Rival Sons Interview with Meltdown at Riff Fest 2023
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00:00Once again backstage here at RIP Fest with the Jaybird that sings. Jay from Rival Sons. How you doing, brother?
00:05I'm very good. It's good to be here with you.
00:07Yeah, thanks for coming back to play the Motor City. You guys were just here.
00:11And then, of course, you guys did that great promo campaign with us, which was fantastic.
00:16Oh, yeah. No, I did. Yeah. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to be here, especially when the weather's this good.
00:22That's for sure.
00:23Yeah, it's really nice.
00:24Coming back through this last year, I think that we got to see the worst of it, and so it's great to see the best of it now.
00:30Yeah, no doubt. So things are pretty exciting for you guys. Of course, you toured throughout the whole summertime.
00:35New record, another one dropping. Now, this one's been done for a while, and how excited are you to drop this one?
00:41Well, both records, we recorded and produced and mixed both records at the same time.
00:48So everything was finished up at the same time, and we chose to partition the collection and split it in two and separate it by four, four and a half months or so.
01:00Was there talk of putting it together like a use your illusion type thing or no?
01:04No. No, we really didn't want to do that because that's like two chapters in the same big book, but we wanted to force a refractory period so that the first record, so the Dark Fighter that came out in June, so that could be digested on its own.
01:25We live in a binge culture. I mean, you give it all up, and then it'll just get binged, and then you're not going to get that same context.
01:36So just putting one installment out at a time is, like I said, like a forced refractory period so that you could get that context.
01:45And finally, when Lightbringer drops on October 20th, you're going to get the other half of that story.
01:52Okay. And what do you think will resonate with people on this record that might be different from the last one?
02:00I think that we'll probably be submitted as an independent party and win the presidency of the United States of America.
02:11This is the kind of hard-hitting news that we were looking for from Jay.
02:15Yeah. It's kind of a given.
02:17But, I mean, it's like one of those things where you guys have had this, it's done, you can't wait to drop.
02:22Do you guys play anything off the new record in the set or not yet?
02:25Yeah, we'll play one or two songs, I think, off the new record.
02:30So what else is going on with you guys in the Rival Sons world?
02:33You're looking at it, man. We've been touring. This has been a really busy year for us.
02:38I mean, you know, so here it is, you know, we're in late September, and we've hung out like three times this year.
02:48Yeah, right, exactly.
02:48You know, so we've been on the road promoting the record, and we've been touring mercilessly.
02:55And just a few days, we got to, you know, we just finished a long U.S. tour with the Smashing Pumpkins.
03:02And before that, we had our headline tour in the United States.
03:06And then now in a few days, we've got to take off and play Europe, U.K., Europe, for six weeks.
03:13And we'll make it back just in time, like I think the day before Thanksgiving.
03:18Oh, that's good.
03:18Yeah.
03:19You know what, Josh from Bad Flowers just said something to me that I never thought of before.
03:23And I've been interviewing and talking to rock bands and in this business for a long time.
03:26But he says when you write your first record, you're really writing for nobody.
03:29And by the time your second and third record comes forward, now you're writing for people.
03:33Does that ever cross your mind when you're doing music or no?
03:36Well, I love Josh.
03:37I love Bad Flower, and he's a good dude.
03:42I've always written for nobody, and I think I still write for nobody.
03:46I think I'm insulated, you know, for me artistically.
03:51It's like I know our fans probably don't want to hear it, but, like, I'm not writing songs for you.
03:55I'm just not, and I'm not singing for you.
03:58I'm singing for me, trying to write songs for me and for, like, for my heroes and for us when we're in the studio.
04:04We're creating songs to challenge each other, and we're doing it for each other.
04:09And then hopefully those songs, you know, we try to craft the best artistic statements and make the best songs because we want good music.
04:19We want to play good music.
04:20We want to play good songs because we know that we're going to have to go out and tour and play these songs every night.
04:28And that we're really looking to just raise the bar for ourselves first.
04:31And then if it translates to the audience, great, because we want you guys to show up.
04:37But when it comes to the actual, like, making of the art, we can't really, you can't afford to consider what anybody's going to think.
04:45Because, like, you can't be the subject and the voyeur at the same time.
04:54Like, art just, art doesn't work that way.
04:56It doesn't work that way for me anyways.
04:58I knew that you'd have a clever take on it, an original take on it.
05:04That's why I thought I brought that, bring it up to you, because I knew that something interesting would come out.
05:10Jay from Rival Sons here, thank you so much for taking part in Riff Fest.
05:13We do appreciate it.
05:14And looking forward to the new record dropping October 20th or 21st?
05:17October 20th.
05:18October 20th.
05:19Yes, we will be in the U.K., I believe, at that point.
05:23I think Cambridge, maybe?
05:25I don't know.
05:26Well, safe travels, and thanks again for everything you can do for us.
05:28Yeah, listen, we love you guys, and we certainly appreciate the constant support and, you know, running into you guys and coming into the station.
05:38You know, it's always like a little bit of a homecoming for us, so we're very thankful for all of the support that we get in Motor City.
05:46And, yeah, we're happy to be here.
05:48We're in good company, so thank you.
05:50Well, thank you, Jay.
05:50Appreciate it.
05:51Jay from the Rival Sons here backstage at Riff Fest.