#last ep I have planned will you do it? and shane was like yeah sure why not and then Ryan was like also we got greenlit to go hunt ghosts | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

collecting-stories · 4 years

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Tara - ep. 11 - Georgia

Summary: The reader’s birthday is right around the corner. Tara shares a secret with Daryl that only she knows.

A/N: Someone recently asked about me posting pictures that inspired Georgia so I thought I would share the pinterest board I use for it. (I’ll add more as the series moves along. If you wanna see anything specific like outfit inspo let me know lol).

Georgia Masterlist | The Walking Dead Masterlist

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“My baby! Look at her.” You cheered, standing in the parking lot of Dale’s autobody as Daryl drove the Jeep up and parked beside you. He had told you to come by after work to collect the Jeep at the shop, thinking it’d be better that way then you showing up at his house. “Thank you.”

“Just doing my job.” He shrugged, handing the keys over to you. “Another tussle with the cat?” He asked, catching sight of the cut on your cheek. Without thinking he reached up and brushed his hand across the cut and you flinched a little.

You smiled though, when you met his eyes, “yeah, can’t resist ‘em.”

“Thought maybe ya were getting into it at the diner, heard ya got arrested,” he teased.

“I wasn’t arrested! Who told you I was arrested?”

“Calm yerself down. Michonne said she picked ya up Friday night with Maggie Greene.” He replied. Michonne had given him an earful about it on Saturday morning when she’d seen him in the parking lot of the gas station.

“I was at Shane’s party, there was a fight.” You replied, “but I wasn’t arrested.” You wondered if Michonne told Daryl that she called you his girlfriend and whether or not that bothered him. If he corrected her everytime or if he didn’t say one way or another. “Anyway, I went cause Aiden told me he’d tell my mom we’ve been hanging out if I didn’t. I didn’t want you to get in trouble,” you admitted.

With both of the boys only in holding over night to ‘cool off’ as the sheriff called it, you were sure that Aiden had convinced his mom to tell yours about all the time you were spending with Daryl. You’d spent all last night laying in bed freaking out over the thought of Daryl getting in trouble because you were stupid enough to not just go talk to Deanna in the moment.

“Don’t worry ‘bout me, ya shouldn’t be spending time hanging around me anyway.” He mused, leaning against the side of your jeep. “Don’t matter anyway, going hunting for a few days...sure they’ll forget about whatever gossip they got running out their mouths by then.”

“When are you going?”

“Leavin’ in the morning why?” He asked.

“How long you gonna be gone?”

“Why?” Daryl asked again, “ya want me ta print ya an itinerary or something?”

“No. I’m just asking.” You frowned, hoping it looked like a glare but positive it looked much more like a pout. The thought of Daryl leaving, even for a weekend, was all kinds of awful. It was already going to be weird not going to his house three times a week to watch him work on the car and you were afraid that he would stop wanting you around now that the car was fixed. Going hunting felt like the final thing before he told you to stop bothering him for good. “You still gonna teach me car stuff when you come back?”

“Told ya I would.” He said. When Tiny called his name from the back of the shop, Daryl stood up, wiping imaginary dirt off his hands. “I gotta get back ta work, ya stay outta prison til I’m back, ya hear.”

“I wasn’t arrested!” You stressed,

“Course ya weren’t.” He hesitated for a moment, hands in the pockets of his coveralls as he stood there, waiting to say whatever was on his mind. “I’ll only be a few days, I see ya after. Teach ya how to drive.”

“I know how to drive!” You laughed, “you told me I was good driver.”

“When was that?”

“Daryl!”

He grinned, brushing his hair back with his hand before shaking it out. “I’ll be seeing ya alright?”

“I’ll see you when you get back.” You nodded, finally opening the door to your jeep as Daryl headed back into the auto shop to help Tiny. You waved to Axel as you peeled out, not headed far though, you had a shift at the diner to get back to.

You hadn’t mentioned it to Daryl then though you had been planning to. It was your birthday soon. About two weeks and you’d be eighteen. It wouldn’t matter what Deanna told your mom or what Aiden said and maybe, Michonne’s teasing wouldn’t have to be just teasing. It was all wishful thinking though. There was still the unavoidable possibility that he didn’t like you at all and that when you told him how you felt he wouldn’t reciprocate. Maggie told you that you were crazy to even think that way, Daryl was obviously into you, according to her.

You’d spent enough time with him though, you knew he wouldn’t come around easy. But that was okay, you were pretty willing to stick it out even if all you ever got was a glimpse of a smile.

The diner was packed when you got there, almost unusually so for a Thursday night but you recognized the two girls sitting at the counter the moment you walked through the front door. You waved while you ducked in the back to drop your things and clock in, fixing the apron around your dress and coming back out the double doors behind the counter.

