Speaker 1Hello, stranger. How the hell are you doing? Welcome back to the James Kennedy podcast. I know I've been away for a little while. Please do forgive me. I've been a busy boy, man, rocking and rolling with the James Kennedy and the underdogs juggernaut. I've started penning yet another book and, you know, trying to work on a little bit of the old work-life balance, a little bit of self-care and well-being as well. So, you know, when you're doing that, you have to drop some of the load. And as someone that is not used to doing that, trust me, it's a struggle. But I'm forcing myself to get a little bit of balance in my life so that I don't burn out in a blaze of self-destruction, as I tend to do periodically. But since we last spoke, I've also been doing more on the Free Julian Assange campaign. I was back in London outside the Royal Court of Justice just two weeks ago as a presenter for Stella Assange's social channels, where I was, you know, like interviewing members of the public and the high-profile speakers that were there and just keeping people updated as to what was coming out of the courtroom live in the moment on the streets as it happened. I also did an interview myself with WikiLeaks, which was pretty cool. You can see that on my YouTube channel. And I will continue to be involved in that campaign for as long as it takes, man, because Julian Assange is a hero who should be walking free now. But anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about today. Today, we are here to talk about rock and fucking roll, man. And today's guest is a walking manifestation of rock and roll, badassery, fucking talented, multi-dimensional, hardcore, hard-living, hard-riffing, cool as fuck, kick-ass motherfucker. I have toured Europe with this gent. We locked horns, unfortunately, due to fuckery that was nothing to do with either of us two. But then we kissed and made up, not literally, in Belgium a few years back before the whole world went to shit. So it's been a while, but we've got loads to catch up on. And this guy is busy. So he's got a lot of shit to share with you guys today. So check the hiss out. From the bands Channel Zero, YOT, and the legendary Snot. That's right. We're talking with guitarist, producer, songwriter, and all-round badass, Mr. Mikey fucking Doling. How are you doing, sir? It's been a while. I'm good, Ben. Good to see you again. Good to see you too, brother. You're rocking the classic Mikey Doling look there, man. Looking cool. What are you up to right now, man?
Speaker 2I'm on my way to a rehearsal, actually, right now.
Speaker 1Fucking hell, bro. You don't stop, man. Man, you're putting us all to shame. So which band, you've got a few things going on, which we're going to get into. So which band are you rehearsing with today, man? What's happening?
Speaker 2Okay, well, right now I am writing the newest YOT album. It would be the second YOT album. The first one, Mother of the Universe, we were really happy with. It seemed like people liked it a lot. The reviews were good. And that's, it's been about three years now. It's been about three years. So we're ready to go with the second record now. And I'm working right now with Chris Collier. He's the producer for the band Korn.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah. Actually, he's doing their, he's doing his second record with them as we speak right now. So I'm working in between when he's not busy with Korn. Right. I'm driving to Las Vegas from Orange County, California, and I'll spend like three or four days at Korn. At his house, and we'll be recording and writing the new YOT stuff.
Speaker 1That's fucking awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. The band kicks ass, brother. Honestly, like a fucking, you've got a timeless sound about you, man, which I'm going to get into talking about your back catalog and everything. But I mean, YOT, they're based in Europe, right? Have I got that right?
Speaker 2Well, YOT are friends of mine. The majority of YOT are friends of mine from Belgium. Just wonderful guys. Charles, Doug, he's the drum tech for Channel Zero. Right. He's the drummer for YOT. My buddy, Yari DeRuver, plays guitar. He's kind of the guy who I started the band with, actually. And my buddy, Quentin Cornett, fantastic guitar player. I've known him since he was a kid. There's three guitar players in the band. Yeah. And then my dear, dear, dear friend, Aaron Nordstrom from the band Gemini Syndrome, which I produced. Their first album, which got them a record deal over Warner Brothers. He's the singer for YOT. So it's pretty cool, man. And we got a new bass player. I'm not going to give his name up yet, because we haven't played even a rehearsal with them yet. But it looks like he's going to do just fine. So yeah, YOT is kind of all over the world, if you will.
