Speaker 1what's going on welcome back to the james kennedy podcast thanks for tuning back in i'm probably going to sound a little bit croaky because i lost my voice on the weekend um which seems to be a recurring thing ever since i came out of the pandemic i just seem to be ill all of the fucking time pre-pandem and never got ill at all i was like what's wrong with everybody being ill like how does that work i like i just never got ill it was crazy uh and i think maybe i got a little bit too cocky about it because like coming out of the pandemic i'm just on my ass all the time man i don't know if it's uh long covid or if it's just my immune systems on the floor because i was in the house for like three years or i don't know what it is all right you know i just you know if i just lost the magic touch now and this is my life this is my destined to just be forever complaining about some ailment or other um but yeah basically uh my throat is like razors pretty much constantly got a headache and i've got that weird light sensitivity thing happening again i don't know what the fuck it is and i wish there was like more medical people listening to this podcast that could tell me what it is because it's doing my head in but um hey ho there we go um that's why my voice sounds a bit fucked but we're over 40 episodes now man i remember in the first episode of the podcast i said that i probably end up doing three of these things and then jacking it in uh but now we're over 40 man this is episode number 41 and uh man what a run we've had if you're new to the podcast and you haven't checked out some of the previous episodes do have a look man it's a mixed bag it's been very musician heavy lately and as i mentioned previously that's just because this is the time of year when you can catch these guys you know when they're not touring and you know constantly you're hard to pin down so you know the first couple of months of the year is generally a little bit easier to get musicians on so that's why a lot of the episodes lately have been focused on music but you have a route around through the previous episodes man when we had the amazing um professor tim specter on two weeks ago we had luke ambler from andy's man club talking about mental health the week before that uh stella assange of course and then we had the amazing um professor tim specter on two weeks talking about julian assange's fucking terrible state of affairs just a few weeks before that uh nathan paul southern talking about digital slavery professor peter phillips talking about the elite greg palest lee camp that we've done episodes on everything you name it man we've done all shit loads of stuff so have a little route through the previous episodes because there's some really really good conversations in there on some really important topics with some really awesome dudes so have a little route around and of course then you've got plenty of rock stars to bring more than likely slagging off the tories and you know making us all feel jealous about how awesome their uh their life is previous music guests include frank turner benji webb jace lewis arlen clifford and the awesome mark chadwick of course from the levelers who was on last week's episode that's a good one talking about dropping some c-bombs baby go and check that one out and today we've got one i've been looking forward to for a long time because today we are joined by can you guess it another welshman it's becoming a recurring theme on this podcast now we're going to get local welsh legends on the show but um today's guest was actually like hails from about two minutes away from where i was raised in pawnee pool as well so this is going to be super interesting i want to get the backstory on this because our lives started in the same place but then took very different directions and today's guest is now the six-stringed wizard the mohawk evil genius in the mighty roof rattling floor disturbing band pendulum if you don't know already i'm joined today by the brilliant paredia abguinath very thanks so much for joining us man how you doing very good thank you very much yeah thank you for asking me on the pod i'm honored well it's an honor to have you man i mean thanks for joining us i mean i'm looking forward to picking your brains we've got loads of stuff i want to get into but uh first i just want to double check you you are a pawnee pool boy is that right that's
Speaker 2right yeah i was born in pawnee pool um and then i lived in pontland for life for a little bit so yeah so i'm a gwent boy or monmouthshire boys is it monmouthshire or is it still gwent it's monmouthshire now i think it's monmouthshire yeah it's so confusing every time they change the names of the counties i'm like where am i from again i know yeah pontypool man where in pontypool were you born then where did you live in the hospital in griffistown in the hospital and
Speaker 1did you live in griffistown as well or were you no no i lived in pontland for life so i lived in pontland for life you were raised in pontland for life right
Speaker 2yes so for a little bit then we moved further west so uh so you know it's um that's blackwood more or less yes stuck to blackwood so you're more of a blackwood boy i'd say
Speaker 1then you were born in
Speaker 2pontipool but it's like the blackwood metropolis isn't it yes right because
Speaker 1because the reason i the reason i'm i'm inquiring so intensely is because i was raised in a place called little mill which is just outside of pontipool so i wondered if you might have known of it because it's like a tiny little village doesn't have a shop or a post office and that's
Speaker 2it no i moved we moved from there when i was about three so we moved then to carmarthen and then pembrokeshire and then i moved to london so yeah but i am among those you know boys so and and yeah a lot of people know that actually it's um because they think i'm from west wales from crummett but i'm not i'm from um you're south you're south yeah yes southeast that's where i'm from are you a welsh speaker i am yes it's my first language right yeah so yeah so well i grew up speaking welsh at home so right it's obviously totally natural to me yeah
Speaker 1i was gonna say dude you probably got the best name we've ever had at the podcast so far really son of a winner that's fucking
Speaker 2awesome yeah yeah it's um it's very um it's it's kind of quite metal really isn't it yeah man yeah yeah i'm quite like the
Speaker 1name sounds like you're going on a fucking
Speaker 2conquest you know yes yeah but the was a knight of the round table so he was one of the knights yeah so um uh yeah uh and well it's well the uh the english speakers uh would know him as percival sir percival so it's peredir as sir percival or in german parcival so if anybody knows any wagner operas there's a famous opera from the ring cycle called parcival and um i think it's not from the ring cycle anyway um i did a degree i should know
Speaker 1this this is already fucking really interesting we're already on wagner and like like an ancient etymology i love it yeah exactly yeah oh my god this is weird well i suppose we should start at the start because you've had like an insane career i think i mean most people would think of you now i suppose as the guitar player in pendulum but i mean you've got this whole other career before that you know with acts like um you know natalie and bruglia and anastasia and tons of others so i suppose should we um like give people the back story as to what you've done how you got started you know and what led you to where you are now um well
Speaker 2growing up in wales you know as you probably know it's very musical there's music everywhere and you know it's uh if you go to a pub it's usually four-part harmonies after a couple of a couple of points but um yeah so i left uh so i moved further west and i said i ended up in crummick in prembrokeshire and in crummick there's quite um there was a rock school in this in the um in the school there in the well it's the further education wingings in our school in our secondary school and um we just well i was playing guitars anyway we had guitars at home my parents both played so um like acoustic guitars folk stuff then and i picked that up probably when i was about nine nine years old right and then about 13 there was a rock school and uh everybody who had interest in guitars or drums or bass keyboards were singing uh all went to this rock school and i started playing in my first band so it's from then really and um then i i went on then and did music a level um a friend of mine has a guitarist called mother isaac mother he's um uh he's playing budgie he's one of the guitarists in budgie back in the day yeah he now composes music for tv and um mainly in wales but my mother said mother told me oh you can't play guitar in a band you can't play guitar in a band you can't play guitar in a band i could do this uh professionally and i was like really because i hadn't really thought about it and i was 16 years old no not knowing what i should do and for somebody to say that i could do this as a profession was like a bit mind-blowing yeah yeah so and there's him um mother and then my guitar teacher in school um called um john roge um he's he's amazing he's an amazing folk guitar player he's a jazz player ridiculous country chicken picking stuff so good so good and he also told me that i could do it and and he said then maybe i should um think of doing music a level so that's what i did yeah so i did music a level and then um applied for some universities and i ended up in london in goldsmith college and university of london so and the reason i chose that was they have a music studio and um an electronic music element to the course as well as in not electronic as we know it as yeah um dance music but electronic as in stockhouse and all right classical yes um electronics um experimental stuff yeah so it was all that really so um uh yeah i went to london stayed here well yeah i've been in uh i've lived in other places on and off i went to paris for a I've lived in Sydney for a little bit and LA as well for a little bit. but I always come back to London. Usually when I come off tour, when I used to come off tour, I used to, and there was a gap, then I used to go away and live somewhere else for a bit until the next door happened. So I had to get a flat and just soak up the atmosphere somewhere else. Oh, nice. And I'll then do some work with various artists over there or songwriters. That's fucking awesome. Yes. So, and after I finished uni, yeah, I started doing sessions then. And then my first main big session would have been Natalie in Borrelia.
