
The first movie. The Down By Law video, the punishment video, Shades of gray. And then literally our Sydney Harbor Bridge was the Brooklyn Bridge. You know what I'm saying? We were just like, this is the. We love. This is the kind of like, the. That looks fresh to us and. But we're just gonna do it our way and be the people in that scene, you know, in the movie. So.
Bo
Is that true, Dennis? Yep. Cool. That's facts. He's digging factually.
Jim
Who is.
Bo
Who is physically designing because all your merch is cohesive. Even though. Even when it's different, it's like. It's a very. It's very eye catching. It's very gq.
Jim
Aaron. Aaron, Aaron.
Bo
Your brother.
Jim
Yeah. We were literally, like, the last thing we did last night was we were just in the room just going through the designs and the last merch for this next tour that we're coming up, for example, and. And me and him Were just like, going through it each day. And Aaron's like, Aaron is a beast. Aaron's.
Bo
He's the secret weapon.
Jim
Aaron grew up as a hip hop dancer. He was like karma loop and like, you know, that kind of. When he was like 11 or 12, really, he started his, like, clothing brand thingy out of his bedroom when he.
Josh
Was like, I don't know, 18 or something.
Jim
Yeah. Like at a high school. And he wasn't in the hardcore until later. And I think he married, like, his approach to starting a street small. I mean, when I say it's a streetwear, like, thing, it's just. He just does it out of his bedroom. But, like, marrying that with the culture.
Bo
Bedroom is on a street.
Dennis
Every. Every band is a brand in some extent.
Jim
You know what I mean?
Dennis
So it's. It. It translates very well.
Jim
I think he found the story with Adam. Finding Harcourt, though, is the sickest thing for us. Because he found it because of the culture first and the music second.
Dennis
Beautiful.
Jim
He was like, all of your friends, Jim, are like, into this. And you guys all have these bonds. And you guys talk the same. You share the same values, blah, blah. You do the same. And I identify with that. And then you found the music after. And so anyways, he comes in a lot of this from a different angle. Yeah. With that in his mind. And it's having the secret weapon.
Dennis
Sorry, having a shirt wizard in the band. There are certain roles that if you have them in the band, it's invaluable.
Bo
It's the greatest hack known to me.
Dennis
You've got several.
Bo
I got a couple. Because you have got Martin.
Dennis
Yeah, Martin. And you got your brother to record.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
That's a huge role.
Bo
We gotta have these hacks. You got Dennis OG Masher.
Jim
I mean, Dennis is. Dennis is like one of the biggest hacks. Dennis is like the.
Bo
Like, you can't.
Jim
You cannot, like, you cannot type in like. Okay. We're in the age of going to AI and chat GPT all that kind of. You cannot type in nothing into that system to spit this cunt out. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is pure. A gift of the earth that's just.
Dennis
Come out of that is.
Jim
Yeah.
Dennis
The most Australian thing I've ever heard of. Nothing. You could type into chat GPT to spit this out.
Bo
The facts. What do we got here, Vic? Anything new for me? So many things. I see this right here.
Dennis
There's this right there.
Bo
We're just talking about. Sick of It All.
Jim
That's another one.
Bo
They tour Australia A lot.
Jim
They just came in the last year recently.
Dennis
Yeah, it was good.
Jim
They played the Marrickville Bolo, which is like literally a 200 cap pub.
Josh
A lawn balls club. You guys have long balls in the US Long balls. Lawn balls.
Bo
Lawn balls. Sorry, I was thinking about something else.
Dennis
I was gonna say. Yeah, we do. Trust me.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
I think That's Madaleo, right?
Nikki
Jeb.
Bo
96.
Jim
This is something that speed references. The Spud Monsters. This is a speed reference.
Bo
Oh, wow.
Josh
What did they put.
Bo
I saw that too.
Jim
You saw this?
Bo
No, they have.
Jim
Oh, oh, right, right.
Bo
You guys are Spud Monsters. Heads. You're pulling Minus and Spud Monsters into speed, bro.
Jim
I love bias.
Bo
It is.
Jim
This is like the. This was like the warm up bihazard or the bio.
Bo
The homie spud monster saying, replace Evan. Right. Spun monsters in the drama of the Lighthouse. Right. Post Danny. And then. But then the homie spun monster sang for Evan in his place. Right? Didn't he?
Jim
I don't.
Bo
I may be wrong, but I don't think I am.
Jim
Look this up on YouTube and you will hear some things that you've heard on the speed record.
Bo
Wow.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
Hard as fuck.
Bo
What's the most out of the box thing you've ever ripped off?
Dennis
Give them. Give them the example.
Bo
I. I took. The gotta intro is started as a. From a Barry White song.
Josh
Oh, wow.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
That's nuts.
Jim
There's definitely a couple things, but I can't disclose. I. No, no, I can. I can disclose anything. I can't. I can't think of it.
Bo
Okay. This is embroidered.
Jim
I have to keep thinking.
Bo
What about you?
Josh
I mean, none of them. None of them are crazy, like niche stuff. Right? Like it's. It's generally just hardcore, so you know, it takes them from.
Jim
No, but there's definitely like.
Bo
Like out of the box where you're taking a jazz riff and turn it into a breakdown.
Jim
There's a lot of things, though, that I'm like a lot of the times.
Josh
Well, Jim's a pretty musical guy too, you know, Like.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
You have a background in music.
Jim
Yeah, I will. Like, for example, like, I. There's definitely a couple songs where I've heard, like, if you. I'll have playlists where I'm like saving things I've heard to reference for speed.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
But a lot of it is just like. It might just be like a jungle song that I heard like last month or something.
Bo
Well, there's a long silver cylindrical elephant in the room here. The flute. What do you. How. What happened there I imagine you've been playing flute for a long time from day one where you got. Were you like, you know, guys, this might be the part where we could put the flute in. And they're like, no.
Dennis
And you're like, shut up.
Bo
Was it one day they were finally ready to think.
Jim
Everybody else was like that to me my whole life. Everyone was like, when you gonna put the flute in, uncles? Like, when are you gonna do it? I'm like, why the fuck would I ever do that?
Bo
Okay.
Jim
Like, how would it ever possibly work?
Bo
You found a way. Much like Jurassic Park.
Jim
The thought. The story for me playing the flute, bro, is that I'm just like most other Asian kids out there in a western. Went to, like, a western school where they have a band program, and I was given the flute and I was, like, sick, and I did the lessons, and I actually. Sorry. The other. The difference, though, is that my parents being Asian, aren't actually that culturally Asian in the sense that they never pushed me to do, really. But I got to the age of, like, 17 or whatever, I was still playing it. Every time I wanted to quit the flute, I was like, but my parents have paid, like, this extra money. Money. I can't just quit now. Anyways, I went to uni. I did in university. Like, flute? Yeah.
Bo
Damn. Wow, you're a. A learned flautist.
Jim
At the end of high school, I was like, I don't know what I want to do. I just want to do music. And my flute teachers are. Music teacher was like, you should try it for the conservatorium. So I just did it because I couldn't go and play hard with guitar school or whatever. So I did that, and then I became a flute teacher. I did that for 14 years. Until.
Dennis
14 years.
Jim
That was my job, like, until last year when. Wow.
Dennis
They got any big venues or, like, opera houses in Sydney that you could play?
Jim
Have you done that Opera House? Yeah.
Bo
No.
Dennis
Did you really?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
You rocked the flute up the Opera House?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
What?
Jim
What? It was like in high school, I got, like, picked to do my high school performance at the opera house or something.
Bo
Did you have a shirt on? I wouldn't personally, I wouldn't have if I was.
Jim
That was pre gym. I hadn't been for, like, another three, four years before that. Yeah.
Dennis
Were you a skinny guy?
Jim
I was a. I was a fat guy growing up, and then I became like. I guess like a skinny fat guy when I was. I don't know, bro. I would have been going up there with, like, the alien from American dad physique.
Bo
Oh, that's about mine.
Dennis
I got that.
Josh
I got.
Bo
That's fine.
Dennis
There's many of us.
Bo
Yeah, we're out there.
Dennis
We're so.
Bo
I am from American Dad.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
I'm more of a Brian Griffin guy. Yeah, physically.
Jim
But you guys.
Bo
You guys are fucking killing us. It's about.
Dennis
When you are. This is kind of an abstract question, but when you guys are trying to. To plan a shirt, when you have an idea that you want to give your brother or, you know, you want something, do you pull from any particular band's catalog? Like, is like. Like a riff.
Bo
You go to millsvintage.com and screenshot.
Jim
We definitely have. We definitely have. Barely.
Bo
Oh, I do it all the time.
Dennis
You have to.
Josh
I will say we've taken, like, flyers from af. And I mean. Yeah, the Mad Ball logo thing is a good example. Biohazard. We borrow from them for a lot of tour.
Jim
A lot of tour posters that we do or tour shirts. Yeah, Like, I think those are the. Probably the. There's definitely, like, a couple Mad Bull Europe tees from Mills that we've screenshotted and been like, this kind of layout fresh, you know what I'm saying? But just referencing the classics. Sick of it all is a big one. Like, bro, we're Asian and we'd like dragons and shit, but, like, stickers all have the dragon.
Bo
They got the best dragon.
Jim
I'm saying.
Bo
Yeah. So steamy and the mob deep. Agreed.
Jim
Yeah. That's the other thing is that sometimes Adam will pull out stuff too, and he'll be like, yo, this is fucking sick.
Bo
Or he's approaching it from a different perspective. That's cool.
Dennis
Yeah, that is cool.
Bo
He got it all. Yeah, you got fucking Kardashians in your shit. What's the. What was your first impression of that? Because, I mean, the first, like, hardcore mind. You look at that and you're like, ah, come on. But then a guy from Sydney, mine, you go, that's kind of crazy. Hectic ass.
Jim
Everything. Everything with speed, bro. This whole experience is a piss take. It's just a piss day. It's just like, what next? You know what I'm saying? Everything is just a laugh. And I'm. I welcome it because it makes for a incredible varied life experience. You know what I'm saying?
Bo
So that was beautiful.
Jim
Meeting the card, bro. We played. We played the shrine with Knock Loose last year and Travis messaging Dennis's homie. He's messaging being like, I'm gonna pull up.
Dennis
I'm gonna pull up with the wife, the homie Travis.
Jim
So we're opening with Knock Loose. Had old mate from Sepultura, Toby Morse. Xyz. Like, the most LA ever. And then Travis Scott. Sorry. Travis Barker and Courtney Kardashian on the seats guest list.
Bo
Wow.
Jim
They came and watched us. And then I went and spoke to.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
At that show. I thought I'd blow my voice.
Bo
Oh, no.
Jim
And we were 10 days in the knock list. Two. And I was freaking out. And I was like, holy, I still have, like 60 shows ahead of me. What am I gonna do? And I was sitting, trying to, like, gather my thoughts after we played. And then they're like, yo, Travis. And Courtney's over there. So I was like, I'm gonna go say what's up? I walked over and then Courtney was there and she's like telling me they'd have. They just had a baby called Rocky. And she was like, when I see Rocky, I. I go up to him and I. And I do this voice where I talk to him like.