“What are you guys doing here?” You asked, stopping in front of Maggie and Tara before you waited on anyone else.

Maggie only came by the diner if she was driving you home and lately she hadn’t. Tara came even more infrequently so you knew they had to want something if they were sitting there, especially at the beginning of your shift.

“Wanted to get dinner, saw you across the street with your boyfriend.” Tara teased.

“Shut up.”

“You tell him that you’re gonna be eighteen soon.” She questioned. “You guys can-”

“Tara! Shut up!” You smacked the back of her hand with the pad of paper in your hand, “my God.”

“We came over because we were talking party ideas and wanted to know what you wanted for your birthday?” Maggie cut in, bringing the conversation back to something more appropriate for a diner full of families.

“After the other night...no party. Just us, Glenn...maybe Eugene? No one else, please.” You laughed.

“You know what would be more fun than a party?” Lori commented, stopping behind you.

You twisted around, looking at your co-worker, “waiting on tables?” You replied. She was always on your case, it was no surprise that she would’ve been ease-dropping on the conversation.

“Especially since you aren’t being paid to stand here chitchatting with your friends.” She retorted.

“I’m going, I’m going,” you muttered, “discuss without me...no party.” You insisted, walking around the counter to go wait on the tables in your section.

Tara spun in her stool, watching you chat up tables of families. “Watch her, I’ll be right back.” She instructed, hopping off the stool. Maggie was about to ask where she was headed but Tara was already across the diner, the bell on the door clattering behind her as she left. Through the picture windows Maggie could see her cut across the street to the garage. You would kill them if you found out, surely.

Tara walked up the small parking lot to the garage. She’d been there once to drop you off but had never been inside. She’d only seen Daryl a handful of times and only talked to him once. Not exactly the basis for inviting him to come to a birthday dinner for you that she couldn’t even imagine him agreeing too.

“Can I help you?” T-Dog called, spying the girl walking into the open garage a little less confident now that she was through the door.

“Is Daryl here?”

“D! You got a visitor.” T-Dog shouted, looking back at Tara skeptically before walking off to go back to work.

Daryl appeared on the other side of a four-door sedan, eyes narrowing when he realized the visitor was not you. Tara smiled a little too apprehensively, walking over to him and waving. “Hey, I’m Tara...I’m friends with-”

“Yeah, I recognize ya,” Daryl replied, leaning against the car. “What’re ya doing here?”

“Well...you might not know but she’s turning eighteen in two weeks and we were planning on having a party for her, nothing special but...” Tara shrugged, “I wanted to invite you.”

“I’m busy.”

“In two weeks? I didn’t even tell you the date.” She pointed out.

“Yeah and? She didn’t tell me herself, ain’t something she wants me ta know.” He replied. It seemed logical enough for him. You hadn’t mentioned your birthday to him at all. Maybe the party was a surprise but you hadn’t even brought up the exact date so why would you want him at a party with your friends?

“I think she’s probably just nervous, you know?” Tara tried to argue. Considering how much you talked about Daryl on a daily basis she wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t mention anything to him out of sheer anxiety. You were eighteen...the implications were there.

“What for?”

“Well,” Tara paused, was he joking? “She’s eighteen...you guys could like...date.”

Daryl brought his hand up, chewing at the tip of his thumb, cheeks going red at the word. He’d thought about it. Hell, he thought about it all the time. At Thanksgiving, in the parking lot on Christmas Eve, at the stupid winter fest, in his truck while you were driving to Woodbury, anytime he looked over at you while he was working on the car. What he wouldn’t give to have that, to kiss you whenever he wanted, to be close to you, but that kind of happiness wasn’t in the cards for him.

You were a fluke, a weird accident that happened in his timeline and once the universe righted itself you would be fixing your eye on someone who was better for you. Someone who would live up to all the standards that people in King County had.

“I got work.” He finally said, looking back down at the car in front of him.

“Okay. Just, think about it?” Tara requested. “She really likes you and, I know my opinion is whatever but, she deserves some happiness.” Tara turned, leaving the shop to get back to Maggie, hoping you didn’t notice her absence too much.

“What’d ya mean?” Daryl called after her.

Tara paused, looking back at him, “don’t tell her I told you...no one knows.” She stressed, “things aren’t exactly...her parents aren’t what everyone thinks.”

As she headed back to the diner Daryl exhaled, kicking the tire of the sedan as that feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. The same feeling he’d pushed away earlier when he saw the scratch on your cheek. The one he’d ignored just after Christmas when you told him you tousled with a cat at the Greene’s. It was that feeling, nagging, coupled with the smallest hint of something familiar behind your eyes.

