Episode Introduction
In this podcast episode, I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Noah Polston from Cyadine and Jesus Wept.
Noah is a killer old school metal shredder and he reminds me a lot of Dime’s playing.
In this episode we really geek out over guitar gear, metal bands and our favourite musicians.
If you’re a metalhead, this is the episode for you!
Episode Transcription
Mark Phillips (00:00.748)
Hey gang, welcome to Graveside Entertainments Podcast. We are here with Noah Polston on episode three. Noah is a masterful shredder, ripper, awesome guitarist, and he brings the Riffer Madness to us with his bands Cyadine and Jesus Wept. Welcome to the podcast, Noah.
Noah Polston (00:19.485)
Dude, thank you so much for having me. I’m sorry we had to reschedule, but I’m glad we got around to it quick
Mark Phillips (00:24.31)
No problem, man. How how did the the car troubles go?
Noah Polston (00:28.997)
dude. I’m staring at it. I just put like four hundred bucks into it. I needed I needed a whole new like housing for my which I’m not a car guy. I’m not a car guy. the coolant housing. That like had cracked and broken, so it was my engine was overheating a bunch and I had to get that taken care of because you know they don’t run if they’re not if they’re overheating. So
Mark Phillips (00:57.858)
Yeah, you gotta keep him cool, man, for sure.
Noah Polston (00:58.722)
yeah, but that was this it’s never ending with cars, so it kinda is what it is. But it’s over now.
Mark Phillips (01:06.606)
Especially as a musician, right? Because you put all the money into the gear and the car is kind of like, well, it doesn’t really matter that much. It’s just there to haul the gear around.
Noah Polston (01:12.314)
Okay.
Ig a hundred percent, but then you know, all the miles you’re putting into with all the gigs and practices and stuff and you know, out of states. So it’s I mean, they they they get beat up.
Mark Phillips (01:25.198)
So tell me, you guys you you just did a studio record with Jesus Wept. Is that the first one with the band that you guys just got out of the studio on?
Noah Polston (01:33.719)
that is the first full length it is not the first release or anything, but but yeah, it is the first record that the band has ever done. I’m only saying that because this band started in like twenty seventeen and I just joined a couple of years ago. So they’ve put out stuff before me, but this is the first full length record, yes. So
Mark Phillips (01:52.921)
So what was that like being in the studio? Like how long are you guys there? Where did you record it? Tell me a bit about that kind of stuff.
Noah Polston (01:59.123)
So yeah, we did it at this place called Bricktop Recording Studios in Chicago with this gentleman named Andy Nelson. Andy Nelson at the helm producing and engineering and all that sort stuff. but it was great. that was my second time recording at this studio. Cyadine did the our upcoming record there a couple years ago actually. and it’s just taken that long for, you know, lost a singer, got new singer, re recorded the vocals, all that sort of stuff. So but
That was the first time I worked down there with Andy a couple years ago and we hit it off immediately. And he’s a great guy. the studio itself is fantastic. He does like all the bigger hardcore and death metal stuff like 200 stab wounds and I’m drawing a blank, but anybody who knows anything about hardcore and metal, you know, knows Andy and stuff. so yeah, I mean we we stayed at an Airbnb in Chicago and tried to
Find nightlife when we could. The area we were in was not very open to that, I suppose. I I was talking to someone the other day and they told us told me we were in the wrong areas, but we we were just trying to buy like beer at like one in the morning and the gas station like didn’t have it or like they weren’t selling it. We had to go to like some weird like Mexican restaurant slash liquor store slash porti. But it was cool. It was cool.
Mark Phillips (03:18.892)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (03:22.748)
That was really long winded, but it it was amazing and it came out great and we had a really good time and yeah, we kinda we’re gonna start shopping it here pretty shortly after we get it mixed and stuff, so
Mark Phillips (03:34.892)
And w what kind of gear were you guys using in the studio for the recording, for like the guitar tone specifically? Are you using neural DSP for that as well, or using amps or what?
Noah Polston (03:45.084)
So I did not use my quad at all. I wish Robby was on this call the other guitar player because he’s the gear guy in the band, but I can tell you that all the the most of the rhythms were done from an like a carcass IR from like necroticism. So it sounds pretty damn similar to that. and then as far as leads went, I know Robby went through the trouble of making sure we recorded in true stereo, which is sick.
But I I think Mark, I can’t even tell you. I know.
Mark Phillips (04:20.056)
Was it was it a very was it a tough process like doing all the doing all the guitar work, lots of different takes and stuff and like for the leads, did you have them already written out and mapped out, or were you kind like giving her and winging it when you got the track or?
Noah Polston (04:33.912)
W so half and half. Some of them were already written and some of the like a lot of the times too, I will kinda just rip and then there’ll be like a main part, like the humming part or the part you can whistle, and then I’ll keep that and then the stuff around it I’ll kinda change. But this time we actually flew over some of the solos from the demos because they just worked so well and we just had like the the raw like you know actual track and we could reamp it.
you know, in post. So we’d fly those over. But it w the process was long because we tune in B, like I said, and for the longest time I was using paper thin picks. And I s I switched recently, actually I say recently, it’s coming out a couple of years now probably, or maybe a year and a half. I don’t know. But I switched to eighty eight and I was using fifty millimeters before like the Dunlop eighty eight performance
Mark Phillips (05:31.576)
I gonna say dunlop tortex ones.
Noah Polston (05:33.625)
Yeah, yeah, I’m using those now. So combine that, what I’m getting at is my right hand is I have a really, really, really aggressive right hand. Not even to brag, I just like play hard because it’s just what I like to do. it was going on a tune like crazy. Knocking it the fuck out. Yeah, it was in B, like I said, and I I don’t know if they weren’t this like sometimes you gotta really set up Floyd’s correctly and really stretch the hell out of them. I don’t know if it was case of that, but
Mark Phillips (05:49.854)
Even with the Floyd on there?
Noah Polston (06:02.341)
We were having some tuning issues. So it was just a matter of me like lots of tuning in between takes and lots of me like just trying to hold my hand back and having like Robby like this part, like you gotta do this, you have to do that one. but other than that, it was smooth. Like we we knew we knew the riffs and shit. It was just like making sure everything was in tune and then solos kind of flew by. It was it was more or less fun. I’m I’m I was pretty pretty solidly prepared, but I love
Mark Phillips (06:14.049)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (06:29.871)
having the song where there’s like, I didn’t write shit for that. I’m just gonna go in there and rip it. and and that’s really fun for me ’cause I love doing like improv and stuff. So it was kind of half a half an all of that, but it was not hard. It was all fun.
Mark Phillips (06:42.893)
How do you how do you go about learning the stuff if the other guitarist sends you tracks and whatnot that you need to play on? What do you do to learn the materials so that you’re ready and you can jam it with them?
Noah Polston (06:53.476)
so it usually the way it works in WEPT is if we have a whole new song, like either I wrote it or Robby wrote it and we’ll kind of go over it at practice and he’ll just show me in person. but for the record, we had finished a few songs like kind of recently and we were like, Well, it’s coming up and you know, Robby you wrote these at we don’t really have time for me to sit down with you and so Robby actually tabbed him out on a guitar like
Tab interface. So that was useful for that. But most of the time it’s just us like either we’re already there when we’re writing it with each other, or you know, just hey, how does that riff go at practice? So but I haven’t even been in the band long enough to really have more of an experience it with it than just that. So thank God.
Mark Phillips (07:36.245)
That’s beauty, man.
Mark Phillips (07:43.565)
Do you guys all live in the same area, so you’re able to jam physically in the same space together and whatnot?
Noah Polston (07:50.2)
Yeah, and that wasn’t always the case. Chris used to live like forty five minutes from me, our singer. And then Robby’s always lived about twenty. But Chris moved in the more general area. And then Cody, our drummer, lives like a couple hours away, but he’s he literally plays drums for a living. So he’s always out and about, like, doing stuff. So we you know, we’re able to catch him. But the three like
I w I’m I I guess you could call us the nucleus of Wept because we like write everything and kinda are the like creative minds and you know strategic minds behind pretty much everything. So the the I I don’t wanna say the main three because the other guys are just as important, but you know, the ones who write and shit, we’re all together and we all see each other. In fact, as soon as we’re done here, I’m going to Chris’s house and we’re gonna actually do some shit for the record. We’re actually re quad tracking and doing just because we have time, so
Just extra ear candy and stuff, but yeah, we we see each other very often and we’re very close.
Mark Phillips (08:50.413)
That’s cool, man. That’s awesome. And then is it the same situation with with Cyadine as well? You guys live close and hang out and jam in person and stuff?
Noah Polston (09:00.387)
A hundred percent. We we rehearse at Benny, our drummers, he’s got an apartment. it’s kind of a it’s it’s a sick situation, but it’s kind of interesting. There’s a building by us, it’s two apartments up top. He stays in one and his mom and his stepdad stay in the other, and then the building or like the bottom half of the building is rehearsal rooms that they’ve been trying to renovate to have to like rent out for local Michigan bands and stuff. But for right now it’s just been us for the last like four years there.
So we’re slowly working on it.
Mark Phillips (09:30.669)
That’s awesome, man. So you can just crank it and go as loud as you want?
Noah Polston (09:34.383)
Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. And then Dominic, our current new quote unquote new singer, lives like in my neighborhood. So we all both bands are my best friends and we see each other probably more than we want to, but it’s okay. We w We want to see each other that much.
Mark Phillips (09:43.629)
Sweet.
Mark Phillips (09:51.064)
That’s beautiful, man. How how did you end up hooking up with all those different dudes in the bands? Were they guys that you went to school with or childhood friends? Or you hooked up with them in the scene or
Noah Polston (10:01.423)
with Psidine, I did not go to school with any of those guys. They moved in and I was already friends with their neighbor. And I was about like 14 at the time. And they were like, Hey, we’re looking for like, you know, we’re trying to start a band. You know any guitar players? And this guy, Jason was like, I know this kid named Noah, and he he sings too, you know. Have him come over and jam. And then went over. Rest is history with that, pretty much. And then with Jesus Wept.
