The Sailor Jerry Podcast

62 - Justice Tripp of Angel Du$t

Hosted by Matt Caughthran Season 1 Episode 62

Meet Justice Tripp, the maniacal muscle behind Baltimore bands Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t and Cold Mega. On this episode Justice steps into the spotlight to share the beats and rhythm's of his creative drive and musical influence. It's a tale of raw energy, dues paid, and the type of artistic evolution that defines a true rocker's journey.

Strap in for a no-holds-barred look at Justice's climb from garage band to game-changer. The craziness of the early days and the seismic shift in how punk and hardcore now ripple with investment and recognition. It's a mosh pit of growth, resilience, friendship, and music that keeps him alive.

The final chord of this episode explores the essence of musical freedom and creation. From the eternal influence of Bad Brains, to the rabbit hole of production and the sacred chaos of live gigs, Justice Tripp is a testament to the undying spirit of rock and roll.  As always - brought to by Sailor Jerry!

https://sailorjerry.com
https://www.instagram.com/jurtice/

Speaker 1:

Surely, surely, surely, surely, surely, surely. Oh yeah, what's up, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to episode 62 of the Sailor Jerry podcast. My name is Matt Cotthren. I am still your host. It is a rainy ass day in Los Angeles, california, today, and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum is still made the old school way 92 proof, bold and smooth as hell. How is everybody feeling out there across planet Earth and into the cosmos? I hope everyone is feeling good. It's been a busy two weeks for your boy.

Speaker 1:

Since I last saw you guys, we had four Bronx shows in a row and they were all sold out and they were all insane. We had two shows at Alex's bar in Long Beach for our good friend Alex, and that was the 25th anniversary of his venue there, absolutely legendary venue in Los Angeles, in Long Beach, california. If you've never been to Alex's bar, you definitely have to go check out a gig there. Green Day just recently recorded a video there. There's been all sorts of really cool things that have happened throughout the 25 years of Alex's bar in Long Beach, california. And then we traveled south a little bit to another legendary venue in San Diego, california, called the CAS bar, and the CAS bar was celebrating 35 years of being easily San Diego's coolest rock and roll venue. We played the CAS bar a bunch of times Tim Mays, the owner, legendary figure down in San Diego and so you know, if you got an anniversary that you're looking to celebrate, call the Bronx. You know what I'm talking about. What else is going on?

Speaker 1:

The Grammys were, last night, always a little bit of a you know hot button topic. As a professional musician, ladies and gentlemen, I love to see what's going on at the greatest heights of your profession, and that is usually what the Grammys are supposed to signify. And it was cool. You know I'm not going to talk shit. Okay, I could, I definitely could, but it was a little weird. But award ceremonies are always weird and of course, you know, they don't even show, you know, the best metal performance, which was won by Metallica. They didn't show best rock record, which was won by Boy Genius. Shout out to Boy Genius and Metallica, of course, but they just don't show that stuff on TV anymore, you know. So that's kind of a trip. That's a little bit weird. Performances were all right. You know I'm going to stop there. Okay, congrats to all the winners and the nominees of the 2024 Grammy Awards.

Speaker 1:

I still feel like there's a Grammy out there waiting for your boy. Okay, I feel like somehow, some way, I'm going to use this platform. I'm going to use this moment right now to manifest a Grammy for either the Bronx or Mariachi L Bronx Sometime before 2030. Okay, I'm going to put that out there. We got the Bronx, we got Mariachi L Bronx Grammy manifestation sometime before 2030. Everybody listening right now, just close your eyes and think about that. Let's put it into existence together and then the music will flow through us, onto the record, out to the stores, into the streaming platforms, into your ears, into the masses. And the next thing you know, I'm going to be up on stage holding the Grammy and just saying would you look at that? You know what I'm saying, but anyways, it's time for episode 62.

Speaker 1:

Justice Trip is on a musical quest. In this episode, we catch up with the trapped, underized front man to discuss why he won't be trapped in a box creatively. See what I did there From the sonic progression of his band Angel Dust to his experimental production outfit Cold Mega. It is very clear that for justice, the inspiration is in the evolution. So sit back, relax, pour yourself some, sailor Jerry, and let's go Yo Justice Trip, what up how you doing.

