The Underwire Podcast

Behind the Riffs and Beyond - Diving Into the Impact of Music in Our Lives (with Eric Benites and Chrissy Duffin)

• The Underwire Podcast • Episode 7

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On this episode, we’re diving into the transformative world of music, exploring its impact on our well-being and livelihood, sense of community, and creativity.

I’m joined by two of my favorite musicians and friends, Eric Benites and Chrissy Duffin, who play together in band called Prosper or Perish (and are talented instrumentalists in several other bands as well). Together, we share a candid conversation on how music has influenced every aspect of our lives

WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT:

  • Our introductions to music and how each of us found our instruments
  • What inspires us to create
  • Challenges and rewards of collaborating with others in a band setting
  • How music fosters community and lifelong friendships
  • The therapeutic impact of music
  • Practical advice for anyone interested in starting music or joining a band

BONUS STUFF!:

  • A heated debate regarding Nintendo princesses
  • Eric talks about his cheese addiction

BANDS (Instagram/Spotify Links):


Support the show

[Jess .] Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of The Underwire,[Jess .] supporting you where life needs a lift.[Jess .] I'm your host Jess,[Jess .] and on today's episode we're having a casual but heartfelt[Jess .] conversation about how being involved in music has profoundly shaped[Jess .] our lives and made a huge positive impact across so many areas.[Jess .] I'm excited to be joined by two of my favorite people and fellow musicians,[Jess .] Eric Benitez and Chrissy Duffin.[Jess .] Eric and Chrissy are bandmates in a metal band called Prosper or Perish.[Jess .] But you can also catch Eric filling in on guitar sometimes for[Jess .] Cognitive and A Sayer,[Jess .] as well as filling in on bass in Sunburster.[Jess .] And you can catch Chrissy playing bass in A Sayer and guitar in Half[Jess .] Ton of Humanity as well.[Jess .] Not only are these two genuinely awesome humans,[Jess .] I mean seriously I can't say enough good things about the both of them,[Jess .] but they're also incredibly talented musicians.[Jess .] And today we're diving into our journeys into music.[Jess .] From how we first picked up our instruments,[Jess .] to our biggest influences,[Jess .] to who or what inspires us,[Jess .] to giving you an inside look of our songwriting processes and[Jess .] insights on being in bands and collaborating with others.[Jess .] But beyond that,[Jess .] we'll discuss how music has tremendously benefited our well-being,[Jess .] how it's helped build a sense of community and foster lifelong relationships,[Jess .] how it serves as a cathartic outlet,[Jess .] and how it's helped to process emotions,[Jess .] get us through hard times,[Jess .] or just survive monotonous days.[Jess .] From the challenges of being in a band to the healing power of[Jess .] writing or playing music,[Jess .] we've got a lot of ground to cover today.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] if you've ever wondered how music can contribute to bringing value[Jess .] to all aspects of your life,[Jess .] or you're just curious about the behind-the-scenes of a band's creative process,[Jess .] this is the episode for you.[Jess .] Thanks for coming on here,[Jess .] guys,[Jess .] and for doing this.[Jess .] I'm really excited to chit-chat with both of you.[Eric Benites] Thank you for having us.[Eric Benites] I was going to say,[Eric Benites] it's odd because I see both of you so frequently,[Eric Benites] like in person,[Eric Benites] all about doing this over Zoom.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] it's really,[Jess .] it's really funny.[Jess .] It would have been cool to orchestrate this in person,[Jess .] but I don't have the means for that yet.[Jess .] Maybe in the future.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] So thank you.[Jess .] Joining from our houses,[Jess .] which is convenient.[Jess .] You know,[Jess .] nobody has to go anywhere.[Jess .] Put on real clothes.[Eric Benites] That is pretty boss.[Eric Benites] Just a t-shirt.[Jess .] What's that?[Jess .] Just a t-shirt,[Jess .] yeah.[Jess .] Spoiler alert,[Jess .] I'm not wearing pants.[Jess .] Just kidding.[Jess .] I am wearing pants.[Jess .] Barely,[Jess .] but they're there.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] all right,[Jess .] cool.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] all right,[Jess .] well,[Jess .] we're going to get started then.[Jess .] So we'll start with asking both of you— who or what first got you[Jess .] into music in general as a whole.[Eric Benites] For me,[Eric Benites] it definitely was my parents,[Eric Benites] mostly my dad,[Eric Benites] because he always had like records and CDs and everything.[Eric Benites] And like,[Eric Benites] he's an audiophile,[Eric Benites] like he just always,[Eric Benites] well,[Eric Benites] he likes to pretend that he's an audiophile,[Eric Benites] I should say.[Eric Benites] He likes to just always buy new equipment and new CDs and new[Eric Benites] technology when it comes out.[Eric Benites] And I remember being young and he got this five-disc CD changer and[Eric Benites] hooked it up to a stereo speaker.[Eric Benites] And I remember him coming back home with that yellow plastic bag[Eric Benites] with the red lettering of Tower Records.[Eric Benites] And he told me to come over here.[Eric Benites] He was like, 'Listen to this.' He puts on Black Sabbath,[Eric Benites] puts on Electric Funeral.[Eric Benites] And like right then and there,[Eric Benites] I was just like, 'You know what?[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] I enjoy just listening to music.[Chrissy Duffin] That's awesome.' How old were you?[Eric Benites] I had to have been like four or five years old.[Eric Benites] So out of diapers.[Eric Benites] I don't think my sister was around.[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] yeah.[Eric Benites] Out of diapers.[Eric Benites] I was very,[Eric Benites] very young.[Eric Benites] Like one of my earliest memories.[Jess .] That's awesome.[Jess .] And Chrissy,[Jess .] what about you?[Jess .] I'm like thinking back.[Chrissy Duffin] Definitely,[Chrissy Duffin] parents were into music and all,[Chrissy Duffin] like rock and roll.[Chrissy Duffin] And my dad would sing a lot in his off time.[Chrissy Duffin] Just he would sing walking around the house and such.[Chrissy Duffin] My mom played piano and she was in a choir growing up and things like that.[Chrissy Duffin] But nothing really stuck to me,[Chrissy Duffin] music writing or playing wise.[Chrissy Duffin] I wasn't brought up with it.[Chrissy Duffin] That's just kind of what they had going on.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] just music around all the time.[Chrissy Duffin] It's cool to hear about that,[Chrissy Duffin] to just really sit and hear out a record.[Chrissy Duffin] We didn't go that far,[Chrissy Duffin] which sounds so cool.[Chrissy Duffin] I would say,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] kind of whenever you're at that age of becoming more of an[Chrissy Duffin] individual instead of just a little kid.[Chrissy Duffin] So,[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] sixth grade-ish,[Chrissy Duffin] seventh,[Chrissy Duffin] eighth,[Chrissy Duffin] meeting those friends,[Chrissy Duffin] listening to music.[Chrissy Duffin] That's when I would listen to music a little closer,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] my one friend had.[Chrissy Duffin] Master of puppets to play my other friend— I mean she was into all[Chrissy Duffin] kinds of crazy stuff like uh cradle filth and everything— so that's[Chrissy Duffin] that's where I kind of started gravitating in that avenue too.[Chrissy Duffin] And then it was— I don't know,[Chrissy Duffin] more impressive how crazy that kind of music was to me,[Chrissy Duffin] but yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] I would say that's like my start.[Jess .] That's awesome.[Jess .] It's funny because it seems like both of you,[Jess .] your parents are involved in music,[Jess .] listening to music.[Jess .] And that was not the case with me at all.[Jess .] I just happened to stumble upon a group of friends that liked music.[Jess .] And I remember specifically in the sixth grade,[Jess .] somebody asked what type of music I listened to.[Jess .] And I was like, 'I don't know.' It was never really a thing for me.[Jess .] And I got made fun of for it.[Jess .] So it's just so funny and ironic that music is such a huge part of my life now.[Jess .] But my friends were the people who kind of got me into listening to[Jess .] music in the first place.[Jess .] And then it just kind of transpired from there.[Jess .] But it was highly due to,[Jess .] I guess,[Jess .] like Y100,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] listening to alternative-type stuff and just kind of snowballing from there.[Jess .] And for me,[Jess .] got me into like punk rock and stuff— is that my one friend sat in[Jess .] front of me in math class and he always wore the same H2O shirt with.[Jess .] In different colors.[Jess .] It wasn't the same shirt.[Jess .] OK,[Jess .] I just want to clarify.[Jess .] So I was very curious and I went home and this is the the prime of Napster.[Jess .] And on my 56K dial up modem,[Jess .] it took about three hours to download one song off of their most recent record.[Jess .] And I fell in love,[Jess .] immediately went out to The Wall when that was still a thing.[Jess .] That was a CD store for anybody who's...[Jess .] Listening that might not know what that is,[Jess .] but uh,[Jess .] yeah,[Jess .] went and bought their CD,[Jess .] and I never looked back.[Jess .] And just kind of uh,[Jess .] went from there.[Jess .] So that's cool.[Eric Benites] That both of your parents were into music,[Eric Benites] yeah,[Eric Benites] they definitely were,[Eric Benites] were were big fans of music.[Eric Benites] I know that.[Eric Benites] Um,[Eric Benites] They always went to concerts even before I was born.[Eric Benites] And I know that right after I was born,[Eric Benites] there was a Pink Floyd tour for Momentary Lapse of Reason came to[Eric Benites] Philly at JFK Stadium.[Eric Benites] They were pretty much went to my grandparents.[Eric Benites] They're like, 'You're watching it tonight.[Eric Benites] We're going to go see Pink Floyd.' Like,[Eric Benites] they,[Eric Benites] they weren't musically inclined,[Eric Benites] but they just loved music.[Eric Benites] That's awesome.[Jess .] So for you both.[Jess .] So then,[Jess .] what instrument,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] how did you get into playing guitar,[Jess .] bass,[Jess .] etc.[Eric Benites] So for me,[Eric Benites] I started playing violin.[Eric Benites] That was my first instrument back in school.[Eric Benites] I was like seven years old or something like that.[Eric Benites] I don't think I knew that.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't think I do that either.[Chrissy Duffin] It's fantastic.[Eric Benites] I played violin in second grade and part of my elementary school orchestra.[Eric Benites] I played that for about four years from like second to sixth grade.[Eric Benites] About by the time I was like 12,[Eric Benites] 13 years old,[Eric Benites] you start to think that violin sucks and it's not a cool thing to do anymore.[Eric Benites] And so I stopped playing violin and I wanted to do the cooler thing of playing guitar.[Eric Benites] And then I got a guitar and did absolutely nothing with it.[Eric Benites] I remember playing it and thinking that this wasn't going to be anything.[Eric Benites] And then I ended up just randomly picking it up again like the next[Eric Benites] summer and then just haven't stopped playing since,[Eric Benites] essentially.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] it shows.[Chrissy Duffin] It shows.[Eric Benites] Then started branching out with other instruments like,[Eric Benites] oh,[Eric Benites] I play guitar.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] then I guess I can play a bass.[Eric Benites] Oh,[Eric Benites] piano.[Eric Benites] Let me play around with the keys.[Eric Benites] Started learning that and all that fun stuff.[Eric Benites] Now I want to learn how to play other instruments.[Eric Benites] I do want to get into trumpet or saxophone,[Eric Benites] but I don't know when that'll happen.[Jess .] What about accordion?[Eric Benites] So growing up,[Eric Benites] that was the instrument that my grandfather wanted me to play the most.[Eric Benites] And I want to learn so badly how to play an accordion.[Jess .] We were talking about that yesterday.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] didn't you say you have one?[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] so I have one.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know the last time you were over,[Chrissy Duffin] but we have the accordion now.[Chrissy Duffin] There you go.[Eric Benites] Oh,[Eric Benites] my God.[Eric Benites] I need to come over and just jam out on it.[Jess .] Yes,[Jess .] dude.[Jess .] Yes.[Jess .] Afterwards,[Jess .] I'm putting that in the calendar.[Jess .] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] That's another good segue I should throw in,[Chrissy Duffin] though,[Chrissy Duffin] actually.[Chrissy Duffin] My aunt would play accordion.[Chrissy Duffin] I think a lot of us are parents' generation and beyond that,[Chrissy Duffin] and it could be with the evolution of television in our homes.[Chrissy Duffin] But everyone would just get around the piano.[Chrissy Duffin] Like that's what people would kind of play music and sing.[Chrissy Duffin] And my aunt would always have an accordion at parties.[Chrissy Duffin] So when Irish honors,[Chrissy Duffin] they're smiling and roll out the barrel.[Chrissy Duffin] These are the tunes that I need to learn to like,[Chrissy Duffin] homage to her.[Jess .] That is so cool.[Jess .] Wait,[Jess .] so do you know how to play the accordion?[Chrissy Duffin] No,[Chrissy Duffin] no,[Chrissy Duffin] no.[Chrissy Duffin] But I can't wait to like mess around with it.[Chrissy Duffin] It's a lot of fun just dabbling.[Chrissy Duffin] That's awesome.[Chrissy Duffin] If you already knew how to play piano,[Chrissy Duffin] you're going to have an advantage because that's like half of the battle.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] And then there's all these other buttons to like have like chord accompany a name in.[Chrissy Duffin] I can't even talk.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] so it definitely requires skill to be a pro at.[Chrissy Duffin] But Jay was able to pick it up and play to 'When the Lion Sleeps Tonight'.[Chrissy Duffin] So you can dabble.[Jess .] Love that.[Jess .] Love that.[Jess .] We have to have an accordion dabbling night.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Yes.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] We're going to have a party.[Chrissy Duffin] I love that.[Chrissy Duffin] And by party,[Chrissy Duffin] I mean only like four people that we're all in bands with.[Jess .] An intimate get together of just musicians having a good time.[Jess .] That's honestly,[Jess .] that's my favorite thing to do.[Jess .] That is the only thing I want to do somehow for it.[Jess .] But tell us how you got into playing instruments.[Jess .] What was your first instrument?[Chrissy Duffin] So I would say the honest,[Chrissy Duffin] since Eric even started with the violin there.[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] I played the recorder in like fifth grade or something.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] Did a mean,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] ode to joy there.[Chrissy Duffin] But coming out of that,[Chrissy Duffin] I had friends that were playing guitar or,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] taking lessons and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] One friend was super talented.[Chrissy Duffin] The other friend also.[Chrissy Duffin] They were all talented,[Chrissy Duffin] but they kind of went to different schools.[Chrissy Duffin] Me and Eric kind of,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] lived,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] three blocks from each other and never knew it our whole lives.[Chrissy Duffin] So right around there on Castor Avenue is a music store or was 30 years ago.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] probably.[Chrissy Duffin] It was right around the corner there and they did some lessons.[Chrissy Duffin] So I have some friends go in there.[Chrissy Duffin] Some friends went to the Philly School of Rock when it was like first starting,[Chrissy Duffin] like it was the original,[Chrissy Duffin] the only thing there.[Chrissy Duffin] And that was also cool because.[Chrissy Duffin] They would give good musical influences.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] they would have a Judas Priest show and a Metallica show,[Chrissy Duffin] Iron Maiden,[Chrissy Duffin] King Diamond.[Chrissy Duffin] So,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] it got us into all these other bands there.[Chrissy Duffin] So just by them doing rock and roll,[Chrissy Duffin] I wanted to.[Chrissy Duffin] I didn't full-fledged get an instrument or take lessons for a while.[Chrissy Duffin] I would just like play with their guitars.[Chrissy Duffin] I say my bigger influences are things like the movie Airheads.[Chrissy Duffin] Instead of proper musical aspirations,[Chrissy Duffin] it was just rock and roll.[Chrissy Duffin] I love that.[Chrissy Duffin] I am rock and roll.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] like I would have fun overacting.[Chrissy Duffin] Like I still play music to this day where I'm just headbanging and[Chrissy Duffin] rock and roll before I knew how to play the thing.[Chrissy Duffin] And then started those basics,[Chrissy Duffin] like some Nirvana riffs and such,[Chrissy Duffin] some Metallica riffs.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] so I dabbled with guitar but then out of my friends we kind of[Chrissy Duffin] needed a drummer so we like collectively someone's dad bought a drum[Chrissy Duffin] kit so I kind of played some drums in uh like high school.[Chrissy Duffin] We did two talent shows so that was fun.[Chrissy Duffin] And then my musical career did not take off with drums at all.[Chrissy Duffin] I really didn't stick to it.[Chrissy Duffin] I can't do a drum fill.[Chrissy Duffin] I can just kind of keep it straight.[Chrissy Duffin] So then,[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know,[Chrissy Duffin] from there,[Chrissy Duffin] picked up a guitar at some point,[Chrissy Duffin] picked up a bass at some point,[Chrissy Duffin] kept to it.[Chrissy Duffin] After high school,[Chrissy Duffin] I started working at Sam Ash,[Chrissy Duffin] and that was just a whole cacophony of more contacts,[Chrissy Duffin] friends of friends,[Chrissy Duffin] music scene,[Chrissy Duffin] people at shows.[Chrissy Duffin] I didn't really go to shows in high school.[Chrissy Duffin] My parents went to some concerts,[Chrissy Duffin] same as Eric.[Chrissy Duffin] My mom will tout the fact that she was pregnant with me for Genesis[Chrissy Duffin] and maybe Elton John or someone.[Chrissy Duffin] So those were my first concerts.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] then going to Sam Ash,[Chrissy Duffin] which is a whole other world.[Chrissy Duffin] But I didn't,[Chrissy Duffin] I wasn't into a local band until maybe like 2006,[Chrissy Duffin] like the first year out of high school,[Chrissy Duffin] and started playing shows was so natural.[Chrissy Duffin] They were some high school friends I had,[Chrissy Duffin] some school rock friends.[Chrissy Duffin] Myself,[Chrissy Duffin] I never went through lessons and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I would just like hang out with everybody else.[Chrissy Duffin] Taking lessons,[Chrissy Duffin] and being like, 'Oh cool,[Chrissy Duffin] so you were like doing this okay?'.[Jess .] All right,[Jess .] that was,[Jess .] that was actually going to be my next question.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] have either of you taken lessons?[Jess .] I mean,[Jess .] to get started playing instruments,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] well,[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] you just answer that question,[Jess .] but Eric.[Eric Benites] So I took,[Eric Benites] I took lessons for violin and then,[Eric Benites] when I stopped playing violin and and tried to go on the guitar,[Eric Benites] it had to— a bit.[Eric Benites] I don't know how I forgot everything that I knew about music notes and everything,[Eric Benites] but I did not take any lessons for guitar.[Eric Benites] It was all just self-taught and looking up tabs.[Eric Benites] I remember just like Googling how to learn or not Googling.[Eric Benites] What was it?[Eric Benites] Like Lycos or Ask Jeeves.[Jess .] We're really dating ourselves.[Eric Benites] Just just looking up how to how to learn guitar and then like[Eric Benites] finding just web pages of guitar tabs that would just written on[Eric Benites] notepad and ended up doing that,[Eric Benites] I think.[Eric Benites] One of the first songs that I ever learned was this 'In Flame' song,[Eric Benites] but it was just a super simple...[Eric Benites] And I was like,[Eric Benites] okay,[Eric Benites] this kind of works.[Eric Benites] I think I can look at numbers and figure this out and just[Eric Benites] eventually got to practicing and practicing like that.[Eric Benites] It wasn't until I got to Community College of Philadelphia where I[Eric Benites] had my first lesson on guitar.[Eric Benites] But I did in high school have drum lessons because I did percussion[Eric Benites] in the orchestra and I did marching band.[Eric Benites] I did quads in high school too.[Eric Benites] I didn't know that either.[Eric Benites] I was pretty good.[Eric Benites] I was pretty good rhythmically,[Eric Benites] especially looking at notes rhythmically,[Eric Benites] but not reading notes and never had any formal training for guitar.[Jess .] I,[Jess .] too,[Jess .] never started by playing.[Jess .] Well,