Mark Phillips (10:24.802)
Wow.
Noah Polston (10:29.463)
It’s funny because like I said, they’ve been a band since like 2017. And I remember like 2020, 2021, I’m in in high school, like in class or something. and then the the guys inside aren’t at my age. The guys in wept are like 10 years older than me. and and this guy texts me, he’s like, Hey man, you wanna, you we’re looking for a guitar player in my band Jesus Wept, you it’d be kind of cool. And remember thinking, that’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard for a band Jesus Wept.
Mark Phillips (10:54.561)
Ha ha ha ha.
Noah Polston (10:55.894)
And I was like, no man, I’m too busy. Cause at the time I was in Cidine and I had just left my other band, Absolute Anarchy, just to you know pursue Cidine. so I said no. But then flash forward like I think three, two, three years later, a little bit of context. I had known Cody since I was like 15, the drummer, because he used to play in an amazing Metallica tribute band called Motorbreath with his brother, Austin. And my my old, old band, Absolute Anarchy, that I was just telling you about, used to open for them.
Mark Phillips (11:21.015)
Beautiful.
Mark Phillips (11:26.135)
Sweet.
Noah Polston (11:26.146)
So he called me one day and was like, hey man, like, you know, we have a gig in, I think it was Indiana and we need to fill in. Like, are you available? And I was like, sure, dude. Fuck it. And then we did the gig and I met Chris and we became like best friends like that day. And then over the course of that next year, it we played, we opened for Exodus in the machine shop a couple months later, which was awesome. And then yeah, it was I met Gary that night. I got to like touch his guitars and shit. It was shout out Steve, his tech. Thank you for that again.
Mark Phillips (11:45.207)
That’s crazy, man.
Mark Phillips (11:49.653)
Nice.
Mark Phillips (11:54.028)
Was that still when they had Zet in the band or did they have Dukes in the band then? Nice.
Noah Polston (11:57.964)
This was with Zet. This I got to see them with Zed a few times before Dukes came back. But but anyways, long story short, I wasn’t in for like most of that year and then like by the like mid twenty twenty four it was like, dude, let’s just fucking like just join. So I did. And here we are. So yeah, that’s not at all.
Mark Phillips (12:03.276)
Sweet.
Mark Phillips (12:18.241)
The band name Jesus Wept is cool ’cause it reminds me of Pinhead from Hellraiser three Hell on Earth. That’s what he says when he he goes into the church. Is it where it comes from?
Noah Polston (12:24.137)
Mm-hmm. That’s where it comes from. Yeah, it’s it’s partly that and partly the suffocation song. So but yeah, yep, yep, it is it is a Hellraiser reference.
Mark Phillips (12:31.17)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (12:35.467)
That is cool, man. It’s good. So speaking of references and like influences, what are the main death metal band and musical influences for for both bands? You mentioned Suffocation for Jesus Wept, any other ones?
Noah Polston (12:50.353)
well carcass, obviously. We’re basically a carcass worship band. Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, kind of all your big, you know, meat and potatoes, bands. Yeah, of course. And like malevolent and personally speaking, massacre and kind of Baphomet sinister, seance, all that any any of that kind of shit is right up my alley. Nineties death basically.
Mark Phillips (12:59.541)
Scott Burns Bands.
Mark Phillips (13:04.606)
Yes.
Mark Phillips (13:16.237)
Sweet. That’s a good blend. Yeah, man. 90s death metal is it.
Noah Polston (13:19.848)
Gore Fest. Gore Fest is like my top five bands of all time almost. So
Mark Phillips (13:26.967)
Beautiful. And what about the influences on Psiedine you guys like Exodus and Testament and things like that, Bay Area bands?
Noah Polston (13:36.971)
Yeah, I’m I would say I’m I’m more so the the thrash guy in the band. but me and Benny grew up listening to like Overkill and Anthrax and Slayer and we both love Van Halen and like Skid Row and stuff like that too. So but yeah, b the P Sidon’s got a lot of hardcore influence ’cause of Benny, he’s really into that. But like bands like Drain and Ingrown and what else is Benny like?
Benny and my bass player Shane really like Kublicon. my singer is a huge new metal guy, but but but I even I like Seven Dust, dude. I love Snot and like Seven Dust, and I love Slipknot, and but he he’s turned me on to like incubus and shit. So there’s like a big kind of like melting pot. because we we misfits and Doyle, Sodom.
Mark Phillips (14:26.453)
That’s good, man.
Mark Phillips (14:33.035)
You love typo negative and Allison Chains and all that good shit too?
Noah Polston (14:36.48)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They they they love typo. Everybody in my band likes Alice and Chains, besides my bass player Shane. So we give him shit for that, like mercifully. And yeah. and the rest of like we he’s the only guy who doesn’t like grunge really, so it’s funny. We’ll have like a band practice and we’ll warm up with like heresy from Pantera, but then I’ll kick in a state of love and trust. Like real girl dim song. Yeah, so you’re right, exactly. And then Shane’s just standing there kind of like and I’m like, dude, I’m sorry.
Mark Phillips (14:56.459)
Nice. Yeah, yeah, good old Pearl Jam classic from singles, man.
Mark Phillips (15:06.541)
The only things that make me do that are when people play like nineties punk music. Like when when I used to jam with my buddies back in the day, my drummer was like a big punk guy, so he loved pennywise and no effects and stuff like that. And I can’t do it, man. The vocals just are like ice picks in my ears, man. I can’t handle it.
Noah Polston (15:07.285)
So there’s a lot going on.
Noah Polston (15:20.009)
Okay.
Noah Polston (15:25.522)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I like some of that kinda like thrashy pop punk though. Chris has been getting me into some of that. But I but I understand. I I’m usually not a fan, so I get it.
Mark Phillips (15:36.439)
I love the misfits and the Ramones and and circle jerks and and you know dead Kennedys and old school stuff, but the nineties pop punk bands, man, ooh, can’t can’t handle it.
Noah Polston (15:41.963)
Fuck yeah, dude.
I I understand. I understand. Chr Chris, the singer from WEPT has been I mean, he got me into like 90s gangster rap stuff. I never like Big L and Onyx and Tupac like Big E stuff I would have never listened to. And he and I was like, fuck, I like this. And like Dominic, show me Incubus. I I feel like the last couple years I’m really listening to a lot of stuff that I said I never would. And so I’m trying to be open-minded, but I definitely get not liking pop punk.
Mark Phillips (16:01.538)
Yeah, man.
Mark Phillips (16:08.001)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (16:14.241)
Yeah, I love Incubus too. They’re really good, man. And I I mean, I like Deftones and stuff and Soundgarden and all those bands. They’re all they’re all classic, right?
Noah Polston (16:23.359)
They are. They are. I yeah. Good music is good music. So
Mark Phillips (16:27.201)
So speaking of good music and good bands, what was the band and the music that got you into like, I want to learn to play guitar, I wanna pursue this?
Noah Polston (16:37.494)
Hard time. My gut wants to say Van Halen. Eddie, Eddie was.
Mark Phillips (16:41.483)
Yeah. Any particular albums of Van Halen, like the early stuff, like David Lee Roth era or Sammy or
Noah Polston (16:48.337)
It was definitely I I for the longest time I would never listen to Sammy era. I was raised on like I was raised on early Van Halen and like Metallica and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Kinda like rock radio, to be honest with you. But like that’s all foundational stuff. You know? So but I I got I gotta say Van Halen because I don’t really remember a particular point, maybe the wiggles.
Mark Phillips (17:03.691)
Yep. Yeah.
Noah Polston (17:15.951)
Like jamming along to the wiggles or some shit. But no, I I I remember just my dad showing me Van Halen videos and seeing Eddie and just being like he’s whatever that is. Let let me do that. He’s cool. He’s really fucking cool. So I d yeah, I it starts to need to give me more.
Mark Phillips (17:16.021)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (17:30.763)
Yeah, man. That tone and that playing that he has, I mean, his tone changes so much on different albums. Like if you listen to the old school stuff, like Fair Warning, you hear like his guitar tone on Mean Street. It’s incredible. It sounds so good. But then even if you listen to like the later stuff with Sammy, he still has amazing guitar tone with all that chorus and phaser and all the flange and shit. It’s so good.
Noah Polston (17:46.908)
It’s heavy.
Noah Polston (17:55.017)
Yeah, dude. Super saturated and stuff. The the tone on balance is actually my favorite, I think. I I’m I’m a huge I will fight people about Sammy Hagar, era Van Halen. I’m that fucking cause okay, I started with Roth stuff like everybody else. So and then I never gave Hagar a chance. I always liked Hagar’s voice. and then when I was like fifteen, sixteen, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna give this shit.
Mark Phillips (18:00.937)
Yeah, man.
Noah Polston (18:21.83)
Maybe it was earlier than that. But once I heard 5150, I was like, why did anybody ever talk shit about this? This is amazing. And then I heard all of them. I don’t think there’s a bad song that they put out with him. Or Roth.
Mark Phillips (18:27.915)
Right.
Mark Phillips (18:32.919)
I think I went back and discovered the the the Sammy Hagar Van Halen the fifty-one fifty era because of the amp, man, when that amp came out and it was I didn’t know what it was. Like I I bought that amp when I was in junior high or high school, maybe 15. The the first series of the block letter PV fifty-one fifty, and it killed everything, man. At the time, like my buddies were playing through Marshalls and stuff, and I’m like, this amp has so much chunk and so much gain on it.
Noah Polston (18:40.806)
no shit.
