THESE WOLVES Darren Fisher on Entrance Themes, MJF's Entrance Theme, Hangman Page's Dead To Rights

Welcome back to another episode of the Ropes and Riffs podcast.

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My name is Jon Kiernan.

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I am a wrestling entrance theme song composer.

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And maybe you notice that there's a little bit of a different background.

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Kind of looks the same.

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I just moved the camera over a little bit, but it feels different to me.

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Maybe it'll feel different to you.

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Maybe you won't notice except for the fact that I said something.

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But one thing you are going to notice is the awesome conversation that I'm going to be

having today with these wolves, Darren Fisher.

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you may be familiar with the music of these wolves from the renditions of MJF's theme,

Better Than You and hangman Adam Page over an AEW, a song called Dead to Rights, both of

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those which were takes on both of those wrestlers' individual entrance themes.

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He's also done with Reality Suite, a cover of Liv Morgan's music and of LA Knight's theme,

Let Me Talk to You with Montese.

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And he's had his music on AEW television.

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You've probably heard his music with Lee Johnson and

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even that song, Dead to Rights, that he did for Adam Page was used in some of the promo

packages for CM Punk versus Adam Page.

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So we're gonna be talking a lot about wrestling, a lot about music, and just having a

grand old time like we do here on the Ropes and Riffs podcast.

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If you like what you hear, please consider subscribing over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

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And anyone who leaves $10 or more of a donation gets a shout out on the show.

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Now,

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Without any further ado,

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He goes by these wolves.

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He's gone by this wolf before, but today we got the one and only wolf in the house from

these wolves.

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My boy, Darren Fisher, how you doing today, my friend?

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Good, good.

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How are you, John?

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It's a day.

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I make it sound like it's a bad day.

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It's not.

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But I think, you know, it's everybody's got a little bit of a different day going on.

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So I think it's a day is all right.

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But today we're to be speaking all about wrestling, all about music, because again, that's

what we do.

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You obviously have such a catalog of music, not just in wrestling, but just music in

general.

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You have such banger songs.

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I want to talk to you about a lot of them, but just in general, it's awesome to.

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finally line this up.

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know we're trying to line up schedules and things and we're finally here my friend, we're

finally here.

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Yeah, thank you for having me like finally on the show.

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I know we this is like kind of the first like face to face we've had I remember we went to

oh well I was filming for GPW productions, know a shout out to them and you came to a show

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because Dragon Lee I think was on it or or one of the wrestlers and like we were like hey

and then that was so yeah, so This is like the first like big conversation we've had.

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So thank you for having me

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Oh yeah, too.

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And I remember that show too, because like you said, Dragon Lee and Drillistico were on

that show.

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like, you know, as much as I want to get out to shows, I haven't gotten out to as many

shows as I'd like to.

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That needs to change in 2025, ladies and gentlemen, especially here in New Jersey.

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There's so many shows with so many amazing people.

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And I remember like being at that show and watching all the matches.

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And this was when Billy Starks was going up against,

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Nick Wayne.

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Number one, that was a great match.

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Please don't die everybody.

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But second, I remember just like looking at my right and study kisses, just hanging out,

watching.

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And I'm like, this is cool.

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And study kiss is super nice too.

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So shout out to everybody though.

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Shout out to GPW.

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Shout out to basically the whole New Jersey wrestling scene, dude.

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Exactly.

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It's crazy.

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And yeah, we'll probably be shouting out a ton of people.

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So this would be the shout out hour, know, so.

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And it's cool too, because you know, for me, and I think for a lot of wrestling fans in

general, a lot of the outer market thinks of like WWE and AEW and TNA.

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You think about these companies that have TV, but then there's the opportunity to see your

favorite wrestlers and even wrestlers who are on the come up still doing amazing work at a

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lot of these shows in your local area.

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And I think in New Jersey,

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You have so many different promotions.

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know, you have ISPW, have GPW, you have GCW who runs a lot in the, I mean, they're running

everywhere now, but you have all these different companies who are now giving these

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awesome opportunities.

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And to be able to say like, yeah, Billy Starks and Nick Wayne went one-on-one in probably

one of the best matches I've seen live ever.

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It's just really cool to be like, our area is a hotbed for such awesome wrestling.

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And you get to be right there filming all of it.

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Yeah, it's crazy.

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Like I filmed a bunch of like Jacob Fatu's matches.

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I filmed an MJF match.

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Like it's crazy.

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Like the people that you meet and yeah, like you said, it's a hotbed of everything.

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So you never know who you're going to be interacting with, you know?

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So who's your favorite, or rather, maybe I should ask it in two parts.

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Who's your favorite wrestler that you've gotten the opportunity to film, and then maybe

what is your favorite match that you've gotten to film as part of the crew?

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Probably the nicest person I've worked with is Matt Cardona.

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like even before the match, he's always...

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like coming up to us and saying like, how you doing?

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And talk to us a little bit.

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And then he's like, for this match, I'm going to do this, this and this on, you know, wait

for the spot because I really want you to get my facial reaction on this point or

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something like that.

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Like he's always like very hands on, which we really like because some wrestlers aren't

that hands on and like will filming anyway.

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Don't want to complain about the wrestlers too much, but like they don't know where hard

cam is.

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or they have this whole big thing that they want captured and they don't tell us and then

we'd like, if someone's running in, we won't get them until they're behind me or something

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like that, right behind me.

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So it's like that kind of stuff, but Matt has always been great.

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um

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Cardona too about that.

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And then we'll talk about the match, your favorite match, but like, you also see with him

where he's been and you always see him putting out his vlogs and not even everything on

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social media being like, listen, when you go to a show, you got to kind of own the place.

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And he never says it from a place of like negativity, like, you have to think that like

you're the best, but he's like, look, they're there to help you.

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You're there to put on a show.

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And if you need something, you got to know who to be touch pointing with.

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And it sounds like.

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He's doing that with you guys.

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Like, hey, when this part happens in the match, try to make sure that you capture it

because of whatever he's got planned going on.

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Right, right.

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He's always, yeah, super, super detailed and that really works.

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Joe Janela also is very nice and he always comes up to us and hey, what's going on?

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I like, you know who I am?

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know, like it's really cool, you know?

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um Yeah.

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But my favorite match, I think, to film, there's been so many, but the one that sticks

out.

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Is Anthony Bowens versus TJ Crawford is a wrestle pro show.

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It was like right when the pandemic I think was just like Starting so like we're outside

and stuff like that, but they did a killer match.

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It's on YouTube, but go check it out Yeah, Anthony Bowen's versus TJ Crawford at wrestle

pro

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That's awesome.

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That's awesome.

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And for me, I love hearing you say that and bringing up Anthony Bowens too.

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Cause just when I started seeing him, I found out about him on AEW.

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I know he's done creative pro.

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I know he's kind of from that system too.

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But like for me, I loved the acclaimed.

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I thought what they did was great.

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But for me, Anthony Bowens always seems to just have such a humble personality.

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And when he gets in the ring, he's one of those guys that dare I say it over the years,

you're going to be like, man,

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this is the guy that they should push and this is the guy they should give that

opportunity to.

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And, you know, they're giving him lots of opportunities.

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I love the fact that he's like such a big AEW spokesperson going to all these different

events.

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Like you really see that they're giving him that exposure.

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And for me, I'm like, you could really see this, not because I don't think he belongs at

the top already, but you could see him in one of those Daniel Bryan type storylines or one

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of those Kofi Kingston things like.

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outpaint him as like, you know, you'll always just be remembered as the acclaimed.

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And he's like, I think the hell not.

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And then all of a sudden he becomes the world champion and carries it.

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Like I believe so much in Anthony Bowens that when you said Anthony Bowens versus TJ

Crawford, no disrespect to TJ Crawford.

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Amazing too.

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But I'm just like, man, let's make all of the, all of the Anthony Bowens love as much love

as you can for that gentleman.

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Oh my gosh.

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Yeah, he's great.

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Max Caster was great, too.

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GPW actually filmed most of the music videos that they did.

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I was on Buck Hunt when they did that one.

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So there's a shot of them and they're doing like behind a tree.

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They're all doing like one by one, like on the side of the shook crew.

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That was my idea to do.

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So I'm I'm happy that I got that in.

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But yeah, they were all super nice.

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That's so cool.

