Grave Secrets - A Rising L.A. Rock Band - Discusses Their Debut Album Til Your Lungs Fall Out

About The Guest(s): Vinny Morales is a member of the LA rock band Grave Secrets. He is the singer, guitarist and the main songwriter for the band.

Summary: Isaac Kuhlman interviews Vinny Morales of Grave Secrets to talk about their debut Til Your Lungs Fall Out and dig into the personal history and pain behind the songs. They also discuss the band's upcoming shows, including Vinny hinting at a VERY big show in April. Vinny also shares his plans for an album release show and an acoustic EP, and they discuss the importance of pre-sales and strategic song releases. Vinny recommends checking out the band ⁠Militarie Gun⁠.

Key Takeaways:

• Check out Grave Secrets' new album ⁠Til Your Lungs Fall Out⁠
• Grave Secrets has a big show coming up in April at a large venue.
• The band is planning an album release show and considering a smaller, intimate show for dedicated fans.
• Vinny is already working on new music and has about 15 songs written.
• The band plans to release an acoustic EP and explore different ways to engage with their audience.

 

Intro Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"Colorado" by Birds Love Filters⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Outro Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"Snail Mail" by Speedway Sleeper⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Donate to keep the Powered By Rock Podcast alive and well: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/poweredbyrock⁠

Grave Secrets' Links - ⁠https://linktr.ee/gravesecrets ⁠"Mood Ring" rebroadcast with full consent of Grave Secrets

 

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 

00:00 - The Powered By Rock Podcast Intro

00:43 - Talking about the formation, the growth, and the songs behind Grave Secrets and their debut album Til Your Lungs Fall Out

0:02:04 - How Grave Secrets formed as a band

0:03:09 - Influences for Grave Secrets' sound

0:09:13 - The importance of diverse musical influences

0:10:42 - The avoidance of whiny vocals in Grave Secrets' music

0:12:34 - "Mood Ring" inspired by a conversation with a girlfriend

0:14:03 - Collaborating with Alex Estrada to refine "Mood Ring"

0:15:27 - "Mood Ring" has the potential to be a radio hit

0:18:08 - Advice to young bands: focus on music while young

0:20:05 - "Fuck Shit Up" is about hating pretentious and fake people in LA

0:21:16 - Hate towards war and the lack of love in the world, hypocrisy of religions, governments

0:26:13 - "Distant" as a special song, inspiration from other bands

0:30:13 - Musicians need to self-promote, change in the music industry

0:31:34 - Self-promotion as a sign of humility, vulnerability in music

0:33:49 - "No One to Hear You" is about the suicide of the Vinny's father's twin brother

0:37:03 - Guilt and complexity of the father-son relationship

0:38:49 - Vulnerability and the power of sharing personal stories

0:39:43 - Playing "Mood Ring" during the break

0:42:49 - Animal representation of Grave Secrets' music

0:43:57 - Exploring film or editing as a creative project

0:45:06 - Friends being "vermin" in LA

0:45:45 - Discussion about planning a national tour with two supporting bands

0:46:38 - Choice between watching a boxing match or an alien autopsy

0:47:51 - Naming four influential musicians for personal Mount Rushmore

0:52:53 - Teasing a big show in April and plans for an album release show

0:55:58 - Potential new listeners in Phoenix and Las Vegas

0:57:40 - Importance of getting presale tickets for events

1:00:06 - Writing new songs and collaborative process

1:02:13 - Not every song needs to be released, consider bonus tracks

1:03:22 - Using bonus tracks for physical copies as an incentive

1:03:51 - Plans for an acoustic EP

1:04:16 - Recommendation to check out Bayside's acoustic EP

1:04:11 - Discussing the complexity of a band's music in acoustic versions

1:05:22 - Plans to release acoustic versions of favorite songs

1:06:08 - Hope to create a rock anthem that brings people together

1:06:38 - Mentioning the power of "Wonderwall" as a sing-along song

1:07:46 - Recommendations to check out the band Militarie Gun

1:09:03 - Wrap up and closing remarks

 

Episode Transcript (transcribed by AI - typos may occur):

[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): This is the powered by rock podcast with your host, Isaac Kuhlman. You're about to discover the most entertaining rock music podcast on the planet, filled with the best stories straight from rock musicians from all over the world. Rock music isn't dead. It's getting better and better. It's time to start paying attention again. With that said, let's get this party started.

0:00:24 - (Vinny Morales): The mountains gonna rise up all by me.

0:00:43 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Hello and welcome to the Powered by Rock podcast. We're only speaking with Vinny Morales of the LA rock band Grave Secrets today. These guys have just released their debut album called till your lungs fall out, which is ten songs that I guarantee will blow you away. The vinyl is currently on preorder, and I highly recommend you pick that bad boy up. They also released a split ep earlier this year with bed on Wiretap Records that featured two of their more popular songs in Mood Ring and fuck shit up. I got that right here.

0:01:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Wiretap record club members. So that's what I got in the mail. I definitely say, go check that out. I haven't even opened this one yet, but I've listened to it already. So I first heard about Grave Secrets when obviously Rob from Wiretap mentioned them in a post about signing the band. I don't even remember when. That must have been like march of this year or something like that. I'm not even sure when it was, but then I was like, okay, I looked into it. I don't think you guys even had much music out, but you did have some music out.

0:01:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And right away I realized why. Rob's got great taste in music. So if he's recommending a new band, signing a band, you're not going to find a better taste bud than Rob's. But for anyone who's looking for good music, I instantly realized that if you love good hardcore sound with, like, melodic punk vocals and a little bit of moody shoe gaze mixed in there, then you're absolutely going to love grave secrets. Hey, Vinny, welcome to the show.

0:02:04 - (Vinny Morales): Thank you. Quite an intro. I appreciate it.

0:02:07 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, well, I try to pump you up, so that way you feel good about being here, also, that way you don't feel like it's just some schmuck on the other end being like, hey, here's what I had for breakfast. What'd you have for breakfast today? That kind of podcast.

0:02:20 - (Vinny Morales): Totally.

0:02:20 - (Isaac Kuhlman): None of that bullshit here.

0:02:22 - (Vinny Morales): Love it. Yeah, I've been actually watching you guys for a while too. Probably a little bit longer than you guys have been watching us. I've been checked. You guys out a little over a year ago, I found you guys through some band. I forget who it was, but anyway, yeah, very cool. Run an awesome show.

0:02:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So it's like a longtime listener, first time appearance.

0:02:44 - (Vinny Morales): Yes.

0:02:45 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, perfect. All right. Well, there's obviously not a lot of information about the band grave secrets out online, because it's a pretty new band. You guys started in 2020. I think you guys started as a three piece, but now you have a fourth member, from what I was able to gather. But kind of tell me, what's the full story about the band, how you guys got together and were you guys in previous bands, and then how did grave secrets come about?

0:03:09 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, well, I've personally been writing music since I was probably, like, 15, something like that. I've always said I like playing guitar and stuff. I'm not the best guitarist, I'm not the best singer, but I love writing music. That's definitely my passion. And so I kind of did my thing. I was in a few different bands, like, growing up, and then sort of left the music scene in my early 20s for a couple of years for personal work reasons and stuff. And all the while, I was still writing music. So, anyway, I started kind of getting more heavily into writing music, and I had a project in mind called no spirit.

0:03:48 - (Vinny Morales): And my best friend, Et. Do we call him Et? His name is Eric Torres. He actually introduced me to who are now basically the band. So Kevin and Kevin. Kevin drummer Kevin Castaneda and then guitarist singer Kevin Gonzalez. And Kevin Gonzalez and I, we definitely have a very similar story. So same thing. He grew up. He's actually like an OG pop punk fan. So I don't claim to be that. I definitely know some of my shit, and I'm very selective with what I like to listen to. But he has a plethora of knowledge and love for music since he was like a little kid and same thing. He would spend hours in his room just playing music, writing music, listening to music.