Mark Phillips (19:02.219)
With no pedal and it just sounds heavy and loud and awesome. And so I was like, this is Van Halen’s amp? Like, this doesn’t sound anything like Van Halen. And then you go back and listen, right? And like Machine Head used that amp on Burn My Eyes. I think Fear Factory used it on Demanufacture Like, and it’s one of the most famous metal amps ever, right?
Noah Polston (19:08.01)
Yeah, that’s funny.
Noah Polston (19:17.556)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (19:21.886)
That’s another band I love. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That that Demanufacture just to pivot on that for a second, what a record. I mean, dude, d Dominic got me into that. but no, the 5150 is a goated amp. and yeah, I kinda guess I also went back, technically speaking, ’cause I all knew all the Roth stuff. But yeah, I mean
Mark Phillips (19:31.624)
so good, man.
Noah Polston (19:49.652)
The whole thing I want to say about the Roth and Hagar thing is they’re both fantastic. obviously it’s an opinion, but I don’t know. I feel like people were j have just are too like they won’t even give it the time of day because they’re such big Dave fans. I’m like, you gotta understand, like, this is still the same exact band. And they’re happier. Like they’re not stressed out. There’s not some dickhead telling them what to do. Yeah. So and
Mark Phillips (20:13.59)
Yeah, they’re not fighting and at each other’s throats. Yeah.
Noah Polston (20:17.609)
I don’t know, I it’s not like as tough or whatever, but you know. And then look at look at who look what does David Lee Roth look like today, what does Sammy Hager look like today? What does one sound like? What does the other sound like?
Mark Phillips (20:21.654)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (20:30.068)
Yes, yes, definitely. S Sammy has endured the test of time, certainly.
Noah Polston (20:33.075)
Sorry.
Yeah, I and I feel like it’s because like what’s inside of him is so good. Like Roth’s not necessarily a bad guy, but you’ve heard the stories and like just you know, what he talks of. He’s kind I mean he’s he’s out there, man. So he’s he’s lived a hard life. So
Mark Phillips (20:48.396)
Yeah, he’s pretty wild for sure.
He has. Yeah, that’s the thing, man. Some of those old guys, some of their voices don’t hold up as well as they used to. I know there’s you know, just I don’t I don’t want to put anyone under the bus here, but there’s there’s a certain few of those old rockers that they don’t sound the same as they used to growing up with them.
Noah Polston (21:04.655)
No.
Noah Polston (21:11.364)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And and I it it it it it it’s reality, right? It’s aging. It it’s gonna happen to everybody and I get that. But guys like Steven Tyler and Hagar just set the bar and Jagger too just set it so high. It’s like if you don’t come close to this, I mean it It kinda sucks.
Mark Phillips (21:27.564)
That’s a really good point about Steven Tyler, man, because yeah, like when he put out that song that he did with Youngblood, that one that they collabed on together, I was like, I can’t believe his voice still sounds that good, man. Like he is still prime.
Noah Polston (21:34.29)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (21:43.955)
I don’t know if you saw the stuff about like his vo he was having some throat problems and surgery and shit, right? Maybe a couple years ago. They had that big farewell tour they canceled. I I think he’s Yeah. He’s he’s basic I think his voice is still in his prime. His body is just finally now starting to like feel it. Cause he can only do like one or two songs at a time now, I think. Like cause he did that that the Black Sabbath thing. But if you notice, he’s only doing like a couple songs here and there, which is sucks, but he’s fucking old. He’s really old.
Mark Phillips (21:51.99)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (22:04.628)
Noah Polston (22:13.498)
And he wore cu he wore Cuban heels on stage and, you know, his feet are all fucked from wearing heels and jumping around and stuff. He’s I’m a huge, huge, huge, huge Aerosmith fan, like a freak. So
Mark Phillips (22:14.006)
Yeah, he is.
Mark Phillips (22:26.176)
He probably did a lot of bad shit back in the day too and didn’t treat his body like a temple.
Noah Polston (22:28.562)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (22:32.154)
I up in like into the two thousands didn’t treat it like a t temple. Yeah. Dude. You’d be surprised at how many rockers just didn’t stop until like within the last twenty years. I’ve even heard rumors that Richard still does like a little bit of heroin. Like I I don’t know. I that’s probably bullshit, but you know, this I don’t know, man. Like maybe.
Mark Phillips (22:36.997)
That much? Holy cow. I mean that’s like getting up there in age.
Mark Phillips (22:53.642)
Really?
That’s keeping him alive, man, keeping him topside.
Noah Polston (23:00.87)
Maybe ’cause I like and is you know, the older I got and the more I like got into the industry and like talked to people who like knew idols or like loosely knew someone I looked up to, it’d be like, yeah, man, he’s an asshole or yeah, he’s still on drugs. I’m like, Are you fucking serious? Like so yeah. It’s it’s crazy. Addiction’s a hell of a thing, I g I mean, so
Mark Phillips (23:16.428)
That’s wild.
Mark Phillips (23:25.61)
The thing I’ve noticed with like lots of new bands, I don’t know, like can you comment on this? in terms of cause you’re a younger guy in a younger band, you know, certainly compared to me and back when I was jamming, I think the scene is a lot different now. Back in even the nineties and the early two thousands, all the guys were like all about partying, getting drunk, getting high, you know, doing all that stuff. And then now you see lots of bands and they’re going out for sushi dinners, they’re all like
Noah Polston (23:32.359)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (23:48.636)
Mm.
Mark Phillips (23:53.559)
Doing yoga and looking after themselves. Like it seems like the scene has shifted so much away from that crazy party behavior. What do you think?
Noah Polston (24:03.054)
It I have a lot I have a lot to say on that because the scene here, if you can even really I mean for at least for the genre I the genres I’m in is not r I don’t wanna say there’s not really a scene, but I know it’s just not what it used to be. Like when you were coming up in general or like even, you know, fifteen, twenty years ago, it was different, but
It it just in terms of like how big the scene was and how connected everybody was and how much everybody knew each other and going out to shows and stuff, there is still that just on a much smaller scale. But as far as I mean, speaking I can only speak for myself as far as you know our scene and my people or whatever else the hell goes. I think there’s like a good mixture of both, if that makes sense. because like all the guys in my band work out.
Mark Phillips (24:57.601)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (25:00.753)
But we also drink and smoke. So we party, but we’re not like, you know, i I I I don’t want to say we’re not idiots about it all the time, but you know, we’re not we’re not there’s no needles, you know, and we’re not we’re not snorting anything and we work out. So we it’s Yeah. More or less. I mean may maybe we maybe we go a little harder than the average person, but we’re a metal band and Pantera.
Mark Phillips (25:06.614)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (25:17.77)
Right, yeah. So I mean it’s just regular shit that everybody kinda does. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (25:26.464)
Yeah. You need to. You’re in a metal band do you have to. That’s right. shit, man.
Noah Polston (25:31.242)
Pantera. If if we even come close to that, it’ll be okay, you know.
Mark Phillips (25:35.788)
Those vulgar videos that Pantera put out in the day, man, I was like I I I don’t even know how those dudes still made it. Like the amount of booze and drugs they were taking in, I’m like, holy crap, their bodies would have shut down eventually. Like they would have been just like kidneys out, it’s done.
Noah Polston (25:52.186)
Mm-hmm. my god. Well that Grex had to quit and Phil, you know, went through what he went through and if Dime wasn’t murdered. I think I actually read somewhere that he was talking to Rita about like going to the gym and stuff, like right before. So yeah. Yeah. Tragic. But
Mark Phillips (25:56.683)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (26:06.632)
really? man.
Mark Phillips (26:11.082)
And I mean Vinny was eating good, they always had like, you know, big barbecues at his place and all the meats and I’m like, Yeah, man, that’s how I’d be living too, you know, but the old ticker can’t handle that forever.
Noah Polston (26:15.226)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (26:21.47)
No, no, it can’t. And he was I don’t think he ever stopped partying, to be honest with you. but it was never like those guys never went like Vinny never went to rehab. You know, the guys in anthrax never went to rehab. They just kept it under wraps, you know. Not I mean, that’s a really interesting comparison because anthrax was basically sober compared to Pantera. But when you brought up the vulgar videos and stuff Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (26:31.99)
No.
Mark Phillips (26:43.244)
Yeah. Like everybody was sober compared to Pantera. Maybe except Metallica back in the day when they are alcoholica.
Noah Polston (26:50.234)
Yeah, yeah, them and like G and R and shit. But No, the the Pantera Home videos, those that has a lot to do with it too. Like me and the Psidon guys, we we would hang out and watch that religiously. So yeah. Yeah, we’re gonna do Blacktooth’s. Yeah, we’re gonna drink a bunch of beer. We’re not gonna ruin our lives, but we’re gonna party. Sorry. You know what I mean?
Mark Phillips (26:53.142)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (27:03.509)
Yes.
Mark Phillips (27:11.574)
So how old were you guys when when when Dime got murdered at the Al Rosa, like back in two thousand four?
Noah Polston (27:19.405)
I was I was barely one. wait no no no wait wait wait no two thous wait two thousand four yeah I was barely one Benny would have been two Dominic would have been three and I think Shane would have been three So we’re all
Mark Phillips (27:23.436)
She’s
Mark Phillips (27:28.897)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (27:35.209)
Nice. I see I love that man. I love that you guys took all that Pantera from the nineties and just, you know, still influenced by it, love it, went back and you’re carrying it forward and writing tunes that, you know, they like I was saying to you before we started recording, like I can hear Dimes influence in your playing, I can hear it in your riffs and in your leads too, the way you play. And it’s so cool, man, that like younger generations like you guys are kicking ass and still
Noah Polston (27:45.389)
Dude.
Noah Polston (27:59.173)
Thank you.
Mark Phillips (28:03.884)
carrying that forward. It’s it’s awesome.