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And you know, talking about AEW a little bit, you know, you're talking about that you were

able to shoot Anthony Bowens at a show outside of AEW, but you've had your own audio

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experiences being showcased in AEW and, you know, being also representative of some of the

wrestlers.

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And one of the ones that I've always loved from you, and we talked about this before we

got on air, I've talked to you about this throughout the years, was the cover of Better

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Than You that you did for MJF.

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So much to where

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When I first started watching AEW, I'm pretty sure I actually heard your version first.

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And by that I mean, I never paid attention to his theme.

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I don't know why, I just never did.

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And for someone who writes entrance themes, it's kind of weird to say, but anyway.

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I remember hearing your version and being like, man, obviously it's sick when you listen

to it.

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And then hearing it live and I'm like, wait, that's not his theme, what happened?

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And then all of a sudden they're like, well.

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You know, these wolves did the cover of it, Darren did the cover of it.

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And I'm just like, man, this is such a cool one.

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And for you, you could choose all these different songs to do.

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What made you go, okay, cool, better than you is the one that I'm gonna go ahead and do.

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It kind of like snowballed so Originally like when I like got into wrestling like

wrestling Music it was kind of by accident.

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So there's a youtuber named Chris stanker.

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He's now Chris danger and DPW and stuff like that like he's actually trained to be

wrestler and But before that he does like it's a lot of WWE 2k

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Content and he at the time I think it was ww2k19.

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He was like I'm gonna do a new series You know, it's gonna be called wrestle war and I was

like, you're doing a new series I have these songs

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Would you want to use them as like an entry, like a theme song for this thing?

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He's like, yeah, and he heard enough is enough.

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And he was like, this is awesome.

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He's like, have an idea.

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And he rapped over it.

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Like he's like, what do you think of this and he did this I remember it was I was a dream

and then he does this whole thing and I was like that is so awesome and I was like, wow So

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he's like, I use it?

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was like, yeah go ahead So he started using that and it started gaining traction like

people I get a bunch of messages from people who like, you know the wv game saying hey I

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listen to your song all the time.

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Can I use it for my creative wrestler?

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You know, I'm I to YouTube videos like short, right?

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So that kind of spawned the idea of doing MJF when he was starting to come in because this

is like

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Like aw like kind of put the the thought in my head and then when jericho when I think it

was the cruise day That was the first time where they were actually singing judas to him

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and I was like, that would be cool if we got that for njf like I wanted to like Be the the

person like when you hear better than better than better.

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You're like, this freaking guy coming out You know, like I wanted something like that.

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So yeah, it just kind of sparked and I

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put the two together I got AK-40 Devon shout out to him he was super great and yeah I was

like hey I have this idea you know just throwing it at the wall you know why don't we put

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some verses together and and try to do this and it worked out like originally when I I

asked permission for Mikey Ruckus and he was like yeah go ahead just like MJF is probably

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gonna block you once you put it out but don't like don't tag him in it

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And so I didn't and I was just like, okay, well I'm putting it out, just out there.

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then, I like going back, there was a podcast, it the All Elite Podcast, shout out to

Tiffany and Kyle Masters.

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I just reached out and said, hey, I have these songs, would you wanna put it as your theme

song for the All Elite Podcast?

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And they're like, sure.

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And then I was telling them about the MJF song and they were like, yeah, so we're going to

feature it on the show.

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Like I sent them the way file.

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Like, yeah, we're going to feature on the show.

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I was like, oh crap.

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So they feature on the show and they tagged MJF in it.

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And then I immediately got a DM from MJF like send me the song.

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And I was like, oh crap.

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So I sent him the song and then I got like a fire emoji and I was like.

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crap, like he likes it, you know, so that's, that's, that was like the biggest thing for

me.

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And he, like reshared their, their tweet and yeah, it's, it's like super, super awesome

about that.

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So yeah, that's kind of.

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that's the seal of approval from MJF, you know?

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He's like, send me the song, and it's a fire emoji, as opposed to just a giant middle

finger.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And he's used it like on Instagram posts and it works out.

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It'll be like the song on Instagram.

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So he has shared it.

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So I know he's aware of it.

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But yeah, it's super cool to have him give the endorsement, the fire, you know?

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That's awesome.

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love that.

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And it's one of these things, I don't know what's up my throat today.

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That's awesome.

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And I love the fact too, that you're just like, you know, it took on a bit of a life of

its own.

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And you know, when you put stuff out like that, especially like cover tunes and things,

you're like, you don't know where they're going to go.

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And you don't know if the original artist or the wrestler is going to be like, okay, cool.

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Like you don't know what their perception of it is going to be.

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And the fact that MJF heard it and was just like, this is actually really cool.

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You know, for me, one of the biggest things that I remember,

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And this is probably a couple months ago where, probably a couple months ago, I say that

for everything, but like, I remember texting you and being like, I'm pretty sure that the

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crowd is singing the lyrics from your version of better than you.

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Instead of just using the dig deep dadadada.

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They're probably singing better than, but it wasn't me trying to like put these wolves

into the universe, but I was just like, it doesn't sound like dadadada that the crowds

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singing.

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It sounds like they know it.

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And I'm like,

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That's happened a couple times.

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So I'm pretty sure that not just MJF, but I feel like a lot of people in the crowd and you

know, maybe a lot of it is also due to like the 2K25 and 24 and those things, cause that

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music can get used there too in the uploads.

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You know, I think that that's really powerful to be like your theme and your version of it

is almost just as synonymous as the original track that he uses for AEW.

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That's so cool, man.

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Thank you, yeah.

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It's like a dream come true that he would even just listen to it.

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So the fact that people have caught on and has almost 2 million streams on Spotify and has

never been featured on an AEW TV at all, that's crazy to me.

234

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And it's crazy too that it's also like, there's two of the two really great themes in

wrestling that are library tracks that I know of, right?

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You could say three and I'll throw it in because we just had Eric Young on the show.

236

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The sanity theme was part of a library track and then they developed it out from there

with Bray Wyatt, the two pieces of music that he used for...

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The one he used when he was doing Firefly Funhouse, that part of it.

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And then the other one, was the Live in Fear, I believe those were both library tracks

too.

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And then Dig Deep, the MJF one.

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It's like, as much as I'm always like, yes, come to one of us, come to an entrance theme

composer, like you or me or TZ or any of us.

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It's like, you know, sometimes you will get that banger and then you see it and then you

expand upon it you're just like, man, it's really cool to see.

242

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And also you haven't just taken that theme.

243

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But for one of my favorite wrestlers, you did a great rendition of hang man Adam Page's

theme done by the one and only Vincent Padula.

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And you came up with this dead to rights theme, which is just super cool.

245

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And we had Vincent on the show a little bit ago and we talked to him about those.

246

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They're like, Hey, have you heard the these wolves version of it?

247

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And he's just like, yeah, it's awesome.

248

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I don't know why he would want to cover little old me, but

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I'm really happy.

250

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The thing that I loved about him too, is he was just like, it's cool that I wrote it in

the style that I write in.

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And then Darren took it and wrote it in the style that he writes in.

252

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And it's just as awesome.

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So I love the fact that like, he recognized like these wolves does this awesome rock metal

vibe and it works just as well.

254

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Thank you.

255

00:17:30,569 --> 00:17:32,632

Yeah, that was actually Mikey Ruckus's idea.

256

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after the MJF thing, he had that port in time where he's using that sting, you know, I'm

better than you and you know it.

257

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And then it would just kick in.

258

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So I was like, Hey, you know, can I put

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the thing on the top and just like release it on YouTube because people keep asking me for

it, you know, because they want an update and he's like, why it's not that why don't you

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do hangman pages theme?

261

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I want to hear that.

262

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And I was like, what?

263

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So I started to do it and yeah, it's like it's like I was like, OK, so it was kind of like

it was slower.

264

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So I wanted to bring up the tempo a little bit and then

265

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Yeah, just kinda, I just kinda just made it like, you know, made a little child out of it

and just, yeah, I was like, Vince Badula is very respected to me.

266

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So like, I thought like when I came to him, he was gonna rip it apart and be like, yeah,

you can't use it.

267

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And you know, you know, I'm an actual real musician, you know, but yeah, he was super nice

about it.

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Cause he's done a bunch of.

