Straddling the Line Between Dark Artist and Happy Family Man with Miguel Ferreira of Canadian Band Northpark
About the Guest(s):
Miguel Ferreira is the guest from the Canadian-based pop punk emo band, Northpark. Coming from various musical backgrounds, including R&B, hip hop, and hardcore, Miguel and his bandmates have converged to form Northpark, who began their journey under this new moniker in 2022.
Miguel is a multifaceted musician who has been involved in multiple bands throughout his career. With Northpark, Miguel and the band have released their debut album "Wasteland," which features nine tracks filled with emotive themes and punk energy.
Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Powered by Rock podcast, host Isaac Kuhlman engages with Miguel Ferreira, the frontman of Northpark, to delve into the inception of their band, their debut album Wasteland, and their newest single "Ink."
Listeners are treated to a behind-the-scenes look into the band's creative process, personal anecdotes, and the vision they aim to bring to life through their music.
The conversation kicks off with the backstory of how Northpark was formed, shedding light on the band's evolution and their journey to releasing a vinyl record of their album Wasteland.
Miguel shares intimate details about the inspiration behind their songs, grappling with personal emotions, and the thematic focus on the complexities of relationships. He also discusses the significance of their band name, its deep roots in his childhood experiences, and the importance of his own musical influences that span across various genres.
Key Takeaways:
- North Park is fronted by Miguel Ferreira and originated as a pop punk band shaped by personal experiences and various musical influences.
- Their debut album Wasteland explores themes of romance, depression, and introspection.
- Miguel opens up about how personal hardships have influenced his songwriting, offering an outlet for emotions that may otherwise impact his family life.
- The new single "Ink" reflects on taking control over one's life and emotions through the metaphorical power of songwriting.
- Future plans for Northpark include a reimagined version of their song "Teal," a full band recording, managing new vinyl production, and a tour with Cleveland Avenue.
Notable Quotes:
- "It's important to be open with your lyrics and not be scared to say too much, almost." - Miguel on songwriting.
- "It's like one of those things where nobody can come down there and help you, because then they're going to be in the same boat as you." - Miguel discussing the meaning behind the song "Wasteland."
Resources:
Intro Music: "Colorado" by Birds Love Filters
Outro Music: "Snail Mail" by Speedway Sleeper
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Northpark's Links - https://www.instagram.com/northpark.band/ "Ink" rebroadcast with full consent of Northpark
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Contents of this Video:
0:03:23 Formation of Northpark as a solo project
0:05:05 Band members and their backgrounds
0:07:50 Inspiration from personal experiences for songwriting
0:13:11 Miguel explains the meaning behind "Wasteland" and how it relates to one's environment
0:15:47 Isaac asks Miguel about the inspiration behind the acoustic song "Teal"
0:16:24 Miguel explains the decision to include an acoustic song on the album
0:19:55 Miguel reveals that the song "Ink" is about someone important in his life and learning not to let their opinions control him
0:24:18 Music video for "Ink" is played
0:28:18 Question about finishing the bottle of Triple X hot sauce
0:29:03 Discussion about the band name "Northpark"
0:29:39 Question about leaving a child behind like in the movie "Interstellar"
0:31:41 Favorite movie discussion, mentioning "Interstellar" and Christopher Nolan
0:32:40 Question about fighting one living person
0:34:34 Isaac asks Miguel to name his top four individual musicians for his Mount Rushmore
0:41:03 Miguel reveals plans for a reimagined version of "Teal" and working on vinyl releases
0:41:40 Miguel mentions plans for a live set recording and an upcoming tour in Canada
0:42:23 Miguel discusses the possibility of playing festivals in the United States
0:43:35 Miguel shares a story about performing in Sudbury while being sick
0:47:14 Recommendation to check out the band Sleep Token
0:50:16 Closing remarks and call to action
TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:
0:00:44 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Hello and welcome to the Power by Rock podcast, where I'm going to be speaking with Miguel of the Canadian based pop punk emo band North park today.
North park is pretty much a brand new band, having started under this moniker in just 2022, but they've all come from various other musical projects to form this one. The band just released their debut album, Wasteland in June of last year, and you'll see a link to preorder that vinyl in the description below this video, but you can check it out on streaming right now as well.
0:01:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Not only that, but Miguel, you must be pretty damn excited because you guys just dropped the new music video for Ink today. Well, yesterday. Now it's available for everyone today. So if you're watching this video, which comes out a couple days later, you will actually be able to go check that out as well. And you'll see the links to that in the description below. I've already put it on the power by rock tv playlist on YouTube as well, so if you want to check out awesome new music videos, you can go there and check out that playlist.
0:01:33 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And you know, I just have to say, your music is pretty straight fire and I can't wait to learn more about you. So hey, Miguel, welcome to the show.
0:01:40 - (Miguel Ferreira): Thank you, man. Glad to be here.
0:01:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, it's great to have you. It's always good to have some Canadians on the show because you're always so polite. You don't start fighting with me. Not that anybody has yet, but even one time for the band handheld, which is a pretty popular canadian punk band, I'd mentioned that they had written a song that they didn't even write and they didn't correct me. I was like, why didn't you guys tell me that I made a mistake? They're like, oh, we didn't think that. We didn't want to bother you on your own show.
0:02:05 - (Miguel Ferreira): If you're going to say that, then I'll correct you on one thing. So about the vinyl, it's pretty funny because we did it in a preorder way where you could order it like a preorder and then it's all taken care of back, like back end through the company. But by the time you actually ordered the vinyl, it ended up being like $72 with the conversion to canadian and stuff. So we actually scrapped that and we're doing it completely ourselves now, which is going to be so much cheaper. It'll be like 30, $40 now. So.