Noah Polston (28:06.191)
Thank you, Mark. I I appreciate that. it’s
I don’t know, man. I mean we just when we were really young, we all heard it when we were like Pantera and stuff when we were really young and I I didn’t even know Dime had died. Like I remember being I think I was like 12 the first time I heard Pantera and my dad gave me like an iPad nano or iPod nano and it had all bunch of different shit on it. And I was like, Dad, Pantera’s like the sickest man. Like, can we go see them? And he was like, well, you know, a long time ago the
you know, Dimebag bag was shot and stuff. And I was fuck fucking like I remember crying when I found out and then just Yeah. And that that Dime and Pantera were just the band that kind of like just grabbed me by like the soul and was just like this like energy and just how good they were as a band and like the the funniness of those home videos. They felt like friends of mine already and and Yeah.
Mark Phillips (28:42.486)
Yeah, man, that’s a heartbreaker, like getting into it and not knowing. That’s awful, dude.
Mark Phillips (29:03.668)
Right. Yeah. You could just hang out with the dudes and party with them, right?
Noah Polston (29:07.395)
Yeah, and and it just was immediately like, you know, seeing the Pantera home videos was like, that’s what I want to do. Not me not to that, you know, necessarily in excess, but like, you know, tour and have fun with your bros and, you know, just fucking live life and have a great barbecues, have fireworks, have a great time. Yeah, a hundred percent. And and I do wanna say too, like, I know I know I’m I I glaze Pantera a lot, I talk about him a lot, but we are not, you know, there is more to Cyadine
Mark Phillips (29:23.21)
Yeah, man, that’s what it’s about.
Noah Polston (29:34.808)
than than that. Not that you were saying that, but I did I just didn’t want to come off like we are a Pantera worship band, you know? Which which we are, but like I said
Mark Phillips (29:43.328)
No, no, certainly not. No, like
Noah Polston (29:47.494)
I’m sorry it a lay there. Go ahead.
Mark Phillips (29:51.755)
You guys have tons of of influence and tons of different layers throughout the band. Like when I was talking to you before and and you know, I I heard tons of melodic influence, like lots of Type O lots of Alice in Chains, like every song sounds like it could be from a different era and a slightly different genre, so it’s nice and varied.
Noah Polston (29:56.932)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (30:11.364)
Cool. You take that that and I really appreciate you saying that because that was definitely a conscious thing. because I don’t like listening to records where it’s the same song ten times or you know, whatever five times, whatever it is. But yeah, Type O’s in there and lots of thrash. I mean, overkill and nuclear assault and vicious rumors, even white zombie, I don’t came up, I didn’t mention them, Rollins Band. all that stuff is very
very, very much a part of what we, you know, and and and recently, and you’ll hear it in the record I’ll send you, and then our the stuff they’re writing now, even more death metal influence. so like like Morbid Angel type shit and more thrash. There’s more like Sepultura and Anthrax stuff. We’re we’re we’re so we’re s we’re still crossover, but we’re drifting more into the I guess our roots. Megadeth, of course, Megadeth was like
Mark Phillips (30:57.781)
Right.
Noah Polston (31:06.807)
Huge for like the first record is if my vocals are I just sound like I’m trying to imitate Dave. So you know. but yeah, yeah. So there’s a lot, there’s a lot going on for sure.
Mark Phillips (31:14.412)
So it
Mark Phillips (31:19.03)
far as your guitar playing goes, wha what what do you think were like the first songs and solos and stuff that you learned to play when you were first starting out, like the first solo that you nailed and you were like, Yes, I can do this. I love this.
Noah Polston (31:34.67)
there’s there’s technically two answers to that question. The first one I remember teaching myself was the solo from Like a Stone by Audio Slaves. and I’m a huge audio slave fan, huge raise against a machine fan, and obviously a huge Soundgarten fan. So those two combined, that’s like my childhood basically. but that was I remember teaching myself that on my acoustic when I was like seven or eight and being like, wow like I dude.
Mark Phillips (31:43.188)
Okay. Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (32:01.254)
wow. So you’ve been you’ve had a guitar in your hands for a long time.
Noah Polston (32:04.597)
It’s been I started playing seriously when I was like nine. My parents got me like my first real electric guitar or whatever, but I’ve been you could find pictures of me playing guitar or like a toy guitar at like four. It’s been a lifelong yeah. It’s it’s been a whole thing. you were I was trying, I was going somewhere with that. yeah. The first solo, the first song I actually learned when I started taking lessons was Lime Light by Rush. And then the first solo I
Mark Phillips (32:18.091)
That’s cool, man.
Mark Phillips (32:30.685)
Really? That’s pretty hardcore, man. Rush.
Noah Polston (32:33.461)
Yeah, dude, I was yeah, yeah. well that’s probably the e what yeah. I guess it is looking back. But to be honest with you, that’s a that’s an easier rush song than the other ones. And then the first solo I remember learning all the way through, which is ironic because I talk shit about him all the time, was Fade to Black.
Mark Phillips (32:36.447)
That’s biting off a lot.
Ha ha.
Mark Phillips (32:54.185)
Yeah. Like the the the very first solo, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Noah Polston (32:54.953)
Yeah. Like the intro solo. The intro solo. Yeah, not the last one. But yeah. it’s it’s a good solo, but I I don’t I you will never hear me list Kirk Hammond as one of my influences. Sorry, Kirk.
Mark Phillips (33:02.782)
It is.
Mark Phillips (33:08.639)
He he was amazing back in the day when he was young and he used to take lessons from Satch, but I think he’s like, I don’t need to get any better. I I can just coast on being mid now because I’m a gazillionaire.
Noah Polston (33:21.122)
I I think he phoned it in around like somewhere between Justice and Black album. Somewhere between those two he just gave up. ‘Cause there I mean the solo and the thing that should not be is brilliant. then there’s a yeah, and there’s a there’s a few solos on Justice that are fucking awesome. but yeah, just the all the cliche jokes and the memes that are made about that dude. I mean it it it’s it’s true though.
Mark Phillips (33:26.249)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (33:33.513)
Ride the Lightning has incredible solos, like the song itself.
Noah Polston (33:49.857)
Like listen to any of the solos on seventy two seasons or hardwired or even Death Magnetic, which I actually love Death Magnetic, by the way. it’s just he’s just fucking playing the same shit over and over again. I mean Yeah, and I love the Why as much as the next guy, but but no one’s talking shit about him using it too much. So there’s there’s the difference.
Mark Phillips (34:03.155)
I know that wall pedal’s just crankin’.
Wa’s great, man. Like I love Zach Wilde and that dude lives on the Wa on the Rhoda Vib, but it sounds amazing.
Mark Phillips (34:17.611)
’cause Zach Wildman. He sounds like Zach. He doesn’t sound like anyone else.
Noah Polston (34:21.16)
Right, right. And I guess Kirk sounds like Kirk, but it’s it’s that next question. No, no. I gotta give him credit for that. I yeah.
Mark Phillips (34:28.319)
It’s not pleasing to the ear all the time. But I love the dude because he loves horror so much and he’s just a hardcore horror fan. Yeah, I think I think like in terms of just interest level as a person, I would probably like to hang out with him and chat with him because we’d probably be able to talk about a lot of the old school classic horror flicks and things that he collects.
Noah Polston (34:48.18)
I would I I agree with that statement and it makes me think a little more carefully about what I say with him in pr because I do meet him when he goes, Hey man, I saw one day you said some shit But you know what? As of right now, that’s not the mo the most realistic thing, but I would love to if I did if he was standing right in front of me, he’s ob the dude’s a legend. Okay, I love Metallica. I’m not gonna be a dick to him, you know, but I would definitely I would just talk to him about horror shit. So
Mark Phillips (35:09.577)
He is. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (35:17.279)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, he he he he does. He seems very nice and and I mean he he he could have been amazing because you know, going to Satch, like you look at someone like Alex Skolnick and holy crap, like that dude rips, like Yeah, like he plays everything and it’s so clean, man. Like even all the jazz stuff that he does, I’m like, man, like
Noah Polston (35:20.268)
So and he does seem like a really nice guy.
Noah Polston (35:36.127)
Makes me want burn my guitar.
Noah Polston (35:44.097)
They’ll get me started.
Mark Phillips (35:44.743)
Effortless, he doesn’t even try and it sounds like there’s no mistakes comin’.
Noah Polston (35:48.999)
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. That that is a true Alex is a true, true, true pro. That’s an that’s a guy I’d love to I’d actually I’d love to meet him and pick his brain about jazz stuff ’cause I I love jazz guitar playing, but it is so it’s it’s it’s hard. So it it’s it’s it’s so challenging for me. I I you any any time I can
Dive into it deeper. Like I is it I’m going off on a tangent here, but I love it’s it’s easier, more fun for me to do the improv side of it. The chord shapes and and like, you know, reading the chords and stuff like that and then like the the sheet music and stuff. I was in jazz band in high school, but I always one day I’m gonna set aside set aside a lot of time to go into that because it is I really do fuck with it and also
try to the little bit of knowledge I do have on it, I try to incorporate it into the metal stuff. So hopefully that comes across as kind of the weird shit. But yeah.
Mark Phillips (36:43.743)
That’s awesome, man.
Yeah. Yeah, I’m I’m not I’m not anywhere near that sophisticated. I pretty much the meat and potatoes, I love the pentatonic blues stuff and just regular chugging and some pentatonic riffs and licks over top of some rhythm guitars. So I I love Zach and and Dime for that kind of stuff. Alex’s solos I love too. I mean his solo on like practice what you preach is incredible, but
Noah Polston (37:13.44)
Course.
Mark Phillips (37:14.641)
Even listening back to like older testament, listening to their low album when they had James Murphy on there, he’s fantastic too. Like James Murphy’s one of my favorite death metal guitar players. He’s so melodic and just so much feeling comes out of his playing.
Noah Polston (37:20.702)
Great record. Great record.