269

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stuff for tv and stuff i'm just you know a stupid wrestling mark so i uh uh yeah i was

super happy about it but uh yeah it just came together so well um and the hardest part was

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coming up for lyrics for that because uh like at the time i was like i don't know how to

express like what hangman page is

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You know, and that's kind of like listening to your podcast, like we need to figure out a

way to tell a story within, you know, three and a half minutes or less, you know, because

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we're walking out to it like, and we have to display the character, like the essence of

the character, you know, and that's very difficult to do.

273

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So lyrically, it was very hard to think of, you know, what Hanging Man Page is and how to,

you know, make that come together.

274

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took me forever to write.

275

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And I was going to say that too, because you have these two songs that you've done, right?

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And these are representative of Hangman Page and MJF.

277

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And for you, you're like, okay, cool.

278

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These are instrumental tracks so far.

279

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They don't have songs with lyrics and you're taking content that kind of already exists in

a way and making it your own, right?

280

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So a lot of the musicality that comes in Dead to Rights obviously comes from Ghost Town

Triumph and things like that, right?

281

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So for you,

282

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You're not just sitting there being like, okay, cool.

283

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How do I, for lack of a better term, rockify or metal-fy a lot of these songs?

284

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You're also just like, I'm adding an additional layer of, okay, let's really explain who

this character is at this point too.

285

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And for someone like Adam, with someone like Adam Page, he's such the, in my opinion, main

character of AEW, whether he's on TV or not.

286

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You know, he's such the main character of this person coming from...

287

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Basically, yeah, he was part of the Bullet Club, but he was like the side guy, you know

what I mean?

288

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And then all of a sudden they really have done a great job at building him over the years.

289

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And in a way that they haven't really built wrestlers ever.

290

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Like he's just, in a way, he's just kind of a normal guy.

291

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Like everything that happens with him, it's kind of like, you could understand why it

happens.

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And it's like the modern guy, like we always talk about.

293

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something I love in TV when you see like really well written shows, one of my favorite

shows ever is a show called the hundred.

294

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And I like shows that have consequences that people have to live with because then you

have to understand, okay, cool, like if this happens, then this happens, and what are the

295

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consequences of that?

296

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Walking Dead, I'm looking at you introducing in season five, six, seven, and eight, one

character that you only have to care about for four episodes, and then you off them

297

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because you don't really wanna off the main characters.

298

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I digress.

299

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But someone like Adam Page ends up getting this whole story of like, hey, I've gone

through these losses, here's what happened.

300

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He goes through the swerve story.

301

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Yeah, you've done this stuff to my kid and now I'm a really bad guy, but you can kind of

understand why he is.

302

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But now he's so bad that he puts Christopher Daniels into retirement.

303

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And for you, you got to encapsulate that in three and a half minutes.

304

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So that's gotta be a crazy thing, yeah.

305

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Yeah, it's I think my favorite line of the Dead to Rights is Heavy Metal meets Johnny Cash

because I was listening to a lot of Wage War and they have a song called Johnny Cash and

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that just kept like playing in my head like I need to like he's just like at the time he's

very high octane like Super like a lot of flashy moves like yeah, he's basically Heavy

307

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Metal meets Johnny Cash, you know, so that's my favorite line from that but yeah trying to

encapsulate that same thing with MJF like

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AK-40 Devon, shout out to him again, like he wasn't wrestling fan.

309

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So it was like kind of like trying to put all like the MJF like character points in there,

like the diamond ring and like just trying to get that point across that I'm better than

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you and you know it across.

311

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Yeah, that's like, that's what I was trying to do the entire time, you know, so.

312

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I love that.

313

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And then you've also had your music featured in different places in AEW too.

314

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So not just, hey, here's a song representing a character, but Lee Johnson was using music

that you wrote for him as well.

315

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You've had some of your music in some of those production pieces that they do for AEW.

316

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So for you, you haven't just done music that's representative of the talent that the

talent has heard.

317

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You've also gone ahead and had your music as entrance themes as well and parts of packages

for AEW.

318

00:23:00,255 --> 00:23:06,296

Yeah, the first one was for MJF versus Cody for Revolution 2020.

319

00:23:06,300 --> 00:23:12,183

Their match, their promo video before the match, that was Dead to Me, which is original

song.

320

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Lee Johnson over the pandemic was using Enough is Enough.

321

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And then he went to my family and then he had a new theme and then he went to a different

one and then he started using again, Enough is Enough.

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And now I think he's back to

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the nightmare family one so but yeah and and for hanging man page after dead to rise that

showed Mikey I was like it took me way longer than it was supposed to but here it is he's

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like this is awesome like I'm gonna use it for the countdown show for CM Punk versus

hanging man page at double or nothing so that and I'm like awesome you know like it's just

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getting just getting you know your music heard and and you know having people react is

326

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awesome to me.

327

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Like I kind of never had that before.

328

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I was always like in bands like

329

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Just like local bands like no one really cares about and stuff like that.

330

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So it's awesome to like just find that sense of community and have people like actually

interact with your song where, you know, same thing with Vincent Padula like saying like,

331

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you know, Darren took my song and made it, you know, different and more rock, you know,

having people use it in TikToks or Instagram reels or, you know, they're showing the

332

00:24:20,876 --> 00:24:26,283

action figures and stuff and making like stop stop motion animations with it and stuff

like that and use it.

333

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that as the music for it.

334

00:24:28,643 --> 00:24:30,749

It's crazy, you know?

335

00:24:31,096 --> 00:24:41,360

Yeah, and I think that, you know, what you said is true also about like the kind of

dichotomy between the original music and being in bands versus what we kind of do in the

336

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wrestling scene also.

337

00:24:42,751 --> 00:24:44,452

And I think we'll always put out original music.

338

00:24:44,452 --> 00:24:47,603

I'll always, you know, always have that spot for what means something to us.

339

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And we'll always continue to do that.

340

00:24:49,035 --> 00:24:53,137

Some leaning more towards that than whatever the case may be, right?

341

00:24:53,137 --> 00:24:58,973

But I've always felt like within the last couple of years, as I've been really focused on

entrance music,

342

00:24:58,973 --> 00:25:05,267

I've been really happy with the wrestling fandom around entrance music.

343

00:25:05,267 --> 00:25:13,752

it's one of those things where it's so, wrestling fans are so passionate in general and

wrestling fans are equally passionate about entrance music.

344

00:25:13,752 --> 00:25:18,395

And it's so crazy to see, you know, for me, I've played in lots of different bands.

345

00:25:18,395 --> 00:25:20,799

I've played, my music's been in different places.

346

00:25:20,799 --> 00:25:24,091

You know, a lot of people, you can go on my website and see the bio, right?

347

00:25:24,091 --> 00:25:25,630

But for me,

348

00:25:25,630 --> 00:25:32,433

One of the coolest things has always been seeing a wrestler that's used a piece of music

of mine and seeing the crowd jam to it.

349

00:25:32,433 --> 00:25:39,718

Like one of my favorite ones was with Mercedes Martinez when she did, I've done a bunch of

themes with her and big shout out to Mercedes Martinez.

350

00:25:39,718 --> 00:25:40,248

I love you.

351

00:25:40,248 --> 00:25:40,818

You're great.

352

00:25:40,818 --> 00:25:41,559

Keep killing it.

353

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Cause you keep crushing it.

354

00:25:42,580 --> 00:25:48,464

And when we would do all these different themes like OGBA was, Breast City Sleep was the

most recent one.

355

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And then the one she did with Diamante.

356

00:25:50,189 --> 00:25:58,371

It was really cool because like you see the crowd getting into it you see the music

affecting people in a different way, but the talent is bringing that out in them too.

357

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And it's like, you can be performing and be touching people in the moment, but being able

to see how they're reacting live in kind of even more of like that movie TV score.

358

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Cause what we're really doing is we are creating that music bed for a show in a way,

whether it's even a live performance or whether it's on TV, that's what we're doing.

359

00:26:17,965 --> 00:26:22,127

is we're creating a soundtrack for somebody to come out to and represent them.

360

00:26:22,127 --> 00:26:24,818

I think that there is such a cool thing about that.

361

00:26:24,818 --> 00:26:26,078

And I've talked to you about it now.

362

00:26:26,078 --> 00:26:26,899

I've talked to Teezy.