0:02:42 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, nice.
0:02:43 - (Miguel Ferreira): Don't click that link.
0:02:46 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Well, a good thing I haven't put it in there yet. So if you do have an extra link or whatever, I can update that link. So the one that you gave me before, I'll ignore, and then if you have another link, I'll put that one in there. All right. Well, I think the best place to start is because there's not a lot of information about you. In fact, even in the epk you sent me, it didn't have the band member names. So I was like, you guys are either the most mysterious punk band I've ever met, like Batman, actually, or you guys.
0:03:12 - (Miguel Ferreira): In the photos, it's hard to see because it's all black and white, but in little white writing, there's actually our names underneath the photos.
0:03:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's hilarious. I never even noticed that.
0:03:21 - (Miguel Ferreira): Maybe I have to change that.
0:03:23 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I've got to do some of the cryptograms or whatever, like cryptology. I've got to scan through back end messages to figure out your guys'name and stuff. But, yeah, it wasn't obvious to me anyway, so I did want to mention that. But obviously I want to make sure that we talk about the band, who you guys are, where you're from. I think you guys even went from five members down to four in the last year or so.
0:03:47 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So kind of update me about how you guys came together, who you are, and obviously what's going on with you guys right now. Yeah, for sure.
0:03:53 - (Miguel Ferreira): So pretty much north park started out as a solo project by me. I've always wanted to tap into pop punk. I do like, r b, hip hop, and then I also do like, I've done hardcore back in the past, but pop punk was always something that I really wanted to get into. So I just started it just to kind of whatever. At the beginning, we ended up getting some guys together. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. They didn't see the vision, so they actually were constantly trying to change the sound.
0:04:26 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Let's play metal, pretty much.
0:04:28 - (Miguel Ferreira): Actually, they were trying to change it from pop punk to heavy. And I'm just like, it's a pop punk band. So that ended up going away, and then after that pretty much I had Brad, who is a longtime friend of mine. We grew up on the same street, like, our whole lives. He was like, I'll pick up guitar again. The guy hasn't played in 1015 years, so he just locked in, bought all the gear, played guitar, picked it up instantly, and he's in the band. And then Riley. I've played with him in bands my whole life. Like, we've played in, I think, three bands together now.
0:05:05 - (Miguel Ferreira): So that was easy. I messaged him. He actually just exited another band, so it was perfect timing. And then Justin, I've been close with him through the scene here in Barry for a long time. We. Our bands have played together growing up, right. So it was kind of easy. And he's an amazing drummer. So I was like, hey, do you want to? He's like, 100%. So it came together, and then we were like, well, we need a bass player. So Brad asked an ex coworker if he wanted to play bass, and he did. Unfortunately, it didn't work out.
0:05:42 - (Miguel Ferreira): But, yeah, that's pretty much how we all got together. So we're all pretty close. We've known each other for a long time.
0:05:50 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So is anybody playing bass currently in the band?
0:05:53 - (Miguel Ferreira): No. We played a click, and we have all these effects automated and everything. So we just backtrack real bass that we've pre recorded all from the album, right?
0:06:04 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, that's the secondary option I think a lot of bands are doing right now. Like, I know a two piece band that backtracks the bass as well. And most guitarists are like, well, I don't want to have to be a bass player. I'll write bass lines and record it, but I don't want to have you a bass player. There's no glory in the bass player position. It's one of those things that you have more fun as a guitar player unless you're a really good bass player that can slap pig, all that stuff.
0:06:33 - (Miguel Ferreira): He was actually a guitar player that just wanted to be in a band, so he just got a bass to do it. So there was that.
0:06:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's 90% of the case, usually. Yeah, exactly.
0:06:43 - (Miguel Ferreira): But, yeah, after he left, we kind of got really used to being a four piece, and it felt right. And we did have an offer from an awesome dude. His name is Diko. Great guy. He also plays in another band and he wanted to join. But like I said, we just got so comfortable being a four piece, we just didn't feel it was necessary to add another. Just add another thing to the band that we might have to worry about. You know what I mean?
0:07:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. Scheduling conflict, all that stuff.
0:07:12 - (Miguel Ferreira): Exactly, yeah.
0:07:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I mean, I used to be in a three piece band in high school, and I was like, how hard is it to get three people together?
0:07:18 - (Miguel Ferreira): It's hard, man. It is.
0:07:22 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So let's talk about the last album. Obviously, wasteland came out last year in June. I think there's some pretty incredible songs on there. From memory. I think it's nine songs. Correct? Is that right? Nine or 8910 songs? Nine or eight, yeah. I don't even know, and I don't have all the songs, like, memorized or written down or anything, but I can say that the album seems to be heavily geared towards the downturns of romantic relationships.
0:07:45 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Kind of like, this is what the end of a good time looks like, right? Like it's exiting something good.
0:07:50 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:07:50 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I'm not sure what it is about us humans that makes us so inspired by bad things happening to us, but it seems to make better art, right?
0:07:57 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:07:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And there's a famous French poet, and I'm not expecting you to know this, but his name was Charles Baudelaire. Back time when Edgar Allan Poe lived and everything, he believed that suffering and deprivation was critical for making great art. Do you feel that way about your approach to making music?
0:08:13 - (Miguel Ferreira): I think so, yeah. You know what? I can agree with that because I can honestly sit here and tell you everything I've written about, I have felt, but I might not feel that way right now, but those scenarios from the past, they still influence what I write now because it's relatable and it helps people attach to the music and they go, you know what? I went through that. What the heck? This is a sick song.
