Asayda (Mark Frye)

Cincinnati is full of rooms where a band can level up fast, but only if you know where to look. We talk with hard rock artist Mark Frye from Asayda about the Cincinnati live music scene as a real map of neighborhoods, venues, and crowds, and why the city feels like a “big small town” for musicians. From Bogarts to Annie’s Music Center to Ludlow Garage and Riverbend, we compare what each space rewards, what it costs to be close to the stage, and what makes a show feel electric when the band is still on the rise. 

We also get into the less glamorous truth behind every solid band: people. Mark breaks down how Aseda came together after multiple projects, why “good hang” matters as much as chops, and how lineup changes happen when life, family, careers, and health collide with rehearsal schedules. If you’ve ever wondered why some groups sound great but still fall apart, this part hits home with practical, real-world honesty. 

Then we go deep on the craft and the gear. Mark shares how Asayda is building a new album with a DIY studio approach, how drum tracking can work with an e-kit and triggered sounds, and why flexibility can be a blessing and a curse when you can always tweak “one more” part. We talk guitars, stage visibility, and the modern debate over modelers and “real” instruments, plus what’s next including the Swine City Brewing show on September 4 and the band’s release strategy for Spotify and beyond. If you like Cincinnati rock stories, recording process talk, and behind-the-scenes band building, hit follow, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Jay Franze 0:31

And we are coming at you live. I am Jay Franzi. And if you are new to the show, this is your source for the latest news, reviews, and interviews. And if you'd like to join in, comment, or fire off any questions, please head over to jafrenzie.com. All right, my friends, tonight we have a very special guest with us. I said it once, I will say it again. We have a very special guest. We have a hard rock recording artist hailing from the great state of Ohio. We have Mark Fry. Mark, my friend, thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Absolutely, Jay.

Jay Franze 1:02

Appreciate it. Sir, I'm excited tonight, probably for selfish reasons, but I am excited because I am new to the area of Cincinnati and you live in Cincinnati. Yes. How long have you been in Cincinnati, sir? Uh, whole life. So born and raised. All right. That's

Cincinnati’s Music Scene Map

Jay Franze 1:21

perfect. It's perfect because I want to know what the music scene is like in Cincinnati?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

It's really good, honestly. I think Cincinnati's kind of one of those like big, small towns. Everybody talks about it. You think of big cities, you think of the Chicago's, the LA's, the New Yorks, um Boston. Boston. Boston. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

My wife is from New England, so I can't neglect Boston. But uh, absolutely. Is that where you're from? Yes. Original? Okay, very nice. You lost the accent on the way, though. Did the road trip. Forced myself to lose the accent. Yeah, but I mean, you know, Cincinnati, it's funny because when you think of Cincinnati, you've got you've got the main part, which is kind of the downtown area where you've got Bogarts, you've got some of the places where a lot of the bigger acts come through in like a riverbend. More recently, you've got the Andrew J. Brady, stuff like that. When you talk about the local scene, a lot of it is spread between downtown Cincinnati up into like the Clifton area, which is kind of around University of Cincinnati. Then you've got quite a bit of it across the river in like the Covington, Covington area, and even stretching into like Newport and some of that. But I've lived probably in just about every corner of the city. I've kind of migrated all from downtown through Clifton to Westside to Oakley to Sharonville to Mason. I mean, I've kind of made a trek all the way through. And I would say the music scene is very, it's very widespread. There's not just one genre that seems to kind of have its claws in here. It seems to really be a lot of different different styles, which I think is a good thing. I mean, I I think anytime you can have a city, I mean, you've got places like New Orleans, where you think of New Orleans, you think jazz, right? You're just like it's a jazz town. Not to say there isn't other things. You think of Nashville, you're like a country town, right? But no, I think it's it's a very wide, wide variety of things.

Bogarts And The Perfect Crowd

Jay Franze 3:26

You mentioned a handful of places. Most of them I have been to, but some of them I have not. Yeah. For example, I have not been to Bogartts. Everyone tells me I need to go. What do you think of it?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

I honestly think it's probably the best place to see a band as they're ascending. So probably the first concert that I can remember seeing at Bogarts was I'm gonna age myself a little here, but it was back in '97, and I saw Limp Biscuit open for Deftones.

Jay Franze 3:57

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

And at that point, I I didn't nobody who knew who Lint Biscuit was. They hadn't even come out with Faith, they hadn't come out with anything. You know, I'd gone just to see Deftones. I was uh, I guess 97, I was a 16-year-old kid, and just wanted to go see the Deftones, showed up, get there, the place is sold out. So has anybody told you about the like what the layout looks like? No. So it's you literally you walk in on the right-hand side, there's a bar and kind of a kind of an overlook stretched out area. It's usually where a lot of the bands set up merch, stuff like that. And then as you go straight, you go down a small set of stairs, maybe 15-20 stairs, and then you've just got an open room. And it's probably half a football field, right? It's a pretty good size, maybe, maybe not quite as wide as half, maybe maybe a little bit smaller than that, maybe 40 yards, and then cut a quarter of it off the sides or whatever. But it honestly, it there's no seating, right? So you're you're standing. If you go down there, you're standing, and it's such a great place to go, and you can kind of pick your vantage point. There's also an upstairs balcony that you can go on to. So you really kind of get to pick and choose how you want to see the band. If you want to get down, which of course at 16, it was me. I was like, let's get the mosh, get right into it. So, right up front, getting smashed and kicked and punched, and who knows what else. But but I remember being halfway through the floor, and Will Haven was the first band. They were very heavy, very heavy, which is all screws, right? And they were good, but it kind of a very consistent energy. Lib Biscuit was about to come on, the lights dim, but the lights start going crazy. I kind of got the sense around me that really nobody knew a lot about these guys. But then as soon as the music started, I mean, I think that that place probably on the floor probably holds close to 800 to 1,000 people when it's when it's sold out. And I remember as soon as the first song started, they started with pollution off the three-dollar bill, y'all. And that whole I thought the floor was gonna collapse. The whole place was just up and down. I remember looking behind me, I was about halfway, like I said, there wasn't a single person that wasn't jumping up and down. I mean, the energy was just electric. And I think that's actually probably the moment that I fell in love with heavy music, to be honest with you. It was it was such a surreal experience. So yeah, Bogarts is fantastic. I mean, I've seen all kinds of bands, I've seen Royal Blood there when they were nobody. Remind me later, I got another good Royal Blood story for you. But yeah, I saw them there, I've seen Rival Suns there, I've seen Seven Dusts, so many different bands. I yeah, like it's a great place. Yeah.