Noah Polston (37:28.892)
Low is probably my favorite testament song. It is fucking so heavy. And and I think I think my favorite testament record is Formation of Damnation. I don’t
Mark Phillips (37:35.369)
It is.
Mark Phillips (37:39.475)
Yeah, th that was when they kind of returned and came back.
Noah Polston (37:42.62)
Mm-hmm. That was the first one I really heard fully. And I was just like, Holy shit. I mean, there’s there’s so many I feel like a lot of the eighties and nineties thrash bands get overlooked for the amount of good records they put out post Y2K. Exodus has put out a bunch of great ones, anthrax has put out great ones. I in my opinion, all of I mean, Nate fucking Sodom, Creator, they’ve all done good stuff, but nobody wants to the true fans do.
Mark Phillips (38:05.429)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (38:10.888)
Overkill as well.
Noah Polston (38:12.35)
Yeah, my god. They’ve actually I think they’ve almost put out too much music. Since they haven’t stopped. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (38:16.543)
Yeah, they constantly cranking it out. And and Blitz still sounds amazing. His vocals are still killer, man. Like I know there’s people that either love or hate overkill, but I’ve always been in the love camp. I think Blitz sounds amazing. Just so incredible, like unique.
Noah Polston (38:28.615)
I haven’t Yeah, he I his voice has changed, but the the range hasn’t gone and they haven’t lost their authenticity or their balls. They’re still a blue collar New York that’s why they put out so many records because they’re blue collar. They just fucking bang out. And They’re they’re kinda like the AC D C of of Thrash Metal to me in a way because of that, because so a lot of their stuff sounds similar, sure, but it’s still
Mark Phillips (38:47.466)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (38:57.649)
Like when they put out their most recent record, I blanking out what the name of it is. It still scratched my overkill itch. I still listen to it. It’s still killer. So yeah, they’re thun is it Bloodletting that came out in three, I think. Check that one out if you haven’t. It’s like the album cover’s white. It’s almost new metal, but it’s like really heavy and just cool. Yeah. So
Mark Phillips (39:05.749)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (39:18.95)
wow. Yeah, it lives is a really good one too. That one’s got like super heavy guitar and it just grooves like crazy.
Noah Polston (39:23.995)
Yeah. Yeah, that that that’s ninety-seven. I think. But yeah, from there we go on so from the underground from Jesus Christ, I can’t talk on this whole thing. From the underground and so below is the name of that one. but don’t we could go down a rabbit hole here, Mark, I’m warning you, because 90s overkill. I hear black is like their grunge record and it’s
Mark Phillips (39:45.941)
Ha ha ha.
Mark Phillips (39:50.514)
I heard black is so good.
Noah Polston (39:52.479)
Perfect. It’s a perfect record. The killing kind is a perfect record.
Mark Phillips (39:55.072)
Yeah, World of Hurt is one of the best metal riffs of all time, man. That intro riff is killer.
Noah Polston (39:59.62)
Dude, you’re I okay, I it’s rare that I meet someone who understands. are you familiar like the the the cu the record that came out in ninety six, Killing Kind? It’s got battle and like godlike and burning down to ashes. I don’t think they put out a bad record in the nineties, honestly. And then
Mark Phillips (40:09.994)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (40:18.355)
No. And they and they always change guitarists. They had like Merrick Grant Merrick Gant with them on I Hear Black and he had amazing guitar tone. And now he’s like a guitar teacher or something. He does in his in his time, but he’s not in the bands anymore. But freck, he was so good.
Noah Polston (40:25.95)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (40:34.462)
I didn’t even know anything of I didn’t know of what he was doing now. But yeah, it was Mary and Rob Canavino for most of the 90s. and that’s that’s on a horoscope, and hor you know how good Horoscope is. But yeah, they and then the the live album Wrecking Your Neck. that that set list is just so that they they picked all the songs I wanted to hear, and and they just and then you could tell it’s raw and
Mark Phillips (40:39.947)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (40:45.902)
yeah, it’s good.
Noah Polston (41:01.586)
They just sound so tight and they’re so fast and pissed off. And I I love I love Bobby Stage banter. I love his New York fucking like sarcastic, you know, dickhead sh it’s it’s perfect. I love it so much.
Mark Phillips (41:14.099)
I haven’t seen them live, unfortunately. I don’t think they’ve ever been to Edmonton here where I am, but I would love to go see Overkill. Yeah. They might have been here once, cause yeah, I think they have actually, because I remember one of the guys in one of the local bands here was bitching because there’s a wall at a venue here in Edmonton called the Starlight Room, and it’s where all the bands that play there sign the wall. And apparently when Overkill came, they spray painted the wall huge with a big, massive black overkill on
Noah Polston (41:19.024)
Yuli. Yeah.
Noah Polston (41:42.674)
That’s awesome.
Mark Phillips (41:43.103)
top of a bunch of the other bands and so a bunch of people are upset about it. I’m like, it’s fucking overkill, man. They’re legends. Like you should be happy to have overkill at the venue.
Noah Polston (41:48.422)
That’s fucking Yes, yes. I would if if if they could Overkill can sprint paint their logo over my band’s logos any day they want to. where we’ll Yeah.
Mark Phillips (41:57.9)
Hell yeah, they could spray paint over anything of mine. I’d be cool with it, man. Yeah.
So what were your who are your favorite guitarists in metal, would you say? Like if you had to if I if I had to make you pick like three, the hard choice, who would you distill your influences and your tone and your style down to?
Noah Polston (42:18.396)
Does it have to be strictly metal?
Mark Phillips (42:20.595)
No, it could be whatever you want, man.
Noah Polston (42:23.24)
Probably gonna be metal, but y you you said three and then then that just fuck, that’s a good question, Mark. Okay, Dimebag bag Dimebag right off the rip immediately. Dimebag.
Mark Phillips (42:28.171)
Three is a tough one.
Yeah, definitely.
Noah Polston (42:36.734)
I’m gonna go with Eddie.
And then Yeah. No, actually Robb Flynn no no I’m
Mark Phillips (42:41.141)
Kirk number three.
Yeah.
No, not Flynn number three.
Noah Polston (42:50.43)
That was a bad joke. That was a reference to our conversation earlier. But no, I I do like Robb I’m gonna have to say can I can I cheat and say Marty and Dave? Be because yes, because that is what like Zeppeltura okay, hold on, let me back up. Metallica is what got me into metal. The first real like heavy metal, like, you know, brutal shit I heard was Chaos A D, the song.
Mark Phillips (42:53.514)
Ha ha.
Mark Phillips (43:03.017)
Yeah, yeah, combo, yeah. Like what Rust in Peace era?
Mark Phillips (43:19.274)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (43:20.161)
And I remember hearing that and going, That that right there, that’s it. That whole thing. And then so I was like, then I got into Sepultura and Lamb of God and everything. But in Megadeth, of course, my dad showed me Megadeth. And I was like, Who’s like who’s Megadeth? And the first song I heard from Megadeth was Public Enemy number one, believe it or not, out of all songs for me to hear. because it was around that time when that came out. And my dad’s like, he used to be in Metallica. And I was like, This is way cooler than Metallica. And then I just was like, fucking
Mark Phillips (43:44.211)
It’s way faster. Yeah.
Noah Polston (43:46.467)
Yeah, right. And then I got really into Megadeth. So Rest in Peace. Rest in Peace and Cowboys from Hell, if if I had to distill my guitar playing into two records, it’s those. Cause I listened to those religiously and learned almost everything off Rest in Peace and then proceeded to learn what I could. Cause admittedly Dimebag’s a little bit more okay. He’s as crazy as crazy as Marty, like technically speaking, but like I didn’t even know
Mark Phillips (43:58.156)
Those two, yeah.
Noah Polston (44:15.591)
how the fuck a whimmy bar worked, you know. So it’s like not only is he doing all the crazy trading stuff, like what is that? And how do I get that? You know? So
Mark Phillips (44:22.661)
Yeah. Yeah, he used to he used to have very, very innovative techniques and things that he did. And the cool part is is like back in the day when he was a columnist for Guitar World magazine and he used to write his own column called Riffer Madness, he would talk about how he did that stuff. Yeah.
Noah Polston (44:34.237)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (44:38.266)
Missed out on that.
Noah Polston (44:42.705)
I got I wanna start you what those
Mark Phillips (44:43.229)
So neat. It was like, man, Dimebag’s giving us his secrets, man. He’s letting us see behind the friggin’ curtain.
Noah Polston (44:46.748)
Right, right. And i i it it’s it’s a bummer because I bet you those I probably could find those online, but I have a shit ton of Guitar World magazines, but I bet you those ones with Dine Bags Collin on them are like a fortune now, probably, right?
I would I would kill to read that shit. but yeah. I know. No. Right. Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, I’m gonna I’m I’m gonna it’s gonna be Dinebag, Eddie, and then Marty and Dave. Dave, I was trying to be him for a long time when I was a teenager, and then I grew up and now I’m trying to be Marty.
Mark Phillips (45:07.125)
Those were pre internet days too, so like you couldn’t look it up back then. You had to buy the magazine.
Mark Phillips (45:19.723)
Sweet.
Mark Phillips (45:28.265)
Nice. Yeah, Mart Marty’s phenomenal, dude. Like he’s so good. And the stuff that he did with Jason Becker back in the day is amazing as well. Like his cacophony stuff, or what’s it called? Cacophony. I always call it cacophony. It’s cacophony. Yeah, I’m Canadian. Yeah, that shit was cool, man. It was it was like so friggin’ technical. It was like friggin’ guitar pyro, man.
Noah Polston (45:37.242)
Offany.
Yeah. Potato potato. Yeah, right, right.