Speaker 1I love the sound. The sound is right up my fucking street. And of course, you know, we got to talk about Channel Zero, because I mean, you're in like the biggest fucking band in Belgium, and much of Europe, you know, how the fuck does a guy who lives in Orange County, like managed to be in a very busy band in Belgium, you spent a lot of time on an airplane?
Speaker 2Well, I mean, how I got into the band, it's a really cool story. Channel Zero has been around for more than 30 years. They're huge. About 15 years ago, I can't believe I've been in the band 15 years. They were doing a reunion because they had broken up a few years before that. So I guess about 10 or 12 years into their career, they broke up for a few years. And then there was this manager guy named Marlon Wagermans, who's still our manager now. He approached Frankie, the singer of Channel Zero, and said, Hey, why don't we do one reunion show at a venue called it? At a venue called the Unseen Belgique in Brussels. I don't know if you know this venue, but it's one of the greatest venues in Europe. It's amazing. It's about 2000 seater. It's three levels high. It's just beautiful, man. It's all wood. So it just sounds really good. So they, they put one day of tickets on sale and it sold out in 20 minutes.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 2Well, let's put another day on 20 minutes again, not two days. They kept going and ended up being seven nights sold out 2000 seater, 14,000 tickets. Okay. They did this like in one day. So they put, they stopped. They're like, Whoa, this is catching fire. Right. I had, I wasn't in the band yet and they were promoting it. And then their guitar player, their original guitar player quit the band just randomly. Quit the band up. They've already, they've already committed to these seven nights. So they were in a little bit of a panic. So they were putting their feelers out for guitar players. They even tried or were communicating with Danny Spitz from Anthrax, a bunch of other guitar players. I think they tried out like, I don't know, 15 dudes. And my buddy, Lawrence Custers, Lawrence Custers, manages, um, sick of it all. And I believe social D he's pretty huge, but he's, he's sort of a Belgian icon in the music industry. I'm friends, just, just friends. We had, you know, we never worked together or anything. We actually tried to start a little mini label, but that didn't work out. But anyway, um, he told them that he had a guy and that was me and Frankie. The singer for channel zero just so happened to recently discover the snot album. So when they talked to you there, right? He was like, yeah, can you get ahold of him? We'd love to check them out. So Lawrence contacted me and I was not with any band at that time. It was like 2008 that he contacted me. I had just left soul fly and all that. And, um, I was like, yeah, sure. I'd love to check it out. So I grabbed my flying V and my backpack flew to Belgium. We got in a room, we jammed out as if we'd been in a band together for 20 years. It was effortlessly seamless. We had a connection. We felt like we'd been friends all our lives. I mean, it was crazy. We were literally played as if we played an entire set on my tryout. We're all sweating. And they looked at me, they looked at each other and literally said, you want to, you want the gig? And I was like, yeah, it was, yeah, it was cool. So I was only committed to the band to, uh, do those seven nights at the AB in Brussels after what? Well, no, actually, when we started rehearsing for those shows, you know, I started kind of playing guitar in the background and me and Frankie, the singer, we were rooming together in preparation for this show. And he, he kept looking over at me and hearing these riffs I was playing. He's like, what's that? We weren't planning on me even joining the band, let alone doing another album. I was just feeling, and I was like, ah, it's just something I'm fucking with. And he was like, that's amazing. Can I record it? I'm like, sure. So he had this little handheld recorder. And I think we did that like 20 times, you know? And he was like, fuck Mikey. I, I was not planning on recording a record, but now you're really, uh, getting me interested. I'm like, cool. - So we played those seven, shows they went great they were all sold out it was like total friendship chemistry great so they asked me if i'd like to actually join the band full time kind of during those shows it all it all made sense i was like yeah i'd love to and then boom i was in the band sorry long story but i think it's so interesting i like sharing it right yeah yeah so then we ended up and now i've written four records with them and one of them is gold and the other ones are real close to gold you know these days records just don't go gold anymore 100 you know but the first one actually went gold with snails you know but since then it's all streams now so it's hard to tell what's what yeah but we still to this day i've been in the band almost 15 years i think september will be 15 years uh we still we still play all the big festivals you we still sell out almost i mean we do sell on every show we play out there it's killer i just love love the guys in the band like brothers you know 15 years now we're real close and um i love being in channel zero man it's cool oh i bet man yeah another band fucking