0:08:39 - (Miguel Ferreira): He feels how I feel, you know what I mean? So I think, yeah, it's important to be open with your lyrics and not be scared to say too much, almost.
0:08:51 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And I think there is that other side of the coin, and it's like, how many great songs come out of you being really happy? It's like, not a lot. There's not a lot of great songs out there that are like, hey, I'm really happy. So I know, obviously you do have themes of depression, self hate, self doubt. They kind of creep in at times as well. I don't know you personally, but I would say from the video interviews and things that I've seen from you in front of a camera, you don't come off as that kind of a person on a daily basis.
0:09:25 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But obviously that stuff still creeps in when you're writing, obviously, because when you're alone by yourself, you have different thoughts than when you're around other people. So is that something that kind of infiltrates your writing process?
0:09:38 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, I think as a father, and I'm very always worried about being strong for other people, especially in my family, that I try not to use them as an outlet for what I'm feeling. So when I write, that's when it comes out, and that's kind of like my vice, to let those feelings out so it doesn't reflect onto family members, friends, whatever it may be. Right. So that's my outlet.
0:10:10 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, hold on 1 second. Everything just signed out. So I'm going to do one thing real quick. I'm just going to go like this and then we'll edit this piece out. But this stupid thing just, like, signed me out of what I was looking at my little script here. That's very annoying. I don't mean to cut you off or love technology. Make light. Yeah, I know. Let me get back to where I was. All right, we'll get back in it.
0:10:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, obviously when you're a family person, you don't want to drag the people that you love into your quagmire of dark thoughts. Right. It's not healthy to bring that necessarily that energy into your home. And people do it a lot with work, they do it a lot with just daily issues like traffic or whatever. They bring frustrations home with them, and it doesn't make for a good home life for everybody. Right. So at what point does it kind of feel like you're two different people?
0:11:12 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Do you feel like you're living that Batman life that I kind of mentioned? Is it like, on one hand I'm this artist that has these lyrics that are kind of dark, and then on the other hand, I want to be a fun loving dad and husband.
0:11:24 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, some days I do feel like that. I think nobody's perfect. So some days it does come out in my everyday life where I am upset and it shows. And that person that I may have pushed that feelings towards may have absolutely nothing to do with it, but I'm big enough to realize that and obviously apologize when things like that happen. But, yeah, no, I do see that sometimes it is like I have to show face for certain things, but that's not how I'm feeling.
0:11:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I'm not going to call you a piece of shit, but I know for myself I am a piece of shit. And sometimes I'm like, oh, yeah, I just yelled at you. I have no idea why. That was just uncalled for.
0:12:08 - (Miguel Ferreira): I'm Portuguese, man, so it happens. We talk loud, we use our hands, so it happens.
0:12:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Sorry, I don't want to scare you. Like, I have a three year old son, and I'm like, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the tv or I'm mad at my phone or whatever. I'm like, sorry, man. This is the dumbest thing for me to react to. But you're sitting here watching me be an asshole right in front of you, and I'm like, I don't mean to do that, but, yeah. So on some of these ideas of the self doubt, the self hate, I think the song wasteland, there's a line in it that kind of pins it down perfectly that says, and I don't want to drag you down with me because there's no ladder in this hole with.
0:12:44 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So that, in my opinion, when I read that or when I hear that, I'm just like, holy shit. That's why some musicians, famously, Robin Williams was a very jokingly guy, but behind the scenes, he was depressed. Right. Not saying, you're the kind of guy that's secretly depressed, but that kind of a line kind of makes it real to people that artists really aren't just there to perform all the time. Sometimes when they're saying something, you need to listen to what they're saying.
0:13:11 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, it's funny because wasteland, the song, the meaning, I guess it's not hidden, but some people might not catch it. It's really about your hometown or the environment you're in. Right? It's your wasteland. This is what you're doing with your life, where you are in your life, where you live, the environment, the people that are around you, creates this wasteland. So once you're in that hole, you can't get out unless you change all those factors. Right.
0:13:44 - (Miguel Ferreira): So it's just like one of those things where nobody can come down there and help you, because then they're going to be in the same boat as you.
0:13:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. Well, how do you feel about it that you've kind of lived in the same place for so long then?
0:13:58 - (Miguel Ferreira): I haven't lived here all the time. Some summers I go and live in Mississauga with my uncle, and I do work. I don't do that anymore, obviously, but back when I was younger, I did that all the time, so I found those from memory.
0:14:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Mississauga is just west of Toronto, so.
0:14:18 - (Miguel Ferreira): I would go there every summer and work construction with him. And I found that those years, although I was away from all my friends here and everything, were probably my happiest and peaceful because it was just like a break from all the nonsense that happens in your hometown. Right? It's very. Not small, but it's small enough where I can go out and run into three, four, five people I know. Right? So sometimes they're not people you want to see, either.
0:14:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I know how you feel. I mean, I grew up in a town of, like, about 16,000 people in North Dakota called Mandan, North Dakota. It's basically mini Canada anyway. Everybody talks like they're from Canada. It's snowy, it's cold as shit. So I understand being in a small town, like, everywhere you go, somebody's going to know who you are. If you do something wrong, everybody knows what you're doing. Do something right, people are going to hate that, too. So it doesn't really matter.
0:15:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You're never going to make anybody happy in a small town, it seems like.
0:15:16 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, that's what it is, man.
0:15:19 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. Well, talk to me about the song teal off the album, obviously, because that is the kind of OD song out on the album where it's an acoustic, kind of emo slow jam with harmonies in there. How did that song come about?