Jay Franze 6:49

The way you're describing it sounds general admission for sure, then. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, they did change it now, so they've they've built out like on the sides, basically where the stairs go down, there's a set of stairs on each side, kind of above that kind of mid layer. And then on the sides, they've I think they've built what they call kind of suites now, so you can like reserve kind of a little spot on the side. That's newer, though. I I personally haven't been up there, but outside of that, yeah, it's all general admission, which is kind of what's great about it because you get tired from being on the floor, they got tables and chairs on the mid layer, or if you go up to the balcony, same thing, right? They got tables and chairs, you can you can pop up there, and there's also a bar upstairs. So if you just want to kind of go relax a little bit, take a break, you can do that too.

Annie’s, Ludlow, Riverbend Comparisons

Jay Franze 7:34

All right, so definitely check it out. It's in a weird area of town. So I used to live two blocks from so yes. Let's compare it to some of the others. Like I saw you perform at Annie's. Annie's Music Center used to be Riverfront Live. Yeah. So what's the vibe like compared to Annie's?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

I would call Annie's kind of like a, and I don't mean this in a negative way, but probably like a like a little brother version of Bogart's. Very similar layouts. Annie's is a little a little wider, so it has a little more room around the pit. It kind of has that slightly elevated, right? A couple steps up. Bogart's doesn't have that. It's basically like a straight shot, and from the stage all the way back to where the staircase is, is just one floor, right? So there's no like I've been to a couple places up in Columbus, I think it's Newport Music Hall, has kind of that sides where you can walk up around the the edges and kind of get a little closer to the stage. Bogart's isn't like that, it's just kind of more of a straight shot. But Annie's has the outdoor section, which Bogarts doesn't have. And Annie's is is a special place. I mean, obviously, there's been a lot of talent that came through there. I think my first show I saw at Annie's was Godsmack opening for down Phil and Selmo from Pantera's side project. Again, Godsmack was nobody at this point. They were they were unknown, they weren't even on the radio. I'm like, who are these guys? I'm here to see as close as I can get to Pantera. Right. Just going to see Phil. Yeah. And they came on and they they killed it. They killed it. Oh, just I mean, it was it was such a solid set. And Godsmack took a lot of grief over the years for, and I think a lot of bands that that hit it big that just get endless radio play take a lot of grief from people just because they're tired of hearing them. Probably not as much these days, right? Because the radio is not as prevalent as it used to be. But God Smack Boston band, by the way.

Jay Franze 9:36

Just throw them there. There you go. There you go. Now, another one that I've been to that was kind of strange to me was Ludlow Garage. What do you think of that place?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

That's a cool place. I've only been there twice. I lived on Ludlow. So I told you I lived all over. It's um that's a place you'd expect to see a little bit different of a vibe, right? A lot of trivia bands. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But it's a great place, you know, and I it that's a smaller place, it's a little bit of a smaller venue, but I personally like the smaller venues. I I think that there's nothing wrong with festivals. You know, I've gone to the Louder Than Life's and River Bend, you know, maybe one you're curious about as well, because that's the one that's down on it's a little over from Annie's, but down by the river.

Jay Franze 10:27

Yeah, just yeah, exactly exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

It's very close. But that's the type of place where if you want to even be in less than binocular view of the band, you're gonna drop two to three hundred dollars on a ticket with a seat. And then it's got the lawn area on the outside that you'll pay the cheaper seats. But you're doing this the whole show, right?

Jay Franze 10:49

You're kind of see the screen.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Exactly. Yeah, you're like, great, they have a 300-inch TV or however big it is that's up there.

Jay Franze 10:56

But you're standing outside in the heat to watch a TV. Exactly. You get a good suntan. I mean, maybe that's part of what you're paying for. It's like a tanning booth. No, I've been to Riverbank quite a bit. I was just there. Yeah, I shot for Five Finger Death Punch a couple weeks ago, Chicago and sticks before that. Um, but last year I went, a friend of mine plays keyboards for Cindy Lopper. Oh, really? So my wife and I went to check out Cindy Lopper, and she gave us really nice seats. I mean, we were like front row center. That's great. But it was so hot that I thought I was gonna pass out. I told my wife, I said, Come on, let's just go sit back on the lawn or someplace where there's a breeze. She's like, No, we got these seats, this is great. I mean, I honestly thought I was gonna pass out. But even with Five Finger Death Punch and that stuff, we're talking pushing a hundred degrees at that place. It was brutal.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And I mean, for those bands, uh, you know, I even playing at Annie's when you came and saw us, it wasn't that hot in there. But when you're up on stage and you got the light, I mean, I was sweating. When you got the blue or the red light on you. Oh, and of course, you know, I'm like, I gotta wear all black. Well, yeah, you know, that helps or not.

Jay Franze 12:07

But that's all I remember about Annie's. I mean, it's one of my favorite venues in town. I mean, because it reminds me of up north, where everything is black and cinder block, and it's yeah, it is not a fancy-looking venue at all. It does not try to be good. Right, it's a basement venue for sure. Yeah, but I like it and the music. Holy cow, that night I saw you, that music was so loud that it was distorting like nobody's business. Yes. I was like, please, somebody, turn just turn it down. If nothing else, just turn it down. I love rock, but there's limits for well, yeah. Make it as loud as you want as long as you're not going to distort. Exactly. But it was it was a fun night nonetheless. And I get some some good pictures, but the only thing I I think about that place is everything is blue or red. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah. They've got their color scheme. I mean, right? They're they're staying very true to the color scheme. Patriotic for sure. And if you don't mind, I I'd like I would like to give a quick shout-out because the people there were fantastic. The staff, the bartenders were hilarious and very kind. I appreciated you coming out and taking pictures, and our friend Nikki, who does a lot of pictures for Annie, she does fantastic work. So yeah, it was a fun night.