[Jess .] let me let me preface all of this with:

I didn't even mean to play guitar.[Jess .] Playing guitar was an accident.[Jess .] My first instrument was piano.[Jess .] My mom made me take piano lessons when I was in grade school,[Jess .] which is fine.[Jess .] Piano is great.[Jess .] Okay.[Jess .] I had no ambition to play guitar.[Jess .] It was an accident.[Jess .] When I was in high school,[Jess .] the advisor fucked up my schedule and I had to pick different[Jess .] electives and the electives I wanted to take were not available.[Jess .] So then my advisor was like, 'Well,[Jess .] there's this intro to guitar class.[Jess .] It's brand new.[Jess .] You can take that.' And I honestly,[Jess .] I wasn't excited about it at all.[Jess .] It was a first-year class of it ever being a thing.[Jess .] The teacher really had no idea what the hell he was doing.[Jess .] And it was pretty much just me and eight other people.[Jess .] The class was really small,[Jess .] fucking around with classical guitars,[Jess .] shitty classical guitars at that,[Jess .] and just kind of figuring it out on our own.[Jess .] And then that's when I realized,[Jess .] oh,[Jess .] my God,[Jess .] I want to do this forever.[Jess .] This is awesome.[Jess .] And I self-taught myself to play guitar.[Jess .] I would,[Jess .] like you,[Jess .] print out a whole bunch of tabs.[Jess .] I had a five-star binder filled with them with an index,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] little tabs of A,[Jess .] B,[Jess .] C,[Jess .] D or whatever.[Jess .] And I remember.[Jess .] One of the first songs I taught myself was like by the Misfits or something.[Jess .] And it was like three power chords and like,[Jess .] oh,[Jess .] my God,[Jess .] this is so hard.[Jess .] And it's like the easiest thing ever.[Jess .] But yeah,[Jess .] I just stumbled in into playing guitar,[Jess .] never took lessons.[Jess .] And then,[Jess .] when I played for a couple of years,[Jess .] I realized,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] oh,[Jess .] maybe I should take some lessons.[Jess .] And so I ended up taking lessons a few years into starting playing guitar.[Jess .] But I really struggled with that.[Jess .] And music theory was always really difficult.[Jess .] Even with playing piano,[Jess .] I really struggled with reading the actual music.[Jess .] Although I would love to be able to understand that— music theory doesn't seem to me.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] I try to get into that stuff a bit.[Chrissy Duffin] And it's still,[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know.[Chrissy Duffin] It's a bear to learn also.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] The advantages it gives you once you know all that stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm surprised you don't know more— or you do know more than you feel that scale would be.[Jess .] So I don't know.[Jess .] I feel like,[Jess .] for me and for a lot of people,[Jess .] like music theory,[Jess .] you just understand what makes sense and what doesn't.[Jess .] You have an ear for it,[Jess .] but you don't understand why it makes sense scientifically.[Jess .] You know,[Jess .] like on paper,[Jess .] you couldn't explain why some things sound good together.[Jess .] Whereas you just hear something and you're like, 'Oh,[Jess .] this sounds good.[Jess .] This doesn't.' I feel like I'm kind of the latter where I just know[Jess .] what sounds good and what doesn't.[Jess .] And I don't know why.[Jess .] I feel like a lot of people are the same way,[Jess .] but I'm awful at telling you what note something is on a guitar,[Jess .] on a piano.[Jess .] If you were to ask me questions like that,[Jess .] it would seem like I just started playing music yesterday and it's fine.[Chrissy Duffin] No,[Chrissy Duffin] that's crazy.[Chrissy Duffin] It can be considered just like giving it a vocabulary,[Chrissy Duffin] too.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] I would say it's like you can speak the language because of the[Chrissy Duffin] chords that you pick and things that work well,[Chrissy Duffin] but you just don't write the language like writing it down and explaining why.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] that's a good analogy.[Jess .] I feel exactly,[Jess .] that's exactly how it feels to me.[Eric Benites] It's like music illiterate.[Eric Benites] You know how to speak it.[Eric Benites] You know how to talk.[Eric Benites] You just don't know how to write.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] exactly.[Jess .] That's exactly what it is.[Jess .] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Well,[Chrissy Duffin] but you can still speak a lot more words than I can.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] I feel like I'm still working on that stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] Having a good ear for it and everything.[Jess .] It is what it is.[Jess .] Would I like to know more about music theory and why things make[Jess .] sense and and all of that?[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] sure.[Jess .] But my brain just doesn't want to.[Jess .] It like rejects it.[Jess .] It's like,[Jess .] no,[Jess .] you know what?[Jess .] I'm just going to I'm just going to play.[Jess .] And that might be very juvenile.[Jess .] But you know what?[Jess .] It is what it is.[Eric Benites] So and I think I think that's fine because.[Eric Benites] I've taken music theory classes.[Eric Benites] I did music theory classes in high school,[Eric Benites] did music theory classes in college,[Eric Benites] and I did enjoy it.[Eric Benites] I'll say that when I'm writing music,[Eric Benites] the music theory,[Eric Benites] it's more feel.[Eric Benites] And when writing music,[Eric Benites] it's like,[Eric Benites] does this feel right?[Eric Benites] And then...[Eric Benites] After I've like come up with like a couple riffs and then like[Eric Benites] you're starting to look at the arrangement,[Eric Benites] then I think towards the latter half of music writing,[Eric Benites] do I start looking into and analyzing like sort of.[Eric Benites] all right,[Eric Benites] do these notes fit together?[Eric Benites] Is this harmony and melody working together?[Eric Benites] But for the most part,[Eric Benites] I still think that if you have just a good feel of the music,[Eric Benites] that is still a good way to start and just a good way to write music anyway.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I completely agree with that.[Jess .] And so with that,[Jess .] I wanted to ask,[Jess .] how do both of you approach songwriting?[Jess .] What does that process look like for you?[Eric Benites] Crying,[Eric Benites] painful,[Eric Benites] just throwing stuff,[Eric Benites] throwing stuff away.[Eric Benites] Just a lot of self-doubt.[Eric Benites] So it really differs for me.[Eric Benites] Sometimes it's just a spur-of-the-moment thing where,[Eric Benites] like on our last album that we did,[Eric Benites] we had songs that we were,[Eric Benites] all right,[Eric Benites] let's get this riff,[Eric Benites] all right,[Eric Benites] get this riff,[Eric Benites] and then sort of puzzle stuff together.[Eric Benites] And then the last song that was written on the album,[Eric Benites] the song called Offering,[Eric Benites] out of nowhere,[Eric Benites] I just have this moment of creativity.[Eric Benites] It's like two in the morning on like a Wednesday,[Eric Benites] and I couldn't fall asleep.[Eric Benites] And then all of a sudden,[Eric Benites] I end up writing a song,[Eric Benites] just the whole last song of the album.[Eric Benites] And I show it to our singer Steve the next day.[Eric Benites] I was like, 'Hey,[Eric Benites] listen to this.' I wrote it.[Eric Benites] And he was like, 'This is going on the album.[Eric Benites] You just wrote a whole song last night.' I was like, 'Yeah.' So it's[Eric Benites] a weird thing where sometimes,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] you have to just force yourself,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] all right,[Eric Benites] I have to focus and then start doing this.[Eric Benites] I'm going to plan out riffing and whatever comes of it,[Eric Benites] I'm still going to save it.[Eric Benites] Maybe I can build up on some little pieces of it.[Eric Benites] I've learned to record everything when I'm now jamming,[Eric Benites] just in case I find like a little snippet.[Eric Benites] And then other times it's just pure spur of the moment type of thing[Eric Benites] where I just end up writing like a half of a song,[Eric Benites] a whole song in a couple hours.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] sometimes I feel like if you're not recording it,[Jess .] you'll have the best idea.[Jess .] And then immediately afterwards,[Jess .] you'll forget what you've played.[Jess .] And that's extremely infuriating because it won't come back.[Jess .] You'll really love whatever it is you play.[Eric Benites] It's lost.[Eric Benites] And yeah,[Eric Benites] and we always like joke that.[Eric Benites] Like you play a riff and then you forget it.[Eric Benites] And then what ends up happening with that riff that you lost,[Eric Benites] it now transfers its way to somebody else.[Eric Benites] And then somebody else like finds that riff and they're like, 'Oh,[Eric Benites] this is a cool riff.[Eric Benites] I'm going to record.'.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] Eric,[Jess .] do you primarily write all the stuff for Prosper?[Jess .] Or what does that look like collaboratively for all of you?[Eric Benites] I would say that,[Eric Benites] yes,[Eric Benites] I am the primary writer for Prosper.[Eric Benites] Not to say that...[Eric Benites] Everybody chips in.[Eric Benites] Everybody has their stuff.[Eric Benites] I know that when Chrissy first came in,[Eric Benites] it was just before the recording of our second album,[Eric Benites] and I was still doing most of the writing.[Eric Benites] But the third album,[Eric Benites] Chrissy's,[Eric Benites] was already the basis,[Eric Benites] took all her parts,[Eric Benites] recorded all of her parts.[Eric Benites] I know that because we were just practicing.[Eric Benites] A song from the second album he was on.[Eric Benites] And she's like, 'I don't remember how to play this.' Because I was[Eric Benites] the one that recorded the part.[Eric Benites] I was the one that wrote the part.[Eric Benites] And so I was looking back and listening to stuff this morning and[Eric Benites] doing some fun tabbing to try to get that.[Eric Benites] But yeah,[Eric Benites] we try to make it as collaborative as possible,[Eric Benites] especially with the writing of the riffs,[Eric Benites] the arranging of the riffs.[Eric Benites] We'll be sitting down in a room and I'll show a riff,[Eric Benites] and people will be like.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] how about you play this way,[Eric Benites] or maybe do this three times,[Eric Benites] and then end on this tag or change some tags up.[Eric Benites] So we try to make it as collaborative as possible.[Jess .] So Chrissy,[Jess .] what about you?[Jess .] What about your writing process?[Jess .] What does that look like?[Jess .] What do you like doing best?[Chrissy Duffin] So where I've been doing like most of the writing through the years[Chrissy Duffin] is secondary to other writing.[Chrissy Duffin] So I have that relief.[Chrissy Duffin] Where I don't have the pressure of coming up with straight riffs and melodies.[Chrissy Duffin] Over the years,[Chrissy Duffin] I've done like one solo-ish project where I was the guitarist and I had a drummer.[Chrissy Duffin] We made some songs in that sense.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't start like musically with a note or on the fretboard,[Chrissy Duffin] recognizing a note.[Chrissy Duffin] I just try to put my hand somewhere on the fretboard that it's not[Chrissy Duffin] usually hanging around.[Chrissy Duffin] Just to drive a different sound,[Chrissy Duffin] it might be the same notes,[Chrissy Duffin] just up on it,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] different string or octave or whatever,[Chrissy Duffin] but that would be my approach— just to kind of go in and kind of write something.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] A company-wise,[Chrissy Duffin] because of the crazy metal that we play,[Chrissy Duffin] like playing around with rock and roll is one thing.[Chrissy Duffin] I can probably just jam along.[Chrissy Duffin] You have a root note.[Chrissy Duffin] You can kind of walk a chord or something.[Chrissy Duffin] But with the metal,[Chrissy Duffin] I feel like I can kind of do that if we're riffing around on new music.[Chrissy Duffin] But it really comes together learning the riffs with the guitars or getting the tabs.[Chrissy Duffin] Being able to throw tabs together is a huge advantage to keeping[Chrissy Duffin] things straight and remembering exactly what everybody did.[Chrissy Duffin] So that's huge.[Chrissy Duffin] The more I learn through the years,[Chrissy Duffin] which I also have to give Eric tons of credit for teaching me[Chrissy Duffin] through a lot of that,[Chrissy Duffin] but to not just be playing the same exact notes as guitar or just a root note,[Chrissy Duffin] like I try to explore a little bit.[Chrissy Duffin] But I'm really just trying to like fill out the song and just see[Chrissy Duffin] what's groovy with it.[Chrissy Duffin] Yes,[Chrissy Duffin] even most recently,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm sure it's going to come up a few times because this whole[Chrissy Duffin] conversation is around music.[Chrissy Duffin] But I've been playing with Sayre more recently since like January[Chrissy Duffin] and getting to write the bass.[Chrissy Duffin] They have a whole new album already done.[Chrissy Duffin] They have something like 10 tracks.