0:15:31 - (Miguel Ferreira): I think when we were writing the album, I knew I wanted to have one acoustic song. I find that when bands throw one acoustic song, you pull in an audience that might not be into the pop punk kind of genre.
0:15:47 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Sure.
0:15:47 - (Miguel Ferreira): But because they like that song, it almost influences them to check out the rest and really like it. And I'm not saying I did it purposely for just marketing.
0:15:56 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I did it for the money.
0:15:59 - (Miguel Ferreira): $20 in our distro kid. No, but I knew that I wanted to do an acoustic song, and we all wanted to do it. Acoustic music is great when it's done, right? Right. That's pretty much how the song came about. There was no, really. Oh, check this out. No, it was like, we've got to do an acoustic song. How do we want to start it? And then we just focused on writing that.
0:16:24 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, it sounds great. I mean, I always tell people, like, I had this conversation. I created a video about it. If you want to check that out, go through power by rock podcast. But the conversation was, do acoustic songs and intro tracks and filler tracks, like interludes and stuff like that belong on albums, because then people release it on Spotify, and then it's different from the album, or it's not really a song. So then people hear that and go, well, this is nonsense. I don't want that.
0:16:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I'm just going to block it or whatever, right? And my rebuttal was those songs 100% make an album better. But those songs don't necessarily need to be released on Spotify, like an intro song or an interlude song or something like that, because they're right. Like, those people that were saying that these songs might turn somebody off right away is because an interlude song might just be like loud noises, right? Like, you're like, this is fucking pointless. But in the grand scheme of that album, it's absolutely necessary. I think of an album like, okay, computer by Radiohead.
0:17:27 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You don't want to listen to the weird shit on there. Like loud, gargling computer noises, right? But if you're listening to the album, it totally makes sense. It creates the emotion, the soundscape. So obviously what you've done is an acoustic song, not like an interlude or an intro song. That's kind of meaningless to the rest of the album. This is a standalone good song, but I think there is that case that can be made that you don't have to release every song on distribution, on streaming services either. You can release just singles on distribution and then sell your album separately. So that's one thing I keep positing to bands and everybody.
0:18:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You don't have to put your entire album on streaming. You'll probably make just as much money from your top four songs anyway. So what's the point of putting the rest out there and then just release the vinyl and have people actually buy the full album like they used to do back in the. Do you think about that kind of strategy? Is that something you guys thought about? Or was it just like, we want to get the music out there so everybody can hear it?
0:18:28 - (Miguel Ferreira): I think we knew that when we came out as a band that if we came out with a single, it wouldn't be enough because we knew that we were going to play shows pretty quickly. So I think our goal at the beginning was to get a piece of art, like an album put together that we all really enjoyed and to get it out there that way, while we're planning and executing what we need to, to keep pushing forward. We had enough songs to keep people happy with, right? It wasn't just like one single. They listen to it 1015 times and then they forget that we're even a band. Right?
0:19:12 - (Miguel Ferreira): So we wanted to put it.
0:19:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You'd be lucky if somebody listens to it 1015 times, too.
0:19:16 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, I know. We wanted to have enough content out there to keep people busy while we pushed forward with a bunch of other stuff that we had planned. Right?
0:19:28 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And obviously now we're talking about singles. You guys just did release a new single called Ink, which the music video just dropped today. Well, yesterday. Today premiered yesterday. Obviously, the song is kind of about writing a song, right? It's kind of in the sense of that self defense weapon, much like the classic phrase, the pen is mightier than the sword. I don't know if you want to speak about this specifically, but it feels pretty personal. Was there a person in mind or what was the inspiration for this song?
0:19:55 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, I won't mention who it is, but definitely it's someone that is important in my life, that I have an emotional attachment with, that I will for the rest of my life no matter what happens. So the song was more about me realizing that it's okay to feel like that. But I also can't let that emotion control and dictate what I do with my life or how I make decisions because I found a lot of the times I'd be like, oh, I'm going to go do this, but what are they going to think? Oh, who are they going to talk to about this? Who are they going to tell that I went and did this? How are they going to respond? And it was just like a snowball effect of just overthinking.
0:20:37 - (Miguel Ferreira): So I had to kind of learn to stop caring almost. And that's kind of what ink is about. Right. It's about using that song as an outlet to state that I'm no longer letting those emotions control me.
0:20:52 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Sure.
0:20:52 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:20:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And the way that you phrase that, you don't have to make a reaction or anything, but what it sounds like to me is it would be like either the parent of your kid that you are not longer in a relationship with. That's kind of what it felt like anyway. It was like somebody who had a very strong relationship with a kid of baby mama, whatever you want to call.
0:21:16 - (Miguel Ferreira): It, somebody like that, I won't say no.
0:21:18 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. It's like, I don't want to say anything bad about this person because they're like the parent of my child, but I'm going to write a song about it for sure. Yeah. Now, obviously, the musical side of this song is a little bit heavier than some of the more pop punk stuff that you have. Was this because of the heavy emotion behind the song?
0:21:44 - (Miguel Ferreira): No, I don't think so. I think more so. We all come from. Other than Brad, we all come from hardcore bands. So we knew that we wanted to do pop punk, but we knew that we needed to be different. Pop punk bands, they tend to fall into a bubble where it's like they all sound the same.
0:22:04 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I 100% agree.