Noah Polston (45:52.644)
Mm-hmm. And and Marty’s solo stuff, like Dragon’s Kiss is a good record. I don’t really listen to a lot of solo guitar music because it kind of it’s weird to me. I need vocals. But I that’s one I will listen to. That in Al Diomiola has a record called Kiss My Axe. That’s pretty fucking killer. So there’s another one. Al Yeah, yeah. For a guitar player album, fuck yeah.
Mark Phillips (45:56.203)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (46:10.578)
That’s a great name for an album too.
Mark Phillips (46:15.09)
I haven’t heard much of Al Demiolis stuff. I know Zach Wilde loves him, but yeah.
Noah Polston (46:19.024)
Mm-hmm. He’s it’s it’s gypsy jazz. Or not I’m sorry. I’m thinking of Django Reinhardt. Al is like kind of gypsy jazz, but he’s more just far virtuoso, kinda bluesy, shreddy, jazzy. A a a guitar professor wearing a sweater, you know, kind of vibe. So
Mark Phillips (46:28.617)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (46:38.526)
Yeah. So so with your playing, like did you did you learn theory and do ear training and all that stuff as well? Did it did you do that?
Noah Polston (46:47.995)
not technically. I mean, not how do I put this? I took lessons for like four years and that taught me like basic theory. when it comes to music theory, I like to say that, you know how people say they like know enough of a language to get them in and out of trouble. I know enough music theory to get me in and out of trouble. so I know like the basics, and if someone says, we’re an A or A minor or go to the G or you know, this is or
That’s pretty much all the terms now that I think about it that bands use. But like I know I n I understand more in my head than what I could explain to you, if that makes sense. Cause I I like see the
Mark Phillips (47:28.426)
Yeah, I think when you’re playing lead you gotta like learn the different types of scales and stuff too, and like whether you’re in like Mixolydian and all that stuff, right?
Noah Polston (47:32.911)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, I know I use all those different things. I know that. But I don’t I couldn’t always explain it to you exactly what’s going on. Some w someone else could be like, you’re doing diatonic on the Witch McCall, and I’d like, sure. And I I kind of vaguely get it. And it and sometimes I do surprise myself like, I yeah, I know what that is. but as far as ear training, I didn’t do it like
Mark Phillips (47:53.031)
Right.
Noah Polston (48:04.336)
you know, professionally or like through a teacher, I kinda just think that was me listening to music my whole life and trying to learn songs, you know, trial and error. So it just came natural. But yeah, I mean I I th I think I do I have developed a pretty damn good earl ear just by virtue of doing that. So I was I was more or less self taught. I had some help in the beginning and then it was kinda like I didn’t need any more gas in the tank. Like I was already just gonna figure it out either way. So
Mark Phillips (48:12.904)
Right. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (48:32.424)
Right. Did your dad get you into metal and guitar and stuff when you were young? ‘Cause he was into the s the the metal music and everything.
Noah Polston (48:40.589)
One thousand percent yes. that’s totally fine. He is gonna be fifty five this year. yeah, yeah. So my my parents are about the same age, and then my my dad got me into metal and guitar and stuff, and then my mom got me into horror. yeah, and she got me into like
Mark Phillips (48:42.046)
That’s awesome. That’s so cool. How old is your dad, if you don’t mind me asking?
Mark Phillips (48:51.944)
Okay, so he’s nine years older than me, so yeah, okay.
Mark Phillips (49:03.575)
Awesome. That’s a good combo, man.
Noah Polston (49:07.003)
Prints and cameo and gap band like Chardet and stuff too. So I’m I’m I’m into I got a lot of Yeah. But my dad Yeah.
Mark Phillips (49:11.636)
Soy it.
All the different influences, man. It’s all ingredients going in, making it nice.
Noah Polston (49:19.139)
Yeah, and then my dad too got me into like Elvis and Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot, fellow Canadian. and Billy Joel and so I’m Eagles, like I’m all over the fucking map, dude. You see the songs I post on my story, it’s it’s a different genre every day.
Mark Phillips (49:25.972)
Cool, man.
Mark Phillips (49:34.152)
Yeah, man. Tons of tons of the shit that I like, dude. Like when you’re playing Pearl Jam tunes and stuff and singing, I’m like, I like this too, because I grew up in the nineties listening to grunge music and love all that stuff as well. I didn’t I was a metalhead into, you know, DSide and Cannibal, but I also loved Soundgarden and Alice and Chains and Pearl Jam.
Noah Polston (49:42.554)
Dude.
Noah Polston (49:53.507)
And any fucking death metal guy who says they don’t like grunge, just suck it, dude. You’re wrong.
Mark Phillips (49:59.241)
The singing in grunge is so good, man. Like honestly, dude, like nobody is better than Lane and Chris. Those dudes are the top singers, man.
Noah Polston (50:07.819)
Mm-hmm. I agree, but I I’ve been, as you just mentioned, I’ve been in a really big Pearl Jam phase lately, which which happens because I’ve been into Pearl Jam since I was like 10. but I never really gave verses a fair shake. I I knew dissident and I knew, you know, daughter and like the hits and stuff, but I never heard Go, Animal, I never heard Rear View Mirror, I never heard Rats. Yeah, I never heard that same when I heard I was like
Mark Phillips (50:31.591)
Elderly lady.
Noah Polston (50:35.191)
Why did I wait so long, dude? Like the verses, I’ve been listening to that like every day for like the last month. So it’s fucking puzzled.
Mark Phillips (50:42.684)
It was a hard follow-up because ten was so good, man. Like, honestly, dude, like I remember being a little kid. I think I was in grade seven or eight when ten came out in in junior high. And we used to have these video Yeah, we used to have these video dances. So I think all within the same time period, within the same month, we had like G and R albums like Use Your Illusion came out. And then we had Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar, Sex Magic. We had Metallica the Black album and Pearl Gem.
Noah Polston (50:46.819)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (50:55.129)
What a great time.
Noah Polston (51:08.801)
That’s magic.
Mark Phillips (51:12.638)
Versus and then Soundgarden, Bad Motorfinger, ten rather from from Pearl Jam. Just so many good albums, all on cassette of course, but it’s like that’s what turned me into rock and metal music was that crop of bands coming out then was untouchable at the time.
Noah Polston (51:15.661)
Border finger. Yeah.
Noah Polston (51:27.225)
Faith No More too, that’s when Epic came out, right? Yeah.
Mark Phillips (51:31.484)
Yeah, I and as I’m not a huge faith no more guy. I kind of I I’ve never really given them their due because I saw an interview a a long time ago on YouTube when Mike Patton was at download or something and Wolf Mother were playing and he was just shitting he was just shitting all over them, talking about how crappy they sounded and I like, No, dude.
Noah Polston (51:45.537)
He was be a dick.
Noah Polston (51:51.949)
Yeah, that’s I d I I saw that recently actually. It kinda bummed me out, but I fucking love like midlife crisis, soft angel dust. It’s fucking such a good stuff. But I I only brought them up because
Mark Phillips (52:03.358)
My buddy Mike that I interviewed on the last podcast is actually like he recommended I listen to Angel Dust. He said if you don’t like Faith No More, that’s the album to start with and listen to. Let me know what you think of it. So I’m I’m doing that right now for him.
Noah Polston (52:13.528)
Yeah.
There you go. There you go. but the reason I brought it up is because when you named all those bands, the the that those early nineties, those tours, like Day in the Green and like the GNR Metallica tour, and what a fucking great time for music. Yeah. I mean that Lollapalooza ninety-two Pearl Jam video, how many times have you watched that? I’ve seen it a million times. and then so I think so.
Mark Phillips (52:29.034)
Start of Lollapalooza and stuff.
Mark Phillips (52:37.577)
Yeah.
Not as many as Pantera in Moscow, but a lot. Yeah.
Noah Polston (52:43.417)
There you go. Yeah. Dude. Speaking of Pantera videos on YouTube, the one ninety two at the Palladium in Hollywood, have you seen that one yet? Dude. It’s it’s soundboard. It’s soundboard and it’s it’s dude, it is they are on fire. They are on fire. It’s so good. But I I could talk about Pantera bootlegs for years. So
Mark Phillips (52:54.644)
I don’t think I have, no.
wow.
Mark Phillips (53:09.726)
The vulgar videos were so much of my childhood too in high school, man. Like I think that’s all I wrote in my high school yearbook, grade twelve, I just wrote watch it go. And that was my quote for high school.
Noah Polston (53:13.056)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (53:22.494)
Marshall. I’m endorsed by Marshall. We do we we quote that shit constantly or the whoa Val
Mark Phillips (53:34.455)
Just throwing fire on him and the turd burglar and shit. Yeah.
Noah Polston (53:36.534)
Yeah. Yeah, dude. So bad. And then Rex walked around Help, my penis is broke when he’s got the great shit. and and then
Mark Phillips (53:47.21)
Yeah, there’s there’s I still to this day when I hear like regular people concede, I just think of boobs from the Vulgar video. Cause that’s playing during that whole scene.
Noah Polston (53:53.048)
From that, yeah, be like, Yeah. That’s a that’s that’s not the worst thing. But we like I said, we smoke, so there’s bongs and every t every time I hit a bong, I’ll go, God damn, gotta hit off that bitch when Vinnie’s in the bus. And he’s yeah. So or or or Yeah. Mm-hmm. Fuck yeah, dude.
Mark Phillips (54:10.442)
Yeah. Even your shirt, man, your band’s shirt is a tribute to the Pantera weed shirt.
Noah Polston (54:21.464)
yeah, I thought you were talking about this one. Yes, yes, that yeah. That was that was that was too good to pass up. And then obviously lots of drinking happened, so I also love saying was it no food denied, only liquids, the doctor said. Something like that, Phil says. Yeah, I don’t know. Just Pantera dorks, dude.
Mark Phillips (54:24.861)
So cool, man.