Speaker 2:

Good to see you. I like your shirt.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I had to do it. I had to do it. You know. You know, it's the one of the first times we played auto bar was I think it was like 2004 with it was the Dillinger escape plan, miss Machine tour with like Decahedron and Darkest Hour Holy shit, I think it was. It was 2000, probably like four or five.

Speaker 2:

Pretty legendary venue and sometimes I'm like is it just like? I think it's the coolest venue in the world and I'm like is that just me because I'm from here. But it's interesting how often, on tour or like, I see other bands wearing auto bar merchandise.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like it's. It's right up there with 930 merch. You know, it's like it's a little bit cooler. Awesome, man. Well, we appreciate you being a guest on the sailor Jerry podcast here. My man, it's awesome to catch up with you. You know big fan of your work and I just kind of want to give our audience a little bit of a rundown here because you know, I was kind of going through your discography before this and, dude, you put out a lot of records. You've been a part of a lot of music over the years, man, which is which is pretty incredible. So if we can, let's go back to the start. You know it's a. You grew up in Baltimore, right?

Speaker 2:

Like mostly in, like Baltimore County, like in a town called Essex, but you know, like Baltimore and where another most of my life yeah.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. And how did you know? Was there any artistry in the family at all? Like, how did music kind of, you know, grab a hold of you?

Speaker 2:

Um, I had an uncle and a stepfather who both were bikers and they were like in the heavy metal and rock and roll and shit like that and they're both very supportive of the idea. You know, my uncle bought me my first guitars and I was a little kid.

Speaker 1:

And you know that's dope, man, that's dope, that's dope. When you were kind of coming into your own as, like you know, a teenager, so to speak, what were some of like the gateway bands for you? That kind of got, you, took you a little bit further.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, I guess before being a teenager, I guess the first band that really stands out is like I was like I'm old enough that I got to see Nirvana be a band, you know. Hell yeah, being in my stepdad's Corvette and like like blasting like the new Nirvana single when it, when like Heart Shaped Box came out, you know, and him being like this is what I want for I think it was his birthday or something. We got the Nirvana tape it was a cassette tape at the time and like listen to that together and but so I was like always interested in like alternative and guitars and live music and that concept. And then when I was a teenager, there was like local punk bands. That really got me interested and it's interesting how much of my life was like local music, like I didn't give a fuck about the shit that was influenced by, like I just want to hear somebody do it really badly from my town, you know.

Speaker 1:

I think that's kind of common, you know, because, at least for me, like dude I, there's so many like local bands that I saw, you know, as a as a young kid, just either maybe going to bars for the first time or going to clubs or going to all-agent shows, whatever, but a lot of it was, you know, local stuff either around LA or Orange County and there were so many good pockets of just underground punk rock bands, garage bands, stuff like that, and those moments had way more of an effect on me than, like you know, going to see. Like you know, I saw Iron Maiden when I was young and it was awesome, but it didn't, you know, it didn't hit, like you know, a small club show down the street. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

You are, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly man, so, uh, it was T U I, the first band that you got in no, I did a lot of bands before that because I was, um, like, got into stuff really young, didn't have a lot of direction, so, like, punk world was like my, my direction, you know, and like had a lot, of, a lot of old heads who would put me on the music and stuff. So I would say, like, the first tours, uh, the first tours I did I was probably 15 and you know, before that I was like playing in bands, like, and it was all pretty rough, you know. I mean like, uh, I guess my first real band would have been like six or seven grade how old are you then? I don't even know like fucking 10 or something, you know what. Yeah, but it wasn't, it sucked. It was like, you know, but no, it was, it fucking rocked for being a little kid, but it was like nothing that I cared about or you know I mean, but it was just learning and like playing gigs and stuff.