0:22:06 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah. So right away we're like, we're playing in drop b, what pop punk bands play in a hardcore tuning. We're playing in drop b and we're throwing breakdowns in that are heavier than pop punk bands. We have to do that to separate ourselves from all these other pop punk bands. Pop punk quotations. But, yeah, wasteland is a lot different. I think wasteland was kind of just, like, not thrown together, but we're more unified now on what we want to sound like. So when we wrote ink, I came up with a riff and then we all talked about it. We knew that it needed to be face crushing, in other words.
0:22:49 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. And I will say, I mean, obviously the wasteland album has just a different energy. Right. It's like a higher, more. I won't even say positive energy. It's just kind of like a different energy. And then this one's kind of like a slightly darker energy. So that's why when I introduce you as pop punk emo, it kind of borders and straddles that line. Right? Like emo hardcore pop punk. You can kind of flow in between those genres and it doesn't sound like you're going, hey, we're going to make now a classic pop punk song. Now we're going to make escape punk song. Now we're going to make a hard.
0:23:21 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's the sound in general. It fuses all these, right? So it's better when you fuse them than when you try to incrementally make an individual song. That sounds just inconceivably weird. Right. It's like, why are you now playing, like, a really happy song and then you're playing like, this metal music or whatever.
0:23:39 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:23:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So one thing I want to do is, obviously, I want people to be able to see the music video for ink. So I want to be able to play this during this first break. Is it okay with you that I play this music video for ink? And I want to make sure that Spotify and YouTube and everybody knows that we're going to play this video. I have full consent from you guys.
0:23:59 - (Miguel Ferreira): Oh, yeah, 100%. Play it. That'd be awesome.
0:24:01 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Perfect. So we're going to check out the new video for ink by North park right now. And when we come back, I'm going to put Miguel in the spotlight with some hot seat questions that you're not going to want to miss so hold on to your cuts turn up the sound and we'll see you in just a few short minutes.
0:28:09 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Welcome back to the power by rock podcast. I'm here with Miguel of the canadian punk band North park to put him in the spotlight with some hot seat questions. So, hey, Miguel, are you ready to be put in the spotlight?
0:28:18 - (Miguel Ferreira): I think so. Let's see.
0:28:20 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, so the first question I have is, I watched your YouTube video where you guys simulated the web series hot ones and ate a bunch of hot wings and then answered questions thrown at you. I, too, know the heat of the intensity of the last dab. The triple x. Last dab. So for my first question is, did you ever finish that bottle of Triple X?
0:28:41 - (Miguel Ferreira): So Justin, our drummer, he actually brought that bottle, so I don't know if he finished it. Yeah, I'm good with Spice, but that thing had a kick. It was hot, so I won't lie.
0:28:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I love spicy food, too. I'll put that stuff on my tacos. I'll put that on everything. I don't think it's a great wing sauce because it's too spicy to be just on the outside of something.
0:29:03 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:29:03 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I was going to say if you did have the bottle left and if Justin was going to be here today, I was going to challenge him to take a spoonful of it right now.
0:29:12 - (Miguel Ferreira): He's a weapon. That guy would do it.
0:29:15 - (Isaac Kuhlman): He wouldn't be able to answer the rest of these questions, I'll tell you.
0:29:19 - (Miguel Ferreira): Too bad he's not here. But, yeah, he would have definitely took you on that offer.
0:29:24 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that actually, when I have bands, stay at my house, because every once in a while, band from out of town comes into town and I'm like, you can stay at my house just so you don't have to pay for a hotel. I'll give them, like, a chip and put a little dab on there, and they're like, this is way too hot.
0:29:39 - (Miguel Ferreira): I'm like, it's not that hot.
0:29:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to cover a wing in it and then pour it all over like you did, where by accident, it all came out on the bottle. As soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, no, he's going to regret that.
0:29:48 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, it wasn't good.
0:29:52 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, so I know, obviously, that your band name comes from the street you guys grew up on, and I believe Lincoln Park's name came from a park that Chester Bennington used to live by. And I even think that story of the year's first album was called Page Avenue for a similar reason.
0:30:08 - (Miguel Ferreira): That's funny. So I didn't know that about Lincoln park, really? And that's funny about Lincoln Park, North park, so that's kind of funny.
0:30:17 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, it was like a park in, like, I want to say Santa Monica or wherever he grew up. I can't remember wherever it was, but I was just curious, was there any correlation between you guys selecting that name and kind of any other band's choices of a similar reason?
0:30:33 - (Miguel Ferreira): No. So, pretty much it was because we grew up on the street. But it was also a lot happened while living there.
0:30:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Got you.
0:30:42 - (Miguel Ferreira): I lived there till I was 18, I think, 1819. So, 30 now. So, yeah, a lot of stuff happened. A lot of big parts of my life. Like, not to get it all depressing, but my dad left, so that happened while we were at that house and stuff like that. So there was just a lot that happened. And then Brad lived down the street, and he was always, like, a really good. I just. It seemed fitting to have North park as the name.
0:31:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It's kind of like the. Right, like that. Put it all together and bring it back. That makes sense. All right, question number three. This came from the web series or the YouTube video as well, but you actually said that your favorite movie was interstellar, and I'm a huge fan of this movie. And every Christopher Nolan movie, his use of quantum mechanics, time, entropy, and framing them in classic movie tropes is beyond genius, in my opinion.
0:31:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So I got to ask, if you're your father, if you're Matthew McConaughey's character in this movie, are you leaving your child behind to go explore outer space, knowing that she didn't even get to say goodbye?
0:31:50 - (Miguel Ferreira): I don't think when he starts crying on the drive and he checks underneath the blanket to see if she snuck in like she did before, I was. Yeah, I cried a lot.