[Chrissy Duffin] All of their tracks are like eight-minute songs.[Chrissy Duffin] They're like the old school Metallica stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] But their songs like evolved.[Chrissy Duffin] So it's been really fun to write the riffs to that coming out of the[Chrissy Duffin] last Prosper or Perish writing system.[Chrissy Duffin] I feel like Shroud of Serpents totally elevated where I was playing or writing,[Chrissy Duffin] and now throwing it into a Sayer has been a blast.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm doing more notes than I would normally do,[Chrissy Duffin] or challenging myself to things where,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] I would have just resided to just kind of falling back previously.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm totally comfortable in that zone too.[Chrissy Duffin] Some musicians need to be a writer or a creator,[Chrissy Duffin] and that's like an important thing.[Chrissy Duffin] It's not really my drive.[Chrissy Duffin] My drive is more so hanging with others and making music together.[Chrissy Duffin] So yeah.[Jess .] And that's that's just as important.[Jess .] You know,[Jess .] the person who's giving the assist is just as important as the[Jess .] person scoring the goal.[Jess .] So definitely don't think that that is underappreciated at all.[Jess .] And I think that's really awesome that you are saying that,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] from your previous recording,[Jess .] you learned so much from that.[Jess .] And now you're able to take all of that into the new thing that[Jess .] you're working on and push yourself out of your comfort zone.[Jess .] And that's.[Jess .] That's really awesome because that's hard to do.[Jess .] It really is super hard to push yourself to be like, 'Oh,[Jess .] I'm going to challenge myself in this new way,' but also be able to[Jess .] save space for having fun with it and not being frustrated,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] in that growing,[Jess .] in the growing pains.[Jess .] You're embracing the growing pains.[Jess .] I think that's really important.[Jess .] But while you guys are writing songs and riffs,[Jess .] how do you know it's a good riff or like a good part of the song?[Jess .] Is there anything that goes on in your brain that's like, 'Okay,[Jess .] yeah,[Jess .] that's sticking.[Jess .] That's a sick part right there.[Eric Benites] A huge dose of serotonin.' Well,[Eric Benites] for me,[Eric Benites] it's hard to explain.[Eric Benites] It's just one of those,[Eric Benites] you know it when you feel it,[Eric Benites] type of thing.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] I would say that too.[Chrissy Duffin] The other thing that I've been doing a bit with the Asayer stuff,[Chrissy Duffin] and Prosper would do the same thing,[Chrissy Duffin] like along the Prosper writing process.[Chrissy Duffin] There's some live jamming and stuff,[Chrissy Duffin] but it's a lot of at the computer tracking it.[Chrissy Duffin] So we have it to a metronome and can add on and mess around and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] But I've been doing that a little bit with the assailant recording[Chrissy Duffin] bass and at least hearing the levels also,[Chrissy Duffin] like maybe I'm doing something cool,[Chrissy Duffin] but if it like drops from where the song was being.[Chrissy Duffin] being carried,[Chrissy Duffin] like adapting to that.[Chrissy Duffin] So I'm having like purposely recording it for an outside ear.[Chrissy Duffin] It's fun to play,[Chrissy Duffin] but does it actually help the song or is it just like,[Chrissy Duffin] cool,[Chrissy Duffin] that was over there for some reason.[Jess .] Right.[Jess .] Right.[Jess .] Does it compliment the song or is it just something that feels like[Jess .] it should be trying to fit into it?[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Whenever I'm listening to something,[Jess .] if it makes if it makes my face like scrunch up and do that like nasty riff,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] oh,[Jess .] yeah.[Jess .] Oh,[Jess .] yeah,[Jess .] that's sticking.[Jess .] That's a good one.[Jess .] So with songwriting,[Jess .] and I guess just like playing music in general,[Jess .] what are some of the biggest challenges that you both have faced[Jess .] with writing songs in a band setting?[Eric Benites] I would say just getting started,[Eric Benites] like getting,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] just getting started to write something is tough,[Eric Benites] but then also finding middle ground and like little common space about writing riffs.[Eric Benites] Cause when you,[Eric Benites] when you present a riff,[Eric Benites] it's like,[Eric Benites] this is my riff.[Eric Benites] And I think it's the most perfect little riff that ever existed.[Eric Benites] It's such a nice riff.[Eric Benites] And then you either hear people say, 'no,[Eric Benites] it needs to change' or 'it needs to something else' needs to happen.[Eric Benites] Or if it's not catching,[Eric Benites] then you have to just sort of be OK.[Eric Benites] All righty.[Eric Benites] But it's sort of like the being OK with the change,[Eric Benites] not not having a severe case of demo-itis.[Eric Benites] No,[Eric Benites] it sounded good as I recorded this and this is how it needs to sound forever.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] no,[Chrissy Duffin] I feel that.[Chrissy Duffin] If I'm really into something that I put down or put together,[Chrissy Duffin] like now I'm personally invested in it.[Chrissy Duffin] So if I show it to someone and they're like...[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] but what if you just didn't do that?[Chrissy Duffin] I would be like, 'Man,[Chrissy Duffin] all right,[Chrissy Duffin] try to like work something in between.' But we're pretty much all on[Chrissy Duffin] the same page anyway.[Chrissy Duffin] We're not like so out of the realm that it's not like,[Chrissy Duffin] what were you thinking?[Chrissy Duffin] There but we'll also try things out sometimes,[Chrissy Duffin] like this might be crazy even with HDH2,[Chrissy Duffin] like uh,[Chrissy Duffin] Marty,[Chrissy Duffin] our guitarist,[Chrissy Duffin] will often say, 'Just humor me,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] what if we?' And then he'll just like chop up the whole song.[Chrissy Duffin] What if we just did this?[Chrissy Duffin] But it's good to try it out.[Chrissy Duffin] It prospers the same way.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] try doing this on the drums,[Chrissy Duffin] or what if we did this,[Chrissy Duffin] or what if we did that?[Chrissy Duffin] And I think that's a good collaboration when it goes in that direction.[Chrissy Duffin] At least trying it,[Chrissy Duffin] just so everybody at least gave it the effort to make a decision.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I can.[Jess .] I can definitely understand that.[Jess .] And man,[Jess .] people like don't realize that being in a band is like being in a[Jess .] relationship with four or five other people.[Jess .] And oh,[Jess .] yeah.[Eric Benites] Oh,[Eric Benites] yeah.[Jess .] And sometimes it's really fucking hard.[Jess .] Other times it's just smooth like butter and everything works.[Jess .] But one of the biggest things about being in a band is just like[Jess .] being in the band with the right.[Jess .] People that you feel safe being able to come up with ideas and not[Jess .] feel silly and surround yourself with those people that are,[Jess .] like you know,[Jess .] that they are on the same page as you and you don't doubt that for a[Jess .] second and you're willing to hear their ideas and try it,[Jess .] even though you might be committed to whatever it is that you[Jess .] already have in mind.[Jess .] You trust them.[Jess .] And having trust in people that you have in your life in general,[Jess .] I feel like is such an important and crucial thing.[Jess .] Keeping those types of people in your life and especially in your[Jess .] close-knit band circle is so important because if you trust somebody[Jess .] and they're like, 'Okay,[Jess .] hear me out.[Jess .] Let's just try this.' You don't get defensive like you would if you[Jess .] like don't trust somebody.[Jess .] And it's just like such a black and white difference.[Jess .] You're like, 'OK,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] let's try it out.' And then we could talk about it like civilized humans.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] no,[Jess .] I don't want it that way,[Jess .] because sometimes that's how it is.[Jess .] And that,[Jess .] that's exhausting.[Eric Benites] One of my favorite instances of Let's Try It Out was on the last[Eric Benites] album was the song that we have called Wolves and Snakes.[Eric Benites] And so the intro was this tremolo riff.[Eric Benites] And I had this goofy idea that I was like, 'All right,[Eric Benites] let's just try this out.' And I was like,[Eric Benites] you know, 'Row,[Eric Benites] row,[Eric Benites] row your boat.' The round,[Eric Benites] how it starts off and then sort of like in the middle of it,[Eric Benites] it'll start from the beginning.[Eric Benites] And then there's like this harmony and then like it just does this round.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] the intro is essentially that.[Eric Benites] The main riff will play for a couple measures,[Eric Benites] and then the second guitar will then go back to the beginning of the[Eric Benites] riff while the first guitar is continuing on with the riff.[Eric Benites] And then it's just this nice little lullaby round that just goes on for the intro.[Eric Benites] And it sounds kick-ass.[Eric Benites] I don't know.[Eric Benites] It was a fun little experiment to put a lullaby in the middle of this song.[Eric Benites] That's awesome.[Jess .] That's so awesome.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] like when that type of stuff happens for you guys,[Jess .] let's just say in Prosper specifically,[Jess .] since you're both in the same band.[Jess .] How do you face those band disagreements and creative differences?[Jess .] What gets you through that?[Eric Benites] Essentially,[Eric Benites] at that point,[Eric Benites] it's like majority majority is if most of us think think it's kind of all right,[Eric Benites] then then it goes with it.[Eric Benites] But we try to make as much compromise to like appeal to everybody,[Eric Benites] like what everybody wants and what makes the best fit to make everybody happy.[Chrissy Duffin] With that too,[Chrissy Duffin] it's always a two-way street.[Chrissy Duffin] It's not like just one person making all these decisions or you know,[Chrissy Duffin] calling people if they need to do something different.[Chrissy Duffin] It goes both ways— like we'll suggest things to Armin on drums,[Chrissy Duffin] he'll suggest things to the guitars or bass.[Chrissy Duffin] From there,[Chrissy Duffin] I don't think anybody's had something So hung up on that.[Chrissy Duffin] It would cause attention.[Chrissy Duffin] Because at the same time,[Chrissy Duffin] it's like,[Chrissy Duffin] even if majority rules,[Chrissy Duffin] no one can just hate this part of the song,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] or start hating the song entirely.[Chrissy Duffin] But I don't think anything would get that extreme.[Chrissy Duffin] But that's also coming back to working with people that you trust.[Chrissy Duffin] Working with.[Chrissy Duffin] And there's crazy people all over the place.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know if all bands get the lucky experience to,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] make it pretty chill with each other.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know.[Chrissy Duffin] Everybody has their moments too.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm not going to act like.[Chrissy Duffin] It's all chill.[Chrissy Duffin] But we're all adults also at this point.[Chrissy Duffin] It might have been more crazy when you're still kids doing band[Chrissy Duffin] stuff or people that just never grow up.[Chrissy Duffin] But it is a lot of fun.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't want to say 'grow up' because I still like toys and video games.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't want to grow up either.[Chrissy Duffin] Well,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm an adult about talking to people.[Jess .] There's a difference between you could still be,[Jess .] quote unquote,[Jess .] grown up,[Jess .] but enjoy activities that most people would consider to be juvenile.[Jess .] OK.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Growing up mentally is a completely different story.[Jess .] Like emotional intelligence is completely necessary as an adult.[Jess .] That is in a completely different compartment than your likes,[Jess .] interests and whatever.[Jess .] So let's just set the record straight there.[Chrissy Duffin] I feel ironically,[Chrissy Duffin] even though I considered it growing up,[Chrissy Duffin] it's really the basics of being a little kid.[Chrissy Duffin] Like keep your hands to yourself and use your inside voice.[Chrissy Duffin] Like if you're freaking out,[Chrissy Duffin] that's not really growing up either.[Chrissy Duffin] That's just like the basics of being a human.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] So which a lot of people,[Jess .] as a full-blown grown up,[Jess .] really struggle with.[Jess .] So I'm very appreciative of the people in my life that don't do that.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] yeah.[Jess .] Yes,[Jess .] thanks.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] in your music writing process,[Jess .] who or what are your biggest influences?