Bo
Like this.
Dennis
And.
Jim
And Travis was like, oh, you. You should try being like a hardcore vocalist. You sound like the guy from Speed. And so what? And she told me that she was watching this play from side stage and she was like, I reckon I could do this. I reckon I could do this. And I was there being, like, sick nice. And in my head, I was like, what? I want to tell Gemma, my girlfriend, about this when I get home. And this is a weird conversation with, like, someone who's meant to be quite famous.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
But she was super down to earth. And, bro, they literally. They literally got an Uber to see us and start their date night at the feature on that.
Josh
It was Mother's Day. They're doing Mother's Day.
Bo
Really?
Jim
They went after Good Day.
Bo
And she's a mother.
Josh
She's a mother.
Bo
Makes you think.
Jim
But they were down.
Bo
Wow.
Jim
Beautiful.
Dennis
Unless we forget, of course, Shaq, Dude, Shaq loves speed.
Bo
The homie Shaq is why I got a Twitter. In 2009. I saw a picture of him eating an ice cream cone. And I was like, I gotta get on this. Shaq was.
Josh
I don't think I've ever met somebody who wanted to be in a place less than Shaq, really.
Jim
Not that we met him.
Josh
It was at the meet and greet. He had something. He did a tour of Australia where he just did, like, DJs, speaking engagements. Some, like, promoter just brings out, like, Hasbullah and him and, like, a bunch of people.
Bo
Shaq and Hasbulla tour.
Josh
Well, yeah, I think they Linked us on that Slick.
Bo
I gotta get on that.
Josh
But he did, like, this big spoken word performance, I guess, at the casino. And they did a big meet and greet after. And we were in the room, and it was probably like 500 people had meet and greet tickets. And they would have spent, like, thousand bucks or something to do this. And I reckon maybe a third of them actually got to meet and greet Shaq, and the rest all got sent home. But they ushered us, like, to the front of the thing right before, and we were like, we'll just go like, we don't have to do this.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
Anyway, push us onto this stage. And we walk up, and he's standing there in front of, like, a photo wall. And we're like, shaq, what's up? And he was like, hey, take the photo. And then he was fucking out of there.
Bo
Really?
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
He was done.
Dennis
He was sleepy.
Bo
Charles.
Josh
Marco. Wasn't there no Charles Bar. I mean, that would have been electric to have them both.
Bo
Chuck. I love the thing that put.
Jim
That made Shaq seem so huge was the fact that the height. Dennis. Him standing next to me, bro. The photo.
Bo
You.
Jim
You look at the photo and look at Shaq, and then look at Dennis. Dennis literally looks like a small child.
Bo
Yeah, he's a big guy. Yeah.
Jim
Especially when it's just the five of us rolling all the time. Like, Dennis is, like, outbeat.
Bo
Dennis is. Yeah, Dennis his dad.
Jim
And then next to Shaq, I was like, you're his little baby.
Bo
Do you guys have a favorite hardcore T shirt of all time?
Josh
Honestly, I'm holding a book of hardcore shirts at the moment. And there was one at the top, which I think might be the one.
Bo
Ryan from Desperate Measures Big shout out this incredible book.
Josh
There's a Iceman Tea in here somewhere. Probably that right there.
Bo
Oh, yeah.
Josh
That design tells you what the band sounds like. Do you know what I mean?
Dennis
Oh, interesting.
Bo
I can see that song is five minutes long. Isn't that crazy?
Dennis
What was your favorite, Chip?
Jim
I can't find. I can't find it.
Bo
Which one?
Dennis
What is it?
Jim
Cup Athe and Krispy Kreme.
Bo
Oh, dude.
Josh
Old Australian Harcourt van called Carpathian. They put a record out on Death Wish, but before that, they sounded like on Broken Wings. And they were the band of the mid 2000 in Australia around the time where, like, just taking the logo and ripping off.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
Anything in the world could be a design.
Dennis
Sure.
Josh
And they had one that was just a white T shirt, Krispy Kreme logo, but it said Carpathian instead.
Bo
Wow.
Josh
And any show that you went to in Australia in 2006, 2007. You would see at least 30 of those shirts.
Bo
So that was your kids like us coke shirt.
Josh
100%. Yes, exactly.
Dennis
The First Blood Fruit Loops.
Bo
First blood was hard as. You get any of those coming in here, you can probably get that one on Matt Vino Philly Cream cheese. That one's good. Oh, wow.
Dennis
You're right. Didn't.
Bo
Didn't first blood make a Frosted Flakes.
Dennis
One after the Wild success Tony on it. Yeah, but anything is possible. The Fruit Loops one might have stopped a bullet.
Bo
Oh, so thick.
Dennis
It was so thick.
Bo
It was printed with milk. Actual milk. First time ever. Vic, what's your favorite hardcore shirt of all time? Nice. I mean, how many of those are there? Do you think I have one.
Dennis
You do, do you?
Jim
Wow.
Bo
James Vital's got one.
Dennis
So there's two.
Bo
Randy Singh's got one.
Dennis
That's three.
Bo
Ryan's got one.
Dennis
Okay, so we know. We know.
Jim
5.
Bo
Hoya wore his all the time, which is awesome. When he was in the band, they reprinted him. Isn't that crazy that the fact that you could just go buy the demise shirt at a merch table at a show. They don't know what they. How lucky you are. That's a good. It's a good pick. I love that they. It's printed inverted because they were probably like. I don't know what the. What the is inversion.
Jim
This. I don't know what the equivalent is in. In America, but.
Bo
Oh yeah, this was the.
Jim
This is the most popular hardcore tee, at least in my memory, when we were in the mid 2000s in Australia. No apologies.
Bo
Is it the Tui Reaper long sleeve? Oh, that one's good.
Jim
This.
Dennis
I would say it would be the Tui Reaper shirt. The outbursts or. I'm sorry, the outbreak.
Jim
Outbreak.
Bo
Yours come.
Dennis
Your scum shirt.
Josh
That's what that bro. That's what that is.
Jim
The.
Josh
Your scum T shirt of Australia. That's the one where you go to the shopping center on the weekend and there's a dude sitting out the front of the kfc and he looks at you and he's got no Apollo. Geez. He looks at you and goes.
Bo
And you go, the kfc?
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
Tell me about KFC in Australia.
Josh
I mean, it's probably one of the best Swans. We don't have as much fast food as you guys have.
Dennis
Oporto and I with it. Oh my God, I love that. The prego sauce.
Josh
Yeah. Bondi. Bondi Beach.
Dennis
So good.
Jim
The thing about Australia is That we don't have as much fox food. It's a different culture and we don't have that much food identity. But what we do have is really high quality agriculture and high quality food products. So like KFC in Australia is. And McDonald's for example, is different because just the quality of the beef and the quality of the chicken, whatever is just. It's just fresh. And I mean that in all terms of the words.
Josh
With that said, if you eat kfc, there's a pretty strong chance you're going to need the toilet. Like. Yeah.
Bo
Oh, really?
Dennis
Immediately, it crosses all cultural bounds. Yeah, no problem.
Josh
But that's part of the experience. You want to flush yourself out, you go to ksu.
Dennis
You see that poison on your shirt?
Bo
Yeah. It's cropped. I tried it on.
Jim
Is it?
Dennis
How cropped?
Bo
It's very cropped. I still almost got it.
Josh
How many like $700 shirts have you destroyed by chopping the of?
Bo
Many, to his chagrin, but I got most of them before they were $700.
Josh
Yeah, very true.
Dennis
How many typo shirts you have? Well, I counted. I have 18.
Josh
Wow.
Bo
And I gave you a couple.
Dennis
You gave me. You gave me one. Fifteen were before they took off. So it's kind of just. You hang on to them. But we were just talking about. This is like, when you crop a shirt, will you alter it in any way? That's you.
Bo
You saying that's my declaration of this will never leave me.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
So, Vic, I'm sorry to destroy all those shirts, but then they're mine forever. You can't have them anyway.
Dennis
You have an opinion on that?
Jim
Huh?
Dennis
Do you have an opinion on cropping shirts?
Bo
It hates it.
Dennis
Don't do it. You hate it.
Bo
Don't do it. Leave them alone, man. No, they're mine. That's how they're meant to be. They're all mine.
Dennis
Let me ask you, Vic. Is there any. Any grail shirt that you've not found, that you've wanted to find, whether for the store or for yourself or anything that's dope.
Jim
Taken by force.
Bo
And they're out here. I got one.
Jim
A T shirt.
Bo
I got one. Let's talk. It's the first Marauder shirt. I got one.
Dennis
Yep.
Bo
Those bootlegs make me sick. I'll be honest with you.
Dennis
Annual Iceman shirts.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Well, I figure I'll try on that Cigarette all shirt and then maybe it's lunchtime.
Josh
Let's do it.
Dennis
That sounds great.
Josh
Let's eat.
Bo
Sounds good.
Dennis
Where are we at, Kyler?
Bo
We're at Little Fish in Echo Park. Beautiful establishment owned by Nikki, the drummer of Cosmic Joke. He's been gracious enough to let us into their kitchen today to try their iconic fried fish sandwich and a couple other extra things.
Jim
I can't wait. I'm starving.
Bo
Let's eat. Okay, we're inside, Little Fish now. Nikki is going to show us how good he is at his thing. Now, what are you doing for us, Nikki?
Nikki
We're making fried fish sandwiches, which is, like, by far the thing would make the most of here.
Bo
How do you feel about that? Because I know that at first that your goal wasn't to be the fried fish sandwich restaurant.
Nikki
No, we didn't even. For the first, like, six months, we were doing little fish out of the house. We didn't even make sandwiches. We just were making, like, fried fish and, like, spending so much time like, making, like, nice salads and stuff to. To go with it. Sort of like, like a fish and chips kind of thing.
Bo
Sure.
Nikki
Like, we weren't going to make fries, so. And then we just had a friend who was like, yo, you guys should make a sandwich. And we threw it together. And then, like, we're like, oh, we'll do. We'll do it one day. Like, we'll run sandwiches and see what happens. And it was, like, by far the busiest day we ever had.
Josh
Well.
Dennis
And so just right away, just like that.
Bo
Yeah.
Nikki
We've been sort of married to the sandwich ever since, but, you know, we're stoked on it. I think we've only made them better or.
Bo
I agree.
Josh
I'm excited.
Dennis
I haven't had it in a while.
Jim
I have a question for you.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
What percentage of your demographic is from China? What percentage of your demographic is Asian? I believe that. I believe that. I believe that. I didn't know you were going to take us to a fish sandwich restaurant. Or at home, we would call it a fish burger restaurant. I didn't know this, and I feel like this has been set up perfectly for us, or at least me and Dennis.