Jay Franze 13:22

Yeah, I've run into her a couple times at a few different venues at this point. Yeah, she's great. She's very nice. I ran into her over in Newport. What's that? Newport Revival or something?

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I I was at um Red Rhythm and Boom, which is kind of our Fourth of July up in Mason, and they had Fits in the Tantrums, which is kind of a poppy type band. She was running, they were the headliner, and they're, I mean, huge on Spotify. My kids love them. And she was doing photos for them up there. And I think who was who was uh Vertical Horizon, maybe was before that. They they get a lot of like the 90s bands that kind of have you know had their day and they get to come back and do some of these Fourth of July festivals.

Jay Franze 14:05

Yeah, I saw her at a few different venues for sure. But I think the very first time that I worked with her or worked next to her was at the Newport Revival.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, that's a nice place. Yeah, I like that place. I've never had the pleasure of playing there, but that's definitely on my would like to list. So if you're listening, reach out. Yeah, come on, give us a call.

Jay Franze 14:28

Southgate Revival, thank you. Why do you keep making me say Newport?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Well, I mean, it's in Newport.

Jay Franze 14:34

It's in Newport, Southgate Revival. So but yeah, no, I saw The Summit was the band playing that night.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Okay. I don't think I've heard them before. Oh, they're good. What kind of what kind of music? Um blues rock.

Jay Franze 14:45

They just played a show here in town last night with Z Top. Really? And they're they're coming back with um Collective Soul, maybe. Oh, Collective Soul's nice. Yeah, they um they definitely have a connection. They're on like the same label or something as I think it's Collective Soul and Z Top.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

I gotcha.

Jay Franze 15:08

I'm looking it up now just because I don't like to give out misinformation.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Well, and that's the worst when you're like, I know I'm gonna think of this name ten minutes after the show ends. Tomorrow.

Jay Franze 15:19

It's collective soul for sure, yes. Okay, and collective soul. They'll be playing at the Hard Rock. But they played with Z Top just up somewhere near your area last night. Oh, really? Because the the second of the three members of Z Top passed away. So I'm sure they were doing some sort of tribute.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yeah, I remember Shine by Collective Soul was one of the first guitar solos. I like really told myself, like, all right, we're gonna sit down and learn this. Right. And it's not super complex, but it's it's got it's it's got the little tap part, you know, little intricacies.

Jay Franze 15:56

So the last thing I want to talk about when we're talking about these venues, just to kind of put a bow on it, is the different areas of town that they're in. So we talk about Bogarts, it's more of a downtown over near the college, Cincinnati State. No, University of Cincinnati. Both, really. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but over there. And then you've got uh Annie's, which is over on the river, over by River Bend, a little bit further out of the way. And you got Ludlow Garages, often in like more of a trendy type area. Yeah. So each one of these have their own vibe to the area. Do you think that plays into the musical styles that they host in their venues?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

I think so. I mean, I think I think neighborhoods in Cincinnati are very distinct. And you know, I've lived here my whole life. I've I've visited a lot of other cities, but not extensively to the point to get to know the neighborhoods extremely well. But I think Cincinnati, when you go from neighborhood to neighborhood, you can sense the vibe of that neighborhood if you spend a little bit of time there. Some neighborhoods you just don't want to go near at all. Some have a vibe that say, get the hell out of here. Right? But I found a couple. Yeah, yeah. You will stumble across them. But um, but I think it does. But it I think for the for the rock and metal scene specifically, if we're talking about that, I definitely think that when you talk about that, you're talking more the downtown Clifton area. I mean, so where Bogarts is, which is Shortvine, that's two blocks up from the University of Cincinnati. I lived on two blocks the other direction across from Cincinnati, but a walking distance, right? So I spent a lot of time there. There was a place across the street, and this is a gym that maybe some of your older listeners are from Cincinnati might know. It's a place called Sudsy Malone's, and it's exactly what it sounds like. So it was a laundromat that had a stage and had live music. So me and Brian Smith, who's our bass player currently in the Seda, our old band was called One Finger Grip. And we played there so many times, and there would literally just be it'd be the crowd, and then at the back of the place, you'd have people sitting on the washers and dryers just watching the show, doing their laundry, and it was the most unique. You just don't see that, right? I mean, I can't, I don't think I've ever seen another place that is a bar with live music. And oh yeah, you can wash everywhere while you're here.

Jay Franze 18:37

So I will tell you, I don't know what it is with Ohio and laundry mats, but I went to the recording workshop in Chillicothe, and it was out in the middle of nowhere, down the street from a paper factory, which I've never smelt anything that smelt so bad in my life. Yeah. But you kind of grow a fondness to the disgusting smell. But right down the street, it was a very small street. We lived in a cabin on the side of the road, but down the street was a laundromat. But the sign in front said laundry, milk, and guns and ammo. Stop. I was like, Where am I? Coming from Boston and seeing this sign. Ohio. You know, I wouldn't think anything of seeing it now. But that's coming from Boston at the time to go to this place and seeing that laundry, milk, guns, and ammo.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm I'm really not. You know, I haven't spent too much time in Chillicothe. Maybe it's a little different up there, but yeah. No, that feels very Ohio. It was definitely uh they put a live stage in and a bar and they're they're catching up.

Jay Franze 19:44

Now they catch up with everybody else. That's

How Aseda Got Its Name

Jay Franze 19:47

right. All right, let's get into the the meat of it here. Tell me where the name Isada came from.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Uh so actually, Brian Trester had the name, our guitar player and uh backup vocalist. He he had the name prior to me joining. So I'll be honest, I don't think there's a huge deep meaning behind the name. It's so funny. I think every band I've ever been in, I've been in a band called One Finger Grip, I've been in a band called Two-Bit, Two-Bit Acoustic, Seda. I feel like every time I tell people a band name, whether it's my band or somebody I listen to, like, hey, you should check out this band, 12 foot Ninja. Huh? What? You you tell them a band name and they're always like, I who came up with that? And it's like, you gotta understand as a band how difficult it is to find a name that nobody has used that is not on social media, that's not already, you know, you're not gonna get sued for down the road if you actually happen to hit it. So yeah, I think a Seda, you know, if Brian was here, he might shake his finger at me and say, oh no, there's there is this deep meeting that I personally had, but but I know he did have the name prior to me joining. And yeah, I don't think there's anything intrinsically. I thought, hey, it kind of sounds cool, you know. And we have to spell it for people every once in a while. So I just try to keep it simple. Like it is pretty simple. I can't spell, and I can spell it. You may you suppress so many different pronunciations, I've heard, but yeah, they they get there eventually.

