INTERVIEW: No Business Talk Violence, Religion, Love And More On "Snitch: Deleted Scenes"

Paul Poole (vocals), Nick Hewitt (guitar), and Hayden Nicholson (bass) break down the songwriting, production, and lyrical background on their new EP "Snitch: Deleted Scenes."

Brandon Durden:
I'm here with Nick Hewitt and Paul Poole (and later on Hayden Nicholson) from No Business out of Florida to talk about their latest EP, Snitch: Deleted Scenes.

I've spoken with Paul in the past, kind of talking about the origins of the band, but obviously with the newest release, at least from what I could get from following your band as well as your press release, this is kind of the first EP where everybody in the band has been able to collaborate in some sense on the recording, right? Like this is the first EP with everybody involved in the band, with the recording process and stuff like that, right?

Paul Poole:
Yeah, the EP, the way I put it, was kind of a testing ground to see how it would work with an actual lineup of people in the band for once because it's finally not just me. Yeah, we'll get into that.

Brandon Durden:
I'm happy to have you guys both on. Paul is, of course, the vocalist and front man in the band. We've chatted before, also done a collaboration together now, which is pretty cool. Nick, can you go ahead and tell people who have not heard the band before what you do in the band as well?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, so I play guitar for the band. I joined up as a support guitarist, do some vocals on stage as well. Just a lot of supporting stuff. And aside from that, I just kind of help out with some social media stuff and just kind of out and about with the band. So I joined up back in August of last year. So pretty new with everything going on. Excited to be here.

Brandon Durden:
Awesome. Well, it's great to meet you. We're going to dive into this deeper. What I want to kind of do first, and I'll direct this at Paul because I know you kind of started the project, as we talked about before, on your own. You've kind of gotten Hayden and Nick and Alex and everybody else around with you. What was the idea behind this latest EP? I know obviously from the name of it, you could conjecture that it's B-sides from the previous EP, but talk about where the concept for this EP came from, and we'll go from there.

Paul Poole:
So, I mean, yeah, you hit the nail pretty much on the head. It is, in fact, the B-sides from "Snitch". It kind of started as, I guess, the idea for it really kind of formed around, I had written a live intro for the band that we had started playing. And eventually, I was like, this is really good. I love playing it, and I think it sounds really good. So I was like, let me expand that into a full song. And then I had three songs that I had considered for "Snitch", but they kind of got pushed to the side pretty early on in the actual writing process. Like "Snitch" took like, I don't know, like six years for me to finish or some shit like that. But yeah, it was like they got kind of pushed aside. They got pushed aside right as things started to get serious about it because I was tossing around like that. There was a chance we could have opened it with "They're Here" and like "Strings" could have made it on as a very different song. Same thing with "DAWGMA." But just like those two were not ready. "They're Here" just didn't fit into the story of it. So it was kind of like, let's push these aside for now. And then once it was actually right after "Snitch" released was when we started kind of drilling into them a little bit more. And we went back to these ass old tracks like the original version of "They're Here" and then the old EP that is gone off of streaming services that "DAWGMA" and "Rebirth" came from. So like you could still go find it if you want. I don't recommend it, but if you'd like to break the illusion, sure.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, I love that you gave that out forthcomingly. A lot of times I have to, when I'm talking to bands, I'll be like, all right, yeah, these are your songs on Spotify, but like, what's going on with the Bandcamp stuff? You know, what's on your SoundCloud? What's the demo that you kind of forgot to delete or whatever? But it's, that makes a lot of sense. I guess before we dive into it more than that, Nick, I know you said you joined in August of this past year. What are some of the influences you've had as a musician when it comes to this kind of music and No Business? Is this the sort of music you've played in the past? What was kind of your trajectory into playing, you know, kind of, I again, sub-genres allude me at all times with, you know, nu metal, metalcore, hard rock, you know, all the encapsulations of No Business, what kind of got you into this kind of music and playing it?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah. So, I've always had a heart for metal, just of all genres, from a young age. Middle school is when I first got introduced to it. Started playing guitar not too much longer after that. And just kind of off and on, but I've never played in a band setting, you know, writing our own music and stuff like that. I played with other people, and it's always been something I wanted to get into, but, you know, for me, a lot of influences are a little bit out of the genre, more into the deathcore, some slam as well, a lot of the beatdown stuff. But I started going to, once I moved to Florida, Paul and I, we actually knew each other back in Maryland, and we reconnected and both found out that we were living in Florida, not too far away from each other. So we reconnected. He invited me to go see No Business play at one of their shows in Orlando. I went, had a great time, and I started going to shows after that. I'd pop on stage, help out with a song here or two, you know, nothing super crazy. But I just liked seeing the boys play, and it wasn't just like, I'm here because my friends are here. Like, the music was good. I liked the music. As I was starting to spend more time with Paul and then got introduced to Hayden, Alex, Josh, and we all just kind of hit it off. And after that, Paul was just, I think it was after a show that I came in and showed up for, Paul was like, do you want to do a vocal spot on the EP? And I was like, sure. And he was like, well, at it, do you just want to play guitar too? And I was like, fuck yeah, let's do it.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, it was one of those things where the EP was originally supposed to have a feature on every song. Didn't exactly pan out, but I was like, yeah, we'll feature Nick on"Snitch" And then there was a day where I just sat there. I was like, he's at every show anyways. He plays guitar. I may as well just have him play guitar for us. Like it just doesn't make sense to not have him in the band.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's been great. I played two live shows with them. Obviously, we did the recording for "Snitch". And so, yeah, ever since then, it's just been kind of having a good time. I've, you know, as a result of it, the nu metal, you know, metalcore, like I said, I've listened to a lot of that growing up, but I kind of veered off that more into the deathcore genre. But like ever since being with the boys, you know, it's kind of brought me back into the fold with it and has opened me up to a lot of, you know, mostly local stuff, which has been super cool. I've never been as involved in a local scene as I have been since I moved down here, which is just really cool to see. Like, I'm kind of mad at myself. Like, I've been missing out on this for so long, and now I'm like, this is so cool to be a part of it.

Brandon Durden:
That's really cool though, to hear that you've been into this sort of music. I know you said more like deathcore and slam, stuff like that, which I'm still really into. I do more of the metalcore and nu metal thing myself, but like big fan of that kind of music as well. But that you kind of never really fully played in a band, despite clearly being a good guitar player and could do vocals live and all that kind of stuff. So it is cool that you can move down to this area, just reconnect with somebody from a different state that ends up going headfirst right into a scene. That's got to feel pretty cool, right?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, yeah, no, it's awesome. It's been just such a cool journey to see. So I'm just happy to see where the EP is going and all that and the initial releases and stoked to see how things go going forward.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, Nick and I have crossed paths with each other about like three different times in our lives with no outside intervention because it was, so we actually were both kids at the same youth group to start it all out, and we both played in the youth band together.

Brandon Durden:
We talked about youth group and shirt and Christcore and all that last time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paul Poole:
I want to see if I can find the clip. I have a clip somewhere of us playing "Carol of the Bells" at like the Christmas service. It's somewhere. Yeah, I'll send it over. But yeah, so we did that, and then we both ended up going to the same college together, and we both were playing for the club college dodgeball team together and just like we both just showed up for like tryouts and like practice and stuff and ended up hanging out a lot through that. And then I think it was like middle of it was probably like later into 2020. We had both started streaming. And then one day I think I saw on like Facebook that Nick was like streaming and he was like in like a bunny costume, belligerent as shit and drunk. And I was like, oh, I can get behind that. So like I hit him up at some point. I was like, I don't know. You're streaming. We should do some games together. Oh, yeah, there it is. There it is.

Nick Hewitt:
Go on now, you think I'm gonna sit in here and not have a little brewski? The night's almost over, come on now.

Paul Poole:
I would if I had the calories left and I hadn't nearly fucked up my voice yesterday at rehearsal.