Speaker 1So, yeah. So how does something like that come about? I mean, so you're like a student on a course with, I'm guessing, tons of other musicians who are all awesome. So how does that penny drop there?
Speaker 2I was, I got into a band with a drummer called Chuck Sabo. Chuck, he's a session guy, American drummer. He's lived in London for years and he's a session guy. He worked with Elton John, did Take That. God, what else did he do? Got just a load of big names and he had his own band with him and his wife. So I met somebody who knew him and Chuck was looking for a guitarist. So I joined his band. And then Chuck got asked to put together a band for Natalie. Wow. And so he just cut, he said, he said, do you fancy playing for Natalie? I went, yeah, right. So what age were you at that point? Early twenties. Right. So it's fresh out of college. Yeah. No, a few years after college. Right. Yeah. So just after, yeah, a few years after that. Sorry. And it's, so he, so we got together. It was a bunch of us. It was myself, my brother was on base. My brother moved to London by that time and he went to union in other, but he moved in with me in, in Camden. And so it was myself, my brother and a guy called Chester came on, on the other guitar. The Chester played with Brian Ferry. Wow. And he was, he was also the guitarist on like a prayer, but Madonna. So yeah. So Chester is, he's a top section player. He plays with David Gilmour now. Jesus. And, and has played with Roger Waters as well. He's done both Pink Floyd. So, so, yeah. So that was back in 97. So, yeah. So I joined, I got an advanced copy of torn. So if, if all the young kids out there, I don't know what torn is. Torn is Natalie's first hit. And it was massive, massive banger. Wasn't it? Yeah. Huge. Worldwide. Yeah. Huge. So I got a copy of the, of the, of the CD, advanced copy. I know it listened to it. And I went, yeah, Mike, Mike, I three months work out of this. Eventually I had nine years at work in total. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So yeah, that first couple of years, just what it was all quite bonkers, you know, cause I'm getting treated like royalty all over the world. And it, it got, it was, it never got to number one in the UK. It was number two for weeks because the number one at the time was aqua, um, Barbie. Oh,
Speaker 1right. Hey, no touching Barbie girl. Yeah, man. Yeah.
Speaker 2So, so torn is one of those singles who never, never ever got to number one in the UK. Wow. Then, uh, it got number one, various places in Europe, got massive in Europe. So, you know, the first thing we did, we went out to Italy, went out to Netherlands. We're not Belgium. We just, just did this massive promo tour. Both playing a lot, a lot of it playing live and do a lot of because stick stuff. And yeah, she, she was the biggest thing on the planet at that time, you know, and then it got released in America and it just got huge. It was number one in the billboard charts for 10 weeks. It says 10 weeks. Number one, the billboard charts, um, one of the highest plate rotated songs on radio that year, or the most heavily rotated song or wherever. And you know, and we, first went out to the States then in, um, March 98, I think it was right. And, uh, and the first thing that we did was David Letterman show. I was like, yeah, I'm a boy from South Wales going into the deep end. David letter was great. Oh my God, what am I doing? And two days after that, we did Saturday night live. So I've just recently found the episode of Saturday night live that we did. It was the one that Scott Wolf presented. He was an actor from, uh, I think the show was called party of five. So he was a presenter of the guest garden. And the last, um, the very end where, um, he says his goodbyes and everybody's on stage together and he's there banging the middle and Natalie's just to the side of him. And I am in between the two of them. So I'm, I'm like going, hello, I want to, I want to tell you, it pans out and then I, then I start dancing with this, um, with a comedian called, um, what's his name? Um, uh, Tracy Morgan. He's one of my favorite American comedians and I'm dancing with him and then the thing pans out. And Will Ferrell walks towards me and I started talking to me. Oh my God. This is before he was famous. And I'm obviously, I'm just dancing with some tall bloke. So a few years later I went, Oh my God. And I've just recently found it again online. So I can't imagine you.
Speaker 1I mean, you're, you're like you're in your twenties, you're a few years out of university and you're fucking on the David Letterman show. You know what I mean? That's insane. Yeah.
Speaker 2It's nuts. It was, um, yeah, it was a lot of, a lot of fun. It's, uh, and then that carried on basically. We did then Jay Leno a few times and, you know, we did let him, let him in a couple of times, Jay Leno three or four times. It was, uh, yeah. And it just kept on happening then for nine years. It was just,
Speaker 1I had no idea. Cause I mean, she had that torn with, yeah, for people who weren't, you can't remember that was a fucking iconic, massive, massive song, wasn't it? I mean, it wasn't really my, my kind of thing for me. I was like at the Frank Zappa at that time. I was actually in college.
Speaker 2I was, I was listening to Gregory Peckery as well. Right? Yeah. Personal stereo.
Speaker 1Anything that was on, like on the radio was like, oh, that's pop. I was probably playing, torn in covers bands, college money. Um, but I didn't really keep, I didn't really, I wasn't really familiar with anything that she did after that. So, so that,
Speaker 2that, that gig kept you going for nine years. Yeah. Yeah. So she did another album after that called white lilies Island. And then after that, it was counting down, the days and the album went to number one, the third album in the UK. So yeah. And yeah. And I was with her until 2006. We're still mates. We're still, we're still in touch with each other. We still talk.
Speaker 1That's amazing. Jesus. Well, what an introduction to the music industry. Cause I'm guessing you were right in at the pro end, you know, the private planes, the fucking arenas, or it wasn't,
Speaker 2you know, it wasn't any, or there was a private, small propeller plane. There was never a private jet, but there was one small, but it's usually just normal, you know, we never got the private jet treatment, but yeah, but it was always jumbos apart from one journey that we did from big inhale airport to new key done down in Cornwall for a radio one road show thing back. Right. Yeah. That's the only private thing that we ever had. Right. I'm sure.