363

00:26:26,899 --> 00:26:27,599

I've talked to Mikey.

364

00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:30,911

I've talked to everybody who's done this to some degree.

365

00:26:30,911 --> 00:26:32,431

And I think we all say the same thing.

366

00:26:32,431 --> 00:26:40,044

It's like being able to see your music take on a life of its own and then inspire people

to do something connected with a talent that you've worked with.

367

00:26:40,044 --> 00:26:42,025

like, it's such a different thing.

368

00:26:42,025 --> 00:26:46,288

And I want to speak about one thing that you had brought up, the pandemic era.

369

00:26:46,726 --> 00:26:55,473

because shout a big shout out to AEW on this and I will shout AEW out for this for years.

370

00:26:55,473 --> 00:27:07,976

I think without AEW having such a focus on the independents and even independent creators

and early on also having such a collaborative process, the entrance theme composers would

371

00:27:07,976 --> 00:27:09,457

be a lot smaller of a pool.

372

00:27:09,457 --> 00:27:11,978

And think Mikey has always kind of recognized that.

373

00:27:11,978 --> 00:27:14,235

And again, big shout out to Mikey, as I've said.

374

00:27:14,235 --> 00:27:21,101

Many times before we are a music and wrestling podcast, but partially also a Mikey

Ruckistan show at times.

375

00:27:21,101 --> 00:27:23,283

And I am completely fine with that.

376

00:27:23,283 --> 00:27:32,290

you know, when the pandemic came, I remember when they were doing dark and maybe a little

before that too, but they were doing dark and dark elevation and Danny Jordan needed a

377

00:27:32,290 --> 00:27:32,640

theme.

378

00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:34,552

And I remember I got a text from Mikey.

379

00:27:34,552 --> 00:27:37,755

He was like, do you have any music that you can send me in like five minutes?

380

00:27:37,755 --> 00:27:40,857

And I was like, my God, I can send it in three.

381

00:27:40,857 --> 00:27:42,408

Like I was like, what do I even have?

382

00:27:42,408 --> 00:27:43,479

And so it was like,

383

00:27:43,479 --> 00:27:46,141

a couple songs from my first record of Oceans.

384

00:27:46,141 --> 00:27:50,764

And Danny Jordan came out using a song called Farewell, which was from my 2011 release.

385

00:27:50,764 --> 00:27:53,296

And I was like, man, it wasn't just me.

386

00:27:53,296 --> 00:27:57,928

It was a lot of us who were reached out to, to have some music being used for it.

387

00:27:57,928 --> 00:28:05,862

And I think that without that, a lot of entrance theme composers are getting a little less

exposure.

388

00:28:05,862 --> 00:28:12,826

But I think AEW's focus, even now, and even back then, to be able to bring in the wider

world of wrestling.

389

00:28:12,826 --> 00:28:18,362

really gave musicians an opportunity to be heard in a way that they wouldn't have been

heard before.

390

00:28:19,047 --> 00:28:19,882

Exactly.

391

00:28:19,882 --> 00:28:29,811

Going back to what you were saying about, you know, wrestling fans being so passionate,

like I grew up on like the WF the music, you know, volume three and then like the forcible

392

00:28:29,811 --> 00:28:31,942

entry and like the reckless intent.

393

00:28:31,942 --> 00:28:42,692

Like I always loved bands like doing wrestling themes and, know, to be like associated

with that now is like super humbling and it's like, it's just so awesome.

394

00:28:42,692 --> 00:28:44,897

But yeah, it's it's just

395

00:28:44,897 --> 00:28:45,705

It's just

396

00:28:45,705 --> 00:28:58,306

crazy that how and shout out to monkey ruckus like i know you know he's got roh and aw and

he's writing all these themes like pretty crazy and he gets a lot of crap on x or twitter

397

00:28:58,306 --> 00:29:11,143

or whatever about some of the themes and like it is like he's he's a madman and he's he's

awesome at what he does and i wouldn't like i don't think i could ever do what he does at

398

00:29:11,143 --> 00:29:13,084

the quality that he he does it he

399

00:29:13,084 --> 00:29:14,545

He's just amazing.

400

00:29:14,545 --> 00:29:16,087

Same thing with Downstate.

401

00:29:16,087 --> 00:29:18,632

I'm a huge Downstate fan.

402

00:29:18,632 --> 00:29:23,836

They are the pinnacle of what a wrestling kind band should be.

403

00:29:23,836 --> 00:29:26,998

But yeah, it's just crazy.

404

00:29:26,998 --> 00:29:31,011

I'm just very happy to be associated with you and Montesey.

405

00:29:31,011 --> 00:29:37,058

Shout out Montesey for working with me on the LA Night theme song, Let Me Talk To Ya.

406

00:29:37,058 --> 00:29:38,699

It's just crazy.

407

00:29:39,048 --> 00:29:39,478

Yeah.

408

00:29:39,478 --> 00:29:42,241

And it's, it's become such an awesome community too.

409

00:29:42,241 --> 00:29:45,113

And yeah, the Downstate Boys, absolute shout out.

410

00:29:45,113 --> 00:29:49,167

It's a, when you think about entrance music, there's a lot of ways you can go.

411

00:29:49,167 --> 00:29:57,935

And I just love to, I just honestly, I love to see what everyone keeps putting out because

all of us have such different vibes and different flavors of what we put out.

412

00:29:57,935 --> 00:30:06,884

And I think I've said this on the episode with Montesey or no, I said it when the episode

with Josiah Williams, I've always tend to come from like a very composer background where

413

00:30:06,884 --> 00:30:07,670

it's like.

414

00:30:07,670 --> 00:30:16,234

Okay, like I don't have, let's say the John Kiernan signature sound for a theme, but like

I do a lot of orchestra and then jazz track and then a trap track.

415

00:30:16,234 --> 00:30:17,944

So for me, I'm always like, okay, cool.

416

00:30:17,944 --> 00:30:19,905

Like what a wrestler needs is that.

417

00:30:19,905 --> 00:30:28,530

But I always feel like, and I said this to Zach, was like, I feel like with you guys, when

people come to you, they know what they're getting and it's going to obviously sound like

418

00:30:28,530 --> 00:30:32,001

what makes sense for a wrestler, but it's going to sound like downstate.

419

00:30:32,001 --> 00:30:35,082

And I think that there's a lot of beautiful things in all of that.

420

00:30:35,082 --> 00:30:36,993

And when you think about.

421

00:30:36,995 --> 00:30:38,565

modern entrance music.

422

00:30:38,565 --> 00:30:39,715

There's a couple of guys.

423

00:30:39,715 --> 00:30:41,847

There's a couple of people out there who are crushing it.

424

00:30:41,847 --> 00:30:45,988

Mikey, obviously, yeah, to be able to write music and like, Hey, this guy's coming in.

425

00:30:45,988 --> 00:30:47,678

You got 45 minutes to write a song.

426

00:30:47,678 --> 00:30:48,449

I guess I do.

427

00:30:48,449 --> 00:30:50,620

It's always, it's always cool to see.

428

00:30:50,620 --> 00:30:53,981

I, I told him, I'm like, I had to do one in about the same time.

429

00:30:53,981 --> 00:31:00,224

And it was one of these things where, United Wrestling Network, they were doing a

championship wrestling and they were like, all right, cool.

430

00:31:00,224 --> 00:31:00,764

We need a theme.

431

00:31:00,764 --> 00:31:01,184

We'll let you know.

432

00:31:01,184 --> 00:31:01,577

We need them.

433

00:31:01,577 --> 00:31:02,415

Like, all right, cool.

434

00:31:02,415 --> 00:31:03,645

All of a sudden.

435

00:31:04,169 --> 00:31:06,820

about a half hour before they need to put it to print.

436

00:31:06,820 --> 00:31:08,549

They're like, yeah, how's that theme coming?

437

00:31:08,549 --> 00:31:10,939

I'm like, I haven't worked on it because you haven't told me what the deadline was.

438

00:31:10,939 --> 00:31:13,061

They're like, can you get it done in like an hour?

439

00:31:13,061 --> 00:31:16,863

like, I just so happened to put my child to sleep.

440

00:31:16,863 --> 00:31:18,985

So yes, we can do it in an hour.

441

00:31:18,985 --> 00:31:21,848

like that kind of stuff happens more than you would assume.