Brandon Durden:
I mean, that's cool. It is funny also to go from, you know, this is the classic church kid of going from meeting at youth group to then seeing a guy that you know smashed on stream to go connect with them and end up playing in a band with them. Yeah, that's fantastic. But.

Brandon Durden:
But to go from there and getting into this EP, you know, you said, obviously, again, Paul, that these songs, at least like the shells of them or the demo versions of them, whatever else, whether instrumental or with the vocals, were sort of the B-sides for your last EP you put out.
What were some of the influences, if you can think of, instrumentally with these songs when you first started them off with demoing them out prior to the whole band contributing to them and just speak to what maybe would have influenced you? You could go by... I know these songs are very different subgenre-wise and influence-wise, clearly, which is a cool part of your band. So just tell me overall some of the influences, I guess, to kick off the upcoming EP Snitch: Deleted Scenes.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I guess the easiest one to start with is "Snitch", the title track for the album that it's not on.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, I did a very Slipknot thing there, you know, when they released We Are Not Your Kind and yet that was a single but it wasn't on the album. Yeah, yeah, I see what you're doing. It's fine. Anyway, continue.

Hayden Nicholson:
So good.

Paul Poole:
See there, I mean,

there was plenty. Hayden told me that Invent Animate did it too. There's been like a bunch of those.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah. "Heavener" was a bonus track for the album. Heavener. Very bizarre.

Paul Poole:
Yeah. It just happens that so like, I mean, the reason that track ended up getting called "Snitch" is it was like it was written as an intro for the set while we only had "Snitch" to play or like while we only had the album to play, which was like we only play like four songs off of the like six real songs on it. But I basically was like, I want to take like the best bits of every song on that, and like mash them into one song. So it's like I want to say it's the exact same beats per minute as Chains. Maybe it does the slowdown like "Tattletale," got some like very like slidey riffs. I think the only the three songs it doesn't pull anything from are obviously like "Slowdance", "Cinderblock", and "Basilisk" and as well. As far as like lyrically goes for that one, it was like I just wanted to be like you and I talked about it last time that "Snitch" is like I try to do like a very nuanced take on like the bad relationship album and that kind of stuff. "Snitch" lyrically was like, let's throw all of that nuance out the window and just start talking about killing people because I was like, I just wanted to see if I could do it. I've never I'm not like a I.

Brandon Durden:
Mmm.

Yeah.

Paul Poole:
I anger pretty easily, but I'm not like a violent guy. So it was like, you know, I just want to like make a song about making somebody bite the curb. Like

Brandon Durden:
As someone else that primarily writes about imagining doing those things to people while being a very, I think a nice guy in person, I don't know, I could totally relate to that. Where like, you know what, sometimes you're trying to write like a very poetic song or throw in a lot of nuance or reference or whatever. And then sometimes you wanna just, yeah, literally tell somebody that you're gonna choke them out or something as well. Which you quite literally like, yeah, you do some calls to action in some ways in this song, pretty abruptly that I loved when I first heard it. So did you say that Nick, does Nick do vocals on this first track as well? Okay. What part do you do? What part does Nick do?

Paul Poole:
Yep. Yeah. Nick, he does the I guess you would call it the second verse. I there's not really a chorus of this one. It's not really a chorus of the song, but yeah, Nick does the second verse starting right after the the weird little like I kind of called it like the Ash Shaker part because it's kind of just like does like I don't know how to call it, but.

Brandon Durden:
That's okay, I thought it was maybe a different voice. Yeah, I like the little sample drums you have, both that kind of classic, I don't know what you call that beat, but you know what I mean? That very classic that you would hear in every 90s cartoon almost. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, I love that. And then that other little, I guess you call it break beat maybe, I don't know the correct terms. But yeah.

Nick Hewitt:
Like a cyberpunk like hi-hat kind of thing.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I was going to say it's it you probably could call it that and then some EDM nerd will get really mad and I'm not that into EDM. So like I don't really know. But yeah, I I just listened to one. I listened to one EDM group from like 2002 that put out one album. Give me cut me some slack guys. Etro Anime baby.

Brandon Durden:
It's all about Above and Beyond though. That's that's the classic. That's the one you got to go with. No, that's the only one I know that's the only reason why I say that but but No, but like that song's really sick When I when I first turned on this EP after Sierra sent it over to me early so I could make sure to get some notes down and stuff like that I was like I was I was sort of not prepared for how heavy it was gonna be right out of the gate that this song was gonna like because again Not like a Snitch doesn't have heavy songs on it. It absolutely does butmthere's, like you said earlier, there's, there's a lot of ebb and flow on that, right? And there still is on for a four track EP here, but when you just came right out of the gate after that little beat and just started sludging, was like, hell yeah, this is absolutely fantastic.

Paul Poole:
The thing I'm most excited about with that one is that we are finally not opening with it at the next show that we're playing. So I'm so excited to see how people get down when they've like had a couple songs to warm up, you know.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, yeah, that it's not just the opener and sort of like you said, kind of like fleshed out from an intro, right? Yeah.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, because like it's a great intro, but like, well, let's be in very, very local and very much an unknown quantity at every show we go to. Like, you know, people will hear it and they'll be like, okay. And like, nobody's actually killing each other yet.

Brandon Durden:
That one's definitely like a call to action, the pit type deal for that song. There's definitely some sludgy bits that are really cool. To go from that, guess, guess Hayden, didn't ask you this when you started. Hayden jumped in a little late for the recorded version for everybody listening. You want to just tell everybody what you do in the band here as well for No Business?

Brandon Durden:
That's that there you go. Yeah, you're the you're the looks that's that's what that's what you need to that's what you got to have for your bass player the bass player needs to either be a Maniac or the look so those are the two things you got to do when you're on stage both is great, but but it's good to hear that I guess when it comes to joining this band because I've connected with you on online here and there some over since I've known Paul What got you kind of joining in with No Business? What can you got you into this nu metal, metalcore, hard rock, in between, getting into this alternative scene and we can jump back in here and dig through the rest of the record.

Hayden Nicholson:
So that's a big question. So I'm 34. I grew up in the era of Linkin Park, Korn, System of a Down, all that. And it was just kind of a natural progression. I was the reason you weren't allowed to go to public school. If anyone here is a private school kid, I was that kid. I was like burning you Slipknot CDs and like asking you if you wanted me to draw a pentagram on everything you wrote. So I was always just kind of that like edgelord kid, you know? Like I loved all the heavy music and all the screaming and the death metal and stuff. And I played in...

a few like emo screamo bands back in New Orleans. When I moved here in 21, Paul was the first new person I met and I met him through work. And we just got around to talking about music. It was actually specifically, cause I thought about it last night, Paul, we talked about it a bit. it was Every Time I Die. When you realize I was a huge, Every Time I Die fan and I was like, yeah, I've seen him twice. He was like, you're gonna be in a band. And it was just from there, man. Like, and Paul basically was like, I'm going to drag you to shows. I'm going to tell you about everything you need to know about the Orlando scene. And like, he really did man. And like,

It was just kind of history from there because we became like actual real friends after that. So Paul dragged me into it. I would say kicking and screaming, but I needed a scene and it was really cool that I joined the scene that quickly upon moving to Orlando.

Brandon Durden:
We're totally down. Yeah.

It is funny, like I

sometimes forget how much in general Orlando is like very much like a transplant city, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, cause I had friends from Illinois that moved down there that I had no visiting that are like, you know, working that were working like waiter gigs or whatever else, like around like the Disney area and all that. So it's funny that the three of you on here, neither of you, none of you are from Florida, but you're all part of the Orlando scene now, but that kind of makes sense, I guess, right?

Hayden Nicholson:
It really is.