Speaker 1I'm sure there's been opportunity since then with everything that's happened since, because you've also gone on, like, I mean, that's already a fucking hell of a story. But that's, that's not where it ends because you, you bounced in from there to do in working with, with, or were you doing the other stuff as well as that? Or did it come separately?
Speaker 2Uh, during Natalie, I was, uh, I did a year with Sophie Ellis Baxter when Natalie, Natalie's first album. Um, and then I did, I did a year with Kim Wilde as well. So Kim Wilde overlaps Natalie for a little bit. And then, and then we're back in 2004. I'd, um, I've been working with, there's a producer called DJ fresh. There's an artist called DJ fresh and, um, you know, he's done all types of things. He's, he's, he used to be in a, a drum and bass band called digital nation. And I used to do a load of stuff for them. Um, and then, and he had a, a label called break beat chaos. And he brought this, um, these producers over from Australia called pendulum, and they wanted some guitar on the first album. And, and, they wanted some guitar on the first album so fresh went oh um it's my mate perry he can play guitar so i just went up to the uh to their flat in uh in barnett in north london and just put some guitar down on the first album right and uh and then i'd forgotten about it and then two years later i was actually in paris i was working with a french artist called milan farmer she's like over there she's kind of like madonna in france the french version of madonna you know so the band was nuts you know we had abel bore abel boreal jr on drums you know paul mccartney's drummer and right um shakira's bass player and um milton mcdonald from take that on on the other guitar right the proper big fuck off arena tour thing so right and then during that tour um i was just chatting to a mate of mine who also knew fresh and used to tell me about uh pendulum and i said uh oh yeah you know they're really big and i was like what oh yeah they sold 400,000 copies of the album i was like what because it was totally underground new strumming bass you know so and then um i got they got in touch again they wanted wanted to do it live and did a gig in fabric um which was the first live gig that we did i was in uh october 2006 and then the next year i got asked to um uh join full time uh join full time so yeah that's amazing yeah yeah and um yeah so so that dude that's the well
Speaker 1i mean like there's so much in there we could unpack but we don't have you know i can't keep it all day so we're gonna have to do the kind of you know the the hollywood edited version you know but i mean and they that that sounds like such a fucking a constant streak i mean we're we're there i mean you know make make the rest of us poor bastards feel better were there low points when it all went to shit or has it been like it's been like it's been like it's been like it's been just a crazy streak because you know that i mean that sounds like it like it's i've been really
Speaker 2lucky i've been it's been kind of constant um line of gigs really because we're pending we went on hiatus in 2012 we went on four year hiatus and then during that that point i started work i did a couple years with anastasia and then after anastasia did a couple of uh i went on the road with faithless for two years so nice and then and then we um 2016 uh pendulum got back together again after the hiatus right started gigging again and started releasing new stuff
Speaker 1and what is the before we come on to pendulum then because you're you're actually in the band with pendulum i know you're not like a session guy or something like that so what was the what is the difference then because i've heard i've got a few friends who are session players who've played you know big i won't mention any names you know but i mean big stadium tours and stuff like who've given me you know a lot of horror stories and bad news about treatments and and disposability feelings and things like that what was your i mean i know i know the industry and the climate is very different now to what it was back in the 90s and early noughties but what is your what was the what was the the life like as as a session musician on these tours um obviously
Speaker 2you're not the boss you're a high you're a hired hand but i've been really lucky with the people that i've been working with over the years they've been bloody lovely you know um i've heard horror and you know certain people i wouldn't want to go on stage with i wouldn't definitely want to be on a tour bus with them but i've been so lucky everybody that i've been that i've worked with has been great you know really nice people you know it's like one of my philosophies in life especially to do with work don't be an arsehole if you're an arsehole you know people won't people won't hire you and uh but i've been really lucky that i've been working with the people i was a for um they've been they've all been great and yeah and they've become good mates and we had a lot of fun you know and that's what it's all about at the end of the day you know you can't enjoy what you're doing it's a point of doing it yeah and if you're on tour with an absolute nightmare of an artist or whoever or somebody in the band that you don't don't get on with and then then i know it gets difficult because that's happened to some friends of mine but i've been so lucky that that's never happened to me i don't know why that is well i've well i think you have to be really unlucky to work with an arsehole because in the music industry because the way it's set up if you as i said earlier if you are an arsehole then people won't hire you right and um and the same goes with artists if you're an arsehole and if you're an arsehole to people who work with you the record company or management or radio people tv people whatever then they won't they won't work for you so you have to be nice yeah if you're not you're not nice you know people wouldn't want to work for you so you have to be very very very unlucky to work with a nightmarish person i think yeah that
Speaker 1makes a lot of sense like to see how that would it would fall down that way as well you know um and and you would know because you've been out in that world
Speaker 2for a long time now well of course because when you're a touring musician especially you're with the tour is everybody calls it a touring family you know right and crew but whatever you're all tour bus together or you're flying together and that could be for 18 months or even more you know and you have to get along and people hire you so that uh hire people who they know i can get along with other people you know it's just yeah it's just it's just you know i've been really lucky that way but it's yeah it's the best way to do it yeah it's the best way to do it
Speaker 1really well you've mentioned being lucky a few times and you know clearly you've had you know some awesome opportunities and stuff but at the same time you know taking into account everything else that you've described you know like you're easy to get along with you're a fucking kick-ass on the guitar you know you're professional i mean that's the thing that people get twisted i think well on the subject of luck because yeah of course there's lots of good musicians out there who are hard working and very nice and they just can't catch a break we've all got friends like that so of course you do need to have the element of luck um but that's not where the story ends you know you you it's what you bring to the table from that point onwards then which determines whether you're able to stay afloat for longer than two weeks yeah
Speaker 2luck is a big element of it but you have to be in the right place at the right time and i think if i would have stayed in wales back in pembrokeshire i don't i don't think i would have had these opportunities 100 i've had these opportunities because i've lived in london and for example chuck uh chuck sabre uh with another thing said do you want to come over and jam uh yeah that was 45 minutes on a tube for me you know right right and i if i live five hours away in wales i would never have happened can't do it can't do it and um and everybody who i speak to uh young musicians who i speak to who want to do what i did i always tell them you have well it's a cliche but you have to be in it to win it if you're not in one of the main musical centers right it's not it's probably not going to happen to you um you have to be there yeah it's like it's it's like with any job really it's like if you want to work in where if you say if you want to work in the financial district in any city you know it's pointless if you live up in the countryside never 400 miles away yeah it's just not gonna happen it's the same thing with any job really but um yeah it's so i tell all the young musicians who want some advice move somewhere you know it could be um but you even can't if can't it's pretty pretty good for yeah or bristol