Mark Phillips (54:36.97)
Yeah. classic stuff, man. So good. I mean, I I I never got to see them when Dime was alive. I they came and I had to work, so I was like, I can’t go. I should have called in sick and went to see them. It was I think it was on the reinventing the steel tour they came here.
Noah Polston (54:54.59)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (54:58.145)
Cause you’re thinking they’ll come back. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (55:00.008)
Well and and then Damage Plan came and I was like, I don’t really like Damage Plan that much. They’re not as good as Pantera. It kinda feels like rip off Pantera. So I never went. And then, you know, what happened like six months later, I was like, shit. And now I love Damage Plan. So I should have went to that too. My little sister went and she’s not really super into it, but she got to see Dime and I didn’t.
Noah Polston (55:08.118)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (55:19.893)
Isn’t that fucked? Do you do you like do you like Rebel Meets Rebel?
Mark Phillips (55:21.212)
It is. Yeah, it’s it’s a black market.
I haven’t heard much of it. I don’t really know a lot about David Allan Coe, but I’ve only really heard like Dimes solo stuff that he does.
Noah Polston (55:34.537)
Okay. Yeah, you sh you should check it out. I’m not I love Outlaw Country. I’m not the biggest Coe fan because the some of the things he did as a person weren’t that great. but that record is fucking awesome. It’s it’s really Yeah, he did. He did. highly recommend that though. That the when I joined Cyadine they like, You don’t know Rebel Meets Rebel, and I was like, No, and I was like It’s literally like all the country bluesy parts of Pantera.
Mark Phillips (55:48.382)
He just passed away, didn’t he?
Noah Polston (56:03.851)
just amped up, but it’s still very much Pantera. And then you got a outlaw country singer singing over it. ‘Cause it it’s Vinnie, Rex and Dime with at David. Yeah. It’s literally Pantera with David Allen Coe singing. Yeah, now you do.
Mark Phillips (56:07.459)
wow.
Mark Phillips (56:12.509)
Rex was in it too, I didn’t know.
Mark Phillips (56:17.146)
nice. I gotta check that out. And what about Phil? Do you like Phil’s side projects? I I’m a huge fan of Down. I love them. I think they’re fantastic. I’ve seen them.
Noah Polston (56:28.47)
I’m a massive, massive, massive down fan. I’m a massive Phil fan in general. I love Superjoint too. Superjoint’s awesome. you wanna talk about a horror guy? Fucking he’s I think he he literally has like a haunted house, basically, right? He he’s had them. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (56:33.001)
Yeah, me too.
Mark Phillips (56:41.276)
He does, yeah. And he puts on like the big haunted event at his place and like they record the down albums in his barn there in the studio on his land in New Orleans.
Noah Polston (56:49.012)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. I would God if if there was like one place I could go, it would be that studio. Just just just the I mean the history of it. But yeah, I I’m a huge Down fan. Down is I love Down so much.
Mark Phillips (56:58.826)
Yeah, man.
Mark Phillips (57:03.88)
He was even in Necrophagia for a while with Killjoy and stuff recording, and that’s very, very horror focused. Yeah. Yeah. He did he did that annual Live in Darkness tune that was on the Beyond, the Lucio Fulci movie that came out. I got it on DVD and there was like a video for that with Necrophagia, and Phil was playing guitar on it.
Noah Polston (57:05.93)
He he he played guitar in that, right?
That’s weird.
Noah Polston (57:17.301)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (57:24.534)
I’ve seen that and it’s trippy. It looks really weird because it’s Phil in like his red vests and his fucking hair and shit and he’s I’m like What? ‘Cause you know, the only video Yes, yes, right. And honestly, I love all eras Phil and when he was in Pantera, but the early two thousands like demented death metal Phil is like so sick. When with like the Soul Korea and you know, when they’re doing like suicide note and stuff and he literally looks like a fucking demon. It’s like
Mark Phillips (57:28.158)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (57:34.782)
Back when he used to look like Charles Manson.
Mark Phillips (57:48.264)
It is.
Noah Polston (57:54.39)
Dude, that’s so tough. what were we just talking about? Just
Mark Phillips (57:54.728)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (58:02.42)
Just the love of Pantera and Phil and all the good shit.
Noah Polston (58:06.033)
Yeah. You Yeah, yes.
Mark Phillips (58:08.65)
Pivoting to horror stuff, what what horror stuff do you like that that got you into horror movies? ‘Cause I know you have Art the Clown on your guitar, which is super cool. What else what else are you into horror wise?
Noah Polston (58:17.341)
Okay. Mm-hmm.
I’m a big Hellraiser fan. I’m pretty much an 80s slash 80s, 90s slasher dude. and I and like Sleepaway Camp, like all three of those are fantastic. Killer Clowns, Pumpkin Head, Peep People Under the Stairs. Yeah, I I have a Killer Clowns hoodie that I wear all the time. But I’m kind of I don’t want to call myself a poser, but I love Michael and I love Jason and I love Freddy.
Mark Phillips (58:36.74)
s killer clowns man speaking of my childhood.
Mark Phillips (58:43.721)
Way.
Mark Phillips (58:50.58)
That’s cool. Yeah, yeah.
Noah Polston (58:51.893)
And and Texas Chainsaw is probably like my favorite franchise out of all of it. But I my room is covered in like masks from those guys and action figures and I like art so much because it feels like he’s the you probably feel the same way, and I think a lot of horror fans do. We don’t really have any more good slashers. and so I think they’re beating the horse a little bit at this point, maybe, but it’s okay. I’ll still go see it.
Mark Phillips (59:19.398)
Yeah, I mean that’s that’s the truth. Art kind of feels like this generation’s Freddy or Jason or Michael when we don’t have him anymore. The the closest thing that came to that in the early 2000s, mid-2000s was like Victor Crowley from Hatchet. He was awesome. That was like really good throwback 80s slasher stuff. But yeah, you’re right. There’s there’s not a lot of it, man. And and art’s kind of raised up the ante and raised the bar, and it’s his
Noah Polston (59:34.431)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (59:46.516)
You know, Damian Leon’s movies are so gory and just so over the top. The kills are I mean, it’s not even it’s not even scary or terrifying ’cause they’re so over the top and horrific, it just becomes absolutely comedic, right?
Noah Polston (59:57.925)
Yeah, right. Well which which is cool too. But then also like that’s kind of the 80s shit too, which is why I like it. it’s yeah, but I mean I even love like it’s a little bit darker, but like stuff like Cannibal Holocaust and like faces of death, like that. I mean that’s so any anytime there’s like really gritty fucked up shit, I’m like, that’s cool. but my favorite low-key, my favorite
Mark Phillips (01:00:03.909)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:00:12.606)
Yeah.
Noah Polston (01:00:21.448)
Like slashers might actually be like the the Texas Chainsaw remakes in the two thousands with Arlie Ermy and Jessica Beale. Does For what they are, they’re super good. I I like the Ram Zabby remakes of Halloween. I’m sorry. Maybe maybe not two.
Mark Phillips (01:00:27.761)
Right, yeah, those are really good, man. Yeah. Yeah, super good, yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:00:36.902)
Yeah.
Ye no I’m with you that I’m with you though on that one for sure. I thought Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake was great because it has so much focus on Michael as a little kid. And that to me was like the scariest part, just how vicious and demonic that kid was. That to me was way scarier than the guy with the mask, right?
Noah Polston (01:00:57.03)
Mm-hmm. It yeah, it adds so much depth to the character. Mm-hmm. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. and yeah, I mean, I like I said, like the kind of another horse I think he beat to death. But thirty I think thirty one’s great. Obviously, House Thousand Corpses and Devil’s Rejects, you can’t go wrong with that. But as far as like newer stuff, I thought weapons was fantastic. and I really like the black phone with Ethan Hawkley.
Mark Phillips (01:01:21.865)
Yeah, black phone’s good, man. The grabber is a really, really cool new horror icon and
Noah Polston (01:01:26.757)
I think that’s close to another like art, you know, in a way.
Mark Phillips (01:01:30.673)
Yeah. And the second one, have you seen Black Phone Two? It it went like Nightmare and Elm Street direction, right? With like him invading their dreams and stuff. It’s like, holy shit, are they gonna turn this into like a a new Freddy icon?
Noah Polston (01:01:33.852)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I thought it was a good follow up. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (01:01:46.61)
Would be okay with that. And and I li I like the the I think it’s different, you know, where it was like cold and freezing and they’re like in ice and shit. Like that’s not normally what you would, you know. So mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So i if if they’re doing that, if that’s a kind I mean, good on them ’cause that that I’m I’ll see every black phone movie that comes out.
Mark Phillips (01:01:48.243)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:01:59.082)
Yeah, it’s the opposite of Freddy in the boiler room.
Mark Phillips (01:02:10.269)
Yeah, and I was so surprised with the first one, man. Ethan Hawk is incredible as the grabber. Like, who would have thought Ethan Hawk would be an amazing villain?
Noah Polston (01:02:18.612)
Right? It’s actually like I remember leaving the theater after seeing that and being kinda like almost like kind of fucked me up. because it was so maybe because the kids were involved, but it like hit home not that I ever had anything happen to me, but like it felt so real and so like it like my childhood like, you know, fears. I was like, wow, that was like
Mark Phillips (01:02:38.802)
Yes.
I I think that is tr so true, man. Like the way that it was filmed and shot and the story of it, it honestly looked and felt like something that could happen to someone you knew just right in your neighborhood.
Noah Polston (01:02:52.017)
Yeah. And it it did c I mean, not often, but like it it was a real thing. So it’s you know, it really took it to a whole level of like, holy shit. and especially for like I mean, you said so you’re you said you’re how much older my parents? Would would you have been growing up around the time it was like, you know, set in?