Paul Poole:
I think the only person in the band who kind of like is more or less from Florida is Josh, our drummer. But even he, I think, I think at one point he told me he was born in like Boston or something like that and his family moved down. Yeah, I knew it was like Massachusetts somewhere, but like, yeah. So like, again, we're all we're all transplants. Alex is from like the somewhere in like the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania, like

Hayden Nicholson:
Tapper. He was born in Worcester.

Paul Poole:
We all came down here. We've met through just like various circuits like Alex and I actually lived together for a while. He was the one that did like all the like the production, the mixing, the mastering, like all that kind of stuff. So.

Brandon Durden:
Very cool. Thanks for going over that, Hayden. We'll keep diving in here. guess I'm bouncing all over the place, but that's my job on the editing here after the fact. before we get into the other three songs, which all sound like they have pretty specific, when it comes to the lyrics, pretty pointed topics you're talking about, especially "DAWGMA" and "Strings". When it came to the recording for these songs as opposed to Snitch, again, I think Snitch sounds really, really great. I think these four songs, like production wise sound bigger, you know what I mean? And there's like, and maybe that's the element of having other people, more people in the, you know, in the recording space or whatever it might be for the record, but like kind of what was, what was the writing or what was the recording process like for this? Did you guys still kind of do very DIY with the band members? What was that like collectively as a band?

Paul Poole:
Yeah, so recording this, like the writing and recording process was pretty similar to Snitch just with like more people. Because it still was very much like I would have a demo and then I like, you know, I would have these demos together, I would send them in the band chat. Everybody would kind of get acquitted with them.
We had the privilege this time, thankfully, to play "Snitch" and "They're Here" before we recorded them live. And we were actually able to fix a couple of things that way. I know, like Josh had like a couple of suggestions for"Snitch", like very early on on how to like transition things and like different beats and stuff. And same thing with "They're Here" because we were able to play those like pretty early on before we really got down to recording it. And then from there, like basically I would just sit with these demos and then ask like individual people to like come in and like do their part to them. So like the main one that really took a lot of work was "DAWGMA" Funny enough, we're like that genuinely is like the first riff I ever wrote, just like finally fully realized. And I think it was right after we finished Snitch. I was like, I got this demo and I think I sent it to Hayden. I was like, what do you think of this? He was like,

It's good. And I was like, I fucking hate the first verse of this. Do you have any ideas for this? And he was like, I don't know. Let's I'll come over for a little bit and we'll see what happens. And I pretty much just like.

Hayden Nicholson:
Important to note, our very first jam session, that is the very first time you and I got together and just did music stuff. That was the whole point.

Paul Poole:
Yeah. I basically just like handed him a bass and he just came up with that whole like first verse, like all of the like really, really fast, like done, done, done, done, done, done, done, like all that kind of stuff. Yeah, he came up with all that and like really helped to nail down that first verse. And then like I still struggled with like the transition from like the opening riff into that first verse for a long time. And Josh was the one who came in and fix that. I after a little while, I was like, I've tapped everybody else. Alex didn't have any ideas like I went to Josh. was like, what the fuck can we even do with this part? And he just was immediately just like, yeah, we can do this little like Tom thing. And I was like, he like tossed that out and I was like, I could throw more like sense over this and like kind of have it all like build to this like very, very fast part. And it ended up like gluing together exactly how we wanted it to be. So it was a lot of that where it was like I would have most of the song done and then like

would bring in other people to help fix whatever I didn't like about it. Or in the case of "They're Here", what Alex didn't like about it.

Brandon Durden:
No, I mean that makes a lot of sense. Like you said, these are demos you've had. And then you kind of have people throw their own flavor on top of it or help you like flesh out the details and the bells and whistles. That makes a lot of sense. Going from "Snitch" into "DAWGMA" which you kind of gave a little bit of the background on that when it comes to writing this song. Can you tell me, we can go into the lyrics and then just see also as well, like Nick and Hayden, what you think of each track as we go through as well and your kind of thoughts on them.

What was this one about? It seemed like to me it was very clearly sort of like a religious critique song, but maybe I'm far-fetched on that. I'll leave that to you. But yeah, just break this one down for me.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, that's 100 % what it is. It's like, it's another one of those things. Like this is where I bring the nuance back a little bit, or at least I try to cause like, you know, like there are, I guess the whole point of the song is like spoken in the first, like two seconds of it of just like, I have zero problem with like personal faith and like all that kind of stuff. Like, I know I think like Nick, you still are like, kind of a practicing Christian, right? Yeah.

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, yeah, I was going to jump in on that later and I'll get into that, but keep.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, but like him and him and Josh very much are both like they both believe in God. They both are like, but they're both good people still, you know, but and that's like the that's the thing of like, I just have to sit there and see this shit all day of like people that I went to high school with or like my own family basically being like, I'm a good church going Christian, but also I would kill that trans person if you gave me the chance. And I'm just like, dog, come on. Jesus would beat your ass.

Hayden Nicholson:
With a belt, he would braid it right there in the temple.

Paul Poole:
Yeah. He's chucking a fucking,

he's chucking a stone table at you.

Brandon Durden:
I don't know if you

follow, there's a sort of, he's a comedian, but he does a lot of political commentary, Walter Masterson online, that he was interviewing some people recently. I think they were at the inauguration in January 20th or whatever, and was asking them, if Jesus came back, would you allow him in the country? And they said, well, if he had the proper paperwork, like these people, and I was like.

Paul Poole:
God.

Brandon Durden:
I was like, my God, like maybe I'll clip that in right here for people to see it,

but it's like, it's like, my God, like that's they're doing the meme. Like, like I thought we were joking. Like I thought we were saying this hyperbolic thing about these people, but there was like several people that said that in this video. And I was like, wow, we've lost the plot so bad. But, I guess, since I got Hayden and Paul's views on this too.

Brandon Durden:
Nick, if you don't mind me asking, you know, the concept of the song, I know Paul wrote the lyrics to it, but you're in the band, you know, you have agency with these songs as well, obviously. What was kind of your thought when you heard this song, knew the lyrics of it, things of that nature?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, so when I first heard it, because like I heard the like the instruments, I was like, you know, this song rips is going to be is going to be great. And I heard the lyrics. I was like, man, my parents are going to hate this shit. Like this is going to piss them off. And, know, and then I kind of sit there for a bit with it. And the more I listen to it, the more I was like, you know what? Like, I agree with everything that's being said here. Like as someone who, you know, I do have like I pursue a personal relationship with Christ, like that is a lot of stuff is true. Like if, if Christ came back today and saw how the modern church issued modern Western church treats the people around that he would be disgusted with them because it goes against everything that's spoken in the Bible about like how we're what we're called to do to treat the people around us. And, know, it's the blessing of free will is that it's our choice, whether we believe or don't believe. And it's like people want to act that way when it justifies their poor behavior of hating people and doing that and like, well, know, God forgives me. But then, you know, when it comes to actually doing the things that God calls them to do, they're like, uh-oh, like, you know, it's all it's like the rules don't apply to them. They make up the rules as they go and they grandstand on the things that the Bible, you know, teaches us to do that we shouldn't be doing. And, you know, I'm not perfect. No one's perfect. And, know, kind of what Paul said earlier, like, you know, he knows that Josh and I have a have our own personal beliefs.

But we're not bad people. It's because for me, I'm like, I know what I do and I'm not a good person. So like, how can I sit here? Look at the things that I do in the life that I live. Um, you know, I'm like, Paul said the first thing, first time he was introduced to me, he saw me, you know, plastered in a pink bunny costume, like rambling about nothing while I was like listening to like, um, download something, probably Bodysnatcher or some shit like that.