Speaker 1or liverpool now you know anywhere where there's something happening i suppose yeah
Speaker 2manchester you know because there's always chances for uh a session in the in a big city you know right so it's um and obviously london is one of the main centers yeah on the planet not just in the uk so you've got more of a chance in london than you would do in any of the other cities in the uk but yes it's um and that's what i decided to do because i knew that's where the industry was and that's where nearly all the record companies are so all most of the acts are based is in london so that's why i moved in that well
Speaker 1it makes a lot of sense and that's great advice there to it like musicians listening because we do have a lot of like music industry specials on this giving advice to you know musicians and stuff listen so i think you were the first session i know you're not exclusively a session musician but you're the first session musician that we've had on so it's it's great to have that insight as well from that side of the industry you know and everything
Speaker 2you say makes a lot of sense i mean it's um for me i wanted to work in music right uh be it in the band or be it a session wherever and i just fell into the session thing um it's it's nothing that i well i kind of studied kind of to do that a bit of jazz read some music you know well i've got a degree i shouldn't be able to read bloody music you know but um so i i was kind of veering towards that way but it was just total luck that i got that
Speaker 1first gig you know so amazing amazing well what a story man what a story i mean it sounds as if you've been working and gigging pretty much relentlessly since that time until if my research serves me correctly until 2018 was that the last tour you did with pendulum prior to that
Speaker 2to the lockdown yeah my last gig pre-lockdown was new year's eve perth 2018 perth right australia because um we play a lot in oz obviously because a couple of guys are australians yeah and they're from uh perth originally so yeah that was the last one gig pre-lockdown but that's what i do when i'm producing music for television right yeah it's it's something i've always done since the 90s wow um so it's you know if you're yeah i'd rather not be twiddling my thumbs or practicing my guitar really it just there is the most boring thing
Speaker 1in the world that's really interesting because i'm always fascinated by what musicians do because diversification is something that comes up all the time especially these days you've got to be versatile and have a few strings to your bow so i always wonder what people do you know when they're not touring um yes i had no idea that you had that element as well that's
Speaker 2fascinating man yeah i've always produced music so i'm sat here where you can't see it at the minute but behind that is my studio right in my studio set up and um yeah i i've always done that really uh started working on tv in the 90s for s4c for s4c the welsh yeah a language channel and um started doing music for them and you know i do stuff for bbc itv uh well stuff worldwide really right do adverts and music for
Speaker 1adverts as well that's amazing a lot of sync stuff then so do you do um is it like library stuff do you prepare a bunch of stuff in advance or do you do stuff
Speaker 2to brief i've done uh both i've done library music um i've done uh that's what i've done a lot is um you know those singing competitions you have on tv yeah you know the backing tracks they that yeah right yeah okay um whether they're all bespoke because obviously um they have to be in a different key or done different arrangements and um i've i've i've done those for different um programs since um fame academy that's the first time i did that so um yeah me and a friend of mine kenny kenny dickinson he's a keyboard player but uh kenny played for natalie as well and katie tunstall and people so we we have this production thing together that we um do these um backing tracks for singing competitions for tv shows all over the world that's fucking amazing man dude you're
Speaker 1dude you're crushing it man i had no idea yeah so in the lockdown then like when you weren't gigging because i i was going to ask you what the fuck did you do did you go out of your mind you know in the lockdown but it sounds as if you you know you kept yourself pretty busy well no because
Speaker 2obviously the television shut down as well right right right so yeah and we were in the middle of one um as lockdown started and then it kind of ground to a halt really so um the problem with uh with with shows like that any type of show really was uh the costs doubled um just to keep everybody safe so you know for but if you if you've got a brand new singing competition coming out on on tv uh they they would they actually pulled it the one that i was about to do on my tv they pulled it just before it started because they have they'd have to get all the crew and all and everybody involved in the show to stay in one hotel and they'd have to get all the crew and all and everybody in the show to stay in one hotel totally isolated from the outside world right two months right and um so basically that that and um all the testing and all the precautions they had had to do you know basically doubled you know if um a tv production cost two million quid normally with covid uh precautions involved and the way you have to deal with that it was four million quid so and um it's a bunch of shows or and um it's a bunch of shows or and um it's a bunch of shows or this one show in particular itv went you this one show in particular itv went you this one show in particular itv went you know what now sod it we pull it know what now sod it we pull it know what now sod it we pull it um and they yeah and um and they yeah and um and they yeah and uh but if it's a show like strictly say uh but if it's a show like strictly say uh but if it's a show like strictly say you know the guys are strictly you know you know the guys are strictly you know the guys are strictly you know the guys are strictly you know for a brand new show like the one you know for a brand new show like the one you know for a brand new show like the one that i can't even remember what it's that i can't even remember what it's that i can't even remember what it's called to tell you the truth that show called to tell you the truth that show called to tell you the truth that show busy yeah exactly and so yeah covid costs yeah exactly and so yeah covid costs yeah exactly and so yeah covid costs put the kibosh on that but i started put the kibosh on that but i started put the kibosh on that but i started doing sessions again so i was just doing doing sessions again so i was just doing doing sessions again so i was just doing recording sessions recording sessions recording sessions guitars and started producing other guitars and started producing other guitars and started producing other artists as well so wicked so you kept
Speaker 1artists as well so wicked so you kept artists as well so wicked so you kept yourself pretty sane then off the stage yourself pretty sane then off the stage yourself pretty sane then off the stage yeah that's wicked man yeah because i was yeah that's wicked man yeah because i was yeah that's wicked man yeah because i was gonna ask what was it like i mean i my gonna ask what was it like i mean i my gonna ask what was it like i mean i my my last tour was also in 2018 and then in my last tour was also in 2018 and then in my last tour was also in 2018 and then in 2019 i kind of hunkered down i wrote 2019 i kind of hunkered down i wrote 2019 i kind of hunkered down i wrote my book and um you know made my my my new new album that was coming out and everything like that so i did a lot of like production stuff and getting getting shit ready um for 2020 which was going to be the big one you know and then it just fucking killed all of that so for me i haven't uh because of uh because the two years of the lockdown and then uh my father passed away last year he was ill yeah terminal cancer for for most of last year um so i had a european tour with the band and the uk tour that was like the first come coming out of lockdown coming out of the gate swinging you know and then we had to cancel all that so for me it's been three years now and if i'm right was it the same for you as well with with pendulum we did our