0:32:03 - (Isaac Kuhlman): And then again, when he's like, don't leave, don't leave. He's like, banging on the bookshelf. You're like, God damn.
0:32:08 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, that's a tear jerker movie, but it's so well done. And, yeah, Christopher Nolan, he's amazing.
0:32:17 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. I think I like inception slightly more because it was such a great movie, too, when I first saw it. I saw the follower well, before I saw Inception, which was weird because it wasn't very well known at the time, but then I saw inception, and I was like, holy fucking shit. This movie is absolutely insane. And then Interstellar came out with a quantum mechanics side of it, and I was like, I don't even know how to explain.
0:32:40 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Like, I get it all, but this is crazy science put into a movie done by just normal people. They're not quantum physicists. Although I think his brother has training in some of that.
0:32:51 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, that's.
0:32:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. All right, I'm going to give you another movie question just because I think this one, I don't know why, but I got recalled back to fight Club recently for some reason. So question number four is if you could fight one living person, who would you like to fight in a fight club style environment?
0:33:18 - (Miguel Ferreira): I don't know if I should say their name online. If you know me personally, you know who I would say? Let's just say that.
0:33:32 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So this is somebody that may live in your vicinity. It's not like a Celebrity or an evil person that you might know.
0:33:40 - (Miguel Ferreira): He lives in my hometown. I don't hate many people. I don't hate anyone, but I don't like this guy. So, yeah, that would be the fight club for sure with him.
0:33:54 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, so I'm going to pin down this person. I'm going to ask around, get some sources and see who it is, and then I'm going to post this.
0:34:02 - (Miguel Ferreira): You can add a little subtitle underneath me and put his name. If you can figure that out, I give you full permission. But I can't just blatantly say it. That's too rude.
0:34:13 - (Isaac Kuhlman): That's really funny. That's funny. All right, question number five. This one is actually music related. So for the first time, I think we're talking about music in the hot seat questions. But this is something I ask of everybody because I believe that this is pretty important. Now, I know you're canadian, but I'm pretty sure you're familiar with Mount Rushmore. So who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of musicians as your top four individual musicians?
0:34:34 - (Miguel Ferreira): Individual. So not like a band.
0:34:37 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah. So you don't put like blink one eight two or Green Day up there. You put Billy Joe Armstrong on there and then, wow, three other people. You could put the whole band up there if you think that they're legitimately the reason why you made music or something like that. But, yeah.
0:34:50 - (Miguel Ferreira): So four individual artists. That's a good one. I've never really thought about that.
0:34:57 - (Isaac Kuhlman): They don't have to be all rock related either. We've had people mention country and r and b as well.
0:35:01 - (Miguel Ferreira): I guess that's a hard one for me because growing up, I always tried not to take too much influence from stuff. When I'm writing, I like listening to my own music. That's like something you never hear. People hate listening to what they just wrote, but I love it. I'll listen to the same song I wrote like 50 times before it gets dropped.
0:35:26 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I'm the exact same way. I'm like, I would have never written this if I didn't like it in the first.
0:35:33 - (Miguel Ferreira): I mean, this might come weird. Maybe it's not Drake. Always been a huge fan of Drake. I think what he's done with his life, with his music is just.
0:35:44 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I mean, he started in a wheelchair, for crying out loud. Look at him now.
0:35:47 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, he got shot. That guy's tough. But yeah, no, just like what he's done, it's inspiring because it's so close to where I am. That's like, wow, that happened. This guy is huge. It's accomplished so much and he lives an hour away. Yeah, you know, I. What mean. So I think he would definitely be one. Another one that I take a lot of influence with, probably in my solo stuff is Bryson Tiller, another R B artist.
0:36:15 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Okay.
0:36:16 - (Miguel Ferreira): I think he's great. I think when he dropped his first album, it really shocked the world because it was a completely different style of r and B that he actually made the genre up. It's called Trap soul now.
0:36:28 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Okay. He's definitely probably why I'm not familiar with it because I don't know anything about traps.
0:36:32 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, it's like r and B, but it's like heavier, I guess. Is that what you could say? It's like heavier. Another one would probably have to be architects. When I was in a hardcore band, actually, Riley, the guitarist in North park, he was in my band called Take the Sterile with a couple other guys. And we actually got to play with them multiple times here in Barry, actually, which was crazy because they're from the UK.
0:37:05 - (Miguel Ferreira): So they're definitely very significant on this path of making music because it was just inspiring to be able to play with such a cool big band because I think it was their hollow Crown album that they were touring, so we got to play on that. So that was super cool. Ollie, the bassist, asked us for shrooms, so that was pretty funny. But yeah, definitely architects is up there. Den Divine, who was that?
0:37:39 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Go ahead. Sorry.
0:37:40 - (Miguel Ferreira): Den Divine would probably be another one. Same type of they. They're not too far from us. And our drummer, Justin, is actually friends with the guitarist when he was playing in that band. So they're a huge inspiration and just kind of the same thing as architects. It's just without them, I don't know if we'd still be pushing down this road.
0:38:03 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Got you. So I think that makes a total of about ten or eleven people on your Mount Rushmore. But that's okay.
0:38:10 - (Miguel Ferreira): There's a lot, I guess, for Den Devine it would be more the vocalist. I was always huge fan of him. For architects, it was Tom, rest in peace. He did everything. He kind of was like me. I like to write the material, write the lyrics, write the drums, and then I send it off to the boys and they make adjustments. Right.
0:38:31 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Make it better. This is bass line.