0:04:33 - (Vinny Morales): So when we met, we were instantly fans of each other's projects because he had a project called New Leaf. I was kind of doing my solo thing, like mosley no spirit. I had a bunch of different little things, but we fell in love with each other's music secretly. Like, I was streaming the hell out of his stuff and he was streaming out of my stuff. And then we decided to jam, like meet up. And we had a lot of chemistry.

0:04:57 - (Vinny Morales): We played a couple of shows as no spirit. I think we played, like, one or two. We released an album. So it's out there if you guys ever want to check it out.

0:05:05 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Got you.

0:05:05 - (Vinny Morales): I don't really tell anyone about it. It's a secret. And then I'd say, like, 2020. I thought of the name Grave secrets because I think I was listening to a podcast or something, and I just heard the phrase, and I thought about it, and I kind of felt like it connected with a dark theme. And then also, every song that I've personally written, it's all true. It's all real shit. Every single song. There's some stories in there that I've never told anyone that are, ironically enough, on a platform for everyone to hear. So it kind of felt like grave secrets just match that theme, and that's how it came about. And Castanedo, also original member, like the ground up. We've had a couple of different basses. We now have Carlos in the band, so, yeah, it's been cool.

0:05:58 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Very interesting. Yeah, I mean, that's one of those things. Well, first of all, you have to have enough people in your vicinity to be making good music to be able to find somebody who you have similar interests with that actually plays music that you. You know, I grew up in North Dakota. There was nobody else that was making music around me that was putting out anything. I'm like, I just got to make my own music, and hopefully it doesn't suck back then.

0:06:24 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I'll say it was good for what it was. I still like it, but I made it in high school. But it's a lot easier when you're living in southern California, right? There's no shortage of musical talent in southern California, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. But your sound is what I kind of consider my perfect blend of rock styles. We have a bit of punk, a bit of grunge, alternative, little bit of pop.

0:06:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Blend that all together, and it comes together in one of the best possible ways. So I've seen you mention bands like Joyce Manor, which obviously doesn't sound like your band necessarily as an influence, which makes sense for the melodies and the shoegaze parts. But what other bands do you draw influence from, especially for the harder stuff?

0:07:07 - (Vinny Morales): I mean, definitely the band know we're unashamed to be just, like, big title fight fans. We just grew up on it. It was like our first love, because you grow up listening to so many different bands, and then you hear that one band that just has a very unique sound, and I feel like they definitely invented their own sound, in my opinion. They also drew from a bunch of things, but were just themselves.

0:07:31 - (Vinny Morales): And so we're big title fight, you know, Tiger Jaw. Kevin Gonzalez loves a lot of.

0:07:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): He.

0:07:38 - (Vinny Morales): He loves a lot of the original pop punk bands. God, I'm afraid to say what bands? Because I don't want to butcher it and I don't want him to kill me. I know he loves blink. Last night he was sending me some music by good Charlote and stuff. So he has a more vast music knowledge than I do. I definitely am very close minded and listened to the same, like, ten bands for the last 15 years, and I'll never change.

0:08:09 - (Vinny Morales): It's rare for a band to pop into my playlist.

0:08:12 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, well, you keep watching this show, you'll find more and more bands, I think, that should pop into your playlist. But yeah, that's kind of one of the reasons why I like to talk to people about this stuff and bring people on for a podcast. Because you never hear people talk about title fight or I mean, obviously good Charlote and Blink, Wayne too. You've heard on the radio that people talk about them, but you never hear about these being mentioned as influences for bands these days, or influences or even just as a popular band. Right? So when you hear bands like Joyce Manor, who's a little bit more, I guess, has more notoriety, title fight, obviously these bands, when you say these are influences or these are things that we've drawn certain parts of our music from, then people are like, oh, shit, maybe it's okay to like this other genre of rock music or this other genre of hip hop or pop or whatever people are listening to, because I find that the more musical influences you have, the better you sound.

0:09:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It's usually a case of, like, the best punk bands don't just listen to punk music. The best punk bands listen to r and b and 60s retro stuff, right? You're like, yeah, they get the melodies and the harmony, but then they apply it in their own way. And that's how I feel like you guys do it. Because as much as you can compare yourselves to a turnstile or title fight or any of these other bands that are kind of coming up right now, well, not title fight so much, but like turnstile obviously blowing up pretty big. But there's this unique way that you guys do it that does bring me back to the early 2000s with the emo rise for a little while. And when I say emo, I don't mean the whiny dashboard confessional style.

0:09:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I hate the phrase screamo because really it's just loud singing. I mean, it's not screaming. There were definitely a ton of bands that did that, but the more melodic ones, like a Kyotos or chiodos or however you pronounce that something like that. Some of these other really good bands from back in that time, and I listen to what you guys do, and I'm like, holy shit, they do what those bands were doing, but I think they do it better because I don't think you guys do it as whiny, which is good.

0:10:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): There's something about having that whiny voice that always pushed me away from a lot of emo music in General. And I'm like, this is how it's done. This is a man singing it, singing it from his heart without trying to sound, like, really whiny about it. And it's tough to do that whiny shit.

0:10:42 - (Vinny Morales): And look, everybody. Each is own, and I respect everything, but I completely agree with you. Title fanboys, man, are like, they're screaming, but it's, like, full bodied. And I feel like the reason I don't like the whiny stuff is not because it's not masculine or something. I think it just sounds like more of a performance than a raw expression of somebody screaming how they feel, which is what I love about title fight.

0:11:15 - (Vinny Morales): It just sounds like he's in pain when he's singing that he's in pain. It really sounds like it, and it's dope, so, yeah, I agree. And try to stay away from that, for sure.

0:11:23 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And I think when you say it's performance, I think a lot of it's because they want to. Well, I feel like there's a certain part of. It's like I want to get laid by singing. Like, so, like, it's like, if I sing like this whiny, it makes me appeal to women more or something. Like. Like, Dane Cook was like this comedian that always seemed to do stuff that it seemed like he was just trying to attract women with his comedy. And I'm like, stop. Stop making a show of it. Just tell the jokes and be funny. Like, you don't have to rely on your good looks or a good voice or whatever.

0:11:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Let the songs do the talking instead of you performing it. Right. I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't perform, but do it in a way that's not unnatural and that's not for the wrong reasons, I guess, is what I'm trying to say there.

0:12:09 - (Vinny Morales): I agree. Just raw expression.

0:12:11 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And so let's talk about the new album, because, like I said, it's just full of absolute bangers. And I mentioned mood ring and fuck shit up already. And I think we can definitely start there because they're kind of two ends of the style, in my opinion. So mood ring, obviously being a bit more melodic, it's the album opener, great song. And then obviously fuck shit up, rightfully being a bit more on the hardcore side.

0:12:34 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So how do the songs kind of come together or how do they come to life during the writing process?

0:12:40 - (Vinny Morales): So mood ring was, to be super honest, like, mood ring was. I was talking to my girlfriend, actually, about how she feels quite often, and she was just expressing herself, and I was very interested in the way she was expressing herself and the things she was saying that she felt. Because I feel like I've never understood how a lot of people feel because I definitely feel things, but I'm a little bit kind of, like, numb to a lot of things. I just move forward. I don't really dwell in things too much. I try not to, but hearing her perspective on how certain things made her feel and she felt like she never belonged anywhere and all these things and whatever. So we just had this long conversation and then she left and she was all sad. And I just took out my phone and I started writing mood ring.