Speaker 2first gigs uh not as a full band i might say it was 2021 okay we did a bunch of hybrid dj live uh things so because um because we still couldn't get uh kj our drummer couldn't come over from the state he lives in in las vegas so he's a soccer yeah yeah so he couldn't come over from um uh the states because of restrictions and so it was myself rob and gareth uh they were on decks and i was on live guitar rob's doing live vocals which is just the three of us went out right and did like six mini festivals right um over that summer um and then last year 2022 we did a bunch of sporadic uh festivals um across the world first one was in miami in march and then um just a bunch of european festivals then
Speaker 1and what was that like coming back then after you know because i still haven't done it yet it's weird right i bet it's
Speaker 2really weird because going on stage for the first time after that you kind of walk on stage you go right then what do i do now so do i stand do i move over there or do i move back a bit spread legs or what yeah yeah yeah um do i bang my head right now or what i don't know is it is it you know because it's being on stage and i have to you know basically living on stage for years right yeah being back on stage then it's just like oh my god it is really really weird did you miss it then like
Speaker 1emotionally was it kind of like did you have that surge of oh this is yes i missed this or was it kind of like oh this is weird no it was just weird the first
Speaker 2few shows and then because it is it is you know it's a weird thing to do anyway yes but but you get used to it right but then for me it was just going and doing this weird thing and i'm not used to it anymore it's just like god that's just really fucking weird man it's just like what the fuck is this and uh and and it took me a few gigs of um to get into it again just to just to be feel at home on stage you know it's very strange
Speaker 1but you're back now you're settled in you know you're back to the old natural habitat
Speaker 2yeah it's been great so yeah the festivals we did over the summer was fantastic you know and we've got more gigs coming up this year you know the first one we well decided to brixton academy and uh that went on sale sometime in november i think and tickets sold out in 15 minutes wow and uh then uh the so we put another one on uh brixton on and that kind of sold out in i was a little bit slower because the queen died so that sold out a bit of competition right yeah yeah yeah so yeah so so we've got two gigs in brixton which is amazing yeah we we love brixton favorite place to play in the world it's got two shows in brixton in march and then festivals and tours and stuff after that as well so
Speaker 1yeah summer season man yeah perfect yeah how is um because we both spoke at the uh house of lords select committee hearing didn't we about the uh the effects of brexit on touring um uk artists touring in europe post brexit has that affected you guys or your crew
Speaker 2in any way um not no because we didn't do um that many shows last year if we did then it would have um because another thing that i do as well apart from music is i work as a cycling commentator on the tour de france so yeah so i was out in the eu for the first weekend of the tour de france and for the final week so that added to my um my well added to my dates so but if we were touring a little bit more then it would have affected me but luckily didn't but i know loads of people that it has affected same they lost their jobs because of it yeah yeah but um and you know it's yeah i was basically right with that but uh you know the fact that uk's musicians are now losing jobs to musicians with the eu passports on the users and because it's you know it's easier for them to tour the eu giving an example pre-brexit um 80 percent of my income was from gigging in the eu right so that's when touring was normal and touring is coming back into normal So, yeah. So it was 80% of it. That's how big a chunk of my income came from working in the EU. And yeah, so it's a bit scary when you think about it, really.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, I mean, it's similar to what you mentioned earlier about when you were talking about, yes, you have to have the ability, you have to have the talent, but you also have to be, people have to be able to work with you. And I think when productions on the mainland or they're touring through the mainland are considering crews, they're going to consider, well, you know, can this lighting crew or this sound tech or roadie or whatever it is, you know, can they do the whole tour or can they only do 90 days and then they've got to go back again? That's going to be a consideration people are going to make, which is outside of their ability or talent as crew members. It's just fucking terminal for many people's careers, you know.
Speaker 2Absolutely. It's easy for me. Because I'm part of a band. If I was just doing sessions, if I was, imagine if the Pendulum hiatus was now, then I would be in trouble because, you know, because we were touring Europe a lot. And, you know, those artists, well, one of the bands I was working with, one of the artists I was working with was with Anastasia and Steve Barney. Steve Barney. Good mate of mine. Right. So Steve lost his job. Have you spoken about this before on this pod?
Speaker 1Not in a while. Not in a while. Well, not Steve specifically, because you used his as a case study, didn't you, in your tour? Yeah, yeah. It was brilliant.
Speaker 2If people don't know, then Steve has played with Anastasia since 2009. It's been his main gig for that long. And he, obviously, like every other musician, he lost his, everybody lost their gigs over COVID. And then beginning of last year, he got offered a gig with an Italian artist. It's called Gianna Nannini. This huge Italian artist in March. And then he went, yep, I'll have that. So he went on tour. And then halfway through that tour, he got a call from Anastasia's management saying, asking about his availability for an upcoming tour in September. It was a European tour going through September, October and November, I think. So he. And then they found. And then they found out about this whole 90 days in 183. So as a UK passport holder, you can only be in the EU or in Schengen area, sorry. Certain countries within the EU for 90 days within every 180 days. So from this date, you count back 180 and you're only allowed to be in the Schengen area for 90 days. And he found out that. He only had 12 days left by the time Anastasia's tour would have started. And so they tried all sorts of things. The government say, oh, yeah, you can get visas. You can have working visas. You can't. It's impossible. You can't get working visas. And so what the government is saying is a lie. You can get some working visas, but nothing that covers the whole of Schengen. So it's the whole of Schengen. Basically, if you're touring the UK, touring the EU, you're touring Schengen mainly. So and he found out that he couldn't do it. And then there's nothing that Anastasia's managed to do was they had to find another drummer. So they got another drummer in and it's they got a drummer, great drummer from Finland. So she's got an EU passport. So there's no hassle then touring with her anymore. So it's so Steve's basically lost a job. And there was a UK tour, two week UK tour, two and a half weeks, sorry, UK tour involved within that European tour. And he lost that as well. So a British musician has lost a British job just because of Brexit. Yeah. So it's
Speaker 1an awful story. And Steve, you know, he went big with it, didn't he? He posted it on social media and he went viral and really helped to kind of highlight this issue. Yeah. And he's still a victim of it, as are so many other people, you know, and people who aren't, I suppose, on that side. They're not under the spotlight, literally speaking. You know, it's the backstage crews and the drivers and, you know, you know.