Bo
I didn't think about this. I. I do know for a fact that Dennis was once a fishmonger. Tell me about your experience mongering fish.
Jim
I wasn't a female. I was an actual fish monger.
Bo
A fake one?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
What does that mean?
Jim
It was TV commercial.
Dennis
Oh, you were in a TV commercial?
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
What brand.
Jim
What product was it for?
Dennis
Here it is.
Nikki
Wow.
Jim
But he did it for aspirin. Okay. Aspirin ad.
Bo
No, no.
Dennis
What is it?
Jim
It's like aspirin paracetamol.
Josh
The biggest brand. Exactly.
Bo
What did you do to get into character? Sorry? What did you do to get into character?
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
What was your motivation?
Josh
He was method for like a month.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
You couldn't talk to him.
Bo
Fishing all day.
Dennis
Okay, that's baramundi.
Josh
You were stressed in the scene as well, like. Yeah, it was a busy day at the.
Jim
He's like. He's at the. He's like at the shop with a fish. And the real fish is over apron.
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Bo
So animal cruelty regulation.
Jim
Yeah, we'll send you the scene. We'll send you the scene.
Bo
Say it was a real. Real fish market.
Dennis
Yeah, here it is.
Bo
Yep. Yeah, that was an actual fish model. So if you have any questions. Yeah, if you need to know anything.
Dennis
About fish, I know about 12 months worth.
Bo
Okay.
Dennis
Nikki, any questions about fish? What are we using, by the way? What's the cut?
Nikki
This is a striped bass from Baja.
Dennis
Oh, that's a fish.
Jim
What are you.
Nikki
What are you, man?
Dennis
You know, Icelandic salmon. You got your coho, your copperhead salmon. We had halibut, cod, tilapia.
Bo
Did you have a preference for which one was the best to have sex with?
Dennis
No.
Bo
There's a long standing rumor started by.
Jim
I don't know.
Bo
It's disgusting.
Dennis
Yeah, yeah. It's not true, by the way.
Bo
Striped bass.
Dennis
Nikki, did you test different kinds of fish or did you land on this right away?
Nikki
Yeah, so we actually. That's another thing. For the first, like, few months, we were using local rockfish, which is like a wild fish that's like really plentiful locally. It's. We're in an interesting spot with that because it's not like. Like it's really. It's really plentiful, but it's not available 100 of the time and it's a little weather dependent. And so this striped bass comes from, like. Comes from a farm in Baja, but that we visited. It's like the most beautiful place I've ever seen.
Jim
Yeah.
Nikki
But this farm is actually going out of business, so we're switching back to local rockfish.
Dennis
But do you have a preference between the two or are they comparable?
Nikki
They're pretty comparable. They're different. But I'll let you know if I.
Bo
Notice today because I've had this thing a lot and.
Dennis
Is that. That was it you just. Just the two.
Nikki
Yeah, like, we. We've tried with halibut and stuff. Yeah, like, that's as far as expensive. Yeah, exactly. As far as the price point. That makes sense.
Dennis
That's.
Nikki
That's what we're at. Which also like, to be clear, like there's so many people that think like that we are using like frozen tilapia and stuff. Like we have these reviews all the time and it's like the fish we use is so expensive. It cost me so much money. I wish I was using CRO.
Dennis
Do you want to address, you want to address whatever your, your worst Yelp or Google review is right now?
Bo
Is it the British guy saying that you should use maybe a nice piece of European cheese?
Nikki
That's our favorite review for sure. There was a guy who was like, no joke, it tastes like you're using Kraft American and cheese. We were like, yeah, yeah. Like, honestly, it reminds me of fast food. Yeah, that's the whole point. Like we're trying to make you think of that and like have that experience, but just like elevated. Yeah, exactly. So like he's so almost had it.
Dennis
Yeah.
Nikki
Which is just incredible. Legends. Also, his bio was lift, laugh, love.
Bo
Oh, okay. Speaking of which, she's a legend. Speaking of which, you guys touring in America, you talked about earlier, you got to keep the physical regimen up. Our food not the best for you.
Josh
Historically, it's high in calories.
Bo
Oh yeah, we love a calorie.
Dennis
I just ate like an animal for over two weeks in Australia. Over two weeks in Europe, I have weighed less.
Josh
Coming home takes that off somehow. It's insane. Bread 10 times a day and you.
Jim
Come home, you're also going over there with so much more mass than you did like the last time you were in Australia. So you're. You're machinist.
Dennis
Last time I was in Australia, I was big. Yeah, I was overweight.
Jim
But you weren't as different kind of engine going.
Dennis
I needed different calories for sure. But are you finding like when you tour, when you do that long knockbust tour, for example, was it difficult going heavy, bro.
Jim
I literally, I literally did a health check, a blood test just before I came here. Cuz it was like one year since Speed's been doing fulltime and we spent three months in America last year and my health was great. I think it was. Everything was fine. And the difference I think was, there.
Bo
You go, we're good.
Jim
Well, bro, I. Okay. I thought that going and spending this much time in America was going to like up our routine, our physical routine, our mental routine, all that. But the easiest thing about touring America is that every calorie is listed out on the menu already.
Nikki
That's true.
Dennis
Yeah, very true.
Jim
Track your calories, hit your protein and stay Active. Each day is easy. It's so easy to stay in shape in America. Like it's. You have access to like a lot of calories, but you also have your limitations. Stay with that. Yeah, you have the information.
Dennis
There's also pretty much always open.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
And there's gyms everywhere. They have Anytime Fitness over in Australia. We were there.
Jim
Did you have access?
Dennis
Four times a week.
Bo
Yeah. The Japan one didn't let me in.
Jim
Oh.
Bo
Tattoos had it up.
Josh
Really. Oh, man.
Jim
He was.
Dennis
He was wakuza.
Josh
Yeah, me too.
Jim
We got a Planet status membership in America.
Bo
Oh, it's good to go, right?
Jim
Literally.
Bo
Wait.
Jim
Too easy.
Bo
Is it true you've had the lunk alarm go off at Planet Fitness?
Jim
Okay, okay. We went to a Planet Fitness in Cleveland. In Cleveland, Ohio. And the bloke there was like, where you smoke? And we were like, Australia? He was like, no way. Are you in a. Are you in a Harcourt band? He was like, wait for it. Yeah, sorry. We came out there. We're in a Harcourt band. He was like, bro, I love God's hate. I fucking love God hate. And he got so psyched that he realized that we were in speed. You didn't know who it was, I think at the start.
Bo
Why. Why did he go straight to this bro?
Jim
The only haran that he knew was God's hair. I don't know. And I'm not saying this CU to here.
Bo
I'm a playing a fitness member.
Jim
He.
Bo
If you're watching, I'm.
Jim
I, I, I.
Bo
The judgment free zone is where I am. I don't judge. That's crazy. What are the odds of that?
Jim
So then he got so z that we were in a bad. He gave. He came back.
Bo
So he turned the lunar on.
Jim
He checked it out.
Bo
He started following us and Instagram and he saw that I. I posted a story that.
Jim
$100 and I will make the uncle I'm great off.
Bo
And he's like, he saw that story and he comes up to us like this, you guys.
Jim
And then he's like, you want. You want me, you want me to.
Josh
You want me to set this off?
Bo
You want to set it off for you guys?
Jim
Cuz like he.
Josh
And we're like, well, that would probably be the most antisocial thing you could do in this place.
Bo
My dream. Piss out.
Dennis
You never had it.
Bo
I'm convinced it's not plugged in.
Jim
No, it's not.
Dennis
They. They do.
Bo
I think they have to.
Dennis
They have to do it.
Jim
Yeah.
Dennis
It's not automatic.
Bo
No, I know it's not Going to, like, detect screens.
Jim
Dude.
Dennis
My grade school growing up had a traffic light in the cafeteria, and when we were too loud, they would turn it on. And if it was green, everything was fine. Yellow was like, hey, you're being too loud. And at red it would go. We had a long. In my grade school. So the technology existed in the 90s.
Bo
Like a decibel meter.
Dennis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bo
I'm. I'm in there.
Dennis
Give me a video idea.
Bo
Set up hardor sets off. What are you guys busy?
Jim
I think between the five of us, we could get some moms going.
Bo
We just can't go to my hometown one because I go there all the time.
Josh
Oh, so.
Bo
And I don't. I've never seen it plugged in.
Dennis
So what is when you're here. And let's. Let's say there's not catering, you know, like, you gotta eat out.
Jim
There's no catering.
Dennis
But I'm saying, like on the Knock Loose tour or something, like, where are you enjoying?
Bo
What are your spots? What are your America?
Dennis
What are the American spots?
Josh
Dude, this is one that I don't hear people talk about enough. But the one style of fast food that is unanimously approved by our band is Hawaiian barbecue. Oh, yeah, we don't have that at home. Yeah, we had that. Any of them, like, you know, they're regional, but if we see Hawaiian barbecue, like on a. On a app or something. Hawaiian Bros. We're always getting.
Dennis
I've had Hawaiian Bros. That is not a popular.
Bo
No answer. Because it's like there's no drive through.
Josh
Yeah. The only thing is, like, drive through on tour is hard anyway. When you're in a van, like so many places you can.
Jim
I think another one is Panda Express. Oh, yeah.
Bo
Weird.
Dennis
You know what I had yesterday before I got on you? Panda Express.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
Orange chicken. Come on.
Josh
One Beijing Beef.
Bo
Brother, easy.
Dennis
Two orange, one teriyaki chicken.
Bo
I'll go triple orange. Sometimes triple if I've earned it. You know, you get.
Dennis
And you get the super greens I love.
Bo
I know you like super greens.
Josh
Do you order it in the way where you get orange chicken, scoop it on. I'll get another orange if they give you more that way.
Jim
Or I'll go, come on, little more.
Dennis
That's the Chipotle method, too.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
Steak.
Dennis
Oh, can you make it a double?
Bo
Because if you go into a double. If you in the ass, you man.
Jim
What I ate the most on that Knock Loose tour was Popeyes Chicken spicy chicken sandwich.
Bo
Really?
Jim
Because it was buy one, get one two for one seven.
Bo
Bucks.
Jim
That's a 3.50 for a chicken sandwich, bro.
Bo
And you get two chicken burger, right?
Jim
Chicken burger.
Josh
Chicken burger.
Bo
It's not a burger. Chicken burger.
Dennis
A burger is ground. That's what makes a burger.
Bo
Do you guys remember that hack that used to the Chipotle one review of touring Band?
Dennis
Yeah, yeah.
Josh
Give you free.
Bo
Tell you who ruined that.
Dennis
Yeah.
Bo
Thanks a lot. You.
Dennis
She got that.
Bo
Before we eat this bountiful meal, could you guys tell me collectively or separately? Because, you know, I haven't been on shredding in a long time. Things may have changed. Okay, what are the top five Australian snacks of all time? You're going to the store. What are you grabbing? Snacks. Snacks.