Speaker 2:

And, yeah, I guess around 13, 14, I always referenced the same show it's. I saw Heybreed Death, rett and Mushmouth at the sidebar and it was like my first like hardcore show, like grown men spin, kick each other and shit, and I was like, oh, this is who I, and that's just what has been since then. You know like, like other things, but at the end of the day, I'm still, uh, like a 14 year old spin kicking and getting spin kicked at the sidebar you know, yeah, yeah, I hear you man in the uh, in the younger bands.

Speaker 1:

Were you singing or were you playing an instrument? What were you doing? It's hard.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, even with Trapped in the Rice. When we started it I was like writing with Sam and the other guys were like writing songs for some miles to sing and the guy who was gonna sing bailed and I was like helping them write lyrics and stuff. So I was like I think I can do this. So, uh, the TY demo was like the first time anybody's heard me really sing. There's like that right there, like never practiced it or anything. And I remember Sam specifically. I think we had like in mind like this, like deep, hard voice. You know Sam was being like no man, like this sounds like you gotta sound Heybreed or something. So I was like I like gave it a shot a couple times and I was like I can't do that. It sound like a wack little kid and people like it, they like it and we guess people did a little bit, at least you know yeah, that's dope dude.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's always uh interesting to me how people, um, you know, find their way to the microphone because nine times out of ten, it's like it's almost like the guy or the or the girl who's, like, you know, kind of hanging around, ends up being the person who who grabs a mic or, you know, it's like a default type thing, but you know your voice and your energy as a front man, I think you know from the jump, I mean has been like unique and electric. You know you're a badass on stage man, you're a badass on the microphone. So, like, what was that like? Going from, you know, recording the first demo with the legendary stoop pick, what was that like 2007, yeah, 2007, yeah, yeah, cool. And then you know you get a taste of it. You know you got the demo going and now you're the man on the microphone. What were those kind of you know those early moments of TUI like for you?

Speaker 2:

it was real crazy. Like you know, we had no ambition of like being a band that people knew or cared about. You know, like one of the played shows that would make our friends mosh at the sidebar. You know, like at the local spots where he played and, uh, I don't know it like kind of took its own life. It was real crazy. Like fools start hitting us up to play other cities and really like man, this is the once in a lifetime opportunity to play Brockton, massachusetts, for example. It's like as a city that embraced, trapped under ice very early on, so we'd go and we'd play and there'd be people there like excited to see it. You're like, damn, that's crazy, but we did it once so they're never gonna want it again.

Speaker 2:

You know, like never thought like, maintain interest and very fortunate, like you know, uh always say like where I'm from, people traditionally don't leave there.

Speaker 2:

You know it's like yeah it's not like cool to leave there. You're like look down on people, um aren't into that and but it's weird. Now I'm seeing like a lot of young artists um like kind of doing their thing where I'm from and getting respect, and it's a different mentality now. You know like the internet broke down a lot of boundaries for people and made the world of entertainment and traveling and made the whole world more accessible. You know so yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and sometimes you know the whole old idea of, like, you know, not a lot of people get to leave certain towns, or you have the opportunities to, you know, to go travel or to do things, or now it's like there's an attitude of, well, if I can't do that, I can still create where I'm at. You know what I mean, and that's, that's a cool thing. Um, yeah, I remember I first heard, uh, trapped under ice, our good buddy, zach Cannon. Uh, he, he played Gemini for me and I was like this shit's dope dude and that was the the first time I heard your voice. I was like this guy's voice is awesome.

Speaker 1:

Um, you know, as the band was kind of going on and, and you know, you're becoming, you know, more, more, I guess, comfortable with, with being a musician, and there's always kind of different like levels is the more you tour, and then you get to like the second album and there's all these kind of like uh, career slash, life affirming moments as you get kind of deeper. You know, did you ever imagine, you know, uh, career music outside of the band? You know, as the band was going on, did you know that you were going to be going down this path?

Speaker 2:

I've always had this feeling like there's nothing else that I can do. Right, you know, I think even that starts when you're a kid, you know. I mean like your parents are like go play football and you suck at it, and they're like go get good grades and you suck at it and like I'm like so used to sucking at everything and like music just always felt good.

