The Downbeat

Matt Garstka - Animals As Leaders

My guest this week is the phenomenal Matt Garstka. Back for his THIRD episode. Matt is the drummer for Animals As Leaders and generally considered to be one of the best drummers of his generation. Back again, I got the chance to pick his incredibly ridged brain about the drums, working out, movies, and all the good stuff.

Emma Boster (Dying Wish)

My guest this week is Emma Boster, vocalist of Dying Wish. We talked about the creation of their STUNNING upcoming album Symptoms of Survival (and our Downbeat exclusive vinyl variant) as well as a variety of topics from Britney Spears conspiracy theories to gender and much more. Check out the exclusive Downbeat variant of Symptoms of Survival with insane death metal artwork at https://www.dyingwishhc.com

Jay Weinberg (Slipknot)

My guest this week is Jay Weinberg, drummer for Slipknot. Coming from a musical background, (his Dad is Max Weinberg of The E Street Band) Jay is a super humble, hospitable human and phenomenal drummer. We talked about his time in Slipknot of course but also about learning 200+songs for Bruce Springsteen at 16 years old. We also chat about drums, tattoos, doom metal, and much much more. This episode of the Downbeat is the first of a trip to Nashville, which was actually born out of Jay himself expressing an interest in doing the show. Thanks to the patreon we were able to make it work. Enjoy

Connie Sgarbossa (SeeYouSpaceCowboy)

My guest this week is Connie Sgarbossa, vocalist of SeeYouSpaceCowboy. We talked about the creation of their upcoming as-yet-untitled new album as well as her history in the myspace-adjacent music scene and soundcloud rappers, volunteering in a vegan anarchist cafe, her struggles with addiction and experiences being a trans woman in heavy music, the earth being flat, radical politics and many more buzzwords that could not possibly annoy the comment section any more if I tried.

Kublai Khan TX (Matt Honeycutt + Isaac Lamb)

My guests on the podcast this week are Matthew Honeycutt (vocals) and Isaac Lamb (drums) of Kublai Khan. We talk the decline of chipotle, living in a trailer, movies, and much more. 

Static Dress (Olli Appleyard + Sam Ogden)

My guests this week are Olli Appleyard (vocals) and Sam Ogden (drums) of Static Dress. We talked about the sometimes unfortunate downfalls of being unapologetically yourself, their recent signing to the prestigious Roadrunner Records, being invited to Bring Me The Horizon's Malta weekender...and much more. As they weren't on tour - accomodation for the guests on this episode of the podcast was paid for by the lovely people on The Downbeat Patreon. It's a quid.

Monuments (Andy Cizek + John Browne)

My guests this week are Andy Cizek and John Browne from progressive metal band Monuments. We talked quite a lot about the increasing frustration around trying to make a living as a musician - including but not limited to merch cuts, streaming, the impact on mental health, and of course we spoke about their lovely and difficult-to-play music.

Cannibal Corpse (Paul Mazurkiewicz)

My guest this week is Paul Mazurkiewicz, drummer and founding member of death metal LEGENDS Cannibal Corpse. We spoke about everything from being asked personally by Jim Carrey to feature in Ave Ventura in 1994 all the way up to embracing technology to advance their live show in the 2020s and beyond...

Alpha Wolf (Sabian + Mitch)

My guests this week are Sabian and Mitch from Alpha Wolf. We talked about why their band is so good and heavy, why Australia leads the way in modern metalcore, and I ask Chat GPT to write a romantic fanfiction about the band.

Steve Judd - Karnivool

I sat down with Steve Judd of Australian progressive titans KARNIVOOL to talk drums, how he has his eggs, passing off live mistakes as simply 'Jazz', pizza...and diabetes (unrelated).