Josh
Tim Tams.
Jim
Golden Gay time.
Bo
Yeah, Golden Gay Time.
Jim
This collectively, I'm gonna agree with you all of this.
Bo
What are you gonna say?
Josh
Throw it out?
Jim
No, no, this is it.
Bo
I'm agreeing right now. What is a Tim Tam? Tsim Tam? I never have one.
Dennis
Really?
Josh
Oh, what? It's a rectangular chocolate biscuit covered with a chocolate cream in the middle of it.
Dennis
It's a wafer and a wafer. And you can get them at World Market or something.
Bo
Yeah, sugar wafers.
Dennis
So it's. It's like a chocolate wafer covered in chocolate, but there's all different kinds.
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Dennis
They are more Aaron. Aaron Osborne's favorite is the. The double one. Just the bigger one. They are extra. You will love them because they have crazy. They have almost a coffee.
Bo
Kind of like a tiramisu kind of.
Dennis
Yes. Look at this.
Bo
He's torching it.
Dennis
Look at throw up. Give him some.
Nikki
Just a half. Mel, buddy.
Dennis
All right, let me hit you with this because I had this Tim Tam.
Bo
Golden gay time.
Dennis
I think I was gonna ask, while you're thinking of the others between the three. Maxi Bond. Oh, golden gay time. Or a Magnum. What's your ice cream?
Bo
I'm going Maxi Bond.
Dennis
Maxi Bond is unbelievable.
Bo
That one's gone.
Josh
I think it's gay time for me.
Bo
I've had a gay time. I'm all about it.
Josh
Gay times.
Dennis
Have you had a maximum?
Jim
It's got.
Dennis
It's like half the, like, crunchy chocolate kind of guy and then half a waffle ice cream sandwich. Ice cream sandwich.
Josh
Yeah. And they've got different flavors of all these as well. And a gay time for those at home is like a honeycomb kind of ice ice cream covered in chocolate and little like biscuit pieces. That's insane.
Dennis
It's so good.
Bo
What's your answer?
Jim
Everything that's been said so far I agree with. Yeah, I'm only gonna say gay time, and it's just purely because it's a little bit less than the calorie than maximum. I'm not always going maximum, but maximum is fire.
Dennis
Yeah.
Jim
I'm a Magnum guy, too. Magnums are awesome. They have another brand at home that's called Connoisseur. Connoisseur ice cream is better than the Magnum.
Josh
Love this.
Jim
It's like a gourmet.
Dennis
So we got Tim Tams, Gay time.
Jim
Solo zero.
Josh
Yeah, solo.
Dennis
Solo zero. It's like a bitter lemon drink. Zero calories.
Josh
Yeah. And there's the. The zero sugar one is as good as, if not better than the full sugar one. So that's nice.
Bo
You love that when that happens.
Dennis
Yep.
Bo
Are you guys soda guys?
Josh
Yeah, so I am, yeah.
Bo
You diet soda guy?
Jim
Yeah, some. I'm a water guy, bro. I'm sorry.
Bo
Yeah, you got to get into soda.
Jim
I'm a white monster guy, bro.
Bo
Yeah, I'm with you there. So the AR one. Sorry, The Arnold Palmer one, the lemonade one.
Josh
I don't think they got that in Australia.
Bo
Yeah, we need this. It's like an energy lemonade thing.
Dennis
I haven't had it.
Bo
It's box. I need this.
Dennis
I would love to try something real soon.
Jim
Surfy.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
Oh, I need this.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
I'm going to say for back to the top five.
Dennis
Yeah.
Josh
Barbecue shapes.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
Or any shape.
Dennis
Barbecue is a shape shape and crimpy.
Josh
I guess. I guess you'd say they're like tombows. Kind of like our version of combos. They're really good.
Bo
Lunch is up, boys.
Dennis
Oh, thank you so much, sir. Look at that.
Jim
Nikki, what is this?
Bo
I'm need a packet of crystal.
Nikki
Just have a fried potatoes with, like, a seaweed salt, cabbage salad, homemade dressing, and I'm gonna make a couple of our other sandwiches for you guys.
Dennis
Oh, man, you are a legend, bro.
Jim
Thank you. Thank you so much. I asked a question about. I asked, what about the Asian demographic? Because growing up, bro, going to McDonald's, like, the only people ordering filler fish are Asian people. Is the kind of menu item that I'll go in there with my grandma, and she, like, eat the. Eat the feeling of fish. It's brain food. It's good for your eyesight. It's got fish in it. You know, that's like an Asian mentality kind of thing. So.
Bo
So your eyesight is going to be. You're not going to need those contacts.
Jim
I'm taking contacts out of this. Thank you.
Dennis
Are we Are we eating in here?
Bo
You want to see in here, right?
Dennis
Okay, no problem.
Bo
Dig in, dude.
Dennis
Yeah, let's try.
Bo
It's amazing, Joshi.
Josh
Thank you, brother.
Nikki
I think there's forks right in front of you. Okay.
Josh
Oh, sick.
Nikki
There should be a bunch of napkins right in there again.
Bo
You got them crystal packets for a brother.
Jim
Steven, take the first bite.
Bo
Wow.
Jim
Got it. What?
Dennis
I want to see Jim's reaction. Oh, that's a bite.
Bo
Jamie, happy.
Dennis
Is that approved?
Bo
Jimmy, like you, who are the other kind of contemporary Australian bands that are touring internationally right now, now that you're.
Josh
Psyched about Secret World, Dennis plays another thing called Secret World kind of part time because it's always with us, but never got to play bonus fest.
Bo
Yeah, I saw that announcement where he was like speed, AKA Secret World is playing.
Jim
Secret World is like mostly there other band. Dennis is an amazing guitarist. He's part of it, but his face is right in the front of it so it looks like it's his man. And he's also got a big personality.
Josh
But it's the brains behind it. It's Josh, who plays in a man called Trophy Eyes Pondy who plays in a band called Downside Matter, who runs Last Ride Records. They all play in a bunch of other bands as well. And yeah, they're coming over here for the first time, which we're all very personally stoked about because like, we want to see them do well as well, you know.
Dennis
Are you playing with it, Dennis?
Jim
I'm going on sick.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
What day of Furnace Fest you play?
Josh
Friday, I think.
Dennis
Day long. Yeah, I'll be there Sunday.
Bo
Perfect.
Josh
Primitive Blast is the other big one. Oh, yeah, From Sydney.
Jim
They've come over here a handful of times.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
Blind Girls. Blind girls are doing America a bunch.
Dennis
Another terminal sleep. We did that tour with us.
Josh
Yep, yep.
Dennis
The Homies Time ends. We played with in Adelaide.
Josh
Oh, yeah.
Dennis
Very heavy.
Josh
Yeah.
Dennis
I'm sorry.
Josh
Oh, he's just shouting on the show.
Jim
Sorry.
Dennis
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Jim
The Chain. The Chain have an album that just got announced last week was coming out on Triple B. Oh, nice.
Dennis
Yeah, great.
Jim
Y.
Josh
And last night, Iron Mind, who've done stuff before with Flat Spot, about to put their next record out with Flat Spot as well. They've been here before, like you guys said.
Dennis
Aglo just put out a new song.
Bo
Yes, he did.
Jim
Who?
Bo
So, Colin. I only played on the lp.
Dennis
The person do you know? I'm sure you do. Where AG comes from. What the name is? You guys all know this?
Josh
Initials.
Dennis
It's just his initials. Aaron Gordon, Levit, Lewis Osborne, whatever it is. I'm sorry, Aaron. Isn't that crazy?
Josh
Yeah, it's genius.
Dennis
It's genius.
Jim
What's crazy is that the full potato is better than the fry.
Bo
100%.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
This is.
Bo
We've been wasting our time for years.
Jim
This is delicious.
Nikki
Thank you so much.
Josh
Whatever you've done here, seasoning wise, is.
Nikki
So we put. We put citric acid on them because it's like when you eat tortilla chips, that kind of tastes like lime and that's that, like, thing that keeps you, like, keep going back for it. Yeah, like the same thing. You get on sour candy. But I was eating a bag of tortilla chips one day and was like, I can't believe how good these are in sauce.
Jim
You're a.
Dennis
You're a drug chemist.
Nikki
Let's go.
Jim
He's a scientist. He's a genius. You're the chemist too.
Bo
Good.
Josh
Awesome.
Dennis
He's a wizard.
Jim
He's taking advantage of my senses. And we keep eating.
Bo
What was the first Speed Tour was.
Jim
In 2022, just after the Sound of Fury, we toured Australia for the first time.
Bo
How did that go?
Jim
Amazing.
Bo
So that first tour was already amazing.
Jim
Oh, Speed.
Bo
And awol. Ah.
Jim
Because we speed played six shows before COVID Okay. And they were just like, cool small shows. And then after Covid, it was immediately different.
Dennis
Yeah.
Jim
Okay. I mean, it was already. It was already amazing going into cover. Like, I'm talking, like, Replay. The first one we played was 180 people sold out in this venue. And that was like, holy.
Nikki
And that's.
Bo
That is already insane.
Jim
It was amazing.
Josh
Second shows with Terror.
Dennis
Perfect was Terror.
Bo
Permanent blast those.
Jim
Speed Blast. Relentless malevolence Terror. It was amazing. But, yeah, that was the first thing we did. The other reason why is because, like, because as I said, the scene was kind of really hit or miss in a lot of pockets. Like a hardcore tour, like, wasn't super, super fully viable in Australia. Interesting. But yeah, the first one we did was with AWOL for our ep the Gangle Speed Episode.
Bo
So that you guys kind of like the modern way of introducing and releasing a discography of, like, demo, single, single, single, single, ep, single, single, single, make them beg for the lp. You really nailed it. I think you timed the way that you put your music out perfectly. Was that intentionally. And can you tell me about just, like, spacing those things out?
Josh
We honestly never, like, knew if we would make it to do an lp. Like, we didn't know what the band was going to be. We didn't know if we had an LP in us, we honestly didn't really know anything. And so we said really early on that everything that we ever put out, we were going to treat like it would be like the big, like, piece of work that our band would be known by. You know what I mean? So when we did the EP, which was like six tracks in 2022, we were like, all right, let's just throw everything at this. And it may be the only thing we ever do. Like, this might be the last. The last record. And then once we did that, that kind of coincided with when we did that first tour and when we did Sound and Fury the first time. And that obviously just opened up, like, another chapter for the band.
Bo
Totally.
Josh
So, like, all right, well, we've got to do an LP now because that will just continue to, like, give us more experience, you know. Then we go to Europe, we can go to Asia, we can do these things. And, like, we've just kind of tried to use the music as, like, a vehicle to be able to go around and experience different pockets of hardcore. It took a while to do that.
Dennis
It's kind of the key.
Bo
Yeah, it is the key.
Dennis
You use the. The momentum and the vehicle of the band to go places for sure and meet people.
Josh
That's the main thing with people.