Speaker 1rocks man i saw you guys last in a festival in gotrek in belgium actually i saw you twice because i was hanging out with um uh your tour manager uh jürgen for the of the weekend and i saw you guys at a massive festival there as well i can't remember what it was called but i saw you guys because a lot of beers were consumed in the time that i was there man uh we were actually hanging out several times during that weekend i don't know if you can remember because i certainly cannot um you're gonna have to remind me the next day that we were uh hanging out doing shots and drinking brewskis i can't even fucking remember being in the bar well i'll tell you what if
Speaker 2belgium is anything it's the beer capital of the world and the beers fucking kick your face in and
Speaker 1i'm sure we drank a lot oh hell yeah and the fact that you can't remember either makes me feel like less of a prick um but nah man that weekend was a fucking blast and channel zero just absolutely fucking slayed every single night but i wanted to ask you as now as someone who's been in you know a fucking massive i would say classic game-changing influential american band with a classic album and also you know a fucking ginormous band in europe i wanted to ask you what do you think rock and metal scenes in america versus the rock and metal scenes in europe how is it different
Speaker 2i i mean the american scene's cool and all but it's kind of like this wwf thing this it seems like europe is a little deeper in the art of it and americans seem to be a little more into like the image or the full moon you know they love a five-figure death punch you know because of that reason but in in in europe though like other bands uh i don't know who to say but i don't know it just seems like europe's a little deeper in the artistic side of it as opposed to the meathead side of it and i'm sorry i'm not trying to offend america it's my country i love it um but europe is just more supportive um you show up to a venue in europe and they got good food yeah venues it's it's pristine yeah always the sound system kicks ass yeah you know the stages are well you show up in america you're gonna show up they ain't feeding you shit it just seems like the european promoters the fans everything all around really respects and loves the bands and take care of them like i said you show up the venues are clean the people show up you're eating good the showers work i mean in america you show up and you never know what you're gonna get right so yeah that's the
Speaker 1difference of europe the u.s for me what do you think about the uk then because everything you've just said about america i feel is the same in the uk they treat you like dog shit okay uh the
Speaker 2england the uk is just like america it's famous never use a uk tour bus company they'll show up nothing works you know right it's always a piece of shit you get something from germany you know it's gonna work great uk in the u.s they kind of have uh we don't give a fuck attitude
Speaker 1100 yeah i know i totally agree with all of that man and speaking of tour buses we've got to talk about the tour that we did with you guys because that was very bittersweet for us man you know we're sort of like you know we're on a tour with the fucking iconic legendary snot around europe the sun is shining fucking life is good but uh i think we were cursed man all of us because you had a fucking jumbo size double deck a tour bus that nothing fucking worked on and kept breaking down i think it must have been from fucking england and the ac didn't work just a change to a fucking two splitters halfway through the tour we were fucking sleeping in a transit van our drummer's dad had a stroke he had to fly back after the first gig in spain um all sorts of carnage and then our manager fucked both of us over for the tour support money that we were supposed to contribute unbeknown to ourselves so we're like hey fucking oh why does this band fucking hate us you know we had no idea what was going on and we were like oh my god we're no idea what the fuck was going on it was a tough one but that tour always sort of stands out to me as one of my favorites or most memorable tours i think because of the sheer intensity of it of all the carnage that we were carrying um throughout but also the fact that we got to watch you guys every single night absolutely fucking boss it on stage it was a it was an education and a real fucking honor and a privilege to be a part of and to be able to watch that up close every night and to see the inner workings of the snot machinery was it was a really good real was a real honor man despite the horror show that was going on behind the scenes
Speaker 2right on man yeah it's always fun it's not i mean we've rarely done anything since lynn straight passed away you know our dear brother who we still miss it's been 20 something fucking 25 years or some shit but um we had tommy vex for a minute we did some stuff with him he kicked ass and then uh we got carl bensley and he kicked ass and then we got carl bensley and he kicked ass and then we got kicked ass for us but we don't do that much you know so when we do go out it seems pretty special for sure um i mean i am definitely getting that itch again you know so i'm actually kind of on the search for a singer that could actually pull it off because i would probably put snot back together to do some festivals maybe next summer you know 2025 would be cool oh man fuck that would be so cool yeah so if any singers that think they can pull it off hit me up i'm on facebook and instagram so bro i'm gonna throw