0:13:34 - (Vinny Morales): All the lyrics came out immediately. It was just like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom, boom, boom, boom. It was like a long notes page of lyrics. And then I picked up my guitar, like my acoustic in bed, and I just dropped d and just started playing the chords or finding a few chords that I liked. And then I was like, dude, this is going to be sick. And then it originally had a different intro. And then we took it to Alex's Strada at Pail Moon Ranch.

0:14:03 - (Vinny Morales): And he did his thing that he does with all of our freaking music. Like, he just dialed it in and said, this should be like this. This should be like this. Just like small tweaks that really make the song different. So, like, how the song comes in, like, always disconnected, like the quiet, you never perfect it. And then the screech thing we do with the top of the guitar, that's an Alex thing. So that's kind of how that song came know. Obviously brought it to the boys in the studio. We jammed it.

0:14:34 - (Vinny Morales): They added the ending, like the last fast part, which is everyone's favorite part, where everyone goes nuts at our shows. That's usually the fun, big ending. The boys added that Kevin specifically was like, I feel like it needs something at the end, like something to get it going. And then we're also inspired by our brother band bed. They're very close homies, and he does a lot of that fun stuff. So that's how that song came together. That's the full story.

0:15:01 - (Vinny Morales): I don't know if that was too.

0:15:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Long, but no, that's think. When I listen to mood ring, I think it's one of those songs. It's quite iconic. And it's crazy that a band like yours or other bands, especially in socal scene right now, are creating some of these songs that what I would call, like an absolutely perfect song. You put that on the radio, it should immediately be catchy, it should immediately get airplay. It should immediately become popular.

0:15:27 - (Isaac Kuhlman): There's certain songs, and that's one of them that you could put on the radio right now. And I guarantee people would love it. It's just getting it on the radio, that would be like the step, right? That's the hard part. But it's one of these songs where you listen that song, you're like, I swear, that's got to be like a big band, right? And then you're like, oh, it's just a debut album from a small band in Socal. And you're like, holy shit. These guys absolutely know what they're doing.

0:15:52 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And it's just a really good. I. When I first heard that song, I was like, holy shit, these guys are going to be huge. What does huge mean anymore? I don't know, but I heard of it, I liked it, and I was going to tell everybody I knew about it.

0:16:08 - (Vinny Morales): That's all that matters to us, man. Honestly, these days, music is weird. Trust me. My whole life, I've found so many good songs that have three plays, and I'm like, what the fuck? How? It's a saturated industry, and we obviously do want to make it as big as we can. But also, the main reason I think we're all doing this is just so that we can just say we did it before we're fucking dead.

0:16:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. How old are you guys? You guys like mid 20s, right?

0:16:40 - (Vinny Morales): I'm actually 29, so I just turned 29. And then Kev is 30, Carlos is 26. And then I think other Kev is like 27. Yeah, we're late 20s early.

0:16:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I was just thinking about this the other day because I was watching that get back special about the Beatles, right? And they're talking about finishing their last album. I think they were all like, 28, 29, 30 at that time or something. I'm like, the Beatles were like the most famous people in the world before they were 30. I'm like, that's fucking crazy. Jimi Hendrix, 27. All the music he ever put out was before he was 27, obviously. Nirvana, 27. I'm like, that's insane.

0:17:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Basically, nowadays, if you don't make it before 27, you're not making it in the music industry, which is absolutely insane. And it blew me away because I know young bands. I'm like, oh, this band's great. They're a young band. I'm like, oh, they're 28. I'm like, I guess they're not young compared to back in the last generation of musicians. So that's just one of those things that blows me away.

0:17:41 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah. I tell young bands when I meet them and they're like, 19 and making good music, I'm like, dude, focus on it and don't get distracted by other shit. Because you can be old later. Work and money and everything will be there. When you're 30 and 40 and 50, you can do it later. You're never going to be in your early 20s again. So if you have some kind of talent and you're young, just do it. You got literally nothing to lose.

0:18:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And you can be broke when you're young. Everybody expects you to be broke when you're young. Nobody expects you to be broke when you're 35.

0:18:14 - (Vinny Morales): Correct? Yeah. I left music for that reason because I come from a single mother family. We struggled a lot. So I was kind of the man of the house by the time I was like, eleven. And I had to just make money, man. I didn't have a place to live, so I left music for a bit and I actually started doing real estate. And that's what I've been doing for the last eight, nine years. And it's been cool. But I definitely missed music. So, I don't know.

0:18:43 - (Vinny Morales): Let's see where it goes. It seems to be progressing pretty quickly for the amount of time we've been doing it and see what happens.

0:18:51 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And I think there is a little bit more openness to the underground scene for bands between 30 and 40 now that didn't exist 20 years ago, because 30 to 40 year olds when I was in high school, I'm like, those guys are old. That's old people music. That was like Aerosmith when I was in grade school. I was like, they're old. They're like, 35. I'm like, that's fucking insane that Aerosmith was like, I was ever alive when Aerosmith was younger than, like, 50. Right. But I was.

0:19:18 - (Vinny Morales): I think a lot of people don't realize how old certain bands are. I won't name any names, but there are a lot of my favorite bands that I was surprised, and then also people I know. So, yeah, I think now there's no limit. You can do whatever you want, however old you are. Just do your thing. Enjoy it.

0:19:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Exactly.

0:19:41 - (Vinny Morales): If you're doing it for the love of music, that's what matters.

0:19:45 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You can't control what other people can or can't do. You can only put out what you put in, right? So put in what you got. If you can push hard, push hard. If you can't, push what you can and then hopefully get the best outcome for yourself. And then obviously, fuck shit up. Where did the motivation for that song come from?

0:20:05 - (Vinny Morales): Dude, just honestly, I'll be completely real with you. I went to a show the night before and just had such a crazy time. And then I woke up the next morning and just started writing. But that song is really just about. It's very blunt. There's no hidden meanings in that. Like, it is what it is. It's about living in LA, fucking hating all the pretentious people out here, like all the people that just care about money, who want to be better than the next person, pretend that there's somebody.

0:20:31 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Already when they're not.

0:20:32 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, they're pretending they're hot shit and they're living paycheck to paycheck behind the scenes. Like nobody's real. There are real ones out here, but there definitely are a lot, especially in my work, my job industry. I see it so much, it's disgusting how fake people are with each other.

0:20:52 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I ran your credit score, and it does not say that you're hot shit.

0:20:57 - (Vinny Morales): You don't know the half of it. I see people's real financials and it's crazy. Like, public perception versus reality is so completely skewed. And it's about that. It's also about. So I grew up in pretty much a cult. Like, my mom raised me as a Jehovah's Witness for a little while.

0:21:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Got you.

0:21:16 - (Vinny Morales): And it's about hating religion. It's about the hypocrisy of priests that touch kids behind closed doors and then preach the word of God to everybody and act righteous. It's about the wars, it's about what's happening right now in Israel. It's about hating the fact that we can't seem to love each other in this world. That's pretty much what it's about.

0:21:48 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I mean, this is something. Obviously, the topics that you discuss are by no means our generation or your generation. I mean, I'm only a half generation away from you. But there's no difference between the. It's just, I guess the circumstances are slightly different, but the topics we're still talking about the same fucking thing that they talked about in the stop fighting each other, stop blowing people up for no reason, stop raping and molesting people.

0:22:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Human nature seems so sick in nature that the fact you have to mention that this is an issue is fucking sad. It's the problem when you just have to mention that there are legitimately millions of people being murdered by governments in a year. Yes, whatever that means to you if you think that they're doing it openly or behind closed doors. Either way, there is no escaping the fact that millions of people a year are murdered by governments in the world, which is crazy.