Speaker 2Yeah. I think it's worse for the crew even because the crew. More than musician, more than a session musician, they will jump off one tour and join another one. Yeah. And because that's what those guys do, because with stuff like that. If you're, you know, if you're a rigger or something, or if you're a catering, a caterer, or there's no rehearsals involved, you just go bang and you. Start the next gig. Start the next gig. Yeah. If you're a musician, then you have to go into, if you're working with another artist, then you have to go into rehearsals, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But if you're a crew guy or girl, then you're more likely to jump off from one tour to the other. And that's how people make their livings. But no British crew. politicians um can't do that anymore because of this stupid rule and and the tories it's an absolute fucking i hate the tories you don't i don't really does that come across i don't i never got that vibe about you dude to be honest like it's actually no no that's wrong i don't hate all tories no i've i've actually got some tory friends who ouch they're actually yeah yeah but they're actually all right but they but they but they're so disgusted with the tories they don't they don't vote tory anymore they're like closet toys right yeah yeah yeah but yeah they're disgusted by them as well you know but um but we can talk about the tories if you want brexit brexiters that i hate brexiters
Speaker 1yeah and there's still a few people who were who were kind of you know desperately clinging on to the idea that it was a good idea despite all of the evidence that it was an absolute fucking disgrace some shambles
Speaker 2arseholes they're dumb arseholes in this country yeah it's it's literally gone to the dogs it's it's terrible um you know the whole god what is it i saw the exports are done was it 47 or something and we'll never get that back because the people in the u they're buying from somewhere else now their products they were buying from the uk you know it costs so much money to export and import uh to the you know on the flip side
Speaker 1we've got our freedom back you know what i mean we're free from the clutches of those eu bureaucrats that were holding us down
Speaker 2man you know what it's it's not it's not just the far right it's the far left as well it's like i saw a great quote the other day it was like um the um the far right wanted to leave the eu because uh they thought the eu uh was it was like soviet union and and the far left want to leave the eu because it the eu wasn't enough like the soviet union and it's just like yeah and the thing just recently you know with the whole train strike i support the train strikes 100 um and and it's right what they do but the whole mick lynch thing being a brexiter i'm like going mate did he him on uh he got his ass and it was on a plate to run the james o'brien show the other day you know because the tuc came up with the fact that um due to brexit um all workers rights are being eroded away now and only due to brexit and mick lynch ardent brexiter you know it's partly his fault yeah he told his um union told the rmt told all their members to vote leave and and it's i look at him and i see nigel farage well self-interest
Speaker 1you know he was thinking about the interest of his one community of people you know and their employment prospects but i mean that's the fucking point you
Speaker 2know what i mean well with mick lynch he's like he wants uh the he thought that we could leave the eu so it'd be easier for us to uh nationalize the rail in the rail companies yeah every single country in the u has a nationalized rail company every single one
Speaker 1you know and we used to have a nationalized rail industry what's we were we used to be in the eu it wasn't it wasn't the eu that made it privatized it was the
Speaker 2fucking tories yeah so the far left and far right for me are just as bad as each other you know and and and and i i think that was something like mick lynch is worse than um uh um farage because he's all for the workers and he made his workers uh poorer right right right you know it's just like he's just it's you know he's such a hypocrite but i but i do
Speaker 1100 um support the strikes we all do man you know and you know i agree with a lot of what mick lynch says i think he's right on the way he kicks their fucking ass you know in the media and stuff like that the problem is for me is that the tories have just fucked everything they brought us to this situation because just look at the state of our society has it ever been this fucking bad man i mean you know everybody's on strike major infrastructural um backbones of the whole country are all on strike you know they're shipping people to fucking rwanda you know it's the brexit you know the state of the economy the cost of living crisis the energy crisis i mean it's there's nothing thing that they haven't fucked up yet we continue to elect them i just can't make any sense of it
Speaker 2well it well the uk isn't a left-wing country well sorry no no england isn't a left-wing country wales is a left-wing country scotland is a left-wing country yeah england isn't and england is a way bigger than wales and scotland right so um it's and it's always been um a right-wing country you know and there's the furthest left i think this uh country's ever voted was harold wilson i think i think from the top of my head you know but mainly they you know they vote for the right-wingers yeah that's what england does it's always done it you know you know back 200 years ago there wasn't there wasn't such a thing as the left wing yeah yeah you know it was you know the wigs and the conservative it's a very strange thing well it's it's that that's england for you you know it's it's almost like we've got this
Speaker 1kind of addiction to uh you know self-abuse or something like that because we can clearly see that these none of these decisions actually make our life any better in fact they make them worse and they're like yeah we'll go yeah we'll do that yeah cool you know we won't complain as long as the pubs stay open you know we're okay well yeah you know it's
Speaker 2funny thing about um i heard somebody complaining about the strikes last week and um and uh she was saying i've got a low-paid job and you don't see me going on strike it's like oh come on come on use your brain it's like god it's about yeah england isn't a left-wing country and you know people can moan about it as much as they want right but it's still going to be yeah it's not a left-wing country but wales is yeah if wales went independent they'd have the they would have had labour party um leadership you know for the last 100 years yeah yeah yeah since the labour started back in the 20s or whatever and uh yeah it's um you know but it's england so and england i've got this you know it's it's monopoly yeah well it's not the nation of equals really is it no isn't it so are you
Speaker 1do i do i take from that then that you are pro welsh independence fucking hell yeah even though even though
Speaker 2i've lived in england for a long time i've lived in london all my adult life i'm still nothing wrong with england you know it's a fucking great place no no i love england i'm married to an english person and i love living in england england is a really nice place to live in london is anyway i've never lived outside of london but um yeah and i've got a lot of most of my friends down here in english got nothing against england whatsoever but um i do have um an issue with how the political system is set up here right because you know both as you know wales is totally different from england and i've got a lot of friends in london and i've got a lot of friends in england and i've got a lot of friends in london scotland is totally different to england and yeah it'd be nice to have some sort of political not uh economic union and but not a political one you know you know like the um the economic union kind of that you've got with between the uk and and ireland that's great you know yeah we can work there they can work here you know and we
Speaker 1could rejoin the eu you
Speaker 2know yeah but yeah but exporting and importing from ireland is a little bit more difficult now because of that yeah right but yeah yeah but i'm all for uh independence for wales i love it i've got no say in scotland but um i do hope they get it as well you know because um because the way that our culture the welsh culture has been eroded um for centuries now by the uh english uh parliament um you know it's uh really
Speaker 1bad you know 100 well anytime you can bring democracy and the machinery of democracy closer yeah to the people making the votes i think that's that's a good thing it's further away you you saying i know that was a left-wing argument against the eu was because you know these are unelected eu bureaucrats but i mean you know they are elected