He knew the feeling. He lived it. But you shouldn’t have to.

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bthenoise · 4 years

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Q&A: Fit For A King’s Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary Talks ‘The Path’ Plus How To Work With Your Favorite Artists On Featured X

Despite everything going on in the world and the limitations presented in the music business, Fit For A King bassist/clean vocalist Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary has remained extremely busy.

Not only has O’Leary released new music with his indie rock side-project Off Road Minivan and recorded a highly anticipated Fit For A King record but the DIY musician has also started a brand new podcast and created a new company called Featured X.

The new business, which launched at the end of July, is your new goto to get some of your favorite musicians featured on your music -- think Fiverr but with all metalcore, post-hardcore, hardcore and deathcore artists.

Talking with Tuck about his new site featuring the likes of Tyler Carter, Shane Told, Spencer Charnas, Brendan Murphy and more, the outgoing entrepreneur said, “Originally, we're like, ‘Okay, we're going to launch and we're going to put out like 13 guys.’ And then 13 guys turned to 30. And then 30 turned to 60. And it was just like, ‘Holy shit. Okay, we're just going to see however many we can get now.’”

He added, “I think with this Friday's drop, we're going to be at around like 100 vocalists because now more people are getting interested in it because they're seeing it which is the exciting part where I just want my friends to get paid. And the reality is, if they can sing two songs a month, pay all their bills and they're good and they can remain artists, that's what's up.”

To learn more about the exciting Featured X as well as Fit For A King’s brand new album The Path, be sure to look below. Afterward, make sure to grab a pre-order before it hits stores September 18th via Solid State Records.

Regardless of all that’s going on in 2020, you’ve still been incredibly busy with a new Off Road Minivan record, new Fit For A King album and now the Featured X platform you just announced. Were all these planned pre-COVID?

Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary: Not all of them and also I actually have a podcast that I just teamed up with Idobi Radio for recently as well. It's called Get Tucked. You can listen to it every Monday at 4pm on Idobi Howl, which is their metal station or on every other platform starting on Wednesdays. Just to throw a little ad there [laughs]. But yeah, the Off Road Minivan record had been done actually for maybe eight months or so before it was released. So that was all pre-planned and ready to go. The Fit For A King record was finished in January. So we were prepared for that and that was supposed to come out on the Parkway Drive tour that we were going to be doing this summer. So that threw a wrench in the works for that. I mean, it was really nice to be home for the Off Road release because I was going to be on tour so it was kind of cool to like, actually get to sit and concentrate and look at the plays and comment on things and really be there for it. Because if I was on tour with Fit, I definitely would have been much busier. But it was a really nice experience getting to do that and luckily having the Fit music -- you know, the two singles we've released and getting to now recently make music videos as of like two weeks ago -- it's been really helpful for us to be able to keep some momentum and our Spotify actually just hit 800,000 monthly listeners today so we're extremely excited. But you know, it's a weird situation to be in because no one necessarily knows how to make the kind of money that people made on tour. And everyone's been really inventive. You know, like the Underoath stream. That was awesome. I watched [them play] Define The Great Line and it was great. So just, we've started to put some things together, we got to film some music videos like two weeks ago or so. But you know, trying to keep as busy as we can.

Totally.

The Featured X platform just came up out of the blue where one of the co-owners is one of my best friends. His name is Jeff. We talk on the phone almost every day just cause we've been friends for 15 years. One morning we're talking and he just like brings up the idea like, “Dude, what if there was this platform and like everyone could just go get their guests features” and it came up because we manage a band called Left To Suffer from Atlanta, Georgia. We were getting together features for their new EP that's going to be coming out and it was just one of those where I was like, “Well, I can call so and so and so and so and we can get these guys on and we'll talk.” And then we're like, “Well, what if there is just a really easy way to streamline this and have everyone get access to these guys?” You know, I can text a guy I've toured with -- Tom Barber [Chelsea Grin] or Ryo from Crystal Lake -- but how long are you gonna wait in their DMS until they respond to you? A long time.