Speaker 2:

Even when I sucked at it, you know like it felt good. So I was like I'm gonna keep doing this. It feels good and you know like any kind of thing that feels good becomes a habit and you start touring and you get this point in life where you're investing in it. So with like a lot, almost all of Trapton Race as a band, it was spent investing in it with no return. You know like not to be like oh, it's like these awful memories or something. It was great memories but like that time was like really crazy time in life because like most of Trapton Race, like I didn't have a home per se. You know like I'd go on tour and come home and like sleep at different friends' houses, sleep at mom's house for a little bit. You know like, and it's weird, I think people always had this perception of Trapton Race in the hardcore spectrum being like this really successful band, but it's like there's people making money. It wasn't us, you know, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then once we kind of figured that out, like how music industry stuff starts, we started to kind of figure out how industry stuff started working.

Speaker 2:

That's when we started Popwig, the label that I run with Dan and Brendan and our friend Dan. But it's kind of like to take some control of it and it was funny at the time. I remember thinking like, oh man, if we do this and let's say we do put out a friend's band's record, it's like maybe they can like afford to like I don't know like get something to eat on tour. You know, because I look at like moments of Trapton Race being a band where I'm like so skinny and it's like an intentional thing, like I've always liked food, like I was like we couldn't afford food. I was like I really like that, you know like, but they had like starting label being like, yeah, we could probably be able to do that. And again you start to see more and more of the music industry and it's a different time now where money's happening that wasn't happening before. People look at our scene and like see value in it and people are willing to invest in it right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it's really interesting seeing how, like major labels, like I don't know, like music publicists and like magazines and festivals and stuff, they all see value in in the spectrum of hardcore punk, rock music and there's a lot more money getting thrown around. So it's. You know, I never saw like a career in it, never saw an end game. I was like how long can I do this before I die?

Speaker 2:

You know, like because yeah, yeah and I'm not good or anything else. Nobody likes me doing anything else. I'm just gonna keep doing my thing and really fortunate that now I can. I'm like, you know, I'm in an okay place, I'm not starving. I just door dashed Dunkin' Donuts. It's about to be here in a minute. You know it's like, yeah, couldn't win that in a while ago, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's dope dude. That's, that's really cool and it's you know. I wanted to ask you about Pop Wig because it seems like you know the group of guys that you kind of came up with in TUI and around Baltimore really had an early sense of like trying to build something together. You know, I know you guys playing a lot of different bands together and with Pop Wig, with the label and kind of you know, putting out other bands, that's a really really cool thing. Is the label side of things? Is that rewarding for you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if I mean we've definitely done releases, that I don't think is anything we've done that I don't genuinely love so much. And there's, you know, in the world of music, of being a musician, you play with bands that you don't love sometimes. Yeah, I think it's funny, like when Trapped Under Ice was really active, every show we play, somebody would be the promoter to say to me like man, you're going to love this band. They sound just like you guys and be like that sounds like a night. I don't want to be involved with anything that's. I want we sound like us and I want that to be that. You know it's cool.

Speaker 2:

It's like the opportunity to work with bands doing something completely different from what you're doing, to be inspired by them as people. It's really rewarding. And then you know, obviously, the opportunity to be in control of your own work. You know, working on Pop Wigs putting out a new Angel Dust record we're working on. It's like hell, yeah, to have the final say on everything. You know, and the other people have a say, are people who think like me and you know, respect the way I see the industry side of things, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's dope, man, that's dope. Let's talk about Angel Dust for a second. What was the transition, like you know, going from Trapped Under Ice to Angel Dust? How did that kind of take place? Because there's five Angel Dust albums, which is, you know, that's gnarly dude. That's what I was saying. I was looking it up, I was like holy shit, you know it's pretty dope. So how did that band come about? How did the sound kind of evolve, album to album?