[Jess .] So this is a two-part question:

first,[Jess .] who is your biggest influence,[Jess .] and then,[Jess .] also,[Jess .] has there ever been a time where you've had somebody compliment you[Jess .] or something like a compliment that you've received from someone[Jess .] that really encouraged you and inspired you and pushed you to like keep going?[Eric Benites] For me,[Eric Benites] I mean,[Eric Benites] my influences are pretty just the classics.[Eric Benites] Like I absolutely love Black Sabbath.[Eric Benites] I love Metallica,[Eric Benites] love Pink Floyd.[Eric Benites] So those will always,[Eric Benites] I think,[Eric Benites] are just going to always be my top three.[Eric Benites] They're never going to change.[Eric Benites] But I do love listening because I play guitar and I love solos.[Eric Benites] So I love Randy Rhodes and Zach Wild,[Eric Benites] Ozzy.[Eric Benites] I love Kirk Hammond.[Eric Benites] I love Dave Gilmour.[Eric Benites] I'm super excited to get to finally see Dave Gilmour live too.[Eric Benites] So that'll be fucking awesome.[Eric Benites] But then I love just— shreddy guitar,[Eric Benites] like listening to people like Paul Gilbert and Yngwie and all those[Eric Benites] things like that was awesome.[Eric Benites] And then eventually,[Eric Benites] when I started getting into like heavier music,[Eric Benites] listening to like bands like In Flames,[Eric Benites] then Lamb of God.[Eric Benites] And if it's good music,[Eric Benites] I like it.[Eric Benites] And then that's sort of where it now turns to.[Eric Benites] I listen to pretty much everything.[Eric Benites] I listen to jazz.[Eric Benites] I listen to EDM.[Eric Benites] I listen to pop music.[Eric Benites] I really like the news.[Eric Benites] Billie Eilish album,[Eric Benites] like that album is really,[Eric Benites] really good.[Eric Benites] Even like,[Eric Benites] what is it?[Eric Benites] There's a couple of weeks ago,[Eric Benites] I heard that one Sabrina Carpenter song.[Eric Benites] I forget how it goes,[Eric Benites] but it bops.[Eric Benites] It has like a good melody and it's pretty sweet.[Eric Benites] So a lot of my influences just come from everywhere and even some of[Eric Benites] the most unexpected places.[Eric Benites] I jokingly say that I write pop songs and rock songs and hide them as metal songs.[Eric Benites] Like you look at our songs,[Eric Benites] a lot of our songs are under five minutes.[Eric Benites] We don't try to do like the long drawn out songs.[Eric Benites] Nothing wrong with those; they're fun to write every once in a while.[Eric Benites] But I'm more of a fan of the intro verse,[Eric Benites] chorus verse,[Eric Benites] bridge,[Eric Benites] chorus,[Eric Benites] and then end it.[Eric Benites] Because that's said enough of a song.[Eric Benites] But just try to make it a little bit more interesting.[Eric Benites] As for...[Eric Benites] hearing compliments that like made me be giddy and stuff.[Eric Benites] It comes from so many people,[Eric Benites] like even like just after a show and just people saying like, 'good[Eric Benites] job,' people that are in the scene and saying, 'oh,[Eric Benites] that was an awesome set.' Like that makes me happy.[Eric Benites] Anytime I get a compliment from my cousin,[Eric Benites] because he is the one that essentially got me into playing guitar[Eric Benites] because he was a guitarist.[Eric Benites] He's only a couple of years older than me.[Eric Benites] And so I was just like, 'whoa.' You can like look this cool playing guitar.[Eric Benites] And so,[Eric Benites] anytime he throws me a compliment,[Eric Benites] like it always just makes me happy because I think of him as like up there as well,[Eric Benites] like on guitar.[Eric Benites] And so.[Eric Benites] He's not like super shreddy or anything,[Eric Benites] but he's just really,[Eric Benites] really goddamn good at guitar.[Eric Benites] I'm going to give him a little shout out.[Eric Benites] His band just released a new album.[Eric Benites] So if you want to grab it,[Eric Benites] Rockers Galore.[Eric Benites] They're awesome.[Eric Benites] They're fun.[Eric Benites] It's a nice mix of reggae and Latin music.[Eric Benites] It's real fun.[Jess .] That's awesome.[Jess .] I love that.[Jess .] If you're saying your cousin is super good at guitar,[Jess .] I mean,[Jess .] I can only imagine.[Jess .] Because for people who don't know Eric,[Jess .] Eric is one of the best guitar players I've ever met.[Jess .] Just saying.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] what about you?[Chrissy Duffin] So my influences,[Chrissy Duffin] I joke about this,[Chrissy Duffin] but I do mean it a little bit.[Chrissy Duffin] Like I already said,[Chrissy Duffin] the movie Airheads.[Chrissy Duffin] And uh,[Chrissy Duffin] the blues brothers you know,[Chrissy Duffin] classic,[Chrissy Duffin] but actually,[Chrissy Duffin] music-wise,[Chrissy Duffin] it's probably mostly metallica.[Chrissy Duffin] Once I caught on to them,[Chrissy Duffin] I was super invested,[Chrissy Duffin] watched all their DVD shows and stuff like that.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] like playing wise,[Chrissy Duffin] and even like with the metallica fandom,[Chrissy Duffin] like yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] I want to play like Cliff in a sense.[Chrissy Duffin] Beyond that,[Chrissy Duffin] compared to so many guitar players that I've talked with,[Chrissy Duffin] I didn't have direct influences into playing musician-wise.[Chrissy Duffin] I can list you the greats that I know of.[Chrissy Duffin] They're all great,[Chrissy Duffin] but I haven't tried to emulate them.[Chrissy Duffin] Which could be to my disadvantage.[Chrissy Duffin] I do feel like I stunted some of my growth musically.[Chrissy Duffin] I could play along with things to a bit with my ear,[Chrissy Duffin] but I never really sat down to work on much.[Chrissy Duffin] When I first started,[Chrissy Duffin] I did have a whole bunch of Metallica tabs.[Chrissy Duffin] I could probably play a riff or two of a whole bunch of songs.[Chrissy Duffin] But I never really stuck with them throughout.[Chrissy Duffin] Also,[Chrissy Duffin] as I say that,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm like,[Chrissy Duffin] maybe it's some ADD.[Chrissy Duffin] But I don't know.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] I never really stuck through to the end of the songs.[Chrissy Duffin] Or if they just hit a point of starting to get complex near a solo section,[Chrissy Duffin] maybe I just gave up from there.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know,[Chrissy Duffin] it's probably something that I would benefit from,[Chrissy Duffin] like actually playing along with people,[Chrissy Duffin] especially these days,[Chrissy Duffin] now that you can just watch people on YouTube break down songs and slow them down.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] it's ridiculous.[Chrissy Duffin] The resources are there.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] to that point,[Jess .] I was thinking about that earlier.[Jess .] That younger kids these days have such a big advantage over when we were growing up,[Jess .] because we didn't have all of these resources to utilize just at our fingertips,[Jess .] so accessibly.[Jess .] And I think that it's.[Jess .] So awesome,[Jess .] but I'm also low-key a little jealous that we didn't have that[Jess .] because it's so easy to invest in your hobby and learn it from such[Jess .] a young age with all of the resources that are just...[Jess .] so available.[Jess .] I just i know that we are all able to do that now as adults but um[Jess .] you don't have the same amount of time when you're a kid and you're just on board.[Jess .] I'm just gonna sit in my room and watch YouTube videos and do all this and get really,[Jess .] really good at this stuff.[Jess .] Like you can't really you don't really have the same amount of time[Jess .] as an adult to commit.[Jess .] So I wish I could just go back and be able to utilize YouTube and[Jess .] all of the stuff on the Internet.[Jess .] But,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] I digress.[Jess .] So,[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] what about has there ever been a compliment or something that you can think of,[Jess .] like a cool brag— even that has kind of stuck with you in your brain[Jess .] and you think about it and it kind of pushes you forward and motivates you?[Chrissy Duffin] I was going to say general compliments,[Chrissy Duffin] but when you said 'cool brag,' it definitely stuck out to me when we[Chrissy Duffin] played one of the side stages at Mayhem Fest a few years back.[Chrissy Duffin] Like people wanted us to sign things and take photos with us like we were a real band.[Jess .] That's incredible.[Jess .] You are a real band.[Jess .] Your band is so good.[Chrissy Duffin] It was super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] It was a lot of fun.[Chrissy Duffin] And we are super good.[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm just happy to be here.[Chrissy Duffin] It's hard for me to even say we're super good.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] Prosper is super good.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm happy to be here.[Chrissy Duffin] But we get a lot of compliments and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] It does carry more.[Chrissy Duffin] Like there is good set amongst each other,[Chrissy Duffin] just going back and forth.[Chrissy Duffin] You would say hello nicely anyway,[Chrissy Duffin] but some people— I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] I've caught Eric getting dope compliments,[Chrissy Duffin] like re-inspiring guitar players to get back to it.[Chrissy Duffin] Like on more than one occasion.[Chrissy Duffin] I remember Joe was one.[Chrissy Duffin] I can't think of who else— just said, 'Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] I haven't really been playing guitar,[Chrissy Duffin] but since I've been seeing you play these riffs,[Chrissy Duffin] like I'm going to start getting into it.[Chrissy Duffin] Like that's killer.[Chrissy Duffin] I've had a lot of,[Chrissy Duffin] I want to say a lot of chicks come up to me and think it's super[Chrissy Duffin] cool to see a chick rocking out on stage.[Jess .] Yes.[Jess .] Those are the best ones.[Jess .] Those really are the best ones.[Jess .] When you have like a young,[Jess .] a young little girl coming up to you and they're like, 'Oh my gosh,[Jess .] I wish I could be like you.' And you're like, 'You literally can.'[Jess .] And it feels so good.[Jess .] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] It's super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] It's one of those things like.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know,[Chrissy Duffin] representation is such a huge topic that I don't really get into it[Chrissy Duffin] all because I personally don't have the brain capacity to go after anything like that.[Chrissy Duffin] But it was never like my intention or my desire.[Chrissy Duffin] It was never like, 'I wish I saw more chicks in the metal scene.'[Chrissy Duffin] Like it never occurred to me.[Chrissy Duffin] I just think.[Chrissy Duffin] People rocking out or people rocking out,[Chrissy Duffin] but having chicks come up to me and like—kids,[Chrissy Duffin] like you said,[Chrissy Duffin] like when they think it's really,[Chrissy Duffin] honestly cool to just see that,[Chrissy Duffin] oh my god,[Chrissy Duffin] it's super cool.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] it's something you don't really think about until it happens.[Jess .] And then,[Jess .] like you just said,[Jess .] it is really cool to know that you could potentially be inspiring[Jess .] somebody to start picking up an instrument,[Jess .] you know?[Chrissy Duffin] I would even say,[Chrissy Duffin] because honestly,[Chrissy Duffin] now that I think about it,[Chrissy Duffin] like what kicks in,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of people just in general are like,[Chrissy Duffin] there's like the metalhead crowd,[Chrissy Duffin] right?[Chrissy Duffin] We're usually pretty open about being metalheads.[Chrissy Duffin] But there's another line of people that kind of live a more normal life,[Chrissy Duffin] but they do like the heavy.[Chrissy Duffin] And like getting to see it,[Chrissy Duffin] I guess seeing a girl do it kind of changes that perspective a little bit.[Chrissy Duffin] I've even had my own cousin mention something like she wishes she[Chrissy Duffin] liked wore boots on her wedding day or something.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm like,[Chrissy Duffin] you can do whatever you want to do.[Jess .] That is that's that's honestly the best advice that I think anybody[Jess .] needs to hear is if you want to do something,[Jess .] just do it.[Jess .] You have free will.[Jess .] If I think that as being an adult to going back to,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] being a grown up,[Jess .] I think one of the best and most liberating things about being a[Jess .] grown up is realizing coming to that realization that you don't have[Jess .] to be like everybody else.[Jess .] You can follow your passions and you can put yourself in alignment[Jess .] with things that actually fit where your heart is at.[Jess .] And you can do things like wear sneakers on your wedding day or not[Jess .] even have a wedding day.[Jess .] If you don't want to be married,[Jess .] you don't have to follow society.[Jess .] You don't have to have children.[Jess .] If you don't want children,[Jess .] there are so many things that go against the grain that people are[Jess .] so scared to not do because society is so much of an impact on where[Jess .] your stance is or what you're supposed to do.[Jess .] And once you just let that go and just do what you want to do,[Jess .] oh my God,[Jess .] it makes life so much better.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it's that counterculture.[Chrissy Duffin] A little bit,[Chrissy Duffin] even if you're not trying to be like— you could just be into it.[Chrissy Duffin] You're not trying to make a statement,[Chrissy Duffin] but in the end of the day,[Chrissy Duffin] yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it's counterculture.[Chrissy Duffin] It's it's not the norm.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it scares normal people,[Chrissy Duffin] but also a lot of normal people are totally cool once they know it's[Chrissy Duffin] not like an actual threat.[Chrissy Duffin] Like we're not a crazy,[Chrissy Duffin] violent motorcycle gang or something like we're just rock and rollers,[Chrissy Duffin] like we love kittens.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Jess .] Um.[Jess .] I think it's super important to give other people,[Jess .] men and women alike,[Jess .] all sorts of people,[Jess .] just an example of doing what you love and not having any apology for it.[Jess .] And that's really awesome.[Chrissy Duffin] And it can still be cool.[Chrissy Duffin] It doesn't have to be an issue.[Chrissy Duffin] It's just like,[Chrissy Duffin] okay.[Chrissy Duffin] You like honey mustard?[Chrissy Duffin] I like barbecue.[Chrissy Duffin] What's up?[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Sometimes I like mixing them together.[Jess .] What about it?[Jess .] I love all the sauce.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] exactly.[Jess .] The best sauce ever.[Jess .] Mm hmm.[Jess .] That's that's got to be a good life analogy,[Jess .] right?[Jess .] You know,[Jess .] you mix honey,[Jess .] mustard and barbecue and then you get the best sauce.[Jess .] Chick-fil-A sauce,[Jess .] which is,[Jess .] it is the best sauce.[Jess .] No contest.[Jess .] So how has music and being involved in music fostered connection and[Jess .] helped develop genuine friendships?[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] first of all,[Jess .] before you even answer that,[Jess .] I want to answer it and say that music has brought me to the both of you.[Jess .] And I am just so grateful for having the both of you in my life[Jess .] every single fucking day.[Jess .] You too.[Jess .] I'm going to give you the biggest shout out right here.