0:38:34 - (Miguel Ferreira): Exactly. They make it better. So, yeah, Tom, I really vibe with him because he's like me or was.
0:38:42 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, makes sense. I mean, like you said when we first started talking, you're very influenced by not just rock music or punk music or whatever, there's other things. And I feel like if you are only going to listen to one genre, and I tend to gravitate towards one genre of rock, being rock is pretty broad. But I grew up on boys to men, ace of bass, like random shit like that. Like Mariah Carey and Beatles. Random stuff, right? So like this long forgotten stuff in my current music taste. But that's the kind of stuff that I grew up and I lived in a place where country music was the only music that you could really listen to. And I'm like sitting here trying to listen to punk music. So it's always interesting when somebody's from a smaller town or even from Canada where there's only 30 million people in the whole country.
0:39:33 - (Isaac Kuhlman): What kind of things are you listening to? Because maybe you're not getting the punk music like they get in La or San Diego or something like that all the time, but you're still in a punk band. So it's like, where else did you pull inspiration from? So that's pretty good list. Very diverse. So it basically means to me that your music is going to be different. Right? That's good.
0:39:53 - (Miguel Ferreira): Which is good.
0:39:55 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, well, there we go. The spotlight is off. The hot seat is cooling down. We'll be back in just a few moments to finish off this episode with some news about what North park has coming up in the near future.
0:40:11 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Stick around the power by rock podcast will be back right after this. 0:40:33 - (Isaac Kuhlman): It costs you nothing. And it could be the difference between hitting your goals and quitting your dream. Go to diyrockcareer.com today by clicking the link below this episode.
0:40:47 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, welcome back to the powered by rock podcast. I'm here with Miguel from the canadian pop punk band North park. So let me just ask you, Miguel, what does North park have coming out? North park have coming out in the near future? So I know obviously you guys are talking about. We just released this music video. What else do you guys got coming up
0:41:03 - (Miguel Ferreira): Well, I hope the guys are okay that I spill the beans. Our next musical thing that we want to do is we're going to do a reimagine of teal, actually, with full band. It's already written. We just need to record it. So that's definitely coming up. That's probably going to be the next thing coming up. And we're dealing with that vinyl stuff. So we got the vinyls figuring out. We're just planning all that out to make sure that it's cheap enough for everyone to enjoy. Because $72 is just crazy.
0:41:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You got to be pretty dedicated fan for that.
0:41:40 - (Miguel Ferreira): That's what I mean. And some record heads will pay that. But no, it didn't feel right. So we scrapped that and we're doing it a different way.
0:41:48 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Pink Floyd doesn't usually demand $72 for a vinyl.
0:41:51 - (Miguel Ferreira): You know what I mean?
0:41:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): They're expensive as shit.
0:41:54 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah. So that's why that we do want to do like a kind of. I don't know if you know, audiotree.
0:42:02 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Sure.
0:42:03 - (Miguel Ferreira): We want to do like a live set recording. It'd be awesome if Audiotree took us to do it, but we got some plans to do something like that. And then we have a tour that's coming out in May with Cleveland Avenue. So that's going to be cool. We're going to do that.
0:42:21 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Where are you going with the tour? Are you staying in Canada?
0:42:23 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, it's Canada again. We're hoping to get out of Canada in the summer. There's a couple of festivals in the states that we've applied to. I can't remember the names of the festival, but our manager is looking into that for us. But the tour is. I'm right, I think it's Sudbury, Toronto, Barry London, all in Ontario. Yeah. So that's coming up and then the festivals, and that's pretty much all we have lined up at the moment.
0:42:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I hear they have an impossible amount of good looking ladies in Sudbury. Do you know about this?
0:42:58 - (Miguel Ferreira): I've only been to Sudbury once, and that was when I was in a band called Ivory Coast. Riley, the guitarist in our band, he was also in that band. And I was deathly sick. And we had to play back to the, oh, I was like puking in between everything we did. And then I had to play drums because I was the drummer at the time, a full set. So I did that while puking on stage. So I didn't really get to analyze if there was any good looking women in Sudbury because I was just fighting for my life that whole trip.
0:43:35 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah.
0:43:35 - (Miguel Ferreira): And that was the only time.
0:43:36 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Well, that quote comes from the tv show Shoresy, the spinoff of Letter Kenny. I'm not sure if you've watched either shows, but I haven't watched in Shoresy. They play in Sudbury. That's the team. And he says there's an impossible amount of good looking ladies in Sudbury. Then it just starts scrolling women's Instagram profiles of these supermodel looking women. I'm like, I have no idea. I've never been in Sudbury.
0:43:56 - (Miguel Ferreira): No, I've only been once. And it was not a fun time, so I couldn't help you with that.
0:44:01 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Like, I'm not even looking forward to going back just because I have such bad memories. But I'm going to go.
0:44:05 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, I'm nervous.
0:44:08 - (Isaac Kuhlman): All right, so obviously we'll add some links to the music, obviously the music video in our show notes below this episode. Do you have anything else that you'd like to plug or shout out before we go today?
0:44:19 - (Miguel Ferreira): Like to shout out wiretap for helping us throughout this whole process. I think for a couple of us, it's the first time we've been signed, so it means a lot. Also, big shout out to our manager Eric. He's really locking down on us right now and it's awesome. It feels good to have the support and just shout out to everyone that supports us and plays our music and messages us. And if we don't always get back to you, we do see know we all have separate lives just from a band, so. But we do appreciate everything. But other than that, I think covered pretty much everything.