Speaker 2:

Kind of started like, just you know, trapped Under, ice was slowing down and it was the people I was spending the most time with at the time. It was like my buds were like I want to be something fun and we wrote some songs, initially with the intention of somebody else singing. Kind of a similar thing happened where it's a recurring theme, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, this person, like he ended up playing bass in the band for a couple of years, but I think he just wasn't vibing with what we wanted to do. You know, we wanted from him vocally, yeah, and he was like I'd rather just play bass or whatever. So I was like I'll sing it. I wrote all the stuff. So the first thing we did was like an EP and, you know, maybe pretty directionless. It was kind of all over the place and crazy. I'd say the only common thing was just like bad brains. I think that's what you'll find with like all of the music that comes out of my friendship circle in Baltimore, is that we just like all love the bad brains and you're going to hear that no matter what we're doing. You know, subtle, whether you catch it or not. Like, if I write an acoustic indie angel dust song, there's like a bad brain riff in there or something. It's not a good thing, it's just what it is. But then you know, like, like started, like practice and be a band and people wanted to see that live, so started, you know, have more of an identity. And I think there came a point where it's like trapped under X wasn't active, turnstile was becoming super active and it became like okay, how do we separate this from turnstile and again, so we have some of the same influences. It's like with turnstile, just like it was with angel dust, like there's this bad brains element and do we want it to be the same thing with two different bands? And I think turnstile kind of. More this direction, we want more the direction of like musical exploration, like trying things we never tried before, like musical things.

Speaker 2:

Every Angel Dust recording and acoustic guitar appeared but the first three. Every time there's different engineers and producers each time, but all of them just kind of cut the acoustic guitars out, you know, and I see why it's because we didn't know what we were doing. You were just like we're trying things, you know, and it would be like we come in with an acoustic guitar and we're like this is the song, and then almost every time it'd be like nah, you guys are hardcore band, play it faster and let's turn the distortion up. And it gave those records really special identities. I think they're really cool records which led to Pretty Buff, which was the first time where we signed with Roadrunner and they gave us a window of time to just explore and try things and it's like that's what we try.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of acoustic instruments and like I don't know, like playing drums with brushes, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like how do we put our thing on it? How do we put the bad brains in there? How do we sneak that in there, you know? And the white trash, baltimore element of Angel Dust how do we sneak that? Once to the acoustic guitar record.

Speaker 2:

And what leads us to the last record we did was with Rob Schnaff. Yeah, the man, he's great dude. I would say I feel like I feel creepy talking about him because I'm such a fan of him and like I don't think any person is like has so much direct influence, such positive influence in my life Awesome, especially in my adult life. You know. It's where every single thing we wanted to try in the studio he was like he's with it. He was like really into the idea of us learning and teaching us what he knows and that kind of led to him teach me some production stuff. So really thankful for that opportunity. I love that record. It's probably my favorite record I've ever made in my life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, rob's a great guy man, it's like, and that studio is cool, you know, just being in there and just tweaking on sounds with him. We did Bronx five with him and it was. You know, it's funny because it's kind of a record that a lot of people you know a lot of our fans were like kind of turned off by because it's so, it sounds so nasty dude. It's got that like Rob snap, like it's just, it's just dirty dude. It's just a dirty sounding album and I love it. But you know, it's like being in that room with him and just fucking around getting tones and getting sounds and trying different things. We got a fucking talk box on that record.

Speaker 2:

You know, always, man, you want to play with them all day if you're down, but yeah, we're going to. Rob's like a dream. And if my full time job could be making records in Rob's studio, that's what I would do for living Hell yeah, all right.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