Nick Hewitt:
You know, like I'm not, I'm not anyone, you know, going to sit here and act like I'm better than anyone else around me. The things I can control is like what I do, how I treat people and, you know, get my own life going forward. So it is something, you know, and I've been in churches where there's a misuse of money and other things like that. And it pisses me off. It's like you, see, like you see the vision, you can see the good things that they have in mind for it, but they just do such a shitty job.

with it and or they attack people and it's just like what are we doing? Like you're focusing on this one. We're supposed to be doing that. So and I'm going to talk in circles all over here, but at the end of the day, what the song is, I think it's one of the things especially for me, I'm a very direct person and I think this is like one of the most direct ways of just telling someone like, hey, get your shit together, do what you're supposed to do. And for lack of a word, like

Nick Hewitt:
fuck off and leave these people alone. One of the words, going after the kids, the way they view youth and as someone who's worked with youth, I'm like, you're here, but you're not. It's just such a skewed thing. And there's also, and not to say there isn't good churches, like churches where people do the right thing, they treat people right. And I think at the end of the day, that's...

Brandon Durden:
Help out the community, the whole nine yards.

Nick Hewitt:
The big picture view, like there's so many of the Joel Osteen's and the Kenneth Copland's who they want to have their church look like that where it's like, hey, you have like a hundred people around you right now that like need your, like 50 of them need your help. Like help those people and then go from there.

Paul Poole:
I was going to say, I don't think any of I don't think any of the shots of it made it into the music video, but we were 100 % projecting like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland shots are like speeches over us while we were like playing "DAWGMA" for the music video. I don't think any of it made it in. And I also had like a whole bunch of like orthodox stained glass photos to like put over stuff. And I didn't get a good enough projector to make it work. But I mean, Gabe worked his magic on that video and it's rocks. And I appreciate that you talk about these things and also you're able to talk about these things in a way that your bandmates that are Christian or do have their own beliefs, like, and still identify with it. Because again, it's more about the institutions. It's more about the, like what I always call like the evangelical movement now is it's a social movement. It really has nothing to do with faith or God. No.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, has nothing to do with God or faith.

Hayden Nicholson:
thousand percent.

Brandon Durden:
Half these people don't even know the verses. Like I could quote more than they could and I haven't been to church since I was like 20 years old. You know what I mean?

Paul Poole:
like I said, I grew up around it and kind of like Nick was saying, like, I've seen the good that it can do. Like I've been there on the mornings where like my church is helping feed, like the homeless or like working with the homeless shelter. I've been to those like, you know, helping. We would do like stuff around Christmas to help out like less fortunate families and stuff like I've seen the good that it can do. I've seen people be good, like even my own parents. My parents stressed so much to me that like Jesus hung out with like

prostitutes, tax collectors, like the scum of the earth. And was like, he was always trying to outreach to these people who clearly needed help, needed something else in their life. And I'm like, I can see the good that it can do, but just like it does so much bad. And it's like the song's not even like the song's more clearly targeted towards Christianity because that's the religion I dealt with growing up. like. But like it happens in all of them.

Paul Poole:
Like, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that there's any perfect religion out there. Like, clearly, like, you know, you've got examples like fucking Israel and fucking any of like the Islamic extremist groups, like any of that. Like it all gets contorted at some point. And that's why I guess my thing always is like, I don't like organized religion, but like a personal faith of like, I should be good because I've been called to be good is always like it can only be a good thing if you genuinely just want to be a good person.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, I think that's the mature takeaway. And again, I think a lot of people go through different phases, especially if you step away from the church from literally hating all of it to developing a more power structure dynamic, you know, not being 21 and edgy also helps as well. guess, you know, but no great song. This one was actually like, it's tough to say like a four track record like this than an album sometimes where there's a lot more of an ebb and flow and you can kind of like more individually pick a little

Brandon Durden:
Spot on it, I love all these songs, but "DAWGMA" for me, might be my favorite on this one, it's the one I've listened to the most I would say, because love the scratches in it that you make the nu metal, you know, it's very nu metal, which is right up, you and you know, yeah, the record scratches are really, really cool in it. The chorus you do in it with that kind of like signature, almost a...

Paul Poole:
That makes sense.

Yeah, shout out Diego, baby.

Brandon Durden:
It's not, it wouldn't be Korn, but I was trying to think of like what band it was. It's like a classic nu metal band like that kind of yell you're doing in it. You know what I'm talking about in the chorus part? That it's not like a, you know, there's the low screaming and you just kind of like yell into the microphone with the repeated lines. It's all like very, very like heightened, like nu metal era, early 2000s. And that's like, as you know, like my bag. So I absolutely love this one.

Brandon Durden:
Was that like, was that conscious? Why did you add in like those? Cause I don't think they're as prominent in the other songs, you know, like full on record scratches, throughout like the main riffs and, know, and all that kind of stuff.

Paul Poole:
There's not any on the other songs. This was the only song that we really felt kind of called for it, and it was like, it's funny. And I told them when they were down here in Orlando, I was like, I was talking to Pulses and I was like, hey, I'm really sorry. I totally beat your guys entire fucking thing off of take a look, y'all, because we had Diego, Mr. Rage, D.J., who did the scratches for that song.

And we had fucking Ben from Granite State, which I've known Granite State for like so many years at this point. They were one of my favorite bands when I was working sound to do sound for in Maryland because they actually like had their shit together.

But, but let me, let me, I I'm gonna, he's not going to tell this part because Kev's exact reaction to that was, fuck yeah, dude. That rules. Like Kev was so on board. Kev was so hyped that like he, they inspired us in that way. was like, it's an unbeatable combo. I was like, it's the nu metal song. I need to get Ben on it. Like I had originally kind of wanted Ben to do the rapping in the in the choruses because I was afraid to do it myself. Felt like I sound like a wimp, but, you know, it worked out in the end.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, it's it's top tier nu metal. I absolutely love it.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I did like I did. I tried to do some like hard takes of it. And then I tried to do some like Fred Durst takes of it just to like to see what the fuck Alex would use. And he was just like, is there he was like, is there any way you can sound more mean? And I was like, I don't think so.

Brandon Durden: No, you but you had to do like the the like what you should have tried but it would I'm kidding because I would have you would have never kept it in is that kind like voice cracking Fred Durst style, you know, you really got a

Hayden Nicholson:
Let me rap it.

Paul Poole:
I did. I did on a couple takes. I think I did that for like a take or two. And Alex was like, fucking stop, please.

Nick Hewitt:
I would pay top dollar to hear that. I actually really want to hear that now.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, the alternate version.

Brandon Durden:
I did the same thing though, Paul, in one of the songs that we put out last year. was like, I'm going to do an actual rap part on this. And I told Simon that and I did one take and I was like, no, I cannot.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, it was it was like, you know, it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities because like we've got a little bit of rapping on "Basilisk" on Snitch, but it was like very different rapping like the "Basilisk" is almost more of like a spoken word, but more in line with like a beat. Whereas this was just like, I don't know, we got the Lincoln Park comparison a bunch and I was like, cool, checking that off the list of things I've done correct.

Paul Poole:
And Ben, oh, I was going to say in Ben's features, fucking amazing. He fucking ripped that shit. I loved getting the videos of him because we weren't able to get him to come down for the video shoot. But he just like film some videos in his backyard of him, just like basically like full blown, like rapper style, like was straight up like grabbing his friend's camera, like shaking it in front of himself. It was so good. He fucking nailed everything for this and I'm so thankful I know that man. Him and Nacon are the fucking boys.

Brandon Durden:
I love that, Yeah, the feature's really cool. I forgot to mention that earlier, but yeah, all in all, like really, really cool song. Going next to "They're Here". Give me the background on this one and we can go from there with everybody's thoughts on it.