0:44:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Yeah, Rob's a great guy. I mean, he obviously reached out to me and said, hey, you want to interview these guys? And I was like, yeah, their music's awesome. So I'd love to have you on, but been a fan of Rob and wiretap for, I don't even know, two, three years now and been a member of the record club. So I'm pretty sure I get the North park vinyl. I think that's part of it. So looking forward to that as soon as I get it. Going to put it on.
0:45:15 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But, yeah, I'm looking forward to some big things from you guys. I'm 42, so you guys still have, like, good six to eight years before you're going to be, like, jaded, silly beyond point where you're like, fuck music. I don't want to play anymore.
0:45:28 - (Miguel Ferreira): It's funny that you say that because I told myself when I turned 29, I was like, talking to all my music friends. I was like, one more year, boys. They're like, what do you mean, one more year? I was like, one more year and I'm done with music. They're like, what? I was like, going to be 30 next year. And then all of a sudden, this band came together, got signed, playing shows, and it was just like, meant to be almost. Not to sound cliche, but, yeah, I.
0:45:55 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Mean, historically, before the release of Spotify and the Internet, basically just streaming stuff, musicians were not lasting much longer than the age of 30. As a very popular artist, I mean, you think about this. The Beatles, they ended. All the Beatles band ended before any of them turned 30. That's fucking crazy to me. Yeah. I always thought of them as, like, old guys. Even when they were popular. I was like, well, they're older, so obviously they're going to be popular. They've got lots of experience.
0:46:22 - (Isaac Kuhlman): They were fucking 29. I'm like, what the hell?
0:46:25 - (Miguel Ferreira): I gave up.
0:46:26 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Kurt Cobain, 27, Jimi Hendrix, 27. All these, like, 27 clubbers. I'm like, yeah, Kurt Cobain accomplished everything in his life that he did before he turned 28. That's crazy to me.
0:46:36 - (Miguel Ferreira): That's why I was going to quit by 30.
0:46:41 - (Isaac Kuhlman): There's no hope for me anymore. That's the one good thing about the Internet, is I will say more music is getting out. There's still a lot of bands that. There's dad bands now that make really good music, and it's just really fun to see the lasting effect of making music past 30, because there's a lot of good music that's not just Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones and all that shit, where it's like, this is the same thing I've heard for 55 years and I'm only 42, so how's that possible?
0:47:11 - (Isaac Kuhlman): I have one last question for you before we sign off.
0:47:14 - (Miguel Ferreira): Love it.
0:47:14 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Give me a piece of new music that you've heard in, like, the last year. Artist, band, album. What new music would you recommend, people?
0:47:21 - (Miguel Ferreira): Check out someone local or anything.
0:47:26 - (Isaac Kuhlman): You can shout out local. You could say, this is the best album I've heard in a long time.
0:47:30 - (Miguel Ferreira): Or whatever you want. I'm obsessed with sleep token right now.
0:47:35 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Okay.
0:47:36 - (Miguel Ferreira): Don't know if you've checked them out.
0:47:38 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But I have not yet. I know the name. I haven't heard the band yet.
0:47:42 - (Miguel Ferreira): They are just something completely different from anything. I think they all come from big musical backgrounds, but nobody knows who they are. They all wear masks on stage and they're painted in black and stuff. And they're heavy, like seven string type of degent stuff. But then they have a lot of beats, like hip hop beats in their stuff and a lot of choiry stuff. It's a whole different thing and it's very cool.
0:48:15 - (Miguel Ferreira): Their one song, I think it's take me back to Eden. It's eight minutes long and there is zero structure to that song. It's just constantly changing and it's very cool. It's something different.
0:48:29 - (Isaac Kuhlman): So is it in the genre of r and B hip hop or is it in rock?
0:48:34 - (Miguel Ferreira): No. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's like metal, but then there's no screaming. Like he sings. There's a bit of screaming, but he sings most of the time and it's very choiry type singing.
0:48:47 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Got you.
0:48:47 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah. If I was going to try and get someone to hop in on them, I would probably say listen to their song alkaline first. That'll give you a taste, an easy step in because it's a structured.
0:48:58 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Don't have to listen to eight minutes first.
0:49:00 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah, it's a structured song, so it'll give you an idea of what they are. But then after that everything is just crazy.
0:49:07 - (Isaac Kuhlman): But yeah, I'm obsessed. I love Prague rock music, so it's probably something I could listen to. But Prague rock and metal, they have such varying and vast degrees of what that means that you don't have to like it all, that's for sure.
0:49:20 - (Miguel Ferreira): Yeah.
0:49:23 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Well, cool. I'm going to put obviously a reference to that band sleep token into the show notes as well. Miguel, I want to thank you for being on the show today. It was an honor and a privilege to talk to you. I know you're dealing with a bum leg. I've got sinus congestion. It's like the Dead man podcast today or whatever. But we didn't let that affect our performance. Right.
0:49:42 - (Miguel Ferreira): Broken.
0:49:43 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Still got to go out and show up.
0:49:44 - (Miguel Ferreira): I got my crutch right here. I'm hurting, I'm a hurting.
0:49:53 - (Isaac Kuhlman): Go out and check out the show notes below this episode to see the music and the social media from North park and remember, the powered by rock podcast is powered by our listeners. To show us some support, please be sure to subscribe and share the podcast on social media. You can also click below to make a donation to the podcast to help us keep making awesome episodes with awesome guests. You can see the full video interview on Spotify and YouTube as well.
0:50:16 - (Isaac Kuhlman): If you want to check out some of our awesome content or our merch and gear, head to poweredbyrock.com. See what's good there. That's our show for today. Until we see you soon. For the next episode, rock on.