Jay Franze 21:25

All right, so you make your way into this band after several bands. So is this the band for you?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yeah, absolutely. I think um it's kind of funny. I mean, is as you go through as a musician, so with one finger grip, the first probably real official band that I had played with, I didn't sing. I did zero vocals, uh, was just a guitar player. I I started playing guitar when I was fifteen. So I think I was twenty twenty or twenty one by the time you know that band started. And We had some singers going back and forth, and it turned out, you know, we we were down to singer, and it was like, all right, hey, I think I can sing a little. Let me try on this one song and let's kind of see how it sounds. And then you kind of find your voice a little bit, and I'd like to think it's better now than it was back then. Uh, but even with that band, we got a second vocalist because I always thought that I always thought it was important if you could have more than one person that can be on the microphone and be meaningful in a band. It just gives you so many more options. It's almost like having a second guitar player. Yeah, of course. Yeah, so I think that was big. So we did we did one finger grip, you know, for quite a while. But but coming into a Seda, it was a Craigslist ad. I had I had answered one finger grip ended. Me and Brian Smith did some acoustic stuff that eventually turned into two-bit acoustic, which is a complete opposite genre. I mean, I listened to all kinds of stuff. I I love rock and metal, but I mean, I love Jimi Hendricks, I love Bob Marley, I have 311, Sublime, Frank Sinatra. Like, I mean, my my tastes are really all over the place. All good. Yeah, yeah. I think I think that has helped me over the years as you kind of get into bands because bands are always interesting in that sense, but not to get too far off topic. I mean, I answered probably six or seven Craigslist ads, tried out for a bunch of different bands, and there was a lot of great musicians, but uh I didn't really vibe with the people. And I feel like when people look at bands, it's interesting to see the dynamic of popular bands when like a uh member leaves and they're like and how they react to it, and it's it's not just replacing somebody with a good musician, it it really is the people that you have to like. I mean, I I always jokingly call bands dysfunctional families because they kind of are of course, yes, absolutely. I mean, that's it's it's it's something I've said from early on, and every band I've been in is true, but the the key word is the last piece, it's a family, right? I mean, it really is because you have to be able to tell somebody to their face, hey, I think your idea sucks, respectfully. And you have to have somebody tell you, hey, what you're singing sounds terrible. And you have to be able to not get upset about that. And that's not something that everybody can do. Probably more than I'd like, but that's okay, right? I mean, you know, I think it's funny when I showed up, so when I showed up with the Craigslist ad, it was it was a different lineup than what we have today. Brian Trester and myself have been kind of the two constants, but we had our drummer Ira, and we had two other guys, Scott and Dink. And we we were together for years. We played a lot of shows, had a lot of fun, great group. But as you go through, and especially as you start to get older, I mean, at that point I was already in my 30s, life happens, right? I mean, people have things they have to take care of. I I hope at this point nobody's naive enough to think that music pays the bills for many people, right? I mean, even for large Spotify artists, it's rare that music is paying your bills. So, you know, I think you have to love what you do and you have to be passionate about it. And it it has to be meaningful beyond what you think it's going to give back to you in the sense of like a monetary sense. But I think as Ira had things happen, you know, with with his kids where he wanted to be there to support them with activities they had, the immediate response was, of course, man. Like, please go do that. It's it's your family. There's just no second way about it. You take care of your family, family comes first. And then the same with some of the other guys, things came up. It absolutely happens. So I had brought Brian Smith in on bass and said, Hey, played in a band with this guy, I've known him for over a decade, long time. One of my best friends. Let's bring him in. He does fantastic stuff on the base, great ideas, good energy, reliable, right? That that's another thing that kind of you don't hear about in bands. It's like this guy could shred your face off, but he never showed up at practice, or he always was late, or he never was there when we told him to be there. So brought him in, and then Sean was the last piece. And it's so interesting to get in a room with so many different people, and you kind of find out pretty quickly the people that you want to work with and the people that you don't want to work with. And especially as you get older to be blunt, there's just people you don't want to deal with, right? I mean, there's just there's people that you get in a room with and you're like, I I don't even enjoy this. I don't enjoy sitting here and trying to really draw what is necessary for music, which is creativity and and fun, right? I mean, if you're not doing it for fun, what are you doing it for?

Jay Franze 27:12

Yeah, I worked in Nashville for damn like 35 years now. Great town. But the number one saying that they all say is you have to be a good hang. Whether you're in the studio or whether you're on the road. You have to be a good hang. Otherwise, there's 20 other people that can play just as good as you, but are nicer to be around. So I absolutely agree. So you got this band

Band Chemistry And Being A Good Hang

Jay Franze 27:38

now. You're all settled in. Do you feel like the band is at its peak now?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