Now back to the show. Were you catching any flak, kind of the more? You leaned into the acoustic guitar and like, pretty buff, there was a good. There was a good like lemon heads vibe in there. I was getting some some dando vibe. That was pretty awesome and I mean I really dug it. But I know how it can be, coming from a punk world or a hardcore world. You know, nowadays it's actually not that bad because people are nowadays creatively, are pretty accepting with artists kind of doing whatever the fuck you want to do. But there had to be some people who were like yo, what the fuck?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, like when I went into record pretty buff, I had 70, I think it was 78 song demos, and when I say a demo it wasn't like a fully fleshed out song with harmonies and you know what I mean. Like it was like 78 skeletons of songs and some of them were a little more aggressive and some of them were a little more like laid back, poppy, whatever, experimental. And you know, some of the songs that were harder, I think were like we could do this, but it'd be fun just to explore and do this thing that we've never done before. And those songs kind of, you know, like, like made up a lot of the record.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But, like you know people, there's some like real. There's like a certain personality, like hardcore personality type that I've never understood. That's like that just believes that hardcore is this thing that happened in this moment in the 2000s and it's like, if you are really a hardcore purist, it's like the definition of hardcore is evolution. You know what I mean. It's like bad brains. It's like what? Like they just like created something like so left field and everything that came out of that was like so different from the bad brains. And you got to this like weird incestual part of I think, more so in the 2000s, like the early 2000s than ever where people are like hardcore is you're exclusively ripping off this, this one band, over and over hey Breed. There's like basically hey Breed, you know, I mean like you were, like you're going to keep trying to be like hey Breed. There was like the era of like everybody trying to be exactly like Mad Ball and it's like dude, mad Ball is a huge influence on things I've done in my life and bands trying to sound exactly like hey Breed. And I remember having this moment like being on tour with with Mad Ball and being like damn like Mad Ball is so good at what they do and they've influenced, influenced us so much Like we have to create more of an identity away from Mad Ball, out of out of respect for Mad Ball and out of love for hardcore. You know, it's like I should be doing something that's so identifiable in another direction that I just think that's like that's really showing love to the genre. And yeah, yeah, and I think a lot of bands do that really well, not saying like Angel dust is the Only band, but in the moment I was like pretty rough is my answer to that. It's like what makes me feel good about Contributing as a band. And is it hardcore music? I don't know, but band that exists in the hardcore spectrum. But I think with yak it was like you know, you get a lot of that stuff.

Speaker 2:

But also the other directions I wanted to explore on that. Maybe we weren't, we weren't ready for at the time, maybe the resources weren't available. Again, rob has a lot cool toys in there. Like I would, I would make some weird noise in my mouth. I'm like man, I want a guitar to sound like a Bug zapper and he'd be like yeah, I got that. You know, he's like I built it and I feel like the aggressive moments that I wanted to try he wasn't afraid of, you know, which you know leads me to like the new, the new record we just recorded, which is like that my first time being the producer, being the boss of recording and I think it's just more of that, like building out in every direction that, touching on all the things that angel dust is done and all the things that I appreciate about heavy music and rock and roll, and just smushing it onto a record and think Most people who love hardcore music probably have ADHD or, like you know, attention problems in general.

Speaker 2:

And Making a record that's that like speaks to that, like I don't want to listen to A record that's the same thing over and over again. 40 minutes, you know, like I wanted, I have a lot of emotions, A lot of feelings. I want a record that I can like, live with, you know, yeah, and Got to really experiment with that. Like there's nobody being like, hey, man, you can't do the heavy mosh part On the same record with, like, the fucking, the little drum loop and the samples and shit. Like it's gonna be fun. It's not done yet, but Excited to hear what the outcome is gonna be what's yeah, dude, hell yeah, I'm excited too, man.

Speaker 1:

And then you know your, your latest form, cold mega, which you know going down the line of you know you basically writing songs, writing lyrics, and then you know having to end up singing them because no one else is doing it. It seems like, you know, it seems like what cold mega? And correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember when you kind of put out the first album, it was basically like saying like this is basically like my, my, like production outlet. Right, yeah, this is me like kind of diving into production and and you know, trying to figure out where I want to go and how do I want to evolve as a songwriter and a producer. And it's really, really cool, you know, because I, I dig, I, you know I really dig that about you. I dig how you are constantly trying to push yourself into, you know, into into different places. You know it's really dope and and the hanging hanging by a thread while I'm standing on the edge that came out this year, right, came out Last Friday awesome dude.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was just checking it out. Really really cool that. Is there still vinyl out there available, or is that gone? No it went pretty quick. Yeah, that's dope dude, congrats.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it's, it's. It's real sick. I'm like that, that project, like I Love the freedom of just like like your musician, you know, I'm sure like every day you want to pick up guitar and make something, and it's like being able to do that, like I'm gonna pick up a guitar, make something, and if nobody wants to hear, I don't give a shit, I'm making it, I'm gonna put it out in the world. Yeah, I started with Rob. Like Rob, like there's a couple of songs that I, you know we were doing yak, the angel dust record that you know we're like too far fetched for the record, like too far outside of the angel dust spectrum, and I Feel like the team didn't really get what I was going for because there's no way to perceive it.