So it was just an easy way where the second he said it, I was like, “This isn't ridiculous. This is feasible. Like, we could do this and we can do this right now.” The hard part was finding someone who can handle the web creation. So we made some posts to try to find a web designer and this guy Adam, he’s from Atlanta and he plays in another band but he also owns a web design company. We pitched the idea to him and he loved it so much that, you know, first he was just working on it and then we gave him a portion of the company as well when we had to do all our paperwork and whatnot. But it just really came together in a matter of like a month and a half. As I'm getting people and building the roster, Adam and his team are building the site and it just kept growing and growing. Originally, we're like, “Okay, we're going to launch and we're going to put out like 13 guys.” And then 13 guys turned to 30. And then 30 turned to 60. And it was just like, “Holy shit. Okay, we're just going to see however many we can get now.” And I mean, I think with this Friday's drop, we're going to be at around like 100 vocalists because now more people are getting interested in it because they're seeing it which is the exciting part where I just want my friends to get paid. And the reality is, if they can sing two songs a month, pay all their bills and they're good and they can remain artists, that's what's up. That's what's important right now. Because none of us can tour, none of us can go make the income we usually can because we gave up all our masters, right? We sign these contracts. When you're on tour, you pay management, you pay booking agents. I'm not saying these things are negative. I'm just saying that they're the reality. I love my booking agent, I love my management, I love my label. I'm all for these things. But the reality is right now, no one's getting shit. You know, because we don't have the income from Spotify and we don't have the income from these kinds of things. So people are being really innovative and they're doing live stream concerts and they're putting together incredible merch packages. But when you put into account how much merch on top of donations to charities has been purchased in the last four months, you've seen how resilient and caring these fans are because they not only bought everyone out of debt, they also donated millions of dollars to good causes. So this was a cool way in our heads to finally connect some people, connect some dots, help our friends who are in a pinch. And I'm not saying that every guy on the site is like broke and needs money but it's helpful. They want to make art, they want to be a part of things. They want to stay artists and the hardest part of this whole thing is sitting in my house for the first time for five months when I've never done that before. So it's been an interesting experience. Sorry for the super rant, Jesus.

It's totally fine! So when you hit up all your friends about Featured X, did they all immediately jump on board thinking it was a great idea?

Yeah, there was like a couple people who couldn't do it for logistical reasons or some guys who were like “I want to see how this” -- and I hate that I keep saying "guys" -- some people who will look at it and be like, “Hey, this isn't for me right now but let's see what it's like in three months.” So what I did first was just hit up the people that I'm closest to which was obviously Kirby [Fit For A King] and Tom Barber and Ryo and Telle [Smith, The Word Alive] and Levi [Benton, Miss May I] and Dave Stephens [We Came As Romans] like, some of these guys that I just thought would be interested in it and would probably back me and help me. Once we got these people involved, it just started becoming so much easier because others were like, “Well, if so and so is doing it, fine, yeah, I'll give it a try.” And a lot of it comes from, you know, we have so many different mindsets that come from these different styles of music, right? And it's definitely created part of the communication between fans and this now where there are fans of like hardcore music and they don't really want their favorite hardcore vocalists to be on a bunch of songs and a ton of features. They just want the vocalist of Kublai Khan doing vocals on an Acacia Strain song because they're friends, right? And I think that's really cool. And that's how it's been for a really long time. But the reality is that when you're a big popular vocalist and this is your job, this is your career, this is what you've been doing, there's nothing wrong with singing on an extra 10 or 20 songs that are awesome. What if you listen to a song and there is this amazing young band and what would really help them to get seen and to get signed and to get traction is to have that [guest] vocalist on their song? And that helps them create momentum and everyone gains something out of this. And you know, people talk about how the friendship aspect is so important to them where they only want to do features with people that they really care about. What if I ended up really caring about your band because I heard your band and I sang on your song? What if I want to help you after that? What if they want to help you after that? Because I've seen that happen. So we're just trying to connect things where right now there may be some issues in the mindset where some people are skeptical maybe of how it will pan out. And we don't know yet. We've had [as of this interview] 14 requests and one fully confirmed. So you know, it's not like we've put out 200 songs in a weekend. I'm very interested to see how it grows and how people take it but it's been overwhelmingly positive for us so far. Fans seem extremely stoked on it. And I'm really happy with how it's going, it's pretty cool. Like for me too, it's just weird to be talking to all my favorite singers [laughs]. I'm a fan first and it's cool to get to have time to speak with a lot of these people, that's a really amazing experience.

With these features, is it the artist's final say on whether or not they want to participate on the song?