442

00:31:21,848 --> 00:31:23,905

But you hear all these different stories from everybody.

443

00:31:23,905 --> 00:31:30,046

And to be able to do this at such high quality, high pace like Mikey does, like downstate

like you do, like we all.

444

00:31:30,046 --> 00:31:34,979

have really gotten the opportunity to do, it had all of ourselves on the back for that.

445

00:31:34,979 --> 00:31:39,214

So in a very, like not to Masochampa way, but like in a very us way.

446

00:31:39,214 --> 00:31:43,257

So, and you brought up the LA night theme too.

447

00:31:43,257 --> 00:31:45,699

And I want to kind of dive a little bit more into some of those.

448

00:31:45,699 --> 00:31:48,220

First off, I will give you my apologies on air.

449

00:31:48,220 --> 00:31:52,944

I suck at responding to texts sometimes and I'm just like two kids is a wild

accomplishment.

450

00:31:52,944 --> 00:31:56,426

And I'm like being able to get them down, but we got to collab on tracks.

451

00:31:56,426 --> 00:31:57,310

Absolutely.

452

00:31:57,310 --> 00:32:01,743

drop me messages and be like, hey, ding dong, you said you were going to do this.

453

00:32:01,743 --> 00:32:03,738

And I'll be like, yeah, I get it.

454

00:32:04,342 --> 00:32:05,122

That's me.

455

00:32:05,122 --> 00:32:06,464

a little backstory.

456

00:32:06,464 --> 00:32:11,870

John, you were supposed to do the solo at the end of Let Me Talk To Ya.

457

00:32:11,870 --> 00:32:16,073

So unfortunately, it's me who's doing the solo on the end of it.

458

00:32:16,073 --> 00:32:17,456

it sounds awesome.

459

00:32:17,468 --> 00:32:20,932

But yeah, we gotta work on something.

460

00:32:20,932 --> 00:32:29,751

You put me in touch with Montese, because another backstory, he was talking about Sammy

Guevara and possibly having a live band.

461

00:32:29,751 --> 00:32:31,942

I was supposed to be the bass player in that band.

462

00:32:31,942 --> 00:32:33,824

So yeah.

463

00:32:33,824 --> 00:32:35,685

But yeah, shout out to you.

464

00:32:35,685 --> 00:32:39,367

Yeah, but we need to collaborate on something.

465

00:32:39,768 --> 00:32:40,804

Something big.

466

00:32:40,804 --> 00:32:42,345

But don't sell yourself short on that.

467

00:32:42,345 --> 00:32:44,685

That LA Night track is awesome.

468

00:32:44,685 --> 00:32:46,186

The solo is awesome.

469

00:32:46,186 --> 00:32:49,347

And you you've done the LA Night track with TZ.

470

00:32:49,347 --> 00:32:52,989

You have the Liv Morgan track that you did with Reality Suite.

471

00:32:52,989 --> 00:33:02,533

I love the fact that, again, not just with the AEW tracks, but with all these other

tracks, you have such an interesting take on how these should go.

472

00:33:02,533 --> 00:33:04,007

And you know, I...

473

00:33:04,007 --> 00:33:09,271

From what I remember, I'm pretty sure that LA Knight and Liv Morgan saw those too.

474

00:33:09,683 --> 00:33:19,959

Yes, yeah, lip morgan responded, after I posted it it's actually on her instagram story

like the the ad like the go listen to this It's actually on there.

475

00:33:19,959 --> 00:33:34,447

You know, she's she was super nice when I was like, hey, you know dming her hey, so i'm

not a weird fan, but I did a song and Kimmy so basically the the backstory on that is

476

00:33:34,447 --> 00:33:37,840

reality suites bassist, had a knee injury and

477

00:33:37,863 --> 00:33:39,943

they had a bunch of shows.

478

00:33:40,363 --> 00:33:50,963

So they asked me to fill in and while we were rehearsing for that Kimmy was like, oh, I

used to work with a wrestler because I was talking about the MJF song and they're like,

479

00:33:50,963 --> 00:33:55,803

yeah, I used to work with, do you know who Liv Morgan is?

480

00:33:55,803 --> 00:33:58,163

And I was like, hell yeah, I do.

481

00:33:58,303 --> 00:34:01,243

So she's like, yeah, know, funny coincidence.

482

00:34:01,243 --> 00:34:07,206

And I was like, oh, I was like, yeah, it would probably be cool if like we made a version.

483

00:34:07,206 --> 00:34:11,926

like a reality suite version of Liv Morgan's theme.

484

00:34:11,926 --> 00:34:16,026

So went home, I listened to her theme and I was like I think I can do this.

485

00:34:16,026 --> 00:34:20,826

So I started watching like a bunch of her promos and stuff like that.

486

00:34:20,826 --> 00:34:26,637

So a lot of the lyrics to that song are lines that she said in her promos like

487

00:34:26,637 --> 00:34:30,219

I'm blanking out now, but I'm not typical and stuff like that.

488

00:34:30,219 --> 00:34:36,244

And at the time she was trying to get more extreme and more, you know, evil.

489

00:34:36,244 --> 00:34:37,835

So yeah, lot of stuff.

490

00:34:37,835 --> 00:34:40,827

Yeah, just I watched that Liv Morgan documentary.

491

00:34:40,827 --> 00:34:46,991

I think it was on the network or Peacock or something like that, like a bunch of times

just trying to get inspiration for it.

492

00:34:46,991 --> 00:34:48,702

But yeah, it turned out really well.

493

00:34:48,702 --> 00:34:50,413

And shout out to Kimmy.

494

00:34:50,413 --> 00:34:52,234

She killed it on that song.

495

00:34:52,490 --> 00:34:53,070

That's awesome.

496

00:34:53,070 --> 00:35:00,466

And if you guys haven't heard reality suite before reality suite, think has been a staple

in Jersey for the last almost, almost decade now.

497

00:35:00,466 --> 00:35:02,437

You know, they've done so much amazing work.

498

00:35:02,437 --> 00:35:04,118

They've just gotten you joining the band.

499

00:35:04,118 --> 00:35:07,110

So that continues to up the stock of reality suite.

500

00:35:07,110 --> 00:35:10,444

Cause again, great players attract great players.

501

00:35:10,444 --> 00:35:16,408

And so if you haven't checked out reality suite, go on Spotify, go on Apple, go on all

these different places and check them out.

502

00:35:16,408 --> 00:35:17,079

It's awesome.

503

00:35:17,079 --> 00:35:17,691

And.

504

00:35:17,691 --> 00:35:21,313

You know what I love is to be able to see that like there is that little connection.

505

00:35:21,313 --> 00:35:29,748

And you know, for those who don't know Liv Morgan is from the Jersey area, I'm pretty

sure, or at least has some tangential connection to New Jersey.

506

00:35:29,748 --> 00:35:32,090

But yeah, Liv Morgan is from Jersey.

507

00:35:32,090 --> 00:35:36,853

So it's really cool to be like, okay, you have a Jersey band covering the Jersey girl.

508

00:35:36,853 --> 00:35:39,535

And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, here we are.

509

00:35:39,535 --> 00:35:41,077

And it's just such a cool one.

510

00:35:41,077 --> 00:35:43,696

For you, when you're putting lyrics down,

511

00:35:43,696 --> 00:35:44,857

for Liv Morgan.

512

00:35:44,857 --> 00:35:46,698

It's the same thing that we talked about earlier, right?

513

00:35:46,698 --> 00:35:55,654

You're putting lyrics with a song that's your version, but didn't necessarily have that

same storytelling lyric driven before you.

514

00:35:55,654 --> 00:35:57,055

And the same thing with LA Knight.

515

00:35:57,055 --> 00:36:02,888

Now, if I know Montese, did you write the lyrics for Teezy or did Teezy say, no, no, no, I

got it.

516

00:36:02,888 --> 00:36:04,819

And he's just, he riffs.

517

00:36:04,909 --> 00:36:08,564

Yeah, he I was like I sent him a demo

518

00:36:08,564 --> 00:36:19,084

Usually when I write I'll send him a demo of what I was working on and then I was like

this is kind of the song structure of how goes and then I go with shout out to Stephen

519

00:36:19,084 --> 00:36:27,926

Kellner in the burn room recording that's where I record all the stuff to make it sound

you know crazy but I was like this is this is my demo the song it's gonna sound better

520

00:36:27,926 --> 00:36:34,493

than what the demo is but you know and he was like yeah I got this and I was like okay

521

00:36:34,699 --> 00:36:43,698

And then so I started working on the instrumental track and I just had, you know, the the

courses and I just was like, here you go.