Bo
But throughout your connections, you started with Last Ride Records, Flat Spot quickly came after. After that sound and Fury, you're getting label offer after label offer. You stick with Last Ride and Flat Spot. How is that those two relationships grown since 2019.
Jim
Just like our relationship with Elliott San Frost, with Candace who tms us in Australia, books us the back of home, Rudsie who films us and all our friends that come with us for this journey. It's the best thing ever. You have the best moments, the worst moments and everything in between in your life with these friends that you already known for 15, 20 years and now. We never expected to do this. We never expected to be in America having these experiences together, but we're here doing it. We never needed it to validate our relationships or our experiences, but we're doing it together now. And it's just like a. Such a bonus. It's just like, literally. Elliot is my first friend in high school. He owns the Chameleon Studios. He's recorded every single thing that Speed's ever done, recorded everything that all our. Most of our projects have always ever done since we first picked up a guitar in our lives. And he stepped foot in LA for the first time four days ago. Whenever it Was. And I'm like, he's finally here and he's gonna mix us at Coachella. Like, that's just.
Bo
That's his first.
Jim
We went through puberty together, bro. We were figuring, yeah, yeah, and he's the best. You know, it's just like, that is worth more than any any other thing. It's just for us, selfishly, it's like we know in our lifetimes that we. We've always known that our friend was so talented and so capable at the level that we see people that we look up to. It's just that Australia's just far away and just hanging out of spotlight. And I always believe this. It's like, they have it too, but who cares if it never happens and.
Bo
It'S happening like, so in your mind. The gang called speed exceeds the five people on stage 1 million percent.
Jim
That's why movies are just. A lot of friends in here.
Dennis
Love that 100%.
Jim
It's just a. And that's the other thing is that we don't. It's not that special who we are. Our friends at home are like a product of this whole thing, products of each other.
Josh
And on the label side as well. Like you were saying, we had this crossroads where, like, you know, there was other people that wanted to get involved in, like, you know, more resources and X, Y and Z. And we had a conversation between us all and we were like, yeah, but if we stay doing this with Matto, with last Friday, we say doing it with Ricky at Flat Spot, like, all that's going to do is just bring more attention to those labels. All of our friends are on those labels as well. Like, there's so much stuff going on that we think people don't know about. And by us, like, being able to say part of that and. And help that kind of bring more attention to it, then all that does is help everybody else. And so now, like, our last ride at the moment in Australia is similar to, like, a Resist Records. Like, for us growing up, which, you know, had Parkway Drive and all these bands that, like, for us growing up, were the bands that we looked up to.
Jim
That's how Mad Ball and everything.
Bo
Yeah.
Josh
So us trying to use whatever kind of attention or, like, leverage that we have as a band to be able to empower those people. Like, that's. That's the name of the game for us at this point.
Jim
I'll say it this way, like, at least in our perspective, in the way we feel about it, like, being able to take a mass, to take a win and be on a journey with your friends and have accomplishments that you share together is worth more than any kind of big ass paycheck or not like clout nod from some label or being on a certain roster or anything else. Like being. Even if it means that we don't get to be on nightliners for the rest of our life and be this crazy big sensation. It's never even been the goal, but if we even got two steps that way. But it was all without compromising any of our values and bringing our friends with us and being able to share it together, that is the most fulfilling experience. You know what I'm saying? Like being able to share with your family that you've known. So that's, that's why we've made all these decisions the way we have. And I see some like, bands who like go through and with their, their careers in the end and they're not homies anymore. We see like bands and labels who fall out or people who work together at this level, they're not even friends. And I'm like, what the is the point? What is the point? What the is the point? Like, you guys know this, like, you guys are doing this together as homies. Like, you weren't these podcasters who got put together and made this super group. Like, you guys have. The reason why Hard Law works is because you guys have the chemistry. You're awesome. You know each other so well and it's real. You know, it's the same thing. And that's what's so special about it. Like, also in hardcore, can't fake it. That's not like, the only people that can do this are the people who've been living in it for like this long.
Bo
And that's why, like, the criticism to like you guys playing Coachella of people being like, is this what we want hardcore to be? It's not what hardcore will be.
Josh
Exactly.
Bo
There's people in the moment experiencing this and if, if they're worthy, they will stick around. You know, if they're ready to live it, they'll stick around. But if they're, if it's not them, yeah, they'll get beat up at some show and they'll never come back.
Dennis
The vetting process will take care of itself.
Bo
The vetting process, exactly.
Jim
We're in this, like, weird time now where everything is sensationalized and, and you know, like, hardcore's having this moment or whatever. It's fine for us at least.
Bo
It's like we never, it's not a moment.
Jim
Yeah, we Never asked to try or try to do these things, but we have the opportunity to, so we're just gonna try. And I'm not gonna turn it down. I'm not gonna say no to play Coachella. What's wrong with you? As if you would say no. Why?
Nikki
Because you're too proud?
Bo
Like, what the fuck?
Josh
We don't take those decisions on, like, thinking about how it's going to be, like, adjudicated by a bunch of people. Nor should you have a different relationship with this music, with us, you know, like, yes, I will play Coachella, but I'm still going to be driving around listening to Death Threat, like, tearing up.
Dennis
At how much I like it.
Josh
You know what I mean?
Jim
Like, you can't.
Josh
You can't tell me that I'm not hardcore, because I care about it.
Jim
Even if you do and you're playing.
Bo
The Vegas VFW the next day.
Dennis
Exactly. That's. I was just gonna say you guys would play a basement show tonight if that's what was going on. Dude, I'm playing a vfw. You're playing the most DIY thing possible.
Josh
We're still in our band group chat, messaging each other about new bands and new demos that dropping, like, beautifully. We are so tapped into this because we love it so much.
Dennis
What do we got here, Nikki?
Bo
Steak sandwich. It's got a bunch of cream on it. That bo's not gonna lie.
Josh
I'm good on it.
Jim
Please.
Nikki
The same. The same face.
Bo
Sour cream means more.
Jim
And this.
Dennis
Yes, that's Cheeto.
Bo
You like that?
Jim
Cheeto?
Bo
Yeah. No, this a steak. That's two. That's.
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Bo
Okay. Here, I'll take one bite.
Dennis
Does it have mayo in it?
Nikki
It does.
Jim
Do you want to go to tuna or you want to go to the steak?
Dennis
Describe the taste.
Josh
Thanks, brother.
Bo
What are you going to do? Have a look.
Dennis
The world is.
Bo
I understand we're making sandwiches.
Dennis
I get it.
Jim
Is this tuna?
Nikki
Yeah.
Bo
Oh, he's fired up.
Jim
When have you ever seen a tuna sandwich that look like this? Look at that flesh. Look at that tuna flesh.
Dennis
That looks great. Now, Dennis, from your fish mongering experience, that looks like pretty good tuna fish, I would say.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
Albacore.
Nikki
Yes.
Dennis
Yeah, yeah, it's albacore. Sure.
Nikki
I was gonna say never. You know, it's a good. Like, we. We cook it ourselves. We're getting in, like, beautiful. When we can, we'll get, like, San Francisco, Oregon, like, fresh albacore out of season. We'll get it from elsewhere in the world. Usually, like vg, but yeah, it's beautiful fish.
Dennis
Let me try this.
Josh
Yeah, you gotta get it.
Bo
You look emotional eating it.
Josh
It's delicious.
Jim
The fish is one thing, but the bread, yeah, the way that you treat. It's a bun, not this.
Bo
Pardon this interruption. It's so important. You've gotta know who brought you this incredible episode. First and foremost, it's manscape time.
Dennis
Oh, is it ever.
Bo
Your balls smell unbelievable.
Dennis
I know it.
Josh
I know it.
Bo
I'm glad you know, at this point, you know what it's all about. You know, you use code hard lore on manscaped.com, you're getting 20% and free shipping off every single thing. You see. The crop reviver, a little spray that makes you smell good. The crop preserver, a little cream that makes you smell good. The crop duster, you know, a little dust that makes you smell good.
Dennis
Foot duster, body scrub, body scrubber, the hedge trimmer, the weed whacker, the beard trimmer.
Bo
They're on Lawnmower 5.0 at this point.
Dennis
It's crazy.
Bo
They're always making improvements. So even if you got the 4.0, check out the 5.0. Okay, code, code hard lore. 20% off, free shipping. You're not gonna believe it. Please, just stop thinking for us. Start thinking. Stop stinking. Manscaped hard lore. This episode is brought to you by Mad Vintage.
Dennis
Hey, Colin, where'd you get that shirt?
Bo
MADD Vintage dot com. Yep. That's all you got to do. You go to this website, you. You listen to a band that we talk about on our show. He's got you covered. You're gonna find the shirts you've been looking for your entire life, and this is it. We're passionate about this.
Dennis
It's one of our favorite aspects of the thing that we're into. And it's important to note Luke over at Mad Vintage, he's looking to buy, he's looking to trade. He wants to see what you got. You know, you have things you haven't worn in a long time in that.
Bo
Closet, and you might sell them to him and see him on this show someday. So let's hurry it up. Hit him up. I want them. Our closets are full, so please get the stuff before we do.
Dennis
I can't take anymore.
Bo
No. Code hard lore. 15 for 15 off mad vintage.
Dennis
How are we feeling?
Bo
We're feeling. We're getting full.
Jim
Oh, yeah.
Bo
All right. This was a beautiful. Thank you for having us.
Nikki
Food shots. Like it's a.
Bo
It's good. It's good. Yeah.
Jim
Do we live for this year? I've watched some YouTube.
Nikki
Yeah.
Dennis
Shout out.
Bo
Mark W. Can you describe your. Yeah, give me your best. Mark, what's your YouTube homepage look like?
Jim
Mark Wiens. You know Mark Wiens?
Bo
No.
Jim
Oh, my God.
Dennis
Oh, wow.
Jim
Okay. People ask us if they're like, what's one celebrity that people would love to meet? And I. I always get the collective answer. We, not all of us care about celebrities. If there was one that we all would be stoked to meet, it's Mark Wiens. I'll send you some. I'll send you some.
Josh
He's a. He's like. I think he's American born, but he's grown up all over the place. He's like a real, like international school type dude.
Jim
One of the biggest food. Food bloggers.
Josh
He has. He has like super Christian vibes. So I'm not sure if he is religious, but he's like a Ned Flanders type character. And nobody loves food more than this guy. Like, he goes all over the world, like, and just tries everything and every time he takes a bite of a food, he looks like he's coming in his pants. Like every single.
Bo
I saw that in your eyes a little bit. I saw something coming.
Jim
I was experiencing.
Josh
He's awesome.
Jim
But yeah.
Bo
Mark Wounds.
Jim
Probably some bodybuilding. Probably some 197 set.
Bo
Nice.
Dennis
Plenty hardcore.
Jim
And then like, like video games.
Bo
Beautiful. What video games you play?