[Jess .] Okay.[Jess .] And it's going to sound.[Jess .] Super cheesy,[Jess .] but like I am so grateful for the both of you.[Jess .] You are both super supportive and encouraging,[Jess .] and you are two of the people when I was talking about having people in your life.[Jess .] Surrounding yourself with people that you trust and you value their opinion.[Jess .] You know that even if they're like, 'Oh,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] I don't really like that.' Try something different.[Jess .] You don't take it personally because you know that those people have[Jess .] your best interest at heart.[Jess .] Like you two are just the definition of that.[Jess .] And I feel like for the first time I met both of you,[Jess .] it was like instantly I was like, 'Oh,[Jess .] my gosh,[Jess .] I want these people in my life.' These are great people.[Jess .] And I literally can't say enough good things about the both of you.[Jess .] And if it weren't for music,[Jess .] I wouldn't have the both of you in my life.[Jess .] So thank you to music.[Jess .] And thank you for the both of you for being in my life.[Jess .] With that being said,[Jess .] I'd like to hear.[Jess .] I'd like to hear your stories of how music has given you friendships[Jess .] and core memories and all of that.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] no,[Chrissy Duffin] totally.[Chrissy Duffin] Same.[Chrissy Duffin] Also,[Chrissy Duffin] obviously,[Chrissy Duffin] for the record.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] all the friendships that can come out of it.[Chrissy Duffin] And the sense of community that kind of comes out of it.[Chrissy Duffin] There's so many cool communities that do all this music.[Chrissy Duffin] And saying that,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] getting into it kind of outside of high school,[Chrissy Duffin] so still being a kid when you graduate high school,[Chrissy Duffin] like 18,[Chrissy Duffin] 19,[Chrissy Duffin] I guess,[Chrissy Duffin] kind of coming into adulthood also,[Chrissy Duffin] I guess.[Chrissy Duffin] A lot of people,[Chrissy Duffin] the cool people within the counterculture community,[Chrissy Duffin] are just happy to be there.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] happy to have friends,[Chrissy Duffin] happy to have people in the same kind of mindset,[Chrissy Duffin] and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I would say it's similar to going out to mag fest,[Chrissy Duffin] even though it's all kinds of music in video games.[Chrissy Duffin] Whole lot of metalheads and pretty much everybody out there— you're[Chrissy Duffin] at a convention with 10,[Chrissy Duffin] 000 people.[Chrissy Duffin] You could turn around to anybody and be like, 'So what are you[Chrissy Duffin] listening to this week or 'What's your favorite band or 'What do you[Chrissy Duffin] play or 'Like.' Everybody just already has a connection.[Chrissy Duffin] And to me,[Chrissy Duffin] what drew me into the community in general,[Chrissy Duffin] just the scene and people playing in bands,[Chrissy Duffin] was their own passion for it.[Chrissy Duffin] And I think that it's more so in heavier music,[Chrissy Duffin] just because it seems more strong emotionally.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know.[Chrissy Duffin] It's hard to gauge on that sense.[Chrissy Duffin] But to my own perspective,[Chrissy Duffin] if you're singing an amazing pop song with all your heart,[Chrissy Duffin] it'll make me cry also.[Chrissy Duffin] But going to metal shows,[Chrissy Duffin] you have people on stage actually screaming and people just playing so hard,[Chrissy Duffin] sweating,[Chrissy Duffin] jumping,[Chrissy Duffin] headbanging,[Chrissy Duffin] even the crowd having mosh pits and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] Just being shoulder to shoulder with people is super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] But I also don't like big crowds.[Chrissy Duffin] It's also why I like local shows.[Chrissy Duffin] So it's kind of contained to a certain amount of people.[Jess .] Right.[Jess .] It's the best of both worlds.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] But then,[Chrissy Duffin] building your relationships from there during set changeovers.[Chrissy Duffin] People tend to go outside and get some air,[Chrissy Duffin] have smoke breaks or whatever.[Chrissy Duffin] You start talking with people,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] friends of friends,[Chrissy Duffin] you get introductions and stuff like that.[Chrissy Duffin] And then,[Chrissy Duffin] also,[Chrissy Duffin] from that,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of times people going to shows are also in bands.[Chrissy Duffin] So you'll start booking each other's bands.[Chrissy Duffin] So when I think way back to it,[Chrissy Duffin] one of my oldest friends still hanging out to this day is Dave Scruffo.[Chrissy Duffin] Back when I was in Sight of Asriel,[Chrissy Duffin] we were playing with barbarism and a couple other bands from that time,[Chrissy Duffin] and they're still in bands to these days.[Chrissy Duffin] I remember the Blessed guys from back then,[Chrissy Duffin] and now like Scott's playing with Brosh Giant.[Chrissy Duffin] Everyone kind of comes in and out of bands too,[Chrissy Duffin] being friends and stuff like that.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] even up to like,[Chrissy Duffin] I would say one of my most recent friendships.[Chrissy Duffin] Like meeting up with you,[Chrissy Duffin] Jess,[Chrissy Duffin] like saw you out in a few shows.[Chrissy Duffin] I also like that,[Chrissy Duffin] within the different music scenes,[Chrissy Duffin] Billy also flourishes with music scenes and New Jersey.[Chrissy Duffin] That's something that I don't know how the rest of the country looks on a scale,[Chrissy Duffin] but the population is here to host something like that,[Chrissy Duffin] having venues,[Chrissy Duffin] having house shows.[Chrissy Duffin] There are so many different scenes.[Chrissy Duffin] Even sub-genres of metal.[Chrissy Duffin] But liking,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] knowing Eric to know the Sunburster dudes,[Chrissy Duffin] be it he fills in or whatever,[Chrissy Duffin] gets me out to a Sunburster show.[Chrissy Duffin] And then going with Sunburster was other Alex bands.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] getting into all these cool bands,[Chrissy Duffin] going out to each other's friends' shows,[Chrissy Duffin] and that also got me,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] hanging out with you a few times,[Chrissy Duffin] and then you came out to MAGFest.[Chrissy Duffin] I was like,[Chrissy Duffin] this shit rules![Chrissy Duffin] You were already super cool,[Chrissy Duffin] but then I got to know you.[Chrissy Duffin] I was like,[Chrissy Duffin] yes.[Chrissy Duffin] And even that's super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] I think we have a super cool friendship and you're so outgoing that,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] we have hung out a few times now,[Chrissy Duffin] even without the mutual friends being out at a show or Eric hanging out with us.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] you just come out with me and Jay.[Chrissy Duffin] It's awesome.[Chrissy Duffin] That's how it should be.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] And I feel,[Chrissy Duffin] even,[Chrissy Duffin] like the band's honestly saying Prosper at this point has Jordan Bishop in the band.[Chrissy Duffin] He's from a Sayre.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm playing with a Sayre.[Chrissy Duffin] Eric's kind of playing with the Sayre,[Chrissy Duffin] but has a busy schedule.[Chrissy Duffin] Jordan's played with Prosper over a dozen times before even this point.[Chrissy Duffin] He's filled in on guitar over the years.[Chrissy Duffin] He filled in on vocals a couple times.[Chrissy Duffin] We went on a little mini tour down to Virginia,[Chrissy Duffin] so we all became best of friends.[Chrissy Duffin] Just people coming in and out of bands.[Chrissy Duffin] Everybody knows each other.[Chrissy Duffin] Everybody makes,[Chrissy Duffin] I think,[Chrissy Duffin] lifelong friends if everyone stays in touch or keeps at it one way or another.[Chrissy Duffin] It's a lot of fun.[Chrissy Duffin] Some people you only see at shows.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] like you have— you develop these different levels of friendship[Jess .] within the community.[Jess .] And some people you just have a relationship with them.[Jess .] You just see them out and about and then that's great.[Jess .] And then some people are like us three where we see each other very frequently.[Jess .] And it's awesome.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Eric,[Jess .] do you have anything to add to that?[Eric Benites] I think Chrissy gave the best answer that she could have given for that.[Eric Benites] But no,[Eric Benites] I mean,[Eric Benites] it's true.[Eric Benites] Just the fostering a community and just lifelong friendships with music.[Eric Benites] I mean,[Eric Benites] our friend Alex.[Eric Benites] Alex Cheska is from Thumb Barrister and World Below and stuff.[Eric Benites] So he also,[Eric Benites] Chrissy,[Eric Benites] if you didn't know,[Eric Benites] he also is from the neighborhood.[Eric Benites] He lived on Sylvester Street.[Eric Benites] He wasn't that far from us either.[Jess .] And everybody's attached by invisible strings.[Jess .] I'm convinced everybody's attached by invisible strings.[Eric Benites] And so he was a couple of years older than me at Northeast High School.[Eric Benites] And we never hung out when we were in high school.[Eric Benites] I think he was in 11th grade when I was a freshman or whatever.[Eric Benites] But the first band that I was in after high school was a band called Nothing Graceful.[Eric Benites] And the singer of that band was really good friends with Alex.[Eric Benites] And so I would hang out with Alex occasionally,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] and like,[Eric Benites] I was friendly with him,[Eric Benites] but not like.[Eric Benites] Friends,[Eric Benites] but we would hang out every once in a while and then I remember one[Eric Benites] day I hit him up on like AIM or something like that or on Facebook[Eric Benites] messages and um I was like 'Yo man,[Eric Benites] do you want to just like come over to my my basement and just like[Eric Benites] jam out' and so he came over and like we jammed out and then from[Eric Benites] like that point on like it turned into like a friendship where like[Eric Benites] we would like hang with each other maybe like once every quarter of the year.[Eric Benites] And then a couple of times each quarter and then started going to concerts.[Eric Benites] And we went to MAGFest and became one of my best friends.[Eric Benites] And it all started from just being in a band,[Eric Benites] having a singer that knew him.[Eric Benites] Asking him to come over to jam out.[Eric Benites] Like it all started from music.[Eric Benites] And I have like one of my best friends from that.[Jess .] Alex is a good boy.[Eric Benites] He is the best boy.[Jess .] If it weren't for music,[Jess .] I wouldn't have known Alex either.[Jess .] Alex and I know each other because of Centerfuse.[Jess .] I don't think either of you were on Centerfuse,[Jess .] but it's.[Jess .] It was a Philadelphia-based message board where I have met so many[Jess .] of my lifelong friends because of that message board.[Jess .] But it was very,[Jess .] very music-based.[Jess .] And so Alex and I became friends because of a music message board.[Jess .] And he's one of my longest friends.[Jess .] Shout out to Centerfuse.[Jess .] So moving on in your day-to-day.[Jess .] How would you say music has impacted your day-to-day,[Jess .] your daily routine?[Jess .] How has that also impacted your well-being mentally,[Jess .] like your mental health?[Jess .] How has music helped with that?[Eric Benites] I know that I would not be,[Eric Benites] well,[Eric Benites] sorry,[Eric Benites] I shouldn't say that I would not be able to,[Eric Benites] I'd still get my job done and like,[Eric Benites] I'd be able to do what I need to at work.[Eric Benites] But holy fuck,[Eric Benites] would it be so boring not having music in the background,[Eric Benites] just being able to listen to something while doing work?[Eric Benites] It definitely helps the day go by.[Jess .] What about playing music?[Jess .] How has that impacted you mentally?[Jess .] Do you write music when you're feeling upset or something and does[Jess .] it help you get through feelings or anything?[Jess .] Or does it help you like if you're angry,[Jess .] do you turn to your guitar and start writing shit,[Jess .] or just play music like how does it affect you?[Eric Benites] It's definitely a decompressor for me.[Eric Benites] Like at the end of like a workday,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] there are times where like,[Eric Benites] I just want to just play guitar and just get locked in into like[Eric Benites] some notes and noodling.[Eric Benites] There are other times where I know that like,[Eric Benites] I just want to play guitar.[Eric Benites] I know that playing guitar is just going to give me this boost of[Eric Benites] serotonin where like,[Eric Benites] I know that I'm just going to get my fix of being happy playing music.[Eric Benites] And so that's sort of when I do gravitate to if it's just been a[Eric Benites] hard day and I just want to relax and I'll just put on like a clean[Eric Benites] channel with a delay and I'll just noodle around and play a pretend Pink Floyd solo.[Eric Benites] That sort of gets me level set.[Jess .] Percy,[Jess .] what about you?[Chrissy Duffin] They did stand out to me.[Chrissy Duffin] At one point,[Chrissy Duffin] years back,[Chrissy Duffin] a friend,[Chrissy Duffin] whatever the situation was,[Chrissy Duffin] they were like, 'Ah,[Chrissy Duffin] just like put your feelings into the song and be like mad about[Chrissy Duffin] something right now.' And like me personally,[Chrissy Duffin] I didn't like that idea because,[Chrissy Duffin] unless I'm throwing that song out—like,[Chrissy Duffin] if it's just to expel it and then trash it— that's one thing.[Chrissy Duffin] But to like put bad feelings into a song that you're just going to[Chrissy Duffin] revisit constantly in a band to perform.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know.[Chrissy Duffin] To me,[Chrissy Duffin] that's like keeping the bad feelings hanging instead of getting rid of.[Jess .] That's a really interesting way of looking at it that I've never[Jess .] really thought of before.[Jess .] Because,[Jess .] for me,[Jess .] when I am writing,[Jess .] this is why I like writing pop punk so much— is because with the[Jess .] music comes the lyrics.[Jess .] And for me,[Jess .] writing lyrics are super cathartic.[Jess .] Just that experience is like putting it all on paper and,[Jess .] whatever I'm feeling,[Jess .] I'm able to just kind of get it out there and express that in a song.[Jess .] I've never really thought about that.[Jess .] But now that you say that,[Jess .] I kind of think about songs that I've written in the past and I[Jess .] wouldn't want to like revisit them and sing them now because they[Jess .] would have such a different,[Jess .] they would bring up like different emotions that I think I just don't feel anymore.[Jess .] But in the moment,[Jess .] like when those things happened.[Jess .] It was so helpful for me to be able to use that to process what I[Jess .] was going through or,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] whatever I was feeling at the time.[Jess .] But that's a really interesting perspective of looking at it that[Jess .] way that I never really thought of.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] and I think your approach is the more common one for musicians to[Chrissy Duffin] kind of get their feelings out— half of the point of it,[Chrissy Duffin] even when you brought up lyrically.[Chrissy Duffin] So any music creation that I've talked about so far,[Chrissy Duffin] lyric has not been my strong point.