Oh yeah, so the way it all works is pretty simple. If you are in a local band and you really want to go and work with Ryan Kirby, you send him your song and your social media links through the website. Ryan logs into the profile that we've given him, he listens to the song, checks out your social media links, takes a minute and thinks about it. Maybe he sends you a message because we have a text bubble there, talks about what you're about, what the song is about, what you want to sing about, why maybe you want Ryan on the song and then if he feels that these things are appropriate for him and this is a good look for him and he wants to sing on that song, all he has to do is hit accept. Upon him hitting accept, you have to pay him. Once you pay him, he has two weeks to perform the vocals and send them back to you. And all of this is done through the site, even the file sharing. So it keeps it really easy and everyone's able to communicate with it and they will see your song, he will listen to your song. And I just use him as an example because he's one of my best friends and he's in my band. So it's really cool because I can listen to these songs as well and we have been as they come in. The first request of all was to Lil Lotus and when the song came in, we're like “Okay, well he's an interesting artist because he does the screamo stuff but he's more prominent of a hip-hop artist, right?” So I was like, “Okay, this'll probably be a hip-hop song.” So we spin it and we're like, “This is a bop! This is good, like, this is a really good song. Holy shit.” And you know, it's just cool to see that work. I want to hear more good music and, like this morning, I woke up and I saw there was a new video by this band called Filth that came out. I think it's just called “Hell.” And the vocalist was so absolutely insane and the band was so good where I just had to hit him up and be like, “Yeah, dude, do you just want to do [Featured X]? Because your band is absolutely bonkers. And I know you may not be the biggest band right now, but if I'm gonna put money on something, I think I might put it on you.” So it's a really cool thing where we're not just trying to have it be a who's who of the scene where if I hear somebody or my partners hear someone and we think they're super talented, we want them to be here too because maybe more people will recognize them from that. If it works, that would be great. I'll make a lot of money off of them, I'll have extremely large pinky rings, Gucci slippers and I will only wear silk, but we'll see. That's the ultimate experience [laughs].

It sounds like this will be pretty fulfilling for you creatively getting to hear all this music.

Oh 100%. Yeah, it's really nice. I mean, I've always tried to stay a fan and a listener first, you know what I mean? I think I absorb a lot of music or at least I try to. And it is really inspiring to see these people and see what others are capable of. And now that there's so many artists and there's so many bands and everyone can get their music out there so easily, it's amazing to see how some stuff circulates based off raw talent. I mean, I love my Off Road stuff. But when I post it, does it get a million views in a day? No, not at all. But then it's cool to see this Filth video that came out today just pop off and people are sending it and it's going around and it's tag after tag on Facebook. And it's like, that's what I want to see is just something that people are excited about. And it is very exciting for us too because when building tours, I want to constantly have a tour that's cool and fun and relevant. And I want to take bands out that other people are excited about. So being on top of young talent, whether it's a band like Filth or Static Dress or like any of these like really cool up-and-coming bands, it's just exciting to always feel like I still have the same feeling I had as a kid [where] I want to love something first, you know? I want to know that band before everybody else knows that band. It's cool and exclusive [laughs]. You know and then you hope for ultimate success for everyone. I don't want them to stay that small band.

So you you spoke a little about the roster and mentioned how you hate referring to everyone as "guys." There are a few women on the roster...

There are only two out of 63 on the site currently [as of this interview].

Are you planning to add more?

Oh yeah, I have quite a few more this week. The thing that people have to keep into account when it comes to, especially with our [scene], when it comes to discussing women and people of color, there aren't a lot. So when I get turned down by one, there's 50 more guys for every Courtney LaPlante. You know, and believe me, I'm trying. I am trying very hard. It's just, one: I don't know everyone. I know who I know and then I branch out from there. And there are only a few girls that sing in metal and core bands. There are only so many LGBTQ people that sing in metal or core bands. There are only so many people of color that sing in metal or core bands. So it's really hard when you do get denied by one or two, and I'm not saying that Courtney turned me down. I was just using her as an example because she's super talented and Spiritbox is crushing life right now. But it's a conversation that I knew was gonna happen. I think the comment was on your guys' Instagram actually where someone pointed it out. And I'm ready for it because I think if they knew me personally, they would understand that I'm not captain of the boys club even though I am a bald, graying little monster of meat. I want it to be as equal of a playing field as it can be. I'm very excited that I have quite a few women that are going to be on the roster added this week. And I'm doing the same thing with females that I am with, you know, someone like the singer of Filth from today where you don't have to necessarily be in the biggest band but I think if you're really really really talented and someone would want to have these things on their song then that's what's most important to me because making really good art is what's most important.

And, you know, it's not just about getting everyone paid because there are some people that are just really good and they're supposed to be there because that's what my gut tells me. And luckily, I get to make those decisions because it's mine [laughs]. But yeah, we have quite a few ladies that are added on this week. And you know, I'm constantly trying to work on that but the other thing that comes with that is, like, okay, so when I talked to Booka from Make Them Suffer, I was like, "Yo, you're my only girl so far. I just want to be upfront with you. Thank you.” And she's like, “Yo, let's get it.” Like, “Cool, I'm into it and I appreciate that.” But you also can't approach people and be like “I really don't have like any girls on my website like can you come and like represent ladies for me?” Because it doesn't bode well either where this is about talent, right? So I want you to know that I want to work with you not because of the way you look, not because of your gender, your sex or however you identify. I want you to know that I want to work with you because I care about your voice and I'm excited about you and I like what you're doing. And I think that other people will want to work with you as well. So it's a really interesting thing to navigate and I think we're doing our best so far that we can. Lacey Sturm if you hear this, I emailed your manager, come do the site please Lacy Sturm.