I do. It's funny. So we're we're starting work on the new album. And I mean, like I said, me and Trester have kind of been the mainstays. We we wrote probably uh at least a handful of the songs that you heard at Annie's that we still play live today, or ones that me and him sat in my basement and came up with, kind of materialized and wrote the foundation for that eventually became full songs as we added in the other guys in the band. But I think the direction that we're going in now is probably the most exciting just because we've all we're all kind of at the point where we've been there, we've done the things, right? I mean, we've we've played a lot of shows, all of us have been on stage a lot. Um, and I think you come to a realization as you work through it that we're gonna write stuff that we like. We hope everybody loves it. I mean, that's fantastic that everybody loves it. But more than anything, we have to love it. And I think the songs that we're coming out with now, Jay, like honestly, the variety beyond even what you saw at Annie's is the part that has me excited because I've seen a lot of good bands, and I think the key to a live show is really being able to keep people's attention. And I've had a lot of bands that I've gone and seen, and the second, third song plays, and you're like, man, these guys kick ass. These guys are great, phenomenal band. And then by song seven or eight, you're like, kind of doing the same things. Kind of feel like I just heard song one through three again. Right. We're on repeat. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I mean, and that's that's fine for some bands, right? I mean, and uh look, there's a lot of bands that have been very successful doing that. Good for them. I'm very happy for them. Yeah, absolutely. But I think for me personally, I personally, and especially at a point now, I enjoy the variety. I like being able to try different things, and I like being able to catch people off guard a little bit. I kind of joked around. I don't know. Have you ever heard of that band 12 foot ninja before? Well, I've heard the name before, but I don't know what the name of them are. Australian band, very unique. You should go check them out, Jay. Honestly. It'll make a Saturday night advent for you. Their videos, if nothing else, will make you chuckle because they don't take anything too seriously. Unfortunately, they have, I think, broken up here recently, but they are one of those bands that they can go from heavy scream down your throat to Faith No More. The lead singer has a very uh Faith No More. Um, I'm blanking the guy's the lead singer's name for Mr. Bunkle too. Um yeah, but it it it they can go from that to Cuban Latin music to acoustic to 80s to jazz. I mean, they're just all over the place. They're probably a little extreme with the changes, right? But I think I I do think when you can go see a band live and they can keep you on your toes a little bit. I think it just makes it more interesting. There's some interesting photos for sure. Yes. I'm telling you, when you see the music videos, you next time you see me, you're gonna be like, what in the heck is that? What have you done to me? What have you done? But like I said, you will laugh. They are very entertaining, if nothing else. So that's funny.

New Album Direction And Variety

Jay Franze 31:10

All right. Well, you mentioned in there that you're you're working on new music. So at what stage of the process are we in?

SPEAKER_00 31:18

So we are definitely early. So we've gotten one song completely done. We're working on drum tracking for three or four different songs right now. So basically, everything that we're doing, we're doing at my pseudo studio that I've got here at my place. We've done the go into the studio thing, which is great. I've done that with a lot of different bands, right? And there's, I think, a lot of value in that. But as we've gone through the years, I mean, probably half of our songs, I've mixed and mastered a couple, but I've mostly mixed and produced a lot of them. And that's just something that I kind of caught on to as I've gone through all the different bands. But any training? Self, really. I mean, I with with 2Bit is when I really put my foot in the ground and said, okay, I'm just gonna learn this, I'm gonna figure it out. And I mixed, mastered, and produced our entire album. So if you go look up 2-bit on Spotify, anything you hear on there was kind of that was kind of my learning grounds, right? And I used FL Studio, which was like a hip-hop beat making software, right? But I made it work. But I've used Pro Tools, Studio One Pro, now it's Fender Studio Pro. But I I just I'm the type, if I get curious, I just I dive in. I work in IT, so it kind of comes naturally to me to be curious about anything technology, and I'm able to kind of sink my teeth into it fairly quick. But it it's exciting for me for this album because there's so many ideas that we want to capture. And you you you feel like the alchemist, right? Where you kind of got all the beakers in front of you and you're putting a little bit of the red juice in there and a little bit of the blue juice, and you you kind of want to see, and no, that one overflowed. Yeah, we don't want to do that one. That was that was a horrible idea. And that that's kind of the fun part of the process, too, is you'll think you know exactly what you want to do with the song. I mean, with a lot of these, Brian Trester will come up with a pretty good framework of a song and send it to us and say, Hey, I wrote this, give me some feedback, tell me what you guys think. We'll get into it, we'll kind of work it around and kind of see what that looks like. And then I'll do the same. And Sean and and Brian Smith are really good about coming in and putting their two cents into it. But there's stuff we'll record and be like, we got it. This is it. We all take it out of the studio, listen to it. Nope, don't got it. Come back, we gotta redo it, right? And I think that's the good thing with the flexibility of being able to do things ourselves, is that that clock isn't ticking, which with a lot of studio settings, you've got that, you know. I mean, our EP that we did, we did at a studio up in Dayton, and I remember walking in, getting ready to lay vocal tracks down, and it's just like ridiculous 24 karat gold microphone hanging from the ceiling, and you know, the producers behind the glass, and getting ready to sing the first song, and he's like, Hey Mark? I'm like, Yeah, he's like, Hey, no pressure. The guy from Goo Goo Dolls was here last week singing on that, so don't screw up. It's like, oh, okay, yeah, no pressure at all. Like, right? I mean, what studio was it? Uh, it was Refraise up in Dayton, and I think they filmed a movie there not too long after we did our EP with Don Cheadle. See, then you inspired a movie. Yeah, see, I'd like to take credit, definitely wasn't me, but they probably would have canned the movie if they'd have had my partner there. But but I mean, there's benefits to the studio in the sense of you come in prepared, you you lay it down, and you live with it, right? I mean, that's that's a decision you make when you go to a studio. When you do things yourself, you do have to be careful because you can always hit that rewind button. Right. You can always, well, let's just add this one more part. Oh, well, you know, we've had songs that song, I've mixed the song, it's done. I'm like, all right, guys, we're ready to send the mastering. What if we just add this one other part and it's like okay, we can. Like how big is it, right? It is possible. Do I have to rework the guitars and drum EQs and how I'm compressing things and the all that, you know, boring technical jargon? So it it it's you have to be careful with it, but it is exciting in the sense of it gives us a lot of flexibility to really put down on quote unquote digital tape what we want to do.

DIY Studio Workflow And Drum Tracking

Jay Franze 35:48

Well, let's talk about it a little bit here because you mentioned you're working through drum tracks right now, yeah. And you're doing it in your studio. So what kind of uh setup? We talked briefly about software, but how many microphones are you using?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