[Chrissy Duffin] I always start out with my name:

Chrissy,[Chrissy Duffin] and I'm here to say,[Chrissy Duffin] that's it.[Chrissy Duffin] That's amazing.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] when you say the lyrically,[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] Steve's really good with lyrics and he's good at making things[Chrissy Duffin] general enough that you can listen through different perspectives[Chrissy Duffin] and everyone can relate in their own way,[Chrissy Duffin] which is just a wordsmith on his own.[Chrissy Duffin] But he has some heavy lyrics about heavy content that I'm like, 'Oh my God,[Chrissy Duffin] I don't know how I would get through it all the time,' which is an[Chrissy Duffin] offering if you guys want to go look up those lyrics.[Chrissy Duffin] Which is the song that Eric wrote last minute,[Chrissy Duffin] just came to him.[Chrissy Duffin] So it was meant to be.[Chrissy Duffin] And Armin also really relates to that song heavy.[Chrissy Duffin] Maybe that is,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] for better or worse,[Chrissy Duffin] whenever I talk about like my own ways of going about things,[Chrissy Duffin] I usually throw in,[Chrissy Duffin] for better or worse,[Chrissy Duffin] whatever works for everyone,[Chrissy Duffin] obviously.[Chrissy Duffin] Maybe it is healthier to get it out.[Chrissy Duffin] Maybe I'm doing it unhealthy by,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] not even addressing it,[Chrissy Duffin] just stuffing it down and ignoring it.[Chrissy Duffin] But I did want to say playing live,[Chrissy Duffin] that counts also just practicing,[Chrissy Duffin] because I do like to put my effort in when practicing.[Chrissy Duffin] We practiced last night with Prosper and I was raging pretty hard.[Chrissy Duffin] That physical exertion is also like exercising and also kicks in[Chrissy Duffin] like happy brain drugs.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it's a release.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] So that,[Chrissy Duffin] to me,[Chrissy Duffin] that's my favorite thing to do in the world.[Chrissy Duffin] I just feel amazing when I'm rocking out like that.[Chrissy Duffin] And that's definitely a good positive thing.[Chrissy Duffin] But even if I am thinking of some bullshit I'm working out in my head,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm getting it out by physically raging around like it's not.[Chrissy Duffin] Noodling or riffing around is just not my thing creatively,[Chrissy Duffin] but I still definitely feel the emotions as I rock out.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] that makes a lot of sense.[Eric Benites] Definitely want to piggyback on that too,[Eric Benites] Chrissy,[Eric Benites] about just the idea of playing shows.[Eric Benites] If there's something that I love to do more than anything else,[Eric Benites] it is the playing of performing in front of people.[Eric Benites] Like that right there is just sort of where I can feel.[Eric Benites] The most of everything like everything is elevated— or just the the[Eric Benites] happiest that I can be,[Eric Benites] the most energetic that I can be,[Eric Benites] all of my settings are like dialed up to 10 at that point,[Eric Benites] and like that is peak me in my head,[Eric Benites] and so the amount of good feeling and feeling great is when playing and performing live.[Eric Benites] There's just there's something about it where the release,[Eric Benites] the energy,[Eric Benites] everything,[Eric Benites] feeding off the energy that you're feeling from the crowd,[Eric Benites] all that stuff.[Eric Benites] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] I was going to say earlier with the community and kind of the counterculture,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of people have similar interests already and stuff like that.[Chrissy Duffin] I was even going to say,[Chrissy Duffin] at that point,[Chrissy Duffin] there is an emotional sense to it,[Chrissy Duffin] whether people want to talk about it or not,[Chrissy Duffin] or just be a bunch of tough guys or whatever.[Chrissy Duffin] When they're going out,[Chrissy Duffin] feeling that,[Chrissy Duffin] the way we're talking about what we feel playing it,[Chrissy Duffin] it's usually what people are feeling in the crowd.[Chrissy Duffin] There's people just hanging around doing whatever,[Chrissy Duffin] but the people into it.[Chrissy Duffin] Either are paying attention musically or vibing out with it or feeling that rage.[Chrissy Duffin] Same thing if I'm watching a band on stage,[Chrissy Duffin] you know,[Chrissy Duffin] I want to see them perform well and do their thing.[Chrissy Duffin] But that's the passion thing.[Chrissy Duffin] Like if you can tell someone's passionate about it.[Chrissy Duffin] I think we just naturally feel it as a group,[Chrissy Duffin] just kind of primal in a sense,[Chrissy Duffin] which also only talking about it now,[Chrissy Duffin] I've never considered— even if it's just a couple of us jamming in the practice space.[Chrissy Duffin] Everybody else is kind of working out their day in their head while[Chrissy Duffin] they're trying to remember rips and play along.[Chrissy Duffin] We're all kind of in the same boat.[Chrissy Duffin] I guess.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I completely agree.[Jess .] And and You know,[Jess .] everybody handles it differently.[Jess .] Like,[Jess .] everybody uses their passions in different ways,[Jess .] and it doesn't matter what that looks like to you— as long as it's working.[Jess .] So before we get into some fun random questions,[Jess .] I want to ask the both of you,[Jess .] for anybody who may be listening,[Jess .] what is some practical advice that you could give to aspiring musicians,[Jess .] people trying to get started or thinking about wanting to pick up an instrument?[Jess .] Tips on...[Jess .] songwriting,[Jess .] practicing,[Jess .] finding your own style,[Jess .] whatever it is,[Jess .] I want to hear it.[Eric Benites] Don't be down on yourself if you don't get something.[Eric Benites] If you're practicing something and like it doesn't connect or you're[Eric Benites] not hitting the right notes or your finger flubs and like you don't[Eric Benites] have the right dexterity just yet,[Eric Benites] just stick with it.[Eric Benites] That's all.[Eric Benites] It really is just a matter of sticking with it.[Eric Benites] Going slow.[Eric Benites] If the tempo is too fast,[Eric Benites] bring it down like 20 BPMs.[Eric Benites] You'll get there.[Eric Benites] Slowly increase the BPMs,[Eric Benites] all that fun stuff.[Eric Benites] It sucks at first.[Eric Benites] It really does suck at first.[Eric Benites] And even now,[Eric Benites] when you're trying to learn,[Eric Benites] I try to learn like pretty difficult stuff just to sort of keep my chops up and stuff.[Eric Benites] And learning new songs like some of these,[Eric Benites] because I'm jamming with Asears,[Eric Benites] learning some of these Asears songs fucking suck.[Eric Benites] There's this one riff.[Eric Benites] It just has these like really,[Eric Benites] really quick chucks.[Eric Benites] And my hand's not that fast yet.[Eric Benites] Like I have to,[Eric Benites] I have to like work my way up to it.[Eric Benites] I'm not like this dude's right hand is a machine.[Eric Benites] And like,[Eric Benites] I'm,[Eric Benites] I'm not there.[Eric Benites] I am not there.[Eric Benites] And there's a lot of,[Eric Benites] there's a lot of different ways to do.[Eric Benites] What you want to do.[Eric Benites] I can play solos,[Eric Benites] but I'm not the best picking.[Eric Benites] So a lot of my technique is legato and economy picking.[Eric Benites] I'm not going to pick every single note.[Eric Benites] And that's okay,[Eric Benites] because playing most of the notes and getting it to sound good is still good enough.[Eric Benites] If it sounds good,[Eric Benites] then it doesn't have to be completely perfect.[Eric Benites] And plus,[Eric Benites] at that point,[Eric Benites] you're then adding your own little flair to it.[Eric Benites] Like it's now turning into your own style.[Eric Benites] You're not trying to emulate and try to do exactly as somebody else did.[Eric Benites] You now put your own little effort into it and flair,[Eric Benites] and your own little bends,[Eric Benites] and your vibratos,[Eric Benites] and all that stuff.[Eric Benites] That's all.[Eric Benites] It's really just a matter of sticking with it.[Eric Benites] It sucks.[Eric Benites] But it's also very,[Eric Benites] very satisfying when everything works as well.[Jess .] You make a lot of good points.[Jess .] And the first— the first thing you said about sticking with it and,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] if your finger flubs and,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] the the BPM and blah,[Jess .] blah,[Jess .] blah.[Jess .] I felt like you were talking directly to me because we went to see[Jess .] Testament the other day and.[Jess .] Since then,[Jess .] I've just been Alex Skolnick.[Jess .] Has always been my favorite,[Jess .] but just after seeing him,[Jess .] reignited my love for him.[Jess .] So now I've just been binge watching Alex Skolnick videos.[Jess .] And I was like, 'Oh,[Jess .] I'm gonna put on some of his like tutorial videos.' And he's going through whatever.[Jess .] And exactly what you said,[Jess .] Eric,[Jess .] about like, 'Oh,[Jess .] if your fingers are flubbing or if it's too fast.' And I'm like, 'Yeah,[Jess .] it's too fucking fast.' I'm trying to play with Alex Skolnick.[Jess .] I can't do that.[Jess .] It's OK.[Jess .] Just keep going.[Jess .] And if you have to do it at like 50 BPM,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] it is what it is.[Jess .] Just keep going.[Jess .] Christy,[Jess .] what's your advice?[Chrissy Duffin] I too struggle with practicing and the frustration.[Chrissy Duffin] I wish I got everything immediately.[Chrissy Duffin] Seeing other people go through it has helped ease my,[Chrissy Duffin] it's not just me.[Chrissy Duffin] Same.[Chrissy Duffin] Especially people good at guitar like Eric or Jordan and Asayer.[Chrissy Duffin] Anybody who has to work on it,[Chrissy Duffin] it's like,[Chrissy Duffin] okay,[Chrissy Duffin] it's something everybody has to work on.[Chrissy Duffin] Trying to practice on certain riffs or things that I'm struggling with,[Chrissy Duffin] I kind of had to reshape my thinking instead of sitting down until I[Chrissy Duffin] can nail it or something.[Chrissy Duffin] Re-shape that to like just play it 10 times and don't complain until[Chrissy Duffin] I played it 10 times and if it takes me 30 minutes or if I have to[Chrissy Duffin] go get a snack and come back just play it 10 times.[Chrissy Duffin] Because the 11th time will be easier than the first time.[Chrissy Duffin] It really is that repetition.[Chrissy Duffin] So maybe just like setting yourself some bite-sized goals on trying[Chrissy Duffin] to get through that stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] That's just playing in general.[Chrissy Duffin] But if you're trying to play with other people,[Chrissy Duffin] also working out with those other people what they all have in mind.[Chrissy Duffin] And I think that reflects kind of what helps your band just work[Chrissy Duffin] cohesively and not against each other because of just misunderstandings.[Chrissy Duffin] If one person wants to play shows and one person wants to go to the studio,[Chrissy Duffin] we need to figure out when we're doing each thing,[Chrissy Duffin] how prepared everybody's going to be.[Chrissy Duffin] Getting together and just jamming and practicing is usually one[Chrissy Duffin] thing compared to an actual rehearsal for shows.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] everybody should have practiced at home kind of a thing.[Chrissy Duffin] But then,[Chrissy Duffin] working together,[Chrissy Duffin] and I'm saying this because we're starting with,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] if you're new to this concept,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] if you wanted to get into it,[Chrissy Duffin] hopefully people more established are already kind of worked through[Chrissy Duffin] these kinks or might help them identify.[Jess .] You would think,[Jess .] but not everybody considers.[Jess .] Band practice is a place where you collectively practice on your own,[Jess .] and then you rehearse yeah yeah and seeing people like meet up even[Jess .] like Eric and Jordan just kind of getting together on guitars to[Jess .] work out some of those kinks.[Chrissy Duffin] So,[Chrissy Duffin] by the time we go jam with Armin,[Chrissy Duffin] like we're not flubbing through with him playing live,[Chrissy Duffin] like we're already consistent at that point.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] just being on the same page with that stuff,[Chrissy Duffin] because that comes into everything,[Chrissy Duffin] like you said,[Chrissy Duffin] bands are relationships.[Chrissy Duffin] But it's also like finances and goals.[Chrissy Duffin] Do you guys want merchandise?[Chrissy Duffin] Who's paying for it?[Chrissy Duffin] How do you plan to sell it?[Chrissy Duffin] With that in mind,[Chrissy Duffin] try not to overreach expectations on sales.[Chrissy Duffin] And I would stay away from anybody who wants to approach your band unsolicited.[Chrissy Duffin] Oh,[Chrissy Duffin] I have deals.[Chrissy Duffin] I know people give me money— is just probably never a good avenue.[Chrissy Duffin] That's good advice.[Chrissy Duffin] It's also good advice.[Chrissy Duffin] I was going to say,[Chrissy Duffin] too,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of the things.[Chrissy Duffin] Talking about the scenes and the community and stuff,[Chrissy Duffin] specifying a lot of it is DIY.[Chrissy Duffin] A lot of it is bands booking the shows with other bands,[Chrissy Duffin] friends putting it together.[Chrissy Duffin] And that helps build the character of meeting each other at shows and camaraderie.[Chrissy Duffin] It all comes together.[Chrissy Duffin] And you can go other avenues,[Chrissy Duffin] but...[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it's just making sure everybody's on the same page with some kind of plan.[Chrissy Duffin] And it can be chill.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't mean to over-manage it either.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] if everyone just wants to jam and hang out,[Chrissy Duffin] that's cool.[Chrissy Duffin] But make sure that's clear,[Chrissy Duffin] because if someone else had an agenda in mind,[Chrissy Duffin] now they're going to be brought the wrong way,[Chrissy Duffin] that it's not going what they thought.[Chrissy Duffin] It's just being on the same page with everybody.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I think that you make a really good point with everybody needing to[Jess .] be on the same page for something to work out.[Jess .] Because if you're not on the same page,[Jess .] ultimately,[Jess .] you're going to be resentful and upset.[Jess .] And you're going to clash with each other and just be open about[Jess .] what you want and hearing other people say how they're feeling and[Jess .] making sure that you're on the same page is really important.[Jess .] Now we're going to move on to fun questions.[Jess .] Do either of you have anything to add before we move along?[Eric Benites] No,[Eric Benites] thank you for this.[Eric Benites] This was really fun to do.[Eric Benites] Oh my gosh,[Eric Benites] thank you.[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] it was good to just hang out and just talk music.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] hang out on the internet.[Jess .] That's new for us.[Chrissy Duffin] It feels like the COVID 2020 days.[Chrissy Duffin] I do remember Prosper had to have like a meeting or two to be like[Chrissy Duffin] , 'What are we doing?' We launched an album in the middle of COVID.[Chrissy Duffin] All right,[Chrissy Duffin] cool.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] where can people check out your band,[Jess .] your album?[Jess .] Let's plug Prosper before we get into these fun questions.[Chrissy Duffin] Just Google us.[Chrissy Duffin] Google Prosper or Perish.[Chrissy Duffin] We're bound to pop up.[Chrissy Duffin] We're on everything.[Chrissy Duffin] We're on Spotify.[Chrissy Duffin] We're on YouTube.[Jess .] Got an Instagram.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] got Instagram.[Eric Benites] The band has an Instagram.[Eric Benites] Not me.[Chrissy Duffin] Eric does not have an Instagram.[Jess .] Eric does not have an Instagram.[Jess .] He's smarter than the average bear.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] if you go find our links,[Chrissy Duffin] we do have merch and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] We have pretty cool merch that I need to get some of myself at one point.[Chrissy Duffin] I need some shorts before it's no longer short season.[Chrissy Duffin] Music's out there.[Chrissy Duffin] A couple music videos.[Chrissy Duffin] That was also a super cool experience just to sidebar on.[Chrissy Duffin] Just a lot of fun to do.[Chrissy Duffin] One is that like a wrestling ring and they had like actual wrestlers[Chrissy Duffin] do a fight at the same time.[Chrissy Duffin] We shot at different days,[Chrissy Duffin] but like through the video at the same time,[Chrissy Duffin] going on super super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] That's I wish more people would check that out.[Chrissy Duffin] And just I haven't seen it,[Chrissy Duffin] don't buy it,[Chrissy Duffin] just share it.[Jess .] I I haven't that is one of them.[Jess .] I'm going to watch it after we get done our internet meeting.[Jess .] I'm going to watch it.[Eric Benites] That was one of my favorite music videos to shoot.[Eric Benites] To be in a wrestling ring and it was shot at the Monster Factory over in New Jersey.[Eric Benites] And so we got there and just seeing a wrestling ring and like[Eric Benites] sliding in there and like jumping on the turnbuckles and running[Eric Benites] back and forth through the ropes and stuff.[Eric Benites] And yeah,[Eric Benites] it was real,[Eric Benites] real fun to do.[Eric Benites] And then...[Eric Benites] Actually getting the amp cabs on there and the drums and like,[Eric Benites] actually performing in the middle of the ring.[Eric Benites] It was real cool.[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] the video for Ironborn.[Chrissy Duffin] I forgot.[Chrissy Duffin] It was so crazy playing in the ring because of the bounce to it.[Chrissy Duffin] And we're all raging.[Chrissy Duffin] It was like surfing.[Chrissy Duffin] Like I was like pretty center in front of the drums and like my legs[Chrissy Duffin] were just the whole time.[Chrissy Duffin] It was insane.[Chrissy Duffin] But also major shout out to Ted Waters and his brother Brian that[Chrissy Duffin] got us in to do that stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] Ted shot the video.[Chrissy Duffin] We've done a ton of photos with him and video stuff with him.[Chrissy Duffin] He's awesome.[Chrissy Duffin] And that's another connection to friends that you make along the way.[Chrissy Duffin] He shot photos with Prosper years ago.[Chrissy Duffin] He went out to a show with a sayer and liked the metal community,[Chrissy Duffin] lighting,[Chrissy Duffin] and everything.[Chrissy Duffin] And it even got to the point where his wife is an awesome jazz musician,[Chrissy Duffin] Kendra Waters Butler,[Chrissy Duffin] I think.[Chrissy Duffin] Super awesome pianist,[Chrissy Duffin] vocalist,[Chrissy Duffin] super jazzy.[Chrissy Duffin] And me and Eric actually even got out to one of her shows,[Chrissy Duffin] which was super cool.[Chrissy Duffin] So just taking it all in.[Chrissy Duffin] And honestly,[Chrissy Duffin] metal,[Chrissy Duffin] I think,[Chrissy Duffin] has gotten me into jazz at this point.[Chrissy Duffin] I like music that keeps me guessing or gets interesting,[Chrissy Duffin] like didn't expect it in that direction.[Jess .] So you're going to check out the Alex Skolnick trio?[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] no,[Jess .] it's already in my Spotify,[Jess .] ready to go.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Jess .] Alex Skolnick,[Jess .] if you're listening to this,[Jess .] which you are not,[Jess .] just know that I love you.[Chrissy Duffin] We're going to send this link.[Jess .] Thanks.[Jess .] Thanks for being you.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] that's a great transition now to get into our fun questions.[Jess .] It's the most looked forward to part.[Jess .] OK,