0:22:51 - (Vinny Morales): It's disgusting and it always has been and it always will be. And unfortunately, it sounds like it's a part of human nature and maybe not our true nature, but when there's money involved, there's always corruption and there's always going to be.

0:23:11 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Obviously, voicing your opinion doesn't seem to matter to congress or parliaments or, know, the governing bodies across the world. Voting people out seems harder than it does to vote right people in because once the right people are in, they just immediately become corrupt anyway. So definitely a lot of broken systems. And everybody's like, I love the fact that people in the US are like, oh, I don't want to live in Russia because they have a corrupt government, or I don't want to live in the Philippines because they have a corrupt government, or Mexico because they have a corrupt government. I'm like, we have literally the most corrupt government on earth.

0:23:45 - (Isaac Kuhlman): We just made it all legal and sidestepped the actual boundaries. You don't know how corrupt we are because we don't have all the trials that we should when it's outright corruption in the Philippines or Mexico because they've made laws that say, you can't do this, whereas our president tries to stop an election, they try to overturn government like judges decisions by throwing out executive power. And you're like, yeah, wait, how is that not.

0:24:10 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's corruption of power. That's exactly what that is. I don't understand how that. I don't get what people are thinking.

0:24:16 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, there's a lot of it, man. And it's definitely something that I've always looked at since I was a kid. I was always fascinated by politics. And then I think anybody that gets into politics, you end up getting to a place where you're just like, fuck, there's no saving this. There's no point. Who cares? I'm just going to make music. Fuck this. I don't know. That's where I'm at right now.

0:24:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And obviously I still vote, but at the same time I'm like, literally the vote almost doesn't matter. I even live in a swing state where the vote actually does count. And some things can matter by a couple of hundred votes or whatever, but I'm still like, honestly, we just got a new governor who's borderline human trash. Like a bunch of stuff. Right? So nothing goes your way 100% of the time. And I'm not saying I don't agree that both parties, I think there should be more parties. I think both conservatives and Democrats, liberals, whatever you want to say, do have a right to exist. And I don't hate all republicans. I don't hate all conservatives. I don't hate progressives, socialists, communists.

0:25:21 - (Isaac Kuhlman): People are people. People have opinions. But when those ideologies are played out with money, that's where it becomes very distasteful, for sure.

0:25:31 - (Vinny Morales): On both sides, for everyone. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, 100%. It's a rabbit hole, man.

0:25:39 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I don't know how we became a political science like a lecture hall all of a sudden, but we'll go off on another topic here and we'll table that for now. But another song I want to probably bring up just because I think it might get overlooked. I don't know how your band sees each one of your songs. I know when I make music, I do have my own personal favorites, and then I'm like, these ones are kind of going to be the ones that other people will like, but this one's kind of like my personal favorite. Yeah, one of my personal favorites on your album was actually distant, which from start to finish is one of the best songs I've heard that came out.

0:26:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): If it came out 20 years ago, I think it would have been instant classic as well. So I think you guys would have become like a big time festival act now because of that. But what did you get your inspiration from? From that song? And how do you view that song? Is it a special song for you or is it just. I made it up and now it sounds good, but I didn't think it was going to be that good.

0:26:33 - (Vinny Morales): That is a special song for me. And it's very much. I feel like it sucks. The songs that you love so much sometimes just get overlooked. And I feel like that song is not getting a ton of love. I mean, it's fine. I think it's probably like in fifth or 6th place of however many streams each song has in the album. And a lot of people have specifically hit me up about that song. So that's the one I think we've gotten the most feedback on from people directly.

0:27:05 - (Vinny Morales): So the intro was inspired by Tuche Amor. I think the melody of the guitars that I did was too smooth. I think I could have made it more just not messy, but there's a word for it. Just a little bit more choppy or something like that. But anyway, whatever, it came out the way it came out. So the intro, the screaming with just the guitars and it sounds like super reverb or whatever, that's a total touche. Moore first album to the beat of a dead horse kind of thing for me, at least, that's where I was inspired. And then I think there was some basement influence in there.

0:27:46 - (Vinny Morales): Love basement. And. Yeah, I don't know, it was just a fun song. We were thinking about doing a music video for it to try to promote it a little bit more.

0:27:56 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But, yeah, I think it's a good idea. I think, obviously mood ring fucks it up. I think distant would be. It's like, you know how bands used to do, like, blink Wayne two, for example. I know you might not remember when they released Enema of the state because you would have been probably like eight or nine, something like that at the time. Maybe younger, seven, eight, nine. But they kind of went, what's my name again? All the small things. And then did Adam's song, right? So it's like a good solid rock song, a good anthem style banger. And then they went like, let's go different. Right. So it's always nice to kind of have variety, right. When you see the band put out the same three song singles, I'm like, red Hot Chili Peppers could be a great example.

0:28:39 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Every single for the last 20 years has probably been the exact same song, just in a different. I like the Chili Peppers, but Jesus Christ, the songs are exactly the same. You just got a different lead guitar part in there. That's about it.

0:28:51 - (Vinny Morales): It makes you click on it and scroll away really fast. When it sounds just like the last one sounds different, it kind of keeps you engaged. That's a good point. Maybe you made the case. Maybe we need to do a video or something for distant. I think we do need to give it a bigger push. Our pr girl, Jamie Coletta, she's much more than. She's like a jack of all trades. She's incredible. She founded no earbuds.

0:29:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Okay.

0:29:18 - (Vinny Morales): Anyway, she said something that always stuck with me. She said, bands do all this work, they write all this music, they promo the hell out of it. They run ads, they do this, they do that, and then when it drops, that's it. But the reality is you're like 30% there once it drops, and there's still so much more to do after that. And I'll never forget that she said that. And even though she told me that, I feel like that's what I did with this album. I feel like it just takes the wind out of you, man.

0:29:50 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Almost everybody does because it's a lot of work to build up to that release, right? So you're finally like, you get there and you're like, oh, relief, it's finally out, but you're like, oh, shit, no, we just getting started. We got to go tour this thing. We got to go put more stuff out. I got a piece of advice from a person who this was for Internet marketing, but he said the money is in the follow up.

0:30:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And basically what he means is you can tell everybody in the world about what you do, and they could say, yeah, I'm interested. Let me know more, and you'd be like, okay, cool, I'll let you know more. If you don't ever follow up, you're never going to get a relationship, you're never going to build that. That's never going to turn into an income stream or any sort of thing for you. So basically, don't be afraid to keep bugging people.

0:30:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You're not going to bug people. If they're fans of your music, they're going to want to hear about it. Right. So the more that you can follow up, the more you can be visible, the more you can just keep driving attention. I think musicians are a rare breed where they don't want to keep promoting themselves, but it's the one time in history where you should be right. Self promotion in the 90s was almost unheard of because if you acted like you cared about your music, nobody wanted to listen to you. You had to be too cool for your own music.

0:31:04 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Now it's the opposite. Like, you have to love your music, you have to promote it because there's no other person that's going to do it for you anymore.

0:31:10 - (Vinny Morales): That's so true. It's funny that you say that because I remember having. Yeah, it's so true. I forgot that people were like that before. And I think even in the early 2000s, it wasn't cool to promote yourself either.

0:31:23 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Everyone's like, oh, well, if you're talking about yourself, you must not be that good because you're just arrogant now. And it's like, no, it's not arrogant. It's like, look at how much money an independent rock band makes in a year. Minus $2,000 or whatever, right?

0:31:34 - (Vinny Morales): Money, yeah, 100%.