522

00:36:43,698 --> 00:36:45,670

You know, he's like, how many verses should I do?

523

00:36:45,670 --> 00:36:47,723

was like, well, I think there's two.

524

00:36:47,723 --> 00:36:49,929

So he's like, OK, I got it.

525

00:36:49,929 --> 00:36:50,776

I was like, OK.

526

00:36:50,776 --> 00:36:51,827

And I've never met him before.

527

00:36:51,827 --> 00:36:52,829

He lives in Florida.

528

00:36:52,829 --> 00:36:56,063

And I was like, OK, here it is like with.

529

00:36:56,063 --> 00:36:59,958

AK-40 Devon, like he was in the studio with me and I worked with him and stuff like that.

530

00:36:59,958 --> 00:37:01,240

But this he's like, yeah, I got it.

531

00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:03,443

And he killed it.

532

00:37:03,443 --> 00:37:12,444

one take, I think like he did like one and a half kind of verses and then like I took like

the ending of the first verse and made it the end of the second verse as well.

533

00:37:12,444 --> 00:37:14,335

So it's kind of like a hook, but.

534

00:37:14,335 --> 00:37:14,886

That was it.

535

00:37:14,886 --> 00:37:16,758

was like copy and paste.

536

00:37:16,759 --> 00:37:17,861

was amazing.

537

00:37:17,861 --> 00:37:21,737

Like he was so easy to work with and you know shout out to Monty.

538

00:37:21,737 --> 00:37:25,032

Well, he's the theme song king like he says.

539

00:37:25,032 --> 00:37:27,637

So like I don't know why I was worried.

540

00:37:27,637 --> 00:37:27,978

So.

541

00:37:27,978 --> 00:37:37,386

Working with Teezy is always so fun too because for me it's breaking out of a way that I

usually work because for me I'm very much just like I like to live and die on my own

542

00:37:37,386 --> 00:37:37,987

sword.

543

00:37:37,987 --> 00:37:48,146

I record everything in my home studio and so for me I'm always just like okay cool if I

can't do it or I work with somebody who doesn't have a home studio meaning like they don't

544

00:37:48,146 --> 00:37:54,321

have the ability to turn something fairly quickly around it's hard for me right because I

need to be able to

545

00:37:54,569 --> 00:37:59,813

It's kind of like that whole, need to be able to know when things are happening to

schedule things and whatnot.

546

00:37:59,813 --> 00:38:04,036

And with Teasy, Teasy goes to a studio and even then I'm like, all right, cool.

547

00:38:04,036 --> 00:38:05,918

Like, what are we doing?

548

00:38:05,918 --> 00:38:10,863

And I give him one was my favorite one I've worked on him with was the Dragon Lee track

pre-WWE.

549

00:38:10,863 --> 00:38:16,970

I went ahead and wrote that and sent it over to Teasy and I didn't really, I didn't give

him any lyrics and he's like, yeah, I got it.

550

00:38:16,970 --> 00:38:17,951

Like, all right.

551

00:38:17,951 --> 00:38:18,707

And so.

552

00:38:18,707 --> 00:38:26,647

What I usually ask people for is I go, hey, give me a breakdown of the individual tracks,

but then also bounce me a rough version so I can kind of hear where everything lays out.

553

00:38:26,647 --> 00:38:26,867

Right.

554

00:38:26,867 --> 00:38:31,307

So it's just in case the track doesn't line up with our DAW or whatever.

555

00:38:31,307 --> 00:38:32,147

Here's what we do.

556

00:38:32,147 --> 00:38:34,567

And he sent it back to me.

557

00:38:34,567 --> 00:38:38,587

And I'm like, this is amazing, but nothing is placed in a place.

558

00:38:38,587 --> 00:38:41,607

And he's like, Oh, I figured you'll just place it where you want it.

559

00:38:41,607 --> 00:38:43,327

And I'm like, what?

560

00:38:44,047 --> 00:38:46,307

So I'm sitting there with these lyrics that you're awesome.

561

00:38:46,307 --> 00:38:47,119

And I'm like,

562

00:38:47,119 --> 00:38:48,590

Okay, I got to build a chorus.

563

00:38:48,590 --> 00:38:49,941

I got to build this and whatnot.

564

00:38:49,941 --> 00:38:54,955

But like, he gives you such good stuff that when it lays out, you're like, okay, cool.

565

00:38:54,955 --> 00:38:56,557

This, this makes total sense.

566

00:38:56,557 --> 00:38:59,310

And, you know, I, gotta say again, work with TZ.

567

00:38:59,310 --> 00:39:01,082

Yeah, it's just, he's awesome.

568

00:39:01,082 --> 00:39:08,518

He knows the assignment and he does it as you've heard with any of the music that he's

done in wrestling outside of wrestling and sports and whatever.

569

00:39:08,518 --> 00:39:12,061

So it's just like, he knows what he's doing for me.

570

00:39:12,061 --> 00:39:16,004

Any fear that I had was simply a me thing where I'm like, all right, what are we doing?

571

00:39:16,004 --> 00:39:18,469

I've never worked like this before, but TZ's got it.

572

00:39:18,469 --> 00:39:19,733

Yeah, totally.

573

00:39:20,017 --> 00:39:22,640

Yeah, he's, you know, a pro, you know?

574

00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:23,682

So, yeah.

575

00:39:23,682 --> 00:39:27,275

Again, I think, yeah, it was just the one thing.

576

00:39:27,275 --> 00:39:30,097

I think he just kept saying, like, LA NIGHT at the end.

577

00:39:30,097 --> 00:39:38,154

And I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to just put the first half of the first verse

that he did and put it in the second verse as well.

578

00:39:38,154 --> 00:39:38,825

So it's a hook.

579

00:39:38,825 --> 00:39:41,117

And then, like, there was like a lip smack that he did.

580

00:39:41,117 --> 00:39:42,118

I took that out.

581

00:39:42,118 --> 00:39:42,719

That was it.

582

00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:43,260

Perfect.

583

00:39:43,260 --> 00:39:43,998

Done.

584

00:39:43,998 --> 00:39:46,564

You know, so yeah, total professional.

585

00:39:46,564 --> 00:39:47,787

He was awesome.

586

00:39:47,838 --> 00:39:48,569

I love that.

587

00:39:48,569 --> 00:39:57,718

And it's crazy too, because you think about all the music that has been done and even just

between you and I, and it's cool to be able to talk to different people who have done

588

00:39:57,718 --> 00:40:00,382

this, who have done covers, who have had themes done and whatnot.

589

00:40:00,382 --> 00:40:08,950

And it's just like, you know, when I talked to Downstate, okay, between myself and them,

there's such this collection of music, both not wrestling related, wrestling related, and

590

00:40:08,950 --> 00:40:10,551

like wrestling tangential.

591

00:40:10,551 --> 00:40:12,353

With you and I, it's the same thing.

592

00:40:12,353 --> 00:40:14,084

With Mikey and I, it's the same thing.

593

00:40:14,084 --> 00:40:15,355

Mikey, you have to come on the show.

594

00:40:15,355 --> 00:40:16,595

would love to have you on the show.

595

00:40:16,595 --> 00:40:17,796

Jim Johnston too.

596

00:40:17,796 --> 00:40:18,577

We're going to talk.

597

00:40:18,577 --> 00:40:20,268

so all of these different things, right?

598

00:40:20,268 --> 00:40:31,033

Like all of these different people have this wealth of music and to think like, man,

there's still hundreds and thousands of wrestlers out there to work with that need music.

599

00:40:31,033 --> 00:40:38,396

And there's still plenty of music over time that hasn't been re-imagined that you can

reimagine in all sorts of different ways.

600

00:40:38,396 --> 00:40:41,566

It's an exciting time for music and wrestling to have this little,

601

00:40:41,566 --> 00:40:44,015

It's a little marriage together, so it's super cool.

602

00:40:44,338 --> 00:40:46,319

Yeah, it's really cool.