Speaker 1it out there mate that is not a fucking easy gig to fill i mean carl did a fucking insane job but i don't know how the fuck anyone can sing like lynn straight because that is just who who sings like that like i i'm gonna be honest with you i love that album i got that album in the car that is my fucking screaming my head off in the car i get to about the second chorus and i'm fucking
Speaker 2blown you know what i mean yeah yeah you know it's funny man at the time i used to tell lynn man you gotta do that shit live you know you're gonna be able to pull it off and he did yeah but he gave himself two hernias singing that shit live he had surgery and everything oh wow yeah it was pretty hardcore stuff wow that's interesting i didn't
Speaker 1know that well carl bensley who we went out with uh when we were with you guys was fucking amazing
Speaker 2did a great fucking job man yeah fuck yeah carl kicked ass carl's had a baby he's married to a maiden he's got full-time work he can't really do it anymore so i'm looking for someone new that can does i think if it's not put the word out there some of these festivals we get on there especially now um it seems like the new metal thing which we were part of i would you know say that proudly um i think that nowadays even more than when we toured with you guys i think there's even more interest now
Speaker 1oh 100 man and so many people would love to see that i mean what does it feel like to have a classic album because exactly like you just said that album it doesn't sound like although it's from the era that you know people would lump in with new metal it doesn't sound as like dated in any way like a lot of those records do now like you you can put on get some and it sounds like it could have been released fucking yesterday you know what i mean it's it's it's one of those timeless records how does that feel to have that i mean it feels fucking great i gotta say that
Speaker 2one of the things that i've been doing for a long time is that i've been doing a lot of i love it i get it but i do cringe at times because some of the stuff the the topics that we're singing you know what i mean like we were young at the time we're in our 20s you know what i mean my balls your chin all that shit we're snot we're coming to your town clocking all the girls you know that's young men lyrics you know now i'm older dude you know pushing 50 it's hard to listen to sometimes but yeah it's badass i get it it's a good album it feels good
Speaker 1that's great fun man yeah i mean like to have that up your sleeve bro i mean fucking hell what an achievement you know what i mean and the fact that people are still loving it just as much today you know what i mean that's like it's insane it's crazy i'll say it's one record we did one
Speaker 2album yep it's 27 years later or something um and it's seems like it's going stronger than ever we see the numbers and streams when we get our publishing checks and they're getting bigger and we're like what is going on how are more people streaming this than ever but it is it's it's one album we put out it's strong
Speaker 1i'm so thankful you know it's one of those records every now and then you can tell when everybody is just on you know what i mean like you listen to dark side of the moon or something like that like every now and then a record comes along it's just like all the stars seem to have aligned the production is on the band is on the energy is on and it just feels like everything
Speaker 2is just fucking in the right place you know you know when we did that album we really had a vision of exactly how we wanted that album to sound and roll if you listen the album is one piece it's not a song and then a song it's a fucking piece of work from start to finish yeah and we purposely made it that way you know with the uh just the way it rolls man hips and valleys you know it's just the way it rolls man hips and valleys you know it's just the way it rolls you know it's just the way it rolls man hips and valleys you know it's just the way it rolls you know it's just the way it rolls man hips and valleys you know it's just the way it rolls and heights and lows and you know we really are i'm proud of that you know that we accomplished
Speaker 1that yeah you should be i mean yeah what what a piece of rock history man so thank you for doing it bro because when i still one of my favorite records and i really hope that you can find someone fucking good enough and insane enough to be able to pull off lynn duties you know i i gotta
Speaker 2say there's times i'm like yeah i'm never doing snot again ever but i'm out there watching all tours pop up and these i mean these festivals pop up you know when we were young sick new world in vegas and it's all the bands that we fucking toured with and played with 25 years ago are doing all these things i'm like snot fucking belongs on those oh hell yeah yeah you know yeah and if we did i think that the entire i mean not the entire but i think a lot of people in the crowd would be like what snot's fucking playing oh i think we'd kick ass on