So we've done both. So we've done we've done the real drum set, everything mic'd, and going through that process. I will say it it has its pluses and minuses, like anything. Um, for this specific album, and for a couple of the singles that we put out to this point, a lot of them have taken drum tracks and make a new studio and get the drum tracks done. But for this album, we're doing everything through e-kit. Now, it's funny, I got my son's e-kit down here, and I joke with Sean the first day he came. It's like a little, you know, Elisis. Um he's eight. So I joke with Sean. I'm like, well, this is the kit, man. This is what we're using, and get ready. We're gonna have to really lower the drum throne, right? You're you're not gonna be on the game of thrones, it's gonna be the low throne. Right. But no, he he made a hearty investment in a legit kit that actually our next show that we're playing at Swine City Brewing, he's gonna be using the kit that we're using on the album live. And again, it gives us a little bit of flexibility. We're starting to get into a little bit of the realm of using things that some people may scoff at, but uh it's not backing tracks, right? We don't have backing tracks, but sounds that we can trigger that a normal drum set just isn't gonna have, right? Whether that's an 808, really hitting getting that bass hit that kind of accentuates certain parts of scrolling. Yeah, or uh maybe it's a drum sound that we captured that we want to hit as a part of it. So whatever that might be. But so yeah, so the the E-kit has been has been nice, and that gives me the flexibility to work with Sean and to get things sounding exactly the way he wants, right? We can use the sounds that are in his kit, which Elise's just partnered up with Zildjian, which is really awesome because you get all those Zildjian cymbal sounds. It's I'll be honest, Jay, it's a crazy time to be a musician. Coming from a guy who had a PV half stack and a PV head, and I think at one point I had a rack-mounted EQ that I had for one show that I thought was the greatest thing in the world that got left and stolen at Sunsi Malone's of all places. I think I put in the machine. Yeah, exactly. Somebody might have watched it, who knows? But to where we are now, where it's like, you want a sound? Okay, yeah, yeah, we can get that sound. Yeah. Which one do you want? Which one? Yeah. This sound? Is this the one you want? I mean, it's it's kind of wild. Yeah, exactly. And it's it's one of those things that you know being an IT guy, I can easily nerd out with that stuff, but I I understand where a lot of people come from because there's a lot of I don't know if the resistance is as strong as it used to be, but there is still quite a bit of resistance to people using modelers and using e-kits and using stuff like that. Like, oh, that's not a real instrument. It's like, well, am I playing it? I mean, am I still playing the instrument? Is the sound still coming out? I can't afford to have 17 different, and my wife wouldn't allow me to have 17 different half stacks around my house. I'd love to. I'd love to have a Mesa and a fender and all the different things. But that's just not it's not realistic. So I think it's it's kind of been nice to be able to use that. But I will say, with that being said, we actually had this conversation in our last tracking session of for this album, we don't want it to be we're gonna use this drum kit for this song, and we're gonna use this drum kit for this song, and this guitar setup for this song, and another for another. We do want to establish some consistent the consistency that you would expect from an album, which is hey, all right, if we decide we're gonna do PV5150 type sound with an ampeg type of bass sound, and we're gonna try to work within certain parameters to not have it just be a complete open, you know, open book.

E-Kits, Modelers, And Sound Consistency

Jay Franze 40:00

Um as you're talking about gear, let's talk about your gear. Yeah, start with the guitar. What what are you playing most these days?

SPEAKER_00 40:09

So I play my newest one, which is a Ernie Ball. I don't know if you know Rabia Massad, guitar player. No. Okay. Him, definitely check out. He he has a band, um, but he kind of rose to fame. Well, he's he was in a few different bands that that were very popular, but he's on YouTube. I think he has probably three to four hundred thousand followers on YouTube, but he did a lot of uh different things with Neural DSP and then a lot of his band stuff. But anyway, long story short, he basically got sponsored by Ernie Ball and they came out with a custom model. So they took the Saber guitar and they customized it for him. So basically, what they did was they put his bare knuckle pickups, which is a boutique kind of UK very expensive um pickup place, and put his pickups into a saber and then made some adjustments to it. So they shaved, they kind of rounded off uh some of the corners where like you'd rest your arm at, and the neck of the guitars, anybody that's played Ernie Balls knows they're very like thin necks typically, right? So if you look at like the Majesty line, the saber, uh a lot of those certain guitars they have are very thin. Well, his is more of like a fatter, almost like a Gibson neck at the top, but then actually thins out towards the bottom because he does a lot of like a lot of shred work and a lot of things like that. So that's my current one that I've got, and that's definitely my baby. It's got the lumen lays, which I really like on stage because I can't tell you how many times the lights go out, and it's oh crap. I know what fret I'm on, but I can't see anything. Right. Right. So the lumen lays are absolutely clutch. Anybody that tells you they're not, they're lying to you. Or they haven't played on a dark enough stage. Because I remember we haven't played it, Annie's. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we opened for Seven Dust, and I remember the lights going out and packed house, awesome show, playing the intro, and I'm like, okay, they're gonna give us some kind of light before we get started here, right? Even once the lights came on, I had nothing. So yeah, you're just you're kind of grasping it there. But I think one, two, three, four. Yeah, I got four guitars, one, three, too many, probably my wife would say. All of them are Ernie Balls. I've gone down the PRS route, I've had all PRSs at one point, but Ernie Ball is kind of where I'm at at the moment. I've got two Majesties, one standard Saber, and then the Rubia Masab custom. Nice. I like PRS, it's not bad either. They're very nice, they're very nice guitars. I think, I think for me, I for some reason just really have grown to the smaller neck. I can just I can get my hand around a little easier, it's a little easier to play. Plus, when I'm singing, I can't look down that often. I mean, I I look down as much as I need to, but the reality is like I need to be able to I need to be able to move a lot on the neck and just know where I'm at without really being able to look and see. So the the Ernie Ball necks for me have just kind of been nice in that way. It's the same sense that almost all of them are either natural wood finish on the fret or it's the matte finish. I can't stand the polished, they just get they get so sticky on my hand. And again, I can't look down. So if my hand sticks and I'm trying to go from the third fret up to the 15th, that's a long slide. And if it gets stuck around nine, then I gotta glance down, like because my muscle memory's thrown off. It's just that little bit of hesitation. It's like, okay, I I know if I'm sliding straight up, I know exactly where I'm stopping. But if I get stopped along the way, I gotta at least take a peek.