603

00:40:46,319 --> 00:40:49,801

yeah, again, the fans are so passionate and stuff.

604

00:40:49,801 --> 00:40:53,763

And yeah, we're just trying to make everything better.

605

00:40:53,763 --> 00:40:59,054

that way, the wrestling promoters don't get sued for using like enter Sandman and stuff

like that.

606

00:40:59,054 --> 00:41:04,150

And they can come to us and we can just help them tell a story.

607

00:41:04,150 --> 00:41:06,841

And that's basically the whole thing.

608

00:41:06,841 --> 00:41:08,412

It's just telling the story.

609

00:41:08,608 --> 00:41:09,218

Absolutely.

610

00:41:09,218 --> 00:41:14,071

And to any wrestling promoters listening to this, please do not get sued.

611

00:41:14,071 --> 00:41:16,313

Do not get sued.

612

00:41:16,313 --> 00:41:25,939

Do not do as the first person I ever wrote a theme for said, do not play music and hope

you don't get sued and do not play end of heartache and hope that the next person does not

613

00:41:25,939 --> 00:41:27,680

come out to end of heartache also.

614

00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,122

Two things that really helped launch the music for me.

615

00:41:30,122 --> 00:41:34,744

It's like, hey, these guys just play music and hope that they don't get hit by the

licensed police.

616

00:41:34,744 --> 00:41:36,035

And then the other thing is,

617

00:41:36,035 --> 00:41:40,629

A lot of people like the same song, so sometimes two wrestlers can come out to the same

theme back to back.

618

00:41:40,629 --> 00:41:43,992

Make it original, make it legal, do all that.

619

00:41:43,992 --> 00:41:48,396

Now, totally talking on a separate side, we're gonna end with two questions here.

620

00:41:48,396 --> 00:41:51,279

One of them being one that we talked about before, one that we didn't.

621

00:41:51,279 --> 00:41:59,846

And by the way, to Ben Eller, thank you so much for this question, because this is now

going to be a staple of the show going forward.

622

00:41:59,846 --> 00:42:04,868

So if you had to put together a WrestleMania card, three matches,

623

00:42:04,868 --> 00:42:08,945

with musicians, what would some of those matches be?

624

00:42:08,945 --> 00:42:19,925

I would say the first thing that comes to my head because it's like so niche is I'm a huge

fan of the band Wage War and there was like a little bit of controversy with a song by

625

00:42:19,925 --> 00:42:26,325

Architects like they kind of had the same riff in it, low and I think it's Doomsday from

Architects.

626

00:42:26,325 --> 00:42:38,949

So that would be the first match is a 10-man like tag battle royal thing of whoever wins

gets the right to say they came up with it first because I know Cody

627

00:42:38,949 --> 00:42:43,524

Who's one of my favorite songwriters right now from wage war he's written for?

628

00:42:43,524 --> 00:42:52,582

Falling in reverse all these big like metal metal core hooks But he's like yeah, so I

wrote this riff like four years ago and trying to play it to to The podcast around his

629

00:42:52,582 --> 00:42:54,853

iPhone like this notes app and stuff like that.

630

00:42:54,853 --> 00:43:00,009

So yeah, that that's very niche, but I think it would be cool Let's see another one

631

00:43:00,009 --> 00:43:01,560

That's really, really hard.

632

00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:03,382

I guess John Cunin versus me.

633

00:43:03,382 --> 00:43:05,444

That would be a good one.

634

00:43:05,444 --> 00:43:07,285

It just be a lot of this.

635

00:43:09,427 --> 00:43:10,769

Yeah, yes.

636

00:43:10,769 --> 00:43:12,531

Which I'm still owed, by the way.

637

00:43:12,531 --> 00:43:16,987

We're never going to let that die 10, 20 years down the line on one of our headstones.

638

00:43:16,987 --> 00:43:21,409

It's going to be like, I still owe him Balaguer or he still owns me Balaguer.

639

00:43:21,409 --> 00:43:32,358

Yeah, and to clue in he has this white bela-gare Hyperion guitar that I was wanting for so

long and I saw him He posted a picture with and I was like you mother

640

00:43:33,663 --> 00:43:35,445

And funny story about that one too.

641

00:43:35,445 --> 00:43:41,438

It was right when I was in transition of looking into a new company for, you know, working

with and whatnot.

642

00:43:41,438 --> 00:43:43,549

And always shout out to the Ballagher fam.

643

00:43:43,549 --> 00:43:52,814

I can honestly say I've never worked with a company that's been just so awesome to

artists, so artist focused and make such dope instruments.

644

00:43:52,814 --> 00:43:59,818

And for me, I don't know what it is, but like I saw the Hyperion online and I'm like, man,

that thing's actually really cool.

645

00:43:59,818 --> 00:44:11,406

And so I ended up scooping that one up and it came and I was just like, I've always wanted

flying V guitars, but I've never had the Cajones to buy one because I sit to play guitar a

646

00:44:11,406 --> 00:44:11,777

lot.

647

00:44:11,777 --> 00:44:13,683

So I've always kind of gone with like the strat style.

648

00:44:13,683 --> 00:44:20,943

And I'm like, this is the first kind of wild sized guitar or not wild sized, a wild shaped

guitar that I got.

649

00:44:20,943 --> 00:44:24,506

And I was like, man, this thing is unbelievable.

650

00:44:24,506 --> 00:44:26,567

And so then I reached out to them like, Hey, here's my story.

651

00:44:26,567 --> 00:44:27,228

Here's what it is.

652

00:44:27,228 --> 00:44:27,812

And

653

00:44:27,812 --> 00:44:29,793

They were like, yeah, we can work and this and that.

654

00:44:29,793 --> 00:44:38,076

now literally it's like, if I look over here, there's five Hyperions just because I really

liked that guitar shape.

655

00:44:38,076 --> 00:44:42,055

I'm like, dude, never before has it been like, quality to quality to quality.

656

00:44:42,055 --> 00:44:47,538

So if anyone's in the market for guitars, Balaguer, you still have a third match that you

got to do.

657

00:44:47,598 --> 00:44:59,952

I would say Montese versus AK-40 Devon just because I'm just looking at stuff or like

Mikey Ruckus versus Jim Johnson would be a good one for like the king of the wrestling

658

00:44:59,952 --> 00:45:00,732

songwriters.

659

00:45:00,732 --> 00:45:03,075

um Yeah, so those.

660

00:45:03,075 --> 00:45:05,698

Yeah, that's one to pick.

661

00:45:06,295 --> 00:45:07,136

I dig on that.

662

00:45:07,136 --> 00:45:10,000

would even say, I'll throw one in there too.

663

00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:14,364

I would say, man, there's so many right now.

664

00:45:14,364 --> 00:45:16,245

Bullet for my Valentine versus Trivium.

665

00:45:16,245 --> 00:45:21,929

Not because of anything going on, but both two records that I love to death, The Poison

and Ascendancy.

666

00:45:21,929 --> 00:45:23,811

Those are the highlights of this last tour.

667

00:45:23,811 --> 00:45:24,651

And you know what?

668

00:45:24,651 --> 00:45:29,837

It's like battle for open seven, eight supremacy in metal core.

669

00:45:29,837 --> 00:45:31,459

You boys totally down for that.

670

00:45:31,459 --> 00:45:32,501

I would love that.

671

00:45:32,501 --> 00:45:33,623

that'd be a really good one.

672

00:45:33,623 --> 00:45:38,046

And then I've always thought a really good one would even be.

673

00:45:38,106 --> 00:45:47,329

CFOs versus Mikey Ruckus because I feel like those two are like the real modern things

that a lot of us think about when it comes to modern entrance themes and I'd be like,

674

00:45:47,329 --> 00:45:49,470

yeah, okay, there'd be a handicap match.

675

00:45:49,470 --> 00:45:50,631

I'm fine with that.

676

00:45:50,631 --> 00:45:55,372

You could probably merge the CFO guys into one person for all intents and purposes of this

match.

677

00:45:55,372 --> 00:45:58,233

A 12 foot CFO versus a six foot Mikey Ruckus.

678

00:45:58,233 --> 00:45:59,843

Mikey, tell me if you're six feet or not.

679

00:45:59,843 --> 00:46:04,215

I don't know, but you know, you get to have then someone in your corner, Mikey.