Speaker 1those 100 man there'd be a lot of fucking love for that man yeah let's see if we can make it happen man i gotta go fucking hunting for a singer for you let me know let me know well speaking of of bands like seeing bands popping up and stuff that you've toured with um have you been keeping up with what's been happening with uh your brothers in skin dread and uh you know with double double play with you guys back in the day of crushing it right now man bro first i'll say
Speaker 2um those guys were literally brothers to snot back in the day we toured all over america with you know um i mean just love them all jeff rich ginge you know fucking benji of course they're fucking genius singer um they're brothers to us and now benji goes and does it again even bigger with skin dread and that fucking band those records are incredible yep you know god man i listen to that stuff and i'm just blown away and i'm also blown away at the drive with benji webb i mean that dude he's a first of all he's a star and he fucking works his ass off oh and he's really they're blown up i believe bro they're
Speaker 1bigger than ever they just did their own headline show at wembley arena they were number two in the midweek album charts uh they're in australia at the moment doing festivals and shit and uh they're bigger than ever man they've been on mainstream tv or not on the biggest fucking tv music shows and stuff they're like household name now yeah it's beautiful to see that's fantastic
Speaker 2benji and the skin dread guys i've met a few times these are sweethearts man i'm happy for them i actually went hung out with him in japan once i was living over there and they came through yeah and i took benji out and got him shit face stuffed with food uh yeah and uh yeah i had a great time with their show in tokyo well benji is a one in a million man
Speaker 1he really is a fucking dude like i'm very honored and privileged to be able to call him a friend and he's just got a great attitude man and you're right he works his fucking ass off and the guy's got talent by the fucking truckload as well so big love to benji and the boys and skin dread as they continue to blitzkrieg their way across the world into the hearts and minds and souls of the undeserving but before we get back to what you've got going on man because you've always got something awesome in i wanted to ask you what you think about the state of the music industry today because you're a guy that's been you got several decades in the business now i mean you were around in the old industry the old model and you're still fucking kicking ass in the new model and i always ask people who've seen both sides of the transition you know what are your thoughts on the industry today is it better is it worse or is it just different what was what do you think man it's
Speaker 2hard to say but back in the day i was a guy who was a guy who was a guy who was a guy who was a we signed a close to a half a million dollar record deal with giffin records okay um which is crazy nowadays you could never do that they would treat us like kings we'd eat they bought us instruments they bought us clothing they put us on fucking tours you know uh they went out and worked radio for us it was incredible in those days nowadays what's cool is the the internet you can actually put your own music out um it's tricky i still don't even really understand how to capitalize on it with social media and all that but it seems like i don't know they're just two different animals they're both cool in their own way um you know there's still bands out there completely exploding on and they're doing it themselves you know i it's funny is that i'll see little record labels i'm like well what are you selling what are you doing what are you doing for the band they don't do shit they don't have anything they can do that you can't do yourself yeah so i don't know i think it's cool these days that you can actually do your own thing which i am doing myself right now um with coyote it's hard to say i mean i do miss the heyday back in the old days when there was record companies that would spoil you i bet yeah i don't know i don't know as much of an answer what i just said but yeah it's different it's just different yeah
Speaker 1different problems i guess you know back in the day if you couldn't get a deal you were fucked but at least now you know you can make your own record you can put it out and you can at least do your thing but i think the problem we got now is like every motherfucker is doing their thing and how the hell do you get heard above the noise and i know inspiring music you know so when you make
Speaker 2your money you know it's true man um i think that the way young bands need to make it as territory and get out on the road and play right that's the way you do it you get you get out there and do it i mean i know it sounds easier said than done it's a young man's game getting on the road and promoting yourself you know but that's really how you do it you go to every fucking city in the world and play you figure it out you sleep in your van you fucking show up you play i mean i think i'm
Speaker 1pretty old so i don't know whatever you do don't don't do it on tour with snot because they'll kick your fucking ass every night