0:31:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So let's talk about if I'm arrogant. I would have quit this and just gone and done something that would have made a bunch of money. Right. It's actually about being humble. When you're self promoting online now, it's more about, I won't say humiliating yourself, but being humble to a large audience. Right. It's tough.

0:31:56 - (Vinny Morales): Definitely. There's a lot of humility. Yeah. You have to be vulnerable. A lot of vulnerability.

0:32:04 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So obviously you'd mentioned in kind of like the first question or the first answer, I guess, that a lot of your songs come from personal history. Everything's true. So your lyrics and music seem like they come from a pretty complex personal history. You talked about single mother having to be the man of the house at eleven. I'm just going to ask, would you describe yourself as someone who has had difficult times in your life and do you feel your music is a great way for you to cope and overcome those difficult times?

0:32:31 - (Vinny Morales): 100%. That's what it's all about. It's like I've lived in so many different places that were not good and uncomfortable and scary sometimes. And the one thing that I could always escape with was just playing my guitar. It's crazy, the effect that it would have on me. I could be in the middle of like a fucking war zone and I can just play my guitar and just completely tune out the world and have a couple of hours of peace in my head where my head's not like, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's just like complete peace. And I figure that's probably what meditation is like, when people are really good at meditation and entering that meditative state.

0:33:16 - (Vinny Morales): I think that's what music has always done for me. And I didn't have the best upbringing, just my mom and I bouncing around. We got kicked out of a bunch of places and lived with her ex husbands and different houses and stuff. And we were on food stamps for the beginning of my life, for the large portion of the beginning of my life. My dad took off when I was like five, six. So a lot of the music is about that.

0:33:49 - (Vinny Morales): There's actually so no one to hear you on the album is a true story. And I didn't want to just say what? I wanted people to read between lines and figure it out, but Jamie Coletta actually told me. She's like, you should tell the story about it one day, so maybe I'd do it here.

0:34:06 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Go ahead.

0:34:07 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah. So that song is about my dad. He was a twin and when he was 16, so he lives in Guatemala. That's where he's always lived. He came out here for a brief time. Long story. But anyway, twin brother, so they were super tight, super close, and out there you develop a drinking problem when you're like twelve. Kids just drink super young, so whatever. His twin brother got pretty hammered one day and decided to commit suicide.

0:34:37 - (Vinny Morales): So he went to a local ditch or bridge and jumped off, and my dad found him at the bottom of it. And the crazy thing is that he didn't actually die from the fall, but he died because he choked on the mud from the stream that his face landed in. So his lungs were full of mud and water. And I chalk up a lot of my dad's mistakes. I don't have a relationship with him, but I chalk up a lot of his mistakes to that because I don't know how fucked up I'd be if my twin brother killed himself when I was 16. So I try to not blame him for a lot of stuff, but that's what that song is about. It's a literal depiction of that whole story.

0:35:20 - (Vinny Morales): Got you. So, yeah, that's why I say every song is true. Every song is really about something.

0:35:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I definitely wouldn't have understood that story from the lyrics. I do remember some of the references in there about that kind of stuff, but, yeah, I would have never come to that conclusion of that.

0:35:35 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, it's a little cryptic in some ways. I didn't want to make it too on the nose.

0:35:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. People would be like, wow, this is a very specific event. Yeah, it is crazy because obviously, and I've talked about a band called sleeve, I talked with the drummer from that band about the one thing that, other than dna that your parents pass on to you is childhood trauma, and what's happened to them is basically manifested to them as an adult. And now they're going to basically try. A lot of people try their best not to pass that on to their kids, but it's going to happen.

0:36:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Whatever you had happen to you as a kid, you're going to pass it on to your children. Even if it's not like the worst trauma, if you just got spanked, that's trauma to a kid at the time because they're getting hit by an adult. That's scary for a kid. Right? For sure. So even if it's just that that's something that you try to not pass on to a kid, but a lot of the times it does happen. So it's an interesting point where you're saying you understand and realize the things he could have probably overcome or had to overcome and give him that fault, but at the same time, not give him the satisfaction of essentially getting off the hook either.

0:36:48 - (Vinny Morales): Exactly. That's exactly right. I still feel guilty sometimes because I know some people don't even have their dads, and mine's still alive, and I know I should probably talk to him one day, but. Yeah. Something I got to figure out at some point.

0:37:03 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, it's not an easy one. I mean, you're the one that got left behind, right? So it's like, why the fuck should I be the one reaching out? I'm the one that got left behind. It's like I'm your byproduct, not the other way around.

0:37:14 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, that's exactly right. There's so much more to. As you get older, you start really understanding because you become the age of your parents when they did what they did, you start getting different dimensions of understanding them and kind of what they were probably going through, you start understanding their mistakes more. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. We'll see.

0:37:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, it's tough. This is why I wanted to come on talk to you, obviously, because this is kind of stories that I was. When I'm listening to the music, you can feel the pain, the feelings, the motion. That's why a lot of people call it emo, because that's what you expect. You expect a lot of emotional performance in the song. Right. And that's why I want to talk to you, because a lot of these songs just seem like heartbreak behind some of these lyrics. And I'm glad that you told that story, because now there will be at least somewhere on the Internet somebody can be like, oh, let's dig into more about grave secrets and see what they're all about. But I will definitely mention, I'll put a little reel up there, and then I'll stop right before you start explaining it, like, let's talk about that song here and be like, stop.

0:38:24 - (Vinny Morales): That'd be cool.

0:38:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Go watch the rest of the episode now.

0:38:27 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, it's a great idea. Clipping is everything in this day and age. I was same thing. Just clipping it up. Yeah. Putting it out there for people but that's what Jamie said. She's like, people want to know your story, so you need to tell your story. You need to be vulnerable. Don't be embarrassed, just tell your story. And that's the most you can do.

0:38:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Well, the most common expression in art is people don't buy the art, they buy the artist, right? So we're talking about a slightly different art form that's usually painting and sculpting, but it's no different between music or poetry or anything else. So usually the more pain an artist goes through, the more likely they are to have followers, because people put themselves into that person's perspective and that position and they also reciprocate a lot of that feeling and experience as well. So I think that's something people can relate to.

0:39:21 - (Vinny Morales): That's a beautiful thing about music. I agree 100%.

0:39:24 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I do want to take a quick break. Obviously we'll come back, talk more, but I want to play a song off the album. Obviously. You guys have the music video for mood ring. I'd like to play that during the break so that way people can actually listen to you. So do I have your permission to play mood ring so people can get a taste of your music? So that way, Spotify and YouTube. Don't get on my ass about it.

0:39:43 - (Vinny Morales): Yes, sir. You have our full consent. Permission, Spotify, YouTube. Leave this man alone. Let him do his thing.

0:39:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Perfect. So we're going to take a quick break and you're going to listen to the song mood ring by gravesecrets. And we'll be back right after this to bring Vinnie into the spotlight with some hot seat questions. That should be a lot of fun. We'll see you soon.

 

0:42:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Welcome back to the power by rock podcast, where I'm here with Vinny from the La rock band Grave Secrets. Hey, Vinnie, are you ready to put in the Spotlight?

0:42:47 - (Vinny Morales): Let's do it. Ready.

0:42:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right. So I decided to get weirdest shit with the first one. Normally I kind of lube it up and enter in a little softer here. But the first question I have is, what animal would you say best represents your music and why?

0:43:05 - (Vinny Morales): Damn. Hopefully, like a really loving dog. Because hopefully it's comforting but fun when you want to play and throw the ball around and run around, but also comforting and just makes you feel like falling asleep. I don't know.