680

00:46:04,215 --> 00:46:05,696

That's totally fine.

681

00:46:05,696 --> 00:46:06,906

Whoever you want.

682

00:46:07,862 --> 00:46:08,914

It would be you.

683

00:46:08,969 --> 00:46:11,114

maybe, maybe me, maybe you.

684

00:46:11,114 --> 00:46:21,886

And then final question I have before I leave and I ask everybody this, if you had to make

a Spotify playlist of three songs that represent Darren Fisher, what would those three

685

00:46:21,886 --> 00:46:23,057

songs be?

686

00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:27,483

Do you mean like entrance themes or just songs in general?

687

00:46:28,044 --> 00:46:29,295

wow.

688

00:46:29,295 --> 00:46:30,587

Probably like...

689

00:46:30,587 --> 00:46:34,609

Probably an Nirvana song like Radio Fridley, Unit Shifter or something like that.

690

00:46:34,609 --> 00:46:36,461

Something noisy and just cool.

691

00:46:36,461 --> 00:46:38,203

I'm gonna go back to Wage War.

692

00:46:38,203 --> 00:46:44,368

Probably just something off like the Manic record or the newest one, Stigma.

693

00:46:44,368 --> 00:46:48,870

I'll say like Blur since that's I think their newest big single.

694

00:46:48,910 --> 00:46:57,275

And then something like either like a Dunkin' Cheeks song like the Acoustic Singer

songwriter or like Elliott Smith, like the 90s like

695

00:46:57,275 --> 00:47:09,199

really sad songs like so if you listen to like these wolves that isn't Like a wrestling

theme it's usually either like a rock song or it's like a super sad You know my girlfriend

696

00:47:09,199 --> 00:47:15,804

at the time hates me or whatever song or you know, I'm a sad boy kind of song I love all

that kind of stuff.

697

00:47:15,804 --> 00:47:18,167

So yeah, those those would be the three

698

00:47:18,167 --> 00:47:22,239

And I love how you brought up Duncan Sheik too, because Barely Breathing is such a good

song.

699

00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:24,101

All of us know it, who are of that era.

700

00:47:24,101 --> 00:47:27,823

Elliot Smith, feel like is just such a good artist, just straight through.

701

00:47:27,823 --> 00:47:29,744

Pick any Elliot Smith song.

702

00:47:29,744 --> 00:47:31,535

Incredibly underrated.

703

00:47:32,039 --> 00:47:42,033

Yeah, that's like I got into Duncan Sheik like by accident my my girlfriend of time I was

just starting to play guitar and I was writing was trying to write songs for myself and

704

00:47:42,033 --> 00:47:52,058

she was like, you you sound like and I was like, I'm expecting like Kurt Cobain or like

Lane Staley and she's like Duncan Sheik and I went who and so I was like, whatever and we

705

00:47:52,058 --> 00:47:55,209

got into an argument and I was like, you know, whatever and I took

706

00:47:55,209 --> 00:48:05,807

some CDs like it was the Incubus City and one of the CDs I took was Duncan Cheek and I was

like you know this is I don't sound like him and I put it in my CD player in the car and I

707

00:48:05,807 --> 00:48:07,608

was like I like this song.

708

00:48:07,637 --> 00:48:12,097

It was like, She Runs Away, was like self-titled, that was like his first single.

709

00:48:12,097 --> 00:48:16,186

it was like, and then like Barely Breathing and like Reasons for Living.

710

00:48:16,186 --> 00:48:17,728

And I was like, I like these songs.

711

00:48:17,728 --> 00:48:18,969

Yeah, I can see it now.

712

00:48:18,969 --> 00:48:21,371

So I became like a huge Duncan Cheek fan.

713

00:48:21,371 --> 00:48:22,852

I've met him like six times.

714

00:48:22,852 --> 00:48:23,734

I think he's tired.

715

00:48:23,734 --> 00:48:28,357

He's tired of seeing me at this point, but I'm a super big Duncan Cheek fan.

716

00:48:28,437 --> 00:48:30,680

So shout out to Duncan Cheek.

717

00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:35,554

And I love how you brought up other songs outside of just barely breathing because he's a

great songwriter.

718

00:48:35,554 --> 00:48:40,845

And I think that song got such play that people really went, man, like he's a one hit

wonder.

719

00:48:40,845 --> 00:48:44,679

No, he's got a lot of really great songs in that catalog.

720

00:48:44,679 --> 00:48:48,392

And you know, whereas Elliott Smith, don't think has like one standout.

721

00:48:48,392 --> 00:48:49,863

like the whole catalog is great.

722

00:48:49,863 --> 00:48:53,216

I feel like Duncan Sheik, he's got a lot of great songs in the catalog.

723

00:48:53,216 --> 00:48:57,379

It's just, they always pushed that one because that's kind of what you did back in that

time, right?

724

00:48:57,379 --> 00:48:58,520

You ended up pushing.

725

00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:07,688

like that one song and charging 20 bucks for a record that had like 15 bad songs and one

good one, except Duncan Sheik was putting out a record that had great songs throughout the

726

00:49:07,688 --> 00:49:08,398

whole thing.

727

00:49:08,398 --> 00:49:12,682

So I'm always happy when someone brings up something else a Duncan Sheik outside of that.

728

00:49:12,682 --> 00:49:13,412

So.

729

00:49:13,412 --> 00:49:16,565

Yeah, he's done a ton of stuff like he wrote the music for Spring Awakening.

730

00:49:16,565 --> 00:49:20,968

So if you don't know Duncan Cheek from Barely Breathing, you know him from Spring

Awakening.

731

00:49:20,968 --> 00:49:24,193

But he's written songs for The American Psycho.

732

00:49:24,193 --> 00:49:27,718

I know he's working on a bunch of different musicals and killing it.

733

00:49:27,718 --> 00:49:31,642

One of my favorite Duncan Cheek records is a record called Whisper House.

734

00:49:31,642 --> 00:49:39,231

And it features, I think they were trying to make it into a musical and it just never

panned out, but it features a...

735

00:49:39,231 --> 00:49:53,023

female singer named Holly Brooke who now goes by Skylar Grey who like she wrote songs or

hooks for like there's that Eminem song the I can see the the things like this watch me

736

00:49:53,023 --> 00:49:55,606

burn I don't know I love the way it hurts that

737

00:49:55,606 --> 00:49:56,098

way you lie.

738

00:49:56,098 --> 00:49:57,991

Yeah.

739

00:49:57,991 --> 00:50:08,140

she she wrote that hook for like rihanna and took it and like she's worked with a bunch of

times but like she had to reinvent herself and go that way but that that record is super

740

00:50:08,140 --> 00:50:08,675

great too.

741

00:50:08,675 --> 00:50:16,413

I went on a huge tangent on Duncan Cheek so you can see how much I love Duncan Cheek but

yeah kill the record whisper house go check it out

742

00:50:16,413 --> 00:50:17,213

love that.

743

00:50:17,213 --> 00:50:19,313

And Duncan Sheik, you should come on the podcast.

744

00:50:19,313 --> 00:50:20,453

We'll talk all about wrestling.

745

00:50:20,453 --> 00:50:22,213

I don't even know if you know wrestling, but we'll talk about it.

746

00:50:22,213 --> 00:50:29,353

We'll talk about all the songs on the discography and spend a little bit on Barely

Breathing and be like, let's expand on that catalog.

747

00:50:29,353 --> 00:50:31,273

Let's let the people know what else there is.

748

00:50:31,273 --> 00:50:33,853

And Darren, it has been awesome having you on the show today.

749

00:50:33,853 --> 00:50:36,133

I know we've been trying to get this going for a while.

750

00:50:36,133 --> 00:50:38,573

I'm glad that we finally locked down some time.

751

00:50:38,573 --> 00:50:41,453

And man, it's so cool to see everything you're doing.

752

00:50:41,453 --> 00:50:42,153

We're going to collab.

753

00:50:42,153 --> 00:50:43,473

We're going to figure it out.

754

00:50:43,473 --> 00:50:45,653

And dude, thank you so much for coming on.

755

00:50:45,684 --> 00:50:46,517

Thank you for having me.

756

00:50:46,517 --> 00:50:47,300

This is great.

757

00:50:47,300 --> 00:50:49,608

I'm a huge fan of the show, so thank you.