Mark Phillips (01:02:57.65)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:03:13.287)
When it was which? w when the movie was set in in the eighties, yeah. Yeah, so so I was born in eighties, so I grew up like in the eighties, and it was it was all like Freddy Mania in the eighties, man. Like Freddy Krueger was everything. And and Jason too. But yeah, I mean for me that was that was the beginnings of horror for me was discovering Freddy Krueger and the monster squad and gremlins and ghostbusters and stuff like that. That was the beginning of it.
Noah Polston (01:03:14.726)
When when like when Yeah, ’cause that was like the seventies. Yeah. Okay.
Noah Polston (01:03:25.594)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (01:03:29.351)
Right.
Noah Polston (01:03:38.406)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. But I I was asking ’cause I was like, I mean, for you watching the black phone, did you like get that feeling of like it like you just kinda said it, but like it felt like, my God, I could picture being there. Yeah. Okay, wow.
Mark Phillips (01:03:52.188)
yeah. Yeah, for sure. It it it was yeah. And and I mean that’s to an extent why I love Stranger Things as well. ‘Cause it’s like I watch Stranger Things and it honestly feels like watching my childhood growing up with my buddies, riding around on our bikes and getting into trouble and coming home and stuff. It’s it’s very, very similar.
Noah Polston (01:03:58.49)
Mm.
Noah Polston (01:04:07.298)
Right. Right. Minus the extraterrestrial shit. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:04:11.503)
Everything was wood in the eighties, wood basements, red orangey carpets, flowers on all the couches, just wood everywhere. Everything had wood on it. Yeah.
Noah Polston (01:04:18.01)
Yeah. Yeah. It it looked it looked cool for the time. but that’s very cool that it I think that’s what they’re going for and it’s cool that it’s connecting in that way. ‘Cause nostalgia, I mean, no matter how old you are, nostalgia’s nostalgia. So
Mark Phillips (01:04:36.443)
It is, yeah. What what are your earliest and and most happy childhood memories of of growing up?
Noah Polston (01:04:44.075)
well, not shockingly, my parents and my dad showing me like I forgot to mention Guns of Roses too. That was a huge thing seeing Slash. Slash could easily be a honorable mention for fourth guitar player, honestly. but yeah, my my my dad showing me old music videos of them and learning how to play guitar, playing playing my dad’s drum kit. ‘Cause I actually started on drums. that I don’t know how
Mark Phillips (01:04:57.181)
For sure.
Noah Polston (01:05:11.026)
How many people know this about me on my like socials and stuff? But I I kind of a I love playing drums. I’m a decent drummer. so I started on that, broke my drum kit, went back to guitar, but I digress. Play my dad’s drums.
You know, b basic human stuff like going family vacations and stuff, but as far as like uniquely to me, playing the Star Wars Lego video game and playing guitar and drums, that’s pretty much it.
Mark Phillips (01:05:42.004)
That’s funny. That was gonna be my next question. I was gonna ask you, did you d play a lot of video games growing up? Because that’s my problem in my life. I started playing guitar when I was like 14 or 15. And I’m okay. I got to an intermediate level. I’m nowhere near as good as you are, and it’s because of video games, because I spent so much of my time and hours playing video games instead of playing my guitar and learning it.
Noah Polston (01:06:08.581)
So na I didn’t really play video games. I mean I did when I was like a kid, but it was never it never got in the way of guitar. I remember quite often like playing a little bit of video games, then I play a little bit of guitar. Then I play a little more video games, then I play more guitar. It was just like what I did, you know. And then funny enough, I played a obscene amount of guitar hero. I loved playing guitar hero. I actu I was like really good at it, which is funny because most musicians suck.
Mark Phillips (01:06:34.321)
yeah.
Noah Polston (01:06:41.027)
At Guitar Hero. And like I’ll I’ll like I’ll try to like play with my like bandmate stuff. Like, dude, I can’t do it. And it’s be and I get why. It’s because the notes aren’t the same as what you’re hearing, unless you’re playing on expert, and then experts, you know, ridiculous. So but I understood that at like one point, and then I just kinda like kept playing to the point where I was at expert anyways. But once you get like, okay, it’s not gonna be in time, I literally have to treat this like it’s a and then I got
Mark Phillips (01:06:52.273)
Right. Yeah.
Noah Polston (01:07:09.487)
really good at it. But yeah, I mean, if I wasn’t playing guitar, I was playing Guitar Hero. So you kinda I don’t know. I I think I just have like just the bug of like just crazy about it. and it never it never really got in the way ’cause I just didn’t I wanted to play guitar anyways. But I was that was like much younger. Are you talking about like when you were older? Like what age are you saying?
Mark Phillips (01:07:33.298)
No, I w I mean, dude, I’ve I’ve been on video games since Mario came out in eighty five for Nintendo. That was the start of it, and here we are forty years later, still on video games. You know, I still find games that I absolutely love. And the reason I do it is because it it makes me feel as excited as I as I did when I was a kid, man. It’s like still that excitement when you get a new game, like disappearing into a new world and doing
Noah Polston (01:07:39.555)
Okay.
Noah Polston (01:07:58.651)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Phillips (01:08:01.405)
You know, a a totally different story and making your own character and stuff. I love that shit.
Noah Polston (01:08:05.784)
Yeah, I I’m a really big Red Dead Redemption fan. and I’m a really I’m a really big Western in like like history, like Civil War era, you know, any of that stuff. So when that game came out, it was like this is the game for me. so I’ve pretty much played that almost exclusively since it came out. But I’ve also played Evil Within and Evil Within Two. I thought those were great. And then The Last of Us, I just started I
Mark Phillips (01:08:27.912)
Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:08:33.255)
Yeah, those are good.
Noah Polston (01:08:35.652)
Finally started and finished Last of Us like last year. So that was fucking I’m I’m sure you’ve played that it’s or heard of it at least. Yeah. Amazing. So and any like
Mark Phillips (01:08:42.911)
yeah. Yeah, the Last of Us, the first one’s incredible. Like it’s so good and so imaginative and that the show that came out on HBO, they actually filmed a bunch of it in Edmonton here.
Noah Polston (01:08:49.316)
Mm-hmm.
Noah Polston (01:08:54.18)
No shit, I didn’t know that. Cause I I know they did it. I haven’t seen it, but what what do you think about the show? Cause I’ve heard mixed opinions from people who’ve played the game also.
Mark Phillips (01:08:55.579)
It yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:09:01.049)
the the sh I don’t know. I haven’t seen the second season, but the first season I watched it pretty much followed the events from the first game pretty exact and spot on. So I thought they did a really good job with it. I don’t know about the second season because I haven’t watched it. I w I didn’t love the the second game of Last of Us. I just didn’t like the direction they took the story and what was happening to main characters and stuff, but I’m assuming that the story from the the second season would follow the second game as well.
Noah Polston (01:09:24.856)
Sure.
Noah Polston (01:09:29.538)
Right. Right. Yeah, I mean I I’m gonna I’m gonna I haven’t seen either, but I’m definitely gonna have to watch both of them. But yeah, I mean those are pretty much the only video games I I play and and even then it’s like kinda sparingly. But I get I definitely get the like being distracted by the video games and like not you know, not getting to what you need to do or want to do or whatever. But yeah, I just I never really had
There was never that conflict ’cause it I always just wanted to play guitar. I guess I just got lucky.
Mark Phillips (01:10:00.116)
That’s good, man, because when you look at your life and you’re like, look at how good I am on guitar. I learned all this awesome stuff as opposed to I beat hundreds of games. I got all these achievements.
Noah Polston (01:10:06.125)
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, but I don’t know, man. I I I hate to talk shit about people who did that instead, you know. because I did it. Yeah.
Mark Phillips (01:10:17.765)
It’s still time well spent, as long as you’re happy and stress free and enjoying life, that’s what all it’s all about at the end of the day.
Noah Polston (01:10:23.907)
That’s what I’m trying to get to. Yeah, thank you. That’s what I was trying to say. So, but no, I I never I got I I was distracted by other things as I got older. But you know. Yeah, or that, you know, having a guitar increases the chances of yes. Yeah. So but that’s all part of life.
Mark Phillips (01:10:35.923)
Things that guitars lean into.
Mark Phillips (01:10:42.291)
Brings you. Yeah. Yep. It is, man. It’s good experiences. So yeah, man. It’s it’s been awesome chatting with you, man. I’ll I’ll yeah, I’ll I’ll definitely have to catch up with you and talk to you about doing those guitar lessons that we mentioned. Cause I I need some accountability help, man. So you’d be like, hey, you need to learn this and you need to learn it by next week, so don’t play video games. Just figure this out. I need
Noah Polston (01:11:00.431)
Dude, absolutely.
Noah Polston (01:11:08.917)
you want me to be a hard ass? Okay, I’ll yeah, I got you.
Mark Phillips (01:11:11.643)
I need you to be the drill surgeon from friggin’ full metal jacket and hit me with a friggin’ bag full of soap if I don’t do it, you know?
Noah Polston (01:11:15.728)
Speaking earlier me. Yeah. You got it. I I can do that. And yeah, man. thank you so much for having me on. I want to do this again because I felt fucking scatterbrained this whole time because there’s so much shit we wanted to talk about. But we’re just we’re just getting to know each other. So next time it’ll be a little bit more. But but yeah, thank you very much. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so it was really fun to do.
Mark Phillips (01:11:28.725)
it’s so good, man. It’s so good. Like it’s yeah, man.
Mark Phillips (01:11:41.699)
man, thanks so much for coming on, Noah. And it’s I just I can’t wait to hear more of your band’s music and your tunes and yeah, we’ll we’ll have to do another one ’cause we’ve got so much more to talk about, man.
Noah Polston (01:11:52.653)
Absolutely. Sounds like a plan, brother. Yeah. Well. Talk to you soon, Mark. Have a good night. Peace.
Mark Phillips (01:11:54.292)
Thanks again, man. It was good meeting you and take care of yourself, dude. See ya, man. Thanks. Bye, man.