Jay Franze 43:56

So not my instrument, buddy, and that's probably why it is. I mean, I have a bass guitar over here to my right. And I mean, I can I can play it, but I am I am not a bass player.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah. Kudos to Brian Smith, our our bass player now. He was a guitar player. And it was one of those, hey, we need a bass player in a Seda, our bass player left. And it was, hey, can you do it? And it's it's so funny because he can still play guitar. Again, me and him did a lot of acoustic stuff. Really good guitar player. But he's just got a knack for fitting into the groove when it comes to the bass. But and and I maybe the best way I can think to describe it is almost like it's gonna sound awful. It's not the way I've intended, but it's like a like a whack-a-mole. Like when they when they pop up, they pop, they know when to pop up, and then they pop back down. It's like they know when to pop back down. He's phenomenal at that. I I don't know if I've ever played with a bass player because some of them are too much in the way. It's like calm down, man. Like you got to fit the rest of the ingredient of what's going on here, right? You're kind of taking over the show. I know you're flea. We gotta slow it down a little bit. And then there's other guys that just completely disappear, right? I mean, they they kind of play just the root notes, and you're like, was there a bass player or was it just really bassy guitar? I couldn't tell. He has a great ability to kind of do both.

Jay Franze 45:22

I see him there now, and all I'm gonna be able to do is picture uh uh mallet coming down and whacking his head. Sorry, Brian. I'd never hit you with mallet, I promise. That's awesome.

Release Strategy And Real Life Limits

Jay Franze 45:33

All right, so you're putting this project together, you got the studio down, you you got the basic tracks, you're you're gonna go and you're you'll tinker for days, I'm sure, on your parts and all those type of things. Yeah. What's the next stage? How much longer do you think you're gonna put into the project before you have something that we can listen to?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

I mean, we've kind of gone the route of doing singles predominantly with every single one of our songs to this point. So if we were going that route, we probably would have a release in a couple weeks. Since we're not, and we really kind of want to stick to this album thing. I'm interested in doing like a lot of the bands are doing, they put the album up on Spotify or whatever it may be, but they still drop some singles off of that album, and you can kind of see all the other songs are grayed out, right? But you've got some of those songs that start to come. I like the idea of staggering some releases because when you drop an album, it's dropped. Yeah, that's it, right? You can't come back three months later and say, Oh, we got this album. They'd be like, Well, it came out three months ago, right? Like, well, yeah, but it's still great. Listen to it, please. Right? With singles, you kind of get that continuous, hey, here's another one six weeks later. Hey, here's another one. Hey, two months later, hey, here's another one, right? You can kind of slowly so I would say if we're being realistic, I I would love to say it's gonna come out this year, 2026. Probably won't. It probably will be next year. And we've kind of we've kind of had to balance some things. Full disclosure, I've kind of had some some medical things that I've had to deal with that have kind of slowed our progress, I think, more than really anybody would be would like to admit. So as I've kind of been able to get back into things, and I'm in a really good place now. Now that we're able to do that, it's been a little bit of a balance of coming back. I mean, we hit we've had five shows scheduled for this year already. A couple have gotten canceled. We had a blizzard that came through, one of them was medically related to me that we had to drop off of, and then we had another one that uh that got canceled. And you know, I think it's a little bit of a balance of if you want to work on an album, it's hard to do that and focus on live shows at the same time. There's a reason bands disappear into the studio and you don't hear from them for a little while, and then they come out to tour and support the material. So I have a feeling what we would really like to do is after this next show that we've got coming up, put our heads down, really get some traction uh in pushing through, and hopefully early next year we can get something released.

Swine City Brewing Show Preview

Jay Franze 48:10

You mentioned a show coming up. Where's that at?

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Yes, we're at Swine City Brewing on September 4th. It'll be our first time there. It's a a newer brewery. I've heard a ton of good things about it, so we're definitely excited to go there. All ages show, so my kids are excited, they can come join and get in on the action. But um, yeah, it's uh it's it's nice to support these these smaller places. I I like breweries, I don't really drink, but I I just like the vibe, cool atmosphere, right? You walk into a brewery, you usually just kind of get a good good vibe from people. But this place specifically really seems to have catered to the rock, punk, metal environment, which again being outside of that kind of downtown Clifton area isn't something you see a ton. So really excited to go check it out for the first time, go go play, and then hopefully come back after that and support some other artists too.

Jay Franze 49:07

Very cool. All right, well, what are you hoping to accomplish?

SPEAKER_00 49:13

I mean, I think ultimately, you know, I mentioned earlier, the goal would really be to get out and to put it in front of people. It's it's one thing to kind of to sit, to create. Creativity is a fickle thing, right? It's not something you can schedule, it's not something you can say, okay, on Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., I'm gonna go down and create it. I'm gonna write a great song at 7 p.m. on the dot. Right in the Nashville. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I guess when it's a profession of that sense, you probably don't have much of a choice. You better, or you're you're getting replaced. But um, but I think the excitement level that we have to be able to put this material together, the first thing we're gonna want to do is put it in front of people. And there's a lot of songs that we play now that um that we've had, and it's it's not even we've we're there's gonna be a lot of original material, but there absolutely may be a few Easter eggs of a few cover songs. I'm sure you heard our rendition of uh White Wedding by Billy Idol. Still waiting for Billy to join us on stage for that rendition at some point. Billy, call us, come on. But um that was a song that you know. He was just scared. He was not too late, and he didn't even reach out. Come on, Billy, we'll forgive you this time. But but I think if I like when bands do a cover, they put their own touch on it, right? Their own kind of flavor into it. I think it just kind of adds a little something. There's nothing wrong with just doing a cover, with being a tribute band, but I feel like if you can kind of put your own twist on it, A, it makes it more fun, and B, it kind of personalizes it to the point where people know the song. I mean, people can sing along to White Wedding with us, but they're singing to our version, which is kind of cool. Obviously, all props go to Billy, it's his song. Of course, but at the same time, so there may be a few of those on the album as well, which I think is exciting because I think it is fun to get out and to play songs that people know, but to let them hear it in a different way. So to answer your question, you know, hopefully get our feet underneath us. There's a lot of good bands in this area that we have connections with, that we enjoy playing shows with. You saw a few of them at Annie's that we played with, and I think getting back out, getting on the scene, getting ourselves uh acquainted, and really just getting excited to deliver this new material for everybody so they can see it for themselves.

Jay Franze 51:35

See what we've been working on, working very hard on. All right. So you mentioned other local bands in the area that you you know you you appreciate and you work well with. Do you have any hopes of going beyond to more of a regional or national stage at this point?