Speaker 2:

It's like, you know, if you don't know, production means you can't, like you can't make the sound, I can't make a reference down. And that was like kind of the journey was like I'm trying to go reference this thing I want to do for the record. So Rob kind of took me under his wing, was like try this, try these things. And then, you know, I like showed him to him, like hey, is this cool? Like am I doing this right and he's like, yeah, it's cool, put it out, you know, and kind of like, influence me just to put it out for fun, you know. And you Now it's like kind of become something more than that, where I'm like, oh, I want to do this live and I want to put out vinyl and stuff that's dope dude, that's dope.

Speaker 1:

So as, as you progress in your musical evolution, do you find that you want to write more and Perform less? Are you becoming a studio guy, and or is there still a 5050 balance there?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think a lot of people who do music have a job and in music as a thing they do. It's like I don't. I've never had anything else, you know. So it's like, if anything, it's just a tool to do more music. Like I'm never gonna be on tour for a Year out of a year. You know I'm never gonna be on tour every day.

Speaker 2:

So it's like, you know, I feel like a lot of times I would get home from tour, be like what I do at my time and before picking up some tools, some microphones and and you know, some Extra amps I've got a drum kit Hell yeah, before like liberating myself in that way. There's like this time you're sitting around stressing like am I doing this right? What if somebody else does the thing that I'm doing better? Is the label gonna approve of this stuff? And I think the ghost, ultimate freedom to like create. They're like like there's nobody telling me what to do. I don't have that at all anymore. It's like the coolest feeling there was, like a moment when it was like had to talk to the manager, to talk to the label. So, and you know, everybody had their the best interest in mind. It's not demonizing anybody, you know like, yeah, you know we're not with Roadrunner anymore and I do think that they had our best interest in mind and there's really good people there that I really Benefited a lot from working with, you know.

Speaker 2:

But just to have that freedom to be like, I Want to make the song and put it out on Tuesday and then next month I want to go on tour with my friends band and I don't give a shit if, like, some old white dude at At this company doesn't see the value of my friends band. Yeah, yeah, I know it's sick. I've seen them play. People know it's sick like maybe less so now, but I've always like saw myself as somebody who's in touch with culture and young people and that is what a lot of people, that's what a lot of labels and companies and music businesses should be doing, but they're not. They spend more time in the office than you know. So I don't know it's like like, as long as I do what I like, it's it's relevant to, to music and art and you know it should work. You know, yeah, like I'll get by, I'm happy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, dude, that's the way. Dude, that's the way. A couple Random. You know questions for you regarding music. You know who you gonna take in this. You got agnostic front or chromax. Well, where do you go?

Speaker 2:

Oh man, that's so hard. Like you know, asian Quarrel is like one of the most influential records of all time. But agnostic, for I think I agnostic front just because of their like undying commitment to who they are as people and to the this world that they've built. You know, like Nobody has much influence on what hardcore is. As agnostic front.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, man, I agree with that. What about Rancid or Green Day? Who you got?

Speaker 2:

Oh man Rancid all day. No disrespect to Green. Day like definitely connected when I was young and I liked it. But I like lost it at some point and Rancid has just always been like one of those influential groups of musicians in my life and then getting the opportunity to like work with them and tour with them and stuff as Cool as it gets.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, hell yeah. What about Nirvana or Pearl Jam? Who you got?

Speaker 2:

Nirvana, that's like. That's like the most important building block of me loving Rock and Roll music.