Speaker 2that's that's the weird thing that they are elected i i voted in in the european elections you know like a lot of other people did but some people didn't and they didn't realize they could do that because but you know it's um yeah but yeah it's i think going like drake hood saying just for christmas about um you know how bad the nhs is in wales at the minute and he doesn't have enough money from uh westminster to um to well to invest in the nhs in wales and yeah come on come on yeah he's nearly there he's you know it's like he he's saying something and what he's saying is there's an obvious right yeah answer to this there's an obvious answer to it so how do you get more money from westminster or maybe just westminster altogether and you're in charge of your own taxation but um but you know if it's highly possible that um uh labor will get in and they've uh in the next election and they've promised you know more deep pollution and all that but then you know that's only going to last for a certain amount of years and yeah and they are going to get voted out again because it's the labor party they always do something always messes up with them well if they can't win the
Speaker 1next one dude with they might as well just fucking throw the towel in you know i mean because i mean it can't get any worse if you can't win an election now against the tories yeah
Speaker 2it's fucking over it's over i mean i think that they're going to win the election in spite of keir starmer being leader not because of him because 100 yeah his got his advisors his speech writers they're rubbish they're so bad he at the his speech last a couple of days ago last week um he uh just it's just so corny he comes up with terrible one-liners you know he was there in his shirt and tie with his sleeves rolled up you know oh yeah classic yeah and and he comes out with um the labor party are going to roll up their sleeves and sort out the economy or something i mean come on stop who's who writes that you're shit yeah yeah yeah it's terrible but it's laughable
Speaker 1you know it's it's it's it's for real like that's just speech
Speaker 2you know i mean and and then his whole thing about the freedom of movement he was was it on the sophie ridge program or was it on coonsburg and so for so for each i think yesterday on sunday saying that um he uh 2020 said he wanted freedom and basically now he says he doesn't want freedom right you know three years later it's like come on mate absolutely useless every time he opens his opens his mouth on that subject he just makes a fool of himself yeah yeah and he's like he's trying to what is he trying to pander to the far right yeah you know it's because every he knows that what he's saying what he's saying is bullshit utter bullshit yeah he knows this yeah because he doesn't believe what he says yeah it's no brexit is a shit idea right and we've seen that and we've seen how the economy has gone because of it brexit is a really shit idea how many shit ideas have has anybody seen turn out good or yes no no how bad is brexit think of one another really shit idea that's come good i can't think of any and him trying saying that oh no we're going to make brexit work so you can't make it's shit yeah you can't polish a turd you literally look polishing the turd is that's a that's a cliched thing you know it's a cliched saying but seriously get a turd in your hand and try to polish it you can't you can't do it just smearing the shit over your hand i mean yeah and i'm starmer coming up with this crap all the time which just recently is and if he backtracks on like that then he's going to look even more of an idiot you know and it's like
Speaker 1they're not an effective opposition and because of our voting our electoral system you know like i left labor to um to join the greens because i'm going to vote with my conscience from now on i'm going to vote with my conscience from now on yeah but i've learned the error of my ways you can't because the only actual opposition we do actually have that has a fighting chance of ever getting in is labor so you have to and you know it's such a fucking shame because you know like they are not an effective opposition they're not a united party at all and the only way that they can make themselves remotely palatable to enough of the vote in public is to water down their left-wing aspects you know and move more into and and basically appease the same sort of people that the tories basically do absolutely
Speaker 2well because if if you want to be prime minister and um you have to win over tory voters yeah that's that's the simple thing that's that's that's the basic thing with uh um with politics in the uk is you have to get tory voters corbin's not gonna get tory voters no bloody way ed billyman was obviously didn't do it you know david milliband is more likely to do it well would have been more likely to do it but um you know you have to win over tory voters and um i'm lucky i live in a um in in a constituency in london that happens to be the 19th uh safest labor seat in the uk so i can i can vote for whoever i want yeah yeah yeah so uh yeah so yeah because harry harman's my mp and she's great anyway so and but yeah it's um yeah that's the yeah that's the problem with right if it was pr they would be totally different wouldn't it exactly
Speaker 1100 we did we did an episode on pr a few months ago we had to make votes matter onto talking about how explain how all that works and stuff and it just makes so much more sense yeah if we have pr this would be a no-brainer but i mean yeah it would be sounds as if we share the same disappointment in our party i mean i i've been ever since tony blair tony blair ruined it for me you know because he just fucking killed for me like i said there was that old romantic feelings that i have about traditional labor values and you know when margaret thatcher says you're her greatest achievement then you know you're
Speaker 2the devil um so with tony blair that's what when i realized oh my god it was the whole iraq war thing it's just like 100 yeah stop it and you know and you know all our troubles now can be kind of if you look back to it all started from there 100 well the whole whole you know the war in the middle east you know and the whole refugee problem yeah and then syria coming out of that as well and then yeah and the financialization
Speaker 1of everything schmoozing to the city you know all that stuff you know it's uh
Speaker 2yeah it could all be traced back to that iraq war basically um and yeah it's you know if you would have said no i think would be one in a way better position than we are now and to still use citizens you know because you know the whole refugee problem um a crisis you know that's what set a lot of right-wingers off and a lot of racists off yes yeah and
Speaker 1it doesn't look like things are going to get better anytime soon i don't think i think we're in quite a hole now and i think it's going to take us a long slow journey to get out of it um yeah my my guess i mean i don't know i've lost a lot of faith in humanity but my guess is that labor probably will win the next one yeah they will
Speaker 2but i don't know how long they keep um keep on a hold of powerful that's yeah because i think it wouldn't surprise me if the conservative party do another shift to the right for the right than they are now you know right and that's what that's what the really scary stuff is you know oh yeah yeah yeah if that happens you know yeah god knows what happens if the reform party and and um the tories kind of merge then you know there's a lot of racism in the uk yeah and that and
Speaker 1that's just easy to fire up when people feel angry and disillusioned and disenfranchised you know and insecure you know that's the old classic go-to and and and i've said a couple times in the podcast before that like i just see this pattern that the reason the the tories are so good at staying in power is because they pander to the the primal emotions in people fear yeah and um and tribalism and that sort of stuff and that's a lot that is a lot easier to tap into than you know um abstract notions like democracy and justice and equality you know they are more complex things to to talk about rather than fucking immigrants are gonna steal your job here we go you know it's as simple as that and and that's that's what we need to have is exactly what you said we need to have an opposition that are willing to play the popularity contest because it isn't just about policy it's about personality it's about passion it's about emotion you know
Speaker 2yeah i mean if you look at trump you know when you got trump and boris johnson you know go yay look at us whoa and then on the other side you go all right yeah yeah yeah yeah the one with the loudest the funniest lotus one is gonna win
Speaker 1the funny strong man we're in the era of the strong man you know hopefully it's gonna die out soon you know but um yeah we are in a hole it's gonna take a while to get out
Speaker 2i think i'm not sure if it ever will if we ever will survive that i think it'll always be like that now right um you know because you know what with the internet and all that you know it's uh it's it's all about media and the media perception isn't it yeah unfortunately so man yeah you could have the best policies in the world but if you can't convey those policies in a in a decent way or in a good way to the public then you know they're not gonna listen to you yeah 100 basically yeah i should be in pr really shouldn't i no don't do it dude stay exactly as you are honestly stay exactly as you are political pr well i'd be really good for that do it for