Jim
Just started playing a game called Frag Punk. It's like a 5v5. Like, CS means valorant.
Dennis
Like, okay, is there like powers and.
Jim
Yeah, yeah.
Josh
Actually that's probably another big passion of speed is gaming. Well, really for four members of Speed.
Jim
So. Speed or. We all just got Steam decks except for Josh. Oh, yeah, we all got Steam decks.
Josh
But I can't get one.
Bo
Why?
Josh
I'm. I'm banned for life from Steam, unfortunately.
Bo
Really?
Josh
Yeah. IP banned. So I just can't have the console straight up. Mark.
Bo
Holy. What would you do?
Josh
Stream sniping.
Bo
Are you serious?
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
You know, Ninja, you stream IP banned for life. I can't. I tried to get it.
Bo
It's not even on the Steam store.
Jim
What?
Josh
Ninja.
Bo
Wait, what was he playing?
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Bo
You're not banned from the Epic store, though.
Josh
I can't use the console.
Dennis
You can't use the console.
Josh
I've tried. Guys, this is better if we don't pick it apart too much because I.
Dennis
Can'T because I know it makes me.
Josh
Emotional to think about. Like I have to sit there while they're on their beings.
Dennis
I can get you in there.
Josh
I'm Reading a book.
Jim
Yeah, we'll.
Bo
We'll get you. We'll figure something out.
Dennis
There's also the Rog one.
Bo
Yeah, the Asus one.
Dennis
The Asus one. There's other. Other.
Josh
That's good to know.
Bo
There's non Steam client options now. That's crazy.
Dennis
That's awesome.
Bo
Did you him up in the stream?
Josh
Yeah, dude. I mean he. He quit. He rage quit.
Dennis
Really?
Jim
He quick scraped him.
Dennis
You have the clip?
Bo
No way.
Dennis
I'll send it here.
Bo
Did you set it to the kill by 30 seconds to Mars.
Josh
Have you seen.
Bo
All right.
Jim
No, it was Lingapuck Numb.
Josh
I was gonna say I was gonna do Lincoln park behind it actually.
Dennis
Dude, that's incredible.
Bo
Dude, that rules. What games are we playing on the deck?
Jim
Ghost of Tsushima.
Bo
Yeah. You psych for the next one. Ghost of Yokai.
Dennis
Yeah.
Bo
Or what is it? Yo. Something something.
Jim
That's. Yeah, I saw it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Steam Deck out. Oh man. I know you've got a rig.
Bo
Oh yeah.
Jim
Oh man.
Bo
It's my greatest passion now. Out of nowhere. I can't believe it. Yeah, you gotta build a PC. You gotta build a PC. He tried to get me to do it for years and I was like, dude, I got a PlayStation. What do I need that for?
Jim
I was mean.
Bo
He was wrong.
Jim
Well, I love the Steam deck because I don't, bro. I don't like to sit down and be stuck. Like.
Bo
I want to be.
Jim
I'll be there in my bed or I want to be on my couch or I want to be in the car. I want to be like. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to. I got compost up.
Bo
You think that? And then you get a Herman Miller Aeron chair and things change.
Dennis
All right?
Bo
Things change, Jim.
Dennis
I do have.
Jim
I have mine docked and I play.
Dennis
It on my TV.
Bo
Oh, really?
Dennis
Yeah. With just a PlayStation controller. It's awesome.
Jim
Very open to it.
Bo
It's the game, you know, we gotta play some.
Josh
Absolutely.
Bo
Are you good at stuff?
Jim
We play Fortnite. No, I'm not good. Sorry. Sorry. I know you assume because.
Bo
No, I don't assume it. I don't know. You never know. I thought Flush Water was good at games and I whooped.
Jim
Aaron is. Aaron is good though. Okay. Yeah. My brother. Yeah. I'm not.
Bo
I'm not there.
Jim
I play a lot of Apex Legends. We played Fortnite. A lot of pubg.
Dennis
I like pubg.
Josh
Pubg got me through Covid.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Did it.
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
That was awesome.
Dennis
I played a lot of pubg.
Jim
And Covid, too. Yeah.
Bo
All right. Beautiful. Well, what do you say we go look at some records?
Josh
Let's get it.
Dennis
All right.
Bo
All right. Thank you for having us, Nikki.
Jim
Thank you.
Josh
Thank you, Nikki.
Jim
Thank you.
Bo
Here we go.
Jim
Michelin Star sandwich with fish in it.
Bo
All right. We're here at Going Underground Records in Little Tokyo, right next to Millet Crate. My favorite dessert.
Dennis
Our favorite dessert.
Bo
Our favorite dessert. But before we eat that, we're gonna go in and check out some records and meet Adam, the owner. Let's go in. Now, Stephen, when you walk in a record store and the first thing you see is Terrorizer Jesus and Deicide Jesus. You're in the right place. You're okay. You got an old ass kill uncle poster.
Dennis
Something Jim was just telling me. He said Speed is collectively the least vintage shirt and record band. And my theory was is that because it's more rare slash expensive to get in Australia, I would.
Jim
Yeah, I. That might have. That might play a role. I also think that we as human beings are just so. We. I don't know how to say this, but we are not built to old on things for a long time.
Bo
You're not a materialistic guy.
Jim
You just. Yeah.
Bo
You're more about the memory.
Jim
I think that we've also all.
Bo
Every.
Jim
That we. All the things that we wear. I think that like. And listen to it. Like things that our friends make and stuff. I don't know.
Dennis
Let's see if we can't find some friends stuff.
Jim
Yes, that be nice.
Bo
Let's see what we got.
Jim
Sydney Royalty. No pun intended, actually. And if you like. If you know. If you know Royal Headache, you should check out Antenna. It's the singer's new band. It's amazing in the vein of. And they've got a new record. It's coming out on Last Night Records.
Bo
Now, Jim, even though you're not a collector.
Jim
Yes, sir.
Bo
What is better than walking to a record store and finding your own band's record in another country? Isn't that nice?
Jim
The master prize, when it does happen.
Bo
Well, let's find one.
Jim
Should I be surprised today?
Dennis
Let's have a picture saying the Holy Trinity.
Bo
You got a copy of the.
Dennis
I don't have a copy.
Jim
We sold out.
Bo
Oh, really?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
They sold out of Speed Records. Come on.
Jim
Really? No, we really did. We moved.
Bo
We restocked it. Like, I don't know.
Dennis
Well, did they just move?
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
You did it.
Josh
Wow. Hey.
Bo
Sold out. Beautiful.
Jim
Thank you. Thank you.
Bo
Beautiful. So since we can't hold in my hands. Tell me about only One Mode, your debut lp, it takes you damn near five years put together essentially with some episode of five years combination is the culmination of five years work. Tell me about putting it together. The response, the mindset going in, the influences.
Jim
We didn't think that we would ever get there. And I know that sounds cliche, but we didn't see beyond the 7 inch. We really didn't. So with this here, we were just trying to make this the best possible thing that we could possibly offer. I'm gonna say this comes from confidence or a lack of it. Like, I just. We didn't think that we had the skills to write something work that long.
Bo
It's a lot. It's a lot of work.
Jim
It is. And I'm really stoked with the result. I'm happy with every single element. Having said that, moving on, like, now, where we're at, like, there's a whole new set of aspirations that we have that we've. Since we've learned from that, that, like, I want to. I want to achieve. Just personally headline Coachella.
Dennis
Yeah, man.
Bo
Well, where do you. Where do you go from here musically? You know, like. Like, how. What is. What do you think the evolution of Speed?
Jim
It's such a difficult question, right? The biggest. I think the. The biggest personal kind of aspiration that we have right now is beyond anything, is achieving a little bit more identity in the sound. Because the Speed is the product of all the things that we've ever loved.
Bo
Totally.
Jim
And I think the influences are so obvious, however. And when we wrote all these songs as well was just kind of. We. Especially when we began, we thought we'd just be playing to our friends, like, really. And now that we're in this position where there's just so much potential, just fucking doing so many things beyond we ever thought we would.
Bo
Totally.
Jim
It's like all. Everything we've done as a band, it's just a bonus so far. But as an artist, it's like, can we actually find a little bit more of a distinct sound? Especially as an Australian band, We spend our whole lives looking up to American stuff all the time. You know, it's not abroad. So it's like, can we find a little bit more identity?
Bo
What is Australian hardcore? Yeah, you want. You want to answer that question? Anytime somebody turns your record on.
Jim
And we've always said that it comes down to the culture. It's a. It's a cultural thing. It's like a. It's an attitude thing, which we're really proud of. But, yeah, it's a hard thing to answer this.
Bo
The. The second lp.
Dennis
It's the hardest one.
Bo
Is the hardest one. The soft one, because it's. You gotta. You gotta evolve without forsaking all the aspects that people love about you while not like getting tired of them, which creatively.
Jim
Well, we. The first thing we do when we get off the plane after this trip next week is go to studio.
Josh
Yeah.
Jim
We're doing a recording fuso. So.
Bo
Oh.
Jim
We'll see how that comes out.
Bo
So let's come.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
Wow. The written art, 90% okay.
Jim
Yeah.
Bo
What can you tell me? Can you describe a little bit?
Dennis
I think.
Jim
I think it's everything. I think it's everything that speed has had but just dialed up.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
Like. And I know I said that about.
Bo
The LP2, but that's all you ever need to do is keep dialing it up and then you. You get giving the people what they want. Is step one exceeding their expectations a step too.
Dennis
Well put.
Jim
Yeah. I don't know. It's a.
Bo
And you've done it every time. You've continually turned the dial. The. The. The exceedometer goes up every time.
Jim
Thank you. Thank you.
Bo
Let's see if we can find something you might want.
Dennis
What do you got here, Josh?
Josh
Original Painted Truth pressing with the very, very low res cover.
Bo
Oh, is it?
Jim
Oh, wow.
Dennis
Look at that.
Bo
That ain't even a png, huh? Ridge, what happened?
Josh
Caught this at Nerds in Japan and I was like, is it just me or is that a little blur?
Bo
This is a day's record, right, Lumpy? We're gonna have to find out the lore on what happened there. That looks terrible to me.
Josh
It looks way cooler that way.
Bo
I agree.
Jim
But it's. Yeah, that's. That's the thing. I sick about it.
Josh
Yeah, I agree.
Bo
There's a story there.
Josh
Yeah, exactly.
Bo
The. If there's a first press of the got lp, the same thing happened. Sent it off to. I mocked it up on an app on my phone.
Josh
Dope.
Bo
Sent it to the designer.
Josh
I think that's probably what happened. Oh yeah. Sydney.
Jim
Hardcore Kings of punk. Masters of hardcore Rapid Die. This is featuring members of Primitive Blast. Singer and the guitarist, the two masterminds in that band. This is unequivocally Sydney. So this LP just came out last month. Awesome. If you love anything punk with a little bit of hardcore, perfect.