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Do you think setting up Featured X has helped you appreciate someone like Kevin Lyman a little bit more who got grief for years with people saying Warped Tour wasn’t diverse enough?

Oh yeah. I had a conversation about it this week with Lauren from Sharptooth who is going to be on this week's drop. Which I'm extremely excited about because we're friends and one of my close friends from home Peter plays bass in Sharptooth. I love their band. I love Lauren, love everything she stands for. When we were talking on the phone about it, I was like, “Yeah, I kind of feel for Kevin now because I'm seeing it.” And you know, you have to think it just stinks because you want the festival to be the biggest and best it can be so in order for it to be biggest and best it can be, it has to be with the biggest and best bands and then just sometimes there aren't as many girls in bands that are as relevant so they get left behind. Where I thought he always did a pretty good job at evening things out was on the lower stages. But again, it's a challenge. Like, find me female deathcore vocalists. How many are there? Find me female metalcore vocalist. There's not that many. There's like, Courtney and there's this girl from the band Machinist and there's like Emma from Dying Wish but there's not a lot. And believe me, I'm trying. I'm trying to keep it open to suggestions. So what I did was, after we made the [first] drop, I tweeted out, “Hey, I know we're really male heavy. Give me some suggestions, tell me who the ladies are.” And I got great suggestions from it. And I'm talking to people and [now] I have a bunch of great people signed up. So it's just something where I need guidance too. I'm 31. I've been doing this for a long time. I don't know every band on the planet even though I'd like to think that I do. And it's been very helpful so I'm kind of letting the community guide it a little bit as well, where, sure I could really want someone -- in my perfect world, Geoff Rickly from Thursday calls me and he goes, “Hey Tugboat, I'm gonna be on the site” and I'm like, “Okay, Geoff. We're gonna be best friends now.” And then he's like, “Okay, cool.” And then we're best friends. But that's not necessarily everyone else's [top choice]. You know, maybe some of these kids are like, “I really want Ronnie Radke or I want Chris Motionless” or something like that. So we may want different things. So I like suggestions. It helps me stay relevant and to understand what other people want.

Do you plan on opening it up to guitarists if they want to do featured solos?

Yeah, we're gonna have guitars added to it. We're going to do drums as well. But there's going to be two different styles with the drums where, you know, the reality is a lot of it is digital these days. So if you just want to work with someone and help you write the parts, you hire a drummer to write the drum parts. And if you want them to actually perform the drums in a studio, you can pay for that as well. We're going to do guitar solos, we are also going to do full songwriting and production too. There are a lot of people out there who are just vocalists and they want Bobby from Fit For A King to ghostwrite songs for them. So that's going to be an option as well. And, the last thing I think we're going to add are lessons in case anyone wants it but I think Music Mentors is really the place to go for that. I think Music Mentors is a fantastic place if you're trying to get any sort of lesson options, they have incredible people to choose from. It's very similar to what we do and it's owned by a dear friend of mine. So that's not really a place that we're trying to dip into too much but more so staying on the performance end of things.

So it sounds like younger bands really have no excuse not to take advantage of these opportunities and progress their career. Sure it's gonna cost something but the tools are out there.

Absolutely. And when you talk about the cost, one thing to greatly consider with that, because that's one of the things that I do see some comments on, it's like, “How can this guy charge $1,000?” Well, the reason why is because one: You have like four or five people in your band, right? So $200 bucks a piece on anything, really isn't that bad. Two, you say this guy is one of your favorite vocalists of all time. You wouldn't pay $1,000 to work with your favorite vocalist? Because I know I would pay $1,000 to work with Dustin Kensrue or Geoff Rickly. Then on top of that, we're not asking you for publishing, we're not asking you for masters. So that's really not that much money in the grand scheme of things. The fact of the matter is that you get to own it, you get to push your career with it, you get to make content around it and I'm never going to see anything from it for the rest of my life. So I think that it's a pretty fair deal. And a lot of people don't necessarily want that but then you see in hip-hop, DaBaby is like, "Hundred thousand for a fucking feature, bitch!” And I'm like, “Yes! This is amazing!” Hip-hop is so like, encompassing in the community where they all help each other and they boost each other's songs. That's why Drake has made like 500 people famous and it's amazing to see that and we need more of it. Now I don't want to see Ryan Kirby on 500 songs the way Drake is but I do want people to lift each other up and do more collaborative stuff. An example of that is Fit For A King and We Came As Romans. We took “Backbreaker” and “Carry The Weight” and Dave sang on “Backbreaker” and Ryan sang on “Carry The Weight” and it crushed it. We did limited merch but we sold a shit ton of merch and everybody was streaming the songs and they're all happy about it. They really like it. But then when you look at the comments on YouTube, people still go “Who's Ryan Kirby? Who's Dave Stephens?” Holy shit. How is it that all the fans of We Came As Romans don't know who Fit For A King is and how is it that all the fans of Fit For A King don't know who We Came As Romans are? Mind blowing. So it just shows that there needs to be more connectivity. There needs to be people working together more trying to connect these fan bases because obviously we haven't tapped into everybody.