Speaker 1:

That's so dope dude. Yeah, that era, the heart shape box era you were talking about earlier, you know, I mean, it was just, it was so killer, even like I remember just visually, just it's just. I could still close my eyes and just picture them playing with all that shit on stage. You just how dope it looked, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have a question for you. Is there a band that you that you've seen the potential of, or that you do see the potential of being like a Nirvana? Culturally? You know, obviously that wouldn't look the same in this time period, but I Mean.

Speaker 1:

I Mean right now, dude. I mean I think they might not be the same level, but I mean you got to look at, you know, what your boys in turnstile are doing. I mean it's like the effect that they're having on Dude the world. I mean it's crazy like so many hardcore bands are getting started because of what they're doing, so many punk rock bands are getting started because of what they're doing and there's so many more people coming out to shows. It's hard, you know, you think about if you'll ever see like a new wave of like a whole different type of music or a different type of genre. And I don't know if we'll ever see that, but I do know that you know they're a band right now, that man, they're inspiring a lot of people, dude, you know, which is which is super cool.

Speaker 1:

You know which is super cool and you know, I think you know what you're doing is inspiring and I think that there's a lot of music out there that you know is. A lot of artists, I should say, that are, you know, kind of quote-unquote in one genre, that are really kind of pushing the boundaries and trying to break through the ceiling, and I think it's a really cool time and like punk and hardcore and rock and roll right now, because everyone's kind of Evolving, whether they want to or whether it's kind of by by. You know they have to. You know, yeah, it's just, it's just it's just kind of exciting, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think like the thing that defines Nirvana is like you know, I'd have a lot of cultural reference from before Nirvana, cuz I was probably like five you know, but like it brought people together, like all types of people, like Nirvana it wasn't like you were like this type of this. So genre punk, rock music, and now you can like Nirvana I think turnstiles done that where it's like every genre music person I like, you know, I mean everybody knows, like, like my, like Hesher leather jacket punk friend he's down and the dude who's been spin-kicking a sidebar since he loves it. It's like friends of mine that are into hip hop, friends of mine who don't care about music, friends of mine who make other art, or Probably the guy who works on cars down the street is like we all have this common bond now. It's like a thing that we can all Share.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, dude, it's cool. And then you know, I think there are some other artists out there in bands that are doing their thing and you know it's like it's just a really cool time right now. Like you're saying, it's like it's a cool creative time. You know, you can kind of exist as an artist if you're dedicated to it and and you know I think a lot of people are creating a lot of stuff. That's that. You know, the next 10 years I think there's gonna be a pretty explosive window of music and art. You know, that comes out of the underground, that comes out of the mainstream. I just think it's kind of a renaissance right now and it's it's a really cool time. Yeah, I agree, glad to hear that that you think so too. Yeah, man, last question for your brother what to you, justice trip, is the meaning of life?

Speaker 2:

man, you know life's short, to spend the time with the people you want to be with in the places you want to be with, and love sounds really corny and basic but, like you know Well, you get the experience. Love through art, whether it's music, or your little dog or your, your partner, your friends that you keep around you and just having as much love and Spending as little time as possible living outside of love.

Speaker 1:

You know yeah, man, that's beautiful dude, that's absolutely beautiful, awesome justice. I appreciate your time, my man.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

All right, buddy, have a good day. Oh yeah, that's a wrap on episode 62 of the sailor Jerry podcast. As always, huge amounts of respect and gratitude to our guest, the one and only Justice trip justice. Thank you so much for your time, man, always great catching up with you. If you want to follow justice and everything he's got going on, you can follow him at Justice on Instagram. It's J, you are ST I C E. Of course you can follow cold mega. You can follow trapped under ice. You can follow Angel dust, all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that he's got going on, so and pop wig the record label, of course, turn style, all those, all those things justice is connected to. So you know all else fails. Hit the goddamn Google type in his name and just start clicking on everything that moves. Course you can follow me at two and three. Matte man you best be following say the Jerry. At say the Jerry. And, ladies and gentlemen, of course you know it, I know it. Say the Jerry, spiced from from now until the end of time is Still made the old-school way. 92 proof bold and smooth as hell. I'll see you in two weeks, peace.