Josh
This is a record we grew up on. This is the singer of Parkway. Driver's Brother is in this band. They played Sound of Fury. I think this record came out in like 2007. The production on it is insane. Complex studios. You get the compressor and you go straight to the top. That's how you get. Yeah, it's just. Everything is just. Yeah.
Bo
Nice.
Josh
Sounds like no warning. And if you into that.
Bo
What other. What other Australian hardcore can we find in here?
Josh
This f. Broke up. So maybe we won't do them for.
Jim
They did.
Bo
For naughty reasons or for good reasons.
Jim
They.
Josh
They fell out.
Bo
Ah, there you go.
Dennis
What do you got?
Josh
Ball.
Bo
Destruction. Suckers.
Jim
But still awesome.
Bo
It's the same songs pretty much, right?
Jim
Yeah. His favorite is Ball of Destruction.
Bo
You're Ball of Destruction, man.
Josh
I love his voice because he's a kid.
Bo
He's so young.
Josh
You know what I mean?
Bo
So is you.
Josh
That's the sickest thing ever. Oh, here we go. I think we know these guys.
Jim
Oh.
Bo
Heard that bed before.
Josh
I think we.
Bo
That's the Redux.
Josh
Yep. Dope record.
Bo
Thanks, man. We leaked it ourselves because Ice Cream took a long time to press it.
Jim
What that. First thing I saw was a Rapidity record.
Bo
That's awesome.
Josh
Yeah. That's crazy.
Bo
One with the underdogs.
Jim
This is HC hall of Fame right here.
Bo
Undeniable. One of the greatest.
Josh
What do you got?
Bo
Top 100.
Josh
Oh, yeah.
Jim
Easy.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
Some might say.
Bo
Some might say it's top 100 on.
Dennis
A list you might need to hear.
Bo
Yeah.
Dennis
Before you die.
Bo
Beast.
Jim
This would be one of collectively Speed's favorite modern Harcourt bands. This. Everything that's been done by this band. And this record is amazing. And. Wait, did you have a hand in this?
Bo
My brother.
Jim
Your brother did.
Bo
Brother. Brother engineered it and mixed it, I believe.
Jim
Who produced it or helped write the songs.
Josh
My brother did.
Jim
Yeah, it was.
Bo
I mean, I think it's all Josiah and my brother.
Jim
It's. This is a fucking masterpiece. Everything they've done is amazing. Yeah.
Bo
And is that the last one? I don't have anything since.
Josh
I think they did it fucking two.
Jim
Songs after or something.
Josh
But that's Craig that was in like.
Bo
Do you have blood? Or whatever the name is called in your mind. Look at that.
Jim
Yeah, I saw that. What's in my mind?
Bo
Pre Killing Time. There was Rod. Same exact same band, different name, same songs. Still good. Do you have Jim in your mind?
Jim
What's in my mind?
Bo
A favorite tour that Speed has done yet.
Jim
Bro, there's so many different.
Bo
Maybe a favorite Australian tour and a favorite international tour where you really thought, like, we did it, guys, when we.
Jim
Played in Bangkok for the first time that in that whole Southeast Asia trip. This is the start of 2020 Whispers. Yeah.
Bo
Bro, what a band.
Jim
Whispers. Actually, we should try and find this. Yes. This record. This is sick.
Dennis
Look at the shirt.
Bo
Some would say the 33rd best 1980s punk band of all time.
Jim
The Southeast Asian tour. When we started Speed, we were like, we. We won't tour, but we will go south. Southeast Asia. And it was. That was just. We. That's another region. Like Southeast Asia to Australia is almost like Europe to uk. Yeah, right there. Yeah. And we just have so many friends there and obviously, like, spiritually, like, more than half of us are from there. And. And. And to see, like, the scene in Southeast Asia just be. Just explode with so much. So many great bands, so much more swag. Like, there was a period of time up until just before COVID where there. Some of the things were a little bit behind, and now it's.
Bo
They're ahead.
Dennis
They're five years ahead.
Bo
Yeah, they're advanced.
Jim
There's so many great bands from there. So, yes, I think Southeast Asia has, like, been amazing. But also, bro, like, every single trip has been different. Like, knock loose, full us tour. Like, seven of us in a van. Australian, just literally living out of motels and gas stations for seven weeks. Like, in opening, driving that Josh from Last Question.
Bo
Oh, cool. That's awesome.
Jim
Yeah. Yeah. It was the six of us plus him. And it was just. It was just crazy. Yeah.
Bo
Oh, RP Ow.
Josh
Existence from Shout Out.
Jim
Our homies from Stockholm.
Josh
Oh, I saw that on the floor. Yeah. Dope band.
Bo
Some would say the 32nd best 1980 Marco Band of all time.
Josh
It's a very eclectic mix in here.
Bo
There. Is this a great store?
Dennis
My wallet.
Josh
Where's the screen?
Dennis
Screaming.
Jim
UV Josh, do you have a favorite tour or something?
Bo
Favorite speed tour or show that you played where you got off stage and just thought, I think we did it.
Josh
We did our first bus tour in Europe at the end of or towards the end of last year, and it was us end it. Whispers. Life's question. Day by day. We're on a leg of it. Of power. On a leg of it. And it was Whisper's first time in Europe and a lot of them meeting, like, a lot of them meeting, like, all of these bands for the first time. And the vibe was so sick, dude. Everybody was just hanging out constantly. Like, there's, like a group of people, like, a bunch of Last Question and some of the edit guys and. And, like, Kane would, like, off skating. And then, like, some of us would go to the gym. Some of us would go, like, explore the city or whatever. Every day was just like, A couple of different crews of people just going and hanging out and just enjoying all.
Dennis
The videos from that tour. I remember being like, I got a.
Jim
Question for you guys.
Josh
An international tour as well. You know what I mean? Like, you had two American bands. Last question. Had Meg from Big Cheese and Turn Style and. And Joe from. From Pest Control filling in for a bit. So, like, you had British people, you had Australians, you had Americans, you had Thai Meeting of Demise. Yeah, yeah. It was awesome. Dude.
Dennis
What.
Jim
What's the best episode you've ever done?
Dennis
Best episode we've ever done.
Josh
Like your favorite.
Dennis
It's the Vinnie Stigma.
Bo
It's. I mean, the Stigma one when we wrapped. So for a little Context, the stigma one was 48 hours after I tried to eat 200 McNuggets and 24 hours after I played, like, a brutal show. And then eight hours after we filmed the Mike Dijon thing and the Brooklyn thing. Back to. Back to back. That was all one day.
Jim
That's insane.
Bo
So that going as well as it did. That was one where, like, camera shut off and we hooked.
Jim
Yeah.
Dennis
It was just like we. We did something.
Jim
Yeah. Well done.
Dennis
Whatever we just did rocks and is the kind of what we all. Our other, like, another favorite is the Brian one in Louisville, which is essentially what we're doing with you guys.
Bo
That's what we wanted this to be.
Dennis
This is what we want.
Jim
Thank you.
Dennis
Yeah.
Jim
Well, when Whispers come here in July or when they come here in May, and if you have the chance and you finally have Whispers and Ollie on this show, you will have your best episode.
Bo
Oh, yeah.
Jim
I'm telling you, you will film. You will have the best chat, whatever it is, with Olay and the boy from Whispers on this.
Bo
I'm obsessed with them.
Dennis
Yeah, he's been waving, bro.
Jim
They are so encyclopedic and crazy about hardcore metal core, everything to do with it. And they have the most insane personalities. They're the best people that you. You. You cannot not fall in love with them. And you guys would have the best.
Bo
I already love them. They sent in an acceptance for best guest vocal part on our, like, award thing last year. And just watching that was like, I think I'm in love with all. Yeah.
Josh
When we went to Bangkok, I mean, a bunch of you guys had already met a lot of them before, but they met us at our hotel, took us crossroad to a Japanese hotpot place. We ate a ton of food and then we went to a Wii Cafe and just took it over and sat down and just started playing each Other. Our favorite Harkle videos.
Bo
Ah, see? So we're showing them all the sound.
Dennis
We tell you there's episodes you can be.
Josh
Dude, we're showing them, like, famous videos within our friendship. So. Cycle of people just getting, like, decimated.
Jim
Yeah, yeah.
Josh
Like, shows in Australia, and then they're like, all right, we'll check this one out. In Bangkok. Here's Stephen from Kickback, beating someone up with a ladder. And we just went back and forth for, like, three hours or something while everybody else in the joint was just, like, perfect.
Dennis
We were just talking.
Bo
You think you. From the outside, you just think, like, culturally, we're all so different.
Jim
Yeah, we're not, brother.
Bo
We're the fucking same.
Jim
That's why this thing is so sick, because it makes the world so much smaller. It's like I can travel literally to the other opposite side and meet people I don't know. This is such a trope in every hardcore conversation about how good it is, but it is. I think it's so necessary when the world feels so divided. It's like we have so many similarities and there are so many small things which are so meaningful to us.
Dennis
We can all get along, you know.
Jim
What I mean, and find some kind of commonality. It's just. It makes me more passionate about this.
Dennis
It almost makes the meaning music secondary.
Josh
All but that.
Bo
That's what. That's what drives me crazy about, like, hardcore on hardcore crime. Almost like. Like using your time in public to talk about other hardcore bands when, like, we're here for the same reason. There's. There's greater enemies out there.
Jim
That's like.
Bo
There's. There's actual musical evil in this world, literally, bro, that we must defeat. And so we got to work together to do that.
Jim
Obviously, the tribalism is a part of it, and you gotta protect some stuff. And it's part of the culture, too. You have to. And I respect that. I totally respect that. But there is definitely a higher proportion of bullshit I feel that's spoken. That's probably unnecessary.
Bo
Yeah, and that's fine. So we're winding down here. So I got a very important question for each of you individually, and I kind of want two answers. Yeah, I want to know your top four hardcore records of all time, period. And top four Australian hardcore records of all time.
Josh
Oh, top four all time. That's an easy one. Train Our Blues.
Bo
Wow.
Josh
Age of Quarrel, Stay Cold. And I guess another, like, kind of more millennial take as well. The Sleeping Eye, Iron Age have. They're the best riffs ever Written to me.
Bo
Okay. All respectfully. Great answer.
Josh
And then Australian mind snare, hang, choke, wrist slit is crazy.
Jim
They're.
Bo
I mean, yeah, they're the, like, forefathers of Australia.
Josh
Modern Australia, without a doubt.
Bo
Bulldoze. Born a banger.
Josh
That's a meme. That's an Australian hardcore dude. We have a friend who has a tattoo.
Bo
No way. How do you spell it? Kch. Kch?
Dennis
Really?
Josh
With a bulldozer?
Dennis
I have no idea.
Bo
That's awesome.
Josh
So.
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
What? Mind snare. Miles away. Consequences.
Bo
Yeah. They got over here. They did.
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
They were Australia's Bridge 9 bands.
Dennis
Got you.
Jim
They were out. Bridge 9.
Dennis
That's for sure.