Speaker 1welsh independence man set us free
Speaker 2yeah yeah absolutely
Speaker 1yeah well i'm a card-carrying member of plight comrade by the way top man top man good for you man right well i'm aware of the time and i feel like we could probably you know bitch about the fucking politics of the tories all day long and god knows i would love to but you know i can't keep you all day and unfortunately there's no i'm sure i'm racking my brains for a way to segue this into the next question which i've got to ask you because it was sent in by one of our listeners who was dying to ask you this question um yeah and it's just it's absolutely impossible for me to segue the tories to this so i'm just gonna have to figure it out i'm gonna have to figure it out if i can just jump in and say it yeah as we approach the end of the chat what is the one guitar pedal that you cannot do without yeah it's the
Speaker 2line six helix ah honestly it's the if without that i'll be a very very quiet guitarist uh for those of you don't know what the helix is it's an amp modeling and effect modeling yes multi-effect unit yeah so i feel like that's a answer but it's um i haven't used enough that that gig in perth in 2018 that's the last time i've switched on an amp every gig i've done since has been just the line six okay straight out to the desk yeah so basically i plug my guitar into the pedal and then there's a lead then that goes from the pedal into the mixing desk and that makes my and that sounds like a guitar amp and with loads of different effects in it as well so for the lady people out there so basically the line six helix uh has um uh well i don't need to use an amp on stage anymore and uh well that's always a good thing you know gone are the days
Speaker 1of lugging fucking but not that you have to do it but you know like lugging amps up stairways and stuff you know yeah
Speaker 2so the so the uh the helix is like 12 and a half kilos it's you know it's a piece of uh kit but um yeah and every single recording i've done since god for six years now has been with the helix and i haven't i haven't recorded with them for a long long while
Speaker 1that's amazing i love line six stuff man i had a line six amp for years but i've i've recently gone down i've got the blue guitar amp never seen those oh yeah thomas blue yes but i
Speaker 2actually know i know thomas very well yeah right so because um i'm also i'm endorsed by an amplifier company called hughes and kettner yes right thomas used to work for hughes and you did yeah yeah so um yeah when i do use an amplifier i usually use and get my because right it sounds great and it's got lovely shiny blue
Speaker 1lights well i love the blue guitar man it's fucking it's a monster yeah you know it's about the size you know it's about the size of an a4 piece of paper you know and yeah
Speaker 2because with the um uh with my helix um there's no compromise with sound at all right it sounds great and i've actually because it's di does it go straight into the mixing desk um it for me it sounds better because there's no inconsistencies in the sound if there's a microphone in front of a um yeah a speaker uh in front of a speaker cabinet the problem without us was because there's so much bass and vibration on stage yeah because you know the music is so heavy the amp or the microphone would move even though you know it would vibrate and then bounce around the microphone yeah if i'm because we're all in in ears as well so we're on in-ear monitoring so when the microphone just moves like millimeters to one side you can hear it and you can kind of lose the guitar in the mix or whatever um so but with um the helix i don't get that problem at all whatsoever it's great and you know i can i can i have carried it as um uh carry-on luggage as
Speaker 1well i was going to say the helix because they've got so many now i'm a helix is about the size is it that's about the size of an a4 piece of paper as well isn't it or
Speaker 2is it the longer one no no it's bigger it's uh it's what but 18 inches by 12 okay i'm looking down on it and i was like it's at my feet so yes it's but 18 inches by 12 so it's uh uh there's they do a smaller version but i've got the proper uh full
Speaker 1fat version right because i'm thinking of getting a like a line six pedal uh there was i can't which one it was i was looking at because in my last band my pedal board was about with it unfortunately this is an audio only podcast so people can't see the shapes we're making with my last pedal board was about like three meters by three meters in my last band because i was the only guitar player but now i'm just singing in my new band so uh my my pedal board is basically for the for the few guitars i play rhythm on it's just like a fuzz pedal a tuner and a lead boost fucking nothing yeah um so i'm thinking yeah for a fly-on rig i'm probably going to get one of the small line six multi-effects yeah
Speaker 2the the hx stomp i think that's the one yeah that that's that's got amp simulators in it as well sweet it's it's um it's it's a smaller version of that it's got less um memory on dsp in it but um you can if you just want basic stuff like that it's perfect and it's it's about six inches by four that's that serves me yeah
Speaker 1basically i just don't want to carry anything ever again you know you can put it in your pocket perfect that's that's good for me man well dude thanks so much for this man like i said i i'm trying to be wary of your time because you're a busy dude and um you know i really appreciate you coming on and talking to us about you know your amazing career and give us some insight and advice for other people you know the musicians listening as well and and showing what a fervent left-wing fucking red socialist you are as well you know
Speaker 2Did I tell you I'm apolitical?
Speaker 1Oh, dear. You get two Welshies in a room talking politics, and it's always going to go one way, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2Exactly, it is. It's difficult to be anything other than kind of left or left of centre if you are Welsh.
Speaker 1I think we're on the right side of the divide, dude. I'd rather be punching up than punching down any time. You know, you're pulling up and punching up. That's the way I see it, you know?
Speaker 2Absolutely. So what is,
Speaker 1before I do let you go, what people look forward to with the band? What's happening with the band? What's coming up?
Speaker 2Well, we've got these two gigs coming up in Brixton in March, and then there'll be more shows after that. There will be more announcements happening soon. There's going to be new music coming out as well. Sweet. So, yeah, so, and, yeah, so I think we're going to be busy most of this year and into next year as well. Amazing. There will be lots of, well, quite a lot of chances for people to see us live. So we're doing a download, we're doing the 20th anniversary of download. Oh, nice. And various other festivals, so.
Speaker 1Oh, you've got a good year ahead of you then, man. Hopefully. Nice. Well, you fucking deserve it, man. It's been a crazy few years, so I'm glad that you guys are back in full force kicking fucking asses and taking names. You deserve it. Thanks, James. Hopefully we'll cross paths again at some point later on in the year. Definitely. We'll have another pint together. Stay off the politics this time. Yeah. Thank you, Perry. Wishing you nothing but the best. Speak to you soon, man. Cheers, James. Bye, mate. Thank you. Cheers, bro. Ta-ra. And he's gone. Ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause, please, for Mr. Peredia Ap Gwyneth. Super, super lovely guy. An insanely talented musician that deserves all of the hard-won success that that guy's got. And as it turns out as well, you know, a super hardcore firebrand red-blooded left-wing motherfucker as well. That's the way they make them around here, baby. I don't need to tell you anything about Pendulum because everybody knows about them already. But if you catch this podcast in time, they are playing at the O2 Academy in Brixton on Sunday, the 5th of March. You'll also catch them at Download as well on Friday, the 9th of June. And as Perry said, there's going to be some new music and lots more live shows coming real soon as well. So if you want to stay up to date with what they're doing, obviously, it's just Pendulum.com. Or they're on Twitter at Pendulum, Facebook at Pendulum, fucking Instagram at Pendulum, YouTube, Spotify, and everything else at Pendulum. You get the gist. And if you want to follow his fire-breathing, left-wing political run, rants on Twitter, you can do so at PerryGuitar666. That's Perry spelled as you'd spell it, P-E-R-R-Y Guitar 666. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you did, do not forget, please, to subscribe, share the episode, tell your friends, give us a star and a thumbs up or whatever you've got to do to help the algorithm give me some love. And I'll be back next week with another episode, another awesome guest, and probably, yes, another fucking illness. Have an awesome week, have an awesome weekend, and I will catch you next week. Ciao for now. you
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