0:43:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I don't know if I would get that from the music and the animal that I'm listening to. Well, I would say, obviously, if you're going to go with a dog, let's just say my description of the dog that might better fit your music is a stray dog that has found a home. That, though it's had a checkered past and had some history of abuse, is now as protective as ever of you because you are helping them out or whatever. So I think that would be more.

0:43:56 - (Vinny Morales): Love that. Done.

0:43:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): They are caring and adorable and all that stuff, just like you said. But for that backstory reason, love it. Got to have an origin story.

0:44:04 - (Vinny Morales): Done deal. We're changing our logo, our mascot.

0:44:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It's like some stray dog from the streets of Mexico or hell yeah. All right, so question number two. This is actually music related. If you didn't have music as your main source of creative outlet, what other creative projects would you like to try or would you look to try?

0:44:28 - (Vinny Morales): I don't know. I suck at drawing and painting. Fuck, I have no idea. Maybe film or film or editing or stuff like that, I guess, but I don't.

0:44:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): LA is a good city to be in for that, so you could probably get started with that pretty easily if you wanted to.

0:44:44 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, I have a lot of friends that are famous youtubers and stuff. TikTokers, they're all out here. They're like vermin all over la.

0:44:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All my friends are vermin that's the next hit song, my grave secrets.

0:44:57 - (Vinny Morales): All my homies are vermin yeah.

0:45:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Awesome.

0:45:03 - (Vinny Morales): Look at a shirt that says that.

0:45:06 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's a great idea. You could just have like YouTube and TikTok and all the Instagram and all that. It's like the logos behind it.

0:45:15 - (Vinny Morales): We're coming up with some ideas. This is more of a brainstorming session than a podcast right now.

0:45:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): This is grave secrets to success right here.

0:45:22 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, I like this. I'm glad it's on video so I can actually remember.

0:45:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Go back and fingers crossed the recording doesn't disappear in the cloud as soon as we end this, but, yeah.

0:45:31 - (Vinny Morales): Oh, my God. Yeah. Whatever's meant to be, man.

0:45:35 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, third question. Also music related. If you could plan your perfect three band national tour where you are the headliner, what? Two bands are coming with you in support?

0:45:45 - (Vinny Morales): Damn. So that's a tough question. The reason why is because the bands that I would choose, I would have to open for them.

0:45:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Well, let's say that you got so big that they're now opening for you.

0:45:57 - (Vinny Morales): I mean, title fight, Joyce Manor. I have to choose two or three.

0:46:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You would be the third band, so you'd be fine.

0:46:05 - (Vinny Morales): Title fight, Joyce Manor. Grave secrets tour. Let's make it happen. Jamie. Ned. Hit me up. Barry. Where to find me. Let's do it.

0:46:14 - (Isaac Kuhlman): We already know who's doing your pr, so just earbuds. Yeah.

0:46:21 - (Vinny Morales): Jamie Coletta. They know who she.

0:46:24 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yep. All right, question number four. This is a weird one. This one might be. I think I'd like to do both of these. But which would you rather watch or be part of a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Donald Trump or an alien autopsy?

0:46:38 - (Vinny Morales): Definitely watch an alien autopsy. I would love to watch that. I would not want to be a part of it at all.

0:46:45 - (Isaac Kuhlman): We're all going to die.

0:46:47 - (Vinny Morales): It would be sick. Like, I want to see aliens so bad, and Mike Tyson would just fucking demolish Donald Trump. So it's not even close.

0:46:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Even spent all that money to watch 20 seconds worth of fighting.

0:46:57 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah. You put Mike Tyson at 80 years old against Donald Trump at 25 years old, and Mike takes his head off because Mike, he's a tiger. Yeah, definitely alien.

0:47:10 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You could just sit at home and watch that for $20 on pay per view. Be like, those 20 seconds. Well worth it.

0:47:15 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, if that. 20 seconds. Generous.

0:47:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, exactly. He's got to make his way across the ring and catch Donald Trump from running away first. I think that's true. Somebody's got to push him back into the ring.

0:47:26 - (Vinny Morales): It's got to be a small ring.

0:47:29 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, last question. This is one I usually ask of every musician that's on the podcast. But what are your four musicians that you would put on your personal Mount Rushmore, either for being influential to you or being your favorite? So they don't have to be all different members of the band. They don't have to be a bass player, guitar, drummer, singer. They can be the same. You can be four singers or four drummers or whatever.

0:47:51 - (Vinny Morales): Okay, so again, I mean, sound like a fanboy here, but definitely from. From. Joyce Manor has done a lot to. I've just studied his songwriting a lot because it's so simple, but so raw and energetic and non conventional, which I love. And I think he's developed his own sound, so I definitely have studied him as a songwriter and singer. Who else? This is a tough question. So maybe Jamie Roden from Title Fight know, obviously my two biggest influences. I love the way he plays guitar and the way he writes music. He uses a lot of.

0:48:37 - (Vinny Morales): I'm not like a conventional guitarist that knows the names of every chord, but uses a lot of weird chords. Like, if you were in person, I'd be like, these chords and make a weird finger shape.

0:48:50 - (Isaac Kuhlman): This is a 7th chord, but I don't know what it's called.

0:48:52 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, it's like these weird off chords that just add so much mood to the music and it just separates it from being just a typical major chord progression or minor chord progression. He adds these little tinges of things.

0:49:07 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And this is why these bands aren't famous, because they try different chord structures instead of just sticking with the major chords. Major chords are pop songs, everybody. Just so you know.

0:49:16 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, dude, it's. Don't. I won't do it. I don't want to just do poppy stuff just to get big. I think there are bands out there that did weird shit and got huge because, of know.

0:49:30 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, of course. I mean, Pink Floyd is one of the bands I would point to is like, who may have used all 7th chords for the first time in a song. Like, just all 7th chords. Like Pink Floyd probably, like, you're going to look it up. Like, Pink Floyd did a lot of shit before everybody even thought that that was possible.

0:49:46 - (Vinny Morales): They did.

0:49:46 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Nobody wanted to sound weird. Everybody wanted to sound good, right? Pink Floyd was like, no, we're not about that. We're going to be fucking weirdest shit.

0:49:52 - (Vinny Morales): All the drugs. They were one of my biggest influences, too, like Pink Floyd and Zeppelin. Those are the two bands that got me into bands, I would say. I think those are the two first bands I ever heard. And I fell in love with both of them. So they were definitely massive influences early on. So maybe that's two more, maybe. No specific member from each, but definitely those two. And who else? I guess vocally, like, the singer of movements. Patrick, dude just got a beautiful voice, man.

0:50:31 - (Vinny Morales): It's just beautiful. So I aspire to try and get 20% of that one day. Yeah, I love his vocals.

0:50:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It's funny because when I listen to your music, it's not that I'm immediately associating the two bands together, but, like, for example, in the song fuck shit up. Because I grew up when Rage against Machine was an active band, right? Like, they're not active anymore, but it reminds me of when I was a kid listening to rage against the machine for the first time. It's like, yeah, let's get up. Let's fucking break shit. Shit's going on in the world.

0:51:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Let's do some shit. I think that there's a nice, linear line that you could draw between rage against machine all the way to your song fuck shit up, and be like, there is definitely, like, influence all the way from there, even if you don't.

0:51:17 - (Vinny Morales): Know that you're listening to definitely that I forgot to name them, but definitely that's the band. When you said something about major chords and that's what you need to pop off. The first band I thought of was rage against the machine because they definitely used weird sounds and weird shit, and they took off, like system of down, too.