Paul Poole:
So this this actually started its life as the first song that I wrote for an old band of mine back when I was in Maryland, the main writer and vocalist had left and I was like, I guess I have to run everything now because this band is all I know. So I was like, OK, let me let me try and write some metalcore. And I was kind of trying to pull from like I guess at the time, like

Wage War, maybe like most of flames. think that's what I was trying. Maybe it might have been Fit for a King at the time. I think Death Grip had just come out, but it was like I was trying to kind of pull from those in the original version and wanted to kind of theme it. We tossed around the idea of doing like a whole like video game themed album. And I was like, yeah, this will be Space Invaders, which we can totally hear in it. Then we released that song. So basically that band folded like a fucking chair because I refused to keep doing things for a whole bunch of people that wouldn't even like answer me about rehearsal. I. Yeah, I hit a point after we did a show, we did one show up in like Pennsylvania where I was like, hey, guys, we're opening for Vatican. We should like be serious about this.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, clear sign that it's not going well. Yeah.

Paul Poole:
And our vocalist straight up just didn't fucking answer the band chat at all did not come to a single rehearsal or the show So I was like fuck it I'll do vocals for it. It's all screaming I could get away with it and then like One of our guitarists couldn't make it for some reason or another I think and then I had my buddy Jake fill in on bass and it was just

It was kind of it was a shit show, but it was cool to get to play with Vatican in a church basement with absolutely nobody but the other bands there. I love that venue personally. Fucking I mean, I don't think they do it out of there anymore. I think Aaron had to move stuff because of like noise complaints or some shit. But. But yeah, so it started life as a song for that band, and then basically when that band folded, I was basically like, cool, I like this song still, and I'm going to use it as a No Business song. And it like got kicked around for like other projects and stuff that like. He had a little bit more weight behind him and that kind of stuff. But eventually I just put it out under No Business because I was like, this ain't going anywhere else. It's a song I wrote pretty much by myself other than like, shit, I'm realizing I never I never credited Jake for his lead. Oops. My buddy, my buddy Jake from Maryland wrote the outro lead for it. But yeah, we kicked it around for a while. We released it.

Brandon Durden:
I gotcha.

Paul Poole:
And then I was considering putting it at like the beginning of "Snitch" and like opening the album with that. But it was like the lyrics that I had written for it, like the stuff about like it was originally very much like a hope core depression kind of song. And like it just did not fit Snitch whatsoever. So put it to the wayside, came back to it a little bit later, actually, because we got the spot to open for no bragging rights mugshot.

downswing and mouth for war. And we were like, shit, we got like 25 minutes slot. We should probably not go up there and play four songs and leave. So we extended snitch to a full length song and we brought their hearing because it was in like the most finished state of any of those like demos that we had. And then after that, we kind of switched it up a little bit more. I was like, I need to modernize this because it still sounds like a like 2017 metalcore song like it had a whole lot of like bop bop bop bop bop bop like just it was real. It was real ratty and like uncomposed. And I think it was probably around the time Josh joined Heavy//Hitter. And I was like, yeah, you can just play like stupid deathcore shit and people like it. So that was when I started adding more of like the just like pounding breakdowns over like blast beats and like that kind of stuff to it.

I just wanted it to just be this like real heavy slow song. Yeah. And did a lot of like switching on the lyrics. I switched it kind of from that like like depression, hope core thing to then being like a more of just like a. I guess a song about like the fear of death and like being afraid because like death, you could feel death like breathing down your neck kind of thing.

Brandon Durden:
Very Final Destination.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I suppose so, because the only lyrics that really stayed were like the actual like, I guess you could call it a chorus, but only happens once. And then I kept the the repeating lines of the outro the same and like that was fucking it. But yeah, it's a it's a good one. I like that one a lot.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, I really like it. You mentioned like deathcore a little bit there and obviously like the it doesn't go fall into the beat down things that Nick was saying that he likes. But in a lot of ways it kind of goes into those realms in some ways. It's a very crushing track at some moments. I do like think there's a lot to that because you've kind of got maybe I maybe it's like something I just hear when I hear the song. But you know how like a lot of a lot of deathcore kind of have like those simple but like haunting like choral.

notes over certain moments of it too. Like maybe that was just in my head when I would listen to it, but I kind of heard like those kind of moments within it too. So yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's sludgy as hell. It's very cool. I thought before, you know, I heard this before you guys released "Strings" and I, the first time I was listening through it, I was like, they did throw in like a, before I got to "Strings," it's like, yeah, they threw in a single singing line in this, in this EP. Cause like, I was not expecting for how brutal like the three out of four tracks were going to be. I love it, know, don't get me wrong, but, but, you know, I heard that I was like, yeah, he's not, he's not getting a singing line in there. And then of course,"Strings" is mostly singing.

Nick Hewitt:
Deathcore is a clean vocal in any part of your song. So immediately we just lost the plot there with that.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, that's true.

Hayden Nicholson:
Unless you're Brand Of Sacrifice. [They] put out an EP with three of the most crushing songs I've ever heard and one of them has his lyrics and him just going, yeah. It's just like, why are you making that noise?

Brandon Durden:
Well, that reminds me of like, it was years ago now, because my Deathcore knowledge is not good. And I don't even know if this counts as Deathcore anymore, because I'm so out of it. like old Chelsea Grin like when they first put out an EP that had some singing on it and people lost their goddamn minds. But I was like, this is actually my favorite song that they've ever put out. So it showed that I was a poser in the Deathcore scene, I guess was the bottom line.

But Nick, we'll go to you and then Hayden for this track. Just do you have any other thoughts on this song, what you like about it, et cetera? Just kind of your thoughts on it from "They're Here"

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, so with all these tracks, new and old for me, all the recording for this was done by the time I joined up with the boys. So all of this was new. So I was like, cool, I got to learn a lot of songs that I've only just of heard. with all the other ones, it's not to say that it's like anything on who wrote it, but it was pretty cut and dry. You get it going, the beats and all that. But then this one there's definitely a lot more technical pieces to it and I was like a first time I saw Like what I had to play I was like, shit like I actually got like focus right now like this is a problem and you know I'm already like worried about what's going on around me with like being on stage and all that but the more like first few times I ran through all my own I was like man, this is gonna be this is gonna be bad. and just that was just like getting on myself But once I got it I was like this is such a fun song to play and like actually getting into it like in the very beginning there's like

Some again, it's kind of going to the deathcore side of it. It's like the most deathcore thing to me is just like the the Sweeping up and like that little like muted. noise that we have in the first breakdown it just like so was like this is cool There's like a little bit more of a riff going on in the first verse once those blast beats kind of kick in so the song was just like it was just

There's so much going on with it, but it's such a fun song to play and like, then from just like a listening standpoint, it's just, there's just so much to do with it. Like I always kind of think of like if I was in the pit with this song going on a lot of times with the other songs I was in the pit. So was like, I know what I was doing for that. So like, can kind of push that energy when I'm on stage with those songs with this song. I was like, if I was in the pit, like how would a song me feel? like what I first, when those first breakdowns go on, I just know it'd just be like on site. Like let's just start throwing hands with whoever's in the pit and

you know, start crowd killing some people. So, but to go into that, into that more melodic, I guess, like kind of Paul's like the really only chorus that's in there. It's just, like I said, it's a super fun song. I like it a lot. It was definitely a fun, fun song to learn to play. And, you know, I like playing on stage now. So yeah, it's a good time.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. could see this one being fun, especially, like you said, for you, who's more into like the slam stuff live. I could see this one being, while you said a little more difficult to play, maybe one of the favorites once you get confident with it, like when you're confident with it, right?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Durden:
Hayden, your thoughts on this one?

Hayden Nicholson:
I mean, I'm going to echo it. Like it's just fun. It's heavy. I really, it, it is easy to play, in a lot of ways. which is really cool because.

Paul Poole:
Gee, I wonder why it's easy to play. It's almost as if this is the one I tracked bass for.

Hayden Nicholson:
Yeah, and I was going to get to that. It's the only one in the EP that I didn't track bass for, but I'm not going to pretend I didn't have creative input because we were learning it. I think like at one point I asked Paul, why is the bass doing so much? And I noticed it got simpler like as it and like, yeah, but I think the whole song, was a whole lot of it.

