Hey, what's up everybody? You are listening to Max Inc Heavy on Civic Media. We are local music.
So I'm Shell here. Thank you so much for tuning in supporting what we do.
Tonight I have a great guest here with me, Brad Van of Droid's Attack. How are you, Brad?
Thank you, Rachel. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here. So for those of you who don't know Droid's attack,
they have been Madison Heavy hitters for quite some time since the 90s, but they do play out all
over Wisconsin. Do you guys ever make it out of state or do tours? Yeah, we toured a lot before
the pandemic. We haven't really gone out since. We just kind of do regional stuff now, mostly,
you know, like Minneapolis, Chicago, kind of stuff. So still kind of keeping it Midwest.
Yeah, you know, we've got things going on in our lives and kind of keep us close to home now.
I've got my arcade business that I started and our bass player has a young child. So we're just
kind of working on new material for our next album when we have time. It's all just kind of
when we have time. Yeah, that's always kind of the key there is how do you balance everything?
I know that's a struggle for a lot of independent artists, you know, whether it's touring,
booking local shows, you're running a business and there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes
that people wouldn't wouldn't expect. Well, our main focus right now is getting this next album done.
We have some opportunities to potentially release our next album on a, you know, label.
Our last album was picked up by a label overseas and did really well for them and for us.
And so we're kind of like looking to branch out a little more with this next release.
It's just taking us, we're taking our time with it kind of just working on it, you know, as we're
inspired and have time. But yeah, I'm going into the studio tomorrow actually to begin demoing the
next half of it. So it's pretty well into the process and I'm hoping that we can get it out
sometime next year. Awesome. Yeah, it is, it is definitely a process at times, you know, it's good
to have a plan in place, especially, you know, if you've got that date in mind when you want to release it.
Right. Yeah, we don't really have a date in mind, but I do think though that we're probably not going
to be branching out of the Midwest until it gets released. So right now we're just going to kind
of stick to the regional shows, you know, take opportunities as they come and we get to
only cool opportunities still, which is pretty awesome. I'm thankful for that. So where do you
guys record out of? Yeah, we've been working with our friend Dustin Boyle, he owns his own studio,
the spaceship here in Madison, and we also work with Mark Whitcomb over at DNA Studios in Madison.
And right now what we're doing is I'm putting together a bunch of our old material in some new
studio recordings because I don't really want to keep releasing the old material because we've
progressed so much as a band, you know, like I feel like the old recordings, like the basement recordings,
and sort of, you know, garage sounding recordings aren't really as representative of us anymore.
So I'm putting together just kind of a greatest hits album with new recordings of the old material,
and we're going to release that in some form. I don't know if that's going to be through the label or
just independent, just so we can have something at the merchant booth just to kind of keep people
excited. And this next album, yeah, depending on how things go, my plan is to release the new material
through this other label that's interested if they want to keep doing it and if they don't, then,
you know, we'll release it ourselves. Yeah, and I would assume that there would be some
tour involved with, you know, surrounding the release and potentially overseas, you know,
you said that this is a label overseas. Is that something that you guys are looking into?
Absolutely, yeah, that's something that we've always wanted to do, but it just had to make sense.
You know, we have had offers to play shows overseas, but they've always wanted us to like
cover the costs of, you know, getting over there. And, you know, I'm just kind of like,
and I'm not really interested in in that sort of situation. It's like, if I'm going to pay
to fly overseas, I'm going to have a vacation where I don't have to scramble to get from one
town to the next. Yeah. I just kind of figure, you know, if we're going to be playing a tour
over there, then, you know, we should get the expenses covered and, you know, get some good
guarantees and all of that stuff handled for us. Absolutely. That's what you should,
which should hope for. I agree. If you're going to go spend money on something, that's a vacation
network. But I mean, the fact that this label overseas had interest in us and the, you know,
the record sold really well, it makes me think that is something that could conceivably happen.
So with the next release, yeah, I'm hoping that some opportunities like that come out.
They'd be cool to play some festival shows over there. Absolutely. There's some really awesome,
awesome festivals I know of that I've wanted to go to like dream festivals. So what is one of those
dream festivals? Let's say this record label picks you up and you get your own headlining tour.
Like, how do you know you've made it? It's when so and so is opening for you.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess I kind of used to look at it that way, but after you've
done so much, I mean, you kind of feel like, you know, I've already kind of made it in some ways,
you know, like I remember back, I don't know what year it was, but we got asked to play a gig opening
for like three national touring bands at the Metro in Chicago and for riot fest. And I was just like,
man, like, I don't think it's ever going to get better than this, you know, and then things just
kept and kept happening from there. And it just kind of did like, like, I don't want to say it kept
getting better, but it things kept happening where I just was like, man, you know, like, I kind of
feel like accomplished enough already. So I'm satisfied. Like even if this next record is,
you know, nobody gives it, you know, like we put it out. I'll feel happy. I'm really happy with
the material right now. And I, you know, like, I guess that's kind of the approach I've always had
with this band is kind of more like, don't have any sort of expectations of, you know, what you're
where you're going. If you're going to make it, you know, like I've always kind of done this for fun
and kind of a like as a challenge to myself to see how far I could take it. And I've taken it
like pretty far, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And as you, as you should, you know, everybody has
got a different definition of success. And that's a wonderful, wonderful mindset to have, especially
in the music industry. It should be fun. You're playing music with your buddies, you know what I mean?
So, yeah. Absolutely. So where can we find you, your music, and get a hold of you?
Bandcamp is probably the best place to find the music. I, you know, like we're mostly on Facebook
and Instagram, you know, like, and it's just droids attack, you know, Facebook and Instagram.
And, yeah, that's probably the best place to get a hold of us is through, through social media
and, uh, to listen to us through Bandcamp or Spotify. Yeah. Yeah. The streaming is kind of where
things are, but that's is a topic for a different time for sure. Awesome. Well, thank you so much,
Brad. It's been a joy to talk with you. Definitely looking forward to that new album. I've been a big
fan of what you guys do for, for years now. So, um, can't wait. Definitely keep in touch with that.
All right. Take care. Yeah. Talk to you later.