0:51:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, system of down was weird as hell. They would have completely messed up tuning so that you couldn't possibly play their music if you wanted to. But it's like, go and tab this thing where every chord is destrung to some weird shit that you've never heard before. That's not a chord, man. I don't know what that is.

0:51:55 - (Vinny Morales): Legendary.

0:51:56 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. Cool. Well, that's all the hot seat questions I got for you. I'm glad that you didn't break your brain or make you sweat too much, but we'll come back in just a few minutes to kind of finish up with this interview, and we'll learn more about the exciting news about what Gray Secrets has coming up in the near future. And we'll be back right after this. Running your own music career is incredibly difficult.

0:52:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman):  I'm here with Vinny from Grave Secrets. Let's talk about grave secrets and what you guys have coming up in the next few months.

0:52:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Obviously, you got the pre order for the vinyl, you just did some shows to kind of promote the release of the online streaming stuff for the album as well. But what else do you guys have coming up? Do you have more shows coming up soon?

0:53:06 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, I don't know how much I can disclose. I don't think I can disclose anything. But we have a big show coming up in April. That's all I could say. And it's going to be sick and it's going to be at a big venue. It'll be the biggest venue we've played yet. And I'd love to give a shout out to the man who put it all together, but I certainly can't because I can't reveal too much information. But I know that sucks. But I just want to be respectful.

0:53:33 - (Vinny Morales): But that's coming up. Let's just say January and June and right in the middle. And it's going to be fun and it's going to be not in LA, but close enough for you guys to drive out. So that's going to be sick. And then as far as the band goes, we are really struggling to figure out what to do because we want to throw an album release show. Obviously the album came out like a while ago now maybe, but we still need to throw a release show and we're just waiting for the vinyls to come in. So I'm thinking about doing an LA show sometime January, February either at the smell.

0:54:13 - (Vinny Morales): I don't think we can sell the echo yet, unfortunately, as much as that's my favorite venue in LA, I think we could sell it if we obviously added another co headliner. But there's a big part of me that wants to just really see how many tickets we can sell by ourselves. So a smaller venue might have to be the thing we do. So it might be the smell, which is awesome. I love the smell. So that's in the works.

0:54:40 - (Vinny Morales): Do you have any advice? What would you do?

0:54:42 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Come to Vegas, throw a party, let's go.

0:54:44 - (Vinny Morales): That'd be sick.

0:54:48 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I would definitely recommend know if you want to promote the album, release the vinyl release. Do probably three shows over a weekend. Friday, Saturday, Sunday or something like that. Or Thursday, Friday, Saturday, take a trip to Vegas or to Arizona. Do a show from one of those places as part of that, or both, but make it special. Do something big so that know even if you just play random small places in the places that don't know you as well. Play a bigger show in your hometown, obviously play two other shows.

0:55:18 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Get the word is there's a reason why people call it the tri state area, even though almost nobody associates us altogether. Right. Like, nobody in Phoenix is like, oh, yeah, we're kind of right there with LA. Or like, Las Vegas is always trying to distance ourselves. Know Phoenix and also LA in different respects, but it's kind of like the opposite. We like to stay in the middle. We don't want to be either over here or over there.

0:55:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But I think there's a ton of potential new listeners to your guys' music that will hit big in both cities. And if you need any ideas for bands, supporting bands or places to play, let me know, because I can put you in touch with some people. That would be a pretty good fit.

0:55:58 - (Vinny Morales): Awesome. Yeah, I'll definitely hit you up about that. That's a good idea. I didn't think about doing, like, a three day back to back tour, mini tour like that. That's a great idea. So I got to talk to the boys. Another thing I thought about doing is, like, doing a really small, intimate thing of, like, 100 to 150 people and making.

0:56:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's huge for most bands, by the way.

0:56:19 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, no, trust me. We've played two people before. We've played to one person before, so we don't underappreciate it at all. But, like, for example, for mood ring, we did something dope. We did an RSVP only, and everybody submitted via email and then RSVP to be in the video. So we have, like, over 100 emails from people that love the band and wanted to come see it. So I thought about as, like, a thank you to them for doing the mood ring thing, shooting them the RSVP link. First, they get first dibs on the album release show, and they get, like, discounted tickets or something. And then once those are all sold out, open it up to the public and then do, like, an intimate 150 cap thing. And then my homie Brian from death lens, I want to have him.

0:57:05 - (Vinny Morales): I didn't even ask me yet, but he djs too secretly, so it'd be dope to have him, like, dj in between sets or something nice.

0:57:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, I think that's for anybody who's in an independent band. Anytime you try to create a paid ticketing event, try to get pre sales. It's so important to get presales because then you have an idea of what the venue is. If you need to change a venue. You can change a venue in presale still, right? If you're like, hey, we booked too small. We've already got 300 tickets sold. Let's move to another venue then. You know, right?

0:57:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): If you're trying to just say, oh, we'll talk about. We'll announce it. We don't have an emailing list. We don't have any superfans. We'll just announce it on Instagram and hope people show up on the day. That is, like, one of the worst things you can possibly do. You need to get presale tickets. Fortunately, in Las Vegas, it's very difficult because people always are like, I've got 10 million other things going on. There's a million things going on in the city. I don't know if I'll be available.

0:58:06 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So Las Vegas is one city. I would say it's very tough to get presales, but if you have a hardcore loving fan group, you should be able to get some presale tickets, and then that'll give you an idea of how many you can sell.

0:58:17 - (Vinny Morales): I didn't think about putting out the ticket link before booking the venue. Yeah, I mean, it's risky because what if the venue is not available?

0:58:28 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But it gives you options, though, because if you only do, like, ten presales, it's like, well, if we have to, we'll just refund them. Right? But if you do 100, you're like, well, now there's pressure on us to book a good venue, so that way we can actually do it. And we've got presale tickets.

0:58:40 - (Vinny Morales): I think for sure we could do at least 100 presale tickets.

0:58:44 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Nice.

0:58:45 - (Vinny Morales): 99% sure that that's about, like, one to 150, something like that. And then we add another cool band, like, as direct support, they pull, like, another 100, and then we have, like, a 250 cap thing for the smell. That's why I was thinking the smell, because I figure it'd be right around 250 to three.

0:59:00 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And it's always better to sell out than lose money on too big of a space. Right? I'd rather sell out, which is crazy, because in business, you always want to make as much money as you can, but you don't want to lose any money as a band. Right? So your best bet is to sell out a smaller one. And then, you know, the next time, hey, the next time we play, we can do a bigger venue. If so, be. But, yeah, you always want to sell out before you ever move to a bigger venue. I think smart.

0:59:26 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah. Thank you.

0:59:27 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I just make all these great ideas and then sit in my home and play music by myself.

0:59:36 - (Vinny Morales): We owe you now 10% of everything.

0:59:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, well, that's the one thing is I do small business consulting for other businesses. So it's like, these are the things you would do in any other business. Why don't people apply it to their actual music?

0:59:48 - (Vinny Morales): I love that. That's actually the one business that I've always said I do besides real estate, because I have so many bright ideas for other people's shit aside from my own. I could fix people's problems like that when they touch. So that's awesome. That's cool. I know you did that.

1:00:06 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, that's what I do. So that's where the bread and butter, I guess, is. The joy comes from stuff like this. But let's talk about, obviously, when we're talking about the music, do you guys have next level? Or I should say next album ideas already? Or is that something like, you just got this done, you're taking a break from writing for a while, or you already have, like, ten in the can, you're ready to go for some more?

1:00:33 - (Vinny Morales): Dude, probably have, like, 15 songs done already.

1:00:36 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's what I figured. Yeah.