[Jess .] so we're going to start off with you:

guys are both very familiar[Jess .] with this podcast and what we always ask,[Jess .] which is.[Jess .] Who is somebody you are grateful for and why?[Jess .] Do not say me.[Jess .] Thank you.[Eric Benites] So I did mention it because this is a topic of music.[Eric Benites] I am going to throw out again— just give another shout out to my cousin,[Eric Benites] because without him being the influence of me wanting to play guitar,[Eric Benites] none of this,[Eric Benites] none of this musical journey that I've been on would ever have happened.[Eric Benites] I never would have had a guitar in my hand.[Eric Benites] I never would have played shows,[Eric Benites] never would have met all the people that I've met.[Eric Benites] So Adam,[Eric Benites] thank you.[Eric Benites] Bye.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] who are you grateful for and why?[Jess .] I was going to say my mom.[Chrissy Duffin] My mom was just the best in general and she brings me to be the person I am.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] just in regular life stuff,[Chrissy Duffin] like I mentioned that I've worked with my mom too.[Chrissy Duffin] So we have a lot of like mutual acquaintances and people that like[Chrissy Duffin] things about her character see it in mine and vice versa.[Chrissy Duffin] It's fun.[Chrissy Duffin] So even,[Chrissy Duffin] yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] I definitely got into the heavier,[Chrissy Duffin] a little more counterculture than she was,[Chrissy Duffin] but she's still very fun and outgoing.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] So shout out to mom.[Jess .] I have a question.[Jess .] Would your mom sneak into the movie theater or no?[Chrissy Duffin] Probably.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] she would probably say I was a loser for not doing it.[Chrissy Duffin] Wow.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] I'm going to get you to sneak into the movies one of these days.[Jess .] It's going to be great.[Jess .] Your mom's going to be so proud of you.[Jess .] Yes,[Jess .] I want to hang out with your mom.[Jess .] Your mom sounds really awesome.[Jess .] I love that you have that relationship with her because I've never[Jess .] had that with my mom.[Jess .] And I love hearing when people hang out with their mom and like are[Jess .] close with their mom like that.[Jess .] So I want to meet your mom.[Jess .] Yes.[Jess .] Good answers.[Jess .] Okay.[Jess .] Next question.[Jess .] What are you both currently listening to?[Jess .] That doesn't have to be something that has come out recently.[Jess .] It could be whatever is on your consistent rotation right now.[Eric Benites] The one thing that I have been listening to recently is the new Dolly album.[Eric Benites] So I have been listening to that.[Eric Benites] At first,[Eric Benites] when I listened to it,[Eric Benites] it didn't hit as I thought it was.[Eric Benites] I thought it was just fine.[Eric Benites] And then after subsequent listens,[Eric Benites] I was like, 'No,[Eric Benites] this fucking hits' and I'm all for it.[Eric Benites] Definitely want to catch them,[Eric Benites] Brian,[Eric Benites] now singing.[Eric Benites] So that's been cool.[Eric Benites] And then...[Eric Benites] I just have my daily playlist where I just hear a band or hear about[Eric Benites] a band and I just put an album of theirs on this giant 9,[Eric Benites] 000–10,[Eric Benites] 000 song playlist.[Eric Benites] And so whenever I'm driving around,[Eric Benites] I'll have anything from— Classical music,[Eric Benites] jazz,[Eric Benites] video games,[Eric Benites] metal,[Eric Benites] everything.[Eric Benites] It just runs the gamut of genres.[Chrissy Duffin] I also kind of go back and forth with a lot of just keeping up with[Chrissy Duffin] what's new and coming out and stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] And I wanted to throw out a side note that I listened to a playlist that's,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] 50s,[Chrissy Duffin] 60s,[Chrissy Duffin] before rock was too rock music.[Chrissy Duffin] And that's a lot of my dad's inspiration,[Chrissy Duffin] where I said,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] he'll just,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] he would sing around the house and stuff like that.[Chrissy Duffin] I love that old rock and roll stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] a little bit of Elvis,[Chrissy Duffin] but like The Animals and Paul Anka and all these random singles.[Chrissy Duffin] It's the only playlist that I have kind of put together like that.[Chrissy Duffin] It's like oldies 98.[Chrissy Duffin] If anybody ever listened to that as a kid,[Chrissy Duffin] that was at the time what they played.[Chrissy Duffin] So that stuff's awesome.[Chrissy Duffin] But new wise.[Chrissy Duffin] I've been listening to the new,[Chrissy Duffin] uh,[Chrissy Duffin] Blood Incantation album that came out.[Chrissy Duffin] That's a band that I've known of and like,[Chrissy Duffin] heard before.[Chrissy Duffin] I just never had their stuff so I wasn't like steady listener.[Chrissy Duffin] But people online were like giving this album a lot of props,[Chrissy Duffin] and someone compared it to,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] BT Bam Colors,[Chrissy Duffin] like making a milestone record.[Chrissy Duffin] So I've been spinning that and it's super dope.[Chrissy Duffin] I've been spinning it while doing things,[Chrissy Duffin] so I really need to sit down to give it attention.[Chrissy Duffin] But it's also death metal that just goes into like cool synthesizer,[Chrissy Duffin] spacey kind of vibes,[Chrissy Duffin] probably lyrically about aliens.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm just assuming here,[Chrissy Duffin] based on artwork and such,[Chrissy Duffin] but uh,[Chrissy Duffin] yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] it's some of those music that like it keeps me guessing a little bit,[Chrissy Duffin] like the keyboard solos that come in.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm like,[Chrissy Duffin] yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] fuck,[Chrissy Duffin] yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] change it up a little bit.[Jess .] So how often do the both of you change your strings?[Eric Benites] I am so bad at it.[Jess .] You're probably not worse than me.[Eric Benites] So I at least will change strings before a show.[Eric Benites] Most of the time,[Eric Benites] too,[Eric Benites] I go to a guy,[Eric Benites] Mike Schramm and Schramm Guitars,[Eric Benites] and he's a luthier and does awesome,[Eric Benites] awesome work.[Eric Benites] I like to give my guitar spa days and let him handle that stuff.[Eric Benites] I mean,[Eric Benites] I have no problem changing strings,[Eric Benites] but I'd rather not spend the time doing it.[Eric Benites] Or I'll change my strings when a string breaks.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] how often do you change your strings?[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] I guess with bass,[Jess .] you probably have to change them less frequently.[Chrissy Duffin] Yes,[Chrissy Duffin] definitely.[Jess .] But you probably change your strings just as frequently as I change my strings.[Jess .] Eric,[Jess .] you say you're bad,[Jess .] but I'm really bad.[Chrissy Duffin] I mean,[Chrissy Duffin] a lot of people are usually bad with it,[Chrissy Duffin] though.[Chrissy Duffin] I try,[Chrissy Duffin] at least on my guitar strings,[Chrissy Duffin] it'll bother me once the high strings that are not wound,[Chrissy Duffin] once they get a little,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] groody to them.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] if they're not just,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] clean,[Chrissy Duffin] sliding up and down,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] this is countdown to changing them.[Chrissy Duffin] So I do change guitar strings,[Chrissy Duffin] kind of.[Chrissy Duffin] At that point,[Chrissy Duffin] bass strings are definitely less frequently used.[Chrissy Duffin] However,[Chrissy Duffin] they are also way more expensive than guitar strings,[Chrissy Duffin] but they do seem to last longer.[Chrissy Duffin] At least,[Chrissy Duffin] they at least don't get like visibly or to the touch grody.[Chrissy Duffin] To them,[Chrissy Duffin] they're just— they kind of deaden out.[Chrissy Duffin] If you were recording,[Chrissy Duffin] with that,[Chrissy Duffin] I might do my bass strings like two or three times a year,[Chrissy Duffin] probably kind of when the weather changes,[Chrissy Duffin] anyway,[Chrissy Duffin] to adjust the neck and give it to some TLC.[Chrissy Duffin] But I do actually like enjoying that kind of work.[Chrissy Duffin] To me,[Chrissy Duffin] it's like a little Zen process.[Chrissy Duffin] I'll carve time out of the day to be like, 'All right,[Chrissy Duffin] clear the table,[Chrissy Duffin] set the guitar up,[Chrissy Duffin] take the strings off,[Chrissy Duffin] clean it.' I also put stickers on all my stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] So I might take those opportunities without strings and cleaning it[Chrissy Duffin] up to like strategically cut,[Chrissy Duffin] put stickers down.[Chrissy Duffin] But yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] I really enjoy that.[Chrissy Duffin] And then,[Chrissy Duffin] when we recorded the Shroud of Serpents album,[Chrissy Duffin] and I've heard this before from studios,[Chrissy Duffin] changing your strings super frequently in that recording process so[Chrissy Duffin] every take is as bright as they can be.[Chrissy Duffin] It does seem a little extreme in my opinion,[Chrissy Duffin] but if it worked,[Chrissy Duffin] it worked.[Jess .] Good for them.[Jess .] That will never be me.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] we did for that album.[Eric Benites] We changed strings before recording every song.[Eric Benites] We changed new strings.[Jess .] Wow.[Jess .] That is excessive,[Jess .] but I respect it.[Chrissy Duffin] I think on bass,[Chrissy Duffin] I might have forced like two songs to be done at a time.[Chrissy Duffin] I was like,[Chrissy Duffin] this is insane.[Chrissy Duffin] And then I kept them all.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] I'm going to put these back on in a couple months.[Chrissy Duffin] It's not like I'm just going through $200 in strings today.[Chrissy Duffin] Wow.[Chrissy Duffin] Still working through some of the packs I have.[Chrissy Duffin] That's wow.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] I didn't,[Jess .] I didn't realize that was a thing.[Jess .] It makes sense,[Jess .] I guess.[Jess .] Just not for me.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Fair enough.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] so here's a fun,[Jess .] here's a very fun question,[Jess .] okay?[Jess .] If your band was on fire,[Jess .] we're talking about Prosper,[Jess .] because I know both of you are in eight bands,[Jess .] okay?[Jess .] If your band was on fire,[Jess .] who would you save first and why?[Jess .] With the understanding that you yourself are not on fire.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] that answer is easy.[Eric Benites] I know that I'm saving Chrissy first.[Jess .] Yay.[Jess .] Why are you saving Chrissy first?[Eric Benites] Because she's the best.[Jess .] Chrissy is the best.[Eric Benites] Chrissy lives at the end.[Eric Benites] That's the story.[Jess .] Chrissy is the best.[Jess .] Chrissy,[Jess .] who would you save?[Chrissy Duffin] When it comes to Prosper,[Chrissy Duffin] it's going to be Eric also.[Chrissy Duffin] He's pretty cool.[Chrissy Duffin] And I was also going to say,[Chrissy Duffin] logistically,[Chrissy Duffin] I think I could like anchor him off.[Chrissy Duffin] I assume this is an onstage situation,[Chrissy Duffin] so it's going to be hard to get Armin.[Chrissy Duffin] But if you did ask me for HTH,[Chrissy Duffin] obviously I would have to save Jay.[Chrissy Duffin] That makes sense.[Jess .] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] I was also distressed about this question.[Chrissy Duffin] I was like, 'Oh man,[Chrissy Duffin] everybody's on fire.'.[Jess .] It makes sense that you both say each other,[Jess .] though,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] while you're sitting here.[Jess .] The other people can't defend themselves,[Jess .] so.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] that would have been awkward.[Chrissy Duffin] Like,[Chrissy Duffin] definitely not Eric.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Eric saves you,[Jess .] but you're going to save somebody else.[Jess .] Sorry.[Jess .] Sorry.[Chrissy Duffin] I was going to save Jordan in two bands and let Eric perish twice.[Jess .] You could either prosper or perish.[Jess .] All right,[Jess .] well,[Jess .] who is your go-to Mario Kart character?[Jess .] This is very important.[Eric Benites] That's easy for me.[Eric Benites] I'm Ludwig von Koopa.[Eric Benites] Always.[Chrissy Duffin] Okay.[Chrissy Duffin] Dude,[Chrissy Duffin] I just go for Yoshi because I love him.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't have game strategies,[Chrissy Duffin] though,[Chrissy Duffin] if there are any pros,[Chrissy Duffin] cons.[Jess .] No,[Jess .] it's just whoever your go-to is.[Jess .] For me,[Jess .] it's either Yoshi or Rosalina.[Jess .] But I favor Rosalina,[Jess .] and I feel bad because Yoshi was my number one.[Jess .] And then Rosalina came along as a character in Mario Kart,[Jess .] and I started to pick her.[Eric Benites] My number two is Daisy because she's the best princess.[Jess .] I wholeheartedly hard disagree.[Jess .] That's another argument.[Chrissy Duffin] Who's the best then?[Chrissy Duffin] Rosalina?[Jess .] I mean,[Jess .] for me,[Jess .] my favorite.[Jess .] No,[Jess .] no.[Jess .] My favorite princess is Rosalina for a number of reasons.[Jess .] Now we're going to talk about Daisy for a second.[Jess .] Why is Daisy the best princess?[Eric Benites] She's just the best,[Eric Benites] man.[Eric Benites] She has the attitude.[Eric Benites] She's strong.[Eric Benites] I love everything about her.[Eric Benites] I just beat Mario Wander.[Eric Benites] Just fucking blew through it.[Eric Benites] Not once did I play any other character except for Daisy.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] I don't have a response to that.[Jess .] Rosalina.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm going to get into Mushroom Kingdom politics to see what their policies are.