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It sounds like there just needs to be a giant metalcore mixtape where everyone gets a feature and that's how you discover people.

Someone proposed the idea of a GoFundMe [laughs]. Do a GoFundMe, pay all the vocalists on the site. Do like that, um, one Tech N9ne song where there's like a million rappers on. I forget what it's called but they all rap really fast on it. They sound like Fronz. I'm just kidding. They don't sound like Fronz. They sound like rappers but...

So yeah, before we let you go, we should probably discuss the new Fit For A King record.

Oh, of course. Please.

Talking about features, you have Ryo from Crystal Lake, who you guys have been friends with for a while, on a song.

Yeah, [we've been friends for] a couple years now. So in 2017, we're on Warped Tour and there's this girl who comes from Japan and goes to a bunch of tours and flies over here and goes for a few days and then flies back. And she was at the merch table and me and Ryan were talking to her and I was like, “Hey, are you friends with Ryo from Crystal Lake?” and she was like, “Yeah.” And I was like, “Well tell him that I'm pissed because he had Gideon come to Japan and I want to go to Japan. So invite me to Japan.” And she was like, “Okay, I'll tell him” and I was like, “Yeah, okay” because I was just being my sarcastic self. And a couple days later Ryo slid in my DMS and he was like, “Hey, I love Descendants. You guys want to come to Japan?” And I'm like, “Fuck, yeah!” and they invited us to play the 15 year anniversary of Crystal Lake. For a lot of people who don't know, Crystal Lake originally had a bunch of different members except for Udi, the guitar player. So he invites us over and we go and we play this festival and we come back and then we just kept in touch and they were super kind to us and took us around Tokyo and shit. And then we did the August Burns Red tour in the States. It was August Burns Red, us, Miss May I, and them. It was their first tour in the US. So we just kind of stuck by them the whole time and made sure they were good. ... We just bonded. I love the shit out of them. I have a Crystal Lake tattoo. It's a Crystal Lake, Miss May I, Fit For A King Smash Bros tattoo. It's interesting, you meet some people on the road that are extremely special that just hit you where it's like I've been waiting my whole life for you. Ryo's one of those guys. Like I would slaughter a whole room of individuals for him. He's the greatest. They're all incredibly loving, kind, passionate, happy, great people. And it's a blessing to get to know them because they do live so far away and I would have never met them if it wasn't for music. So very, very grateful for those guys. They are just, yeah, we are peas in a pod.

So how special was it to get Ryo on "God Of Fire" which paired with the announce of the new album 'The Path?'

It was the shit. Yeah, it was great because especially when you hear his raw files when they come back, it's pretty impressive. You think he's good live, I mean, when you can actually hear them just super raw it's insane how good his voice is and we couldn't think of anybody else when we heard the song once we got done with it. It was just so necessary. And yeah, he's the best frickin’ dude. We're so lucky to have him and have him involved with the song. It certainly brings a lot of attention to it because it doesn't get much hotter than Crystal Lake right now. I think them, Spiritbox and Polaris are probably the most hot up-and-coming metalcore bands right now and Crystal Lake every time they come back they draw more people, they're selling more merch, more people are interested. It's insane, absolutely bonkers. When you watch them open a show, it doesn't matter that they played first, the show's over. Like you feel like it's just done at that point because Ryo's in the middle of the crowd and there's 200 people holding him up by his ankles and he's doing this epic shit. Everyone's swaying their arms and you're just like, “Yeah, how do I come out on the stage after that?” So yeah, very lucky to have him on the track.

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And as for the track itself, was it important for you guys to come out with a heavy song so there's weren't any doubters thinking “Oh, Fit For A King's changing their sound” or whatever? Like, you wanted to lead with something super heavy.