Speaker 2make you feel about this big we've done that a few times in the past we've we've we've heard that all the way from 1995 i remember the deftones kicked us off tour once because we were fucking blowing their doors in you know for no reason we're three shows in we were tiring the crowd out before they went on beyond belief sold out shows small clubs people were literally just there was steam coming out of the fucking venues before they even come on the show we wore the crowd out they kicked us off the
Speaker 1i don't doubt it for a second man well mike i know you got a rehearsal to get to bro so uh there's there's loads of things we could get into man but before i let you go what you want to tell the people what you got coming up what's happening where do you want to go well what i'm doing is
Speaker 2i'm going over to europe in july all the way through the end of august and i'm doing a few dates with wyody um and then i'm going to go to europe and i'm going to go to europe and i'm going then i'm doing i don't know i think we're doing like 11 shows with channel zero and also we're going to be doing some other promotion stuff with wyody uh for the new album that i'm putting together now um if you and listeners here could please go to spotify or apple music and check out wyody mother of the universe please spread the word i worked really hard on that album um i wrote all the songs along with aaron nordstrom from gemini syndrome him and i put the that record together with producer chris collier it's a fucking good album check it out please get on there um like subscribe whatever it is you do and spread the word i really appreciate it and then i'm putting together the second album um for next year amen brother amen well i'll put all
Speaker 1i'll put a link to that in the show notes as well so people can click and go straight to it and listen to it from there also uh wyody you can follow them at wyody underscore official on facebook and it's at channel zero on facebook and if you don't mind me chucking your instagram out there as well mike it's mikey dongling on instagram so they can keep up with what you're doing there yeah follow me there yeah and then there's gonna be loads of shit coming up you can keep up with mikey's up to there with all of his wonderful stuff and hopefully we can all keep our fingers crossed for maybe another snot show at some point if someone's brave enough to take the fucking mic but uh mikey thank you so much for this brother it's been a lot of fun um you know i wish you nothing but the best and hopefully we'll cross paths again in europe and sink some more beers and forget all about it
Speaker 2did last time 100 if you can find your way over to belgium uh in august come check out alcatraz festival we're playing there with armand or marth and saxon a whole bunch of stuff and uh i'm gonna even go over to holland and check out dynamo um i'm interested in that so maybe you can come hang
Speaker 1out and we'll go do all that together it's a fucking deal bro let's do it man it'd be great
Speaker 2to see you again with your again yeah oh fucking all right this is gonna get messy yes i'm in count
Speaker 1me in let's do this super dumb mike this is being so much fun i'm so glad we managed to do this thank you for your time thank you for all of the fucking amazing music over the years along where you continue to kick ass and inspire and do your thing best wishes with everything coming up and i will see you in august bro for those cold ones in the meantime take care yourself brother thanks for having me brother have a good one see you man mikey dolan ladies and gentlemen give him a big fucking standing ovation what a cool dude i really enjoyed that catch-up man because snot i got a special place in my heart you know as they have for many people but because you know we toured with them and at the tour like i said was bittersweet because we were so fucking excited and it was such an awesome tour and you're playing with fucking snot every night around europe in a heat wave you know i mean life is fucking good but so much shit went wrong and and it was just it was just very very intense for two very different reasons so and and also you know the band got a special place in my heart because they're fucking incredible that album gets um will be played today in my car because it's fucking it just never gets old it's such a fucking great album a piece of fucking music history so um to be able to chat to mike about that and get his thoughts on the record and everything is a real treat but also i mean the guy you know is known as the channel zero and the snot guy but he's done fucking loads of stuff the guy just puts out music relentlessly man i produce his records for other people he's a real tour de force so if you have any questions please feel free to ask me in the comments below and i'll see you in the next one so please do go and give him a follow on his socials on instagram at mikey doling at yoti underscore official on facebook and channel zero on facebook also whilst you're clicking on stuff please do subscribe to the podcast as well and i'll see you in the next one and share it with your pals it all really helps us in our endless battle against those fucking algorithms and i'll be back next week with another episode with another awesome guest in the meantime as i always say take care of yourselves take care of each other have a great week and i'll see you next time love you
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