Josh
Man. We listened to it the other day. Carpathian. Nothing to lose. Australian.
Bo
Is that pre or post Krispy Kreme shirt?
Josh
That's mid Krispy Kreme. That is Krispy Kreme.
Bo
The Krispy Kreme shirt was in celebration of that record.
Josh
And then one that I think I know will definitely be on James List, but maybe on yours as well. Dennis. Is Parkway Drive. Killing with a Smile. That was. That was the entry point to, like, music that you can mosh to for a.
Dennis
But then. And that got you. That's a domino up to here. Yeah.
Josh
The 50 lines LP that I picked up before, like, they would take bands like that on tour or miles away or, you know, all these other hardcore bands at the time. And so you'd go to the Metal Core show and then you'd hear power chords instead and someone yelling instead of, you know. Yeah. And we just fell in love with that, like, even more, I think so.
Dennis
Beautiful.
Bo
It's a relief. And that was moments. Yeah.
Josh
Well, dude, the thing me, right, I didn't even necessarily love metalcore when I first heard it. And then Elliot showed me this band called Jungle Fever who sound like Righteous Jams or something, and I was like, oh, that's the music that I like.
Bo
Crazy name. Yeah.
Jim
Wild.
Josh
Yeah, I know. Well, yeah.
Bo
You probably wouldn't do it anymore, Dennis. Me? Yeah. Mad ball. Set it off. Great answer.
Jim
I'm gonna have to say to other D. Great answer. It's like, you know, like, people be.
Bo
Like, oh, yeah, no, it's deserved.
Jim
But I'm going to say to one.
Bo
Of the dogs, death threat, Peace and security. And I have like a millennium answer as well.
Jim
It's King Knight.
Bo
Oh, wow.
Josh
Yeah.
Bo
Scared to death. Scared to death. Wow. Great answer. Yeah. I'm going to clown for that. But remember that. Remember that when Brandon got clown. Who? Oh, for saying that.
Jim
Saying that.
Bo
Yeah. I mean, the Kiss. They're wrong and scared to death. Is a record where it's a. It. It takes time to be timeless, you know? And now that that's been out for 12 years, it's gone from like, modern classic to like, actual just classic.
Josh
Some shit's undeniable, bro.
Jim
Yeah.
Josh
Sometimes music is just that good.
Bo
What's good for what about Australia?
Jim
I'm gonna say if you. 50 lines, nowhere to run.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
Because that's a CD that got me like, CD got me into, like, where we are now.
Bo
Sure. Parkway Drive. Killing with a smile. Okay. Outsiders Code. Oh, that's a bad.
Josh
Is it like exiled from. Yeah, yeah.
Bo
What a record. They're. They're like Australia's dying breed.
Jim
I've always described they'd been around if.
Josh
It was only the to doing backup scenes.
Jim
Yes.
Bo
Who sounds like the singer?
Josh
Bang Br.
Bo
It's awesome. And miles away.
Jim
Consequences.
Bo
There you go.
Dennis
Beautiful.
Bo
All right. Jim.
Jim
I'm so hard with like, picking ones and they're going to not be representative of.
Dennis
Well, it's only going to be on the Internet forever.
Jim
Yeah, I know, I know. Set it off. This is. This is going to. This might be one that. It's the things we carry.
Bo
Oh, yeah. Sure.
Jim
Have heart to me. When I discovered have Heart, it was the. I worked at a youth center to try and get. To try and just get on a show. And the first tour that came around was the final Half Heart tour in Australia.
Bo
Oh, wow.
Jim
And the band at the time, we got to open it and it fully. It was the first time I'd ever printed merch for a show. It was the first time. It was like every kid from high school came to the show. And it also. My dad became one used to work in it and he became a life coach just doing seminars for his friends.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
And was full PMA to me. And. But I was listening to like emo and that. And it was the first time where, like hard. This hardcore thing intersected with, like, the values my family was preaching. You know what I'm saying? So have Heart just like changed my life. And then there's so many records to pick out. But I'm going to say big kiss, good night because to biggest tonight to me is the perfect intersection between straight the ass beat of music and just catchy chorus.
Bo
Catchy choruses. Intelligent songwriting, melody. It's got it all.
Jim
It's heartfelt. Like it's swagged out.
Bo
Yeah.
Jim
And then baby perseverance because as well. That was like heartfelt before I realized it was hardcore. You Know what I mean? I didn't like. It was the. That and. And Throwdown were the two bands that were on this metal seat compilation that I got burnt by my relative that taught me guitar when I was 11. And so, yeah, that's a four. And then for Australia, no Apology, Survival Break even the bright side. Parkway Drive. Killing with a smile.
Bo
So that's the one that seems to me that's unanimous.
Jim
Yeah. But that's also my favorite record of all time.
Bo
Okay.
Jim
Straight up. Yeah, that's my favorite record of all time. And I'm gonna say this is not even an album. I'm just gonna say primitive, Lost, Animalistic. Because that's also probably one of the things I've listened to the most.
Bo
Beautiful.
Jim
I'm just proud of them.
Bo
Beautiful. They've played here a lot, so hopefully they come back. What a lovely day we just had.
Dennis
Yeah, this is a blast.
Jim
Thank you.
Bo
Parkour Music, bringing people together worldwide.
Jim
Thank you.
Bo
Oh, my God.
Jim
Thank you guys for having us.
Bo
Thanks for joining us.
Jim
Seriously.
Josh
Yeah, it's been a fucking dope day.
Jim
It's been awesome. Let's do it.
Bo
Let's do it again in Sydney.
Jim
And thank you for indulging us because this is just shit we would have done with or without the camera on. And you've just been able to watch our experience, so I hope you enjoyed it.
Dennis
Yeah. Very proud of you boys. Very happy for you boys. Have a good show tonight.
Josh
Thank you.
Bo
Enjoy the show forever, because this lives in perpetuity.
Dennis
Perpetuity.
Jim
And.
Dennis
And the other half of Coachella coming up or.
Bo
Or a few years ago, depending on when you watch this. Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you all for watching this. This was. This was hard Lore with Speed in la. We had a lovely day. We love you so much. Bye.
Jim
Thank you.
Introduction
In this engaging episode of HardLore, hosts Colin Young and Bo Lueders sit down with the Australian hardcore band Speed to delve into their journey from Sydney’s local scenes to the grand stages of Coachella. Released on May 1, 2025, this episode offers an intimate look into the band’s experiences, challenges, and the deep-rooted friendships that have fueled their rise in the hardcore, punk, and metal communities.
Touring Experience: Sound and Fury vs. Coachella
Speed reflects on two pivotal performances that have significantly shaped their career. The first, Sound and Fury, is described by Jim as a "life-changing moment" ([05:04]). This show marked their first major breakthrough, setting the stage for their future successes. In contrast, their appearance at Coachella presented unexpected challenges. Jim shares, “[06:54] It was literally felt like I was in hellfest in the 90s... Coachella was just a...” highlighting the intense atmosphere and the immense effort required to maintain their authentic hardcore vibe amidst a massive and diverse audience.
Challenges of Large-Scale Touring
Maintaining their hardcore identity in large venues like Coachella proved to be more demanding than anticipated. Jim notes, “[03:34] It was harder work than I thought it was going to be,” emphasizing the struggle to engage a crowd unfamiliar with their hardcore roots. Despite these challenges, the band successfully delivered electrifying performances, with Josh adding, “[04:17] Those people showed the rest of the audience how to do this,” acknowledging the invaluable support from hardcore enthusiasts present at the event.
Dedication to Lost Friends
A recurring theme throughout the episode is Speed’s dedication to friends who have passed away. Jim expresses, “[12:10] We always like to say that we’re just the product of a larger friendship group back at home,” underscoring the profound impact these relationships have on their music and performances. Dennis echoes this sentiment, “[15:30] The only way to respond that is just to continue, like, pushing their legacy,” highlighting how honoring their friends’ memories fuels their ongoing commitment to the band and the hardcore scene.
Visiting Local Businesses: Modu Coffee and Mills Vintage
The episode takes listeners on a tour through LA’s local businesses significant to the hardcore punk scene. Starting at Modu Coffee ([01:49]), the hosts and guests enjoy a relaxed day exploring and learning about the community’s grassroots elements. Later, they visit Mills Vintage ([30:01]), where they immerse themselves in vintage hardcore attire and memorabilia. Vic, the owner, shares insights on iconic hardcore shirts, contributing to the episode’s rich exploration of the genre’s cultural artifacts.
Merchandise and Visual Identity
Speed places immense importance on their visual identity and merchandise, handled intricately by Aaron, Jim’s brother. Jim explains, “[33:17] There’s no curated or orchestrated kind of formula with what we do,” emphasizing the authenticity in their merch designs. The band’s logo and aesthetic are carefully crafted to reflect their identity, ensuring that their visual representation aligns seamlessly with their musical ethos.
Tour Logistics: Touring in the USA vs. Australia
The conversation shifts to the logistical aspects of touring internationally. The band discusses maintaining their physical regimen and dietary habits while on the road. Jim remarks, “[10:44] Comparing touring America is better than I thought,” highlighting how structured environments like gyms and detailed calorie listings in the USA aid in staying fit. Dennis adds, “[61:01] How difficult was it to maintain your physical regimen on long tours?” shedding light on the practical challenges and strategies employed to balance touring demands with personal health.
Favorite Hardcore Records
A segment of the episode is dedicated to sharing each member’s favorite hardcore records, both global and Australian. Josh lists his top four all-time favorites: Train, Our Blues, Age of Quarrel, and Stay Cold ([108:38]). Jim passionately names Parkway Drive’s "Killing with a Smile" as his ultimate pick ([114:00]), while Bo highlights influential Australian bands that have shaped their sound. This discussion not only showcases the band's influences but also provides listeners with a curated list of essential hardcore music.
Band's Future Prospects
Looking ahead, Speed discusses their aspirations for future projects and albums. Jim shares, “[95:25] We want to achieve a little bit more identity in the sound,” indicating their desire to evolve while retaining their core authenticity. The band is actively working on their second LP, aiming to dial up their distinct sound without compromising the elements that fans adore. Josh adds, “[76:03] We were honestly never going to know if we would make it to do an LP,” reflecting their humble beginnings and growth trajectory.
Conclusion
The episode concludes with heartfelt reflections on friendship, legacy, and the importance of staying true to one’s values within the ever-evolving hardcore scene. Jim encapsulates this ethos, “[81:57] Being able to share accomplishments with friends is worth more than any kind of big paycheck or clout nod,” reinforcing the band’s commitment to authenticity over commercial success. This summary of HardLore’s "SPEED: From Sydney to Coachella" offers a comprehensive exploration of Speed's journey, providing valuable insights for fans and newcomers alike.
Notable Quotes
This detailed summary captures the essence of the "SPEED: From Sydney to Coachella" episode, highlighting key discussions, insights, and the band's unwavering dedication to their music and friendships.