1:00:38 - (Vinny Morales): I wrote three songs last week and alone. I am always writing music, but this time the boys and I want it to be a more collaborative process where everybody writes their own parts. It wasn't like that before because we didn't have the pieces of the puzzle we have now. So now I think we're well armed enough to all get together and write shit. Yeah. Besides all the demos we have, definitely. So we have a studio date booked with Alex on Tuesday of next week, and we have a bunch of demos. So this tonight, actually, and then Friday we're going to hit the studio and see what song we like the most.

1:01:22 - (Vinny Morales): There's this one song that it's going to probably be called anxious part two, got you. And it doesn't sound like anxious, but it talks about that concept. And, dude, I think it's going to be a good one because the hook and the chorus are super catchy and the riffs are cool. So, yeah, it's all in the works. Probably do, like a two song ep in the next three months, four months, something like that. We just want to keep dropping stuff.

1:01:47 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. One thing I will always tell people is the problem with a lot of bands right now is that as soon as they get a song written, they want to record it and release it. I'm like, hold on. Not every song you write is going to be a gem. Step back and think about it as a business. If you were an actual business, right? If you have ten songs and you're just going to drop them as singles right now in the next three months, what does that help you?

1:02:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): What does that get you? Get you to 4000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Who gives a shit? What does that equate? Nothing. True. But if you actually manage it properly, like you would in a record release or ep release or whatever, and do it the right way, and drop some of the songs that you don't think fit an ep or an album or even a single and just say, okay, look, not every song is going to have to be released on a recording, right? Like we should have some songs that never get released. Or maybe we'll be a b side for something way later or a deluxe expedition or something. Whatever you want.

1:02:46 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But the other thing you can do with those unreleased songs is anytime you do an album or an ep, anybody who preorders you give them links to those two extra album songs or whatever that you didn't put on the album, right? So there's so many ideas that people don't use. They're like, oh, we'll just put on the album. Every song is so good. We'll put on. Not every song. You even might want to put a good song on a bonus versus putting it on an album. Not like necessarily a song that, for example, a song you play live that just doesn't fit on a record. You're like, yeah, this song really goes off live, but it doesn't go great on a record.

1:03:22 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So let's put this as a bonus and see how many people buy it, especially for people who've gone to our show and know that song.

1:03:27 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, that's a great point. That'd be cool. I thought there's one song we almost did that with where we're going to throw it on the vinyl alone. It's called stuck inside, but it'll probably go on the next album or it'll be like in an ep or something.

1:03:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's another thing is anytime you do physical copies of something, put more songs on it than necessary, maybe like the streaming version. So that way people have another incentive to buy, right? Yeah.

1:03:51 - (Vinny Morales): Something else we want to do is an acoustic ep. I love acoustic music. I don't know if you. Are you a fan of Bayside at all?

1:03:58 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah.

1:03:59 - (Vinny Morales): So Bayside is cool, but my favorite work of art from them is their. Maybe it was 2010 or 2009 or something. It was early on, a whole acoustic ep.

1:04:11 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I haven't heard that one, so I have to check it out.

1:04:13 - (Vinny Morales): Dude, it is mind blowing.

1:04:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Really?

1:04:17 - (Vinny Morales): It's mind blowing because when you just hear their music, it's easy for it to sound just like music, right? Yeah, I've heard similar stuff. If you're just a new listener, because there's so many bands out there. Right. If you listen to the acoustic version, it's like the music dissected. You hear every note of everything, and you don't realize how intricate and complex their music actually is.

1:04:43 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It's easy to sound complex when you've got distortion and loop pedals and all sort of stuff, but when you strip it all down and you have to play, every note sounds a lot different.

1:04:51 - (Vinny Morales): Dude, it's incredible. So that's something definitely that's on the books for this year, 100%. You'll get an anxious acoustic version. You'll get a mood ring acoustic version. You'll get probably a bad blood acoustic version. You'll get acoustic versions of a lot of our favorite songs. And I'll probably go to Alex's studio, have him live track it, have our camera guy, Ruben, like our videographer, film everything, throw it on YouTube, clip it up for TikTok, and then throw the recordings on Spotify as, like, an acoustic ep that's 100% in the books this year.

1:05:22 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Very cool. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I mean, this is only just a scratching the surface of things that you guys can do, so I'm glad that we can sit here and talk about it, because I don't think there is a limit to what you guys have for potential. To be honest with you, I think you guys have a very high ceiling with your music, so thank you. That's the one thing I'm looking forward to, and it's music like yours that I'm looking for to become popular again, as opposed to just hip hop, edm, country music, whatever you want to call it. Because when I think of songs that people get together and you play a rock song on the radio, people that know the words to it, everybody starts singing along.

1:06:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You put that for a hip hop song, and how many times you ever heard a whole group of people just start rapping a song? It's not very often. Right? Like, it has to be an incredibly popular song, maybe like an Eminem song or something where it's got a good hook, but most of the time, a rap song is not going to inspire a whole room. Start singing together. Right. But rock music does and that's what I think you guys have the opportunity to be able to do in the future.

1:06:29 - (Vinny Morales): Thank you. I hope so. Hope we have that anthem one day. Everybody holds each other around the fire and starts singing.

1:06:36 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Exactly. A little wonder wall action.

1:06:38 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah, exactly. You know, in London, Wonderwall comes on because one of my business partners is from London and he says in London when the clubs are shutting down, like when it's all over and the lights come on, they play Wonderwall. It's like a thing out there and everyone starts singing it. And at his wedding at the end of the, like, the DJ played Wonderwall because everyone was leaving and all these english people were there obviously for the weding and everyone was singing it.

1:07:07 - (Vinny Morales): It was so powerful, it was sick.

1:07:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. It's one of those songs that almost anywhere you go in the world, most people know a good majority of those lyrics and it will be sing along to 100% anytime you get that kind of level of mental, what do you call it? Living rent free in somebody's mind forever. That's awesome because that song came out 30 years ago almost now, which is crazy true. All right, so we'll wrap this up, but I'm obviously going to add some notes to your music and to the socials and stuff like that below the episode. So make sure if you're listening, go check it out. Go follow grave secrets. Listen to all their album, check out the music videos.

1:07:46 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But one last question before we sign off. What new music? Either a new band, new album, new artist, who would you recommend that people go check out?

1:07:55 - (Vinny Morales): Go listen to military gun. They're killing it right now. I'm sure you've already heard of them by now. They've had a massive blow up over the last twelve months, but they're fucking awesome.

1:08:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): They play here in Vegas every so often and they're playing just like a lodge, like a mason hall or whatever. And all of a sudden, next thing I know, they're like touring. I can't remember who they're touring with, but it's like some big band. I was like, what the hell? That's awesome.

1:08:22 - (Vinny Morales): They blew up. They're like the next turnstile in my opinion.

1:08:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I think a lot of people saw it coming too, but it happened quickly. Within like a year or.

1:08:33 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah. Great music. Check them out. Love it.

1:08:35 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Very cool.

1:08:36 - (Vinny Morales): Yeah.

1:08:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, well, I want to thank Vinny from Grave Secrets for being on the show today. Obviously. Go check out the show notes below this episode to get the links to the music and social media from grave Secrets. Remember the powered by rock podcast is powered by our listeners, so to show some support, please be sure to subscribe and share the podcast on social media. You can also make a donation to the podcast if you like, or subscribe and follow us with actually a monthly fee of like $0.99 if you want, which obviously helps us keep making these episodes.

1:09:03 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You can see the full video interview on our YouTube channel and Spotify now as well. If you want to check out some of our awesome content or our merch and gear, head to powerbyrock.com, see what's good there. That's our show for today. I'll see you soon for the next episode. Until then, rock on.