I do not pretend to not notice that the version that made it onto the EP, it's a lot more simplified, but I think it shines for it because it is just, fun, it's heavy, it's got a lot of shit happening, like it's so good. I will say also it was really great when I got the new version and it just had this crazy death metal blast beat in the middle, like yeah.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, that's something I didn't mention is it's live drums this time. Josh actually Josh recorded all of the drums in five hours for this EP. Yeah, him and Alex were him and Alex were ripping. He he he plays in another band called Heavy Hitter. They're like a death core band. Yeah. So they he did the same thing for them. I think he did all of their EPs drums in like a day or something like that. The dude's just a madman and like.

Brandon Durden:
Oh my God, that's the dude. Drummers are a different breed. You know what I mean? When you realize that like when you start when you record live drums, like how long it takes to prep it with the drum placement and everything. You know, I mean the mic placement, everything else that like that really means they recorded the drums in like three and a half hours. You know what I mean?

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I mean, like not not to speak too much for Alex since he wasn't able to make it. But like, I know Alex said his one regret with this was he didn't get to spend more time like prepping the drums and like tuning them and getting the tones that he wanted. A lot of it ended up getting like very sample replaced. Josh's snare sounds like a fucking tennis ball. like. We knew it would work on like "DAWGMA," but we were like, we cannot have this tennis ball as snare on like "Strings". It just doesn't. It's not the sound for.

Brandon Durden:
You can't do the deathcore snare on a song like "Strings". Could you imagine those melodic parts and just the smack? It'd be almost as abrasive as throwing in the St. Anger snare just right in the middle of it or something.

Paul Poole:
The last thing for this song that I'll say is I loved Alex's input on this song because we went to play it live for that the like opener show that we did. And while we were practicing it, Alex goes, I don't really like these chorus leads. You mind if I change them? And I was like, yeah, sure. Like, go ahead, man. Like, that's all you. So he came up with these new chorus leads and we played it that way. Like from then on out.
But then we went to record it and Alex goes, yo, shit, I don't think these leads are in key with the chorus that you wrote. So like he spent, he sat there for about an hour just being like trying to make the leads work. And then eventually I was just like, okay, we are wasting time. Do you just want to write new chorus chords? And he was like, I had.

And then we wrote that chorus in like 10 minutes or something like that, like the actual chorus part of it, which is like why Hayden said like the bass got a lot simpler, especially on that chorus of like I had him jumping all over the place and doing all kinds of bullshit. And like when we changed it with Alex, it was just like, hey, we're just going to play some open notes, like really make it like big chorus kind of thing. And it ended up it ended up working out so much better. This one also. blew me away when I first heard the finished version of it because I was like I could not believe that my singing ended up sounding that good. I know that's Alex doing a lot of work to it, but yeah, it was like I heard it and I was like, shit, I'm not embarrassed to release this awesome.

Brandon Durden:
It sounds great.

Yeah, I was, I was going to say one thing with this song, because sometimes, you know, a lot of times with bands, especially when you're doing a heavier track like this. Where like, you throw in a singing line, you're fucked, but, but sometimes people will shoehorn in a hook or something when like it really didn't need it. This song, it like, it felt really natural there and it kind of felt like a cool peak of the song in some ways. And yeah, was impressed with you. That was a note that I put down was I was impressed with your vocal delivery there. I thought it was some of the best singing you've done on any of these tracks that you've done before.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, a lot of a lot of lessons in practice gone into that. I have been I've been kind of beaten myself up for the last like however long we've been playing shows because like I've always felt like I have been the weakest link in this band, at least as far as like our live show goes. Like I've always felt like, you know, I don't feel like my singing sounds as good as I would want it to for us like playing live. I've always felt like, you know, the screams are.

fine but my throat hurts a fuckton after it so I've put a I've tried to put as much work as I can into like getting a lot better at that and like I've got myself on a kind of scuffed in-ear rig now that helps a lot.

Brandon Durden:
So if you don't mind me asking, just because I'm always interested when people say they do some, have you actually gone and taken vocal lessons? Have you done a lot of the Zen of Screaming type stuff? What have you kind of done?

Paul Poole:
I do have that DVD. I've got that one. That's what I still use for like warmups and all that. Like I use some of the stuff that one of my vocal coaches taught me. And then I also use the Zenith screaming stuff to get ready. I over the pandemic, actually, I think after we had recorded maybe either like right before or after we recorded Snitch, I took vocal lessons with Elijah Witt from Cane Hill. Yeah, he was awesome. Really kind of helped me to like figure out that I could sing because I was just like, I just want to take these lessons. I don't even know if it's possible for me to sing. And like all this other stuff. And he was just like, do you think you sound bad? I was like, I mean, not really. Like it sounds like I'm getting it right. He was like, yeah, you'll be fine. He was like, I got friends who are tone deaf and they know it. So if you know, you're not tone deaf, then like you'll be able to sing someday. And like, he worked me through like a couple of lessons and then.

More recently, I've actually been tapping Dave with Extreme Vocal Institute, and he's been super helpful. He's been very helpful on the front of like a lot of the actual like prepping yourself to like do the vocals themselves, because there's all this stuff with like actually like stretching your damn neck and you're like I especially started feeling I started like working out recently and like trying to eat right and like all that other kind of stuff and like building up that like muscle in my shoulder fucked up my vocals for like a while. And then I realized like I am not stretching nearly enough because like I built muscle and it's putting tension like on my throat and like, you know, he helped me with a lot of that. He helped me with some of like the inner rig stuff overall, just like new ways to practice songs and like all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So again, I've been trying to put in the work. I want to be able to be like that really good live vocalist that you hear him and it's like, fuck it sounds just like the album. I know I'm not there yet, but you know, it's.

Brandon Durden:
Well, again, I can't speak to the live shows, but I can say that I think... Yeah, I was just saying, you all sound great on my end, so that's all that really matters. but I'm just kidding. But no, mean, all I can say is that at least on the recording front, you can definitely hear that you've put in that work, like both on the screaming and the singing front, think the clarity on these as well as both your heaviness of your screams and the confidence in the singing really shine through, which leads it to, that's a good segue into "Strings," which talk about singing is a vast majority singing. or as the cringe metalcore kids call clean vocals. Let's get into "Strings." I know this is a love song for the, if I remember right from their posts of when you put it out. Absolutely loved the video. It was one of my favorite surprises I saw from a band that releases a song. know, it's just like, this is awesome.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I shot that. I shot that the week that video came out.

Brandon Durden:
I love it. That's the way I run at all times and then I have no idea why I'm anxiety ridden all the time with trying to get clips together or anything. But speak to me about this one, because obviously this one is a lot more of the rock side, I would say, like hard rock, but still, you know, metal. There's still a lot of metal stuff in here. But speak to this one both instrumentally and of course lyrically for me, influences, how it came about, all that good stuff.

Paul Poole:
We actually so I mean, when I wrote the original version of it, I was just fucking around with the chords from ever long. And I was like, I love how this sounds funny enough. Found out later if you just put it in drop B, it's also keep quiet and drive as well as send the pain below. Same exact like form if you just like tune it down. But yeah, so I had the original song of this, the main riff, like the opening riff stayed as well as the, what's it, the, the like breakdown kind of part that was originally the chorus of the original song. So those are the only two parts that stayed. And then when I went to revisit this one, I don't really remember a whole lot of the thought process, like instrumentally of what I was doing with it. But

I do remember that I was kind of thinking like this song would sound really good if I tried to put some of the similar flair of like Static Dress on it like that kind of just like it was one of those where I was like, that's a band that does a really good job of kind of blending in this like more rock feeling thing, but it still has some of those sensibilities of like, you know, Under Oath and like that kind of stuff.