[Jess .] Rosalina,[Jess .] big alligator.[Jess .] Everyone else.[Eric Benites] She also just looks like a psycho brunette.[Eric Benites] Like,[Eric Benites] look at her eyes.[Eric Benites] Like,[Eric Benites] they're crazy.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I think that's why I don't like Daisy.[Jess .] Daisy is my least favorite Nintendo princess.[Jess .] I'm not a big princess person in the first place,[Jess .] but if I had to pick,[Jess .] Daisy would be very dead last,[Jess .] no contest.[Jess .] And I don't know what it is,[Jess .] what I have against her.[Jess .] I just don't.[Jess .] I don't like her.[Jess .] She annoys me in Mario Party whenever she's selected to be one of[Jess .] the computer CPU characters and she does something that is good.[Jess .] Pisses me off.[Chrissy Duffin] Anyway,[Chrissy Duffin] is she like— is she living in the shadows of Princess Zelda?[Chrissy Duffin] And it's just like— not not cutting it.[Jess .] No.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] see,[Jess .] I wasn't even— I don't even want to get into like Zelda.[Jess .] I'm not even thinking of her because she's not within the Mushroom Kingdom.[Jess .] OK,[Jess .] but I think Zelda might come over Rosalina if we're talking all Nintendo princesses.[Jess .] I was just thinking specifically Super Mario.[Jess .] But now we're getting into the intricacies,[Jess .] which we could just have a whole episode on,[Jess .] you know.[Jess .] Come back and do another episode on Nintendo Talk,[Jess .] but yeah,[Jess .] yeah,[Jess .] I don't know.[Jess .] I don't know what.[Jess .] I don't know what— maybe I have to do some inner work and figure out[Jess .] why I dislike Daisy as much as I do.[Jess .] Why my hatred is intense for her.[Jess .] But anyway,[Jess .] okay.[Jess .] What's one staple you always have in your fridge or your pantry?[Eric Benites] This is too easy for me.[Eric Benites] It's always ramen.[Eric Benites] Always instant ramen.[Jess .] I'm not surprised.[Eric Benites] Forever will always be instant ramen.[Chrissy Duffin] I was thinking coffee creamer in my fridge because that's the one thing.[Chrissy Duffin] If we miss a grocery shop,[Chrissy Duffin] that's what I have to go out and get always.[Chrissy Duffin] And I wish I could just live on coffee.[Jess .] In your opinion,[Jess .] what is the most underrated cheese and why?[Eric Benites] That is a good question.[Eric Benites] I don't know what is the most underrated cheese,[Eric Benites] but man,[Eric Benites] do I just love me a monster cheese.[Eric Benites] Like that is my go-to cheese.[Eric Benites] If I'm at a grocery store,[Eric Benites] like Swiss is too basic.[Eric Benites] It's very tasty,[Eric Benites] but it's also very bland tasting.[Eric Benites] Cheddar.[Eric Benites] Fuck cheddar.[Eric Benites] Like cheddar is awesome.[Eric Benites] Don't get me wrong,[Eric Benites] but it's everywhere.[Eric Benites] Like you could have cheddar everywhere.[Eric Benites] Monster is like this— just nice soft cheese.[Eric Benites] It has like a little bit of a stink to it.[Eric Benites] It's it's it melts perfectly.[Eric Benites] Like it's just I have a problem with Monster where I will buy me a[Eric Benites] pack of Monster and I will eat it all in one sitting.[Eric Benites] It's like that episode of Simpsons where Homer goes down.[Eric Benites] He's just like 64,[Eric Benites] 64 slices of individual cheese.[Eric Benites] And he stays there all night eating it,[Eric Benites] that is my vice.[Eric Benites] I will just eat cheese and not stop.[Jess .] Shout out to Munster Cheese.[Chrissy Duffin] I just like those basic cheeses.[Chrissy Duffin] I love all cheese fries.[Chrissy Duffin] I love a mozzarella stick.[Jess .] All cheeses matter,[Jess .] even cheddar?[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] because I just do that basic stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I would be scared of some cheeses,[Chrissy Duffin] though,[Chrissy Duffin] because I'm a fussy eater.[Chrissy Duffin] Anytime someone says the words goat cheese,[Chrissy Duffin] gross.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't want any parts of it.[Jess .] Go cheese is a little too pungent for my tastes.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] Blue cheese kind of weirds me out.[Jess .] I don't mind blue cheese.[Jess .] I would not select it if it were an option.[Jess .] I would pick something else.[Eric Benites] I love cheese so much that there's a spot in Philly called[Eric Benites] Perrystead Dairy and they have a cheese vending machine.[Eric Benites] And I remember getting done.[Eric Benites] I think I went to like a concert or whatever at the Fillmore.[Eric Benites] I forgot who I went to see.[Eric Benites] What stuck out was that I went to the cheese vending machine at like midnight.[Eric Benites] I don't even remember who I went to see.[Eric Benites] In my mind,[Eric Benites] I went to the cheese vending machine at midnight and got some[Eric Benites] awesome cheeses that they have there,[Eric Benites] which Perry said dairy.[Eric Benites] Awesome cheese.[Eric Benites] And if you try there,[Eric Benites] I very much recommend the cheese vending machine.[Eric Benites] It is awesome.[Eric Benites] It definitely is soft cheeses.[Eric Benites] They are very,[Eric Benites] very stinky cheeses,[Eric Benites] but they go so good with crackers,[Eric Benites] make a nice charcuterie.[Eric Benites] Love it.[Jess .] A nice,[Jess .] cuter board.[Jess .] That's what's up.[Chrissy Duffin] Yo,[Chrissy Duffin] can I throw in something else,[Chrissy Duffin] though?[Chrissy Duffin] Because that just reminded me,[Chrissy Duffin] too.[Chrissy Duffin] Yes.[Chrissy Duffin] One of the best things about just going to shows in general is going[Chrissy Duffin] for food afterwards with friends.[Chrissy Duffin] So we also touched on that recently.[Jess .] 100% after Testament,[Jess .] Eric and I went to White Castle.[Jess .] It was my first experience with White Castle ever.[Jess .] I've never had it before,[Jess .] especially after a show.[Jess .] And it was like one in the morning because the show was at the casino also.[Jess .] So Eric lost some money doing that.[Jess .] So it was like one in the morning when we left.[Jess .] And oh,[Jess .] my God.[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] the first option,[Eric Benites] too,[Eric Benites] was pizza.[Eric Benites] And they wanted like six or seven dollars in the casino for some[Eric Benites] just basic shitty ass pizza.[Eric Benites] And then I was like,[Eric Benites] wait a second,[Eric Benites] we're in Bethlehem near Allentown and White Castle is only like 15 minutes away.[Eric Benites] That was the move.[Eric Benites] That was the clear-cut choice.[Jess .] It was so good.[Jess .] Would eat White Castle again.[Jess .] All right.[Jess .] If you could have any superpower,[Jess .] what would it be and how would you use it?[Jess .] And I would also like to share mine as well.[Jess .] People think that I'm crazy for saying this,[Jess .] but I would say if I had a superpower,[Jess .] it would be to not have to sleep.[Jess .] I think both of you already know this about me,[Jess .] but just think of it like this.[Jess .] I'm going to give you the analogy of,[Jess .] you know,[Jess .] how in Step Brothers they build the bunk beds and then they're like, 'Oh,[Jess .] my gosh,[Jess .] we have so much room for activities.' That's how I feel about sleep.[Jess .] If you didn't have to sleep,[Jess .] like you still could sleep if you wanted to,[Jess .] but it wasn't an important part of your life.[Jess .] You didn't have to do it for survival.[Jess .] If you could choose to just stay awake.[Jess .] In those wee evening hours,[Jess .] just think about how many activities you could do.[Jess .] You could play guitar all night.[Jess .] You could play video games all night.[Jess .] And those are the hours where people are not bothering you.[Jess .] So it just,[Jess .] you have that also added sense of not being bothered.[Jess .] And that peace and quiet comes along with like the one o'clock in[Jess .] the morning where I am always asleep because I have to be in bed by like 10 p.[Jess .] m.[Jess .] OK,[Jess .] so that is what my superpower would be for me.[Eric Benites] And this is because of a problem that I have where I like to do almost everything,[Eric Benites] as in like I'm just always down to do everything.[Eric Benites] And so I constantly overbook myself and double book and triple book myself.[Eric Benites] And so,[Eric Benites] if I could multiply with the preface that,[Eric Benites] by the time I become singular again,[Eric Benites] that I have the collective memory of each of my pieces and the experience of that,[Eric Benites] they wouldn't become like their own person.[Eric Benites] Like I can just multiply and then come back to one person.[Eric Benites] I would do that because there are so many times that there's a[Eric Benites] concert or something else happening or whatever that I would just be[Eric Benites] able to be at all the places that I want to be at the same time.[Jess .] Would your clones have to sleep?[Eric Benites] Well,[Eric Benites] what would happen is the clones would then just come back to me and[Eric Benites] then I would just pass out.[Jess .] So you would have to sleep still.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] I'm just trying to strategize my superpower because,[Jess .] if I can multiply myself and also not have to sleep,[Jess .] like,[Jess .] if that's the workaround,[Jess .] that could be the best superpower.[Eric Benites] No,[Eric Benites] no.[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] yeah.[Eric Benites] I would still have to sleep.[Eric Benites] One clone.[Eric Benites] Yeah.[Eric Benites] Yeah,[Eric Benites] one clone is just sleeping.[Eric Benites] One clone.[Jess .] That's how you do it.[Jess .] Do you have,[Jess .] would you be able to have as many clones as you want or would you have a limit?[Eric Benites] I think the limit would be three to five.[Eric Benites] Like,[Eric Benites] I'm not trying to have like one clone,[Eric Benites] like go fly out to like Europe because I want to do Europe at the same time as.[Eric Benites] as everything else.[Eric Benites] There would need to be rules where I would have to form back to one[Eric Benites] or else all of us lose our powers and we have a time limit.[Eric Benites] Gotta have a little bit of a weakness on a superpower.[Jess .] Yeah,[Jess .] I guess you're right.[Jess .] That's a good,[Jess .] that's a,[Jess .] that's a really good answer.[Eric Benites] That was right off the,[Eric Benites] like,[Eric Benites] off the cuff too.[Jess .] I love that.[Jess .] Nice.[Jess .] That's a great answer.[Jess .] Yeah.[Chrissy Duffin] I'm on board with what you guys are saying.[Chrissy Duffin] I've always considered [ the question]—like,[Chrissy Duffin] just basics.[Chrissy Duffin] It's my like,[Chrissy Duffin] day-to-day annoyances.[Chrissy Duffin] Wish I had just 20-20 vision instead of wearing glasses.[Chrissy Duffin] As I was thinking of this,[Chrissy Duffin] I was like,[Chrissy Duffin] wish my knees didn't hurt.[Chrissy Duffin] Just getting old.[Chrissy Duffin] But I would roll that into,[Chrissy Duffin] if you could just be your best,[Chrissy Duffin] is kind of how we've had the conversation before,[Chrissy Duffin] like without needing to sleep and you just feel awake.[Chrissy Duffin] and attentive,[Chrissy Duffin] and ready to go,[Chrissy Duffin] to have the energy to get so much done,[Chrissy Duffin] or to be able to clone yourself to get that stuff done.[Chrissy Duffin] It really does come down to just having the time of day to do stuff.[Chrissy Duffin] I don't need to fly or have laser vision or anything unrelated to my daily life.[Chrissy Duffin] Just having the time and flexibility and energy to get through it[Chrissy Duffin] all instead of being exhausted.[Jess .] It's the little things.[Jess .] Yeah.[Jess .] You're not asking for much.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] not for much.[Chrissy Duffin] And I do like the clone idea,[Chrissy Duffin] too,[Chrissy Duffin] to get things done.[Chrissy Duffin] I've always even just had,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] man,[Chrissy Duffin] I just can't find a good pair of pants.[Chrissy Duffin] But if I could dedicate the time to make my own pants,[Chrissy Duffin] like,[Chrissy Duffin] one clone would just make pants.[Chrissy Duffin] But they could do other things,[Chrissy Duffin] because pants isn't 24-7.[Chrissy Duffin] Maybe they'll go to Europe or something.[Jess .] Just the little things.[Jess .] Well,[Jess .] guys,[Jess .] thank you so much again for doing this today.[Jess .] I really appreciate it.[Jess .] It's always a pleasure hanging out with the both of you online and in person.[Jess .] You know,[Jess .] it doesn't matter.[Jess .] Thank you.[Eric Benites] Thank you.[Eric Benites] Thank you very much.[Eric Benites] This was this was very,[Eric Benites] very fun.[Jess .] It was a lot of fun.[Chrissy Duffin] Yeah,[Chrissy Duffin] tons of fun.[Chrissy Duffin] Big fan of you in general.[Chrissy Duffin] Love that you have this podcast.[Chrissy Duffin] It's always a cool listen through.[Chrissy Duffin] And I think it's cool that you have people that you do know firsthand.[Chrissy Duffin] So it's everybody's in a cool,[Chrissy Duffin] comfortable environment.[Chrissy Duffin] It's very cool.[Jess .] All right,[Jess .] folks,[Jess .] that just about wraps up another episode of The Underwire.[Jess .] I want to give a massive thank you to Eric and Chrissy for sharing[Jess .] their experiences with their music journeys with me today.[Jess .] Whether it's how music has helped build a sense of community and belonging,[Jess .] foster lifelong family,[Jess .] friendships,[Jess .] or how it's provided a cathartic outlet for all of life's craziness.[Jess .] I hope you found some valuable insights in our discussion today,[Jess .] and I hope it also inspires you to explore how music can positively[Jess .] impact your own life and well-being.[Jess .] I honestly don't know where I would be without having music in my life,[Jess .] and I'm grateful for it every single day.[Jess .] As always,[Jess .] if you've enjoyed this episode,[Jess .] don't forget to give us a five-star rating,[Jess .] subscribe,[Jess .] and share your thoughts with us on Instagram at TheUnderwirePod.[Jess .] If you've got any personal stories or questions,[Jess .] hit us up.[Jess .] We'd love to hear from you.[Jess .] And remember,[Jess .] keep pushing forward,[Jess .] stay creative,[Jess .] and we'll catch you on the next episode.[Jess .] See ya!

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Jess Goldey

Host
Contributor

Ryan Rainbro

Co-host