Well we did “Breaking The Mirror” first. So “Breaking The Mirror” was out and that is definitely way more rock. It's one of the more rock song, there's one other song that's kind of rock-y too but it's way different rock, it doesn't sound like butt metal rock. It sounds different. I say that with love because it's my band and I can describe my music however I want. But um yeah, so we did the “Breaking The Mirror” thing. You know, at first, it started doing really well on Octane. We ended up doing pretty decent on the active rock charts and we're like, “Okay, well, after you give them the soft side, you got to come right back with the heavy side.” And the other thing that's cool about “God Of Fire” is it has some experimental stuff to it. It does have the kind of EDM build in it and it has some electronic elements. And for me, I still have a top heavy banger that's on this record that no one's heard yet. I'm excited.

This is the easily my favorite Fit For A King record. I can say that. I actually, when Dark Skies was made, I didn't listen to it for like two months because I was really sad that I didn't sing that much on it and I have a huge ego. You know, it took me a minute to accept it and be like, [jokingly] “They're not gonna hear me as much, what the fuck.” But then when “Everything Means Nothing” did really well, I was like, “I'd rather hit a home run then get 10 at bats and sometimes hit a single.” So I had to put myself in check there and then bringing in Daniel [Gailey, guitar] helped a lot. Where Daniel and Bob -- you know, Bob is the writing guy -- but Daniel can shred in a way that just the rest of us can't. So having him get in there and being able to add really helps exemplify some of those more metal moments [and] some of those more chaotic moments. He can play in a way that we don't necessarily play. So having him, plus his vocal range is absolutely bonkers. He can do these like Sam Carter [Architects] yells. And then also, his voice matches really well with Kirby when they're in a similar register with the more like, “Price of Agony” style choruses. So overall, adding him to the team just boosted everything.

That’s awesome.

So going into this record, we were happy. We were in a great mood, we wanted to be around each other. We knew what we wanted to write. We didn't want to write some like super depressed record and we weren't depressed. So it was helpful because we just had the best year of our lives. And we were just like ready to make something that's powerful. Something that just makes you fucking stoked, makes you want to get in your car and like slam it into a brick wall. I don't know why that sounds like fun to me at the moment. Maybe it's the life I've been living lately [laughs]. That was a terrible example, I take that back. But regardless, it's fun. I think it's victorious. It's powerful. I think people will enjoy it. So it's been cool getting to drop “God Of Fire” and have everyone take to it the way they did because for me, I've still got that number one heavy banger there. There's other heavy songs too. There's one where I'm like, “Yeah, you guys are gonna like this.”

We could probably talk about The Path a lot longer but just to wrap this up, do you have anything else in store for 2020 or will you just be focusing on Fit For A King and Featured X for the rest of the year?

I think I’m just going to be focused on Featured X and the new Fit record. Keeping up with the podcast on top of that has been really difficult but I’m getting there. I just think, as soon as I can get back out and do Fit stuff and play shows, obviously we’re going to be out there and doing that but right now all of my other free time is dedicated to Featured X. I’ll be honest, I’ve probably worked more now than I ever have in my life. My phone [usage] is at about 10 and a half hours average daily [laughs]. It’s been a bit intense, my fiancée is baring with me and being extremely supportive but it took a lot to get 60 people in a month and I want to be at 500 in six months.

Wow! That’s a pretty lofty goal.

It is. And it sounds insane and I’ve told myself that it’s too insane but I’m going to try and we’ll see what happens. And now that we have the application coming in, if you are a great singer and your band is really good, I want you to apply. And if you don’t get accepted it’s not necessarily because you’re bad. Your band might not be there yet but I am contacting just about everyone. Cause I want to have conversations and transparency throughout all of it as well where there is a time where, you know, you’re a really good singer but your band has only five monthly listeners on Spotify where I gotta be like, “Come back in like six months and maybe we can put you on and help you push a release or something.” But then I get someone who is really, really talented and their band has like 7,000 monthly listeners and I’m like “Well, your band is not huge but you’re really good and your band could be really big and I’d rather have you here first before you’re anywhere else.” And I’m all for that, we’ll find that middle ground, we’ll talk about it, I’ll be honest with you and I’ll only try to help and not hurt anybody. But I want to hear everything and I like hearing these applications and I like checking out these bands. Myself and my business partner are checking all the applications that come through. I do see everything that comes in, so please feel free to communicate with me. Hit me up on Instagram, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter or whatever. I’m pretty good at responding. Holler.

#Fit For A King #Off Road Minivan #Featured X #Ryan Tuck O'Leary #Solid State Records #The Path #Crystal Lake

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