Paul Poole:
So I was like, what if what if Under or like what if Static Dress had a song with like this riff in it? And that was kind of how I came up with a whole lot of the like more like syncopated stuff like the net net net net net. And once again, ever long. But yeah, kind of put all that together. And then like.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I mean, that was the the instrumental kind of came together pretty quickly. I think I called Hayden in to write like the bass parts for the little bridge in there because I was like, I want something funky and I do not feel like writing something that funky. So I think I like laid down something very, very simple slap bass. And I was like, have fun, figure something out. And then, yeah. And then as far as like lyrics go, this was the hardest one to write 100 percent.

turns out it's, it's so easy to write angry stuff. I'm just like, I just get on, I just open up the notes app and just type fuck you 60 times and it just comes out. but this one, this one was really hard for me to write. It's like, it's so hard to write a song that is like. Lovey and like, it's so hard to write a nice song and not be corny. And that was what I was the most worried about with it is that like I didn't want to be writing one of these like super corny love songs, even though like I do think the core the chorus is corny in a good way, I would say.

Brandon Durden:
It's wholesome. would say it's not corny. It's wholesome.

Paul Poole:
I just wanted to my my fiancé now, she was constantly just like, "When the fuck you gonna write a song about me?" And I do believe of that original EP, this was her favorite. So was like, great opportunity may as well try it, see how it goes. And I ended up working out pretty well, I'd say. and I kind of just wanted to tell like the story of like, I guess of like us getting together and like,

how it's like one of the best things that I've ever been in as well as like it now that like we're in it, it feels like there's no other way it could have happened. And that like every single time, like no matter what, like no matter how the story changes or how like the situation changes, I still think we would have ended up where we are. And that was just kind of the feelings I was trying to tap for the lyrics of just like trying to express that in like the least corny ways possible.

Brandon Durden:
Well, and I don't know if you thought about this when you got this EP together, but it sort of puts a button on the whole Snitch: Deleted Scenes thing because the first EP is so much about. What you were talking about, like, you know, like, whatever the, whatever the details were of like, you know, harsh relationship, bad relationship, turmoil, all that kind of stuff. And then the ending of this deleted scenes EP, you bring it completely back around to the entirely different point, right? Which I thought was cool. It was a cool way to kind of like wrap that whole thing up kind of in like an album way, you know, they're two separate releases, but it kind of still wraps it up in a really, really good package, I guess, you know.

Paul Poole:
Yeah. that was what I that was what I wanted to do. And that was why I still put in some of those little like Tyler, the creator ask therapy sessions in the deleted scenes is because like, I mean, spoiler at some point, I'm hoping to get vinyl records made and I'm just going to call it Snitch Director's Cut. And it's just going to be album EP and just put it all together that way. God knows when that'll happen. It'll happen whenever I think I can sell 100 vinyl records. I wanted to, I wanted to make sure that it's possible to like, cause it is the deleted scenes. It's the besides, but I wanted it to kind of flow as like, these are the sessions that happened after, or like, these are like highlights of sessions that happened after that. We're like, you know, I'm talking about like the anger and like the, the hatred that I felt like all these years later of like, cause like I wrote Snitch.

Felt like pretty nuanced about it. I'm just like, oh yeah, I had a hand in this. And then like later on, I'm just like, man, fuck that. I didn't deserve any of that shit. Fuck you die. I want to cut your fucking head off. Like, you know, just whatever the exaggerated like bullshit of it is. Um, kind of, you know, the half the song is me literally just going fucking swing motherfucker, please, please swing. So I got an excuse. Um, and then, you know, talking about my troubles with religion that happened a lot throughout like late high school, college and like when I moved down here talking about like, you know, feeling pretty close to death, especially over like the pandemic shut inside like all that kind of stuff. But, you know, just at other parts, "They're Here" really is just a song about every time I drink way too much and I'm thrown up over the toilet and I'm just like, fuck, this might be it. Pray into the throne and then, yeah like you said "Strings" wraps it up really nicely with like I think they're supposed to be a therapy session at the end of their here that was supposed to be like so what do you do now and then it just busts right into "Strings" of like you know I made it out.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, which is cool. I like that it kind of ends on that uplifting note in a lot of ways. Hayden, your thoughts on this one for the last track of the EP for "Strings".

Hayden Nicholson:
all of my thoughts are, they have a lot to do with the musicality of it. a thing that I've been pretty outspoken about is that like, so I've been saying that like "DAWGMA" is my favorite on the, on the EP, but I don't know, man, like as I listened back to it, like "Strings" is up there, "Strings" is, is about probably about even at this point. And I think it's because like when I came in and listened to it, I really wanted to get it right because it was so different. And the only way I knew it was going to work is if like we all got it right, like we all nailed it in. so I really locked in.

Like it was, it was so different for me to learn it. And like, was, it was out of my comfort zone in a big way. and I think it is my best performance on the EP by a long shot. I mean, "DAWGMA", like I really brought a lot of like aggression to "DAWGMA" and I really brought a lot of, know, like you can, everything you can hear of me on the, on the record is just like, so I brought a lot of aggression and feeling to it, but like "Strings", I really locked in and I really knew I had to bring.

you know, I had to bring the sauce to it. Like I had to really, really, really hone it in. And that little bit that he was talking about was, cause he gave me like a, like a funky slap bass thing. And I think what made it on the record is not funky slap bass at all. It's a little more subdued. and the reason I went with more subdued like that was a thousand percent because I knew I was like, this needs to be, cause it explodes again. And I was like, if I'm, if I'm really loud, it's just going to sound really overbearing. I don't want that. I wanted it to be, I wanted it to feel like it was building to something.

Paul Poole:
No, not at all.

Hayden Nicholson:
Which is why it is very notes heavy. It's I'm playing, I'm playing really rapidly. If you listen, not necessarily like very fast, but I'm playing very, there's a lot of notes there. It's a lot more, a lot of people would have held back a little more, but I wanted to really underscore that it is, it is building to a big epic like climax. And then there's that big that just, gets loud again and the song ends on such a good like high note. and I genuinely genuinely think that like, think, God, what was it like? It took me like 10 or 10 to 15 takes to get that song down, but I kept telling Alex, we're going to know the

I want another one. another one. I was like, it's got to sound right. I wanted to do justice and I wanted to be right. And that was the one that took me the longest to record because it was the one, not that I didn't care about getting it all right, because I did, but that was the one that I just, knew I had to get it. I had to get it the way that I, like it had to be. And when I finally heard that final take, was like, that's the one, there it is. And it genuinely, it is the one I am proudest of from the record by a long shot.

Brandon Durden:
Right. The first listen through of the song, I do have to say that bass part in that, I guess you would call it the bridge, right? Yeah, labeling things is hard. But I remember being like, yeah, Hayden's going to town on that one. That's good. That sounds great. Yeah, it really added a lot to it. And then, like you said, built it up to the finale of the song in a really cool way. Yep.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I guess it's a bridge. Hayden reminded me of something very funny about this EP and it's that we completely flipped which songs were going to be the singles like after we got all the final versions of them. Cause I think originally it was going to be, we were going to drop "Snitch" as the first single and then we were going to drop "They're Here" as like the second one. Cause those were like the most finished. And then basically it was like we got all the final ones back and banned unanimously was like "DAWGMA"'s. The first single 100 % like we heard, you know, we heard all the scratch and we heard Ben's feature. We heard it all put together finally. And we were like, that's got to be the one. And then actually it was Josh and my other old roommate, Jesse, who both were like "Strings" is my favorite. And when I heard,

Hayden Nicholson:
Yeah, "DAWGMA" was special.