SPEAKER_00 51:54

For sure, for sure. I mean, I think, you know, obviously when you're in your 20s, it's the preliminary thought, right? I mean, it's the only thought. But as you get older, you know, things do change. It's it's just the reality of life, right? I got two younger kids, got a career. Yeah, I think, you know, the dream doesn't ever die. It can't ever die. I mean, if you're truly passionate about music, I would I would personally play for free in front of a thousand people rather than make a thousand dollars and play in front of ten people. So to me, the the whole thing is is being able to connect with somebody and to being able to let your music have an impact. I mean, let's be honest, music is the only language that everybody in the entire world speaks.

Jay Franze 52:49

I just want to point out to management listening that he did not say that. That was just a joke. Yes, just a joke. Just a joke. Money does matter to him. $10,000. Matters more than anything to him. That's he he lives and breathes making money so that you guys can afford your nice cars and homes. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Absolutely. Did I say the thing before? I don't think I said that.

Royal Blood Story And Stage Energy

SPEAKER_00 53:13

That was yeah.

Jay Franze 53:13

That was what you do need to do is go back and tell me a story about royal blood.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Oh, yes, okay. So have you ever heard of Taft Theater, which is also downtown?

Jay Franze 53:25

Okay. I just saw Jeff Tate there.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

Okay. So, yeah, great place. The theater side is fantastic. I don't know if you went down underneath, they kind of have the bar that's all the way down in the basement. And there's two doors that kind of look like two doors out of probably a horror movie at some point. Well, if you go through those two doors, it's a ballroom, right? And it's a very small ballroom. I would say you could fit a couple hundred people in there max. And it's literally just a room with a stage that is a half the size of the one that's on the main theater, maybe a third of the size, and it's six feet off the ground. Probably looks something like an Annie's, right? So much smaller venue. Well, we went, my buddy brought me down there to go see a band that he was really interested in. It was a local, kind of regional band, and they were getting ready to go to Europe for a show. And I guess they had somehow gotten in contact with this band called Royal Blood, who at this point I'd never heard of. They weren't big, they didn't even have their first single out. It feels like a common theme, but I've been lucky with a few of these bands that to catch them before they kind of hit the fire. Before they blew. Absolutely. So I remember them walking out on stage, two guys, and I'm talking to my buddy, and I'm like, did half their band quit? Like, what's going on here? We got two guys on stage. Jay, there was probably 60 people at this show. I mean, the the amount of space between me and the two people I was with and the people closest to me was probably 15 feet. And I was fairly close to the stage. I mean, it was empty. These guys get up on stage, it's two of them. I legitimately I'm thinking, like, okay, literally, like their bass player or their guitar players running late. I see a bass player and a drummer. And these guys came up and absolutely destroyed. Two guys, I'd never seen anything like it in my entire life. That they sounded better than the headliner, and we got a chance to talk to them because there was nobody there. Got a chance to chat with them. Super nice guys, obviously the heavy British accent, right? But but yeah, just one of those experiences where the next time I saw them, they were playing at a festival, and 21 pilots was getting ready to play after them, which 21 pilots is absolutely huge at this point. And they were on the stage, and I would say there was probably eight to ten thousand people. And it's so funny to see bands like that, and then to to see it be like, all right, well, I saw them with 60 people, but the key to that is same energy, same, we're gonna kick some ass on stage. And that's what I loved, right? Is you kind of get that consistency of a band, they played the same way in front of 10,000 people that they played in front of 60 people, right? And they brought the house, and it it stuck with me. And I remember telling multiple people, like, these guys are gonna watch out, these guys are gonna do something. And it took about two years before they actually ended up taking off. And then when they did, I was like, you know, that Leonardo DiCaprio meme was like that's what it was. I was like, these guys, I told you, I told you. Phenomenal.

Unsung Heroes Behind The Scenes

Jay Franze 56:46

So all right, sir. Well, we do this thing here we call Unsung Heroes, where we take a moment to shine the light on somebody who's worked behind the scenes or somebody who supported you along the way. Do you have anybody that you would uh like to shine a little light on?

SPEAKER_00 56:59

Who I mean I'll I'll probably speak for the guys, but um I think it's got to be our families, to be honest with you. I mean, it that may sound cliche, but the reality is there there's nobody that has to be behind you as a musician more than the people that you live with and that supports you. So whether that be my wife and my kids, and I know the same with the family, because again, I've seen a lot of band members come and go with family things that have come up, but to have people there that support you and know how important things are to you, there's nothing more important than that. As a sidebar to that, if you don't mind, I throw in a secondary, I would honestly say all of the different venues. I I don't think there's a lot of these smaller venues. Nobody's rolling into these venues driving Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Right.

Jay Franze 57:53

So you haven't seen me pull up yet?

SPEAKER_00 57:54

Oh, yours. Well, besides yours, Jay. But no, I mean it's it it's it can be a little thankless, right? I mean, I worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years, and I know it can be a grind, anything in that realm, right? Whether it's bar, uh bartended for eight years, but for these for these people that really put everything on the line so that musicians, especially ones that heavily support local music, whether it be the Annies, you know, Bogart's has even been great with a lot of the stuff pulling in local bands. Madison Theater, unfortunately, which had its demise, I still am holding holding out hope that it will be back, was absolutely incredible and treated us amazing. There's so many places. I mean, I I just I'm very thankful for those people and for giving local bands an opportunity when it would be a lot easier to get a DJ and just have dance music and have 450 people every night of the week and do a college night and pack the place. Right. Um, they give us an opportunity to continue to live the dream. Perfect.

Final Thanks And Where To Connect

Jay Franze 58:57

All right, folks. Well, we have done it. We have reached top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. And as we say, if you have not, well, it's all two. You can reach out to both of us tonight over at jfranzy.com. We will be happy to keep this or any other conversation going. Mark, my friend, I cannot thank you enough for being here tonight. It has been an absolute blast, and I would like to leave the final words to you.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

Yeah, I just uh I want to thank everybody out there that supports us. Go check out Aseda. We are on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, anywhere you you do your music. Check us out, give us a follow. We appreciate it. We appreciate everybody that takes time to uh to come check us out. Keep an eye on what's coming, like we mentioned, early next year. It's gonna be a lot of exciting stuff. Stay with us. A lot of fun things to come.

Jay Franze 59:45

All right, folks. On that note, have a good night.