Paul Poole:
when I heard both of them, because Jesse doesn't like anything. I'll put it that way. Now, it's not that extreme, but like Jesse, Jesse is a very, very critical person. And I know he would have told me if that shit sucked ass. He also was a big part of why I picked "DAWGMA" because he was pissed. He was originally going to he was originally going to have Nick's guest spot. And then I was like, yeah, let's put Nick on it. Jesse didn't seem all that stoked on it. And then he heard the final version of "DAWGMA" and he was like, I will never forgive you for asking me to do the old intro instead of nu metal banger of the year. And I was like, I was like, I thought if I told you which song it originally was, you would have wanted no part of it. And he was like, I guess we'll never know. Similar kind of taste to Nick, like very, very much into like heavy, heavy deathcore, like heavy stuff. And when he was like, "Strings" is my favorite on the whole thing. That was when I was like, we got to put this one out. If the deathcore kid loves the rock song that much, it's got to be something special.

Nick Hewitt:
When Josh said that, when Josh said that "Strings" was his favorite song, I was like, holy shit, like that's how I knew it was a special song. It's like that's just so out of left field from him.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, and good call.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, I mean he said he said yesterday at rehearsal don't don't tell Austin Dane and Chris but he said yesterday he thinks "Strings" might be his favorite song to play live out of all his bands so

Hayden Nicholson:
It's fun, dude. He and I have a lot, that second go around him, he and I really locked in and like, we both felt it. I was like, yeah, this is just so, like, we got to be a proper rhythm section, you know, like it's so good. It is genuinely so good.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, that's got to be a fun element to it with the rhythm section too, with like some of those more rhythmic beats that are kind of separate from the guitars a little more on that song rather than like the heavier, sludgy riffs that you kind of get to get in the pocket a little bit. That's got to be fun, right?

Paul Poole:
Glad y'all are having fun, I'm just trying not to have fucking voice cracks. We play it last! It's like all singing and we play it last, because I'm a fucking idiot, but...

Hayden Nicholson:
a pocket in that song. It's so good.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Nick, what are your thoughts on this one for "Strings"?

Nick Hewitt:
Yeah, so not so much on the recording side of it. I didn't have anything to do with that, but it was funny with when I first started going in with the boys, the one song I would jump on up on stage for was Chains that always do the last part, which for me personally, I was coming out of a pretty, pretty toxic relationship. So when I up there and saying that last part of Chains, I'd be like, this is speaking, speaking right home for me because like I'm fucking pissed and you know, like

Last relationship kind of was just like a real wake up called me like I've always just been in really shitty relationships before and you know, so now going into doing "Strings", I'm in a relationship with someone who like is awesome. I love her. She actually did the cover art for the EP. She's a she's she's a she's a homie and she's just like it's like just open up my eyes to just being someone who like cares and loves me for me and like I love her for her and like that's it like and we're just here like going through life together like that like so like now listening to "Strings" I'm like the song like means so much more to me because it's like I can like relate to this and like speak something to me versus like even where I did my you know my vocal feature on "Snitch" it was very much like I'm gonna kill you

Like that's kind of just like the vibe I got. like, like, you know, we used to beat people with hammers for saying stuff like this. Like, I just want to go out there and throw hands with someone. no, it's just, it's such a, you know, it's such, such a different beat for me. You know, going in from the more like even I said, all the songs, the only time I ever really worked on a fully clean, you know, clean vocal song was when I was first getting ready to join up with the boys. Just for work. had a, I had a certification exam thing I had to take. I couldn't, there was a show I was going to play, but I had to hold off on it to do this certification, but "Cinderblock" was still on the rotation. So I started learning "Cinderblock" and I was like, wow, this is really different compared to all the other songs. And then now with, with "Strings," I'm like, wow, this is really different from all the other songs, but I like it and it's fun. You know, and I kind of can more speak to that, just that it's a very fun song to play live on. I'm not doing any of the leads, Alex is handling all of that. So I kind of get, the

slap my guitar and have a good time with it up there. But there's still some melodic parts where I do have to, you know, kind of lock in and get those down. So it's kind of very similar if they're here. There's a few different moon pieces to it, but it's it's just a very fun song to play. You know, I love the way it came out at the end. You know, it's very much what Paul said as soon as I heard the finished version of it. I was like, I got this needs to be one of the singles that we drop. Like this is like too good not to like release early. So yeah, it's just it's just a very fun song. It means something to me now. and yeah, I just I just love it.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, yeah, and it's nice to hear from a, know, metalcore adjacent band, again, whatever the fuck you want to call yourselves. Yeah, rock band, there you go. It's good to hear a wholesome, you know, like a wholesome song like this. Not that there aren't those in the scene, there definitely are, but it's a rarity, you know what I mean? Like we said earlier, even if it's like, I don't know, sometimes even if it is like a song about relationships in a somewhat positive light. It's still sort of like downtrodden or introspective or all these different things. And like this one is genuinely just like a, positive song for the most, you know what I mean? And I mean, not to say there's not introspective parts in the lyrics and all that, but like, I, appreciate that, that you were able to, to, to write a song like this and, and not, you know, and make it genuine, not make it cheesy, you know, not make it rom-com, the, you know, the distorted guitar version, you know, and really go into it and make a genuinely great song. So that's a testament to you guys. It's not easy to pull off.

Paul Poole:
I appreciate that because I still don't feel that way, but it's good to hear other people say it. I'm I'm one of those people who is never going to be satisfied with anything he does. So I'm always going to think the lyrics are cheesy. I'm always going to think like it doesn't quite like I didn't quite write good enough song. Like I just always feel like that. So no matter what, it's good to hear it.

Brandon Durden:
Yeah, and again, That's the curse of a good songwriter though, right? Because if you thought you were doing great stuff, you wouldn't keep pushing yourself. You could get complacent. So that's why all the best artists sort of say those same sort of things. No, but thanks, Paul, Nick, and Hayden for going over this with me. Again, Snitch: Deleted Scenes is out February 21st. Where can people find the release and the music and and where people can find the band.

Paul Poole:
I hope y'all really like it. I'm very, very happy with this. It's good to finally put out something that actually reflects like the more recent writing abilities of me. Cause I've been constantly putting out old material forever. Like it feels very good. This feels like the most fully realized version of what No Business is. And I really couldn't have done it without the other guys. Like, again, I know I, I write the demos. I write most of it, but I really, really could not. This album would not be nearly or this EP would not be nearly as good as it is without the rest of the boys. They really, really helped like again, fix a lot of stuff that I could not figure out. So I hope you get that out of it. I hope you get just like I hope people enjoy like spinning Snitch into this. I hope people enjoy that and like that like trailing of.

"Basilisk" with like the Dean Martin sample at the end of "Basilisk" into us using that as like a breakdown call out and you know, I hope people listen to it that way. you know, maybe someday if I get those records made and all that. Yeah, man, [listen to the] album Snitch or the the EP Snitch: Deleted Scenes. It's on all the major streaming platforms as well as we've got funny little videos for every song, two of which we filmed ourselves ones like a funny visualizer. I got a guy cooking up and then there's obviously like the real music video that gave Lugo did for us. You can find it everywhere. You can find us on. Like every social media at this point, pretty much we just do @nobusinessfm, no like dots, spaces, capitalization, none of that shit. It is literally just @nobusinessfm like the radio station. We got a Twitch that I guess this will be going up day of. So maybe I don't know. It'll already have happened. I was going to say we have a Twitch for doing an album like album release stream on it to just like chat.

Nick Hewitt::
Yeah, that's what that's from. mean, just yeah, no, not just I really hope you guys like the EP. I think it's really special. If you're local, come support us. us live. We do have a show on the 14th in Orlando. You know, and just anything future wise, we'd love seeing seeing you guys in person and just, you know, support your local scene, support local music.

Brandon Durden:
Again, this is Paul, Hayden, and Nick from No Business out of the Orlando area with their new EP, Snitch: Deleted Scenes out now. Thanks for coming on, guys. I really appreciate your time, and good luck on the release.

Paul Poole:
Yeah, thanks for having us, brother.

Nick Hewitt:
Thank you for having us.

Hayden Nicholson:
Thank you, Brandon.

Listen to the EP below or wherever you stream music.